USA > Indiana > Fountain County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 31
USA > Indiana > Warren County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 31
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Mr. and Mrs. Young are well known and have a host of friends, being hospitable, jovial and neighborly.
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
WILLIAM M. RATCLIFF.
Among the well-known and influential farmers and stockmen of Mill Creek township is William M. Ratcliff, whose farm is among the largest in the township and without a superior as to productiveness, for its owner is a scientific and practical farmer in the best sense of those words, has made his farm from the beginning, having cleared it from the woods, has always kept up fertility of his soil carefully, and now is the owner of property which yields himself a handsome profit and represents a substantial fortune.
William M. Ratcliff was born in Parke county, Indiana, on February 8, 1859, the son of Thomas R. and Juliet (Gray) Ratcliff. Thomas R. Ratcliff was he son of William Ratcliff and the grandson of Thomas Ratcliff. Will- iam Ratcliff was a native of North Carolina, whence he moved to Ohio, then to Parke county, Indiana, where he entered land from the government. He came through Indianapolis when the city consisted of only a few log houses. After the war he moved to Illinois, dying at Danville, that state, at the age of eighty-two, having spent an active, useful and respected life. Juliet Gray . was the daughter of Micajah Gray, who came to Parke county in early days from Michigan, and there followed farming until his death, in January, 1875.
Thomas R. Ratcliff was born in Parke county in 1834, and spent most of his life there. In early days he operated a saw-mill in Parke county, be- fore the railroad was built, and used to buy enormous poplar trees for one dollar each. He was also a farmer. Recently he moved to Mission, in southern Texas, and there is peacefully spending his later days. Eight chil- dren were born of his marriage with Juliet Gray. She died on March 17, 1875. Thomas R. Ratcliff later married Mary Jenne, who bore to him four children, all of whom are living. The entire family were always hardy and rugged.
William M. Ratcliff attended the common schools and took a three- months business course at Danville, Illinois. The greater part of his educa- · tion has been obtained by wide reading. In 1882 he was married to Nannie Sowers, the daughter of Solomon and Emmeline (Lindley) Sowers. Her father was a native of North Carolina, who moved first to Parke county, Indiana, and later to this county where he died on February 12, 1897, at the close of a life spent in farming. Her mother died on May 25, 1885. To William M. and Nannie S. Ratcliff four children have been born; Clement E., who married Carrie McHargue, a thresher and farmer of Mill Creek town- ship; Luhi, at home; Ethel S., who married Stoddard Rector on January I, I911, an . is living at Kingman; Claude, at home. Mrs. Ratcliff passed
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away to the great beyond on March 29, 1912, having spent a life of great service to her husband and family.
Since 1890 Mr. Ratcliff has lived on his present farm, which consists of three hundred and twenty acres lying in one tract, while he owns eighty acres one mile farther west. A great portion of this .farm was cleared from the woods by his efforts, and he has made all the improvements, including a fine house, and excellent and substantial barn. His land is all well tilled. and he has remaining forty acres of timber. His specialty is hog raising and feeding, and he feeds more hogs than any man in Mill Creek township, and also a good many cattle, shipping his stock to Chicago. He shows no especial preference to any one breed of hogs, but raises graded hogs of all kinds. For twenty years he was a thresher and followed his machine over a large portion of Fountain county, and thus gained a wide acquaintance an ' a reputation as a good thresher and a hustler. In politics he is a Republican, and is now a inember of the advisory board. He has been urged to run for office, but his aspirations are not in that direction and he refuses consistently to accept. He is a member of the United Brethren church.
SHERMAN SILAS STRADER.
