USA > Indiana > Wayne County > History of Wayne County, Indiana, from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches > Part 16
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LEVI M. JONES, was born in Kanawha county, Virginia, Oc- tober 5, 1787, and was married to Mary Thomas in 1807. In 1815 he settled in Center township, about a mile north of Centerville. He died October 5, 1823; his wife, March 12, 1847-both in Centerville, whither they removed two or three years after they settled on the farm. They had ten children,
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all married. 1. Lewis married Caroline Leavel. 2. Sarah married Robert Franklin. 3. Oliver T. [Sk.] 4. Norris married Sarah Jenkins. 5. Harrison married - Bundy, and died in 1847. 6. Rebecca married Daniel Shank, and died about five years ago. 7. Washington married - Hunt, daughter of Smith Hunt, of Abington township. 8. Eli married Anna Crow. Washington and Eli reside at Hecla, Whitley county, Ind. 9. Mary, who married Stephen Crow; and Levi, who married Matilda Brown, and lives in Washington township.
OLIVER T. JONES, son of Levi M., was born in Virginia, September 19, 1810. He came with his father to Centerville in 1815, and commenced labor at an early age. He worked at brick-making, farming, and teaching, about seven years, within which period he collected state and county revenues two years. From 1839 to 1844 he served as justice of the peace, and was during the same period county examiner. He then removed to the place where he now resides, one mile north of Centerville; and was for several years township treas- urer. He has followed farming many years, and still superin- tends the business of the farm. In 1860 he was elected to the legislature as a representative; re-elected in 1862, attended an extra session in June, 1863, and resigned. In the ensuing fall he was elected a county commissioner, an important office during the war, which office he still holds. Mr. Jones has also for several years been engaged in banking at Centerville. He was married, March 7, 1838, to Mary King, of Center. They had twelve children : Joseph, who died at 19; Jane, who mar- ried John M. Eliason ; Elmira; John K., teller in the bank ; Martha, who married Samuel C. Smith; Lucinda, who married Joshua Eliason; Levi M .; Anna, who married Lewis Shute, and resides in Preble county, Ohio; William, Emily, Charles, and Lincoln.
ISAAC JULIAN. The family represented by this name is of French and probably Huguenotic extraction. The family name was originally St. Julien, but has been shortened and anglicised into its present form. The first of the name who came to America was Rene St. Julien, a native of Paris, and a soldier by profession. IIe fought under the Prince of Orange, afterward William III. of England, at the battle of the Boyne,
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in Ireland, July 1, 1690, which resulted in the defeat of the ad- herents of James II. For his services he received from the king a grant of land beyond the Mississippi. But the war of the Revolution gave a quietus to such grants. He came to this country near the close of the seventeenth century, and settled on the eastern shore of Maryland. He had a numerous family, principally sons, from whom all of the name in America are believed to have descended. One of these sons, Isaac Julien, as appears from Irving's Life of Washington, was residing in Winchester, Virginia, in 1755. He removed to Randolph county, North Carolina, where his descendants still reside.
A son of the above, also Isaac Julian, came to this county in 1815. and settled on the farm lately owned by John Bond, near Washington. He afterward removed to Greensboro, Henry county, where he died. Isaac, Jacob, Rene. and Shu- bael, sons of the last named, all preceded him in coming to the West, and all, for a time, resided in this county, as also their sisters, who were married as follows : Elizabeth, to Wm. Cox, and still lives in Richmond ; Ellen, to Absalom Harvey, now residing in Missouri ; Sarah, to Ezekiel Commons, and resides in Rush county ; Barbara, to Samuel Howard ; and Martha, to Uriah Bulla, both deceased. Rene, a man of superior na- tural gifts, died many years since at Newcastle, of " milk sick- ness," being at the time clerk of Henry county. Jacob died near Logansport, September 29, 1870 ; and Shubael still lives at Cadiz. Ind. Isaac, Jacob, Wm. Cox, and George Farlow, still of this vicinity, cleared the ground north side of Main street. The trees had a few years previously [1807 ?] been prostrated by a great storm.
