Albert Magee was born February 13, 1866, and is the son of John N. and Anna (Abbey) Magee. The Magee family is of Scotch descent, and numbers among its members some of the most distinguished citizens of the country. Senator Magee, of Pittsburg, recently deceased, was a distant member of this family. The immediate ancestors of subject emigrated from Scotland and settled in New York state and followed the occupation of farming there. John Magee, the grandfather of subject, came from New York to Ohio at an early day and pursued the occupation of farming, and in connection with the same plied the carpenter's trade. He was a man of excellent reputation and passed the remainder of his life in Ohio. The Abbey family came many years ago from England and settled in Ohio, and there Anna Abbey met John W. Magee and married him. Two years after their marriage, desiring to better their condition in point of this world's goods, they came to this county and settled on section 3, Clay township, where Mr. Magee bought one hundred and sixty acres of land and began to farm the same. After living there many years he moved to Warsaw, where he now resides. John W. Magee was married twice, first to Miss Anna Abbey, as before stated, and to this marriage the following children were born: Nettie, deceased; George, who married Miss Alice Ingalls and resides in Elkhart, Indiana; Frank, who wedded Miss Mary Mayers and lives in Wayne township; William W., who married Miss Jennie Wiltrout and resides in Wayne township, served four years as treasurer of this county, a most signal honor to him and his family; Mertie, the wife of John Kelley, lives in Wayne township; Albert, subject; Della, deceased. His first wife having died, Mr. Magee married, two years afterward, or in 1880, Miss Mary Danner, and by her has the following children: Nellie is unmarried and lives at home; Herbert, deceased; Blanche is unmarried and lives with her parents in Warsaw.
Albert Magee grew up on his father's farm and received the education afforded by the schools of the neighborhood, finishing his education at the schools of Warsaw. He taught one term in this county. In 1889 he married Miss Lou Barr, daughter of James and Julia (Funk) Barr, her birth having occurred July 11, 1865. One child was born to this marriage, Leone, born November 19, 1898. Mrs. Magee's ancestors came originally from the Emerald Isle. She and her husband are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Magee believes in the principles of the party which enrolled among its standard bearers such men as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, James. G. Blaine and William McKinley. He takes an active and intelligent interest in local politics particularly, and in national politics generally. All the members of this well known family are stanch Republicans, and are so from motives of high principle. The subject arid his wife possess the highest respect of all who have the pleasure of their acquaintance.
Progressive Men and Women of Kosciusko County, Indiana
B. F. Bowen, Publisher
Logansport, Indiana
1902
ELIJAH HAYS.
Some of the wealthiest men of today who have their homes in Warsaw, Kosciusko county, Indiana, came here in very moderate circumstances, as far as this world's goods are concerned, and those who came earliest were generally the poorest, but by their skill in their special callings and by their frugality and industry not only aided to build up the town and county, but succeeded in making for themselves competences that enabled them before many years had passed to live in ease with little or no further care or labor. Of these fortunate men Elijah Hays is one, and he is the only man now living in Warsaw who was in business here in 1843. Mr. Hays arrived here June 2, of that year, which was his twenty-fourth birthday, and having here some relatives who had preceded him, he was not altogether among strangers.
Elijah Hays was born at York, Pennsylvania, June 2, 1819, and when two years old was taken to Wayne county, Ohio, by his uncle, Andrew Yocum, who lived at Millbrook, six miles south of Wooster. Robert Hays, the father of Elijah, died in Pennsylvania when the latter was of the age just mentioned. Mrs. Elizabeth (Yocum) Hays, mother of Elijah, was left with five children when Mr. Hays died, of which five there were three born of a former husband, a Mr. Nichols, Elijah was the elder of the two by the second marriage, and Joel, the younger, was but an infant in arms at the death of his father. Two years after the arrival of Andrew Yocum and the child Elijah at Millbrook, John Yocum, maternal grandfather of Elijah, and his daughter. Mrs. Hays, mother of Elijah, also reached Ohio and settled at Waynesboro, Wayne county. When six years old Elijah Hays was returned to his mother, and later went to live with this half-sister and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Boydston, who rcsiddd at Cedar Valley, Ohio. Mr. Boydston later became a representative in the Indiana state legislature from Kosciusko county. He was reared to farming, but afterwards became a manufacturer of woolen goods.
