Captain Joseph Lugar

Captain and Mrs. Joseph Lugar and Family

    One of the largest land owners in Grant County, Captain Lugar began his career as a wage-earner at farm labor, went to the war where he earned his title by gallant service, came home, bought land on time, and by hard work, good management, and honorable dealings has become one of Grant County's most fortunate and esteemed citizens.

    Captain Lugar was born in Grant County, October 16, 1840, a son of Joseph and Mary (Wilson Lugar. Joseph Lugar was born in Giles County, Virginia, a son of George Lugar, who was one of the very first pioneers of Grant County, settling on Lugar Creek in the year 1828. George Lugar filed on government land, also farmed land, which is now included within the city limits of Marion. Joseph Lugar, Sr., father of of Captain Joseph, was also one of the early settlers who got his land direct from the government and in his time he cultivated land which is within the present city of Marion. He was one of the large land owners of his day, and in 1848, he took up his residence on a place in Washington Township. His death was the result of an accident. He fell of a farm building where he was giving his assistance in the raising, and his death became one of the tragedies of the community, and marred an occasion which was usually celebrated with much festivity in early communities. His wife, Mary Wilson, was a daughter of John Wilson, also an early settler of this county. Joseph Lugar and wife reared eleven children, named: John, Sarah Ann, Jane, James, William, Joseph, Maude, Andrew Jackson, Minerva, Barney, and one who died in infancy.

    Captain Lugar as a boy attended some of the early district schools of Grant County. He has been a farmer and stock dealer all his life, and at the age of eighteen left school and began working at wages of thirteen dollars per month for Mr. Bradford and for Nathan Frazier. He had just about attained manhood when the war came on, and he was one of the Grant County youths who volunteered to preserve the Union. He enlisted in May, 1861, in Company I of the Twelfth Indiana Infantry as a Private. His first service was in Virginia, and he fought at Manassas and in the battle of Winchester, and did considerable campaigning in the Shenandoah Valley. He was raised to the rank of Lieutenant for personal bravery in battle and in 1863 was made Second Lieutenant of Company D of the Thirty-Fourth Indiana Regiment. He served his enlisted term out with that regiment, and early in 1865 returned to Grant County, and raised Company D, of the One Hundred and Fifty-Third Indiana Volunteers. Of this company he was made Captain, and led his company until the close of the war. In his  later service he was in the armies of the West, and for forty-four days participated in the siege of Vicksburg. After the surrender of that river citadel he was sent to New Orleans and was in many skirmished and on much arduous duty during the rest of the war. He was finally returned to Indianapolis, and there received his honorable discharge.

    Coming home Captain Lugar had only his reputation and record as a soldier, and at once turned his industry and ambition to acquiring business prosperity. He bought his farm on time, and paid for it in installments. His first purchase was one hundred and forty acres at thirty dollars an acre, the farm on which he has ever since lived. He next bought some more land at forty dollars an acre, and his entire estate is now worth an average of two hundred dollars for each and every acre. The estate of Captain Lugar in Van Buren Township deserves more formal description. His home is in Section Thirty, and there are three hundred and ten acres in the home place. Altogether he owns four farms, the one of three hundred and ten acres, another of one hundred and sixty acres, both lying in Van Buren Township, one of twenty-one and a half acres, which is in Washington Township. This brings the total of land owned by Captain and Mrs. Lugar up to five hundred and thirty-one and one-half acres. in 1912, his farm produced one thousand bushels of corn, sixteen hundred bushels of oats, and ten tons of hay were cut. He is one of the large stock raisers; raises and sells more than two hundred hogs every season, and since 1912 has carried over to the present year one hundred and eighty-five hogs, and has two hundred and ten young shoats in the spring of 1913. Captain Lugar makes a specialty of the Jersey Red hogs, a very hardy breed for large droves. He has thirty-nine brood sows of this strain. During 1912 he ran a flock of one hundred and fifty sheep, all of which he sold. In 1912 he also sent forty head of cattle to market, and has about thirty head on his pastures in 1913, these being of the Shorthorn and Jersey varieties. Captain Lugar ahs one of the most attractive rural homes in Grant County, a residence of sixteen rooms, well built and furnished which he erected in 1905. It is surrounded by an attractive lawn, and all the comforts of a rural estate. A part of his equipment which indicates the substantial character of the whole are three big red barns, and he has three drilled wells on the farms to supply water for stock and domestic purposes.

    In 1865, Captain Lugar was united in marriage to Miss Mary A. Hayes, a daughter of William H. Hayes, also a pioneer of Van Buren. Their eight children are mentioned as follows:

  1. Morris, of Van Buren Township.

  2. Mrs. Emma S. Weesner, of Washington Township.

  3. Mrs. Sadie Corey, of Washington Township.

  4. Erastus, of Van Buren Township, a large stock dealer.

  5. Riley W., of Van Buren Township.

  6. Wilson, on the home farm.

  7. Mrs. Nettie Nye, a resident of this county.

  8. Clyde, of Marion.

    Captain and Mrs. Lugar have sixteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

    Captain Lugar has been a Republican since casting his first vote during the war time. For six years he was honored with the position of County Commissioner, from 1894 to 1900, and has been placed in various local offices by the vote of his fellow citizens. He is a very public-spirited man, and one of the best known citizens of Grant County. He has always been a dealer as well as producer of live stock, and has bought and sold large quantities. Fraternally he is an active member of the Marion Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, and his family attend the Methodist Church.

Source: Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 1387-88.

 

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