Counties of Clay and Owen, Indiana : Historical and biographical., Part 31

Author: Blanchard, Charles, 1830-1903, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : F.A. Battey & Co.
Number of Pages: 982

USA > Indiana > Clay County > Counties of Clay and Owen, Indiana : Historical and biographical. > Part 31
USA > Indiana > Owen County > Counties of Clay and Owen, Indiana : Historical and biographical. > Part 31

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The Puckett family, consisting of David, Elihu, Joseph and Lewis, came prior to 1830, all of whom secured homes in the southern part of

yours with respect Dr Absalon Briley

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LEWIS TOWNSHIP.

the township and became model farmers. J. T. Liston, Samuel Cham- bers, Peter Stout, George Hooker and John Lanning settled near the central part of the township as early as 1830 or 1831, and about the same time came John B. Poe, William Muir and David Hill, and located in the southern part. Other early settlers were John Edmonson, a min- ister of the Methodist Church, Thomas Fires, James Scotchfield, Henry Crise and Nicholas Criss, all of whom became owners of real estate. The following, who came a few years later, can be classed among the early settlers: E. M. Stout, D. J. Payne, John Chambers, Marshall Chambers, Samuel Stout, Thomas Stewart, A. H. Crist, George P. Buell, J. P. Dunn, and others.

INDUSTRIES.

Rawley's Mill, the first ever erected in the county, was built in the year 1826 or 1827, and stood on Eel River, not far from Old Hill. The mill house was a small round-log cabin, and the machinery was of the simplest description, consisting of two hard grit-stone buhrs and a small bolting apparatus operated by hand. The mill received its motive power from the river, and was in operation until the year 1839, at which time it was allowed to fall into disuse, and the old building gradually rotted down. The site was afterward destroyed by the Wabash & Erie Canal, and at the present time no vestige of the old mill remains to mark the spot where it stood. In the year 1837, Joseph Sanders built a mill on Eel River, which was but a small improvement on the one described, which it greatly resembled in both building and machinery. It was in operation but a short time. The site was purchased in the year 1860, by Woodrow & Co., who built thereon a large frame merchant mill, three and a half stories high, and furnished with two run of buhrs. The mill is operated by the same parties at the present time, and is doing an extensive business.

Lucius Hooker built a water-mill on Eel River, at what is known as Hooker's Point, about the year 1860. It was a combination mill, and during the time it was in operation did a good business. It was after- ward destroyed by fire. About the year 1864 or 1865, Mahlon Neal & Co. bought the site and built the large four-story frame mill, which is still standing. This is the largest mill in the township and one of the best in the county.

A Mr. Baber erected a small tub mill at a very early day on Baber Creek, which had one buhr, and did but little business.

VILLAGES.

There are no towns of any note in Lewis, although a couple of small hamlets sprang into existence during the early days of the country, one of which stood on Eel River. It never achieved any prominence as a business point, and was abandoned many years ago.

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

Another town was laid out at the time the Wabash & Erie Canal went into operation, near the river, a short distance south of the Cen- tennial Mills, at a point directly west of Middlebury. The place was named Kossuth, and was laid out by J. M. H. Allison in the year 1850. This circumstance named the public road leading from Middlebury west to the river.

Howesville was laid out by Robert Howe in the year 1856, and is sit- uated in Section 36, Town 9 north, Range 7 west.

For several years Mr. Howe kept a small store, which, with a post office and blacksmith shop, was the only feature that gave the place any special prominence. Howe was succeeded in business by William Muir, who increased the stock, and for several years carried on an exten- sive trade. One small store at the present time represents the business interests of the place. The Presbyterians have a good society at the vil- lage and a neat house of worship.

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS.

The first Justice of the Peace elected in Lewis was George Hooker; then followed in order J. J. Lanning, Samuel Chambers, John Pickard and R. M. Stark.

The last Board of Trustees was composed of the following gentle- men, to wit: Peter Stark, Mahlon Neal and Joseph T. Liston.

The first sermon ever preached in the township was delivered by Rev. Richard Wright, of the Methodist Church, at James Briley's residence, soon after the latter came to the country.

Friendly Grove Baptist Church is the oldest religious society in the township. It was organized about the year 1847, with a good member- ship, the early preachers being Revs. Chambers, Stark and Liston. Their first house of worship was a peculiarly constructed building, hav- ing twelve corners, and contained one of the largest audience rooms in the county at the time it was erected. It was replaced about the year 1858, by a frame building costing the sum of $1,200. The pastors of the church have been as follows: Abraham Stark, David Stark, George Criss, Elias Cooprider, -- Kindall and George Marlow. The present pastor is James Barr. Present membership, about 120.

