USA > Indiana > Hendricks County > History of Hendricks County, Indiana, her people, industries and institutions > Part 75
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Phillip B. Herring lived under the parental roof until he was married in 1874 and often laughs because he was married at seven o'clock on the morn- ing of January Ist, saying that for once he started the new year right. Pre- vious to his marriage he had purchased thirty-three acres of land where he now resides, and since that time has added twenty-seven acres more until he is now owner of sixty acres of as fine farming land as can be found in the county. On this farm he has a good house and large and commodious barns and outbuildings, and has his farm well improved in every way.
Mr. Herring was married to America Walker, the daughter of Robert
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and Elizabeth Ann (Menefee) Walker, who were both natives of Ken- tucky, coming to this county after their marriage, settling in Washington township about 1862, but later buying forty acres of land in Brown town- ship. America Walker was one of three children living at home when she was married. Mr. and Mrs. Herring are the parents of four children: Minnie Alice, who married Conrad Marker, the son of Amos and Laura Marker, and they live just across the road from Mr. Herring and have a family of four children, Lawrence, Cleo, Eula L. and Violet A .; Angie Belle is the wife of Virgil S. Watson, the editor of the Brownsburg Record, whose history is given elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Watson have one daugh- ter, Hazel Bernice; Mary E., who lives at home, and Carl C., who married Sallie Funkhouser, the daughter of Lucien and Mira (Crane) Funkhouser. Carl is a farmer living in this township.
Mr. and Mrs. Herring are both loyal and faithful members of the Metho- dist Protestant church at Brownsburg and give it their zealous support, having always been interested in the activities of this denomination. Mr. Herring, in addition to his farming interests, made a specialty of breeding fine horses and has won several prizes at the county and state fairs with some of his best stock. In recent years he has retired from active work and at the present time is only supervising the management of his farm. He is a well preserved man, despite his sixty-eight years, and has a host of friends wherever he is known. Through his long residence in this county he has gained an en- viable reputation for his integrity and generosity, and is justly regarded as one of the representative men of his community.
GEORGE B. DAVIS.
There is nothing which stimulates a man to deeds of worth and a life of uprightness and rectitude more than the recollection of the strength of character and examples of right living which have been shown by his forbears. In this respect Mr. Davis is fortunate beyond the majority of men in being descended from a line of men who have been in their communities men of strength and influence, doing their duty well, whether in the peaceful pursuits of ordinary life or in positions of public trust. A heritage of such memory of the lives of one's forefathers is of more value than a heritage of material wealth. In the business affairs of North Salem the subject of this sketch occupies a position of importance and among those who are today conserving
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the commercial and industrial prosperity of this community none occupy a higher standing among their associates than he whose name appears at the head of this sketch.
George B. Davis, a banker of North Salem, was born April 14. 1869, near. this town. His parents were Francis Marion and Sarah E. (Brown) Davis. Francis Marion Davis was born near North Salem in 1837. the son of Nathan and Nancy Davis, who came to this county about 1833 from Mount Sterling, Kentucky. Nathan and Nancy Davis spent the remainder of their lives in North Salem, dying here in the early history of the state. Francis Marion grew up to manhood in this county, farmed, operated a saw- mill, flour-mill, a planing-mill, dealt extensively in lumber in Indiana, Illi- nois and Kentucky, and was one of the most enterprising business men who ever managed a financial transaction in this county. He was active up until the time of his death in 1887. He was a member of the Masonic order, active in. the Christian church, a public-spirited citizen, who was very frank in his manner. His wife, Sarah E. Brown, was born near Cove Spring, Ken- tucky, and came to this county early in childhood with her parents, George M. and Martha Brown. Later her parents moved to Crawfordsville, where her father spent his last days. His mother still lives in North Salen1.
George B. Davis was given a common school and high school education in his home town and then attended Butler College for four years. after which he graduated from the State University at Bloomington in the spring of 1894. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Butler College, and the degree of Bachelor of Laws from Indiana University. Before he had finished his course at Bloomington, he had become part owner of the North Salem Bank and to this financial institution he has devoted his time ever since leaving college.
