Dr. W. D. Starkey

DR. W. D. STARKEY.

My paternal grandfather, Stacy Starkey, was born in Button County, New Jersey, April 25, 1772, and after learning the blacksmith trade migrated to Chambersburg, Penn., where he married Margaret Dynes, daughter of Francis Dynes and Mary Dynes. A few years after their marriage they migrated to Fleming County, Ky., where they brought up a family of seven children. In the year 1830 he migrated to Marion County, Ind., locating about two miles from the present site of Traders’ Point, where in 1856 he died, his beloved companion with whom he had lived over sixty years following him in a few months, both being interred in Jones’ Chapel Cemetery, near their last place of residence. My father, Jesse Chambers, youngest child of Stacy and Margaret Starkey, was born May 19, 1811, in Fleming County, Ky., and with his father when nineteen years old migrated to Marion County, Ind., in 1830; lived on a farm until the time of his death, June 16, 1864; was interred in Jones’ Chapel Cemetery. At the age of twenty-two was married to Mary F. McCurdy, in Marion County, Ind. My mother was born September 2, 1811, in Livingston County, New York, and when but five years old migrated into Marion County, Ind., with her father and mother and an older brother and sister, locating on White River, near the present site of Broad Ripple. In 1818 a short move was made to a point on Eagle Creek, one-half mile above the present site of Traders’ Point. In 1821, when it was decided to locate the capital of the state at the present site of Indianapolis, another move was made to a point three miles down Eagle Creek, to have the advantages of a residence nearer the capital of the state. My maternal grandfather here entered a large tract of land, about 2,500 acres, as soon as the land was surveyed. He resided in the present limits of Marion County, about six years before the government survey David McCurdy was born in Scotland, in 1775, and with his mother and only brother, migrated when he was four years old to America, locating in Livingston County, N.Y. He died in 1858, and was interred in Jones’ Chapel Cemetery, where my grandmother had been buried years before.

I was the third son of Jesse C. and Mary F. Starkey, and was born September 22, 1837, on a farm near Traders’ Point, Marion County. Was one of a family of seven sons and one daughter; was brought up on a farm. Had the advantages of the common schools of the neighborhood and a select school taught in the neighborhood by W. H. Griggs, whose zeal and scientific attainments will be remembered by many. After teaching school two years, I commended, at the age of twenty-two years, the study of medicine, with Dr. S. A. Ross, of Clermont, Marion County, Ind.; continued the study with him two years, and attended lectures in the Rush Medical College, of Chicago, in 1860-61; when, after spending a few months with Drs. W. N. Duzan and S. Rodman, of Zionsville, I located in the practice of medicine in Whitestown, Boone County, Ind., in March, 1862, and continued in the practice twelve years, when I engaged in the drug business, in Zionsville, about two years. Then I moved on to my farm, in 1875, where I now reside, where my time is occupied in farming and stock raising. See his portrait on another page.

Source Citation: Boone County Biographies [database online] Boone County INGenWeb. 2007. <http://www.rootsweb.com/~inboone> Original data: Harden & Spahr. "Early life and times in Boone County, Indiana." Lebanon, Indiana. May, 1887, pp. 360-362.

Transcribed by: Julie S. Townsend - July 6, 2007