USA > Indiana > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery county, Indiana; with personal sketches of representative citizens, Volume II > Part 7
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Dr. Ream was born in Huntington county, Indiana, on the old home farm, October 31, 1862, being the scion of an excellent and well established family in that section of the Hoosier state. His parents were David and Delilah Ream, who spent their lives successfully engaged in general agricul- tural pursuits in the above named county and there they passed to their eternal rest many years ago. They were honest, hard-working people who were liked by all their neighbors.
It was on the old homestead in Huntington county that Dr. Ream spent his boyhood days and grew to manhood, and there he made himself generally
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useful during the crop seasons when he became of proper age, and during the winter months he attended the district schools. After a good general edu- cation he, having long fostered the ambition to be a dentist, entered the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, at Cincinnati, where he made an excellent record and from which institution he was graduated with the class of 1890.
Thus well qualified for the vocation which he early decided to give his life forces to, Dr. Ream at once came to Crawfordsville, Indiana, and bought out the office of Dr. G. S. Clements at 2311/2 East Main street, and here he has since been successfully engaged in the practice, building up a large and lucra- tive patronage.
Politically, he is a Democrat, and in religious matters a Methodist.
Dr. Ream was married in February, 1892, to Lulu Brewer, a daughter of Squire Brewer and wife, a highly respected Crawfordsville family, and to this union five children have been born, namely: Lulu Fern is teaching in the Wilson building in her home city; Vincent B., Mora Bell, Martha, are all attending high school, and Paul is in the graded school.
CAPT. THOMAS THEODORE MUNHALL.
It will always be a mark of distinction to have served the Union during the great war of the Rebellion. The old soldier will receive attention no matter where he goes if he will but make himself known. And when he passes away, as so many of them are now doing, most of them attaining their allotted "three score and ten years," mentioned by the divinely inspired Psalmist of old, friends will pay him suitable eulogy for the sacrifices he made a half century ago on the sanguinary fields of battle in the southland or in the no less dreaded prison, fever camp or hospital. And ever afterward his descendants will revere his memory and take pride in recounting his services for his country in its hour of peril. One of the most eligible citizens for spe- cific mention in a history of Montgomery county is Capt. Thomas Theodore Munhall, for many years a well known business man, and who is now living practically retired from the active duties of life in his pleasant home in Craw- fordsville. He is worthy of our attention partly because of the fact that he is one of the old soldiers who went forth in that great crisis in the sixties to assist in saving the union of states, and partly because he has been one of our honorable. and public-spirited citizens for a number of decades. He is a
CAPT. THOS. T. MUNHALL
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plain, straightforward, unassuming gentleman who has sought to do his duty in all the relations of life as he has seen and understood the right.
Captain Munhall was born on June 5, 1841, in Zanesville, Ohio. He is a son of Samuel and Sarah Hurd ( Wiggins) Munhall. The father was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, July 30, 1811, and in an early day went to Zanesville, Ohio, where he engaged in the mercantile business, and owing to the dishonesty of his partner, failed. He then took up farming which he continued a few years, then in 1858 went to Illinois and located near Farm- ington, where he continued general agricultural pursuits until his death, June 27, 1893, at Forrest, Illinois. He was a Republican, and religiously, a Methodist. He was an industrious, hard working man and known for his uprightness and neighborliness.
Sarah Wiggins, who became the wife of Samuel Munhall, was born in Morris county, New Jersey, January 30, 1816, and her death occurred in Chicago.
Capt. Thomas T. Munhall was educated at the McIntire Academy at Zanesville, Ohio, and in the Putnam high school academy, at Putnam, Ohio, later attending the country schools in Illinois, after which he taught one term.
When the Civil war came on he proved his patriotism and courage by being one of the first to enlist in defense of the Union, becoming a member of Company B, Eleventh Illinois Cavalry, under Col. "Bob" Ingersoll, who later became one of America's greatest, orators. Our subject was made sec- ond sergeant in 1861, later first sergeant, in the fall of 1862, later second lieutenant, earning these promotions by gallant conduct on the field of battle. In 1864 he was promoted to the rank of captain and was transferred to Com- pany D of the same regiment. The members of Company B, presented him with a sword, sash, belt and gold plated spurs. Company D asked to a man to have him commissioned their captain. He accepted this promotion, and filled the same in a most faithful and gallant manner, taking part in the Meridian campaign under General Sherman. His company was later re- garded as one of the best drilled as well as best disciplined companies in the cavalry service, at the close of the war.
