USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 101
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state; Mrs. J. A. Bovard, of North Salem, Indiana ; Mrs. William Strubbe, of Versailles, Indiana, and Bertha and Cora, who remain with their father at the family home in Ripley county. The mother of these children died on April 10, 1908.
Thomas E. Day was reared on the paternal farm and received his educa- tion in the district schools of his home township and in the high school at Osgood. When he was twenty-one years of age he bought a farm of ninety- six and one-half acres in Ripley county, adjoining his father's farm, for which he went in debt to the amount of eleven hundred dollars. For nine years he taught school in his home county and by the time he had his little farm half paid for he had incurred an obligation for forty acres additional, adjoining, all of which he gradually paid out of his earnings as a teacher and from the profits on the farm. While engaged in farming he secured the county agency for a well-known brand of buggies of that time. The first year in which he held this agency he sold' four buggies, but gradually increased his sales until he was finally disposing of as many as three hundred and twenty-five buggies annually in that part of the state. In the year 1893, Mr. Day engaged in the lumber business in Ripley county and has had phenom- enal success. He has five mills for the manufacture of hard-wood lumber, one at Newpoint, one at Westport. two at Millhousen, all in this county, and one at Peach Orchard, Arkansas, in which he employs the services of fifty men. Mr. Day employs ten men at each of his mills and in the course of a year pays out as much as fifty thousand dollars in wages. Though retaining his farm in Ripley county, Mr. Day makes his home in Greensburg, to which city he moved in 1903, buying there a residence, where he and his family are very comfortably situated.
On April 10, 1892, Thomas E. Day was united in marriage to Lucy B. Horton, who was born and reared in Switzerland county, this state, the daughter of John M. and Maria A. Horton, who moved from Switzerland county to Ripley county, and to this union four children have been born, two daughters and two sons, as follow: Hazel, who is a member of the class of 1916, DePauw University, and who was honored while in her sophomore year by election to the office of president of the Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation of the university and in 1915 vice-president of the student body and student annual : Mabel, who is a member of the class of 1917, same university ; Thomas, aged ten, and Raymond, aged eight.
Mr. and Mrs. Day are members of the First Methodist Episcopal church at Greensburg and their children have been reared in the faith of that church. They are active not only in the many good works of the church to which
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they belong, but are warmly interested in all movements having to do with the elevation of the ideals of the community at large and enjoy the highest respect and esteem of a large circle in and about Greensburg. Mr. Day is a Republican and takes a good citizen's part in local political affairs. He is a Mason and belongs to both the chapter and the council of that order.
Mr. Day is a hustling, energetic man who does things in a large way. It is his custom to buy land, cut the timber on the same and then sell the land. In the vicinity of Newpoint there is much land which he has treated thus which is worth three or four times what it was worth before the timber was removed. In 1912 Mr. Day went to Arkansas and bought timber to the amount of twelve thousand dollars, going in debt for the same, speedily dis- charging the debt from the proceeds of the timber which he secured from the tract. Mr. Day has the confidence of business circles throughout this part of the state and is held in the highest regard by all.
WILLIAM E. JACKSON.
The best history of any community or of any county is that which deals especially with the lives and activities of its people, especially those who, by their own personal energy and consistent, unfailing endeavor, have forged to the front ranks of the citizenship of their county. In this brief review is to be found a record of the career of William E. Jackson, an enterprising farmer living four and a half miles northwest of Greensburg in Washington town- ship, who owns two hundred and sixty-four acres of land which is a tangible montinent to his own energy and good management.
William E. Jackson was born in 1866 on the old Jackson homestead, which he now owns, the son of William T. and Margaret ( Miers) Jackson, the former of whom was born in Cincinnati about 1829 and who died in 1889 at the age of sixty years.
