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 34
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In 1893 Mr. Plotner was united in marriage with Miss Clara Beam, daughter of Alexander and Martha (Grubb) Beam. One child has come to this union : Carl E., born December 16, 1893, who has received good educational advantages, and is now residing with his parents, assisting his father in the management of the farm. Mr. Plotner has been some- what interested in Masonry, being a popular member of Harrison Lodge, No. 660. Although not a politician in the generally accepted use of the term, he has not been indifferent to the duties of citizenship, and is at present a valued member of the Harrison township advisory board. For the past fifteen years he has been steward of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Santa Fe, Indiana, for six or seven years has been parsonage trustee, and in all church movements he has taken an active part. Both he and his wife are widely known in Harrison township, where their numerous friends testify to their popularity in social circles. The beau- tiful farm of Mr. and Mrs. Plotner is known as "West View Farm."
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RICHARD SAMUEL IDDINGS. The business of farming in Butler town- ship has had no more energetic factors from pioneer times to the pres- ent than the Iddings family. Mr. Iddings is a progressive young farmer, who now has charge of his father's cstate, in Butler township. The old farm represents a great deal of hard labor, performed by the earlier generations, and the present members of the family have much to be grateful for the self denial and toil undergone by their fathers, mothers and grandparents in laying the foundation for the present condition. R. S. Iddings was born on the farm where he now lives, July 26, 1881. His father was John Byron Iddings, and his grandfather was John Iddings. The mother, who is still living, was Mary Huber, a daughter of Jacob Huber. Mr. Iddings has two sisters and one brother : Edward J., who married Maude A. Rowell; Mary, wife of William McDonald; and Nora Iddings, unmarried.
John Byron Iddings, the father, was born in 1847 in Peru, Indiana. He grew up and received his early education in that city. The grand- father Iddings was a gunsmith by trade and followed that vocation at Peru, after his settlement there in the early days. He later moved out to the land in Butler township comprised in the present Iddings home- stead. All this land was covered with timber, and there was a heavy growth of walnut, all of which was cleared away before the woodman's ax, and if those black walnut trees were still standing, their value would compensate for all the improvements that have ever been made upon the cleared ground. The first buildings were all frame cabins and grandfather Iddings did the first work of establishing a home in this wilderness. His first purchase of land was about seventy acres, and his son, John Byron Iddings, added to the estate until at present the homestead comprises three hundred and fifty-five acres. All the build- ings now on the farm were erected by the father, who gave his active career to farming, and was one of the most successful in Miami county. He was reared in the Catholic faith, but was never an active member of the church. The Iddings family is of German and Welsh descent. The father at one time served as trustee of Butler township, and was public-spirited in all his activities and relations. His death occurred May 5, 1912. The mother is still living, and she was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, where she lived until her marriage on June 9, 1879. Her father died March 19, 1870. After her marriage she came to Miami county, and his since lived on the home farm. Her parents, of German descent, were early settlers of Fairfield county, Ohio, where they died. John Byron Iddings and his wife began domestic life in a small frame house, which has been moved to its present location from the orchard, and there their first children were born and reared. In the early days of the Iddings residence in this county, there were many Indians, and the family traditions include many incidents which form familiar features of pioneer life in this section.
Mr. R. S. Iddings received his education in Butler township, and was also a student at Peru and in the Purdue University after completing his high school studies at Peru. He is a capable and well educated man, and understands the business of farming in all its details. For several years he has conducted the home farm, and is now practical manager of the estate. He was married in 1907 to Caroline Barthold, a daughter of George and Mary Barthold. They have one son, John Samuel Idd- ings, born January 19, 1912.
DR. JULIUS T. SPECK. Among the strong men of the past genera- tion who by exceptional energy and business talents created wealth out
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of the natural resources and left the county richer and better for their lives, the late Dr. Julius T. Speck was a conspicuous example.
. Dr. Speck, who died at his home, in Denver, Miami county August 31, 1906, was one of the foremost men of the county during his life- time. His father was Jacob Speck, born in Pennsylvania, August 26, 1782, being of German ancestry. In Germany the family name was originally spelled Spacht. Jacob Speck married Sarah Van Doren, who was born in Virginia, June 12, 1799, and was descended from Holland ancestors. The family moved from Pennsylvania to Preble county, Ohio, when that part of the state was yet in its primitive conditions and when Indians were more to be dreaded than the hardships and privations of pioneer life.
