George W. Steele is a native of this state, born in Fayette county December 13, 1839. When he was a little more than three years of age his parents moved to Grant county, settling here on February 3, 1843, so that for more than seventy years this county has been his home. His parents were Asbury and Mary Louisa (Waddom) Steele, the former a native of Kentucky, and the latter of Indiana. Asbury Steele was a lawyer by profession, and was for many years a successful member of the Marion bar. Soon after he had taken up his residence in this county, he was elected to the office of county clerk, and re-elected, resigning, however, to resume the law early in his second term. He was the colonel of the 34th Indiana Volunteers from August 2, 1861, to January 14, l862, when he resigned. Was a state senator. His death occurred in 1886; that of his wife in 1870. Of their six children only two are now living: Colonel George W. Steele and Asbury E. Steele, an attorney of Marion.

Col. George W. Steele received his education in the common schools of Marion and had collegiate advantages in the Ohio Wesleyan University. At an early date he took up the study of law and after being admitted to practice, opened an office in Hartford City, this state, on April 11, 1861. Two days later Fort Sumter was fired upon and after eight days in his new office he closed it and rode horse-back across country to Marion and enlisted in a company which was organized in this city for the Eighth Indiana Regiment of Infantry. He was not mustered into that company, however, having gotten his name upon the roll too late, but with others formed a nucleus for a company which was mustered into the Twelfth Indiana Infantry on May 2, 1861, he being commissioned a First Lieutenant. This regiment was stationed at Evansville until July 18, 1861, at which date it was ordered to Washington in order to take part in the campaign which terminated in the battle of Bull Run. The regiment failed to reach the field in time to participate in that first great disastrous battle to the Federal army, and during the following winter of 1861-62 it was engaged in picket duty, the camp of his company being near Antietam Aqueduct, Maryland. In March, 1862, the Twelfth Indiana was among the advanced troops in the forces that drove the Rebels out of Winchester, Virginia.

When the stated term of service for the regiment had expired it returned to Indianapolis, via Washington, D. C., to be mustered out, and arrived in Washington the night after the first day's battle at Fair Oaks, Virginia, in May, 1862. The following morning's paper gave vivid account of the severe reverses suffered by General McClellan and his troops, and this news produced such an impression upon the regiment that it at once marched to the White House and offered its services without compensation, to President Lincoln. This prompt action in the face of great national danger was greeted with many compliments by the President, who said he believed the battle would be over before the regiment could reach the field, and advised the officers and men to return to their homes and resume their respective avocations in life.

In August, 1869 Col Steele organized a company for the One Hundred and First Indiana Infantry, was elected captain, and at once with the regiment was transported to Newport, Kentucky, to meet the forces of Bragg which were then threatening to cross the Ohio River. The Company took active part in the campaign which forced Generals Bragg and Early to countermarch. The Union Army under General Buell overtook the Confederate Army at Perryville in October, 1862, where a fierce battle, in which the One Hundred and First Indiana participated, ended in favor of the Union cause, the Confederates under General Bragg retreating. There were many other engagements, especially skirmishes in which the One Hundred and First Indiana actively participated, until Murfreesboro was reached, when another great battle, one of the greatest of the war, was fought. The Union Army, being victorious, remained in and near to Murfreesboro until in June, 1863. On February 8, 1863, the major of the regiment having resigned, although there were eight captains who ranked Captain Steele, he was commissioned major, on account of a petition signed by every officer of the regiment present, save one captain who ranked him. He has a copy of this petition, prizing it very highly. Commissary supplies having to be brought over a long single line of railroad, harassed by the enemy, made foraging necessary. On one of these foraging expeditions a division of General Morgan's Cavalry followed a brigade commanded by General Hall, to which the One Hundred and First Indiana belonged. This regiment was thrown out to offer as much resistance as possible to Morgan's command, while three regiments and a battery of artillery, the Nineteenth Indiana, parked the loaded train they had, and took position. This the regiment did successfully, two companies of skirmishers under the command of Major Steele performing especially active and efficient service, and as evidence that the regiment was where the most severe fighting occurred, is the fact that seven-eighths of the men killed and wounded belonged to the One Hundred and First Indiana. The enemy tried for six or seven hours to drive the brigade from its position, but finally withdrew, leaving a hundred and eighty dead and wounded on the field.

On May 31, 1863, the Colonel of the regiment having resigned, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Doan was commissioned Colonel and Major Steele Lieutenant Colonel, but on account of active service and inaccessibility to mails and mustering officers, they served without mustering until the close of the war.

