USA > Indiana > Miami County > History of Miami County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 19
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county clerk, of which office he continued the incumbent for a period of eight years. He has ever shown a most loyal and helpful interest in all that touches the general welfare of the community and he is at present time president of the board of education of his home city. He is a native of the fine old Hoosier state and his loyalty to the same is of the most insistent order, the while he is a scion of a family whose name has long been identified with Indiana annals.
Mr. Hughes was born in Indianapolis, the capital city of Indiana, on the 30th of November, 1858, and is a son of Isham and Serepta (Orm) Hughes, both of whom were born in the state of Kentucky, which in the early days contributed a fine element of citizenship to Indiana. Isham Hughes was one of the early locomotive engineers of Indiana, and in its capital city in the pioneer days he was a valued member of the old volunteer fire brigade, which utilized primitive fire-engines that were operated by hand power. For many years he followed the vocation of locomotive engineer, and his experience compassed the development of railroading from crude form to that of modern facilities, so that his reminiscences in connection with this important line of public-utility service were most varied and interesting. He was originally in the
employ of the old Indianapolis & Madison Railway Company, the first to operate a passenger service line in Indiana; later was an engineer for the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago Railroad, now a part of the Lake Erie & Western system; and finally he became one of the best known and most valued engineers in the service of the Chicago, Cleveland, Cin- cinnati & St. Louis Railroad, commonly known as the Big Four. He was in active service as an engineer for a period of about forty years, and after his resignation from the employ of the Big Four company he lived virtually retired until his death, at a venerable age. He passed the closing years of his life at Kokomo, this state, where he died on the 1st of July, 1912. He was a man of genial and buoyant disposition, was widely known throughout Indiana and in railway circles, and his friends were in number as his acquaintances. He was a stalwart Dem- ocrat in his political proclivities and during the greater part of his mature life he held membership in the Methodist Episcoal church, of which his wife likewise was a devoted member, her death having occurred in October, 1896. Of their seven children three sons and two daughters are now living.
The excellent public schools of Indiana's capital city afforded to Charles R. Hughes his early educational advantages, which included those of the Shortridge high school, in which he was graduated. He thereafter attended a business college in Minneapolis, his native city, and prepared himself for the practical work of life. At the age of seven- teen and eighteen while attending school Mr. Hughes read law in the office and under the preceptorship of the representative firm of Baker, Hoard & Hendricks, the principals of which were leading members of the Indianapolis bar, Mr. Hendricks having later been vice-president of the United States, during the administration of President Cleveland. The dry intricacies of the law did not appeal greatly to the active and ambitious young student, and at the expiration of one year he aban- doned his technical reading and made a radical change in his plans, as, on the 4th of July, 1873, he assumed the position of fireman on the Indianapolis, Peru, & Chicago Railroad. He soon showed inherent predilection for railroad work and was advanced to the position of engineer, in which he served nearly a quarter of a century, during which he well upheld the prestige established by his father in this vocation. In the meanwhile he had adopted Peru as his home and had identified himself closely with local interests. He retired from rail-
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way service in May, 1895, to assume the office of county clerk of Miami county, to which position he had been elected, as candidate on the Democratic ticket, in the autumn of the preceding year. During his first term of four years he gave a most careful and efficient adminis- tration, and the popular approval of the same was manifested in his re-election, so that he served eight consecutive years, during which he made the county records models of systematic exactness and scrupu- lous attention to details.
Upon retiring from the office of county clerk Mr. Hughes assisted in the organization of the Wabash Valley Trust Company, of which bank he is still a director and of which he was treasurer nearly three years and in the developing of the excellent business of which he played an influential part. Since July, 1907, he has been engaged in the livery and transfer business, in which he is associated with his son-in-law, Louis S. Ward, under the firm name of Ward & Hughes. The firm has a large and well equipped establishment and controls a substantial and prosperous business, to the affairs of which Mr. Hughes gives the major part of his time and attention. For many years Mr. Hughes has served as a valued member of the directorate of the Citizens' National Bank of Peru and as its vice-president and also of that of the Peru Building & Loan Association, which has exerted potent influence in furthering the civic and material progress and upbuilding of the fine little city of Miami county. He has served as a member of the board of education of Peru since 1908 and is at this time president of the same. He has shown most vital interest in bringing the local schools up to a high standard and within his regime as president of the board has been erected the new high school building, which is conceded to be one of the finest in the state and the building of which was compassed without the least suspicion of graft or self-seeking on the part of the progressive board which had supervision of this important improvement.
Mr. Hughes is unwavering in his allegiance to the Democratic party and has been influential in its local councils and the manœuver- ing of its forces. Both he and his wife are zealous and valued members of the Presbyterian church in their home city, and he is a trustee of the same, besides which he was a member of the building committee under whose supervision was erected the present fine church edifice. Mr. Hughes is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity Lodge No. 67, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 52, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge No. 365, and the Royal Arcanum Coun- cil No. 462.
