USA > Indiana > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County Indiana, her people, industries and institutions > Part 85
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ABEL DOAN.
There are individuals in nearly every community who, by reason of pronounced ability and force of character, rise above the heads of their fellow men. Characterized by perseverance and a directing spirit, two virtues that never fail, such men always make their presence felt, the vigor of their strong personality serving as a stimulus and incentive to the young and rising gener- ation. To this energetic and enterprising class Abel Doan very properly be- longs. Having never been seized with the roaming desire that has led many of Hamilton county's young men to other fields of endeavor and other states in search of their fortunes, Mr. Doan has devoted his life to industries at home and has succeeded remarkably well, as we shall see by a study of his life history.
Abel Doan, a prosperous farmer and the president of the Westfield State Bank, was born near Mooresville, Indiana, August 25, 1843. His par- ents, John and Eunice (Hadley) Doan, were natives of Tennessee and North Carolina, respectively. The Doans and Hadleys came out of the states of their nativity because of their opposition to slavery and their desire that their children should be brought up where the hated institution was not tolerated. Upon arriving in Indiana, many years before the war, they first settled in Morgan county, this state, and in that county John Doan and Eunice Hadley were married and there they lived for several years. They came to Hamilton county in 1857 and located in Westfield, where they reared their family. They were the parents of seven children. Abel being the only one of the fam- ily now living. Two of the children, Ruth and Zeno, died in childhood, while the other four lived to maturity. Abel Doan was thirteen years of age when his parents moved from Morgan county to Westfield, in Hamilton county, and all of the remainder of his life has been spent in this county. He received a meager common school education in the subscription schools of his home county, but has supplemented this limited education of his boyhood days with extensive reading. He has a fine library of well selected books, and has been a diligent reader all his life. Realizing the great advantage in education he has always been very much interested in seeing his own children receive the best advantages possible along this line, with the result that they have be- come leaders in the educational world along several different lines.
Mr. Doan was married September 8, 1869, to Phoebe Lindley. daughter of Aaron and Elizabeth Lindley, natives of North Carolina and Ohio, re- spectively, and to this union have been born seven children, all of whom grew
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to manhood and womanhood, and all of whom are still living except Edwin L .. who-was struck by lightning July 9, 1913, and instantly killed. The other children are Mary, Martha, Emma, John Lindley, Anna and Frances. Mary is the wife of Prof. Allen D. Hole, who is an instructor in Earlham College; Martha is an instructor in chemistry at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, where she has been located for the past thirteen years; Emma is the wife of Prof. William E. Furnas, who is a teacher in the high school at Westfield; John Lindley, the only son living, is a professor in the State Horticultural School at Ambler, Pennsylvania; Anna is the wife of W. C. Stephens, of Muncie, Indiana; Frances is a teacher in the high school at Greencastle, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Doan have every reason to be proud of the record which their children have made. It must be gratifying to them to know that they have reared such worthy members of society.
Mr. Doan was for many years a farmer and is still managing his fine farm of two hundred and fifty acres in Washington township. He is a man of exceptional ability and as a farmer was the peer of any in his county dur- ing the time he was actively engaged on the farm. For several years he was vice-president of the Westfield State Bank, and for the past twenty-three years he has been president of this bank. Mr. Doan has taken an active inter- est in everything pertaining to the welfare of his locality. Being a man of absolute integrity, he has inspired with confidence everyone with whom he has come in contact. His life has been filled with good deeds and kindly thoughts and all who know him entertain for him the highest regard, because of his upright, honorable career, on the record of which there has never fallen the shadow of a wrong or the suspicion of anything evil. In every relation of life he has been true and faithful to duty and to the trust reposed in him and has thereby won the unqualified confidence and respect of his fellow citizens.
