Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

JOHN WILHELM. Nearly seventy years of residence has served to identify the Wilhelm family with Grant county, where they located in time to take their share in the pioneer labors, and where they have been land owners, successful farmers, and public spirited citizens.

The ancestral stock is German, and John Wilhelm's grandparents lived and died in Russia near the German borders, as peasant farmers. Grandfather Wilhelm was twice married, and had children by both wives. Two sons of his first wife were captured during the invasion by Napoleon and forced to join the French army, going with the Emperor to Moscow, and later serving at Waterloo, in 1815. One of these sons was killed in that decisive battle, and the other was wounded and died six weeks later as a result of both wounds and exposure.

Frederick Wilhelm, father of John Wilhelm, was born November 17, 1812, and was still young when his father died. At the age of about sixteen or seventeen, in order to avoid being impressed into the army, he left home and took service at Bremen, Germany, as a steward in a hospital, a work which he followed for seven years. When twenty-eight years of age, Frederick Wilhelm was married in Bremen to Margaret Dunker, of that city, where she was born in 1813. Soon after their marriage they moved to Russia, built a small home, and became dissatisfied, sold out, and at Bremerhaven took passage on a sailing vessel which in eleven weeks crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and landed them in the United States. During their passage, their first child Elizabeth, was born. She died in 1855. After landing in Baltimore, Frederick Wilhelm found employment with a slave holding planter named Pecksley, and spent four years in superintending a portion of his slaves. While at Baltimore, Frederick, the second child, was born. He is now a farmer in Jefferson township of Grant county. Frederick Wilhelm, Sr., had great favor with his employer, and it was with great regret on both sides that he finally decided to leave Baltimore and move west. Coming to Indiana to get a new start in life, Frederick Wilhelm in 1845 bought forty acres of land in Grant county. This land had a few improvements, but of very primitive nature, comprising a log cabin which had been put together without a single nail, and had the typical old puncheon floor, and other furnishings. Frederick Wilhelm after arriving in Grant county, not only employed his time industriously in improving his land, but spent practically all the winter months and such other times as he could get free farm labor in driving a team for a Cincinnati firm, engaged in hauling produce from that city of Lake Michigan ports. That was before the days of the railroad, and overland transportation was practically the only means where canals and through water routes did not exist. For that work he got a dollar a day and boarded himself. It required six weeks to make the round trip between Cincinnati and Lake Michigan. It was by this work that he eventually saved enough to pay up on his first forty acres of land. A representative of that sturdy German stock that has been so prominent in the development of the new world, Frederick Wilhelm went steadily forward year after year, and eventually increased his possessions to four hundred acres of land. All that estate is now owned severally by his sons. His death occurred on the Grant county homestead, October 1, 1868, and his wife survived him many years until November 4, 1906. She was reared a Lutheran and he joined the same church in Germany. However, after they located on section sixteen in Jefferson township, he joined the Shiloh M. E. church. In politics the father was a Republican.

Mr. John Wilhelm was born after his parents came to Grant county, on July 28, 1846. Other children subsequently born to his parents were: Cyrus, who died after his marriage; Margaret, who married Michael Crow, and both are deceased; Noah, a well known cattle shipper and dealer at Upland, and unmarried; and David, died aged 3 years. John Wilhelm was reared on the farm, a portion of which he subsequently owned, and he now occupies it as his homestead, and besides owns sixty-five acres in Highland county, Ohio. As a general farmer and stock raiser, his successes have been above the average, and he has done a great deal to improve his property. Among the improvements which have added value and increased the productiveness of his place was the sinking of thirteen wells about the farm.

