USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 80
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John E. Robbins remained on the paternal farm until November 7, 1844, the date of his marriage with Nancy Hunter, daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Hunter, at which time the young couple began housekeeping on a farm of forty acres given them by the bridegroom's father. They remained on this farm until February 15, 1848, by which time they had accumulated enough to purchase one hundred and sixty acres of land one mile south of
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Greensburg, on which place they made their home the remainder of their lives. To this purchase they subsequently added large tracts of land and other valuable interests, until their possessions consisted of about three thousand acres of land in Decatur county and two hundred and forty acres in Bartholo- mew county, besides personal property of large value. In 1882 John E. Rob- bins helped organize the Third National Bank of Greensburg, of which he was director and president until his death. Under his direction and manage- ment this bank grew to be one of the most substantal and successful institu- tions in the county. Mr. Robbins died on July 22, 1896. His widow, who had shared all his interests and labor, proving in all things a mnost willing and efficient helpmeet, continued to live on the home farm until her long and useful life closed on May 2, 1905.
To Jolin E. and Nancy ( Hunter ) Robbins were born fourteen children, namely : Elizabeth Ellen, deceased : Charlotte Adaline died on February II, 1869; Sarilda Ruth, who married H. K. Smiley ; Minerva Jane, who married Archibald Gilchrist; Nancy Elmira, who married J. B. Kitchin: Sarah Jane, deceased : William Hunter, who married Cora Sefton; Clara Alinda, who married Frank B. Kitchin: Olive Ida, who married Robert McCoy; John Everman, who married Louisa Elder: Frank Rosco, who married Kate Sef- ton ; Eliza Angeline, who married Will Q. Elder, and two who died in infancy.
To Joseph Brumfield and Nancy Elmira ( Robbins) Kitchin were born three children, Maud Elmira, on October 18, 1872, who married Charles H. Johnston, of the firm of W. H. Robbins & Company, wholesale grocers, of Greensburg, to which union four children have been born, Mildrd Elmira, Jo Charles, Marjorie and Thomas Ludlow; Otta Pearl, September 16, 1874, who married Charles Woodfill, of Greensburg, and has two children, daughters, Helen and Sarah, and Hal T., August 3, 1878, who married Iva Lanham and has one child, a son, Hal Thomas.
Mr. and Mrs. Kitchin are members of the Centenary Methodist church, in the various beneficences of which they always have taken an active interest and their children were reared in that faith. Mr. Kitchin is a member of the Greensburg lodge of Elks. His large business and financial interests in and about Greensburg give to his position in that community a degree of stability second to none in the county and he naturally exerts a wide influence in the affairs of the community. Both he and Mrs. Kitchin are deeply concerned in all matters having to do with the general social welfare of the city and county and are held in the highest regard by all. Mrs. Kitchin and her daughters are members of the society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and are regarded as among the leaders in the social life of the city of Greensburg, their active influence ever being exerted in behalf of all move-
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ments looking to the general betterment of conditions in this section of the state. Mrs. Kitchin's daughters are eligible to the Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution from three different ways. Hal T. is a Mason and has filled all chairs in the local lodge, and is a Knight Templar and a member of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis.
HENRY FRY.
Reared under primitive conditions, and of German parentage, whose- ancestors knew Indiana while the Indians still roamed her forests, Mr. Fry has advanced, step by step, making capital of every opportunity that crossed his pathway, until now, he stands at the top step of his desires, and, wisely enough, he knew when to stop and enjoy the fruits of his long years of labor. He has put aside enough of this world's goods to enable himself and wife to live in ease and comfort the remainder of their lives, in addition to which he has the satisfaction of knowing that he has been in a position to provide his own with the means whereby they have escaped the many struggles exper- ienced by himself as a young man.
Henry Fry, a farmer of Millhousen, Marion township, Decatur county, was born on April 17, 184I, at Cincinnati, and is a son of John and Mary (Barger) Fry. Mr. Fry was reared in a log cabin, under very trying condi- tions and times, and was but nine years old when his mother died. He began life as a young man, with forty acres of land, which he soon increased to one hundred and eighty acres. This he sold, in 1904, to his sons, and moved to Millhousen, where he bought four acres of land, containing a good brick house, where he now lives. In 1865 Mr. Fry enlisted in Company C, Thir- teenth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, served until the close of the war, and did general duty at Goldsboro, Raleigh, and throughout the South after the war. His political policies are strongly Democratic, and he is a members of St. Mary's Catholic church at Millhousen.
