Resolved, I began to question those that might be of help. The questions always began with those directly relating to Greenbury. Replies were always brief. His parents were unknown, None could correctly give the full name of his wife. A couple thought she was called Beccie, one had heard the name of Lamb. Two of their children were known as Elihu, our ancestor, and his brother, Martin. None questioned could recall seeing Greenbury. It was agreed he was buried at the Green Park Cemetery, Portland, Indiana in an unmarked grave. None know when or where he died. It was generally though among those questioned that Greenbury had a mean disposition. The source for this belief was tales of him chaining or tying his wife to the bedstead when he was away from home any length of time. The reasoning was that she had become blind late in life and this prevented her from wandering off and becoming lost.
The search took on new life when an obituary appeared in the Muncie Star July 19, 1971. A daughter of Martin Tharp, Lillian I. Tharp Herbert, had died at Muncie. Her death notice gave her parents names as well as a number of her half brothers. Her family lived in Muncie, but her half brothers lived in Florida and Kentucky, Here was the second branch of the family as I understood it at the time. It seemed, since purely by chance, an unusual bit of good luck. I then contacted the daughter of Lillian, Katherine O'Neill, who gave to me the addresses of those in Florida and Kentucky. This was the first time in nearly 50 years that these two branches of Tharps had made contact. The first striking fact revealed was that here were grand children of Greenbury Tharp, who were the same generation as my grandfather, Dolph Tharp.
It seems Martin's family did not follow the life of farming but took up other trades. It was said they were occasionally showmen. In about 1925 Martins eldest son, Jesse Tharp, with others of the family exhibited a large alligator at a business room on South Walnut Street in Muncie. It was also said that his second son William, was a showman of the medicine show variety.
Martin Tharp and his sons moved to Daytona Beach, Florida in the mid twenties and camped out on the beach for a time. This was at a time when Florida was not densely populated. Lillian, the only daughter, remained in Muncie and was the one whose obituary was seen in the Muncie Star. William returned to Indiana and is said to have died in Greenfield, Indiana. Carroll drifted to Kentucky and made his home at Glasgow taking up the plastering trade where his son, Ralph Tharp, still follows that trade. Charles, Hershel, and Gilbert made their homes in Daytona Beach, Florida. When I met these men in Daytona Beach they were all retired. On one visit I met the youngest son of Jesse Tharp, Ervin L. Tharp, born 1921,. He used the Indian story to his advantage, making Indian jewelry and selling it at a business place fronting on the beach. Ervin identifies with the Cherokee or was it the Choctaw.
It was a trait among earlier generations to have straight black hair, brown eyes and perhaps a complexion less than light Many were short in stature, medium frame and muscular, a few were quite short at about five feet two inches, a couple seemed tall at five feet eleven inches. The hair often retained its dark color well into old age. In my branch of the family this changed when the Taylor and Longerbone lineage's joined the Tharp lineage, many fair complexions and blue eyes appeared. The earlier physical characteristics may have made the Indian tradition easily believed and is strongest among those carrying the earlier traits. Many things are said to support the individual concepts of the tradition but none with supporting evidence, we have here a tale wagging a tale. Never the less a great deal of time has been spent in studying Indians. All of which may be useful sometime in the future, but not at this time.
The time was overdue for a different course of action, research using proven methods seemed the only recourse. It was known that Greenbury lived in Jay and Randolph Counties, Indiana so these were the first counties I expected to find any information on him or his family. Not knowing exactly how to start, I drove to the Indiana State Library at Indianapolis, Indiana. At the time the genealogy section of the library had not seen much growth for several years, and activity was moderate. Never the less for a new comer to the field it was impressive to learn so much collected material was available for research. The library had two censuses, the 1880 and the 1850 indexed in large card files. In no time at all Tharps were found in both censuses. The family of Greenbury was present in the 1880 census of Jay Co. but did not show up in the 1850 census, however several families were in Randolph Co., Indiana, these were copied for future reference as were those in Jay Co. I believe now that the frustration that set in due to inexperience cut short the first visit. Still there was a great deal of satisfaction felt,. The few notes gathered were the first of many more to come. A new understanding was developing, preparation and a degree of order appeared absolutely necessary. Yet at the best, order never has been satisfactory.
Several weeks were to pass before another trip was planned and success could be expected. Allen County Library was reported to have a very good genealogical section, perhaps the best in the mid-west. It was all that and more, as a bonus its location was advantageous. The building was new, large and attractive. A great amount of interest was mounting in the coming bicentennial.
Other family names by now had entered the search, when a record was searched for the name Tharp several others as Carder, Meranda and Addington were also recorded. Randolph Co., Indiana was decided to be the target county and marriage records a place to start. This proved the proper choice. Greenbury Tharp married Rebecca Hunt on July 19, 1843. Near this was an Isreal Tharp Jr. married to Pinnia Hunt on September 25, 1843. My first thought was to find an Isreal Tharp Sr. He was not in the 1850 census of Indiana, so Randolph county Will Books were searched for an Isreal Tharp. Again success was immediate. An abstract of the Will revealed names of the heirs. Greenbury Tharp was among them. I do not recall if anything else was accomplished that day. Major facts had been learned and the day a glorious success. 1. Greenbury married into the Hunt family and it would appear that a brother had also married into the same family. 2. Isreal Tharp Sr. died before the 1850 census. His will was dated May 29, 1850 and recorded in Probate Court on June 4, 1850. This explains in part why only females were in his household at the time of the census was taken.