On the 19th of May, 1881, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hughes to Miss Mary E. Burnett, who was rearcd in Peru, and who is a daughter of the late Absalom Burnett, a representative citizen of Peru, and an old school teacher and soldier. The two children of this union are Frances May, wife of L. F. Ward, and Charles Burnett, of Peru.
RICHARD A. EDWARDS. A prominent and influential business man and progressive citizen of Peru, of Miami county, Mr. Edwards here holds the office of president of the First National Bank, with which in- stitution he has been identified for more than thirty years and in the upbuilding of the substantial business of which he has wielded much influence, the while he has gained secure prestige as an able executive of broad views, impregnable integrity of purpose and most progressive policies. He is a man of fine intellectual attainments and prior to entering his present field of endeavor he had been a prominent and valucd factor in educational work, as an able exponent of the pedagogic
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profession, which likewise was signally dignified and honored by the character and services of his distinguished father. Mr. Edwards is essentially one of the strong and representative figures in connection with financial and general business activities in his home city and county, has impregnable vantage-place in popular confidence and esteem and is well entitled to specific recognition in this publication.
Richard Arthur Edwards was born at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on the 9th of November, 1851, and is a scion of a family whose name be- came identified with the annals of New England in the colonial epoch of our national history. He is a son of Rev. Richard and Betsey (Josslyn) Edwards, and he was a child at the time of the family removal to the historic old town of Salem, Massachusetts, where the father held the position of president of the Massachusetts State Normal School until 1859, when he removed with his family to the City of St. Louis, Missouri, where he assumed the office of president of the St. Louis Normal School, for two years. He was then tendered advancement to the position of president of the Illinois State Normal University, at Normal, McLean county, an incumbency which he retained from 1861 to 1873, within which period he did splendid work in bringing this great institution up to a high standard both in the efficiency of its work and in gaining to the same a largely increased and appreciative support. He was a man of fine administrative ability and specially broad and liberal education, and his influence upon the youth who came within the sphere of his earnest activities has widened in beneficence through their worthy lives and achievements. He served as state superintendent of schools in Illinois for several years after his retirement from the presidency of the normal university and thereafter entered the ministry of the Con- gregational church, in which he found another broad field for the aid- ing and uplifting of his fellow inen. He served for a number of years as pastor of the Congregational church at Princeton, Illinois, and the gracious twilight of his long and noble life was passed in retirement from active labors. He maintained his liome at Bloomington, Illinois, until his death, which occurred on the 7th of March, 1908, and his name merits enduring place on the roll of those who have done a great work for humanity, his reputation as an educator and a clergyman being of the highest. He was a man of broad mental ken and well fortified opinions, and he ever manifested a loyal interest in all that touched the general welfare of the community, his political allegiance having been given to the Republican party.
Richard A. Edwards gained his rudimentary education in the public schools of St. Louis, Missouri, and Normal, Illinois, and was signally fortunate in having the environment and gracious associations of a home of distinctive culture and refinement,-relations that could not fail of benignant influence in the formative period of his character. He availed himself of the advantages of the Illinois State Normal University at the time when his honored father was its president, and at the age of eighteen years he initiated his practical pedagogic career, as a teacher in the public schools of Paxton, Illinois, where he held the position of principal of the schools. After devoting two years to suc- cessful work as a teacher he entered, in the year 1872, Dartmouthi Col- lege, where he remained a student for one year, and later he was graduated as a member of the class of 1876 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. For two years after his graduation Mr. Edwards held the position of instructor in Greek and Latin in Rock River Seminary, at Mount Morris, Illinois, an institution with which he had previously been connected in this capacity for a term of one year. Upon resigning this position, in 1878, he became professor
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of English literature and rhetoric in Knox College, at Galesburg, Ill- inois, and continued as one of the valued and popular members of the faculty of this institution until 1881.
The year last mentioned marked the arrival of Mr. Edwards in Peru, Indiana, where he assumed the position of assistant cashier of the First National Bank. In 1884 he was advanced to the office of cashier, and of this position he continued the able and efficient incumbent until 1911, in January of which year he was elected to his present office, that of president, in which he has continued to direct the policies and operations of the bank with marked discrimination. He is conservative in his financial methods, has gained broad and accurate knowledge con- cerning real-estate values and general resources in his home' county, and through his progressive business policies he has done much to make the First National Bank a power in the local industrial and business field.
