USA > Indiana > Dearborn County > History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 90
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Robert H. Langdale. maternal grandfather of Mr. Nowlin, was a native of England. who came to this country, locating at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he engaged in the grocery business and where he married Mary Corbin, the
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pair later moving to this county, settling in Miller township, where they were accounted among the substantial residents of that part of the county, being held in the very highest regard in that section of the county. He lived to be about seventy years of age, and she died several years previous. They reared their family in the ways of sterling citizenship. Five of their children grew to maturity and to useful manhood and womanhood, Jane H., Martha, Frances, Robert H. and Louisa, the first named of whom was the mother of Mr. Nowlin.
Enoch B. Nowlin, who married Jane H. Langdale, lived to be sixty- eight years of age, his death occurring in the year 1900. His wife died in 1835, at the age of fifty. They were earnestly devoted to the best interests of the community in which they lived and were among the leaders in all good works thereabout. They were devoted members of the Presbyterian church and actively interested in the various local beneficences of that church. Mr. Nowlin was a member of the "home guard" during the Civil War. He was a Republican and took an active interest in politics, though not an office seeker. Enoch B. and Jane H. (Langdale) Nowlin were parents of four children, two sons and two daughters, Harry L., of Lawrenceburg, the im- mediate subject of this sketch; Mary, who died at the age of five years; Robert Jeremiah, present trustee of Miller township, who lives on the old Nowlin farm in that township, and Ama, who died during her young woman- hood.
Harry L. Nowlin grew to manhood on the paternal farm in Miller township, being reared with the highest regard for the principles of good citizenship. He attended the district school in his home neighborhood, the course of instruction there being supplemented by courses in the normal schools at Ladoga and at Danville, this state. For one season he taught school, after which he turned his attention to practical farming, beginning his successful career in this line of endeavor upon a small tract of land which he rented. He prospered at this venture and later bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Miller township to which he gradually added until at one time he owned a farm of four hundred and ten acres, all of which was under a high state of cultivation, the most of which he still owns. In the spring of 1908 Mr. Nowlin retired from the farm and moved to Moores Hill, remaining there until 1913, in which year he moved to Lawrenceburg, re-purchasing a home at 20 Oakey avenue, which some years before he had built and occupied for a time, later selling the same, and which is now his home. L'pon moving to Lawrenceburg, Mr. Nowlin engaged in the insurance
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business and has built up an extensive business in the way of fire and tor- nado insurance.
On Christmas Day, in the year 1882, Harry L. Nowlin was united in marriage with Lana Martha Smith, who was born near the village of Guil- ford, in Miller township, Dearborn county, Indiana. February 12, 1861, the daughter of David E. and Martha C. (Grubbs) Smith, both of whom were natives of the same township.
David E. Smith was the son of William and Ann (Ewbank) Smith, natives of England and early settlers in Dearborn county, who died in Miller township, both being well past middle age at the time of the passing. They were the parents of six children, four sons and two daughters, John, George, Thomas, David, Elizabeth and Ann. Martha C. Grubbs, who married David E. Smith, was the daughter of John and Jane (Cassidy) Grubbs, natives of Pennsylvania and pioneers in Dearborn county, the former of whom lived to a green old age and the latter of whom died in middle life. and who were the parents of nine children : Mrs. Martha C. Smith, Mrs. Mary Jane Haddock, Mrs. Honor Kirkpatrick, Mrs. Susan McClure, Hugh, John, William, Rich- ard and Hansel.
To David E. and Martha C. (Grubbs) Smith were born thirteen chil- dren : Mrs. Jane Ann Whittaker, Will John, Mrs. Elizabeth Julley, Mrs. Mary Lounsbury, Honor Davis. Robert Henry, Jonathan G., Jarius D. and Lana M. (twins). George M., Mrs. Evelyn C. Hansell. Scott M. and Ira. The father of these children died in 1872, at the age of fifty-three years, and the mother died on December 11. 1911. at the advanced age of eighty-four years.
To Harry Langdale and Lana Martha (Smith) Nowlin five children have been born : Archey E .. Jennie Gertrude, Ama L .. Elma L. and Martha Belle. Archey E. Nowlin is managing a part of the home farm. He mar- ried Elizabeth Huddleston, and to this union three children have been born : Hubert A., Elizabeth Lenore and Frances Ama. Jennie Gertrude married Milton L. Taylor, of Indianapolis, to which union one child has been born. a son. Harry Milton. Ama L. is employed in her father's insurance office. Elma L. died at the early age of sixteen years. Martha Belle is a student in the Greendale public school at Lawrenceburg.
