USA > Ohio > Memoirs of the lower Ohio valley, personal and genealogical : with portraits, Volume I > Part 11
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He is a Republican in opinions but is not an active politician, and is a member of the Episcopal church. In 1867 Mr. Wilder was mar- ried to Miss Jennie L. Leland, daughter of Alden Leland, of Hollis- ton, and they have one daughter, Constance L.
WILLIAM E. STARK, vice-president and general manager of the Cochran Chair Company, Cochran, Ind., was born at Versailles, Ripley county, Ind., Oct. 29, 1866. He was reared and educated in his native town, living there until he was eighteen years old, except three years at Sedalia, Mo. Leaving school at the age of fourteen years he began life as a drug clerk. For four years he worked in drug and grocery stores, and then came to Cochran, where he was employed for six years in a general store. At the end of that time he became bookkeeper for the Cochran Chair factory, and when the company was incorporated in 1899 he was elected to his present position. Mr. Stark is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal church. He was married in 1891 to Miss Sarah E., daughter of George Smith, of Augusta, Ky., and they have two sons, Leland W. and Harold L. The family resides in Aurora. Mr. Stark's father, Silas Stark, was born in Versailles in 1844, and died in Sedalia, Mo., Feb. 14, 1876. He was a farmer all his life. He married Mar- garet E. Johnson and of the five children born to them three are still living: Luella, wife of William Radspinner; William E., and Ambrose E. The Stark family came originally from Virginia, though the paternal grandfather of William E. Stark was born near Paris, Ky., July 4, 1811, and came to Versailles about 1828. His name was - Elijah Stark. He went to Grant City, Mo., in 1890 and died there ten years later.
JOSIAH C. WRIGHT, senior member of the firm of J. C. Wright & Son, dealers in lumber and builders' supplies, Aurora, Ind., was born in Dearborn county, Ind., Jan. 5, 1850. His paternal grand- father, Ira Wright, was born in Pennsylvania in 1789, came to Dear- born county in his early. manhood, entered land there, and died a farmer in 1876. His son, Henry F., father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Dearborn county in 1826. He served in the Third, and
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later in the Seventh Indiana cavalry, during the Civil war, holding the rank of captain and acting major. He died of disease at Memphis in 1864, having had command of his regiment for three months prior to his death. Of his family Josiah and three sisters are living. Josiah C. Wright attended the public schools of the country districts and the town of Aurora until he was sixteen years of age. He then stayed on the farm until he was twenty-two, when he went into the Ohio & Mississippi (now the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern) car shops at Cochran, Ind. After two years in the shops he went West, working as a carpenter in Lincoln, Neb., and Wichita, Kan. Return- ing home he began the business of contracting on a small scale, which has gradually grown. In 1901 he opened a lumber yard and is today the largest contractor in Aurora. Mr. Wright belongs to no secret order or religious denomination, yet he is the publisher of a religious paper called Alpha and Omega, which is now in its seventh year. Politically he is a Prohibitionist and by precept and example teaches the doctrines of doing right for the sake of the right. He was mar- ried in 1871 to Miss Mary E. Echels, of Aurora, and they have seven children: Harley E., Emma, now Mrs. Cumback; John W., Ralph, Oran, Mabel, and Naomi.
ANDREW P. DAUGHTERS, M.D., of Moores Hill, Ind., has practiced medicine in that vicinity for almost half a century. He was born in Dearborn county, Ind., Aug. 12, 1831. His paternal grandfather, Hudson Daughters, was a native of Wales. He came to America in the latter part of the eighteenth century and settled in Delaware, where James Daughters, father of the doctor, was born in 1799. He came to Dearborn county, where he followed farming for many years and died there in 1856. Dr. Daughters received his early education in the public schools, afterward attending Asbury- now De Pauw-university during the sessions of 1849-50. He then taught for two years, read medicine, and in 1855 was graduated from the Miami Medical college of Cincinnati. He located at Moore's Hill, where he has practiced ever since, except what time he was in the army. In June, 1861, he enlisted in the Eighteenth Indiana vol- unteer infantry, as first lieutenant of Company A, but two months later was made assistant surgeon and shortly afterward surgeon of the regiment. He was with his regiment in the engagements at Bentonville, Mo., Elk Horn Tavern, Pea Ridge, Wilson's Creek, Pilot Knob, Port Gibson, Champion Hills, and a number of others. At the siege of Vicksburg the demands upon him were so great that
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he was completely exhausted. He remained at his post, however, until the city capitulated, when he resigned and came home. For some months prior to that time he had held the position of staff physician on the staff of Brig .- Gen. H. D. Washburn. Dr. Daugh- ters is a member of the Dearborn County Medical society and since 1896 has been president of the pension examining board. He is a member and one of the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal church; has been an Odd Fellow since 1853, and has taken all the degrees of the order; and is a Royal Arch Mason. He was married in 1860 to Althea A. Justis, and of the nine children born to them six survive, viz .: Deborah J., Andrew N., Peter B., Sarah B., James E., and Pearl. Mrs. Daughters died in 1884.