Loyal and public-spirited as a citizen but never imbued with ambi- tion for official perferment of political order, Mr. Edwards is found aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and he has given his co-operation in the furtherance of measures and enterprises that have conserved the industrial and commercial advance- ment of Peru, where he is president of the Peru Canning Company and also of the Clute & Butler Company, manufacturers of pianos, besides which he is a stockholder in various other industrial and commercial institutions in his home city. He and his wife are zealous members of the Baptist church and he holds membership in the Columbia Club in the city of Indianapolis, and the University Club of Chicago.
In the year 1880 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Edwards to Miss Alice Shirk, daughter of the late Elbert H. Shirk, who was at that time president of the First National Bank of Peru and who was long numbered among the most honored and influential citizens of Miami county. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have two sons and three daughters.
BERNE WELCH. One of the young men of Miami county, who have recently come into official prominence as a county officer, and now the occupant of the position of surveyor, Mr. Welch was reared in the city of Peru and as a young man depended largely upon his own resources to carry him forward in the world. One feature of his early career in this city was that for six years he was one of the boys who carried the Peru Evening Journal.
Berne Welch was born in Kosciusko county, Indiana, September 19, 1888. He was one of four children, all of whom are now living, born to Robert R. and Mary E. (Patterson) Welch. The father, who was reared a farmer, for the past seventeen years has been engaged in railroad work, and since 1899 has been a resident of Peru. At the present time he is a freight conductor on the Wabash Railroad. The family moved to Peru in the fall of 1899, when his son Berne was eleven years of age. The latter had completed his education through the fourth grade in his native county, and from that time attended the public schools of Peru, where he was graduated from the high school in the spring of 1908. From leaving school until April, 1910, Mr. Welch was employed by the hardware firm of Charters, Brown & Company, at Peru. He then went out to the northwest, and received a thorough experience in engineering work in North Dakota in the employ of the Northern Pacific Railroad. After returning to Peru he soon became deputy county surveyor, and continued in that position until 1912, when during the regular fall election he was elected surveyor of Miami county, and is now officiating in that capacity. Mr. Welch is a Democrat in
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politics and was elected on that ticket. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
HENRY A. EAGLE. A citizen who spent most of his boyhood in Miami county and who in subsequent years by industry and thrift and public spirit has been a valued individual factor in the life of Peru, Mr. Eagle is best known in his home city as one of the proprietors of a large car- riage and general repair shop, an industry with which his name has been identified for a period of thirty-five years. Henry A. Eagle was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1850, and spent the first fourteen years of his life in his home county. His father was Michael Eagle, who was a carriage maker by trade and the same voca- tion was followed by his father. Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, was the home and birthplace of several generations of the Eagle family. In that county Michael Eagle married Anna Shireman, and they became the parents of seven children, three of whom are now living. The mother died in 1860 and four years later, Michael Eagle married again and at once brought his family out to Miami county. He bought land in Richland township, and for the most part was engaged in farming until 1875, at which date he moved into Peru and lived retired from the cares of life from that time until his death, which occurred April 4, 1909. He and his wife were active members of the Catholic church.
Henry A. Eagle accompanied the family to Miami county in 1864, and with the exception of nine years spent chiefly in Indianapolis, this county has always been his home. He attained his education in the district schools of Pennsylvania and this county, attending only the customary three months of the winter with the summers spent in the work of the farm. During his early career he assisted his father in the clearing and the grubbing, planting and harvesting and knows by experience much of the hard labor and hardships of farm life forty or fifty years ago. When nineteen years of age he began learning the carriage maker's trade at Logansport, subsequently completing his apprenticeship at Indianapolis, where he remained eight years as a journey workman. In 1878 he returned to Peru and entered the employ of the old established firm of Sullivan and Graf. In February, 1879, a reorganization was made, and Mr. Eagle has since been associated in partnership with Mr. Sullivan, under the firm name of Sullivan & Eagle, a business title which has continued for a period of thirty-four years.
On April 22, 1879, Mr. Eagle married Miss Helen Worstell, of Covington, Kentucky. Mrs. Eagle died on June 3, 1906, the mother of five children: Gertrude, now Mrs. William Lynch of Peru; Blanch; Merion, who died at the age of fourteen; Nellie, who died at the age of nine; and Henry. Mr. Eagle is in politics a Democrat, but has never aspired to office, and has contributed his part to good government largely through his private industry and his neighborly qualities.
CHARLES M. LONG. Now living at his home in Richland township in his eighty-first year, Mr. Long has spent more than three-quarters of a century within the boundaries of Miami county, and possibly his recol- lections go back to an earlier stage of life in this county than any other man living at the present time. The Long family, including himself, has been one which has contributed to the substantial development and improvement of Miami county from the very earliest wilderness day until the present.
C. M. Long was born in Union county, Indiana, September 27, 1832, a son of John Long and a grandson of Frederick Long. The maiden
Abigail Long
C
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HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
name of his mother was Margaret Martindale, a daughter of Moses Martindale. On the paternal side the ancestry was German, although for four or five generations has been resident in America. The maternal ancestry is English.
