History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships, Part 123

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman
Number of Pages: 664

USA > Indiana > Randolph County > History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships > Part 123

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He was married, in [854. to Mary E. Moore, daughter of Ely- mas Moore, whose widow, Ailsey Moore, died a year or so ago on their old place. They have had only one child, James Wesley, how a young man.

Mr. Clark was a carpenter for twenty years, and then took up wagon making, which has been his business for ten or twelve year's past.

He has also been Constable for twelve years, and, in the spring of ISSO, was elected once more, and again'in 1882. He is now, since F. G. Morgan's death, the oldest living resident of Spartan-burg.

Mr. Clark is a steady, qniet. industrious, estimable citizen. He is a Republican, and an Episcopal Methodist.

Renben Clark camo from Pasquotank County, N. C., to Franklin County. Ind., in 1807, nine weeks and three days on the road, coming iwo hundred miles to the mountains. Ronte, Ward's Gap. Poplar Camp Furnace, New River, Abingdon. Wythe Court House, Crab Orchard. Nicholasville, Lexington. Nelson's Tavern. Gen. Gaines' plantation, twenty miles from the Ohio, crossing at North Bend, near Gen. Harrison's home. Two families enme, besides two young men and an old soklier-fifteen in all. The mon walked all the way, except three miles. They had two one-borse carts. Mr. Clark had nine children, four living now. He moved to Randolph County in 1819, north of Arba, near the toll-gate. James Clark, his ohlest son, born about 1504, is hearty aud strong, seventy-eight years old. loving to tell exploits of olden time. James' uncle had been up to the Whitewater country. and the children wished greatly to see the river " white like mitk." When they reached the stream, father saidl. " Here is the Whitewater," when lo! it was just like any other water.

How Anddenly was the picture painted by their youthful fancy da: hed to atoms by the stern hand of sober fact! Thus has many another " castle in the air " been unceremoniously tumbled shout the startled ears of the unineky owner, and he has been left. homeless and desolate, to mourn his schemes all gone "agloy." We have not a Inller statement concerning Mr Reuben Clark, which is to ns a somer of regret.

Frederic Fulghum, Arba, born in North Carolina in 1799; married Piety Parker. sister of Thomas Parker; came to Arba in

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1821; had nine children, six living and married; died in 1879, aged seventy-nine years ten months and twenty days. He was a Friend, a Whig and a Republican; he left South Carolina on account of slavery, having had an estate of slaves left him by his uncle, Frederic Bunn; but he would have nothing to do with the estate, and never even went to see about it.

Orpha Griffin (widow of William Griffin) came to Randolph County, Ind., in 1830; married Job Elliot in 1836: had four children, and died in St. Joseph County, Mich., about 1860.

Aaron Hill (son of William Hill) was born in 1810; came to Randolph County in 1823; married Piety Arnold in 1832; his first wife died in 1853, his second wife was Rachel Horner (in 1859), and she died in 1880. Mr. Hill moved to Wayne County, a short distance south of Arba, and now resides there. He has had eight children, soven living; the eighth lived to be twenty-one. A. H. is a fine, genteel old Qnaker gentleman, active in his methods, enjoying excellent health, jovial in his manners, but es- teemed and confided in by his friends and by the public. Aaron Hill says the sheep-killing story is all moonshine, as also are several others told concerning him. or nearly so, but that he did one thing not set down to him. viz., he had a saw mill, run by water- power, and he bored a hole and fixed a box so that when the box would get full the wheel would go a little, and that would start a hominy pounder, and thus the pounder would go. by starts, all night. When his father came to Richmond, in 1816, there was only one frame house in the place. In a year or two, a two-story frame was erected near Ham's Corner. The site of the town was largoly covered with a grove of buckeyes, which were splendid for building cabins. Mr. Aaron Hill says: "The first school I ever attended was in a hewed-log cabin, at Richmond. On the north, and also on the east side, a log was left out and the open- ing was closed with greased paper. My father lived one year on the county line east of the toll-gate, which stands south of Arba, and after that west of Arba. Of our family of nino children, two only were born in Randolph. I was thirteen years old when my father became a pioneer in this county." He states further: "Deer used to go in droves, ten or fifteen. or even more in a drove. They were more abundant than sheep. They had paths leading to ponds for water, and in these haunts the poor creatures were often shot by the remorseless hunter. Possums, porcupines, ground hogs, turkeys, pheasants and what not were all over the woods. Pheasants would make the forests fairly shake with the strange noises made by their "drumming " on the logs. My father had one ox and one horse, and worked them together as a team. They were very stout, pulling through the swamp and sometimes breaking a stay chain. The ox alone would pull equal to two horses, plowing roots 'like the na- tion.' He would plow corn and eat both rows as he went, unless he was muzzled."

