Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

FRANCIS A. BRADFORD. Some forty years ago when Francis A. Bradford first came to his present farm in Washington township, practically primitive conditions existed here, there being but thirteen acres cleared from the timber while the improvements consisted of a log house and stable. Today this is one of the finest tracts of its size in the township, the fertile fields yielding large and valuable crops and the buildings being of modern design and substantial character. This desirable state of affairs has been brought about by the industry, perseverance and well directed efforts of Mr. Bradford, who fairly won a place among those who have aided in the development of their community. He was born on section 1, Washington township, Grant county, Indiana, August 27, 1850, and is a son of Isaac and Susan (Spray) Bradford.

There is a tradition in the Bradford family that this branch descended from William Bradford, the American colonial governor and author who was born in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England, in March, 1588, and was one of the celebrated signers of the compact on the Mayflower. George W. Bradford, the grandfather of Francis A. Bradford, was born in Virginia, August 21, 1783; he became a pioneer settler of Grant county, coming here from Virginia in 1843, October 13, and died December 14, 1855. He married Elizabeth Shell, who was born in 1797, and died in 1874. Isaac Bradford, father of Francis A. Bradford, was born June 2, 1816, in Virginia, and as a young man went to Clinton county, Ohio, and later came to Grant county, Indiana, and settled on a quarter section farm on section 1, Washington township, half the land being in Van Buren township; entered the land in 1840 and settled thereon in 1844. The original sheepskin referring to this tract and signed by President Van Buren is still in the possession of Francis A. Bradford. Isaac Bradford continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits throughout his career, and passed away June 4, 1900, one of his community's successful and highly esteemed citizens. He married Miss Susan Spray, who was born in Clinton county, Ohio, January 25, 1823, and she died December 21, 1876, having been the mother of the following eight children: Oliver M., who died December 21, 1893; Samuel, who died May 19, 1874; Andrew, born February 21, 1846, who died October 2, 1847; Charity N., born December 25, 1847, who married Jacob Beekman, and died August 23, 1870; Francis A., of this review; Sarah Jane, who married Oscar E. Landess and died August 31, 1912; Mary, born April 16, 1858, who married Henry Wine and died March 7, 1911; and James B., born October 3, 1860, who now resides in the West.

Francis A. Bradford was educated in district school No. 3, in Van Buren township, and when twenty years of age received a license allowing him to teach school for eighteen months. At the end of this period he came to section 12, Washington township, and settled on a tract of eighty acres, which was then almost entirely uncultivated, as stated at the head of this article, and here began at once to cut timber, dig ditches and in other ways to improve the property, year by year adding to its value. A few years later he added another eighty acres to the last purchase. In 1900 he purchased the old home place of eighty acres on section 1, and he now has all of his land under cultivation except thirty acres of timber which he is reserving. Of late years he has not engaged in farming to any great extent, although he still has twenty-five acres in corn and fifteen acres in oats, the rest of the land being devoted to hay and pastures. He handles the average number of hogs and has found a profit in dealing therein, and also has one and one-half acres in apples and small fruit. The fine twelve-room residence was erected in 1888, but has since been greatly improved, being now equipped with electric lights and heated by a hot water furnace, hot and cold running water being always at hand.

There are three large substantial red barns on the property, and the other buildings are proportionately commodious. Everything about this property goes to give evidence that Mr. Bradford is a progressive, energetic and up-to-date agriculturist, of the class that has made Grant county the center of agricultural prosperity that it is. In business circles he bears the highest reputation for integrity and honorable dealing, and as a citizen he stands equally high. During his long residence in Washington township he has made numerous friends, and those who know him best will cheerfully testify to his many excellent qualities of mind and heart.

On August 7, 1873, Mr. Bradford was married to Miss Maria Landess, who was born October 17, 1825, daughter of Louis Landess. Mrs. Bradford's father was born October 17, 1825, and as a lad of sixteen years came to Van Buren township, Grant county, Indiana, from Highland county, Ohio, with his parents, John and Sarah (Roush) Landess, of Kentucky and Virginia, respectively. John Landess was the son of Jacob Landess, a native of North Carolina. The two families located in Hamilton county, Ohio, and there John Landess spent his whole life in farming. He was the father of sixteen children. Louis Landess was a well-known citizen of his day, was the owner at one time of 300 acres of land, and assisted in the building of the first bridge across the Wabash river at Huntington, Indiana. He died in November, 1912, at the age of eighty-seven years. Mr. Landess married Phoebe C. Whinnery, and they became the parents of eight children, as follows: Oscar E., Alice, Maria, William, George, Ada, and Sarepta. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Landess was again married and by that marriage had one son, Elmer.