The parents were married in Wayne county, Indiana, and came overland from Union county to Miami in 1836. The county at that time was completely covered with timber, and only a few clearings had been made in the forest for the cabin homes of the early settlers. There were a great many Indians still lingering within the county, and con- ditions continued primitive and of pioneer character for many years afterward. Railroads were not built until after Mr. Long had grown to manhood, and all travel was by river or canal or along the highways by team and wagon. Peru at the time of the Long settlement was known as Miamitown, and the principal source of supplies and the market center was at Michigan City, many miles to the north, and it required days for the settlers to go and come. The Martindale family came to Miami county at the same time as the Longs. E. B. Martindale, who for forty-eight years was connected with the Indianapolis Journal, and was its editor during the Civil war, was a cousin of Mr. Long's mother, and died at the age of eighty-one years, having been a very prominent man in public affairs.
C. M. Long remained at home until he was married. There were no schools whatever in the county, when the family first moved here, and C. M. Long was twelve years old before he attended his first school and that was taught in an old log school building. No money was spent on public education, and the era of free schools as known now was not ushered in until after Mr. Long was grown and married, and had a family of his own. After his marriage he located in an old log cabin on a farm across from the site of his present place. The land had been entered by his uncle, James Long. On that farm he introduced a great many laborious improvements, put up the buildings, and was also the builder of all the fine improvements that stand as evidence of his labor on his present estate. His father was proprietor of a small saw-mill. in which was manufactured all the lumber and timbers used in the con- struction of the family houses, and also for many others in this township. Mr. Long is now proprietor of three hundred and twenty acres of land in Richland township. He has comfort and conveniences in keeping with a career such as his has been, and well deserve the plenty in material things, and the esteem of his community. The Long family has been active in the Methodist church since it came to this county,
and Mr. Long was the largest contributor to the church at Chili. His wife is a member of the Baptist church. In politics he is Republican as was his father before him. The last sixteen years of his life the father spent at the home of his son C. M. Long.
In 1855, in Miami county at Chili, Mr. Long married Miss Abigail Griswold, a daughter of Daniel and Amelia (Chandled) Griswold. Mrs. Long was born July 28, 1836. The nine children born to their union are noted as follows: Clara A., born August 7, 1856, died June 22, 1858; Flora M., born February 5, 1859, married Alonzo Cunningham ; Judson A., born May 10, 1861, married Clara Smith; Effie A. born October 1, 1864, died January 3, 1880; Charles W., born May 22, 1866, married for his first wife Myrtie Brower, and for his second wife Sylvia Brower; Emma I., always called Ina, born October 4, 1868, married Nathan Fouts, who was instantly killed while driving over the railroad tracks on September 11, 1901; Mrs. Fouts, who was married to Mr. Fouts on January 22, 1890, now has her home with Mr. and Mrs. Long. Foster L., born April 29, 1872, married Rutta Fisher. Uly C., born Vol. II-9
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October 27, 1874, married Rose Warner; Chester W., born March 10, 1877, married Elby Murphy.
THOMAS KEYES, ISAAC KEYES, THOMAS A. KEYES. Three generations of productive industry and citizenship have been represented in Miami county by the Keyes family. As farmers, soldiers, when their countries called them, and as men of strict integrity and morality in their own communities, they quietly but effectively have contributed to the sub- stantial welfare of this county.
Thomas Keyes, the head of the first generation and the founder of the family name and fortunes in Miami county, came to this locality with his family in 1846, and was thus one of the pioneers who aided during the primitive period of this county. His former home was in Pickaway county, Ohio. Thomas Keyes was a splendid example of the quality and upright character of the early settlers. He entered land in Butler township from the government, his location being on what was then known as the Miami Indiana Reservation. Moving into a cabin home, he began clearing and improving the property, and in time acquired a comfortable home and all the evidences of material prosper- ity. For his generation Thomas Keyes was a man of superior educa- tion, and his influence as an individual was a quality of high value for the promotion of religion, morality and education in this vicinity. Dur- ing the Civil war he vigorously advocated the preservation of the Union and the abolition of the institution of slavery. Ill health pre- vented his going in person to the front, but it was his pleasure to see two of his sons put on the uniform of their country and give loyal service in its behalf. These soldier sons were Thaddeus, a member of the Eighty-Seventh Indiana Infantry, and William H., who served in the One Hundred and Fifty-first Indiana Infantry. Thomas Keyes spent the last years of his life much broken in health and died in 1873. He was an active member of the Methodist church. He was twice mar- ried and his first wife was Jeanette Barker, who was the mother of two sons. His second wife was Mrs. Elizabeth (Oman) Jester, who at the time of her marriage with Mr. Keyes had one daughter. By her marriage to Mr. Keyes she became the mother of ten children.
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