USA > Indiana > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, Indiana : With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 56
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83
A saw and pluning mill was erected in 1873. hy Joseph W. Gwinn and Leroy Barnard. in the south part of the town of Bur. lington. Mr. Gwin has remained in the firm ever since the in-
>
274
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
auguration of the enterprise. while the interest represented at first by Mr. Barnard has been transferred successively to A. M. Ever- man. Seth Radcliffe, and finally to O. M. Barnard, who is now the partuer of Mr. Gwinn in the firm. The mill is supplied with a full quota of the machinery necessary for an establishment of its kind. consisting of a surfacer. matcher, seroll-saw. ro-saw, shingle machine, jointer, planer. ete. They saw an average of 7,000 feet of timber per day, and employ six men in the mill.
In 1871. H. A. Lovell began the manufacture of buggies at Burlington. in connection with his custom blacksmith work. His shop is iu a two-story frame building in the central part of town. The wood-work is done in the lower story. and the trimming and finishing above. During the spring and summer of 1581, he completed and turned out ten top buggies, two tine carriages, one phaeton and five spring wagons, against one spring wagon and one top buggy in 1872. The enterprise is growing in magnitude. and the work is in the hands of an energetic man. The beauty and quality of his goods snffor uone by comparison with the prod. nets of the best work-shops of the State. He employs five men. who are kept constantly busy.
From the peculiar adaptability of the soil. agricultural pur snits form the principal industry of the township, and the report published by the State Bureau of Statistics for the year ISSO proves how generously the labors of the faithful agrienlturist are rewarded. In that year. 3,558 acres sown in wheat pickled 56. 928 bushels: 3.166 acres in corn yieldled 52.010 bushels: 359 acres in oats yielded 3,590 bushels; from 676 acres of meadow. 1.352 tons of hay were gathered: 80 acres planted in Irish pota- toes yielded 2,880 bushels. while 22 bushels of sweet potatoes were gathered from 1 acre.
THE VILLAGE OF BURLINGTON.
In 1828, David Stipp, an employe in the Government Land Office, at Crawfordsville. Ind. laid ont the town of Burlington on a quarter-section of land, of which he took possession. it is said. without the usnal formality of paying for it. His aet was found ont several years later, and proceedings were instituted by which he was compelled to pay np. It was believed that certain terri- tory would be taken from the connties of Carroll. Cass. Clinton and Howard (the two last-named being then unorganized. and a new county erected, of which Burlington wonkl be the center and seat of justice. Although the effort to accomplish this ond was kept up until 1839 or 1840. it never succeeded, and was finally abandoned as nseless. Yet. while the original purpose failed. the town grew and prospered. and developed into one of the best business points in Carroll County, drawing a large amount of trade from the points which would have been within its jurisdic- tion had the original plan snecceded.
In 1830. David Stipp came here to live. He was a mau of cold. forbidding nature, and stingy withal, and had few friends. It is said by Dr. Anderson that the only public donation the citi- zens wore ever able to coax from him was a lot one rod square for a schoolhouse. He owned a quarter-section of land. but it was all in timber. His resources were limited, and. had it been other wise with him, he might have shown a more generons nature, and gained more friends. He died here in the spring of 1848, and was buried in the cemetery donated by David Foster. just north- west. of the town plat.
Abont the year 1833. John Kelley settled east of the town plat. He was an indolent kind of a man, and, although he often " worked out," clearing land for other parties, his chief mission
seems to have been the consumption of whisky, of which. it is said. he was very fond. Robert Erwin came abont the same time, and he and Kelley cleared the first ground in the town plat. Andrew Watts and William Henry wore early settlers and sub- stantial citizens of the town. They purchased a house erected by Stipp, in which they kept a tavern. David Foster settled in the town in 1836, and engaged in trade with the Indians. He can scarcely be called a merchant. since he kept no goods that the white people wanted -except whisky. His honse is, still stand ing at the north part of town and on the east side of the Michigan road
Houry Bolles came in 1837. and opened the first stock of gen eral merchandise in the town. Abont the year 1846, E. P. Stone became a partner with Bollos, and continued the business after Mr. Bolles' death, which occurred in the spring of 1849. Mr. Stoue still resides at Burlington, though not now engaged in mer. cantile life.
In the fall of IS3S. Dr. Samuel Anderson settled at Burling- ton. and engaged in the practice of the medical profession. He was the first rosident physician in the place, and is now the oldest practitioner.
