USA > Indiana > Gibson County > History of Gibson County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 41
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eleven years. Winfield Scott was a school teacher in Gibson county for several years. He has also had a drug store at Hazleton, Indiana, for the past ten years and is also a rural mail carrier out of Hazleton. He has been active in the ranks of the Republican party and served as postmaster at Hazle- ton for two terms and has been a member of the Republican central com- mittee. Mary Katherine was the next in order of birth. George Marion died at the age of eighteen years, in 1873. He was a promising young man who had fitted himself for the vocation of teaching. Andrew Cleveland, who lives at Hazleton, Indiana, was also a school teacher for a time and later associated with his brother Winfield Scott in the drug business. He now has two general stores and handles hardware and drugs at Deckard Station and Hazleton, having with him his son Raymond. He also has a drug store at Hazleton. Jane Ellen, deceased, was the wife of John Early. The youngest daughter of the family, Louisa Ann, is dead. She was the wife of James Holt.
In addition to this large and enterprising family, John C. Sisson had several children by his second wife, namely: Rebecca Belle, wife of Thomas Horne, residing east of Hazleton; Nancy Alice, who died at the age of four- teen years: Samuel Francis, who lives north of Princeton and is rural mail carrier on route number six out of Princeton. He married Pearl Mont- gomery ; John Lewis is a farmer and also carpenter and lives at Union, Indi- ana. His wife was Sallie Hoover. Edward Emanuel is also a farmer and carpenter and resides at Hazleton. His wife was Lizzie Wolfe.
Joshua S. Sisson received his elementary education in the common schools near Leavenworth, Indiana, but received his higher education after the close of the war. On October 6. 1863, he enlisted in Company H, Thir- teenth Indiana Cavalry, at Leavenworth, Crawford county, and was with the Army of the Cumberland. He contracted measles while in service which cost him the sight of his right eye and impaired the vision of the left, so that it is with difficulty he is able to see. He served until the fall of 1864, when he received his honorable discharge.
In 1867 Mr. Sisson commenced teaching school and taught until 1893. In the earlier part of his career, however, he had attended school at Oakland City, the Marengo Academy, in Crawford county, one term, four years at the State Normal School in Terre Haute, Indiana, and also at Mount Carmel Seminary, Illinois. In all he taught for twenty-seven years, the last nine of which his average stood at one hundred per cent. for both counties on all common branches of the county schools, which is quite an unusual record. He has taught in Knox, Crawford and Gibson counties.
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In 1892 Mr. Sisson gave up his school work and located two and one- half miles northeast of Princeton on the Carnahan farm. He purchased eighty-two and one-half acres, on which he remained until 1905, when he retired from active work, moved to Princeton and has disposed of his farm on which he had built the present comfortable house and made other valuable improvements.
On October 14, 1885, Mr. Sisson was united in marriage to Flora E. Farnum, of Warrick county, Indiana, a daughter of George L. and Alvina (Stuart) Farnum, he a native of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and she of Lock- port, New York. The father was engaged in the saw-mill business and was also a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church. They eventually came to Indiana and in August, 1861, he enlisted in a regiment of Indiana volunteer infantry and re-enlisted when his first enlistment expired. He was a lieutenant for one year. After returning home after the close of the war, he lived in Newburg, Indiana. He died in Knox county, as did his wife also. They were the parents of five children, four of whom are living, namely: Henry, a traveling salesman in Washington; Lizzie, the wife of David Sisson, brother of the subject of this sketch; the third child is the wife of Joshua S. Sisson, and William G. is a traveling salesman out of Alliance, Ohio. Another son, Herbert, died at the age of nine years.
Joshua S. Sisson and wife are the parents of an interesting family, all of whom have received good education. Blanche, a daughter, has been a teacher in the schools of Princeton for the past four years. Edgar B. served four years in the United States navy, being assigned to the battleship "New Jersey." He also served as hospital apprentice. He is now district traffic chief for the Cumberland Telephone Company at Madisonville, Kentucky. Rollin S. is a machinist in an automobile factory at Indianapolis. His first wife was Inez Smith and to them have been born two children, Ralph and Beatrice. His second wife is named Lizzie and they have two children. Ruth Golden, another daughter of Mr. Sisson, is the wife of David Harder, an engineer on the Southern railroad, and they reside in Princeton. They have two children, Edgar and Ruth Marie. Allen Floyd is another son who is a machinist and he is located at San Fernando, California. His wife was Edith Boswell, and they have one child, John Floyd. In addition to their daughter Blanche, three other children, Hazel, Lester D. and Roger A., re- main at home.
