History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 51

Author: Archibald Shaw
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1123

USA > Indiana > Dearborn County > History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 51

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Clarence B. Wilson was born at Robinson, Brown county, Kansas, on May 6, 1871, a son of Robert P. and Clementine (Cochran) Wilson. He lived in Ripley county in boyhood, coming to Dearborn county at the age of ten years, starting out in the world to earn his living at the early age of four- teen years, and from that time on has made his own way in the world. His rudimentary education was received at the district schools, and he later at- tended the college at Moores Hill, going thence to Indiana State Normal from which he was graduated in 1898. He taught school for a period of twelve years, during which time he was principal of several schools, includ-

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ing those of Dillsboro, Versailles and Osgood. At the end of his school work in 1901, Mr. Wilson organized the Dillsboro State Bank, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, officiating as its cashier up to 1908, when he went to Aurora and aided in the organization of the Aurora State Bank, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, and has acted as its cashier to the present time. Mr. Wilson has always given his support to the Republican party and is warmly interested in local politics. He is a member of the Baptist church, and his fraternal alliances are with Hopewell Lodge No. 80, Free and Accepted Masons, and Chapman Lodge No. 78, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In addition to his official position with the Aurora State Bank, Mr. Wilson is also a director of the Wymond Cooperage Company and presi- dent of the Indianapolis Chair and Furniture Company, of Aurora.

Robert P. Wilson, father of Clarence B. Wilson, was born in Indiana and was reared in Old Milan, Ripley county, where he grew up on a farm. He afterwards became a preacher in the Baptist church, and with the ex- ception of two years spent in Kansas, his entire life has been spent in Dear- born and Ripley counties, thirty-five years of which time have been spent in Dearborn county. His early education was received at the common schools of the district, and he later attended the seminary at Versailles, after which he followed teaching, and was a preacher in the Baptist church until a few years ago, when he retired. Robert P. Wilson served for three years in the Union army during the Civil War, as a non-commissioned officer in the Thirty-seventh Regiment. Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was severely wounded in the Battle of Stone's River, and was then transferred to the sig- nal corps.

Rev. Robert P. Wilson is the only son of Goff M., and Amanda (John- son) Wilson, the former a native of Maine, and the latter of Ripley county, Indiana, both early settlers of that county. Goff M. Wilson followed the vo- cation of a farmer, dying at a comparatively young age. His widow remarried, and lived to an advanced age. Her second husband was Reuben Wilson, a second cousin of her first husband, to which union two children were born- Cornelia and Clarence E. Grandfather Cochran went to California during the gold excitement, and was never heard from again. His wife went as a nurse to the South, during the cholera scourge, and, like her husband, was never heard from again. Their only child was the mother of Clarence B. Wilson.

On August 29, 1893, Clarence B. Wilson was married to Alice Garrigues, daughter of Israel and Jane (Ellis) Garrigues. Mrs. Wilson was born on a

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farm near Peoria, Illinois. She is an active member of the Baptist church. She received her education at Moores Hill College and at the Indiana State Normal. This union has been blessed with three children-Norma, Esther and Helen.

Israel and Jane (Ellis) Garrigues, parents of Mrs. Clarence B. Wilson, were natives of Indiana, and both died when she was very young, within a week of each other. They were the parents of five children, namely : Clara, Vina, Elizabeth, Jennie and Alice. The paternal grandparents of Mrs. Wilson are James and Elizabeth (Godden) Garrigues. The maternal grandparents were David and Mary (Barton) Ellis.

Mr. Wilson holds a high rank in the citizenship of his city, and through his official career has merited the esteem and confidence of all interested.

HON. NOAH SAMSON GIVAN.

The Givan family has been connected with the history and progress of Dearborn county for nearly one hundred years, Judge Noah Samson Givan's father, Joshua Givan, having come from Sussex county, Maryland, to Dearborn county in the spring of 1825. He was one of the successful, influential and wealthy farmers of his day and generation, who was able to give his children the best educational advantages which the times afforded. Judge Givan, who was graduated from Indiana State University more than a half century ago, has either been a practicing attorney, or a judge on the bench in Dearborn county practically all the time since his graduation. It is now fifty-seven years since he began the practice of law in Lawrenceburg, and with the ex- ception of five years, during which time he practiced in Daviess county, In- diana, he has lived in Lawrenceburg. Few lawyers who belong to the genera- tion represented by Judge Givan are better educated or better trained for the legal profession than he. No judge in this section of Indiana has had a more honorable career than Judge Givan, and few men are known so widely and honored with such sincere admiration.

