USA > Indiana > Hendricks County > History of Hendricks County, Indiana, her people, industries and institutions > Part 22
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Mr. Humston was married February 24, 1870, to Philista T. Wood, who was born and reared in Hendricks county, and to this union were born five children: Ora Minta, the wife of Joseph M. Miller, of Clermont, Indiana; Everett E., of Beech Grove, Indiana; Lee W., of Indianapolis; Cly R., assistant cashier of the Danville State Bank, and Hallie H., who lives in South Dakota.
Mr. Humston has always taken a prominent part in Republican poli- tics and has served his party on several occasions in conventions. He was elected assessor of Franklin township for three terms, and in 1890 was elected recorder of Hendricks county. He is financially interested in the Danville State Bank and is a director in that institution at the present time. After his term of office as county recorder expired in 1895, he moved back to his farm in Washington township, but did not take a very active part in the management of the farm. He moved back to Danville in 1905, where he has since resided.
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Mr. Humston is a faithful and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and one of the gradually diminishing number who belong to the Grand Army post at Danville. His record has been one replete with duty well and conscientiously performed in every relation of life. He has been an advocate of wholesome living and cleanliness in politics as well, and has always stood for the highest and best interests of the community in which so many of his active years have been passed and which has been honored by his citizenship. The life history of such a man shows what in- dustry, good habits and sound citizenship will accomplish.
WILLIAM H. NICHOLS.
The career of William H. Nichols has been a strenuous and busy one, entitling him to honorable mention among the representative citizens of his day and generation in the county with which his life has been so long identified. Although his life record is nearing its close by the inevitable fate that awaits all mankind, his influence still pervades the lives of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances throughout the county. It is very probable that he has a larger speaking acquaintance in this county than any other living man, due to the fact that he has been identified with the office of auditor for so many years. As a private citizen, as a soldier in the Civil War and as a public official he has always been true to himself and his fellowmen and the tongue of calumny has never touched him. As a soldier he proved his loyalty to the country he loved so well and in the long marches in all kinds of situa- tions, on the tented fields and amid the flame and smoke of battle, where the rattle of musketry mingled with the deep concussions of the bursting shell. he was always found to be a man who could be depended upon. To such as he the country is under a debt of gratitude which it cannot repay and in centuries yet to come posterity will commemorate their bravery in fitting eulogy and tell their deeds in story and in song.
William H. Nichols, one of the most highly respected citizens of Hen- dricks county, was born near Danville, February 24, 1841. His parents were Thomas and Patty (Hadley) Nichols, his father being a native of Virginia, who came to this county in 1821. Thomas Nichols settled southeast of Plainfield, where he lived for a short time and then removed to a farm near Danville, and later into Danville, where he lived until his death at the advanced age of ninety-two years. Thomas Nichols was one of the most
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important men of the county during his time. He was elected sheriff on three different occasions, being one of the first sheriffs ever elected in the county. The Black Hawk war was disturbing the settlers in 1832 and in that year he joined the local militia and went to the front, but did not see any fighting. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and he was a charter member of the Danville lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, being initiated at Indianapolis. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Nichols were the parents of nine children, only three of whom are living: O. E. Nichols, of Danville; Mrs. Julia A. Harney, who taught for thirty- eight years in Lebanon, Indiana, and W. H. Nichols, the immediate subject of this sketch.
W. H. Nichols was reared in Danville and attended the public schools of this place. After finishing the course in the common schools, he became a student at Danville Academy and graduated from that institution. Up- on the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted for service in Company B, One Hundred Seventeenth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served with distinction until the close of his term of enlistment. When a young man he started as a carpenter, learning the trade from his father, but sub- sequently he entered a printing office, where he worked for two years. His first public office was that of township assessor, which he held for one term. Upon the expiration of his term of office as assessor, he became deputy auditor for three years. The next four years, from 1875 to 1879, were spent in the employ of the Hadley-Homan Banking Company, of Danville. In 1878 he was elected county auditor and served from 1879 to 1883. As auditor he was very efficient and his work in this office has been recognized by every auditor from 1883 down to the present time. He was deputy for a time after 1883 and was then elected for two more terms as auditor, after which he again served as deputy auditor until January, 1912, a period of thirty-six years, and during all that time he rendered the same faithful and efficient service in this important office. It is probable that he holds the record along this line, and that no man in Hendricks county will ever again hold a county office for the same number of years.
