Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 55

Author: Rolland Lewis Whitson
Publication date: 1914
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial History of Grant County Indiana > Part 55

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

George Haines was born on the Haines farm in section eight of Monroe township, April 15, 1850, a son of James and Nancy W. (Smith) Haines, both of whom were natives of Fayette county, Ohio, where they were reared and married. The father, who was born March 14, 1818, and died in March, 1884, came to Grant county in 1844, and filed a claim on one hundred and sixty acres of government land. He did not settle on that place because of its low situation and the water which stood in great lakes over its surface at the time. He bought forty acres on a higher level, cleared off the woods, and erected a cabin of round logs, which furnished the first home of the Haines family in Grant county. At the time of his settlement there were no roads in the vicinity, and he and his family had to contend with many pioneer conditions and hardships. Despite his hard beginning, James Haines prospered and at one time was owner of about nine hundred acres of land. As his children became of age he gave to each one a farm, and provided liberally for those dependent upon him, and always exercised a wholesome influence in the life of the community. He was a Mason from the time he became of age, and was also a communicant of the

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Methodist church. The seven children in his family were named as follows: Mrs. Susanna Boller, a widow residing in Monroe township; Mrs. Rebecca E. Kelley, now deceased, who lived in Blackford county; Milton, deceased; George; Samuel, of Van Buren; Alfred, on the old homestead in Monroe township; and Constantine, of Alhambra, Cali- fornia.

George Haines was educated in the district schools of Monroe town- ship, and as his father was in more than ordinary circumstances, he also enjoyed the advantages of the town schools, attending the insti- tution at Marion taught by William and Bina Russell, during 1868-69 and 1870. After that he served a period as school teacher for three terms, teaching in the number one school in Jefferson township, in number two in Pleasant township, and number one in Monroe town- ship. When he became of age his father gave him one hundred and twenty acres of land, and the son afterwards paid a part of the value of this to his father. Since that original acquisition he has-added four hundred and forty acres, making his estate now a farm of five hun- dred and sixty acres, lying in sections four, five, eight and nine of Mon- roe township. His home is situated on section five. About 1876 he added eighty acres adjoining his first place and then bought seventy acres nearby. In 1885 he purchased the interests of some of the heirs in the home farm, and in 1888 bought one hundred and sixty acres of land. He personally manages and farms all but one hundred and sixty acres on section four, which is conducted under a tenant. His home dwelling is a large white frame house, a very attractive home, compris- ing eleven rooms and erected in 1885. Back of it is situated a large red barn, forty by seventy-five feet and built in 1885. The farm in section four also has good barns and a dwelling house. Mr. Haines is one of the large crop raisers of Monroe township, and in 1912 his record for production was two thousand bushels of corn, two thousand bushels of oats, and sixty tons of hay. On his farm Mr. Haines has about forty head of cattle, and one hundred hogs, using eight horses for the farm work. He markets each year about one hundred and twenty-five hogs.

In the spring of 1885, Mr. Haines married Miss Margaret Benbow, a daughter of Thomas Benbow. Six children were born to their mar- riage, four of whom are now living, namely: Lena J., at home; Benja- min, deceased; Willis W., at home; Wilmont, in school, at Muncie; one that died in infancy; and Geneva Beatrice. Mr. Haines is a Republi- can in politics, and he and his family worship in the Christian church.

BYRON L. BUNKER. How farming pays under the direction of an energetic and able agriculturist is well illustrated in the activities of Byron L. Bunker of Monroe township. Mr. Bunker, though reared and in early life following farming was for many years engaged in con- tracting and a few years ago invested his means and resumed the work which constituted his first love in his vocations of life. At the present time he has almost a model estate in Monroe township, situated in sec- tion eleven. It is on the Arcana gravel road, where he is the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land, all in cultivation except a tim- ber lot of eight acres. During 1912 he produced three thousand bush- els of corn which at the prevailing price was worth a good deal of money, though he sold none of his grain, feeding it all to his stock. He also had a crop of thirty tons of hay during that year. In 1912 he sent one hundred and eighty swine to market, and from this source alone it is not difficult to estimate that the income of the Bunker farm is a very large one. In 1913 his crops comprised seventy acres of corn,

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sixty acres of oats, and other smaller crops. At this writing he has one hundred and thiry hogs on his farm, and he raises all the grain needed to grow and fatten them for the market. During this year he is also renting eighty acres besides his own place. Mr. Bunker and family reside in a comfortable brick house of eight rooms and it is in many respects as comfortable as the average city home and is heated by steam and has all the facilities for family life on a modern and attractive basis.

