USA > Indiana > Hendricks County > History of Hendricks County, Indiana, her people, industries and institutions > Part 61
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Mr. Kersey has been a Republican through all his voting years, but has never been a partisan in the strict sense of that word. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is a birthright member of the Friends church and has always been active in church affairs. His wife holds mem- bership in the Christian church of Winchester, Indiana. Mr. Kersey has been a hardworking man all of his life and now, in the twilight of his career, he can look back over a life well spent in the service of his fellow men. He has ever been ready to lend his influence to all worthy movements and by so doing he has won a large number of friends throughout the county where he has spent his three score and ten years.
JOHN C. WALKER.
Though he whose name stands at the head of this review has passed from the life militant to the life triumphant, he will for many years to come be favorably remembered by the residents of Clayton, Hendricks county, Indiana, and in fact by many throughout the county and in an even yet larger field. Because of his many excellent personal qualities and the splendid and definite influence which his life shed over the entire locality in which he lived so long and which he labored so earnestly to upbuild in any way within his power, it is particularly fitting that specific mention should be made of him in a work containing mention of the representative citizens of the community in which he lived and labored so long. A man of high moral character, unimpeachable integrity, persistent industry and excellent business judgment,
JOHN C. WALKER
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he stood "four score to every wind that blew" and throughout his wide circle of friends and acquaintances he was universally admired and esteemed.
John Columbus Walker was a native of this county, having been born near Belleville on February 22, 1847, and he departed this life at his home in Clayton on October 29, 1913, aged sixty-six years and eight months. He was left an orphan in early childhood and was reared by an uncle who lived in Liberty township, this county. Robert Walker, the uncle, saw that he re- ceived a good education, and in early youth he attended the Belleville schools, later finishing at what was known as the Belleville Academy. When only a little over fourteen years of age, with his boyish soul on fire for humanity and love of country, he heard the call to arms and on April 24, 1861, he was entered in the nation's ranks as a private in Company A. Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry. On August 2, 1861, his term having expired, he was mustered out of service, but he could not be content to remain at home with the wrong still unrighted, so he again enlisted on June 18, 1862, this time as a member of Company H, Fifty-fourth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and remained at the front until the expiration of his term of enlistment, which was the following September. He again returned home, but again becoming dissatisfied with his idleness, once more joined the forces of the nation's patriotic sons, this time as a member of Company A, One Hundred and Seventeenth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry. This was on July 22, 1863, and he remained in service until February 24, 1864, when he was mustered out. This time he remained at home something over a year, but, the nation still being engaged in conflict, he felt his duty strong once more and again donned the blue and was enrolled as a private in Company K, One Hundred and Forty-cighth Regiment, on March 15, 1865, remaining in service until he received his honorable discharge on September 5. 1865, the great war having ended in the meantime. All this he went through before he reached his majority and upon his return home he proceeded to lay the foundation which later proved his right to be considered one of the very fore- most agriculturists of the county. He began in an humble way as a farm laborer, then became a renter and in due time made his first modest purchase of land, which served as the nucleus of his excellent farm of six hundred acres, all in exceptionally good state of cultivation and, in addition to his own holdings, he was caring for one hundred and sixty acres of the Miles estate at the time of his death. He owed his success in life solely to his own efforts, possessing indomitable will and energy, unlimited perseverance and a high degree of business ability, which, combined with correct principles of
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life, wrought most excellent results. His home was located about two miles south of Clayton on the national road and was a commodious ten-room brick house, most beautifully located. He took up his residence there in 1870 and remained there until the fall of 1908, when he purchased a large and modern home in Clayton, where he passed the remainder of his life.