Mr. Nichols was married in 1868 to Laura F. Cash, of Danville, and to this union two children were born, both of whom are deceased, and his wife's death occurred in June, 1899.
Mr. Nichols has been a life-long Republican and has always taken an active interest in politics. Fraternally, he is a member of the order of Free and Accepted Masons, and a charter member of the lodge of Knights
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of Pythias at Danville. In his religious affiliations he is connected with the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Nichols is a genial and unassuming gentleman who is spending his declining years in the city where he has lived all of his long and busy life. His career has been an eminently busy and useful one and during all of his public career no action of his has ever brought upon him the censure of his fellow citizens. For this reason he has won the admiration and respect of a large circle of friends and ad- mirers.
JOSEPH N. HARGRAVE.
The subject of this review is a representative farmer and stock raiser of Clay township, Hendricks county, Indiana, and is known as one of the alert, progressive and successful agriculturists of this favored section of the Hoosier state. In his labors he has not permitted himself to follow in the rut in a blind, apathetic way, but has studied and experimented and thus secured the maximum returns from his enterprising efforts, while he has so ordered his course at all times as to command the confidence and regard of the people of the community in which he lives, being a man of honorable busi- ness methods and advocating whatever tends to promote the public welfare in any way.
Joseph N. Hargrave, son of Nathaniel H. and Matilda (Powers) Har- grave, was born in Johnson county, Indiana, November 6, 1873. Both his parents were natives of North Carolina and lived there until after the Civil War, Nathaniel Hargrave was in the Confederate service and served throughout the war in a North Carolina regiment. After the close of the war Nathaniel Hargrave and his wife came to Tipton county, Indiana, where they rented a farm, but within a short time moved to Johnson county, in this state, where Joseph N. was born. After a few years' stay in John- son county the family moved to Tennessee, but in a short time returned to Tipton county, where they lived until about ten years ago. Nathaniel Har- grave then retired from active farm life and is making his home now with his children. Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Hargrave were the parents of eleven children : Susan, wife of Thomas Hendricks; Betty, who married Granville Cunningham; Thomas, who married Ida Gordon; John, who married Ollie Brown; Ida, who became the wife of Frank Winders; Dora, the wife of George Smith; Grover, who married Alda Graham; Arlie and Michael, both deceased : Della, the wife of John Samuels, and Joseph N.
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Joseph N. Hargrave attended the public schools of Tipton county and received a good practical education. He then started to work on the home farm and continued to assist his father until he was about twenty-six years of age. He then married and began farming operations for himself and has proved to be a very successful and enterprising agriculturist.
Mr. Hargrave was married November 3, 1898, to Maude Johnson, daughter of Jesse and Phoebe (Law) Johnson, and to this marriage there have been born six children : Inez, Paul, Stella, Beryl, Raymond and Martha. Mrs. Hargrave's parents had a family of three children : Maude, the wife of Mr. Hargrave; Alta, who died when young, and Stella, who married Clem Watson. The paternal grandparents had two children, and the maternal grandparents had six children: Wilson, Joseph. Jesse, James, Sarah and Phoebe.
Mr. Hargrave is a Democrat in politics and takes an interest in the local public affairs of his party. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while religiously, he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and contribute liberally of their means to the support of this denomination. They are firm believers in the efficacy of church work and are very sympathetically inclined toward all move- ments which seek to better the welfare of the community in which they live.
SETH T. HURON.
