History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume II, Part 32

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 32


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About the same time his heart sought a fair maiden by the scripture name of Sarah, daughter of Judge Kenworthy, who was among the first white men who took up their abode in the old French and Indian village of Thorntown, as early as 1819. Now Sarah was fair and kind of heart and James was drawn towards her. She was born in Miami county, Ohio, on next to the last day of the year 1810, and her parents moved to Thorntown when she was of tender age, and settled just east of the old French and Indian trading point in section 31, township 20 north, range I west, just a little over one mile across the woods from where our hero had located his home. There is no positive record of the process of movements, but the sequence tells the story. It must have run the same old road of lovers. There were meetings and cooings, horseback rides to the old church, apple parings, corn huskings, etc., during which the young man lost his heart. It put nerve into his arm. He drove a stake for his home just north of a gurgling spring, laid the ax to the root of the tree, like a tanner, not a woodman with trained chopping art. He hackled all round and round the tree until it fell in the line of gravitation. Thus he cleared the spot, hewed the logs and reared the home to the gables and put on the roof. All this while his heart strings were pulling stronger and stronger towards the Judge's daughter. He could wait no longer, not even to build the gables.


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On the twenty-second day of November, 1832, James P. Mills was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Kenworthy and after one month of honeymoon, the bride at mother's and the groom trotting back and forth to his farm, one mile, and working like a beaver each day, fitting the home for his queen, at the close of the year 1832, with ax, mattock, handspike, hackle, loom and high hopes, they began home building in earnest in the wilderness. The story of this home is the story of Indiana. Its struggles, its privations, its hard- ships, its joys, its sorrows were the common lot of all. In this sketch we cannot stop to give the colorings, but must pass on.


We have spoken of James P. Mills as a pioneer, and it might be well on this occasion to speak of him as a man and citizen. As an orphan and ap- prentice, his youth passed without opportunity of education to qualify him as a public man. Landing in Indiana as he entered upon his majority, he at once became too busily engaged in subduing the wilderness and in his zealous home-building and struggles to provide for his family to look into books. He was a devoted husband, a provident and faithful father, and a conscien- tious citizen. With all these duties pressing upon him continuously day by day there was little opportunity for mind culture. In the very prime of life, when the light of a better day was dawning, the angel of death entered his home and took away the companion of his struggles.


There he stood, having passed the wilderness, in full view of the Canaan land. ready to pass over and feed on its honey and milk, but alas! The com- panion of his joys and sorrows, of all his toils and hardships was called away and left him standing on the shore, with all the little ones clinging to his knees and pressing on his heart. This was a time to try his soul. Dazed. bewildered and uncertain how to move, he stood as a father true to his trust, even clinging to his babe in his desperation to hold the family of children together. He rose to the emergency of filling the place both of father and the truest of mothers. What a task of love! What a test of manhood ! Few men would have borne the burden. He held his place at the head of the home, protecting and providing for his children until they grew to manhood and womanhood. He not only provided food and raiment, but saw that the fundamental principle of government was instilled and imbedded in their nature, that comes from the law of obedience. His word was the law of the family. He also provided for their education, even to the sacrifice of send- ing them from home, where they could have better facilities.


During the lonely days of his widowerhood he read much of patriotism


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and obedience to her call took all the sons from the home. Later Cupid entered and the daughters fell by his darts and the house was left desolate and the hero of all its conflicts stood solitary and alone. It was in the midst of this period of his life we first met him. For one year in the early eighties we sat at the same table three times a day. Mr. Mills was reticent by nature and slow to form acquaintance, but he grew upon you slowly and surely. He possessed more in mind and heart than appeared on the surface. If you came in touch with him where he lived you would find him a live coal. He was a graduate in the affairs of life. He may not have had the culture of college training, but he did have that high sense of honor and manhood that comes through the school of life's duties and trials. He was polished by the friction of hardships and refined by the pressure of a life devoted faith- fully to duty under the most trying circumstances. He was indeed truly educated and his life is a rich legacy to children and children's children.


GOVERNMENT DEED TO MILLS.


