Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

MRS. MAUD HOWARD GAINES. In a list of the prominent citizens of any community today, mention is made of women as well as men, for whether they are actively in the business world or not, the high position of woman as a factor in civilization is being recognized as it has never been before. Therefore in any account of those who have played a part in the history of Grant county, Indiana, Mrs. Maud Howard Gaines should have a place. Mrs. Gaines comes of one of the oldest families, not only in Grant county, but in the United States, a family noted for its patriotism and sincere devotion to the country. She has lived in Marion for many years and has taken an active part in many phases of the city's activities.

Mrs. Gaines was born in 1866, the eldest of the five children born to John A. and Susan (Kirkpatrick) Howard. John A. Howard was born in Ohio in 1836, a son of Maurice and Matilda (Sabin) Howard. Matilda Sabin was the granddaughter of Elijah Sabin, who had been a commissioned officer during the Revolutionary war, and other ancestors who fought in this war give Mrs. Gaines the right to be proud of her family and the record they made in this memorable struggle. Coming further down in her ancestry, her own father left a splendid record for military service. The records in the Adjutant General's office in the War Department at Washington show that John A. Howard was enrolled on April 23, 1861, as a private in Company "I", Twelfth Indiana Infantry, that he served one year and was honorably discharged from the service as a private, together with the whole company on the 15th of May, 1862. In speaking of the experience of this year Captain Howard said that the whole regiment inclined to the opinion that one year of such hardships as they had endured was enough. But after they had once more become private citizens Lincoln asked them to visit their homes and then return and help him out and there was not a hand that was not raised in response to this plea. On the 22nd of October, 1862, therefore, Captain Howard returned to the service, this time with a commission as first lieutenant in Company "C", Fifty-fourth Infantry. Her served in this capacity until December 8, 1863, when he was honorably discharged from the service at New Orleans, Louisiana. It was only a short time until he re-enlisted into service on the same day as a private in Company "G", of the One Hundred and Fifty-third Indiana Infantry to serve one year. A few days later, on the 22nd of February, 1865, he was commissioned captain of this company and served as such until his final honorable discharge from the service on the 4th of September, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky. This long record of military service as shown by the official documents in the war department at Washington is one which Mrs. Gaines treasures greatly, being proud not only of the actual service rendered to her country but also of the spirit of patriotism and self-sacrifice shown by her father. Maurice Howard, Mrs. Gaines' grandfather and father of John A. Howard, was a soldier in the War of 1812. He enlisted in the New York troops, serving most of his time around and near Detroit, Michigan.

Captain Howard took part in some of the most important engagements of the Civil war, among them being; Antietam, Arkansas Post, Raymond, Thompson Hills, Black River, Champion Hills, Chickasaw Bluffs, Vicksburg, and Jackson, Mississippi, being wounded at the latter battle. Captain Howard always wears an American flag as a buttoniere, and he is a regular attendant at the camp fires of the General Shuck post of the Grand Army of the Republic, although it is saddening to see his old comrades at arms rapidly diminishing in numbers. In slavery days the Howard homestead was one of the stations of the underground railway, and as a young boy Captain Howard conducted many Negroes from the shelter to his own home to the next friendly resting place, his father remaining behind on guard. Later when the temperance question came before the attention of the people he was an active advocate of that side of the question which had the protection of the family and the home at heart. Captain Howard married Susan Kirkpatrick, who was born in Grant county, Indiana, in 1847, a daughter of William and Margaret (Carrothers) Kirkpatrick, and they spent many years on a farm near Marion. Several years ago, however, Captain Howard retired from active life and they now make their home in Marion, their daughter Mrs. Gaines living with them.

Mrs. Gaines, or Miss Maud Howard, as she was before her marriage, was in the first graduating class from the district schools of Washington township, this being in 1881, and when she was only sixteen she taught her first winter school at Salem, Indiana, having many pupils who were older than she was herself. Mrs. Gaines has two brothers, Maurice and Harry Howard, and two sisters, Mrs. Helen Howard Williams and Miss Mary Margaret Howard. It was when Miss Maud Howard was twenty-two years of age, on the 22nd of November, 1888, that she was married to Edmund Morton Gaines. Mr. Gaines, who was also born in 1866, was one of eight children born to Oliver and Mary Jane (Bradford) Gaines.

