A. K. Gadbury

    A. K. Gadbury, a worthy representative of that old and honored pioneer, James A. Gadbury, Sr., was born in Ross County, Ohio, January 29, 1820. He was fourteen years of age when the family came to Blackford County to build a home in the wilderness, and his youth was spent in assisting his father clear up their farm. He grew to manhood on the home place, and October 1, 1842, he was married to Miss Lucy Ann Townsend, a native of Steuben County, New York, and a daughter of Gilbert and Mary (Saxon) Townsend. Five children were born to this union, of whom three are living -Lucy Ann, Henry T. and Lydia Jane. Gilbert and Joseph are deceased.

    Mr. and Mrs. Gadbury commenced housekeeping right in the woods of Licking Township, the country at that time being in such a wild state that Mr. Gadbury had to cut a road three miles through the forest before reaching his place. Here he built a rude log cabin which served them as a shelter for a time, when it was replaced by a cabin built of poplar logs, with walls two feet in thickness, this being at the time of its construction considered one fo9 the best houses in the country. This in turn has seen its day, and the present residence is handsome and commodious, being one and a half stores in height, and built in modern style, and the farm, once a dense forest, is now one of the finest in the country. It is divided into eleven fields, and is underdrained by 600 rods of tile, and the entire surroundings show the care and thrift of the owner.

    In politics Mr. Gadbury is a Democrat, and has served Licking Township as justice of the peace, in which office he made an honorable record. He has witnessed the many changes which have taken place in the county, seeing the fine gravelled pikes of to-day supplant the Indian trail which in former years threaded its way here and there through the forests, and the wigwam give way to the log cabin of the early settler, which in their turn through successive changes make room for the handsome residences of to-day.

Source: Biographical and Historical Record of Jay and Blackford Counties, Indiana by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1887.