USA > Indiana > Carroll County > History of Carroll County Indiana, its people, industries and institutions > Part 29
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Mr. Ireland is a stanch Democrat, but has never held public office. He is a devout member of the Presbyterian church and, throughout .his life, has been active not only in religious enterprises, but in all good works. Here in Adams township, where he is well known, he enjoys the universal confidence and esteem of the people and is rated as a good man and a good citizen. His children, who have been reared to honorable and useful lives, are likewise prominent citizens in the various communities where they live.
JOHN R. HARNESS.
The Harness family in America dates from the coming of William Penn, who was accompanied to America by Mitchell Harness, the great- great-grandfather of John R. Harness, the subject of this sketch. Prac- tically, every generation of the family since the time of Mitchell Harness have been large landowners in the respective communities where they have lived, Peter Harness, the son of Mitchell Harness and the great-grandfather of John R., having been a large landowner and slaveholder in Virginia. In the land sales of 1801, he acquired five thousand acres in the Scioto valley of Ohio. A man by the name of Turley, a son-in-law of Peter Harness, was the first member of the family to move from Virginia to Ohio. George W. Harness, the son of Peter, also came to Ohio, but did not remain long. He immigrated to Illinois and settled near Bloomington, but left that place on account of the Black Hawk War. Afterward he lived near Thorntown for two years and then moved to the farm where Ellsworth Harness now lives, entering one hundred and sixty acres of land in 1823. There he lived until 1849, when his son William was married. He then moved to the Indian reserve in Howard county, where he lived to be one hundred and eight years old.
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MR. AND MRS. JOHN R. HARNESS.
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William and Mary Ann (Rodkey) Harness lived on the old home- stead farm until 1862, when he erected a large brick house, which is still standing and where he lived until 1884, when he moved to Cass county. He lived in Cass county for eight years and then moved back to the old homestead, where he lived until 1899, when he again moved to Cass county. He died six years later, in March, 1905. His wife had died previously. in 1899, at the time of their removal to Cass county .. William Harness, at the time of his death, owned one thousand acres of land in Cass county and six hundred and fifty-two acres in Carroll county, practically all of which he made by his own efforts and good management. He was an influential citizen in the county and a man who did not permit his quest of a fortune to interfere with his public duties.
Thirteen children were born to William and Mary Ann (Rodkey) Harness, among whom were the following: George W., deceased; one who died in infancy; Hattie, the wife of David Shields, of Cass county; Jacob L., who lives at Burlington; Samuel C., who died in 1907; Lucinda J., who is the widow of James Patty, of Cass county; Elizabeth, the wife of John R., Benson, of Cass county; John R., the subject of this sketch; an infant who died at birth; Mary, deceased; William, deceased; Ellsworth, who lives on a farm in Burlington township, and Clara Belle, who is the wife of Charles Wagoner, of Cass county.
John R. Harness was born on February 13, 1870. He lived at home until eighteen years old and then entered Valparaiso University at Val- paraiso, Indiana, which he attended for two years. He then spent a summer at the Central Normal College at Danville, Indiana, and returned to Val- paraiso, where he spent the next year. In April, 1892, he went to Chicago and took a position as bookkeeper and cashier for the John W. Ulm real estate and rental agency, where he remained until August, 1894. At that time he moved to a rural district in Illinois, where he spent three months on a farm, after which he came back to Carroll county and purchased the George Rutter farm of one hundred and sixty acres. From this nucleus he has built up his present fortune. He is the proprietor of the Calyx farm and is a successful apple and peach grower. He owns three hundred and twenty acres of land on the Clinton-Carroll county line, three hundred and eighty acres in Burlington township, twenty-five acres in Madison township, besides town lots in Frankfort, and four hundred acres in Creek, Okmulgee and Muskogee counties in Oklahoma, which he purchased in 1911, part of this being valuable oil land.
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Mr. Harness was married on November 24, 1903, to Emma E. Shaffer, the daughter of Abraham Shaffer, a resident of Madison township, Carroll county, Indiana, but a native of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Harness takes a commendable interest in politics, being identified with the Democratic party. He assists more or less in party organizations and has been responsible in a large measure for many of the Democratic victories in this township and county. He is highly respected in the com- munity where he lives and is admired not only for his cordial manners, but for his large business abilities and his great success.
