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 46
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Mr. George Leedy, who was born and reared and has spent all his life as a successful agriculturist in Union township, was married Octo- ber 1, 1893, to Miss Adelia Sheaffer. The maiden name of her mother was Sarah Cowgill. Mr. Leedy and family have lived on their present home for more than twenty-five years. He and his wife are the parents of three children, namely: Harrison Keith, born October 26, 1894;
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Charles Calvin, born August 14, 1897; and Sylvia Jane, born December 12, 1902.
Mr. Leedy and family attend the United Brethren Church. He is affiliated with the Masons at Macy and the Odd Fellows at Deedsville, and also the Ancient Order of Gleaners at Perrysburg, Ind. He is well known in public affairs in his local township, and has the complete confidence of his fellow citizens in his judgment and integrity. In 1908 he was elected to the responsible office of trustee, taking office in 1909, and his term being for four years. He has always been a stanch Repub- lican until recently, and is now a Progressive. He has in charge a nice farm estate, formerly the old George Hill Farm, and has rebuilt the house and barn, and has done much to improve and make the place profitable.
HON. BURTON GREEN. A former representative from Miami county, in the 65th General Assembly, state legislature, Mr. Green is a lawyer by profession, but during the past eighteen years has been best known as a modern business farmer in Union township. He gave up the law on account of ill health, and in farming has found not only health, but prosperity above the average, and is one of the men who prove the fact which is not altogether appreciated that farming is not only one of the oldest and most honorable of professions, but also one which is pro- ductive in the sense which other lines of business and professional work are.
Burton Green was born in Fulton county, Ohio, December 15, 1853, a son of Alexander F. and Sophia Green, and grandson of William Green. The grandfather was a refugee from Ireland, having been a rebel against the British government. Mr. Green's mother was Sophia Gray, a daughter of William Gray, formerly from Virginia, and of Scotch-Irish descent. The mother's grandfather lived to the phenomenal age of one hundred and seven years.
Alexander F. Green, the father, was born in Vermont, and at an early age was left an orphan. He came out to Cleveland, Ohio, worked in a hotel, and afterwards married the daughter of the landlord. He then became a partner in the hotel, until it broke up, and from there moved out to Fulton county, Ohio, settling in the swamps. He possessed the capital of twelve hundred dollars, all the money he had in the world, and thus became one of the pioneers of a portion of Ohio, which had not yet been intersected by railroad lines. He lived there until the county became well settled, and was one of the prosperous farming communities of the state. He died at the age of eighty-four years.
Burton Green lived at home until he was twenty-one years of age, and had all the experience of a farmer, a fact which no doubt has con- tributed to his success after he left his profession and again devoted himself to the occupation of his youth.
In the preparation for the profession of teacher Mr. Green began in the public schools. He would feed cattle in the evenings and morn- ings and attend the day school, this being in the winter months. In the spring he passed his teacher's examination and then attended Bryan Normal School during the summer and fall, and taught school the fol- lowing winter and at the expiration of his term, he had $105 in cash and then entered the Ada Normal at Ada, Ohio, and spent four summers as a student and taught during the winters. Then he took the examination in the Junior Course and passed into the Senior Course of the Law Department of the University of Valparaiso. He had read law under L. H. Upham of Delta, Ohio, an able practitioner, who came from the
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Old Bay State of Massachusetts. The estate of Mr. Green is known as "Green Hill Stock Farm."'
From 1886 until 1891, soon after his graduation in law, he was engaged in practice at Rochester, Indiana, and though he succeeded in building up a good practice and was laying the foundations for a suc- cessful career in the law, his health would not permit of his further practice, and he then turned his attention to outdoor work. Mr. Green came into Miami county on the first of January, 1895, having a very small equipment of capital and possessions, and at that time settled on the farm which he now occupies. He first bought seventy acres of land and has since added to the original estate, until his farm now comprises one hundred and fifty-four acres. When he bought it, the land was run down, being low land, which was not adaptable to regular cultivation year in and year out, unless properly drained. Mr. Green has laid five thousand rods of tile drains, and has rescued his land from its original condition and now has one of the most productive farms in Union township. He has also improved the building, and has a very fine home. For some years he was engaged in raising stock, but of late has given almost his entire attention to the general farm crops.
