USA > Indiana > Howard County > History of Howard County, Indiana, Vol II > Part 38
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Mr. and Mrs. Terrell have two children living. the older being Oma May, who was born in the year 1878, and who is now the wife of John E. Harland, and the mother of three offspring. Charles F .. the second of the family, was born March 16, 1882. He too is married and the father of two children, his home at this time being in Chicago.
Mr. Terrell is well situated to enjoy the material comforts with
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OF HOWARD COUNTY.
which fortune has blessed him and stands high among the citizens of the community in which he lives. He belongs to the Improved Order of Red Men, aside from which he is identified with no fra- ternal organization, his greatest satisfaction being in the quiet life he leads as a prosperous and contented tiller of the soil and in the mutually agreeable domestic ties which make home the happiest and most attractive spot on earth to one of his tastes and ideals.
THOMAS J. O'TOOLE.
The enterprising farmer and prominent citizen of whom the biographer writes in this connection is a native of Rush county, In- diana, where his birth occurred March 29, 1863. As the name in- cates the paternal branch of his family is of Irish origin. his grand- parents having spent their lives on the beautiful Emerald Isle, while his father and mother also came from there a number of years ago.
Clement O'Toole, the subject's father, came to America in his youth and lived for some years in the city of New York, where he worked at the saddler's trade, and it was there that he met Ellen Smith, also a native of Ireland, who afterwards became his wife. From New York Mr. O'Toole went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he followed his chosen calling until his removal a few years later to the town of Raleigh, in Rush county, Indiana, at which place he opened a shop of his own and during the ensuing ten years did a thriving business, making and dealing in saddelry and harness. At the ex- piration of the period indicated he removed to Ehood, thence after a short time to Curtisville, where he operated a shop until the break- ing out of the Civil war, when he disposed of his business and entered the army. enlisting for three years in an Indiana regiment
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of infantry, which in due time he accompanied to the scene of hostil- ities. On account of his intelligence and skill with the pen he was (letailed for duty as a writer of dispatches, having been well educated in the land of his birth and at the time indicated he was able to write fluently in the English language. His ability and aptness for the (luty assigned him so pleased his superiors that he was retained in the position until the close of the war, at which time he returned to Tipton county. Indiana, where he spent the remainder of his life. (lying some years later at the age of fifty-two. His widow, who still survives, has reached the ripe old age of eighty-eight years. She retains to a remarkable degree her bodily and mental powers, is as keenly alive to current events as in the days of her prime, possesses an unfailing memory and devotes the greater part of her time and attention to reading, which she has always been able to do without the aid of glasses. Like her husband she was reared in the Catholic faith and is intensely loyal to her church and when able, a regular attendent upon its services.
Of the four children that constituted the family of Clement and Ellen O'Toole, Thomas J., of this review, is the fourth in order of birth. He was educated in the district schools and until his twen- tieth year remained under the parental roof, the meantime looking after his parent's interests and maturing plans for his future course of action. He was reared to agricultural pursuits and at the age indicated above, rented land and engaged in the tilling of soil upon his own responsibility. After spending seventeen years as a renter he purchased his present farm of fifty-seven acres, one mile north of Kokomo, which he has since cultivated with success and financial profit and in addition to which he also owns a half interest in nine hundred acres of Colorado land in the Grand Valley, near Grand Junction, about four hundred acres of his share being in a high state of tillage. From all indications the latter is destined at no dis-
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tant day to prove a very fortunate and lucrative investment, as the government is now constructing a complete system of irrigation, which when completed will add greatly to the productiveness of the land besides increasing its value many fold. The land under the present conditions yields bountiful crops of sugar beets, potatoes and other vegetables, all varieties of fruits are grown also, besides cereals, etc., and in due time with the enterprise in hand fully car- ried out it will doubtless become a beautiful and exceedingly valu- able possession.
