History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 102

Author: Barrows, Frederic Irving, 1873-1949
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1326

USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 102

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Mrs. Earl has also given much of her time and energies to the work of women's clubs in Indiana and is a past president of the Indiana Union of Literary Clubs. She was chairman of the committee that introduced the bill creating the public library commission of Indiana and successfully carried the same through the Legislature, and was appointed by Governor Mount the woman member of that commission of three; has been reappointed by each successive governor and is now president of the commission. In this impor- tant capacity Mrs. Earl has performed a most valuable service in behalf of library extension and development in Indiana and her influence has been car- ried into adjoining and other states. She is now president of the League of Library Commissions and is a member of the council of the American Library Association. It was through her suggestion that the Indiana Library Trustees Association was organized and it has been her enthusiastic co-operation in the labors of that association that has done much to advance the standard of libraries throughout the state. In 1915 she was president of this association and she also has served as president of the Indiana Library Association. She is vice-president of the Connersville library hoard and it was largely through her influence and direction that the handsome Carnegie library build- ing was secured for that city.

In her labors in behalf of the woman's clubs movement, Mrs. Earl has

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for years been particularly active and her activity and influence in that con- nection have done much to advance the movement in this state. When the "General Federation of Women's Clubs" began its campaign for a one-hun- dred-thousand-dollar endowment fund, Mrs. Earl was selected as chairman for Indiana and, with marked ability, raised several hundred dollars over Indiana's apportionment. At the biennial meetings of the General Federa- tion of Woman's Clubs held at Chicago in 1914 and at New York in 1916 she served as an aide to the president. When the secretary of agriculture asked Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker, president of the General Federation, to appoint a special committee of three to co-operate with the agricultural depart- ment of the federal government to ascertain what the government is doing in the way of aid for women and children, Mrs. Earl was selected as one of the three women appointed. So successful was the report made that the committee was asked to be continued and take up other departments, which work is now under way. Mrs. Earl has been an extensive traveler, both in this country and in foreign lands, and a trip through the Holy Land made some years ago gave her vivid and invaluable impressions with which to render more realistic her presentation of the Bible lessons to the plastic minds of her Sunday school pupils. Mrs. Earl is a Presbyterian and is devoted to foreign missions.

MORELL J. EARL.

Morell J. Earl, of Lafayette, Indiana, who died in the summer of 1879, and whose widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Claypool Earl, has since made her home at "Maplewood," the home of her father and of her grandfather, at Conners- ville, was born at Lafayette, Indiana, June 7, 1853, and was therefore but twenty-six years of age at the time of his death. He was the son of Adams and Martha ( Hawkins) Earl, both of whom were born in the state of Ohio, and who were the parents of two children, the subject of this memorial sketch having had a sister, Alice, who married Charles B. Stuart, of Logansport, who became a prominent lawyer of Lafayette.

Adams Earl was for years one of Lafayette's best-known and most influential merchants and landowners. The wholesale grocery business he built up there became one of the most substantial mercantile establishments in that city. He did other things also on a large scale and "Shadeland Farm," his Hereford cattle ranch on the Wea plain, near Lafayette, was widely famed for the excellence of the cattle he bred there. He and his wife spent all of

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their married life in Lafayette and died at their beautiful home, "Earlhurst," stately in its natural setting of forest trees.

Morell J. Earl was reared at Lafayette and finished his schooling at Wabash College and at Amherst College, Massachusetts. From boyhood he took much interest in his father's farming and stock-raising operations and received careful instruction along the lines of agriculture, owning a large tract of land in Benton county, upon which he had a herd of Shorthorn cattle. After completing his college course, he entered the wholesale store with his father and was devoting himself to a business career, with prospects for large success opening out before him, when his death occurred on July 28, 1879.

