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 52

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 52

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Charles Osborn, Wayne County, Anti-slavery Friend, was born in North Carolina in 1775; came to Wayne County, Ind., in 1819; laid out Economy in 1825; married Sarah Moorman, and afterward, Hannah Swain. He had sixteen children; their names were James, Josiah, John, Isaiah, Lydia, Elijah. Elihn, Gideon, Charles N., Parker, Narcissa, Cynthia, Jordan, Sarah, Benjamin, Anna. Six are living still -- Elijah, Charles N., Par- ker, Jordan, Sarah and Anna (1880). Charles Osborn published the first anti-slavery paper in the United States, the Philanthro-

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

pist, at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, in 1817 and 1818. Its motto was "Emancipation, immediate and unconditional." This was sey- eral years before Benjamin Lundy established the Genius of Uni- versal Emancipation, and thirteen or fourteen years before Garri- son began the Liberator, at Boston, in 1831. He was recorded a minister among Friends in ISOS, traveled and preached a full anti-slavery Gospel, establishing manumission societies in North Carolina and Tennessee, in 1814 and 1815; and, in 1816, remov- ing to Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, he established the Philanthropist, as stated above. He traveled extensively as a minister among Friends in America, and visited Europe, also preaching in En- gland, Ireland, France, Germany, Prussia and Holland, spending eighteen months across the ocean-1832 and 1834. He had been a worthy and trusted member of Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends, but he was proscribed and deprived of his position in society on account of his opposition to slavery and colonization, in 1842 and 1843. He was dropped from the "Meeting for Sufferings" of the Richmond Yearly Meeting, nominally because he had co-operated with Arthur Tappan, William Lloyd Garrison and others outside the "Body of Friends," in earnest anti-slavery work. He was active in the "Separation," in 1842 and 1843, which resulted in the formation of another distinct Yearly Meet- ing, called Anti-slavery Friends. He moved to Michigan in 1842, and to Clear Lake, Ind., in 1848; he died at Clear Lake in 1850, in Christian love and joyful hope, seventy-five years old. His life was indeed one of earnest labor and endurance for Christ. God vouchsafed to his patient, waiting spirit abundance of peace and high views of heavenly things, and often a strong power to speak for His holy truth and a clear witness of gracious accept- ance in the earnest service of a humble heart, and he has doubt- less been called home to behold the glory of the Lord in His up- per and better sanctuary. Charles O-born's father, Daniel Os- born, was born in Sussex County, Del., in 1745, and his mother, Margaret Stout, in 1744, in York County, Penn. His grand- father, Matthew Osborn, was a native of England.

Charles W. Osborn, West River, Anti-slavery Friend, son of Isaiah Osborn, and grandson of Charles Osborn of famous anti- slavery memory, was born near Economy, Wayne Co., Ind., in 1833; attended school at Union Literary Institute and Antioch College. He married Asenath W. Wood, in 1858, and came to Randolph County, Ind., in 1860; they have had six children; he has taught school six years; he is a farmer; was an Abolition- ist, an Anti-slavery man and is a Republican; he is a minister among Friends, and has been Clerk of Monthly Meeting for seventeen years; he is active in temperance, in Sunday schools and in all good things. Mr. O. is highly esteemed as a Chris- tian and a citizen. Largely under his auspices, a grove temper- ance and prohibition convention was held in the summer of 1881, in a grove not far from Economy, Wayne Co., Ind., lasting three days, addressed by Mrs. Malloy, Mrs. Trego, Mr. Reynolds and other temperance workers and attended by a large, earnest and enthusiastic assembly.

Isaiah Osborn, Economy, Wayne County, Anti-slavery Friend, fourth son of Charles Osborn, was born in Tennessee in 1803. Married Lydia Worth, sister of Rev. Daniel Worth, in 1829; had eight children and died in 1846, in Wayne County, Ind. : he was a Friend, and held with the Anti-slavery Friends in the "Separation," He came to Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, in 1816; became a printer, and came to Wayne County, Ind., in 1819; went to Tennes- see in 1822 and worked for Benjamin Lundy on the Genius of Emancipation till 1824 (in Tennessee); worked at Centerville, Ind., for John Scott till 1827, and at Indianapolis till 1828, when he came to Wayne County. He married Lydia Worth and took to farming and teaching. He settled a short distance north of Economy. Wayne County. After his death, his widow mar- ried Mr. Baldwin, of Union County; her second husband is also dead, and she lives a widow, gentle-spirited and peaceful, with her son. Charles Osborn, in West River Township, Randolph Co., Ind. The Osborns have been noted for their steadfast ad- herence to principle, and their unflinching devotion to truth and right. Isaiah settled on a farm near Economy, Ind .: was at one time Justice of the Peace, and, for many years, Assessor and Collector of Taxes; was an active member of Friends and a warm

and earnest advocate of the slave, being a stern and outspoken Abolitionist of the earliest time.

