USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 61
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This farin was purchased by the late Thomas Duffey three years before his death. During his life, Thomas Duffey was one of the best-known farmers and stockmen of Decatur county. He was born on October 10, 1857, and died, September 23. 1907, having almost reached the half century
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mark. His parents, Patrick and Bridget Duffey, natives of Ireland, emi- grated to Decatur county, and settled on a farm, their son being reared here and educated in the schools of Decatur county, especially in the Milhausen neighborhood. At one time Patrick Duffey kept a grocery in Cincinnati, but later removed from Cincinnati to the Milhausen neighborhood, two miles from Milhausen, where the late Thomas Duffey was reared and where he was married.
During his lifetime, Thomas Duffey owned several farms. He first purchased a farm of eighty acres in the Milhausen neighborhood, and after living there for eight years, removed to Milhausen and engaged in the live stock business for two years, when he moved to the McCoy farm, where he lived for eight years, finally purchasing the farm. He then bought the Hazel- rigg property, near Greensburg, and lived there from 1898 until 1907, the time of his death. In cultivating his various farms and from the live stock business he was able to save considerable money and was regarded as a very successful man.
At the time of his death, the late Thomas Duffey left a widow and six children. His wife, Mrs. Anna ( Koors) Duffey, to whom he was mar- ried, February 12, 1884, was born in Cincinnati on March 28, 1862, the daughter of Barney and Anna (Fernerding) Koors, natives of Germany. Mrs. Duffey's father, a cooper and mill-wright by trade, removed to Decatur county and settled in the Milhausen neighborhood in 1865, farming there for eight years. The mother died in 1873, and after her death, her husband operated a mill and a mercantile store in Milhausen, until the mill burned. He kept the store, however, until his death, December 20, 1907, when he was seventy-eight years old.
Of the six children left by Thomas Duffey at the time of his death. the Rev. Charles Duffey is the assistant pastor of St. Anthony's parish, at Indianapolis; Bernard, who was born on April 2, 1888, is managing the Prairie View farm; Alfred, October 25, 1800; Hilda, December 6, 1893, is at home with her mother; Clarence, February 12, 1896, died on June 18. 1909; Robert, the youngest child, January 2, 1900.
After removing to the Washington township farm in 1910, Mrs. Duffey and her sons erected a magnificent fine barn in 1911, and in 1914 they erected a modern silo. The Prairie View farm is one of the best to be found in Decatur county-the best, not only from the standpoint of its general appear- ance, but from the standpoint of the fertility of the soil. In 1914 the forty acres of corn raised on the farm produced two thousand bushels. Mrs. Duffey and her sons feed and sell seventy to one hundred and fifty head of hogs every year, and about a carload of cattle. Every bushel of grain raised
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on the farm is fed to live stock, and last year it was necessary to buy one thousand bushels to feed out the stock. One might search the length and breadth of Decatur county and still fail to find young men who are more progressive in their notions and methods of agriculture and more enterprising and thrifty than the sons of the late Thomas Duffey. At the time of his death, he was a member of the St. Mary's Catholic church, and Greensburg Council No. 1652, Knights of Columbus. In fact, the Duffey family are all members of the Catholic church, and loyal and devout in this faith.
With earnest purpose and a sense of the responsibility, Mrs. Duffey and her children have taken up and carried forward the work of the deceased husband and father, a man who, by his industry, energy and good manage- ment, was able to provide well for his widow and children. A man of most loving disposition, his memory is revered not only by the members of his immediate family, but by those who knew him as a successful farmer and stockman, and by those who had any relations with him in a business or social way. His passing was a distinct loss to the citizenship of this county.
THOMAS H. STEVENSON.
The late Thomas H. Stevenson, who was well known as a business man in Decatur county, Indiana, and who was a leader in the political circles of this county, was a man who, as far as he was able to do so, lived by the Golden Rule.
The late Thomas H. Stevenson was born on August 11, 1854, the son of Thomas and Eliza ( Abrams) Stevenson, and died on December 16, 1914. His father, the son of Scottish parents, lived and died in Dearborn county. In 1871 Thomas H. came to Greensburg as deputy internal revenue col- lector under the late Will Cumback, and held this position for eleven years, or until 1882, when he resigned to enter the produce commission business in Cincinnati with Gilette Stevenson, who was a former revenue collector. After being in Cincinnati for three years, he returned to Greensburg in 1885 and took charge of the Emmert Flouring Mill, relieving his father- in-law, the late John Emmert, whose health had failed. After being in charge of this mill until it changed owners, he engaged in the brokerage business, his own health having failed. In this latter business he was very successful and at this time his widow and son own the old Wooley farm in Decatur county, a farm which consists of one hundred and sixty acres of well-improved and highly productive land.
