Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

ERI RICH. Of the substantial old Quaker stock which has produced wealth of character and citizenship in Grant county, the Rich family has been among the worthiest representatives. Eri Rich has spent his best years in this county, has prospered in health and lands, has reared a family to do him credit, and has possessed the esteem of all whose lives he has touched in business and social relations. Mr. Rich after a long career of farming has in recent years lived in Fairmount, and has made a reputation as a breeder of fine horses, his skill in this direction having made him well known among stock men of northeastern Indiana.

Eri Rich was born in the southern part of Hamilton county, Indiana, near Carmel, October12, 1840. His father was Joseph Rich, his grandfather, Peter Rich, Jr., both natives of Randolph county, North Carolina, while the great-grandfather was Peter Rich, Sr., a native of England about the time of or a little before the Revolutionary war. He lived and died in Randolph county, North Carolina, and reach a good old age. His wife was also old at the time of her death. They had a family of children, among whom was Peter, Jr.

Peter Rich Jr., was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, about 1776-1777. Growing up in his native locality he learned the trade of wagon making, and was also a farmer. For many years he followed these pursuits in his native county. He married Sarah Sanders. She was a Quakeress, but her husband held no church. Born to their marriage in North Carolina were the following children: Aaron, Joseph, Isaac, Jesse, John, David and three daughters, Mary, Rebecca and Martha.

James Rich, the third in the above family and the father of Eri Rich was born in North Carolina, in 1811. In 1830 or 1831, before he was of age he bought his time from his father and came north to Indiana, locating near Carmel, in Hamilton county, on eighty acres of government land. His home was in the wilderness, and in a clearing among the woods he put up a log cabin cutting the timbers from the standing trees. Au interesting fact concerning this old pioneer of Hamilton county is that he set out soon after locating there two acres of live apples and peach trees and that orchard grew and flourished and for many years was one of the best in all that part of Indiana. Some years after his own settlement his parents and other members of the family came on to Indiana locating in Grant county, in Fairmount township, during the latter forties. Thus the later years of Peter Rich and his wife were spent in Grant county, where Peter died at the age of eighty-six years and his wife at the age of eighty-seven After getting well started in his new home in Hamilton County, Joseph Rich met and married Mariam Newly. She was born in North Carolina, was a young woman when she accompanied her parents Hamilton county, and her people spent their lives in that section. The first wife of Joseph Rich died in Hamilton county, August 2, 1851. She was born January 28, 1803. In 1852 Joseph Rich after the death of his wife brought his family to Grant county, having sold his property in Hamilton county. He bought land in Liberty township and lived there number of years retiring and making his home in Fairmount where he died about 1896. After coming to Grant county he was three times married, but had no children, His first wife left six children as follows: Sarah, who married Abner Holloway, who died in Fairmount, and she now lives in Fairmount township having a family all of whom are married. Mary, the second child is the wife of James Marley, of Fairmount, but has no children. Thc next in order is Eri Rich. Asenath is the wife John Seale, an Englishman, now living in California and they have a family of children. Jesse S. married Angeline Jenkins, now deceased, and he lives in the southeastern part of the state of Kansas near Baxter, and has a family. Eliza is the wife of Frank Davis and lives in Fairmount having children.

Eri Rich was about twelve years old when his father moved from Hamilton county to Grant county. He grew up on a farm, received a substantial education in the local schools, and taking up the vocation to which he had been trained, he conducted a place in the county for a number of years. In he moved to Maimi county, Indiana, where he improved the farm of sixty acres. That land was subsequently traded for land in Grant county, comprising one hundred and sixty-eight acres. In 1897, Mr. Rich moved to Fairmount, retiring from active agriculture, and has since devoted his time to trade and stock breeding. For five years he was a feed merchant in Fairmount. Since then practically all his work has been in the raising of registered stock. He owns several excellent horses, including a Belgian horse named Ameer, a fine Perecheron named Minstrel, and also a fine Belgian named Edmund, He has made a reputation as a careful breeder, and maintains one of the best stables in Grant county.