From his activities along educational lines and his long residence in Princeton, Mr. Sisson is too widely known and universally respected for any
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attempts of the biographer to place before the public his many sterling qual- ities. He has always stood for whatever was highest and best along all lines and is worthy the enviable place he has won in public estimation. His fra- ternal affiliation is with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is a member with Lodge No. 20 at Vincennes, Indiana. He is also a mem- ber of Archer Post No. 28, Grand Army of the Republic, at Princeton, and his religious sympathies are with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has long been a consistent member. There is scarcely any calling more fraught with opportunities for the accomplishment of good than that of the training of the young, and in attempting to store the minds of the children under his care Mr. Sisson has ever endeavored to have his influence count always for the best.
SAMUEL HAMILTON WOODS.
One of the best known men of a past generation in Gibson county, Indi- ana, one whose record is well deserving of a conspicuous place in his com- munity's history, was the late Samuel Hamilton Woods, who passed from the scenes of his earthly labors on July 14, 1880, at the advanced age of eighty- nine years, four months and thirteen days. A pioneer of this locality, he was for many years one of the most prominent and enterprising agriculturists of the county. Perhaps his dominant and most notable characteristic was his fidelity to truth and honor. He invariably sought the things that were "hon- est and of good repute." In the training of his children no precepts were so constantly or so urgently insisted on as those which concern sound and worthy character. He taught that honor and truthfulness were of such com- manding worth that self-interest should never under any circumstances set them aside. These principles were a standard by which he estimated men. and to which he religiously held himself. Whatever else he might do or fail to do, he meant to be, in all his actions, right before his Creator and man. His life was an inspiration to all who knew him and his memory remains to his friends and surviving children as a blessed benediction of a noble and up- right character. While advancing his individual interests, he never lost sight of his obligations to the community in general, and during his entire mature life he held a very high place in the confidence and esteem of all who knew him.
SAMUEL H . WOODS
1
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Samuel Hamilton Woods was descended from a sterling ancestry, who were characterized by that courage and spirit of self-denial without which they would not have been numbered among the founders of the new empire in the Middle West. To such as they is this section of the country indebted for its settlement and subsequent wonderful development. The members of the Woods family are many in number and have occupied honorable positions in their several localities, many of them being residents of Gibson county. Their record here is as follows :
Joseph Woods was born near Charlottesville, Albemarle county, Vir- ginia, August 22, 1745. He was married January 28, 1768, to Mary Hamil- ton, of said county. She was born in 1747 and died August 26, 1829. About 1700 Joseph Woods, together with his wife and ten children, migrated to Tennessee and settled on the Holston river about ten miles from Knoxville, where Samuel Hamilton Woods, the eleventh and last child, was born in 1791. In 1807 Joseph Woods removed with all his family, except his son Joseph L., to Knox county, Indiana, and settled on the Du Chien (Du Shee) river. April 10, 1809, he removed to Gibson county, Indiana, and settled on Turkey Hill in section 21, township 2 south, range 10 west, three miles southwest of Princeton. In 1811 his son Joseph L., and family, followed from Tennessee and settled two miles west of the homestead. He died January 16, 1835, on his Turkey Hill farm.
Joseph Woods served in the Revolutionary war as a private in Capt. Benjamin Briggs' company, Seventh Virginia Regiment : muster roll dated Fort Pitt, November 18, 1781, "for the year 1780 and January to October, 1781"; "Term of enlistment, War"; "On command at Wheeling." His name was last borne on muster roll for June, 1783, dated at Fort Pitt, July 3, 1783, with remark: "On furlough."
The families of Joseph Woods, pioneer, were as follows :
Family One-John (born 1769, died 1844), married Polly Dickson.
Family Two-James (born 1770, died 1815), married Nancy Dickson, as sister of Polly Dickson.
Family Three-Margaret (born 1772, died 1845), married Samuel Hogue, Sr., an uncle of Samnel. Jr.