Noah Samson Givan was born on September 30, 1833, in Manchester township. this county, the son of Joshua and Henrietta ( Davis) Givan, both of whom were natives of Maryland. Joshua Givan was reared in Sussex county, Maryland, where he was a farmer. Coming to Indiana, in the spring of 1825, with his wife and several children, he purchased an improved

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farm, first in Manchester township, this county, and later took up three hundred and twenty acres of government land in the same township, ad- joining his original purchase. He gave one hundred and sixty acres of land to his son, George, and sixty acres to his daughter, Nancy. About 1855 or 1856 he sold the remaining hundred acres to his son, William, but kept the original farm, and lived there until he was eighty years old, when he and his wife went to live with their son, George, where they spent the rest of their lives. Joshua Givan died at the age of eighty-five and his widow survived him but about three years, she dying at the age of eighty-two or three. They were prominent members of the Baptist church and reared a large family of children to honorable and useful lives. They were the parents of thirteen children, eight of whom lived to maturity, as follow: Nancy (deceased), was the wife of Joseph Parsons; George, now deceased; Martha, who married Reuben Hoppin (deceased), is now living at Belvidere, Illinois; William and Joshua, deceased; Noah Samson, the subject of this biographical sketch; Robert, de- ceased, and Mary, the widow of Thomas Sellers.

Judge Givan's paternal grandfather, the Rev. George Givan, was a Bap- tist minister, who was considered a powerful preacher in his day. He and his wife, who were both natives of Maryland, after rearing a large family of children died in their native state. The maternal grandparents of Judge Givan were also natives of Maryland, and among the early pioneers of Dear- born county, prominent residents of Manchester township. Among their children were Noah Davis, Samson, Brinkley and Henrietta Davis. After the death of Grandfather Davis his widow married again, her second husband having been a Revolutionary soldier.

Noah Samson Givan was reared on his father's farm in Manchester town- ship, and attended the old-fashioned subscription schools, in the days when the teacher was accustomed to board around with the patrons. He later at- tended Franklin College for three years, and was graduated from Indiana State University at Bloomington, with the class of 1858. After his graduation he studied law for a short time in the office of Judge Buskirk, of Bloomington, and was graduated from the law department of Indiana State University in 1859. Judge Givan commenced practicing in Washington, Daviess county, Indiana, and was there for five years at the end of which time he returned to Dearborn county, opening an office at Lawrenceburg, and there he has since practised continuously, with the exception of the period covered by the two terms he spent on the bench.

In 1860 Judge Givan was elected prosecutor of the common pleas court

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of Daviess county, and in 1862 was elected state representative from Daviess county, and served one term in the Lower House of the Indiana Legislature. Ten years later Judge Givan was elected state representative from Dearborn county and in 1874 was elected a state senator from Dearborn and Frank- lin counties, serving until 1878. In 1876 he was elected presidential elector, and voted for Tilden and Hendricks. In 1878 he was elected judge of the Dearborn circuit court, and filled the office for six years. During the next twelve years he was engaged in the active practice of his profession and again, in 1896, was elected judge of the circuit court, and served another term of six years. During this period he also served three or four years as county school examiner and also as school trustee of the city schools for ten or twelve years.

On October 17, 1866, Judge Noah S. Givan was married to Mary Martin, who was born in Cincinnati on October 17, 1840, the daughter of Samuel and Amanda (Nesbit) Martin, the former of whom was born in Scotland. Samuel Martin, who was a cooper, located in Lawrenceburg about 1850, and there spent the rest of his life and he and his wife were the parents of two children, Mary and Margaret. The mother had been married formerly to a Mr. Wood and one son, William, had been born to that union.

