MICHAEL HEGER
Few farmers living in Marion township deserve greater credit for their achievements and their accomplishments than Michael Heger, the largest individual land owner in Marion township, and a man who has earned every dollar of his wealth by his own indomitable energy, frugal living and careful management of his agricultural interests. The Heger estate comprises four hundred and thirty-five acres of which one hundred and fifty acres is creek bottom, and very rich soil. The remainder of the land is fairly level, and is an ideal farm, taken as a whole, for mixed farming, and stock raising. As the passerby approaches Cobb's Fork there may be seen, overlooking the wide valley and situated on a prominent eminence, the Heger homestead, which is reached by a gravel driveway one-fourth of a mile from the road. The spacious lawn surrounding the house is bounded by a large stone wall built in 1911. This wall also surrounds the spacious barnyard, where there has been erected a large bank barn, forty-four by fifty feet, and which is thirty-two feet to the eaves. Equipped with two sets of buildings and this large acreage, the farm is admirably adapted to the purposes and methods of its owner and proprietor. Not only is he the largest individual landowner in Marion township, but he likewise takes a very high rank among the farmers of this township in the number of head of live stock raised and sold on the farm.

Michael Heger was born on January 5, 1859, in Oldenburg, Franklin county, Indiana, the son of Michael and Josephine (Scheidler) Heger, the former of whom was born in 1826, and who died on January 26, 1899, and the latter of whom was born in 1831, and who now lives at Millhousen. Both natives of Germany, Michael Heger, Sr., after coming to America, settled in Cincinnati, and when a young man married there, and removed to Franklin county, where he engaged in farming and manufacturing brick. Michael, Jr., was a mere child when the family moved to the Millhousen neighborhood. He is one of a family of nine children born to his parents, of whom eight are herewith named. John lives in Decatur, Illinois; Michael is the subject of this sketch; Jacob is deceased; Joseph lives in Missouri; William lives in Oklahoma; Frank died in infancy; Mrs. Wanner lives in Millhousen, and Mrs. Margaret Hardeback lives in Kokomo, Indiana.

Patience it may be said is the keynote of Mr. Heger's success. Until he was thirty-two years old he lived on the old home farm of his parents, and then invested first in the S. T. Lowe farm on February 2, 1891. From his savings since that time he has invested in additional land until he now owns four hundred and thirty-five acres, the largest single farm in Marion township. And with the able assistance of his good wife and his family he has personally earned all the money which has been invested in this large tract of land.

On October 30, 1880, Michael Heger was married to Cassilda Witt, who was born on April 10, 1858, in Decatur, Illinois, and who is the daughter of Xavier and Marian Schott, natives of France, who died in Decatur, Illinois. They had been farmers by occupation. Mr. Heger journeyed to Decatur, Illinois, to meet and to marry his wife.

The parents of Michael Heger, Jr., having been natives of Germany, and the parents of Mrs. Heger having been natives of France, the Heger children combine the sturdy character of their Germany ancestry with the quick, adaptable and keen intelligence of their French ancestry on the maternal side. Mr. and Mrs. Heger have had six children, as follow: Mary Josephine, who was born on August 29, 1883, married William Cahill, of Indianapolis; Francis Xavier, who was born on December 6, 1884, lives at home on the farm; Mary Conacunda, who was born on September 16, 1886, married Albert Fry, a son of Henry Fry, and since their marriage in the fall of 1914 they have lived on a farm in Marion township; Mazy Philomena, who was born on October 16, 1888, died on July 11, 1891; John Anthony, December 27, 1890, lives at home; Ruth Cassilda, May 13, 1894, also lives at home.

Mr. Heger has been identified with the Democratic party during his entire life. The Heger family are members of St. Mary's Catholic church, and are active in the affairs of this denomination.

"History of Decatur County, Indiana"
Lewis A. Harding
B. F. Bowen & Co.
Indianapolis, Indiana
published in 1915.


GEORGE S. PERRY.
George S. Perry, a well-known farmer of Washington township, who owns one hundred and fifty acres of land three miles east of Greensburg, which was entered in 1825 by his grandfather, was born on April 6, 1866, and is the son of Leonard and Cinderella (Boyce) Perry, the former a native of Kentucky, who had come with his father, Dan S. Perry, Sr., from Kentucky to Washington township, Decatur county, in 1824, and the latter of whom was a native of Indiana and reared in Decatur county. After settling in Decatur county, Dan S. Perry, Sr., cleared a small tract and erected a log cabin. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, who had moved from the ancestral home in Virginia to the state of Kentucky, and it was his father, Frederick Perry, who was a member of the personal body guard of General Washington during the Revolutionary War. Leonard Perry, who lived on the ancestral farm for sixty years, was born in 1824 and died in 1909. His wife, who died in 1873, left a family of nine children, all of whom except George S., are residents of Greensburg, Mrs. Dinah P. Craig; Will L. and Louisa; Squire D., farmer; Mrs. Chester Edkins; Allen M. and Pierce, deceased, and Dan S., Jr., the cashier of the Greensburg National Bank.

George S. Perry was born on the old home farm where he now lives and where both his father and his grandfather had lived and died. Educated in the McCoy schools, he has been engaged in farming the ancestral farm of the Perrys his whole life. He raises a great number of cattle and hogs and specializes in Poland China hogs and Shorthorn cattle.

On August 16, 1892, George S. Perry was married to Retta Brodbeck, who was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. They were married in Los Angeles, California, and have one child, Jean, who was born on January 16, 1895, and who is now attending a girls' seminary at Nashville, Tennessee.

Mr. Perry is a Democrat. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a worthy citizen of Decatur county, a capable farmer and one who has added new distinction to the family whose name he bears. Mr. and Mrs. Perry are popular socially in Washington township and in Greensburg, where they are so well known.

