USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 107
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Ottis Utter, brother of Mrs. Murray, and who is farming his mother's
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place adjoining the Murray farm, was born in Columbia township on August 30, 1870, and was reared on the farm, continuing farming with his father until the latter's death and since then taking general charge of the home place, on which he has made a specialty of the raising of pure-bred Duroc- Jersey hogs, his stock attracting much attention at the Indiana and Ohio state fairs. He also lately has been quite extensively engaged in buying and selling cattle. On September 13, 1893, Ottis Utter was united in marriage to Nor- vella Carroll, who also was born in Columbia township, a daughter of Timothy and Ann (Eddy) Carroll, both members of old families in this county, the former of whom was killed by lightning when his daughter, Norvella, was an infant. His widow later married and thereafter much of the youth of her daughter, Norvella, was spent in the household of her mother's parents, G. W. and Louisa (Cox) Eddy, well-known residents of this county. Ottis Utter and wife have two children, daughters, Marie and Mildred, the former of whom was graduated from the Connersville high school, later attending the State Normal School at Terre Haute and is now teaching school, and the latter of whom is attending the high school at Orange. Mr. Utter is a member of Orange Lodge No. 234, Free and Accepted Masons, and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that organization. Both the Mur- ray and the Utter families are very pleasantly situated in their homes adjoining in Columbia township and take an earnest interest in the general social activities of that neighborhood.
GEORGE M. WILLIAMS.
Few men of East Connersville, Fayette county, are more entitled to special mention in the history of the county, than is George M. Williams, a veteran of the Civil War, who was born on July 5, 1845, at Port Washing- ton, Wisconsin, and is the son of Abraham and Elizabeth (Shepard) Williams.
Abraham and Elizabeth Williams were natives of Wales and the state of Ohio respectively, and received their education in the schools of their respective communities, where they grew to manhood and womanhood. As a young man Abraham Williams left his native land and came to the United States. On his arrival in this country, he located in Ohio, where he engaged as a farm hand and where he lived for a number of years. It was in the Buckeye state that he was united in marriage to Elizabeth Shepard. After
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their marriage the young people established their home in that state where they continued to live for some time, when they moved to Wisconsin, where Mr. Williams engaged in the making of potash. He died in that state at Goodhope; and his wife died in Chicago, of cholera, in the year 1853.
Abraham and Elizabeth Williams were the parents of the following children: Harriett. Sarah, Charles, George and James. Harriett married William Spivey, and she made her home at Beecher City, Illinois, until the time of her death on August 23, 1916; Sarah is the widow of Leander Dodge and lives at Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Charles, who was a member of Com- pany E, Twenty-fourth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and gave three years of his life in the defence of the Union, died at his home in Mil- waukee, Wisconsin; James was also a soldier during the Civil War, having enlisted in Company C, Thirty-first Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and died at his home in Frankfort, Michigan. The parents of these children were were among the highly respected people of the community in which they lived and where they were so highly esteemed.
George M. Williams received his education at a subscription school, held in an old log school house, with slabs for seats, and the writing bench on the side of the wall. He remained at home until he was but a little past sixteen years of age when he came to Connersville, and here in 1862 he enlisted in Company E, Sixteenth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He later served in Company D, Twenty-seventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, from April to November, when he was transferred to Battery F, Fourth United States Artillery, Regular. Some time later he was placed in Battery M with the Army of the Cumberland, and still later was with General Thomas in the Army of the Cumberland. He saw much active service, and remained in the service until March 27, 1865, when he received his discharge and returned to Connersville. During his term of service he had the measles, a most dreaded disease for the boys in the field, and lay in the hospital from July 5, 1862, until November of that year, and which left him in a condition of poor health since.
