John J. Goldsberry
 

JOHN J. GOLDSBERRY This old pioneer first saw the light of day in Ross County, Ohio, on the 3rd day of February, 1827. His wife, Josina Hebb, was born October 15, 1832, in Monongahela County, Va. The following are their children's names: Joseph H., married to Josie Furguson, reside in Clinton County. Mariah A., died in infancy; buried at Brush Creek Cemetery. Clement V., born August 12, 1863; died July 6, 1864. Clara B. Josina, born November 17, 1863; died July 3, 1864. Mrs. Goldsberry died March 11, 1865; buried at Brush Creek Cemetery. Mr. G. was again married to Hannah M. Goldsberry, November 19, 1865; born in Ross County, Ohio, March 29, 1832. The following are the names of their children: Annie B., born October 10, 1866; Alma A., born September 19, 1868; Amos A., born July 26, 1871; Jesse C., born July 27, 1873; died June 22, 1874. All buried at the Brush Creek Cemetery. Mr. Goldberry's father's name was Thomas Goldberry; his mother's name before marriage was Elizabeth Lansaw, who was an early citizen of Sugar Creek Township; they are buried at the Brush Creek Cemetery, in Washington Township. Mr. Goldberry's parents were members of the M. E. Church. John J. came with his father, Thomas Goldsberry, to the county in 1832, where he has since resided, and where he is highly respected as a man and a Mason. He belongs to Thorntown Lodge, No. 113, Free and Accepted Masons, and no worthy brother ever knocked at his door without admittance. He lives in the northwest part of Washington Township where he owns a fine farm. During the canvass for this work I was very kindly cared for at this pleasant home. He joined the Masons in the year 1844, Thorntown, Indiana.
 

Submitted by: Jane A Heine
Source: "Early Life and Times in Boone County, Indiana," Harden & Spahr, Lebanon, Ind., May, 1887.
 

JOHN J. GOLDSBERRY - John J. Goldsberry, son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Landsaw) Goldsberry, was born in Ross county, Ohio, February 3, 1827. His parents moved to Boone county in the year 1832, settling in Washington township. The hero of our sketch was just four years old, when he began to fight the battle of life in the woods of Boone county. He knew what it was to begin at the beginning and work to develop a new country. All the hardships and privations of pioneer life were before him. His long life proved that he was made of the stuff that could endure and hold his end of the handspike at all log rollings and take his place at the raising of a cabin and carry up his corner. His push and energy put him at the forefront of every enterprise and he became experienced in all the trials and hardships that devolved upon a good and willing citizen in a new country. Through the experience of his early manhood, he could tell enough stories of its incidents to make a book and it would all be interesting reading for those of this generation who know little of those who framed and laid the foundations of the county.

Mr. Goldsberry was one of the real pioneers and his stories were in keeping with the stories of all his co-laborers in the building of Boone. The battle against the wild woods and the swamps, against the miasmas and inconveniences of poor roads, limited means and real comforts of life. He was married October 15, 1859, to Miss Josina Hebb, who was born in Monongahela county, Virginia, October 15, 1832. To this union were born four children: Joseph L., Clement L., Josina, and Belle -- the three latter are deceased; Joseph L., married Miss Ferguson and lives in Clinton county just across the county line from the old homestead. Mrs. Goldsberry died March 11, 1865. Mr. Goldsberry was remarried November 19, 1865 to Hannah M. Goldsberry, a very distant relative, of Ross county, Ohio. To this union were born Annie B., Alma A., Amos A.; and Jessie C., who died June 22, 1874. All the deceased members of the family were buried in Brush Creek cemetery, Washington township. Mrs. Hannah M. Goldsberry passed over the river April 15, 1905 and Mr. Goldsberry joined the company on the other side on August 19, 1910.

Mr. Goldsberry came paternally of sturdy German ancestors and of an old colonial Virginia family. Thomas Goldsberry, grandfather of our subject was born in Virginia, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and married Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Putnam, a relative of the famous Israel Putnam of Revolutionary fame. This family were among the very earliest settlers of Massachusetts and Connecticut and were of old English Puritan stock. General Rufus Putnam, brother of Israel Putnam, was the founder of Marietta, Ohio, which was the first town in the state of Ohio.

