J. WILLIAM FURNISH. The progressive farmer of today is far from content to make merely a living from his land. It must pay him a full measure of gain for the labor he expends upon it, and he is constantly seeking new means and methods of increasing his production. It is through the efforts of such men that progress and advancement are accomplished, and because of such men in Grant county this has become one of the most prosperous farming communities of the Hoosier state. Not every man has the ability to aid in this progress, even though he possesses the inclination, but one who is possessed of both characteristics, and has gained the local title of "a hustler," is J. William Furnish, of section 4, Mill township, the owner of a nice property and a citizen who has fairly earned the esteem in which he is generally held.

Judge Benjamin Furnish, the grandfather of J. William Furnish, was a native of Kentucky, and came to Grant county as a pioneer in 1832, entering land in Fairmount township. There he improved a good farm, became prosperous and was known as an influential citizen but was cut down in the prime of life when about forty years old. By reason of his good judgment, strict integrity and well-known impartiality he was chosen to serve his fellow-citizens in the office of circuit judge, and at all times upheld the honor and the dignity of the bench. Judge Furnish married Miss Rachael Leach, who outlived her husband for a long period of years and died in advanced age. Both were devout members of the Primitive Baptist church, led honest and God-fearing lives, and were numbered among their community's most highly respected people.

John Furnish, son of Judge Benjamin, and father of J. William Furnish, was born October 17, 1837, in Franklin county, Indiana, while his parents were spending a short time in that locality. As a lad he came to Grant county, here grew up and was educated, and was married in Jefferson township to Miss Martha J. Garrison, a native of Ohio, born October 13, 1837. Mr. and Mrs. Furnish still survive and are making their home on their fifty-five acre farm, located in Mill township, and in spite of advanced years are still alert in body and active in mind. Mr. Furnish has been essentially a farmer, yet he has found time also to engage prominently in Republican politics, and at one time was a candidate for the office of county recorder. At this time his views on the temperance question lead him to support the Prohibition party. With his wife he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, and both have taken an active part in its various movements and charities.

J. William Furnish was born on his father's farm in Jefferson township, Grant county, Indiana, October 8, 1860, and was there reared to agricultural pursuits and given an ordinary educational training in the public schools. He early showed himself possessed of industry and thrift, and at the age of seventeen years, seeking to better himself, went to Sedgwick county, Kansas, and there learned the trade of plasterer. This he followed in Wichita, Kansas, for a period of ten years, and then returned to Grant county, Indiana, and resumed farming, in which he has met with marked success. At this time he is the owner of a handsome tract of ninety-four acres, all under a high state of cultivation, located in section 4, Mill township, just outside of the limits of Jonesboro, of which he has been the owner for four years. He has devoted his attention to general farming, and the prosperity which he has gained has come through the medium of hard labor, intelligently applied. During the time he has lived in this locality, Mr. Furnish has built up a reputation for honesty and integrity that makes his name a synonym for reliability and straightforward dealing. His methods are progressive, although practical, and his property shows the beneficial effects of good management.

While a resident of Wichita, Kansas, Mr. Furnish was married (first) in 1881 to Ida L. Allphine, who was born in Schuyler county, Illinois, December 28, 1860, but was reared and educated in Kansas, where she went as a child with her parents. She died in Jonesboro, Indiana, having been the mother of four children: Maybelle, who died soon after her marriage to Warren Knowles; Mary J., who is the wife of Thomas Owens and the mother of four children, Verda, Elizabeth E., Della and Aidrie; Nellie, who died at the age of twenty-three years, unmarried; and Myrtle, who died aged six years.

Mr. Furnish's second marriage, which took place in Madison county, Indiana, was to Miss Pansy May Mason, who was born August 29, 1884, in Madison county, Indiana, and was educated in that county, where she grew up and resided until her marriage. She has been the mother of Minnie, Thelma Irene and Nancy L., who are all attending school; and Edmund, Elizabeth and Owen, the babies. One child, Martha J., died January 1, 1904, aged one year and four days. For many years Mr. Furnish voted with the Republican party, but becoming convinced of the necessity for following a principle rather than party ties, he became a pioneer worker in the Prohibition party, which he now gives his aid and voting influence. He and his wife are consistent members of the Jonesboro Friends' church, and have aided it in many ways. Mr. Furnish is prominent in fraternal circles as a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, his allegiance being given to Romania Lodge No. 82, in which he has passed through all the chairs and the degrees up to the Grand Lodge. He belongs to the class of men who are able to make their minds work with their hands, and who make their community's interests their own. Such men form the backbone of any locality.

