USA > Indiana > Madison County > History of Madison County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 21
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Mr. E. E. Fornshell is a communicant of the Universalist faith, while his wife is a Presbyterian. His parents, the grandparents of Mr. Fred B., were Benjamin and Amanda (Bennett) Fornshell, the former still living and engaged in the hardware business at Camden, Ohio. The paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Civil war. Of the three chil- dren Elmer E. was the oldest and the others are Glenn B. and Effie.
Mr. Fred B. Fornshell was about six years of age when the family moved to Elwood, so that this city has been his home nearly all of his conscious experience. As a boy he attended the common schools, and after leaving the high school he entered the great plant of the American Tin Plate Company, this subsequently becoming a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation. He was a clerk in the tin plate plant .
for seven years, and then entered the Call-Leader office at the time of
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his father's appointment as postmaster. He has since been connected with this paper, and as editor and manager and owner of a portion of the stock has given capable direction to the policy and the news value of the journal.
On the 16th of September, 1908, Mr. Fornshell married Miss Lola B. Callaway, daughter of John W. and Elizabeth (Cochran) Callaway. Mrs. Fornshell is a native of Elwood, where her parents were also born. Mr. John W. Callaway is a banker, farmer and stockman and one of the best known residents in this portion of Madison county. The three chil- dren now living in the Callaway family are Arthur B., Charles A., and Lola B. Mrs. Fornshell is a member of the Christian church, while her husband is a Presbyterian. He is affiliated with Quincy Lodge No. 230 A. F. & A. M. and with Elwood Lodge No. 368 of the Order of Elks. In polities he is a Republican.
ELMER ELLSWORTH FORNSHELL. As postmaster of Elwood since 1905 Mr. Fornshell has performed a large amount of useful public service for his home city, and has managed the affairs of his office to the best advantage and convenience of the citizens. But the accomplishments for which he is best known and by which his name is most closely identi- fied with the city of Elwood were his enterprise in establishing the Leader, and his subsequent connection with that and the combination paper now known as the Call-Leader. Mr. Fornshell has been in the newspaper business for many years and has a special record of success in establishing and putting newly organized papers upon a sound financial basis. He is also active in various business and financial organizations of Elwood.
Elmer Ellsworth Fornshell was born at Camden. Ohio, July 2, 1861, a son of Benjamin and Amanda (Bennett) Fornshell. The family were originally from Pennsylvania where the paternal grandparents, Ben- jamin and Cecelia (Frye) Fornshell were both born. The paternal grandfather was by oceupation a tin and copper smith, and during the years before the war was one of the strong abolitionists in his com- munity. He died when ninety-two years of age. The children in his family were William. Thomas, Pomeroy, Benjamin, Matilda, and Belle. The maternal grandfather was Fred Bennett, who married a Miss Sutton. The former was a native of Indiana and the latter of Kentucky, and they were among the early settlers of Lebanon, Indiana, where the maternal grandfather owned a large tract of land. He lived to be seventy and his wife sixty-two years of age. Their nine children were Nelson, Smith, John, Harvey, Amanda, Lucinda, Mary, Ann, and Eliza Bennett.
Benjamin Fornshell, the father, was born at Camden, Ohio, while his wife was a native of near Lebanon, Indiana. Of their five children three are now living, namely : Elmer E., and Miss Effie and Glen, both of Camden, Ohio. The father, who was reared at Camden, followed the same occupation as his father, that of tin and copper smith, and made that the source of his prosperity for sixty years, all of this time being spent at Camden. His wife died on Thanksgiving Day of 1901 at the age of sixty-two. During the Civil war, he entered the Union service, and was in the ranks for more than a year, being a corporal in his company. The parents were both Universalists in religious faith.