There were born to the grandparents of our subject, Thomas and Elizabeth Goldsberry, ten children: Jacob, Thomas, Susan, John, Mary, Matilda, Peter, Abraham, Isaac and Eliza, all born in Virginia or Ohio. Thomas moved in a very early day after the Revolutionary war to Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and settled on Hogg Point, where he developed a farm. His brother owned and kept the ferry at that time and was killed by lightning. The western fever seized Mr. Thomas Goldsberry, the grandfather of our subject and early in the 19th century he moved to the state of Ohio, settling at Chillicothe, where he kept a tavern, near which place he built the first grist mill in that part of the state. Later he traded the mill for four hundred acres of land. Here he farmed for a few years when in 1831, he moved to Boone county, Indiana, settling on a farm on Sugar Creek, northeast of Thorntown. He got a deed from "Old Hickory" for one hundred and sixty acres of land, set himself to hewing down the native forest and reared a log cabin in which to rear and protect his family of ten children until 1840, when he sold this farm and lived with his son. In the fall of that year, he died of erysipelas at the good ripe age of eighty years. He was an honest, hard working pioneer. The latchstring of his cabin was always hung out, for any one to pull. All of his children married and raised families. His son, Peter, represented Tippecanoe county in the Indiana Legislature in 1852. The aged widow of Thomas Goldsberry died in Tippecanoe county, survived by ten children, fifty-three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Thomas Goldsberry, son of the above and father of our subject, was born at Harper's Ferry in 1800. He was reared a farmer and married in Ross county, Ohio, to Elizabeth Landsaw of that county, and to them were born eight children, two of whom died in infancy. The remaining six were William, John, Mary, Sarah, Jacob and Susan. The first three were born in Ohio and the last three were born in Indiana. Mr. Goldsberry, in 1831, moved to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, where Sarah was born, and in the fall of that year he moved to Boone county and entered one hundred and eighteen acres of land in Sugar Creek and Washington townships. He cleared this and erected a hewed log house, where he died August 4, 1860, at the age of sixty years. He was a great hunter and as turkey and deer were plentiful in those early days, he abundantly supplied his table. He was a shoemaker by trade, made a good living and was a substantial citizen. He was a Democrat and he and his wife were members of the Methodist church, in which he was a class leader and steward, and he was also a liberal supporter of his church. The itinerant Methodist preacher of those days made his home at his house. He was held in kindly esteem by all who knew him and reared a good family.

It might be interesting to this generation to know how great-grandfather Goldsberry came to Boone county in 1831. There were no roads at that date. We must remember that Johnny was a little boy at that time, only about four years old, and his father and grandfather came to Indiana together, not in the cars, for there were none. The story has been handed down to the family that they came in two wagons. We must remember that there was quite a bunch of them. The father came in an ordinary wagon, drawn by two horses, while the grandfather and his family were in a larger wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen. The men and larger boys walked and the women and smaller children rode in the wagons when tired. They did not say what road they came over, for at that time there was no choice of roads. They must have come to Indiana over the National road as far as Indianapolis, then into Boone county over the Michigan or the Indianapolis and Lafayette road, most probably the latter, as it was in direct line towards the end of their journey. Neither was much of a road at that date. They were merely cut outs, yet full of stumps, bogs and corduroy over the marsh places. There were no bridges over the streams.

Just think a bit how we travel today over nice roads in carriages, automobiles, traction and steam coaches, going one hundred miles, while they could only travel five. It was slow going. It took them weeks to make the journey. There were no taverns. When they stopped for the night, they would have to build a camp fire and sleep in the wagons and on the ground, or most any way to pass the night. The only pleasant feature about the journey was, they could have plenty of fresh meat, for game was plenty along the road side and it helped to garnish many a scanty meal of coffee and bread -- Johnny-cake at that. The entire trip was full of incidents that impressed the minds of the children, so that they could relate them in after years. There were great difficulties to overcome in the bad roads, in the fording of streams, that filled the parents' hearts with great anxiety, lest harm would be fall them. By great care and watchfulness, they made the entire trip in safety and all landed at their destination in good shape.

