Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

WILLIAM T. WRIGHT. One of the prominent factors in the agriculture and live stock industry of southern Grant county is William T. Wright, who is perhaps best known over a wide section of country for his success in the breeding and handling of mules. For a number of years he has carried on a large business in this line, and has a farm well adapted with facilities and improvements for this work. His home is in section thirty-five of Fairmount township, and he has lived there for the past twelve years. His stock and feed barn stands two stories high, is painted white, and can be seen for several miles around. Its foundation dimensions are sixty by sixty-two feet, and its capacity is sixty tons of hay, nine head of horses and thirty head of mules, fifteen hundred bushels of corn, and two thousand bushels of small grain. Nearby is a commodious and well furnished nine-room residence, also painted white. Both the barn and dwelling were erected in 1906, and all the improvements were placed on the farm by Mr. Wright during his management. Mr. Wright owns one hundred acres, and seven acres of this is in timberland. The place is especially adapted to the raising of wheat, but for the purpose of feeding his mules, Mr. Wright has most of it in meadow, hay and clover. Mr. Wright's farm is a part of his father's estate of three hundred acres, and has been in the possession of the Wright family since the decade of the seventies.

William T. Wright was born December 1, 1866, in Franklin county, in the town of Brookville, near the home of Lew Wallace. His parents were John and Celia (Glidwell) Wright. His father, a native of Manchaster, England, was three years old when the Wrights came to the United States and was reared partly in Ohio and partly in Indiana. His death occurred in Franklin county in 1876 at the age of fifty-four. His occupation throughout his active career was that of farming. He was married in Franklin to Miss Glidwell, who was born in Indiana, of German ancestry. Her death occurred in 1912, when she was seventy years of age, having been born in 1832. Both parents were members of the Presbyterian faith. William T. Wright was one of four children, three of whom are still living. His brother, Frank A., is married and is a miller and farmer in Franklin county. The sister is Mrs. Jason B. Smith, a sketch of whose family will be found elsewhere in this work.

William T. Wright was reared and educated in Franklin county, and his home was there until 1901, at which time he took possession of his present place. In his native community he was married to Miss Hester May McCowen, who was born in Franklin county, Indiana, and reared and educated there. Her parents, John and Mary (Cole) McCowen, were born in Franklin county, being of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and farmers by occupation. Her father was seventy years of age at the time of his death.

Seven children had been born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Wright, as follows: W. Ralph, now twenty-two years of age, is a graduate of the Fairmount high school, and has charge of a grain elevator at Laurel, Indiana; Frances W., aged nineteen, graduated from the Fairmount high school in the class of 1911; Mary C., is a student in the Fairmount high school; Helen Gould is in the grade schools; Floyd E. in in the third grade of the district school; and the two youngest are Howard M. and Keith. In politics Mr. Wright votes the Democratic ticket.

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

Y. F. WHITE. In November, 1912, the people of Grant county chose for the office of sheriff a citizen whose fitness for such responsibility and honor is unquestioned and exceptional. Sheriff White has been a resident of Grant county most of his life, has been a practical and successful farmer, and has always been noted for his honesty and efficiency in every undertaking with which his name has been connected.

Y. F. White was born February 4, 1867, in Fairfield county, Ohio, a son of Levi and Carrie (Borns) White. The father, a native of Pennsylvania was a farmer by occupation and during the Civil war served as a soldier of the union. From Pennsylvania he moved into Ohio, where he spent ten years, and then came to Indiana when his son Y. F. was six years of age, locating in Monroe township, Grant county. The following year he transferred his residence into Washington township, where he bought a farm which remained his own home for many years, and was the place where the children grew to manhood. About eight years before his death the father moved into Marion, where he died in 1908. The mother passed away in the same year. They were the parents of five sons, who are all living and named as follows: Curtis A. White of Marion; Y. F.; William B. of Marion; Frank L., and owner of a farm in Van Buren township in this county; and John I., on the old home farm. Mr. Y. F. White was born on the farm, remained a farmer practically all his career, being still engaged in that occupation, though he has for four years resided in Marion. His early education was attained in the district schools and was completed at the Marion Normal College. When twenty-two years of age he left the home farm and spent the next three years in another place owned by his father in Van Buren township. At the end of that time his industry and good management had enabled him to begin business on his own account, and he bought a farm in Huntington county, close to the Grant county line. That remained his place of residence and activities until his removal to Marion four years ago. He lived in Texas with his family, in the winter of 1909, but then returned and opened a real estate office in Marion.