CAPT. JOHN LATHROPE.
No man in Carroll county is better known to the world of music than Capt. John Lathrope, the veteran band master, who is considered the most expert cornetist in the United States for a man of his age. Some of the greatest cornet players of recent years drew their first inspiration from John Lathrope. A few years ago, John Philip Sousa was featuring Walter Rogers as the greatest cornetist of modern times. Yet there are many who can remember when Walter Rogers took his first lesson on a cornet from Capt. John Lathrope in Delphi, a little more than thirty-five years ago. The Captain has more than a state-wide reputation as a cornetist and band leader and has refused dazzling offers to conduct traveling and city organ- izations. He is intimately acquainted with Inness, Liberati, "Pat" Gilmore, Arbuckle, Albert Cook, leader of the Kilties (Canadian) Band, and with other leaders in the musical world. He knew Ole Bull, the celebrated violinist, and was intimately acquainted with C. G. Conn, the famous instru- ment manufacturer of Elkhart, Indiana. When a lad of ten, just after arriving from England, he played a trombone solo in Boston and received a flattering comment from well-known critics. Grey haired citizens of Delphi remember when, as lads, they followed "Johnny's" band through the streets of Delphi. He was the pride of grandfathers and is the pride of grandsons.
The venerable Capt. John Lathrope, who is still vigorous, at the advanced age of seventy-four years, was born at Penzance, Cornwall, Eng- land, on October 27, 1841. His parents, John and Phillippe Lathrope, were natives of England. John Lathrope was their only child. The father was a wool comber in England and came to America in 1849, locating in Benton
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county, near Oxford, where he worked for five dollars per month, his board and washing. In 1851, when he had saved money enough to send for his family, he did so. They landed in Boston in that year and immediately came West to Lafayette, where the father and son worked on the railroad. Later, John Lathrope, Sr., was leader of a band for some years. Subse- quently the family removed to a farm four miles east of Delphi, where they lived until 1858, when they moved to the north fork of Wild Cat and thence to Delphi, which has since been the Captain's home, with the exception of five years spent in Warsaw. Both the father and the mother have been dead many years. They were members of the Episcopal church.
John Lathrope, Sr., was mustered for service in the great Civil War in 1861, but, on account of having left his wife at home, was mustered out again. His son, John Lathrope, Jr., was mustered in as a leader of the Ninth Indiana Volunteer Regimental Band, and his bugle sounded many victorious charges. A few years ago he told the following story of an incident of the war:
"It was at the battle of Cheat Mountain," said Mr. Lathrope. "The Confederates seemed to be getting the best of us; the storm of bullets was slowly driving us back. On a smoke-enveloped knoll, the colonel ordered me to the rear to blow the retreat. I started to obey. A short distance from the spot, I was met by the battle-grimed figure of Major John B. Milroy. He had a horse-pistol in each hand. 'What are you going to do. sir?' he snapped. I told him. Said he, 'If you touch your lips to that bugle, you're a dead man!' I did not blow the retreat. Our men rallied and the day ended in a victory for the Union." The Ninth Indiana Infantry was ordered into service in western Virginia, after having been recruited in 1861, and reported for duty at Camp Elk Water. It was in the engagement at Buffalo Mountain where the above incident took place.
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It was nearly sixty-five years ago that the Lathrope family, including John, shook the English soil from their shoes and voyaged westward for a new home in America. Practically ever since that time, and especially since the Civil War, John Lathrope has been identified with band music and, as a professor, for years has been engaged in band instruction. He has been the director of many fine bands. During his life in Delphi he has engaged in different occupations, the last of them being in the confectionery business, but commercial life has never claimed him. His ambition lay in his art.
Captain Lathrope's wife, before her marriage, was Caroline C. Assion.
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who was born in Delphi, Indiana, on December 28, 1851, the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Assion. Mrs. Lathrope died on February 2, 1905, at the age of fifty-four years. She was a member of the Catholic church and a noble Christian woman, a faithful friend and companion to her children- one in whom all the unselfish attributes of love and affection predominated. As a girl, she was known and admired by all. As she grew up, she devel- oped into a splendid young womanhood. Her parents were natives of Germany, excellent people, and early settlers in Delphi. Her father had been a soldier in the German army before coming to America.