It was in the spring of the year when they came to Indiana, when the roads are at their worst and the streams are swollen. How these brave venturesome people got through seems a mystery to us in our day and age. Early in the fall of the same year, Thomas, father of our hero, moved back to Boone county. It was dryer now and the roads were better and besides, there were plenty of nuts by the road side, which furnished food for the stock, and many a dainty feast for the young folks as well as the older.

We have now got the parents, grandparents, the uncles and aunts and the little boy into Hoosierdom; it will be in order to take up the story of the latter and tell how he became full-fledged and grew into manhood and became a useful citizen. You see there is a lad here out of whom we are to make a man and a useful citizen. In this age of Boone county we are inclined to think that a boy did not have much chance in the days of little Johnny Goldsberry. We look at our splendid farms, beautiful homes, good roads, excellent schools, luxurious churches, carriages, steam and trolley coaches, automobiles and flying machines and we say down in our hearts that we do not see how they got along back in the woods, when they did not have any of these things. Just think of it, they did not have any telephones or telegraphs in that day or a mail oftener than once a week. If Mr. Goldsberry wanted to have a log rolling and wished his neighbors to come in and help, he could not step to the telephone before breakfast and call up the whole neighborhood to come over and help a bit. All of you please come at sharp 9 A. M. and we can get done in an hour or so. We can't see for the life of us how they did live when they did not have any of these things. Why, it will take Johnny a whole week to go around and notify the neighbors about the log rolling; and look at the hard work it will be; and besides, if he has to do all that work, he will have no time to play ball or have any fun or good time. My, aren't you glad that you do not have to roll logs or split wood, or walk for miles through the woods to tell the folks a little word. We do not see how anybody could live in the woods and do all that work.

Hold on, boys, and let us tell you how Johnny got his work done and at the same time grew into a good and useful man and has been able to do much good in the world. Where did he go to school you ask? We can tell you right at the start that there was no high school in that day. There was not even a grade school. No brick house nor frame. There was no road to go to a school house if there had been a dozen in the neighborhood. He had to go through the woods, sometimes wade in water half knee deep, walk on logs zigzagging through the woods like a worm fence. You should have seen our school house. Round logs, clapboard roof, puncheon floor or dirt, a whole end for a fire place, split logs without backs for seats, greased paper for light, no writing desks, but a big lot of switches over the teacher's desk to aid in getting lessons when a stimulus was needed. This is a gloomy picture for a boy of our day. It will help us to understand, if we will look at the outcome from these adverse environments.

John Goldsberry, when a boy, went to a school house of the above style, to his uncle Joseph Caldwell. He there learned to spell every word in the little blue-backed spelling book. By the aid of the spelling matches held in the neighborhood, he became expert as a speller and could turn down rows of boys and girls and in this way mastered the art for that day and often was the last to quit the floor. He was not good in "rithmetic" It was not considered essential. After he came to manhood he mastered enough of it in five days to fit him for the demands of his business through life.

At the age of fourteen, he entered the business strife of life for a livelihood. He received for his services twelve and one-half cents per day for good faithful work. In course of time, when he could do a man's labor, his wages were increased to six dollars per month. At the age of twenty, his father remarried, so he left home and learned the carpenter's trade. He applied himself diligently to his business and was soon able to handle the saw, chisel and mallet skillfully and commanded a wage of fifteen dollars per month and board. He was now receiving a skilled man's wage and was soon able to take contracts of his own. He began to make and save money. At the age of thirty-one he was able to buy a farm of forty acres, paying seven hundred and fifty dollars for it. This was the nest egg for his home in Washington township. He was now in position to assume the responsibility of home building and married him a wife as stated in the opening of this sketch. He added gradually to his farm until he accumulated two hundred and eighteen acres of land with clear title. It is improved with substantial buildings and well tiled. In religious opinion, Mr. Goldsberry was very liberal, believing that everyone should be permitted to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. In politics, he was a Democrat of the pure Jeffersonian school. In his latter days he became independent, affirming that the leaders had departed from the old landmarks of Jefferson. He was liberal in educational matters, advocating the advance of the school system and giving his children all educational advantages that the country would afford. He held the office of school director for many years and built the first brick school house in Washington township. He was a Mason, member of the Thorntown Lodge No. 113. He was also a member of the Farmer's Alliance of which he was an elector for three years. He was also one of the original Grangers of the county, thus demonstrating that he was a live coal in the community, and alert to every movement that had for its object the bettering the condition of the people.