Captain Munhall was in all of the engagements in which the Eleventh Cavalry participated, and was in Gen. Lew Wallace's division at the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Farmington, Parker's Cross Roads, Jackson, Tennessee; Holly Springs, Union City, Bolivar, Black River, Queen's Hill and Jackson,
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Mississippi ; Champion's Hills and many others of lesser note, in all of which he never shirked his duty no matter how arduous or dangerous, according to his comrades. He took part in forty-two engagements in all, and, having a robust constitution and being a young man of good habits he was never sick or off duty during the entire war. On June 10, 1865 he was in charge of the last flag of truce ever taken into the Confederate lines. This was at Jackson, Tennessee. On October IIth of that year he was honorably dis- charged, after a most commendable and envied record as a soldier for the defense and perpetuity of the nation.
After his career in the army Captain Munhall returned to the farm in Illinois. In his earlier youth he had intended studying law, but the idea of a legal career was abandoned, and, after farming until 1876 he went to Indi- anapolis and took charge of A. C. May's heading and cooper shops, remain- ing there two years, then went to New Ross, where he was engaged in the shops also a store, then opened a store of his own. He was appointed post- master at New Ross, which position he held for a period of five years, with equal satisfaction to the people and the department; he was then nominated and elected county recorder and served two terms in a most creditable man- ner. He also served six years as trustee of Crawfordsville schools. He then engaged in the real estate, abstract and loan business with much success until 1906, when he went to Custer county, Montana, and homesteaded one hun- dred and sixty acres and bought one hundred and sixty acres adjoining. He has placed it all under a high state of improvement and cultivation. He has been very successful in a business way and is now in his declining years well fixed in a financial way.
Politically, he is a Republican, but he has never been especially active as a public man. He belongs to McPherson Post, Grand Army of the Republic. Fraternally, he is a Mason, belonging to the Chapter. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias.
Captain Munhall was married on February 7, 1871 to Mary E. Makin- son, of Illinois. She was born on March 2, 1845, and died on December 16, 1905. She was a daughter of Judge Makinson of Ottawa, Illinois, and she was a woman of many commendable traits of character and proved to be a worthy helpmeet in every respect.
To the Captain and wife one child was born, a daughter, Gertrude Mun- hall, who is now assistant librarian at the Crawfordsville public library.
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JAMES S. HITCHCOCK.
The career of James S. Hitchcock, editor of The Crawfordsville Re- view, has been strenuous, like that of all who select the newspaper field for their arena of action, and there is nothing in his record savoring in the slightest degree of disrepute, his relations with his fellow men having been ever above reproach and his good name beyond criticism. He wears the proud American title of self-made man, and being in the most liberal sense of the term the architect of his own fortune he may well feel a sense of pride in his achievements and the honorable position to which he has attained among the enterprising young men of the county and city of his adoption.
Mr. Hitchcock was born on July 24, 1885 in Jackson, Michigan. He is a son of Charles and Mary (Smiley ) Hitchcock. The father was born in 1851, also in Jackson, Michigan, and his death occurred on March 17, 1908. The mother of our subject was born on May 2, 1863 in Lansing, Michigan, and her death occurred on December 26, 1911. These parents grew to ma- turity, received common school educations and were married in their native state. Also the father was graduated from the Michigan Agricultural Col- lege and from a musical college. He spent the major portion of his active life as a commercial traveler. Politically, he was a Republican. Fraternally, he beonged to the Masonic Order and the Knights of the Grip. He was also a member of the Presbyterian church. During the Spanish-American war he enlisted in Company K. Thirty-third Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Allen, and after a very faithful service he was honorably discharged, mustered out a lieutenant.
To Charles Hitchcock and wife only one child was born, James S. Hitch- cock, of this review.
Our subject received a common and high school education, later taking special work at the Michigan Agricultural College, and also attended Michi- gan University.
