Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

WILLIS CAMMACK. So closely identified with Grant county affairs was the late Willis Cammack that, although a native of Bartholomew county, he seemed to have always lived in the community. He came as a young boy to Fairmount with his father, James Cammack, at a time when there was only one house in the town. James Cammack set up a saw mill, and from his plant was supplied much of the material for the building in the early days of that village.

Willis Cammack was a son of James and Penina (Cook) Cammack. In 1849 the parents located in Grant county, and afterwards moved to Hamilton county. There were five other sons: Calvin, William, Albert, Clark and Ira, and one sister, Elvira Cammack. Willis Cammack was the only one who continued to live in Grant county.

There was a romance in the early life of Willis Cammack and Sarah Jay, and the outlines of the story may be properly sketched at this point, as part of the family records and as a matter in which subsequent generations will take an interest. Nathan Morris had a son and daughter, Thomas and Ruth Morris. Thomas Morris had plighted his troth with Sarah Jay while Ruth Morris was promised to Willis Cammack. Both the Morris young people were stricken with typhoid fever. Mr. Cammack and Miss Jay went and nursed them, but the fever was so virulent that all care and nursing were in vain, and both the young man and the young woman died. The fever was a scourge in that part of the country in that year, and so widespread that there were often as many as two funerals in a single day from the same neighborhood. The death of Thomas and Ruth Morris bereaved both Willis Cammack and Sarah Jay, and in their grief and sorrow they turned to each other for sympathy and solace, and the result was that their lives were linked together ever afterward, and not long after the intimate acquaintance formed while in the Morris household in 1857 they were married. All were Quaker families and well known to each other.

Sarah Jay was a daughter of Thomas and Eliza (Wareham) Jay, and her brothers and sisters were: Joseph, Denny, Mary, Rebecca, Angelina, Daniel and Ezra. Of this family of eight Joseph Jay was a resident of Richmond and all the others of Grant county, and all of them well known in their generation. Thomas Jay was a well known Friends' minister, and after the death of his wife married Mrs. Elizabeth Rush, and together they went about the country a great deal in the service of the church. After the death of his second wife, Thomas Jay always lived in the home of his daughter, Mrs. Cammack.

The children born to Willis and Sarah (Jay) Cammack were: Rosalie, who married Orange Peters, and had one son, Charles Peters, an invalid from birth and now deceased; Bayard T., who married Mattie Osborn, and had two children, Carl and Mary; Flora A., the wife of E. H. Ferree, has two children, Edna S. and Evan Mark (see sketch of Ferree family); Ella is the wife of W. E. Waggoner, and has two children, Sarah and William; William T. married Emlin Cox, and their two children are Jerry Ward and Hazel; and Edgar married Catherine Harris.

On January 4, 1883, Willis Cammack married for his second wife Mrs. Elizabeth (Cornelius) Cammack, widow of his brother, Albert Cammack. She brought to her second husband a daughter, Sula, and to the second marriage was born another daughter, Laverne, who married Demetrius Howell. Their children are Kenneth and Willis. Four of the Cammack grandchildren are married and live outside of Grant county, namely: Edna S. Ferree, wife of E. H. Harris; Jerry Ward Cammack, who married Mittie C. Hurley; Carl, who married Margaret Wright; and Mary Cammack, who married Fred Goldsmith. Mrs. Ferree is the only permanent resident in Grant county among the children in the Willis Cammack family. Sula Cammack, the child of the second Mrs. Willis Cammack, married R. E. Felton, and left a daughter, Edith Felton.

