USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 65
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To Louis and Mary (Sefton) Willey were born three children, as fol- low : William Henry, who died in infancy; Andrew S., born on September 12, 1865, lives on the home place with his mother, and Frank W., born on June 30, 1869, who is a cement contractor, doing business in the city of Greensburg, this county, where he has achieved a pronounced success in business. He married Bert Douglas, October 15, 1903, to whom was born one daughter, Pauline, on January 21, 1905.
Mrs. Willey is a member of the Methodist church and for many years has been regarded as among the leaders in all good works in the community in which she lives, being held in the highest regard by all within the circle of her acquaintance. She and her son have a very pleasant home, which is the center of much genial hospitality, and they enjoy the highest esteem of all. As noted above, Andrew S. Willey is a progressive and enterprising farmer and is looked upon as one of the substantial citizens of the county, being held in the highest repute by all who know him. Mr. Willey's farm is called the Forest farm, owing to the great forest trees which still remain upon it.
ERNEST D. POWER.
No more attractive farm can be found in all Decatur county than the tract of one hundred and ninety acres in Fugit township, owned by Ernest D. Power, an enterprising young farmer and regarded as one of the most successful in that county. Not only efficient, industrious and progres- sive in agricultural methods, but the same things may be said of him as a citizen, and this is not at all strange when we remember that personal habits and personal methods apply quite as much to one's rank and value as a citizen as they do to one's rank and value as a farmer, lawyer or business man. Of course, his father before him, who is now living retired, was a successful farmer, the son learning the fundamentals of correct farming from the father. His success in agriculture is due partially to the fact that he has been able to combine stock raising with crop raising and as a mule, hog and cattle raiser has no superior in this county.
Ernest D. Power, farmer and stockinan of Fugit township, Decatur county, Indiana, was born on November 1, 1871, in Milroy, Rush county, Indiana, and is the son of George and Lurissa ( Crawford) Power, natives of Rush county, and now living retired. The father was the son of the late John Power, a native of Kentucky and an early settler in Rush county.
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George and Lurissa (Crawford) Power have had three children, May, who lives at home; Ray C., who is a farmer near Milroy, and Ernest D., the subject of this sketch.
Immediately after finishing his education in the schools of Milroy, Indiana, Mr. Power purchased a farm in Rush county, in 1894, consisting of two hundred and five acres, and thirteen years later, in October, 1907, removed to Fugit township, Decatur county, purchasing his present farm at that time. He has been living in Decatur county, therefore, for about eight years, and has come to be well known in Fugit township, and in fact throughout all Decatur county, being related by marriage and otherwise to some of the oldest families in Decatur county.
Mr. Power was first married, in 1895, to Mary McCracken, the daugh- ter of H. T. McCracken, an old settler of Fugit township. By this marriage he had one child, Ruth, aged fifteen years, who is a student in the Clarks- burg high school. Mrs. Power died in October, 1910, and in October, 1911, Mr. Power was married again to Lella Logan, the daughter of Nathan M. and Rebecca ( Martin) Logan, the former of whom was born on September 27, 1857, in Decatur county, and the latter of whom was born on Decem- ber 29, 1860, in Decatur county.
Mrs. Power, who is the eldest child of her parents, was born on May 31, 1882. and graduated from Monmouth College in 1908. She has been the mother of one daughter, Carmen Georgia, born on August 13, 1913.
Of Mrs. Power's ancestry it may be said that her father, who owns a beautiful home of ninety acres of land in Fugit township, and one hundred and sixty acres of land in Jackson county, Oklahoma, was born in a brick house erected by his father, Joseph A. Logan, in 1855. Joseph A., who was born on January 9, 1821, and who was brought to Indiana, on horseback, at the age of six months, by his father and mother, Martin and Mary (Rankin) Logan, was married in 1842 to Mary Jane Straney, a native of Lexington, Kentucky, born on May 12, 1824. She died on May 26, 1888. They had eight children, of whom all are deceased, except Nathan M., the father of Mrs. Power. The deceased children were as follow: Mrs. Nancy M. May, born on March 9, 1844, died in 1909; Mrs. Mary A. Cork, October 14, 1845, died in 1911; Mrs. Margaret F. Manlove. August 13, 1847, died on August 5, 1889; John H .. November 8, 1849, is deceased; Leander, February 9, 1853, died in 1911 ; William R., August 20, 1855, died in 1857: Luna A., October 23. 1865, died on January 3. 1891.
