USA > Indiana > Vigo County > Terre Haute > Greater Terre Haute and Vigo County : closing the first century's history of city and county, showing the growth of their people, industries and wealth > Part 35
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Frederick H. Felling was born and reared on the old Felling home- stead in Lost Creek township, supplementing the common school train- ing which he received in its district schools by attendance for a short time at a business college in Indianapolis, Indiana. He has always remained at home. and with his mother he now owns one hundred and sixty-seven acres of land, his mother holding a life lease, and there he is engaged in general agricultural pursuits. Mr. Felling follows in the political footsteps of his father and votes with the Democracy, and his fraternal relations are with the Order of Red Men of Seelyville and the Knights of Pythias order at Stanton.
MONT ELMER TABER was born on the old Taber homestead in Lost Creek township, Vigo county, Indiana, February 27, 1878, a son of George A. and Anna (Eccles) Taber, who have long been numbered among the prominent residents of this county, and they yet reside on their valuable old homestead of one hundred and fifty-five acres in Lost Creek township. The father was born on the 15th of April, 1837, in Urbana, Ohio, and the mother's natal day was the 15th of August, 1847, born near York, England, but she came with her parents to the United States in the early fifties, the family coming direct to Indiana and locating at Terre Haute, where her parents spent the remainder of their lives. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Taber were five children: William H., a lawyer
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of Terre Haute; George M., the principal of the eighteenth district school in that city ; Frank, a well known physician and surgeon of Terre Haute ; Herbert E., who resides with his parents on the homestead farm, and Mont Elmer, the subject of this review. Mr. Taber, the father, supports the principles of the Democratic party.
After attending the township schools of Lost Creek, Mont Elmer Taber pursued his studies for two years in the State Normal at Terre Haute, also teaching for three years during that time, and he then entered the Illinois College of Pharmacy and graduated with its class of Septem- ber, 1901, with the degree of Pharmaceutical Chemist. During the year following his graduation Mr. Taber was employed in the New Central pharmacy in Terre Haute, and then entering the employ of the E. H. Bindly & Company in Terre Haute, he served as their chemist for four years. He then became a traveling salesman for that firm, but after about one year on the road he became ill with typhoid fever and was obliged to resign his position. On the 21st of August, following, he purchased of Benjamin German the only drug store of Seelyville, and is the only prescription druggist between Terre Haute and Brazil. In addition to his large line of drugs he also carries a full line of candies, oils and paints and has a soda fountain.
On the 15th of September, 1903, Mr. Taber married Nellie L. Wright, born near Palestine, Illinois, February 22, 1884, to Willis and Mary (Wilheit) Wright, residents of Indianapolis. Mrs. Taber was educated in the schools of Illinois, and was a student for several years in Shorter College, of Rome, Georgia, pursuing a course in vocal music. She is a member of the Baptist church of that city, and Mr. Taber has member- ship relations with the Presbyterian denomination. He is a member of Terre Haute Lodge. No. 51, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is a past grand : of the Modern Woodmen of America, Terre Haute Lodge, No. 3376, and of the Travelers' Protective Association of that city. A son. Mont Elmer Taber, Jr., was born to Mr. and Mrs. Taber, April 17, 1907.
SAMUEL B. SHIPLEY .- The name of Samuel B. Shipley appears upon the records of Vigo county in connection with important public service as the postmaster of Seelyville. He was born in Claiborne county, Ten- nessee, March 3. 1879, a son of Edward P. and America (Hughes) Shipley, both of whom were born in eastern Virginia, the father July 8. 1857, and the mother August 8, 1858, and both are now residents of Seelyville. During their early childhood days their parents moved to Claiborne county, Tennessee, where both the paternal and maternal grand-
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parents died. They there reared and educated their children, and in the spring of 1877 Edward Shipley and America Hughes were united in marriage. During his early life Mr. Shipley learned the harnessmaker's trade in his father's shop in Tazewell, Tennessee, while later he also fol- lowed agricultural pursuits there, and in 1898 the family became residents of Seelyville, Vigo county, Indiana. After about three years spent in the mines here he again turned his attention to the work of the farm, and in 1906 he operated the Swamp Angel mine, and this he recently sold. He is a Republican politically, and during his residence in Tazewell he was the recipient of many public positions and was also connected with the police force of that city. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Shipley, namely: Samuel B., Elmer B., Bessie May, Bertha, Minnie, Rella, Clarence and Frank. The second daughter, Bertha Maude, is the wife of Leroy Honeter, a resident of Terre Haute. Three of the daugh- ters and one son are members of the Methodist church in this city. Mr. Shipley, the father, is a member of the Masonic, the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows fraternities, his membership in the Masonic and the Odd Fellows orders being in Corbin, Kentucky, and with the Knights of Pythias in Seelyville.
