Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

WARREN FERGUS. In 1832, one year after Grant county government was organized, the Fergus family was transplanted from Ohio to the unbroken wilderness and hills and valleys of Jefferson township. Many lives have entered into the development of Grant county, and of those of pioneer stock none have more credit to their lengthy residence than those of the Fergus kith and kin. Warren Fergus, whose ample and fruitful acres and establishment makes him one of the most prosperous of Grant county's farmers, was born here before the county had finished the first decade of its existence, and is the grandson of a patriot who bore arms for the colonies in the war of the Revolution.

His ancestry is Scotch-Irish, and his grandfather, Francis Fergus, was born September 8, 1752, in the north of Ireland, and of that people of Protestant lineage, who several generations before, had been transplanted from Scotland to the northern counties of Ireland. Francis Fergus with two brothers came to America some time previous to the Revolutionary war, and he and one of his brothers took up arms and fought in behalf of the colonies, during that struggle. The other brother, however, was a Tory, and in his loyalty to the mother country returned during the course of the war to England, and remained there until the final triumph of the American cause, when he returned to this side of the Atlantic and spent the rest of his years in the independent colony. Francis Fergus and his brothers lived in Virginia, the former was a farmer, and after the death of his wife, whose maiden name was McCormick, of the same family which produced the makers of harvesting machinery, he went to live with a daughter in Tennessee, where he died suddenly, September 28, 1841, when eighty-nine years of age. He and his family were Presbyterians in religious faith.

Sawyer B. Fergus, a son of Francis and father of Warren, was one of the younger in a family of children, and was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, March 18, 1802. When a young man he joined his brother James in Miami county, Ohio, and later had an experience in running a flat-boat down the Mississippi River carrying a great variety of produce from the upper Ohio Valley to New Orleans. In the meantime in Miami county, in October, 1829, occurred his marriage with Julia McFadden, who was born of Pennsylvania parents and of Scotch-Irish stock. Her birth occurred in Miami county, Ohio, December 31, 1809. In 1832 Sawyer B. Fergus and his family of two children came to Indiana, locating in the wilds of Jefferson township in Grant county. As one of the very first settlers in his community he had to cut a roadway two miles through the timber, in order to reach his land. His title to the land was received by patent direct from the government, and there had never been an improvement made on the place, until he erected his log cabin. Some years later that rude shelter was replaced by a good frame house, and there he lived prospering quietly, and steadily improving and increasing his possessions until, with one hundred and fifty-one acres in his estate and after providing liberally for his family and performing his varied obligations to the community, he died honored and esteemed, June 24, 1864. First a Whig and later a Republican in politics, he became a member of the Methodist church, and was always ready to do his part in community affairs. His wife, Julia (McFadden) Fergus died at the old home in Jefferson township in 1882 at the age of seventy-three. She likewise was a working member of the Shiloh Methodist church, and she and her husband rest side by side in the old cemetery at that place. Her children were named as follows: Samuel, Mary, Clinton, Edwin, Warren, Harriet and Juliet, twins; Rachael, Sarah J., Margaret, Sawyer A., and James. All these grew to manhood and womanhood and most of them were married. Four sons and three daughters still live, and of these Sarah J. and Margaret are unmarried. The oldest of the living children is eighty years and the youngest sixty-one.

Warren Fergus was born on the old farm near his present home in Jefferson township, September 21, 1837. His early life was spent in the primitive surroundings of that time and his educational advantages were more practical than theoretical. When eighteen years of age he started for California, but on account of the "Border Ruffian" war of 1856, he only went as far west as Kansas. He traveled all over Kansas, then practically unsettled except by Indians. In 1860 he was married and in the following year he and his young wife went out to Iowa, locating in Paige county. There on August 9, 1862, he responded to the call for volunteers in defense of the Union, enlisting in Company F of the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry. As a private he served until is honorable discharge, which was delivered to him on August 11, 1865. He made a splendid record as a soldier, was always on duty, never in the hospital, was never wounded nor captured, and the record of the Iowa regiment to which he belonged is practically the record of his individual service. He was in many of the great campaigns of the war, including the long series of operations about Vicksburg, Fort Gibson, Raymond, Champion Hill, Black River Bridge, where the regiment lost its colonel, through the forty-nine days of the actual siege of Vicksburg, later went down to New Orleans, and into Texas, participated in the Red River Campaign, where he saw some of his hardest fighting, was the siege of Mobil, and so continued until the close of the great conflict.