The regiment was in all of the campaigns and battles in which the troops of its brigade were engaged to Chattanooga, including the battle of Chickamauga; at Missionary Ridge; the ninety days' campaign including the fall of Atlanta, all the time under fire or within hearing of fire, the march after Hood into Alabama; then back to Atlanta, and to the Sea, through the Carolinas, the battles of Smithfield and Bentonville; after the surrender of Lee's army, marching to Richmond and to Washington; thence by railroad and steamboats to Louisville, arriving the latter part of June, 1865, whence they had started the latter part of September, 1862. On the Campaign to the Sea, Colonel Steele was in charge of a battalion of foragers that for efficiency and good luck was not excelled by any other organized body of nearly the same strength.

After the war he tried the grocery business, it only taking him a very few days to ascertain that the business was too large for him. On account of which he sold out and started as a "boomer" in Kansas City, Missouri. Was surprised at the limited success he had. Returning to Marion, he married Marietta E. Swayzee, a daughter of one of the oldest and most respected families of Grant county. Shortly afterwards he accepted a commission as First Lieutenant in the Fourteenth United States Infantry and was ordered to California, going to New York, thence to Aspinwall, now Colon, crossing the Isthmus of Panama, thence to San Francisco by Pacific liner, and to San Pedro, and by ambulance to their new home at Camp Grant, arriving within two days of a year after the date of their marriage, where they lived for several months in an adobe house with two small rooms, dirt floor, dirt roof, and canvas windows; the Apaches being so hostile it was entirely unsafe to go out of the camp without an escort. Colonel Steele was later made regimental quartermaster; then depot quartermaster. The regiment was ordered East, with headquarters at Nashville, Tennessee, where a daughter, Marietta V., was born. The Indians on the Upper Missouri becoming troublesome, the regiment was ordered to Fort Randall, and thence to Fort Thompson, and after securing tranquility, to Fort Sedgwick as headquarters, the regiment scattering, some of the companies remaining at this post, others going to Sidney, Fort D. A. Russell, Fort Fetterman, and to Laramie, where the headquarters of the regiment moved on account of trouble with the Sioux Indians. Colonel Steele was not only quartermaster of the regiment and depot quartermaster, but was made commissary, looking after not only the supplying and distribution of supplies for the troops at Laramie and Fetterman, but supplying nine thousand five hundred Indians with rations for several months.

He resigned from the Army after ten years' service, becoming a successful pork packer in Marion, and he yet wonders how it happened that he was able to borrow all of the great amount of money that was necessary to run such an establishment, without being able to pay for the completion of the building or having a dollar of capital, obtaining all he needed on his checks alone.

