USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 114
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To James M. and Sarah Elizabeth (White) Hamilton six children have been born, namely: Rozzie Belle, who married David Funk, now living on the old White farm where her maternal ancestors were born, and has four children, Edna Isabel, J. D. Willard, Eugene Wendell and Henry Ellis; Claude Austin, now living in Wayne county, who married Edith Schroy and has three children, Irvin L., Herbert J. and Ruth; Otto Arlington, who mar- ried Ruth Baker and is now living at Springersville; Ethel W., who married Albert Crawford and is now living in Union county ; Alta L., who is at home with her parents and Florence, also at home. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton are members of the Christian church and their children were reared in that faith. The Hamiltons 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 movements having to do with the advancement of the com- mon welfare thereabout. Mr. Hamilton is a member of the local lodge of the Improved Order of Red Men and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that organization. Politically, he is a Democrat and has ever taken a good citizen's interest in local political affairs.
CHARLES R. WILLIAMS.
The traditions of the Williams ancestry cross the ocean to Cromwellian times in Wales, whence, after the restoration of the Stuarts to the English throne in 1668, four brothers, of the Williams name sought religious freedom in America. Three of these brothers, who were persecuted in Massachusetts colony, accepted the scant toleration of a forest obscurity back from Long Island Sound.
One of these three, Matthew Williams, a Welsh Baptist preacher, had
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Thomas who was the father of Timothy, who was the father of Jonas, the Hoosier pioneer of the Williams family. Matthew lived to be one hundred and three. Thomas one hundred and two, and Timothy nearly one hundred years old. Like their ancestor, Thomas, Timothy and Jonas were Baptist ministers.
Jonas was born December 26, 1751, and in boyhood was captured by the Indians, who bound his ankles so tightly with thongs that his feet froze while his captors slept. Because of lameness he became a currier in New York City, and then a miller, and to fill in the waiting hours when grinding. a shoemaker. He married Eleanor Ward of New York City. He removed to the Wyoming Valley and there operated one of the largest mills in the valley. In 1778 their property was destroyed and they escaped from the Indians in the terrible massacre. After their ruin at Wyoming, the family went to Orange county, New York, and later to Cayuga county, where he built and ran a mill, where is now the town of Genoa.
About 1812 Jonas Williams came to Indiana, where he was the first settler on, and gave his name to, the principal branch of the White Water river. His son, Charles, was born in Cayuga county, New York, November 23, 1793, and became the first pioneer farmer in what is now Fairview town- ship, developing a fine farm about eight miles northwest of Connersville. He was also an excellent carpenter, the first contracting carpenter in his neighborhood and in that capacity erected most of the houses and barns built in that part of the county in an early day. He was an energetic and enter- prising citizen and prospered in his affairs. He served in the War of . 1812 and had some thrilling experiences at that time. He was twice married. His first wife, who was a Smith, was the mother of five children. His second wife, Lydia Jobe, who was born in Pennsylvania on April 16, 1800, survived him many years, her death occurring on Jannary 30, 1899. she then being nearly ninety-nine years of age. She was an earnest and consistent member of the Methodist church and was the mother of seven children, four sons and three daughters. Charles Williams died at his home in Fairview township in 1868, honored and respected by all.
Charles R. Williams was the eldest of the four sons of Charles and Lydia (Jobe) Williams. He was reared on the home farm in Fairview township, receiving his elementary education in the schools of that neighbor- hood and supplementing the same by a course in old Asbury (now DePauw) University. At the age of eighteen he began teaching school, teaching dur- ing the winters and farming during the summers, and was thus engaged in
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Fayette and Madison counties for eighteen years, beginning his teaching service at a wage of eighteen dollars a month and closing the same at a wage of seventy-five dollars a month, this latter being during the Civil War period. He concluded his long teaching service in 1869. In 1864 he was three times drafted for service in the Union army. Following the first two drafts, he furnished substitutes, but on the third draft went to the front as a member of Company C, One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and with that command served for five months, being mustered out in August, 1865. For eight years .Charles R. Williams farmed in Harrison township, this county, and in Madison county. In 1868 he was elected sur- veyor of Fayette county, a position which he held very acceptably for a period of twenty years. In October, 1874, he was elected auditor of Fayette county and was re-elected in 1878. Upon the completion of his service as auditor he for some time served as deputy auditor and was thus for many years one of the most familiar figures about the court house and one of the best known men in the county. In 1875, upon assuming the duties of county auditor, he moved to Connersville, which ever thereafter was his home.
On August 3, 1851, Charles R. Williams was united in marriage to Caroline Ellis, who was born in Harrison township, this county, November II, 1833. She was the daughter of Lewis and Samantha (Thomas) Ellis, earnest and influential pioneers of that community. Richard Ellis, the early pioneer, was an officer in the commissary department of the Colonial service in New England and New York and was among the first settlers in Massa- chusetts. His son, Reuben Ellis, was an ensign in the Colonial service in 1754-1757, and his son, Benjamin, was a Revolutionary soldier of distinction. To Benjamin was born Moses Ellis, who lived in Cayuga county, New York, until 1818, when he moved to the vicinity of North Bend, Ohio, where for eight years he lived on the farm of Gen. William Henry Harrison. From North Bend, in 1826, they came on up the White Water valley and settled in Harrison township, this county. He was the first postmaster established at Plum Orchard in 1827, the year after his location in that neighborhood, and he in numerous ways contributed of his energy to the public welfare thereabout. He and his wife were earnest members of the Christian church and were tireless in church work. Betsy Judd Ellis died in 1841 and Moses Ellis in 1848.
