USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 57
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In September, 1857, when he was eighteen years old, Joseph Patterson was first married to Mary Bird, the daughter of William and Maria Bird, natives of Kentucky and Virginia, respectively, who moved to Decatur county, Indiana, in the late twenties. They reared a family of eight children : Harvey, who married Sarah Lowe: Mrs. Martha Anna Johnson ; Benjamin, who married a Miss Small; Henry, who married a Miss Davidson ; Edwin, who married Charlotte Powers: Harriett, the wife of William Sefton : Mary, the wife of a Mr. Patterson, and Minerva, who first married Jacob Hick- man and had four children, Luna, William, deceased; Martha, the wife of Charles S. Reed, who lives in Washington township, and Mrs. Ottawa Baumgarten, who lives in Greensburg. Mrs. Mary Patterson was born on July 31, 1839, and died on May 1, 1908. Four years after her death, Mr. Patterson was again married to Minerva, the sister of his first wife. the marriage taking place on December 9, 1912.
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To Joseph and Mary (Bird) Patterson were born seven children, all of whom are stilling living, Mrs. Maria Jane Robison, who lives near Adams and has one child, Millicent; Harriet Elizabeth, who is the wife of J. L. Hamil- ton and has one child, Cora; Mrs. Nora Olive Ford, who lives at Greens- burg and has one child, Mary; John William, of Clinton township, who mar- ried Lou Hazelrigg and has three sons, William, Van and Daniel; James, who married Margaret Goddard and lives on the old home place ; Charles, of near Adams, who married Dessa Guthrie and has one child, Charles Guthrie, and Mrs. Ina Anderson, of Greensburg. Mr. Patterson died on May 19, 1915, at the age of seventy-six years.
Although Mr. Patterson was a Republican all of his life, in 1912 he voted the Democratic national ticket, supporting the Democratic candidate, now the President of this country, Woodrow Wilson. Mr. and Mrs. Pat- terson are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Greensburg.
WILLIAM M. MCCOY.
William M. McCoy, a retired farmer of Greensburg. Indiana, who removed from his farm one and one-half miles southeast of Greensburg, in September, 1914, to that city, was born on January 16, 1832, in Washing- ton county, Indiana, and is the son of AAlexander and Prudence ( Armstrong) McCoy, natives of Kentucky and Indiana, respectively, the former of whom was born on October 18, 1794, in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and the latter of whom was born on November 2, 1809, and who died, January 31, 1857. Alexander McCoy, a representative of the third generation of the McCoy family in America, removed with his parents to Bourbon county, Kentucky, from Washington, Pennsylvania, when a small child, and there was reared, coming to Decatur county, Indiana, from Washington county, Indiana, December 25, 1833. He died on his farm near Kingston, June I. 1877. He was married to Prudence Armstrong, January 4, 1831. in Wash- ington county, Indiana, where he was a charter member of the Kingston Presbyterian church, and at the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of this church was the only surviving charter member.
Alexander and Prudence (Armstrong) McCoy had nine children, the names of whom follow in the order of their birth : William M. McCoy, the subject of this sketch, was the eldest child born to his parents and first saw the light of day at Salem, in Washington county, Indiana ; Leander Aretas,
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who was born on March 14, 1834, died on August 7, 1900; Sarepta, June 20, 1836, married William Franklin Cox, a soldier in the Civil War, and they lived at Montrose, Illinois, both are deceased; Daniel Judson, August 8, 1839, was killed in the battle of the Wilderness; James Burney. August 8, 1839, a twin of Daniel Judson, died on October 17 of the same year ; Philonadus, June 3, 1843, deceased, lived in Indianapolis, Indiana ; Orpheus, January 8, 1846, died on March 3, 1904; Milissa, March 29, 1849, died on July 17, 1851 ; Cassius C., July 25, 1852, lives at Greensburg, Indiana. Two children, therefore, out of this family of nine, are still living.
Alexander McCoy, who, for the purpose of this sketch, may be desig- nated Alexander II., was the son of Alexander McCoy I., the latter of whom was born in Scotland, in 1753, and who married Nancy Campbell, in 1780, eight years after coming to this country. He and his wife had six children born in Pennsylvania, and five children born in Kentucky. Those born in Pennsylvania were John C. William, Daniel, Angus C., Margaret and Alex- ander. In 1794, the family removed to Bourbon county, Kentucky, and after their removal, there were born, Jane, Mary, George, James and Campbell.
