Evan Harvey Ferree
All that tradition lacks of being authentic history is verification, and the story has followed the fortunes of the Ferree family in America that the name was Americanized when a woman and three sons came over from France, casting their lot with the people of the New World. All that is know of the original Ferree family in America is that one of the sons lived in New York, one in Ohio and one in North Carolina, where each has posterity, and the well known Grant county Ferree family is descended from the southern wing of this trio of Ferrees in America.
While Daniel Ferree was of French ancestry with military blood in his veins, and not much given to the quiet, sedate life of Friends, he married Lydia Elliott, who was among the blue blooded North Carolina Quaker families, and some of her relatives were slaveholders according to the custom of the community. However, there was a revolt among orthodox Quakers against the institution of slavery, and knowing they could not overthrow it they came into the Northwest territory to escape it. Daniel Ferree and his wife joined this exodus early in the nineteenth century, but he did not become a Friend until long after taking up his residence in Morgan County, Indiana. The Quakers had some restrictions that did no suit him -his life having been in decided contrast tot heir peace-loving attributes.
It is reasonably inferred that he wife ruled when the Ferree family left the country where slavery existed, but after they came to Morgan County and when the environment was so different from the Southland, her church became his church, and their children grew up Friends. Evan Harvey Ferree remembers hearing his father tell of some of the obstacles in the way of this grandfather with Huguenot blood in his veins in reconciling the Quaker attitude toward slavery and his own early training, but in time he amalgamated with the society about him, It is hard for a strong nature to completely revolutionize itself, but that is what occurred in the life of Daniel Ferree, founder of the well known Grant County branch of the Ferree family in America.
In Morgan County, the Ferree family lived neighbors to William and Ruth (Hadley) Harvey, and when the Harvey's came to Grant County, John Ferree, a son of Daniel and Lydia (Elliott) Ferree, who had previously married Rebekah Harvey, came with them. This was the only Ferree of his generation who ever lived in Grant county. Mrs. Ferree was a sister to well known Grant county citizens by the name of Harvey. Her brothers -David, Eli, Mahlon, Jonathan, Jehu, Sidney and Alvin, and her sisters, Sarah and Mary, all have posterity here, some of them otherwise commemorated in the Centennial History. the children of John and Rebekah (Harvey) Ferree are:
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Alvin, who married Mary A. Bell.
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Evan H., who married Flora A. Cammack.
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Lydia, the wife of M. A. Hiatt.
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Charles A., who married Emma Dora Bond.
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William E., who married Charlotte Annis.
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John D., who married Ada M. Heaston.
The Ferree family homestead was in the Little Ridge community in Liberty, and there all the children grew up, the father and mother later retiring from the farm and living in Fairmount. They gave their children educational advantages and some were students in Earlham College, in addition to common school training, and there were teachers, business and professional men among them. Evan H. Ferree was a teacher for fourteen years, having had experience both in country and town schools and in a political way he has been highly favored by the voters of Grant county. (See chapter on Civil Government.) He has served as postmaster at Marion, and is at present connected with the Marin Light and Heating Company.
Mr. Ferree on August 20, 1880, married Flora A. Cammack, daughter of Willis and Sarah (Jay) Cammack. Their children are: Edna S. wife of Edward H. Harris, and Evan Mark Ferree. The two little granddaughters in the family are Virginia and Janet Harris. The Harrises live in Richmond, but each summer Mrs. Ferree and her children and grandchildren spend some time in the Ferree cottage at Winona Lake. Mr. Ferree has always been a useful man in the community, fulfilling an old saying in Quaker circles, "He is frequently used in the meeting." They adhere to the Friends' faith in which both husband wife had their training in childhood. the religious influences of his youth were from the Little Ridge and hers from the Bethel Friends Church in Liberty, two Quaker communities about four miles apart in the country.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.