John and Mary Fry were natives of Germany. They came out to the Millhousen settlement in 1841, and chopped a home from the woods, where they both died. After the death of his first wife (mother of our subject ), Mr. Fry later was married to a Mrs. Moggert.
Henry Fry was united in marriage, in 1870, to Theresa Verekamp, who was born in 1851, on a farm in Marion township. She is a daughter of Frank and Theresa ( Snyder) Verekamp, natives of Germany, who came at an early day to settle in Marion township, whose children were Frank,
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deceased; John, deceased; Mrs. Anna Rolfes lives in Marion township, and has six children. Nora, Hilda, Martin, Harry, Richard and Clarence; George is a farmer in Marion township, and has been twice married. His first wife was Lucy Herbert, and his second wife was Mrs. Leda ( Hutterbach) Her- bert, by whom he has had five children, Virgie, Walter, Raymond, Sylvia and Herbert; William was married to Clara Ruhl, and lives on the home farm. They have three children, Alvin, Lillian and Ferdinand ; Edward was united in marriage to Rosa Lucken. They live in Marion township. and have four sons, Oscar, Oswold, Lawrence and Edmund; Mrs. Laura Kroeger lives in Marion township and has two sons, Maurice and Charles.
HENRY H. LOGAN.
During nearly three-quarters of a century of residence in Decatur county, Indiana, various members of the Logan family have occupied many posi- tions of trust and responsibility in the political life of this county. Not only is the Logan family one of the older families of this section, but they have always been noted for their high ideals, sterling integrity and large business capacity. Many of the members of the family have been farmers and their influence has greatly enriched the agricultural life of this county, making it wholesome and progressive, honorable and independent In a material way, the earlier members of the family helped to clear the forest and drain the swamps. They had a most commendable part in the trans- formation of a wild and unbroken forest into fields of growing grain which now yield abundant harvests. Henry H. Logan, the eldest son of the founder of the Logan family in Decatur county, has himself had a most interesting and fruitful part in the development of this splendid community.
Born on September 17, 1841, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Henry H. Logan was only one year and three months old when brought here by his father and mother, Sammel H. and Millie ( Hice) Logan, in 1843. Arriving in Decatur county in April of 1843, Samuel H. Logan settled on land entered from the government by his father, John Logan, the farm now occupied and owned by Will W. Logan, a younger brother of Henry H. Samuel H. Logan, a native of Indiana county, Pennsylvania, born on Febru- ary 1, 1819, was the son of John and Isabel (Graham) Logan, who came to America from Ireland late in the eighteenth century and located in In- diana county, Pennsylvania, where they spent the remainder of their lives.
1
MR. AND MRS. HENRY H. LOGAN.
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They had four children: Samuel H., Mrs. Hanna Hice, born on June 17, 1822; Mrs. Margaret Elliot, February 20, 1825, and Mrs. Ann Baker, July 12, 1827. The last named lives four miles from Greensburg, in this county.
Three years before coming to Decatur county, on November 26, 1840, Samuel H. Logan was married to Millie Hice, a native of New Jersey, born on October 20, 1818, the daughter of Henry Hice, who had come to America from Germany. Shortly after their marriage, or in 1843, they came to
Decatur county. Samuel H. Logan was a clear-headed man, enterprising, public-spirited and an excellent farmer, and became one of the heaviest land holders in Decatur county. For some time he served his fellow citizens efficiently as a member of the board of county commissioners, and was hon- ored and respected by the citizens of this community at the time of his deatlı on October 19, 1904. His wife had died a quarter of a century previously, on October 15, 1879.
