Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

JOHN D. FERREE. The history of any community, especially as recorded for the benefit of future generations, is most effectively given through the offering of proper and specific definition of the careers of those who stand representative in the various lines of human activity in the locality treated. Thus it is signally pertinent that in this history of Grant county there be accorded definite representation to Mr. Ferree, who was formerly secretary of the Farmers' Trust and Saving Company, in the city of Marion, but now secretary and treasurer of Johnston Furniture Company, and who stands forth as one of the aggressive, liberal and valued business men and honored and influential citizens of his native county, where he is well known and commands unequivocal popular confidence.

Mr. Ferree was born on the homestead farm of the family, in Liberty township, this county, and the date of this nativity was August 25, 1872. He is a son of John and Rebecca (Harvey) Ferree, both of whom were born in North Carolina, where they were reared and educated and where their marriage was solemnized. Soon after this important event in their lives they came to Indiana and first located in Morgan county, whence they came to Grant county nearly half a century ago, here passing the residue of their lives and commanding secure place in the confidence and esteem of all who knew them, Mr. Ferree having become the owner of an excellent farm and having become one of the representative agriculturists and honored and influential citizens of Liberty township. They later moved to Fairmount for educational advantages offered by the Fairmount Academy for their children, where he and his wife died. Of their seven children five sons and one daughter are living. The parents were birthright members of the Society of Friends and they lived in gracious accord with the simple and noble faith of this sterling religious body.

Like many another who has entered business life and attained to definite success and prestige therein, John D. Ferree gained his early experience in connection with the work of the farm, and after availing himself of the privileges afforded by Fairmount Academy at Fairmount, this county, it was his good fortune to be able to continue his studies in Earlham College, at Richmond, Wayne county,�an admirable institution maintained under the auspices of the Society of Friends. In this college he was graduated as a member of the class of 1895 and he received therefrom the degree of Bachelor of Science. His intention had been to prepare himself for the medical profession, but he was deflected therefrom and his success in other fields of endeavor has been such that he has had no reason to regret that his youthful plans were thus changed. After leaving college Mr. Ferree turned his attention to pedagogic work, and in the same he proved both successful and popular. For two years he held the position of principal of the public schools of Fairmount, this county, and in 1897 he became deputy county clerk, under the administration of his elder brother E. N. Ferree. He continued the valued incumbent of this important position for ten years, and incidentally became known to and honored by the residents of all parts of his native county. His long experience and sterling character marked him as a logical candidate for advancement to the office of county clerk, to which he was elected, on the Republican ticket, in 1907, and he gave a most effective and satisfactory administration, his tenure of office expiring in 1911. In January of that year he became one of the organizers and incorporators of the Farmers' Trust and Savings Company and he has been a valued factor in the development and upbuilding of the large and substantial business of this important and well ordered company, of which he was secretary from the time of its incorporation until June, 1913, when he incorporated the Johnston Furniture Company, the same having been known for years as the H. G. Johnston Furniture Store. He was also a director of the company. In all the relations of life he has fully upborne the high prestige of the honored name which he bears, and he stands as one of the popular and representative business men of the county that has ever been his home.

The stalwart allegiance which he has accorded to the Republican party vouches for the political faith of Mr. Ferree and he has been a zealous worker in the local camp of his party, in which he served at one time as chairman of the city central committee of Marion. He is affiliated with the local organizations of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the Loyal Order of Moose, and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Ferree and his wife have an interest in all that tends to advance the civic welfare of the community and all things that make for high social and moral ideals. They have a good home in Marion and the same is known for its cordial and gracious hospitality.

On the 6th of July, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ferree to Miss Adalene M. Heaston, of Huntington county, this state, and the two children of this ideal union are John Willard and Edwin H. Ferree.

"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

MARION BUSINESS COLLEGE. Organized in the Columbian Block, No. 211 South Washington street, Marion, the Marion Business College began its operations in this building immediately upon the completion of the structure. Mr. J. D. Brunner, of Lincoln, Nebraska, became financially interested in the school in the year 1895, and became its sole proprietor in 1896, from which year until 1902 he and Mrs. Brunner (also an experienced instructor) conducted the institution, offering the business subjects in both the day and night sessions. A great many of the prominent business men of Marion received their business training under the capable instruction of Mr. and Mrs. Brunner.

