USA > Indiana > Memorial and genealogical record of Representative Citizens of Indiana > Part 47
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Mr. Laboyteaux was the scion of a sterling old family of the Buckeye state, his birth having occurred in Hamilton county, Ohio, on December 15, 1833. He was the son of Peter and Phoebe (Davis) Laboyteaux, both natives of New Jersey, where they spent their childhood days, coming to Ohio in early life and
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through their industry became well established near Cincinnati and there their son, James M., grew up and he received his edu- cation in the schools of Hamilton county. He later moved to Butler county, Ohio, where he remained until the breaking out of the Civil war, at which time he proved his patriotism by un- hesitatingly leaving the pleasures of home and the prospects of a business career and onering is services to the goverment, en- listing, in September, 1861, in Company C, Sixty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. After serving for two years he re-enlisted in the same command at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and partici- pated in the battle of Stone's River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga and other important engagements and trying campaigns. He also marched with Sherman to the sea, and was a member of the grand army of the north which composed the historie review at Washington. He made a faithful and gallant soldier, never shirking his duties, however arduous. He was honorably dis- charged as an orderly of General Buell.
After the war Mr. Laboyteaux, who had moved with his par- ents to New Castle, Indiana, returned to that city, and a short time thereafter went to Huntsville, Alabama, but soon returned to Delaware county, Indiana. His father was a tailor by trade, but while living at New Castle the father engaged in the grocery business. Later he turned his attention to general farming and stock raising and for many years was one of the leading agricul- turists of Delaware county. In 1901 he located on the large farm about three miles north of Muncie, where he spent the rest of his life, bringing his place up to a high standard of improvement and cultivation and keeping large numbers of fine blooded live stock, of which he was an excellent judge. Everything about his farm denoted thrift and prosperity and that a gentleman of sound judg- ment and excellent taste had its management in hand, everything being under a superb system. He had here a commodious, impos- ing and attractive residence in the midst of beautiful surround- ings and convenient and substantial outbuildings-in short, his farm was one of the most desirable and valuable in the county, and here his widow still resides. He believed in doing well what- ever he undertook.
Mr. Laboyteaux was united in marriage with Huldah Mullin in New Castle, on January 7, 1871. She was the daughter of John and Huldah (Struble) Mullin, the father a native of Pennsyl-
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vania and the mother a native of New Jersey. Mrs. Laboyteaux was the youngest of four children. Her family was well known and highly respected in their community. To the subject and wife three children were born, two of whom are deceased, Mrs. Rose Reed being the only one living. She makes her home with her mother on the extensive Laboyteaux estate north of Muncie. The two sons who died in maney were John and Feier.
Mrs. Huldab Laboyteaux is now past eighty-one years of age, but she has the appearance of a woman many years younger, being remarkably well preserved and active in the every-day af- fairs of life. A woman of genial and gracious presence and per- sonality, strong-minded and of charitable impulses, she has done a great deal of good, scattering sunshine along her life path and has won and retained without effort a large circle of friends. Her work in the church has been especially commendable, also her work in connection with the Young Woman's Christian Associa- tion movement. She retains her membership in the Christian church at New Castle. In December, 1911, she presented the di- rectors of the recently organized Young Women's Christian As- sociation of Muncie with a deed to a piece of property valued at twenty thousand dollars, located in the heart of the city directly across from the grounds of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion. The former local association is not affiliated with the state organization of the same name. This munificent gift was made not for any attempt to gain the praise of the public, but through her innate benevolence and altruistic spirit, and it will be the means of the accomplishment of a vast amount of good.
James M. Laboyteaux was a great reader and he collected a valuable library of choice books, among which he spent much time. He was therefore a well informed and broad-minded gen- tleman with whom it was a pleasure to converse. In religious mat- ters he was a Universalist and, politically, he was an ardent Re- publican, but made no effort to attain public leadership. He, too, was possessed of a generous and charitable disposition and he was always willing to support any public charitable movement. One of his most noteworthy marks of generosity was his gift of ten thousand dollars toward the erection of a county hispital in Dela- ware county. However, much to his sorrow, the hospital was never erected. Mr. Laboyteaux's gift was used in purchasing the old Patterson property in Muncie, at Jefferson and Adams
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streets, where the hospital was to have been located, but through the failure to raise sufficient funds for the establishment of the hospital and other difficulties, the gift had to be returned to the donor. He took a delight in helping worthy and ambitions young men get a start in life and many landable enterprises in this vicin- ity owe their success to his encouragement.
