USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 89
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In 1887 Edward V. Hawkins was united in marriage to Margaret L_ Pratt, who was born in the state of New York and to this union was born one child, a son, Edward P. Hawkins, mentioned above as secretary and assistant general manager of the Connersville Furniture Company and a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins are earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal church and for many years have been among the leaders in all good work hereahout. Mr. Hawkins is one of the most active workers in the church to which he is attached and, as an office-bearer, has served the congregation of the same in various capacities. Since the year 1893 he has been a member of the city school board, with the exception of two years of that time, and since 1908 has been president of the board. He and his wife, some years ago, presented to the city, through the public schools, in perpetuity, an attractive tract of ground covering three and one-half acres at the end of Eastern avenue, the
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same to be used for playground purposes, and the tract has been very properly styled the Hawkins playground, a continual memorial to the children of the city of the kindness of heart and benevolence of its donors.
JOHN J. WILLIAMS.
John J. Williams, one of Connersville township's most progressive young farmers and the proprietor of a farm of three hundred and fifty-five acres in that township, is a native son of Fayette county and has lived here all his life. He was born on a farm in Jackson township on June 15, 1884, son of Madison Homer and Ella (Crandall) Williams, both of whom also were born in Jackson township and who are now living at East Connersville, where they have resided since 1914.
Madison Homer Williams was born on November 18, 1858, a son of Jesse and Adeline (Benner) Williams, the former of whom was born in Jackson township, this county, a son of Elisha and Martha ( Baker) Will- iams, who were among the early settlers in that part of Fayette county, the Williams family thus havin gbeen represented in this county since the days of the beginning of a social order hereabout. Elisha Williams was born in Pulaski county, Kentucky, August 3, 1802, son of Virginia parents, and was about fourteen years of age when his parents moved with their family up into Indiana, settling in the Brookville neighborhood, whence, a year later, they came on up into Fayette county and settled in Jackson township, not far west of the present village of Everton. Elisha Williams there grew to manhood and became a farmer, remaining in that community all his life. He early turned his attention to the church and was for years one of the best-known ministers of the Methodist church in that part of the country. He was three times married. His first wife and the mother of all his ten children, was Martha Baker, who was born in 1808 and died in 1856. The Rev. Elisha Williams died in 1884. His son, Jesse Williams, also grew up in Jackson township, where he farmed all his life. His first wife, Adeline Benner, was born in Wabash county, this state. She died about 1861, leav- ing two small children, Madison H. and Emma, the latter of whom is now Mrs. Emma Handley. Jesse Williams later married Anna Marie Rously, which union was without issue.
It was in Jackson township also that Madison H. Williams grew to manhood and there, in 1878, he married Ella Crandall, who also was born in Jackson township, a daughter of Jonathan and Emaline (Myer) Crandall,
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also members of pioneer families hereabout. Jonathan Crandall was also born in Jackson township, this county, a son of Elisha and Sarah ( Golden) Crandall, North Carolinians, who came to Indiana in 1815 and settled in Fayette county, Elisha Crandall entering a tract of "Congress land" in Jen- nings township, north of Everton, and in this county spent the rest of their lives. Jonathan Crandall was a life-long farmer in Jackson township, where he and his wife spent their last days. She was born in Union county, this state, a daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Landis) Myer, the former of whom was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, in 1805, and the latter in Bote- tourt county, Virginia, in that same year, both coming to Indiana with their respective parents in 1811 and settling in Union county. Jacob Myer was the son of Abraham Myer and wife and in 1829, in Union county, he mar- ried Sarah Landis, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Grof) Landis. Ten years later, in 1839, Jacob Myer and his family moved over into Fayette county and settled in Jackson township, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1883. His widow survived until 1892. They were earnest members of the German Baptist church and took an active part in the affairs of the same. Ella Crandall grew up in Jackson township and was residing there at the time of her marriage to Madison M. Williams. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Williams located on a farm Mr. Williams bought in Posey township, this county, and there remained for five years, at the end of which time they moved to the old Williams farm in Jackson township, where they remained until their retirement in 1914 and removal to East Con- nersville, where they are now living. Mr. Williams still retains his farm- ing interests in Jackson township, where he owns a well-improved farm of one hundred and eighty-nine acres.
