USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial History of Grant County Indiana > Part 90
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113
After the war the doctor resumed his practice in Converse, Indiana, and remained there until 1884 when he removed to Marion. Here on the 20th of May, 1890, he received the appointment as chief surgeon of the Marion branch of the National Military Home for Disabled Volunteers. He held this position for many years, filling the post to the great satisfac- tion of both the soldiers unto whom he ministered and of those in author- ity who had placed him in charge. Shortly after the war in the winter of 1868-1869, Dr. Kimball took a course in surgery in Bellevue Hospital in New York City, and after that time he was always especially inter- ested in surgery and in the advance which that branch of medical science has made of late years, for he had seen the horrors of the crude surgery of the battlefield and realized how necessary a greater knowledge was to surgeons. He died in Marion, November 4, 1904.
Dr. Kimball was a member of the Grant County Medical Society of the Indiana State Medical Society and also of the Association of Army Surgeons of the United States. Fraternally he was a member of the Masons and was a Knight Templar in this order. He was also a member of the Loyal Legion.
Digitized by Google
1268
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
Dr. Kimball was married in Wabash county, Illinois, in October, 1865, to Henrietta Haupt. Mrs. Kimball was born in Wabash county and was a daughter of Aaron Haupt. Four children were born to the doctor and his wife, as follows: Maude, who died in infancy ; Clyde; Nellie and Edwin, who is county auditor of Grant county, and of whom notice is given elsewhere in this volume.
EDWIN H. KIMBALL, of Marion, one of the younger business men of that city, is at present serving efficiently as auditor of Grant county. He is a native of Indiana and has lived during the greater part of his life in Grant county, where he has won a place for himself in the affec- tionate regard of the citizens of the community.
The Kimball family is one of the best known in this section of Indi- ana, the father of Edwin H. Kimball, Dr. A. D. Kimball being one of the most popular men in this part of the state, Dr. Abner Daniel Kim- ball was born in Coshocton, Ohio, and lived in Grant county, Indiana for many years. He was a man of great nobility of character and was a friend to men of all classes, winning deserved popularity through his kindness of heart and generosity of spirit. He married Henrietta Haupt, who was a native of the state of Illinois. They became the parents of four children. Maude, the eldest, is now deceased, Clyde lives in Wabash county, Indiana, Nellie P. Kimball, of Marion and Edwin H. Dr. Kim- ball died on the 4th of November, 1904.
.
Edwin H. Kimball was born at Xenia, in Miami county, Indiana, on the 26th of September, 1874. He later came to Marion with his par- ents and here he received his elementary education, being graduated from the high school in Marion. He then entered the Indiana Medical Col- lege, with the intention of making medicine his profession. His studies were interrupted during his first year, however, by the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, and his enlistment in the medical corps. After the war was over he took up the study of dentistry, and was graduated from the Indiana Dental College in 1901.
Returning to Marion he began the practice of dentistry and for twelve years he was a successful practitioner in his home city. In 1911 he was elected auditor of Grant county, and assumed office in 1912. He has served in this office since that time to the entire satisfaction of the residents of this county.
In politics Mr. Kimball is a member of the Republican party. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and of the Knights of Pythias. He also belongs to the Sons of Veterans and to the Spanish-American War Veterans Association. In religious mat- ters he is a member of the Presbyterian church, and his college fraternity is Delta Sigma Delta, which is a professional fraternity. He is a member of the Elks, No. 195, of Marion.
On the 28th of April, 1898, Mr. Kimball was married to Ella Vivian Douris, a daughter of John and Mary Douris, of Bedford, Indiana.
JOSIAH T. WALTHALL is a general farmer and stock raiser of Mill township and the owner of a finely improved and well kept farm. He confines his activities principally to stock, which he feeds for the market, and his success has been pleasing to contemplate. Immense barns and other buildings, with a fine farm home, comprise the improvements he has wrought along these lines, and everywhere is Mr. Walthall known for an enterprising and successful farming man. He has spent twenty- five years on his present place, and displays a pardonable pride in his achievements as farmer and stock man.
