PAGE-James E. - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

James E. Page, railroad agent and postmaster, Independence Station, son of James H. and Ellen P. (Eldridge) Page, was born in Fairfield, Wayne county, Illinois, February 13, 1843. He received a fair English education at the select schools in La Fayette, and the Institute at Waveland. His father dying when he was an infant, his mother returned home to Mount Carmel, Illinois, where he lived till nine years old, when she married the Rev. Harvey S. Shaw, Methodist minister. She died at Monticello, White county, Indiana, May 14, 1858. Following this event he chose his uncle, Richard H. Eldridge, of La Fayette, his guardian, and lived with him and clerked in his drug store. In the fall of 1861 his uncle obtained a situation for him as hardware clerk in Terre Haute. While there he was enrolled, Jul17, 1862, in Co. E, 71st Ind. Inf. This regiment, with eight others fought a severe battle at Richmond, Kentucky, against 15,000 rebels under Gen. Kirby Smith, and was captured. This occurred August 30, 1862, and lasted thirteen hours. The men were paroled September 2. The 71st returned to Indiana, and when exchanged was sent into Kentucky to do guard duty on the Louisville & Nashville railroad. At Muldraugh's Hill, December 28, 1862, it was again captured, after holding out eight hours with 600 men against 7,000 surrendered conditionally to Gen. John Morgan. He paroled the men, and they returned a second time to the state. The following winter and spring the command was organized into a cavalry regiment, and numbered the 6th. When, in 1863, Morgan made his incursion into the state, the 6th joined in the operations to oppose his crossing the Ohio, and to harass and capture him afterward. In September the regiment went to Camp Nelson via Louisville. Companies E and K were detailed here to go to Knoxville, Tennessee, as an escort for a drove of cattle, and were there during the siege. Next spring the regiment assembled at Camp Nelson and were remounted. It moved south from here and joined Sherman near Dalton, Georgia, and was attached to Stoneman's command. When the latter went on his disastrous expedition to release the Union prisoners, a part of the 6th helped compose his force. Before the fall of the city the remnant, with which Mr pwas connected, was sent back to guard the railroad between Chattanooga and Atlanta, and in September went to Nashville and was remounted. It moved thence to Pulaski, where a part of the Union forces were attacked by Forest, who, being defeated, was pursued by all the troops into Northern Alabama. The 6th proceeded to Dalton, Georgia and was at that place when Hood began his invasion of Tennessee, June 17, 1865, and was paid off and disbanded at Indianapolis. After clerking a short time again in the same store he left in Terre Haute, he went to Carlinville, Illinois, and engaged in the hardware business, first in partnership with Harvey Finsley, and next Henry Eldred. He returned to La Fayette, and in 1868 came to Attica as a life-insurance agent, and at length was employed as a clerk and bookkeeper, first in a drug and afterward in a hardware store. In 1876 he came to Independence and took charge of the station, and in January, 1877, was appointed agent of the Wabash company. Next June he received the appointment also of postmaster. He was married December 25, 1866, to Miss Ellen Elizabeth C., McCormick, of La Fayette, who was born August 10, 1846. James Oliver, their son, was born June 27, 1869. Mr. and Mrs Page are members of the Presbyterian church, and he is a republican.