USA > Indiana > Wayne County > History of Wayne County, Indiana, from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches > Part 36
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
Biographical and Genealogical.
WILLIAM BELL was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1797. In that large commercial city he and his revered father composed the widely-known firm of John Bell & Co., a very extensive manufacturing and exporting concern, giving employment to several thousand persons. A great financial crisis destroyed their business, and involved them in overwhelming losses. From this shock the subject of this notice never recovered. In 1842, he left his native land for the United States. He was a prominent member of the society of Friends, and a faithful defender of its principles and testimonies. For five years previous to his coming to this country he edited the Irish Friend, in which he boldly promulgated the principles and measures he held so dear. He was a resident of Rich- mond for about twenty years. During this time he was ever ready to co-operate in works of benevolence. The cause of temperance, the abolition of slavery, and other objects of a philanthropie character, received his ardent and active sup- port. Ile died March 5, 1871.
THOMAS W. BENNETT was born in Union county, Indiana, Feb. 16, 1831. IIis father was a farmer, and raised his son to work on the farm. In 1850, at the age of 19, he entered Indiana Asbury University, where he completed his educa- tion in July, 1854. Immediately afterward he began the study of the law, and after a full course, graduated in the law school of the Asbury University in July, 1855. During the spring and summer of 1853, he was Professor of Mathematics
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and Natural Science in Whitewater College in Centerville. IIe commenced the practice of his profession at Liberty, in his native county, in the fall of 1855, and continued in the practice actively until the breaking out of the rebellion in 1861. On the first call for troops, in April, he raised a com- pany of volunteers, and entered the army as a captain, in the 15th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. He served in that ca- pacity in Western Virginia until Sept., 1861, when he was pro- moted to major of the 36th Regiment, in which he served dur- ing the whole of Gen. Buell's campaign to Nashville, Shiloh, East Tennessee, the great retreat to Louisville, Ky., and the pursuit of Bragg. In October, 1862, he was appointed by Gov. Morton colonel of the 69th Regiment. With his command he joined Sherman's army at Memphis, and participated in the failure to capture Vicksburg in Dec., 1862, and in the capture of Arkansas Post in Jan., 1863. He was engaged in all the movements and battles which resulted in the capture of Vicksburg, in July, 1863; was in command of a brigade in the Tesche and Red River campaigns under Banks, and served in that capacity until detailed by the War Depart- ment in Sept., 1864, as a member of the military commission which tried and convicted the notorious conspirators Bowles, Milligan, and Horsey. At the election of 1864, he was clected a senator from Union and Fayette counties, a position which he had held for two years before the war, and took a leading part in that body. Since 1856 he has been actively engaged in politics, making publie speeches in successive campaigns in most of the counties of the state. After the close of the war, and his term in the senate, he made a tour of Europe, and returning, he moved to Richmond in Aug., 1868, and in the spring of 1869 was elected Mayor of that city, serving until May, 1871, when he resumed the practice of the law. In 1871, he was appointed by President Grant Governor of Idaho Territory.
WILLIAM BLANCHARD was born in Brookfield, Mass., Oet. 1, 1800. In 1826 he was married to Isabella F. Foster, who was born in Worcester, Mass. Ile removed the same year to Rhinebeck, N. Y., and in 1835 to Richmond, where, in connec- tion with his brother, Albert C. Blanchard, he commenced the
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Lewis Burk.
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mercantile business, in which he continued until about the year 1859. He has been for many years a notary public and an insurance agent ; and he has been an elder in the Presby- terian Church from its organization to the present time. Ilis children were Fatima Catharine, Wm. A., Jane Eliza, Mary I., and Emma. Fatima C. married W. J. Culton, and resides in Chicago. Wm. A. married Elmira Bailey, of Cincinnati ; resides near that city, and is in the commission business. Jane E. married Dr. Harrington, of Richmond, who died and left two daughters. Mary I. married George II. Grant; they re- side in Richmond. Emma married Frank Vanuxem, of the firm of Leeds & Co., hardware merchants in Richmond.
