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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
History of Lawrence and Monroe Counties,
Indiana;
their people, industries and institutions.
Publ. Indianapolis, Ind. - B. F. Bowen & Co.,
1914
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WILLIAM N. SHOWERS Source:
History of Lawrence and Monroe Counties, Indiana; their
people, industries and institutions. Publ. Indianapolis,
Ind. - B. F. Bowen & Co., 1914 - Page 480
NOTE: Actual marriage date of Edmund B. Thornton
and Mary L. Carlton at Lawrence Co. Ind. Recorded on
Page 446 Indiana Marriages 1873 - 1879 Volume F (Copy available at Ancestry.com) |
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CHARLES
S. SMALL. The biographies of successful
men are instructive as guides and incentives to those whose
careers are yet to be achieved. The examples they
furnish of patient purpose and consecutive endeavor strongly
illustrate what is in the power of each to accomplish.
The gentleman whose life story herewith is briefly set forth
is a conspicuous example of one who has lived to good purpose
and achieved a definite degree of success in the special
sphere to which his talents and energies have been devoted.
Charles S. Small, the well known and popular
cashier of the First National Blank of Bloomington, was born
in the city in which he now resides on July 1, 1862, and is
the son of James and Matilda (Riddle) Small.
These parents were both natives of Ireland, who early in life
came to America, the father at the age of twelve years and the
mother when seven years of age. They located in
different communities, the mother's family settling in
Pennsylvania, while the father was brought to Indiana.
Here he became a farmer early in life, in which he met with
success, and subsequently engaged in the hardware business in
Bloomington, which he conducted until the time of his
retirement shortly before his death, his wife dying in 1905.
They became the parents of six children, of whom all are
deceased excepting the subject of this sketch. The
latter has also one half-sister, Nancy Jane, who keeps
house for him.
The subject of this sketch was educated in the common
schools and in the preparatory department of the State
University, and his first employment on his own account was as
clerk in a furniture store, where he was engaged one year and
then for a short time was employed in a like capacity in a
book store. He was faithful to his duties and made
friends easily, his career being such as to gain the
confidence and good will of the community. On February
15, 1881, he accepted a position in the First National Bank of
Bloomington and several years later was promoted to the
position of assistant cashier, the duties of which he
performed until 1906, when he was elected cashier of this well
known institution, and has since served in that capacity.
He has been most efficient and painstaking in the discharge of
his duties and has gained the commendation of his associates
in the bank, as well as the approval of its patrons. The
First National Bank has long occupied a position among the
leaders of the strong financial institutions of Monroe County
and a large part of the success which has characterized the
institution has been due to the untiring efforts and personal
influence of Mr. Small.
Fraternally, Mr. Small is a member of the
Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks and the Free and Accepted Masons, belonging to
both blue lodge and chapter in the latter organization.
Religiously, he is a member of the Presbyterian church, of
which he is a regular attendant and to which he contributes
liberally of his means. Personally, he is affable and
popular with the people of his city and ready at all times to
lend aid to all laudable measures and enterprises for the
general good. By a life consistent in motive and because
of his many fine qualities he has earned the sincere regard of
all who know him, and his success in his special field of
endeavor has been well merited.
Source: History of Lawrence and Monroe Counties, Indiana;
their people, industries and institutions. Publ.
Indianapolis, Ind. - B. F. Bowen & Co., 1914 - Page |
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JOSEPH
STRAIN, one of the pioneers of Monroe county,
was born in the north of Ireland in 1784, and when about seven
years of age, with his parents, he emigrated to America,
settling in Penn's Valley, Pennsylvania. After living
there several years, he moved to Ohio, where he was married to
Elnor Martin, whose parents also came from the north of
Ireland. A few years after their marriage the young
couple decided they could better their condition by moving
west. He left his family and journeyed to Indiana, where
he entered land in Clear Creek township, Monroe county,
January 15, 1817. This land and the patent for the same,
signed by James Monroe, still remains in the family.
