USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 108
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John H. Woodruff, of "Maple Hill Farm." Jackson township, was born, August 10. 1862, on the old Woodruff farm, now owned by Doctor Oldham. He is a son of Enos and Susan (Nowen) Woodruff. After his marriage, Mr. Woodruff lived on the home place until 1902, and after renting for one year he bought the ninety-acre tract on which he now lives. In politics he is a Democrat, and his fraternal membership is with the Knights of Pythias at Letts, Indiana.
Enos Woodruff, father of our subject, was born in September, 1822, in Butler county, and died, August 12. 1899, in Bartholomew county. He was a son of Samuel Woodruff, an early settler of Butler and Franklin counties. His wife was Susan (Bowen) Woodruff, who was born in 1824, and who was a native of Franklin county. She died in August, 1908. They were
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married in the thirties, in Franklin county, and came direct to Jackson township. where Mr. Woodruff became a prosperous farmer. To Mr. and Mrs. Woodruff were born the following children: William, Nathan, Eliza, Ezra and John. William Woodruff lives in Hartsville, Indiana; Nathan lives in Jackson township; Eliza became the wife of a Mr. Williams, and lives in Clay township ; Ezra lives in California.
John H. Woodruff was united in marriage on January 1, 1888, with Emma Wilson, who was born, December 15, 1863, in Bartholomew county, four miles northeast of Hope. She is a daughter of John and Rachel Wil- son, natives of Franklin and Decatur counties, respectively. They moved from Bartholomew county to Jackson township, Decatur county, in 1867, where Mr. Woodruff met his future wife.
John and Rachel Wilson, the parents of Mrs. Woodruff, settled on a farm and lived there until Mrs. Wilson died, on June 18, 1899. Mr. Wilson later moved to Hartsville, where he died May 30, 1910. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom the following grew to maturity, namely : Mary, Barton, Emma, Lida, Nannie, Hattie, Henry and Roy. Mary lives in Berney: Barton is now living at Elizabethtown; Jane is deceased; Lida is living at Hartsville: Nannie married a Mr. Carroll, and lives at Hartsville; Hattie lives at Hartsville: Henry lives in Clay township, and Roy is living at Elizabethtown.
Mr. Woodruff is well respected by all who know him, and has always been an industrious, quiet, law-abiding citizen and active in his attention to his business interests.
GEORGE M. MYERS.
For thirty-five years George M. Myers, a successful farmer of Sand Creek township, Decatur county, Indiana, has lived on the same farm in this township. Here he has followed farming from year to year, and here lie has grown prosperous with each succeeding harvest. He and his good wife have lived to rear a family of two children, who now have homes and families of their own. Here in Sand Creek township the people have had opportun- ity to know George M. Myers and their verdict should be accepted as to his worth as a citizen. He is a man who is popular in the neighborhood where he lives and a man who is admired for his strength of manhood and moral ·courage.
George M. Myers, who owns a farm of seventy acres in Sand Creek
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township, where he has lived since February 24, 1880, was born on August II, 1849, near Horace, the son of William H. and Elizabeth ( Annis) Myers, the former of whom was born on August 6, 1824. and died on August 8, 1904, and the latter was born on June 29, 1827, and died on May 1, 1900. William H. Myers was a native of Kentucky, the son of George Myers, who settled in Decatur county in the early thirties one mile east of Horace in Sand Creek township. He was a well-known citizen during his day and gen- eration. He was one of four children born to his parents, but he was the only son. The father died at his son's house in 1875. After settling on land one mile east of Horace, William H. Myers subsequently removed to a farm in Sand Creek township. He was known in this community as a hard working. industrious and honest farmer.
William H. and Elizabeth Myers were the parents of ten children, as follow: James A., who was born on July 22, 1847, is a well-known farmer of Washington township: George M .. the second born, is the subject of this sketch : John Thomas, October 21, 1851, a farmer of Clay township: William R .. July 24, 1854. died in infancy : Alice, July 21, 1857. married a Mr. San- derson, died. September II, 1897, near Forest Hill: Eliza L., February 21, 1859, lives in Webb City, Missouri; Harvey M., October 18, 1861; Merritt E., November 25, 1864. lives in Indianapolis : Mrs. Nancy Berry, September 26, 1871, lives in Indianapolis.
