William M. Amsden

    William M. Amsden, county Superintendent of Public Schools, Smyrna Township, the son of Caleb and Nancy (Moncrief) Amsden, was born July 28, 1857, in Smyrna Township, Jefferson County, Indiana; was brought up in this township, attended the public schools of this county, and graduated from Hanover College in 1886. While attending college, during the vacations, for six years, from 1880 to 1886, for four months of each year, he acted as traveling salesman for McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, of Chicago, Illinois. After graduating he was clerk of the Indiana Hose of Representatives, remaining there the session of 1887.

    In June, 1887, was elected County Superintendent of Public Schools for Jefferson County, on the Republican ticket.

    Mr. Amsden was married, April 19, 1888, to Miss Sophia Dean, daughter of Mr. A. C. Dean, of this township.

    He was Deputy Assessor of Smyrna Township from 1881 to 1885, four years; and has been a law student since 1881. He was made secretary of the Republican Committee from 1888 to 1890. He has been delegate to two Republican State Conventions, to two Congressional and one Judicial Conventions. And is chairman of the Smyrna Precinct Committee. He was a candidate for the Legislature in 1888, but was defeated in convention.

    His father, Caleb Amsden, was a native of New York State, and came to Indiana in 1830 and located in Jefferson County, at Madison. He was a traveling salesman for Mr. E. C. Barbour, of Madison. Has been a traveling salesman for the greater part of his life. In 1865 he located in Smyrna Township, on a farm, where he has been ever since. He is a Mason and an Odd fellow, and is member of the Baptist church at Wirt. He is now in the seventy-second year of his age.

    Mrs. Amsden, the mother of the subject of this sketch, is a native of Jefferson County, Indiana, and was the daughter of Abner Moncrief, who was a native of Kentucky, and came to this county in 1808, and was one of the first settlers of the county. He was a farmer, and died in 1872, at the age of seventy-two years. he was an active member of the Baptist Church at Wirt, and was a deacon of his church for many years. Mrs. Amsden is still living, being fifty-nine years old.

Source: Biographical and Historical Souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott and Washington, Indiana. By John M. Gresham & Co., 1889.