Both the Howard and Gaines families were pioneers in Grant county, and had lived side by side as neighbors and friends for three generations. The Howards came from New York, the Bradfords and Gaines from Virginia, and the Kirkpatricks from Ohio. Oliver Gaines is the son of Edmund P. and Polly (Bond) Gaines, and his wife, who is now deceased, was a daughter of George and Elizabeth (Schell) Bradford. The grandparents in both the Howard and Gaines families had come to Indiana as emigrants, but the parents were all born in the community. The linking together of the interests of the two families by the marriage in the third generation, only drew closer together those who had always been close friends.

Edmund Morton Gaines was christened Edmund because there had always been an Edmund in the family since the house of Gaines was established in America more than four hundred years ago, and the name of Morton was given in honor of Indiana's war governor. He and his wife had twenty years of perfect wedded happiness before he was taken from her, his death occurring on the 6th of January, 1909. Mr. Gaines was always active in church and fraternal affairs. Although he came of Quaker ancestry he and his wife were members of the First Methodist Episcopal church in Marion, and for several years he was a member of the official board. He belonged to the Knights of Pythias and the lodge emblem is engraved on the stone that marks his grave.

Mrs. Gaines is an enthusiastic member of the Home Missionary Society of the Methodist church, and takes special pleasure in the work of the society. She is a member of the Marion Central Women's Christian Temperance Union, of which an aunt, Mrs. Mary Howard Williams, was an early member�in fact, the union really grew out of the crusade of which Mrs. Williams was a leader. Mrs. Gaines has always been an interested student of history and is a member of the Thursday Historical Club, and of the Grant County Historical Society. She is the historian of her native township in this Centennial history. Mrs. Gaines is every inch a patriot herself, her love for the flag being instilled into her from babyhood, and inherited from her ancestors, and since all heroes are not necessarily those who face the guns of an enemy on the battlefield, but are all those who do their part in the battle of life quietly and bravely, she is certainly in line for recognition. Mrs. Gaines is a member of the General Francis Marion Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, having traced her lineal Revolutionary descent through her paternal grandmother, Mrs. Matilda (Sabin) Howard, although she had other ancestral lines just as clearly defined.

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 H. TERRELL. A man of fine intellectual attainments and marked executive ability, Mr. Terrell is eminently qualified for the important office of which he is the able and popular incumbent, that of superintendent of schools for Grant county. His administration has been marked by circumspection, indefatigable energy and careful discrimination, and the beneficent results of the same are definitely manifest in the high standard of the public schools of the county, which has the distinction of possessing a greater number of commissioned high schools than any other county in the state. Mr. Terrell has had varied and practical experience in the field of educational work and is recognized as one of the representative factors in the pedagogic profession in his native state, the while his sterling character, effective services and genial personality have gained to him inviolable hold upon popular confidence and esteem. He has been a resident of Grant county since his boyhood days and is one of its loyal and progressive citizens.

Mr. Terrell was born in the city of Kokomo, Indiana, on the 3d of November, 1879, and he is a son of George and Elizabeth (Myers) Terrell, both of whom were born in Decatur county, this state, a fact that indicates that the respective families were founded in Indiana in the pioneer era of its history. George Terrell, who was a mechanic by vocation, died in 1881, when the subject of this review was but two years old, and the devoted mother passed to the life eternal in 1891, so that Charles H. Terrell was doubly orphaned when a lad of about twelve years.