He learned the printer's trade in the office of The Michigan Statesman, at Marshall, Michigan. In a short time he had mastered the ins and outs of the mechanical department of that paper and two years after he began his apprenticeship there he was editor of the same, although a mere boy, and when only sixteen years old he was editor of The Inder at Homer, Michigan, being one of the youngest, if not the youngest editor in the state; but he made a success of this responsible work, and from Homer he went to Lansing, where he joined the staff of The Journal as city editor, and he was
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also connected with The Lansing Republican for about a year, giving his employers entire satisfaction in every respect. Still seeking larger fields for the exercise of his talent, he went to Detroit where he secured employment on The Times. Subsequently he became city editor of the Marquette Min- ing Journal in 1905, later working a year on the Kalamazoo Gazette, then he returned to Lansing, and in March, 1910, he came to Crawfordsville, Indi- ana, and since then has been editor of The Crawfordsville Review, a corpora- tion, and he has brought this paper up to a high rank among the papers of western Indiana, greatly increasing its circulation and rendering it a valu- able advertising medium.
Mr. Hitchcock is a Democrat. He belongs to the Presbyterian church, and fraternally is a member of the Masonic Order, No. 33, at Lansing, Michigan; also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, at Crawfordsville. Mr. Hitchcock has remained unmarried.
CHARLES WILLIAM ROSS.
It is the pride of the citizens of this country that there is no limit to which natural ability, industry and honesty may not aspire. A boy born in ignorance and poverty and reared under the most adverse surroundings may nevertheless break from his fetters and rise to the highest station in the land; and the qualities do not have to be of transcendant character to enable him to accomplish this result. It is more the way he does it and the skill in grasping the opportunities presented than to any remarkable qualities possessed by him. Accordingly it is found that very often in this country the President, governor and other high public officials possess no greater ability than thousands of other citizens. They have simply taken better ad- vantage of their circumstances than their fellows, and this truth runs through every occupation or vocation. The business man who rises above his fellows does so by taking advantage of conditions which others overlook or fail to grasp. This seems to be the case with Charles William Ross, for many years regarded as one of the foremost business men of Crawfordsville and Montgomery county, being very extensively engaged in the real estate and loan business. In all walks of life he has so conducted himself as to gain and retain the good will and confidence of all classes, and in every movement looking to the improvement of his locality in any way his support may always be depended upon.
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Mr. Ross was born in Iroquois county, Illinois, May 4, 1864, on a farm. He is the scion of an excellent Irish ancestry, many of whose winning char- acteristics he seems to have inherited. He is a son of Alexander and Mary (Johnson) Ross. The father was born in Ireland, June 18, 1832. His father died when he was about five years of age and when sixteen years old he accompanied his mother to America. The father and husband was a minister in the Methodist church and spent his life in Ireland. Upon com- ing to the United States Alexander and his mother located in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, on a farm, and the son continued to follow agricultural pur- suits. He hired out until 1860 then bought a farm for himself and moved on it, operating the same until 1863 when he moved to Iroquois county, Illi- nois, and he remained there until 1867 when he removed to Lafayette, Indi- ana, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1905. Upon the commencement of the gold fever period in 1849 he was one of the brave band to make the tedious and hazardous journey across the plains of Cali- fornia. Politically, he was a Republican, belonged to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1860 he married Mary Johnson, who was born on December 18, 1832, in Sweden, from which country she came to the United States when fourteen years of age, locating in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, with her brother. Her death occurred in 1886. To this union eight children were born.
Charles W. Ross received a public school education, and he was gradu- ated from Purdue University at Lafayette, Indiana, with the class of 1889, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. While in school he spent his sum- mers engaged in the general contracting business-road and bridge building Soon after leaving college he came to Crawfordsville and engaged in the gen- eral mercantile business with ever increasing success until 1898, when he launched out in the real estate, loan and insurance business, and this he has continued to the present time on a very extensive scale, maintaining the largest office of its kind in this section of the state, employing an office force of six people and thirty men in the field. His operations extend over a large territory and he is widely known as one of Crawfordsville's most substantial and enterprising citizens. He had the distinction of being the originator of the five per cent. farm loans. During the year 1912 he placed over one million dollars in loans. His insurance runs larger every year, representing a number of the leading companies of the world. He buys and sells farms, in fact all kinds of rural and city property, and this is also a large part of his work. At this writing he owns over one thousand acres of land and fifty
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pieces of city property, all valuable and well kept. No man in Montgomery county is better informed on the value of property, country or city.
