Thomas B. Doyle
Thomas B. Doyle, Wife and Family
Notable among the well-to-do and retired men of Van Buren is Thomas B. Doyle, who makes his home on a remnant of his once extensive estate, which he has given away piecemeal to his sons and daughters as they were established independently, in life. Mr. Doyle was born in a cabin home in Van Buren Township on March 5, 1842, and is a son of Samuel Doyle, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work.
Thomas B. Doyle was early inured to the hardships of pioneer life, which in these early days was no sinecure, and he launched out for himself as soon as he reached man's estate. Samuel Doyle, his father, gave to him a piece of virgin forest land, one hundred and sixty acres in the tract, the same having been deeded direct to Thomas Doyle, who cleared it bit by bit, built a house upon it, and there established his home and reared his family. He accumulated a goodly bit of land in his day in the township, and when his children reached years of maturity he gave each of them a piece of land to start them out in life. Forty acres went to his eldest daughter, Sarah; then he gave to his son George an eighty acre tract. He next divided an eighty between his son Samuel T. and a daughter, and he gave to John A. an eighty as well, while his daughter Rose was the recipient of a forty acre plot. In 1890 Mr. Doyle came to Van Buren and bought sixty-six acres, since that time making his home here. A part of the piece has been platted for town lots, but there yet remains forty-four and a half acres, upon which he makes his home. Mr. Doyle has led a busy and active life, and after giving to a large family land to make them independent, he still retains enough of desirable property in the township to maintain him properly.
Mr. Doyle has been a man of no little prominence in his community for many years, and he has served the township in many important capacities. While still a very young man he was township assessor for eight consecutive years, and he has served in his private capacity as guardian and administrator for a number of estates in the township, being a man who was much trusted and esteemed by his neighbors and all acquaintances. He has a wide acquaintance in the county as a result of his long residence here and the nature of his activities during his business career.
Some four years ago Mr. Doyle sustained an injury to his head, as a result of falling from a shed to the ground while engaged in putting away hay, and since that time he has suffered excessively poor health, but prior to that he was a man of the greatest vigor of body and mind. He was in his younger days a great hunter, and when the game thinned out in Indiana, he betook himself to the wilds of Wisconsin and Minnesota, where the nimble deer still may be found in season. He has in his possession a fine moose head trophy, which he secured in the Maine woods, this head being admittedly one of the larges mounted moose heads in existence today.
In November, 1860, Mr. Doyle was married to Miss Margaret Kessinger, of Monroe Township. She is the daughter of George and Leah (Wilkins) Kessinger, natives of Highland County, Ohio, where they were married, moving later to Grant County in Monroe Township in the year 1837. Mrs. Doyle was born in 1844. To her and her husband have been born nine children, of which number they reared six. They are as follows:
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Sarah J., the wife of John Anderson, of Van Buren Township, born September 21, 1863.
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George W., born November 11, 1864, is a farmer at home.
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Samuel F., born January 29, 1867, lives in Van Buren.
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John A., born April 12, 1868, lives on the old home place.
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Mrs. Rose Waggaman, born March 13, 1876, lives on a farm near Van Buren.
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Mrs. Nora Sellers, born on September 29, 1880, lives in Wells County.
The children who are deceased are:
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Matthew, born September 2, 1861, died August 29, 1862.
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Annetta, born September 25, 1872, died November 10, 1874.
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Addie, born March 19, 1878, died in October, 1878.
Mrs. Doyle is one of the eight children of her parents, they being named here in the order of their birth, as follows: Absalom, of Elk County, Kansas; Abram, living in Tennessee; Susanna, deceased, was the wife of Eli Coulter; Nancy Coulter, living in Florida; Margaret, Mrs. Doyle, who was born on February 11, 1844; Shadrach, now deceased; Eugene, who died in Kansas; and John, a resident of Arkansas.
Mr. Doyle is a Democrat in his political adherence, though not especially active as a politician, and his fraternal relations are with the Odd Fellows, the Rebekahs and the I. O. R. M. On November 18, 1910, Mr. and Mrs. Doyle celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, the event being attended by a large gathering of family and friends, and fitting ceremonials commemorating the happy event of a half century ago.
It is a fact worthy of mention here that the home place of Mr. Doyle today was once the camping ground of the Indians, who stopped there in there in the way from Godfrey's battle ground and pitched their wagons. Seen in the light of recent developments, it is difficult to reconcile this well established fact with the present metropolitan appearance of the place, but it serves to emphasize something of the extent of the progress of the community in the space of a half century.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.