Byron L. Bunker was born February 1, 1862, in Wayne county, Indiana, a son of Francis F. Bunker, who was born in 1840 and died in 1890. He was a native of North Carolina, and his father Thomas Bunker came from North Carolina and settled in Wayne county, dur- ing the pioneer period. During the Civil war Francis F. Bunker was for four years a Union soldier, having enlisted from Wayne county, and going through the war as a valiant defender of the integrity of the state. After the war he moved to Jay county, where he bought the farm, on which he spent the balance of his life. The maiden name of his wife was Lorena Hunt of Wayne county, who died in 1873 at the age of thirty-two years. By this marriage there were four chil- dren, namely: Alpha Retta, deceased; Byron L., Thomas Sheridan, of Jay county; Ira, who died at the age of seventeen, and one that died in infancy. The father for his second wife married Angeline Johnson, whose six children were Alice, May, deceased, Evi, Myrtle, Orvall, and Garfield. The second wife died when thirty years old, and Francis F. Bunker then married Alvira Votaw, who died in the spring of 1911.

Byron L. Bunker grew up in Jay county, where he attended the local schools, and when twenty-one years of age left home, married and for two years operated a farm belonging to his father. In 1885 he moved out to Kansas during the boom period in that state, but re- mained as a contender against the adversities of the west for only two years, and in 1887 returned to his home state. For several years he was engaged in contract work of grading roads and highways. Then for about eight years he was employed by the Marion Gas Com- pany. In 1902 he began taking contracts for the laying of pipe lines, and laid one line from Marion to LaFontain, another from Marion to near Fairmount and relaid the line at Jefferson, Ohio. He then went to Canada, where he was engaged in laying one hundred miles of pipe line. Returning to Indiana in 1907, he bought sixty acres of land near Sweetser. In the same year he bought twenty-four acres near Hanfield, and soon afterwards bought thirty-two acres adjoining. All of this land he sold in 1911, and then came to Monroe township, where he bought his present estate of one hundred and sixty acres. Mr. Bunker has won his success by his own efforts, and has demonstrated that it is possible to pay a high price for agricultural land and still prosper as a result of its energetic management. For the land near Sweetser he paid one hundred and forty-three dollars an acre. He broke the record of land sales in Grant county, when he sold this for two hundred and five dollars per acre. He also sold part of his land near Hanfield, 47 acres, making a thousand dollars on the deal. For his present farm in Monroe township he paid one hundred and twenty- five dollars an acre, and as a result of his various improvements, it is now worth considerably more.

By his first marriage which occurred in 1883, Mr. Bunker had four children, namely: Charles Arthur, of Kansas City; Walter B., of Kansas City; Fred B., who is with the Marion Gas Company; and Mrs. Flossie Harper, of Portland, Indiana. April 16, 1904, Mr. Bunker

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married Lillian St. Clair, of Marion, a daughter of William St. Clair. Mr. Bunker has seven grandchildren, six living. James Byron died when an infant; Kearney Richardson and Maxine are children of Charles. Bunker; Raymond Earl and Anna Louise are children of Fred Bunker; Palmer Byron and Helen Louise are children of Mrs. Flos- sie Harper. In politics Mr. Bunker is a Republican, affiliated with the Marion Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. In religion his par- ents were members of the Quaker church. Mrs. Bunker is a communi- cant of the Marion Christian church.

OZRO GROCE FANKBONER. It was in the days of the covered wagon emigrant train that George Kline Fankboner, from whom O. G. Fank- boner of Fairmount is lineally descended, came from Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and located along the Mississinewa across from Jonesboro. He . was not the first "Boner" to locate in Grant county, and to this day people have difficulty with the name, and it is as often called "Frank- boner" and abridged to "Boner" as it is correctly spoken, although there are several Fankboner families in the community.

G. K. Fankboner sold his Tuscarawas county farm at forty dollars an acre, thinking it well sold. But when it developed that all that country was underlaid with iron ore, with melting furnaces springing up all over it, and that it sold again at two hundred dollars, he saw his mistake, but he had found good land-better farming land in Indiana.