Mr. E. E. Fornshell spent his youth at Camden, where he was equipped for life by attendance in the public schools, and also learned Voi 11-10
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the tinning trade under the direction of his father. A mechanical trade, however, was not in the line of his best talents or inclinations, and in 1881 he went to Cincinnati and became a reporter on the Cincinnati Gazette, and later with the Enquirer for a short time. With this expe- rienee on a metropolitan journal, he went to Lima, where he established a daily edition of the weekly Democrat, and soon afterwards to Van Wert, where he likewise brought out a daily edition for the Bulletin. His next enterprise in the field of journalism was at Toledo, where he spent a little more than a year on the staff of the Morning Commercial. This brought him up to the days preceding the great tariff and sound money campaign of 1896, and for his thoroughly proved ability as a newspaper organizer he was sent into the Indiana Gas Belt to establish a paper for supporting the interests of Mr. Mckinley. For that pur- pose he located at Elwood where the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Works and and the McBeth Lamp Chimney works had just been located. At that time also Daniel G. Reid and W. B. Leeds were just beginning the erec- tion of the tin plate factory. In this nascent industrial community, Mr. Fornshell established the Leader, a weekly newspaper with which the Call was afterwards consolidated, under the present name of the Call- Leader. He has since been connected with this prosperous journal, one of the most influential newspapers in Madison county.
In polities Mr. Fornshell has been an influential Republican for a number of years. He represented Madison county in the Indiana legis- lature in 1897. In 1905 he was elected to the office of mayor of Elwood. but after a short time in that office resigned in order to enter upon his duties as postmaster, an office to which he had just been appointed and which he has held now for eight years. Mr. Fornshell is a stock holder in the First National Bank and the Citizens State Bank, and also in the Elwood Trust Company. Fraternally he is a popular member of the local lodge of Elks. His wife belongs to the Presbyterian church.
On the fifth of February, 1884, Mr. Fornshell married Miss Emma Conover at Van Wert, Ohio, a daughter of David and Susan (Merrill) Conover. Mrs. Fornshell was born at Greenville, Ohio, and her parents were natives of that state and for many years resided at Greenville, Van Wert and at Dayton. Her father died in Van Wert, and her mother in Tipton, Indiana. The three children in the Conover family were Edwin, Charles and Emma. Mr. and Mrs. Fornshell have one son. Fred B., associated in the newspaper business with his father.
BERTAN E. SNEED. Any city would do well to have more of such progressive and public spirited merchants and citizens as Mr. Sneed. the druggist and pharmacist of Elwood. Mr. Sneed began his career with little except his brains and energies, and having once got a foot- hold in the drug trade has continued his advantage from one position to another, until now for a number of years he has been an independent and fairly successful business man. Mr. Sneed represents the young and aggressive element of Elwood's citizenship, and the continued advance- ment of the city rests upon the spirit of energy manifested by the group of citizens among whom he is a prominent member.
Bertan E. Sneed, though born in Breckenridge, Missouri, January 27, 1874, represents an old family of Indiana. and presents a somewhat unusual case of a man returning eastward to what may be regarded as his ancestral home. His paternal grandfather was Evan Sneed, who with his wife was a native of Pennsylvania, was a Baptist preacher and one
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of the pioneers of his denomination in Indiana. It is related that during some of his early service in the ministry in this state he carried a mus- ket to protect him from the Indians. He was one of the old-fashioned itinerant preachers who rode horse-back over the country, carrying a little supply of clothing and sometimes food, and his bible in the saddle- bags which were part of the inevitable equipment of the preacher and doctor in those days. He finally located at Newbern, Indiana, in Bar- tholomew county, where his death occurred at the good old age of seventy- seven. He had a family of children who were named, William, Shad- rech, Samuel, Perry and Callie.
The parents of the Elwood druggist were Perry and Catherine (Wiley) Sneed, the former a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter of Kentucky. The mother was a daughter of John Wiley, who married a Miss Wolf. He was a blacksmith by trade and a preacher in the Univer- salist faith. The Wiley family were among the first settlers of Bar- tholomew county, locating there about 1835 or 1836, near Hartsville, where Joli Wiley died in 1876. He was three times married and had twenty-one children by his three wives. The father of Mr. Sneed was reared at Hartsville, Indiana, became a blacksmith and wagon maker, and for many years followed that honorable mechanical occupation. His death occurred at Cowgill, Missouri, in 1886, when about forty years of age. His wife passed away in 1876 at the age of twenty-nine. Their three children were Effe, deceased. who was the wife of O. B. Lawson; Elzie C., of Greensburg. Indiana : and Bertan E.
