USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume II > Part 22
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BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Witham, only two of whom are living at this writing, namely: Albert, born December 11, 1868, owns eighty acres in Clinton township, Boone county, but is living at home and is a successful farmer; May B., born March 30, 1871, married Malvern Everson Dulin, and they have one child, Jessie, who was born August 17, 1911 ; Leloy, born December 8, 1886, died December 29th of that year ; Gurley, born July I. 1873, died April 30, 1891 ; Eva Ruth, born October 12, 1891, died Septem- ber 12, 1899 ; Laura Avis, born November 1, 1875, died February 22, 1900.
Politically, Mr. Witham was a Republican until the campaign of 1912, when he became a Progressive. He has long manifested a deep interest in public affairs, but lias never sought office. He was one of the organizers of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows lodge at Mechanicsburg, Indiana, but is no longer affiliated with the order. He and his wife have traveled ex- tensively in twenty-five different states. They are highly esteemed by their neighbors and many friends, being noted for their old time hospitality and charitable impulses, always manifesting a high Christian spirit in all the rela- tions of life.
Mr. Witham enlisted for service in the Civil war on August 12, 1862, in Company B, Seventy-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under Capt. John Cretors and Colonel Kennett, and he proved to be a very faithful soldier, but was overtaken by illness in January, 1863, which continued for some time, interfering with his active service. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Rich Mountain Post, at Lebanon, Indiana.
Mr. Witham at one time offered the officials of Boone county the sum of ten thousand dollars to be used for constructing an agricultural high school at Lebanon, also the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars, the interest on which should be appropriated for prizes to the students making the best records in domestic science and in growing agricultural products, provided the county would donate seventy acres of land adjoining the city of Lebanon on which the building was to stand and the work of the same to be carried on, also an agricultural demonstration farm, but the proposition was rejected. Later our subject offered to donate twelve thousand five hundred dollars cash if the county would build a county hospital, providing the county officials would spent some thirty-five thousand dollars additional on the hospital. This offer was also rejected. But both the school and the hospital proposed by Mr.
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Witham are badly needed and a large number of the county's most progressive citizens have expressed themselves as favoring each proposition, and it is be- lieved the county commissioners will in the near future take appropriate steps in both matters. Mr. Witham is to be highly commended for his interest in the betterment of his county.
GEORGE COULSON.
Since he came to Boone county, over a half century ago, the gentleman of whom this sketch is penned, has been a witness of very important changes in this vicinity, and his reminiscences of the early days here are most interest- ing and entertaining to a listener. But change is constant and general, generations constantly rising and passing unnoted away. Clearly it is the duty of posterity as well as a present gratification to place upon the printed page a true record of the lives of those who have preceded us on the stage of action and left to their descendants the memory of their struggles and achievements. The years of our honored subject are a part of the indis- soluble chain which links the annals of the past to those of the latter-day progress and prosperity, and the history of Boone county would not be com- plete without due reference to the long, useful and successful life Mr. Coulson has lived. having been adequately rewarded as an earnest, courageous man of affairs. Generous and big hearted, kindly in disposition. he has never lacked for friends and many of them will peruse his life record written here with deep interest.