Less than a year before his death, on October 9, 1878, Morell J. Earl was united in marriage to Elizabeth Claypool, of Connersville, daughter of Austin B. Claypool and granddaughter of Newton Claypool, and his widow still survives, making her home at "Maplewood," the old homestead at which her grandfather and his wife established their home in 1836, then a large farm, where now stands the beautiful suburb, "Maplewood," of the city of Connersville. In a memorial sketch relating to Austin B. Claypool, presented elsewhere in this volume, there are set out, in full, details relating to the origin of the Claypool family in this community and of the good works and the various services to the community rendered by Newton Claypool and by his son, Austin B. Claypool, and by the latter's daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Claypool Earl, and the reader's attention is respectfully called to the same in connection with this brief memorial sketch of a brave young man whose life went out just at the time when that life seemed fairer to him than ever before.

JAMES F. HOLLAND.

James F. Holland, a former member of the board of county commis- sioners of Fayette county and one of the best-known and most substantial farmers of Waterloo township, proprietor of a fine farm of four hundred and eighty acres of land, was born in that township, on a pioneer farm not far from his present home, and has lived in that vicinity all his life. He was born on June 19, 1861, son of William A. and Mary A. (Scholl) Holland, both now deceased, who also were born in that same township, where they spent all their lives, among the best-known and most influential residents of that part of the county.

William A. Holland was born in 1833, a son of Robert and Margaret

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(Stephenson) Holland, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of the state of Ohio, who were among the early settlers of Waterloo township, this county. Robert Holland was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, in 1779, and was well grown when he came to this country and settled in Hamilton county, Ohio, where he married Margaret Stephenson, who lived in Colerain township, that county. Shortly after his marriage Robert Holland came over into Indiana and entered a tract of "Congress land" in Waterloo township, this county, and there established his home. He also owned a farm in Union county. He was a weaver as well as a farmer and was wont to work at his trade as a weaver at night, spending his days farming, and it is related of him that it was nothing unusual for him to sit before his loom all night and then do a full day's work in the fields the next day. His son, William A. Holland, grew to manhood on the pioneer farm where he was born and for several winters taught school in that neighborhood. He spent his entire life in that township, a life-long farmer, and came to be the owner of four farms, aggre- gating four hundred and eighty acres, in Waterloo township, besides helping his children to get a start on farms of their own. William A. Holland was an ardent Republican and for some time served as assessor of his home town- ship and for sixteen years served as a member of the board of county com- missioners of Fayette county, his services in the latter connection proving of much value to the county at large. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and were among the leaders in all good works in the community in which they lived. William A. Holland died on May II, 1908, and his widow survived a little less than two years, her death occurring in February, 1910. She also was born in Waterloo township and lived there all her life. Her maiden name was Mary A. Scholl and she was a daughter of John and Sallie (Reed) Scholl, members of pioneer families in that part of the county.

John Scholl was born in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, in 1824, and was about nine years of age when his parents, John and Sallie (Reed) Scholl came to Indiana with their family and settled in Fayette county, establishing their home on a tract of land bought from the government in Waterloo town- ship. The senior John Scholl also was born in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, a son of John Jacob and Mary (Hetzel) Scholl, natives of that same county, of German descent, the former having been born there in 1773, son of John Peter Scholl, who was born in the Black Forest of Germany and who, when a lad, started with his parents and the other members of their family for this country, all of the family save himself dying on shipboard of cholera on the way over. John Jacob Scholl and his family came to Indiana from Penn-

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sylvania in 1833 and settled in Fayette county, where Jolin Jacob Scholl died in 1870, at the age of ninety-six years. His son, the senior Jolin Scholl, also located in Waterloo township, this county, in 1833, and there died in 1876, he then being at the age of seventy-six years. He and his wife ( Sallie Reed) were the parents of seven children, John, Sallie, David, Mary, Henry, Leah and William. The junior Jolin Scholl was but nine years of age when he came with his parents from Pennsylvania to this county and here he grew to manhood on the pioneer farm in Waterloo township, where he spent all his life. On August 19, 1852, he married Jane Holland, who also was born in this county, a daughter of Henry and Jane Holland, pioneers, and their daughter, Mary A. Scholl, grew to womanhood in Waterloo township and there married William A. Holland. To that union five children were born, those besides the subject of this sketch, the second in order or birth, being as follow: Mrs. Alice N. Byrne, deceased; John W., of Cottage Grove, Union county, this state: Charles E., of Connersville, and Mrs. Edie B. McGraw, of Connersville.