In 1836, when seventeen years old, Elijah Hays went out to work on a farm for a short time and was then apprenticed to Pemberton Pancoast, at Congress, Wayne county, Ohio., to learn blacksmithing. He served three years and one month and for his services received his board and one hundred dollars, together with three months' schooling after having learned the trade, but was obliged to pay for his clothing. At the end of his apprenticeship he was the owner of fifty dollars, besides a sound knowledge of blacksmithing, and at once set up a shop close to the mill of his brother-in-law, Boydston, conducted it one year and saved three hundred dollars in cash. He had long desired to secure an education, and so went to Norwalk, Ohio, secured a room in the Methodist Episcopal Seminary building, brought in his wood and cooked his food himself:, and purposed to depend on his trade for his expenses while learning geography, arithmetic, grammar, natural philosophy and chemistry, of a1l of which he in due time acquired a fair knowledge. Meantime, in the fall of r842, Thomas Boydston, the brother-in-law of Mr. Hays, had come to Kosciusko county, had first located at Leesburg and then removed to Webster, where he operated a saw and gristmill until 1849, when he went to California, and three years later returned to Webster, where he passed the remainder of his life, dying in 1860 when he was about sixty years old and while a member of the state legislature.
In 1843 Elijah Hays and his uncle, Joel Fisk, decided to follow Mr. Boydston to Kosciusko county and reached Leesburg in a two-horse wagon in June, 1843. Mr. Fisk purchased land just north of Centre Lake, cleared up a farm and lived upon it a number of years, when he removed to Greencastle, Indiana, that he might give his son better educational advantages. He had served as township trustee, and died at that city when about sixty years old. The son of Joel Fisk, alluded to above, was graduated from the Depauw University, and on returning to Kosciusko county sold the old homestead and located in Franklin township. He later enlisted in the Union army and it is supposed that he sacrificed his life in his country's cause, as he was never afterwards heard from.
Elijah Hays had sold his tools in Ohio on coming to Kosciusko county, Indiana, and at Warsaw arranged with a gunsmith, by the name of Fleming, to work at the latter's forge and to use the latter's tools and vice for the time being. Business opened up well and in about a year Mr. Hays started a shop of his own on lot 100, where the Hays House now stands, and there he continued at his trade for fourteen years. Trade in those days was conducted upon different principles or on different plans from what it is now. Horseshoe nails were made by the user himself, Mr. Hays worked from four A. M. until nine P. M., merchants trusted their customers for twelve months or longer, and Mr. Hays would make wagons in payment for land, and was once offered the lot where the Phillips store now stands for a seventy-five-dol1ar wagon. Finally Mr. Hays sold his blacksmithing tools and engaged in the dry goods business in partnership with Joseph Funk, now deceased. The new firm erected a store which they called the Crystal Palace, on the site where White's restaurant now stands, and employed five or six clerks, a large force for those days. The firm did a credit trade and at the close of about two years discovered that they were about ten thousand dollars in debt. The firm then dissolved and Mr. Hays as his share of the assets accepted a farm in Franklin township and also some business lots and the book accounts, but also assumed the debts due by the concern, and it took him the next three years to adjust affairs. For nine years he owned the farm and did general farming and stock raising, and the last year of his occupancy sold wheat at two dollars per bushel and cleared fourteen hundred dollars on grain and stock. Eventually he sold his farm and settled on another east of Warsaw, which he had purchased previously and on which he resided several years, then gave it to a missionary society. About 1887 Mr. Hays returned to Warsaw and in partnership with Andrew Poe, engaged in the drug trade, but in the meantime continued to speculate in real estate in Kosciusko county, taking unimproved lands and even improved farms when he saw a bargain.
Until 1872 Mr. Hays was a Whig and a Republican, but when Horace Greeley, whom he had always admired, was nominated for the presidency of the United States by the Democratic party, he voted the ticket headed by Greeley and Brown. He was in favor of the colonization of Africans under a protectorate of the United States government, and had become disgruntled with the Republican party when it brought the slavery question before the legislature instead of laying it before the people. Although he takes a 1ively interest in public affairs, he has never sought an office for himself.