The government deeded to James Philips Mills, of Crawfordsville, Indi- ana, the following described land: The east fraction of the northwest quarter of section seven in township nineteen, north, range one west, in the district of lands subject to sale at Crawfordsville, Indiana, containing eighty acres, deed dated, Washington, D. C., March third in the year A. D. one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one and the year of the Independence of the United States of America Fifty-fifth. Signed Andrew Jackson, Presi- dent of the United States.


In the pioneer home were born all the stalwart sons and fair daughters. Anson, August 31, 1834; William, Marietta, Eliza Jane, Emmett, Allen, Gil- bert John, Caroline and Thomas Edwin. Sacrifices were necessary to edu- cate them. Schools there were none and they must needs be sent from home to the far east and south. The parents rose to the emergency. The mother spun, wove, made the garments and prepared food : the father tilled the soil and economized to provide means. In this home amid all the hopes and anxieties of the parents came the white-winged cupid with orange blossoms and daughters were given in marriage; came dark-winged death with sorrow also, bearing away its inmates in infancy, childhood and in young manhood's ripened prime on the field of battle. Saddest of all became the home when the mother, the light of its hearth, the bond of its union, was borne from their midst on September 4, 1849.


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The mother and children, all gone by marriage or death, the father was left alone to live over and over the joys and griefs of the household. He trod the way companionless, down the sunset of life, until he passed under the shadow April 22, 1889, survived by three sons and two daughters. Thus ended the life work of one pioneer family of Indiana, after a full half century of toil.


Industry, frugality, truth, honesty and temperance were the cardinal virtues that made the sure foundation of this home. Such as these made the great republic possible. Parents of nine children, self-sacrificing, self- denying, self-reliant and peaceful, joint occupants of the same farm with the Pottawattamie Indians.


The house has mouldered away and given place to the new and modern, but the spirit generated in it is alive today, of which this occasion is a glorious and lasting witness.


IN MEMORIAM A. D. 1909.


A live memorial is erected upon our streets by the eldest son, General Anson P. Mills, Washington, D. C., to commemorate these lives. As the warp and woof of mother's loom ran down like a golden web through his mind and heart, inspiring success in life, mayhap there was also a continu- ous silver thread, flowing from the gurgling spring at the old home to this memoriam.


As the iridescent spray flying crystal-white from its sculptured forms and flowers, thrill our being with a sense of beauty and perfection of taste, it is well for us to remember the story of the toil and sacrifice of hands and hearts that made it possible.


Marietta Mills, daughter of James P. and Sarah Kenworthy Mills, was born December 31, 1837 and died February 12, 1914. She is a sister of Anson P. Mills.


She was united in marriage to John T. Burckhalter, April 15, 1858. To this union were born ten children, three having preceded the mother in death. The surviving ones are, Abraham, of Montana; Rembrant W., of Pennsylvania; Sarah and Grace, of Thorntown; Rosa, of Hazelrigg; and Bertha and Howard, who lived with her and administered to her in her de- clining years.


She leaves six grandchildren and one great grandchild, her namesake, Marietta, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Taylor, of Rochester, Indiana. Besides


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these two brothers, Brig. Gen. Anson Mills, of Washington, D. C., Allen Mills, of Thorntown, and one sister, Mrs. Jane Smiley, of Thorntown.


She became a member of the Christian church in 1857 under the preach- ing of Rev. A. L. Hobbs.


Mrs. Burckhalter was a woman of very fine type of mind, taking a very philosophical view of affairs at all times and up to the very time of her death her mind was exceptionally clear and keen.


Mrs. Burckhalter was born in an old log house that stood on the site of the present modern home, in fact her death occurred within a few feet of the place of her birth. The farm on which she was born, lived and died, was entered by her father, James P. Mills, September 30, 1834, who also on March 18, 1837, entered a tract of land adjoining. Sheepskin letters of patents are still in possession of the family, the first signed by Andrew Jack- son, the second signed by Martin Van Buren, presidents of the United States at the time of entry.


Mrs. Burckhalter had witnessed the greatest era in the history of the nation and the most wonderful era, scientifically in the history of the world.


