USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana > Part 90
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a dicensel. Mr More. in 1839, ret oved present home, ad
the present time. He has d vot hs entirely to the improvement of his land, and given little attention to the affairs of more general inter-t. fle was formerly a Whig in politics, and subsequently gave his voto to the Republican party, though he has never accepted or desired office. He is in religion a Methodist, and member of the Fletcher Place Meth- odist Episcopal Church of Indianapali . Mr. and Mrs. Moore celebrated their golden welding ou the 19th of September, 1883, on which inter ting occa- sion there were present nine children and eleven grandchildren, who offered their affectionate cou- gratulatious to this venerable couple.
THOMAS MOORE.
Thomas Moore is a native of County Fermanagh, Ireland, where his birth occurred on the 6th of Au- |
gust, 1808. At tho age of sixteen his parents determined to emigrate to America, there being at that time few avenues to advancement or independ- ence open to the poorer classes in Ireland, while the New World offered unlimited possibilities to the in- dustrious and ambitious foreigner. After a brief so- journ in Washington, Pa., Mr. Moore an I his family removed to the vicinity of Zanesville, Ohio, and in 1831 made Thomas Moore's present farm, in Marion County, Ind., their permanent abode, where the father i'd on the 8th of January, 1838. The education Thomas received in his youth was neces- sarily limited, but sufficient knowledge of the rudi- IL Is wobtained to be of service in his subsequent career. Ilis firs mil yment in Indiana was in con -. nection with public improvements and the construc- tiou of roads. This was continued for a period, when Mr. Moore engaged in the transportation of goods from Cincinnati for the merchants of Indianapolis, and also became a successful farmer, making this the business of his life. His industry, application to the work in hand, aud discretion in the management of his varied interests have received their reward in a competency which is now eujoyed in his declining er. Mr. Moore was married, in January, 1832, to M Catherine, daughter of William Moore, who wqui jed near Zanesville, Ohio. Her death occurred 1+- 29, 1867. Their children are three daughters, - Jan (deceased, Mary Ann (Mrs. George Langs- dl, wh died in Texas in April, 1880), and Margaret J. Mrs. Wilner Christian, of Indianapolis). Mr. Muore has always been in his political predilections a consistent Democrat, though not active as a politiciau and without ambition for the honors of office. The Moore family are of Scotch-Irish lineage, the grand- father of the subject of this biographical sketeb har- ing married a Miss Reid, to whom were born nine children. - Their son Thomas, a native of County Donegal, Ireland, married Miss Catherine Gutherie, of County Fermanagh, Ireland, and had two sons aud six daughters. The sons, John and Thomas, are represented by portraits in this work.
Thomas Moore
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El bowland
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CENTRE TOWNSHIP.
ELISHA J. HOWLAND.
Mr. Howland is of English extraction, and the grandson of Elisha Howland, who was a native of Rhode Island, and when seventeen years of age emi- grated to Saratoga County, N. Y. He married a Miss Powell and had six children, all of whom sur- vive, with the exception of Powell, who was born Oct. 16, 1799, in Saratoga County, and removed to Indiana in 1839. He married, in 1818, Miss Tamma Morris, of Saratoga County, and in 1823, Miss Mahala Thurber. To the first marriage were born two children, and to the second five, among whom was Elisha J., whose birth occurred in Saratoga County, Nov. 30, 1826, where he remained, until thirteen years of age. He then with his father re- moved to Indiaua, and was until eighteen years of age a pupil of the public school, after which for two years he enjoyed the advantages of the Marion County Seminary, in Indianapolis. His attention was then turned to the cultivation of the homestead · farm, a part of which became his by division ou attaining his majority. He has since that time con- tinued farming of a general character, combined with stock-raising, and has met with success iu his voca- tion. He shares his father's love of horticultural pursuits, and has devoted much time and attention to the subject. He is a member of both the State and County Horticultural Societies. In politics Mr. Howland is an ardent Democrat, and was in 1882 elected to the State Legislature, where he served on the committees on Reformatory Institutions and Fees and Salaries, and was chairman of the former. He has ever manifested much public spirit, been active in the furtherance of all public improvements, and the promoter of various schemes for the welfare of the county of his residence and the good of the pub- lic. Mr. Howland was married, in 1851, to Miss Margaret E., daughter of Nineveh Berry, one of the earliest settlers in the State, who was born in Clark County, and removed to Anderson, Madison Co., before the government survey was made. Hc held many prominent offices, and was one of the original surveyors who laid out the lands of the State in be- half of the government. His death occurred Aug. 17, 1883, in his eightieth year. Mr. and Mrs. Howland 33
have children,-Charles B., Elizabeth M., James E., Margaret M., Julia H., and one who died in child- hood. He was a member of the Ebenezer English Lutheran Church, in which he has been both an elder and a deacon. Mrs. Howland is also a member of the same church.
