USA > Indiana > Clinton County > History of Clinton County, Indiana : With historical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families, Volume II > Part 10
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CLINTON COUNTY, INDIANA.
Alvaline Davis died May 17, 1901. She was one of two children, her broth- er, Jol Goodnight, lives in Colias. Mrs. Bewsey's parents were both men- bers of the Christian church, the father having been an eller in the same.
M. A. Bewsey was born on the old homestead in Perry township March 22, 1861. He was a son of Samuel and Elizabeth ( Dukes) Bewsey, one of the best known of the early families of Clinton county, the Bewseys having come from Ohio to Indiana in an early day. The father of M. A. Bensey died at the age of sixty-eight years, and the mother passed away at the age of sixty -- eight years. They were married in 1849. They were both mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church. Their chlidren were Manson 1 .. Favorite H. and Mrs. Elmedia Payne. The father was a soldier in the Un' m army during the Civil war, taking part in stopping Morgan's raid into Indi- ana. He was wounded in the foot.
M. A. Bewsey was reared on the home farm and there assisted with the work when a boy. He received a good common school education. On De- cember 20, 1882, he and Catharine Goodnight were married. They spent about twenty years on the farm in Perry township, where Mr. Bewsey be- came noted for his fine stock, especially horses. He made a pronounced suc- cess also in general farming, his farm always being well improved and well tilled. His splendid road horses and other fine stock were greatly admired by all who saw them, and he was regarded as one of the best judges of horses in this section of the state. He finally removed to Colfax, where he had an attractive and modern bungalow, in which his widow still resides. It is lo- cated near the Christian church, of which Mr. Bewsey was a leading mem- ber and a liberal supporter. He was a member of the building committee for some time, and when he was summoned to his reward on April 1, 1912, his loss was greatly deplored by the community and the church, for he was a useful citizen and a man who was esteemed by all who knew him for his public spirit and exemplary personal habits.
To Mr. and Mrs. Bewsey one child was born, a daughter, Estella Edith, who married Jess Pollett on .August 15. 1903. She passed to her rest at the age of twenty-three years and ten months. She was a young lady of many praiseworthy traits and a favorite with her many friends. She had united with the Christian church February 3. 1902. Father and daughter are now sleeping side by side in the cemetery at Colfax.
Fraternally Mr. Bewsey was a charter member of the Knights of Pythias and was keeper of records and seal for about seven years: also a member of the Modern Woodmen.
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CLINTON COUNTY, INDIANA.
JOSEPH A. McBRIDE.
Foresight is one of the greatest assets of the individual. The average man has a good hindsight. We all know what we should have done vester- day, what investments ought to have been made last year. The real problem is to know what to do today. There have always been great opportunities in Clinton county for the young and middle-aged men who were not afraid to go into the fields and work and wait for time to bring them recompense for their years of toil. Yes, both in the country and in the town, there have been for a century, and are yet. great opportunities in Clinton county await- ing the man of foresight and industry.
One of the well known citizens of Washington township who has been alert to the present day opportunities in the locality of which this history treats is Joseph A. McBride, who was born here on the old homestead Octo- ber 27. 1863. He is a son of Thomas McBride, deceased, one of the pioneer settlers of this county, who was born in Butler county, Ohio, and was a son of William McBride, who was born in Ireland, of Scotch-Irish parentage. Hle emigrated to the United States when young and here spent the rest of his life. Both William McBride and his wife, Sarah, are deceased and are buried in this township. They were the parents of four sons and one daugh- ter.
Thomas McBride was born in 1836, was reared amid pioneer condi- tions, and received a meager schooling in a log school house. He married Margaret J. Fickle. also of a fine old family, a daughter of Joseph Fickle, who was a son of William Fickle, the latter having been one of the largest landowners in Clinton county, owning at one time two thousand and five hundred acres, most of it having been bought of the government. He came to this county about 1832. Joseph Fickle's mother was known in her maiden- hood as Elizabeth Brown, a daughter of Judge Brown, a leading citizen here in his day. The following children were born to Thomas McBride and wife: Joseph A., of this review: Frank A., Ira. Charles and Alpy. Two children died in early life. The father was a Democrat, and both he and his wife are members of the United Presbyterian church.
