USA > Indiana > Henry County > Hazzard's history of Henry county, Indiana, 1822-1906, Volume II > Part 70
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOHN CRAIG HUDELSON.
FARMER, COUNTY OFFICIAL AND RAILROAD PROMOTER.
The genealogical record of the John Craig Hudelson, branch of the large Henry County family of that name is very incomplete. It is, however, historically correct that Mr. Hudelson's grandfather, John Hudelson, was a native of Pennsylvania, that he was a soldier of the Revolutionary War and that he lost an arm while in the service of his country. There is no record of the birth or death of either of his grandparents, nor of the time of their leaving Pennsylvania and moving into Kentucky. Their remains are buried in the last named State. They were the parents of five sons: David, Samuel, Vi liam, James, Alexander, the next to the last named being the father of the subject ut P .s sketch.
James Hudelson, the father, was born in Kentucky, and Esther (Craig) Hudelson, the mother of John Craig Hudelson, was born in Tennessee, the former in 1788 and the latter in 1797. They left Kentucky in 1831 and came to Indiana, where they settled near what is now the village of Ogden, in the southwestern part of Henry County, on the line between Henry and Rush counties. Within twenty days after their arrival in the new country, the father was stricken with typhoid fever and died and was buried near the pioneer home in a special grave, there being at that time no grave yard or cemetery in the settlement. His widow survived him many years, dying in 1879. She is buried in Shilon Cemetery, Rush County, Indiana. They were the parents of eight children, five boys and three girls, as follows: Mary; John C., the subject of this sketch; Jane; Wil- liam; James; Samuel; Elizabeth; and David. John C. is the sole survivor of the family.
In answer to questions relating to the condition of the country in 1831, John C. Hudelson says: "It was nothing but a vast forest, no roads, hardly a foot path, no farms, no improvements, no nothing of a civilized character other than an occasional cabin and a bit of clearing." Those old pioneers must have been a rugged race, strong of arm and stout of heart to penetrate the wilderness, braving a thousands dangers to carve out homes for themselves in those vast forests hitherto given over to savage animals and still more savage men.
JOHN CRAIG HUDELSON.
Amid such surroundings, the fatherless found themselves. A grand and courageous woman must the mother of the bereaved family have been to face a future in the wilderness with no one to provide for them. Upon John C., the eldest son, then a lad only eleven years of age, fell a large share of the burden. He manfully took hold of affairs and the combined efforts of the family established a permanent home, cleared the land and rendered it productive. He was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, August 24, 1820, and came to Henry County with his parents as above stated. He remained on the farm until he was twenty-seven years of age. In 1843, however, he met with an accident which unfitted him for the physical labors of the farm. Near Mt. Healthy, Ohio, six miles from Cincinnati, while driving with a friend on the way to Kentucky to visit the old home, the horse became frightened by a sharp flash of lightening and loud clap of thunder and whirled about, overturning the buggy which rolled down the hillside until it lodged against a fence. Mr. Hudelson's ankle was broken but fortunately the scene of the acci- dent was near the home of Alice and Phoebe Carey, the well known poet sisters, to which he was carried and where for three or four weeks he was cared for until able to return to his home. The tender care and faithful nursing which he received at "Clover Nook," as the home of the Carey sisters was named, has ever been one of his most cherished memories.
This accident resulted in his quitting the farm after which he for a time drove a team for himself and others. He also engaged in other enterprises among them being a speculation in dried peaches which he purchased in large quantities in Eastern Indiana and peddled through the northern and western parts of the State. The venture proved successful and the profits of his first and probably only trip were sufficient to purchase a suit of clothes much more stylish than the home made jeans he had hitherto worn.
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
His education had suffered because of the necessarily imposed labors of his child- hood and youth, and always remained limited. Referring to the fact that he had been elected justice of the peace, he himself says in his memoirs that "it was a question with me whether to accept the position because of my deficiency in book learning." He managed, however, to learn to read and write and to obtain a knowledge of the primary rules of arithmetic. But his deficiencies in this respect were counterbalanced by keen observation and strong common sense.