Family Four-Patrick (born 1775, died 1856), married Jane Hannah.
Family Five-Joseph L. (born 1776, died 1845), married Elizabeth Hannah, a sister of Jane Hannah.
Family Six-William (born 1778, died 1845), never married. (28)
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Family Seven-David (born 1780, died 1841), married Esther Wither- spoon.
Family Eight-Isaac (born 1783, died 1872), married Elizabeth Witherspoon, a sister of Esther Witherspoon.
Family Nine-Jane (born 1785, died 1848), married Samuel Hogue, Jr., a nephew of Samuel, Sr.
Family Ten-Elizabeth (born 1787, died 1854), married William Embree.
Family Eleven-Samuel H. (born 1791, died 1880), married Ann Mc- Millan.
Samuel H. Woods was born while his parents were living in Blount county, Tennessee, and was about sixteen years of age when the family came to Indiana, their first settlement being near Vincennes. There they remained about two years, coming, in the spring of 1809, to Gibson county, where they settled on a farm about four miles southwest of Princeton. He was reared amid the conditions surrounding pioneer life, with all its hardships and dis- comforts, and his early years were characterized by labor of the most strenu- ous kind, incident to the clearing of the land and the development of a farm. Throughout his active years he followed agriculture as a vocation and, by his indomitable energy and persistent industry, he acquired a large estate and a competency that enabled him to spend his last years in quiet and content- ment, enjoying the rest which his many years of toil so richly entitled him to. His last years were spent with his son Robert, who had settled on a part of the old farm, about a quarter of a mile distant from his father.
For a number of years prior to his death, his relatives celebrated his birth- day by an annual dinner, which occasions afforded him great delight, for he delighted in the companionship of his relatives and friends. It was his pleasure to relate many reminiscences of the days when he first located in this county, and he was an authority as to many things concerning the pioneer period. He stated that when he came here there was but one house between his home and Princeton, and but one family where Princeton now is. There were then probably but four families within what is now Gibson county. The telegraph, railroads, steam mills and threshing machines were not then dreamed of. Mr. Woods was compelled to go to mill at Vincennes, traveling on horseback and fording the White river, though ofttimes the meal was pre- pared at home by pounding corn in a mortar ..
Samuel H. Woods had an honorable military record, having served in the latter part of the war of 1812, being stationed at Boupas, Illinois, under
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Lieut. William Barker. He also, previous to the battle of Tippecanoe, helped guard Vincennes, and there saw Tecumseh with one hundred and forty war- riors drawn up in front of Governor Harrison's residence to hold a council. He was a man of great moral and physical courage, qualified by nature for the performance of any duty assigned him, no matter how arduous or danger- ous.
Soon after Rev. John Kell took charge of the Reformed Presbyterian church at Princeton, Mr. Woods identified himself with that society, and was thereafter an earnest, faithful and active member until his death. Although his life was, in the main, a busy one, he never shrank from his duties as a citizen and his obligations to his church, his neighbors and his friends. Al- ways calm and dignified, never demonstrative, his life was, nevertheless, a persistent plea, more by precept and example than by written or spoken word, for the purity and grandeur of right principles and the beauty and elevation of wholesome character. To him home life was a sacred trust, friendship was inviolable and nothing could swerve him from the path of rectitude and honor. He had the satisfaction of seeing nearly all his children become mem- bers of the church and many of his grandchildren as well.
To Mr. Woods' marriage with Ann McMillan, which was consummated on November 5, 1815, were born eleven children, as follows: James M., Matthew Mc., Joseph H., Samuel Wylie, John, Robert R., David Calvin. John Brown, Sidney M., Renwick C. and Mary Ann Eliza. Of these, but two survive, Mrs. Ann Eliza Hudelson, of Princeton, widow of the late John F. Hudelson, who is referred to specifically elsewhere in this work, and Ren- wick Campbell Woods, who lives at Kirkwood, Illinois. The death of Mrs. Ann Woods occurred at the family home on August 4, 1861, in the seventy- seventh year of her age. She was born in Chester district, South Carolina, and in 1809, with her mother, then a widow, she emigrated to Gibson county, Indiana. She was reared in the faith of the Reformed Presbyterian church, and was admitted into full communion by the Rev. John Kell, either at the time of the organization of the Princeton congregation, or at the dispensation of the second communion. Wife, mother and home-maker first of all, she did not confine her work to the boundaries of the home, but found the opportunity and inclination to extend her field of usefulness into the world around her, becoming an integral part of the best things that made up the whole of the community life. As the afterglow from the setting sun gives but a faint con- ception of its glories at noonday, so the memories of her well-spent life reflect but a passing glimpse of the beauty of a life which was hid with Christ.
