USA > Indiana > Daviess County > Living leaders, an encyclopedia of biography : special edition for Daviess and Martin counties, Indiana > Part 22
USA > Indiana > Martin County > Living leaders, an encyclopedia of biography : special edition for Daviess and Martin counties, Indiana > Part 22
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There has been no day in Mr. Jepson's life that he has not been a Republican. His first vote was cast for John C. Freemont for President, and he has voted at every Presi- dential election sinee. His connection with the municipal affairs of Washington began in 1876, when he was elected to the Coun- eil and served four years. He was Seere- tary of the Board of City Commissioners for three years, and was Secretary of the School Board two years and its Treasurer one year. In these capacities he displayed unusual judgment and foresight, exercised his authority with perfeet fairness and cor- diality, and from the necessities of the ease much of the corporation and school busi-
ness was transaeted by him. He has ever and always had the welfare of his eity uppermost, and, in his loyalty to her institu- tion is the peer of any man. He was made chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means at the most eritieal time, when the negotiations between the O. & M. Ry. Co. and the city were pending with a proba- bility of their failure, and succeeded in rais- ing the balance of the money necessary to bring the shops to Washington.
Mr. Jepson has repeatedly been solicited by his friends to allow them to use his name in connection with the office of Mayor of this city, but knowing that the duties of the office would necessarily divorce him from his business, he has declined. He is now representing the First Ward in the Council and holds the important ehairman- ship of the Committee on Public Schools.
February 5, 1863, Mr. Jepson was mar- ried in Newport, Kv., to Elizabeth M., a daughter of the late Capt. Samuel Black, a prominent boat captain on the Ohio river. He was a Pennsylvanian and married Bar- bara Hardin, who died at Steubenville in 1860, being the mother of eleven ehildren. The Captain died in Louisville in 1890.
Mr. and Mrs. Jepson are the parents of : John, who is traveling for a Newark, N. J. jewelry house on the Pacific Coast ; Lney, wife of F. L. Cadon, electrician for the Washington Street Railway, and Jessie.
Mr. Jepson is a member of only one fraternity, that of the Knights of Pythias. His associations are very largely with ehureh work. He has been a Deaeon in the Presbyterian Church for twenty-five years, and has been Sabbath School Super- intendent fully as long.
THOMAS J. AXTELL, the managing head of both the gas and water plants of Wash- ington, and for nearly a quarter of a cen- tury a prominent merchant of this eity, first became identified with the business in- terests of Washington in the year 1859, at which time he brought in a stoek of goods as agent for a firm at New Albany, Ind. Although young, he had had mueh experi- ence behind the counter, and had only re- tired from a business of his own a few months previous to make a trip through the South and to Texas for the purpose of gratifying a desire to see and know that country for himself. Prior to this he had seen nothing of the world. He had gone
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from the student's desk into the store at an early age, and as he grew older was con- fined the closer, first as clerk and then as proprietor, until he grew tired of business and became seized with a desire to find new scenes and meet with new experiences. The trip South followed and was concluded some six months later, when he landed at New Albany and found the situation which brought him to this city. He remained here till the first year of the war, when he went to Cincinnati and secured employ- ment with a drug house as traveling sales- man, with his territory limited by the boun- daries of the United States only. The last three years of his five he was general agent of his firm. A. L. Scoville & Co. The life of a commercial traveler then was not the rosy, band-box affair that it is now. There was only an occasional railroad then, con- sequently the real business was done with the horse. But there was plenty of busi- ness then, and men made even more money than they do now.
During his career as a drummer Mr. Axtell had married a Washington lady, and when he left the road in 1866 he re- turned to this point and engaged in the dry goods business as a member of the firm of Myers & Axtell. The firm was prosper- ous and popular and did business in the Masonie block for twenty-two and a half years, when their stock was destroyed by fire.
The year following this disaster Mr. Ax- tell purchased an interest in the Washing- ton gas plant and was made its manager. Four years later, in 1895, he assumed the superintendency of the Washington water works and completed the first year of his service the first day of this (December) month.
Mr. Axtell was born in Washington County, Pa., December 3, 1835. About the year 1840 his father moved to Blandens- burg, Ohio, and a few years later to Mt. Vernon, in both of which places he was a merehant. It was in these two old towns that our subject was schooled in books and trained in business.