"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 V. SHUGART. One of the pioneer families of this county has its representative in John V. Shugart, himself a leading citizen of Mill township and one of the wealthy men of the county. Mr. Shugart has devoted himself to agricultural activities all his days and his success has been the reward of constant application to duty. The Shugart family is an old North Carolina one, long residents of Randolph county, that state, and Quakers of the old type. Like all their fellow religionists, they were stanch abolitionists, and in Civil war times the Shugarts were among the leading agents of the well known underground railroad that aided in the escape of so many negroes. Their Grant county home was for years a station, the grandfather of the subject having aided the Negro on every possible occasion. His farm, upon which he now lives and on which he was born, was a station for the Underground Railroad.

Considering briefly the line of descent from the time of the first of the name to the present time, the facts are as follows: George Shugart, the first of whom there is authentic record, was born in North Carolina about the close of the Revolutionary war. He was a farmer and a Quaker, the family from first to last having adhered to its industrial and religious tendency and belief with but slight variation. This old patriarch lived to come north with his son, John Shugart, the grandfather of the subject. The family made the journey from North Carolina to Indiana after the manner affected by travelers of that early period, the year being 1835, and their first location was on section 30, Mill township, Grant county, on Deer creek. The land they chose was a dense forest wild, and they reared a rude log cabin in a spot that promised to be a convenient one, there setting up their household goods after the manner of pioneers of all periods and places. It is perhaps, quite unnecessary to say that this family suffered all the privation and hardships that might be expected to attend primitive conditions such as they were subject to, and though it is an undeniable fact that they did live a life attended by many discomforts, it is also true that they were happy and prosperous, according to the prosperity standards of the day. There was often a shortage of money. In fact, there were long seasons when the family never once gazed upon actual specie of the day, but their wants were few, and forest and field and stream provided their simple needs. Wild game abounded at all seasons, and game laws, the plague of the woods dweller of today, were then unthought of. So it was that they lived simply, but content with their lot, and it is more than probable that the present generation, blessed with a goodly share in this world's goods, are not more happy than were their ancestors in the wilderness homes they builded themselves.

Here the great-grandfather of John V. Shugart died, as did also his devoted wife, and they are buried in the old Deer Creek cemetery of the Friends.

John Shugart was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, in about 1800, and there he married Miss Sarah Ratcliffe. They came to Grant county in the year 1835, and their first location was in section 30, Mill township, the place now being known as the Love Stock Farm. He first came north in the twenties, however, and located in Wayne county, Indiana, there carrying on farming operations for some years, and it was there that John, Jr., father of the subject was born, on September 5, 1827. They had made the long journey to Wayne county in a one horse cart, and the experience was one they remembered to the end of their lives. John Shugart died at the age of fifty-four on the farm he had settled and partly improved in Grant county, death resulting from blood-poisoning, and his widow survived him for many years. They were of the Quaker faith, and helped to organize the church in their community, having deeded three acres to the Deer Creek church for a cemetery and school site. The first church erected was a humble log affair, the second a frame building and the third a fine appearing brick edifice.

John Shugart, Jr., father of the subject, was eight years of age when his parents moved to Grant county, and he was educated in a somewhat meager fashion in the log schools of the period. Dirt or puncheon floors, rude slab benches and oiled paper for window lights was the equipment of the schools of that day, and if the attending children learned even the rudiments of the much talked of Three R's, they did well indeed, and should he congratulated upon their wit and enterprise.

Reared to the farm, John Shugart knew no other enterprise in which he might find a living, and he cared for no other, for the men of this family have for generations been successful and well equipped farmers, their inherent qualities insuring a measure of prosperity in their chosen work. Mr. Shugart in time acquired a tract of five hundred acres of land in Grant county, and this he placed largely under cultivation during his lifetime. In 1871 he erected a fine brick dwelling, and prior to that time had built two enormous barns, which were burned, whereupon he straightway erected two more, even larger and more modern in their appointments. Mr. Shugart had by this time interested himself largely in cattle breeding, and he was known as a pioneer in the breeding of fine Holstein-Friesian cattle. He was a leader in that enterprise, and to him must be given the credit for having inspired the farming men of the community to the breeding of more and better stock on their places. His son has carried on the work most admirably, and is recognized as a leader in all matters pertaining thereto.