Politically, Mr. Ross is a Republican, and in religious matters he is a Methodist, and one of the pillars in the local congregation, being a steward, and has been a member of the official board for the past twenty-five years.
Mr. Ross was married on June 23, 1891 to Alice Dee Green, who was born near Waynetown, Montgomery county, Indiana, June 23, 1870. She is a daughter of George and Mary E. (Holloway) Green, who were early settlers of Wayne township and a well known family there. Mr. Green was born at Cambridge, New York. He devoted his life successfully to agricul- tural pursuits, and his death occurred in January, 1903 at the age of eighty- three years. Mrs. Green lives in Crawfordsville, being now advanced in years.
EMERSON ETHERIDGE BALLARD.
Success is achieved only by the exercise of certain distinguishing qualities and it cannot be retained without effort. Those by whom great epoch changes have been made in the political and industrial world began early in life to pre- pare themselves for their peculiar duties and responsibilities and it was only by the most persevering and continuous endeavor that they succeeded in rising superior to the obstacles in their way and reaching the goal of their ambition. Such lives are an inspiration to others who are less courageous and more prone to give up the fight before their ideal is reached or definite success in any chosen field has been attained. In the life history of the honorable gentleman whose name forms the caption of this article we find evidence of a peculiar characteristic that always makes for achievement-persistency, coupled with fortitude and lofty traits, and as a result of such a life, Mr. Ballard stands to- day one of the representative citizens and leading attorneys at law of Mont- gomery county, and an author of repute.
Emerson Etheridge Ballard, who maintains his office and residence in Crawfordsville, was born near Wheaton, Putnam county, Indiana, February 27, 1865. He is a son of William Sanford Ballard and Patience Ann (Brown) Ballard, both natives of Kentucky, the father's birth having oc- curred in Shelby county. These parents grew up, were educated and married in Putnam county, Indiana, where they were brought by their parents in child- hood, and they spent their lives engaged in agricultural pursuits. They are
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both deceased. The paternal grandfather, Jesse Ballard, was born in Vir- ginia. The maternal grandfather, Samuel Brown, son of Ezekiel Brown, was born March 19, 1803. Ann C. Glenn, our subject's maternal grand- mother, was born May 13, 1802.
Emerson E. Ballard grew to manhood on the home farm in Putnam county and he received his primary education in the district schools there, until he was fourteen years old, then attended the high school in Greencastle, from which he was graduated in May, 1881, and in that city he took the four years' course in DePauw University, making an excellent record and gradu- ating with the class of 1885.
Early in life he determined upon a legal career and bent every effort to thoroughly prepare himself, and he was accordingly admitted to the bar at Greencastle on March 1, 1886. Two days later we find him in Crawfords- ville, entering the practice of his profession in partnership with his brother, Tilghman E. Ballard, which continued until November, 1898, and met with pronounced success. Beginning with the year 1888 the firm, in con- nection with its law practice, engaged in the work of editing and publishing law books, which was continued until the dissolution of the firm. Since that time our subject has been engaged as a law book editor, meeting with ever increasing success until today he is recognized as an authority in this line throughout the country. Ballard's law of Real Property, a national serial publication, now consisting of fourteen volumes, was founded by Mr. Ballard and his brother, Tilghman E., in 1892. The first five volumes were jointly edited and published by them; but beginning with the sixth volume Emerson E. has been the editor of this popular and meritorious publication, with the exception of two volumes, which is now published by T. H. Flood & Company, law book publishers of Chicago. During the past six years our subject has done considerable work on the lecture platform, giving special emphasis to the temperance work, and he is regarded wherever he has appeared as an earnest, forceful, entertaining and eloquent speaker.
Emerson E. Ballard was married on December 19, 1888 to Ella F. Clod- felter, a lady of many estimable attributes, who was a daughter of Mathias Clodfelter and Mary Magdelen (Saylor) Clodfelter.
