INDIANA TRAILS
HENDRICKS COUNTY INDIANA BIOGRAPHIES



JOHN WARD

    Research by Doris Hubble and Dorothy Harris Ward of Pittsboro place John Sr, in Hendricks County, Indiana purchasing land on August 27 1837. They settled on a small tract of land and there was no actual town in existence at that time. Although the village of Harrisburg was plotted and later became the town of Brownsburg. It is possible John Jr. actually came to Hendricks County first along with or later joined by his father.
    John Sr. served seven years (according to Lyle Ward) with the Continental Congress Army of the Revolutionary War, probably joining in the second year of the struggle at the age of 18. We know at one point he served with Captain Smith under Col. Boswaork?. They banded together at Parisburg? on the Savannah River where they met with General Rutherford's Brigade and were there placed under proper officers. At Parisburg they were detached and placed under the command of Col. Syth and Major Nelson of the continental Army under the command of General Lincoln and were called and acted as a "light infantry". they crossed Savannah River and went to briar Creek where they engaged and were defeated in March 1777 they moved to Black swamp in South Carolina where they were discharged; as was common in that time. The men moved in and out of the continental Army, sometimes serving as little as three months. Perhaps they would return home and care for the crops and family and re-enlist for another period of perhaps six months or a year.
John Sr. is also believed to have been involved in the battle of Cowper, January 16 1787. At the Shallowford on the __?__ there was an engagement in the month of October 1787 against the Tories.
Because of one man in Brownsburg, Indiana John Ward Sr. and his service to his country has not been forgotten. Winston Coffman's grandfather remembered John Sr. and passed on stories to his son who passed them on to Winston. John Sr. died about 1850. about a quarter of a century after Indiana became a state, believed to be about 90 years of age.
    As a child Winston Coffman often visited the grave of John Sr. while playing near white Lick Creek. In newspaper articles written about 1861 it is reported that on Memorial Day Winston and his wife Mary, she dressed in an ankle length calico dress and a bonnet to match and Winston in a beaver hat with a horn pouch at his side, visited the grave marked with a simple stone bearing the words "JON WARD U.S. SOLDIER REV. WAR". ( Mrs. Allie Hoggins said grandson Armstead secured the government marker. But Doris Hubble said Armstead died in 1902 and according to Winston Coffman there was only a big fieldstone marking the grave when he was a young boy. Doris feels it must have been about 1924 or 1926 before the marker was placed. Only descendants living in the area at the time were of Jemima Ward Duncan and William and Leah Ward.) Winston loaded his rifle, pushing the power and pellet into the barrel, then fired the homemade musket over the grave. Over the years Winston  made sure the grave was not forgotten, though it involved a walk of nearly a mile through high weds and sometimes mud, across a creek and up a small hill to a spot easily hidden. On Memorial Day over many years he marked it with a flag and at one point a Girl Scout troop placed a fence around the site.
    Because of growth the isolated spot became the prime location of a new shopping mall, and it became necessary to move John's remains. In a fourth of July ceremony in 1984 the American Legion dedicated the new grave site at Brownsburg cemetery. When she learned of this Doris Hubble quickly contacted the local funeral home to find out why Hannah's body had not been moved with John's and discovered they had not known she was buried there. After being married more than 60 years and having been buried beside each other for 140 years it was a  highly disquieting situation. Through Doris' efforts Hannah's remains were placed at the foot of her husband's new grave site and a stone was ordered.
    John's name is among a list of revolutionary Soldiers whose names are on a bronze tablet in the East Hall of the Courthouse at Danville, Hendricks County, Indiana.
August W. Ward Family (born 1889 died 1958)

AUGUST W. WARD FAMILY
    August William Ward (B. 1889; D. 1958) was a long time employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He married Emma Lois Watson (B. 1891; D. 1964). daughter of Franklin and Mary Frances Watson, in 1911.
    Both August and Emma Ward were descendantsof early-day Hendricks County families. They had eight children: Merle Raymond, Doris Mae, Frances Marietta, Bessie Susan, Kenneth Eugene. June Maxine. Shirley Joan and Constance Fay.
John Ward Jr. (B. 1789  D. l853) was the first member of the Ward family to settle in Hendricks County. He was one of nine children born to John Ward Sr. (B. 1750; D. 1845). who married Hannah Petty in 1778. Her parents were William and Elizabeth Petty.
    John Ward Jr. married Nancy Billington (B. 1796; D. 1859). daughter of William and Elizabeth Burt Billington. in 1810. In 1827, John Ward Jr. brought his family and his parents to Hendricks County. Indiana, from Montgomery County. Kentucky. They settled on a 40-acre tract of land which John Jr. bought on August 21, 1827. John Ward Sr. is buried at the west end of a field on the southwest corner where I-74 crosses Route 267. north of Brownsburg, Indiana.
    In 1850,John Ward Jr. received a Military Land Grant for his service in the War of l8l2 and moved his farmily to Jasper County. Illinois, where he and his wife are buried. John and Nancy Ward's children were: Jeniah. Armstead. William. Henry, John, James. Daniel, Jemima, Sarah and Hannah. Henry and John Ward fought in the Mexican War and James and Daniel were Civil War veterans.
William Ward, born in 1817. married Leah Caywood. daughter of Asa and Margaret Foster Caywood. They also moved to Illinois in 1850, where William died. Leah Ward brought her children, Nancy, John, Henry, Aaron. Margaret, Howard and George William  back to Hendricks County, where she is buried beside her parents in a field west of Tilden.
    George William Ward (B.1849; D. 1916) married Henrietta Smith (B. 1848; D. 1928) in 1871. Henrietta was the daughter of Joel and Susan Smith, who had purchased an 80-acre tract in Brown Township. Hendricks County on Christmas Day 1829. George and Henrietta Ward had seven children: Charles, Clarence, Ernest, Eva, Harry, Margaret and August William.
    George William Ward died of a heart attack in 1916 after helping neighbors put out a fire.
The families of the children of August William and Emma Lois Ward include:
Merle Raymond Ward (B. 1912: D.1958) was married twice. He and his first wife. Vivian Rhinehart Ward. had a son, Larry Dean Ward.  Merle's second wife was Lucille Greenwell Ward.
    Doris Mae Ward (B. 1915) married Floyd Emmons Hubble in 1932. Floyd is now retired from Allison Engineering Co. They reside in Coatesville. They have three children:
Betty  Hubble (B. 1933) married Jack Wright, a farmer. They have a daughter. Anita (B. 1953) and a son. Michael (B.1956). Anita married Norman Hager. They have two children. Michelle and Heather.

Robert Norman Hubble (B. 1936) is a supervisor for Western Electric Co. He married Patricia Ann Custis in 1961. They have a son. Jeffrey Lee (B, 1962).
Marcella Mae Hubble (B. 1943) married Ronald Luttrell. a masonry contractor and teacher, in 1962. They have two children: Aaron Matthew Luttrell (B. 1968) and Rachel Elaine Luttrell (B. 1970)
Frances Marietta Ward, the third child of August and Emma Ward. was born in 1917. She has been married three times. Her first husand was Woodrow Kirchner. They had two sons. William and Bertram. Her second husband was Adrian Moore. They had a daughter, Audrey Dean Madden. Her third husband is William Bradford. Frances is employed at Link-Belt Co.
Bessie Susan Ward (B. 1920) married George Hardin in 1940. Bessie works for Eli Lilly Co. They have two children: Ronald William Hardin (B. 1942) and Katherine Louise Hard in (B. 1943). Katherine married Guy Kuoppala. a mechanic for Kroger Co., in 1964. They have three children: Andrew Guy (B. 1967), JosephEdwand (B.1969) and Katyn Ann (B. 1972).
KennethEugene Ward (B. 1924) served in World War II. He married Belly Wallace. They are divorced.
June Maxine Ward (B. 1927) married Richard Erne. a food director, in 1944. They have six children: Timothy. Robby, Teddy, Mary Jo, Cathy and Patrick.
Shirley Joan Ward (B. 1932) married Jerry Deweese, sales manager for Peerless Pump Co.. in 1950. They have two daughters: Deborah Lois (B. 1951) and Linda Sue (B. 1953).

CHARLES E. WARD FAMILY

The Charles E Ward family moved to Clayton, Indiana. in 1958. Before coming to Clayton they had lived in Hendricks County, near Mrs. Ward’s parents. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Spurlock.
The house in which the Wards reside is considered to be one of the oldest residences in Clayton. The sturdy walls are three bricks thick. Mr. Ward counts as his hobbies  remodeling old buildings and fishing and hunting.
Mrs. Ward says gardening is her most satisfying hobby. She is active in community affairs, including PTO. Girl Scouts and the Clayton Christian Church.
Mrs. Wards ancestors were related to Thomas Hendricks. who served as Vice- President of the United States under President Grover Cleveland, Charles Ward’s
ancestors were related to Daniel Boone.
Mr. and Mrs. Ward have three children: Vicki Ward, of Arlington, Virginia, graduated from Indiana University with a degree in fine arts; Theresa Ward attended Indiana University and is presently employed as a respiratory therapist at Winona Memorial Hospital. Indianapolis: and Mark Ward, their youngest child.

JUDGE JOHN V. HADLEY.

    To indulge in prolix encomium of a life which has been one of distinctive modesty and unpretentiousness would be most incongruous, and yet in reviewing the career of Judge John V. Hadley, long one of the most prominent and highly honored citizens of Hendricks county, feelings of admiration are prompted, for he has ever held a position of unequivocal confidence and esteem in the community where he has so long resided. As citizen, soldier, lawyer and jurist, Judge Hadley’s career has been a notable one, and for this reason his life record is entitled to a conspicuous place in the annals of his county.
    John V. Hadley is a native son of Hendricks county, Indiana, born on the 31st day of October, 1840, and is a son of Jonathan and Ara (Carter) Hadley, who were natives, respectively, of North Carolina and Ohio. They were the parents of seven children, of whom five grew to maturity, Enos, Harlan, William C., John V. and Mary, all being now deceased excepting John V.
    The subject's paternal grandparents were Jeremiah and Sarah (Hornaday) Hadley, natives of Guilford county, North Carolina, where the father followed the vocation of farming. In 1822 they made the long and tiresome overland journey to Indiana, stopping first at Indianapolis, which at that time was but a small and unpretentious village. Because of the prevalence of typhoid fever, there at that particular time, Jeremiah’ Hadley continued his journey westward, locating permanently near what is now Plainfleld, Hendricks county. There he cleared and improved a farm, reared a family of children, and there he and his wife spent the remainder of their days, dying at advanced ages. Among their children were Jonathan, Elias, John, Ruth and others whose names are not recorded. In religion, Jeremiah Hadley was a birthright Quaker, but lost his birthright by marrying outside the church.
    Jonathan Hadley, father of the subject, was reared to man hood in Guilford county, North Carolina, where be followed agricultural pursuits. He and his wife accompanied his father on the emigration to Hendricks county, Indiana, others in the company being David Carter, a son-in-law of Jeremiah Hadley, and his wife, also two other sons of Jeremiah Hadley, Elias and John, who subsequently went to Ohio, there married sisters of Jonathan’s wife, and, returning to Hendricks county, took up land adjoining the other members of the family, the present site of Plainfield and for about a half mile south and one mile north on east shore of White Lick being the family possessions. Jeremiah and Jonathan Hadley and David Carter at once began clearing the land, and as soon as enough logs were cut they each erected a one-room log cabin, in which they established their permanent homes. Thus the Hadleys are properly numbered among the true pioneers of Hendricks county, and through the years they have proven a valuable element in the civic life of this favored locality. In that early day Indians were numerous here, though as a rule they were not hostile to the white settlers. Rattlesnakes were much more to be feared, while wolves, bear and many other species of wild game were abundant. For a number of years all of the settlers in this immediate locality were Hadleys and Carters, all of whom reared large families. Jonathan Hadley accumulated two hundred acres of land, which he brought to a high state of improvement, and to the cultivation of which he devoted himself until his death, from typhoid fever, at the comparatively early age of forty years. He was survived a number of years. by his widow, who passed away in 1866, at the age of sixty three years.. Both were members of the Christian (Disciples) church, to which they rendered faithful allegiance, and enjoyed to a marked degree the confidence and respect of all who knew them.
    Judge Hadley’s maternal grandparents were Mordecai and Sarah Carter, who were farming folk, residing near Collinsville, Ohio. They never left their native heath, dying there when well advanced in years. Their children were Harlan, James, John, Ara (mother of the subject), Lucinda and another daughter.
    John V. Hadley was reared to manhood on his father's farm, where there was plenty of work to do and where, in dose touch with nature, he formed those habits of industry, perseverance and independence which characterized his later years. His elementary educational training was received in the old fashioned subscription schools of that locality, and he afterwards entered Northwestern Christian University (now Butler College), where he remained two years, his studies being interrupted by the outbreak of the war between the states. In response to his country's need of defenders, he laid aside his text-books and, on August 20, 1861, enlisted as a private in Company B, Seventh Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, serving his country faithfully until receiving his honorable discharge on March 22; 1865. He was promoted from the ranks to first lieutenant and was then detailed on Gen. J. C. Rice's staff, where he rendered the remainder of his service. He took part in many of the hardest fought battles of that great internecine conflict and was twice wounded, first at the second battle of Bull Run, and again at the battle of the Wilderness. At the latter place he was left unconscious and helpless on the battlefield, was taken prisoner and for three weeks was confined in a Confederate field hospital and then sent south as a prisoner. He was first confined in the prison at Macon, Georgia, whence he was sent to Savannah, Georgia, then to Charleston, South Carolina, and finally to Columbia, South Carolina. From the latter place he escaped on November 4, 1861,, and, after enduring many hardships and passing through many dangers, he succeeded in reaching the Union lines at Knoxville, Tennessee, on the 10th day of December following. Mr. Hadley wrote an interesting and dramatic account of his imprisonment and escape, which, under the title of “Seven Months a Prisoner,” was published by Scribner & Sons. in 1898, in a little volume of the Ivory series.
    After his return to peaceful pursuits, Mr. Hadley took up the study of law and attended the private school of Judge David McDonald in Indianapolis. In June, 1866, he was admitted to the Hendricks county bar at Danvile and immediately entered upon the active practice of his profession here, being so engaged when, in 1886, he was elected to the circuit bench of Hendricks and Marion counties. So satisfactory were his services as a jurist that in 1892 he was elected to succeed himself and during the ten years that he presided over this circuit be gained a wide reputation as an able, careful and conscientious judge, so that in 1898 a well deserved promotion came to him in his election to the supreme bench of the state..- He was re-elected to the supreme bench in 1904 and served until 1911, when he retired of his own accord, and has since devoted himself chiefly to his private business affairs and looking after his farm.
    As a lawyer, Judge Hadley early won a high reputation as a successful and adroit attorney and he enjoyed a large and representative clientele in Hendricks and neighboring counties. As a jurist, he in no way disappointed those who knew him, for in him there are embodied a weight of character, a native sagacity, a far-seeing judgment and a fidelity of purpose which enabled him at all times to not only get to the bottom of facts, but to quickly and accurately comprehend the fine points of the questions at issue. While on the supreme bench Judge Hadley’s decisions were characterized by a clearness, candor and breadth of view which have made them authority on many fine points of law assigned to him for interpretation. Among the important decisions written by Judge Hadley while on the supreme bench, involving the constitutionality of legislative enactment's, were the following: The act concerning municipal improvements, known as the Barrett Law, 154 Ind. 467; For the Protection of Wild Game, 155. Ind. 611; An Act to Regulate Dentistry, 156 Ind. 187; the Pure Food Law, 157 Ind. 517; An Act to Deprive Ft. Wayne of Local Self Government, 158 Ind. 126; the Weekly Wage Law, Republic Iron and Steel Co. v. State, 160 Ind. 379; the Status of the State University in Our Common School System, 159 Ind. 139; Relocation of County Seat of Newton County, 161  Ind. 616; The Right of County Assessors in Quest of Taxable Property to Examine Bank Books, 166 Ind. 631; Employers Liability Act, 171 Ind. 612; The County Option Law, 174 Ind. 60; Railroad Commission no Power to Fix Rates that are Confiscatory, 172 md. 113. Careful and painstaking in everything, Judge Hadley’s opinions, for their uniform, unvarying excellence of workmanship, were not excelled by those of any of his brother justices. The impression that he made on the limited circle of friends and neighbors in Hendricks and adjoining counties at the beginning and during the early years of his practice, was the one he left on the larger circle of  his acquaintance after years of faithful and appreciated service on the highest legal tribunal of the state, namely, that he was a man who could be relied on and trusted in all things.
    On the 15th day of March, 1865, John V. Hadley was united in marriage to Mary J. Hill, who was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, on August 13, 1844, the daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (Hornaday) Hill. Her parents were natives of North Carolina, who became pioneer settlers in Hendricks county, where the father followed farming. Mr. Hill died in May, 1896, in the ninety first year of his age. Mrs. Rebecca Hill died in 1863, of typhoid fever, at the age of fifty four years. They were the parents of seven children, Oliver, Samira, William, John, Daniel, Mary and Eliza. Mrs. Hadley’s paternal grandfather, Joseph Hill, who also was a native of North Carolina, came to Indiana in an early day, sometime after the death of his wife, and located in Parke county, where he spent the rest of his days, and died. He was a Quaker in his religious belief. He was the father of a large family, of whom the following names are remembered: William, John, Daniel, Clark and Julia. Mrs. Hadley’s maternal grandfather, Lewis Hornaday, spent his entire life in North Carolina. He was the father of five children, Rebecca, Susan, Ruth, Hester and Simon.
     To Judge and Mrs. Hadley have been born three children, namely: Kate B., Hugh H. and Walter G. Kate B. became the wife of W. W. Buchanan, of Evanston, Illinois, and they have three daughters, Dorothy,    Mary J. and Katherine. Hugh H. Hadley, who is a successful lawyer in Chicago, with residence in Oak Park, Illinois, married Madge Silverthorne, of Wisconsin., Walter G. Hadley, who has charge of his father's farm, married Jennie Christie, and they have two daughters, Jane and Ann.
    Politically, Judge Hadley has been a life-long supporter of the Republican party and has always kept in closest touch with public questions and issues. In i868 he was elected to the state Senate, serving through three sessions. Aside from this office and his judicial preferment, the Judge has never held public positions. Fraternally, he is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, belonging to the lodge at Danville, and also belongs to Jesse Ogden Post No. 164, Grand Army of the Republic, and to the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. Religiously, the Judge and Mrs. Hadley are members of the Christian church at Danville.
    Thus briefly have been outlined the leading facts in the career of one who has stamped the impress of his individuality on the community in which practically his entire life has been spent. As the day, with its morning of hope and promise, its noontide of activity and accomplishment, and its evening of completed and successful efforts, so has been the life of this honored man. Easily approached, obliging and straightforward in all the relations of life, his personal relations with his fellow men have ever been mutually pleasant and agreeable, and be has enjoyed to a marked degree their confidence and regard. A representative of one of the sterling old families of Hendricks county, Judge Hadley has added luster to the family name and has made a record of which his county may justly be proud. E. E. D.
JOHN WATT WHYTE

