History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume II, Part 28

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 28


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Mrs. Bowers was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, August 7, 1826. and was consequently aged eighty-seven years, eight months and twenty days. She came to Boone county when nine years of age and underwent all the hardships incident to pioneer days. Before her death she was the first of


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five generations, living in this county-five children, twenty-eight grand- children, forty-two great grandchildren and five great great grandchildren.


She was the daughter of Robert and Julia Ann Dooley who resided for many years in the neighborhood of the Mt. Run Baptist church in the east part of Boone county. She was first married on August 18, 1842, to Hiram Cragun who departed this life March 2, 1884. For forty-two years they resided on the farm of which she died possessed, at St. Clair Stop on the T. H., I. & E. traction line. She was married a second time on March 8, 1893, to John Bowers, of Marion county, with whom she lived in Zionsville until his death on October 27, 1904.


There were nine children born to the first union, of whom five survive as follows: Mrs. Josephine Peters, Mrs. Melvina St. Clair, George L., Hi- ram N. and Strange N., all of Boone county. Four children, Neb, Lorenzo D., Columbus and Mary Ann are deceased, the last two dying when chil- dren. The brothers and sisters living are Squire W. and Thomas W. Doo- ley, of Boone county ; John K. Dooley, of Hastings, Neb., Samuel B. Doo- ley, of Gleneath, Colo .; Mrs. Louise Anderson, of Boone county, and Mrs. Clarissa Hurst, of Gilbert, Arizona.


Mrs. Bowers was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Zions- ville. For many years previous to transferring her membership there, she was a faithful member of the Pleasant View Methodist Episcopal church north of Zionsville. She lived a consistent Christian life and was greatly loved by all who knew her.


DAIRY CREAM SEPARATOR COMPANY.


Boone county ranks as one of the best dairy counties in the Middle West; however, her people have neglected to take advantage as extensively as they might of its resources in this respect, but each year finds new addi- tions to the already long list of successful dairymen. As the dairy business grows, there is, of course, a demand for separators created and this gives employment to many artisans and furnishes a good field for invested capital. One of the most successful, efficient and widely known manufactories of this line in the Middle West is The Dairy Cream Separator Company of


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Lebanon, which was established in July, 1907, with the following officers : S. N. Cragun, president ; R. D. Voorhees, vice-president ; D. V. Booher, sec- retary; W. E. Callane, treasurer. They soon got the business well estab- lished and continued to manage the same until 1910, when it was reorganized, with the following officers: Philip Voorhees, of Logansport, Indiana, president; R. D. Voorhees, of Flora, Indiana, vice-president; M. E. Cal- lane, secretary, and W. E. Callane, treasurer. These gentlemen now own all the stock and have greatly increased the prestige and earning power of the plant. They manufacture centrifugal cream separators for farm use, these being of the most modern design, and, owing to their superiority of work- manship and quality are eagerly sought, and the business of the firm is rapidly growing, new territory being constantly invaded. The firm owns a large, well-equipped and valuable building in Lebanon, which was erected for the purpose in 1907. During the summer of 1914 an addition was built, adding fifteen thousand square feet of floor space, it being modern and fire- proof. . Here from one hundred to one hundred and thirty skilled mechanics are constantly employed, and the annual output of machines is from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand. W. E. Callane is general manager and he is the moving spirit of this important plant.


Mr. Callane was born in Flora, Carroll county, Indiana, in April, 1866. He is a son of Richard and Mary (Cunningham) Callane, both natives of Pennsylvania, from which state they came to Indiana when young and were reared on farms here, educated in the early-day schools and were married in this state. W. E. Callane grew up on the home farm and was educated in the public schools of Flora, Indiana, and when seventeen years of age he began teaching, which vocation he continued with satisfactory results for four years. He then turned his attention to dentistry and was graduated from the Indiana Dental College in Indianapolis in 1889, having made an excellent record there. Returning to Flora, he began the practice of his profession, which he continued successfully until 1900, enjoying a large and lucrative patronage, but he then sold out his business and began as a general merchant in his native town; in fact, he had been interested in the same financially since 1890. He sold out his store in 1903 and became a stock- holder in the Dairy Cream Separator Company, and was treasurer and gen- eral manager of the same, doing much to insure its constant success, and continued thus until the company was reorganized. This concern sells to


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jobbers on a large scale and the products of the plant are sent all over the world.


