John F. McConnell

    John F. McConnell was born October 26, 1881, in Warren County, Indiana, and is one of ten children born to David and Mary (Moore) McConnell. For a sketch of the father, see biography of Judge David McConnell, Oak Grove. John F. McConnell received his education in the log schoolhouses of the frontier, and attended the first day of the first term of school ever taught in the county, the teacher being his uncle, Samuel McConnell. He has followed the business of farming all his life, and has never left Benton County since his first settlement in it. He lived with his father until about twenty-nine years of age, when he was married, and lived in Oxford until 1873, when he came to Center Township and purchased a farm of 140 acres, upon which he still resides, and has erected upon it one of the best houses in the county. He gives some attention to stock-raising, and is a member of Summit Grange, No. 247.

    Mr. McConnell was married, May 29, 1862, to Elenore Menfee, a native of the Old Dominion, and ten children have blessed this union, nine of whom are yet living. In politics, Mr. McConnell is a Democrat, and is one of the oldest settlers in the county.

Source: Counties of Warren, Benton, Jasper and Newton, Indiana. Historical and Biographical. F.A. Battey & Co., 1883.