"History of Decatur County, Indiana"
Lewis A. Harding
B. F. Bowen & Co.
Indianapolis, Indiana
published in 1915.


JOHN W. DEMOSS.
In every community may be found men who are especially deserving the respect and admiration of their neighbors on account of the severity of the struggle they have had for success and on account of the large measure of attainment which has attended their efforts. John W. DeMoss, the present sheriff of Decatur county, is a man who belongs to this class of citizens. Left an orphan at a tender age by the untimely death of his father while serving as a soldier in the Union army, he has had to make his own way in the world practically since he was ten years old. By the hardest kind of labor, by diligent and intelligent application to this labor, by economical living, consistent saving and careful management he has attained a position of high influence in this county, and no better evidence of the respect and admiration he enjoys can be cited than his election in 1912, and his re-election in 1914, to an office which was practically unsought.

John W. DeMoss was born on August 27, 1856, in Sand Creek township, Decatur county, Indiana, the son of Benjamin Lewis and Harriet (Masters) DeMoss, the former of whom was born in 1832 and died in 1863, and the latter of whom was born in 1830 and died in 1901. Benjamin L. DeMoss, the son of William and Elizabeth DeMoss, early settlers in Decatur county, came with his parents to this county in the late thirties of the last century. His wife, who was the daughter of John and Hannah (Byrum) Masters, was a native of Kentucky, and her parents also settled in Decatur county, with a colony of citizens, in the early thirties.

Enlisting in the Thirty-seventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, at the breaking out of the Civil War, despite his physical weakness, because he believed it was his duty to go, Benjamin L. DeMoss became ill and died of pneumonia at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He left a widow and three children, John W., Edward Wallace, now deceased, and Belle, who married Andrew Martin, of Marion township. The widow and children had a hard time to get along after the death of the father and husband. With the kind assistance of the children's grandparents and the neighbors, however, they were able to live. Eventually, the mother married again, her second husband being E. E. Goodwin, and to this second union one child was born, Cortez, who is a carpenter.

John W. DeMoss has always worked hard. He began earning his own way in the world at a tender age, taking employment in a stone quarry when ten years old, carrying water for the men, and gradually worked himself into a good position. He saved his money and, from doing ordinary day's work has bought and paid for two hundred acres of excellent land in Sand Creek township. A highly qualified and skillful superintendent during his employment at the Harris City quarries, he used not only his muscles, but his brain as well, and this combination of muscular and mental energy is largely responsible for his success. In 1904 he began devoting himself to farming, choosing this rather than the foremanship of the quarries.

On April 12, 1877, John LV. DeMoss was married to Martha A. Jackson, of Sand Creek township, daughter of William E. and Amanda Jackson, who was born on October 4, 1856, in Kentucky, her parents having come to Indiana during the Civil War times. To this union three sons and three daughters have been born. Of these children, Benjamin, a farmer, is operating the home farm. He married Euphemia McFarland and they have six children. Mrs. Bird Borden lives in Sand Creek township and has three children. Her husband is foreman for the contracting firm of Craig & Son, of Greensburg. Mrs. Della Styers has four children. Her husband owns a farm in Sand Creek township. Grover, who married Lena Hamer, and has one child, is the deputy sheriff under his father; Mrs. Belle Vandiver lives on a farm in Jackson township, and has three children. Irdo is a farmer in Sand Creek township.

In the fall of 1912 Mr. DeMoss was elected sheriff of Decatur county, and was re-elected to the same office in the fall of 1914. The office was practically unsought and came to him largely as a reward for his service in the past in behalf of Democratic principles and Democratic candidates. Sheriff and Mrs. DeMoss and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic lodge, which he joined in 1896, and the Knights of Pythias, which he joined in 1887.

Many men who have the advantage of a good start in life achieve a large measure of success, but the man who starts with nothing and who acquires a comfortable home, a competence in life, and rears a family of children, is undoubtedly entitled to the very greatest praise. Sheriff John LV. DeMoss is a man of this character. Naturally he is very popular in Decatur county where he is so well known.
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"History of Decatur County, Indiana"
Lewis A. Harding
B. F. Bowen & Co.
Indianapolis, Indiana
published in 1915.


JOSEPH B. KITCHIN
That there are enormous differences in the casual power exerted by different minds, depending on their place of vantage in the social system, is, of course, true. Most men merely echo the prevailing opinion or swell the general tide of passion. Even so, such men in the aggregate give to opinion its tendency to prevail, and to passion its tidal and overwhelming power. But the contribution of a single member of the mass is not comparable with that of the individual who occupies a place of prominence or authority. Such a mind operates at a source, coloring all that springs from it, or at a crucial point where every slight deflection is enormously magnified in the consequence. There are not a few such men of initiative in Decatur county, one of the best known of whom is Joseph B. Kitchin, secretary and treasurer of the Greensburg Water Company and a man of very wide influence for good in the community in which his whole life has been spent, the subject of the following interesting biographical review.

Joseph B. Kitchin was born on a farm in Washington township, Decatur county, Indiana, on December 29, 1850, the son of Thomas and Sarah L. (Boone) Kitchin, natives, respectively, of Ohio and Kentucky, the former of whom was a son of Joseph Kitchin, a native of Pennsylvania, and who migrated to Ohio, coming thence to this county at an early day in the settlement of this section of Indiana. Joseph Kitchin was a farmer and blacksmith as well as a pioneer minister of the Methodist church. He came to this county from Pennsylvania after his sons had established homes here. He was the father of five children, Thomas; John; Bryce, who is still living at the age of eighty-six, making his home at Arkansas City, Kansas; Sarah, who married Michael Shera, a merchant of the early days in Greensburg, and Maria, who married James Munns and became a pioneer settler in the state of Iowa.