The late William T. Jackson was the son of William D. and Amelia (Hillman) Jackson, the former of whom was born near the mouth of the Chickahominy river in Charles City county, Virginia, on October 13, 1797. The family originally lived in York county, a few miles east of the Chicka- hominy river, a very unhealthful region. William D. Jackson's parents were stricken with malarial fever, and died leaving a large family of destitute children. The boys in the family were bound out to farmers in the neigh- borhood and to a life of hardship and toil and the girls were sent to the poor-
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house. William D. Jackson was one of these boys and was compelled to work in the fields with negro slaves of his master under a cruel overseer. Being of Irish origin and of a fiery Celtic nature, he could not endure this life very long and one day crossed the James river and left the scene. After walking about thirty miles, he reached Petersburg and engaged himself to a tailor, thoroughly mastering the trade. In 1823 he married Amelia Hill- man, daughter of Samuel Hillman, a trader and merchant, who kept a store at Crockes Ferry. In 1831, William D. Jackson and family emigrated across the Alleghany mountains in a covered wagon to the source of the Ohio river. They came down the river by boat to Cincinnati, where they landed with scarcely any of this world's goods, but with boundless courage and ambition. There William D. Jackson met Nicholas Longworth, a capitalist, and soon found work in the largest merchant-tailoring establishment in the city. His acquaintance with Mr. Longworth proved to be of great value to him, for he presently engaged in the real estate business and in a few years had accunu- lated a snug fortune, which in 1840 he invested in a farm of a quarter section in Fugit township, this county. He remained in Cincinnati until 1844, when he moved to his farm in Decatur county. In 1847 he sold his Fugit township farm for a profit and moved eight miles west of Greensburg, to a less settled and wilder section of the county, though the land was of a better quality and cheaper. At that time there were still many panthers, bears and wild cats in the forests and deer were abundant. Those were the days of the husking bees, log rollings, apple parings, barn raisings and countryside weddings.
In 1853 William D. Jackson sold his farm and moved to another farm two and one-half miles west of Greensburg, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a man of no ordinary character. His mind was cast in a large mold and, though uneducated, he achieved success. His brain was keen and alert and he was a deep, broad thinker. He was a patriot of the best type. When the Civil War broke out. though an old man, he urged his grandsons to go and do their duty. He was a lover of justice and hated all shams: of that high type of citizens which has made this country what it is, ·ever standing for the highest and best that life afforded.
William T. Jackson, son of William D. and Amelia Jackson and the father of William E., the subject of this sketch, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. in 1829. After coming to Decatur county, his experiences were those of the average pioneer boy of the day. He was about eighteen years old when the family moved to this county. Later he was married to Margaret Miers, who was the daughter of Thomas Miers, one of the early settlers of Decatur county and one of the wealthiest and most prominent men of pioneer times. Will-
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iam T. Jackson and his young wife began their married life on a farm in Clay township and became very prosperous, he becoming a large landowner. He did not confine himself to farming altogether but subsequently engaged in the mercantile business in Danville, Hendricks county, Indiana, in which he also was quite successful. He was a man of strong individuality and engaging personality, widely and favorably known throughout this section. Although reared a Democrat, he became a Republican. William T. Jackson was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and an officer in the grand lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Indiana. Margaret Miers was only fifteen years old when she was married to William T. Jackson. She died in 1912 at the age of seventy-eight years. They were the parents of six children, Mrs. Anna Pavy, James, deceased ; Mrs. Adelaide Bonner, William E., the subject of this sketch ; Charles, who died in infancy, and Harry. One can hardly wonder that the representatives of the Jackson family in this county have been successful. They can hardly wonder that William E. Jack- son has achieved a flattering success as a farmer. The Jackson family has had the habit of success and William E. inherited that habit.
William E. Jackson was married in 1889 to Alta Moore, the daughter of B. F. and Anna ( Bentley) Moore, the former of whom was a native of Decatur county, whose father was a native of Ohio. B. F. Moore was a successful farmer and a highly respected citizen of this county. He and his wife were the parents of four children: Edgar N., of Letts Corner ; Mrs. Alta Jackson : Anna L .. of Letts ; and Luna Roszell of Decatur county. Mrs. Jackson was born on October 22, 1868, in Decatur county.
To William E. and Alta (Moore) Jackson have been born three chil- dren, Mary. born in 1897; Jessie, 1901, and Paul, 1904.