In his political belief, Mr. Doan has long adhered to the principles of the Prohibition party, believing that the suppression and final extinction of the liquor traffic is the greatest problem before the American people today. He and the members of his family are earnest and zealous supporters of the Friends church, and to it they have contributed generously of their means and in it they have always been faithful workers. Ever since its organization Mr. Doan has been a member of the board of county charities. Noted as a citizen whose useful career has conferred credit on his county and state, his marked abilities and sterling qualities have won for him a high reputation, and he holds today distinctive precedence as one of the most enterprising and progressive men of his county. He is essentially a man of affairs, of sound judgment, keen discernment and rare acumen, every enterprise to which he
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has addressed himself always having resulted in success. The influence of such a man in a community cannot be overestimated, and when he lays down the cares of life there will have gone from this county a man who has never fallen short in the performance of any duty which might benefit his fellow citizens.
WILLIAM WRIGHT ANDERSON.
Among the men of a past generation who were prominently identified with their community during their life time, there is no one who deserves more honorable mention than the late William W. Anderson, of Westfield, Indiana. He passed through more interesting experiences than falls to the lot of the ordinary man and breasted the winds of fortune in a way that stamped him as a man of great courage and fortitude. He was a man of the highest type of Christian character and always practiced what he preached. His sympathies were ever with the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted, the oppressed and the down-trodden, the bereaved and broken-heart- ed. He was a devoted and loving father and no sacrifice of time, money or inclination was too great for him to make for his one daughter. In April, 1904, he was stricken unconscious while alone with his daughter. He recov- ered, but a year later was again stricken and the eighteen months preceding his death he was unable to leave his home, and though lying helpless in bed for nearly a month before the end came, no complaint ever escaped him. He was ever gentle and sweet, but so tired in body and mind with the weight of his years and failing strength that he prayed the dear Lord to take him into His presence and make him a rested being.
William W. Anderson was born near Easton, Maryland, June 4, 1821, and died near Westfield, April 26. 1907. He was the oldest child of Wright and Margaret (Atwell) Anderson, who moved to Greenplain, Ohio, when he was about seven years old. There the wife and mother died, and the father, with his sister and the little ones, moved .to Indiana, then spoken of as the far west, and settled on a farm near Milton, Wayne county. When the aunt married a temporary home was found for the children and the separation from home and father. made an indelible impression on the gentle heart of William W. Anderson. The father then married Mrs. Mary Thomberg and brought his children, William, Mary, John. Jane and Margaret. home again, where they grew up with their step-brothers, Henry and John Thomberg, and
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the half-brothers and sisters, Sarah, Franklin, Martha, Lydia, Elwood and Joseph.
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William W. Anderson worked for his father, who was a skilled black- smith, until he was twenty-one years old, when he left home and worked at his trade in several towns and cities of Indiana. In the fall of 1847, at Dar- lington, Montgomery county, Indiana, he joined a company of homeseekers. who were starting with their wives and children, to Oregon. They reached St. Joseph, Missouri, that fall, and that being the outpost of civilization, they wintered there. This was a busy winter; having his tools with him, he did the repairing and the shoeing of the cattle and horses in the company and also for the surrounding slave holders who sent their work in. He got fodder and corn from the farmers for his oxen, worked at his trade, hunted, instilled ideas of freedom and pointed the way to the free states to the slaves who stole round the forge fire in the night time.
When the grass was grown enough in the spring to support the cattle. the company started out into the almost trackless plains and wilderness, forty-nine wagons in all, eight yoke of oxen to each wagon, and after many adventures and a journey of four months and fourteen days they reached a settlement in the Willamette valley, Oregon. Here he worked at his trade for nearly a year. Wheat was the currency in circulation and this he floated down the river to market, a boat load at a time. In 1849 he joined a party going to California, and spent three years there ranching and working in the gold mines. He then formed a partnership with a friend and returned to the . eastern states by way of Panama, Havana and New Orleans, intending to buy cattle and drive across the plains to the Pacific coast the next year. There was much joy over the returned son and brother. In the spring the entreaties of his father, the long illness of his partner and the advance in the price of cattle caused him to change his plans. He secured the few thousand dollars he had saved and after some time spent in the middle west, where he bought claims in Missouri and Kansas, he married Rhoda Ann Mendenhall at Darlington, Indiana, May 14, 1859. In the fall of that year he bought a farm nar Westfield, Indiana, and set up a blacksmith shop. He lived on this farm until the day of his death. To him and his beloved wife, Rhoda, were born three daughters, Elizabeth, Manzanita and Senorita, and one son. Wright. Elizabeth and Senorita died in infancy. The death of his wife and son in 1870 was a blow from which he never recovered. But the blessed Comforter came and he gave his heart to God, his faith sustaining him until the end.
