USA > Indiana > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Indiana: its people, industries and institutions > Part 96
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CECIL G. HARROD, M. D.
The man who devotes his talent and energy to the noble work of min- istering to the ills and alleviating the sufferings of humanity, pursues a call- ing which in dignity and importance is second to none other. If true to his profession and earnest in his efforts to enlarge his sphere of usefulness, he is indeed a benefactor to mankind. To him more than to any other man are entrusted the safety, comfort and lives of the people. In the professional ranks of this county Dr. Cecil G. Harrod. a physician and surgeon of Burney, has stood for many years as one of the leading physicians of Decatur county
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and his practice probably is equal to that of any other physician in the county. Realizing early in his career as a physician that to obtain a success in the medical profession, he must have, not only technical ability but also broad human sympathies, Doctor Harrod has endeavored conscientiously and dili- gently to develop himself along these two lines. He has dignified and hon- ored the profession to which he belongs by his noble services in this county.
Dr. Cecil G. Harrod, of Burney, is the scion of two very old families in America. Born in 1884, he is the son of Charles Fremont and Olive ( Gard- ner ) Harrod, natives of Scott county, Indiana. Charles Fremont Harrod, who is now fifty-eight years old, and who was born in Scott county, lives on a farm and is a successful and well-known school teacher, who follows this profession because of his native love of the work. He is well and favorably known in Scott county. He was named for John C. Fremont, the first candi- date of the Republican party for the Presidency, and is a stanch Republican.
Doctor Harrod's mother, who before her marriage was Olive Gardner, and is now fifty-six years old, is the daughter of James Gardner, a prominent citizen of Scott county, who was honored by the people of that county, by election to several different positions of trust and responsibility. The Gard- ners originally came to Indiana from Virginia, and an ancestor of Doctor Harrod's mother came over to America in the "Mayflower." The family is, of course, of English origin.
The Harrod family came to Indiana from Kentucky, having previously emigrated to the latter state from Virginia. It was the great grandfather of Charles Fremont Harrod, who entered the land which the latter now owns in Scott county. This family also is of English origin. The Harrod family is one of professional men, nearly all of the male members having been law- yers or physicians. Former Judge Willard New of the Indiana appellate court, who is now a practicing lawyer in Indianapolis, is a cousin of Doctor Harrod.
In 1911 Dr. C. G. Harrod, of Burney, this county, was graduated from the medical department of the University of Louisville, a medical school well known throughout the Middle West for the high standard of its instruction. Immediately after his graduation. Doctor Harrod located in Burney and began the practice of his profession. His practice has grown from year to year until he now enjoys probably as large a practice as any physician in Decatur county. Indeed, he is the busiest man in Clay township and his books show that in a single day, he made twenty-nine professional calls. He never wastes a minute of time to reach a case. He believes in giving to each case his greatest skill, energy and talent. In his home township, where he is so well'
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known, he is regarded as a human dynamo and no man is more popular with the people of Clay township. He is a man of most kindly impulses, broad and liberal in his views and generous by nature and he occupies a firm place in the hearts of the people of the neighborhood covered by his practice.
IRA C. CARMAN.
The student of Decatur county history does not have to make searching investigations to discover that Ira C. Carman for many years has been one of its most active farmers and stock raisers as well as one of its most influen- tial citizens. From time to time, he has added to his land holdings until he now has two hundred and sixty-seven acres lying two and one-half miles northeast of Burney on the Hope, Milford and Greensburg pike. Yet Mr. Carman himself would say that he has had no time to accumulate money but rather would have what he can buy with a dollar than to keep the dollar for its own sake. In his entire business career he has been zealous of his credit and this is one of the large secrets of his success. Aside from being an exten- sive landholder, he is a stockholder in the Hope bank and has at least ten thousand dollars worth of property in Burney, against which there is not one cent of indebtedness. This is the present condition of affluence of a man who, less than twenty-five years ago, began life with a poor horse and cow and without a dollar in the world. A man who has made money easily. Ira C. Carman has likewise been what might be called a liberal spender.