The Axtells are an old American family. They settled in the Keystone state many generations ago and were probably there be- fore Washington's army fought at Brandy- wine or camped at Valley Forge. Thomas Axtell, the father of our subject, was born
in Washington County that state more than ninety years ago. His wife, nee Mary Weir, was also born there. The former died in Green County, Ind., and the latter died in this city in 188 -. The children of this union were : George, a retired farmer of Bloom- field, Ind .; Dr. A. J., of Bloomington, Ind .; and Thomas J. The last mentioned was mar- ried November 16, 1863, to Edna Rodarmel, a daughter of Samuel A. Rodarmel, once postmaster of Washington, and of a pioneer family to this county.
There have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Axtell three children : Dr. Edwin B. of Denver, Col., who finished his medical cdu- cation at the Cineinnati Medieal College, located in Denver and is married to Miss Grace Coffin ; Frank F: who is a graduate of the State University of Indiana, is now a civil engineer with the U. S. Miss. Com- mission ; and Miss Ella Axtell. All are graduates of the Washington High School.
In politics Mr. Axtell is a Republican. He has served his city as couneilman and as school trustee ; being president of the board of education one term and its treas- urer one term. In his public service he displayed exceptional foresight and judg- ment. His large experience in business made him familiar with the needs of a cor- poration like Washington and his efforts were directed toward securing that legisla- tion which would have the most salutary effect upon it and its institutions.
As a business man Mr. Axtell is careful, progressive and thorongh. He was poor when he came to Washington, and whatever of this world's resources he now possesses, have come through years of industry and frugality. During his thirty years of resi- dence in Washington he has gone in and out among the people enjoying the utmost confidence and the highest respect of them all. His life has been of even tenor with few turns, rough corners or angles. He is interested in whatever will advance Wash- ington or her people and gives with liber- ality to whatever merits public support.
His influence is not only felt in secular matters but in church matters as well. He is an active member of the Presbyterian Church and is an officer in that body. The church is indebted to him no little for its material and spiritual status in Washington, and his example is an inspiration to the youth to better deeds and parer thoughts.
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Mr. Axtell is a Knight Templar.
ARNOLD J. PADGETT, SR., member of the prominent law firm of Padgett & Pad- gett, of Washington, Daviess County, has been identified with the bar of this county for the past nineteen years, and has dis- played that ability as a successful practi- tioner that associates him with the leading lawyers of Southern Indiana. He was born in this, Daviess County, Ind., October 28, 1855. He was a farmer's son, and all his early training was of the rural sort. Dur- ing his eighteenth year he came to Wash- ington and was a student in the public schools till his graduation in 1875. He had decided on the law as his life-work, and enrolled as a student in the law de- partment at the State University, graduat- ing from there early in 1877. He entered at once into the practice and soon formed a partnership with the Hon. W. D. Bynum, ex-Congressman, which was terminated in three years by the removal of Mr. Bynum to Indianapolis. In 1880 he was appointed Deputy Proseentor for this district, and two years later he was elected to that office by the Democrats. So well did be transact the business of the office during all of his connection with it that when his first term expired he was re-elected and gave to Daviess and Knox Counties, then compos- ing the district, an administration unex- celled by any incumbent of that office.
For the past ten years Mr. Padgett has, politically, been a private citizen. His professional duties have required much of his time, and when not taken up with those he has busied himself with questions per- taining to good government and good eiti- zenship. From his first vote down to 1894 he espoused the cause of Democracy, but at that time he felt that that party was de- parting from its time-honored tenets and elinging to doctrines that were inimical to the interests of the common people, and he took up his political residence in the Peo- ple's party. He was a delegate to the Peo- ple's Party National Convention at St. Louis, was Chairman of the Indiana delega- tion, and in that convention labored for a union of the " Silver Forces " for Bryan. He is a member of the People's party State Central Committee of Indiana, and aided materially in bringing about fusion on the Presidential question in 1896. He engaged in the work of the campaign,
speaking in the counties of his Congres- sional District, and was a factor in produc- ing the majority that this district rolled up for the fusion ticket.
Mr. Padgett is a son of W. B. Padgett, a gentleman of Kentucky birth He mar- ried Minerva, a daughter of Wm. Seal, and our subject is the seventh of twelve chil- dren. The paternal grandfather of our subject was Charles Padgett, a farmer, born in Maryland in 1797, and died in Wash- ington, Ind., in 1893.