Alexander McCoy I. was the son of William McCoy, the founder of the family in America, who was born in Sutherlandshire, Scotland, in 1730, and emigrated to America, settling on the east shore of Maryland in 1772, and later removed to Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania. His remains are buried at Ruddles Mills cemetery in Bourbon county, Kentucky.
William Martin McCoy, the subject of this sketch, was married on November 2, 1871, to Mary Jane Jones, who was born on December 25, 1844, in Cincinnati, and who is the daughter of Roland and Catherine (Hughes) Jones, natives of Wales, who came to this country from Card- ingshire before their marriage in 1840. They lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the father was a stationary engineer, and where he lived and died. He was born in 1820, and died in October, 1875. His wife, who, before her marriage, was Catherine Hughes, was born in 1822, and died in 1850. They had three children, John, of Bellevue, Kentucky; Mrs. Mary Jane McCoy, and Mrs. Elizabeth Evans, of Hyde Park, Cincinnati.
To Mr. and Mrs. William M. McCoy have been born three children, Minnie Prudence, Ralph Evans and Robert. Of these children Minnie was born on October 10, 1872. and married Carl Hendrick, who was born on November 22, 1870. They had three children, Ralph, who was born on November 12, 1899: William Boland, December 11, 1901, and Rose Eualine, October 29, 1904, at Terre Haute, Indiana. They reside in Indianapolis ; Ralph Evans, who was born on June 20, 1878, lives on the home farm east
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of Greensburg. He married Daisy Barnes and they have one child, William Frederick: Robert, who was born on April 16, 1880, was a civil engineer until his death, October 30, 1914.
After his marriage, Mr. McCoy settled at McCoy Station, where he rented one hundred and forty acres of land for two years. At the end of this period he purchased one hundred and sixty acres near Kingston, and lived there for nearly two years, when he moved to another farm one and one-half miles southeast of Greensburg, consisting of ninety-six acres of well-improved land. In September, 1914, Mr. and Mrs. McCoy removed to Greensburg.
William M. McCoy is a Republican in politics, and Mr. and Mrs. McCoy are both members of the Presbyterian church, as are the other members of their family. They are well known and highly respected not only in Greens- burg, but in Decatur county.
DAN S. PERRY.
Among the strongest financial institutions in the city of Greensburg is the Greensburg National Bank, of which Dan S. Perry has been cashier for several years, having entered the bank in July, 1900, at its organization, as assistant cashier. The Greensburg National Bank began business with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, but on November 5, 1906. its capital was raised to seventy-five thousand dollars. and it now has a surplus of twenty-five thousand dollars, undivided profits of seven thousand dollars, and average deposits of three hundred thousand dollars. James M. Wood- fill has been president since its organization. Mr. Perry, who was the original assistant cashier, succeeded J. B. Kitchum as cashier in 1904. The other officers are Will H. Robbins, vice-president, and A. J. Lowe, assistant cashier. Messrs. Robbins, D. A. Myers, C. P. Miller, Oliver Deem, J. B. Kitchin and John HI. Deniston constitute the board of directors. The correspondent banks are the Fifth-Third National, of Cincinnati; the Indiana National. of Indianapolis ; the National Bank of Commerce, of New York City, and the Federal Reserve Bank, of Chicago, the Greensburg National being a mem- ber of the Federal Reserve Associated Banks.
The popular and efficient cashier of the Greensburg National Bank is descended from an old family of this section, his grandfather, Dan S. Perry, having settled in Washington township, Decatur county, in 1824. Here.
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he purchased land, and after clearing a small tract, erected a log cabin. Dan S. Perry, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, and who had moved from the ancestral home in Virginia to the state of Kentucky, was the son of Frederick Perry, a member of the personal body-guard of General Wash- ington during the Revolutionary War. Dan S. Perry is, therefore, descended from Revolutionary ancestry and is himself of militant and patriotic stock. Born in July, 1873. on a farm in Decatur county, Dan S. is the son of Leonard and Cinderella (Boyce) Perry, the former a native of Kentucky, who had come with his father. Dan S. Perry, Sr., from Kentucky to Wash- ington township, Decatur county, in 1824, and the latter of whom was a native of Indiana, and reared in Decatur county. Leonard Perry, who lived on the ancestral farm for sixty years, was born in 1824, and died in Feb- ruary, 1909. His wife, who died in 1873, left a family of nine children, as follow : Dina P. Craig, of Greensburg; Will L. and Louisa, of Greensburg; Squire D., who lives on a farm east of Greensburg; George S., who lives on the old home place ; Mrs. Chester Edkins, of Greensburg; Allen M. and Pierce, deceased, and Dan S., the subject of this sketch.
