William “Riley” Murray

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William “Riley” Murray
b. 27 April 1873, Rosedale, Parke County, Indiana, to Joseph and Mahala (Montgomery) Murray
d. 17 October 1959, Devils Lake, Ramsey County, North Dakota

m. 3 July 1893, Rosedale, Parke County, Indiana
Elizabeth Ellen Bryant
b. 24 June 1875, Vigo County, Indiana, to William Cleaster and Julia Louise (Grindle) Bryant
d. 16 July 1946, Devils Lake, Ramsey County, North Dakota

Children with Elizabeth Ellen Bryant:

  • Raymond (1894-1894)
  • Grace Ellen (1895-1963) married (1) William Epperson, (2) Forrest E. Cox, (3) S. Alvin
  • Ethel Gladys (1897-1987) married Willard D. Greenleaf
  • Stella (1899-1901)
  • Mary May (1901-1989) married (1) Georg Frison, (2) Claude Allen
  • William Anthony (1903-1995) married Ann Mary Johnson
  • Harry Cleaster (1905-1984) married Myrtle Kline
  • Lee Harvey (1907-1987) married Lillian Standahl
  • Julia Esther (1913-1984) married (1) Walter Horne, (2) Felix Ochose, (3) Arnold Huddleston, (4) Walter Shaver

While in Indiana, Riley worked as a checker in the coal mines. He would take the metal “checks” or brass tags off of each man’s cart of coal as he weighed it and credited the man with the coal he had dug.

In 1914, at the urging of Elizabeth’s brother Bill, the family moved to Devils Lake, North Dakota. Riley worked for Bill, who maintained a coal and feed business, for the first year. In the spring of 1915, Riley went into farming. In 1923, he rented two farms of 500 acres each, with rights to 200 acres of Dry Lake. He used horses and employed quite a few men during the year, especially during harvest time.

The Murray home was noted for its hospitality and was a neighborhood gathering place on Sundays. There would be games of baseball, horseshoe pitching, and other activities with Elizabeth serving hundred of doughnuts and beverages.

In the fall of 1943, the farm machinery was sold at auction, and Riley and Elizabeth retired in Devils Lake. The farm was rented to son Bill Murray. Daughter, Ethel Greenleaf, continued to live in Devils Lake, but the rest of the family spread out from Michigan to Washington states.

Submitted by:
Jennifer Cruse
Terre Haute IN
E-mail: jencruse@msn.com

Charles Mortimer Bryant

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Charles Mortimer Bryant
b. 12 August 1894, Rosedale, Parke County, Indiana, to William Cleaster and Julia Louise (Grindle) Bryant
d. 24 November 1959, Superior, Douglas County, Wisconsin

m. about 1923, Superior, Douglas County, Wisconsin
Lucy Murphy
b. about 1898

Children with Lucy Murphy:

  • William Edward (1925-1982) married Joan Claire Goodreau
  • Elizabeth married Sylvester Campbell

Charles left Indiana in 1914, moving to Devils Lake, North Dakota with the W. R. Murray family. He left to join his brother, William Edward Bryant, but later moved to Superior, Wisconsin where he remained until his death.

For a time, he worked for the Great Northern Railway and The Express Company. He also served as deputy county auditor under J. A. Kramer. He was a clerk of the draft board and enlisted from Devils Lake in 1917. During World War I he served overseas. When he returned to Devils Lake, he resumed his position as deputy county auditor.

Charles was a charter member of the Tim Running Post of the American Legion and served as its first commander. He was also a member of the Masonic bodies and Kern Temple.

After leaving Devils Lake, he resided in Superior, Wisconsin, and was employed in the store department of the Great Northern Railway at Superior. He was married, raised a family, and lived in Superior until his death in 1959.