    The gentleman of whom the biographer now writes is widely known as one of the honored citizens of Hendricks county and for almost half a century has been a valued factor in the development of the same, prominently identified with the varied interests of his community. His well directed energies in the practical affairs of life and his sound judgment have demonstrated what may be accomplished by the man of energy and ambition. Born on a foreign soil, Mr. Whyte early demonstrated the sterling qualities of citizenship possessed by him and his success in life is due solely to ‘his own innate manhood and unfailing energy and ambition along right lines.
    John Watt Whyte was born on October 14,1846, at Paisley, Scotland, the son of George and Elizabeth (Watt) Whyte, both of whom were natives of that town and country. George Whyte came to America before the outbreak of the Mexican war. He was a weaver by trade, being particularly expert in weaving coverlets, using of course the old style hand loom. He followed his trade after coming to this country and after power looms came into use, practically eliminating the class of trade to which he had catered, he entered the large woolen mills of the east, operating the power looms. He was a veteran of the Mexican War, having received a wound while in service. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in Company F, Forty third Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, being assigned to the Army of the Tennessee. He enlisted for three years, but served until the close of hostilities. He was living in Terre Haute, Indiana, at the time of his enlistment and entered the ranks from Sullivan county. He was never a resident of this county, and died at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1870. Elizabeth (Watt) Whyte, mother of the immediate subject of this sketch, followed her husband to America soon after be came over. She crossed in one of the slow sailing vessels of that time, leaving her family in the old country. After being here a short time, she returned for her children, coming back directly and bringing with her the subject of this sketch and her youngest child, George. Two other children, William and Jennie, had died in Scotland and George is also deceased, leaving the subject the sole remaining one of the family. Her death occurred at Terre Haute, Indiana, on October 10, 1856, the fall of the election of President Buchanan.
    On October 18, 1868, Mr. Whyte was united in marriage with Ann Eliza Jackson, daughter of James and Mary (Jackson) Jackson, the former of whom was a native of Putnam county, this state, and the latter a native of Kentucky, having been born on October 27, 1816, the same year in which Indiana was admitted to the sisterhood of states. She departed this life July 1, 1900, at the advanced age of eighty four years. James Jackson lived for many years in Putnam county, where he followed the trade of a blacksmith. He was considered unusually skilled in his trade and mechanics generally and many specimens of his work are still extant. He served throughout the war of the Rebellion, being identified with an Iowa regiment and his death occurred in a soldiers’ home in the state of Michigan. They were the parents of six children, those beside Ann Eliza, wife of the subject, being: Sarah (Mrs. McCoy) and John, deceased; James, Thomas and William, who are still living.
    Mr. and Mrs. Whyte have an interesting family of ten children, namely: Ida, deceased, who was the wife of Henry Lawson. She was the mother of three children, Urban, Eula and Ida Kate.  Her death occurred March 8, 1894. William, who married Blanche Pierson, resides in Muncie, Indiana, where he is employed in a garage. He is the father of one child, Mildred. George L., whose wife was Alice Leachman, is a farmer in this county and the father of one child, Joyce Roseland.. Lenora married Elmer E. Brown and resides at Brownsburg in this county. She is the mother of one child, Doris. Mary became the wife of John C. Taylor, of Danville, and has one child. John W. Oliver resides at home. Lurene is Mrs. Fred Scearce, of Danville, and has one child, Maurice. Walter T. married Alice Anderson. of Knoxville, Tennessee, and has one child, Walter Allen. Raymond makes his home in Danville and Eunice, who became the wife of Lynn L. Bolinger, resides at Seymour, Indiana. Her husband was formerly a traveling salesman, but his recently engaged in the grocery business. They are the parents of one child, Lynn Lewis.
    Mr. Whyte was quite a small child when his mother brought him from his native Scotland and in his earlier years was moved about considerably and finally became a “bound” boy in Terre Haute, where he remained until twenty years of age, when he came to Danville on September 4, 186. On October 15, 1864, he had volunteered for one year in Company M, Fourth Indiana Cavalry, and received his discharge, dated August 27, 1865, at Indianapolis, having seen no active duty. Since coming to Hendricks county he has spent the rest of his life here with the exception of one year at Lafayette, this state. All his life he has been connected with agricultural pursuits, although he has also worked at other trades. He was engaged in carpentry for some time and for over eight years was in the tombstone business at Danville. He has done considerable trading and was first located on a farm about three miles southeast of Danville. He traded around some and for twenty years lived on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres about two miles north of Danville. From there he came to the farm known as the Bob McCoun farm, where he has resided for the past twelve years, carrying on general farming. He has about eighty acres at present, on which he has made all the improvements, clearing the land, draining it and putting up fences, so that the farm today is in an excellent state.
    Mr. Whyte’s fraternal affiliation is with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he has served his local lodge as treasurer for seven years. He is also a member of the local post at Danville of the Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Whyte is a stanch Republican and takes pride in the fact that he has always adhered to that party's ticket. His first vote was cast for General Grant’ as President. He takes an active interest in local politics and in 1892 was elected county commissioner, serving in that capacity for three years. During 1906 and 1907 he served as ditch commissioner and again in 1898 was elected county commissioner, serving another term of three years. In 1908 he was elected township trustee for a term of six years, assuming his office on January 1, 1909, so that he is the present incumbent of that office. In the discharge of the duties which have devolved upon him from time to time, Mr. Whyte has ever sought to be absolutely fair and impartial in his judgment and faithful to his trust at all times. The fact that he is universally well spoken of and held in high esteem shows he has succeeded in his endeavor. He is a good mixer, a most congenial companion and is regarded as a man of unswerving integrity, absolutely honest in all his dealings with his fellow men. His religious affiliation is with the Christian church, of which he has been a member since 1867. Mrs. Whyte is. also a member of the same church, having identified herself with same at the tender age of seventeen years. Both are sincerely interested in the progress of that church society, giving liberally of time and means toward its support. Mr. Whyte is extremely liberal in all his views and his hand is active in advancing the welfare of the community in every way possible. A man of generous impulses and genial disposition, he readily makes friends and always retains them. Having gained by his earnest efforts and consecutive labor a competence for himself, he is ever ready to assist those struggling toward the same goal. Because of his unimpeachable career, in both private and public life, he is eminently entitled to representation in a work of the scope of the one at hand.
JAMES A. DOWNARD

    In placing the name of James A. Downard before the reader as one standing in the front rank of the enterprising men of affairs and a leader of the bar at Danvile, Indiana, whose influence has tended. to the upbuilding of the city of his residence and the advancement of the affairs of his native county of Hendricks, simple justice is done a biographical fact recognized throughout the community by those at all familiar with his history and cognizant of the important part he has acted in the circles with which he has
been identified. His- career presents a notable example of those qualities of mind and character which overcome obstacles and win success, and his example is eminently worthy of imitation.
    James A. Downard, a prominent lawyer and abstracter of Danville, was born in New Winchester, Hendricks county, Indiana, November 15, 1855. His parents, David M. and Cassandra (Morgan) Downard, were both natives of this county. David Downard was a farmer and stock raiser and was regarded as a fine judge of stock. He was a large breeder of high grade stock of all kinds and was one of the most successful in this line in the county. He was the son of Judge James Downard, who was one of the first probate judges of the Hendricks county court. He was one of the four proprietors who laid out the .town of Danville in 1825. Judge Downard came from Kentucky to Indiana, having been born in Pennsylvania and emigrating to the Northwest territory about 1811. A few years later he went to Kentucky, and in 1828 came to Indiana, first settling near Brooklyn, afterwards moving to Indianapolis and later on permanently settling in Plain field, where his death occurred in 1846. Judge Downard married Elizabeth Curry in Pennsylvania, a descendant of a Scotch-Irish family who came from Ireland. Judge Downard and wife were the parents of ten children, David being the ninth in order of birth, and his death occurred on January 2, 1892, his wife having passed away many years before, on May 17, 1880. Mr. and Mrs. David Downard were the parents of ten children: James A., the immediate subject of this sketch; Mrs. Martha Hanunond, of Danville; Mrs. Mary J. Anderson, of Anderson, Indiana; Canada H., who lives on the old home place near Hadley in this county; William, a merchant of East St. Louis, Missouri; Erie, deceased, who married Charles S. Hall, of Evansville, Indiana; Oliver, of Lynn, Indiana; Frank, of Danville, and two who died in infancy.
    James A. Downard received his education in the district schools and later spent one year at Butler University and also took a course at Bryant & Stratton’s Business University at Indianapolis. In 1877 he entered the law office of Cofer & Taylor to read law and one year later be was admitted to the practice of all courts in Indiana. In the same year he took up the abstract business and flow has the finest set of abstract books in Hendricks county, and is recognized as an authority on land titles in the county. In 1882 he formed a connection with the Union Central Life Insurance Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and has been theIr financial correspondent for this county since that time. He has carried on this threefold line of work since 1882, namely, the practice of law, the abstract business and the insurance business. He has managed his business in such a way that he has acquired a very comfortable competence and is regarded as one of the leading and substantial men of Danville.
Mr. Downard was married May 22, 1884, to Maude L. Donaldson, the daughter of William H. and Araminta B. Donaldson, of Danville. Mr. Downard was for fourteen years on the town board of Danville, and during this period, from 1892 to 1906, he was instrumental in providing sidewalks, brick streets, electric lights, water works and a new high school building for the town. In recognition of his efficient service on the town board he was elected on the Republican ticket as county commissioner in 1910, and renominated in 1912, but went down to defeat with the rest of his party ticket. As county commissioner he has been one of the men responsible for the handsome new court house in Danville. He has been the one to take the lead in the work and has been recognized as the most important man on the board by virtue of his past experience. He has been treasurer of the Citizens’ Building, Savings & Loan Association since 1882, and during his long incumbency the institution has never lost accent or had to make a foreclosure.
    Fraternally, Mr. Downard is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias, and, religiously, is identified with the Friends church. His career has indeed been a busy one and it has been as useful as busy. He and his wife move in the best social circles of Danville and are highly esteemed wherever they are known.
EDGAR W. SHIRLEY

    Among the families of Hendricks county, Indiana, whose members have worthily discharged their duties to their fellows and their community, no family takes higher rank than the Shirleys, of whom several representatives are today prominently identified with the business and social life of Danville. For many years members of this family have stood for all that is best in business, educational, moral or social life and have wielded an influence that has been potential in the development and welfare of their community, being numbered among the enterprising and progressive citizens of the county. Because of the prominence which the family has enjoyed and the close relations they have sustained to the welfare and prosperity of the locality which has been honored by their citizenship's, they are eminently entitled to representation in a work of the character of the one in hand.
    One of the most prosperous business men of Danville, Indiana, is Edgar W. Shirley, the son of John M. and Susan (Hale) Shirley, who was born February 10, 186o, in Pittsboro, in this county. His father was also a native of Hendricks county, his birth having occurred three miles southwest of Brownsburg on June 15, 1835. His mother was born about one and one half miles southwest of Pittsboro. James W. Shirley, the grandfather of Edgar W., was born in 1803, in Kentucky, and came to Hendricks county, Indiana, in 1830, or .before, settling on Big creek, where he lived until his death, which occurred in 1893.  James W. Shirley married Deborah Pressley, and they reared a family of eight children, the father of Edgar W. being the third in order of birth. John Shirley spent his whole life in the county of his birth. In October, 1852, he removed to Pittsboro, where be lived until 1873, being engaged in the mercantile business in that place. He continued in this business until July 29, 1873, at which time he came to Danville and took charge of the mercantile establishment which he had bought some years before in that place. He continued in active business until his death, which occurred October 14, 1913, and was one of the wealthiest and most successful business men who have ever lived in this county. He was married January ii, 1857, to Susan Hale, and to this union there were born two children, William J., who died in i8~, and Edgar W., the immediate subject of this sketch. John Shirley was a member of the Christian church and for many years was a trustee of that denomination. He was trustee of Middle township for several terms and was postmaster of Pittsboro for a number of years. After moving to Danville he held the office of trustee of Center township for two terms. He was a large landowner in Hendricks county, and one of its most solid and substantial citizens at the time of his death.
    Edgar W. Shirley was educated in the public schools of Pittsboro, concluded the common school courses in that town, and attended Butler University, Indianapolis. Immediately after the termination of his college course, he entered the store of his father in Danville, and has remained there continuously since that time. Upon his father's death in 1913, he succeeded him in the business firm of Shirley & Showalter. This firm has by its courteous treatment of its customers and strict integrity in all their business dealings, not only gained the confidence of the people, but have built up a large and profitable business, being numbered among the enterprising and progressive business houses of this city. -
Mr. Shirley was married in 1908 to Bernice (Burk) Kendall, of Danville. Industry and probity have been the chief factors of Mr. Shirley’s steady advance in business affairs and his position in the world is such as to reflect high credit upon himself and to add to the reputation of Danville as an important business center. In addition to his interests in the mercantile business, Mr. Shirley has large real estate holdings in the county. Fraternally, be is a member of the order of Free and Accepted Masons, having taken all the degrees, including the thirty second. In his politics, he has been affiliated with the Republican party, although he has never held any office. At the same time he takes an active interest in the political issues of the day. He helps all public enterprises and when the new Christian church was started in Danyule he donated three thousand five hundred dollars to its erection. By the exercise of sound business principles and by being energetic at all times Mr. Shirley has forged to the front and is today one of the most deserving business men of the county, where he is held in high esteem by all classes because of his honesty of purpose, his industry, courteous manner and public spirit.
JOHN W. TROTTER