Ira C. Carman was born in 1859 in Ripley county, Indiana, and two years after his birth was brought to Decatur county by his parents, Reuben and Rebecca Jane ( Jones) Carman, natives of Ohio, who settled on a farm near Milford. The father was a successful farmer and a well-respected man in the community, one of the local leaders of the Republican party. In 1866 the family moved to Missouri, where a little later Reuben Carman died, leav- ing a wife and six small children. The mother remained about two years in Missouri and then came back to Decatur county, settling near Milford, where she reared her family. On the trip to Missouri the Carmans had been accom- panied by Thomas Fowler and family. Ira Sathmarsh and Watson Bostic, a young man.
To Reuben and Rebecca Jane ( Jones) Carman were born six children, two of whom. William Reuben and Elmer E., are deceased. The living children are Mrs. Lodicy Elliott, the widow of James Elliott; Mrs. Elizabeth
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Pumpher, the widow of Lon Pumpher ; Ira C., the subject of this sketch ; and Mrs. Mary B. Raymond, the widow of William Raymond. Frank Carman is a half brother of Ira C. The mother of these children died in 1884. She was a woman of rare business ability and reared her family to honorable and useful lives.
Ira C. Carman began life for himself at the age of eleven years and by the time he was twenty-five years old had begun to accumulate a little prop- erty. In 1880 he was united in marriage to Emma Peddicord, the daughter of Levi and Hulda (Henshaw) Peddicord, and to this union two children have been born, Edward, born in 1882, married Mattie Thompson and lives on the home place, and Maude, the wife of J. J. Boyle, principal of the high school at Columbus, Indiana.
Mr. Carman has been a very successful farmer and business man. About seventeen years ago he purchased ninety acres of land and began to raise hogs and cattle. Previous to that time he had worked for three years by the day and finally got together a "plug" horse and one cow. Subsequently, he had an opportunity to farm on the shares for Frank Butler. This was his start in life. He saved about four hundred dollars, which he paid on his first ninety-acre tract of land. He then began farming on a large scale and at different times has cultivated as much as five hundred or six hundred acres of land and at the present time is farming about five hundred acres and rais- ing about one hundred and eighty acres of corn each year. Two years after he purchased his first tract of land, he bought another tract of one hundred and seventy-eight acres, being compelled to borrow the money to make the first payment. He paid for this farm in ten or twelve years, an exceptional record for money making. there having been numerous predictions at the time that he would fail. Many years ago he began breeding and dealing in mules and is today one of the best-known mule breeders in the state of Indi- ana. The mule business has been one of the great sources of his revenue, but by no means the greatest. Mr. Carman attributes his success more to hogs, corn and clover. He buys and matches mules, fattens them and sends them to market. His farm is one of the most highly improved farms, all things considered. to be found in Decatur county, particularly when external improvements are considered. It is well-drained, has splendid outbuildings and a three-story bank barn, equal to any to be found in the county. A lover of good horses, Mr. Carman also has had considerable success with raising them. He has a large silo on the farm made of vitrified tile. His land is gently undulating and formerly grew sugar trees and black walnut.
A Republican in politics, Mr. Carman has always been an active political
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worker and is a firm believer in the principles of the party of Abraham Lin- coln. He is a member of the Masonic lodge at Milford and of the Knights of Pythias at Burney, being one of the trustees of the latter lodge. Mr. and Mrs. Carman are members of the Methodist church at Milford and liberal supporters of the same and are held in the highest regard throughout that whole section of the county.
EDWARD A. JACKSON.
Practically industry, wisely and consistently followed, never fails to bring success. It carries a man onward and upward, brings out his indi- vidual character and acts as a powerful stimulus to the efforts of others. The greatest results in life are often attained by simple means in the exercise of the ordinary qualities of common sense and perseverance. The everyday life with its cares, necessities and duties affords ample opportunity for acquiring experience of the best kind and its beaten paths provide a true worker with abundant scope for effort and self improvement. Edward A. Jackson, one of the prominent citizens and farmers of Clay township, this county. belongs to an old family of that section.
