USA > Indiana > Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood, Volume V > Part 63
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business houses closed for two hours. He was a useful citizen and richly deserved all honors paid his name and memory. He was a republican during his earlier years of American citizenship but finally became a democrat. His widow is still living at Eagle and is a member of the Episcopal Church. Edward Bossingham for many years served as tyler of his Masonic lodge and was also treasurer of the Order of Woodmen.
John Edward Bossingham, the only child of his parents, was six years old when brought to America, and he acquired his early education in the schools of a Wis- cousin village. At the age of sixteen he went to work for himself as clerk in a hardware store at Eagle. Afterward he spent some time at Algona, Iowa, and later for ten years was at Wauwatosa, a suburb of Milwaukee. There he was associated with J. C. Bump, under the firm name of Bump & Bossingham. In 1900 Mr. Bos- singham moved to Milwaukee, was with the Milwaukee Boiler Works, and the follow- ing year went to Oswego, New York, where he became connected with the Oil Well Supply Company. He left there to accept a position at New Haven, Connecticut, in connection with the Bigelow Company, and had the responsibility of laying out and planning the work of their boiler fac- tory. Again coming westward, Mr. Bos- singham located at Mansfield, Ohio, and for a time was connected with the boiler works of the Altman-Taylor Company. He spent two years in Toledo with the Toledo Boiler Works, and in 1907 became superin- tendent of the Canton Boiler & Engineer- ing Company at Canton, Ohio.
Mr. Bossingham has been a resident of Indianapolis since 1913. He came here to take the general management of the Na- tional Boiler & Sheet Iron Works, and in 1916 he bought a portion of the equipment of this company and organized the Indiana Tank & Boiler Works, of which he is the active head.
Mr. Bossingham is a member of Oriental Lodge No. 500, Free and Accepted Masons, and is a Woodman of the World. He has been a Mason thirty years and a Woodman twenty years. In 1889 he married Cather- ine M. LeBarre, danghter of Dwight Le- Barre. They have two sons. Ralph, the older, is secretary of the Indiana Tank & Boiler Company. Harold is now with the
National Army, having enlisted in Com- pany C of the First Indiana Cavalry, but is now a member of the One Hundred and Thirteenth Supply Train. He is at pre- sent in France.
JOHN STARR is one of the oldest business men of Richmond, and has been identified with the coal trade there for over forty years. He is now senior partner in the firm of Starr & Woodhurst, wholesale and retail coal merchants and shippers.
Mr. Starr was born on a farm near Rich- mond September 27, 1856, and represents one of the early Quaker families of Wayne County. His grandparents were John and Mary (Willitts) Starr, both natives of Berks County, Pennsylvania. In 1819 the family moved to Preble County, Ohio, and in 1832 moved to Wayne Township of Wayne County. John Starr was well known as an early farmer and business man of that section, and he and his wife were devout members of the Society of Friends.
Jesse Starr, father of the Richmond coal merchant, was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, March 24, 1816, and he fin- ished his education in the Richmond High School. He acquired his father's farm and for many years was a well known citizen of the county. He married Sarah M. Mathews, of a family that came to Wayne County in 1834.
John Starr was fifth in a family of nine children. He attended the district schools, the Richmond Business College, and for two years was bookkeeper for the firm of Matthews, Winder & Company, mannfac- turers of linseed oil. Then for nine years Mr. Starr cultivated a farm three miles north of Richmond, and in 1878 entered the coal business with E. K. Shera under the firm name of Shera & Starr. Their vards and plant were located on Fort Wayne Avenue not far from the present quarters of Starr & Woodhurst. After nine years Mr. Starr bought his partner's interest and continued the business snc- cessfully alone until 1916, when John Woodhurst bought a half interest. Mr. Starr is also owner of some valuable real estate in Richmond. In 1902 he married Ida M. Ford and they have one daughter, Alice Starr, born in 1903. Mr. Starr is a republican, is affiliated with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a
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member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church.
GEORGE K. DENTON, who appreciates the honor and distinction conferred upon him by the First Indiana District in represent- ing it in the Sixty-Fifth Congress, has rounded out a quarter of a century of suc- cessful law practice at Evansville.
