USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 68
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about Connersville was a wilderness. Heavy timber was everywhere, and the woods were alive with game and the streams abounded with fish .. All this has changed, and in the change he has had his part in the great trans- formation. The beautiful farms, well-established and modern homes, splendid roads, up-to-date towns and cities and schools that are the pride of the state, are all of recent date, and were perhaps undreamed of in the boyhood days of our subject. His life has been a worthy one, and today he is held in high esteem by his neighbors and friends.
HIRAM ELMER REES.
The late Hiram Elmer Rees, a well-known and well-to-do retired farmer of Fayette county, who died at his home in Connersville on July 1, 1912, was a native son of Fayette county and spent all his life here. He was born on a pioneer farm in Fairview township on December 11, 1848, a son of Justus and Phoebe Ann (Long) Rees, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Indiana, who were well-known and influential residents of Fairview township in their generation, and who spent their last days there.
Justus Rees was but a child when his parents, John and Nancy (Jar- rett ) Rees, moved from Pennsylvania to what then was regarded as the "wilds" of Indiana and settled on a farm in Fairview township, this county, where they established their home and where they spent the remainder of their lives. There Justus Rees grew to manhood. He married Phoebe Ann Long, who was born on a pioneer farm near Dodridge's Chapel in the neighboring county of Wayne, a daughter of John and Mary (Hudson) Long, early set- tlers of that neighborhood, and in turn established a home of his own in Fairview township and there spent the remainder of his life, a lifelong farmer.
Hiram E. Rees was reared to the life of the farm and in turn became a farmer on his own account, after his marriage in 1871 continuing to live in the vicinity of his old home until 1886, when he bought a quarter of a sec- tion of land on Elephant hill, northwest of Connersville. There he lived for twelve years, at the end of which time he retired from the active labors of the farm and moved to Connersville. selling his farm in 1898, and there- after making his home in Connersville, where he was engaged in various occupations, in order not to be idle, for he had ever been accustomed to a life of industry and could not be content to sit down to a life of idle ease. and there he remained until his death in the summer of 1912.
FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Hiram E. Rees was twice married. It was on September 6, 1871, that lie was united in marriage to Nancy Jane Moffit, a sister of Miles K. Moffit, further reference to whom is made elsewhere in this volume, and who died on February 5, 1874, leaving two children, Merritt Elmer Rees, born in 1872, who married Mary Dusterberg, of Vincennes, and now lives at Indian- apolis, where he is engaged as an air-brake inspector for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and Nancy Florence, born on January 3, 1874, and who was but five days old when her mother died, who married Joseph Storm, of Indianapolis, and has one child, a daughter, Elizabeth.
In 1876 Hiram E. Rees married, secondly, Elizabeth Ann Baker, who was born near Falmouth, in Fairview township, this county, a daughter of Daniel and Mary (Groves) Baker, the former of whom was a native of Kentucky and the latter of this state. Daniel Baker was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, in 1814, and was but a boy when his parents, Abraham and Elizabeth Baker, came up into Indiana, about 1822, and settled near Fal- mouth, on what is now known as the Fitzgerald farm. At that time the country thereabout was a dense forest and upon locating there Abraham Baker had to cut down trees in order to clear a space for the erection of a log cabin. He built the kitchen, adjoining the cabin, around the stump of a tree, leaving the stump to serve as a table, and amid these primitive condi- tions began the laborous task of carving a tillable farm out of the forest. Abraham Baker, who lived to the great age of nearly one hundred years, was the father of seven children, David, John, Harrison, Nancy, Helen and Eliza (twins) and Daniel. Daniel Baker grew to manhood on that pioneer farm and there spent the remainder of his life, a substantial member of that pros- perous farming community, his death occurring on August 19, 1889, he then being seventy-five years of age. His wife had preceded him to the grave a little more than a year, her death having occurred on July 29, 1888. She was born in the neighboring county of Rush on September 12, 1824, a sister of Hiram Shipley's mother, further reference to whom is made elsewhere in this volume. To Daniel Baker and wife eleven children were born, those besides Mrs. Rees having been John G., George, Sarah, Ruloff, Garrett W., Harriet, Adaline, Alpha, Albert Jefferson and Lucy E. Of these, John was killed by a reaper falling on him on July 8, 1884. He left a widow and three children. Sarah and Ruloff died about the same time, of diptheria. George died on August 18, 1891. Alpha, who married Van Bates, died without issue. Garrett W. Baker lives in Elkhart, this state. Albert J. Baker is the proprietor of a barber shop just north of the terminal station
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in Indianapolis. Adaline married James Dickey and lives in Fairview town- ship. Harriet married F. M. Martin and lives west of Connersville, and Lucy married George Kenyon and lives at Indianapolis.