Jeremiah Horn, farmer, was born in 1803, and came to Ran- dolph County, Ind., in 1826, marrying Mazana Griffin in 1830. They had seven children, six of whom are still living and are married. He was a farmer, a "Body " Friend, and a Republican. His death occurred in 1869, at the age of sixty-six years.

William Hill was born in North Carolina in 1785: married Mary Hockett in 1807. (She was born in 1784. and came to Ohio in 1807.) They came to Wayne County, Ind., (near Rich- mond), in 1810; moved to Highland County, Ohio, in 1811 (probably on account of the Indians); returned to Wayne County, Ind., in 1816; came to Randolph County in 1823; bought sixty acres of land at second hand; had nine children, all living to become grown and to be married, and five still survive.

The children were Ruth, Aaron, Hiram, Martha, Sarah. Re- becca, Miriam and Henry W., all born between 1808 and 1828.

William Hill died in 1840, aged tifty-five years; his wife died in 1865, agod eighty-one years.

W. H. was a sterling pioneer, active, discreet, zealous for the right, and he trained up his large family in the way in which they ought to go, and his descendants are to-day an active, estimable, worthy group of men and women. . Many odd and quaint things are told of William Hill and of his boys, most of which are probably not true, and which, were they even true, it will hardly pay to write down.

He was a farmer, a blacksmith, a plasterer, a brick-mason, and what else we do not know. In religion, he was a Friend, and in polities a Whig; and altogether an intelligent, reliable and worthy citizen.

He was very handy with tools. and ingenious in all sorts of contrivances for necessity or use.

William Haut, Arba (son of Barnabas Hunt), was born in 1822, in Wayne County, Ind ; married Eda Fulghum, daughter of Frederick Fulghum, in 1813; came to Randolph County in 1844, and has eight children, four living; is a farmer and a Friend; was a Whig. and is a Republican; was an Anti-slavery man, but remained with the " body."

William M. Locke, Spartansburg, was born in 1805, in North Carolina: married Wealthy Middleton in 1827, and afterward Sarah Middleton, sisters of Thomas and Samuel Middleton; two children; Randolph County, Ind., 1828, living first on Daniel Comer's place; went back to North Carolina until 1831; then to Spartansburg 1831 to 1836; west of Granger Hall nine years: Bartonia, twenty-five years: Spartansburg, three years. He has been a carpenter, wagon-maker and farmer. W M. L. has been marriedl fifty-three years. They are a cheerful old couple, happy and esteemed, and active in good works. He has been an Episcopal Methodist for more than forty-seven years (since 1834); has been church Trustee ever since 1837, and loves the sanctuary and the class-meeting as well as ever.

W. M. L. removed to Union City, Ohio, in the fall of 1880, and resided for a time in that place. He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church of Union City, Ind., being also ap- pointed Class Leader in that society, a position for which his ripe ago and his high and deep religious experience were pecu- liar qualifications. He. however soon changed his residence, re- moving to good old Randolph again in 1881. and he is now a citizen of the same county in which he had been domiciled so many, many years. He moved at first from Union City, Ohio, to Arba, Ind .; but shortly afterward he returned to Spartans- burg, which is at this time (March, 1882), again his home.

