USA > Indiana > Fountain County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 10
USA > Indiana > Warren County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 10
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
Mr. Songer was an uncompromising supporter of the Republican party and wielded a strong influence in local political affairs, though never an aspir- ant for office. He always tried to live up to his high ideals of life and duty and, as stated in a preceding paragraph, he ever stood for law and order and for whatever made for the best interests of his fellowmen. He was called from the scenes of his earthly trials and triumphs on the 27th day of March, 1909, at the ripe old age of seventy-three years, his death being widely and deeply lamented by the large number of neighbors and citizens who had learned to prize him for his manly character and sterling worth.
WILLIAM B. MYERS.
There are many excellent farms in Fountain county, but none of them can claim superiority to Germany View farm, the home of the subject of this review. Not only is it broad in its acres, among the largest of the county, but also it excels in fertility, for its owner is a careful and studious man, who believes in making his living by the use of his brains rather than his muscle, and therefore devotes his time to the management and keeping u f his farm, while his profits are sufficient to enable him to obtain abundant help in the manual labor of farming.
William B. Myers was born in Fountain county, Indiana, on August I, 1860, the son of Franklin and Sarah (Sowers) Myers. His father came at an early day with his father, Jacob Myers, from North Carolina. their native state, to Fountain county, and here took land from the government, where they spent the remainder of their lives in farming. Franklin Myers lived in Jack- son township, one mile east of his son William's present farm. He became a large landowner and one of the most prosperous farmers of the community. He died in 1896, his wife in 1875. They were the parents of seven children, namely: Mariah, the wife of Henry Clore, of Parke county; Noah R., a farmer of this township (see his sketch elsewhere in this work) ; Katie, the wife of Butler Myers, a farmer of this township; George, who died in Mont- gomery county ; William B .; Albert, of this county, now deceased ; and Wilson of this county, also deceased.
In 1884, after serving his apprenticeship on the home farm, William B. Myers was married to Emma Litsey, the daughter of Ulysses and Julia (Dooley) Litsey. Her father was a native of Kentucky, her mother of Parke county. Her father came to Indiana when young, farmed in this county,
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and later moved to Marshall, where he carried on truck farming, and there he and his wife remained till their health failed, when they made their hente with William B. Myers until her death. Mr. Myers has two children. L.el ... who married Thomas Grimes, a farmer of this township, and Leslie, at home
Mr. Myers' farmi consists of four hundred and ninety-six acres, on which he carries on general mixed farming. He raises Poland China hogs and Shorthorn cattle. Nearly all the farm is tillable. Seventy acres are in tim- ber and some of the trees are giants of the kind which are scarce in these days, while the timber furnishes a sugar camp which is a source of profit to its owner. Nearly all the improvements on the farm have been made by Mr. Myers. He has good fences and excellent barns, while on his present barn. built in 1903, appears the name of the farm. "Germany View Farm." and also that of its owner. The farm is extremely well kept and all the work is done by hired help. Mr. Myers keeps fifty head of cattle; twenty horses. about two hundred and fifty hogs, and keeps one hundred acres in corn, one hundred in wheat and oats, and one hundred in clover and pasture. He farms on substantially the same scale as his father before him, and in approximately the same manner, except that he is quick to adopt all modern laborsaving ma- chinery, which was not invented in his father's more active days. Mr. Myers stands high in the esteem and respect of his neighbors, and is one of the most influential men of the community.
Mr. Myers is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran church. In politics he has been a lifelong Democrat and has held the office of county commissioner from 1897 to 1900, and other township offices. He is also a member of the Wallace Horsethief Detective Association.
E. M. COX.
This representative farmer and enterprising citizen is one of Fountain county's native sons and a descendant of an old and respected family that migrated to Indiana in pioneer times and settled originally in Parke county. Allen Cox, the subject's grandfather, a North Carolinian by birth, moved to Indiana many years ago and in addition to entering government lands in the above county, purchased other tracts from settlers in the vicinity and in time became one of the well-to-do men of his section of the country. He died where he originally located, leaving several descendants, among whom was a son, Atlas Cox, whose birth occurred in North Carolina in 1825, and who accom- panied the family to Parke county when quite young.