In Monroe township of Grant county, on April 1, 1871, Mr. Wilhelm married Nancy D. Jenkins. She was born in Monroe township, August 10, 1845, a daughter of Israel and Lydia (Driggens) Jenkins. Her father was a native of Virginia, and a son of Jacob and Hannah (Gothroup) Jenkins, the former Welsh and the latter of English parentage. Jacob Jenkins moved to Clinton county, Ohio, where he died after a career as a farmer. He and his wife were of old Quaker stock, and adhered to that faith during their lives. Israel Jenkins was married in Clinton county, Ohio, to Miss Driggens, a daughter of Robt. and Sarah Driggens, both of whom were born in South Carolina. but spent their later years in Clinton county, Ohio, where they died in the faith of the Quaker church. Mrs. Wilhelm has proved herself a most capable wife and mother, and has contributed at least an equal share in creating the family prosperity. Of the children born to their marriage there is one now living: Amanda, born January 14, 1873, is the wife of Everett Nelson, and they own and occupy sixty acres of the Wilhelm estate. They in turn have a son, Chester, who was born August 20, 1896, and is a student in the Upland high school; two children of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm lost a son, William R., at the age of two months. The religious faith of Mr. Wilhelm is that of the United Brethren, while his wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church. For the past eighteen years Mr. Wilhelm has cast his support in favor of the Prohibition party. Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm own 140 acres in Jefferson township, Grant county, Ohio, also own 65 acres in Highland county, Ohio.

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

WILLIAM HENRY MORRISH. There is no small number of high-grade, prosperous farms in Grant county, places which for several generations having been paying generous revenue to their owners. But this is not saying that all such farms are keyed up to the highest degree of productiveness and profit. Even a poorly managed farm will often pay a profit, but only the best will show such annual returns as a live store or factory will yield. To see farming at its best�scientific and practical management, maximum per-acre yield, and profit not without comfort� one needs only to visit the Morrish place in Fairmount township on section twenty-two. Mr. Morrish is one of the most practical and scientific farmers in the state, and has demonstrated that an eighty-acre farm, properly managed, is sufficient for one family to accumulate a substantial fortune. His example also proves that profitable farming must be conducted as any other business.

Devon county, England, long noted for its agricultural products and thrifty people, is the birthplace of William Henry Morrish, the date of his birth being April 17, 1853. The family has long been established in England, and his parents, John and Catherine (Cole) Morrish, were born, reared and married, and spent all their lives in Devon county. A large number of the family were sea-faring men, especially in the coast- wise traffic. Grandfather Morrish was lost at sea while pursuing his regular vocation. After that calamity, his son John quit the sea, and became a farmer, spending the rest of his life in Devon county. He died at the age of eighty-three years. His wife was born two years after his birth, and died just two years after his death. They were good, upright people and members of the established church. They had seven daughters and three sons, and of those five grew up and all but one were married, several being yet residents in England.

William Henry Morrish, the only one of the family to make his permanent home in the United States, was ten years old when he started out to make his own way. After working at different occupations, at the age of twenty, in the spring of 1873, he came across the ocean on the good ship Peruvian, from Liverpool, and reached his majority while on the voyage. The trip consumed only ten days, which was very quick time for that day. The ship landed him at Quebec, Canada, and after passing the summer there, came to Indiana, and spent three years working in this state. He then returned by way of Quebec to England, where he lived for six years. For two years he remained at his old home in Devon county and for four years was near London. He acquired a thorough knowledge of his business by working at gardening and horticulture.