Robert Pogue, Union City, Ind., Methodist, was born in 1802. in Knox County, Tenn., being the eldest of nine children. His father moved to Greene County, Ohio, in 1806, and resided there till 1835, settling in Ward Township, Randolph County, in the latter year, six of his nine children having also resided in the same county: he was a miller and then a farmer. chiefly the latter. In religion, he was a Methodist and in politics a Demo- crat: he lies buried in the old Prospect Graveyard, east of Deer- field. His son Robert left home at seventeen years of age, learn- ing the trade of a distiller; at nineteen, he took up a roving life, first going into Northwestern Ohio, at the call of Capt. Riley, of African fame, for men to assist in surveying; he was too late for that, but not very long afterward, a party of three-Martin, Lewis and Pogue-set out on foot for an exploring tour through Indiana and Illinois; they passed through Connersville, Rash- ville, Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Springfield and Jacksonville (1821); these were but small villages, and at Indianapolis they were laying the foundations of the old State House. To Con- nersville. the journey was a wilderness, with very few openings; to Indianapolis and Terre Haute, almost an unbroken forest, there being a little settlement upon Walnut Creek, between In. dianapolis and Terre Haute. Going up the Wabash by the Indian Battle Ground, to Austin's prairie, eighteen miles above Terre Haute, they struck out boldly across the wide plains, ninety miles. to Springfield. Ill., then a mere group of cabins. Terre Haute had one hotel and two stores, and Indianapolis but little more. They saw but one dwelling-house between the Wabash and Springfield. In Springfield. not a single good house was to be found. While there, young Pogue cast his first vote, though slightly under age, yet the cause was a good one, the question of freedom or slavery in the new State, and his voto counted one for the right side -freedom. One of the three was a cooper, and one (Pogne) was a distiller, and they arranged to settle there and set up the liquor business. Lewis and Pogue returned to Greene County, Ohio, while Martin set out from Illinois with a drove of horses to Green Bay, Wis. On the route Martin was drowned in swimming a river; he swam across to get a canoe, which proved to be locked fast. In swimming back, his strength failed, and he sank only a few rods from shore. In 1824, Mr. Pogue married Susannah Vanghn, the issue of which union has been nine children, eight of whom became grown, and four have been married, and five are still living; his wife died in Union City, Ind., in 1871, at the age of sixty-four years. Becoming disgusted with the distilling business, he began making spinning- wheels for wool and flax; and, when that failed, he undertook to bo a carpenter, which business, with farming, furnished him em- ployment till he gave up work. In 1839, Mr. Pogue emigrated to Ward Township, Randolph Co., Ind. Residing there till 1866, he removed to Union City, which is still his home. He joined the Methodist Church, near Prospect, in 1842, and has been Steward, Class-Leader, Trustee, Sunday school Superintendent, or the like, sometimes two or three at once, most of the time since; he is now Steward and Class-Leader in the church at Union City. Though his father was a Democrat, Robert became a Whig, casting his first Presidential vote for John Quincy Adams in 1824; he was a Whig and then a Republican, having voted for fifteen successive Presidential elections, ending with James A. Garfield. Mr. Pogue has been active in local public affairs, especially in school matters. having been School Director, Township Clerk and School Trustee; his influence through his whole life has been for improvement in the public schools, and he feels that his efforts have not been in vain. He has suffered severely from rheumatism from his early manhood, though now, in his old age, he is more nearly free from that ailment than he was in early and middle life. Mr. Pogue is one of that happy band who makes religion the sum and substance of life, and he feels now, after forty years in the love of Christ, that the service of God is its own reward. When Mr. Pogue joined the Meth- odist Church, the meetings were held in Mr. Helm's chamber. Mr. D. B. Miller and Mr. Helm burnt a brick-kiln together; each built a brick house, which were nearly the first houses of

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the kind in Ward Township. Prospect Church was erected not long afterward, Mr. Pogue himself being the head workman (about 1845).