To Hiram and Elizabeth Ann (Baker) Rees two children were born, Oda, born on December 8, 1877, who died on July 22, 1879, at the age of twenty months, and Clyde O., born on May 30, 1882. Clyde O. Rees, who is now engaged as a machinist in the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Indianapolis, married Lavina Hurst, of Buffalo, New York, and has one child, a daughter, Mary Jane. Since her husband's death Mrs. Rees has continued to make her home in Connersville. In 1916 she built a beautiful modern residence at 1022 Grand avenue and is now living there, very comfortably situated, enjoying conditions of living that hardly could have been dreamed of in her girlhood days on the pioneer farm in the woods. Her parents grew up among the pioneers of this section and from her mother she learned to spin, the spinning being done at home when she was a girl. She also learned to weave and in her girlhood days often was engaged in weaving at a neighbor's loom.
CHARLES E. J. McFARLAN.
Charles E. J. McFarlan, secretary and treasurer of the People's Service Company of Connersville, vice-president of the McFarlan Realty Company of that city and for years one of the most active and influential business men of Connersville, is a native Hoosier and has lived in this state all his life. He was born at Cambridge City, in the neighboring county of Wayne, December I, 1853, son of John B. and Lydia C. (Jackson) McFarlan, the former a native of England and the latter of the state of Ohio, whose last days were spent in Connersville, where for years they occupied a high position in the social and business life of that city.
John B. McFarlan was born in the city of London on November 7, 1822, and was about eight years of age when his parents, James and Ann (Beecraft) McFarlan, came to this country with their family and settled in Hamilton county, Ohio, in the immediate vicinity of the then rapidly develop- ing city of Cincinnati. James McFarlan was a native of Scotland and was a silk manufacturer in London, but upon coming to this country bought a farm in the vicinity of Cincinnati, land now included in the corporate limits of that
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city, and there spent his last days, his death occurring when he was fifty -. eight years of age. His widow survived him for many, years and lived to be nearly ninety years of age. They had a large family, those of their, children who grew to maturity, besides John B., being James, Thomas, Robert, Edward, Ann, Martha, Elizabeth and Mary.
Though but a boy when he came with his parents to this country, John B. McFarlan was from the beginning of his residence here a helpful assistant in the labors of developing the home farm in the Cincinnati neighborhood. He completed his schooling there and when about seventeen years of age entered the factory of the old firm of George C. Miller & Sons at Cincinnati, to learn the trade of carriage blacksmithing. Some little time after completing his apprenticeship he opened a small shop of his own in the village of Cheviot, afterward and now known as Westwood, a suburb of Cincinnati, and while there married. Not long afterward, about 1850, he moved to Cambridge City, this state, conveying his goods and chattels by canal boat, and there established a carriage-manufacturing plant. In 1856, requiring a wider outlet for his expanding business, he moved to Connersville and bought out the firm of Ware & Veatch, carriage manufacturers, and continued that business quite successfully until his death on August 15, 1909, he then lacking but a few weeks of being eighty-seven years of age. From the very beginning of his residence in Connersville John B. McFarlan took a particularly active part in the general business and industrial life of the growing city and it is undoubted that his influence and the exercise of his boundless energies had very much to do with the development of the industrial interests of the city during the period of his activities there. When natural gas was discovered in this state Mr. McFarlan became one of the chief organizers of the Connersville Natural Gas Company and was elected president of the same. He also was one of the organizers and a member of the board of directors of the Indiana Furniture Company (now the Krell Piano Company), was president of the McFarlan Building Company, which erected the McFarlan block in Con- nersville, and in his manufacturing industries employed large forces of men. Upon the organization of the Connersville Blower Company he was elected president of the same and served in that capacity until his death. For several years he also was president of the Fayette Banking Company, organized in 1892, and since then merged into the Fayette National Bank of Connersville, and in other ways gave of his time and energies to the development of his home town.
