Post by David Sechrest on Sept 11, 2009 2:17:58 GMT -5
I picked up this information from freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com:
James MARR [scrapbook], son of Lewis MARR and Nancy RUDDICK, on 14 Dec 1856 in Columbus, Bartholomew Co., Indiana. James was born 4 Jan 1829 in Flatrock Township, Bartholomew Co., Indiana. He died 14 Jul 1916 in Columbus, Bartholomew Co., Indiana and was buried in Garland Brook Cemetery, Columbus, Bartholomew Co., Indiana.
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY GRIFFITH MARR, M.D., MARR ROAD, COLUMBUS, INDIANA
The farmstead is still marked by an ancient white pine tree, survivor of a pair which James Marr brought back from Madison when he was 16 years old, 125 years ago. The trips to Madison must have been great treats for young James Marr, who helped drive cattle and hogs to market there and got to see the great Ohio River, the steam boats, the fine houses, and the fabulous stores with wares from everywhere from Pittsburgh to New Orleans.
A few years later, the trips to Madison led to James Marr's acquaintance with the Jennings County McCalla and VanWy families, and his marriage in 1856 to Mary McCalla. Mary McCalla Marr's uncle, Dr. Enoch VanWy, who practiced in Scipio and lost his life in the cholera epidemic of 1849, was the brother-in-law and for three years the medical preceptor of Dr. William Hogue, a crony of James Marr in their retirement years.
James and Mary Marr established their home on a farm of Lewis Marr's northeast of the city on Marr Road, the present residence of Mrs. Ray Marr, Sr. He cleared the land and gradually increased the size of the farm. He moved the old frame house a hundred yards down the road and built a new brick one, burning the bricks on the back part of the place and using timber cut from his own woods. In spite of the fact that the pioneer period was passing, the place was a fairly self-sufficient unit, with blacksmith shop, ice house, well house, wood house, wash house, garden, orchard, bee hives, sugar camp for maple sugar, etc.
He also acquired two other farms of approximately the same size, one on east Tenth Street, and one near Elizabethtown. This was no doubt part of a careful plan, because he had three sons, William, Henry, and Edd, and as each son reached the age of 21, he established him on a farm: William on east Tenth Street, where his son Lewis Marr lived and where the Reliance Electric plant now stands; and Henry near Elizabethtown, where his son Clyde lived, and now his grandson Henry (this farm was the site of the Center of Population of the United States in 1900).
James Marr's family always gathered on New Year's Day to celebrate his birthday, and after his death his descendants continued to meet for New Year's Day dinner until World War II, when the dispersal of the fourth generation in the armed services and the appearance of the fifth generation on the scene made the continued observance of this pleasant custom impractical.
James Marr was a man of great physical stature and exceptional strength and vigor, qualities necessary for success in pioneer times. His height gave him an advantage in harvesting wheat with a cradle as a young man. It is said that he could fell a tree faster with an axe than two men sawing with a cross cut saw.
He was an avid reader and an innovator in agricultural practice. He is said to have been the first farmer here to use dynamite to get rid of the tree stumps in a newly created field. He and his brother Jesse had one of the first threshing machines in the county; it was powered by horses, like the present sorghum mills in Brown County. He led in good crop rotation practices and proper soil management; he respected the environment by leaving uncleared strips of land along the streams of his farms.
He was a charter member of the Republican Party, but never ran for office. His friend Col. John Keith once was scheduled to make a political speech in Clifford, but had received word that he might be forcibly prevented from making the speech. Friends of Col. Keith provided him with a railroad handcar, which he rode out to the Marr place. There he was met by James Marr, and the two men rode the handcar to Clifford, where the speech was made without incident.
James Marr kept meticulous records of his receipts and disbursements, even to the smallest personal expenditures, which records provide an entertaining insight into life on Bartholomew County in the last half of the nineteenth century. The financial records reveal a hard-working, far-seeing, optimistic man who did not mind paying ten percent interest to Irwin, McEwen, Crump, or Griffith if it made possible the acquisition of another fertile field or a piece of equipment for more efficient use of the land.
James, named for his grandfather, married Mary McCalla and their farm northeast of Columbus was on the road which bear their name, Marr Road. They built their impressive, 2-story brick home in 1872, and it has been preserved and occupied by descendants.
In 1889 or 1890 James and Mary McCalla Marr moved from the farm into Columbus and bought the former McEwen-Samuel residence at 534 Third Street. Much later this home was renovated by the Bartholomew County Historical Society as its headquarters and historical museum. Following the practice of his father, James Marr placed each of his three sons, Edd, William and Henry, on family farms.
