USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume II > Part 34
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Mr. Brandenburg has a good home at Royalton, Eagle township. He has served twice as township supervisor.
MILTON S. DAVENPORT.
Milton S. Davenport, the son of Austin and Elizabeth ( Hooven) Daven- port, was born April 2, 1830, on a farm where the village of Zionsville now stands. Austin Davenport and his wife were natives of North Carolina, the former of Davidson county and the latter of Randolph county, and in 1821 they came to Indiana with their two children and located in Wayne county and in 1823 they came on northwest and located in Boone county, where Mr. Davenport had entered land in 1822. Here this pioneer family experienced all the hardships common to the early settlement in a new country and all the privations to which such a life is heir, and here, starting in the woods, was forced to provide for his little family by the tilling of the soil and what little his trusty gun would furnish. At that time game of all kinds was in abundance, and the pioneer, as a rule, had plenty of wild game for the table. In 1832 Mr. Davenport sold his first purchase of land and entered three hundred and twenty acres farther east, and on this land he located the same year and built a brick house in the year 1834, it being one of the first brick residences in the county. There being no sawmill near by, he built a
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platform onto which he rolled logs and out of same he whipsawed the joists and other material for the building, which was a two-story house and covered same with shaved shingles. It was here that Mr. Davenport died a few years later and on this farm the family continued to reside for years.
Milton S. Davenport was reared here in this pioneer settlement, having the advantages of the common school of that day and after his mother died, in 1838, he lived with a married sister and brother until he was fourteen years old, when he was bound out to learn the tanner's trade, and during his apprenticeship he received his board and clothing. After two years his guardian took him away and he finished his trade at Indianapolis, receiving during that period the princely salary of six dollars per month the third year and seven dollars per month the fourth year. In 1849 he bought a tannery at Eagle Village, which he conducted until 1851, when he traded same for a farm, which he worked for one year and from 1853 to 1858 he worked as a foreman in a tannery at Noblesville and the following year located at Zions- ville and built a tannery, which he operated until 1867. He then lived on a farm of thirty acres one mile west of Zionsville. to which he added forty acres more.
In January, 1878, he abandoned farm life and located in Zionsville that he might conduct the insurance business, which he began in 1875 and has continued same up until the present time. Mr. Davenport has lived a busy life from early manhood, and with the exception of a few years has spent same at Zionsville or nearby.
Mr. Davenport was married on October 12, 1848, to Miss Mary I. Gates, a daughter of the gentleman for whom he worked several years and by this marriage he became the father of nine children, five of whom grew to maturity and were married, but only three of them are now living. Mrs. Davenport died on October 17, 1908, and on November 11, 1909, he married Mrs. Julia A. (Friberger) Lane, who died three months later, and on No- vember 16, 1910, Mr. Davenport married Mrs. Mary J. Law, whose maiden name was Mckenzie.
Fraternally, our subject belongs to the Masonic order, in which he has filled all the offices except Worshipful Master, and politically, he is a Repub- lican, having cast his first vote for a Whig candidate. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has been class leader for years.
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BENJAMIN B. McROBERTS.
Praise is always due to merit and especially where merit is the product of unassisted energy and perseverance. The self-made man commands our highest respect. Those struggles by means of which he has risen from obscurity to honorable distinction cannot fail to enlist sympathy and call forth our warmest applause. Benjamin B. McRoberts, of Lebanon, is a notable example of the successful, self-made man, and as such has made his influence felt among his fellow citizens by rising to one of the most important positions within their power to confer, being at the present time the capable and popular sheriff of Boone county, being the second time that he has been incumbent of the same, and in which he has ever displayed ability of a high order and fully met the high expectations of his friends and the general public. Mr. McRoberts springs from a sterling old Kentucky family, the name being an honorable one and wherever known stands for upright man- hood and patriotic citizenship. Those bearing it have ever been jealous of the family honor, and tracing the genealogy back through a long line of sturdy ancestors but few, if any, instances can be discovered in which that honor has been sullied or its luster tarnished by the commission of unworthy acts. The subject of this review is a creditable representative of the family and seems to inherit to a marked degree many of the commendable qualities by which his antecedents have so long been distinguished.