The North Salem Bank was organized in 1891 by Pritchard & Son of Illinois. In 1893 they sold it to C. W. Davis, G. B. Davis and Samuel R. Stewart. Soon after this, Mr. Stewart sold his interests to J. B. Fieece and the bank is now owned by C. W. Davis, G. B. Davis and Samuel R. Stewart. The deposits now average one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and it is considered one of the strongest and safest private banks in central Indiana. It is well managed and is an institution which has won the confidence of the people of North Salem and vicinity, because all of the owners are up- right men of excellent education.
Mr. Davis was married in December, 1897, to Lulu C. Duncan, the daughter of George H. and Nancy (Davis) Duncan. She was born and reared in Eel River township, this county, near North Salem, and received
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her education in the North Salem schools. Her parents were both born and reared in this county and have spent their whole life here. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have three children : Rollin, aged eleven; Mildred, aged nine, and Mary Eunice, aged six. The family are members of the Christian church and Mr. Davis is president of the board and treasurer of the church. Mr. Davis is a man of unassuming demeanor in his relations to his fellow men. among whom he enjoys a well deserved popularity, and has, without reserve, always been for the best things in life for the community honored by his residence and here his name has become known for his sterling character and worth.
GRANDISON EATON.
If for no other reason, the life history of Grandison Eaton, well-known citizen of Brownsburg, Hendricks county, Indiana, should be contained in this work because he is one of the honored veterans of the great War of the Re- bellion, who unhesitatingly gave up the pleasure of home associations and the opportunities of business and offered his services and his life, if need be, in order that the nation might be perpetuated and the Star and Stripes saved from treason and hishonor; but there are other reasons, one of which is that he has led a life of honesty and sobriety and another is that he has done much for the general good of his community here.
Grandison Eaton, a distinguished veteran of the Civil War and public- spirited citizen of Brownsburg, was born in Hendricks county, September 13, 1837, and has spent his whole life within the county. His parents were Greenup and Mahala (Turpin) Eaton. Greenup Eaton was born in 1813 in Bourbon county, Kentucky, and came to this county in childhood with his parents, his father dying soon after their arrival in this county. Mahala Tur- pin was born in Scott county, Kentucky, in 1815, and reared to young woman- hood near Clermont, in Marion county, this state. ' She was the daughter of Jacob and Martha Turpin, who came from Kentucky among the early pioneers. Jacob Turpin was born in 1785 in the eastern part of Maryland and was a son of William and Nancy ( Hanley) Turpin. William Turpin's father was a sol- dier of the Revolution and lived to the advanced age of over one hundred years. In 1786 William and Nancy Turpin left Maryland and went to Ken- tucky, and for the first few years were compelled to live in a block house with the other settlers of the community for safety, as at that time the Indians were on the war path and practically all of the settlers of Kentucky
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were gathered in the block houses scattered throughout the state. Jacob Tur- pin married Martha Taylor in Bourbon county, Kentucky, in 1804. Martha Taylor was born in 1786, of Scotch ancestry. Jacob Turpin and his wife moved to Scott county, Kentucky, and in 1820 came to Indianapolis when it had not even yet reached the dignity of a village. In 1829 Jacob Turpin and his wife moved to the eastern part of Hendricks county, near Clermont. At that time there were no bridges nor roads and the farm on which they settled was a virgin wilderness in every respect. Jacob Turpin started in to clear the ground and make a home. He died in 1849 and she in 1855.
Greenup Eaton, the father of Grandison, whose history is here pre- sented, came from Marion county, Indiana, to Hendricks county while still a boy and hired out to the farmers in this county to work by the day. He married Mahala Turpin, and to them were born four children, James Samuel, William Harrison, Grandison and Ruann. When Grandison was about three years of age his mother died, and his father afterwards married Melinda Smith, and to this second marriage five children were born, Reuben, Thomas, Willard F., Fannie and Mahala J. The mother of these children died after Mahala was born, the latter being then reared by Moses Gwinn. Some time after the death of his second wife. Greenup Eaton married Cynthia Watson, and to his third marriage were born seven children: Marcelite, the wife of Joseph Jones ; Luna, the wife of Oliver Parsons; Estella, who married Will- iam Ellis; Henry, who was at one time sheriff of Hendricks county, and Charles and Allen, both of whom died in infancy.
