USA > Indiana > Hendricks County > History of Hendricks County, Indiana, her people, industries and institutions > Part 26
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Doctor White was married on January 21, 1873. to Dee A. Miller, the daughter of Tolliver B. and Matilda (Gill) Miller, and to this union there have been born two children, Geraldine Max Millar, born June 14, 1880, and Glyndon DeLaskie Miller, born November 1, 1881.
Politically, Doctor White has been a life-long supporter of the Repub- lican party, in the councils of which he has been a prominent figure, and has frequently been a delegate to county, district and state conventions. Doctor White is a birthright member of the Quaker church, but at the age of twenty- eight years he united with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has since been a consistent member. In his fraternal relations, Doctor White has been a Mason since he was twenty-one years of age and is also a member of the Royal Arch chapter and the council of Royal and Select Masters. He also belongs to the Scottish Rite, thirty-second degree; to Murat Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; to the Knights of Pythias since 1878, and, from the age of twenty-one years, has been identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is also an appreciative member of the Grand Army of Republic. He is a member of several medical societies, in the pro- ceedings of which he is deeply interested. He was vice-president of the State Medical Society, president of the Seventh Indiana Councilors' District Medical Association, and has served as a delegate to several meetings of the American Medical Association. During President Harrison's administra- tion, he served as a member of the board of pension examiners. He has for many years been medical examiner for several leading life insurance com- panies, is local surgeon for the Big Four railroad and for years has been a member of the Big Four Railroad Surgeons' Association. He has during
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the forty years of his residence in this county built up a large and lucrative practice and been a potent factor for good in all lines of endeavor. He has been a public-spirited citizen who has always made his influence felt in all enterprises looking toward the betterment of the community in which he lives. During his early years in this community, Doctor White took a great interest in horses and he was instrumental in introducing into this county a higher grade of horses than had formerly been bred here. Personally, the Doctor is unassuming and approachable, a splendid conversationalist and ex- cellent companion. Because of his high professional standing and sterling character, he is eminently deserving of the exalted position he holds in the esteem and confidence of his fellow men.
JEREMIAH JASPER PAGE.
One of the old families of Hendricks county which traces its ancestry back to England is the Page family, whose descendants now number thou- sands throughout the United States. The family name "Page" indicates that the family was once connected with the nobility, some members of which were once pages to members of the royal family. Later on some members of the family were given titles and received valuable concessions from the crown with the result that many of them became immensely wealthy. There is said to be an estate of several million dollars left in England by members of the Page family to which the American branch are justly entitled. How- ever that may be, the Pages in America have always been able to take care of themselves and have never made any effort to establish their claim to the Page fortune of England.
The Pages of Hendricks county trace their ancestry directly to Peter Page, an Englishman who came to Virginia early in the sixteenth century. Peter Page lived and died in Virginia, and to him and his wife was born Williamson Page.
Williamson Page grew to manhood in Lee county, Virginia, and there married Elizabeth McCloud, who also was a native of the same county, and the daughter of John McCloud and wife, natives of Iowa. In 1830 William- son Page and wife came to Indiana and settled first in the southern part of Hendricks county, where Jeremiah Jasper, whose history is herein recorded, was born. He entered land in Eel River township, one mile south of where
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Jeremiah J. Page now lives, entering two tracts of fifty-six and one-half acres each. He moved onto his land in the fall of 1834, built his rude log cabin of notched log and started in to carve his fortune out of the wilderness. At this time there were no roads except blazed trails from one settler's cabin to another; dense underbrush filled the lowlands and covered the highlands of the county; deer, wolves, turkey and small games of all kinds were very numerous, and the county was merely a hunter's paradise. Williamson Page had been a blacksmith in Virginia and his profession was one which was a very necessary accomplishment in a pioneer community. Gradually the farm was cleared and as the sons grew up and he had increasing assistance, the farm was eventually brought under cultivation. Williamson Page and wife were the parents of a large family of children : Nellie, Nancy, Elizabeth, Stephen, Andrew J., Jeremiah J., Chesley, Robert, Williamson and Demerius. It is interesting to note that at this time there were only three families in this locality, the Pages, Fleece and Zimmerman families. The Fleece and Zimmerman families had fifteen children each, making a total of forty chil- dren in the three families, and of those forty children there are only two liv- ing today, Jeremiah Jasper Page and Mrs. Rosena (Zimmerman) Waters.
