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 175

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 175

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Ezekiel Clough, farmer, was born in New Hampshire in 1802, emigrated to Mill Creek, Ohio, not far from Cincinnati in 1818. His father died soon afterward, leaving the care of the family to Ezekiel, then about eighteen years old. They "rented" for several years, and then engaged in making brick in Cincin- nati, by which he got his start. He married Anna Huddart, and in 1836 the couple moved to the " wilds of Jay," entering 640 acres of land In 1862, he changed his residence from Jay to Randolph, and in the latter county has been his residence from that date. Mr. Clough has, in the course of forty-five years, acquired a large fortune, which has been liberally em- ployed in works of usefulness and benevolence. Mr. Clough has had nine children-William, Nancy, Ezekiel, Hannah, George, Jane, John (and two more). William was killed in the army at Port Gibson, Miss., May, 1863. In those early days, accommo- dations were poor and times were hard. The people nsed even to grate corn-meal for mush, and hoe-cake and buckwheat meal for batter-cakes; and if the settlers wished to have grain ground at the mill, they had to send it to Covington, six miles beyond Greenville, or even to Dayton sometimes; often half of the grist was given to pay for grinding and for hauling it to mill and back. Mr. C. was better off from the start than many of his

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

brother settlers, and hence was spared some of the trials of poor pioneer life. He has been from the first an exemplary member of the Free- Will Baptist Church, and has spent much time and means in building up the interests of education and religion. He was one of the chief founders of Ridgeville College, being understood to have given to it. at the beginning, $10,000, and also much more besides since that time. Mr. C. is now about seventy-nine years of age, and is growing somewhat feeble from age. He is still active, however, and is often seen at Union City and elsewhere in the region.

Jacob Corl was born in Pennsylvania. in 1805, married Eliza- beth Stufft in 1825, came to Richland County, Olio, in 1835, and to Randolph County, Ind., in 1838, settling in Jackson Township, south of New Pittsburg. He has had three children, only one now living. Ho bought eighty aeres at first, and now owns 160 acres. He formerly belonged to the Episcopal Method- ists, and now to the German Reformed Church, and he is a Democrat in polities.

Andrew Debolt, blacksmith, came to Jackson Township early in 1831. He is said to have been the father of twenty-seven children, uine by each of three wives (I give the statement as it was given to me). He died, seventy-eight years old, five or six years ago. His third wife is living still. Ho was a blacksmith and a hard-working man, though, rough and passionate. It would be worth while to know how many of those children were living at home at once: how he managed to bring them up: how many were reared to adult age, and all and sundry about them every one, this deponent, however, saith not. for a somewhat good reason-he does not know. It wonkl, indeed, be an affect- ing sight to behold a gathering of the descendants of some of these pioneer patriarchs at the ancient homestead, white-haired grandsires and aged matrons with silvery tresses, but with faces wreathed with gentle, loving smiles and soul filled with motherly kindness for all her progeny. Stalwart sons and sweet-voiced danghters, husbands and wives, bringing their children of the second and third. and, mayhap, the fourth, generation, to honor their common ancestry still spared in the land of the living. to behold so grateful a sight. Well might the aged patriarchs exclaim with Simeon of okdl. " Now, Lord, lettest thoa thy ser- vants dopart in peace, for our eyes have behell thy' salvation." or with the psalmist. " Praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men."

| Later information obliges me to say that the truth as to An- drew Debolt's family is, that he was married three times, and bad four, seven and four children, respectively. or fifteen in all. I am sorry to ent the former story down so much, but historians must tell the truth, you know. |

Houry Debolt was born in 1817 in Butler County, Ohio; married Ann Mikesell in 1844: had eleven children, seven liv- ing, four married; came to Randolph County in ISHI: lives on a part of the farm formerly ocenpied by Amos Smith. Mr. De- bolt is a farmer: was Justice of the Peace seventeen years: Town ship Trustee four years; is a Disciple and a Democrat, and a highly respected and trustworthy citizen.

