Contributed by Charlene Saunders:
WESLEY MAHIN, a citizen of Tippecanoe Township, is a son of JOHN MAHIN,
one of the prominent pioneers of Tippecanoe County. His father was born
near Xenia, in Greene County, Ohio, in 1800, and was of English and
Scotch descent. His father, REV. MATTHEW MAHIN, was a minister of the
Methodist church. He made his home in Ohio, until his death. JOHN
MAHIN was reared in Ohio, and was married in that State to MISS HESTER
SHIGLEY, a native of Ohio, a daughter of JOHN SHIGLEY, who was of German
ancestry, and a soldier in the second war with England. JOHN MAHIN
immigrated to this county with his family in the fall of 1828, and
settled on section 5, Tippecanoe Township, on land which he had entered
from the Government. He lived in the neighborhood in which he first
settled until his death, which occurred September 17, 1848. His widow
still survives, and is making her home with her son WESLEY. She was
born in 1804, and is probably the oldest living settler in Tippecanoe
Township.
JOHN MAHIN was quiet and industrious in his disposition, upright and
honorable in character, and was an earnest and consistent member of the
Methodist Episcopal church, and a liberal supporter of the gospel. Four
of his sons became ministers of the Methodist Episcopal church, and all
his children are respected members of society. JOHN MAHIN and wife had
seven children, six sons and one daughter, four of the sons still
living--REV. MILTON MAHIN, of Bluffton, Indiana; WESLEY, whose name
heads this sketch; WILLIAM, a local minister in the Methodist Episcopal
church, living at Battle Ground, and REV. AUGUSTUS MAHIN, of Wabash.
Their son JABEZ, died in Tippecanoe County in 1883, leaving a family of
seven sons and one daughter. His wife had died some two years before
him. REV. JOHN C. MAHIN died at his home in Battle Ground, in February,
1885. Their only daughter, SARAH, died in 1857, aged about twenty-seven
years. She left at her death four children, three of whom are still
living.
WESLEY MAHIN, whose name heads this sketch, was born in Tippecanoe
Township, this county, August 13, 1836, and with the exception of the
years spent in the service of his country he has made his home in the
county. He remembers distinctly when much of Tippecanoe County was a
wilderness, and has watched it grow to its present prosperous and well
settled condition. He was united in marriage to MISS MARY OGDEN, who
was also born in Tippecanoe Township, this county, December 20, 1838, a
daughter of DANIEL and MARY (BARNES) OGDEN, who settled in Tippecanoe
County in the year 1838. To them were born six children--MINNIE, JOHN,
WILLIAM, MARY F., EDDIE and NELLIE. MR. WESLEY MAHIN served four years
in the late war, enlisting in April, 1861, on the first call for troops,
in Company K, Fifteenth Indiana Infantry, remaining with this company
three years and two months. He participated in all the battles and
campaign, in which the armies of the Cumberland were engaged, including
the battles of Stone River, Shiloh, Perryville and Murfreesboro. He was
on garrison duty at Chattanooga, when the battle of Chickamauga was
fought. He was at Mission Ridge, going thence to Knoxville. He was
mustered out at Indianapolis, June 26, 1864. He re-enlisted in
Hancock's Corps of Veterans in the spring of 1865, in which he served
one year as musician. Although not wounded in battle, he returned home
with his health much impaired, and he has never recovered his former
health. Since the war he has been engaged in farming and in the
manufacture of lumber, which he still follows with success. In politics
MR. MAHIN is a Republican, though liberal in his views, and he is
classed among the highly respected citizens of Tippecanoe Township.
Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana
pp. 582-583