USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 62
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west of Greensburg in the Emington neighborhood, and Oliver married Ida Taylor, and is the proprietor of a machine shop.
Upon leaving home at the age of twenty-seven years, Nelson M. Tem- pleton farmed near Adams for three years, and in 1875 moved to Letts Corner and purchased a farm, where he lived for ten years. Not liking this place, however, in 1885 he moved to Lebanon in Boone county, and pur- chased a partnership in a planing mill and builders' supply firm. In Sep- tember of the next year, he returned to St. Paul and from there moved to Clifty, or Milford, and from Clifty to Franklin, Johnson county, where he remained for six years, during which time he was engaged in the car- penter trade. After his mother's death he removed to the old place, where he lived for three years, and rented a farm east of Greensburg for three years, subsequently removing to that city. During one and one-half years' residence in Greensburg, he purchased a part of the home estate of eighty-one acres, erected a house and barn, and moved his family to the farm. In 1909 he sold out and moved back to Greensburg.
On November 21, 1873, Nelson M. Templeton was married to Rachel Stark, who was born on November 4, 1852, in Decatur county, Indiana, and who is the daughter of Aden Boone and Eliza (Wallace) Stark, natives of Oldenburg, Kentucky, and Rockbridge county, Virginia, respectively. The foriner was the son of Caleb Stark, who married Anna Boone, a cousin of Daniel Boone. Caleb Stark, in fact, was a follower of Daniel Boone, and the son of Capt. John Stark, a soldier in the Revolutionary army. Caleb Stark was a member of the Decatur county board of commissioners when the court house was built. A number of the famous characters in the "Hoosier Schoolmaster" were modeled on members of Caleb Stark's family.
Aden Boone Stark, who was born on October 21, 1815, in Olden county, Kentucky, moved with his father to Decatur county in 1825. He was married to Eliza Wallace, September 7, 1837, and by her had nine chil- dren, among whom are the following: Percis Jane, deceased, who was the wife of Joseph Braden; John Caleb, of Clifty, Decatur county; Mary Ann, the wife of Cyrus Moore, of Clifty; Hannah Elizabeth, deceased; Charles, deceased; Mrs. Rachel Templeton ; William, a farmer in Bartholomew county ; and two children who died in infancy. Aden Boone Stark died on April 19, 1890. In this connection it is worth while to mention the fact that five of the eleven children born to Caleb Stark were natives of Ken- tricky, their names being Aden, George, Willett, Percis and Lovina.
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson M. Templeton are members of the Baptist church. He is identified with the Republican party. A man well known in this sec-
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tion, he is highly honored and respected by all who have come in contact with him, and especially his fellow townsmen in the city of Greensburg. Nelson M. Templeton and wife have two children, Nellie, at home; and Perry William, a decorator at Indianapolis, who married Margaret Erhardt, and they have two children, Howard and Elizabeth.
JAMES PORTER.
Not many families in Decatur county have created a more distinct impression upon its affairs than has the well-known Porter family. This family has been represented in Decatur county since the early days of the settlement of this section of the state and wherever its members have been found, there they have been doing well those things toward which their energies were being directed. In the agricultural life, the industrial life, the religious life and the professional life of the community they have been active, the family having produced several notable leaders in these several departments of human endeavor. Prominent in good works, faithful in whatever service they were called upon to perform, either in public or private stations, the Porters have acquitted themselves in such fashion as to merit the continued confidence and esteem of the entire community, and it is a pleasure on the part of the biographer to bring to the attention of the reader at this point something regarding the beginnings of this family in Decatur county. For further details relating to the family, the reader is respectively referred to brief biographical sketches of the careers of Alex- ander Porter, the well-known contractor, and Dr. Edward A. Porter, broth- ers of the subject of this sketch, presented elsewhere in this volume.
James Porter was born on the farm on which he still is living, three and one-half miles southwest of the city of Greensburg, in Washington township, Decatur county, Indiana, on March 7, 1871, a son of Matthew E. and Clarissa (Mckinney) Porter, both members of pioneer families of this county. Matthew E. Porter was born in the year 1836, his birth occurring in a log cabin which still is standing on the east half of the farm now owned by James Porter. He was the only son of Alexander and Elizabeth ( Elder) Porter, the latter of whom was a daughter of the venerated Rev. Nathan Elder, a pioneer minister of the Baptist faith who exerted so strong an influence for good in pioneer days in this section of the state. Rev. Nathan Elder. a native of Kentucky, was a "circuit rider" of the old
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school and his ministrations were extended far and near throughout this section of Indiana. He built the first church in Union county, Indiana, and for many years preached the gospel with a devotion that made his name and his works widely known.