Mr. Green from 1906 to 1908 represented Miami county in the legislature, and served both in the regular and special sessions of that period. At the special session the legislature passed the county option law, to which Mr. Green gave strong support both by vote and voice. He has held the office of notary public for a number of years. His church connection is with the Methodist, and he is a member of the Deedsville Lodge No. 650 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Green was married October 12, 1882, to Miss Lucetta Thornton, a daughter of Rev. P. J. Thornton and his wife, Anna Bretz. Mr. and Mrs. Green have no children of their own, but have given homes to three orphans, two girls and a boy. These children are Clarence and Susie Jones, who have lived at the Green home for four years, and have received advantages of school, as well as home training. The other child, who has been with Mr. and Mrs. Green since she was four years old, coming in 1895, is Lulu Grubb, but now goes by the name of Lulu Green.
PHINEAS B. CARTER, M. D. Among the medical men of Miami county who by reason of their skill and attainments have won positions of prominence in their chosen calling, Dr. Phineas B. Carter, of Macy, has the unqualified right to a leading place. Although a resident of this town only since 1909, his achievements have been such as to gain him the confidence of the general public and the high regard of his professional brethren. Doctor Carter is a native of the Hoosier State, having been born in Bartholomew county, December 8, 1874. Jonathan Carter, his father, has passed his entire life in agricultural pursuits, and is still a resident of Bartholomew county, while his mother, who was Diadama Amick, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, is now deceased. Phineas B. Carter is one of five children, of whom all are living except one.
In the public schools of his native county, Phineas B. Carter imbibed a love of learning, which impelled him to seek a liberal education. With this end in view he entered Franklin College, and upon completing an academic course in that institution adopted the vocation of educa- tor, which he followed for upwards of seven years. At this time his inclinations led him to select the medical profession for his life work, and turned his attention while teaching to the scientific studies most consonant with that calling. After some preparation, he went to Chicago and entered the Illinois Medical College, being graduated therefrom in
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1905, and succeeding this was for one year interne at St. Joseph's Hospital, Fort Wayne, Indiana. He subsequently spent eighteen months as House Surgeon in the Wabash Railroad Hospital, at Peru, and then for one and one-half years was engaged in a private practice at that place, his advent in Macy occurring in 1909, since which time he has been in the enjoyment of a large and representative professional busi- ness. Doctor Carter has been content to follow the beaten track in which physicians educated in the highest science of the regular school, and loyal to its ethics, seek rather to merit recognition by their skill and knowledge, than to gain notoriety by the more questionable methods by which less meritorious practitioners find a short cut to fame and fortune.
On June 3, 1908, Doctor Carter was united in marriage with Miss Hazel Armstrong, of Peru, Indiana, and they have two children, Ruth, aged three years, and Calvert A. born in 1913. Doctor Carter is a Repub- lican in his political tendencies, but has not sought preferment in matters of a public nature, having been content to devote his undivided attention to his profession. In addition to being a valued and interested member of the various medical organizations, he enjoys the privilege of member- ship in the Masons, the Odd Fellows and other fraternal orders.
REV. JOSEPH R. CONNER. The individual who is forced to fight his own battles in the world, to educate himself and to force an entrance through the gate of success prizes more highly that which he wins than one to whom all things come by birth or inheritance. Material success is something worth seeking, but there is a still higher aim than that, and the man who is able to draw others from sin to righteousness becomes a potent factor for good in his community. Among the men of Miami county who have been the architects of their own fortunes, and who have not alone won material prosperity but who have risen to a high place in the esteem of their fellow-citizens because of their labors in the cause of Christianity stands the Rev. Joseph R. Conner, of Allen town- ship. He was born near Stockdale (since obsolete), Miami county, Indiana, October 10, 1858, and is a son of J. M. and Nancy (Norman) Conner.