On April 1st, 1910, John Shugart died, and his son has carried on his work since then, with all success. Mr. Shugart was a Quaker and a Republican but during the last twenty-five years of his life was a strong Prohibitionist. During all his days he was prominent in the community that represented his home, and in which he had wielded a most excellent influence all his days. He exemplified many sterling traits in his every day life, and was a man whose word was quite as good as his bond. He always interested himself creditably in the civic affairs of the community, and might be ever relied upon to further the interests of any enterprise calculated to result in a moral or spiritual uplift in the town and county.

Mr. Shugart was married in Miami County, Indiana, to Miss Rebecca Guyer, born in Darke county, Ohio, near Palestine, on September 13, 1825, and who died at the family home on April 22, 1886. She was a daughter of Samuel and Rachel (Small) Guyer, who came to Miami county, Indiana, from Darke county, Ohio, there spending their remaining days in farming activities. They were members of the Christian church and were prominent in their community all their days.

Mrs. Shugart, like her husband, was a member of the Deer Creek Monthly Meeting of the Friends, and they were among the most ardent and dependable workers in the society. Mrs. Shugart especially was a devoted temperance worker and crusader, and it would be difficult and well nigh impossible to form any adequate estimate of the good she did in her life in this community. Mr. and Mrs. Shugart gave homes to eight orphaned children whom they helped to suitable educations, and did much missionary work among the poor and needy, for they were always mindful of the scriptural injunction, "The poor ye have always with you," and let no opportunity escape them to further the material and spiritual welfare of those with whom they came in contact, who might need their kindly aid. They were true Christian people, and their beautiful charity was one of the finest traits they possessed among many that were praiseworthy, indeed. When they died the community mourned their passing as only kindly and simple people of their stamp are ever mourned, and their influence is yet felt in Mill township.

John V. Shugart, their son, was born on the old home place on September 29, 1866. He attended the common schools of his community, which were well advanced over the efficiency they boasted in the days of his father's boyhood, and was carefully reared by his wise and gentle parents. He early learned lessons of honor and uprightness, which coupled with the habits of thrift and perseverance which he formed in boyhood, have been the basis of a splendid character and a praiseworthy material prosperity. Mr. Shugart admits that his schooling was not as complete as he could wish, but gives much credit to his actual business experience as having broadened and in a great measure educated him. He is now engaged in the automobile business, with automobile salesroom at the corner of 4th and Booth streets, Marion. He handles the Cadillac and the Chevrolet automobiles. He is a director of the Farmers' Trust & Savings Company of Marion, Indiana.

Mr. Shugart's farm today is admitted to be one of the finest in the county, and it is kept up to a high standard of efficiency and completeness in its equipment that will scarce be equaled anywhere.

Like his father, Mr. Shugart has especially devoted himself to the breeding of blooded Holstein-Friesian cattle, and he has been a leader in the enterprise in this part of the state. Many blue ribbon winners have gone forth from his stables. Some time ago he sold his herd and withdrew from the breeding business definitely, but his reputation as a breeder and as expert authority on these subjects still continues with him. He has made a substantial fortune in his agricultural and breeding activities, and his farm is one of the fine show places of the county. Mr. Shugart has been known as a shrewd man of business, and combined with his extraordinary business acumen are the wide-mindedness and gentleness that were so prominent as traits in the characters of his worthy parents.

Mr. Shugart was first married in Miami county in 1888 to Miss Mildred L. Canaday, who was born on September 2, 1867 and died on June 22, 1889, without issue. She was a birthright member of the Friends church. On December 1, 1891, Mr. Shugart married Miss Carrie Hathaway, born in Fairmount, Indiana, on March 2, 1871. Her father died when she was a child of four years, after which she was reared in the home of Elias and Hannah Baldwin, in Marshalltown and later in Des Moines, Iowa, where they lived. She was a daughter of John and Mary (Hall) Hathaway.