LEWIS BURK was born near Lexington, Ky., March 23, 1799. He removed early to this state with his father, who settled about a mile and a half south from where Richmond now is. He worked on the farm a few years, and went back to Ken- tucky to learn the blacksmith's trade, and returned after three years. His trade not furnishing him constant employment, he took up that of stone-mason, working alternately at each. He received in those days of low wages only $8 a month as a journeyman blacksmith, and 50 cents a day for laying stone, where, in later days, he received $2.50 a day at his regular trade. In 1831, he built, and for several years kept, the tavern- house which he sold to the late Daniel D. Sloan, at present the property of A. M. Miller, on Main street. From about the year 1832, he was for about ten years a stage proprietor, and for several years a dealer in horses. In 1840, he was elected a representative to the legislature, and afterward to the senate. In 1852, he commenced the banking business as an individual banker. IIe continued this business until after the passage of the national banking law, when he sold his banking house and appurtenances to James E. Reeves. Mr. Burk was married to Maria Moffitt, November 27, 1823. They had five children, of whom only one, Mary Jane, lived beyond the period of child- hood. She is the wife of Isaac II. Richards, merchant, now residing at Springfield, Missouri.
ELIJAH COFFIN, son of Bethuel and Hannah (Dicks) Coffin, was born in New Garden, Guilford Co., N. C., Nov. 17, 1798. He was married, Feb. 2, 1820, to Naomi Hiatt, and settled on
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a farm in New Garden. In 1824, he removed, with his wife and three children, to this county, near Milton, and engaged in school-keeping in that town; a business in which he had been employed at times, in his native state, before and after his marriage. In 1829, he. commenced the mercantile busi- ness at Milton, and continued it there about four years. In 1833, having received a liberal offer from Griffin & Luckey, wholesale merchants in Cincinnati, he engaged as clerk in their store, and removed to that city. He remained there about a year and a half, when the branch of the State Bank of Indiana having been located at Richmond, lie was chosen as its cashier, a position for which he had, in a great measure, been fitted by his mercantile experience ; and in November, 1834, he removed to Richmond. The branch bank com- menced business Dec. 1, 1834, and closed at the expiration of the term of its charter, Jan. 1, 1859, after a successful, pros- perous management of more than twenty-four years, during which period he was its only cashier.
At the final meeting of the board of directors, Dec. 24, 1858, the following resolution was offered by Robert Morris- son and adopted :
"It is unanimously resolved, That in consideration of the able and faithful services of Elijah Coffin, as cashier of this branch, from its first organization to its close, and the fidel- ity and promptitude with which he has discharged the various and important duties confided to his care, the board embrace the opportunity to express upon our minutes the high sense entertained of his official services and private worth."
He now gave up secular business. His religious activities, however, were unabated. His energies were thenceforth di- rected to the promotion of the interests of the church. Al- though he ever sympathized with evangelical Christians of other denominations, he was peculiarly attached to the society in which he had been trained ; and hence, to the various insti- tutions and instrumentalities of its own appointment, he con- tributed largely by his personal efforts and pecuniary means. He was at an early age clerk of the yearly meeting of Friends in North Carolina; and, in 1827, was appointed elerk of Indiana yearly meeting. Not only was he a prompt and
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faithful attendant at the various meetings in his own state, but he attended yearly meetings in many of the states. He was also a friend and patron of education, of First-day or Sabbath-schools, of associations to promote the circulation of religious tracts and the diffusion and reading of the Holy Serip- tures ; and he had, many years before his death, constituted himself a life member of the American Bible Society. He died Jan. 22, 1862. His wife died June 14, 1866, aged 68 years.
Elijah and Naomi Coffin had seven children : 1. Miriam A., who married Wm. A. Rambo, and had three children, Ed- ward B., Naomi C., and Francis II. After the death of her husband she married Hugh Maxwell. 2. Charles F., who married Rhoda M. Johnson. Their children are Elijah, Charles H., Francis A., Wm. E., and Percival. Mr. C. has been, during a great portion of his life, in the banking busi- ness in Richmond. He was one of the original proprietors of the Citizens' Bank, established in 1853, and cashier of the Richmond Branch of the "Bank of the State " during its existence ; and has been president of the Richmond National Bank from its commencement to the present time. 3. Will- iam H., who married Sarah Wilson, whose children are John W., William HI., Albert, Robert, Frank. 4. Eliphalet, who died at the age of three years. 5. Caroline E., wife of Wm. H. Ladd, Brooklyn, N. Y. 6. Mary C., wife of Eli Johnson, Chicago. 7. Hannah, who married Mordecai Morris White, merchant, in Cincinnati.
JEREMIAH Cox was born in Randolph Co., N. C .; married Margery Picket, and in 1806 removed with his family to this county, and settled where Richmond now is. His settlement here and his connection with the early history of the city, have been already noticed. His farm embraced nearly all of the present city north of Main street. He was in 1816 a member of the Convention which formed the first constitu- tion of the state. In 1826, he sold his farm to Charles W. Starr, and removed to Randolph Co., 5 miles from Winches- ter, where he resided until his death. He was married three times, and had sixteen children. By his first wife he had seven daughters and one son, Jeremiah. The eldest daughter,
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Elizabeth, married Charles Moffitt, father of Hugh Moffitt. By his second wife, Jemima Rhodes, he had a son. For his third wife he married Catharine Morrisson, sister of Robert Morrisson, and had by her six sons and one daughter. Of all the children only Jeremiah remains in the township.