The Christians have a good society in the southwest part of the town- ship and a fine house of worship. Oak Grove Church is a Methodist or- ganization, and is reported in good condition.

From 1850 to 1857, a period of seven years, Lewis Township had seven road districts, seven Supervisors, seven school districts, seven Directors, seven teachers, seven families, each having seven children enumerated for school purposes, seven township officers (three Trustees, two Justices of the Peace and two Constables), and among the voters were seven Crists, seven Puckets and seven Starks. .

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

BRAZIL CITY AND TOWNSHIP.

JOHN G. ACKELMIRE was born in Prussia January 12, 1827, and came to America with his parents, landing in Baltimore in March, 1833. They remained there until 1834, when they came to Terre Haute, Ind., where his father died. In 1835, he moved with his mother and sisters to Cloverland, Clay County, where his mother was married to a black- smith, with whom our subject served an apprenticeship at the trade. In 1848, he bought the interest of his step-father, and carried on a very ex- tensive and lucrative business until 1854, when he, with J. A. Carpen- ter, built the first steam flouring mill ever erected in Clay County. This enterprise proved a grand success to the young speculators. In 1860, Mr. Ackelmire was nominated by his party for the office of Treasurer of Clay County. About this time the dark days of the rebellion were dawn- ing, and Mr. Ackelmire took his stand as a war Democrat, and was elected. Before the close of the term, he had become so popular with the masses that he was the unanimous choice of the voters of the county, and was elected a second time without opposition. He had sold his interest in the mill to his partner, and at the close of this term he moved to Brazil, where he assisted in building a woolen mill, and at the same time managing a dry goods store, and in 1871 he was elected Mayor of the city. At this time he had become a heavy contractor and builder, and erected the Ack- elmire Block, the Cruzan Block, the Methodist Episcopal Church, besides a number of very fine residences, and later built the beautiful court house of Clay County, on which he lost considerable money. Mr. A. is a first-class builder, and he has done much toward beautifying and im- proving the city. On July 2, 1850, he was married to Sarah A. Good- rich, who bore him four children. She died September 8, 1876. He was next married, on October 16, 1877, to Nellie Russell, who was born in the County Clare, Ireland. To this union have been born two chil- dren, only one of whom is living.

HENRY L. ASHLEY (deceased) was born in Milton, Vt., on March 28, 1825. At the age of eight years, he was taken to Alexandria, Licking Co., Ohio, where he lived until the breaking-out of the Mexican war, when he enlisted, and was placed in the Quartermaster's Department. In the autumn of 1848, he came to Terre Haute, Vigo County, where, on April 24, 1850, he was married to Mary J. Britton, and soon became as- sociated with his father-in-law, John C. Britton, in the commission bus- iness. In 1857, he removed to Brazil, where he improved his farm to such a degree that it was one of the most beautiful and attractive homes in Clay County. Here he remained until his death, which occurred on February 23, 1882. He left a widow and three children, they being as

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follows, viz .: John B., an only son, and two daughters, one being mar- ried. Mrs. Ashley and children have now over 200 acres of the most valuable land in Clay County, with the richest veins of block coal, sev- enty feet from the surface, underlying it. It is the farm on which was sunk the first successfully worked coal shaft in the vicinity of Brazil.

FOSTER BARNETT was born in Fluvanna County, Va., as a slave, on May 9, 1851. He had no educational advantages, and at the age of sixteen years obtained his freedom; when Lincoln's Emancipation Proc- lamation took effect, he went to work as a laborer on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, where he worked until the completion of the road, when, in 1873, · he located in Brazil, where he has been engaged in mining coal, which he has successfully followed ever since. On May 27, 1877, he was mar. ried to Gracie Allen, who has borne him three children, only one of whom is living-Elizabeth, one dying in infancy, and Daisy A., dying at the age of two years. Mrs. Barnett was born in Virginia on March 21, 1861, and moved with her parents to Brazil in 1875. Mr. Barnett is a very industrious, economical man, and has saved his earnings from the mines until he has now a title clear to a neat, commodious little home. When he came to Brazil he could neither read nor write, but he began immediately to take an interest in societies, applied himself to books during his leisure hours, and he soon acquired a knowledge of both accomplishments, and for five years he has been Secretary of the church of which he is a consistent member. He is also a member of the O. O. F., of which order he has for two years been Secretary.

