Arthur Maple
 

One of the tillers of the soil in Boone county who has lived to see great changes in agricultural affairs since he began farming is Arthur Maple, of Marion township, having noted, among other things, that there has been a very steady increase in the value of products per farm in the United States during the past thirty years. Not as great an increase as in other lines of industry, perhaps, but we compare favorably with the farmers of other nations. Two decades ago the average farm produced annually in this country five hundred and thirty-eight dollars; one decade ago, eight hundred and twenty-two dollars; the figures now run to thirteen hundred and thirty-six dollars. We also show, according to reliable statistics, an increase of over two million farms during this period. All the while Mr. Maple has been a close observer and has progressed with the times until he ranks today among our best farmers and worthy citizens.

Mr. Maple was born October 12, 1855 in Henry county, Indiana. He is a son of George L. and Harriett A. (Beach) Maple, the former a native of Rush county, Indiana, and the latter a native of Henry county, this state. The paternal grandparents, John and Elizabeth (Hillis) Maple, were natives of Kentucky, where they grew up and married, later removing to Rush county, Indiana, secured government land, the nearest railroad point being Cincinnati, Ohio, sixty miles away. Mr. Maple walked all the way to Indianapolis and back to pay his entry fee. He built a cabin of poles, hanging quilts over the openings to protect the family from the weather, living thus for some time until he built a substantial log cabin, which he did without any help. He cleared and developed his land and succeeded through hard work. The history of the Beach family is traceable to a remote period in our country's history. We first hear of Thomas Beach, of the New Haven colony, who settled at Milford, Connecticut in 1654, where his great-grandson, Zerah Beach, was born August 15, 1770. The latter's son, Stephen Beach, was born
January 3, 1803, and died September 8, 1878. He came to Henry county, Indiana, in an early day and entered one hundred and sixty acres of land from the government.

Grandmother Beach who was known in her maidenhood as Anna Puntney, was born June 30, 1806, and her death occurred August 18, 1887. She was of French-Huguenot descent, her ancestors having been compelled to flee from Rochelle, France, in 1690 on account of religious persecutions. They emigrated to the island of St Eustatius in the West Indies. Subsequently they went to Oxford, England, and finally members of the family made their way to the United States and settled at Little Gun Power Falls, Hartford county, Indiana. Their religious belief was what is now embraced by the United Presbyterians.

John Maple and his brother Isaac built the first log Presbyterian church in the community where they lived in Rush county, calling it Ebenezer, by which name it is still known. Stephen Beach and wife, our subject's grandparents, had eight children, thirty-eight grandchildren, sixty great grandchildren, and eight great-great grandchildren, making one hundred and six in number. Two of their sons served in the Civil war, George P. Beach was a soldier for three years in Company A, Thirty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and he is now living in Spiceland, Indiana; Jesse H. Green, their son-in-law, served three years on the flag-ship Wabash.

The parents of our subject were married in Henry county, Indiana, and began housekeeping on a farm. The death of the mother occurred in 1864. The father subsequently married Cassie Fohl, of Pennsylvania. This union was without issue. In 1882 George Maple sold out and removed to Kansas where he lived until 1894, when he sold out and invested in property at Ponca City, Oklahoma, and there he built up a large trade in grain. His death occurred in 1900 at the age of seventy-one years. Besides our subject he had one other son, Ezra, an extensive stock feeder of Kansas City, Missouri, married Angie Palin, a native of Henry county, Indiana.

Arthur Maple was thrown on his own resources at his mother's death, the home being broken up. He received his education in the common schools and in Spiceland Academy, after which he taught three years in the district schools, then turned his attention to farming and stock raising in partnership with his brother, in Henry and Wayne counties, and they got a good start, doing well in both lines.

Mr. Maple was married March 16, 1881, to Nannie M. Eaton, who was born April 13, 1859, in Marion county, Indiana. She is a daughter of William T. and Elizabeth (Freeman) Eaton, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Indiana. Mr. Eaton was for a number of years a prosperous dry-goods merchant at New Palestine, Indiana. Mrs. Maple received a good common school education. After his marriage Mr. Maple lived two years in Henry county, then bought eighty acres in Hancock county, which he sold two years later and moved to Harper county, Kansas, entering one hundred and sixty acres from the government, which he improved, and he set out eight acres of timber on the prairie, and there successfully carried on general farming and stock raising until 1894, when he sold out and moved to Arkansas City, Kansas, remaining there a year. In the fall of 1894 he moved to Marion township, Boone county, Indiana, and bought eighty-three acres, on which stood a house and a log barn. These he removed and erected modern, substantial buildings, and has brought the place up to a high state of improvement and cultivation. He makes a specialty of registered Poland-China hogs and Durham cattle.

Mr. Maple's family consists of these children: Ethel D., born December 13, 1884; Elta Bliss, born October 7, 1889; Arthur Loyal, born May 4, 1893, lives in Deming, New Mexico; the youngest daughter is a student in Purdue University, LaFayette, Indiana. They were all born in Kansas.

Politically Mr. Maple is a Progressive. While living in Kansas he served three terms as township trustee.

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