Dr. J. M. Darnall came in the fall of 1842. and formed a part nership with Dr. Andersou, which continued until the removal of the former to Kokomo, Other settlers continned to come to the town every year, and its prospects for prosperity continued to im- prove. At the present time. it is a noat, pretty village, large onongh to be a town, although the citizens have not yet made it such by legal incorporation. The traveler is struck at once by its cleanly appearance, while an air of activity pervades all of its business honses. It has a good hotel, kept by William Stom- baugh: three general merchandise stores, by W. H. Everman, J. J. Stone and Tapp & Everman, respectively: one drug store, by J. A. Fennell: one meat market. by William Taylor. Dr. Saumel Anderson. Dr. Charles Chittick. Dr. B. F. Landes aud Dr. Doano are the practicing physicians: William Beck aud George Ewick are the village carpenters: George Hickman, barber and jeweler: Fullwider & Viney, saddlers and harness-makers: John K. Gar- rison. furniture-dealer and nudertaker: George Appenzeller, timer and dealer in hardware, tinware and stoves: while the trades are represented by H. A. Lovell and B. F. Landes, blacksmiths: Ben. jamin Bryant. wagon-maker: W. H. Reagan and M. Appenzeller. boot and shoe makers.
THOMAS H. B. BRITTON. COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT.
Mr. Britton was born in Highland Conuty. Ohio, on the 25th of September, 1838. His parents were Virginians Jonah Brit. ton. a native of Augusta Connty, and Martha J. Locke, of Hamp. shire County. Grandfather Britton came from England, where he had preached in the church of the dissenters. The mother of Thomas Britton is a lineal descendant of the English philoso- pher. John Locke. of the seventeenth century. Jonah Britton was a soklier in the war of 1812. for which service his widow. who is yet living, receives a pension from the United States Gov. ermment.
Thomas Britton, when a young man, attended district schools about eighteen months; Antioch College. Ohio, about four months in the winter of 1858-59, at which institution, in the capacity of pupil and teacher, he became intimately acquainted and held freqment personal conversations with that noble Christian scholar aud educator. Horace Mann, then Dean of that college: and the
Robert young EX=COMMISSIONER.
J. H. B. Brillon CoSupt,
Ellen & young
-
MRS. T. H. B. BRITTON
RES. OF MANELIUS JOHNSON, BURLINGTON TP. CARROLL COUNTY, INDIANA.
MANELIUS JOHNSON
MRS. M. JOHNSON
MANELIUS JOHNSON
Robert Johnson, Sr., father of Manelius Johnson, was born in Monroe County, W. Va. In September, 1881, he passed his eighty-fifth year. In 1840, he settled on the farm in Carroll County, where he lives to-day. Elizabeth (Christie) Johnson, wife of Robert Johnson, Sr., is also a native of Virginia. Both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are of English descent. The homestead of this venerable couple adjoins the farm of the subject of this biographical sketch.
Manelius Johnson was born and reared on the Johnson homestead, in Burlington Township, Carroll Co., Ind., on the 12th of February, 1841.
Obtaining a district school education, in 1861, he left the parental roof, and began farming and dealing in stock on his own responsibility, on a tract of land of 134 acres, the gift of his father. Since that. date, by the exercise of good judgment and a wise economy, he has added to his original grant 475 acres. This immense body of land, of 609 acres, located within half a mile of his birthplace. on the south side of Wildcat Creek, about two and a half miles west of the town of Burlington, and unsurpassed in the
county in fertility of soil, is, doubtless, the largest con- tiguous quantity of land owned by any one farmer within the limits of Carroll County. In 1879, Mr. Johnson added to the already numerous and commodious wooden improve- ments of his farm, a frame residence, which, for architectural beauty, commands the attention and remark of all who pass that way.
Possessing a good eye, fine taste, and natural love for domestic animals, early in life induced him to engage in the stock business. In one season, as au indication of the extensiveness of his labors in that direction, he handled over $45,000 worth of hogs and cattle. Working in this particular pursuit, he has gained an enviable reputation as an honest, conscientious and reliable dealer.
Mr. Johnson is a man of strong and abiding convictions, advocating boldly and fearlessly whatever he thinks to be right and true. In politics, he has been connected with the Independent Greenback movement for several years. Yet, comparatively speaking, a young man, and in the vigor and prime of his morning's manhood, his substantial success in life is a surprise to all, and should be a matter of great pride to himself and his numerous friends.
JAMES C. SMITH
MRS. CATHERINE SMITH
JAMES C. SMITH.
