Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

HON. JAME S E. RILEY. Seldom have the honors and responsibilities of legislative functions fallen upon a more fitted candidate than in the election on November 5, 1912, of James E. Riley to represent Grant county in the sixty-eight Indiana assembly. Mr. Riley took to the capital a long and successful experience, as farmer, merchant and efficient local citizen. He came up from the bottom and learned to bear the responsibilities of manhood when a boy. In thirty-four years of residence at Van Buren he first of all made himself successful in business, and provided well for his family. At the same time his relations with the community were increasingly beneficial to the general welfare and his friends and fellow citizens throughout the county, regardless of politics, esteemed him as one of the best selections made in many years for his present office.

James E. Riley was born December 28, 1851, in Tipton county, Indiana, a son of Noble S. and Mary (Hinton) Riley, both of whom were natives of the state of Kentucky. Grandfather Edward Riley immigrated to Indiana from Kentucky about 1840. Noble S. Riley was born in 1823 and died in 1856. For some years he was a merchant at Manila in Rush county, and afterwards moved to Tipton county where he bought a farm. He became prominent in his locality and at the time of his death was serving as county commissioner. When his son James E. was about four years of age, the father contracted typhoid fever, and left a widow and three young children. The children were Lewis Cass, now of Tipton county; James E. and Martha J. Yohe, a resident of Elwood, Indiana. The mother made a noble struggle to rear her family, and give them the proper comforts and advantages of life, but succeeded in that task, and lived in the esteem of her children until she was eighty-seven years of age, her death occurring July 29, 1911. During her later years she lived with her son in Tipton county.

James E. Riley had a common school education, and was brought up on a farm. When twenty-two years of age he married and for the next four years farmed as a renter, and it was only by thrift and good management, and persistent industry that he got his start. In 1879 he located in Van Buren, where he established a store. That store, as older residents will recall, was on a very small scale, and at the beginning the total stock of groceries did not exceed one hundred and fifty dollars in value. Mr. Riley gave to his enterprise, however, the necessary qualities of push and good management, and in time built up a fine business and began accumulating property. As his children grew up about him he gave each one of them a high school education, and some of them have had the advantages of college. In September, 1911, Mr. Riley retired from the mercantile business, after more than thirty-two years in that line. At the present time he owns a fine farm of eighty acres west of Van Buren, having purchased that place in 1907. In 1889 he formed a partnership with W. L. Duckwall, with whom he owns a large brick block in Van Buren, and also owns some land in partnership with Mr. Duckwall. He individually owns another block in the village, and has a very attractive residence property, his house being of twelve rooms and modern in every respect. In 1913, the Farmers Trust Company of Van Buren Indiana, was organized and Mr. Riley was elected the president. Wm. Doyle is the vice president and C. C. Huff is the secretary-treasurer. The organization has a capital stock of $25,000.

Mr. Riley has been a life-long Democrat, and has taken an active interest in party councils from the tune he cast his first vote. He served as assessor of Van Buren township for nine years, was postmaster at Van Buren under President Cleveland from 1892 to 1896, and in 1912 was elected representative. In the legislature he is a member of the following committees: County and township committee; organization of courts; banks; state soldiers' and orphans' homes; and public expenditures.

On March 19, 1874, Mr. Riley married Miss Sarah E., daughter of Dr. Daniel T. Black, of Marion, a very prominent physician of that city for many years. Eight children have been born to their marriage, seven of whom are now living: Blanch, who married Henry D. Nicewanger, and resides in Kennewick, Washington; Grace, wife of John R. Brown of Marion; Pearl Allen, resides in Greenville, Ohio; Roxey Haines, whose home is in Robinson, Illinois; Mrs. Maude Sutton, of Michigan City, Indiana; Martha Howe, of Bartlettsville, Oklahoma; and Noble T., who is at home, aged sixteen. Fraternally, Mr. Riley affiliates with the Van Buren Lodge of Odd Fellows, and has been a member of that time-honored fraternity for about thirty-five years. He and his family worship in the Christian church.

