History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume II, Part 24

Author: Crist, L. M. (Leander Mead), 1837-1929
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : A.W. Bowen
Number of Pages: 522


USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume II > Part 24


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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attended the public schools. She is a daughter of Charles O. and Flora (Bartles) Scott, the former born in Marion county, the mother a native of the state of Louisiana. The union of our subject and wife has been without issue.


Politically, Mr. Laughner is a Democrat and has been more or less active in party affairs for some time. He is also active and influential in church affairs, having been a deacon in the English Lutheran church since 1902 and superintendent of the Sunday school since 1906; in fact, he is regarded as one of the "pillars" of the local church of this denomination. He has been president of the Indiana State Lutheran League since June. 1913, and many commendable comments have been heard as to his work in this connection. He has been a trustee of the Weidner Institute at Mulberry, Indiana, since 1910. He has been secretary and treasurer of the Boone County Sunday School Association since 1912. Mr. Laughner is equally prominent in fraternal circles. He is a member of the Masonic Order at Whitestown and the Chapter at Lebanon, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Improved Order of Red Men, all of Whitestown; the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Lebanon, and the Modern Woodmen of America at Whitestown, and has been clerk of the latter since 1910.


SAMUEL L. CASON.


There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the spectacle of a life that has reached its autumn with a harvest of good and useful deeds. It is like the forest in October days when the leaves have borrowed the richest colors of the light and glow in the mellowed sheen of the Indian summer, reflecting in their closing days the radiance of their earthly existence. The man who has lived a clean, useful and self-denying life and has brought into potential exercise the best energies of his mind that he might make the world brighter and better for his being a part of it, while laboring for his indi- vidual advancement cannot fail to enjoy a serenity of soul that reveals itself in his manner and conversation. When such a life is preserved in its strength and integrity so that even in age its influence continues unabated, it challenges the admiration of those whose good fortune it is to be brought into contact


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with. Such a life has been that of Samuel L. Cason, one of the oldest of Boone county's native-born citizens, who has been a life-long resident here, for many decades a well known merchant in Lebanon in which city he is now living in retirement and is nearing his four score years. He has ever had the interests of this locality at heart and has sought to promote the same in every way possible. He grew up in the interesting pioneer period and tells many interesting things of the early development of the county. He has played no inconspicuous part in the affairs of the county. His life has been


SAMUEL L. CASON. -Daily Reporter.


noted for its sterling honesty, industry and devotion to family, church and to the best public interests, so he can now look backward with no compunction for misdeeds and forward to the mystic Beyond with no fear. Such a life merits a record of its deeds that the debt due it may be acknowledged and that it may serve as a stimulus to others to endeavor to emulate it. But his record is too familiar to the people of the locality of which this history deals to require any fulsome encomium here, his life work speaking for itself in stronger terms than the biographer could employ in polished periods. There is no doubt but that Mr. Cason's long life has been due to his conservative


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habits, wholesome living and pure thinking. He has ever been known for his hospitality, his many acts of kindness springing from his largeness of heart rather than from any desire to gain the plaudits of his fellow men or for any personal motive.


Mr. Cason was born in Washington township, Boone county, June 7, 1835. He is a son of James and Margaret (Ratherford) Cason, the father a native of South Carolina and the mother a native of Pennsylvania. These families all located first in Ohio, later removing to Union county, Indiana, where they settled on a farm, although the elder Cason was a carpenter by trade. In that county two of his children were born. The family left there in 1832 for Boone county, making the tedious journey in a wagon drawn by a team of horses and a yoke of oxen. They were ten days on the road and it rained every day but one. The somewhat hazardous trip was never for- gotten by the members of the family. They found a hunter who had dropped his gun in a deep hole. Mr. Cason secured the weapon for him by tying a pair of steelyards to the end of a pole and pulled the gun out by one of the hooks on the steelyards. As the emigrants were crossing Prairie creek in Boone county, the wagon was overturned by the wheel striking a stump and the occupants were thrown into the water. Those occupying the wagon were the mother of our subject, two children and Sarah Burckhalter, who married David Kenworthy later. They were all duly rescued, fires were built by which their clothing was dried and they camped there over night. They came on and located on land which James Cason was supposed to have entered from the government in 1831, but later they were compelled to move one-eighth of a mile for they had by mistake located on land belonging to Colonel Mills. They established their permanent home two and one-half miles southeast of what is now Thorntown, on one hundred fifty-eight and one-half acres, all timbered. Their neighbors were few and far between and the family endured the usual hardships and privations of frontiersmen. They cleared a space on which they built a log cabin, erecting a stick-and- mud chimney, leaving the floor dirt, and in this they lived some time, later adding to it, floored it and put up doors and windows. The noble mother spent many nights alone with her two babies while her husband was to mill, braving the perils of Indians and wild beasts alone. All the while, James Cason was clearing and improving his land with the help of two of his wife's brothers and a cousin. He eventually became one of the leading