Greenup Eaton made his home two miles north of Brownsburg, where he operated a brick yard and also followed the trade of a bricklayer. He was one of the first men to place brick on the ground for the erection of the present insane asylum at Indianapolis. He and two other brick men ran a race to see which one would be the first to get a load of brick on the ground and he was the winner. He was a man who was intensely devoted to his country and had a deep-seated hatred of slavery. When the Knights of the Golden Circle began their nefarious operations in Indiana, he waged inces- sant war against them, and did everything that he could to break up their organization in his county. Four of his sons, William Harrison, Grandison, Reuben and Thomas, went to the front and all of them made valiant soldiers for the Union. He died in 1866, a man universally honored and respected.
Grandison Eaton, the son of Greenup Eaton by his first marriage, grew up on the home farm and in September, 1861, enlisted in Company B, Seventh Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry. A large number of Hen- dricks county boys were in this same regiment, among whom was Judge
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John V. Hadley, editor of the historical section of this volume. Mr. Eaton was at the front nearly four years and served in many of the most in- portant battles of the Civil War, among which were the battles of Gettys- burg, Antietam, Spotsylvania, Chancellorsville, second battle of Bull Run and many others of minor importance. After being mustered out, he returned to this county and resumed his trade of brick-making and brick-laying. This has been his life work until a few years ago when he retired from manual labor. He has built a majority of the brick structures in and around Browns- burg, his first experience being before the Civil War opened during the Lincoln campaign, when he laid the brick in the building which is now occupied by the Hunter Bank of Brownsburg. Mr. Eaton has prospered because of his industry and good business abilities and now owns the post- office building, the two buildings across the street from the postoffice, the second building east of the postoffice, the property occupied by the telephone exchange and residence properties in the town. As a contractor he has al- ways rendered good service and his buildings will remain for many years to come as monuments to his honest labor.
Mr. Eaton was married January 8, 1865, to Mary S. Lawler, who was born in 1841, near Clayton, this county. Her parents were Nicholas and Ann (Buchanan) Lawler, natives of Kentucky, who came to Jennings county, Indiana, and from thence to this county in an early day. Nicholas Lawler was a life-long farmer.
Politically, Mr. Eaton has been a life-long Republican, and has always kept abreast of the times in political matters, although he has never been a candidate for any public office. He is a great reader of all kinds of litera- ture and has always been deeply interested in the local history of his county. He is a loyal member of the Grand Army of the Republic, which was es- tablished in 1866 at Decatur, Illinois, and takes a prominent part in all the Memorial day services in his county. It is interesting to note in this connec- tion that the Grand Army of the Republic reached its highest membership of four hundred thousand four hundred eighty-nine in 1890, and that today it has been reduced by death to less than one hundred and seventy-five thousand. The Grand Army of the Republic has held a national encamp- ment every year since 1866 excepting 1867, and has gathered in nearly every important city in the United States. It was the originator of May 30th as Memorial day, the first Memorial day being celebrated in the year 1868. Mr. Eaton is a public-spirited man who has been a prominent factor in the busi- ness life of Brownsburg. He is a sociable man, highly esteemed and one of those whole-souled, genial men whom every one likes to meet.
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CLARK H. SELLARS.
Self-assertion is believed by many people to be absolutely necessary to success in life, and there are good reasons for the entertainment of such be- lief. The modest man very rarely gets what is due him. The selfish, ag- gressive man elbows his way to the front, takes all that is in sight and it sometimes seems that modesty is a sin, with self-denial the penalty. There are, however, exceptions to all rules, and it is a matter greatly to be re- gretted that the exceptions to the conditions are not more numerous. One notable exception is the case of the honorable gentleman whose life history we here present, who possesses just a sufficient amount of modesty to be a gentleman at all times, and yet sufficient persistency to win in the business world and at the same time not appear overbold. As a result of these well and happily blended qualities, Mr. Sellars has won a host of friends in Guil- ford township. Hendricks county, where he is well known to all classes as a man of influence, integrity and business ability.
