USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 80
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In 1885 B. F. Thiebaud was united in marriage to Alice Lamberson,
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daughter of William Lamberson and wife, and to this union were born four children, all of whom have preceded them. A daughter, the lamented Mar- guerite, mentioned above, who died on March 13, 1914, was the last of the children to pass to the higher life. Mr. and Mrs. Thiebaud are mem- bers of the Christian church and Mr. Thiebaud has for many years been an elder and was chairman of the building committee that had charge of the erection of that congregation's handsome new house of worship. He is a Mason and a member of the local lodges of the Knights of Pythias and of the Improved Order of Red Men, in the affairs of which organizations he takes much interest.
ELMER E. MURPHY.
Elmer E. Murphy, one of Connersville township's most progressive and substantial farmers and the proprietor of a fine farm about two and one- half miles south of Connersville, was born on a pioneer farm about two miles south of Whitcomb, in the neighboring county of Franklin, and has lived in this part of the state all his life. He was born on December 19, 1862, a son of Samuel and Margaret (Crist) Murphy, both natives of Franklin county and well-known and influential residents of the Whitcomb neighborhood, the latter of whom is still living, now making her home at Brookville.
Samuel Murphy was born on a pioneer farm in the northern part of Franklin county, a son of Recompense Murphy and wife, the latter of whom was a Hitchner, who were early settlers and well-to-do residents of the Whit- comb community. Recompense Murphy was born in New Jersey and came out to this part of Indiana in an early day and here spent the rest of his life. Samuel Murphy grew up on the home farm in Franklin county and farmed in that county all his life. He married Margaret Crist, who was born on a farm ahout four miles east of Brookville, about 1841, a daughter of John and Mary Crist, who came here from. Pennsylvania and settled in Franklin county. Samuel Murphy died about thirty years ago and his widow is still living, now a resident of Brookville, she being seventy-six years of age. They were the parents of four children, those besides the subject of this sketch being as follow: Perry, who lives in Indianapolis; Harry, who died in his twenty-second year, and Mary. wife of George F. O'Byrne, a well-known lawyer, of Brookville.
Elmer E. Murphy grew to manhood on the home farm in the vicinity of Whitcomb and received his schooling in the local schools there, remaining
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on the farm, a valued assistant in the labors of improving and developing the same, until his marriage in the fall of 1889, when he began farming for him- self on a place four miles east of Brookville, where he made his home until 1902, when he moved to a farm near Carmel. A year later, in 1903, he moved to his present farm, two and one-half miles south of Connersville, just west of the railroad, and there has made his residence ever since, long having been regarded as one of the most substantial farmers of that neighborhood. Mr. Murphy is the proprietor of a fine farm of two hundred and twenty-four acres, which he has improved in excellent shape. When he bought the place it had a good set of buildings on it, back off the road, but if 1916 he built a thoroughly modern bungalow dwelling near the road, equipping the same with electric lights, sanitary plumbing, furnace, a broad concrete veranda, and other modern improvements, the water pressure being provided by an electric pump, and there he and his family are very pleasantly and very com- fortably situated. His other house also is equipped with numerous similar improvements and his whole farm plant is in keeping with the progressive spirit displayed in the equipment of the home. In addition to his general farming Mr. Murphy has been giving considerable attention to dairying and has demonstrated that the latter phase of farming may be carried on with profit in this section.
In October, 1889, Elmer E. Murphy was united in marriage to Tina Schiltz, who was born on a farm in the vicinity of Brookville, in the neigh- boring county of Franklin, a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Stonebraker) Schiltz, well-known residents of that community. Peter Schiltz was born in Germany and came to this country with his parents when he was fifteen years of age, the family settling in Butler county, Ohio, where he remained until he was twenty-one years of age, when he moved over into Franklin county, this state, where he spent the rest of his life, becoming one of the best-known residents of that county. He followed various occupations, such as butcher- ing, stock-trading and farming, and for eight years served the public in the capacity of auditor of Franklin county. Although reared a Catholic, he attended the Methodist church and was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Knights of Pythias. Peter Schiltz died at Brook- ville in 1913. His wife had preceded him to the grave in 1901. They had four children who grew to maturity, those besides Mrs. Murphy having been Amanda, Lizzie and Alsie, the latter of whom is now deceased.
Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and take a proper part in church affairs, as well as in the general social activities of the community in which they live. They have two children,
L
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Paul, now living in the older of his father's two houses and giving his atten- tion to farming, who married Eva Moffett and has one child, a daughter, Roberta, and Hazel, at home with her parents. Hazel Murphy was gradu- ated from the Connersville high school in 1916 and is now attending college at Oxford, Ohio, specializing there in music.
H. S. OSBORNE, M. D.
Dr. H. S. Osborne, physician and surgeon at Glenwood and the pro- prietor of the Glenwood garage, is a native son of Indiana and has lived in this state all his life. He was born at New Winchester, in Hendricks county, December 16, 1877, son of Dr. John A. and Harriet W. (Kay) Osborne, the former of whom was born in that same county and the latter, in the state of Ohio, whose last days were spent in New Winchester, a pleasant village seven miles west of Danville, where Dr. John A. Osborne was engaged in the prac- tice of medicine for forty-six years, or until his death on March 1, 1911. He had served a term as recorder of Hendricks county and for sixteen years was a member of the board of pension examiners for that district. Fra- ternally, he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife had preceded him to the grave a little more than one year, her death having occurred on December 16, 1909. She was born near Jamestown, Ohio, and was about eight years of age when her parents moved to Hendricks county, this state, where she was living when she married Doctor Osborne.
H. S. Osborne grew up at New Winchester and supplemented the course in the local schools there by a course in the high school at Danville, from which he was graduated. He thien attended Bloomingdale Academy and after a further course there entered the Central Normal College at Danville, from which he presently was graduated. From the days of his boyhood, under the able preceptorship of his father, he had been devoting his thought- ful attention to the study of medicine and upon leaving college entered the medical department of the University of Kentucky at Louisville and was graduated from that institution in 1900, with the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine. Upon receiving his diploma Doctor Osborne opened an office for the practice of his profession at Pittsboro, in his home county, and was there engaged in practice for twelve years, at the end of which time, in 1912, he moved to Glenwood, opened an office there and has been engaged in practice there ever since, having built up an extensive practice throughout that part
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of Fayette county and in the neighboring county of Rush. Not long after locating at Glenwood, Doctor Osborne bought the garage at that place and has since been operating the same. He is a Republican and, fraternally, is affiliated with the Connersville lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Dr. H. S. Osborne has been twice married. His first wife, Grace McCowan, died, leaving one child, a daughter, Gladys, and later the Doctor married Madge Morgan, who was born in Benton county, this state, a daugh- ter of Wilbur F. and Addie ( Blessing) Morgan, and whose maternal grand- father, George Blessing, was a resident of Pittsboro. To this union one child has been born. also a daughter, Virginia. Doctor and Mrs. Osborne have a very pleasant home at Glenwood and take a proper interest in the general social activities of their home town, helpful in promoting all agencies having to do with the advancement of the common welfare thereabout.
JOSEPH EMERY MOFFETT.
Elsewhere in this volume of biography, in a memorial sketch relating to Samuel Calvin Moffett, a pioneer of Fayette county, who died in 1892, and who was a son of Samuel Moffett, who came from Tennessee to this section of Indiana in 1833 and settled at the northern edge of Harrison township, this county, there is set out in considerable detail, something concerning the well-known Moffett family in Fayette county, to which the attention of the reader is invited in this connection.
Joseph Emery Moffett was born on the old Moffett home farm in Har- rison township, this county, January 11, 1860, son of Samuel Calvin and Exeline (Cox) Moffett, and was about five years of age when his parents moved onto a farm over the line near Beeson, in the neighboring county of Wayne, where he grew to manhood. He and two of his brothers, William S. and Oscar F. Moffett, received a farm located on the eastern edge of Har- rison township from their father and there the three farmed together until the early eighties, when Joseph E. Moffett bought the interests held by his brothers in that farm and there continued farming until 1891, when, he hav- ing married in the meantime, he moved to the old homestead of his wife's people, the old DeHaven farm, in the north edge of Connersville township, where he has since resided and where he and his family are comfortably situated. He sold his place in Harrison township and now owns two hun-
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dred and forty-six acres of excellent land, comprised in two farms, two miles west of the city of Connersville. Mr. Moffett has conducted his farming operations along modern lines and his place is very well improved.