Mr. McRoberts was born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, near the town of Stanford, September 20. 1848. He is a son of George T. and Ellen (Gains) McRoberts, the father born in the same vicinity as was our subject, while the mother's birth occurred in Boyle county, Kentucky. These parents grew to maturity in the Blue Grass state and were educated and married there and established the family home on a farm. The father learned the carpenter's trade in early life, which he followed in connection with farming. He and his wife spent their lives in their native state and both died there a number of years ago. They were industrious and honest, honored by their neighbors and acquaintances.
Benjamin B. McRoberts grew to manhood on the home farm in Ken- tucky and assisted his father with the general work there, attending the common schools in his neighborhood during the winter months. He re- mained under the parental roof-tree until 1881, when he came to Boone county, Indiana, and hired out at farm work by the month. He saved his
BENJ. B. McROBERTS
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wages and thereby got a start. In December, 1883, he married Martha Abbott, who was born in Union township, this county, where she was reared and educated in the rural schools. She is a daughter of John and America (Sedgwick) Abbott, the father a native of Decatur county, and the mother of Boone county, Indiana. After his marriage our subject rented a farm in Union township for one year. This was on the Shoemaker farm, then he moved to the Marvin farm, where he spent two years, then moved to the John Abbott farm, that of his father-in-law. After living there a year he moved to the Weed farm, in Marion township, where he spent sixteen years, then bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, where he lived until January 1, 1908, then bought eighty acres north and forty acres south of Elizaville, making a total of two hundred and eighty acres, when, having been elected sheriff of Boone county the previous fall, he assumed the duties of this important office and moved to Lebanon. After serving one term to the eminent satisfaction of the people he returned to his farm and engaged in general agricultural pursuits with his usual success for four years more, then was again elected sheriff of his county and is now serving his second term in a most faithful and conscientious manner ; in fact, many pronounce him the best sheriff the county has ever had; it seems certain, any way, that he has had no superiors. He has done much to suppress the tendency of law breaking in all forms in the county and has done much toward the civic betterment of the community in many ways.
The following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. McRoberts : George Arson, who lives in Marion township; Teressa is the wife of Earl Barhard, of Clinton township: William Otis lives in Clinton township; Jessie is the wife of Clint Sanders, of Clinton township; Harvey is living on his father's old farm.
Politically, Mr. McRoberts is a loyal Democrat and has long been active in party affairs. Something of his high standing and popularity will be seen from the fact that he is the first sheriff to be elected on the Demo- cratic ticket in Boone county since 1883. Fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic Order, including the Chapter and Commandery; also the Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows at Lebanon. He is an obliging and courteous gentleman, broad-minded, straightforward and self-possessed, a man who impresses you at once.
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REV. ABNER H. LONGLEY.
Abner Hixon Longley was born in Mason county, Kentucky, near the town of Maysville, on a farm. His father was a New Yorker, and his mother a Jersey woman, of average English education. The name Longley was then, and remained for half a century, almost unknown in the western states. It was brought over from England by three brothers, who settled in Massachu- setts soon after the landing of the "Mayflower." Of these three brothers the history of but one is known; and that is on record that he and all his family except one son were massacred by the Indians. That son was rescued, and from him have sprung the now somewhat large number of families bearing his name.
The father of Abner removed with his large family to Butler county, Ohio, within three miles of Oxford, where he died February 23, 1818, aged seventy-two. The mother, whose maiden name was Martha Hixon, sur- vived him until 1844; kept the family together, and so trained young Abner that he cultivated a literary turn of mind which shaped his future course in life. She lived to be eighty years old and died in Lebanon, Indiana. Of five sons, John became a New Light preacher, and besides raising a family of twenty-five children-or rather becoming the father of that number, for the larger portion of them died in childhood, as might be expected-he pursued his ministerial calling in Indiana most of the time until he was eighty-six years old, when he died in LaFayette.
Abner H. Longley learned the trade of a cabinet maker, and pursued it faithfully for a number of years, at the same time that he was pursuing the higher studies of a liberal education in the then young Miami University in Oxford. The distinguished scholar and author, William H. McGuffey, was then just beginning his famous career as an educator, and the subject of our sketch was one of his most promising pupils. Among his classmates were such afterward prominent men as Gen. Charles Anderson, Gen. Robert C. Schenck, Hon. Samuel Galloway, and others. Before finishing his education he began preaching the same reformatory Christian doctrines that were pro- mulgated by his older brother.