While at London, Mr. Morrish married Elizabeth Tucker, a native of Buckinghamshire, and of old English ancestry. Her parents died in England before she was married. In 1833 Mr. and Mrs. Morrish again set out for America, landing at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the first day of April that year. From there they came to Fairmount, in Grant county, and started out as renters, taking the Harmon Buller place. It was as renters that they got their start and firmly established themselves on the firm basis of prosperity. Later Mr. Morrish bought eighty acres of first-class farm and in section twenty-two of Fairmount township. He has not only paid for his land out of the products of his management and labor, but has improved the farm until it could hardly be recognized as the same place which first came under his control. He has erected splendid barn, painted yellow, a large eighty-five ton silo stands beside it, and his dwelling house neatly painted white, provides not only shelter but many of the modern conveniences and comforts of living. The home is in the midst of a veritable bower of trees, nut only shade trees, but almost every kind of fruit grown in this part of the country. There are trees of apple, pear, peach and other fruits, besides many small fruits, including blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, and an abundance of grapes, besides a large truck garden. His caltalpa grove is one of the finest in the entire country. Mr. Morrish grows large crops of oats, wheat, corn, and keeps the stock necessary to consume all the farm products. There is no waste either in material or energy about the Morrish farm. The feed for the stock is weighed out carefully, and the stock are weighed regularly every month, so that he knows all the time just where he stands in the matter of value of stock on hand. There is no merchant in Grant county who keeps closer in touch with his stock than Mr. Morrish does of his farm investment, and his inventory sheets are models of thrifty, up to-date farming. A feature of his farm which is of special interest, is the generous use of concrete, in the construction f the barns, the silo, and feed pens. Mr. Morrish understands the fact that live stock do not thrive where they are in physical discomfort, and also that mud is a prime source of waste and extravagance in farm management. His stock therefore feed and rest on beds of clean, smooth concrete, and as, result not a pound of food goes to waste, and every ounce of manure is saved for the upbuilding of the soil. Out in the fields the same evidences of thrifty management are found, and his corn yield is over fifty bushels to the acre, oats likewise yield large crops, and he gets about forty bushels of wheat from every acre sown.

The children of Mr. And Mrs. Morrish are as follows: 1. John Edward, is successful farmer in Fairmount township, married Vida Mittank, and has one son Ernest. 2. Archer is now a dairy farmer at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and is unmarried. 3. Charles William married Nola Benson, of Pleasant township, and they reside on the home place. 4. Ralph, like the others is a well educated young man, having attended the Fairmount Academy, and remains at home assisting his father. Mr. Morrish and sons are Republican voters.

WILLIAM FOSTER DAVIS. On section twenty-eight of Fairmount township, adjoining the corporation limits of the little city, is situated the well improved farm and snug homestead of William Foster Davis, a citizen whose entire life has been passed within the limits of Grant county, and who as a farmer has given an excellent account of his energy, and has displayed much public spirit in the life of the community. He is in the third generation of the Davis family in Grant county, and his grandfather located here about eighty years ago, when all the country was new and when civilization was first getting a firm foothold in this region. His grandfather Harvey Davis was the founder of the family in Grant county. Harvey Davis was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, and the family for a number of generations have lived in that state, and were of the Wesleyan Methodist religious faith. Harvey Davis was born about 1804, was reared on a farm, and first married in his native locality. About 1833 he and his wife and children came north after the fire of that time. There was not a railroad of any importance in the entire country and wagon trail, canal, river highways and pack-trains, were the chief modes of transportation, in every portion of the country. It is noteworthy that a larger part of the early settlers of Grant county located in religious groups or colonies, of which the Quakers were, of course, the most numerous. The Davis family were part of the Wesleyan Back Creek community in Liberty township. They settled in the midst of the green woods on the range line road, and there the grandfather cleared out a space, erected a log cabin with the aid of his neighbors, and planted his first crop among the stock. His labors eventually resulted in the clearing up of more than one hundred acres, and he was in his time a prosperous and substantial farmer. His first wife died on the old homestead in Liberty township in 1867. In that year smallpox was epidemic in Grant county, and she fell a victim to that dread disease. She was then about fifty years of age. Her husband married for his second wife a Miss Smithson, and for a good many years afterwards lived on the Smithson farm in Fairmount township. Quite late in life he retired to the city of Fairmount, and there died about twenty-five years ago, at the good old age of eighty-five. His second wife died some four or five years later, and was then nearly four score years of age. Both were Wealeyan Methodists, while the grandfather was probably a Whig in his early voting days, and later a Republican. They were the parents of seven children, four sons and three daughters, all of whom grew up and married and all had children. Those still living of this family are: Henry Davis, who is mentioned in the following paragraph; Foster Davis, for many years a well known lawyer in Marion, and a farmer soldier of the Civil war now living retired with his family at Marion; Harvey, Jr., the younger of the living sons went through the war as a Union soldier, lost his wife some years ago, but still has living children, and lives in the National Soldiers Home at Marion.