James F. Holland grew up on the paternal farm in Waterloo township and remained at home until his marriage at the age of twenty-seven years, when he began farming on the place where he now lives and where he ever since has made his home, long having been regarded as one of the most sub- stantial farmers in that part of the county. Mr. Holland owns four hundred and eighty acres of land and has done very well in his farming operations. His place is well improved and well kept and he and his wife are very com- fortably situated. Mr. Holland is a Republican and has ever taken a. good citizen's interest in local civic affairs. He has served as a member of the board of county commissioners, having been appointed, without his previous knowl- edge or solicitation, to fill an unexpired term on the board and then elected to fill the balance of the unexpired term.

Mr. Holland has been twice married. In 1888 he was united in marriage to Nancy McDaniel, who was born in Hancock county, this state, a daughter of Jacob and Martha (McCray) McDaniel, and who died in August, 1903, without issue. In 1906 Mr. Holland married Mrs. Emily J. (McDaniel) Scholl, his deceased wife's sister and widow of W. C. Scholl. She also was born in Hancock county and there lived until her marriage to W. C. Scholl, a native of this county, coming to Fayette county with her husband in 1883 and locating near Springersville, where she lived until Mr. Scholl's death in December, 1889. She has two sons by her first marriage, Chester A. Scholl, who is now living in Iowa, and Curtis Scholl, who is living on the place his

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father owned near Springersville. Mrs. Holland is a member of the Uni- versalist church and Mr. Holland is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

WILLIAM THOMAS JONES.

William Thomas Jones, one of Fayette county's best-known old settlers and a well-to-do farmer in Connersville township, proprietor of a well-kept farm in the southern part of that township, is a native son of Fayette county and has lived here all his life with the exception of eight years, during the seventies, when he was pioneering on the plains of Kansas and enduring the hardships and privations of "grasshopper days" in that state. He was born on a pioneer farm in Orange township, this county, December 27, 1845, son of George Washington and Elizabeth (Bedell) Jones, the former also a native of this county and the latter of whom was born over in Preble county, Ohio, whose last days were spent in this county, respected and influential residents of Orange township.

George Washington Jones was born on the farm in the southwestern part of Connersville township, the place on which his son, the subject of this sketch, has for years made his home, and was a son of William and Lucinda (Ginn) Jones, pioneers of this section of Indiana. William Jones was born in Culpeper county, Virginia, and upon reaching manhood went to Bracken county, Kentucky, where he married Lucinda Ginn and about 1829 came on up into Indiana and settled in Fayette county, entering from the government a tract of eighty acres in the southwestern part of Connersville township, the place on which his grandson, the subject of this sketch, is now living. There William Jones and his brave pioneer wife established their home and with all the toil and endeavor necessary in the creation of a farm in a forest wilder- ness presently had a good piece of property. Upon coming here they had but one horse and on that horse Mrs. Jones rode up from Kentucky, carry- ing her babe in her arms, her husband walking alongside and carrying a gun as a protection against possible dangers from wild beasts or Indians. Their small cooking equipment and a few essential household belongings were strapped onto the horse and they arrived here with an exceedingly limited equipment for making a home. However, they had stout hearts and willing hands and it was not long until they had a little log house erected in a clearing which William Jones made on his place and had begun to make a place of comfortable residence. On that pioneer farm William Jones and his wife

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spent the rest of their lives, and there George W. Jones grew to manhood, a valued aid in the labors of improving and developing the home place. In 1840 he married and three years later, in 1843, located on a farm in Orange township, this county, where he spent the rest of his life. George W. Jones was a man of firm convictions and much strength of character and for years rendered excellent service in his community as township trustee. He pos- sessed in a high degree the confidence of his neighbors and frequently was called on to act as administrator of estates or as guardian of minor heirs and in all these positions of trust acquitted himself faithfully. He and his wife were members of the Christian church and took an earnest part in all neighborhood good works. George W. Jones died in 1897 and his widow survived him for nearly ten years, her death occurring in 1906. She was born, Elizabeth Bedell, near Lebanon, in Preble county, Ohio, a daughter of John and Martha (Yaryan) Bedell, who had moved from New Jersey to Ohio, then to Indiana, and then in 1845 moved to Iowa, where their last days were spent. To George W. Jones and wife were born seven children, three of whom died in childhood and another, John Bedell Jones, in 1911, the survivors being the subject of this sketch and his two sisters, Mrs. Nancy L. McKee, of Posey township, Franklin county, and Mrs. Sallie I. Logan, of Noble township, Rush county.