J. M. Conner migrated to Miami county, Indiana, when a lad with his parents, settling near Pettysville, during pioneer days. There he grew to manhood and married Nancy Norman, whose people were among the earliest settlers to locate within the present confines of Miami county. J. M. and Nancy Conner had two sons : Joseph R. and Lincoln E. The mother died in Indiana, and the father, remarrying, moved to Michigan, where he passed the remainder of his days.
Joseph R. Conner has always made his home in Miami county. His educational advantages in his youth were decidedly limited, as his mother died when he was eight years old, and he lived with his mother's parents until he was about thirteen years of age, and from that time his life was passed virtually among strangers and without the loving care and guidance that is considered the privilege of childhood. This lack of education was realized by Mr. Conner in later years, but it was not until long after his marriage that he was able to attempt to remedy it. When his first child was ten years old, he accompanied her to the district schools, and supplemented this by a term in the Northern Indiana Normal School, at Valparaiso. In his youth his opportunities for culture of a genuine sort were also limited, but now one cannot be in his presence long before realizing that he is a man of intellectual attain- ments, general information and culture. He was brought up in the hard
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work of clearing and cultivating the land among the farmers with whom he resided, and worked out by the month until attaining manhood.
On May 27, 1880, Mr. Conner was united in marriage with Mary A. Seidner, daughter of Isaiah and Julia (Landis) Seidner, her father being one of the old pioneer educators of Miami county. Mrs. Conner is a native of Miami county, Indiana, born February 7, 1862, and she was the only child born to her parents. Both father and mother are deceased. Mrs. Conner was educated in the common schools and she is vice presi- dent of the Home Missionary Society.
After his marriage, Mr. Conner began farming for himself, and he was thus employed for ten years, meeting with a large measure of success. He was converted to Christianity in the fall of 1879, in the Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal church, and about nine years later was licensed to exhort and the quarterly meeting following this was licensed to preach. He was engaged in preaching the gospel for the four years that followed, being stationed at Atwood, Mount Aetna, Macy and Burket, but owing to family circumstances he then returned home to the farm, and has been engaged in agricultural pursuits ever since, although he still keeps up his ministerial work. He is the owner of 142 acres of valuable land, located in Allen township, and here he has made excellent improvements. He has endeavored to live an upright Christian life, to rear his children in the same way, and to leave to those who come after him the priceless heritage of an honored name.
Mr. and Mrs. Conner have had five children, namely: Etta, who married Dell Kessler, of Rochester, Indiana; Franklin and Orin, who are deceased; and Lawrence and Merrill, who reside with their parents and attend the public schools.
The homestead of Rev. and Mrs. Conner is known as "Englewood."
ORIE C. ATKINSON. Probably no citizen of Amboy has been more intimately connected with the financial and commercial interests of the town, and it is only expressing the opinion of his fellow citizens, when it is asserted that no one has done more to upbuild the little city on its present basis of prosperity, than Orie C. Atkinson, cashier of the Miami County Bank, and for many years one of his community's most promi- nent and influential men. A native son of Indiana, he has since his youth been identified with banking, and his entire career has been one of steady and well merited advancement.
Orie C. Atkinson was born in Union county, Indiana, May 5, 1872, and is a son of Charles James and Melissa Matilda Atkinson. His grandfather, Milby Atkinson, had the following children: Charles, who married Elizabeth Cram; John, George, Julia A., who married Jerry J. Lynch; Nancy, who married David Grey ; Isaac, Samuel, Mary, who married a Mr. Dale; and Betsy, who married a Mr. Baker, and died many years ago in the east. The brothers and sisters of Mrs. Melissa Atkinson were as follows: Erastus, who married Mary Fields; Jesse D., who married Martha Radish; James W., who married Susan Miller; John, who married Mary Fiffin; Mary E., who married A. R. Lockridge; Elizabeth J., who married H. Y. Miller; Charles, who married Hulda Morris; Catherine, who died at the age of four years; Isaac H., who married Isabella Burris.
In 1893 Orie C. Atkinson was married to Miss Hattie I. Roberts, daughter of Morris and Elizabeth (McKee) Roberts. To that union were born four children : Eva, born October 14, 1894; Charles Maurice, born December 27, 1897; Herschel, born April 26, 1903; and June Ray, who died in infancy in 1908. On June 26, 1908, Mrs. Atkinson died,
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and in July 1909, Mr. Atkinson married for his second wife Miss Nettie Celeste Feller, daughter of Christian and Elizabeth Feller.