On his return to Connersville, Mr. Williams continued to make Fayette county his home, and here he was united in marriage on January 6, 1870, to Rebecca Reibsomer, a native of Pennsylvania, and who had settled in Fay- ette county with her parents when she was but a girl. To this union two children were born, Elizabeth and Newton C. Elizabeth is the wife of Thomas Ketchen, a respected resident of East Connersville; Newton C. is a well known mechanic of East Connersville. He is married to Catherine Fritz, and they are the parents of four children, Helen, Blanche, Orville and Frances. Mr. and
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Mrs. Williams were long active members of the Lutheran church, and until the time of her death on April 9, 1916, Mrs. Williams was a regular attendant and took the keenest interest in all church work. She was a devoted wife and mother, and a kind and helpful neighbor. Her death was mourned by a large circle of friends, who held her in the highest regard and esteem. She took the greatest interest in the moral development of the community. With her family she had lived in Fast Connersville since 1870, where Mr. Williams was employed in the saw-mill, and for many years he was employed in the manufacture of furniture.
JOHN M. BEAVER.
Though not a resident of Fayette county, John M. Beaver has property interests in this county, half of his well-kept farm of one hundred and sixty acres lying in this county, and his home is just across the road, over the line between Fayette and the adjoining county of Rush. He formerly lived in Fayette county and both he and his wife are members of pioneer families in this part of the state. He was born on a farm in Noble township, Rush county, about two miles south and a little west of the village of Orange, January 19. 1842, son of Elijah and Ann Elizabeth (Rhodes) Beaver, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Virginia, who became useful and influential pioneers of Rush county, where they spent their last days.
Elijah Beaver was born in July, 1808, near Georgetown, Kentucky, and was but eight years of age when his father, Michael Beaver, of Irish parent- age, came up into Indiana with his family in 1816, the year in which Indiana was admitted to statehood, and settled in Noble township, Rush county, where he procured from the government a tract of land at one dollar and twenty- five cents an acre and there established his home. There Elijah Beaver grew up amid pioneer surroundings and helped to clear the farm in the forest. His father spent the remainder of his life on that pioneer farm, living to be more than ninety-one years of age, and he also spent the remainder of his life there, living to the age of eighty-eight years, a continuous resident of Noble township for eighty years. His wife, Ann Elizabeth Rhodes, was born in Virginia in 1816 and was about fifteen years of age when her parents, John and Margaret (Knox) Rhodes, came to Indiana and settled in Noble township, Rush county, neighbors to the Beavers. The Rhodes family came down the Ohio river in a flatboat to Cincinnati and thence overland to Rush county, establishing their home about a half mile from the present village of
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Orange, then known as Fayetteville, where they spent the remainder of their lives, with the exception of a short time spent in Wabash county, this state. John Rhodes lived to the great age of ninety-two years.
John M. Beaver grew up on the home farm in Noble township and remained there until his marriage in 1867, when he located in Wabash county, this state, where he spent a couple of years, at the end of which time he came back to this part of the state and located on a farm in Fairview township, this county, not far from his boyhood home, and there he lived for seven years, or until 1876, when he moved to his present home on the west side of the county line in Rush county and has lived there ever since. Mr. Beaver has an excellent farm of one hundred and sixty acres, half of which lies in Fairview township, this county, and the other half, in Rush county, and he has long been quite successfully engaged in general farming, stock raising, fruit growing and grows some tobacco. Two of his sons live nearby and the respective interests of the father and sons remain very closely allied.
On October 23, 1867, John M. Beaver was united in marriage to Mary E. Stewart, who was born in the neighboring county of Franklin, in the neighborhood of Mt. Carmel, in 1850, a daughter of James M. and Eliza- beth Ann (Waites) Stewart, the former of whom was born in Ohio and the latter in Missouri. James M. Stewart was born in 1817 at a place now called Goshen, in Ohio, and was twelve years of age when his father, Samuel Stewart, came to Indiana and settled in Franklin county. His mother, who was a McClearney, died in Ohio and his father later married Margaret Ear- hart. James M. Stewart moved to Wabash county, this state, in 1855, and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1888, at the age of seventy-one years. His wife, Ann Elizabeth Waites, was born near Lexington, Missouri, and was left motherless at the age of twelve years. Her father later moved to Atkinson county, Missouri. She survived her husband nine years, her death occurring in April, 1897.
