History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II, Part 90

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 680

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II > Part 90

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).

In summing up, Mr. Dailey is really a good man and a man of much mental ability. He is a stronger man intellectually than he has ever had the credit for in Jeffersonville. For one who has secured his education through such dis- advantages it is something remarkable that he is so accurately informed upon so many important topics. There is hardly a subject that he cannot converse upon intelligently.

DR. H. H. FERGUSON.

Colonel Henry Ferguson was the only child of William Ferguson, who came from the Highlands of Scotland, and was one of the early settlers of Washington county, Pennsylvania, where Henry was born on the first day of January, 1804. He lived with his father until his twenty-third year, at which time he was married to Nancy Young, from which union eight children were born, six sons and two daughters. At an early age he manifested a great liking for the military, and was early enrolled among the Pennsylvania militia ; his proficiency gave him rapid promotion and he soon received a commission (from the Governor of Pennsylvania) as colonel of his regiment, which he held until 1843, at which time he left Washington county, Pennsylvania, and removed to Clark county, Indiana, and purchased land and engaged in farming at the place where Henryville now stands. He took an active part in the building of the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis railroad, and he was for a number of years paymaster and general agent of the

HMSErguson ML

487

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

road. He laid out the town of Henryville and called it Morristown, but there being another town of the same name in the State the name was afterwards changed by the board of county commissioners, and in honor of him was called Henryville. He was always active in advancing the general welfare and prosperity of the com- munity, making liberal donations to all enter- prises of merit. He was for many years one of the influential and energetic citizens of the county, noted for his generosity, hospitality, high sense of honor, and other good qualities.

Dr. Henry H. Ferguson, the subject of the present sketch, was his youngest child, and was born at Henryville, Clark county, Indiana, on the 26th day of May, 1845, and has continued to live there, except at short intervals, to the present. He received his education principally at the Barnett academy, in Charlestown, under the instruction of the principal, Mr. Z. B. Stur- gus, a justly celebrated educator. His course of study preparatory to entering Hanover college was almost completed when the death of his father, in November, 1860, necessitated his leav- ing school; he was then only fifteen years of age. He was now thrown upon his own re- sources. During the winter of 1861, at the age of sixteen, he commenced the study of medicine, and attended lectures in Louisville the following winter, after which he stood a satisfactory exam- ination and was appointed a medical cadet in the United States army, and stationed in a hos- pital at Louisville, Kentucky.

He continued to hold this position for two and one-half years, during which time he attended a second course of lectures and graduated as a doctor of medicine at the Kentucky School of Medicine, in the spring of 1865. On the 16th day of October, 1865, he opened an office and commenced the practice of medicine at Henry- ville, his native town, not yet being twenty-one years of age. During the winter of 1866-67 he again attended a course of lectures and gradu- ated at the Medical University in Louisville. After practicing five years he visited the city of New York and for six months devoted himself to the diligent study of his profession at the Bellevue Hospital Medical college, at which celebrated institution he also graduated. During his stay in that city he took private courses of in- struction in medicine and surgery from some of

the most eminent men of the profession now living, Frank Hastings Hamilton, Lewis A. Sayer, and Austin Flint. After his return from New York city he continued to do a large and suc- cessful practice, during which time he success- fully performed many of the most difficult opera- tions known to surgery. He performed success- fully the operation for strangulated hernia on a man sixty-five years of age, and when the patient was in a condition of collapse, it being the only successful operation of the kind ever performed in the county. He continued in active practice in a constantly enlarging field until 1878, when he was nominated and elected treasurer of the county over three competitors for the office, and in 1880 he was re-elected to the same office by the largest majority of any one on the ticket. He is now discharging his duties as treasurer.

WILLIAM GOFORTH ARMSTRONG.

William G. Armstrong was born February 4, 1797, at Columbia, Ohio, six miles above Cin- cinnati. He was the son of John and Tabitha Armstrong. John Armstrong, his father, was the son of Thomas and Jane Armstrong, and was born April 20, 1755, in New Jersey. Thomas Armstrong was born in the Parish of Donahada, in the county of Tyrone, in the north of Ireland. His father's name was John Armstrong.

Jane Armstrong, wife of Thomas and mother of John (father of William), was born in the county of Derry, north Ireland. Her father's name was Michael, the Duke of Hamilton. Alderman Skipton, of Faughnvalle, was the grandfather of Jane Hamilton, who married Thomas Armstrong. Thomas and Jane Arm- strong came to the United States about the year 1754, and died at Northumberland, Northum- berland county, Pennsylvania.