John Mann. Spartansburg, was born in Pennsylvania in 1805: came to Olio when a boy, and io Randolph County, Ind., in 1820. He entered 120 acres of land lying southwest of Spartansburg, near Gilead Meeting-House. walking to Cincinnati for the purpose. He was married in 1836, by James C. Bowen. Justice of the Peace, and has had ten children. One son, Isaac, was drowned in the service during the war of the rebellion.

His business has been farming, living upon the land he ontered for nearly sixty years.

He moved to Spartansburg in about ISSO, and now residos at that place.

Samuel H. Middleton was the son of Benedict Middleton, who was born in Virginia about 1767; was a farmer; moved afterward to North Carolina; had a family of eight or ien chil- dren, and died in ISIO in Carolina, aged seventy-three years.

Seven of his children came to Indiana in early times: five of them to Randolph County, viz., Samuel H. Middleton, Thomas Middleton. Hannah (wife of William Locke), Anna (wife of John 'Tharpe), Ailsey (wife of ------ Moore). The wife of B. M. was a Baptist, and died in Carolina in 1808, seventy-three years of age.

Samuel H. Middleton was born in 1794, in Virginia. He went with his father to North Carolina in 1798, and came to Richmond, Ind., Christmas Day, 1826. They brought six chil- dren, two having diel in Carolina, coming in a two-horse wagon, and were five weeks on the road. His brother, Thomas Middleton, came with him part of the way, and finished the journey by steamer down the Ohio to Cincinnati. Their child Ursula was five weeks old when they started. Luzona, one of the girls, says she " scotehed" the wheels nearly all the way over the mountains, as they camo on their wearisome journey. He lived two years on a farm belonging to Clarkson Willentts, west of Arba, and. in 1828, he moved to his residence, east of Spartansburg, where he remained till his death, in 1856, sixty-two years old. He had ten children, eight born in Carolina, and two in Randolph County, Ind. Three were boys and seven were girls; sevon grew up; five have been married, and four are living still. The children were these: Luzena (widow of George Locke), one

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

child, living near Spartansburg; Hannah, died at eight years; Nancy Ford, died in 1856, had sevon children; Elihu, drowned in "Seven Mile Creek," Preblo County, Ohio, in 1847, aged twenty-six years; Sarah Jane, died at eighteen years; Benedict, died at two years; Jeremiah, living east of Spartansburg, threo children; Ursula, died at eight years old; Ruth (Thomas), has six children and is living: Christiana Middleton, wife of James Ruby, north of Spartansburg, has two children. S. H. M. mar- ried Christiana Tharpe, daughter of Jeremiah Tharpe, in 1814; she died in 1855, sixty-five years old, having been born in 1790, and he died in 1856; they were buried side by sido in the Arba Graveyard. He was, in youth and early manhood. an active member of the Methodist Church, but he joined the Friends and kept with them till his death. His wife was also a Friend, and they were worthy, exemplary Christians. He was in early times a Whig, and afterward an Abolitionist. Mr. M. had a wonder- ful memory; he used to say, langhingly, that he never forgot anything but onee. When he was a boy, he found a hon's nest, and he forgot where he found it. Ho could recite in his old age whole poems of great length that he had learned in his youth and retained entire for forty years. He was a worthy citizen, kind-hearted and hospitable and greatly esteemed. His father came with Samnel and Thomas on their way from Carolina to the unknown West a day's journey, to bid them farewell. He had buried a danghter only the day before; his beloved wife had been taken away many years previous, and his heart, crushed with grief and a sense of loss, conld scarcely hear to give them up. The Middletons were of English descent. The Tharpes were of Scotch descent. The father of Jereminh Tharpe's wife was a Quaker and a slave-holder. Near the time of the Revolu- tion, that society became convinced that slave-holding was a sin, and they passed a resolution that their members should free their slaves or be disowned. Francis Clark, father of Mrs. Tharpe above, freed all his slaves, twenty-one in number.

