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 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
Of the family of Samuel M. Sharp and wife, the record reads that two died in infancy and three others after reaching adult age, names and dates being mentioned as follows: Mary M. is the widow of John Myers; William H., married Carrie Buchanan; Eliza M. is the wife of John B. Bowland; Jennie D. is the wife of Samuel Enders; Anna M., deceased, was the wife of Oliver Murden; Margaret is the wife of Andrew Kane; George L. married Laura Blaser, killed in a wreck in Colton, Colorado; Myrtle A., deceased, was the wife of Mr. George Abbott; Leon Claude, married Lulu Vernon ; Edmon G., married Lulu Wininger; and Ruby N., is at home. Mr. Sharp and his family have long been identified with the United Brethren Church, and at one time he was a class leader in the church. Politically he has always been affiliated with the Democratic party. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp have a number of souvenirs of ye olden days. He has a leathern belt in which he carried $250.50 in gold and silver, when he started to Pike's Peak, but he was persuaded to give up the venture. At that time he thought he was a man of wealth. His dear old wife had been a hard toiler in her girlhood days. She has an ancient bureau that she had made by an old cabinet maker, costing her $16, which she paid for in wages at $1.50 per week. The old Seth Thomas clock, three-fourths of a century old is another relic and Mrs. Sharp has one of the old double coverlets, the yarn spun by her mother and also a small iron kettle over a century old, and a fancy painted pitcher as old. They are a pleasant, happy, contented and prosperous couple, and have reared a family of children which are an honor to their parents. Their pretty homestead is known as "Juniati Lodge," and it lies in the southern part of Miami county, Indiana.
CHARLES SHARP. A dealer in grain and live stock at McGrawsville, Mr. Sharp has for the past ten years been closely identified with those activities which constitute the civic and business life of a community, and which. in the aggregate have made Miami county one of the most progressive counties of Indiana. Mr. Sharp may well be termed one of the builders of his present home town of McGrawsville, since he has established and maintained the chief mercantile and market facilities, is a man whose leadership and influence dominate local affairs, and during a residence there of ten years, Mr. Sharp has given his energies to every phase of improvement in this little center of population and business.
Charles Sharp was born in Owen. township, Clinton county, Indiana, April 21, 1858, a son of Mahon and Elizabeth (Krammes) Sharp. His father was a native of Germany. Charles Sharp grew up in Clinton county, was a farmer boy, and had the environment and the experience , of country life in that section of Indiana forty or fifty years ago, and from very modest beginnings was able to extend his interests and enter- prise until eventually he became one of the leading business men and farmers in Clinton county. Mr. Sharp still owns two hundred acres of land, and has it all well improved, with buildings and up to the high standards of Clinton county agriculture. In that county a grain eleva- tor was also owned by him, and he conducted an extensive business in the buying and selling of grain and cattle. His operations were of such an extent that he was in touch with many of the leading farmers
.
.
SILVER WEDDING GROUP OF MR. AND MRS CHIARLES SHARP, 1905
707
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
of Clinton county, and had a wide acquaintance there. About ten years ago Mr. Sharp sold his elevator in Owen township, and came to McGrawsville, where he has since been engaged in the same line of business. The original elevator at McGrawsville had been burned to the ground, about two years before Mr. Sharp located there, and it was due to his initiative and energy that the business was resumed. On coming there he at once hired every man in the neighborhood who could work, and they erected a fine large modern elevator, which has since been conducted under his name. Mr. Sharp also owns a general store, three houses and a blacksmith shop equipped with full machinery. His chief business is dealing in live stock, and he has made a market known and appreciated by all the farmers in this section of the state. A public spirited, progressive man, he has been an influential factor for material benefit to McGrawsville.
On November 21, 1880, Charles Sharp and Pleasy B. Revis were united in marriage. Mrs. Sharp is a daughter of Enoch and Lucy (Daniels) Revis, both now deceased. Her father died January 7, 1898, at the age of ninety years, and her mother on May 5, 1903.