Thomas Kitchin, who was horn in Ohio in the year 1818, emigrated to Decatur county with his brothers in the year 1839 and settled on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres of land, two miles south of Greensburg. To this farm he added, by purchase, until he had three hundred acres in one tract. He sold this and for a few years made his home in Greensburg, later moving to Lebanon. Indiana, where he resided for seven years, at the end of which time, in 1902, he returned to Greensburg, where his death occurred in 1904. Thomas Kitchin married Sarah Luffborough Boone, a daughter of Brumfield Boone, who was born in Kentucky, a son of Thomas Boone, a soldier in the patriot army during the Revolutionary War, and to this union seven children were born, Rachel, the wife of Charles I. Ainsworth, of Greensburg; Joseph B., the immediate subject of this sketch, and Frank B., formerly a farmer in a large way in this county, who lived in Greensburg until it became time to give his children the advantages of higher education, when, some years ago, he moved to Irvington, at Indianapolis, the seat of Butler College; the remaining four died in infancy.

The Boones are of Norman origin, the name at the time of the Norman invasion of England having been spelled Bohnn. The first family of the Bohnns to cross the channel into England settled in Lincolnshire and afterward some of the same name settled in Devonshire. It is from this latter family that the American Boones are descended. The Bohnn coat-of-arms was used before the fourteenth century, probably having been granted by an Anglo-Norman king. Not until the sixteenth century are the names Bohnn and Boone found in the same document. The first of this family to come to America was George Boone, who was born about 1670 at the old family seat, Brodwick, about eight miles from Exeter, England. There he married Mary Mauridge, by whom he had nine sons and two daughters. The entire family emigrated to America, landing at Philadelphia on October 10, 1717. George Boone purchased a tract of land in what is now Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and called it Exeter, in memory of the town in England from which he had emigrated. In this review it will be necessary to name but two of the sons born to the union of George and Mary (Mauridge) Boone, Joseph and Squire. Joseph Boone was the father of Thomas Boone, Mr. Kitchin's Revolutionary ancestor, and Squire Boone was the father of Daniel Boone, thus establishing the relationship of Thomas Boone and the immortal Daniel Boone, showing indeed that they were first cousins.

Thomas Boone served in the Revolutionary War as a private in Capt. James Murray's company of the Tenth Battalion of Lancaster County Militia, state of Pennsylvania, Robert Elder, colonel; having enlisted on April 12, 1781. He was born in the town of Reading, Pennsylvania, on August 21, 1759, and married Susannah Krumfield, a Pennsylvania Quakeress, being compelled to elope with her on account of the objections raised by the Quakers at that time to any of their number marrying outside the faith. After the war, he moved to Upper Sandusky, Ohio, where he lived for a short time, after which he moved to Limestone, which is now Maysville, Kentucky, and in the year 1791 moved to Bryant's Station, entering the blockhouse there, where Brumfield Boone was born in the same year. In 1794 Thomas Boone moved to a point on the little Miami river, just above Cincinnati, where, for a time, he operated a tavern, later going to Cincinnati. The Boone and Kitchin families still have old deeds showing Thomas Boone's ownership of property in what is now the Bay street section of Cincinnati and some of the property owned by him is still in the possession of the family. In 1807 Thomas Boone moved to Oxford, Ohio, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, their bodies now resting in the old Baptist cemetery, four and one-half miles south and a little west of Oxford, near what was the old Boone farm.

Joseph Brumfield Kitchin was reared on the home farm in Washington township, this county, receiving his education in the home schools. Upon reaching manhood's estate he began farming on a tract of one hundred and sixty acres in the same township, near the town of Greensburg. He prospered and as the years passed he increased his land holdings and also became actively interested in other enterprises. He now owns two valuable farms near Greensburg and has other extensive investments. Mr. Kitchin aided in the organization of the Greensburg National Bank in 1900 and for five years served this excellent financial institution in the capacity of cashier, still retaining a directorship in the bank. He is president of the Workingmen's Building and Loan Association and for some time has been secretary and treasurer of the Greensburg Water Company.

On July 26, 1871, Joseph Brumfield Kitchin was united in marriage with Nancy Elmira Robbins, a daughter of John E. and Nancy (Hunter) Robbins, a member of one of the oldest and most prominent families in Decatur county. Mrs. Kitchin also is of Revolutionary descent, tracing from William Robbins, a distinguished soldier in the war which secured to America the independence for which the patriots fought seven long years. William Robbins married Bethiah Vichery, who was born on December 1, 1760, and to this union there were born three children, Abel, Charity and Benjamin. The father of these children was killed in the Revolutionary War soon after enlisting in the service of the patriots and his widow subsequently married the second William Robbins, the scene of the wedding being in Guilford county, North Carolina. To this latter union there were born nine children, namely: Elizabeth, on February 5, 1788 ; Marmaduke and John, twins, May 15, 1789; Polly, April 9, 1791; Nathaniel, April 5, 1793; John, February 8, 1795; William, August 6, 1797, and Dosha, May 20, 1804.

The father of the children above named was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, on October 21, 1761, and in October, 1777, when sixteen years of age, enlisted as a private in the army of General Washington, remaining in the service until August, 1781, during which time he had but one captain, Capt. Joseph Clark, and two colonels, Colonel Dugan and Col. Anthony Sharp. Following the war, William Robbins moved from Virginia to Kentucky and in 1821 again moved, this time locating in Decatur county, Indiana. He entered a farm from the government, about nine and one-half miles south of Greensburg, where, amid the hills, he carved a home out of the virgin forest. The first home which he set up for his family consisted of but one room, the house being constructed of hewed logs, to which was attached a lean-to, in which the family loom was set up. Presently he also erected a rude blacksmith shop of logs nearby and thus life in the new country was begun, the wife busy with her loom and other household duties and the husband busy in his smithy. On September 11, 1834, thirteen years after settling in this county, William Robbins died, his body being laid away in Mt. Pleasant cemetery, about six miles south of Greensburg.

