Jim Hughes, lifetime teacher

 

More recent and perhaps less historic among Fairfield's “offspring” was James Richard Hughes, who graduated from FGS in 1958 and from Brookville High in 1962.

Graduating is not the highlight of his life, which ended on Nov. 12, 2018. He was 73.

Jim Hughes not only served as one of Fairfield's most diligent history compilers, his career as a coach and teacher were lauded immensely over the years. He was a graduate of Ball State (Muncie) and played four years of baseball for the Cardinals before becoming a coach.

He was still coaching 50 years later – baseball, golf, cross country and boys and girls basketball. His obituary says Hughes' “unforgettable attention to detail with the baseball field maintenance and piercing whistle will never be forgotten!”

His biography:

• Indiana Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame
• Indiana Baseball Coaches Association (president in 1983)
• Franklin County High School Hall of Fame in 2015

Hughes was one of Fairfield's best athletes in a time when such was not necessarily considered important. We knew him as somewhat shy, quietly efficient and not the guy we wanted to be like. He played left field on the softball team and forward or center on the basketball team.

We won a lot of games.

Franklin County High School (Brookville) named its baseball stadium after Hughes, and the school established a memorial scholarship in his name that is open to FC students who wish to pursue an Education curriculum.

Much of Fairfield's pictorial history in the result of Jim Hughes' efforts in compiling organizing and explaining what he knew. His family lived west of Fairfield on a farm that none of us ever visited. The farm was quite historic.

Hughes also contributed heavily to Town Under the Lake, a 2011 tome that included contributions by dozens of former residents of the valley.

Temperance, they cried

 Back in the 1850s, there was a national outcry for removal of alcohol from America's lives -- and to some degree, in 1855, that had been achieved. It didn't last long, but it was a real moment for people who wanted everyone to be as sober as they were.

This snippet tells of some "local" activity. The factory, as mentioned, is probably the place circled in pink.

McCarty -- opportunist

 

Jonathan McCarty, who came to the Brookville area with his daddy Ben McCarty sometime in 1803, is one of the most interesting people in the history of SE Indiana, even if you don't think it matters. 

He appears to have become either the best politician of his time or one of the great manipulators.

A Fayette County history condenses McCarty’s youth as having been born in Virginia in 1795 and following the crowd to Indiana territory. The first Fairfield settlers are said to have staked out their land in 1804, but most histories say Ben McCarty was digging wells around New Trenton a year earlier than that.

We can fudge on the years. The internet won’t argue with any of that.

What became of McCarty is the stuff that could be legendary if it weren’t so politically muddled. It’s hard to tell if he was a Whig, a Jeffersonian Republican-Democrat, a Jacksonian, an anti-Jacksonian or, oddly a Possum Democrat. Any or all apply.

He was a “young Turk” in 1816 when he ambled off to Corydon to represent that part of Indiana in the creation of a new state, Corydon being the state capital at the moment.

The Fayette history:

“(He was) reared on his father's farm in Franklin County, within sight of the village of Brookville and on the banks of Whitewater river, and in the little log school-house of that place he received his education. For a time he assisted his brother in the duties of the clerk's office, at intervals reading law, without the assistance of a living teacher, and at length he was licensed to practice at the bar.”

Ah, the Lincoln imagery hovers like a warm halo. Anyhow, McCarty “was soon elected to the state legislature from Franklin County, and as a member of that body he procured the passage of a law creating the county of Fayette.”

This is where McCarty plays into the fate of Fairfield, even if the story carries no water.

The establishment of Fayette County in 1819 moved Fairfield to the northern boundary of Franklin County. Stories at the time said the unfortunate change in geography allowed Brookville to swoop in and claim the title as county seat.

Part of that is attached to the creation of the Eads Addition to Fairfield around 1818. William Eads and McCarty were associates and both appear to have been speculators with the ability to alter the rules.

Eads Addition became the part of Fairfield that held the public school from 1953 forward.