"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 L. THOMPSON. While the Thompson family history had its local beginning in Monroe, its base was changed to Gas City when natural gas transformed Harrisburg from a hamlet to a manufacturing center. In making the change from rural to urban environment, John L Thompson was thinking of the future of his sons, who were ambitious fellows and who must have congenial employment. It is a rare thing for a man who has made a success of one occupation to change it for another, and it was simply the force of circumstances that caused it.

John L. Thompson married Elizabeth S. Hays, November 15, 1865, and the children born to them are: Oscar S. Thompson, who married Olivia Davis. He has one son, Arthur E. Thompson, who married Frances Peters, and their son, "Billy" Richard Thompson, is in the fourth generation�all of them closely associated in business relation.

Eva Thompson is the wife of Alva A. Nesbitt, and she is the remnant of the family still adhering to the farm surroundings. Their children are: Mabel, wife of Kemp Deering; Genevieve, Lucile, Francis T. and Howell D. Nesbitt.

William O. Thompson married Lela May Yates and two children, John L., Jr., and Virginia, were born to them. Miss Gertrude Thompson is now at the head of the Thompson household. Howell D. Thompson married Marie Neal and two children, Janet Elizabeth and Haydn, were born to them. Since November, 1872, Mrs. Ella Kelley Thornburg has been a member of the Thompson family.

John L. Thompson and his wife, now deceased, represent two pioneer Grant county families, he being a son of Samuel R. and Martha M. (Thornburg) Thompson, who located in Monroe township, July 20, 1842, in the green woods, and he cut away the brush to drive the wagon to the spot where he built his first primitive dwelling. After buying the eighty acres and paying on it all the money he had ($85), he had a considerable debt, a wife and two children. The present day financier wonders, how six years later, Mr. Thompson built the brick house now occupied by Edgar Thornburg but known to all as the Thompson family homestead. There were some secrets known to the settlers�economy and industry.

Samuel R. Thompson was a native of Clinton county, Ohio, and his wife came of old line Quaker stock in the same community. They had tried a home in Randolph county, Indiana, before locating in Grant county. He was a tanner, and put in a tan yard in the woods, now an unknown industry in Grant county. There were tanneries in Marion and Jonesboro, but from the beginning Mr. Thompson had excellent patronage. He was an expert at his trade and made an excellent quality of leather from cow hides when there were shoemakers around so many firesides in Grant county. Tan bark is now an obsolete term in local history. This farm house and about one section of land remained when Mr. Thompson and his wife had lived out their day and generation.

Samuel R. Thompson and his wife were married November 8, 1838, and the two daughters they brought to Grant county were: Judith, who married Dr. Mahlon Pugh, and Sarah J., who married W. H. Taylor, and their son, John L. Thompson, was born at the family homestead and all of his life has been spent in the community�Monroe and Gas City. Miss Alma M. Thompson, Uri H. Thompson and Mary A. who married J. M. Buchanan are all natives of Grant county. Mrs. Pugh and Uri H. Thompson are deceased; Mrs. Pugh is survived by one son, John T. Pugh. Mrs. Buchanan's family is elsewhere enrolled in the biography section.

Mrs. John L. Thompson was a daughter of William and Sarah (Niccum) Hays, her genealogy the same as that of Mrs. D. S. James, Mrs. Joseph Lugar and Mrs. William Doyle. She was born in Maryland, and her father came in 1849 to Grant county, after having lived in Wayne county and given up his proposed residence in Illinois. When Mr. Hays left Maryland he made a cradle for his one child that would fit into the front of the carriage, and that is the way Mrs. Thompson reached Indiana. After cradling her own children in it, this home made household necessity was consigned to the attic at Cedar Place, the John L. Thompson family homestead�now the home of the Nesbitt family in Monroe. When the mother of Mrs. Thompson died, William Hays went to Maryland for a second wife, and every year the sons and daughters in the entire family come together at ��Greenbush," the home of Mrs. Harriet Hays, and enjoy a dinner and social time, harmony being the keynote of the family association. Mr. Thompson is recognized as president of this family gathering.

