This is an old New England family, and great grandfather Adrial Simons was born in one of the New England states, served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, was married and later moved to Bradford county, Pennsylvania, where he reared a family of sixteen children. His wife's maiden name was Bingham. They both attained to good old age, and died in Pennsylvania. Adrial Simons, the grandfather, was born either in New England or Pennsylvania about 1793, and was brought up on a farm in Pennsylvania and was there married. His first child, Henry Simons, father of Adrial Simons of Grant county, was born May 15, 1815, and four years later, in 1819, the little family came out to Ohio and settled in Darke county. In Darke county, Adrial Simons and wife spent most of their years, and his wife passed away about 1855. They had established themselves in the wilderness, and eventually acquired a good farm, and made a comfortable home for themselves and children. Some years after the death of his wife, Adrial Simons moved out to Indiana, and died at the home of a son, Henry Simons, in Jefferson township, in 1875.

Henry Simons, who was the oldest of the family, had brothers and sisters who grew up as follows: Eliza, who died after her marriage, and after she had reared a family; William, died in Warren, Indiana, in 1912, when past ninety-two years of age—he lived with his wife for more than sixty years, and had a large family of children; Anna married, died without children; Adrial, third of the name, who married and reared a family and died in Huntington, Indiana; Erastus, who had a family and who died on a farm in Grant county; Sophronia, the wife of William Helms, and both died in Huntington county, Indiana, having a family of children; Naomi, who married a Mr. Broderick. who died in Darke county and she died in Huntington, Indiana, in October, 1913; Maurice, who died in Huntington county, Indiana, was a farmer, miller and railroad man, and left a family; Sarah J., the wife of Martin Wilts, lives near Warren, Indiana, and has several children.

Henry Simons was reared in Darke county, Ohio, and in that vicinity married Phoebe Thomas, a neighbor girl, a daughter of John and Agnes (McClure) Thomas, who were natives of Virginia but spent most of their lives near New Madison on the Whitewater river. Soon after their marriage and before the birth of any children, Henry Simons and wife moved out to Indiana, and in 1840 located on government land in section thirty-six of Fairmount township. Their location comprised eighty acres, and had been selected by Henry Simons, according to a usual custom of that time, some months previous to the settlement of his family. Probably when he first selected the land he made a little clearing and erected a log cabin home. Anyhow such a house was the first shelter of the Simons family in Grant county, and he and his young wife began housekeeping there and set out with courage and determination to make a home for themselves in the wilderness. The wife of Henry Simons died in February, 1852, being then only thirty-two years of age. She left five children. Henry Simons then married for his second wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Parrell, whose maiden name was Walker, and who was the widow of James Parrell. She had one child by her previous marriage, Joseph W. Parrell, who lived in Fairmount township. Elizabeth Simons died leaving four children, all of whom are now married and have families of their own, their names being John H., Levi P., David W., and Mata M. Henry Simons survived both wives and died at the old homestead March 30, 1902. By his first marriage, there were children as follows: An infant that died unnamed; William, who is now a resident of Fairmount township, a retired farmer, and who has one son and two daughters; Adrial, mentioned below; Jonathan, who died of scarlet fever in the winter following his mother's death, and that same plague carried off other children named Martha Ann and Ransom E.

In four successive generations there has been an Adrial Simons, and Mr. Simons of Jefferson township continues the custom from his great-grandfather, his grandfather, and his uncle. Adrial Simons was born on the old Fairmount township homestead March 28, 1845, was educated in that vicinity and his home was with his parents until he was twenty-one years of age. He secured his first small store of capital by working at wages for neighboring farmers, and at the time of his marriage started out on his own account, with only a small amount of land, with very little stock and supplies, and all his property has been won through the thrift and good management of himself and wife. Mr. Simons now possesses a fine farm estate of one hundred and sixty acres, and all but three acres of this might be considered under the highest state of improvement. A large red barn and a fine ten-room house are conspicuous features of the Simons estate and the farm is well stocked and with abundance of water, and its crops measure up to the best standards of Grant county agriculture. Mr. Simons has an excellent local reputation as a breeder of high-grade shorthorn cattle and Poland-China hogs.