JOHN G. BROWN.
John G. Brown, who was of Scotch-Irish descent, was born in Charleston, S. C., June 23, 1785. He received in youth a fair English education, and in early manhood emigrated to Kentucky. He was, on the 17th of October, 1810, married to Eliza M. Bar- nett, to whom were born four children,-Juliet D., Eliza Jane (Mrs. L. W. Monson), Emeline A. (Mrs. J. L. Mothershead), and Alexander M. Mrs. Brown died in September, 1820, and he was again married in October, 1821, to Mrs. Mary C. Todd, née Win- ston, who was of English lineage and the daughter of James Winston, a soldier of the Revolution, and his wife, Sarah. Mrs. Brown was born in Louisa County, Va., in 1791, and was a lady of much refinement and culture. On her marriage to Mr. Brown she was the widow of Dr. Henry Todd, of Bourbon County, Ky. Her death occurred in May, 1859. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Brown are Mary T. (Mrs. Stephen D. Tomlinson), James Winston, Margaret M. (Mrs. W. T. Sprole), and Caroline S. James W. and Marga- ret M. are the only survivors of all Mr. Brown's children, the former having come, when but eighteen months old, with his father to Indianapolis. He is consequently among its earliest settlers.
Mr. Brown, while a resident of Kentucky, engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods, which business was continued until his removal to Indiana in the fall of 1825. His strong convictions on the slavery. question induced his removal from Kentucky. Be- lieving that all men were created free and equal and entitled to the blessings that freedom confers, both he and Mrs. Brown liberated their slaves and re- moved to a free State. About the year 1830 he formed a copartnership with W. H. Morrison for the purpose of conducting a general mercantile business, which was continued until his death, with the addi-
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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.
tional interest involved in the cultivation of a farm in the suburbs. In politics he was a Henry Clay Whig, though content to let others share the labors and honors of office. He was a zealous member of the First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, in which he was an elder and one of its most active workers. All measures for the advancement of mo- rality and the furtherance of the best interests of society found in Mr. Brown a warm supporter and friend, though feeble health prevented active partici- pation in works of philanthropy. His death occurred in May, 1838, in his fifty-third year.
LEVI AYRES.