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On January 13, 1879, Thomas H. Stevenson was married to Elizabeth Emmert, who was born on July 10, 1855, in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and who is the daughter of John and Catherine ( Seitz) Emmert, natives of Mannheim, Germany, and Alsace-Lorraine, respectively.
There were three eventful years in the career of John Emmert. In 1845 he came to America with his parents and located at Trenton, New Jersey, and eight years later, in 1853, he located in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he married Catherine Seitz and thirteen years later, in 1866, he moved to Greensburg, Indiana, where most of his fortune was acquired. During his life at Greensburg, he built and operated the Garland mills. He was an excellent miller and understood not only the business phase of mill- ing, but the technical and manufacturing end as well. A Democrat in poli- tics and for some time a councilman in Greensburg, John Emmert was an influential man in Decatur county, public-spirited, progressive, industrious and, in his later life, very wealthy. He was also prominent as a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Catherine Seitz had come to America with her parents when four years old in 1838, when they first located at Hamilton, Ohio, but her father, Christopher Seitz, later moved to Dearborn county, where he became a farmer. John Emmert died in 1882, his wife surviving him many years and passing away in 1909.
To Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Stevenson was born one son, Emmert C., who was born on May 21, 1891, and who was educated in the Greens- burg public schools, the Greensburg high school and Purdue University at Lafayette. After graduating from the electrical engineering department of Purdue University, he returned to his home in Decatur county and is now manager of the home farm.
During his entire life, Mr. Stevenson was more or less actively identified with Republican politics in Decatur county and the fourth congressional dis- trict. During very late years, however, he was inclined toward the new Progressive party. In this section of the state, he was known as a far- seeing political leader and manager, although he personally never sought office, but he looked after the interest of his party in this section of the state and it was well known by state leaders that his pledges of support and promises of services could be depended upon absolutely. A member of the Greensburg lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, he was very prominent in this organization, and if any man who has lived in Decatur county within recent years has followed the Golden Rule as a model for the relationship of life, it was the late Thomas H. Stevenson.
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JAMES A. MYERS.
Of the many magnificent farms to be found on the widely traveled highway, a few miles southwest of Greensburg, is one of eighty acres owned by James A. Myers, one of the well-known farmers of Washington township.
James A. Myers, who was born on July 22, 1847, on Sand creek, in a log cabin in the wilderness, is the son of William H. and Elizabeth M. (Annie) Myers, the former of whom was born on August 6, 1824, and who died, August 8, 1904, and the latter of whom was born on June 29. 1827, died May 1, 1900. Born in Kentucky, the late William H. Myers was a son of George and Margaret (Harmon) Myers, also natives of Kentucky, the former, who came to Decatur county about 1832, took up a tract of timber land on Sand Creek. and there cleared a place for a house and established a home. He died at the age of eighty-nine years. Reared in a pioneer settle- ment, the late William H. Myers lived with his father for many years after his marriage. In 1857 he sold the farm situated on Sand Creek and pur- chased the farm now known as the Davis homestead, near Horace, where he lived for several years, eventually selling out and removing to Kansas, where he lived for fifteen years. At the end of this period he returned to Decatur county and there died.
William H. and Elizabeth (Annis) Myers had ten children, two of whom are deceased. Of their children, James A. is the subject of this sketch ; George M. lives in Sand Creek township; John Thomas, born on October 21. 1851. lives in Clay township, Decatur county ; William R., July 24, 1854, died in infancy ; Mrs. Alice B. Sanderson, July 21, 1857, died on 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 Oklahoma : Mrs. Ida M. Johnson, September 11, 1867, lives in Indianapo- lis, as does her sister, Mrs. Nancy N. Berry, born on September 26, 1871.
Starting out in life for himself at the age of twenty-one, James A. Myers was married, October 21, 1868, to Martha E. Wynkoop, daughter of James and Barbara (Hedrick) Wynkoop, of Sand Creek township. Mrs. Myers was born on July 24, 1848, near Laurel, in Franklin county, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Myers- have had two children, Jennie F., who was born on November 3, 1869, married William N. Gartin, the son of Zack Gartin, October 22, 1899, and Effie B., October 31, 1877, married Norman Eubanks, of Greensburg, and they have one child, Gilbert Dale, aged nineteen.