Isom Puckett, Dunkirk, White River, Friend, was born in Carolina before 1774; was married in Carolina to Elizabeth Kane, and came to Randolph County in 1819, settling at Dun- kirk. west of Winchester; they had ten children, most of whom lived to be grown and to be married. He was a Friend, a Whig, Anti-slavery, Abolitionist, an abstinence advocate and a Quaker preacher. Under his counsel and influence as a leader, the little band of Friends at Dunkirk were foremost in works of humanity and love. He died about 1856, and was buried at Dunkirk, but vo memorial marks his grave; and his own relatives could not now perhaps discover or point out the place which ought now to be to them a sacred spot, where his mortal remains found their last earthly resting-place. Anna Puckett, daughter of Isom Puckett, born about 1796, married Elijah Jackson, about 1816; had eight children; was an excellent and motherly woman, an Anti-slavery Friend in the days of that movement, a recorded minister among Friends, and of a loving. Christian spirit. She was noted in her day for being one of those "doctor nurses," to whom humankind owe so much and render so little, and was greatly skilled in the use of water and of herbs for curative pur- poses. Her husband was a farmer and a Friend, and died about 1863. Anna died in 1876, aged eighty years. Their children have been distinguished for their excellence, two of her children and two of her grandchildren being recorded ministers among Friends. The children of Isom Puckett in all were ten, viz., Gincy (Ballinger), Anna (Jackson), Sally (Adamson), Olive (Diggs), Nathan. Mahala (Mason), Benjamin, Mary (Harris), Lydia (Jacksou), Thomas Clarkson; they were all born in Caro- lina, the youngest being only a few months old at the time of their emigration to Indiana. The daughters are all dead, and the three sons are supposed to be living. Nathan resides near Ann Arbor, Mich., having in 1882, removed from Richmond, Ind .; Benjamin, in Iowa, and Thomas Clarkson at Nora, Ill., of which place he had been a prominent and infineutal citizen since 1853, owning a fine landed property and dealing largely in stock, and engaging, also, in other active business un- dertakings; he has been the father of a large family of chil- dren, all but one of whom are still living. In early life, he was Surveyor of Randolph County, Ind., and he held several local offices during his residence in Illinois; his oldest son is a physician in a thriving town in Iowa. His marriage took place in 1852, his wife being Miss Emily Patchin, of North Gage, Oneida County, N. Y., and a sister of the wife of Rev. E. Tucker, now and for many years a citizen of Randolph County, residing at present in Union City in that county.

Rev. J. H. Quinlan, Catholic pastor, Union City, was born in Seneca County, Ohio, in 1843; went to school at. Cleveland, New York and Milwaukee, 1861 to 1870; was ordained a Catholic priest at Milwaukee in 1870; Delphi, Carroll Co., Ind., in 1870 and 1872; he traveled for his health in the Northwest during the suinmer of 1872; Elkhart, Ind., 1872; Union City, 1876. The Catholics have at Union City a flourishing and prosperous con- gregation of 150 families, with a school of ninety to one hundred and ten pupils. Three teachers are employed and the school is maintained for ten months in the year. The school is free to all the pupils. It is supported by the income of a fund of $5,000, con- tributed by Peter Kuntz, Esq., a citizen of the town and a mem- ber of the congregation. The gift is truly a magnificent one, and the Catholic society have great reason to be thankful to their worthy communicant and fellow-citizen for this act of princely generosity. The Catholics have a fine property of four lots, con- taining a church, parsonage, nunnery and schoolhouse, all neat and convenient, though plain and inexpensive.

Rev. Thomas Wiley, Union City Disciple. Mrs. Eleanor Ruby (1835) says: "My husband, Thomas Wiley, became a preacher more than forty years ago. He was born and partly raised in Bourbon County, Ky., and had little educa- tion; he learned to write when a boy by getting a "rock-slate" and having his father set copies on the slate. In early life, he undertook to teach school, and made out very well. He had to