In the common schools of Tennessee and Kentucky Samuel B. Shipley received his educational training, and after coming to this city he was connected with his father in the mine. On the 15th of August, 1907, he was appointed the postmaster of Seelyville, assuming the duties of the office on the Ist of September following. He is the youngest postmaster in Vigo county. Mr. Shipley is a stanch advocate of the principles of the Republican party, and is a member of Alimania Lodge of Terre Haute.
FRANCIS H. HEMPHILL, M. D., physician and surgeon, of Seelyville, began the study of medicine in 1894 at the Central Medical College of St. Joseph, Missouri, and he graduated with the class of 1898. His first year as a medical practitioner was spent at Starfield, Missouri. During the following two years he practiced at Chili, Indiana, and it was at the close of that period that he came to Seelyville and enrolled his name among its medical practitioners. During the intervening period he has built up a good practice and has established a reputation as an able and skillful practitioner.
Dr. Hemphill is a native son of Rensselaer. Indiana, born on the 27th of December, 1872, to Watt and Rebecca ( Grant ) Hemphill. The father was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1848, and his death occurred in Rensselaer on the 27th of October, 1875, just two years after the birth of his son Francis. He was a well known pattern-maker, as was also his
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father, and with him he served as a pattern-maker for roller mills in Cincinnati and Minneapolis. The senior Mr. Hemphill invented a roller process and patented the same. in Minneapolis, which sold for fifteen thousand dollars. Mrs. Rebecca Hemphill still survives her husband and is living in Rensselaer, the mother of two children, the younger of whom, Mattie, is a surgical nurse at Great Falls, Montana. She was born on the 13th of October, 1874, and is a graduate of the Columbia Hospital at Great Falls.
Francis H. Hemphill, the elder of his parents' two children, was born in the city of Rensselaer, Indiana, December 27, 1872, and after com- pleting his literary training in its schools he went to St. Joseph, Missouri. to begin his medical studies. On the Ist of January, 1902, he was united in marriage to Etta Harris, born at Roann, Indiana, who for four years before her marriage taught school. A son. Byron F., was born to them on the 29th of April, 1904. Mrs. Hemphill is a member of the Methodist church, and the Doctor's religious membership is with. the Church of God. He also has membership relations with the Masonic lodge at Brazil, Indiana, with the Knights of Pythias at Seelyville and with the Modern Woodmen at Terre Haute. His political views are in harmony with the principles of the Republican party.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN VAN\'ACTOR .- In the early year of 1857, five years after the birth of their son Benjamin Franklin, Nathan and Ellen (Howe) VanVactor journeyed with their family to Indiana and cast their lot with the early pioneers of Lost Creek township. Their first purchase of land consisted of eighty acres, heavily covered with timber, but with the passing years the husband and father succeeded in clearing the place, at the same time adding to its boundaries until he was the owner of a valuable estate of one hundred and eighty-eight acres, and he also at one time owned eighty acres in Nebraska. He was a Republican politically, and on the old home farm which he had transformed from a wilderness he passed away in death in 1882, aged sixty-seven years, for his birth occurred on the 26th of March, 1815, in Butler county, Ohio. Mrs. VanVactor, who was born September 20, 1828. died May 12, 1905. They were married in Ohio, and their union was blessed by the birth of six children, four of whom are now living: Benjamin Franklin, the sub- ject of this review ; Eva, the wife of J. W. Daniels, of Colorado : Maggie. the wife of Fred Conway, of Lost Creek township. and Louisa, the wife of W. A. Miller, a grocery merchant in Lost' Creek township.
Benjamin F. VanVactor was born in Shelby county, Ohio, May 22, 1852, but when he was a little lad of five years the family home was
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY Astor, Lenox and Tildon Foundations. 1909
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established in Vigo county, Indiana, and he grew to years of maturity within its borders and received his education in its district schools. Re- maining under the parental roof until he had attained the age of twenty- five years, he then began farming for himself in Lost Creek township, being now the owner of a fine estate of two hundred and seventy-five acres in section 24.