She had a large part in the history of the state and nation, one brother being consul to Mexico, while the illustrious Anson Mills, so distinguished himself in time of war as to secure the position of brigadier-general. Dur- ing all these years she quietly remained at home, keeping the family together and rearing to sturdy manhood and winsome womanhood her sons and daughters who give to our nation those qualities and virtues which make us great among the nations of the earth.


It is intensely interesting to note the kaleidoscopic changes that have taken place in the life-time of this good woman. Born as we have said in a log house with its great open fire place that with tropic heat drove back the frost line from the window pane. This early home giving place to the pres- ent modern house with its conveniences and equipment. The old swinging crane and bake pan for the corn pone to the modern culinary effects. The tallow dip giving place to candle "by which you could read and not be nearer than four feet," then that revelation the kerosene lamp, "that lighted all the room" and then the present acetylene plant that rivals the daylight.


She saw her father haul great logs and place them end to end for fence, with chunks between to keep the pigs in or out. She saw him cut his grain with the sickle, this giving place to the rythmic swing of the cradle and then the drone of the modern harvesting machinery. In her early days the rap,


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rap of the flail, then the steady tramp of horses in the threshing of grain and now the whir of the modern thresher.


When she was a girl the nearest markets were LaFayette and Cincinnati. On the farm are still the old tanning vats where hides were prepared for the annual arrival of the shoemaker who came and stayed until he had made shoes for the whole family.


Mrs. Burckhalter walked to Thorntown to see the first train arrive on rails made of wood and shod with iron and "you must not get closer than twenty or thirty feet for fear of getting hurt."


During her time she had witnessed the coming of telephone, telegraph, wireless telegraphy, electric lights, automobiles, balloons and flying machines. Space forbids to enumerate further, but what a wonderful age in which this pioneer lived, and what a legacy such people as she have left to their children and to generations yet to come.


There is a little romance connected with the home place of Mrs. Burck- halter. Two young Indian chieftains fell in love with the same dusky maiden and fought a duel with knives over her, each struck the other a fatal blow at the same moment and the graves of these young chieftains are known today by members of the family.


Mrs. Burckhalter's life was spent at home caring for her children; this was her Christian duty and it was performed well and today her boys and girls can rise up and call her blessed.


JAMES M. SMALL.


Profit is the greatest incentive to production and compulsory education that the world has ever known. The farmer is human. He works for money and he will intensify and diversify whenever it pays him to do so, and no amount of well-written formulas or monstrous exhibits will permanently influence him quite so much as a dollar at the end of the row. Not a theoretical dollar. but one that he can put into his pocket-a dollar that comes as the result of a sale. The weakness of many plans that have been com- missioned and thrust upon the farmer is that the factor of profit has not been duly considered. The farmer is also misunderstood. One of the progressive


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tillers of the soil of Center township, Boone county, is James M. Small, who has had sufficient intelligence to accept such modern methods of husbandry as specially applied to local conditions and to reject those that were not, and as a result he has had comfortable income from year to year as a result of his labors.


Mr. Small was born July II, 1850, in Nicholas county, Kentucky. He is a son of William H. and Matilda (Garner) Small, both also natives of Kentucky, the father's birth occurring on July 31, 1818, and the mother was born January 21, 1821. There they grew to maturity and were married, and spent their lives engaged in general farming. The death of the father occurred November 13, 1901, and the mother passed away in 1910. They were the parents of ten children, six of whom are living, namely: Mary E., and Joseph W. are both deceased; Richard R. is living; James M., of this review; John W., George N., and Martha J. are all living; Sarah A. and Francis M. are both deceased; Emma A. is the youngest.


James M. Small was young when he left Kentucky. He received a common school education and when a young man learned the carpenter's trade, in which he became quite proficient. He had an ambition to teach school when a boy and applied for a school. but was defeated by one vote, and he never again made an attempt to engage in this profession but took up farming in Boone county and this has continued his principal life work to the present time. He is now owner of one hundred and ninety-seven acres in his home place in Center township, also owns thirty acres just north of here. All his land is well improved, well tiled and all tillable and is productive. He built his own home, which is a substantial and pleasant one, also made other important improvements in the way of outbuildings, fences, etc. He keeps an excellent grade of live stock and is one of the best farmers in the township, according to his neighbors and those who have occasion to know of his methods. He handles Shorthorn cattle and draft horses.


