USA > Indiana > Brown County > Counties of Morgan, Monroe, and Brown, Indiana. Historical and biographical > Part 29
USA > Indiana > Monroe County > Counties of Morgan, Monroe, and Brown, Indiana. Historical and biographical > Part 29
USA > Indiana > Morgan County > Counties of Morgan, Monroe, and Brown, Indiana. Historical and biographical > Part 29
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THOMAS ELWOOD LAWRENCE was born in Grant County, Ind., June 19, 1847, and was the eldest of eight children-four sons and four daughters-of William and Priscilla (Williams) Lawrence, natives re- spectively of North Carolina and Indiana. When eighteen years of age, our subject accompanied his parents to Morgan County, where he has since lived, and where his father died in 1883, at the age of sixty-four years, and his mother eight years before, at the age of fifty-one. Subject was educated at the public schools, five terms of which he afterward
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taught in Morgan County. He married Delphina Harvey April 26, 1871, and has two children-Ivalue and Gertrude. He is a birthright member of the Friends' Church, in which society his mother was for fifteen years preceding her death a prominent minister. Mr. L. is a prominent Odd Fellow, a Republican politically, and an ardent temperance worker, In 1882, he rented out his farm, and engaged in the lumber business at Mooresville, Martinsville and other points, and is to-day one of the most extensive hard-wood lumber dealers in the county, dealing extensively in walnut lumber. To give an idea of the present value of walnut lumber, we will state that Mr. Lawrence has just shipped one car load of five- eights walnut, of 14,230 feet, which brought him, loaded on car at Mooresville, $825.35.
JAMES MADISON LEATHERS (deceased), native of Franklin County, Ky., was born May 15, 1814, and died July 3, 1880. In 1828, he accompanied his brother Thomas J. into Indiana, and spent the rest of his life in Morgan County. His school advantages were very limited, though he learned something of reading, writing and arithmetic by at- tendance at the subscription schools when not engaged upon the farm. He married Martha Jane McDonald September 15, 1835, and she bore him twelve children-William W. (deceased), Charles S., Nancy A., Mary, Theodore (deceased), John (deceased), Margaret (deceased), Sam- uel (deceased), Sarah M., Harrison, Douglass and Mintie E. From the age of fourteen years until the day of his death, subject was a consistent member of the Christian Church, and was for many years a Master Ma- son. His first wife died March 4, 1871, and November 5, of the same year, he was married in Morgan County, Ind., to Phobe T. Jones, daugh- ter of the Rev. H. T. Burge. By this marriage he had born to him three children-Florence Mabel, Bessie B. (deceased), and Samuel M. Mr. L. left his family a nice property, consisting, among other things, of a fine farm of 183 acres, which his widow manages with skill and success. He was a great religious worker, educated his children, and voted the Democratic ticket with persistent regularity.
RILEY MCCRARY is a native of North Carolina, but the name of his father and the date of his birth are unknown. He was left an orphan at a very early period of his existence, and bound out until twenty-one years of age. He was taught only in manual labor, and has turned his accomplishments in that direction to good account. He was about twen- ty one years of age when he came into Morgan County, probably about 1834-35, and for several years carried on the blacksmith business at Mooresville, at which he made considerable money. On April 2, 1837, he married Gracie Staley, who bore him twelve children-Mary Jane, John Wesley, William A., James F. (deceased), Samuel L., Margaret M. (deceased), Sarah M. (deceased), Rebecca (deceased), Elizabeth E., George T., Joseph W. (deceased), David J. (deceased). The mother of these children died in 1870, and January 3, 1873, he married Mary Jane Lockwood, who has borne him three sons-Franklin (deceased), Charles and Frederick. He lives now upon his farm, about one mile north of Mooresville, and makes a specialty of breeding thoroughbred hogs. In addition to his home place of 186 acres, he owns a fine farm in Hendricks County. He has done as much hard work as any man of his age in any country. He is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a Democrat in politics, and has never in his life used tobacco or whisky, nor had one dollar given to him.