In the new and little developed region of Preble county, Ohio, Dr. Julius T. Speck was born August 17, 1825. His early years were spent in that vicinity, and he came to Miami county at a time when the county had only recently been created from Cass county. In 1852, at the age of twenty-seven, he married Miss Adelia A. Griswold, who' had come as a child of nine years with her parents to Mexico in Miami county, in 1842. Dr. and Mrs. Speck had but one daughter, Dora E., who is now the wife of Willard B. Place, of Denver, a sketch of whom follows. The late Dr. Speck was a Republican in politics and he and his family affiliated with the Methodist Church.
Dr. Speck had only a little more than the average education, but was an extensive reader, had a retentive memory which enabled him to sieze upon and make a permanent and usable possession of the knowl- edge which passed through his mind. He kept well abreast of current topics, and during his earlier years taught school for some time. He finally qualified himself for the profession of medicine and practiced at Cincinnati for a short time. However, the greater part of his life was devoted to general farming and stock-raising, and to this industry he brought special qualifications, and was successful beyond the ability and achievements of almost any other citizen in the county.
At the time of his death he was the owner of about eight hundred acres acres of land, of which about six hundred were under cultivation. He was practically a self-made man, and such success as he achieved was almost wholly through his own exertions.
WILLARD B. PLACE. As manager of the Speck estate, Mr. Place has continued and increased the generous accumulation resulting from the Doctor's career. For many years Mr. Place was in business at Logans- port and elsewhere, until he came to Denver to take up his present work.
Willard B. Place was born at Fairfield, Iowa, February 21, 1858. His father was Willard Place, a native of Preble county, Ohio, where he was reared and where he married Eliza J. Bloss. Subsequently he moved out to Jefferson county, Iowa, during the early period in that state, and was identified in merchandising at Fairfield with his brother- in-law, Daniel Young. From Fairfield he came to Cass county, Indiana, where he was a farmer near Hoover. The father subsequently retired to Logansport, where he spent his last years. The mother still survives and now makes her home in Logansport. In the family were three children, all of whom are now living.
Willard B. Place, the only son of the family, spent most of his youth in Cass county, and had his early education in the district schools, and in the graded schools at Logansport, and finished his formal education at Smithson's College. For eighteen years he was in the heavy machinery business at Logansport, and then for four years was in the oil region as
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an operator. Failing health of his father-in-law, Dr. Speck, then obliged him to return to Miami county, where he assumed the management of the large real estate and live-stock interests of the doctor. Since then he has had his home in Denver, and has devoted all his attention to the management of the large property formerly owned by Dr. Speck.
While a student at Smithson's college, Mr. Place met Dora E. Speck, who was also a student in the institution. This acquaintance culminated in their marriage on December 29, 1886. The one son born to their union is Rollin S. Place, born May 6, 1888. He is now assistant to his father in farming and stock-raising. In politics Mr. Place is a Democrat.
JESSE BOND. The late Jesse Bond, long a resident of these parts, was born in Wayne county, Indiana, on April 24, 1822, and was a son of Jesse Bond and his wife, Phoebe (Commons) Bond, natives of North Carolina and Virginia, respectively.
Concerning the parentage of the late Mr. Bond, it may be said briefly that the father was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, in 1776, where he was reared to manhood, and where he married his wife. Both were of Quaker birth and parentage, and their migration to Wayne county, Indiana, dates back to the early days of its development and settlement, so that they were identified with the most strenuous pioneer life peculiar to the times. Mr. Bond in those days entered from the government the land on which the Friends' College at Richmond later came to be situated, and some years after that he moved to Washington, in Wayne county, where he established a church of the Friends or Quaker faith. He was also directly responsible for the establishment of the church at Richmond. Mr. Bond served his church as a minister for some years, his death occurring at Washington in 1862.
