USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume II > Part 12
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After the war he returned to Boone county and took up farming in Jack- son township, also worked out at farm work in Montgomery county. On August 26, 1866, he married Martha M. Emmert, a native of Boone county, who was born January 15, 1847, and here she was reared and educated. She is a daughter of Simon and Mary (Canady) Emmert, natives of Tennessee and South Carolina, respectively. Each came when children with their par- ents to Union county, Indiana, and there Mr. and Mrs. Emmert were mar- ried and in 1833 they removed to Boone county, entered land free from the government in Jackson township, where they engaged successfully in farm- ing, reared their family and here spent the rest of their lives, the father dying in 1884 and the mother dying in 18 -.
To Mr. and Mrs. Whitely four cihldren have been born, namely : Els- worth, born July 12, 1867, married Louisa Moyer, a native of Montgomery county, who has borne her husband one child, Hazel, and they are now living on a farm near Lebanon; Lottie C., born March 28, 1872, married Joseplı Canady, resides in Lebanon and they have one child, Harry; Mirty May, born June 6, 1873, married George McVay, and she died October 30, 1907, leaving one child, Gladys; Otto, born January 20, 1876, married Iva Jones, a native of Boone county; they live on a farm in Jackson township, and have one child, Jewell.
After his marriage Enoch Whitely went to farming on land belonging
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to his father-in-law, remaining there some time, then bought a farm of forty- seven acres in section 20, Jackson township, and here resided until 1905, when he moved to Jamestown. However, he retained his farm until 1910, when he sold it and has since lived retired. He was very successful as a general farmer and stock raiser and has a good home where he is spending his declining years in comfort. He has been active in Republican politics. However, he is now a Progressive. He was elected township constable but refused to serve.
He is at this writing city marshal of Jamestown. He is a member of the Methodist Protestant church at Mt. Zion, where his family also belong He is at present a trustee in this church, and at different times has held all offices in the local congregation. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Antietam Post No. 162, at Jamestown, of which he has been junior vice-commander.
HON. JOHN A. FARROW.
The true western spirit of progress and enterprise is strikingly exempli- fied in the lives of such men as John A. Farrow, one of Boone county's leading citizens, whose energetic nature and laudable ambition have enabled him to conquer many adverse circumstances and advance steadily. He has met and overcome obstacles that would have discouraged many men of less determina- tion and won for himself not only a comfortable competency, together with one of the choicest farms in this favored locality, but also a prominent place among the enterprising men of this section of the great Hoosier common- wealth, and he has done much in a public way for the general advancement of the same. Such a man is a credit to any community and his life forcibly illustrates what energy and consecutive effort can accomplish when directed and controlled by correct principles and high moral resolves, and no man is worthier of conspicuous mention in a volume of the province of the one at hand.
Mr. Farrow was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, August 2, 1850. He is a son of Thomas and Barbara A. (Charles) Farrow. Both parents were born near Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, and they both came to Boone county about 1830, each with their parents, and here they were married. Thomas Farrow was born in 1828, and his death occurred in this county, September
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15, 1855, when a young man. He devoted his life to farming. His family consisted of seven children, of whom John A., of this sketch was the youngest ; only one other survives, Mrs. Nancy N. Wyatt, who lives in Pendleton, Indi- ana. Two brothers, Francis M. and William Henry, served in the Civil war, the former in Company F, Fortieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and he was killed at the battle of Missionary Ridge; William Henry was in the One Hun- dred and Sixteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and he died during the ser- vice at Camp Nelson, Kentucky. He left a wife and one son, Francis M., both still living. James, the oldest of the brothers, died in middle life, leav- ing a family of six children, all still living but one. Only one lives in Boone county, Vaughn, who married Thomas Plunkett, and lives in Advance. One son of James (deceased) is Ernest E., who is a captain in the regular army of the United States and is now serving in the Philippines, is married and his wife is with him: they were married in Salt Lake City.
John A. Farrow was five years old when his father died. The mother, a woman of fine courage and fortitude, kept her children together, the older ones renting land which they tilled and all lived together until the mother's death, which occurred in Boone county, at the advanced age of eighty-six years, in 1905, she having been born in 1819.