An influential Democrat in this county for many years, Mr. White was nominated on May 11, 1912, for the office of sheriff, made a successful campaign and entered upon the duties of his office on January 1, 1913. Mr. White still retains ownership of a farm in Washington township, and the old home place in Huntington county. In 1889 he married Miss Sarah E. Ridenour, daughter of Solomon Ridenour of Hocking county, Ohio. The two children born to their marriage are Boyd C. and Blanche White, both at home. Fraternally Mr. White is affiliated with the Loyal Order of Moose and the Elks Lodge, and he and his family worship in the United Brethren church.

JOHN H. CASKEY. The Caskey family have lived in Grant county since before the Civil war. All of its members have been substantial farmers and John H. Caskey, whose early career was divided between school teaching and tilling the soil now owns a comfortable estate in sections 26, 27 and 34 in Fairmount township.

His grandfather, John Caskey, was born near the Natural Bridge in Rockbridge county, Virginia, between 1792 and 1795, of Virginia parents, and of Scotch-Irish ancestry. A brother of John was a soldier in the Mexican war. In Virginia John Caskey married a Miss Greenlee. His death occurred as a result of accident while he was in the prime of life. In crossing the James River, with a flatboat loaded with flour, the boat was overturned, and though an expert swimmer he got tangled in his overcoat, and was overwhelmed by the water. His widow died some years later, though still a comparatively young woman. There were three sons and one daughter: James, who was a traveling dentist by profession, died in middle life, while a soldier in the Mexican war; Samuel, who died in Greensburg, Indiana, left a family of children; David is mentioned in the next paragraph; Mary, who died in Rush county, leaving a family of children, was the wife of George D. Glass, whose death occurred in Tipton, Indiana.

David Caskey, who was born on the old farm in Virginia, July 23, 1821, grew up and was very well educated for his time. Before his marriage, he came north during the forties to Rush county, Indiana, bought some land in Richland township, and a few years later during the decade of the fifties moved to Grant county. His purchase of land was made in Fairmount township, where the rest of his years were spent, until his death on June 2, 1905, when nearly eighty-four years of age. His was a career of substantial achievement and deserving of the high esteem which was paid him by his neighbors. The family religion had always been of the Baptist denomination, but later in life, David Caskey joined the Christian church, and was comforted by that faith in his last days. His politics was of the Democratic party. In Rush county he married Eliza Hite, who was born there, and her parents were from Rockbridge, Virginia. Jacob and Elizabeth (Lowrey) Hite were married in Rush county in an early day, and lived and died on their farm in Richland township, being quite old before death came to them. Jacob Hite was for forty years a justice of the peace, and only two of his decisions were ever reversed. Both were honored and upright people, and Mrs. Hite belonged to the Christian church. The grandfather of Mrs. Eliza Caskey was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Eliza Caskey died in Kansas in March, 1901, and was a devout member of the Christian church. Her children were: 1. John H. 2. Melissa, who became the wife of Charles M. Leach, whose family history will be found elsewhere in this volume. 3. Frances died after her marriage to E. C. Leach, and left no children. 4. William, who lived a few years in California, later moved to Kansas, where he died without issue. 5. James was accidentally killed in Hutchinson, Kansas, and left five children. 6. Minnie is the wife of L. A. Danton, of Waterloo, Iowa, and has one son.

John H. Caskey was born in Rush county, Indiana, February 19, 1847, and was still a child when the family moved to Grant county. Grant county has therefore been his home practically all his life. His education was much better than that received by the average young man of his time. From the public schools he entered the academy at Richland, Indiana, and with this equipment spent a part of the fifteen years in teaching. During each succeeding winter, he was master of a school, while the summers were spent in farming. Later all his attention and energies were given to the cultivation of the soil, and at the present time his proprietorship extends to one hundred and twenty acres of well improved and excellently managed land in Fairmount township. Besides his general operations as a farmer, his chief feature of his business is a dairy, and for a number of years he has kept a good herd of cows, and runs this branch of his business very profitably.