Submitted by:
Jennifer Cruse
Terre Haute IN
E-mail: jencruse@msn.com

Thomas Jefferson Riley

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Thomas Jefferson Riley
b. 26 February 1842, Mauckport, Harrison County, Indiana, to Henry S. and Mary “Polly” (Pennell) Riley
d. 28 January 1918, Meade County, Kentucky

m. 27 January 1875, Meade County, Kentucky
Harriet A. Finch
b. 25 June 1841, Meade County, Kentucky, to John and Frances (Froman) Finch
d. 12 April 1920, Meade County, Kentucky

Children with Harriet A. Finch:

  • Angeline “Annie” (1875-1909) married Clarence Eugene Frans
  • Martha “Mattie” Amelia (1877-1967) married James L. Frans
  • Siretta “Rettie” Glenn (1878-1968) married George Washington Singleton
  • Mary Elizabeth (1881-1978) married Richard Lavielle Edmonds
  • Edward (1887-aft. 1900)

Thomas’ family lived in Mauckport, Harrison County, Indiana, from about 1832 until about 1844, when they moved across the Ohio River to Meade County, Kentucky. The Riley farm was adjacent to the Finch farm, so Thomas and Harriet probably knew each other in childhood. Their marriage was the only one for each of them and both were in their thirties at the time of their marriage.

Thomas was a farmer. On 24 July 1863, he enlisted in Tennessee as a Private in Company E, 12th Regiment, Kentucky Cavalry, CSA, and served until his unit surrendered in Louisville, Kentucky, on 16 May 1865. During the Civil War, Thomas was captured near Paris, Tennessee, and later returned to service after a prisoner exchange. He received a pension for his military service in the CSA. After his death, his widow Harriet Finch Riley received a widow’s pension until her own death two years later. His service t the Confederacy was recently accepted by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It is noted that Thomas was not a slaveholder.

Submitted by:
Mary D. Kraeszig
Zionsville IN
E-mail: kittydoc@indy.rr.com

John Wells

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John Wells
b. 4 March 1821, Gill Township, Sullivan County, Indiana, to Benjamin and Priscilla (Ridgway) Wells
d. 14 August 1903, Sullivan County, Missouri

m/1. about 1845, Sullivan County, Indiana
Rebecca Landers
b. to James Landers
d. between 1846 and 1852

m/2. 2 August 1853, Wayne County, Iowa
Mariah Elizabeth Cook
b. 21 July 1835, to Alfred and Rebecca Cook
d. 21 March 1920, Sullivan County, Missouri

Children with Rebecca Landers:

  • James (1846-1917) married Malissa Redding

Children with Mariah Elizabeth Cook:

  • Mary Jane (1855-1930) married Murl Kerns
  • Rebecca Priscilla (1856-1937) married Jacob Henry Hatfield
  • Isaac Alexander (1858-1954) married (1) Nancy J. Duncan, (2) Mrs. Hannah Franklin
  • Nancy Caroline (1860-1932) married George Miller
  • Benjamin A (1862-1896) married Jane Ellen Evans
  • Henry Morton (1864-1941) married Mary Catherine “Mollie” Lewis
  • Jacob Thomas (1866-1931) married Margaret E. “Mag” Evans
  • Laura Belle (1869-1952) married Martin G. Smith
  • Joseph Marrion (1871-1972) married Nettie Ann McDonald
  • Emma Cordelia (1875-1936) married John Frederick “Fred” Petre
  • Mildred May “Mid” (1878-1935) married Lee Roy Riley

John’s parents, Benjamin and Priscilla (Ridgway) Wells, married on 17 February 1813 in Bullett County, Kentucky. By the 1820 Federal Census, they were living in Gill Township, Sullivan County, Indiana, with five children. John was the sixth child of eight and the first born in Indiana.

After his first wife, Rebecca Landers, died, John took his young son and went to Iowa where he had a brother. He met and Married Mariah E. Cook and they moved across the border into Sullivan County, Missouri. They had eleven children with seven born in Missouri and four in Indiana (1856, 1862, 1864, and 1866). John told family members in later years that he made so many trips to Indiana and was so well known along the way that he could borrow cornmeal for bread making if the family supply got low and repay the lenders on his return trip.