HARRIS FITCH, hardware merchant and dealer in farm implements and vehi- cles, was born in Lawrenceburg, Ind., March 26, 1859. After attending the city schools he was a student at old Asbury university (De Pauw) and Nelson's Busi- ness college in Cincinnati. His first posi- tion was as a clerk in the First National bank. He went into the livery and im- plement business in 1878. In 1888 he sold out the livery and in 1892 added a line of general hardware to his implement trade. His business is the largest of the kind in this part of the state. His house has a popular standing, it hav- ing been said he keeps everything "from a needle to a threshing machine." He is a Methodist. In politics he is a Republican.
The Fitch family is one of the oldest and most prominent in this part of the country, tracing its ancestry back more than three hundred years, when Thomas Fitch near the close of the sixteenth century became, by descent, the proprietor of an estate near Braintree, Essex county, Eng- land, and after an honest and peaceful life died, leaving a widow and five sons. Shortly thereafter, these descendants with their mother emi- grated to New England, about 1638. These five sons, Thomas, James, Samuel, Joseph, and John, make it easy to account for the great number by the name in New England and New York, and the part they took in their colonial history. For a descendant of one of these numerous branches, Fitchburg, Mass., was named. Another, Thomas, was gov- ernor of Connecticut under George II. John Fitch, the inventor of the
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steamboat was the great-grandson of the first Joseph in this country, who made a large purchase of land in Windsor, Hartford county, Conn. James, the second of the five American Fitches, was born at Bocking, Essex county, England, Dec. 24, 1622. After removing to New England in 1638 he studied seven years for the ministry under the distinguished ministers, Hooker and Stone. He became pastor of the First Church (Congregational) in Saybrook, 1646. After a service of fourteen years, he, in 1659, with Captain John Mason and a company of thirty-five followed along the banks of the Thames river to a picturesque spot between the Yantic and Shetucket rivers and founded the town of Norwich, which Dr. Holmes justly described as "a town of supreme, audacious, Alpine loveliness." He was a large land owner in Norwich, Windham, and Lebanon and interested in the settlement of these towns. He learned the language of the Mohegan Indians, and was popular among them, preaching to them in their own tongue, shar- ing his land with them, and teaching them agriculture. Rev. James Fitch in 1664 married as his second wife Priscilla Mason, daughter of John Mason. He died at Lebanon, Conn., Nov. 18, 1702. Joseph, their son, was born in Norwich in November, 1681. On Dec. 29, 1721, Joseph married as his second wife Annie Whiting, eldest daughter of Samuel Whiting. Joseph died at Lebanon, May 9, 1741. Their son, Capt. Azel Fitch, was born in Lebanon, Nov. 7, 1728. He mar- ried Rhoda Collins, daughter of Rev. Timothy Collins, 1767. He was her third husband. Azel Fitch died at Albany, N. Y., about 1767. Their son, Joseph, was born at Lebanon, Conn., in June, 1768. In 1784 he married Elizabeth Harris, born in Cornwall, Conn., May 7, 1765. They went to Amena, Dutchess county, N. Y. There the first son, Azel, was born, Nov. 25, 1790. From here they moved to Kingsbury, Washington county, where were born Collins, May 13, 1793, Harris, March 13, 1796, and Clarissa, June 1, 1798. The fifth, Alonzo, was born at Queensbury, Warren county, and Morgan and Lewin born at Scipio, Cayuga county, June 13, 1806. Shortly after the death of his sister, Harris, the grandfather of the present Harris, together with his parents and brothers except the eldest, came to Lawrenceburg. When he was grown he engaged in the then great traffic on the river. In those early times when every man must almost of necessity be jack-of-all-trades, he was more-in fact, mas- ter of at least six. His garden with its fine fruit, of his own graft- ing, its great variety of vegetables, the beds bordered with flowers and walks laid with tanbark, was the wonder and admiration of the town and the delight of his family. For years he was proprietor of
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the Fitch House, which he built. In 1821 he married Hannah Biggs. To them were born eight children. Three died in infancy. The others were George, De Witt Clinton (father of Harris), Jane (Mrs. Gazlay), William, and Virginia. De Witt Clinton Fitch, like his father, engaged in trade on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, selling cargoes of hay and potatoes in New Orleans. Later he was engaged in farming, then in the grocery business. From 1862 to 1883 he was president of the First National and City National banks. On Aug. 20, 1850, he married Leah Hayes. To them nine children were born, Harris being the fourth. All are living. He was always an active and pub- lic spirited man.