In connection with his agricultural and real estate interests Mr. O'Toole deals quite extensively in live stock, especially horses, which he buys and ships in large numbers, having in his pastures as many as three hundred and fifty head at a time. All the corn raised on his farm is fed to his stock and the better to prosecute the business he rents eighty acres adjoining his place for pasturage. He has been more than ordinarily successful, both as a tiller of the soil and stock dealer, but on the latter he relies chiefly for his income. although the returns from his investment in the West are by no means small or insignificant.
Mr. O'Toole is a man of sound judgment, wise discretion and keen business ability as his rapid rise from a very modest beginning to his present high standing among the enterprising and successful farmers and stock dealers of Howard county abundantly attests. By judiciously investing his means from time to time he has come into possession of an ample fortune, owning in addition to the real estate indicated in a preceding paragraph, considerable city property. eight pieces in all which are well situated and steadily growing in value. A man who takes pride in the growth and advancement of his county. Mr. O'Toole encourages to the extent of his ability, all worthy enterprises and is also deeply interested in whatever makes for the social and moral welfare of the community. Personally, he
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enjoys great popularity among his friends and neighbors, inheriting as he does many of the sterling characteristics and amiable qualities for which the people from beautiful Erin have been made welcome in all parts of the world. In his political views he is all the term implies an independent, yielding support to those principles that best coincide with his standing and voting for the candidates whose moral standing and intellectual qualifications best fit them for the of- fices to which they aspire. In matters religious he is a Roman Cath- olic and a loyal and devoted son of the mother church, belonging at this time to the St. Patrick's church of Kokomo, in which he has filled every position to which a lay member can be called.
Rosa Kiefer, who became the wife of Mr. O'Toole in the year 1883, is a daughter of Valentine and Carrie ( Wheat) Kiefer, na- tives of Germany, but since their childhood residents of the United States, the Kiefer family having first settled at Brookville, Indiana, where these parents grew to maturity and married. Mr. and Mrs. ()'Toole have had five children, all born in Howard county, namely : Clementine, born in 1866: Carrie died in infancy: Edward. Joseph Francis and Thomas Panl.
JACOB L. SMITH.
The subject of this sketch holds worthy prestige among the enterprising farmers and representative citizens of Howard county and it is with no small degree of satisfaction that the biographer gives to the public the following brief outline of his life and achieve- ments. Jacob L. Smith is an Ohio man and the youngest in a fam- ily of seven children, whose parents were John and Rebecca Smith, natives of Maryland and Virginia, respectively. The maiden name
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OF HOWARD COUNTY.
of Mrs. Smith was Rebecca Light. Her father moved to Ohio when well along in years and settled in Montgomery county, where he spent the remainder of his life, dying at the advanced age of eighty- four, his wife preceding him to the grave before the family left Virginia.
John Smith, the subject's father, moved to Ohio after his mar- riage and settled in the county of Montgomery, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits and became a worthy and substantial citizen. After his death, which occurred in the prime of manhood, his widow rented a farm in order to keep her children together and with the aid of her sons managed her affairs so as to live in comfortable cir- cumstances and give to each of her offspring a good practical ed- ucation. She survived her husband forty-five years and departed this life at the age of eighty-four, honored and esteemed by all who knew her. Mrs. Smith possessed many noble attributes of woman- hood and all who enjoyed the privilege of her influence were profuse in their praise of her amiable qualities of head and heart. Her de- votion to her children when deprived of a father's care and guid- ance, she made paramount to every other consideration and so loy- ally and unselfishly did she look after their interests that they grew up to honorable manhood and womanhood, attributing to her un- selfish efforts, all the success in life which they achieved.
Jacob L. Smith was born April 23. 1839. in Montgomery coun- ty, Ohio, and spent his early life in close touch with nature on a farm, and while still a mere lad contributed his share towards the support of his widowed mother and the rest of the family. At in- tervals during his minority he attended the schools of his neighbor- hood and until his twenty-third year remained with his mother. managing his farm in her behalf and otherwise looking after her comfort and interests. During the Civil war he served in the Ohio Home Guard. but experienced no active duty outside the state.