James MARR [scrapbook], son of Lewis MARR and Nancy RUDDICK, on 14 Dec 1856 in Columbus, Bartholomew Co., Indiana. James was born 4 Jan 1829 in Flatrock Township, Bartholomew Co., Indiana. He died 14 Jul 1916 in Columbus, Bartholomew Co., Indiana and was buried in Garland Brook Cemetery, Columbus, Bartholomew Co., Indiana.
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY GRIFFITH MARR, M.D., MARR ROAD, COLUMBUS, INDIANA
The farmstead is still marked by an ancient white pine tree, survivor of a pair which James Marr brought back from Madison when he was 16 years old, 125 years ago. The trips to Madison must have been great treats for young James Marr, who helped drive cattle and hogs to market there and got to see the great Ohio River, the steam boats, the fine houses, and the fabulous stores with wares from everywhere from Pittsburgh to New Orleans.
A few years later, the trips to Madison led to James Marr's acquaintance with the Jennings County McCalla and VanWy families, and his marriage in 1856 to Mary McCalla. Mary McCalla Marr's uncle, Dr. Enoch VanWy, who practiced in Scipio and lost his life in the cholera epidemic of 1849, was the brother-in-law and for three years the medical preceptor of Dr. William Hogue, a crony of James Marr in their retirement years.
James and Mary Marr established their home on a farm of Lewis Marr's northeast of the city on Marr Road, the present residence of Mrs. Ray Marr, Sr. He cleared the land and gradually increased the size of the farm. He moved the old frame house a hundred yards down the road and built a new brick one, burning the bricks on the back part of the place and using timber cut from his own woods. In spite of the fact that the pioneer period was passing, the place was a fairly self-sufficient unit, with blacksmith shop, ice house, well house, wood house, wash house, garden, orchard, bee hives, sugar camp for maple sugar, etc.
He also acquired two other farms of approximately the same size, one on east Tenth Street, and one near Elizabethtown. This was no doubt part of a careful plan, because he had three sons, William, Henry, and Edd, and as each son reached the age of 21, he established him on a farm: William on east Tenth Street, where his son Lewis Marr lived and where the Reliance Electric plant now stands; and Henry near Elizabethtown, where his son Clyde lived, and now his grandson Henry (this farm was the site of the Center of Population of the United States in 1900).
James Marr's family always gathered on New Year's Day to celebrate his birthday, and after his death his descendants continued to meet for New Year's Day dinner until World War II, when the dispersal of the fourth generation in the armed services and the appearance of the fifth generation on the scene made the continued observance of this pleasant custom impractical.
James Marr was a man of great physical stature and exceptional strength and vigor, qualities necessary for success in pioneer times. His height gave him an advantage in harvesting wheat with a cradle as a young man. It is said that he could fell a tree faster with an axe than two men sawing with a cross cut saw.
He was an avid reader and an innovator in agricultural practice. He is said to have been the first farmer here to use dynamite to get rid of the tree stumps in a newly created field. He and his brother Jesse had one of the first threshing machines in the county; it was powered by horses, like the present sorghum mills in Brown County. He led in good crop rotation practices and proper soil management; he respected the environment by leaving uncleared strips of land along the streams of his farms.
He was a charter member of the Republican Party, but never ran for office. His friend Col. John Keith once was scheduled to make a political speech in Clifford, but had received word that he might be forcibly prevented from making the speech. Friends of Col. Keith provided him with a railroad handcar, which he rode out to the Marr place. There he was met by James Marr, and the two men rode the handcar to Clifford, where the speech was made without incident.
James Marr kept meticulous records of his receipts and disbursements, even to the smallest personal expenditures, which records provide an entertaining insight into life on Bartholomew County in the last half of the nineteenth century. The financial records reveal a hard-working, far-seeing, optimistic man who did not mind paying ten percent interest to Irwin, McEwen, Crump, or Griffith if it made possible the acquisition of another fertile field or a piece of equipment for more efficient use of the land.
James, named for his grandfather, married Mary McCalla and their farm northeast of Columbus was on the road which bear their name, Marr Road. They built their impressive, 2-story brick home in 1872, and it has been preserved and occupied by descendants.
In 1889 or 1890 James and Mary McCalla Marr moved from the farm into Columbus and bought the former McEwen-Samuel residence at 534 Third Street. Much later this home was renovated by the Bartholomew County Historical Society as its headquarters and historical museum. Following the practice of his father, James Marr placed each of his three sons, Edd, William and Henry, on family farms.