Isaac, the subject of this sketch, and the third of the name, in regular succession, is the only one of the name whose fam- ily has remained permanently identified with Wayne county. He was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, June 4, 1781. After obtaining the rudiments of education at the primitive common schools of that region, he engaged in the mercantile business, in which he was not successful. He came to this county early in 1808. Both before leaving North Car- olina. and after his arrival here. he was engaged in teaching. In the winter of 1808-9, he taught a school within a few miles of where Richmond now is. He married, March 29, 1809,
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Rebecca, a daughter of Andrew Hoover. She was ten years his junior. They became acquainted while engaged in plant- ing corn on the farm of Wm. Bulla. Her father, being a strict and stern member of the Society of Friends, and the groom being an " outsider," the marriage was a secret one, and was solemnized by Richard Rue, Esq., at his residence, three miles south of Richmond. Friend Hoover, however, at length relented and forgave the pair, presenting his daughter, as a token of his restored favor, some articles for going to housekeeping, prominent among which was a resplendent set of pewter " dresser ware." They settled first in a cabin on the bluff on the David Hoover farm, where their first child was born, and afterward removed to a place near Middleboro. And soon after the "Twelve Mile Purchase" was made in 1810, he settled on Noland's Fork, a mile and a half south- west of Centerville, where all his other children were born.
Mr. Julian and his wife shared, not only in the toils and hardships incident to the first settling of a heavy timbered country, but the greater tribulations attendant on frontier life during an Indian war. They were repeatedly compelled to flee for safety to the older settlements. During this crisis, Mr. Julian was three months in the military service. A graphic picture of their experience during this period, from the pen of Rebecca Julian, will be found in another part of this work.
Mr. J. was one of the first trustees of the town of Center- ville. He was twice commissioned a justice of the peace : first, Aug. 11, 1815, by Gov. Thomas Posey; and again, Sept. 8, 1817, by Gov. Jonathan Jennings. He also held the office of county commissioner. In 1822 he was a representative in the legislature, which met at Corydon, of which he was said to be an efficient and useful member. Having become pecuniarily involved by going security for others on the eve of a financial crisis, he was compelled, in 1823, to sell his farm. He removed to what is now Tippecanoe county, where he died. Dec. 12, 1823, soon after his arrival, near the Wabash, nine miles below Lafayette. Though early cut off, he is said to have left a reputation for strict probity, decided natural ability and force of character, which gave promise of con-
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tinned and even increased usefulness. He had read much, and possessed a good library for the time in which he lived; and it was one of his most cherished desires to afford his children the opportunity for obtaining a good education.
By the kindness of friends and relatives, his widow was enabled to return to Wayne county. The journey, performed in the winter season, with horses and wagon, through an un- broken wilderness, was attended with great difficulty and extreme suffering. With the seanty remnant of property left her, and by industry and rigid economy, she was enabled to keep her family together; and, sharing the spirit of her husband, she secured to them all the facilities of a common school education. The greater part of her life was spent in Wayne county, but the closing scene came at the residence of a daughter, at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, Nov. 21, 1867, at the age of 76 years. Her memory is cherished by all who knew her. Her naturally strong mental powers, social sympathies, and religious sentiments appeared to increase during the closing years of her life. Isaac and Rebecca Julian had seven chil- dren.
1. John M., the eldest, was born Jan. 19, 1811. The death of his father imposed on him many untimely labors and cares. He, however, managed to supplement his scanty edu- cational acquirements by an extensive course of reading and persevering self-improvement. He was engaged for several years in teaching, probably with a view to a preparation for a professional career. Possessed of a fine literary taste and a high moral character, he strove to stimulate his young associates to the cultivation of similar tastes and principles. His varied qualities thus early promised a brilliant future. But the dawn of promise was suddenly overcast by death, August 21, 1834. 2. Sarah was born March 10, 1813, and was married, Jan. 16, 1840, to Jesse H. Holman, son of George Holman. They removed soon after to Linn county, Iowa, where she still resides. She has three children. 3. Jacob B. 4. George W. [Sketches below.] 5. Elizabeth E., born July 15, 1819, was married Jan. 12, 1841, to Allison I. Willetts, a son of Jesse Willetts, an early settler on Green's Fork. They set- tled soon after in Linn county, Iowa. IIe was the founder
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of the town of Mt. Vernon, in that county, and died some years since, leaving three children. She married, second, Andrew Beatty. 6. Henry, born Nov. 6, 1821 ; died July 21, 1823. 7. Isaac HI. [Sk.]