The third William Robbins mentioned in this sketch, son of above, was born in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia on August 6, 1797, as noted above, and was taken by his parents to Henry county, Kentucky, to which point they emigrated. When, in the year 1821, they moved to the New Purchase, the name applied to that part of the new state in which they settled, William Robbins, then twenty-four years of age, accompanied them and selected a site for a farm for himself about one and one-half miles north of that selected by his parents. In 1822 he returned to Kentucky, where he married Eleanor Anderson, one of the pioneer belles of the neighborhood in which he formerly had lived. With his bride at his side, he returned to his new Indiana home and during that year his three sisters, together with his brothers, John and Nathaniel, settled in the same vicinity. In a short time other relatives of the Robbins family arrived in the same township and the Robbinses became prominent, both numerically and in the matter of the large influence they exerted in the early affairs of that part of the county, Nathaniel Robbins being the first justice of the peace in Sand Creek township.

William and Eleanor Robbins lived on the farm originally selected as their home during the remainder of their days, he dying on February 3, 1866, his widow surviving him until the year 1872. To William and Eleanor (Anderson) Robbins were born four children, namely: Sarilda, in October, 1823, who married William Styers; John E., February 20, 1825, who married Nancy Hunter; James G., June 10, 1827, married Elmira Stout, and Merrit H., in 1829, married Janet Gilchrist.

John E. Robbins remained on the paternal farm until November 7, 1844, the date of his marriage with Nancy Hunter, daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Hunter, at which time the young couple began housekeeping on a farm of forty acres given them by the bridegroom's father. They remained on this farm until February 15, 1848, by which time they had accumulated enough to purchase one hundred and sixty acres of land one mile south of Greensburg, on which place they made their home the remainder of their lives. To this purchase they subsequently added large tracts of land and other valuable interests, until their possessions consisted of about three thousand acres of land in Decatur county and two hundred and forty acres in BartholoŽmew county, besides personal property of large value. In 1882 John E. Robbins helped organize the Third National Bank of Greensburg, of which he was director and president until his death. Under his direction and management this bank grew to be one of the most substantial and successful instituŽtions in the county. Mr. Robbins died on July 22, 1896. His widow, who had shared all his interests and labor, proving in all things a most willing and efficient helpmeet, continued to live on the home farm until her long and useful life closed on May 2, 1905.

To John E. and Nancy (Hunter) Robbins were born fourteen children, namely: Elizabeth Ellen, deceased; Charlotte Adaline died on February 11, 1869; Sari Ida Ruth, who married H. K. Smiley; Minerva Jane, who married Archibald Gilchrist; Nancy Elmira, who married J. B. Kitchin; Sarah Jane, deceased; William Hunter, who married Cora Sefton; Clara Alinda, who married Frank B. Kitchin; Olive Ida, who married Robert McCoy; John Everman, who married Louisa Elder; Frank Rosco, who married Kate Sefton; Eliza Angeline, who married Will Q. Elder, and two who died in infancy.

To Joseph Brumfield and Nancy Elmira (Robbins) Kitchin were born three children, Maud Elmira, on October 18, 1872, who married Charles H. Johnston, of the firm of W. H. Robbins & Company, wholesale grocers, of Greensburg, to which union four children have been born, Mildred Elmira, Jo Charles, Marjorie and Thomas Ludlow; Otta Pearl, September 16, 1874, who married Charles Woodfill, of Greensburg, and has two children, daughters, Helen and Sarah, and Hal T., August 3, 1878, who married Iva Lanham and has one child, a son, Hal Thomas.

Mr. and Mrs. Kitchin are members of the Centenary Methodist church, in the various beneficences of which they always have taken an active interest and their children were reared in that faith. Mr. Kitchin is a member of the Greensburg lodge of Elks. His large business and financial interests in and about Greensburg give to his position in that community a degree of stability second to none in the county and he naturally exerts a wide influence in the affairs of the community. Both he and Mrs. Kitchin are deeply concerned in all matters having to do with the general social welfare of the city and county and are held in the highest regard by all. Mrs. Kitchin and her daughters are members of the society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and are regarded as among the leaders in the social life of the city of Greensburg, their active influence ever being exerted in behalf of all movements looking to the general betterment of conditions in this section of the state. Mrs. Kitchin's daughters are eligible to the Daughters of the American Revolution from three different ways. Hal T. is a Mason and has filled all chairs in the local lodge, and is a Knight Templar and, a member of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis.

"History of Decatur County, Indiana"
Lewis A. Harding
B. F. Bowen & Co.
Indianapolis, Indiana
published in 1915.


HENRY FRY
Reared under primitive conditions, and of German parentage, whose ancestors knew Indiana while the Indians still roamed her forests, Mr. Fry has advanced, step by step, making capital of every opportunity that crossed his pathway, until now, he stands at the top step of his desires, and, wisely enough, he knew when to stop and enjoy the fruits of his long years of labor. He has put aside enough of this world's goods to enable himself and wife to live in ease and comfort the remainder of their lives, in addition to which he has the satisfaction of knowing that he has been in a position to provide his own with the means whereby they have escaped the many struggles experienced by himself as a young man.

Henry Fry, a farmer of Millhousen, Marion township, Decatur county, was born on April 17, 1841, at Cincinnati, and is a son of John and Mary (Barger) Fry. Mr. Fry was reared in a log cabin, under very trying conditions and times, and was but nine years old when his mother died. He began life as a young man, with forty acres of land, which he soon increased to one hundred and eighty acres. This he sold, in 1904, to his sons, and moved to Millhousen, where he bought four acres of land, containing a good brick house, where he now lives. In 1865 Mr. Fry enlisted in Company C, Thirteenth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, served until the close of the war, and did general duty at Goldsboro, Raleigh, and throughout the South after the war. His political policies are strongly Democratic, and he is a members of St. Mary's Catholic church at Millhousen.