The Ayres family are of Welsh extraction, the grandfather of Levi Ayres having been John Ayres, a Revolutionary patriot, who was taken prisoner by the enemy and confined in the noted prison- ship lying in New York harbor, where he remained until released by the suspension of hostilities. He was a blacksmith, and iu that capacity proved invalu- able to the enemy, who refused to exchange him. He married Miss Susanna Jarman, and had children, among whom was John, the father of the subject of this biographical sketch, born in 1777, in Cumber- land County, N. J., the residence of his father, where he followed agricultural pursuits. He married Miss Margaret Pawner, the daughter of Asher Pawner, who was reared in the Quaker faith. The children of John and Margaret Ayres are Levi, Reuben, George, Charles, Richard, John, and Mary Jane (Mrs. Ebenezer Woodruff ). The death of Mr. Ayres occurred in 1847, and that of his wife the same year. Their son Levi was born on the 3d of September, 1808, in Cumberland County, N. J. His early life was spent upon the farm, and such education obtained as was possible in the common schools of the neighborhood, after which, for two successive winters, he engaged in teaching, mean- while during the remainder of the year aiding in the labor of the farm. In 1832 he removed to Indiana, and settled for one year in Franklin County, after which he resided in Vicksburg, Miss., and for three
years pursued the trade of a painter. In 1836 he returned to Franklin County and became owner of a farm. He was, in 1840, married to Jane C., daughter of Alexander and Rachel Cregmile, of Franklin County, Ind. Their children are John T., deceased ; R. Jennie, deceased ; Alexander C., a prac- ticing lawyer in Indianapolis ; Franklin, a farmer ; Levi P., a farmer, and two who died in infancy. Alexander C. and Levi P. are graduates of Butler University. Mr. Ayres during the two successive winters following his advent in Indiana engaged in teaching, the remainder of his life having been devoted to the cultivation of his lands. In 1858 he removed to Centre township, Marion Co., his present residence.
He has been, as a Democrat, actively identified with politics, and in Franklin County served as inspector of elections, justice of the peace, county commissioner for two terms, and as a member of the State Legislature in 1858. He is a charter member of Mount Carmel Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, and also member of the Brookville Chapter. Mrs. Ayres and her family were reared in the faith of the Presbyterian Church, of which Mr. Ayres is a supporter.
CHAPTER XXI.
DECATUR TOWNSHIP.I
THIS township, named in honor of Commodore Stephen Decatur, is the extreme southwestern town- ship of Marion County. It is bounded on the north by Wayne and, for a very short distance, by Centre township; on the east by White River, which marks the boundary against Perry township; on the south by Morgan County; and on the west by Hendricks County. The population of Decatur, as shown by the returns of the United States census of 1880, was then sixteen hundred and forty-seven.
Originally the territory of the township was very heavily timbered with black walnut, poplar, the dif- ferent varieties of oak, blue and gray ash, beech,
1 By Fielding Beeler, Esq.
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Levi types
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DECATUR TOWNSHIP.
sugar-tree, red and white elm, and hackberry, and on the bottom-lands sycamore, buttonwood, soft maple, buckeye, paw-paw, and in early times spiee- wood and prickly ash. The heavy timber was a great drawback in the early settlement, requiring a great amount of very hard labor to clear the land sufficiently to furnish the settlers with bread and feed for their stock, though the stock usually re- quired (or at least received) but little feed, subsist- ing largely on the " range," while hogs lived and were fattened on the mast,-acorns, becchnuts, hiekory- nuts, etc. The land was at first cleared of the grubs, logs, and smaller trees, and the large ones " deadened," as it was termed, by girdling, and thus the clearing was sometimes many years in being completed. As years passed on and the clearings extended, the custom of deadening all timber, where the land was intended to be cleared, was introduced.
The streams of the township are the White River, which forms its entire eastern boundary ; Eagle Creek, a tributary which enters the river at the ex- treme northeast corner of the township ; and a num- ber of smaller and unimportant erceks and runs, which flow through Decatur southeastwardly to their junetion with the White River. The surface of the township is sufficiently rolling to admit of good and easy drainage of the lands. There are in the town- ship two considerable elevations of ground, one known as Marr's Hill, near the residence of Patrick Harman, the other as Spring Valley Hill, owned jointly by Mr. Elijah Wilson and Isaae B. Dewces, Esq. It is an isolated point or knob, rising one hundred and forty feet or more above the general level of the surround- ing country, and two hundred fect or more above the level of the river, which is nearly a quarter of a mile east. From this point, when the air is elear, an ex- tended view may be had of the surrounding country, including the buildings of the insane asylum, the spires and many of the highest buildings in the city of Indianapolis, and even Crown Hill, north of the city, and fully twelve miles from the point of ob- servation.