But it so happened that that pioneer Universalist preacher, Jonathan Kidwell, had just located in Oxford, and began publishing his first periodical in advocacy of his new doctrines, and Mr. Longley's attention was attracted
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to them. The result was that he espoused them, began preaching the then heretical doctrines about the year 1820. His field of itineracy was wherever he was called, and he preached the gospel as he understood it, to few or many, and generally without money or price. He also devoted much time writing for the periodicals devoted to Universalism throughout his long life. He always spoke and wrote in clear, forcible, argumentative style and was listened to and read with interest. His earlier preaching was in Butler, Pre- ble and Warren counties, Olio; but after moving to Lebanon, Boone county, Indiana, where he arrived in August, 1832, and was the first settler and built the first house in the town, he improved every opportunity to disseminate the faith of future universal salvation from sin and consequent misery. In 1836 he was elected to the Indiana Legislature by the Democrats of the counties of Boone and Hamilton, but in 1854 he became a Republican.
In 1839 Mr. Longley lost his first wife, whose maiden name was Mary Stephenson, and whom he married in Lebanon, Ohio. In less than a year he married again, this time Mrs. Sophronia Snow Bassett, of Cincinnati, and he removed his family of five boys and two daughters to that city. One object he cherished in his mind in removing to Cincinnati was to give his children a better education than could be obtained in the then unimproved county of Boone. In this he partially, if not wholly to his satisfaction, suc- ceeded. He also was enabled to devote more of his time to preaching, though he never became a settled pastor over any considerable congregation. For several years he preached regularly, once or twice a month, to organized churches in Delhi and Mt. Healthy, near Cincinnati, Goshen, Clermont county, Williamsburg, and elsewhere in the same county. He also, on quite a number of occasions, preached in both the Universalist churches in Cincinnati.
In 1844 Mr. Longley's mind was directed to an examination of the doc- trines of Charles Fourier, the French socialist, who wrote and published a very elaborate scheme for benefiting the human race by a more equitable dis- tribution of the rewards of labor and money. A society was formed, con- sisting of intelligent and well-meaning men, to solve the problem of asso- ciated labor and consolidated or a unitary household. It was a joint stock enterprise, and not a community of property, in which every member, from the child of twelve years up, was to be rewarded according to the time and skill given to productive industry. The organization purchased a few hun- dred acres of excellent land on the Ohio river, forty miles above Cincinnati.
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They chartered a steamboat and took along all their members, goods, live stock and also the lumber to build board shanties for temporary residence until they made brick and built substantial houses. They had bought the land on three payments, paying the first in cash and expecting to meet the others by the sale of wood from their forest to the passing steamboats for fuel, but the second payment was missing and upon the third becoming due without payment, a foreclosure forfeited their right to remain any longer and they were required to leave the place and so their organization was dis- solved and most of them returned separately to Cincinnati. Later a smaller organization bought a small part of the land and occupied the building on it. It was a community with common property, but their fate was soon sealed; this time by their houses being destroyed by a large flood of the Ohio river. Although Mr. Longley gave up his interest in social reform in consequence of the failure of this attempt. yet one of his younger sons then took up the work and has continued his efforts in it up to this time, so that now, in his eighty-second year, he is yet in a community at Sulphur Springs, Missouri. and is publisher of a monthly paper. He was brought with Mr. Longley's family to Lebanon when he was only five months old, being its first baby.
In 1850 Mr. Longley's second wife died, and during a visit to his brother, John, in LaFayette, he was introduced by his brother to an amiable widow whom he thought would be a comfort to him in his affliction and a good mother to his children. The result was in due time he married Mrs. Amorette Lawrence, of that city, and soon afterward moved the younger portion of his family back to Lebanon, where he continued to live and to preach as he had a call, and to work at his trade, more or less, until 1866, when he removed to Paola, Kansas.