A hard worker and an industrious citizen, Joseph A. Logan resided on the farm, in the house he built in 1855. the greater part of his life, the only
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exceptions being short residences in Oxford and Rushville. In the latter years of his life he lived with his children. He died in 1913 at the age of ninety-four years. His father, Martin, who was born in 1800, and who died on December 18, 1870, and his niother, who before her marriage was Mary Rankin, who was born in 1799, and who is now deceased, lived on the farm, now included in the limits of Lexington, Kentucky, on the site now occupied by the college. In 1821 Martin Logan journeyed to Decatur county, Indiana, and settled on a government tract of one hundred and sixty acres at a time when wolves and panthers were plentiful. This farm is now occupied by Ezra Kirby. Martin Logan was one of the founders of the Richland United Presbyterian church. He had four children, Joseph A .; Mrs. Jane Mcclurkin, deceased, of Iowa; Carrie, who married Hugh Logan and who is the mother of Mrs. C. M. Beale, the wife of Dr. C. M. Beale, and Dr. John Beale, a graduate of Oxford University, and for some time a student with Doctor Johnson at Clarksburg, and now residing in Kansas. Martin Logan at one time walked from his home in Decatur county to College Corner, Ohio, in one day. It was an interesting fact that the com- ing of the Martins, Kincaids and Logans to Decatur county was occasioned by the reports given by Uncle Billy Anderson, who returned from the battle of Tippecanoe to his home in Kentucky through Decatur county, and here saw the fine land, and told these Kentucky families about what he saw.
Nathan M. Logan's wife, to whom he was married on May 24, 1881, and who before her marriage was Rebecca Martin, is the daughter of David and Mary ( Kincaid) Martin, the former of whom was born in 1833, and who died in 1896, in Decatur county. David Martin was the son of David Martin, Sr., of Kentucky, who came to Fugit township in 1821. Mrs. Ernest D. Power, who, as heretofore stated, was the eldest child born to Mr. and Mrs. Nathan M. Logan, is one of three children. The others are Luther Martin, born in 1887, and who died on January 29, 1902; the third child, Mary, who was born on August 18. 1893, was graduated from Mon- mouth College in 1915, the same institution as that attended by her sister.
Both the Power family and the Logan family are members of the United Presbyterian church at Springhill. Nathan M. Logan, who has been a Republican and Prohibitionist is now identified with the Progressive party, and votes for the best man at the polls. Ernest D. Power is independent politically. No prettier nor more attractive spot can be found in Decatur county than the Fugit township farm of Ernest D. Power. Mr. Power is proud of this farm, as he has every right to be, and the people of Fugit township are also proud of it, as they also have a right to be. Not only do
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they point with pride to the beauty of this farm, but the people of this town- ship admire the rugged honesty, well-rounded efficiency and genial person- ality of its owner and one of their foremost citizens.
JOHN .C. POWNER.
John C. Powner is entitled to rank among the conservative and hon- orable farmers of Washington township, Decatur county, Indiana, and owns a farm consisting of fifty-two acres, two miles southwest of Greensburg.
Born in 1855 in Jackson township, Decatur county, Indiana, John C. Powner is a son of John H. and Jane (Wynkoop) Powner, the former of whom was born in Franklin county, Indiana, in 1824, the son of John C. Powner, Jr., who was born in 1788, probably in Pennsylvania, and who came from sturdy Pennsylvania-Dutch stock. The grandfather came to Franklin county, Indiana, in an early day, and in the early fifties came from Franklin to Decatur county, Indiana, with his son, John H. Powner. They settled in Jackson township, and engaged in the mercantile business in Sar- dinia for about two years. In 1853 they sold this store and rented a farm near Sardinia, but lived there only one year. after which they purchased one hundred and twenty acres north of Forest Hill, in Clay township, and here the elder Powner lived until his death, in May, 1905.
John H. Powner, the father of John C., was one of the substantial citizens of Clay township, and a man who took great interest in his church. He was very successful in his business, liberal and broad-minded in his views, and a keen student of public affairs. He was a stanch and true Democrat. and not only was a Democrat politically, but was a Democrat in his per- sonal manners and habits, and known far and near for his generous hospi- tality. His wife, who before her marriage, was Jane Wynkoop, was born in Franklin county. Indiana, about 1834, and died in February, 1905. John H. Powner and wife were the parents of four children, Mrs. Mary ( Black) Helde, a resident of Alabama; John C., the immediate subject of this review : Dewitt Clinton, of Greensburg, and Mrs. Jennie M. Wilson, deceased.
