USA > Indiana > Daviess County > History of Daviess County, Indiana : Its people, industries and institutions > Part 41
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Mary Campbell Shirley's father, Dr. John C. L. Campbell, spent his early days on the North Carolina estate and when quite a young man began reading up on the subject of medicine. At a later date he enrolled as a
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student in the Louisville University, in Louisville, Kentucky, where he studied medicine and where he graduated in 1853. He then began the prac- tice of medicine in the town of Mt. Pleasant, Indiana, and was married in 1855 to Emily Brooks. He enlisted in Company B, Eightieth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in 1862, where he served as corporal. In 1863 he was transferred to the Twenty-first Regiment, Heavy Artillery, as assist- ant surgeon. After being mustered out of service he returned home and finally began the practice of medicine in the town of Loogootee, Indiana, where he remained until the time of his death, February 15, 1893. His wife was the daughter of Jefferson Brooks, who came from Lincoln, Massa- chusetts, to Hindoostan, Indiana, where he engaged in business as a "flat- boat" merchant and, later, moved to Mt. Pleasant, Indiana, where he died in the year 1882, having previously lost his wife by death in the year 1874. To Jefferson Brooks and wife were born the following children: Emily; Lewis, who was captain of Company C, Fourteenth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry (succeeding Captain Nathan Kimball, afterward General Kimball) and afterward became colonel of the Eightieth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry; Susan, who married Sanford Niblack; Thomas Jeffer- son, who was captain of Company B, Eightieth Regiment, Indiana Volun- teer Infantry, who died as the result of a wound received in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky; Hannah Eustace, who married Eunice Trueblood, a sister of H. C. Trueblood; Seymour Waldo; Grace, who married P. R. Gibson, of Topeka, Kansas, now of Vincennes, Indiana, and whose wife is deceased.
Thomas Jefferson Brooks, Mary C. Shirley's maternal grandfather, was a descendant of Patriarch Puritan Thomas Brooks, who landed at Marblehead, Massachusetts, in the year 1634, and was one of a committee of seven who selected the site and laid out the town of Concord, Massa- chusetts. It was he that chose the land on the hill between Lincoln and Con- cord, which is now called Brooks Hill, and Brooks Inn is the place where Paul Revere stopped during his famous ride. The inn was kept by John Brooks, who married Lucy Hoar, a great aunt of George Frisby, which makes Thomas Jefferson Brooks a second cousin to Senator Hoar. He was prominent in the early history of Martin county, Indiana, active in all public affairs and a stanch supporter of the policies of Abraham Lin- coln. He was married to Susan Poor, a native of Massachusetts, who came to Indiana in the year 1816 with her parents, John and Hannah (Chute) Poor. The father died in 1817 from heart lesion, due to an accident received in rolling logs, and his wife died some time later.
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To Dr. John C. L. Campbell and wife were born the following named children, in order of their birth: Harlan Anderson; Ida; Eugenia, who married S. W. Chappell, now living in Pike county, Indiana; Mary, the subject; Susan Brooks, who married Samuel A. Chenoweth, deceased, and she lives in Shoals, Indiana; Ethel, the wife of Dr. Harvey J. Clemens and living in Salem, Oregon; John Milton, of Coalinga, California.
Mary Campbell Shirley received her early education in the public schools and Mt. Pleasant Academy, attended the county normal schools, the. Indiana State Normal, the Indiana State University, Winona College and the Normal College, Valparaiso, Indiana. She began her teaching career at the age of sixteen years, and for three years was a teacher in the schools of Martin county, Indiana. She was married on June 13, 1887, to James L. Shirley, a son of John and Mary (Hatchett) Shirley, both natives of the state of Kentucky. His father was John Shirley, of Scottish descent, who came from North Carolina, where he was a large slave owner, and settled in Kentucky; his mother was a daughter of AArchibald and Jane (Love) Hatchett, natives of Virginia, who came to Kentucky, where they received a grant of land and where they both died. Archibald Hatchett was actively engaged in the War of 1812, and his mother came with her parents to Vir- ginia when a little child. John Shirley and wife came to Indiana in the year 1859, and to them were born the following named children: Jasper, who was a soldier with the Union army during the Civil War; Johanna, who married George Brown and now lives in Clay county; Susan, who married Marion Harbert and to whom were born Albert, deceased; Imogene, who married Harvey Trueblood, of Washington; James L., subject's deceased husband; Robert P., who married Emily Christ, of Clay county, now living in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Laura E., who married W. G. Wharton, and now lives in Portland, Oregon.
