USA > Indiana > Adams County > Standard history of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana : An authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume II > Part 64
USA > Indiana > Wells County > Standard history of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana : An authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume II > Part 64
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Mr. Carter married Edna M. Boyd of Wayne County, Indiana. They have two children, Boyd Carter, aged eleven, and Corinne, aged eight. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Geneva, and Mr. Carter is one of the church trustees and is active also in the Sunday school. He is affiliated with Geneva Lodge No. 621, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and in polities is a republican.
LEMUEL L. MATTOX, M. D. For more than a quarter of a century the professional services of Doetor Mattox have been increasingly ap- preciated in and around Geneva, and his name wherever spoken in Adams County is associated with the ability and skill of the medieal profession.
Doctor Mattox is a native of Adams County, born here September 5, 1862, a son of William L. and Bathsheba (Coverdale) Mattox. The Mattox family was founded in Adams County by Lewis Mattox, grand-
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father of Doctor Mattox. Lewis Mattox was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, January 22, 1811, a son of John Mattox, a native of New Jersey. Lewis Mattox grew up in Pennsylvania, had only the limited advantages of the local schools of that day, and early in life removed to Knox County, Ohio, where he followed the trade of cooper in his own shop for a number of years. In the fall of 1840 he migrated to Adams County, Indiana, entering 240 acres in Monroe Township. He came to the county by wagon and team and lived in a tent made of his wagon cover until his log cabin was finished. Like other pioneers he endured many difficulties and hardships in getting established, but constant work and natural ability brought him a comfortable place in the community, where he was also recognized as a man of influence. He served as justice of the peace, was postmaster and kept the mail in his own home, was agent for the swamp lands of the county and did some of the pioneer ditching work. He was a democrat and a very active worker in the Presbyterian Church, which he served as elder and Sun- day school superintendent. On August 28, 1835, he married Anna Stephenson, who was born in Knox County, Ohio, July 24, 1815.
William L. Mattox, father of Doctor Mattox, was born in Ohio and was brought to Adams County when a small boy. He was a farmer and lived on one farm in Blue Creek Township for fifty years, where he died. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a democrat in politics. His wife, Bathsheba Coverdale, was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, and they were married at Monmouth in Adams County. Of their four children two are still living. The sister of Doctor Mattox is Mettie, wife of Virgil Mercer, and they occupy the old homestead farm in Blue Creek Township. Doctor Mattox also owns an interest in this farm.
Doctor Mattox grew up in the country, attended the district schools, and was a practical farmer some years before he entered the Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, where he took the full course and graduated M. D. in 1891. In the same year he returned to his native county and has since carried on a general practice as a physician and surgeon at Geneva. He is a member of the County Medical Society and has always kept pace with advanced ideas in the profession. In polities he is a democrat, has twice filled the chairs in his Geneva Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Church.
Doctor Mattox married Sophia Blocker. They have four children. Ilarold, a graduate of the Geneva High School, was a teacher for one term and then bought a half interest in the Geneva Herald and took up active newspaper work, and is now in the United States army located at Camp Shelby, 113th Engineer Corps. John L., the second son, is also a graduate of the Geneva public schools, lived for four years in Iowa, and after returning to Adams County taught school twelve months, but is now the active proprietor of the Geneva Herald. Louise is a graduate of the high school and the Bluffton School of Music, and has also taken an extension course in Chicago and is a teacher of music in the Geneva public schools. Lavon, the youngest child, is a graduate of the Geneva public schools.
JAMES H. HARDISON, a resident of Geneva for many years, is a vet- eran oil producer and operator, and has had an active experience in the various oil fields of the country beginning with those of Western Penn- sylvania when petroleum was considered one of the new and astonish- ing products of the world.
Mr. Hardison has seen much of pioneering in different stages of his
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life. He was born in Kennebee County, Maine, February 5, 1841, a son of Ivory and Dorcas ( Abbott) Hardison. When he was two years of age his parents removed to Aroostook County, Maine, where he grew to manhood. Aroostook County was then a wild and desolate section, 170 miles from the nearest railroad, filled with wild game and anyone living there became thoroughly imbued with the life of the forest and all the experience and craftsmanship which that meant. Mr. Hardison had a good common school education, and at the age of twenty started out to make his own way in the world. He worked in the sawmills in Maine three years, then going to Pennsylvania, where he soon drifted into the oil fields. He began drilling in 1865 and for fully half a century his interests and activities have identified him with the producing end of the oil business.