Mr. Walker was twice married, his first wife being Martha Ann Miles, with whom he was united in marriage on October 20, 1870. This union was without issue, and in 1874 Mr. and Mrs. Walker adopted a little daughter, who is now Mrs. Florence Bray, of Indianapolis, and with her three sons cherishes most happy memories of a kind father. Mrs. Walker departed this life on December 22, 1891, and on March 5, 1896, Mr. Walker was again married, his bride being Jeanetta S. Mays, who was born in Center Valley, four or five miles south of Clayton, being a daughter of Stephen R. and Mary Frances (Tate) Mays. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mays were born and raised in Orange county, North Carolina, near Hillsboro, where his birth occurred in 1834 and hers in 1838. They were married in their childhood home on De- cember 30, 1852, and in 1859 they came to the Hoosier state, locating near Center Valley. Mr. Mays was a blacksmith, which trade he followed, and in addition to this was a considerable dealer in horses and other live stock. Both he and his wife were devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church and his fraternal affiliation was with the Free and Accepted Masons, of which order he became a member in 1863. Mr. Mays departed this life on December 10, 1906, and he met death with the high courage of a true Christian. Mrs. Mays' death occurred on July 24, 1913, at the advanced age of seventy-five years. Her life was guided by her faith and under all cir- cumstances, whether pleasant or otherwise, her countenance ever exhibited her sweet spirit of hopefulness and resignation and her peace with God and the world. Mrs. Walker was but six years old when her parents brought her to Belleville and she attended the schools of the village during her girl- hood, later finishing at the academy. To Mr. and Mrs. Walker were born two children. The eldest was a little daughter, Helen M., who passed away when a babe of but six months. She was born on July 14, 1897. Edward Raymond, the son, was born December 19, 1903, and is a bright and promis- ing boy.
Mr. Walker's political sympathies were with the Republican party and he was ever active in local politics. During the fall of 1867, while a religious revival was in progress at the Baptist church of Belleville, he was brought under personal conviction and made his peace with God, but for many years
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failed to unite with any church society, while living the life of a consistent Christian and assisting in the material support of different church societies. However, in June, 1913, he united with the Clayton Presbyterian church, of which his wife and son are also members. Mr. Walker's fraternal affilia- tion was with the ancient order of Freemasonry, being a member of Lodge No. 463 at Clayton. He received the thirty-second, or Scottish Rite, degree at Indianapolis in 1911 and also at that time became a Noble of the Mystic Shrine.
Mr. Walker was a man among men, ever ready to assist all who were doing all in their power to assist themselves. He was averse to doing kind deeds that the public might know of, and doubtless many are the benevolent acts placed to his credit of which the world knew nothing. He was a man of good business judgment and executive ability, and spurned taking advan- tage of his fellow men in any way, believing always that a square deal was the only course. In all the elements of manhood and good citizenship, Mr. Walker was all that a inan should be and the enviable place which he held in the hearts of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances was but a fitting tribute to one eminently deserving.
FRED G. SHIRLEY.
It is a well authenticated fact that success comes as the result of legit- imate and well applied energy, unflagging determination and perseverance in a course of action when once decided upon. She is never known to smile upon the idler or dreamer and she never courts the loafer, only the men who have diligently sought her favor being crowned with her blessings. In tracing the history of the influential farmer and representative citizen of Clay township, Hendricks county, Indiana, whose name forms the caption of this review, it is plainly seen that the prosperity which he enjoys has been won by commendable qualities and it is also his personal worth that has gained for him the high esteem of those who know him.
Fred G. Shirley, the proprietor of one hundred and twenty acres of fine land in Clay township, this county, was born on the farm where he is now living February 2, 1873. His parents were William R. and Sallie M. (Phillips) Shirley, his father being a native of this county, born in 1845, and his mother also a native of Hendricks county, her birth having occurred in about 1855. William R. Shirley received a good common school educa-
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tion and when a young man engaged in the general merchandising business at Pecksburg, Clay township, in connection with his father. He continued with his father in the store until his marriage, and shortly afterwards he bought forty acres, part of this land being included in the farm of Fred G. Shirley. He continued to reside on this farm until about 1900, when he retired from active farm life and moved to Danville, where he remained until his death, August 4, 1902, his wife having preceded him in death some years previous in 1898. Sallie M. Phillips, wife of William R. Shirley, was the daughter of Samuel and Rachel ( Newman) Phillips. Mr. and Mrs. William R. Shirley were the parents of four children: Etta L., who married Wilson J. Shaw, of Danville, and they are the parents of five children, Erver, Ina, Merrill, Ralph and Phillip; Fred G., the immediate subject of this sketch; Alva R., who married Elizabeth Hadley and has one child, Mildred, and one who died in infancy.