Mr. Rich was married in Grant county in 1861 to Elizabeth A. Davidson. She was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, January 20, 1841, a daughter of Joseph and Rena (White) Davidson who were Quaker people, farmers, and natives of North Carolina. The family moved to Indiana about 1858, leased a farm in Grant county, and later in the same year the parents moved to Minnesota where they died at a good old age. Mr and Mrs. Rich became the parents of eleven children whose names and careeers are briefly stated as follows: Enos died when young; Rena Ellen is the wife of Ray McHatten, and has three children, Grace, Effie and Fred; M. Etta is the wife of Micajah Thomas living in Fairmount, and their children are Everett, who is married, Aldelbert, Clarence W. and Cleo F., the youngest being at home and all the children well educated: Elwood lives in Huntington county, is married and has three sons, Robert, William and Ralph: John is married and has a family of one son, Alvie and two daughters , Lulu and Ethel, and lived in Fairmount: Lucina is the widow of Lewis Thomas, living in Huntington, Indiana and has two sons, Eri and Walter: Milton resides in Fairmount township, is married and has three sons, Doite, Earl and Glen: Eliza is the wife of Norman Little, living in Huntington county and they are the parents of three sons, Orville, Willard and Virgil: May is the wife of Arthur Marsh, living in California, and they have two sons, Albert and Walter Eri: Eunice died after her marriage to Alfred Marine, having one son Eri. The twelfth and youngest child died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Rich are both birthright members of the Friends church. Mr Rich was for a number of years a Republican voter, but latterly has supported the Democratic party.

Blackford and Grant Counties, Indiana A Chronicle of their People Past and Present with Family Lineage and Personal Memoirs Compiled Under the Editorial Supervision of Benjamin G. Shinn
Volume I Illustrated
The Lewis Publishing Company Chicago and New York 1914
Submitted by Peggy Karol

GEORGE A. H. SHIDELER. One of the best known men in the state of Indiana is George A. H. Shideler, secretary and general manager of the Marion Flint Glass Company, practically all his life a resident of Grant county. Few men in Marion are so well known as he, and his is a familiar figure to every man, woman and child in the city. A product of Grant county, he was born in Jonesboro on November 23, 1863, and is the son of a well known family of that place.

When nine years of age Mr. Shideler removed to Indianapolis, Indiana, in company with his parents and there he attended school until the age fifteen, when he took a position as cash boy in the New York, in that city. He was an ambitious youth, and it was but a few years before he was able to take a place as a traveling salesman for a prominent dry goods house of the city, but when natural gas was discovered in Marion in 1887 he left his traveling position and came to Marion, becoming interested as a stockholder in the Marion Flint Glass Company, being elected secretary of the company. The factory has long been rated among the most solidly established enterprises in the city, and is operated in accordance with the most advanced methods in vogue today among glass manufacturers.

Mr. Shideler is a man who has always taken an active and prominent part in local and district politics, and his public usefulness has extended to the state legislature, to which he was elected in 1896 and re-elected in 1899. He was appointed a member of the Board of Control of the Reform School for Boys, located in Plainfield, his appointment coming from Governor Mount in 1897. He resigned the place in 1899 when he was elected a second time to the legislature, but was re-appointed in 1900 in consequence of the excellent work he did as a member of the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City, receiving the appointment through the governor and the board of managers, and he accepted the office holding it for two years, when he resigned, since which time he has devoted his entire time and activities to the care of his many and varied private interests. As warden of the Indiana State Prison, Mr. Shideler gained a nation wide reputation and no penal institution in the country was better managed than was that institution under his regime. A man of broad human sympathies, keen understanding and humanitarian tendencies, he was eminently fitted for the duties of his position, and he was ever found to be a friend to the unfortunate, who most needed a friend and counselor. He was especially interested in the boy problem, so potent a none in the present day social scheme, and his wide experience in state criminal institutions has taught him that the secret of true manhood lies in controlling the early tendencies of the boy and surrounding him with every safeguard that is humanly possible in early life. It is not too much to say that Mr. Shideler is one of the most popular men in Grant county today, and one who is most deserving of mention in a historical and biographical work of this order.

Mr. Shideler married July 26, 1894, Magaret Ball, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Ball, of Marion. They have two boys, Robert, aged eighteen, and Richard, aged twelve.

MARCUS M. KILGORE. The Farmer's Trust & Savings Company of Marion is one of the solidest and most representative financial institutions of Grant county. Every financial institution during its earlier years acquires estimation and influence in a community largely through the character and reputation fo the men whose names are most intimately associated with the undertaking. Some institutions of this kind which have enjoyed prosperous careers of many years apparently lose this personal element in their composition, and continue to exist and enjoy the confidence of the public with apparently little regard to the business managers. But with a new banking house or similar concern, whose prosperity rests upon commercial credit, the personal factor is always the indispensable quality. The success and prosperity of the Farmer's 'Trust & Savings Company of Marion, which was established only a few years ago, have been to a large degree a reflection of the personal integrity and high business standing of its president, Mr. Kilgore.