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farmers of this part of the county and remained on this place until the fall of 1865, when he removed to Thorntown where he spent the rest of his days and died January 31, 1874, his widow dying later in Lebanon. They were the parents of nine children, only two of whom are living at this writing, Samuel L., of this review and Sarah A., widow of John M. Bennett, of Elwood, Indiana. The family became well known in the county and was always highly respected.


Samuel L. Cason grew to manhood amid pioneer surroundings and he worked hard when a boy assisting his father clear and develop the old home- stead and he received such educational advantages as the early-day rural schools afforded. He remained with his parents until the fall of 1863 when he moved to Lebanon and engaged in the grocery business. By the exercise of good judgment, honest dealings and courteous treatment of his customers he enjoyed a large trade and prospered with advancing years. In 1873, he erected a substantial business block here and in this conducted his grocery with ever-increasing success until 1903 when he was burned out. The fol- lowing year he erected his present modern, commodious and attractive office and store building, one of the best business blocks in Lebanon, and since then he has lived retired in his beautiful home here. He made a pronounced suc- cess of his life work and is rated as one of the substantial men financially of Boone county.


Mr. Cason was married November 22, 1863, to Louisa Cooper, who was born in Sugar Creek township, this county, and here grew to woman- hood and was educated. She was a daughter of Edghill and Elisa (Bennett) Cooper. Her mother was a daughter of Frederick and Massa (Sutton) Bennett, the father being a native of Ohio. The union of our subject and wife has been without issue. The wife of our subject was called to her eternal rest March 7, 1910, at an advanced age. She proved to be an excel- lent helpmeet and was greatly beloved by her neighbors and many friends owing to her many commendable qualities of head and heart.


Politically, Mr. Cason is a Republican and has been more or less influen- tial in public affairs for many years. He served as city councilman of Leb- anon for many years. In religious matters he is a member of the Baptist church and a liberal supporter of the same. He is well preserved for a man his age and is a companionable, kind and pleasant gentleman whom every- body highly esteems.


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WILLIAM B. CROSE.


This is a time of progress and development. Old methods are being revised, and old or previously accepted facts are being examined and ques- tioned as never before. "Every man to his business," no longer means that the knowledge of others is to be ignored by the successful business man. The man who succeeds, whether he be a farmer, merchant or manufacturer, knows more of his business than an outsider can know; but this does not mean that the successful business man may not learn many useful and profit- able facts and principles from the outsider who has made a thorough study of a large number of business establishments and their methods.


One of the progressive citizens of Eagle township, Boone county, who has sought helpful information from every source, and has had the tact to apply the same is William B. Crose, proprietor of Maple Park Farm, where he successfully carries on general farming. stock raising and dairying, his valuable place containing two hundred and eight acres, all under a high state of improvement and cultivation, and on which stands a modern residence and outbuildings of a present day type of convenience.


Mr. Crose was born in Washington township, Boone county, February 2, 1860, a son of David Crose, a well-known early settler here, who was born in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, in 1835. David Crose was a son of Benja- min Crose, who was born in Kentucky in 1813, where he spent his earlier years and married, and in 1830 he and his wife emigrated to Tippecanoe county, and there their son David grew to manhood and married Martha E. Bovee, who was born in 1841, and whose death occurred at the age of seventy-two years.


