Mr. VanCleve belongs to an old and honored family of Dutch extraction, the first member to come to America being one Jan VanCleve, who was born in Holland in 1628. The date of his coming is not known, but it is probable that all the VanCleves have descended from this ancestor. Many of this name have been prominent in the trades, professions and arts, in public, military and civil life, and wherever found represent the highest type of citizenship. Some generations removed from the progenitor of the family was the grandfather of William L. VanCleve, William VanCleve, who was born in Virginia, October 23, 1768, the family having located in the Old Dominion some years before, coming from North Carolina. He married Rebecca Powell, who was born in Virginia, July 6, 1773, and it is thought that almost immediately after their marriage they removed to Pennsylvania, as they were residents of Bedford county, in that state for many years. Mr. VanCleve died November 17, 1829, and his wife April 4, 1821. Mr. VanCleve was a farmer, wood mechanic and sawmill operator for many years, was successful in business, a man of broad intelligence, and widely respected. Mr. and Mrs. VanCleve were very religious people, and were consistent members and liberal supporters of the Baptist church. They were the parents of the following children: Paul, Jerusha, William, Alexander, Morgan A., Rachael, Joseph P., John, Asher, Rebecca, Mary, Samuel and Finley. All of these children lived to grow to maturity and nearly all were married and had issue. Among the possessions which formerly belonged to Mr. VanCleve, but which now are highly-prized mementos of Mrs. John C. Leonard, of Hartford City, are a fine old Terry, all-wooden clock, which has been in the family for more than one hundred and twenty years, as well as Mr. VanCleve's old glue-pot, molded with his name and the date, January, 1794.

Joseph P. VanCleve, son of William VanCleve, was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, June 23, 1805. When still a young and single man, in 1836, he traveled on horseback all the way from Bedford county, Pennsylvania , to Blackford county, Indiana, blazing his way through many miles of woods in order that he could readily find his way back home. Bringing with him $600 in gold, he took up land from the government for himself and his brother, Asher, and here they subsequently settled down as bachelors, living in a log cabin and starting to clear their land. After they had a part of their farms under cultivation, in 1840 Asher married, but Joseph P. did not marry until February 19, 1857, when he was united with Nancy Levering, who was born April 25, 1818, in Richland county, Ohio, and died August 11, 1859, in Hartford City, Indiana, on the original site of the birthplace of their son William L. and where his is still living. She was a daughter of William Levering, and she came from Ohio to Blackford county at the time of her marriage and settled at Hartford City.

Joseph P. VanCleve was a man of great prominence and a quaint character. He was a successful merchant, owning a lot and store on the southwest corner of the Square in Hartford City, and during the Civil War and prior thereto was a stalwart Unionist. He was courageous and outspoken in his views, and his store, being the headquarters for the leaders of the Northern cause in the city, became widely known as "The Fort," Mr. VanCleve becoming known everywhere as "General." He was first a whig and later a republican, was one of the first county commissioners at the little log courthouse, and was Baptist by religious faith, although he never belonged to any church. He died November 11, 1881, at his home in Hartford City, the present site of the well known Wilora Apartments, now owned by his son.

William L. VanCleve was born on the lot in Hartford City, Indiana. On which he has since made his home September 16, 1858. He was reared by Miss Elizabeth Jane Hart, a niece of Joseph P. VanCleve, and who was his housekeeper at the time of his death. She was a splendid character and gave Mr. VanCleve a good home, a Christian training and a good education in the public schools of this city. Before the completion of his literary training he entered his father's store as a clerk, as his father was getting old, and was unable to conduct the business. He had given a large part of his boyhood to the business and in 1882, completed his own business establishment and the VanCleve Opera House. When the latter was opened it was the largest business block in the county, with the Opera House having 450 seats, and it was a great occasion in Hartford City, the various railroads conducting excursions to the city from all over this section, and visitors being entertained in a royal manner. Mr. VanCleve continued in business until 1906, managing his affairs in such an able manner that he was able to retire from his active pursuits at the time. He was able to build up a large and lucrative trade, and by his fair and honorable dealing to establish himself firmly in the confidence and esteem of his associates and the public at large. In 1910, he became the builder of the Wilora Apartments, a handsome structure which adds to the beauty of his section of the city, and in this he has since made his home. In political matters Mr. VanCleve is a republican, but political life has held out no attractions for him. He belongs to Blue Lodge No. 106 and Chapter No. 111 of the Masonic Order, at Hartford City, and is a charter member and member of the board of trustees of the Blackford Club of Hartford City.

