USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 39
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MARK RIDENOUR. Due credit should be accorded to those men who, in a community devoted to agricultural interests, have added perceptibly to the productiveness and prosperity of their district by reason of their splendid attention to the work they early in life applied themselves to, gaining thereby not only positions of independence and comparative wealth, but the high regard and esteem of their contemporaries. One of these is beyond all question Mark Ridenour, whose farm of 149 acres in Lagro township is a model of farming perfection, reflecting in appear- ance and productiveness the sterling traits of its owner and operator.
Mark Ridenour is one of the eleven children of his parents. He was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on the 6th day of July, 1849, and is a son of John and Lydia (Ellwood) Ridenour, old residents of Tusca- rawas county. They were natives of the state of Pennsylvania, the father of German parentage and the mother of English. John Ridenour was twelve years of age before he learned to speak the English language, and he learned it after coming into contact with others who were un- familiar with the tongue of his household and as a result of necessity. He became a blacksmith, and after he had taken up his residence in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, he did a flourishing business in that line, run- ning a shop with five fires. In 1853 the family moved to Indiana. They made the trip in wagons, and their first location was in Wabash county, just south of Wabash, in Noble township, in the heart of the woods. That was also the only home they ever knew in Indiana, for both par- ents ended their lives on the farm they carved out of the wilderness in comparative youth. The wife and mother passed out first, the husband and father following her. Their children were named as follows: Ben-
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ton; Mark, of this review; John, who died young, as did also James; Melissa, now deceased; Emily, Ellwood, Philip, Catherine and Ida. The first four children were born in Ohio, and Mark Ridenour was a child of four years when the family moved into Wabash county, so that his entire life, barring that brief space in earliest childhood, has been passed within the confines of the county to which he came as an infant with his parents in 1853.
Mark Ridenour grew up in Noble township and attended the district schools. He early began to put in regular hours of work on the home farm, for his parents were thrifty German people who had a high regard for the value of honest labor and believed that their children should be taught to work as well as to be sent to school. So it came about that young Ridenour did his full share in the arduous work of fitting the wild land into a farm, for it was a process of years, as one will readily understand once it becomes clear that the family settled in a virgin forest and finally evolved a clean, clear and productive farm therefrom.
In 1876 Mark Ridenour married. He was then twenty-seven years of age, and he chose for his wife Sarah A. Malott, a daughter of Hiram and Mary (Pearson) Malott. They came to Wabash county from Amboy, Miami county, Indiana, at a time when their daughter, Mrs. Ridenour, was a small child. Both parents were born in Marion, Indiana, and they were people of many interesting characteristics. Quakers in their religious faith, the mother was a minister in the church, and was one of the best known and most successful members the Quaker ministry knew. She had traveled widely in Iowa, North Carolina, Canada, Kan- sas, Illinois and Indiana, and was loved and esteemed wherever she was known. She was a quiet woman in temperament and manner, well informed in matters pertaining to her calling, and had gained her edu- cation solely through her own efforts. She was a devoted wife and mother, and found time to give to the rearing of her large family of twelve children, most of whom reached years of maturity and have re- flected credit upon her in their years of independent activity. They were named Levi, Lydia, Sarah, David, John, Susan, Calvin, Sylvanus, Nathan, Albert, Jennie and James.
After his marriage Mr. Ridenour bought a ninety acre farm in Noble township, making the purchase from his father-in-law. A log cabin that graced the place at that time he soon replaced with a frame house, and he later disposed of the farm and bought a place on the Mill Creek pike. Fifteen years he spent in the second location, and then, in 1900, traded it for his present place, the old Hopper farm, as it was called, comprising 167 acres. Mr. Ridenour later gave his son a slice of the farm of eighteen acres, that being the portion lying on the west side of the road. the remainder of 149 acres lying on the east side. The two farm jointly and are among the most successful and progressive farming men in the town.
