Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

FREDERICK WILHELM. Prominent among the agriculturists of Grant county stands Frederick Wilhelm, a sterling citizen of Jefferson township, who is deserving of a tribute to his worth. At all times a most true and loyal citizen, faithful to the best interests of his country whether in peace or in war, he is honored and highly respected by all who have his acquaintance. More than sixty-five years have passed since he located here, and he has always had deeply at heart the well-being and improvement of his adopted state, and has used his influence wherever possible for the promotion of industries and institutions calculated to be of lasting benefit to this section. Mr. Wilhelm was born at Westminster, Carroll county, Maryland, March 6, 1844, a son of Frederick and Margaret (Duncus) Wilhelm, and a member of an old Prussian family which is reviewed elsewhere in this work, in the sketch of John Wilhelm.

The father of Mr. Wilhelm was born in Prussia, December 5, 1812, and there his parents spent their lives. He grew up in his native place, received ordinary educational advantages, for some time followed the vocation of farmer, and finally learned the trade of stone mason. As such he went to Bremen and Havre, Germany, and at the latter place was married to Margaret Duncus, who was born in Bremen, September 5, 1813. She was of pure German ancestry and was a lady of many attainments and excellent education. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm went to Russia for a short time, but soon returned to Bremen from whence they took passage on a sailing vessel "Elizabeth" for the United States, a journey that consumed sixteen weeks. During this trip their oldest child, a daughter, was born and was named after the ship on which they were traveling. After landing at Baltimore, Maryland, the father secured employment with a Maryland planter, and for some years worked not far from the capital, but in 1847 turned is face toward the West and brought his family, including his three years-old son Frederick, down the river to Wheeling, West Virginia, thence to Cincinnati, Ohio, and from there, in a one-horse wagon to Indianapolis, Indiana. Subsequently the family moved to Delaware county, and during the next year Mr. Wilhelm purchased forty acres of land on school section No. 16, in Jefferson township, Grant county. Establishing their home in a little log cabin, these brave and sturdy pioneers started a good house and substantial outbuildings and increased their possessions until they had between 300 and 400 acres. There the father died October 1, 1868. The mother, who survived him for a long period, came to Upland, Indiana, in her later years, and here passed away November 5, 1905, being a little past the advanced age of ninety-two years. Before coming to the United States Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm were members of the Lutheran church, but here early joined the Shiloh Methodist Episcopal church, and throughout the remainder of their lives continued to support its movements liberally. Mr. Wilhelm was a Republican in his political views, was a stanch Union man, and lived to see the cause he considered just triumph. Of the children of the Wilhelms, Frederick, John and Noah still survive. Their sister, Elizabeth, died at the age of twelve years in Jefferson township, and a brother, David, died when three years of age.

Frederick Wilhelm has been a resident of Grant county from the time he reached his fourth year. Here he received his education in the district schools, during the securing of which he assisted his father and brothers in the work of the homestead, and it was but natural that the should adopt the vocation of farmer, which he has followed throughout his life. In 1873 he sold the forty acres which he had purchased from his father on section 16, and bought his present home of eighty acres on section 15, then partly improved with a log cabin. Later he built his present eight-room house, with basement, painted white, a structure which would grace any property, and in 1888 erected a substantial barn. His other improvements are modern in character, and his land is now nearly all under cultivation, yielding him handsome returns for the labor he expends upon it. He has ever been known to be honorable in business transactions, and has won his success through no chicanery. Earnest, persistent effort has overcome the obstacles that have arisen in his path, and he bears well the American title of self-made man.

While still residing with his parents, Mr. Wilhelm, enlisted August 8, 1862, in Company C, Eighty-ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered out of the Union service July 19, 1865. Between these dates he took part in some of the most sanguine battles of the great Civil war, his first important engagement being at Mumfordville, Kentucky, where he really received his baptism of fire. On September 15, 16 and 17, 1862, occurred the battle of Mumfordville, Kentucky, and on September 17, the entire regiment was captured. The same day the regiment was paroled and on October 1, 1862, it reached Indianapolis where they were all furloughed home for twenty-seven days, then on October 27, 1862, the regiment all met again at Indianapolis where they were in a parole camp until December 5, 1862, when the regiment joined the Army of the Mississippi, then under Gen. Sherman, later under Gen. Grant. Following this he participated with that hard fighting organization in the battles under Gen. A. J. Smith, of the Sixteenth Army Corps, and throughout the Red river campaign and up and down the Mississippi under General Banks. His engagements toward the close of his service included Tupelo, Nashville, Yellow Bayou and Mobile, and after the latter he received his honorable discharge, having made a record for bravery and faithfulness to duty of which any man might well be proud.

