USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 81
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After their marriage, in 1872, Mr. and Mrs. Styers settled on the Styers farın, south of Greensburg, where they lived for one year and later removed to a farm of three hundred and ten acres in Sand Creek township, which farm is located in a beautiful section of Decatur county, where the ground is slightly rolling and where some of the land is very rich. There were very few improvements upon this property when Mr. and Mrs. Styers purchased it. Subsequently, they bought another farm and still other land until he owned, at the time of his death, seven hundred acres of land.
Mr. and Mrs. Styers had six children, three of whom are deceased and three of whom are still living, John died in September, 1914, leaving a widow and three children, Vera May, Carson and Maletta, lived on the home farm; George H., who lives on a farm given him by his father, has four children, Howard, Harold, Lawrence and Louise; Mrs. Hannah Moore, the wife of Delgar Moore, near Forest Hill, in Jackson township, has two children, Bernice and Arthur; Mrs. Nellie McGee lives near the Liberty church; and two of the Styers children, Loyley and Alpha, died in infancy." Before his death, Mr. Styers gave to each of his sons a farm of two hundred acres and reserved a three-hundred-and-twenty-acre farm for the daughters.
The late Jesse H. Styers, at the age of eighten, enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served for eighteen months as a soldier in the Civil War. At the time of his death he was a member of the Pap Thomas Post, Grand Army of the Repub- lic. A Republican in political affiliations, he served six years as county com- missioner. He was a member of the Baptist church, and loyal and active in this faith. For many years he was a deacon of the First church at Greens- burg.
The late Jesse H. Styers was a man of large vision and of wonderful capacity as a farmer, and of wide influence in the community where he lived. He was a man who was affectionately devoted to the interests, welfare and comfort of his wife and family. His first interest was his home and his family, and next to these was the conscientious performance of his duty as a citizen.
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JOHN W. HOLCOMB.
Among the ablest of the younger members of the Indiana bar, is John W. Holcomb, an attorney of Westport, Indiana. With the blood of Revolu- tionary ancestry coursing through his veins, and the overshadowing influ- ence of the Puritanic thought of his progenitors, it is not surprising that we find him not only a prominent lawyer, but a leader in the affairs of the state. With other honors gathered in his comparatively short lifetime, this young man has the distinction of having been the youngest member of the Indiana Legislature during the session of 1899, when he represented Decatur county, having been elected the preceding fall. When a man transcends the average of attainment, a look into the history of his ancestors often reveals hidden forces which play an important part in his own life. In the present instance this is eminently true. and we shall find a brief study of the family record of unusual interest, especially from a psychological viewpoint. The attorney whose name forms the caption of this article was born on a farm in Marion township on February 27, 1874, but he did not stay on the farm.
The earliest progenitor of the Holcomb family in America was Thomas, who came from Devonshire, England, to America in 1630, locating at Dorchester. Massachusetts. Born in 1590, he came to this country for the same reason that actuated his other Puritan friends, and it was his descend- ants who fought in the Revolutionary War. After five years' residence at Dorchester, he went to Connecticut to live, and here it was that he passed away in 1639. His son Nathaniel became the paternal ancestor of John W. Holcomb.
Next in the line of descent, is Rufus, whose father, Luther, was a Revolutionary soldier. Rufus was a native of Connecticut, born in 1786. Stirred by the desire for adventure, he came west at an early day, locating near Moore's Hill, Dearborn county, where Eli, grandfather of John W. Holcomb, was born in 1823. When a young man he moved to Ripley county. His wife, Emeline Hall, was of the true type of pioneer mother, presenting her husband with six children. These were Daniel, father of our subject, Emma Williams, of Kansas; Albert, also of Kansas; Benson, who lives in Arizona ; Walter, a resident of California, and Dora Oldham, who lived in Kansas until her death in 1903. Eli Holcomb and his wife left their pioneer home in Indiana for a home farther West, in Kansas, and it was here that the aged man died in 1899. Daniel W. Holcomb. father of our subject, was born in Ripley county in 1852. About the year 1870 he
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came to Decatur county. He settled in Marion township on a farm in 1873, and it is here that he still lives. The tract of land which he first purchased consisted of forty acres, but the energetic farmer added to this as his success permitted until he has acquired two hundred and thirty-five acres. He gave especial attention to stock raising besides the usual agricultural enterprises. He is still hale and hearty and is active in politics, being a strong Republican. He is at present township trustee, and has been for many years a member of the Baptist church. Mrs. Holcomb, Sr., was form- erly Mary E. Evans, and was born in September, 1855. Their children are John W., the subject of this sketch; Albert, A retired farmer of Westport ; Ada Mozingo, who died in December, 1914: Lewis, of Oklahoma; Janie Mozingo, wife of Edward Mozingo, of near Greensburg ; Margaret Brown, of North Vernon, and Joseph B., who lives upon his father's farm.