George Debolt (father of the above). Jackson Township, was born in 1794 in Hamilton County. Ohio: resided in Butler and Proble Counties, Ohio: came to Randolph County, Jackson Town- ship. in IS41: married Rachel Clawson: had eight children, six living. He died in 1833. his wife in 1861. Mr. Debolt was Colonel in Batler County, Ohio, was Justice of the Peace in Jackson Township four years, and Probate Judge one term. He owned 220 acres of land. having entered 18 acres. He was a Democrat, and an active, intelligent and trustworthy citizen.

James Wickersham was the first Justice of the Peace in Jack- son Township, and was succeeded by George Deboll.

Thomas Devor, farmer. was born in Maryland in 1803, came to Jackson Township in 1834, entered forty acres and soon after forty more, and lives on the same land now. He is seventy- seven years old, and the father of nine children. residing one- half mile north of Alleusville on the Salem pike. He is some- what feeble, though for his age he is doing well. His wife died a short time ago. He is a Republican. Mr. Devor has been a Justice of the Pence several years. There were but very few

settlers in the township when he came forty-six years ago. A few families were near that place, a few near New Lisbon and Mt. Holly, and a Mr. Porter lived south of Pittsburg. The first school in the township was taught by Mrs. Beach in her own house. The first sermon was at the same place. For other items, see account of Jackson Township.

The following Is an account of the ancestry of Jacob Gittin- ger, late of Jackson Township, Randolph County, Ind .:

Jacob Gittinger, grandfather of the one mentioned above, was born in Switzerland about 1760, or sooner; was married in that country and soon afterward emigrated to America, settling in Baltimore County, Md. He was a soldier for a time in the Revolutionary war. In politics, he was a Jeffersonian Repub- lican, and afterward, a Jacksonian Democrat, and in religious con- nection a Lutheran. He had four sons and six daughters, all but one of whom grew up and were married. They all settled in Maryland, but their descendants are now widely scattered. As to occupation; Mr. Gittinger was a blacksmith and a farmer and also a hotel-keeper on the pike between Hanover and Baltimore, He died about 1846, in Baltimore County, Md., at the age of eighty-six years or more.

Jacob Gittinger (son of the above and father of the present Jacob Gittinger) was born in Maryland in 1786. He married, in Maryland, Mary Deal, in 1807 or 1808, and they were the parents of twelve children, nine sons and three daughters. All of them became grown except the youngest son, who died at seven years old, and six sons and one danghter are living still. Mr. Gittinger was a wagon-maker and a blacksmith and farmer. He was a Democrat in politics and belonged to the Methodists for many years, continuing in that connection to the close of his life. He moved to Ohio in 1835. tarrying awhile in Darko County, and settling in Randolph Connty, Ind., in 1838, in Jackson Township, not far from the Ohio line. He died about 1870, eighty-four years old, and his wife in 1860, aged seventy- two years. The whole family removed to Randolph County ex- copt one son, though not many are left in the region at the pres- out fime. The aged couple lie side by side in the burying- ground at Raper Chapel, in Darke County, Ohio.

He was a soldier in the war of 1812, being an Ensign in the Lighthorse Guards. He was not engaged in actual battle, but helped to guard Baltimore against the approach of Gen. Ross and Admiral Cockburn, the British commanders. Ensign Gittinger carried the flag of his company, and that banner was preserved as a sacred relic for more than fifty years until it fell to frag- ments by sheer old age.

