USA > Indiana > Hendricks County > History of Hendricks County, Indiana, her people, industries and institutions > Part 31
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Melville McHaffie was married to Mary Ann Thomas, the daughter of John and Catherine (Ulrich) Thomas, and to this union there were born ten children : Florence, who married Charles W. Bridges; Virginia, who married Thomas Bogges and has one son, Bennett; Minnie, who married Dr. N. G. Masters and has one son, Alexander ; Andrew, who died at the age of seven- teen; Clementine, who died in infancy; Marcus, who died at the age of three; Oscar, who married Mary Leachman and has one, son, Melville J .; Ernest, who married Anna Greer and has three children, Ernestine, Robert and Maxine; Ernestine married Harry Thorpe, of Cartersburg; Mary E., who married John F. Shields and has one son, John M.
George W. McHaffie attended the district schools of his township and
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after leaving school became associated with his father in the live-stock business. At the age of twenty-one, June 13, 1877, he was married to Emma Cosner, the daughter of Samuel and Nancy (Walls) Cosner, and to this union there have been born two children, Marion Catherine and Mary Ann. Marion married Harry Tincher and Mary Ann married George L. Englehart and has one daughter, Emma Catherine.
Andrew and Nancy ( Woods) McHaffie, the paternal grandparents of Mr. McHaffie, were both natives of Tennessee, and to them were born three children, Melville, Emeline and Jane. After the death of his first wife, Andrew married Nancy Hackett and to this marriage was born Mary An- geline. Emeline married William Robards and has three children, Andrew, Augusta and Laura. Jane died at the age of ten. Mary A. married Harvey Lee and has four children ; Margaret, deceased, Charles Herbert, Edward and James.
The parents of Samuel Cosner's wife were James and Mary Walls, Samuel being born in North Carolina and his wife in Indiana. He came to this county in 1829 with his parents and settled in Franklin township, where his father entered one hundred and sixty acres of government land. Samuel Cosner was a farmer and wagonmaker all his life, but spent the latter years of his life in farming. He was born on March 31, 1825, and died on May 29, 1892. His wife was born April 17, 1831, and died May 2, 1902. To Samuel Cosner and wife were born three children: Emma, the wife of Mr. McHaffie; Annetta, the wife of William A. Snoddy. She has three children, Ethel, George and Nancy; Otis S. married Ida Hammond and has three children, Samuel, Radnor, deceased, and one other.
The grandfather, Anthony Cosner, was born in North Carolina, April 7, 1799, and died in March, 1888. He married Catherine Phillips, who was born September 27, 1799, and died on August 25, 1873. To this union were born ten children, John, Mahlon, Samuel, Lucinda, Elizabeth, Lucy, Sarah, William, Anna and Phoebe. John married Louise Whicker and after her death he married Louisa Rolley. Mahlon married Catherine Boswell and after her death married Susan Weavel. Samuel, the father of the subject of this sketch, married Nancy Walls. Lucinda married Moses Stanley and after his death she married Austin Williams. Elizabeth and Lucy both died in infancy. Sarah married William Page and after his death she married William Wilhite. William married Sarah Hine. Anna and Phoebe died in childhood.
George W. McHaffie has been a Democrat all his voting days and al- though he has never taken an active part in politics, he has been an active
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participant in local conventions. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Improved Order of Red Men. Owing to the upright life he has led in this community, he is held in high regard by his fellow citizens.
WILLIAM CHANDLER.
Every one of the thirteen original colonies contributed to the population of Indiana, and, as was the case in the early history of the states, it was only the most ambitious and enterprising families in the East who ventured to this new territory in the West. When Fox started a new religion in England and his followers became known as Quakers, or Friends, no one would have thought that this new society would play such an important part in the early history of Indiana. When the Friends first came to the United States they settled in Pennsylvania, but later on large numbers of them settled in North Carolina. When it was seen in the early part of the nineteenth cen- tury that North Carolina was determined to remain a slave state, there were thousands of these good Friends who left that state and emigrated to free territory. It was from North Carolina that the Friends in Wayne county came, and Hendricks county owes an everlasting debt of gratitude to North Car- olina for sending to its borders some of the best pioneers of this county. Among the many members of this church who came to Hendricks county, the Chandler family were among the most prominent.