THOMAS B. COTTINGHAM, one of the leading farmers and stock raisers of Dearborn county, Ind., was born near Logan's Cross Roads in that county, April 3, 1846, and is a son of Thomas and Sarah (Stohms) Cottingham. His father was born in Baltimore, Md. From there he came to Cincinnati, where he learned the blacksmith trade, after which he located at Logan's Cross Roads, and there followed that trade for many years. The last years of his life were spent with his children and he died at the home of one of his daughters, a Mrs. Liddle, in 1897. His wife, the mother of the subject of this sketch, died in 1852. Thomas B. is the seventh of nine children. Two died in childhood, two passed away later, and five are living, all useful members of society. At the age of sixteen Thomas began business for himself, working out for a while and saving his money until he had enough to engage in the business of merchandizing, when he opened a store at Bright, Ind. Later he sold out and since then has been a tiller of the soil. In 1892 he sold his first farm and bought the 160 acres known as the "Lang- dale Farm." He raises some of the best bred stock in Dearborn county and had the only corn from the county on exhibition at the World's Fair at St. Louis in 1904, for which he received a medal. . In 1874 Mr. Cottingham was married to Miss Louisa Langdale, a native of Dearborn county, and a daughter of R. H. Langdale, one of its prominent citizens. To this marriage there were born three children : Stanley, who was accidently killed while duck hunting,
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March 15, 1900; Howard, who lives at home with his parents; and Edna, now the wife of John Moore, of Indianapolis. Mr. Cottingham is a Democrat, is a man of intelligence, high moral character, and integrity, and both himself and wife are members of the Christian church.
JOHN H. JACKSON, a well-known farmer of Dearborn county, Ind., is a native of that county and was born May 15, 1854, his parents being Reuben C. and Isabelle Jackson, old and honored residents of the county. The paternal grandfather came to Indiana during the territorial days, cleared a farm and lived here all his subsequent life. He met his death by drowning in Tanner's creek. John H., who bears his grandfather's name, is the tenth of a family of thirteen children born to his parents. He re- ceived a common school education and after leaving school married and took charge of the home farm, which he now owns. It is a farm of two hundred acres of fine land and he carries on a successful busi- ness as a general farmer. His mother, whose maiden name was Isabelle Langdale, was a native of England but came with her parents to the United States when she was twelve years of age. Mr. Jackson is a solid Republican though not altogether a politician. He is a member of the Bright Lodge, Woodmen of the World. He was married in 1887 to Miss Mary E. Smith, a daughter of Jacob and Ann Smith, of Dearborn county, where her father is a successful farmer. To Mr. and Mrs. Jackson there were born two children, Clyde A. and Floyd S., both well educated and both living at home, though Clyde is married. His wife keeps house for the family since the death of Mrs. Jackson, which occurred on August 29, 1902. Mr. Jackson is a man who enjoys the respect and esteem of his neighbors and has the confidence of all who know him as a man of unimpeach- able integrity.
DAVID E. JOHNSTON, M.D., of Moore's Hill, Ind., is one of the most popular and efficient physicians of the younger school in South- eastern Indiana. His paternal grandfather was a native of Virginia but came at an early date to Dearborn county, Ind., where James Johnston,
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father of the doctor, was born in 1831. There he followed farming and teaching in the common schools until he was about thirty years of age, when he removed to Indianapolis and engaged in the real estate business. He died there in 1903. Dr. D. E. Johnston was born in Indianapolis, Jan. 27, 1873. When he was about seven years old his mother died and he was sent to relatives in Dearborn county to find a home. There he grew to manhood, receiving a good education in the common schools and at Moore's Hill college. For three years he taught in the Dearborn county schools, after which he took up the study of medicine and in 1900 graduated from the Medical College of Indiana, located at Indian- apolis. For a year after receiving his degree he was an interne in the Protestant Deaconess hospital of Indianapolis, and he then was engaged in general practice in that city for another year. In 1902 he located at Moore's Hill, where he soon built up a fine practice, in which he has demonstrated his skill as a physician of the highest order. Without disparagement to other physicians of the place it can be said that he is the leading doctor of Moore's Hill. Dr. Johnston is a member of the Masonic fraternity ; the Independent Order of Odd Fellows ; the Baptist church; the State Medical association; the Dearborn County Medical society, and is a Democrat but not a politician.