October 28, 1878, Mr. Padgett married Glen, a daughter of James Cosby, a promi- nent retired resident of Washington, and born in Kentucky.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Padgett are David H. and Arna V.
SAMUEL BROWN BOYD, editor and pro- prietor of the Daily and Weekly Democrat, was born in Yorkville, Dearborn County, Ind., March 14, 1858, being a son of John and Elizabeth (Miller) Boyd, who were natives of Ireland and Ohio, respectively. The family numbered nine children, five of whom are living - Annie M. Boyd, teacher ; Mrs. John S. Goshorn, Mrs. Edward John- son and the subject of this sketch, S. B. Boyd, all of Daviess County, Ind .; and Henry M. Boyd, contractor, San Antonio, Texas. The parents are dead. The father came to this country from Ireland in 1827. Shortly afterward he settled in Dearborn County, where he resided until 1871. He was a farmer by occupation, but served as township trustee and county sheriff re- speetively in that county in the '50's. The mother was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, in 1818 ; when six years of age she with her parents removed to Delaware, their early home, whenee they came, where she resided until her marriage to John Boyd, when she came with him to Dearborn County. This was their home until 1871, when they with their family moved to this (Daviess) County. Both died shortly after the removal-the father in 1871 and the mother in 1875.
At the age of seventeen the subject of this sketch found himself entirely depend- ent upon his own resources. He worked on a farm in the summer and went to the country schools in the winter until he sue- ceeded in securing a license to teach. The winter of 1877-8 found him in his first school. He continued at school work for ten years, teaching in country schools for
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four years ; principal of the Odon school one year, in the Grammar school, Wash- ington, one year, and County Superintend- ent of schools four years-1883-7. In the meantime he attended school two summers at Danville, Ind.
In 1885 he bought a third interest in the Daviess County Democrat ; in 1887 this was increased to one-half interest, and in connection with Stephen Belding and B. F. Strasser, respectively, be published the Daily and Weekly Democrat until 1891, when he purchased the entire plant and has been operating it alone ever since.
December 29, 1887, he was united in marriage to Miss Tillie Seudder, oklest daughter of Dr. John A. Seudder, of Wash- ington, Ind. To this union four children have been born-one dead and three living, Helen, Samnel Brown, Jr., and John Send- der, aged respectively, five, three and one.
He is a prominent member of the Dem- ocratic Editorial Association of Indiana, in which he has served as both president and secretary. He has been an Odd Fellow for fifteen years, and is an ardent member of the Episcopal Church.
HARRY H. CROOKE, cashier of the Odon Exchange Bank, of Odon, Ind., and one of the foremost of the young business men of that corporation, is the business snecessor and the only son of the late Howard Crooke, the pioneer merchant, man of affairs and benefactor of Odon. The former was born in the village of Odon, January 18, 1867, and as a boy, youth and man was associated with his father, was a student of his methods, and sinee the death of the latter has stepped into the vacaney well equipped for the duties incumbent upon hin.
Howard Crooke was born near Spring- ville, Lawrence County, Ind., in 1823. He was the son of a farmer, Olly Crooke, in poor circumstances, and when he had reached the age of eighteen he had ceased to be a school boy and was ready to engage in business affairs of the world. Wine- park Judy was engaged in commerce with the pioneer flat boat down White River, the Ohio and the Mississippi to New Or- leans. It was this crew of rugged boat- men that Howard Crooke joined in 1841 and got his first introduction to business and to the world. He followed the river some four or five years, then left it to go on the road for the same employer as an
agent for lightning rods and wheat fans. This was a new business and he was one of the first men to engage in it. His exper- ience in educating the farmer of that day up to the point of discovering the ntility of either of those articles was, no doubt, the same as that of his contemporary salesman, and if it could be accurately compiled and published without color it would surpass in interest and Indieronsness the " Hoosier Schoolmaster." Mr. Crooke must have been a successful solicitor, for he remained in the business a number of years and sold his wares all over Indiana and Kentucky. He made money at it and when he quit traveling and came to Daviess County he had saved enough to buy a small farm ad- joining the hamlet of Odon. This he worked a short time and sold it and then opened a store (general stoek) with a Mr. Owen (whom he soon bought out) in Odon, which was then scareely more than a wide place in the road.