Joseph A. McBride was reared on the home farm and he received a common school education. He spent eleven years as a teacher, giving great satisfaction, his services being in much demand. He was married on March 10, 1886, to Hattie V. Harshman, a daughter of Martin V. Harshman, a well known resident of Washington township, a son of Henry Harshman, a
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pioneer of Clinton county, who came here from Butler county, Ohio, in an early day. Mrs. McBride's mother was known in her maidenhood as Eliza Henderson. Iler death occurred in 1875, leaving four children: Mamie O., Hattie V., Sylvester H., and Claude S. Her husband died in Frankfort at the age of seventy-seven years.
Mr. McBride owns the old Fickle homestead, one of the best farms in the township, and he has kept it well improved and well cultivated and the buildings carefully repaired. He carries on general farming and stock rais- ing. He has a silo, ten by thirty feet. Ile is agent for a silo concern and has sold forty within the past four months. He is an enthusiast on the silo question and knows all about its value to the farmer.
To our subject and wife have been born four children: Elsa P., Elmer Earl died when six years old: Thomas M. died when eight years old, and Ruth. Politically, our subject is a Democrat.
WILLIAM J. CRULL.
There is a great satisfaction to us, the younger generation, to know that our father, uncles, cousins, or any relation, enlisted in the armies that were formed in 1861 to expunge false aristocracy and slavery from the southern states. Just as the veterans of the Civil war boasted of the deeds their fathers accomplished in the Revolution or the War of 1812, just so will their sons boast of their fathers' services in the Rebellion, in reeking prisons, smoky battlefields, and restless field hospitals. It is a gratification to write of the subject of this biography, for he was one of the rank and file that suffered through the four years in the early sixties.
William J. Crull was born in Scioto county, O., September 16, 1836, the son of John II. and Sally (Squires ) Crull. John Crull was a native of Ohio, and he remained there all of his life. Nine children completed his family, three of whom still survive.
William Crull spent the pleasant days of his youth in the common schools of the county of his birth, and afterward utilized the training in imparting the same knowledge to others as a teacher. He ceased the pedagogic life soon, however, and entered the mercantile business, in which he remained until the southern states seceded.
On May 1, 1861, Mr. Crull enlisted in Company F. One Hundred and Fortieth Ohio National Guard. The regiment was placed in the Army of
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West Virginia, under the command of General Crooks. Mr. Crull made an honorable and notable record while serving for the Federal canse, and in September, 1864, he was mustered out at Galipolis, O. During the course of the four years' conflict. Mr. Crull made his mark by clever and careful work in guard and scout duty, both probably the most hazardous undertakings in military science.
Mr. Crull came to this county in February, 1880, and took up the agricul- tural work. He continued successfully in this until he decided to retire in 1900. Frankfort was chosen by Mr. Crull as a residence, and there he re- sides happily at this date.
In May, 1878, Mr. Crull married Emma D. Allen, the daughter of Moses and Rachel Allen, early settlers of this county who came from Ohio in 1834 to go into the farming and stock raising business. Both of her parents are now dead. Two children have been born to William Crull and wife, Fenton A. and William J.
During his life, Mr. Crull has not cared to enter into public life, and so has held no public offices. He is loyal to the Republican party, however, in more ways than one, and always does his share of the work of the Grand Army of the Republic, to which organization he is intensely devoted.
JAMES GATH WEBSTER, M. D.
The man who devotes his talents and energies to the noble work of administering to the ills and alleviating the sufferings of humanity pursues a calling which, in dignity, importance and beneficial results is second to no other. If true to his profession and earnest in his efforts to enlarge his sphere of usefulness, he is indeed a benefactor of his kind, for to him more than to any other man are entrusted the safety, the comfort and in many instances the lives of those who place themselves under his care and profit by his services. Of this class of professional men is Dr. James Gath Web- ster, of Colfax, one of the pioneer physicians of Clinton county, whose name has long since become a household word throughout this locality, a man who has stood for a long lapse of years with few peers and no superiors among the medical men here, during which long period of practice he has not only gained wide fame in his chosen vocation, but also established a sound reputation for uprightness and noble character in all the relations of life. When but a youth he realized that those who attained determinate
JAS. G. WEBSTER. M. D.