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Thus died a man who never tired of doing good for his fellow men, and who, throughout his long career of half a century in this county, was never heard to speak unkindly of his fellow man. When he was finally sum- moned to his reward he left behind him a record of which his descendants may well be proud and a name they will always delight to honor.
E. B. TOMLINSON.
The Tomlinson family of Hamilton county, Indiana, trace their ancestry back to William Tomlinson, a native of Ireland, who emigrated to this coun- try in the latter part of the eighteenth century and settled in Guilford county, North Carolina, while the Indians were still living there in large numbers. William Tomlinson, the first of the family to come to this country, married Martha Kopick, a native of North Carolina, and reared a large family, four sons, Joseph, Robert, Josiah and Allan, growing to maturity. William Tom- linson took an active interest in the political affairs of his adopted country and lived far beyond the allotted life of man, surviving long enough to wit- ness the close of the struggle for independence and the laying of a sure foun- dation for our present system of government.
Of the four sons of William Tomlinson and wife who grew to maturity, Robert became the progenitor of the branch of the family now represented in Hamilton county by E. B. Tomlinson. Robert Tomlinson was married at the age of twenty-six to Lydia Kellum, and to this union nine children were born, Milton, Martha, Noah, Allan, Jessie, Asenath, Jane, Levi and Esther.
Allan Tomlinson, the father of E. B., with whom this narrative deals, came to Washington township, this county, from Carolina in the spring of 1837, with his parents and lived in this county the remainder of his days. Allan Tomlinson was educated in this township, and upon reaching his ma- jority was married to Martha Perisho. He was a prosperous and substantial farmer and acquired a large tract of land in this county before his death.
E. B. Tomlinson, the son of Allan and Martha (Perisho) Tomlinson, was born May 30, 1864, in Washington township, this county, and has lived his whole life in the township of his nativity. After finishing the common school course of his township, he spent several terms in the high school at Westfield, after which he devoted all of his time to labor upon his father's farm. There were five children in the family of Allan Tomlinson and wife, four children of their own, and one adopted daughter. The five children in
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the family were Luther, deceased; Orlando T., who lives in Michigan; E. B., of this review : Mrs. Mary Horney, whose husband is a farmer in Nobles- ville township, and Mrs. Clara Carey, the adopted daughter, who is now living in Indianapolis. E. B. Tomlinson is now living on the farm where he was born and has one hundred and seventy-five acres of as good land as can be found in the county. He is making a specialty of the raising of Shorthorn cattle, having found this to be a very profitable business.
Mr. Tomlinson was married June 6, 1889, to Ella Beals, the daughter of Lemuel Beals, and to this union there has been born one daughter, Gladys, who is still at home with her parents.
The Republican party claims the support of Mr. Tomlinson, but owing to his extensive farming interests, he has never felt inclined to take an active part in political affairs. He and his wife are actively identified with the Friends church. and contribute extensively of their means to its support. Mr. Tomlinson has attained to a definite success in a material way, and in addition to his land holdings, is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Noblesville, with which institution he has been connected for many years. Mr. Tomlinson is a man of generous impulses and genial disposition and is ever ready and willing to help those less fortunate than himself. Having gained by his earnest efforts and consecutive labor a competent fortune for himself, he is now enabled to take life easy, yet he is still actively engaged in the management of his farm. He is charitable to the faults of his neighbors and deeply interested in the welfare of his community, lending his support to all worthy causes.
THEODORE G. McGILL.