Mr. Sneed, who lost his parents when he was a little more than a child, was reared chiefly in Breckenridge, Missouri, where he attended the public schools, and after graduating from the high school in 1800 entered the Missouri Wesleyan College at Cameron, where he was one of the popular students four years. Leaving college he began his practical career as a clerk in a drug store at Browning, Missouri, and followed the same occupation at Kirksville and Green City. In 1893 he came to Indiana, and was located at Burney and at Osgood, being married dur- ing his residence at the latter place. In 1902 he came to Elwood, where he worked as pharmacist for five years. He was then in the drug business for himself at Odon. this state, for three years, and in October. 1910. re- turned to Elwood, where he continued his work as pharmacist until 1912, at which time he succeeded Dr. Saylor as proprietor of the leading drug establishment of Ehrood. He keeps a fine store, placing special emphasis upon the compounding of pure drugs aud careful prescrip- tions, and also maintains a large stock of druggists' sundries.
On April 11. 1900. Mr. Sneed married Miss Lottie McCallister, daughter of William and Adelaide (Burroughs) McCallister. Mrs. Sneed was born in Cincinnati. December 9. 1874. her paternal grand- father being William McCallister, whose wife's maiden name was Val- landingham, both of them being natives of Ohio. Mrs. Sneed's mother -
died in her native state of Ohio in 1875, and her father now lives in Elwood. The three children in the McCallister family were Horace, Lottie, and one now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Sneed have a household of three children. Charlotte. Marcia, and Ruth. Mrs. Sneed is a member of the Presbyterian church, and he is affiliated with the Osgood Lodge of Masons and the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is one of the stanch Republicans of Elwood.
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ELMER A. GUY. A prospering business man of Elwood who has been identified with this city for the past twenty years, Mr. Guy has two first class stores for the cigar, tobacco and confectionary trade, and his business also includes a similar establishment in the town of Tipton. He carries on both wholesale and retail trade, and by progressive business methods has placed himself in the front ranks of Elwood business leaders.
Elmer A. Guy was born in Walton, Cass county, Indiana, July 11, 1875. The family settled in Cass county during the pioneer period. The founder of the family in that section of Indiana was Alfred Guy the paternal grandfather, the maiden name of whose wife was Quinn. This grandfather had been a soldier in the War of 1812. subsequently came to Cass county when it was a wilderness and while the Indians were still in possession of much of the country, and located in the country ten miles southeast of Logansport. He went out from Indiana . as a soldier in the Mexican war, and was captain of his company, during that brief struggle with the southern Republic. His death occurred in Cass county, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. His wife also attained old age.
Their large family of children were named Andrew, William, Jo- seph, Milton, Lavina, Hattie, Charles, Edward, Emma. The parents of the Elwood business man were Joseph M. and Martha (Fitzer) Guy, both of whom were born in Indiana. The father of Martha Fitzer was William Fitzer, he and his wife being natives of Ohio, and early settlers in Cass county, where they died at a good old age. In their family were the following children : Mary, Sarah, Melcina, Laura, Martha, Levi, Joshua, Henry, John, George and Jane Fitzer. Joseph MI. Guy was reared about Logansport and was a farmer near that city and spent nearly all his life there and reared his children. His home is now near Lewisburg, Ohio, on a farm, and he and bis wife are both members of the Christian church. The seven children in the family are named as follows : Elmer A. of Elwood; Lavora, wife of Frank Knight of Wal- ton, Indiana; Harry, of Walton; Jessie, of Lewisburg, Ohio: Bertha, wife of Claude Hammond of Logansport; Elta, wife of W. J. Beckner of Logansport; and Wilda, who is married and lives at Eaton, Ohio.
Reared on his father's farm in Cass county, Elmer A. Guy during his boyhood attended the district schools, and completed his education in the Logansport High School and the Logansport business college. In 1893 he came to Elwood, and became connected with the retail cigar and tobacco trade. He subsequently enlarged his store to handle cigars, tobacco and confectionery as a jobbing business, and still combines these two departments of his business. He has two well stocked and well patronized stores in Elwood and one in Tipton.
On September 13. 1898, Mr. Guy married Miss Maude E. Venard. daughter of Stephen and Mary (Phillips) Venard. Their one son is named Cecil S. Mrs. Guy was born at Walton and her parents were natives of Cass county. Her mother died when about thirty-five years of age. She was one of two children, her brother being named Warren. Mrs. Guy's maternal grandfather was James Phillips. Mrs. Guy is a member of the Presbyterian church of Elwood, and her husband is popular in the fraternal orders of the city. He has affiliations with Quincy Lodge No. 230 F. & A. M .; Elwood Chapter, No. 109, R. A. M., and is a member of Murat Shrine, Indianapolis. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with Quiney Lodge No. 200, and has membership in Elwood Castle No. 166, Knights of Pythias, with the
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Elwood Lodge No. 368 of the Order of Elks, and with the Improved Order of Red Men. In polities he is a Democrat and is a citizen who is always ready to use his influence and efforts to advance the welfare of Elwood.
