White County INGenWeb

COUNTIES OF WHITE AND PULASKI, INDIANA, HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, Published by F.A. Battey & Co, Chicago, 1883, pg 224

W. J. HUFF, Postmaster and one of the editors of the Monticello Herald, was born August 5, 1849, in La Fayette, Ind. Judge Samuel A. Huff, his father, wag born in Greenville District, S. C., October 16, 1811. Judge Huff came to Indiana with his parents, Julius and Huldah (Mosely) Huff, in 1826, and at the age of fifteen years he was apprenticed to James B. Gardner, of Xenia, Ohio, to learn the " art preservative." After remaining with Mr. Gardner two years, he worked one year at his trade in the office of the Indiana Agriculturist, and in 1830 went to Indianapolis, where he found employment in the office of the State Printer and in the office of the Indiana Democrat. ln 1832, he removed to La Fayette, worked at his trade three years, and the succeeding -two years read law, having access to the libraries of Judge Pettit and Rufus A. Lockwood. In 1837, he embarked in the practice of his chosen profession, and since that time has made his home in La Fayette, and has carried on the active prosecution of law in Tippecanoe and neighboring counties. Judge Huff was at first a Whig, but in 1848 he became a Free Soiler, and was a member of the National Free-Soil Convention that met in Buffalo. In 1852, he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court, then comprising the counties of Tippecanoe and White, but at the end of one year and a half resigned. In 1854, he became a member of the People's party, and two years later a Republican. In 1860, he was chosen as a Republican Elector from Indiana, and cast his ballot in the Electoral College for Abraham Lincoln. Judge Huff has been three times married; first in 1837, to Mariam Farraer, who died in 1846, leaving three children, one yet surviving. In 1847, he married a sister of big former wife, Massie Farmer, who died in 1866, leaving one son. His last wife, Theodocia Beaman, to whom he was married in 1867, is yet living. William J. Huff is the only son of his father's second marriage. He was reared in the city of La Fayette, acquiring a good substantial education. He learned the printer's profession in his native town, where for one year and a half he published the Liliputian. While traveling, for a wholesale grocery house in La Fayette, he came to Monticello, where, in 1870, he purchased a half interest in the Monticello Herald, and six months later became sole owner. In 1874, J. B. Van Buskirk became a partner, and besides the duties devolving on Mr. Huff in connection with the paper, he has the duties of Postmaster to look after, having been appointed to this position in 1871. He was married April 1, 1874, to Miss Alice Wright, and to their marriage four children have been born- Edgar and Florence, living ; and Samuel A., and an infant without a name, deceased.

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