William T. Jones grew to manhood on the paternal farm in Orange township and for two or three years before his marriage farmed on his own account on his father's place. In the latter part of 1869 he married and in 1872 he and his wife went to Kansas and settled on a tract of a quarter of a section of railroad land he bought in Lincoln county, that state. Grass- hoppers, droughts and hot winds made life a burden for Kansas farmers during that period, but Mr. Jones persisted, despite all the discouragements that beset him, and in time developed a good piece of property there. There he remained until 1880, when, at the urgent request of his father, he returned to Indiana and resumed his place on the old home farm in Orange town- ship. On September 3, 1895, Mr. Jones moved to his present farm in the southwestern part of Connersville township, the place that had been opened in the wilderness by his grandfather in 1829, and there he and his family are very pleasantly situated. Mr. Jones is the owner of one hundred acres of well-improved land and has done very well in his farming operations. He is a member of the Christian church and his wife is a member of the Methodist church, both taking a proper part in neighborhood good works.

Mr. Jones has been twice married. On December 8, 1869, he was united in marriage to Ann Eliza Johnson, who also was born in Orange township,

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this county, daughter of Louis and Louisa (Winchell) Johnson, who came to this county from Pennsylvania about 1830 and settled in Orange town- ship, and to that union four children were born, namely: Sedella Lee, who married Edward Thomas, of East Connersville, and has three children, Gladys, Frank and Garnet ; George C., a contractor and carpenter, now living at Glen- wood, in Orange township, this county, who married Mollie Medsker and has four children, Nellie, Cecil, Evelyn and Elizabeth: Charles F., who lives on the home farm with his father, and Eva, who died in infancy. The mother of these children died in 1883 and in 1887. Mr. Jones married Emma Steffey, who was born at Laurel, in Franklin county, this state, a daughter of Lewis and Amelia (Snyder) Steffey, both of whom were born at Williamsport, Maryland, and who, after a sometime residence in Ohio, came to Indiana and located at Laurel, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Lewis Steffey was a carpenter and contractor and followed that vocation to the time of his death. He died in 1880 and his widow survived him about four years, her death occurring in 1884. They were the parents of six children, all of whom grew to maturity save one, who died at the age of nineteen months. Of the others, William Steffey died in 1903 and Mrs. Catherine Naylor died on September 27. 1912, Mrs. Jones now having two surviving sisters, Mrs. Matilda Cameron and Mrs. Alice Sheppard.

SAMUEL CALVIN MOFFETT.

Samuel Calvin Moffett, one of the well-remembered pioneers of Fayette county, who died at his home just over the line near Beeson, in the neighbor- ing county of Wayne, had been a resident of Fayette county since 1833, having come up to this part of Indiana in 1833 with his parents, he then being a child of five years, and has spent the rest of his life in this vicinity, thus having been a participant in the development of the interests of the northern part of this county, his family having settled in Harrison township, from pio- neer days. He was born on a pioneer farm in Grainger county, in the eastern part of Tennessee, January 17, 1828, a son of Samuel and Mary ( Donaldson) Moffett, who later became pioneers of this part of Indiana and here spent their last days.

