USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume II > Part 10
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Charles F. Welch was born in Washington township, Boone county,
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Indiana, October 18, 1842. He was a son of John and Nancy (Craig) Welch, the father a native of Boone county and the mother of Adams county, Ohio. He died in this county, his widow removing to Missouri where her death occurred.
Charles F. Welch was ten years old when his father died, and he went to live with his mother's people and there remained, assisting with the general work about the place and attending the district schools during the winter, un- til the breaking out of the Civil war when he enlisted in Company D, Seven- ty-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in the famous Wilder's Brigade in which he served most faithfully for three years, taking part in many import- ant campaigns and hard-fought battles and skirmishes. He was a brave and capable soldier in every respect. After he was honorably discharged from the army he returned to Boone county and worked at general farming until his marriage in Ohio in September, 1873, to Charlotte Houston, who was born in Greene county, Ohio, and who is a daughter of Matthew and Rebecca (Sharks) Houston, a highly respected family. Mrs. Welch grew to woman- hood in her native state and there received a good common school education. Soon after their marriage our subject and wife came to Washington town- ship, Boone county, and located on a farm where Mr. Welch prospered as a general farmer and stock raiser. Later selling his large farm there he bought a farm of one hundred acres just west of Thorntown and on this he lived a few years, then sold out and bought eighty acres just south of Thorntown, continuing general agricultural pursuits. specializing in raising fine live stock, until his death, which occurred July 28, 1909, since which time Mrs. Welch has made her home in Thorntown, having purchased a beautiful and modernly appointed residence here, and she is living alone. She retains her fine farm, which she keeps rented. She is a woman of many commendable traits of character and is a favorite with a wide circle of friends.
Mr. Welch was a Republican in politics and served as trustee of Wash- ington township for a period of five years, and as township assessor for seven years, discharging his official duties in an able and faithful manner. Frater- nally he was a member of the Masonic Order at Thorntown, and in his earlier life was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows .. He was a faithful member of the Presbyterian church, of which his widow is a mem- ber.
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LEANDER MEAD CRIST.
Leander Mead Crist, the eighth child and fourth son of James Weller and Mary (LaFuze) Crist, was born at Liberty, Indiana, October 23, 1837. The maternal grandparents were Samuel LaFuze and Eleanor Harper. Samuel LaFuze was born in western Pennsylvania, September 12, 1776. His father was killed at the close of 1775 at the beginning of the Revolution- ary war. Eleanor Harper was born in eastern Pennsylvania, September 5, 1777. Her father was also killed in the Revolutionary war. On the paternal line there was the blood of the Teuton, Irish and Scotch Dissenter, while on the maternal it was French and Irish.
The grandfather, George Weller Crist, was born in New Jersey, Septem- ber 20, 1770. In 1795, in his early manhood he came to Ohio and settled on the Miami river above Cincinnati. Here it was that he wooed and won a fair maiden by the name of Sarah Bell, who was born in Ireland and in her ninth year crossed the sea with her parents and settled in Ohio. 'At the very dawn of the century they were married and came to Indiana in 1812, entering and settling on land now in the corporation of Liberty, Indiana. March 16, 1844. George Weller Crist died and his wife, Sarah Bell, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. James Henry, at Laurel, Indiana, in 1864. The maternal grandparent, Eleanor (Harper) LaFuze, died February 17, 1852. Samuel LaFuze died January 11, 1863. The mother of Eleanor Harper was born in 1743, and after the death of Mr. Harper was married to Mr. Davis and died at Liberty, Indiana, 1824.
The ancestors on both paternal and maternal sides as far back as the records can be traced were Protestants. They were of true pioneer spirit, energetic, industrious and frugal.
The father of the subject of this sketch, James Weller Crist, was born in Hamilton county, Ohio. July 4, 1803, came with his parents to Indiana. in 1812, settling in what is now Union county : married March 2, 1823, to Mary LaFuze, who immediately settled in the forest. They were blest with eleven children, ten of whom were reared to manhood and womanhood. The father passed away September 14, 1859. The mother, Mary LaFuze, was born near Brownsville, Pennsylvania, March 21, 1805, and died at the home of her son, Leander M. Crist, November 6, 1890. These parents early
HON L. M CRIST
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connected themselves with the Methodist Episcopal church and their home was a pioneer church for years and the home of the circuit rider. They were also charter members of the first temperance society organized in Union county and banished the cards, cuspidor and the demijohn from the home as early as the spring of 1833. They gave to their children the best church and educational advantages that the country afforded at that early date.