Born in Clinton county, Ohio, on June 9. 1864, Josiah T. Walthall is
Digitized by Google
Ett, Kimball
Digitized by Google
Digitized by Google
1269
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
the son of David Walthall, and the grandson of William A. Walthall, a native of Virginia.
William A. Walthall was reared in the state of his birth and there married a native daughter of the same state. Their family was prac- tically reared when they came to Clinton county, Ohio, and there the aged folks died at the home of their son, David Walthall. Though it is not known what was their exact age at the time of their passing, it is a fact that they were well advanced in years. They were Quakers, and were the parents of four sons and three daughters, named Thomas, William, Daniel, David, Martha, Elizabeth and one other. Of these all but one is deceased, and all but one or two married and left children.
David Walthall was born in Virginia in the year 1828, as nearly as can be ascertained, and he was quite a lad when the family migrated to Ohio and there settled in Clinton county. Their farm was near the Quaker meeting house of their community. When David Walthall reached man's estate he succeeded duly to the old home place of his father, and they passed their closing years with him in the home that they had provided years before. He improved the place in many ways as time passed, and was there married to Miss Louise Carter, who was born and reared in Clinton county. She came of a well known Virginia family of Carters, who came as pioneers to Clinton county, and there ended their days. In 1868 David Walthall brought his wife and children to Grant county, where he believed he would find better conditions for a man of his position and they located without much delay on the Jesse Winslow farm in Fairmount township. Some years later he and his wife went to Kansas to live, and there the father died in 1894. His widow, who yet survives, has her home in Nebraska with one of their sons and she is now eighty-four years of age. They were lifelong Quakers, and the mother still is faithful in her adherence to the church of her birth.
Josiah T. Walthall was born in Clinton county, Ohio, on June 9, 1864, and he was but four years of age when his parents came to Grant county to make their home. He was reared to farm life, and was given such education as the country schools of his community afforded. In early manhood he began farming activities on his own account and all his life has been spent in devotion to that enterprise. The farm he occupies today was the first one he owned, and he came into possession of it almost a quarter of a century ago. As has been stated previously, he has enjoyed a pleasing success in his chosen enterprise, and is pros- perous and prominent in the township.
Mr. Walthall was married in Mill township to Miss Rhoda J. Harris, a native of Mill township and the daughter of Rev. David and Rachael (Wyandt) Harris, relative to whom a sketch will be found immediately following this brief review, so that further mention of the parents of Mrs. Walthall is not necessary at this juncture.
.
Mr. and Mrs. Walthall have two children, Telfer D., now living at home, unmarried, and a graduate of the Fairmount Academy, and H. Delight, who, after finishing with her course in the grade schools of her home town, pursued an oratorical course in the Marion Normal Institute. She is now the wife of J. LeRoy Farrington and resides in Howard county. They have one daughter, Beatrice R., born on November 6, 1911.
Mr. and Mrs. Walthall and family are members of the Friends church of North Grove, and are prominent people in their community.
REV. DAVID HARRIS. The Harris family of which Rev. David Harris is a representative comes of fine old North Carolina stock, Quakers all and for the most part farming people. They are a family of Scotch and English ancestry, and it is an established fact that the first of the name
Digitized by Google
1
1270
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
came to these shores prior to the Revolutionary war period. On their native heath they were Quakers of the Fox stamp, and on settling in North Carolina they helped to organize the church there.
The paternal grandfather of Rev. David Harris was Rev. Obediah Harris, born about 1775, and he was reared to farm life in his home community. He early gave himself to the work of the church of the Friends, becoming a minister, and he was one of the most influential churchmen of his day, laboring long and faithfully in the spiritual behalf of his fellows, in whatever community he found himself. He was known to be an earnest worker and one devoted to his calling. It is said of him that so deeply engrossed in his work was he that he has been known to preach aloud in his sleep. While yet a resident of North Carolina he met and married his wife, a North Carolina girl, and all their children were born in their native state. Indeed, they prac- tically grew up there.
Among their children were Thomas, of whom further mention is made later; David; John; Jonathan; Susanna; Rachael; and of his second marriage there was one child, Jesse. All these children reached years of maturity ; all married and reared families and died in advanced age; all were birthright Quakers; and all but Jonathan died in Indiana, he having ended his days in North Carolina.