Mr. VanCleve was married November 16, 1882, in Eden, Hancock county, Indiana, to Miss Leora Barrett, who was born April 19, 1863, in that county. She has been active in assisting her husband in his various business ventures, and is a woman of many attainments and graces. She is an energetic worker in the Presbyterian church, being secretary of the charity and relief committees for twelve years and a member of the Fortnightly Club. She belongs also to Eastern Star Lodge No. 112, of which she is past conductress and a member of the public library board. Mr. VanCleve is also a member of the Presbyterian church, and has been a member of the official board. To Mr. and Mrs. VanCleve there have been born two children, namely: Joseph P., born November 16, 1883; and Helen Elizabeth, born November 13, 1887.

Joseph P. VanCleve was educated in the public schools of Hartford City, the Indiana University and the University of Michigan, and was private secretary for J. R. Johnston, the Indiana glass manufacturer. He died September 10, 1907, unmarried. He was a valued member of the Masons, the Blackford Club and the Greek letter society of his university, and had a wide circle of friends. Helen Elizabeth VanCleve was born at Middletown, Indiana, while her parents were residing there for a short time, and was educated in the Hartford City high school, Mary Baldwin school, at Stanton, Virginia, and Miss Mason's school, The Castle, at Tarrytown, New York. She is a member of the Fortnightly and Saturday Clubs and affiliates with the Presbyterian church as there is no church of her own denomination, the Episcopal. She was married October 23, 1912, at Hartford City, Indiana, to John Calvin Leonard, who was born and educated at Montpelier, Indiana, his birth being June 23, 1877. He was educated at Hartford City. He is a son of John P. A. Leonard, who was born in Mense, France, and came to the United States as a child. John C. Leonard has for years been engaged in business here, and at this time is a stock holder and director of the Johnston Glass Company and one of his city's energetic and progressive men, taking a keen and helpful interest in all that affects his community. In his political views he is a democrat, but has preferred to give his time and attention to his business rather than to mixing in the battles of the political arena. His fraternal connection is with the Masons, in which he is a Shriner, holding membership in Murat Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S., at Indianapolis, and is a past master of the blue lodge, council and chapter.

The following review will be of interest not only to those who knew Joseph P. VanCleve, the father of William L VanCleve, but to those who delight in reading of the men of early days. It is from the pen of Benjamin G. Shinn, who knew, admired and appreciated Mr. VanCleve, and who is himself widely known and highly esteemed as an honored early resident.

"Joseph P. VanCleve and his brother Asher, were among the earliest settlers of Blackford county in the vicinity of Hartford City. They were both good men and excellent citizens. Asher VanCleve was a very quiet, peaceable and kindly-disposed man; but few men had less than he of a resentful spirit in their natures.. If he ever had an enemy the enemy must have been unprovoked and wholly gratuitous. Joseph P. VanCleve had a larger endowment of the pugnacious quality. He was one of those who, knowing his rights, dared to maintain them His purpose was to be right in his convictions and views and he was firm in their maintenance. While taking a lovely interest in politics, he was not an office seeker, although he was at one time a candidate for office, this being in 1854 when he was an independent candidate for representative in the legislature. Blackford county then had a representative of her own, and the county was strongly democratic. The great mass of the voters of that party stood by the administration of President Pierce and supported the act of Congress of that year, known as the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Their candidate was Dr. William T. Shull, of Montpelier, and the opposition did not unite in the nomination of any candidate. There were two other independent candidates, Josiah Turbull of Montpelier, and James Rhine of Matamoras, both of whom had been democrats up to that year, while Mr. VanCleve had been a Whig. Shull was easily successful and probably would have been if the opposition had united upon a single candidate.

"When the War of the Rebellion came on, Mr. VanCleve was throughout an ardent and uncompromising supporter of the administration of Abraham Lincoln. He was too old for service as a soldier, but he heartily encouraged all measures for a vigorous prosecution of the war for the Union, and was the liberal and trusted friend of the Union soldiers. His zeal procured for him the hostility of that element which sympathized with the Southern Confederacy, and threats were made of doing him injury, but he prepared himself for effective defense and no violent measures were ever resorted to. His two-story frame store building on the southwest corner of the Public Square was Union headquarters in Hartford City and was designated as the ‘Old Fort.'

"During the war and for some years after there was no bank in Hartford City, and Mr. VanCleve acted as banker for a large number of citizens. They had entire confidence in him and deposited their money with him for safe keeping, and no one ever lost anything by so doing. He read books and was a constant reader of the newspapers, and was a man of excellent general information. He was a steadfast supporter of the right and an enemy of all chicanery and dishonorable conduct. He was a valuable citizen and had an extensive acquaintance. He had hosts of warm friends and in the later years of his life his friends just about equaled the number of his acquaintances. His career closed nearly a third of a century ago, but his memory is cherished with pleasure by all who were acquainted with him in his lifetime.."

