I. M. Armstrong

I. N. Armstrong, for many years a well-known farmer and a practical blacksmith of Sugar Creek township, Boone county, Indiana, was born in the state of Ohio in the year 1824. His father, Christopher Armstrong, died in 1834, having lost his wife some years previously, our subject thus becoming an orphan at the early age of ten years. The parents were church members, and carefully reared their three children to a life of morality as long as they were spared to them, and instilled such lessons of usefulness and industry as made their offspring the valued members of society they afterward became. The family settled early in Franklin county, Indiana, and in Metamora, that county, I. N. Armstrong served an apprenticeship of four years at blacksmithing, becoming an adept at the trade. From Metamora he moved to New Trenton, in the same county, where, for twelve years, he followed his trade with much pecuniary profit. While a resident of New Trenton he married, in 1844, Miss Mary Sparks, a native of Franklin county, born in 1825. This marriage was blessed with four children, namely: Charles A., who died an infant; George, also deceased; Frank, now a hardware merchant at Thorntown and Willie, a babe that died when five weeks old. Relinquishing his trade in New Trenton for the pursuit of agriculture, Mr. Armstrong traded off his establishment for a farm of 160 acres in the vicinity and cultivated it for ten years, and then came to Boone county, in 1866, and bought a farm of 160 acres, which he partially improved, but in a short time moved to Colfax, Clinton county, Indiana, and followed his trade for eight years; he then returned to his farm in Boone county, on which he resided two years. He again became tired of farm life and moved back to Colfax where, in partnership with his son, Frank, he went into the hardware business. Four years later, he returned to his farm in Boone county. Mr. Armstrong's death occurred in Thorntown on June 10, 1909, and Mrs. Armstrong passed away a few years later, her death occurring August 5, 1913. Religiously, Mr. Armstrong affiliated with the Presbyterian church and politically was a Democrat.

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