In July, 1874, Mr. Simons was married in Jefferson township to Miss Elizabeth M. Needler, who was born in Jefferson township February 14, 1844, was educated in this locality, and her parents were James and Rebecca Needler, early settlers who located in Jefferson township during the thirties. Her mother was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while Mr. Needler was associated with no church organization. Mr. and Mrs. Simons have the following children: Ora Bell, who died in infancy; Roscoe E., who died at the age of twenty-five unmarried; Carl C., who died unmarried at the age of twenty-two and who was just at the entrance to a most promising manhood; Malevie M., who was educated in the common schools and lives at home with her parents. Mr. Simons is a Republican but has never shown any desire for public office, although public spirited in all his relations with community affairs. "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

John R. Little was born in Fairmount township, July 31, 1871. His family record is an interesting and honorable one. His great-grandfather, John Little, Sr., was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, of North Carolina parentage. Owing to certain misfortunes he got in debt, and according to the laws then prevailing in that state he was subject to arrest and imprisonment. Refusing to accept the burdensome and unjust conditions, he left the state and was never heard of again. His widow, whose maiden name was Mary Nicholson, was thus left with four sons, David, Nathan, Zimri, and John Jr. These children were bound out according to the methods then in vogue. David was brought to Indiana in a very early day by Aaron Hill, and lived and died in Wayne county, where he secured land, improved it, and made a comfortable little fortune. He was three times married and reared a large family. He was eighty years of age at the time of his death. The son, Zimnri died in North Carolina, where he reared a family. Nathan and John, the latter the grandfather of Mr. John R. Little, in 1852 brought their families to Indiana, locating in Randolph county, where they started life anew. Nathan was trained at the trade of tanner, and followed that business in Randolph county for a number of years. In 1853 both Nathan and John moved to Fairmount in Grant county, and here Nathan continued tanning for many years. His death occurred when he was an old man in Grant county. He was first married in North Carolina to Nancy, a daughter of Asa Rush. She died in Fairmount, leaving a family of children. His second marriage was to Mrs. Rachael Foust whose maiden name was Modlin. Rachael Modlin had married for her first husband John Little, Jr., a brother of Nathan and grandfather of the present Fairmount township trustee. John Little, Jr., died in 1853, and she later married James Foust, who also died. Then she became the wife of Nathan Little and introduced several peculiar relationships in the family records. By her marriage to James Foust, there was one child. Nathan Little had no children by her. She died several years before her last husband.

John Little, Jr., who has already been mentioned, was born in North Carolina about 1810. After his father was forced to leave the state on account of debt, the boy was bound out to a farmer named Zachariah Nixon, and when he was twenty-one years of age be was free to pursue his own devices. His mother died about that time, and he established a home of his own by marriage to Rachael Modlin, whose history has already been alluded to. To the marriage of John and Rachael were born five children in North Carolina. These children were: Alexandria, Thomas, Sarah J., Noel, and Mary Emily. All then came north to Randolph county, Indiana, in 1852, and in the following year located in Grant county, their home being near Fairmount City, where the father died November 17, 1853, when in the prime of life. The widow, as already stated, then married James Foust, and had one child, David Foust, who died young. Of the five children of John Little, Jr., the only survivor is Alexander, who was born in 1839, and was about fourteen years old when his people came to Grant county. He enlisted in Company H of the Twelfth Indiana Volunteers in 1861 and after the expiration of eight months of service reenlisted for the period of three years or during the war. His second enlistment was in Company B of the Seventh Indiana Cavalry. He saw a long and arduous career as a soldier, and was discharged at Austin, Texas, in February, 1866. He was in many campaigns and engagements, but went through all escaping wounds or capture. He now lives retired at Fairmount, one of the honored old veterans of the war, and a kindly and esteemed citizen of the county. He is a Progressive in politics and has membership in the Beeson Post No. 386, G. A. R. Alexander Little married Mary T. Johnson of Fairmount, and of their six children four are living, all of whom are married and have children of their own. The second child of John Little, Jr., was Thomas, father of John R. Little, concerning whom more is said in a following paragraph. Jane, the third in order of birth, married Jesse W. Crisco, both now deceased, and of their three children one is living. Joel M. married Serepta McCormick, both now deceased, and they left a family of six children. Emily married Oliver McCormack, a farmer, and she is now deceased, while her husband married time the second time, the second wife also being deceased, and he lives in Grant County.