To Judge and Mrs. Givan four children have been born, namely: Martin J., Henrietta, Frank M. and Margaret J. Martin J. Givan is a partner of his father in the practice of law at Lawrenceburg. He married Ann C. Odell and to this union nine children have been born, Margaret, Clinton H., George Noah Samson, Elizabeth, Ruth and Charles, who are living, and three chil- dren who died in early childhood. Henrietta Givan married John C. Scott, who is now deceased, and she is teaching music in Cuthbert Female College, at Cuthbert, Georgia. She has two children, Percival Givan Seott and Frank Noah Scott. Frank M. Givan is a traveling salesman and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He married Darnettie Downey. Margaret J. Givan lives at home.

Judge Givan is a member of the Baptist church, though Mrs. Givan be- longs to the Methodist church. Fraternally, he is a member of Lawrenceburg Lodge No. 4, Free and Accepted Masons, and of Lawrenceburg chapter, Royal Arch Masons. He is a Democrat and for years has been recognized as one of the strong factors in that party's organization in southern Indiana.

In the history of any section there is always some man who stands out as the first citizen of the community. It is not improbable that if the first citizen of Dearborn county were to be selected, Judge Givan would be named as that man. Aside from his long and honorable career on the bench, he has

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lived a worthy and useful life and has contributed much to the happiness and comfort of the people of Dearborn county. He has always believed in a wholesome community spirit and keenly loves the city which has been his home so long. Judge Givan is approachable, affable, charitable and broad- minded; a man who, to paraphrase the language of an early English poet, may be called a very perfect gentleman.

HON. ESTAL G. BIELBY.

The world is always ready to honor the young man who develops his available resources and makes the most of his opportunities. While it may not be absolutely true that everyone is the arbiter of his own fortunes, it never- theless is relatively true. Mayor Estal G. Bielby, who after a lapse of a few years is serving his second term as mayor of the city of Lawrenceburg, is a self-made young man, whose merit the people of Dearborn county, and espe- cially the city of Lawrenceburg, have not been slow to recognize and reward. Mayor Bielby is a well-known lawyer of this county, a man of exceptional executive ability in public affairs and popular, not only in Lawrenceburg, where he is serving the second term as mayor, but throughout all Dearborn county. Professionally, Mayor Bielby was well educated for the law, having received his legal training in one of the very best law schools of the coun- try. Since locating in Lawrenceburg, years ago, he has built up a large and flourishing practice and enjoys an especially profitable clientage in this sec- tion of Indiana.

Estal G. Bielby was born in Manchester, Dearborn county, Indiana, on March 5, 1874, son of Huet G. and Jeanette (Hamlin) Bielby, and has lived in Dearborn county practically all his life. For several years he was one of the well-known school teachers of this county. His father, Huet G. Bielby, who was first married to Jeanette Hamlin, a native of Indiana, was brought up at Pierceville, Ripley county, Indiana, and after living there until eighteen years of age came to Dearborn county, and started a shoe shop in the village of Manchester, remaining in business there until 1883, when he went to Sun- man, Indiana, and there opened a general store and operated a huckster wagon in connection with his store. Operating this business until 1908, he sold out and removed to Moores Hill, where he lived for a short time and spent the winter of 1908-09 at Forest City, Arkansas. On his return from the South,

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after residing a few months in Lawrenceburg, he went back to Sunman, pur- chased a large hardware stock and has conducted a hardware business at Sunman ever since. By his marriage to Jeanette Hamlin two children were born, Estal G. and Chester, the latter of whom died on December 24, 1889. His wife, the mother of Mayor Bielby, was a devout member of the Methodist church and a kind. loving Christian woman who died on January 30, 1886, at the age of thirty. Some time after her death Huet G. Bielby married Ade- line Stevenson, and by this union two children have been born, Hazel and Nellis. Huet G. Bielby is a member of the Christian Union church, and has served as superintendent of the Sunday school for about twenty years.

The Bielbys came to America originally from England. George Beilby, the paternal grandfather of Mayor Bielby, who came here from that country, hav- ing been an early settler in Ripley county, Indiana. After his death his widow, who before her marriage was Mary Dixon, a native of Maryland, married William Bratton, of Pierceville, Indiana, and by this second marriage three children, Sadie, Orange and William, were born. Mayor Bielby's father was the only child by the first marriage. On his maternal side Mayor Bielby had four uncles, Wesley, Omer, George, and Santford Hamlin, who were well- known violinists. His maternal grandparents were Linus and Docia (Jac- quith) Hamlin, whose other children were Fannie, Paulina, Ida Dell and Jeanette. They were early settlers in Indiana and died long after having passed the meridian of life.