Marcus M. Kilgore was born on a farm in Franklin county, Indiana, June 26, 1850. He is a son of David and Charity (Sislove) Kilgore. His father, who was born in Pennsylvania, in 1808, and who was a lifelong farmer by occupation, and the mother, who was born in Franklin county, Indiana, in 1811, both came to Grant county in 1852 and spent the remainder of their lives in this vicinity. His father died in this county in 1896. There were eight children in the family, and besides the banker, the three others still living are: Hercules Kilgore of Marion; G. W. Kilgore, of Port Lisbon, Grant county; and Mrs. Susauna Keever, of Marion.

Two years of age when the parents came to Grant county, Marcus M. Kilgore was reared on the old home farm in this county and attained most of his education by attending the district schools, chiefly during the winter seasons. He left the farm when a young man and entered the merchandise business at Port Lisbon in this county and he was one of the successful merchants of that town for twenty years. From there he moved to Converse in Miami county, and in that vicinity was chiefly known as a farmer. During his residence in Miami county, he was elected to the legislature for the session of 1891 on the Demcratic ticket, representative of the counties of Cass and Miami. In 1895 Mr. Kilgore returned to Grant county, and for the following seven years was a resident upon his farm and actively engaged in its operation. In 1907 occurred his election to the office of assessor of Grant county, and he held this honorable distinction for four years. Mr. Kilgore since 1902 has been a resident of Marion, and active in business affairs of this city. In 1910 he was one of the organizers of the Farmer's Trust & Savings Company, and was chosen by other members of the company to the office of president, a place which he has held ever since. He is still engaged in farming and has a splendid farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Liberty and Green township of this county. Mr. Kilgore is now regarded as one of the men of substantial means in Grant county, and yet looking hack over a career of forty years, it can truthfully be said that he has acquired practically every dollar as a result of his own industry and straightforward business dealings.

July 15, 1870, Mr. Kilgore married Miss Elizabeth J. Lane a native of Ohio and a daughter of Mordical and Charitv (Foster) Lane. Mrs Kilgore died October 18, 1909, and the three children left at her death were: Myrtle, wife of Warren C.. Pinkeman of Marion Miss Olive Kilgore, of Marion, and Karl, who resides on his father's farm and who married Mary Overman, and their one son is also named Karl. On June 12, 1912, Mr. Kilgone married for his second wife Mrs. Isabelle Edmundson of Marion. Mrs. Kilgore is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their home at 501 Wabash avenue is one of the most attractive residences of the city. Fraternally Mr. Kilgore is affiliated with the Elks' Club of Marion.

J. NIXON ELLIOTT. Among his many Quaker friends and all classes of people, Mr. Elliott of Fairmount long enjoyed an esteem of the quality such as is only paid to person of fine character and noble lives. He belongs to the good old pioneer stock of Indiana, and Grant county, as did also his wife; and in their own careers they have exemplified many of the finest attributes of the substantial Quaker people.

The history of the Elliott family, to which Mr. J. Nixon Elliott belongs goes back to great-grandfather James Elliott who was born in Perquimans county, North Carolina, in 1730. He married Mary Nixon, and they lived and died in their native county, farmers by occupation, and of the orthodox Fox Quaker sect. All the Elliott family were rigid adherents of the Quaker religion, and though they were settled in the Carolinas from the colonial days their principles of peaceful living prevented them from taking any part in the military history of the wars through which they family record runs.

Nixon Elliott, the grandfather, was born in Perquimans county, March 12, 1764. He married Rhoda, a daughter of Joseph and Anna Parker Scott, who was born November 10, 1773. Her father Joseph Scott was born about 1725, was a farmer, and Quaker in religion and lived and died in North Carolina. Nixon Elliott and wife had the following children: Job S., born October 7, 1795, was married in North Carolina to Mary Dillon, afterwards came to Indiana, and both died in Henry county; James, born September 4, 1800, was a soldier through the Seminole war and afterwards lived and died in Florida, raised a family there and one of his sons, Nixon Elliott, now lives in Pueblo, Colorado; Elias, father of J. Nixon Elliott, was born January 12, 1803. The daughter Mary Elliott, born January 20, 1807, first married a Mr. Alberson, who died early in life leaving one child, and then she married James Stelling, and came north and died near Greentown, Indiana, leaving no children by her second marriage.