In 1885 Joseph E. Moffett was united in marriage to Flora DeHaven, who was born in a log house on the farm on which she is still living, daugh- ter of James Isaac and Eliza (Hamilton) DeHaven, both of whom were born in this county, members of pioneer families. James I. DeHaven was born on a farm in the immediate vicinity of Harrisburg, a son of Isaac and Nancy (Stucker) DeHaven, who came up to this section of Indiana from Kentucky in 1816, the year of Indiana's admission to statehood, and settled on a farm in Harrison township, this county, where they established their home, among the earliest settlers of that part of the county. There James I. DeHaven grew to manhood and married Eliza Hamilton, who was born in this county, a daughter of Nathaniel and Lucinda (Tyner) Hamilton, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania, May 25, 1798, son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth ( Buchanan) Hamilton, natives, respectively, of Ireland and Pennsylvania, who came out West in 1810 and settled just above Brookville, in the then Territory of Indiana, and remained there during the period of the War of 1812, two of the Hamilton sons, John and Adam Hamilton, serving as soldiers during that struggle. In 1815 the Hamilton family moved from Franklin county up into Fayette county and settled on a farm northwest of Connersville, in Connersville township. There the elder Nathaniel Hamilton died in 1823. His widow later went over into Illinois, where her death occurred in 1826. They were earnest members of the Presbyterian church and the elder Nathaniel Hamilton was for years an elder in that church. The junior Nathaniel Hamilton grew to manhood in Connersville township and in 1821 married Lucinda Tyner, daughter of James and Margaret Tyner, pioneers of this county ; and he shortly afterward began buying land from the other heirs of the family estate and became the owner of a farm of one . hundred acres, on which he spent the rest of his life, meeting death in Sep- tember, 1885, when a load of shingles he was hauling upset with him. He was four times married, but all his children were born to his first union, that with Lucinda Tyner. He was a firm believer in the tenets of the Old School Baptist church and an attendant on the services of the same. He is remem- bered by the old settlers as a singularly amiable and remarkably well-pre- served old gentleman and was highly esteemed by all who knew him. James Isaac DeHaven became a substantial farmer of Fayette county, the owner of more than four hundred acres of land in Connersville and Harrison town- ships. His wife died in 1892 and he survived until 1900.
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Mr. and Mrs. Moffett have two daughters living, Ethel, who married William Semler, who is farming a part of the Moffett farm, and has three children, Marion, Catherine and Emery, and Eva Lucinda, who married Paul Murphy, who is living on a farm two miles south of Connersville, and has one child, a daughter, Roberta Maxine. Mr. and Mrs. Moffett are members of the Christian church, in the affairs of which they take a proper interest, and Mr. Moffett is a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, taking a warm interest in the affairs of that popular organ- ization.
A. E. RICH.
. A. E. Rich, one of Fairview township's well-known farmers, was born in the neighboring county of Rush on September 25, 1857, son of Robert and Nancy (Bishop) Rich, the former of whom also was born in that county, a member of one of the pioneer families, and the latter in the state of Ohio. Robert Rich was the owner of a quarter of a section of land in Rush county and farmed there all his life. He and his wife were the parents of three children, the subject of this sketch having two sisters, Mrs. Mollie Johnson and Mrs. Amanda McCrory.
Reared on the home farm in Rush county, A. E. Rich received his schooling in the schools of his home neighborhood and remained at home, a valuable assistant to his father in the labors of improving the home place, until his marriage when he was twenty-five years of age, when he established his home in Henry county, where he bought a farm and where he lived until 1898, when he and his family moved to the farm in Fairview township, this county, the same belonging to his wife, where they have since resided and where they are very comfortably situated. The farm consists of one hundred and thirty-two acres of well-improved land and the farm plant is arranged along up-to-date lines. In addition to his general farming, Mr. Rich gives considerable attention to the raising of a good grade of hogs and is doing very well in his operations.