DANIEL B. CRAWFORD was born in Harford Co., Md., Nov. 10, 1807, and at the age of 7, removed with his mother's family to Baltimore; and thence he came, in 1835, to Wayne township, 23 miles north of Richmond. Although he settled on a new farm, and had some experience of life in the woods, his first dwelling was a frame house, something rarely seen in a forest. In 1850, Mr. Crawford commenced the mercan- tile business in Richmond, in which he is still engaged. He was in 1849 elected a county commissioner, which office he has held, with the exception of 6 years, until the year 1870. He is a member of the Pearl Street Methodist Episcopal Church, and has at intervals been the superintendent of its Sabbath-school for more than twenty years. He was married in Baltimore to Agnes Corrie. They had 9 children : Daniel J., who married Mary, daughter of Frederick Hoover, and died on the farm, May 7, 1870. Elijah J. ; died at 5. Mary F., wife of Joseph C. Ratliff, and lives in Center township. John Y., who married Ella Mitchell, daughter of Thomas C. Mitchell, merchant, Fifth street. Sarah R., who married Frederick Cramer, of Ohio, now a merchant in Philadelphia. Charles W .; died at 5. Agnes S., who married James Will- iams, and resides on Fifth street, Richmond. Elizabeth A. W., who married J. O. Voorhies, merchant, Keokuk, Iowa. Robert ; died in infancy.
BENJAMIN W. DAVIS was born in Franklin, Warren Co., O., Sept. 3, 1815. He came to Richmond, May 4, 1834, and worked as a journeyman printer one year for Finley & Hollo- way. He then engaged to print the Richmond Palladium for John Finley, one year; and after the expiration of that term [in 1836], himself and David P. Holloway purchased the Palladium, the publication of which, under the firm of Hol- loway & Davis, has been continued to the present time. Mr. Davis was chosen city clerk, which office he held from 1848
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John Finley
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until 1859, a period of 11 years. He married Elizabeth Flem- ing, a daughter of David, son of Judge Peter Fleming.
JOHN FINLEY was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, January 11, 1797. After acquiring a knowledge of the rudi- ments of an English education at a country school, he was apprenticed to the tanner's business ; and on the completion of his term of service, he emigrated to Indiana, in 1821. Soon after his arrival in Richmond he undertook, for a term of years, the management of John Smith's tannery ; but after conducting it for a single season, he abandoned it. In 1826, he was married to Rachel HI. Knott, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, who lived but a few months after marriage. In 1830, he was married to Julia Hanson, of Indianapolis. In 1831, he as- sumed the editorial management of the Richmond Palladium, in which position he continued for three years. He was for three years a member of the state legislature, and for three years enrolling clerk of the senate. In March, 1837, he was elected clerk of the courts of Wayne county for the term of seven years. In January, 1852, he was elected mayor of the city of Richmond, and was continued in that office by annual re-elections to the time of his death, December 23, 1866. IIe was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery, east of the city, in the presence of a large concourse of citizens and members of the masonic order, and the officers of the city govern- ment. Mr. Finley had, by his first marriage, a son, William K .; by the second, Sarah A., Julia H., Mary F., and John H. Sarah A. was married to Benjamin P. Wrigley, who is deceased, and has two sons, Roy F. and Luke H. She has been for seven years, and is still, librarian of the Morrisson Library. Mary F. married Aaron W. Hibberd, and resides in Richmond. John Il. enlisted early in the late war, in the Sixteenth Indiana Regiment; was promoted to 2d lieutenant, and soon after appointed adjutant of the regiment. After the expiration of the term of his enlistment he raised, in 1862, a company for the Sixty-seventh Regiment, and was commis- sioned captain; and in 1863, was made major. While charg- ing upon the Rebel works at Vicksburg, he received a mortal wound, and died Aug. 26, 1863. He was an estimable young
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
man, and possessed of qualities which endeared him to his fellow-soldiers and companions.