Jeremiah Jasper Page was reared under the pioneer conditions which have just been described and at the age of twenty, June 15, 1854, he was married to Ann Elizabeth Hypes, who was born August 18, 1838, in Bote- tourt county, Virginia, the daughter of Jacob and Mary (Pfeffly ) Hypes. When she was three weeks old her family came to this county from Vir- ginia in wagons, taking the trip of hundreds of miles through unbroken forests and enduring hunger and hardships of all kinds. The Hypes family settled in the northwestern part of Eel River township, where they entered government land, and here Jacob Hypes died in 1849. Ann Elizabeth was only fifteen years of age and her useful husband was only five years older when they were married and it is interesting to note the prenuptial agree- ment of these youthful lovers, a plan which they agreed upon before their wedding day. This plan, which is guaranteed to promote domestic felicity, they have followed for more than sixty years of wedded life and have never had a quarrel. This wonderful agreement, which has never been broken throughout sixty years of wedded life, is simply this: When either one becomes cross or out of humor in any way, the other is to keep still until the irritability passes away and not enter into any discussions when angry.
The useful couple bought forty acres of new timber land entirely on credit and in a rude log cabin this fifteen-year-old bride started up house-
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keeping. That they worked faithfully need not be told here. Within a few years they had their first forty acres paid for and were able to buy an- other forty adjoining it. This happened within a few years after their mar- riage, and it is to be remembered that when they were married they had only the following possessions : two beds, a horse, a cow, a few chairs, a few cook- ing utensils and no money, and yet this happy couple enjoyed life just as much as we do today with all of our modern conveniences. The table he made out of a plank and the meat and bread which she cooked in the fire- place tasted just as good to them as our porter-house steak cooked on the gas stove of today.
Another chapter in the history of this interesting couple begins in 1866 when they sold their eighty acres of land and went to Iowa at the earnest solicitation of the mother of Mrs. Page. After reaching Iowa, Mr. Page carefully examined several prospective farms and came to the conclusion . that the safest thing for him to do was to return to Indiana. Accordingly they came back to this county and purchased one hundred and forty-four acres of land in Eel River township. His success as a farmer in this county shows that he did not make a mistake when he left the broad plains of Iowa for the rolling fields of Indiana. He has prospered to a degree which he little dreamed, when, as a twenty-year-old youth, he started in married life with practically nothing. He has added to his land holdings from time to time until he and his children now own two thousand acres of land.
Mr. and Mrs. Page are the parents of eleven children: John H., of North Salem, who married Clarinda Davis and has four children; Mary Elizabeth, who married W. H. Robbins, of North Salem, whose sketch is delineated elsewhere in this volume; Samuel R., a farmer of this township, who married Rebecca Murphy and has five children; Jacob, a farmer in this township, who married Ida Thompson and has nine children; Frank, a farmer of this township, who married Ora Carpenter and has two children living ; Ellen, deceased, was the wife of Daniel Robbins and died in February, 1912, her husband dying just a week before; they left one son; Joseph, who died at the age of seventeen; Belle, the wife of Amos Thompson, a farmer of this township, they have two children living; Cora, the wife of Ed Daven- port, a farmer of this township, has one child living; Sarah Francis, and one other child, who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Page have twenty-seven grandchildren living and twenty great-grandchildren.
Mr. Page and his wife are both loyal members of the Christian church of North Salem and have been for many years. He is a man who esteems
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honesty as the first essential to success and during his long career in the county he has so conducted himself that he has never been the cause of censure on the part of his neighbors. He has such a reputation for peace, that he is frequently called in to settle differences between his neigh- bors. Enough has been said to show the character of Mr. Page and to indicate the influence which he has had upon the growth of his township. His life has been a busy one and yet he has always found time to take his full share in the various public questions which concern his immediate- con- munity. His career has been honorable in every way and such as to justly warrant the biographer in using that famous old saying, "This was a man."
