Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

OSCAR E. HAYNES. One of the large farmers of Grant county, Indiana, who is also a native of this county, is Oscar E. Haynes, of Sims township. He has spent his life in his present occupation and although he is now only in his prime he has devoted himself to his vocation with so much energy and industry that he is now one of the most prosperous farmers in the township. He is a man of many friends and is highly respected for his honesty and strength of character.

The father of Oscar E. Haynes was William H. Haynes, who was born in the state of Virginia. He came to Indiana with his parents in 1848 when he was nine years of age. They located in Wabash county, and his father entered land in Richland township, where he lived until his death. William H. Haynes grew up on his father's farm and received little education, for educational facilities in those days were very poor. He married Miss Anna Rife, who was born in Logan county, Ohio, and came with her parents to Indiana at the age of seventeen years. She was well educated for the time and was a teacher. William H. Haynes became a farmer and has so continued throughout his life. He and his wife are both living in Pleasant township. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Haynes, as follows: Cora, who is the wife of Samuel Frantz, of Wabash county, Indiana; Oscar E.; Minnie, who is unmarried and lives at home; and Charles, who is married and lives in Richland township.

Oscar E. Haynes was born in Pleasant township, Grant county, Indiana, on the 15th of January, 1869. He grew up on this farm, attending the common schools of the township. He remained at home until he was of age and then he worked at farming by the year. This continued until his marriage, a period of four years. Since that time he has been farming for himself. He and wife now own 162 acres of land in Sims township, the larger share of which has been put under cultivation by Mr. Haynes himself. Their farm, which is known as the Lumbo Farm, is located on sections 11 and 14, two miles north and a half mile east of Swayzee, Indiana, on the Shanahan pike. Mr. Haynes operates a modern farm, engaged in general farming and stock raising, and in addition to other modern improvements he is the owner of a Haynes automobile. He is a stockholder in the Farmers' Trust & Saving Co., of Marion, Indiana, and his wife is a stockholder in the Sweetser State Bank at Sweetser, Indiana.

Mr. Haynes is a member of the Republican party, and he and his family are members of the Church of the Brethren, he being one of time trustees of the church.

It was in 1894 that Mr. Haynes was married to Miss Amanda Minnick, daughter of Jacob and Sarah Minnick, both deceased. She was reared in Richland township, Grant county, and after being graduated from the township schools, attended Mount Morris College in Illinois. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Haynes: Ira, who is a graduate of the common schools and of Swayzee high school, was born on the 15th of May, 1896; Walter, who has been graduated from the grammar school and is now through his third year in the high school; Ralph, who is eight years of age; Jason, who is four years old, and Susan, who was born on July 1, 1912.

"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

BENJAMIN JONES LUDLUM. As county assessor Benjamin J. Ludlum is a county official who not only performs with fidelity and efficiency the usual routine of duties, but has also brought to his office special vitality and a spirit of service which has resulted in a great improvement of the office, increasing its value to the county and the county's citizenship.

Benjamin Jones Ludlum, who has been a resident of Grant county for a quarter of a century, was born in Butlerville, Warren county, Ohio, March 26, 1870. His parents, Dr. B. F. and Elizabeth (Jones) Ludlum, were both born in Warren county, Ohio, and Dr. Ludlum came to Marion, Indiana, in 1886, practicing his profession here until his retirement a few years ago. He now lives retired with Benjamin J. at the age of seventy-eight. He was born in June, 1835. At one time he served as county health officer. The mother died in 1882, and of the four children in the family, only one other is now living, John C. Ludlum, whose home is at Lebanon in Warren county, Ohio.

Benjamin Jones Ludlum received his education in the common schools of Warren county, Ohio, until the removal of the family to Marion, where he finished in the high school. He also attended the National Normal University of Lebanon, Ohio, where in 1889 he graduated in the scientific course, and in 1890 in the classical course. His first professional activities were in the educational field, and he was a teacher in Grant county, for a while was connected with the Marion Normal School, and was in the country schools for seven years. His next occupation was practical farming, and he lived on a farm three years, and then became associated with Mr. J. B. McClain as manager or foreman of the dray and transfer line operated by that gentleman in Marion. He remained in this business for a number of years, until November, 1910, when he was elected county assessor of Grant county on the Republican ticket. He took up his official duties in January of the following year, his term of office running for four years. In the assessor's office Mr. Ludlum, among other changes and improvements, has card-indexed all the records of mortgages, and this system has proved its value in greatly facilitating the work of the township assessor.

