USA > Indiana > Fountain County > Portrait and biographical record of Montgomery, Parke and Fountain counties, Indiana : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens : together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States > Part 57
USA > Indiana > Montgomery County > Portrait and biographical record of Montgomery, Parke and Fountain counties, Indiana : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens : together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States > Part 57
USA > Indiana > Parke County > Portrait and biographical record of Montgomery, Parke and Fountain counties, Indiana : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens : together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States > Part 57
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88
*****
A LBERT S. MILLER, successor to Miller Brothers (the old reliable carriage firm which needs no introduction to the people of Crawfordsville), at the age of thirty stepped into one of the finest positions possible to the business world, that of conducting a factory whose present size and importance is the result of thirty-five years of constant, untiring effort on the part of two of our most respected citizens, than whom there are no fitter representatives of our city's business interests.
490
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Reared to this position under snch able instruct- ors as Jonas and Samuel Miller, Albert Miller has received a training and fitness for a life of enter- prise not met with in one case out of a million. Having, in addition to this, natural tact and abili- ty, supplemented by a thorough education in the high school and Wabash College, with a special business course in a commercial college at Dayton, Ohio, it is expected that he will make a worthy successor to two eminent men. Thus far the ex- pectations of his friends have not met with disap- pointment, for he has proven himself master of the situation and well able to conduct an immense bus- iness through a brilliant and successful career.
Mr. Miller was born June 1, 1861. He was graduated from the high school in 1878, and from Wabash College in 1882. He was married No- vember 24, 1885, his bride being Miss Lucy F. Moore, of Paris, Bourbon County, Ky., daughter of Dr. Moore, a noted physician of that place. They have no children. Their tasteful residence is at No. 212 West Main street.
Since March 1, 1891, Mr. Miller has conducted the carriage business, and has been, as we have said before, most efficient and successful. The work done in his factory is of the highest grade, nothing inferior being tolerated in any department. First-class material is used from beginning to finish; the wood is of the clearest and best; the steel and iron are strong and reliable, with no flaws nor weeknesses; the paints and oils are such as to give the finest and most durable finish, and the upholstering is of the best quality. Every article is perfect in taste and execution, and there are all the desirable styles, whether phaeton, baronche, carriage, or back. The demand of the home trade is thoroughly understood and faithfully met, every order being conscientiously filled. None but old, experienced workmen are employed. Whenever it becomes necessary to make a change, it is done carefully, so that no break shall be made in the order of the work, and there shall be no danger encountered of spoiling an article through poor labor.
The extent of the plant, with the immense amount of capital invested, make it of great importance to Crawfordsville, and a source of ever-growing
pride, as well as of advancement in growth and prosperity. The shops and belongings have a frontage of 125 feet on Washington and 85 feet on Market streets. The four buildings are of brick; they are two and three stories high and are joined together, making about one-fourth of the main block. Nearly all the upper floors are devoted to the business. About $90,000 is invested in the plant, whose present flourishing condition is due to Messrs. Jonas and Samuel Miller, as stated be- fore. A large part of the work is done to order.
Albert S. Miller is a Mason, and has held very important positions in that order. He is Past Em - inent Commander of the state, the youngest man to hold that office in Indiana. He has represented the Commandery five times to the State Conclave, and has attended the National Conclave. He was in Denver last December to secure quarters for the Crawfordsville Commandery of eighty-three mem- bers. He is an Ancient Free and Accepted Ma- son, is a member of Chapter, Council and Com- mandery, No. 25, of Crawfordsville, and is a thoroughly popular man, held in the highest esti- mation by all who know him, both in and out of the fraternity.
**********
OHN STIPE, a wealthy retired farmer, re- siding on his farm on Section 2, Walmit Township, represents one of the very first families that settled in Montgomery County. His father was Joseph Stipe, who was born in Germany at about the time of the close of the American Revolution, and when he was only six- teen weeks old his parents brought him to this country to be reared under a Republican form of government. His father, whose name was John, took his family to Virginia, and there the boyhood days of Joseph were passed. When he was eighteen years old he went to Kentucky, and he was subse- quently married in Woodford County, that State, to Mary Ann, daughter of Sebastian Stone, who was a native of Maryland, and an early settler of Woodford County. Mr. Stipe first settled in that county, but in 1816 he crossed the Ohio river to seek a new home in Indiana. For eighteen years he lived in Ripley County on land that he had en-
٠٠,٠
-
John Stife
491
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
tered from the Government. In 1829 he penetrated further into the wilderness, and making his way to this county, he bought eighty acres of land from the Government, a part of which was in Franklin Township, near the old homestead in Walnut Township.