Jacob Gittinger (the third), now living in Union City, Ind., was born in Baltimore County, Md., in 1817. He came with his father to Ohio in 1835, and to Randolph County, Ind., in 1838, the latter removal being when he was twenty-one years of age. Jacob's father had become straitened for means, and the young man had to strike ont for himself, which he did manfully, earn- ing by the severest labor and the closest economy, enough to ob- tain a comfortable home, which he owns to this day. In 1844, he married Margaret Adkins, in Darke County, Ohio, who was the danghter of George Adkins, and born in 1822 in Butler County. Ohio. They have been the parents of only two children, one son and one daughter, both of whom are living. Their res- idence has been in Jackson Township for nearly forty years, having removed to Union City in the spring of 1882. Mr. Git. tinger is a Democrat, and his wife and himself have belonged to the German Reformed Church for many years. Mr. Gittinger belongs to an excellent stock, and is a fine specimen of the hon- ost, industrious yeomanry of our country, upright, energetic, re- liable, loving God and doing good to his fellow-men.

Benjamin F. Gittinger, son of Jacob and Mary Gittinger, was born in Baltimore County, Md., on the 30th day of Decem- ber, 1828. His parents, though both natives of Maryland, were descended from German stock. When the subject of this sketch was in his ninth year, his parents came from their native State and settled in Darke County, Ohio. Two years thereafter, in 1839, the family removed to Randolph County, and settled on a piece of wild land in Jackson Township, where young Benjamin grew up in what was then backwoods, surrounded by the priva-

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JACKSON TOWNSHIP.

tions of a pioneer life, deprived of educational advantages and assisting in clearing up the farm and carning a living for the family. On arriving at maturity, young Gittinger started out to earn his own living and to make his own way in the world. Besides the traditional suit of " jean clothes," he was endowed with perseverance, with health, energy and a few implements of manual labor. Being now his own master, and the increased improvemonts of the country affording better educational advan- lages, and not being satisfied to begin life in earnest without some learning, he spent the winter seasons of the three succeed- ing years in the common district school. By this means he ac. quired the rudiments of an education, which he has developed by reading and observation, until he is now known as a reason- ably well-informed man. By industry as a common laborer, and by the practice of a rigid economy, he had. at the age of twenty- five, accumulated $250, which he applied on the purchase of eighty acres of wild land in Jackson Township. which he dis- posed of at the end of one year at a good advance. With tho proceeds of this sale, he went to Southern Iowa, where he pur- chased 200 acres of prairie land, returning to this, Randolph County, after an absence of four months, to continue his usual avocation of toil, and, by economy and sober habits, to add to his fund of cash.

On the 12th day of April, 1855, he was married to Miss Mary A. Harshman, daughter of Abram and Hannah Harshman, from which union there have sprung four children, three sons and one daughter.

Having sold his Iowa land and by adding to the purchase money his recent savings, he, in 1856, bought ninety acres of unimproved lands in Jackson Township, five miles north of Union City, upon which he settled and began the work of making a farm. This purchase was the nucleus of his present homestead, and to it has been added, as opportunity offered and means afforded, until he now possesses a farm of 200 acres of first quality of land, well drained and inclosed, with a well-arranged and sightly dwelling. barn and outhouses-in fact, a first class farm, all reclaimed by his own endeavors from the forest and marsh. As a farmer, Mr. Gittinger has always been successful. Not being a believer in luck, but believing that the earth yielded her treasures to those who sought them aright, his erops were planted. harvested and Loused in season.

Mr. Gittinger was made a Freemason in Deerfield Lodge, No. 117, in 1853, and at present is a member of Union City Lodge, No. 270. For thirty years he has been a consistent and reliable member of the Christian Church.

In politics, Mr. Gittinger is of Democratic antecedents, and, until 1860, voted the Democratie ticket. and as such has been elected twice Township Assessor. Being dissatisfied with the Charleston Convention, he declined to vote in 1860, but after the beginning of the war of the rebellion. he identified himself with the Republican party, and, though maintaining his political opinions with zeal and sometimes with pertinacity, and in fare of a largo local majority, he has retained the confidence and es- teem of his neighbors and former political associates.