Mr. Small was married twice, first, to Malancia Alexander, March 16, 1879 ; she was born in Boone county on September 4, 1860. She is a daugh- ter of Andrew and Emiline (Bennett) Alexander. By this union two chil- dren were born, namely: Eva F., born July 8, 1882, married Tom Watter- man, and Reyburn P. is deceased. The wife and mother was called to her eternal rest on June 6, 1886. On April 8, 1889, Mr. Small married Laura E. Stewart, who was born in Johnson county, Indiana, April 17, 1855; she


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is a daughter of Robert and Hulda (Clark) Johnson. Mrs. Small received a good education in the common schools of her native community, also a normal school, and she followed teaching with much success for a period of seventeen years in Putnam county and ranked among the leading educators of the same. Two children have been born to our subject and his second wife, namely : Alva D., born March 8, 1890, married Hazel Farris, and they live on a farm near the home of our subject; Wilbur A., born November 9, 1891, is at home with his parents.


Politically, Mr. Small is a Democrat. and is a loyal supporter of his party. He was a candidate for nomination for county treasurer in 1912, but was defeated. Fraternally, he is a member of the Knights of Pythias, a charter member of the lodge at Lebanon. He is an active member of the First Christian church in Lebanon, and was for many years a deacon in the same.


ISAAC THOMAS DAVIS.


The following is a brief sketch of the life of one who, by close atten- tion to business, has achieved success in the world's affairs and risen to an honorable position among the enterprising men of the city with which his interests have been identified for the past thirty-five years. It is a plain record, rendered remarkable by no strange or mysterious adventure, no wonderful and lucky accident and no tragic situation. Isaac Thomas Davis, senior member of the well-known livery firm of Davis Brothers, of Leba- non, Boone county, is a man of honest convictions and sincere purposes, his upright career and wholesome moral influence making him respected by all who have come into contact with him.


Mr. Davis was born at Brown's Valley, Montgomery county, Indiana, March 5, 1849. He is a son of Josiah and Nancy (Carson) Davis, an old family of that county, the father coming there in an early day from Kentucky where he was born.


Isaac T. Davis grew to manhood in his native county, and he received a meager education in the country schools there. When a young man he took up general farming which he followed until 1869, two years being spent in the state of Missouri. He then turned his attention to the livery business


I. T. DAVIS


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which he lias followed ever since. He was in Ladoga, Indiana, until 1878, where he had a good trade, then, desiring a larger field, he came to Lebanon where he has continued this line of endeavor to the present time, becoming meantime one of the best known liverymen in northern Indiana. However. during this period he spent two years looking after the duties of the sheriff's office of Boone county, to which he was elected in 1882. He gave eminent satisfaction to his constituents in this branch of public service, proving an able, courageous and faithful servant of the people. He remained in the livery business alone until 1902 when he took his brother, John H., into partnership, under the firm name of Davis Brothers and they still continue. They have large and modernly equipped stables, the equal of any in this sec- tion of the state in every respect, keeping good horses and vehicles of all kinds, and they strive to render prompt and high-grade service. Our sub- ject is an experienced horseman and an exceptionally good judge of a horse.


Mr. Davis was married in 1865 to Jennie Mitchell, a native of Mont- gomery county, and to this union one child was born, which died early, and the death of the wife and mother occurred in 1872. Mr. Davis married in 1874 Maggie Andrews, of Jamestown, Boone county, and to this second union four children were born, one of whom is deceased. The three sur- viving are: Carl A., who is engaged in the hardware business in Lebanon ; Will C. is engaged in the shoe business in Lebanon; Beulah is at home with her parents.


Politically Mr. Davis is a Democrat and faithful in his support of the party. He is a member of the Baptist church, and fraternally belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Improved Order of Red Men.