In 1876 Mr. Hardison married Mary E. Brooking. She is a native of Newfoundland, and her father was a ship captain and was lost at sea when Mrs. Hardison was a girl. Her family subsequently moved to Mereer, Pennsylvania, where she grew up. Mr. Hardison operated in the oil distriets of Western Pennsylvania for some years and finally moved out to Kansas, where he lived about six years. Later he returned to Pennsylvania and became an oil operator in that field and in 1893 did his first work in the oil fields of Indiana, operating around Geneva. His home has been at Geneva sinee.
Mr. and Mrs. Hardison have two children. Bertha, a graduate of the Geneva public schools, is the wife of H. O. Butler, and they live in California. Wallaee B., who is unmarried, lives at home with his parents and is manager of the Hartford Oil Company.
Mr. James H. Hardison is a charter member of Geneva Lodge No. 621, Free and Accepted Masons, and his son Wallace is a past master of that lodge. Both are charter members of the Order of Eastern Star Chapter. Mr. Hardison is a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, being affiliated with the consistory at Fort Wayne. Po- litically he is a strong and convincing advocate of republican doetrines. He was an ardent advocate of Roosevelt and still believes in perhaps the most virile statesman in America. Mr. Hardison has served as a member of the city eouneil of Geneva. He has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows sinee 1872, having joined that eraft at St. Petersburg in Clarion County, Pennsylvania. Later he was a member of the lodge at Salina, Kansas, and for a time was lodge treasurer there.
LOUISA E. MARSHALL. One of the old and prominent families of Wells County is represented by Mrs. Louisa E. Marshall, a daughter of the late Lawson Popejoy. The Popejoys have been identified with this section of Indiana since the time of the wilderness, the ox team and the log cabin.
The late Lawson Popejoy, who died Mareh 21, 1915, at the age of seventy-six years eleven months twenty-five days, through many long years had lived and prospered as a farmer and eitizen at his home three and a half miles east of Bluffton. Ile was born in Fayette County, Ohio, March 26, 1838, a son of Christian and Naney -( Bowers) Popejoy. When he was two and a half years of age his parents eame to Wells County, loeating in the northeast quarter of section 24, Ilar- rison Township. In the early '40s only few clearings here and there had been made in the wilderness of Wells County, and the Popejoys were among the families who bore the heat and burden of the day in establish- ing homes and making this land suitable. Lawson Popejoy grew up to a life of strenuous endeavors, attended subscription sehools and later a
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public school, and remained at home assisting his father in clearing up the farm until he was twenty-two. For a time he taught school in his home township.
Lawson Popejoy married Miss Orpha Davis, daughter of Elias and Ellen Davis. After his marriage he rented the old home farm and later bought it, and at the time of his death owned ninety-six acres. Be- sides his substantial position as a farmer he was a citizen of recognized influence throughout the county. In politics he was quite active, served as assessor of Harrison Township six years, as township treasurer four years, and in 1878 was elected county treasurer. He filled that county office four years and was also a trustee of Harrison Township.
Mr. and Mrs. Popejoy had five children: Louisa E .; Alice, wife of Clint Rush of Grant County, Indiana; Harriet, who died a number of years ago after her marriage to L. F. Hartman; Sherman of Hobson, Montana; and Lawson of Tipton, Indiana.
Louise E. Popejoy was born at the home of her parents in Har- rison Township, Deeemher 4, 1866. She was educated in the common schools of Bluffton. She married for her first husband Oliver Wilhelm, whose death occurred in two years, leaving her a widow at the age of nineteen. In 1887 she married Roscoe Marshall. By that marriage there were two daughters. Oma N., the older, is the wife of Charles Lesh of Bridgeport, Illinois. Fern I., who finished her education in the common schools of Poneto, married Cecil Oswalt, and now lives on the home farm southeast of Poneto. Mr. Marshall died May 20, 1912. He was born in Huntington County, son of William and Elizabeth Freel Marshall. Mrs. Marshall owns a fine property of eighty acres of land comprising the north half of the northeast quarter of section 7 in Not- tingham Township.