    It is not an easy task to adequately describe the character of a man who has led an eminently active and busy life in connection with the great legal profession and who has stamped his individuality on the plane of definite accomplishment in one of the most exacting fields of human endeavor. Among the truly self made and representative men of Hendricks county none ranks higher than the honorable gentleman whose name heads this sketch, who is a conspicuous figure in the civic life of the community. A man of tireless energy and indomitable courage, be has won and held the unqualified esteem of his fellow citizens. Although the law is his profession, he has won a high reputation as a real estate, insurance and business man. In fact, he has probably done more for the material advancement of Danville and Hendricks county than any other citizen.
    John W. Trotter, the son of James M. and Nancy E. (Crose) Trotter, was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, October 15, 1861. His parents were both natives of this county and are still living in Danville. James M. Trotter was a farmer and stock raiser and was one of Hendricks county's most substantial agriculturists, but has been living retired in Danville for several years. Mr. and Mrs. James M. Trotter are both members of the Methodist Episcopal church and have been for the past forty years. They are the parents of six children, five of whom are still living: John W.; Rose, the wife of George M. Thompson, of Lizton, this county; James W., a farmer in Eel River township; Gretta, who died in 1893, at the age of twenty four years; Mary, the wife of Aaron Kinder, of Danville; Retta, the wife of Robert Davidson, of Detroit, Michigan. The Trotter family is of English lineage and came to America in the eighteenth century. The great grandfather of the present John W. Trotter came from Virginia to Indiana when he was only two years old, his parents settling in Eel River township, this county, on land which they entered from the government. James Trotter was the father of ten sons, all of whom settled in western states except three who stayed in - Hendricks and adjoining counties. These three were Anderson Trotter, of Jamestown, Boone county, Indiana; William Trotter, of North Salem, this county, and James, the grandfather of John W., the immediate subject of this sketch. James Trotter, in addition to being a very successful farmer, was also the township
trustee for several terms.    -
    John W. Trotter was reared on the home place, worked as a boy on his father's farm and has never known an idle day since that time. He entered the Central Normal College, at Danville, at the age of seventeen, but after a few weeks he secured a license to teach and began his pedagogical experience before he was eighteen years of age. He taught in the county schools and at North Salem, Lizton, Brownsburg and Danville. He resigned - the principal ship at Lizton, after being there for three years, to take the principal ship at Brownsburg. While teaching at the latter place, he was elected county surveyor, being the youngest man ever elected to a county office in Hendricks county. Upon being elected to the office of county surveyor he moved to Danville in 1887, where he has continued to reside. He was elected to the office of surveyor five times in succession by majorities ranging from nine hundred and eighty five to fourteen hundred and nineteen. His long service in- the surveyor's office made him a practical man in the abstract business, and upon retiring from the surveyor's office he bought a set of abstract books and in 1894 sold a half interest in the business to George T. Pattison, who bad been a professor in the Central Normal College for several years. Messrs, Trotter and Pattison then studied law together and were admitted to the bar, and for nine years, under the name of Trotter & Pattison, practiced law and conducted an abstract, real estate, loan and insurance business. During the past ten years Mr. Trotter has been alone in the business, doing a probate business and a large real estate and loan business, selling many thousand acres of western land in North Dakota. Texas and other states. He also handles large real estate deals at home and has platted and sold out many additions to towns and cities throughout the Central West. He has the largest loan business in the county, his loans amounting to three hundred thousand dollars a year. Besides making loans for corporations, he loans for one hundred and fifty private parties. He is financial correspondent for the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company for this territory and inspects lands, examines titles, prepares all papers and closes the loans in his own office, making it possible in this way to close a loan on short notice. The companies which he represents are giving the cheapest money and on the best terms of any company loaning money in Indiana. In addition to his loaning business, be does a large amount of insurance business, having eleven of the best old line fire insurance companies. He looks after his law, real estate, loan and insurance business and his farms and buildings with the aid of one office man, and he tries not to neglect the other things of life which he considers of importance.
    Mr. Trotter is now serving his fourth year as president of the Danville Commercial Club and has always devoted much of his time to its interests and the improvement of Danville. He is president of the Danville Canning Company and is a promoter and stockholder in the Danville Creamery. He is also president of the Danville South Cemetery Association, president of the board of stewards of the Danville Methodist Episcopal church, and vice president and director of the Capitol Circuit Traction Company. It was in Mr. Trotter’s office that the company was organized that built the interurban railroad from Indianapolis to Danville, and he was a director and its secretary until it was sold to a Boston. syndicate. He was the engineer, surveyor and superintendent of construction in full charge of the road when it was sold. He is now interested in two other roads, which he hopes to see built before long
    Mr. Trotter, by native gift of what we call enterprise and diplomacy, and by hard work all the time from childhood; all through the years of his life, has developed an accuracy for details, a versatility in knowledge of business and affairs of small and large concern that make him a ready, a quick, a judicious and a decidedly big man in the business world. His experience on the farm as a boy doing all kinds of farm work, his ten years in the surveyor's office, his railroad building, his inspection of land for loans for many companies, his traveling in many states in the Union and in Mexico and Canada. have awakened in him a great interest in lands and farm property, and he deems it the safest and most stable investment that can be made. He is now the owner of nearly eight hundred acres of land in Central Indiana, which he is farming, besides about eighteen hundred acres of Texas and North Dakota land which he believes will soon develop into fine farms, as the country in which these lands are located is rapidly developing. He classes himself among, the farmers and stock raisers of this country and makes a specialty of stock raising and general diversified farming. Governor Marshall, recognizing his interests in agricultural affairs, appointed him as a delegate from this congressional district to the National Farm Land Congress, in Chicago, November 16 to 21, 1909. He has always been a progressive of progressives. When he bought the building known as the Trotter block, in Danville, he put an army of carpenters, masons, painters, paper hangers, plumbers and electricians at work and remodeled and modernized the building until he had a three story building that for comfort, convenience, beauty and desirability for modern offices and living rooms, would do credit to a city five times as large as Danville.
    Mr. Trotter was married to Mary E. Jeffers in 1887, and he gives a large share of the credit of his success in all his enterprises to her aid as an untiring worker at the practical affairs of life and to her encouragement They have worked together through all these years as true helpmates and their home life has been ideal. Mr. Trotter has always ‘taken an active interest in church affairs, and for fourteen years has been teacher of the largest Bible class in Hendricks county, teaching the normal class in which the students of Central Normal College, to the number of over two hundred, are enrolled yearly. These students are young men and women from every county in the state and from many other states, many being teachers in this and other states. He numbers his pupils in his class by thousands and regards this as his best work and productive of the most pleasure and profit. He was a Sunday school superintendent when only eighteen years of age at North Salem, ‘and has been superintendent or assistant superintendent of the Danville Methodist Sunday school for twenty three years.
Fraternally, Mr. Trotter is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, to which order he has belonged for the past twenty seven years, joining the Danville Silcox Lodge in 1887. He is also a member of the encampment and Rebekahs. Mr. Trotter is a man of vigorous mentality and strong mental fiber and finds these qualities the chief factors in the carving out of a career that has been above suspicion and reproach and of honor to the county which he so ably and acceptably serves as a public and private citizen.
TAVNER NEAL

    One of the sterling citizens of Hendricks county, who is today filling  an important position, is Tavner Neal, the efficient superintendent of the Hendricks county poor farm, who was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky. His parents were Charles W. and Emma S. (Bradley) Neal.
    Tavner Neal has been one of those self made men who have risen to prominence solely because of their own industry and perseverance. When he was married he and his wife started to housekeeping in a log cabin, built at the northwest corner of his father's farm. This little square log cabin speaks eloquently of the early days when they started their married life. They lived there for about two years, when they moved to their present home three and one half miles southeast of Brownsburg, and there lived until March I, 1914. He then took his present position as superintendent of the county poor farm. Starting out with nothing in life, he has accumulated a farm of one hundred and thirty three acres in Lincoln township, and has taken a great deal of interest in the breeding of live stock of various kinds. He not only raises live stock hut he has dealt largely in poultry. He raises pedigreed Jersey cattle, Berkshire hogs, and for several years has made a specialty of pure bred Barred Rock chickens. He is regarded as an expert chicken fancier and has taken many premiums at various fairs and exhibits in his county and other counties in the state. He is a member of the American Berkshire Record Association, and for the past twenty years has belonged to the American Poultry Association, as well as the American Barred Plymouth Rock Association. He is a progressive and well informed farmer and lectures frequently at farmers’ institutes and has the honor of raising one hundred and six and one half bushels of corn to the acre at a time when average crops in his community were about twelve bushels to the acre. When he came to his farm it was exhausted from consecutive cropping and in very poor condition. He has not only reclaimed his land, which was practically useless, but has conserved the food element in his soil. He knows, to begin with, that an ounce of fertilizer as a preventive against soil exhaustion is worth a pound of fertilizer for soil reclamation. On this basic principle be plans his crops and plants in rotation o the end that the continuous growth of one variety of crop on the same ground will not rob it of its plant food elements. Clover naturally follows corn, or some similar rotation, and the land remains fertile and only a minimum amount of fertilizer is required. Not many years ago land in Indiana in more than one part of the state was “corned” to death. Crop after crop of corn was planted until corn no longer thrived. Now it is rare indeed to find a farmer who plants corn in the same field twice in succession. He insists that at least one crop of some other farm produce must intervene between two corn plantings.
    In  1885 Mr. Neal was married to Annie Turpin, the daughter of Anderson and Eveline (Reupert) Turpin, of Kentucky. Anderson Turpin was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, the son of Robison and Rachel (Powell) Turpin. Robison Turpin was the son of Jacob and Martha Turpin, and his birth occurred in Bourbon county, Kentucky, on April 7, 1805, and rn 1820 he moved to Scott county, in that state. In 1834, Robison Turpin sold his farm in Kentucky and moved to Indiana, where be bought two hundred and five acres of land in the eastern edge of Hendricks county, near Brownsburg.
    The Turpin family trace their ancestry back as far as Jacob Turpin, who was born in eastern Maryland in 1785, the son of William and Nancy (Henley) Tiirpin, who were married in Maryland in 1783. Jacob Turpin’s grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and lived until he was more than one hundred years old. In 1786 William and Nancy Turpin moved to Kentucky and settled among the hostile Indians, and were compelled to live in block houses with other settlers in order tb protect themselves from the Indians. Jacob Turpin married Martha Taylor in Bourbon county, Kentucky, in 1804, she being born in that county in 1786, of Scotch parentage. In 1820 they moved to Scott county, that state, and bought a farm and in the same year sold it and moved to Indianapolis when it was a town of seven hundred people. In 1829 Jacob Turpin and his wife moved to Hendricks county, settling near Clermont, where there was a cabin, log stable and five or six acres already partly cleared. Jacob Turpin died in 1849 and his wife in 1865. They had one son, Robison Turpin, born in 1805, in Bourbon county, Kentucky, who was married in 1827 to Rachel Powell, also a. native of Kentucky, her birth having occurred there in 1807. Robison Turpin was engaged in farming in that state until 1834, when he sold out his holdings in Kentucky and came to Indiana, purchasing two hundred and five acres of land in Hendricks county, where he became one of the most prosperous and successful farmers of that day. He was a man of excellent business ability and judgment and when his death occurred on January 30, 1905, he was sincerely mourned by his community, having won the esteem and confidence of all by his straightforward and honorable life. Robison Turpin and wife were the parents of ten children, Anderson, the father of Mrs. Neal, being the third child. Anderson Turpin was born in Scott county, Kentucky, on October 2, 1831, and came with his parents to Indiana in 1834. He was married to Louisa Eveline Reupert, who was a native of Georgetown, Kentucky, her birth having occurred there in 1835. Anderson Turpin lived and died a farmer, passing away at Brownsburg, this county, in 1905. His wife lived until May, 1913.
    Mr. Neal lends his hearty support to the Democratic party, and has been very active in the affairs of that political organization. He and the members of his family are faithful attendants of the Methodist Episcopal church and lend to it their zealous support. They are the parents of two children, Chester and Bertha. Chester married Grace Phillips and lives near his father's old home south of Brownsburg, and has one son, Marley. Bertha is still at home with her parents.
    In his fraternal relations Mr. Neal has long been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Tribe of Ben-Hur. He is a man who has always been a hard worker and is highly esteemed by his neighbors because he has been a busy man. Judged by his labors, none have done more to advance the material interests of his section of the county, and as a citizen no one stands higher in the esteem and confidence of the people of Hendricks county.
CHARLES E. EDWARDS

    It is the progressive, wide awake man of affairs who makes the real history of a community and his influence as a potential factor of the body politic is difficult to estimate. The example such men furnish of patient purpose and steadfast integrity only illustrate what is in the power of each to accomplish, and there is always a full measure of satisfaction in adverting even in a casual way to their achievements in advancing the interests of their fellow men, and in giving strength and solidity to the institutions which make so much for the prosperity of the community. Such a man is the worthy subject of this sketch, and as such it is proper that his career be accorded a place among the representative citizens of the county in which he has lived for so many years. As a merchant and as a county official be has made his mark in the community and in the county where he has lived as a man of more than ordinary ability, and it is believed that a study of the life of such a man by the youth of the county will be an inspiration which will help them in their future careers.
    Charles E. Edwards, the present county clerk of Hendricks county, was born August 29, 1871, on a farm in Clay township, between Amo and Coatesville. His parents were Solomon D. and Mary (Hornaday) Edwards, his father being a native of this county, and his mother a native of Morgan county, this state. Solomon Edwards is still living on the old home farm in Clay township, where he and his wife lived the simple lives of farmers all their lives. They are the parents of six children, all of whom are living: Minnie B., the wife of William 0. Brown, of Clay township; Roscoe, a farmer of Clay township, who married Bertha Kendall; Charles E., the immediate subject of this sketch; Myrtle, the wife of Walter Hodgson, a farmer of Clay township; Maude L., the wife of Virley Moon, a rural route carrier out of Amo; John A., who is a merchant in Danvile, who married Mary Wills. The mother of these children was called to rest April 3, 1914. She was a good christian and lived a life above reproach, and no mother could have been more kind and loving. Her thoughts were always of others and self was forgotten. Quiet and retiring in manner, yet she exerted a potent influence for good over those with whom her life was spent.
    Charles Edwards spent his boyhood days in the manner which is customary with all farmers’ lads, attending school in the winter months, and working on the farm during the summer months. He attended the country schools until be reached the eighth grade and then took the last year of his common school course in the graded schools at Coatesville. With the idea of preparing himself for the teaching profession, he attended the State Normal School at Terre Haute in the spring of 189o. Following this he taught for three years in the Coatesville schools, where be made a successful record as an instructor. He afterwards took some work in the Central Normal College at Danville. However, the call of business was not to be denied and he engaged in the mercantile business at Coatesville in. his father-in-law’s store, and upon the death of his father-in-law, became the manager of the store. Subsequently he became interested in the milling company at Coatesville and managed this plant for one and one half years, at the expiration of which time he sold it out and bought a grocery and queensware business in Danville, which he conducted for ten years. Upon his election as county clerk in 1910, be sold his store and became interested with Otis E. Gully in the real estate and loan business. He was elected county clerk of Hendricks county in November, 1910, on the Republican ticket, with a handsome majority at a time when part of his ticket was defeated. In the conduct of the affairs of his office, which be assumed on July 27, 1912, he has proved himself an able and efficient administrator of the public's affairs and is making an enviable record as one of the most popular officials who have ever held office in Hendricks county.
    Mr. Edwards was married December 23, 1894, to Ida A. Job, the eldest daughter of Allen and Nettie Job, of Coatesville. Her father was one of the leading merchants in that part of the county. To this union have been born two daughters: Pauline, who is now sixteen years of age and a junior in the high school at Danville, and Mary Jeannette, who is thirteen years of age and completing her common school work this year. Mr. Edwards and all the members of his family are consistent and loyal adherents of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Edwards has been a member of the board of stewards of this denomination for many years. Fraternally, he is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Silcox Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
    Mr. Edwards is interested in the real estate and loan business with Otis E. Gulley under the firm name of Gulley & Edwards and also has land interests scattered throughout the county. He was a member of the Danville school board for five years and resigned that position when he became county clerk. Mr. Edwards is a man of splendid business qualifications, which, combined with his courtesy, genial disposition and unfailing good nature, have commended him to the good will and friendship of all who know him. His life is the record of a well balanced mental and moral constitution. In all of life's relations he has been true and faithful to himself and all the trusts reposed in him and thereby he has won the unqualified confidence and respect of his fellow men.
EVERETT ROSCOE ROBARDS

    It is a well attested maxim that the greatness of a community or a state lies not in the machinery of government, nor even in its institutions, but rather in the sterling qualities of the individual citizen, in his capacity for high and unselfish effort and his devotion to the public welfare. In these particulars he whose name appears at the head of this review has conferred honor and dignity upon his locality, and as an elemental part of history it is consonant that there should be recorded a resume of his career, with the object in view of noting his connection with the advancement of one of the most flourishing and progressive sections of the commonwealth, as well as his official relations with the administration of the public affairs of the county honored by his citizenship.
    Everett R. Robards, banker, merchant, farmer and stock breeder of Stilesville, was born in that place on November 17, 1865, the son of Casper and Mary Elizabeth (Matlock) Robards, the father a native of Owen county, Indiana, his birth having occurred on September I, 1830, and his mother a native of Stilesville, having been born there in 1843. Casper Robards was deputy treasurer of Morgan county, Indiana, from 1850 to 1855, and in 1865 established the first drug store in Stilesville. In 1860 he sold his drug store and engaged in the general merchandising business, which he continued until 1873. when his health failed and be sold out his mercantile’ business in that year. However, he continued to live in Stilesville until his death, which occurred on May 8, 1902. His wife, Mary E. Matlock, the daughter of James and Sarah Matlock, was only twenty-three years of age when her death occurred, leaving three small children: James, who died in 1864; Sarah Caroline, who died in 1865, and Everett R., the immediate subject o this sketch.
    Everett R. Robards attended the common schools of Hendricks county and later took the two years course then offered by the normal school at Danville. After leaving school he engaged in a general merchandising business in Stilesville and in 1899 he opened a private bank, which has proved to be very successful. As a business man Mr. Robards has won signal success along several different lines. . As a banker he has been conducting a bank which has won the confidence of a large number of patrons. His well stocked store in Stilesville is managed in such a way as to reflect great credit upon the owner. In addition to his banking and mercantile interests Mr. Robards also has farm lands in Hendricks,’ Morgan, Marion, Putnam and Scott counties, this state, and personally oversees all of them. Upon his farm in Hendricks county he breeds heavy draft horses, for which he finds a ready sale. In addition to all of these manifold duties, he has been the efficient trustee of Franklin township and has also served a term on the county council of Hendricks county. In every undertaking he has proven that dose attention to business is sure to win success, when accompanied with strict integrity and high purposes.
    Mr. Robards was married to Addie A. Almond, the daughter of Hiram and Angeline (Ellis) Almond, on November 29, 1899, and to this union there have been born two children? Mary Elizabeth and Everett Almond. Mrs. Robards was one of four children, the other three being Orville, who married Daisy Howard; Etta, who married K. E. Faucette, and they have one child, Warner; and Ethel, who married W. R. Robertson, and they have two children, James and Russell.
    Mr. Rohards was formerly a Republican, but in the split which occurred in that party in 1912 he espoused the Progressive cause, believing that in this new party there were better hopes for the future. He has always taken an active interest in the political issues of the day and even sacrificed his personal affairs in order to serve his party in office. Fraternally, he is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, belonging to Larrabee Lodge, No.
He and the members of his family are adherents of the Christian church of Stilesville and contribute generously to its support. The life which Mr. Robards has led has indeed been a busy one, but through it all he has kept his self respect and the tongue of censure has never had any charges to bring against him. His clean life and the honorable methods which lie has used all ‘these years in transacting his business affairs, have won for him a host of friends throughout the county.
GEORGE A. KEENEY