For the past three years Mr. Ludlum has been connected with the Marion Fair Association, for two years having been superintendent of privileges. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being chancellor commander, and is chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias. He also belongs to the Benevolent Crew of Neptunes, and the Sons of Veterans.

On June 16, 1892, Mr. Ludlum married Estelle Davies, of Huntington county, Indiana. Her parents died when she was very young and she was reared in the home of Isaiah Dill from the time she was four years of age. The six children now living of Mr. and Mrs. Ludlum are: Mrs. Lillian Scott, of Franklin township, Grant county; Miss Estelle; Harrison McKinley; Emma; Evangeline; and Roberta. One child, Elizabeth, died in infancy.

JAMES H. POSTON. Recently retired from a long career as a merchant in Marion. Mr. Poston is now enjoying the latter-end of a well spent life, and is devoting some of his leisure and experience to the welfare of his city in the city council.

James H. Poston was born July 9, 1853, at LaFontaine, in Wabash county. His parents were Aaron F. and Nancy (Braustetter) Poston, both of whom had been born in Rush county, Indiana. From that county they moved to Wabash county, about 1845, and there the father began his business career as a cabinet maker. During the last five or six years of his life he followed merchandising and the dry goods business at LaFontaine. His death occurred at the age of twenty-nine, in 1859, when his son, James H., was five years old. The father was a Republican in politics, having joined the party at its inception. The four children in his family were: Arkansas, wife of H. M. Sailors, of Kokomo, and formerly county clerk of Howard county; W. G. Poston, who is a farmer in Wabash county; James H.; H. E. Poston, who died in Marion, in January, 1911. The mother, after her husband's death, married F. T. Taylor of LaFontaine, and they both spent the rest of their years in that vicinity, where her death occurred in 1899, and his in March, 1910, at the age of ninety-three years. They had no children by their marriage.

James H. Poston as a boy attended the public schools at LaFontaine in Wabash county, and when it came time for him to take up a practical occupation of his own he began as a carpenter. He worked at that trade until he was thirty-five and then became identified with the dry goods business in LaFontaine. He remained one of the enterprising business men of that village until 1893, at which time he found a larger field in Marion, and had one of the popular trading centers of this city up to 1911, when he disposed of his business and has since been retired. For some time his store was located at the corner of Fourteenth and Adams streets, but for sixteen years its site was 1 Washington street, near the railroad tracks.

In 1910 Mr. Poston was elected a member of the city council on the Republican ticket. He was married November 23, 1879, to Laura Pogue, daughter of Wilson T. and Nancy Pogue, of Wabash county, but formerly of Rush county, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Poston have one daughter, Georgia, wife of Homer Lester of Marion. Mr. Poston is a deacon in the Christian church, and fraternally belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in the LaFontaine Lodge in Wabash county.

JOHN GRANT. Although the Grant family, to which John Grant, the present Marion market master belongs, has always been identified with Wabash county and LaFontaine, since the death of Mr. F. M. Grant, who was a wel1 known horticulturist in that locality, his sons having all located elsewhere, some of them becoming permanent citizens of Marion, and active business men in the community. For many years F. M. Grant sold nursery stock and some of the best orchards in Grant county have been put out by him. He was an authority on horticulture, and was in demand to discuss the fruit-growing proposition before Farmers Institutes in other counties. He was always a member of the State Horticultural Society, and he and Snead Thomas of Marion worked together in advancing local interests in horticulture. Mr. Grant planted the Picket-Hendrick cherry orchard, which is the largest in this part of Indiana, located in Pleasant township, along the interurban south of Fox Station. When John Grant began the wholesale fruit and produce business, he bought the fruit from this cherry orchard for several years.