Of the children of Abner H. Longley, of whom he had. thirteen, seven boys and six girls. something may be said, as he was more successful with them than was his brother John, though there were fewer of them. He lived to see all of them but three, who died in childhood, grown to manhood and womanhood, married and respectably situated in society, and with fair edu- cations, two or three of the sons receiving partial collegiate courses in "Old Woodward College," Cincinnati. The elder, Elias, was designed by his father for a minister, at least his education was directed in that line, and while in college his reading and literary exercises were all directed toward theological topics and religious exercises. He was a brave advocate and de-
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fender of the faith of his father, in many a discussion with his schoolmates and in the debates in the hall of the literary society. And the good father was for a short time gratified by the efforts of his son in the same pulpits he himself had been occupying. But Elias was not himself satisfied with those three or four attempts at preaching, and he abandoned the idea of becoming a minister. He was then engaged in printing the Star in the west, Rev. John A. Gurley's paper, and was then, and continued to be, a frequent writer for its columns. He was afterwards quite prominently known as a writer for and publisher of phonetic and phonographic books, and from the breaking out of the war in 1861, as a shorthand reporter and city editor upon the Cincinnati daily papers.
The other sons, Servetus, Septimius, Cyrenius, Alcander, Albert and Abner, all followed the footsteps of their elder brother, and became printers, and two of the daughters, Salome and Mary A., married printers and editors, and furthermore most of the children of all of the family are now either printers, publishers, or in some way engaged in such pursuits. One of the sons, Albert, is now a lawyer in Cincinnati. Abner is dead and Alexander, the youngest son of Mr. Longley's first wife, has continued his interest up to the present time in the phonetic and community idea by the publication of a monthly paper.
Mr. Longley always took a lively interest in politics, but was not re- garded as a politician ; still, in 1836, perhaps it was he was elected to the Indiana Legislature by the Democrats of the counties of Boone and Hamil- ton. He was also county surveyor for a time. In 1854 he abandoned the Democratic party because of the position of that party on the repeal of the "Missouri Compromise."
The following, from a Paola, Kansas, paper, will fittingly close the sketch of this worthy brother :
"In the death of Rev. A. H. Longley, whose life went out on the morn- ing of the 9th of May, 1879, the 'Reaper' gleaned one of the richest harvests ever taken from our cricles. He was born in Kentucky, in December, 1796, and lived to the ripe old age of eighty-two. His life was so well preserved. having been strongly temperate in all things, that he had the appearance of being not over sixty-five. He was endowed with remarkable mental powers, a sensible thinker, and up to the time of his death was greatly interested in governmental matters. For a number of years he was a resident of Cincin-
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nati, Ohio, and from there moved to Lebanon, Indiana, where he built the first house in that city, and continued to reside there until he came to Paola, twelve years ago.
"In religious belief he was a Universalist, and for more than fifty years preached the gospel as he understood it. A man of strong conviction, con- scientious to an eminent degree, he was honored wherever he was known for his many Christian virtues. There never was a better husband, never a better father, never a better man. During his sickness, when conversing about dying. he was asked, 'But you are not afraid to die, are you, father?' His response was: 'O, no, no, no! why should I be? Why should I be when I know there is a bright immortality in waiting?'
"He leaves ten children, six of whom live in Cincinnati. The oldest son came to his bedside in answer to a telegram, remained two days, and carried the body home with him for interment in Spring Grove cemetery, one of the most beautiful places of earth.
"The stricken wife, children and friends have the sincerest sympathy of all, and their earnest prayers to comfort them in their sorrow. The world is better that he lived. He leaves none but beautiful memories behind him. That heaven is sweeter which receives his saintly soul."
CAPT. FELIX SHUMATE.