The lands of the township consist of a variety of soils ; alluvial or bottom, along the valley of White River ; second bottom underlaid with gravel; and
uplaod, of which the soil is underlaid with elay. All the soil of the township, with proper cultivation, produces largely of cereals, vegetables, clover, timo- thy, and blue grass, for all of which crops it equals the best in the county or State.
In the first settlement of the township the large yellow and spotted rattlesnakes were numerous, and the cause of much terror among the settlers. Cattle and other animals were frequently bitten, and died from the effects of the poison, though there is no account of any person having died from that cause. During the fall of 1824 some of the settlers became convinced that the reptiles had a den in the vicinity of what is now the village of Valley Mills, and in the following spring a close watch was kept for their appearance in that locality. On one of the earliest of the warm days their den was discovered by John Kenworthy, and the inhabitants of the neighboring settlements were notified of the fact. The able-bodied men of the region for several miles around gathered at the place, and with mattocks, shovels, spades, and hoes proceeded to dislodge and slay the serpents. Their den was in the side of a ravine on the land of Isaac Hawkins, now owned and occupied by William Sanders, about a half-mile east of Valley Mills Sta- tion of the Indianapolis and Vincennes Railway. One hundred and seven rattlesnakes were killed (most of them of large size), besides a number of other and less venomous soakes. This general slaughter of the reptiles secmed to almost entirely rid the township of them, as but few were seen afterwards, most of them, however, in the vicinity of Valley Mills and near the high bluffs along White River. A few of the black variety, known as the prairie rattlesnake, were found around the bog prairie, situated partly in Decatur and partly in Wayne townships, until quite recently, but now they appear to have been exterminated. Many years ago Ira Plummer was bitten (while gathering hazel-nuts) by a snake of this kind, but survived and recovered wholly through the efficaey (as was said) of whiskey and a tea made of blue-ash bark.
Decatur, like the other townships of the county, was set off and erected into a separate township by the board of county commissioners, April 16, 1822, and on the same date it was, by the same authority,
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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.
joined with Perry and Franklin townships for organ- ization and the election of justices of the peace, for the reason that none of the three contained a suffi- cient number of inhabitants for such organization. This arrangement continued until Aug. 12, 1823, when the commissioners ordered " that Decatur town- ship be stricken off from Perry and Franklin town- ships, and form from this date a separate and inde- pendent township of this county, in every respect as if it had never been attached to the said townships of Perry and Franklin ;" and the board assigned one justice of the peace to be elceted for the township of Decatur, at an election ordered to be held at the house of John Thompson, on Saturday, Aug. 30, 1823, John Thompson to be inspector of the said election.
The following is a list of justices and township officers of Decatur from its erection to the present time, viz. :
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
Peter Ilarmooson, June 28, 1822, to Aug. 30, 1823 (for town- ships of Decatur, Perry, and Franklio, until their separa- tion).
Joseph Beeler, Nov. 3, 1823, to Oct. 8, 1828.
Joseph Beeler, Jan. 5, 1829, to Jan. 5, 1834.
James Epperson, May 7, 1832, to Aug. 1, 1835 : dicd. Zimri Brown, Feb. 25, 1834, to Sept. 1, 1836; resigned.
Joseph Beeler, Sept. 21, 1835, to Sept. 21, 1840. Noah Reagan, Nov. 1, 1836, to Nov. 23, 1836; resigued. Jesse Grace, Jan. 14, 1837, to Jan. 14, 1842.
Young Em. R. Wilson, Feb. 23, 1839, to Feb. 23, 1844.
Zadock Jackson, Dec. 25, 1840, to Dec. 22, 1845.
