USA > Indiana > Gibson County > History of Gibson County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 87
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GIBSON COUNTY, INDIANA.
John Kell McGregor received his education in the early subscription schools of the county. This he attended in a little old log school house and sat on benches made from split logs. He remained at home until the time of his marriage, March 28, 1861, to Isabelle Watt, of Xenia, Ohio, a daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth ( Dodds) Watt. They were originally from Ohio and came to Gibson county in 1858, locating in Columbia township, where they lived the rest of their lives. He was a farmer and also followed the trade of a cooper.
After his marriage, John Kell McGregor took up farming on a part of the old McGregor homestead in Barton township and lived there until in 1901 when he moved to Oakland City, Indiana, where he has since resided. having retired from active work. In addition to his farm work, he also oper- ated a country store at the farm and taught school for a number of years. He was a school director for eighteen years.
On October 7, 1861, Mr. McGregor enlisted in Company F, Forty-second Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, organized in Barton township, and was first sent to Evansville. From there he was sent to Henderson, Ken- tucky, and up the Green river to South Carrollton and while on guard duty at Calhoun he became ill from the exposure. He was guarding a boat at the. time and his watch extended from eight in the evening until ten the next morn- ing. He gave way under the strain and was sent to the hospital at Evans- ville, Indiana, and confined there from February, 1862, to September of the same year, when he was discharged on account of disability and sent home. He has never fully regained his health since then.
Mr. and Mrs. McGregor were the parents of several children, of whom Nettie Jane was the oldest. She was a teacher four years before her mar- riage to Samuel McElroy. They made their home in Greene county, Indiana, near Scotland, where she died in 1900. James R. is at present a city mail carrier in Princeton. He taught school for ten years. His wife was Sadie Rucker. Their daughter Elizabeth has always lived at home. Newman, de- ceased, was a farmer and met his death while cutting saw logs in 1894. His widow, Mary Watts, still lives in Barton township. Nora was a teacher before her marriage to S. Asdell, of Scotland, Greene county. He is a black- smith. Henrietta is teaching near Greenville, Tennessee. She has been engaged in this labor for about fifteen years, having taught in Greene, Craw- ford and Gibson counties. She has also taught in an Indian school at Tama Iowa, and is now an instructor in a missionary school among the mountaineers of Tennessee. Their daughter Nancy died unmarried at the age of twenty- seven. Mrs. John Kell McGregor died May 2, 1880.
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GIBSON COUNTY, INDIANA.
In politics, Mr. McGregor has always been a stalwart Republican and has done all in his power to uphold the dignity of the party. He is also a consistent member of the United Presbyterian church and gives liberally of his substance to its maintenance. He is properly numbered among the sub- stantial citizens of his locality, having contributed in many ways to the ad- vancement of his fellow citizens. He has in the course of an honorable career been successful in his business affairs and at the same time has placed himself high in public estimation.
BENJAMIN O. WILDER.
Dependent very largely upon his own resources from his early youth, Benjamin O. Wilder, of near Oakland City, has attained no insignificant suc- cess, and though he may have, like most men of affairs, encountered obstacles and met with reverses, he has pressed steadily forward, ever willing to work for the end he had in view. His tenacity and fortitude are due, no doubt, in a ·large measure to the worthy traits inherited from sterling ancestors, whose high ideals and correct principles he has ever sought to perpetuate in all the relations of life.