Mr. Laboyteaux's death, on November 15, 1911, was sudden and came as a shock to the community, of which event the Muncie Morning Star of the following day gives this account:
"While sitting in his favorite chair at his beautiful country home, three miles north of the city on the Center road, James M. Laboyteaux, one of Delaware county's wealthiest citizens, died suddenly of heart trouble last night at eleven o'clock. He was apparently in excellent health yesterday. Despite his advanced age, he being nearly seventy-eight years old at the time of his death, Mr. Laboyteaux was yet active in life and took pleasure in working about his farm. Yesterday morning he was engaged in packing away apples for the winter. At the noon hour he complained of pains about his breast and a physician was called, who said that the pains were coming from the heart. However, Mr. Laboyteaux did not retire to his bed, but occupied his favor- ite home ehair all afternoon and last night until his death came with great suddenness."
The many good deeds of the subject of this memoir will long be remembered throughout this locality, and his career might well be held up as a model for the youth standing at the parting of the ways.
HENRY ALFREY.
In a brief sketch of any living citizen it is difficult to do him exact and muparnai justice, not so much, however, for lack of space or words to set forth the familiar and passing events of his personal history, and for want of the perfect and rounded con- ception of his whole life, which grows, develops and ripens, like fruit, to disclose its true and best flavor only when it is mellowed by time. Daily contact with the man so familiarizes us with his many virtues that we ordinarily overlook them and commonly underestimate their possessor. Nevertheless, while the man passes away, his deeds of virtue live on, and will in due time bear fruit and do him the justice which our pen fails to record. There are, however, a number of elements in the life record of Henry Alfrey, one of the most representative citizens of Crawfordsville and western Indiana, that even now serve as examples well worthy of emulation, and his fellow townsmen are not unapprecia- tive of these. He is one of the most highly esteemed citizens of this section of the state, which has been honored by his residence since 1882, and during that period of thirty years he has done much toward the general development of his chosen city and has won and retained the confidence and good will of all who know him. He is a splendid example of the virile, progressive, self- made man who believes in doing well whatever is worth doing at all, a man of keen discernment and sound judgment, broad mind- ed and at the same time a follower of the principles embodied in the Golden Rule in all his relations with his fellow men, and therefore he enjoys their confidence and good will. Thus for many reasons the name of Henry Alfrey is eminently deserving of perpetnation on the pages of this history, not the least of which is the fact that he is an honored veteran of the greatest civil confliet ever recorded in the annals of mankind; for a citi- zen of the United States can wear no greater badge of honor than the distinction of having served the government in the memor- ahle four years of war between the states. It is a sacred family inheritance of renown, to be prized like a jewel by all future de- scendants and kept bright and untarnished by other acts of valor,
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patriotism and loyalty in the interests of free government. Even in this day, when there are many of the old soldiers living, no one can see them file by with faltering stops without feeling a glow of pride and without showing them studied deference. But the ranks of the old phalanx, as heroic as those which followed the vaunted plume of Caesar, Hannibal or Alexander, are fast falling before the only for they call aut mi-the King of Ter- rors-and ere long none will be left to recount the thrilling ex- periences of that sanguincous time. In the meantime, while they are still with us, let us pay them suitable honor for their sacrifices, sufferings and patriotism.
Henry Alfrey was born in Mercer county, Kentucky, Sep- tember 15, 1837, the scion of a sterling old Southern family, being the son of Moses and Anna (Baunty) Alfrey, both natives of Ken- tucky and each representing fine old pioneer families. The father of Moses Alfrey came from Pennsylvania and was of Dutch ex- traction. The mother was a native of Scotland, from which coun- try she emigrated to the United States when young, and it is be- lieved that she and the father of Moses Alfrey were married in Kentucky and there began life when the land known as the "dark and bloody ground" country was very sparsely settled. The par- ents of Anna Baunty, Rev. Henry Baunty and wife, were also Pennsylvania Dutch and were farmers in Kentucky in pioncer days, the father also being a minister. He was the owner of a few slaves, but later freed them and he and his wife removed to Illi- nois, locating near the Mormon town of Nauvoo, on the Missis- sippi river, where they established the family home in which the father spent the rest of his life, dying there at the Psalmist's allotted age of three score and ten years, after a life of much good as an old-time preacher among the first settlers. The rest of the family subsequently moved back to the Blue Grass state, where the widow spent the remainder of her days. The Baunty family was a large one, Anna, the mother of Mr. Alfrey, being among the oldest; she was born December 16, 1805, and her death occurred on May 5, 1856, near the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, Hodgens- ville, LaRue county, Kentucky.