The elder Samuel Moffett was born in Ireland, a son of Henry, whose father's name also was Henry Moffett, and with others of the family came to this country, locating in Grainger county, Tennessee, in 1803. There he

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was naturalized, becoming a citizen of the United States, and when the War of 1812 broke out enlisted for service in behalf of the arms of his adopted country and served in the army of Andrew Jackson. Samuel Moffett was a neighbor of David Crockett in his Tennessee home and became one of the stalwart pioneers of that section of the state. There he married Mary Donaldson, daughter of a pioneer of that section of Tennessee, and in 1833 came north with his family and settled in this part of Indiana, where he and his wife spent the rest of their lives. Previous to coming up here Samuel Moffett had bought a tract of land in the northern part of Ilarrison township. Fayette county, a tract of wild and unimproved land, the farm now occupied by his grandson, O. O. Moffett, and for a year, while getting the same ready for occupancy, made his home on the Dungan farm, one-half mile west of Beeson. He gradually improved his woodland farm until he had one of the best places in that part of the county, and there he and his wife spent the rest of their lives, useful and influential pioneer residents of Harrison township. They were the parents of ten children, James, William, Lambert, Jane, Nancy, Susan, Franklin, Elizabeth, Samuel Calvin and Emeline.

Samuel Calvin Moffett was but five years of age when his family moved to Fayette county and he grew to manhood on the home farm in Fayette county, becoming thoroughly familiar with the conditions that confronted the pioneers of this section of the state. He lived on the home place after his marriage, having bought the interests of the other heirs in the old home- stead, and there continued to make his home until in December, 1867, when he moved to a farm south of Beeson, just over the line in Wayne county, and there he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. His death occurred on July 17, 1892, and she survived until December 9, 1902. She was born, Exeline Cox, May 9, 1827, near Ogden, in Henry county, this state, and was a member of one of the pioneer families of that section. To Samuel C. Moffett and wife ten children were born, three of whom died in infancy and seven of whom lived to maturity. One of the daughters, Belle, died on Janu- ary 6, 1881, and one of the sons, Oscar Franklin, who was born on January 25, 1858, died on May 9, 1893. The five still living are as follow : Simpson. of Kinnard, in the neighboring county of Henry; Emery, who lives two miles west of Connersville; Otho O., mentioned above as living on the home place that was settled by his grandfather back in 1833, and a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume ;. Lambert, who lives three miles southeast of Middletown, in Henry county, and Mrs. Oma Mochworth, who lives one and one-half miles west of the village of Dublin, in Wayne county.

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OTHO ORLANDO MOFFETT.

Otho Orlando Moffett, one of the well-known and substantial farmers of Harrison township, this county, was born on the farm on which he is now living, on the northern edge of that township, and has lived there most of his life. He was born on March 11, 1862, son of Samuel Calvin and Exeline (Cox) Moffett, the former of whom was born in eastern Tennessee and who came to this county with his parents when he was five years of age, and the latter of whom was born in Henry county, this state, a daughter of pioneer parents. Samuel Calvin Moffett became one of Fayette county's substantial farmers. He and his wife spent their last days on a farm in the neighbor- hood of Beeson, over the line in Wayne county, but their children were reared on the pioneer farm in Fayette county, the place taken by Samuel C. Moffett's father, Samuel Moffett, in 1833, when he moved up here with his family from Tennessee, the place now occupied by the subject of this sketch. In a memo- rial sketch relating to Samuel C. Moffett, presented elsewhere in this volume, there are set out further details concerning the Moffett family in this section of the state, to which the attention of the reader is invited in this connection.

On the pioneer farm in the northern edge of Harrison township, above referred to, Otho O. Moffett grew to manhood. He received his schooling in the district school in that neighborhood and from boyhood was a valued assistant to his father and his brothers in the labors of developing and improv- ing the home place. After his marriage in 1887 Mr. Moffett continued to make his home on the home place for about seven years, at the end of which time he moved to another farm that had belonged to his father, between Conners- ville and Waterloo, and there was engaged in farming until 1900, when he returned to the old home place, where he was born and where he ever since has made his residence, he and his family being very pleasantly and very com- fortably situated there. Mr. Moffett owns ninety-eight acres and has a fine new house and a very well-kept place, his farm being improved according to modern standards. Mr. Moffett is a life-long Democrat and has ever given a good citizen's atention to local civic affairs, an ardent exponent of clean politics, but has not been a seeker after public office. He is a member of the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that organization.

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History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 102

Author: Barrows, Frederic Irving, 1873-1949 Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1326

Author: Barrows, Frederic Irving, 1873-1949
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1326