Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

DR. NEWTON W. HIATT. Since 1889 Dr. Newton W. Hiatt has carried on the practice of dentistry in Marion, Indiana. His progress in his chosen profession has been of steady growth and he is known to be one of the most capable dentists in the county, where he has lived all his life, and is well known accordingly. Dr. Hiatt was born in Grant county, on November 25, 1865, and he is the son of Alfred and Amanda (Thomas) Hiatt, both of whom died when he was a small child. Dr. Hiatt knows practically nothing of the ancestry of early life of his parents, and beyond the fact that the father was a farmer near Roseburg, Grant county, where he spent his last days, and that he was at one time a wagon manufacturer in Marion and a Quaker in his religion, Dr. Hiatt is unable to furnish any details concerning his parents. He was one of their seven children, three of whom are now living.

Dr. Hiatt was educated in the public schools of Grant county and in the old school at College Corner and the Mississinewa School. When he had finished his schooling he went to work in a grocery store and for something like seven or eight years the young man carried on his work in that line. It was not until 1885 that he began to study dentistry in the office of Dr. Kinely in Marion, and he spent three years with that gentleman, after which he entered the Kansas City Dental College for the purpose of finishing his dental studies, and in 1889 he was graduated from that institution. Dr. Hiatt began the practice of his profession in Marion in April, 1889, and has since that time maintained an office in the Glass building. He has gained prominence and distinctive favor with the public as a dentist of no slight ability, and is one of the leading men of his profession in this district.

In 1892 Dr. Hiatt was married to Miss Sadie Norcross, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and they have one son, Willard Hiatt.

Dr. Hiatt is prominent in fraternity affairs in Marion and is a Mason of the thirty-second degree, and Shriner as well as having membership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Tribe of Ben Hur. He was one of the founders of the Golf and Country Clubs of Marion, and is an enthusiastic and appreciative member of each of them. He is a man who is well versed in matters of interest pertaining to Marion and Grant county, and articles of his contribution with relation to the early history of Grant county are to be found in the historical section of this work. Dr. Hiatt and his family are prominent socially in Marion, and their home is known as center of kindly hospitality by their many friends in the community.

"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

HARLEY F. HARDIN. In emphasizing the consistency of this publication it is deemed most fortunate that it is possible to accord within its pages specific recognition to a large and thoroughly representative percentage of those sterling and honored citizens who are aiding definitely in upholding the high standard of the bench and bar of Grant county, and to such consideration Mr. Hardin is fully entitled, as he is one of the able and successful practitioners of law in the city of Marion, the county seat, with a clientage whose prominence and importance affords voucher alike for his technical ability and the confidence reposed in him by the community. He subordinates all else to the demands of his profession and considers it well worthy of his closest application and unqualified fealty. He is a resourceful advocate and excellent counselor, true to the ethical code of his exacting and responsible calling in which he does all in his power to conserve equity and justice. His success has been largely due to his careful preparation of all cases presented by him before court or jury, and he has been a member of the bar of Grant county since 1901.

Mr. Hardin was born near Livonia, Washington county, Indiana, on the 29th of June, 1876, and is a son of Isaac A. and Susan F. (Thomerson) Hardin, both representative of honored pioneer families of the southern part of this state. The lineage of him whose name introduces this article is traced back to Elisha Hardin, who was a native of South Carolina, from which commonwealth he immigrated in an early day to Tennessee. His son John came from Tennessee to Indiana in 1816, the year which marked the admission of the state to the Union, and he became one of the first permanent settlers of Washington county. He was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, on the 12th of June, 1799, and thus was a youth of about seventeen years when he established his home in the wilds of Indiana. He contributed in generous measure to the initial development of Washington county and the family name has been most prominently and worthily identified with the history of that favored section of the Hoosier state. John Hardin was the great-grandfather of the representative lawyer to whom this sketch is dedicated and was a grandson of the founder of the Hardin family in America, the first representative of the line having immigrated from Scotland and established a home in North Carolina in the colonial epoch of our national history. The paternal grandparents of Harley F. Hardin were Andrew Jackson Hardin and Mary A. (Jones) Hardin, both of whom passed their entire lives in Indiana. John Hardin, the founder of the Indiana branch of this staunch old colonial family, was one of the most honored and influential citizens of Washington county in the early days. For many years he served as clerk of all public sales in the county, and he drafted the greater portion of the deeds and mortgages of the people of that county during the pioneer days. He was a man of superior education, as gauged by the standards of his time, and he did much to make educational provisions for the children of the pioneer community. Three of his sons were valiant soldiers of the Union in the Civil war and one of the number met his death in an engagement in Kentucky. Another was Captain John J. Hardin, who was an officer in an Indiana regiment and who is still living, his home being at Salem, Washington county.