Moses Alfrey, father of the subject of this review, was born October 26, 1801, in Kentucky, and his death occurred on Febru- ary 26, 1870. Ile was married on October 17, 1825, to Anna Baunty, and they became the parents of the following children:
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Joseph D., deceased, was born on August 15, 1826; Charity, de- ceased, was born August H, 1828, and she became the wife of William Dobson, also now deceased; Lambert, deceased, was born December 7, 1830; Abraham, deceased, was born December 10, 1832; Elizabeth, deceased, was born April 9, 1835; Henry, subject of this sketch; Malinda, deceased, was born July 28, 1840, August 16, 1843; William G., deceased, was born November 11, 1846.
Moses Alfrey, father of the above named children, followed farming on a small scale, at Magnolia, LaRue county, Kentucky, and he was known for his honesty and obliging nature. He was a man of exemplary character from his youth up and his influence was for good in his community. His death occurred in Kentucky.
Henry Alfrey, the immediate subject, spent his boyhood days on the home farm in his native state and there assisted with the general work about the place when he became of proper age. His education in the common schools was somewhat limited, for, being the son of a poor farmer, he was often kept away from his studies to help with the more strennous work at home. But being ambi- tions, he was able, with what few books he could procure, to ob- tain for himself the education which was denied him in the school room. When quite young in years and inexperienced, he hired ont to a slave owner as overseer. But this line of endeavor did not prove to be congenial to his nature, and, being prejudiced against slavery, he remained in the capacity as overseer but six months.
Mr. Alfrey left his native state when eighteen years of age and, coming to Indiana, began working on a farm in Ripley county, receiving for his services the usual small compensation of those days; but he was economical and in due course of time had a start. While living in Ripley county he was united in marriage, on September 17, 1857, to Lydia Anna Selman, a native of Ripley county and a daughter of Charles Selman and wife. She was reared and educated in her native community, and her death oc- eurred in Delaware county, Indiana, on April 10, 1874, leaving three children, William F., Etta Jane and Rose.
Mr. Alfrey was subsequently married, on January 7, 1875, at Anderson, Indiana, to Nancy Drake, a native of this state, where she grew to maturity, received her schooling, and, in fact, spent
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her life. Her death occurred on August 8, 1909, leaving three children, Elenore, Harry D. and Jesse C.
Sacrificing the pleasures of home ties and the quiet pursuits of peace for the dangers and privations of the "blood red field of Mars," Mr. Alfrey gladly and unhesitatingly offered his serv- ices in the suppression of the hosts of rebellion, enlisting on Sep- tomber 19, 1961, in the Third, snad Indiana Volumen Intan- try, under Capt. William Ward and Colonel Hazzard. He was mustered into service at Lawrenceburg, this state, and he saw much hard service, participating in a number of important cam- paigns and hard-fought battles, including Stone River, Chicka- mauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and the four- months, or Atlanta, campaign. The latter campaign started from Ringgold, Georgia, fifteen miles south of Chattanooga, abont May 1, 1864, by Sherman's mighty army of over one hundred thousand fighting men, and ending early in September, 1864, at Jonesboro, Georgia, twenty miles south of Atlanta, or one hundred and fifty miles from the starting point, every foot of the distance being stubbornly contested by the opposing armies. In all of these ae- tions, Mr. Alfrey acquitted himself with the courage and fidelity of the true American soldier, never shirking his duty, no matter how dangerous or arduous, according to the statements of his comrades. He received an honorable discharge and was mus- tered out of the service of the Union on October 28, 1864, at In- dianapolis. He talks most interestingly of his career in the army, which was indeed a most commendable one and one of which his family and descendants may well be proud.