Enoch Revis was of English birth, and his wife's people were Virginians. To the marriage of Mr. Sharp and wife were born seven children, whose names and dates of birth are mentioned as follows : Clara, born March 22, 1882, the wife of C. F. Gumm; Daisy Ann, born in 1884; Charles Willis, born November 27, 1886; Dora Ellen, born February 15, 1889, who married Charles Hodsom; Laura, born June 23, 1892; Maud, born May 15, 1895; and Russell, born November 9, 1900.
Mrs. Sharp is a most estimable sociable lady and her pretty modern home is her paradise. They have reared their children to lives of usefulness, and have given them the advantages of excellent school and home training. Mr. Sharp is one of the most enterprising and busy men in southern Miami county. He not only has the large and expensive elevator at McGrawsville, where he handles all kinds of seed and grain, but he is an extensive dealer in live stock, coal, all kinds of common and building lumber, lime, cement, brick and tile, and is of that jovial nature which makes him universally liked by the agricultural com- munity. His beautiful residence, as well as his other properties and newly equipped blacksmith shop are to be admired, and all have been erected by himself or caused to be.
E. A. ELLIS. One of the flourishing business concerns of Amboy is that of the E. A. Ellis Furniture Company, the proprietor of which, E. A. Ellis, is known as one of the able and progressive men of the city. Although he has been a resident of Amboy only since 1912, he has so identified himself with the city's commercial, civic and social interests, that he has already made his influence felt and gained an acknowledged standing and a wide circle of appreciative friends. He belongs to an old pioneer family of Wabash county, Indiana, where he was born in a log cabin, September 17, 1855, a son of John and Caroline (Snyder) Ellis. His paternal grandfather was Elihu Ellis, and on the maternal side his grandfather was John Snyder.
John Ellis was one of the earliest settlers of Wabash county, where as a youth he was engaged in cutting wood for the Indians that still made their homes in that section. As a young man he purchased a farm which was covered with timber, and on which he continued to reside all of his life, developing a good property and being known as one of his community's substantial and highly respected citizens. His death occurred in 1893, while his widow still survives and lives in Wabash county.
708
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
E. A. Ellis secured his education in the public schools of his native county, and was there reared to agricultural pursuits. He continued to reside on the home farm until his marriage, in 1875, immediately after which he came to Miami county, where he located on a farm in Jackson township, and there carried on operations for a number of years. Succeeding this he secured a property in Butler township, where he lived for ten years, but in 1912 retired from agricultural pursuits and came to Amboy. On May 22nd of that year he became the owner, through purchase, of his present business, which had been established for some ten years, and the name of which he changed to its present style, the E. A. Ellis Furniture Company. An able and energetic busi- ness man, he has succeeded in building up a greatly increased trade, giving his personal attention to every detail of the enterprise. Among his associates he bears the reputation of being a man of the strictest integrity and high principles, while added patronage has been drawn to his establishment by an attractive and well-selected stock of the most up-to-date goods to be found in his line.
Mr. Ellis was married in 1875 to Miss Amanda Draper, daughter of Elijah and Emily (Erick) Draper, and seven children have been born to this union, namely : Romerty, who became the wife of James Moore; Emily Caroline, who married Norman Brag; Grace Jane, who became the wife of Lon Snyder; Thompson, who married Lettie Stout; Goldie Fay, who is single and resides with her parents; Lelah, who married Jessie Bowland; and Leon, who is single and his father's assistant in the furniture business. Mr. Ellis is a valued member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, where he has numerous warm friends. For a number of years he has been a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has acted in the capacity of trustee of the parsonage in Butler township. Progressive in all matters, he has been an earnest and hard-working supporter of movements which he has believed will advance the welfare of his adopted city and its people, and has thus fairly earned his reputation for representative public-spirited citizenship.
J. J. SMITH. A prominent citizen of Perry township, whose recol- lections and experience cover the greater part of Miami county's his- tory, Mr. J. J. Smith is one of the oldest native sons of that township, and represents a family which established its home in Miami county during the log cabin day.
