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MADISON COUNTY, INDIANA
Garrett W. Brown was the
personification of honesty, and in all his
dealings was fair with his fellow-men, believing in the doctrine of
living and let live. He was liberal to his family, and charitable to
the poor. And yet, while he was charitable in his disposition, he was
also economical in his business habits, and amassed a nice fortune
which he left to his bereaved family. The closer the relationship one
had with Mr. Brown the more dearly he was beloved. He was a member of
the Methodist Episcopal church, and was prominent in that organization
for a number of years. His remains were interred at Anderson cemetery,
followed by a large concourse of people. His funeral sermon was
preached by Rev. Mr. Kemp, pastor of the Methodist church, who was
assisted by Rev. Dr. Ziegler, of the Presbyterian congregation. BIOGRAPHIES Garrett W. Brown Benjamin Sebrell
Benjamin Sebrell was one of
Madison county's old-timers, who cut quite
a figure in the county's history both as a citizen and a politician. He
came from Virginia at an early day and settled in Boone township, when
all that part of the country was a wilderness, a part of the township
then being in the " Indian Reserve." He was a large, stout man, just
the kind for a pioneer. He cut out of the dense forest a fine farm for
himself, living there until 1862, when he was elected sheriff of
Madison county, which office he held for four years, and a better or
more popular sheriff never filled that place. He was one of those
large, warm-hearted fellows that draw men to them, and he counted his
friends by the score. His most estimable wife was his equal in
generosity and benevolence and was universally beloved by all who knew
her. No one ever came to her door hungry and was turned away. After
retiring from the sheriff's office, the Sebrells kept the Ross house
tor many years, at the corner of Tenth and Main streets, and were
favorites among the traveling people, the host and hostess being always
on the alert to see that their guests were properly fed and cared for;
Mr. Sebrell being jolly in his nature, made it a pleasure for the
drummer to " Sunday over " with him. He was a devoted friend and
admirer of Colonel Stilwell, they having spent many happy days
together. Colonel Stilwell had just returned from a week's visiting and
hunting on the Sebrell farm on the fatal evening when he met his death
; he and a party of friends having gone out there for a few days'
recreation and sport, when on the evening of his return he met his
rival
which resulted so fatally to him. Mr. Sebrell took the Colonel's death
bitterly to heart and never got over it. Ben Sebrell was an uneducated
man, but had a giant intellect, and had it been properly cultivated in
his younger days, he would have been one of the foremost men of the
times. His head was full of old-fashioned " horse sense." He was a man
that seldom lost his temper and always had a way of gaining his points
by good humor and persuasive argument. His frame was made of iron and
could stand any kind of hardships. One time he was a witness to a
street row and went in to quiet it by his usual good-natured way, by
talking the participants out of their anger. Someone standing in the
crowd threw a boulder, hitting Sebrell in the breast, but it never
staggered him or gave him any seeming discomfiture. He saw the fellow
who threw it, and coolly collared him with one hand and threw him over
in the court house yard, remarking, " You fool, you'll hurt someone,
throwing them stones around here." Mr. Sebrell died in 1878 at his home
in Boone township, shortly after the death of his wife. She was the
balance- wheel of his life, and after she was gone he was like an
engine running without a governor. He was lost to all the world, and
never saw another happy day. His family left this county shortly
afterwards, and now live in California. Daniel
Franklin Mustard
A
man who did his bit for the imperiled nation in the time of the Civil
war, a hard working mechanic, a trusted public officer, and for many
years a banker and leader in the industrial and civic life of Anderson,
Daniel F. Mustard has played a role that sufficiently identified him
with the representative Indianans whose names and careers are honored
in the present publication.
