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 51

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 51

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

and citizenship in the "land of the free and the home of the brave."

Rev. T. A. Brandon, Union City, Christian, was born in 1823, in Darke County, Ohio. His parents moved to Miami County, Ohio, in 1831, and returned again to Darke County, Ohio, in 1839. He was converted July 25, 1840, and began to preach in 1843. His ordination as a Christian (New Light) minister took place in 1845, and he has been preaching ever since -thirty-seven years. His appointments and residences have been these: Darke County, Ohio, and Jay County, Ind., 1846; Preble County, Ohio, 1845 to 1853; Mt. Healthy, Ohio, 1853, to 1856; Marion, Ind., 1857 to 1859; Dearborn County, Ind., 1860 to 1861; Hamilton County, Ohio, 1861 to 1863; Warren County, Ohio, 1864 to 1866: Miami County, Ohio, 1867; Yellow Springs, Ohio. 1867 to 1868; Pickaway County, Ohio, 1869 to 1870; Bellefontaine, Ohio, 1871 to 1875; Union City, Ohio and In- diana, 1875 to 1881. His work while residing in Union City was general, laborious and extensive. He married Suean Mccullough in 1851. They have had four children, all living. In Gospel labor, Rev. Brandon has been enabled by grace to be abundant, and the Lord has granted him the privilege of wit- nessing much fruit from the seed sown by his hand. During thirty-seven years, he has preached 7,000 sermons, baptized 1,- 200 persons, and received into church fellowship between three and four thousand souls, and has married about one thousand two hundred couples. He vowed at the outset to know only "Christ and Him crucified," and God has given him strength to keep the vow. He is yet blowing the Gospel trumpet, and the good Lord is still giving him souls for his hire, and honoring the word proclaimed through his feeble lips.

The Christian denomination numbers about one hundred thousand, chiefly in New England, and the Northern, Middle and Western States, several hundred ministers, and not quite so many churches as ministers.

They published the first religious paper in the world, in 1808, the Herald of Gospel Liberty, which is published yet.

The Christian Church sprang about the same time from three distinct and independent sources -- New England, the Baptists, Dr. Smith; North Carolina, the Methodists, Elder Jones; Ken- tuoky, the Presbyterians, Elders B W. Stone, Purviance, Thomp- son, etc. The great Cane Ridge revival, among the Presbyterians in Kentucky, about 1800, was greatly famous in those days, and the world has scarcely ever known its equal, and its effects remain extensively to this day. In November, 1881, Rev. Brandon re- moved to Lebanon, Ohio, as the pastor of the Christian Church at that place.

Thomas Butts, White River, was born in 1778; came to White River, near Mt. Zion, Randolph County, in 1824, and married Elizabeth Surface, and after her death he married again. He died many years ago, having been the father of eight chil- dren. He entered land at first, and at his death owned 240 acres.

Rev. Nathan T. Butts, White River. Methodist, was born in 1838, in Randolph County, Ind., and married Louisa Macy in 1858. His wife dying, he married again. He has six children, and lives on his father's homestead. He has been a teacher fourteen years, and is now a clergyman and a farmer.

He has represented Randolph County in the Indiana House of Representatives, and was a candidate for Senator, coming near succcess. Mr B. is a man of intelligence and influence. When in the Legislature, he was Chairman of the Committee on Temperance. He was in part author and framer of the famous bill sometimes called the "Baxter bill," and less frequently, but more properly, the Butts-Baxter bill, or the Baxter-Butts bill. The facts, stated somewhat briefly. are these:

Mr. Butts, after his election and before the assembling of the Legislature, had prepared a bill intended to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors, and to make the liquor seller, as al- so the owner of the building, responsible for damage done by the sale. Mr. Baxter presented one having as its principal feature local option, so-called, in some form. Half a dozen bills in all. probably, were brought forward. The whole subject aud the bills were referred to a Committee, of which Mr. Butts was