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CLINTON COUSEN INDLAN.1.
success in the medical profession there must be not only given technical ability, but also a broad human syrapathy which nuist pass from mere senti- ment to be an actnating motive for helpfulness. So he has dignified and honored the profession by his able and self-abnegating services in which, through long years of close application, he has attained notable distinction and unqualified success. His long and useful life as one of the world's work- ers has been one of devotion, almost consecration, to his calling, and well does he merit a place of honor in a history touching upon the lives and deeds of those who have given the best of their powers and talents for the aiding and betterment of their kind. He is in the most significant sense humanity's friend, and to those familiar with his life there must come a feeling of gratitude in contemplation of his services and their beneficial results, dur- ing his practice in Clinton county, covering a period of thirty-five years, or since 1878.
Dr. Webster was born at Bradford, Yorkshire, England, May 11, 1829, and is therefore in his eighty-fifth year, being one of the oldest practicing physicians of this part of Indiana, or indeed of the entire state. He is a descendant of a sterling oll Anglo-Saxon family, being well connected and noted for intelligence and honesty of principles. He is a son of a car- penter and joiner, his parents being George Tetley and Martha (Gath) Webster, both natives of Yorkshire, where they grew to maturity, were educated and married, and spent t'a . lives until their emigration t. United States in 1843, when the future doctor was fourteen years okl, he being one of a family of eight children. They settled in Shelbyville, Indiana, when that city was but a straggling frontier village, and there the parents spent the rest of their lives and reared their children, becoming very com- fortably established through their industry.
James G. Webster received a common school education and attended the county seminary, and having applied himself very carefully to such text- books as were obtainable in those early days he acquired enough knowledge to begin teaching which he followed with uninterrupted success for several years, or until he had saved enough to defray the expenses of a college course, for he had determined upon a career as doctor of medicine. He entered the New York Hygiene College, where he made rapid progress. Something of his high standing there is implied by the fact that he was retained as teacher in that institution, a position which he held in a manner that reflected much credit upon himself and to the entire satisfaction of college management, his fellow instructors and the students. After one month he entered the medical department of the University of the City of New York, which he
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thought better adapted to his needs. While in the metropolis he practiced his profession with success, doing special work in order to assist him in his college work and his profession in general. After five years, tiring of the work in the great city and desiring to be among homefolks in the quietude of a Hoosier village, he returned to Shelbyville, Ind., in 1868, and took up the general practice of medicine, meeting with great success from the start. Later lie followed the tide of emigration which was then setting in strongly for the new state of Kansas and located for practice in the town of Eureka, where he spent six years, during which he enjoyed a large practice. Longing again for old associations at Shelbyville he left the Sunflower state and re- turned to his parental home where he continued to practice two years, then came to Colfax, Clinton county, in 1878, where he has continued in the successful practice of his profession for a period of thirty-five years, stand- ing in the front rank of his professional brethren in this section of the state, and, ever a student, he has kept full abreast of the times in all that pertains to his work. His library is large and composed of the best works on medical science obtainable, as well as much of the world's best general literature.
Dr. Webster was married at Cincinnati, O., in 1875, to Lydia A. Fletcher, who was born at Moores Hill, Dearborn county, Indiana, and there she grew to womanhood and received her education. She was ever regarded as a lady of many estimable characteristics and has been a faithful helpmeet to her husband. This union was blessed by the birth of three sons, all of whom have been given excellent college educations. George is in the government service in the Philippines, being government examiner of ships in port; Charles has also been in the Philipines, engaged successfully in teach- ing; Frank was also engaged in educational work in the Philippines, teach- ing in a high school. The two last named have returned to the United States.
WILLIAM R. GILMORE.
One of the citizens of Perry township, Clinton county, who is deserving of the high esteem in which he is held throughout this locality, is William R. Gilmore, successful general farmer. He is one of our honored veterans of the great war between the states, having fought gallantly for the mainte- nance of the Union, sacrificing the pleasures of home, business opportunities and risking his life and limb in order that succeeding generations might enjoy to a fuller degree the fruits of peace in a united country. Such men are de-
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serving even of greater respect than is shown them, for we of the present generation cannot fully realize what they had to go through with in order that the serried hosts of rebellion might be put down forever in this fair land of ours.
