John T. Royce

    John T. Royce (deceased). Mr. Royce was born near Rochester, New York, in the year 1817. His father, Sardius Royce, and two brothers came from Pittsburgh, with their families, on a raft. Sardius and family stopped at Madison; the other brothers continued their journey, one of them stopping at or near New Albany, the other one went farther down the river. Madison was at this time almost an unbroken forest. there was scarcely any work to be had, so the subject of our sketch left his father's settlement -near the site of the old chain mill at Clifty Hollow -and went some twelve miles, near the present village of Brooksburgh, to work at chopping cordwood for Mr. Noah Brooks. He was married in 1837 to Jennette Brooks, daughter and eldest child of Noah brooks. He has lived in Jefferson County pretty nearly all his life. For four or five years he lived in Ripley and Decatur Counties. In Ripley he built a saw-mill (about the first in the county) and sawed the plank to make the plank road from Madison to Greensburg. Along this plank road was the first telegraph line that was put up in the State, and he put up the poles along the route. Some time after this he bought a farm in Madison Township, Jefferson County, where he lived to raise most of his family, which consisted of eleven sons and two daughters.

    Three of his sons died when young; the others lived to maturity. From him the Royce family of Jefferson and Scott Counties was descended. One of the daughters lives in Louisville; tow of the sons in Minnesota, one in Washington Territory. In about 1881, he removed to Minnesota, where he died September 9, 1883. He was a member of the M. E. Church, and had been from boyhood.

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.