BIOGRAPHY SUBMITTED BY: Rowena King

John Knoll was born in the province of Bavaria, Germany.His father Andrew was in the Napoleon war. In May 1832, John Knoll, his sister, Mary, and her husband Andrew Graber and baby,Sebastian, left Germany and came to the US to find a home. Due to stormy weather, they were on the ocean during May, June and part of July. John Knoll used to relate how during the storm he would stay near the captain of the vessel so that he might judge by the captain's actions when they were in great danger. They reached New York City in July 1832.From that city they went to Albany, Buffalo,Cleveland Ohio,Cincinnati Ohio, and stopped at Richmond IN. At sunrise in a small town 16 miles west of Richmond, IN- Andrew Graber died of cholera. John Knoll married Susannah Knipes in 1834. She was 16 years old, they began married life on the second floor of a large brick house a few miles south of Abingnon, IN. In 1840 they moved from Union County to Owen County,IN, making the journey over the National Road( now W. Washington Street) in a covered two horse wagon. At this time John Knoll was 27 and his wife Susannah was 22. They had 2 children with them, William, age 5 years and Margaret, an infant less that a year. When John Knoll first reached Owen County, in the year 1840, the country was almost an unbroken forest. He lived in a log cabin in Jennings Twp, about 1/4 mile south of the present home of Elmer Knoll. It is said he laid out the first public road that lead from his cabin over the hill and crossed Doe Creek a short distance down stream from the present bridge.John Knoll blazed the trees in the forest so the children might find their way to school. On May 9th 1846 John purchased from Richard Magg the land now owned by Dora Rouck in Jackson Twp Owen county, situated NW of Cunot and moved there shortly after that date. In 1852 he built a house, which he moved into in January of 1853. Prior to this date he lived in a log house of one large room which was located about 50 yards NE of the one he built. At this time he had a family of 8 children, Mary Knoll being 2 weeks of age.Grandmother Knoll used to relate how Aunt Elizabeth age 5 carried Aunt Mary at 2 weeks old, head down and feet up from the old house to the new one when they were moving.

BIOGRAPHY SUBMITTER: Debbie Jennings

Alice Warren Milligan was the second child and daughter of Thomas Stuart and Louisa Warren Milligan. She was born on December 18, 1850, in a humble home located five miles west of Gosport and a quarter of a mile south of Hudson Hill cemetery. The family's life revolved around the centers of "church" and school, her father being a Presbyterian missionary from Pennsylvania who followed his brothers to Indiana in the 1830's. Alice was educated at home as well as in the district schools. She went on to college where she earned a degree in teaching Latin and Algebra. She was well respected by her students and the community. She was known as "Aunt Alice" to all. Alice also taught a former slave from North Carolina, Luke Phillips, mathematice as well as reading and writing. Luke had come to Indiana with his father,Peter Phillips, about 1890. Luke worked as a handyman for Alice's brother, Albert Milligan. Luke's children all went on to get an education. One son became a teacher, and a grandson became a doctor. Luke's youngest daughter, Francis Phillips, still resides in Owen County at the age of ninety-four. At the age of seventy-eight Alice accompanied her eighty year old sister to Europe in 1928, just prior to the Second World War. Her accounts of their travels were published in the Spencer newspaper. Alice never married. She took care of her elderly mother the last years of her mother's life. Following her mother's death she went to live with her brother, James, until his death. Alice died in 1945 at the age of ninety five. She is buried in Hudson Hill Cemetery with her parents and brother.

CONTRIBUTED BY: Diane Hitchcock-Owens

Thomas Stuart Milligan is referred to as the "patriarch of the Milligan family of Owen County, Indiana. Thomas was the sixth son of David Milligan, born in Swissvale, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on November 1, 1816. He married on February 28, 1846, Louisa Frances Warren, in Logansport, Indiana. Louisa was born in Westport, New York, on April 29, 1826. In her later years she was a bright, handsome lady. Her parents were John Parsons and Fanny (Skinner) Warren, the former from Somersetshire, and the latter from Yorkshire, England. Thomas's parents had moved to Allegheny County prior to his birth from Ireland. The family was part of the Presbyterian movement that left the British Isles in search of religious toleration. Thomas' mother, worn out with the care of a large family and the hard work of a pioneer woman, died of consumption when Thomas was two and a half years of age. His older sister took on the role of "mother," nurturing him as he grew up on the family farm. He was a timid, sensitive, proud boy. At the age of fourteen he moved to Waveland, Indiana, to help his brother in a country store. His brother was the founder of the town of Waveland. When he was about sixteen years of age, after what was perhaps a depression "he came out into the clear light of Christian faith." He always felt that he owed much to the prayers of his mother, and the faithful labors of his pastor, Rev. John Thompson, of Waveland. With the question of his soul's salvation settled, he was determined to study for the ministry, and entered the Wabash College, the new school established fourteen miles away by cultivated Christian scholars from New England. There Thomas was a most faithful student from 1833 to 1839, when he graduated in the second class that graduated from the college, a class of four young men, all of whom entered the ministry. These six years represent a period of great self-denial, as the $400 patrimony could not cover much of the way. But his thirst for knowledge was something unusual. He won a reputation for scholarship, specialty in the languages, of which he never tired. He continued his studies in Greek, Latin and Hebrew till his death. After graduation he spent one year in Wabash College as a tutor of Latin. He then entered Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, for a three years' course in theology, under Dr. Lyman Beecher, Dr. Calvin Stowe, etc. When the young minister was ready for active service, he was presented with a fine thoroughbred horse, saddle, bridle and saddle-bags, the gift of a wealthy Kentucky gentleman to home Missions. Mounted on "Zeno" Thomas Milligan traversed the marshes of northern Indiana, preaching in schoolhouses, barns, private houses, and organizing churches. For awhile he was settled at Rochester, as first pastor of a church that he organized. In 1846, he removed to Greencastle, where he had been pastor a few months. There he spent almost eight years. One year of this time he was agent for the American Board, an office that required laborious travel over new country in Illinois and Indiana. In the course of his travels he visited Owen county south of Greencastle. Owen County had one old Presbyterian Church, established in 1820. This was a country church, once strong in every sense, but at this time depleted by large colonies that had gone from it to Iowa and Texas. The "few sheep in the wilderness" appealed to this sensitive, self-sacrificing man, and in 1853 he settled in the little log cabin parsonage of Bethany, five miles from the post-office and railway station at Gosport. He then had a young wife and three little children. In time a new and comfortable home was built, land purchased, orchard and vineyard set out. For years Thomas Milligan was the only Presbyterian minister in Owen County, but he was a power. He traveled tirelessly, carrying Bibles, tracts, and religious papers in his saddle-bags; setting up family alters, persuading parents to educate their children; even taking the children home with him that he might teach them, preaching the gospel of the kingdom wherever men would hear him. How he labored and prayed, organized circles of Bible study and the study of natural sciences, lectured, taught school, put his children through college, wrote for the press, organized churches, kept a happy home, carried on favorite studies, communed with nature, entertained as a charming host. This and much more would fill a volume. He was a favorite with his alma mater, usually attended her commencement, and contributed from his fund of ready wit and humor to her festive occasions, his toasts being long remembered. In the eulogy passed upon him at the time of his death, by the president of Wabash College, he was called the best all around scholar that had then left the college. His children remember him as a man of the highest and noblest ideals, of elevated conversation, of fine nature, of deep but repressed affection, of intensest energy, indomitable will, full of uncomplaining self-sacrifice for the home and the cause of Christ. So intense was his nature, that he wore himself out too soon, dying a few days before he was sixty, on Oct. 7, 1876. He lived such an elevated religious life of consecrated service that Heaven would seem more natural to him than earth.