While he lived at Cedar Place in Monroe, Mr. Thompson specialized in sheep husbandry, being an importer of Shropshires for many years, and he introduced Percheron horses and always had high grade Shorthorn cattle. While he was a routine farmer, live stock was his specialty. He always read farm journals, and he was one of a group of progressive farmers to organize the Grant county farmers' institute which has attained to such high tide in popularity and usefulness. When Mr. Thompson laid his first drain tile, he was subject to criticism among his neighbors, and his friends in the local grange reasoned with him about it. They felt like it was waste of energy and money, and advised him not to lay the tiles against each other at the ends as they would adhere, and be of no service to him. He introduced the wire tooth sulky rake in hay making, buying one at Huntington because of the canal shipment there before there were shipping facilities in Grant county. Mr. Thompson had the first disc harrow, Keystone hay loader and harpoon hay fork ever used in Monroe township, and he was always alert for labor saving machinery.

Because of his improved live stock, Cedar Place was always a mecca for stockbuyers, and Mr. Thompson was active in agricultural and livestock exhibits at both county and state fairs. For years he has had charge of the sheep exhibit at the Indiana state fair, and he is always officially connected with local fairs, having been many times president of the Marion Fair Association. One who reads up-to-date farm literature, and goes about the country as he does, is a valuable member of such an organization. Mr. Thompson bought his first pure-bred Shropshire sheep at the state fair in 1875, and in 1887 he began his annual pilgrimages to England, making five trips there as an importer, and his wife sometimes accompanied him. He will always be interested in sheep husbandry.

When the Gas City Land Company first offered inducements to manufacturers, Mr. Thompson's problem was the future of his sons, who did not incline so much to agriculture as business, and O. S. Thompson was the first man on the ground, the Thompson Bottle factory being Gas City's first industry. While Mr. Thompson was president of the company organized in March, 1892, he remained at Cedar Place until September of 1893, when he decided to give his personal attention to manufacturing. At that time farm land was not in local demand, and he retained it until he recently transferred part of it to the Nesbitts, who have always looked after his interests there. From 1893 to 1897 was a strenuous period in the glass industry, but the Thompson factory survived the depression, and it has always been a paying proposition.

The business has recently been merged with the Illinois Glass Company with its main office at Alton.

The year Mr. Thompson moved to Gas City, his second son, W. O. Thompson, graduated from Purdue University, and he has since been active factory superintendent, while O. S. Thompson is general business manager and Howell D. Thompson is secretary and in charge of the sales department. O. S. and H. D. Thompson have traveled extensively in the interests of the business managed so successfully by them. J. L. Thompson has always employed the same tactics in manufacturing that he used in agriculture, and modern equipment in all of its departments is the history of the Thompson Bottle factory. Five automatic bottle blowing machines have been installed, but there is still demand for hand made bottles and men are still employed in that department. While there have been some warehouse losses, the Thompson factory has lost very little time from actual business in its more than twenty years of existence.

While all the Thompson family traditions were Democratic, J. L. Thompson changed his political faith when he became interested in wool production, and since he is a glass manufacturer he is still more confirmed in the doctrine of tariff protection to American industries. While he lived at Cedar Place he had splendid farm improvements, and the modern home in Gas City is one of the beauty spots of Grant county. The wall surrounding the property gives it a splendid setting, and ornamental shrubbery, a court and garage bespeak the manner of life of the family. The sons all have commodious homes, and Mr. Thompson realizes that his present comfortable surroundings are the direct result of industry and business foresight. Few men attain to eminent success in more than one vocation, but he mastered both agriculture and manufacturing�and now the business built up for the sons is well taken care of by them, and Mr. Thompson has leisure for well merited enjoyment. He devotes his time to many things of public nature, and has been untiring as a member of the Gas City school board in securing the Carnegie library recently given to Gas City. The Thompson family and industry are certainly an important factor in the history of Gas City as well as of Monroe township, where the two old family homesteads�Samuel R. Thompson's and John L. Thompson's adjoining each other, will long be pointed out as landmarks of the community.

HENRY L. ERLEWINE. Although a young man in years Henry L. Erlewine is a business man of experience and ability as his career in Marion, Indiana, has proved. He is the manager of one of the most important manufacturing plants in Marion, the Marion Machine Foundry and Supply Company, and he has made this concern the success which it is. He has devoted to the process all the energy of a tireless nature and has not spared himself in the effort. Enterprising and progressive, this young man has won the confidence of the older business men of the town and is recognized as one of the heading men in the coming generation.