James C. Smith was born near Zanesville, Muskingum Co., Ohio, March 3, 1828. His father, William Smith, was born in Virginia, August 15, 1793. His mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Brown, was born in the State of New York June 12, 1793. His parents were united in marriage January 27, 1816. The ancestry of William Smith were of English and Irish extraction, His wife's ancestry were of German and Irish lineage ; her mother was born on the ocean. Leaving Ohio the family moved to this county, and settled in Burlington Town- ship in 1832, and in addition to farming kept a little stock of groceries and dry goods, and built up quite a little trade with the whites and Indians. At that time the fur trade was quite extensive, and William Smith acted as purchasing agent for the firm of Ewing & Walker, of Logansport. His family was a large one, consisting of ten children, seven girls and three boys. Two only, a son and a daughter survive. One son, Richard Smith, was killed in the battle at Shiloh Church in 1862. The mother of our subject died in Grundy County, Mo., Septem- ber 27, 1860; the father, in Carroll County, Ind., January 21, 1869. When the family came to Carroll County, there were but few white fami- lies in Burlington Township, but plenty of Indians-principally Potta- watomies and Miamis. Indeed the Indians were quite as numerous then as the whites are now.
James C. Smith, then a lad, remembers that frequently he took a yoke of oxen and a sled and went through the wilderness, a distance of eleven miles to the nearest mill. His chances for obtaining even the rudiments of an education were very limited. Subscription schools were the only kind of a school taught, and were but for a short time during the winter months. When the war with Mexico broke out, he enlisted at Delphi June 5, 1846, in Company C, First Regiment Indiana Infantry. He was, at the time of his enlistment, eighteen years of age. The regiment was organized at New Albany, Ind., about the 10th of June, and a few days after the organization the regiment started for Mexico, via New Orleans and across the Gulf. After campaigning through Mexico the regiment returned, and was mustered out of service at New Orleans June 20, 1847. Mr. Smith returned to his home and resumed farming .. In 1862, this country again needed his assistance, and September 16th of that year he enlisted, and November 29th was ap-
pointed First Sergeant in the Twenty-fourth Indiana Artillery. March 26, 1863, the battery was ordered into service at Lebanon, Ky .; thence to Columbus, Ky., whence the command started in pursuit of the rebel General Morgan, and had several skirmishes with him until he crossed the Ohio River. Thence the battery was ordered to Knoxville, and par- ticipated in the military operations in Tennessee and Georgia, and. was engaged in the skirmishes and battles at Buzzard Roost, Resaca, Campbleton and Macon. At the latter place, Mr. Smith, then Second Lieutenant of the battery, was made a prisoner of war, July 31, 1864. He was confined in rebel prisons at Macon, Charleston, Columbia and Raleigh .. After suffering all the hardships inflicted upon the Federal prisoners by the rebels he was exchanged with other officers, and passed through the lines at Fisher's Bridge, March 1, 1865. Thence via Wil- mington, N. C., to Annapolis, Md., thence to his home. April 24, 1865, he rejoined his command at Louisville, Ky. From the latter place, the battery moved to Indianapolis, and was mustered out August 3, 1865. Mr. Smith received his commission as Second Lieutenant May 2, 1863. After thus honorably terminating his service, he resumed the peaceful pursuit of his farm-work, and has continued the same to the present.
Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Ashby, Decem- ber 2, 1847. Mrs. Smith wue born near Chillicothe, Ohio, June 4, 1832. Her paternal ancestry were of Scotch-Irish extraction, and her maternal of English and German. Her father was born in Virginia, January 23, 1794, and her mother in Ross County, Ohio, in 1803. She came to Car- roll County with her parents in 1832. One daughter, Margaret, is the only fruit of this marriage. She was born June 19, 1851. She was mar- ried June 19, 1869, to William T. Hindman. As the fruits of this marriage Mr. Smith has two grandsons, Ambrose C. Hindman born December 23, 1870, and Everett E., born December 27, 1873.
Mr. Smith, his wife, daughter and son-in-law are all members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. ' As has already been stated, Mr. Smith's early education was limited, but much general reading has largely reme- died this early deficiency. He has traveled over twenty States of this Union, through Mexico and Canada, and in 1876 visited the great Cen- tennial Exposition at Philadelphia. His observations incident to this travel very largely compensate for disadvantages of his youth. Mr. Smith is regarded as one of the solid men of Carroll County.
RES. OF JAMES C. SMITH, BURLINGTON TP. CARROLL CO. INDIANA.
>
1
275
BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP.
Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio, two terms, in the spring and summer of 1859. Early inclined to the legal profession, after reading awhile he qnit the law for the calling of a teacher. His first school-teaching was for one term (six months) in Clinton Connty. Ohio. In the fall of 1859 he came to Indiana. and began teaching in the northeast corner of Clinton County. Remain- ing in the latter place one year, he next tanght four years- 1860-65 -- in Russiaville, Howard County. In the fall of ' 1865, he began teaching in a township graded school in Bir- lington. Carroll County, and continued in this position nine consecutive years, from 1865 to 1874. Since 1874, he has taught three terms in Burlington --- making ten years and three months in the same district.
September 12, 1874. upon the resignation of Superintendent McReynolds, Mr. Britton was elected by the Trustees to the office of County Superintendent. June 1, 1875, he was appointed by the Board of Commissioners to the same position, and at three sne. cessive elections, in 1877. 1879 and 1881, he has been re-elected by the Trustees to serve in this official capacity. In the course of his superintendency, he has taught fonr additional terms of school, aggregating about seventeen years of service in that direc- tion. It is not improper to say. in this connection, that. while in politics Mr. Britton is a Republican. the Board of Commissioners from whom he received his appointment were of the opposite po- litical complexion, and, excepting in 1879, there has been a Dein- ocratie majority of Trustees at each of his elections this much as an indication of his popularity in that capacity.
In 1860, on the 29th of September. Mr. Britton was united in marriage to Miss Lovey E. Lemaster. a native of Shelby County, Ind. This union has been blessed by the birth of ten sons, all of whom are living. Mr. and Mrs. Britton are members of the Christian Church.
Mr. Britton was raised to farming, and has given a portion of his time each year to that ocenpation, owning and managing at this time a farm in Burlington Township. His heart. how- ever, is devoted to the interests of education. He is a man of indomitable energy, and to his skill and industry, more than to anything else. is due the present excellent condition of the dis trict schools of Carroll County. Beyond the physical labor of his position, he devotes his leisure time to reading and study. subjecting himself to a continued mental discipline, such as makes him the better prepared to direct and advance our home educa- tional system. Socially. " Tom " Britton is a genial, gonerons, warm-hearted man, and a man who grows in one's esteem with the growth of acquaintanceship. In the prime and vigor of man hood. the fruits of his best years can reasonably be said to be yet in the future.'
WALTER O. HOPKINSON.
The subject of this sketch has been only able to trace the genealogical history of the Hopkinson family from the person of Francis Hopkinson, who was born in Philadelphia, Penn .. in 1787. In 1766. he visited England, and remained there two years, and on his return. married Miss Aun Borden and settled in New Jersey. He was a delegate to Congress, and signed the Dec. laration of Independence. In 1790, he was appointed by Wash- ington Judge of the United States District Court for Pennsyl- vania, and died suddenly in 1791. He was a man of rare talent, and a prolific writer.
Caleb Hopkinson, grandfather of Walter O .. and either a son
or nephew of Francis Hopkinson, at some period prior to 1798. married and settled in Onondaga County, N. Y. In this county and State, on the 19th of August. 1798, was born Samuel Smith Hopkinson, who grew to man's estate, and, after marrying Miss Clarissa Osborn, of Welsh lineage, and born in Rutland Conty. Vt., September 8. 1796. moved to a locality about three miles above the Falls, in Niagara County. N. Y., where he roared a family of six children, Walter O. Hopkinson being the fourth child. Samnel Hopkinson engaged in the war of 1812, entering the service first, because of his youthfulness, as a Captain's waiter, and afterward regularly enlisting. At the battle of Chip powa, in 1814, he was wounded in the hand by a spent ball, and twenty days later, at the battle of Lundy's Lane, received a saber cut across the forehead. In March. 1835 or 1836. after living two years in Huron County. N. Y., he removed to Delphi. Carroll Co .. Ind .. and subsequently to Cass County, where he died of ap oplexy Angust 19, 1844. Mrs. Samuel Hopkinson died in Cass County September 19, 1868.
Walter O. Hopkinson was born September 13, 1828. Until the date of his marriage, his time was occupied by farm work. subscription school, and one term in the capacity of a teacher. . December 1. 1853. he was married to Nancy E. Thompson. born October 26, 1831. in Sussex County. Del .. and being the seventh child of James Thompson and Nancy (Short) Thompson, Jantes Thompson was a slaveholder in Delaware, but sold his slaves. and. about 1841, moved to Cass County. Ind .. where he died May 1. 1844. After his marriage. Walter Hopkinson continued teach ing school. about one term a year. until 1877. since which time he has given his attention chiefly to farming. In the course of years, he has served a number of terms in the minor official ca pacities of Township Trustee, Assessor and Justice of the Peace. In politics, ho is a radical Democrat. In religion. In and his wife are members of the church of the United Brethren in Christ. Mr. Hopkinson is a member of Logansport Lodge. 1. (. (. F.