While a justice of the peace, he was nominated in 1847 by the Whig party and elected Treasurer of Henry County. He was re-elected in 1850, thus serving two terms of three years each. His election to office necessitated his removal from the farm to New Castle, the county seat, where he has resided continuously to the present time, except a few years spent on his farm southwest of that place. When he assumed the duties of the treasurer's office, he was a young unmarried man. He speedily made the acquaintance of the citizens of the town and the people of the county, and his genial nature, suave deportment and polite speech presently made him the most popular young man in the community. He took "board and lodging" with James Calvert at that time, the land- lord of the Exchange Hotel, which stood on the corner now occupied by the Citizens' State Bank. He made a competent and satisfactory treasurer and retired from the office with, what was in that day, a competency.
After serving the people of Henry County as treasurer for six years, he was in 1853 appointed paymaster of that portion of the Cincinnati, Logansport and Chicago railroad, then under construction, extending from Richmond to Logansport. This road afterwards became the Panhandle branch of the great Pennsylvania System and is now classed under the head of the "Pennsylvania lines." Mr. Hudelson's duties as paymaster carried him from Martindale Creek, in Wayne County, to Sulphur Springs, in Henry County. Upon the completion of the road in 1853-4, he was employed as a conductor and was the first to take a train across Blue River, north of New Castle, in April, 1854. He took a great interest in the building of the road and had so great faith in its future that he and a number of his friends took a large amount of stock, afterwards merged into the bonds of the road, all of which within a few years became valueless. Mr. Hudelson held ten thousand dollars of these worthless bonds and the loss was a severe blow to him.
From a publication issued by George P. Emswiler, of Richmond, Indiana, in 1897, the following with regard to the Panhandle road as it was in 1853-4 is gleaned:
"The first engine that ever ran over the road was called the 'Swinette.' * * It
had no pilot or cow-catcher in front like the engines of to day. No coal was used in firing an engine in those days, wood only being the fuel. The smokestack on the Swinette was a very large affair, spreading out at the top with a large seive covering it to let the sparks and ashes escape. The Swinette coming down the road * *
* at night, when she was steamed and her firebox stuffed with dry wood * * * left a string of fire coals stream- ing over her back like the tail of a comet. Painted on her sides was a picture of a man with a pig under his arm, the tail of the pig in his mouth, and the music was invoked, from grunt, basso profundi, to high C, by the strength of the bite inflicted on the tail of his pigship. The Swinette had a twin sister, the Julia Dean. It was, if anything, smaller than the Swinette and as she came sailing along looked like a sugar trough with a stovepipe stuck up in the center of it. If either of these engines ever struck a cow or the track it was simply a question of which went into the ditch. * * * Every town of any Importance along the road had an engine named for it. There were the New Castle, the Logansport, the Anderson and the Chicago. These were all handsome engines for the day, but the best of all of them was the "Old Hoosier." She was the favorite of all the engineers who ever traveled the road.
"John Smock was the first engineer who ever ran an engine on the road.
Smock was a terrible swearer and it is said could curse the old Swinette until it would begin to move without fire, water or steam. Among the early engineers on the road was a man named Skinner. He for several years ran the old Chicago, a monster engine for that day. He also could swear making the air blue, if anything went wrong." The arti- cle goes on to say that "Tom Clark was the first conductor on the road * * He * knew everybody and everybody knew him. He swore, chewed tobacco, drank good liquor
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
and had a good time generally. * * * There was only one train each way from Richmond to Anderson then. Tom Clark was the only conductor and ran the whole business."
"Then came John C. Hudelson, Charley Lincoln and Elijah Holland, of New Castle. 'Lige' always wore a blue cloth, spiketail coat with brass buttons. * * Then * there were Charley Muchmore, Billy Patterson, a man named Bogart, and others whose names are forgotten." Continuing the article says: "John C. Hudelson is still living (1897) a retired life in New Castle and is one of the largest landowners in Henry County. He has acres and acres of Blue River bottom land that one can see as he nears New Castle on the Panhandle train. It looks like the garden of Eden." Again re- ferring to the "Old Hoosier" it should be stated that "Mark Smith was the engineer who handled her throttle. He was as much a favorite as was his engine. Every man, woman and child on the road knew Mark Smith and loved him. The 'Hoosier' had a whistle that outwhistled all others. People used to say that her whistle, when thrown wide open, would shake the beech nuts off the trees along the road. There are those now living who will remember Mark Smith, John Smock, Tom Clark, Charley Lincoln, whose widow still lives in Richmond, Billy Patterson, Elijah Holland and Charley Muchmore."