Alexander Porter was born in Dearborn county, Indiana, in 1799, the son of a Virginian, who, with his wife, penetrated the wilderness of Indiana Territory in an early day in the settlement of this section of the same. Upon reaching manhood's estate, Alexander Porter married Elizabeth Elder, who was born in Kentucky in 1813, and the pioneer couple went to housekeeping in the log cabin in which Alexander Porter was born, moving to this county in the year 1830 and establising a new home in the then wilderness of Washington township. To this couple but two children were born, Matthew E. and a girl child, the latter of whom died at the tender age of four years. Matthew E. Porter succeeded to the home farm and lived there all his life, during which time he made but one change in residence, that being when he moved from the original eighty acres entered by his father to the west half of what now constitutes the fine Porter farm of two hundred and fifty- seven acres, owned jointly by James, Alexander and William R., grandsons of the original entrant. This move was made in 1892 and Matthew Porter died in 1908. Matthew Porter was an industrious and progressive farmer and was quite successful in his operations, at his death leaving a fine estate, wholly unencumbered. He and his wife were the parents of the following children: Martha A., who married John McConnell and lives six miles south of Greensburg: Alexander, of Greensburg, member of the well-known firm of Pulse & Porter, building contractors, further mention of whom is made in this volume; John, deceased; William R., of the firm of Pulse & Porter, who has charge of that firm's extensive plant at Hope, Indiana ; Elizabeth, deceased; James, the immediate subject of this sketch ; Andrew, who is living retired in the city of Greensburg, this county: Barton, who died just as he was entering upon what gave promise of being a singularly successful career as a lawyer, and Dr. Edward A .. the well-known and popular physician, of Burney, this county, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume.
James Porter was reared on the home farm and has made the same his home all his life. He is a progressive farmer, having early discovered the value of adopting up-to-date methods in the operation of his extensive farm- ing interests, and has prospered; now being recognized as one of the most substantial farmers in the county. His farm, which formerly was covered
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with hard timber, walnut and maple predominating, is gently rolling and is under excellent cultivation. Mr. Porter gives much attention to the rais- ing of fine hogs and in this branch of agriculture has been quite successful, his hogs ever bringing "the top of the market."
On July 20. 1899, James Porter was united in marriage to Mary L. Woodward, daughter of Isaac L. and Christina (Jackson) Woodward, mem- bers of prominent pioneer families of this county, and to this union two children have been born, Raymond G., who was born in 1903, and James Iver, who died in infancy.
Mr. Porter is a Democrat and takes such part in the political affairs of the county as is becoming in all good citizens, but never has been included in the office-seeking class, preferring to devote his time and his talents to his own extensive farming interests, rather than to the public service. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is warmly inter- ested in the affairs of his home lodge. He and Mrs. Porter are prominent in the good works of their neighborhood and are held in the highest regard by all who know them.
FRANK HAMILTON.
For nearly a century the Hamilton family have been prominent in the civic and political life of Decatur county. The founder of the family in this county was Cyrus Hamilton, who was born in Kentucky, July 4, 1800, and who was married, February 22, 1822, to Mary McCoy, having come to this county immediately after his marriage, and in this early day having become one of the prominent advocates of temperance and an opponent of slavery. Cyrus Hamilton was a prominent man in his day. Long before the issue of slavery was fought out on the bloody battlefields of the Civil War, he main- tained a station of the "underground railroad" at his Decatur county home. and assisted scores of slaves to escape north from their southern masters. Of Scotch-Irish descent. he inherited all the sturdy traits of this racial com- bination, and, although he never held office, he was prominent as a debater of public questions, well read and well informed, as well as being very popu- lar. During his life he was a member of the Sand Creek Presbyterian church and influential in that organization.
Frank Hamilton, a well-known attorney of Greensburg, Indiana, and member of the firm of Osborn & Hamilton, who was born on April 2, 1883. in Fugit township. Decatur county, Indiana, is the grandson of the well-
FRANK HAMILTON.