In order to document the finding, a trip to the Randolph County Court House was made a few weeks later. The Will of Isreal Tharp was copied as were other related estate records found in the Probate Court Books and files. From these records it was determined that Isreal had died on the day his Will was made for on that day his doctor, Dr. William Dickey, made his last visit to treat him. Here is the doctors statement as was found in the estate papers. Medical treatment to Isreal Tharp for 1850. The first home visit to treat Isreal was made on May 22, (1 visit and medicine $1.50), on the 23rd (same), the 24th (1 visit and prescription $.50), 25th (1 visit and medicine $1.50), 26th (same), a second visit the 26th (1 visit and prescription $.75), on the 27th it seems Isreal was in a very bad condition. 27th (3 visits and medicine one being at night $4.50), 28th (2 visits and medicine $3.00), the last visit being on the 29th (1 visit and medicine $1.50), The doctor billing indicated that $2.00 had been paid by cash on December 26, 1850 leaving an unpaid balance to be accepted $14.25. Several years later, only last year, the mortality schedule for the 1850 census was located at the Jay Co., Indiana Library. Information found in this schedule states that Isreal died in the month of May, in the year 1850, age 60 years, born Pennsylvania and that the cause of death was inflammation. Over the years the search was taken up again and again in the Randolph Co., Indiana Court House but none was as exciting as the first.
As stated earlier many other family names were being traced. At the beginning of the year, 1973, I became a member of the Indiana Historical Society. Through their publications it was possible to learn of others researching lineages that I also had an interest. My nephew, Joseph Castelo, had became interested in research and subscribed to the Tri-State Trader, a news paper which carried a genealogy section with a query column. In time through these and other means, contacts were made. Another source of research material had became available. Correspondence is the most productive method found to date that achieves the greatest measure of success. Over the years many letters were written and much material exchanged. There is no doubt that without this exchange my own efforts would have produced but a small fraction of the family records now at hand. What was happening with the search at that time was that the whole idea of tracing ancestors was extending to many lineages such as Taylor, Longerbone, Truax, Wrightsman, Rhinehart, Johnson, Hunt, Floyd, Hargrave and others, my mothers forefathers and also those of my wife. A few were found to be members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Their church records have been published with indexes. To genealogy these records are price-less, these records alone have extended certain lineages several generations.
About this time Joe Castelo became acquainted with Cecil Beeson, the main stay of the Blackford County Historical Society. I was introduced to Cecil. He was very generous, allowing me to borrow many county histories and other genealogical material he had collected over many years. On several occasions censuses on micro-film were viewed. A great amount of time was passed in this way. The opportunity was a fortunate one, back ground information was gathered and has added to an understanding of the lives and times of our ancestors.
About the same time my wife's ancestry became the center of interest, holding that place for some time. Her late ancestors had lived in Delaware County, Indiana for four generations. Knowledge relating to them was rapidly obtained through local sources. The county histories were rich in related family biographies. Court House records were searched. The initial source of her family histories was found in a small history book of the Union Grove Church of the Brethren. Many cemetery records revealed the resting place of nearly all of them. Many times cemeteries have been visited to locate and photograph memorials and burial sites. Visiting old cemeteries can and may become habit forming, one I still enjoy to this day. The amount of genealogical material on McKinley and Studebaker families is impressive. The reason for this is that an early branch of the McKinley ancestors produced a man of prominence, President William McKinley, in the Studebaker lineage a family became renown for their manufacturing of automobiles. I corresponded with members of the Studebaker family who at the time had undertaken to publish the family history of the American Studebakers. To this large volume of work I contributed a small amount.
Once a family name is chosen for research the effort may not be continuous, but it is at all times a recurring endeavor, there is no end. In the early 1970s many were running concurrent, Another on my father's side of the family was taken up, the ancestors of my grandmother Tharp, Longerbone and Taylor families. This began with a visit to question my great uncle, William Longerbone, then living at Union City, Indiana. He had in his possession several letters and family records his mother had long cherished, including family bible records for the family of her grandfather, Beriah Taylor and the family of her father, Jonathan Taylor. Names of her in-laws were learned through notes found among the letters. Willie, William Longerbone, allowed me to take these things home in order to copy every thing, which I did. All was returned in good order. Later Willie's nephew, Arthur Longerbone, took possession of this material and in taking up the search himself contributed a substantial amount of information relating to the Longerbone families. Arthur and I corresponded for about six years which ended when the Longerbone effort failed to progress once it reached the colonial period. Arthur, like all at some time, came to a wall which bars further progress. When this happens it is difficult to accept, but often one must. will remaining alert to the chance of further discovery of published as well as unpublished material.
My own effort in picking up the Taylor research began with a letter to the Post Master of a community in Fayette County, Ohio with the unusual name of Washington Court House. The letter was passed to a mail carrier, George Robinson, who was involved in D.A.R. work. He kindly answered my letter which had requested information on the old Yankee Town Church and Cemetery and the families of Longerbone and Taylor that were buried in that cemetery. Mr. Robinson outlined his general knowledge of the church and the grave yard, stating that the church building was no longer there and that the cemetery was being prepared to be moved since a reservoir was to be constructed in the area. The most welcomed information was the address of Mrs. Gladys Keller of Washington Court House. Mrs. Keller informed me of her mother's family records which gave a brief history of an emigrant by the name of Gaskill, this being the maiden name of Keziah Taylor, the great grandmother of my grandmother Tharp, This correspondence began in 1969. A short time later Gladys' mother died, about a year later Gladys wrote that she too was very ill with terminal cancer. In the mean time she had given me the address of Eva Daniels, living in Kansas City, Missouri. This contact was the beginning of twelve years of correspondence which expanded to include Mrs. Arthur Heaman of Victorville, California. The joint effort and faithful exchange of information resulted in a high degree of success. The results was basically due to families who treasured their family records and preserved them in the historical publications of their locality.