Mr. Callane was married in September, 1887, to Clara Rodkey, a native of Carroll county, Indiana, where she was reared and educated. She is a daughter of Barton and Jane (James) Rodkey, a highly respected family of that county. To our subject and wife two children have been born, namely : M. E., who is secretary of the Dairy Cream Separator Company, and Charles C., who is at this writing a student in Wabash College at Crawfordsville, Indiana.


Politically, Mr. Callane is a Republican, and fraternally, he belongs to the Knights of Pythias at Lebanon. He is a member of the Disciples Church and is vice-president of the official board of the local congregation. Mr. Callane is a man of progressive ideas and a companionable, obliging and genial gentleman.


JOHN P. STARK.


To few of us it is given to come within sight of the gracious castle of our dreams, but there can be no measure of doubt that to many earnest, high- minded seekers after the truth, such as John P. Stark, for many years one of our ablest educators, and who also has long ranked as one of the leading agriculturists of Boone county, has been granted a tangible realization of many of the ideals of early youth-the time of air-castle building-which have been crystalized into worthy accomplishment in connection with the affairs of this work-a-day world. As gentleman of intellectual attainments and genial address, he has won the esteem of a wide acquaintance. Many of his commendable qualities have no doubt been inherited from a long line of sterling ancestors, men and women who were leaders in progressive move- ments in pioneer days. They were Anglo-Saxons of the best type-persons characterized by strength of mind, breadth of view, and broad-minded patriotism.


Mr. Stark was born in Decatur county, Indiana, September 14, 1847. He is a son of Albert W. and Elizabeth (Woodard) Stark, both natives of Shelby county, Kentucky. The paternal grandparents, Philip and Elizabeth (Robbins) Stark, were natives of Virginia, and in that state were also born


DORA E. STARK PHILIP W. STARK A. W. STARK JOHN P. STARK


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the maternal grandparents, John and Elizabeth (Stogdel) Woodard. They were all very early settlers in Indiana, enduring the usual privations and hardships of those who braved life on the frontier. The parents of our subject settled in Decatur county where they remained until the spring of 1857, when they came to Union township, Boone county, where they first purchased one hundred and forty-three acres of improved land, to which they later added eighty acres, a half mile north, and still later purchased one hun- dred and twenty acres in Marion township. Here Albert W. Stark became a prosperous farmer and influential citizen, and he finally retired from active life, bought property in Sheridan to which he moved, and since the death of his wife in November, 1895, he has made his home with our subject. His family consisted of the following children : Rachel M. is deceased; Nancy J. is the wife of William Butner of Lebanon; John P., of this review ; Aden B. died when nine years of age; George F. lives in Benton county, Indiana; Diona F. married William Moreland, of Marion township; James F., of Sheridan, Indiana ; William H. died in the fall of 1911; Elvira is the wife of R. L. Hines, of Worth township, this county; Mary E. married Aaron West, of Worth township.


John P. Stark spent his boyhood days on the home farm. He attended the common schools and the Ladoga Normal. He remained at home until his marriage on June 7, 1868, to Mary M. Shoemaker, who was born in Union township, where she grew to womanhood and was educated in the public schools. She is a daughter of George W. and Martha (Harvey) Shoemaker, natives of Union county, Indiana, and a highly respected family. After his marriage Mr. Stark taught school in Boone county for a period of seventeen years, but his teaching was confined to only four different school- houses. He gave eminent satisfaction as a teacher in every respect. Finally tiring of the school-room he turned his attention to general farming and stock raising which he has since continued with very gratifying results. Forty acres of the home farm fell to him, and he bought forty acres more of the home place, paying eleven hundred dollars for what his father had paid four hundred. The land was well timbered, and this our subject cleared and improved, tiled and ditched it, and sold the place in 1882, and purchased one hundred and forty-three acres where he has since lived, and on which he has made many improvements, building a modern house of brick, erecting substantial outbuildings and now has one of the choice farms of the town-


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ship. In 1907 he built a handsome home in Whitestown and lived there until 1913 when he returned to the farm where he oversees the place, but has ceased hard work to some extent. He also owns eighty acres opposite the road, the north portion of the Shoemaker homestead.


