USA > Indiana > Lawrence County > History of Lawrence and Monroe counties, Indiana : their people, industries, and institutions > Part 62
USA > Indiana > Monroe County > History of Lawrence and Monroe counties, Indiana : their people, industries, and institutions > Part 62
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dred lines. In 1898 Mr. O'Harrow came to Bloomington and bought the Lindley drug store, on the south side of the public square, where he has re- mained to the present time. He carries a large and carefully selected line of drugs and druggists' sundries, which are attractively displayed, and by his earnest efforts to please all who enter his store and his sound business judg- ment, he has met with well deserved success in this enterprise, being now gen- erally considered the leading druggist of Monroe county.
On July 22, 1892, at Worthington, Indiana, Mr. O'Harrow was married to Cora A. East, the daughter of Thomas J. and Susan (Milam) East. Her father, who was a native of Greene county, Indiana, was a brother of Hughes East, who was private secretary to Vice-President Thomas A. Hendricks. Thomas J. East was for many years engaged in the real estate business, but is now retired from active pursuits. He is a Democrat in his political belief. His wife, who also is still living, is a native of Greene county, Indiana. To Mr. and Mrs. O'Harrow have been born three children, John W., Jr., Edgar A. and Marguerite.
Politically. Mr. O'Harrow has been a life-long Democrat and has taken an active part in advancing the interests of his party in this county. Fra- ternally, he is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Free and Accepted Masons, having in the last- named order attained to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, belonging to Murat Temple at Indi- anapolis. Religiously, his sympathies are with the Presbyterian church, in which he was reared, but he has never formally identified himself with any church. As a citizen he stands high in the esteem of his fellow men, being public spirited and progressive, and at all times willing to lend his aid and influence in behalf of enterprises for the material advancement of his city and county, and for the intellectual, social and moral good of the people.
FRED B. OTIS.
Fred B. Otis was born February 28, 1863, in Bedford. Indiana, the oldest child and only son of Charles H. and Adeline (Colegrove) Otis, their other children being Harriet L., Frances Z. and Martha A. Otis. He received only a few years' instruction in the public schools, but had access to many good books, for the family, though very poor, was not illiterate, his father being a well read man, with an especial taste for the poets. Fred began employment in
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the Bedford printing offices in 1879, as a roller hoy at the Washington hand presses with which all country newspapers were then printed, and after about one year secured an opportunity to learn typesetting in the office of the Bedford Banner, conducted by Charles L. Yockey, with Harry S. Osborne as com- tracted the attention of his employers. In February, 1889, Frank B. Hitch- positor and pressman. In due time he became a fast and accurate compositor, a good pressman and developed a knack of writing up local events that at. cock, who was half owner of the Bedford Mail, bought cut the other half interest, owned by the widow of his former partner, Harry S. Osborne, and sold it to Mr. Otis on easy terms, in order to get a competent manager for the printing office, Mr. Hitchcock having been elected county superintendent of schools. Mr. Otis retained the half interest, and soon after the death of Mr. Hitchcock, in 1896, became associated with Thomas J. Brooks in the ownership of the paper.
Hosea Otis, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, came to Bedford in the latter part of 1836, from Massachusetts ; his wife, Amelia Bishop, a native of Danbury, Connecticut, being a sister of Samuel D. Bishop, one of the pioneers of Lawrence county, who was a carpenter, and completed the court house at Palestine after the first contractors had failed. The Otis family was of English Puritan descent, originally from Somersetshire, but came to Ameri- ca from Glastonbury between 1633 and 1635, settling at Hingham, Massa- chusetts, on an eminence overlooking the bay that is still known as Otis Hill. The first American-born ancestor of the subject was Joseph Otis, who was judge of the court of common pleas at Plymouth, Massachusetts, from 1703 to 1714. His descendants intermarried with the descendants of the first settlers of Plymouth for several generations, and a study of the family genealogy shows it to be directly descended from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, and from Richard Warren through two daughters, Ann and Mary. During the war of the Revolution James Otis, an eighteen-year old boy ( who was a second cousin of the patriot orator, James Otis), ran away from his father's farm near New London, Connecticut, and joined Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec, sharing in all the hardships of that ill-fated enterprise. He was a grandson of Judge Joseph Otis, of Plymouth, and great-great- grandfather of the subject.