William Chandler was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, on May 24, 1851. His parents were Jacob and Mary (Picket) Chandler. Jacob Chand- ler came to Indiana with his parents when he was four years of age and at first settled in Wayne county near Richmond. Shortly afterwards his parents came to Hendricks county and entered land in Guilford township, within the first five years after Hendricks county was organized. Jacob Chandler was born in North Carolina in 1819, came to Indiana in 1823 and married in 1844. Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Chandler were the parents of three sons : John, a retired farmer of this township; Hadley, deceased, and Will- iam, whose history is herewith portrayed. By her former marriage to Joab Hadley, Mrs. Chandler had five children. Mr. and Mrs. Chandler both died, he in 1892 and she in 1895.
William Chandler received his early education in his home neighborhood and early in life began to work on his father's farm. He continued to work
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on the farm until his marriage, when he began to operate a farm of his own. During his whole career he has lived the life of the simple farmer, going through the daily and yearly routine which is common to every man in this occupation, and year by year adding to his possession, until at the present time he has a fine farm of two hundred and ten acres.
Mr. Chandler has been thrice married, his first marriage being to Indiana Townsend on December 31, 1874: she died October 15, 1889, leaving no children, and on April 2, 1891, Mr. Chandler was married to Anna Star- buck, who died October 14, 1895. He was married to Martha E. Hadley on November 4, 1896. She was the daughter of Amos and Sallie V. Hadley, and one of six children. There have been no children by any of these mar- riages.
Mr. Chandler has been a life-long member of the Prohibition party, feel- ing that in the abolition of all intoxicating liquors should be found the greatest aid to the advancement of the welfare of our country. Mr. Chandler, as well as all of his ancestors, has been identified with the Friends church and to this he has always contributed liberally. Mr. Chandler is a man who has always been found contending ; in fact, he would adhere to a convic- tion if all the world were against him. He lives in a comfortable home, where the spirit of genuine old-time hospitality is always in evidence, and because of his genial disposition and manly qualities of character he is held in the high- est esteem by all who know him.
DENNIS BRADLEY WILLIAMS.
There is no positive rule for achieving success, and yet in the life of the successful man there are always lessons which might well be followed. The man who gains prosperity is he who can see and utilize the opportunities that come in his path. The essential conditions of human life are ever the same, the surroundings of individuals differ but slightly, and when one man passes another on the highway of life to reach the goal of prosperity before others who perhaps started out before him, it is because he has the power to use advantages which probably encompass the whole human race. Among the well-known citizens of this county whose efforts have been directed toward successful agriculture, is the immediate subject of this sketch.
Dennis Bradley Williams is a native of this county, born August 23, r868, in Middle township, southwest of Pittsboro, the son of John Dennis
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and Elizabeth Jane (King) Williams, both of whom were natives of Ken- tucky, the former coming from Estill county and the latter from Fleming county. Both came to Hendricks county in their early childhood, being brought here by their respective parents. John Dennis Williams was a son of William Williams, Jr., and Margaret Bradley, his wife, who was born March 16, 1812, John Dennis being born in 1835. On February 28, 1858, he was united in marriage to Elizabeth Jane King, who was born July 2, 1840, the daughter of Enoch Wesley King, born in 1812, and Lucy Ann (Campbell) King, born April 23, 1815. Lucy .A. Campbell was an aunt of Leander M. Campbell, one of our country's greatest lawyers. Enoch King and family settled first near Brownsburg and later moved near Pittsboro, where his death occurred in 1872, his wife living until December 21, 1877. William Williams, Jr., grandfather of the immediate subject, was born in 1809, and was a son of William Williams, Sr. After the marriage of John D. Will- iams, father of the subject, he purchased a tract of forty acres in Middle township, all of which was covered with dense forest. This was immediately adjoining his father's farm. In order to prepare a site for his one-room log cabin, size eighteen by twenty feet, he was obliged to fell twenty-four trees, so thick was the growth. He cleared the land of the timber, fenced and cul- tivated it and lived there until about 1870, when he sold it and moved midway between Danville and Lizton, where he purchased a farm of eighty acres. He remained there for about ten years, when he traded that for another eighty-acre tract just south of Pittsboro, near his old home, and took up his residence there in 1881. About three years later he bought a home in Browns- burg, where he lived until 1895, at the same time continuing the operation of his farm and his business of dealing in live stock. After selling his property in Brownsburg he purchased another eighty-acre farm, two miles from that town, and there lived until his death, November 30, 1897. He took a commendable interest in community affairs and was for many years a faithful member of Mount Zion Baptist church. The widow, who had made her home with her son, William West Williams, just south of Pittsboro, died May 27, 1914, aged seventy-three years, ten months, twenty-five days.