Virtually no real evidence suggests Brookville or McCarty had such a nefarious plan in place. McCarty saw the creation of Fayette County as a chance to become a powerful political leader and, as population and motives of the time saw no reason for McCarty’s plan to fail, it was simple planning. Adding counties to the young state was natural. Lawyers and learned people saw such political dynamos as places to exert their authority. New political strongholds meant wealth – a lot of it, for people who managed the corral.

The educated people of the time came to the new territory to become important, not to fish the pristine streams and milk swaybacked cows.

In any case, McCarty took over as chief cook-bottlewasher-rules maker for Connersville and other sloppy little villages around it.

He wasn’t in Connersville long and eventually expanded his reach to Fort Wayne, which was largely more important than any other town in the state at the time. That’s where Hoosiers did most of the work to shill the native tribes out of their land and create Farmland USA. McCarty ran the land office in Allen County.

He had tried to run for state office in the late 1820s, either as a Whig or somebody with a toupee, but he lost to Brookville Judge John Test, who was a Republican, which was the same as a Jeffersonian, more or less. Finally in 1831, history reveals McCarty being elected to Congress, beating Test and Oliver Smith in a heated election.

Test had already been in Congress and had been defeated by Smith, of Connersville.

McCartys were closely aligned to the Templetons, one of the first families in Franklin County in 1804.

McCarty served in Congress until 1837 and eventually found his way to Iowa, which was ripe for a political opportunist. As a “Possum Democrat,” he was elected to Congress. Iowa’s first elections were in 1846. Mac was there to take part.

He died at age 56. No idea on the cause. By 1852, when he died, the nation had begun adding the Prairie states to the union. Doubtless, McCarty envisioned himself as the caliber of person who needed to manage that.

Indianapolis newspaper reports, recounting McCarty’s role in government, claimed his greatest asset was his public speaking ability. Most political achievers can claim that.

“Among the Whigs in Indiana in 1940, two were especially prominent. One was Jonathan McCarty of the so-called White Water region, and he had few, if any superiors on the stump.” John Little White of Madison was the other, the Indy Star revealed in 1907.

The Fayette biography, not deemed objective in any way, says this of McCarty: “He was a man of limited scholastic training, but possessed great natural powers. He was one of the most talented men of Indiana, a forceful and eloquent speaker.”

Notes: Alternate spelling is Johnathan, as referenced on his Find-A-Grave page. Benjamin McCarty, his father, is interred in Sims-Brier Cemetery in New Fairfield.

•  Lewis Publishing Company. Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana (Volume 1).

A plentitude of Masters

In 1916, the prose of the journalist bordered on something not quite Frost and not quite Dylan.

The story on Jacob Masters of Fairfield, whose family spread long tentacles for a long time, was thus written by noted smart guy Theo Dickerson:

“Tradition and legendary history of the beautiful White Water Valley of the long ago, before the advent of the pioneer, before this part of the East Fork was cleared, when nature made the hills and valleys more attractive than now, when only here and there could be found the rude cabin of a white squatter or French trading post, will we try to picture the panorama presented, one hundred years ago and speak of the tribes of red men who sought for game and fished along the White Water which was thickly timbered, great trees bordering the banks.

“But few white men had at the beginning of the eighteenth century the hardihood to penetrate into the then vast wilderness of this country, whose inhabitants were Indians and wild animals.”

The story never wavered much before it finally got around to telling us about Jacob Masters and his kinfolk, who settled in the East Fork valley around 1833.

The usual people showed up in the Brookville paper's treatise on Masters, all enriching the soil with tales of pioneer spirit, grit, determination and fanciful devotion to duty, commerce, God, and purt-near anything else that mattered.

Actually it was Christopher Masters who brought his clan with him to Fairfield from Pennsylvania, which apparently was kicking people out and sending them this way. The story on Masters was that he was probably a Methodist, that most of his children were either grown or hungry enough to soon be that.

For reasons that were doomed to be bad ones, the Methodists didn't have a church in Fairfield and it was up to Christopher Masters to see that one was established. For the record, the Methodists stayed on in Fairfield and became a big deal in Franklin County church affairs up until the 1960s.

“Fairfield had gained her majority,” the story tells us, “was 21 years of age, and has grown from a crossroads village to quite a respectable town.”