George M. Myers was married on March 19. 1873. to Mary A. Taylor, who was born on June 20, 1852, in Sand Creek township, the daughter of George and Hannah ( Hill) Taylor, natives of Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Myers are the parents of two children, as follow: Wilbur Taylor, of Indianapolis, married Lillie Van Treese, and they have one child, Walter; Grace Pearl married William H. Mobley, a mule dealer of Clay township. and they have two children, Mary and Franklin Wayne.
Before Mr. and Mrs. Myers removed to their present farm they lived in Clay township for a few years, and after renting land in Sand Creek town- ship for a few years the farm was purchased in 1880. They first purchased fifty-three and one-third acres. most of which was covered by timber. This land has been cleared and in the meantime they have added two tracts until the farm now consists of seventy acres. Originally they lived in an old log cabin made of round logs daubed with mud. having a brick chimney. Several years later Mr. Myers erected a frame dwelling and now has a com- fortable country home, well kept and adequate outbuildings, and good fenc- ing. He and his good wife have endured many hardships, but they have as a
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result of their early toil and labor a substantial competence for their declin- ing years.
Mr. Myers is a Democrat. The Myers family are all members of the Mount Aerie Baptist church and active in the affairs of this congregation.
JOHN FRANK ROBERTSON.
Farming is becoming in these later days a vocation for highly specialized and trained minds. Perhaps there will never come a time when farmers will be able to avoid manual labor altogether. Nevertheless, the work of the farmer has been greatly lightened by the invention of many modern devices and the improvements of many of the instruments of agriculture which it is necessary for the farmer to use. Among other things, farming requires care- ful planning, the inauguration of a system which is the equal of systems in business. The farmer of the present generation who has failed to catch the progressive spirit of the twentieth century is one who will be left behind sooner or later. With the devices which are now available to the man in the country, the devices which are used for the conveniences not only for the farmer, but also his wife in the home. he is able to live in comparative luxury, while his forefathers were compelled to struggle against much greater odds. John Frank Robertson, a farmer of AAdams township. Decatur county, Indiana. is prosperous mainly because he lias caught the spirit of the twen- tieth century, and has made of farming a real business.
Jolin Frank Robertson, who is the owner of one hundred and twenty- four and five-tenths acres of land in Adams township, where he has lived for nearly thirty-five years, was born on June 17, 1856, in the township where he resides, three-fourths of a mile from his present home. He is the son of Oliver P. and Mary Ann ( Davis) Robertson. Oliver P. Robertson was born on .August 1, 1825, and died in 1905, while his wife was born on June 15, 1833. and died on May 25. 1907. Oliver P. Robertson, an early settler of Adams township. though born in Lawrenceburg, Dearborn county, Indiana, was a son of John and Ruth ( Ridlen) Robertson, natives of Mary- land and carly settlers in Dearborn county, Indiana. After coming to AAdams township in 1829. the family became prosperous, and for nearly a century was recognized as one of the leading factors in the agricultural life of the com- munity. Mary Ann ( Davis) Robertson was a daughter of Jolmn W. and Saralı (Forsythe) Davis, natives of New Jersey, who came to Decatur
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county about 1830, and settled in Adams township. Oliver P. and Mary Ann (Davis) Robertson were the parents of seven children, all of whom are living, namely: Josiah W., a well-known farmer and stockman of Adams township; John Frank, the subject of this sketch; William, also a resident of AAdams township; Charles, living at Acton, Marion county, Indiana ; Edwin, a farmer of Adams township: Lydia, the wife of Elmer Shelhorn, and Ruth, living with her two brothers, Josiah and Edwin, for whom she is house- keeper.
Oliver P. Robertson was first married to Nancy Edrington, who was born in 1831, and who died in June, 1852. She was a daughter of Hiram and Rhoda Edrington, natives of Kentucky and pioneer settlers in Adams town- ship, in this county. After coming here they cleared land, built a log house and later erected a large brick house, now owned by E. Shelhorn. Oliver P. and Nancy ( Edrington) Robertson had two children, Louisa L., who is deceased, and Lafayette, a farmer of Adams township.
John F. Robertson was educated in the public schools of Adams town- ship and remained at home with his parents until he was twenty-five years of age. Soon after his marriage, lie came to his present farm in Adams town- ship and here he has resided ever since.
