BARCLAY JOHNSON. There are three generations of the Johnson family whose residence connect them with the state of Indiana of the noted Rich Square Quaker community, they originated in Virginia, and have lived in Indiana almost as long as Indiana has been a state. Barclay Johnson, living retired at Fairmount, first established a home in Grant county forty years ago. As farmers, teachers, and loyal adherents of their church, the Johnson folk have lived wholesome, normal lives, of moderate prosperity, of contented lots, and of high usefulness as units in the community.

The grandfather of Barclay Johnson was Laban N. Johnson, born in Isle of Wight county, Virginia, where he lived and died. A hatter by trade, he also owned a grist mill, and his enterprise was a valuable factor in the community. His death occurred in middle life, and he left a widow and six children. Her maiden name was Sarah Cook, who was born in the same part of Virginia. The families on both sides had long been plantation owners and slave holders, but all their slaves were free previous to 1800. In 1817 Mrs. Sarah Johnson, with her four sons and one daughter, left the community of Rich Square—one of the early Quaker churches of Virginia—and in company with several other families made the journey with wagon and team to Henry county, Indiana. It was a trip lasting for some seven or eight weeks, and these immigrants became prominent in the then wilderness of Indiana. The heads of the different families composing of the company of immigrants were Samuel B. Binford, Elwood Stanley, Elisha Johnson, a kinsman of Sarah Johnson, James Butler, who became the head of the new Quaker church, known also as Rich Square, in Franklin township, Henry county. That Henry county church was one of the first in that vicinity and the building was constructed of logs. The home of Mrs. Sarah Johnson was very near the church building, and she was one of its first members. She was in many ways a remarkable pioneer woman, and many traditions survive among her descendants as to her character and activity. She brought along with her from Virginia, an old Dutch oven and a kettle for her cooking. The different members of the little colony entered from eighty to one hundred and sixty acres of government land for each family, and they all hewed their homes out of the green woods. The influence of that original settlement has remained to this day in Franklin township of Henry county, and the essential institution is the fine Quaker church, the third building since the founding of the colony, and one that is commodious, comfortable, and of the best type of modern architecture. The Rich Square Quakers were also noteworthy for their efforts in promoting and maintaining educational facilities of a high order, and the little colony in Henry county was the first to establish a high school in that country. Some of the descendants of that colony later moved on to southern Iowa, and there started a third church, also known as the Rich Square church. All of these Rich Square churches, located in different sections of the south and middle west, have been prosperous, and in the vicinity of each one and directly supported by the church people will be found institutions of higher education, either public schools or academies. Mrs. Sarah Johnson, with the aid of her children, improved her eighty acres of land in Henry county, and some years later moved to Clinton county, in this state, where she entered one hundred and sixty acres on the Indian Reserve. There she again took up the pioneer task of making a home, and there she lived until her death, when probably more than eighty years of age. Both she and her husband were birthright Quakers. The following were the children of Laban and Sarah Johnson: 1. Eliza C., later in life married James Butler, who was the head of the Henry County church, and who had been previously married. The husband died in Howard county, and Eliza married Allen Middleton. She died at Barclay Johnson's home in Grant county, Indiana. 2. Joel was the father of Barclay Johnson, and is mentioned in a following paragraph. 3. Rev. Robert Johnson was for more than twenty-five years, pastor of the Tipton County Reserved Friend Meetings, and died there, leaving a large family of children. He also owned one hundred and sixty acres of land. 4. Elijah T. died when past seventy years of age, a bachelor. He was for a number of years a merchant at Russiaville, Indiana. During his younger years he lost his sweetheart by death, and after that led a more or less nomadic existence, working as an Indian trader in northern Michigan for a long time, and also in the far west. 5. Ansalem became the owner of his mother's old Henry county farm, and there lived and died when well up in years. He left two sons and a daughter, who still own the old homestead.