Men like Christopher Masters were welcome.

Masters managed to organize the Methodists in Fairfield, brought in an interesting preacher named Henry Dane, then proceeded to make more Masters.

“The Masters family had fulfilled Holy Writ, by multiplying and replenishing. The regulation roster roll when called for meals and family prayer would show from ten to one dozen in family, and the names of the parents and children could all be found on the class books, the majority being members of the Methodist society.”

Somewhere along the way, John Masters shows up.

As if any of this makes you wonder, the story includes this tidbit:

“In order to understand why the Masters ancestors left the mother country to escape religious persecution, it will be necessary to go back a few hundred years and give an abbreviated history of the Swenkfelders.

Abbreviated would be better.

Around 1490, more or less. In Lower Silesia.

So, somehow the Meisthers became the Meschters and finally the Masters who came to Pennsylvania, then settled in Fairfield, started a Methodist church without persecution, proliferated and, at last the newspaper decided to “unravel the Masters genealogy, which we find is a difficult undertaking.”

Well, we were moving right along until 1490.

With an admitted “hundreds” of Masters across the country, even in 1916, the paper conceded: “Therefore we shall commence genealogy of Masters kindred from two brothers who cross over the salt water from Silesia to Germany with their families in 1731.”

That would be Melchior and Gregorius Meisther.

Then there was Christopher, the first, who is not the second and maybe not the third, but  somewhere in there ahead of Jacob, Rachel, Hannah, July, James, Aaron, Ann, Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, Hiram and Eleanor. Not all in that order. Left out Samuel. Sorry. And Quincy, Winfield, David, Lewis, another James, Leonidas, William. …

Jacob was apparently the only one lucky enough to be photographed.

For which we are grateful.

Jacob was a soldier in the Civil War, as much as his great-greats were probably on hand when the Teutonic wars were fought between France and the Belgians.

Rosetta, Josephine, Henry, Bertie, Roy, Juliette, Leander, Blanche, Thomas. …

“In giving the biography of one branch of the family, it occurs to the writer to side-track before we have paralysis or a well-defined case of emotional instability. Should we give a history of other members and the generations of replants, their names would be legion.”

Swenkfelders?

 

  

Once, a storekeeper

Amos Edwards is another name who shows up as being important after he left Fairfield. A biography in a Fayette County history skims over Amos but leaves enough crumbs to make sense of the guy who eventually became prominent in Fayette County for his work in government and railroad construction. 

And summer fruit.

According to the history, Edwards was born in Pennsylvania in 1808 and came to Fayette County in 1817, about the same time that Connersville was making plans to become a prosperous town. At the time, Connersville Township was still part of Franklin County and would remain so until 1820 when it broke off and became Fayette County

Union County came the next year.

Amos Edwards was a witness to all this.

The biography suggests he “grew to manhood” in Connersville but that he had spent time “in mercantile business” in Fairfield without identifying the years, the business or his associates, or how long he stayed, where he lived, how he voted, girlfriends, jail record … nothing.

So we can assume he made some impact on Fairfield at some point. There is some rationale to this, if he did live near enough to Fairfield to have gone there to work, he most likely lived closer to what became Everton or the Bentley area. Since Fayette County didn’t exist in 1817, the history claiming his family had moved there was taking liberty with geography.

A 1909 obituary on one of his sons says Amos had once owned a farm east of Connersville that was owned by "Sparks." An 1875 map shows "Sparks" and "Edwards" as landowners. That's not Everton. 

The history says Edwards eventually bought land in “this vicinity” and was a farmer. That was a somewhat common occupation in the 1800s.

Edwards was elected county clerk in 1845 and served 12 years. Ah, popular with the voters.

He was also associated with the Junction Railroad construction “and was ever in the lead in public enterprises of every sort.” No specifics on this railroad or when it was built.

Edwards met an inglorious death just before New Year’s Day, 1865, when he tripped over a wash tub outside a friend’s home and hit his head.

Not much more about Amos pops up, other than he evidently had a somewhat robust garden at his home.

