USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 103
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On February 17, 1887, Otho O. Moffett was united in marriage to Clara Dailey, who was born on the old James Lester farm on the Rushville road between Connersville and Glenwood, in the southwest quarter of section 30,
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Connersville township, this county, a daughter of Aaron and Mary A. (Les- ter) Dailey, both of whom were born in this county, members of pioneer families. Aaron Dailey was born on October 28, 1824, a son of William Dailey and wife, of English descent, and Mary A. Lester was born on Sep- tember 28, 1830, a daughter of James and Jennie Lester, both of Irish par- entage, who were early settlers in the western part of Connersville township, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Moffett have four children, namely: Murl Leroy Moffett, who lives at Richmond, this state; Mabel May, who married Denni- son Kerr, living near Hawkinsville, this county, and has one child, a daughter, Virginia Eloise; Mary Marie, who married Ernest Caldwell, who lives near Yankeetown, in Harrison township, Fayette county, and Luella, who is at home with her parents. The Moffetts have a very pleasant home and have ever taken a proper part in the general social activities of the community in which they live, helpful in advancing all worthy causes thereabout.
SANFORD SHORTRIDGE.
The late Sanford Shortridge, who died at his farm home in Fairview township in 1902 and who for years was one of the best-known and most sub- stantial farmers in that part of the county, was born in Posey township and moved to the farm when six months old, where he died and where he had spent all his life. He was born on July 23, 1847, son of James and Mary (Keaton) Shortridge, the former of whom was born in the neighboring county of Wayne on April 30, 1818, a son of Samuel and Eleanor (Hulse) Short- ridge, and the latter at Reading, in Hamilton county, Ohio, December 29, 1819, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca (Young) Keaton, natives, respec- tively of Maryland and Pennsylvania, the former born in 1782 and the latter in 1788. Thomas Keaton and Rebecca Young were married in Philadelphia and moved thence to Cincinnati and subsequently to Reading, Ohio, when, in 1820, they came up the White Water valley and settled in this county, estab- lishing their home on land that Mr. Keaton had entered in Fairview township. In 1854 the Keatons moved from this county to Madison county and there both Thomas Keaton and his wife spent their last days, her death occurring on September 15. 1863, and his, February 28, 1866. They were the parents of nine children, William, Benjamin, Thomas, James, John, Mary, Ambrose, Susan and Joseph.
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Samuel Shortridge, father of James Shortridge and grandfather of San- ford Shortridge, was born in Kentucky in 1795 and there was married to Eleanor Hulse, who was born in the state of Pennsylvania in that same year. After their marriage Samuel Shortridge and his wife settled in Powell county, Kentucky, where they remained until 1815, when they came up into the then Territory of Indiana and settled on a farm in Harrison township, this county, where they spent the remainder of their lives, Samuel Shortridge dying in 1844 and his widow surviving until 1879. They were the parents of eleven children, Price, Fannie, James, Daniel, Elisha, George, William, Jesse, Jane, Mercer and Hester. James Shortridge, second son of Samuel Shortridge, grew to manhood on the home farm and continued farming in that neighborhood all his life, after his marriage settling on a farm in the north- eastern part of the neighboring township of Fairview. On January 8, 1841, he was united in marriage to Mary Keaton, whose family has been mentioned above, and to that union seven children were born, Samuel, Sanford, Rebecca J., Louisa, Mary E., George T. and Emma B. James Shortridge died at his home in Fairview township on December 26, 1872, and his widow survived him many years, her death occurring at the home of her daughter and son-in- law, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, in Fairview on September 23, 1905.
Sanford Shortridge lived from the days of his infancy on the farm where his widow now lives and where he spent his last days. He spent his boyhood in a log cabin and grew up familiar with conditions in a pioneer community, one of his tasks as a lad being to ride once a week to Cambridge for the mail. He was fourteen years of age when his father began the erection of a new farm house, the house in which Mrs. Shortridge now lives. That was about the time of the outbreak of the Civil War and before the house was completed every man who had been engaged in its construction had gone to war. After the death of his father in 1872 he continued making his home with his mother and after his marriage in the spring of 1885 established his home there, his mother thereafter making her home alternately with her several children, who in the meantime had married and established homes of their own. About a year after his marriage Sanford Shortridge bought the interests of the other heirs in the home place and made many substantial improvements to the same, coming to be regarded as one of the most pro- gressive and substantial farmers in that section. He prospered in his opera- tions and he and his family became very comfortably situated. Sanford Shortridge died at his home in Fairview township on October 10, 1902, and his widow continues to make her home there.