Edward A. Jackson was born in Decatur county in 1857. the son of William T. and Margaret T. (Myers) Jackson, the former of whom was a native of Ohio, who came to Decatur county, settling in Clay township with his parents when a mere lad. He was born in Cincinnati about 1829, and died in 1889 at the age of sixty years. William T. Jackson was the son of William D. Jackson, who was born near the mouth of the Chickahominy river in Charles City county, Virginia, on October 13, 1797. The family originally lived in York county, a few miles east of the Chickahominy river in a very uphealthful region. The parents of William D. Jackson were stricken with malarial fever and died, leaving a large family of destitute chil- dren. The boys of the family were bound out to farmers of the neighbor- hood to lives of bitter toil, while the girls were sent to a public institution. William D. Jackson was one of these boys and was compelled to work in the fields with the negro slaves under the direction of a cruel overseer. The Jackson family is of Irish origin. and William D .. being of a fiery Celtic nature, could not endure such a life. One day he crossed the James river and left the country. After walking for many miles he reached Petersburg, and there learned the tailor's trade. At the same time, however, he had a strong inclination for the sea. His brother, Henry, did become a sailor and another
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brother, John, also went to sea and was shipwrecked and lost. William D. Jackson was accustomed to ride the river boats on the James river in follow- ing his trade as a tailor and on one of these trips got off the boat at a small town, called Crocks Ferry, on the Nanticoke river, and there met his future wife, Amelia Hillman, a daughter of Samuel Hillman, a merchant who kept the store at Crocks Landing. They were married in 1823, and, after living in Maryland until 1831, crossed the Alleghany mountains in a covered wagon and proceeded down the Ohio river by boat to Cincinnati, and there found work. At Cincinnati William D. Jackson met the elder Nicholas Longworth and with his assistance engaged in the real estate business and accumulated a snug fortune, which he invested in a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Fugit township, this county, in 1840. In 1844 he moved to this farm, and afterward owned various farms in this county, and here spent the remainder of his life. By his marriage to Amelia Hillman, William D. Jackson had a large family of children, of whom William T. was one.
William T. Jackson was about eighteen years old when he came to Decatur county with his parents. His wife, who before her marriage was Margaret Myers, was the daughter of Thomas Myers, one of the early set- tlers of Decatur county, and one of the wealthiest and most prominent men in pioneer times. After the Civil War William T. Jackson removed to Hend- ricks county, where he engaged in the dry goods and general mercantile busi- ness, and then moved to Milford, this county, where he owned a store, and kept the postoffice, also owning a large farm, now a part of the M. F. Miers land. Late in life William T. Jackson and wife removed from their farm in Clay township to Greensburg and there died. His remains are buried in the historic old cemetery at Milford. Of the children born to William T. and Margaret T. (Myers) Jackson, four are deceased and four are living, the latter being Annie, Edward A., Harry and William E. William E. lives in Washington township, this county, and Harry lives in Idaho. The deceased children were James, Benjamin, Adelaide and Jessie.
On April 14, 1880, Edward A. Jackson was married to Mary T. Burney, the daughter of S. M. and Sarah (Pumphry) Burney, old citizens of this county. S. M. Burney was born about 1814 in North Carolina and came to Decatur county with his parents in pioneer times, when Clay township was nothing but a wilderness. The family settled on a farm, which Edward A. Jackson now owns, and which is known as the old Burney farm. The par- ents of S. M. Burney spent the remainder of their lives in Milford, the mother having died in the home of her son, S. M. Burney, who was a very successful farmer and owned several hundred acres of land in this county.
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He gave five hundred dollars to the town of Burney when it was founded and purchased stock in the railroad when the latter was constructed through that section. Burney was named for him. He was a progressive, broad-minded man, whose word was as good as his bond. A public-spirited citizen, he donated several hundred dollars to the building of the Methodist churches at Milford and at Burney. He was a stanch Democrat and true to his party. While he never asked for office, he always held at heart the welfare of his party and his country. He left the impress of his character and his influence upon the life of this community, and died full of honors, as only a private citizen who has done well his duty, can die, passing away in 1901 at the home of his daughter. Mrs. Edward A. Jackson.
Mrs. Jackson was born in Clay township on the old Burney homestead. where she still lives, in 1860, one of nine children, born to her parents, six of whom are living and three of whom are deceased, James B., Lawrence and John B., deceased, and Mrs. Melinda Michael, Joseph, Mrs. Anne Littell, Edgar, Mrs. Ina Lewis and Mrs. Jackson, living.