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PHILIP McNAB, M. D., a native of Morgan County, Ind., only son of Henry and Casandra (Evans) McNab, natives of Kentucky, and of Scotch and Welsh extraction respectively, was born July 12, 1833. Philip was reared upon a farm and educated at the Northwestern Chris- tian University at Indianapolis. In the summer of 1859, he entered the office of Dr. Ford at Wabash, Ind., and began the study of medicine, and the following fall and winter took a full course of lectures at Ann Arbor (Mich.) University. Returning to Wabash for the summer, he attended the succeeding fall and winter at Ann Arbor, from whence he graduated;in chemistry in the spring of 1861, and in May of this year (1861), he opened an office at La Gro, Ind., and practiced medicine for the next two years. In March, 1863, he entered Long Island Hospital College, Brooklyn, and in June, 1863, graduated therefrom with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and after another short stay at La Gro removed to Indianapolis, where in the beginning of 1864, he formed a partnership with Dr. R. T. Brown, Professor of Natural Sciences in the Northwestern Chris- tian University, and for four years following pursued his profession of physician and surgeon. In the fall of 1868, he came into Morgan County, and the following year opened an office in West Newton, in Marion County. where he remained about three years. In November, 1872, he removed to Mooresville, Ind., where he immediately took rank among the leading men of his profession. On July 29, 1861, he was married at Bethel, Me., to Mary, daughter of Aaron and Rubie Mason, of that State, and by this union he has had born to him two children-Solon Mason, now a student at Butler University, and Howard Barlow, a resident of Arizona Territory. Dr. McNab is respected for the knowledge he bas gained in his profession, in the practice of which he has enjoyed more than ordinary experience. Some years since, he was associated with Dr. L. D. Waterman, of Indianapolis, as expert in the chemical analysis of the stomach of a Mrs. Dr. Beason, who, it was alleged, had been mur- dered by her husband at Kokomo, Ind., and was one of the most cele- brated cases of the day. Later on, in 1873, he was employed in the same capacity in the case of Basil Bailey, another notorious case, at Frankfort, Ind., and was the author of the exhaustive synopsis of the analysis published in the Mooresville Enterprise, June 19, 1873. Upon the analysis in the case first named, he was highly complimented by the celebrated Prof. Blainey, of Chicago, who fully indorsed it in every par- ticular. The subject of this sketch is a man of versatile ability. His lectures on " Medical Sciences " before the society of physicians and sur- geons, upon Physiology before the high school, and upon temperance be- fore the people, are noted for their purity of diction and originality of thought and eloquence of delivery. At this writing (November 1883), Dr. McNabb is Secretary of the Mooresville Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons; member of both County and State Medical Societies, an active Republican in politics, an ardent " Prohibitionist," a consistent member of the Christian Church, and in the enjoyment of a lucrative practice in the community where he is best known, and therefore most highly esteemed.
REV. PERRY T. MACY, a wealthy and influential farmer and stock grower, was born in Randolph County, Ind., August 19, 1825, and there lived upon the farm with his parents, William and Hannah (Hinshaw) Macy, until he was twenty-three years old. His parents, who were na- tives of North Carolina, and descended from the English and Irish
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respectively, had thirteen children (seven sons and six daughters), of whom our subject was the ninth, with five older brothers. The subscrip- tion schools supplied the source of his education, which was limited to elementary studies. Though he continued to reside in his native county until the spring of 1856, he was married in Morgan County September 14, 1848, to Charity. daughter of Henry Mills. She bore him four children, three of whom, Albert W., Charles L. and Ida Ellen, were liv- ing at her death, which occurred December 27, 1863. August 26, 1869, he married in Dallas County, Iowa, Rebecca Hadley, daughter of George Bowles, and has had born to him two children-Oliver P. and Vernon D. Rev. Mr. Macy has been many years regular recorded minister of the Friends Church, and since moving to Morgan County he has owned and occupied the farm upon which he now resides, about one mile west of Mooresville. From 1860 to 1872, he was superintendent of the business department of the Mooresville High School, and for two years, 1873-74, was proprietor of the Mooresville Enterprise, a weekly paper now known as the Moores- ville Monitor. His son, Albert, W., is at this writing (December, 1883) the talented editor of the Richmond (Ind.) Palladium. Our subject is well supplied with this world's goods, nearly all of which have been ac- quired by his own industry.