Henry L. Erlewine was born on the 28th of October, 1878, at Cameron, in Monroe county, Ohio. He is a son of John C. and Lena (Eberle) Erlewine, the former being a farmer in Cameron, Monroe county, Ohio. He is yet living and is actively engaged in farming in that place.

Henry L. Erlewine is one of eight children born to his parents and he received his education in the grammar and high schools of Cameron, Ohio. His first assay at earning his own living was as a school teacher and for three years he taught in various schools in Monroe and Washington counties, Ohio. He then took up clerical work for two years and in September, 1902, came to Marion, Indiana. Here he organized the Marion Machine, Foundry and Supply Company. This corporation does general machine work and manufacturing, clay working machinery, brass and iron castings, rocker grates for boilers, soot blowers and similar appliances. They are also dealers in oil well supplies and in new and second hand pipe. Mr. Erlewine has been secretary and treasurer as well as general manager ever since the organization of the company and he is a man of high standing in the commercial world. He is also a director in the Central Machine and Foundry Company of West Marion.

Mr. Erlewine is a member of the Christian church, and is chairman of the official board of the church in Marion. He has always taken a keen interest in sociological matters and is a member of the Civic Assembly and of the Federated Charities of Marion.

On the 18th of September, 1907, Mr. Erlewine was married to Miss Anna Louise Pierson, a daughter of W. W. Pierson, of Leslie, Michigan. They have two children, Susan Elizabeth, who was born August 30, 1909, and Janet, whose birth took place on the 12th of April, 1912.

ASA T. BALDWIN. In the death of Asa T. Baldwin on October 13, 1913, was removed one of Grant county's oldest native sons. Of that substantial Quaker stock, which was so prominent in peopling and giving character to Grant county even unto this time, Mr. Baldwin had his home in Grant county, excepting a few months, through infancy, youth and manhood, and was in his seventy-ninth year when he answered the final summons. He had his share of the vicissitudes and also the prosperity of life, bore his responsibilities with credit, and wherever possible exerted his influence for social and civic betterment.

In that center of Quaker population in Grant county, Fairmount, Asa T. Baldwin was born March 16, 1835, only four years after the organization of the first county government. The annals of the Baldwin family have necessarily bulked large in the history of Grant county, and many points of interest concerning the name might be found by referring to other pages of this volume. The parents of Mr. Baldwin were Thomas and Lydia (Thomas) Baldwin. His father was born in Wayne county, Indiana, April 26, 1813, his birthplace having been close to the site now occupied by Earlham College. The mother was born on Christmas day of 1814 near Fountain City, in Wayne county. The regular vocation followed by the former was farming, though at various times he engaged in other pursuits. In 1833 he came to Grant county, locating in Fairmount township, and was one of the sturdy pioneers who cut the forest, opened up the country to the sunlight, and plowed the first furrows in this county. He and his wife were both devout Quakers, and the families on both sides had been for many generations. The original progenitors came from Wales many years ago. Thomas Baldwin continued to live in Fairmount county until old age, when he moved to the home of his son, Terah at Marion, and died May 25, 1899, in Marion. His wife had passed away four days previous, on May 21, and they were buried in the same grave in the Odd Fellows cemetery at Marion. Of their eight children three are now living, and all are named as follows: Terah Baldwin, of Marion: Ann, wife of John Fellow, of Tipton county; and Lucetta B., wife of Dr. Ed Stanley, of California: A. M. Baldwin, who for eight years was recorder of Grant county, is now deceased; Mary, wife of Charles V. Moore, both deceased; Daniel, who died at the age of seven; and Stephen G., deceased, concerning whom mention is made on other pages of this work; and Asa T.