JOHN SHANKS (deceased) was born in Dearborn county, Ind., in the year 1800. His father, Michael Shanks, came to Kentucky in a very early day, and there his parents and all his brothers and sisters were killed by the Indians, except one sister, who was carried into captivity and was never heard of afterwards. In the latter part of the eighteenth century Michael Shanks came to Indiana, entered the land now owned by his grandson, and there passed the remainder of his days. During the war of 1812 he served with distinction under Gen. William H. Harrison. John Shanks grew to manhood in Dear- born country. He was the only son in a family of five children. For nearly a quarter of a century he followed flatboating on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. He died in 1876 and his wife in 1893. They had a family of eleven children, viz .: William, now residing in Illi- nois; Eliza J., deceased; Ezra F., deceased; Oliver, now living in Terre Haute, Ind .; Isaac, Sarah and Nancy, all deceased; Margaret E., at home; John F., married and living at Sullivan, Ind .; Van, who runs the old home farm, and Harry M., who tills his allotted portion, located on the pike between Guilford and Lawrenceburg. All had a common school education and all became useful citizens. The old homestead, entered by Michael Shanks, on which the primitive log
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cabin has been replaced by a substantial three story frame dwelling, and which is now occupied by Van Shanks, is one of the oldest farms in Dearborn county, as well as one of the best. Harry M. Shanks has 147 acres of good land which he rents to tenants. In politics he is an unswerving Democrat, and as a farmer he is thoroughly up- to-date, living on one of the rural free delivery routes and having telephone communication with Lawrenceburg and Cincinnati. The old log house, in which he lived until the summer of 1904, was one of the oldest in that section and was the place of the first postoffice in Dearborn county.
ROBERT J. NOWLIN, one of the most prosperous and progress- ive farmers of Dearborn county, Ind., was born in Miller township of that county, Aug. 26, 1865, and is a son of Enoch B. and Jane H. (Langdale) Nowlin, both natives of the township. The paternal grandfather, Jeremiah Nowlin, was one of the early settlers of the county and was a typical pioneer. He lived and died in Miller town- ship where he was a successful farmer and a man that was universally respected. Enoch B. Nowlin was a well educated man and in his early life taught for several years. He then bought a farm and followed that vocation throughout the remainder of his life. He died on June 17, 1900, his wife having departed this life on July 10, 1884. The Langdale family is one of the oldest and most highly respected in Dearborn county. Enoch and Jane Nowlin had four children : H. L. is a farmer in Miller township and resides at Greendale ; Mary P. died at the age of four years; Robert is the subject of this sketch, and Annie died in 1893, a graduate of the Wesleyan college of Cincinnati. Robert J. Nowlin received a high school education and attended one year at college. At the age of nineteen he rented land in Kansas and began farming. After five years in that state he returned to Indiana and for two years was in the hardware business in Lawrenceburg. He was then on the farm until 1893, when he went to Cincinnati and engaged in the live stock commission business for three years. Returning to the farm he devoted his attention to raising thoroughbred stock, particularly full-blooded Berkshire hogs, in which he has been very successful. He has a farm of 425 acres, well improved, and the greater part of it under cultivation. In 1901 he rebuilt and has one of the finest and best equipped residences in the state. Modern heating and ventilating; hot and cold water in every room; telephone connections; rural free delivery, etc. Barns in keeping with the house mark him as one of the men who know
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how to get the greatest comfort out of farm life. On April 4, 1885, he was married to Miss Catherine Russell, daughter of P. J. Russell, a prominent farmer of Eureka Springs, Ark. She died on Dec. 15, 1889, and on May 5, 1891, Mr. Nowlin was married to Gertrude V. Gore, a native of Brown county, O., and a daughter of Charles H. and Hester B. Gore, her father being a civil engineer. The second Mrs. Nowlin died on Jan. 5, 1897, and Mr. Nowlin was married a third time on Nov. 19, 1899. His third wife was Margery E. Gore, a sister to his second wife. Mr. Nowlin has five children: Enoch R., is at home; Carrie O., is also at home; Robert L .; Margery, died in infancy, and Gilbert S. The two first named are the children of his first wife and the others by his second. All the children are attend- ants at school and the daughters are also paying considerable atten- tion to music. Mr. Nowlin is a Republican politically and well in- formed on the public questions of the day. On matters relating to farming and stock growing he is an authority, and few men are more earnest or energetic in what they undertake. It is to this trait of his character that he owes the greater part of his success.