On January 24, 1882, A. F. Rich was united in marriage to Minnie Hinchman, who was born in Rush county, daughter of Allan and Nancy (Moffitt) Hinchman, the former of whom also was born in that same county and the latter in this county, both members of pioneer families. Allan Hinch- man was a son of John and Margaret Hinchman, who came from Virginia to Indiana in early days and settled in Rush county. There he was born and
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reared and there he remained all his life, becoming a substantial farmer, the owner of three hundred and eighty acres in Rush and Fayette counties. He and his wife were the parents of five children, those besides Mrs. Rich being Margaret, Nora, Grant and George.
To Mr. and Mrs. Rich have been born three children, Allan, who mar- ried Callie Crouch and has four children, Neva, Mervin, Earl and Catherine ; Gertrude, who married Lloyd Wysong, and Nora. The Riches are members . of the Christian church in Fairview township and take a proper part in the good works of their home neighborhood. Mr. Rich is a Democrat, taking a proper interest in local civic affairs, but has not been a seeker after public office. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and is past noble grand of his local lodge, in the affairs of which he ever has taken an active interest.
CHARLES C. HULL.
Charles C. Hull, president of the Rex Manufacturing Company, of Con- nersville, vice-president and factory manager of the Central Manufacturing Company of that city, former president of the National Carriage Builders Association of America and interested in various other manufacturing and industrial concerns in Connersville, is a native son of Fayette county and has lived here all his life. He was born on a pioneer farm in the near vicinity of Alquina, in Jennings township, January 17, 1866, son of John and Maria (Burk) Hull, both of whom also were natives of this county and the latter of whom is still living here, for years a resident of Connersville.
John Hull also was born in Jennings township, son of Matthew R. Hull and wife, the former of whom was born in that part of the Old Dominion now comprised in West Virginia and who came to Indiana in his youth, settling in Fayette county, where he married and established his home in the Alquina neighborhood. His wife died when she was about thirty years of age and he survived her for years, he being sixty-six years of age at the time of his death. They were the parents of six children, Oscar, Jane, Justinian, John. Matthew R. and Alpha. On that pioneer farm John Hull was reared and later took over the farm and lived there many years. Upon his retirement from the farm he moved to the village of Dublin, in the neigh- boring county of Wayne, and thence to Indianapolis, moving thence to Zion
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City, Chicago, where he died on May 30, 1913. His widow is now making her home in Connersville. She also was born in this county, daughter of John J. and Nancy (Snyder) Burk, the former of whom was a native of the state of Maryland and one of the pioneers of Fayette county, a farmer and a man of considerable substance, who lived to the great age of ninety-two years. His wife lived to the age of sixty-five. They were the parents of the following children: Mary, Jackson, Nancy, Rachel, John S., Ellen, Green, Maria, Alice and Stephen. John Hull and his wife were members of the Baptist church and their children were reared in that faith. There were ten of these children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth, the others being as follow: Clifford, deceased; Jolin, of Chicago; Robert, of Connersville; Jennie, who is unmarried and is living with her mother in Connersville; George, of Little Rock, Arkansas; Cynthia, who died at the age of two years; Frank, of Valparaiso, Indiana; Warren, of Connersville, and Mary, who died when about thirteen years of age.
Charles C. Hull was reared on his grandfather's farm in the vicinity of Alquina and received his early schooling in the district school in that neigli- borhood. This he supplemented by a course in the Central Normal School at Danville, this state, and thus equipped for teaching taught school for a couple of years, after which he engaged in the hardware business and was thus engaged for four years, at the end of which time he accepted the posi- tion of assistant superintendent of the plant of the Parry Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of buggies, at Indianapolis, and was there engaged in that capacity for ten years, during which time he thoroughly mastered the details of the manufacture of buggies. Mr. Hull then returned to Conners- ville and in association with William H. Harris and Frank G. Volz organ- ized the Rex Manufacturing Company and established a plant for the manu- facture of buggies in that city. Mr. Hull was made president of the com- pany and has ever since occupied that position, developing the industry into one of the largest buggy factories in this part of the country, the company employing about three hundred persons and shipping its product to all parts of the United States. In addition to his interests in connection with the Rex Manufacturing Company, Mr. Hull also has other and extensive manufac- turing interests in Connersville. In 1902 he became connected with the Central Manufacturing Company of Connersville, he and his business asso- ciates buying a controlling interest in the same, and they also bought the plant of the Connersville Wheel Company, which has since been absorbed
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by the Central Manufacturing Company and of which Mr. Hull was presi- dent for twelve or fourteen years. He also is a member of the board of directors of the Lexington-Howard Motor Company, manufacturers of auto- mobiles, and a director in the Hoosier Castings Company. Mr. Hull is a Republican and for three years served as secretary of the Connersville school board and also served for some time as the director of the Elmhurst school. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Connersville Com- mercial Club for years and served for some time as president of the same. He has for years been one of the most prominent members of the National Carriage Builders Association of the United States and in 1913 was elected president of the same.