In the fall of 1866 Mr. Fergus returned to Grant county where he was born, and bought eighty acres of land. There he began farming and carpenter work, a trade which he had learned in young manhood, and has since enjoyed a degree of success which ranks him among the most progressive men of Grant county. His estate now comprises one hundred and eighty acres in Jefferson township, besides sixty acres in Washington township, Delaware county, Indiana. The property is all well improved and well kept, and about thirty years ago Mr. Fergus built a fine barn on a foundation fifty by fifty-six feet, and also a comfortable nine-room white brick dwelling house.

The wife whom he married in 1860 in Jefferson township was Miss Nancy Jane Horner, who was born in Ohio, September 9, 1837, and when fifteen years of age was brought to Jefferson township by her parents, Andrew and Nancy (Walker) Horner. Her father was born in Pennsylvania, and her mother in Rockbridge, Virginia, and after their marriage in the latter state, moved to Miami county, Ohio, where they improved a homestead, later going to Darke county, Ohio, and afterwards to Jefferson township in Grant county, Indiana. Mr. Horner was in industrious citizen and hard worker and after a worthy lifetime died in Jefferson township in 1873 at the age of sixty-seven. His wife died later at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Fergus, April 1, 1895, aged eighty-seven years. They were Presbyterians, and Mr. Horner was a Republican in politics. Mrs. Fergus has one brother living, Calvin Horner, who is a farmer at Upland.

The children born to Mrs. and Mrs. Fergus are as follows: Ida M., is the wife of Eugene Heal, living in Delaware county, Indiana, and their children are Caroline and Alma. Oscar W. lives on a ranch near Santa Anna, California, and his children are Nevada, Floyd, Fern, and Grant. Emery W. and Elnora E. are twins, and the former by his marriage to Maude Lang has a son, Ernest P., and their home is in Santa Barbara, California. Elnora E. married J. William Richards, a farmer in Jefferson township, and they had one son, Ord, who died aged two and a half years. Lois A. is the wife of D. L. Richards, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this publication. Orvil L. is a farmer in Delaware county, Indiana, and by his marriage to Della Owen has two children, Eva and Forrest. Edward C. lives near Santa Anna, California, on a ranch, and married Pearl Powers. Clyde H. operates the home farm and married Olive Vida Watson of the state of California, and their one child is Warren R. Mrs. Fergus is a member of the Presbyterian church and Mr. Fergus attends that church. In politics he is aligned with the new Progressive party.

"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 H. MOORE. Successful and prosperous in all his undertakings in Monroe township, it is highly probable that John H. Moore is best known in these parts as a horse breeder and owner of fast horses. In this he is especially prominent, and he has an aggregation of horseflesh on his acres from year to year that is highly creditable to his judgment in those matters, the while he has bred and sold a number of horses that have gained lasting names on the race track. He is the owner of a considerable farm land in the township and county, and has accumulated a goodly portion of property of varied nature in the district. A man of the keenest business qualities, he has never stood a loss on any of his real estate transactions, in many instances doubling his money and always realizing a handsome profit. His property, of a farming nature, lies mainly in section 27, and his is among the finest farm land in the state. Eighty acres in Monroe township, devoted to grazing purposes, and one hundred and twenty acres in Jefferson township, put to the same use, comprise a part of his farming properties.

John H. Moore was born in New Cumberland, Guernsey county, Ohio, on October 20, 1855, and is the son of Henry and Rachel (Seaton) Moore. The father was a volunteer during the Civil war, and was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness, while serving as a member of Company G. 112th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Union army. His widow was left almost defenseless as regards material welfare with a family of six small children, all of whom she succeeded in raising to years of maturity. When the father found that it would be necessary to leave his little family, despite the fact that he could not provide for them in his absence, he bought a small place of three acres in Muskingum county, Ohio, and there established the mother and children. When he went away the mother heroically applied herself to the task of supporting her family, and the death of the husband and father on the field of battle made necessary her continued activity in that work. She sewed and performed every kind of honest labor that came to her hand, but she maintained the growing family in comparative comfort, and gave them some sort of schooling, and when she died in October, 1901, she departed this life with the knowledge that she had been able to establish each of her children firmly in the way of life. The children are named as follows: Mary, the wife of George Lane, of Zanesville, Ohio; Charles, of Muskingum county, Ohio; John H., of this review; Andrew, of Perry county, Ohio; William, who was struck by lightning and killed in Guernsey county, Ohio, in 1883.