His birth occurred in Perry township, August 8, 1844, and he was a son of George Michael and Catherine (Emerick) Smith. Both parents were natives of Germany, born near the river Rhine, and married in Portage county, Ohio. From Ohio they came to Perry township in Miami county, and their first shelter in the wilderness of that section was a small cabin in the midst of the heavy timbers. The father with the aid of his older boys worked for the clearing of the land, cut down a vast quantity of trees that would now represent a small fortune in lumber, and gradually got one acre after another under the plow. The elder Smith lived to be eighty-four years of age, and when he first set- tled in Miami county the Indians, wolves and deer, and other wild ani- mals were extremely plentiful. Mr. J. J. Smith himself has seen as many as twenty deer in one drove within the limits of this county. The family had lived in the first cabin for some time, and then the father built a house of hewed logs, and that in time was supplanted by a frame house, a structure which is still standing, and occupied by the youngest son.
Mr. J. J. Smith when a small boy began to give his work to his father
709
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
on the farm, and at such times as he could be spared he attended the district schools of the neighborhood. His education was necessarily lim- ited, but he has a generous fund of practical sense and has an industry and judgment which have enabled him to prosper and get to the front as a man of substantial worth. In 1876 Mr. Smith married Miss Sarah E. Bowman, a daughter of Henry and Mary Ann ( Onstadt) Bowman. Her grandfather, Andy Onstadt, had the distinction of fixing upon the name for Perry township, which owes its designation to that old settler. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Smith began housekeeping on their present farm, which they bought, containing one hundred and twenty acres. A huge log house stood on the farm, and that was where they lived for the first seventeen years. With increasing means they were then able to build their commodious brick home which is now one of the best farm dwellings in the countryside, and is a large and modern resi- dence. All the buildings and improvements have been instituted by Mr. Smith, and he has brought about a great deal of fencing and ditch- ing, so that the farm is worth a great deal more than what he paid for it. Mr. Smith has been honored by his fellow citizens with the office of supervisor of Perry township, and his success in material things has well entitled him to the honors of civic position. Mr. Smith has some of the pieces of the old-time pioneer furniture, such as were used during his early boyhood and by his parents when they first settled in Miami county.
Mr. Smith has two children: Asa, married Dora Baker, daughter of Simon and Sarah (Fisher) Baker. They have two children: Albert Baker Smith, born March 13, 1897; and Sarah Lucile Smith, born October 15, 1911. Simon Baker came to Miami county shortly after the Civil war, settling in Perry township, and was married in this county. Mrs. Asa Smith was born in Miami county. Her paternal grandfather was Jake Baker, and her maternal grandfather was John Fisher. Mrs. Smith's father was a member of the Lutheran church, and he died on April 4, 1899. George Henry Smith, the second son of Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Smith married Catherine Crug, but they have no children.
THOMAS C. OVERMAN. A worthy representative of an old and hon- ored Miami county family is found in the person of Thomas C. Overman, of Amboy, who bears an unsullied reputation in the trade circles of his native town. His integrity and honesty have gained him the unqualified regard of all with whom he has come into contact, and in spite of his large business interests he has found time to faithfully discharge every duty of citizenship and to lend active support and co-operation to every movement for the public good. Mr, Overman was born June 10, 1859, in Amboy, and is a son of John F. and Rebecca Jane (Jordan) Overman, and a grandson of Cornelius Overman and Thomas Jordan.