John Grant spent more than seven years delivering mail on the rural route No. 3 out of LaFontaine, and there were a few Grant county patrons. He has always been interested in Grant county. He was among the first rural carriers in Indiana to deliver mail from a motorcycle, and he covered his twenty-seven miles in three and one-half hours. His patrons never objected to being on the end of the route�always had their mail at dinner time. Mr. Grant came to Marion in 1909 and engaged in the wholesale fruit and produce business. When the Marion Market House opened he engaged a stall and within a few months had become market master and devoted himself to building up the market. Grant Brothers are all hustlers, and they are known in several communities as active produce dealers. They have branch poultry-packing establishments in several towns. In the way of Grant family genealogy they are descended from Daniel Grant, after whom Grant creek at LaFontaine takes its name. Their ancestor was prominent as a peace-maker among the Indians in the early days. The Odd Fellows cemetery along Grant creek is where most of the older members of the family now slumber. Francis M. Grant, father of Mr. John Grant, married Mercy Waggoner, and eight children were born to them as follows: Bert Grant married Lottie Fuller-Dausman, and has one son, Paul Grant; Charles E. Grant married Violet Heller, and has three children: Maro, Richard, and Pauline; John Grant, above named at the beginning of this sketch, married Lavina Taylor, and their five children are Lillian, Verle, Jesse, Dilmar and Francis Marion, the last carrying the name of his grandfather; Jesse Grant married Virginia Reed; Ida Grant married Delmar Shepard; Nellie Grant married C. E. Perkins and has one child, Aline Perkins: Reid Grant married Hazel Rogers and has one child; and the youngest is Miss Virginia Grant.

While the early history of the Grant family belongs to Wabash county, the above mentioned members of the family are scattered and more of them are located in Marion than at any other point. They grew up at a nursery and fruit farm, and naturally turned their attention to that kind of business, the boys all having picked berries for the Marion trade while small, and John Grant thoroughly understood the requirements of a city market, when he became market master.

While the several brothers in the Grant family are independent in their interests they also have many interests in common, and when one of them wants anything all want it, and thus they cooperate almost unconsciously, each preferring the other in all things. While their father was a member of the Church of the Brethren, they have all affiliated with their mother's church�Disciples or Christian. While they grew up Republicans, in the 1912 election and without premeditation, they all found themselves Bull Moose voters. Thus their minds seem to run along similar lines although occupied differently. It is not straining a point to say the Grants are upright, conscientious business men who have the confidence of the community.

JESSE CLANIN. On section two of Sims township, three quarters of a mile east and three miles north of the town of Swayzee, is located the rural home of Jesse Clanin, one of the prosperous men of Grant county. With almost one hundred and twenty acres of the fine soil of Sims township at his command, Mr. Clanin has never failed to make a good living for his family, is we11 provided for future needs, and along with security in material circumstances possesses the high esteem of the citizens who have known him through youth and manhood in the community where he has spent all his life.

Jesse Clanin was born on the same section of Sims township where he now resides, November 23, 1860. His parents were substantial and highly respected people, Reuben and Jane (Townsend) Clanin. The father was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, and the mother in Wayne county, Indiana, in which latter locality they were married, and soon afterwards moved to Grant county and located in Sims township in 1859. There they spent the rest of their lives in quiet activities of country life. The mother died in 1875, and the father in 1898, the latter having been born, in 1814, and being eighty-four years of age when death came to him. He was a member of the Universalist church. The father had fourteen children, seven of whom are living in 1913. By his first marriage seven children were born and the same number by his second union, and of the latter marriage four are living at this time, Jesse; Susan, wife of Stephen Carmichael; Thirza, wife of Charles Harold; and Thompson, of Sweetser.

Jesse Clanin grew up on the old farm, and while a boy attended the local schools. On September 25, 1880, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary B. Hall, who was born in the state of Illinois, but has resided in Grant county since early girlhood. They have four children: Arthur, a graduate of the common schools and the business college and Normal College, is private secretary for Sterling R. Holt, at Indianapolis; Frank, a graduate of the common schools and the high school at Swayzee, is a school teacher; Earl is a graduate of the common and high schools and the Marion business college, and is a farmer near Gas City; Anna T. was graduated from both the grammar and high schools and lives at home.