These ancestors were traced to the early settlements of the English colonies along the Atlantic coast. They were the first discovered at such an early time. Here were found victims of the religious founding fathers, who had sought religious freedon in the New World only to deny it to others, among those persecuted were our ancestors. At times these stories being one of cruel torment, victims of man's inhumanity to his fellow being. I experienced an emotional involvement in the lives of these people that I had not felt possible before. It was the beginning of a sentimental attachment to those of another time.
It was becoming every day more clear to me that I was depending on people for information that were well advanced in age. With this in mind I renewed my efforts to discover all I could about Isreal Tharp's farm and his place of internment. Time was perhaps running out. The location of the farm was easily determined through the land records in the Recorder of Deeds Office at Winchester, Indiana. It was possible to locate the farm using the county and township maps at the Court House, in addition to this I had Topographic maps printed in the scale of 7 1/2 minutes. These maps were purchased when I first studied the Indian tribes of Indiana, finding them extremely useful when in search of sites of interest. These maps have excellent detail, it is possible to locate home sites, small streams, wooded areas, cemeteries, land contour and much more. The farm at the time of Isreal's death consisted of two hundred acres and lay just east of the town of Losantville. In 1850 there was no town of Losantville. A half mile north was a cross rode community called Hunts Cross Road. Due south, a mile the other side of the county line was the town of Dalton. It is probable the family traded at both places. Not to distant from the farm on the post road to Dalton was a Baptist Church and cemetery, also in 1840 a Methodist Church was established near the Baptist Church. Other small cemeteries are in the area but none have been found listing the burial of a Tharp.
I drove to the farm site and was able to drive on gravel roads on both the north and south property lines, these roads were laid out long after Isreal's death. At the time of my visit two homes were on the old Tharp farm. On the south road was James Rawlins', on the north road was Raymond Oler's. It was not possible to see all the farm from the roads, the land is rolling with a small creek cutting a meandering course through it from the northeast to the southwest corner of the old farm. Later when I walked about on the land it was clearly evident it had been covered by an ice sheet during the last ice age, as the ice retreated many boulders were left strewn over the land. Near the northeast corner of the farm the source of the stream is located, here a spring once flowed. The stream was given the name, Nettle Creek, also this same name was given to the township. A very early map of the area shows an Indian trail* passing through the farm from the southeast corner and exiting near the northwest corner. This trail was likely the path used by the family when going to Hunts Cross Road.
*The Indian trail ran southeast down to the East Fork of the White River When Isreal first came to the area Indians might have still used the trail as a few were living on the White River near the sites of present day Muncie and Anderson, Indians were also moving on trails along the Mississinewa River in the north part of the Randolph county. By the time the family was well established and Isreal's sons were young men the nearest remaining Indians in Indiana were living nearly the same farm life as the white settlers but were living on reservations, one was on the Wabash River at the junction of the Mississinewa River, another small reservation was on the Salomonia River where that river crosses the Blackford and Jay county lines.
Looking at the maps and the location of the trail crossing the farm it would seem the Tharp home would have been just off the trail and near the creek. The creek would have been the first available water supply. The farm and all about would have been heavily wooded when the first camp was made. I would not be certain that high ground was preferred, it s just as reasonable to think a nearness to the water supply was important at that time. People have not always sought high ground in order to have good drainage or a homesite which commands a pleasant view. Much later it was learned that the burial ground I was looking for was on the high ground south of the creek a short distance southeast of the center of the farm. A fact that can not be over looked is that the first purchase was eighty acres which was the East one half of the Southeast one quarter of section 10 etc.. This means the home was surely on the land first purchased.
On the first visit I knew nothing of the old burial ground, this was discovered after exchanging a few letters with people who had lived in the area and recalled seeing it. The first attempt to contact local residents was a letter to the local Post Master of Losantville. A reply came from Mrs. La Vora Lumpkin who confirmed the existence of a cemetery on the Oler farm east of Losantville. Louis Bookout was her informant, his inquiry of Louisa Oler turned up the fact that Raymond Oler had bulldozed the burial ground, burying the grave markers along with the rock pile. This had occurred not long before Raymond's death. My inquiry had came something like two years late. Further confirmation was forth coming from two separate individuals. Mrs. Quick, whose husband had farmed the land in the 1930s and Ben. F. Johnson who had lived on the farm in his youth early in this century. I have filed this correspondence with the Randolph County Historical Society adding my finding as to those buried at this location.
A scrap of paper found in the file of loose papers in Isreal's estate records states that Wm. Williams had made a coffin for Daniel Tharp, the son of Isreal Tharp. The coffin was built five feet ten inches long for the sum of one dollar per foot, also on the statement was twenty five cents for balance on bedsteads, total six dollars eight and three quarters cents, dated 5th of April 1842. Isreal Tharp Jr. died about 1849. Isreal Tharp Sr. on May 29, 1850 and his wife, Avis before 1859.
The inventory of Isreal's estate was made on or about September 16, 1850 by Wm. E. Hendricks and Lewis W. Johnson. Isreal had two horses and one two year old colt, three cows, two steers and one bull. There was nineteen head of sheep and five head of hogs (these probably running loose in the woods) and three head of hogs in a pin. There were four bee hives of various value, suggesting that two were producing honey. At that time, September, there was five acres of corn in the west field worth three and one half dollars per acre, total $17.50. The south field was two and one half acres at five dollars per acre, total $12.50. A north corn field of two acres worth six dollars per acre, total $12.00. There must have been several apple trees for on hand were two hundred bushel of apples. Besides the corn fields there must have been other fields cleared for the growing of oats, wheat, flax, and hay, for these items were also inventoried. One of these was 190 bushels of wheat. There were two whisky barrels. At the sale later three casts were sold. Barrels were handy for a lot of uses, but they no doubt made a large amount of apple cider. This is but a fraction of the inventory, it appeared the family had prospered.