Jobn S. Hall, Feb. 19, 1842, to Feb. 19, 1847. Young Em. R. Wilson, May 11, 1844, to July, 8, 1845 ; resigned. Noah MeCreery, Aug. 27, 1845, to Ang. 27, 1850. William Mendenhall, Dec. 22, 1845, to Dec. 22, 1850. Joseph Beeler, Feb. 19, 1847, to Feb. 19, 1852. John Burris, Dec. 26, 1850, to May 3, 1859.
Jesse Price, Nov. 8, 1851, to Oct. 9, 1852; resigned.
Lewis George, April 24, 1858, to May 24, 1859; resigned. Gurdon C. Johnson, July 19, 1859, to July 19, 1867. Thomas Mendenhall, April 19, 1864, to April 13, 1866; resigned. John S. Walker, April 17, 1866, to Sept. 12, 1866; resigned. Thomas R. Cook, Nov. 9, 1866, to Nov. 9, 1870.
John M. Ritter, April 26, 1869, to April 16, 1873. David W. Compton, Nov. 9, 1870, to Oct. 18, 1872; resigned. James S. Wall, Oct. 24, 1874, to April 17, 1882; removed. Isaae B. Dewees, Oct. 24, 1878, to Oct. 24, 1882. John D. Haworth, June 12, 1880, to April 15, 1886. Charles F. Allen, April 17, 1882, to Oct. 24, 1886.
TRUSTEES.
Martin Searly, April 9, 1859, to April 9, 1860. Josiah Russell, April 9, 1860, to April 19, 1862. Jackson L. Jessup, April 19, 1862, to Oct. 10, 1867. Joho W. Billingsley, Oct. 10, 1867, to Oct. 23, 1872. Jacob Ilorner, Oct. 23, 1872, to Ocl. 26, 1874. Noah McCreery, Oct. 26, 1874, to April 14, 1882. Thomas N. Janeway, April 14, 1882, for two years.
ASSESSORS.
Demas L. McFarland, Jan. 1, 1827, to Jan. 7, 1828. Cader Carter, Jan. 7, 1828, to Jan. 4, 1830. Jesse Wright, Jan. 4, 1830, lo Jan. 2, 1832. John P. Clark, Jan. 2, 1832, to Jan. 7, 1833. Adam Wright, Jan. 7, 1833, to Jan. 6, 1834. Aaron Wright, Jan. 6, 1834, to May 5, 1835. James M. Bailey, May 5, 1834, to May 5, 1835. Zimri Browo, May 5, 1835, to Jan. 4, 1836. Demas L. MeFarland, Jan. 4, 1836, to Jan. 2, 1837. Abram 1I. Dawson, Jan. 2, 1837, to Jan. 1, 1838. Jesso Grace, Jan. 1, 1838, to Jan. 7, 1839. Grimes Dryden, Jan. 7, 1839, to Jao. 4, 1841. Aaron Wright, Jan. 4, 1841, to Dec. 6, 1841.
Joseph Cook, Dec. 21, 1852, to Dec. 8, 1854. Isaac ITawkins, Dec. 8, 1854, to Feb. 5, 1855. Eli Sanders, Feb. 9, 1855, to Dee. 13, 1856. John S. Rabb, Dee. 13, 1856, to March 12, 1857. Jesse Price, March 12, 1857, to Dee. 12, 1858. Aboer Mills, Deo. 12, 1858, to Nov. 22, 1872. John Ellis, Nov. 22, 1872, to Aug. 1, 1873.
Jesse W. Reagan, March 22, 1875, to Dec. 26, 1876. John W. Ellis, Dec. 26, 1876, to April 13, 1880. Edward C. Forest, April 13, 1880, to April 13, 1884.
