USA > Indiana > Henry County > Hazzard's history of Henry county, Indiana, 1822-1906, Volume II > Part 46
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Richmond Wisehart, commissioned from November 1, 1891, to November 1, 1895; re-elected and commissioned from November 1. 1895, to November 1, 1899.
Mark Davis, commissioned from November 1, 1899, to November 1, 1903. Here the term of county officers had been made by an act of the General Assembly to begin on the uniform date of January 1, which made a vacancy in the office from the time Mr. Davis' commission expired to the beginning of the new year. Davis was appointed to fill the vacancy from November 1, 1903, to January 1, 1904, when the term of his successor began.
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
John M. Bundy, commissioned from January 2, 1904, to January 1, 1908; present incumbent.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
The first four incumbents of the office were ministers of the Gospel. James Iliff was a Wesleyan Methodist preacher; Thomas Rogers and James S. Ferris were ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Seth S. Bennett, a minister of the Disciples or Christian Church, formerly called Camphellites.
The first auditor, James Iliff, served longer than any other man, two full terms of five years each under the old constitution. The author regrets that he has been unable to secure more information regarding Mr. Iliff.
James S. Ferris, a well-known school teacher of New Castle, was a member of the lower house of the General Assembly before being elected auditor. After his term as audi- tor expired he moved to Iowa. A few years later he removed to Winchester, Indiana, where he died. Elsewhere in this History will he found a full biographical sketch of Dr. Samuel Ferris, in which reference is made to his brother, James S. Ferris.
Seth S. Bennett and Richmond Wisehart were soldiers in the Civil War whose re- spective services will be found appropriately set out elsewhere in this History.
THOMAS ROGERS was the only auditor re-elected after an intervening term. He was born in Ireland, December 14,.1822, and came with his parents to the United States in 1824, settling in Philadelphia. In 1837 they moved to Indiana, locating in Richmond. Later, in 1839, they moved to Milton, Wayne County. In 1846 Thomas Rogers was married to Joanna Willits and soon thereafter settled on a farm on Flatrock in Henry County, a few miles from New Castle. Mr. Rogers early became a school teacher, which profes- sion he followed in Wayne and Henry counties until 1849, when he settled in New Castle and on August 1 of that year became deputy auditor under James Iliff. He was a very religious man who early identified himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church and later, in 1866, hecame a regularly ordained minister of that denomination. He served for sev- eral years as school examiner and afterward as county school superintendent. The last 'years of his life were spent on a farm of two hundred and fifty acres about a mile west of New Castle, where he built a spacious brick residence. The rolling mill has since been located near there. Mr. Rogers was known as the "marrying deacon," he having tied more nuptial knots than any other minister in Eastern Indiana, or probably in the State; persons bent on matrimony coming from all parts of the county to he united in marriage by him. He left a record showing that he had joined in wedlock more than 1,200 couples. His wife died March 26, 1895, and he did not long survive her, dying July 11, 1895. Both are buried in South Mound Cemetery, New Castle.
SETH S. BENNETT was the "learned blacksmith." During the Civil War he lived in Laporte County, entering the army from there. After the close of the war he moved again to Henry County, settling at Ogden, where he followed his trade. He was a man of argumentative disposition and possessed of much general information. Aside from preaching on Sunday and on other occasions while working at his trade he took an ac- tive part on the stump in all political campaigns, having been an ardent Republican. He was a great advocate of George W. Julian during the latter's Congressional career. During his second term as auditor, in 1874. he married Isabella, sister of David W. Cham- bers. After his term of office expired he moved to Enterprise, Volusia County, Florida, where he died of yellow fever November 20, 1887. his wife dying ten days later of the same disease. Both are buried in Florida.
WILLIAM W. COTTERAL was a resident of Middletown for many years prior to his election as county auditor. While there he was respectively merchant, postmaster and railroad agent. His wife was a daughter of Chauncey H. Burr, one of the oldest, most progressive and most highly esteemed citizens of Middletown and one of the original incorporators of the town, for many years a justice of the peace there. She was also the aunt of the present sheriff of the county. Mr. Cotteral during his term as auditor was a member of the State Board of Agriculture and clerk to the board. Soon after his
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term of office expired he moved to Garden City, Finney County, Kansas, where he resided for some time, later removing to Guthrie, Logan County, Oklahoma, where he now lives and where his son, John H., is a leading attorney.