George Coulson, veteran of the Civil war, for nearly a half century a druggist and for thirty-eight years agent of the American Express Company at Thorntown, was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, September 30, 1838. He is a son of Jonathan E. and Elizabeth (Spangler) Coulson, both natives of Pennsylvania, from which state they came to Ohio when young and were married there. The father was a carpenter by trade and became a well known builder and contractor of buildings, aqueducts, locks, coffins, etc. In 1857, he sold his property in Ohio and he and his nine children, six girls and three boys, all separated, and George of this review went on horseback to Macon, Illinois, and worked on a farm a few months, then joined his father
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at Thorntown and here attended the academy two years and when the Civil war came on he was one of the first to prove his patriotism, enlisting in April, 1861, at LaFayette, Indiana, in Company A, Tenth Indiana Volunteer In- fantry, and was sent to West Virginia and took part in the battle of Rich Mountain. Having entered the one hundred day service he was discharged in that state in August, 1861, after which he returned home. In April, 1865, he re-enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Indiana Volun- teer Infantry and was appointed sergeant-major and sent to the army in the Shenandoah valley, Virginia. He was discharged the following August. He was a faithful and courageous soldier for the Union. Returning to Thorntown he clerked in a drug store two years, then served as deputy post- master under Israel Curry for two years. later started in the drug business in partnership with Dr. O. P. Mahan, which continued three years. Later he sold out to his partner and with his brother, William Coulson, started a drug store here which they conducted four years when our subject bought his brother's interest and has since conducted the business alone, having built up a large and ever-growing trade with the surrounding country and carrying a complete and well-selected stock of standard drugs and drug sundries and having ever dealt fairly and courteously with his many patrons, many of them have remained with him from the first. In 1876 he was ap- pointed local agent of the American Express Company, which agency he has held to the present time, maintaining the office of the sanie in a part of his store building. His long retention would indicate that he has given the utmost satisfaction to the company.
Mr. Coulson was married December 19. 1872, to Alice E. Millikan, a native of Thorntown, where she was reared and educated. She is a daughter of Allen and Elizabeth (Gapen) Millikan, which well known and highly respected old family is mentioned on another page of this work.
To Mr. and Mrs. Coulson the following children have been born: Ernest and Harry, twins, both died in infancy; Edith is the wife of W. A. Flannigan. of Champaign, Illinois : Earl G. lives in Polson, Montana.
Politically, Mr. Coulson is a Republican but he has never been very active in political matters. Fraternally, he belongs to the Masonic order at Thorntown and the Chapter and Commandery at Lebanon. He is a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church.
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BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
DR. JOSEPH O. AIRHART.
In examining the records of self-made men, it will inevitably be found that indefatigable industry has constituted the basis of their success. True, there are other elements which enter into and conserve the advancement of personal interests,-perseverance, determination and expediency,-but the foundation of all achievement is earnest, persistent labor. At the outset of his career, Dr. Joseph O. Airhart, well known and successful veterinary phy- sician and surgeon of Lebanon, Boone county, recognized this fact and did not seek any royal road to the goal of his prosperity and independence, but began to work earnestly and persistently in order to advance himself. and the result is that he is now numbered among the progressive, successful and in- fluential citizens of his community.
Doctor Airhart was born on a farm in White county, Indiana, October 25, 1879. He is a son of Joseph and Nancy (North) Airhart. The grand- father was also Joseph Airhart, and he was born in Butler county, Ohio, where he spent his boyhood days, later coming to Clinton county, Indiana, among the pioneers, entering one hundred and sixty acres of wild land from the government, which he cleared and developed into a good farm. He was also a stone-mason by trade, which he followed in connection with his farm- ing. He remained on his farm until his death, in 1898, when about eighty- seven years old. He was well known over Clinton and White counties and was active in the affairs of the community where he resided. His wife, Mar- garet, preceded him to the grave in 1862, when in the prime of life.
Joseph Airhart, Jr., father of our subject, was born on the old home- stead in Clinton county, August 5, 1857, and he was reared on the-farm and there worked when a boy. During the winter months he attended the dis- trict schools. He took up farming and devoted his life to that with a fair measure of success. In 1910 he removed from his native county to Boone county, locating three miles north of Lebanon on a farm of forty-five and one-half acres, and he now owns about one hundred and fifty-two acres all in one tract. He is now living practically retired from active work. Politi- cally, he is a Democrat, and in religious matters is a Methodist. He and Nancy J. North were married in 1875. She was born in White county, In- diana. To this union two children were born. Dr. Joseph O., of this sketch,
DR. LORING W. MORROW
DR. JOSEPH O. AIRHART
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and Sarah C., who was the wife of William Cornell, who was taken by her Savior September 23, 1913.
