USA > Indiana > Hendricks County > History of Hendricks County, Indiana, her people, industries and institutions > Part 18
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SYLVANUS MABE.
Indiana was not lacking in loyalty during the dark days of the Rebellion, and no governor in all the northern states was more prompt or rendered more efficient service to President Lincoln than did Governor Morton. When the ship of state was almost stranded on the rocks of disunion, Indiana came to the front and contributed over two hundred thousand brave and valiant men to assist in preserving the integrity of the government. Prominent among the citizens of Hendricks county who served their country faithfully and well were Sylvanus Mabe and his father, James M. Mabe. Although they en- listed from Brown county, this state, they have made their home in Hendricks county for many years, the father having answered the last roll call several years ago. Today there is in Hendricks county no old soldier who is more widely and favorably known and none that can boast of a more honorable record than Sylvanus Mabe. He was loyal to his country in its hour of peril and extremity, and demonstrated on many a bloody battle field that he was ready to fight and even die for his country.
Sylvanus Mabe, the son of James M. and Anna ( Noblet) Mabe, was born in Brown county, Indiana, May 31, 1844. James M. Mabe was born October 23, 1820, in Stokes county, North Carolina, and died March 5, 1896, in Hendricks county, Indiana. He was one of six children, the others being
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Bettie, Mrs. Mary Williamson, Mrs. Ruth Clark, William F., and Mrs. Nancy Medlock. When James M. Mabe was about ten years of age he moved with his parents to Brown county, Indiana, where he and his father entered land from the government. He never had any schooling except what he picked up in the wide field of experience, since he never had any opportunity of attend- ing a school in Brown county while he was a lad. Sylvanus Mabe and his father, with their families, lived in Brown county until 1892, when they moved to Hendricks county. James M. Mabe enlisted in Company H, of the Eighty- second Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served from the date of his enlistment, September 18, 1862, until the close of the war. He was pres- ent at the Grand Review at Washington, D. C., in the spring of 1865. His son, Sylvanus, also enlisted, serving from August 20, 1861, until about the close of the war. He was only seventeen years of age when he enlisted in Company C, of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which was made a part of the Army of the Cumberland. He was engaged in the battle of Shiloh, the seige of Corinth and all of those engagements which were fought by Grant in Tennessee and Mississippi. His regiment was later transferred to the eastern part of Tennessee, where he fought in the battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and in the last named battle he was wounded, being struck by pieces of shell in the right knee, incapacitated from further service and within the next six months he was mustered out at Indianapolis.
James M. and Anna (Noblet) Mabe reared a large family of thirteen children : Sylvanus; Hiram, who died at the age of twenty-six; Vandever, deceased April 13, 1909, a member of Company D, Forty-third Indiana Vol- unteer Infantry, married Jeannette Anthony; William; Williamson, de- ceased; Levi, who died when small; Cyrus, deceased; Mary Jane, the wife of A. D. Handcher; Margaret, the wife of Oliver Craig; James, deceased; David, who married Etta Gates, and two who died in infancy.
Sylvanus Mabe received a very limited common school education in the district schools of Brown county before he enlisted in the war at the early age of seventeen. After returning home from the war he and his father con- tinued farming on the old homestead, where he remained until his marriage, March 1.4, 1869, when he began farming for himself in Brown county. In 1874 he moved to Nebraska and remained there for two years, after which he came to Clay township, in this county, and settled on a rented farm of fifty acres, which he operated for the next thirteen years. He was a hard-working man who attended strictly to his own affairs and by thrift and economy he
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succeeded in saving enough to purchase a small farm. After he had once made a start he added to his land holdings until at the present time he is the owner of two hundred and eighty acres of fine land in Clay township. His success can be attributed only to hard work and upright dealings in all of his business transactions.