JOSHUA I. MORRIS is a resident of New Castle. Elsewhere in this History, in con- nection with a biographical sketch of his brother, Judge John M. Morris, will be found full biographical reference to the entire Morris family.
RICHMOND WISEHART is a member of the well-known family of that name who have lived for so many years in Fall Creek Township. In Chapter XIII of this History in connection with a biographical sketch of his brother, Philander Wisehart, the first soldier from Henry County killed in the Civil War, will be found full biographical reference to the Wisehart family. He has recently moved to Pasadena, California.
MARK DAVIS was born December 1, 1851, in a log cabin on the farm four miles north of New Castle. His parents were Aquilla and Linna ( Harvey) Davis, splendid types of early settlers of Henry County. Mark first attended the primitive school at Hillsboro and afterward pursued his studies in the graded academy at New Castle. In 1872 he went to Salina City, California, near San Francisco, and while there took a thorough course in Heald's Business College, San Francisco. He returned to the old Henry County farm in 1874 and in that year married Miss Jennie Allender, a most estimable young lady, daughter of a prominent pioneer family of Hillsboro. They continued to reside on the farm until 1879 when Mark moved his family to New Castle and engaged in the grain business with Davis and Loer, where he remained for two years. He then associated himself with the late Peter P. Rifner in the grain business at Mount Summit for two years. Returning to New Castle he established a grocery store on East Broad Street which he conducted for several years. While thus engaged he was elected Trustee of Henry Township, which office he filled to the entire satisfaction of the people for five years. Richmond Wisehart selected him as deputy during his incumbency of the office and later Mr. Davis was elected auditor as above noted. After he retired from that office he opened a shoe store on East Broad Street, New Castle, which is conducted by his son. Another son, Ray, is deputy under Auditor Bundy, while Mr. Davis is now serving in that capacity in the office of County Treasurer White.
JOHN M. BUNDY was born September 20, 1856, in Greensboro Township, the son of Josiah and Maria Jane Bundy, among the best known and most respected citizens of Henry County. Josiah Bundy was born in Wayne County in 1823; died in New Castle January 6, 1894. Maria Jane Bundy died in New Castle May 9, 1887. Both are buried in South Mound Cemetery. Josiah Bundy was a genial, jovial, whole-souled man, long the landlord of the Bundy hotel in New Castle. Associated with him were his sons, Charles, John M., (for one year), Frank and Orla P., and under his careful training each of the boys was fitted to assume the cares and responsibilities of honorable citizenship. After his death Frank and Orla P. assumed the management of the Bundy hotel and by their genial manner and splendid business ability the patronage has grown until it is second to none in Indiana and their names are familiar as household words to that portion of the traveling public so fortunate as to have enjoyed their hospitality. Charles is engaged in the livery business in New Castle where he enjoys a large and lucrative trade. The subject of this sketch, John M. Bundy, resided with his parents in Greensboro until about his eighth year when he accompanied them to their new home on a farm near Minneap- olis, Minnesota. There they remained for about seven years when they returned to Indi- ana and purchased a farm near and east of Spiceland. About two years afterward they moved to a farm on Flatrock in Franklin Township where they lived for six years and then settled in New Castle, having purchased the well-known hotel then known as the Taylor House, from George Hazzard, author of this History, the name of which was changed to the Bundy House. In October, 1877, John M. Bundy was married to Jennie Healey, daughter of Welborn and Huldah Healey, of Franklin Township, and grand- daughter of Jesse H. Healey, first sheriff of Henry County. They lived at the Healey homestead for about three years when they moved to Greensboro where Mr. Bundy en- gaged in the dry goods business with his brother, Lorenzo D. This partnership continued for six years when John M. went into the grocery business in the same town, being asso-
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
ciated with William S. Moffett. His first wife died in Greenshoro April 8, 1886. Two years later he was married to Adaline Reece, daughter of Absalom and Priscilla Reece. Soon thereafter they moved to Knightstown and he became clerk in the clothing store of Carroll and Barker of that town where he remained for ahout eleven years. Ill health compelled him to retire from that business and a year later, in 1902, he was elected auditor of the county. While engaged in business in Greensboro he was elected to the office of Trustee of Greensboro Township, the duties of which he discharged to the com- plete satisfaction of his constituents from 1886 to 1890. Since taking charge of the auditor's office he has shown great capability in conducting that intricate branch of the county's financial affairs, coupled with an affable and obliging disposition which renders it a pleasure for those who have business to transact there. In the management of the office he is ably assisted by two very competent lieutenants, Charles W. Vuncannon and Ray Davis, deputy auditors.