Mr. Bond was twice married. ITis first wife was called to her reward in 1846, and he later chose the widow of Rev. Isaac Willets for his second wife. She survived her husband for many years. By his first marriage he became the father of twelve children, who grew to maturity and reared families of their own. He lived to see all his children settled well in life, and to each one of them he presented a farm. Jesse Bond, one of his sons, and the subject of this review, died on October 16, 1910, full of years and esteemed and loved by all who knew him.
Jesse Bond was born on April 4, 1822, and was reared on the home farm in Wayne county. He received only a common school education and was early trained to hard work, as was the custom with the boys of that period. In 1841 his father presented him with a piece of land on Section 11, Jefferson township, and here Mr. Bond came to make his home. He built a log cabin on the place, building the same from timber that stood where the cabin later reared its frame, and when the little home was com- plete, he married Elizabeth Jane Cox, the daughter of Elijah Cox, who was another of the first settlers of the county. Jesse Bond and his wife lived in their cabin home in the woods for many years, gradually clear- ing away the forest, which was a dense growth of gigantic walnuts, and disposing of it by burning. In these years of pioneer development Mrs. Bond was the able assistant and second of her husband, and to her as much as to him is the honor and credit due for the good work that was accomplished by them in those early years of stress and strife. With the progress of time they prospered, adding considerably to their hold- ings, and when their children were reared and ready to leave home to set up independent establishments, Mr. Bond was able to do as his father before him had done, and gave to each of them a comfortable bit of farm land for a nest egg. Five children were born to them, of which number three yet live. Mrs. Bond died in 1855, and for his sec-
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ond wife Mr. Bond chose Harriet Haugh, and to them five children were born, one of the number being alive today. She has been an able factor in the building up of their happy home and in the rearing of her daugh- ter to the life of a noble woman. Mrs. Bond was a woman of noble aspirations and a loving and motherly nature. She assumed charge of the rearing of four children when Mr. Bond died and she ably and lovingly took charge of this duty, and so well did she fill her part that the children looked up to her as their own mother. She was devoted to her home life and the poor and needy never need go away empty-handed from her door.
From the time of his first coming to Miami county Mr. Bond made this county his home, Jefferson township being the exact location of his settlement for the most part. He was a man of average size and build, but was especially rugged and was a man of the greatest industry. Reared in the religious faith of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, he was noted for the native honesty and integrity that ruled his life, and he possessed the admirable qualities of neighborliness and friendliness. His second wife died in later years and he married Isabel Titus, who still survives him.
Charles Bond is the fifth of the children of Jesse Bond and his first wife. He has lived all his life in Jefferson township, and has followed the farming industry from his earliest activity. His birth occurred on November 29, 1851, and on February 6, 1876, he married Harriet Brower, the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Harmon) Brower, early settlers of this county. To Mr. and Mrs. Bond one daughter has been born,- Effie E., who is the wife of John Keyes, and the mother of a son, Ernest J. Keyes. Mrs. Keyes was educated in the common schools and the Mexico high school and their little son, Ernest J., is now in the sixth grade of the public school.
Mrs. Bond is a native of Miami county, born in a little log cabin August 1, 1859, the last in a family of thirteen children, five sons and eight daughters, born to Joseph and Elizabeth (Harmon) Brower; only four children are living. The eldest is Maria E., widow of William P. Ireland and a resident of Toledo, Ohio and she has two sons and two daughters living. Mary is the wife of B. F. Campbell of Logansport, a retired farmer. Elijah is a resident of Palazzi, North Dakota, an agri- culturist and a widower. Mrs. Bond is the fourth child.