Leander M. Crist assisted his father on the farm and in the mills until manhood. In the fall of 1863, he entered Asbury University (now DePauw), where he remained four years, graduating with a class of twenty-four in 1867. He then went to Lancaster, Kentucky, and taught in the male academy for three years, at the same time studying law. In 1870 he re- turned to his old home at Liberty, Indiana, and began the practice of law. His marriage took place at Liberty, October 23, 1871, to Miss Eunice M. Brown, daughter of Walter and Keziah (LaBoyteau) Brown. She was a graduate of Oxford (Ohio) College, in the class of 1867. December 2, 1872, a son was born to this union and christened Mark Brown Crist, but the joy and high hopes that came by this new tie of love, was soon shrouded in deepest gloom by the death of the young mother, February 25, 1873, in the twenty-third year of her age.
In 1875, Mr. Crist was selected as county superintendent of the public schools of Union county, Indiana, which position he held by re-election until June, 1881. June 12, 1880, Mr. Crist was married to Miss Orpha A. Gath, of Oxford, Ohio, who graduated at the Oxford (Ohio) College, in the class of 1866. She is a daughter of Samuel and Mary (Tetley) Gath, who came from Halifax, England, to this country in 1840. She was born at Oxford, Ohio, May 21, 1845. After her graduation, she entered the school work, teaching in the public schools for twelve years, and two years in the Miami Classical School at Oxford, Ohio, at the time when the coeducation was introduced into that institution.
In 1881, Mr. and Mrs. Crist moved to Thorntown, Boone county, Indi- ana, and for three years successfully conducted together the public schools in that place. In the summer of 1884, came the call for a political organiza- tion against licensed rum. Mr. and Mrs. Crist both being born with an antipathy against the drink curse, could not resist the call. On July 23,
(43)
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1884, Mr. Crist went to Indianapolis to participate in the first State Prohibi- tion Convention. He was one of five to join in a call for the first prohibition convention in Boone county, September 8, 1884. This action made it neces- sary for both to retire from public school work and from all official recogni- tion in the church; to face the opposition, innuendoes and contumely usually bestowed upon those who step out into any new line of action. He became an ardent supporter of the Prohibition cause. In 1886 he was candidate for Representative of Boone county; in 1888 delegate to the National Conven- tion at Indianapolis ;; in 1890, candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction; in 1892, delegate to the National Convention at Cincinnati, Ohio; in 1894, candidate for Congress in the Ninth Indiana District; in 1895, accompanied his wife, who was a delegate to the World's Women's Christian Temperance Union Convention in London, England; in 1896, dele- gate to the National Convention at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and candidate for Governor of Indiana, on the Prohibition ticket; in 1897-1898, chairman of the Prohibition State Committee of Indiana; in 1900, delegate to the National Convention at Indianapolis. During the years 1891-1897, inclu- sive, there was held in Mr. Crist's grove a Gospel Prohibition service every Sabbath afternoon for four months each year to advance this great cause. In 1899-1901, inclusive, the work was continued by the publication of the Twentieth Century, an eight page monthly. For the past seven years Mr. Crist has been publisher of the Thorntown Argus-Enterprise, a weekly local paper.
In addition to this work along reform lines, Mr. Crist served as director in the First National Bank at Liberty. Indiana ; secretary of a turnpike com- pany ; secretary of the Masonic Order for a long period of years ; president of the County Sunday School Association, both in Union and Boone counties. He became director of the First National Bank in Thorntown and aided in the organization of the Home National Bank of Thorntown and served as president for six years. This is a mere outline of some of the duties and responsibilities of a long active life and still more to follow.
Mark B. Crist, the son and only child of the subject of this sketch, was tutored at home until he was prepared to enter the freshman work at Purdue University, which course he finished in 1896. He then went to New York, where he for five years was engaged in practical lines along electrical and
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mechanical engineering. During this time he was married to Miss Anna Field of Dayton, Ohio. To this union five children were born, Eunice, March 25, 1901, in New York City; Floyd Field, born in Cleveland, May 5, 1902; Mary Eleanor, July 24, 1904 : Ida, January 9, 1901 ; Orpha Lee, Au- gust 17, 1912 ; all born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
L. M. Crist, though living on borrowed time, is still hale and hardy and ready for more battles along moral lines. His theme of life has been total abstinence from all things harmful and temperate in all things that are good and useful.