Amelia Bishop, wife of Hosea Otis, and grandmother of Fred B. Otis, was a granddaughter of Silvanus Bishop, who conducted a famous tavern at Bantam, near Litchfield, Connecticut, known as the Pine Tree House. When the Revolution broke out he became an ardent Tory, and the Liberty boys raided his tavern, taking all his fine pewter tableware to melt into patriot
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bullets. Silvanus' wife, Sarah Beecher, was an aunt of Lyman Beecher, father of Henry Ward Beecher and Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Adeline Colegrove, mother of Fred B. Otis, was descended from Francis Colegrove, who was born at Swansea, Wales, and settled in Warwick, Rhode Island, about 1680-83. Nearly all the families in the United States known as Colegrove, Colgrove and Colgrave are descended from this ancestor. The first-born of the family in America was killed at the storming of Port Royal, Nova Scotia, in 1710, in one of the colonial wars. Caleb Colegrove, grand- father of Adeline, served in the war of 1812, at Sackett's Harbor. Caleb's father, Stephen Colegrove, was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. Gen- eral Silas Colgrove, of Indiana, who achieved fame in the war of the Re- bellion, was Adeline's distant cousin.
JOHN W. ACOAM.
Lawrence county was not lacking in loyalty during the dark days of the Rebellion, when the ship of state was almost stranded on the rocks of disunion, but contributed her full quota of brave and valiant men to assist in preserving the integrity of the government, prominent among whom was the well known gentleman and enterprising citizen whose name appears at the head of this review. Loyal to his country in its hour of peril and extremity, as was demonstrated on many bloody battle fields, he has ever been its staunch sup- porter in times of peace, and today there are few ex-soldiers of the county as widely and favorably known and none that can boast of a more honorable record. The ranks of the noble organization to which he belonged in the days of his youth are fast being decimated by the one invincible foe, and it is fitting that in every publication of the nature of this volume special tribute be paid to those who served during the greatest civil war known to history.
John W. Acoam was born on May 15, 1841, in Bedford, Indiana, and is a son of Joseph and Catherine ( Wilder ) Acoam, the father a native of Virginia and the mother of Kentucky. They came to Lawrence county, In- diana, about 1832, and settled at Bedford, where the father followed his trade, that of harness and saddle making. He was an industrious and honest man, and during his residence here he gained a high standing in the esteem of his fellow citizens. His death occurred at Bedford in 1849, at the early age of thirty-six years, and he was survived over half a century by his widow, who died in 1902 at the advanced age of eighty-five years. She was an ear-
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nest and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church and was a woman of high personal character. To Joseph and Catherine Acoam were born six children, namely: Hardin P., who is now deceased, was a plasterer in Bedford; Laura, who remained unmarried, is living in Bedford; Nancy, who lives in Indianapolis, is the widow of George Carroll ; Mary E., widow of William Butler, late of Bedford; Henry, deceased, who was a veteran of the Civil war, afterwards lived in Bedford; John W., the immediate subject of this sketch, who was the third child in order of birth.
John W. Acoam had but little opportunities for securing an education, the same being limited to a few years in the public schools. At the early age of fifteen years he started to learn the harness and saddle-making trade in the shop of Leach & Davis at Bedford, and was thus employed when the Civil war broke out and Mr. Acoam gave practical evidence of his loyalty and patriotism by enlisting on August 12, 1862, in Company G, Fourth Indiana Cavalry. The command was sent first to Evansville, where they drew sup- plies, and then went to Henderson and Wadsworth, Kentucky, and on to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Tennessee, where they remained about ten days, being engaged mainly in skirmish duty. From there they were sent on to Nashville and Murfreesboro, where they joined the army under General Rosecrans, with whom they went south to Marietta, Georgia. They took part in all the campaigns and other arduous campaign duties of that year until they reached Huntsville, Alabama, where the subject was captured and the following nineteen months were spent by him amid the terrible experi- ences of the Southern prison pens. He was confined first for eight months at Danville and the last eleven months of his incarceration was in notorious An- dersonville prison, where, under the inhuman administration of Major Wirtz, he endured all the horrors for which that famous prison pen was noted. Dur- ing a large part of the time which he was confined there Mr. Acoam was sick and contracted rheumatism and scurvy, from which he suffered a great deal. He was released from the Andersonville prison on August 18, 1864, and soon afterwards at Jacksonville, Florida, he was discharged from the service and given transportation home. For many years after his return home he felt the ill effects of the terrible experiences through which he had passed while in the Southland. After his return home he followed harness making at Bed- ford, being located on Sixteenth street until he retired from active business and his son is now following the same occupation at the old stand. In the past seventeen years Mr. Acoam has lived at No. 1727 O street and is now enjoying that rest which his years of honest effort have so richly earned for him.