Benjamin O. Wilder is a native of Franklin county, Tennessee, born at the foot of the Cumberland mountains, March 25, 1836, a son of Nathaniel and Mary (Taylor) Wilder. They were both natives of that county and he engaged in general farming as well as following his trade of a blacksmith. In 1847 they came with their family to Warrick county, Indiana, locating four miles west of Boonville on the old plank road. Here he erected a home and also a blacksmith shop, where he worked at his trade. Here they remained for seventeen years, when they disposed of that location and purchased eighty acres of land one mile west of Augusta, in Pike county, Indiana. On this place Nathaniel Wilder passed the remainder of his life and died at the age of seventy-five. Here his first wife died, at the age of fifty, having been a great sufferer from rheumatism and practically an invalid for many years. By his first wife, Nathaniel Wilder had fourteen sons, only five of whom grew to maturity, namely: Benjamin O., the immediate subject of this sketch; Henderson, a retired farmer living at Oakland City ; John, deceased, a mem- ber of the Fifty-eighth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry; Council, de- ceased, also a member of the Fifty-eighth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer In- fantry, and George, deceased, who was second lieutenant of the same com-
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pany and regiment. Nathaniel Wilder took as his second wife Emeline Mur- phy, a native of the Hoosier state, and to them were born three children : James and Walker, deceased, and Charles, who is engaged in the insurance business at Oakland City. The family were closely identified with the affairs of the Methodist Episcopal church and did much to extend its connections in their home society. Originally, Mr. Wilder was a Whig in politics, but when the Republican party came into existence, he gave it the same stanch support he had accorded the older party in earlier years.
Benjamin O. Wilder received only a limited schooling in his youth, owing to the limited circumstances of his parents and the meagre opportuni- ties afforded at best. He remained at his father's home until 1862, when he went to Mount Era, in Wayne county, Illinois, and there united in marriage with Susan Aiken, of that place. He had a grocery store in the town named and maintained his home there until about a year after the close of the Civil war, and during that stormy period he gave more than a year's service to his country. About 1866 Mr. Wilder disposed of his interests in Mount Era and returned to Boonville, near which place he engaged in farming. After re- maining there for a short while, he engaged in farming in Pike county and later took up residence in Gibson county, near Oakland City, where he still resides.
To Benjamin O. Wilder, by his first marriage, were born three children, namely : Mary, wife of the Reverend Albert Keaggy, a minister of the United Brethren church, located in the state of Washington ; William, a land agent at Perkins, Oklahoma, and Alice, deceased. After the loss of his first wife, Mr. Wilder united in marriage with Sarah A. Bailey, of Warrick county, Indiana, by whom he reared a family of several children. Ora is engaged in farming near Evansville, Indiana. His wife was Sarah Taylor. Olive resides in Evansville, the wife of William Bone. Lillie, who is Mrs. Luther Thompson, is also a resident of Evansville. Hattie lives in Indian- apolis and is the wife of Ed. Walters. Grace is the wife of Clyde Schrodes, of Evansville. Albert, whose wife was Doria Elliott, resides at Oakland City ; Daniel, who married Mary Cummings, has his home in Indianapolis, while Eva, who is a bookkeeper and stenographer for the gas company of Oak- land City, is the only one of the family who remains at home. In addition . to the above named, three children died in infancy.
In addition to his business activities above mentioned, Mr. Wilder oper- ated a grocery store in Scalesville, Pike county, for seven years and also dealt in real estate. This business interest he traded for his eighty acres of
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farm land, which he cultivated until 1903, when he retired from active duties on account of poor health resulting from exposure endured while in the army.
In November of 1863 Mr. Wilder enlisted as a private in Company K, Sixty-first Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was first ordered to Springfield to be fitted out. From there he was sent to Camp Butler, where he remained for some time and from there went to Cairo, Illinois, and Duval's Bluff, Arkansas, under General Steele. He did guard duty a great deal of the time. He received his honorable discharge on January 1, 1865. Mr. Wilder is a member of the honored Grand Army of the Republic at Oak- land City and his religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a faithful and consistent member. Mr. Wilder has always been an ardent supporter of the principles of the Republican party and while never seeking office for himself, has been interested in seeing the right man go into the right place and used his influence accordingly. There is much that is commendable in his life's record, for he has been found true to every duty in every relation of life. He is well known for his uprightness and the hon- orable methods he has always followed. Because of his genial and unassum- ing disposition and genuine worth, he enjoys a well-deserved popularity throughout his part of the county.
LEANDER SMITH.
Practical industry, wisely and vigorously applied, never fails of success. It carries a man onward and upward and brings out his individual character and acts as a powerful stimulant to the interests of others. The greatest re- sults in life are often obtained by simple means and the exercise of the ordi- nary qualities of common sense, perseverance and industry. There is no call- ing, however humble, in which enterprise and industry, coupled with well directed purpose, will not be productive of some measure of success, and in the pursuit of agriculture the qualities mentioned are quite essential. Among the well known and highly respected farmers of Gibson county, who have attained to a degree of success in their line, and who have at the same time benefited the community in which they have lived, is the gentleman to a re- view of whose career we now direct the reader's attention.