Mr. and Mrs. Nowlin are members of the Presbyterian church, as are all their children, and are deeply interested in the good works of their home community. Mr. Nowlin is a member of Guilford Lodge No. 90, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, in the affairs of which order he takes a
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hearty interest. He is a Republican, and for years has been a strong factor in the political life of the county. During his residence at Moores Hill he was for nearly five years a member of the school board there and for two years served on the town board, while some years ago he served for a period of two years on the town board of Greendale.
The Nowlins are cultured and refined people, and being members of two of the oldest families in the county, are fully representative of the best life of the community in which they reside and in which they are so deservedly popular, and in which they are held in such high respect by all who know them. Mr. Nowlin takes an active interest in the business life of Law- renceburg and is warmly concerned in all the measures designed to promote the best interests of the city and county.
HENRY HODELL.
If unceasing industry is the price of success, and after all it is the deter- mining factor, Henry Hodell, the secretary-treasurer of the Ohio Valley Coffin Company, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, has well earned the large meas- ure of success which fortune has meted out to him. Mr. Hodell is not only one of the oldest living citizens of Dearborn county, but he is likewise one of the most popular business men living in the city of Lawrenceburg. Having learned early in life the cabinet-maker's trade, Mr. Hodell was well equipped to become one of the executive officers of one of Lawrenceburg's thriving industrial enterprises, since cabinet-making is the basis of the productive department of this industry. Mr. Hodell has been connected with the Ohio Valley Coffin Company for more than a quarter of a century, and it is a remarkable fact that during this period he has been absent from his work only one week, a brief respite which he enjoyed in 1893, when he attended the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. The institution with which he has been connected has prospered through his remarkable perseverance and prodigious and unceasing industry.
Henry Hodell was born of German parentage. His father, George Hodell, and his mother, who, before her marriage, was Barbara Catherine Burk, having been natives of Alsace, Germany. Of their family of six chil- dren, Henry Hodell was the youngest. The other five children were Caro- line. who married Rudolph Walter, of Lawrenceburg; George, deceased: Frederick, who lives at Anderson, Indiana; Catherine, deceased, who was the wife of Philip J. Emmert; Margaret, who died at the age of fourteen
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years. Mr. Hodell's father, who was reared and educated in Germany, and who was a millwright by trade, was twenty-one years old the day the vessel upon which he came to America arrived in the port of New York City. After working for a time in Buffalo, New York and Cincinnati, Ohio, he came to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in company with Johann C. Hanck, in 1836, and here worked as a millwright and a carpenter. In the meantime, however, he had also learned the machinist's trade, and devoted some time to this trade. Subsequently he took employment in one of the Lawrenceburg furni- ture factories and spent most of his time in this factory until his death, in 18So, at which time he was sixty-eight years old. Four years previously. in 1876, his wife. Mrs. George Hodell. had died at the age of sixty-eight. They were both members of the Methodist church and among the leaders in the local congregation.
Mr. Hodell's paternal grandfather, who was the proprietor of a large paper-mill in Germany, died in his native land, after rearing a large family. The maternal grandfather of Henry Hodell also died in Germany. He had been a prominent man in his native town and had served in the capacity of burgomaster. Only two of his children. Barbara Catherine, who was Mr. Hodell's mother, and a Mrs. Rees, ever came to America.
Having been born in the city of Lawrenceburg. Henry Hodell was reared to manhood here, and this city has always been his home. Here he received his education in the public schools, and here he learned the cabinet- maker's trade, following it for a period of approximately twelve years. after which he engaged in the service of the United States government and served as a storekeeper for somewhat more than three years. His experiences in the offices of the Kentucky Central railroad, at Covington. Kentucky, where he worked until February 1. 1889, after quitting the revenue service, has also served him well as an executive officer of the Ohio Valley Coffin Com- pany, from the fact that the transportation of its products is no small factor in the efficiency of the business. The Ohio Valley Coffin Company, estab- lished some forty-three years ago, in 1872, with a capital of thirty thousand dollars, has grown to a capitalization of eighty-seven thousand, four hundred and fifty dollars, and it now employs about forty-five men and does an annual business of from one hundred thousand to one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Mr. Hodell served as secretary of the company until June, 1910, when at a meeting of the board of directors he was also charged with the duties of treasurer of the institution, and is now both secretary and treas- urer.
