J. R. Conway

    J. Randolph Conway, farmer, Smyrna Township, Jefferson County, Indiana, is the son of John and Emily (Hoagland) Conway, and was born in Hunter's Bottom, Trimble County, Kentucky, August 17, 1836. He came to Indiana in 1840, with his parents, and located on the land where he now resides. He attended the common schools of the county.

    Mr. Conway and his two sisters own 115 acres of land, on which they now live. His parents  were both of them natives of Kentucky. His father was born on December 27, 1800m and died December 5, 1867. His mother died July 29, 1880, at the age of 77 years. His father owned 270 acres of the finest quality of land in the township; he always raised large crops of wheat and corn; the farm was called Egypt by the neighbors, on account of the corn raised upon it. One crop of corn produced ninety bushels of corn to the acre on thirteen acres. The same year, in an adjoining field of sixteen acres, the product was thirty-eight bushels of wheat to the acre; this crop brought two dollars in gold per bushel. This was during the Russian war, in 1856.

    Mr. John Conway, the father, was for many years School and Township Trustee for this township. He was also a member of the Hopewell Baptist Church. He was a raiser of great deal of fine stock; he raised one hog, of a litter of seventeen pigs, that weighed 606 pounds net, and was not fat either. Another large animal of his raising, was a Durham steer that weighted 1260 pounds at two years of age. He was a man who took great interest in raising stock. On his farm was a great deal of very large walnut timber; the stump of one tree measured five feet and two inches in diameter. There is also one of the larges grapevines in the county on this farm; it measures forty-six inches around the body; it is on a beech tree. There is also a large poplar tree on this place, which is five feet through, and is one hundred feet high; it is covered by a vine of American ivy -this vine covers it all over. There is a cave on the place, and when the beech leaves blow under or into the cave, they are petrified by the limestone water that drips on them; the leaves decay and leave their impression on the stone.

    This is the finest land in the county, lots of walnut timber and some blue grass.

    The subject of this sketch has four brothers and two sisters: John, Cornelius, Thomas, Edward, Mary and Cornelia. His sisters live with him. Edward is married and a farmer of this township; Thomas is a large farmer, in Jackson County; Cornelius died in 1861; John is a farmer in Crawford County, Indiana.

    Mr. Conway's grandfather, John Conway, was born in Culpepper County, Virginia, in 1770, and died in the house on this farm at the age of 93 years 1 month and 3 days.

*Note: There is a bio for J. Rodolphus Conway which is a duplicate of this bio, so it is unclear as to the correct name. Could be either Randolph or Rodolphus.

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.