To Mr. and Mrs. Stark the following children have been born: Francis A. is postmaster at Whitestown; Nora O. is the wife of William E. Lane, of Indianapolis; Bertha N. is the wife of James Vance, of Union township; Dora E. lives in Lebanon; and Arminta died in infancy.


Politically, Mr. Stark is a Republican. He served as township trustee from 1881 to 1882, inclusive. Religiously he belongs to the Baptist church, and has been a trustee and clerk of the local congregation. Mr. Stark is clerk of the Gadsten Horse Thief Protective Association.


ISAAC H. BELLES.


It is a well-known fact, fully recognized by physicians and by all others who have made the subject a study, that a quiet life and steady habits pro- mote longevity. In the cities, where the people are falling over each other in their desperate attempts to get rich suddenly, and where they are, as a consequence, in a severe nervous strain all the time, the mortality tables are much higher than in the rural districts. The farmer may, therefore, con- gratulate himself that though his life may be less eventful, it is certainly much longer, more satisfactory in every way than that of his city cousin. This important fact should be borne in mind when the young men of the farm catch the fever to become clerks in some cheap grocery in a town or hie away to the nearest metropolis and secure employment in a smoke-sur- charged, noisy machine shop or factory. How much better is the life of the farmer who has won a farm from the forest, or plied his trade as black- smith or wood-worker in a rural shop, reared a large family of healthy children, made a comfortable home and is able to spend his old age in peace and surrounded by plenty, beloved by all who have known him. Such a man is Isaac H. Belles, of Thorntown, Boone county, the oldest man in this sec- tion of the state, and one of the oldest in the state, for if he lives until Washington's birthday, 1915, he will have lived ninety-nine years of a cen- tury, and, being hale and hearty, as the result of a life of right thinking and


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wholesome living, he bids fair to pass that milestone. He has lived to see the wonderful changes of this protracted epoch, making his own country ap- pear like another world. He has seen the horse replace the oxen, the scythe give way to the mowing machine, the reap-hook supplanted by the self-binder and modern labor-saving machinery of all kinds doing the work of planting and harvesting formerly done by hand. He has seen the old-fashioned ox- cart and lumber wagon relegated to the rear and carriages, spring wagons,


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ISAAC H. BELLES. -Daily Reporter.


automobiles and even airships take their places. He has lived to see vast primeval forests melt away before the sturdy stroke of the axman and fine farms spring up as if by magic, and the country everywhere dotted with substantial dwellings in place of the log cabin, school houses and church edifices built in every community, and thriving towns and populous cities where once were the tepees of the red men or roamed at will the denizens ot the wild, and he has seen the winding Indian trails changed into costly turn- pikes and broad highways. He has not only been an interested spectator to all these vicissitudes but has acted well his part in the transformation.


Mr. Belles was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, February 22, 1816.


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He is a son of William and Mary (Huff) Belles, both natives of New Jersey, where they were reared and married and lived until all their children were born, after which they removed to Ohio and finally came on to Boone county, Indiana. The father was a wagon-maker by trade. His death oc- curred July 31, 1842.


Isaac H. Belles was reared in a pioneer environment, amid the hard- ships and privations of that interesting period in our country's history, so he had plenty of hard work to do and little chance to obtain an education. When a young man he learned the trade of wagon maker, at which he be- came quite an expert, having been taught the same by a lad in Ohio, and he worked at this for some time. He also farmed some in his native state; in fact, continued tilling the soil there until 1855, when he removed to a farm in Washington township, Boone county, Indiana. He was a good manager and prospered with advancing years, adding to his original purchase here from time to time until he became owner of a valuable farm of two hundred and nineteen acres, being rated as one of the leading general farmers and stock raisers in that township. Owing to the encroachment of old age and the fact that he had laid by a goodly competency he sold his farm in 1909, bought a pleasant home in Thorntown and has been living here ever since. but he is still very active and is in possession of all his faculties, and has the appearance of a much younger man.