Mr. Caskey is well known for his participation in public affairs, and during 1882-84 served as deputy sheriff of Grant county. As a Democrat he has long been active, and for sixteen years was Democratic committeeman of his township.

In Rush county in 1873 Mr. Caskey married Miss Eliza Scott, who was born in that county in 1851. Her death occurred in her native county while she was visiting there in 1877. The two children by that marriage were: Ina, wife of David Whybrew, and their children are Flossie, Bessie, Alice, Lola and John; Bessie died after her marriage to Jacob Corn, and left one son, Leonard. In Reno county, Kansas, in 1880, Mr. Caskey married Miss M. E. Atkins, who was born in Huntsville, Mississippi, September 9, 1860. When she was thirteen years of age her parents S. J. and Virginia (Curtis) Atkins, moved to Kansas and lived there from 1873 until the death of Mrs. Atkins twenty-two years ago. For the past five years, Mr. Atkins has made his home in Los Angeles, California, and is now seventy-six years of age. The Atkins family are communicants of the Christian church, and his membership has been in the church since 1866, and for fifty-years he has been prominent in Masonic circles.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Caskey are mentioned as follows: 1. Lew, born in 1881, is now rural mail carrier on route number twenty-two out of Fairmount; he married Clara Stephens, and they have two children, Myrtle and Ruth. 2. William, whose home is in Columbus, Ohio, married Gertrude Cummings, and their children are Helen, William and Margaret. 3. Clyde, a young unmarried man, lives at home and assists with the management of the farm. 4. Gus died at the age of two months. 5. Florence was graduated in 1907 from the Fairmount high school, is a devoted student of music, and at the present time is organist in the Christian church at Fairmount. 6. John, also a graduate of the high school, is now a junior in the Ohio State University, being a member of the class of 1915. 7. Nettie F., aged eighteen, a studious and earnest girl, in the high school class of 1915, has for several years been a local heroine in Grant county. On March 19, 1910, she performed an act which is proof, not only of personal courage, but of that extreme unselfishness which is the highest attribute of character. Her niece, a little child of three years, had wandered away from home, getting on the Pennsylvania Railway tracks nearby, and was more than half a mile away before she was missed. With complete unconsciousness of danger, she was walking between the rails of the road, when Miss Caskey happened to observe her. A fast passenger train was approaching and could be heard in the distance. Getting out on the track, and pursued by the ever nearing train, Miss Caskey flew on wings of fear for the child, but without a thought of self, and finally breathless and almost at the end of her strength she gathered the child in her arms and swept her off the track just as the engine flashed by. Hardly the margin of a second separated her from the awful death which threatened both. The engineer, a Mr. Pardee who was a veteran railroad man of eighteen years' service failed to see the small child, and stated that he expected Miss Caskey to leave the rails at every moment, and remove herself from the danger. When he finally discovered the baby ahead he reversed the engine and applied the brakes, and this very brief pause was probably just sufficient to enable the girl to get out of the way in safety. For her bravery Miss Caskey received from the McNeil Underwriters Association, a beautifully inscribed and embossed medal, made from one hundred dollars worth of pure gold. In recognition of her brave and unselfish act there was also given her a bronze medal from the government with a letter from President Taft. The engineer, Mr. Pardee, stated afterwards, considering all the circumstances, that it was the bravest act he had ever witnessed or read of. 8. Minnie D. lives at home, and is a member of the high school class of 1915. Mr. and Mrs. Caskey and all the children are active in church work, and belong to the Christian denomination in Fairmount. In politics Mr. Caskey is a Democrat.

WILLIAM (Wick) O. LEACH. There are many families of Grant county who have lived here through three generations,�the first having come as pioneers, the second having carried on the development through the later decades of the last century, and the third now bearing the heat and burdens of the day, but under conditions far more pleasant than those surrounding their predecessors. With fewer obstacles to contend with, this third generation is in many cases showing all the greater progressiveness and enterprise and is wresting crops from the land which would have astonished their grandfathers. It is to this modern generation that Wick O. Leach belongs, and his name in Fairmount township suggests farming on a big and profitable scale, along lines of the maximum productiveness consistent with the proper conservation of the resources of the soil for the future yield.