There is no way to know the value of the home and other buildings. I am inclined to believe they would have been log structures. Most likely shelter for the live stock was crude but adequate. The storage of grain would require at least a floor in a structure capable of keeping out the weather.
Very few frame or brick homes were being built in the settlement at that time and then only by the most prosperous, it would be another twenty years before the cabins were being replaced by stylish homes. Log cabins did not vanish from the scene for another seventy five years. I am not sure that the number of persons living on the Tharp farm would give an indication of the size of the dwelling. In the early settlement it was amazing the number of people who could live in one cabin.
The home was surely warmed in the winter by an open fire place, but a fire place was not the only means of heating and cooking for a cook stove and oven were listed in the inventory of Isreal's estate. It would appear that Avis had acquired a few of the conveniences to be had in those days. She also had two mantel clocks which suggest a second fireplace and mantel, thus a cabin with two or more rooms.
Living at home in the spring of 1850 were Isreal, his wife, Avis, and daughters Hannah, Rachel,
Avis and a small four year old girl, Phebe. Another daughter, Rebecca at the time of the census
was in the household of Samuel Dellovon, a widower twice her age, whom she later married.
Greenbury, Jacob and his oldest daughter Aleznah were married and not living on the farm. (they
have not been located in the state for that year
At the time of her father's death, Aleznah had been married to Edward Hall for seventeen years, her wedding was March 21, 1833. Jacob had been married to Nancy Hall since August 17, 1842. These two families were living in Grant County, Indiana in 1853 when in January and March they respectively sold their shares of Isreal's estate. Greenbury and his family were again in Randolph Count, Indiana. He sold his share on January 1st of the same year. Earlier Rebecca and Avis sold their interest in February and October respectively in the preceding year. In the mean time Greenbury' sisters, Avis and Rachel had married in the Fall of 1850. Avis married Aaron B. Hollaway on September 26th and Rachel married John Turnpaugh on October 14th. Left at home after these marriages was Hannah, and her mother, Avis.
There are some indications that Rachel and her husband, John Turnpaugh, lived on and worked the farm. On November 6, 1852, the widow, Avis married Christian Moistner and about the same time John Turnpaugh was appointed guardian of Hannah. Hannah had problems, she was twenty seven years of age and mentally incapable of caring for her own welfare. For a time the Turnpaughs cared for her. In 1859 Hannah was legally declared a person of unsound mind and made a ward of the Court, Hicks K. Wright appointed guardian. He sold her share of her father's estate to Robert Lumpkin for five hundred and fifty dollars on November 1st, 1859. The money to be used for her care. She had been living with others, other than her own relation, for quite a while and continued to do so as court records indicate the payment for her care.
At the same time Hannah's guardian, Hicks K. Wright, was also guardian of the minor children of Isreal Tharp Jr., deceased. Hicks K. Wright sold their share of Isreal's estate also to Robert Lumpkin, this share brought five hundreds and sixty dollars which was to be used for the care of the three daughters of Isreal Jr. and Pennia Tharp [Rachel, Rebecca, and Asena Tharp]. Later documents in the court records of Isreal Tharp Jr.'s estate confused the children's names several times. Rachel and Margaret thought to be Rachel Margaret and Jane and Ellen perhaps Jane Ellen Asena and it would seem that Rebecca was consistently named the same in the records.
The last of the family to live on the farm and the last to sell their share in the estate was Rachel and John Turnpaugh on January 25th, 1860. The amount of money received was six hundred dollars, the largest sum received by any of the heirs.
The last of Isreal and Avis Tharp's children to marry was their daughter, Rebecca, who had remained in the household of Samuel Dellovon for several years. They were married July 21st, 1855 and in the following year (1856) a son, George, was born. By this time Isreal's widow, Avis, no longer is found in the records of the area. It is likely she had taken all the remaining personal property she wanted of the estate and moved into the home of her husband, Christian Moistner. Less than a year later Greenbury and his stepfather, C. Moistner, were not getting along. In the Fall Tern of 1853 of the Randolph County Circuit Court this is found: Christian Moistner swore out a peace bond against Greenbury Tharp which was dropped during the Spring Term of 1854 for want of prosecution. (Greenbury's mother would have been only about 60 years of age in 1854. Is it possible she died prior to the Spring Term of the Circuit Court.?) The only other record presently at hand is one for the year 1867 when C. Moistner sold seven acres of land in order to pay an over due bill for goods received. The Moistners have not been located in the 1860 census. It is felt that Avis died before the census.
Robert Lumpkin took possession of the farm early in 1860. He had bought all the heirs out with the exception of the one eight undivided interest sold to Wm. C. Hendricks by Jacob and Nancy Tharp in 1853. Lumpkin had paid to the heirs 2609.00 dollars and in addition bought the share Hendricks had purchased. The total he had invested was probable in the neighborhood of 3000.00 dollars.
The same year, 1860, Greenbury and his family were living near the town of Losantville. In his household were ten people, the father: Greenbury age 45 years. born Kentucky (age thought to be wrong), his wife Rebecca, age 40, born Indiana (age also thought to be wrong), children; Elihu, age 16, born Indiana, Daniel, age 14, born Indiana, Allison, age 10, born Indiana, Mary A. age 8, born Indiana, Mallisa J., age 7, born Indiana, Martin, age 5, born Indiana, Ramson T. age 3, born Indiana, Lorinzo, age 1, born Indiana. Greenbury's occupation was stated as "Day Laboring" one he professed most of his life. His residence was enumerated just before that of William C. Hendricks, a man of prominence in the community. Hendricks had came to Losantville at the time the town was laid out on the site of Hunts Cross Roads in the year 1851 . He then bought land south of town and also a business place (grocery) in town. [a few years later the town was located one half mile south beside the rail road right-away] This man was once the Post Master and also held several public offices, he moved to Kansas in the spring of 1880. It is possible that Greenbury worked for Hendricks at the time of the census. they were neighbors residing just south of town (Hunts Cross Roads) and west of the old Tharp farm. A short distance east of them lived Greenbury's sister, Rebecca, and here husband, Samuel Dellovon. Further east and on the south side of the trail lay the old Tharp farm where Robert Lumpkin and his wife and two small daughters were then residing, Robert was 30 years of age. His elderly parents lived in the next residence enumerated, probable the old 80 acre Lumpkin farm north of the trail. Absent from the area were all the remaining members of Isreal's family, they had moved away leaving only Greenbury and his sister, Rebecca.