Chairman. A sub-committee was appointed, of which Messrs. Baxter and Butts were members; and, by this sub-committee, chiefly by the two gentlemen named, a new bill was framed, combining various features of the other bills; and this new draft was submitted to Messrs. Baker, Harrison, Mellett, Barber and Jacobs, and perhaps others; and after additions and changes to suit their suggestions, the paper thus prepared was presented to the House of Representatives by Chairman Butts November 13. 1872, at the special session. Only one speech was made against the bill, viz., by Mr. Schmuck, and one in its favor, to wit, by Mr. Butte. Several amendments were presented, all by Mr. Butts, to perfect the bill and bring all friends of temperance to its support, and it passed both Houses, and became a law by the approval of Gov. Hendricks, February 27, 1873.

There is a fact of interest connected with his signing the bill, to wit: He was taken seriously ill, so much so that he entertained doubts of his own recovery. His anxiety for the success of the measure was so strong that he required the act to be brought to his sick room, and he signed it in bed. The vote on the passage stood (in the House), fifty-five to twenty-six. Ayes, forty-four Republicans, eleven Democrats; Noes, six Republicans, twenty Democrats.

Some points in the law were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and it was repealed by the next Legislature. The Indiana Supreme Court has been famous, by the way, for killing measures of public utility. Many years ago it nearly destroyed the public school system by a characteristic decision, then this temperance law, and lastly the constitutional amend- ments, voted on in the spring of 1880 and having majorities in their favor (of those voting upon them) of from fifteen to forty- nine thousand.

The ground of the adverse decision in this last case is some- what difficult to state. The vote was taken on the same day with the spring township elections (April, 1880), and the ma- jority of the court seemed to hold that it could not be known that the number voting in favor of the amendments, any or all of them, was a majority of the voters present for any purpose on that day. At another time, the same Supreme Court is under- stood to have held that they could not know judicially that a pint is less than a quart: and that the averment that liquor was sold by the pint was not equivalent to saying that it was sold in less quantity than a quart.

Rev. William Coulter, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Union City, was born in Harrison County, Ohio, in 1844, and moved to Defiance County, Ohio, in 1853, and enlisted in the fall of 1862; but, being young and young looking, was refused. He did enlist, however, in the Twenty-first Ohio, in the spring of 1864. The regiment was in the Army of the Cumberland; was at Chattanooga, and through the Atlanta campaign; was wounded in the arm in a skirmish on the Chattahoochie, and sent to the hospital for six weeks; went through to Savannah and to Rich- mond with Sherman, and was discharged (mustered out), in July, 1865. He attended the Wesleyan (Delaware) University until 1868, teaching also; was licensed as a Methodist in 1868; took Deacon's orders in 1870, Elder's orders in 1872, and in 1873, joined the Presbytery. He accepted a call from Brooklyn, Mich., in 1874, and came to Union City in 1877.

Mr. C. married Kate Rosensteel in Indiana County, Penn., in 1869. They have four children. Mr. C. is, as to talent, solid rather than brilliant, quiet in manner and method, yet deep and sound in thought, and discreet in counsel and in action. Though comparatively young in years and . in the ministerial work, he is decidedly a " growing man," and worthy of the con- fidence and support of his people. On the first Sabbath in Jan- uary, 1881, by the reluctaut consent of his congregation, he re- signed his pastorship, and the church was for a time without a leader, and he without a charge. The society is comparatively weak in numbers. and they are scarcely able to render a suitable pastor an adequate support. Their financial burden as a con- gregation has been made heavier than heretofore by the purchase of a more commodious lot, and the erection of a tasteful, not to say elegant, place of worship. It is to be hoped that the sever- ance of the pastoral tie between Mr C. and his people here will

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not work a serious disadvantage to either party, though it is in- deed a fact that good pastors and eligible situations are more easily sought than found. Mr Coulter has removed to a pas- toral work in Michigan, suffering, however, a deep affliction in the sickness and death of their oldest daughter, a lovely child, and one most dear to the hearts of the stricken parents, who was taken sick just as they were ready to remove to their new field of labor, and they remained only to see her close her eyes on earth, and to deposit her lifeless corpse in the cold and solemn tomb.