    Indiana has been especially honored in the character and career of her men of industry. In every section have been found men born to leadership in their vocation, men who have dominated because of their superior intelligence, natural endowment and force of character. It is always profitable to study such lives, weigh their motives and hold up their achievements as incentives to greater activity and higher excellence on the part of others. These reflections are suggested by the career of one who has forged his way to the front rank and who, by strong, inherent force and marked business ability, directed and controlled by an intelligent judgment, has stood for the last five years as one of the leading business men of Danville, Indiana.
    Thrown early upon his own resources, George A. Keeney set out with the avowed determination of securing an education and how well he has succeeded is shown in the brief sketch which follows. Through the common school, through the high school, through the normal, through the state university he worked his way, and through it all he was the same simple man we find him today. Although be has seen disappointments and many discouragement's, yet his optimistic nature has always been to the front and this happy characteristic has made it possible for him to win the success which is so worthily his today. It is not often that the theoretical college man and professor can go into the business world and make a success, and yet this is what Mr. Keeney has been able to do. The study of the career of’ such a man as this should be an inspiration to the young men who have to make their way in the world.
    George A. Keeney, of the hardware and implement concern known as The Danville Hardware Company, was born on a farm at Rainstown, Hendricks county, Indiana, June 28, 1877. His childhood, youth and young manhood were spent in active work on the farm, which is the best school for practical knowledge for the young. There the boy, consciously  or unconsciously, is a student of soil, climate, kinds of seed to be planted and methods of planting and harvesting, of the kinds of stock to be kept and cared for and used or raised for market. Mr. Keeney is naturally inclined to be a student of men and things and men's affairs, and his ambition to learn had ample vent in the study of the book of nature on the farm. Ambitious to train his mind and learn of history and science, he began early to inform himself from books as well as from nature. He was fortunate in being. thrown upon his own resources and arose to the’ occasion by making his own way. He gained a much better education from the school than the average man because he worked for it. He earned money at whatever he could find to do, and worked his way through the high school two terms in Central Normal College and a four year course in the Indiana State Normal and finally graduated from that institution. He then took two years at Indiana State University, graduating with the Bachelor of Arts degree, after which he took a term in the great Chicago University. He taught school for eight years, four years of this time in the country schools during his college life in order to earn money to pay his way. He was superintendent of the schools, one year at Pittsboro, one year at Clayton, and two years at North Salem, where he had seven subordinate teachers.
    He had a head for business, and accumulated money as a teacher, a thing that is done by too few of that worthy profession. In 1909 he bought a half interest in what was then the Leak & Keeney hardware business at Danville and has been a student of that business since. His training has made it easy and the natural thing for him to devote energy to the business in hand. For him it is the natural thing to know the best and most modern in the varied and comprehensive lines of goods their large store carries, so that they can meet the demand for the tools and implements the farmer and builder use. His business and the needs and convenience of his customers is his study, and how he may serve them is his pleasure.
    Mr. Keeney was married to Eldora Nelson, on September 30, 1906, and to her influence as a true helpmate Mr. Keeney ascribes any success that he has won. She was born in Jackson township, Boone county, Indiana, a daughter of Thomas J. and Alice Nelson. When she was a small child her mother died and she was reared to womanhood’ in the home of her uncle, George L. Leak, near Lizton. She attended high school at Lizton and at Lebanon; graduated from the teachers’ course at the Central Normal College, and took about two years at the State Normal at Terre Haute. She also taught eight years in the public schools of this county, most of the time at Lizton.
    Mr. Keeney is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of Danville Commercial Club. Progress, intelligent organization and unity of ‘work by public spirited men for the public good, he promotes with his voice and work. His progressive ideas as a business man and as a citizen, and his genial nature, make him popular as a business man.
M. S. MAHAN

    The men most influential in promoting the advancement of society and in giving character to the times in which they live are two classes, to-wit, the men of study and the men of action. Whether we are more indebted for the improvement of the age to the one class or the other is a question of honest difference in opinion; neither class can be spared and both should be encouraged to occupy their several spheres of labor and influence, zealously and without mutual distrust. In the following paragraphs are briefly outlined the leading facts and characteristics in the career of a gentleman who combines in his make-up the elements of the scholar and the energy of the public spirited man of affairs. Devoted to the noble and humane work of teaching, he has made his influence felt in the school life of Hendricks county, and is not unknown to the wider educational circles of the state, occupying as he does a prominent place in his profession and standing high in the esteem of educators in other than his own particular field of endeavor.
    Professor M. S. Mahan, the present efficient superintendent of the Danville schools, was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, May 25, 1872. His parents were William and Emily (Phillips) Mahan, his father being a native of Kentucky and his mother of Indiana. His father followed the occupation of a farmer all his life, his death occurring in 1897. his wife having preceded him in death several years previous, in i888. Mr. and Mrs. William Mahan were the parents of seven children, three of whom ‘are living: Samuel, of Terre Haute; William, who is living on the borne farm, and Professor M. S. Mahan, the immediate subject of this sketch.
    Professor Mahan is an excellent type of the man who devotes all of his time and energy to the noble profession of instructing the youth. Since he. was six years of age there has not been a year in which he was not in the school room either as a student, or as an instructor of students. He received his elementary education in the district schools of his home county and then entered the graded school at Farmersburg, where he continued for two years. After one years service as a country school teacher he came to the Central Normal College af’ Danville, where be remained for three years. This was followed by two years of successful teaching in Henry county in this state. The next two years found him in charge of a school in Hardinsburg, Washington county, Indiana. From here he went to Pleasantville, Sullivan county, this state, where he was principal of the schools for one year. He then lived at Orleans for the following six years, two of which were spent as principal of the schools, and four years as superintendent. He then went to the State University at Bloomington, where he remained in continuous residence until his graduation in June, 1907, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. After his graduation from the university he was elected superintendent of the schools at Danville, Indiana, and has been in charge -of these schools continuously since. Since taking charge of the schools in Danville he has practically revolutionized the course of study. He has added courses in domestic science, commercial work and manual training, and has seen the attendance nearly doubled. There are now two hundred md seventy pupils in the grades and one hundred and forty five in the high school. All of the high school teachers but one are college graduates. He has also introduced a department of agriculture in order to meet the demand for this kind of work. In fact, the attendance has grown to such an extent that the present buildings are wholly inadequate to accommodate the pupils. It is interesting to note that he has brought about the changes in the courses of study without increasing the tax levy in Danville, a fact which should call for special mention. This has been made possible by the hearty co-operation of the town and Central Normal College in the employment of teachers for special courses. It is safe to say that no schools in the state have made as rapid or more efficient progress within the last three years than have the schools of Danville, and it is all due to the wise administration of Professor Mahan.
    Mr. Mahan was married to Gertrude Webb, at Orleans, Indiana, November 26, 1902, and to this marriage there have been born two children, Margaret and Dwight, the latter deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Mahan are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is a member of its official board. They both take an active part in church work and Professor Mahan is the teacher of the Bible class in his church.
Fraternally, Mr. Mahan is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons. He is a member of the National Educational Association, the Indiana State Teachers’ Association and the various local organizations pertaining to educational subjects. He is the present vice president of the Indiana State Teachers’ Association. Professor Mahan is a well educated, splendidly developed man and his work as an educator has for many years been of such a high standard of excellence that his position in the front rank of his profession is universally conceded. He keeps abreast of the times in advanced educational methods and is in hearty sympathy with the practical education which is demanded by the times. His influence for good in the community of Danville is incalculable and the work which he is doing quietly and unostentatiously makes him one of the most potent forces for good in the city of
JOHN S. DUCKWORTH

    It is proper to judge of a man's success in life by the estimation in which he is held by his fellow citizens. They see him at work, in the family circle, in church, hear his views on public questions, observe the operation of his code of morals, witness how he conducts himself in all the relations of society and civilization, and are therefore competent to judge of his merits and demerits. After a long course of years of such daily observation, it would be out of the question for his neighbors not to know of his worth, for, as has been said, “actions speak louder than words.” In this connection it is not too much to say that the subject of this sketch has passed a life of unusual honor, that he has been industrious and ‘has the confidence of all who have the pleasure of his friendship.
    John S. Duckworth, the present county recorder of Hendricks county, Indiana, was born in North Salem, Eel River township, this county, on March 6, 1888. His parents were Pressley S. and Eliza (Woodward) Duckworth. his father being a native of Kentucky and his mother of this county. Pressley Duckworth was a farmer by occupation and came to Hendricks county about 1850 with his widowed mother, and settled one mile north of North Salem where he lived all of. his life, his death occurring on April 13, 1872. His widow still survives him, and makes her home in North Salem. To Mr. and Mrs. Pressley Duckworth were born eight children: John S., the immediate subject of this sketch; Oliver E., of Jamestown, Indiana; James A., St. Louis; Mollie, deceased; Allie, deceased; Mrs. Maggie Ergenbright, of Kansas City; William, of North Salem, and Lizzie, deceased.
    John S. Duckworth was educated in the common schools of his home neighborhood and remained under the parental roof until he had attained his majority. In 1873, he went to work in a saw mill and followed this occupation for twenty years. Following this he engaged ‘in teaming and farming until his election as county recorder of Hendricks county in November, 1906. His record during his first term of office was such that he was nominated for re-election and although he had three candidates against him be carried every township in the county but two and had a majority of more than five hundred. He has taken especial care to have all the records in his office bound and preserved and kept in the most approved manner. He is distinctly a man of the people, a man who has very little education, but who has that happy faculty of being able to make the very most of all of his possibilities.. He is a, bard worker and deservedly popular with all. classes of people.
    John S. Duckworth was married October 23, 1883, to Nannie O’Rear, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Newton O’Rear, of Boone county, Indiana. To this union there have been born six children: Mabel C., deceased; Fred Allen, railroad employee at Indianapolis; George P., who lives in the West; Lela and Beulah, twins. Beulah is the wife of Carl White, of Jamestown, and Lela keeps house for her father, and has been his constant companion since her mother's death, ‘August 10, 1897; Kenneth, the sixth and last child, died in infancy.
    Mr. Duckworth has always been a Republican in politics, and has been one of the most active men in the councils of his party for many years. His re-election to the office of county recorder shows the high esteem in which he is held by the citizens of his county. Fraternally, be is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church of North Salem, and is a liberal contributor to its various needs. Personally, Mr. Duckworth is a man whom it is a pleasure to know, being generous hearted, kind and helpful. He is honest in all his dealings with his fellow men and eminently worthy of representation in a work of this character, as’ he is one of Hendricks county's most valued citizens.
GEORGE W. SCEARCE

    The Union soldier during the great war between the states builded wiser than he knew. Through four years Of suffering and wasting hardships, through the horrors of prison pens and amid the shadows of death, he laid the superstructure of the greatest temple ever erected and, dedicated to human freedom. The world looked on and called those soldiers sublime, for it was theirs to reach out and strike the chains from off the slave, preserve the country from dissolution, and to keep unfurled to the breeze the only flag that ever made tyrants tremble and whose majestic stripes and scintillating stars are still waving universal liberty to all the earth. For all these unmeasured deeds the living present can never repay them. Pensions and political power may be thrown at their feet; art and sculpture may preserve upon canvas and in granite and bronze their unselfish deeds; history may commit to books and cold type may give to the future the tale of their sufferings and triumphs; but to the children of the generations yet unborn will it remain to accord the full measure of appreciation and undying remembrance of the immortal character carved out by the American soldiers in the dark days of the early sixties, numbered among whom was the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this sketch.
    Among the most highly respected citizens of Hendricks county, Indiana, is George W. Scearce, who was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, March 19, 1843. His parents were Ezra W., born in 1808, and Martha (Shepherd)
Scearce, born in 1809 both of whom were natives of Kentucky. Ezra W. Scearce was a farmer and came to Indiana in March, 1851, locating a half mile southwest of Danville, where he lived until his death, which occurred March 30, 1885 Ezra Scearce was a great student of the Bible, a consistent member of the Universalist church, and was a man of high ideals and of a philosophic bent, of mind. Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Scearce were the parents of seven children, only one of whom is living, George W. The six deceased children are James, Elizabeth, John N., Johanna K.., William W. and Curtis.
    George W.. Scearce spent his boyhood on his father's farm and received the education which was accorded to the children of his county in the period before the Civil War, which amounted to only a few months during the winter, and consisted of. reading, writing and arithmetic.’ At an age ‘when most of the boys of the present time are in high school, he left school to enter the army. When the war broke out he was only eighteen years of age, but his youth did not interfere with his plans for serving his country. At the
opening of the war he enlisted in Company K, Fifty first Regiment Indiana Volunteers, and served Three years an. two months. During that time he was in thirty one engagements, among the most famous battles in which he took part being Shiloh, Stone's River, Perryville, Franklin ‘and Nashville. At the battle of Nashville, on December i6, 1864, he received a gunshot wound in his left hip. He was a prisoner of war for a short time, and was confined at Belle Isle, in the James river, near Richmond, Virginia. During part of his’ service his regiment was attached to General Streight’s brigade and detailed to do field duty in destroying munitions of war and lines of communication. His brother, William W., was also a soldier in the war and was made a prisoner, being confined in the infamous Libby prison. He, in company with three others, escaped from this in the tunnel which has been made famous in history and successfully reached the Union lines. George
W. Scearce was mustered in as a private, but was promoted to second lieutenant and from June 19, 1863, until the close of the war he held the rank of captain, being promoted to that rank when he was twenty years of age.
    Upon being mustered out of service Mr. Scearce returned to his father's farm in Hendricks county, Indiana. On December 7, 1865, he was united in marriage to Sophia Chamberlin, who was a native of Madison, Indiana, and to this union were born five children: Harry C.. of Mooresville, .Indiana; Edwin A., a farmer living near Danville, this county; Martha L.; Bertha E., and Grace K., wife of C. V. Cook, assistant cashier of the First National Bank, of Danville. After his marriage Mr. Scearce took charge of the old homestead farm, where he lived until 1911, ,when he moved to Danville. Previous to leaving the farm for the city of Danville, he built a fine modern home in this city, where he now lives a retired life, surrounded by all modern conveniences and comforts. He has been a resident of Hendricks county for sixty three years, having arrived in this county on the day he was eight years of age, and has lived to see the little village of Danville grow to become the flourishing little city which it is today.
    Politically, Mr. Scearce is a life-long Republican and has always been more or less interested in politics. During the eighties he served as trustee of Center township and rendered faithful and efficient service to his fellow citizens during that time. He assisted in organizing the Farmers Co-operative Insurance Company, of Hendricks county, and was its secretary treasurer for fifteen years. For the past twenty years he has been president of this insurance company, and is now acting in that capacity. He has the honor of being the oldest Odd Fellow in Danville in point of continuous membership, having joined the lodge in 1864, ‘when he was home from the war on a furlough. He is also a loyal member of the Grand Army of the Republic and takes an active interest in the affairs of the post in Danville. His religious affiliations are with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has been a trustee and a member of the board of stewards for many years. He has always been a strong advocate of temperance, and in all the movements of his county which have had for their object the extermination of the liquor traffic he has always taken an active, part. He was president of the organization at Danville which routed the saloons from that city.. Though past the psalmist's allotted span of years, Mr. Scearce still retains to a remarkable extent his physical and mental vigor and takes a deep interest in all the current affairs of the community, being numbered among the enterprising men of this section of the state. He has worked hard and accomplished much, and because of his past efforts he is thoroughly entitled to representation in a work of the character of the one in hand.
SYLVANUS MABE