The Fankboners who were already located at Jonesboro when George K. and Sarah (Moore) Fankboner arrived, were his brothers, and most of G. K. Fankboner and wife's children were grown, some of them married, but not all of them came to Grant county. The chil- dren of George K. and wife were: John, who married Mary Gaskell; Levi Lewis, who married Rachel Jane Moreland, through whom O. G. Fankboner belongs to the Fankboner family; Elizabeth, who became the wife of John Kilgore; Morris, who married Elizabeth Naber; Margaret Jane, who married Abram Carr (see sketch of A. W. Carr) ; George W., who married Mary E. Stallard; and Sarah, who married George Eckfield. Upon the death of his wife, George K. Fankboner married Matilda Webb, and two sons were born-Webster and Joseph. the former marrying Retta Fairbanks and the latter Minnie Havens. Mrs. Carr and Joseph Fankboner are still living in Grant county; some of the others are living in Ohio. Morris Fankboner was one time sheriff of the county.

Levi L. Fankboner married Rachel Jane, daughter of David and Mary M. (Jones) Moreland, August 20, 1852. They always had their home in the vicinity of Fairmount. Mrs. Fankboner was descended from Methodist ministers on both sides of the house, and they have always been identified with the Methodist church, attending services in Jonesboro and Fairmount. She had a brother, Ellis J. Moreland (married Luvenia Winans), who recently died in Newcastle, and her sis- ters are: Melinda, who married George Thorn; Mahala, who married D. D. Ward; Sarah Elizabeth, who married William Winans. The sisters are all living at Fairmount.

The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Levi L. Fankboner are: Morris Kilgore, who died in infancy : Sedora Jane, who married E. L. McDonnell and died in Michigan ; Mary Martinette, who died in childhood; Sarah Romain, who married first Sanford Mckinstry and second Eugene Mul- len, and has one son, Terry Lewis Mckinstry, who married Luella Tenny ; Lucy Adelaide married Charles E. Sisson and has one daughter, Dora Alice Sisson ; Lura Belle, who married twice, first William Smith and after his death M. F. Tackett, and has one son, Ara R. Smith, by her

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MRS. L. L. FANKBONER

L. L. FANKBONER

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MR. AND MRS. O. G. FANKBONER AND DAUGHTER

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first marriage, and by her second husband three sons, William, Marvin and Walker Tackett; and Ozro Groce.

Never having known his brother Morris, the oldest of the children, Ozro G. Fankboner, the youngest, is the son who perpetuates the fam- ily name, and sometimes it is "Boner" they call him. Mr. Fankboner was married April 2, 1891, to Effie Howell, and they have one daugh- ter, Lois Ozro Fankboner. While Mr. Fankboner still has his mother, Mrs. Fankboner's only living ancestor is Mrs. Elizabeth Howell. In their years of married life Mr. and Mrs. Fankboner have had a varied experience, living both in town and in the country, and he has been employed on the railroad as well as on the farm, and two or three times has been established in the baker trade. In the present year 1913 Fair- mount people are supplied with Fankboner's bread and pastry. The Fankboners occupy their own brick building.

Mr. Fankboner does any part of the bakery business or drives the wagon in the sale of the product, and Mrs. Fankboner can wrap more bread and send away more pleased customers than any one he could secure at the counter. There is demand for Fankboner pastry spe- cialties, and few men work more hours out of every twenty-four than O. G. Fankboner. He will go on the wagon or take a turn at baking, and the farm will never again tempt him.

Mrs. Rachel Jane Fankboner, his mother, by terms of the will of her husband, who died May 10, 1910, is sole owner of the Fankboner farm on Back creek (see Omnibus chapter), which her husband owned many years, and it was always one of the inviting countrysides, an attractive house overlooking Back creek. Recently it was burned, a misfortune to the whole community, for it was always a beauty spot. Mr. and Mrs. L. L. Fankboner have not lived on the farm for several years, and she occupies a commodious home in Fairmount.

The Fankboner farm adjoins Back creek, and while the family were not Friends, in the old days of the Northern Quarterly meeting of Friends, Mr. Fankboner was forced to patrol his fences as there were so many horses hitched along them and sometimes whole panels of the fence were jerked down, so that it was a wise precaution for him to watch them. In this occupation he would visit with farmers from all over the country in attendance at the meetings who sought places to tie their horses, and Mr. Fankboner was really glad when the June meeting there was a thing of the past. The story is elsewhere told about him hanging venison in a tree on the meeting-house the first time he ever attended Quaker meeting at Back creek. John and Daniel Fankboner were the two brothers living in Grant county when George K. Fankboner arrived, and thus he did not come into the wilderness absolutely among strangers, although he came early into the new coun- try. Mrs. Carr is now the oracle of the Fankboner family in Grant county.