While the family of Willis Cammack are deceased and scattered, there was a time when they were well known in the Bethel Friends Community, and there never was a man in all Grant county who was more universally and highly respected than Willis Cammack. When Bethel Friends Meeting was established in 1864, David Jay was recognized as the official head of the meeting until his death four years later, when Willis Cammack was honored in that way, and continued at the head of the meeting until his death, although for a few years he was an invalid and unable to occupy the pew in the meeting house. No one ever questioned his word or his religion, and he was a man of much influence in the church and the community. The biographer knew Willis Cammack from childhood. He recalls one occasion of an otherwise "silent meeting" of Friends at Bethel church. After the members had been sitting an hour in silence, and just before the breaking up of the meeting, which Willis Cammack always performed by shaking hands with the one sitting next to him, he exclaimed: "Be ye also ready," and the watchword suggested seemed to prevail and influence his own personal life�a man whose integrity no one ever questioned. For several years Mr. Cammack was connected with public improvements, associated with his neighbor, Isaac W. Carter, and with David Overman of Marion. Many miles of gravel road were built under his watchful eye, and when he died all who knew him felt a distinctive community loss�that a good man had been removed from things earthly and that he was worthy of the higher life.

"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

L. G. W. RICHARDS. That farming is Big Business needs no other proof than a visit to one of the stock farms conducted by L. G. W. Richards. On the home place in section twenty-eight of Jefferson township, a group of well arranged, shining white buildings attract the visitor at the very first, and as soon as he begins to look around, he finds good management and efficiency written in every department of the farm activities. Mr. Richards has a reputation throughout this section of Indiana, as one of the most successful cattle growers, breeders and feeders, and it has been a matter of pride through a long period of years to keep up the highest standards in his fine herds of Hereford cattle. Mr. Richards is proprietor of three splendid farms, each one equipped with fine buildings. The home place comprises one hundred and twenty-seven acres, with a big and modern residence, and good barns. This is known as the Green Lawn Farm. Another farm owned by him is the Meadow Brook Farm, consisting of one hundred and twenty acres, and conducted by his son, Jacob Harvey Richards. That farm also has a fine equipment of buildings and facilities. Another farm is the old homestead, which was entered by his grandfather on the Mississinewa River in 1833, and is known as the Riverside Farm. The Riverside Farm consists of one hundred and fifty-five acres, and one of its improvements is a barn, forty by sixty feet in ground dimensions, with a slate roof, and one of the best structures of its kind in the entire county. On each of these farms is a large silo, and the aggregate capacity of the three is two hundred and thirty-three tons. Mr. Richards and his sons are practical men in every particular, are hard workers, and yet are not slaves to their business, and are masters of agriculture, rather than being driven by the work as many less prosperous farmers are.

L. G. W. Richards was born in Jefferson township, September 30, 1856. He belongs to the prominent Richards family, so well known through its different branches in this county, and more detailed information concerning the genealogy and family relationship will be found in the sketch of L. G. Richards, published elsewhere in this volume. L. G. W. Richards was reared and educated in the public schools, and since becoming of age has engaged in farming on his own account, and most of the property which he manages so successfully represents his individual accumulations and business judgment. Mr. Richards' parents were Jacob and Susan (Gillispie) Richards, his father a native of Guernsey county, Ohio, and his mother a native of the same state. When young people they moved to Grant county. The mother was a daughter of Rev. James Gillispie, a minister of the Primitive Baptist church, and Rev. Jacob Richards was also active as a preacher and worker in that denomination. They settled in Jefferson township, and were pioneers in this vicinity. Rev. Jacob Richards died when a little past eighty years of age, and his wife passed away a year later, when past seventy-eight. L. G. W. Richards was the third in a family of six children that grew up and were married. James H. and Isabell Harrison died recently, each leaving children, and those living are: Catherine, wife of J. F. Jones, of Jefferson township; L. G. W. Richards; Hester, wife of John D. Leach, of Fowlerton; and Lucy A., widow of John W. Patterson, of Jefferson township, and the mother of several children.

L. G. W. Richards was married in Delaware county to Miss Clara M. McCormick, who was born there in 1858, and was reared and educated in her native locality. Her parents were William and Mary (Corey) McCormick, both natives of Ohio, but who were married and spent most of their lives in Delaware county. Mr. and Mrs. Richards are the parents of the following children: Jacob Harvey, manager of the Meadow Brook Farm, married Mary Williamson, of Ohio, and their children are Jacob A., F. Belle, and Howard L. G. William F. lives on and operates the Riverside Farm, and by his marriage to Madie Jones of Ohio has one son, Mark Henry. Mark, who lives at home, was, like the other children, well educated and married Cleo Littler. Mr. and Mrs. Richards are members of the Primitive Baptist church, and he and his sons all vote the Democratic ticket.