Doctor Airhart was reared on the home farm and received his early edu- cation in the common schools. He remained with his parents on the home place until 1908, when he entered the Indiana Veterinary College at In- dianapolis. In the summer of 1909 he studied medicine under Doctor Bone- brake, of Rossville, Indiana, then entered the Terre Haute Veterinary Col- lege; then, in the summer of 1910, he read veterinary medicine under Doctor Nelson, of Lebanon. Soon after his graduation, in 1911, he formed a part- nership with Dr. A. F. Nelson, of Lebanon, which continued successfully until in the spring of 1913, when Doctor Nelson moved to Indianapolis, when Doctor Airhart moved his office from the Farmers State Bank building to the Davis Brothers' livery barn and has taken Doctor Morrow, of this city, as a partner, and they are enjoying a very satisfactory and rapidly grow- ing practice.
Doctor Airhart is a Democrat, and fraternally, belongs to the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. On September 26, 1907, he was married to Bessie Balser, who was born in Carroll county, Indiana, July 13, 1886, and to this union two children have been born, namely: Levona G., born Novem- ber 4. 1909, and Lonetta Katheryne, born October 30, 1913.
LORING WESLEY MORROW.
Time was, not so very long ago, when veterinary physicians were few and far between. The farmer usually doctored his own live stock according to the knowledge handed down to him by his father and grandfather or from what he had "picked up" from his neighbors or perchance, gleaned from some home doctor book. Now scarcely a thriving farming community can be found without its skilled veterinary, who is regarded just as essential as the home general physician or dentist, and he is therefore enabled to give his attention exclusively to this branch of science and therefore get splendid results. There has been, perhaps, just as marked progress in this field of science as in any other during the decade or two, and its followers no longer depend partly on "guess work" and partly on luck, but go about their tasks knowingly and surely. It is commendable and necessary ; in fact, an indispen-
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BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
sable profession and is a fine field for the steady, energetic and ambitious young man, holding forth greater rewards than many of the old lines of human endeavor.
One of the most promising veterinary surgeons in this section of the state is Dr. Loring Wesley Morrow, of Lebanon, who, although a young man and only recently made his advent in Boone county, has proven himself well abreast of the times in his particular field of work and has become well established, success following his efforts from the beginning, and we predict for him a bright future. He was born in Hamilton county, Indiana, Febru- ary 22, 1890, and is a son of Elza F. and Laura E. (Gilpin) Morrow. The father was born in the same locality and county, November 22, 1861, and is a son of Samuel and Nancy Morrow, who were pioneers of Hamilton county, and the name Morrow has been an influential one there for several genera- tions. The grandmother is still living at Zionsville, Indiana, being now ad- vanced in years. Elza F. Morrow grew to manhood on the home farm in his natiye county, and there worked hard when a boy, and attended the district schools during the winter. He married there and took up farming, which he has followed to the present time in a successful manner. He is now re- siding northeast of Zionsville, Boone county.
Loring W. Morrow was reared on the farm and assisted his father with the general work on the same. He received his education in the common schools and was graduated from the Westfield High School in 1908. After farming a year he entered the Indiana Veterinary College at Indianapolis. While he attended college he served as hospital assistant to Dr. George H. Roberts, president of the Indiana Veterinary College and manager of the college hospital. While there he made an excellent record and was grad- uated April 12, 1912. He soon thereafter began practicing his profession at Jolietville, Indiana, but although he was getting a good start, he desired a larger field for the exercise of his talents and removed his office to the city of Lebanon, where he formed a partnership with Dr. Joseph O. Airhart, where they have a rapidly growing and successful practice.
Doctor Morrow was married August 16, 1913, to Mabel M. Higbee. who was born in Boone county December 6, 1893, and here she grew to womanhood and was educated. She is the daughter of Addison and Charity Higbee, a highly respected family of this county.
Politically, Doctor Morrow is a Democrat. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and belongs to the Christian church.
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MAJOR HENRY H. McDOWELL.