John C. Powner was born in 1855 in Jackson township, and lived at home with his parents until his marriage to Frances Eubanks in 1875. Mrs. Powner is a daughter of George and Catherine (Wright) Eubanks, who were natives of Virginia. George Eubanks first moved to Decatur county and afterward became a farmer in Clay county, Indiana, where he died in
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1876. Mr. Eubanks died in Washington township at the home of a daughter, Nancy C. Templeton. Mr. and Mrs. Eubanks were members of the Liberty Baptist church. They were the parents of four children.
After his marriage, Mr. Powner lived on his father's farm until 1877, when he purchased fifty-two acres of land near the Liberty church, where he and his wife lived for four or five years, tilling the land at a profit. and purchasing what was known as the David Ward farm of eighty acres. After remaining on the latter farm for a period of five or six years, Mr. Powner moved to a farm north of Greensburg, renting land for a short time, afterward moving to Greensburg, where he purchased property at Forest Hill. Still later the family moved to a farm owned by Mr. Powner's father, and in 1902 purchased the land where he is now living.
John C. Powner is one of Decatur county's representative farmers and citizens. He is practically retired from farm life at the present time, but still takes an active interest in the operation of his farm, which he rents to others. He is a Democrat, but is more thoroughly a patriot than a parti- san, and is liberal and broad-minded in his views of men and things. He is a good farmer, a good neighbor and a good citizen. Mrs. Powner is a mem- ber of Liberty Baptist church.
AARON L. LOGAN.
The name of Aaron Logan stands out conspicuously among the resi- dents of Decatur county as that of a successful farmer and a valuable citizen. All of his undertakings have been actuated by noble motives and high resolves and are characterized by breadth of wisdom and strong individual- ity. His success represents only the result of utilizing his native talents. At the present time he owns a productive farm of two hundred and fourteen acres, three-quarters of a mile west of Greensburg, on Columbus pike.
Aaron Logan was born in 1841, on the old Logan homestead, about one mile from Greensburg, west, and is the son of Samuel and Susannah ( Howard ) Logan, the former of whom was born in Greensburg, Pennsyl- vania, in 1795, and who came to Decatur county with Colonel Ireland from Ireland and Colonel Hendricks, and entered land one mile from Greensburg, now known as the Logan farm. Susannah Howard was born on Paddies run in Ohio in 1805. Samuel Logan first came to Decatur county and entered land and then returned to Pennsylvania. On his way back to Indiana
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from Pennsylvania he stopped in Ohio and was married, and then finished his trip with his young bride. Here they lived the remainder of their lives, he dying in 1879. They were members of the Presbyterian church and he was a life-long Democrat, a man of strong character and high-minded con- viction. Accustomed to hunt bears in the region around Greensburg, Samuel Logan and Colonel Hendricks killed a bear on the spot where the Greens- burg waterworks is now situated. He and his wife started in life very poor, but Samuel Logan was a money-maker. He accumulated a considerable fortune. On his way across the Alleghany mountains from Pennsylvania, having started with a wagon and one horse, he traded with various people along the way until, upon his arrival, he owned six horses.
Samuel and Susannah ( Howard) Logan had nine children, James, John, Mrs. Martha Anne Hitt, Mrs. Jane Deen and Mrs. Rachel Hobbs, are deceased ; the latter was the wife of Alvin I. Hobbs, of Des Moines, Iowa; Mrs. Mary Hamilton, the wife of Morgan Hamilton, is also deceased. Those living are Samuel Logan, Jr., who lives at Letts in Clay township; Aaron, the subject of this sketch, and Frank, of Topeka, Kansas.
Aaron Logan began life for himself after having reached his majority, and for about three years was engaged in cultivating the old home place. After this he purchased ninety-two acres of land out of what was known as the old Hillis farm, which is now owned by William Holcher. Later, how- ever, Mr. Logan sold that farm and purchased the land where he now lives. He has always made a good living for himself and family and has always enjoyed the best things of life. In fact, there are few people living in Wash- ington township who enjoy life more than Aaron Logan. He himself says that he gets more enjoyment out of what he can buy with a dollar than in keeping the dollar itself and for its own sake.
Mr. Logan was married early in life to Susannah Simmons, who lived near Greensburg, and who is the daughter of Edward and Polly (Howard) Simmons, both natives of Ohio, and of Scotch-Irish descent. Mr. and Mrs. Logan have had two children, Walter Scott Logan, who died at the age of thirty-eight, was an engineer on the Big Four railroad for fifteen years, and Sherman married Cora Patten, who is deceased, and by her had one child, Clyde L., born in 1901, who lives with his father.