Mr. Wilhelm was married November 5, 1868, in Jefferson township, to Miss Jane Crow, who was born in Washington township, Delaware county, Indiana, September 5, 1844, and there reared and educated coming to Grant county in 1864. She is the daughter of John and Nancy (Johnson) Crow, the former born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, in 1813, and the latter in Guernsey county, Ohio, about the year 1816. They were married in the latter county and came at once to Delaware county, Indiana, starting their married life on a farm in Washington township, which had been entered from the Government in 1835 by the father of Mrs. Crow. After making a number of improvements, Mr. and Mrs. Crow came to Grant county and located in Jefferson township, and here the mother died in 1887, and the father, July 19, 1891, both in the faith of the Presbyterian church, of which they had been lifelong members. To Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm there were born the following children: Nora E., who became the wife of Willis Miller, of Anderson, Indiana, and has one son, Ralph, attending school; John R., a resident of Dobson, Blaine county, Montana, who married Druzie Winchell, of Marion, Indiana, and has four children living, Aline, Lewis, Frederick and Paul, all living at home, also one child, Hester, who died aged two years; Minnie M., who is the wife of Rev. William C. Asay, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Sharpsville, Tipton county, Indiana, and has two children, Frederick Waldo Asay and Wendell Wilhelm Asay; B. Harley, a farmer of Union township, Delaware county, Indiana, who married Gertrude Keever and has a daughter, Opal; Bertha L., a graduate of Taylor University of Upland, and now a teacher in the Frankton schools, Madison county; Alta, the wife of John Webster, of Jay county, now living at Othello, Adams county, state of Washington, who has one daughter, Lucile; and Charles, now engaged in operating his father's land, who married Grace Randolph, of Upland. Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm are consistent members of the Presbyterian church at Matthews. He is a Republican in politics, but has not cared for public affairs except as they affect the interests of his community. He has a firm hold on the confidence and respect of his fellow-townsmen, due not less to an irreproachable life than to a recognition of his many sterling traits of character.

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

J. CLARENCE CARR, one of the most active young business men in the city of Marion , Indiana, is a prominent figure in the real estate world in this section of the state. He is of that type of modern business men who are firm believers in the practicality of progressive methods of doing business and who are not afraid of innovations. Although of Southern birth and parentage, Mr. Carr shows none of the traits commonly associated with the easy going Southerner. He is active and energetic and although still a young man he has made a reputation as a business man of ability.

J. Clarence Carr was born on the 21st of December, 1871, in Isle of Wight county, Virginia. He is a son of Solomon J. and Mary (Vaughn) Carr, both of whom were born in Virginia. On both his father's and mother's side his ancestors came to Virginia in the early days of the county from England. Solomon J. Carr was a large land owner and a contractor in Virginia, and he died in that state in 1875. Mrs. Carr lived until 1903. They were the parents of four children, three of whom are now living. These are Darius W. Carr of Windsor, Virginia; Claudius L. Carr, of Lewisburg, West Virginia; and J. Clarence Carr.

The childhood and youth of J. Clarence Carr were entirely spent within the bounds of his native state. He received his earlier education in the common schools of the state and later spent two years in a military academy at Suffolk, Virginia. He began his business career as a shoe salesman for his brother at Newport News, Virginia, and later went to Norfolk, where he managed a shoe store for another brother. He remained here for two years and then he engaged in the management of a merchandise brokerage office in the same city. After two years in this line he determined to come further west and so in 1896 he came to Marion, Indiana. Here he first engaged in the merchandise brokerage business, but after a year of this he decided there was a greater opening in the real estate field and so became engaged in real estate, insurance and first mortgage real estate loans. He has built up a flourishing business and in addition has established a fine reputation for fair and upright dealing, a fact that is constantly increasing the volume of his business.