Greenbury had drifted about a great deal though. His son, Lorinzo, born in 1859 has recorded on his death certificate that he was born in New Castle, Henry County, Indiana. An older brother Martin, born in 1855, reported in the 1880 census that he was born in Kentucky. The eldest son of Greenbury and the first child born to Greenbury and Rebecca was Elihu, born May 2rd, 1844, he is believed to have been born near his grandparents in Nettle Creek Township, Randolph County, Indiana. All the other children were probably born in the region bounded by the communities of Mooreland, Franklin, Dalton, and Losantville. There was a tale told that Elihu in his youth was selling news papers in the train station at New Castle and once so irritated a man that the man fired a small caliber hand gun directly at him but failed to hit his target, if that was the man's intent. If the birth of Lorinzo at New Castle can be used to establish a time period, then the incident at the train station was about 1859, with Elihu about 15 years of age.
Elihu Tharp was reported residing in Dalton Twp., Wayne County, Indiana in 1865 and I believe this same area was also his residence during the early war years. He was probably living in or near Franklin or Dalton, two small towns located very close together in the north west corner of Wayne County. It is here that he met and married Rachel Ann Truax. The marriage taking place on November 24, 1867. Rachel's father, John Truax, was a farmer in this same vicinity during the 1860s, at times he worked as a cooper (barrel maker) and at other time a day laborer.
John had lost his father, John Truax Jr. when he John III, was but two years old in 1813. Truax families had been in Adair County, Kentucky for several years, but they all had moved to Preble County, Ohio by the year 1815. The last to make the move was John's widow, Jane Street Truax, and her children: Polly, Elender, Isaac, Melinda, John and Nancy. They made there new home near the children's uncle, Isaac Truax. There the widow, Jane Truax, married Isaac Payne (Pain) on December 19, 1815. By Isaac Payne, Jane gave birth to four children; three sons and one daughter. I have learned the names of only two sons, Isaac and Elias. A short time after 1825 the family settled in Henry County, Indiana, east of New Castle. Before he was able to establish the new residence Isaac Payne died. With sons able to help provide, Jane remained the head of the household for the next few years. Then as the children married and left home she lived in their homes at various times, in both Henry and Wayne Counties, Indiana.
In this same area, where the Tharp and Truax families resided, were also several of John Truax's in-laws. John had married Sarah Wrightsman in Wayne County, Indiana on February 3, 1833. She had been born in Clinton County, Ohio on December 24, 1812, the daughter of Abraham and Rachel Rhinehart Wrightsman, natives of North Carolina. Abraham and Rachel were married in 1807 prior to joining a large party of Quaker families migrating to Clinton, Co., Ohio. The couple remained in Clinton Co., O. until 1819 when a move was made to Perry Township, Wayne County, Indiana. In 1828 Abraham Wrightsman purchased twenty acres of land on the south edge of Franklin. The site now lays in Dalton Township due to the division of Perry Township and the formation of Dalton Twp. in the 1830s.
Sarah's father, Abraham Wrightsman, died in 1835, buried at the West River Friends Cemetery as was Rachel years later. Rachel, Sarah's mother, married Charles Howell on February 23, 1854 and was living at the time of 1860 census.
John Truax moved next door to his mother in-law soon after his marriage to Sarah. The first child born to John and Sarah was a daughter they named for her grandmother, Jane Street Truax, next born was Catherine named for her great grandmother, Catherine Wilkerson Rhinehart, When Rachel was born she was named for her grandmother, Rachel Rhinehart Wrightsman. When Larkin and Charles were born traditional family names were not given them. It seems that the names were perhaps from the Howell family. Jane born in 1836 was married to Philander Jester in 1853. At the time of the 1860 census she was the mother of James age 6, Sarah age 4, and John 10 months of age, all living in Blue River twp. Henry Co., Indiana. At the same time living at home with John and Sarah were Catherine Truax age 21, Larkin Truax Age 17, Rachel A. Truax age 14 and Charles age 8 years.
Larkin was a year older than his future brother-in-law, Elihu Tharp. Both these young men were eligible for the first draft of conscripts for the Union Army in the year 1862. Neither were drawn in the draft that year nor any that followed, Larkin in the Fall of 1864 substituted far a butternut (southern sympathizer) drawn in the draft of Nettle Creek Township, Randolph Co., Indiana. The draftee being one John Johnson. This young man probably gave Larkin no less than 300.00 dollars to take his place in the call up of conscripts in Randolph County. This was not an uncommon thing to do, often even larger sums of money was offered for substitutes.
The draft in both the north and south was highly controversial, but no more so than in Indiana, particularly in the heat of state and national elections. With what I had learned I am of the opinion that the Tharp men were Democrats, certainly not Republicans. At this stage I was inclined to look for intrigue, but mostly for an understanding of the feelings and thoughts that several past as well as current events were having in the family's response to the times.