JACOB B. JULIAN, son of Isaac Julian, the subject of the foregoing sketch, was born Jan. 6, 1815. He was apprenticed to Edward K. Hart, a blacksmith, in Centerville, and after- ward, for a short time, carried on a shop for himself. He began the study of law in 1838, while employed as an assist- ant by John Finley, county clerk; completed it in 1839, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1839. In the latter part of the year he was married to Martha J., daughter of Henry Bryan. He has steadfastly adhered to the practice of his profession, having never been absent during the sessions of the civil courts. In 1844 he was elected prosecuting attorney for this judicial circuit. In the winters of 1846-7, and in 1848-9 he represented Wayne county in the legislature. IIe has, however, been led to no political aspirations, but has sought distinction only in his profession, in which he has succeeded. Although yet in the prime of life, he has prac- ticed law in this county for a greater number of years than any other man has ever done. He has four children. His son, John F., is at present his partner in practice, under the firm of Julian & Julian.
GEORGE W. JULIAN, son of Isaac, was born near Center- ville, May 5, 1817. He was six years of age at the time of his father's death. This sad misfortune, however, was essen- tially mitigated by the fact that his carly training was de- volved upon a faithful and competent mother. Ilis carly educational advantages were only such as were afforded by the common schools in a new country. Yet he made rapid progress in the acquisition of useful knowledge, by private reading and study, done in great part in the evening by fire- light-better light being not at all times easily procured. The deficiency of the family library, as will be readily sup- posed, was supplied by books borrowed of his neighbors. After due preparation, he engaged in teaching a country school, which business he followed with credit three years. It was during the first of his teaching that he signalized himself
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by successfully resisting the efforts of the " big boys " to com- pel him to " treat " on Christmas day, according to a custom long prevalent in the West. About the year 1839, he com- menced the study of law, which he prosecuted without the aid of a preceptor. He was admitted to practice in 1840, and followed the business of his profession, except as interrupted by attention to public duties, until the year 1861. In 1845 he was elected a representative of the county in the legislature, where he advocated the abolition of capital punishment, and retrenchment in public expenditures. In 1848, when Zachary Taylor was nominated for the presidency by the Whig party, he for a season remained neutral, but subsequently attended the Buffalo convention which nominated Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams, and supported that nomination. In 1849 he was elected a representative to Congress over Sam- uel W. Parker, a prominent Whig. In 1852, when John P. Hale was nominated by the " Free Soil " party for president, Mr. Julian was placed on the ticket for vice-president. He was a delegate to the first national Republican convention at Pittsburg, in the spring of 1856, aud one of the vice-presidents, and chairman of the committee on organization. In 1860 he was again elected to Congress, and by successive re-elections continued there till the close of the 41st Congress, March, 1871. Among the measures of importance to the country at large with which he has been conspicuously identified, are the home- stead law, and the attempt to protect the public lands from further spoliation by lavish grants to railroad companies, or by the sale of large tracts to speculators. He was for ten years a member of the house committee on public lands, and for eight years its chairman. He was appointed in 1862 a member of the joint committee of both houses on the conduct of the war, a position which he held nearly four years. He was also one of the committee which prepared articles of im- peachment against President Andrew Johnson.
Mr. Julian was married, first, to Ann E. Finch, of Center- ville, May 13, 1845, by whom he had three children. After her decease, he was married to Laura Giddings, a daughter of the late IIon. Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, December 31, 1863.
Strobridge & Co. Lith . Cin. O.
John King.
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ISAAC H. JULIAN, a son of Isaac, was born June 19, 1823. He early manifested a decided literary taste, and at intervals of leisure from farm work, succeeded in accomplishing a course of reading in the departments of history and general litera- ture. He also early became a contributor, both in poetry and prose, to many of the newspapers and periodicals of the day. In 1848, he became deeply interested in the antislavery and other humanitarian phases of politics, which then took shape and gave direction to his subsequent literary efforts. He re- sided in Iowa from the spring of 1846 to the fall of 1850. IIe studied law, and was admitted to the bar in this county in the spring of 1851, but found the practice too distasteful to make it a life business. In 1857, he edited and got published the " Memoir of David Hoover," accompanying it with an Ap- pendix of interesting and valuable matter relating to the first settlement of the Whitewater valley. In September, 1858, he bought the True Republican newspaper at Centerville, which he edited and published with that name until about the close of the year 1864, when, having purchased a Richmond paper, the two were consolidated under the name of the Indiana Radical, which has since been published by him at Richmond, to which place he removed January 1, 1865. He was post- master at Centerville during President Lincoln's first term, and at Richmond from May, 1869, to July, 1871. He was married October 16, 1859, to Virginia M. Spillard, and has four children.