To Capt. John and Caroline C. (Assion) Lathrope were born eight children, Litta, Emma C., Joseph, Ada, Emerson, Lillian, Beatrice and Harry. Of these children, Litta died when a child; Emma C. took a course in the conservatory of music at DePauw University and is a fine musician, being organist in the Presbyterian church at Delphi; Joseph, who is a mail carrier and lives in Delphi, married Josephine Mitchell and they have two children : Ada married Louis Inglee, of Denver, Colorado, and they have two children, Harry and Martha; Emerson has charge of a department store in Kansas City, Missouri; Lillian is at home; Beatrice married Roy O. Campbell, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and they have two children, John D. and Dorothy; Harry is head clerk in the postal service of the Santa Fe railroad and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is married and has one child.
Professor Lathrope has in his possession a handsome badge presented by the Warsaw band and orchestra on the occasion of his fifty-sixth birth- day. He is very proud of the badge, and well he may be. It has a back- ground of black plush, and the badge proper is affixed to a dark blue ribbon. The top part, where the pin is affixed, is a music note book, wide open; from this, a harp hangs, with a handsome brilliant setting, and to that is hung a miniature cornet. The bottom of the badge is trimmed with gold fringe. On the reverse side of the badge is the following legend: "Presented by the members of Lathrope's Cornet Band and Orchestra."
On his seventieth birthday, with the weight of his years resting no heavier than the figurative feather on his baton-arm, he directed his famous band in celebration of his birthday. The concert was enjoyed by hundreds of people from Delphi and vicinity. The old director led with the same snap and vigor that has distinguished him throughout his career, and his difficult, triple-tongued solos were played without a falter, a performance considered marvelous, because of the fact that he has not one of his natural
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teeth. The concert was interrupted by a torch-light parade formed by Delphi business men, who presented him with a beautiful watch.
Captain Lathrope is ex-president of the Tri-state Musicians Associa- tion, composed of military and orchestra bands in the three states of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. He is an honorary member of the American Federa- tion of Musicians, and belongs to the Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Improved Order of Red Men. In the Masonic order, he is a Knight Templar and a member of the Indianapolis Consistory of the Scot- tish Rite. Captain Lathrope is justly proud of the esteem in which he is held by the people of Delphi. He is a gentleman of affability and fine address and one whom the citizens of Carroll county have been pleased to honor.
PATRICK W. CONWAY, M. D.
One of the able and honored physicians of Carroll county, Indiana, is Dr. Patrick W. Conway, former trustee of Madison township, who, for twenty-seven years, practiced medicine at Ockley, and, in 1907, came to Delphi, where he has since continued the active practice of his profession. He is a man of fine intellectual and professional attainments, of most grac- ious personality, of strong and noble character, and one who has labored with zeal and devotion to lift the load of human suffering. He has a high regard for the ethics of his profession and has exhibited marked skill in the treatment of diseases. Measured by the prevailing standard, his profess- ional career has been a financial success, and he is the owner of a fine farm of two hundred and forty-one acres of land, besides an attractive home in south Delphi and has other possessions in the way of stocks and bonds.
Dr. Patrick W. Conway is a native of Madison township, Carroll county, Indiana, born on February 3, 1853. He is a son of James and Johanna (McCormick ) Conway, the former of whom was a native of County Limerick, Ireland, and the latter also a native of the Emerald Isle. They were married in Ireland and came to America in 1847. For some time James Conway worked in New York state, afterward coming west, where he worked on the Wabash canal. After the completion of the canal he came to Delphi and engaged in road work. In 1850 he purchased fifty acres of land in Madison township, where he lived until his death, in 1869, at the age of seventy years. Although James Conway was a modest. unas-
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suming man, he was a good citizen, faithful husband and a kind father. He had been favored with more than the average educational advantages, but, although he was importuned many times to accept public position, especially the office of township trustee, he always declined. His good wife died about twenty-two years ago, at the age of nearly eighty years. James and Johanna (McCormick) Conway were the parents of six children, of whom three, John, Johanna and James, Jr., are deceased. The living children are Mary, a resident of Denver, Colorado; Dr. Patrick W., with whom this narrative deals, and Margaret, the widow of Daniel Honan, who lives east of Ockley, in this county.