Mr. Hays joined the Methodist Episcopal church in Warsaw about 1844, and on finding that he was prospering financially he felt it to be his duty to his Maker to keep only sufficient money for his actual needs and to make good use of his surplus. He calculated that ten thousand dollars ought to be enough for anyone person and that any surplus should be expended for missionary purposes and for extending the influences of Christianity into heathen lands, and for that reason became active in missionary work. In 1887 he donated to the General Methodist Missionary Society real estate valued at upwards of one hundred thousand dollars, an agent of the society, in the person of Joseph Baker, acting as trustee and seeing to it that the income is properly handled.
For himself Mr. Hays has simply retained a life lease on his home and some other property, which nets him an annuity of about fifteen hundred dollars. Mr. Hays has also donated considerable cash to the same society, and in 1901 donated to the North Indiana Methodist Conference a home for superannuated and worn-out ministers of the church, this donation amounting to five thousand, four hundred and twentv- nine dollars and thirty-four cents, including two lots in Winona Park, on which is a building twenty-eight by sixty-two feet, three stories and basement in height, and surrounded with verandas. This home was completed by Mr. Hays before the donation, was made, being built in the winter of 1900. It bears the name of the Hays Memorial Building, is under the control of a board of managers and yields a handsome income, five hundred dollars of which is included or devoted to the annuity of fifteen hundred dollars already alluded to as reserved for Mr. Hays.
In 1887 Mr. Hays had been left with but a few thousand dollars, but with natural business sagacity he resumed trading and recovered all he had lost and after expending the amounts already mentioned and much more in benificencies and charities never to be known, he is still worth at least thirty thousand dollars. No words at the command of the writer can express an adequate idea of the estimation in which such a man as Elijah Hays should be held by the people of Warsaw and Kosciusko county, and they themselves fall short in their endeavors to express what they feel in this respect.
Mr. Hays is also a natural genius, and a skillful inventor, being the patentee of several valuable inventions, among which are vehicle brakes, fence posts, nut locks, car couplings and two different horse detachers.
Mr. Hays was united in the holy bonds of matrimony, six miles east of Warsaw, November 4, 1846, with Miss Mary S. Stinson, a native of Pike county, Ohio, and a daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Wilson) Stinson, but the only child horn to this congenial union died in infancy. Mr. Hays is a strong advocate of temperance, but belongs to no secret society, being a strict Methodist and being well content with the society and companionship of his brethren in the church.
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Progressive Men and Women of Kosciusko County, Indiana
B. F. Bowen, Publisher
Logansport, Indiana
1902
HON. LEMUEL W. ROYSE.
Hon. Lemuel Willard Royse, senior member of the well-known and popular law firm of Royse & Shane, Warsaw, Indiana, is a native son of Indiana and was born in Kosciusko county, near the village of Pierceton, Washington township, on the 19th day of January, 1847. His father, George W. A. Royse, was a native of New Hampshire, and his mother, Nancy (Chaplin) Royse, was born near the Bennington battleground, in the state of Vermont. The elder Royse was a blacksmith by trade; he married Miss Chaplin in Wood county, Ohio, in 1833, and the same year located in Kosciusko county, Indiana, subsequently, about 1853, changing his abode to Larwell, Whitley county, this state, where his death occurred in 1859. After the death of his father Lemuel went to live with a farmer in Whitley county, for whom he worked until sixteen years of age, devoting his earnings the meanwhile to the support of his widowed mother and the family. He attended public school in the neighborhood, also pursued his studies at home and at the age of eighteen began teaching. He continued educational work eight consecutive winters, working on the farm in the summers, and it was while thus engaged that he began reading law. In the spring of 1872 he entered the law office of Frazer & Encel1, of Warsaw, where he remained two summers, being admitted to the bar in September, 1873. The following summer he began the practice of his profession at Warsaw, and subsequently, 1875, formed a partnership with Edgar Haymond, which lasted until the latter gentleman's election to the judgeship of the thirty-third judicial circuit in 1890. In the year 1876 Mr. Royse was elected prosecuting attorney for the circuit composed of Kosciusko and Whitley counties and discharged the duties of the position in a manner which added greatly to his reputation as an able and painstaking lawyer. He was untiring in his efforts to conserve the interests of law and order, and during his incumbency many offenders were brought to the bar of justice and not a few criminals sent to the state prison. In the month of May, 1885, he was further honored by being chosen mayor of Warsaw, which office he filled three