COUNTY RECORDER.
While the earliest records in the recorder's office were kept with precision so far as the recording of instruments was concerned, yet they were not kept so as to indicate pre- cisely when Rene Julian, county clerk, ceased to act as recorder ex-officio, and when Thomas Ginn, the first elected county recorder, assumed the duties of the office. The constitutional term of the office being seven years, and Ginn having been succeeded by Dr. Joel Reed August 14, 1834, the presumption is that Ginn was elected and authorized to hegin the duties of the office in August, 1827, thus giving him a full term of seven years. The office was not at that time regarded as a valuable one, its duties being considered rather as a burden and as taking one from his other vocations. Probably Ginn, having heen elected as stated, neglected to assume the duties of the office until the death of County Clerk Julian, August 9, 1828, which was considered as being an opportune time to begin. The preponderance of the record seems to show that Julian acted as recorder ex-officio until his death. For the reasons above related the date when Ginn began as recorder of the county is left blank. The term of this office under the new constitution was reduced to four years. No man other than a Whig or Republican, with the possible exception of Thomas Ginn, ever filled the office.
RECORDERS.
Rene Julian, county clerk and ex officio recorder, commissioned from July 5, 1822, to July 5, 1829; died in office August 9, 1828.
Thomas Ginn, commissioned from -
to August 14, 1834.
Joel Reed, commissioned from August 14, 1834, to August 14, 1841.
James A. McMeans, commissioned from August 14, 1841, to August 14, 1848; re- elected and commissioned from August 21, 1848, to August 21, 1855; re-elected and com- missioned from August 21, 1855, to August 21, 1859.
Butler Hubbard, commissioned from August 21, 1859, to August 21, 1863; re-elected and commissioned from August 21, 1863. to August 21, 1867.
Enos Bond, commissioned from August 21, 1867, to August 21, 1871; died in office April 28, 1868.
Butler Huhhard, appointed vice Enos Bond, deceased, serving from April 28, 1868, to October 27, 1868.
Levi Bond, commissioned from October 28, 1868. to October 28, 1872.
Milton Brown, Sr., commissioned from October 28, 1872, to October 28, 1876; died in office May 12, 1876.
Milton Brown, Jr., appointed to fill the unexpired term of his father, serving to October 31, 1876.
Thomas B. Reeder, commissioned from October 31, 1876, to October 31, 1880.
James T. J. Hazelrigg, commissioned from October 31, 1880, to October 31, 1884: died in office September 27, 1884.
Thomas H. Hazelrigg, appointed vice James T. J. Hazelrigg, his uncle, deceased, serving to October 31, 1884.
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
Jonathan C. Boone, commissioned from October 31. 1884, to October 31, 1888.
Richard J. Edleman, commissioned from October 31, 1888, to October 31, 1892.
William B. Bock, commissioned from October 31, 1892, to October 31, 1896.
Hoy Bock, appointed October 31. 1896, serving to November 15, 1896. This ap- pointment was rendered necessary from the fact that Daniel Neff, who was elected and commissioned to serve from October 31. 1896, to October 31, 1900, died May 30, 1895, before entering upon the duties of his office.
Mark M. Morris, commissioned from November 15, 1896, to November 15, 1900.
Adam V. Harter, commissioned to serve from November 15, 1900, to November 15, 1904; died in office Decemher 4, 1904. By a change in the law his successor was not commissioned until January 1, 1905.
Floyd Elliott, appointed vice Adam V. Harter, deceased, serving from December 5, 1904. to January 1, 1905.
Thomas W. Gronendyke, commissioned from January 1. 1905, to January 1, 1909; present incumbent.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
The foregoing facts regarding county recorders show that there has been quite a relationship sustained between some of the respective incumbents of the office. Enos Bond, who died in office, was a brother of Levi Bond, who succeeded to the office sub- sequent to the appointment of Butler Hubbard. Milton Brown, Sr., was succeeded by his son, Milton Brown, Jr. James T. J. Hazelrigg was succeeded by his nephew. Thomas H. Hazelrigg. William B. Bock was succeeded by his son, Hoy Bock. Adam V. Harter, the last recorder to die in office, was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Floyd Elliott.