Joel Johnson was born in Virginia, in 1804, and was about thirteen years of age when the family migrated to Henry county, Indiana. Some years later he married Elizabeth Davis, who was born in Henry county in 1810, and grew up there. After their marriage, Joel and wife engaged in farming on land they had secured in its raw condition, and there continued to live many years. They owned one hundred and twenty acres of well improved and valuable farm lands, with good buildings and both comfortable and profitable surroundings. The father died there in 1872, and the old estate still remains in the family possession. His widow died December 2, 1878. She was a daughter of Nathan Davis, at one time a very prominent citizen of Spiceland township in Henry county. Joel Johnson was a trustee of his Quaker church, and for some years a trustee of White's Institute in Wabash county, Indiana. The children of Joel and Elizabeth Johnson are mentioned as follows: Lydia A. Johnson, the first born child, went to Earlham College one year, than taught two years. She later married Benjamin H. Binford, of Hancock county, Indiana, a very successful man financially, but who was killed by a fast train while on his way home form a director's meeting of the Morristown, Indiana, bank, of which he was a director. His widow still resides on the large Hancock county, Indiana, farm. Sarah died at the age of sixteen. Barclay Johnson is next in order. Martia died at the age of twelve years. John lives on and owns his father's old Henry county homestead, is a widower and has one son, Myrton L., who is married and has two children. Mary died at the age of eleven years. Elijah is living on a farm in Henry county, is married and has six living children. Alice is the wife of Samuel C. Cogill, the most prominent tile manufacturer of Indiana, and also noted for his sugar plantation holdings in Texas. Her first husband was T. J. Nixon, by whom she had one daughter, Inez. Emily married Gurney Lindley, and left two children.

Mr. Barclay Johnson was born in Henry county, Indiana, on his father's farm, September 12, 1843. He was educated at the Rich Square Seminary, and when seventeen years of age, qualified and began a long career as a teacher. He spent about fifteen years in educational work, and made a success of that as he has of practically everything else to which he has put his hand. In 1874, he moved to Grant county, seven years after his marriage and first lived on a farm in Franklin township, and then bought one hundred and twenty acres, which continued to be his home until 1885. He then moved to Fairmount township, where he became the owner of one hundred and eighty acres of fine land, with excellent improvements in buildings and other facilities, which improvements he and his wife made. He conducted that place very successfully until 1899, and in that year gave up farming in order to accept a commission to become president of Southland College, in Arkansas, an institution maintained for the education of colored people. In 1903 he returned to his farm in Grant county, and in 1906 went west to Palo Alto, California, where his children were then in school. Since 1908 he has lived retired in Fairmount, his home being at 410 N. Vine Street.

In Franklin township of Henry county, in 1871, Mr. Johnson married Miss Sylvia A. Lindley. She was born in Howard county, Indiana, April 10, 1854, a daughter of Osmond and Achsa (Wilson) Lindley, both natives of Randolph county, North Carolina, and of Quaker stock. Both her father and mother had come when young with their respective families to Indiana, and they first became acquainted while attending Earlham College in Richmond, that acquaintance ripening into love and matrimony. They were married in the Quaker church. The widow of Osmond Lindley is still living, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Wood, in Fairmount, being seventy-seven years of age, of a strong mind, though feeble in body, and zealous in church membership. No one in the vicinity has a clearer mind and is better informed over a long course of years through which she ha observed and participated in life. She is the mother of E. C. Lindley, solicitor for the Great Northern Railway Company. Of her twelve children the majority have been prominent in business and the professions.

To Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have been born ten children. Three of these died young, mentioned as follows: Ernest V., who was educated at Fairmount Academy, and was a teacher. He died at the age of twenty-six years. He had previously married Bertha Coggshall, and left two children, Zora and Yavon. The other two deceased children of Mr. and Mrs. Barclay Johnson are Earl, who died as an infant, and Myra, who died at the age of four years. The living children are mentioned as follows: 1. Elizabeth, who was educated at the Fairmount Academy, is the wife of Walter W. Rush, a farmer in Fairmount township; they have three children, Loreta Olive, Isadore Alice and Dorothy Elizabeth. 2. Clayton B., a graduate of the Fairmount Academy, and also trained in a business school, is now bookkeeper with the Fairmount Glass Company of Indianapolis. He married Emma Rau and their children are Lucile, Walter L. and Ruth A. 3. M. Alice was educated in the Fairmount Academy, University of Illinois at Champaign, and is the wife of Charles Weeks, the noted poultryman of Palo Alto, California. They are the parents of one son, Thomas Barclay Weeks. 4. Annette J. graduated from the Fairmount Academy and Earlham College, where she won the scholarship to Bryn Mawr College and spent one year at Bryn Mawr; she is the wife of Dr. Calvin C. Rush, of Portage, Pennsylvania, and has one daughter, Sylvia Louise, and one son, Norman J. 5. Alfred lives in California, is in the produce, feed and nursery business. He married Edna M. Winslow, who died July 3, 1913, and left two children, Helen Jean and Joe Webster. 6. Professor William Johnson was for three years prior to fall of 1913, professor of science at the Pacific College at Newburg, Oregon. He is now attending the University of California to gain his Master's degree. He graduated from the Fairmount Academy, and Earlham College and married Ethel Henderson, they being without children. 7. Geneva graduated from the Academy and is in the junior year at Earlham College, being also well trained in music. Earnest V. and Elizabeth Johnson, two oldest children of Mr. and Mrs. Barclay Johnson, started to school the same day, graduated from Fairmount Academy the same day, and both began to teach in Grant county schools the same day. Both taught school three years and both were married about the same time, Ernest being married the evening before the day on which his sister Elizabeth was married. Clayton, Alice, Annette and William were all teachers. The Johnson family are all closely identified with the activities of the Friends church, and Mrs. Johnson is an elder in her meeting.

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

HERBERT MARION ELLIOTT. "The Children's Friend" would be a title which would more nearly signify the relations of Mr. Elliott to the community of his home children than any other which might be discovered. Mr. Elliott professionally is a lawyer, has been identified with the bar for thirty years, twenty years of which have been spent in Marion. Though successful as a lawyer, his name and career will be longest appreciated and honored not so much for his prominence in the courts and business affairs as for his thoroughly disinterested and efficient service in the realm of practical philanthropy. The city of Marion is fortunate in the possession of such a man. The upbuilding of a wholesome city is not due to the industries alone, nor to the banks alone, nor to the varied mercantile enterprises, but to the composite activities which are always found associated in any large center of population. Among these varied human activities, certainly the work of the philanthropist must appear larger and more important with every passing decade, and it is with such work that Mr. Elliott's name should be prominently identified in the history of Grant county.

Herbert Marion Elliott was born at Holly, Michigan, September 15, 1853. His parents were Marcus Delos and Emily A. (Seely) Elliott, the father of native of New York and his mother also from the same state. The father, who was a farmer, served as a member of the Michigan legislature in 1877-78 from Oakland county. During the Civil war he had been captain of Company H, an artillery company of the Eighth Michigan Battery light artillery. After the war he continued as a farmer and in several minor offices of trust and responsibility in Michigan until his death which came to him September 5, 1905. The mother passed away in March, 1895. The Marion lawyer is the oldest of four children, the others being Addie E. Zellner, of Fenton, Michigan; George M., of Tacoma, Washington; and John D., of Minneapolis. After the death of his first wife the father married Louise Piatt, and their one child is Marian H. Elliott of Holly, Michigan. The parents also had a foster-daughter, Mrs. Cora Bell Howes, now of Los Angeles, California.

Mr. H. M. Elliott was reared on a farm and from an early age learned to depend upon his own efforts for his promotion in life. At Holly he attained a common school education and also attended the high school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His career began as a school teacher, a vocation which he followed for nine years. Subsequently he engaged in farming in Oakland county, and continued that in connection with his teaching until he was twenty-seven years of age, teaching during the winter season and carrying on farm operations during the summer. On leaving the farm he engaged in the drug business first at Holly, then at Davisburg and then at Detroit. He was in this line of business for about four years, until about 1882. During the years while he was teaching he took up the study of law at Pontiac, and also at Holly and at St. Johns, and was admitted to the bar on January 4, 1884, at St. Johns, Michigan. Immediately afterwards he began private practice at AnSable and Oscoda, Michigan. In 1890 he opened an office in Detroit, and conducted the law business at Oscoda and Detroit until April, 1893, at which time he moved his home to Marion, Indiana, which has since been his permanent home.

On September 4, 1878, Mr. Elliott married Miss Ella E. McLean of Clio, Michigan. Mrs. Elliott was born in Genesee county, Michigan. Their two children are Harry McLean, now of Los Angeles, and Merle Dee, at home. During his residence in Michigan, Mr. Elliott served as prosecuting attorney of Iosco county two terms, and was circuit court commissioner for two terms for the same county. For two terms at Oscoda he was secretary of the board of education.