Mr. and Mrs. Bradford have been the parents of three children: Grace, who married J. Edwin Price and is now a resident of Wayne township, Huntington county, Indiana; Eulalie, who married Chester Phillips and lives at South Marion; and Francis A., Jr., a farmer of Washington township, who married Edith Wildermuth. Mr. Bradford has always been a Republican, has taken an active interest in his party's affairs, and is known as a man of influence in his community. He is a great lover of home, and much of his time is spent in reading and study, and as a result he has not found a great deal of leisure for outside connections. With his family, he is a member of the United Brethren 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

GEORGE CLUDE FOWLER. There are now three generations of the Fowler family living in Grant county, and as one of the primary objects of this publication is to afford space for family memoirs so that posterity may have an adequate knowledge of their forebears, the following paragraphs are written as a brief memorial to the Grant county Fowlers and their immediate relationship.

George Clude Fowler was born in Jonesboro, Indiana, June 25, 1866. The family was founded in Indiana by his grandfather, William Fowler who was born of Quaker ancestors in North Carolina in 1799. In early manhood he removed to Wayne county, Indiana, settling near Richmond, which at that time contained but two houses. He was engaged in farming and stock raising, later moved out to Iowa and Missouri, but returned to Indiana and died in Grant county at the venerable age of ninety-five years. His first wife was named Anna Cranor, who was born in North Carolina, and who became the mother of five children: Daniel, John, David, Mary and William, none of whom are now living. The second wife was Elizabeth Osborn, who was born in North Carolina in 1800, came to Wayne county, Indiana, in childhood, and by her marriage was the mother of the following children: Jonathan W., Lucy Ann and Rebecca. She died in Grant county at the age of ninety-four.

Jonathan W. Fowler, father of George C., was born in Wayne county, Indiana, in 1836, came to Grant county, for several years clerked in a general store and a drug store, became a farmer, and now lives retired in Jonesboro. He is a Republican in politics, has held offices in his town and township, and has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1861. His wife, Jessie L. Fowler, was born in county Essex, England, in 1840. Her grandfather, James Norton, emigrated to America in 1848 and settled in Mill township, Grant county, where he was joined in 1850 by his son, Major B. V. Norton and family, who arrived after a stormy passage, during which they were shipwrecked on the Azores Islands, and obliged to remain there several months. Mrs. Fowler's mother was Mary (Mann) Norton. Her father was engaged in farming for a time, afterwards in the mercantile business in Fairmount, where he died in 1898, while Mrs. Fowler's mother died in 1856. In the Norton family besides Mrs. Fowler were the following children, six sons and four daughters: Harry, George, Frank, James, Benoni and Mark, the first four of whom served in the Union army during the Civil war, and Harry died in the Andersonville prison, and James fell a victim to disease while in the army. The three daughters besides Mrs. Fowler were: Emily V., Hephzibah Mary and Retta. Of all those children, only three are now living, Frank, Mary and Mrs. Fowler. Jonathan W. Fowler and wife had besides George C. Fowler two sons: Erastus M. and William R., and one daughter, Lula Anetta. Of these Erastus M. and Lula are still living, the former in Union City, Indiana, and the latter with her parents in Jonesboro.

George C. Fowler was educated in the public schools of Jonesboro, for several years was clerk in a grocery store, and the candy factory of F. M. Dilling in Marion, and in 1893 took a position with the Indiana Rubber and Insulated Wire Company of Jonesboro, where he has since remained, having been superintendent of the tire department since 1894. In this department are employed about sixty persons, with a product of about eleven hundred tires per day. He has always been a stanch Republican, working for the success of the principles of his party, but has never sought public office. The family worship in the Methodist Episcopal church and take an active interest in its affairs. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Tribe of Ben Hur, both of Jonesboro.

He was married at Jonesboro in 1891 to Miss Avilla Winslow, who is the daughter of Daniel and Sarah (Howe) Winslow, and was born in Mill township. Her parents were early settlers of Grant county, and were prominent members of the Friends church. She was educated in the public schools of Grant county. They have one child: Russell W., who was born in Jonesboro February 22, 1902, and is now attending the public schools of that town.

ABRAHAM B. RICHARDS. Apart from the piling up of great wealth or conquering high position in the public view, there are distinctions of a quieter or more satisfying kind that are none the less difficult of attainment, and yet are possible to a long and well ordered life such as has been that of Abraham B. Richards, one of the oldest natives of Grant county, whose growing youth witnessed the introduction of the first railway locomotion in this section of Indiana. His young manhood fell during the war in which he served, and he had already reached the summit of life and had his children grown or growing up about him when the first of the remarkable changes of a modern electric railway were ushered into Grant county.