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
Atlas Cox was a farmer, a dealer in real estate, a shoemaker, and m all-around handy man with almost any kind of implemwir and tools. Many years ago he started a nursery on his place, the first efterprise of the kind mn Fountain county, and from it the settlers for a number of miles in ever: direction obtained the trees with which their orchards were planted. Abigo Hockett, who became the wife of Atla- Cox, was also of North Carolina birth and was born the same year as her husband. They reared a family of five children, whose names are as follows: Rebecca, who married William Swain and lives in Parke county : Laura (deceased) was the wife of Walter Sutton: Candace, now Mrs. John Stout, lives in Mill Creek township, Foun- tain county ; Celestia, who married a Bodine, is deceased, Erasmus M., of this review, being the fourth in order of birth. Atlas Cox served a short time in the late Civil war, enlisting in the spring of 1864 in Company K. Forty- third Indiana Infantry, but his military career was cut short the following August, when he succumbed to disease which resulted in his death.
E. M. Cox was born September 18, 1859, and received a fair education in the district schools. He spent his early years amid the active duties of the farm, assisted his parents until attaining his majority and then began life upon his own responsibility as a tiller of the soil. To this honorable vocation he has since devoted his attention with encouraging success, owning at the present time a finely improved farm of one hundred and sixty acres, where he carries on general agriculture and stock raising, in both of which lines he has long enjoyed much more than local reputation. In the matter of live stock he makes a specialty of Duroc hogs, which he raises quite extensively for the markets, and finc graded cattle, for which there is always a greater demand than he can supply. In his political affiliation he is an ardent supporter of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and his religious faith is evidenced by a consistent membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, with which communion he has been identified for a number of years.
Mr. Cox was married September 19, 1884. to Mary Tomlinson, whose parents, William and Martha Jane ( Pike) Tomlinson, moved to Indiana in an early day and settled in Parke county, where the father's death occurred in 1905 ; the mother, who is still living, has reached a ripe old age. To Mr. and Mrs. Cox seven children have been born, namely: Ethel; Ancel, wife of Leo Yerkes; Byron, a farmer of Mill Creek township, whose wife was formerly Mary Marshall; Ella married Roy Eberly and lives in that township also; Arnot; Eston and Wayne, who are still under parental roof. Mrs. Cox is the third of a family of eight children, the names of her brothers and sisters being as follows: Allen ; Charles (deceased) ; Louisa (deceased) ; John ( de- ceased) ; Mrs. Sarah Grimes ; Henry, and Lizzie, wife of John Meyers.
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FOUNTAIN AND WARRES COUNTIES, INDIANA
In clo-weg this brief review of a very active and costs in een die it to say that Mr. Cox has always been actively identitet with the material advancement of his township and county, and to him as much as to am me man is due the credit of the present excellent system of gravel roads which now penetrate to nearly every part of Mill Creek and adjoining jurisdictions. He was a leader in inaugurating these much-needed improvements, and lon before work began he carried petitions from house to house, solicited donations from his fellow citizens and later contributed of his own labor and means to the pushing forward and completing the enterprise. He is truly public spirited, believing in progress and improvement and his influence has in- luced not a few to imitate his example.
A. B. DEHAVEN.
The great task of clearing the land of its timber in early years can scarcely be realized by the people of today. Not a crop could be sown nor an orchard tree planted until the large trees had been cut down and removed with fire or with a team of horses or oxen. Even then the stumps were a great hindrance and it is doubtful if so much as haif a crop could be raised until they had been pulled out or burned up. The amount of hard labor required to remove the timber seems almost incredible. It was a task that seemed never to end, and all members of the family were required to assist early and late and at all season's of the year. The family represented by the worthy subject of this sketch passed through all these and many kindred experiences in this locality in the early days, for the DeHavens braved the wilds of Fountain county when it was sparsely settled and literally hewed out their home from the dense woods, developing a fine farm from the virgin soil. They were people of thrift and close application and never permitted obstacles to thwart them or hardships to appall them. They became our best citizens, for while laboring for their own advancement they never neglected their duties to their neigh- bors and to the material, civic and moral upbuilding of the county. One of the best known members of this worthy family of the present generation is .A. B. DeHaven, who, for a long stretch of years, was one of Fountain county's most progressive agriculturists and who is now living in retirement in the town of Covington.