Dan S. Perry during his youth and early manhood enjoyed the educa- tional advantages which the schools of Decatur county afforded. After hay- ing finished the course in the country schools, he attended Greensburg high school, and when eighteen years old became a student in one of the leading Cincinnati business colleges. After finishing the course in the business col- Jege, he returned to Greensburg and studied law in the office of D. A. Miers for six years. Two years of this period he served as court stenog- rapher. Upon the organization of the Greensburg National Bank, in 1900, Mr. Perry became assistant cashier, and four years later succeeded to the office of cashier, a position which he has held ever since. a period of eleven years.
Mr. Perry was married on November 30, 1893, to Elsie Russell, daugh- ter of Richard Russell, of Decatur county. Mr. and Mrs. Perry have had one son, Russell Myers, who is now twenty years old, and who is a student in the American School of Osteopathy at Kirksville, Missouri.
A Republican in politics. Dan S. Perry has never been prominent in political work, although he has always maintained a keen interest in good government and in the election of capable men in public office. Fraternally, he is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks.
As a banker, Dan S. Perry is regarded as a man with few peers and 110 superiors in Decatur county. The growth and present prosperous condition
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of the Greensburg National Bank are due to the wise and efficient manage- ment of its board of directors and especially its officers. Mr. Perry has never been found wanting in any test which has been imposed upon him. He has safe-guarded the interests of the bank, and at the same time his cordial relations with the patrons of the bank have brought substantial increases in business year by year. Honorable and upright in all of the relations of life, private and public, he possesses the confidence of the people and enjoys their respect as a private citizen.
JOSEPH W. GARRISON.
The late Joseph W. Garrison, the son of David and Mary (Fugit) Gar- rison, was descended on his mother's side from the very first settlers of Decatur county, Indiana. His grandfather, Judge John Fugit, who was born in the mountains of Russell county, Virginia, in 1770, came in March, 1819, with Guffy Griffiths and Elias Janett from Franklin county to Decatur county, Indiana, and settled one mile east of the present site of Clarksburg at the forks of the road. John Fugit, after his marriage, had moved to Floyd county, Kentucky, from Virginia and from Floyd county, in 1808, to Hamil- ton county, Ohio. Two years later the family had moved to Cedar Grove, Franklin county, Indiana, where they lived until 1818, when, owing to the hostility of the Indians, they were compelled to seek safety in the old fort eight miles west of Brookville. The next year they came on to Decatur county, Indiana.
The Fugit family was one of considerable achievements and note in the pioneer history of Decatur county, several members of the family having held important positions of trust and responsibility. Judge John Fugit, who had been a justice of the peace in Franklin county before his removal to Decatur county, or what was then called the "New Purchase," brought with him his commission and docket and acted as justice of the peace up to the time the county was organized, when he was elected one of the first associate justices of the circuit court. In 1825, the Fugits moved to Turner's Corner in Clay township, where they lived until 1839, when John Fugit moved to Milford, where he died in 1844.
It was a daughter of John Fugit, Mary (Fugit) Garrison, the mother of the late Joseph W. Garrison, who was known, during her time, as "the washerwoman for all Decatur county," there having been at this time only
JOSEPH W. GARRISON.
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three families in the whole county. The Fugits were noted not only for the important positions of trust and responsibility which they held in the early history of the county, but they were also noted for being the tallest family in this county, each member averaging over six feet in height. The children of David and Polly (Fugit) Garrison were John Q. A., Silas W., James L. F., Isaac N., Joseph W., Jesse F., Benjamin F. and David G.
Four children among the six sons and three daughters born to Judge John Fugit and wife, are: Mrs. Mary Garrison; Isaac W., of St. Paul, Minnesota ; Mrs. Rachel McCallister, of Windfall; Mrs. Celia Wilson, of Boone county, Indiana, and James, of Greensburg. These children are deceased as are the remainder of the family.
The late Joseph W. Garrison, who was born on January 19, 1838, and died in December, 1909, served three years in Company H, Thirty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Among the severe battles in which he was engaged, were those of Stone's River, Murfreesboro. Chickamauga, Peach- tree Creek, Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Kenesaw Mountain and Picket Hill. He was also engaged in the Atlanta campaign and in many minor engagements. Becoming sick in the latter part of the war, he was assigned to the commissary department and was thus connected when he was mustered out of the service.