NETTlE BAINBRIGE POWELL, M. D. Identified for twenty years with the medical profession in Grant county, Dr. Powell is recognized as one of the two leading women physicians in the state of Indiana, a physician who is accorded unstinted praise by her professional associates, and with a record of skillful service and large accomplishment in her home city. The science of medicine and surgery has made a remarkable progress in the last half century, but aside from the technical side probably the greatest single feature in the progress of the profession has been the increasing number of women whose services have been enlisted in the ranks of the physicians, and who in ability and in capacity for the special work have demonstrated equal fitness with their brothers who have so long occupied this field.

Nettle Bainbridge Powell is a native of Whitley county, Indiana, born at Columbia City, January 5, 1868, a daughter of George Milton and Martha Jane (Hughes) Bainbridge. Her father was born in Oneida county, New York, March 9, 1832, and the mother in Whitley county, Indiana, October 10, 1843. Grandfather Charles Wesley Hughes, on the mother's side was a Virginian by birth, came to Indiana many years ago, and during the war served on Governor Morton's staff, performing a number of important commissions, both for the governor and also at the personal behest of President Lincoln. It is an interesting fact that Charles Wesley Hughes married Mary Davis, who was born in Ohio, and was a first cousin of Jefferson Davis, once president of the Confederacy. She lived until June 13, 1912, her death occurring in the home of Dr. Powell at Marion, at the age of ninety-one, her birth having occurred in 1821.

George Milton Bainbridge came west about 1862, locating at Columbia City in Whitley county, where he was married. In 1893 he moved to Marion, where he and his wife both died, he in 1903 and she in 1901. The father was for many years a merchant, but was not in business after coming to Marion. There were four children, namely: Charles E., a resident in Los Angeles, California; Dr. Powell; Hallie, deceased; Gilbert M., whose home is in Chicago.

Dr. Powell received her primary education at Columbia City. For her higher studies she attended Alma College at St. Thomas, Ontario, where she was graduated in the classical department in 1885. After that she was a student in the Northwestern University and took her final work in medicine at the University of Michigan, where she was graduated M. D. in 1892. During the first years, after leaving college, she was engaged in hospital work, and on September 5, 1893, located in Marion, where her home and field of labors have since been, and she has always enjoyed a liberal share of general medical practice.

On September 5, 1893, she married Dr. Albert E. Powell, a well known physician of Grant county, whose death occurred September 20, 1905. He was born August 2, 1868, at Francisco, Michigan, and met his future wife while both were attending the University of Michigan. The late Dr. Powell for a number of years served as county health officer of Grant county, and was also assistant coroner. He took much interest in politics, and was one of the influential Republicans. The two children of their marriage were: Emily, born February 13, 1898, and Edmund Bainbridge Powell, born April 22, 1901. Mrs. Dr. Powell is a member of the Grant County Medical Society, the Indiana Medical Association and the American Medical Association. She is also by virtue of her colonial antecedents a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and has membership in the Eastern Star. Dr. Powell was appointed by Mayor Batchelor, City Health Officer of Marion. This makes her the first woman Health Officer in the history of the state of Indiana.

JAMES F. HULTS. Seventy-five years of residence in Grant county on the part of the Hults family, of which James F. Hults is a worthy representative, gives the members of the family a prestige in and about the county such as is gained in no other way. He who established the family here in 1838 was a man of large affairs and took a leading place in the community where he made his home, and it is meet that his descendants should take active and intelligent parts in the affairs of their community in these later days.