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On March 18, 1885, Sanford Shortridge was united in marriage to Ida E. Dora, who was born in Columbia township, this county, January 4, 1862, a daughter of Robert C. and Nancy Ellen ( Hartman) Dora, the former of whom was born in Bracken county, Kentucky, March 17, 1841, a son of William and Elizabeth ( Morris) Dora, and who came, to Indiana when a boy of sixteen or seventeen years to make his home with a sister in this county. At the age of nineteen Robert C. Dora married Nancy Ellen Hartman, who was born in Connersville township, this county, a daughter of Levi and Rebecca ( Mount) Hartman, pioneers of this county. Levi Hart- man was born in the neighboring county of Franklin on December 7, 1816, son of Henry and Nancy (Smith) Hartman, who were born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, the former of whom was a son of Frederick Hartman, a native of Germany, who had come to this country in pre-Revolutionary days and settled in Berks county, Pennsylvania, where he married Nancy Black and in 1813 came thence into the then Territory of Indiana and settled in Frank- lin county, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a soldier of the patriot army during the Revolutionary War and upon coming to this part of the country took an active part in the affairs of the then pioneer commun- ity. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, Jacob, Catherine, Frederick, Nancy, Michael, Hannah and Henry. The latter, father of Levi Hartman, married in Bucks county. Pennsylvania, Nancy Smith, of that county, and in 1813 accompanied his parents to the then "wilds" of Indiana Territory, settling near Brookville, where his first wife died in 1816, leav- ing three sons, Abraham, James and Levi. Henry Hartman later married Elsie Tharpe and in 1854 moved to Platte county, Missouri, where he and his wife spent their last days. To that second union five children were born, Jonathan, William, Nancy, Newton and Lovina. Levi Hartman grew up on a farm and early began farming on his own account. In June, 1838, he married Rebecca (Mount) Jones, who by a former marriage was left with one child when she married Levi Hartman. After his marriage Mr. Hart- man rented a farm in Connersville township, this county, where he remained about eighteen years. In the meantime he had bought a farm in Wabash county, which he afterward sold and in 1852 bought and moved onto the farm in Connersville township, where he spent the rest of his life, a substan- tial farmer, the owner of a fine farm of four hundred and twenty acres. Levi Hartman and wife were the parents of nine children, Nancy Ellen, Alfred, John C., Hezekiah, Clarissa, Rhoda, Henry, Hannah and James.
After his marriage to Nancy Ellen Hartman, Robert C. Dora rented a
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farm in Columbia township, this county, and it was there that their daughter, Ida E., now Mrs. Shortridge, was born. In 1862 Mr. Dora took his wife and baby daughter to his old home in Kentucky and while there he was imprisoned for resisting an attempt to enroll him in the Confederate army. His wife had already started back to her home in this county with her baby, but, upon learning of her husband's imprisonment, returned to Kentucky to rejoin him, but before she reached the place of his imprisonment was overjoyed to meet him on the way back North, he having been released. The most of Robert C. Dora's subsequent life was spent on a farm in Orange township, this county, though his last days were spent in Glenwood, where his death occurred on March 18, 1913, and where his widow is now living. For many years, in addition to his general farming, Robert C. Dora operated a thresh- ing-machine outfit and was one of the best-known men in the western part of the county. For some years he served as assessor of Orange township and in other ways contributed of his time and his energies to the public service, being justice of the peace at the time of his death. To him and his wife nine children were born, of whom but four are now living, those besides Mrs. Shortridge being William, who lives on a farm on the edge of Frank- lin county ; Rebecca, wife of John Jordan, of Rushville, and Clara, who is living with her widowed mother in Glenwood.