JESSE KING, from Kentucky, about the year 1826, settled two miles north-east from the town of Washington. He had a large family ; and five of his sons, Samuel, Daniel, Elisha, Lorenzo D., and John, came to this county. Samuel settled, in 1814 or 1815, near or adjoining Centerville, and resided in other places in the township, and removed successively to Rush and Tipton counties, to Iowa, and lastly to the south- west part of Kansas, where, at the age of 87, he lives with a second wife, and has children, the youngest of whom is about the age of five or six years. Daniel, with Elisha, his brother, came about two years earlier than their father, and married - McAlister. His sons, James and John, died unmarried. Newton lives in Madison county ; Isaac in Green township;
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Levi, on the farm of his father; Milton, in Madison. A daughter, Mary Jane, married George Ebersal. Elisha settled two miles south of Centerville; afterward started with his family for Oregon, and several of his children and himself died on the way thither. His widow, after her arrival there, mar- ried again, and died there. Lorenzo D. came to the county with his father, and after a residence of several years in Green, settled where he now resides, in Center. His sons, William, Joseph, and Absalom, live in the township.
JOHN KING, son of Jesse King, settled a mile and a half north of Centerville, where Joseph King's widow resides, and in 1830, where Jackson King resides, near Centerville. His children were, 1. Lucinda, who married Joshua Eliason. 2. James, who married Malinda, a daughter of Caleb B. Jackson, and died at West Grove, where he resided. 3. Joseph, who married Sarah Way, daughter of Seth Way, of Green, and died where his widow resides. 3 4. William, who married Jemima, daughter of Caleb B. Jackson, and resides four miles north-east of Centerville. 5. Mary, wife of Oliver T. Jones. 6. Presley, who married a daughter of Ebenezer Cheeseman, and has lately removed to Kansas. 7. Nancy married John M. Maxwell, who resides near Richmond. She died in Cen- ter. 9. Jackson, who married Elizabeth Davis, and lives on the late home of his father, near the town. 10. Jesse [not the last born, it is believed,] died at the age of 14.
JEREMY MANSUR was born in Temple, Hillsborough county, New Hampshire, December 31, 1791. He came in 1813 from New Hampshire to Cincinnati on horseback, and after a stay of six months, removed to Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, where he was married in 1814 to Jane Carr, and removed the same year to Salisbury, then the county seat of Wayne county, Indiana, where he worked about six years at the edge-tool business. In 1820 or 1821, he settled on a farm between Cen- terville and Richmond, on the National road. In 1831, he re- moved to Richmond, and engaged in the mercantile business, which he continued about eight years. He then returned to his farm; and, in 1852, removed to Indianapolis, where he still resides, in the possession of an ample fortune acquired by honest industry. Ilis children were, 1. Mary Ann, who mar-
Strobridge & Co Lith . Cin 0.
& Mansur.
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ried, first, John H. Wright, who died in Indianapolis, having had four children, two of whom (sons) are living; married, second, Charles Parry, a practicing physician and surgeon, and Vice-President of the Indiana Central Railway, who also died in that city. 2. Clarissa, who married James C. Fergu- son, who is engaged in the pork-packing business in Indianap- olis. They had seven children, of whom five are living. A daughter, Isabel, died while at school in Kentucky as she was about to graduate. 3. William, who married Hannah Cully in Indianapolis, and had three sons-one living. He has long been engaged in pork-packing, and is a director of the Cit- izens' Bank. 4. Sarah Jane, who married Wm. S. Reid, of Richmond. [See Sketch.] 5. Isaiah, who married Amelia Brown of Philadelphia, and is extensively engaged in banking in Indianapolis. 6. Franklin, who married Sarah Grewel in Indianapolis, and resides there. 7. James Carr, who died at the age of three years.
THOMAS McCOY was one of the earliest settlers of Wayne county, having come with Holman and Rue, and settled with them south of Richmond, in 1805. In 1813, he removed to the farm on which he died a few miles south-west of Centerville. He is represented as having been an honest man, brave and true; and with a will as firm as his stalwart, iron frame, he was a leader among the pioneers. During the Indian war his house was their rallying place, and his advice and aid their chief reliance. He was of Irish descent, and retained, during life, some of the characteristics of his countrymen. He died in the winter of 1844-45. His two sons, John, a native of Kentucky, and Morgan, one of the oldest natives of this county, live on the old place, and are highly respected citizens.