Since coming to Marion Mr. Elliott's connections with public and benevolent enterprise have been almost too numerous to mention. He has for two and a half years been secretary of the Marion Federation of Charities; for four years was probation officer for Grant county; for six years was president of the board of children's guardians; and is now secretary of the Grant County Hospital Association. He helped organize the Marion Law Institute, a corporation which now owns the bar library valued at $5,000 and Mr. Elliott was its first librarian. He was for five years president of the Y. M. C. A. and was chairman of the building committee until after the plans for the present building had been adopted. He was also president of the building committee which financed and built the Presbyterian church at Marion, easily the finest church edifice in this city. For thirteen years Mr. Elliott was in partnership with his brother George Elliott in the law business at Marion, and during that time they organized and established the Marion Planning Mill Company, and the Marion Insurance Exchange. The latter has since gone into what is known as the Marion Title & Loan Company. The brothers also organized a number of other enterprises, which, during the past two decades have been important in the aggregate commercial activities of this city. Fraternally Mr. Elliott is affiliated with the Masonic Order, and is a member of the Presbyterian church, having been superintendent of the Sunday school for eight years and a member of the Session for twelve years. In politics he is a Progressive Republican, but in later years has taken no prominent part in political affairs. Child saving and home finding for waifs have constituted a large part of Mr. Elliott's benevolent work during recent years. He has without any ostentation and on his private initiative found homes for more than fifty children, and these benevolences have been performed without any supervision from any of the public charities. As a result of his efforts in this direction some of the children for whom he has provided comfortable homes will eventually inherit from five to twenty thousand dollars each from their foster parents. It is in no idle spirit nor from an abnormal trait of character that Mr. Elliott has engaged in his philanthropic work of child saving. He is a broad-minded man in every respect, is devoted to the cause of social amelioration in all its aspects and from a busy professional career has devoted all the time and means that he could spare for the practical work of child philanthropy. As secretary of Federation of Charities, he was the first man in Indiana to adopt the plan of using the vacant lots in a city for raising crops by and for the poor. Mr. Elliott is a recognized authority in his branch of philanthropy and has written a great deal concerning progressive charities and uplift work in general. One special article on the workings of jail prisoners for the benefit of their families was heavily indorsed at a recent session of the National Prison Reform Board.

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

CHARLES M. LEACH. Seventy years ago Grant county was still largely wilderness. The settlers during the forties found a few village communities, numerous clearings and tilled fields, and some roads, but still the burdens rested upon most newcomers of cutting down countless trees, uprooting the stumps and brush, and starting cultivation where never before had been the civilized activities of white men. That was the portion of the Leach family when it first became identified with this county, and as it members did their share of pioneer toil, so a later generation enjoyed the fruits of later and better days, and carried forward the same thrift and independence which have always characterized the name.

The Leaches are of Scotch Irish ancestry. Grandfather William Leach was born in Virginia in 1795, grew up in his native commonwealth, and when a young man moved to Ohio. He was married in Ohio to Sarah Harrison, of a good family, related to the family which produced the president of that name. Their marriage occurred about 1815. A short time before 1820 they moved west to Franklin county, Indiana, and were pioneers in that vicinity. Grandfather Leach secured a tract of government land, consisting of eighty acres, and went to work to improve it. During the thirties he left his wife and some of his children on the Franklin county farm, and with his son Edmund, father of Charles M. Leach, and a daughter Rachael, came to Grant county, and entered probably half a section or more of land in Fairmount township. His wife and other children joined him in a year or so, and the family thus reunited continued to prosper and to lend their labors to the development of Grant county. William Leach and his wife remained in this county until their death. The grandfather died in 1851, and his widow survived about fifteen years. She was past seventy years of age at the time of her death. Religiously they were of the old-school Baptist faith, while William Leach was a Democrat in politics. The children of this family were: 1. Rachael, married and had a family. 2. Easom, married, was a successful farmer, died in Grant county, and was the father of thirteen children who grew to maturity. 3. John was married twice, and after a successful career as a farmer left several children. 4. Edmund is mentioned in the following paragraphs. 5. Jane married a farmer and the reared a family of children. 6. Mary, better known as Polly, was married three times, and there were children by two of the husbands. 7. Martha married and died when her family of children were small. 8. Wesley died early in life. Excepting the last, all these children were each given eighty acres of land.