In 1902, Mr. Charles C. Cring, of South Bend, Indiana, conceived the idea of a chain of schools, and being successful in interesting Mr. Brunner in the project, they incorporated under the name Indiana Business College. That same year they purchased the Logansport Business College and organized the Kokomo Business College. Their business prospered, and from time to time they purchased additional schools, so that now the Indiana Business College comprises thirteen well-established, well-conducted, well-attended business schools within the limits of the Hoosier State. The schools are known by either the title of Indiana Business College, or as follows: Marion Business College, Marion; Kokomo Business College, Kokomo; Logansport Business College, Logansport; Muncie Business College, Muncie; Anderson Business College, Anderson; Columbus Business College, Columbus; Richmond Business College, at Richmond; Lafayette Business College, Lafayette; Crawfordsville Business College, at Crawfordsville; Washington Business College, at Washington; Newcastle Business College. at Newcastle; Vincennes Business College, at Vincennes; and Central Business College, at Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Marion Business College has always employed high-class instructors, and maintains an up-to-date equipment. It has for years taught most of the bookkeepers and stenographers who have accepted and held positions in the city of Marion, and its standing among business men assures a competent graduate every chance for employment.

The curriculum of this institution includes a careful training in the following subjects: Bookkeeping, Business Arithmetic, Commercial Law, Salesmanship, Penmanship, Spelling, Rapid Calculation, Business Correspondence, Business English, Shorthand, Typewriting, Commission, Manufacturing, Banking Office Practice and Stenotypy. The school continues to operate in the old quarters at No. 211 South Washington street, and is now recognized as one of the best institutions of its kind in the State.

Mr. O. E. Butz at this time is manager of the Marion Business College, personal mention of his career and work being given in the sketch preceding this. Under his management the college has met with its greatest success, due in no small way to his efficient methods and fine executive ability.

WALTER W. SLAIN. Not all the farms in Grant county are owned by members of the old families. Among the progressive younger agriculturists who have come to the county from other sections, and by their enterprise and thrift have laid substantial foundations for large prosperity, Walter W. Slain, a hustling young farmer, with a fine reputation as a man and citizen, has a prominent place. Mr. Slain operates a fine farm of eighty acres in section twenty-five of Jefferson township. Practically all his land is improved, he is the type of man who allows little waste ground about his farm, he is rapidly transforming his acres into one of the most valuable and productive estates in his part of the county. A substantial red barn and a comfortable white house are the more important of the building improvements. Mr. Slain bought his present farm in January, 1912, and has it well stocked with hogs and sheep. He also cultivates sixty acres of farm land in the same vicinity. Mr. Slain has come into his present prosperity after a number of years as a renter and tenant, and has earned all he possesses. He has operated farms in this part of Grant county for some years, and has a reputation for progressive and reliable methods of land management and is regarded as an upright citizen and thoroughly capable business man.

Walter W. Slain was born in Boone county, Indiana, May 14, 1875, was reared and educated in Delaware county, and since 1898 has had his home in Grant county. His parents are John William and Elizabeth (Higden) Slain. His father, a native of Rush county, Indiana, was married in Boone county to Miss Higden, who was born there, and a few years later they went to Madison county, bought and operated a farm of eighty acres, and later moved to Delaware county, where the father farmed until his retirement. He now lives in Gaston, and is a vigorous man bearing easily the weight of almost seventy years. He and his wife are active in the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is an official and served for some years as superintendent of the Sunday school. Of the eight children, six are living, and the family record is as follows: Etta, who died a young woman; Millie, who died after her marriage, leaving no children; Albert, who is a farmer in Madison county, and has seven living children; Walter W.; Thomas, a mechanic, living in Elwood, and has two sons; Ethel, wife of Glenn Wood, now living on a farm in Madison county, and they have three daughters; and Ira, who occupies his father's Madison county farm, and has one son; and one child. Leonard, who is a nephew adopted into the family, and has always had the position of a son, is now a farmer in Clark county, Indiana, and has one son and one daughter.