Mr. Shirley attended . chool for two years in the village of Pecksburg and completed his common school education in the Dover school house in Liberty township. After finishing the common school course he entered the Central Normal College at Danville, where he made a very satisfactory record as a student. Upon the completion of his educational training he returned to his home and worked with his father until his marriage, which occurred on March 16, 1898, to Elnora Hadley, the daughter of Mathias and Matilda ( Bringle) Hadley, and to this union there have been born three children, Wendell, Lois and Geneva. Mathias Hadley was a native of Hendricks county, Indiana, and to him and his wife, who was the daughter of Solomon and Cynthia (Suits) Bringle, there were born eleven children, two of whom died in infancy. The other nine lived to maturity and all of them married: Leora, married James Harvey; Alzora became the wife of Dr. William Marshburn; Loretta married Perry Hunt; Orlando married Eva Dickerson; Ozella married Miles Furnas; Orien married Mary Stanley ; Ozro married Rossilee Garrison; Orvis married Catharine Cosner; Elnora married Fred G. Shirley. Mrs. Hadley died in 1894, and her husband the year following. John Hadley, Mrs. Shirley's paternal grandfather, was a native of North Carolina, and married Elizabeth Johnson, who also was born in that state. They reared a very large family of children.
Mr. Shirley allied himself with the new Progressive party in the fall of 1912, because he felt that this new party had a platform which, if properly carried out, would redown to the welfare of the country at large. In his religious affiliations he has been a member of the Friends church since 1912,
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and has always taken a very active part in the affairs of this denomination, being a trustee in the church at the present time. The life which Mr. Shirley has led stamps him as a man who has the interest of his community at heart, and one who is not only concerned with his individual advancement, but takes a keen interest in the welfare of his friends and neighbors. Such men are a help to the community in which they live, and because Mr. Shirley is such a man he has won the esteem of a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
WILLIAM WALLACE LEACH.
There are very few farmers in Hendricks county whose memory goes back to the time when there were but two roads in the county, the National road and the old State road. In those days, back in the thirties, it was pos- sible to go out and shoot deer any place in Hendricks county, and wild turkeys, squirrels and small game of all sorts were as abundant as English sparrows are today. William Wallace Leach, who has lived in this county nearly eighty years, has seen as many as ten deer in a herd in his boyhood days in this county, and flocks of wild turkeys numbering hundreds. As he travels around over the highly improved roads of his county now in his automobile his mind goes back to the time when in order to get to his home he had to follow a bridle path. The complete history of such a man as William Wal- lace Leach would be a history of Indiana for eighty years, civic, educational and moral.
William Wallace Leach, retired farmer of North Salem, was born in Bath county, Kentucky, October 15, 1835, the son of Meredith and Eliza (Allison) Leach, both of whom were natives of Kentucky, where they were reared and married. In 1836, when William Wallace was only one year old, his parents moved to this county and settled south of Lizton, in Union town- ship, where his father entered government land. The axe of man had never touched a tree on this farm and here in this primitive wilderness Meredith Leach and his young wife began housekeeping and here they remained the rest of their lives, his death occurring in 1859, while his wife survived him a few years. Mr. and Mrs. Meredith Leach were the parents of seven children, of whom William Wallace, whose history is portrayed here, is the oldest, the other in the order of their birth being as follows: James Valen- tine, deceased; Mary L., deceased wife of Amos Rook; Martha Jane, the de- ceased wife of Moses Rawlings; Sarah Ann, the widow of Jeptha West :
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Amanda Louisa, the widow of William Harrison, and Francis Edna, who died in childhood.
