USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 83
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Francis D. Armstrong was educated in the country schools of his boy- hood home, and was early accustomed to hard work, for he and his brothers helped their father on the farm. Francis lived with his father until the lat- ter's death which occurred when he was sixty-one years of age. His busi- ness ability was shown even in his young manhood, for after his father's death he rented a farm, and from the very first made it a financial success. This property he occupied for four years, combining the raising and selling of stock with his agricultural pursuits. Then he purchased a farm, shipped live stock in carload lots and managed the work until 1905, when he retired from his farm to his home in Westport where he and his family have lived since September, 1912.
On February 10, 1887, Mr. Armstrong was united in marriage to Martha Ellen Morgan who was born in 1866 in Sand Creek township. She was the daughter of Robert P. and Nancy Ann Morgan natives of Kentucky. Mrs. Armstrong lived until 1900, when she passed away, leaving her husband and three children to mourn her loss. The children are Leo; Frances Shirley, wife of Barney Williams, and Howard Ward who was born in 1897, and who lives at home. Mrs. Shirley was only recently married.
Beside the splendid residence in which he lives, Mr. Armstrong has one hundred and thirty acres of valuable land near Westport. He now devotes the greater part of his time to the banking business, having become president of the First National Bank in 1908, this institution succeeding a private bank.
Outside of their domestic relations, the two most important character- izations concerning men's affiliations are in relation to their politics and
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religion, and they never seem quite classified until these two facts are known. Mr. Armstrong adheres to the principles of the Democratic party, and is a member of the Baptist denomination. Like his father, he has been a loyal member of Lodge No. 52, Free and Accepted Masons, of Westport.
Having outlined the chief events in the life of Mr. Armstrong, the reader can understand why he is considered one of the alert, progressive business men who have advanced the economic and social interests of Decatur county, and whose lives have been a distinctive impetus to the commercial success of the locality in which they have lived and labored. The prestige and respect accorded Mr. Armstrong may best be measured by the scope and importance of the business institution which he directs.
WILL W. LOGAN.
Born in this county sixty-five years ago and still living in the house in which he was born, the son of a pioneer who early discerned the possibilities hidden in the wilderness which once covered this now favored region and proceeded to take advantage thereof, becoming one of the foremost and most influential members of the community of which he made a part; wit- nessing the wonderful material advancement of this community during the last half century, proving himself a no small factor in the development thus noted, the subject of this interesting biographical review very properly may be regarded as one of the leaders of the common life of Decatur county. Honored by his fellowmen by election to one of the most useful and respon- sible positions of trust in the gift of the people of the county and serving capably and well in the capacity thus trustfully imposed upon him, Mr. Logan becomes one of the county's distinctive personalities, and no history of the times in this county would be complete without fitting reference to his life and to the character of his public services.
Will W. Logan was born on a farm on the northwest edge of the cor- porate limits of the city of Greensburg, Decatur county, Indiana, January 16, 1850, the son of Samuel H. and Millie ( Hice). Logan, both natives of Penn- sylvania.
Samuel H. Logan, who was born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, Feb- ruary 1, 1819, was the son of John and Isabel ( Graham) Logan, whose par- ents came to America from Ireland late in the eighteenth century and located in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, where they spent the remainder of their
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lives. John and Isabel Logan were the parents of the following children : Samuel H., the father of the immediate subject of this biographical sketch ; Mrs. Hanna Hice, born on June 17, 1822; Mrs. Margaret Elliot, February 20, 1825, and Mrs. Ann Baker, July 12, 1827, who lives four miles from Greensburg, in this county.
On November 26, 1840, Samuel H. Logan was united in marriage to Millie Hice, who was born in Pennsylvania on October 20. 1818, a daughter of Henry Hice, who was a native of Germany. Shortly after marriage Samuel H. Logan and his wife came to Decatur county, his father having bought government land in Washington township. Mr. Logan was a very clear-headed man, enterprising and public spirited and an excellent farmer. He prospered and presently began to enlarge his land holdings, shortly becoming one of the large land owners in this county. He took a deep inter- est in public affairs and was ranked among the leading men of the county. He served the people very acceptably as county commissioner for some time and his sound judgment and fine executive ability gave to this service a real value to the public. As his children grew to manhood and womanhood he gave to each a fine farmi out of his extensive estate, the old homestead place being given to Will W., the subject of this sketch. Samuel H. Logan was honored and respected in this county and at his death there was general and sincere mourning throughout the whole country. He died on October 19. 1904. Ilis wife had long preceded him to the grave, her death having occurred on October 15, 1879.