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GIBSON COUNTY, INDIANA.
JAMES CARITHERS.
In early days the Middle West was often a tempting field for energetic, ambitious, strong-minded men, and Indiana was filled with them during the time she was struggling up to a respectable position in the sisterhood of states. There was a fascination in the broad field and great promise which this newer region presented to activity that attracted many men and induced them to brave the discomforts of the early life here for the pleasure and gratification of constructing their fortunes in their own way and after their own methods. The gentleman whose name heads this sketch is widely known in Gibson county and is one of the honored citizens of Patoka township, where he is living in honorable retirement after a strenuous life of activity in connection with agricultural pursuits. His well directed efforts in the prac- tical affairs of life, his capable management of his business interests and his sound judgment have brought him prosperity and his life demonstrates what may be accomplished by any man of energy and ambition who is not afraid to work and who will not give up in the face of any discouragement that may arise.
James Carithers is a native of Ireland, born in county Donegal in Au- gust, 1836, a son of Alexander and Jane ( Porter) Carithers, both of the above county. The father was a small farmer and also a linen weaver by trade. Desiring greater advantages for his family of growing children than their native surroundings made possible, he came to America alone in 1848, mean- ing to send for his family as soon as he could find a suitable location. He at first stopped at Astoria, Long Island, where he remained about a year. At that time the country was aflame with wild stories following the discovery of gold in California and, with bright dreams of what he might accomplish for his family, within a comparatively short time, Mr. Carithers set sail on the long journey around Cape Horn, bound for the California gold fields. He stopped at various places and consumed six months in making the trip. Arriving at his destination in California, he made acquaintance with a doctor from Kentucky and the two became partners in their mining work. They were quite successful and had accumulated considerable, when the doctor turned traitor, clubbed Mr. Carithers over his head with his gun, robbed him and fled, leaving his victim for dead. In due time Mr. Carithers recovered and again took up the work of a miner, though not with such success, al- though he then felt warranted in sending for his family. He returned to New York City by way of the Isthmus of Panama, making the last lap of
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his journey on the steamer "Northern Light." In New York he stayed with relatives and awaited the arrival of his family, who came in 1855, and the same year they came west to Princeton, Gibson county, Indiana, where they have since made their homes. Mr. Carithers took his son, James, the im- mediate subject of this sketch, to visit the boat "Northern Light" as she lay in New York Harbor. After arriving in Gibson county, the different mem- bers of the family secured employment on farms in the vicinity and so started in life for themselves. There were in Mr. Carithers' family four sons and one daughter, namely: James, subject of this sketch; Thomas, un- married, who resides in Center township, Gibson county, where he owns two thousand acres of fine land; Alexander, a farmer in Patoka township and who during the Civil war was a member of Company H, Seventeenth Regi- ment Indiana Volunteer Infantry; Mary Ann, deceased, who was the wife of Henry P. Weatherly; and Joseph, who resides east of Princeton in Patoka township, and is president of the American National Bank of Princeton. Mr. Carithers was one of a family of six brothers who came to America in their young manhood. Mr. Carithers passed the remainder of his life in Gibson county, where his death occurred; his wife died there also.
James Carithers received but a meager education when a youth in Ire- land, which was supplemented by attendance at night school and diligent at- tention to various lines of reading and other study, until today he is con- sidered a well read man, unusually well informed on current events and fully alive to the interests of his community.