In 1894, he was foreman of the grand jury, which did effective work. He was a man of patient industry, frugal in his habits and all through his long life was faithful in all relations of life to his home, his neighbors, his party and his country. He stood very high as a citizen, a man of intelligence and knowledge and a gifted conversationalist. His knowledge of affairs, his wonderful memory gave to him a store house of knowledge and he could bring it to the front and put it on display at pleasure to himself and for the enlightenment and pleasure of others. He was a wide reader and his mind was stored with valuable information. He was a subscriber of the first newspaper published in the county, the "Lebanon Pioneer." Uncle John says that the first church built in Washington township was a Union meeting house and his mother wove cloth and sold it to pay for the sash for the windows and they had real glass for light.

The experience of Mr. Goldsberry is the experience of the generation of men that laid the foundations of Boone county, and in fact, the men that carved out the state of Indiana. The first fifty years in this state was a life of toil and sacrifice. That period covers the settlement and largely the material development of the state. The mud sills were laid, the roads cut out, streams bridged, farms cleared, school houses and churches erected, orchards planted, and homes established. All this while the citizens were fighting fevers and malarial diseases. They faced three financial disasters and fought the battles of Mexico and the Civil war. To do this great work required just such men as John J. Goldsberry -- men of brawn and brain -- men with a spirit that dared to do -- men that faced the demands of the age in which they lived. In this day we say that they were uneducated. We are inclined to class all as such, that have not, rubbed their backs against the walls of a college, or men who do not have a string of big letters strung after the name their mothers gave them. If this is the only sign of education, then the point is well taken. There may be some doubt about this. The real sign of an education that is worth having is the power to know things and to be able to do things. To fill your place in life and perform well your little part is proof of your qualification. To be able to stand in your place through life, to build a home, rear a family of honorable children and faithfully discharge all your duty to the public and faithfully discharge all trusts confided upon you is the full mission of life. It takes arm, head and heart to do all this work well. No one can say that an individual who can do this successfully is not educated. Many that possess what the world calls education often come short in these virtues. We do not wish to be misunderstood in these reflections upon education; but this rather, you can not make a truly educated person. All the schools in the land can not make an educated citizen. This valued product can not be turned out like a factory turns out a plow or a wagon, a shining perfect model. It takes volition and application of the individual. There are some things that can not be bought nor transmitted, and an educated mind and heart is one of those precious jewels.

The first generation of men and women in Indiana had almost no school facilities as we have them today, yet, we venture that there were as large a per cent of them truly educated for life's duties and its accomplishments as there is today. Our grandmothers could hackle flax, card wool, spin flax or wool into fine thread, weave the cloth, cut and make it into garments, burnish the furniture and floor until it would shine like hard-wood finish. They were experts in the culinary art and knew all the laws about sanitary and economic cooking. They were skilled with the needle and could embroider and produce the most delicate fancy needle work. In addition to this, they knew how to doctor and kept an apothecary shop filled with pleasant sage, soothing catnip and bitter boneset. They could cure all the maladies and rear a regular orthodox family of ten or twelve romping boys and girls to manhood and womanhood.

Say, be real honest, can our generation with all its boasted improvements of schools, factories, science and art do any better? We can talk around the world now before breakfast and fly in the air like a bird; but will we be able to walk any farther in a life time than our forebears? With all these improvements, how many of us are ready to start out in life to duplicate the life work of our grandparents or even our parents? Why is it, in our day, with all this improvement and the machinery that we have to produce food, raiment, shelter and the necessaries of life, that it is more difficult to start out in life without anything and wage the battle of life? Life is so strenuous today that competition is feverish. We have no time to be social. How many would be willing to take a day off each week and go help a neighbor roll logs? Our venerable citizen, Wallace Hill, who was born in these woods, told us with his own lips that one season he attended log rollings one day a week for over a score of weeks in succession. We have no doubt but what George Coulson, William H. Millikan and James Darrough each would verify the story by saying, "me too," if we had time to interview them. And what would our venerable fellow citizen, Isaac Belles, who is older than the state of Indiana, and will reach his one hundredth anniversary next February, be able to tell us about log rollings and pioneer life. We have eye witnesses and hand witnesses to these yet living among us, and can testify of its truth,