Mr. Mustard comes of an old family of Madison County and was born in Lafayette Township of that county, 31/2 miles north of Anderson, October 20, 1844. He is a son of William and Elizabeth (Darlington) Mustard, and his ancestry combines the various stocks of Scotch-Irish and German. His great- great- grandfather, William Mustard, came with two brothers, George and James, from the north of Ireland to Delaware in colonial times. James afterwards located in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, George remained in Delaware, while William was a pioneer in Pike County, Ohio. Most of the members of the family so far as the record goes have followed some mechanical pursuit or profession. Grandfather George Mustard was a soldier in the War of 1812. When Daniel was six years of age, in 1850, his father moved to Anderson and established a shoe shop and also worked at the trade of carpenter. It was in his father's shoe shop that Daniel acquired a practical knowledge of shoe making and he also went with his father in working at the carpenter 's trade. In the meantime he attended schools about three months each winter. Before he was seventeen years of age the storm of Civil war had broken over the country, and like thousands of other youths of the time he found it difficult to keep his attention upon his home duties and soon grew restless under the call of patriotism. On April 6, 1863, he enlisted as a private in Company I of the Thirty-fourth Indiana Infantry. Not long afterward he was with the great armies under Grant during the siege of Vicksburg, and subsequently he participated in some of the southwestern campaigns under Banks and McClelland. After about fifteen months as a private soldier he was assigned to duty as a musician in the regimental band. Mr. Mustard has the distinction of having participated in the last passage of arms in the war of the rebellion. This occurred May 13, 1865, between the Thirty-fourth Indiana Infantry, known as Morton's Rifles, and a body of Confederates, who met in the extreme southern end of Texas, close to the old battleground of Palo Alto, where the first engagement of the Mexican war was fought. This brief engagement occurred on May 13, 1865, more than a month after Lee had surrendered his sword to Grant at Appomattox. In this skirmish Mr. Mustard was a personal witness to the death of the last man killed in arms during the Civil war. This man was Jefferson Williams, of Company B of the 34th Indiana. Mr. Mustard was given his muster out at Brownsville, Texas, February 3, 1866, and granted his honorable discharge on February 11th of the same year. Returning to Anderson, he went to work in his father's shoe shop, but was soon called to larger responsibilities and duties. March 3, 1868, he was appointed deputy auditor of Madison County under James M. Dixon. He filled the duties of that office 21/0 years, and then was successively employed as clerk in the county treasurer's office under Dr. Joseph Pugh, six months in the recorder's office and finally as deputy clerk under Thomas J. Fleming. In 1871 Mr. Mustard entered the First National Bank of Anderson as bookkeeper, and was with that institution until August, 1873. He then resumed his public duties as deputy treasurer under Weems Heagy and was his deputy throughout his term. All of this experience made him thorough master of the technicalities of administration of various county offices, and there was no question of his fitness when Mr. Mustard came before the people of Madison County as candidate for county treasurer In 1876. He was elected on the same ticket with "Blue Jeans" Williams, who that year became governor of Indiana, and Mr. Mustard received a decisive personal compliment's in having two hundred votes more than the rest of his ticket. In 1878 be was reelected and he continued in office until August 15, 1881. On retiring from office Mr. Mustard became one of the managers of the Citizens' Bank, the oldest banking institution in Madison County. It had been founded in 1855 by Neal C. McCullough and other associates. Mr. Mustard was a member of the firm from 1881 to 1884, and soon afterward he headed a combination which bought the Madison County Bank, a state institution, and in 1886 the two were consolidated as the Citizens Bank. Mr. Mustard thereafter gave most of his time to the executive responsibilities of the bank and in 1905 was made president. On January 1, 1917, he retired from the office of president, but has since been chairman of the board of directors. The Citizens Bank has enjoyed a long period of prosperity. It has capital of a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, surplus of fifty thousand dollars, and its deposits aggregate nearly a million and a half dollars. Mr. Mustard has been the recipient of many honors of both business and politics. On March 23, 1909, Thomas R. Marshall, then governor of Indiana, appointed him a trustee of the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Home, and he has had a place on the board ever since. Since 1903 he has been treasurer of the Central Indiana Railway Company. Mr. Mustard has been for fifty years a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, has held all the chairs and all the honors which the local lodge can bestow and for about thirty years was treasurer of Anderson Lodge No. 131, and of Star Encampment No. 84. He also belongs to Grand Army Post No. 131, and attends the Christian Science Church. October 2, 1871, he married Miss Adda Ethell, daughter of William G. and Elizabeth (Williams) Ethell, of Anderson. Her family were early residents of Delaware and Madison counties, and her father was a civil engineer. Mr. and Mrs. Mustard have two children, Fred E., elsewhere referred to in this publication, and Ethel Mary. The daughter is now the wife of Frank C. Cline, proprietor of the F. C. Cline Lumber Company of Anderson. Mrs. and Mrs. Cline have two children, Adelaide Joanna, born in 1908, and Frances, born in 1914. What an old time political and business associate wrote of Mr. Mustard several years ago is an apt characterization which needs no revision at the present time. "Industrious to a fault, temperate at all times end under all circumstances, frugal and cautious in the disposition of his means, Daniel P. Mustard has for a number of years been honorably accumulating for himself and family a handsome competence. In his public as well as private relations with fellow citizens it can be truthfully said that his honesty has never been questioned or brought into question. Strong in his attachments and quick to appreciate the generous act, he can appeal confidently to his generation and to those who have known him from childhood, in sunshine and shade, to say that he has not been ungrateful." (Indiana and Indianans By Jacob Piatt Dunn, George William Harrison Kemper) William
and John Connor
The following concerning his brother John and his visit to " Andersontown," is reproduced from O. H. Smith's " Early Indiana Trials, Sketches and Reminiscences: " John Conner, the proprietor of Connersville, was one of Nature's strong men. Taken by the Shawnee Indians when a mere youth, he was raised and educated in Indian life, language and manners. When dressed in their costume, and painted, it was difficult to distinguish him from a real savage. On one occasion, as he told me, he came to Andersontown, then the lodge of a large band of Indians under Chief Anderson. He was dressed and painted as a Shawnee, and pretended to be a representative of Tecumseh. As is usual with the Indians, he took his seat on a log barely in sight of the Indian encampment, quietly smoked his pipe, waiting the action of Anderson and his under chiefs. After an hour he saw approaching the old chief himself, in full dress, smoking his pipe. I give his language. ' As the old chief walked up to me I rose from my seat, looked him in the eyes, we exchanged pipes, and walked down to the lodge, smoking without a word. I was pointed to a bear skin took my seat with my back to the chiefs. A few minutes after I noticed 'an Indian by the name of Gillaway, who knew me well, eyeing me closely. I tried to evade his glances, when he bawled out in the Indian language, at the top of his voice, interpreted, 'You great Shawnee Indian, you John Conner.' The next moment the camp was in a perfect roar of laughter. Chief Anderson ran up to me, throwing off his dignity. 'You great representative of Tecumseh,' and burst out in a loud laugh." The scene of this meeting was probably where the Catholic Church now stands, at the corner of Eleventh and Fletcher streets. (Historical Sketches and Reminiscences of Madison County, Indiana By John La Rue Forkner, Byron H. Dyson) DR. GEORGE F.