Rev. Bela W. Cropper, West River, Baptist, was born in Ken- tucky in 1791; married Elizabeth Ashby in 1814; came to War. ren County, Ohio, in 1828, and to Randolph County, Iud., in 1833. They had fourteen children, six of whom are now living. He was a farmer, living one and a half miles northwest of Hunts- ville, and died in 1874, eighty-three years old. He was a member of the Baptist Church, officiating also as a preacher among them.

Isrum H. Engle, Union City, Ind., Methodist, was born in Baltimore County, Md., in 1796. His father was a Revolution- ary soldier. Mr. Engle states as follows: "My father died when I was but seven years of age, in 1803, and in 1809, my mother bound me out for seven years, and my master took me to Clermont County, Ohio. I was to have had six months' schooling, but I got none. I went to school after I was free, one month. I got married, and that put a stop to school going. My wife had learning, and she taught me some. Her name was Rhoda Clough, and we were married in 1821, at Mr. Carey's, father of Sam Carey, and of Phebe and Alice Carey, College Hill, Ohio. My wife was born in 1800." They lived at College Hill three years, and eleven years at Cincinnati; they moved to Jay County, Ind., in 1838, and to Union City in 1865, and to Jay County again, to reside with his children, in the fall of 1881. He was in his younger days very active and vigorous, stat- ing that he has sawed, handled and thrown into a cellar, ten cords of wood in twelve hours. His wife, Mrs. Rhoda Ingle, died in May, 1882, aged eighty-two years.

Rev. J. T. Farson, late of Union City, Methodist, was born in the District of Columbia in 1820, being the eldest of a large family. His father moved to Coshocton County, Ohio, where he grew up, and married in 1844. His wife's name was Harriet C. Page, and she was brought up in Knox County, Ohio.

Mr. Farson came to Union City in 1852, and moved to Urbana, Ill., in the fall of 1861. He died at Champaign, Ill., near Urbana, in December. 1869, being killed by an accident. A team of horses that he was driving ran away, and he was thrown across the railroad track, receiving from the fall a fatal wound. He was the father of eleven children, eight of whom are now living, and two are married. Three daughters are teaching in the public schools of Chicago, where they reside with their widowed mother. One, Lucia, married Bently Masslich, and has three children. residing at Union City. Another, Amanda O. Webber, resides at Urbana, Ill. One son, John, is an attorney at law in Chicago. Mr. F. learned the wagon and carriage business, and followed it while at Union City, being in partnership a part of the time with William T. Worthington. At Urbana, he was a druggist, and at Champaign a dry goods merchant. He became a resident of Union City almost at its earliest settlement, in 1852. He lived at first in a log house, near Hon. N. Cadwallader's mansion, and afterward built a dwelling on the present site of the Commercial Bank. The house was afterward removed, and is yet standing on the east side of Howard, the third south of Oak. He had been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from his youth, and united with that society in Union City in the summer of 1852. Soon after- ward he was licensed as a local preacher, and served the church in that capacity during the rest of his life. He was Superin- tendent of the first Sunday school in Union City, and he also taught one of the earliest day schools in the place. Mr. F. was an active Abolitionist, an enthusiastic Republican, and an earn- est, warm-hearted Christian. He served for awhile as Town- ship Trustee of Wayne Township. In every department of moral and religious activity his influence was strong and lively, and his labors became in every worthy enterprise a power for good.