John Frank Robertson was married on February 22, 1882, to Jennie M. Patterson, who was born on June 3, 1858, in Clinton township, the daughter of Joseph and Mary ( Bird) Patterson. The former was a native of county Antrim, Ireland, born on July 12, 1839, the son of Roger and Mary Jane ( Hall) Patterson. Roger Patterson, after coming to America, in 1845, located in Clinton township, bringing his family of two sons to this country. He died at the age of thirty-seven years in 1855. The mother was later mar- ried to Michael Ryan and had three children by the second marriage. She lived to an advanced age.
In September, 1857, Joseph Patterson was married to Mary Bird, the daughter of William and Maria Bird, natives of Kentucky and Virginia, respectively, who came to Decatur county, Indiana, in the late twenties. William and Maria Bird had eight children, of whom Mrs. Patterson was the seventh. She was born on July 31. 1839, and died on May 1, 1908. Four years after her death, Joseph Patterson married Minerva Bird, a sister of his first wife. The marriage took place on December 9. 1912. Of the children born to Joseph and Mary Patterson, Mrs. Robertson was the eldest. The others were, Harriet, Elizabeth, Nora, John William, James, Charles and Ina
To Mr. and Mrs. John F. Robertson has been born one child, Millie E.
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She was born on February 9, 1884, and was married on February 25, 1907, to Charles W. Lines, who was born on March 1, 1880, the son of William and Lina (Snedeker) Lines, of Rush county. They have one child, Edith Robertson, seven years old, who was born on November 23, 1907.
Mr. Robertson is a Progressive. Hle and his wife attend the Baptist church at Adams. John F. Robertson is a man who is well known for his industry, his rugged sincerity and his noble and kind impulses. He is pre- eminently worthy to be regarded as one of the representative citizens of Decatur county.
EDWARD A. PORTER, M. D.
Representative of one of the oldest and best-known of the pioneer famil- ies of Decatur county, no citizen of this county is imbued with a loftier spirit of public service than that which animates the life of Dr. Edward A. Porter, a well-known and popular physician of Burney, this county. Interested in all measures which have as their object the elevation of the communal interests hereabout, Doctor Porter brings to the exercise of his duties of citizenship the highest ideals and loftiest impulses; being regarded as one of the most influential of the younger professional men in the county. Admirably trained in the best practices of the healing art, he brings to his practice a mind schooled in the highest ideals and traditions of medicine and a heart warmly devoted to the cause of the amelioration of human ills. Capable and con- scientious, it is but natural that Doctor Porter should have a wide and con- stantly growing practice in the neighborhood in which he has labored so earnestly and unselfishly, and it is not improper to say that no physician in the county enjoys a fuller measure of popular esteem than he. To his public service he brings the same high impulses that actuate his professional services and is regarded as a most useful and helpful citizen, one to whom his fellow citizens are bound by many ties of social obligation. Though having been in practice less than a decade, Doctor Porter has established himself in a manner that speaks well for his professional skill, and his professional breth- ren in this and neighboring counties extend to him frequent evidences of their confidence and high esteeem.
Edward A. Porter was born on a farm in Washington township, three and one-half miles southwest of Greensburg, Decatur county, Indiana, June 16, 1881, son of Matthew E. and Clarissa ( Mckinney) Porter, both members
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of pioneer families in this county. Matthew E. Porter was born in 1836 in a log cabin that is still standing on the Porter farm in Washington township, and was the son of Alexander and Elizabeth ( Elder) Porter, the former of whom was born in Dearborn county, this state, son of a Virginian, who was one of the earliest settlers of Indiana Territory, and the latter of whom was the daughter of Rev. Matthew Elder, a pioneer preacher of the Baptist church, who built the first church in Union county, and was a power for good throughout this entire section of the country. In a biographical sketch relating to James Porter, presented elsewhere in this volume, there is set out in full a genealogy of the Porter family from pioneer times and the reader is respectfully referred to that genealogy for further details regarding Doctor Porter's interesting family connection.