Leander Smith, the son of Joseph and Mary Caroline ( Watkins) Smith, was born in 1853, at Princeton, Indiana. Joseph Smith was born in Smith county, Tennessee, in 1824, and came to Princeton, Indiana, with his parents,
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Wylie Smith and wife, when he was four years of age. Joseph Smith's mother died when he was but five years of age, and he spent his boyhood days at Princeton, and for about twenty-five years drove teams there for Messrs. Dimmock and Maxam. He was a soldier in the Mexican War and also served in the Civil War. In the latter he enlisted first in the Fifty-eighth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which he served a while, after- wards re-enlisting in the One Hundred Forty-third Regiment Indiana Volun- teer Infantry. serving his country well and faithfully. During his boyhood he had been bound out until his majority, thus learning the habits of thrift and industry, and developed into a reliable, upright citizen, who lived a life free from blame. His death occurred at the Soldiers' Home at Marion, Indi- ana, in the summer of 1905. Mary Caroline (Watkins) Smith, the mother of the subject, was also born at Carthage, in Smith county. Tennessee, and came to Gibson county with her parents, Jesse Watkins and wife, about the same time that the Wylie Smith family came to Indiana. She grew up at Princeton, and lived at that place all the rest of her life, her death occurring there in 1870.
Leander Smith grew up in the city of Princeton, and received his ele- mentary education in the public schools of that place. At an early age he started working in Jessup's woolen factory, and continued working there until he was twenty-one years of age. by which time he had worked himself up to a prominent position in the mill, and handled one of the most important machines in the mill. Upon reaching his majority he left Princeton and went to Mississippi, where he worked for two years in a sawmill. He then came back to this county and worked for a short time in the stone quarry. Follow- ing this he worked out on a farm near New Harmony, in Posey county, for a short time. While working in Posey county, he was married in 1878 to Mis- souri Martin, the daughter of William and Susan Martin. Her parents were born and married in Tennessee, and came to Black township, Posey county, Indiana, shortly after their marriage. They moved from Black township to Point township, and finally located in Linn township, where they spent the re- mainder of their lives. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Smith moved to Linn township, Posey county, eight miles south of New Harmony, where they continued to reside until 1900, when they moved to Wabash township. Gib- son county, and settled on a farm three miles south of Crowleyville. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born eight children, five of whom are living. These children are as follows: Martha Jane died in 1904, at the age of twenty-six years; Joseph died in 1895, at the age of fifteen years; Purnell
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died in 1894; Maude, the wife of William Hutchins, lives two miles southwest of her parents on a farm, and is the mother of five children, Hazel, Welborn, Manford, Melvin and Fred; Fred was a soldier in the United States army for three years, his term expiring in January, 1912. He was stationed at Fort Russell, in Wyoming, and is now at home in Wabash township; Frank is in the United States army, stationed at Pasadena, California; Lizzie, wife of A. A. Rutter, lives at Winslow, Indiana, and is the mother of two children, Raymond and Albert: Mackie is at home with his parents.
Mr. Smith has spent his whole life in agricultural pursuits, performing all those multitudinous details which fall to the lot of the American farmer. He is a quiet, unassuming man, who has won the esteem and confidence of his fellow citizens by his upright dealings with them and by his support in the advancement of any cause looking to the general welfare of the community. As a citizen he is public spirited and enterprising ; as a friend and neighbor he combines the qualities of head and heart that have won confidence and com- manded the respect of his neighborhood. In all his activities as a citizen, he has so ordered his life that he has earned the unqualified endorsement of his fellow citizens.
WILLIAM T. WATSON.