Odon must have been founded and named about this time for it contained only about three houses when Mr. Crooke east his lot with it and had not grown amazing- ly when the war broke out. But whatever of real life it did manifest was infused into it by the presence of this energetic and pushing merchant. He was the acknowl- edged head of the village, was the active moving spirit in directing its affairs and supporting its enterprises ; was the advance agent in the movement to get the E. & R. R. R. through the town and was the repre- sentative of the company in the negotiations preparatory to the construction of the road.
Mr. Crooke was successful in all his mer- chandising ventures, even from his first, and his accumulations were invested with wisdom and discretion. He was elected Justice of the Peace soon after he became a merchant, and while serving in this eapa- city he conceived the idea of reading law with a view to taking it up regularly when he should retire from office. This deter- mination he carried out, and was admitted to the bar before Judge Malott. He prac- ticed for fifteen years with success, at the same time managing his other affairs, which at this time had become consider- able. In company with G. T. Mulford he organized the Exchange Bank of Odon and was its active head till his death. He was
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operating the spoke and rim factory also at this time.
In politics Mr. Crooke was a Republi- can. He was an intelligent partisan, was nominated for the State Senate in 1884, but was defeated by the small margin of thirteen votes. He was not a brilliant speaker in campaign work, but he was an honest and intelligible expounder of the principles of his faith and was in demand on all occasions requiring a good sound sensible talk.
Mr. Crooke was a liberal contributor to charities. Although not a church communi- cant, he gave financial aid to every church erected in Odon. He never used liquor, did not use profane language, was chaste in his conversation, and quit using tobacco after he had chewed it for forty years. His death on April 29, 1895, was a public loss. It was said by one who knew him and his- tory that in his death Odon had "lost her balance wheel."
Mr. Crooke married Ann, a daughter of George C. Culmer, who brought his family from England. Mrs. Crooke died in 1892, being the mother of the following children : Sarah, wife of J. A. Burrell; Fannie C., wife of Dr. S. O. Culmer ; Margaret A., wife of B. D. Smiley ; Harry H. and Lillie B. wife of the Rev. W. B. Edgin, of Green Castle, Ind.
Harry H. Crooke was educated in the Odon schools and in the State University of Indiana. He came into the bank upon its organization as assistant cashier, but the next year he was made its cashier. He has other interests that require much of his time, but as a banker he is best known. Like his worthy sire, he is a Republican, but he manifests none of the traits of the politician. He is a Past Chancellor of Odon Lodge of K. of P., being the first man to be introduced to the Pythian mys- teries upon the institution of his lodge.
December 20, 1890, he was married to Margaret, daughter of the late William Mason, who moved to this county from his birthplace, Richmond, Ky., twenty years ago. He married Mattie Sturgeon, and for some years was a practicing lawyer in Washington.
Mr. and Mrs. Crooke are the parents of Hazel, Lela, Mason H., and Orrin.
CAPT. ZIMRI V. GARTEN, a prosperous farmer and an esteemed citizen of Odon,
Daviess County, is a representative of the industrious, thrifty and honest pioneer of Southern Indiana. He is descended from Elijah Garten, who emigrated to this coun- try from Wales with his parents when a small boy and settled in Virginia before the Revolutionary war ; afterwards became a very devout Methodist and a convert of Wesley and Whitfield. He afterward lived in Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana. He was fond of the sport of the forest ; in fact the wild and sparsely settled region seemed in the fullest accord with his nature, and this peculiarity led him westward with the advance guard of civilization. He died in Lawrence County at an advanced age. He reared four sons, one of whom, James, father of our subject, came to Daviess County in 1854 and died in 1876; two of whom, Robert and William, went to Prince- ton, Ill., and the fourth, Elijah, settled about thirty miles west of Chicago, on Fox River, now near St. Charles, in an early dav.
