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    COL. JNO. N. PATTON   

Col. Jno. N. Patton, farmer, Monroe township, was born in Belfast, Ireland, about the year 1750; emigrated to this country before the Revolution of 1776-83, and served in that war on the side of the Union Colonies. Among other children born to him was Matthew Patton; to Matthew was born Hezekiah E. Patton, in Bunkum county, N.C., July 25, 1779.

Hezekiah migrated to Indiana in 1814, and settled in Jefferson county, at what is now the site of Mud Lick. Afterward bought Section 21, Township 10, Range 5 North, where he resided until 1850; then removed to North Madison where he died.

Upon this farm, the subject of our sketch, Major (as he is usually called) John N. Patton, was born August 31, 1825. He was raised on a farm, got a good plain education, the best afforded by the schools of the time. Taught school for a number of years, and was married on January 1, 1850, to Eliza Woodfill, daughter of Daniel Woodfill, of Jefferson county. After marrying he settled down to life as a farmer on the farm upon which he was born, and still resides there. The result of this union was seven children, viz: Kitty, who married George W. Altizer, and moved to Kansas, and died there; Sarah A., who died in infancy; Mary married C. Kohl; Julia A. married Frank M. McLelandell (now a widow, 1888); J. Morton married Annie Taylor; Alice Cary married to John Spann, living at New Albany, Ind.; Robert E. died an infant; Eliza H., now at home.

June 16, 1862, he was mustered into United States service as first lieutenant of Co. C, Fifty-fourth Regiment Indiana Vol. Infantry, promoted to the rank of captain, served until August 25, 1863; then organized company in First Independent Battalion Infantry, and was made Major; at the close of service, brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel for services rendered. After close of the war settled down again to the life of the farm; and he has since lived on his farm of 100 acres of land in Monroe township, Jefferson county. Is a member of the G.A.R., John A. Hendricks Post, No. 107. His father’s mother was Kate McCollough, who was a sister to Ben McCollough, the Confederate General, and daughter of Elijah McCollough, whose father settled in the mountains of Virginia, near the North Caroling line, in the last century, and came from the Highlands of Scotland. The mother of Col. Patton was Anna Wilson, daughter of Nathaniel Wilson, who came to this county as early as 1809; Ohioans by birth, they went to Kentucky, then Indiana.

Margaret Patton, an aunt of Col. Patton, organized the first Sunday-school in Jefferson county; all who were her pupils, except James Baxter, now in Oregon, are dead.

Hezekiah E. Patton, the father of the subject of our sketch, was a soldier, in the war of 1812; was an advocate for freedom and free speech, he with Captain Isaac Chambers and James Baxter, having held a mob of some sixty persons at bay, while a free-soil abolitionist delivered a lecture in the log school-house in the year 1836. The mob were armed and equipped with all things necessary to tar-and-feather and ride the speaker on a rail, but so soon as they saw the three old stalwart soldiers on picket, armed with their old squirrel rifles and their hunting knives in their belts, they considered discretion the better part of valor, and retired to the woods and held a picnic, and our subject, the son, is a firm believer in the theory

That Freedom’s battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son.

He died in July, 1856.

    DR. BENJAMIN A. PENN   

Dr. Benjamin A. Penn was born in Shelby township, Jefferson county, July 22, 1824. He was the son of Ephraim and Mary Ann (Warfield) Penn.

His father was a native of Pennsylvania and a descendant of William Penn, the founder of that State.

Benjamin Penn, grandfather of Dr. Penn, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The father of Dr. Penn was born in 1784, and came to Kentucky about the year 1800; he first stopped at Maysville a short time, and removed from there to Frankfort, where he located.

He bought or entered three different tracts of land, which he lost by priority of title in other names. He married in Kentucky, and removed to Indiana about the year 1816, so that part of his children were born in Kentucky and the younger part in Indiana.

He settled in Shelby township, about two miles west of where the town of Canaan now is, and built the first brick house in that township.

Dr. Penn was born on this farm, and spent his life here until his thirteenth year. He attended school, first going to John Gillespie, one of the pioneer teachers of the county. Among other teachers to whom he went were Thomas Hicklin, Wm. H. Phillipps, and Henry Mavity, who all became prominent men. The school-house was built by his father and two or three other settlers.

Dr. Penn studied in these schools, besides the elementary branches, Latin, Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. At the age of sixteen he spent one year in the office of Dr. Thomas Watson, of Shelby county, Ky., in the study of medicine. Then he returned home and read in the office of Dr. Howard Watts, of Madison, for two years. Then he read the library of Dr. Hyel Morrison, also of Madison. About this time he went to Lewis county, Ky., and read and practiced one year with Dr. T. O. Mershon. Then he put up his shingle independently, or on his own hook, Sept 20, 1846, at Oldtown, Ky., and practiced for three years, and then removed to a point near Camden, Carroll county, Ind. In 1853 he removed to Miami, and remained there until February, 1857, from whence he removed to Jefferson county, Ind., where he has since resided, first at Canaan for two years, and since then at Bryantsburgh.

After coming to this county he attended lectures at Cincinnati, and graduated in the class of 1864-65.