On the 22d of May, 1877. Mr. Van Vactor married Miss Josephine A. Dickerson, born in Lost Creek township, Vigo county, September 3, 1856, a daughter of L. H. and Isabella (Hayward) Dickerson, natives respectively of Ohio and Union county, Indiana. Mr. Dickerson died in Terre Haute in February. 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Van Vactor have three children living and three deceased, those living being: John F., born June 22, 1878, is married and resides in Stillwater, North Dakota, and they have one son; Ellis R., born September 29, 1882, resides with his brother in North Dakota : Charles B., born October 6, 1884, resides in Stillwater, North Dakota. The sons were all well educated, supplement- ing their public school training by a course in the Brown Business Col- lege at Terre Haute, and they are proving successful business men in their respective callings. Mr. VanVactor, of this review, upholds the principles of the Prohibition party, and his fraternal relations connect him with the Knights of Pythias lodge at Seelyville and the Odd Fellows order at Terre Haute. Mrs. Van Vactor is a member of the Methodist church.
JAMES W. THOMPSON, a well known citizen and business man of Terre Haute, was born on the Thompson homestead, near Virginia, in Cass county, Illinois, on September II, 1865.
His father, James Thompson, was born in Cass county, Illinois, in the year 1827. the son of James, a native of Ireland, who was a pioneer and large land owner of that section of Illinois. James, the second. was an extensive and successful farmer, and died at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in 1893.
The mother of Mr. Thompson was Sarah Ellen Dick, who was born in Cass county, Illinois, in the year 1836. the daughter of John P. Dick. an Illinois pioneer, who went to that state from near Lexington, Kentucky. Mrs. Thompson died at Atlanta, Illinois, on Thanksgiving day. 1904.
James W. Thompson spent his boyhood days on the farm in Illinois. He passed through the public schools, graduating from the high school, and then took a business course at the Jacksonville ( Illinois) Commercial College. Even in his youthful days the great business of railroading appealed to young Thompson and before he had reached his majority he
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liad, like others of our successful railroad men, mastered telegraphy and had begun the career which was to prove so successful-a career which culminated with him as the executive head of an important line of rail- road before he had reached his fortieth year.
In 1885 Mr. Thompson became assistant at Galva, Kansas, to the agent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. During the years 1886-87 he was a telegraph operator at various points on the Santa Fe, and in 1887 he became an operator in the Chicago offices of the Western Union Telegraph Company, in which capacity he took press reports. In 1888 he became train dispatcher at Pueblo, Colorado, of the Rio Grande Railroad. During the years 1890-92 he was chief train dispatcher of the Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad at Evansville, Indiana, and in 1893- 95 he was trainmaster of the same road at the same city. In 1895 he was made superintendent of the old Evansville & Richmond Railroad with headquarters at Bedford, Indiana. When the Evansville & Richmond became the Southern Indiana, Mr. Thompson continued superintendent of that system, and in January, 1904, became general manager of the same. As general manager Mr. Thompson was the operating official and had charge of the construction work when the Southern Indiana was extended from Elnora into Terre Haute. The road from Elnora to Terre Haute passes through vast coal fields, in which the railroad became interested. The development of those properties was under the manage- ment of Mr. Thompson and he also became the president of the Southern Indiana Coal Company. In the handling of the Southern Indiana Railroad . and its vast and varied interests, Mr. Thompson displayed executive ability beyond the ordinary, and his judgment on important matters and affairs was always found sound and correct. His capacity for hard and continuous work, his resourcefulness, his wonderful executive ability and his quick and accurate judgment amounts to genius, and stamps him as the ideal railroad man, and his retirement from active railroading in August. 1905, to look after his personal interests, cut short what promised a most successful if not brilliant and eminent career along lines that have developed some of America's greatest men.
Since his retirement from railroading Mr. Thompson has given most of his time to the management of his private affairs, though he is largely interested in several important local enterprises. He is president of the Acme Coal and Lime Company, president of the Wabash Sand and Gravel Company and president of the Terre Haute Sand and Gravel Company, enterprises which he organized and which are commercial successes.
Mr. Thompson is extensively interested in agriculture. He owns and operates a fine farm of five hundred and forty-four acres in Dewitt
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county, Illinois, besides his home farm of two hundred and seventy-three acres in Vigo county, situated on the National road, five miles east of the city, which is one of the show-places of the country around Terre Haute. On this farm he erected one of the finest country mansions to be found in any part of the state. It is of brick, constructed on the latest and most approved plans of architecture, with all modern improve- ments and conveniences, its heat, light and water systems being the equal of any city residence.