Mr. Carr was married on the 31st of December, 1893, to Miss Carrie E. Jones, of Norfolk, Virginia. She is the daughter of the Reverend C. J. Jones, D. D., who for two years was the pastor of the Christian Temple in Marion. He died in 1907. Mrs. Carr is a woman of culture and education and she and her husband are very popular in the social world of Marion.

Mr. Carr is a member of the First Methodist Church, and in addition to being one of the stewards is very much interested in Sunday School work, being secretary of that body. He is a Republican in politics and a member of the I. O. O. F. and of the Ben Hurs.

SAMUEL WOODS. One of the oldest of the pioneer settlers of Grant county, Indiana, is Samuel Woods, who came to Grant county in 1859. He is well known and highly respected throughout the county, and although he is now retired from active business and is also almost totally blind, yet he takes just as keen an interest in the events that occur in the outside world and in matters of local interest as he ever did. He served his country faithfully in the days of the Civil war, and the hard working and upright life that he has always led surely entitles him to the respect and friendship which is so generously accorded him throughout the county.

Samuel Woods was born on the 22d of February, 1837, in Beaver county, Pennsylvania. His father was John Woods, who was also born in Pennsylvania, but what his mother's name was Mr. Woods does not know, for she died when he was but a babe in arms. John Woods earned his living in a number of ways. He taught school at one time and at another conducted a hotel, and for some time was a superintendent of construction on the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal.

Samuel Woods lived in Pennsylvania until he was twenty-two years of age and then he came to Grant county, where he has lived ever since. It was only a few years after he had settled in Grant county that the Civil war came to a head and Samuel Woods enlisted as a member of Company "H" Eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. During his military service he suffered a terrible misfortune in having his eyes burned so badly that now he is scarcely able to see.

For eighteen years Mr. Woods worked at his trade of wagonmaker in Marion, but when his eyes became so affected that he could not see clearly enough to continue in his trade he took up teaming and worked at that for some time. He has now retired from business and makes his home with his adopted daughter, Mrs. Washburn.

For many years Mr. Woods has been a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and has always been a loyal and active member of this ancient fraternity. He joined the order in 1863 when he was home from the front on a furlough and he is consequently one of the oldest Masons in the county in point of membership. In his religious beliefs he is a member of the Friends church, having been affiliated with this church for thirty years.

On the 24th of September, 1868. Mr. Woods was married to Harriet M. Malott, who was born and reared in Grant county. She died on July 29, 1911. They had no children, but they adopted a daughter, Maud May Hollingsworth, who is now Mrs. Effie Washburn, of Marion.

JESSE T. BRADFORD. The Bradford family, of which Jesse T. Bradford, now retired, is the head, has long been prominent in Grant county, having been established here since October, 1843. Thus seventy years of identity with the county has given a wide acquaintance to the family in these parts, and each succeeding year has added its quota to the well established position of the family in honor and esteem in which it is held by the public. Seventy years on the farm is the honorable record of Jesse Bradford, but his residence in Marion dates back only to the year 1906, when he retired from active life and settled down to the peace and quiet of a retired life in the city.

Jesse T. Bradford was born on January 20, 1836, and is the son of George and Elizabeth (Chell) Bradford. The father was a native of West Virginia, born in that state in 1783, and the mother also was a Virginian by birth. In 1843 George Bradford came to this county, having been a visitor to Indiana some two years previous, when he bought a piece of land and made ready in some measure to transplant his Virginia family to Indiana soil. His farm was a quarter section in Washington township, and here the family settled, making their home for some years. In 1855 the senior Bradford died, after having passed twelve years in his new home. The Bradford family is one of English stock, while the Chells are of German ancestry. John Bradford, the father of George, who established the family in Indiana, came from England where he was born, and settled in Virginia, where they settled in Hardy county, now called Grant county, Virginia. George Bradford was twice married. He first married Mary Stingley and to them were born four sons, namely: John, George, Leonard and Daniel, none of whom are alive today. The second wife was Elizabeth Chell, the mother of Jesse Bradford. Sixteen children were born to this latter union, concerning whom brief mention is made here as follows: Rachel, who married John McNamara, is now deceased; Isaac, Henry, Moses, Casper, Joseph, and William R. are all deceased; Catherine, who married David Schuff, is living in Washington township, and is about eighty-five years old, as is her husband; Rebecca married George W. Camblin and lives at Falls City, Nebraska; Mary J. is dead; Elizabeth Ann is the wife of Amos Harlan, of Huntington county, Indiana; Jesse T., of this review; the remaining four, whose names are not available at this point, died in infancy.