From his early youth to within the last few years, Mr. Hudelson has always been interested in political affairs. As a Whig, though too young at the time to vote, he did acceptable work in the campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," in 1840, and in 1844 he cast his first presidential vote for the Whig candidate, Henry Clay, who, however, failed of election. This campaign left the party in a weakened condition from which it never recovered. The defeat and final extinction of the old Whig party grieved its many adherents beyond expression. Its chief mourners were such great men as Webster, Clay, Lincoln, Greeley, Seward, John Sherman, Thomas Corwin, Caleh B. Smith, and hundreds of others who had rendered it loyal and willing service. But its mission was ended and from its ashes arose the Republican party which since 1861 has for the most part domi- nated the affairs of the country.
The doom of the Whig party was foreseen as early as 1852 and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill by Congress which repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was the final blow. Mr. Hudelson was chairman of the Henry County Whig Central Commit- tee in 1854 and with an eye to the inevitable offered a resolution to postpone the conven- tion of that year and await developments. The resolution as he relates "was greeted with groans and hisses and cries of 'traitor, traitor, carry him out,' and so on. The resolu- tion was voted down and a full Whig ticket for the county offices was nominated." Mat- ters moved even more rapidly than he had anticipated. The Indiana Whig members of Congress said, "We must now combine all elements that oppose the further extension of slavery into one great party to resist the common peril." On that basis a State conven- tion was called and the new party which was the forerunner of the Republican party, was organized and temporarily known as the "People's party." It was made up of Whigs, Anti- slavery Democrats, Free Soilers and old-time Abolitionists. The year 1854 was conse- quently one of great political uphcaval. Mr. Hudelson was still in the railroad service but he had kept steadily in touch with the politics of the county and State, and as a result of the advanced stand he had taken on the questions then agitating the public mind, he was in 1855 nominated by the new People's party and elected Clerk of the Henry Circuit Court. He was clerk from November 1, 1855 to November 1, 1859, and fiilled the position most satisfactorily to the public.
In 1856 Mr. Hudelson assisted in the organization of the Republican party and was an ardent supporter of Fremont and Dayton, the first national standard bearers of the new party. He wrote, talked and made formal speeches favoring the principles of the party and laid special stress upon that part of the platform which advocated the rescue of Kansas and all other territories from the grasp of the slave power. In this campaign, while traveling in the southern part of the county, on a political mission, he received a serious injury in a railroad accident which resulted in the amputation of his lame leg.
His allegiance to the Republican party continued until long after the Civil War and he has always been a warm admirer of the immortal Lincoln. His first difference with his party arose over its financial policies and he joined the short-lived Greenback or Fiat-
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
Money party. He afterwards joined the Granger or People's party and when that organiza- tion was relegated to the graveyard of political parties, he became a Prohibitionist and subsequently a "Free Silverite" under the leadership of William Jennings Bryan. During the preparation of this sketch of himself, when questioned as to his opinion of the present- day policies of the Government, he replied: "I have been delighted with the conduct and policy of the Government as it is now administered hy President Theodore Roosevelt." He has always been actuated by principle in his political conduct and has exercised an independence as rare as it is commendable.
John Craig Hudelson has always been a very busy man. Early in life he determined upon farming as his vocation and as soon as able hegan to buy land. His first purchase consisted of two hundred and forty five acres, two and a half miles southwest of New Cas- tle, where he lived with his family for fifteen years. Since that time he has lived in New Castle. This farm is a fine one, well improved and highly cultivated. It is now occupied by Mr. Hudelson's third son, William Elliott (Ella) Hudelson and family. He next bought of Jacob Shopp what was known as the Thomas Henderson farm, two miles north of New Castle, on the Little Blue River. To this he has added the John Newcomer, the Samuel Hedrick, and a part of the Rufus Mellett farms, comprising in all five hundred and eighty five acres. Assisted hy his fourth son, Charles Treat Hudelson, he gives to this farm his close personal attention, in the busy season going to it early in the morning from his home in town and returning late at night. The farm is in the great Blue River Valley amid scenes of rare agricultural beauty. The two farms embrace eight hundred and thirty acres of which more than five hundred are under cultivation. Mr. Hudelson is not financially interested in the numerous industrial enterprises of the day. He is a practical farmer and finds enough to do in keeping abreast of the improved methods of the day in cultivation of the land. He also pays much attention to stock raising, especially cattle and hogs.