successive terms, having been re-elected in 1887 and again in 1889. As the city's chief executive he proved both capable and popular, serving the people faithfully and sparing no pains to promote all interests pertaining to the good of the municipality. For a number of years Mr. Royse has been one of the Republican leaders of northern Indiana, and it was in recognition of efficient political services, as well as on account of his eminent fitness for the position, that he was nominated and triumphantly elected in 1894 to represent the thirteenth congressional district in the lower house of the national legislature. He received at this election a plurality of four thousand one hundred and forty-one votes, a fact which attests his popularity with the people, and his course as congressman fully justified his constituents in the wisdom of their choice. His career as a member of that august body is replete with duty ably and faith fully performed, he having taken an active part in the public discussion and deliberations on the floor, besides making his influence felt in the several committees on which he served. Mr. Royse was a member of the Republican state central committee from 1886 to 1890 inclusive, and also served as a delegate to the national convention at Minneapolis, which nominated Benjamin Harrison the second time for the presidency. He has long been a potential factor in state politics and in matters local has been a leader and trusted adviser for many years, much of the success of the party in Kosciusko county and throughout the thirteenth district being directly attributable to his well-conceived and splendidly executed plans. He is an effective campaigner and while energetic and untiring in promoting the interests of the cause he represents is honorable n his methods, never resorting to the wiles of the professional partisan nor making use of anything savoring in the least of disreputable practice.
As a lawyer Mr. Royse evinces a familiarity with legal principles and a ready perception of facts, together with the ability to apply the one to the other, which has won him the reputation of a sound and safe practitioner. Years of conscientious work have brought with them not only increase of practice and reputation, but also that growth in legal knowledge and that wide and accurate judgment the possession of which constitutes marked excellence in the profession. In the trial of cases he is uniformly courteous to court and opposing counsel, caring little for display, never losing a point for the purpose of creating a favorable impression, but seeking to impress the jury rather by weight of facts in his favor and by clear, logical argument than by appeal to passion or prejudice. In discussions of the principles of law he is noted for dearness of statement and candor, he seeks faithfully for firm ground and having once found it nothing can drive him from his position. His zeal for a client never leads him to urge an argument which in his judgment is not in harmony with the law, and in all the important litigation with which he has been connected no one has ever charged him with anything calculated to bring discredit upon himself or cast a ret1ection upon his profession. By a straightforward, honorable course he has built up a large and lucrative legal business and financially has been successful far beyond the average of his calling. His life affords a splendid example of what an American youth, plentifully endowed with good common sense, energy and determination, may accomplish when directed and controlled by earnest moral principles. He has made for himself a permanent place in the history of his county and state and stands today among Indiana's broadminded, successful, self-made men. Since 1898 the subject has been associated in the practice of law with Bertram Shane, Esq., the partnership being recognized as one of the strongest, safest, as well as one of the most popular and successful legal firms in the northern part of the state. The names of these two gentlemen are generally found in connection with all important cases tried in the courts of Kosciusko county, and their well-known abilities have caused their services to be utilized at many other than their own bar.
Mr. Royse is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having passed all the chairs in the local lodge to which he belongs. He is also a member of the Improved Order of Red Men and the Knights of Pythias. He was happily married on the 10th day of July, 1883, to Miss Bella McIntyre, of Hillsdale, Michigan, a union resulting in the birth of one son, James, who died in chi1dhood.
Progressive Men and Women of Kosciusko County, Indiana
B. F. Bowen, Publisher
Logansport, Indiana
1902
EDSON B. SARBER.
Edson B. Sarber, the son of Thomas B. and Martha A. (Timmons) Sarber, was born in Allen county, Indiana, March 11, 1864. The Sarber family are of German descent, two boys, Andrew and John, having emigrated from Germany to America about the year 1775. The cause of American independence enlisted the sympathy of these young men and both became soldiers in the Revolutionary war. After the war closed they, settled in Pennsylvania and Edson B. and his paternal ancestry are descendants of Andrew. Andrew was married in Pennsylvania and to him were born five children, Adam, Christian, John, Hannah and Susan.