E. B., J. A. AND L. D. OWEN.
Among the men of sterling worth and strength of character who have made an impress on the life of the locality in which they live none have re- ceived a larger meed of popular respect and regard than the gentlemen whose family name is well known throughout this section of Hendricks county, Indiana, E. B. and J. A. Owen, successful merchants of Amo, Indiana. Life- long residence in one locality has given the people an opportunity to know them in every phase of their character and that they have been true to life in its every aspect is manifest in the degree of confidence and regard in which they are held by those who know them. In their mercantile business they have shown unusual ability and have achieved a splendid success among the followers of their profession.
Eleazar B. Owen, the son of Jonathan and Asenath ( Bales) Owen, was born near Plainfield, Hendricks county, Indiana, September 7, 1837. The Owens were of Scotch descent and upon coming to America settled first in Georgia, where the grandfather, Samuel Owen, was born and grew to man- hood. Samuel Owen moved from Georgia to Ohio in an early day, coming from that state to Indiana in 1828, settling in Hendricks county. The maternal grandfather was prominent in the early days as a Quaker preacher and traveled extensively in that capacity. He settled in Plainfield, where he followed the dual occupation of farming and preaching, being probably the first minister of the Friends church to locate in this county. He continued preaching and farming all of his life and in his preaching made extended trips throughout this and adjoining states, making one trip to North Carolina
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on horseback. He lived to the advanced age of ninety-four. Jonathan Owen came to Indiana from Ohio early in life and settled in Hendricks county, where he lived until 1865, when he moved to Illinois, where he was later joined by other members of the Owen family. Before going to Illinois he conducted a flouring mill for a few years in Mooresville, Indiana. After going to Illinois, he engaged in farming and became a successful man in that state, his death occurring there at the age of seventy-two years. To Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Owen were born several children: Eleazar B .; Anna, the widow of John T. Thompson, of Amo; Samuel, who died in infancy; Rachel C. died single; J. A .; Jemima V. (deceased), who married John Nugent ; Benjamin B., a fruit grower, living near Tampa, Florida ; Isaac J., an under- taker, living in Uma, Colorado; Ida, who married Wesley Thompson, of Farnam, Nebraska; Mary E., married Dr. William H. White, of Amo, Indiana.
E. B. Owen was reared in Hendricks, Morgan and Marion counties, Indiana, and also lived for a time in Illinois. His father was in business in Indianapolis for about three years at one time. In 1864 he started in busi- ness on his own account by buying a saw mill in Amo in conjunction with Benjamin L. and John T. Thompson. They conducted this mill for two years and then sold it, after which Mr. Owen and William F. Henley pur- chased a store of J. G. Ralston, in Amo, and this they managed for two years, when they again sold out, although a short time afterward Mr. Owen and John V. Parker bought the same store back and continued to manage it for the next six years. At the end of six months Mr. Owen bought his partner out and continued to operate the store alone until he took his brother, J. A. Owen, into partnership in 1896, since which time the firm has been known as E. B. Owen & Company. In 1886 Mr. Owen built his present two-story brick building, which, with improvements and additions, he has continued to occupy until the present time. He carries a large and well selected assort- ment of goods and by his genial manner and strict integrity has built up a large and lucrative business in the community. He is interested in the First National Bank of Amo, and is now president of that institution.
Mr. Owen was married to Elizabeth Hunt, of Hendricks county, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Amiel Hunt, and to this marriage there have been born four children : Florence, the wife of William Hopkins, of Indianapolis; Ora Lela, who resides at home and is a teacher of music by profession; Myrtle, who is also a music teacher, and Nettie E., a teacher in the high school at Plainfield. Mr. Owen's mother is still living, at the advanced age
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of ninety-six years, and is remarkably active and well preserved for a woman of her years. Mr. Owen himself has always led a clean and active life and, at the age of seventy-six, he enjoys good health and is as active physically and mentally as men of fifty.