John C. Hudelson is the oldest living member of New Castle Lodge, Number 91, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and in 1903 was tendered a reception by the lodge in honor of his connection with it of more than fifty years, hut at that time he was physically unable to be present and was represented hy his son, John C. Hudelson, junior. He warmly indorses the principles of the order which he believes go hand in hand with his duties to the church. He is a communicant of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is a generous supporter of that denomination and a liberal but unostentatious contributor to its charities.
For nearly seventy five years he has been a resident of Henry County and is one of the very few pioneers left to tell the story of its early settlement. There is probably no man in the county who has been more conspicuous in its history. He has always been a man of great industry and perseverance and now oppressed hy the weight of years, he remains as industrious, careful and persevering as in his younger days. He is of a positive nature, independent in thought and action, and a man of singular fortitude. The rains of Summer and the snows of Winter may descend but he is not dismayed; he welcomes the sun but fails to see disaster in the clouds; slight of build and apparently not strong physically, he is, nevertheless, fearless of exposure and intent only upon finishing the business to which he may have set his hand.
Ou July 7, 1859, John Craig Hudelson was united in marriage with Amanda Vir- ginia Black, daughter of Mrs. Jane Black, the ceremony being performed in the Method- ist Episcopal Church by the Reverend James S. Ferris. They became the parents of four sons, as follows: James B., horn in New Castle, April 20, 1860; died January 4, 1870; John C., junior, born in Henry County, July 4, 1865; William Elliott (Ella) and Charles Treat, twins, born in Henry County, October 7, 1871. James B. was a bright and promising lad and his death was a severe blow to his parents. John C., junior, has been for a number of years a resident of Trinidad, Colorado, where he is cashier of the First National Bank and where he enjoys the confidence and esteem of the entire community. His wife, Kitty, to whom he was married August 19, 1886, hy the Reverend James H. Ford, is a native of New Castle. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Harrison. They have one child, a daughter, named Bessie Gay, who is now a charming young woman, eighteen years of age. Mrs. Harrison is now a widow. She was the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Mowrer and resides in New Castle.
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
William Elliott Hudelson, hetter known as "Ella," was united in marriage with Pearl, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gilliam L. Craven, of New Castle, October 12, 1892, by the Reverend Charles H. Brown. They are the parents of one child, Hazel Lee, nine years of age, who is a bright and winning young girl. "Ella" has charge of and resides with his family on the farm southwest of New Castle.
Charles Treat Hudelson was married February 22, 1893, to Bessie W., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Fisher, of Henry County, the ceremony being performed by the Reverend Charles H. Brown. They are the parents of five children, namely: Gladys May, Alice Amanda, Howard, John F. and Esther Marie. The family reside in the old Black homestead, which has been so long a landmark at the south end of Main street, New Castle. John C. Hudelson, the father, makes his home with this son, and it is from here that he manages his big farm north of the town.
ANCESTRY OF MRS. JOHN C. (BLACK) HUDELSON.
Mrs. John C. Hudelson, born Amanda Victoria Black, was the daughter of James and Jane (Elliott) Black. She was born at Laporte, Indiana, September 6, 1836, where her father was engaged in the tanning business. James Black, her father, was born at Staun- ton, Virginia, November 20, 1808, and died at Laporte, August 5, 1849. Her mother, who was horn May 10, 1819, was a sister of the late Judge Jehu T. Elliott, of New Castle, and after the death of her hushand she moved with her family to that town where she resided with her family until her own death which occurred September 7, 1864. The children of James and Jane ( Elliott) Black were Amanda V., Nathaniel Elliott (Ella) and Kate J. The last named is the widow of the late Edghill B. McMeans, who died September 1, 1899. They had no children and since the death of her hushand, whose memory will always he very dear to her, she has resided alone in her beautiful home in New Castle.
Nathaniel Elliott (Ella) Black was for a number of years one of the most energetic and successful business men of New Castle and Henry County. He was born with the trading instinct and was far-seeing and prudent in husiness matters and always ready to grasp opportunity as it came. He was a man of genial disposition, a good story-teller, and held his friends with hooks of steel. He died in September, 1890. His wife was Esther, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Kinsey. She was a woman of esti- mable character who did not long survive her husband but died in February, 1893. They were the parents of two children, namely: Josie, a sweet and lovable child, who died April 22, 1882; and Georgia, who is now Mrs. Herhert H. Hadley, of Indianapolis. She is a charming woman and is devoted to her husband and their children-Elliott Black, Harlan H. and Charles Austin.