The men most influential in promoting the advancement of society and in giving character to the times in which they live are two classes, to-wit, the men of study and the men of action. Whether we are more indebted to the one class or the other is a question of common difference of opinion. Neither class can be spared and both should be encouraged to occupy their several spheres of labor and influence zealously and without mutual distrust. In the following paragraphs are briefly outlined the leading facts and characteristics of one of the most striking men of action who has ever lived in Gibson county. Although the subject of this sketch has lived in the county only about ten years, such has been his peculiar force and power that he has been a very material factor in advancing the interests of this county. His success as a business man is due to his keen perceptive faculties, unusual soundness of judgment and his uprightness in all his dealings with his fellow citizens, and his systematic and honorable methods have resulted in gaining for him the confidence of all those with whom he has come in contact.
William T. Watson, the largest land owner of Montgomery township,
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GIBSON COUNTY, INDIANA.
Gibson county, was born June 24, 1855, near Wheeling, West Virginia, the son of Owen H. and Martha ( Clark) Watson. When William T. was about four years of age the family left West Virginia and moved to Edgar county, Illinois, where he grew up and spent the most of his life. He took advantage of the best schooling which could be obtained from the district schools of his county. His father died when he was about twelve years of age, and as he was the eldest of a family of several children, he was by this misfortune made the head of the family. He lived at home until the death of his mother. which occurred soon after he reached his majority. During this time he managed his father's farm of two hundred and forty acres and made a com- fortable living for the family. He was married in 1878 to Linnie Wynn. whose parents were Thomas and Lina Wynn, and residents also of Edgar county, Illinois. Having inherited thirty acres of land from his paternal estate, he sold it for one thousand dollars and with this sum he began his start in life. A man of more than ordinary business ability, he has been very successful in all of his financial operations. He bought more land in the same county and started to farm on an extensive scale, not only raising the ordinary products of the farm, but buying and selling all kinds of live stock. Branch- ing out in the real estate business, he bought and sold farms and has built up his material fortune in this way. Although he considers Chrisman, Illinois, his home, he has been deeply interested in Montgomery township, Gibson county, Indiana, since February, 1905, when he made his first purchase of real estate in the county. He now owns sixteen hundred acres in Mont- gomery township in addition to three hundred and fifty acres in Illinois. He has spent most of his time since 1905 in Montgomery township, superintend- ing the management of his extensive holdings here. In September, 1911, he laid out the town of Skelton in Montgomery township, and still owns the town site.
Mr. and Mrs. William Watson have reared six children: Minnie M., Lydia W., Mabel, Martha C., Newton Everett and John W. His wife died May 2, 1905.
Mr. Watson has always taken an active interest in public affairs and while living in Illinois was elected supervisor of his township. A supervisor in Illinois is an official corresponding in general nature to the township trustee of Indiana, one supervisor being elected for each township and the supervisors of the county constituting the county board. Mr. Watson is a member of the time-honored order of Free and Accepted Masons, a Knight Templar, Knights of Pythias and is also a member of the Modern Woodmen of Amer -.
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ica, in all of which fraternal organizations he takes an active interest. He also holds membership in the Tribe of Ben-Hur.
Mr. Watson is a quiet, plain, unassuming man, easily approached and a man who treats all of his employees well. His success has been attained be- cause he has brought to bear all those qualities which win for him the con- fidence of his fellow men. He is industrious, temperate, economical and in every way exemplary in his daily life and conduct. As a factor of the body politic he has borne well his every duty and no one questions his standing in this favored locality of the state.
HUMPHREY C. HELDT.
Among those persons who have by virtue of their strong individual qualities earned their way to a high standing in the estimation of their fellow citizens, having by sheer force of character and persistency won their way from an humble beginning to a place of influence and prominence in the com- munity where they live, the subject of this sketch is entitled to special mention in a volume of this character.
