Samuel L. Gadbury

    Samuel L. Gadbury, of Hartford City, was born in Ross County, Ohio, July 6, 1832, a son of James A. and Elizabeth (Keeler) Gadbury. The father was born in Muskingum County, Virginia, and when a  boy his parents settled in Ross County, where he was reared to manhood. He was there married to Elizabeth Keeler, who was a native of Ross County.

    In June, 1835, he started on foot for Indiana, and near the Blackford County line he heard that there was plenty of good land in this vicinity, and he with a man named Wilson came to the county, and made a selection of land in Licking Township. He then walked to Fort Wayne and entered three eighty acre tracts in Licking Township, at the land office. He then returned to Blackford County, and hires some hunters to clear a small space and put up a cabin on his land, after which he returned to Ohio on foot. In September, 1835, he brought his family to their new home in the wilderness, hiring a teamster to drive over his family and their necessary household effects. They remained at the house of Joseph Wilson one night, and the following day, Wilson, known as the bee hunter, accompanied them to their land, but from his house to their land a road had to be cut a distance of three miles. On arriving at their destination they found their cabin had neither door, window nor fireplace, and these Mr. Gadbury set about to build.

    Game of all kinds was in abundance, especially deer, and Mr. Gadbury being a good shot he kept his family well supplied with meat. Often he has shot deer while standing in the door of his cabin, and for the first few years spent in the county the principal diet of the family was venison and corn bread. Salt was hard to obtain in those days. Their marketing was done principally at Muncie, generally returning on horseback with a sack of corn meal and a pillow-slip of salt.

    Mr. Gadbury cleared up much of his land, and made his home in this place until his death, which occurred March 6, 1865. His wife's death occurred in 1860. Both were broken down by the exposure and hardships they had endured in their pioneer home.     In politics Mr. Gadbury was an old-line Whig. In his religious faith he was a Presbyterian, and he was one of the organizers of the Elizabeth Presbyterian Church.

    Samuel L. Gadbury, whose name heads this sketch, in his third year was brought to Blackford County, and here he was reared amid the scenes and incidents of pioneer life. He made his home with his parents until his marriage, April 20, 1854, to Miss Rebecca Hess. After their marriage they lived for three years in a little cabin on his father's homestead. He then rented land a mile and a half from the homestead, and there his wife died August 10, 1857, leaving one child -Sarah Jane, now the wife of Barney Six, of Hartford City. After the death of his wife he returned to the homestead. He was again married in 1878 to Miss Judah Marshall, a native of Kentucky, who died the same year of her marriage. To this union one child was born, named George W., who is now in the drygoods business in Dunkirk, Jay County.

    Mr. Gadbury was married to his present wife in 1860, her maiden name being Mary J. Stahl, a daughter of Jacob Stahl, one of the early settlers of this county. Of the five children born to this union three are deceased -Jonathan W., died at Fort Scott, Kansas, November 22, 1884, aged two years, and two who died in infancy unnamed. Those living are Eleanor, wife of Reuben Reasoner, a drygoods merchant of Dunkirk, and Samuel Logan, who is also in business in Dunkirk.

    In 1872 Mr. Gadbury bought the old Jacob Stahl farm on the outskirts of Harford City, to which he removed, and the following year erected the present substantial brick residence on the place. At that date there were twenty-one lots in this tract inside the town limits, and these are known as Gadbury's addition. His land first consisted of 159 acres, and he now has 134 acres of valuable land in and immediately adjoining Hartford City. Mr. Gadbury was a soldier in the late war, enlisting October 10, 1864, in Company K, Fifty-first Indiana Infantry, reached the front at Chattanooga, and was in the engagement there in the Fourth Corps. He also participated in the battle of Nashville, after which he went with his command to Texas and remained there on duty until after the close of the war. He then went with his regiment to New Orleans, where he was discharged November 17, 1865. On his return from the army he located at Hartford City, where he ha since made his home. He has been a resident of Blackford County for more than half century, and has witnessed almost all the material progress that has been made in the county from the time it was an almost unbroken wilderness.

    Politically Mr. Gadbury is a Democrat. In 1868 he was elected county sheriff, and served in this capacity one term at that time. In 1880 he was again elected to the same office, and has served as county sheriff in all eight years. He was a member of the Democratic Central Committee for two campaigns, those of 1860 and 1868. He is a member of Jacob Stahl Post, No. 227, G. A. R.

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