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though ready at any time to respond to the call of the government in case his services were needed.
When twenty-three years of age Mr. Smith rented a farm in partnership with his brother and engaged in the pursuit of agricul- ture upon his own responsibility, the two continuing together until the end of the second year, when the subject withdrew from the compact and came to Indiana, locating in Miami county, where dur- ing the ensuing four years he tilled the soil on rented land. By in- dustry and excellent management he made his farming interest quite remunerative, so much so in fact that at the expiration of the time indicated he was able to purchase a farm of his own in Howard county, to which he at once removed and which under his well directed labors was in due time greatly improved, much of the land being cleared after he took possession and its value increased by nearly one half over the purchase price. After residing on this place for a period of twelve years and meeting with encouraging success, he disposed of the land at a handsome figure and purchased the farm in Center township, where he has since lived and prospered and where, as already indicated, he stands in the front rank as an enter- prising agriculturist and representative citizen. When he purchased his present place, Mr. Smith found it much run down and neglected. the fences being overgrown with briars and other shrubbery and much decayed, all the buildings out of repair and the soil so de- pleted by indifferent cultivation as to produce less by almost half than what it should have yielded with even ordinary care and at- tention. On taking possession he immediately inaugurated a series of improvements, which soon resulted in bringing the soil back to its original fertility and enhancing its productiveness to such a de- gree that in the matter of corn alone the yield is now fifty bushels per acre more than formerly, the gain in other crops being almost if not quite as great. This change has been brought about by ample
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fertilizing, judicious rotation and a successful system of tile drain- age, together with correct methods of agriculture and the careful attention which every progressive farmer devotes to his labor and without which even the best land and most approved implements of husbandry are unavailing. Mr. Smith is a modern farmer in the best sense of the term, a close student of agricultural science, and by adopting those methods by which the greatest and best results are obtained he has achieved marked financial success and is now in independent circumstances with a sufficiency of this world's goods on hand to enable him to spend the remainder of his days in com- fortable and honorable retirement. For some years past he has been renting his land, about ninety acres being susceptible to tillage. re- taining the rest for pasturage. Like most enterprising men of his community he devotes much attention to live stock of the finer breeds, to which he feeds his share of the grain and from the sale of which he receives no small part of his income. His buildings are substantial and in excellent repair, having a commodious and com- fortable dwelling amply equipped with modern conveniences, a large and well arranged barn, good out buildings, indeed. every- thing on the premises being systematic and in good taste and bear- ing evidence of the intelligence and progressive spirit of the pro- prietor.
Mr. Smith was married in the year 1864 to Martha J. Turner, daughter of Andrew and Rachel Turner, both parents natives of North Carolina, but early settling in Miami county, Ohio, where they lived many years and where their respective deaths occurred after passing the eightieth milestone on the journey of life. They reared a family of seven children, six daughters and one son. the latter a soldier in the late Civil war, serving in the Forty-fourth and Seventy- first Regiments, Ohio Infantry, and taking part in a number of hat- tles and minor engagements in one of which, Beverly. Virginia. he
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was shot through the body, the missile inflicting a dangerous wound. from the effects of which he has never entirely recovered. Mrs. Smith was born in North Carolina and taken to Ohio by her parents when small, and grew to maturity and married in her adopted state. She bore her husband nine children and departed this life on the 5th of April, 1908, at the age of sixty-six years, three of the children dying in infancy.
John V., the oldest of the subject's children, was born in 1864, and is now a civil engineer, his home being at Green Bay. Wiscon- sin ; Ida M., the second of the family, born in 1867, is the wife of Hilas Morris, a farmer and carpenter of Howard county, their union being blessed with one child: Glen R. was born in 1869 and resides in Tipton county, being superintendent of schools at Wind- fall: Grace, whose birth occurred in Howard county in 1874. is the mother of one offspring: Dr. Henry Smith, the fifth in succession, a well known and rising physician of Indianapolis, was born in 1872 ; Dorothy, born in 1882, is the wife of Edgar Utterback. to whom she has borne three children.