Tabitha, mother of William G. Armstrong and wife of John Armstrong, was the daughter of William and Catharine Goforth. She was born February 27, 1774.

William Goforth, father of Tabitha, was born April 1, 1731, and was the son of Aaron Go- forth, who came from Hull, in Yorkshire, Great Britain, at an early period. He was married to Mary Pool, daughter of Nathaniel Pool, by

488

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

whom he had five children-Tabitha, Elizabeth, Nathaniel, Mary, and William. On the 18th day of May, 1760, William Goforth was married to Jemima Meeks, daughter of Michael Degree, a French.Protestant, who fled from France at the persecution of Paris. She was born Febru- ary 26, 1744.

Nathaniel Pool was the son of John Pool, and was born in Bristol, England, and came to America in the next ship that arrived after Wil- liam Penn, at which time two houses were be- gun, but only one finished, where the city of Philadelphia now stands.

William Goforth, father of Tabitha, who mar- ried John Armstrong (father of William G.), was one of the framers and signers of the original constitution of the State of New York, and was an early settler of the West, having reached Co- lumbia, on the Little Miami, early in 1790. He was soon after appointed a justice of the peace for the county of Hamilton, being the first ap- pointed magistrate in that county, and afterwards was made one of the judges of the Territorial courts of the Northwest Territory, being commis- sioned by President Washington.

At the commencement of the Revolutionary war, John Armstrong having gone to Philadelphia to dispose of a load of wheat for his father, found that recruits were enlisting for service in the United States, and on his return home told his father that with his approbation he intended to enlist as a private soldier. The next morning he joined the army at Philadelphia. In a short time he was made sergeant, and from September II, 1777, to the close of the Revolution he served as a commissioned officer in various ranks. On the disbanding of the army he was continued in the service ; was commandant at Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh) in 1785-86 and from 1786 to 1790 of the garrison at the Falls of the Ohio, at Fort Finney, afterwards called Fort Steuben. In the spring of 1791 he returned to Philadelphia to recruit his force with a view to the approaching campaign in the Northwest, under command of Colonel Josiah Harmar, and reached Fort Washington (now Cincinnati) in August of that year, and marched with the main body of the troops against the Indians. He was afterwards with General St. Clair in his cam- paign, and was in command at Fort Hamilton until the spring of 1793, when he resigned. Dur-

ing the Revolution and Indian wars he served a period of seventeen years, was in thirty-seven skirmishes, four general actions, and one siege, among which were the battles of Stony Point, Trenton, Princeton, Monmouth, and the siege of Yorktown in Virginia. While stationed at the Falls of the Ohio at Fort Finney, afterwards called Fort Steuben, where the city of Jefferson- ville, Indiana, now stands, he and his little force in the garrison rendered essential service in pro- tecting the inhabitants of Kentucky from the depredations of the savages. At one time he, by his fortitude and exertions, saved the garrison at Vincennes from starvation. While stationed at Fort Finney, with a view of preventing the Indians from crossing into Kentucky, he built a block-house at the mouth of Bull creek, which commanded'a view of their crossing places at Eighteen-mile island bar and Grassy flats, which were fordable at a low stage of the Ohio river.

While his men were engaged in building the block-house, he with his tomahawk girdled the timber on about three acres of land on top of the hill opposite the Grassy flats, and planted peach seeds in the woods. When the first settlers came to the Illinois Grant, and landed at the "big rock," designated as their landing place, in the fall of 1795, after Wayne's treaty, they found the timber dead and fallen down, and the peach trees growing among the brush, and bearing fruit. The settlers cleared away the brush, and for many years this woody orchard furnished them with fruit. On the 20th of February, 1790, General Harmar notified Colonel Armstrong that he was to make a tour among the Western tribes of Indians, and from his memoranda, found among his papers, it seems he was at the Falls of the Ohio February 27, 1790; at Vin- cennes, March 18, 1790; and at Fort Washing- ton (now Cincinnati) July 28, 1791. He made an extensive trip to St. Louis, and through Illi- nois, Indiana, and Ohio, and was gone several months with only two friendly Indians as his companions. This was a tour of great hazard and exposure of constitution. The notes taken by him of the country, the quality of the soil, and water courses, are evidence he anticipated that ere long the country would be peopled with white men. Soon after his retirement from the army he was appointed treasurer of the North- west Territory. His first commission was dated

William S. Armstrong.