study hard and late at night to keep ahead of his scholars, get- ting help in a "pinch " from Thomas Devor, to whom he felt under great obligations. Mr. W. became a missionary preacher, traveling over much of Eastern Indiana and Western Ohio and organizing many churches in the region. To show pioneer tri- als, an extract is given, somewhat condensed, from his diary: " April 10, 1852-Went to Fort Wayne, but found no chance for a meeting. I was behind time; they did not get my letter; it rained hard before I got to town, and the weather was very wet till next day (Sunday). The congregation had gone down; not more than five or eix life-like Christians. The church was poor timber at first, and they had unworthy preachers, who have done more harm than half a dozen men could do good in twelve months. One man who had his appointment in the paper, was found play ing cards and gambling among the loafers. Another was ex- pelled from the Episcopal Church and joined the Disciples; was found to be base and was thought to have poisoned his wife to death. Like priest, like people. Doleful situation!" Mr. Wi- ley became weakly by incessant labor, and moved to Union City. He was made Postmaster and so remained till his death, in 1861. He owned 130 acres of land near New Lisbon. He laid out that town in 1848; the place flourished till the railroads were built and Union City was established so near. When we moved to Randolph County, the whole region was one vast wilderness. The only settlers within reach were Mr. Sheets, north of Union City; Amos Smith, north of New Lisbon; Hezekiah Fowler, father of Gabe Fowler, and Thomas Peyton, on the Converse farm. "Kid " Marquis settled on the Parent farm soon after. James Wickersham, my uncle, came shortly. There was nobody at Union City for years afterward. We used to " neighbor " with Mr. Fowler's, four miles. We would visit them, going on foot through the woods, perhaps once a year. Mr. Wiley began by hir- ing a hewed-log house built at first, before we moved. He got some leather and made some shoes, and took them up into the woods and paid for his work with shoes. The house was large and roomy, and we thought we had a palace. The whole northern country was settling while we lived there (1836 to 1852), and great numbers passed on their northward way. Many stayed overnight as they were struggling on toward their desired haven. We have had fifteen in one night, and we never charged them anything for their entertainment. One time we were busy with apples. My husband was absent, and I had invited some neigh- bors to come in and help us cut them. A stranger came and wished to stay. I told him " No, husband is absent, and we are to have an 'apple-cut' this evening." "But I will be civil, and I can cut apples, too." At last, I invited my son-in-law to re- main all night and let the stranger stay. He cut apples nicely, and was very civil and jovial. I tried to "pump" him, but he would not be "pumped." Finally, at breakfast, he said: "I will tell you who I am. I am Mr. --- , one of a company who have split off from the Methodists, and we are working on our own hook. I tried to debate with one of your folks (meaning Disci- ple), and he whipped me out terribly." So he went on his way." Mr. Wiley broke down in health as a result of his energetic and extensive labors in the ministry, through the new and sparsely settled regions of Eastern Indiana and elsewhere, and he re- moved to Union City, Ind., shortly after the commencement of that town, still preaching occasionally and becoming an Elder in the newly established church of the Disciples in that place. He was also appointed Postmaster in the infant city, but his health continued to decline and in a very few years he died there. His widow married Mr. Rubey, of Wayne County, Ind., and they removed to Union City, but her second husband also died, and she now resides as a widow in the same place, aged, but active in bodily health and genial and sprightly in mental activity.

Rev. R. D. Spellman, Winchester, was born in Massachusetts in 1813, and lie came to Western Reserve, Ohio, in 1817, and to In- diana in 1851. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1836, and entered the ministry in 1852. He had before that been a practicing physician, as also, in youth, a teacher three years, in Perry County, Ohio. He began the practice of medi- cine in 1840. His field of labor as a clergyman has been

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

Wayne, Henry, Randolph, Adams, De Kalb, Wabash and Mad- ison Counties, Ind .- three-fourths of the time in Wayne, Henry and Randolph. He married, in 1842, Elizabeth Beckwith, daughter of Col. John Beckwith, Colonel of a regiment in the war of 1812. They have had four children, three living. Mr. Spellman is now superannuated, and resides in Winchester. He preaches still somewhat, and engages in temperance work, which has been his delight from his youth. Mr. Spellman is now ab- sent from home on a trip to Eastern Ohio to attend the golden wedding of his brother, Marcus F. Spellman, of Portage County, Ohio (fall of 1881). There were in his father's family seven children, and five are living now, and of those five he is the youngest. Mr. Spellman has been, since 1852 until within two years, an active and successful Gospel preacher, and he looks back upon the work which the Lord has enabled him to accom- plish with gratitude for the high favor thus conferred upon him. Edward Starbuck, Wesleyan, late of Union City, was born in North Carolina in 1813, and came with his father to Wayne County, Ind., in 1817. He resided for many years near Mt. Vernon, east of Fountain City, Wayne Co., Ind., as a farmer and brick-mason. In 1865, he removed to Union City and began business as a banker, being a stockholder and an office-holder in the First National Bank of Union City. Mr. Starbuck was three times married. His wives were Mary Vineyard, Lydia Good and Esther Ashton. He died at his home in Union City in 1874, greatly lamented by his relatives and by the public at large, and was followed to his burial in Union City Cemetery by a large, sympathizing and deeply sorrowing concourse. Mr. Starbuck was a man of strong moral and religious convictions, and of a largely benevolent spirit. He was greatly drawn to a deep sym- pathy for the poor and the oppressed, and was an original and life-long Abolitionist. In early life, he joined the Episcopal Methodists, but withdrew from that body and united with the Wesleyans for anti-slavery reasons, and for many years, and till his death, he maintained his connection with them, holding among them the honored position of a local preacher. Mr. Starbuck was a man of great moral worth and of deep religious feeling, active in support of religious and benevolent institutions and operations, especially those intended for the elevation of the poor and needy. The anti-slavery cause found in him a consis- tent, energetic and faithful advocate and supporter. He was a liberal contributor to the funds of the American Missionary Asso- ciation in its work of evangelizing the freedmen. Mr. Starbuck was the father of nine children, eight of whom are living-John, Lewis, George, Elizabeth and four others. John S. has been a wholesale egg, butter and poultry dealer in Union City, Ind., and is a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a valu- able and reliable citizen and an estimable and useful man. One of the daughters is the wife of Dr. William Commons, a promi- nent physician of Union City. The third wife is still living.