Major Henry Harrison McDowell died at his home, Pontiac, Illinois, August 13, 1908, of pneumonia after a brief illness. Major McDowell was born near Crawfordsville, March 6, 1840. His father died while he was but an infant and he received his training from a devoted mother, a woman of high character and revolutionary patriotism. In October, 1850, his mother with a large family, moved to a farm in Livingston county in Illi- nois, where the young boy toiled and attended common school until 1858 when he returned to Indiana and entered The Thorntown Academy where he began a course of study preparatory to entering Wabash College. He was pursuing his studies at this latter place when the firing upon Sumter in April, 1861, took place and he immediately volunteered and became a mem- ber of the famous 17th Indiana, commanded by Colonel Milo S. Haskell. He first served in West Virginia. In 1862 reinlisted in the One Hundred Twenty-Ninth Illinois, became Sergeant Major, helped to form a part of Buell's grand army which started from Louisville, Kentucky, in the fall of 1862 moved upon Frankfort. Crab Orchard, Perryville, Bowling Green and on to Nashville. Next with the army of the Cumberland under General G. H. Thomas and early in 1863 was promoted to a lieutenancy and the march to Chattanooga and into Atlanta and finally on to the sea with Sher- man and was mustered out of the army June, 1865, after the war was over. He was in all the movements of the army from Atlanta to the sea; thence through the Carolinas and at the surrender of General Johnson and his army near Rolla, having served his country three and one-half years. His civil life was as true and faithful as his military. He was a man of ripe experi- ence, an able lawyer, forcible speaker and general in all the relations of life. He was married January 1, 1866, to Miss Emma C. Thayer, of Chicago, who with four children mourn his departure. He will be remembered by some of the oldest citizens as a faithful student in the Old Academy and later as one of the active participants in the reunion held in 1907.
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BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
WILLIAM J. DeVOL.
One man of Boone county who has gained success and recognition for himself is William J. DeVol, who has long held worthy prestige among the leading financiers and progressive business men of this part of the state. Aside from his honorable standing as a man of affairs, there is further
WM. J. D-VOL -Daily Reporter.
propriety in according Mr. DeVol specific representation in a work of the province of the one in hand. for he has spent practically his entire life within the borders of Boone county, which has been the scene of the major part of his life's earnest labors, his home being in the beautiful city of Lebanon, where he is at present the head of large and important banking and other business enterprises, and where he also commands the esteem and confidence of all classes and conditions of the populace. And yet he is an unassuming, companionable and straight forward gentleman, manifesting an altruistic spirit toward all with whom he comes in contact.
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Mr. DeVol was born August 3, 1867, in Morgan county, Ohio. He is a son of William J. and Frances E. (Adams) DeVol, both parents also natives of Morgan county, Ohio, the father's birth occurring September 19, 1833, and that of the mother on June 24, 1838. They grew to maturity in their native county, were educated in the old-time schools and there they were married and began housekeeping, and resided until 1867, when they re- moved to Boone county, Indiana, our subject then being an infant. Two other sons were born to these parents, also three daughters, namely: Alice R., now Mrs. Luther Bush, of Boone county; Dennison died in infancy ; Rose A. is single and living in Lebanon; Nancy L., who married Nelson Kern, of this county, died July 16, 1912; William J., of this review, was next in order; and Charles, deceased, was the youngest. The death of the father of these children occurred September 12, 1869, on his farm in Center township, Boone county; his widow survived thirty-seven years, dying July 29, 1906.
William J. DeVol was reared on the home farm, where he did his full share of the general work during crop seasons, and during the winter at- tended the rural schools, later spending two years in the high school in Le- banon and one year in the State University at Bloomington, Indiana. He re- mained on the home farm until he was twenty-one years old, and when but a boy he turned his attention toward a business career, leaving high school to accept a position in the First National Bank of Lebanon, and on July 15, 1889, took a position as clerk in this institution. On July 13, 1891, he be- came a director in this bank, and he has made rapid progress in mastering the ins and outs of banking from the first. He was made assistant cashier September 30, 1893, and vice-president January 14, 1896. January 12, 1897, at the age of thirty, found him president, which responsible position he has held ever since, discharging his duties to the eminent satisfaction of the stockholders and patrons; in fact, the pronounced success and rapidly grow- ing prestige of the bank has been due to his able management and to the fact that the people of Lebanon and vicinity repose explicit confidence in his fore- sight, sound judgment and honesty as well as conservatism. He has also been vice-president of the Citizens Trust Company since August, 1899, also president of the State Bank of Advance since its organization, in 1902. He was one of the principal promoters of the Lebanon Telephone Company in 1894 and has been secretary and treasurer of the same since October, 1901,
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BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
also a director since 1895. He is vice-president of the Meridian Life Insur- ance Company of Indianapolis, is a director of the Oak Hill Cemetery .Is- sociation, is a trustee of the Bay View Camp Grounds at Bay View, Michi- gan. In all of these important enterprises he has been a potent factor, their success being due in no small degree to his judicious counsel and keen busi- ness acumen and discernment.