In the spring of 1882, Mr. Gittinger was nominated by the Republicans of Randolph County as a candidate for the impor- tant and responsible (though not, indeed, lucrative) office of County Commissioner for the Eastern District. , This nomination, as against other candidates who were themselves also deservedly popular, is indeed a pleasing token of a confidence vouchsafed by his fellow-citizens, both in his ability and his integrity -- not less than an acknowledgment of the claims of the locality of his residence.

The Harshmans (four brothers), Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Reuben Harshuinan, were born in Rockingham County, Va., and were brought by their father, James Harshman, to Preble County, Ohio, in' 1807. Abraham and Jacob Harshman emi- grated to Randolph County, Ind., in 1832. Renben came in 1834. and' Isaac about 1837 or 1838. They settled near and north of Saratoga and Middletown. Abraham Harshman was twice married, and had ten children, but he is dead and his widow lives on the old farm. Isaac Harshman moved to Illinois after awhile. He had eight or ten children; one of his daughters married Will-

iam Debolt, Esq., of Union City, and she has lately achieved some notoriety in the famous siege of " Fort Debolt," during the spring of 1880.

Jacob Harshman had seven children. He is dead, and his widow married Ephraim Bragg, who is dead also, and she now lives a widow.

Reuben Harshman, was born in Virginia in 1807; was brought to Preble County, Ohio, in 1807, married Sarah Hereford, of Warren County, Ohio, in 1829, and came to Randolph County in 1834. They have had ten children, eight grown, and five are now living; seven have been married. He entered forty acres and bought forty more of Benzett Evans. They moved to Union City in 1875, Mr. Harshman having been afflicted with partial paralysis, and now reside with their son, who runs a harness shop in that town. Mrs. Harshman was born in Virginia in 1804, and is now in her seventy-seventh year, being in the en- joyment of health and activity. When they came to the county, they located between the settlements in the woods, Deerfield and Ridgeville being below, and New Pittsburg and Allensville above them. Mr. H. died in the spring of 1881, being buried in Pros- pect Cemetery, aged abont seventy-four years.

Henry Hinkle was born in 1810 in Butler County, Ohio. His father, Joseph Hinkle, was a "character" in those regions, being the parents of seventeen children, one still-born, sixteen grown, fourteen married and twelve now living, four in Butler County, Ohio, two in Illinois, one in Michigan and five in Indiana. Jo- seph Hinkle volunteered in the war of 1812, and marched to De- troit, but the ranks were full, and he, with others, returned home, after an absence of some weeks. He died in Butler Coun- ty. Ohio. July 3, 1881. aged ninety-four years and above from April 13. 1881. His wife died in 1859, aged sixty-eight years. Henry Hinkle came to Randolph County in 1841. He had, in 1833, married Eliza Ann Pentecost, in Butler County. Ohio. They have had eleven children, ten grown, nine married, eight living. He entered 160 acres, northeast quarter of Section 31, Town 21, Range 15, in November, 1837, the patent bearing the Presidential signature of Martin Van Buren. Mr. Hinkle is living still, a hale old man, as is also his wife, a cheerful old woman. a year younger than her husband. She was born in Warren County, Ohio. in 1811: moved to Union City, Ind., be- ing one of thirteen children. eleven of them grown and ten mar- ried, only three living. They belong to the Regular Baptist Church. Mr. H. is a worthy, active, exemplary citizen, a fine specimen of the " Democrat of the olden time," as was his father before him. He resides about one-half mile south of Middle- town, in Jackson Township. He has never held public office, except, indeed, that he has been Supervisor of Highways-a humble and thankless, yet greatly important office, in which, he says, his great vexation was that some of the men would not ac- complish work enough to satisfy him, and their complaint of him was that he pressed them too hard, a very common com- plaint against faithful, energetic officers.