Elias Elliott, the father of J. Nixon Elliott, grew up on a farm, and when a young man moved to Guilford county, in North Carolina. There he married Martha Saunders, of Deep River, where she was born in 1797, being six years older than her husband. After their marriage they began life as farmers in Guilford county, and all their children were born in that locality. In 1849 the family came north to Indiana, and after a few months in Wayne county, moved near to Odgen in Henry county, where they bought a farm, and in the following autumn the mother died. Elias Elliott married for his second wife Jane Cane, a Quakeress of North Carolina. They continued to live in Henry county for seven years, and afterwards moved to Dublin, Indiana, where Elias Elliott died in 1884. He was survived some years by his wife, who died at Richmond, Indiana, at the age of seventy-five. Both were lifelong members of the Friends church. By the second marriage of Elias Elliott, the following children are noted: John B., who lives in Richmond, Indiana, contractor and builder, and has one son and one daughter; Martha, who died early in life; Emma, who died in childhood.

By his first marriage Elias Elliott, had the following children: 1. William S., died recently near Greentown, in Howard county, at the age of eighty-four. He was for many years a substantial farmer. He married Sarah Havenridge, and they had a large family, two of whom are yet living; after death of his first wife William S. married Avis Irish. One of their children died in infancy, the two living are Mrs. Mary Golding and Charles Elliott of Oregon. 2. Patrick H. lived and died in Henry county, was a farmer by occupation, and attained the age of seventy-eight years. His first wife was Sarah Applegate, and his second was Levina Reeves. They had a family of children. 3. Dr. David S. died at the age of thirty-three years. He was a graduate of the medical department of Michigan University at Ann Arbor, and was president of the County Medical Society at the time of his death. Dr. Elliott married Hanna Cobb and had two children, both girls, one, Delphina, died aged 16, Hettie is still living, a teacher in the public schools of Richmond, Indiana. 4. James Nixon Elliott it the next in line. 5. Mary Jane is the wife of J. W. Griffin, a farmer of Spiceland, Indiana. She was first married to Alfred Hall.

J. Nixon Elliott, was born at Deep River, Guilford county, North Carolina, October 28, 1837. When he was eleven years old the family moved to Henry county, Indiana, and there he grew up and received a practical training on a farm, and also some early educational advantages in the pioneer schools. At the close of the war he went south to Macon, Mississippi, and for one year was engaged in teaching the children of the Freedmen. In 1864 his brother David had moved to Grant county, and on J. Nixon Elliott's return from Mississippi he located in Fairmount. He bought a drug store at that place and continued actively in the drug business for fourteen years. Afterwards he changed his line for dry goods and was an active merchant for a number of years. For a long time he has been retired, and now lives in his fine home at 127 E. Washington street in Fairmount.

In 1872 in Fairmount township, Mr. Elliott married Ruth Winslow, who was born in Fairmount township, July 1, 1839. Her home was always in Grant county, and she represented old pioneer stock. Her parents were Seth and Mary (Hill) Winslow, both natives of Randolph county, North Carolina, her father born August 23, 1807, and her mother March 2, 1802. They were married in Wayne county, Indiana. Seth Winslow's father was Joseph Winslow, who married Paulina Pritchard, and came north to Indiana in 1830, entering government land in section twenty-three of Fairmount township. On part of that land is now located the Back Creek Quaker cemetery. There Joseph Winslow and wife spent the remainder of their years. Mary (Hill) Winslow was the daughter of Jesse and Mary Hill, who were pioneer settlers of Grant county, entering land in Fairmount township, and living there until their death at a good old age. The Hill family came to Grant county about 1830, and like the Winslows were prominent early members of the Quaker church. All the various members of these early families are buried in Back Creek cemetery. Seth Winslow was married in Wayne county, and then moved to Fairmount township, entering one hundred and sixty acres of government land. It was on that pioneer farm that he and his wife reared their family, and lived and died. Twelve acres of the old Winslow farm is now the present beautiful Park cemetery of Fairmount. Seth Winslow died at the age of eighty-one years and his wife was seventy-seven at the time of her death. In their family were the following children: Sarah, Elizabeth, Caroline, Jesse, and Ruth, who became Mrs. Elliott. She fell heir to most of her father's large estate and the value of the property has been donated to Earlham College at Richmond, the property to pass to that institution when Mr. and Mrs. Elliott die. Mr. Elliott is an active member of the local Quaker church, as was also his wife and in which he has been a member for many years. In church and civic affairs he has always borne his full share of responsibilities. He has given service as township trustee, and in politics has been active in the Prohibition cause. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Elliott was born one child, Metella, who lived less than one year and was buried on her first anniversary. Mr. J. Nixon Elliott died August 19, 1913, and is buried in Park cemetery, Fairmount.

Deb Murray