Rev. Almon Greenman, Union City, was born in Summit County, Ohio, December 12, 1826. In 1836, his father moved to Northeastern Indiana, and settled where the town of Kendallville now is. The country was then a wilderness, most of the inhabi- tants being Indians of the Pottawatomie tribe. His opportuni- ties for early education were only such as the log schoolhouse furnished. These were as faithfully improved as the necessity of helping to clear up a farm in the woods would allow. He was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844; was licensed to preach in 1846, and, since the autumn of 1850, has been a member of the North Indiana Conference, except two years spent in the St. Louis Conference and stationed in the city of Springfield, Mo. His fields of labor in Indiana have been as follows: Allen and Ossian Circuits, in Allen County; Allisonville Circuit, in Marion County; Dublin Circuit, in Wayne County; New Castle, Richmond, Anderson, Muncie, Lo- gansport, Peru, Marion, Huntington, Fort Wayne, La Grange and Union City; also four years as Presiding Elder in Goshen District. He was one of the four clerical delegates to the General Conference in Cincinnati in 1880. Not quite a year was spent in Indiana Asbury University, when Dr. Simpson, now Bishop, was its President. What little education he has obtained was mostly gained amid the hardships and poverty of frontier life. As may be seen from the above life sketch, Rev. Greenman has risen to be among the leading men of the Methodist clergy. He is now pastor of the M. E. Church at Union City, Ind., which is a large and influential society, numbering several hundred mem- bers. He is now upon his second year of his pastorate with that congregation and the work of the Lord is evidently prospering in his hands.

John Grubbs, Nettle Creek, Methodist, emigrated from Vir- ginia to Ohio, and afterward to Nettle Creek Township, Ran- dolph County, in 1835. He has been an active, zealous Meth- odist, a local preacher of that church, and faithful in his labors for Christ. He is now eighty-eight years of age, and has been for years feeble and sometimes severely sick. Upon a visit to his humble dwelling, August, 1881, he was found stretched upon his bed, gasping for breath, almost speechless and suffering great distress. At the name of Christ and the mention of Heaven, however. his aged soul revived, and he was well-nigh "shouting happy;" and, in broken accents, he tried to tell how near he was to " heavenly glory." He has been twice married, and his second wife, herself an aged matron of seventy-seven years, was patient- ly caring for her afflicted husband, and earnestly striving, though mostly in vain, to assuage his woes. His home is some two miles nearly east of Losantville. [A few days after the inter- view described above, he did indeed "go shouting home." His poor old body lies moldering in the grave, but his happy soul is at rest in the Kingdom].

Rev. Elijah Harbour came to Green Township, Randolph County, in about 1833 or 1834. He raised a large family and spent a long life upon the homestead of his choice, dying at length in 1872, after tarrying upon these mundane shores more than his full fourscore years -- eighty-four years five months and twelve days. His wife, Rhoda, had preceded him to the Spirit Land more than two years. She died May 30, 1870, aged eighty- two years two months and twenty-three days. Mr. Harbour was a Methodist and a local preacher, and was active and successful in helping to spread the knowledge and the practice of godliness through those frontier regions. The religious exercises in con- nection with the interment of his earthly remains were very largely attended, and they were followed to the grave by a great throng of sympathizing neighbors and friends.

Daniel Hill, Wayne Township, Anti-slavery Friend, was born . in Wayne County, Ind., in 1817; came to Randolph County, Ind., in 1818, being the son of Henry Hill, late of Jericho, Wayne Township, Randolph Co., Ind. He has had three wives and four children. He resided some forty years or more at Jeri- cho, and then removed to New Vienna, Ohio, where he now re- sides. He was, through his early and middle life, a farmer and a carpenter. He is now publisher of peace papers, books, etc., at New Vienna, Ohio. He was a prominent Anti-slavery Friend, and an original Trustee of U. L. Institute, resigning in 1878,