The father of our subject reached the age of seventy-seven years. Their family consisted of ten children, namely : Marion F., William B., Mary E., Clement L., Cynthia Ella, James W., Sarah A., Pearly A., Edgar L., and Walter F.


William B. Crose was reared on the home farm and worked during the summer months for his father, and during the winter attended the district schools, and for two years taught school. On August 9, 1882, he married Mrs. Lillie A. Shaw, widow of David Shaw. He was born February 6, 1847. A history of the Shaw family appears on another page of this work.


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The death of David Shaw occurred October 3, 1877, at the age of thirty years. Mrs. Crose is a daughter of Charles F. and Mary (DeLong) Fore- man. The death of the mother occurred in 1897. The father is still living, and resides in Zionsville. Mr. Foreman is now eighty-two years old; but is a well-preserved man. He has made a success in life's affairs, and has lived an upright and useful life.


Mr. Crose has devoted his life to general farming and stock raising. His present place is one of the most desirable in Eagle township. Every- thing is up-to-the-date. He has two large barns, his general barn being thirty-six by seventy-six feet, and his dairy barn is thirty-six by eighty-two feet. Everything about his barn is sanitary and has been arranged with a view to the comfort and proper care of live stock. He keeps an excellent grade of cows, and finds a ready market for all his dairy products, owing to their superior quality. His is a model twentieth century farm in every respect.


Our subjeet and wife have no children of their own; but have reared other children. Mr. and Mrs. Crose are members of the Methodist Episco- pal church, and have been for many years. They are both very active in church affairs. Mr. Crose has been the superintendent of the Salem Sunday school for a period of twenty-five years. He is one of the leaders of Metho- dism in this section of the state and has given liberally of his time and means to its interests. He has been a trustee and steward in the local congregation for years; while his wife has been devoted to missionary and temperance work. Both Mr. and Mrs. Crose are popular with the best circles in the southern part of the county where they reside, and their beautiful and well- furnished home is known to their many friends as a place of old-time hospi- tality and good cheer. They are well informed, genial, obliging and pleas- ant people to meet. Mr. Crose has been a life-long Democrat. He is a man of strong moral convictions and temperance sentiments. He has always been upon the right side of the temperance question, and has worked hard for the suppression of the saloon.


At this writing the Methodist church on Mr. Crose's farm, known as the Salem church, is undergoing extensive repairs, and Mr. and Mrs. Crose are giving largely of their means toward the enterprise. Mr. Crose being one of the trustees and also chairman and treasurer of the building committee.


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JOHN THOMAS YOUNG.


Every time the grain farmer hauls a load of his crops to market, he draws away a part of the value of his farm. If the fertility of the soil is to be maintained, the elements removed must be replaced. The four elements removed by growing crops which oftentimes exist in such limited quantities that they must be replaced, if the crops are to continue to do their best, are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium, or lime. The nitrogen is found in the humus, or decaying vegetable matter of the soil, while the other ele- ments are found principally in mineral combination. A different amount of the plant food is removed by different crops from the soil, the value of this plant food may be measured and provided for by the farmer who is willing to study closely the rotation of crops and a number of other phases of mod- ern agriculture. One of the tillers of the soil in Boone county who under- stands these and other necessary subjects is John Thomas Young, one of the most progressive and enterprising farmers of Eagle township, proprietor of Sunny Slope Farm, near Zionsville.


Mr. Young was born October 3, 1843 in Fleming county, Kentucky, on a farm, and is a son of James Hardy Young, also a native of that county where he grew up, was educated and married and established his home on a farm, becoming a prominent planter, owning a large plantation, and was well-to-do and influential. He married Manda Jane Taylor, also a native of that locality and a daughter of Joshua Taylor, a prominent farmer. The parents of our subject removed in 1852 to Rush county, Indiana, where they spent the rest of their lives and are buried there. To them seven children were born, namely: John Thomas of this sketch; Adalade is deceased; James Monroe, who was a soldier in the One Hundred and Twenty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war, lives in Rush county ; Joshua is deceased ; Susan Amanda; Sarah Elizabeth and Mary.