He whose name initiates this article gained his rudimentary education in the common schools of Decatur and Grant counties, to which latter he came on the 22d of February, 1892, a short time after the death of his devoted mother, he being the only child of this union. At Gas City, this county, he was graduated in the high school as a member of the class of 1892, after which he pursued his higher academic studies in turn in Taylor University, at Upland, and the University of Indiana, at Bloomington. In the latter institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1910 and received the we1l earned degree of Bachelor of Arts. Mr. Terrell initiated his pedagogic career in the autumn of 1900, and after teaching successfully in the country schools of Grant county for a period of four years he became a teacher in the public schools of Jonesboro, this county, where he was thus engaged for four years, 1905-9 and where he held during the last two years the position of principal of the high school, in connection with which his entire period of service was given. In 1910-11 he was at the head of the department of history in the high school in the city of Marion, where he maintains his official headquarters, and on the 5th of June, 1911, there came high recognition of his character and ability, in that he was elected county superintendent of schools, for a term of four years. His administration has in every way justified his selection for this important and responsible post, and through his mature judgment and earnest efforts much has been done to unify the work and advance the standard of all departments of public-school work in Grant county, even the most obscure and diminutive of the district schools having received careful attention from him, the while he has effectively supervised the work of the more advanced grades of work, including that of the high schools. As a man of scholarship and administrative ability he has shown himself essentially broadminded and progressive, and within his regime in his present office he has instituted many improvements in service and a number of wise innovations. He has warmly and ably advocated the teaching of scientific and practical agriculture in connection with the other phases of public school work, has earnestly labored to advance the standard of scholarship on the part of teachers, and has advised the consolidation of schools in country districts wherever this policy has tended to improve standards and service. It may again be noted that the county has nine commissioned high schools, and that in this provision it takes precedence of all counties in the state. Mr. Terrell is essentially an enthusiast in his chosen profession, is alert, practical and ambitious, with naught of the proclivities of the visionary or day-dreamer, and the most effective voucher for his ability is that given in the results of his work as a teacher and as an official. He holds from the state a life certificate as a teacher, the same having been granted to him in 1910, and of the thirty-nine persons who received state licenses in that year he stood second in the examination. He is affiliated with the Phi Delta Kappa fraternity of the University of Indiana and this implies no slight distinction, as the organization is maintained as a means for educational advancement and eligibility for membership being predicated from the scholastic status, rather than from the fictitious standard maintained in various other college fraternities.

Mr. Terrell is not only a valued and popular factor in connection with educational activities in his native state but is also a well fortified and zealous advocate of the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor. He has served with effectiveness as a member of the Democratic executive committee of Grant county and has been otherwise influential in connection with party affairs. He is affiliated with Jonesboro Lodge, No. 109, Free & Accepted Masons, at Jonesboro, where he also holds membership in Jonesboro Lodge, No. 102, Knights of Pythias, besides which he is identified with the Benevolent Crew of Neptune in the city of Marion. His name remains on the list of eligible bachelors and it may consistently be said that this fact in no way militates against his unqualified popularity in the social circles of his home county, where his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances.

JOHN L. RIGSBEE. Although the Rigsbee family represented by Mr. John L. Rigsbee of Fairmount, has been identified with Grant county only a few years, there are many characteristics and incidents in the family history which make the family "bone and sinew" with the bulk of Grant county citizenship. They all came from Randolph county, North Carolina, the source of so many of Grant county's early settlers; they have been identified with the Quaker and the Wesleyan churches, and the first generation were pioneers in this section of Indiana. The grandfather of John L. Rigsbee was John Rigsbee, born in Guilford county, North Carolina, and of English ancestry. In his native county he married Lydia Worth, also of English stock, and a native of the same county. In that old state and county were born their three sans, Martin, Madison and Zimri. When these sons were children the family started north. With several horses to draw their old wagons, they came along the roads leading from the Atlantic slope over the Allegany Mountains, and across the valleys and prairies, camping by night at the roadside, and finally after six weeks of tedious following the trail, they arrived in Wayne county, Indiana. One incident of the journey which is remembered by the descendants is that one evening, after camp had been pitched, a large ram butted one of the horses in the head, and the horse was instantly killed. Their first location was on a farm at College Corners in Wayne county, where they remained to raise two crops. From there they moved to Posey township in Rush county, where Grandfather Rigsbee purchased eighty acres of slightly improved land, with a characteristic habitation of logs. There they lived and gradually prospered, and a number of years later a substantial frame house was built. That house is still standing, and the farm is owned by his descendants. John and Lydia Rigsbee lived on that farm in Rush county until their death. The former passed away in 1855, when past middle life, having been born about 1795. The death of his widow occurred nearly twenty years later in 1873. She was a strong and energetic woman, and at her husband's death there were many obligations which she bravely met, paying off all the old bills and rearing her three sons. Of these sons, Zimrie was a soldier in the Fifty-Second Indiana Regiment during the Civil war, returned home without wounds, but died a few years later from the severe exposure of army life. The son Madison was a farmer, spent all his active career in Rush county, where he married, and of their union two children are living, each of whom has a household of children, and all live in Rush county.