To our subject and wife two children have been born, namely: Ella Maurine Ballard, born on August 7, 1891 ; and Cecil May Ballard, born on August 20, 1895, and her death occurred on October 24, 1899.
Politically, Mr. Ballard is a Democrat and has ever been loyal in his sup- port of the fundamental principles of Democracy. Fraternally, he is a mem-
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ber of Montgomery Lodge, No. 50, Free and Accepted Masons; Crawfords- ville Chapter No. 40, Royal Arch Masons; Montgomery Council No. 34, Royal and Select Masons; Crawfordsville Commandery, No. 25 Knights Templar, and Athens Chapter No. 97, Order Eastern Star.
THE GRIFFITH FAMILY.
The following history of the Griffith family, of which Dr. Thomas J. Griffith, of Crawfordsville, is a member, was written by the Doctor especially for this work in Montgomery county, in the spring of 1913:
My father gave me the legendary fragments known to him of the Griffith family. It is a Welch name and was originally spelled Gryfyth. Three brothers came to America some time in 1600, landing at Philadelphia, and settled on the Brandywine river and became opulant, but during the Revolutionary war sold their possessions for Continental money and were made poor.
My great-grandfather, Joseph Griffith, was a soldier of the Revolution- ary war and was the first Revolutionary soldier buried at Indianapolis, in 1823. There is eleven pounds, English money due his heirs, on statement to me from the War Department. My great-grandfather, Joseph Griffith was married to Mary Thornton, an English woman, and to them were born Abraham, in 1774; Sarah, in 1777; John, in 1778; Joseph, in 1780; Elizabeth, in 1783, and Amos in 1786. My great-grandmother was lost in making a visit across the Allegheny mountains and no trace of her could be found. Abraham Griffith, my grandfather, was born in Chester county, Pennsyl- vania, November 31, 1774, and was married to Joanna John, a grand aunt of Dr. D. P. John, of DePauw University, October 12, 1798. Joanna died August 12, 1815, at one o'clock in the morning in Frederick county, Mary- land.
To Abraham and Joanna Griffith was born Lydia T., Hannah, Thorn- ton, (my father), Townsend, Barton and Clifford. Grandfather, with his brother, Amos, and sons Townsend and Barton, came west after the death of his wife, and two grown daughters, Lydia and Hannah, about 1822 or 1823, and settled in Covington, Indiana. In 1824 Abraham Griffith, paternal grand- father, took the contract to build the first jail in Crawfordsville for the princely sum of two hundred and forty-three dollars. It stood in the rear of Albert Miller's theatorium, and its dimensions were as follows: "To be
DR. THOS. J. GRIFFITH
.
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twenty-four by twenty feet from out to out, the foundation to be laid with stone sunk eighteen inches under ground and to be twelve inches above the ground and to be three feet wide on which there is to be built with logs, hewed twelve inches square, double walls with a vacancy of one foot between the walls; the vacancy between the walls to be filled with peeled poles, not more than six inches thick."
Grandfather died here June 19, 1829, in a double log house that stood on the southwest corner of Green and Market streets, and together with his son, Barton, a capable young business man of Covington, and contracted a malignant fever on a business trip to New Orleans, and died soon after reaching home; this was in 1834, and he was brought here and buried be- side his father, in the old town cemetery, and I am very sorry indeed to say that their graves are forever lost to the knowledge of the Griffith family. Barton was unmarried.
Thornton Griffith, my father, came west later than his father and brothers. He was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, July 8, 1799. He was in the Island of Porto Rico in the summer of 1825, superintending the building of a wharf for a Philadelphian sugar company, when a three-mast schooner came into San Juan, with a double-decked cargo of five hundred negroes from Africa, all in mother nature's costume and unloaded them on the beach to clean up, and the third day they were gone for some American port. This exhibition of man's inhumanity to man, made an abolitionist of my father. In the campaign of Gen. William Henry Harrison here in 1834 he was honored by a committee of Crawfordsville citizens to deliver the ad- dress of welcome, which was made at the southeast corner of Main and Washington streets.
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