Humphrey C. Heldt, member of the well-known firm of Creek & Heldt Hardware Company, at Oakland City, Indiana, was born in Vanderburg county, this state, on November 17, 1866. His parents were C. D. and Caroline (Fickas) Heldt, the father a native of Germany and the mother of Vanderburg county. C. D. Heldt came to. America in the spring of 1854, locating in Vanderburg county, Indiana, where he took up the vocation of farming, in which he met with splendid success. He was a soldier of the Civil war, having enlisted in Company F, Twenty-fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which he served throughout that struggle. He was one of a family of thirteen, nine of whom came to America. After the war he re- turned to Vanderburg county and bought a farm, the purchase of which he had started during the war while home on a furlough. After completing the payment on this land, he added to it as he was prospered and eventually ac- quired the ownership of two hundred and twenty acres. To him and his wife were born eight children, of whom six are living, namely: Mary J., the wife of Joseph Haag. of Knight township, Vanderburg county, Indiana ; Elizabeth, · the wife of Julius Wigger, also of Knight township; Martha, the wife of Elmer Hodson, of Evansville, Indiana ; Bismark L., of Evansville ; Frederick,
HUMPHREY C. HELDT.
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of Knight township, Vanderburg county, and the subject of this sketch, who was the first born. The mother of these children died on December 25, 1910.
Humphrey C. Heldt was reared on the home farm until twenty-six years of age, receiving his education in the public schools of Vanderburg county. He began teaching school upon the completion of his own studies, teaching during the winter months, and attending college in the summer. He was a student in the Southwestern Normal University at Princeton, and from there he was graduated in 1892. Altogether he taught seven years in Vanderburg county, gaining a splendid reputation as an enthusiastic and successful edu- cator. In 1893 Mr. Heldt came to Gibson county, locating on a farm in Columbia township, which he operated and at the same time engaged in teach- ing in the township high schools for four years. During the following two years he taught in the Francisco high school, and then, on April 2, 1900, he bought a half interest in the hardware business with W. T. Creek, of Oakland City, which has commanded his attention continuously since. The business was conducted as a private firm until 1903, when the company was incor- porated, and Mr. Heldt has been manager of the business. The splendid suc- cess which has attended the Creek & Heldt Hardware Company is due largely to the persevering efforts and industry of the subject, who has been untiring along the line of building up the business in this community. He is also the owner of a splendid farm of one hundred and twenty-two acres in Columbia township, in the cultivation of which he maintains a deep interest, and which he has found a profitable source of income.
On August 3, 1892, Mr. Heldt married Eunice Coleman, the eldest daugh- ter of W. H. Coleman, of Oakland City, and they have had three children, two of whom are living, Charles H., who is in school, and Robert C., also in school. Fraternally, Mr. Heldt is a member of the Masonic lodge, belonging to blue lodge, council and chapter, and also to the Tribe of Ben-Hur and the Modern Woodmen of America. Religiously, he is a member of the Presbyterian church, of which he has been an elder for twenty years. Politically, he is a Progressive and is enthusiastic in the political cause which he has espoused. Mr. Heldt has by his indomitable enterprise and conservative methods con- tributed in a material way to the advancement of his locality, and in the course of his honorable career has been very successful in all of his enterprises. Hay- ing been a man of energy, sound judgment and honesty of purpose, he is well deserving of mention in this volume. He is unselfish in his outlook upon life and, aside from his own affairs, he takes an intelligent interest in everything
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pertaining to the community in which he lives, giving his earnest support to all measures having for their object the advancement of the public welfare, morally, educationally, socially and materially. Genial and unassuming, he has deservedly won a high place in the hearts of his acquaintances and friends.
HISTORY OF THE STORMONT FAMILY.
The Stormont family is of Scotch-Irish origin. This much is certain, but there is a good deal lacking in the way of data to enable one to give a con- nected and reliable ancestral history of the family in that country. It is pretty well authenticated that the early ancestors came from Scotland and settled in the north of Ireland, probably in the latter part of the sixteenth cen- tury. It is certain that Samuel Stormont, the father of the branch that came to America, came from county Antrim, Ireland. But how long he had lived there before emigrating is not known. There is a pretty well founded tradi- tion that some of the family of that name in that country held titled honors, with inherited estates, and were identified with government affairs. The Lord Stormont, who figured in history of the Revolution as a representative of Great Britain, belonged to one of the family branches. It is related that this title came to him by inheritance from an uncle, as did also a landed estate, on which was a castle near Belfast, known as "Stormont Castle." This castle still stands and is known by that name, but the Stormonts do not occupy nor own it now.
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