On the 4th of November, 1856, at Miami, he was married to Miss Rebecca E. Guest, and they have five children: Luke, born July 23, 1857; Mary, June 8, 1860; Ben F., April 5, 1866; John S., September 10, 1867, and Silas, September 22, 1872. The eldest son is a practicing physician in Aurora, Ind.; he read medicine with his father and attended lectures at the Louisville school of Medicine. Mary married J.G. Butt, of Illinois, and has three sons. Ben F. is traveling in Montana; John is in Janesville, Wis., attending a school of telegraphy, and Silas is still at home with his parents.

Dr. Penn’s parents both died in the 73d year of their age, his father in 1856 and his mother in 1860.

At the age of 17 Dr. Penn joined the Baptist Church, but left that church at Miami, Ind., because there was no Baptist church there, and united with the Christian Church; he then withdrew from that church on account of peace principles and established a church called the Church of the Prince of Peace; but owning to a difficulty in procuring a room for meeting, it was discontinued, and he became a member of the Hebron Baptist Church, and has remained a member in that church to the present.

Dr. Penn owns and resides on a very nice little farm of fifty acres of good land.

Since his graduation at Miami Medical College he has studied the German and Greek languages, so as to speak, read and write the German and to read and teach the Greek.

Dr. Penn was ordained a minister of the Christian Church, and has devoted a large portion of time, study and hard service in teaching and preaching the pure and unadulterated word of God as given to the world by Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, and His Apostles, and in opposition to human creeds, human churches and war under all shapes and forms.

    SQUIRE PHILLIPS   

Squire Phillips, farmer, Shelby township, was born in Jefferson county, in 1832. He never went to school more than three months in his life. About the time that boys are in school now, he was busy as a hand at log rolling, cabin building, and other work. He has been a farmer all of his life, and is a very good one, as the farm he now lives on, of 172 1/2 acres, testifies by producing more now than when he first settled on it.

He is the son of Presby and Sarah (Hall) Phillips. His father was born in Ohio, of Virginia parents, and was one of the first settlers of Jefferson county, Ind. His mother was the daughter of William Hall, who was a soldier at Valley Forge.

At the time Mr. Phillips was a boy the old wooden mould board plough was in use, and the farmers raised the flax from which clothing was made for the family.

He was married in 1857 to Mary E. Cardinal, daughter of John Cardinal, native of England. They have four living children: Charles W., John, Samantha J. and Susan. Charles W. is practicing medicine in Scipio, is a graduate of Ohio Medical College; first studied medicine with Dr. S. B. Lewis, of Canaan. John is farming in Jefferson county, and Susan is at home. Mr. Phillips has never sought office, and belongs to no secret order, and is a good citizen in every sense of the word. He is a Republican in politics.

    JOHN J. PILES   

John J. Piles, farmer, Monroe township, was born Nov. 23, 1823, in Kentucky, and is the son of William Piles, a native of Henry county, Ky. His father, Conericus Piles, a native of Virginia, was one of the famous “hunters of Kentucky” of Daniel Boone’s days, and was a Revolutionary soldier.

William Piles settled in Switzerland county, Ind., as early as 1825 or ‘26, where he lived for many years. There he married Elizabeth Haydon, who was the daughter of William Haydon, a native of Virginia, who removed to Kentucky at an early time of his life and lived there a great many years. Of this family, Ben, Jackson, Thomas, and Bland Haydon were soldiers in the War of 1812-15.

Mr. John J. Piles was a son of these parents, and was raised on a farm. In 1846 he was married to Miss Cynthia A. Rayburn, daughter of R. Rayburn, a native of Kentucky, of Irish ancestry. Her mother, Nancy Ryden, was a native of Kentucky.

Mr. Piles and wife have never had any children of their own, but have furnished homes for five of other parents, namely: Chas. U. Kenen, Martin L. Rayburn, Nancy J. Piles, and her two daughters, Laura B. and Elizabeth. Mr. Piles went at the first call for troops in the Rebellion, as a private in Co. D, Thirty-seventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, and was in all the battles of his regiment, viz: Stone River, Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, etc. The regiment was with Sherman in his famous “March to the Sea.” Served three years, and came back to farmer’s life, settling in Jefferson county, Monroe township. He is a member of the G.A.R. and is a good citizen.

    JOHN F. POMMEREHN   

John F. Pommerehn was born in Germany, March 20, 1839.

His father’s name was Frederick Pommerehn. Both of them came to the United States in 1850, on a sailing vessel, being seven weeks on the passage, arrived in October. His father died in 1882.

John F. Pommerehn settled in Jefferson county. His education was received in Germany. He is a farmer and has worked at milling.

He was married in 1868, to Miss Nancy Taylor, daughter of James Taylor, a native of Scotland. They have nine children: William, Jane, Anna, James, John, Mary, Thomas, Ellen, and Cahancy.

He owns 142 1/2 acres of well-improved land in Jefferson county, and has a sawmill on his farm.

Mr. Pommerehn has succeeded in making a good living, and has accumulated some property besides.

All of his children are living at home with their parents.

Mr. Pommerehn is a member of the Masonic Order, and a well respected citizen.