Walter W. Slain was married in Delaware county, to Miss Florence Nottingham, whose father, Rufus C. Nottingham, is a well known and prosperous citizen of Grant county, and his career and family are sketched on other pages of this Centennial history. Mr. and Mrs. Slain are the parents of the following children: Charles and Clifford, who both died in infancy; Virgil A., born March 11, 1898, and now attending the public schools; Roy Ormal, born January 6, 1903, and in school. Mr. and Mrs. Slain are Methodists belonging to the Pleasant Grove Church, and in politics he is a Republican voter.

EDWIN CALDWELL. When Train and Eliza (Wells) Caldwell came with their family from Fayette county, arriving in Grant county November 20, 1856, they had two children, Edwin and Fanny Caldwell, and they had buried two in Fayette county,�Amanda and an infant that had not been christened. Another son, John W. Caldwell, was born in Grant county. Fanny Caldwell and the parents are buried in this county. The father died July 27, 1881, and the mother lived several years passing away April 14, 1897. Only two sons remain of the family.

Edwin Caldwell married Miss Nancy J. Carmichael, of Hope, Bartholomew county, August 19, 1877. In the spring of 1878 Mr. Edwin Caldwell and wife moved from the Caldwell family home in Liberty township to Marion, where they have lived continuously except while he was employed as a clerk in the war department, in Washington City, and also for a short time spent on the Pacific Coast. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell have one son, Frank Caldwell, a student in the Marion high school. There were a number of prominent Southern Grant county families who, like the Caldwells, came from Fayette county in an early day, and all of them are good citizens. Mr. Caldwell went to the district schools near his home in Liberty township, and later to the Fairmount high school, and to the Summer Normal Schools in Marion. For years he was among the progressive teachers of Grant county, where he both "taught" and "kept" school for fourteen years, spending four years of that time at "College Corner," where the Marion Normal College finally located when the city was extended out South Washington street.

Mr. Caldwell is of a mathematical turn of mind, and even while teaching, he used to do a great deal of work as a bookkeeper. Now for several years he has been recognized as an expert accountant. He is one of the state field examiners, and does accounting all over Indiana as he finds time to leave the city, local manufacturers and business corporations employing him most of the time in auditing accounts for them. He has all the modern appliances, typewriting, tabulating machine, etc., and frequently does his work at home. Mr. Caldwell has reduced the business to system, and in his ��pigeon holes' are kept the previous year's records, so that when a call comes to audit a set of books he simply takes down his file, and knows just where he stands, �an easy matter.

Mr. Caldwell is frequently called upon to install the books for new firms and corporations, and being an excellent penman it is always a satisfactory service. Commercial auditing is congenial employment and remunerative, and while he enjoyed teaching he would not want to teach again. Mr. Caldwell is a licensed embalmer, having worked with the different Marion undertakers, but the work of an accountant is more congenial to him and all his time is taken at present. The Caldwell family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and Mrs. Caldwell has occupied much of her spare time with fancy lace patterns, having many scarfs and table covers as a result, and she dares not place a price on her designs,�has done so frequently, and had to make others. Knitting is a profitable pastime.

ELLSWORTH HARVEY. The son of an honored pioneer family of Indiana. Ellsworth Harvey is recognized among the representative business men of his native county and he has long been a resident of Marion, where he holds the position of cashier of the Marion National Bank, one of the most solidly established financial institutions of the county. Mr. Harvey has made his way in the world unaided by outside influences, but rather through the application of his native ability and inherent character, so that he today enjoys a pleasing place in the city of his residence.

Born on a farm in Franklin township, six miles southwest of the city of Marion, in Grant county, Ellsworth Harvey claims November 22, 1863, as his natal day, and he is a son of Sidney and Jane L. (Thomas) Harvey. The father was born in Morgan county, Indiana, and the mother in Grant county, where her parents were early settlers in the pioneer days, the family having been conspicuously identified with the growth and development of the county. The father, Sidney Harvey, devoted himself to the farming industry, and he was successful and prosperous in his chosen work. Today he is reckoned among the most venerable and honored pioneer citizens of the county, where he is living practically retired from active business, enjoying a well earned rest after long years of strenuous life on the farm.