Mr. Mabe married Harriet C. Bartholomew, the daughter of Eli and Mamie M. (Fuller) Bartholomew, and to this union there have been born two children, Eli and Lorenzo F. Eli, a farmer living at Pecksburg, in this county, married Lora McCormick and has one daughter, Mabel. Lorenzo F., a miller and implement dealer living at Clayton, in this county, married Rilla Hurley, and they have one child, Lorenzo Lyle. Mrs. Mabe's parents had a family of eight children: Ira, the wife of Zibil Baldwin; John, who married Savannah Lewis; Augustus, deceased May 30, 1864; Cyrus, who married Sarah Handcher; Pamelia, who married William Cox; Harriet, the wife of Mr. Mabe; Polly, deceased 1849; Maria, deceased. Mrs. Mabe's mother died November 29, 1873. Mrs. Mabe's father died July 16, 1891, in this county. The grandparents of Mrs. Mabe on her mother's side were natives of Trumbull county, Ohio, and had a family of four children, Abial, Mary, Eli, and a Mrs. Scofield.
Mr. Mabe is a stanch Democrat, and has voted this ticket for a half cen- tury. While he has always taken an interest in political affairs he has never aspired to any public office, preferring to devote all of his time and attention to his agricultural interests. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and is one of the most active members of the post at Danville. Mr. Mabe has won an honorable name for himself in this county, because of his upright life and he and his wife are valuable members of society in this county.
EDOM R. HADLEY AND MILTON M. HADLEY.
The history of a county or state is chiefly a chronicle of the deeds and lives of those who have conferred honor and dignity upon the society of that county or state. The world judges the character of a community by those of its representative citizens and yields its tribute of admiration and respect to those whose words and actions constitute the record of a state or county's prosperity or pride. Among the prominent citizens of Hendricks county, Indiana, who have long since passed away, but who in their day took a prominent part in the life of the community in which they lived are Edom
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R. Hadley and his son, Milton M. Hadley. This father and son were good men and good citizens in the highest sense of the term and the locality in which they lived suffered an irreparable loss when they passed away. They were useful citizens of the commonwealth, men who were deeply interested in the welfare and social uplift of their fellow citizens, men who stood for the highest ideals of citizenship and all that it means. The brief history of their lives which is here given can be nothing more than a poor tribute to their worth as men who did their duty as God gave them the power to so do.
Edom R. Hadley, the son of James and Mary (Richardson) Hadley. was born in North Carolina in 1819, and when six years of age, came to Hendricks county, Indiana. with his parents, and settled two and one-half miles west of Danville on Mill creek. There his father entered land from the government and at the time of his death owned six hundred acres. Here in the wilderness and amidst pioneer conditions which have long since disap- peared, Edom R. Hadley grew to manhood and here married Louisiana Vannice, daughter of Peter and Sallie (Smith) Vannice. She was born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, February 7, 1829, and came with her parents when she was three years of age to this county, where they located in the northwest- ern part of Marion township; near the Putnam county line. Peter Vannice entered land from the government and lived on his farm of two hundred acres until his death, which occurred in 1888, on February 9th, his wife dying three days later. It is interesting to note that had they lived until the 14th of the same month, they would have been married sixty years. Peter Vannice and wife reared a large family of eleven children, only five of whom are now living: Mrs. Joan Allen, who lives in Iowa; Samuel, of the same state; Mrs. Sarah Ferguson, of Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Ella Hawkins, of Indianapolis; and Mrs. Louisiana Hadley, the widow of the late Edom R. Hadley. Mrs. Hadley grew to womanhood at a time when none of the mod- ern conveniences were to be had; no pianola was found in the parlor at that time, the music then in the evenings being furnished by the wolves, which roamed the forests and howled around the log cabin. For fourteen years after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Edom R. Hadley lived one mile west of Danville, at which time they moved to the present home farm of two hun- dred and eighty acres, three miles north of New Winchester. On this farm Mr. Hadley died in March, 1888, having lived a full and complete life in every sense of the word. He and his wife were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and to this church he gave his conscientious service. Three children were born to bless their union: Jennie, the wife of George W. House, of Danville, who is the mother of three children, Ida, Nettie and
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George; Milton M., whose history is reviewed later in this article; Charles L., who married Jennie Kurtz, and lived on a farm two and one-half miles west of Danville until his death; he left two children, Dovie and Myrtle.