ALLEN T. MANKER was born in Highland County, Ohio, April 15, 1827; is the sixth son of nine children (eight sons and one daughter) of Jacob and Marion (Jones) Manker, natives of Ohio. His mother died when he was five years of age, and the succeeding eleven years of his life were spent at different places in the neighborhood of his nativity. He acquired something of an education by a few months' attendance at the winter schools in his neighborhood, and in 1841, in the town of Hillsboro, Ohio, began the trade of carpenter and served an apprenticeship of three years. He came into Morgan County in 1845, and has since recognized Mooresville as his home. In 1854-55, he ran a grist mill in Montgome- ry County, and from 1874 to 1880 had charge of the Magnolia Mills at Mooresville two different times, aggregating something over three years. Going thence to Brooklyn, Ind., he closed his mill experience by about one year's service. In 1856-57, he was engaged in the livery business at Mooresville, and the rest of his life has been devoted to the business of contractor and builder. He was married at Darlington, Ind., April 16, 1857, to Nancy J. Gaskill and has had born to him seven children -- Frank E., Clinton W., Mary I., James M., John W., Charles and Livingston. In 1852, he " bull-whacked" across the plains from Iowa to Portland, Oreg., and returned to New York via the Isthmus. The best buildings in Mooresville are marks of his handiwork. He superintended the erection of the new Methodist Episcopal Church, drew the plans of the Masonic building, and erected the Odd Fellows Hall. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, belongs to the Masons and Knights of Honor; is a strict temperance man, and in politics an out-and-out Demo- crat.
GILES BEFORD MITCHELL, M. D. (deceased), was born in Bar- tholomew County, Ind., November 17, 1822. His parents, Giles and Mary (Moore) Mitchell, natives of Virginia and Kentucky respectively, were married in Kentucky in 1807, and emigrated to Indiana in 1810, locating in Charleston, Clarke County, when the only buildings there were a block-house and a log fort. £ In 1820, they removed into Bartholomew County, and in 1833 settled in Martinsville, Morgan County, where Giles
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Beford, who was the fourth of a family of six children, acquired the rudiments of an English education. In about 1837, he began the study of medicine with Dr. Barnard, of Martinsville, and at the end of one year entered the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, from which institution he subsequently graduated as M. D. He practiced medicine a few years in Martinsville, and from 1847 to 1857 in Mooresville, when he returned to Martinsville and embarked in the mercantile business. This he fol- lowed about three years, but growing dissatisfied sold out and returned to Mooresville, where he resumed his practice which he continued up to within a few days of his death, which occurred October 6, 1878. He was a man of much more than ordinary mental caliber, and his success through life was due to his own industry, energy, and indomnitable perseverance in the pursuit of knowledge. He was married, November 30, 1847, at Mooresville, to Sarah Reagan, daughter of Reason Reagan, an early settler of Morgan County, and had born to him six children- Mary E., Laura A. (deceased), John (deceased), Ida E. (deceased), Sarah V. (deceased), Emma G., and William L. At his death, Dr. M. had been many years a consistent member of the M. E. Church, and a Mason in high standing. He was one of the organizers of the Farmers' Bank of Mooresville, and for several years its President. In politics, he was
an unswerving Democrat, and was at one time his party's candidate for Representative in the State Legislature. He esteemed his profession above all other employments in which he was engaged, and devoted him- self to the bank only because the accumulation of his toil required it. His aim was to be a successful practitioner, and he allowed nothing to conflict with his darling purpose. His perceptions were very keen, and in the treatment of acute diseases he was very successful. Much of his extensive practice was due to the promptness of his calls. He attended strictly to work, and was careful not to neglect any of his patients. He took hold with a firm hand, and the result was not doubtful. His suc- cessful career is a brilliant example of what can be accomplished by earnest devotion to present duty. He started with nothing, having to sign a note for borrowed money with which to prosecute his studies in the medical college. As a business man, he was exact in his habits and prided himself on system in all that belonged to his affairs. When he received certain premonition of his approaching death, he arranged to settle his business, that future embarrassment might be avoided. He be- lieved in applying bank principles to ordinary business affairs, and this system, no doubt, had much to do with his success in temporal matters. He deserved great credit and reaped a liberal harvest for his painstakings in departments of duty. He left his family a handsome patrimony, which has been skillfully managed by his surviving widow.
JOHN NAUGLE, blacksmith and wood worker, Mooresville, Ind., second son of Emanuel and Delinda (Reede) Naugle, natives of Pennsylva- nia and Virginia, and of German and English extraction respectively; was born in Scott County, Ind., October 25, 1832. He was reared upon a farm, and at the common schools acquired the rudiments of an English education. On January 1, 1854, he was married at Salem, Washington County, Ind., to Charlotte A. Hoggett, by whom he has had born to him ten children, two of whom died in infancy, not named; the others were named as follows: John Albert, Joseph Wilburn, Edward Emanuel, Alice Irene, Leonora (deceased), George Elmer (deceased), Ernest Morton (de- ceased) and Archibald T. Both Mr. and Mrs. Naugle are members of the
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Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Naugle came to Mooresville in Feb- ruary, 1864, and for the next five years followed blacksmithing. Having patented a garden and field hoe, he for a few months traveled from place to place introducing them. He next perfected other patents, and devoted his time to them for about three years. In 1871, he removed with his family to Center Valley in Hendricks County, and lived there four years. He then lived seven years at Valley Mills, in Marion County, and carried on a blacksmith and wood working shop. His shops having been con- sumed by fire, he returned to Mooresville in August, 1883, and again embarked in his old business. He now owns a nice residence property, and the handsomest blacksmith and wood working shop combined in the county. He employs, aside from his own labor, two skillful workmen and is rapidly placing himself at the head of this particular branch of business in the town of Mooresville. What he has of this world's goods he has worked for.