Mr. DeHaven was born in the place where he now resides on January 6, 1843. He is the son of Jacob and Susan (Osborn) DeHaven, both parents natives of Scott county, Kentucky, the father born on December 12, 1808,
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUSTICS. INDIAN.A.
and the mother's birth occurred on January 8, 1810, cach representing aidesdid old families of the Blue Grass state. There they grew up and were copied in the old-fashioned school. They sonoved from the "dark and Body ground" country in 1827. coming to Le mitain county, Indiana, were married here and located in the woods in Troy township, where they built a log cabin and started life in true pioneer fashion. They worked hard and persevered and in due course of time had a valuable farm and a good home in which they spent the rest of their lives. Twelve children were born to them seven of whom are still living. The father was a Democrat and was an influential man in the com- munity. The Dellavens are acherents of the New School Baptist church.
A, B. DeHaven grew to manhood on the home farm and there he worked hard in assisting in bringing the place up to an efficient state of developn ent. He received such educational training as the common schools of those days afforded, and early in life he took up farming for : livelihood and this has been his main vocation. He started with nothing, but by hard work and care- ful management he prospered and is now the owner of one of the valuable farms of this county, consisting of two hundred and thirty-six acres of ti lable land and forty acres of timber. He placed this fa- 1 under high grade im- provements and managed the same so skillfully that it has retained its original fertility and strength of soil. There he carried on general farming and stock raising until 1908, when, having accumulated a competency, he purchased a nice home on Third street, Covington, Indiana, and moved thereto soon there- after, and here he has since lived retired from the active duties of life. Ile is eminently deserving of his large material success, having made it all by hard work and honest dealings with his fellow men.
Mr. DeHaven was married on December 17, 1868, to Margaret Osborn. daughter of William and Elizabeth ( Dicken) Osborn. They were also early settlers in Indiana, Mr. Osborn having came to this state when a young man from Kentucky, and here he established a good home and was a highly re- spected citizen.
Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. DeHaven, namely : Ida is the eldest; Ross has remained on the homestead, which he is ably operating ; Alva, who was next in order of birth; and Arista, who is a member of the baseball team of Dayton, Ohio, this being his fifth year.
Politically, Mr. DeHaven is a Democrat, but he has never been very active in public affairs and has never aspired to any political office. In religions matters he belongs to the Baptist church, in which he is a deacon and an active worker. Fraternally, he belongs to the Masonic order at Covington, and he stands high in all the circles in which he has chosen to move, being a man of genial personality and exemplary habits.
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FOUNTAIN AND WARRIN COUNTIES IRDIANA.
WORTH REED.
Conspicuously identified for a period of a quarter of 4 century no more with the educational life of this section of Indiana, Work Reed, the present cashier of the Citizens Bank of Covington, will be best remembered for his work as a teacher, although his career in the business world bids fair to be equally successful. He has won for himself an honorable position in the world's affairs and is a distinctive type of the successful self-made mau. Not a pretentious or exalted life has been his, but one that has been true to itself and to which the biographer may revert with feelings of respect and satisfac- tion. He is a worthy representative of one of our sterling pioneer families who braved the wilds of the early days and endured the hardships incident to such a life in pushing farther west the frontier of c'vilization, members of his family having been well known here since the early history of Fountain county, for the general development of which they have done so much. Mr. Reed is known to be a man who is liberal in his views and tolerant of the opinions of others. He is easily the peer of any of his contemporaries in all that constitutes upright living and correct citizenship. He is a close and in- telligent observer, has read much, and takes pains to keep him- f well in- formed upon current events. He is quiet in demeanor, a thinker, and a man of deeds rather than words. He is essentially a man of the people, because he has large faith in humanity and is optimistic in all of his views.