On the maternal side the great-grandmother of the subject of this sketch bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Ash, and she was of sturdy Holland Dutch lineage. Mrs. Susan F. (Thomerson) Hardin still maintains her home in Washington county and is held in affectionate regard by all who have come within the sphere of her gentle and kindly influence, her devoted husband having been summoned to the life eternal in 1896, at the age of forty-four years, and having devoted virtually his entire career to agricultural pursuits, in his native county. Mrs. Susan F. Hardin is a daughter of Isaac and Caroline (Patton) Thomerson, the former of whom still resides in Washington county, having passed the age of four score years, and the latter of whom died a number of years ago, she having been a representative of an old Virginia family. William Thomerson, grandfather of Isaac Thomerson, was a native of Ireland.

Of the four children of Isaac A. and Susan F. (Thomerson) Hardin the eldest is Harley F., of this review; Eva L. is the wife of Emerson H. Hall, a representative farmer of Washington county; Edgar K. is in employ of the firm of Graves & Company; general hardware, Salem, Ind; and Heber C. is a prosperous merchant in the village of Campbellsburg, Washington county, these four children being scions of the fourth generation of the family in Indiana.

Harley F. Hardin gained his early experience in connection with the sturdy discipline of the home farm and in the meanwhile made good use of the advantages afforded him in the public schools of his native county. After the completion of his studies in the high school he entered, in January, 1898, the University of Indiana, at Bloomington, where he completed a partial course in the academic or literary department, after which he entered the law department, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1901, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He likewise gained concomitant admission to the bar of his native state, in Grant county, and the same year witnessed his admission to practice in the supreme court of the state and in the United States district court, before each of which tribunals he has presented various cases.

Mr. Hardin initiated the practice of his profession at Matthews, Grant county, on the 1st of August, 1901, and about two years later he came to Grant county and established himself at Fairmount, in which village he continued his professional labors until May, 1908, when he removed to Marion, the county seat, in which city he has since continued in active general practice, with a law business of substantial and essentially representative order.

Deeply appreciative of the attractions and advantages of the thriving city in which he maintains his home, Mr. Hardin is liberal and progressive in his civic attitude, and in politics he is found as a staunch and vigorous advocate of the principles of the Republican party.

He is affiliated with the local organizations of the Masonic fraternity, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knight of Pythias and Benevolent Crew of Neptune, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the First Christian church of Marion, in the social circles of which city they are distinctively popular.

On the 15th of September, 1901, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hardin to Miss Mary E. Burgess, who like himself was born and reared in Washington county and who is a daughter of Henry Burgess, a well known and highly esteemed citizen of that county. Mr. and Mrs. Hardin have four children,�Belva L., Esther M., Forrest F., and Frances E.

WILLIAM C. McKINNEY comes of a family that pioneered it in Grant county as long ago as in 1836, and since that time the family has been prominent in the county in many lines of enterprise. Men of their name have done worthy work in the development and upbuilding of this section of the country and the name is one that is eminently worthy of perpetuation in a work of the character and purpose of this publication. The subject, as assessor of Center township and engaged in the real estate business as well, is perhaps one of the best know men in the community today, and with his family, he is accorded the genuine esteem of the best citizenship of the town.