Mr. Leach is cooperating with his father in the management of a farm of two hundred and sixty acres, situated in sections three and thirty-four of Fairmount township. That is acknowledged as one of the best country estates in the township. To a great many people it is familiar under the name of Maple Grove farm. Some of its more conspicuous improvements are two large red barns, one of them a stock barn, and the other for the storage of grain chiefly. A ninety-ton silo is a further evidence that farming on the Leach homestead is conducted according to modern principles. One of the barns has ground dimensions of thirty-six by forty-two feet, and the other thirty-eight by sixty-two feet. Mr. Leach allows very little land to go to waste, and practically every bushel of grain produced on the farm is fed to his stock. A fine drove of red Duroc swine is one of the sources from which he gets his annual revenues, and he also keeps a good dairy herd of ten Jersey cows. His horses are both Percheron, Norman and Belgians. Mr. Leach believes in the rotation method of cropping. His wheat is nearly thirty bushels to the acre, his oats about forty bushels, and his corn yield is on the average of about sixty bushels. Other crops which are a part of his rotation scheme are alfalfa and clover, and at the present writing he has twelve acres in alfalfa and twenty in clover. Mr. Leach has managed this estate for four years on his own account, and is one of the young men who are proving that it pays to stay on the farm.

Wick O. Leach has lived in Grant county all his life, and was born on the farm he now occupies, October 25, 1879. He is the son of Charles M. Leach, a grandson of Edmond Leach, and a great-grandson of William Leach, all of a family which has been identified with Grant county from pioneer times, and the careers of these older members are described elsewhere in this volume. Wick O. Leach was reared and educated in Fairmount township, getting a public school training. He attended Grant school No. 3, which is located on his farm. When he was twenty-four years of age, on October 25, 1902, he married in Jonesboro, Miss Dolly C. Jones. Miss Jones was born in Fairmount township, June 25, 1876, a daughter of Hiram A. and Annie (Hardy) Jones both natives of Jefferson township in Grant county. The Jones family is likewise of pioneer Grant county stock, and its records are found written on other pages. Mrs. Leach was educated at the old Liberty school, district No. 7.

Mr. and Mrs. Leach have the following children: Hazel M., born June 14, 1903, and now in school; Hiram A., born December 14, 1907; Charles Kenneth, born December 5, 1909; and Robert O. born October 30, 1911. Mr. Leach has membership in the Baptist church, while his wife belongs to the Salem Methodist Protestant Society. In politics he is a Democrat.

ALEXANDER M. DEEREN. This name bespeaks a large family relationship with pioneer settlers in eastern Indiana, chiefly in Delaware, Madison and Grant counties. The Deeren, Van Meter and Suman families had their share in pioneer things, agriculture has been their chief vocation, and an examination of the records show them to have been staunch defenders of their country, upholders of morality and religion, and people of intrinsic neighborliness and usefulness.

The late Alexander M. Deeren, who died July 3, 1896, was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, April 14, 1839. He grew up in his native locality, and when a young man enlisted in an Ohio regiment for three months' service in the Civil war. At the end of his service he was honorably discharged, and then returned to Ohio. Some time later he moved to Grant county, and followed the occupations of school teaching, clerking in a store, and farming.

He was first married in Jefferson township of Grant county to Melissa Brown, who was born and reared in that township, coming of a family of early settlers. She died about five years after her marriage, at the age of twenty-five, leaving three children, Minnie, Annie, and Martha E. Minnie and Annie are twins. Both married and now live in Jefferson township. Minnie married Charles Curtis, a farmer, and they have one son and a daughter. Martha E. was one year old when her mother died, and she was reared by her stepmother, Mrs. Deeren, and has never married.