As noted above, it was during the time of his residence at Cheviot that
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
John B. McFarlan was united in marriage to Lydia C. Jackson, who was born at Cincinnati on December 4, 1822, and who died at her home in Con- nersville in December, 1906, she then being eighty-four years of age. She was a daughter of Thomas S. and Maria (Collins) Jackson, the former of whom was born in the city of Baltimore and the latter in Pittsfield, Massa- chusetts. Thomas S. Jackson was one of the early bankers of Cincinnati, connected with the old Franklin Bank in that city, and there he and his wife spent their last days, he being about seventy-five years of age at the time of his death and she, eighty-five. They were the parents of eight children, of whom four grew to maturity, those besides Mrs. McFarlan having been Charles J., George E. and Lucy. John B. McFarlan and wife were earnest members of the Presbyterian. church and their children were reared in that faith. 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: Clara, who died when about twelve years of age; Maria J., who is unmarried; James E. and William W., of St. Petersburg, Florida; Lucy, who died when two years of age, and John B., Jr., of Connersville.
Charles E. J. McFarlan was about three years of age when his parents moved from Cambridge City to Connersville and he has lived in the latter city ever since. As a boy he learned the trade of carriage painter, meanwhile pursuing his studies in the local public schools, and upon completing the course there took a course in the old Chickering Institute at Cincinnati. Upon his return from that institution he engaged in the boot-and-shoe business at Connersville, in association with D. H. Sellers, but about three years later disposed of his interest in that business and entered his father's carriage fac- tory, presently becoming a partner with his father in that business and was actively connected with the same until 1913. Meanwhile he was taking active participation in the affairs of other local business and industrial concerns and early in its organization became secretary and treasurer of the Connersville Natural Gas Company, continuing that position with the Peoples Service Com- pany at the time of its organization and taking over the affairs of the old gas company, which latter position he still occupies. When the McFarlan brothers and their sister, Maria J. McFarlan, formed the McFarlan Realty Company at Connersville, Charles E. J. McFarlan was elected vice-president of the same and still occupies that position. Mr. McFarlan is a Republican and has ever given his thoughtful attention to local civic affairs. For twelve years he was a member of the Connersville school board and occupied that important position during the time of the erection of the new high-school
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building in that city. He has ever taken a warm interest in the cause of edu- cation and was for sixteen years a member of the board of trustees of DePauw University.
On November 10, 1880, at Connersville, Charles E. J. McFarlan was united in marriage to Ella S. Hughes, who was born and reared in that city, daughter of Dr. S. W. and Ann (Hall) Hughes, natives of Virginia and prominent residents of Connersville, where Doctor Hughes was engaged in the practice of medicine until his death in 1865, he then being forty-six years of age. He had an extensive practice, covering a wide scope of terri- tory hereabout, and literally gave his life for others, the exactions of his practice wearing him out at a time when he ought to have been in the very prime of his life. His widow survived him for years and was sixty-seven years of age at the time of her death. They were the parents of two daugh- ters, Mrs. McFarlan having a sister, Emma. Mrs. McFarlan's maternal grandfather also was a physician, Dr. Daniel D. Hall, a prominent practitioner in Connersville at an earlier day. To Mr. and Mrs. McFarlan one child has been born, a son, Alfred Harry McFarlan, who married Jessie M. Manlove and is living at Connersville, where he is actively identified with the industrial life of the city, president of the McFarlan Motor Company. The McFarlans are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and take a proper interest in the various beneficences of the same, as well as in the general social activities of their home town, helpful in promoting all movements hav- ing to do with the advancement of the common welfare hereabout.
FRANK B. ANSTED.