On December 5, 1888, Charles C. Hull was united in marriage to Rozzie F. Lair, who also was born in the Alquina neighborhood in Jennings town- ship, this county, July 8, 1865, daughter of Mathias and Discretion (Fergu- son) Lair, natives of this county, both now deceased. Mathias Lair, a former sheriff of Fayette county, was for years one of the best-known resi- dents of the county. He was a substantial farmer and was twice elected sheriff of the county. His father, whose wife was a Bell, came to this county from Kentucky and became a substantial pioneer and the father of eleven children, of whom eight grew to maturity, John, Charles, Mathias, Joseph, Harriet, Osie, Sophia and Jennie. The Fergusons also were well- known pioneers. Mathias Lair was thrice married. By his first wife, who was a Ross, he had one child, a daughter, Edna. By his marriage to Dis- cretion Ferguson he had four children, Charles, Rozzie, Kate and one who died when six years of age. Upon the death of the mother of these latter children he married a Miss Sparks and to that union one child was born, a daughter, Mattie.
To Charles C. and Rozzie F. (Lair) Hull four children have been born, namely : Ruth M., who married Frederic I. Barrows; M. Lair Hull, who is the assistant superintendent of the plant of the Central Manufacturing Company at Connersville; Rachel, who was born in 1904, and Hollis, who was born in 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Hull are members of the First Methodist Episcopal church at Connersville and Mr. Hull is a member of the board of trustees of the same. In 1916 he was honored by being sent as a delegate to the general conference of his church. He is a Mason, a member of War- ren Lodge No. 15, Free and Accepted Masons, and takes a warm interest in Masonic affairs.
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JOHN J. BURGER.
John J. Burger, one of Connersville township's well-known farmers, is a native of the neighboring county of Wayne, but has been a resident of Fayette county since he was seven years of age. He was born at Cambridge, in Wayne county, this state, March 8, 1861, son of Jacob and Veronica ( Fager) Burger, natives of Germany, whose last days were spent in this county, well-known residents of the community west of Connersville.
Jacob Burger was born in the village of Kuhr, in the province of Hessen, Germany, July 25, 1831, only son in a family of four children. He lived at home until he was twenty-three years of age, when he had an elder sister came to the United States, landing at the port of New York on July 17, 1854, without means and strangers in a strange land. Jacob Burger had but five cents in money when he landed on the shores of America, but he soon got a job as a gardener in New York, where he worked until he had earned money enough to pay his way to Cincinnati, in the neighborhood of which city he worked, gardening and farming, for nearly two years, or until the last of April, 1856, when he came up into Indiana and located at Conners- ville, securing employment in that vicinity as a farm hand. He married in 1857 and in 1860 went up into Wayne county, where he remained until 1869. when he returned to this county and bought a farm west of Connersville, the place now occupied by his sons, Louis and John, and there spent the remainder of his life, a substantial farmer, he and his wife both doing well their part in the upbuilding of that community. On May 7, 1857, in this county, Jacob Burger was united in marriage to Veronica Fager, who was born in the grand duchy of Baden, in Germany, August 20, 1829, and who came to this country alone in 1853. After more than forty years of happy married life, she died on July 19, 1898. Jacob Burger survived his wife for nearly twelve years, his death occurring on March 12, 1910. He and his wife were earnest members of the Catholic church and their children were reared in that faith : these children, besides the subject of this sketch, being Mrs. Anna Geise, Mrs. Clara Schoenborn, Mrs. Maggie Ariens, Joseph S. (who died in Octo- ber, 1908). Mrs. Lizzie Greiner and Louis.
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