Our subject was but eight years old when he started out to work for a living, on a farm, consequently he received but a meager education, but he was ambitious and has remained a student all his life and has become an ex- ceptionally well-educated man, and is entitled to a great deal of credit for what he has accomplished in the face of discouraging environment. On September 20, 1883 he married Clarisa E. Emmert, who was born March 16, 1859, in Boone county. She is a daughter of David Jackson Emmert and Eliza (Coddington) Emmert. Mrs. Farrow is a granddaughter of Simon Emmert, one of the most prominent of the first settlers of Boone county. After his marriage Mr. Farrow worked at the carpenter's trade for nine years, also bought and sold grain and stock at Jamestown. About 1892 he started farming on rented land in Jackson township, which he continued for a period of eight years. In 1900 he bought forty acres in section 3, on which he made substantial improvements, erecting modern buildings and this farm he sold to E. R. Canady, and in 1908 bought his present farm in section 20, Jackson township, which he has improved in an up-to-date manner, and it is one of the choice farms of the township, and he has been very successful as a general farmer and stock raiser.
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Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Farrow, one of whom died in infancy ; those living are, George L., a Methodist minister, born April 6, 1885, married Grace Shields a native of Boone county, and they have one child, Wayne; William Thomas, born July 1, 1886, married Gertrude Buech- ler, a native of Boone county and they have one child, Louise; he is a mer- chant at Lizton, Hendricks county ; Hattie Jane, born August 1, 1888, is a graduate of Jamestown high school; Nora Alice, born December 18, 1890, married Walter K. Brumfield, a farmer of Hendricks county; Maude Flor- ence, born March 28, 1892, married Hansel Butler; he is farming in Boone county, and they have one child, Dorcella; Minnie May, born August 16, 1895, is a graduate of the Advance high school; David Jackson, born August 7, 1897 is attending high school at Advance.
Mrs. Farrow and family are members of the Methodist Protestant church, belonging to the Zion congregation, while Mr. Farrow holds membership in the Christian church at Advance. Politically, he is a Democrat and has long been a local leader in party affairs. He was for a period of four years, justice of the peace at Jamestown, and in 1903 he was elected to the general assembly of Indiana for one term, during which he made his influence felt for the general good, and served on two important committees, drains and dykes and auditing. As a pubilc servant he has ever discharged his duties in a manner that has reflected much credit upon his ability and to the eminent satisfaction of his constituents, and his popularity is well-deserved.
JESSE STANLEY REAGAN, M. D.
No other profession has accomplished, during the last half century the progress and development that have been made by the medical. This was not the work of those who became learned by knowledge obtained from books, or the experiences of a past generation, but by those who rose to new occasions, who thought in new lines and did new things, for "New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth." The man of original thought and action, whose text book forms but the basis of future work, has ever moved forward, taking his profession with him; he becomes a leader, and those that follow reap lasting benefit from his work. Such a man was
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the late Dr. Jesse Stanley Reagan, for a period of fifty-seven years one of the best known medical men of northern Indiana. In considering the char- acter and career of this eminent member of the medical fraternity, the im- partial observer will be disposed to rank him not only among the most dis- tinguished member of this important branch of science in his day and gen- eration, in which he had few peers and no superiors in Boone and adjoining counties, but also as one of those men of broad culture and genuine benevol- ence who did honor to mankind in general. In overcoming the obstacles incident to the life of a pioneer physician he exhibited patience and persist- ence ; through a long and busy life, replete with honor and success worthily attained, he knew none but the highest motives, and to the practice of his profession he brought rare skill and resource, such qualities stamping him as a man of extraordinary talent and entitling him to be classed with the benefactors of mankind. His quick perception and almost intuitive judg- ment rendered him well nigh infallible in diagnosis, and yet, although con- fident in his own conclusions, he was ever willing to lend an ear to sug- gestions. His touch was gentle and his nerve steady, and no matter how tense the strain or how great the responsibility of a delicate operation, he was ever able to guide his knife to the "unerring line of safety." Throughout his busy life he was ever a hard, enthusiastic student, thus keeping well abreast of the time, not only with his own country, but also kept in close touch with the medical literature of continental Europe. For he realized the fact that the man who would inscribe his name on the scroll of successful physicians must be a master of the construction and functions of the com- ponent part of the human body of the changes induced in them by the on- slaught of disease, of heredity and of the vital capacity remaining in them throughout all vicissitudes of existence. He must be, at the same time, wise in human nature, wise in the laws of general science, and wise in social amenities.