Dennis Bradley Williams, the immediate subject of this sketch, remained under the paternal roof until he was twenty-two years old. From his early youth he had farmed for himself, renting land in the neighborhood, and when his father moved west of Brownsburg, he then farmed that tract for him. He bought out the rights of the other heirs, after the death of the father, and now owns the eighty acres himself. In 1908 he erected a new dwelling, barns, etc., near the road and has since occupied them. Mr. Will-
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iams has been twice married, his first wife being Minnie B. Smith, to whom he was united in marriage on October 5, 1890. She was the daughter of Andrew j. and Cynthia Smith and passed from this life on January 8, 1893, their union having been without issue. On March 6, 1898, Mr. Williams was again united in marriage, his bride this time being Luey J. Warren, who was born in Perry township, Boone county, this state, daughter of William H. and Rachael D. (Peters) Warren, the former having been born at Knoxville, Tennessee, on April 29, 1837. He was a son of William and Lydia (Mc- Caslin) Warren and a brother of Calvin W. Warren, a sketch of whose life will be found elsewhere in this volume, giving particulars about parents and ancestors. William H. Warren was a boy of about ten years when the parents decided on making Indiana their future home. They loaded their possessions into a wagon and drove through. At that time there were eight children in the family. William and some of the larger children walked beside the wagon all the way, except when fording streams. He grew to manhood in Brown township, this county, and lived part of the time in Marion county, near Bridgeport. He married Rachael D. Peters, a native of Morgan county, this state, and the daughter of Presley Peters, who was a son of William Peters. William Peters had owned a large estate in Pennsylvania, which land is now thought to be covered by the city of Harrisburg, and he owned other land besides. After his death his son, Presley, started to prove his title to this land and died before he succeeded in completing his claim, and therefore the heirs failed to get this valuable land.
After his marriage to Rachael Peters, William H. Warren farmed in Boone county until about 1894, when he sold his farm there and moved two miles west of Brownsburg, where he purchased a farm and has since resided.
To the subject and his wife have been born two children, Russell E., born August 13, 1907, and Elbert Wesley, born December 25, 1910. When John D. Williams, father of the subject, started in life for himself, he was wholly without funds and bought a tract of wild land for six hundred dollars on credit. He built a little cabin home and from that pushed his way onward to success. He was of a jovial and sunny disposition and had many friends and was widely known. He had but few advantages in the way of schooling when a youth, but was highly intelligent and actively interested in public affairs. He possessed a sound judgment which was invaluable to him and of great assistance to his many friends who relied on his advice. He was a man with- out malice, sociable and friendly, a devout Christian and unusually well versed in the Bible for a man of his educational advantages.
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Mrs. Williams is a very methodical woman; she reads the Bible through once a year and has read it to her husband. She has an excellent memory and kept a written account of all affairs of interest.
JOHN WALTER LAIRD.