John and Mary Fry were natives of Germany. They came out to the Millhousen settlement in 1841and chopped a home from the woods, where they both died. After the death of his first wife (mother of our subject), Mr. Fry later was married to a Mrs. Moggert.

Henry Fry was united in marriage, in 1870, to Theresa Verekamp, who was born in 1851, on a farm in Marion township. She is a daughter of Frank and Theresa (Snyder) Verekamp, natives of Germany, who came at an early day to settle in Marion township, whose children were Frank, deceased; John, deceased; Mrs. Anna Rolfes lives in Marion township, and has six children. Nora, Hilda, Martin, Harry, Richard and Clarence; George is a farmer in Marion township, and has been twice married. His first wife was Lucy Herbert, and his second wife was Mrs. Leda (Hutterbach) Herbert, by whom he has had five children, Virgie, Walter, Raymond, Sylvia and Herbert; William was married to Clara Ruhl, and lives on the home farm. They have three children, Alvin, Lillian and Ferdinand; Edward was united in marriage to Rosa Lucken. They live in Marion township, and have four sons, Oscar, Oswold, Lawrence and Edmund; Mrs. Laura Kroeger lives in Marion township and has two sons, Maurice and Charles.

"History of Decatur County, Indiana"
Lewis A. Harding
B. F. Bowen & Co.
Indianapolis, Indiana
published in 1915.


HENRY H. LOGAN
During nearly three-quarters of a century of residence in Decatur county, Indiana, various members of the Logan family have occupied many positions of trust and responsibility in the political life of this county. Not only is the Logan family one of the older families of this section, but they have always been noted for their high ideals, sterling integrity and large business capacity. Many of the members of the family have been farmers and their influence has greatly enriched the agricultural life of this county, making it wholesome and progressive, honorable and independent. In a material way, the earlier members of the family helped to clear the forest and drain the swamps. They had a most commendable part in the transformation of a wild and unbroken forest into fields of growing grain which now yield abundant harvests. Henry H. Logan, the eldest son of the founder of the Logan family in Decatur county, has himself had a most interesting and fruitful part in the development of this splendid community.

Born on September 17, 1841, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Henry H. Logan was only one year and three months old when brought here by his father and mother, Samuel H. and Millie (Hice) Logan, in 1843. Arriving in Decatur county in April of 1843, Samuel H. Logan settled on land entered from the government by his father, John Logan, the farm now occupied and owned by Will W. Logan, a younger brother of Henry H. Samuel H. Logan, a native of Indiana county, Pennsylvania, born on February 1, 1819, was the son of John and Isabel (Graham) Logan, who came to America from Ireland late in the eighteenth century and located in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, where they spent the remainder of their lives. They had four children: Samuel H., Mrs. Hanna Hice, born on June 17, 1822; Mrs. Margaret Elliot, February 20, 1825, and Mrs. Ann Baker, July 12, 1827. The last named lives four miles from Greensburg, in this county.

Three years before coming to Decatur county, on November 26, 1840, Samuel H. Logan was married to Millie Hice, a native of New Jersey, born on October 20, 1818, the daughter of Henry Hice, who had come to America from Germany. Shortly after their marriage, or in 1843, they came to Decatur county. Samuel H. Logan was a clear-headed man, enterprising, public-spirited and an excellent farmer, and became one of the heaviest land holders in Decatur county. For some time he served his fellow citizens efficiently as a member of the board of county commissioners, and was honored and respected by the citizens of this community at the time of his death on October 19, 1904. His wife had died a quarter of a century previously, on October 15, 1879.

To Samuel H. and Millie (Hice) Logan ten children were born, of whom Henry H. is the eldest. The others are Isabella G., born on September 22, 1843, who is the widow of Samuel Applegate and resides in Greensburg; Mary S., November 26, 1845, the widow of Will Murray, who resides in Nevada, Missouri; John B., October 8, 1547, who is a traveling salesman and lives at Indianapolis; William W., who is a well-known farmer of Decatur county and lives on the old homestead; Sarah, October 19, 1852, the widow of Joseph Ketchum, lives in Cincinnati; Marine R., March 6, 1855, who died on May 22, 1885; Samuel, September 16, 1857, died on April 18, 1893; Emma J., August 20, 1860, died on August 16, 1865, and George M., September 13, 1862, who is the general agent of the International Harvester Company at Richmond, Indiana.

Like other members of the family, Henry H. Logan received the rudiments of an education in the local schools of Decatur county, principally at the Tarkington school house, which was located on his father's farm. His youth was not especially eventful but it may be said here that he performed with diligence and a willing spirit the tasks that fell to his lot as a young man in a pioneer community. He lived on the old homestead with his parents until his marriage and afterward moved to a farm of eighty acres given to him by his father. Later he purchased an additional eighty acres from his father. As a matter of fact, Mr. Logan has lived on the farm he now occupies, comprising one hundred and sixty acres in Washington township, since October 10, 1865, a period of just a half century. From time to time he has made additions and repairs to the houses, barns, and outbuildings located on the farm and now owns a completely modernized residence, the equal of any in this community.

Henry H. Logan was married on the same date that he moved to his present farm, October 10, 1865, to Eliza Sidwell, who was born near Greensburg, in this county, on December 11, 1844, the daughter of Hugh and Eliza (English) Sidwell, early settlers of Decatur county. On October 10, 1915, Mr. and Mrs. Logan will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. They have reared several children, among whom is a nephew, Forest M., who lived with them from the time he was five years old. He was graduated from Purdue University and later attended the University of Illinois at Champaign, completing a course in civil engineering, and is now engaged in the practice of this profession in Chicago. He married Rein Robertson, of Lafayette, and they have one child, Alice Marie, who is eight years old.