John H. Moore left home at the age of eighteen years and came to Upland in October, 1874. He applied himself to such tasks as came to his hand, and his first work was in husking corn at $12 a month. He then went to work clearing land for $9.25 an acre, and while thus engaged just about made his board. In 1875 and 1876 he worked on a farm at the wage of $18 a month, and in 1877 he rented a piece of land and raised a fine crop of grain. In the fall of 1877 he bought eight head of big, raw boned cattle for $100 and found after fattening them for the market that he was in a position to make some money in that enterprise, after which he continued to feed live stock and crop his rented land on shares. In 1881 he engaged in a partnership with an acquaintance and they conducted a buying and selling business in live stock for the six years following, when he married and settled elsewhere. For twelve years thereafter he lived in Upland, engaged in the hotel business. During that time he invested $755 in a piece of corner property in Upland, which he held for eighteen years, renting it meantime, and then sold it when the oil and gas boom was on for $2,550. His hotel, which cost him $1,400, was a place suitable to accommodate forty guests, and in 1900 he traded the place for an eighty acre farm, where he now resides, and which is held assessable at $110 an acre. When Mr. Moore moved on this farm it had no buildings suitable for a dwelling, but he erected a nice home and also some barns. Through his wife, Mr. Moore has added eighty acres of desirable land to his other possession, she having been the owner of that when she married him.

When Mr. Moore went to live on his present farm, the land was greatly impoverished, but he has since that time successfully built it up to a high state of productiveness. He is a firm believer in the conservation of the soil through the breeding of live stock, and he has a fine herd of twenty head of Hereford and Shorthorn cattle. He has twelve horses, all high bred roadsters and racers, and for fifteen years he has been a noted breeder in these parts. Several well known horses have been foaled on his premises, and he has sold a number of famous racers from his stables. In 1904, Dolly Etta C, with a record of 2:19:4, and a product of his stables, brought him a fancy price, and others that have gained name and fame in racing circles are Coast Marie, 2:11:25; Rock Line, 2:16; Princess Margrave, about three years old, and starting the season of 1913,which won the three-year-old in Muncie, Ind., and he sold her for $1,175 to S. B. Smith of Chicago. She is now in Wisconsin and has never lost a race; Colored Girl, 2:22:5, is another well known horse of his. In addition, Mr. Moore has several high bred colts that promise well for the future.

Mr. Moore got his start in fast horses by securing a well known racing mare, Alexis, owned by Alvin Dickinson. This mare has produced several fine racers, and three of her foals have been sold from his stables at an average price of $1,162.50. One of them, Rockline, won first money at Manchester, Indiana, in the fall of 1912 in the 2:22 class.

On March 24, 1887, Mr. Moore was married to Mrs. Minnie Johnson, of Upland, and to them has been born one child, Bertha, who is now deceased.

Mr. Moore is a Republican, and he and his wife are members of the church of the Friends.

WILLIAM ALONZO BOLE. The residence of the Bole family in Jefferson township dates back to the year 1877. In section twelve of that township, one of the most productive and valuable farms in the community is that of Mr. Bole, who in later years has retired largely from active participation in farming, but has sons who are carrying forward the work and continue to increase the prosperity so long enjoyed by this family.

The name Bole is of Dutch origin, and Grandfather William Bole was born in Pennsylvania in 1791, and died in Shelby county, Indiana, in 1862. He was married in Pennsylvania, and they moved out to Ohio and lived at Georgetown in Brown county, where all their children were born. Their family were: David, John, William, Abraham, and James, and four daughters, Jane, Ann, Elizabeth and Mary.