He was born in Webster County, Ken- tucky, on a farm, November 17, 1864, son of George M. and Emma (Kirkpatrick) Denton. His grandfather, Rev. John Den- ton, a native of Tennessee, was a Metho- dist minister, but after moving to Bran- denburg, Kentucky, engaged in merchan- dising. He married Sally Partridge, who was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Vir- ginia, where her father was a planter and slave owner. George M. Denton was born in Meade County, Kentucky, in 1832, and for many years was a farmer in Webster County, where he died in March, 1918. His wife, mother of the ex-congressman, was born at Washington, Ohio, daughter of James and Eliza (Marsh) Kirkpatrick. The former, a native of Ireland but of Scotch ancestry, settled in Ohio. Mrs. George M. Denton died in 1893, the mother of four children.
George K. Denton was prepared for col- lege by private tutors, and graduated Ą. B. from the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1891. He then entered Boston University law school, graduating valedictorian of his class in 1893. The following year he began practice at Evansville, and soon achieved standing among the first of his profession. He was elected to Congress on the demo- cratic ticket in 1916, taking his seat at the beginning of the war with Germany and serving until March, 1919. He is general counsel and director of the Intermediate Life Insurance Company, and represents many other important interests. He is a. Methodist, a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon and of the Rotary Club. Decem- ber 16, 1895, he married Sara L. Chick, danghter of Winfield Scott and Mary Chick. She graduated from Boston Uni- versity with the A. B. degree in 1895. They have two children. Winfield K. and Helen M. The son left his studies in De- Pauw University in 1917 to enter the avia- tion service and was in overseas duty for eight months. He received his honorable discharge in February, 1919, and then re- Vol. V-23
sumed his work at DePauw. The daughter Helen is a student at Goucher Seminary, Baltimore, Maryland.
ALBERT N. CRECRAFT is one of the promi- nent editors and newspaper men of In- diana, and for over a quarter of a century has published the Franklin Democrat at Franklin. Besides conducting a paper of recognized leadership in the democratic party and one of the best organs of public opinion in this section of the state, Mr. Crecraft has to his credit some years of active teaching, and is a member of a fam- ily long and prominently known both in this state and in Ohio.
Mr. Crecraft was born at Reily, Butler County, Ohio, December 3, 1859, son of Albert John and Evelina ( Ross) Crecraft. His great-grandfather Crecraft was a na- tive of England, and on coming to America settled in Maryland, where he died at an advanced age. Grandfather Benoni Cre- craft was born in Maryland and became an early settler in Ohio. In 1808, when all Ohio and the country to the west was vir- tually an unbroken wilderness, he took up government land in Butler County and for many years was a practical farmer and also an educator in that county. He died at the advanced age of eighty-five.
Benoni Crecraft married Asenath John. Her brothers, Enoch D. John and Robert John, became early pioneer settlers at Brookville, Indiana. The John family were originally from Wales and on coming to America settled at Philadelphia. Enoch D. John married Lavina Noble, a sister of James and Noah Noble, mentioned later on in this article as relatives of Mrs. Albert N. Crecraft. Robert John was the father of John Price Durbin John, an eminent In- diana educator, and a cousin of Albert Crecraft. Professor John is a resident of Greencastle, Indiana, began teaching in the public schools of Franklin County before the war, and for a number of years was connected with the faculty and from 1889 to 1899 was president of DePauw Univer- sity. For the last twenty years he has been active on the lecture platform and is also author of several public works.
Albert John Crecraft was born in Ohio, was a teacher a number of years and later was engaged in farming in Butler County, where he died at the age of sixty-one. He married Evelina Ross, a native of Ohio and
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daughter of James Ross, of the same state. The Ross family came from New Jersey. James Ross was a contractor and built the old dormitory of Miami University at Ox- ford, Ohio. He died at Oxford, and was the father of two children, Evelina and William Ross. Mrs. Albert J. Crecraft died in 1877, as the result of an accident caused by a run away horse, and at the age of fifty-one. She and her husband were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They had ten children, six sons and four daughters, seven still living: Miss Laura C., of Hamilton, Ohio; Asenath, wife of Clarence B. Morris, of Middleton, Ohio; John H., of Hamilton, Ohio; Albert N .; Luella, wife of Irenus Velson, of Ham- ilton ; William H., of Hamilton; and Arthur L., of Oxford, Ohio.