William Wallace Leach was reared amid these primitive conditions, hearing the music of the axe in the daytime, and yet he probably spent as happy a boyhood as any of the boys of today. A very meager education was his, because the schools in his day were confined to three "R's" and very little of that. In February, 1862, he was married to Margaret F. Clark, who was born November 29, 1841, in Union township, this county. Her parents were Silas Garrett and Mary Ann (Mount) Clark. Silas Clark was born in Kentucky, near Lexington, the son of William and Francis ( Blades) Clark, and came to this county early in its history and here married Mary Ann Mount, the daughter of Alfred and Margaret Mount, the same family which gave a governor to the state of Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Clark reared a large family of eleven children, only four of whom are now living. The sons are : William, of Missouri; James Thomas, of Bloomington, Indiana, and Henry Wash- ington, of Iowa. Two other brothers, George and John, died in the West. Of the five daughters, Sarah Elizabeth married Thomas Stewart; Jane became the wife of John Russell; Rhoda Ann, the wife of Linden Wade, and Ella died when a young woman.
When Mr. Leach was married he already owned forty acres of land in Union township, and here the young couple started in life. He rented land in addition to his own for farming, and by thrift and ecomony was enabled to save some money, and in a few years bought another eighty acres near his first farm. In 1844 he traded for a farm of sixty-five acres near North Salem and moved into North Salem, where he engaged in the grocery busi- ness for six years. He was also in the dry goods business for a part of the time when he lived in North Salem. He then traded his grocery for a farm two and one-half miles northwest of Salem, at the same time selling his sixty-five-acre farm and buying one hundred acres adjoining the farm for which he traded, making him a total of one hundred and eighty acres of land, which he still owns. He lived on this farm for about five years and then bought property in North Salem, where he has lived for the past twelve years.
Mr. Leach is usually a Democrat in politics, although he does not hesi- tate to vote for the best men in local elections irrespective of politics. Mr. and Mrs. Leach have now been married for more than fifty-one years and are both enjoying good health at the present time. They are both able to read without glasses, have good hearing and are cheerful and genial at all
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times. In recent years they have made several trips to Hot Springs, Arkan- sas, and to Florida, and are frequently seen in good weather in their auto- mobile driving around the roads of Hendricks county, enjoying themselves as if they were fifty years younger.
AUBREY C. PEBWORTH, M. D.
The man who devotes his talents and energies to the noble work of min- istering to the ills and alleviating the sufferings of humanity is pursuing a calling which in dignity, importance and beneficial results is second to none other. If true to his profession and earnest in his efforts to enlarge his sphere of usefulness, he is indeed a benefactor of his kind, for to him more than any other man are intrusted the safety, the comfort, and, in many cases, the lives of those who place themselves under his care and profit by services. It is gratifying to note in the series of personal sketches appearing in this work that there remain many native sons who are maintaining the prestige of their county in other fields. Many have gone to other parts of the state and yet they look back to Hendricks county as their real home. Among the many citizens who were born in this county and then left for wider fields is Aubrey C. Pebworth, a successful physician of West Indianapolis.
Aubrey C. Pebworth, the son of James H. and Marcia (Carrington) Pebworth, was born near Danville, Indiana, December 28, 1877. His father was a native of Shelby county, Kentucky, and his mother spent all of her life in Hendricks county. James Pebworth came to this county with his par- ents when he was a small boy and followed the life of a farmer until his death, September 13, 1910. He served in the Civil War and a wound in the head which he received at the battle of Lookout Mountain was finally the cause of his death. Mr. and Mrs. James Pebworth were the parents of six chil- dren : Mrs. Morton Ellis, of Pittsboro; Mrs. Frank A. Haynes, of Pittsboro; Eva, one of the best known teachers of Hendricks county; Dr. Aubrey C., the youngest of the family, and two others who are deceased.