    Indiana was not lacking in loyalty during the dark days of the Rebellion, and no governor in all the northern states was more prompt or rendered more efficient service to President Lincoln than did Governor Morton. When the ship of state was almost stranded on the rocks of disunion, Indiana came to the front and contributed over two hundred thousand brave and valiant men to assist in preserving the integrity of the government. Prominent among the citizens of Hendricks county who served their country faithfully and well were Sylvanus Mabe and his father, James M. Mabe. Although they enlisted from Brown county, this state, they have made their home in Hendricks county for many years, the father having answered the last roll call several years ago. Today there is in Hendricks county no old soldier who is more widely and favorably known and none that can boast of a more honorable record than     Sylvanus Mabe. He was loyal to his country in its hour of peril and extremity, and demonstrated on many a bloody battle
field that he was ready to fight and even die for his country.
Sylvanus Mabe, the son of James M. and Anna (Noblet) Mabe, was born, in Brown county, Indiana, May 3I, 1844. James M. Mabe was born October 23, 1820, in Stokes county, North Carolina, and died March , 1896, in Hendricks county, Indiana. He was one of six children, the others being
Bettie, Mrs. Mary Williamson, Mrs. Ruth Clark, William F., and Mrs. Nancy Medlock. When James M. Mabe was about ten years of age he moved with his parents to Brown county, Indiana, where he and his father entered land from the government. He never had any schooling except what he picked up in the wide field of experience, since he never had any opportunity of attending a school in Brown county while be was a lad. Sylvanus Mabe’ and his father, with their families, lived in Brown county until 1892, when they moved to Hendricks county. James M. Mabe enlisted in Company H, of the Eighty.. second Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served from the date of his enlistment, September i8, 1862, until the dose of the war. He was present at the Grand Review at Washington, D. C., in the spring of 1865. His son, Sylvanus, also enlisted, serving from August 20, 1861, until about the close of the war. He was only seventeen years of age when he enlisted in Company C, of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which was made a part of the Army of the Cumberland. He was engaged in the battle of Shioh, the siege of Corinth and all of those engagements which were fought by Grant in Tennessee and Mississippi. His regiment was later transferred to the eastern part of Tennessee, where he fought in the battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and in the last named battle he was wounded, being struck by pieces of shell in the right knee, incapacitated from further service and within the next six months he was mustered out at Indianapolis.
    James M. and Anna (Noblet) Mabe reared a large family of thirteen children: Sylvanus; Hiram, who died at the age of twenty six; Vandever, deceased April 13, 1909, a member of Company D, Forty third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, married Jeannette Anthony; William; Williamson, deceased; Levi, who died when small; Cyrus, deceased; Mary Jane, the wife of A. D. Handcher; Margaret, the wife of Oliver Craig; James, deceased; David, who married Etta Gates, and two who died in infancy.,
    Sylvarnis Mabe received a very limited common school education in the district schools of Brown county before he enlisted in the war at the early age of seventeen. After returning home from the war he and his father continued farming on the old homestead, where he remained until his marriage, March 14, 1869,. when he began farming for himself in Brown county. In 1874 he moved to Nebraska and remained there for two years, after which he came to Clay township, in this county, and settled on a rented farm of fifty acres, which he operated for the next thirteen years. He was a hard-working man who attended strictly to his own affairs and by thrift and economy he succeeded in saving enough to purchase a small farm. After he had once made a start he added to his land holdings until at the present time he is the owner of two hundred and eighty acres of fine land in Clay township. His success can be attributed only to hard work and upright dealings in all of his business transactions.
    Mr. Mabe married Harriet C. Bartholomew, the daughter of Eli and Mamie M. (Fuller) Bartholomew, and to this union there have been born two children, Eli and Lorenzo F. Eli, a farmer living at Pecksburg, in this county, married Lora McCormick and has one daughter, . Mabel. Lorenzo F., a miller and implement dealer living at Clayton, in this county, married Rilla Hurley, and they have one child, Lorenzo Lyle. Mrs; Mabe’s parents had a family of eight children: Ira, the wife of Zibil Baldwin; John, who married Savannah Lewis; Augustus, deceased May 30, 1864; Cyrus, who married Sarah Handcher; Pamelia, who married William Cox; Harriet, the wife of Mr. Mabe; Polly, deceased 1849; Maria, deceased. Mrs. Mabe’s mother died November 29, 1873. Mrs. Mabe’s father died July 16, 1891, in this county. The grandparents of Mrs. Mabe on her mother's side were natives of Trumbull county, Ohio, and had a family of four children, Abial, Mary, Eli, and a Mrs. Scofield.
    Mr. Mabe is a stanch Democrat, and has voted .this ticket for a half century. While he has always taken an interest in political affairs he has never aspired to any public office, preferring to devote all of his time and attention to his agricultural interests. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and is one of the most active members of the post at Danville. Mr. Mabe has won an honorable name for himself in this county, because of his upright life and he and his wife are valuable members of society in this county.
EDOM R. HADLEY AND MILTON M. HADLEY.

    The history of a county or state is chiefly a chronicle of the deeds and lives of those who have conferred honor and dignity upon the society of that county or state. The world judges the character of a community by those of its representative citizens and yields its tribute of admiration and respect to those whose words and actions constitute the record of a state or county's prosperity or pride. Among the prominent citizens of Hendricks county, Indiana, who have long since passed away, but who in their day took a prominent part in the life of the community in which they lived are Edom
R. Hadley and his son, Milton M. Hadley. This father and son were good men and good citizens in the, highest sense of the term and the locality in which they lived suffered an irreparable loss when they passed away. They were useful citizens of the. commonwealth, men who were deeply interested in the welfare and social uplift of their fellow citizens, men who stood for the highest ideals of citizenship and all that it means. Tile brief history of their lives which is here given can be nothing more than a poor tribute to their worth as men who did their duty as ‘God gave them the power to so do.
    Edom R. Hadley, the son of James and Mary (Richardson) Hadley, was born in North Carolina in 1819, and when six years of age, came to Hendricks county, Indiana with his parents, and settled two and one half miles west of Danville on Mill creek. There his father entered land from the government and at the time of his death owned six hundred acres. Here in the wilderness and amidst pioneer conditions which have long since disappeared, Edom R. Hadley grew to manhood and here married Louisiana Vannice, daughter of Peter and Sallie (Smith) Vannice. She was born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, February 7, 1829, and came with her parents when she was three years of age to this county, where they located in the northwestern part of Marion township, near the Putnam county line. Peter Vannice entered land from The government -and lived on his farm of two hundred acres until his death, which occurred in 1888, on February 9th, his wife dying three days later. It is interesting to note that bad they lived until the 14th of the same month, they would have been married sixty years. Peter Vannice and wife reared a large family of eleven children, only five of whom are now living: Mrs. Joan Allen, who lives in Iowa; Samuel, of the same state; Mrs. Sarah Ferguson, of Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Ella Hawkins, of Indianapolis; and Mrs. LOuisiana Hadley, the widow of the late Edom R. Hadley. Mrs. Hadley grew to womanhood at a time when none of the modern conveniences were to be had; no pianola was found in the parlor at that time, the music then in the evenings being furnished by the wolves, which roamed the forests and howled around the log cabin. For fourteen years after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Edom R. Hadley lived one mile west of Danville, at which time they moved to the present borne farm of two’ hundred and eighty acres, three miles north of New Winchester. On this farm Mr. Hadley died in March, 1888, having lived a full and complete life in every sense of the word. He and his wife were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and to this church he gave his conscientious service. Three children were born to bless their union: Jennie, the wife of George W. House, of Danville, who is the mother of three children, Ida, Nettie and
George; Milton M., whose history is reviewed later in this article; Charles L., who married Jennie Kurtz, and lived on a farm two and one half miles west of Danville until his death; he left two children, Doyle and Myrtle.
    Milton M. Hadley was born December 21, 1857, one mile north of Danville, and grew to manhood on the homestead farm north of New Winchester. After finishing the common and high school course at New Winchester, he entered Lincoln University at Lincoln, Illinois, from which institution he graduated in 1883, with the degree of Master of Arts. Tn 1887 he married Mary Fielding, a lady whom he met while attending school at Lincoln College. They entered the freshman class there together and their friendship ripened into love and this was consummated by their marriage after they left college. Mrs. Hadley was born in Chandlerville, Illinois, the daughter of James’ and Elizabeth (Briar) Fielding. Her father was a native of England, where his birth occurred in the city of Manchester, and here be lived until he was eleven years of age. According to the custom in his home town in England he attended school the year round, but leaving his native country at the age of eleven with his parents to come to America, his education stopped at that time. However, he was a well read man and was an omnivorous reader all his life. His parents, whose names also were James and Elizabeth, came to America and settled fourteen miles east of Beards-town, Illinois, on a farm and there they lived the remainder of their lives. Mary Fielding grew up in Illinois and it was while attending Lincoln University that she met her future husband. For a, time after their marriage they lived in Kansas City, but they soon tired of city life and moved to Marion township in this county, where he resumed farming and followed this occupation until his death, December 23, 1895. They had one son, Harry, who was born August 11, i888, and is now attending the University of Illinois, where he will receive his doctor's degree in commercial chemistry in June, 1914. Harry Hadley graduated from the Danville high school and then from James Milliken University with the degree of Bachelor of ‘Science. The next year he took his Master of Arts degree in chemistry at the University of  Illinois and will take his Doctor of Philosophy degree there this year. He is doing special research work in chemistry for the university and has a very promising future before him.
    Milton M. Hadley was a man of exceptionally strong character, clean minded, and a man whom to know was to love. He was elected a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church in 1892, and at the time of his death was superintendent of the Sunday school and president of the Christian Endeavor.
    Thus is shown in brief outline the careers of two men, father and son, who lived lives of remarkable purity and sweetness and whose influence was always cast for better and higher things. Their two widows are living together today and are beloved by everyone in the neighborhood.
JOHN N. PHILLIPS

    The gentleman whose name forms the caption of this sketch belongs to that class of men who win in life's battles by earnest endeavor, coupled with good judgment and in whatever he has undertaken he has shown himself to be a man of ability and honor. ‘He has always been ready to lend his aid in defending principles affecting the public good, having ably and conscientiously served his county in the capacity of a public school teacher for twenty years, while in other phases of civic life he has so ordered his actions as to earn the endorsement and support of his fellow citizens.
    John N. Phillips, the cashier of the First National Bank of Amo, was born two miles southwest of Amo on June 24,  His parents were Samuel and Rachel (Newman)’ Phillips, of North Carolina. His grandfather, John S. Phillips, was born in Pennsylvania in 1776. His great grandfather, John Phillips, was a native of Germany and went to North Carolina about i789, taking his family with him, and his death occurred shortly after settling in that state. The children of the grandfather, John S. Phillips, came to Indiana in -the thirties and located in Wayne county, where be afterwards joined them and died about 1832. Samuel Phillips, the father of the subject of this sketch, came to Hendricks county, Indiana, abOut 1836, where all of  his children were born  and reared. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Phillips were the parents of nine children, two of whom died in infancy.
    John N. Phillips was the sixth child in order of birth of his father's family and was reared as a farmer's lad, receiving his elementary education in’ the district schools and completing it by taking a course in the Central Normal College at Danville. As a boy he showed unusual intelligence and his parents were anxious to give him the best possible education. After completing his course in the college at Danville he became a public school teacher and followed that noble profession for the next twenty years, during which time he was rated as one of the most successful teachers of Hendricks county In 1898 he retired from the teaching profession and for eight years he was engaged in the lumber business and farming. Then he, with others, organized the First National Bank of Amo, the organization articles being dated  January 20, 1906. Its present officers are as follows: E. B. Owen, president; George W. Christie, vice-president; J. N. Phillips, cashier; Miller E. Kendall, assistant cashier. The bank now has a capital stock  of twenty five thousand dollars.
    Mr. Phillips was married August 21, 1879, to Joanna Ratliff of Hendricks county, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Ratliff, an old and highly respected family of that county. ‘Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are the parents of one daughter, Elsie, who married Otis Rammel. Mr. Phillips is a member of the Friends church and an active worker in all the activities of that denomination, being especially interested in the Sabbath school work. Mr. Phillips is a man whom to know is to respect, and during his career in this county he has led a life which has been free from censure of any kind. He has always been ready to aid in the moral or material welfare of those who required assistance, and in every particular measures up to the highest ideals of the American citizen.
WILL A. KING

    It is a well recognized fact that the most powerful’ influence in shaping and controlling public life is the press. It reaches a greater number of people than any other agency and thus has always been used and, in the hands of persons competent to use it, always will be a most important factor in molding public opinion and shaping the destiny of the nation. The gentleman to a brief review of whose life these few lines are devoted is prominently connected with the journalism of central Indiana, and at this time is editor and publisher of the Danville Gazette, one of the best Democratic papers of this section of the state in news, editorial ability and mechanical execution.
    Will A. King, the son of E. Douglas and Ruth (Warner) King, was born in Cincinnati. Ohio, May 5, 1864, and has lived in this county since he was fourteen years of age. His father was born in Union town, Pennsylvania, and came to Indiana in 1869 as editor of the Fort Wayne Sentinel, and also has the honor of publishing the first directory of that city. In February, 1878, he came to Danville and established the Hendricks County Democrat and in September, 1880, he started the Danville Gazette, taking his son, Will A., the subject of this sketch, into partnership with him. Shortly after starting the Gazette he accepted a position in the government printing office at Washington, D. C., and left his son in full charge of the paper.
    Will A. King received a good practical education and when a small boy entered the printing office of his father, who had been a printer and newspaper man for thirty years. Under the able guidance of the latter he acquired a through knowledge of the mechanical part of the business and, being a lad of keen ability, he was soon competent to assume the control of the paper and manage it from the editorial as well as the mechanical side. As has been said, he helped his father establish the Gazette in 1880 and he has been in charge of the paper up to the present time. It has for years been recognized as the official organ of the Democratic party in Hendricks county.
    Mr. King was married to Jennie Hill, the daughter of John C. and Sarah J. (Parker) Hill, and they have an interesting family of three children, Ruth A., Sarah J. and Robert’ H. They are fitting their children for their future careers by giving them the best possible education.
    In view of the fact that Mr. King has been the editor of the leading Democratic paper of the county for so many years, it is not strange that be has been a very important factor in the deliberations of his party. Probably no other man in the county has exerted as much influence in the councils of his party as has Mr. King, and it is to his credit that he always takes his stand on the side of clean politics. Personally, he is a man who easily makes friends and, being a newspaper man, has friends in every part of the county.
JOSEPH B. FLEECE