Born in Monroe township, Grant county, Indiana, on March 12, 1854, William McKinney is the son of Elias W. and Ottilia R. (Barley) McKinney, the father born in Miami county, near Piqua, Ohio, in 1825, and the mother born in Pennsylvania about 1830. The grandparents of the subject were Dr. William McKinney and his good wife, Sarah (Scott) McKinney. The former was born in Virginia in 1784, and his wife was doubtless a daughter of the state of Kentucky, where she married her husband. Dr. McKinney came to Grant county in 1836 from Ohio, and he may well be said to be one of the genuine pioneers of the state. He early settled in Monroe township, and there lived until his death in 1860, busy in the practice of his profession in this and adjoining counties. He and his wife were the parents of six children who lived to years of maturity, all of whom are now deceased. One of them was Elias W. McKinney, the father of William C. He was a farmer all his life. He removed from Monroe township to Pleasant township in 1865, and in 1870 made another move, this time settling in Washington township where he remained until 1896, when he retired from his farming activities and moved to Marion. There he passed his remaining day, death claiming him there in 1906.

Elias McKinney was thrice married. His first wife, the mother of William C., died when he was a year old, about 1855. He was one of the five children of his parents, two of the number dying in infancy, and the other two who reached mature years, but who are now deceased, being Mrs. Maria J. Dunn, who died in December, 1885, and Mrs. Editha O. Hicks, who died in 1892. The father later married Abigail J. Chidester, a native daughter of Grant county, and five children blessed this marriage as well,�two of the number being alive at this writing, namely, Mary E. Blue, of Marion, and Susan Belle Grendelle, of Denver, Colorado. The second wife died in 1877 and Mr. McKinney married a third time in 1881, Martha Frazee of Grant county becoming his wife. There were no issue of this marriage.

William C. McKinney was reared on the home farm of his father and received his education in the public schools of his native community. He lived at home on the farm until his marriage in 1879, when he withdrew from the immediate family circle, and settled with his young wife on a portion of the old home place, setting up an independent household. He continued thus until 1891, when he moved into Marion, and this city has since represented him home and the scene of his principal activities. For some two years he carried on a thriving business in contracting, prior to which time he was occupied as deputy city marshal for four years, and in 1908 he was elected assessor of Center township on the Republican ticket, the term of which office was lately extended by the state legislature from four to six years, so that he is still discharging the duties of his office. In connection with that Mr. McKinney carries on a real estate business of a more or less extensive nature, and he is on the whole one of the best known business men of the community.

He is a man who is prominent in a number of fraternal and social orders, among which are the Junior Order of United Mechanics, of which he has been secretary for the past seventeen years; he is past counselor of the Daughters of America of which he is a trustee; and he has a membership in the Tribe of Ben Hur, in which he is past chief and trustee. He is a member of the Congregational church, and his politics are those of a stanch, and active Republican.

Mr. McKinney was married on September 11, 1879, to Miss Jennie E. Blue, a daughter of Isaiah Blue, long a resident of Washington township. Four children have been born to them,�of which number three are living. They are Dora O., Mary A. and Alice McKinney, and all are members of the immediate family circle as yet. The fourth born child died in infancy.

Mr. and Mrs. McKinney and their daughters share alike in the general esteem and friendship of a goodly circle of Marion's best people, and they are active in social and other circles in and about the city.

MILTON MARSHALL. Now living retired in Upland, at a comfortable home on Irwin Street, which he bought in 1909 and after moving from his farm in section thirty-five of Monroe township, Mr. Marshall has spent sixty-nine birthdays in Grant county, and is at this writing within a few months of threescore and ten years. His descendants and fellow countrymen will honor him for his service to the Union as a soldier, in the dark days of the Civil war, and since his return from the south he has been identified in a successful manner with the agricultural and stock raising activities of Grant county, until he recently gave over the strenuous endeavors of earlier years, and is now enjoying a well earned prosperity.

Milton Marshall was born on his father's homestead in Grant county, May 16, 1844. He is a son of Robert and Jane Fanning Marshall. Robert Marshall was born on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania, March 11, 1806, and died in 1905, at Carlisle in Warren county, Iowa, at the home of a son. While living in Pennsylvania, on September 26, 1826, he married for his first wife, Eliza Brannon. Early in the thirties he came to Grant county, and his name may be found in the list of those who secured land direct from the government. He was an industrious and hardy pioneer, and the results of his labors might still be seen in fields from which his axe cleared off the timber and underbrush.