James Garten was born in Tennessee May 30, 1788, and reached his majority in Kentucky. About the close of the war of 1812 he rode up into Southern Indiana, purchased land of the United States, and about the time the State was admitted to the Union the Gartens loft their Kentucky home and settled on their new home in Lawrence County, Ind. It was in that lo- cality, and not long afterward, that James met Lydia Gray, whom he married. Lydia's father, John Gray, was a North Carolina man, and while engaged in the cattle trade with the North, as it was conducted in an early day, "by the drovers," he met and soon after married a Pennsylvania lady. They decided to make their home in the new western region north of the Ohio River, and made their journey hither by boat down the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers to the nearest point accessible to Lawrence County, Ind., and there landed, crossed through the forest to the Garten neighbor- hood and stopped. Mr. Gray bought two quarters of land there, became a prominent and prosperous citizen and died in the early '50's at the age of ninety-two. He was, perhaps, twelve years of age during the last year of the war of the Revolution, so was not old enough to take part in that struggle other than to .do errands for Pa- triot officers of the army, of which he
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delighted to tell bis grandchildren, who now revere his memory as one of the fathers of our country.
James Garten was the father of eight children : Lowery, Nancy, Syrina, and William, the first four by his first wife, Jane, deceased, who married John Pedigo, Elizabeth, widow of Samuel Taylor, resides near Hutchinson, Kansas, Zimri V. and James H., both of Odon, and one girl, Mary Ann, who died at the age of 11 years.
Capt. Garten was a pupil in the really pioneer schools of Indiana. The school- room was the rude log hut, the pal- ace of the frontiersman, and its fur- nishings were the huge fireplace, the split-log benehes and the indispensable hickory persuader that stood in the corner. With these environments he managed to get enough out of the old "elementary"
and the Pike's "rethmatic" to enable him to compete successfully with the world in the endless struggle for a seant but honest living. He worked upon the farm till 1857, when he engaged in mer- chandising in Odon, having come to Daviess County and settled near that village in 1852. In 1860 he resumed farming, but the next year the country was plunged into civil war and he began to think seriously as to the part he should play in the drama. He responded to the call of President Lincoln for troops, and in August, 1862, he enlisted in the 91st Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was com- missioned Captian of Company "C." The first year of his service was in Kentucky among the Guerrillas, the worst enemy of regular troops. The 91st went next into Georgia, where it soon came into contact with the enemy in the open, the first battle being that of Pine Mountain. On the At- lanta campaign, and while engaged in the famous battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Capt. Garten, then commanding his company, was hit with a musket ball in the calf of his left leg, ranging downward and lodging in his ankle. His injury was such as to render him incapable of further army ser- vice, and in September, 1864, he was dis- charged. He carried the minnie ball in his ankle for four years, when it was taken out and is now in his possession.
Capt. Garten took up farming on his re- turn from the army, and has ever since been identified with that prominent industry.
He was married January 1, 1865, to Sarah J., a daughter of Dr. D. JJ. Smith, a former Lawrence County man, and a prominent citizen of Odon for thirty years. This union resulted in three children: Lizzie, who died at two years of age, Walter who is married to Lizzie Crooke and has two children ; and Minnie, wife of Alonzo A. Lane, who also has two children.
Capt. Garten is one of the staunchest of Republicans. He believes in a strong cent- ralized government, believes in a dollar that is as good as gold the world over, and above all, he believes in the suppression of lawlessness and violence in any form, by national intervention, if we must, and with- out the ability to do which we are not a nation.
The only offices Capt. Garten ever held were Supervisor of Roads, Township As- sessor and Captain in the army, and before that, Captain of Home Guards, and these he filled before the war.
As a citizen he has the confidence of his fellows. He is public spirited and pro- gressive. No worthy cause is denied his ear nor passes by without his encouragement. His life has been one of eyen tenor, with few turns, angles or rough corners. He has been essentially a home man, has allied himself with none of the popular societies that keep men out at unseemly hours, pre- ferring to pass his evenings by his own fireside. He is well preserved for one born November 18, 1829, and gives promise of outliving man's allotted three score and ten.
ELIJAH GOUDY, of Washington, is one of the few of the "old crowd" of train men yet in active service, one of the pioneer locomotive engineers of the old O. & M. R'y Co, a gentleman of the highest stand- ing in his trade and with his company, and an historie character in the study of train service on the B. & O.
Mr. Goudy began railroading in Vin- cennes, Ind., in 1860, in the capacity of freight brakeman on an eastern run. After two years of setting brakes he decided to place himself in line for promotion to en- gineer and secured the position of fireman, his first engineer being Isaac Apgar. In two and a half years of this service he was promoted to be an engineer, and, as was the established custom, was put into the freight service May 4, 1869, he was passed on into the passenger service and is now
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