John F. Overman was one of the pioneers of Miami township and one of those sturdy citizens who paved the way for the civilization of later years. He was closely identified with its development and indus- tries since the days when it was naught but a wilderness, covered with heavy timber, through which wild beasts prowled and where fever and ague and malaria added to the hardships and discomforts of living. With a brave heart and the hardihood of the true frontiersman, he suf- fered all manners of privations and endured an amount of hard labor that the present generation would find it hard to imagine, and now has the comfort of looking back over a well-spent life, filled with kindly deeds and usefulness to his fellow men. John F. Overman belonged to an old Quaker family that had been converted to the faith in Germany under William Penn, and was reared in the teachings of the church in
710
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
his native Wayne county, Indiana. In 1852 he left the parental home- stead, near Richmond, and came to Miami county, settling at what is now Amboy, where he owned forty acres of land. Here he was married in the Quaker Church, under the old Quaker ceremony of that day. A skilled marksman and hunter, in the early days he kept the family larder well supplied with game, and shot more than one deer where the flourishing industries of Amboy now have their site. He continued to cultivate his little farm which he had entered from the Government, subsequently became the proprietor of the first dry goods store in Amboy, erected an elevator, and when the first railroad train came through, in 1867, shipped the first wheat ever sent from this place. During the early days the business of the elevator was necessarily small, as the country was covered with such a heavy growth of timber that it was almost impossible to raise grain. As the years passed, Mr. Overman identified himself with various enterprises which served to enhance the importance of his adopted place, and continued to be one of the town's leading citizens until his retirement, when he removed to Nashville, Tennessee, that city at present being his home. He is now seventy-four years of age. His first wife, the mother of Thomas C. Overman, died March 12, 1865, and he was later married to Miss Lydia Sheridan, who was related to the great Union general, Philip Sheridan.
Thomas C. Overman received a good education in the schools of Amboy, and as a youth associated himself with his father in business. For a number of years he was owner of the grain elevator, but since dis- posing thereof has devoted the greater part of his attention to real estate operations, in connection with which he has erected more resi- dences in Amboy than any other man. He has been identified with various other enterprises, is vice-president of the Miami County Bank, and has admirably filled the place in business circles left vacant by his father. Like the elder man, he has interested himself in everything that pertains to the welfare of his community, and has taken a prominent part in public affairs, at the present time being a member of the advisory board of trustees. For the past twenty-five years he has been a member of the Knights of Pythias, Castle Hall Lodge, at Converse, Indiana, and he also holds membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Amboy, Indiana, being popular with the members of these lodges, as he is with his fellows in all walks of life. He holds a birthright in the Quaker Church, and consistently attends its services and liberally sup- ports its movements. He has maintained the family reputation for hon- esty and upright living, and no man in Amboy holds a more firmly established place in general public esteem.
Mr. Overman was married January 1, 1883, at Amboy, to Maggie W. Elleman, daughter of Joseph and Eunice (Wright) Elleman, and to this union there have been born four children, as follows: Zoe M., born December 25, 1883, who married Daniel Kerr, and has three children,- Thomas W., Margaret and Martha Zoe who died August 5, 1913. Mary Elsie, born November 18, 1886, married Gifford Douglas, and has two children,-Elaine and Esther. Madge E., born July 18, 1888, resides with her parents; and J. T. Don, born August 23, 1890, married Miss Esther Coppoc. Mrs. Overman was born near Marshalltown, Iowa, May 5, 1863, the second of four children, two sons and two daughters. Three are living. Her father was a native of Ohio. He was a Republican and voted for Fremont. Both father and mother were birthright Quakers. Mrs. Overman was educated in the common schools and The Academy. She is an affable lady and their beautiful home is the abode of hospitality.
CASWELL H. LANDRUM. The owner and occupant of a well-cultivated farm of seventy-two and one-half acres, lying in Harrison township,
MIR. AND MRS. DAVID STITT'S FAMILY GROUP
-
711
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
C. H. Landrum has long been accounted one of the prominent citizens of Miami county, and his life record is therefore, deserving of a place in this volume. In agriculture, as in all other lines of endeavor, there is constant change and progress, and those who would reap a full measure of success from their labor must keep fully abreast of these advance- ments, in order that they be not passed by their more alert fellows. It is to such men as Mr. Landrum that the county's agricultural supremacy is due, for he has been ever ready to encourage new innovations and to support progressive movements. Mr. Landrum is a native of Miami county, born in Harrison township, May 25, 1867, a son of David and Louise (Howes) Landrum.
David Landrum was a son of Thomas Landrum, and it is thought that he was born in Carroll county, Indiana, from whence he migrated to Miami county about 1850. He was married in this county, where the maternal grandfather of C. H. Landrum, Abel Howes, had been a very early settler. David Landrum was engaged in agricultural pursuits at the time of the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion, when he enlisted in the Thirty-ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, serving with that organization until the close of hostilities. After a brave and faith- ful service he returned to the peaceful pursuits of private life, and con- tinued to carry on farming and stock raising until meeting an accidental death in 1901.