Dr. Reagan was born in Warren county, Ohio, February 15, 1829. His parents brought him to Clinton county, Indiana when he was six years of age. He grew to manhood in his adopted state and received the usual early education of pioneer children in those days. In 1843 he began the study of medicine under Dr. Almond Loftin, then of Clinton county, but later of Indianapolis. Subsequently he attended Rush Medical College in Chicago for two years. Returning to Boone county in 1852 he began the practice
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of medicine at Mechanicsburg, and continued active practice until near the close of a long and useful life. He was very successful as a general prac- titioner and his name was a household word in this locality for over a half century. During the earlier years of his practice he experienced the hard- ships known to the pioneer physician. He never refused a call, and often traveled many weary miles on foot, to answer the call of the sick and dis- tressed. He was especially well and favorably known to the earlier settlers of the county, and even after the county became more thickly populated and the number of physicians increased, his practice showed no diminution. He was the regular physician of many families from one generation to the next.
Dr. Reagan was married September 27, 1854 to Elizabeth Hardesty, whose death occurred in 1878. To this union were born four children, all of them being now deceased; Frank C. is mentioned below. The deceased children were: Mrs. Anna Curry Wilds, who died, leaving two children, Mrs. Fay Curry, of Cincinnati, and Mrs. Louena Oliphant, of Marion, Indi- ana ; Mrs. Lucy Warbington, who died in 1883, leaving one child, Mrs. Nellie Stephenson, of Lebanon; Myrtle, who was born in 1871, and died in 1891. Another grandchild, Elizabeth Stanley, daughter of Frank C. Reagan, resided in New Jersey. On November 24, 1880, Dr. Reagan was married at Thorn- town, Indiana, to Mrs. N. Emma Hebb. She is a daughter of Dr. Levi and Frances (Smith) Gustin, natives of Ohio and Virginia, respectively. To Dr. Reagan and his last wife one child was born, Walter Reagan, who is liv- ing in Lebanon.
Politically, Dr. Reagan was a Republican, and was influential in public affairs. He was elected county clerk in 1886 for a term of four years, and began his duties in November, 1888. In 1888 he removed to Lebanon where he spent the rest of his life. In 1896 he was elected to the city council, where he served for two years. He was a consistent member of the Presby- terian church for many years, and served in the capacity of elder. He was a member of Boone Lodge No. 9, Free and Accepted Masons and had been a Mason for nearly fifty years. Dr. Reagan was for twenty years one of the directors of the Lebanon National Bank, and for five years was vice-presi- dent of that institution.
Frank C. Reagan, mentioned in a preceding paragraph, was one of the best known attorneys of Lebanon, and was about fifty-two years old when he died in 1910. He was born in Mechanicsburg and had lived all his life
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in Boone county. He attended Lebanon high school and also a normal school here. When his father was county clerk, Frank C. began to read law. He quickly mastered the details of his profession and came to be considered one of the most brilliant members of the local bar. He had more than the usual native ability and was decidedly successful in his practice. He had a keen mind and was a ready speaker and was well versed in the law, the knowledge of which he acquired with less effort than most. In the conduct of cases he was a hard fighter and always gave his clients the benefit of his best efforts, whether the litigation was of great or little importance. He was well read along nearly all lines and his knowledge of varied subjects was often remarked by those who came in contact with him. He had a sense of humor that was unusual and his ready wit was often used to advantage in a controversy, legal or otherwise against an adversary.