Owen County, Indiana History states Thomas Milligan became a minister and officiated principally in Owen County, Indiana, where he died in 1876. Thomas and his famly are buried in Hudson Hill Cemetery in Owen County, Indiana.

Thomas and Louisa had four children:
i. ERMINA CHEEVER MILLIGAN, b. July 09, 1848, Greencastle, Putnam Co., IN; d. Aft. 1900, National City, CA.
ii. ALICE WARREN MILLIGAN, b. December 18, 1850, Owen Co,. IN; d. Aft. 1933, PA. Alice never married. She was a high school teacher and taught at Western College in Oxford, Ohio, which was her alma mater.She took care of her mother the latter part of her mother's life who lived in Spencer, IN.
iii. ALBERT BUSHNEL MILLIGAN, b. October 11, 1853, Greencastle, Putnam Co., IN; d. Spencer, Owen Co., IN.
iv. DR. JAMES WARREN MILLIGAN, b. December 21, 1859, Greencastle, Putnam Co., IN; d. South Bend, IN; m. SARAH DUNKLE, July 01, 1900, Logansport, IN; b. Logansport, IN. James resided in Michigan City, IN, and then South Bend, IN, where he was a physician. James served as medical superintendent at the state prison. He also designed the hospital for the criminally insane. James worked at the Logansport State Hospital in 1893 before joining the staff at the Madison State Hospital in 1915 where he worked until his death. He and his wife had no children.

A sister of Thomas Milligan, Hannah Milligan, eventually moved to Indiana with her husband William White. The family moved in 1866 to Pana, Illinois. A nephew of Thomas and Hannah, Alexander Shortess Milligan, followed the family to Indiana. Alexander was the son of Robert Milligan and Mary Ann Shortess. He was born on April 3, 1830, in Swissvale, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He married Anne Hawkins on September 29, 1852. Anne was the daughter of William Hawkins and his second wife, Margaretta Dillinger and half sister to the aforementioned Janie Marie Hawkins. Anne was born on March 10, 1831, in Swissvale, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She died on January 25, 1857, leaving Alexander with three small children. The children were raised by the Hawkins family which caused a "rift" between the families as both wanted the children. Alexander then went to Indiana where his uncles had moved. He died of typhoid fever on March 12, 1867. Alexander and Anne had three children.

i. FRANK HAWKINS MILLIGAN, b. July 14, 1853, Swissvale Allegheny Co., PA; d. 1929.

ii. ANNA CLARA MILLIGAN, b. April 24, 1855, Swissvale Allegheny Co., PA; d. January 28, 1939; Anna Clara graduated from the Minneapolis Female Seminary in 1873. The schoool was owned and operated by her step mother's mother, Mrs. Bennet. Margery Bennet, Mrs. Bennet's daughter was Alexander Shortess Milligan's second wife. Margery was also a teacher at the seminary. After graduation, Anna Clara went to Pittsburg where she stayed with her grandparents, Robert and Mary Ann Shortess Milligan and Col. and Mrs. Margaretta Dillinger Hawkins. Harry Milligan, son of her uncle Joseph Milligan, was also visiting at that time from Crawfordsville, Indiana. When he returned to Crawfordsville Anna went with him. She spent the winter of 1873-74 in Crawfordsville where she became close friends with India Jane Hawkins who was her aunt even though she was only two years her senior. In April of 1874 Anna returned to Pittsburg due to a family emergency which is not known. She returned to Indiana the following September. She again was called back to Pittsburg in December during which time her dear friend, India, had died of typhoid fever.

iii. CHARLES W. MILLIGAN, b. January 16, 1857, Swissvale Allegheny Co., PA.

CONTRIBUTED BY: Diane Hitchcock-Owens