In general the call for troops to serve in the Union Army was responded to by an out pouring of volunteers which reduced the number of conscripts in service to a small percent of those serving in the Union Forces. Some counties in the state had excellent records in these call ups, readily filling the quotas placed on them. This may in part answer why some eligible men never served during the Civil War, but it does not answer why Elihu did not volunteer.
Several years earlier events did occur that may give an idea of the family's feelings on the war before and after this period.
Here it is necessary to know the scene as well as the events themselves, Early in the settlement of Randolph and Wayne Counties the area became notorious for its abolitionists and Underground Railroad. (A term used to indicate an organized system of aiding and transporting run-away slaves in route north where it was hoped they could escape the bonds of slavery) The local Quakers, members of the Society of Friends, and many Methodist from the southern states of North and South Carolina, became the backbone of the movement.
In the Randolph County Circuit Court, May Term A.D. 1838. Isreal Tharp filed a suit, complaining of John Kerr, Daniel Worth, and Barret Bennett who did on the seventeenth of March in the year 1838 with force and arms assaulted him, bruised and ill treated him and then imprisoned him and detained him in prison there without any reasonable or probable cause for a space of three hours and was again assaulted then and there to the damage of five hundred dollars to the plaintiff. This suit was filed by Test and Smith of Winchester acting for Isreal.
Charles Test and Jerimiah Smith began their practices of law in 1837, both were democrats with extreme political views and utterances. Smith at one time debated Ovid Butler on the question of slavery taking the negative, pro-slavery, side of the issue defending it with marked ability. Test and Smith both became Circuit Court Judges etc.. All the men involved in this suit were extreme in their views on slavery.
A second similar case involving Daniel Worth was tried in the January Tern of 1839. This case being in the matter of two slave girls, daughters of a local negro, Thomas Wilkerson. Wilkerson then living in the Cabin Creek settlement. A certain Mr. Thomas String of Tennessee, the owner of the two girls, was prevented from reclaiming his property by a gang of seventeen men on horse back from the vicinity of Huntsville, the girls escaped to Fountain City (old Newport) in Wayne County and then to Canada. The slave owner brought suit for 1200 dollars, the amount lost to him in the escape. He did not loose the suit but gave up his claim because of the determined opposition of the local abolitionists. The law of the land favored the slave owner as the law also would have normally protected Isreal Tharp, but neither appear in court records to have received damages in their suits. The anti-slavery movement and the vigilante style riders were strong enough to suppress local justice in Randolph County, Indiana.
A third tale of an escaped slave occurred at an area two miles north of Isreal Tharp's farm, a place called the Falling Timbers. This was a devastated area caused by a tornado in July of 1824. In length it was about four miles east and west and in width about a mile north and south. For nearly two decades this remained an immense mass of thrown down timber blocking passage to all but outlaws and run away slaves, many times slave catchers cursed this tangled and twisted pile but were never able to capture a single run away concealed in it. This tale of a run away involved a negro family by the name of Woods who lived on the eastern township line just above the Fallen Timbers and just south of the Cabin Creek settlement which lay over the township line. The tale of pursuit, harassment and escape has a common theme to many of the fond reminiscence found in early county histories. The heroes of those often violent dramas were the abolitionist, the salt of the earth, upright and worthy citizens, the most reverent members in their community.
Who was Daniel Worth and his followers who had seriously beaten and held Isreal Tharp a prisoner? It is known that he was a man of prominence, who in his life time made himself known far beyond the local scene. He had a bold and fearless spirit being fluent in language and able to draw people around him at all gatherings. He was six feet four inches in height and reached the great weight of three hundred pounds late in life. Prior to his confrontation with Isreal he had for many years been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and had served in the State Senate and the State's House of Representatives. In 1842 he organized the Wesleyan Methodist at Newport. (This branch of the Methodist would not fellowship with slave-holders.) For several years he preached in a large Circuit. In 1859 while in North Carolina he was arrested for his anti-slavery activities and jailed. Two more like charges were filed against him, but with the help from friends he fled the state and returned to Wayne County, Indiana where in December of 1862 he died near Fountain City (old Newport).
At the time of the early anti-slavery incidents near the Tharp farm, Worth was living on his eighty acre farm four and one half miles east of Isreal Tharp. The so called gang of Huntsville abolitionist farmed mostly northeast about the same distance toward Huntsville. Others active at the same time in this area resided below the county line around Newport.
Isreal Tharp, a native of Pennsylvania, grew to maturity in a local where outside customs were not seriously questioned. Isreal's background was comparable to many who were proud of an isolated childhood, being little concerned with the existence of slavery in the south.
It was radically different with settlers from the Carolinas who had established their own communities in eastern Indiana. They had left the south disliking slave labor and all that system entailed. Twenty three years after the 1838 incident the same ideology lead to the outbreak of the Civil War.
In the early development of the struggle, when law and order failed, Isreal was among the first to become a casualty of the forth coming yet unforeseen war. His son, Greenbury, a young man of nineteen, filled with anger for his father's assailants and those for whom the crusade was intended to liberate. It is not known that Isreal or any of his sons; Jacob, Isreal Jr. Daniel, and Greenbury retaliated. It is thought they did, but it would remain a well keep secret, leaving much to think on. One thought regarding the family during the Civil War period is that Elihu would not have volunteered to serve in the northern army, his father, Greenbury, would have opposed it. The family keep a low profile and set out the war uncommitted. In 1860 Elihu was sixteen years of age, in 1865 he had turned twenty one. Daniel two years younger turned 19 years of age in the same year.