Henry Hodell was married on November 2, 1871, to Anna Stockman,
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daughter of Omar T. and Julia (Soyez) Stockman, and to this happy union three children have been born, Julia Soyez, Hattie Belle and Henry Louis. Only two of the children are now living, Julia Soyez having died in infancy. Hattie Belle married Eugene Booth, and they have had two children, Eliz- abeth Jane and Marian Hodell. Mr. and Mrs. Booth live at Norwood. Ohio. Henry Louis is connected with the Central Union Life Insurance Company. He married Ethel Carter, and they have had two children, Henry Louis, Jr., and George Richard.
Mrs. Hodell's father, Omar T. Stockman, who was a skillful book- keeper and accountant, was born in Lawrenceburg. and passed away some years ago at the age of eighty-two. Her mother, who was born at Marietta, Ohio, died at the age of seventy-two. Their three children, Anna, now Mrs. Hodell, Hattie and Belle, all were born in Lawrenceburg. Benjamin Stock- man, Mrs. Hodell's paternal grandfather, who married Elizabeth Kincaid. operated a saw-mill in Lawrenceburg and died in the prime of life in this city. He was a native of Indiana, as was also his wife, and they were both pioneers in Dearborn county. Mrs. Stockman died at the age of eighty-six years. Their children were: Oliver, Omar, George, Benjamin, Henry. Lucy, and others who died early in life. Louis Soyez, Mrs. Hodell's mater- nal grandfather, native of the Rheims region in France, was an early settler and a well-known merchant at Marietta, Ohio. He and his wife died at Marietta, Ohio, many years after having passed the meridian of life. Their children were Augustus, Horatio, Adolphus, Maria, Julia, Harriet, Elizabeth and Belle.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hodell are members of the Methodist church, and he is one of the trustees of the church at Lawrenceburg. Mr. Hodell belongs to Lawrenceburg Lodge No. 4, Free and Accepted Masons, and Lawrence- burg Chapter No. 56, Royal Arch Masons. He is also a member of Union Lodge No. 8, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During his entire life he has been identified with the Republican party.
Prominent as he is in the business, religious and fraternal life of the city of Lawrenceburg, Henry Hodell is well entitled to a large share of the credit which belongs to those men who have made Lawrenceburg and Dear- born county a desirable place in which to live. Mr. Hodell is possessed of a genial personality, is charitable in his relations with his fellows and a highly esteemed citizen of this section of Indiana. He and his good wife are popu- lar socially in the city of Lawrenceburg. They have won a substantial com- petence and the salient facts in their lives are worthy of being perpetuated in the biographical annals of Dearborn county.
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NATHANIEL E. SQUIBB.
In the financial and commercial life of Lawrenceburg and Dearborn county few men are better known, and none is more highly respected and admired than Nathaniel E. Squibb, the vice-president of the W. P. Squibb & Company, distillers, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Nathaniel E. Squibb is a comparatively young man, but his youth has not interfered with his rapid progress in business. He has seized every opportunity and has made the most of the business achieved in association with his brothers and with his late father. Nathaniel E. Squibb is acquainted with every detail of this business. Like his elder brothers, he "grew up" in the distilling business. He has been prominently connected with the sales department of the busi- ness which, after all, is the determining factor in the success of any enter- prise. Aside from his connection with the firm which bears the name of his father, his name is identified with other commercial enterprises of Dearborn county and for many years he has been regarded as one of the worthy, indus- trious and well-equipped young men of this section of Indiana.
Nathaniel E. Squibb was born in Dearborn county, at Aurora. January 5, 1878. His parents, William P. and Frances ( Plummer) Squibb. were natives of Dearborn county and had ten children as follow: Mary A., the wife of A. F. Geisert, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana; Alta F., who died after she had reached young womanhood; Robert L., who lives in Lawrenceburg; Ella R., who is unmarried; George L. P .; Florence L., the wife of J. P. Car- ter. of Cincinnati; Nathaniel E., the subject of this sketch; Horace G., and Samuel T., who died at the age of nineteen years.