They were in Indiana when the Civil War broke out and his 17 year old son, James, enlisted and served in Company H, 132nd Regiment, Indiana Infantry from 30 April 1864 to 7 September 1864. John is said to have been in the Home Guard during that time.

John was always a farmer. In later years he and Mariah settled in the small town of Pollock, Sullivan County, Missouri, in a house on land owned by his son Jake. John was a member of the Church of Christ and was instrumental in organizing the Church of Christ in Pollock. John was always a Republican while his father, Benjamin, was a strong Democrat who considered John a “black sheep.” John was totally blind in the final years of his life. He is buried in the Pollock Cemetery and his grave is marked by a tall spire tombstone.

Submitted by: 5363
Dorothy L. (Wells) Van Cleef
Lafayette IN
E-mail: dwvancleef@aol.com

Richard Norris Van Cleef

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Richard Norris Van Cleef
b. 16 May 1816, Brooke County, Virginia (now West Virginia), to John and Catharine (Norris) Van Cleef
d. 31 January 1893, Guthrie Center, Guthrie County, Iowa

m. 22 October 1837, Boone County, Indiana
Susanna Conley
b. 5 January 1819, Brown County, Ohio, to Rhesa and Mary (Poe) Conley, Sr.
d. 27 March 1883, Guthrie Center, Guthrie County, Iowa

Children with Susanna Conley:

  • John E. (b. 1838)
  • Rhesa Green (1842-1921) married Barbara Emma Jones
  • Mary Catharine (b. 1845) married Samuel C. Martin
  • Joseph W. (1848-1920) married Catherine Barbara Meskimen
  • William Garret (1852-1922) married (1) Florence Ann Metcalf, (2) Ida Pearl Polston Rush
  • Margaret “Jennie” (1854-1947) married James Samuel McLuen
  • Annie E. (1857-1875)
  • Martha Susanna “Suda” (1859-1877)

The John Van Cleef family moved in 1817 or 1818 to Dearborn County, Indiana, from West Virginia where Richard Norris was born, the third child of ten. His parents were both from Monmouth County, New Jersey. His father served in the War of 1812 from Brooke County, Virginia, in 1815, and he died in 1833 in Dearborn County, Indiana, from cholera during an epidemic. The mother, Catherine Norris Van Cleef, and most of her children moved to Boone County, Indiana, about 1834 with her father and mother, Joseph and Elizabeth Wooley Norris.

Richard Norris and his wife moved to Benton County, Iowa, probably in a wagon train of family members. The History of Benton County, Iowa, Vol. 1, 1910, page 92, states that they settled there in 1849. Richard and Susanna purchased some land in Big Grove Township in 1855 and platted a town they named Geneva. Lots were sold to at least seven Van Cleef and Conley family members, as well as other families. Unfortunately, the town did not thrive, probably because the railroad bypassed it, and by 1865, the last of the lots were sold off and the land became farmland again.

According to his obituary, Richard N. and his wife moved to Panora, Guthrie County, Iowa, in 1869 and in 1874 moved to Guthrie Center in the same county where they remained until their deaths.

Submitted by:
Paul L. Van Cleef
Lafayette IN
E-mail: dwvancleef@aol.com

William Newton Monroe

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William Newton Monroe
b. 4 June 1841, Flat Creek, Scott County, Indiana, to Sanders Alexander and Katherine Elizabeth (Monroe) Monroe
d. 26 December 1935, Monrovia, California

m. 24 December 1863, Fort Kearney, Nebraska
Mary Jane Hall
b. 1 January 1846, LaGrange, Lewis County, Missouri, to Milton S. and Nianna Hall
d. 8 February 1932, Monrovia, California

Children with Mary Jane Hall:

  • Milton Sanders (d. 1899)
  • George Otto married Anetta Evans
  • Myrtle Mignonette married Bruce C. Bailey
  • Jesse Lee (d. age 7)
  • Mabelle Huntington married Thomas Dyer

William’s family moved to Liberty Bell, Iowa, when he was only eleven years old. After finishing grammar school, he went to Ashland University, Iowa, and graduated at eighteen years old. Following graduation, he taught school in the John Wiley district on the Des Moines River. He had thirty-six pupils and received a salary of forty dollars a month. He took turns boarding with parents of his pupils.