Amanda V. (Black) Hudelson was a woman of fine mind, a thoroughly educated and accomplished teacher, and an earnest Christian. At the age of sixteen years, she joined the Methodist Episcopal Church and all of her beautiful life rendered heartfelt devotion to the great truths of religion. She was the life and light of a home rendered delightful hy her presence and care. Her death deprived her husband of a source of inspiration and her children of a surpassing affection.
Her remains together with those of her family who are deceased are buried in South Mound Cemetery, New Castle, where from year to year sweet flowers are scattered in their memory.
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF LEVI ALLEN JENNINGS.
MANUFACTURER, MERCHANT AND LEADING CITIZEN.
The industrial methods practiced in Henry County, until after the Civil War, were those of the small shop or local factory of limited capacity. The pioneer in the larger field of modern manufacturing was a young man from Ashland, Ohio, named Levi Allen Jennings, who came to New Castle in 1867 and began business in a modest and unobtru- sive way. His initial step was the purchase of an interest in a saw mill for the cutting of the native hardwood and other timber into lumber for building and manufacturing purposes, and, under his lead, the firm of which he had thus become a part also engaged, somewhat tentatively, in the general lumber trade. A few months' experience convinced Mr. Jennings that there was a good field for the lumber, sash, door, blind and general building material trade in New Castle and the surrounding territory.
With this idea in mind, he began buying out his partners, who were too thoroughly grounded in the pioneer way of doing things to adopt his progressive ideas; and in a short time he had secured the entire business and began its expansion into the large and remun- erative trade which he has conducted for so many years and to certain branches of which he is, in the afternoon of life, still devoting his energies. He did not attempt to accomplish this at a single bound or by the short cut of doubtful speculations, often leading to financial ruin, but by studying carefully every phase of the question and then by applying to its execution, the most persistent industry. He pushed his undertakings to success by a series of rapid movements while others were prophesying failure, yet he never lost sight of those sound business principles which are so often forgotten or ignored by men of impulsive natures. It has been tbis close union of care and push that has won for him his splendid success and given him the honorable title of "father of Henry County's Industries."
Levi Allen Jennings was the son of Obadiah and Mary Jennings, of Wayne County, Ohio, who afterwards moved to New Castle, Indiana, where they both died, Mr. Jenning's mother going first and his father a few years later, and their ashes lie in South Mound Cemetery. His paternal ancestors were English and his maternal ancestors were Penn- sylvania Dutch. Obadiah and Mary Jennings were both born in Pennsylvania and lived there until their marriage. At an early day thereafter they left Pennsylvania and, braving the dangers of the journey across the Alleghanies, came with all their moveable property in a one horse wagon into the wild woods of Central Ohio to open a farm in th wilderness, where their son, Levi Allen Jennings, was born May 6, 1834.
In this new land he grew up amid the rude surroundings of the log cabin pe Jd and was from early boyhood inured to the struggles and privations of the pioneers of the Central West. While these bred in him a certain spirit of discontent and a longing for larger opportunities, they were of inestimable value in teaching him the wise lessons of industry, economy and patient effort. Not content with the rudimentary education furnished by the district schools, young Jennings, in the pursuit of knowledge, read by the light of the evening fire and conned his lessons as he followed the plow in the stumpy fields. The time that other boys lost in idleness or doubtful pleasures, he spent in self-im- provement and he was soon so well grounded in the essentials that he was admitted with the consent of his parents to the college at Hayesville, Ohio, where by working mornings and evenings at such tasks as he could find to do, he managed to pay his way for two terms. He then spent two years and a half at the well known high school of Ashland, Ohio, where he mastered much of the mathematical and scientific courses besides giving considerable study to the English language and literature and to Latin and Greek, but his financial needs rendered it necessary for him to leave school and engage in teaching, expecting to return after a time and complete his studies, but the link in his educational life thus broken was never welded. His school days were closed. It was during these years of his studious boyhood that he met another ambitious lad who, under similar difficulties, was eagerly seeking to pass beyond the limits of the narrow life that hedged them in. William B. Allison, afterwards United Sates Senator from Iowa, was reared upon a clear-
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