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known Cyrus Hamilton and the son of Everett Hamilton, the youngest son of Cyrus Hamilton's family. Everett, who was born on October 16, 1841, and who received an excellent education in the Hartville (Indiana) schools and in Butler College at Indianapolis, at one time owned a fine farm of three hundred and sixty acres in Decatur county. He sold it some years ago and is now living retired in Greensburg. On November 10, 1870, he was mar- ried to Mary J. Hopkins, daughter of Preston E. Hopkins, of Fugit town- ship, by which marriage there were three sons born. Paul, the eldest son, was born on October 5, 1871, and is engineer of track and roadway for the Big Four railroad system and is stationed at Cincinnati; Edwin S., the sec- ond son, who was born on August 23, 1873, lives on the home farin in Fugit township; Frank is the youngest member of the family. Everett Ham- ilton, the father of these children, has also been prominent as a citizen and farmer in Decatur county, having served as trustee of Fugit township at one time and having for many years been a prominent and influential member of the Kingston Presbyterian church.
Reared on the Fugit township farm and educated in its common schools and later in the Clarksburg high school, where he spent three years, Frank Hamilton no doubt inherited from his father and his grandfather his strong tendency for a professional career. Although neither the father nor the grandfather may be said to have been professional men, yet in their rela- tions of life they exhibited a marked tendency in this direction. Having left the Clarksburg high school after spending three years there, Mr. Hamilton pursued his education in Butler College at Indianapolis, where his father had attended school, and later spent three years in Indiana University in Bloom- ington, Indiana. During the first year he was a student in the literary department of the university, and during the succeeding two years was a student in the law department. Later, however, he was graduated from the Indiana Law School at Indianapolis, with the class of 1905, and immediately began the practice of his profession in Greensburg.
Upon receiving his degree from the Indiana Law School, Mr. Hamil- ton spent a year in the law office of Tackett & Wilson, and from 1907 to 1912 was engaged in the practice of law with Judge James K. Ewing, the senior member of the firm of Ewing & Hamilton. In 1912 he became a member of the firm of Osborn, Hamilton & Harding. Later, however, Mr. Harding withdrew from the firm and for two years Mr. Hamilton has been associated with Mr. Osborn under the firm name of Osborn & Hamilton. Having been appointed deputy prosecuting attorney under the administra- (42)
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tion of Prosecutor Albert W. Phillips, of Columbus, Indiana, in 1907, for two years he had charge of all of the work of the prosecutor's office in Decatur county. In 1912 he became county attorney.
Within a short time after establishing himself at Greensburg in the practice of law, Mr. Hamilton was married to Mary F. Isgrigg, of Greens- burg, daughter of W. H. Isgrigg. The marriage took place, December 14, 1907. One son, William Everett, who was born on January 24. 1909, is the fruit of this marriage.
A Republican in politics, Mr. Hamilton has been prominent in the coun- cils of the party in Decatur county for many years. During 1910 and 1912 he was secretary of the Decatur County Republican Central Committee. Fra- ternally, he is a member of Clarksburg Lodge No. 124, Free and Accepted Masons, and is past chancellor commander of Greensburg Lodge No. 148, Knights of Pythias. He is also a member of the Grand Lodge of Indiana, deputy grand chancellor. for the fifteenth district, during 1913 and 1914: past exalted ruler of Greensburg Lodge No. 475, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and a member of the Grand Lodge of Elks.
It must be remembered that Frank Hamilton is a comparatively young man, that he has no more than just begun his career as an attorney in Decatur county. Nevertheless, he is today well established in his profession and his firm enjoys a lucrative practice in this county, a condition for which Mr. Hamilton himself is in no small way responsible. He is not only learned in the law, a wise counselor and a successful practitioner in court, but he is a man of engaging personality and extremely popular in this county.
ADAM MEEK.