William Bole, the father of the Jefferson township resident, was born in Brown county, Ohio, in 1814, and though reared on a farm, early in life he began an apprenticeship at the shoemaker's trade, and finally located at Neville, in Clermont county, Ohio, where he married Rosanna A. Melvin, who was born at Snow Hill, Maryland, in 1810, and came to Ohio with her father, William Melvin, who located at Neville, on the Ohio River. William Melvin was likewise a shoemaker, and William Bole worked in the same town with him after his marriage, but later moved to Foster's Landing in Kentucky, and in 1856 brought his wife and three children to Fayette county, Indiana, later lived both in Madison and Henry counties, and finally in Delaware county. In 1874 he moved to Grant county, but returned to Muncie, where his death occurred in 1898 at the age of eighty-four years. His wife passed away in 1895 and she too was past eighty years of age. William Alonzo Bole, the oldest of the family, was born at Neville, Ohio, March 6, 1841. His sister Melissa, born in 1845, married J. S. Petty, a prominent and well-known man whose death occurred in Martinsville, Indiana. For her second husband she married a Mr. Fink, a Massachusetts banker, and since his death her home has been in Muncie. She was at one time a skilled instrumental musician, and is a cultured and highly intelligent woman. She had two sons: Wilber and Walter, both of whom died after being married. James M. Bole, brother of William A. Bole, is a farmer in Jefferson township, and has a family.

William Alonzo Bole grew up in his father's home in the different localities of their residence, and was still under age when he enlisted September 5, 1861, in Company E. of Eighth Indiana Infantry. One of his early engagements was the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and in the course of that conflict he passed his twenty-first birthday. With his regiment he saw a long and varied military service. From the early Missouri and Arkansas campaigns, the regiment went east of the Mississippi, and took part in the battles preliminary to the capture of Vicksburg, at Fort Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, Black River Bridge, and the Siege of Vicksburg. The regiment later was sent to the east, and was placed under the command of Sheridan, which valiant leader they followed in the battles of Winchester and Cedar Creek. He was never in the hospital a day, never wounded or captured. On returning home to Delaware county, he took up the quiet vocation of farming, but after years learned telegraphy, and became an operator. While living at Muncie, he married Miss Ida V. Hill, who was born in Indiana and died two years after their marriage. The one son of that union is Robert Bole, who is married and lives in California. In 1877 Mr. Bole came to Jefferson township in Grant county, and here married Mrs. Mary D. (Havens) Payne. She was born in Mill township of Grant county, July 29, 1845, was reared in Jefferson township until her marriage, and represents an old and prominent family in Grant county. Her parents were Jonathan and Gabriella (Clark) Havens, her father a native of Ohio, and her mother of Pennsylvania. They married and came at an early day to Grant county, where Jonathan Havens improved a farm in the midst of the timber in Jefferson township, and spent the rest of his years there until his death in 1863 when forty years of age. His wife is still living, her home being in Fowlerton. For further information concerning the Havens family, the reader is referred to the sketch of Jonathan Havens, elsewhere in this volume.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Bole are as follows: Rolly, born October 14, 1875, educated in the public schools, a resident of Hartford City, married Ann Hickman, and they have four children, two sons and two daughters, Clarence, Robert, Clara and Pauline. Capitola, born November 12, 1877, is the wife of Alonzo G. Monroe, a farmer of Jefferson township. Their living children are fours sons and one daughter: Raymond, Doris, Darward, Dwight and Dean. Winifred, born in 1880, is the wife of Walter Daddys of Hartford City, and they have one son and two daughters: Helen, Catherine and John. Jesse, born in 1882, is unmarried, and is the active superintendent of his father's farm of one hundred acres, a place thoroughly improved and kept up to the best standards of Jefferson county country life. Jennie is the wife of Dwight Blumer of Toronto, Ohio, and they have two sons and a daughter, Clifford, William and Helen. Arley E. lives at home, and also assists in managing the farm. He was well educated in the local high school and in a business college. Mr. Bole belongs to the Christian church, while his wife is of the Primitive Baptist. He is a Republican in national politics, and in local affairs gives the strength of his influence in every movement to make life better and more comfortable in his township and county. His three sons are all members of the Socialist party.

