James H. Carroll
This venerable man, now in the seventy-ninth year of his age, who with firm step and unclouded mind attends to his daily routine of affairs, has for thirty years borne a useful part in Grant County, and has been a resident of this section of Indiana for nearly sixty years. Although now retired from active business and living on his beautiful country estates in Section twenty-three of Fairmount Township, he still manifests a keen and intelligent interest in all that affects the welfare of his home county, and is widely and favorably known as a man of progressive and public spirit.
James H. Carroll was born in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky, near Lexington, in Scott Count, April 7, 1835. His parents were Jacob and Frances (Hutchinson) Carroll. Jacob Carroll was born in Virginia and of Virginia parentage, though of Scotch-Irish ancestry. With his brother William and a sister, Mrs. Hoover, Jacob Carroll came to Kentucky and located in Scott County. William Carroll was married in Scott County, and afterwards moved to Missouri where he died, and his widow then returned to Kentucky and spent the remainder of her days in that State. The Hoover family all lived and died in Kentucky. Jacob Carroll was a young man when he moved to Kentucky, and before his marriage enlisted in the War of 1812, in a Kentucky regiment. That fact establishes the very early settlement of the family in the middle west. He went through the war without injury and after his return home took up the life of a farmer.
He married Frances Hutchinson is Scott County, and Jacob Carroll lived until after the Civil war, being past eighty years of age. He was a strong Whig in politics, an ardent supporter of Henry Clay. He was a member of no church. After his death his widow moved to Marion County, Indiana, where she died at the home of a daughter, and she was eighty-two years of age at the time. She was a loyal member of the Christian Church. Of her four sons and four daughters, all grew up and were married and had families of their own. Two of them died in the State of Kentucky and others came to Indiana, and all are now deceased except James H., whose name introduces this review.
James H. Carroll was reared on a Kentucky farm, and in 1854, at the age of eighteen, with his brother Scott, came to Marion County, Indiana. He began farming in Franklin Township, of that county, his brother Franklin having moved thither some years before. It was in Franklin Township that James H. Carroll married Eleanore Martin. she was born in Marion County, 1840, a daughter of Alfred Martin, who was born in North Carolina, was married there, and moved to Marion County, Indiana, where he was a pioneer teacher. Comparatively few of those old teachers who taught in the subscription schools made so famous by pioneer stories, can be mentioned by name in local history, but Alfred Martin was one, and a very able man in every way. He spent practically all his life as a teacher, having moved to Indiana during the early twenties, in the pioneer development of the section of the State about Indianapolis. His death occurred in Marion County, when he was a very old man. His politics was that of the Democratic party. His wife, Anna Eliza, belonged to the old school Baptist Church. There was a large family of children in the Martin household, and all grew up and were married and are now deceased. Their deaths occurred in Marion County, with the exception of that of Mrs. Carroll, who died in Fairmount Township of Grant County in 1908.
James H. Carroll and wife moved to Grant County, and located in Fairmount Township in 1882. There he bought two hundred acres of land and has since had his home on a part of that fine farm. All of it lies in Section Twenty-three, and its splendid improvements are largely the result of the energy and foresight of Mr. Carroll. He has done very well in life, providing liberally for all his own wants and necessities, an also providing most of his sons with farms, and equipment for starting life. The work by which he has benefited the community has been his enterprise in undertaking the construction of extensive ditches and the tilling of the lowlands in the vicinity of his farm, sot hat a section of Fairmount Township originally a swamp has been reclaimed and made now as productive as any other part of Grant County.
The children of James H. Carroll and wife are mentioned as follows:
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Florence, died after her marriage to Perry Tackett, who now resides near Mr. Carroll, and has two children.
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William lives on a farm at Montpelier, Ohio, is married and his children are Earl, Bethel, Arthur, Paul, Orville and Woodrow Wilson.
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Robert is a farmer in Fairmount Township, and by his marriage to Alice Lewis has the following children: Ive, Glenn, Homer, Edna, Palmer, Orin, Clyde, Virgil and Everett.
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James lives on a large farm at Blackwell and married Minnie Lewis. Their children are: Dwight, Fay, Floyd, Fern, now deceased, as is also Bernice, Orley, Alma and Eunice.
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John lives at Hartford City, Indiana, married Myrtle Pugh and has three children: James, Mary and Hershel.
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Albert lives on the old homestead. He married Bessie Irwin of Fairmount, who was born, reared and educated in Tipton County, Indiana, and who is the mother of Florence, Dolly, Charles and Albert, Jr.
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Charles died in infancy.
Mrs. Carroll, the mother of these children, was an active member of the Christian Church. Mr. Carroll has been a life long Democratic voter, and is also a strong advocate of the temperance cause.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.