While an investment in land does not pay the largest returns upon the money invested, it is, however, the safest investment which any man can make, and while few of the great fortunes have been made from farming, when one considers the risk entailed in speculative financial adventures, the soil remains as the ever present inducement to those who are satisfied with reasonable profit. Industrial and financial stocks may rise or fall in value, but the price of land in this country, generally speaking, has fluctuated in only one direction. Its value has constantly increased from the time our forefathers digged out the first stump and plowed the first furrow to the present period with no appreciable exception. It is refreshing to know that
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a considerable number of our citizens are willing to give the weight of their genius to the cultivation of the land and to accept the normal and steady profits which the ownership insures. Adam Meek, who began life with a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land, started in life by making farming his vocation, and has ever since been engaged in it. He now owns a magnificent farm of three hundred and seventy-five acres, all in one tract, 'and has devoted his life energy toward increasing its production to the maxi- mum point. He is not only one of the most capable farmers of Decatur county, but he is one of its best citizens.
Adam Meek was born on August 30, 1850, in Clinton township, Decatur county, Indiana, the son of John and Jane (Montgomery) Meek. John Meek, a well-known farmer and capitalist of Decatur county, of a past generation, was born in 1826, and passed away in 1908, at the age of eighty-two, after having lived in this county practically all his life. His wife, who before her marriage was Jane Montgomery, was born in 1827 in Decatur county, and died in 1892. They had ten children, one of whom, the youngest, Lola Frances, is now deceased. In the order of their birth the children are as follow: Robert S., of Greensburg; Margaret, the wife of J. B. Robinson, of Greensburg; John T., of Greensburg; Martha Louise, the wife of Capt. John A. Meek, of Kansas; Adam, the subject of this sketch; Jethro C., of Greensburg; Mary, the wife of A. C. Brown, of Rush- ville; Theresa Lavina, the widow of Robert Innis, deceased, lived in Rush county, Indiana, and Mrs. Anna Pleak, of Greensburg. John T. Meek and wife spent a considerable part of their life in Rush county.
Reared on a farm in Clinton township, the first recollection of Adam Meek dates back to the time when he was twelve years old and when he was engaged with his father in breaking up and plowing a new clearing. He was taken to the clearing by his father and shown by him how to hold the handles of the plow. In the meantime he was attending school at the old Foster subscription school about six months in every year. At the age of twenty-seven years he removed to a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Clinton township, which his father had given to him and which was already improved. Additional improvements, however, were made, including the erection of a house, barn and other outbuildings. Here Adam Meek resided for fifteen years, and in 1892 removed to Greensburg, where he has since lived, and from which place he has been engaged in directing the cultiva- tion of the farm. Mr. Meek has always raised a large amount of live stock, including about one hundred head of hogs every year.
On November 27, 1878, Adam Meek was married to Adelaide Patton,
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the daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Duncan) Patton, and who was born on December 21, 1849, in Washington township, Decatur county, Indi- ana. To this marriage has been born one child, Clifford Patton Meek, May I. 1882. He was married, October 18, 1904, to Ethel Braden, daugh- ter of Jeremy Braden, and she has been the mother of two children, Harold, born on July 8, 1906, and Majorie, on February 1I, 1909. Clifford Patton was educated in Greensburg high school. He was in the hardware business for about ten years in Greensburg, but is now a traveling salesman.
Mrs. Adam Meek's father, Nathaniel Patton Il, was born on April 9, 1810, in Adams county, Ohio, and was married, May 21, 1835, to Eliza- beth W. Duncan, who was born on April 2, 1813, and who died, January 10, 1894. Nathaniel Patton II, died, November 24, 1888. He and his wife had nine children, William C., whose life history is recounted elsewhere in this volume; John S., who was born on October 23, 1838, died on Septem- ber 29, 1840; Mary E., September 18, 1840, was married, September 18, 1860, to Alexander M. Stuart; he died on July 2, 1866, and Mrs. Stuart now lives in Greensburg: Eska J., April 5, 1842, married, January 26, 1864, to Robert S. Meek, who died on February 16, 1879; Melissa Ann, July 26, 1844, married, June 18, 1895, to Robert S. Meek, after the death of her sister, Mr. Meek's first wife; Martha E., August 8, 1846, married, Septem- ber 1, 1868, to Chalmers McDill, who died on July 16, 1879; Mrs. McDill lives in Indianapolis; Adelaide, December 21, 1849, the wife of Adamı Meek, the subject of this sketch.