To Madison H. and Ella ( Crandall) Williams four children have been born, namely: Oris, who married Edna Ludlow and lives in the northwest part of Connersville township; Maude, who married Daniel Broadus, of Har- rison township, and has two sons, Homer and Horace; John J., the immedi- ate subject of this biographical sketch, and Perry, who died at the age of two years and six months.
John J. Williams was reared on the home farm in Jackson township, where he was born, and received his schooling in the local schools. From boyhood he was a valued aid to his father in the labors of developing and improving the home farm and remained there until his marriage in 1906. when he bought a farm on Big Williams creek, southwest of Connersville, where he farmed until 1912, when he moved to the old Bundrant farm, formerly owned by his wife's father, and has since made that his place of
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residence, at the same time continuing to operate the farm he first bought In 1914 he bought the Bundrant farm, on which there are two dwellings, and is now the owner of three hundred and fifty-five acres of well-improved land. In addition to his general farming, Mr. Williams gives a good deal of attention to the raising of high-grade live stock and has done very well in his farming operations.
In 1906 John J. Williams was united in marriage to Maude Bundrant, who was born on the farm on which she and her husband now live, three miles west of Connersville, a daughter of Edward L. and Anchor (Petro) Bundrant, both of whom also were born in this county, members of pioneer families. Edward L. Bundrant was born on the farm where Mr. and Mrs. Williams now live and where he spent all his life. He was the only son of Charles H. and Jane ( Branson) Bundrant, the former of whom was born in Virginia and the latter in Henry county, this state. Charles H. Bundrant was born on March 12, 1822, son of Thomas and Susan (Lockett ) Bundrant, also natives of the Old Dominion, and was about eight years of age when his parents left Virginia in 1830 and came to Indiana, settling in Fayette county, where Thomas Bundrant died five years later. Thomas Bundrant was a soldier during the War of 1812 and marched with his command from Harpers Ferry, Virginia, to Natchez, Mississippi. His ancestors came to this country from France in Colonial days and became a well-established family in Vir- ginia. After the death of his father, Charles H. Bundrant was "bound out" to a tanner of the name of Brown at Connersville and after serving an apprenticeship of six years, became a partner of Brown and was thus engaged in the tanning business for five years, at the end of which time he bought a farm of eighty-five acres west of Connersville, the place now owned by Mr. Williams, and there farmed the rest of his life. On May 13, 1851, he mar- ried Jane Branson, who was born in Henry county, this state, daughter of William and Sarah ( Pickering) Branson, and to that union was born one son, Edward L. Bundrant, father of Mrs. Williams, who married Anchor Petro, who was born a short distance east of Connersville, daughter of Leonard and Sarah Petro, and spent all his life on the farm on which he was born, his death occurring in 1914.
Mr. and Mrs. Williams have two daughters, Ruth Lorene and Edric Naomi. They have a very pleasant home and take a proper part in the gen- eral social activities of the community in which they live. Mr. Williams is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, both of the subordinate lodge and of the encampment, and takes a warm interest in-the affairs of that popular organization.
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ANDREW M. BELL.
A native of the state of Indiana, and one who has continued to live in the state, where he has met with much success, and where he is held in the highest regard, is Andrew M. Bell, a retired farmer of East Connersville, who was born in Franklin county, Indiana, on December 10, 1837, and is the son of John and Margaret ( Chambers) Bell.