Clark H. Sellars, one of the prominent farmers and stock raisers of Guilford township, this county, was born October 26, 1869, in the township where he has always resided. His parents were John and Adaline (Coble) Sellars. His father was one of the leading ministers of the Friends church and preached at Mooresville for the most of his life. The grandparents on both sides came from North Carolina, and originally from Germany. John Sellars was married twice and to his first marriage was born seven children. His first wife died in March, 1896, and a few years later he married Rebecca Doan. The seven children of the first marriage are as follows: Albert H., deceased, who married Ida Hight; William, of LaMar, Missouri, who mar- ried Rosa Fogleman and has five children living and two deceased; Dossie, of Morgan county, the wife of W. O. Latta, a farmer, who has six children living and two deceased; Charles, of Indianapolis, who married Violet Moore ; Clark H., of whom we are writing ; R. D., a farmer of Morgan county, who married Sallie Sumner and has three children living and one deceased : Addison, a merchant of Mooresville, who married Maud Scruggs and has two children. Mrs. John Sellars died in 1896 and her husband five years later, having lived on the same farm in Guilford township for thirty-one years previous to his death.
Clark H. Sellars was married August 23, 1893, to Flora C. Thompson, the daughter of John S. and Martha E. (Latta) Thompson. John S. Thompson was a farmer of Morgan county and a veteran of the late Civil
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WVar, dying in 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Clark H. Sellars are the parents of five children : Pearl Marie, born February 7, 1894, who, after graduating from the Mooresville high school, began teaching school and has continued at that profession up to the present time; Claire J., born January 27, 1896, who is a graduate of the Mooresville high school and the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute; Dorrett Laurene. born January 29, 1899, a graduate of the Mooresville high school; Grace Hildren, born January 19, 1901; Paul Lee, born January 13, 1904.
Mr. Sellars and the members of his family are adherents of the Friends church and are generous supporters of all of the organizations of their church. Mr. Sellars has allied himself to the new Progressive party, because he feels that in the principles advocated by this party the welfare of the nation will be the best served. Fraternally, he is a member of the Knights of Pythias. Mr. and Mrs. Sellars have reared a very interesting family, and have had the pleasure of seeing their children rise to lives of honor and usefulness. They have given them the advantages of the best educational institutions in the state. and they have responded by doing their part in a very satisfactory manner. Mr. Sellars is one of the most substantial men of the county, and has helped very materially in the advancement of his community, giving his support to all worthy enterprises and measures.
MARION BAILEY.
An enumeration of those men of the present generation who have won honor and public recognition for themselves in Hendricks county, and at the same time have honored the locality to which they belong, would be incom- plete were there failure to make specific mention of Marion Bailey, of Union township. The qualities which have made him one of the prominent and successful men of Hendricks county have also brought him the esteem of his fellow men, for his career has been one of well directed energy, strong de- termination and honorable methods. Yet he has not neglected to take his part in the public life of his community.
Marion Bailey, the president of the Lizton Bank and vice-president of the Citizens State Bank at Jamestown, was born December 1, 1854, near St. Paul. His parents were John and Catherine ( Emdy) Bailey. John Bai- ley was born in Butler county, Ohio, September 19, 1827, and came with his parents to Shelby county, Indiana, when a small boy. In 1861 John Bailey with his family, moved to this county and settled in Union township near
MR. AND MRS. MARION BAILEY
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Lizton, where he followed the life of a farmer and stock raiser until his death in 1902. The wife of John Bailey was a native of Shelby county, Indiana, and died in 1855, when Marion was only one year of age. John Bailey was the father of fourteen children: Mrs. Elizabeth Smith; Sarah, who died at the age of two; Mrs. Eva A. Campbell, and Marion, whose history is herein delineated, are the children of his first wife, Catherine Emdy. Mrs. Mary E. Dale: George W .; Peter N .; Mrs. Ellen Hall; Mrs. Nettie Hedge; Mrs. Nora E. Lee; Edgar; William, who died at the age of three; John T., and one child which died in infancy, are children by his second marriage, to Re- becca J. Reed.
ยท Marion Bailey was given a good education in the schools of Lizton and Jamestown and assisted his father on the farm until his marriage, at the age of twenty-three. He was married November 15, 1877, to Rachel C. Young, the daughter of Milton and Susan Young, and to this union have been born five children. The first died in early infancy: Harry E., who married Dora Brown; Harry is a farmer living near Lizton and has two children, Buford E. and Veletia; Artie M., a farmer of Boone county, who married Nora Coombs and has two children, Kenneth and Earl; Luna A., the wife of Stew- art Pritchett. a farmer of Boone county, has two children, Thelma and Lorin; Goldie Vesper, a farmer of this township who married Ruth Keeney and has one child, Ranold Marion.