MADISON HALL ROSE, M. D.
The man who devotes his talents and energies to the noble work of ad- ministering to the ills and alleviating the sufferings of humanity pursues a calling which, in dignity, importance and beneficial results, is second to no other. If true to his profession and earnest in his efforts to enlarge his sphere of usefulness, he is indeed a benefactor of his kind, for to him more than any other man are entrusted the safety, the comfort and in many in- stances the lives of those who place themselves under his care and profit by his services. Of this class of professional men was the late Dr. Madison Hall Rose, for thirty-six years one of the leading general physicians of Boone county, a man who had few peers and no superiors among his professional brethren in this section of Indiana, during which period he not only gained wide notoriety in his chosen calling but established a sound reputation for uprightness and noble character in all the relations of life. He realized that to those who attain success in the medical profession there must be not only given technical ability, but also a broad human sympathy which must pass from mere sentiment to be an actuating motive for helpfulness. So he digni- fied and honored the profession by his able and self-abnegating services, in which, through long years of close application, he attained notable distinction and unqualified success. His long and useful life as one of the world's work- ers was one of devotion, almost consecration, to his vocation, and well does he merit a place of honor in every history touching upon the lives and deeds of those who have given the best of their powers and talent for aiding in the betterment of their kind. He was, in the most significant sense, humanity's
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friend, and to those familiar with his life must come a feeling of reverence in contemplating his services and their beneficial results.
Dr. Rose was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, December 2, 1832. He was a son of Charles R. and Barthena ( Perkins) Rose. The father was born in Mercer county, that state, and was a son of Lewis and Mary Rose, also natives of the Blue Grass state. Lewis Rose was taken captive by the Indians and none but his wife thought he would ever return. He used a conch shell for a signal call. He was made a slave by the red men and was securely tied at night, but he made good his escape once when the Indians were intoxicated, and rejoined his family. The Roses were among the earliest settlers of Kentucky. Lewis Rose was a man of courage and very strong convictions. He owned slaves, but was finally convinced that slavery was not right, so he set his bondsmen free. He also destroyed his barrel of whisky and became a strong advocate of temperance. The family of Barthena Perkins died when she was very young. They, too, were early settlers of the "dark and bloody ground" country.
Dr. Madison H. Rose was reared on the home farm in his native state and received his early education in the parochial school there under Rev. R. Conover, who instructed him in Latin, Greek and the classics. He later spent two years in the academy at Waveland, Indiana and one year in the junior classics at South Hanover, then began the study of medicine. He taught school to defray his expenses and borrowed books, first from Dr. H. Labaree at Ladoga. He attended his first course of lectures at the Ann Arbor School of Medicine during the winter of 1859-60, and was graduated in medicine from a school in Buffalo, New York, in the spring of 1861. In March of that year he enlisted in Company A, Fifty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in which he served his full time in the Union army and re-enlisted February 2, 1862. May 15th of that year he was commissioned assistant surgeon of his regiment, and on the same date a year later he was made sur- geon. He performed his duties very ably and faithfully, and in April, 1865, took a contract as acting staff surgeon, with the same pay as regimental sur- geon, and thus continued in that capacity until the grand review in Washing- ton City at the close of the war. He then returned to Danville, Indiana, and engaged in practice until the following autumn, 1865, when he went to New York City and took a course in the famous Bellevue Medical Hospital, re- ceiving a degree in the spring of 1866. Returning to Danville he continued
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practice there until 1869 when he came to Thorntown, Boone county and re- mained the rest of his life. He formed a partnership with Dr. J. M. Boyd, which continued six years, then was with Dr. Mendenhall eighteen months, then was in partnership with Dr. Dunnington four years, after which he prac- ticed alone. He enjoyed a wide and lucrative patronage, his name being a household word throughout the county for over a quarter of a century and he was uniformly successful. He was always a profound student, notwith- standing the fact that he was a very busy man, and he thus kept fully abreast of the times.
The death of Dr. Rose occurred December 16, 1904, after a long, useful and successful career.