BARTLETT H. CAMPBELL. A senior member of the law firm of Camp- bell & Kidwell in Elwood, Mr. Campbell is head of the best known com- bination of legal talent in this city, and has been an active member of the Madison county bar for more than twenty years. During this long practice as a lawyer, he has become one of the conspicuous leaders in political affairs and has been prominent in the councils of his party in many capacities. Bartlett M. Campbell is a native of Madison county, born in Richland township, April 14, 1862, and represents the best of citizenship and family stock through his forebears. The paternal grandparents were of Scotch stock, as the name Campbell would indi- cate, and they spent all their lives in England, where they died well advanced in years. There were four children in their family. The parents of the Elwood lawyer were John A. and Miriam B. (Trowbridge) Campbell, the father a native of Huddersfield, England, and the mother of Ohio. The four children in their family are named as follows: Alfred E., of El Centro, California; Joseph B., of Winona, Indiana; Bartlett H., of Elwood; and Imogene, wife of Charles Solomon of Anderson, where Mrs. Solomon is principal of the Washington school.
John A. Campbell, the father, came to America when about seven- teen years of age and finally located in Blountsville, Henry county, Indiana, where he was married. While in that county he enlisted in Company K of the Thirty-Sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and though an adopted son of America gave three years of faithful and efficient service as a soldier for the preservation of the Union. He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh. After the war he began work as a stationary engineer, being located first at Chesterfield and later at Anderson where he resided during the rest of his years. He was killed in an accident at the Paxton Planing Mill at Anderson on the first of September, ISS1. At that time he was about fifty-three years of age. He served as justice of the peace of Anderson township for one term and he and his wife were members of the Christian faith. His widow, who is now eighty-five years of age was a daughter of Joseph B. and Ruhama Trowbridge, the former a native of Virginia. Joseph B. Trowbridge was a character whose life and achievements have a proper place in Madison county history. He was a preacher and disciple of Alexander Campbell, the founder of what is known as the Christian church, and himself became the founder of the church of this denomination at Anderson. He lived to be eighty-six years of age, while his wife attained the great age of ninety-six. Joseph B. Trowbridge was twice married. By his first wife he had three chil- dren, namely, John, Lorenzo, and Daniel. By his second wife there were the following nine children : Ann Maria; Miriam B .; David; Bartlett H., who died in the Civil war; Hannah Sparks of Muncie, Indiana; Laura; Joseph, of Muncie; Jasper, and James, twins.
Bartlett H. Campbell was reared from early childhood in Ander- son, which city remained his home up to 1907, at which time he came to Elwood. As a boy he attended the grammar schools and was graduated from the Anderson high school in 1879. He then spent two years as a teacher in the district school. and followed the same vocation for three years in the Anderson City Schools. From the educational branch of
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public service he was appointed in 1885 as assistant postmaster of An- derson, under John W. Pence. During his work as assistant postinaster, he pursued the study of law. He was in the postoffice until November, 1888, at which time he was appointed deputy sheriff under James Etch- ison, and remained as deputy until 1892. Another early public service was his election as a member of the school board during the period he was with the postoffice, and he continued a member of the board while the first high school building was being erected in Anderson.
Early in 1892 Mr. Campbell was admitted to the bar and in the same year was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney, serving one term in that office which has since been considered a prize among young attorneys as the best possible training ground for later successful prac- tice. He continued after leaving the office of prosecuting attorney in private practice of law at Anderson, and became a partner with Mr. Mark B. Turner, under the firm name of Turner & Campbell. This partnership continued until 1897 at which time Mr. Campbell entered the firm of Goodykoontz and Ballard, his name being placed as the last partner in the new title. After the death of Judge Goodykoontz in 1902 the firm continued as Ballard & Campbell until 1904 at which time the partnership was dissolved.
Mr. Campbell then continued in practice alone. When Mr. John L. Forkner was elected mayor of Anderson in 1902, he appointed Mr. Campbell as city attorney, and he held that office for four years.