ROBERT BARCLAY NEWBY was born at Salem, Washing- ton County, Ind., July 21, 1827, and lived there, following farming as an occupation, until eighteen years of age. He is the eldest son and third child of five boys and three girls born to Micah and Mary (Coffin) Newby, natives of North Carolina and of English descent. Robert B. was schooled at the Washington County Seminary, and in the year 1845, came to Mooresville, where he has since resided. His first service here was with S. Moore, as clerk in a mercantile establishment, going into a partnership with him at the end of five years. After being with him three years Mr. Newby retired from the mercantile business, but continued a partnership with Mr. Moore in farming and stock business for several years. June 16, 1850, he married his partner's daughter, Jane M., who died in August, 1853, after having borne him two children-Samuel M. and Frank W. (deceased). Mr. Newby married his second wife, Mary Rariden, in Morgan County in April, 1870. Since 1870, he has been farming and stock trading. In 1879, he was elected Marshal of Moores- ville, and held the office one year, and since 1882, has been Justice of the Peace of Brown Township, and in addition to the duties of that office, is carrying on a general collecting agency. He is a member of the Ma- sonic order, and in politics an active Republican.
WILLIAM D. OVERTON is the third son of James H. and Ann M. (Parker) Overton, who spent their lives in North Carolina; he was born in Northampton County that State, July 4, 1852; came to Morgan County, Ind., in the winter of 1874, and up to the spring of 1882 farmed near Monrovia. At this town, after a short trip West, Mr. Overton entered the hardware store of Hobbs & Johnson, as clerk. In July, 1883, he bought out the Mooresville elevator and has since been engaged in the grain business. On November 19, 1878, he was married at Hillsdale, to Maggie Lankford, who died March 21, 1881, leaving her husband one child-William Henry. In 1860, Northampton County, N. C., cast 14 votes for Abraham Lincoln for President of the United States and James H. Overton was one of the number. On account of his anti-Southern principles, he was compelled to leave home during the war, and the mother dying in the meantime, the family was completely broken up. So it will be readily understood that so far in life William D. Overton has "paddled his own canoe." He is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, an earnest supporter of the cause of temperance, belongs to the Masonic order and votes the Republican ticket.
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BENJAMIN HENRY PERCE, M. D., prominent physician and sur- geon of Mooresville, Ind., is eldest of five children of Prosper and Mary O. (Robinson) Perce, natives of New York and New Hampshire, and of English and Scotch-Irish extraction respectively, was born in St. Joseph County, Mich., June 27, 1838. His father having died in 1854. leaving the family in somewhat straitened circumstances, the sub- ject of this sketch was thrown early in life upon his own resources. He had acquired some knowledge of sign writing and ornamental painting, and did considerable work in that line, by which he accumulated a small sum of money, the most of which he liberally gave to his mother and young sister, and with $3 in his pocket and his extra wearing appar- rel rolled up in an old silk handkerchief, young Perce left the place of his nativity, and took up his march in search of a livelihood. Trudging onward, stopping occasionally to saw wood for bread, he arrived finally at the crossing of the New Albany & L. S. R. R. Footsore, tired, hun- gry and discouraged, he thrust his cane into the sand and allowed its falling to decide the course of his further travel. It bent its head to the south, and in the year 1857, after sleeping in fence corners and feasting off dry crackers alone as sable night spread her wings over hill and dale, our subject landed at Greencastle, Ind., the sole possessor of but 25 cents. He retired without supper and began work before breakfast, so that when dinner arrived-a good one to which he was kindly invited-the manner in which he attacked the eatables, made the eyes of his generous host and hostess stand out from very wonder. He alternated the two succeed- ing years between Greencastle and Plainfield in following his trade, and in the spring of 1859, came to Mooresville, and a year afterward formed a partnership with a Mr. Mitchell in the manufacture of carriages and buggies, which enterprise failed in the following year. As "journey- man," he followed his old trade at different places up to the summer of 1862, when he raised a company preparatory to entering the army, and drilled it, but declined a commission as its commander in favor of Capt. Peoples. In August of this year, he entered as a Corporal in Com- pany E, Twelfth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served up to June, 1865. In July, 1864, at Marietta, Ga., he received a sunstroke which resulted in the destruction of his right eye. In October, 1864, he