Martin Rigsbee, the father of John L., was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, December 24, 1818, and was a boy when the family made its long journey north to Indiana. Growing up in Rush county, he finally succeeded to the ownership of the old homestead, and by his energy and thrift added one hundred and sixty acres, making tw6 hundred and forty altogether. In 1860 the home was improved by the erection of a large barn, and a large two-story eight-room house was the residence he occupied until his death, December 29, 1908. At that time he was ninety years and five days old. Martin Rigsbee was a man of small but wiry stature, and his energy and zest for living continued until the last two years of his life. He passed away in the faith of the Quaker church. In Rush county, Lucinda Barnard became his wife. She was born in Guilford county, North Carolina in 1824, and when a girl of six years, her parents came north to Posey township in Rush county. John and Betsey Barnard, her parents, were substantial farmers, and lived and died in Rush county, the former about the close of the war, and the latter a good many years afterwards. They were both members of the Friends church. Of their several children all are now deceased but one, Phoebe Folger, who lives in Rush county at the age of eighty-five. She married, but has no issue. Lucinda Rigsbee, died at the age of sixty-eight in 1892. Later her husband, when more than seventy-five years of age, went out to Nebraska and married a woman who had once been a neighbor, Mrs. Adeline Leonard whose maiden name was Folger. She was at that time sixty years of age, and she survived her husband, passing away in March, 1884, at the age of seventy-four. John L. Rigsbee was one of four children. Alveron died at the age of thirty-five on the old farm in Rush county. He married Clara Swain, who is living with a son, Albert W., in Rush county. Florella F. is the widow of H. C. Pitts, who died in Shelby county, where she now lives on the old farm with her two children, Lois and Wendell W. Adrian now lives on a farm in Posey township of Rush county. His first wife was Alice Powell, who died leaving one daughter, Lula. His second marriage was to Maude Miller, and there is one daughter, Iva.

The second in this family, John L. Rigsbee was born in Rush county, March 26, 1857. Reared on the homestead, educated in the common schools, his life was spent on the old John Rigsbee farm, with the exception of one year until he moved to Grant county in August, 1909. His first settlement was in Liberty township, where he bought the Harmon Buller farm of one hundred and sixty acres, also one hundred and twenty acres of the Gaddis Farm, having his home on the latter, and both were in section twenty-five. Later his estate was sold at one hundred and sixty-five dollars an acre, and he then bought ninety acres of Hezekiah Miller, in the same township. In September, 1912, Mr. Rigsbee moved into Fairmount City, buying a nice home near the Academy grounds at the corner of Eighth and Rush Streets.

Mr. Rigsbee in 1880 married in Rush county, Miss Clara F. Hester, who was born and reared in Shelby county. Her birth occurred December 24, 1860, and her parents were John and Emeline (Linville) Hester, natives of Guilford county, North Carolina, who at quite an early day settled in Shelby county, Indiana, which was their home throughout the rest of their days. John Hester for his first wife, married Mildred Cruze, who died in Shelby county, leaving six children. By his second marriage, there were four children; namely: Rev. Jacob, who lives in Rush county, a farmer, and has six children. Rev. Franklin, who lives in Jewel county, Kansas, is married and has six children: Jasper, whose home is in Shelby county, Indiana, and he has a family; and Clara F., wife of Mr. Rigsbee. Both Jacob and Franklin Hester have been for many years preachers in the Wesleyan church.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Rigsbee are mentioned as follows: Earl C., is a conductor on the Union Traction Lines, is married and has three children, Marvin, Wilma and John Walter; Otto H. married Harriet, a daughter of Rev. H. T. Hawkins, and has two children, Lavelda and Clarice; Otto H. is on the John L. Rigsbee farm in Liberty township. Wilbern is in the motor works at Marion, and is studying for the ministry of the Wesleyan church. He married Mary Cox, and has one daughter, Lucile. Opal E. is the wife of Rev. Sewell Baker, a prominent minister of the Wesleyan Methodist church at Marion. Sidney T., a student of dentistry in Indianapolis, married Nellie Allen, and they have one child, Edith. Mary is now living at home and attending high school. Mr. and Mrs. Rigsbee and members of their family are communicants of the Wesleyan Methodist church, in which he is a trustee and superintendent of the Fairmount Camp Meeting Grounds, near Fairmount City.