Abraham B. Richards belongs to that stock of hardy physical stock and moral character, whose members are frequently met with in this section of Indiana, and frequent reference is made to the name in this history of Grant county. Mr. Richards is a grandson of Henry Richards, who was born in Pennsylvania, and of old Pennsylvania stock, the name originally having been spelt Rickards. Henry Richards was married in Pennsylvania to Sarah Tom, also of German stock.

Henry and wife lived in Pennsylvania for some years after their marriage and there probably all of their three sons and three daughters were born. Of these, John, the oldest, and father of Abraham B. was born in 1809, and was still a boy in his teens when the family during the latter twenties moved to Ohio, and located in Guersney county. In that section John Richards grew up and married Miss Effie Roberts, and during their residence in Guersney county, three children were born, two of whom died there. The year 1833 marked the introduction of the Richards family to the wilds of Grant county. At that time John Richards, with his wife and one living son Henry, and with the parents of John and other members of the family, all came to Indiana, and located on the Mississinewa River in Jefferson township. Both John and his father, Henry, entered government land, each taking up two hundred and forty acres, and their location was in the midst of the wildwoods, where few neighbors were settled and where wild game of all kind abounded, where the Indians still prowled through the forest keeping company with the wolf and the deer, and where, though Grant county had been formerly organized as a civil government two years before, white men and civilization had made very little progress. Henry Richards and his wife spent the rest of their days in an old log cabin home, Henry passing away at the age of seventy-eight, while his wife was forty-six years old when death came to her. The old cabin in which they dwelt had its old fashioned puncheon floor, and not a nail or piece of iron of any kind entered into the construction of the house or its furniture, and in that way resembled some of the most improved of modern arts and crafts furniture.

Rev. John Richards, father of Abraham, was about twenty-four years old when he came to Grant county, and before his young manhood stretched away a long vista of years filled with hardest kind of works in the woods and in the fields, and the task confronting the pioneer settler of that day is one that is almost inconceivable to the modern resident of Grant county. With his labors as a husbandman he combined the vocation of preaching the gospel under the auspices of the old-school Baptist church. He was called and preached in nearly every section of the state and organized many classes and churches in Indiana. He was one of the organizers of the old Harmony Primitive Baptist church at Matthew. Back and forth across the country, and over its rough roads he rode horseback, and is said to have worn out several horses and more than one Bible in his itinerant labors. He farmed and preached more than thirty years, his age and health finally compelling him to withdraw, and he died in 1863. He was a man of strong spiritual influence and did much good in his evangelical work. In politics he was consistently a Democrat, and a worker for good government as well as for good morals. His wife died in 1847, and she was the mother of nine children, five sons and one daughter of whom are yet living and all are passed sixty-five years of age. All are married and have children of their own. Rev. John Richards married for his second wife, Isabell Gregg, who died the mother of nine children, only one of whom is living and who is married and has a family.

Abraham B. Richards was born about three years after the family located in Richmond county. His birthplace was in Jefferson township, and the date was November 11, 1836, in a pioneer community, with the most primitive of surroundings, he grew up, and his home has always been within the limits of Jefferson township. His recollections include acquaintance with nearly all the old-timers of Grant county, he knows all about the days of the log cabin, the early schools, the blazed trails through the woods, the canal epoch and overland transportation, was a farmer when the cradle was used for reaping grain, and the flail for threshing it, and has witnessed the introduction of practically every modern labor-saving device now found on every farm in Grant county. By economy and industry and honorable dealings, he has himself reaped a substantial material prosperity, and at one time owned two hundred acres of land and proved himself a successful farm manager. He later sold his land and is now living retired within the corporate limits of the little city of Matthews, where he owns eleven acres adjacent to the Harmony Primitive Baptist church grounds.

Mr. Richards has been a member of Harmony church since the first Sunday in March of 1859. When he joined there were fifty-four members and not one of those except himself is yet living, so that he is the oldest of the congregation. His politics has been Democratic all his life, and he has voted regularly with that party for more than half a century.