Joseph Brower was a native of Montgomery county, Ohio. Born in 1814 and he died in 1886. He was an agriculturist. He was a resi- dent of Ohio till his young manhood, when he came with his parents across the country in wagons in 1834, and to Miami county, Jefferson township. They entered land from the government and the first home was a log house with a fireplace. Charles Bond, well remembers the same kind of a home, with a fireplace. When they came to Miami the Indians, deer and wolves were plentiful. Mr. Bond was always an agriculturist and had accumulated two hundred acres of land and aided his church. He and wife were active members of the Brethren church. He was one of the first founders of this church in their locality, and he burned the brick for the church building. Their home was the haven for the preachers. He was first a Whig and then a Republican, casting his vote for General John C. Fremont, the first Republican nominee. Mrs. Brower was a native of Pennsylvania, born near Philadelphia in 1816, and she died in 1892. She was a child of eleven years of age when she went with her parents to Ohio (Preble county ), and was reared there and then came to Miami county in 1836 and here was married. Mrs. Brower was a lady of strong convictions and a woman of tender, loving sympathy. She taught her children the
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Pugsley
PHOTO
"MIDDLE GROVE FARM" RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. TIMOTHY M. GINNEY
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lessons of sobriety, honesty and right living before God and man. Both Mr. and Mrs. Brower are interred in the cemetery of the Church of the Brethren and a beautiful stone stands sacred to their memory. Mrs. Bond has been reared in her home county and educated in the common schools.
Mr. Bond is the owner of one hundred and eighty-five acres of land near the village of Mexico, and he is one of the prosperous and successful farming men of the township wherein he has long resided. Politically, he is a Republican, and in his religious faith he has in later years departed from the faith of his fathers, the Friends Society, and has become a member of the Church of the Brethren, of which his wife is also a member. The family is one that enjoys the sincerest regard and hearty friendship of the best people of the town, where they are well known for the many excellent qualities that dominate their lives. The beautiful homestead of Mr. and Mrs. Bond is known as "The Pine Grange," and it is the abode of hospitality.
TIMOTHY M. GINNEY. The establishment in a community of a family possessed of the sturdy virtues of sobriety, industry and integrity is one of the most important events of local history and has more important results upon the economic well being and social activities of a township or county than many more conspicuous happenings which are usually the first to receive the chronicles of press and historical accounts. Miami county has been fortunate in the possession of its family stock, but probably in none can it take more substantial pride than in the Ginney family, which has been known and honored here for sixty years.
Timothy M. Ginney, known generally throughout Miami county as Tim Ginney, is of Irish parentage, his father having been Timothy Ginney and his mother Catherine Dowd, both natives of County Kerry. Timothy Ginney, the elder, grew to manhood in his native country where he received an exceedingly limited education. He emigrated to America in 1850, on board a sailing vessel, and after arriving in this country worked for a short time at railroading. Soon after landing on these shores he went to Toledo, Ohio, where he met and married Catherine Dowd, who had come with her widowed mother and with four brothers and sisters to America about 1848. After Timothy Ginney's marriage he lived at Toledo until about 1853, and then with his family came down the old Wabash and Erie Canal to Miami county. His first home was in Peru, where he was employed at the arduous task of shovel- ing gravel. He next moved out to land which he rented from James Miller, one of the old pioneers of the county. Mr. Ginney now employed his days at work in a lime kiln, while Mrs. Ginney and the children who were old enough, applied themselves to the operation of the land they had rented, raising grain and food to supply the family larder. In this way the family got along, not only providing for their wants, but getting ahead a little for about five years. During the succeeding five years, they lived on the Abner Kisman farm in Butler township. By this time, through the united efforts of Mr. Ginney and family they had saved enough to pay an installment on a farm of one hundred and twenty-four acres in Washington township. Continued hard work and economy was the solvent before which all this indebtedness was in due time liquidated. Eventually Mr. Ginney and his wife moved into Peru, retired from active work and there spent the remainder of their days in comfort and peace. The elder Timothy Ginney was a Democrat in politics. He came to this country, a raw Irish lad, among strangers, with practically no education, and by sheer pluck, indomitable energy and force of character made life a success where most men of the pres-
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ent day would have given up before beginning. His death occurred on Christmas day, 1905, and his widow passed away on July 19, 1911. They were devout Catholics in their religion, affiliating with St. Charles church of Peru, and reared their children in the same faith. They were the parents of eight children, seven sons and one daughter, three of the sons being now deceased.
Tim Ginney, the oldest of the children, was born at Toledo, Ohio, on March 14, 1853, and his boyhood days were spent in helping his parents provide a home and bread for the family. He gained his edu- cation in the public schools, and on February 11, 1879, married Miss Bridget Roach, daughter of John and Julia (Daily) Roach. After this event he rented a small farm in Washington township, where he lived for a year. He was next enterprising enough to buy eighty acres of his present farm in Peru township, and here since March 1, 1880, has been his permanent home. During the first ten years he and his wife lived in a log cabin with clapboard roof. By hard work he has added to his realty possessions, until now he owns two hundred and twenty acres, and ownership with Tim Ginney means improvements to the very highest possibility, so that his farm is now considered one of the finest in all Miami county.