Doctor Pebworth received his common and high school education in the schools at Pittsboro, in his native county, and immediately after his graduation entered the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons at Indi- anapolis. Upon finishing his medical course in 1905 he at once began the practice of medicine in West Indianapolis, where he has been very successful. During the period of his professional practice in that community, Doctor
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Pebworth has not only gained the respect of his confreres in his chosen field, but has also sustained a sound reputation for uprightness and nobility of character in all the relations of life. He has realized that to those, who at- tain determinate success in the medical profession there must not only be technical ability, but also a broad human sympathy which must pass from mere sentiment to an actuating motive for helpfulness.
Doctor Pebworth was married on August 9, 1905, to Mary Thomas, the daughter of Rev. and Mrs. E. D. Thomas, and to this happy union there have been born two children, James T. and Robert C. The Doctor is a mem- ber of the Marion county and Indiana state medical societies and is inter- ested in all the meetings of these organizations. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons and also belongs to the Indianapolis Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. Politically, he is allied with the Progressive party. In his church relations he is a member of the Christian church, while his wife retains her connection with the Baptist denomination. Mrs. Pebworth is secretary of the Hendricks County Society for Indianapolis. She is a gradu- ate of the teachers' course at the Central Normal College of Danville and was a teacher in the public schools before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Pebworth are genial and hospitable people who have gained a wide circle of friends in the community where they live.
WILLIAM R. MCCLELLAND.
It cannot be other than interesting to note in the series of personal sketches appearing in this work the varying conditions that have compassed those whose careers are outlined, and the effort has been made in each case to throw well focussed light on to the individuality and to bring into proper perspective the schenie of each respective career. Each man who strives to fulfill his part in connection with human life and human activities is deserving of recognition. whatever may be his field of endeavor, and it is the function of works of this nature to perpetuate for future generations an authentic record concerning those represented in its pages, and the value of such publi- cations is certain to be cumulative for all time to come, showing forth the individual and specific accomplishments of which generic history is ever engendered.
William R. McClelland, the present general agent for the State Life Insurance Company of Indiana, was born in Wayne township, Marion
WILLIAM R. MCCLELLAND
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county, Indiana, June 21, 1848. His parents were Jonathan D. and Eliza J. (Wilson) McClelland, his father being a native of Union county, Indiana, and his mother of Kentucky. Jonathan McClelland was born in 1816, the year Indiana was admitted to the Union, and came to Marion county, this state, with his father, Francis McClelland, when he was a small boy of six years. Francis McClelland settled on a farm in Marion county, near the Hendricks county line, on land which he entered from the government. He lived on this farm until his death. Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan McClelland were the parents of seven children, only three of whom are living, Charles, of Dan- ville, Indiana; James, of Ponca, Oklahoma, and William R.
William R. McClelland was born on his father's farm in Marion county and educated in the district schools of his home neighborhood. He continued to work on his father's farm until he was twenty-four years of age, when he went to Danville and entered the employ of a dry goods firm as a clerk. A few years later he started out in business for himself, engaging in the furni- ture and undertaking business in Danville, in which business he continued for about twenty-five years. He left the furniture and undertaking business to become identified with the State Life Insurance Company as general agent, and in 1905 removed to Indianapolis, where he has since continued to reside.
Mr. McClelland has always taken a prominent part in Republican poli- tics in his county and has been signally honored by his party on several different occasions. He served as county clerk of Hendricks county from 1884 to 1888, was a member for four years of the board of control of the Indiana Boys School at Plainfield, and was a member of the school board at Danville for ten years. In all of these positions he showed himself thor- oughly familiar with the duties of his office and proved himself to be not only an able and efficient official, but one who won the confidence of the citizens of the county.
Mr. McClelland was married to Sarah E. Nichols in 1872, a daughter of James and Rachel Nichols, who were both members of pioneer families of Hendricks county. Mrs. William McClelland died on March 16, 1912, leav- ing one son, Harry Nichols, who is married and has one son, William Pearce, aged two years. Harry Nichols is in the auditing department of the State Life Insurance Company, and resides in Indianapolis.
Mr. McClelland has been a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and has been a member of the official board of the Methodist Epis- copal church for more than forty years. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with which order he has been identified for more than forty-two years, and has held every office in Silcox Lodge No.
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