Orie C. Atkinson commenced his educational training in the schools of his native county, and was sixteen years of age when he accompanied his parents to Amboy. Here he completed his schooling and from the Amboy high school went in 1892 to a position in the Upland Bank. The Upland Bank gave him a long and thorough experience in banking affairs, and he remained there until he was given the position of assistant cashier in the Albany State Bank, a little more than four years later, in 1896. Mr. Atkinson was identified with the Albany State Bank until 1900, when he went out to Kingman, Kansas, and with J. C. Pax- ton, one of the directors of the Albany State Bank, organized the King- man State Bank. Mr. Paxton had had no previous experience in bank- ing, except as a director, and practically the entire business of organi- zation devolved upon Mr. Atkinson. In 1902, having sold his stock in the Kingman State Bank, Mr. Atkinson became the organizer of the Miami County Bank, of which he has been cashier and full manager for more than eleven years. He has popularized this institution, has wisely directed its policies, and at this time it is known as one of the most substantial banking institutions of Miami county.
While it is as a banker that Mr. Atkinson has longest and most promi- nently been identified with the various communities in which he has lived, the little city of Amboy must recognize him as having been to no small degree the father of its present prosperity. A great deal of history has been made at Amboy since 1902. At that time it was a com- munity with very little trade, and business interests were maintained in a sort of routine fashion, merely keeping up with the demands of a sluggish local trade. Nearly all the stores were established in shabby wooden buildings, and the stocks of goods were both small and inade- quate. Mr. Atkinson had not been in town long before the citizens dis- covered that a very vital influence had suddenly been projected into their midst. The first important move here was the organization of a commercial club, and as soon as the merchants and other business men got together and began talking things over, there was a general ambition for better buildings and larger stocks of goods. One of the older resi- dents who at once took a hand in the rejuvenation of the town was Dr. J. A. Baldwin, and others quickly fell into line until Amboy became a synonym for business enterprise, and at the present time it is regarded as one of the best improved towns municipally speaking, and for its size has no peer as a business center in the state. It was due to the per- sonal activity of Mr. Atkinson that the present publisher of the Amboy Independent established that paper as a weekly issuc, and the presence of a local newspaper has furnished the merchants and other business men a medium of reaching the citizens in the village and sur- rounding community, and has not been without an important effect in stimulating trade and industry. At the same time it is of interest to note the proprietor of the paper, has shared in the general prosperity of the community. These splendid results have been accomplished by an enthusiasm and cooperation stimulating the entire body of citizen- ship, and it is the community as a whole which must be given credit for the concrete results. However, no one man has done more to initiate the various movements which have led to these results than Mr. Atkin- son. He came to Amboy and supplied the stimulus of a broader out- look and of his personal example just at a time when it was most needed, and his fellow citizens are glad to give him credit for the activities which have been so beneficent in making Amboy what it is today.
A consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, Mr. Atkin-
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son has served as trustee for a number of years and is now financial steward of the Amboy church. He has always stood for the highest ideals and principals of the Christian life, and since he cast his first vote his support has been given to the Prohibition cause and its party. He is also well known in fraternal circles, being a member of Converse Lodge, No. 601, A. F. & A. M., and Amboy Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Atkinson has withheld his support from no movement which has promised to benefit his community in any way, and is always depended upon for counsel, advice and leadership in affairs of an important nature. Of a genial nature, easy to approach, he has made a wide acquaintance here and no citizen stands higher in the general public opinion.
JOHN B. PETERS, M. D., of Macy, is a native of Augusta county, Virginia, his birth occurring July 28, 1851. Dr. Robert J. D. Peters, his father, was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, October 14, 1829, and was a descendant of English ancestry, the advent of the family in this country occurring during the colonization of the Old Dominion State. As far back as it is possible to trace the practice of medicine has been a family inheritance. The father of Dr. Robert J. D. Peters and his grandfather were doctors, and Dr. Charles H. Peters, his brother, was a member of the Board of Surgeons who were on the commission appointed by Governor Wise to conduct the autopsy on some of those who participated in the John Brown raid.