HENRY BARKLEY is one of the enviable citizens of Adams County. The elements of his life have been so mixed that he has always exempli- fied the traits and characteristics of a vigorous American citizen, and with a career verging neither on poverty nor on wealth has been able to provide well for his own wants and for those of his growing family and has made good in all life's relations.
He is now comfortably situated as proprietor of a good farm of eighty acres two miles from Decatur in section 9 of Washington Town- ship. He has his land thoroughly improved, with commodious farm buildings, including a comfortable residence of seven rooms, and a barn 36 hy 56 feet. This has been his home for twenty-seven years, and practically every year good crops have responded as a reward of his labor and judicious management of the soil and its resources.
Mr. Barkley represents a rather old and widely honored name in this section of Indiana, where the Barkleys have lived for sixty years or more. Several different branches of the family have been in Adams County, and all of them trace their carlier ancestry back to the Penn- sylvanians known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. Henry Barkley was born in Ashland County, Ohio, November 13, 1853. He was four years of age when his parents came to Adams County, Indiana. He is a son of An- drew and Hannah (Kahl) Barkley, also natives of Ohio. The father was born in 1823 and was a little older than his wife. He died June 27. 1890, and his widow survived him nearly a quarter of a century until Septem- ber, 1914. They married in Ashland County, Ohio, and were farmers there as well as in Indiana. All their four children were born in Ash- land County. Lovina, the oldest, who died September 14, 1915, was the wife of Emory Rummel, and by that marriage had ten children, two sons and eight daughters, all living now except the oldest child and all mar-
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ried and with children of their own except one son. The second in the family is Henry Barkley. The third, Catharine, died after her mar- riage to John Cook, who is now living in the West. They had a family of six children. James A., the youngest of the family, lives on a farm in Van Wert County, Ohio, and is married and has children.
When this branch of the Barkley family came to Adams County they settled on land in Union Township. They had little more than estab- lished themselves on that farm when Andrew Barkley left home to serve as a soldier in the Civil war. He was gone fourteen months and while he escaped actual wounds he suffered much from diarrhea and other diseases of the camp and returned home in greatly impaired health. He soon afterward left the farm and established a butcher shop at Decatur, operating it with a relative as partner. For some years they conducted this business and some of his surplus carnings he invested in the farm that is now owned by his son Henry in Washington Township. His wife and children lived on that farm and later he and his wife resided in Decatur until his death. The widowed mother spent most of her remaining years in the home of her son Henry. They were active members of the Evangelical Church of Decatur. Andrew Bark- ley was a democratic voter, and while living in Union Township before the war was appointed and served as the first land appraiser of the county.
Henry Barkley had only limited opportunities to obtain an educa- tion, and the only source of instruction he had was the common schools of the country district. But he has kept himself well informed on the issues of life and has always maintained the reputation of a man of di- rect honesty and one who fails in none of those essential services that make up good neighborliness and true citizenship. He has lived most of the years of an average lifetime and yet has never been sued nor has he sued anyone as a means of obtaining justice.
In Van Wert County, Ohio, Mr. Barkley married Caroline Whiten- barger. She was born and educated in that county, her birth occurring October 25, 1860. Her birthplace was within half a mile of the Indiana State line. Mrs. Barkley died at the home farm in Washington Town- ship of Adams County August 26, 1915. She was a daughter of Joseph and Susanna (Rummler) Whitenbarger, both natives of Ohio. Her parents married in Van Wert County and her mother died there when about fifty-six years of age and her father afterwards moved out to Kansas and died at the age of about seventy. He was at one time reckoned the wealthiest farmer in Harrison Township of Van Wert County, and was otherwise well known throughout that section of West- ern Ohio. He was a very decided republican in politics and his wife was a consistent member of the Lutheran Church. In the Whiten- barger family were four sons and four daughters, and only one son is now living.
Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Barkley. Curtis A., who died in Washington Township several years ago, married Jessie Bossi- mor of Adams County, who survives him, but their only child, a son, died three weeks after the death of the father. Jessie A., the second child, is the wife of Clay Engle, a farmer in Washington Township. They have a daughter, Bernice Marie, now a student in the public schools. Mary is the wife of Cecil Harvey, a farmer in Union Township, and their fam- ily consists of two daughters, Mabel and Gladys. Glenn E., the only surviving son of Mr. and Mrs. Barkley, is thirteen years of age and is now a student in the high school at Decatur. Mr. Barkley has always heen an active member of the Evangelical Church and his wife was a devout worshiper in the same faith. He is now and for years has served
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as trustee, is head of the building committee, and both through official and private relations has done all he could to support and keep up the church as an institution and a beacon light in the community. Politi- cally he is a demoerat.
JOHN B. CORSON. In farming as in every other business some do well and some apparently waste their energies without profit or benefit to themselves or the world. It is of the better and ablest class of farm- ers that John B. Corson of Washington Township is a representative. His farm is not one of the largest in the township but it is one of the best equipped and managed, and everyone in the county knows it as the home of a man thoroughly progressive and up-to-date in his busi- ness affairs and a man of utmost publie spirit in the community.
His place comprises eighty aeres of land in seetion 32 of Washington Township. When he bought the land only about eight acres were partly cleared, but all is now under improvement exeept a valuable wood lot of three acres of native timber. The improvements alone would repre- sent a modest fortune. Mr. Corson has built for his stoek one of the largest barns in the township, 100 by 60 feet. Around and near it are various other buildings for some special purpose. His home is a substantial structure of nine rooms.
Mr. Corson has always been known in this seetion for his ability as a stoek raiser. Up to 1906 for fourteen years he had one of the best herds of high grade Shorthorn eattle in the county. Perhaps his farm has received the greatest publicity and advertising because of the herd of deer which he kept there from 1900 to 1917. He had a park especially set aside for these fine animals, and he took a great deal of pride and showed a great deal of attention to handling and looking after them. He refused to sell any of the deer. Recently some epidemie struck the herd and killed all except a fawn seven days old, which he still keeps.
Mr. Corson eame to Adams County from Shelby County, Ohio, in 1883. He was born in Fayette County of that state December 30, 1847. In 1856 at the age of nine years he went with his widowed mother to Shelby County, when that was still a somewhat new and sparsely set- tled distriet. According to popular tradition many witches were still in the woods of Shelby County and the superstitious and ignorant aseribed most of their ills to the presence of these evil spirits. Mr. Corson's paternal grandparents came from Rockingham County, Virginia, and were early settlers on a farm in Fayette County, Ohio. His grand- mother died there in 1856, and his grandfather six or seven years prior to that, so that Mr. Corson knew very little of them as a boy. They were all members of the Primitive Baptist Church and the family for gener- ations supplied democratie voters. Mr. Corson's father was Abraham Corson, who spent practically all his life in Fayette County, Ohio, where he died in the prime of life. His death was the result of an accident while he was engaged in repairing a water power sawmill. Abraham Corson married Diana Couts, who was born in Shelby County, Ohio. After the death of her husband she moved with her family to Shelby County. and there married Jacob Consolver. In 1885 she went west and settled fifty-two miles west of Aberdeen, South Dakota, where she died at the age of seventy-eight. Her husband was past eighty when he died. Mr. and Mrs. Consolver had two sons and two daughters.
John B. Corson is the oldest of five sons and one daughter of his fath- er's children still living, and one son is deceased. All those living are married except one. John B. Corson grew up in Shelby County, Ohio, and lived at home on his mother's farm. He acquired an education rather better than that supplied to most of the country boys of his time.
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Mr. Corson married for his first wife Mrs. Selma Watkins, who brought him a family of two daughters and one son, all of whom are now married. Mr. and Mrs. Corson had five sons, and of the triplets, two died in infancy. The survivor, Victor, now lives in Porter Connty, Indiana ; Ross also lives in Porter County and the whereabouts of Frank is unknown. Mrs. Selma Corson died in 1884, her youngest child being about eighteen months old. Three years later Mr. Corson married his second wife being Mrs. Martha Lahabrun, a widow with three young daughters. These children were the greatest eomfort to both Mr. and Mrs. Corson and all of the girls married neighbor boys and two of Mr. Corson's sons married in Porter County. They all have families and good homes. After sixteen years of married life Mrs. Corson died and in 1905 Mr. Corson rented his farm to the youngest girl's husband. On June 1, 1906, Mr. Corson started for the Pacific Coast where three of his brothers are living. Ile stopped off in South Dakota to visit a brother and sister. He remained all that winter at Seattle, Washing- ton, where one brother lives and at Koose Bay, Oregon, where the other two live. In the spring of 1907 while visiting a neighbor near German- town, Ohio, he met a widow with one child. In the fall of the year they married and Mr. Corson lived on his wife's farm for three years, renting his Indiana farm. At the end of that time they came to live on the Indiana place. About Thanksgiving Day, 1913, Mrs. Corson went to Ohio to visit her daughter and here took sick and died and. was buried with her first husband.