William P. Squibb, the father of Nathaniel E., was reared in Dearborn county, and when a very young man engaged in the grocery and liquor busi- ness at Aurora. Subsequently, he was a rectifier and wholesale dealer in liquor, and in 1869, forty-six years ago, he engaged in the distilling business at Lawrenceburg. He was associated in this business with his brother, George W. Their business grew constantly from year to year and necessi- tated the building of additional warehouses. For several years the firm has used five United States bonded warehouses. After the death of George Squibb, more than two years ago, the distilling business in which he and the late William P. Squibb had been partners for more than fifty years was reor- ganized as the William P. Squibb & Company. Nathaniel E., George L. P., Robert and Horace were taken into their father's business. A cousin, Louis H. Foulk, had become connected with the firm some ten years previously. The present capitalization is three hundred thousand dollars. William P.
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Squibb died on October 15, 1913, after having almost completed his eighty- third year. After this his sons succeeded him directly in the business. Mrs. William P. Squibb died twenty-five years before her husband. She passed away in 1888, in her forty-fifth year.
At least four generations of the Squibb family, including this generation, of which Nathaniel E., the subject of this sketch, is a representative, have lived in Dearborn county. Mr. Squibb's paternal grandfather, Robert Squibb, was a native of this county. He married Eliza Cummins, whose ancestors came from Pennsylvania. Robert Squibb was killed by an explosion which occurred when the running of the first train over the first railroad built into Aurora was being celebrated. His widow lived to be a very old lady. She was the mother of three children, William P., George W. and Mrs. Alta M. Foulk. Mrs. Foulk is the mother of Louis H. Foulk, who is associated with the Squibb brothers at the present time in the management of the William P. Squibb & Company.
Nathaniel E. Squibb was only six years old when his parents moved from Aurora to Greendale (Lawrenceburg), Dearborn county. He was educated in the public schools of Lawrenceburg and lost no time between the period when he finished school and the period when he went to work for his father in the distillery. He began at the bottom of the business and learned it from the bottom up. After having learned the business thor- oughly he became a sales agent for the firm, filling this position in connec- tion with his duties as vice-president of the firm ..
Nathaniel E. Squibb was married on May 1, 1901, to Elizabeth Hunter Carter, the daughter of Richard D. and Catherine Jane (Smith) Carter. They are the parents of two children, William P., Jr., and Jane Carter.
Mrs. Squibb was born in Petersburg, Boone county, Kentucky, Septem- ber 4, 1878. Her mother was a native of that state and her father was born in West Virginia. Richard D. Carter was reared at Wheeling, West Vir- ginia, and received his education in that city. He gradually worked into the distilling business from experiments he made on his father's farm in manufacturing apple brandy. He was in the distilling business until his death, and was regarded as an expert also in the manufacture of compressed yeast. He died in 1885, at the age of forty-six years. Mrs. Carter is still living and is sixty years old. Mr. Carter was a member of the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Carter is a member of the Christian church. Richard D. Carter served as a soldier in the Civil War. He was a private and a member of a battery of heavy artillery recruited in West Virginia. Richard D. Carter's father was Samuel Hunter Bell Carter. a native of old Virginia, who died in West
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Virginia at the age of sixty-eight years. Samuel H. B. Carter married Mar- tha Bishop. They owned a large country estate near Wheeling, where he was engaged in the distilling business. They had nine children: Sarah P., Elizabeth, Thomas, John, Henry, Emily, Eva, William and Richard D. Mrs. Squibb's maternal grandfather was a merchant, a druggist, and super- intendent of a large cooperage works. His name is William W. Smith and his wife was Elizabeth McNeely, he a native of New York state, and she of Kentucky. They lived at Petersburg, which was the scene of most of his activities. They both died in Petersburg, she at the age of fifty and he. at the age of seventy-five. Their children were William, Catherine, Jane, Sue, Harry, Ida, John and Benjamin. Before his marriage to Elizabeth McNeely William W. Smith had married a Miss Wingate and had had two children, Mary and Sophia, by that marriage. Mrs. Nathaniel E. Squibb, therefore, is descended from a line of ancestors who had been prominent in three or four states where they had lived.
Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel E. Squibb are members of the Church of Christ. Nathaniel E. Squibb has been prominently connected with the Dem- ocratic party all of his life and is now a member of the Greendale town board. He has already served three years.