Although not an active politician, Mr. Smith is pronounced in his allegiance to the Democratic party and has the courage of his convictions on the leading questions and issues in which the public is interested. He has been identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for a number of years, having passed all the chairs in the local lodge which holds his membership, and he endeavors to exemplify the spirit of the noble fraternity in all of his relations with his fellow men. Broad-minded and liberal, a thinker and close observer, he keeps abreast of the times and in touch with current thought and discharges the duties of citizenship in a manner be- coming an enterprising and progressive American of the age in which he lives. He stands high in the esteem of those with whom he mingles, has many warm friends and has ever tried to do the
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right as he sees and understands the right. Quiet and unostenta- tious and seeking the sequestered ways of life rather than its tumult and strife he has ever attended strictly to his own affairs and made better all who come within the range of his influence.
JOEL S. HAMILTON.
Few residents of Howard county are as well and favorably known as the enterprising farmer and representative citizen whose life story is briefly told in the following lines and none stand higher than he in the esteem and confidence of the community in which he resides and for the material advancement of which he has devoted so much of his time and influence. The family of which he is an honorable representative has been known in America since colonial times and for many years the name was familiar in various parts of South Carolina, of which state his grandfather was a native. This ancestor came to Indiana when a young man and settled in the coun- ty of Fayette, where he purchased land and developed a farm, but after a residence of some years there he disposed of his holdings and changed his place of abode to Shelby county, where he also became a tiller of the soil and a citizen of public-spirit and more than ordi- nary local prominence. He purchased land from the government in the latter county, labored long and diligently on its improvement and in due time his efforts were rewarded by a fine farm. a com- fortable home and a sufficiency of this world's goods to place him in independent circumstances. A devout Presbyterian he contributed of his means and influence to establish churches and spread the truths of religion among the sparse settlements, and his life as well as that of his good wife and helpmeet was long a power for good in
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the community honored by his citizenship. He spent the remainder of his days on the family homestead in Shelby county and died a number of years ago, at the age of seventy-eight. his wife pre- ceding him to the other world when sixty-eight years old : they were the parents of six children, the majority of whom grew to maturity and became fathers and mothers of families, but most of them have long been sleeping the sleep of the just.
The Sheltons, the subject's maternal ancestors, were English. the family being first represented in the United States by Mr. Hamil- tons' grandfather, who sailed from England in an early day and was among the pioneers of Shelby county, Indiana, settling in the same neighborhood with the Hamiltons. Subject's grandmother was born in Ireland, and inherited from the sturdy Scotch-Irish an- tecedents many of the sterling qualities for which that dual nation- ality has long been distinguished. Mr. and Mrs. Shelton were the parents of nine children, three of whom served in the Civil war. go- ing from Howard county, of which they had become residents some years previously. Both grandfather and grandmother Shelton lived to be quite okl, and had passed the Scriptural allotment of three score and ten years before responding to the summons which soon or late must come to all. They were an earnest, God-fearing and praise- worthy couple, who lived in harmony with their sense of right, and left to their descendants the memory of kindly deeds and lives that made the world better by their presence.
Samuel Hamilton, the youngest member of his parents' family. was born in Fayette county in the year 1813. and spent his early life on the farm. The country being new and sparsely settled and schools almost unknown. he had but limited educational advan- tages, notwithstanding which he managed to master the arts of reading and writing and later by coming in contact with his fellow men. became the possessor of a fund of practical knowledge which
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OF HOWARD COUNTY.
proved of great value, when he started out to make his own way. While still a youth he accompanied his parents to Shelby county and after residing there for a period of fifteen years, came to Howard county, then comparatively wild and undeveloped land, a portion of which he cleared and converted into a good farm. After a resi- (lence of fifteen years on his original purchase, he sold it and in 1851 invested the proceeds in a two hundred acre tract all covered with a dense forest growth and in a wilderness state. Addressing him- self to the formidable task of removing this timber and fitting the soil for cultivation, Mr. Hamilton worked early and late during the several years ensuing and in due season reaped the reward of his labors in the shape of a fine farm, a beautiful and attractive home and a competence which enabled him to spend the closing years of his life in comfortable circumstances.