Although hardly in the prime of life, Mr. Thompson has had a suc- cessful and in many respects a remarkable career, and is now enjoying the well-earned fruits of what, while it lasted, was a busy and strenuous railroad life, and which brought with it its own reward-a place among the representative and honorable men of the community. Mr. Thomp- son is fond of out-door life and sports and finds one of his chief diver- sions in hunting, at which he is an adept. The floors and walls of his beautiful home are adorned with trophies of the hunt and chase, memen- toes of days spent in the wilds of the far southwest. He is a member of the lodge of Elks and of the Commercial Club of Terre Haute and of the Columbia Club of Indianapolis, and of the Crescent Club of Evansville.
Mr. Thompson married Miss Helen A:, the daughter of John and Sadie (Badger) Johnston, of Evansville, Indiana, and they have the fol- lowing children: Walter V., Dorothy, Margaret, Mary, Ruth and Katherine.
SARAH E. (STARK) STOUT bears the name of two of Indiana's sub- stantial farmer citizens, and was born in its county of Clay, October I, 1851, to Rice M. and Dorcas (Whittaker) Stark, both of whom were born and reared in Indiana. They were very prominent and successful farmers in Clay county, and Mr. Stark was a Republican politically, and for twelve years a justice of the peace. Both he and his wife were devout members of the Baptist church. In their family were six children, but the two eldest, Joseph and Alonzo, are deceased ; Malissa is the wife of James Sanders and resides in Hymera, Indiana : Owen is also deceased; Jesse resides in Clay county, and Sarah E. is the youngest of the family. Three of the sons served their country valiantly during the Civil war, and Joseph was killed in the battle of the Wilderness. He enlisted in the first call for Indiana troops, and served his full time of enlistment, having been shot in the last battle of the war. Alonzo enlisted in 1862 with the Thirty- first Indiana Infantry, and served to the end of the conflict as a private. Owen entered the service in 1864, and was slightly wounded in battle, but continued to serve until the close of the struggle.
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Mrs. Stout remained at home until attaining the age of eighteen, and then learning dressmaking in Terre Haute followed that trade for eighteen years. For four years thereafter she taught in the industrial department for the blind at Indianapolis. It was on the 12th of December, 1898, that she gave her hand in marriage to James William Stout. He was born in Kentucky, December 3, 1852, and was called from this life on the 12th of November. 1907. His parents, Joseph and Ursula (Taylor) Stout, were also born in the Blue Grass state of Kentucky, and when their little son was a lad of three years they came to Sullivan county, Indiana, and spent the remainder of their lives there. Their six children were: Mary, the wife of Theodore Walters, of Vigo county; James W .; Preston, who married Alice Bigger and lives in Sullivan county ; Dora, who is married and resides in the west; Harriet, deceased, and Joseph, who is married and lives in Sullivan county.
During his boyhood days James W. Stout attended the country schools during the winter months and farmed with his father in the summers, but on reaching his eighteenth year he left home and went to Terre Haute to work for his cousin, James Boston, in a boarding and feed stable. Following this he was for two years on a rented farm in Prairie- ton township, but as the memorable flood of that time destroyed his be- longings he returned to the employ of his cousin at the end of the two years. In time he was able to purchase the business and continued as its proprietor for about five years, when he sold the barn and bought a grocery story in Terre Haute. A few years later he also disposed of that business to become the chief of police, while later he was elected the sheriff for a two years' term. When his term of office had expired he bought three hundred acres in Prairieton township, to which he later added four hundred and thirty acres, making him the owner of the large and valuable estate of seven hundred and thirty acres, although he did not make this his home until his second marriage, 'in 1898. In 1903 he erected one of the best farm residences in Vigo county, a beautiful dwell- ing of ten rooms and equipped with all the modern conveniences of a city home. He was a Democrat and a member of the Masonic order in Terre Haute. He was looked upon by his neighbors as a prominent and successful business man, and his many excellent qualities of heart and mind won him the love and honor of all who knew him. His first mar- riage was in 1875 to Emily Trinkle, who died on the 12th of October, 1897, and it was in 1898 that he married Sarah E. Stark, but no children were born of either marriage. Mrs. Stout is a member of the Baptist church.