Thomas Little, father of John R., was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, December 9, 1842, and came with his parents to Randolph county, Indiana, in 1852. This journey was made with a one-horse team, in company with a large party of people making the migration through the west. In 1853 the family moved to Grant county, where he grew to manhood, and at the age of twenty years, in 1862, he enlisted for service in the Civil war as a member of the Eighty-Fourth Indiana Regiment. Later, on account of sickness, he received an honorable discharge and was sent home to die, but instead got well, and before the war was over enlisted in the Seventh Indiana Cavalry. He remained with that command until the war was over. At Guntown, Mississippi, he received a wound from a bullet through the ankle, and suffered from the effects of that injury all his life. He died at his home in Fairmount, July 29, 1905. He always stood high in the community, was a man of industry and excellent business judgment and had friends wherever he had acquaintances. He belonged to Beeson Post No. 386, G. A. R., was affiliated with the Masonic Lodge at Jonesboro, was a Republican in politics, and belonged to the Friends church.

Thomas Little was married in Fairmount township to Susanna Foust, who was born in Randolph county, Indiana, October 5, 1848. She came to Grant county when a girl with her parents and grew up and spent the rest of her days in this locality, her death occurring in August, 1909. Her father was James Foust, already mentioned in this family record as having married the widow of John Little, Jr. Mrs. Thomas Little was a member of the Quaker church. She had the following children: Wintford, deceased; Florence, deceased; Luther, deceased; John R.; Rosanna, who died in childhood; Albert, who is married, lives in Danville, and has a family; Marilla, who died young; Charles, who is a glass blower, has a family and resides at Montreal, Canada; Leonard, a farmer near Jonesboro, Indiana, married and has a family; Frank, a glass blower living in Fairmount with his family; Annie, who died in childhood; Grace, who lives with her brother, John R.; Robert, who is married and lives in Pulaski county, Indiana, where he owns a farm and is the father of one child.

Mr. John R. Little who inherited the substantial family characteristic of honest purpose and industrious habits was reared in Fairmount township, and was graduated from the normal department of the Fairmount Academy in 1892. With education as his chosen calling, he qualified as a teacher, and did a successful part in instructing the young in his home township. Since his election to the office of trustee, he has given practically all his time to the administration of the township school system. In the township are several good school houses, built of brick, and most of them are constructed of a modern type. He has under him nine teachers, and through his office has the entire responsibility of hiring, placing and paying the teaching staff of the township. The annual fund provided for this purpose by taxation and from other sources in the township amounts to forty-live hundred dollars. In politics Mr. Little is a stanch Republican.

In Fairmount, on May 2, 1900, Mr. Little married Effie Davis, who died in 1906. She was born June 17, 1879. At her death she left a daughter, Mary, who was born August 20, 1901, and is now a student in the public schools. Mr. Little for his second wife was married on March 4, 1913, to Mrs. Ella Moon, whose maiden name was Lamb. She was born in Howard county, Indiana, in 1873, was reared and educated there and was a daughter of William and Artie Lamb. Her father died in 1913, while her mother still lives at Greentown, in Howard county. The Lamb family were Quakers in religion, and Mrs. Little was one of four children. By her marriage to Eslie Moon, now deceased, Mrs. Little had two children, Leo and Emerson, both now nearly grown. Mr. and Mrs. Little belong to the Friends church and are popular members of the social community at Fairmount. "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

William W. Ware was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, June 15, 1867. His parents were Joseph B. and Naomi (Mendenhall) Ware. His mother was born in Guilford county, a daughter of Mordecai and Lydia (Pugh) Mendenhall, both natives of North Carolina, Quakers in religion and farming people, spending all their lives in their native state. Joseph B. Ware was born in Granville county, of North Carolina, a son of Henry and Sallie (Hicks) Ware, natives respectively of Virginia and Granville county, North Carolina. They were married in North Carolina and lived to a good old age. Henry Ware was a member of the Episcopal faith, while his wife was a Presbyterian.

Joseph B. Ware and wife were married in Guilford County, North Carolina, and lived there until 1867, during which time their first child William W. was born. The family then moved to the north locating first at Hendricks county, Indiana, near Amo. There the father pursued his trade as a plasterer and mechanic for several years. Within that time was born the only other child, Ada. In 1873 the family moved to Grant county, locating two miles southwest of the city of Fairmount. There the father continued to follow his trade as a plasterer contractor, and did work over a large territory for fifteen years. Finally he devoted all his energies to farming, and is still a resident of the farm and interested in its active management. He is seventy-six years of age, and for the past fifty years never had a day of sickness until the summer of 1912, and is still smart and active. His wife, now seventy-two years of age, is somewhat enfeebled from the weight of years. They are both active members of the Friends church, and the father is a Prohibitionist in politics. Besides William, their only child is Ada, wife of Rev. Oscar H. Trader, a minister in the Friends church and a resident of Fairmount. Mr. and Mrs. Trader have two children, Cleo, a graduate of the Fairmount Academy, and the wife of Clarence Riggs of Logansport, and Retta, a graduate of the Fairmount Academy and living at home.