    Specific mention is made of many of the worthy citizens of Hendricks county within the pages of this book, citizens who have figured in the growth and development of this favored locality -and whose interests are identified with its every phase of progress, each contributing in his sphere of action to the well being of the community in which he resides and to the advancement of its normal and legitimate growth. Among this number is he whose name appears above, peculiar interest attaching to this career from the fact that for the past ten years he has been prominently identified with the banking business in North Salem, during which time be has also taken a prominent part in the civic and moral advancement of his community.
    Joseph B. Fleece, a banker of North Salem. was born near North Salem, July 24, i866. His parents were Capt. Jacob and Lettie B. (Ashby’) Fleece. The late Jacob H. Fleece was born near Danville, Kentucky, on June 4, 1’829, and died in North Salem, November 2, 1910, a devout Christian man who was honored and respected by everyone. The parents of Captain Fleece were Charles and Mary (Harlan) Fleece, who came to this county from Kentucky and settled in Eel River township in 1836. Here Captain Fleece was reared to manhood and in October, 1853, married Lettie B. Ashby, the daughter of Silas and Nancy (Radford) Ashby. Silas Ashby was the son ‘of Thompson and Lettie (Van Meter) Ashby. The Ashby family is a remarkable family. They trace their ancestry back to England where for centuries they have been people of honor. Thompson Ashby was born in Virginia and at the age of fourteen, with two older brothers, came to Kentucky where he grew to manhood and then married Lettie Van Meter. Her father was given a large grant of land for his services in the Revolutionary War,, but lost part of it by defective title. Thompson Ashby lived the remainder of his life in Kentucky; and upon his death his widow sold his farm and brought her children to Indiana and settled between Ladoga and Roacbdale in Putnam county There she entered land, managed wisely and reared her children to useful lives. They prospered and became large land owners and today their descendants are numerous about Ladoga and are among the most highly respected people of the various communities in which they live. Lettie N. Ashby, the wife of Capt. Jacob Fleece, was born and reared near Roach-dale and lived there until her marriage. After his marriage, Captain Fleece and his brother John engaged in the mercantile business at Ladoga in Montgomery county, but a year later he returned to his farm in Eel River township in this county. In 1859 he was elected county recorder of Hendricks county and served until the fall of 1861 when he resigned and entered the army. In September, 1861, he was commissioned captain of Company A. Fifty first Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and remained in the service as captain until his resignation in September, 1862. He then returned to this county and  resumed farming. In 1882 he was elected to represent this county in the lower house of the State Legislature, and was re-elected in 1884 and again in i886, serving six years in the Legislature. He was a very successful farmer and at the time of his death owned two hundred and seventy acres of land, which be farmed until within the last fifteen years of his life when he moved to North Salem. He was a Mason and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He and his wife belonged to the Christian church, in which he was an elder for many years. Captain and Mrs. Fleece were the parents of three children: Silas F.; Joseph B., whose history is herein presented; and Lulu C. Silas F. Fleece is in the hardware business at Tuxedo, the eastern part of Indianapolis. He married Francis Davis and had three children, Aletha, Alta and Verner. Lulu married L. C. Moore, and lives on the home farm a mile west of North Salem. They have two children, Herbert and Maynard.
    Joseph B. Fleece grew up on the farm attended the district schools and then took a course in a business college at Indianapolis. In 1888 he engaged in the merchandise business at North Salem in partnership with his brother-in-law, L. C. Moore, under the firm name of Moore & Fleece. The firm continued in business for ten years, when it was dissolved and Mr. Fleece vent to Indianapolis and entered the real estate business. Two years later ‘he returned to North Salem and became interested in the North Salem Bank with Charles W. and George B. Davis and has continued in the banking business ever since. In addition to his banking interests, Mr. Fleece owns about two hundred acres of land in the southern part of Texas near Houston and Brownsville.
    Mr. Fleece was married in 1897 to Emma Williams, the daughter of Alexander and Martha (Griggs) Williams. Alexander Williams was born in Marion township, this county, June 26, 1840, the son of James B. and Eliza (Ramsey) Williams.  James B. Williams and his wife were born, reared and married in Kentucky, coming to this county in 1836 in wagons. They bought one hundred and twenty acres of land in Marion township from a man who had entered the land, but was not able to make any improvement. They started in the wilderness, built a real pioneer cabin of round logs, puncheon floor, clapboard roof and stick-and-mud chimney. Alexander Williams had two sisters and five brothers, of whom he is the only one living at the present time. His mother died when he was about fourteen years of age, and his father married Eliza Tamplin, who is now living near Danvile with four children by his second marriage: Matilda, Sarah, Eleanor and Tilman. James B. Williams died in 1878. In OctOber, 1863, Alexander Williams enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty fourth Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry and was immediately transferred to General Sherman’s command in the Atlanta campaign. Later his company was ordered to return to General George Thomas in Tennessee and was in the attack on Nashville, December, 1864, and followed Hood’s army until they crossed the Tennessee river in the early part of 1865. Shortly afterwards his regiment was ordered to Washington, D. C.. and was there compelled to camp in an open field without shelter in zero weather. Thence his regiment was taken by boat to the coast of North Carolina and landed at Moorhead City. His regiment was sent there in order to repair the- railroad in North Carolina to connect Sherman with Virginia and ship him supplies. In North Carolina he was in several skirmishes of a minor character.  He took part in the Grand Review at Washington, D. C., in the summer of 1865 and was later mustered out at Indianapolis in July. Immediately after the close of the war he returned to Marion township and resumed farming. In 1871 he moved to Eel River township where he bought land and, by gradual addition, has now accumulated three hundred and twenty one acres of land in that township. In 1907 he retired from active life and bought a home, in North Salem, where he is now living a retired life. Alexander Williams was first married in January, 1867, to Anna Fassett, the daughter of Isaac and Unity Fassett. To this union one son was born, Harry. His first wife died about fifteen days after the son was born. Harry now lives two miles north of North Salem on a farm. He married Pearl Speers and has one son, Aubry, who married August Gaines and lives on a farm north of Danville. Alexander Williams was married, the second time in June, 1871, to Martha Grigs, the daughter of David and Emeline (Webster) Griggs. She was born, in Clark county, Kentucky, and came to Marion township in this county, when she was a babe. To this second marriage five children were born: Emeline, the wife of Joseph B. Fleece. Anna, the widow of Clarence Bryant. Flora, who received a fine education, attending the State Normal at Terre Haute and later the State University at Bloomington. She taught several terms in Hendricks county, and also at Indianapolis, but is now making her home with her father in North Salem. Dicey, the wife of Frank Branch, lives at Stockton, California, and has three children, Helen, ‘Doris and Frances. Urban L. lives on his father's farm. He married Lydia Davis, the daughter of Smith R. and Martha Davis, and has one son, Roger. The second wife of Mr. Williams died March 8, 1910.
    Mr. and Mrs. Fleece are the parents of four interesting children, Pauline, Eugene, Maurice and Harlan. Mrs. Fleece is an accomplished musician and a pleasant woman in every way. For some years before her marriage, she was a teacher of instrumental music, having received her training in the music department of the Central Normal College at Danville. Mr. and Mrs. Fleece are loyal members of the Christian church and Mr. Fleece has been a deacon in the denomination for many years. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. In the civic life of his community, Mr. Fleece has always taken an active interest, giving his support to all movements having for their object the advancement of the general welfare of his town and vicinity. He is a genial and agreeable man to meet and enjoys a justly merited popularity among his many acquaintances.
CHARLES P. HORNADAY

    Among the strong and influential citizens of Hendricks county, Indiana, the record of whose lives have become an essential part of the history of this section, the gentleman whose name appears above occupies a prominent place and for years has exerted a beneficial influence in the locality where he resides. His chief characteristics are keenness of perception, a tireless energy, honesty of purpose and motive and everyday common sense, which has enabled him not only to advance his own interests, but also largely contribute to the moral and material advancement of the community.
    Charles P. Hornaday was born June 12, 1866, in Washington township, Hendricks county, Indiana. His parents were Anson D. and Sarah (Hanna) Hornaday, both of whom were natives of Indiana. Anson Hornaday was a farmer by occupation during all of his life and settled in Hendricks county in 1865, having come to this county from Indianapolis, where he had been a contractor. He engaged in agricultural pursuits in Washington township, and continued to reside there until his death, which occurred in 1908 at the age of eighty years. His widow is still living in Plainfield at the age of eighty one. Anson Hornaday was a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church from his boyhood. Mr. and Mrs. Anson Hornaday were the parents of six children:
Ella, deceased; James P., who is now the special correspondent of the Indianapolis News with headquarters at Washington City; Charles P., the immediate subject of this sketch; W. D., of Austin, Texas, where he is engaged in the newspaper business: Mrs. Mary L. Hadley, of Plainfield, and John, who died in infancy.
    Charles P. Hornaday was reared on the home farm and educated in the common schools, finishing his educational training at Plainfield Academy. He then took a course in the Indianapolis Business College, and after his graduation from that situation, engaged in the mercantile business in Indianapolis for a short time. In 1889 he came to Danville, where he followed the feed and grain business for two years. He next engaged in the grocery business and operated a grocery store for the next seventeen years, at the expiration of which time be retired from the grocery business and went to Indianapolis, where he engaged in the real estate business for three years. He then returned to Danville and in 1910 was appointed postmaster by President William H. Taft, a position which he held until 1914.
    Mr. Hornaday was married November 28, 1896, to Effie M. Blair, the daughter of Clark Blair, of Washington township in this county. To this union there have been born four children, Howard B., Sarah Josephine, Mary Louise and Charles P., Jr. Mr. Hornaday is a Republican in his political views and has always taken an active interest in politics, although he had never held any public office until his appointment as postmaster of Danville. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, and, with his wife, is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church of Danville. He is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Indianapolis and the Commercial Club of Danville. He is actively interested n all civic matters and is prominent in all movements looking toward the betterment of his home town. He is a man who has won a large circle of friends and acquaintances and is universally regarded as one of Hendricks county's leading citizens.
WESLEY BRADY

    The gentleman whose name appears at the head of this article is well and favorably known throughout Hendricks county and particularly in the vicinity of Danville. This is not because he can claim great wealth nor because of remarkable accomplishments in mercantile life, though he has been a successful business man; but because of the fact that he is genial in manner, warm hearted, charitable and kindly to man and beast. In addition to these qualities he is a recognized authority upon the care and breeding of horses; and his proverbial kindness to the animals in his charge has shown marked results. These animals are docile and well trained, and could they speak, they would probably say, “We do our best for him because he is so kind.” And this quality in him has appealed to his fellow men.
    Wesley Brady is a true product of Hendricks county, having made it his home since the day of his birth, in the year 1858. His parents. George W. Brady and Delilah (Selch) Brady, were among the early inhabitants of the county, and his maternal grandparents were among the first to brave the terrors of the unbroken forest.
    His father, George W., was born in Morgan county. Indiana. near Mooresville, in the year 1839, but during his childhood his parents. Merrill Brady and wife, emigrated to Hendricks county. Here, near Carterburg, they took up their abode, and the remaining clays of their lives were spent upon this. homestead, he cultivating the soil and toiling (diligently to acquire sustenance for the family. Mr. Brady was particularly successful as a breeder of and dealer in live stock, and the love which he bore for domestic animals, particularly the horse, was inculcated into the mind and heart of his son.
    His wife, Delilah Selch, was a native of Hendricks county also, her parents being one of the early families to brave the terrors of the long, tedious journey by wagon from Kentucky, through the forest country infested by wild animals. Near the present site of Cartersburg in Hendricks county, they selected their abode and entered from the government eighty acres of land. This tract was later doubled in size, and the arduous labor of clearing away the grand old forest trees, which to-day are so highly prized, was gladly endured as they saw the cabin raised which was to be their home. During the time of building, one of the workers shot a deer at the hour for noon day rest, and at night the howling of wolves trying to get their sheep disturbed their slumbers. Here they lived the life of the pioneer, the father and sons hewing the huge trees to clear space for the garden and grain, and the mother and daughters spinning and weaving, and later, knitting and sewing by hand the products of the wheel and loom. Baking and broiling were accomplished by the open fireplace, and. their table was replete with game.
    Hence, we see that the subject of our sketch is truly a son of Hendricks county. His childhood and youth were spent on the farm of his father, and he was busily engaged in all the activities of the place. At the age of twenty four years, his marriage to Kate Riggen was solemnized. She, also, is a native of Hendricks county, having been born and reared near Caitersburg. His parents took the long journey from North Carolina by wagon in the early days of this county, and purchased the tract of land which has been their homestead throughout their days.
    Soon after they were united in marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Brady established their home on a farm in the vicinity of their former homes, and here he engaged in the pursuit of agriculture until the year 1909, supplementing this work, however, with the purchase and sale of horses. In this year he brought his family to Danville and entered the livery business with John W. Ader, under the firm name of Ader & Brady. In this vocation be has been at liberty to exercise all his talents in the care and training of horses, for which he is eminently fitted by heredity, experience and environment, for the love of this work is inherited from several generations of ancestors. He is now the possessor of “Guy Princeton,” a horse that has sired more speed and high class road horses than any other stallion in Hendricks county. Many of his offspring have sold for the sums ranging from fifteen hundred to twenty five hundred dollars. His pedigree runs back three generations to Hambletonian Ten.
    But dearly as Mr. Brady loves his horses, his home and family are of paramount importance in his life. His one daughter, Lela, is now the wife Raymond Miles, and resides near Clayton. Though a man of few words, is proverbially a good neighbor and stanch friend; and his many kind acts have won for him a more desirable reputation than could the possession of large wealth. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, among whom he has many devoted friends.
FRED B. SOPER

    In the early days the Middle West was often a tempting field to energetic, ambitious, strong minded men, and Indiana was filled with them tiring the time she was struggling up to a respectable position in the sisterhood of states. There was a fascination in the broad field and great promise which this newer region presented to activity that attracted many men and induced them to brave the discomforts of the early life here for the pleasure and gratification of constructing their fortunes in their own way and after their own methods. It is this class of men, more than any other, who give hope, direction and character to the business of a community. Fred B. Soper, well known citizen of Center township, this county, is the son of one of the pioneer citizens of this community, his father, the late Charles Soper, for many years being one of the most substantial and prominent citizens of Hendricks county. He became identified with this section at an any date and for many years wielded a potent influence in local circles.
    Fred B. Soper was born in Marion township, this county, on December 1, 1869, about one and one half miles north of New Winchester, the son of Charles and Sarah (Underwood) Soper. Charles Soper was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, on December 5, 1823, and came to this county n 1853. He was twice married, his first wife, whom he married in Kentucky, being Nancy Bryan. Their marriage took place in 1844 and she lied after coming to this county, in 1867. She left three children, namely: James, deceased; Mary Alice and Charles Clay. Mr. Soper took as his second wife Sarah Underwood, to whom were born two children, the eldest being the immediate subject of this sketch, and the youngest, William Hendricks. who departed this life July 13, 1902. Sarah Underwood was a native of Decatur county, this state, her parents originally coming from Kentucky and later coming to this county, where her father entered from the government one thousand acres of land in Marion township. She died in Lake county, Illinois, on September 13, 1909.
    Charles Soper, the subjects father, was one of the leading farmers of his day, being thoroughly progressive in his work at a time when Many tillers of the soil rather hesitated to depart from old established methods. He was a firm believer in modern ideas in agriculture and ever endeavored to keep right in the front rank in his chosen vocation. He first settled in Marion township, this county, on a farm of about five hundred acres, where he had excellent opportunities to work out some of his advanced theories. There he lived until the fall of 1870, when he moved to Danville, where be resided for about thirteen years. Becoming wearied of town life and hungering for the country again, he returned to the farm where the subject now lives. This homestead contains one hundred and seventy four acres, all buildings and improvements being modern, and is one of the best conducted farms in the county. On this farm Charles Soper passed his declining years, his death occurring on January 20, 1909. He was quiet and unassuming in manner, yet with a quality of firmness and determination rarely equaled. Highly successful in his chosen field of endeavor, he won his way by his never ceasing effort, tireless energy and rare judgment and ability, yet, with all his large interests, he found considerable time to devote to his home and family, being a man of marked domestic traits. His fraternal affiliation for some years was with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, but he dropped his membership in this society shortly before his death. He was a stanch Democrat in his earlier years, but later endorsed the principles of the Prohibition party and was active in its affairs as related to his community, but never aspired to office in either party. He was one of those splendid men of brains and brawn who always prove themselves such strong factors in the improvement of a new country, for, by reason of their varied qualities, they lead in the moral, educational and material advancement of their community and their influence for general uplift can never be estimated.
    Fred B. Soper spent his early years at home, assisting his father in his labors and imbibing from him the principles of life and business which make him one of the leading citizens of today. He received his elementary education in the township schools, later attending the high school at Danville, from which he was graduated in due time. He chose the vocation of his father as that of his own and all the efforts of his manhood years have been spent in this direction, until he is considered one of the most progressive farmers of the county. He gives considerable attention to the breeding and raising of cattle and bogs, principally the latter. Mr. Soper has never married and he and his sister, Mary Alice, who also remains single, make their home together on the old homestead, and she unites with him in a determined effort to make their business an unqualified success.
    Both Mr. and Miss Soper are members of the Christian church, being interested in its welfare and they contribute liberally of their means toward its support. Mr. Soper’s fraternal affiliations are with the Knights of Pythias, being identified with the local lodge at Danville. He is a stanch Republican, firmly believing in the principles laid down by that party, and takes an active interest in political matters in his community. While never aspiring for office, his influence at the polls is a thing reckoned with by those who do seek such honors. Mr. Soper is a quiet, unassuming man, with sterling qualities of heart and mind and well liked and respected throughout a wide acquaintance. His sincere interest in those with whom. he comes in contact has won for him many warm friends and both he and his sister hold an enviable position in the estimation of their friends and neighbors. It is such men as he who are the saving class in any community and of whom it can truly be said they are the “salt of the earth.”
    Miss Soper deals in White Leghorn chickens and has the finest poultry farm and equipment in the Middle West. She is also a club woman, belonging to the Modern Priscilla and New Era clubs at Indianapolis, and to the Lawrence School Girls’ Club.
EDGAR M. BLESSING


    There are individuals in nearly every community who, by reason of pronounced ability and force of character, rise above the heads of the masses and command the unbounded esteem of their fellow men. Characterized by perseverance and a directing spirit, two virtues that never fail, such men always make their presence felt and the vigor of their strong personalities serves as a stimulus and incentive to the young and rising generation. To this energetic and enterprising class the subject of this sketch very properly belongs. Having never been seized with the wanderlust spirit that has led many of Hendricks county's young men to other fields of endeavor and other states, Mr. Blessing has devoted himself to his adopted profession and to the public duties to which he has been called, and because of his personal worth and his accomplishments, he is clearly entitled to representation among the enterprising and progressive men of his locality.
    Edgar M. Blessing, the son of George A. and Margaret (Ladd) Blessing, was born in Wadena, Indiana, in 1876. He was given a good common school education, graduated from the high school at Wadena and later from the Indiana State Normal at Terre Haute in 1899. Between the time he entered the State Normal and his graduation he taught two years, and after his graduation was principal of the Plainfleld high school for two years. During the summer of 1900 he was in attendance at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. In 1901 he was for five months clerk of the Indiana Boys’ School at Plainfield. In the fall of 1901 he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, and graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Law in June, 1904. In January, 1905, he opened a law office in Danville for the practice of law. A year later he was elected prosecuting attorney, and was re-elected in 1908. January 1, 1912, he became county attorney, which office he now fills very acceptably. He has been distinguished by his work in the office of attorney in the well known Asher and Moon cases. As county attorney he is official attorney for the board of county commissioners, and has had work of great importance for them, which he has creditably performed. He prepared all the papers for the board of commissioners in the new court house matters and prepared the transcript for the sale of the bonds for two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars for the proposed new court house. The bond attorneys who examined the transcript pronounced it legally perfect and could make no corrections or amendments and went so far as to compliment the work he did. In this high and difficult service for the public he evidenced capacity in his profession.
    Mr. Blessing was married October 5, 1905, to Geraldine M., the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dr. C. A. White, of Danville. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church of Danville, and are interested in all its activities. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and is worshipful master of the Western Star Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons at Danville. He is also a thirty-second-degree Mason and a Shriner of Murat Temple, Indianapolis.
    Mr. Blessing loves the law because its purpose is the preservation for each citizen in the state of his rights for his own use. The practice of the true lawyer is the practice of patriotism, and Mr. Blessing has the high ambition to be a true lawyer. There is no nobler ambition, no greater field for usefulness, and all that is needed is time to make him eminent in his profession. He is now assistant to Prof. Solon Enloe, the head of the law department of Central Normal College, of Danville.
WILLIAM W. TROTTER