An 1861 Connersville newspaper brief says, “The grounds on which is situated the residence of Amos R. Edwards, present an inviting aspect just now. Beside the large bed of vines which produce such mammoth strawberries, there are gooseberry bushes weighed to the ground with luxuriant fruit, blackberries that will yield the summer through, cherries almost ripe, young peach trees filled with promises of the velvety skin beauties, and pear trees loaded with the firstlings, which the ornamental shrubbery enriches the beauty of the scene.”

Nobody ever had that in Fairfield.

 

 

 

 

 

Halls of Education

One 19^th century educator who spent some quality time in Fairfield was Albert Newton Crecraft, who had come to Franklin County from Butler County, Ohio, via Princeton College, an Ivy League school. Crecraft had done post-graduate work at Princeton.

Crecraft, who was born in Reilly, Ohio, settled in Mt. Carmel in 1880 and a year later moved to Fairfield.

A biography by August Reifel in the 1915 History of Franklin County, says of Crecraft: “With an attractive personality, affable, industrious and alert to each child's needs, he was soon master of the situation. His work so fired the ambitions of a number of his pupils that they sought a continuation of his services in a subscription term immediately following the short winter term of public school.”

At age 23, Crecraft wasn't having it at the time and a year later became the Principal at Brookville High School. That was 1882.

However, Crecraft went back to Fairfield in 1883, where he met Mary L. Tyner, daughter of Fairfield merchant Richard Tyner. “Before another autumn came, he returned to Fairfield and brought away as his wife one who had probably been a source of much inspiration in his excellent work there, one of his lady assistants of the previous year,” the Reifel tome reveals.

Crecraft replaced H.M. Skinner as superintendent of the Brookville schools in 1884. “But he was not to tarry long in that position. Upon the resignation of M. A. Mess as county school superintendent in the spring of 1886, Crecraft was selected to fill the vacancy.”

This position he held for five years.

In 1890 he purchased the Brookville Democrat, stayed there a year and saw bigger game on a distant plain.

“During this year he installed many improvements in his printing apparatus, and more than doubled the circulation of the paper.”

In October 1891 he sold the paper to the present editor. Maynard (LINK HERE) Irwin, and bought another newspaper in Franklin, Indiana. Crecraft was evidently enamored with the words “Franklin” and “Democrat,” since the Johnson County paper he bought was called the Franklin Democrat. He retired in 1941.

“Some misgivings as to his health caused Crecraft to quit school work, but he has given to the profession a son, Earl, who, inheriting the talents and personal magnetism of both father and mother, bids fair to sustain with due credit the name Crecraft among educators

Earl Crecraft became an educator/author as well and served as a liberal arts dean at Kent State (Ohio) University.

Crecraft's rapid promotion from a village school to the most important position in the county “is proof enough of his ability as an educator. An indefatigable worker himself, he had little patience with shams, sluggards or disturbers. Any such were sure of a stern rebuke with language and means to suit the case.”

Crecraft died in 1946. He was 86. Mary (Mattie) Tyner Crecraft died in 1941.

*

Earl, 18 at the time of this concert, was evidently talented. Ethel Irwin was the niece of Maynard Irwin. Olive Robertson played the piano. Crecraft bought the Franklin Democrat in 1891.

 

 

 

The other Cory ... and the playwright

Thomas Powers was born in New Jersey in 1779, moved to Butler County, Ohio, and finally landed in Franklin County in 1815, a year before statehood.

It is worth noting that the population of Indiana Territory increased greatly during the years before 1816. The reason: Simple, the federal government wanted people living in places that wanted to become states.

Powers and his wife Virginia lived in Brookville Township before venturing into Fairfield Township, which was still actually part of Bath Township. Section 33 is deemed the Powers homestead, essentially in the Saltwell area west of the East Fork-Whitewater.

The biography (as credited at the end) says this: “The rest of their lives was happily spent here, the husband dying August 6, 1822, and September 15, 1875, more than half a century later, the widow passed to the other shore, when in her ninety-third year.”

So much for that.

The Powers family also runs into that of the Cory clan (see related item on Clement). Mary Cory, who married Clement Cory, was the daughter of John Johnston, the son of Jane Powers and Alexander Johnston. Jane was one of Thomas Powers's children. Got it?