William W. Ware was nine years of age when the family moved to Grant county, and he grew to manhood here, and in 1888 was graduated from the Fairmount Academy. His early career was devoted to teaching, and he has a record of fifteen years of service in the school room. During all that time he lost only one day through illness. For three years he was principal of the Fowlerton schools in this county, and has the distinction of having organized the consolidated schools in that vicinity. While still following the profession of teaching he became interested in mercantile affairs, and joined Mordecai M. Nixon in the farm implement and machinery business for five years. He was then with O. M. Trader, and in 1899 they established the Fairmount Buggy Company, a concern which was conducted by them for ten years. Mr. Ware then took over the business and conducted it independently two years. At the end of that time he became associated with M. A. Hiatt in the harness and buggy trade, and theirs is now the largest establishment of its kind in southern Grant county. They carry a splendid stock of both high priced and medium priced goods, valued at five thousand dollars. They occupy a good store building on north Maine Street, one hundred by twenty-five feet, and also two warehouses for the storage of buggies and harvesting machinery.

In Fairmount township in September, 1895, Mr. Ware married Nettie Dare, who was born in Union county, Indiana, August 1, 1868. She was reared in Knox county, Missouri, to which locality her family moved in 1876. In 1893 they returned to Indiana, and located in Grant county, where she has since lived. Her parents are Robert and Mary (McQuoid) Dare. Her mother died in Grant county at the age of fifty-eight, in August, 1911. Her father is now seventy-three years of age, and has his home in Fairmount city. During the Civil war he was a soldier in an Indiana regiment, and went through the war without wound or capture. Mr. and Mrs. Ware have no children. In polities he is a Prohibitionist and he and his wife take a very prominent part in the Little Ridge Friends church. Mr. Ware is teacher of the Ware Adult Bible Class, one of the largest rural bible classes in the county, with a membership of fifty. Mr. Ware owns a nice country home, a mile and three quarters from Fairmount and has already accumulated a generous competence for his later years. For nine years he gave his services in behalf of local education as a member of the board of trustees of the Fairmount Academy.

"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

In his farm operations Mr. Little pursues the modern and scientific method of rotation of crops, and is what might be called a mixed farmer, using his land to raise crops and feeding all the products to the stock on the place, thus preserving and increasing the fertility of the soil. His place in section five of Jefferson township comprises one hundred and sixty acres of land, and practically all of it is well improved and very little land goes to waste under the management of Mr. Little. The fruit orchards are one of the attractive features of the Little farm and his stock are of the very best grades.

Santford Little was born in Fairmount township, in Grant county, July 18, 1877, a son of Joel and Sarepta (McCormick) Little. Both parents were born in Indiana, the father born in Randolph county and mother in Grant county, and they are of the old pioneer stock in Grant county. More will be found concerning the ancestry and earlier generation of the family in this county on other pages of this history. Joel Little after his marriage lived on a farm in Fairmount township, where his wife died in 1887 at the age of thirty-four, and he passed away in August, 1897, being then fifty years of age. The Little family are Quakers in religion. Santford Little grew up in his native township, was educated only in the common schools, and since youth has applied himself to farming. Practically all his inventions have grown out of his close observation of the needs of practical devices about a farm, and he is deserving of great credit for his ability in perfecting machines and improvements which supply a want perhaps long appreciated by other farmers, none of whom have had the practical ability to fill the vacancy.

Mr. Little was married in Madison county, Indiana, to Mary G. Thurston, who was born and educated in that county, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Welsh) Thurston. Her parents were prominent and successful farmers and owned five hundred acres of well improved land in Madison county. Both are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Little are the parents of two children: Lawrence W., born September 22, 1901, died February 15, 1904; Hazel M., born March 23, 1903, is a student in the Matthews public schools. Mr. Little and wife attend the Baptist church and in politics he is a Republican voter.

"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