To Mr. and Mrs. Shugart have been born two children. Frank, the eldest, is now attending a business college in Marion, having completed a high school course in his home town, and Nellie is attending common schools. The family is among the most prominent hereabout, and they enjoy the sincere regard of a host of good people in and about the county. Mr. Shugart is a Republican, and has always taken a more or less active interest in the politics of his county and state, while he is known to be a citizen of the highest type.

"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


PETER ROBERTS. The Roberts family has given to Grant county, in Mrs. Margaret Spangler, a citizen of splendid worth, and one who has done a man's part in the way of keeping up a home and carrying on the work of a farm. She is the daughter of Peter Roberts, who was of Southern birth and ancestry, the Roberts family of Virginia having long been located in Scott county, in this particular branch of the name. He was born in Scott county, Virginia, and died there in 1863, when in the prime of his young life. His people were long identified with agriculture in Scott county as owners and operators of a magnificent plantation in the ante-bellum days, and he was a soldier in the Confederate army for a time. He fell ill after a period of service extending over several months, and was furloughed home on sick leave, soon after which he died.

Mr. Roberts had married in Scott county Miss Elizabeth Derting, born of Scott county parents on July 23, 1841, and in that county was reared. When Mr. Roberts died he left her with two daughters, one of them Margaret, the wife of John J. Spangler, and Susan, who died some years after her marriage to Melvin Wood, of Arkansas. She left a large family. Following the death of her husband Mrs. Roberts married J. S. Hilton, also of Scott county, Virginia, and they later came to Grant county, Indiana, their advent into the state being in the year 1891. They now live on the farm they acquired in Liberty township. To them were born four children, Pearl, Darthula, Kellar and Elbert, all of whom are married and have families of their own.

Margaret Louisa Frances Roberts, the child of the first marriage of her mother, grew up in Scott county and was educated mainly in the public schools of that district. There she met and married John J. Spangler, and in 1890 came with him to Indiana. They lived in Mill township for a time and then in Liberty township, and in the latter place Mr. Spangler died on January 31, 1905. He had been born in Scott county, Virginia, on February 27, 1857, and came of Virginia people who had long been devoted to the soil in their industry, and while he was in many ways a successful farmer, he met with misfortunes in his career that in a measure shadowed his life. When he died Mrs. Spangler found herself with a family to support, and nothing beyond the possession of the farm to aid her in the maintenance of that family. She was a woman who had been reared to do earnest work all her life, and she was nothing daunted at the situation that presented itself with the death of Mr. Spangler. The result has been that she has succeeded in providing an excellent living for herself and her children on their farm in Mill township. In 1910 she purchased eighty acres in Mill township, having for eleven years previously lived in Liberty township, and this place in charge of Charles G. Case, is proving a profitable investment for Mrs. Spangler.

Mrs. Spangler is the mother of five children. Ollie D., the eldest, was born March 15, 1888. She was graduated from the Fairmount Academy in the class of 1907 and is now a teacher in the graded schools of Mt. Ayer, Indiana. Clarence L. was born on October 27, 1890. He was educated in the public schools and the Marion Normal, and is now engaged as a bookkeeper in the Warner Glass Company at Summittville, Indiana. He is unmarried. Mary K., born in 1895, is a graduate of the Marion Normal and is now a teacher in the public schools. Fannie B., born October 12, 1900, is now attending the grade schools, and William H., born April 4, 1896, died on August 7, 1899. Mrs. Spangler has one daughter by adoption, Susan L., who was born August 9, 1899, and is now in the Jonesboro high school. Mrs. Spangler has a host of good friends in and about the township, who have watched with much and not a little approbation her career as a farmer, and the support of her little family.

"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


ELI B. MARSHALL. A custom which in recent years has made much progress in the rural communities of the middle west, and which in itself is indicative of higher standards of comfort and independence in life, is the giving of names to the individual farms, a custom that probably adds no material value to the place, but is nonetheless attractive for that reason. The first country home in Grant count to be formally designated with a title was the Catalpa Stock Farm, of which Eli B. Marshall has been proprietor for over forty years, coming here March 1, 1871. The Catalpa farm is the home of Poland-China hogs, and some of the finest stock of this kind raised in eastern Indiana is to be found on the place of Mr. Marshall. He makes a specialty of breeding Poland-China hogs, and his public sales conducted every season have put his stock into nearly every state of the Union.