Not too often can be repeated the life history of one who has lived so honorable and useful a life and attained to such notable distinction as he whose name appears at the head of this sketch, one of the most successful and distinguished educators that the state of Indiana has produced. His character has been one of signal exaltation and purity of purpose. Well disciplined in mind, maintaining a vantage point from which life has pre- sented itself in correct proportions, guided and guarded by the most inviolable principles of integrity and honor, simple and unostentatious in his self- respecting, tolerant individuality, such a man could not prove other than a force for good in whatever relation of life he may have been placed. His character is the positive expression of a strong nature and in studying his career interpretation follows fact in a straight line of derivation, there being no need for indirection or puzzling. His career has been a busy one and his name is respected by all who have had occasion to come in contact with him or who have knowledge of his life work. As an educator, President Laird stands in the front rank in Indiana. He has dignified and honored his profession, for his life has been one of consecration to his calling, and well does he merit a place of honor in every history touching upon the lives and deeds of those who have given the best of their powers and talents for the betterment of their kind.
John Walter Laird, president of Central Normal College, Danville, Indiana, was born in Oswega, Kansas, September 2, 1871, and is the son of Alvin and Levina Rebecca (Somsel) Laird, both parents being natives of Ohio. His father served three and one-half years in the Civil War in Company H. Ninety-third Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered out as a corporal in his regiment. After the close of the war he returned to Ohio, where he engaged in farming. In 1882 he removed to Howard county, Indiana, and continued his farming operations there until his death in 1909, at the age of sixty-three years, his wife dying the same year. He was commander of the Grand Army of the Republic post at Galveston, and a trustee in the Universalist church in the same place.
JOHN W. LAIRD
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To Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Laird were born eight children: D. C., a farmer living near Lucerene, Cass county, Indiana; John W., the immediate sub- ject of this sketch; Charles, deceased in 1909; Frank, a carpenter of Ko- komo; Lola R., who was the wife of Albert Downhour, of Cass county, this state, but who died in 1913; Homer Lester, of Fullerton, North Dakota; Jennie, deceased at the age of sixteen, and Joseph, who died in infancy.
John W. Laird was born on a ranch near Oswego, Labette county, Kansas, to which place his parents had moved soon after their marriage. He received his primary education in West Sonora, Preble county, Ohio, where his parents had removed when he was a small lad. His educational training was continued in the Galveston schools in Cass county, this state, and he graduated from the high school at that place in 1891. He im- mediately began teaching in the district schools of his county, attending . the county normal school at Kokomo during the summer months. In the spring of 1893 he entered the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute, Indiana, and continued his studies there until the fall of 1895, when he accepted the superintendency of the Galveston schools. He continued at the head of the schools of this place for one year, when he returned to the State Normal School and graduated in the spring of 1897. Upon finishing his course he accepted the position as head of the history department at the Marion Normal School, where he remained until August, 1898. In September of that year he entered the junior class at the State University at Bloomington, and graduated in August, 1900, majoring in the subject of philosophy. Upon his graduation from the university he returned to the Marion Normal School in 1900 as the head of the history department and also had general charge of the department of education. He remained on the faculty of the normal school until August, 1906, when he left to enter Harvard University in order to continue his studies in history and economics under Professors Channing, Hart and Taussig, of that institu- tion. After completing one year's residence in study at Harvard, he was elected vice-president of the Central Normal College at Danville, Indiana, and one year later became the acting president of the same institution. In 1909 he was elected president by the board of trustees and has since been the head of the school. Professor Laird has brought to the presidency a mind and body both well fitted for the complex duties connected there- with, for, be it emphasized, the office of an institution like this is no sinecure. The growth of the Central Normal College since President Laird became its
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head is the highest testimonial that could be paid to his ability and fore- sight as an executive and to his eminent standing as a broad-minded, scholarly and progressive educator. Since assuming the responsible position which he now holds and so signally honors, the advancement of the college has kept pace with the leading institutions of the kind in the United States. The course of study has been developed and the state board of education has recognized the superior quality of work which is being done in the institu- tion. It has been accredited as one of the standard normal schools and also has an approved school of music. President Laird's slogan for the "Greater C. N. C." has not been used in vain, for within the short time in which he has had charge of the institution its growth has been truly remarkable. It is admittedly one of the best normal schools in the country and its work is of a standard which compares favorably with similar institutions every- where. At the present time there are good prospects for a new building, and within the next year or so the college will enter upon a new era of pros- perity. President Laird exercises the greatest care over the buildings and grounds, looks after the comfort and welfare of the students and is indeed proud of his school and jealous of its good name and reputation. It is easily understood why he enjoys such great popularity with all connected with the institution, and is well and favorably known to the educational circles throughout the country. President Laird has made special study of the subjects of history and economics and has also done wide and in- tensive reading in the field of English literature. His services are in signal demand as an instructor in township and county institutes, where he gives lectures on English literature and history. He also gives a large number of commencement addresses each year throughout the state. President Laird is much interested in the study of nature and his beautiful home is at the edge of Danville, where he makes a specialty of raising fine poultry and different kinds of small fruits. He now has more than fifty different kinds of apples on his farm. He has also made a special study of birds and has many different kinds nesting on his home place.