Albert N. Crecraft lived in Butler County, Ohio, until he was nineteen years of age. His early education was derived from the district schools of his native lo- cality. He took a scientific course in the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1878. When only sixteen years old Mr. Crecraft had his first experience in a profession that seems to belong to the family, teaching for one term before entering the university at Lebanon. He then taught another year, and for one year was a student in Prince- ton College in New Jersey. After that he taught at Mount Carmel, Indiana, at Fair- field and at Brookville and was principal of schools four years. For six years Mr. Crecraft was county superintendent of schools for Franklin County, and during three years of that time was a member of the State Teachers Reading Circle Board and the Young People's Reading Circle Board.
While county superintendent he bought the Brookville Democrat, of which he was owner two years. On January 1, 1892, he became editor and publisher of the Frank- lin Democrat. Mr. Crecraft personally has been a democratic voter since he came to his majority, and has always conducted his paper on party lines. On account of his wise judgment and intelligent grasp of af- fairs the Franklin Democrat has a wide circulation and influence. Its editorials are accepted as being the opinions of the local leaders of the democratic party, and outside of politics the progressive policy of
this journal had gained popularity with all classes.
Mr. Crecraft and wife are active mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Crecraft is the only woman serving on the Johnson County Council of Defense.
May 31, 1883, Mr. Creeraft married Miss Mary Luella Tyner. They have three chil- dren : Earle Willis, Albert Tyner and Rich- ard Tyner. Albert T. died in infancy. Earle Willis graduated from Franklin Col- lege with the class of 1907.
Mrs. Crecraft represents in her ancestry a number of noted names in the life and affairs of Indiana and the Middle West. She is a daughter of Richard Henry and Anna (Miller) Tyner. Both were natives of Franklin County, Indiana. They had just two children, and Mrs. Crecraft's sis- ter, Rose Willis, is the wife of Arthur A. Alexander, of Franklin.
Richard Henry Tyner, her father, was horn at Brookville, Indiana, September 2, 1831, one of the twelve children of Richard and Martha Sedgwick Willis Swift (Noble) Tyner. Richard Tyner was from South Carolina, was a pioneer Baptist minister in Indiana, and built one of the first churches erected in the state, south of Brookville, in the year 1812. This old house of worship is still standing. Rev. Richard Tyner mar- ried Elizabeth Hackleman, an aunt of Gen- eral Pleasant A. Hackleman.
Richard Tyner, Jr., son of Rev. Richard, was an early settler of Brookville, bore an important part in the business life of that community and had a large general mer- chandise store. He afterward moved to Davenport, Iowa. His wife was a member of the Noble family which came out of Vir- ginia to Kentucky and thence to Indiana. Martha Noble was the daughter of Dr. Thomas Noble. a surgeon in the Revolu- tionary war who was related to Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, hence the name Richard Henry Tyner. She was also sis- ter of James and Noah Noble. Noah Noble was one of the first governors of Indiana, while James Noble was one of the first United States senators, serving from 1816 to 1831, and dying in Washington. The ivory headed cane which James Noble car- ried while a senator is now in the possession of Mr. and Mrs. Crecraft. Both James and Noah Noble were men of the highest char- arter and ability and of national repu- tation.
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Richard Henry Tyner, father of Mrs. Crecraft, never held any public office but was always active in business and in poli- ties. He was a delegate to the first republi- can state convention in Indiana, and as- sisted materially in organizing that party in the state. In early life he was employed by a Cincinnati banking association to travel over Indiana when wild cat banking was at its climax. His work was that of in- spector or examiner, and as there were few railroads in the state he traveled for the most part on horseback over roads through swamps and heavy timber. His duties re- quired him to visit almost every part of the state.
James Noble Tyner, an uncle of Mrs. Crecraft, was a congressman from the Peru District in Indiana several terms, was as- sistant postmaster general under President Grant, and in the latter part of that ad- ministration became postmaster general. Still later he served as an assistant post- master general and for a time was attor- ney general until shortly before his death. Another brother of Richard Henry Tyner, and an uncle of Mrs. Crecraft, was Gen. Noah Noble Tyner, a brave soldier in the Civil war. Still another brother was George N. Tyner, of Holyoke, Massachu- setts, who was connected with the Holyoke Paper Mills, an envelope manufacturing business, and in 1900-01 was a member of the State Senate of Massachusetts. Thus many members of the Tyner family have gained high places of influence in the life of the country.