Joseph Stipe thus became one of the very earliest settlers of this part of the country and, as an excellent type of that hardy German element that has furnished the United States so many useful citizens, he did valuable work as a pioneer, elimi- nating a good farm from the wilderness, and at the time of his death he had two hundred and ten acres of excellent farming land. He was a Jack- sonian Democrat, and was firmly attached to his party. He rounded out an honest, sober life at a venerable age in 1856. His good wife survived him until 1863, when she too passed away. Of their children these four are living-Catherine, wife of Reuben Roark, of Iowa; Elizabeth, wife of Ruel Kane, of Boone County, Ind .; America, who re- sides on the old homstead; and our subject. Those who died were named William, Henry, Jefferson, and Sebastian.
John Stipe was born in 1820 in Ripley County, and was nine years old when the family came to . this county, where he was brought up amid pioneer scenes, and was educated in the primitive log school-house of olden times. He remained an in- mate of the parental home until he was thirty years old, and then married and established one of his own with the help of the best of wives. She bore the maiden name of Ann Eliza Higgason, and at the time of her marriage with our subject she was the widow of Jacob Robbins. Mr. Stipe re- moved to Shannondale after he married, and for one summer was engaged in tending a mill at that point. Since then he has lived on the farm that he now owns, which is operated under his direc- tions. His homestead comprises two hundred and forty acres of land, and he has besides thirty-one acres half a mile east of Crawfordsville. The place is devoted to general farming and stock-raising, and the soil is under a high state of cultivation. The improvements are fine and include buildings for every needed purpose. In 1871 a large brick
house, of a modern style of architecture, was built at a cost of $6,000.
Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stipe-Joseph Walter, who married Elizabeth Evans, and lives a mile and a half east of New Ross; and John William, who died March 28, 1860. Mr. Stipe is a Democrat, and is numbered among our best citizens, whose life-record is honor- able alike to himself and to the community.
Mrs. Stipe had four children by her first mar- riage-William R., who sacrificed his life for his country during the rebellion; Mary Jane, who is the wife of Isaac Young of Hendricks County; James H., who resides in Walnut Township, and Sarah, wife of William Emmert, of California.
H ANNIBAL TROUT, whose sketch is here given, has a beautiful home and finely ap- pointed farm on Section 5, Walnut Town- ship, and is one of the wealthy farmers and stock raisers and representative men of this part of Montgomery County. He was born in Trimble County, Ky., May 17, 1824, and is a son of Isaac Tront, who was born in Shenandoah County, Va., .in 1794. He in turn was a son of Daniel Trout, who was reared in Virginia, and was of German parentage.
Isaac Trout passed his early years amid the scenes of his birth in the beantifnl Shenandoah Valley, whence he subsequently removed with his father to Kentucky, and settled in Trimble County, where he was married to Dolly, daughter of Alex- ander Cook. The Cooks had moved from Mary- land to Virginia, and thence to Kentucky in pio- neer days. After marriage Mr. Trout continued to live in Trimble County, settling on land that his father had given him, until 1844, when he came to Indiana, and bought and located upon the quarter section of land upon which our subject now lives in Walnut Township, paying ten dollars an acre for the land, of which about forty acres had been cleared. His life was not prolonged many years after he settled in his new home, as he died in 1850 ere old age had come upon him, and left
492
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
behind him a most worthy record as a man and a citizen. He was a stanch Whig in politics. His wife survived him until 1876, when she too passed away. They reared a family of five chil- dren : Hannibal; Emely, who married Peter Van Nice, and died in Missouri; Angeline, who mar- ried Marshall Craig, and died in Iowa; Alexander, who died at Leavenworth, Kans., in 1856; and Eliza, who married J. F. Lukins, who is Superin- tendent of public schools at Lebanon, Ohio.