Adam Sarber was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He was reared to manhood on a farm in Lucerne county, Pennsylvania, where he was married to Catherine Enslen in 1803. They remained in their native state for a few years, but as Ohio offered advantages not found in Pennsylvania to those who desired to "lay up" something for their children, they gathered together their personal effects and with a yoke of oxen and in true pioneer style moved to Franklin county, Ohio. This was in 1812 and they had no sooner arrived in their new home than the father enlisted as a soldier in our second war for independence, or the war of 1812. To Adam and Catherine Sarber nine children were born, namely : Sarah, Abraham, George, Christian, Elizabeth, John, Hiram, Lucinda and William. With one exception, Lucinda, who died while young, the children all grew to manhood and womanhood. Al1 became prosperous men and women, each accumulating a creditable fortune. Two of the children, Abraham and William, were teachers. William also practiced medicine and was ranked with the most successful of that profession in his day.
Abraham Sarber, the grandfather of Edson B., was married to Louisa Hendren in Franklin county, Ohio, in 1828, and subsequently moved to Kosciusko county, Indiana, settling in Palestine in 1840. Kosciusko county was then in its infancy, hence Abraham Sarber is ranked with the early pioneers of the same. He engaged in the milling business, in Palestine, but soon sold his interest in this business and moved onto a farm in Harrison township. He taught successfully several terms of school during the winter. By skillful and economical management on the part of both himself and wife they made for themselves a comfortable home, besides aiding in a substantial manner each of their children. Eight children, William H., Adam H., Melissa, Amanda R., Mary L., Thomas B., Dorothy P. and John F., were born to this union. All received a fair education for the advantages offered, six of the eight having taught school at some period of their life.
Thomas B., the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Palestine, Kosciusko county, Indiana, on October 4, 1842, and with the exception of one year al1 his life has been spent in the county of his birth. With the exception of one year spent in the Warsaw public schools, his educational advantages were limited to the country districts. He was united in marriage, May 24, 1863, to Martha A., daughter of William A. and Catherine (Dunnuck) Timmons. The parents of Martha A. were of English descent, the ancestors of her father having settled in Delaware and those of her mother in Maryland in an early day.
The first year after marriage was spent bv Thomas Sarber and wife on a rented farm. From here they moved to Allen county, Indiana, where they remained one year, when they sold and moved back to Kosciusko county, settling on the farm now owned by Rudolph Huffer north of Palestine. Here they remained one year, when they removed to the farm, then a densely timbered tract of land, on which they still reside. With their own hands this primeval forest was transformed into a well cultivated farm. While they are not wealthy, if by wealthy we mean rich in the goods of this world, yet they have all they need and just enough to look after to make life a pleasure instead of a task. Three children, Edson B., Louisa. C. (who died in infancy) and Andrew E. (whose biography appears elsewhere in this book), were born to this union.
The following review of the life of the immediate subject, Edson B. Sarber, is, because of its autobiographical nature, of especial interest:
"I was two years old when my parents moved on the farm where they still reside. The house on the farm at that time and the one which we occupied for two and a half years was an old-fashioned double-log cabin, with a stick chimney at one end. We occupied one end of the building only and the roof on that portion was so full of holes that we were kept quite busy when it rained changing our own positions and the positions of the beds to avoid being 'drowned out.' The old shell was also infested with rats, and we generally went to sleep with the dreadful thought that an ear or a portion of our nose would go to satisfy the appetite of one of these pesky creatures.
"I commenced going to school at the age of four years and attended all the schools in walking distance of our home until I was fourteen. By this I mean that when there was no school in my home district I was sent to another that was near enough for me to reach afoot. Between school terms I helped my father on the farm. My work consisted principally of picking chunks and cutting the undergrowth in the strip of timber which he expected to clear away the following winter.