DANIEL W. BENNETT was born in the State of New York March 15, 1831. and is the eleventh of thirteen children of John P. and Han- nah (Baker) Bennett, he being a native of Vermont, and his wife of New York. Daniel grew to manhood on a farm, had very fair educational advantages, and at the age of fifteen he left home and engaged himself as a farm laborer at $6.50 per month the first year, and higher wages the next year. He remained with this farmer until he was twenty. At the age of twenty-two, he was married to Rachel Anna Vanorder, who bore her husband one child -- Ida Stevens. His wife died in 1856. He was next married, in 1859, to Phebe A. Harker. One child is the fruit of this union-Anna K. In 1855, in the meantime, he engaged in steam- boating, on the Mississippi River, and continued in that business until 1862, when he returned to Ohio and to farming; remained there until 1869, when he moved to Illinois, remaining there on a farm two years; thence to Vigo County, Ind., digging coal three years, and thence to Brazil, where he now resides, following coal mining. In the summer of 1882, he was nominated and elected by the Democratic party as Coroner of the county, which office he now holds. Mr. Bennett is a member of the Baptist Church, also of the Knights of Honor, and the Knights and Ladies of Honor. In politics, he is a Democrat.

THOMAS H. B. BENNETT was born in Missouri March 17, 1840, and was the sixth of ten children of Thomas and Melinda (Bird) Ben- nett, both natives of Virginia, and of Irish extraction. His grand- father was a Revolutionary soldier, and saved the life of his brother, who was taken prisoner while serving on the other side. Thomas, at the age of fourteen years, commenced life for himself, his father being dead, working at farming until the war broke out, when, September 24, 1861, he enlisted in the Eighth Kentucky Infantry, Company D. He met the enemy, under Gen. Morgan, at Shelbyville, Tenn. He partici-

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pated in the battles at Franklin, Nashville, Bardstown and Perryville, Barbersville and Banton Ferry, where Henry Smith fell; thence to Stone River and Murfreesboro, being engaged nine consecutive days; thence to Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, where he with twelve comrades first planted the stars and stripes. Returning to Kentucky, he commenced trading in coal, transporting it down the Kentucky River. His marriage occurred February 25, 1865, to Mary E. Fowler. Six children were born to them, viz .: Melinda (wife of B. Brown), John S., Catherine, Francis M., Thomas H. B. and Robert Lee. Mr. Bennett is politically a Democrat. He is now a coal dealer in Brazil, and a much respected citizen.

PARIS BIGGERSTAFF was born in Ohio on January 8, 1853, and is the eldest of three children of William and Samantha (Berger) Big- gerstaff, both natives of Ohio, but the former of Irish, and the latter of German origin. Our subject was raised on a farm, and had medium ed- ucational advantages. He came with his parents to Clay County, Ind., in 1865, and at the age of twelve years he worked at manufacturing ties for the Vandalia R. R. Company, which he followed until 1867, when he moved with his parents to Newburg, Clay County, and was there en- gaged for two years in delivering a large contract of wood for the same road. Then they moved to Knightsville, Clay County, and embarked in the hotel, livery and drug business. which they followed for eight years, and then our subject left home, and, in December, 1876, engaged in the retail liquor business at Asherville, Clay County, which he has followed successfully for four years. From there he went to Center Point, this county, continuing for one year in the same business, and then, in 1881, he located in Brazil, where he established his present retail liquor house, and where, at No. 89 East Main street, he has remained ever since. On May 6, 1879, he was married to Alice Nagle, a native of Clinton County, Ind. Three children have been born to them, viz .: Willie, Jennie and Nellie. Mr. Biggerstaff is a man of enterprise and spirit, a strong ad- vocate of public improvements, and ever ready to relieve the distressed. He is a member of the Knights of Honor. Politically, he is a stanch Democrat.

J. M. BOOTHE, ex-Treasurer of Clay County, was born January 3, 1841, in a log cabin near Bowling Green, and lived, on the same spot until he was twenty-two years of age. His father, Thompson Boothe, was born in Harrison County, Ind., on January 16, 1808, and moved to Clay County in 1822. The history of the family is rather obscure, but it is known that the ancestors first settled in Virginia, and are of Welsh origin; that they always resided near the frontier, and consequently their educational facilities were meager. The subject of our sketch was the only member of his father's family who could read and write, and it had no knowledge of anything except of the hardships incident to the life of a pioneer. The grandfather died in Harrison County in 1821. He left nothing for his family, as he had buried the gold and silver which he had accumulated during his life, intending to invest it, in the near future, in a home in the West. Unfortunately he had neglected to reveal to any member of his family the place where he had hidden his money, and he died so suddenly that the secret died with him. No mem- ber of the family ever discovered the hiding place of this wealth, and it is not known that it was ever found. Thus the widow and her eight children were left destitute. The mother of our subject was born in