Milton M. Hadley was born December 21, 1857, one mile north of Dan- ville, and grew to manhood on the homestead farm north of New Win- chester. After finishing the common and high school course at New Win- chester, he entered Lincoln University at Lincoln, Illinois, from which institu- tion he graduated in 1883. with the degree of Master of Arts. In 1887 he married Mary Fielding, a lady whom he met while attending school at Lincoln College. They entered the freshman class there together and their friendship ripened into love and this was consummated by their marriage after they left college. Mrs. Hadley was born in Chandlerville, Illinois, the daughter of James and Elizabeth (Briar) Fielding. Her father was a native of England, where his birth occurred in the city of Manchester, and here he lived until he was eleven years of age. According to the custom in his home town in England he attended school the year round, but leaving his native country at the age of eleven with his parents to come to America, his education stopped at that time. However, he was a well read man and was an omnivorous reader all his life. His parents, whose names also were James and Elizabeth, came to America and settled fourteen miles east of Beards- town, Illinois, on a farm and there they lived the remainder of their lives. Mary Fielding grew up in Illinois and it was while attending Lincoln Uni- versity that she met her future husband. For a time after their marriage they lived in Kansas City, but they soon tired of city life and moved to Marion township in this county, where he resumed farming and followed this occupation until his death, December 23, 1895. They had one son. Harry, who was born August 11, 1888, and is now attending the University of Illinois, where he will receive his doctor's degree in commercial chemistry in June, 1914. Harry Hadley graduated from the Danville high school and then from James Milliken University with the degree of Bachelor of Science. The next year he took his Master of Arts degree in chemistry at the Uni- versity of Illinois and will take his Doctor of Philosophy degree there this year. He is doing special research work in chemistry for the university and has a very promising future before him.
Milton M. Hadley was a man of exceptionally strong character, clean minded, and a man whom to know was to love. He was elected a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church in 1892, and at the time of his death was superintendent of the Sunday school and president of the Christian Endeavor.
Thus is shown in brief outline the careers of two men, father and son,
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who lived lives of remarkable purity and sweetness and whose influence was always cast for better and higher things. Their two widows are living to- gether today and are beloved by everyone in the neighborhood.
JOHN N. PHILLIPS.
The gentleman whose name forms the caption of this sketch belongs to that class of men who win in life's battles by earnest endeavor, coupled with good judgment and in whatever he has undertaken he has shown himself to be a man of ability and honor. He has always been ready to lend his aid in defending principles affecting the public good, having ably and conscientiously served his county in the capacity of a public school teacher for twenty years, while in other phases of civic life he has so ordered his actions as to earn the endorsement and support of his fellow citizens.
John N. Phillips, the cashier of the First National Bank of Amo, was born two miles southwest of Amo on June 24, 1855. His parents were Samuel and Rachel (Newman) Phillips, of North Carolina. His grand- father. John S. Phillips, was born in Pennsylvania in 1776. His great- grandfather, John Phillips, was a native of Germany and went to North Carolina about 1789, taking his family with him, and his death occurred shortly after settling in that state. The children of the grandfather, John S. Phillips, came to Indiana in the thirties and located in Wayne county, where he afterwards joined them and died about 1832. Samuel Phillips, the father of the subject of this sketch, came to Hendricks county, Indiana, about 1836, where all of his children were born and reared. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Phillips were the parents of nine children, two of whom died in infancy.
John N. Phillips was the sixth child in order of birth of his father's family and was reared as a farmer's lad, receiving his elementary education in the district schools and completing it by taking a course in the Central Normal College at Danville. As a boy he showed unusual intelligence and his parents were anxious to give him the best possible education. After com- pleting his course in the college at Danville he became a public school teacher and followed that noble profession for the next twenty vears, during which time he was rated as one of the most successful teachers of Hendricks county In 1898 he retired from the teaching profession and for eight years he was engaged in the lumber business and farming. Then he, with others, organ- ized the First National Bank of Amo, the organization articles being dated
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January 20, 1906. Its present officers are as follows: E. B. Owen, presi- dent; George W. Christie, vice-president; J. N. Phillips, cashier; Miller E. Kendall, assistant cashier. The bank now has a capital stock of twenty- five thousand dollars.