After his service as one of the soldiers of the great martyred President, Mr. Alfrey returned home, having saved some of his salary, besides one hundred dollars bounty money, and with his former savings, he had an aggregate amount of about three hun- dred dollars. So he began looking around for an opportunity to engage in business for himself. Securing the services of one man, they went into the woods near Muncie, Indiana, and with nothing but an axe and a few other simple tools began making barrel staves, which occupation he continued about two years, after which he was able, in a small way, to engage in the manu- facture of tight barrel and keg cirele headings. He was success- ful in this venture from the start, and as his business increased he was forced to enlarge his capacity, having at one time five dif-
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ferent factories located at various places and giving employment at different times to over two thousand men at a time. Owing to the superior quality of his products they found a very ready mar- ket over a wide territory. His factories have always been equipped with machinery of the most approved patterns and he employed the most skilled artisans. In this connection it might be stated ployed thousands of men he has never found it necessary to enter into a lawsuit, and his dealings with his fellow men have always been straightforward and above criticism. llis serupulous hon- esty soon won the confidence and good will of those with whom he had dealings, and much of his splendid snecess in a material way has been due to this fact. He is today, in point of service, prob- ably the oldest man in the heading business, and being among the very first to start in this line of business in this section of the mid- dle West, the trade has given him the soubriquet of "The Heading King," which, as those who know him readily agree, is well ap- plied, as he has proven himself the undisputed leader of the head- ing business since he began his career in the year 1857.
Mr. Alfrey's first work in timber was in 1857 in Ripley county, Indiana, at which time he made about 200,000 shaved yellow poplar shingles and also made and split a great many fence rails from poplar, white oak and walnut timber. After the Civil war he commenced in Delaware county, Indiana, and made fully 200,000 shaved shingles from red oak timber and over 200,- 000 elapboards from twenty-four to thirty inches long. In 1869 he commenced to work tight barrel split staves and, with his own hands only, he made 800,000 staves and matched with split head- ings. In 1872 he commenced sawing tight barrel heading and sold in the square altogether about 12,000,000 matched heading, at thirty dollars per thousand, a total of $360,000, and also made and placed on the market over a million split staves and four mil- lion sawed staves. Under his own management he has made and shipped fully 40,000,000 sets of all kinds of circled tight barrel heading from the year of 1876 np to and including June, 1912. As nearly as can be estimated, it was sold at an average price of fif- teen cents per set free on board at factory.
All the timber Mr. Alfrey has worked if made into heading would be fully 50,000,000 sets, which is 100,000,000 heads, or about 400,000,000 feet board measure. To make this immense amount
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of heading, it took approximately 700,000 of the very finest white oak trees of the forest, the choicest trees that ever grew in the United States or the world. The best grade of oak was the In- diana oak and no better ever grew in the world, as is well known by those who used it. These 700,000 trees made 720,000 cords of twenty-two-inch heading blocks, cach cord four feet high and eight feet long, which would make a rick of blocks four feet high and defen hundred miles long, and the other timber worked into rails, staves, clapboards, etc., made a further rick several miles long.
This quantity of heading, loaded into cars of average size of three thousand sets each, would make 16,666 carloads, or about 555 trains of thirty ears each. These cars, coupled together, would make a solid train 135 miles in length. Piled one head on top of another, it would make a stack over 1,500 miles high and placed side by side in a row they would reach over 37,000 miles, or one and a half times around the earth. All these operations were conducted by Mr. Alfrey himself for over forty years, with the assistance of good and faithful men, to whom he gives full credit for their faithfulness, industry and integrity. Many of these men have now established plants of their own and are conducting them with success and profit.