Mayor Bielby's legal education was begun in the fall of 1896, when he entered the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and from which he was graduated with the class of 1899. Before that he had at- tended Moores Hill College during one spring term and taught several terms of school in Dearborn county. In the fall of 1892, after completing the course in the common schools, he had begun teaching in the Stocks district school in Jackson township and after one year there taught the next three years at the Van Wedding school in Jackson township. During the summers of these years he worked in his father's store at Sunman, Indiana.

Beginning the practice of his profession in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, im- mediately after his graduation from the University of Michigan Law School, Mr. Bielby came to Dearborn county on April 1, 1900, opened a law office at Lawrenceburg and has practiced in that city since that time. Being an ardent Republican, he took an active part in politics and he was elected mayor of Law- renceburg in 1905, and served until January 1, 1910. So successful was his administration and so general was the satisfaction of the people of Lawrence-

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burg with his administration that after a lapse of three years Mayor Bielby was re-elected to the office, January 1, 1914, and is now serving his second term. From the beginning of his professional career he has been an excellent mana- ger of his own business, and is widely interested in the financial, commercial and industrial enterprises of Lawrenceburg and Dearborn county. Among other institutions in which he is interested, he is a stockholder in the James Meyer Buggy Company, the Lawrenceburg Ferry Company, the Lawrence- burg Water Company, the Lawrenceburg Lumber Company, the Dearborn National Bank, the German American Bank. the Dillsboro State Bank, and is a stockholder in and director and secretary of the Lawrenceburg Fair Asso- ciation.

Three years after his election as mayor of Lawrenceburg, on October 26, 1907, Estal G. Bielby was married to Mabelle H. Gold, daughter of Solomon Kistler and Mary Eleanor (Thomas) Gold, who was born near the town of Harrison, Ohio, and whose parents were natives of Franklin county, Indiana. Her father and mother, who had two children, Earl Thomas and Mabelle H., were separated by the death of the former on December I. 1907, when he was fifty-five years old. Mrs. Solomon K. Gold is still living. Timothy Thomas, the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Bielby, was a native of Wales, who came to the United States with his parents, William and Eleanor Thomas. They located at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they re- mained for three years, at the end of which time they came west, over moun- tain and wilderness, on horseback, looking for a new home. They located at Harrison, Ohio, and Timothy Thomas married Mary Ellen Davis, of Greens- burg, Indiana, and to this union twelve children were born, eight of whom, with their widowed mother, are still living, namely: William, Margaret. Thomas D., Mary Eleanor, Timothy, Marie, Ruth and Lulu. George Thomas, the youngest son, lost his life in the great flood of March, 1913.

To Mayor and Mrs. Bielby two children have been born, Frances and Chester. Mrs. Bielby is a member of the Christian church and is a prominent worker in the congregation of that communion at Lawrenceburg.

Mayor Bielby is a member of Lawrenceburg Lodge No. 4, Free and Ac- cepted Masons; Lawrenceburg Chapter No. 56, Royal Arch Masons, of which he is treasurer; Union Lodge No. 8, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Dearborn Lodge No. 49, Knights of Pythias, and of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He joined the Masons and Knights of Pythias at Sunman, Indiana, when he was twenty-one years old. Aside from his election twice to the office of mayor, he also served as city attorney of Lawrenceburg for two and a half years.

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From the time Mayor Bielby located at Lawrenceburg in 1900 he has been influential in the councils of the Republican party in this section of the state, and as his law practice has increased and he has been able to save a con- siderable part of the earnings from his profession, he likewise has acquired an increasing interest in the commercial life of this section. Born into the world with a native capacity and talent for public service, he has proved to be a ca- pable and efficient public official, honorable and upright in all the relations of life, private or public, and is respected and admired by all the people of Dearborn county. He well deserves the esteem which is his by right of merit.

WILLIAM T. GOODEN.