John W. Laird was married on August 15, 1900, to Daisy E. Lowder, the eldest daughter of Dr. Lindsay Lowder, of Bloomington, Indiana, and to his happy marriage there have been born three children: Alice Rebecca, born 1902 and died in infancy; Mary Elizabeth, born in 1905, and Martha May, born in 1908. Mrs. Laird is a woman of gracious and charming personality and their home is the center of a large social circle.
President Laird and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal
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church and are earnest and faithful in the observance of their religious obligations and privileges. Personally, President Laird is genial and easily approached and enjoys to a marked degree the confidence of all who are thrown in contact with him. Though first of all an educator, and making his work as such paramount to every other consideration, he has not been remiss in his duty to the community in which he resides nor unmindful of his obligations as a citizen. Although he is a Republican in politics on national issues, he is not a strict partisan and, particularly in local affairs, gives his support to the best qualified candidate irrespective of party lines. He is a member of the Sons of Veterans and the Knights of Pythias, and also of the Greek-letter fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta. Though now only in the early prime of life, he has achieved success such as only few attain, but, not satisfied with past results, he is pressing forward to still wider fields and higher honors, although his place among the eminent men of his day and generation is secure for all time to come.
EDGAR E. FOUDRAY.
The gentleman to whom the reader's attention is now directed was not favored by inherited wealth or the assistance of influential friends, but in spite of these, by perseverance, industry and a wise economy, he has attained a comfortable station in life, and is well and favorably known throughout Hendricks county as a result of the industrious life he has lived here for so many years, being regarded by all who know him as a man of sound business principles, thoroughly up to date in all phases of agriculture and stock rais- ing and as a man who, while advancing his individual interests, does not neglect his general duties as a citizen.
On the paternal side, the subject's ancestral history is traced as follows : (I) John Foudray, the great-great-grandfather, was born in France some time during the latter part of the sixteenth century, but, because of the Huguenot persecutions by the Catholics, he was compelled to flee from home. (II) John Foudray, the great-grandfather, was born in the state of Dela- ware about 1737, and he was the father of (III) John Wood Foudray, who was born on April 5, 1787. The latter married Martha Martin, who was born on November 2, 1787. Among their children was (IV) John Elbert Foudray, father of the subject of this sketch, and who was born on March 12,
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1817, his death occurring on August 27, 1878, at the age of sixty-one years and five months. He married Adelia Green, who was born on March 23, 1817, the daughter of Moses and Elizabeth Green. Her death occurred on April 12, 1895, at the age of seventy-eight years. Of the children born to the last-named couple, Charlotte, who became the wife of James A. Morri- son, died on January 28, 1878, and James Elbert died on January 16, 1910. The subject's maternal grandfather was killed by Indians when his daughter, the subject's mother, was but one year old.
Edgar E. Foudray, the son of John and Adelia (Green) Foudray, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, October 20, 1853, and received his education in the public schools of that city. He lived there until he was twenty-one years of age, when he went to Stephenson county, Illinois, where he mar- ried, and there he remained until 1880, when he came to Hendricks county, Indiana, and settled in Washington township, on the farm where he now lives. While he is a farmer of more than ordinary ability, he has made a particular specialty of dairy cattle and conserves his energy in that di- rection. He has the most sanitary and up-to-date dairy farm in Washington township and one of the best in central Indiana. His products find a ready sale in Indianapolis and his plant and equipment has been pronounced by the state inspectors as one of the best in the state.
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