The death of Dr. Jesse S. Reagan occurred February 9, 1910, when within a few days of his eighty-first birthday. At a meeting of the Boone County Medical Society a few days afterwards the following resolutions were passed :
"To the President and Members of the Boone County Medical Society :
Your committee to whom was referred the duty of formulating and pre- senting to this society resolutions of respect and memorandum on the life of Dr. J. S. Reagan beg leave to report.
"Whereas, Divine Providence has called from the field of his labor and this society one of its active and honored members and from the profession of medicine an industrious and honest practitioner.
"Therefore, Resolved, that we submit to the will of Him who of right 'Giveth and taketh away.'
"Resolved, that we recognize in him and honor the true principle of the noble profession he represented in his life and character and applied in his humanitarian ministrations.
"Resolved, that in him we found the courage to ever maintain the Christian character and independence of opinion in an honest conviction re- gardless of pecuniary gain or the attitude of public criticism.
"Resolved, that we extend our sympathy and join with the family, patrons and profession in this hour of sadness, but rejoice in the life and use- fulness of him whose Christianity and service to man entitle's him to a place above all earthly things.
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"Resolved, that these resolutions be made a part of the records of the- Boone County Medical Society and that a copy be sent to the bereaved family. Committee : Herma A. Beck, A. P. Fitch, J. S. Shields."
A detailed review of Dr. Reagan's interesting, successful and honored career would be, in a measure, to give a review of medical history for the past half century, and his life has been so intricately interwoven with the history of Boone county that to give a specific account of the one would be to set forth the history of both. Suffice it to add only that the locality was greatly blessed and honored by his long residence and his name will ever occupy a very high position on her roster of distinguished, useful and esteemed citizens of the past.
DAVID W. REED.
In presenting the following brief review of the long, useful and interest- ing career of David W. Reed, one of the progressive and widely known citizens of Jefferson township. Boone county, we find that the battle of life has been well fought by this enterprising, broad-minded, self-made gentle- man. That he is endowed with financial abilities of no mean order must be admitted, yet there has ever been added to this an honest determination of purpose and a kind heart, which has impelled him to assist others on the higliway of life while he was making a path of prosperity for himself. From an early age his desire has been to legitimately earn every cent needed in the prosecution of his individual affairs. He has always lived up to his high principles ; and now as old age creeps on apace, with the ambition to ac- cumulate not so strong in him as in earlier years, no longer being a necessity, free from embarrassing debts and with unencumbered property, he stands among the financially strong men of his locality. He is a straightforward and unassuming gentleman and by reason of his noble character and sound judgment he is frequently sought for as counsellor and friend, and many, especially deserving young men have been greatly helped by him in getting a start in life.
Mr. Reed was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, March 4, 1856. He is a son of John and Lavenia (Hanger) Reed, who spent their earlier
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years in the Old Dominion, each being representatives of fine old southern families. The father came to Indiana in 1865 from Virginia, making the long journey of some seven hundred and fifty miles by wagon, the trip re- quiring thirty-one days. He was accompanied by his wife and four children, the eldest of whom was sixteen years old. They came by way of Mont- gomery county, and located in Boone county, purchasing fifty-two acres in section 4, Jefferson township, ten acres of which was cleared, and on it stood a small log house, with a chimney of sticks. He cleared the land and worked the timber into staves, did considerable ditching, in the old way with timber. About 1872 he built a frame house. He was a good manager and hard worker and at the time of his death owned one hundred and twenty acres, which is still in the family, belonging to his grandson. In 1898 he and his faithful life companion retired from active life and moved to Lebanon, building a residence on North street, where his death occurred in 1899, after which the mother of our subject moved to Advance where her death occurred in 1906, both having spent long and useful lives and were honored by all who knew them. Their family consisted of six children, namely: Baxter lives in Jefferson township: Margaret M. died when about seventeen years old: David W., of this sketch: Willie L., now deceased, was the wife of Frank Evans of Montgomery county ; Mary A. married Oliver Bowman and they live in Montgomery county; Henry S. died in infancy.
