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Surnames: GOLDSBERRY, Putnam, Heaton, Rycraft, Miller, Fidler, Monahan, Storm, Martin
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Hi.2ADI/1650
Message Board Post:
This book has no cover, and no index, and no author. I bought it on Ebay; it just has the
insides, but it is full of Indiana biographies. I am not researching this family, just
thought I would share. I do not know anymore about these families or these surnames. NOTE:
I don’t know if there is any additional mention of this family in the book, it has no
index. I do not want to sell this book. I am typing the biographies from it.
Typed by Lora Radiches:
Surnames in this biography are: GOLDSBERRY, Putnam, Heaton, Rycraft, Miller, Fidler,
Monahan, Storm, Martin,
RANDOLPH GOLDSBERRY, retired farmer living at Dayton, Sheffield Township, Tippecanoe
County, is owner of a part of the old Goldsberry homestead. This homestead was obtained
directly after the Indian title to the lands of Northern Indiana was extinguished. His
great-grandfather was Thomas Goldsberry, who was born near Moorefield, Hardy County,
Virginia (now West Virginia) Thomas Goldsberry served in the war for independence from
Great Britain. After the war he was given a soldier’s land grant near Guilford, North
Carolina. Disposing of this, he brought his family to the Northwest by wagon and team. He
settled in Ross County, Ohio, near Chillicothe, the first capital of Ohio. Later he moved
to a farm near Oldtown, now Hopetown, three miles east of the Scioto River. The
grandfather of Mr. Goldsberry also had the name Thomas. He was born in 1767 and died in
1840. His wife was Mary Putnam, who was born in 1772 and died in 1849. Both are buried in
the Wyandotte Cemetery o!
f Tippecanoe County. Mary Putnam was a daughter of Peter Putnam, also a Revolutionary
soldier. Thomas Goldsberry II also had military experience, both as an Indian fighter and
as a soldier in the War of 1812. He was with the American troops at Detroit when they were
surrendered by General Hull at the very beginning of the war. He and his wife had a large
family of ten children, including Thomas, Abraham, Robert, Peter, Isaac, Jacob, Mary and
Matilda. Hon. Peter P. Goldsberry, son of Thomas and Mary (Putnam) Goldsberry, was about
eighteen years of age when brought to Indiana. He was born at Oldtown, Ross County, Ohio,
April 4, 1818, and died May 9, 1891. In Tippecanoe County he worked in a sawmill and
gristmill at Wyandotte, owned by William Heaton, whose daughter Amelia he married for his
first wife. Peter Goldsberry succeeded to the ownership of some of the Heaton land, which
had been acquired direct from the Government. By his marriage to Amelia Heaton, Peter
Goldsberry !
had seven children, among them being Robert, William and Julia. The second wife of Peter
Goldsberry was Margaret Ann Rycraft. They were married August 29, 1853. She was born
November 5, 1819, and died July 13, 1903. Her father, Joseph Rycraft, was a native of Old
Virginia, was left an orphan boy and served as a soldier in the War of 1812, being one of
the men under William Henry Harrison in the fight at Battleground, Indiana. By this second
marriage there were four children, the two still living being Randolph and Mrs. Margaret
Miller. Among the deceased children of Peter Goldsberry were Robert, Joseph, William,
Julia, Henry, Riley, Mary and Peter. Peter Goldsberry served as a member of the Indiana
Legislature and held the office of justice of the peace. He and his wife are both buried
in the Wyandotte Cemetery. Randolph Goldsberry was born in Sheffield Township, Tippecanoe
County October 1, 1860. He attended school at Wyandotte and Dayton, also at Valparaiso,
and had one y!
ear in Purdue University. Throughout his school days he did farm work, and he returned
from college to take up the practical duties of a farmer and stockman. Mr. Goldsberry
married in 1890 Miss Martha Fidler, daughter of Orlando and Samantha (Monahan) Fidler, and
granddaughter of Jacob, Jr., and Elizabeth (Storm) Fidler. The Fidlers were a Pennsylvania
family. Orlando Fidler was brought from Ross County to Indiana in 1827. Mrs. Goldsberry
was one of seven children, John, Melissa, Mettie, Frank, George, Mrs. Goldsberry and
Joseph. She was educated in the schools at DeHart and Spring Grove. Mr. and Mrs.
Goldsberry have one daughter, Gladys, who is the wife of Ernest Martin, a state bank
examiner of Indiana who lives at West La Fayette, Indiana. Mr. And Mrs. Martin have one
daughter, Betty Lou. Mr. Goldsberry at one time was postmaster of Dayton. Though retired
from active business he maintains active connections with farm organizations and farm
interests. He is a Democrat in !
politics, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is a Mason, and Mrs. Goldsberry is a
member of the Eastern Star and the Ladies Aid Society.