John Hoke was born in Pennsylvania in 1809: moved to Knox County, Ohio, in 1832; to Richland County, Ohio, in 1834; to Randolph County, Ind., in 1836; entered 160 acres in October, 1836 (southeast quarter of Section 12, Town 18, Range 1 west, east of Old Boundary); married Margaret Shaffer in 1834, and Mary Boitner in 1867. He has had fourteen children, eleven living; the youngest is not two years old. He has owned 500 acres of land, but has sold or given to his children, etc., un- til he has only 240 acres left. 'Mr. H. is a bluff, Hale, jovial old man. who (although seventy-one years old) still does his share in the field. He eschews modern "improvements," and thinks reapers, riding-plows, etc., are an injury to the farmers. (John Hoke died September, 1881, by being thrown from a loaded wagon by his horses' running away.)

Jacob Johnson was born in 1792, in Maryland, and came to Jackson Township, Randolph County, Ind., in 1833. He had married Mary Vatenbaker in 1815, and is the father of thirteen children, twelve of whom lived to be grown. His daughter, Mrs. Sutton, says that those thirteen children all lived at home at the same time. There must have been a cabin full! Mr. J. is a farmer. He has been a Democrat all his life, giving his first

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

Presidential vote for Jaines Monroe, in 1816. He has been a voter through seventeen Presidential campaigns, and, in fact, longer, since he came to his majority in 1813, sixty-eight years ago. He has been confined to his bed for some years, but his mind is strong and clear and he delights to talk of old times. He entered eighty acres at first and then eighty more. Mr. J. was a soldier in the war of 1812, and has for many years drawn a pen- sion of $8 a month for his services in that war. The first night they slept in a rail-pen without any roof on it. For their bed- steads they had poles with the ends bored into the sides of the pen, and for bed-cords they had twisted elm bark, a very good substitute. One of his daughters married Joseph Sutton, and the couple, now aged, live near the same place, and she has been the mother of seventeen children, thirteen now living (1880). There were seven boys and ten girls. The boys are all living and six girls; eight are married. The oldest daughter is the mother of eleven children, and there are in all thirty-eight grandchildren. Jacob Johnson is still alive, somo eighty years old. Joseph Sutton's wife and her sister worked (week about) for six weeks, to pay for twelve bushels of corn. The work was 50 cents a week and the corn 25 cents a bushel. They (the girls) used to pull flax and thresh it and spread and dress it, and spin and weave it to boot. They would chop and grub in the clearing, ride horseback to mill, etc. People wore home- spun and were glad to get that. They wont to meeting dressed in home-made linen, were thankful, contented and happy. His aged wife died in the spring of 1881, and the husband followed his feeble companion in August of the same year, in the nine- tieth year of his age. Their bodies lie side by side, and their spirits have gone to join each other in the skies. His brother. John Johnson, came about the same time. and died a short time ago, aged more than eighty-four years.

Robert F. Kemp was born in Maryland in 1809, married in that State, emigrated shortly afterward, to Richland County, Ohio (in 1835) and settled in Jackson Township, near Now Pitts- burg, in 1844, residing there still. They havo had twelve chil- dren, ten of whom are grown, married and now living, most of them in Randolph County, Ind. They are like most of the set- tlers in Jackson Township, Democrats in politics. The aged couple, threescore and twelve years old, now keep house by them- selves, the children all having made them separate houses and left the aged parents in the isolation of solitary homo life. as in the olden days full fifty years ago. without not even a grandchild out of the numerous flock to keep them company. Long may they thus be able to care for their own wants, but if a feebleness and decrepitnde come on, may they find an abundance of willing hands and ready steps to minister to the wants of their weakness and sorrow.

Philip Van Cortlandt Lambert (grandfather of L. D. Lam- bert) was born in New Jersey, moved to Danville, Ky., afterward to Paint Creek, Preble County. Ohio, and still again to Jackson Township, Randolph County, Ind., the last abont 1843 or 1844. He was in the war of 1812, belonging to the Ohio Militia, and serving in several of the lino of forts extending along the frontier from Cincinnati to Lake Erie. His son Jonathan, a mere lad, born in 1797, was with his father in the service. He also moved to Jackson Township, and they both diod and were buried in Randolph County, having survived to a ripe old age.