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Mr. Acoam has been twice married, first in 1865 to Clara Malott, a native of Lawrence county, Indiana, and after her death he married, on August 25, 1895, Catherine Leach, of Bedford. the daughter of John and Frances (Phipps) Heron, of Martin county, Indiana, where the father was a successful farmer. Both are now deceased. They were the parents of six children, namely : Daniel, who died while in the army; Alexander, who was killed in a railroad accident in St. Louis ; Lewis, deceased : John, deceased; Nancy, the wife of John Stout, of Elnora, Indiana, and Catherine, Mrs. Acoam. To the subject's first union was born a son, Harry M., who is a harness maker in Bedford and who married Iola Hoopengarner. To the subject's present union has been born a daughter, Ora, who is the wife of John L. Miller, of Bedford, and they have three children, Catherine, Ora and, Mabel.
Fraternally, Mr. Acoam has been for over a half century a member of Lodge No. 177. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Bedford, and has taken an appreciative interest in the workings of this order. He is also a member of E. C. Newland Post No. 247, Grand Army of the Republic, at Bedford. Religiously, he and his wife are members of the Christian church at Bedford, to which they give a generous support. Mr. Acoam is very widely known throughout Lawrence county and has a large circle of warm and loyal friends who esteem him not only for his record as a defender of his country in the hour of her need, but also for his splendid record as a business man and private citizen.
SILAS NEWTON WHITTED.
The best title one can establish to the high and generous esteem of an intelligent community is a protracted and honorable residence therein. Silas Newton Whitted, one of the best known and highly esteemed men of Law- rence county, has resided in this locality all his life and his career has been a most commendable one in every respect, well deserving of being perpetuated on the pages of a historical work of the nature of the one in hand. Like his- sterling father before him, he has been a man of well defined purpose and never failed to carry to successful completion any work of enterprise to which he addressed himself. Beginning life in a new country and under many unfa- vorable auspices, he let nothing deter him and before the lapse of many years he had a fine farm under cultivation. Knowing that the country was destined to take a high rank in the productive and rich localities of the North, he applied himself very closely to his work and waited for the future to bring its rewards, and today he is one of the substantial men of his. county.
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Silas Newton Whitted was born in Shawswick township, Lawrence county, Indiana, on December 29, 1833. He is descended from a sterling line of pioneer ancestry, his grandfather, Hon. John Whitted, having come to Lawrence county in 1816 and being the first of the family to settle in this locality. He was a native of North Carolina, where he married Ruth Allen, and together they drove through with wagon and teams, settling four and one-half miles east of Bedford, where Mr. Whitted obtained a tract of govern- ment land. Subsequently he moved to another farm one and one-half miles east of his first homestead, where, on one hundred and sixty acres of good land, he spent the remainder of his days, dying in 1866 at the age of eighty- five years. His first wife had died some years previous and he married Vinie Allen and after her death he chose Susan Clayton, a native of North Carolina. All three wives died on the last named farm. Mr. Whitted was a successful farmer and also took a deep interest in the advancement of the community in many ways, being a prominent figure in the early events of that locality. He was a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he was a local preacher, though earlier in life he had been a Dunkard. He also en- gaged to some extent in teaching school. Politically, he was a Whig and served as judge of the circuit court. To his first union were born eight children, Thomas, Zachariah, John, Lewis, Polly. Jennie, Eliza and one other, and to the second union were born three children, George, Lorenzo Dow and one . who died in infancy. Not only was Mr. Whitted active in the public affairs of his community, but his private life was above reproach and in the circles in which he moved he was popular because of his genial qualities and clean character.