    Among the men of Hendricks county who have seen it emerge from a virgin forest to its present state as one of the finest agricultural counties in the state, there is no one who can give a more vivid picture of the steady growth of the county than William W. Trotter, who was born February 19, 1833, about two miles east of North Salem, and has spent his entire life in this county. His parents were James and Sarah (Whitt) Trotter, and his father was born in Lee county, Virginia, June, 1813, the son of James and Elizabeth (Culton) Trotter. In 1815 the Trotter family came from Virginia to Indiana and settled in Monroe county, where they remained for two or three years; from thence they went to Greencastle, Indiana, and still later to Lafayette, in this state. They finally settled in Hendricks county, where they bought a farm of two hundred acres south of North Salem. Here James Trotter, Sr., died on October 27, 1857. James Trotter, Jr., was a young man, when his parents moved to this county, and shortly after coming here he married Sarah Whitt, who was a native of Montgomery county, Virginia. She had come to Indiana with the family of James Hedge, who only stayed a short time in Indiana, when they returned to their old home in Virginia. After his marriage, James Trotter, Jr., bought a farm east of North Salem, and lived there the rest of his life. He built a cabin in the woods and started life like all of the pioneers of early Indiana. William, whose history is here portrayed, remembers distinctly of the clearing of that farm and all of the incidents which surrounded their pioneer home. James Trotter died February i6, 1878, his wife having passed away November 12, 1872.
    William W. Trotter was married February 28, 1857, to Nancy E. Keith, who was born December 9, 1838, in Putnam county, in this state, the daughter of Bird and Hannah (Stigleman) Keith. Bird Keith was a native of Virginia, the son of James Keith and wife. He married Hannah Stigleman in Wayne county, Indiana, when he was about thirty years of age, and shortly afterwards moved to Putnam county, where they lived until 1852.
 They then moved to Hendricks county and located east of North Salem, although his wife had died before he came to this county. His death occurred later at Indianapolis.
    After Mr. Trotter married he engaged in farming on rented land for several years and then purchased a farm two miles east of North Salem, where he lived until February 19, 1901, at which time be retired from active farming and bought a home at North Salem, where he has since maintained his residence. Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Trotter are the parents of seven children living and two who died in infancy, the ones deceased being Jesse and Arthur T. Those living are Allen F., who lives with his father; James, a hardware merchant of North Salem; Silas B. and Oliver W., who are in the dry goods business in North Salem, and whose histories are given elsewhere in this volume; Charles M., a dentist of North Salem; Clarence H., agent for the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway Company at North Salem, and Nora B., who is at home with her parents.
    Mr. Trotter was assessor of Eel River township from 1865 to 1867, and again from 1883 to 1891, and on several different occasions acted as treasurer for the land in his township. His father, James Trotter, had been township trustee of this same township for nine years, beginning in 1860. Mr. Trotter and his whole family belong to the Christian church, and give to this denomination their most earnest support. Mr. Trotter has been a loyal member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since April, 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Trotter have lived useful and busy lives in this county and have reared a family of children, all of whom have became useful members of the community.
DAVID A. HIGGINS

    It is a well authenticated fact that success comes as the result of legitimate and well applied energy, unflagging determination and perseverance in a course of action when once decided upon. She is never known to smile upon the idler or dreamer and she never courts the loafer, and only the men who have diligently sought her favor are crowned with her blessings. In tracing the history of David A. Higgins, of Danville, Hendricks county, Indiana, it is plainly seen that the success which he enjoys has been won by commendable qualities and it is also his personal worth that has gained for him the high esteem of those who know him.
    David A. Higgins, deputy state oil inspector, was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, June 30, 1850. His parents were Michael and Elizabeth (Plasters) Higgins, his father's birth having occurred in Putnam county. this state. He came to this county when he was a boy with his parents. His mother was born in Kentucky and came to this county with her parents when a small child. Michael Higgins was a farmer in Marion township, where he lived on the same farm until his death in 1904, at the age of eighty one years. He was, a member of the Christian church at New Winchester, and served as trustee of Marion township for three terms. His wife died at the age of sixty in 1882. They were the parents of six children: William, of Marion township; David A., the immediate subject of this sketch; Mary J., wife of J. L. Wilson, of Marion township; Cassandra, wife of Henry Hunt; Charles E., of Marion township, and May, the wife of Willard Kellum, who lives on the home farm in Marion township.
    David A. Higgins was reared on his father's farm and received the education which was afforded by the district schools of his home township. He had more than the ordinary taste for knowledge and after finishing the common school course in his township, he attended the academy at Ladoga for two .years when it was in charge of Professor M. B. Hopkins, later superintendent of instruction for Indiana. Upon the completion of his education he returned to his father's farm and followed agricultural pursuits until 1893. In addition to carrying on a general system of diversified farming he was actively engaged in the buying and shipping of live stock. In fact, this was the main source of his income. In 1893 he moved to Danville, where he engaged in the hardware business for the next ten years. In 1910 be was appointed deputy oil inspector for Indiana, a position which he is still filling.
    Mr. Higgins has long been identified with the Democratic party in his county and his worth as a man is shown by the fact that he has been the county chairman of the Democratic central committee for the past eight years. Hendricks county was formerly Republican, but is now practically in the hands of the Democratic party, only two of the county officers being Republicans.
    Mr. Higgins was married December 1, 1881. to Angeline Hunt, the daughter of Ithamer and Fanny Jane Hunt, who were also residents of Marion township. Mr. and Mrs. Higgins are faithful and consistent members of the Christian church at Danville and are generous in their support of its various activities. Mr. Higgins is a member of the order of Free and Accepted Masons. He has ever enjoyed the respect and esteem of those
who know him because of his friendly manner, marked ability in public affairs and upright living, and he is regarded by all as one of the substantial and worthy citizens of this locality.
SILAS B. TROTTER

    One of the influential citizens of North Salem is the gentleman to whose career the attention of the reader is now directed, a man who is ranked with the city's leading merchants and representative citizens. A man of excellent endowments and upright character, he has been a valued factor in local affairs and has ever commanded unequivocal confidence and esteem, being loyal to the upbuilding of his community and ever vigilant in his efforts to further the interests of his city along material, moral and civic lines.
    Silas B. Trotter. of the firm of Trotter Brothers, of North Salem. was born in Eel River township, in this county, on March 16, 1861, and is the son of William W. and Nancy E. (Keith) Trotter, whose family history is given elsewhere in this volume.
    Silas B. Trotter was given a good practical education and continued to’ reside on the home farm until i886, at which time he went to the state of Missouri,. where he spent one year, being employed in the railway round house. He then returned to North Salem and took up the study of telegraphy, and from 189o to 1904 was a telegraph operator on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railway at Montclair, Dana and North Salem. In 1904 be went to Rush county, in this state, and engaged in the mercantile business until 1907. On April 1st of that year he and his brother, Oliver W., formed a partnership in North Salem, and have continued there in business under the firm name of Trotter Brothers until the present time. They handle dry goods, shoes and millinery and have built up a large and lucrative trade in the town and vicinity, owing to their courteous and gentlemanly treatment of their patrons. They purchased this business of Bymaster & Company, a firm which had been established in North Salem for twenty years in the same line. Since taking over this business they have doubled the amount of stock in different lines and have improved the store in various ways. In 1912 they erected a new brick store room, into which they moved in January, 1913.
    Silas B. Trotter was married in 1894 to Louisa J. Pritchett, the daughter of Thomas C. and Mary (Stigleman) Pritchett. Her father was a farmer and one of the early settlers of the county, having come here in 1826, when he was less than one year old. His parents were natives of Kentucky, and made the overland trip from that state to this county on horseback. Mr. and Mrs. Trotter are the parents of one daughter, Mary Geraldine.
    Fraternally, Mr. Trotter is a member of the order of Free and Accepted Masons, which religiously, he and his wife are both loyal members of the Christian Church of North Salem, and are regarded by all with confidence and esteem in the community in which they live.
JOHN HENRY BUNTEN

    The life of a farmer is one of comparative obscurity, yet such is the peculiar fitness of things that in no other station in life do we find men of sounder character and stronger principles than in the environment of the farm. Surrounded by nature, the farmer's life is one which offers fewer temptations and more facilities for developing strength than does the artificial life of the cities. And, as in the last analysis, it is character which counts, so in the end the life of an honest, upright farmer, like Mr. Bunten, may outweigh the life of a man who occupied a much larger place in the eyes of the world.
    John Henry Bunten, of North Salem, was born in Marion township, Hendricks county, Indiana, on February 24, 1850, his father being a native of Mercer county, Kentucky, and his mother of Randolph county, North Carolina. Henry Harvey Bunten was born in 1818 and was the son of William and Leanna (Wilson) Bunten. When Henry Harvey Bunten was a young man he and his parents came to Marion township, this county, from Kentucky, and here William Bunten entered government land and lived the remainder of his life as a farmer. He was married to Frances Robbins, who was born in 1819, the daughter of William and Leah (Lamb) Robbins. She was a small girl when her parents left North Carolina in wagons to make the long trip across the Blue Ridge mountains and the Ohio river valley to this county, where the family entered government land in Marion township. Henry H. Bunten and Frances Robbins were married when they were both very young and lived the simple life of farmers all their lives, he dying in 1898, and his wife two years later. Henry H. Bunten was county commissioner of Hendricks county at one time, and, with his wife, was a life-long member of the Christian church, in which he was a deacon and elder for many years.    Mr. and Mrs. Henry Harvey Bunten were the parents of nine children, eight of whom grew to maturity. At the present time three daughters and John H., whose history is here presented, are the only living children of this marriage.
    John Henry Bunten was reared on the home farm and upon reaching manhood was given the management of the home place. He and his sister, Sarah E., stayed at home, caring for their parents until their death. Sarah E. is now the wife of William I. Gill, whose career is portrayed elsewhere in this volume.
Mr. Bunten was married April 28, 1904, to Mrs. Pearl D. (Hadley) Duncan, the widow of Elmer Duncan, and the daughter of James and Jennie (Fleece) Hadley. James Hadley was born in 1847 Marion township, this county, and was the son of Edmond R. and Sarah S. (Ragan) Hadley. Edmond R. Hadley was born in North Carolina, the son of James C. and Mary (Richardson) Hadley. When Edmond R. was a small boy, his parents came to Hendricks county, Indiana, and located southwest of Danville, where James C. entered government land. On this farm James C. Hadley lived and died, a life-long farmer and stock raiser. Edmond R. Hadley grew up on the farm and married Sarah S. Ragan, who was born in Mercer county, Kentucky, the daughter of Abner and (McCown) Ragan.
    She came to this county in early childhood with her parents, who first settled in Put­nam county, but later came to Hendricks county. After Edmond R . Hadley's marriage he was given a farm of forty acres by his father in Marion township, this county, and as the years went by he added to this until he had seven hundred acres of fine farming land at the time of his death in 1875. Edmond R. Hadley and wife were the parents of eight children, two of whom died in childhood. Three or four years before his death Mr. Hadley bought a farm in Eel River township, and here he remained for the rest of his life. James Hadley, the father of Mrs. J. H. Bunten, was married October 25, 1871, to Louisa J. Fleece, a native of Eel River township and the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Davis) Fleece. John Fleece was a child when he came to this county with his parents. Elizabeth Davis was born in this county and was a sister of Walter Davis, the father of Quincy A. Davis, whose family history is given elsewhere in this volume. Since his marriage James A. Hadley has followed farming pursuits in Eel River township, and for the past thirty-four years he has lived in North Salem. In 1901 he sold all of his land but twenty acres, which adjoins North Salem. He owns a threshing and shredding outfit and still engages in that business. Mr. Had­ley is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while he and his wife are both members of the Christian church.
    Mrs. Bunten was born in Eel River township, this county, and in 1891 married Elmer C. Duncan, the son of George H. and Nancy (Davis) Dun­can. For two years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Duncan lived in this county, then went to Colorado, where they remained for the next seven years. At the time of his marriage, Mr. Duncan assisted his father in a tile factory, but upon his removal to Colorado he engaged in gardening and fruit raising. He died in June, 1900, at the age of thirty-three years, leaving his widow with one son, Glenn D. After Mr. Duncan's death his widow came back to the home of her parents and lived with them until her marriage to Mr. Bunten.
    After Mr. Bunten's marriage he built his present home in North Salem, and lived there for about four years. He then returned to the farm, but two years later' moved back to North Salem and now rents his farm out. He is the owner of one hundred acres of fine farming land and also has the management of forty acres adjoining, which belong to his sister.
Mr. Bunten is a stanch Republican in his political views but has never been a blind partisan in defense of his party. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons and he and his wife are both members of the Order of the Eastern Star. Religiously, their affiliation is with the Christian church, to which they give their earnest and zealous support. Mr. Bunten is .a man in whom everyone reposes the utmost confidence, for his word is to him a sacred obligation and he has always been ready to assist in every good work and help those in need. He has a wide acquaintance throughout the northern part of this county, and is highly respected by all of those with whom he has come in contact and who know him personally.
DR. THOMAS J. ADAMS

    Among the men of the past generations who have been influential factors in the life of Hendricks county, the late Dr. Thomas J. Adams occupied a prominent place.    Doctor Adams was born September 22, 1837, in Center township, near Danville, and died at North Salem, this county, March 13, 1908.   He was the son of Solomon and Nancy (Griffiths) Adams.  Solomon Adams was a native of Nicholas county, Kentucky, and in the twenties of the last century came to Switzerland county, Indiana, where he married. After his marriage he came to Hendricks county, where he was one of the leading pioneers.
    Thomas J. Adams received an academic education at the old Thorntown Academy in Boone county and began the study of medicine with Doctor Lockhart, of Danville, as his preceptor. For several years before the war he taught school in Tipton, Boone and Hendricks counties and on January 2, 1864, he enlisted at Danville in Company I, Ninth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Cavalry, for three years. He served until he was honorably dis­charged in 1865, the close of the war. On the organization of his regiment he was appointed hospital steward and served in that capacity throughout the remainder,of his service. During six months of this time he acted as sur­geon, his superior officer being absent from the regiment. His regiment took part in many heavy skirmishes on Hood's campaign, being in the battles of Columbia, Franklin, Nashville and many others. Doctor Adams helped to care for the wounded. At the battle of Nashville, he remained behind several days to help gather up the wounded and send them to hospitals.
    After the close of the war Doctor Adams returned to this county and at once entered Rush Medical College in Chicago, from which he graduated in 1870. However, in the meantime he had been practicing at North Salem, beginning in March, 1866, after he had had one term at the medical college. After graduation he started to practice at North Salem and was more than usually successful. He was a member of the county, state and national medical societies and had a large medical library.
    Doctor Adams was married in. April, 1867, to Mary A. Fleece, the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Davis) Fleece. John Fleece was born in Boyle county, Kentucky, the son of Charles and Mary (Harlan) Fleece. In 1836 the Fleece family came to Hendricks county and settled in Eel River township. Elizabeth Davis was born near Mt. Sterling, Montgomery county, Kentucky, and was the daughter of Nathan and Nancy (Kidd) Davis. She was about fourteen years of age when her parents came to this county and located northeast of North Salem, where they entered government land. While Mrs. Davis was still a small girl, her parents moved to Ladoga, where the father engaged in the general merchandise business for sixteen years. Then they moved to North Salem, and after the war her father moved to James­town, where he again engaged in the mercantile business until his death, about fifteen years later.    While living in Ladoga he served as township trustee.
    Doctor Adams continued his practice in North Salem and vicinity until two or three years before his death, when a stroke of paralysis necessitate him giving up his practice. He died in North Salem, March 13, 1908. Doctor and Mrs. Adams were the parents of seven children: Galen, Una and Herbert are still living with their mother at North Salem; Beulah is the wife of Dr. C. M. Trotter, a dentist of North Salem, with one son, Richard; Percy died at the age of twenty; Herman died when he was about six years of age; Ernest, the youngest child, is a graduate pharmacist of Purdue Uni­versity.
    Doctor Adams was a member of the Free and Accepted Masons and the Grand Army of Republic, and held official positions in both. He was one of those strong, sturdy individuals who have contributed largely to the material welfare of this county and was a public-spirited citizen who always stood for the best interests of his community. For a long term of years he was active in promoting the community's progress along social and moral lines, and consequently his name will long be remembered for his potent influence for good in this county.
E. E. BLAIR