For his present wife Mr. Corson married in Adams County April 9, 1914, Malinda Good, who was born in Washington Township June 16, 1860. She is a daughter of Jacob and Anna (Beery) Good, both natives of Ohio, her mother of Fairfield County where the parents married. After the birth of their children, Mary and Solomon Good, Mrs. Corson's parents moved to Adams County, Indiana, locating in the woods in section 18 of Washington Township. Their first home was a log cabin and they lived with its modest comforts until the parents were able to build a better structure which is still standing. Her father died there in 1888 at the age of seventy-five. He was an active democrat. His widow passed away some years later in Deeember, 1907, at the home of a son in Dayton, being at the time eighty-nine years of age. The Good family were active members of the River Brethren Church. After they came to Adams County seven more children were born, and of these nine three sous and four daughters are still living and all are married and have children. Mrs. Corson first married Lewis Andrews, who died in 1910. By that union she beeame the mother of eight children, all of whom are now deceased exeept two. One, Mrs. Anna Maloney, died leaving three children, Edith, Winifred and Galley. Another, Mrs. Amy Smith, died leaving a son, Glenn. Among the other children of Mrs. Corson now deceased were Fannie, who died at the age of nineteen, and Lauran E., Lydia L., and Floyd, who died when quite young. The two living children of Mrs. Corson are: Virgil L. Andrews, who is seven- teen years of age and has completed the work of the publie schools; and Eli A. Andrews, who is still attending school. Mrs. Corson is an active member of the River Brethren Church. Mr. Corson is a Master Mason in the Deeatur Lodge, and during his long residence in Adams County has won hosts of friends hoth in the county seat and in his home eom- munity.
JAMES D. HOFFMAN. During forty years of residence in Adams County James D. Hoffman's eareer has been characterized by that steady industry and quiet effieieney which have enabled him to discharge im- portant responsibilities and bear his part of the burdens of the world's
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activities with credit and honor. Mr. Hoffman is a farmer by occupa- tion and he and his family now have a comfortable country home in St. Mary's Township on Route No. 10 out of Decatur.
He was born in Schuykill County, Pennsylvania, June 8, 1850, and is of substantial Pennsylvania German aneestry. His grandfather, Peter Hoffman, was born in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, and married Julia Hoffman, a native of the same county but not related to her hus- band. After his marriage Peter Hoffman moved to West Penn Town- ship in Schuylkill County in 1817, and there he and his good wife spent the rest of their days. They were both members of the Reformed Church. Their children consisted of Stephen, John, Jonas, Susanna, Lydia, Catherine and Pauline.
Stephen Hoffman, father of James D., grew to maturity on the old home farm in Schuylkill County and about 1839 married Pauline Daubenspeck. They had the following children : Reuben, born January 19, 1840, and lost his life while a soldier in the Union army; William, born February 15, 1842, who also served in the Union army under Gen- eral Hancock ; Solomon, born February 22, 1843; Paulus, born September 2, 1844; Lydia, born December 10, 1845, and died in infancy ; Jacob, born July 3, 1848, who though extremely young found service as a soldier in Grant's army toward the close of the war; James D., born June 8, 1850; Leah, born May 14, 1852; Noah, born June 19, 1855; Louis, born January 8, 1857 ; and Jonas, born March 20, 1861.
James D. Hoffman grew up in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, and was educated both in the German schools and in the English school. He attended the latter school only six months. Work on the farm con- stituted a large part of his boyhood experience and he remained at home until June 4, 1874, when he married Miss Jennie Fulk and established a home of his own. She was born at Lordstown in Trumbull County, Ohio, September 13, 1852. They married at Warren, the county seat of Trumbull County.
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