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after thirty-three years' service. Daniel Hill was Senator from Randolph County at Indianapolis four years, doing for the pub- lic faithful and energetic service. He has been long and largely trusted and highly honored by the Friends, to which body he belongs. He is a recorded minister among them, and has trav- eled and spoken extensively as such, and also as a lecturer in the cause of peace and of Sunday schools. He is an enthsiastic friend of total abstinence and of every good and philanthropic en- terprise. His temperament is cheerful and even jovial; he is kind and warm-hearted, but firm as the rocks upon every ques- tion of principle. His character is altogether that of an excel- lent and trustworthy citizen and of a consistent and exemplary Christian. He publishes the Friend of Peace, the Sunday School Worker and a variety of publications upon kindred sub- jects, which spread throughout the land a sweet and tender and quiet, but yet a powerful and efficient influence for good upon the nation, to check the spirit of ambition and war, and bring the world to the real and universal practice of the true and peaceful Gospel of Christ.

Rev. William Hunt, Huntsville, Methodist, born in Virginia in 1790, and removed to Kentucky in 1791 ; was a Methodist preacher in 1812; preached in Sullivan County, Ind., in Ken- tucky, Madison and Clark Counties, Ohio, and White River Cir- cuit, Indiana (1816); emigrated to Randolph County, Ind., in 1818. He married Matilda Smith in 1817; then Mary Smith; had nine children; died in 1877. He became a preacher in 1812, and followed it more or less all his life. Six children are still living. He was a farmer; in his early life, he "rode cir- cuit," but latterly he "located." He was a preacher sixty-five years. He laid out the town of Huntsville in 1834.

William S. Hunt, West River, was born in Kentucky in 1819; came to Randolph County, Ind., in 1840. He married Laura Hunt, daughter of Rev. Wm. Hunt, in 1841, and has had twelve children, all living to be grown; ten are now living-seven married; he is a farmer and owns 300 acres; was Justice of the Peace seventeen years, and Township Trustee nine years; is a strong Republican and an active and respected citizen; a worthy and reliable man, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Rev. Alpheus Jennings Lewellen, Farmland, Ind., Methodist, is the son of Philip Lewellen, und he was the son of Thomas Lewellen, who was the grandson of one of three brothers who came from Wales to America in a very early day. His grand- mother Lewellen was a daughter of Benjamin Jennings, who came from England and settled in Somerset County, Penn., in 1776. A. J. L. was born in Randolph County, Va., in 1824, came to Indiana in 1837 and settled in the eastern edge of Dela- ware County. He served as an apprentice to the cabinet-making business, with Messrs. Nottingham & Swain, in Muncie, in 1844 and 1845; came into Randolph County in 1845, and resided at Windsor. He married Eleanor Kinert, of Windsor, from Penn- sylvania, in 1846; he lived at Georgetown in 1851 and 1852, and sold goods. In 1853, he moved to Iowa, remaining till 1863, when he returned to Indiana. He was licensed to preach by the Quarterly Conference of the Langworthy Circuit, Upper Iowa Annual Conference, in 1862, and, in 1863, took charge of the Montpelier Circuit, North Indiana Conference, O. V. Lemon, Presiding Elder. He was admitted on trial by the North Indiana Conference, at Knightstown, Ind., April, 1864, being ordained Deacon in 1866 and Elder in 1868. He has served in the follow- ing charges: Montpelier, Warren, Alexandria, Lincoln, Xenia, Boxley, Tipton, Jerome, Eaton and Farmland. Revivals have been enjoyed in each of the above charges, with accessions to the church varying from fifty to three hundred. In one series of meetings on Xenia Circuit, 125 professed saving faith and 111 persons joined the church in two weeks. He has two brothers and one sister living, and two brothers and one sister dead. His sister (who is living) married Nelson Leonard, a son of Rev. Thomas Leonard, who lived many years at Smithfield, Delaware Co., Ind., and who now resides at Fort Wayne. His brother, Z. M. Lewellen, is a farmer near Eaton, Delaware Co., Ind. His youngest brother, Philip Wesley, is a physician at Clarinda, Page Co., Iowa. He graduated at Green Castle; studied medi- cine at Burlington, Delaware Co., Ind .; attended lectures and

graduated at Cincinnati Medical College. Mr. L. has had six children, only one living. He is stationed at present at Farm- land, Randolph Co., Ind. (1880).