John W. Holcomb received a good general education before he special- ized in the studies which prepared him to become the successful lawyer that he is. While he was brought up on the farm, he attended first the common schools, and then the Central Normal College at Danville, Indiana. At the age of eighteen, when many young men are still in college, he began teaching, and for the following eight years, taught in Marion township and Jennings county. He was admitted to the bar in 1897, and practiced for two years in Greensburg, and later spent five years in Indianapolis. Locating in West- port in 1908, he began to build up the practice which now makes him a leader in his profession, and entitles him to a place among the best-known lawyers of the county.
On September, 1899, Mr. Holcomb was married to Margaret Owen, daughter of Thomas and Margaret Owen, of Marion township, and to them two children have been born. These are, Mary, whose birth date is January 26, 1906, and Mabel, born on June 7, 1908.
Mr. and Mrs. Holcomb are prominent members of the Baptist church. Mr. Holcomb belongs to the Odd Fellows lodge, and also to the Modern Woodmen of America of Westport.
Mr. Holcomb has not been active because of the fact that his profession has led him into political fields, but because here he finds the kind of activity that is congenial to his tastes. The Republican party in his part of the state is stronger because of his leadership, and the fact that he was elected town- ship trustee in 1914 and a representative of his county in the Indiana Legisla- ture of 1899, attests to the measure of confidence and popularity which his constituents accord him. Both positions he has filled with credit both to himself and to those who elected him. Although a youthful member of tlie
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Assembly, he was an able representative. and his county had no reason to regret its choice. Mr. Holcomb has a keen, penetrating mind, called perhaps more technically, a "legal mind," yet his character has the elements of strength that are intellectual, for his nature is at once judicial and sympa- thetic. He is a good husband and father, a kind friend, a genial neighbor and an upright, loyal citizen.
ALFRED M. ARMSTRONG.
For nearly a century the Armstrong family has been prominently identi- fied with the financial, commercial and agricultural life of Decatur county, Indiana. Sprung from a family of worthy ideals and ambitions, it is not surprising that the present generation of the Armstrong family in Decatur county is prominent in various spheres to which its representatives have turned their attention. Several members of the family are prominent farm- ers in Decatur and adjoining counties and, at least, one is a prominent banker. The career of Alfred M. Armstrong, of Sand Creek township, is interesting particularly since it discloses ambitions and ideals formed early in life in the neighborhood where he now lives and where they are more fully realized on the farm, in the happy, independent and wholesome life of the country- side. His career discloses in particular how he has, from a small start in life, increased his wealth until now, when the period of his active endeavor is nearing a close, he has a magnificent farm of four hundred and thirty acres in Sand Creek township, a comfortable house and all of the conveniences which present-day country life affords.
Alfred M. Armstrong, who was born on November 17, 1851, in Sand Creek township, one and three-fourths miles north of his present home, is the son of Robert and Rebecca Jane ( Hamilton) Armstrong, the former of whom was a well-known citizen of this county. Robert Armstrong, a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1817, was brought by his parents to Decatur county when three years old, the family settling in Sand Creek township east of Westport. His father having died shortly after their arrival in Decatur county, Robert was reared in a pioneer log cabin and experienced both the hardships and the joys of pioneer life. Early in life he was married to Rebecca Jane Hamilton, who was born in 1818 and who was the daughter of James Hamilton, a relative of the Hamiltons of Fugit township. He came to Decatur county early in its history and here spent the remainder of his life,
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his wife living to the ripe old age of ninety-seven. After his marriage, Robert Armstrong settled on a farm near Letts and later moved to near Westport, having, by the time the Civil War began, accumulated three hun- dred acres of land. He early manifested an interest in civic affairs and politics and served many years as justice of the peace and two termins as town- ship trustee. He was a charter member of the Free and Accepted Masons at Westport and a prominent man during his day and generation. He died in 1878, while his brother James had died one year previously, and his other brothers and sisters, William, Mrs. Sallie Barnes, Mrs. Jane Singleton, Mrs. Mary Falkenberg and Mrs. Rebecca Boicourt, are all now deceased.