Their one child is Elmer, who married Eurah Ratliff, a daughter of John and Isabella (Levison) Ratliff. Mrs. Ratliff is no longer living,
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Merit Banister was about two months old at the time of the family removal to Wabash county, within whose gracious borders he has con- tinued to reside during the long intervening period of seventy years. He was reared to adult age on the homestead farm, in Lagro township, and he continued to be associated with the work and management of the farm until he was about eighteen years of age, in the meanwhile having duly availed himself of the advantages afforded in the district schools of the period, thereby laying adequate foundation for the broad superstructure of knowledge which he was later to upbuild through his association with the practical duties and responsibilities of life. After severing his association with the home farm Mr. Banister entered upon a virtual apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade, in which he became a skilled artisan. In 1863 he established his residence in La Fontaine, where he engaged in contracting and building and had much to do with the material development of the village. He finally removed to Wabash, the county seat, where he followed his trade successfully and also worked as millwright in the paper mill that represented one of the most important industrial enterprises of the town. He continued his residence at Wabash until about 1898, when he returned to La Fontaine, where he has since maintained his home and where he is now living retired from the active labors that so long engrossed his time and at- tention.
Mr. Banister has always shown a lively interest in all that concerns the well being of the county that has been his home from the days of his infancy, and in a characteristically quiet and unostentatious way he has done well his part in the furtherance of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the community, along both civic and material lines. He is a stalwart in the local camp of the Democratic party, and he has served since January, 1913, as a member of the board of county commissioners, as representative of the southern district of the county. Fidelity and discrimination have marked his labors in this important capacity, and he has even further fortified himself in the confidence and esteem of the community at large. He attends and gives earnest support to the Christian church in La Fontaine, of which his wife is a devoted member. He is affiliated with the Masonic frater- nity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He is past grand of his lodge of Odd Fellows and past chief patriarch of its local organization of Patriarch Militant.
On the 24th of December, 1872, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Banister to Miss Ellen Hackney, who was born in Kentucky, but she was reared in Wabash county, having been but three years old when she came here with her parents, William and Mary Hackney. Mr. and Mrs. Banister became the parents of two sons and one daughter, and the only one living is Harry W., who was graduated in the La Fontaine high school as a member of the class of 1902, and later completed a course in telegraphy and shorthand, he being now employed at La Fontaine.
Robert Lee Banister, the oldest child of Merit Banister, died in
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August, 1912. He was born November 3, 1873. He married Jessie Rigbee of Wabash. Lucille Banister died August 19, 1907, aged twenty- nine years.
MARSHALL R. FORD, familiarly known hereabout as "Roy" Ford, has added something of value to the farming interests of Lagro town- ship by reason of his industry and progressiveness as the owner and operator of a nice place of one hundred acres about three miles northeast of Lagro. He bought this place in the year 1907 from John Kane, and it was then known widely as the old "Whitmore" or "Anderson" farm. Today, Mr. Ford's farm is designated by neither of those old familiar appellations, for his activities have made it so essentially the "Ford" place that the former names are no longer applied to it.
Mr. Ford was born in Randolph county, Indiana, on February 16, 1868, and he is a son of Doctor Franklin (Doctor is an old family name. He was not a physician) and Emily (Moore) Ford, both natives of Randolph county, also, and a grandson of Royston and Ann (Mills) Ford, pioneers of Indiana, who came to the state as children, and passed their lives in agricultural activities within its borders. The father of Emily Moore, the mother of the subject, was an Ohioan by birth, and he located in the southwest part of Henry county, Indiana, when the entire district was a wilderness.
D. F. Ford, father of the subject, was a merchant for years at Farm- land, and he was a veteran of the Civil war. He first enlisted for the three months of service the government called for troops for, and when that time had expired he reenlisted in the Nineteenth Indiana and served until he was discharged for disability. He again enlisted, the third time entering the 147th Indiana, and he saw much service from then until the close of the war. When peace was once more the rule in the land, Mr. Ford was elected sheriff of his county on the Republican ticket, and he was serving his second term in that office when he was killed by an escaping prisoner one night when he went to the county jail on an errand. This was in the year 1872, and he was then 33 years of age. His widow still lives at Farmland, Indiana. They had three children. Anna became the wife of Owen Longsdorf, of Farmland; Marshall Roy is the subject of this review; and Oscar, who died in infancy.