In 1878, having political aspirations, he made the race for nomination to Congress on the Republican ticket. The congressional district, composed of Grant, Madison, Delaware, Henry, Hancock, Shelby and Johnson counties, was strongly Democratic, which, the Colonel states, probably made it easy-for him to get the endorsement of Grant county. The convention was held in Shelby county. Colonel Steele having gone to the army as a boy and only having returned a comparatively short time, all of which was occupied in business, he had few acquaintances throughout the district. Nevertheless his Grant county friends nearly secured his nomination; he only losing by a vote and a half, Colonel Gross defeating him. In 1879 George W. Steele, Jr., was born. In 1880, the district being changed to take in Grant, Howard, Miami, Wabash, Wells, Adams, Jay and Blackford counties, Colonel Steele was nominated and elected to the Forty-seventh Congress by a plurality of 533. Was reelected in 1882 by a plurality of 333; again in 1884, by a plurality of 54, and again in 1886 by a plurality of 408. Howard county being taken out of the district and giving twice the plurality he had had at any time, caused his defeat by 400 in 1888. He was out of Congress for six years. He helped to organize the First National Bank of Marion and became its president in 1890. During the same year, on account of the insistence of President Harrison, and because he did not think he was much of a banker, he accepted the governorship of Oklahoma Territory, with the distinct understanding that it was only to be a temporary appointment, on account of desiring to go into business. He found the Territory with county seats without county boundaries; the authority of the military removed on account of the civil act organizing the territory. There were no other officers in the territory save the commissioner, and receiver of the land office and the United States marshal; the United States district judges and the secretary of state arrived shortly afterwards. County boundaries were made by the Governor and the only change asked was by one county, that two townships that had been given to it be added to another, hoping and expecting that the Cherokee Strip between Oklahoma and Kansas would be opened, when additional territory might be added to this (Stillwater) county. In this they were right. Enumeration of the population was provided for, and officers appointed, from treasurer of state to road supervisors and constables, the applicants for office or their friends or both being asked to meet the Governor at the county seats and make application in person. The appointment of all these officers was made inside of ten days, and so far as he is aware no complaint was made that any of them were not honest and efficient. Apportionment of the population was made for legislative purposes; elections held, and the legislature assembled to enact or adopt laws for the government of the territory, the apportionment being entirely satisfactory to all political parties and so fair that it resulted in a majority of only two in favor of the Republicans. The question of the location of the capital of the territory was one of the first that came up for consideration, and two Republicans from Oklahoma county agreed to give the organization to their rivals in consideration of their votes for the removal of the capital from Guthrie, the temporary seat of government, to Oklahoma City. This with other considerations entering into the matter before the vote was taken made the Governor feel it incumbent upon him to veto the bill, which he did, very much of course to the disappointment of not only the senators and members of Oklahoma County engineering the scheme, but to many of the good citizens of that county. Afterwards on account of prearrangement, the capital was voted for another county, and the bill again vetoed, the reasons for which being stated opening in the legislature by the Governor. The Capital question, however, was so disposed of during the incumbency of Governor Steele that it never gave any further trouble to the people of the territory, nor was it changed until after the territory became a state, when it was finally fixed at Oklahoma City. He found the people of the territory very poor on his arrival, and was able to secure from the National Treasury $44,000.00 in money with which to buy rations; secured competent men of unquestioned integrity to expend the money, and arranged for the transportation of the supplies to the points for distribution in the territory, without cost or loss to the poor people. In the fall of that year, on his assurance that he would do the best he could to see that wheat in kind was returned, if the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and Rock Island Railroads would deliver it to their agents and loan it to the farmers for seed, twenty thousand bushels were secured, and it was returned bushel for bushel Thousands of people more than there were quarter-sections of land camped on government reservations, especially on the school lands, and arrangements were made by the Governor, through the Secretary of the Interior, for leasing these lands annually at the best price, payable in cash; giving preference to the lessee when future leases were to be made. This was the first arrangement of its kind, and resulted not only in giving homes to the people occupying these lands and improving them for the use of the territory, but many thousand dollars were added to the school fund.

After remaining nineteen months as Governor, instead of five or six as he first expected, he resigned, coming back to Marion, in the meantime being offered an important position: that of Government Director of the Union Pacific Railroad. Notwithstanding its good salary he felt like returning home. Shortly thereafter he with others purchased a large tract of land near Marion, and became a director in what was known as the Wanamaker Land Company, which did not disappear from the map, but only because it was all paid for. It is just now worth as much as it cost in 1892.

In 1894 he was elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress and reelected to the Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses. During his first term of eight years he served on the committees on military affairs, on pensions, and on expenditures in the War Department. During his last eight years he served on the committee on ways and means. During this service President McKinley offered him an appointment as brigadier general in the Spanish-American War, which he had to decline because he had gone to the President in the interest of another gentleman, whom the President could not favor.

In 1888 while a member of the Fifty-seventh Congress, notwithstanding it was Democratic, he introduced and secured the passage of a bill establishing a National Soldiers Home in Grant county, Indiana, the smallest limit of territory that, up to that time, had been thought of in the establishment of such great institutions. The bill was approved by President Cleveland. For fourteen years while Governor of Oklahoma and while Member of Congress, and subsequent to that time, he was a member of the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and for the last nine years has been Governor of the Marion Branch.

There are two children: the daughter, Marietta V., is married and now living in Indianapolis; and a son, George W. Steele, Jr., a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy, who has recently performed such service as to prompt the Admiral of the Pacific Squadron and the Secretary of the Navy to have recorded official mention and commendation of it.

"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

David P. Cubberley was born in Licking county, Ohio, and came to Grant county during the early forties, here becoming the first dental practitioner in the city of Marion, where he was engaged in an extensive and representative practice up to his death in 1884, when he was the oldest dentist in Grant county. During the Civil War he enlisted for service in the Union army as captain of a company in the Twelfth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and spent three years on southern battlefields. For years he was connected with the Masonic fraternity, and for a long period was secretary of his Blue Lodge at Marion. Dr. Cubberley married Charlotte M. Frazier, daughter of Nathan W. Frazier, a pioneer and influential citizen of Grant county, and she survived him until 1888, having been the mother of four children: Lewis P.; Nathan S., who is deceased; and Mrs. Emma C. Hutchinson and Mrs. Belle C. Tukey, both of whom reside in Marion.

