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Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/3gI.2ACIB/239
Message Board Post:
John D. Chism, one of the most successful farmers in Gibson county, Indiana, was born on August 28, 1852, in Montgomery township, this county. His parents were William and Mary (Fitzgerald) Chism. William Chism was born in White county, Illinois, and his wife was a native of Posey county, this state. John Chism, the father of William Chism, was one of the first of the family to come to White county, Illinois, and when the family settled there in 1812, they were in the midst of the struggles incident to the war of 1812. However, they were never troubled with the Indians, and lived in that county the remainder of their lives. William, the father of John Chism, was the only son of the family who grew to maturity. The four daughters of Mr. and Mrs. John Chism who grew to maturity were as follows: Mrs. Rachel Graham, Mrs. Margaret Blue, Mrs. Nancy Rudolph and Mrs. Sarah Graham. William Chism grew up in White county, Illinois, and received his limited education in the distr!
ict schools of his home locality. In 1843 he left Illinois, settling in Gibson county, Indiana, about three miles north of Poseyville. Later he entered government land in Gibson county, this state, and cleared and improved a farm of respectable proportions. Here he lived the life of a farmer the remainder of his days, his death occurring in 1876. He was a life-long Democrat and, with his wife, a member of the Regular Baptist church. To Mr. and Mrs. William Chism were born eight children: James M., of Poseyville, Indiana, born October 11, 1845; Margaret, the wife of John Martin, born October 11, 1850; Hiram, born January 28, 1855, died
July 16, 1855; Elizabeth, born October 5, 1856, married Philip Martin, and lives on the old Chism homestead; William, born October 27, 1858, died October 9, 1859; Hattie, born January 2, 1965, married John Arbuthnot, of Center township, this county; Charles B., born August 2, 1862, is now a miner in Alaska, and John D., the immediate subject of this sketch.
John D. Chism was the third child in the family and received his education in the schools of his home locality, finishing his educational training in the Owensville high school. That he prospered well by his schooling is shown in the fact that he was successful in securing a teacher's license and later taught school in Posey county for one year. He continued to reside at home until his mother's death, after which he bought part of his father's old farm and built a house and otherwise improved the place. Later he sold this place and bought eighty acres on the state road south of Princeton about twelve miles and here he lived for nine years. He then sold this farm and purchased a farm near Douglas Station, Indiana, consisting of one hundred twenty acres, which he continued to operate for the next twenty-one years. In addition to his farming interests he also had a general store at Douglas Station and handled grain of all kinds. Mr. Chism has always been a very successful!
farmer, and in fact, everything to which he has turned his attention has been successful. He has made considerable money in the buying and selling of grain, live stock and agricultural products of all kinds.
John D. Chism was married November 17, 1881, to Grace B. Mauck, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alford Mauck, who are represented elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Chism are the parents of six children: Angie, who married Alva Montgomery in January, 1906. Immediately after marriage they lived in Montgomery township, but went west on account of Mrs. Montgomery's health and while there she died. Mrs. Montgomery left two children, Carroll, deceased in 1899, and Jeanette. Blanche L., who married Joseph McCullough, September 13, 1913, lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Mary, who, after graduating from the Princeton high school, entered Indiana University at Bloomington where she is still a student: Harold, who died in 1899, at the age of four years; Lucy, who is still at home and attending high school at Princeton.
Mr. Chism is a stanch Democrat, but has never been an aspirant for any political office. His business affairs have occupied all of his attention and demanded all of his time, so that be has had no time to play the political game in his county. However, he is a man who keeps well informed on all the current affairs of the day, and has decided convictions on important questions which he is able to set forth in a very forcible manner. As a farmer and business man he has been eminently successful and he and his wife now are the owners of several valuable farms in Gibson county, as well as personal property of various kinds. The family moved in 1913 to Princeton and bought a home at 701 South Gibson street, where they dispense hospitality to a large circle of friends and acquaintances. Mr. Chism is a man of fine and alert mentality and is deeply interested in everything pertaining to the advancement of his community along material and moral lines, and for years has been prom!
inent as one of Gibson county's highly respected citizens.