James Porter was born in 1801, in Clermont County, Ohio; married Hannah Daines, in 1824, who was born in Waynesburg, Ohio, in 1805, and came to Jackson Township, Randolph County, Ind., in 1829. He entered 120 acres of land at three different times, going on foot mostly, each time to Cincinnati to acconi- plish the entry. They have had twelve children and have raised ten, all of the ten having been married. Mr. Porter and his wife are still hale and sprightly, having lived at their present home fifty-two years, and having witnessed the entire change in that section from utter savagery and wilderness desolation to the present condition as the comfortable abodes of civilized men.

John Poorman was born in Pennsylvania in 1815, and came to the West with his father when eight months old. They set- tled in Richland County and he grew to manhood and married in that region, the latter event taking place in 1837, and the

name of his wife being Lucy Ann Brooks. They came to Ran- dolph the next year (1838). He entered forty acres and after- ward sold it and bought eighty acres. They had nine children, seven of whom grew up and were married, and six are now liv- ing-Peter, Henry, Margaret, John, Washington, Emmarotta, Martha Ellen, James and William. Mr. Porter's wife died in 1875, and he married Mary (Weimar) Anderson, and she is now living. Mr. Poorman was never a hunter. He belongs to the Christians (New Lights). His first wife was a Dunkard, and his second a Christian (New Light). In politics, Mr. Poorman has always been a Democrat, as was also his father before him. Mr. Poorman is one of the few remaining pioneer settlers of that region, most of the township being unbroken forest when he found his way thither. Some of the settlers when he came were the Porters, the Warrens, the Harshmans, Daniel Miller, Helms, Reeves, Smith, Mangus and others. Brockns and Storms had gone.

James Reeves was born in 1801 in Kentucky; moved with his father to Warren County, Ohio, in 1811, and to Darke County, Ohio, in 1824. He married Rachel Skinner in 1827; she was born in 1811, in North Carolina and came to Kentucky, and afterward to Seven-Mile Creek, ten miles from Eaton, Pre- ble County, Ohio, and then to Long Prairie, Darke Co., Ohio, six miles north of Paris. Mr. Reeves came to Randolph County, Ind .. Jackson Township, May 25, 1832. He said he was going to " play gentleman and hunt," but the second year he entered forty acres, and awhile after, forty more. On this small tract of land he raised his family of eleven childron, ten of them growing up to maturity. The ten were all married and seven are living, five in Randolph County, one in Minnesota and one in Kansas. Mr. Reeves died in 1871, seventy years old, on the land he had tilled nearly forty years. He was a Jackson Dem- ocrat, but turned Republican, earning tho namo from his former political associates of "Black Abolitionist." In religion, he was a Disciplo, in business a farmer, a steady, quiet, estimable, reliable man. His widow is still living, a sprightly, cheerful old lady, active and lively, though so severely afflicted from the effects of paralysis, nearly twenty years ago, as to be nearly de- prived of strength. Mrs. Reeves spends her time alternately with her various children in Randolph County. She could tell many quaint and curious tales of the " olden time," when Jack- son Township was a wild and howling wilderness, nearly fifty years ago. Mr. Reeves' first entry was November 3, 1834, the S. W. N. E. 22, 21, 15, forty acres; his second entry was made two years later, August 30, 1836. It is an interesting incident that while he was going from home on his trip to Cincinnati for the second entry. a gentleman called at Mr. Reeves' cabin and asked Mrs. Reeves if a certain "forty " in the neighborhood was vacant. " I cannot tell," said she; " my husband is probably by this time in Cincinnati, and if it is not already entered, it will be shortly." The man stared, but said nothing and went his way.

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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 175

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