Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

SAMUEL A. CONNELLY. On February 1, 1907, Samuel A. Connelly was confirmed in his previous appointment as postmaster at Upland, and has served continuously at this writing nearly seven years, being now in his second term. His reappointment to the office came on February 6, 1911, and his present term expires in February, 1915. The Upland postoffice is a high-class office, and besides the postmaster the business is conducted by an assistant, who is Mrs. Connelly, one clerk, and two rural carriers. The rural routes cover fifty-four miles of country highways surrounding Upland. The annual volume of business at the Upland office, amounts to about thirty-eight hundred dollars. Mr. Connelly's service has been highly satisfactory to all patrons of the office. He has used his energy and influence to extend the service in every possible manner and has been the incumbent during a period when more important changes have been inaugurated in the postal service than in any similar period of history. Owing to the cosmopolitan population at Upland, Mr. Connelly writes foreign money orders to nearly every European nation. Previous to his appointment as postmaster Mr. Connelly was for five years and a half a rural carrier over route number twenty-six from the Upland Station, and thus his record in the government mail service has been continuous for twelve years. Samuel A. Connelly was born in Jefferson township, of Grant county, January 26, 1862. He is one of the older of the family of children born to John W. and Rebecca J. (Clevenger) Connelly. John W. Connellv was born at Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1825, and died in Grant county in 1893. Grandfather Rev. John Connelly was a minister of the Methodist faith, from 1808 to the early twenties was elder presiding over a large district including portions of Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Soon after leaving that work, he emigrated west and settled in Wayne county, Indiana, among the pioneers, where he lived to the venerable age of fourscore. John W. Connelly was a small child when the family settled in Wayne county, grew up there, was well educated for his time, and spent about thirty years of his life in the work of the school room. He came to Grant county in 1857, and is well remembered by many of the older residents who were his pupils. Along with teaching he combined the vocation of farming, and in 1871 bought in Monroe township, a tract of land, which has since been known as the Connelly homestead. John W. Connelly married Rebecca Clevenger, of an old and prominent family of Virginia, and Wayne county, and she was born in 1834 and died in 1909. More detailed information concerning the earlier generations of this family will be found in the article concerning Harry T. Connelly on other pages of the history. John W. Connelly and wife had eight children, namely: John, who lives on the old farm in Grant county; Bell, who married Noah Johnson, and died in 1890, leaving three children, Alva, Elva and Bertha; Samuel, now postmaster of Upland; Mary, who died in infancy; Joseph who is an oil man in Oklahoma, and is married but has no children; Dora, wife of J. P. Richard, a resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and their children are Hugo and Homer; Flora, who died at the age of twenty-two years, and Harry T., who is cashier of the Upland State Bank.

Samuel A. Connelly was reared and educated in Grant county, which has been his home through practically his entire life. After a few early experiences in different lines of work he engaged in the livery business, and finally was employed as one of the early rural mail carriers in Grant County, and has thus followed practically one line of public service for a dozen years. Mr. Connelly is a man of progressive spirit, and contributes liberally of his time and means to the advancement of everything that will improve local conditions. He is an active Republican.

Mr. Connelly was married in Grant county to Eva Horner, who was reared and educated in Jefferson township, a daughter of Joseph C. and Anna (Pugh) Horner, both now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Connelly have two children, Dorie H., who graduated from the Upland high school in 1908, and is now serving as clerk under her father in the post office, and Harry Legler, aged twenty-two, who was educated in the grammar and high schools of Upland and is now in the life insurance business in that village. Mr. and Mrs. Connelly are both Methodists, and take an active part in fraternal affairs. Mr. Connelly belongs to the Arcana Lodge, No. 427, of the Masonic Order, while Mrs. Connelly belongs to the Eastern Star at Hartford City, and is a past official in the Rebecca Lodge, No. 342, at Upland. Mr. Connelly belongs to the Encampment degree of Odd Fellowship in Upland, and is past chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias Lodge, his wife being past chief of the Pythian Sisters, No. 311. Both of his Sons are members of the Masons.

"BLACKFORD AND GRANT COUNTIES INDIANA, A CHRONICLE OF THEIR PEOPLE PAST AND PRESENT WITH FAMILY LINEAGE AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS"; Complied Under the Editorial Supervision of BENJAMIN G. SHINN; vol. II ; THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY; CHICAGO AND NEW YORK; 1914
Submitted by:Peggy Karol and Karen Overholt

JOHN KEARNS. Mill township has some splendid farms, but for its acreage, probably none is better in quality and more skillfully managed, than that of John Kearns in section one of the township. Its one hundred and thirty-two acres are all highly cultivated, and Mr. Kearns is one of those progressive farmers, who understand the profit to be derived from so-called mixed farming, so that he feeds practically all his grain and forage crops to stock on the place. His livestock are also of a more than average grade, and he has found it profitable and good business to keep the best of cattle and hogs and horses and his permanent improvement are likewise of a high order. He has a large and comfortable white frame house, and a good barn.