Joseph returned to Ohio and later moved with his family
to Indiana, settling on a piece of land he bought in Indian
Creek township, near the old Hebron church, where they lived
during the first winter, and then moved to a tract of land he
bought of James Borland about three miles southwest of
Bloomington. This tract he later traded to Jackson
Cookerley for a tract in the southwest part of Clear Creek
township. He also traded his Hebron land for a farm in
Clear Creek township, joining the land he had entered in 1817.
Here he moved, and here a large family, consisting of eight
boys and three girls, grew to manhood and womanhood. The
sons helped the father to clear the land and raise the crops,
while the daughters helped the father to clear the land and
raise the crops, while the daughters did the carding, spinning
and weaving and the various other duties of a pioneer home.
The father was an industrious and an enterprising man.
He saw the need of a mill in the community and built a
combination saw and grist mill, the saw being what was termed
an up-and-down saw. Here people came for miles to have
logs made into lumber and their corn and wheat turned into
flour and meal. In these early days it was difficult to
dispose of surplus products of the farm, such as pork, lard
and wheat, so Joseph, as did many other enterprising
men of the southern part of the county, built flat boats at
the boat yard on Clear creek, north of Harrodsburg, near the
Bloomington and Bedford road. They built the boat and,
when the rains came to swell the streams to proportions
sufficient to carry the vessel, they loaded it with the goods
previously stored in a building near at hand and then floated
with the current to New Orleans, Louisiana, where they
disposed of their cargo and returned home, apart of the way by
boat and part way on foot. These were long and dangerous
voyages, yet they were made numbers of times by the pioneers
of the southern part of the county. It may not be very
generally known, yet it is true, that one boat at least was
built and launched on Clear creek, this county, that not only
made the voyage to New Orleans, but to Havana, Cuba. The
grandfather of the wife of the writer of this sketch, Uncle
Robert Taylor, as he was familiarly called, built and
loaded a boat and when he reached New Orleans the market was
such that he could not dispose of his produce to an advantage.
He hired a tug boat to tow his vessel to Havana, where he
exchanged his cargo for coffee and returned to New Orleans,
where he disposed of his coffee and returned home. This
may perhaps seem strange and appear unreasonable, but his
papers, or passports as they are termed, permitting him to
enter and leave the port of Havana, are still in the hands of
a member of the family. Before the old New Albany &
Salem railroad was built the company asked that the people of
each county, through which it was built, subscribe one hundred
thousand dollars for stock. The solicitor, Thomas
Carter, approached Joseph to sell him stock, to be
paid for in work. As he was getting old, he did not care
to take any himself, but if two of the boys, James and
John, who were about grown, cared to take one thousand
dollars each, he would see them through with it. They
took out one thousand dollars each, for which they graded one
mile, beginning about one mile north of Harrodsburg, and then
took out two thousand dollars between them, for which they cut
and placed the ties on three miles of the grade. In the
final settlement, they, as did many others, found their stock
worthless. Joseph Strain and his wife Elnor
were devout Presbyterians and brought up their sons and
daughters in that faith. In his will he gave a tract of
land upon which to build a church, but as Harrodsburg was then
getting to be quite a village and a trading center, the
members decided it would be better for all concerned to build
the church in or near the town, rather than a mile away, which
was done. Up to about 1895 this was a strong church.
Several noted men have been pastors of the congregation that
worshipped here, but now, like many villages and country
churches, it seems to be on the decline. Joseph
Strain's sons were all substantial farmers of this and
other states, his daughters married farmers and they all have
done their part in the building up of the community in which
they lived. His grandsons and granddaughters are many
and live in many states and are engaged in many professions
and occupations.
Source: History of Lawrence and Monroe Counties, Indiana;
their people, industries and institutions. Publ.
Indianapolis, Ind. - B. F. Bowen & Co., 1914 - Page |
NOTES:
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