Blackford and Grant Counties, Indiana A Chronicle of their People Past and Present with Family Lineage and Personal Memoirs Compiled Under the Editorial Supervision of Benjamin G. Shinn
Volume I Illustrated
The Lewis Publishing Company Chicago and New York 1914
Submitted by Peggy Karol

ALBERT E. SUTTON The deputy county sheriff of Blackford county can claim a genealogical record in which he may take just pride. In 1769 a little colony of 340 earnest English Christians of the Methodist Episcopal faith left the "tight little isle" of England to establish a home in America, as they were meeting unjust opposition on the part of both the established Church of England and the Roman Catholic element. They disposed of their possessions in England and set forth to establish themselves in the New World, where they were assured for freedom of religious convictions and also opportunities for the winning of independence and individual success. Each of these colonist was of the Sutton Family kinship, and after a long and weary voyage on the sailing ship they landed at the historic old Jamestown, Virginia. The members of the company settled in various localities in the Old Dominion and the lineal ancestors of Albert E. Sutton of this review were found numbered among these sturdy and determined colonists. Within one or two generations representatives of the name were found numbered among the pioneers of Ohio and they became the founders of the village of Jamestown, Greene county that State,-- a place named in honor of the old family home in Virginia. A member of this Ohio colony was Hezekiah Sutton, great-grandfather of him whose name introduces this article. Hezekiah Sutton was an influential figure in the development and up building of Jamestown, Ohio, and he also reclaimed in the vicinity a productive farm, the locality having at the time had fully as many Indians in evidence as white settlers. Family record indicate that Hezekiah Sutton was a man of exceptional force of character, and this physical and mental powers gave to him remarkable longevity, as is evident when it is set forth that he was 118 years of age at the time of his death. He was born on the 20th of June and on his 116th birthday anniversary his pioneer friends assembled to do honor to the occasion. They found him laboring in the fields of his farm, where he was cutting underbrush, and he appreciated to the full the kindly tribute that was paid him, his gentle and noble nature having gained to him the friendship not only of his white neighbors, widely separated, but also of the Indians who had habitation in that section of the state. His life was ordered upon a high plane, and well did he merit the confidence implicitly placed in him by all who knew him. His wife whose maiden name was Gardiner, was a member of a sterling pioneer family of Ohio, and in that State they continued to maintain their home until the end of their righteous and gentle lives. Of their several children, one was Isaiah, who was born in 1802, at Jamestown, Greene county, Ohio, and who was reared under the conditions and influences of the early pioneer era, Ohio having been admitted to Statehood about a decade after his birth. He became one of the early clergymen of the Methodist church in Ohio, and as a itinerant minister he lived up to the full tension of the pioneer days and labored with consecrated zeal in the uplifting of his fellow men. As a "circuit rider" of his church the Rev. Isaiah Sutton came to Indiana in 1836, and in this state he repeated his pioneer experiences, in fact he and his companions having been compelled literally to hew their roads through from Greeneville, Darke county, Ohio, to what is now the town of Dunkirk, Jay county, Indiana. This devoted pioneer clergyman entered and perfected claim to a tract of heavily timbered land in Jay county, and on a portion of this tract is now situate the thriving little city of Dunkirk. There the earnest and godly clergyman made his home and developed a farm, the while he continued his services as a minister, denying himself and enduring immeasurable hardships in making his rounds as a circuit rider in the pioneer community, his services having been given in this line in Jay, Blackford and Delaware counties, in each of which he was influential in establishing the early churches of his denomination. Revered by all who knew him, this noble pioneer rested from his labors and entered into eternal rest in August, 1864, and well may it be said that "his works do follow him." In summer's heat and winter's cold he passed onward in his devoted work, and none can doubt that in all things his was the faith that makes faithful. He was compelled in his labors to ford swollen streams, traverse flooded districts, to defend himself from attack by wolves and to upbear himself against many other perils and hardships. Rev. Isaiah Sutton was twice married. He first wedded Catherine Shrack, of Ohio, and they became the parents of eleven children. His second wife, whose maiden name was Rebecca Sawyer, bore him six children, and she survived him by fifteen years, having been his faithful helpmate, even as his first wife had been.