Frank B. Ansted, manufacturer, former president of the Connersville Commercial Club, vice-president and manager of the Lexington-Howard Com- pany, manufacturers of automobiles; president of the Inland Motor Sales Company, vice-president of the Indiana Lamp Company and holder of important interests in various other concerns at Connersville, is a native of Wisconsin, but has been a resident of Connersville since the days of his early youth and has therefore been a witness to and a participant in the wonderful industrial development that has marked that city during the past quarter of a century. He was born at Racine, Wisconsin, December 22, 1884. .son of Edward W. and Catherine ( Burk) Ansted, the former of whom was born in the state of New York and the latter in the Dominion of Canada,
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who are now living in Connersville, where they have for years been recog- nized as among the leaders of the general life of that city and further and fitting mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume.
When his parents located in Connersville Frank B. Ansted was about six years of age and he received his elementary schooling in the public and parochial schools of that city. Following his graduation from the high school in 1904 he entered the law department of the University of Michigan and was graduated from the same in 1907. In that same year Mr. Ansted was admitted to the bar and engaged in the practice of his profession at Connersville, where he ever since has been located. Mr. Ansted has given considerable attention to commercial and industrial affairs in the city of Connersville and for some years, until 1911, was vice-president of and attorney for the Farmers and Merchants Trust Company of that city. Since then he has given the greater part of his attention to his extensive manufacturing interests. Some years ago he took hold of the Indiana Lamp Company, as vice-president and manager of the same, and still occupies that position. In August, 1915, Mr. Ansted became vice-president and manager of the Lexing- ton-Howard Company at Connersville, manufacturers of motor cars, which concern was established in 1908 and now employs about two hundred and fifty persons and is turning out about five thousand motor cars a year. The Indiana Lamp Company also has developed an extensive business in the manufacture of automobile lamps. Mr. Ansted also is interested in the Hoosier Castings Company and is president of the Inland Motor Sales Com- pany. He is past president of the Connersville Commercial Club and in other ways has for years contributed of his time and his energies to the advance- ment and promotion of the higher interests of the city.
On October 7, 1908, Frank B. Ansted was united in marriage to Isabel Roberts Heron, who was born in Connersville, daughter of James M. and Nancy D. (Dolph) Heron, the former a native of the state of Indiana and the latter, of Kentucky, who are still residents of Connersville and who are the parents of two children, Mrs. Ansted having a sister, Norah. James M. Heron is the eldest of the three children born to his parents, James M. and Caroline (McCarty) Heron, natives of Indiana, he having two sisters, Catherine and Nora. The elder James M. Heron was a well-known mantı- facturer and capitalist. Mrs. Ansted's maternal grandfather was the Rev- erend Dolph, a clergyman of the Methodist church, who was the father of five children, those besides Mrs. Heron having been . William, Edward, May and Kate. Mrs. Ansted is a member of the Episcopal church and Mr. Ansted
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is a member of the Catholic church. He is a member of the local council of the Knights of Columbus and takes a warm interest in the affairs of the same. He and his wife have one of the finest homes in Connersville and take an earnest interest in the general social activities of the city, helpful in advancing all worthy causes.
HENRY T. SILVEY.
Henry T. Silvey, one of Connersville's best-known and most progressive merchants and a partner with William H. Luking in the clothing business there, a continuation of the old-established tailoring establishment of William H. Beck, founded in Connersville in 1848, was born at Everton, this county, July 29, 1877, son of Thomas Hillary and Hannah (Jerman) Silvey, the latter of whom is still living in that village.
Thomas Hillary Silvey also was a native son of Fayette county, born just east of Nulltown, in Jackson township, October 14, 1835, a son of Dr. Presley S. and Frances S. (Sterrett) Silvey, pioneers of that section of the county. In addition to being a physician, Dr. Presley S. Silvey was a "local" preacher of the Methodist faith and in his day was one of the best-known men in this part of the state. He was born in Virginia in 1802 and was about fifteen years of age when his parents, Thomas and Anna Silvey, settled in Fayette county. It was on May 20, 1817, that Thomas Silvey bought a tract of ten acres in Jackson township, this county, paying for the same seventy dollars; land that today is valued at probably one hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre. Thomas Silvey, who was born on August 17, 1774, died on July 30, 1835. On that pioneer farm in Jackson township Presley S. Silvey grew to manhood and early turned his attention to the practice of medicine and to preaching. The demands for his medical services came from a wide stretch of territory and he traveled horseback for miles in all directions, calling on his patients. One night while answering a call west of Everton a bear crossed his path. He went on to the house of his patient. The next morning the bear was killed in a neighbor's barn lot. Doctor Silvey married, November 20, 1822, Frances S. Sterrett, who died in 1855, leaving eight children, Elizabeth Ranch, James Morgan, Asbury, Rebecca, Ann, Thomas Hillary, Jerusha and Jane. The Doctor died on March 21, 1872, at his home at Everton, where he had been engaged in prac- tice for many years.