For many years Henry H. Logan has been prominent in Masonic circles in Greensburg, being a member of Greensburg Lodge No. 36, Free and Accepted Masons. Both Mr. and Mrs. Logan are members of the Presbyterian church and he is a Democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Logan spent the winter of 1914-15 in Florida, returning in the early spring, thoroughly imbued with the idea that "there is no place like home," and that Indiana, good old Hoosierdom, is the best place in the universe, after all.

Few farmers in this county are better or more favorably known than Henry H. Logan, and few have done more than he to win the confidence and esteem of the people of this county. By careful regard for the rights of his neighbors and friends, he has maintained cordial relations with the people of Decatur county and is today one of its most popular farmers and citizens.

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"History of Decatur County, Indiana"
Lewis A. Harding
B. F. Bowen & Co.
Indianapolis, Indiana
published in 1915.


JACOB C. GLASS, M. D.

Physician, farmer, postmaster and ex-school teacher, Jacob C. Glass, M. D., of Millhousen, Marion township, Decatur county, Indiana, is one of the most versatile men in his community. A product of Decatur county soil, he had always been a successful farmer and at the present time, owns a splendid farm of one hundred and sixty acres in the township of his residence. For eleven years a teacher in the public schools of Decatur county, during this period of his life, he was known as one of the foremost educators in the county. Since 1907 he has been engaged in the practice of medicine, first in the state of Arkansas and later in Decatur county. Postmaster since 1908, he has filled this important office with credit to himself and has attained a high mark of proficiency in the management of the postal business. His career is a notable exception to the philosophy of the old saw, since he has not only followed many occupations, but he has and is following them with efficiency. His father and grandfather, having served in the Civil War, it may be truthfully said that he comes from militant and patriotic stock, and from a family which has been well known in this county for many years.

Dr. Jacob C. Glass, physician and surgeon of Millhousen, Indiana, was born on September 21, 1873, in Decatur county on the old Glass homestead in Adams township, the son of John T. and Susan Jane (Grant) Glass, the former of whom was a native of Decatur county, born on February 14, 1845, and who now resides in Greensburg, Indiana. A private soldier in Company E, Thirty-seventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, John T. Glass served more than three years in the Civil War and, attached to the Army of the Cumberland, he fought at Stone's River, Chattanooga, Kenesaw Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, also in the beginning of the Atlanta campaign, when he was transferred to another part of the army to meet Beauregard at Knoxville. His father, William A. Glass, a native of Ireland, born in 1832 and died in 1900, came to America when a young man. He was a soldier in the Sixty-eighth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served with distinction during a greater part of the war.

Reared on a farm in Adams township, Decatur county, Indiana, Dr. Jacob C. Glass was educated in the common schools of the township and in the Central Normal College at Danville, Indiana. In the earlier years of his life, he taught school for eleven years in Decatur county and subsequently, when he decided to study medicine, took the first year of his work in the Illinois Medical College at Chicago. His second, third and fourth years' work were taken at Kentucky University at Louisville, at which time he was graduated from that institution with high honors. For some time after his graduation, he practiced at Cotton Plant, Arkansas, having passed the Arkansas medical registration examination three months before his graduation. After one year's practice in the South, he settled at Millhousen, where he has been engaged continuously in the practice of his profession since 1908. Professionally, he is a member of the Decatur County Medical Society, the Indiana State and the American Associations, a prominent member in all of these organizations, one who not only attends, but takes a prominent part in their proceedings.

In 1908 Dr. Glass was appointed postmaster at Millhousen and took charge of this office on December 15, of that year. He has served continuously as postmaster since 1908, a period of seven years. For some time he has owned several farms in Marion township and devotes considerable attention to supervising the work on the farm.

In 1895 Dr. Jacob C. Glass was married to Ida May Crist, of Adams, the daughter of Abram and Kiturah Crist, who were early settlers in Decatur county, the former coming here from Franklin county on horse-back with only a small supply of pewter spoons and pie pans, the nucleus of the home which he established in the Decatur county wilderness.

Dr. and Mrs. Jacob C. Glass are members of the Presbyterian church, which is the family faith. Fraternally, he is prominent in Decatur county, being a member of seven fraternal societies. He is a member of Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 341, at Burney; the Adams lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; the Greensburg lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; the Fraternal Order of Eagles; the Improved Order of Red Men; the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Loyal Order of Moose.

Dr. Jacob C. Glass is a man of splendid professional attainments, and, being equipped with strong intellectual powers and native aggressive attainments, naturally has become a leader in all public movements in Marion township. He is a man who has never been known to waver in the slightest degree from the strict code of ethics maintained by the medical profession and who, in private life, has been quite as strict in the code of principles governing his relations with the public. He is not only a well-meaning citizen, but he is a man who is capable of carrying that perquisite into effect. Naturally, he is popular in Marion township, where he enjoys the confidence and esteem of a large number of friends.

"History of Decatur County, Indiana"
Lewis A. Harding
B. F. Bowen & Co.
Indianapolis, Indiana
published in 1915.


JESSE H. STYERS
The late Jesse H. Styers, who, until his death, on January 15, 1910, was one of the most prominent farmers and citizens of Decatur county, owed his large success in life to the fact that he was generally willing and able to do the right thing at the right time. A man of more than average attainment, he knew the tendency of farm values during his life, and from time to time invested his savings and profits in land. A man of large vision and one who knew how to get the very largest returns from an acre of land, he naturally became wealthy, and at the time of his death owned seven hundred and twenty acres of land in this county. But the greatness of the late Jesse H. Styers, as a man and a citizen, did not consist wholly in his prosperous career as a farmer. He took a commendable interest in politics and served six years as a member of the Decatur county board of commissioners. In this office he was able to perform valuable service in behalf of public improvements, and his vote and his influence could always be depended upon in their behalf. He was not only a successful financier and a capable and efficient manager, but he was a man of scrupulous integrity, whose relations with his fellows was founded upon an inflexible and unyielding determination to do the right thing. He had at the time of his death many friends in Decatur county. Few men have passed away in recent years whose loss has been more generally mourned than this honored citizen of Sand Creek township.