James A. McMeans held the office in all eighteen years; two terms, fourteen years, under the old constitution and one term, four years, under the constitution of 1851. Butler Hubbard held the office three terms, twice by election and once by appointment.
There seems to have been a great fatality connected with this office, as five of the incumbents died during their term of office -- Rene Julian (recorder ex officio), Enos Bond, Milton Brown, Sr., James T. J. Hazelrigg and Adam V. Harter, and Daniel Neff. who was elected and commissioned, died before assuming the duties of the office.
Enos Bond, Levi Bond, Thomas B. Reeder, James T. J. Hazelrigg, Richard J. Edle- man, William B. Bock, Mark M. Morris and Thomas W. Gronendyke were soldiers in the Civil War whose respective services will be found appropriately set out elsewhere in this History.
Three recorders, Rene Julian, Thomas Ginn and Milton Brown, Jr., respectively, filled the office of county clerk and brief biographical mention of them will be found under that head.
DR. JOEL, REED, during his long and active life was more widely known in Henry County than any other citizen. He was the prominent man and eminent physician of the county. He was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, May 15, 1796, and in early childhood moved with his parents to a farm in Warren County, Ohio, near Lebanon, where he continued to live until he reached his majority, doing his part of the farm labor and acquiring such education as he could from the ordinary schools of the community. Leaving the farm, young Reed moved to Wayne County, Indiana, where for five or six years in the winter months he taught school, thus securing some extra means with which to commence the study of medicine under Dr. Samuel W. Waldo, at Jacksonburg. Wayne County, the leading physician of that period in that section of the country. He remained with Dr. Waldo for three years, assisting his preceptor in the practise of his profession, and, in 1826, moved to New Castle, where he remained until his death, February 17, 1869.
In 1830, Dr. Reed purchased of Asahel Woodward and Miles Murphey the two lots in New Castle, beginning with the present Wayman block, fronting ou East Broad Street, and extending one hundred and sixty five feet, one half the distance from Fourteenth to Fifteenth streets, for sixty dollars. On this corner Dr. Reed built
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
a log cahin and lived there until 1837, when he built in its stead a two-story frame edifice, which at the time was considered one of the most pretentious dwellings in New Castle. About that time he also built just east of his residence a one-story house containing two offices, one of which he used for his "doctor shop" during the remainder of his life. A Chinese laundry now occupies one of these rooms and a millinery store the other. These two lots are now worth, unimproved, two hundred and fifty dollars a front foot. .
As a physician, Dr. Reed was eminently successful. His practise in the early period was almost co-extensive with the county. He never failed to respond to a call for his services, if able for duty, and it is impossible to adequately describe the labor, fatigue and exposure he endured in the discharge of his professional duties. More than this, as has been aptly said by one who knew him well during all of his life: "Dr. Reed was never known to inquire whether his patients were able to pay and in his practise of more than forty years never enforced payment in a single in- stance."
Dr. Reed was, in the Autumn of 1827, united in marriage-with Emeline Jobs. She was born September 9, 1808, and died February 17, 1862. To them were horn two children: Loring Waldo, horn September 21, 1828, died at Greencastle, Indiana, May 10, 1848; Miles Listen, born February 6, 1831, died April 6, 1901.
Notwithstanding Dr. Reed's almost constant duty as a practising physician, he found time to consider local, State and National affairs and hecame subsequently a prominent factor in the politics of the county. He was elected Recorder and served as above stated. The office during his term was located in his own office and his deputy, who performed all the duties of Recorder, was Judge Martin L. Bundy, of whom proper biographical mention is made in Chapter IX.
Following the expiration of his term as Recorder, Dr. Reed was twice elected a member of the lower house of the General Assembly, as is fully set out under that head in this History. He never after this filled any other public office, but this fact did not deter him from taking, until his death, an active, determined interest in all the questions which agitated the public mind, and especially so as relates to the period preceding, during and following the Civil War. In 1838 he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was a consistent memher until his death. He was a decided and aggressive antagonist to the evils of intemperance, and moral, upright and strictly honorable in all his dealings. For many years he was the patriarch of the physicians of the county and no man was held in higher esteem by the members of that profession. He was liberal, kind-hearted, sympathetic and rigidly adhered to the Golden Rule.