To Samuel H. and Millie ( Hice) Logan were born ten children, namely : Henry H., born on September 17. 1841, a well-known farmer of this county. who lives two miles west of Greensburg on the Milford road: Isabella G., September 22. 1843, widow of Samuel Applegate, resides in Greensburg ; Mary S., November 26, 1845, widow of Will Murray, resides in Nevada, Missouri ; John B., October 8. 1847, a well-known traveling salesman, resides at Indianapolis : Will W., the subject of this sketch ; Sarah, October 19, 1852, married Joseph Ketchum and lives at Cincinnati: Marine R., March 6. 1855, died on May 22, 1885: Samuel. September 16, 1857, died on April 18, 1893; Emma J., Auust 20, 1860, died on August 16, 1865, and George M .. Septem- ber 13. 1862, who is the general agent of the International Harvester Com- pany at Richmond, Indiana.
Will W. Logan received his youthful education in the Tarkington school house, which was situated on a corner of what is now his home farm, which then was the home of the Rev. Joseph Tarkington, supplementing this early schooling with a course in the Greensburg schools under the instruction of
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Mrs. Samuel Bonner, a noted teacher of that period. Upon reaching man- hood's estate he entered seriously on the business of farming, a vocation in which he had received his father's best instructions, and, having inherited a large measure of his father's sagacity, has prospered, his place of one hun- dred and sixty acres, located on the very outskirts of the county seat, being recognized as one of the finest farms in the county. Mr. Logan is alert and enterprising in his methods of farming and keeps fully abreast of all the latest developments in the science of agriculture. The old brick homestead house, which his father erected, has been remodeled along modern lines and is regarded as one of the pleasantest and most comfortable homes in the county. a place where hospitality and good cheer ever prevail.
When natural gas was discovered in Decatur county, many years ago, Samuel H. Logan organized a company and drilled a number of gas wells. The well on the home farm proved to be a valuable producer and at his death, Mr. Logan left it to his children, in trust, Will W. Logan being named as trustee, which trust still is faithfully being executed. The Logan wells have been yielding gas in paying quantities since the fall of 1887 and have been a source of considerable profit to the Logan family.
On June 1, 1887, Will W. Logan was united in marriage to Katie M. Forkert, who was born on September 13, 1860, in the village of Adams, Decatur county, Indiana, daughter of Ernest and Catherine Forkert, natives of Germany, who came to America, locating in this county, early becoming regarded as among the best-known people of the Smyrna neighborhood. Ernest Forkert has been dead for some years, but his widow is still living in Salt Creek township, this county, highly esteemed by all who know her.
To Will W. and Katie ( Forkert) Logan two children have been born, Stella May, born on July 29. 1889, who married Clyde L. Jones and lives in the city of Indianapolis; to that union one child has been born, a son, William Logan: and Frederick W., June, 1892, who married Merle Wiley and is now managing the home farm for his father.
Mr. Logan is a member of the Presbyterian church and Mrs. Logan is a member of the Presbyterian church at Greensburg. Mr. Logan is a life-long Democrat, his father also having been one of the leaders of that party in this county, and for years has given close attention to political affairs in this county. In the fall of 1912 he was elected to the important and responsible office of county commissioner from his district and is now filling very ably and very acceptably the exacting duties of that office, the only office, by the way, for which he ever permitted his candidacy to be announced. Recogniz- ing the opportunities for useful public service this office offers, Mr. Logan is
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giving the very best of himself to this service and his painstaking efforts on behalf of the county's best interests have been noted with satisfaction by the people. Mr. Logan is a member of the Greensburg lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in the affairs of which he takes much interest. He is a genial, whole-souled gentleman and is very popular among the mem- bers of that order as well as among all who know him, and that includes pretty much everyone in the county, for there are few men in Decatur county better known than he.
JAMES THOMAS KERCHEVAL.