Jesse H. Styers, who was born on February 4, 1844, and died on January 15, 1910, at the age of sixty-six years, was born in Greensburg, Decatur county, Indiana, the son of William and Sarilda (Robbins) Styers, the former of whom a native of North Carolina, came to Greensburg when a young man and here engaged in carriage making, at which he worked for several years. Without friends and without resources he saved his money and, subsequently, at the time of his marriage, was able to purchase a small farm south of the city. There he engaged in the dairy business, and later extended his operations to general farming, in which he was very successful. He was able to give each of his children a farm and a good start on the highway of life. A prominent citizen during his life, he was a man of especially quiet and unassuming manner, a man who had an enviable reputation in the community where he lived. His home farm was just across the road from the farm owned by Frank and John E. Robbins.

William and Sarilda (Robbins) Styers had five children, three of whom, including Jesse H., are now deceased. William G. died lately in Sand Creek township; Evermont died on the old homestead, and his widow is now living in Greensburg with Mrs. Privit; Evermont left one daughter, Mrs. Earl Robbins, at the time of his death; Charles, the last son, lives in Indianapolis.

The mother of the late Jesse H. Styers, who, before her marriage to William Styers, was Sarilda Robbins, the daughter of William and Eleanor (Anderson) Robbins, was born in 1823. Her father, William Robbins, was born in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, and was taken by his parents to Henry county, and later to Indiana in 1821. At the time of the removal to Indiana, William Robbins was twenty-four years old. He selected a site for a home for himself about one and one-half mile north of his father's home in Decatur county, and the next year returned to Kentucky and was married to Eleanor Anderson, of that state. Upon their return to Indiana, they were accompanied by his three sisters and two brothers, John and Nathaniel, who settled in the same vicinity. A short time later, other relatives of the Robbins family came to the same township, which family became prominent, both as to numbers and influence, in the early affairs of the county. William and Eleanor Robbins lived on the farm originally selected as their home, during the remainder of their lives. They had four children, of whom Mr. Styers' mother was the eldest. The other three children were, John K., born on February 20, 1825, who married Nancy O. Hunter; James G., June 10, 1827, and who married Elmira Stout, and Holman, in 1829, who married Jeannette Gilchrist. William Robbins died on February 3, 1868, and his wife four years later.

Of the earlier history of the Robbins family, it may be said that the family begins with Bethiah Vickery, who was born on December 1, 1760, and who married William Robbins. They had three children, Albe, Charity and Benjamin. William Robbins was killed in the Revolutionary War soon after enlisting, and his widow married a second William Robbins in Guilford county, North Carolina. This couple had the following children: Marmeduke and Jacob, born on May 15, 1783; Elizabeth, February 5, 1788; Polly, April 9, 1791; Nathaniel, April 5, 1793; John, February 8, 1795; William, August 6, 1797, and Dosha, May 20, 1803. William Robbins, the second husband of Bethiah Vickery, was born on October 21, 1761, in Randolph county, North Carolina. In October, 1777, when sixteen years of age, he enlisted in the Revolutionary army, serving until 1781 under Capt. Joseph Clark and Colonel Dugail and Col. Anthony Sharp. He left Virginia for Henry county, Kentucky, and in 1821 came to Decatur county, settling nine and one-half miles south of Greensburg, where he made a home among the timbered hills. Trees were cleared away and a new log house of one room was erected with a shed, in which was built a room for carpet weaving and the weaving of many kinds of cloth. On September 11, 1834, William Robbins passed away and was buried at Mt. Pleasant cemetery. The third William Robbins, heretofore referred to in the children born to the second William Robbins and Bethiah Vickery, was the father of Mrs. Sarilda (Robbins)Styers.

The late Jesse H. Styers was married in 1872 to Emma C. Blume, who was born on February 28, 1844, near Hope, in Bartholomew county, and who is the daughter of Calvin and Maria (Warner) Blume, natives of North Carolina and Ohio, respectively. The father, who was born in 1824, came to Indiana with his father, John Philip Blume, in 1834. John Philip Blume was of German ancestry and had only fifty cents when he came to Bartholomew county. He brought all his belongings in a covered wagon. During his life he accumulated a farm of two hundred acres of well-improved land. He was many years a justice of the peace in Bartholomew county. Calvin Blume was also a prosperous farmer and succeeded quite as well as his father before him. He had four children by his marriage to Maria Warner, two of whom are living and two of whom are deceased. Rufus, the first born, and Albert, the youngest, are deceased. Mrs. Emma C. Styers and Mrs. Mary Seiss are living. The latter is a resident of Missouri.

After their marriage, in 1872, Mr. and Mrs. Styers settled on the Styers farm, south of Greensburg, where they lived for one year and later removed to a farm of three hundred and ten acres in Sand Creek township, which farm is located in a beautiful section of Decatur county, where the ground is slightly rolling and where some of the land is very rich. There were very few improvements upon this property when Mr. and Mrs. Styers purchased it. Subsequently, they bought another farm and still other land until he owned, at the time of his death, seven hundred acres of land.

Mr. and Mrs. Styers had six children, three of whom are deceased and three of whom are still living, John died in September, 1914, leaving a widow and three children, Vera May, Carson and Maletta, lived on the home farm; George H., who lives on a farm given him by his father, has four children, Howard, Harold, Lawrence and Louise; Mrs. Hannah Moore, the wife of Delgar Moore, near Forest Hill, in Jackson township, has two children, Bernice and Arthur; Mrs. Nellie McGee lives near the Liberty church; and two of the Styers children, Loyley and Alpha, died in infancy. Before his death, Mr. Styers gave to each of his sons a farm of two hundred acres and reserved a three-hundred-and-twenty-acre farm for the daughters.