Mr. and Mrs. Myers owned thirty-five acres of land in Clay township,
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where they lived until April, 1869 (after their marriage), when they removed to Sand Creek township and there lived until 1903. At that time they sold out and purchased a farm near Greensburg, comprising eighty acres of land, where they have now lived for twelve years.
A Democrat in politics, Mr. Myers comes from a long line of ancestors who have been prominent Democrats in the respective communities where they have lived. Although a Democrat in national and perhaps state politics, Mr. Myers is not a hide-bound partisan and votes independently in local affairs. He served two terms as justice of the peace of Sand Creek town- ship. Mr. and Mrs. Myers are members of the Baptist church at Liberty. They are active workers in church affairs. Here in the neighborhood where they have lived these many years, they are highly respected citizens, honored for their quiet and unassuming manners, for their native intelligence and sympathic interest in the welfare of the community as a whole. Mr. Myers is a man of sterling integerity, scrupulous in all the dealings of life, and well known in different parts of Decatur county.
FRANK C. STOUT.
In selecting his life work, Frank C. Stout chose something that would give pleasure to his friends, as well as to himself. He might have had in mind, also, the fact that music, more than any other factor in life, has a charm, toned with sweetness, harmony and rhythm to a degree understood by everyone, and to a great measure helpful and uplifting not only to the toiler but to the artist as well. While the traditional writer has said that "music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," it might have added, "and draw all men together in a state of peace and happiness." However, the success with which Mr. Stout has met, is sufficient proof of his efficiency as a piano tuner, and his ability as a musician, a combination which has brought him in good returns.
Frank C. Stout, piano dealer and tuner, of Greensburg, Indiana, was born in that city, in June, 1878, the son of Wiley J. Stout. Subject was reared and educated in the public schools of Greensburg. In young manhood he studied medicine, thinking to follow that profession, but his artistic nature outweighed this desire and, about 1905. he began tuning pianos, and later opened salesrooms in Greensburg, where he handles a fine line of the French & Sons and Busch & Geits pianos, in which he does a thriving business. His store is one of the most attractive of its kind in the city.
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Wiley J. Stout was born in Decatur county and died about 1895. He was a son of Harvey P. Stout (see Stout genealogy in the sketch of John F. Robbins, elsewhere in this volume). At an early age, Wiley J. Stout learned the carpenter trade, in which he became very skillful, and at which he worked all his life. He was united in marriage to Octavia Lloyd, who is also deceased. Frank C. Stout is their only child now living. He is a strong advocate of the principles of the Progressive party, is an exceptional musician, and is especially proficient on the piano. His host of admiring friends, who have done their part in aiding him to build up his business, speaks well for his popularity.
JAMES CARTER MCLAUGHLIN.
The offspring of a pioneer family of Decatur county, Indiana, the late James Carter Mclaughlin, a veteran of the Civil War and a well-known farmer and stockman of this county during his life, gained almost national fame as a breeder of trotting horses which were especially well known throughout the state of Indiana. Not only was he a successful farmer and stockman, but he was well known as a citizen and public-spirited man of affairs. He lived to rear a large family of children, who were given the very best educational advantages and who, now that he is gone, revere the memory of a loving and kind father.
The late James Carter Mclaughlin, proprietor of Ash Grove stock farm in Washington township, Decatur county, Indiana, and later of the old homestead farm of three hundred acres, was born on January 27, 1831, in Decatur county, and passed away, January 4, 1894, the son of George and Sarah (Carter) McLanghlin, who were born and married in Mason county, Kentucky, and who, after their marriage, in 1827, came the same year to Decatur county, where they entered government land.
George and Sarah (Carter) Mclaughlin, the former of whom was an intelligent and highly respected citizen, progressive in spirit and successful in business, were the parents of eight children, only four of whom grew to maturity. Of these children, James C. is the subject of this sketch; Mary Frances, deceased, was born on February 1, 1829, and married Zachariah T. Riley, April 13, 1853; Elizabeth Ann was the wife of Thomas M. Hamilton, deceased, who now lives on North East street, Greensburg, Indiana, and Casper Wooster died in the state of California.
The father of these children was an ardent Republican during his life.