DAVID L. H. PEARSON. Five miles southeast of the City Square of Marion, on the Soldiers' Home pike, in Center township, is located Cedars Farm, a property that has been brought to a high state of culti- vation through the industry, enterprise and good management of its owner, David L. H. Pearson, one of Grant county's old and honored residents. Although not a native of Grant county, he has lived here since infancy, and his long and honorable career has been one made conspicuous by upright dealing and fidelity to the duties of citizenship. He was born in Clinton county, Ohio, February 7, 1836, and is a son of Jonathan and Violet (Haugha) Pearson.

The parents of Mr. Pearson were born in the mountain country of Vol. II-24

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Virginia, and were both taken from the Old Dominion State as children to Clinton county, Ohio. There they were reared and educated, grow- ing up in the same vicinity, and were eventually married. In Sep- tember, 1836, the same year as that in which occurred the birth of their son David L. H., they came to Grant county, Indiana, and settled in Center township, settling down in pioneer style to clear a farm from the wilderness. They became highly respected people of their com- munity, succeeded in developing a good property, and reared a family of twelve children, as follows : William H., Thomas, David L. H., Isaac, who died in army during Civil war, John, Matilda, Polly A., Rebecca J., Susan, Elizabeth, Evaline and Sarah. Of these three are living at this time-David L. H., John, and Thomas, who is now 84 years of age.

David L. H. Pearson was reared on the home farm in Center town- ship, and secured his early education in the primitive subscription schools of his day, subsequently supplementing this by 45 days' attendance at the first public school lin Center township, which was held in a log school- house. During this time his agricultural training was not neglected, for when he was not engaged at his studies in the short winter terms, he was assisting his father in farm work. He was married at the age of twenty-one years, and at that time began to farm on his own account, and so continued throughout his active career. His present property, a well-cultivated tract of 187 acres, is one of the most valuable in the township, having been improved with good buildings and equipment. As his children have grown to manhood and womanhood, he has pre- sented them with land and financial assistance, enabling them to start their careers under favoring circumstances. An honorable man of busi- ness, his transactions have ever been of legitimate character, and he has never been engaged in a lawsuit of any kind. As one of the men who are worthily representing the best type of Grant county citizenship, he is worthy of the high esteem and regard in which he is universally held.

. Mr. Pearson was married in September, 1857, to Miss Susanna Griffin, who was born and reared in Center township, and three chil- dren were born to this union. Of these one died at the age of two years; Martin R. was given a common school education and is now a farmer in Center township; and Louisa is the wife of James B. Wilson of this township. Mrs. Pearson died in September, 1880, and on March 13, 1883, Mr. Pearson was married to Mrs. Mary E. (Carter) Brad- ford, the widow of Benjamin Bradford. She was born in Washington township, Grant county, Indiana, August 21, 1853, was educated in the district schools there, and married Benjamin Bradford. They had two sons ; Lewis E., who is engaged in farming in Washington township; and Jay B., a resident of Laporte, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Pearson have one son : Burr W., a graduate of the district schools and of Marion Normal College, who was educated in telegraphy and followed that voca- tion for some time, but is now a merchant at Adrian, Michigan. He married Eda Sangster, of Wauseon, Ohio, and they have a son and a daughter.

Mr. and Mrs. Pearson are members of Griffin Chapel of the Meth- odist church, and Mrs. Pearson also holds membership in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, her husband also being an ardent sup- porter of prohibition. He was a charter member of Necessity Grange, and for a number of years served as an overseer of that order. In political matters he is independent, although other things being equal he gives his support to the prohibition candidate.

WILLIAM PENN BRADFORD. A preface is hardly needed for the fol- lowing article concerning one of the ablest of Grant county farmer cit- izens, and a family which properly belongs among both the first and the

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best. As will be seen three generations have lived on Grant county soil, not including the children of William P. Bradford, so that Grant county really spells home to a large number of Bradfords. Theirs have been lives of fruitful toil, of unselfish sharing of burdens, and mutual help- fulness and esteem.