That we have made great improvements no one will question, but something has crept into our manners and customs that makes it harder to meet the demands of society than in the days of our fathers. We have laid aside some of the good old customs that we should have clung to tenaciously. It may be that the social fabric is a little rickety and needs a little tightening up, or there may be a leak in the bag somewhere that makes all this furor about the high cost of living. It might be well to look this matter over, and apply some of the unutilized wisdom towards righting the defects, and make things happier in our day or at least remove some of the embarrassment of our times. Some one has said that he who can make two blades of grass grow where only one now grows, would be a great benefactor to the human family. Men have been trying this and have fairly succeeded. Would it not be equally beneficial to the happiness of man, if some one would try his hand in trying to devise some way whereby the ordinary family could make one dollar go as far as two in supplying our wants. There must be a device to cut down the wants or there must be some way to supply them with less money. Who will step out and make this needed improvement? We have not time here to discuss economic ethics. There is one thing that is costing us lots of money that we should look sharply into. Are our schools of brick and stone as successful in preparing men and women for the real battle of life as the school in the woods was? This is a live question and will stir some blood when you try to solve it. When it is discussed, it may bring out what there was in the woods' school that has been left out of the modern school system. Hardship was one element. You know that we are trying every way to make things easy nowadays. Everybody is trying to find the shady side of the road and are just crazy for soft snaps. Mr. Jones will say, I want to give John and Mary a good education, so they will not have as hard a time as I have had. Suppose you stop and analyze this position of Mr. Jones and see where it will end. To teach your children that they should have an easy time means that Mary will be in the parlor while Mrs. Jones is in the kitchen, and John is snoozing in bed, while Mr. Jones is out feeding and building fires and doing other needed chores.

In a word, to teach the child that it is to bear none of the burdens of life, is to effeminate it and make it useless and worthless. To give it this lesson at home and then send it to school to obtain an education is like going to the well after a pail of water with a big hole in the bottom of your pail. Long ago it was truly said that there is no excellence without great labor. To develop the intellect requires more real labor than to develop the body. If the body will become flabby without exercise the mind will become worse than flabby. "There is no royal road to wisdom." If a child is started in life with the idea that it is to do nothing, it will have the hardest time of mortals, for it is defying God, for he hath said, "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread." Such a father would say that Mary has the best teacher was ever in our school, she does not have to work any; the teacher kindly shows her everything. We wonder what the father would say if the teacher would eat Mary's dinner every day and let her starve? The teacher had better eat the dinner of the child than to do its thinking. The best thing about the woods' school was its hard work. The children were always employed. No time for idleness, no time to play. We have heard the saying, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Be that as it may, yet it is better than the other saying. "All play and no work gives the devil the advantage over Jack."

Work did not hurt John or any of the pioneers of Boone. It was through that schooling that they obtained the nerve and the stability of character that enabled them to so well discharge the duties of life. There is not a county in the state that was so hard to develop into beautiful homes and excellent farms as Boone. The hard work required to accomplish this great work, gave our people something better than splendid farms. It gave them splendid character that for a generation has made them shine with luster to this day. It is a rich heritage that has been passed from generation to generation and is evident in our citizenship to this day. Let us as worthy sons, hold on to this virtue as we would cling to life itself. Work is the inspiration of the soul that keeps us from gravitating into worthlessness. Of all the rich heritage that has come to us, there is nothing like the love of toil.
 

Submitted by: Amy K Davis
Source: "History of Boone County, Indiana," by Hon. L. M. Crist, 1914.
 