Mr. DeVol was married April 17, 1901, to Emma Josephine Buchanan, a lady of culture and refinement, who has always been popular with the best circles in Lebanon and wherever she is known. She is a daughter of James and Cordelia (Wilson) Buchanan, both now deceased. The father was born in 1837 in Waveland, Montgomery county, Indiana, and his death occurred in Indianapolis, Indiana. The mother was born in 1837 in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. Mrs. DeVol was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and there grew to womanhood and received a good education.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. DeVol has been blessed by the birth of three daughters, namely: Cordelia Frances, Beatrice Eleanor and Virginia Louise.
Politically, Mr. DeVol is a Republican, and while he has ever been deeply interested in public matters, he has never sought public office or endeavored to become a political leader, preferring to devote his attention exclusively to his large business interests and to his home, his commodious and modernly- appointed residence in Lebanon being ever noted among the many friends of the family as a place of genuine hospitality and good cheer. His fraternal association represent the Knights of Pythias and the Sigma Chi college fraternity. He and his family are worthy members of the Christian church, in which he is a deacon, also a choir leader for more than fifteen years, and is active in church and Sunday school work. Thus it will be seen that in the midst of his many strenuous duties as a business man he has not neglected the higher obligations which man owes to his Maker, nor been unmindful of the claims of Christian religion. Personally, he is a gentleman of unblem- ished reputation and the strictest integrity. He is a vigorous as well as an independent thinker, a wide reader, and he has the courage of his convictions upon all subjects which he investigates. He is also strikingly original and fearless, and cares little for conventionalism or for the sanctity attaching to person or place by reason of artificial distinction, tradition or the accident of birth. He is essentially cosmopolitan in his ideas, a man of the people in all
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the term implies, and in the best sense of the word a representative type of that strong American manhood which commands and retains respect by reason of inherent merit, sound sense and correct conduct, making himself a fine type of the truly successful self-made man. Measured by the accepted standard his career, though strenuous, has been eminently useful and hon- orable, and his life fraught with great good to the world.
JAMES RICHEY.
Nearly all the early pioneers of Boone county, having blazed the path of civilization to this part of the state, have finished their labors and passed from the scene, leaving the country in possession of their descendants and to others who came at a later period and will continue to come to this nature favored region, building on the foundation which the sturdy frontiersmen laid so broad and deep. Among the former class is James Richey, of Wash- ington township, one of our best known citizens, his long, industrious and useful life of nearly three-quarters of a century having been spent in Boone county, his parents being among the earliest to invade the wilderness here and so the career of our subject has linked the first formative period with the opulent present and he has done much to develop and help advertise to the world the wonderful resources of a county that now occupies a proud position among the most progressive and enlightened sections of the great Hoosier commonwealth. Useless to say that Mr. Richey has worked hard and honorably earned the reputation which he has long enjoyed as one of the leading farmers and public-spirited citizens of this locality and it is also needless to add that he is held in the highest esteem by all with whom he comes in contact, for he threw the force of his strong individuality and sterling integrity into making his community what it is and his efforts have not failed of appreciation on the part of the local public. His name will ever be inseparably linked with the county so long honored by his citizenship, whose interests could not have had a more zealous or indefatigable promoter and his influence has ever been exerted to the end that the world might be made better by his presence. And he is entitled to further honor from the fact that he is one of the valiant old soldiers who did what he could in pre-
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