Dr. Rose was twice married, first, in October, 1865, at St. Cloud, Minne- sota, to Mary Strong, who was born in Logansport, Indiana. Her death oc- curred in the spring of 1866. On December 17, 1868, the Doctor married Jane V. Hilts, who was born near Springdale, Ohio, April 25, 1846. She is a daughter of William D. and Hannah V. (Ross) Hilts. The father born February 9, 1806, in Schoharie county, New York. The mother was born March II, 1809, at Bound Brook, New Jersey. Mrs. Rose's paternal grand- parents were Anthony and Jane (Durland) Hilts, he being born in 1791. The maternal grandparents were Joseph and Jane ( Harris) Ross, he born Decem- ber 15, 1765, and she February 25, 1787. They were married June 4, 1804. Betsey Ross, who made the first American flag, was a distant relative of this family. Joseph Ross lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, when about the only building was a log fort, used to protect the few settlers from the Indians who were numerous in that locality. During the war of 1812 Anthony Hilts was noti- fied by the authorities that he would be expected to start the following morn- ing for the front. He spent the night making shoes from the hides of ani- mals, also in making a vest of red broad cloth and in molding bullets from an old Britannia tea pot. However, he did not have to go after all.
The following children were born to Dr. Rose and his second wife: Edward P., born November 28, 1869, lives in Thorntown and superintends his mother's farm; Lawrence S., born May 13, 1872, died December 25, 1901, was a soldier in the Spanish-American war, serving in Porto Rico, where he contracted a fever which ultimately resulted in his death; Dwight H., born March 6, 1874, died October 24, 1898; Eugenia V., born October 12, 1875, died March 26, 1903; Idelette E., born August 11, 1877, died April
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27, 1882; Charles William, born August 19, 1884, died May 6, 1909. Edward P. Rose, mentioned above, married Blanche M. Estes, September 17, 1908, and they have one son, Will Eugene Rose, born September 23, 1909. Since his marriage his mother, widow of our subject, has lived alone. She owns a pleasant and neatly furnished home and two hundred acres of well-improved and valuable land, constituting one of the most desirable farms in Washing- ton township, all under a high state of cultivation with the exception of thirty- five acres of timber. Mrs. Rose is a lady of pleasing personality, cultured, genial, affable and her cozy home is the mecca for her many friends. Her parents moved to Bloomington, Illinois, about 1856, where she was educated in the Bloomington Female Seminary, and it was in that city that she was married.
Politically, Dr. Rose was an ardent Republican and was influential in local political affairs, although never cared for office in view of his extensive practice taking all his time. He was a devout member of the Presbyterian church. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and be- longed to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Thorntown. Personally, he was a genteel gentleman, companionable, charitable, broad-minded and a pleasant man to know, meriting in every respect the high esteem that was universally accorded him by all classes.
LEWIS C. RILEY.
The history of Boone county, Indiana, is not a very old one as compared with other parts of the world. It is the record of the steady growth of a community planted in the wilderness two-thirds of a century ago and has reached its magnitude of today without other aids than those of industry. The people who redeemed it from the primitive wilds were strong-armed, hardy sons of the soil who hesitated at no difficulty and for whom hardships had little to appal. The early pioneers, having blazed the path of civilization to this part of the state, finished their labors, and many of them have passed from the scene, leaving the county to the possession of their descendants and to others who came at a later period and built on the foundation which they laid so broad and deep. The Riley family is of this type and its members
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have played no inconspicuous part in the upbuilding of a portion of this county, a very creditable representative of the present generation being Lewis C. Riley, who was born and reared here and who has spent much of his life in this locality, having done what he could to develop and advertise to the world its wonderful resources. He is one of the most widely-known mill men in this part of Indiana, for many years operating sawmills at various places, but now is engaged in the planing mill and lumber business in Thorn- town.
Mr. Riley was born in Marion township, this county, in September, 1844. He is a son of James and Matilda (Garrett) Riley, the former a native of Kentucky, and the latter of Putnam county, Indiana. The death of the father occurred in Kentucky. The maternal grandparents, Reason and Margaret Garrett, were both natives of Kentucky. The parents of our sub- ject were married in Putnam county, Indiana, and they came to Boone county about 1838 among the early settlers, and located on a farm in Marion town- ship. There the elder Riley developed a good farm and lived on it for a period of twenty years, later moving to Washington township, this county, where his death occurred, after which his widow moved to Thorntown, where she lived until her death. They were the parents of the following children : Caroline, now deceased, was the wife of Josiah Harrison; Lewis C., of this sketch; Mary Ann, now deceased, was the wife of John R. Hardesty; Jasper J. is deceased ; Lucy C., who was the wife of William A. Buntin, is deceased.