JOHN J. GOLDSBERRY, one of our most prominent pioneers and respected citizens, of Washington township, Boone county, Ind., comes paternally from sturdy German ancestry and an old colonial Virginia family. Thomas Goldsberry, grandfather of our subject, was born in Virginia, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Putnam, a relative of the famous Israel Putnam of Revolutionary fame. This family were of old English Puritan stock, and among the very earliest settlers of Massachusetts and Connecticut. General Rufus Putnam, brother of Israel, was the founder of Marietta, Ohio-the first town settled in that state. The grandfather of our subject, Thomas Goldsberry, and wife were the parents of the following children: Jacob, Thomas, Susan, John, Mary, Matilda, Peter, Abraham, Isaac and Eliza, all born in Virginia or Ohio. Thomas Goldsberry moved at a very early day, probably after the Revolutionary war, to Harper's Ferry, Va., and settled on Hogg Point, where he made a farm. His brother owned and kept the ferry at that time and was killed by lightning. Mr. Goldsberry was also a pioneer in Ross county, Ohio, in the earliest days of its settlement, and here had a good farm and also kept a tavern at Chillicothe, where the old pioneers stopped on their way to the new settlements of Ohio. Here the celebrated Indian chief--Willee Way--was killed by a man named Wolf, in revenge for the murder of his brother, who was killed by the Indians in Kentucky. Mr. Goldsberry built a grist-mill about two miles from old Chillicothe, on the north fork of Paint creek. This was one of the first mills in that part of Ohio. Mr. Goldsberry later sold the mill and bought 400 acres of land, which he farmed awhile, and then, in 1831, he migrated to Indiana, settling in Boone county, on Sugar or Brush creek, two and one-half miles northeast of Thorntown. He entered and partially cleared 160 acres of land, upon which he built a log cabin. About 1840 he sold this farm and lived with his son near La Fayette, where he died, in the fall of 1840, of erysipelas, having reached nearly eighty years of age. Mr. Goldsberry was an honest hard-working pioneer, who was noted for his generous hospitality. The latch-string of this old-fashioned pioneer's home always hung out. All of his children married and reared families. His son Peter represented Tippecanoe county in the Indiana state legislature in 1852. Prior to this, in 1840, the family went to Chillicothe, Mo., but in a short time they returned to Indiana and settled in Boone and Tippecanoe counties, Ind. The aged widow of Thomas Goldsberry died in Tippecanoe county, at which time she had living ten children, fifty-three grandchildren, and five great-grand children. The fifth generation from Thomas Goldsberry and wife are now being reared in Indiana. Thomas Goldsberry, son of above and father of our subject, was born at Harper's Ferry in 1800. He was reared a farmer, and married in Ross county, Ohio, Elizabeth Landsaw, of that county, and to them were born eight children, two of whom died in infancy. The remaining six were William, John, Mary, Sarah, Jacob, Susan. The first three were born in Ohio and the last three in Indiana. Mr. Goldsberry, in 1831, moved to Tippecanoe county, Ind., where Sarah was born, and in the fall of that year he moved to Boone county, and entered 118 acres of land in Sugar Creek and Washington townships. He cleared this and erected a hewed log house, where he died August 4, 1860, at sixty years of age. He was a great hunter and, as deer and wild turkey were plentiful, he abundantly supplied his table. He was a shoemaker by trade, made a good living and was a substantial citizen. He was a democrat, and he and his wife were members of the Methodist church, in which he was a class-leader and steward, and he was always a liberal supporter of his church. The itinerant Methodist preacher of those days made his home at his house. He was held in kindly esteem by all who knew him, and reared a good family. John J. Goldsberry was born in Ross county, Ohio, on his father's farm, February 5, 1827, and was about four years of age when brought to Tippecanoe county, Ind.--Grandfather Goldsberry with a large ox wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, and his father with an ordinary wagon drawn by two horses. The men and larger boys walked, and the women and small children rode when tired. They camped at night by the roadside, built a brush fire and made coffee, and had a simple meal, sometimes garnished with game--gray squirrel being plentiful. They slept in blankets around the campfires Indian fashion, and in the wagons, and without accident this hardy pioneer family made their way over the rude roads, fording the streams. It was early fall and the forests supplied plenty of mast, which, with the wild pea vine, provided plenty of food for the stock. John J. Goldsberry learned to spell by attending the spelling schools, where the young pioneers strove to