Mr. Phillips was married August 21, 1879, to Joanna Ratliff of Hend- ricks county, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Ratliff, an old and highly respected family of that county. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are the parents of one daughter, Elsie, who married Otis Rammel. Mr. Phillips is a member of the Friends church and an active worker in all the activities of that denom- ination, being especially interested in the Sabbath school work. Mr. Phillips is a man whom to know is to respect, and during his career in this county he has led a life which has been free from censure of any kind. He has always been ready to aid in the moral or material welfare of those who required assistance, and in every particular measures up to the highest ideals of the American citizen.
WILL A. KING.
It is a well recognized fact that the most powerful influence in shaping and controlling public life is the press. It reaches a greater number of people than any other agency and thus has always been used and, in the hands of persons competent to use it, always will be a most important factor in mould- ing public opinion and shaping the destiny of the nation. The gentleman to a brief review of whose life these few lines are devoted is prominently con- nected with the journalism of central Indiana, and at this time is editor and publisher of the Danville Gasette, one of the best Democratic papers of this section of the state in news, editorial ability and mechanical execution.
Will A. King, the son of E. Douglas and Ruth (Warner) King, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 5, 1864, and has lived in this county since he was fourteen years of age. His father was born in Uniontown, Pennsyl- vania, and came to Indiana in 1869 as editor of the Fort Wayne Sentinel, and also has the honor of publishing the first directory of that city. In February, 1878, he came to Danville and established the Hendricks County Democrat and in September, 1880, he started the Danville Gasette, taking his son, Will A., the subject of this sketch, into partnership with him. Shortly after starting the Gazette he accepted a position in the government printing office at Washington, D. C., and left his son in full charge of the paper.
WILL A. KING
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Will A. King received a good practical education and when a small boy entered the printing office of his father, who had been a printer and news- paper man for thirty years. Under the able guidance of the latter he acquired a through knowledge of the mechanical part of the business and, being a lad of keen ability, he was soon competent to assume the control of the paper and manage it from the editorial as well as the mechanical side. As has been said, he helped his father establish the Gazette in 1880 and he has been in charge of the paper up to the present time. It has for years been recognized as the official organ of the Democratic party in Hendricks county.
Mr. King was married to Jennie Hill, the daughter of John C. and Sarah J. (Parker) Hill, and they have an interesting family of three children, Ruth A., Sarah J. and Robert H. They are fitting their children for their future careers by giving them the best possible education.
In view of the fact that Mr. King has been the editor of the leading Democratic paper of the county for so many years, it is not strange that he has been a very important factor in the deliberations of his party. Prob- ably no other man in the county has exerted as much influence in the councils of his party as has Mr. King, and it is to his credit that he always takes his stand on the side of clean politics. Personally, he is a man who easily makes friends and, being a newspaper man, has friends in every part of the county.
JOSEPH B. FLEECE.
Specific mention is made of many of the worthy citizens of Hendricks county within the pages of this book, citizens who have figured in the growth and development of this favored locality and whose interests are identified with its every phase of progress, each contributing in his sphere of action to the well-being of the community in which he resides and to the advancement of its normal and legitimate growth. Among this number is he whose name appears above, peculiar interest attaching to this career from the fact that for the past ten years he has been prominently identified with the banking busi- ness in North Salem, during which time he has also taken a prominent part in the civic and moral advancement of his community.