To Samuel H. and Millie ( Hice) Logan ten children were born, of whom Henry H. is the eldest. The others are Isabella G., born on September 22, 1843, who is the widow of Samuel Applegate and resides in Greensburg; Mary S., November 26, 1845, the widow of Will Murray, who resides in Nevada, Missouri; John B., October 8, 1847, who is a traveling salesman and lives at Indianapolis; William W., who is a well-known farmer of Decatur county and lives on the old homestead ; Sarah, October 19, 1852, the widow of Joseph Ketchum, lives in Cincinnati; Marine R., March 6, 1855, who died on May 22, 1885; Samuel, September 16, 1857, died on April 18, 1893; Emma J., August 20, 1860, died on August 16, 1865, and George M., September 13. 1862, who is the general agent of the International Harvester Company at Richmond, Indiana.
Like other members of the family, Henry H. Logan received the rudi- ments of an education in the local schools of Decatur county, principally at the Tarkington school house, which was located on his father's farm. His youth was not especially eventful but it may be said here that he per- formed with diligence and a willing spirit the tasks that fell to his lot as a young man in a pioneer community. He lived on the old homestead with his parents until his marriage and afterward moved to a farm of eighty acres given to him by his father. Later he purchased an additional eighty acres from his father. As a matter of fact, Mr. Logan has lived on the farm he now occupies, comprising one hundred and sixty acres in Washington township, since October 10, 1865, a period of just a half cen- tury. From time to time he has made additions and repairs to the houses,
(53)
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barns, and outbuildings located on the farm and now owns a completely modernized residence, the equal of any in this community.
Henry H. Logan was married on the same date that he moved to his present farm, October 10. 1865, to Eliza Sidwell, who was born near Greensburg, in this county, on December 11, 1844, the daughter of Hugh and Eliza ( English) Sidwell, early settlers of Decatur county. On October IO, 1915, Mr .. and Mrs. Logan will celebrate their golden wedding anni- versary. They have reared several children, among whom is a nephew, Forest M., who lived with them from the time he was five years old. He was graduated from Purdue University and later attended the Uni- versity of Illinois at Champaign, completing a course in civil engineering, and is now engaged in the practice of this profession in Chicago. He mar- ried Rein Robertson, of Lafayette, and they have one child, Alice Marie, who is eight years old.
For many years Henry H. Logan has been prominent in Masonic cir- cles in Greensburg, being a member of Greensburg Lodge No. 36, Free and Accepted Masons. Both Mr. and Mrs. Logan are members of the Pres- byterian church and he is a Democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Logan spent the winter of 1914-15 in Florida, returning in the early spring. thoroughly imbued with the idea that "there is no place like home," and that Indiana, good old Hoosierdom, is the best place in the universe, after all.
Few farmers in this county are better or more favorably known than Henry H. Logan, and few have done more than he to win the confidence and esteem of the people of this county. By careful regard for the rights of his neighbors and friends, he has maintained cordial relations with the people of Decatur county and is today one of its most popular farmers and citizens.
JACOB C. GLASS, M. D.
Physician, farmer, postmaster and ex-school teacher, Jacob C. Glass, M. D., of Millhousen, Marion township, Decatur county, Indiana, is one of the most versatile men in his community. A product of Decatur county soil, he had always been a successful farmer and at the present time, owns a splendid farm of one hundred and sixty acres in the township of his resi- dence. For eleven years a teacher in the public schools of Decatur county, during this period of his life, he was known as one of the foremost educators in the county. Since 1907 he has been engaged in the practice of medicine.
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first in the state of Arkansas and later in Decatur county. Postmaster since 1908, he has filled this important office with credit to himself and has attained a high mark of proficiency in the management of the postal business. His career is a notable exception to the philosophy of the old saw, since he has not only followed many occupations, but he has and is following them with efficiency. His father and grandfather, having served in the Civil War, it may be truthfully said that he comes from militant and patriotic stock, and from a family which has been well known in this county for many years.
Dr. Jacob C. Glass, physician and surgeon of Millhousen, Indiana, was born on September 21, 1873. in Decatur county on the old Glass homestead in Adams township, the son of John T. and Susan Jane (Grant) Glass, the former of whom was a native of Decatur county, born on February 14, 1845, and who now resides in Greensburg, Indiana. A private soldier in Company E, Thirty-seventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, John T. Glass served more than three years in the Civil War and, attached to the Army of the Cumberland, he fought at Stone's River, Chattanooga, Kenesaw Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, also in the beginning of the Atlanta campaign, when he was transferred to another part of the army to meet Beauregard at Knoxville. His father, William A. Glass, a native of Ireland, born in 1832 and died in 1900, came to America when a young man. He was a soldier in the Sixty-eighth Regiment, Indiana Volun- teer Infantry, and served with distinction during a greater part of the war.