The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Cre- craft was Albert Miller, who was born in Indiana and when a child was brought by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Miller, to Franklin County. Later he became active as a stock dealer and also conducted a general store at Fairfield, Indiana, in partnership with R. H. Tyner. He died at Fairfield at the age of eighty-three. He also served as a member of the State Leg- islature of Indiana. Albert Miller was twice married and had a large family who grew to maturity.
THOMAS EARLE JARRARD, who is vice president of the Apperson Bros. Automo- bile Company of Kokomo, is too young a man to have completed the seven ages of mortal life, though his active career natur- ally falls into seven stages.
He is a native of Michigan, was educated at Lansing and for a time earned his living as reporter with the Lansing State Repub- lican. His next change of occupation was foreman of a yard gang in the Lansing Wheelbarrow Works. The third stage was as chemist of the Beet Sugar Division of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, and following that he was Meteorologist with the Michigan State Board of Health.
The fifth place brought him into the automobile industry, where he is today one of the prominent figures. He was assistant to the secretary-treasurer of the Reo Motor Car Company at Lansing, and was next promoted to salesman for that company. The seventh, and last place, was his present and congenial and useful work as vice presi- dent and director of the Apperson Bros. Automobile Company at Kokomo.
Mr. Jarrard was born at Pontiac, Mich- igan, October 23, 1883, son of William Ells- worth and Marguerite (McGinnis) Jarrard. His father was a graduate of Rutgers College. Thomas E. Jarrard attended high school at Lansing, and also the Michigan Agricultural College. While in his native state he also had some military experience. For one year he was first sergeant and for two years second lieutenant of Battery A of the Michigan Field Artillery. He was also treasurer of the Michigan State League of Republican Clubs. He is a Knights Templar Mason and Shriner and an Elk, a member of the Alpha Omega Preparatory School Fraternity, the Koko- mo Country Club and the First Congrega- tional Church.
June 6, 1914, at Chicago Mr. Jarrard married Therese Marie Keck, daughter of W. S. Keck, a member of one of the oldest families of Chicago.
ARTHUR B. IRVIN, president of the Farmers Trust Company of Rushville, was for many years a successful lawyer of that city, and has acquired numerous interests that identify him prominently with the community. He is the present mayor of Rushville.
Mr. Irvin was born in Rush County, Indiana, July 14, 1850, son of Newton and Phoebe (McCrory) Irvin. His grandfather, Elam Irvin, came from Ohio to Rush County in 1835, and spent the rest of his life as a farmer. He lived on the same farm until his death. He was an exem-
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plary pioneer, honorable and upright in all his dealings, and won the confidence of the entire community in which he lived. He was a devont Presbyterian. Newton Irvin, who was born in Ohio in 1827, was eight years old when brought to Indiana, was the third of five children. He had the privilege of attending common schools only fourteen weeks, and after that applied him- self to the business of farming. In 1880 he retired from the active responsibilities of his farm, and moved to Florida, where he died in 1898. He was a whig and later a republican, and was loyal to the prin- ciples of that party for many years. His wife was a member of the MeCrory family which came from Ireland, first lo- cating at Philadelphia, and afterwards moving to Fayette County, Indiana, where the MeCrorys were prominent early set- tlers, and also flatboatmen on the Ohio River. Mr. Irvin's maternal grandfather helped construet the main road between Rushville and Connersville.
Arthur B. Irvin was the oldest of three children. He received his early education in the district schools, afterwards read law and was admitted to the bar in 1871, at the age of twenty-one. He at once opened his office in the city of Rushville and was a successful member of the bar there nineteen years. He served as city attorney from 1883 to 1891. In 1891 he organized the Farmers Banking Company, of which he was cashier. When this bank was reor- ganized in 1910 as the Farmers Trust Com- pany, Mr. Irvin became its president and has associated with him some of the best known business and professional men in Rush County. The bank enjoys a high degree of prosperity, and has total re- sources of over $200.000.
Mr. Irvin was elected and has served as mayor of Rushville since 1917, and has given a very progressive and efficient ad- ministration of municipal affairs. He is financially interested in a number of busi- ness enterprises, being the president of the Rushville Glove Company and secretary of the Building Association No. 10.
On September 6, 1877, in Rush County, he married Miss Johanna Scanlan, a daugh- ter of Thomas Scanlan. They have one daughter, Effie M., now Mrs. D. L. Keiser of St. Louis, Missouri.