Though born in Fairmount, the late Asa T. Baldwin spent most of the years of his youth in the home of his parents near South Marion on a farm. His primary education was received in the local schools, and in the old Normal Academy, and also at the Friends Boarding School at Richmond, an institution which later was developed into Earlham College. Mr. Baldwin should be remembered as one of the old teachers of Grant county, having taught in this and in Wabash county for a period of twenty years. At the age of nineteen he went to Michigan, spent six months in that state for his health. He had suffered from the ague which was prevalent over all this portion of Indiana, in pioneer days, and sought a better climate in the northern state. After his career as a teacher, he was engaged in farming southwest of Marion, and until his death owned a part of the estate which he worked for many years. The suburban home in which he spent his declining years comprised twelve acres of ground at the edge of the Marion City limits, the handsome house being located on a high hill overlooking the city and the valley of the Mississinewa. Mr. Baldwin had his home in Marion or vicinity from 1869 onward, and at the place just described he lived for twenty-eight years. On August 11, 1859, Asa T. Baldwin married for his first wife, Miss Emily Kelly, who was born and reared in Grant county. Of their marriage three children are living and three deceased: Otto Kelly Baldwin, who lives in California; Dean A. Baldwin, of Seattle, Washington; Clara B., wife of Willard A. Evans, of Sierra Madre, California. The first wife died March 13, 1884, and on March 16, 1885, Mr. Baldwin married Mary E. (Jay) Overman, widow of Anderson Overman. She was born in Dayton, Ohio, but lived in Grant county from 1850. Her parents were Isaac and Rhoda Jay. Mrs. Baldwin had three children by her former marriage: Isaac Overman and Alhambra Overman, both deceased, and Rhoda Ann Overman, who is assistant librarian at the Marion Public Library. Mr. Baldwin became of age in 1856, in time to cast his first presidential vote for the first standard bearer of the newly organized Republican party, John C. Fremont, and from that time forward gave his support unwaveringly to that great political organization. He followed in the faith of his fathers, and worshipped in the Friends church, as did his wife, and his part in church affairs was more than that of a mere attendant, since for half a century he conducted a Sunday school class. It was one of the fine representatives of the older Grant county citizenship that was stricken down by the hand of death, and his name deserves a prominent place in the history of his native county.

CHRIST HUPP. To furnish bread to the public is the profession of Christ Hupp of Jonesboro. He is master of an art which is as old as civilization, and in providing wholesome food is performing a service such as makes some more aristocratic pursuits seem petty by comparison. His finely appointed bakery was established at Jonesboro, March 17, 1909. Mr. Hupp is a thorough man in his business, and an excellent executive. His output has a large local sale, and he makes it a strict policy to use only the best grade of material and follow the highest standards of the baking art. His shop is located on Main street, occupying a frontage of 22 feet by 100 feet depth.

Christ Hupp was born in Logansport, Indiana, December 30, 1870, was reared in that city, and from the public schools at once began an apprenticeship in the baker's trade which has been his steady occupation all his active career. He worked as a journeyman in his native city, and later was for a number of years employed in the National Biscuit Company's plant at Indianapolis, and also with the Alex Taggart Company of the same city, finally leaving Indianapolis, and locating in Jonesboro.

His parents were William and Augusta (Wandry) Hupp. His father was born in Hesse Darmstadt, and the mother in Berlin, Germany, grew up in the old country and the father was for three years in the German army. After that the parents came to America, but were not married when they left the old country, that ceremony being deferred until they reached Logansport. The father during his youth had learned the trade of blacksmith, but after locating at Logansport, became a teamster and engaged in contract teaming, being still more or less active in that business. He and his wife live in Logansport, and are now respectively seventy-one and sixty-nine years of age. Both are members of the Lutheran church, and in politics he is a Democrat.

Christ Hupp was married in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Miss Christina Ihrig, who was born at Kokomo, reared and educated there. Her parents were both born in Germany but were married in Indiana and now live in Converse, where the father conducts a bakery. Both are more than seventy years of age, but still active and well preserved, and are members of the Lutheran church. Mr. and Mrs. Hupp have one daughter, Nettie, who was well educated in Indianapolis, was born in 1890, and is now the wife of George Burger, of Peru, Indiana. They have no children. Mr. Hupp and wife are communicants of the Lutheran church, his politics is independent, and he is affiliated with the Jonesboro lodge of Masons, No. 109, and since 1898 has belonged to the Improved Order of Red Men at Indianapolis.

Deb Murray