Robert and Rebecca Jane Armstrong had several children, James W., deceased, lived in Sand Creek township; John H., lives in Marion township, south of Greensburg ; Oliver P., who is a resident of Fayette county, Illinois ; George W., who is a well-known farmer; Albert M., the subject of this sketch. and Francis D., who is president of the First National Bank at Westport. After the death of his first wife, Robert Armstrong was united in marriage to Eliza Jane McDonald and had three children by this second marriage, Robert F., of Letts ; Mrs. Mary Jane Harding, of Westport, and Mrs. Louisa Helen Updike, also of Westport.
Alfred M. Armstrong, who was educated in the district schools of Decatur county, spent his boyhood as most boys of his neighborhood, in grubbing, planting, sowing and reaping. He assisted his father on the farm until the latter's death in 1878, and, after his death, he and his brother James operated a farm near Letts for two years. Alfred M. then purchased eighty acres, south of Letts, and to this original purchase he has added from time to time until he now owns four hundred and thirty acres. Some years ago he erected a barn, forty by sixty feet, and for more than ten years has gotten his light and fuel from a gas well which flows on his own farm. In front of the Armstrong residence, an attractive country farm house, is a large stone monument erected by the Chicago Herald in commemoration of the spot being chosen as the center of population in 1890.
On July 4, 1886, Mr. Armstrong was married to Hettie M. Dixon, born on July 23, 1862, in Lewis county, Kentucky, the daughter of Levi and Mary (Toler) Dixon, natives of Kentucky, who came to Jennings county in 1865 and four years later to Decatur county. Farmers by occupation, they owned a large tract of land in Sand Creek township south of Westport. Alfred Armstrong was a stockholder in the First National Bank of Westport, Indiana and carries on general farming and stock raising. The father died in 1878 and the mother, who was born in September, 1837. died on May 30,
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1915, at the age of eighty-seven years. Mrs. Armstrong, who was a teacher in the public schools of this county, attended Hope and Butlerville academies. Mrs. Armstrong also taught school in Jennings county, having begun as a school teacher at Sherwood. She taught five years in all, the last year at the home school.
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred M. Armstrong have been the parents of ten chil- dren, one of whom, Roxina, the second born, is deceased. The other chil- dren are, Dewitt Talmage, born on April 17, 1887; Cassius Dixon, January 30, 1890; Forrest Eugene, December 12, 1891 ; Glant Leland, June 20, 1893 ; Oakleigh, February 14, 1895 : Lotus Lowell, June 30, 1898; Winifred, March 28, 1899: Mary Elma and Martha Elva, twins, July 15, 1903. Of this family, Glant Leland is a student at Purdue University and one of the well-known leaders in college life at that institution.
Like his father before him, Alfred M. Armstrong is a loyal and faithful adherent of the Democratic party. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong and family are members of the Baptist church. As a farmer, Alfred M. Armstrong is not excelled anywhere in the township where he lives. As a citizen he has always taken a commendable interest in public affairs and, at all times, has given loyal and valuable support to worthy public enterprises. The Armstrong family is well known throughout Sand Creek township and are popular with all classes of people.
JOHN LOGAN.
The late John Logan, who, during his lifetime became one of the fore- most farmers of Decatur county, Indiana, was born on August 14, 1829, in this county and died, July 16, 1912. The son of early pioneers of this county, John Logan's father, Samuel Logan, a native of Pennsylvania, and his mother, Susanna ( Howard), a native of Ohio, in 1818 came down the Ohio river by flat-boat and. after stopping a while in Kentucky, settled in Decatur county when the land was covered with forests. After assisting in the con- struction of the first log cabin ever erected in Greensburg, he entered land from the government and became very prosperous. A leader of his fellow citizens during his day and generation and a man who attended strictly to his own business. Of the thirteen children born to Samuel and Susanna Logan, there were the following: James, deceased: Samuel, Jr., of Letts Corner, Decatur county : John : Aaron, who lives west of Greensburg, in Washington township: Frank, of Topeka, Kansas; Martha Ann, who married a Doctor
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Hitt, now both deceased; Mrs. Margaret Jane Deem, deceased; Mrs. Mary Hamilton, deceased, and Mrs. Rachel Hobbs, who was the wife of Reverend Hobbs a Christian minister, and who died in Des Moines, Iowa, in January, 1915.