Practical industry, wisely and vigorously applied, never fails of success. It carries a man onward and upward, brings out his individual character and acts as a powerful stimulus to the efforts of others. The greatest results in life are often attained by simple means and the exercise of the ordinary qualities of common sense and perseverance. The every-day life, with its cares, necessities and duties. affords ample opportunities for acquiring ex- perience of the best kind and its most beaten paths provide a true worker with abundant scope for effort and self-improvement.
Theodore G. McGill, a retired farmer of Jackson township. Hamilton county, Indiana, and the son of John and Matilda ( Slack) McGill, was born November 14, 1853, one mile west of Arcadia, in this county. John McGill
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was a native of Wayne county, this state, and came to Hamilton county with his parents, Robert McGill and wife, when he was twelve years of age. Robert McGill was born in Virginia and when he first came west settled in Kentucky and later removed to Wayne county, Indiana. The father of Rob- ert McGill was the first one of the family to come to this country from Scot- land, the original home of the McGills. Mr. and Mrs. John McGill were the parents of four children, Mrs. Mary E. Phillips; Amanda, deceased; Mar- garet J., the wife of Robert Tranbarger, and Theodore G., with whom this narrative deals.
Theodore G. McGill attended the schools of his home neighborhood dur- ing the winter season and assisted with the farm work during the summers. He remained at home until he was twenty-four years of age and then married and went to work upon a rented farm. He was an industrious, hardworking man and in the course of time acquired a farm of sixty acres in Jackson township in sections 21 and 22. He raises all of the crops which are adapted to the soil of this locality and by a scientific system of crop rotation always keeps his land at the highest point of productivity.
Mr. McGill was married April 29, 1878, to Rebecca Ella Malott, the daughter of John B. and Sarah (Baker) Malott. John B. Malott was .the son of Joseph Malott, a native of Ohio, and was a prominent farmer and land owner of Jackson township. John B. Malott and wife were the parents of six children, Elizabeth, William, Rebecca E., the wife of Mr. McGill; Horace, Mary and Mrs. Laura Hall. Mr. and Mrs. McGill are the parents of one son, John S. McGill.
John S. McGill was born November 24, 1884, in this township and received a good common school education and high school education, graduat- ing in 1902 from the Arcadia high school, after which he took a two-year course in the Vorhees Business College at Indianapolis. When only nineteen years of age he started in life for himself and when twenty-one years of age was married to Miss Lettie F. Devaney and has two children, Leota May and Mark Ford. He and his wife were reared together and attended the same school. John S. McGill quickly forged to the front as one of the progressive young agriculturists of his township and though now retired from the farm, still gives considerable personal supervision to the management of a fine eighty-acre farm, where he raises all the crops suitable to this section of the state, as well as a considerable amount of live stock each year, also buying and feeding a good deal of stock.
Both Mr. and Mrs. McGill are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and are interested participants in the various activities of that organi-
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aztion. Mr. McGill was a Republican until 1912, in which year he trans- ferred his political allegiance to the Progressive party and has been active in the councils of that party in Hamilton county since its organization. He has been a member of the Hamilton County Council since its inception.
ZORA T. POWELL.
Specific mention is made in this volume of the many worthy citizens of Hamilton county who have in one way or another been identified with the growth and development of the county. Many have been born in the county and many others have been natives of other counties in the state or of other states. Among the many progressive farmers of the county who have come here from other counties in the state there is no one more worthy of mention than Zora T. Powell, a successful agriculturist of Noblesville township.
Zora T. Powell, the son of Milton and Emily ( Northam) Powell, was born November 7, 1864, in Rush county, Indiana. Milton Powell is a pros- perous farmer in Marion county and has never been a resident of Hamilton county. The wife of Milton Powell was born in North Carolina and is still living at the age of seventy. To Mr. and Mrs. Milton Powell have been born four children : Zora T., with whom this narrative deals; Charles, deceased; Fred, a farmer of Marion county ; and Harry, who is also a farmer of Mar- ion. county.