Mr. Belles was married to Abigail M. May, who was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, and there reared and educated like the rest of the children of her time, in the brief terms of subscription schools, taught in log cabins. She was a daughter of Andrew and Catherine May, natives of Pennsyl- vania. Her death occurred in 1869. To our subject and wife the following children were born: David is deceased; Emmeline lives with her father; Angeline, Sarah and Francis A. are all deceased; Clark W. lives in Indianapo- lis; Alexander died in infancy ; Mary M. is the widow of Lee M. Corkle, of Thorntown; Theodore lives in Indianapolis; Elethia is the wife of Joseph Jaques, of Thorntown; Alva C. lives in Indianapolis ; Herschel, deceased.


Politically, Mr. Belles is a Republican, but has never sought to be a public man in any way. He has always been a man of good habits, and never used tobacco or liquor in any form, or in fact, had any bad habits, which, he thinks, has had much to do with lengthening out his long life. He has never been a member of secret or fraternal societies or orders.


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GILBERT H. HAMILTON.


Gilbert H. Hamilton, editor and publisher of the Thorntown Times, is a native of the Hoosier state, born on the ninth day of February, 1860, in the county of Montgomery, son of John and Matilda (Kendall) Hamilton. The Hamiltons are of German-English lineage and the family name is trace- able to the eastern states, where it is still common and where the remote an- cestors settled at a very early period in the country's history. John Hamil- ton, the subject's father, whose birth occurred in Ohio in the year 1823, was a son of Henry Hamilton, a native of that state, and a farmer by occu- pation. John Hamilton began the battle of life upon his own responsibility as a tiller of the soil in the vicinity of Thorntown, Boone county, to which part of the state his parents removed when he was a mere child. He was a successful agriculturist and manager, became the possessor of a valuable estate, and earned the reputation of a first-class business man and valuable citizen. He was reared in the religious faith of the Methodist church. He was a Republican in politics and wielded an influence for his party through- out the community where he lived. Mr. Hamilton was married three times, his last union being solemnized in 1857 with Matilda Kendall, who bore him ten children, nine of whom were reared to full estate. They were Gil- bert H., whose name heads this mention; Edward E., Mrs. Mattie J. Allen, Mrs. Kittie Sidenstick, Charles H., Mrs. Tinnie Little, Mrs. Josephine Boo- her, Sylvia and John. Mr. Hamilton passed the greater part of his married life in Montgomery county on a beautiful and well cultivated farm of one hundred sixty acres, where, on the sixth day of January, 1892, his death occurred.


Gilbert H. Hamilton received his early parental training on the home farm, and while still young was given the advantages of the best schools the county at that time afforded, his advancement being such that, at the age of seventeen, he was sufficiently qualified to teach, which profession he followed with the most gratifying success until attaining his majority, pursuing his duties assiduously under the direction of competent instructors at intervals. On reaching his twenty-first year, Mr. Hamilton yielded to a strong inclina- tion to enter the field of Journalism, and made his first venture in the pro- fession by purchasing, without personal inspection, the Colfax Chronicle,


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in the office of which, without any previous knowledge in the line of news- paper work, he began his career as editor and manager. The young editor at first was harassed by many embarrassments, but a determined will en- abled him to triumph over every obstacle, and he soon had the satisfaction of seeing the enterprise placed upon a substantial and remunerative basis, and himself launched upon the sea of successful journalism. After con- tinuing the Chronicle at Colfax from 1882 to 1885, Mr. Hamilton, think- ing that the growing city of Frankfort afforded a better field for the enter- prise, moved the office to the latter place, where, in partnership with G. Y. Fowler, he established the Frankfort Times, which, although beset with numerous obstacles at the beginning, under his successful management as the executive head and editor, in the space of a little over two years arose to a circulation of nearly 3,000 subscribers and enjoyed a very liberal advertis- ing patronage, becoming, indeed, one of the most successful local papers ever published in the county of Clinton. After living to see the enterprise, so unauspiciously begun in Frankfort, develop into one of the first printing establishments in central Indiana, Mr. Hamilton disposed of his interest in the office, and during the two succeeding years was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Cincinnati and Indianapolis, where for some time he gave his attention to the advertising and handling of specialties. After a brief busi- ness career in the latter city, Mr. Hamilton again embarked in the newspaper business in January, 1890, purchasing the Thorntown Argus, at that time a five-column folio, with a limited circulation.