About 1900 Edward A. Jackson sold the farm which he had owned previously and purchased at seventy dollars an acre two hundred acres of land. later buying the Dovey farm of ninety acres. This is the farm in Clay township, which Mr. Jackson owns, and is now almost invaluable. It lies at the edge of a growing and hustling town, where live as good people as are to be found anywhere on earth. Mr. Jackson has been a successful farmer, his chief products being hogs and corn. He feeds two or more carloads of hogs every year. His land is especially adapted for raising corn. Origin- ally wet and marshy, drainage has transformed the land into a fertile garden producing abundantly almost anything that may be sown or planted.
Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have a beautiful home. The live in a massive brick house built by Mrs. Jackson's father. the late S. M. Burney, a half century ago. It is a monument. strong and substantial, to the memory of a man who did things well. The brick was burned on the farm and practically all of the timber and all of the material used in the house were taken from the farm.
To Edward A. and Mary T. (Burney) Jackson two children have been born, Harry and Burney. Harry Jackson, who was born in 1888, married Verna Jewell, the daughter of William and Leona Jewell, who live near the Decatur and Bartholomew county line, and to this union two children have been born, Freda and William Edwin, the latter named after his grandfather Jewell. Burney Jackson, who is a well-known young farmer of this county, married Zelpha Galbraith, daughter of Andrew and Lena Galbraith.
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Edward A. Jackson is a Democrat and while not especially active as a political worker, has the interest of his party at heart. He and his wife are. members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is a charter member of the Knights of Pythias lodge at Burney. He is a stockholder in the Third National Bank at Greensburg, and also a stockholder in the Hope State Bank at Hope. Mr. Jackson has been a valuable citizen in this community, whose life and career are thoroughly appreciated by his neighbors, all of whom hold him in the highest esteem.
SAMUEL B. HANKS.
Samuel B. Hanks, a representative farmer and stockman of Clay town- ship, this county, descended on his paternal side from the family which gave to the world the mother of Abraham Lincoln, is known as one of the alert, progressive and liberal-minded farmers of this section. A man of wide information and reading he has been for many years a leader among the farmers of Clay township, having lived on his present fine farm in that town- ship since the time of his marriage, in 1907.
Born in Clay township, Decatur county, Indiana, in 1877, Samuel B. Hanks is a son of Newton and Mary ( Alley) Hanks, the latter of whom was the daughter of Samuel B. and Nancy (Selby) Alley, and the former of whom was born May 14, 1837, in Bradford county, Kentucky, the son of Sidnor D. Hanks, a pioneer citizen in that state. To Newton and Mary ( Alley) Hanks were born four children, Nannie and Hattie, deceased; Sam- uel R., the subject of this sketch, and Mrs. Amelia Boyce. Newton Hanks, who now lives in Covington, Kentucky, was a soldier in the Civil War, having enlisted three times and having served until the close of the war. His wife died in 1893. Newton Hanks has always been an ardent Democrat and is a member of the Baptist church.
Samuel B. Hanks was educated in the common schools of this county and at the Central Normal College at Danville, Indiana, as well as at Franklin College, receiving a liberal classical education, admirable preparation for the duties of life. On September 10, 1907. he was married to Della Davis, the daughter of James B. and Martha (Ewing) Davis, pioneer citizens of this county, to which union has been born one child, a daughter, Mary Caroline, who was born on December 25, 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Hanks are members of the Baptist church and are active in all good works in their neighborhood. being held in the very highest regard by all in that community. Mir. Hanks.
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is a Democrat and takes a warm interest in the political affairs of the county, being an ardent advocate of the principles of good government. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge at Burney and is popular with all the members of that lodge, as well as in the community at large.
JAMES G. DAVIS.