Jeremiah Tharpe, father of Mrs. Samuel H. Middleton, died in Carolina in 1808, having had eight children, as follows: Eti, Jonathan. John, Jeremiah, Nancy ( Kennedy), Ursula ( Wheeler). Christiana (Middleton), Miklred (Thornburg). The children all hecame grown, and all were married. They all came to Indiana during the time from about 1812 to 1830. several of them sel- tling in Randolph County. Jonathan died in Illinois, and Eli was living. at last accounts, in Iowa, very old. Anna (Tharpe) Kennedy died in Whiteriver Township, in the winter of 1980- 81, aged more than eighty years. Mrs. Christiana (Middleton) Rubey, wife of James Rubey, showed a package of letters writ- ten between 1781 and 1815, mostly by Robert Ward to Joshua Harlan, grandfather of her husband, written from Carolina to Indiana. They are upon rough, unruled paper, in a coarse, plain, thongh unfashioned band; and show the great affection which friends felt for each other in those ancient days. Some of them give an account of a severo earthquake in North Carolina in De- cember. 1811, near Bald Mountain, which caused great affright throughout that whole region. The letters were sent chiefly by private hands, only one showing a post mark. dated at Laurens, S. C., October. 1814, with the postage 37} cents! They are all directed to Indiana Territory, and several of them to tho "County of Dearborn."

Thomas Middleton was born in Guilford County, N. C .. in 1799; he married Margarot Webb in 1825: he camo to White. water Ind., in 1826, and to Randolph County in 1830. The company from Carolina consisted of four families, and they were forty-two days on their journey. The families were those of Mor- decai Hiatt, Eli Kersey, Thomas Middleton and Samnel HL. Mid- dleton. Thomas Middleton had no wagon, and his brother Samnel brought Thomas and his wife to Kanawha Salt Works. West Vir- ginia. Thomas's wife and himself then took steamer down the Ohio to Cincinnati, and he hirel a man to fetch them to Rich- mond His first wife died in 1836, having had six children. Mr Middleton's second wife was Sarah Borders, and she died in 1562, withoutoffspring. The names of Mr Middleton's children wero Minerva, Calvin Peeples, Caroline, Sidney S., Sally, Jolin Fletcher. John Fletcher was a soklier in the Union army dur- ing the war of 1861, and he belonged to the Sixty-ninth Indiana.

In 1880, J. F. M. was elected Trustee of Greensfork Township; as also again in 1882. Mr. M. is very old. eighty-three years, and is feeble, having been more or less an invalid all his life. His character is that of an upright and worthy man, having been a sincere and discreet Christian throughout a long life of hard- ship and affliction.

Francis G. Morgan. Spartansburg; born 1828, Newport, Ind .; Spartansburg, 1830; Wayne County, 1835; Spartansburg, 1836; Newport, Ind., 1839-1843; lived about almost anywhere, : 1813- 1851; Newport, 1851-1861; Spartansburg, 1861. Twice mar- ried, 1848 and 1852: four children, three living. From twelve to twenty-four years old. he followed teaming from Newport, Richmond. Brookville, etc., to Cincinnati and elsewhere. Ho was a hired teamster, driving from two to six horses. He hanled logs near Richmond for two or three years; harness shop, 1852- 55: clerk. Newport. 1855-61: store at Spartansburg, clerk or partner, 1861-76: bought his farm, Spartansburg, 1861, and sinee that, fifty acres, costing $1.500. He was Township Trustee two years, and County Commissioner three years. He died in the winter of 1880.

While Mr. Morgan was County Commissioner, the Board contracted for and partly built a court house.

