This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: CANTWELL, Acord, Hensley, Burke, Dunbar, York, Davis
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Ek.2ADE/2720
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: CANTWELL, Acord, Hensley, Burke, Dunbar, York, Davis,
HON. THOMAS ALEXANDER ELLSWORTH CANTWELL, representative from Vigo County in the
Seventy-sixth Indiana General Assembly, is a resident of Terre Haute, a lawyer by
profession and for many years has been a prominent leader in the Republican party in the
state. Mr. Cantwell is of Scotch-Irish and German ancestry. He was born on a farm in
Montgomery Township, Owen County, Indiana, near Spencer, August 9, 1862, son of
Christopher and Hannah (Acord) Cantwell. His father, who was one of Owen County’s
outstanding citizens for many years, was born near Coshocton, Ohio, February 19, 1825. In
1854 he moved to Scott County, Indiana, and from 1858 his home was in Owen County, where
he lived until his death on October 16, 1912, at the age of eighty-seven. He was a farmer
and stock raiser and for nearly sixty-five years was a member of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows. He was a director of the Beem & Peden Bank at Spencer, held a number of
township offices and always took an a!
ctive part in the Republican party. His wife was a native of Ohio, was left an orphan at
the age of five years and was brought to Indiana and grew up in the home of her brother,
David Acord. She was born August 9, 1844, and died October 21, 1921. Thomas Alexander
Ellsworth Cantwell was reared on his father’s farm in Owen County. After the rural
schools he took normal and scientific courses in normal schools, graduated from the
Central Indiana Normal College at Danville and for ten years did some very able work as a
teacher in the rural districts of Owen County. While teaching he began the reading of law
in the office of Beem & Hickam at Spencer. Mr. Cantwell in 1892 moved to Terre Haute,
where for two years he was employed in the office of the United States internal revenue
collector. In 1895 he was made chief deputy in the sheriff’s office of Vigo County. From
this public work he took up, in 1897, business in real estate and loans, establishing the
Cantwell!
Realty Company, through which he handled extensive loans for the Northwestern Life
Insurance Company of Milwaukee. Once more he began the study of law, and in 1914 was
admitted to the bar. He has been a member of the Terre Haute bar for the past seventeen
years, most of his work being in commercial law. He has been active in Republican politics
since he was twenty-one years of age. At that time he was elected township trustee of
Montgomery Township in Owen County. He was elected to represent Vigo County in the
Seventy-sixth General Assembly on November 6, 1928. As a public man he took to the
Legislature some special convictions and a general program to guide him in his work. He
believed that the power of the modification state tax board was sufficient to place all
county officials on a definite salary basis. He stands for lower taxes, economy in
government, old age pensions, dependent mothers’ pensions, and that all bond issues be
submitted to the popular vote and !
is opposed to the system of state income taxes. He favors equal pay for equal work in both
sexes, and in the assembly introduced the poor man’s exemption bill, providing that an
exemption of two hundred dollars be made on personal taxes applicable to all tax payers.
Mr. Cantwell has frequently written articles for newspapers on various public topics. He
has always been a strong advocate of preserving the Federal Constitution, whereby the
individual rights are safeguarded and protected, but not in favor of the Eighteenth
Amendment. While living in Owen County he was chairman of the county Republican committee
four years, was chairman of the Lincoln League in that county and he helped organize and
build the Mill Creek Christian Church. He is a past chancellor commander of Spencer Lodge,
Knights of Pythias. Mr. Cantwell married in Owen County, at Spencer, December 25, 1881,
Miss Luella N. Hensley, who was born and reared in that county, daughter of John and
Lucinda (Bur!
ke) Hensley. Her parents were of English ancestry and were born in Ohio, moving to Owen
County in the early 1850s. Her father was a farmer in Taylor Township. Mr. and Mrs.
Cantwell have four children: Alice Mae, wife of J. W. Dunbar, who is connected with the
General Electric Company of Terre Haute; Estella Florence, wife of W. B. York, with the
Johnson Oil Company at Terre Haute; Charles Ellsworth, with the Ford Motor Company at
Detroit, Michigan; and Alvin R., a farmer near Cloverdale, Indiana, who married Olive
Davis, daughter of John Davis, and they have five children, Jane E., Rosella, John F.,
Charles T., and Richard D.