LORING WALDO REED was an excellent young man and his death just on the verge of manhood was a severe blow to his parents. He was a diligent student, having graduated at the "old seminary" in New Castle and had fairly entered upon a collegiate course at Asbury University (now De Pauw) at Greencastle, Indiana, when death claimed him.
MILES LISTEN REED obtained his early education in the "old seminary;" afterward attended Asbury University (now De Pauw) at Greencastle, Indiana, and Farmers Col- lege, on College Hill, near Cincinnati, Ohio. He subsequently read law and hegan the practise at New Castle, and was for several years district attorney of the Court of Common Pleas, as is fully shown in treating of that court elsewhere in this History. During the last year of his official life as prosecuting attorney the Civil War broke out and in September following the firing on Fort Sumter, he entered the army and served in two organizations and then served in the navy, all of which is appropriately set out elsewhere in this History. He was finally discharged at the close of the war and returned to his home in New Castle, where he resumed the practise of the law. Henry County sent no more gallant soldier to the front than Miles Listen Reed. His service in three enlistments covered nearly the entire period of the conflict and he was always at the front. Shortly after the close of the war Mr. Reed was appointed United States Assessor of Internal Revenue for Henry County, and afterward was for
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
a short time employed as a clerk in the pension office at Washington City. He spent two years (1872-3) under an appointment from the government as a teacher in the Ponca tribe of Indians in the then territory of Dakota. In 1881 he founded the Rich- mond (Indiana) Enquirer, which he conducted for ahout fifteen months, at the expira- tion of which time he disposed of the plant and once more resumed the practise of his profession in New Castle. Subsequently he purchased the New Castle Democrat and successfully published that paper for several years. He was married at Centreville, Wayne County, Indiana. January 17, 1856, to Catharine Woods. She was the daughter of James and Harriet Woods, pioneers of Wayne County, and was born August 16, 1832; died June 26, 1858. Catharine ( Woods) Reed was an accomplished woman, highly educated and a successful teacher of music. They were the parents of two children, Loring, (deceased), and Gertrude, now Mrs. William Beard, of Dayton, Ohio. Mr. Reed was again married, at New Castle, January 1, 1868, to Jerusha Lawhead. She still survives and is now residing at New Castle. They had one child, Laura, now the widow of Banning Lake. Mrs. Lake is an accomplished music teacher and. while pursuing her profession makes her home with her mother. All of the foregoing who are deceased, except Miles L. Reed, his son Loring, and Mr. Lake, are buried in the old cemetery at New Castle. Miles L. is buried in South Mound Cemetery, his son Loring in Lawrence County, Indiana, where he died, and Banning Lake is buried at LaFayette, Alabama, where he died May 11, 1900.
JAMES A. McMEANS was a son of Thomas E. McMeans, a native of Tennessee, who came to Union County, Indiana, in 1819, and being a man of affairs served as sheriff of that county. In 1834 he moved to Henry County with his family and settled in Franklin Township. James A. and his twin brother, Nathaniel, were born in Union County about the year 1819. The other children were Laban, Marshall E., Elliott, Alfred L., Seldon R. and Edghill B., and two daughters, Emily, afterward Mrs. Hugh Rogers, and Lunissa, afterward Mrs. Scott, whose son, James M., was a soldier in Company G, Eighty Fourth Indiana Infantry, and was killed at the battle of Chicka- mauga, September 20, 1863. James A. McMeans married Maria, daughter of John and Ann Taylor. After his term of office expired he moved to Richmond, Wayne County, and during the Civil War was chief clerk in the office of Isaac Kinley, provost marshal for the Fifth District. After the war he sought the office of recorder of Wayne County and later moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. A few years afterward he moved to Fairbury, Jefferson County, Nebraska, where for the remainder of his life he kept hotel, and where he died and is buried. His widow survived him many years, dying within the past year in California. Mr. MeMeans was born July 25, 1819.
BUTLER HUBBARD at the time of his election lived in Knightstown, where he had been a resident for many years, following the trade of harness maker. He was a member of the lower house of the General Assembly, serving in the thirty fifth regular session, 1850, having as his colleague the late Russell Jordan, of Stony Creek Township. He was a genial, companionable man, well educated and possessed of a great sense of humor. He had several daughters and one son, Horace G., now and for many years past connected with the Cincinnati Times Star. Butler Hubbard and his wife continued to reside in New Castle until their deaths.
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