489

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

September 3, 1796, another bears date Decem- ber 14, 1799. He served as one of the judges of Hamilton county, and many years as magis- trate at Columbia, where he resided from 1793 to 1814, when he removed to his farm opposite Grassy flats, in Clark county, Indiana, where he died February 4, 1816, after a confinement of five years and twenty-four days with rheumatism, during which time he was unable to walk unless supported by persons on either side of him. He was buried on that farm, where a monument marks his last resting place. John Armstrong Was married to Tabitha Goforth, January 27, 1793, and had five daughters-Ann, Catharine, Mary Gano, Eliza, and Viola Jane, and three sons, William Goforth, Thomas Pool, and John Hilditch.

The country was sparsely settled and ad- vantages for an education being few, William Goforth Armstrong had but few opportuni- ties for going to school, and only attended school nine months, and three months of that time walked three miles and crossed the Ohio river opposite Columbia (where his father lived) in a canoe every day, and as he came home at night gathered hickory bark in order that he might have light to study by at night.

At an early age he was placed in the clerk's office at Hamilton, Ohio, with Colonel Reilley, and apprenticed to him for three years, the first year receiving his board and two suits of plain clothing and $5 in money, the second year his board and clothes and $ro, the third year $15 and his board and clothing. He went to the office at 6 o'clock in the morning, built fires, cleaned the office, and did such work as he was called upon to do until six in the evening. After that he was permitted to use his time as he thought best, and he improved it by read- ing and studying until late into the night, and being anxious to learn he acquired not only a good knowledge of reading, writing, and mathe- matics, including surveying, but of the law and business forms generally, and became very care- ful and systematic in his business habits. After leaving Hamilton he assisted his father in the management of his business and of his farm, and on the 22d of April, 1817, married Deborah Halley, daughter of Samuel Halley and Margaret Halley, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and settled at Beth- lehem, Clark county, Indiana, and cleared up a

farm near that place, and at the same time opened a store, where he sold such goods as were needed by the people in that vicinity. He still pursued his studies, and soon became noted for his knowledge of law, and being a man of fine judgment was often applied to by his neighbors for counsel in their business affairs. This soon made him acquainted with the people, and in a few years they elected him to a seat in the House of Representatives, where he served eleven years, and two years in the Senate. This was between the years 1822 and 1840.

He was a stanch and firm Whig, and Clark county was strongly Democratic, but being a man of fine social qualities and of a high order of talent, and thoroughly informed as to the wants of the people whom he represented, they felt that he was the person to look after their interests, and knowing that he would do all in his power to serve their welfare in an honorable manner, they were willing to trust him.

He remained at Bethlehem until August 10, 1841, when he moved to Jeffersonville, Indiana, having been appointed receiver of public moneys in the land office for that district by President Harrison, but he only held the office until the following March, when he retired and com- menced merchandizing, and continued at that business up to 1847, when he and others became interested in building a railroad from Jefferson- ville to Indianapolis. He threw all his energies into this enterprise, and after a severe struggle, succeeded in getting a charter for what was known as the Jeffersonville railroad. This char- ter is very liberal, and grants privileges which were not given to any other road in the State of Indiana, and which have been of very great ad- vantage to this company. At the time the building of the Jeffersonville railroad was com- menced, there were not many persons of wealth around the Falls of the Ohio, and capitalists had not then begun to seek investments in that class of securities, and it was difficult to raise means for that purpose, but Mr. Armstrong had studied well the geography of the country, and knew that this road, if built, would be an important connecting link between the North and South, and although the way looked dark, and those associated with him in the enterprise often gave up in despair, he never lost faith in the work but pushed steadily forward, and by his energy,

62*

490

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

perseverance, hard work, and management, finally accomplished the great work which he had undertaken, and in 1852 the road was com- pleted, and trains ran through to Indianapolis.

It is but simply justice to say that he deserves a great deal of praise for the energy, persever- ance, tact, and financial skill, as well as for the hard work he did in building this road, and the fine business which has been done over this line, and the cheapness with which it can be operated, and the important connections which it makes, show that the arguments which he used and the plans which he pursued with such determination were good ones, and show what a clear-headed, far-seeing man he was. He was the first president of the Jeffersonville railroad, and was the presi- dent until 1853, when he retired, after having given several of the best years of his life to this work. From this time until his death, which was on the 29th of July, 1858, he devoted himself to his private business and to his family, but always doing all he could to advance the interests of the community in which he lived, serving in the city council of Jeffersonville, and aiding by his wise counsels and clear head in developing this city.