Nathaniel Patton II, the father of Mrs. Adam Meek, was the son of Nathaniel Patton I, who was born on February 22, 1776, and who was mar- ried, August 3, 1797, to Polly Robinson, of Rockbridge county, Virginia. She was born on March 10, 1775, and died on January 5, 1847. He died on July 3, 1844, and both are buried at Springhill, in Decatur county. The other members of the family of Nathaniel Patton I, and Polly ( Robinson) Patton. were John S., Peggy, James R., Patsy, William, Polly, Nancy, J., Eliza, Samuel W., Rebecca B. and Mary A.
. The father of Nathaniel Patton I was John Patton, an emigrant from the north of Ireland. He married Martha Sharp (or Steele), the daughter of a Presbyterian minister from Glasgow, Scotland. Nathaniel Patton I, left Virginia in 1806, and emigrated to Adams county, Ohio, settling there in the early twenties. About 1814 he removed to Rush county, Indiana, not far from Springhill, and died in 1844. The founder of the Patton family in America, John Patton, is believed to have been born about 1754. He had eight brothers.
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Mr. and Mrs. Adam Meek are a genial and companionable couple, who have always enjoyed life in the fullest measure. He is affiliated with the Progressive party and he and his wife are members of the United Presby- terian church at Springhill. Liberal, enterprising and broad-minded, Adam Meek shows every evidence of the distinguished stock from which he is sprung. This may also be said of his good wife.
WILLIAM GODDARD.
Among the worthy farmers and good citizens of the last generation was William Goddard, who was born in 1820 in Kentucky and who died in April, 1897, a son of Thomas Goddard, a native of Kentucky, whose parents came from Virginia, originally.
Reared in Kentucky and educated in the pioneer schools of that day, the late William Goddard was first married in Kentucky to Emily Hazel- wood, who died after his removal to Decatur county, Indiana. They had five children, of whom only one, Joseph, a carpenter in Indianapolis, is living. The deceased children are Thomas, who was a soldier in the Civil War; James Wesley, John and Mary.
Before coming to Decatur county, Indiana, the late William Goddard taught school for many years in his native state, and was considered, for a man of his generation, to be well educated and well informed. His breadth of information naturally made him a leader, not only in his native community in Kentucky, but also in Decatur county.
After the death of the first Mrs. Goddard on December 6, 1866, William Goddard married as his second wife Mary Elizabeth McKinney, who was born in 1832 in Washington county, Indiana, the daughter of John and Margaret ( VanCleve ) Mckinney, natives of Kentucky, who were early set- tlers in Washington county, and who, in 1837, removed to Decatur county, Indiana, settling in Washington township, where they owned a large farm, and became prosperous and well-to-do citizens. Altogether John and Margaret ( VanCleave ) Mckinney had a family of eight children. James Alexander, who died at the age of seventy-seven ; Mrs. Sarah Porter, Will- iam Rankin and Mary Jane, all deceased; Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Goddard ; Martha Lovina ; Mrs. Rebecca Porter, and Mrs. Emma Pulse, the last three of whom are deceased. Mrs. Goddard, who also survives her husband, is the only member of her parents' family who is still living.
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By his second marriage to Mary Elizabeth Mckinney, the late William Goddard was the father of five children, all of whom are living. Of these children, Samuel, who is an automobile salesman in Boston, Massachusetts, married Lillian Scott. and they have one child, Blanche; William R., who lives on the home farm, married Margaret Talbott, and they have three children, Miles, John William and Dorothy; Margaret lives at home with her mother; Mrs. Lou Emmert, the wife of Leonard Emmert, lives four miles southeast of Greensburg, and they have three children, Louis, Mil- dred and Mary Catherine, and Mrs. Bertha Dowden lives in Greensburg and has one child, Margaret Ellen.
Mr. and Mrs. Goddard lived on the farm of a hundred and sixty acres, located about two miles from the Greensburg corporation limits, until Mr. Goddard's death, when Mrs. Goddard removed to Greensburg. William R., the second born of the family, lives on the home farm. A Republican in politics, the late William Goddard served for many years as a justice of the peace. Although Mrs. Goddard and the family are members of the Presbyterian church, Mr. Goddard was a member of the Methodist church, and for many years was prominently identified with the Odd Fellows lodge. Mr. Goddard, whose memory is revered by his loving widow, his children and the host of friends he left behind, was a hard-working, painstaking and successful farmer, who at the time of his death left his family well pro- vided for. He was highly respected in the community where he lived.
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