John Thomas Young was nine years old when he removed with the rest of the family from the Blue Grass state to Rush county, Indiana. He grew to manhood on the farm and helped with the work, and he received his edu- cation in the rural schools, part of the time attending school in a log school- house. His father was married a second time, his last wife being Elizabeth Brown, and to them five children were born, namely : Jane, Elizabeth, Robert,


JOHN T. YOUNG


MRS. JOHN T. YOUNG


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Albert and Alberta, twins. The death of James H. Young, the father, oc- curred at the advanced age of eighty-two years.


When twenty-three years old our subject married Delsie C. Portner, of Taswell county, Virginia. They moved to Morgan county, Kentucky, where she grew to womanhood and was educated. Her family is of English descent.


In 1888 Mr. Young went to Cherokee county, Kansas, later returning to Indiana and rented one hundred and eighty acres in Hamilton county. There he remained until 1896 when he came to Eagle township, Boone county, where he purchased his present finely improved farm, which consists of six- teen and a quarter acres, and on which stand an attractive dwelling and sub- stantial outbuildings.


Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Young, namely: Olie Lee, who married William Morgan, lives at Anderson, Indiana; Frank is at home; and Oma Gene is deceased. Mrs. Young died February 18, 1912.


Politically, Mr. Young is a Democrat, and religiously he belongs to the Methodist church as did his wife.


FOREST G. BRUSH, D. D. S.


The profession of dentistry has an able exponent in Boone county in the person of Dr. Forest G. Brush, of Zionsville, Indiana, who, because of his skill and long years of practice here is well known throughout the locality and who ranks high among his professional brethren in this section of the Hoosier state, being a member of the Indiana State Dental Society and local societies ; for he was, it seems, well adapted by nature for the vocation which has long claimed his undivided attention, being, in the first place, a student, so that he has kept well abreast of the times in everything that pertains to his work, and he is also the possessor of those personal traits which one must have in order to be popular with the masses. He is a man to be depended upon, and his hundreds of patients know that they can repose the utmost confidence in him and rely upon his judgment. He is also of a sociable and optimistic nature; he believes in finding the silver lining to every cloud, main- taining with the poet Riley, that all clouds have such, and that the obstacles we daily encounter on the road of life should but serve to arouse our com-


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bative nature and cause us to accomplish more rather than yield to the per- verse rulings of fate.


Dr. Brush was born in Jamestown, Boone county, Indiana, August 26, 1877. He is a son of Henry C. and Fanny A. (Davis) Brush. Owing to the prominence of the family the biographer deems it advisable here to give its history in some detail before proceeding with that of the immediate sub- ject of this article.


Henry C. Brush is a venerable veteran of the Civil war, a substantial farmer and honored citizen of Lebanon, Boone county. He is a descendant of sterling Scotch and old colonial stock, originally of the state of New York. John Brush, the great-grandfather of our subject, was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war, in which two of his brothers also fought and were killed at the battle of Cowpens. He married Elizabeth Todd and to them seven children were born, named as follows: George, Blakley, David, James, Jane, Nancy and Mary. The family eventually left the Blue Grass state and settled near Waveland, Montgomery county, Indiana, among the pioneers and there grandfather Brush passed the remainder of his days. He became a prosper- ous farmer and gave to each of his children one hundred and sixty acres of land. He was a typical frontiersman, brave, courageous, hard-working, hospitable, was a Whig in politics and an influential man in his community.