After their marriage in 1889. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson began the business of life on a very modest scale. He now feeds about one hundred and fifty thoroughbred Hereford cattle every year and has been very successful as a stock breeder, having specialized in black Poland-China hogs. William E. Jackson is a man who believes in quality, so far as live stock is concerned, this having been the secret of his success. He keeps his land in a high state of cultivation and it is well drained. The corn averages from seventy-five to eighty bushels to the acre.
William E. Jackson is a Republican and takes a deep interest in the political welfare of his country. He and his good wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. A progressive, up-to-date business man, he is broad and liberal in his views, respected and loved by his family, honored and admired by his neighbors.
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EVERETT L. DEUPREE.
Among the numerous sons of Decatur county who have gone elsewhere seeking fame and fortune, few have achieved a larger measure of well- deserved success than the gentleman whose name the reader notes above, a prominent attorney and financier of Indianapolis. Mr. Deupree was reared at Westport, this county, where he grew to useful young manhood ; for a time having been a teacher in the schools of Westport, his excellent influence in that capacity being still a matter of pleasant memory there. Ile received his education in the schools of his home town and in one high school at Edin- burg, this state, completing the same in Indiana State University, and was graduated from the Indiana Law School in 1904. Thus equipped he entered the practice of the law at the state capital and has been singularly successful. His sound judgment and thorough insight into matters of corporation law have given him a wide and influential clientele in the capital city and few attorneys there are better known or have a more lucrative practice than he. Though for many years he has been absent from the scenes of his boyhood in Decatur county, Mr. Deupree takes the liveliest interest in affairs here- about, and it is but fitting that in a biographical history of the county in which his preparatory years were spent, proper mention should be made of his life and his labors.
Everett L. Deupree was born on December 24, 1880, on a farm near the town of Edinburg, in Johnson county, Indiana, a fine tract of land which was entered by his great-grandfather, Thomas Deupree, a Kentuckian, in 1821. Thomas Deupree was drowned in the Muscatatuck river while returning to his new Indiana home from Kentucky, he having gone back to his native state to settle his affairs there after having located his family on the Johnson county land grant. Thomas Deupree was succeeded by his eldest son, Abraham C. Deupree, who assisted his widowed mother, who before her marriage was Martha Hatchett, a member of a well-known pioneer family in Kentucky, and was instrumental in keeping the new homestead intact. Abraham C. Deupree married Hannah B. Carter, a descendant of the Carter who accom- panied William Penn's Quaker colony to this country. Their son, William N. Deupree, married Martha A. Matthis, member of a pioneer family of Johnson county, and is still living on the old home farm, near Edinburg, in that county, at the age of eighty-two years. Thomas M. Deupree, son of this latter union, moved from Johnson county to the town of Westport, in this county, in January, 1885, and for many years was prominently connected
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with the business life of that village, and is now, with his wife, living retired at Indianapolis. Thomas M. Deupree married Laura B. Pritchard, who was born near the town of Edinburg, in Johnson county, this state, daughter of John M. and Louisa ( Robinson ) Pritchard, both natives of Johnson county, the former of whom is still living, and to this union seven children were born, six of whom are still living, and of whom the subject of this sketch is the eldest. For further information regarding this interesting family the reader is referred to a biographical sketch of Thomas M. Deupree, presented else- where in this volume, as well as to a sketch of Clarence C. Deupree, cashier of the Marion County State Bank of Indianapolis, presented on another page.
When Everett L. Deupree was four years of age, his parents moved from the Johnson county farin to the village of Westport, in Decatur county, and there the subject of this sketch grew to manhood. He received his primary education in the schools of Westport and at the age of thirteen entered the high school at Edinburg, from which he was graduated in 1898. He then attended the normal school at Greensburg, preparatory to a term of service as a teacher in the public schools, and for a time taught school at Westport. He then entered Indiana University and, was graduated from the Indiana Law School with the class of 1904. Upon receiving his diploma. Mr. Deu- pree formed a partnership for the practice of law with Edwin H. Emrick, with offices at Indianapolis, and the two have practiced together at the capital city ever since. They have a fine suite of offices in the Law building at Indi- anapolis and have built up a large and lucrative practice. During the past four or five years Mr. Deupree has given special attention to the practice of corporation law and has been very successful. Real-estate law also has appealed to liim strongly and his practice in that particular department of jurisprudence has gained for him quite as wide a reputation for acumen and grasp of the niceties of this form of practice as has his practice of corporation law.