The late John Logan lived at home with his parents until his marriage, January 24, 1856, to Eliza E. Hungate, after which he and his wife settled on a farm in Clay township, five miles west of Greensburg. This farm, which was improved and where he and his wife lived until September, 1886, is now occupied by his son. In the meantime, they had prospered and accumulated seven hundred and forty acres of land. Having first begun with a small competence, he had at first purchased two hundred and fifty-seven acres on credit and, after paying for this, by hard work and careful management, he continued buying land, purchasing subsequently four large farms.
Eliza E. Ilungate, to whom Mr. Logan was married in 1856, was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, on June 27, 1838, and was the daughter of John and Eliza (Gregory) Hungate, natives of Kentucky, who immigrated to Shelby county in 1840 and later settled in Noble township, Shelby county, Indiana, where they died. He was born in 1798 and died on September 21. 1891, his wife having died previously, at the age of seventy-seven years. Their children were as follow: Andrew Jackson, deceased; George Wash- ington, deceased; Mrs. Cynthia Jones, deceased ; John, who lives on the old homestead in Shelby county : Mrs. Eliza Logan, and Catherine, the wife of Thomas Vaughn, deceased.
To Mr. and Mrs. John Logan were born three children, Orange H., George Andrew and Eliza E. Orange owns the old home farm and is a prosperous farmer. He was born June 10, 1857, and married Emma Gregory, a native of Kentucky. They have three children, Earl C., Clem and Nellie. George Andrew, born on March 7, 1862, who is a farmer in Clay township, married Artenius Hayman and has one son, Harry. Mrs. Eliza E. Covert, born on February 23, 1870, resides with her mother. She owns a farm of two hundred acres in Washington township.
A Democrat in politics, the late John Logan took an active part in the councils of his party and was known as one of the leaders in this section of the state. Nevertheless, he was a man of strong domestic temperament and loved his home and friends. One of the largest stock raisers and dealers in Decatur county, Mr. Logan in his lifetime dealt in mules, cattle, horses and sheep. He was accustomed to buying them through the country, then fatten them on his farm and ship them to distant markets.
Mrs. Eliza E. Covert and her mother are active workers in the Chris-
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tian church, of which both are members. Mrs. Covert is a member of the Department Club of Decatur county and is prominent in this organization. Mrs. Logan has one great-granddaughter, Lela Emma, the daughter of Clem and Freda (Simmons) Logan. Clem is the son of Orange and Emma (Gregory) Logan. On January 24, 1906, Mr. and Mrs. John Logan cele- brated their golden wedding anniversary. It was more than six years after this that Mr. Logan passed away.
As a man well known in the community, the late John Logan will be remembered as of modest and unassuming manners and a man, who during his long and useful life, was interested in the welfare of his neighbors and devoted to the cause of a wholesome and healthful community spirit. His beloved widow is a woman of most pleasing manners, intelligent. cultured and refined, whose life reflects the high order of womanhood in this county.
GEORGE W. METZ.
George W. Metz, for many years a successful merchant at Newpoint, Salt Creek township, Decatur county, Indiana, and the son of John Henry Metz, of Fugit township, is the proprietor of a business which was estab- lished in 1890. During the past quarter of a century, he has built up an enormous trade in the village and surrounding country and is one of the best known citizens of Decatur county. In September, 1909, the building in which his store was housed was destroyed by fire and shortly thereafter he erected a large brick building in the place of the one destroyed. This is a building forty by sixty feet and has two floors, with the family residence on the second floor and the stock of merchandise on the first. Two rooms on the ground floor, however, are devoted to the kitchen and the laundry. Mr. Metz who has a large trade in country produce, has two show-rooms, and a stock of goods valued at thirty-five hundred dollars.