Obediah Harris with his family came north in about 1820, bring- ing with them all their worldly goods. They made the long trip in the primitive fashion of the day, riding slowly by day and camping out at night, and they finally brought up in Wayne county where they settled on Government land just north of New Garden. Mr. Harris hewed a little home out of the wilderness there, and when the Indians began to harass the white settlers and they fled to Richmond for a refuge, he continued at his work in the forest and field, trusting in God and His promises, and enjoying complete immunity from the annoy- ance that many of his acquaintances were subjected to at the hands of the Redmen.
For many years Rev. Harris preached in that section of the country, and he was a member of a committee for years that helped in the building of a goodly number of churches throughout the state. He organized many of them single handed, and when he died at his Wayne county home, full of years and secure in the knowledge of a life well spent in the interests of his fellows, he was truly mourned by all who had come within the sphere of his radiant influence. He was past eighty when he passed on, and a portrait done of him in the latter years of his life showed him to be a man of magnificent physique, and a patriarch of the old Colonial type, dressed in the garb peculiar to a period of half a century previous.
Thomas Harris, the father of the subject of this review, was born in North Carolina in about 1878. He was reared there and he also took unto himself a wife in that state. She was Mary, the daughter of George Shugart, of an old North Carolina family, and without exception, mem- bers of the Friends church. Some years after his marriage Thomas Harris accompanied others of his family to the North, the party includ- ing his parents and those of his wife, the journey north being made in the early twenties, as has previously been intimated. Their children also were with them, and they stopped in Wayne county for some years moving on to Grant county in 1832 or thereabout. Here they entered land in Franklin township, and Thomas Harris rode horseback all the way to Fort Wayne to make entry of these lands at the land office there. He added lands to his original holdings from time to time, paying $2.50 an acre for much of it, until he finally held four hundred acres in
Digitized by Google
1271
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
his own right. It is a fact that he lived to see that most of it developed and improved, and he ended his days on one of his farms, on October 4, 1870. His church home was the Deer Creek Monthly Meeting, as this Quaker association was called, and he was always an ardent and sincere Quaker. His first wife died at the old Franklin township home on December 23, 1862, when she was perhaps sixty-three years of age. She was a devout Christian woman and a Quaker also. She was the mother of the twelve children of her husband.
Thomas Harris married a second time, Mrs. Lydia Jay becoming his wife. No children resulted from this union.
Rev. David Harris is the tenth child of nine sons and three daughters born to his parents. All lived to mature years, two sons dying when they had just passed their majority, and neither being married. All the others married and became the parents of children. Those now living are as follows: Mrs. Mary Osborne, a widow living in Jonesboro, and past eighty-six years of age. Zachariane, a resident of Colorado City, Color- ado, who has a family. Thomas J., a widower of Eudora, Kansas. David, mentioned later, and Newton, now living on the old homestead in Franklin township, where he has proved himself a practical and suc- cessful farmer.
David Harris was born in Franklin township on November 26, 1838. He was reared on the home farm, and there and on his present place of 100 acres in Sections 30 and 31, Mill township, he has spent prac- tically all of his days. His is a fine and well improved place, and it has represented his home since about 1862. The house, a commodious and well appointed ten room dwelling, was built by him and overlooks the old Kokomo pike, while his barns and other buildings of a like nature indi- cate unmistakably that he is quite as good a farmer as he is a preacher. For it is a fact that Rev. Harris has been an active and enthusiastic laborer and preacher in the church for more than thirty years, and has carried his evangelical work far into the western states. He has done splendid work in the matter of organizing new churches in Kansas and Nebraska, and his influence has been felt perhaps in a wider circle than any other man in the community.
Rev. Harris was married in Center township to Miss Rachel Viand, born in Carroll county, Ohio, on September 29, 1838. She came to Grant county in 1842 with her parents, Harrison and Rachel (Betty) Viand, who settled upon and improved a new farm in Center township, and there lived until they were well advanced in years, death coming to them there. They were members of the United Brethren church.
Mrs. Harris died at her home in Mill township, on March 6, 1910. It should be said that she was one of eleven children of her parents, all deceased with the exception of one son.