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

Shelby County, Ky., in 1808, and was the daughter of David Thomas, who was a Virginian, and who settled in Vincennes, Ind., on the spot where Terre Hante now stands, and then moved to Eel River, near Bowling Green, and died there. In July, 1862, Mr. Boothe enlisted in Company D, Seventy-first Indiana Infantry, and served until the close of the war. The life of a soldier was a hard one for him, as he was sick during eighteen months of his term. When he first enlisted, he was made a duty Sergeant, but was never promoted, in consequence of ill health, except once, and then he was made First Sergeant, on June 4, 1864. After the war, he remained at his old home about two years; then went to Iowa, remaining there two years; then returned to Bowling Green, Ind., and embarked in the drug trade, remaining in that business about eleven years, and was elected Treasurer of Clay County in the year 1880. At the expiration of his first term as County Treasurer, he made the race for re-election, but was defeated by a small majority.

DANIEL K. BRANN is the sixth of a family of seven children of Henry N. and Moriah (Garner) Brann, and was born in Butler County, Ohio, on February 6, 1841. He lived on a farm during his early years, having good educational opportunities, and taught school at the age of sixteen. In July, 1861, he enlisted in Company I, Twenty-first Indiana Infantry, and participated in many of the battles of the Peninsula, under McClellan. In December, 1863, he was transferred to Battery I, First Indiana Heavy Artillery, on his " veteranizing," and came home on a thirty days' furlough. At the expiration of his furlough, he joined his command, and was sent to Baton Rouge, La .; thence to Brazier City, after the surrender of Forts Jackson and St. Phillips; thence to New `Orleans, and thence to Mobile Bay, where he participated in the siege of Forts Morgan and Gaines; and thence to Fort Pickens, Fla., remaining there six months, after which he went to Baton Rouge, La., where, on January 15, 1866, he received his discharge. He returned home and en- gaged in Mr. Stunkard's mills, as head sawyer, remaining there six years, three of which being foreman in the yard. At the end of this time, he became employed as a coal miner, which business he has industriously followed to the present, he being now an operator. He was married, on January 25, 1874, to Araminta Miller, a native of Clay County. Mr. Brann is a member of the I. O. O. F., also of the Knights of Honor, and also of the Knights of Pythias.

REV. DILLON BRIDGES, the youngest of a family of twelve children of Dillon and Catherine (Somers) Bridges, was born near Har- per's Ferry, Va., on December 25, 1794. In 1800, his father moved to Kentucky, settling near Flemingsburg, where he soon after died, leaving his family in destitute circumstances. In the home of his mother he grew to manhood, enjoying such educational advantages as Kentucky at that early day afforded. In 1813, when eighteen years of age, he enlisted under Gen. Harrison, his Captain being David Gooding. On October 5, he participated in the battle of the Thames. His term of enlistment expiring, he returned to Flemingsburg, where he soon after re-enlisted. The war of 1812 having closed before the expiration of his second term, he received his discharge and returned again to his home. In 1815, he was married to Lydia, daughter of Rev. Joel Haven, and uncle to Rev. James Haven, an early pioneer of the Gospel in the days of Cartwright and Strange. In 1819, he removed to Wayne County, Ind., and became at once a leader among the religious people with whom he was associated,