The commencement of the Davis family in Decatur county dates from the time that the late James Davis came to America, a poor lad of eleven years, from that country which has given to America so many of her dis- tinguished citizens and especially so many of her successful farmers and financiers. There is a flavor of romance in the career of this poor Irish lad, who after settling in Decatur county, Indiana, acquired during his life time nearly three thousand acres of land, and came to be known throughout the length and breadth of this county, and of adjoining counties, for his shrewd and far-seeing judgment. Nevertheless, in all of his dealings lie was known as a man whose word was a good as gold, honest and true in all the relations of life. He was, however, a speculator in land and owned five hundred acres in Daviess county, and the balance in Decatur and Shelby counties. That he was honored and respected is amply proved by the fact that on many occa- sions he was chosen to administer and settle up estates. It is a son of this Irish lad who, by diligent application of his native faculties, became a well- to-do citizen, that is the subject of this sketch. James G. Davis is an enter- prising farmer of Adams township, where he owns two hundred and sixty- four acres of land and where he is known as a large stockman.
James G. Davis was born on March 28, 1876, on the Davis homestead. where he now lives. His parents, James and Sarah E. ( Braden) Davis were natives of Mayo, Ireland, and Decatur county, Indiana, respectively. The former was born April 26, 1829, and died May 5, 1904, and the latter was born January 10, 1837, in Clay township, Decatur county, and died June 12, 19II.
After attending school near his home, James G. Davis lived with his father until the latter's death in 1904. and at his death received the old family homestead as a part of his inheritance. During these early years of his life he was engaged in farming, and was very successful, learning from his father the rudiments of agriculture. On his Adams township farm he now has an annual output of more than two hundred head of hogs. In 1913 he erected
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RESIDENCE OF JAMES G. DAVIS.
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at a cost of eight thousand dollars, a splendid modern home of twelve rooms, which is equipped with every modern convenience available to residents of the countryside. Not only is there a large barn on the farm, but there are also many other substantial buildings.
On December 24, 1907, three years after the death of his father, Mr. Davis was married at the age of thirty-one to Flora M. Champ, of near Burney, the daughter of F. Marion and Jennie Virginia (Boyce) Champ. The father is still living two miles west of Burney. The mother died on January 21, 1909. To Mr. and Mrs. Davis have been born two children, Sarah Virginia, born on November 15, 1909, and Francis Marion, on July 5, 1910; the former of whom is six years old and the latter is four.
Although Mr. Davis is an ardent Democrat, the pressure of his own per- sonal business has been too great to permit him to participate actively in poli- tical affairs, leaving such matters to others. Fraternally, he is a member of Milford lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. Mr. Davis and family are all- active workers in Union Chapel United Brethren church. Not only is Mr. Davis a large contributor to the church, but he takes a commendable interest in the various activities of Union Chapel, and is a man of strong religious instincts and impulses. So far as he is able, Mr. Davis is bent on carrying forward the ambitions and ideals of his worthy father. It is not too much to say that he has taken his place in the foremost ranks of the citizens of Adams township, and is today regarded as a wise and capable leader in all worthy enterprises which reflect the interest of the public as a whole.
THEODORE ELLIOTT.
Theodore Elliott has long been one of the active farmers and leading citizens of Clay township, this county, and at the present time owns a quarter section of land two miles southeast of Burney, a farm of gently undulating and fertile soil. His father was a veteran of the Civil War and his mother was reared in pioneer times on the broad prairies of the Hawkeye state.
Theodore Elliott was born in Clay township, near Clifty creek in 1850, the son of John P. and Margaret ( Heron) Elliott. The latter was born at Woodburn, Ohio, the daughter of Samuel Heron, a native of Ohio, who moved to Iowa, when Margaret was a small child and settled on the Des Moines river. He was the first white settler in that section of the Hawkeye
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state and one of the first in Iowa, the Indians at that time holding practically undisputed possession of the country. Samuel Heron became the first mail carrier of the state: in fact, he laid out the first established mail route in Iowa. His first home was within speaking distance of an Indian village. Ilis wife, Nancy Heron, the grandmother of Theodore Elliott, herded cattle on the prairies amid the dangerous attacks by the Indians. For the most part, however, the Indians were peaceful at that time. Samuel Heron and his wife spent their last days in the state of Iowa. There were several chil- tren born to them, of whom Margaret, the mother of Mr. Elliott, was the second. It was while on a visit to Iowa that John P. Elliott was married to Margaret Heron.
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