Thomas H. Silvey was a blacksmith and with the exception of one year
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FAYETTE COUNTY; INDIANA.
spent at Alquina spent all his life in Jackson township. He had his black- smith shop at Everton and was for years one of the best-known men in that part of the county. On September 8, 1858, he married Hannah Jerman, who was born at Fairfield, in the neighboring county of Franklin, October 26, 1839, a daughter of Reuben and Elizabeth (Osborne) Jerman, the former of whom was for years engaged in the live-stock business at Everton, driv- ing stock through to Cincinnati. He also drove turkeys through to Cincin- nati. In his later life Reuben Jerman moved to near Columbia, this state, and there spent his last days. His widow returned to Everton, where her last days were spent. Thomas H. Silvey died at his home in Everton in March, 1889, and his widow is still living there. They were the parents of seven children, five of whom are still living, Katherine having died at the age of nine years and William P., in 1897, at the age of twenty-seven years. Those besides the subject of this sketch who are still living are Reuben J., of Kansas City; Mrs. Anna Murphy, of Indianapolis; Mrs. Fannie Elizabeth Sims, of Indianapolis, and Jasper L., of Everton.
Henry T. Silvey grew up at Everton. In the days of his youth he followed farm work and later became engaged as a clerk in a grocery store at Everton. This experience gave him a taste for merchandising and after about two years spent in the store at Everton he went to Connersville, where he became engaged in a grocery store. In 1902 he went to work in the establishment of W. H. Beck's Sons, tailors and clothiers, and was thus engaged until in February, 1910, when he and William H. Luking bought the store from Charles D. Beck, who had been sole proprietor since the death of his brother. This store, at the northwest corner of Central avenue and Court street, is one of the oldest mercantile establishments in the city of Connersville. It was founded by William H. Beck, a son of David Beck, a pioneer tailor. William H. Beck early learned the trade of a tailor and when a youth determined to get into business on his own account. Equipped with a pair of shears, a package of needles and one dollar in cash he went to Falmouth, where he laid his case before a woman who consented to board him, he to pay as he could. He gave her his dollar on account and announced that he was ready to do neighborhood tailoring. He was successful from the start, farmers from all around that part of the country bringing him cloth from the mills to be made up into clothing, and after he had saved a few hundred dollars he went to Cincinnati, laid his case before a jobbing house there and was given credit to the amount of four hundred dollars. This outfitted, Mr. Beck started a tailor shop in Connersville in 1848, starting business at the corner now occupied by the Silvey-Luking store, and was there
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engaged in business the rest of his life. He built up an extensive business and after his death the business was carried on by his sons, Samuel W. and Charles D. Beck, under the firm name of W. H. Beck's Sons, and was so conducted until Mr. Silvey and Mr. Luking bought the store, which they have since been very successfully conducting under the firm name of the Silvey-Luking Company.
In December, 1897, Henry T. Silvey was united in marriage to Lulu Z. Trusler, who was born on a farm between Blooming Grove and Fairfield, in the neighboring county of Franklin, a daughter of William H. and Catherine (Loper) Trusler, the former of whom was born and reared on that same farm, the old Trusler homestead, and who now lives at Richmond, this state. Mr. and Mrs. Silvey have a pleasant home in Connersville and take an interested part in the city's general social activities. Mrs. Silvey is a member of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, through descent from her father's grandfather, who participated in the War of Independence. Mr. Silvey is a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias.
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