He of whom we write was twenty years of age when he came to this county with his father, with whom he made his home until the latter's death. After his marriage he took up his residence near Darlington on Light Creek, where he lived from March to September, 1853, when he bought out the interest of the other heirs in the old home- stead and returned to it. He has met with marked success in his farming operations, and is one of the substantial, moneyed men of the county. He formerly had over six hundred acres of land, but he gave eighty acres to his son, David, and seventy- two acres to Sherman. He still has a large farm, and has besides his homestead a tract of eighty acres of land in Walnut Township, and two pieces of land in Franklin Township of fifty-five and fifty-three acres respectively. The buildings are of a good class, commodious and well arranged, and in 1869 Mr. Tront erected at a cost of ten thousand dollars, one of the largest and hand- somest residences in the township. It has a slate roof, ten large rooms, besides pantry, halls, bath room and all the modern conveniences of a well- appointed house, including a fine cellar, 54x18 feet in dimensions. The farm is one of the best improved in the county, is well drained with tile, and a great deal of graveling has been done on the place. We may mention in this connection that Mr. Tront was one of the principal advocates of gravel roads through this part of the township. There is probably no farmer in the county better acquainted with the principles of practical farm- ing than our subject. Besides being one of the most successful and enterprising of farmers, he has acquired an enviable reputation as a stock raiser. He has a fine class of stock, including
Shropshire sheep and Poland China hogs, a num- ber of the latter being registered.
The marriage of our subject with Miss Mary G. Long, was consummated February 9, 1853. She is a daughter of David Long, who came here from Butler County, Ohio, and settled three miles north of Crawfordsville. He was the father of twelve children, and Mrs. Trout was the youngest of those born of his first wife. Mr. and Mrs. Trout have four children: David L. who married Miss Carrie Gray, and is engaged in business as a stock dealer and shipper at Crawfordsville; Eva, wife of Frank S. Foster, a prominent attorney and real- estate dealer at Indianapolis, who held the office of Deputy Clerk in the United States Court for a number of years; Sherman A., who was a student at Wabash College three years, and is now at home; and Roy, a student at Wabash College. The oldest son was also an attendant at Wabash College, and Eva was graduated from the Western Female College at Oxford, Ohio.
Mr. Trout is genial, frank and courteous in man- ner, is honorable and straightforward in his rela- tions with others: and is truly public spirited and progressive as a citizen. He is a Republican and a firm believer in the policy of his party. He has never sought office, but was elected in 1885 a member of the Legislature and served three terms; has also been Assessor of Walunt Township one term. He has been identified with the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, and has a demit from his old lodge.
********
W P. HARRISON, a prosperons farmer of Adams Township, Parke County, has been Postmaster of Nyesville, a small town near his homestead, for the past ten years. He has resided all his life on his pres- ent farm, located on Section -, which was his birth-place. The date of that event was November 9, 1858. His parents were William D. and Eliza- beth (Bradfield) Harrison, who were both natives of Columbiana County, Ohio. The great-grand- father of our subject, Benjamin Harrison, it is
John N. Seybold
495
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
supposed, was a native of England, who located in this state at an early day. His son, William, married a Miss Dickson and unto them were born nine children, six of whom grew to maturity, and of this number Mrs. Anna Bradfield died May 9, 1893. The father was a member of the Society of Friends, and politically was a Whig. His younger days were spent in teaching, but he later devoted himself exclusively to farming. When young he removed to Ohio and there reared his family, but finally settled in Indiana, where he died in 1868, his wife having passed away four years previous to this.
The father of our subject grew to manhood in Ohio, and in that state was married in 1850. Two years later the young couple came to this county, purchasing eighty acres of land which is now com- prised within the boundaries of our subject's pres- ent farm. As the years rolled away be increased his landed possessions until he was the owner of three hundred and seventeen acres. This prop- erty when he bought it was unimproved, but he lived to see the greater portion of it under cultiva- tion. He was a Republican, politically, and was a member of the Christian Church, in the faith of which he died in 1873. His wife survived bim ten years, dying in 1883.
W. P. Harrison is one of six children; two died in childhood; Eliza J., deceased, was the wife of Jefferson Skelton; our subject is next in order of birth; Charles B. and Arminta, wife of William Welch, complete the number. When fifteen years of age, at which time occurred his father's death, our subject assumed the care of the family, and faithfully did he perform the duties devolving upon him. He was educated in the common schools of Parke County, and for a short time at- tended the Bloomingdale Academy. He began his business career as a farmer, and now has one hundred and seventeen acres in his own home farm, and also has a tract of forty six acres bot- tom land. About the year 1882 he developed a coal mine on his own farm, and has largely en- gaged in mining for the past ten years. This mine's output averages about sixty tons a day, and is bringing in a good income to the fortunate owner.