Daniel Sutton, one of the children of the first marriage, was the father of the present deputy sheriff of Blackford county. Of the large family of seventeen children, only one is living, and he was the first born of the entire number. This venerable man is William G. Sutton and he is nearly ninety years of age at the time of this writing, in 1914. Daniel Sutton was born in Greene county, Ohio, on the 22d of June, 1834, and he was two years old at the time of the family removal to Jay county, Indiana, where he was reared to manhood under the conditions and influence of the pioneer days. Upon attaining to his legal majority he began independent operations as a farmer, utilizing a portion of the tract of 480 acres which his father had acquired in Jay and Blackford counties. Daniel Sutton became one of the substantial landholders and representative agriculturists of Jay county, besides which his character and ability made him influential in community affairs. He remained on the old homestead farm until his death, June 22, 1875 – his forty-first birthday anniversary. He was a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal church, zealous and faithful, and in politics he was a staunch republican. In Blackford county Daniel Sutton wedded Miss Sarah C. Hobson, who was born in a little two-room frame house that stood opposite the court house on Main street, Hartford City, the date of her nativity having been July 4, 1840. She was a daughter of Joseph and Catherine (Goghnauer) Hobson, who were born in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia, where they were members of a German colony that had there been founded in an early day. Of the same ancestral line in Lieutenant Hobson, who won distinction in the United States Navy at the time of the Spanish-American war and who is now member of Congress from the State of Georgia. The marriage of Joseph Hobson and Catherine Goghnauer was celebrated in Henry county, Indiana, where the respective families settled in the pioneer days. Soon after marriage Joseph Hobson and his father-in-law decided to remove into the wilds of northern Indiana, and in 1837 they thus became residents of Blackford county. They established their home in the center of the county and they located the county seat, but they did not have sufficient financial reinforcement to exploit their effort, with the result that other persons established the county seat at Hartford City, a few miles distant. Samuel Goghnauer improved a farm in Jackson township, reclaiming the same from the virgin forest, and there the remains of himself and his noble wife rest in the little family cemetery on their old homestead. Joseph Hobson later removed to Allen county, and he and his wife died near the city of Fort Wayne, each having passed the age of three score years. Mr. Hobson was originally a whig and later a republican, and he was a staunch abolitionist in the days prior to the Civil war. Mrs. Sarah C. Sutton, mother of Albert E. Sutton of this review, died at his home in Jackson township, Blackford county on the 29th of April, 1898, her gentle and gracious life having been consonant with the faith she professed, that of the Methodist Episcopal church. Of the seven children the eldest is Arthur E., who is a prosperous farmer of Grant county; Albert E. was the next in order of birth; Nellie is the wife of Walling Worley, of Grant county; Jesse died June 29, 1893, as the result of an accident in the wrecking of the train on which he was conductor, on the Pennsylvania Railroad; Ada is the wife of Harry Shawham, a merchant of Hartford City; Eliza C. is a widow and resides in the city of Fort Wayne; and Minnie M. died at the age of four years.

Like all brother and sisters, Albert E. Sutton was born on the homestead farm in Richland township, Jay county, and the date of his nativity was May 25, 1862. He was thirteen years of age at the time of his father's death, and thereafter he was reared to maturity in Blackford county, where he has since maintained his home, his educational advantages having been those afforded in the public schools. In Jackson township he owns and resides upon a well improved farm of 115 acres, and the entire place gives palpable evidence of thrift and prosperity, -- indicating the industry and progressive policies of the owner. The farm is devoted to diversified agriculture and the raising of high-grade live stock, and Mr. Sutton is known and honored as one of the sterling citizens of Blackford county, one who is essentially loyal and public-spirited. It is worthy of note that he and his wife are folk of fine physique and that their children have inherited this desirable attribute, with the vitality that indicates sound minds in sound bodies.

Mr. Sutton gave his allegiance to the republican party until the national campaign of 1912, when he transferred his support to the newly organized progressive party as an adherent of which he was appointed deputy sheriff of the county on the lst of January, 1914, by Samuel A. Mills, the efficient sheriff of the county. He is affiliated with the lodge and encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Hartford City, as well as with the adjunct organization, the Daughters of Rebekah, of which his wife is likewise a member. He is past chief patriarch of the encampment and has represented his lodge in the grand lodge of Indiana.

The year 1887 gave record of the marriage of Mr. Sutton to Miss Leora E. Burnworth, of Licking township, Blackford county. Mrs. Sutton was reared and educated in this county but was born in Randolph county on the 19th of August, 1866, a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Fiddler) Burnworth, who were born in Ohio, where they were reared and where their marriage was solemnized. They now reside in Harrison township, Blackford county, having here maintained their home for many years, Mr. Burnworth being now, in 1914, seventy-four years of age and his wife sixty-nine years. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Sutton the eldest is Miss Josie, who remains at the parental home; Clara is the wife of Jesse Marshall, of Grant county; Arthur R. wedded Miss Ethel Oren and they reside in Hartford City; Fred D. is associated with his father in the management of the home farm, as is also Hobart J., whose twin sister, Hilda, died at the age of seven months; Walter also was seven years old at the time of his death; and the younger children who are still members of the home circle are William E., Clarence R. and Helen M.

Blackford and Grant Counties, Indiana A Chronicle of their People Past and Present with Family Lineage and Personal Memoirs Compiled Under the Editorial Supervision of Benjamin G. Shinn
Volume I Illustrated
The Lewis Publishing Company Chicago and New York 1914
Submitted by Peggy Karol