Rev. W. D. Stone, Union City, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1826; went back and forth with his father, Ezra Stone, to and from New Orleans, when a lad; came to Winchester, Ind., in 1839; attended County Seminary at intervals from 1839 to 1847, and again after the Mexican war, in which he enlisted in May, 1847, in the Fourth Indiana Volunteers as a private, and in which war he served fourteen months. Soon after its close, he married Miss Jane D. Poor, attending also the seminary under Prof. Cole; moved into the woods north of Winchester, cleared off six acres of land, and "cleared out." In 1852, they moved to Wayne Township, and afterward to various points-Harris- ville, Salem, New Lisbon, Recovery, Spartansburg, etc., and now living at Union City. He volunteered in the three-months' serv- ice in the war of 1861, being Captain of Company I, Seventeenth Ohio Volunteers. The regiment was in the West Virginia cam- paign. On the expiration of that service, he re-enlisted in the One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, and was made Captain of Company C. They were in the Army of the Cumberland, under Burnside and Schofield. He was sent at one time to Boston, Mass., in charge of a company of officers and men, to take command of a body of conscripts (drafted men) in Massachusetts, and to distribute them as might be needed. He was, among other battles, at Resaca, Gu., summer of 1864, and

was wounded in the side by a shell, and was discharged July 21, 1864. His business has been teaching and preaching. The teaching has been done at many places -Harrisville, Salem, Bethel, Newport, Union City, Spartansburg, Recovery (Ohio), etc .. etc. The preaching has been done in Michigan, in Miami and Shelby Counties, Ohio, and other places. He is an active, wide awake, somewhat eccentric, but very energetic and success- ful. educator and preacher. He was almost idolized by his pu- pils, and is greatly estecmed by the churches to which he minis- ters. He is enthusiastic, acting on the Bible maxim, " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do with thy might." They have no chil- dren, which is true also of his brother, Gen. Asahel Stone. It is a great loss to the country that so worthy a stock seems doomed to extinction, and that no children live to be an honor to the name and to perpetuate it in the land. By God's blessing, hundreds of souls have been brought upon his labors into the kingdom of the Redeemer. He is still in active service, in his fifty- fourth year, and we may hope for much service from his hands in the Master's vineyard. The cholera prevailed in Winchester in the fall of 1849. It caused a terrible panic, and many left the town. Twelve men banded together to stay and "fight it through." The doctors mostly left. Dr. Longshore came from Deerfield, thinking he could cure cholera, but he failed utterly, and as he was riding away, a man asked for a prescription for a patient. He wrote on a scrap and handed it to the man, saying. "Fill that, and give a dose every hour till he dies," and rode off as hard as he could go. Nothing seemed of any avail till a half. witted fellow in a saw-mill somewhere south of Winchester dictated a remedy which proved effectual to cure the cholera. Thomas Kizer, druggist, knows what the "saw-mill medicine" is. They had "signal taps" for each one of the twelve. One day, Joel Avery was missing. The "tap" was given, but no Joel. The town was searched, and at last he was found back of Wellcome Puckett's, apparently dead. But he was breathing slightly, and they made some strong lye, and filled a trough, and put him in, and he " bounced." It revived him, and he got well. It was a fearful time! A large number died. Some whole fami- lies wore taken off. The death fiend seemed to have been turned loose upon the devoted town, unchecked, and reveling in wretch- edness and desolation. Elder Stone removed from Union City in the fall of 1880, to his farm in Jackson Township, north of New Lisbon. His health, which had become quite feeble during that summer and fall, grew somewhat better, and he took up preach- ing and pastoral labor which he had been obliged to intermit. But it was only for a short time. His health proved still unequal to the task, and he is striving to find, though with little success, in active out-door labor and relaxation of mentul exertion, a restora- tion of mental and bodily health and strength. During the fall of 1881, he returned to Union City to his former residence in that town, and in September they took their first trip to the prai- ries of Kansas.

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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 52

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