Mr. Gilmore was born near the village of Putnamville, Putnam county, Indiana, on August 2, 1842. He is a son of Eli and Ellen ( Brafford) Gil- more, both natives of Virginia, of old Scotch-Irish families, members of which have lived in the Old Dominion during a number of generations. The maternal grandfather of our subject was James Brafford, who moved to Indiana in an early day and here spent the rest of his life. The parents of our subject grew up in their native community, were educated and married there, and to them twelve children were born, an equal number of sons and daughters, namely: James, a soldier during the Civil war in the Ninth In- diana Volunteer Infantry, went to Colorado after the war, where he died; William R., of this review; Thomas H., Samuel, Jehu, Nancy, Martha, Vir- ginia, Ellen, Nancy (the second), and Mary Jane, (all eight deceased) ; Debby Ann Barker and John M., of Perry township. The parents of these children are both deceased, both having gotten well along in years before summoned to their rest.
William R. Gilmore, of this sketch, was reared on the home farm and there he worked when a boy, receiving his education in the common schools of his community during the winter months, between crop seasons. When the Civil war came on he enlisted in Company I, One Hundred and Six- teenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under Capt. Sylvester Lane and Colonel Crusc. He began his military career at Clark's Hill, July 4, 1863, just as the backbone of the Confederacy was being broken at Gettysburg and Vicks- burg; but there remained, as it proved, plenty to do and our subject did his little part most faithfully, serving in several battles and skirmishes, such as Strawberry Plains and Tazewell, in Tennessee. He was honorably dis- charged after his term of enlistment expired and returned home.
Mr. Gilmore lived in turn in Mercer county, Illinois, near Aledo, Mis- souri, and near Ossawatomic, Kansas, finally returning to Indiana and locat- ing in Clinton county, where he has a fine farm of seventy acres on which stands a good set of buildings and where he has made a comfortable living. He was married in 1875 to Bertie Alice Thompson, daughter of Joseph Thompson. Our subject has no children of his own, but is raising an adopted child, Claude Floyd, his sister's child. Politically, he is a Republican, but has never sought public honors, preferring to lead a quiet home life and at- tend strictly to his own business.
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CLINTON COUNTY, INDIAN.A.
JESSE B. GUERE.
Prominent among the men of Perry township. Clinton county, who have attained a competence through their individual efforts is Jesse B. Ghere, owner of Timber View Farm, of one hundred and forty-three acres in sec- tion 12, four and one-half miles cast of Colfax. Despite his years, for he has recently passed his sixtieth mile-stone, Mr. Ghere is an active man, and gives close personal attention to his business. He has spent his entire life in the locality where he now resides, having been content with the advantages that Clinton county had to ffer, and he holds a high place in the estimation of his neighbors, who know him as a man of probity and integrity.
Mr. Ghere was born on March 20, 1853, in Jackson township, Clinton county, on the old Ghere homestead. He is a son of Joseph Ghere, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1824, and who spent his earlier years in the old Keystone state, and when he reached manhood he married Mary Jane Is- grigg, who was born in 1831. He was a son of David and Sarah ( Tyson ) Ghere, both natives of Pennsylvania. Eleven children were born to David and Saralı Ghere, Mrs. Sarah Price, Hiram and Joseph, being all that now survive. Joseph Ghere was seven years old when he came with his parents to Jackson township, this county, and here he grew to maturity, received a common school edu ation and was nf ried, and b. and his wife became par- ents of six children : Mrs. Martha Wyley, Jesse B., Mrs. Mary E. Cones. Mrs. Sarah A. Hinton, of Frankfort : Samuel and Andrew A. The father of Joseph Ghere died at the advanced age of eighty-three years, in 1907. and the mother was seventy-nine years old when she passed away. They both belonged to the United Brethren chruch, and were known for their honesty and hospitality, liked by all.
Jesse B. Ghere was reared on the home farm and there he worked hard when a boy. By close application he received a good common school educa- tion in a log cabin school. When twenty-eight years old he married Mintie Long, daughter of Samuel and Catherine ( Ball) Long, of an excellent old pioneer family, both now deceased. The father was a native of Ohio, but in an early day he came to this state and located in Boone county, where he engaged successfully in farming.
It was in 1906 that our subject came to his present farm, and since then he has made a number of good improvements. He has a neat home and good buildings in general, and on his place is always to be found an excellent grade of live stock.