James F. Hults was born on April 10, 1838, on the home place, and within sight of the place he now occupies. He is a son of Thomas Jefferson and Susanna (Duckwall) Hults, both natives of Ohio. The father was born in 1818 and died in 1863, on the 4th day of October, and the mother, who was born in 1817, died in 1901. They were married in their native state and came to Grant county in 1838, where the father entered a piece of land in Monroe township traveling with Alex Smith to Fort Morgan to enter the land at the government land office. He later sold his first forty acres at a price of $80 an acre. Considering Thomas Jefferson Hults in the light of those days, he was an exceptionally prosperous man, and was undeniably one of the best known pioneers of his time. He owned at one time as much as two hundred and eighty acres of land, and was prominent in his town as trustee of Monroe township in the early days, proving himself a capable and efficient servant of the public. Five children were born to him and his wife, namely: Cynthia, who married a Mr. Ferguson and is now deceased; James F., of this review; George W., who died in Andersonville Prison during the Civil war; Mary Catherine and Margaret both died in the year 1863, as a result of fever, which also caused the death of the father at the same time. This triple tragedy came about as a result of Mr. Halts contracting the fever when on a visit to his son during the war, his death following soon after his return home, and the death of the two young girls coming shortly after that of the father.

George W. Hults was a member of the Nineteenth Indiana Cavalry and was a famous fighter. He, too, died during the war, and thus did the Civil war, directly and indirectly, claim a toll of four lives from the Hults family.

James F. Hults was the main support of the family during the war, caring for his own family as well as his parental home during those times of stress and strife. He had married in 1861, Jane Smith, the daughter of Henry Smith becoming his wife. She died in 1889, leaving ten children, concerning whom brief mention is here made as follows: George W., living near Marion; Susanna Fleming, living in Monroe township; John B., now deceased; Thomas William, living in Michigan; Margaret E. Fleming, of Monroe township; Benjamin F., of Marion, Indiana; Charles, of Monroe township; Mrs. Jennie Boles, of Marion; Oscar and Silas, both living in Illinois.

In 1892 Mr. Halts was married for the second time, Mrs. Melissa (Dickey) Lane becoming his wife. She is a daughter of Robert and Rachael Dickey, natives of Fayette county, Indiana, and Clinton county, Ohio, respectively. Her first husband, Nathan Lane, died in 1888. Three children were born to Mrs. Hults' first marriage: Austin Lane, of Grant county; Ethel Runyan, of Hartford City; and Mrs. Lennia Fleming, of Monroe township.

Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hults: Goldie, who is a graduate of Taylor University; Clarence, Paul and Edward, all at home.

The progress of Mr. Hults in his career is well worthy of consideration, and covers a long period of activity. When he was twenty-one years old his father gave him forty acres of land, and the young man soon bought another forty to add to it. Upon the death of his brother, George, he bought from the heirs the eighty acres of land that young man had owned, and he later bought another twenty-five acres of another brother. This purchase was followed by the purchase of eighty acres from George W. Campbell, eighty acres from David Wall, and twenty acres of a Mr. Johnson. His next purchase was forty acres from William Sheridan, and still later he bought one hundred and sixty acres from Blumenthal & Marks, in Van Buren township. With the arrival of mature years of his children, Mr. Hults has given to each of them a fair sized farm, and today he retains only one hundred and fifteen acres from the immense acreage he once held.

In 1881 Mr. Hulls built a fine brick house of eight rooms on his place, and a few years later an immense barn was built on the place. He still continues to crop his place, despite his advanced years and in 1912 he harvested twelve hundred bushels of corn from his place, and nine hundred bushels of oats. Fifty hogs annually find their way to market from his pens, and he carries on his farming operations on a large scale.

Mr. Hults is a Prohibitionist, and has voted that ticket consistently for more than forty years. He attends the New Light Christian church, and for many years was a member of the Arcana Masonic lodge of Upland, although he no longer keeps up his affiliation with that order. He is one of the fine old men of the township, and his friends throughout the county are legion.

CHARLES H. HULTS. Successful and enterprising in his agricultural activities, Charles H. Hults takes a leading place among the younger farming men of Monroe township, where he has passed his life thus far and where he was born December 28, 1873. He is a son of James F. and Mary J. (Smith) Hults, and concerning the parents more detailed mention is to be found on other pages of this historical and biographical work.