On 3 August 1861, William enlisted in the Union Army at Ottumwa, Iowa. He joined the First Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Cavalry and his regiment fought in battles in Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. He was subsequently commissioned First Lieutenant and was mustered out in 1865 with the rank of Major.

After the Civil War, William engaged in railroad construction work in association with his father-in-law, building twenty-five miles of railroad from Omaha to Fremont, Nebraska. More railroad construction followed, taking the family from California to Texas, to Chile, South America, to Mexico, and to Alaska. Along the way he bought land, helped found the town of Monrovia, named in his honor, and served as the new town’s first mayor.

In 1935, at the age of ninety-four, he led the Monrovia Day parade when Monrovia celebrated its forty-ninth anniversary.

Submitted by:
Naomi Keith Sexton
Scottsburg IN
E-mail: scasi@c3bb.com

Milton Carrington

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Milton Carrington
b. 30 June 1810, Kentucky, to Thomas and Elizabeth (Caywood) Carrington
d. 27 December 1865, Iroquois County, Illinois

m. 25 July 1832, Kentucky
Elizabeth Johnson
b. 10 June 1814
d. 2 September 1845, Hendricks County, Indiana

Children with Elizabeth Johnson:

  • Johoda (b. 1833) married William McVey
  • Thomas (1835-1864)
  • Nancy (1838-1926) married Uriah Z. Keath
  • Edmond Hamilton (1841-1910) married Sarah Elizabeth Keath
  • Elizabeth (b. 1843) married Jacob E. Deegans

Milton’s daughter Johoda was born in Kentucky but the family had moved to Indiana before the birth of their second child, William. They did not move on to Illinois until after the birth of their last daughter, Elizabeth in 1843.

Submitted by:
Ann Carrington
Fort Lupton CO
E-mail: ann.carrington@mindspring.com

Annette Butler

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Annette Butler
b. 7 August 1919, Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana, to Walter Quinton Gresham and Mabel Vawter (Norris) Butler
d. 6 August 1988, Encino, Los Angeles County, California

m/1. April 1936, probably Covington, Kenton County, Kentucky
John Joseph Britt, Jr.
b. 5 September 1913, Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana, to John Joseph and Delia Bridgett (Ryan) Britt, Sr.
d. 6 July 1987, Auburndale, Polk County, Florida

m/2. 28 February, 1942, Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana
James Kem Cheeseman
b. 11 January 1921, Greensfork, Randolph County, Indiana, to Earl Alexander and Rotha Beatrice (Ward) Cheeseman
d. 15 September 1991, Mission Viejo, Orange County, California

Children with John Joseph Britt, Jr.:

  • Barbara Ann (b. 1936) married Eugene Andrew Betsch

Children with James Kem Cheeseman:

  • Cynthia Sue (1943-1997)
  • Diane Kem (b. 1946)

Annette was descended from a long line of Indiana pioneers. Her first direct relative to arrive in the Old Northwest Territory was Jesse Vawter who brought a flatboat across the Ohio River from Kentucky to what is now Madison, Indiana, in 1806. He was followed by other direct ancestors: Thomas Endicott who moved to Posey County in 1817, Owen Todd and Maria Jane Paxton who arrived in Jefferson County in 1817, and two different Butler lines – John Hopkins Butler (Jefferson County, 1819) and Chauncey Butler (Jefferson and Jennings counties, 1815). Direct descendants of these and other family lines moved throughout southeastern and central Indiana, finally settling in Richmond, Wayne County.