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He spent his declining years at the home of his son, the late J. C. McLaugh- lin. The father was born on September 24. 1802, and died, October 29, 1885. His wife, Sarah (Carter) Mclaughlin, was born on August 18, 1804, and died July 20, 1873. They were married, April 10, 1827.
After living at home on his father's farm and performing the work ordinarily falling to the lot of the average country boy during the earlier years of the history of this county, James Carter Mclaughlin enlisted in 1861 in the Wilder battery, later the Independent battery, and served four years as a soldier in the Civil War. At the siege of Knoxville he was taken seriously ill and was unable to serve for some time. He was in many battles and sieges, including those at Somerset, Kentucky, and Harpers Ferry. where the battery was captured. James C. was later exchanged at India- napolis. Afterward the battery saw active service in Kentucky and Tennes- see, and was on the firing line until the close of the war.
Immediately after the close of the Civil War, Mr. Mclaughlin was married, March 14, 1866, to Louisa Davidson, who was born on December 25, 1839, in Decatur county, Indiana, and who is the daughter of Isaac and Jennie (Miller) Davidson, natives of Nicholas county, Kentucky, and Mon- roe county, Virginia, respectively. Isaac Davidson, who was born in 1802, and who died in July, 1855, came to Decatur county, Indiana, when a young inan, and worked for seven and one-half dollars a month. Coming here in 1827, he eventually owned a fine farm in Clinton township. Mrs. Jennie (Miller) Davidson, who was born in 1809, and who died in 1905, at the age of ninety-six years, was the daughter of John Miller, who came to Decatur county in 1814, and after settling near Clarksburg, was engaged in burning brick. He had come down the river on a flat-boat, and at the time he passed Cincinnati, it was a mere hamlet. His nearest neighbors at the time were seven miles away. Indians were very numerous in the country. At this time his daughter, Jennie Miller, was only five years old, and she had accom- panied him to this county.
Isaac and Jennie (Miller) Davidson had eight children, Mary, who married Sol Sharp, died in 1860; John, in 1833, resides on a farm near Hartville, Kansas; Elizabeth, who was born in 1835, became the wife of Henry Bird, deceased, and resides on Hendricks street, Greensburg; Mar- garet, in 1837, married Thomas Draper, who died in 1910, in Kansas; Louise, the widow of the late James Carter Mclaughlin; Jane, February 2. 1841, always lived with her mother on Walnut street ; Rhoda died at the age of twelve years, and Taylor died in his youth.
To Mr. and Mrs. James Carter Mclaughlin six children were born, all
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of whom are living, except one, Mary, who died at the age of thirty-eight years. The names of the children are as follow: Blanche, Orion D., Mary, Della, James Barton and Frances. Of these children, Blanche, a graduate of Indiana State University, lives on Lincoln street, Greensburg, Indiana ; Orion D., a farmer, resides on East street. He owns three hundred and twenty acres of land : Della, a graduate of Purdue University, is the wife of W. H. Silver. They live at West Newton; James Barton, who lives on the old homestead, is a graduate of Purdue University, and married Margaret Mil- ler. They have two children, James C. and William Graham; and Frances, a graduate of Purdue University. is the wife of S. W. Shirk. a well-known farmer of this county.
James Carter Mclaughlin was a Republican, although he never took much interest in political affairs, while his good wife during her active life, was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
As an enterprising man of business, a farmer and breeder, James Carter Mclaughlin contributed materially to the progress and prosperity of Decatur county. He was a man necessarily of large vision, who could foresee large opportunities, and he possessed the executive skill, the capacity for details to carry out preconceived plans. He was the very soul of honor. loving and kind in the home, cordial and genial in all the relations of life. private or public.
WILLIAM SMILEY.
Among the early settlers of pioneer days, in the second decade of the nineteenth century, with but few advantages, a sturdy native of the Key- stone state, whose ambition was to cut out of the concrete of life something more than a mere pittance and who, like many another lad, had but a few hundred dollars with which to make a start, drinking at the fountain of perspective, was William Smiley, a man of unusual thrift, whose unflagging courage and persistence led him through the many vicissitudes of life to a field of prosperity and plenty. With an ambition to see that his posterity were well provided for, he was a man of keen perception, wrought out of the fact, no doubt, that he was self-educated, broad-minded and a man of sound judgment. It is pleasing, indeed, under all conditions in life to see any of the younger generations forge to the front, and even more so when the freshiness of youth knows no failure and recognizes no defeat. As such an one, it is a pleasure to point to the life-work of William Smiley
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with a sense of pride, as a man having utilized the opportunities as they came to him, molding them into a great success.