Jesse T. Bradford was not what might have been called an educated man, his schooling being represented by sixty-five days attendance in the common schools of his home community. He lived on the home farm until he was twenty-five, at which time he moved to a place of his own, a quarter mile distant from the home place, located on section fifteen, in Washington township, and there he lived for forty-seven years. He still owns a share in the old home farm in section sixteen, but it is long since he took an active interest in the work of the place.

Mr. Bradford, like his father, has been twice married. His first wife was Lucy J. Gaines, who was reared in Washington township, Grant county, and to their union, which was solemnized on November 4, 1860, were born four sons: Elmer, deceased; Walter J., of Marion; Oscar C., of whom mention is made at length in another Bradford sketch to be found elsewhere in this work; and another child, who died in infancy. On the fifth day of March, 1874, the wife and mother passed away, and on April 11, 1875, Mr. Bradford married Angeline Silvers, who bore him five children. One of the number died in infancy and the other were: Frank S., now living on the home farm; Clarence W., an attorney of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Ernest B., of Laporte, Indiana; and Clinton B., a resident of Grant county.

Mr. Bradford was for many years a stanch Republican in his political faith, but he later embraced Prohibition, although his support, in the main, is given to the man he regards most fitted for service, regardless of party affiliations. He is one of the honored and honorable men of the county, and his position has long been a prominent one in his community and wherever he is known.

OSCAR P. BRADFORD. A native of the town of which he is now acting trustee, and a young business man of ability, is Oscar C. Bradford, who was born December 18, 1869, in Washington township, Grant county. His is a son of Jesse T. and Lucy J. (Gaines) Bradford, and it may be mentioned here that the Bradford family is one of the best known families in Grant county today, being mentioned at greater length in the sketch of Jesse T. Bradford, preceding this brief review.

Oscar C. Bradford was born on the home farm in Grant county and received his primary education in the community schools, later supplementing this elementary training by a good practical education in other schools. He finished a thorough course of study in the Indianapolis Business College in 1896, and then spent a year at DePauw University, in Greencastle, Indiana. In 1890 the young man began teaching, and from then until 1895 he spent the summer months in study at the Marion Normal College, his teaching being carried on during the winter seasons.

In 1900 he removed to Warren, Indiana, and was there employed as a bookkeeper for a well known hardware firm in that place, some little time later becoming secretary-treasure of the Warren Machine Company, a corporation, of which he was a director. He was with this firm, whose business was the manufacturing of oil well machinery and repairs, for three years, and in 1904 engaged in business for himself, making the hardware and implement business as the object of his interest. He located at 521-23 North Washington street, in Marion, Indiana, and continued for three years, when the business was organized into a close corporation, the stock being held by himself, his father and his brother. It has since continued in a successful and enterprising manner, and the business is regarded as one of the solid enterprises of the city.

In 1908 Mr. Bradford was elected a trustee of Washington township, and he still holds that office. He is a prominent Democrat and was chairman of the Democratic Central Committee of Grant county during the presidential campaign of 1912, and the results of the election were the most victorious ever experienced by the Democrats of this section.

Mr. Bradford was married on June 17, 1809, to Ethel O. Stevens, the daughter of Harrison and Sarah (Beach) Stevens, another pioneer family of Grant county, and highly esteemed wherever they are known. Mrs. Bradford was born in Pleasant township, Grant county, and there reared. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bradford, two of whom, Ruth M. and George R., are living. The second born, Doris A., died in 1906 at the age of five years.

Mr. and Mrs. Bradford are highly regarded in their home community and have a part in the best social activities of the place.