James L. Shirley was educated in the public schools of Clay county, after which he engaged in the mercantile business in the town of Columbus, Indiana, where he spent the last two years of his life and died on July I, 1890. To James L. and Mary .C. Shirley were born the following children : Herman Vincent, on May 22, 1888, a graduate of the Washington (Indi- ana) high school, attended Purdue University for two years, and is now engaged in the service of a large oil company in Fresno county, California ; Mary Lois, born on February 25, 1891, a graduate of the Washington high school and the Indiana State Normal in 1914, now specializing in public school music. She will finish the supervisor's course in school music at Cor- nell University in August of 1915.
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That singers are born and not made, cannot be more fitly demonstrated than in the instance of the long line of successive teachers of that art as set out in this biography. Professor Chute, an English vocal teacher, became the tutor of James I of England about 1603. Professor Chute was lineally descended to the old Puritan Dominie, one of the first settlers of our coun- try and the ancestor of Daniel Chute, father of Conrad Baker's wife, who organized the schools of Evansville. Mary Campbell Shirley is a descend- ant of a sister of Daniel Chute. Hannah Chute. History portrays the unusual fact that for seven generations in America and the generations from that time back to the time to which reference is made above there has been an unbroken line of teachers. Mrs. Shirley takes great pride in the fact that her daughter has refused to break this beautiful line of teachers and has declined to consider any other vocation in life except that for which she is qualified, the art of teaching those about her to become proficient in the art of singing.
Since the death of her husband. Mrs. Shirley has devoted the past twenty-three years to teaching in the Washington (Daviess county, Indiana ) schools, where her services have given eminent satisfaction and where she is held in the very highest esteem by all who know her. She is particularly well fitted to the duties of teaching and her early educational training has served her to the greatest advantage and to the great benefit of the schools of this town. Personally she is quite popular, possessing to a marked degree those characteristics that win and retain warm friendships. By her kind- ness and courtesy she has won an abiding place in the esteem of her fellow citizens and by her intelligence, energy and enterprising spirit. has made her influence felt during her residence in Daviess county, occupying no. small place in the public favor.
WILLIAM ALEXANDER KILLION.
Splendid achievements always excite admiration. Men of deeds are inen whom the world delights to honor. Ours is an age representing the most advanced progress in all lines of material activities, and the man of initiative is the one who forges to the front in the industrial world. Among the distinctive captains of industry in Daviess county, Indiana, a place of priority must be given to William Alexander Killion, of Steele townshp. He is in the fullest sense of the term a progressive, self-made American.
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thoroughly in harmony with the spirit of the advanced age in which he lives and conducting all of his business matters carefully and systematically. In all of his acts he displays an aptitude for successful management. Mr. Killion has not permitted the accumulation of fortune to affect, in any way, his actions toward those less fortunate than he. He is most sympathetic and a broad-minded man in every respect. William A. Killion has a host of warm and admiring friends in Daviess county. Although he had the misfortune, some time ago, to lose an arm, it has not affected his remark- able ability to get from place to place, and he is able to drive a motor car with rare skill, by this means directing the operations upon his vast farm properties.
William Alexander Killion was born on November 9, 1857, in Daviess county, Indiana, the son of Alexander Killion and the brother of Nathan Killion, referred to elsewhere in this volume.
Educated in the common schools, Mr. Killion lived on the farm during the early part of his life.
William A. Killion was married on January 18, 1880, to Mary Dyer, the daughter of William and Mary Jane (Baker) Dyer. To this union five children have been born, Ivy May, Claude E., Elmer, Ora and Jessie. Iva May is unmarried and lives at home; Claude E., who lives in Plainville, married Elsie Artermann and has two children, Earl and Alvin; Ora, who lives in Harrison township, married Effie Brooker and has one child, Har- ley; Jesse, who lives at home, married Catherine Hummer and has one child, Louisa.
William A. Killion owns one thousand acres of land in this section of the state, of which acreage nine hundred acres are in Daviess county, sixty in Pike county and fifty acres in Greene county. Besides his extensive farm property, Mr. Killion owns a third interest in two sections of land at Pan- handle, Texas. He also owns several shares in the Plainville Farmers Bank, and for some time was in the flour business in Washington, but sold out in December, 1897, and returned to the farm.