Edward A. Porter was reared on the home farm and was given excellent educational advantages. Following his completion of the course in the local schools, from which he was graduated in 1900, he entered the medical depart- ment of the University of Kentucky, where he studied for two years. He then entered Indiana University and in 1908 was graduated from the school of medicine of that institution. Upon receiving his diploma he entered upon the practice of his chosen profession at Burney and from the very start was successful, completely refuting the oft-repeated statement that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." Previous to beginning his prac- tice, Doctor Porter had endeared himself to the community by a period of intimate public service in which he gave the best there was in him to the common weal, even as he has done since entering upon his practice. For six years before finishing his medical course, he had taught school in and about Burney, pursuing his medical studies during the summer months and teaching during the winter months. He loved teaching and devoted the whole of his ardent nature to the interests of the children entrusted to his care, with the inevitable result that he made a decided success as a teacher, endearing him- self to the whole community by his unselfish and faithful service. Upon entering upon the practice of medicine he continued the same ungrudging and unselfish service to the people and, naturally enough, has built up an extensive practice, having achieved a notable success, both from a professional and financial standpoint. Doctor Porter very modestly takes some measure of pride in the success which has attended his practice in the treatment of the diseases of children and in the practice of obstetrics, in both of which he has enjoyed an unusual degree of success.
On August 23, 1910, Edward A. Porter was united in marriage to Hester M. Alley, a member of an old and prominent family in this county,
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daughter of J. L. and Lucy (Ewing) Alley, the latter of whom was the daughter of Joshua Ewing, one of the famous triplets in the family of Patrick Ewing. On other pages of this biographical history there are presented genealogies of the Alley family and the Ewing family, to which the reader is respectfully referred for additional details concerning Mrs. Porter's interest- ing family connections. To Dr. Edward A. and Hester M. (Alley) Porter have been born two children, Martha Lucile, born on October 14, 1911, and Jonathan Edward, June 10, 1913.
Doctor and Mrs. Porter are members of the Baptist church at Burney and are consistent in all good works of the community to which their lives are so earnestly devoted, being regarded as among the leaders in the better thought of the neighborhood. Doctor Porter is a Democrat and his ardent public spirit is a continual stimulus to his unselfish efforts on behalf of good local government, his intelligent interest in political affairs giving him a prominent place in the councils of the party managers in this county. In Jan- uary, 1914. Doctor Porter was appointed coroner of Decatur county, and has given to the administration of the affairs of that important office his very best thought, even as he gives his very best thought to all his duties as a physician and as a citizen. As a family physician, Doctor Porter necessarily has been brought into the most intimate relations with the people of the community and in all his relations in life has so comported himself as to merit the confidence and esteem of the whole countryside.
HENRY TOWNSEND.
Generally speaking, the man who remains in one place, using the oppor- tunities which are within his grasp and is satisfied with a reasonable measure of progress or profit at the end of each year. makes on the whole the greatest success of a vocation whatever it may be. This is particularly true of farm- ing and it is no matter for wonderment that Henry Townsend, a well-known and well-to-do farmer of Adams township, Decatur county, Indiana, has achieved a satisfactory measure of success on the farm. Now fifty-five years old he lives in the neighborhood where he was born, and it is here that all his struggles and his toil have been staged. By saving something from the profits of each year's work he has been able to buy more land from time to time until he now owns three farms-ninety-four acres in the home place. eighty acres across the road and a hundred and twenty acres southwest of his home
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-two hundred and ninety-four acres in all. Here he has found a realization of his boyhood ambition, and here he has been able to surround himself with all of the comforts which life in the countryside may afford.
Born on December 27, 1860, Henry Townsend is the son of James C. and Susan ( Warren) Townsend, the former of whom was born on December 22, 1826, in Decatur county, Indiana, the son of James and Sarah Town- send. James Townsend was a native of New Jersey and came to Decatur county in 1830 and purchased a tract of a hundred and sixty acres of timber land. Susan Warren was a daughter of James Warren, who entered land on .the south side of the road opposite the tract entered by the Townsends. James C. and Susan Townsend became the owners of a tract of land com- prising two hundred and eighty acres in all. Mrs. Townsend was born in 1818, and died in October, 1889. Of their four children, Henry, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest. The other children were Mrs. Sarah Bailey, of St. Paul; John, a farmer near St. Paul, and James S., a farmer.
