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Source:
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
OF
MONTGOMERY, PARKE and FOUNTAIN COUNTIES,
INDIANA
Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens,
together with Biographies and Portraits of all the
Presidents of the United States.
Publ. Chicago - Chapman Bros.,
1893
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AQUILA LAVERTY,
a worthy and leading farmer of Wabash Township, Parke
County, was born on section 25 of this same township, Oct.
3, 1822. During the war he was in service, taking part
in several important battles, and assisting with his own
means to raise Company A, Thirty-first Indiana Infantry.
He has been the architect of his own fortune and has
accumulated a large and valuable estate. Although he
owns upward of five thousand acres of good land in Wabash
and Florida Townships of this county, and one hundred and
sixty acres in Missouri. Moreover, he owns a gristmill
at Armiesburgh.
Aquila is the son of James and Margaret (Guffey)
Laverty, the former a native of Pennsylvania, who
removed to Kentucky and later to Columbus, Ohio, on the site
of which city he assisted in erecting the first buildings.
In the winter of 1817-18 he came by wagon to Parke County,
settling on sixty acres on section 25, which he obtained of
his brother John, who, with another brother,
Samuel, had come to the State a year earlier and entered
land. James Laverty was one of eight children,
the others being Alexander, Samuel, John, Polly, Mary,
Rachel and Margaret. They all removed to
Indiana about the same time, where they settled and made
homes for themselves.
the death of our subject's father occurred in 1861, at
which time he was over eighty years of age. He served
in the War of 1812, and was twice married. By his
first union he had nine children, Jane, deceased,
was the wife of William Brockway; Cynthia
first married Thomas Melvin, after whose death she
became the wife of Joshua Fisher; Samuel
died on Powder River, Ore.; John was accidentally
killed at the raising of a schoolhouse in 1832; Mary
was twice married, being first the wife of John Bronson,
and later Mrs. James McNutt; Indiana
is the wife of Hiram Brockway; Lucy A.
is deceased; Aquila, and Alexander, who died
about the year 1823, completed the number. The mother
of these children was called from this life about the year
1851, after which event James Laverty married
Saracida Woods, nee Luster, to
whom were born two children: James, a resident of
Kansas, and Emily, wife of Albert Griffin.
Our subject's mother was born in Pennsylvania and was a
daughter of Henry and Margaret (McDowell) Guffey.
The former was a Captain in the War of 1812, in which he did
valuable service. He was killed while plowing on his
farm in Pennsylvania, though he had his gun strapped to the
plow, being shot by Indians in ambush. The Guffey
family, who are of Scotch descent, come from an old and
thoroughly respected clan in the land of Burns. Our
subject's father had accumulated four hundred acres of land,
having lived in the West for ten or fifteen years, but lost
his property before his death.
Aquila Laverty received only a limited education
in the log schoolhouse of early days, it being a building of
16x18 feet in dimensions. He is largely self educated,
therefore, having made the best of such opportunities as
have been within his reach. At the age of nineteen he
began working for himself, receiving $10 a month for three
months. Next, for some time, with his two brothers, he
began farming on rented land, on which he raised three crops
and made considerable money. He took $100, and in
company with his brother Alexander went to Galena,
Ill., prospecting for five months in the lead mines of that
locality. He doubled his money several times and
returned to Wabash Township. He next proceeded to
build flatboats to run to New Orleans, to which city he made
about nineteen trips.
In the year 1847 Mr. Laverty purchased his first
farm of one hundred and thirty acres on section 25, Wabash
Township, which he cleared and greatly improved. He
accumulated five thousand acres in the course of time and
has been very successful in his various enterprises and
undertakings. About the time of the war Mr. Laverty
ran a steamboat on the Wabash River. In the fall of
1861 he was very influential in raising a company, of which
he was offered the captaincy, but refused, choosing rather
to g as a private soldier, but later, as there was
dissatisfaction in the election, our subject went in order
get the company to go. He took part in the battle of
Ft. Donelson, and in company with another private soldier
gave orders to his captain to retreat three times, until
reinforced. In this case the private soldiers were
really the commanders. In the battle of Shiloh, during
the first day's fight, our subject was wounded in the left
though and was granted a thirty-days furlough. He went
to Terre Haute and Evansville, and was examined at the end
of his time, but fount that he was unable to resume the
duties, and was consequently discharged at Indianapolis as a
Corporal. In politics he was a Whig before the war,
and has been a Republican since the organization of the
party.
A marriage ceremony was performed Sept. 12, 1851, by
which Miss Elizabeth Justice became the wife of our
subject. She was born in Wabash Township in 1869, and
is the daughter of Aquila and Mary (Gormely)
Justice, who emigrated from Ohio to Parke County, Ind,
in 1824. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Laverty has
been blessed with a number of children, as follows:
Mary, who is deceased; Henry, who died at the age
of fourteen; George, who is the third in order of
birth; Irena, who is the wife of J. C. Casto;
Erminie and Kittie C., at home; and Jessie F.,
who died in infancy. The mother, who was a devoted
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was called to the
home beyond on Aug. 2, 1890.
Source: Portrait and
Biographical Record of Montgomery, Parke and Fountain
Counties, Indiana - Publ. 1893 - Page 585 |
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