Born on the home farm, Dr. Patrick W. Conway received his ele- mentary education in the public schools of his home township, afterwards becoming a student at the Battle Ground Collegiate Institute. After leaving school he engaged in the teaching profession for a number of years in Car- roll and Tippecanoe counties, Indiana. In the fall of 1877 he took up the study of medicine, entering Rush Medical College, of Chicago, from which institution he was graduated in the class of 1880. He immediately began the active practice of his profession at Aydelotte, Benton county, Indiana, where he remained for two years. He then came to Ockley, Carroll county, his old home, where he practiced continuously for twenty-seven years. In 1907 Doctor Conway removed to Delphi, where he has since lived. While living at Ockley in 1900 he was elected as trustee of Madison township, serving a term of four years, during which time he performed his duties conscientiously and faithfully.
On February 6, 1883, Doctor Conway was married to Ida Timmons, who was born and reared in Benton county, Indiana, the daughter of Robert Timmons, of Aydelotte. To this union have been born four children, all of whom are living with the exception of one daughter, Mary, who died in infancy. Bertha is a teacher in the schools of Carroll county, now teaching one and one-half miles from Delphi. Will R., who is twenty-four years of age, is a locomotive fireman at Lafayette, Indiana. Eva, the youngest of the family, is a student in the high school at Delphi.
Doctor Conway is actively interested in farming, owning a farm of two hundred and forty-one acres, two hundred acres of which is in Madison township and forty-one acres in Clay township. It may be said of him that he has been a very successful man and, in all that goes to make true man- hood, Doctor Conway has measured up to the full standard. He and his family are earnest and devoted members of the Catholic church, in which
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he was reared. Doctor Conway is a member of the Carroll County Medical Society and the Indiana State Medical Association. Politically, he is identi- fied with the Democratic party.
JOHN S. ARMITAGE.
The oldest man living in Carroll county, Indiana, is the venerable John S. Armitage, a veteran of the Mexican War, a "Forty-niner" in the gold fields of California, a land dealer, a mill owner and druggist in this county. For some years, however, he has been living retired in the city near which his father was a canal contractor more than three-quarters of a century ago. Years ago, although he was not favored by inherited wealth or the assistance of powerful friends, he, by perseverance, industry and careful economy, attained to a comfortable station in life and is now well provided for in his declining years. There are very few veterans of the Mexican War now living in this country and fewer still living in the state of Indiana. It is an honor, therefore, that Carroll county can count among its citizens this noble man, who served a year in that war.
John S. Armitage, a native of Pennsylvania, was born on September 19, 1825, and is the son of Valerius and Mary (Hewitt) Armitage. The latter died when John S. was a mere child and his father, who had made an initial trip to the Hoosier state in 1830, brought his family overland to Indiana in 1836, at the time when the contracts were being let for the con- struction of the canal at Ft. Wayne. The family made the trip from Johns- town, Pennsylvania, to Pittsburgh on a canal boat and from Pittsburgh, by boat, to Ft. Wayne. Valerius Armitage was a canal contractor and died while the canal was in progress of construction in 1838. He was an ardent Democrat, a disciple of Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson. He was the father of five children, of whom, Theodore and George are deceased; Mary Jane was the wife of Robert H. Milroy, of Delphi, but both are deceased; John S., the subject of this sketch, and Valerius, Jr.
Prior to attaining his eighteenth birthday, John S. Armitage worked for D. B. Preston, of Logansport, learning the tailoring trade. At the out- break of the Mexican War, he joined the First Indiana Regiment and served one year under Col. James P. Drake. After being mustered out at New Orleans, he came by boat to Cincinnati and then to Logansport overland. He again took up the tailoring trade until 1849, when he was attracted by
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the rush to the gold fields of California. He made the journey overland by horseback and, during the five years that he prospected on the Pacific coast, was very successful. He then came back to Delphi and engaged in the land business. Subsequently, he operated a paper-mill and then bought a drug store, which he conducted for eight years. In all of these business ventures, he was more than ordinarily successful.