One of the oldest newspapers in southeastern Indiana is the Lawrence- burg Register, a Democratic weekly of which William T. Gooden is the pres- ent owner and editor. For more than three-quarters of a century the Lawrence- burg Register has exerted a far-reaching influence in the politics of south- eastern Indiana and especially in the politics of Dearborn county, where it has been for many years the official organ of the party. Dearborn county has always been strongly Democratic and it is the influence of the Register, as much as any other, which has contributed to this success. In fact, it is difficult to estimate the power of the press, not only in the political life of the county, but in the civic, fraternal and religious life as well. It is the organ of public opinion; the melting pot of diverse and conflicting opinion, the center of thought and intelligence. Mr. Gooden, having been well educated in some of the best institutions of learning in this country, is well qualified to manage a powerful newspaper and, under his influence, the Register has grown year by year, not only in circulation but in revenue also.

William T, Gooden was born near Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, on June 25, 1851, the son of Eagon and Elizabeth (Wells) Gooden, also natives of Pennsylvania, the former having been reared in the vicinity of Waynesburg, where he was a farmer. He died near Waynesburg on November 7, 1898, at the age of seventy-five years. His widow died in 1910, at the age of eighty-onc. The owner of a farm of one hundred and sixty-five acres in Greene county, Pennsylvania, it was there that Eagon Gooden reared his family and there he lived practically all of his life. He was a man of considerable local influence and held practically all of the township offices within the gift of the people.

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He and his wife were the parents of eleven children, namely : William T., the subject of this sketch; Jesse, who died in infancy; Margaret Jane, the wife of David R. Davis, of Moundsville, West Virginia; Mary, who is the wife of James M. Morris, of Rutan, Pennsylvania; James B., who is deceased; John J., of Abilene, Kansas; Rhoda, deceased, who was the wife of Henry Luellen, of Washington, Pennsylvania; Eliza A., who married Ralph McKer- rihan, both of whom are deceased; Harriet (deceased), who was the wife of William McPeake, also now deceased; Flora B., the wife of J. M. Pace, of Washington, Pennsylvania, and Alice, who was the wife of Charles N. Marsh, both now deceased.

Eagon Gooden was the son of William Fairfax Gooden, a native of Ohio and a farmer near Senecaville, in Guernsey county, that state. He and his wife, Thamar Gooden, lived to ripe old ages after rearing a large family, including Eagon, Thomas, Ebenezer and Linda. Elizabeth (Wells) Gooden was the daughter of James and Rhoda (Orendorf) Wells, natives of Pennsyl- vania and farmers near Oak Forest, that state. After rearing a family of eleven children, Jesse, William, Elizabeth, John, James, Abraham, Isaac, Thomas, Catherine, Margaret and Robert, they died well advanced in years.

William T. Gooden was reared on his father's farm in Greene county, Pennsylvania, and after attending the district schools of Pennsylvania, became a student at the National Normal University, at Lebanon, Ohio, being gradu- ated from that institution with the class of 1879. In the meantime, he was engaged in teaching school, having begun that useful form of public service at the age of eighteen. He taught for thirty years. In the meantime, he did post-graduate work at Indiana State University at Bloomington and also at Chicago University. During his career as a teacher, he was principal of the public schools at Greenwood, Indiana; Paoli, Indiana; Pana, Illinois, and Charleston, Illinois. During this period he purchased the Ripley County Journal, at Osgood, and published that paper for nearly two years, at the end of which time he sold the paper and returned to teaching. In 1899 Mr. Gooden came to Dearborn county, locating at Lawrenceburg, where he purchased a half interest in the Register. Four years later, in 1903, he bought the other half interest and still continues to publish the paper. The Register is a Demo- cratic weekly and was established in 1836, during the campaign which re- sulted in the election of Martin Van Buren to the presidency.

On September 5, 1882, William T. Gooden was married to Harriet Co- megys Frazer, who was born at Livonia, Indiana, the daughter of John and Nancy (Galey) Frazer, to which union has been born one son. Earle P., who

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married Abigail McKim and has two daughters, Harriet Dorothy and Lucy Ann. John Frazer was a native of New Jersey and his wife was born in Ken- tucky. Both are now deceased. They were the parents of five children, Hannah M., Anna, William J., Ada and Harriet C.

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History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 51

Author: Archibald Shaw Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1123

Author: Archibald Shaw
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1123