M. D. HARVEY.


The character of a community is determined in a large measure by the lives of a comparatively few of its members. If its moral and intellectual status be good, if in a social way it is a pleasant place in which to reside, if its reputation for the integrity of its citizens has extended into other local- ities, it 'will be found that the standards set by the leading men have been high, and their influence such as to mould their characters and shape the lives


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of those with whom they mingle. In placing M. D. Harvey, the popular and efficient cashier of the Zionsville Bank, in the front rank of such men in Boone county, justice is rendered a biographical fact universally recognized throughout this locality by those at all familiar with his history. Although a quiet and unassuming man with no ambition for public leadership, he has contributed much to the material advancement of the community, while his admirable qualities of head and heart and the straightforward, upright course of his daily life, have tended greatly to the moral standing of the circles in which he moves and these attributes have given him a reputation for integrity and correct conduct such as few achieve.


Mr. Harvey was born in Hamilton county, Indiana, on a farm seven miles from Zionsville, February 3, 1855. He is a son of William Harvey, an early settler in this section of Indiana, who became a successful farmer and stock man. He was a native of Union county, this state, where he grew to manhood and was educated in the old time subscription schools. His an- cestors were English. The mother of our subject was Caroline Beeson be- fore her marriage. She was born near Richmond, Wayne county, Indiana. her family being among the early settlers there. The father of our subject became the owner of three hundred and seventy acres of valuable land in Hamilton county and there established a comfortable home and became a well known citizen. His family consisted of eight children, five sons and three daughters. The father of these children died at the age of fifty-four years. Politically, he was a Democrat and was a stanch church member, being many years an elder. The mother of our subject lived to be seventy-six years old. She, too, was an earnest church member.


M. D. Harvey of this sketch grew to manhood on the home farm and there assisted with the general work, receiving his early education in the public schools, the high school at Westfall and the Valparaiso Normal College. He then taught in the district schools for two years, then turned his attention to business. In 1881 he married Rozella Jones, who was born, reared and edu- cated in Union county, where her people settled very early and became prom- inent. Mr. Harvey devoted considerable attention to stock raising, especially pure bred Duroc hogs, owning some of the best in the country, with which he took the first premiums at the International Stock Show in Chicago, showing the largest hog of any breed. He has sold hogs as high as nine hundred dollars and one thousand dollars. His herd at this writing of two hundred


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is no doubt the best in the state: in fact, no better could be found in the United States, and these fine animals have carried his name throughout the land and he is widely known as one of the leading stock men of the middle west. He owns a fine farm and has a modernly appointed home.


Mr. Harvey became cashier of the Farmers Bank of Zionsville early in its history. It has a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars and was organ- ized in 1882. J. W. Brendel is president. Erna M. Harvey is assistant cashier .. It is one of the strongest and most popular banks in Boone county and a gen- eral banking business is carried on. It has a modern and substantial build- ing and its fixtures and equipment are up-to-date in every respect.


One son, Erna M., has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Harvey. He is with his father in the bank. He married Mattie Brendel, daughter of Dr. J. F. Brendel, a prominent citizen of Zionsville. Two children have been born to Erna Harvey and wife, namely: Mabel Marie and John M. One daugh- ter, Maude, was born to our subject and wife. She attended St. Mary's College, also the University of Indiana at Bloomington.


Politically, our subject is a Democrat, and he belongs to the Masonic Order, is a Knights Templar and a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Murat Temple, Indianapolis. He is eminently deserving of the trust and esteem accorded him.


HARRY McDANIEL.


Notwithstanding opinions to the contrary, much depends upon being well born, and the old adage that "blood will tell" is not only true, but pro- foundly philosophical. In a large measure we are what our ancestors were, their characteristics and attributes as a rule constituting a heritage which has had a powerful influence in moulding our lives for good or evil. "Like pro- duces like," a recognized law of the physical world, also obtains in matters of mind and morals, as the experience of the human race abundantly attests. Harry McDaniel, well-known agent of the Big Four railroad at Zionsville, Boone county, was fortunate in his ancestry, for he has inherited many com- mendable traits of head and heart.




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