Mr. and Mrs. Beaver have four children, namely: Orpha E., who married O. J. Cook, of Richland township, Rush county, and has four chil- dren, Willard O., Wallace, Mrs. Emma Lorene Compton and Mary Evelyn; Hugh E., who married Addie Gray and lives on a farm a half mile south of Fairview; Chester, living on the west side of the Rush county line, just south of his father's place, who married Blanche Murphy and has five children, Lucile, Paul, Belva, Calvin and Emma Elizabeth, and Raymond 'S., farming just across the road from his father's place, who married Etta Tinder and has two children, a son, Robert Harold, and a daughter, Margaret Jeannette. Mrs. Emma Lorene (Cook) Compton, granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs.
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Beaver, has one child, a daughter, Mary Estelle, thus making Mr. and Mrs. Beaver great-grandparents before their golden-wedding anniversary. For many years Mr. and Mrs. Beaver have been members of the Glenwood Methodist Episcopal church and have given their earnest attention to church work, as well as to other neighborhood good works and have been helpful in many ways in advancing the common welfare of the community of which they so long have been residents.
DANIEL W. CALDWELL.
Daniel W. Caldwell, member of the board of county commissioners of Fayette county and the proprietor of a fine farm in Harrison township, where he now resides, was born on that farm and has lived there all his life. He was born on July 25, 1860, youngest son of Samuel and Mary ( Parrish) Caldwell, further and extended mention of whose history and ancestry is made elsewhere in this volume.
After his father's death in June, 1896, Daniel W. Caldwell 'bought the interests of the other heirs in the paternal estate and is now the owner of a well-improved farm of one hundred and eighteen acres in section 34 of Har- rison township, about two miles north of the village of Harrisburg. He has been a lifelong farmer and has been quite successful in his operations. In addition to his farming, for the past thirty years he has been the owner and operator of a threshing-machine rig and is widely known throughout this part of the country. Though he still owns the threshing outfit, he has not personally operated the same for the past three years, turning the same over to his nephews, who are running it for him. Mr. Caldwell has been an active Democrat from the time he could vote and has ever given his earnest atten- tion to local political affairs. In 1913 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners from his district and is now serving in that capacity. During Mr. Caldwell's incumbency in that office fine new buildings have been erected at the county infirmary and much has been done by the county in the way of bettering the highways. Commissioner Caldwell is an energetic and public-spirited citizen and believes in promoting public improvements in every proper way.
Daniel W. Caldwell was united in marriage to Mary P. Cole, who also was born in Harrison township, this county, daughter of Alfred G. and Mary
(69)
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P. (Emerson) Cole, further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. Alfred G. Cole was born on April 5, 1838, while his parents were on their way from Maryland to Indiana and his early childhood was spent in Wayne county, this state. His parents, Joseph and Patience Cole, later moved down into Fayette county and settled on a farm in Waterloo town- ship, where he grew to manhood on the old Cole homestead, east of Water- loo. He was thrice married, his first wife having been Rhoda Harlan, to which union two daughters were born, Mrs. L. G. Henry and Mrs. Shaffner. A few years after the death of his first wife, Alfred G. Cole married Mrs. Mary P. (Emerson) Roby, of Brownsville, and to that union two children were born, Joseph Cole, of Indianapolis, and Mrs. Caldwell. Following the death of the mother of these children Mr. Cole married Matilda Fiant and to that union five children were born, Kate, Bertha, John, Charles and one who died in childhood. About twenty-five years ago Alfred G. Cole moved from this county to Casey, Illinois, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring on June 2, 1913, he then being seventy-five years of age.
To Daniel W. and Mary P. (Cole) Caldwell three children have been born, namely: Russell Ward, who died at the age of two years and six months; Elsie M., who married Walter Ray, of Connersville, and has two children, Esther and Mary, and Glenn Alfred, who is at home. The Cald- wells have a very pleasant home and have ever taken a proper part in the general social activities of the community in which they live. Mr. Caldwell is a member of the local aerie of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and of the local lodge of the Loyal Order of Moose and in the affairs of both of these organizations takes a warm interest.
HUGH E. BEAVER.