WILLIAM W. FOULKE, son of Anthony Foulke, came when a boy from Pennsylvania with his father, who settled 2 miles north from Richmond. With a tolerable school education he commenced business as a blacksmith. A friend of literary and other associations, he took an active part in the discus- sions of debating clubs and in the promotion of the temper- ance cause. A few years since he was elected as a representa- tive of the county in the legislature. He has for many years been engaged in the iron and heavy hardware trade on Noble street, near the railroad depot, and resides a short distance outside and north of the city, near the oil-mill. He was mar- ried, in 1854, to Mary E., a daughter of Thomas Newman, and has two children, Elizabeth Ellen and Harriet Emma.
JONAS GAAR, son of Abram Gaar, was born in Virginia, and removed to this county with his father. In 1820, he settled in the new town of Richmond and worked many years at his trade, that of a cabinet-maker. In 1835, he joined with Achilles Williams and others in establishing a foundry and machine manufactory, which was continued two or three years. This enterprise proved a disastrous failure to those engaged in it. In 1849, in connection with his sons Abram and John M., and Wm. G. Scott, a son-in-law, he bought of Jesse M. and John HI. Hutton their Thresher Manufactory, which has grown to the extensive establishment known as the "Spring Foundry," but at present styled " Garr Machine Works." [See Richmond Manufactures.] This firm has been continued without change of name until the present time. Jonas Garr was born Feb. 1, 1792, in Madison Co., Va., and was married, Nov. 12, 1818, to Sarah Watson, who was born May 2, 1793. They had eight children, all born in Wayne county. 1. Abram, who was born Nov. 14, 1819, and was married March 26, 1851, to Agnes Adams, who was born May 2, 1831. 2. Malinda, born Nov. 11, 1821 ; married June 3, 1847, to Wm. G. Scott, who was born in Rockingham Co., Va., Nov. 17, 1824. Malinda died April 6, 1848. 3. John Milton, born May 26, 1823; married Jan. 20, 1848, to Hannah Ann Rattray, who died June 6, 1849. He married, a second
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time, Sept. 16, 1856, Helen M. Rattray, born March 2, 1840. 4. Samuel Watson, born Oct. 22, 1824; married, Oct. 19, 1865, Mrs. Elizabeth Townsend, born Dec. 6, 1832, in Preble Co., O. 5. Fielding, born Jan. 21, 1827; married, Nov. 30, 1865, Mary J. Gallagher, born at Michigan City, March 1, 1847. 6. Emeline, born June 16, 1829; married, June 13, 1854, Horatio N. Lamb, born at Cooperstown, N. Y., June 14, 1832. 7. Elizabeth, born July 27, 1831; mar- ried, March 27, 1851, Thomas Campbell, born in Center Co., Penn., Jan. 13, 1817. 8. Fannie Ann, born Oct. 5, 1833 ; married, March 19, 1857, Oliver Jones, born in Richmond, Oct. 6, 1832. Sarah, wife of Jonas Gaar, died Nov. 8, 1863.
It is somewhat remarkable that of the eight children of Jonas Garr, all are living in Richmond, except Malinda, de- ceased, and that none of them has ever lived out of the county. And further, that Abraham Gaar, father of Jonas, also had eight children, all of whom but one are still living.
[In the sketch of the family of Abraham Gaar, in Boston, his daughter Rosa, widow Ingels, is said to reside with her son at Milton. She still resides in Fayette Co., where her husband died.]
JASON HAM was born n North Carolina, April 8, 1811, and came to Richmond in 1819, with his father, Hezekiah Ham, who hired, for one year, the farm of Jeremiah Cox; then bought the farm now or lately owned by Charles Price, two miles south of Richmond. After about ten years he sold this farm to Alexander Grimes, and bought of Thomas Cuppy, in the township of Boston, the farm now owned by Joseph M. and Wm. Bulla, where he died, Oct. 10, 1832, aged nearly 64 years, having been born Nov. 15, 1768. Jason, then about 19 years of age, took charge of the farm, and taught school in the winter. In 1840, he was appointed col- lector of the taxes for that year. In 1841, he was elected county treasurer for three years, and removed to Centerville. After the expiration of his term of office, he went into the mercantile business at Centerville, and continued in it until 1850, having during this time taken the contracts for building the offices of the county clerk, treasurer, auditor, and recorder, and of the county poor-house. In 1850, he removed
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to Richmond, and commenced trade on the corner of Main and Pearl streets, where the post-office now is, where he continued in business most of the time for about ten years, having become owner of the property, since known as Ham's corner, of which he is still the owner. In 1860, he opened a store at Indianapolis ; and on the breaking out of the war, sold out and returned to Richmond. Shortly after he was appointed by Gov. Morton military agent for the state of In- diana, at Louisville, Ky., which office he held until the war closed. In 1845, he married Elizabeth Woods, sister of Rev. Le Roy Woods. They have a son, Benjamin F. HIam, a law- yer, at Little Rock, Arkansas.