The men most influential in promoting the advancement of society and in giving character to the times in which they live are of two classes, to-wit, the men of study and the men of action. Whether we are more indebted for the improvement of the age to the one class or the other is a question of honest difference in 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 out- lined the leading facts and characteristics in the career of a gentleman who combines in his makeup the elements of the scholar and the energy of the public-spirited man of affairs.
Seth Thomas Huron, son of Benjamin A. and Katharine Huron, was born in Washington township, Hendricks county, Indiana, June 26, 1850. His entire life, except for a few brief trips away, has been spent on the farm where he was born. He received his education in the public schools of his
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home district, supplemented by a review course in the National Normal School, at Lebanon, Ohio. Afterwards he taught school four years, three of them being in his old home district. He belongs to a family of teachers, his father and all his brothers and sisters having been teachers. One of his sisters, Mrs. A. Kate Gilbert, made it her life work, having taught in district and city schools, and in the normal schools at Ladoga, Danville, Mitchell and Marion, Indiana, and at Central City and Fremont, Nebraska. At the latter place she is still teaching, lacking only a year of half a century engaged in her chosen profession.
August 2, 1876, Mr. Huron was married to Mary Etta Farmer, at Clermont, Indiana. She was the daughter of David and Sibby (Ferree) Farmer, early settlers of this township, coming to Indiana from North Carolina before their marriage. Soon after their marriage they moved to Iowa and Mrs. Huron was born in Jefferson county, in that state, October 19, 1856. When she was but a child her father volunteered in the Thirtieth Iowa Infantry, serving three years in the Civil War. After the close of the war he came again with his family to this county. He remained here until 1876 when he removed to Lucerne, Missouri, where he died, October 9, 1912, at the age of eighty-six years. In politics, Mr. Farmer was a staunch Republican; in religion, a firm Methodist and in every walk of life, a Chris- tian gentleman.
To Mr. and Mrs. Huron have been born six children: Mrs. Mary E. Blair, born May 3, 1877; Frank Paul, born June 16, 1880, died March 16, 1881; Mrs. Irma R. Smith, born April 30, 1882; Flora F., born December 23, 1884, died June 15, 1894; Leroy B., born November 26, 1887, and John T., born October 16, 1890, are yet under the paternal roof and both are progressive farmers. Mr. Huron, with the constant support of his wife who, he says, helped him to attain to all that he has and is, is one among the many successful farmers of Hendricks county. His farm of near two hundred acres, known as Maple Row farm, is situated one-half mile east of Avon on the traction line and is one of the most attractive farms between Indianapolis and Danville. He believes in clover and tile drainage as the best means of conservation of the soil. He is also doing what he can to help introduce alfalfa as one of our most important crops. He feeds what the farm pro- duces, selling the animal rather than the grain. Mr. Huron says he has always been a Republican, but never much of a politician. He served a term on the county council and a couple of terms as justice of the peace. but never sought an office nor asked any man to vote for him. The members of this family have always shown their interest in education and have ever been
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loyal supporters of the church. The school building is on the corner of the farm and the Methodist church is opposite it. To this church the whole family have given their membership and support in all its activities. Mr. Huron has long served on the official board as trustee and steward, and for a dozen years was superintendent of its Sunday school and both he and his wife and their children have been among its teachers and its constant at- tendants.
A family sketch for a county history should reach farther back from the immediate family and tell something of its ancestry. This is especially true if these ancestors had much to do in the early beginning of said his- tory and if, throughout long lives lived in the community, they possessed such sterling qualities as to give their full measure of help in starting, sus- taining and preserving measures for the common good of such community, and such qualities as have influenced and will continue to influence the com- munity to make it a good and desirable place in which to live. It is there- fore proper that this sketch include something of an older, a pioneer family.