William Smiley, was born in February, 1814, and migrated with his parents from Pennsylvania to Butler county, Ohio, where they settled on a farm on which he grew to manhood. He was married in Butler county and, in the year 1849, came to this county, locating on a farm in Clay town- ship. He became very prosperous, in time coming to own hundreds of acres of choice land in this county. Beginning life in Decatur county with a few hundred dollars as his capital, he managed his affairs so wisely and so prudently that he became one of the wealthiest men in the county. To each of his children he gave farms, in addition to which his daughters received nice sums of money upon reaching eighteen years of age. Despite the fact that he continued giving away his property, he left an estate of about sixty thousand dollars, an evidence of his ability as a financier. Mr. Smiley had few advantages in his youth and was a self-educated man, ac- quiring, by close observation and the constant exercise of his remarkable native talents. a fine general knowledge. He was an uncompromising Demo- crat and ever took an interest in the county's political affairs, long being recognized as one of the most active workers in his party in this county, a veritable "wheel-horse," in fact; his sound judgment and keen common sense giving large weight to his counsels in the deliberations of the party managers in Decatur county. He was a splendid horseman and it is still recalled that, on gala occasions, it was his wont to turn out, driving ten or a dozen horses in a team. In his later years he left the farm and moved to Greensburg, where his last days were passed in comfortable retirement, his death occurring on June 30, 1893, his widow surviving until July 8, 1896.
To William and Mary A. (Kenny) Smiley were born ten children, as follow: Mrs. Permelia Henry, deceased; Mrs. Caroline Sefton, widow of Edward B. Sefton, of Greensburg; George W. and James M. (twins). the former of whom died in 1907, and the latter of whom died in infancy; Har- vey K., who died in January, 1915; Thomas K., a well-known farmer of Clay township, this county; William F., who resided in Greensburg; Mary, who died on August 17, 1914; S. P., who lives at El Campo (Texas) Hotel, and Margaret, widow of William A. Johnston.
Mrs. Margaret L. Johnston was born on a farm in Clay township, Decatur county, Indiana, on January 18, 1857, the daughter of William and Mary A. (Kennedy) Smiley, pioneers of this county, the former of whom was a native of Pennsylvania and the latter a native of New Jersey.
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Upon her marriage to William A. Johnston in 1877, Mrs. Johnston moved from the paternal farm to Greensburg, where she ever since has made her home. Mr. Johnston was born in the town of Franklin, Johnson county, Indiana, on February 1, 1854, and died in February, 1907. To Mr. and Mrs. Johnston three children were born, Cora S., at home; Walter married Elizabeth Bates in 1910 and lives at Greensburg; and Raymond K., ste- nographer with the Big Four Railroad Company at Indianapolis.
Mrs. Johnston is held in the highest esteem in the social circles of Greensburg and is deeply interested in the general welfare of the entire community. She formerly was an active member of several local clubs.
NELSON M. TEMPLETON.
Nelson M. Templeton, a retired citizen of Greensburg, Indiana, and one of the prominent and well-known men of Decatur county, was born on October 22, 1845, on a farm in Franklin county, the son of John and Eliza- beth ( Barnard) Templeton, natives of Pennsylvania, the former of whom died in September, 1899, and the latter of whom the daughter of David Barnard, of Pennsylvania, died on August 20, 1896. John Templeton was an early resident of Franklin county, the son of David Templeton, a pio- neer settler of southeastern Indiana. The Templetons built a cabin on the east fork of the White Water, in Franklin county, or on Templeton's creek. In 1865 the family settled in Washington township, Decatur county, and here owned a good farm, comprising three hundred acres of well-improved land, located two miles south of Greensburg, which is known to this day as the Templeton farm, where both parents died. John Templeton was a Re- publican and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Of the eight children born to John and Elizabeth (Barnard) Templeton, two are now deceased; Catherine is the wife of George Fiscus and resides one and one-half miles south of Greensburg, Decatur county; Nelson M. is the sub- ject of this sketch; James W., who was born on December 22, 1847, died on May 1, 1901, at the age of fifty-two years, and had married Frances Stout, daughter of Joab and Rebecca Stout, who bore him the following chil- dren, Flora, Ella, Grace, Harry and Elizabeth; Robert and Edward were twins, the former of whom is deceased, and the latter resides south of Greensburg; Laura is the widow of Griffith Gartin, deceased; John lives
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