John Kearns was born at Jonesboro in Mill township May 13, 1863. He represents an Irish family, whose founder arrived in this country an emigrant entirely dependent on the work of his hands, and who eventually acquired a place of influence as a citizen of Grant county, and was the owner of the estate now cultivated by his son. John Kearns has spent all his life in Mill township, and lived with the family for thirty-five years before he became owner of his present place. His parents were Thomas and Anna (Murphy) Kearns, both of whom were born in County Mayo, Ireland. His parents on both sides lived and died in their native land, and were tillers of the soil. The Kearns family stock is noted for its long lives. The father of Thomas attained to the wonderful age of one hundred and eight years. The religion of the family in all the various generations has been Catholic. Thomas Kearns, one of a family of children, was born in 1809, and in 1848 came to America. The sailing vessel on which he was a passenger encountered rough seas and variable winds, and was three months and thirteen days in crossing the Atlantic. When it landed its passengers at New Orleans, the boat itself had several times narrowly escaped shipwreck, and its passengers and crew were suffering from ship-fever, and all of them nearly starved. Thomas Kearns was so weak when the vessel arrived at dock, that he had to crawl ashore on his hands and knees. He recovered and came north up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and soon found work in railway construction labor in Ohio. For that hard manual toil he got fifteen dollars a month, and from those wages accumulated the little fund which gave him his real start in the world. Subsequently he came to Grant county, and here was employed in building ditches and digging wells. He was not only an industrious, but an economical man, and with his earnings finally went back to New Orleans to marry the girl whom he had known in Ireland, Miss Anna Murphy. After their marriage they came to Grant county and located at Jonesboro, where Thomas Kearns continued his work and built up a prosperous business as a contractor for ditch and well digging. The accumulations from that business were finally invested in the one hundred and thirty-two acres of land now owned and occupied by his son. Thomas Kearns died near Gas City, in February, 1886, and his wife had passed away on the site of what is now Gas City in July, 1871. Her death occurred about the time Gas City was laid out and started as a village. Thomas Kearns owned sixty-two acres of land included within the present limits of Gas City, and he sold that to the company which started one of the best known little cities in the gas belt. Thomas Kearns and wife lived and died in the faith of the Catholic church. Their children were: Kate or Katherine, who is unmarried and lives on a farm in Mill township with her brother Joseph; Grace, who also lives with Joseph: William, who is unmarried and is in Illinois; Sadie, who is employed in Marion, but has her home with her brother Joseph in Gas City; Thomas, was accidentally killed near his home on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and was unmarried.

Mr. John Kearns was married in Gas City to Miss Maggie Riley, who was born in County Mayo, Ireland, about 1870, and when a young woman, seventeen years of age, she came alone to the United States and located in Grant county, where she has lived ever since. She is the mother of five children, namely: Thomas, Joseph, William, John, Michael. All but the youngest are of public school age. Mr. and Mrs. Kearns worship in the Catholic church, and in politics he is Independent.

ALFRED M. CURRY. An industry which more than any other has brought a large prosperity to Upland both in the way of population and increased means of supplying their wants, is the Upland Flint Glass Bottle Company. This company established its plant in Upland in the fall of 1911. Its superintendent and general manager is Alfred M. Curry, one of the best men in his business who has a practical knowledge of bottle making in all its details, having become a glass blower's apprentice in boyhood, and having proved not only a skill in the trade but also an ability as a director of men. This corporation has its principal offices in Chicago, and the chief officers are Chicago men, as follows: A. M. Foster, president; E. G. Foster, vice president: W. C. Forbes, secretary; E. N. Peterson, treasurer. The Upland plant has been working steadily since it was established, and has a large product, aggregating about six hundred gross of bottles every day. The bottles are of many sizes and sorts, and much of the output is of the finer grade required by apothecaries. The plant never stops operations either night or day, and about two hundred men and boys find their means of livelihood at this industry.

Alfred M. Curry has been with the company for a number of years. For six years he was one of the local officials in the company's plant at Mill Grove, Indiana. His practical experience in the glass and bottle making business covers about eighteen years. Mr. Curry was born in Hartford City, about fifty years ago, was reared and educated there, and since 1895 his activities have been chiefly centered at Mill Grove, at Mt. Vernon, Ohio, and at Upland. He was assistant superintendent at Mill Grove for the Foster Company.