Benjamin A. Huron, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Warren county, Ohio, December 31, 1811. He came to Hendricks county in 1832 and from the government entered the same year the land now owned by the son. He spent the remainder of his life on this farm. In December, 1835, he married Katharine Harding, who came here from Kentucky with her parents. They began at once the making of a farm and a home to take the place of a dense forest. A two-room log cabin was erected in a small clearing near the center of the tract. These first years were years of privation and hardship. The heavy timber was cut down and burned in huge log-heaps, the wife helping to pick and burn the brush as well as care for the house. In addition she helped pull, break, swingle, hackle, spin and weave flax and also spin and weave the wool from a few sheep and thus, in a measure, supply the needs of the family. The husband spent the summers in the clearing and the field, producing the small amount of grain re- quired for their own use and at one time, when a small surplus remained, he drove, in his farm wagon, to Madison, a hundred miles away, where he exchanged it for a barrel of salt and a few groceries and in a week or so was again safe at home. He also marketed hogs at Madison, driving them the distance on foot. In the early forties a settlement having formed and a school being needed, Mr. Huron gave the ground for a school and most of the timber for a frame building and for a number of years he taught school in this building each winter. Again in 1858 he gave a new school-house site where a one-room house answered the needs until 1879 when a four-room
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graded school building was erected and five years later rebuilt after a fire. This fourth building still stands, so that up to the present time the district school, the "hope of the country," has never left the Huron farm.
On this farin Benjamin and Katharine Huron together toiled for many years. They lived to see the wilderness transformed into a beautiful farm on which they reared a large family of children. Their eldest died in in- fancy, but nine others came to bless their home, and these nine yet live, though widely scattered. The sum of their combined ages is more than six hundred years. The eldest, George A., is police judge of Topeka, Kansas, and is seventy-six years old. Frank H. is a physician of Danville and Willis B., a physician of Tipton, Indiana. Mrs. Lu A. Bennett and Miss Jennie Huron live at Clearwater, Florida. Mrs. Esther A. Kelsey lives at Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. A. Kate Gilbert, at Fremont, Nebraska; Mrs. Mary E. Ragan, at Plainfield, Indiana, and S. T., the only farmer of the family, lives on the old home farm. The two oldest sons served in the army during the Civil War, George in the Seventh and Frank three months in the Seventh and three years in the Seventieth Indiana Infantry. Frank answered the first call for troops and was among the first in the field. In the three years service he was color bearer of the Seventieth and at one time the flagstaff was shot almost in two just just above his head. Both brothers were in many hard fought battles, although neither was wounded. In politics the family have been Republican ; the father was at first a Whig, but when the Republican party was organized in 1856 he at once joined it and remained with it during life. He served his township several terms as trustee and one term as as- sessor. February 23, 1888, he was killed by a train, on the Big Four Rail- road, at the age of seventy-six years. The mother remained until August 30, 1902, when she died at the age of eighty-seven years. These two pioneers left their impress on the community where they lived so long and contributed their full share in making it the quiet and law-abiding place it is to-day.
EDWIN MORTON KURTZ.
Though several years have passed since the subject of this sketch was transferred from the life militant to the life triumphant, he is still favor- ably remembered by many of the older residents of Hendricks county, where for many years he was regarded as one of the leading business men of the county. Because of his many excellent personal qualities and the splendid
EDWIN M. KURTZ
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and definite influence which his life shed over the community in which he lived so long and which he labored so earnestly to upbuild in any way within his power, it is particularly consonant that specific mention should be made of him in a work containing mention of the representative citizens of the community in a past generation. A man of high moral character, un- impeachable integrity, persistent industry and excellent business judgment, he stood "four square to every wind that blew," and throughout the lo- cality where he lived he occupied an enviable position among his fellow- men, among whom he was universally esteemed.
The late Edwin Morton Kurtz was born in 1856 in Putnam county, Indiana, and died December 9, 1909. He was the son of Jacob F. and Eliza (Cassity) Kurtz. both of whom were also natives of Putnam county, Indi- ana. Jacob Kurtz was born in 1833 and was the son of Jacob and Allutia Kurtz, who emigrated from Kentucky to Putnam county in 1828. The father of Edwin M. Kurtz was reared as a farmer and followed this oc- cupation all his life. After his marriage he lived with his parents until their death, caring for them in their old age. His father was an invalid for more than twenty years and walked on crutches all that time. He died at the age of eighty-three years. The mother was active until about one year before her death, but during the latter period she was helpless as a little child, and her death occurred at the age of eighty-two.