In addition to his extensive law practice, Mr. Deupree has found time in his busy career to enter largely into the practical side of the real-estate busi- ness. He and Edward Sourbier and Edwin H. Emrick some years ago organized the Sourbier-Emrick Realty Company, incorporated for the pur- pose of building and loaning money on real estate, and during the past two or three years probably no company in Indianapolis has built and sold as many houses as has this company. Mr. Deupree also is actively engaged in the financial life of the capital city. In May, 1912, he and J. M. Gaston, also of . Decatur county, and J. L. Duvall organized the Marion County State Bank of Indianapolis, in which he is a director. For some years he also has been
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a director in the Citizens State Bank of Indianapolis and is regarded as one of the most prominent of the younger financiers of the capital city. He also is a member of the board of directors of various other corporations in Indi- anapolis ; secretary and director of the Home Insurance Agency of Indiana and vice-president and director of the Marion Securities Company, of Indi- anapolis.
On March 13, 1904, Everett 1 .. Deupree was united in marriage to Edith Wheeler, who was born at Salem, Oregon, daughter of Ilillis A. and Eliza- beth (Linton) Wheeler. Mr. Wheeler, who was born near Millersville, Marion county, Indiana, is an old-time beef-packer and is well known as a partner in the Wheeler Dressed Beef Company of Indianapolis. His wife, Elizabeth Linton, was born at Wilmington, Ohio.
Mr. Deupree is a member of Indianapolis Lodge No. 13, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is past chancellor of Excelsior Lodge No. 25. Knights of Pythias, of Indianapolis: a member of Commanche Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men, and of the Marion Club in the same city. He is active, enterprising and energetic and during his residence in the capital city has gained a very wide and influential acquaintance, an acquaintance extending to all parts of the state, and has made a large number of very firm friends, among whom he and Mrs. Deupree are held in the highest regard, their admirable social qualities making them prime favorites in the extensive social circle in which they are regarded as among the prime movers. Though his active life prevents him from revisiting the scenes of his youth as often as he would like. Mr. Deupree has a warm spot in his heart for Decatur county and Decatur county people and is never more congenially engaged than when reviving pleasant recollections of "boyhood's happy hour" with old home folk.
HON. ZACHARIAH THOMPSON RILEY.
It will be impossible for the reader of this volume of biography to escape the conviction that Decatur county originally was peopled by a most worthy class of pioneers, men and women of high ideals, pure motives and lofty purposes. In the main, these original settlers were soldiers of the American Revolution who pushed Westward after independence had been gained for the thirteen original colonies, or by their sons and daughters, who came west in response to the lure of the farther boundaries, seeking a wider horizon, a broader outlook for their adventuresome spirits; men and women of the true
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pioneer breed who dared much, braving the perils of the wilderness, "blazing" the ways-their intrepid souls bent only on realizing the glorious vision of new homes and a wider freedom for those who should come after. Among these pioneer families there were few who added more to the renown of this section than the Riley family, or who were more largely responsible for the creation of stable conditions in this now well-established community. A worthy scion of this family, a man whom his neighbors ever delighted to honor, the late Hon. Zachariah Thompson Riley, was, in his day and genera- tion, one of the most influential residents of Decatur county and it is a pleasure for the biographer here to set out some of the salient points in Mr. Riley's interesting career, together with a genealogical statement regarding his family.
Zachariah Thompson Riley was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, on April 22, 1828, and died at his home in Greensburg, Indiana, on May 17, 1007. He was the son of Williams Wright and Elizabeth ( Thompson ) Riley, natives of Fayette county, Kentucky, and early settlers in Decatur county.