Reared on a farm in Adams township, Decatur county, Indiana, Dr. Jacob C. Glass was educated in the common schools of the township and in the Central Normal College at Danville, Indiana. In the earlier years of his life, he taught school for eleven years in Decatur county and subsequently, when he decided to study medicine, took the first year of his work in the Illinois Medical College at Chicago. His second, third and fourth years' work were taken at Kentucky University at Louisville, at which time he was graduated from that institution with high lionors. For some time after his graduation, he practiced at Cotton Plant, Arkansas, having passed the Arkansas medical registration examination three months before his gradua- tion. After one year's practice in the South, he settled at Millhousen, where he has been engaged continuously in the practice of his profession since 1908. Professionally, he is a member of the Decatur County Medical Society, the Indiana State and the American Associations, a prominent member in all of these organizations, one who not only attends, but takes a prominent part in their proceedings.
In 1908 Dr. Glass was appointed postmaster at Millhousen and took
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charge of this office on December 15, of that year. He has served continu- ously as postmaster since 1908, a period of seven years. For some time he has owned several farms in Marion township and devotes considerable atten- tion to supervising the work on the farm.
In 1895 Dr. Jacob C. Glass was married to Ida May Crist, of Adams, the daughter of Abram and Kiturah Crist, who were early settlers in Decatur county, the former coming here from Franklin county on horse-back with only a small supply of pewter spoons and pie pans, the nucleus of the home which he established in the Decatur county wilderness.
Dr. and Mrs. Jacob C. Glass are members of the Presbyterian church, which is the family faith. Fraternally, he is prominent in Decatur county, being a member of seven fraternal societies. He is a member of Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 341, at Burney; the Adams lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; the Greensburg lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; the Fraternal Order of Eagles; the Improved Order of Red Men; the Mod- ern Woodmen of America, and the Loyal Order of Moose.
Dr. Jacob C. Glass is a man of splendid professional attainments, and, being equipped with strong intellectual powers and native aggressive attain- ments, naturally has become a leader in all public movements in Marion township. He is a man who has never been known to waver in the slightest degree from the strict code of ethics maintained by the medical profession and who, in private life, has been quite as strict in the code of principles governing his relations with the public. He is not only a well-meaning citi- zen, but he is a man who is capable of carrying that perquisite into effect. Naturally, he is popular in Marion township, where he enjoys the confidence and esteem of a large number of friends.
JESSE H. STYERS.
The late Jesse H. Styers, who, until his death, on January 15, 1910, was one of the most prominent farmers and citizens of Decatur county, owed his large success in life to the fact that he was generally willing and able to do the right thing at the right time. A man of more than average attainment, he knew the tendency of farm values during his life, and from time to time invested his savings and profits in land. A man of large vision and one who knew how to get the very largest returns from an acre of land, he naturally became wealthy, and at the time of his death owned seven hundred and
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twenty acres of land in this county. But the greatness of the late Jesse H. Styers, as a man and a citizen, did not consist wholly in his prosperous career as a farmer. He took a commendable interest in politics and served six years as a member of the Decatur county board of commissioners. In this office he was able to perform valuable service in behalf of public improvements, and his vote and his influence could always be depended upon in their behalf. He was not only a successful financier and a capable and efficient manager, but he was a man of scrupulous integrity, whose relations with his fellows was founded upon an inflexible and unyielding determination to do the right thing. He had at the time of his death many friends in Decatur county. Few men have passed away in recent years whose loss has been more gen- erally mourned than this honored citizen of Sand Creek township.
Jesse H. Styers, who was born on February 4. 1844, and died on January 15, 1910, at the age of sixty-six years, was born in Greensburg, Decatur county, Indiana, the son of William and Sarilda ( Robbins) Styers, the former of whom a native of North Carolina, came to Greensburg when a young man and here engaged in carriage making, at which he worked for several years. Without friends and without resources he saved his money and, subsequently, at the time of his marriage, was able to purchase a small farm south of the city. There he engaged in the dairy business, and later extended his operations to general farming, in which he was very successful. He was able to give each of his children a farm and a good start on the high- way of life. A prominent citizen during his life, he was a man of especially quiet and unassuming manner, a man who had an enviable reputation in the community where he lived. His home farm was just across the road from the farm owned by Frank and John E. Robbins.