John and Margaret (Chambers) Bell were born in the state of Mary- land, and there they were educated in the public schools and there they mar- ried. They established their home in that state and continued to live there until 1835, when they left their home and came to Indiana. They located in Franklin county, where they remained but a few years, and engaged in farm work. They made the journey from Maryland with horses and wagon, suffering many of the hardships of that means of travel, over a new territory and through the heavy forests of that time. On leaving Franklin county they went to Union county, Indiana, where they obtained land. The tract at that time was in the woods and covered with heavy timber. Here they made a home in the wilderness, and lived the lives of the pioneers of those times. The farm was in time developed and improved and here Mr. Bell engaged in farming until 1861, when the family returned to Franklin county, where Mr. and Mrs. Bell died some years later. They were active members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and prominent in all the activities of their district. Mr. Bell was identified with the Whig party and later with the Republican party, and always took a keen interest in the affairs of his county and township. He and Mrs. Bell were the parents of nine children, three of whom are now living, Andrew M., Henrietta Ramey, of Franklin county, and Ada, also of that county. . To Mr. and Mrs. Bell is due much honor and credit for the great work that they did in transforming the wilder- ness into well-cultivated fields.
Andrew M. Bell was educated in the old log school house of that time and attended a subscription school, for there were no public schools in the section at that time. He grew to manhood on the old home place where he assisted his father with the farm work and remained on the farm until July, 1861, when he enlisted in Company B, Thirty-seventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in Union county. After having enlisted he was sent to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where the regiment was organized and then on to Louisville, Kentucky. They later joined Buell's army at Nashville. He was in the battles of Shiloh, Tullahoma, Dunkard Station, Chickamauga,
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Tunnel Hill, Buzzard Roost, and was with Sherman at Atlanta and on the march to the sea. He was with the army in the march to Washington and took part in the Grand Review. He received his discharge in August, 1865, at Indianapolis. He returned to his home happy in the thought that he had done his duty, as best he could, though he carried the scars of five wounds that he received while in the service.
After his return from the army service, Mr. Bell lived at various places, until 1870, when he was united in marriage to Candace Keyger, Franklin county, Indiana. After their marriage, they located on a farm in Franklin county, where they remained until 1880, when they came to Fayette county, where they purchased a farm of one hundred acres of land in Connersville township, where they continued to live, and where they successfully engaged in general farming and stock raising until the death of Mrs. Bell on June 25, 1902. After the death of his wife, Mr. Bell rented his farm, and moved to East Connersville, where he has a pleasant home and seven acres of ground. Mrs. Bell was a most pleasing woman and one who was held in the highest esteem by all. She was devoted to the interests of her husband and of the community in which she lived for so many years. Mr. Bell has long been identified with the Republican party and has taken a keen interest in the affairs of his township and his county.
JOHN NELSON WILLIAMS.
Born in the state of Ohio, on June 12, 1844, near Elizabethtown, the son of Richard W. and Phoebe (Carter) Williams, John Nelson Williams came to Columbia township, Fayette county, with his parents, when he was but seven years of age.
Richard W. and Phoebe Carter Williams were natives of the state of Ohio and Franklin county, Indiana, respectively. They received their edu- cation in the schools of their respective states and were married in Indiana and returned to Ohio, where they continued to live until 1851, when they decided to locate in the Hoosier state. They established their home on a farm in Columbia township. Fayette county, and there the father engaged in general farming and stock raising, with much success. After many years of residence on the original farm, Mr. and Mrs. Williams moved to near the town of Columbia, where the father died in the year 1895 and the mother in 1893. Mr. Williams was a strong advocate of the principles of the Repub-
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lican party, and he and his wife were devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal church. They were the parents of nine children as follow : Thomas W., Margaret E., John N., Isaac Newton, Arthur, Esther, Amelia, Phoebe and Morton. Thomas, Isaac Newton, Amelia and Phoebe are now deceased, Isaac Newton, a twin of John N., died when he was but eighteen months old: Margaret E. is the widow of C. H. Brown, and resides in Columbia township; Arthur lives in the state of Iowa, and Morton is a well- known resident of Connersville township, Fayette county.