After attending the schools in the neighborhood where he was born, and especially the Murphy school, Henry Townsend lived with his parents after his marriage, and when his mother died he remained on the home farm. When he purchased his first tract of forty acres he bought it with the inten- tion of moving to the farm, but changed his plans and continued to reside on the home place. His land has been acquired by the purchase of forty acres at a time, and he has thus not only grown in wealth and affluence, but he has grown in influence as well, since his success is pointed out as a splendid example of what may be accomplished by diligence and unceasing effort. Not so very long ago Mr. Townsend erected a splendid modern home of ten rooms on his home farm, costing approximately four thousand dollars. With well-kept and attractive outbuildings the farm is equipped for the most suc- cessful operations. He no longer, however, is engaged in active farming, but during recent years has been accustomed to rent out his land to others.
On December 13, 1887, when he was twenty-seven years old, Henry Townsend was married to Maggie Garrigan, the daughter of Patrick Garri- gan, a native of Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Townsend had only one child, Maudie Cecil, who died at the age of eleven years.
For at least three generations Democracy has been the prevailing politics of the Townsends, Henry Townsend's father and grandfather both having been identified with the Democratic party. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend are members of the United Brethren church, and belong to the Union Chapel church in Adams township. He is a worthy citizen of the township and county where he resides and where he has always lived. Men who know
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Henry Townsend admire and respect him for his rugged honesty and his interest in the comforts and happiness of his fellows. He makes no preten- tion of great achievement, but nevertheless all are ready to say that his life has been well spent in sowing seeds of good. He takes a commendable inter- est in all worthy public enterprises, believes in good roads, public improve- ments, and especially in good farming.
FRANK S. ALEXANDER.
Frank S. Alexander, who owns a farm of two hundred and seventy-six acres two miles south of Burney on the Columbus pike, is one of the rep- resentative farmers and stock breeders of Decatur county and one of the alert and progressive business men of this community. He has never per- mitted himself to fall into the rut which has ruined so many otherwise capable men but has studied and experimented in every department of agri- culture and has thus been able to obtain the maximum results from his efforts. Not only this, but he has so ordered his career as, at all times, to command the confidence and respect of the people of this county. The time has been when he was a great borrower of money and the substantial credit which he enjoyed at a time when credit was necessary to large-scale operations, is the basis of his present affluence and prosperity. A man interested in public improvements, he has played no small part in the progress and prosperity of the county as a whole.
Frank S. Alexander was born in 1871, in Bartholomew county, near Hartsville, the son of A. J. and Charlotta (Steward ) Alexander, the former of whom was a native of Butler county, Ohio, born in 1839, and who moved to Bartholomew county when he was eighteen years old. He owned eighty acres of land near Hartsville but traded this for one hundred and sixty acres where his son, Frank, now resides. to which he moved and where he spent the remainder of his active business life. Charlotta Steward, who was born in Ireland, came with her parents to America when six years old. They settled in Bartholomew county, Indiana, where she was married to A. J. Alexander. By industry, economy and shrewd management, they became prosperous farmers of the county.
Born and reared on a farm, Frank S. Alexander established the foun- dation for his business success by working for his father on the farm he now owns for one dollar a day. After working this way for two years,
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he purchased sixty-acres of land on the banks of Clifty creek and there lived for four years. Upon selling this farm he moved to Tipton county, where he purchased one hundred and five acres of land. The purchase and sale of this land was really the substantial foundation of his greater fortune. After selling seven hundred dollars worth of timber from the farm, lie sold it in two years at an advance of fifteen dollars an acre. He came back to De- catur county and purchased the old home farm, where he now lives. On the day that President William McKinley was killed he paid his father one thousand dollars to close the deal for the purchase of the home farm. Since 1901 his rise in the business world has been rapid. Mr. Alexander owns two hundred and seventy-six acres of land and has a modern home worth at least five thousand dollars. He is a heavy stockholder and a di- rector in the Burney State Bank. He handles two carloads of cattle and six carloads of hogs every year as well as four loads of mules. He has a large silo and two barns, one sixty by eighty feet, and one forty by fifty feet. In 1914 he raised eight thousand bushels of Yellow Dent corn on one hundred and thirty-two acres. Mr. Alexander has always farmed on a large scale and to some extent has been a land dealer. In 1909 he pur- chased eighty acres of land near the home farin and after cultivating it for two years, sold it at a profit of two thousand dollars. In fact, Mr. Alexander has been alert to every possible opportunity for making money, being quick to recognize a bargain. He is a man of courage in business and, while not now a borrower, formerly operated his land on a considerable amount of borrowed capital.
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