To Mr. Hopkinson and his wife one child. Phirbe Jane, was born, on the 29th of December. 1862. On the 3d of February. ISS1, she was married to Joseph A. Lanning. n native of Franklin County, Ind .. born March 17. 1855. His mother. Aravila Math ows, was born in New York iu 1829, while his father, James Lan ning. was a native of New Jersey, born in 1828. Coming to Franklin. Ind .. with their grandparents, they were married July 30. 1852. and removed to Burlington Township. Carroll County, Ind .. March 26. 1575. Joseph Lanning is a farmer by ocenpa tion. and, while owning a farm of his own. at present resides with his father-in-law. and assists the latter on his farm. Polit ically, he is an Independent Greenbacker. He is the fourth child in a family of thirteen children, seven of whom are living.
. Walter Hopkinson is a nephew of Jonah T. Hopkinson. a prominent pioneer and the fourth Sheriff of Carroll County. Jonah Hopkinson was born in Connecticut in 1789; moved to Switzerland County. Ind .. in 1818, and thence to Carroll County in 1829 .- The youngest danghter of Jonah H. is the wife of David P. Barner, Clerk of Clinton County, and the mother of . John H. Barner, Jr., the young man whose recent death, because of the nobleness of his morning's manhood. east a gloom over snch a wide circle of relatives and friends.
The subject of this sketch is a man of firm convictions. an ardent supporter of schools, liberal in his sentiments toward his fellow-men. a counselor for his neighbors, and withal an excellent citizen. Our acquaintance with him leads us to say that he is a
276
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
inan of temperate habits and of a gouerons disposition. Those .. able man. . In business relations. he is prompt and conscientious. who have occasion to deal with him will lease him with the im : . May his years of usefulness be long contiuned. pression of the sincerity and genuineness of his manhood.
WILLIAM SMITH. COMMISSIONER.
Mr. Smith. the only living son of Leonard Smith and Annie .(Everhart) Smith. was born in Green Conuty. in Eastern Tou- nessee, ou the Bd day of January. 1837. In the year IS51. his father's family, accompanied by three other families of the saule neighborhood. emigrated overland to Carroll County. Ind .. reach- ing here on the 29th of October and settling in Burlington Town. . ship the Sinith family on a tract of wild land, still owned and resided npon by Leonard Smith, and situated about four miles west of the little town of Burlington. In this trip to " Hoosier. dom," William Smith. then a boy in his fourteenth year, accom- plished the distance on horseback. At this carly day. Burling tou Township was Int sparsely settled. and little of the heavy growth of timber of that section of the county had been cleared away. As their ancestors, who also were pioneers and " breakers of the stubborn glebe." had done before them. Leonard Smith . and his sons immediately set to work with energy and determi- nation-qualities inseparable from and peculiar to the sturdy pioneer to how themselves a home out of the depths of the old forest. Before the ringing blows of their axes the great woods bowed. and out of their sweat and toil was born at last the home. stead, whose recurring, bounteous harvests nourished the father into ripe old age, and the son into a mature manhood. At the age of twenty-one. William Smith forsook the parental roof to engage in farming on an eighty-acre tract of land. the gift of his. father. In the course of years, he has added to his original pos -. session, in all 103 acres, and. while farming has claimed his chief attention, for thirteen summers he has owned and controlled a threshing machine. having purchased. in 1866. the first steam engine owned in his settlement. In addition to these employ- ments. in the years 1871-78. he engaged in the business of saw. ing huber, and. in the season of 1873. sold 110,000 feet of tim- ber in the log.
In 1858, on the 14th of February, he was married to Hannah Waltouberger, a member of one of the five families referred to earlier in this sketch as having emigrated in a body from Green County. Tonn. Four children have been born to them. three of whom are living.
In politics, Mr. Smith has been associated with the Demo- cratic party. .. He has, however, never actively engaged in polit- . Church. ical labors. In religion, he and Mrs. Smith are members of the Methodist Church, following, in this respect. the faith of their fathers.
Limited in school education, he has obtained the more prac- tical education which results from a life of mental and physical energy. Young in years, he has the prospect of a life of further public responsibilities. Socially. he is a warm-hearted. approach- ;
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.