In the year 1886 was celebrated the union of Mr. Harrison and Louetta Kent, who is a dangh- ter of Elijah and Mary (McNeil) Kent. They have four sons: Charles C., Roscoe C., Benjamin C. and W. Byron. In his political affiliations, Mr. Harrison is a stanch supporter of the Repub- lican party, and is a worthy citizen in every sense of the word.
OHN N. SEYBOLD is a prominent merchant of Mitchell, a small mining town in Raccoon Township, Parke County, and was born in this township, May 27, 1846. He is a son of Thomas K. and Mildred (Sea) Seybold. The for- mer parent was a native of Maysville, Ky., being born June 9, 1816, and was married February 14, 1836. He was the son of Dempsey Seybold, who was a native of Kentucky and married Elizabeth Kirr. Dempsey Seybold was among the very early settlers in this township, coming about the year 1818. He served in the State Legislature, repre- senting Parke County, and was a man of more than ordinary ability.
There has been a tradition in the family of Sey- bold that some two hundred years ago a child was found floating in a wooden bowl, off the coast of Germany, and the parties finding the child, being ignorant of its parents or its name, invented the name Sea-Bowl. By the variations of time, to which names as well as other things are subjected, Sea-Bowl had become Seybold. But this we find, from research, to be entirely without foundation, and it is most likely that in modern times some practical joker drew upon his imagination for the so called origin of the family name. In tracing the family name back, not only to the supposed date when the child was found, but for centuries before, we find that in the records in Germany there is such a name as Seybold.
The first we learn of this family in America is when three brothers came here and settled in Ken- tucky, the other two locating in Virginia. The latter two we have learned but little of; the former was the great-grandfather of the man whose name heads this sketch. Dempsey Seybold, who was
24
496
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
the grandfather of Mr. Seybold, was a native of Kentucky and with his family came to Indiana and settled in Raccoon Township in 1818. His son, Thomas, who was the father of our subject, was two years of age at the time, having been born in Kentucky in 1816. Thomas was murdered May 9, 1850, while in Terre Haute on business.
Mildred H. Seybold, the mother of our sub- ject, was born in Kentucky, February 14, 1814, and died in this township in the year 1891. Three generations ago the Seybolds came to this country from Germany and Mildred married Thomas K. Seybold in 1836. They had eight children, of whom John N. is one of the number. He was reared on a farm, receiving but a limited educa- tion such as was afforded by the common schools in his boyhood days. When but seventeen years of age, he enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Fifteenth Indiana Infantry, and exposed his boyish life to the hardships that are severe for even veterans to endure. Going, as he did, from the comforts of a happy home, to bear the expos- ure incident to an army life, for six months he was engaged with his company in chasing Longstreet, at the same time suffering extremely from hunger. He lived for ten days on two ears of corn, and February 27, 1864, was mustered out of the serv- ice.
On the afternoon of the same day, Mr. Seybold re enlisted in the Twenty-first Indiana Infantry and afterward in the First Heavy Artillery, Bat- tery H. After serving two years, in the meantime participating in the sieges of Fort Gaines, Fort Morgan, Spanish, Hugar, Tracey and Blakesley, he was put on garrison duty until January 13, 1866, when he was discharged. Returning home, he at once engaged in farming and carpentering, and January 30, 1868, he wedded Hannah M. Webster. This amiable lady was born in Parke County, May 21, 1850, and was the daughter of James S. and Isabel (Elson) Webster, of this township. Her father was a native of Fayette County, Ohio, being born June 16, 1819, and died in Raccoon Township in September of 1883. Her mother was born in Brook County, Va., in 1812. Mrs. Seybold is of the old Revolutionary stock, her Great-grandfather Webster having served his
country well and faithfully during its struggle for independence.
Mr. Seybold, of this sketch, continued farming until 1888, after which he engaged in mercantile business at Mitchell, in which place he is still at work. He is a Republican in politics and served his township as Trustee from 1886 to 1888, being elected by the largest majority ever given in the township. Socially he is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, having been made a Mason at Bridgeton in 1879, and having served the Cat- lin Lodge, of which he is now a member, as Master for two terms. He is also an active Grand Army of the Republic man, and for his services in the late war draws a pension of $12 per month. He has been Postmaster at Mitchell for the past five years.