In Fairmount township, on March 26, 1876, Mr. Deeren married Mrs. Naomi L. Suman, nee Van Meter. Mrs. Deeren was born in Delaware county, Indiana, July 11, 1838, was reared there, and for her first husband was married on November 1, 1859, to Absalom Suman. Absalom Suman's father was born in Maryland, was a young man when he came west to Indiana, and lived in both Madison and Delaware counties. Absalom Suman was born in Madison county, Indiana. The Suman family were among the early settlers in that section. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Suman lived in Madison and Delaware counties on a farm until March 3, 1864, when they came to Grant county and bought one hundred acres of land in Section thirty-six of Fairmount township. Their land adjoined the present village of Fowlerton. It was on that farm that Mr. Suman spent the remainder of his days. A hard worker, he made many improvements, and prospered steadily. His death occurred January 24, 1874, and he was born December 10, 1838. His church was the Methodist Protestant. Absalom Suman was a son of John and Elizabeth (Van Meter) Suman, natives of Maryland and Ohio respectively. John Suman was an early settler in Madison county, Indiana, where he entered land from the government, getting two hundred and seventy-five acres on White River, for his homestead, and two hundred and sixteen acres farther up the river in Delaware county, north of the village of Daleville. On the Delaware county land, he erected a large flour and saw mill, and that enterprise was just well started at the time of his death. He was then past sixty years of age. His widow married for a second time Dazzell Neely, and they lived together until his death. She later went out to California, where her death occurred when past ninety years of age. They had no children by the Neely marriage.

Mrs. Alexander M. Deeren is the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Bell) Van Meter. The annals of Delaware county show the name of Van Meter first in the list of pioneer settlers, and there are many representatives of the name still to be found in this section of the state. William Van Meter was born in Ohio, December 28, 1798, while his wife was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, March 8. 1799, and when a girl moved to Fayette county, Indiana, where she was married June 1, 1820. In 1825 William Van Meter and wife moved to Mt. Pleasant township in Delaware county, and there secured about four hundred acres of land from the government. Their third child, Mary, was born March 8, 1825, and had the distinction of being the first white child born in Mt. Pleasant township. William Van Meter was a rugged and industrious pioneer, and during his lifetime acquired substantial property and was a man of striking influence and usefulness to his community. He died October 10, 1861, while his wife passed away March 16, 1864. The home farm was undivided until 1874, when Mrs. Deeren sold eighty-three acres inherited by her, and came to Grant county. The Van Meter family were early and active members and organizers of the Presbyterian church in Delaware county, and William Van Meter was an elder in the society for twenty-five years, up to the time of his death. In early life he was a Whig in politics. The ancestry was Holland Dutch. The records of Delaware county show him to have been a man of highest standing, and frequently honored with places of trust and responsibility. He was always a leader in local matters, was one of the early county clerks, during the decade of the thirties, represented his county in the state legislature, and left a name long to be honored by his descendants.

William Van Meter and wife had nine children, two, John and William Josephus, dying in infancy. Joseph M. died unmarried at the age of thirty-two. Mary died after her marriage to Abraham Pugsley, leaving no children. Dr. Milton was a physician at Gaston, and died in 1868, leaving a widow and a daughter Helen, who is now married. Isaac N. died November 22, 1852, leaving a widow and a child that died in infancy. Henry H., a farmer, died October 12, 1861, the day following his father's death, and left one daughter, who is still living. Naomi L. is Mrs. Deeren. Oliver H. died and left three sons; for some years he was a government surveyor and land looker in Michigan.

Mr. and Mrs. Deeren became the parents of one son, Hugh Deeren. He was born June 26, 1877, was educated in the public school, and is now active manager of his mother's farm, a young and progressive citizen. He married Miss Nora White, of Fairmount township, and they are the parents of three children: Naomi Letha, born September 26, 1900, and now in the sixth grade of school No. 7 at Fowlerton; Wilson Alexander, born October 10, 1901, also in the sixth grade of the Fowlerton school; Artie Mary, born May 14, 1904, in the second grade of school. Mrs. Deeren by her marriage to Mr. Suman had three children. Of these William Van died in infancy; John N., born September 11, 1862, is a gas and oil well man in Texas, has a son, James M.; Harry P. Suman, born March 17, 1865, is an extensive rancher in North Dakota, his place being forty miles from Fargo, and has two children, Artie S., the wife of Robert A. Morris, whose home is in Grant county, and whose sketch will be found on other pages, and Ida, who lives at home. Mrs. Deeren and family are members of the Primitive Baptist Church of Fowlertown, and her late husband was an active worker in the same denomination.

Deb Murray