Lewis Ellis was about fifteen years of age when he came with his parents to Fayette county. He grew to manhood on the pioneer farm in Harrison township. On December 30, 1832, he married Samantha P. Thomas, daugh- ter of Elder Minor Thomas, of this county, a pioneer preacher throughout
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this part of the state, a power for good hereabout in pioneer days and further and fitting mention of whom is made elsewhere in this work. Lewis Ellis became a substantial farmer in Harrison township and a man of much influ- ence there. He and his wife were members of the Baptist church and were long among the leaders in good works in the northern part of the county. Caroline Ellis Williams, their daughter, was the eldest of sixteen children. It was said of her at her death that she had mothered forty-five children, including eleven children of her own, eight grandchildren and twelve great- grandchildren and six of practical adoption into their family. Her life was truly a life of service to others. In their later years both Charles R. Will- iams and his wife were cheerful, helpful Christian workers. They were both members of the First Baptist church of Connersville and prominent in official capacities.
In politics, "Uncle Charlie," as he was known throughout the county, was a Republican-a progressive Republican. In 1884 he engaged in gen- eral contracting with special reference to. bridge work and street and side- walk paving, later associating his sons with him in that business and was thus engaged until his retirement from business in 1906, after which time the contracting business was continued by his sons, Charles, Roy L. and Frank T., who have carried out large engagements in that line, not only in this state, but in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee, Missouri and Louisiana.
It was this firm that in 1887 tore down the old bridge at East Conners- ville, pictured elsewhere in this work and built the foundations for the pres- ent bridge, the elder Williams and his sons, Roy and Charles, being shown in that picture.
Charles R., like his ancestors, was a soldier and belonged to the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. He died on November 5, 1908, and his widow survived him but little more than two months, her death occurring on January 9, 1909.
The children born to Charles R. Williams and Caroline (Ellis) Williams were Frank T., Rose Ellen, Alice, Olive and Minor, who died of diphtheria in childhood and are buried in the same grave; Laura, who died in her young womanhood: Lida, Harriet, Roy L., Bert and Charles, Jr.
Frank T., the eldest son, was born in 1852. He was reared a farmer, but in May, 1876, he bought a store in Harrison township and was there engaged in the mercantile business until he became connected with his brother, Roy L., in the paving contracting in 1884, and has ever since been thus engaged. On June 4, 1878, he married Florence M. Williams (of another
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family ), who was born in Connersville on May 31, 1857, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Benton) Williams, who came here from Kentucky, and to this union was born one child, a son, Carl, who died in infancy.
Rose Ellen Williams; the eldest daughter, was twice married. Her first husband, Donovan Shipley, was thrown from a horse and killed three weeks after their marriage. She later married Bert Caldwell. She died leaving two small children, Fern and Volney, who were raised and cared for by their grandparents until they married and had homes of their own. Fern Cald- well married Will K. Stoops, who lives on the Stoops farm south of Con- nersville. To them have been born three sons, Edward, Wayne and Robert. Volney Caldwell has for a number of years been connected with the postal service-first on the railway mail service and at present in the local postoffice. He married Neva Watson, of this city. They have one daughter, Virginia.
Alice Williams married Leander W. Jordan. To them were born three children, Oliver, a merchant tailor, married Maud Fowler. They have two daughters, Helen and Margaret, having lost their only son, Paul: Ola Jordan, the widow of John Jordan, is a capable stenographer who has been with the Lexington Automobile Company since they were installed at Lexington, Ken- tucky. She has a son, Elmo, and a daughter, Evelyn. Elsie Jordan married Lemuel Ludlow, of Harrison township. They reside on their farm.
Lida Williams married Charles Swain, of Muncie, Indiana. He is now a paving contractor in New York. She died in 1907, leaving two daughters, Laura and Zella. Laura is the wife of Lemuel Masterson, of Maysville, Kentucky. They now reside in Cleveland, Ohio, where he has a profitable position with the Sherwin-Williams Company. They have a son, William Ellis, and a daughter, Carolyn. Zella married Emmett O'Brien, for her first husband, and they had one son, Charles.' She is now the wife of Marvel Sutton, a farmer of Lyonsville, Indiana.
Harriet E. Williams, the youngest daughter, has been a teacher in the Fayette county schools since her graduation from the Connersville schools. As the valedictorian of her class, she received a scholarship to the State Uni- versity at Bloomington.
In 1916 Miss Williams wrote and directed the pageant given in Conners- ville in behalf of Fayette county in connection with Indiana's Centennial celebration. She is an active member of the First Baptist church of Con- nersville.