ELEAZAR HIATT Was born in Guilford Co., N. C., February 10, 1783. He removed from Carolina about the year 1815, and after a residence of a few years in Ohio came to Rich- mond in the winter of 1818-19, and established a pottery, the first, probably, in the county. He was an early justice of the peace, and in 1825 a member of the legislature. After a residence of several years east of Richmond, he removed to Newport, and engaged in the mercantile busines, about the year 1828. (?) About 1838, he removed to a farm he had bought near Washington, in Clay township; thence to Ches- ter. He married, for his first wife, Anna Williams, from N. C. Their children were : 1. Eliza, who married Jesse Rey- nolds, who died of a cancer on the tongue. She married, sec- ond, Samuel Hadley, and lives in Morganville, Ind. 2. Jesse, formerly merchant in Milton, now in Dublin. [See sketch, Washington township.] 3. Daniel W., son of Eleazar lliatt, married, first, Melinda Mendenhall, and lives in Perry; second, Gulielma Sanders, of Ohio. 4. Anna Maria, who married Isaac Votaw, of New Garden.
JAMES FARQUHAR HIBBERD, M. D., was born in Frederick Co., Md., Nov. 4, 1816, and removed with his parents to Spring- boro', Warren Co., O., in 1825; but, in 1826, recrossed the Alleghanies, and lived with the family of his unele, Aaron Hibberd, near Martinsburg, Va. Here he remained until 1837, when he returned to Springboro' and studied medicine with Dr. A. Wright. In the winter of 1839-40 he attended the medical department of Yale College, and began the
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practice of medicine in Salem, Montgomery Co., O., in the summer of 1840. Dr. Hibberd was a member of the legisla- ture of Ohio for the sessions of 1845-6 and 1846-7. The winter of 1848-9 was spent in New York city, where he graduated in the spring of 1849, and immediately accepted the surgeoncy of the steamer Senator, which went to Cali- fornia in a voyage of seven and a half months, touching at the principal South American ports on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He traveled largely over California, and re- turned to the " States" in 1855, having meanwhile made a short visit there in 1853. After a few months in Dayton, O., he settled in the practice of his profession in Richmond, In- diana, in October, 1856, and has there continued since. In 1860, he was appointed Professor of Physiology and General Pathology in the Medical College of Ohio, in Cincinnati, but resigned after one session's service. In the spring of 1869, Dr. II. visited New Orleans, and went thence to New York, where he embarked for the Old World, and spent a year in traveling over Europe, Asia Minor, Palestine, Egypt, &c. In the spring of 1871, he again made a trip to California, visiting most of the noted national wonders of that interesting state. Dr. II. is, and has long been, an active member of the county, state, and national medical societies.
DAVID P. HOLLOWAY was born at Waynesville, O., December 6, 1809. In 1813, his father removed with his family to Cin- cinnati, where they resided until 1823, when they came to Wayne township, and settled on the farm now owned by John S. Brown, four miles east from Richmond. Two or three years after, Mr. Holloway removed to Richmond and engaged in the mercantile business. Here his son, David P., at the age of about fifteen, commenced his apprenticeship at the printer's trade with Edmund S. Buxton, publisher of the Public Ledger, and afterward served in the Gazette office at Cincinnati. His connection with the newspaper press com- menced about the year 1833, as conductor of the Richmond Palladium, with which his name has since been connected, with perhaps a brief interval of one or two years, until the present time, though his business has, for the last ten years, been in the city of Washington. In 1843, he was elected as
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
a representative in the state legislature, and the next year as senator, which office he held for six years. In 1849, he was appointed by President Taylor examiner of land offices. In 1854, he was elected a representative in Congress; and in 1861, he was appointed by President Lincoln commissioner of patents, which office he resigned in 1865. Though not a practical farmer, he has done much for the improvement of agriculture by personal efforts, both in the county and in the state legislature. [Sce Agricultural Societies, pages 111-12.] He is now a partner of the firm of Holloway, Mason & Blan- chard, attorneys in patent cases, in Washington. Mr. IIol- loway was married, Nov. 13, 1834, to Jane Ann Paulson, who died Dec. 8, 1864, aged 52 years. Their children were John Marshall, who married Rebecca Gossage, and resides at In- dianapolis; William R., who married Eliza Burbank, and is postmaster at Indianapolis ; Dayton, who died in 1858; Henry Clay, who married Emma Jones, and resides at Indianapolis; Allen T .; Charles P .; Sarah; and Mary Ann.
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