Mr. Curry is a son of Aaron S. and Eliza (Ewing) Curry. His father, who was born at Columbus, Ohio, in 1823, was married at Old Steubenville, in Randolph county, Indiana, to Miss Ewing, who was born near Red Key, Indiana, in 1832. In Randolph county, Aaron Curry followed his trade as a tanner, and a short time before the war located in Hartford City. A few years after the war he gave up the tanning business and moved to his farm at Mill Grove, where he lived until the death of his wife in 1890. After that he spent a number of years at his old home in Columbus, Ohio, and then returned to Indiana, and died at the home of his son in 1905. Alfred Curry is one of quite a large family, five sons and one daughter being still living, and all are married, and all are farmers except him.

Mr. Alfred M. Curry was married in Blackford county, Indiana, nearly thirty years ago to Miss Susan Edwards, who was born in Blackford county, Indiana. They are the parents of four children, as follows: Clyde E., a clerk in the office of the Upland Bottle Company, is a graduate of the Marion Normal College and the business college in the same city, and by his marriage to Mazie Bullock has one child, Rodney Earl. Murle who was educated in the Normal College at Marion spent four terms in teaching, and is now the wife of D. D. Zimmerman of Muncie. Maybelle, educated in the Mill Grove High school and at the Normal college is a teacher of music in Upland. Mr. Curry's parents were active members of the Methodist church and he and his own family worship in the same denomination. In politics he is a Republican and fraternally is affiliated with Wabasset Tribe of the Improved Order of Red Men at Mill Grove.

LEWIS C. PENCE. Now nearing the age of threescore and ten, Lewis C. Pence has spent all but about three years of his lifetime in Grant county, and is one of the best known of Sims township citizens. He has given his energies with successful results to farming, and is one of the men who had practically nothing to begin with and yet have established an enviable prosperity, and are now accounted among the most substantial men of their community. Mr. Pence has a fine farm located in sections twenty-seven, twenty-eight, thirty-three and thirty-four of Sims township, this place being known all over the western half of the county as Victor Farm, located a mile south and a mile west of Swayzee, on the Curless extension gravel road. Although the farm lies in three sections the land adjoins.

Lewis C. Pence was born in Champaign county, Ohio, April 18, 1844. His parents were David and Anna (Smith) Pence. The father was born in the State of Virginia, April 3, 1813, and came to Ohio when a young man, where he met and married his wife, who was a native of Champaign county. In the fall of 1847, they moved from Ohio to Grant county, locating in Sims township, where the father entered eighty acres of wild land from the government. He was a man of great industry, and added to his first holdings, until at one time he possessed six hundred acres of land. Throughout this part of Grant county he enjoyed a large acquaintance and the respect of the entire community. He was one of the liberal supporters of the primitive Baptist church, and in politics a Democrat. He and his wife had thirteen children, six of whom are living in 1913. To each of his children he gave a start in life and helped them to acquire homes of their own. The living children are Andrew J.; Lewis C.; John S., of Sims township; C. G. of Swayzee; David S., of Sims township; and Mary E., wife of Josephus Gowin, whose home is near Wichita, Kansas.

Lewis C. Pence was reared on the old homestead in Grant county, attended a private school as a boy, and as a boy began working and giving all his attention to the farm. He continued at home until he was twenty-one, and in September, 1865, married Miss Mary J. Mauller, who was born in Grant county, and educated in the schools of this locality. In 1865 they moved to the farm in section thirty-four which has been the home of Mr. Pence to the present time. He started with eighty acres, and is now owner of two hundred and nineteen acres. It is wel1 improved land, is ditched and drained, and has first-class buildings, and is cultivated to the most profitable degree. Of the two children born to Mr. Pence by his first wife, one only is living, Anna U., wife of L. E. Hummell, of Sims township, and Vieva, wife of David Knull, of Sims township, is now deceased. After the death of the first Mrs. Pence, Mr. Pence, on April 24, 1874, married Christina Gowin, who was born in Ripley county, Indiana, was educated in the public schools and is a capable home-maker and very popular in social circles in Sims township. To this union hare been born six children: Daisy May, wife of C. I. Goble of Sims township; Ernest, who married Pearl Outland of Sims township; Winnie E., deceased; Emma P., wife of Joe Malston of Howard county; Raymond V., a student in the University of Indiana; and an infant that died unnamed. Mr. Pence is a deacon in the primitive Baptist church, and in politics is a Democrat. For eight years he held the office of justice of the peace. He is one of the stockholders in the First National Bank of Swayzee, and enjoys the thorough respect of the business community.