Dr. Henry Davis, the father, was born in Liberty township, and is now seventy-four years of age. He grew up on a farm and acquired the art and practiced veterinary surgery. He is now living in Fairmount City, but owns a fine farm of one hundred acres in section thirty-one of that township, and was an active agriculturist until about thirty years ago. Since taking up his residence in Fairmount, he has devoted most of his time to veterinary work. He is now seventy-four years of age, and still is smart and active. He was married in Madison county to Sarah Ann Jones, who was born in North Carolina, and when a small girl was brought to Madison county, Indiana. Her parents lived and died in Boone township of that county, where her father as a pioneer, improved a good farm. The Jones family were members of the Christian church, and reared five children, of whom one, Samuel Jones, is now living on a farm in Boone township, and is a bachelor. Mrs. Henry Davis died February 16, 1911, at the age of sixty-nine. She and her husband were communicants of the Wesleyan faith, while he has always been a Republican in politics. The children of Henry Davis and wife are mentioned thus: William Foster; Julia Ann, and Charles, both of whom died young; Emma is the wife of George L. Mittank, a farmer in Fairmount township, and has four children, one son and three daughters; Lydia, died at the age of sixteen; John lives on his father's farm, in section thirty-one of Fairmount township, and by his marriage to Darl Hastings, daughter of Robert Hastings, has one son and one daughter living, while they have lost one son and a daughter.

William Foster Davis was born June 16, 1860. His early schooling was acquired in Liberty and Fairmount township, and early in life he made choice of vocations as a farmer. As a result of hard work and steadily thrifty management, he and his wife have found prosperity, and now own eighty acres of land in section twenty-eight, close to the corporation line of Fairmount city. Among the farms in this vicinity the Davis estate compares favorably with any, and has many evidences of progressive management. In the midst of trees stands the comfortable farm dwelling, while a good barn shelters the grain and stock, and all the buildings are made attractive with paint and cleanly surroundings.

Mr. Davis was married March 17, 1881 to Amanda Mittank, who was born in Fairmount township, August 19, 1860. Her training and education were received in this county, which has been her home all her life. Her parents are Michael and Eliza J. Dickerson Mittank. Her father is a native of Pennsylvania, while her mother was born in Indiana, and they were married in Grant county. Her father has for many years been a resident of Grant county, has been a thrifty farmer, and is now living retired in Fairmount City at the good old age of eighty-four years. The mother died in 1878 at the age of forty-five years. She was a member of the Christian church. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Davis were born four children. Leroy died at the age of five years, while Robert died when three years of age; Belle, born May 30, 1888, was graduated from the Fairmount high school in 1910, and now lives at home; Clarkson, born August 7, 1890, is a graduate of the public schools and his father's able assistant on the farm. The children attend the Methodist Sunday school.

DANIEL B. JOHNSON. The quiet pursuits of farming have been the life occupation of Daniel B. Johnson, and his is one of the attractive and valuable farms of Fairmount township. His home is on section two, close to the Madison county line, and his postoffice is Summitville in the latter county. Mr. Johnson is of an old North Carolina family, and represents the fourth generation of its residence in the state of Indiana.

His great-grandfather Reuben Johnson, a native of North Carolina, was married there, and after the birth of his children, Daniel, Joseph, William, Charles and Ann Jeanette, left the south and with wagons and teams migrated across the mountains and over the great middle plains to eastern Indiana, arriving in Nettle Creek township of Randolph county, he selected a home of one hundred and sixty acres in the wilderness, built a log house of hewed loge from the poplar timber, and there he and his wife lived until death came to them at a good old age.

They were among the pioneers of the old-school Baptist faith in that vicinity, and did much to organize the church of that denomination. From the early days the Johnson family has been identified with the Democratic party.