Capt. Felix Shumate, for years one of the most respected citizens of Lebanon, Boone county, Indiana, was one of those patriots who were among the first to offer their services to the country at the breaking out of the Civil war. He was the second man in Boone county to enroll his name at the call to arms, the first being Elisha Kise, son of Colonel Kise. Captain Shumate springs, on his paternal side, from an old Virginian family of German descent, and on the maternal side from an English family that settled in Maryland-both families coming to America before the Revolutionary period. William Shumate, the earliest ancestor of Felix of whom we have any authentic record, was a wealthy planter and slave-holder in Fauquier county, Virginia. He there married Mary Miller, who bore him eight chil- dren, named John. Isaac, Peyton, William, Newton, James, Ruth and Ada-
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line. Of these, John Shumate was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, on his father's farm, in 1808. He learned the trade of cotton and wool carding, which he followed both in Maryland and Kentucky. Eventually he settled in Jefferson county, Kentucky, and there married Mary Yates, daughter of Isaac and Lucy Yates, pioneers of Jefferson, and descendants of most ex- cellent English families. Richard Yates, of Illinois, was a nephew of the said Isaac Yates. To Mr. and Mrs. John Shumate were born nine children, named as follows: Amanda, William, Isaac, Lydia, Felix, Lucy, John, Thomas and Columbus, all born in Shelby county, Kentucky, where the father, John, resided for many years and ran a cotton and woolen mill. In 1855 he came to Indiana and settled in Boone county on a farm, and in 1863, although fifty-six years of age, enlisted at Lebanon in the Eleventh Indiana Volunteer Cavalry, and in 1864 was appointed from the ranks in the field to be hospital steward. He was in the battle at Nashville, and took part in a gallant charge on the rebel works, and was also in many skirmishes, serving continually until the close of the war. In 1866 he moved to Minne- sota and opened up a new farm at Litchfield, in Meeker county, of which he was one of the earliest settlers. There he died January 7, 1887, at the age of seventy-nine years, a stanch Republican, though at first a Democrat. Four of his sons were in the Civil war, viz: William, an orderly sergeant in Company I. Tenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, having enlisted at Leb- anon in April, 1861, and then re-enlisted in the Ninth Volunteer Regiment of United States troops ; Isaac enlisted at Peoria, Illinois, in 1862, in Com- pany H, Twenty-seventh Illinois, and died of wounds received in the battle of Resaca; Felix enlisted at Lebanon on April 15, 1861, Company I, Tenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for the three months' service, and again enlisted, on the reorganization of the regiment. in the same company, reaching the captaincy ; Thomas also enlisted in Company H. Eleventh Regiment, in the fall of 1862 and served until the close of the war.
Capt. Felix Shumate was born on February 25, 1839, on his father's farm in Shelby county, Kentucky, and was fourteen years of age when he came with his father to Indiana. He was reared a farmer, but also learned the brickmaking trade at Lebanon. When the war broke out, he, with Elisha K. Kise. David H. Oliver and George W. Smith, drew straws in order to decide which should have the honor of being the first to enroll, and the honor fell to Kise; the second place to Shumate. The company was placed under
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the command of Capt. William C. Kise, formerly a lieutenant in the Mexi- can war, and the enlistment was for three months. J. W. Perkins was elected first lieutenant. R. C. Kise, second lieutenant, John H. Dooley, or- derly sergeant, and Felix Shumate, second corporal. All these men served in reorganizations nearly throughout the war, and with higher rank. Capt. J. W. Perkins, however, was killed at the battle of Chattanooga; Capt. John H. Dooley lost an arm at Mission Ridge, and of an enrollment of sixty-one, forty per cent died on the field of battle. The company fought at Rich Mountain and was complimented for its victory and there Mr. Shumate served as corporal. He was commissioned first lieutenant on reorganization on September 2, 1861, and as such took part at Mill Spring, Kentucky; was at Shiloh, siege of Corinth (where he was wounded) ; was at Perryville. Kentucky, Boston, Hoover's Gap, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, Chattanooga ( where he was commissioned captain on the death of Captain Perkins). Missionary Ridge, Winchester, Ringgold. Tunnel Hill, Resaca, in Sherman's campaign ; in all the battles under General Thomas, except Lovejoy Station ; was at Pendleton Church. Kenesaw Mountain, Lost Mountain, New Hope Church, Kingston, Adairsville. Atlanta, Chattahoochee Bridge, Peach Tree Creek, and many others too numerous to make mention of. On his return to Lebanon, the Captain engaged in the manufacture of brick, and erected some of the best buildings in the city, including, also, all of the block on the south end, except Zion's corner: built the Cason block and the marble front block ; also many on Lebanon street : also the Methodist church, the Presby- terian church and the Southside school house.
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