It was while he was in the milling business in Washington that he lost his right arm, February 20, 1896. The accident occurred in his mill when his hand was caught in a cog-wheel. It was necessary to amputate his arm below the elbow.
Mr. Killion is authority for the statement that there are nine William Killions in Daviess county, Indiana, and three William A. Killions. Physic- ally, William A. Killion is a large man and possesses a genial, good-natured disposition at all times. He is very popular in Steele township, but is well
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known outside the boundaries of the township where he lives. Mr. Killion owns a splendid home one mile northeast of Plainville, where he and his family have lived since they removed from Washington, in 1897. Mr. Kil- lion's quickness of perception and the dispatch with which he goes about his business are traits of character which he has inherited from his father before him, who was also a well-known business man in this section of the country. The Killion family is popular socially in Steele township.
Mr. Killion is identified with the Democratic party. He has never held office, however, and has never been interested in politics to this extent. His heavy financial and agricultural interests have kept him too busily engaged for participation in politics. He does, however, take a commendable interest in the civic and moral development of his community.
JOHN A. LAWYER.
Poets often tell the truth and the old song which contains the refrain, "The farmer feeds them all," states a very fundamental and economic truth. Without the farmer the rest of the country would starve within a week, despite the large amount of food in cold storage. Every occupation might be done away with but farming and people could live, but a total cessation of farming, for a very short time, would actually depopulate the whole world. A man can live without banks all of his life, but deprive him of his bread and his career is soon ended. Farming is becoming an honored profession, our district schools are teaching it as a science and our colleges are granting degrees for agricultural courses. The farmers of any com- munity sustain the people dependent upon every other profession. Without the farmer, the banker would close his doors, the manufacturer would shut down his factory and the railroads would suspend operations. Among the honored farmers of Daviess county who help to keep the banker, the manu- facturer and the railroad, is John A. Lawyer, of Steele township.
John A. Lawyer was born on August 15, 1848, near Louisville, Ken- tucky. He is the son of Joseph and Louise (Mathers) Lawyer, the former of whom was a native of Pennsylvania and a soldier in the Civil War, who died in 1863. Joseph Lawyer was confined, for a time, in the prison at Andersonville. He was a member of. a company in the Indiana Volunteer Infantry, serving for more than a year. He farmed mostly in Washington county, and was an influential member in the Methodist church. His wife,
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who before her marriage was Louise Mathers, was the daughter of Nathan Mathers, of Washington county, who was a farmer, school teacher and a justice of the peace. Joseph and Louise Lawyer had five children, Rebecca ; John A., the subject of this sketch; Bernetta, deceased; Abner, deceased; and Bishop. Of these children Rebecca, who married Howard Taylor, now deceased, lives at Linton, Indiana; Bernetta, who married James Cropp, lives in Washington; Abner, who married Anna Decker, lives in this county; Bishop, who was twice married, lives in Jasonville, Indiana.
Educated largely by home study and in the school of experience and hard knocks, John A. Lawyer has been a farmer all his life, and in this vocation has been more than ordinarily successful.
Mr. Lawyer has been married three times, the first time on October 5, 1865, to Martha Osman, who died on May 5, 1875, and who was the daughter of Charles and Margaret (Seiferd) Osman, farmers in Van Buren township, Daviess county. Charles Osman died while in the service of the Union army in the Civil War. By his first wife, Mr. Lawyer was the father of six children, Bernetta, Richard, Louise, Frederick and two who died in infancy. Mr. Lawyer was married a second time to Laura Wheeler, who died in 1878. One child, Ida, was born to this marriage, but she is now deceased. After the death of his second wife, Mr. Lawyer was married a third time to a half sister of his second wife, Huldah Wheeler, who was born on July 18, 1858, at Princeton, Indiana. By this third marriage, thir- teen children have been born, John, Mattie, Maggie, Joe, Flora (deceased), Raleigh, Austin, Leonard, Pearl, Anna, Mckinley, Charles and Ralph.
Mr. Lawyer enlisted in the Union army on October 8, 1864, first enlisting in Company D, Thirty-seventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and later was transferred to the Eighty-second Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served about nine months. He also served in Com- pany B, Twenty-second Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was discharged in August, 1865. At the time of his discharge he was with Sher- man's army. He made the march with Sherman from Atlanta to the sea while in service. Mr. Lawyer belonged to the Eighty-second Indiana Volun- teer Infantry.