To Mr. and Mrs. Harris were born six children, concerning whom brief mention is here set forth as follows: Elmira is the wife of Clinton W. Hacket, a farmer of Mill township, and their children are Leona and George B. Hacket.
Elam H. is now living, but his health is very poor, and his condi- tion has been precarious for some time. He was married in Centre township to Clara McNair, and they have one living son, Earl. Another son died in infancy.
Rhoda J. is the wife of Josiah T. Walthall, one of the prominent men of Jonesboro, and of whom a complete family sketch precedes this review of the Harris family.
Ansel R. is engaged in the revenue service and is well known in his branch of the service for the excellent work he has performed. He now has his headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. He married Winnie B. Jones and they have one son, Herbert Harris.
Digitized by Google
.
1272
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
Mary A. is the wife of Harry H. Jay, a farmer of Mill township, and is without issue.
David has been for some years in the Internal Revenue Service, but lately resigned and now makes his home with his father. He married Minnie C. Cox, and their children are Vivian and Gathal. The father and his sons are solid Republicans in their politics and citizens of a worthy type, well thought of in their communities and well worthy of the confidence and esteem their fellows accord to them.
LEANDER C. BESHORE. The Beshore-Whisler relationship in Grant county is a large and important one and there are several names that might be chosen around which to group a biographical sketch. For this purpose has been taken the name of Mr. Leander Cass Beshore, now enjoying quiet retirement from a long and active business career at Marion.
When Peter and Mary (Whisler) Beshore left their home in Cham- bersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1837, in company with the family of Jacob Whisler, they were enroute to Illinois-not to find better neighbors and friends, but to begin life in a new country where opportunity was better for them. When the party reached Marion, they liked the country and decided to stay awhile, and the journey to Illinois is yet in the future.
The above mentioned Mrs. Beshore was a daughter of Mrs. Whisler (See J. L. Whisler sketch). When the Whisler family left the old home in Pennsylvania, all but one daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Hoffman, accom- panied them. Besides Mrs. Beshore, Mrs. Martha Weaver and Mrs. Catherine Matchett were well known women, and Mrs. Weaver is now the remnant in her generation of this pioneer Whisler family. The sons in the Whisler household were: Martin, Jacob, Henry and Samuel.
Peter Beshore was one of three brothers who lived in Pennsylvania, Fred, Benjamin and himself. When he came west little was ever known afterwards of his relatives. The family name Beshore is French, and aside from these two brothers nothing is known locally of the Beshore family ancestry. Fred Beshore located in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he engaged in the iron manufacture, and his son Fred is the only Beshore relative who ever visited in Grant county.
It was one full generation in advance of the first railway train that the Whisler-Beshore emigrant train reached Marion, and the whole party liked the country, and none have since regretted the decision to stop on the Mississinewa in Grant county. The Whisler family history is now inseparable from Grant county history, the family having left its mark on the community. The children born to Peter and Mary Beshore know so much more of their Whisler ancestry than of their Beshore genealogy, because almost the entire Whisler family came west while the father alone represented his family, and died before they were old enough to know anything of his relatives. Peter Beshore died in 1862 while Mrs. Beshore was spared to rear her children, dying in 1889 at Marion, and thus there are more of the Whislers than of the Beshores in the family history.
When they came to Grant county Mr. and Mrs. Peter Beshore had one son, Jacob, who married Sarah Mckinney, and who is represented by one son, George Beshore. The children born later are mentioned as follows: Mrs. Elizabeth Acker, wife of Isaac Acker, and her daughters are Mrs. Della Stewart and Mrs. Alice Pierce; Van Deman Beshore, deceased ; Samuel Benton Beshore, who married Lavina Morrow (see sketch of Fred L. Beshore), Leander Cass Beshore; Mrs. Martha Beshore Ives, wife of Henry Ives, and they have two sons, Glen, deceased, and Samuel Ives; Henry L. Beshore, who married Catherine Wiser, and Hiram Beshore, who married Evangeline Johnson.