Under his management the paper grew in size, circulation and prestige, and. throughout its career of fifteen years under his ownership, was one of the most widely quoted papers published in a rural community. He sold the property January 1, 1905, after a prosperous career.


In July, 1905, he went to Connersville, Indiana, where he purchased and published the Connersville Courier for over three years. As an advo- cate of principles and practices tending to the advancement of the best in- terests of the community in which he labored, he received early recognition as a power for good and through dissemination of information as news he so wrought public opinion that he caused to be put over more reform legis- lation in civic affairs for the benefit of the public of that city than had ever been acquired before.


Being tempted with an offer for his paper, that made it seem indiscreet


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to decline to sell, he sold out and again returned to Thorntown, which place had continued his residence and where there was a pressing demand for his return to the newspaper field.


The result was the establishing of the Thorntown Times which in a single year leaped to a position in business, circulation and prestige, which placed it in the front ranks. At this time he is still engaged in its publica- tion and the paper occupies its own home with a modern outfit of type and machinery, the latter all driven by electric power.


Of Mr. Hamilton personally, it is only necessary to say that he is a typical man of the times, a characteristic American, enterprising in all the term implies; and in all the attributes of honorable citizenship, honesty of purpose, and uprightness of character, he stands prominent in his commun- ity. Politically, he is a Republican, and as such has been a potent factor in his party's success, both as a trenchant writer and as a worker in the ranks. He was honored by his party with the nomination for senator from the joint counties of Boone and Hendricks in the campaign of 1912, but suffered the same fate that befell the entire twenty-five candidates from over the state, owing to the party division of that year caused by the Progressive movement.


For a quarter century he has held membership in the Republican Edi- torial Association of Indiana, and the Northern Association of Editorial Writers, and has frequently represented these bodies at the national meeting as a delegate from the local organization.


Fraternally, he is an active member of the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias. For nearly twenty-five years he has enjoyed the dis- tinction of a thirty-second degree Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Mason and has also been a noble of the Mystic Shrine for the same period.


As an evidence of the local esteem in which he is held by the people of his home community, where he has lived a quarter century, Mr. Hamilton is serving a second term as a member of the school trustees, and is president of the body, as well as that of the library commission which is completing an elegant ten thousand dollar library building in the heart of the city and near the schools.


Mr. Hamilton was married November 24, 1881, in Colfax, Indiana, to Florence E. Graves, who was born July 24, 1862, in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Robert Graves, an officer in the United States naval service.


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ARTHUR MAPLE.


One of the tillers of the soil in Boone county who has lived to see great changes in agricultural affairs since he began farming is Arthur Maple, of Marion township, having noted, among other things, that there has been a very steady increase in the value of products per farm in the United States during the past thirty years. Not as great an increase as in other lines of industry, perhaps, but we compare favorably with the farmers of other nations. Two decades ago the average farm produced annually in this country five hundred and thirty-eight dollars ; one decade ago, eight hundred and twenty-two dollars; the figures now run to thirteen hundred and thirty- six dollars. We also show, according to reliable statistics, an increase of over two million farms during this period. All the while Mr. Maple has been a close observer and has progressed with the times until he ranks today among our best farmers and worthy citizens.


Mr. Maple was born October 12, 1855 in Henry county, Indiana. He is a son of George L. and Harriett A. (Beach) Maple, the former a native of Rush county, Indiana, and the latter a native of Henry county, this state. The paternal grandparents, John and Elizabeth (Hillis) Maple, were natives of Kentucky, where they grew up and married, later removing to Rush county, Indiana, secured government land, the nearest railroad point being Cincinnati, Ohio, sixty miles away. Mr. Maple walked all the way to In- dianapolis and back to pay his entry fee. He built a cabin of poles, hanging quilts over the openings to protect the family from the weather, living thus for some time until he built a substantial log cabin, which he did without any help. He cleared and developed his land and succeeded through hard work. The history of the Beach family is traceable to a remote period in our coun- try's history. We first hear of Thomas Beach, of the New Haven colony, who settled at Milford, Connecticut in 1654, where his great-grandson, Zerah Beach, was born August 15, 1770. The latter's son, Stephen Beach, was born January 3, 1803, and died September 8, 1878. He came to Henry county, Indiana, in an carly day and entered one hundred and sixty acres of land from the government.




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