George W. Metz was born on May 18, 1862, on a farm near Springhill in Fugit township, Decatur county, Indiana, son of John Henry Metz, who, a poor German lad of twenty-two, came to this county in 1854 and, after liv- ing two years in Ohio, settled in Decatur county, Indiana, where, four years later he was married to Louise Huber, a native of Franklin county, this state, who was born on July 16, 1836, and who died on July 10, 1895, the daughter of Gottfried and Margaret (Ziegler) Huber, natives of Germany. From
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twenty-five cents, which was all the money that John Henry Metz had on his arrival in America after a tedious voyage across the Atlantic, his fortune has grown from year to year until he now, at the age of eighty-three, owns six hundred acres of land in Fugit and Salt Creek townships, this county, and is regarded as one of the wealthiest men in this section of the state. Although George W. Metz was one of a family of eight children, he, nevertheless, remained at home until his marriage at the age of twenty-eight and assisted his father on the farm. In the early part of 1890 he left the farm and moved to Newpoint, where he engaged in business. On Thanksgiving Day, 1890, Mr. Metz was married to Katie Rabenstein, of Cincinnati, Ohio, the daugh- ter of George Rabenstein, for many years recorder of Hamilton county, Ohio, a position he held at the time of the celebrated court house riot, and a very prominent citizen not only of Cincinnati. but a man who was well known throughout the state of Ohio. He was holding the office of county recorder at the time of his daughter's marriage to Mr. Metz. To this union nine children have been born, all of whom are living: Amanda, the wife of McClelland Wolfe, of North Berne, Ohio, who has two children, Neola and Oren ; Elma, the wife of Howard Starks, who resides on the F. B. Kitchin farm in Fugit township, this county, and has two daughters. Bessie and Audrey, both of whom are graduates of the Greensburg high school; Chris- tine, who is at home and works in her father's store; Mckinley, who is a student in the Greensburg high school, and Louise, Marguerite, Cora May, George Henry and Katherine, who are at home and attending school.
George W. Metz has always been an ardent believer in Republican prin- ciples and a warm supporter of Republican candidates. Appointed post- master at Newpoint in 1896, during President Mckinley's administration, he served eighteen years in that office, or until 1914, two years after the inauguration of President Wilson. He is proud of the various commissions he holds from President Mckinley, President Roosevelt, President Taft and President Wilson. All of the members of the Metz family attend the Presby- terian church.
Many of Mr. Metz's most sterling traits, the traits of character which have made him one of the leaders in the business life of Salt Creek town- ship, he. no doubt, has inherited from his worthy father. Careful in his business methods, honorable in his relations with his patrons, he has enjoyed their unqualified confidence and support since his business was first estab- lished at Newpoint. No one has ever been disposed to question the intel- lectual sincerity or personal honor of Mr. Metz. While he has been promin-
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ent in the life of the community, he is, nevertheless, a man of domestic tem- perament, who is devoted primarily to the interests of his home and his family. Ile deserves credit in a large measure for what he has accomplished and especially for the worthy example he has set for his children.
ISAAC SHER. 1.
There is no positive rule for achieving success and yet in the life of the successful man there are always lessons which might well be followed. The man who attains success is he who can see and utilize the opportunities that come in his path. The essential conditions of human life are ever the same, the surroundings of individuals differing but slightly. When one man passes another on the highway of life it is because he has the power to see and to use the advantages which probably fall within the vision and opportunities of every man. Today among the prominent citizens and successful farmers of Decatur county Isaac Shera, of Westport, stands out as a conspicuous example of what the farm may yield up to a man if he is possessed of dis- crimination, sound judgment and executive ability. Altogether he owns seven hundred and twenty acres of land, in four farms, on which have been erected six sets of buildings. On September 10, 1912, Mr. Shera moved from his farm in Jackson township to Westport, where he has a beautiful town residence on West Main street, which he has remodeled and modern- ized, spending over six hundred dollars on the town property. When a lad Isaac Shera cultivated ground occupied by what is now a part of old Sardinia, his father's farm having adjoined that village.
The story of Isaac Shera's rise to fortune is a most interesting chapter in the history of Decatur county. He began his farming operations when a young man of twenty-one years. and in 1880. shortly after his marriage. purchased one hundred and twenty acres, which tract is now looked on as the family homestead. From time to time he has added to this land from the fruits of his industry, his toil and his good management. In 1890 he bought fifty-two acres across the road from the original one-hundred-and-twenty- acre tract and the next year bought twenty-eight acres, the remainder of the eighty-acre tract. The next year he purchased one hundred and sixty acres one mile east of the homestead in what is known as the Big Horn neighbor- hood, and adjoining the Big Horn high school. In 1904 he bought eighty acres adjacent to the Big Ilorn high school, and a few years later one hun-
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