J. E. SMITH. Few men have been able to devote themselves to two lines as widely diverging as those that have held the attention of J. E. Smith, of Gas City, Indiana, and accomplish real success in either or both of them. This, however, has been the unusual fortune of Mr. Smith, who as general agent for the Pennsylvania lines, with headquarters at this point, is no less successful as a writer of feature articles and short stories. Numerous magazines and journals have brought forth special articles from his pen, and the Railroad Man's Magazine especially has shown itself interested in his work. For seventy consecutive months this publication has featured a four thousand word article of Mr. Smith's, and in addition to liberal remuneration for his work, the journal has given unstinted praise for the originality and general literary merit of his productions, which have made them so desirable in their columns. The Black Cat and other fiction magazines, equally well known have published his short stories, and he is recognized as one of the successful journalists of the times. It should be stated here that Mr. Smith devotes only his spare hours to this work, which has been a pastime with him rather than a business, and his duties with the Pennsylvania lines have had their full share in his attention.

Mr. Smith is a native son of Indiana, born near Greentown, in Howard county, Indiana, and he is a son of Reuben W. and Matilda E. (Franklin) Smith. The Smith family is one of the oldest of American families, and the line of descent from the first of this particular branch of the widespread Smith tribe is much as follows: John Smith, of English ancestry, about one hundred years ago settled in Richmond, Indiana, and he was there known as the first general merchant and blacksmith in the place, as well as being almost the first settler. He was one who had much to do with settling the community, and history has accorded to him his proper place in the annals of his time. His son Robert was followed by another, John, who became the father of Dr. Reuben Smith, father of J. E. Smith of this review. Thus is established, without going deeply into biography and history, the line of descent from the first John Smith of Richmond, Indiana, to J. E. Smith whose name initiates this review, and who has, like his ancestors, been identified through all his life with the state of Indiana.

Reuben Smith was a graduate in medicine from the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, and while there he met and married Matilda E. Franklin, a resident of that city. She was a woman of many talents, brilliant and pleasing, and it is generally believed that it was the mother who endowed Mr. Smith of this review with those literary talents that would not be denied expression, and which have already brought him a generous measure of prominence in the literary and journalistic worlds. She was a daughter of Benjamin Franklin, who carried out the traditions of his honored name by identifying himself with the printing business, and was long known as the editor of the American Christian Review of Cincinnati. He was a direct descendant of Joseph Franklin, a brother of Benjamin Franklin, of undying name and fame, and was one of the most estimable and honored men of the city in his day.

Dr. Reuben Smith was for a good many years located at Converse, Indiana, where he was engaged in medical practice. He was born in Henry county, this state, and he died in Converse, Indiana, when he was sixty-three years of age. He was a man of many excellent qualities of heart and mind, and performed his full share in time humanitarian labors that fell to the lot of the small town physician. When he died he was mourned of many, and his name is yet living in the communities where he was known during his active years.

J. E. Smith was born in Howard county, near Greentown, Indiana, in 1862, and he gained his early education in the public schools of his native community. He did not receive any training beyond that of the common schools, and his literary ability has thus proven itself to be a latent and not a cultivated talent. He has always been a student and a thinker, and has devoted much of his spare time to reading and study until he launched out into his literary efforts that have proved so successful. He has been in the employ of the Pennsylvania lines since he was twenty years of age, and various places have represented his headquarters. For six years past he has been located at Gas City as general agent of the company, and he has held a position of trust with them practically through all the thirty years of his identification with the corporation.

Mr. Smith began his literary work as a contributor to the Railroad Man's Magazine, of the Frank A. Munsey Company, and he has progressed steadily into other fields in recent years. As a fiction writer he already has a secure reputation, and his feature articles are sought by many journals who devote space to that class of work. Character sketches have found artistic handling by him and his descriptive work as excellent in its quality and tone. Mr. Smith has added very materially to his income as a result of the few hours he spends monthly in this work, and as an avocation it has the added virtue of being remunerative as well as pleasant.

In 1884 Mr. Smith was married at Bunker Hill, Indiana, to Miss Katherine Mowry, who was there born and reared, and to them have been born four children. Mrs. Smith is a daughter of Henry Mowry, a prominent and prosperous farming man of Bunker Hill vicinity, now deceased. The mother of Mrs. Smith was in her maiden days Miss Sarah Dice, of Peru, Indiana, who came of one of the earliest families of that city, having had its location and establishment there as lone ago as during the building of the Erie Canal.

The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Smith were as follows: Donald M., born in 1886, and died in 1899; Dorothy, born in 1890, and died in 1895; Dwight Mowry, born in 1893, and Donalda, born in 1900, are now students in the public schools.

It can hardly be said that Mr. Smith is allied to any particular church or political party. He seeks to do what little good he can as he passes along, and gives his time and efforts to the uplifting movements of his day. He regards the final state of perfection of the human race as a slow but sure evolutionary process that is often retarded rather than accelerated by hard and fast connections either religiously or politically.

Deb Murray