On February 16, 1865, just after the close of the Civil War, Mr. Gar- rison was married to Martha E. Tanner, who was born on February 15, 1840, and who recently celebrated her seventy-fifth birthday, the neighbors gathering at her home in large numbers. Mrs. Garrison was born in Wash- ington township and is the daughter of Simpson and Callie Mattie (McGan- non) Tanner, natives of Virginia and Kentucky, respectively, who came to Decatur county in 1835. Her father died in Greensburg, Indiana. They had several children: James Elza, Lucy Jane, Ira, Mary, Maria and Zach- arialı, twins; Annabel and Lanra Belle, twins; Lucius, Achsa, Sara E. Simpson Tanner had been twice married. Mrs. Garrison's half-sister, Mrs. Sophia Deere, lives at Franklin, Indiana.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Garrison lived for one year on the Tanner farm and then on the David Garrison farm for two years, after which they rented Mr. Garrison's brother's farm for one year and then purchased a farm of their own in Washington township, where they lived for three years. Eventually, they sold their farm and purchased the one where Caleb Wright now lives, living here for several years, when they moved to Greens- burg, where they lived for twenty-one years. The present farm was pur-
(39)
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chased some time after 1900 and in December of 1902, Mr. and Mrs. Gar- rison moved to the farm. It comprises one hundred and twenty acres and is a beautiful country home, well-kept with splendid out-buildings and attractive grounds.
The late Joseph W. Garrison was a Republican in politics. He never held office nor was much interested in this phase of political activity. He was a member of the Baptist church and assisted in the building of the church. Fraternally, he was a member of Pap Thomas Post, No. 5. Grand Army of the Republic and of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and a charter members of the Eastern Star. Mrs. Garrison and daughter are char- ter members of the Eastern Star. Mrs. Garrison is a charter member of the Greensburg chapter, Women's Relief Corps. She and daughter are also members of the Rebekahs at Greensburg. Mr. Garrison was a city council- man of Greensburg. E. F. Roszell was married on December 6, 1905, to Minnie Garrison, daughter of the subject of this sketch. Mr. Roszell has had charge of the farm for nine years. Mr. Rozell is a stand-pat Republican and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
EVERETT HAMILTON.
The descendant of a family which was prominent in the state of Ken- tucky during the last half of the eighteenth century, Everett Hamilton, a retired farmer of Decatur county, who lives in a comfortable home at Greens- burg, Indiana, has been for nearly three-quarters of a century a prominent citizen of Decatur county. Given educational advantages, surpassing by far the privileges of most farmers of his day and generation, he was considered a leader in the political and educational life of Fugit township, where he owned a fine farm and where he spent practically all his life, until his removal to Greensburg.
Born on October 16, 1841, on the old homestead farm near Kingston, in Decatur county, he is the son of Cyrus and Mary ( McCoy ) Hamilton, the former of whom was born in 1800 in Kentucky and who died in 1879. Com- ing to Decatur county, in 1821, with four brothers, James E., Cyrus, Thomas and Robert Marshall, he settled on a farm near Kingston in Decatur county. All of the four brothers, after coming to Decatur county from Kentucky, and all of whom were the sons of Robert Hamilton, occupied farms between Kingston and Greensburg. In time Cyrus Hamilton came to be a large,
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landowner in Decatur county, and at one time owned as much as four hun- dred acres, which he had cleared and improved. He resided upon the farm until his death. His wife, Mary McCoy, who was a native of Kentucky, was born in 1799, and died in 1881. They had six children, only three of whom are now living : William M. is deceased; Mrs. Melissa Nyce is deceased, and Orlando died in the spring of 1914. Mrs. Cordelia Donnell lives near Clarksburg; Chester lives on a farm in Decatur county, the old homestead farm, and Everett Hamilton is the subject of this sketch. A prominent mem- ber of the Whig party and a free-soiler until its disintegration and the for- mation of the Republican party in 1854, Cyrus Hamilton was a prominent Abolitionist also, and one of the leading advocates in this section of the state of the Abolitionist cause. He was well known as a debater, especially on the subject of slavery, and a devout Presbyterian and member of the Kingston church, which he helped to build.