He was a boy of about nine years when his father, William Harvey, came to Grant county and settled upon a tract of wild land some three miles west of the present village of Fairmount, and there he finally evolved a productive farm from his wilderness land. He was of English ancestry, and the family is one that had its foundation in America in early colonial days. Born in North Carolina and there reared, William Harvey came as a young man to Clinton county, Ohio, removing to Indiana in an early day. He passed the last years of his life in Grant county, and was known and esteemed as one of the solid men of the agricultural industry in the county. It was on his place that Sidney Harvey, his son, was reared to maturity, but for more than forty years past he has maintained his home on his own place of one hundred acres, six and a half miles from Marion. Mr. Harvey is a man of considerable influence in his community, taking a genuine interest in the political and civic activities of the township and county, and he at one time served as county assessor. A Republican in his politics, he gives his support to that party, and with his wife has membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. Of their children, Alvin and Minerva are deceased; Ellsworth, of this review, was the third born; Roscoe C. is a farmer in Franklin township; and Guile Elma is the wife of H. P. Cline, a farmer residing in the vicinity of Jonesboro, Grant county.

Ellsworth Harvey was reared to farm life and in the home of his parents he early learned lessons of practical import that have stood him in excellent stead in the more mature years of his life. He attended the district schools, continuing his studies there for eight years. Thereafter he was a teacher in Fairmount Academy for one year.

In August, 1893, Mr. Harvey was appointed to the post of deputy county treasurer, and the long period in which he held this office indicates something of the character of his services. He continued to serve in his capacity as deputy until January 1, 1901, when he assumed the duties of county treasurer, to which office he had been elected on the Republican ticket in the preceding autumn. His service here was likewise a praiseworthy one, sufficiently so as to gain to him his re-election in 1902, so that he served two full terms as county treasurer, administering the fiscal affairs of the county in a highly creditable manner.

Soon after his retirement from the office of county treasurer Mr. Harvey was chosen assistant cashier of the Marion National Bank, and here again the character of his services was such as to merit recognition which came in the form of his advancement to the post of cashier in February, 1911. He has since that time continued in the office, with all of satisfaction to the directors of the institution and with credit to himself.

Mr. Harvey has, like his father, been a stanch Republican since he came to years of maturity, and with his wife he is a member of the Society of Friends. His fraternal connections are with the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Tribe of Ben Hur. He is the owner of a small but well improved farm in Franklin township, which claims a share in his attention.

On September 6, 1899, Mr. Harvey was married to Miss Susan Emma Higgs, of Richmond, Wayne county, this state, where she was born and reared, and where her family has been long and favorably known to the public. Her parents are Robert and Eliza Riggs, both of whom were born in England. Mr. and Mrs. Harvey have two children,� Robert Sidney, born on November 8, 1902, and Mildred Elizabeth, born May 25, 1906.

JOHN W. WILLIAMS. The history of the village of Upland will always commemorate the Williams family, since it was a man of that name who owned much of the land where the village now stands who laid out the plat on some of his acreage, donated ground for the railroad station, and in many other ways took the part of a leader in establishing and developing that center of trade and population. Mr. John W. Williams, a son of the pioneer at Upland, has for many years devoted himself to farming and stock raising, and his home place in section eight of Jefferson township probably has no superior in its facilities, not only as a home, but as a place of business, his business being the raising of high-grade live stock, at which he has made a big reputation, not only in his community, but in this and adjoining counties.

Mr. Williams comes of Scotch ancestry, and his grandfather Isaac Williams was of an early settled family in central Ohio. He married a Miss Pierce, and they lived in Greene county, Ohio, where James L. Williams was born November 23, 1826. James L. Williams in 1829 lost his father by death, and his mother subsequently married Samuel Stafford. During the forties all the families came to Grant county, settling on Walnut Creek in Center township, where Mrs. Stafford died when eighty years of age. Mr. Stafford married again and died in Center township, at the advanced age of ninety. By his first wife he had a son and daughter. James L. Williams was the oldest of his mother's children, and the others in the Williams family were: Thomas, who lives with his children at Marion; Mary, widow of Israel Lucas, and she lives two miles east of the Soldiers' Home at Marion; Ortha, died after her marriage to Samuel Adamson, and left two sons and four daughters.