Roy L. Williams married Effie Prosser, the daughter of Willis and Jane De Moss Prosser. She was born in Huron, Lawrence county, Indiana.
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Roy has been in the contracting business since a young man. He calls Con- nersville his home, but at present they reside on their farm in southeastern Missouri, known as the "Woodsdale Farm," from which place he directs his various paving jobs and oversees his fifteen-hundred-acre farm. Mrs. Will- iams is a member of the Baptist church in Connersville. Mr. Williams is a member of the Elks lodge.
Bert Williams, who died after reaching maturity, was one of the first librarians of Connersville. He was a musician, especially fine on the flute. He loved his work in the Blue Ribbon Orchestra. He was a member of the Methodist church.
Charles Williams, Jr., was the youngest son. He was a graduate of the Connersville high school and finished a correspondence course in Scran- ton, Pennsylvania. He has left a valuable plat of Connersville, which is in constant use at the present time. He was a soldier in Company D, United States Volunteer Engineer Corps during the Spanish-American War. He was also a paving contractor and held various offices in Fayette county.
JAMES HANKINS TATE (SECOND. )
James Hankins Tate, the second, so referred to here because there is presented elsewhere in this volume a memorial sketch relating to his late father, James Hankins Tate, first, is a native son of this county, as was his father before him, and has lived here all his life. He was born on a farm about five miles southwest of Connersville, in section 32 of Connersville township, the same being in the immediate vicinity of his present home, May 10, 1874, son of James H. and Louisa ( Halstead) Tate, both of whom were born in Fayette county, members of pioneer and well-known and substantial families, further and more detailed reference to whom, together with a narra- tive having to do with the beginnings of the Tate and Halstead families in this county, is made elsewhere in this volume of biography.
Reared on the home farm in Connersville township, James H. Tate (second) received his schooling in the local schools and has spent most of his life farming, though for a couple of years he was successfully engaged in the feed business at Connersville, giving up that business in order to return to the farm, where he might give his assistance to his aging father, whose death occurred in the fall of 1916. It was in 1903, following his marriage, that the second James H. Tate began farming for himself on a rented farm
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north of Connersville, and there he made his home for seven years, at the end of which time he moved to his present farm, the same being located just south of the place on which he was born, and there he has continued to reside, he and his family now being very pleasantly and very comfortably situated. Mr. Tate is a Democrat, as was his father before him, and for two years he served as deputy sheriff of Fayette county. He has been quite successful in his farming operations and besides owning a share in the old home farm, has bought other lands until now he is the owner of one hundred seventy- four and one-fourth acres and has a well-improved and profitably cultivated farm.
On October 6, 1903, James H. Tate was united in marriage to Hallie Gertrude Bradburn, who was born in Brookville in the neighboring county of Franklin, daughter of Albert E. and Mary E. (Stewart) Bradburn, the former of whom, a lifelong farmer, spent the later years of his life in Fay- ette county, dying here on August 4, 1909, and the latter of whom is now making her home with Mr. and Mrs. Tate. Mr. and Mrs. Tate have three children, Mildred Marguerite, James H., the third, now called "Junior," and Alma Gladys. Mr. Tate joined the Methodist church on his twentieth birth- day and he and his wife are both members of that church, taking an active interest in the various beneficences of the same. Mr. Tate is a member of the Modern Woodmen and in the affairs of that organization takes a warm interest.
CURTIS L. TATE.
Curtis L. Tate, one of Fayette county's best-known and most substantial farmers and the proprietor of a fine farm of one hundred acres and a com- fortable home on the Rushville pike. about four miles west of Connersville, in Connersville township, was born in that same vicinity and has lived there all his life. He was born on January 17, 1872, son of James H. and Louisa (Halsted) Tate, well-known residents of that neighborhood and further and more detailed reference to whom is made elsewhere in this volume.
Reared on the home farm in Connersville township, Curtis L. Tate received his schooling in the district schools of that neighborhood and remained at home, a valuable assistant in the labors of developing and improv- ing the home place, until his marriage in 1902, when he began farming on his own account. For two years he rented land and then he bought his present farm of one hundred acres on the Rushville pike, four miles west of
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Connersville, where he has since resided and where he and his family are very comfortably and very pleasantly situated.
In 1902 Curtis L. Tate was united in marriage to Mary C. Brown, who was born in Madison county, this state, in 1883, daughter of Elijah and Melissa Ellen (White) Brown, the former of whom was born in Perry county, Ohio, and the latter in the state of Iowa, who came to Fayette county in 1887 and located on a farm about four miles south of where the Tates now live. About 1897 Elijah Brown sold that farm and returned to Madison county, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1913, and where his widow is still living.
Mr. and Mrs. Tate have four children, Ruby Thelma, Garnet Zelma, Catherine Curtis and Orlia Arthur. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and take an earnest interest in the affairs of the same, as well as in the general social activities of the community in which they live. helpful in furthering all causes having to do with the advancement of the common welfare.
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10719
HECKMAN BINDERY, INC. Bound-To-Please*
MAY 02
N. MANCHESTER, INDIANA 46962
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