William and Sarilda ( Robbins) Styers had five children, three of whom, including Jesse H., are now deceased. William G. died lately in Sand Creek township; Evermont died on the old homestead, and his widow is now living in Greensburg with Mrs. Privit : Evermont left one daughter, Mrs. Earl Rob- bins, at the time of his death ; Charles. the last son, lives in Indianapolis.
The mother of the late Jesse H. Styers, who, before her marriage to William Styers, was Sarilda Robbins, the daughter of William and Eleanor (Anderson) Robbins, was born in 1823. Her father. William Robbins, was born in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, and was taken by his parents to Henry county, and later to Indiana in 1821. At the time of the removal to Indiana, William Robbins was twenty-four years old. He selected a site for a home for himself about one and one-half mile north of his father's home in Decatur county, and the next year returned to Kentucky and was married to
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Eleanor Anderson, of that state. Upon their return to Indiana, they were accompanied by his three sisters and two brothers, John and Nathaniel, who settled in the same vicinity. A short time later, other relatives of the Rob- bins family came to the same township, which family became prominent, both as to numbers and influence, in the early affairs of the county. William and Eleanor Robbins lived on the farm originally selected as their home, during the remainder of their lives. They had four children, of whom Mr. Styers' mother was the eldest. The other three children were, John K., born on February 20, 1825. who married Nancy O. Hunter ; James G., June 10, 1827, and who married Elmira Stout, and Holman, in 1829, who married Jeannette Gilchrist. William Robbins died on February 3, 1868, and his wife four years later.
Of the earlier history of the Robbins family, it may be said that the family begins with Bethiah Vickery, who was born on December 1, 1760, and who married William Robbins. They had three children, Albe, Charity and Benjamin. William Robbins was killed in the Revolutionary War soon after enlisting, and his widow married a second William Robbins in Guilford county, North Carolina. This couple had the following children: Marme- duke and Jacob, born on May 15. 1783; Elizabeth, February 5, 1788: Polly, April 9, 1791 ; Nathaniel, April 5. 1793: John, February 8, 1795: William, August 6, 1797, and Dosha, May 20, 1804. William Robbins, the second husband of Bethiah Vickery, was born on October 21, 1761, in Randolph county, North Carolina. In October, 1777, when sixteen years of age, he enlisted in the Revolutionary army, serving until 1781 under Capt. Joseph Clark and Colonel Dugan and Col. Anthony Sharp. He left Virginia for Henry county, Kentucky, and in 1821 came to Decatur county, settling nine and one-half miles south of Greensburg, where he made a home among the timbered hills. Trees were cleared away and a new log house of one room was erected with a shed, in which was built a room for carpet weaving and the weaving of many kinds of cloth. On September 11, 1834, William Rob- bins passed away and was buried at Mt. Pleasant cemetery. The third Will- iam Robbins, heretofore referred to in the children born to the second Will- iam Robbins and Bethiah Vickery, was the father of Mrs. Sarilda ( Robbins) Styers.
The late Jesse H. Styers was married in 1872 to Emma C. Blume, who was born on February 28, 1844, near Hope. in Bartholomew county, and who is the daughter of Calvin and Maria (Warner) Blume, natives of North Caro- lina and Ohio, respectively. The father, who was born in 1824, came to Indiana with his father, John Philip Blume, in 1834. John Philip Blume was of German ancestry and had only fifty cents when he came to Bartholomew
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county. He brought all his belongings in a covered wagon. During his life lie accumulated a farm of two hundred acres of well-improved land. He was many years a justice of the peace in Bartholomew county. Calvin Blume was also a prosperous farmer and succeeded quite as well as his father before him. He had four children by his marriage to Maria Warner, two of whom are living and two of whom are deceased. Rufus, the first born, and Albert, the youngest, are deceased. Mrs. Emma C. Styers and Mrs. Mary Seiss are living. The latter is a resident of Missouri.
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