"The next two years of my school life were spent in a graded school at Sevastopol, Indiana. I began teaching at the age of sixteen and taught every year after that for twenty-one years. But another little incident of my school days at Sevastopol must not be overlooked, else this sketch would be incomplete. It was here that I became acquainted with Miss Ollie Rickel, daughter of George M. and Mary (Dunlap) Rickel, and well, but this must not turn into a childish love story. Suffice it to say that on Sunday evening of September 16, 1883, before a few invited guests at the home of Ollie's parents, we were united in marriage. If I can prove myself worthy of this noble woman, I will have realized the fondest hope of my life, and I must say further that the little success which I may have achieved is due to the guidance of a kind father and mother and to the kind counsel of a true and devoted wife.
"The most of the time since we were married has been spent on the farm, having moved to the one (a part of the old homestead) on which we reside at present in 1888. The summers of 1890 and 1891 were spent in the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, Indiana, from the business department of which I graduated in 1891. The summers of 1899 and 1900 were also spent in this institution doing work in the scientific course.
"Thirteen of the twenty-one years of my teaching were spent in the country district schools and the remaining eight as principal of the Burket public schools. The first day I taught at Burket I enrolled seven pupils and the primary teacher enrolled thirty-five, but before the year closed we had succeeded in building up quite a respectable attendance, and before the opening of our third year's work it became necessary to build an additional room and we confidently feel that the time is not far distant when a fourth room will be added and that Seward township will have a high school second to none, outside of the city of Warsaw, in Kosciusko county.
"I was elected assessor of Seward township by a majority of nine in 1894 and served for five years. In 1900 I was elected to the office of trustee by a majority of thirty-eight. I had to resign my position as principal of the Burket schools, to which I must say I very reluctantly did, to assume the duties to which I had been elected. I feel keenly the responsibility placed upon me and my earnest desire is to so administer the duties of this office as to give no one cause to regret the trust he has reposed in me." ,BR>
Progressive Men and Women of Kosciusko County, Indiana
B. F. Bowen, Publisher
Logansport, Indiana
1902
WARDE AND TUCKER FAMILIES. Many familie's throughout the United States during the last forty years have gone to much trouble and expense to collect their records back to the date of their first settlement, thus laying the foundation of a permanent family tree in this country for the benefit and pleasure of all their descendants. There can be no doubt of the great importance of this step. One of these days, in the entailment of estates, such a record will be invaluable to descendants. It will be found that those who do not possess such a record will not be able to establish their rights to valuable estates that have been sent down the family line for many generations. The compilation of such a record is simply a matter of self preservation for the descendants. And it is well, while the record is being made, for the family to record collateral branches of the family. In this matter all should take deep interest and contribute to the collection of the record. Such has been the course taken by the family now under consideration. Captain Josiah Warde, who married Miss Sarah Goodale, came from England to the town of Henniker, New Hampshire, in 1764, where he became prominent. According to the old records, he assisted in laying out public roads there and was the first sexton of the town. He was also a member of the first church organized, and was commissioned captain of the Eighth Company of the Fifteenth Regiment of state militia on March 1, 1774. He probably saw service in some of the early wars, particularly with the Indians. He died February 27, 1795. His son, Jesse Warde, was born June 8, 1762, and married Miss Susan Booth, of New Hampshire. He died August 10, 1809, and his wife died September 26, 1809. Their daughter Polly, who was born March 10, 1800, married John Tucker in May, 1821. The father of John Tucker was Ezra Tucker, who married Miss Elizabeth Pressy and settled on the town site of Henniker, New Hampshire, in 1776. He had been a soldier in the French and Indian war, and when the Revolution broke out he at once espoused the cause of the colonists by entering the service. He became second lieutenant in Captain Emory's company of Colonel Baldwin's regiment and served in various departments during the continuance of the struggle. He fought at the battle of White Plains, New York, October 28, 1776, and saw much other hard service. His death occurred October 26, 1804, and his wife passed away September 22, 1801. Horace Tucker is the son of John and Mary (Warde) Tucker and was born in Richland county, Ohio, November 8, 1825. His grandfather, Ezra