Educated in the common schools of Fugit township, Decatur county. Indiana, and in the old Northwestern Christian University, now Butler Col- lege, of Indianapolis, where he spent one and one-half years, Everett Hamil- ton began farming for himself in 1864, at the age of twenty-three, near Kingston, in Decatur township, on eighty acres of land given to him by his father. At the same time he purchased eighty acres of land, on which he never lived, but which he farmed before his marriage. In 1866, he exchanged this farm for one hundred and sixty acres near Clarksburg, to which he moved, and which, in time, he increased to four hundred acres. This farm he cultivated until 1911, when he removed to Greensburg, after erecting a modern residence on East Main street. During his life he was engaged in general farming and stock raising, and was considered to have made a splendid success of his life's vocation.
In 1870, Mr. Hamilton was married to Mary Jane Hopkins, who was born in 1843. on a farm in Fugit township, who is the daughter of Preston E. and Eliza (Donnell) Hopkins, the former of whom, a native of Kentucky, came to Decatur county with his father at an early day. To this union three children were born: Paul, Edwin S. and Frank. Paul is engineer of track and roadway for the Big Four railroad, and has his office in Cincinnati : Edwin S. is a farmer on the old homestead, and Frank is an attorney of Greensburg, Indiana.
A Republican in politics, Everett Hamilton served as trustee of Fugit township for two terms, and also as a member of the board of county com- missioners for one term, from 1886 to 1889. Religiously, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton are members of the Kingston Presbyterian church, in which he served as trustee for many years.
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Everett Hamilton is one of the best-known and most highly respected citizens of Decatur county. As a farmer and citizen of Fugit township he was well known and as a public official he was recognized as capable, earnest and scrupulously honest in all his relations. In his declining years he has the satisfaction of knowing that his three sons are following the footsteps of their father, and that they themselves are on the way to similarly honest and useful lives.
WILLIAM C. PULSE.
Any work purporting to give a review of the industrial and other con- ditions of Decatur county must, at the very outset, take into account the great plant built up and controlled by the enterprising firm of Pulse & Porter, general building contractors at Greensburg and Hope, Indiana. Tliese two plants carry. a weekly pay-roll that runs as high as six thousand dollars, and at times more than five hundred men are employed by the firm, which is generally recognized as being the most active and energetic firm of build- ing contractors in Indiana, its operations being easily the most extensive of any firm thus engaged in southern Indiana. This concern, which was organ- ized in the year 1888, by the association of William C. Pulse, William R. Porter and Alexander Porter, has grown until it now is not only the largest employer of men in the building trades in Indiana, but which maintains the heaviest retail stock of lumber and building material in the state of Indiana. In a biographical sketch relating to Alexander Porter, one of the members of this firm, presented elsewhere in this volume, reference is made to the many large building contracts executed by this company, and it will not be necessary to enter into that phase of the concerns's operations here, but it is fitting to set out here something regarding the general extent of the plant maintained by the company. In Greensburg, the company operates an exten- sive planing-mill and sash-door factory, manufacturing, so far as possible, all material entering into the building trades, with particular reference to special work, most of the stock work used in the extensive building operations of the concern being bought outside. In addition to operating the factory at Greensburg, which utilizes the services of about fifty hands on an average, the firm maintains a general supply house at that place, carrying pretty much everything required in the building trades. The company has pleasant and well-equipped offices in connection with the retail building, the planing-mill and lumber yard being situated near the railroad. The Hope plant, which
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has one of the best-equipped and most modern sheds in Indiana, with a capacity of from thirty to forty carloads of building material, employs from fifteen to twenty men and has a saw-mill, a ten-ton ice plant and a complete double electric lighting system in connection therewith, using exhaust steam for heating purposes. This plant is maintained for both public and com- mercial uses and carries building material of every description.
William C. Pulse was born in a farm home in the woods in Salt Creek township, Decatur county, Indiana, on September 30, 1859, the son of David G. and Rebecca (VanCleave) Pulse, both natives of Hamilton county, Ohio, who were born and reared near Cincinnati at a time when the now proud Queen City was but a village. The Pulses and the VanCleaves were among the prominent families of the Cincinnati neighborhood and were associates of the Tyler Davidsons, the Nicholas Longworths and others of the leading families of Cincinnati in that day. At that period the country around Cincinnati was an unbroken forest and Mr. Pulse's parents often recalled in. later years the fact that there were but few houses in the neigh- borhood of their childhood homes and the wild deer still frequented the "licks" which were so common thereabout. It was customary for the fami- lies to go to market in big wagons, camping over night on the way.
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