America has a goodly heritage, which we should endeavor to hand on with value unimpaired to those who shall come after us. Only as we realize our own high duty and responsibility shall we be able to bequeath to poster- ity the noble inheritance we ourselves have received. America is in the making. The blending of her various peoples into one homogeneous whole to work out the vast problems of civilization both for herself and the entire world is the immediate task before us. The descendants of the original settlers will be expected to stand foremost among the many in projecting the activities of the future. Among the many families in Decatur county descended from the original settlers of this section of the state there is none held in higher esteem than the Kerchevals, the fifth generation of whom is now contributing to the well-being of this county. The gentleman whose name heads this biographical review has behind him the traditions of an honorable past and he and his children and his children's children are main- taining right honorably those glorious traditions. Mr. Kercheval's great- grandfather on his father's side was a soldier in the Continental army during the War of Independence and his great-grandfather on his grandmother's side also was a patriot soldier during that successful revolutionary struggle. Mr. Kervechal has in his possession two silver spoons out of a set of six made from coin silver received as pay by his ancestors in the Revolutionary War. The progenitor of the Kercheval family in America was a French Huguenot who fled to this country to escape the oppression which awaited those of his faith on the other side and the Kerchevals have made their mark in various points in which this now widely-separated family is located.
James Thomas Kercheval, who lives on a farm of ninety acres in Washington township, this county, two miles east of the city of Greensburg, was born on the farm on which he now lives, February 8, 1860, the son of
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Lemuel W. and Elizabeth Ann (Travis) Kercheval, both natives of this county, the former of whom was born on January 19, 1815, and died in 1880, and the latter of whom was born in 1821 and died in 1889.
Lemuel W. Kercheval was the son of George Washington and Hannah (Grant) Kercheval, natives of Virginia, the former of whom was born on March 21, 1782, and the latter on September 17, 1784, who were married on December 5, 1805, emigrating to Kentucky, in which state they lived until 1821, in which year they came to Decatur county, locating in Washington township, which ever since has been the seat of Kercheval family in this county. George W. Kercheval's father was a soldier in the patriot army during the Revolutionary War. His wife, Hannah, was a daughter of Robert and Sarah Grant, the former of whom also was a Revolutionary soldier.
To George W. and Hannah (Grant) Kercheval were born seven chil- dren, namely : Caroline Frances, born on August 22, 1807; Elizabeth Sarah, August 24. 1809; Lucinda P., April 2, 1811; Mariah Jane, March 6, 1813; Lemuel Willis, January 19, 1815; Armand Melvina, February, 1817, and Eliza Ann, April 6, 1821.
Lemuel Willis Kercheval was reared on the home farm, receiving such education as the limited schools of his day afforded, and on March 6, 1850, married Elizabeth Ann Travis, of this county, daughter of Hannah Frances Travis, a widow, whose husband was killed when Elizabeth Ann was a small child. Lemuel W. Kercheval owned one hundred and eighty acres of good land and was a good farmer and a good citizen. He was a member of the Methodist church, but late in life espoused the faith of the Baptists. He was a Republican and took a good citizen's part in the political affairs of the county, though never being included in the office-seeking class. He and his wife were the parents of two children, sons, James T. and George W., the latter of whom lives in Grensburg, this county.
James Thomas Kercheval received his education in the district schools of Washington township, supplementing the same with one year's schooling in town. He inherited his farm of ninety acres, the home farm being divided between him and his brother at the death of their parents. He has made the most of his opportunities and is known as a wide-awake, enter- prising farmer, ever alert to the most advanced methods in the rapidly expanding science of agriculture. In addition to his general farming he gives considerable attention to the raising of live stock and has prospered.
On August 6. 1885, James T. Kercheval was united in marriage to Martha J. Privett, daughter of William and Cynthia Privett, who died on
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December 7, 1897, leaving two children, Lemuel Willis and Forest D. Lem- uel Willis Kercheval lives at Newport, Kentucky. He married Theresa Hoffman, to which union two children have been born, George W. and Arthur. On August 17, 1899, Mr. Kercheval married, secondly, Mrs. Effie M. Harrison, a widow, who had one child, a daughter, Glendora.
Mr. and Mrs. Kercheval are adherents of the Presbyterian church and take an active interest in the works of that church and in the general social affairs of their community, being very popular with all who know then1. Mr. Kercheval is a Republican and is a member of the Knights of Pythias. He is an excellent citizen and is held in high regard among his large circle of friends.
JAMES LANCASTER HARDING.