Charles H. Hults was educated in the district schools and lived at home with his parents until he was nineteen years old. Thereafter he did farm work for hire for some six years, and when he married he rented a place and lived upon it for six more years. He bought his present place in 1904. It is eighty-two and a half acres in extent, and he paid a price of sixty-five dollars an acre for the place, going in debt for more than $2,000, which he was soon able to clear away, and in 1909 he bought an additional twenty acres at sixty dollars an acre. His land is estimated at one hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre, and is in fine shape, considered from every standpoint. In 1912 the place yielded eight hundred bushels of corn, four hundred bushels of oats, and he cut fifteen tons of fine hay. His annual sale of hogs numbers about eighty. The family residence caps an eminence overlooking the place, and a large lawn with trees and shrubbery in abundance lend additional charm to an already attractive place.

In 1898 Mr. Hults was married to Ida, the daughter of Milton Marshall, of Upland, and they have two children, Letha and Pearl. Mr. Hults is a Democrat in his politics, but not especially active.

GEORGE W. WILSON. Many years ago, when Grant county was a wilderness, the first Wilson came to this region, settled among the woods of Monroe township, and the people of that name were effective workers in transforming the barren land into cultivated fields. George W. Wilson is a grandson of the original pioneer and occupies a portion of land which has been in the family ownership for more than a half century, a fact in itself which is an honor to the steady industry and citizenship of the people of this name, and the Wilsons have always been known for their quiet prosperity and solid integrity.

George W. Wilson is owner of two hundred and twenty-one acres of land in Monroe township, his home place comprising eighty acres. He and his family occupy an attractive dwelling, a large white building erected in 1897, and standing on a knoll, well back from the road side in front of which is a wide sloping lawn. The large barn was built in 1871, and in 1910 Mr. Wilson, in line with modern progressive agricultural methods, put up a fine silo. He has recently bought the old home farm across the road from his place. The first eighty acres of his estate he bought in 1889, and for many years has been steadily prospering. During 1912 his crops were two thousand bushels of corn, one thousand bushels of oats, and twenty-five tons of hay. He puts off about seventy-five head of hogs each year, and is doing his farming on a profitable scale.

George W. Wilson was born July 23, 1862, on the old Wilson homestead across the road from where he now lives. His father, James M. Wilson, died in 1885, and was a native of Virginia, and Grandfather Wilson settled in Grant county among the pioneers. The mother of Mr. Wilson was Martha Renbarger, who was born June 24, 1827, and died November 25, 1912. Her name will always figure in Grant county history, since she was the first white child born in this county, a daughter of Henry Renbarger, whose name belongs among the first settlers in the wilderness of this region. She was born four years before Grant county was organized, under civil government. The eight children in the family are mentioned as follows: Thomas, of Marion; James, a farmer of this county; Cynthia Hults, of Marion; Maria Jones, of Kansas; Emma Stout, of Marion; George W.; Jasper, of Marion; Matilda Puckett, of Monroe township.

George W. Wilson received his early education in the schools of Monroe township, and he spent the first twenty-one years of his life at home. He then married and began farming for himself. He built his first house east of his present place on eighty acres of land which he later sold. He then lived with his mother for a few years, and when the estate was divided he bought eighty acres of his present homestead. His next purchase was sixty acres known as the Jackson place. After his mother's death he bought the old homestead. All three of these farms have fairly good buildings, and are productive places under the management of Mr. Wilson.

In 1883 Mr. Wilson married Miss Lydia Gage, of Monroe township. They are the parents of seven children named as follows: Mrs. Pearl Overman, of Marion; Dona Johnson, of Marion; Leo, Gladys, Lavon, and Beatrice and Bernice, twins, all the last five being at home. In politics Mr. Wilson is a Democrat and has served his community in the capacity of road supervisor and pike superintendent. The church at which he and his family worship is the McKinney Christian church.

Deb Murray