Well and favorably known as an enterprising farmer and public-spirited citizen, with the greater part of his life before him, Sherman S. Strader has already gained an honorable standing among his neighbors and fellow citizens and fills no inconsiderable place in the agricultural community of his town- ship. He is a native of Fountain county, Indiana, and was born on the old Strader homestead in Shawnee township, February 18, 1879, being a son of Daniel and Frances Matilda (Leath) Strader, a notice of whom will be found elsewhere in this chapter. In the district school not far from his home he re- ceived his preliminary education and later attended for some time the Normal School at Veedersburg, where he acquired a knowledge of the higher branches- of learning and laid the foundation for his subsequent carcer as an intelligent and public-spirited man of affairs. Reared to agricultural pursuits and hav- ing a natural liking for the same, he chose it for his vocation and his series of successes since beginning life for himself have won for him an influential place among the leading farmers of Shawnce township, as his present solid financial standing abundantly attests.
Mr. Strader owns a small though splendid farm and the house which his
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
family occupy is one of the landmarks of Shawnee township, and among the oldest private residences in Fountain county, having been erected in the year 1836. It has been remodeled and improved from time to time and notwith- standing its great age, the house is both comfortable and commodious, and with its equipment of modern conveniences and attractive surroundings, it is one of the really beautiful and attractive old homes of this part of the country.
Not only as a tiller of the soil has Mr. Strader been successful and forged to the front among his fellow citizens, but he has also been a prime factor in the public affairs of his township and a leader in all that tends to its material development and progress. He served two years as supervisor, aside from which he neither held nor desired office, although his influence has been generously exercised in behalf of his friends seeking public honors and pre- ferment. In politics he votes with the Republicans and in religion subscribes to the plain. simple teachings of the Christian church, holding at the present time the position of trustee of Union cemetery near the local church with which he is identified.
Mr. Strader and Anna Olive Barker, daughter of Thomas Barker, were united in marriage on the 4th day of October, 1905, the marriage being blessed with two offspring: Naomi Christine, born September 29, 1906, and Daniel Thomas, whose birth occurred on August 27, 1908.
JOSEPH STARKEY.
One of the most active, thoroughgoing and enterprising young farmers of Fulton township, Fountain county, Indiana, is the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this biographical notice, a man who has progressed in his chosen life work because he has been a hard and consistent worker and has been self-reliant, no matter in what environment he has been placed, for he realized at the outset that the man who depended solely upon his own re- sources in his relations with the world, whether in a business or social way, was much more likely to accomplish what he set out to do than the man who shirks his responsibilities, casting them on the shoulders of others.
Joseph Starkey, who lives in the town of Cates, but operates a good farm nearby, was born in Clark county, Illinois, October 18, 1876, and is the son of William and Saphrona (Phipps) Starkey. The father was born in Ohio in 1846 and the mother's birth occurred in Indiana in 1854. The latter grew to womanhood in her native state, was educated and married here and spent
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MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH STARKEY.
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
her life within the borders of the state, and her death occurred in Fountain county in 1899; William Starkey lives at Rob Roy, this county. In the early days he went to Illinois, where he remained for some time, later returning to Indiana and settling in Parke county, and finally settling in Fountain county where he established the permanent home of his family, which consisted of six children.
Joseph Starkey was educated in the common schools and he received a very practical education. He turned his attention to farming when a young man and this has continued his life work. He operates a farm of seventy- three acres of valuable and productive land, which joins the town of Cates, in Fulton township, this county. It is mostly tillable and under an excellent state of improvement. ITe carries on general farming and keeps some good graded live stock, which furnish no small portion of his income. He has a very cozy home in the town of Cates, and from there he operates his farm.
Mr. Sharkey was marrie1 on September 5, 1896, to Margaret E. Barker Cates, widow of Joseph Cates and daughter of Bryant and Annie (Sowers) Barker, both parents being now deceased. Mr. Barker was an early settler in this county, and he spent his life engaged in farming, and died here on July 27, 1896. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Starkey, three sons and three daughters, named as follows: H. rry R., William E., Ola Fay, Lola M., Hazel N. and Joseph B.
Politically, Mr. Starkey is a Republican., but he is not a biased partisan, and often is independent in his voting. He is at this writing very acceptably discharging the duties of trustee of Fulton township, having been elected to this office in 1908. He was formerly assessor of Fountain county for a period of four years, filling the office to the satisfaction of all concerned. Fraternally, he belongs to Cates Lodge No. 518, Knights of Pythias, also to Camp No. 8766, Modern Woodmen of America. Religiously, he is a member of the United Brethren church.