Edmund Leach was born in Franklin county, Indiana, in June, 1821. He was about grown when his father brought him to Fairmount township, and as he was a good axman, he assisted in clearing off the trees from a part of the old homestead. He assisted in clearing off the land where the village of Fowlertown now stands. All the country was then new, and in the forests were to be found great abundance of game, which afforded a source of meat supply. William Leach and his son Edmund were excellent riflemen, and proficient sportsmen, especially Edmund, who had a great local reputation in that direction. Edmund Leach married in Grant county Miss Emily Brewer. She was born in Indiana in 1825, a daughter of Stephen Brewer, one of the very early settlers in Fairmount township. Stephen Brewer reared a large family and was nearly one hundred years of age when he died. After his marriage Edmund Leach began making a home for himself on a farm in Grant county, living there until 1864. He then moved to Sullivan county, Indiana, where he bought large tracts of land, and lived there until his death, July 12, 1901. His first wife died in Sullivan county in 1866 soon after they moved there while in middle life, and was the mother of twelve children. For his second wife Edmund Leach married Mrs. Sarah (Bailey) Martin. She had eight children, so that Edmund Leach was the father of twenty children in all. The second wife lives now in the state of Nebraska. Both were members of the Primitive Baptist Church, while Edmund was a Democratic voter.

Charles M. Leach, long one of the successful farmers of southern Grant county, and now living retired at Fairmount, was born in this county in Fairmount township, December 6, 1846. He grew up a farm boy, got a country school education, and when still little more than a boy moved to Sullivan county. In 1872, before his marriage he returned to one of his father's farms in Grant county. Through his own energy and thrifty management he has become one of the most successful men in this section. He owns in one body two hundred and twenty-nine acres of land in sections three and thirty-four, and also owns thirty-one acres in section thirty-four almost adjoining the other farm. All his land is thoroughly cultivated and excellently improved with a large and comfortable house, good barns, silo, and the stock is of the highest grade. Mr. Leach is still interested in the stock business, but the farm is conducted by his son. He also owns one hundred and fifty-one acres of land in Madison county, some real estate, including a good home, in Fairmount, consisting of twenty-three acres, a part of which lies within the cooperation limits.

In Fairmount township Mr. Leach married Malissa J. Caskey, who was born in Rush county, Indiana, October 18, 1848. She was reared in her native county, was educated in the common schools, and was a daughter of David and Eliza (Hite) Caskey. Her father was a native of Virginia, while her mother was born in Rush county, where they were married. The Caskeys were substantial farming people, and in 1871 moved from Rush county to Grant county, later went out to Kansas in 1879, and lived in Reno county until their death. Her father was eighty-four years of age at the time of his death, and was born in June, 1821. Her mother passed away in 1900 at the age of seventy-five. The Caskey family belonged to the Christian church, and Mr. Caskey was a Democrat. Of their six children three are yet living, and all are married and have children of their own.

Mr. and Mrs. Leach are the parents of the following children: 1. E. Claud, was born June 16, 1873, lives on a farm in Delaware county, Indiana, and by his marriage to Elsie Dickinson has one child, Cleo. 2. Della died at the age of three years. 3. William O. is a farmer on the old homestead in Fairmount township, and by his marriage to Nellie Jones has Adelbert, Kenneth, Robert and Hazel. 4. Addie is unmarried, lives at home with her parents and is a bright young woman, a graduate of the Fairmount Academy. 5. Minnie died at the age of one year. 6. Bertha is the wife of Oscar Robert, thrifty farming people in Fairmount township, and their children are Pauline, Harry and Ruby. 7. Ivy is the wife of Leo Underwood, a farmer in Fairmount township, and their child is named Charlie. Mr. and Mrs. Leach are members of the Primitive Baptist Church, and he is affiliated with the Democratic party.

He also owns in Delaware county, Indiana, 215 acres of farm land, all improved. His oldest son lives on one hundred and five acres of that land. In all he owns six hundred and forty-nine acres. All his prosperity has been worthily won, and as an intelligent public-spirited citizen he has long filled a useful place in his community.

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

Deb Murray