WILLIAM KEIGWIN.

William Keigwin came from Norwalk, Con- necticut, in 1818, settling at Jeffersonville, where he opened a blacksmith-shop on Market, between Mulberry and Clark streets. The house which he then built still stands. At his shop he made the first plows and axes ever made in the town, and probably in the county. When Westover, the first lessee of the penitentiary, relinquished charge of it, Mr. Keigwin leased it, and con- tinued to control it for eight years. He then went into the Jeffersonville Insurance and Banking company as president and secretary. After leaving this post he devoted the remainder of his life to the care of his property in Jeffersonville and Louisville, removing to the latter city in 1844. There he died April 30, 1861. His wife, whose maiden name was Jane Christy, sur- vived until December, 1876.

The children of the couple were: William Keigwin, who went to Texas in 1844, and there died; he was a member of the Legislature and clerk of the court in that State. Mary Keigwin,

the oldest daughter, married John Woodburn, and is now deceased. Eliza married Judge Read, of Jeffersonville, and is also dead. Mrs. Rebecca Keigwin Meriwether; Colonel James Keigwin, who raised and commanded the Forty- ninth Indiana volunteer infantry during the late war, and now lives in Jeffersonville; Ephraim Keigwin, now and for years a magistrate in Jef- fersonville; Mattie, deceased wife of Otto Ver- hoeff; Rev. Henry C. Keigwin, pastor of the Presbyterian church of Orlando, Florida; Rev. A. N. Keigwin, pastor of a Presbyterian church in Wilmington, Delaware; Susan Keigwin Ellt. ott, of Louisville; Emma Keigwin Webster, of Louisville, and Harriet, who died in infancy.

WILLIAM H. FOGG

was born in Manchester, England, on the 24th day of June, 1816. He left home in 1836 to visit the United States, with a boy's thirst for ad- venture and love of travel. He arrived in Phil. adelphia a stranger in a strange land, friendless and alone. He lived in that city about eighteen months, and learned the trade of a machinist with a Mr. Brooks. He finally left Philadelphia for the Far West, and was about three weeks making the trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Arriving at Pittsburgh he fell in company with an old gentleman named Leavenworth, of the town of Leavenworth, Indiana, on his way home with a stock of dry goods, and engaged with him to work his way down the dry bed of the river with- out pay, so anxious was he to see and reach the great Far West. It took thirty-three days to go from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, working sixteen to eighteen hours per day. Mr. Fogg became a member of Mr. Leavenworth's family, staid with him several years and made several trips on store boats for him, running from Louisville to New Orleans, the trip consuming usually about nine months in the year. Subsequently he engaged in steamboating, and was in that capacity some eight or nine years, mostly as clerk and assistant pilot, but being of a handy turn could lend a helping hand in any capacity-mate, assistant engineer, etc.,-in fact, could fill temporarily any situation on a steamboat.

Mr. Fogg was married to a Miss Morgan, of Leavenworth, Indiana. Her father was clerk of

491

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

the county of Crawford, Indiana, which position he had held for twenty one years. After a year of mar ried life he came ashore and was engaged as clerk and financier of the American foundry, New Albany, which position he held for eight years. On the rechartering of the bank of the State of In- diana a branch was located at Jeffersonville, of which Mr. Fogg was elected cashier, and moved to Jeffersonville in the severe cold winter of 1857. At that time there was no railroad be- tween New Albany and Jeffersonville, and he was obliged to walk from his home to Jeffersonville and back all through the severe winter. He staid in the branch bank until the year 1865, when becoming pleased with the National bank- ing system he organized a company and estab- lished the First National bank of Jeffersonville; was elected cashier and has held the position ever since. While living at New Albany he served two years in the city council, and has served in the same position for two or three terms in the city of Jeffersonville. In 1866 he was elected a member of the board of trustees of the town of Clarksville, and shortly afterwards was elected secretary of the board, which position he still holds. Mr. Fogg has in his possession the old record book of the board, which is a rare and valuable relic of ye holden times, dating back to the year 1780.

Mr. and Mrs. Fogg joined the First Presbyte- rian church in New Albany about the year 1854, under the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Stevenson. After his removal to Jeffersonville he joined the First Presbyterian church in that city, and was unanimously elected a ruling elder, which office he continues to hold, as well as being a member of the common council. He also served for a term or two on the board of school trustees.