HENRY GLASCOCK.
One of the most prominent men and influential citizens of Mill Creek township, Fountain county, Indiana, is Henry Glascock. He is not only a prosperous farmer and large land owner, but is vice-president of the Bank of Kingman and is looked upon as a man of sound judgment in financial matters. He has lived in this district all his life, and has taken a leading part in all public movements looking to the increasing good of his community.
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
His father, Francis Jackson Glascock, was born in Egypt, Illinoi., on June 21, 1821. He was of a family that has left its name well recorded in the history of our country. He was a cousin of that famous character known to every school child in the United States, Stonewall Jackson. He purchased the land in Mill Creek township from the heirs of Bob Alexander, who had it from the government, when Van Buren was President of the United States. He first married Elizabeth Reynolds who was born September 17, 1824, and they had two children, Harriet, who lives at IIillsboro, Indiana, and Harris, who lives at Sterling, Indiana. She died carly, and he married Isabel Moffett, who was born on April 14, 1820, in White Water, Indiana. They had two children, Nancy, who died young, and Henry, who was born in Mill Creek township, Fountain county, Indiana, March 21, 1856. Henry lived his early life on the farm, gaining that intimate acquaintance with nature and learning the valuable lessons of life that have made him successfri.
On October 17, 1878, Mr. Glascock married Frances O. Cade, daughter of Samuel and Eliza J. (Clark) Cade. (For the history of the Cade families see the sketch of Mr. Cade, in this work.) His wife died in 1909. They had three children : Troy C. married Mary Lindley, September 28, 1904. He is a farmer, and a banker at Kingman, being a director of the Bank of Kingman, of which his father is vice-president. Mattic Gertrude married R. A. Mc- Cord, cashier of the same bank. (See sketch of the McCord family in this work.) Samuel Jackson Glascock married Catherine Van Deventer, grand- daughter of Major Irvin, and he and his brother are now helping to run the home farm, under the supervision of Mr. Glascock.
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Besides being a banker, Mr. Glascock has always been an extensive stock raiser and under his direction his. boys are now handling Duroc Jersey hogs with great success. He has made improvements on the old home place con- tinually and now has one of the most modern and well equipped farms in the .. county. He is a Democrat and a leader of his party in that part of the country.
Mr. Glascock has now retired from active business and lives on his well cultivated acres. But he is still active in mind and spirit and his influence is felt in every matter of consequence in the district, and his opinion as a con- servative banker is relied upon. He is always ready to give the rising genera- tion the benefit of the advice of a man who has grown up with the country, encountering and overcoming all the obstructions in his path with sagacious foresight and clear-headed action. Mr. Glascock is a member of the Disciples church.
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
MARVIN T. CASE.
The subject of this sketch is, in point of continuous service, one of the oldest, as well as among the most successful practitioners of medicine in: Fountain county, and in addition to an honorable professional career he has a military record of which any soldier might well be proud, having served in the late Civil war and taken part in many of the most noted battles of that historic struggle. Dr. Marvin T. Case is a native of Walworth county, Wis- consin, and a son of William H. and Sybil H. Case, the laiter previous to her marriage a Miss Ilowe. William H. Case was born at Lake George, New York, in 1819. Some time in the early forties he went to Wisconsin, where he engaged in farming and the manufacture of lumber, which vocations he subsequently discontinued and embarked in the mercantile business near the town of Delavan, in that state. Disposing of his interests in Wisconsin about 1847, he returned to New York, and for some years thereafter devoted his attention to dairy farming and the manufacture of cheese, in connection with which he also bought and shipped horses and other live stock. In 1856 he moved to St. Joseph county, Michigan, where he remained four years and in 1860 went to St. Clair county, Illinois, from thence, after a brief residence, started again to Michigan, but owing to the almost impassable condition of the roads, stopped in Warren county, Indiana, where he resided during the ensuing two years, devoting his attention to farming in the meantime. From Warren county he moved to St. Joseph county, Michigan, at the expiration of the period indicated, and after living there until 1865, went to Minnesota and engaged in the fur trade at the town of Prospect, on Lake Superior, shipping thence to Duluth. One season before the opening of navigation, he loaded his pelts on an old, dilapidated propeller and started for the latter port, but before arriving at his destination, the boat went down, causing him to lose his entire stock of furs and very nearly his life, as he was three days afloat on a plank and about dead when picked up by a chance vessel and taken to Milwau- kee, where he spent the six months following in a hospital. When sufficiently recovered, he located in Porter county, Indiana, where he spent two years at farming, removing thence to Jowa and later to Berrien county, Michigan, where he followed agriculture until 1884, when he sold out and during the two years ensuing lived in Fountain county, Indiana, with his son, the subject of this review. At the expiration of that time he returned to Michigan, and purchased another farm in Berrien county, on which he resided until his death, on October 16, 1909.