ISAIAH DAWSON. The Dawson name has been prominently identified with the townships of Pleasant and Jefferson since pioneer days, and Isaiah Dawson has spent all of his life since his marriage in Jefferson township, and is a progressive farmer on section thirty-six, where he cultivates a fine homestead surrounded with all the comforts and facilities of modern farm life.

The Dawsons came from North Carolina, were first settled in Wayne county, Indiana. The grandfather of Isaiah was William Dawson, who was born either in North Carolina or Virginia, and was one of the early setters of Wayne county, Indiana. He had married back east Miss Tabitha Simons. His death occurred in Wayne county when about middle life. He was a farmer, and a member of the Christian church, but very little is known of him or his ancestors. His wife survived him a good many years, came to Grant county, and died at the home of her son Nathan Dawson in Pleasant township in 1873, when eighty-four years of age. She was an old-time Methodist, and much loved and respected for her fine qualities of heart and mind. The following are the children in her home circle: Thomas, William, Garrison, Henry, Nathan, John, Sarah Jane, and Margaret, all of whom married and all lived to be good old people and had families. William, Garrison and Thomas each served three years in Indiana regiments during the war, and came home without serious injury.

Nathan Dawson, father of Isaiah, was born in Wayne county, Indiana, and died at his home in Old Town or New Cumberland, near the little city of Matthews, July 17, 1896. He was a farmer, and fairly successful, a man of good influence and high in the esteem of his neighborhood. A short time after his marriage he located in Grant county, entering eighty acres of land from the government in Pleasant township near Jalapa, and the first home was a log cabin, with a puncheon floor, and much of the furniture was made with his own hands. He remained there until 1872, when he went west to Iowa, spending two and a half years there and a similar time in Kansas, then returning to Grant county and buying one hundred acres not far from the original home which he had secured from the government. In that homestead he died in the fall of 1882, at the age of about 72 years. His wife was Actious Owings, and she was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, and was bought when a child to Delaware county, Indiana, where she grew up. Her father, Richard Lemon Owings was a pioneer in the great west and was associated with the historic character Kit Carson for about fifteen years in all the wild ventures and undertakings of that historic figure. Nathan Dawson after the death of his wife retired to New Cumberland and lived with his son Dr. C. F. Dawson, a practicing physician there, until his death, which occurred very suddenly when he was seventy-two years of age. He was a strong Republican, and though a man of little education had an excellent influence and stood high in his community. For two years, during the war, he served as a Union soldier, in two different Indiana regiments. His church membership was with the Christian denomination. Isaiah was the first son and the third child in a family of seven children, others being mentioned as follows: Elizabeth, who died in Ohio, after her marriage, and her three children are all married; Emaline died in Grant county after her marriage, leaving three children, all of whom are now established in homes of their own; Isaiah, who was next in order of birth; Dr. C. F. Dawson, who is a graduate of the Eclectic School of Medicine, and for many years has been a practicing physician at Matthews, and is now living with his second wife, having had three children by his first marriage; Henry now lives on a farm near Marion, is a widower, and has two sons and one daughter; Mollie is the wife of Joel Veach, lives on a farm in Pulaski county, and as three living children.

Isaiah Dawson was born on his father's old homestead in Pleasant township of Grant county, October 13, 1853. Since his marriage he has been identified with Jefferson township, where his hard-working industry and good citizenship have placed him in the ranks of the most progressive people in that vicinity. He is the owner of a farm of one hundred and twenty acres and all but fifteen acres of timberland is under the plow. A big red barn is a conspicuous feature of the place, and in 1900 Mr. Dawson built the large dwelling which shelters himself and family.

In Jefferson township, thirty-seven years ago, Mr. Dawson married Miss Rebecca Needler, who was born on the farm where she and her husband now live, in 1849. She is the daughter of James Needler, and the Needler family are long residents of Grant county, and are mentioned on other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson have lost two children in early childhood, and those living are: Pearl A., who was born, reared and educated in Jefferson township, and now is active manager of his father's farm. He married Ella Huntzinger and they have a daughter, Mary Rebecca. Henry Ovid now lives at home with his parents, and is unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson are active members of the Methodist Episcopal church and his politics is Republican.

Deb Murray