Ida E. Dora grew up on the home farm in Orange township and com- pleted her schooling in the Connersville Normal School. She then entered the ranks of Fayette county's teaching corps and for five years served as a teacher, teaching in the schools of Orange. Harrison and Fairview townships, and was thus engaged at the time of her marriage to Mr. Shortridge. To that union four children were born, Irvin D., Bertha M., Estella F. and Nellie L. Irvin D. Shortridge was born on June 29, 1886, and was carefully trained to the ways of the farm. He is now managing the home farm for his mother and is likewise farming an adjoining farm, about two hundred and fifty acres in all, and is doing well. He married Goldie Swift and has two children, Noel D. and Norma E. Bertha M. Shortridge married Justus Rees, a farmer living near Gings Station, in Rush county, and has one child, a son, Myron Deloris. Estella F. Shortridge makes her home with her widowed mother. When Fayette county gave its first free fair she was one of the "queens" in the notable pageant that marked that affair, a picture of which pageant is presented elsewhere in this volume. Nellie L. Shortridge married Dr. Clarence Hinchman, son of U. G. Hinchman, and lives at Indian- apolis. She has one child, a son, Wayne D.
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CHARLES M. ARCHEY.
Charles M. Archey, one of Harrison township's well-known and sub- stantial farmers, is a native of the Old Dominion, but has been a resident of Indiana since he was twenty years of age and of this county since the early eighties. He was born in Monroe county, in that section of Virginia now comprised in West Virginia, September 22, 1848, son of Charles S. and Frances (Shirey) Archey, both natives of Virginia, the former born in the Shenandoah Valley and the latter in Monroe county, who spent their last days there.
Charles S. Archey was a farmer and also for many years a merchant. He was engaged in the mercantile business when the Civil War broke out and hired two substitutes to take his place in the ranks, during the last nine months of the war his son, Charles M. Archey, the subject of this sketch, though little more than a boy at that time, taking his place at the front.
Upon the completion of his military service Charles M. Archey returned to his home in West Virginia and remained there until the fall of 1868, when, he then being twenty years of age, he came to Indiana and located in Rush county, where he began working as a farm hand and for nineteen years was thus engaged, most of the time in Rush county. In the summer of 1881 he married and about 1884 he began farming for himself, renting the Heman Jones farm in Columbia township. this county, and, with the exception of three years has farmed in Fayette county ever since: three years in Columbia township, three years in Orange township, ten years in Waterloo township, and since November, 1904, has been farming in Harrison township, his place being situated two and one-half miles north of the court house. Mr. Archey is farming one hundred and eighty-seven acres and in addition to his general farming has traded quite a bit in horses and cattle. All of his place is under cultivation with the exception of about fifteen acres of blue grass in the creek bottom. Mr. Archey has witnessed the evolution of farming from the days of the hand scythe and the flax hackle and has ever kept pace with the various improvements in the methods of farming through all the years in which he has been actively engaged as an agriculturist since the days of his boyhood.
On August 18, 1881, some years after coming to this state, Charles M. Archey was united in marriage to Luella B. Holmes, who was born in Union county, this state, a daughter of John and Sarah (Scholl) Holmes, the former a native of that same county and the latter, of Fayette county. John Holmes
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was reared in Union county, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth Holmes. His wife, Sarah Scholl, was born in Jennings township, this county, a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Scholl, who came from Pennsylvania in the early days of the settlement of this part of the state, settled in Fayette county and spent their last days in Jennings township. John Holmes moved from Union county to Rush county and for nearly fifty years was engaged in farming there, his last days being spent at Glenwood.
To Mr. and Mrs. Archey seven children have been born, namely: Daisy, who married Ernest Watt, of Wayne county, and has four children, Sarah Sylvira, Robert Earl, Erna Luella and Helen Louise; Bertha, who married Alfred Bateman and lives in Waterloo township; Frank, now living in Union county, who married Bertha Kershner and has two children, Glenna Fay and Frances Ruth: Errol, who lives in Waterloo township with his sister, Mrs. Bateman, and husband, and Carl, Ethel May and Annis Mildred, who are at home with their parents. The Archeys have a very pleasant home and have ever taken a proper part in the general social activities of the community in which they live, helpful in promoting all agencies having to do with the advancement of the common welfare thereabout. Mr. Archey is a member of the Connersville lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that popular organization.
HOWELL G. PYKE.
Howell G. Pyke, a well-known and substantial farmer and stockman of the Orange neighborhood in the southwestern part of Fayette county and proprietor of a fine farm in section 2 of Orange township, was born in Tipton county, Indiana, January 6, 1870, son of Robert H. and Lucinda (Stires) Pyke, who spent their last days on a farm in that county.