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
Dr. Marvin T. Case was born June 18, 1843, and spent a part of his early life in his ative county and a part in the various places where his father lived during the time the family was almost constantly on the move. His preliminary education, acquired in the public schools, was afterwards supple- inented by courses of study in various institutions of a higher grade, from one of which he received a literary degree, thus becoming, while still young, quite a thorough scholar and well fortified for the profession which he had in view for his life work. When the great Civil war broke out, Dr. Case was among the loyal young men of the North to respond to President Lincoln's call for volunteers and from 1862 until discharged at the cessation of hostilities he nobly sustained the reputation as a brave and gallant defender of the national union. Enlisting the former year in Company D, Eighty-sixth Indiana In- fantry, he shared with his comrades the vicissitudes of war in a number of noted campaigns and bloody battles, his regiment forming a part of the Army of the Cumberland and seeing as much active service, perhaps, as any other regiment in that command. Among the battles in which he participated were the following: Perryvale, Rural Hill, Stone River, where his regiment was engaged three days, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and the assault and capture of Missionary Ridge. Following the engagements in and around Chatta- nooga, his conimand was ordered to Knoxville, Tennessee, to relieve General Burnside, returning later to Chattanooga, where it joined the force under General Sherman for the reduction of Atlanta. In the movement against that noted Confederate stronghold the Doctor experienced much strenuous service, having taken part in the battles of Rocky Face Gap, Resaca, Kingston, Adairsville, Dallas, Chattahoochee River, Pine Mountain, where the Confed- erate General Polk was killed; Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek; the siege of Atlanta; Lovejoy Station and Jonesboro, in all of which he bravely bore his part as a soldier, whose sole aim was to do his duty and uphold the honor of the country for which he was fighting.
After the fall of Atlanta, the Doctor's regiment was attached to the command sent to watch the Confederate force under General Hood, and dur- ing the march to Nashville the enemy were encountered at Columbia, Tennes- see, in a two-days' engagement, and at Spring Hill, where there was a running fight, but no great loss on either side. Following these were the bloody battles of Franklin and Nashville, in the latter of which the Confederate army was defeated and broken, thus virtually ending the war in that part of Tennessee. From Nashville, Dr. Case accompanied his regiment to Jonesboro, eastern Tennessee, where he remained until mustered out of the service in June, 1865. The Doctor gave three of his best years to the defense of the flag and, as al-
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read, ted, the record which he made during that period is replete with duty bravely and faithfully performed and untarnished by the slightest suspicion of dishonor.
At the close of the war, Dr. Case returned to Indiana and during the ensuing year worked on a farm in the summer time and attended the schools of Williamsport during the fall of 1865; when sufficiently advanced to pass the required examination and obtain a teacher's license, he taught two terms of school at Pine Village and one in Williamsport. In 1867 and 1868 he served as school examiner of Warren county. Ilaving long before this mani- fested a decided predilection for the medical profession, he began the pre- liminary study of the same in 1867 under the direction of Dr. Jones, of Williamsport, and later entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor from the medical department of which he was graduated in 1870, having re- ceived a literary degree from the same institution prior to that date. While prosecuting his medical studies he also took a course in science, doing in two years the work that usually requires five, besides teaching chemistry « aring his last year in the university.