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Two children have boon born to Mr. and Mrs. Ghere: Lelia married Curtis C. Pendry, an express agent of Indianapolis ; and Clifford Tyson. now twenty-three years old, who lives at home, assisting his father with the work on the farm, having. in fact, practical charge of the place. He received a good education in the common schools.
The Ghere family is one of the most highly respected in the county, and are noted for their industry and honesty.
NUN BAAILEY.
It is with a degree of satisfaction that the biographer has an opportunity at this juncture to write the following biographical memoir of the pioneer farmer and well known citizen whose name appears above, who has been for many decades active in the affairs of Clinton county. The readers of this book, especially the younger generation, will doubtless gain inspiration from perusing these paragraphs to lead more industrious, kindlier and worthier lives, seeing what the life of Mr. Bailey has accomplished, not only individ- ually, but for the locality as well, affecting all with whom he has come into contact in an uplifting manner. He came with his parents to this section of the state in pioneer times and he assisted in bringing about the trans- formation of the locality in the wild condition in which it was found at the time of his arrival to its later day progress and improvement.
Nun Bailey, who has spent the major portion of his life in Perry town- ship, he being now seventy-six years of age, was born on the old Bailey homestead in West Virginia in 1837. He is a son of Silas Bailey, and a grandson of Thomas Bailey, a soldier in the war of 1812, in which war, William Bailey, a son of the latter, also fought. Thomas Bailey was a son of Jonathan Bailey, a horse trader and dealer in old Virginia in the Colonial period and he bought and sokl horses for the soldiers in the Revolutionary war. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He got hold of a good deal of continental money, but by reason of its depreciation he lost most of his fortune. However, the government later redeemed this scrip or continental money.
Silas Bailey married Sarah Trotter, a native of West Virginia and a daughter of William Trotter, also a native of that state. Silas Bailey and family removed to Ross county, Ohio, in 1838, thence to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, in 1839, and soon thereafter came on to Clinton county where they
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established their permanent home in Jackson township. Seven children were born to Silas Bailey and wife: Melinda, Jane, Nun (subject ), William Thomas, a soldier in the Civil war; Dorothy, Barbara, M. Jehu and Henry E.
William Trotter, maternal grandfather of our subject, was a soldier in the war of 1812. Silas Bailey, mentioned above, started for the California gold fields, intending to go by water, in 1852, but died of cholera at Cleve- land, O., and there he was buried. He left a widow and six children. The mother died at the age of sixty-three. The father of our subject was an ex- ceptionally large man physically, being six feet and six inches in height. Our subject had an uncle Trotter who was over six feet and seven inches tall. Ile comes of a sturdy race on both sides of the house
Nun Bailey was reared on the home farm where he found plenty of hard work to do when a boy. He received a meager education in a log cabin school of the primitive type, the cabin being furnished with slab seats, sod floor, greased paper for window panes, and a large stove in one end. He was married on April 1, 1869 to Matilda Ely, who was born in Montgomery county, Indiana, and there reared to womanhood, receiving a good common school education. She was a daughter of John Ely and wife, both natives of Ohio, from which state they came to Indiana in an early day and estab- lished the family home in Montgomery county where they spent the rest of their lives on a farm.
Mr. Bailey is owner of a valuable farm of one hundred and fifty-three acre- which he h kept well improved and well cultivated, and which has retained its original fertility under his skillful management. He carries on general and mixed farming and stock raising. He has a comfortable home and such outbuildings and improved farming implements as his needs re- quire. His family consists of five children : Laura, now living in this county ; Guy, living in North Dakota: Jonah B., owns a good seventy acre farm in Perry township; Jesse C., lives in Colfax, and Bertha, married to Floyd Frederick. The death of the mother of the above named children occurred on March 30, 1909. She was a good Christian woman, kind and neighborly and raised her children well, proving to be a faithful helpmeet to her hus- band during their married career of forty years. She was optimistic, always seeing the silver lining in the dark clouds that overcast life's skies for everyone. She was a worthy member of the Christian church, to which Mr. Bailey also belongs. He is a staunch advocate of the church and school work and has encouraged both all his life. He has always been noted for his kind- ness, steady habits and spirit of helpfulness. His home is known far and near as a place of old-time hospitality.
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