When a young man Mr. Hamilton chose a wife and helpmeet in the person of Lydia Shelton, whose parents as already indicated. were among the pioneer settlers of Fayette county and in due time she presented him with six children, of whom the subject of this review is the third in order of birth. Samuel and Lydia Hamilton were an estimable and much respected couple whose influence tended to make wiser and better all who came in contact with them, and whose memories still are cherished in the community so long blessed with their presence. They were earnest and devout Methodists. did much for the church which they loved so well and both died in the triumphs of a living faith, the wife in 1856, at the age of forty. the husband surviving her until 1880, when he was called away after reaching his seventy-sixth year.
Joel S. Hamilton. to a brief review of whose career the reader's attention is respectfully called in the following paragraphs, was born December 6, 1838. in Shelby county. Indiana, and four years later was brought by his parents to the county of Howard. with
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which his life has since been very closely identified. Growing up amid the stirring scenes of the pioneer period. he was early taught lessons of industry and frugality. also the dignity that attaches to honest toil and as soon as his services could be utilized to an ad- vantage he bore his full share in clearing the land and cultivating the soil and garnering the crops. Owing to the lack of privileges his early education was somewhat neglected, nevertheless he was permitte.l to attend a few months of subscription school during his youth in which he made very commendable progress.
Like a dutiful son he remained with his parents, assisting in the cultivation of the farm until his twenty-fourth year, when he pur- chased forty acres of his own and engaged in the pursuit of agricul- ture for himself. He cleared and otherwise improved the greater portion of this land and by industry and judicious management and rigid economy was subsequently enabled to buy an adjoining forty acre tract, which further increased by twenty acres bought some years later, made him the possessor of as fine a body of land and as good a farm as could be found within the limits of the township in which it lies. By a series of improvements including buildings, fencing, tile drainage, fertilizing, etc., he has not only increased the productiveness of the land but added largely to its value and as in- dicated above. now has a beautiful and attractive home equipped with a full complement of modern improvements and conveniences and is one of the most enterprising and progressive agriculturists of his township, as well as one of its exemplary and public-spirited citizens. Like the majority of enterprising farmers in his part of the country, he does not rely entirely upon his crops for an income. but devotes considerable attention to live stock, making a specialty of fine breeds of cattle and hogs which he markets every year at good prices.
Mr. Hamilton is a man of liberal views, believes in progress
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OF HOWARD COUNTY.
and improvement and does what he can to further these ends. tak- ing an interest in whatever makes for the material advancement of the county and the social, intellectual and moral good of the people. He is a Democrat but not a politician, much less a partisan, and in his religious views he subscribes to the faith of the Methodist Epis- copal church, to which both he and his wife belong. Fraternally he holds membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has passed all the chairs in the local lodge with which identified.
Mr. Hamilton's domestic life dates from 1863. when he entered the marriage relation with Mattie Tarkington, daughter of John and Martha ( Whaley) Tarkington, a union resulting in the birth of five children, viz, Flossie M., born March, 1865, is the wife of Fremont Phelps and the mother of two offspring: Willard, born in 1867, is deceased ; Sallie M., born in the year 1869. married Glen R. Smith and has two children: Allie, who was born in 1871, is now Mrs. Frank Jackson and has one child: Emma, the youngest of the family, was born in 1873. married Oliver B. Carter and is the mother of two children, with whom our subject now makes his home. Mrs. Hamilton having died Christmas day. 1890.
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