In politics Mr. Fogg is a Republican of the strictest sort, serving one term as a member of the State central committee. Mr. Fogg is a man well known, beloved and respected by all who know him; as he himself says, never without a friend, or a dollar to divide with the needy and those in distress. His life has been an eventful one, full of interest, and he is in the strictest sense of the word a self-made man. Some thir- teen years ago he made an extended tour of Europe. His description .of what he saw and heard would fill a volume. Mr. Fogg, from his good habits, being a strict temperance man, is

well preserved for one who has lived so long a sedentary life.

CAPTAIN JAMES S. WHICHER,

the present treasurer of Jeffersonville, Indiana, was born June 8, 1836, near Pontiac, Livingstone county, State of Illinois, his father having re- moved to that State from Indiana in 1834, becoming a squatter sovereign on the pub- lic domain. The captain came to Indiana in 1851 ; enlisted as a private in the Second In- diana battery, which was organized at Rising Sun, Ohio county, and was mustered into the service August 14, 186r, at Indianapolis, by Lieutenant-colonel T. J. Wood, United States Army. After the battery was fully organized and equipped it was ordered to report to General Hunter, at St. Louis, for duty in the West, in which department it remained until the close of the war, participating in all the battles that took place up to and including the last fight at Nash- ville, Tennessee, during which time the subject of this sketch never missed a day's duty or a single engagement. He was promoted succes- sively from private to corporal, sergeant, quarter- master-sergeant, orderly-sergeant, second lieu- tenant, first lieutenant, and captain, and was mus- tered out of the service at the close of the war, July 3, 1865. In 1862 he was appointed drill- master of artillery in General Solomon's brigade. In 1863 General John McNeil appointed him judge advocate of the District of Southwest Mis- souri, headquarters at Springfield. The battery having been ordered to Fort Smith, Arkansas, he was released from duty as judge advocate. Arriving at Fort Smith Colonel Cloud, com- manding the post, appointed him post-adjutant, which position he filled until the organization of the District of the Frontier, General John M. Thayer commanding, when he was appointed judge advocate of the district, headquarters at Fort Smith. He participated in the march and skirmishes on the road to reinforce General Banks on Red river, and was then transferred to the De- partment of the Cumberland. After the fight at Nashville he was put in command of Fort Mor- ton, at which post he remained until the close of the war. . On his return he went into the grocery - business at Martinsville, Morgan county, but his -

492

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

health having broken down was compelled to quit business-was bed-fast for eighteen months; re- covered sufficiently to come to Jeffersonville, broken in health and purse; obtained employment in the Quartermaster department, afterwards ap- pointed deputy postmaster by Major A. W. Luke, and elected city treasurer on the Republican ticket May 3, 1881, to serve two years from September r, 1881.

SETTLEMENT NOTES.

Richard Pile came originally from Virginia, and settled in Kentucky with the foremost pio- neers. About the year 1798 he removed to In- diana, then included in the Northwest Territory, and made a home at the long since abandoned town of Springville. Before 1802 he came to Jef- fersonville, and was made one of the trustees to sell and convey title to lots in the town. He was a prominent man in the affairs of the new coun- try, but lived to see only a beginning made in redeeming the wilderness and fitting it for man's habitation, his death occurring in 1816. Two of his children, Mrs. Margaret Powell and B. C. Pile, are now living, and are almost the only re- maining links connecting the past with the pres- ent. B. C. Pile was born in Jeffersonville in 1805, and has witnessed the slow growth from a town whose streets were encumbered with trees, or a simple path in the forest, to a city of more than ten thousand population, with paved streets, and the habitation of a great number of working men who find employment in the busy manufac- tories of the present day. Mr. Pile had few op- portunities for mental culture in his early life, but such as he had were well improved. A strong mind and vigorous constitution has carried him through the years of toil and privation between that day and this. Had he enjoyed the privileges the youth of this generation possess, his would have been one of master minds of his day and generation. His life has been spent at hard labor at what his hands could find to do, in the forest, the brick-yard, and elsewhere, the last business he engaged in being a stone-ware pot- tery, where he labored ten years. He has en- joyed the confidence of his fellow-townsmen, and has served as mayor of the city, besides holding minor places of trust.

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.

History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II, Part 90

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 680

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 680