Parke County Indiana Biographies - W
WATT
Prominent among the successful, energetic and thrifty men of Jasper county stands the name of John H. Watt, who is extensively engaged in the tilling of the soil. He is a native of Parke county, Indiana, his birth having occurred on the 9th of March. 1851. His father, Alexander K. Watt, was born in Butler county, Ohio, April 11. 1824, a son of Alexander and Mary Watt, the latter of Irish descent. The former was born in Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent, and he became an early pioneer of both Ohio and Indiana. He followed farming as a life occupation, and was a well-educated man for his time, keeping well posted on the issues and questions of the day. Their son. Alexander K. Watt, removed to Indiana with his parents when a child, and he still makes his home in Parke county, that state, where he is engaged in agricultural pursuits. In his political affiliations he is a supporter of the Democracy, but takes no active part in politics. For his wife he chose Mary H. Harding, who was born near Shelbyville, Shelby county, Kentucky, but was reared in Indiana, to which state she removed with her parents when a child. She passed away in 1898, at the age of seventy-two years. Her father, Mason Harding, was also a native of Kentucky, but on account of the slavery question he left that state and took up his abode in Indiana. He, too, followed the quiet pursuits of the farm. Mr. and Mrs. Watt became the parents of nine children, namely: Minerva, the wife of R. M. Webster, a resident of Indiana; John H., the subject of this review: George, of Mineral township; Mahala, the wife of John Graves, also of Indiana; Thomas and William, residents of Parke county, Indiana; Amanda, the wife of George Zeuschnitt, of Fredonia, Kansas; Purlina, the wife of M. Miller, of Indiana; and Ellen, the wife of P. P. Belt, a jeweler and machinist at Fredonia, Kansas. John H. Watt, whose name introduces this review, was reared in the county of his nativity, and was early inured to the work of field and meadow. He remained in the Hoosier state until 1881, which year witnessed his arrival in Jasper county, Missouri. He has since remained a resident of this state, and his first purchase of land here consisted of the farm on which he and his brother George are still engaged in agricultural pursuits. Both have remained unmarried, and, in fact, of the four sons of the family, all have remained single, the youngest son having been born in 1858. Our subject and his brother now own three hundred acres of well-improved and fertile land, and thereon they are extensively engaged in general farming, their efforts in that direction being attended with a high and well-merited degree of success. In politics Mr. Watt is a free-silver advocate. His life record is a worthy one and is such as to commend him to the respect and esteem of the entire community. – The biographical record of Jasper County, Missouri , 1901 By Malcolm G. McGregor
WOODARD
Fred B. Woodard was born near Bloomingdale, in Parke County, Indiana, October 21, 1871. His parents were William Penn and Martha Ellen (Kelley) Woodard. His father was also born in Parke County, Indiana, on a farm that Grandfather Thomas Woodard had entered direct from the Government. Thomas Woodard came from South Carolina, and was one of the number' of freighters who founded a settlement in Western Indiana. Thomas Woodard was of English ancestry and spent his life as a farmer. William P. Woodard was both a merchant and farmer, and died in 1887 at the age of forty-seven years. His brother, John E., of Bloomingdale, was for several terms a member of the Indiana State Legislature. Mr. Woodard's mother was also born in Parke County, Indiana, and for the past ten years has lived at Dewey. Her father, Robert L. Kelley, represented Parke County in the Indiana Legislature for several terms, and his son, Robert L., Jr., is now president of the fine old Quaker college, Earlham, at Richmond. Indiana. Fred B. Woodard was one of five sons and three daughters: Ida M., wife of Col. A. H. Norwood, the well-known publisher and business man of Dewey; John T., of Dewey; Fred B.; C. Earl, also of Dewey; Elmo; Herbert, a teacher of manual training in Detroit, Michigan; and two that are deceased, Lawrence and Allie. When he was nine years of age, Fred B. WUlard accompanied his parents to Douglas County, Kansas, and after four years in the country the family removed to the City of Lawrence, where he grew to manhood. He spent one year in the University of Kansas at Lawrence, and in 1898 came to Claremore, Oklahoma, and from there to Washington County, in 1899. In 1902, Mr Woodard was admitted to the bar and has since developed a large general practice in Washington County. For one year after being admitted to the bar, in 1903-04, he lived in Old Mexico, near Guymas, where he still owns some irrigated farm lands. He is also interested in the oil business. Mr. Woodard is a republican, and was twice a candidate on the minority party ticket for the office of county judge. In 1900 he was a delegate to the republican convention at Purcell, with William Brentz, and they represented a district that is now cut up into half a dozen counties. For five years, from 1900 to 1905, Mr. Woodard was assistant to Richard C. Adams, of Washington, D. C., in handling a number of legal and business matters in connection with the Delaware tribe of Indians in the Cherokee Nation. Mr. Woodard was qualified for the practice of law when he came to Oklahoma, but deferred taking his examination largely on account of this work in connection with the Indian tribes. Religiously he belongs to the Quaker faith and is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World. In 1900, Mr. Woodard married Lula L. Mitchell, who was born in the British West Indies, a daughter of J. C. Mitchell, now a resident of Oklahoma, and of Mexico and other places. Mr. and Mrs. Woodard have five children: Mary A., Kenneth Penn, Darrel, Patricia Elizabeth and Martha G. - A standard history of Oklahoma: an authentic narrative of its ..., Volume 3, Page 1313 - By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn
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