Hugh E. Beaver, a well-known and substantial farmer of Fairview township, was born in that township on March 13, 1873, son of John M. Beaver and wife, who are still living in that vicinity, for many years resi- dents on a fine farm just over the line in Rush county, and further and extended mention of whom is made in a biographical sketch relating to John M. Beaver, presented elsewhere in this volume.
Hugh E. Beaver was about two years of age when his parents moved from this county over into Rush county and on the home farm in the latter county he grew to manhood and upon attaining his majority began farming
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there on his own account. In 1900 he bought the farm on which he is now living, a half mile south of Fairview, in Fairview township, this county, and after his marriage in 1902 established his home there. When he took pos- session of the place, a tract of eighty acres, it had no improvements on it with the exception of a little shop building, which is still standing. He built a good house and farm building and now has a very well-appointed farm plant. His house is fitted with a hot-water heating plant, has a bath room and is piped for hot and cold running water, one of the most convenient and up-to-date farm houses in that section. He has always used progressive methods in his farming operations and is doing very well.
On May 7, 1902, Hugh E. Beaver was united in marriage to Addie Gray, who was born in Union township, Rush county, this state, a daughter of James and Martha (Nichols) Gray, the former of whom was born on the farm on which he still lives in that county, more than eighty-three years ago. He is a son of James and Mary (Nickel) Gray, who came from Monroe county, Virginia, to Indiana in 1816, the year in which Indiana was admitted to statehood, and settled on a tract of "Congress land" in Union township, Rush county, the farm for so many years owned and occupied by their son, the venerable James Gray, who has lived there all his life.
WILLIAM H. TATE.
William H. Tate, one of the best-known. school teachers in Fayette county and the proprietor of a well-developed farm in Columbia township, is a native son of this county and has lived here all his life. He was born on a farm in the immediate vicinity of Bunker Hill, west of Connersville, June 7, 1869, son of James H. and Louisa ( Halstead) Tate, further and extended reference to whom is made elsewhere in this volume. The Tates have a long and honorable ancestry, the same being traceable back to Nahum Tate, poet laureate of England, born in 1652, who died in 1715. The name originally was Taite, then Tait, but is now generally spelled Tate. Of this same family was Archibald Campbell Tait, archbishop of Canterbury, born in 1811, who died in 1882. William H. Tate has inherited the poetic instinct of his ances- tors and has written a number of very creditable poems, an example of which is set out in the chapter in this work relating to the literary history of Fayette county. He also has written much prose and his services are in demand as a public speaker on various subjects.
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Until his marriage, when he was twenty-five years of age, William H. Tate made his home on the paternal farm in the Bunker Hill neighborhood. He supplemented his schooling in the schools of his home district by a course in the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute and then took up teach- ing and from that time to the present has spent his winters as a teacher in the public schools, his summers being occupied in the cultivation of his well- improved farm north of the village of Columbia, in Columbia township. Including the term of 1916-17, Mr. Tate has taught twenty-six consecutive terms of school and the children of some of his earlier pupils have been his pupils in the second generation. During that period he taught three terms of school in Rush county, but the remainder of his service as a teacher has been rendered in Fayette county, extending to the schools of Waterloo, Harrison, Connersville, Jennings, Orange and Columbia townships. His longest period of service in one school was in Orange township, where he presided over one school for twelve years. As noted above, Mr. Tate is frequently called to the lecture platform and is widely known throughout the county as a public speaker. In his farming operations he has been success- ful and has a well-improved farm near Columbia, where he and his family are very comfortably situated.
On June 6, 1894. William H. Tate was united in marriage to Pareppa R. Bryson, who was born at Laurel, in the neighboring county of Franklin, daughter of Thomas C. and Mary C. (Alzeno) Bryson, the former of whom at that time was the proprietor of a stone quarry at Laurel, but who in the spring of 1885, moved with his family into this county and settled in Columbia township, where he became a substantial sawmill man and farmer. To Mr. and Mrs. Tate four childern have been born, one of whom, Mary Louise, died in infancy, the others being James Russell, Thurlow Duane and Garnet Lucile. Mr. and Mrs. Tate are members of the Central Christian church at Conners- ville, and fraternally Mr. Tate is affiliated with the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias, in the affairs of which he takes a warm interest.