WILLIAM W. McFEELEY, assistant cashier of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Marion, is a son of Alfred and Sarah (Worthington) McFeeley, residents of Marion, Indiana, and among the most popular and prominent people of this section of the state.

Alfred McFeeley, the head of the family in this state and in Grant county, was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, on August 31, 1836, and he came from Union City to Marion in 1874, since which time he has been a continuous resident of this city. Early in life he became a miller, a business with which many of his name had been identified in previous years, operating flouring mills throughout the country, and when he first located in Marion he was connected officially with the old mill in Cemetery Boulevard that was long known as the McFeeley mill. He and a brother, Thomas McFeeley, first owned the mill, and they later sold it to an uncle, one Joseph McFeeley, who thereafter operated it for many a year. During a heavy storm on one Fourth of July, the mill was moved from its foundations by the wind, and from that time on as long as a stone stood there, it was known as the McFeeley Cyclone Mill, for many years constituting a land mark along the way to the Marion I. O. O. F. cemetery.

When R. L. Jones was killed by a horsethief soon after he was elected to the office of county sheriff for Grant county in the year 1888, Mr. McFeeley received the appointment to the vacancy thus created, and since that time he has frequently been prominent in public life in the county. He was for several years the trustee of Center township before the Associated Charities had in charge the relief activities of the city of Marion, and he handled alone and unaided the local charities, in addition to school and other township business of important character. The trustees of Center township were entrusted with the care of the indigent of Marion, and it was a duty that other township trustees knew little or nothing about, most of the responsibility falling upon Mr. McFeeley.

For many years Mr. McFeeley, usually known as "Squire" McFeeley, has served as justice of the peace of Center township, and he has in that time established a reputation as the "marrying squire," his record down to date accrediting him with three hundred and forty-four marriages. He ever has a pleasant word for the bride, and points out with pride the fact that the nuptial knots he ties are not immediately severed in the divorce courts. He is of the opinion, however, that when the Indiana legislature sees fit to enact a law permitting a justice of the peace to untie the marriage knot, he will have quite as much business at the other end of the line, for he maintains that divorce is as much in demand as marriage in these later days.

Squire McFeeley is a veteran of the Civil war, having served as a member of Company K, Fortieth Ohio Regiment for three years, after which he was transferred to the Fifty-first Ohio, and his total services amounted to four full years. Owing to his advanced age and the length of his service, he is now on the pension lists as a one dollar a day pensioner, which, in connection with the revenue that comes to him in his capacity as the "marrying justice," permits him to pass his declining days in ample comfort. He visited Fort Recovery, Ohio, on July 1 1913 where a $25,000 monument was unveiled in honor of General St. Clair, one hundred and twenty-two years after the battle he fought with the Indians at that point, and although a full century has passed by since the battle of Mississinewa, the Squire believes the Grant county battle field will in time be designated with a similar monument. He is familiar with the entire course of the Mississinewa, having been reared at the "spreads" in Mississinewa township, in Darke county, Ohio, where the river has its headwaters, and where for miles it is little more than a swamp drain.

Mr. McFeeley is one who enjoys a story well told, and few there are in these parts who can tell more apropos tales than he, all of them suggested by something in the circumstances of the moment, and always right to the point and glimmering with sparkle and brightness. Thus is it that the bride and groom are always started cheerily upon their way�a fact that seems to insure him of ample future patronage.

William W. McFeeley is one of the three children of his parents�one of them, Otto H. McFeeley, being a resident of Oak Park, Chicago, and a sister, Mrs. Gertrude Landauer, a resident of Marion. On December 11, 1905, Mr. McFeeley was married to Miss Ethel Morehead, who died on September 12, 1908. She was a daughter of O. H. P. Morehead and a granddaughter of William Morehead, who was among the last veterans of the Mexican war. The Morehead family have in recent years moved to Tennessee, after long years of continued residence in Grant county. Mr. McFeeley, since the death of his young wife, has taken up his residence with his aged parents, and there has continued to make his home as in earlier years.

Deb Murray