William Penn Bradford of Centennial Place in Washington town- ship-the farm having been his since 1876-was born October 11, 1853, within a short distance of his present home, and his life has been spent in one neighborhood. He was married in 1875 to Miss Ida Alice Arm- strong, who died May 6, 1886. The children born to them are Mrs. Nora May Beekman, Mrs. Louella Burris, Charles J. Bradford, Albert E. Bradford, Mrs. Carrie Dell Maynard, Earl Blaine Bradford and Vernon Eber Bradford. Mrs. Bradford, the mother of these children, was born after the death of her father, although James C. Stallings, who married her mother, Mrs. Jane Armstrong, was always as a father to her, and as a grandfather to her children. There was a wide-spread belief that there was virtue in the breath of a woman who had never seen her father, and before and after marriage Mrs. Bradford was fre- quently importuned to blow her breath in the mouths of children afflicted with thrush-an idea kindred to another about measuring children for small growth, which prevailed in the country. While she never had a fee for such service, she performed the office for many who came to her with afflicted children.

Mr. Bradford was left with a family of small children, and the following year he was married to Miss Nancy Jane Moore, and their children are: Mrs. Rosa Ethel King, Mrs. Lily Esta Weaver, Wilbur Arthur Bradford, Mrs. Hazel Ann White, Homer Leroy, Nellie Marie, Minnie Belle, Merlie Gladys and Belva Bernice. Thus there were seven children in the older family, and nine in the younger, seven sons and nine daughters.

In the family of Mr. Bradford's grandfather, George Bradford, who had come into Grant county soon after it was organized, were four sons and twelve daughters, all having the same mother, and all of whom lived to bring up families, and as all of the children of his family are living, and in the next generation are seventeen grandchildren, it is a large family circle when all are gathered at Centennial Place. While the seven older children had a different mother, Mrs. Bradford came into the home when they were small, and to them she is mother. All the children were given a common school education, the girls learn- ing domestic science at home, and the boys learning up-to-date farm- ing methods at Centennial Place-one of the best managed farmsteads in Grant county.

When Mr. Bradford went into debt for his farm in the Centennial year, he was young and determined to win and while he has reared a large family and has had sickness and its attendant expenses, his ambi- tion has been to make breadwinners of all his children, and they were thrown on their own resources early, and like the older generation of sixteen Bradford children, those who have taken up the struggle for themselves are winning the same success.

William Penn Bradford is a son of William R. Bradford and Eliza- beth (Gaines) Bradford, and his father who died in 1895, had reached seventy-nine years, while his mother who died in 1911, has been an octogenarian for four years. The old home of the family adjoins Cen- tennial Place and is owned by H. L. Bradford. There are Bradford farms all around, and Mr. Bradford recently commented on the size of them. Only a few years ago they were all large farms, but in the process of settlement of estates, the shares of heirs causing the smaller farm

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areas, gradually Grant county is shifting into conditions surrounding older countries-broken farms on account of the division of property.

Mrs. Bradford is a daughter of Patterson and Amanda (Forest) Moore, and both are of pioneer Washington township stock. While the name "William Penn" suggests Quaker parentage, many of the Brad- fords are in fact Friends, but the W. P. Bradford family are members of the Methodist congregation at Morris Chapel, although Fairview Wes- leyan church overlooks Centennial Place. Fairview is the original Brad- ford farm-the farm now owned by Mrs. Nancy Bradford having been named from the church, and the Bradford family burying ground where all the family pioneers lie buried is near Fairview church and in plain view from Centennial Place. There has never been a family in Grant county of stronger personal characteristics than the original Bradford family, and for years they have met in annual reunions, commemorating their ancestry and having pride in the Bradford family coat-of-arms in early American history.

There are many practical farmers in Grant county, but none have better understood the soil requirements and capabilities than Mr. Brad- ford who has always been a "farm agent" on his own acount. His crop rotation always includes oats which he thinks places the ground in better condition for a meadow instead of following corn with wheat, and in feeding out stock he finds oats worth as much as corn or any other grain, therefore, his meadow land is always level. Centennial Place is undu- lating and well adapted to meadow farming, and the stock kept there renders plenty of pasture a necessity. While Mr. Bradford is a con- servative citizen and has no political ambition, he is abreast of the times and in favor of good road advantages. The farm is well supplied with buildings, and the modern house built in 1910 is one of the best arranged farm houses in the country. The daily mail and telephone keeps the family in touch with things, and water-soft and hard and warm and cold-only a faucet to turn, and natural gas in abundance with acetylene lights all over the house-why should the Bradfords move to town? All the improved machinery has been installed on the farm and all the conveniences are in evidence in the house, and as yet the domestic service or farm labor problems have not touched Centennial Place. The dinner- time guest will always find the table well spread, and with young children in the home the future will take care of itself for many years.

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Centennial History of Grant County Indiana, Part 55

Author: Rolland Lewis Whitson Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Rolland Lewis Whitson
Publication date: 1914
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1034