ROBERT F. HUDDLESTON, farmer, merchant and postmaster at Guilford, Dearborn county, Ind., was born in that county, Oct. 31, 1842. His parents, John and Hannah Huddleston, were both natives of England. His paternal grandparents came from England to the United States in 1837 and settled in Dearborn county, where the grandfather, whose name was Thomas, followed farming until his death. John Huddleston, Robert's father, was also a farmer. Dur- ing his life he was a Whig until after the dissolution of that party, when he became a Democrat. He died in 1866 and his wife survived him for twenty years, dying in 1886. Robert is the eldest of five children, the others being, William, deceased; John, a farmer in York township, Dearborn county; Frank, who is a farmer living near Nokomis, Ill .; and Wilson, who also lives near the same place. Robert F. Huddleston received his education in the public schools and soon after reaching his majority went to work for the govern- ment as a civil employe, remaining in the government service for over two years. For the next twenty-nine years, and over, he was employed as a bridge builder by different railroads, being nine years with the Big Four and ten years with the Cleveland & Marietta, and for some time with the Chesapeake & Ohio, part of the time as fore- man and the remainder as superintendent. During his service as a bridge builder he was in four disastrous wrecks and two collisions.
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In 1895 he embarked in the mercantile line of business at Guilford and has been thus engaged since. He owns a farm of eighty acres adjoining the town, which he rents. Soon after President Mckinley was inaugurated in 1897 he was appointed postmaster at Guilford and has held the office by reappointment until the present time. In politics he is an unwavering Republican; is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons; and both himself and wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Huddleston was married in April, 1873, to Miss Mary, daughter of William and Eveline (Rawling) Lazenby.
JOHN F. MEYER, one of the best known farmers in Dearborn county, Ind., was born in the neighborhood where he now resides, Dec. 24, 1854. His father, also named John F., came from Germany in 1848, at the age of nineteen. At the time of his arrival in this country he had nothing and could not speak sufficient English to make himself understood. He went to work for seven dollars a month, saving enough to bring his parents to America, and later bought two hundred acres of land from a railroad company. This he cleared and improved and by industry, energy, and frugality added to it until at the time of his death, in April, 1900, he was the owner of over 1,300 acres of good land. He married Mary Basker, a native of the Fatherland, who came to America when six years of age and they had a family of eight children. Annie S. married Leonard Randall, a farmer of Dearborn county ; John F. is the subject of this sketch; Henry J. and William are both farmers in Dearborn county ; Dora married Henry Kiser, a farmer in Ohio county, Ind .; Frederick is the owner of a farm of 245 acres, which he is conduct- ing ; George lives on the old homestead, and Mary died in 1899. With that filial affection and unity of purpose which characterize the German family, the boys all stayed with their father, helping him to accumulate what he had. In turn the father, before his death, gave each of them a farm. At the time of his death the father had reached the age of seventy-two years. He died at what is known as the Three Mile House, where he passed the last years of his life in retirement from active business cares. He and his wife were both
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devout Lutherans and during his life he helped to build several churches and schoolhouses. His widow is still living and makes her home with her children. John F. Meyer, the son, grew up on his father's farm, obtained a good common school education, and at the age of twenty-three years he rented part of his father's land and began life on his own account. At the death of his father he inherited 145 acres, to which he has added until he now owns about 350 acres. He carries on general farming and is generally recognized as one of the successful farmers of his community. In 1879 he was married to Margaret Behlmer, the daughter of Court Behlmer, a Ripley county farmer, and to this marriage there have been born four children : Charles F., Lena, Clara, and Maggie. All are at home with their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Meyer are both members of the Lutheran church. In political matters he is a rock-ribbed Democrat, takes an active interest in the political situation, and is now serving his second term as a member of the county council. He is interested in good roads and for thirteen years has held the office of road supervisor. He lives on one of the rural free delivery mail routes, keeps in touch with what is going on in the world, and is one of the most practical and progressive men in his township.
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