His first wife, who was born in Pennsylvania, February 29, 1808, died in Grant county in the prime of life. On November 9, 1837, Robert Marshall married in Monroe township, Rachael Bird, who was born either in Ohio or Pennsylvania, on June 20, 1814. She died August 22, 1839, leaving one son, James, who is married and lives in Oklahoma. Robert Marshall by his first marriage had the following children: Appleton, deceased; Clarissa, deceased; and Adeline, the widow of Riley Nunn, living in Iowa. On May 17, 1840, Robert Marshall married Jane Fanning, who was born in Clinton county, Ohio, and died in Monroe township, December 4, 1900. She became the mother of nine children, and seven are still living and all are married and have homes of their own, except one.

Milton Marshall grew up on the old homestead in Monroe township, had about the same education as was granted to most boys in that community and in that time, and was but a little over seventeen years of age when the great war between the states was begun after Fort Sumter was fired upon. On September 5, 1861, he enlisted in Company F of the Thirty-fourth Indiana Regiment, under the command of Colonel Steele and Captain R. B. Jones and had an unusually long period of military service, continuing until his honorable discharge at Brownsville, Texas, on February 3, 1866. He was almost constantly on duty, whether in camp or on the march, participated in many of the campaigns in the Mississippi Valley and in the far south, and among the major engagements in which he fought were those at New Madrid, Missouri, at Magnolia Courthouse, at Champion Hill and in various battles about Vicksburg. He escaped without wounds, and the only time he was in the hospital was brought about by an attack of the measles. About six years after his return from the south, Mr. Marshall entered upon his independent career of farming by the purchase of forty acres of land in Monroe township. While he never became one of the very large land holders of Grant county, Mr. Marshall made a record of undeniable success, and conducted his various operations in such a way as to bring him steadily forward in prosperity. The original forty acres was increased until he owned sixty-four acres, and developed practically every acre and made it productive according to the highest standards of Grant county agriculture. His land was improved with a substantial barn, and with an excellent six-room dwelling.

In Monroe township in 1867, occurred the marriage of Milton Marshall and Mary J. Needham. Her birth occurred in Jefferson county, Indiana, January 2, 1841. Her parents were Lorenzo Dow and Mahala (Lishleiter) Needham, both of whom were born in Indiana, in 1800, were married in Jefferson county, and lived on a farm there the rest of their lives. Her father died in October 1841, only a few months after the birth of Mrs. Marshall. The mother died in 1851, only a few months after the birth of Mrs. Marshall. The mother died in 1851, so that Mrs. Marshall from the age of ten never knew the dare and protection of parents. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall are the parents of seven children, namely: John, who lives in Upland, is married, but has no children; Elizabeth is the wife of Alonzo Keen, of Monroe township, and has two children, Donna and Blanch; Melissa is the wife of Ephraim Randolph, of Bakersfield, California; Minnie, now the wife of Samuel Seavers of Jefferson township, by her first marriage has one daughter May Thomason, and has two children by her present husband, Helen and Garland; Emma is the wife of Noah B. Pearson of Upland, and their children are Opal and Ruth; Ida is the wife of Charles Hults, a farmer of Monroe township, and they have two children, Letha and Berl; Lona is the wife of Perry Seavers, who is now superintending the Marshall farm in Monroe township, and they have one son, Melvin. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall are both members of the Quaker church and in politics he is a Republican.

S. L. STRICLER. A membership of twenty years in the Grant county bar, accompanied by successful practice and prominent in public affairs, has constituted Mr. Stricler one of the leaders among the present lawyers of Grant county. Mr. Stricler has well won all that fortune and successful positions have given him, since he began his career a poor man and used the resources of his individuality for every advancement to larger responsibility and success.

Samuel Stricler was a native of Grant county, where he was born February 26, 1863, a son of Jeremiah and Mary A. (Tanquary) Stricler. The father was a native of Maryland and a farmer by occupation who settled in Grant county in 1847 and lived there sixty-five years until his death October 15, 1912. The mother passed away November 8, 1897. They were the parents of six children, four of whom are now living, namely: Mrs. Jennie Tucker, of Converse, Miami county; John W., of Oklahoma; and James Stricler, of Grant county.