The late Jesse H. Styers, at the age of eighteen, enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served for eighteen months as a soldier in the Civil War. At the time of his death he was a member of the Pap Thomas Post, Grand Army of the Republic. A Republican in political affiliations, he served six years as county commissioner. He was a member of the Baptist church, and loyal and active in this faith. For many years he was a deacon of the First church at Greensburg.

The late Jesse H. Styers was a man of large vision and of wonderful capacity as a farmer, and of wide influence in the community where he lived. He was a man who was affectionately devoted to the interests, welfare and comfort of his wife and family. His first interest was his home and his family, and next to these was the conscientious performance of his duty as a citizen.

"History of Decatur County, Indiana"
Lewis A. Harding
B. F. Bowen & Co.
Indianapolis, Indiana
published in 1915.


JOHN W. HOLCOMB
Among the ablest of the younger members of the Indiana bar, is John W. Holcomb, an attorney of Westport, Indiana. With the blood of Revolutionary ancestry coursing through his veins, and the overshadowing influence of the Puritanic thought of his progenitors, it is not surprising that we find him not only a prominent lawyer, but a leader in the affairs of the state. With other honors gathered in his comparatively short lifetime, this young man has the distinction of having been the youngest member of the Indiana Legislature during the session of 1899, when he represented Decatur county, having been elected .the preceding fall. When a man transcends the average of attainment, a look into the history of his ancestors often reveals hidden forces which play an important part in his own life. In the present instance this is eminently true, and we shall find a brief study of the family record of unusual interest, especially from a psychological viewpoint. The attorney whose name forms the caption of this article was born on a farm in Marion township on February 27, 1874, but he did not stay on the farm.

The earliest progenitor of the Holcomb family in America was Thomas, who came from Devonshire, England, to America in 1630, locating at Dorchester, Massachusetts. Born in 1590, he came to this country for the same reason that actuated his other Puritan friends, and it was his descendants who fought in the Revolutionary War. After five years' residence at Dorchester, he went to Connecticut to live, and here it was that he passed away in 1639. His son Nathaniel became the paternal ancestor of John W. Holcomb.

Next in the line of descent, is Rufus, whose father, Luther, was a Revolutionary soldier. Rufus was a native of Connecticut, born in 1786. Stirred by the desire for adventure, he came west at an early day, locating near Moore's Hill, Dearborn county, where Eli, grandfather of John W. Holcomb, was born in 1823. When a young man he moved to Ripley county. His wife, Emeline Hall, was of the true type of pioneer mother, presenting her husband with six children. These were Daniel, father of our subject, Emma Williams, of Kansas; Albert, also of Kansas; Benson, who lives in Arizona; Walter, a resident of California, and Dora Oldham, who lived in Kansas until her death in 1903. Eli Holcomb and his wife left their pioneer home in Indiana for a home farther West, in Kansas, and it was here that the aged man died in 1899. Daniel W. Holcomb, father of our subject, was born in Ripley county in 1852. About the year 1870 he came to Decatur county. He settled in Marion township on a farm in 1873, and it is here that he still lives. The tract of land which he first purchased consisted of forty acres, but the energetic farmer added to this as his success permitted until he has acquired two hundred and thirty-five acres. He gave especial attention to stock raising besides the usual agricultural enterprises. He is still hale and hearty and is active in politics, being a strong Republican. He is at present township trustee, and has been for many years a member of the Baptist church. Mrs. Holcomb, Sr., was formerly Mary E. Evans, and was born in September, 1855. Their children are John W., the subject of this sketch; Albert, A retired farmer of Westport; Ada Mozingo, who died in December, 1914; Lewis, of Oklahoma; Janie Mozingo, wife of Edward Mozingo, of near Greensburg; Margaret Brown, of North Vernon, and Joseph B., who lives upon his father's farm.

John W. Holcomb received a good general education before he specialized in the studies which prepared him to become the successful lawyer that he is. While he was brought up on the farm, he attended first the common schools, and then the Central Normal College at Danville, Indiana. At the age of eighteen, when many young men are still in college, he began teaching, and for the following eight years, taught in Marion township and Jennings county. He was admitted to the bar in 1897, and practiced for two years in Greensburg, and later spent five years in Indianapolis. Locating in Westport in 1908, he began to build up the practice which now makes him a leader in his profession, and entitles him to a place among the best-known lawyers of the county.

On September, 1899, Mr. Holcomb was married to Margaret Owen, daughter of Thomas and Margaret Owen, of Marion township, and to them two children have been born. These are, Mary, whose birth date is January 26, 1906, and Mabel, born on June 7, 1908.

Mr. and Mrs. Holcomb are prominent members of the Baptist church. Mr. Holcomb belongs to the Odd Fellows lodge, and also to the Modern Woodmen of America of Westport.

Mr. Holcomb has not been active because of the fact that his profession has led him into political fields, but because here he finds the kind of activity that is congenial to his tastes. The Republican party in his part of the state is stronger because of his leadership, and the fact that he was elected township trustee in 1914 and a representative of his county in the Indiana Legislature of 1899, attests to the measure of confidence and popularity which his constituents accord him. Both positions he has filled with credit both to himself and to those who elected him. Although a youthful member of the Assembly, he was an able representative, and his county had no reason to regret its choice. Mr. Holcomb has a keen, penetrating mind, called perhaps more technically, a "legal mind," yet his character has the elements of strength that are intellectual, for his nature is at once judicial and sympathetic. He is a good husband and father, a kind friend, a genial neighbor and an upright, loyal citizen.

"History of Decatur County, Indiana"
Lewis A. Harding
B. F. Bowen & Co.
Indianapolis, Indiana
published in 1915.


Deb Murray