Zora T. Powell was educated in the common schools of Marion county and later attended the high school at Broad Ripple, in that county. After leaving school he assisted his father on the home farm until his marriage and then began farming for himself. He continued to farm in Marion county until 1910, when he moved to Hamilton county and settled on his present farm of one hundred and two acres in Noblesville township. His farm is highly improved and is as productive as any to be found in the county. He has a beautiful home, excellent barns and outbuildings and such other im- provements as are to be found on up-to-date farms. In the raising of crops he is following the latest and most scientific methods and has the satisfaction of seeing his farm yield very gratifying returns.
Mr. Powell was married February 2, 1889, to Emma Spahr, the daugh- ter of Joshua and Charlotte (Tippy) Spahr, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. To Mr. and Mrs. Spahr have been born four children :
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Mrs. Ida Steinmeier, of Marion county; Emma, the wife of Mr. Powell; Mrs. Ella Leonard, deceased, and Grace, who is still living with her parents in Marion county. Mr. Powell and wife have one son, Chester M., who was born June 18, 1880, and married September 18, 1900, to Estel White.
In politics, Mr. Powell has always given his support to the Republican party, but has never been an aspirant for any public office. He has been content to devote all of his time and attention to his agricultural interests and leave the cares of political life to others. He and his wife are loyal members of the Friends church at Gray, in their home neighborhood, and have always contributed liberally of their means for church purposes. Mr. Powell takes a deep interest in the welfare of his fellow citizens and gives his support to such measures as he thinks will benefit them in any way. His life has been clean and wholesome and he justly deserves the high esteem in which he is held by every one with whom he comes in contact.
ALONZO J. ROBERTS.
Though many years have passed since Alonzo J. Roberts was transferred from the life militant to the life triumphant, he is still remembered by his many friends and acquaintances as one of the worthy citizens of the county where he spent so many years of his active life. Because of his many ex- cellent qualities and the splendid and definite influence which his life shed over the entire community in which he lived, it is particularly fitting that mention be made of him in this volume. He was a man of high moral char- acter, unimpeachable integrity, persistent industry and excellent business judgment, who stood "four square to every wind that blew."
Alonzo J. Roberts, the son of Elihu and Sarah (Stubbs) Roberts, was born January 12, 1866, in Preble county, Ohio, and died in Hamilton county, Indiana, July 4, 1902. He was educated in the schools of West Elkton, Ohio. and lived in the state of his birth until after his marriage. While still living in Ohio he became interested in the oil business and was the superintendent of an oil station near his home. In 1894 he came, with his family, to Hamil- ton county and purchased eighty acres in Noblesville township, where he lived until his death. He was also identified with the oil industry after coming to this county and had general charge of an oil station in addition to the man- agement of his farm.
Mr. Roberts was married to Cora Shaffer on January 12, 1888. She was
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the daughter of Isaac and Nancy (Row) Shaffer, natives of Ohio and In- diana, respectively. To Mr. and Mrs. Roberts were born five children: Sada J., Esther E., Gula, Golda and Charles. Sada J. was graduated from the Carmel high school and is now teaching school in the grades at Cicero. Esther married Chester Cook, a farmer of Noblesville township, and has two children, Louise and John, the latter of whom died July 6, 1914. Gula, who went through the third year of high school at Carmel, but had to leave it on account of her health, is an accomplished musician. She is a milliner at Anderson, Indiana. Golda and Charles are still attending school. At the time of his death, Mr. Roberts owned twelve and one-half acres near Gray, which Mrs. Roberts sold in 1904.
Mrs. Roberts was married a second time on September 12, 1906, to Frank Hinshaw, who was born in North Carolina, April 5, 1862. Mr. and Mrs. Hinshaw are living on the farm, where they have a fine home and good barns and outbuildings of all kinds. Mr. Hinshaw is a Republican and a member of the Friends church.
Mr. Roberts was a stanch Republican all his life but was never an office seeker, preferring to devote all of his time and energy to his private interests. He, as well as his wife, were loyal members of the Friends church and con- tributed freely of their means to its support. He was a man who was always concerned in the various movements in his locality which sought to benefit the welfare of its citizens, and for this reason justly merited the esteem of his friends and acquaintances. He will be remembered by those who knew him as a man who was charitable to the faults of his neighbors and kindly disposed towards everyone whom he met.
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