CHITTENDEN.
The subject of this biography was born in Switzerland county, Indiana, December 25, 1880, and is a lineal descendant of Thomas Chittenden, who served as governor of the state of Vermont for twenty-one consecutive years. The Chittendens are a large and influential family of English descent, and among the first settlers of Connecticut, having founded a colony at Old Guilford, on Long Island Sound 257 years ago. A beautiful home was located here which has remained in the Chittenden name to the present time, and at which the Chittendens throughout the United States are always made welcome and treated as members of the family. One branch of the family subsequently emigrated northward and settled in Vermont, where it became prominent in the professions, politics and affairs generally. It is to this branch of the family that Dr. Chittenden belongs. His father, John Chittenden, was a farmer who immigrated to this State from New York in 1821, locating at Vevay, Switzerland county. Dr. Chittenden was educated principally in the common schools and at Corydon Academy, attending the latter institution two years, after which he began the study of medicine at Madison, Indiana, in the office of Dr. Benjamin Leavitt. At the expiration of three years of diligent study including a course of lectures in the medical department at Ann Arbor University, he entered the medical department of the University of Louisville, where he graduated in 1855. He then began the practice of his profession at Milford, Decatur county, Indiana, where he remained three years when he removed to Anderson, locating here in 1858. He at once entered upon a successful practice which kept on increasing until May, 1861, when he was appointed assistant surgeon of the l0th Regiment, Indiana volunteers. During the following year he was promoted to the surgeoncy of the regiment, a position that he filled with eminent credit until the spring of 1864 when he tendered his resignation and returned home. In 1868 Dr. Chittenden was elected Joint Representative from the counties of Madison and Henry to the Lower House of the State Legislature, on the Republican ticket, and served one term. He was honored with the position of Chairman of the Committee on Corporations and was also a member of the Committee on Benevolent Institutions, in both of which positions he served his constituency and State acceptably. In 1878 he was elected a Commissioner of the State Hospital for the Insane, by the Legislature, and rendered able service during his term. He was twice elected to the City Council of Anderson from a Democratic ward, and during his incumbency rendered efficient service in the interest of tax payers. In 1880 he was selected as the delegate from the Ninth Congressional Republican convention to the National Republican convention at Chicago, which nominated James A. Garfield for President. He has been a member of the Madison County Medical Society for twenty-five years, also a member of the District. State and National Medical Associations, in the affairs of which he has taken an active and prominent part. At one time he was associated with Dr. John Hunt, recently deceased, in the practice of medicine, and in 1875 entered into a partnership with Dr. II. E. Jones, which continued for nineteen years, when the partnership was dissolved. The Doctor is still actively engaged in the practice and has associated with him his son, Dr. Edgar W. Chittenden. Dr. Chittenden was united in marriage to Miss Amanda B. Branham at Vernon, Jennings county, in 1858. Three children were born of this union : Carrie B., Edgar W. and Mat- tie V., all of whom are living. Carrie is now the wife of M. M. Cronyn and resides at Indianapolis. The good mother deceased in 1889, beloved by all who knew her. In 1891 Dr. Chittenden was married to Mrs. Catherine L. Brown, a lady of many enviable graces and varied accomplishments. No citizen of Anderson or Madison county is held in higher esteem than Dr. Chittenden. Of irreproachable character, he stands second to no man in his profession, to which he has devoted his life with untiring assuidity and eminent ability. In every sphere of endeavor in which he has taken a part, socially, politically or professionally, his unpretending bearing has elevated him in the esteem of all with whom he has come in contact. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, and while not ostentatious in the observance of the tenets of that denomination, is in the highest sense a Christian. He enjoys a good book and loves his home, where he can always be found surrounded by its comforts when not attending to the duties of his profession. Historical Sketches and Reminiscences of Madison County, Indiana By John La Rue Forkner, Byron H. Dyson |