The subject of this sketch received a limited education in the common schools of his home neighborhood, the nearest school house being located some distance from his home, to which the pathway led through a dense woods, but those were incidents common to life in the early days of Indiana. At the age of eighteen years Mr. Whitted took up farming on his own account and operated at different places until the age of twenty-one years, in 1859, when he and George Whitted acquired the ownership of a saw and grist mill on Guthrie creek, which they operated for two years. Mr. Whitted's plans were interrupted, however, by the opening of hostilities in the Southland, and in September, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company B, Twenty-seventh Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, at Bedford, Indiana. The command was sent to Washington, D. C, and there was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, with which it took part in four important battles, those at Ball's Bluffs, Winchester, Cedar Mountain and Antietam, besides which they partici-
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pated in a number of severe skirmishes and other minor engagements. At the first battle of Cedar Mountain Mr. Whitted was wounded by a piece of shell which struck him in the left hip and on September 17, 1862, he was wounded at Antietam, being shot through the left leg below the knee and was in a hospital at Baltimore, Maryland, for four months, and in the winter of 1863 was discharged because of physical disability and returned to his home, where for several months he was unfit for active labor because of his wounds. When sufficiently recovered Mr. Whitted again took up farming in Shawswick township, Lawrence county, about six miles east of Bedford, this tract comprising a part of the old homestead. To the improvement and cul- tivation of this place he persistently applied himself for about forty years, when, having accumulated a sufficiency of this world's goods to relieve him from further embarrassment, he retired from active labor and came to Bed- ford in 1901, where he has since lived. He is a man of good business quali- ties and indefatigable industry, elements which contributed materially to the success which crowned his active efforts.
Politically, Mr. Whitted is a staunch Republican and has always taken a commendable interest in public affairs, especially relating to local matters. but has never aspired to office for himself. Socially, he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic post at Bedford, while his religous membership is with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a regular attendant. Personally, he is keenly alive to all the current questions of the day, is well read and keeps well informed as to the latest advances in current thought. Physically, he is well preserved and is as alert as most men many years his junior.
Mr. Whitted has been twice married, first to Elizabeth Edwards, of Law- rence county, the daughter of Newland and Margaret ( Jolinson ) Edwards, who were natives of North Carolina and early settlers of Lawrence county, having settled in Shawswick township. Both are now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Whitted were born ten children : Wesley, Jennie, Maude, John and Lewis are deceased ; Charles is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, being now located at Elliottsville, Indiana : Edwin is living at Velonia, Indiana, and is also a preacher of the Methodist church: Lawrence is a stone worker and lives at Coxton, Indiana ; Lucy, the wife of Fred Mason, of Oolitic, Indiana. and Ira Chase, a barber at Bedford. Mrs. Elizabeth Whitted died in 1884 and for his second wife Mr. Whitted chose Susan E. Allen, the widow of William Allen, of Lawrence county, and the daughter of Henderson and Clem- entine Woody, of Lawrence county. To the second union no children have been born.
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JOSEPH G. McPHEETERS.
A representative of one of the old families of this locality and himself a life-long resident of Bloomington, no citizen of Monroe county enjoys to a higher degree the genuine esteem and confidence of the people at large than the subject of this sketch. For many years an incumbent of public position. the duties of which he discharged with eminent ability and honor to himself, he has in his personal efforts met with eminent success and as a business man and citizen of Bloomington he stands deservedly high.
Mr. McPheeters was born in Bloomington, Indiana, on August 26, 1839, and is the son of Joseph and Clara Ann (Dunn) McPheeters. The father, who was an eminent physician and surgeon of Bloomington for fifty years, was numbered among the leading citizens in the early days, when men of strength and courage were required. He was the father of four children : Lizzie M., Joseph G., Mattie E. and Charles H. He was a Republican in politics and in the early days he held many local offices. He was at one time the candidate of his party for state senator, but was defeated by four votes.
The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools and later became a student in the State University, but on account of ill health was compelled to relinquish his studies the year before he would have graduated. He engaged as a clerk in a drug store, where he remained about three years and then during the following three years was in the United States mail ser- vice between Louisville and Chicago, that being during the war of the Rebel- lion. Mr. McPheeters was then appointed postmaster at Bloomington, and in this position achieved a splendid record, for he was retained in the office by continuous reappointment for the long period of twenty-eight years, which, at the time he retired from the office, was an unequaled record among post- masters in the United States. His commission was signed by seven Presidents and the duties of the office were discharged in a manner that never merited censure by his superior officers. Upon retiring from the postmastership Mr. McPheeters established his present book and stationery store on the east side of the public square, where he carries a stock valued at over five thousand dollars, consisting of books, stationery, fancy goods and regular college sup- plies. He is a man of good business qualifications, courteous to all who have dealings with him, and, because of his splendid official record and his high character, as well as the success to which he is now attaining, he enjoys to a marked degree the confidence and good will of the entire community.