Immediately after his marriage, Mr. Bailey began farming in Union township and has been a successful farmer from the beginning and now owns three hundred and eighty-seven and a half acres in this county and Boone county. In 1903 he made his first venture in the banking business and upon the organization of the Citizens Bank at Jamestown, in Boone county, he be- came vice-president and has continued in that capacity up to the present time. Pre-eminent among his many good qualities is that of sound financial judgment and an ability to grasp facts and infer their practical significance with almost unerring certainty. After once engaging in the banking busi- ness he became interested in it and began to make a study of practical bank- ing. In 1910 he helped to organize the Lizton Bank and has been president of that financial institution ever since its organization. Both of the banks with which he is connected are in a flourishing condition and have gained the confidence of the community which they serve.
However, Mr. Bailey's life has not always been devoted to business, for he has taken a prominent part in the public affairs of his community and state and for the past thirty years has been one of the prominent figures in
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Democratic politics in his county and for the last ten years a conspicuous figure in state politics. His first official position was trustee of his township. an office which he held from 1888 to 1895 ; he then served as a member of the county advisory board, getting his appointment through the governor, then served three years on the state board of charities and correction, this board being composed of three citizens of the state selected by the governor. Mr. Bailey's first entry into state politics was in 1906, when he was nominated by the Democratic state convention for state auditor, and, although the whole Republican ticket was elected in that year, he was defeated by only thirty- two votes. In 1908 the Democratic state convention recognized in him a man of great ability and a man who would make an effective appeal to the voters of the state, and they again placed him before the Democrats of the state on the ticket for state auditor. Again, however, the fortunes of politics were against him and this time he was defeated by a vote of only one hundred and twenty-eight out of a total of nearly six hundred and fifty thousand votes. It will be seen from what has been said of Mr. Bailey that he is a man of marked ability along many lines. As a political leader his convictions of right and wrong have been sharply separated and he has always taken a positive stand for clean politics and better political conditions generally. He has always heartily endorsed the maxim that he serves his party best who serves his country best, and upon all questions involving the material, moral and educational interests of society he has always endeavored to ascertain the right involved, with a view of acting in conformity therewith.
Mr. Bailey is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Improved Order of Red Men and Pythian Sisters at Lizton; the Free and Accepted Masons at Jamestown and the Royal Arch Masons at Danville. He is also a member of the Indiana Democratic Club, Indianapolis. Mr. Bailey has a reputation as a hard worker and a man of good judgment and honest principles. He is a self-made man and one who has in every respect merited the high esteem in which he has been universally held. He has been recognized as a man of public spirit, intellectual attainment and exemplary character.
MILLARD TYRA HUNTER.
No citizen is better or more favorably known in Hendricks county to- day than Millard Tyra Hunter, the president of the Hunter Bank, of Browns- burg. He has witnessed the wonderful development of this locality and played no inconspicuous role in the growth of the same, for he has had its in-
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terest at heart and was ever ready to do his full share in the work of progress. As a farmer he was one of the most successful in the county, and as a mer- chant he was no less successful, while as a banker he has shown those busi- ness qualities which mark him as a man of more than ordinary ability.
Millard Tyra Hunter, a banker of Brownsburg, was born April 14, 1851, in Middle township, this county. His parents were Lewis S. and Eliza- beth A. (Parker) Hunter. Lewis S. Hunter was born in 1813 in Fleming county, Kentucky. His father died when he was only three months old and when he became of age his mother came from Kentucky and settled in Middle township. There Lewis Hunter married and afterwards lived the life of a farmer until 1852, when he came to Brownsburg and engaged in the general mercantile business, in which he continued until the opening of the Civil War. when he sold out and resumed farming. He owned a farm one mile east of Brownsburg, but lived in the town. Lewis S. Hunter was an active Repub- lican and in the early days was appointed county tax collector. He, with his wife, were members of the Christian church and he was a man who was highly respected by his neighbors. He died in January, 1892, and his widow sur- vived him five years.
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