Tucker, passed his days in New Hampshire, and to him were born five sons and one daughter as follows: Daniel, John, Ezra, Cyrus, David and Eliza. Of this family, Ezra Tucker became a soldier in the war of 1812; John Tucker also enlisted and was mustered but was not called into the service. The latter became the father of our suhject. He was reared on a farm in New Hampshire and received a limited education in the early subscription schools. He possessed a good mind and managed to educate himself to the extent that he could pass the required examination for teachers, then a function of the courts. About the year 1820 he came to Richland county, Ohio, walking the entire distance of about eight hundred miles. At that time Ohio was a wilderness, filled with a few straggling settlers, many wild animals and not a few Indians about as wild as the animals. The soil was covered with an immense forest, with scarcely a break from north to south or from east to west. But this did not daunt John Tucker, for he entered one hundred and sixty acres of government land in Monroe township, Richland county. He put up on this land at once a small, rude log cabin, and remained there for about a year all alone, for he was a single man and his nearest neighbor lived four miles away. He cleared a small field and put in a small crop of potatoes, and some time the fol1owing year made the trip back to New Hampshire, walking, as before, the entire distance. While there he married Miss Polly (or Mary ) Warde, and soon afterward he and his wife and their few belongings all in a one-horse wagon, started for the Ohio wilderness. Reader, do you realize what it meant for this young couple to thus start off into the wilderness, eight hundred miles distant, away from all their friends, to be gone a lifetime, probably never to see their friends again? Such a trip meant a great deal to the man, but vastly more to the woman. It meant about the same as if at the present day a young couple should start for the heart of Africa. All ties of the past seemed blotted out. The young couple must live absolutely for each other. On their way out they slept in their covered wagon, camped out for the nights and cooked their own food, and continued thus until they had arrived at their destination. Horace Tucker has in his possession at the present day the skillet with which they fried their food on this long and eventful trip . He has also a piece of his grandmother's wedding dress. It took them thirty-three days to make the trip, and the last six miles he had to clear the way with his ax to reach his log -cabin with the wagon and horse. Upon their arrival they moved their few household goods into the little cabin, which he had erected on his previous trip, and thus their married life in the wilderness of Ohio began. They went to work resolutely to clear off the timber from the tract near the house, and in a few years the sunlight was let in on a considerable open tract. As the years passed the clearing grew, the rude log cabin was replaced with a larger and better one and a few more comforts were added to the pleasures of the couple. Still later a frame house was built. As the years rolled around little children began to appear, so that it was not as lonesome as it was the first few years. Other settlers came in and soon a considerable settlement was formed in the woods. In the course of time seven children were born to them, as follows: One that died in infancy; Horace, subject; Aurelius, deceased, who married Miss Isabella Alexander, was a teacher and a man of more than usual ability; Serena, who became the wife of Francis Wager, lives in Cleveland, Ohio; he is worth one hundred thousand dollars; Albert, who married and lives in Mentone, Indiana, is quite wealthy; Regulus, who wedded Miss Jane Blue and lives at Fountain Head, Tennessee, is engaged extensively in the stock business; Livona, who became the wife of John Vandermark, is deceased. John Tucker and his son Horace came to Kosciusko county in 1846 for the purpose of inspecting the land and, if found satisfactory, of buying a tract. Horace selected and bought one hundred and sixty acres in sections 19 and 20, Franklin township. The father returned to Ohio, leaving Horace to clear a small opening, when he, too, returned to Ohio, walking the whole distance of two hundred miles, requiring about a week to do it. Horace remained in Ohio for some time, working on his father's farm until his marriage January 13, 1848, to Miss Eliza Johnson, daughter of Francis and Anna (Fleming) Johnson. The Johnson family were originally from Ireland. William Johnson, the grandfather of Mrs. Horace Tucker, came from Ireland to America immediately after his marriage. He settled in Pennsylvania, where the father of Mrs. Tucker was born. Charles Fleming, an uncle, was a soldier in the war of 1812. Francis Johnson was a blacksmith and a sickle maker. He moved to Ohio, where he passed the remainder of his days. He was prominent in his life time, serving as justice of the peace, etc. He was a Democrat and a member of the Presbyterian church. To Horace and Eliza Tucker the following children were born: Albert L., born September 19, 1849, who