Mr. Clanin has had membership in the F. M. B. A. In politics he is a Democrat, but in the campaign of 1912 voted the Progressive ticket. For several years he served as constable of Sims township. He has led a life of quiet industry, and is one of the substantial men in his community. He bought his present farm of 120 acres in 1907, and has made many improvements thereon. Prior to this time for twenty-five years, he lived on his fifty-acre farm in section eleven, Sims township, but sold that farm when he bought his present homestead.

JAMES H. CARROLL. This venerable man, now in the seventy-ninth year of his age, who with firm step and unclouded mind attends to his daily routine of affairs, has for thirty years borne a useful part in Grant county, and has been a resident of this section of Indiana for nearly sixty years. Although now retired from active business and living on his beautiful country estate in section twenty-three of Fairmount township, he still manifests a keen and intelligent interest in all that affects the welfare of his home county, and is widely and favorably known as a man of progress and public spirit.

James H. Carroll was born in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky, near Lexington, in Scott county, April 7, 1835. His parents were Jacob and Frances (Hutchinson) Carroll. Jacob Carroll was born in Virginia and of Virginia parentage, though of Scotch-Irish ancestry. With his brother William and a sister, Mrs. Hoover, Jacob Carroll came to Kentucky and located in Scott county. William Carroll was married in Scott county, and afterwards moved to Missouri where he died, and his widow then returned to Kentucky and spent the remainder of her days in that state. The Hoover family all lived and died in Kentucky. Jacob Carroll was a young man when he moved to Kentucky, and before his marriage enlisted in the War of 1812, in a Kentucky regiment. That fact establishes the very early settlement of the family in the middle west. He went through the war without injury and after his return home took up the life of a farmer. He married Frances Hutchinson in Scott county, and Jacob Carroll lived until after the Civil war, being past eighty years of age. He was a strong Whig in politics, an ardent supporter of Henry Clay. He was a member of no church. After his death his widow moved to Marion county, Indiana, where she died at the home of a daughter, and she was eighty-two years of age at the time. She was a loyal member of the Christian church. Of her four sons and four daughters, all grew up and were married and had families of their own. Two of them died in the state of Kentucky and others came to Indiana, and all are now deceased except James H., whose name introduces this review.

James H. Carroll was reared on a Kentucky farm, and in 1854, at the age of eighteen, with his brother Scott, came to Marion county, Indiana. He began farming in Franklin township, of that county, his brother Franklin having moved thither some years before. It was in Franklin township that James H. Carroll married Eleanore Martin. She was born in Marion county in 1840, a daughter of Alfred Martin, who was born in North Carolina, was married there, and moved to Marion county, Indiana, where he was a pioneer teacher. Comparatively few of those old teachers who taught in the subscription schools made so famous by pioneer stories, can be mentioned by name in local history, but Alfred Martin was one, and a very able man in every way. He spent practically all his life as a teacher, having moved to Indiana during the early twenties, in the pioneer development of the section of the state about Indianapolis.

His death occurred in Marion county when he was a very old man. His politics was that of the Democratic party. His wife, Anna Eliza, belonged to the old school Baptist church. There was a large family of children in the Martin household, and all grew up and were married and are now deceased. Their deaths occurred in Marion county, with the exception of that of Mrs. Carroll, who died in Fairmount township of Grant county, in 1908.

James H. Carroll and wife moved to Grant county, and located in Fairmount township in 1882. There he bought two hundred acres of land and has since had his home on a part of that fine farm. All of it lies in section twenty-three, and its splendid improvements are largely the result of the energy and foresight of Mr. Carroll. He has done very well in life, providing liberally for all his own wants and necessities, and also providing most of his sons with farms, and equipment for starting life. The work by which he has benefited the community has been his enterprise in undertaking the construction of extensive ditches and the tilling of the lowlands in the vicinity of his farm, so that a section of Fairmount township originally a swamp has been reclaimed and made now as productive as any other part of Grant county.