Marshall Roy Ford was a lad of six years when his father was cut down in the prime of life, and he grew up in Randolph county, attending the district schools and also the school at Farmland and at Ridgeville. He early went to work in a general store in Farmland, and he was but twenty-one when he married Arilla MeNeese, daughter of Marshall and Regina (Macey) McNeese. They were married Feb- ruary 28, 1889, and soon thereafter Mr. Ford bought a small farm of sixty-five acres in Randolph county, which he sold some time after, com- ing to Wabash county in 1907 and buying his present farm of one hundred acres. Here Mr. Ford had learned much about farming, and
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though he was not born to the industry, he has enjoyed quite as material and marked a success as have many of his more experienced neighbors.
A stanch republican, Mr. Ford served two years as superintendent of the Randolph County Infirmary, and proved himself a capable and conscientious official in that time. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Lagro, and with his family, has membership in the Presbyterian church.
Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ford. Ethel, the eldest, is the wife of Raymond Jones, and has one daughter, Helen. Nora is engaged in school teaching in Wabash county; Ruth is a high school student; Louie, Frank and Alice are all attending the local schools.
The family is one of the foremost ones in the community, and they have many friends here who have in the few years of their resi- dence in Lagro township, come to know them for the possessors of many admirable traits of character that make of them desirable friends and neighbors.
A. W. SCHULER. The Schuler homestead is a fine farm of sixty-seven acres in Lagro township, located two and a half miles from Urbana on the north Manchester Pike. This place has a peculiar interest not only as a tract of land exceptionally well managed and producing the staple crops of Wabash county, but also because of the fact that it has produced two exceptionally efficient and honored county officers. It was originally the Daniel McKahan heirs' farm, and from this place Daniel McKahan, Jr., went into the office of sheriff by the vote of his fel- low citizens. Only recently Mr. A. W. Schuler retired from the office of county recorder, having moved from the farm after his election and having returned to it when his term of office was concluded.
Alvin Ward Schuler comes from one of the pioneer families of Wabash county. His parents were Philip and Elizabeth (Buck) Schuler. Philip Schuler was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, and was twelve years old when he came to Indiana with his parents Robert and Elizabeth (Rantz) Schuler. That was the journey accomplished in the early days, and after the pioneer fashion, in wagons and with teams, and after arriving in Wabash county, they located in the woods near Roann. After getting his family established Robert Schuler returned to Pennsylvania on a visit. IIe went back in a buggy and his horse ran away, and as a result of the injury sustained, lack of proper medical attention and the complication of what was then known as "Black Ery- sipelas," he died. His wife later went out to Minnesota and died at the home of her son. There were six sons and six daughters and Philip Schuler, was third in order of birth. Though only twelve years old when the family came to this county, Philip Schuler had to take his share in the clearing of the land, and was in every sense of the term a pioneer. Learning the trade of carpenter he followed that vocation for a number of years and also bought a farm two and a half miles north of Roann, which he made the basis for the accumulation of a sub- stantial degree of prosperity. He finally retired to Roann and lived
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well deserving, considering the scope and character of his activities in his chosen enterprise.
Noah Milam was born on April 5, 1853, and he is a son of Joel and Anna (White) Milam. The parents were natives of Virginia, who in young life moved to Ohio and there settled on a farm. They moved into Indiana in 1845, taking up their residence almost immediately on the farm in Noble township that has since that early day responded to the vigor and activities of men of the Milam family. At that time, the original purchase was represented by a tract of eighty acres of heavily timbered land. Though covered with a growth of timber that today would be worth a small fortune to any man, the sturdy trees of oak, hickory and walnut shared the common fate of the forests of that time, and were sacrificed to permit the cultivation of the virgin soil.