OLIVER P. MORTON was born August 4, 1823, in Center township, and was married to Lucinda M. Burbank, May 16, 1845. His parents having died when he was quite young, the care of rearing him devolved upon his grandmother and two aunts. He was at an early age apprenticed to a half-brother in Centerville at the hatter's trade. He worked but a short time at the business, and was for a while without steady em- ployment. He was at length placed at school at the Wayne County Seminary at Centerville, of which Prof. Samuel P.
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Hoshour was the principal. After a course of preparatory studies at the seminary, he entered Miami University, at Ox- ford, Ohio, in which he made considerable progress in his studies, but left the University without completing the course. He returned to Centerville and commenced the study of the law, and in 1846 was admitted to practice, and rose rapidly in his profession. In 1852 he was appointed judge of the judicial circuit to complete the unexpired term of his predecessor. Previously to 1854 he acted with the Democratic party ; but when that party repealed the Missouri compromise, he severed his connection with it, and has since acted with the Republi- can party. In 1856 he was a candidate for governor in oppo- sition to Ashbel P. Willard, the Democratic candidate, and was beaten. In 1860 he was elected lieutenant-governor on the ticket with Henry S. Lane as governor, and served as lieutenant-governor but two days. Gov. Lane having been elected by the legislature to the office of senator of the United States, Mr. Morton succeeded him in office. The war, which commenced in April, 1861, devolved the most weighty and responsible duties upon the state executives. Gov. Morton convened the legislature without delay, and means were promptly provided to put the state on a war footing. The promptitude and efficiency with which he discharged his exec- utive duties in relation to the war, gained for him great credit throughout the loyal states. At the ensuing election [1864] he was elected governor for another term. But before the term had half expired he resigned his office, took a voyage to Eu- rope, and returned with improved health. In January, 1867, he was elected by the legislature senator to Congress for the constitutional term of six years, to succeed the Hon. Henry S. Lane, whose term expired in March following. He has three sons, John M., Walter S., and Oliver T.
JOHN S. NEWMAN was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, April 10, 1805. He came in March, 1807, to what is now Wayne township, with his grandfather, who settled two miles north of Richmond. His mother having died (May 18, 1806) before their settlement here, he was taken into the family of his grandfather, Andrew Hoover, Sen. In January, 1827, he removed to Centerville, where he was for a time employed in
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the office of his uncle, David Hoover, then clerk of the county courts. He there also studied law ; was admitted to practice in May, 1828, and continued in practice there until 1860. For nearly ten years of the period of his practice, he was in part- nership with Jesse P. Siddall, under the firm of Newman & Siddall. In 1834 he was elected a representative in the legis- lature. He was afterward, for several years, a partner in the firm of Hannah & Newman in the mercantile business, in Cen- terville. In 1850 he was elected a delegate to the constitu- tional convention. In January, 1847, he was chosen president of the Whitewater Valley Canal Company, and served as such five years. In 1851 he was chosen president of the In- diana Central Railway Company, and, in'1860, for convenience to his business, he removed to Indianapolis, where he now re- sides. And for the last five years he has been president of the Merchants' National Bank of Indianapolis. He was married, October 1, 1829, to Eliza J. Hannah, a daughter of Samuel Hannah. They had six children : Mary, who married Dr. H. G. Carey. Gertrude, wife of Ingram Fletcher, a banker in Indianapolis. Omar, engaged in the lumber trade in Chicago. Walter, who was Ist lieutenant in the United States army ; served in the late war, and died January 1, 1864, at Indianap- olis, of disease contracted in the army. Two children died in infancy.
WILLIAM A. PEELLE was born in North Carolina, and came to this county with his father, who settled in New Garden in 1820. He was brought up on the farm of his father; and in 1840 he began the study of law at home, and without a a tutor. In 1845, he commenced practice at Marion, Grant Co., and in 1866 removed to Winchester. In 1848, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney, and in 1854 he was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Randolph and Jay counties. In 1860, he was elected Secretary of State, and removed to Indianapolis, Jan. 1, 1861. After the expira- tion of his term of office, he removed to Centerville, where he still continues the practice of his profession. In March, 1867, he was appointed Judge of the Criminal Court; and was in 1867 a representative of this county in the state legis- lature. Judge Peelle read law with James S. Frazer, who
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