The contract was for $73,000. and the job was done without alteration of any kind. Many were greatly opposed at the timo, and Mr. Morgan is thought to have been defeated for a second nomination on that ground. The house was greatly needed, is very neat and tasteful in design, and was marvelously cheap in construction. It is one of the finest edifices in the country, and a "perfect gem " of beanty and taste. Good judges have pro- nonneed it the handsomest building they ever saw, and the Com missioners may well be proud of their part in the work. The prople also are now glad it has been built, and think it an orna- ment to the county.

Mr. Morgan has been and is an active, energetic and reliable man, respected by his follow-citizens, and found faithful in every public and private trust.

F. G. Morgan died in the fall of 1880. of a lingering and painful disease. His death, occurring as it did in mature middle life, was a source of great sorrow to his alllieted family and friends. His widow has since married Mr. William A. Maey, an elderly but excellent gentleman. [Sce Wayne Township. ]

Il bas bren stated since its ervetion that the court house is not fire-proof; that it has hundreds of tons of wood in its struct- ure, and not a vault in the entire building. This is a wonder- ful oversight, and one can hardly understand how or why any body of Commissioners could make so great a mistake. To guard against even the possibility of the destruction of the public ro- cords is the great sine qua non of a costly court house; and a building which lacks being fire-proof may nearly as well lack everything. The outside of the building, indeed, is brick, iron or slato, and it may be said that fire cannot communicate to the wood beneath those materials. It is surely to be hoped that this may always prove to be the case, but the part of wisdom would have been to make a conflagration of the court house and of the public records an absolute impossibility. The edifico should have been so constructed that it could not be even set on fire.

George Morgan is a brother of Dr. R. H. Morgan and son of Micajah Morgan. He was born in Wayne County, Ind. Ho joined the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Indiana; was in Scotiekl's Corps: was at the surrendering of Johnston's army, in North Carolina, and was discharged in that neighborhood soon after. After the war, he engaged in railroading. spending twelve years on the frontier. He began with the Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad when only eight miles of track had been laid. and helped make the whole road (so far as made three or four years ago) .. He was three years on the Texas Pacific. For a short time he has been engaged in selling goods under the firm of Hill & Morgan, at Spartansburg. Ind. He married Lonisa Rich, and has one child. The firm of Hill & Morgan has been dissolved, and Mr. Morgan has sinco that time been variously employed. Some years ago, he built for himself a dwelling in Spartansburg, and his residence is still in that town.

Isaac Mann came from Pennsylvania, and settled very early

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(perhaps in 1816) on the Harrison Anderson farm below Spar- tansburg. Hehad seven children, and died in 1847 an old man (probably seventy years old or more.)

Malachi Nichols, Washington Township; born North Caro- lina, 1804; came to Randolph County in 1816 (near Arba); married Sarah Mann, 1825; had ten children, four living; died of cholera, 1849.

William D. Nichols, of Lynn, and Isaac Nichols, of Greens- fork Township, are sons of Malachi Nichols.

Ephraim Overman was the fifth settler in Greensfork Town- ship, and in Randolph County as well. He came in the fall of 1814 from Randolph County, N. C., and was the next settler after Ephraim Bowen. He came, probably in November, 1814, and he lived in a " camp" to some time in the fall of 1815. He had five children, all boys-Jesse, Eli, Ephraim, Silas and Reuben.

His brother, Nathan Overman, had ten children, soven sons and three daughters. Their names were Joseph, Reuben, Cor- nelius, Abner, Isaac, Jason, Zebulon, Mabel, Mary, Rebecca. Ephraim Overman was member of the Legislature for Wayne County in 1816, and named the new county Randolph in honor of his native county in North Carolina.

We possess no further particulars concerning him.

Jesse Parker, late of Bethel, Wayne County, is the son of Thomas and Anna Parker, and was born in Rockingham County, N. C., near South Carolina line, in 1807. He came with his parents to Arba, Randolph Co., Ind., in April. 1814, that family being the first white settlers in Randolph County, though land had been entered in the county in 1812, some fifteen months before his settlement.