The Logan family have been Democrats for the most part for several generations, and Aaron Logan is no exception to the rule. He is in fact a loyal and faithful Democrat, interested in the welfare of his party. Mr. Logan is well known in Washington township, and has always enjoyed the confidence of his neighbors and fellow citizens. Mrs. Logan is a member of the Christian church.
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DECATUR COUNTY, INDIANA.
CHARLES I. AINSWORTH.
Decatur county has few institutions of which it is prouder than the Odd Fellows Home at Greensburg, Indiana. It happens that it was one of Greensburg's well-known citizens who had a commendable and active part in the erection of this splendid home, and who for seven years was on the man- aging board of the home during the period of its construction. Charles I. Ainsworth, who is a member of Decatur Lodge No. 103. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and who has passed all the chairs in this fraternity, per- sonally superintended the erection of all but the first building, and it was his genius, coupled with his keen and abiding interest in the fraternity as a whole, that has resulted in the erection of the buildings which make up this splendid institution. In most every large community there are, in fact, men who are willing to devote their time and energy and genius to such worthy public enterprises, and these are the men who leave the mark of their indi- viduality upon the community where they have lived and labored. Mr. Ains- worth is a man of this type.
Charles I. Ainsworth, whose paternal ancestry, three generations back, came from England, a veteran of our greatest war, a man who, as a school teacher and farmer, has had many interesting experiences in life, is a native of Kentucky. He was born in Nicholas county on August 5, 1843. the son of Tillman and Nancy (West) Ainsworth, the former of whoin was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1815, came to Decatur county in 1855 and died in 1887. Upon coming to Washington township he rented land and engaged in operating a stone quarry two miles south of Greensburg, in which con- nection he also operated a grist-mill, and after being engaged in this busi- ness for fifteen years, in the fall of 1863 he moved to Illinois and engaged in the mercantile business at St. Elmo, where he died. He was the son of Charles Ainsworth, a native of England. His wife, Nancy West, who was also born in Kentucky, in 1817, died two years before her husband, in 1885. They had three children: Charles I., the subject of this sketch: Mary A., deceased, and Andrew M., who lives at Yuma, Arizona.
It is to be remembered that Charles I. Ainsworth was only twenty years old at the time of his removal from Decatur county with his parents to St. Elmo, Illinois. In the meantime he had received such education as the schools of Washington township, Decatur county, afforded at that time. During this period the Civil War was being fought between the Northern and South- ern states, and two years after going to Illinois. in February, 1865, Mr.
CHARLES I. AINSWORTH.
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Ainsworth enlisted in Company F, Seventh Illinois Cavalry, at St. Elmo, in that state. After serving three months, he was discharged, the war having come to a close. During the period of his enlistment he was on detached service and suffered from illness a considerable portion of the time. Return- ing from the seat of war, he located at Springfield, Illinois.
After teaching in the Illinois public schools for some time, Mr. Ains- worth worked in a store in Vandalia for one year and then engaged in farm- ing one hundred and eighty acres for two years. He moved back to Decatur county and settled in Jackson township in the spring of 1867, where he pur- chased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres with the money he had received from the sale of his one-hundred-and-eighty farm in Illinois. After liv- ing two years in Jackson township, he purchased a farm two miles south of Greensburg in Washington township and resided on this farm of one hun- dred and seventy-six acres from 1870 to 1911, a period of forty-one years. In 1911 Mr. Ainsworth moved to Greensburg and purchased splendid resi- dence property on North Michigan avenue, where he now lives.
On September 13, 1865, after the close of the Civil War, Mr. Ains- worth was married to Rachel M. Kitchin, who was born on October 15, 1843, in Decatur county and who is the daughter of Thomas and Sarah L. (Boone) Kitchin, natives of Ohio and Kentucky, respectively. The former was a son of Joseph Kitchin, a native of Pennsylvania, who migrated to Ohio, coming thence to this county in an early day. Joseph Kitchin was a farmer and blacksmith and also a pioneer minister in the Methodist church. He was born in 1770 and died in Decatur county in 1858. His children were: Thomas, John, Bryce, Sarah and Maria. Thomas Kitchin, who was born in Ohio in 1818, immigrated to Decatur county with his brothers in 1839. He spent a part of his life in that county and a part in Boone county, dying in 1904. His wife, who before her marriage was Sarah Luffborough Boone, was a daughter of Brumfield Boone, a native of Kentucky and a son of Thomas Boone, a soldier in the Revolutionary War. The children of Thomas and Sarah L. Kitchin were Mrs. Charles I. Ainsworth, Joseph B. and Frank B. On her mother's side Mrs. Ainsworth is a relative of Daniel Boone.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles I. Ainsworth have had eight children: Dr. Charles Bruce, a veterinary surgeon of Greensburg; Ira M., a rural mail carrier of Greensburg; Clara Ellen, who married Watson Gilmour and lives two miles east of Greensburg on a farm; Hattie Antoinette, the wife of Dr. C .B. Weaver, of Henry county ; Jessie Pearl, the wife of Jacob Sherer, who
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lives two miles east of Greensburg on a farm; Frank K., who lives on the home farm; Mrs. Grace Edkins, who lives one-half mile south of Greens- burg, and Wayne T., who lives on the home farm.