was placed upon detached duty as Hospital Steward in the provisional divis . ion of the Army of the Tennessee, going from there to Washington in the same capacity in the Auger General Hospital, and here received his final discharge. Dr. Perce is a self-educated man, having attended school but about eighteen months of his early life. His first ideas of medicine were acquired while in the army, and in the winter of 1872-73 he took a course of lectures at the Indiana Medical College, where the following winter he held the office of Prosector to the Chair of Anatomy. At the end of this session he graduated as Doctor of Medicine, and in February, 1879, took ad eundem degree at the Medical College of Indiana. In the spring of 1873, he began the practice of medicine at Mooresville, and, growing rapidly into popularity, he to-day (December, 1883), ranks among the foremost in his profession. May 14, 1867, he was married at Mooresville to Eunice Ann, daughter of Jacob and Jemima Coombs. By this marriage he had born to him two children-Henry (deceased in infancy), and Elsie Gertrude. The mother of these children died Sep- tember 18, 1874, and in April, 1876, the Doctor married at Plainfield, Ind., his present wife, Elvira, daughter of Simon and Martha Hornaday.
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Two children, Edith (deceased in infancy) and Mary, have crowned this union. The Doctor is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, belongs to the I. O. O. F., is a Master Mason, a Knight of Honor; has filled most all the official chairs in these societies and is at present Examiner of the one last named. In Masonry and Odd Fellow- ship, he belongs to the Grand Lodges of the State. He is a member of both county and State Medical societies, of the first of which he has been twice President. He is in the enjoyment of a lucrative position, owns a handsome property, is proud of his profession, and justly so of his successes; he votes the Republican ticket.
AMOS W. REAGAN M. D., a prominent physician and surgeon of Mooresville, Ind., is the fourth son of Reason and Diana (Wilson) Rea- gan, natives of South Carolina, and probably of Irish and English extraction respectively. Amos W. was born in Marion County, Ind., April 3, 1826, and the first sixteen years of his life were spent upon a farm, alternating, in the usual manner of farmers' sons, the duties thereof with occasional attendance at the common schools. In 1845, he entered Asbury University, where for three years he assiduously devoted himself to study, acquiring a thorough English education and a fair familiarity with the classics. January, 1847, in the office of Dr. G. B. Mitchell, at Mooresville, he began the study of medicine, and at the end of one year entered the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, from whence he graduated in the spring of 1851 with the degree of M. D. Returning to Mooresville, the Doctor formed a partnership with his old preceptor, and for the next succeeding twenty-two years, interrupted only by a three years' service in the army, carried on the practice of medicine. Dr. Rea- gan rose rapidly in the profession, and ere many years was ranked among the most successful practitioners in Morgan County. Early in July, 1862, he entered the service of the United States, and was at once com- missioned Surgeon of the Seventieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. From his enrollment to the close of the war, his command was never without his services, and the last eighteen months of the time he was Acting Bri- gade Surgeon of the First Brigade, Third Division, Twentieth Army Corps. The distinguished services of the old Seventieth Indiana are immortalized in the already written history of our country, and it is not essential to the purposes of this sketch that many bloody engagements be here detailed or even referred to. Suffice it to say that in bivouac or in battle, its sick, its wounded and its dying were never without the attend- ance of one of the most skillful surgeons of the army. While at Bow- ling Green, Ky., in September, 1862, the Doctor contracted chronic diarrhea, resulting in disease of the heart. From the effects of this, he has never recovered; but, on the contrary, the symptoms have grown perceptibly worse within the past few years. From 1872 to 1875, our subject was associated with Dr. Perce at Mooresville, since the dissolu- tion of which partnership he has been alone in the practice. He has been thrice married, and is the father of three children, two only of whom are living. His first wife was Nancy Rooker, daughter of Jesse Rooker, who died in the fall of 1858, after having been married about three years. His second wife was Sarah E., a younger sister of his first wife. She lived about five years of married life, and died without issue in October, 1871. To his present wife, a Mrs. Ella Elliott, who has. borne him one child, he was married in November, 1882. In 1860, he was elected to his third term of Trustee of Brown Township, but entered
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