    Specific mention is made of many of the worthy citizens of Hendricks county within the pages of this volume, citizens who have figured in the growth and development of this favored locality and whose interests have been identified with every phase of progress, each contributing in his sphere of action to the well being of the community in which he resides and to the advancement of its normal and legitimate growth. Among this number is E. E. Blair, who, as a private citizen and public official in his home township, has won the esteem of his fellow citizens because of his blameless private life and his efficient public service. Some men in each community are the natural leaders in public affairs and among this number is         Mr. Blair, whose training has rendered him peculiarly adapted to public service. E. E. Blair, ex-trustee of Washington township and successful farmer, was born October 13, 1865, in the township where he has lived the most of his life. His parents were Clark and Marium Blair, who were highly respected citizens of the community in which they lived.
    Mr. Blair received his common school education in his home schools and then entered Purdue University at Lafayette, Indiana, where he took an agricultural course of one year, then returning to his father's farm, remained there and assisted his father until he moved on to his present farm in 1895, He purchased it from the Walter Ross heirs and has improved this tract in many ways by erecting new buildings and draining and fencing it in a way to increase its value materially. While he raises all of the crops peculiar to this section of the state, he has made a specialty of hog raising and has been uniformly successful along this line. In his farming methods he has kept abreast of the times and keeps well informed upon the latest agricultural methods so that he may keep his farm to the highest state of efficiency. He is interested in all of the farmers' institutes and special short courses for farmers, feeling that these are things in which the farmer cannot make a mistake.
    Mr. Blair was married, in 1887, to Jennie Barker, the daughter of William and Louisa Barker, of Avon, this county. Mrs. Blair was born June 7, 1868, in Avon and received her education in the schools of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Blair are the parents of seven children: Nola, born July 10, 1888; Earl H., born July 21, 1891; Bessie, born December 29, 1892; Eddie E., born December 29, 1894; Everett C, born July 10, 1896; Russell B., born March 21, 1898, and Helen G., born January 23, 1900. All these children are still under the parental roof and are being given the best educational advantages by their parents.
    Mr. Blair has always taken an active interest in Republican politics and in 1895 was selected by his party to make the race for township trustee and that he was elected to that important office shows the esteem in which he is held by the citizens of his township. He responded to their confidence in him by rendering to them and to the township faithful and efficient service while in the capacity of a trustee. He interested himself in the township schools, roads and everything which came within his jurisdiction.
Mr. Blair has spent his whole life in the township of his nativity with the exception of a short time in the West, when he spent about a year on a ranch in Indian territory and another year with a contracting firm in Kansas City, Missouri.
    Fraternally, Mr. Blair is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons at Bridgeport, Indiana, and is actively interested in the affairs of his local lodge. In every avenue of life's activities he has performed his full part and because of his genuine worth and high character he has enjoyed to a large degree the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens.

CHARLES A. WHITE, M. D.

    No other profession has accomplished, during the last century, the progress and development that have been made by the medical. The man of original thought and action, whose text-book forms but the basis of future work, has ever moved forward, taking advantage of and utilizing new discoveries in the science and looking always for better methods and surer means to the desired end. Such a man is he whose name heads this review. In considering the character and career of this eminent member of the medical fraternity, the impartial observer will not only be disposed to rank him among the leading members of his profession in his locality, but also as one of those men of broad character, culture and mental ken who have terrible struggles of the Civil war, his whole career has been replete with honor and success. He has been actuated by the highest motives, and to the practice of his profession he has brought rare skill and resource, his quick perception and almost intuitive judgment enabling him to make a correct diagnosis. He has always been a close student of medical science, keeping in intimate touch with the latest advances along that line, and he has for this reason kept thoroughly abreast of the times.
    Dr. Charles A. White, one of the oldest practitioners in Hendricks county, was born in Canton, Washington county, Indiana, January 4, 1845. His parents, Maxamillian and Martha (Miles) White, removed to Hendricks county in the fall of 1850 and located in Liberty township, about two miles south of Belleville, then the largest town in the county.
Doctor White was only five years of age when his parents came to this county. He was given a good common school education and at the age when most boys of today are in school, he enlisted in the local military company which was being raised in his county. Although he was only sixteen years of age when the Civil War opened, his excess of patriotic zeal made up for his lack of years, and as soon as the opportunity offered itself he enlisted in Company A, One Hundred and Seventeenth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served out his term of enlistment. As soon as he came back from the front he began the study of medicine in the office of Drs. R. C. Moore and L. H. Kennedy at Belleville and later enrolled as a student in Rush Medical College of Chicago. He was compelled to borrow the money with which to pay his school expenses, and for this he paid twelve per cent, compound interest. In the spring of 1868 he began the practice of medicine near Bloomington, Indiana, but remained there only about a year. On March 15, 1869, he formed a partnership with Dr. John Dancer at South Milford, Indiana, which was dissolved two years later. While located at South Milford, Doctor White took a second course of lectures at Rush Medical College and graduated as valedictorian of his class on February i, 1871. In the following April he located at Wolcottville, Indiana, in partnership with Doctor Dancer and was rapidly building up a good practice when sickness in the family necessitated a change. His partnership with Doctor Dancer closed on April 1, 1873, and he at once moved to Danville, near their former home. He next went into practice in Danville with Dr. Henry G. Todd and they continued together from January 1, 1874, until March 1, 1877, when they agreed to dissolve. Doctor White then united with Dr. Wilson T. Lawson and they practiced together until October, 1879, since which time Doctor White has practiced alone.
    Doctor White was married on January 21, 1873, to Dee A. Miller, the daughter of Tolliver B. and Matilda (Gill) Miller, and to this union there have been born two children, Geraldine Max Millar, born June 14, 1880, and Glyndon DeLaskie Miller, born November 1, 1881.
    Politically, Doctor White has been a life-long supporter of the Republican party, in the councils of which he has been a prominent figure, and has frequently been a delegate to county, district and state conventions. Doctor White is a birthright member of the Quaker church, but at the age of twenty eight years he united with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has since been a consistent member. In his fraternal relations, Doctor White has been a Mason since he was twenty one years of age and is also a member of the Royal Arch chapter and the council of Royal and Select Masters. He also belongs to the Scottish Rite, thirty second degree; to Murat Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; to the Knights of Pythias since 1878, and, from the age of twenty one years, has been identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is also an appreciative member of the Grand Army of Republic. He is a member of several medical societies, in the proceedings of which he is deeply interested. He was vice president of the State Medical Society, president of the Seventh Indiana Councilors' District Medical Association, and has served as a delegate to several meetings of the American Medical Association. During President Harrison's administration, he served as a member of the board of pension examiners. He has for many years been medical examiner for several leading life insurance companies, is local surgeon for the Big Four railroad and for years has been a member of the Big Four Railroad Surgeons' Association.    He has during the forty years of his residence in this county built up a large and lucrative practice and been a potent factor for good in all lines of endeavor. He has been a public spirited citizen who has always made his influence felt in all enterprises looking toward the betterment of the community in which he lives. During his early years in this community, Doctor White took a great interest in horses and he was instrumental in introducing into this county a higher grade of horses than had formerly been bred here. Personally, the Doctor is unassuming and approachable, a splendid conversationalist and excellent companion. Because of his high professional standing and sterling character, he is eminently deserving of the exalted position he holds in the esteem and confidence of his fellow men.

JEREMIAH JASPER PAGE

    One of the old families of Hendricks county which traces its ancestry back to England is the Page family, whose descendants now number thousands throughout the United States. The family name "Page" indicates that the family was once connected with the nobility, some members of which were once pages to members of the royal family. Later on some members of the family were given titles and received valuable concessions from the crown with the result that many of them became immensely wealthy. There is said to be an estate of several million dollars left in England by members of the Page family to which the American branch are justly entitled. However that may be, the Pages in America have always been able to take care of themselves and have never made any effort to establish their claim to the Page fortune of England.
    The Pages of Hendricks county trace their ancestry directly to Peter Page, an Englishman who came to Virginia early in the sixteenth century. Peter Page lived and died in Virginia, and to him and his wife was born Williamson Page.
    Williamson Page grew to manhood in Lee county, Virginia, and there married Elizabeth McCloud, who also was a native of the same county, and the daughter of John McCloud and wife, natives of Iowa. In 1830 William­son Page and wife came to Indiana and settled first in the southern part of Hendricks county, where Jeremiah Jasper, whose history is herein recorded, was born. He entered land in Eel River township, one mile south of. where Jeremiah J. Page now lives, entering two tracts of fifty six and one half acres each. He moved onto his land in the fall of 1834, built his rude log cabin of notched log and started in to carve his fortune out of the wilderness. At this time there were no roads except blazed trails from one settler's cabin to another; dense underbrush filled the lowlands and covered the highlands of the county; deer, wolves, turkey and small games of all kinds were very numerous, and the county was merely a hunter's paradise. Williamson Page had been a blacksmith in Virginia and his profession was one which was a very necessary accomplishment in a pioneer community. Gradually the farm was cleared and as the sons grew up and he had increasing assistance, the farm was eventually brought under cultivation. Williamson Page and wife were the parents of a large family of children: Nellie, Nancy, Elizabeth, Stephen, Andrew J., Jeremiah J., Chesley, Robert, Williamson and Demerius. It is interesting to note that at this time there were only three families in this locality, the Pages, Fleece and Zimmerman families. The Fleece and Zimmerman families had fifteen children each, making a total of forty children in the three families, and of those forty children there are only two living today, Jeremiah Jasper Page and Mrs. Rosena (Zimmerman) Waters.
    Jeremiah Jasper Page was reared under the pioneer conditions which have just been described and at the age of twenty, June 15, 1854, he was married to Ann Elizabeth Hypes, who was born August 18, 1838, in Botetourt county, Virginia, the daughter of Jacob and Mary (Pleffly) Hypes. When she was three weeks old her family came: to this county from Virginia in wagons, taking the trip of hundreds of miles through unbroken forests and enduring hunger and hardships of all kinds. The Hypes family settled in the northwestern part of Eel River township, where they entered government land, and here Jacob Hypes died in 1849. Ann Elizabeth was only fifteen years of age and her useful husband was only five years older when they were married and it is interesting to note the prenuptial agreement of these youthful lovers, a plan which they agreed upon before their wedding day. This plan, which is guaranteed to promote domestic felicity, they have followed for more than sixty years of wedded life and have never had a quarrel. This wonderful agreement, which has never been broken throughout sixty years of wedded life, is simply this: When either one becomes cross or out of humor in any way, the other is to keep still until the irritability passes away and not enter into any discussions when angry.
    The useful couple bought forty acres of new timber land entirely on credit and in a rude log cabin this fifteen-year-old bride started up housekeeping. That they worked faithfully need not be told here. Within a few years they had their first forty acres paid for and were able to buy another forty adjoining it. This happened within a few years after their marriage, and it is to be remembered that when they were married they had only the following possessions: two beds, a horse, a cow, a few chairs, a few cooking utensils and no money, and yet this happy couple enjoyed life just as much as we do today with all of our modern conveniences. The table he made out of a plank and the meat and bread which she cooked in the fireplace tasted just as good to them as our porter-house steak cooked on the gas stove of today.
    Another chapter in the history of this interesting couple begins in 1866 when they sold their eighty acres of land and went to Iowa at the earnest solicitation of the mother of Mrs. Page. After reaching Iowa, Mr. Page carefully examined several prospective farms and came to the conclusion that the safest thing for him to do was to return to Indiana. Accordingly they came back to this county and purchased one hundred and forty four acres of land in Eel River township. His success as a farmer in this county shows that he did not make a mistake when he left the broad plains of Iowa for the rolling fields of Indiana. He has prospered to a degree which he little dreamed, when, as a twenty-year-old youth, he started in married life with practically nothing. He has added to his land holdings from time to time until he and his children now own two thousand acres of land.
    Mr. and Mrs. Page  are the parents of eleven children: John H., of North Salem, who married Clarinda Davis and has four children; Mary Elizabeth, who married W. H. Robbins, of North Salem, whose sketch is delineated elsewhere in this volume; Samuel R., a farmer of this township, who married Rebecca Murphy and has five children; Jacob, a farmer in this township, who married Ida Thompson and has nine children; Frank, a farmer of this township, who married Ora Carpenter and has two children living; Ellen, deceased, was the wife of Daniel Robbins and died in February, 1912, her husband dying just a week before; they left one son; Joseph, who died at the age of seventeen; Belle, the wife of Amos, Thompson, a farmer of this township, they have two children living; Cora, the wife of Ed Daven­port, a farmer of this township, has one child living; Sarah Francis, and one other child, who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Page have twenty seven grandchildren living and twenty great grandchildren.
    Mr. Page and his wife are both loyal members of the Christian church of North Salem and have been for many years.  He is a man who esteems honesty as the first essential to success and during his long career in the county he has so conducted himself that he has never been the cause of censure on the part of his neighbors. He has such a reputation for peace, that he is frequently called in to settle differences between his neighbors. Enough has been said to show the character of Mr. Page and to indicate the influence which he has had upon the growth of his township. His life has been a busy one and yet he has always found time to take his full share in the various public questions which concern his immediate community. His career has been honorable in every way and such as to justly warrant the biographer in using that famous old saying, "This was a man.

E. B., J. A. and L. D. OWEN

    Among the men of sterling worth and strength of character who have made an impress on the life of the locality in which they live none have received a larger need of popular respect and regard than the gentlemen whose family name is well known throughout this section of Hendricks county, Indiana, E. B. and J. A. Owen, successful merchants of Amo, Indiana. Lifelong residence in one locality has given the people an opportunity to know them in every phase of their character and that they have been true to life in its every aspect is manifest in the degree of confidence and regard in which they are held by those who know them. In their mercantile business they have shown unusual ability and have achieved a splendid success among the followers of their profession.
    Eleazar B. Owen, the son of Jonathan and Asenath (Bales) Owen, was born near Plainfield, Hendricks county, Indiana, September 7, 1837. The Owens were of Scotch descent and upon coming to America settled first in Georgia, where the grandfather, Samuel Owen, was born and grew to manhood. Samuel Owen moved from Georgia to Ohio in an early day, coming from that state to Indiana in 1828, settling in Hendricks county. The maternal grandfather was prominent in the early days as a Quaker preacher and traveled extensively in that capacity. He settled in Plainfield, where he followed the dual occupation of farming and preaching, being probably the first minister of the Friends church to locate in this county. He continued preaching and farming all of his life and in his preaching made extended trips throughout this and adjoining states, making one trip to North Carolinaon horseback. He lived to the advanced age of ninety four. Jonathan Owen came to Indiana from Ohio- early in life and settled in Hendricks county, where he lived until 1865, when he moved to Illinois, where he was later joined by other members of the Owen family. Before going to Illinois he conducted a flouring mill for a few years in Mooresville, Indiana. After going to Illinois, he engaged in farming and became a successful man in that state, his death occurring there at the age of seventy two years. To Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Owen were born several children: Eleazar B.; Anna, the widow of John T. Thompson, of Amo; Samuel, who died in infancy; Rachel C. died single; J. A.; Jemima V. (deceased), who married John Nugent; Benjamin B., a fruit grower, living near Tampa, Florida; Isaac J., an undertaker, living in Uma, Colorado; Ida, who married Wesley Thompson, of Farnam, Nebraska; Mary E., married Dr. William H. White, of Amo, Indiana.
    E. B. Owen was reared in Hendricks, Morgan and Marion counties, Indiana, and also lived for a time in Illinois. His father was in business in Indianapolis for about three years at one time. In 1864 he started in business on his own account by buying a saw mill in Amo in conjunction with Benjamin L. and John T. Thompson. They conducted this mill for two years and then sold it, after which Mr. Owen and William F. Henley purchased a store of J. G. Ralston, in Amo, and this they managed for two years, when they again sold out, although a short time afterward Mr. Owen and John V. Parker bought the same store back and continued to manage it for the next six years. At the end of six months Mr. Owen bought his partner out and continued to operate the store alone until he took his brother, J. A. Owen, into partnership in 1896, since which time the firm has been known as E. B. Owen & Company. In 1886 Mr. Owen built his present two story brick building, which, with improvements and additions, he has continued to occupy until the present time. He carries a large and well selected assortment of goods and by his genial manner and strict integrity has built up a large and lucrative business in the community. He is interested in the First National Bank of Amo, and is now president of that institution.
    Mr. Owen was married to Elizabeth Hunt, of Hendricks county, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Amiel Hunt, and to this marriage there have been born four children: Florence, the wife of William Hopkins, of Indianapolis; Ora Lela, who resides at home and is a teacher of music by profession; Myrtle, who is also a music teacher, and Nettie E., a teacher in the high school at Plainfield.   Mr. Owen's mother is still living, at the advanced age


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