In 1872 Mr. Alfrey started his first heading saw at Royerton, Delaware county, Indiana, the total amount of his eash capital at that time amounting to not over one thousand dollars. In the summer of 1874 he sold the heading saw at Royerton and built a factory at Anderson, Indiana, to saw tight barrel heading, but in the following spring of 1875 the little factory at Anderson was burned down, leaving Mr. Alfrey three thousand dollars in debt. He at once rebuilt this factory, putting in circling machinery, and manufactured finished tight barrel heading, in which he soon recouped himself for his recent loss and had about seven thousand dollars ahead. However, in 1877, Mr. Alfrey, through the trick- ery of some crooked men, lost all he had and found himself sev- eral thousand dollars in debt. Late that summer he went to Noblesville, Indiana. A friend, Major C. T. Doxey, let him have the use of about twenty thousand dollars for two years, and with this he built a factory at Noblesville, where he sawed heading, made some staves, meeting with such success that he was enabled to pay off his debts and had about eighteen thousand dollars
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ahead. In February, 1880, Mr. Alfrey moved to Indianapolis and for about two years was prosperous, having built there a factory with circling machinery. Selling out, he built a saw-mill in that city, run it a short time, and then sold it at a loss. He then moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana. and in November, 1882, he built a heading factory there to saw and circle tight barrel heading. In 100% be built anathan bonding factory of Vondersburg, Indiana. about twenty miles west of Crawfordsville, and ran both factories until November, 1886, when the Veedersburg factory burned, eu- tailing a loss of twenty thousand dollars. However, in five weeks after the fire he had rebuilt and finished a new factory on the same site ready to run, requiring the labor of many men, day and night. He handled much fine white oak timber at Veedersburg and did well there in a financial way. In the summer of 1888 Mr. Alfrey moved the Veedersburg factory to Terre Haute, Indiana, and there put up the largest tight barrel cireled heading factory in the country. He had several branch mills to saw heading for the main factories at Terre Haute and Crawfordsville and was very successful at both places. In the summer of 1892 Mr. Alfrey bought back his old heading factory at Indianapolis and moved it to Poplar Bluff, Missouri, selling the Terre Haute fac- tory to Blair & Faley, but retaining the Crawfordsville factory. The panie of 1893 almost caused him to lose all he had, but, by working a large force of men almost night and day for several months and by handling a vast amount of timber in 1891, he was enabled to weather the storm in splendid shape, having been very successful during these extraordinary efforts. In July, 1895, Mr. Alfrey decided to build a factory at Jonesboro, Arkansas, so he moved the Crawfordsville factory to that place and began to make circled heading there in October. On January 3, 1896, the large factory at Poplar Bluff was burned, at a loss to Mr. Alfrey of fifty thousand dollars, but he soon had this factory rebuilt and in operation again, and he ran both the Jonesboro and Poplar Bluff factories with great success. In February, 1899, he bought the heading factory of W. H. Coleman at Memphis, Tennessee, ran it for two years, and then, in the latter part of 1901, sold it to the Standard Oil Company. In the spring of 1903 Mr. Alfrey sold the Poplar Bluff factory to Hudson & Dugger and bought back the Terre Haute factory from Blair & Faley and moved it to Brink- ley, Arkansas. In the summer of 1901 he bought the heading
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factory at Ladoga, Indiana, of W. F. Epperson, and, moving it to Little Rock, Arkansas, built a fine large factory there. In 1905 he bought of J. 11. Winterbotham his heading factory at llope, Arkansas, and made many needed improvements, converting it into a good factory. Ile was engaged in the operation of the Jonesboro, Brinkley, Little Rock and Hope factories, with head offices at Jonesboro, until the spring of 1908, in which year he sold and turned over to the 11. Alfrey Heading Company the Brinkley, Little Rock and Hope factories. In the following fall the Hope factory was transferred back to him and the name of H. Alfrey Heading Company was changed to the Hudson & Dugger Company, in which Mr. Alfrey held considerable interest. On November 11, 1910, he sold the Hope factory back to the Hudson & Dagger Company, and in March, 1912, sold to W. F. Alfrey and the Hudson & Dugger Company all of his interest in the latter company, he thus having disposed of all his interests in the head- ing business except the Jonesboro factory, which he still owns and controls.
In speaking of his experience as a soldier, Mr. Alfrey said: "As to the thr e years in the awful war from 1861 to 1865 I was excused from duty for only three days. All the balance of the time I tried to do what came in the line of duty as a healthy sol- dier. I carried one and the same gun during the entire three years and we were never separated as much as one day in that time. It would take a book as big as the Bible to tell what any one of our soldiers went through in that time, and then there would be more to tell. No mind can call together nor express what these soldiers went through-all to save the freedom of the American people, and we can never repay them for the many hardships they had to endure."
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