In 1862 Mr. Carithers enlisted in Company A, Eightieth Regiment Indi- ana Volunteer Infantry, as a private. He was first sent to.Louisville, Ken- tucky. At the battle of Perrysville, October 8, 1862, he lost the sight of his left eye, also had part of his left ear shot off and was shot through the jaw. For four months he was confined to the hospital at Evansville, after which time he was sent home. In 1865 he was united in marriage with Eliza E. Townsend, daughter of Erastus D. and Lavina (Raynold) Townsend, natives of Oneida county, New York, who in 1818 left their home and came to Evansville, Indiana, by way of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers. They came directly to Gibson county, where they obtained wild land, hurriedly made a small clearing sufficient for their first log cabin, and then began for them the strenuous life of the pioneer. By diligent effort they reclaimed from the wilderness their fine large farm in Patoka township where they passed the re- mainder of their lives.
To James Carithers and wife have been born eight children, as follows :
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Thomas L., a farmer in Patoka township; Oliver L., who owns a drug store in New Castle, Indiana; Samuel, a graduate of Purdue University, who has large farming interests in northern Montana; Joseph, a farmer east of Prince- ton in Patoka township; Archibald, a railroad man who died in 1907; Grace, who remains at home; Gertrude, wife of Delmar Clark, a farmer in northern Montana, and Florence, a teacher in the public schools of Princeton for the last four years, and who remains at home. Mr. Carithers has given to each of his children a fine education, a valuable asset especially in this day and age.
James Carithers is a man of powerful physique, who has wonderfully endured his many years of hard physical labor and is today a man extremely well preserved. He is known all over Gibson county, and especially in Patoka township, where he owns two hundred and fifty acres of excellent land, which attests his ability as a farmer employing up-to-date methotls. He is also highly successful in stock raising, dividing his attention between that and general farming. Mr. Carithers has an enviable place in the hearts of a vast number of friends and acquaintances who well know his sterling worth and vital interest in anything that makes for the good of any one per- son or of his community. He is a member of the United Presbyterian church, to which he gives liberal support, and is also a member of Post No. 28, Grand Army of the Republic, in Princeton. Such a family as that of which Mr. Carithers is the head exerts an inestimable influence for the well being of a community and represents the highest type of citizenship, a worthy example and incentive to those less favorably situated.
JOSEPH C. DANKS. 1
It is not an easy task to describe adequately a man who has led an eminently active and busy life and who has attained a position of relative distinction in the community with which his interests are allied. But biog- raphy finds its most perfect justification, however, in the tracing and re- cording of such a life history. It is, then, with a full appreciation of all that is demanded and of the painstaking scrutiny that must be accorded each state- ment, and yet with a feeling of satisfaction, that the writer essays the task of touching briefly upon the details of such a record as has been that of the honored subject whose life now comes under review.
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Joseph C. Danks, who is among the prominent citizens of Gibson county, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, January 30, 1857, a son of the Rev. Thomas C. and Mary ( Young) Danks. To this union six children were born: Joseph C., subject of this sketch, being the oldest; Mary E., wife of S. A. Stewart, of Princeton; Clara, wife of Dr. R. M. Smiley, of Washing- ton, Indiana; Belle, wife of Dr. W. R. Cravens, of Bloomfield, Indiana; Charles, who practices dentistry and resides at Lawrenceville, Illinois, and the youngest, Mrs. Lydia Milburn, who resides at Patoka, Indiana. Both the father and mother of this interesting family were natives of Pennsylvania. The father was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church for many years, and came from his home in Pennsylvania to New Albany. Indiana, in 1867, at the time the subject of this sketch was ten years old, in the interest of the Ohio Falls Iron Works, with which industry he had been connected while in Pennsylvania. Along with his other duties, he acted as local preacher for his church on all possible occasions, but in 1871 he entered the Indiana general conference, from which time on he devoted his entire time to the ministry of the Gospel up to a few years prior to his death, which oc- curred in 1905. He filled many pastorates throughout his conference, among them being Leavenworth, Elizabeth, Harrison county: Erie, Lawrence county ; Patoka, McCutchiss, Vanderburg county; Bruceville, Knox county ; Washington, Sullivan, and Bloomfield, which was his last regular charge. In 1890 he established his home in Patoka, where he removed after filling his pastorate at Bloomfield, and in which place he made his home up to the time of his death on December 12, 1905. He was a man in every sense worthy the name. A man of firm convictions, who fearlessly took his stand for the right at all times, and in the discharge of the duties of his most sacred calling he was faithfulness itself. His wife passed away before he did, her death occurring March 1, 1904.
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