Mr. S. L. Stricler was reared on a farm in this county and began his education by attending the district schools of his neighborhood. He had finally advanced to a point where he was given a teacher's certification and with that obtained a school and was to a large extent identified with teaching for seven years. During the summer for five years he was engaged in farming and for the other two years worked in a general store at Somerset, Indiana. With the resources acquired by this work he finally entered the law department of the University of Michigan, and was graduated in June 1893. He then opened his office at Converse in Miami county, and four years later moved to Marion. Mr. Stricler was for five years county attorney of this county and for the past four years has been a member of the local board of education, being treasurer of the board at the present time. In 1902 he was elected a member of the state senate for four years, and during his terms as senator was author of a bill to re-codify the state statutes. Mr. Stricler is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge and the Knights of Pythias and Elks and in politics is a Republican, being one of the influential men of his party in Grant county.

On August 8, 1889, Mr. Stricler married Miss Ina Comer, a daughter of L. H. and Eliza Comer of Grant county. The two children born of their marriage are Dahl, now twenty-two years of age, and engaged as a shipping clerk in the glass factory at Marion; and Mildred C., age fourteen.

ORA E. BUTZ. With the exception of a comparatively brief time, when he was employed in a stenographic capacity just after emerging from the Indiana Business College at Logansport, Ora E. Butz has been engaged in teaching the business branches in Marion, and has for some time past been manager of the Marion Business College. He has proven his ability as an instructor and excellent success has attended his efforts from the start, and as one of the enterprising and ambitious young men of the city and one whose efforts have gained him a prominent place in the city, he is properly accorded some special mention in this historical work.

Born in Cass county, on the home farm of his parents on March 25, 1883, Ora E. Butz is the son of Charles H. and Jennie (Snider) Butz, natives of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Cass county, respectively. The father made his home in Allentown until 1873, when he came to Indiana. He was identified with the manufacturing business, fairly successful in his way, but the panic of 1873 finished his prosperity and caused him to move from his old home to Indiana. Coming to Cass county, he identified himself with farming, and it was there that he met and married his wife. They still live on their Cass county farm, and are enjoying their well earned rest. They became the parents of seven children, five of whom are yet living. One of the number was Ora E., the subject of his review.

Mr. Butz attended the schools of Cass county in the vicinity of his home community, and on finishing the public schools, entered the Indiana Business College at Logansport, where he took up a thorough course of business study. His first work upon leaving school was in the office of the superintendent of the Michigan Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Logansport, and he was employed in a stenographic capacity. Four months of service there was followed by a period of nine months in a Logansport hardware store, after which he was asked to return to the school he had previously quitted and take up the duties of a teacher of shorthand. He taught stenography and bookkeeping in the Kokomo Business College for a year, and in 1907 was given the management of Marion Business College, in addition to the managership of the Kokomo school. In 1910, so well had he succeeded in the duties of manager, that the proprietor of the chain of schools appointed him to the post of manager of the Logansport Business College as well, which position he is now holding. His success in the field of business education is one of which he might well be proud, and he has done much to bring these schools up to a high standard of commercial excellence, resulting in a corresponding increase in attendance and popularity of the schools.

On December 26, 1906, Mr. Butz was married to Miss Edith M. Fouts, daughter of Jasper and Alice Ann Fouts, both of Cass county, and occupants of the farm adjoining that on which Mr. Butz was reared. He and his wife were childhood play fellows and school mates, and their union came after a lifelong acquaintance. Three children have been born to them,�Dortha Vernon, Tom Ellis and Catherine Alice.

Mr. Butz is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and with his wife has membership in the Church of the United Brethren in Marion. He is a clean-cut, fine-spirited and wholesome young man who bears the confidence and esteem of all who share in his acquaintance, and his citizenship is of an order such as to place him among the Marion men who must be reckoned with when matters of import to the best interest of the city are up for discussion.

Deb Murray