In 1858, Mr. Richards was married in Delaware county, Indiana, to Martha A. Denoy, a daughter of John Denoy, who was one of the old settlers and old farmers of Delaware county, and who died there in 1864. The married life of Mr. and Mrs. Richards was one unusual in its length and in its happiness, and the greatest bereavement of his life was the death of his beloved companion on June 3, 1913, after they had completed fifty-five years of life's journey side by side. Mrs. Richards was a noble wife and mother, was a member of the Harmony Baptist Church from the time of her marriage, and born in 1842, attained the ripe age of seventy-one years. She was the mother of ten children, who are named as follows: 1. Angie, wife of Sylvester Dunn, a Delaware county farmer, has three children, Fannie, Lola, and John. 2. George, who resides on a farm near Box Elder, in Montana, is married and has children, Ethel, Jesse and Russell. 3. J. Parker, is a teacher in an Oklahoma high school, is married and his two living children are Homer and Hugo. 4. Henry, a farmer near Grandbury, Iowa, is married and has a family of children, those now remembered being: Clifford, Lotta and Maria. 5. Anna, is the wife of Jackson Nelson, who lives in Jefferson township, and their children are Emerson, Neva, Bessie, Ernest and Elsie. 6. Laura, is the wife of Charles Kirk, who is employed with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and their children are Floyd, Mabel, Drexell, Crystal, and Annabelle. 7. Olie, who is the wife of Lewis Feveri, a resident of Portland, Oregon, has children Justus, Louise and Helen. 8. Dora, who like the rest of the children had an education in the public schools, is the wife of Glen Kilgore, of Grant county, and their home is with Mr. Richards, her father, and they have one son, Wayne R., 9 and 10. Lois and Lavina both died in infancy. The living children are all members of the Primitive Baptist Church. Mr. Richards in 1863 was drafted for service in the Civil war and did garrison duty for one year, being honorably discharged and returning home to take up the quiet vocations of civil life.

S. FRANK JONES. Representing one of the old families of Grant county, a former newspaper editor and publisher, and for some time engaged in the Federal civil service in the Philippines, Mr. Jones is now secretary of the Sims-Glass Works.

S. Frank Jones was born in the old McClure homestead, located on the public square in Marion on June 8, 1869. His parents were Byron Horace and Rosetta (McClure) Jones. His father was born near Covington, Ohio, April 20, 1833, and the mother was born in Marion, a member of the old McClure family, which has been so prominent in pioneer history of this city, her birth having occurred in what was then the village of Marion, November 19, 1838. The marriage of the parents occurred April 27, 1864, and their two children are Orlando Shunk Jones, born June 6, 1865, at Marion, and Samuel Frank, whose name heads this article.

Grandfather Daniel Jones was a surveyor by profession, and also a millwright, and his family history is very closely linked with that of the city of Jonesboro in the south end of this county. The father of Mr. S. Frank Jones was reared chiefly at Jonesboro, where he worked at the trade of jeweler, and later came to Marion and entered the employ of his cousin Robert Jones, who was at that time county clerk. Robert Jones went to the war, and Byron H. Jones, as his deputy, served out the official term and was then elected county clerk. His death occurred September 7, 1892. His wife passed away on November 13, 1899.

S. Frank Jones received his education in the schools of Marion and was graduated from the high school class of 1887. He won an honor scholarship by his high school work and in the same year entered the University of Indiana, where he was graduated in 1891, having given particular attention during his college career to both clerical and civic subjects. On leaving college, he began his career as reporter for the Marion Leader, and followed that occupation for one year, at the end of which time he became city editor of the Marion Chronicle. As city editor be made a successful record as one of the newspaper men of Marion, and was in that office from 1892 to 1900. During that time, he was elected secretary of the Republican County Central Committee, and was three successive terms chosen to the same position in 1894, 1896 and 1898.

After the death of his mother in 1899 Mr. Jones secured an appointment on January 30, 1900, to a position in the post office department at Manila, Philippine Islands. He arrived at Manila February 14, 1900, and was soon made superintendent of the dead letter office in the Island possessions. He has the distinction of having installed that branch of the mail service in the Philippines and made the first entries in the records of that department. Mr. Jones remained in the Islands for two years, and came home by way of the Suez Canal. After this interesting experience abroad, he resumed his newspaper work, and became identified with the Tribune, and then was associated with Mr. A. C. Alexander and Mr. George B. Lockwood in purchasing the Chronicle. Mr. Jones was given all the active management of this paper for some time, since his partners were otherwise engaged, Mr. Alexander as secretary of the Indiana World's Fair Commission and Mr. Lockwood as private secretary to the then Governor Durbin. Mr. Jones was manager of the Chronicle for three years, until he and Mr. Alexander sold their interests to Mr. Lockwood. After a short engagement with the Indianapolis Star, Mr. Jones became associated with his father-in-law, Andrew Schick, who had recently bought the Sims Glass Works, and he has since been secretary of this important Grant county corporation. The plant of the Glass works is located at Sims, twelve miles from Marion, and it is considered among the industrial resources of the county as described on other pages of this work. Mr. Jones on February 16, 1904 married Miss Nelle Schick, daughter of Andrew and Rose (Schempf) Schick. Mrs. Jones was born in Bellaire, Ohio, July 27, 1875. Mr. Jones is an active Republican, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Elks, the Masons, and the Marion Country Club. Mrs. Jones belongs to the Presbyterian church.

Deb Murray