Among the leading and honorable citizens of Decatur county is James Lancaster Harding of Newpoint, a native of Salt Creek township where he has always lived and pursued the even tenor of his way. As sturdy as an oak tree, James L. Harding has stood as one of the leading representatives, in his generation, of a family and name which have a history reaching back to the time "when knighthood was in flower" in England, in the days of William the Conqueror.
John Harding, the father of James L. Harding, emigrated to Decatur county with his family, through Butler county, Ohio, from Virginia, and was one of the pioneer settlers in the eastern part of Decatur county not long after the red man had kindled his last fire on the hillsides of old Salt Creek. James L. Harding, his brothers and sisters, his parents and the thrifty neigh- bors of his boyhood days, lived to see a wonderful transformation in the rural life and the agricultural processes of the country about them. Such men as they know what it meant in the days agone to live in a home in the wilderness. They saw what it meant to fell the trees of the heavy virgin forest. to clear and prepare the land for the planting and then to gather the harvest with implements of the crudest sort. Mr. Harding remembers many of the achievements of the scattered, early pioneer communities of the eastern section of the county, the genuine frolic and fun of the husking-bees and the triumphs and the merriment of the log-rollings of the hardy days before the Civil War. It is a wonderful thing to have lived, as he has done, over the period when the boundary line between two epochs in the history of the industry and progress of the country was being crossed, and to have been in
JAMES LANCASTER HARDING.
LOG CABIN BUILT BY JAMES L. HARDING IN 1866 AND THE BIRTHPLACE OF ALL HIS CHILDREN.
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that period a part and parcel of its very achievements. James L. Harding himself has done his part well in the promotion of good citizenship in the land, by the example of his own true character and his live interest in public affairs and by his characteristic championship of absolute honesty and integrity in private and public life. He supports religious movements gener- ally and is a stanch Democrat as are his sons. Among more important duties he has served two terms as land appraiser, in 1903 and in 1911. While he has done his part. also, in transforming agricultural life and opportunities in Decatur county, he has done so as a man possessed with a vision of newer and greater achievements. It is his son, by the way, the Hon. Lewis A. Harding, graduate of the Indiana State University, now prosecuting attorney of the ninth judicial circuit of Indiana and a member of the American Historical Association, who is the editor of the historical section of this volume.
James L. Harding, who owns a productive farm in Salt Creek town- ship, Decatur county, Indiana, was born on July 3, 1842, on the old Harding homestead, in a double hewed log cabin. the last child of John and Susan (Abraham) Harding, the former of whom was born on April 27, 1790, and died on March 3, 1882, at the age of ninety-one years, and the latter of whom was born in 1798 and died at the age of eighty-seven years in 1885. John Harding was a native of Augusta county, Virginia, the son of John Hard- ing, Sr., of old Cavalier stock, who died in his native state. John Harding, Jr., with others, emigrated to Kentucky and thence to Butler county, Ohio, in an early day. In Butler county, Ohio, John Harding married Mary Ash- craft, who was a sister of Amos Ashcraft, and established a pioneer home at the Kinnard hill, about two miles east of the state line on which is now the Brookville & Hamilton pike. To this first marriage was born one child, a son, Providence. The wife of John Harding's early young manhood died young. He later married a Miss Abraham, and to this second union also but one child was born, a daughter, Mary Ann. After the death of his second wife, John Harding married her sister, Susan Abraham, to which union nine children were born, namely: Mrs. Emaline Earls, Israel, Sr., Enoch, Eliza- beth, Mrs. Hester Osborn, Mrs. . Florence Osborn, Harrison, Mrs. Sophia Jane Marlin and James L., the last named and eleventh child of the family, being the only one born in Indiana.
The old well at the site of the early home at the Kinnard hill remained intact until about five years ago. when it was filled up and a railroad was built across the place to Okeanna. The Harding place in Ohio embraced only eighty acres and soon proved too small for the large family. Accord-
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ingly, John Harding procured from Amos Ashcraft a tract of two hundred and forty acres in Salt Creek township, Decatur county, Indiana. To this place, now known as the old Harding homestead, where James L. Harding now lives, John Harding removed from Butler county, Ohio, in the month of February, 1839, crossing the Whitewater river at Brookville, and other streams, on the ice. The eldest son, Providence and family moved to Salt Creek township about a year later and settled on what later became known as the old Volk homestead. In that early time of the pioneer there was no driveway in the forests south of Salt creek and John Harding and his family chopped a roadway out of the wilderness. When he located on the farm only about two acres on the two hundred and forty were cleared. Enochs- burg at the very western edge of Franklin county, Indiana, had been in exist- ence then only a short time as a frontier outpost of the coming civilization. A Mr. Longfellow and a Mr. Beach were pioneers then living at Enochsburg. The town took its name from Enoch Abraham, an uncle of James L. Hard- ing, who came to Indiana shortly before John Harding and established a homestead and erected a log house on what is now the John Suttmann place one mile east of Enochsburg, where the old house still weathers the storms of the years.