Worth Reed was born in Fountain county, Indiana, December 7. 1853. and is the son of Stephen and Sarahi A. (Finley) Reed. Stephen Reed was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, December 10, 1791. his birth having oc- curred during the administration of the first President of the United States. and he was always a great admirer of Washington. His grandfather, James Reed, served his country in the Revolutionary war, and Stephen Reed him- self was a soldier in the war of 1812, in which he rendered very faithful service. He left Virginia for the then sparsely settled middle West, floating down the Ohio river in a flat-boat to Kentucky, where he lived until 1826, when, with true pioneer spirit, he pushed on westward and established his permanent home in Fountain county, Indiana, thus being among the earliest settlers here. He found here a wilderness where the ring of the woodsman's axe had not been very frequently heard and where roamed at will various kindreds of the wild and where sometimes passed the nomad tribes of red men. But the elder Reed was a brave and courageous man, and cared not for the hardships and privations; being impressed with the fair valley of the Wabash and, having the sagacity to see a great future
FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA. 420
for the same, he went to work with a will, cleared and improved a good farn established a comfortable home and here spent the rest of his life. dying in July, 1866, at the age of seventy-five years, having devoted his life to general farming. He was a hard-working, honest, hospitable, quiet man, such as could be relied upon in the hazardous days of nation building.
Stephen Reed was twice married. Eight children were born of his union with Sarah A. Finley, his second wife, of which number Worth Reed, of this sketch, was fifth in order of birth. A son by the first marriage, Sampson Reed, became a well known business man of this county. having established the present Citizens Bank of Covington, in 1881, known then as Hardy & Reed, Bankers, which firm name continued until 1886, when Mr. Hardy and Mr. Reed dissolved partnership, Sampson Reed buying out the stockholders and changing the name to the Citizens Bank, by which it is still known, and which he continued to successfully operate until his death, which occurred on March 9, 1912. . In 1886 it had a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars. and under Mr. Reed's management the business prospered, and its capital stock increased to thirty thousand dollars, with a surplus of seventy thousand dollars. This institution has long been one of the most popular, conserva. tive and safe banks of western Indiana, and successfully weathered every financial storm that swept the country in years o " panic.
Worth Reed grew to manhood on the home farm, where he assisted his father with the general work about the place during the crop seasons. In the winter time he attended the common schools, where he laid a good founda- tion for the higher scholarship which was subsequently to be his. Entering Purdue University at Lafayette, Indiana, he made a splendid record for scholarship, completing the course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science, which was conferred on him in 1880.
After leaving the university Mr. Reed traveled for a period of three and one-half years in the East, representing a book-publishing company, giving the same eminent satisfaction in every respect and greatly increasing its pres- tige wherever he went. Having long entertained a laudable ambition to become a teacher, he quit the road and took up school work, in which he was most successful from the first, and in a few years he took rank among the leading educators of the state. Although his services, were in much demand, he remained as principal of the Linnwood school in the city of Lafayette. Indiana, for a period of twenty-four years. His long retention here is cer- tainly criterion enough of his satisfaction as a teacher and of his popularity among the pupils and patrons of the school, which he managed in a manner that caused it to rank with the best of its grade in the state. He kept fully abreast of the times in all that pertained to his work and ever improved the
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work under Jos charge, being a aman i paign ive abuse and a las luien of him that he was both an comenames and ant couleurtor of file scheel px winning at once the good will and respect of the fund, Jeat theroles sector! the best results possible. He was for many years a well kunden rigate at the various meetings of teachers throughout the state. He took much interest institutes and Chautauqua work, and now that he was withdrawn from The ranks he will be greatly missed from educational circles where he was so lem; prominent and highly regarded.