An independent Republican in politics, Charles I. Ainsworth has never been an office-seeker, and has served only in minor positions, having been a member of the township advisory board at one time. Mr. and Mrs. Ains- worth and family are members of the First Methodist Episcopal church at Greensburg, in which he is a trustee. Fraternally, he is, as heretofore men- . tioned, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in this order, largely because the Odd Fellows Home was erected at Greensburg, and because of the large part he had in its construction, he has devoted most of his interest and attention during recent years to this home. Mr. Ains- worth is also a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, Lodge No. 36. and of Pap Thomas Post, Grand Army of the Republic, No. 75. Mr. and Mrs. Charles I. Ainsworth are held in high regard and esteem by the peo- ple of Greensburg and Decatur county. They have reared a large family to honorable and useful lives, but, more than this, Mr. Ainsworth has never found the cares of his private business so great that he could not take a worthy interest in commendable public enterprises. His greatest public work, perhaps, is the Greensburg Odd Fellow's Home, which will stand as a monument to his memory long after he has departed this life.
MILLARD A. HUDSON.
Among the citizens of Washington township, Decatur county, Indiana, who have built up comfortable homes and surrounded themselves with val- uable personal and real property, few have attained a higher degree of suc- cess than Millard A. Hudson, who is the owner of one hundred and forty- one acres of land, two and one-half miles from Greensburg, on the old Michigan road, and in that section of Decatur county noted for the fertility of its soil. With few opportunities except what his own efforts were capable of mastering, and with many discouragements to overcome, he has made an exceptional success in life, and also has the gratification of knowing that the community where he resides has benefited by his presence and his coun- sels.
Millard A. Hudson, who was born at Napoleon, Decatur county, In- diana, in 1858, is a son of Charles W. and Nancy ( Becraft) Hudson, the
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former of whom was born in Jefferson county, Indiana, in 1833, and who came to Decatur county in 1853, where he married, settling on a farm near Napoleon, and remained for five or six years, and then moved to Greens- burg, where he engaged in the shoemaker trade until about three or four years prior to his death, when he removed to a farm which he had purchased from his savings, and where he lived with his son until his death in 1878. The grandfather of Mr. Hudson was born during the War of 1812, in Virginia, and died at the age of seventy-five years in Decatur county. Charles W. Hudson was a soldier in the Civil War, serving during the latter part of that great struggle as a member of the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was a stanch Republican in politics after the formation of that party, while before that time he was an ardent Whig and later in life a Democrat. He was a great student of philosophy. Mr. Hudson attended the Christian church, and few men in his neighborhood knew as much about the Bible as he. Nevertheless, he was liberal in his views, broad-minded and charitable.
At the beginning of his career, Millard A. Hudson was engaged in farming for five years for Zell Kirby, and afterward engaged in the busi- ness of photography in Greensburg, owning the leading gallery in the city. After conducting a successful business in this line for a number of years, his health failed, when on this account he was compelled to return to the farm. He then farmed on shares for Miss Kirby until her death, when he purchased the farm of one hundred and forty-one acres, where he is now living and where he makes a specialty of raising corn, cattle and hogs. He has on the farm a splendid vitrified tile silo, which, as much as anything, proves the progressive spirit with which he farms. When Mr. Hudson pur- chased the farm he paid eighty-seven dollars an acre for the land, incurring an indebtedness of ten thousand dollars, for which he was compelled to pay five and one-half per cent. interest. In less than ten years he has suc- ceeded in entirely discharging this indebtedness. So thoroughly did Mr. Hudson enjoy the esteem and confidence of the people of his community that he was able to borrow money on his own note without security. Now that the farm is paid for, Mr. Hudson intends to build a modern home, thoroughly equipped with every modern device and for every modern pro- cess in farming.
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