In 1907 Mr. Campbell established his office in Elwood, and has since enjoyed a splendid practice, from this city and vicinity. Since January 1, 1910, he has served as city attorney. One of the Democratic leaders, he served as chairman of the Democratic county committee from 1898 to 1900, was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee from the eighth congressional district of 1900 to 1902, and was on the presi- dential electoral ticket in the campaign of 1896. In 1912 Governor Marshall appointed him marshal for the eighth congressional district to collect and canvass the votes for presidential elector.
Mr. Campbell on July 7, 1883, married Miss Luella Wright, daughter of James and Sarah (Hamilton) Wright. The seven children of their marriage are named Dale J., Lena, Edith, Colin, Ralph, James, and Marian. The son Dale J., is in the shoe business at Portland, Oregon, and by his marriage to Edith Dowling has two children, Maxine and James. Lena married George O. Kennedy and they reside on a ranch near Anderson, California. Miss Edith is a teacher in the Elwood public schools; Colin died in infancy; Ralph lives in Elwood, and by his wife Hazel Smith has one son Jack. The son Jaines was killed in a railroad accident at Anderson, December 31, 1906, his death following on January 2, 1907. Marian is now ten years of age and attending school. Mrs. Campbell was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Her parents, the father a native of Indiana, and the mother of Philadelphia, died in Philadelphia when she was a small child and she was reared in the family of a Mrs. Fobes, best known in her community as Grandma Fobes. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell are both members of the Christian church and his fraternal affiliations connect him with Mount Moriah Lodge No. 77 A. F. & A. M. at Anderson, with Elwood Lodge No. 368 of Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and with Madison Council No. 334 of the Royal Arcanum at Anderson.
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MARK E. WININGS. The proprietor of the undertaking parlors at 1610 Main Street in Elwood, Mr. Winnings is a young business man whose conscientious work in his profession has been much appreciated in Elwood, where he has been a resident for the past ten years, and has enjoyed a progressive success in his business. He was born, reared and . spent most of his life in Indiana, and Mr. Winnings has enjoyed prob- ably a larger share of world travel than any of his contemporaries in business at Elwood, and his career has had many diversified and inter- esting experiences.
He was born in Millville, Henry county, Indiana, April 22, 1878, a son of Samuel and Mary A. Winings. The grandparents on his father's side were Joseph and Jane (Mullin) Winings, the former a native of Ohio and of Scotch stock, and the latter a native of Ireland. They became early settlers in Henry county, Indiana, where the grandfather was a farmer and where he lived to the age of sixty-five, while his wife was seventy-two years of age at the time of her death. Their six chil- dren were Samuel, William, Wilson, Thomas, Lemuel, Alonzo, and Pearl. On the mother's side the grandfather was Micajah Forkner, who married an Allen. He was born in North Carolina, while his wife was a native of Wayne county, Indiana. Micajah Forkuer was a long estab- lished merchant at Millville, and for many years in partnership with his son-in-law, Samuel Winings. His death occurred at Millville in 1880, when he was well advanced in life. The children in this branch of the Forkner family were Granville, William, Mary A., Mark E., Benton and John L.
Samuel Winings, the father, was born in Ohio, while his wife was a native of Henry county, this state. The former was brought to Henry county at an early age, was reared on a farm five miles east of Newcastle, attended school at Dublin, and had taken up the study of medicine when the war came on, and he then enlisted in Company C. of the Thirty- Sixth Indiana Infantry, under General Win. Gross. That regiment was a purely Henry county organization. He was in service for three years and at the close of the war engaged, in the mercantile business at Mill- ville, where he continued for a number of years. He was also for a time in the grain business at Ashland, and was still active in that line of trade at the time of his death. He died December 11, 1886, at the age of forty-nine years. During several years he had been in the Federal service as an internal revenue collector. The widow still survives and now makes her home at New Castle. Both were active members of the Christian church and for a number of years were members of the old Flat Rock congregation of this church. The children in the family were six in number and named as follows: Arletha, wife of John A. Geisler, of Hagerstown, Indiana: Josie, wife of Harry Kos of Columbus, Ohio; Horace Greeley of Indianapolis .; Walter A., of Newcastle; Arthur M., of Montpelier, Indiana, and Mark E., of Elwood.
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