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and soon obtained a license to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church. As an itinerant, he spent fifteen years. In 1839, he settled on a farm at what is now Jordan Village, Owen County. Removing from there in 1850, he settled on a farm of eighty acres, one mile northwest of Poland, Clay County. When his son, Dillon W., was elected Clerk of the Clay County Circuit Court, in 1860, he accompanied him to Bowling Green, thence to Brazil in 1864, where, in October, 1866, he died, being fol- lowed two years later by his widow. Mr. Bridges was a man of powerful physique, of robust constitution, possessing deep religious experience, and magnetism over an audience. He was a good singer, a man of remark- able power in prayer and exhortation, and an acceptable preacher of the Word. Dillon Wayne Bridges, youngest son of the Rev. Dillon Bridges, was born in Wayne County, Ind., March 21, 1832. Removing to Owen County with his parents in 1839, he enjoyed but few educational advan- tages. In his youth he divided his time between farm work and a clerk- ship in Poland, Clay County, to which place he moved with his parents in 1850. From 1856 to 1860 he was a Justice of the Peace at Poland. In 1860, he was nominated by the Democratic party for Clerk of Clay County, and elected. At the expiration of his term, in 1864, he en- gaged in the mercantile business in Brazil, becoming a member of the firm of Wheeler, Bridges & Co. In 1879, the firm sold out, and Mr. Bridges retired from business. He was the first Town Clerk, having served from 1866 to 1871. He took an active part in the removal of the county seat from Bowling Green to Brazil. He was a candidate for Mayor of Brazil in 1878, but was defeated with his party. On Sep- tember 5, 1849, he was married to Lucinda, daughter of George Daves, of Owen County. Four children have been born to them, viz .: John Wesley (deceased), Albert Fletcher, Iva (Hurst), and Flora. Rev. Albert F. Bridges, A. M., son of Dillon W. Bridges, was born near Poland, Clay Co., Ind., August 22, 1853. The first seven years of his life were spent on the farm. In 1860, he removed with his parents to Bowling Green, where he enjoyed excellent educational advantages in select schools. In 1864, he became a resident of Brazil. On September 15, 1868, he entered the Asbury University, at Greencastle, Ind., from which institution he graduated in 1874, with the degree of A. B. In the win ter of 1866, he was converted, and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church at Brazil, and on June 18, 1870, was licensed to preach, although only sixteen years of age. At the close of his college life, in June, 1874, he entered, in September following, the Indiana Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Salem, Ind., and spent the succeeding seven years in the itinerancy of his church. In April, 1881, he purchased the Western Mirror, a weekly newspaper at Brazil, and issued the first num- ber of the Brazil Register on the 28th of the month. The success of this paper was assured from the start, and has been well patronized by the general public. In politics, the paper is Republican. Besides look- ing after the interests of his paper, he frequently lends his services to various pulpits in the county. Mr. Bridges has acquired an enviable reputation in his literary productions, being a clever writer, and, in the midst of his editorial drudgery, he is pursuing literary studies, and has in preparation for the press one or two literary ventures.

ALEXANDER BRIGHTON, Cashier and Secretary of the Commer- cial Bank of Brazil, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, April 29, 1834, of parents Isaac and Elizabeth Brighton, natives of Pennsylvania, and of

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES :

Scotch and English lineage. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm, and had only the advantages of short, winter schools until he was fifteen years of age, when he made a tour over the country to California, being gone one year, and returned by water via the Isthmus of Panama and New Orleans. After returning home, he remained until he was twenty years of age, attending the common schools in winter, and in 1854 came to Owen County and worked as a day laborer for one year; thence to Clay County, where he engaged as a hand in a saw mill, where he remained one year, making occasional trips to Terre Haute with boats loaded with lumber. In 1855, he began teaching school in winter seasons and farming in summer, until, in 1864, he was elected Real Estate Ap- praiser of Clay County. In 1866, he served as Deputy Auditor of the County; in 1867, as Deputy Treasurer; in 1868, he was elected to the office of County Treasurer by the Democratic party; in 1870, he was re- elected. At the expiration of this term, he engaged in the real estate business quite extensively until 1875, when he and Mr. Teter established the first bank that was ever established in the county seat of Clay Coun- ty, with Mr. Brighton as President. This was successful for two years, when, in the latter part of 1877, the bank was removed from Bowling Green to Brazil, Ind., where it was re-organized under the firm name of Brighton, Hubbard & Teter. After eighteen months' successful run, the bank was again re-organized -Mr. Hubbard retiring-under the. name of the Bank of Brighton & Teter-Mr. Brighton as President, Mr. Teter as Cashier. It continued under this name until March, 1883, when it was incorporated under the State laws under the name of the Com- mercial Bank-Mr. Teter as President, Mr. Brighton as Cashier. Mr. Brighton is an enterprising and much respected citizen of Brazil and Clay County; is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having taken the degree of Knight Templar; is also a member of the I. O. O. F .; of the Order of Red Men, of the Chosen Friends, etc. He has traveled through Central America, Mexico, Canada, etc. Mr. Brighton is quiet, genial, and of undoubted integrity, as well as a fine business man.

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Counties of Clay and Owen, Indiana : Historical and biographical., Part 31

Author: Blanchard, Charles, 1830-1903, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : F.A. Battey & Co. Number of Pages: 982

Author: Blanchard, Charles, 1830-1903, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : F.A. Battey & Co.
Number of Pages: 982