This township, as originally set off and erected by the commissioners in 1822, contained forty-two sec- tions of land, being in size six miles from north to south, and seven miles east and west, its eastern line being a continuation of the line between the town- ships of Centre and Wayne, thus bringing into De- catur a strip of land lying east of the White River, and between that stream and the township of Perry, the strip having an average width of about two miles, and embracing about twelve scetions of land. This continued to be included in Decatur township until the 7th of January, 1833, when, upon petition by citizens of Decatur township, it was ordered by the board of justices " that all the part of Decatur town- ship lying on the east side of White River be attached to and hereafter form a part of Perry township." By this action the White River was established as the
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DECATUR TOWNSHIP.
line between Decatur and Perry, and has remained as such to the present time.
The earliest settlements in Decatur were generally made in the vicinity of the White River, and near springs, with which the township abounds, especially along the higher lands near the river. In the gov- ernment sales of lands this consideration had much to do in deciding the location and purchase of differ- ent tracts. The first settlements were made in 1821, -possibly two or three came as early as the fall of 1820,-but who was the first settler who came to make his permanent home within the territory that soon afterwards became Decatur township cannot now be satisfactorily ascertained. Among the first, however, were the Dollarlıides, David Kime, Charles and Joseph Beeler, Demas L. MeFarland, John Thompson, Jesse Wright, and John, James, Edward, Eli, and Jacob Sulgrove on the west side of the river, and Martin D. Bush, Emanuel Glimpse, and the Myers and Monday families on the east side of the stream, in that part of the township which was transferred to the jurisdiction of Perry in 1833, as before mentioned.
Joseph Beeler was one of the earliest settlers in Decatur, as he was also for a period of almost thirty years (from his settlement here to his death) one of the most prominent and respected men of the town- ship. He was born in April, 1797, in a block-house which was built for defense against Indians in what is now Ohio County, W. Va. The block-house was surrounded by a stockade work which was called " Beeler's Fort," or " Beeler's Station," his father being in command of the defense, and also of a com- pany of frontiersmen called " rangers," whose head- quarters were at the stockade. The name Beeler's Station is retained to the present day in the post- office at that place.
His father dying when he was but six weeks old, he was left with but the care and protection of his mother, and he grew to years of manhood, living part of the time in Virginia and part in Washington County, Pa. In the summer of 1819 he, with his mother and brother George, descended the Ohio River in a pirogue (a very large dug-out canoe), and
stopped at a place on the lower river (the locality of which is not now known), from which, in the fall of the same year, he, with his two brothers and two acquaintances, made an exploring trip to the then wilderness region which is now Marion County. Striking the White River at the place where the village of Waverly now is, they traveled thence northward and halted at a camp which they made on the river bank nearly on the site of the present water-works of Indianapolis. There was not at that time a white man's cabin or habitation of any kind in the vicinity. He made a thorough examination of this region, and being pleased with it, he returned in the spring of 1820 with his mother, his brother, G. H. Beeler (afterwards the first clerk of Morgan County), and several others for permanent settle- ment, and located on the west side of the river near the bluffs. At the land sales they bought the tract on which they had settled, but afterwards sold it to James Burns at an advance of one hundred dollars, which would pay for an additional eighty acres of land in some new location. Burns, the purchaser, afterwards built upon the tract a small frame house (the first of the kind in that part of the country) and painted it red. The house is still standing, and the place has been and is at this day known as the " Red House."
Soon after his sale to Burns, Joseph Beeler bought the northeast quarter of section 6, township 14, range 3, and commenced a clearing. In May, 1822, he was married to Hannah Matthews, and late in the fall of the same year they removed to their new home on his land in Decatur township.
Mr. Beeler was a fine specimen of pioneer man- hood, being six feet in height and finely proportioned. He was ever a leader in matters of public enterprise, and untiring in perseverance and industry. He regarded his voeation of farmer as one of the highest respectability, and he had great ambition to excel in his calling. He was one of the first farmers of the county to import improved breeds of stock, which gained the reputation of being the best in the county, -as the records of the agricultural societies show,- from the number of premiums awarded him in the different classes. He also took a deep interest in
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