Nathaniel E. Squibb belongs to a family whose good fortune it has been to accumulate a great deal of wealth. This wealth, however, has not come without effort. Nathaniel E. Squibb has contributed his share of the efforts and energy it has required to make the business pay handsomely. Nathaniel E. Squibb is well known in southeastern Indiana; in fact, is well known throughout the middle West, especially by his connection with the well- known Lawrenceburg firm. Mr. Squibb is popular personally and his per- sonal charm has been no small factor in his success.
JOHN B. KENNEDY.
No class of "New Americans" has shown its appreciation of Uncle Sam's generous attitude toward all nations more than our Irish cousins, and none have been more ready to fall in line and abide by conditions as they found them. except that they have ever been ready and anxious to do their part in bettering the condition of the general public, when called upon to do so. The quick and ready wit of the Irish people, their most valuable asset, enables them to blend readily in any nation.
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John B. Kennedy, deceased, son of Thomas J. Kennedy and Mary (Dowling) Kennedy, was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, August 19, 1854. He received his education in the land of his nativity and remained there until he was seventeen years of age. Being dissatisfied with the opportunities afforded in his own country, he determined to seek his fortune in the United States, and, coming here in 1871, he settled in Covington, Kentucky, where he followed various pursuits for two years, and then went to work for James Walsh in his distillery in Covington, being later trans- ferred to his distillery in Lawrenceburg, where he was employed as proof- maker. He was careful and attentive to his duties, and as an evidence of his faithfulness, was retained in the employ of Mr. Walsh for thirty-nine years. He was a member of the town council, and at the time of his death. which occurred in Lawrenceburg in 1912, was a devout member of the Catholic church. His parents were natives of Ireland. His father was a farmer in County Kilkenny, and lived near Thomastown, where he died at middle age. His mother died at the age of seventy-six years. They were the par- ents of five children, namely : John B .; James, of Cincinnati, Ohio; Philip, who died in youth; Mary, deceased, who was the wife of James Linsky; and Ellen, wife of Thomas Shea, of Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland. The paternal grandfather was Thomas Kennedy, who died in Ireland. He had two brothers, John and James.
On July 3, 1877, John B. Kennedy was united in marriage with Anna Hickey, at Newport, Kentucky. She is a daughter of James and Margaret (Landers) Hickey. John B. and Anna (Hickey) Kennedy were the par- ents of eight children, Mary, Margaret E., Thomas, Jr., John J., Robert Emmet, Flora, Daniel C. and Eugenia.
Mary Kennedy was graduated from the Lawrenceburg high school, and was also graduated from the Louisville City Hospital Training School, in 1900, as well as from the Southern College of Pharmacy, of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1905. She then returned home and bought the drug store of Dr. George F. Smith, and in connection with druggist's sundries, also sells candy, ice cream, soda water, paints and oils. She is a young woman of culture and refinement, and her executive ability is greatly admired by an extended circle of loyal friends. She is a thorough and successful young business woman. Margaret E. is principal of the grade department of the Lawrenceburg public school. Thomas J. died at the age of four months. John J. is a rectifier for the Ed. B. Staunton & Company, of Columbus, Ohio. His wife was Amelia Bryant. They have had two children, Shirley and Donald. Robert Emmet was married to Amelia Garnier, and has a.
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son, Robert E., Jr. Flora is at St. Vincent's Hospital, Indianapolis, train- ing to become a nurse. Daniel C. is in the employ of Bentley Brothers, of Toledo, Ohio, in construction work. Eugenia is finishing her last year in high school, which makes six children from this family who have been graduated from the Lawrenceburg high school.
Mrs. Anna (Hickey) Kennedy, deceased, who was the wife of the subject of this sketch, was born in County Clare, Ireland, May 21, 1852, and was educated there. She came to America with an aunt, a Mrs. Kelley, and made her home at Newport, Kentucky, where she was married. Her parents died in Ireland, leaving the following children: James, of Sharps- burg, Kentucky; Bridget, wife of Thomas Quinn, of Harvey, Illinois; Anna, deceased; Michael, of Danville, Kentucky; John, who died in Ireland; and Margaret, who resides at Madisonville, Ohio. Like her husband, Mrs. Ken- nedy was an earnest member of the Catholic church.
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