Reverting to the parentage of Mr. Lawyer's third wife, Mrs. Lawyer was the daughter of Lemuel and Nancy (Balsh) Wheeler. Lemuel Wheeler was a farmer near Princeton, and served four years in the Civil War. His children were Marion, Laura, who died in 1878, and Huldah. Mrs. Law- yer's grandfather was Samuel Wheeler.
John A. Lawyer moved to his farm of three hundred and thirty-seven
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acres in 1894, where he now lives and is engaged in general farming. He formerly lived on the Ziab Graham farm. He has always been extremely prosperous. John A. Lawyer is a member of the township advisory board, and in politics is a Republican. Both he and his wife, as well as the mem- bers of his family, are affiliated with the Christian church. Mr. Lawyer is not a man who takes hold of new things quickly. He has always been con- servative in his business dealings, but is in every respect reliable and depend- able. He is much admired and highly respected in the community where he lives.
Mr. Lawyer built a fine residence in 1898 and also built a good barn, besides making many valuable improvements on the farm. He is a member of the post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Plainville, Indiana, where he enjoys getting around the campfires with the "old boys."
WILLIAM C. AUTERBURN.
Of high intellectual and professional attainments and ranking among foremost teachers of Steele township, Daviess county, Indiana, William C. Auterburn has achieved marked success in the work to which his talent and energy have long been devoted. As a teacher and principal of public schools, he has made his presence felt. His influence in Steele township has always tended to the advancement of the community and the welfare of the people of this township. Mr. Auterburn has a wholesome and stimulating influence on the pupils who have come in contact with him. His name with eminent fitness occupies a conspicuous place in the profession to which he is devoted, and in the historical annals of Daviess county.
William C. Auterburn was born on April 4, 1892, at Plainville, Indi- ana. He is the son of Samuel P. and Laura A. (Faith) Auterburn, the former of whom was born at Epsom on March 27, 1855, and the latter of whom is the daughter of Abraham and Frances C. (Myres) Faith, who are well-known farmers living near Epsom.
William C. Auterburn was educated in the public schools of Daviess county and in the high school at Plainville. For some time he has been a student in the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute, and will be graduated in one more year. For the last four years he has been teaching in the common schools of Daviess county, and during the present year is principal of the Plainville (Indiana) school. Mr. Auterburn was married
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on April 3, 1915, to Nell McBride, daughter of Wiley and Ida May McBride, of Spokane, Washington. He is a member of the Modern Wood- men of America, the Free and Accepted Masons, and religiously is a mem- ber of the Christian church.
Reverting to Mr. Auterburn's ancestors, his grandfather was Isaac Henderson Auterburn, who was born on July 16, 1817, at Louisville, Ken- tucky, and who died on May 22, 1872. Isaac Henderson Auterburn mar- ried Mary Jane Reynolds, who was born on August 25, 1825, and who died on March 13, 1875.
William C. Auterburn's great-grandfather was William Thomas Auter- burn, who was born in Virginia, and who married Mary Jane Bledsoe, also a native of Virginia. William T. Auterburn and wife were members of the Christian church. They were farmers and lived near Louisville, Kentucky, most of their lives. Isaac Henderson Auterburn was a cabinetmaker in Louisville until the age of thirty-seven years, when he came to Epsom, in Bogard township, Daviess county, where he became a farmer. He owned two hundred acres of land at the time of his death, and throughout his life was active in the affairs of the Methodist Episcopal church. William C. Auterburn had five children, Samuel P., George W., Sarah S., Martin A. and Mary Jane. Of these children, Samuel P. is the father of William C .; George W. is living in Sikeston, Missouri. He married Dicie Bugher ; Sarah E. lives in Bogard township. She married E. L. Grove; Martin A. married Mary Jane Killion, and is living in Sikeston, Missouri; Mary Jane is living near Epsom. She married Joseph T. Browning.
Samuel P. Atterburn, the father of William C. Atterburn, was edu- cated in the common schools in Odon, Indiana, and also in the normal schools. When a young man he obtained a teacher's license, but never taught. He has been a farmer during his entire life, and an active and devoted member of the Methodist church. He is now living retired in Plainville.