Mary Prudence Johnston Cory was revered as having “many qualities which greatly endear her to all of her acquaintances and associates. Mrs. Cory's time is entirely given to her business interests and the welfare and happiness of her children.”

One of the Cory children was Adelia Irwin, who was married to Maynard Irwin, the publisher of the Brookville Democrat. (See related item).

Another Cory child is Maud C. Smolley, M.D.

Maud (alternate spelling, Maude) was the wife of Dr. John G. Smolley, who graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington and received his medical education at the Miami Medical College before setting up a practice in Connersville.

The biography, which was originally about Thomas Powers but has warped off to Maud Smolley, said that “after her marriage, Mrs. Smolley concluded to qualify herself for a professional career also, and for some time pursued her studies under the preceptorship of her husband.”

Maud later entered the Cincinnati Medical College, studied there for 3 years and continued to study there as the Women's Medical College was organized. Evidently the growing number of women the medical field (mostly nurses) had necessitated that.

Maud was the first graduate of the new Women's College and received an honorary degree.

Honorary.

After the good doctor passed on in 1896 (he died of typhoid fever, transmitting it to his wife, who survived it), Maud married a druggist’s son in Connersville in 1901 and became somewhat of a socialite there. 

The groom, A. C. Andrews, was described in the wedding announcement as having “great promise in the literary world,” which explains what happened next to Maud Smolley. Maud never actually practiced medicine. Instead. She was “devoting much of her time to literary pursuits, and now holds the honorable office of secretary of the Western Association of Writers.”

A.C. Andrews’ mother had founded the association.

Albert Charlton Andrews, according to the Connersville papers in 1901, was on the cusp of having a romantic historical fiction published in September of that year. Turns out, he was quite the success, both as a novelist and playwright. A search for Charlton Andrews of Boothbay, Maine, will get you to him.  

In 1925, Andrews divorced Maud on grounds of desertion. Maud came back to Fairfield after that and lived with her mother. He went on to aspiring heights and died at age 61 in 1939.  

Maud Smolley Andrews died in 1952 and is buried in St. Michael Cemetery in Brookville.

MORE ON CHARLTON ANDREWS

WIKIPEDIA ON ANDREWS

MARIE LOUISE NEWLAND ANDREWS, CHARLTON'S MOTHER 

WESTERN ASSOCIATION OF WRITERS (LEW WALLACE WAS A SUPPORTER)

– Lewis Publishing Company. Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana (Volume 2) . Kindle Edition.

 

 

Clement Cory

 There's plenty of information in the Brookville library about the Cory family, which was one of the most influential in Fairfield Township for most of the 19th century. This bit is snatched from the archives and needs to be included. 

Clement R. Cory was a representative of one of the early families of this part of the state. He was born near Fairfield, just across the line in Union County, January 28, 1834.

Cory was reared a farmer. He graduated from Asbury University (I can't find background on this. Other reports claim he studied at DePauw College in Greencastle), and after leaving college turned his attention to teaching. Soon he became one of the leading educators in this part of the state. He was the first superintendent of schools in Franklin County, serving in that capacity, beginning with 1873, for seven years.

He read law and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced that profession. Cory took a prominent part in politics, and served several terms in the state legislature, having been elected to that body in 1867, 1869 and 1895. He also served as reading clerk in the senate in the legislature of 1871.

Cory was twice married. His first wife was a Miss Johnston, daughter of A. X. Johnston. (No idea if she died or divorced or just fled the country.)

In 1896, Cory married Harriet Logan, widow of Winfield Scott Logan. She was a daughter of Robert G. Hubbard, who was born in Fairfield township,

My insertions here:

Logans and Johnstons are names of some of the valley's original settlers. Cory family origins are in Ohio and their footprint across time is extensive. The Cory family (mostly Mary) owned large sections of land in Fairfield Township and owned a house on the south side next door to Waltz's Ashland station.

Cory died at Fairfield in 1909. His obituary said he had lived alone in Fairfield for several years and, on the morning of April 17, he decided to take a walk.  