Upon the death of Sampson Reed, mentioned above. Worth Reed w !: appointed by the three executors to fill the position of cashier of the Citizens Bank of Covington, made vacant by the death of the subject's half-brother. and he is at this writing ably discharging the duties of this position, giving eminent satisfaction to all concerned.
On June 27, 1893. Mr. Reed was united in marriage with Della H. Shoup. of Battleground, Tippecanoe county, Indiana. She is a lady of education and is a daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth ( LaMar) Shoup, the mother being of French descent. her ancestors having emigrated from France to South Caro- lina when young and there established their home. Two children have been born to the subject and wife, Dorothy and Cordelia.
Mr. Reed has always been an adherent to the principles of the Republican party, but he has never sought the emoluments of office. He is a cha ter member of the Delta Delta Chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity, of Purdue University, and he belongs to Tippecanoe Lodge No. 492, Masonic order, at Lafayette. Religiously, he is identified with the Presbyterian church.
Unlike many men who have made teaching their life work, Mr. Reed has never become narrow, but has manifested an interest in the general affairs of the world, and is an excellent conversationalist on any topic of current inter- est, broad-minded, observant and keenly alert, a man whom to know is to accord the highest respect owing to his many estimable characteristics.
WILMER NAVE FOSTER.
Among the worthy citizens of Fountain county is Wihner Nave Foster, who commands the respect of friends and neighbors by an honorable, upright life and whose interest in the vocation of agriculture has brought him to the front as one of the leading farmers and stock raisers of the township in which he lives. Ile is a native and life-long resident of Fountain county, having
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN CON NERS. INDIVYA.
been Born in Shawnee township on the 18th day of August, 170, the sun if George M. Foster, a prominent business man of Attra, where ket. mas he found in these pages. As a country had the subject's early life was spent in the fields during the summer seasons and in the district school during the winter months, the training thus received being at erwarte supplemented I attending for some time the schools of Laf yette, where he made substantial advancement in his studies. He remained on the homestead assisting his father until beginning life for himself. the meanwhile, by practical experience and a desire to familiarize himself with agricultural science, becoming a strong, well developed young man, eminently able to prosecute successfully the honorable vocation he had chosen for his life work.
Ever since manhood, Mr. Foster has devoted his attention to the cultiva- tion of the soil and his success has been uch as to place him in the front rank of the representative farmers in his part of the county. In addition to agri- culture, he is quite extensively interested in live stock, in which he has achieved a wide reputation, especially in the matter of high grade Angus cattle, in the breeding and raising of which he has no superior in the county and few. if any, in the state. Mr. Foster is an excellent judge of the merits of live stock and keeps none but the purest strains on his farm. Through his influence not a few of his neighbors and friends have been induced to improve their various kinds of domestic animals, and in this respect he has indeed proven a benefactor to the rural population of his community and township. As a farmer, he believes his vocation to be a science worthy of profound study and by systematic methods of tillage he has seklom had a failure of crops-on the contrary, his well directed labors have invariably been rewarded by large and liberal returns. By reducing the most acceptable theories to practice. he has done much to elevate the standard of husbandry in his community, and his example is being widely imitated by many of his fellow citizens, not only in his own, but in other 'localities as well. His farm of three hundred sixty- three acres in Shawnee township is all under cultivation, the buildings and other improvements thereon being among the best in the county and he is certainly well situated to enjoy the many material blessings which have come to him as a result of his judicions Fibors, rare foresight and efficient manage- ment.
Mr. Foster is an advocate of whatever tends to improve the material and moral condition of his neighborhood and his influence is generously exerted in behalf of all enterprises with these ends in view. He manifests a lively interest in political affairs, wields a strong influence for the Republican party. and at one time was a candidate for the Legislature, but, with the rest of his
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
ticket, suffered defeat by reason of the overwhelming majority of the oppost- tion. He is a member of Lodge No. 143. Benevoler and Protective Order of Elks, in which organization he is an active worke. al zealou- in uphon ing its principles.
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