Joseph B. Fleece, a banker of North Salem, was born near North Salem, July 24, 1866. His parents were Capt. Jacob and Lettie B. ( Ashby) Fleece. The late Jacob H. Fleece was born near Danville, Kentucky, on June 4. 1829, and died in North Salem, November 2, 1910, a devout Christian man who
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was honored and respected by everyone. The parents of Captain Fleece were Charles and Mary (Harlan) Fleece, who came to this county from Ken- tucky and settled in Eel River township in 1836. Here Captain Fleece was reared to manhood and in October, 1853, married Lettie B. Ashby, the daugh- ter of Silas and Nancy (Radford) Ashby. Silas Ashby was the son of Thompson and Lettie (Van Meter) Ashby. The Ashby family is a remark- able family. They trace their ancestry back to England where for centuries they have been people of honor. Thompson Ashby was born in Virginia and at the age of fourteen, with two older brothers, came to Kentucky where he grew to manhood and then married Lettie Van Meter. Her father was given a large grant of land for his services in the Revolutionary War, but lost part of it by defective title. Thompson Ashby lived the remainder of his life in Kentucky, and upon his death his widow sold his farm and brought her children to Indiana and settled between Ladoga and Roachdale in Putnam county. There she entered land, managed wisely and reared her children to useful lives. They prospered and became large land owners and today their descendants are numerous about Ladoga and are among the most highly respected people of the various communities in which they live. Lettie N. Ashby, the wife of Capt. Jacob Fleece, was born and reared near Roach- dale and lived there until her marriage. After his marriage, Captain Fleece and his brother John engaged in the mercantile business at Ladoga in Mont- gomery county, but a year later he returned to his farm in Eel River town- ship in this county. In 1859 he was elected county recorder of Hendricks county and served until the fall of 1861 when he resigned and entered the army. In September, 1861, he was commissioned captain of Company A. Fifty-first Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and remained in the service as captain until his resignation in September, 1862. He then re- turned to this county and resumed farming. In 1882 he was elected to represent this county in the lower house of the State Legislature, and was re-elected in 1884 and again in 1886, serving six years in the Legislature. He was a very successful farmer and at the time of his death owned two hun- dred and seventy acres of land, which he farmed until within the last fifteen years of his life when he moved to North Salem. He was a Mason and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He and his wife belonged to the Christian church, in which he was an elder for many years. Captain and Mrs. Fleece were the parents of three children: Silas F .; Joseph B., whose history is herein presented; and Lulu C. Silas F. Fleece is in the hardware business at Tuxedo, the eastern part of Indianapolis. He married Francis Davis and had three children, Aletha, Alta and Verner. Lulu married L.
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C. Moore, and lives on the home farm a mile west of North Salem. They have two children, Herbert and Maynard.
Joseph B. Fleece grew up on the farm, attended the district schools and then took a course in a business college at Indianapolis. In 1888 he en- gaged in the merchandise husiness at North Salem in partnership with his brother-in-law, L. C. Moore, under the firm name of Moore & Fleece. The firm continued in business for ten years, when it was dissolved and Mr. Fleece went to Indianapolis and entered the real estate business. Two years later he returned to North Salem and became interested in the North Salem Bank with Charles W. and George B. Davis and has continued in the banking busi- ness ever since. In addition to his banking interests, Mr. Fleece owns about two hundred acres of land in the southern part of Texas near Houston and Brownsville.
Mr. Fleece was married in 1897 to Emma Williams, the daughter of. Alexander and Martha (Griggs) Williams. Alexander Williams was born in Marion township, this county, June 26, 1840, the son of James B. and Eliza (Ramsey) Williams. James B. Williams and his wife were born, reared and married in Kentucky, coming to this county in 1836 in wagons. They bought one hundred and twenty acres of land in Marion township from a man who had entered the land, but was not able to make any improvement. They started in the wilderness, built a real pioneer cabin of round logs, puncheon floor, clapboard roof and stick-and-mud chimney. Alexander Will- iams had two sisters and five brothers, of whom he is the only one living at the present time. His mother died when he was about fourteen years of age, and his father married Eliza Tamplin, who is now living near Danville with four children by his second marriage: Matilda, Sarah, Eleanor and Tilman. James B. Williams died in 1878. In October, 1863, Alexander Williams enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry and was immediately transferred to General Sherman's command in the Atlanta campaign. Later his company was ordered to return to General George Thomas in Tennessee and was in the attack on Nashville, December, 1864, and followed Hood's army until they crossed the Tennessee river in the early part of 1865. Shortly afterwards his regiment was ordered to Washington, D. C., and was there compelled to camp in an open field without shelter in zero weather. Thence his regiment was taken by boat to the coast of North Carolina and landed at Moorhead City. His regiment was sent there in order to repair the railroad in North Carolina to connect Sherman with Virginia and ship him supplies. In North
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