“While ascending the hill in a wooded pasture, weary and his body enfeebled by the burden of years beyond the allotted three score and ten, he fell to the earth and a hemorrhage caused his death. Thus beneath the open heaven, surrounded by trees, his spirit returned to the Maker who gave it.”

•     Lewis Publishing Company. Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana (Volume 2) . Kindle Edition.

 

 

William Parker Best

 Adding some biographies of Fairfleld people from the past, mainly because it needs to be on this blog someplace. This one is about William P. Best, who was a somewhat influential physician back in the day when a shot of whiskey was the only way to keep a patient from screaming.

Doctor Best was ... well, he was the Best doctor around.

Here's the pilfered information: 

One of the able medical practitioners of Dublin, Wayne County, William P. Best, is a native of Fairfield, born August 3, 1864.

(He) is the eldest of the three sons of Frank P. and Mary V. (Ogden) Best, the others being Frank M. and Henry T. Best.

For several years Best's father, Frank P. Best, owned and operated a gristmill in Fairfield  and for a number of terms he served as township trustee. He was a patriotic citizen, as were all his near relatives, and his brother, Milton, a Union soldier, was killed while fighting at Chickamauga.

Dr. Best and his two brothers received excellent educational advantages in the schools of Fairfield, and all have since taken degrees, the latter two being Doctors of Philosophy.

William P. Best was 17 when he took charge of a school, and his winters for several years were passed in teaching. During this period, he commenced the study of medicine, and in the fall of 1886 he matriculated in the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati. 

In 1888 he established himself in practice at Mount Carmel, Indiana, and in the spring of 1893 he moved to Indianapolis. A few months later he came to Dublin, where he opened an office. He was admitted to membership in the Indiana State Eclectic Medical Association the same year.

The marriage of Dr. Best and Miss Harriet Dennett was solemnized at the home of her parents, John and Lucretia Dennett, of Brookville, June 23, 1887.

Best died in 1938 and is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery, Brookville.

• Lewis Publishing Company. Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana (Volume 2) . Kindle Edition.

Maynard Irwin, Publisher

Fairfield was the origin of several important people in its long history, and many of them had an impact elsewhere. This blog covers some of them, although there are others who won't seem important unless we say they are.

This one is about Maynard Irwin, who was born in Fairfield in 1859.

Irwin is a somewhat prominent name in Franklin County for a variety of reasons, although it's more about their sustainability than their actual achievements. 

The name is also linked to the Buckley, name and a short trip into the late 19^th century will reveal that importance.

Again, sustainability. (At right, a photo of Maynard Irwin that appeared in the June 23, 1932 edition of the Brookville Democrat, a paper he owned and managed.)

Maynard Irwin grew up probably as any other kid and was associated with his father, Thomas Irwin, in running a general store in town. Thomas Irwin died in 1912. The Irwins are also related to the Dares, who populated Springfield and Bath townships. That tends to expand their family in a lot of directions.

Maynard eventually took over the Brookville Democrat as its publisher and editor and held that position of prominence until his death in 1932. The newspaper WAS a big deal, modifying the conversation, changing the topic, allowing businesses to thrive and people to be heard. News was printed and it was durable.

Maynard Irwin held sway over public opinion.

The man's obituary says he had suffered a stroke in 1926 and hadn't been overly active in his last years. His daughter, Ethel, eventually took over as publisher. I've found very little that suggests her promotion was anything but acceptable in Brookville and the county.

A woman running a newspaper probably shook some cabinets in Boston or Chicago. In Brookville, she was just the owner of the business. I can't find much on her and she didn't hold the position long, eventually selling out to other interests.

Maynard Irwin sustained his ties to Fairfield throughout his life, as a member of its lodges. The obit claims he was a Universalist, which didn't have a denomination in the town itself. BLOG ITEM ON CHURCH HERE.

A eulogy says Maynard was “fair and fearless in conducting his business, built on the conception of right and wrong that has won the respect and admiration of an entire community.”

Maynard Irwin was 72 at his death. He is interred in Maple Grove Cemetery.