J. A. Owen, a brother of E. B. Owen and a member of the firm of E. B. Owen & Company, was born in Plainfield, Hendricks county, Indiana, Janu- ary 2, 1850. His boyhood days were spent in Hendricks and Morgan counties, Indiana, and in Illinois. He completed his education in Grand Prairie Seminary in Iroquois county, Illinois. In 1875 he came from Illinois to Amo, Indiana, and entered his brother's store as a clerk, where he con- tinued until he became a partner in 1896. For several years his brother, E. B. Owen, was in poor health and not able to be in attendance at the store, and during his absence J. A. managed the business.
J. A. Owen was married October 13, 1881, to Laura A .. Swaim, of Hendricks county, the daughter of Thomas and Elmira Swaim. Mrs. Owen's parents came from North Carolina to Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Owen are the parents of six children: Mrs. John Stark, of Clinton, Indiana; Mrs. Don Garrison, of Amo, Indiana; Wilbur B., of Indianapolis, and two who are still at home, Edith and Dorothy.
Fraternally, Mr. Owen is a member of the time-honored order of Free and Accepted Masons, and is, as are all the members of the family, a loyal adherent of the Friends church.
Leslie Dayton Owen, the son of J. A. Owen, was born September 30, 1890, in Amo, Indiana, and received his education in the Amo schools, graduating from the local high school. After leaving school he entered the employ of the Terre Haute & Eastern Traction Company, where he remained for one year. He then became a clerk in the store of his father and uncle, where he is still employed. He was married on June 2, 1913, to Ruth Stanley, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Stanley, of Coatesville, this county. His wife's father is a merchant in Coatesville. Leslie Owen is a member of the Masonic order and a young man of more than ordinary ability, with the promise of a bright future before him. Wilbur Owen also graduated from the Amo high school and since that time has held some posi- tion with the Terre Haute & Eastern Traction Company, at the present time being employed at the Terminal ticket office in Indianapolis. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Uniform Rank, also of the Masonic order.
E. B. Owen is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, merchant in Hendricks county now living, having commenced in 1867.
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LOUIS W. ARMSTRONG, M. D.
Professional success comes from merit. Frequently in commercial life one may come into possession of a lucrative business through inheritance or gift, but in what are known as the learned professions advancement is gained only through painstaking and long-continued effort. Prestige in the healing art is the outcome of a strong mentality, close application, thorough mastery of its great underlying principles and the ability to apply theory to practice in the treatment of diseases. Good intellectual training, thorough pro- fessional knowledge and the possession and utilization of the qualities and attributes essential to success have made the subject of this review eminent in his chosen calling and he stands today among the scholarly and enterprising physicians in a county noted for the high order of its medical talent.
Dr. Louis W. Armstrong, a man of exceptionally high intellectual and professional attainments, was born in New York city September 21, 1875. His parents were Robert W. and Eudocia E. (Muller) Armstrong, both of whom were natives of Baltimore, Maryland. His father was a dentist, but retired from this profession early in life and devoted his energies to literary work. He came west in 1849, but always retained his home at Baltimore, where his death occurred in 1902, his wife having died in 1898. Dr. Robert Armstrong and wife were the parents of seven children, six of whom are still living: William R. and Harry J. live near Baltimore, where they have a country home; Gelston H. is an electrical engineer with the Carnegie Company, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Mrs. George F. Ludington lives at Baltimore, where her husband is in the packing business; Adelaide R. lives in Baltimore, but at present is traveling in Europe; Mrs. Wade H. Free, of Anderson, Indiana, whose husband is a prominent lawyer of that city, and was secretary of the Indiana Senate in 1913.
Doctor Armstrong was given an excellent education, all of his elemen- tary and college training being received in the Baltimore schools. He re- ceived his degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Maryland, graduating in the class of 1900. He was a resident interne at the university hospital before his graduation, after which he became the first assistant resident interne and later resident physician of Bay View Hospital at Balti- more, after which, for a period of ten years, he was on the surgeons' staff at the Franciscan Hospital at Breckenridge, Minnesota, and part of this time was chief surgeon. During all this time he was division surgeon of the Great Northern Railway Company. He left the state of Minnesota and
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LOUIS W. ARMSTRONG, M. D.