James Brush, grandfather of our subject, was born in Shelby county. Kentucky, on a farm, in the year 1811, and he was nine years old when his parents brought him to Indiana. He was reared amid pioneer environments and worked hard assisting his father develop the home farm. Upon reach- ing manhood he married Elizabeth McCormick, and they began housekeeping near Ladoga, Montgomery county, and there they remained until he retired from active life. He then removed to Jamestown, Boone county. To these parents seven children were born, namely: John A., Ann, Elizabeth, Jennie. Sallie, Eliza and Henry C., all born on the farm in Montgomery county. Both Mr. and Mrs. Brush were members of the Methodist Episcopal church in which he was a class leader and steward. He was a Henry Clay Whig in politics, and later a Republican and a strong Union man. During the Civil war he had two sons, John A. and Henry C. in the Federal army. The former served in the famous Eleventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry under Col. Lew Wallace, who became a famous general, author and statesman. Later John A. Brush served in the Second Indiana Cavalry until the close


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of the war, taking part in many battles. The military record of Henry C. Brush will be referred to in a later paragraph. His father, James Brush, spent the rest of his days in Boone county, dying here at the age of seventy years, an honored and respected man.


Henry C. Brush was born January 15, 1847, in Montgomery county, as intimated in the above paragraph, and there he grew to manhood on the home farm and received the usual common school education of those early days. During the last of the Civil war he enlisted in Company G, One Hun- dred and Sixteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in response to a call for six months men, under Capt. Robert W. Harrison and Col. William C. Kise. After a service of seven months he was honorably discharged at Lafayette, Indiana, March 1, 1864. He was with the army in eastern Tennessee, dur- ing which time he participated in the battles of Blue Springs, Greenville, Knoxville, Walker's Ford and Tazewell, proving to be a very faithful de- fender of the Union. He was also in a number of hot skirmishes and did a great deal of hard marching. He was at the front all the while with the exception of one week when he was confined to the hospital at Knoxville. He was in all the battles, skirmishes and marches in which his regiment was engaged during that period, and although he was but a little over seven- teen years of age when he returned home he conducted himself like a veteran while in the service of his country. He then entered the high school at Ladoga, later spent one term in school at Greencastle, this state. On June 24, 1869, he was married in Hendricks county to Fanny A. Davis, a daughter of Walter and Mary M. (Spears) Davis. Her father was born in Mont- gomery county, Kentucky, December 12, 1823, and was a pioneer and wealthy farmer of Hendricks county. He was of Welsh descent, and the Spears family was of Scotch extraction. Walter Davis and wife reared the fol- lowing children : John S., Quincy A., Martha E., Nancy A., Robert F., Fanny A., and Charles E. After the death of the mother of the above named chil- dren, Walter Davis married Mary A. Scott, and to this union five children were born, namely: Walter S., Lorenzo D., Thomas, Myrtle and Edgar L. The father, Walter Davis, was a Republican in politics, and he belonged to the Methodist Episcopal church in which he took a very active interest, hav- ing been identified with its membership from the age of nineteen years until his death. In 1835 he moved with his father to Eel River township, Hend-


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ricks county and there he spent the rest of his life, dying there January II, 1893. Two of his sons were graduated from DePauw University at Green- castle, one of whom, Walter S., later took a post-graduate course at Cornell University, also in Germany and only recently won high honors in Chicago University. John S. Davis was a soldier in the Fifty-first Indiana Volun- teer Infantry, and took part in the raid of General Straight and he died of sickness during the service and was buried in the National Cemetery at Nash- ville, Tennessee. He was but twenty-one years of age. He was a devout Christian. Quincy A. Davis was also a soldier in an Indiana regiment during the war between the states.


Soon after their marriage Henry C. Brush and wife located on a farm near Jamestown, Boone county, on which they remained three years, then moved to Jamestown where they lived eight years. In 1879 they moved to Lebanon where they still reside. There Mr. Brush has been successfully engaged in the livery business, also in buying and shipping horses, doing a large business in the latter for many years, but more recently he has devoted his attention to dealing in live stock, feeding large numbers for the market, from time to time, also in farming. He has exercised sound judgment in his affairs and has been very successful in a material way and ranks among the substantial citizens of the county, is widely known and highly respected by all. Politically, he is a stanch Republican. He is a worthy member of the Masonic Order, Boone Lodge No. 9. He is also a non-affiliating member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and belongs to the Knights of Pythias. He holds membership in the Rich Mountain Post, Grand Army of the Republic at Lebanon. He and his wife are faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church.




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