Robert H. Pyke was born on January 10, 1836, a son of John Wesley and Nancy (Hastings) Pyke, pioneers of Orange township, this county. John Wesley Pyke, who was born on February 4, 1797, was married on May 21, 1823, to Nancy Hastings, who was born on June 1, 1800, a daughter of Robert and Isabella Hastings, the former of whom was born on June 20, 1765, and was married on October 27, 1796. After his marriage John W. Pyke established his home in Orange township, this county, then moved to Howard county and there spent the remainder of his life, one of the substan- tial pioneer residents of that community. Robert H. Pyke grew to manhood
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in Fayette county and was united in marriage in 1854 to Lucinda Stires, who was born in the neighboring county of Rush on September 27, 1833, a daughter of Benjamin and Barbara Stires. About a year after his marriage Robert H. Pyke moved to a farm in Prairie township, Tipton county, and there he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, his death occurring on December 2, 1903, and hers, January 25, 1916. They were members of the Methodist church and were the parents of ten children, two of whom died in infancy and the others of whom are still living, those besides the subject of this sketch being as follow: O. M. Pyke, of Tipton county; Mrs. Ella Hutto, of Kingman, Kansas; J. F: Pyke, a lawyer, of Tipton; Mrs. Laura M. Amstett, of Fowler, this state; Robert E. Pyke, of Indianapolis; William M. Pyke, of Constantine, Michigan, and Sherman Pyke, of Tipton county.
Howell G. Pyke grew to manhood on the home farm in Tipton county and remained there until 1897, when he came to Fayette county and rented the farm in section 2 of Orange township, the northwest quarter of that sec- tion, which he now owns, and after his marriage a few months later established his home there and has ever since made that his place of residence. When Mr. Pyke took charge of that farm of one hundred and sixty acres the place was badly run down, but by industry and the exercise of modern methods of agriculture he has built it up until he has one of the best-improved and most highly cultivated farms in that part of the county. Seven years after taking charge of the farm he bought it and has since made many substantial improvements on the same, having an excellent residence and good farm buildings. In addition to his general farming Mr. Pyke has given consider- able attention to the raising of a good grade of live stock and has done very well in his operations. Mr. Pyke has ever given close attention to local civic affairs and in 1912 was the nominee of the Progressive party for sheriff of Fayette county.
On August 18, 1897, a few months after coming to Fayette county, Howell G. Pyke was united in marriage to Emma Hitchell, who was born in the neighboring county of Franklin, daughter of Jacob and Caroline (Porter) Hitchell, the former of whom was born in Germany and the latter in the neighborhood of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jacob Hitchell moved with his family from Franklin county to this county in the fall of 1892 and located on a farm in section II of Orange township, where he died a year later. His widow did not long survive him, her death occurring about a year later. She had been previously married to Jonathan Abercrom- bie, who died leaving five children. By her marriage to Jacob Hitchell she was the mother of four children, those besides Mrs. Pyke being as follow :
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Carrie, who married James Cox and died in the spring of 1910; Jacob, who is living on his own farm in the southern part of Orange township, and William, who is making his home with the Pykes. Mr. and Mrs. Pyke have two sons, Virgil H., born on December 26, 1898, who has just completed the high-school course, and Lester M., born on January 10, 1907. Mrs. Pyke is a member of the Christian church and Mr. Pyke belongs to the Methodist church. They have a very pleasant home and have ever taken a proper part in the general social activities of the community in which they live.
HIRAM SHIPLEY.
Hiram Shipley, former member of the board of county commissioners of Fayette county and a well-known and substantial farmer of Harrison township, this county, was born in that township and has lived there all his life. He was born on a pioneer farm near the Yankeetown school, in the northwestern part of Harrison township, August 24, 1856, son of Thomas Rodney and Sarah P. (Groves) Shipley, the former of whom, born on that same farm, spent all his life there and the latter of whom is still living there.