The children of James H. Carroll and wife are mentioned as follows: 1. Florence died after her marriage to Perry Tackett, who now resides near Mr. Carroll and has two children. 2. William lives on a farm at Montpelier, Ohio, is married and his children are Earl, Bethel, Arthur, Paul, Orville and Woodrow Wilson. 3. Robert is a farmer in Fairmount township, and by his marriage to Alice Lewis has the following children: Ive, Glenn, Homer, Edna, Palmer, Orin, Clyde, Virgil and Everett. 4. James lives on a large farm at Blackwll and married Minnie Lewis. Their children are Dwight, Fay, Floyd, Fern, now deceased, as is also Berenice, Orley, Alma and Eunice. 5. John lives at Hartford City, Indiana, married Myrtle Pugh and has three children,�James, Mary and Hershel. 6. Albert lives on the old homestead. He married Bessie Irwin of Fairmount, who was born, reared and educated in Tipton county, Indiana, and who is the mother of Florence, Dolly, Charles and Albert, Jr. 7. Charles died in infancy. Mrs. Carroll, the mother of these children, was an active member of the Christian church. Mr. Carroll has been a life-long Democratic voter, and is also a strong advocate of the temperance cause.

JARIUS A. FILLEBROWN. It would be well nigh impossible to estimate in any remarkable degree the comfort and rest that has been made to the general public through the activities of Jarius A. Fillebrown, until recently proprietor of the Marion Mattress Works, established here by him in 1892. It has been estimated that the average person spends something like one-third of his time in bed, and it will not be denied by any one who has given any degree of thought to the subject that comfortable sleeping arrangements add much to the pleasure of living. It is here that Mr. Fillebrown has played his part in the interests of humanity, and in many instances has added actual time to the lives of those people who have used mattresses manufactured by the Marion works, as a result of their superiority. But recently, on the 10th of November, 1913, Jarius A. Fillebrown disposed of the business which he had built to such splendid proportions and which contributed materially to the advancement of the business interests of Marion. The works is now known as the Marion Mattress Company.

Mr. Fillebrown was born on the 18th of February, 1855, in Kennebec county, Maine, and is the son of L. W. and A. J. (Frost) Fillebrown, both natives of Kennebec county and long residents of that place. The father was a practical machinist and devoted the best years of his life to work of that order in his native community. He came to Marion about 1903, and here ended his days. The mother still lives. She made her home with her son Jarius until the 3d of January, 1914, when she went to live with her other son, the Rev. Charles L. Fillebrown, of Laurens, Iowa. Of the five children that came to these parents there are but the two sons surviving.

Jarius A. Fillebrown received his education in its more advanced stage in Maine Wesleyan Seminary, at Redfield, Maine, and when he was eighteen years old began to work at the machinist's trade under the supervision of his father. For seventeen years he continued in that work in Maine and in Piqua, Ohio. In 1882 the father moved to Piqua, bringing the entire family with him, and in 1892 Jarius A Fillebrown and his family located in Marion, Indiana. It was then that he established the Marion Mattress Works, and afterward successfully and profitable conducted the business, building it to splendid proportions and extending its ramifications until its trade extended over the United States and into South America and the islands of the sea.

Mr. Fillebrown was married in 1877 to Miss N. Margelia Brown, of East Livermore, Maine, where she was born and reared. One child has been born to them, Anna Louise, who is the wife of Norman N. Stevens, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Fillebrowns are prominent in social circles of the city, and have membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, while Mr. Fillebrown was superintendent of the Sunday-school for two years. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Rebekahs, as well as of the Knights of Pythias and its auxiliary, the Pythian Sisters. He is also a member of the Loyal Order of Moose and the Benevolent Crew of Neptune, and is an active member in the Young Men's Christian Association of Marion. A Republican in his political views, he has staunchly upheld the principles of that party but has never displayed any tendency to engage in the political fray of the community. His active work is carried on rather along civic than political lines, and he is recognized as a dominant force in the communal life of the city and as one who looks for the best good of the city in preference to the advancement of any political ideas. As such his life in Marion has been one of the utmost usefulness, and some mention of him and his work should be given proper place in an historical and biographical work of the nature of which this publication partakes.

Deb Murray