After the death of his father and mother Jacob F. Kurtz became the owner of the old home farm, and there he lived until 1878. He was married in March, 1855, to Eliza Cassity, who was born November 19, 1838, the daughter of David H. and Susan Cassity. Her parents came from Kentucky, settling in Putnam county, this state, in the early history of that county. In 1882 Jacob F. Kurtz purchased a farm in the northwestern part of Marion township, this county, and there he remained until his death, in 1899. He was a life-long Republican and he and all the members of his family were faithful members of the Presbyterian church. His wife is still living in Hendricks county.
Edwin M. Kurtz was reared on a farm in Putnam county, ard after receiving a conimon school education in the district schools of that county his parents sent him to Lincoln University, at Lincoln, Illinois, where he received a college education. He came with his parents to Marion township, Hendricks county, in 1882, and two years later, on September 18, 1884, was married to Mary Florence Summers, who was born in Putnam county, the daughter of William C. and Mary (Lake) Summers. Her mother was born in 1833, on land now occupied by the city of Indianapolis, her father being
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Elisha Lake, a native of New Jersey. William C. Summers, father of Mrs. Kurtz, was born in 1830 near Bowling Green, Kentucky, and when about nine years of age came with his parents to Putnam county, Indiana, where he grew to maturity, and followed the vocation of a farmer all his life. In 1872 Mr. Summers moved to Kansas, locating in Rice county, that state, and there he remained the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1898. His wife is still living there at the advanced age of eighty-one years.
Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz lived in Hendricks county for one year after their marriage and then moved to Rice county, Kansas, where they reamined for two years, when they returned to Hendricks county because of the fail- ing health of Mr. Kurtz's father and the fact that there was no one to manage the home farm. Mr. Kurtz continued to live at the old place until the death of Mr. Kurtz in 1909. They were the parents of six children : Blanche is the wife of Harry Page, who lives west of New Mays- ville, Putnam county, and they have four children, Maynard, Gerald, Kath- ryn and Muriel; Osie is the wife of Earl Maston, of Coatesville, and they have two children, Roy and Jeannette; the other four children, Lora, Lyell, Herschel and Kye, are still with their mother at home. The year before Mr. Kurtz's death he built a fine, large modern home on his farm, in which Mrs. Kurtz and the four youngest children are now living. Mr. Kurtz was a very successful farmer and at his death left a highly improved farm of two hundred and ten acres, which is one of the most productive farms in the county. He was an excellent citizen in every respect, a good neighbor, kind, unselfish, reliable, and a man whose integrity was never questioned. His life was such that his children and grandchildren will cherish his name and honor his memory.
CHARLES FRANKLIN BENBOW.
The following is a brief sketch of the life of one who, by close atten- tion to business, has achieved marked success in the world's affairs and risen to an honorable position among the enterprising men of the county with which his interests are identified. It is a plain record, rendered remarkable by no strange or mysterious adventure, no wonderful and lucky accident and no tragic situation. Mr. Benbow is one of those estimable characters whose integrity and strong personality must force them into an admirable noto- riety, which their modesty never seeks, who command the respect of their
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contemporaries and their posterity and leave the impress of their individuality upon the age in which they live.
Charles Franklin Benbow, of Clay township, was born in the county in which he has spent his entire life on November 2, 1867. He is the son of Harvey R. and Lydia (Atkins) Benbow, his father being a native of this county, and his mother of Kentucky. Harvey R. Benbow served his country nobly and well in the dark days of the Civil War and after re- turning home worked for his father on the home farm for about two years. He then married and engaged in farming on forty acres which his father gave him. To Mr. and Mrs. Harvey R. Benbow were born two children, Charles Franklin and Oscar, who married Daisy Blunk. of Clay township.
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