To Samuel P. and Laura A. (Faith) Auterburn eight children have been born, Clay H., Alson, Maud J., C. Harvey, Hallie (who died at the age of six years), Roy A., Chauncey and William C. Of these children, Clay H. married Anna Hoover and lives at Bicknell. They have five chil- dren, Norman A., Lowell, Thelma, Constant H. and Charles. Clay H. is principal of the schools at Bicknell. Alson married Ola Orender, and they have one child, Opal. Maude J. died on August 10, 1914. She married James S. Watson, who died on April 1, 1914. They had five children,.
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Alson, Pearl, Laura, Lyle and Rex. C. Harvey married Mattie Orender. They had one child, Ora. Roy A. lives in Chicago. He married Hattie Dawson, and they have two children, Ralph and Harry. Chauncey also lives in Chicago. She married J. C. Rink. They have two children, Joe Merel and Charles J.
Samuel Auterburn is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- low's and the Knights of Pythias.
STEARER Y. CALLAHAN.
The following is a sketch of a plain, honest man of affairs who, by cor- rect methods and a strict regard for the interests of his neighbors and fellow citizens, has made his influence felt in Madison township and has won for himself distinctive prestige in the agricultural circles of this town- ship. S. Y. Callahan would be the last man to sit for romance or become the subject of fancy eulogy. Nevertheless, his life presents much that is interesting and valuable and which may be studied with profit by young men whose careers are yet to be formed. He is one of those men whose integrity and strength of character must attract to him admirable notice- a notice which modesty never seeks. He commands the respect of his neighbors and, although suffering keenly from a severe affliction, he has maintained his optimism unimpaired. Mr. Callahan has been a hard worker throughout his life and is now in a position to enjoy the fruit of his early labors.
Stearer Y. Callahan was born on April 27, 1852, in Lawrence county, Indiana, and is the son of S. E. and Margaret (Sears) Callahan, the for- mer of whom was born in Lawrence county in 1832, and the latter also a native of Lawrence county, the daughter of Andrew Sears, who was a well-known farmer of that county and a prominent member of the Chris- tian church.
The paternal grandfather of S. Y. Callahan was Isaac Callahan, a native of Kentucky who married Jane Boyd, in that state, and came to Lawrence county, Indiana, where they were farmers. He owned one hun- dred acres of land and was influential in the Christian church of his county. They had ten children, John T., Elisha B., Southey E., Fannie, Martin, Henry, Sarah, Nancy Jane, Eveline and Polly.
The father of S. Y. Callahan was educated in the common schools of
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Lawrence county, where he lived for one year after his marriage. He then moved to Daviess county and settled in Madison township near Odon, where he purchased eighty acres of land. After a few years, he sold this farm and moved to another farm of eighty acres south of Odon, where he lived the remainder of his life. S. E. Callahan was a quiet man who had little to say, but he was an optimist in all things and well satisfied with life, hav- ing made a commendable success. He was an ardent Republican. He died about 1899 at the age of sixty-four years. During the Civil War, he served nine months in the service of the Union army. He and his wife had thirteen children: S. Y., William, Annias, deceased; Peter, James, Grant, Joseph, Rebecca Jane, Tabitha, Mary, Stella, Lucinda and Maggie.
Goolie and Mary Ann (Adams) Cunningham are the parents of twelve children : William Thomas, Robert Wesley, Alonzo, Archa, John, Lewis, Mary, Julia, Martha, Lizzie, Alvira, Nancy. Mr. Cunningham was a farmer all his life, an elder in the Christian church and was a stanch Republican. He was born in 1816 and died in 1867, his wife was born in 1821 and died in 1892.
Stearer Y. Callahan, during his youth, was prevented from getting a very extensive education. He lived with his father on the farm and from the time he was a mere lad, was known to be very industrious and pains- taking in all that he did.
Mr. Callahan married Martha Cunningham on January 18, 1872, who was born in Daviess county, Indiana, on November 13, 1849, is the daugh- ter of Goolie and Mary Ann (Adams) Cunningham, early settlers in Madi- son township, Daviess county. To this union four children have been born, Anna, Arla, Daisy and Alva. Anna married Andrew Williams and has one child, Ira. They live in Madison township; Arla, who also lives in Madi- son township, married Homer Pershing and has two children, Calvin and Raymond; Daisy married Charles Kirk, of Madison township, and has three children, Cletus Verne and Ruth, Olva, who lives in Madison town- ship, married Lula Riggins and has one child, Harold. They live in Madi- son township.
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