John Nelson Williams received his education in the schools of Columbia township, and was reared on the home farm. He remained at home until June, 1864, when he enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was at once transferred to Nashville, Tennessee, where he did guard duty at that place and also in Ken- tucky. He was also detailed to transfer prisoners to Chicago. He was dis- charged from the service in September, 1864, at which time he returned to the home of his parents, where he remained for a year. He then engaged in general farming in Connersville township, where he purchased eighty- eight acres, which he developed and improved, and built a home. He later purchased fifty-five acres of the old home place, and was for many years one of the successful and substantial farmers and stockmen of the county.
On November 20, 1873, John Nelson Williams was united in marriage to Mary F. Hardy, a native of Columbia township, the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Chapman (Heizer) Hardy. Her parents were natives of Franklin and Fayette counties, Indiana, the father having been born in the former county and the mother, in the latter. They were of the farming class and highly respected people. They were active members of the Meth- odist Episcopal church, until the time of their deaths, the father having died in March, 1883, and the mother in April, 1895. They were the parents of three children, as follow: William, now deceased; Mary F. and Alva S., who is dead.
John Nelson and Mary F. Williams are the parents of one child, Homer L., who was born on December 16, 1874. He received his education in the local schools and at the Columbia high school, and was reared on the home farm. As a young man he decided that he too would be a farmer, and is now engaged in that calling. He is married to Fannie Johnson, and to them six children have been born as follow: Mary F., died at the age of four years; Carl W., died when six weeks old : Opal, James Nelson, Garnet L. and Mildred.
Soon after his marriage, John Nelson Williams located in Columbia
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township, where he successfully engaged in general farming and stock rais- ing, until he retired from the more active duties of life, on November 17, 1916, and established his home at East Connersville. He sold his farm and now has a beautiful home on Main and Fiant streets and owns several acres of land. He and his wife are prominent and active members of the Meth- odist Episcopal church, and are among the highly respected people of their home city. Mr. Williams is a member of the Red Men and the Haymakers.
JOSEPH JARRET COLE.
Joseph Jarret Cole, president of the Cole Motor Car Company, of Indi- anapolis. and one of the best-known figures in the automobile industry in the United States, is a native son of Fayette county and, though years a resident elsewhere, has never ceased to retain the liveliest and most affectionate interest in the affairs of his old home county, his occasional visits back here to the scenes of his boyhood ever giving him peculiar pleasure. It is there- fore but proper and fitting that in presenting a series such as this of the biographies of those who have done well their respective parts in the develop- ment of Fayette county or have brought honor to the county through dis- tinguished personal service or endeavor in whatever line, a brief sketch of the life and career of this distinguished son of old Fayette should here be included.
Elsewhere in this volume there is set out at considerable length a history of the Cole family in Fayette county and all of those interesting details need not therefore be repeated here, it being sufficient to say that the Coles have been sturdily represented here since pioneer days. The progenitors of the family in this county were Joseph Jared and Patience (Foster) Cole, who came to Indiana in the days of the beginning of a social order in this part of the state and, after a sometime residence in the neighboring county of Wayne, came down into Fayette county and established their home in Water- loo township, becoming influential and useful pioneers of that community, there spending their last days. Joseph Jared Cole was one of the most active pioneers of Fayette county and became the owner of about one thousand acres of land. He later became engaged in the pork-packing business in Connersville and, on meeting reverses in that business, was compelled to divert a portion of his fortune in land to the less successful line of endeavor. He and his wife were the parents of six children, two sons and four daughters.