Annette, her second husband, James Cheeseman, and their children left Richmond in 1946 and moved to Sarasota, Florida. The family then moved to Columbia, South Carolina, shortly thereafter relocating to Burlington and then Lexington, North Carolina. They moved once again, ending up in the greater Los Angeles, California area in 1951.

Annette was gifted in the fine arts; particularly as an author of short stories and poetry and as an amateur artist, painting both in watercolors and oils. She was active as a Girl Scout leader and in PTA. During World War II, she made piston rings at the Perfect Circle plant in Richmond. Following the war, she worked at various secretarial jobs. Her second husband, James Cheeseman, enlisted in the Army during WWII and worked closely with the French Resistance until D-Day. He was awarded the Bronze Star with two clusters, a Presidential Citation, the Croix de Guerre (French Cross) and five bronze service stars. He was also named an honorary field director for the American Red Cross.

Both Annette and her second husband are buried in the Butler plot in Earlham Cemetery, Richmond, Indiana.

Submitted by:
Barbara Ann (Britt) Betsch
Olympia WA
E-mail: bbetsch5639@integrity.com

John W. Simmons

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John W. Simmons
b. June 1873, Sharpsville, Tipton County, Indiana, to John T. and Edith (Crousore) Simmons
d. 15 September 1909, The Philippine Islands

m. about 30 June 1903, The Philippine Islands
Antonina Del Rosario
b. about 1874, The Philippine Islands
d. 1943, The Philippine Islands

Children with Antonina Del Rosario:

  • James W. (1902-1941 married Sergia Beltrano
  • Goldie (1904-bet. 1985-1993)
  • Idadel (b. 1906)
  • John W., Jr. (1908-1943)

The Simmons family arrived in Indiana during the mid-to-late 1840’s. James M. and Hester Jane (Moore) Simmons settled in Howard County, Indiana, where their eldest son John T. Simmons married Edith Crousore, the daughter of Jacob and Anny (Ice) Crousore, in 1849. The couple had eleven children, the youngest of whom was John W. Simmons. John and Edith moved to near Sharpsville, Tipton County, Indiana, in 1867. John was born there in 1873. His mother died in 1877 and his father in 1909. John headed west sometime prior to 1898.

John W. was a resident of Washington when the Spanish-American War erupted in 1898. He enlisted as a private in Company C of the 1st Washington Volunteer Infantry at Camp John R. Rogers near Tacoma on 1 May 1898. The regiment was sent to Manila, The Philippines, in late October. The unit saw action throughout the first half of 1899 before returning to the States in August and being mustered out on 32 October 1899.

John re-enlisted and was serving with the U.S. Army Hospital Corps at Fort Vancouver in June of 1900. By November of that year, he was back in Manila.

During his first tour, Pvt. Simmons met Antonina Del Rosario and the couple was reunited upon his return. The couple married and had five children. One son, a twin to eldest son James, died at birth.

John W. died in September 1909, a little more than a month after his father passed away back home in Sharpsville. Antonina remarried a friend of her late husband and spent a few years living in Nebraska. After the marriage failed, she returned to The Philippines. Her youngest son, John, Jr., died fighting for the Philippine Resistance against the Japanese during WWII.

Although John W. Simmons never returned to the States, several of his grandchildren and greatgrandchildren did. They immigrated in 1977 and have made John’s homeland their own.

Submitted by:
Terry D. Prall
Arcadia FL
E-mail: tprall@desoto.net

Ida Belle Addison

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Ida Belle Addison
b. 11 August 1883, Carthage, Rush County, Indiana, to Harvey J. and Violet (Bitner) Addison
d. 25 July 1967, Long Beach, Long Beach County, California

m. 20 May 1899, Carthage, Rush County, Indiana
John George Wise

Child with John George Wise:

  • Howard

Ida’s father came to Rush County, Indiana, with his sons in the 1820’s. They were farmers. It is not known when Ida left Indiana.

Submitted by:
Juanita Wise Santos
Louisville KY
E-mail: JuanitaWS@aol.com