C. H. Landrum was only four years old when his mother died, and he was reared on the farm of his grandfather Howes. His education was secured in the district schools of Butler township, and like other Hoosier lads divided his boyhood between work on the home farm in the spring, summer and fall, and study in school during the short win- ter terms. He remained with his grandmother after attaining his major- ity, and when he was married continued to make that place his home, but in 1907 came to his present property, which he had purchased some two years before. Here he now has seventy-two and one-half acres in a high state of cultivation, yielding him excellent returns in the way of bounteous crops for his intelligent and well-directed labor. The hand- some, substantial buildings found on this property have all been erected by Mr. Landrum, who has also made the various modern improvements here. He is a practical farmer, but has been always willing to experi- ment with new ideas and methods, and is a firm believer in the use of modern machinery. Among his neighbors and business associates he bears a reputation for integrity and industry, and his general popular- ity is widespread.
In 1888 Mr. Landrum was united in marriage with Miss Florence Ivah Smith, daughter of Jasper and Susan (Plotner) Smith, and to this union there have been born three children, namely: Gilbert E., born August 31, 1890, single and assisting his father in the manage- ment of the home farm; and Harold E., born May 25, 1903, and Helen V., born October 4, 1907, who are attending school. One child, Paul, died at birth. With his family, Mr. Landrum attends the Methodist Episcopal Church, where he is at this time serving as trustee and as superintendent of the Sunday school. Essentially an agriculturist, he has been too busily engaged with his farming operations to think of entering the political arena as a seeker for personal preferment, but he has supported all movements making for good government and good citizenship, and Harrison township has no more public-spirited man.
DAVID STITT. In the person of this venerable pioneer farmer, one of the substantial and highly respected citizens of Harrison township, who was brought here in infancy by his pioneer parents, and whose memory Vol. II-18
712
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
reaches back to the time when the family home was a cabin in the woods, we have a sample of a worthy race of people to whom the country is largely indebted for its development and progress. The life span of David Stitt, of threescore years and ten, covers not only a frontier experience, but also it includes the Civil war period, and service in the Union army, and the peaceful prosperous days which have followed. To such men as David Stitt Indiana owes much. They are the class who toiled and worked, cleared, grubbed and ditched, through the courses of nature in the way of swamps and dense forests, and kept up the fight until the beautiful and highly cultivated landscape of farms now greets the eye of the traveler on every hand. Such men seldom figure in public life, their names are seldom mentioned in the papers, but they live quiet and unpretentious lives, and it is by their work and self sacrifice that a community gains strength and a state becomes great.
David Stitt was born seventy years ago in Athens county, of the Buckeye State of Ohio, March 22, 1843, a son of Eli and Achsah (Thorp) Stitt. His grandfather was named Samuel Stitt. In the autumn of 1845 the Stitt family left their home in Athens county, Ohio, and came across the country in pioneer style to Miami county, Indiana. Their arrival in this county was on the fourth day of October. David was then about two and a half years of age. The Stitt family is the oldest of the settlers of Harrison township still represented in active residence there. Their settlement was made about a mile from the farm now occu- pied by David, and on that original estate the father remained until death. At that time the Pottowattomies and Miamis were still here, and the highways were nothing more than mere trails through the woods. Eli Stitt built a one-room cabin and equipped it with a mud fire-place and a stick chimney, and that first winter their provisions consisted chiefly of game, which was plentiful in the woods about them. Eli Stitt had entered one hundred and sixty acres of government land, and a number of years were spent in the labor of clearing and cultivating it. His life was one of fullness in years, and when he passed away in 1901, he had completed eighty-three years of human existence. His wife, Achsah died at the age of 59 years.
David Stitt spent his youthful days in assisting his father with the work of clearing and cultivation, and during the winter months studied books and figures, in the nearby log school house. The school term covered about sixty days, and young Stitt was in attendance up to the time he was nineteen years of age. His wife's father, Jesse Lee, was the first school teacher in Harrison township.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.