Mr. and Mrs. Seybold have been the parents of the following children: Ruth I., now the wife of Charles A. Keller, lives on the old Webster home- stead; James T. is deceased; Bertha A., who was educated at St. Mary's Seminary of Terre Haute, is now living with her parents. Martha E also re- ceived her education in Terre Haute, and is still under the parental roof. Of the brothers and sis- ters of John N. Seybold, our subject, Samuel Kerr died in Hancock County, Ill., in 1861, and a son of his lives in Kansas City, Mo .; Dempsey C. is a farmer in Wabash Township, this county; William H. H. resides in Mitchell; America Indi- ana is the wife of Harvey M. Adams, a farmer in this township; Mahlon F. served three years and ten months in the late war. He was sunstruck during the siege of Vicksburg and died in Wood- ford County, Ill., from the effects. His daughter Effie married a man by the name of Pugh and resides in Meadville, Mo .; Susan, wife of James N. Leslie, resides at Fredonia, Kans .; James H. is a farmer living near Clinton, Ind.
S AMUEL CARTER, widely known and high- ly respected as one of the most energetic, self-reliant and enterprising citizens of Da- vis Township, Fountain County, Ind., has for the past sixty years been intimately associated
497
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
with the best interests and upward progress of his neighborhood, and to his personal efforts are mainly due many of the early and most valuable and permanent improvements of the locality. A pioneer settler of 1833, he has not only been an eye-witness of the wonderful growth and develop- ments of his adopted state, but has actively par- ticipated in the changing scenes of three-score years and ten, and has accumulated a valuable store of historical reminiscence.
The paternal grandfather of our subject, Robert Carter, was a native of England, but he migrated to this country in time to become deeply imbued with the spirit of the early colonists, and was an ardent defender of our national liberty and served as a soldier in the battles of the Revolutionary War. His son, James, the father of our subject, inherited the bravery and patriotism of the veter- an of the Revolution and also fought for his coun- try in the War of 1812. Previous to this epoch in our Nation's history James Carter had married Miss Margaret Pickens, a lady of intelligence and ability. The husband and wife were both natives of the south, one having been born in Virginia, the other in South Carolina. The name of Pick- ens is an illustrious one in the annals of our Re- public, and was long since given to an immense district of South Carolina, which district, with its capital, Pickens Court House, claims many valuable enterprises of the state, a specially fertile soil and an extended area of eleven hundred square miles.
Andrew Pickens, the eminent American states- man and general, who at the outbreak of the Rev- olution was made a captain of militia, from which position he rose by regular promotion to the rank of Brigadier-General, was undoubtedly a near rel- ative of the immediate family of our subject's mother. Certain it is Gen. Pickens' family re- moved to South Carolina in his early boyhood and there settled in a frontier region. The par- ents of our subject located in Ohio shortly after it was admitted into the Union as a state. Samnel Carter was born in Ross County and in that state grew to mature years. From earliest youth inured to all the trials and vicissitudes of pioneer expe- rience he came to Indiana, full of hope, energy aud ambition, and here began the struggle of life,
in which he has been mainly victorious. Successes, disappointments and various vicissitudes have alternately crossed his path; successes he received as the just reward of his hard toil and honest labor; disappointments he bore with patient cheer- fulness and serene philosophy, and lost no time in vain regret, but, calmly resuming his efforts, sought to make his fortune good once more.
Enterprising and more than ordinarily energetic, our subject won and lost fortune after fortune, but in the evening of his days is prosperous and blessed in the consciousness of a useful life. Some of the early experiences of Mr. Carter are both amusing and instructive. For some time after his arrival in the county he worked by the month, engaged in laying out the subdivision of the townships of the county and laying off roads and other similar work. In the meantime he had loaned the money thus earned to a man who after- ward refused to repay it, and as it could not be col. lected by law our subject took his payment of the debt out in administering a severe thrashing to the contemptible offender. If Mr. Carter carried the resolute energy into this transaction which he ever displayed in the other business of life, doubtless the debt was paid in full by the cowardly debtor.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.