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came to Danville, Indiana, in June, 1912, and bought out the office and prac- tice of Doctor O'Brien. Since then he has built substantial additions and improved his hospital until he now has one of the finest private hospitals in the state. He specializes in surgery and has been remarkably successful along this line. Though comparatively a newcomer in Danville, he has rapidly forged to the front, and now occupies a distinct position both as a public-spirited citizen and as a physician of more than local repute.
Doctor Armstrong was married June 8, 1904, to Louise E. Hyser, daughter of Edward R. and Susan Hyser, of Breckenridge, Minnesota. Her father was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and her mother of Germany. To this happy marriage there have been born two children, Robert W. and Margaret S., aged eight and seven respectively. Doctor Armstrong is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Order of the Eastern Star, Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order of United Workmen and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is also a member of the county, state and American medical associations and takes a deep interest in the affairs of all associations which concern his chosen field of endeavor. As a surgeon he is a member of the Clinical Congress of Surgeons of America, the greatest organization of its kind in the world. He and his wife are loyal and con- sistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church and contribute liberally of their substance to its support.
ARCHIBALD A. FIGG.
The gentleman to a review of whose life the reader's attention is here respectfully directed is recognized as one of the energetic, well known busi- ness men of Hendricks county, Indiana, who, by his enterprise and pro- gressive methods, has contributed in a material way to the commercial ad- vancement of the locality where he lives. In the course of an honorable career he has been successful in the manifold lines to which his efforts have been directed and, enjoying distinctive prestige among the representative men of his community, it is eminently proper that attention be called to his achieve- ments and due credit be accorded to his worth as an enterprising citizen.
Archibald A. Figg, one of the widest known and most popular busi- ness men of Hendricks county, Indiana, was born February 12, 1866, in Floyd township, Putnam county, Indiana, the son of William H. and Louisa
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(Miller) Figg, his father being a native of Shelby county, Kentucky, and his mother of Putnam county, Indiana. William H. Figg came to Putnam county with his father, Asbury Figg, when he was a lad of fourteen years and the family settled in Floyd township, that county. Asbury Figg lived in that county until his death, at the age of eighty years. Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Figg still live in Clay township, Hendricks county, and are among the oldest and most highly respected citizens of the community in which they have lived for so many years. William H. Figg lived in Putnam county until about twenty-five years ago, when he removed to Hendricks county, where he has continued to follow the occupation of a farmer. W. H. Figg was an ardent member of the Methodist Episcopal church all his life and in his political affiliations he adhered to the Prohibition party. Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Figg were the parents of six children: Laura, the wife of John H. Summers, of this county; Archibald A., the immediate subject of this sketch; John S., of Indianapolis; James W., of Danville; Ida B., wife of Ote Hunt, of Coatesville, Indiana; Ella died in infancy.
Archibald A. Figg was born, reared and grew to manhood on his father's farm, and received his education in the district schools of his home township, while early in life he was initiated into all the mysteries of farm- ing. At the age of twenty-five years he began to farm for himself, and for a number of years he farmed in the immediate neighborhood of the old homestead. In 1898 he was elected sheriff of Hendricks county upon the Republican ticket and so efficient and popular was his administration that he secured the nomination in 1900 and a re-election. He was the first man for twenty-two years in Hendricks county to serve two terms, as there had been no man in the county for that length of time previous to his re-election who had been elected for more than one term. Before he served his county as sheriff and most of the time since then he has been more or less engaged in the auctioneering profession. He is a member of the Indiana Auctioneers' Association and was president of the association for two terms. Since leaving the sheriff's office he has been engaged in the livery business and within the last three years he has been in the automobile business as well. He is now agent for the Studebaker and Ford cars and has been a very successful agent for the companies manufacturing those cars. His twelve years of experience as an auctioneer and four years as sheriff has enabled him to call more people by their names than any other man in the county. He is a man of magnificent physique and one who attracts attention where- ever he goes. His genial personality makes itself felt in all his auctioneer-
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