To Mr. and Mrs. Ginney eight childrent have been born, here men- tioned as follows : Mary A., who is deceased; Julia C .; Sarah M .; John E., deceased ; Leo J .; John C .; Edwin, who is deceased; and Chlorys G. Ginney.
Mr. Ginney and his family worship in the Catholic church, and in politics he is a Democrat. When he was only twenty-two years of age, he was elected assessor of Washington township, in Miami county, and in 1908 he was elected to membership on the board of county commis- sioners of Miami county, giving a full term of three years to the best interests of local affairs. The handsome and well kept estate of the Ginney family is known as the Middle Grove Farm.
HENRY ROSE. Coming to the United States as a poor boy, without knowing a word of English, having only an indifferent education, and handicapped by lack of financial support, accepting whatever work he could find in order to get a start and gradually pursuing his way upward and making a place for himself among the successful men of his com- munity-such has been the career of Henry Rose, one of the prosperous, substantial farmers of Harrison township, of Miami county, whose home in this county has continued for more than sixty years, and in that time lie has witnessed many remarkable changes from the pioneer conditions to the modern electric age.
Of thrifty and rugged German stock, Henry Rose was born in Ger- many, January 19, 1846, a son of Henry and Mary (Graf) Rose. His grandfather was Valentine Rose. In 1851, the Rose family, seeking to better their condition by coming to America, left their native land, and after a long and tedious ocean journey landed in New York City. Their home was kept in New York State for a little more than three years. Coming west to Indiana, they found a place in the woods of Harrison township in Miami county, and there Henry Rose, Sr., and his good wife Mary spent the rest of their years and were honored and respected mem- bers of their community. The father died in September, 1885, and the mother in 1891. The first years of their residence in this township, were spent by Henry Rose in cultivating rented land. Then he bought forty acres of timber, cleared a small tract, built a cabin, and applied himself with the courage and industry characteristic of the better class of Germans, and eventually had created for himself a moderate meas-
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ure of prosperity. Other larger and better buildings were erected from time to time, but the old house still stands, a landmark of pioneer days. The younger Henry Rose, who was less than ten years of age when the family moved to Miami county, inherited a share of the lit- tle farm his father's industry had developed, where he has since con- tinued to reside. Later by purchase he acquired his brother's share in the property, and from time to time has added to his farm, but the purchase of adjoining land, until his holdings now comprise two hun- dred and five acres. All this land has been cleared and put in culti- vation, good fences separate the fields, and the substantial dwelling houses and barns and other equipment represent his long continued labors.
On April 12, 1868, Mr. Rose married Mary Richer, a daughter of Peter Richer. During a happy married companionship of fifty-five years, a large family came to bless their home and the living members are now well established on their own responsibility, and are a credit to the diligence and self-sacrificing labors undergone by their parents, in providing a home and training for them. Seven children were born and all are living except one. This family record is as follows : Henry, born March 25, 1869, died August 24, 1897, leaving a widow Dena (Hershberger) Rose and two children, John H. and Ella; Mary, born February 12, 1872, the wife of Albert Feller, and the mother of three children, Millard, Earl and Paul; Charles, born December 20, 1873, who is unmarried and lives at home; Sarah Elizabeth, born February 1, 1877, the wife of Henry Wilkinson, and has one child, Arthur; Wil- liam, born October 1, 1879, married Gurtha Osborn; John, born Decem- ber 15, 1882, married Laura Graf, and has one child, John M .; Anna B., born March 26, 1888, and living at home with her parents. Mr. Rose in political affiliations is a Democrat, and besides prosperously managing his individual enterprise as a farmer, has given service in behalf of the community and for fifteen years held the office of justice of the peace. His religious creed is that of the Evangelical church. The pretty homestead of Mr. and Mrs. Rose is known as "The Rose Dale Agricultural Farm."
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