John Hamaker
An exceptional degree of success has come to John Hamaker, as an enterprising farmer of Washington Township. He is a man of broad general information, one of the leaders in thought and action in his locality, takes an earnest interest in public affairs of township and county, and during a residence of fifty-eight years in Grant County has exemplified many of the best and most admirable traits of character and attributes of citizenship.
The Hamaker farm is one which tends to increase one's confidence in the stability and substantial character of American agriculture. It is located on rural deliver route No. 8, in Section Fifteen of Washington Township, and comprises one hundred and eighty acres of land. Thirty acres of this is in timber, and one hundred and fifty acres in pasture and general crop lands. Mr. Hamaker gives most of his attention to general farming and grain production. He is noted for raising fine crops and in recent seasons has had some fine yields of grain. In 1912 twenty acres of wheat produced five hundred bushels and thirty-five acres of corn land yielded two thousand bushels. However, he states that the corn crop in 1912 was better than ordinary. He keeps about twenty-five head of cattle, and sufficient horses to work the farm. During 1912 he fed sixty head of swine and believes and practices mixed husbandry, so that none of the fertility of the soil is lost, and practically all the produce taken away from the farm is in the form of cattle and hogs. The up-to-date character of the place is evidenced by the three houses on the estate, two of which are tenant residences and the home place is a fine residence of eleven rooms and was built by Mr. Hamaker's father in 1893. In front of the home are pleasant lawns, with shade trees, and there is a big well-painted barn to care for the stock and grain crops.
John Hamaker was born August 29, 1855, in Washington Township, on the old farm then occupied by his grandfather. Grandfather John Hamaker was a shoemaker by trade, a native of Pennsylvania, and of Pennsylvania German stock, and came to Grant County early in the decade of the forties as one of the early settlers. The father of the Washington Township farmer was Jefferson Hamaker, who moved to the far now occupied by his son John in 1856. The latter can recall when his father blazed trees through the forest in order that the children might find their way to school, and this fact indicates that Washington Township even as late as the Civil war times had not progressed very far beyond the conditions at the beginning of settlement. Jefferson Hamack bought in 1856 eighty acres of land in Section Thirteen, and then took up his residence there. He increased his land until he owned, at his death 400 acres. When the Civil war came on he enlisted in the Federal Army, and served in many battles in the middle west. He was a participant in the great battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee, which were among the bloodiest and most fiercely contested engagements of the entire war. Jefferson Hamaker was a man of great physical strength and large build, and his character was such as to command the confidence and respect of his entire community. He was born in 1833, and died March 6, 1901. Jefferson Hamaker married Martha Woolman, of one of the pioneer Grant County families. her father was Samuel Woolman, a native of New York State and of English descent, who settled north of Marion in the early days. He was by trade a cabinet maker and exceptionally skilled workman, and his services were in great demand among the early settlers. Mrs. Jefferson Hamaker died October 1, 1905. Her children were: John; Mrs. Elizabeth Coulbertson; George, a resident of North Marion; and Mrs. Ida York, of Seattle, Washington.
John Hamaker as a boy was educated in the district schools, in the old Center schoolhouse, and first attended a log school and later one built of frame. Until he was twenty-four years of age he lived at home with his father, and then for two years rented the farm of his Grandfather Woolman. At the age of twenty-six he went back to the home place, and in 1899 bought eighty acres seven miles west of his present farm. In 1906 he bought the interests of his mother in the homestead, adding that portion to his own inheritance, and in the fall of 1908 increased his acreage to the present extent by buying sixty acres.
In 1879 Mr. Hamaker married Margaret Ludlum, daughter of William Ludlum, who was born in the State of Ohio. Four children have been born to their union, namely: Burr, at home; frank, who is employed in a factory at North Marion; Mrs. Millie Hix, who resides near Marion; and Mark, who died at the age of fourteen years. Mr. Hamaker in politics has followed the new trend of thought and opinion, especially strong in Indiana, and is now allied with the Progressive party. In church affairs he worships with the Radical United Brethren. He ahs made a more than ordinary success, and one evidence of it, showing his progressive ideas, is the possession of an automobile, which he has owned for four years. On his farm he has ten gas wells, and has used gas as fuel and light, supplied from wells on his own farm, for the past twenty years so that he is still an important beneficiary of the great gas resources which were once so abundant in Grant and other counties.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.