James L. Harding, who was the only child of his father's family born in Indiana was named after his mother's brother, James Abraham. Charlotte Cook, who officiated at the important event of July 3, 1842, said to call the baby Lancaster, after the town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, named after the founder of Mrs. Cook's early childhood home, Lancaster, New Jersey, she having named her own son James Lancaster Cook, and thus was completed the name of James Lancaster Harding. During the childhood days of James L. Harding his father and elder brothers were still busy clearing and improv- ing the farm where John Harding lived until the end of his days. Their gallant neighbors shared with them the toil of many a log-rolling on the old homestead. Among the early neighbors of John Harding in Salt Creek township, who rolled logs on his place, were the following pioneers : Ephraim Ashcraft, David Davis, Asa Davis, Harrison Dortan, Henry Kyle, William Barkley, Parkinson Barkley, Samuel Richardson, William Glidewell, Barney Shouse, Sr., Joseph Palmer, John Moody, James Moody, Joseph Moody, David Lawrence, Henry Lawrence, James Cook, Sr., Joel Colson, Robert Ross, Wash Barkley and Chris Welsh. The wife of David Lawrence and a daughter of Henry Kyle are said to be the first two persons buried in the cemetery at Rossburg. The remnants of an old wagon made by Henry Law-
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rence for James L. Harding in 1865 still remain upon the Harding home- stead.
John Harding's beloved wife, Susan Abraham, was a native of Bracken county, Kentucky. She was born about eight miles from the present county seat of that county and was a daughter of Benjamin and Mary Abraham, of that state. Benjamin Abraham with his family emigrated to Butler county, Ohio, and later became one of the early settlers in Franklin and Decatur counties, Indiana. Benjamin, the husband of Mary Abraham, died in Frank- lin county, Indiana, and he was buried in the old private cemetery on his farm, the old Ben Abraham place in Franklin county, north of Oldenburg. The Abrahams were of Scotch-Irish descent. In addition to Susan Abraham who was the mother of James L. Harding, the children and grandchildren of Benjamin and Mary Abraham were as follow: Enoch (before mentioned), whose children were Benjamin, Jr., Noah, Jr., Enoch Perry, Jackson, Mrs. Rebecca George of Adams county, Iowa, and Woodson Wilson Thompson Abraham, who died at Casey, Illinois, July 30, 1915: Noah, whose children were Sarah Jane, and James of Wells county, Indiana ; Isaac; Benjamin ( Benjamin and James, next named, were twins), whose children were Sarah of Chicago, Mary, James, and Nancy Sherwood; and James, whose chil- dren were Benjamin, William, Mary ("Polly") Bowman, of Franklin county, Indiana, recently deceased, Nancy Young, Rachel Weston (wife of Hugh Weston and buried at Stipp's Hill, Franklin county, Indiana), and Nathan, of Iowa; Sarah Welch, whose children were James, Isaac, Enoch. Mary, Thomas, Abisha, Florence, Fletcher and Abe, all of Jackson county, Iowa; Florence Morin, whose children were Mary Ann, Benjamin and Sarah Eliza- beth, all of Mercer county, Missouri; Mrs. John Whitinger, of Fayette county, Indiana; and Lot, who had one son, John, who lived and died at Maquoketa, Iowa. Of the above named grandchildren of Benjamin and Mary Abraham, the greater number are at this time ( 1915) deceased. The Harding and Abraham families both have always been ardent Democrats. John Harding was at one time a census enumerater in his section. He was a firm" believer in the universality of religion and sought to live out in his daily life the teachings of the common faith. Of his eleven children, only two are now ( 1915) living, Mrs. Hester Osborn, who resides one mile west of Newpoint, and James L., the youngest of the family.
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