In the search for ancestors, a point was reached when such a flood of opportunity existed that the Hunt ancestry was documented rather quickly, but it had not always seemed so. The earliest efforts were blocked by the great number of Hunts in the vicinity of Wayne and Randolph Counties which after much effort were divided into three and possibly four unrelated families. Through extensive and time consuming analysis, the Hunt family living one mile east of the Tharp farm proved the logical family to have produced the brides of Greenbury Tharp and Isreal Tharp Jr.. All evidence came to this single conclusion, Rebecca Hunt and Penina Hunt were sisters, the daughters of Isaiah and Nancy Hunt. Because several generation of this ancestry had identified with the Society of Friends, the greatest source of information again was Quaker records.
Isaiah Hunt married Nancy Hargrave in Guilford County, North Carolina shortly after January 25, 1813. Nancy at the time of the marriage was not a member of the Society of Friends, so on March 27th, 1813 Isaiah was disowned for his marriage to a person not belonging to the Society. On the same date Nancy requested membership and was received in the church. It seems Isaiah remained outside the church until on July 29th, 1815 when he and his daughter, Luzena, requested membership. On April 26th, 1817, being proper Quakers, Nancy and husband were granted a certificate to the Blue River Monthly Meeting in Washington County, Indiana. Seven years later they were in Chester, Wayne County, Indiana. On April 21, 1824 , Aquilla and William, were received in the Chester Meeting with their father, Isaiah Hunt. The following year on May 18th, 1825 the Chester Meeting reported that Isaiah dressed unplain and was not settling his worldly affairs. The same charge appeared on July 19, 1826 and the information was sent on for further disciplinary action. This was the last report of Isaiah or of his family found in the records of the Society of Friends.
The family moved to Dearborn County, Indiana being there when the census was taken in 1830. After a sojourn there they moved to Randolph County, Indiana and on the 26th of December 1835 Isaiah bought eighty acres of land in the southeast corner of Section 12, one mile east of the Tharp farm. Isaiah and Nancy had been married for twenty two years, he was now forty one years of age and Nancy forty when they moved their family on the land and began anew.
Their son, Aquilla, had died in the late 1820s and it seems the oldest daughter, Luzena, died about the same time. In 1831 a daughter born to Isaiah and Nancy was given the dead girls name, Luzena. In all it appears Isaiah and Nancy were the parents of two sons, and six daughters, William, the second of their sons died about 1845-6. It would seem that a daughter and two sons had died before 1850. The remaining children living were Elizabeth, Penina, Rebecca, Mary Ann , and Luzena.
In the year, 1850, Isaiah and Nancy were in the household of their daughter, Luzena, who had married Alexander Wright. [the home was probably Isaiah's old residence] In the same household the family was caring for a three years old child, Rebecca Tharp, the daughter of Isreal Tharp Jr. and Penina. Penina, widow of Isreal Tharp Jr. was living with a family in Dalton Township, Wayne County, Indiana. Mary Ann had married Martin Lamb and was living in Nettle Creek Township, Randolph County, Indiana. Elizabeth had married Adam Wine in 1842 and lived for a while on the north twenty acres of Isaiah's farm. Rebecca was moving around with Greenbury Tharp.
When Isaiah begin to have problems in the 1840s it was his son-in-laws, Martin E. Lamb and Alexander Wright he turned to. At the same time the sons of Jesse Hunt, Isaiah's brother, moved up from Wayne County. Phennel S., Jonathan W. and William and their mother, Mourning, established farms near the old Isaiah Hunt farmstead on land purchased from Isaiah and adjoining land owners.
In the year of 1854, Isaiah was legally declared insane an remained so for the rest of his life. Nancy seems to have died about this time as events indicate Isaiah no longer could function without help from outside his own family circle. It was Jonathan W. Hunt, who assumed the guardianship of Isaiah for a short time. When Isaiah's estate was ordered sold in 1856 in order to liquidate assets it was his son-in-law, Adam Wine, appointed his legal guardian, who put the old residence and remaining forty acres up for sale. It was William Hunt, Isaiah's nephew, who purchased the last forty acres of the old farm for nine hundred dollars.
In the next census, 1860, Isaiah was in the household of his brother, Thomas Hunt, whose farm was just above the area once known as the Fallen Timbers.
All was in transition and in only a few years was finished, The Isaiah Hunt family left no lasting mark in this place, not so much as a grave marker is known to exist today, nor a final resting place. It has been reported that Isaiah's brother, Thomas Hunt and Thomas's two wives, Lydia Wilson and Mary Reynolds are all buried in the West River Cemetery just below the county line in Dalton Twp., Wayne Co., Indiana, and that Jonathan W. Hunt and wife, Sarah Archer, are buried in the Salem Cemetery, located about one and one half mile northeast of the old Isaiah Hunt farmstead, just east of Modoc. The Hunt record will be taken up to a greater extent in another manuscript.
We have learned that the last two of Greenbury's and Rebecca's children were born in 1860 and 1866.
A daughter born in 1860 was given a highly favored name of the Hunt family, Luzena. Laura B. was born in 1866.
Of interest is the naming of their children. It is believed that each had two or possibly more given names, some are recognized as names given traditionally in earlier generations. With Greenbury's children names do not follow conventional tradition. No parent or grandparent names are evident. If the full names were known it may have proven otherwise. The name I am troubled with is the full given name of Elihu Tharp, their first born. I have never seen or heard any name other than Eli or Elihu, yet I am certain he had a second given name, one we will probably never learn. While on this line of thought the name Greenbury is foreign to the earlier generations unless the name came from one used in the Johnson family, his mother's ancestry. Nothing has came to light that this is the case. One unsupported source, Oliver Elmer Martin, grandson of Greenbury Tharp, states that Greenbury was sometimes called "Tom". If this was true and a tradition was followed it is possible that a Thomas Johnson was related to Avis Johnson., a highly speculative suggestion where no real facts exists. The sum total of knowledge regarding Avis Johnson, the mother of Greenbury Tharp, is that her marriage took place in Bath County, Kentucky where one would presume her family resided at the time. In Greenbury's generation this traditional way of naming children was widely practiced, but this seems to have been less so in the following generations.