JAMES NOAH JOHNSON. Of the old-time families of Grant county, none better deserve perpetuation in the biographical annals of this section than that of Johnson, the first record of whom begins here in 1835, only a few years after Grant county was organized, and which has been continued with honor down to the present. The Johnsons have for years been reckoned among the largest land holders in the county, and as they acquired their property by good business judgment and strictest honesty, so likewise were they always worthy factors in the development and in the civic and social activities of the county.

The late J. Noah Johnson, who died at his home at Upland in 1893, was of the third generation of the family in its identity with Grant county, and his children in turn have taken honored positions in the social and business affairs of this county. He was born on the old Johnson home in Jefferson township in 1858. His grandfather John Johnson of Scotch ancestry and of that substantial stock which formed so important an element in early Pennsylvania, March 22, 1787, was a pioneer settler in Ohio, and spent most of his active career in Guernsey county of that state, where he died in 1862. He was a man of enterprise who saw much beyond his immediate horizon, and one evidence of this was given when in 1835 he came to Indiana, and entered one hundred and sixty acres in section eight of Jefferson township in Grant county, and entered land to twice that amount in Delaware county. Securing this land, he returned to his old home in Guernsey county, where he lived until his death. He was married in that county to Mary Burns, and her birth also occurred in Pennsylvania, so far as known, its date being October 17, 1793. She died in Guernsey county in 1866. Both were strict adherents of the Presbyterian church. Their children were named as follows: John, James, Jane, William, Ebenezer, Jess, Martha and Nancy. All these children were married except Jess, who is now the only survivor, and is a resident of Mill township, this county. James, Nancy, and John many years ago came out and settled on the land entered by their father in Indiana. Nancy married a Mr. Crow and they spent their lives in Delaware and Grant counties, Indiana, dying on the Crow farm, now occupied by W. O. Modley, near Matthews. John J. died not many years after he came to his father's farm in Jefferson township, Grant county.

James Johnson, who was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, November 2, 1821, was married July 4, 1843, in that county to Elizabeth Schriver, who was born in Guernsey county of German ancestry in 1825. In a month or two after their marriage they came out to Indiana, and took possession of the quarter section of land in Jefferson township entered by his father in 1835. Though the early settlers had been at work for ten or fifteen years, Jefferson township still presented a great expanse of uncleared wilderness, and it was in the midst of the woods that James Johnson and wife began life in a log cabin. Eventually they developed their land into a beautiful farm, and the substantial frame house which finally replaced the log cabin is still in a state of fine repair, and occupied by the granddaughter of James Johnson. Besides the large dwelling house, James Johnson put up many other buildings, cleared up a large acreage for cultivation and actually added by his own labor and management thousands of dollars in practical value to his home community. Few men of that time were more successful than James Johnson, who extended his possessions until at one time he was the owner of more than three hundred acres, most of which was situated in Grant county. He raised more cattle and sheep than any other man in Jefferson township, and was also an extensive dealer in timber. His death occurred at the old homestead in Jefferson township, December 1, 1908, when in advanced years. His wife passed away in January, 1902. They were Presbyterians, and belonged to the strict sect of that religion, and endeavored to bring up all their children in the same faith. Their children were John, Solomon, Emma and James Noah, all of whom were farmers, and were married and had children of their own except Solomon, who, while married, has no children.

The late J. Noah Johnson spent his early life on the old homestead, was a farmer, inherited much of his father's business ability, and increased the talents inherited from the preceding generations. He lived on the farm in Jefferson township until after his wife's death, when he moved to Fairmount. He was engaged in the banking business there a short time, when his father, James Johnson, organized the Upland Bank and Noah Johnson became its cashier and remained so until his death, November 10, 1893.

J. Noah Johnson married Bell Conley, who was born at Upland, and who died May 16, 1890. The Conleys were likewise a well known old family of Grant county. The children of Noah Johnson and wife were: Bertha, wife of Charles Snyder, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work; Alva, engaged in the real estate business at Marion, and who has a family of two children; and Elva, a twin sister of Alva, and the wife of Charles F. Marley, whose individual sketch appears on other pages. Mrs. Marley was born on her grandfather's farm, April 30, 1885, was well educated in Grant county schools, and through her grandfather's will has become the owner of five hundred and eighty acres of land. She was married February 8, 1909, to Charles F. Marley.

Deb Murray