Charles Alonzo Cash

      Charles Alonzo Cash, a well-known and substantial farmer of Jay County, living on rural route No. 2 out of Pennville, In Penn Township, was born in that same township and has lived there all his life. He was born on March 20, 1867, and is a son of Hamilton and Angeline (Irey) Cash, the latter of whom also was born in this county, October 17, 1839, a daughter of Mahlon and Rachel M. (McBride) Irey, who were among the pioneers of Jay County. The late Hamilton Cash was born in Harrison County, Ohio, January 17, 1840, and was a son of William and Rachel (Pugh) Cash, the former of whom was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1812. In 1842 William Cash came with his family to Indiana and settled in Grant County, but about eighteen months later came over into Jay County and located on an un-cleared tract of land in Penn Township, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on September 10, 1888. His wife had died exactly three years prior to that date September 10, 1885. She was born in Harrison County, Ohio, May 10, 1815. Hamilton Cash was reared on the pioneer home farm in Penn Township and early learned the blacksmith trade. He was twenty-one years of age when the Civil War broke out and In September, 1861, enlisted his services as a soldier of the Union and went to the front as a member of Company B, 34th regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which gallant command he served for more than three years. Upon the completion of his military service Hamilton Cash returned home and became engaged as a. blacksmith at Pennville, in association with Joseph Lupton, and later opened a blacksmith shop of his own at Balbec. He married Angeline Irey on March 20, 1866, and after establishing his home at Balbec continued to make that place his residence the remainder of his life, his death occurring in December, 1913. He and his wife were the parents of four children, the subject of this sketch having a sister, Gertrude, and two brothers, Emmet and Fred Cash.

   Reared at Balbec, Charles Alonzo Cash received his schooling in the schools of that village and from the days of his boyhood has been engaged in farming. After his marriage he rented the old Cash homestead place of 140 acres in Penn Township and there made his home for twenty-one years, at the end of which time he bought a part of the place. Not long afterward he sold this place and bought the farm of eighty-six acres on which he is now living. Mr. Cash is a Republican and has ever given a good citizen's attention to local civic affairs, but has not been a seeker after public office.

   Charles Alonzo Cash was united in marriage to Amy Leona Gray and to this union three children have been born, Hilda, Ethel, and Carl, the last named of whom is an assistant to his father on the farm. Hilda Cash married Charles Miles and has four children, Cepha, Maxine, Harley and Amy Miles. Ethel Cash married Christian Cart and has two children, Deloris and Hurley Cart. Mrs. Cash was born in this county and is a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (White) Gray, the latter of whom was born in the Balbec neighborhood in this county, a member of one of the pioneer families there. Thomas Gray was born in Monroe County, Ohio, and was but a child when he came to Jay County with his parents. He grew to manhood here and was married in this county. Early trained as a carpenter, he presently became a builder on his own amount and followed that vocation most of his life. He and his wife had three children, Mrs. Cash having a sister, Cora, and a brother, Miles Gray.

 

Biographical && Historical Record of Jay County, Indiana                                                                    Lewis Publishing Company, 1887                                                                                               Contributed  by Jim Cox

Buried in  Maplelawn Cemetery