Williams Wright Riley was born in Kentucky in 1804, the son of Gerard and Francis ( Wright) Riley, the former born in Kentucky, the son of Ninion and Elizabeth ( Taylor) Riley, and the latter born in North Carolina, daugh- ter of John and Ann ( Williams) Wright. John Wright was born in Fergu- son county, Virginia, in 1728: enlisted from North Carolina in the patriot army for service during the Revolutionary War and died in Surrey county, North Carolina. Ninion Riley, who was born in Montgomery county, Mary- land, in 1726, was the son of Solomon Riley, a native of the same county, whose father came to America in 1680. Ninion Riley married Elizabeth Taylor, of Montgomery county, Maryland, and emigrated to Fayette county, Kentucky, where he became prominent in the pioneer affairs of that section of the state and where he spent the remainder of his life.
Following his marriage to Elizabeth Thompson, Williams Wright Riley for a time lived in Clermont county, Ohio. In the year 1835 he and his wife came to this county, settling in the Williamstown neighborhood, where for a time they farmed, later moving to the village of Adams, this county, where they spent the remainder of their lives. They were leaders in that part of the county, taking a prominent part in the social and civic life of the com- munity. Active in the work of the Christian church, they were among the leaders in all good works in that part of the county and were held in the high- est esteem by all. In 1856 Mr. Riley was elected to the office of justice of the peace for Clinton township and served in this magisterial capacity for many years, his judgments in such local disputes as arose within his jurisdic-
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tion ever being accepted as final. He was an ardent Mason, having become attached to Bethel lodge of that order in Clermont county, Ohio, in 1839. He was a charter member of Greensburg Lodge No. 136, at Greensburg, this county, being the first junior warden thereof, and was the first worshipful master of the lodges of the same order at Milroy, St. Paul and Adams, in this county. He died in 1886 at his home in Adams and his passing was sin- cerely mourned.
To Williams Wright and Elizabeth (Thompson) Riley were born six children, of whom but one now survives, Mrs. Izora Jones, of Adams, this county. The others were the late Hon. Zachariah Thompson Riley, Mrs. Nancy Wyatt, who died in Kansas; John W., whose last days also were spent in Kansas : Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart and the late Dr. S. H. Riley.
Zachariah Thompson Riley learned the trade of cabinet-maker in the village of Williamstown, but later became a farmer and owned a fine farm of two hundred and forty acres in Clinton township. His native force of character made him a natural leader and he early took a prominent part in the affairs of his home community. He helped to organize the first Farmers Club in this county, in 1882, and was greatly interested in the betterment of farming conditions throughout this county, his influence in that direction undoubtedly producing wholesome and permanent results. He was elected to a seat in the Indiana state Legislature in 1876 and served in the lower house of the General Assembly in a manner very acceptable to his constituents. His first public service was in the capacity of justice of the peace in Clinton town- ship, a form of service performed with the same regard for justice and equity as had marked his father's service in the same connection. He was a mem- ber of the Masonic lodge at Adams and ever took an active and prominent part in the affairs of that lodge. For a time he was engaged, in association with Charles Kemble, in the publication of a newspaper at Williamstown.
In 1853 Z. T. Riley was united in marriage to Frances McLaughton, who died in 1854, and in 1857 he married, secondly, Mary Jane Anderson, who was born near Springhill, this county, in 1835, the daughter of Samuel McClure and Mary ( Meek) .Anderson. natives of Kentucky, the former of whom was born in Boone county and the latter in Fayette county, that state. Samuel McClure Anderson was the son of John and Ann ( McClure) Ander- son, natives of Virginia, who emigrated to Kentucky and came thence to this county where they took a prominent part in the pioneer affairs of the Spring- hill neighborhood. To Samuel McClure and Mary (Meek) Anderson were born seven children, all of whom now are deceased save Mrs. Riley, who is
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living at her home in Greensburg, at the ripe old age of eighty years, honored and respected of all, and Sophia, who married Robert Tate and lives at Indi- anapolis. The other children were Mrs. Martha Ann Martin-Tanner, John C., who married Catherine Martin ; Thomas M., James A. and Samuel Davis.
To Zachariah T. and Mary Jane ( Anderson) Riley were born four chil- dren, Mary Libbie, who died at the age of sixteen years; Vessie, who lives at home with her aged mother ; Dr. Eden T. Riley, a well-known and prominent physician of Greensburg, and one child who died in infancy.
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