Daniel Johnson, grandfather of Daniel B., was born in North Carolina about one hundred years ago. His early youth was spent partly in his native state and partly in Randolph county, Indiana, and when ready to start out on his own account he acquired some land adjoining the old homestead. His brothers, Joseph and William, did the same, and altogether the Johnsons occupied a full section of land in Nettle Creek township. The death of Daniel Johnson occurred on his farm, when he was nearly eighty years of age. His brother William was past ninety, and Joseph also lived to a good old age. The other brothers and sister owned land and lived in Nettle Creek township. Daniel Johnson married Elizabeth Bookout, who came from Virginia, and who died on the homestead in Nettle Creek township when an old woman. They were both members of the old-school Baptist faith, and Daniel was a Democrat.

Of their children, Reuben was the oldest, and was born in 1837. His death occurred in Fairmount City, May 9, 1900. In 1871 his home was established in Madison county, where he lived on eighty acres in Van Buren township until his retirement. After that his residence was in Fairmount City from 1892 until his death. Reuben Johnson married Sarah Hastings, who now lives at the corner of Walnut and Adams Street in Fairmount, and was seventy-six years of age on July 4, 1913. Her father Carter Hasting was from Randolph county, North Carolina, and one of the pioneer settlers in Fairmount township, where he entered land direct from the government, near the corporation limits. His home continued there until his death. Carter Hastings was a man much above the average in material prosperity and in his influence and character, was active in the United Brethren church, and his wife was also a. communicant of the same faith. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Row of North Carolina, and she preceded her husband in death, though she was likewise quite an old woman. Of the children of Reuben and Sarah Johnson, those besides Daniel B. are mentioned as follows: Sophronia, whose home is in California, has two sons and two daughters. Mary is the wife of William Lewis of Fairmount township, a farmer and shoemaker and has two sons. Robert lives in Van Buren township of Madison county, where he is a farmer, and by his marriage to Amelia Beck, has two sons and two daughters. Martha is the wife of Alva Thorn, a farmer in Van Buren township of Madison county, and has one son and two daughters. Amanda is the wife of Wilson T. Leach, a farmer in Madison county, and they have one son. Nancy Ann, who died in 1907, was the wife of John Duncan, of Fairmount, and of her three sons and two daughters all are now dead except one son.

Daniel B. Johnson was born in Fairmount township December 15, 1857. His education was that afforded by the public schools, and his active career has been entirely spent as a farmer. His present estate on section two comprises forty acres, and has the first class improvements which are so characteristic of the better Grant county farms. His crops are those staple to Grant county, and all his grain is fed to stock raised on the place. A good red barn and a comfortable house are features which indicate the progressive character of the proprietor.

Mr. Johnson was married in Fairmount township in 1879, to Miss Mellicent Hiatt, who was born in Fairmount township, February 7, 1858. Reared and educated in this locality, since her marriage she has proved an excellent helpmate and has done much to forward the material prosperity of the family, at the same time devoting herself with motherly care and intelligence to the rearing of her children. Her parents were Elias and Hannah (Hunt) Hiatt, natives of Henry county, Indiana, where they were married. Elias Hiatt came to Grant county in the early forties and entered government land two miles south of Fairmount, where his first home was a log cabin, later replaced with the good frame house, and still later with a brick home. The last residence was completed about fifteen years ago. Although feeble, Elias Hiatt a still living at the age of eighty-five. His wife is now seventy-four years of age, and is hale and hearty. They are members of the German Baptist or Dunkard church.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are the parents of the following children: Dessie E. is the wife of Brook Roberts, of Fairmount, a retired farmer, who is the owner of one hundred acres in Madison county. Oliver N. died at the age of three years. Willard C, is a graduate of the Indianapolis Veterinary College, and is now practicing at Summitville, in Madison county; he married Myrtle Jones, and has a son Wilford. Estella lives at home and is unmarried. Hannah died unmarried at the age of twenty-two. Walter lives at home, and is just entering upon a vigorous young manhood.

Deb Murray