David W. Reed grew to manhood on the home farm where he worked hard when a boy, assisting his father clear and improve the land. He re- ceived the usual educational advantages of those pioneer days, and in later life has become a well informed man by wide home reading and by contact with the world. He remained with his parents until he was twenty-four years old. On January 8, 1880, he married Anna Miller, of Harrison county. She is a daughter of Henry and Ann Delila (Winters) Miller, who were early settlers of Harrison county, spending their lives on a farm, where they both died. Mrs. Reed was the youngest of ten children, all of whom grew to maturity. The oldest brother, Fabious was a soldier in the Civil war, in an Indiana regiment, and he died during the service. John F. Miller was a teacher in the Jamestown schools until his death in 1913. Tine Miller was for many years a teacher in Boone county, later went to Indianapolis and secured a responsible position with the United States mail service, with an office in the government building for some thirty years, being postal clerk
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examiner ; he died in 1912. Jennie Miller, who was for years a teacher in Boone county, now lives in Montgomery county with the only surviving brother, P. F. Miller. Adelade Thomas, who was a resident of Boone county for years, is now living in Iowa. Mrs. Isabelle Gorman now lives in Atchison, Kansas. Emma, a Boone county teacher, died in 1887, and Clinton died in the state of Washington in 1894.
David W. Reed purchased forty-four acres of land in section 4, Jeffer- son township, Boone county, where he remained two years. He ditched and cleared nearly all of this place and sold it, and in 1882 bought eighty-three acres, where he now lives. It had been little improved but was nearly all cleared. Our subject cleared twenty acres and placed it under cultivation, and put in about one thousand rods of tile, and now has one of the valuable and choice farms of the township. In 1887 he built a fine large residence on this place and he also has an excellent group of outbuildings. He has carried on general farming and stock raising on a large scale and feeds large numbers of cattle and hogs from year to year.
Mr. Reed and wife became the parents of five children, one of whom died in infancy, namely : Emma Forest, born in 1880, married William E. Swisher, of Jefferson township, and they have three children; Russell, Wyvonne P., and George; Mary Alma, born in 1883, married Erwin F. Miller, of Jefferson township, and they have four children, Emma B., Lloyd, Arthur and Henry ; Clara O., born in 1890, married Oscar Srader and they live in Indianapolis, and have one child, David; John Clifford, born in 1894 is attending Indiana University at Bloomington.
David W. Reed has been very successful in his life work and is deserv- ing of a great deal of credit for what he has accomplished. He owns his original eighty-three acres on which his residence stands, also owns eighty acres in section 28, one hundred and ten acres in section 29. making a total of two hundred and seventy-three acres of valuable, well-improved and pro- ductive farming land. He also owns considerable valuable business prop- erty in Indianapolis, and a one-third interest in one hundred and sixty acres in North Dakota. He was one of the first advocates of the co-operative telephone system, now so successfully operated. Politically, he was for many years a Republican, but is now a Progressive. He has been active and influential in local public affairs for many years. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church at Shannondale. He was elder in the
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church at Dover for a number of years before that church was discontinued. He has traveled extensively, including a visit to Cuba, and, being a keen observer, talks interestingly of what he has seen and experienced. He lived one year in Indianapolis and three years in Lebanon, where he built a fine residence on Park street, which he afterwards sold; he also erected a dwell- ing in Thorntown where he lived one year, which he also sold. Personally, Mr. Reed is a companionable, genial and courteous gentleman whom it is a pleasure to meet.
RICHARD W. HOWARD.
"Agriculture is the oldest of all alchemy," says a distinguished writer, "for it turns earth and even refuse into gold and confers upon its cultivator the additional reward of health." The oldest of human vocations and noblest of them all has been honored in Boone county by the successful career of Richard W. Howard, one of the enterprising and public-spirited citizens of Marion township. He has spent his long life in this locality in connection with general farming and has done his part in encouraging better farming methods with the advancing years. His career contains few mistakes and abounds in much that is honorable and of good report, containing the record of an untarnished name and a character above reproach which is much more to be desired than great riches.
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