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One of these sons, Joseph J. Cole, second, grew to manhood in this county and married Margaret Thomas, who was born in this county, daughter of Benjamin Thomas and wife, who came to Indiana from Maine and became pioneers of Fayette county, where they reared a large family. The second Joseph J. Cole established his home on a farm in Waterloo township after his marriage and there remained, one of the most substantial and influen- tial farmers in the northern part of the county, until 1906, in which year he retired from the farm and moved to Connersville, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there on June 16, 1914, at the age of seventy years and ten months, and where his widow is still living, very comfortably situated at her pleasant home at 1610 Virginia avenue. Joseph J. Cole was a Democrat and ever took an active part in the political affairs of his community, for years serving as trustee of Waterloo township. He attended the Methodist Episcopal church and he and his wife were ever mindful of the public welfare, doing well their part in promoting such agencies as were designed to advance the cause of the common good in the community in which they were so long useful and influential factors. Theirs was a hospitable home and in other days was the scene of many a social gathering, both Mr. Cole and his wife being fond of company and of the companionship of their friends, and as their children grew up the latter contributed largely to the general social activities of the community. There were five of these children, those besides the subject of this sketch, the fourth in order of birth, being as follow: Harry Claude, who died in infancy; Lillian Maude, wife of Ellis Filby, of Cambridge City ; Effie Patience, wife of R. D. Eby, of Con- nersville, and Benjamin Walter Cole, treasurer of Fayette county and a bio- graphical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume.
Joseph Jarret Cole, fourth in order of birth of the six children born to Joseph J. and Margaret ( Thomas) Cole, was born on the old Cole farm in Waterloo township on March 23. 1869, and there spent his boyhood, sup- plementing the schooling he received in the neighborhood school by a course in the Connersville high school, after which he took a course in the Rich- mond Business College, at Richmond, this state, and then, at the age of eighteen years, became a clerk in the office of the Parry Manufacturing Company at Indianapolis, manufacturers of buggies. Two years later, hav- ing in the meantime become thoroughly grounded in the details of that company's business and familiar with every point in relation to its output, Mr. Cole was made a traveling salesman for the Parry Manufacturing Company, in which capacity he traveled all over the United States. He was thus engaged until 1896, in which year he transferred his services to the
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Moon Brothers Carriage Company, of St. Louis, and was engaged as a trav- eling salesman for that company for two years, at the end of which time, having meanwhile become a small stockholder, he was elected secretary of the company and for four years thereafter was stationed in the office of the company at St. Louis. In 1904 Mr. Cole disposed of his interest in the St. Louis carriage-manufacturing concern and returned to Indianapolis with a view to engaging in business in that city on his own account. There he or- ganized the Cole Carriage Company, of which concern he was the principal stockholder and controlling factor, and bought the plant of the Gates- Osborne Company, a concern which had been organized about two years before for the manufacture of carriages. They operated the same as a car- riage-manufacturing plant for five years, or until 1900, when the present wonderful successful Cole Motor Car Company was organized to take over the plant of the Cole Carriage Company and turn the same to the manufacture of automobiles. The instant success of the Cole Motor Car Company, of which Mr. Cole has been president since the day of its organization, is a matter of industrial history familiar in automobile circles the world over. Mr. Cole's idea in projecting his new enterprise was to construct a car that would be simple in construction, yet durable and dependable, with standard- ized parts; that is, parts of such dimension and form as could be readily duplicated in almost any well-equipped service station. Buyers were not slow to recognize the advantages possessed by such a car and to avail them- selves of the same, with the result that the Cole Car has become one of the most popular cars in the United States and also has been favored by an ex- tensive foreign demand. The Cole Motor Car Company was incorporated in 1909 with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, but this cap- italization has since been increased to one million dollars, all paid up. Mr. Cole's long connection with the carriage-manufacturing business and his wide experience as a traveling salesman in that line gave him a singularly intimate knowledge of the country's needs from a vehicle-maker's point of view and this knowledge has been an invaluable asset to the company of which he is the head and the controlling factor.
In September, 1891, Joseph Jarret Cole was united in marriage to Nellie Goodman, of Connersville, daughter of Jacob and Mary (Burns) Goodman, who came from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, to this state, and to this union one child has been born, a son, Joseph Jacob Cole, the fourth J. J. Cole in direct descent, who was born in Connersville on September 15, 1899. Mr. and Mrs. Cole are members of the Catholic church and take a proper interest in the affairs of their home parish in Indianapolis. Mr. Cole is a
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