Upon the completion of his medical education, Dr. Case opened an office in Attica, where he has since practiced with gratifying success, being at this time the oldest, as well as the best known and among the most efficient and popular physicians and surgeons in the city. Since the year indicated. his practice has taken a wide range, including a large patronage in the city and throughout the county, and not infrequently have patients come from distant places to consult him in regard to diseases requiring more than ordinary pro- ficiency and skill. He has always been a student and keeps abreast of the times professionally and in touch with the latest improvements and discoveries in the domain of medical science. He is a member of the state and county medical societies, and during the past twenty-five years has acceptably filled the position of health officer in Attica. A number of years ago the Doctor was school examiner of Fountain county, and he has always manifested an interest in educational matters, having served on the Attica school board, and at the present time he is a director of the board, having the management of the public library of the city. He was long an influential member and director of the Attica Building and Loan Association, through the agency of which more than four hundred thousand dollars were loaned for building purposes without the loss of a single dollar to the organization. In his fraternal relations, lie belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and for a number of years he has been a leading spirit in Bryant Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Williamsport. For a number of years Dr. Case
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was United States pension examining surgeon at Attica and in later years a member of the board at Covington. He is also a trustee of the Methodist church, and a member of the advisory board of Logan township for many years.
Dr. Case, in the month of November. 1870, was united in the bonds of wedlock to Elizabeth DeMott, daughter of Rev. J. B. and Emily ( Payne) DeMott, the father a well known Methodist minister and a man of high stand- ing and wide influer . in religious circles. Dr. and Mrs. Case have three children : Jessie, an accomplished musician, now in charge of the musical de- partment of Tudor Hall at Indianapolis; Clarence, a newspaper man in Chi- cago; and Lauren W., also a resident of Chicago, and teller of The Wendell State Bank in that city.
MANFORD B. BODINE.
Among the honorable and influential citizens of Fourtain county, Indiana, is the subject of this review, who has here maintained his home all his life, winning a definite success by means of the agricultural industry, to which he has devoted his attention during the years of an active business life. His career has been that of a fair-minded and straightforward man of affairs, and thus Mr. Bodine has ever commanded the respect and esteem of his fellow men, and he is deserving of a representation in his county's history.
Manford B. Bodine was born in Wabash township, this county, in 1865, and is the son of John and Caroline (Brewer) Bodine. The father was a native of Ohio where he spent his childhood years, coming to Fountain county, Indiana, in the early days and establishing his permanent home, spending most of his time in Wabash township, successfully engaged in general farmning, in which pursuit he met with much success and was thus enabled to spend the last fifteen years of his life in retirement in a pleasant home in Covington, where his death occurred on March 8, 1909.
Ten children were born to John Bodine and wife, six of whom are living at this writing.
Manford B. Bodine grew to manhood on the home farm and there he worked when a boy. He received a very fair practical education in the com- mon schools. He farmed on the home place for a period of thirty-three years, then purchased a place in Wabash township, five miles from Covington, con- sisting of one hundred acres, sixty of which he placed under a fine state of cultivation and improvements, and here he has since been successfully engaged
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
in general farming and stock raising, handling graded stock of a fine grade. cross between the Poland and Chester White hogs, also Red Polled and short- horn cattle, and his fine stock has always found a very ready market when- ever offered for sale. He also has devoted much attention to raising poultry, being a breeder of Ancona chickens, and at this writing he has over eight hundred on his place. They are admired by all who see them and have been a source of great profit. He has made a careful study of live stock and poultry raising and he is not surpassed in these lines of effort hy anyone in the county.
Mr. Bodine was married in 1904 to Gertrude Lewsader, daughter of John and Laura (Harris) Lewsader. The father was a resident of Vermillion county, where he was killed some time ago on a railroad. Three children have been born to the subject and wife, namely: Katie, Lura and Harold, all at home with their parents.
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