In 1872 Mr. McPheeters married Amelia R. Collins, whose father was
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a prominent attorney at Terre Haute. Politically, Mr. McPheeters is an ardent supporter of the Republican party, and though he has never been a seeker after public office, he was appointed United States commissioner and held the office for fifteen years. For twelve years he was treasurer of the Bloomington Building Association, and in other ways has been a potential factor in the building up and development of Bloomington. Fraternally, he is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, maintaining a live interest in the workings of these orders, in the membership of which he holds a high standing. Mr. McPheeters' life has been controlled by proper motives, and in his relations with his fellow men he has been actuated by the highest ideals, so that among those who know him best he is numbered among the community's leading citizens.
JAMES K. OWENS.
The Union soldier during the great war between the states builded wiser than he knew. Through four years of suffering and wasting hardships, through the horrors of prison pens and amid the shadows of death, he laid the superstructure of the greatest temple ever erected and dedicated to hitman freedom. The world looked on and called those soldiers sublime, for it was theirs to reach out the mighty arm of power and strike the chains from off the slave, preserve the country from dissolution, and to keep furled to the breeze the only flag that ever made tyrants tremble and whose majestic stripes and scintillating stars are still waving universal liberty to all the earth. For all the unmeasured deeds the living present will never repay them. Pen- sion and political power may be thrown at their feet; art and sculpture may preserve upon canvas and in granite and bronze their unselfish deeds; history may commit to books and cold type may give to the future the tale of their sufferings and triumphs; but to the children of the generations yet unborn will it remain to accord the full measure of appreciation and undying re- membrance of the immortal character carved ont by the American soldiers in the dark days of the early sixties, numbered among whom was the gentle- man whose name appears at the head of this sketch.
James K. Owens, who is now living in honorable retirement at his com- fortable home in Bedford, Indiana, was born in Wayne county, Kentucky, on the 17th day of August, 1844. He is the son of Washington and Peggy (41)
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(Anderson) Owens, the former a native of the state of North Carolina and the latter of good old Irish stock. The subject's paternal grandfather was Joseph Owens, while his maternal grandfather was John Anderson, a native of Ireland. These gentlemen respectively located in Kentucky, where they spent the remainder of their lives and died. Washington Owens, the subject's father, received but a limited education and during his life time devoted him- self to farming pursuits and also operated a large distillery on his farm. Eventually he went to Arkansas and later to Dallas, Texas, during the war, dying in that state. His wife had died in Kentucky. The subject of this sketch was their only child, and at the age of seventeen years he left home, he and his father having had some differences of opinion because of the fact that the subject wished to enlist in the Union army, against which his father protested. However, in August, 1862, James K. Owens enlisted as a private in the Thirty-second Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, at Danville, under Captain Harrison Hert, and was commissioned a corporal. His first period of enlistment having expired, he was mustered out in 1863, but on August 13th of the same year he re-enlisted as a private in Company E, Thir- teenth Regiment of Cavalry, under Captain William D. Lowe, with which he served until January 10, 1865, when, at Camp Nelson in Kentucky, he was honorably discharged. During his first enlistment he served in Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, being principally assigned to scout duty, while during his second enlistment he did scout and skirmish duty, being engaged at Killing's Salt Works, Lookout Mountain, Perrysville, Traversville, and was with General Sherman during his celebrated campaign. After the close of the war Mr. Owens came to Lawrence county, Indiana, and locating at Leesville, was engaged in farming for a year. He then went home and for seven years operated a farm, at the end of which time he came to Bedford, Indiana, and was employed in the stone quarry for fifteen years. Later he engaged in the timber business, in which his business attained to extensive proportions and in which he was very prosperous, so that in 1908 he was enabled to retire from an active business life and has since been spending his time quietly at his home at No. 718 J street, Bedford, where is enjoying the fruits of his former . years of toil.
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