Mr. Marshall who is one of the larger and most prosperous farmers of Grant county was born in Boone county, Indiana, May 6, 1846, and belongs to one of the old families of the state. His parents were Joshua and Tamar (Osborn) Marshall. The father was a son of Thomas Marshall and the latter a son of Joseph Marshall, who was born in Virginia. Thomas Marshall, the grandfather, came over the Blue Ridge Mountains to Henry county, Indiana, thence moving to Boone county, where he died. Joshua Marshall was married in Boone county, and took up his residence in Grant county in 1847. In the latter county he spent the rest of his life. He was a man whose interest was identified with public affairs, and in the early days he was one of the leaders in the improvement of the roads of the county. In politics his vote and interest were at first in support of the Whig organization, and later was Republican. A story that is told of this old resident as a part of family tradition is that he voted in that county at a time when a hollow stump served as the ballot box of his precinct, and each voter marched up and deposited his ticket in the recess of this old stump. Joshua Marshall was a birthright Quaker, and thoughout his life continued an influential and interested worker in his church. He was the father of ten children, of whom the three living in 1913 are: Ruth, wife of Samuel Small; Eli B. and William R., who is a minister of the Baptist church in Arkansas.

Eli B. Marshall has spent practically all his career in Grant county. He was reared during the days of primitive schools and school facilities, and had only such education as was given by the local institutions, and had the training of the farm and the wholesome rural environment of more than half a century ago. Farming has been his regular career, and he is one of the men who have prospered to an exceptional degree. In 1870 he bought the Sidney Harvey farm, and still owns that place. Since locating with his family there in March, 1871, he has lived and prospered for more than forty years, and from that place his foster children have gone out into independent work and existence. He married Sarah A. Charles, a daughter of Dr. Henry Charles. This wife died without issue, having been killed on June 27, 1901, when she was thrown from her buggy in front of her home. Though they had no children of their own, they adopted in their home and reared or partly reared nineteen boys and girls. Such practical benevolence is seldom met with. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall dressed, fed and provided home and educational facilities to these children, who in turn have honored their adopted parents. For his second wife Mr. Marshall married Myra (Vickey) Webster. Mrs. Marshall has been for many years a minister of the Friends church. At the present time they have in their home a boy who is being reared under their care, and that completes the total of twenty children, who have been assisted and have found homes and shelter and protection under the Marshall roof-tree. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall are members of the Quaker church, and he is an elder in the church and has held that distinction since he was twenty-two years of age. He assisted in building the church in Franklin township, having contributed liberally to that organization in the erection of both the buildings, which have furnished its religious home during the last forty or fifty years. Mr. Marshall was formerly a prominent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a Republican, without special party activities. The Catalpa farm contains one hundred and thirty-three acres, and is situated on section twenty-seven in Franklin township. In 1886 Mr. Marshall erected a comfortable brick house, and the other buildings include good barns, granaries and places for the shelter of stock and machinery. The improvements are excellent and the farm well upholds the dignity conferred by its name Catalpa Stock Farm.

Mrs. Marshall, as already stated, preaches in the Friends church and has a regular charge at Maple Run church. She has been prominently identified with organization work in the church in Grant, Wabash, Huntington, Wells, and Henry counties. She was born in Rush county, Indiana, being a native Hoosier. Mr. Marshall when little more than a boy answered the call of patriotism, and enlisted in April, 1864 in Company C of the One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Indiana Infantry. His regiment was attached to the Army of the Cumberland, but he was never in any engagements or fighting. His duty and that of the regiment was the transportation of captured Confederates to Chicago and other Federal places of imprisonment. He was mustered out at the end of his term of enlistment in November, 1864, having been away from home about seven months. He now has membership in the Swayzee Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. His brother Levi Marshall was a member of the One Hundred and First Indiana Regiment, and served from the beginning of the war until hisdeath a few days after the battle of Chickamauga, although he was not wounded therein. Joseph Marshall, another brother, was a member of the Thirty-fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was with Sherman on his march to the sea and then on until the close of the war.

"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


Deb Murray