ELWOOD HUSSEY.
Elwood Hussey, one of the best-known and most substantial farmers of Posey township, and the proprietor of a fine farm and a pleasant home on rural mail route A, out of Milton, was born on that farm and has lived there
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all his life. He was born on May 4, 1854, a son of Jonathan and Louisa (Frazier) Hussey, prominent pioneer residents of the northeastern part of Posey township, both long since deceased.
Jonathan Hussey was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, July 20, 1812, a son of John and Mary (Thornburg) Hussey, both of whom also were natives of that same county. John Hussey spent all his life in his native county, his death occurring there in 1816. He left three sons, Jona- than, Henry and Joseph. His widow subsequently married Robert Pitman and in 1833 came to Indiana, whither her brother, Henry Thornburg, and two of her sons, Jonathan and Joseph, had come some years previously, and after a sometime residence in Fayette county moved up into Wayne county, where she died in 1864. By her second marriage she was the mother of three children, John H., Milton and Mary Pitman. It was before he had reached his majority that Jonathan Hussey had come out here from North Carolina to join his uncle, Henry Thornburg, who had settled in Posey township, this county, and when he was twenty-one years of age he walked back to his old home in North Carolina to claim his inheritance. He then returned here, bringing with him his brother, Joseph. The brothers had but one horse and as Joseph Hussey was not so well able to walk as was his brother, Jonathan made almost all of his way back by foot. Upon his return here Jonathan Hussey resumed his place on his uncle's farm and there remained until after his marriage, in the spring of 1841, when he established his home on the farm he had bought in the northeastern part of Posey township, the place on which his son, the subject of this sketch, is now living, and proceeded to improve and develop the same, later beconi- ing the owner of two hundred and forty acres of fine land. There he made his home until about five years after the death of his wife, when, in 1885, he retired from the farm and moved to the village of Milton, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there on June 11, 1897, he then being nearly eighty-five years of age.
On March 11, 1841, Jonathan Hussey was united in marriage to Louisa Frazier, who was born in Posey township, this county, December 2, 1824, daughter of John and Rachel ( Beard) Frazier, pioneers of that township, who had settled on section 6, the place now occupied by William Rayle. Both John Frazier and his wife were natives of North Carolina, the former born on June 3, 1796, and the latter, October 24, 1799. They were married in Wayne county, this state, and afterward settled near Milton, where they remained until 1821, when they came down into Fayette county and set-
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tled upon the above mentioned farm in Posey township, where they spent the remainder of their lives, John Frazier dying on May 3, 1856, and his widow surviving until June 23, 1871. They were earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal church and were among the leaders in good works in the community which they had helped to develop from pioneer days. They had ten children, Malinda, Sarah, Jane, Louisa, Elizabeth, John B., Elias, Jesse, Samuel and Thomas E. Mrs. Frazier's father, Thomas Beard, was a leader among the pioneers throughout this section in the early days. He settled in the neighborhood of Beeson and during the Indian troubles he and his family, together with the other pioneers of that settlement, were driven to live in the blockhouse which afforded protection in that section. Thomas Beard was of Irish descent and was a wonderfully effective extem- poraneous speaker, his services on the hustings in that day being of great value to his party. His brother, John Beard, who served for years as a member of the Indiana Legislature from Montgomery county, owed much of his success to the brilliant campaigns conducted in his behalf by his brother. Representative John Beard was an able coadjutor of Caleb Mills, then president of Wabash College at Crawfordsville, during the effectual campaign in behalf of public schools conducted by Mills before the Legis- lature and did much to put through legislation in that important behalf, the important action he took in that movement earning for him the title among his friends of "the father of public free schools in Indiana." Patrick Baird ( Beard), a delegate from Wayne county to the first constitutional conven- tion held in Indiana, was also a member of this family and took an impor- tant part in the deliberations of that convention, having been particularly active in the movement that placed the convention on record admitting Indiana as a "free" instead of a slave state.
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