Lewis C. Riley was educated in the district schools, and he lived at home until his marriage, April 4, 1867, to Martha E. Reagan, who was born in Clinton county, Indiana, and is a daughter of Baxley and Sarah A. (Hodgen) Baxley, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Clinton county, Indiana. Her parents were from Kentucky. After his marriage our sub- ject began housekeeping on a farm in Washington township on rented land, and after living there one season moved to Mechanicsburg and started a gen- eral merchadise business which he continued for nearly five years, then sold out and returned to Washington township and lived on a farm one year there, then moved to another farm in the same township, then began working at the sawmill business which he continued two and one-half years there, then moved his mill to Vermilion county, Illinois, where he remained two years, later moved to Danville, that state and operated a sawmill four years, then came to Clinton township, Boone county, Indiana, on a farm, purchasing
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a farm of improved land, consisting of one hundred and eight acres, which he operated for two years, then rented it and moved to Thorntown, bought a sawmill which he conducted four years, sold out and in 1892 bought into a planing mill here and this he has continued to the present time, adding to and enlarging the plant until he has one of the largest and best equipped mills of its kind in this part of the state, and is doing a large and constantly grow- ing business. He also conducts an extensive lumber business in connection with the mill. He has been very successful in all his varied business ventures and is now one of the strong men, financially, in the township. He has a commodious and well-furnished home in Thorntown.
To Mr. and Mrs. Riley the following children were born: Perry is operating a lumber-yard for his father at Whitestown; Nathan is manager of his father's mill and lumber business in Thorntown. They are both young men of much business ability and are making good.
Politically, Mr. Riley is a Republican. He has served three terms on the town board. Fraternally, he belongs to the Masons and the Knights of Pythias of Thorntown. He is an active member of the Christian church and has been a member of the official board since 1906.
GEORGE HUNT HARTING.
To a great extent the prosperity of the agricultural sections of our great country is due to the honest industry, the sturdy perseverance and the wise economy which so prominently characterizes the foreign element, both those who have come direct from the European nations and their American-born children. All will agree, after so much as a cursory glance over our forty- eight states, that they have entered very largely into our population. By comparison with their "old countries" these people have readily recognized the fact that in the United States lie the greatest opportunities for people of ambition and energy. And because of this many have broken the ties of home and native land and have entered earnestly upon the task of gaining in the new world a home and a competence, principally by tilling the soil. Among this class may be mentioned the Harting family, well-known and progressive agriculturists of Jackson township, Boone county, of whom George H. is a worthy representative; but he, being of the first generation in
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America, had the good fortune of being born here, thus avoiding many of the trials of his father, who landed on our shores, "a youth to fortune and to fame unknown," and had to master our language, get acquainted with strange customs, and be assimilated, as it were, into our civilization.
George Hunt Harting was born on November 16, 1853, near Liberty, Indiana. He is a son of Hiram B. and Willie Jane (Small) Harting. Hiram B. Harting was born in Germany on September 3, 1830, and he emi- grated to the United States when sixteen years of age, unaccompanied. Penetrating into the interior he located in Union county, Indiana, where he went to work on the farm of George Hunt, an early pioneer of that section, and remained with him until he was twenty-one years of age, Mr. Hunt being very kind to him, and he named our subject after his employer. Mr. Harting was married there, January 2, 1853, and he came with his wife to Boone county in 1855, locating in Jackson township, buying eighty acres in section 3, which was timbered land and on which stood a log cabin and log barn, and here the young couple began housekeeping. They were hardy, courageous, laughed at the hardships and inconveniences, and, with characteristic Ger- man thrift, succeeded in due course of time in clearing and developing a fine farm and establishing a comfortable home. As he prospered through good management and close application he added to his original purchase until he owned two hundred acres, building the substantial residence during the Civil war, which home is now occupied by his son, George H., who is the oldest of five children, the others being, Margaret, born November 22, 1855, mar- ried Louis W. Hosteter, now residing near Indianapolis, and they have three children ; Martha Jane, born October 23, 1857, married Allen J. Hightshue, and died leaving three children; Isham B., born September 4, 1860, is farm- ing in Jackson township; Sherman B., born July 9, 1864, married Josephine Warner, a native of Madison county, and he is now engaged in the grain busi- ness near Elwood.
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