It should be said in passing that Joel Milam walked the distance each way from Ohio to Wabash county, Indiana, on two different occasions prior to the time of his actual settling here in 1845. In that year he came accompanied by his young family, making the journey in an ox wagon. He built a large log house, more conspicuous for its size than for its elegance, but it served, and they were not people to complain with their lot while the necessities of life were theirs, and there was a prospect of establishing a permanent home in the wilderness. To them were born six children. The first three were born in Preble county, Ohio, and the others in Noble township, Wabash county, Indiana. They were named as follows: Joseph and John, twins; Rebecca, who died young, being the first person to be buried in the Noble township cemetery ; Elizabeth; Noah and Esther. Joseph married Elizabeth Blotter and John married Catherine Reddinger. Elizabeth became the wife of Valentine Beamer, and Noah of this review married Louise Rousch, of whom further mention will be made.
The father of Noah Milam reached a ripe old age, being eighty-seven years old when he died in 1902, and the mother died at the age of about sixty. Joel Milam was one of the most ambitious and energetic men the township ever knew, and he reared his sons to know the value of a good day's work, as they will readily testify. He left a good name and a fair inheritance of more material character, and is well remembered among the citizens of this community, as is also the woman who was his devoted companion and the mother of his children. He was a Dunkard in his religious faith, and a republican all his days.
In 1877 Noah Milam married Louise, the daughter of Peter and Christina (Kieffaber) Rousch, natives of Germany and of Ohio, respec- tively. She was one of a family of nine, the other eight being Adam, Charles, Jacob, Kate, Elizabeth, and Henry and George, who were twins. To Mr. and Mrs. Milam one son was born,-Peter Joel Milam, born on February 6, 1881. He married Mabel Clark, the daughter of Frank Clark, and to them one daughter came,-Minerva Christina. -
Mr. Milam and his family have membership in the Lutheran church, and he is active in republican politics in the community, being one of the representative citizens of the township, and one who has an ex-
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Katherine Juice (f. 1. , 1. ...
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cellent standing with the best people in the community. He has pros- pered through his own activities and energies, and has proven himself worthy of every bit of success that has come to him. He owns 204 acres of land and his son owns 99 acres, making a fine farm of 303 acres, which they operate. He does general agriculture and stock raising. With his family Mr. Milam has a wide circle of friends here who know him for many sterling traits of heart and mind.
W. S. WILLIAMS. A fine farm of ninety acres overlooking the Wabash River, with house sitting well back from the road, has been the home place of W. S. Williams, of Lagro township since the year 1910, which year marked his purchase of this property. Mr. Williams was reared to farm life, and there are few things, if, indeed, any, in the matter of successful farming in this section of the county with which he is not reasonably familiar. A lifelong resident of the county, Mr. Williams was born on his father's farm, about two miles distant from his present home, September 14, 1852, and he is a son of John and Matilda (Seaver) Williams.
John Williams was born in Kentucky and his wife in Virginia. They were married in Fayette county, Indiana, and there spent some years. He was a cabinet maker by trade, and he plied his trade in Fayette county for some time before he began to turn his attention to farming. In the early forties he moved from Vienna, in Fayette county, to Lagro town- ship, this county, and here he bought 136 acres, and combined farming with cabinet making for a good many years before death claimed him. He was resident there at the time of his passing, and his widow later passed away in Huntington county. She was twice married. Her first husband was a Mr. Jonas, and she bore him two children, William and Margaret, the latter now deceased. Of her marriage with Mr. Williams there were four children. Clay, the eldest, is deceased. Josie married James Reed; Winfield Scott, of this review, and John. The father, too, was twice married, and his first brood numbered seven, and were named Silas, Thomas, Elizabeth, Mattie, Amanda, Harriett and Mary .. The five last named are now deceased.