Digitized by Google
1273
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
The Whisler-Beshore family had allied themselves with the Demo- cratic party; but when the Civil war came on, three of the Beshore brothers Jacob, Samuel B. and Leander C. Beshore enlisted, and they were so much interested in Lincoln and the cause he represented that all of them afterward voted the Republican ticket, until temperance became the paramount issue. Then Mr. L. C. Beshore, the only survivor of this soldier trio, still had the courage of his convictions and in 1898 began voting for the Prohibition candidate and was the first candidate for mayor on the Prohibition ticket in Marion.
On January 18, 1872, Mr. Leander C. Beshore married Miss Elizabeth St. John. The marriage was celebrated at Carthage, Missouri, although they had grown up together and had been sweethearts before her parents moved to Carthage. She was a daughter of Abel Fitch and Margaret (Burke) St. John, her father, who was a brother to Judge R. T. and Dr. John St. John, died at Colorado Springs, where the family lived for some years, and her mother came to end her days in the home of Mrs. Beshore. Mrs. St. John is the woman wearing the white shirt waist in the octogenarian group shown in the special octogenarian chapter. Three sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Beshore: Glen F., who died in infancy ; Charles St. John, who married Ada Lenox, and has one son, Charles Lenox Beshore; Harry Lee, who married Alta May Myers. The two sons have succeeded to the stove and tinware business established in 1870 by their father, and thus for more than forty years the name Beshore has been continuously in the Marion business directory. Both Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Beshore well remember ante-bellum social conditions, although there were school advantages to be had in Marion at that time, their own children have had much better opportunities. While Charles S. Beshore preferred entering business to having a college education, Harry L. Beshore graduated from the department of electrical engineering at Purdue University, and for a time was in the employ of the Edison Electric Company in Chicago before entering partnership relations in the Beshore Stove and Tinware Store. In the future as in the past, the Beshore name will remain in the business directory.
Now that L. C. Beshore has leisure from active business he has traveled considerable, and for several years he and his wife have spent their winters in warmer climates, but in summer time Indiana is good enough for them. In the last decade they have spent six winters in Florida and four in California. While Marion friends come first, Mr. and Mrs. Beshore have pleasant acquaintances all over the United States, among families who spend their winters in Florida or California. Although retired from active business, Mr. Beshore takes hold of any work where he is needed, and having learned the tinner's trade early in life there are few things he cannot do in building or repairing prop- erty. His investments are chiefly in rental property, and he saves much expense by doing necessary improvements himself.
While the father of the Beshore family was not spared to rear his children, the mother was unfailing and she rounded out her days in the home of her son, Mr. Beshore, who had both his mother and mother-in- law in his family and enjoyed the relations. While his parents located east of Marion in 1837, they afterwards removed to Pipe Creek west of town, and it was there that he learned to know many of the Indians. They were neighbors to Jim Sassafras (see chapter on Indians) and one time they traded horses, but the Indian rued the bargain and rather than have difficulty with him, the father of L. C. Beshore traded back. While growing up among them, Mr. Beshore became so used to the Indians that he was never afraid of them. All the Beshore children attended school at Roseburg, and the first time Mr. Beshore ever saw
Digitized by Google
1274
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
Samuel Burrier, whose farmstead is in that vicinity, the latter was chop- ping down a mammoth red oak tree, and just beginning to make the farm now known to all as one of the largest estates in Grant county. Through many years of subsequent business acquaintance with Mr. Burrier, Mr. Beshore always associated the man with the gigantic tree he felled the first time he ever saw him.
The Beshore family home has always been on Branson Street, although the present commodious house is modern and occupies the site of the Ernst Guenin homestead where so many curios were found, and so much valuable hardwood lumber was in storage. Charles S. Beshore occupies a modern home on West Third Street, while Harry L. Beshore has a bungalow of California pattern on South Washington Street. The Beshores designed their own improvements, and besides valuable business property still in his possession, Mr. Beshore has some fortunate real estate investments (See chapter on Realty). In early life Mr. and Mrs. Beshore were identified with the First M. E. Church, when its house of worship was on Fifth Street, and for twenty years Mr. Beshore served as secretary-treasurer of the Sunday school there, seldom being absent from his post of duty. It was while T. D. Tharp was superin- tendent, and subsequent officials do not serve so many years.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.