There were patterns of family life that did not change but were modified. From the earliest of times the nation was one in expansion. This fact had a great effect on the character of its people. Greenbury was born in the third generation of his American ancestry. Like others they were searching for new opportunities and could be quite mobile. Some never established a clear outlook or defined objectives so were inclined to drift. This I believe was a course Greenbury preferred and out of habit one that Elihu fell into, but a member of any generation is often influenced by the times and events as much as by parents.
Greenbury's father, Isreal, and grandfather, Jacob Tharp, in their youth and early adult lives were unsettled yet they each acquired a desire to own a home and land. Isreal never had the experience of a father's influence. He being an orphan learned life through contact and various relationships with others. He seen the advantages of owning property and of a close family unity through a shared identification with both as his father had once imagined possible when he brought his family to the wooded mountain slopes of western Pennsylvania.
Jacob as a youth had left northern England for the New Jersey colony to escape conditions in his native country, then in and economic and social revolution while also at war in Europe, India, America and on the sea.
In crossing the Atlantic Ocean he was surely prepared to serve several years as an indentured servant, the usual time being four to seven years.
As Jacob neared the end of his life he clearly demonstrated his knowledge of the bonding of children to the care of others. As he made his "Will" it was evident that he was concerned with the bonding out of one daughter at to early and age, suggesting he had a troubled mind with such practices. Yet he seemed untroubled with the thought of bonding out his three youngest sons, desiring that they in this way could learn a trade.
The idea of prolonged or even permanent separation of children from family was regarded very often to be the only way a child could receive an education. It was the only practical means for children to do so beyond the confines of their family living in near isolation.
It was another time so we should attempt to view the affection of parents for their offspring in the conditions of that early period. Parents taught their children that they must earn their love through obedience and doing the very best in all undertakings, being critical and demanding was the consequence of their own training not one of little affection.
Their love for their children was best expressed in the attention they gave to the child's future. Those that had lived in the eastern settlements during their formative years were highly conscious of the absence of educational opportunities in the undeveloped western lands.
Jacob was literate, at least to the extent he signed his name to his Will. His wife may also have had some elementary education, their older children, William and Abigail probably had received instructions in reading and writing while the family was in New Jersey. We known that Jacob Jr. had a basic knowledge of the two skills. As for the remaining children we can not make a judgment except for Isreal, he was probably illiterate.
There were advantages for those receiving even a small amount of elementary schooling, but it was not essential to the craft of farming and many trades in those times. It was not a social stigma, though one might be embarrassed on occasion. Poor, or the lack of schooling remained a condition in the American westward movement for the next three generations.
In the early years of our history, a person could and often was highly accomplished yet illiterate. Those seeking a profession such as a teacher, doctor, minister or lawyer were in great part self taught and through practicing a profession might well succeed in their chosen profession.
At the time of Jacob's birth, England was in the opening stages of the industrial revolution. Time had not altered the lives of its people for centuries, but in the middle of the eighteenth century a new age slowly begin to take shape. An age of invention had lead to new ideas and methods in the field of manufacturing. The production of manufactured products had been done in the home or small family shops since early civilization. Though the old skills carried on in the home did not vanish, newly invented machinery was introduced into the spinning of thread and weaving of cloth. With gradual improvements in design and construction it became possible to produce large quantities of cloth at a much lower cost in time and capital. The old comfortable and relaxed domestic system faded into the outer fringes of the English economy, at the center, factories sprang up where ever a source of water power could be harnessed to supply power to run the machinery. Tied to the towns was an ever increasing mass of laborers.
The harsh climate of England and Europe gave justification for the high value placed on wool textiles. As demand increased, production of wool was increased by conversion of land under cultivation to pasture land for the grazing of sheep. Thousands of tenant farmers (yeomen) who had long paid the land gentry rent and services were denied the old rights and privileges to farm small tracts of land traditionally cultivated by a family or group of families. Removed from the only life and security they knew, this human resource clustered in the factory towns and cities.
While the nation grew prosperous a heavy price was paid in human suffering by the poor and often destitute laborers. It has been written that the citizen in this station of the new social order was so accustom to cruel and inhuman deprivation that they were insensible. The laborer whether man, woman or child could earn during a dawn to dark six day week barely enough to provide food and clothing for one's self. All sought to hire out, even children at age six. This in its self created a greatly expanded reserve of laborers. For decades the exploitation of young women and children was a disgrace to the nation in the textile industry. At the same time, the nation grew in wealth and power, as an industrial and commercial center supplying manufactured goods in both the old world and the new world.
The New World did present a way of escape. In leaving his native land Jacob did sail for a new land of opportunity, a land in which the old world's Industrial Revolution did not develop during his life time. A place where the next several generations did till the land.
Before Jacob Tharp could establish the means that would insure his family a fair degree of security, he died at the age of forty nine years. Soon after executors of the estate took charge most of the inventory was sold and the lands of the estate divided among the sons; Jacob, Levi, Elihu, and Isreal. William did not share in the division of the land. The widow then had practically nothing of her own and abandoned the site rather than establishing a permanent home on any of the land destine to go to her minor sons as their inheritance. It is possible that the family did not place much value on the site and left with the older son, Jacob Jr., for Kentucky. It was not uncommon to abandon the land, it happened in those days when a vast unsettled domain lay to the west and the lure to move on was great.
It is possible to reach a degree of understanding of the first three generations of the Tharp lineage in America by concluding that they were individualist, believing in self expression, yet moving with the expanding human tide seeking an opportunity to improve their lot in life.
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