He married Phebe Puckett, daughter of Benjamin Puckett, in 1826, and they have had seven children, four of whom are living, and six have been married. Jesse Parker's parents died some vears aftor their arrival in Indiana, his mother in 1823; she was the second or third person buried in the Arba Graveyard. J. P. is a shoemaker by trade and occupation, a hearty, jovial old man, having a good memory of old times, and taking a keen delight in recounting the tales of ancient days, when the woods were full of deer and turkeys and wild Indians. One of his sisters was burned to death when a child, and the other (Celia) married Mr. Arnold, and is now a widow and resides at Arba, Ind. He has in his possession a cane made from the " oves bearer" in the first cabin ever erected in Randolph County. The wood is ash. und is very sound and bright. Jesse Parker died November 3, 1881, near Lynn, Randolph Co., Ind., in his seventy-fifth year; he re- moved from Bethel, Wayne County, to Winchester. Randolph County, expecting to make that his home; soon afterward, he changed his residence to the toll-gate north of Lynn, and only three days after taking charge of the gate he died. The day be- fore his death, he walked to Lynn, and, on the very day he died, he remarked that he felt as well as usual. His sickness began with an aching sensation in the hand, which, in a few hours, reached the heart. A physician was summoned, but in vain. For the aged pioneer, the first lad in the county, it was the "last of earth." His wish had been that his lot might be to meet his death upon the beloved soil of Randolph, and his desire was granted.

Jesse Parker was born in North Carolina in 1766; came to Randolph County, Ind., early; had seven children-Thomas, Joel, Piety, Eda and Jesse and two others. He died 9th, 24th, 1843, aged seventy-six years eleven months and two days.

Margaret Parker, Arba, is now residing in her own house in the village of Arba, Randolph Co., Ind., with her single daughter Lizzie; her son-in-law, Thomas Haisley, with his little son, lives with her: also her oldest daughter, Martha R. Newsom, with one little boy. Martha was married to Joseph Newsom about four- teen years ago; they spent eight years with the Indians-three years in Kansas and the rest of the time in the Indian Territory. Mr. N. died in 1879, and she returned to her mother. Margaret Parker's two sons are both married. One resides near Rich- mond, and the other on his father's old farm. Her husband, Thomas Parker, came to Randolph County in 1821, and she in 1827. They were married the same year and began housekeep- ing with a very limited supply of household goods, viz., one pot

and one skillet, six plates, six cups and saucers, six spoons and six knives and forks. They made coffee in a milk-pan. All their little means were applied to buying some land. In a few years they became good livers for those times.

Soon after their settlement in Randolph County, her husband made great quantities of tree-sugar. Several barrels were taken to Cincinnati. Some was sold there at 3 cents per pound, and the rest was brought back. A barrel of it was left standing in the wagon shop for people to eat whenever they pleased. In 1844, about Christmas, she stuck a pin into her arm, and, strange as it may seem, that little wound cost her months and months of terrible suffering, and came very near taking her life. Erysipe- las set in, and went into the arm, and it was thoughit that the limb must be out off. It was permitted to remain, and finally got measurably well, yet for many months she had no use of hor right hand. But she conld use her left hand, and she undertook with that to spin on a foot-wheel. The children turned the wheel, and she spun enough to make thirty yards with her left hand and her mouth. The time was set one day, and forty people came to witness the sight of amputating her arm, but her husband would not allow it to be done. The limb was so terribly sore that women could not endure to dress it, and three men came three times a day for six weeks to dress that arm! The limb mortified on the lower side in as large a place as one's hand, and the large muscles and the artery lay bare to the sight! yet that arm has for many years been comparatively healthy and sound, and she is alive to-day to look back with thankfulness upon the fact that she was delivered from her fear- ful suffering, and restored once more to comfort and freedom from pain and danger.

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History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships, Part 123

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman Number of Pages: 664

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman
Number of Pages: 664