spell one another down, and where he became an expert and mastered every word in the spelling book, often being at the head of his class. He learned but little arithmethic,[sic] and not that little until he was twenty-two years of age, when he studied five days, and mastered enough to attend properly to all matters of business in his line. His schoolteacher was Joseph A. Caldwell, an uncle from Virginia, a man of good education. He was at one time commissioner of Boone county, and justice of the peace. He was the only man in his part of Boone county who took a newspaper in 1833, and these newspapers, greased, served as windows in many a log cabin of the pioneer. The young men came to school dressed in buckskins, and on Christmas Day demanded that Mr. Caldwell treat them to whisky, and, to force him to do so, locked him out of the school house. As it was a subscription school and owned by Mr. Caldwell, he promptly sent a young man for an ax, and with the sturdy strokes of a backwoodsman soon cut the door into kindling wood. Many of the young men were full grown, but he ordered them to their seats, and he had no further trouble with them. His newspaper was the old "New York Weekly Herald," and was the wonder of the neighborhood. The pioneers would gather at his home and have him read to them by the light of a hickory bark torch. At the age of fourteen years Mr. Goldsberry began to work out for twelve and one-half cents per day, and when able to do a man's work he received $6 per month, At the age of twenty, his father remarrying, he left home and learned the carpenter's trade, receiving $15 per month and board, which were good wages for an apprentice. At the age of twenty-one he began to work for himself at his trade, when twenty-two years old he began contracting and laid up money, and in 1858 bought forty acres of land in Washington township, Boone county, ten acres of which were in cultivation, for $750. October 15, 1859, at the age of thirty-two, he married, in Boone county, Josina Hebb, of Grafton, Va., and to them were born four children: Joseph L., Clement L., Josina and Belle - the three last named all deceased. This wife died seven years after marriage, March 11, 1866, and Mr. Goldsberry married, in Fayette county, Ohio, his present wife, Hannah Maria, daughter of Amos and Ann (Lease) Goldsberry, of the same original stock, but distantly related, the grandfathers of Amos and our subject being third cousins. Mr. and Mrs. Goldsberry have three children living: Anna B., Alma May, and Amos A., all born on the farm in Washington township, Boone county. Mr. Goldsberry added gradually to his farm until he now owns 218 acres of fine land, 200 acres being in cultivation, without any lien on it whatever. It is improved with a substantial residence and farm buildings, and more tile than any farm of its size in his township. In religious opinions, Mr. Goldsberry is very liberal, believing in every man's worshiping God according to the dictates of his own conscience. In political opinions he was a democrat, but is now independent. He has always been a friend of learning and has given all his children good educations. He has held the office of school-director for many years, and built the first brick schoolhouse in Washington township. Mr. Goldsberry is a Mason; a member of Thorntown lodge, No. 114; is also a member of the Farmer's Alliance, of which he was an elector for three years. He was also one of the original grangers of Boone county. Originally he was a stanch democrat and believed in pure democracy as taught on the principles established by Thomas Jefferson. In these later and more degenerate days, "Uncle John" is very liberal in his political views. In 1894 he was foreman of the Boone county grand-jury, which did effective work. Mr. Goldsberry is a man of patient industry. Throughout his long life of sixty-seven years he has been afflicted with a white swelling, from which he has suffered great pain, and which has caused lameness, but his grit and stamina have enabled him to work on his farm, and he has probably done as much work as any other man in Boone county. He stands very high as an honored citizen, and is a man of great intelligence, and a versatile conversationalist. He has been a wide reader, and his active mind is well stored with solid information. He relates in a very interesting way many anecdotes of pioneer life. He is very active in politics and attended all the early conventions. He was a subscriber for the first newspaper published in Boone county, "The Pioneer." Uncle John says that the first church building in his township was a Union meeting house, and his mother wove cloth and sold it to pay for the sash for the windows. We might fill this large volume with "Uncle John's" reminiscences, but want of space forbids.

Transcribed by: Chris Brown
Source: "A Portrait And Biographical Record of Boone and Clinton Counties, Ind.," p 310-312, published in 1895 by A. W. Bowen & CO. Chicago.