James L. Williams was reared after the death of his father by his mother and also in the home of an uncle, and on becoming of age was married in Green county, Ohio, to Miss Nancy Chance. She was born in North Carolina in January, 1831, and when fifteen years old left her home and people, joined a family making the journey to Ohio, and walked practically all the wav to Green county, where soon afterwards she met and married James L. Williams. In 1850 they came to Indiana, where Mr. Williams bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in section three of Jefferson township. A portion of the village of Upland now stands on that land. When the Pennsylvania Railroad was built through this part of the county, Mr. Williams gave six acres for the village site, and three other parties gave enough to make twenty-one acres altogether. It was on that home that James L. Williams and wife lived for many years, but finally sold and bought a farm near Bluffton in Wells county, and his death occurred at Rockford, in that county, July 12, 1910. His widow passed away August 13, 1913. Both were birthright members of the Friends church. James L. Williams did a great deal of building at Upland, and by his own effort gave that community a start which has continued until the present time. He was a strong Republican in politics. The family of children were as follows: Isaac, who died when eight years old; Rev. Thomas lived in California, and his children are Alvin, Iva, and Rev. Charles, the church affiliations of this family being the United Brethren; John W. comes next; Cyrus lives in Huntington county, Indiana, on a farm, has been twice married, and has a daughter by his last union; Anna is the wife of Marion Bedwell, and they live on a part of the old homestead at Upland.

It was a distinction of John W. Williams to have been born in a log cabin, at the site of Upland, on November 28, 1857. At that time a log cabin home did not indicate poverty of resources, and many of the best families of Indiana were still living in houses no better than the one in which Mr. Williams was born. He lived at home until of age, was educated in the local schools, and from youth up has made farming his regular vocation. For the past twenty years he has been identified with the vicinity of Jefferson township on the west bank of the Mississinewa River where on April 28, 1893, he bought eighty acres of land in section eight. In 1908 Mr. Williams put a fine bank barn, with ground dimensions of fifty by ninety-seven feet, with a concrete basement, and the entire building is light, sanitary, and with facilities that afford convenience to the farmer, and tend to increase the general value of the farm output. Close to the barn is a concrete silo of eighty-ton capacity, and there are facilities for the storing of one hundred tons of hay, many tons of straw, and thousands of bushels of grain. The barn is one of the best in this entire section. It is painted a drab color, with red trimmings. Adjoining his main farm, Mr. Williams has one hundred and four acres, purchased about the same time he bought the eighty acres, and that land is improved with a full set of farm buildings. On another section he forty acres. The homestead is improved with a substantial white frame house. Mr. Williams has made his reputation as a farmer, largely through the raising of fine short horn cattle, Poland china hogs, and Norman horses.

Mr. Williams by his first marriage became the husband of Martha B. Brumfield, a daughter of Jacob Brumfield. She was born in Miami county, Indiana, December 9, 1858, and died at her home in Jefferson township, April 24, 1902. She came to Grant county when a child, and was reared in the township where the rest of her life was spent. Her children were Carlos A., who lives in Matthews, and has one son, Kenneth; Goldy is the wife of Arthur Lunsford, and they have a daughter Elma. Olive is the wife of Ernest Haynes, of Muncie, and they have two children, Virgil and Daniel C; Myrtle is the wife of Emory C. Tripp, of Greentown, Howard county, Indiana, and they have no children. For his second wife Mr. Williams was married in Blackford county to Nenah Baker, who was born in that county, and reared and educated there, a daughter of William and Sarah (Blankenbaker) Baker, who live on a farm east of Hartford City, her father being sixty-two and. her mother fifty-six years of age. The Bakers are active members of the Friends church. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have three children; Oris, aged six years, and in the public schools; Leora, aged four years; and Donald, aged two. Mr. and Mrs. Williams are members of the Quaker church, and in politics he is a Prohibitionist.

Deb Murray