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ROBERT L. SMITH, a well known business man of Prairieton town- ship, was born in Garrard county, Kentucky, January II, 1845, a son of George W. and Elizabeth (McKee) Smith. The father was born in Virginia in 1809, but when a child he was taken to Kentucky by his parents, and he later learned and followed the tailor's trade. He was killed during the slavery rebellion, June 10, 1855. Mrs. Smith was born in Garrard county, Kentucky, and died on the 16th of February, 1897. Many of her family were professional men, and she was a daughter of Hugh and Lydia McKee, in whose family were three children.
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Robert L. Smith was but a boy of ten years when his father was killed, and he remained with his widowed mother until 1869. In the meantime, on the 8th of October, 1861, he enlisted with the First Ken- tucky Cavalry for services in the Civil war, his term expiring in March, 1862, and in May of 1865 he became a member of the One Hundred and Ninety-eighth Ohio Infantry, and as a private served in the battles of Richmond, Perryville, Nells Spring, Franklin and Wildcat. He still maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades by his member- ship in Blinn Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and he also receives a pension of twelve dollars a month. After the close of the conflict he returned to his home in Kentucky, and it was in 1869 that he came from there to Honey Creek township, Vigo county, Indiana, where he worked on a farm for about twenty years. In 1890 he located in Prairieton and became a paperhanger and painter, and he still follows those occupations, while in 1904 he also embarked in the general mercantile business, and in the same year was made the assistant postmaster. In addition to his store building he owns two residences and lots. During the past eight or ten years he has also been a notary public, and he is a Republican politically.
On the 3d of December, 1875, Mr. Smith married Florence K. Stevenson, who was born May 22, 1856, a daughter of George and Caroline C. (Hull) Stevenson. The mother was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, February 4, 1817, and died on the 26th of December, 1899. The father, born November 20, 1800, died August 26, 1875. When a child he came with his parents from Philadelphia to Honey Creek township, Vigo county, Indiana, where in time he became a very prominent man and the owner of one hundred and twenty acres of land. He was an active church worker and a member of the Methodist denomination. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson, namely: Mary E., the wife of George Bunce, of Terre Haute; Julia Isabell, the wife of John Graham, of New Albany, Indiana ; Nancy Deborah, wife of George Ray, of Seymour, Texas; Harriet Jane, who has never married and lives in
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Terre Haute; Thursy Fletcher, with his sister in Terre Haute, and Florence K., who became the wife of Mr. Smith. Eleven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Elizabeth McKee, who was born July 20, 1877, and died on the 8th of December, 1898; Ralph Steven- son, who was born February 10, 1879, is a painter and paperhanger and lives with his parents; George Watts, born March 24, 1881, is the post- master of Prairieton ; Robbie Hull, born June 24, 1883, is a painter and at home; Laura Edith, born October 13, 1886, died March 14, 1893; Mary Etta, born . February 29. 1889, died March 12, 1893; Jessie Harriet, born December 14, 1891, died March 13, 1893; Helen Mills, born July 21, 1894; Hazel Marie, June 8, 1896; Martha Henderson, September 22, 1899, and Hugh McKee, December 2, 1902, all at home. Mr. Smith is a prominent Mason and has received four degrees in the order. He is a member of the grand lodge, also of Honey Creek Grange, No. I.
GEORGE FREDERICK NEFF is the owner of a valuable estate in Prairie- ton township and is one of the community's most prosperous agriculturists. He was born in Clark county, Illinois, September 10, 1852, a son of Tobias Frederick and Sophia (Furstenberger) Neff, both of whom were born in Germany and came with their respective parents to the United States, the father when eight years of age and the mother when eighteen, both families locating near Marion, Ohio. The old log house in which the Neff family first took up their abode is still standing, but the parents spent the last years of their lives in Clark county, Illinois, at the home of their son Tobias. Tobias F. Neff remained at home until he was twenty years of age, or until his marriage, which was celebrated in Ohio, near Marion, and shortly after this event the young couple moved to Clark county, Illinois. The first farm which Mr. Neff purchased there was sold, as was also his next purchase of one hundred and twenty acres. He disposed of that tract at the beginning of the war and bought eighty acres adjoining. In December, 1861, he laid aside his work and became a soldier in the Eighth Indiana Battery, serving as a private for three years and four months, and was never wounded in all that time. For a time he drove the lead team to a cannon and participated in the battles of Chickamauga, Murfreesboro, Peach Tree Creek, Shiloh, Fredericks- burg and Lookout Mountain, some of the most sanguine of the entire conflict, and after returning from the front resumed farming in Clark county, Illinois. In 1880 he left the farm there and during the remainder of his life lived retired in Prairieton township. His political views were first in harmony with the Democratic party, but after the war he became
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