Thomas Rodney Shipley was born on November 15, 1821, a son of Thomas and Eleanor (Morgan) Shipley, the former a native of the state of Maryland and the latter of Virginia, who became pioneers of Fayette county and here spent their last days. Thomas Shipley was born near the city of Baltimore on February 16, 1772, a son of Adam and Rachel Shipley, the former of whom died on November 20, 1818, and the latter, September 16, 1820. Thomas Shipley served as a soldier during the war of 1812 and later moved from Maryland to Kentucky, whence he came up into Indiana in 1821 and settled on a tract of "Congress land" which he had bought from . the government in the western part of section 2 of Harrison township, the original parchment deed to the tract signed by President Monroe on April I, 1823, being now in the possession of the first settler's grandson, Hiram Ship- ley, the subject of this sketch. Thomas Shipley created an excellent farm there and on that pioneer home place spent his last days, his death occurring on January 7, 1846. His widow, Eleanor Morgan, who was born in Virginia in 1782, survived him for more than ten years, her death occurring on Octo- ber 3, 1857.
On that pioneer farm on which he was born, Thomas Rodney Shipley spent his entire life. On February 1, 1849, he married Sarah P. Groves,
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
who was born on a pioneer farm over in Rush county, just west of Fair- view, May 9, 1828, daughter of Donovan and Sarah (Hix) Groves, natives of Kentucky, who had come up into this part of Indiana in pioneer days. Donovan Groves was born in Kentucky on December 5, 1797, a son of Robert and Martha (Miller) Groves, the former of whom was a soldier in the patriot army during the Revolutionary War, and who moved from Kentucky into Indiana about 1821 and settled on a farm on the eastern edge of Rush county, near Fairview. Robert Groves was a well-known minister of the Methodist church in early days and exerted a wide influence for good here- about. He died on August 25, 1855, at the age of ninety-one years and six months. His wife preceded him to the grave just five days, her death having occurred on August 20, 1855, aged eighty-nine years and five months. They had been married for a bit more than sixty-seven years. Donovan Groves spent his last days as a farmer in Rush county and there died on May 28, 1858, at the age of fifty-one years. His wife, Sarah Hix, was born in Kentucky on May 22, 1798. Thomas Rodney Shipley was an excellent farmer and accumulated quite a lot of land, having been the owner of nearly five hundred acres. He died on March 23, 1891, and his widow is still living on the old home place where her children were born. There were seven of these children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being as follow: John, who died from the effects of a fall into a kettle of scalding water when he was about three years of age; Dono- van, who died at the age of twenty-one years, three weeks after his mar- riage, from the effects of a fall off a horse; Martha, wife of Elbert Cald- well, of this county ; Matilda, wife of Sanford Caldwell, of this county ; Eunice, wife of Thomas Scott, and James, who was killed about ten years ago by an explosion of dynamite while blasting stumps.
Hiram Shipley was reared on the old home farm and there continued to make his home for two years after his marriage in the fall of 1877, after which he moved onto the old Shipley homestead, the place his grandfather . bought from the government, the northwest quarter of section 32 of Harri- son township, which he now owns, and where he has made his home ever since, being quite successfully engaged there in general farming and stock raising. Mr. Shipley is a Democrat and has for years given his earnest atten- tion to local civic affairs. In the fall of 1912 he was elected commissioner from his district, the first Democratic member of the board of county com- missioners of Fayette county in more than a quarter of a century, and he was re-nominated for that office by his party in the campaign of 1916, but failed of election, the Republicans regaining much of their former strength in that district in that year.
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Mr. Shipley has been twice married. In the fall of 1877 he was united in marriage to Emma Baker, who died about ten years later, without issue. On November 6, 1889, two years after the death of his first wife, Mr. Ship- ley married Mary J. Curtis, who was born in Butler county, Ohio, daughter of Wesley W. and Emaline (Brant) Curtis, the former of whom is still living in Posey township, this county, where he is the owner of a fine farm of four hundred and fifty acres. Wesley W. Curtis was born in Butler county, Ohio, September 2, 1831, son of Daniel and Charlotte (Pocock) Curtis, natives of Maryland, who moved to Ohio, where their last days were spent. Daniel Curtis was a soldier during the War of 1812 and he and his wife were earnest members of the Methodist church. Wesley W. Curtis grew to manhood in Butler county, Ohio, and there married Emaline F. Brant, who was born in that county in 1837, daughter of Mathias and Harriet Brant. After his marriage he settled on a farm six miles east of Hamilton, where his wife died on April 4, 1859. He afterward married Ellen Blue and in March, 1864, came to Fayette county and bought a farm in Posey township, where he since has made his home. His second wife died there in 1895.
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