The venerable John S. Armitage was twice married, first to Emma J. Daubney, in 1855. She died one year later, leaving one child, Emma W., who died at the age of five months. He was subsequently married to Mrs. J. Burns, but no children were born to this union.
Mr. Armitage owns a great deal of town property in Delphi and is now living retired. He is well preserved for a man of ninety years and is thoroughly capable of participating in the business of the day. He is well informed upon all current questions and is an intelligent and interesting conversationalist. All of his life, John S. Armitage has been identified with the Democratic party.
CHARLES W. MOORE.
One of the desirable features of our government is that it acknowledges no hereditary rank or title, no patent of notability save that of nature, and leaves every man to establish his own position and fix his own rank inso- much as he is permitted to become the artificer of his own fortune. Places of honor and trust are happily placed before every individual, high or low, rich or poor, to be striven for by all, but earned alone by perseverance and sterling worth, and are almost always sure to be filled with deserving men. In any event, they are filled by those who possess energy and talent essential to success. In agriculture the same rule prevails. Men who succeed in a large way, are those who strive hardest for success. Charles W. Moore, a well-known farmer and stockman of Jefferson township, the pro- prietor of "Rose Bud Stock Farm, No. 1," of two hundred acres, and of "Rose Bud Stock Farm, No. 2," of one hundred and forty-four acres, in Tippecanoe township, eminently deserves the confidence reposed in him by his neighbors and fellow citizens. He is a man of strong mentality and vigorous mental fiber. These qualities have been his chief assets in his pursuit of a substantial fortune.
Mr. Moore is a native of Peoria county, Illinois, having been born on October 22, 1870. He is the son of William H. and Mary E. (Keyes)
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RESIDENCE OF CHARLES W. MOORE-"ROSE BUD STOCK FARM No. 1."
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MR. AND MRS. CHARLES W. MOORE.
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Moore, the former of whom was born in Franklin county, Massachusetts, May 2, 1831, and the latter in Ohio, in November, 1832. William H. Moore was the son of William G. and Elizabeth ( Handy) Moore, natives of Maine and Massachusetts, respectively. They came west from New Eng- land in 1840 and settled in Fulton county, Illinois, moving shortly afterward to Peoria county, Illinois, where they resided for thirty-five years. During their declining years, they crossed the "Father of Waters" and William G. Moore died in Holt county, Nebraska. After his death, his wife returned east and spent her last days in her native state, passing away in 1880.
To William G. and Elizabeth (Handy) Moore were born seven children : William H., the father of Charles W., who now resides with his son in Jefferson township and has attained the advanced age of eighty-four years; John I., who lives in the Black hills of South Dakota; Mary J., who was the wife of Henry Sugart and died in March, 1907, at Peoria, Illinois; Sarah, who is the widow of John Dailey and lives with her daughter in Peoria, Illinois; Charles W., who lives with his daughter in Seattle, Wash- ington; Catherine, who is the wife of James Dodd, of Bradentown, Florida, and Ann, who was the wife of John S. Keller, both of whom died in Florida.
The venerable William H. Moore came with his parents from Massa- chusetts to the middle West when nine years old and has spent all of his life in Indiana and Illinois. Until 1907 he lived in Illinois, but since that date has lived with his son, Charles W. He was reared and educated in Peoria county, Illinois, and is a farmer by occupation. In 1855 William H. Moore was married to Mary E. Keyes and to them were born four children : John I., born on September 28, 1855, who lives in North Dakota; Fannie C., November 1, 1858, who was the wife of Jacob Teach and who died in May, 1896, at Chicago, Illinois; Alice I., July 10, 1862, who is the wife of Oliver Teach, of Montgomery, Michigan; and Charles W., the subject of this sketch.
Mrs. Mary E. (Keyes) Moore died on June 6, 1874, in Peoria county, Illinois, and on January 24, 1882, William H. Moore was married to Mrs. Winifred Handley, of Livingston county, Illinois, who had been born in Huntington county, Pennsylvania, April 11, 1843. She was the daughter of Charles and Eliza Duff. She died in June, 1889. Mr. Moore's mother was a member of the Presbyterian church and his stepmother a member of the Baptist church.
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