Winfield Scott Williams was born on September 14, 1852, in the round log house common to the time, located just east of the old frame school and church building at Hopewell, Lagro township. Mr. Williams lived at home up to the time of his marriage in 1874 to Miss Anna Reed, a daughter of John and Mary (Martin) Reed, who came from Fayette county, Indiana, to this community, where Mrs. Williams was born. She was one of the four children of her parents, the others being W. M., James and Susan, the wife of Capt. E. Stone.
After his marriage Mr. Williams worked on the home farm for a year, and then they took up their residence at the home place of Mrs. Williams' people, where they continued to operate the Reed farm for eight years. During this time Mr. Williams bought land of his own in Grant county and in Wabash county also, getting his present place in 1907, and moving to it in 1910. How well he has succeeded in his work
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in the few years of his residence here has already been noted in a preced- ing paragraph, so that further details of his farming activities are unnecessary at this juncture.
Mr. and Mrs. Williams have a nice family of seven children, briefly mentioned as follows: Ward, married to Clara Horner, is the father of two children,-Hilda and Lowell, and they are residents of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where Mr. Williams is engaged in business activities. Grace married Orren Hummel, and they live in Marion, Indiana. Glenn mar- ried Mary Wilson, and their children are Lisle and Vaughan. They are living in Canada. Wade married Varna Poor and they live in Michigan. Ernest married Augusta Wendell, and they have a home in Wabash county. Paul and Pauline, twins, complete this interesting family, and they make their home with their parents.
Mr. Williams is a republican in his politics, and with his wife and family, has membership in the Christian church.
SAMUEL T. JACKSON. In the year 1829 the Jackson family was estab- lished in Indiana, when Samuel Jackson, grandsire of Samuel T. Jack- son, of this review, accompanied by his wife and children, came to Madison county from North Carolina. He later moved on and took up his residence in Wabash county, and from then to the present writing men of the name of Jackson, members of this family, contributed in generous measure to the development and progress of this section of the country, though Samuel Jackson himself died in Iowa, where he moved late in life.
James Jackson, the son of Samuel, was born in North Carolina in 1819, and came to Indiana as a child of ten years. He was reared from then on to manhood in Madison county and there married Cecelia Thompson of Madison county, Indiana. He and his brothers, Robert and Elias Jackson came out to Wabash county in the early forties and took up a large tract of land in the wilds of Liberty township. They made the trip in a wagon, Robert in charge of the expedition, and James and his young wife found themselves in a new country, without a home ready to receive them, for their log cabin, though well under way, was not yet completed. Robert and Elias lacked the courage to face the untoward and primitive conditions to the end, and returned to Madison county, but James and his wife remained, though in later years Robert returned and made some improvements on his place, and still later Elias came back and with renewed courage, took up the burden of carving out a home for himself, but he was not equal to the herculean task and a short time after made his way back to the haunts of civiliza- tion again. About that time their parents came to Wabash county, too, and settled on land near La Fontaine.
James Jackson cleared up his land in Liberty township, and later sold it and moved to Noble township. He became prosperous and well- to-do and died in Wabash county at the age of seventy-seven years. The mother, however, died at the age of forty-four years, and he later married Hannah Burns. She had two sons,-Daniel and John, by a
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former marriage. The children of his first marriage were fourteen in number, and Samuel T. of this review was the eldest. The others are named in order of birth. William, now deceased; Mary, also deceased; Minerva ; James M., deceased; Franklin P .; Melissa E., deceased ; Laura; John Willard; Sarah V .; Flora D .; Enola May; Elizabeth I. and David H. All of them reached years of maturity with the exception of the first named daughter, who died in infancy.
Samuel T. Jackson was reared on the Liberty township farm, and he was fourteen years old when the family moved to Noble township. Sixty days in each year up to the age of fifteen years was his allow- ance of schooling, and that attendance was granted at a period in the year when there was nothing to be done on the farm. As the eldest of a large family, much of the hard work of the place fell to him when he was yet a boy of tender years, and he was no stranger to the arduous tasks attendant upon the clearing up of a wilderness tract of land into a productive farm. He remained at home to the age of twenty-two and thereafter for the space of four or five years he divided his time between independent work and work on the home place.
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