Dr. Robert J. D. Peters was a graduate of the Winchester Medical College, but previous to this had graduated from the Charlottesville University. He began his medical career at Greenville, Tennessee, the home of President Andrew Johnson, with whom he was personally ac- quainted. A man of strong convictions and decided views, he was an advocate of the Union at a time and in a locality when it was as much as a man's life was worth to announce his views. He married in Ran- dolph county, Virginia, in 1850, Mary Jane Kettle, who had five brothers in the Confederate army, three of whom sacrificed their lives to the "Lost Cause." Probably it was owing to a loss of practice in Ten- nessee that led to Dr. Peters removing to the North in May, 1861. His father, Dr. John Peters, served under General Scott in the War of 1812, and was wounded at the battle of Lundy's Lane. At the time of the family's removal North, in 1861, they traveled by wagon, and Dr. John Peters was one of the party. They were generally recognized as refugees and had numerous wordy encounters with Southern sympa- thizers. At Wythville, Virginia, they only escaped violence by Dr. John Peters making use of the distress sign of a secret organization of which he was a member. The family did not tarry long in Virginia, but moved to Paris, Illinois, and from there to Stoutsville, Fairfield county, Ohio. Dr. John Peters eventually returned to Virginia and there died at Grafton in 1876 ..
Dr. Robert J. D. Peters practiced his profession at Stoutsville, Ohio, some eight years, removing to Indiana in 1871, and locating at New Waverly, subsequently locating at Star City, and from there, in 1883, coming to Macy, Indiana, where he died July 26, 1894. He was a man of marked physical characteristics. Some five feet, eleven and one- half inches in height, he was molded along athletic lines. Fair of complexion, blue-eyed, and a man of superior mental attainments, he attracted attention wherever he went. In politics he was a Republican ; in religion a Methodist. As a physician lie was greatly above the av- erage. Impulsive in a way, he was ever ready to lend his aid in any manner to those needing assistance. While not an active church worker,
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he practiced real Christianity, more, perhaps than many who professed the loudest or prayed the longest. He and his wife were the parents of thirteen children, eleven of whom grew to maturity, and eight now living.
Dr. John B. Peters, of Macy, made his home with his parents during their removal to the North, and left home when the family had located at Star City, Indiana. He received his literary education in the public schools and high schools and his medical training at the Ohio Medical Col- lege. He began practicing at Miamitown, Indiana, in 1871, later locat- ing at Fulton, where he was married May 15, 1885, to Mary A. Han- son, daughter of John Hanson, a soldier of the Twelfth United States Infantry during the Civil War, with a record of eighteen battles to his credit on his discharge papers. In the spring of 1887 he located at Macy, Indiana, and has practiced his profession here ever since. Two children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Peters: a daughter that died in infancy, and a son, Robert J. D., named after his grandfather. This son is a student at the Indiana State University, where he has made an cuviable record. He has three "A's" to his credit on all of his studies, an honor of the highest kind, and has attained a fellowship in the university which carries with it a salary as long as he is connected with the institution. He has taken up the study of medicine and is now nearing his graduation.
Doctor Peters is a Prohibitionist in politics, is a member of the Masonic, Odd Fellow and other orders, and he and his wife are mem- bers of the Disciples church. He also holds membership in the Miami County Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and takes a keen and active interest in the work of these organizations.
ALVIN SEIDNER. The connection of Alvin Seidner with the farmning and building interests of Miami county, has made him widely known among the citizens of this section who have done so much to advance the great growth and development that has marked the county, and more especially Allen township, during the past several decades. Although he has been an extremely busy man, with large private interests, he has found time to devote to the needs of his adopted locality, and for several years served as county commissioner. Mr. Seidner was born in Wayne county, Ohio, on his father's farm, August 15, 1849, one of the six children, all still living, of Jacob and Elizabeth (Anglemyer) Seidner, both of German ancestry. The first wife of Jacob Seidner hav- ing died, he was married (second) to Mrs. Mary (Morris) Barnes, and' they became the parents of four children.
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