Lewis P. Cubberley received his early education in the public schools of Marion. When eighteen years of age he entered the railroad mail service, in which he continued to be employed until 1880, and during this time operated between Toledo and St. Louis, on the Toledo, St. Louis & Western Railroad, and the Wabash and Pennsylvania fast mails. On leaving the mail service, Mr. Cubberley accepted a position with Huestes & Hamilton, wholesale grocers of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and remained with this concern until 1888, when he entered the employ of the Wilson & McCally Tobacco Company, of Middletown, Ohio, continuing with that firm for ten years and then accepting a position as traveling representative for the H. W. Spurr Coffee Company, of Boston and Kansas City, a company with which he has since been identified. In 1900 he returned to Marion and established himself in a wholesale and retail cigar business, a venture which has proved a decided success and has enjoyed a healthy and continued growth. The various brands handled by Mr. Cubberley have attained a high degree of popularity and now meet with a steady demand in every place in this section of the State where cigars are sold. From modest beginnings, Mir. Cubberley has built up a flourishing enterprise, and his success may be accredited solely to his own efforts, his strict attention to business and the honorable manner in which he has carried on his transactions.

On September 6, 1905, Mr. Cubberley was united in marriage with Miss Nellie Cook of Toledo, Ohio, daughter of J. D. and Eliza (McClure) Cook, pioneer residents of Grant county. Mr. Cook, a contractor in construction work, was widely known in his field of endeavor, being the builder of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, and attained distinction as the constructor of the only large work in the City of Galveston, Texas, which withstood the ravages of the devastating flood of 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Cubberley have had no children. He is a Republican in his political views, but has taken only a good citizens interest in public affairs. Like his father, he has become prominent in fraternal circles, being a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Elks, in both of which orders he has numerous friends.

"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

Mark L. Swayzee is the son of Aaron C. and Minerva A. (Hodge) Swayzee, both of whom are now dead. Aaron C. Swayzee was born in the state of New Jersey, but migrated from there to Lancaster, Fairfield county, Ohio, and after living there for a time came to Grant county, Indiana. He located here in 1836 and was consequently one of the pioneers of this section. By trade he was a shoemaker and shortly after coming to Grant county he entered the manufacturing business as a manufacturer of boots and shoes. For many years thereafter he conducted a retail store in the city of Marion and became actively identified with the growth and development of the city. He was recognized as a leader, not only in the business world, but also in the political and civic life of the city. In 1874 he was elected a representative to the state legislature from Grant and Blackford counties, and proved an able spokesman for his people. He was always active in church affairs, being a member of the Methodist church and for many years a member of the official board of this church. He died in 1878 and his widow died in 1890. They were the parents of seven children, two of whom died in infancy. The other children are James W. Swayzee, of Padagonia, Arizona; Mrs. W. C. Harrington, of St. Helena, California; Frank C. Swayzee, of Washington, D. C.; and Mrs. George W. Steele, of Marion.

Mark L. Swayzee was born in the city of Marion on the 5th of September, 1864. He received his education in the public schools of his native town and in the Miami Commercial College at Dayton, Ohio. It was in 1883 that he began his business career as an employee in Sweetser's Bank, which has since become the First National Bank, of Marion He was thus employed for seven years, gaining a valuable knowledge of financial affairs and of the ways of the business world. He then went into business for himself, being engaged in specialty milling for five years. He then established Swayzee's Market, which has been mentioned as being one of the largest retail grocery and market houses in the northern part of the state. He is also engaged in the feed and milling business on Second street and has made a success of this enterprise also.

In fraternal affairs Mr. Swayzee has always been deeply interested and holds a membership in many societies among them being the Masons, Elks and Knights of Pythias. He is also a member of the Country Club. In politics he is a member of the Republican party and has taken quite a prominent part in political affairs. He was the last town clerk and treasurer and the first city treasurer after the incorporation of the city, and he is always ready to give his time and service to any movement that may be conducive to the welfare of the city of Marion.

Mr. Swayzee was married on the 25th of May, 1889, to Eugenia Richards, a daughter of L. Y. Richards of Napoleon, Ohio, and they have become the parents of two children, Mark Richard Swayzee and Mary Louise Swayzee.

"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