married Miss Elizabeth Bechtelheimer and now lives on section 30, Franklin township. Upon the marriage of his children Horace Tucker has given each six thousand dollars, to which Albert has greatly added since his marriage. He now owns two hundred and fifty acres of fine land in this township and has these children: Elmore, Effa D., Ida, Ivin, Roy, John, Millie, Frank C. and Unie. Rosella, born in December, 1853, became the wife of Jonathan Tinkey and resides in Seward township; they have three girls and one boy: Laura Mertie, Alta Merva, Nellie A. and Horace Grover. Hollis C, born in February, 1857, married Nettie Alexander and lives in Franklin township; they have six children, Oren, Marion, Charles, Horace, Merlie and Erma. Horace Tucker and wife have nineteen grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, and all of them live within sound of their grandfather's dinner bell, and very often avail themselves of its kindly invitation. The life of Mr. Tucker affords many interesting features. He began at the bottom on his land, which was at first covered with heavy timber. He cleared much of it himself, but was at all times a hirer of labor and knew how to manage hired men. The first spring he planted six acres of corn among the stumps. He broke the ground with a pair of runaway oxen belonging to some one else, and yoked them up and put them to work when they came to his barn for something to eat. Slowly he advanced and improved the place. In 1871 he commenced the erection of his present brick house, which was the first in the township to be supplied with steam heat. The house cost four thousand dollars, exclusive of his own work, which was considerable. He put up the first wind mill pump in the township and in 1874 he bui1t his large barn, and at the present time his farm is one of the most attractive in the county. Mr. Tucker has shown great capacity to get ahead in the world. All told, he has made in his various business transactions about one hundred thousand dollars. Much of this large sum has been made in the rearing and marketing of live stock, having for forty-two years made a specialty of this business. He was the first man to ship a car load of live stock from Warsaw in 1856. He handles high grade cattle and horses, and is an excellent judge of stock. He now has one hundred and twenty head of as fine steers as are to be found in this county. He is very liberal in his benefactions, contributing freely to all the churches in this portion of the county and assisting every worthy undertaking. He has given to his children about twenty-five thousand dollars. In politics he is a Republican and was a Whig before the Republican party was formed. He has served as trustee of the township, and also as treasurer, and has been mentioned in connection with the county commissionership. He has in one piece a tract of about one thousand acres of land and keeps about one hundred head of cattle the year round. He ships annually about one hundred head of swine. In 1900 he sold eight thousand dollars worth of fat and graded cattle. He and his wife are the most prominent people in this part of the county. Mr. Tucker is distinguished for his upright conduct and steady habits, for his industry and intelligence, and for his sagacious business methods and high sense of honor. His long life and that of his good wife are filled with righteous deeds, so that in the future their children and children's children shall rise up and call them "blessed."
Mr. Tucker has related several incidents concerning his early experiences in this county which are deemed worthy of mention here. Sugar maple trees were at that time quite plentiful and Mrs. Tucker has on her cook stove made enough maple sugar to last the family through an entire year. She manufactured the cloth for the family clothes, first cutting the wool from the sheep, then cording, spinning and weaving it into cloth. Many a time has Mr. Tucker been so busy clearing his land that he has had to burn the brush and log heaps at night. The first table used in the home of this pioneer family was an ordinary goods box. This was superseded by a rude bench made of clapboards. Their bedstead was a four-inch stick laid at the extreme outer ends of shorter posts stuck horizontally into augur holes in the wall, and all covered with clapboards on which to make the bed. Mr. Tucker was an expert user of the sickle and many times has reaped forty dozen of wheat in one day. He helped tend the first threshing machine used in Richland county, Ohio. He has now in his home an old Seth Thomas clock which was brought from Richland county and is over sixty-five years old, and has also several old coverlets used in the pioneer days. In 1901 Mr. Tucker sold sixty-three walnut logs for the remarkable price of six thousand three hundred and thirty dollars. He has now in his possession an old sheepskin parchment deed, dated July 5, 1837, and signed by President Martin Van Buren, and which is now highly valued by Mr. Tucker as a relic.
Click here for Eliza Tucker photo.
Click here for Horace Tucker photo.
Progressive Men and Women of Kosciusko County, Indiana
B. F. Bowen, Publisher
Logansport, Indiana
1902