Rev. August George Henry Michaelis, Union City, Ind., pastor Lutheran Church, was born in Kalbe on the Saale, Prussia, in 1821; went to Berlin in 1824, educated at Berlin and in theology at Elberfelt and Barmen, 1842 to 1850; came to New York in 1851, Wisconsin in 1851, Ohio in 1852; Findlay, Hancock Co., Ohio, in 1852; Bucyrus, Crawford Co., Ohio, in 1854; Liverpool, Medina Co., Ohio, 1865; Monroe, Mich., in 1872; Union City, Ind , 1878. He married Caroline Marggraff in 1854; has had eight children, seven living; Evangelical Lutheran, Augsburg, confes- sion unaltered. In his church are 140 communicants and thirty six voters; members of families, 300. The church has a parson- age. He keeps up, in the summer, a German school, and, at other times, a Saturday school for general instruction; in winter, catechism twice a week. He has a full congregation and the services are conducted wholly in German. Some of this congre- gation are among the most substantial and estimable citizens of the town, and Rev. Michaelis himself appears to be a most worthy and exemplary gentleman and a valuable member of the commu- nity.

Rev. H. J. Meck, pastor of the M. E. Church, was born in Carlisle, Penn., in 1822, and married Elizabeth Elliot in 1844. He joined the North Indiana Methodist Episcopal Conference, at Goshen, Ind., in 1855. He has preached on circuits, stations and charges as follows: Goshen, 1855; Indianapolis, 1856; Will- iamsburg Circuit, 1857; Hagerstown Circuit, 1858-59; Winches- ter Station, 1860-61; Wabash Station, 1862-63; Kendallville Station, 1864-66; Knightstown, 1867-68; Goshen District, Pre- siding Elder, 1869-72; Fort Wayne, 1873; Fort Wayne, Presid- ing Elder, 1874; Kokomo Station, 1875-77; Union City Station, 1878-80; Bluffton, 1881. They have had thirteen children, eight still living. His work has been greatly owned and blessed with re- vival influences, especially at Winchester, Wabash, Kendallville, Knightstown and Kokomo. Great numbers have been added to the church through God's blessing upon his labors, in some cases from 100 to 300 accessions taking place. Mr. Meck is sixty years of age, but still retains his vigor and energy of body and mind, and the church hopes for yet many years of efficient labor from this worthy servant of Christ. After serving the usual num- ber of years at Union City, he was stationed at Bluffton, Wells Co., Ind., at which place he now (March, 1882) resides.

Rev. John A. Moorman, Farmland, Wesleyan and Episcopal Methodist, born in North Carolina in 1820; came to Randolph Co. in 1822. Has been twice married; his first wife was Nancy Hiatt; his second wife was Mercy Shaw; he has had ten children, nine of whom are living and four married. Mr. M. was a farmer mostly up to 1861; he sold goods in Farmland eleven years (1865 to 1876); has been insurance agent for ten years, Notary Public for fifteen years, clergyman for thirty-four years, among the Wesleyans for thirteen years and the Episcopal Methodists for twenty-one years. He has been a member of the Indiana Legislature for three terms-1860-64 and 1876-78. He was in the memorable "bolt" during the civil war, resigning his seat. He was Quartermaster in the One Hundred and Seventeenth Regiment, a six months' regiment. Mr. Moorman is a man of active habits and pure and sterling morals, and is in every way an estimable and valuable member of society. He is a reliable Republican, as also an active temperance man and a friend of every useful and benevolent enterprise. In early times, he was an out and out Abolitionist, and, for thirteen years, a Wesleyan preacher. Within a short time past, he has become a practicing attorney at the Winchester bar.

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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 51

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