JOHN C. SPOONER was born in Lawrence- burg, Indiana, January 6, 1843. During the Civil war he served as a member of a Wisconsin regiment, to which state the fam- ily had previously removed, and during the war he was breveted a major. In 1867 Mr. Spooner was admitted to the bar, and was in general practice at Madison from 1870 to 1884. From 1885 until 1891 he was a United States senator, was a candidate for governor of Wisconsin in 1892, and he was tendered many high official positions.
DAVID C. ARTHUR. Twenty years a law- ver and in successful practice at Logans- port, David C. Arthur is just now at the peak of performance and power as one of the most useful citizens of his community. Life has brought him experience, and he has done well in utilizing the accumulated wisdom of a purposeful and energetic career.
He was born in Darke County, Ohio, February 25, 1862, one of the ten children of Abner and Mary (Bowman) Arthur. When he was five years of age, in 1867, his parents removed to Randolph County, Indiana, and on their farm David C. Arthur grew toward manhood. He had about the average opportunities of an In- diana farm boy, with neither wealth nor dire poverty. He was not content with the advantages of the "poor man's uni- versity," the district schools, and when it came to a question of attending a school away from home he was confronted with the question of earning a living at the same time. Living and tuition came from farm work, and other hand labor, and later, as he became qualified, from teach- ing. He attended the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, and for two terms was a student in the Indiana State University. Teaching experience brought him to Logansport in 1894 as principal of the high school. During the five years he was in that office he studied law with Kistler & Kistler, was admitted to the bar in 1899, and has since been in an independ- ent and a growing practice and patronage. For two years he was an associate in prac- tice with John M. Ashby, and in 1909 formed the partnership of Fickle & Arthur, the senior member being D. D. Fickle. This partnership was dissolved in 1915, and the firm was then Arthur & Custer,
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but is now changed to Arthur & Arthur on the admission of Mr. Arthur's son.
Mr. Arthur was elected a member of the Logansport City School Board in 1910, and became secretary of the board. He is a democrat in politics, a member of vari- ous organizations, and for many years was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. December 25, 1894, Mr. Arthur married Miss Ellen Jameson, of Lebanon, Ohio. They have two children, Mary and Robert. The daughter is at present a student in Defiance College. Robert J., born Feb- ruary 17, 1899, graduated from the Logans- port High School in the 1915 class, at the age of sixteen. He worked in his father's office one year as stenographer and clerk, served six months as department clerk in the Cass Circuit Court, his duties being those of reading and record clerk, and he graduated in law in 1918, with the B. L. degree from Valparaiso University. He was admitted to the bar immediately there- after on examination, the order of admis- sion to take effect February 17, 1920, at which time he will be twenty-one years of age. Beginning January 1, 1919, he en- tered the firm now known as Arthur & Arthur, father and son composing the firm. Their offices will remain in the old location, the Winfield Building, at 400 Broadway. His experience and work already accom- plished permit a fine and creditable review.
HARRY W. WATT. One of the oldest mercantile enterprises in Eastern Indiana is the George H. Knollenberg Company of Richmond, and one of the officials longest identified with its service is Harry W. Watt, secretary of the company, who went to work for the store more than forty years ago as sales clerk.
He was born at Richmond, June 24, 1855, son of Mr. and Mrs. N. L. C. Watt, and is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His great- grandfather, who came from the north of Ireland and settled near Greensburg, Penn- sylvania, was a hatter by trade, and that was also the occupation of the grandfather, William Watt, who made his own hats and sold them at Brownsville in Union County, Indiana.
Harry W. Watt after attending the pub- lie schools of Richmond to the age of six- teen was put on the payroll and given an opportunity to learn merchandising with
A. E. Crocker in the wholesale and retail notion business. He gained some very val- uable knowledge during the four years spent with the Crocker establishment, and from it he entered the service of what was then, in 1877, called the George Knollen- berg store. When that business was or- ganized as a stock company in 1892 Mr. Watt was one of those financially inter- ested, and in 1904 he was made secretary of the corporation. Forty-two years with one house is nearly a record among the business men of Richmond. He is still active on the floor as well as in the offices of the company, and is manager of the hosiery, underwear and glove department.
Mr. Watt has never married. He is a democrat in politics, a member of the Ma- sonic fraternity, Blue Lodge, Chapter, Council and Richmond Commandery, Knights Templar No. 8, and is a member of the Commercial Club.
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