From the 1903 Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. BF Bowen, Publisher, Logansport, Ind. Pages 152 through 154

S.J. BATSON

Samuel J. Batson, who was born October 17, 1830, in Henry county, Indiana, is a son of Nathaniel Batson, born in Ohio, February 24, 1808. He was a son of Samuel Batson, a native of New Jersey and of Welsh descent. The maternal parent of the subject and wife of Nathaniel Batson was Nancy (Ralston) Batson, born in the state of Kentucky, January 9, 1812. She was the daughter of James Ralston and came with her parents to Wayne county, Indiana. She grew to womanhood in Henry county, Indiana, where she met and married Nathaniel Batson, who had come to Henry county with his parents when he was fifteen years old, about the year 1823.

Nathaniel Batson, after his marriage, settled in Henry county and engaged in farming there until the spring of 1837, when they moved to Wells county, Indiana, and there entered four hundred and sixty-two acres of land in section 11, Jackson township. This land was in the wood, the nearest neighbor being distant one mile and the next nearest two miles away. Nathaniel and Nancy Batson spent the remainder of their lives in Wells county, where they both died, Nathaniel in 1878 and Nancy in 1881. They were the parents of twelve children: Samuel J., the subject; Lavina, deceased; Esther, deceased; Nathaniel died in infancy; Andrew Jackson died in infancy; William died in Oklahoma; Mary, deceased; Martin, now a resident of Bluffton, Indiana; Eliza Jane, the wife of Henry Roush, now living near Mt Zion, Indiana; Sarah, deceased; John, and Nancy, the wife of Andrew Gephart.

The subject was schooled in the subscription schools in Jackson township, the present admirable common school system not having been developed at that time in the locality. The sessions of the school where the subject attended were held in an old log cabin with greased paper for window lights, slab seats and puncheon flooring. Samuel attended his last term of school when he was about nineteen years of age. He then remained at home with his father until his marriage. He was married January 15, 1852, to Catherine Huffman, born December 11, 1832. Her parents, Henry and Elizabeth (Eversole) Huffman, were natives of Clark county, Ohio, but settled later in Jackson township, Wells county, Indiana. Elizabeth died in Ohio and Henry in Wells county, Indiana. Henry was twice married, his second wife being Catherine Baker. To his first union four children were born, all of whom are yet living: Jacob, a resident of Huntington county, Indiana; Catherine, the wife of the subject; Sarah, the wife of Isaac Jones, and Peter, a resident of Ohio. To his second union ten children were born: Frederick, Mary S., deceased, George, Samuel, Evelyn, Levi, John, Lydia, Eliza and Henry. After his marriage the subject settled on the farm and in the same house in which he now lives; he and his father hewed out the logs of which it is built. The house has had three roofs since it ws built, the father shaving the shingles for the first, and the subject those for the second roofing, but he had to buy the material for the third and last covering, which is still in good condition.

When the wife of the subject was a girl she was an adept in the accomplishments of weaving, spinning, etc., which were common housewifely occupations in those days, when they made all their own clothing. She yet retains a spinning wheel which belonged to an aunt. The subject cleared up the land on which he now lives. As he says, he had to "dig it out." He is the father of nine children, seven of whom are yet living: Nathaniel, born August 9, 1853, married Mary Wyley September 28, 1882, and is the father of three boys, Firman, an oil pumper, Aubreye and Oris; Sarah, the second child, was born August 1, 1855, and is now the wife of Henry Swaim: she was first married to William Smithson, to which union five children were born, William E., Franklin, Lloyd, Clinton and Edith; to her second marriage two children have been born, Alva and Orval Swaim; the third child of the subject, Henry, was born December 27, 1857, married Sarah J Sills, and they are the parents of three children, Dessa, Letha and Mary T; the fifth child, Nancy C., was born February 26, 1862, is the wife of Henry King and has one son, Frank; Mary E. was born July 8, 1860, and is the wife of A.J. Faust, a resident of Nottingham township, Wells county, and has three children, Ada May, Clara B. and Catharine; Ella M, born July 6, 1864, is the wife of Homer Knott, of Hartford City, Indiana, and they have two children, Winona and Inez; Elnora, born July 21, 1867, was the wife of John Click, but died August 10, 1893, leaving one child, Orta; Laura A., born April 3, 1874, wife of Lawson J Beavans, has four children, Leha, Fay, Jesse and James M; Clara Belle, born October 3, 1876, died August 28, 1891.

Mr Batson has been a general stock farmer. He is in the oil field and has on his farm six producing wells, making seven inches (tank measure) a day, which yields him a profit of fifteen or twenty dollars per month. He has devoted his whole life to farming, occasionally helping to run a threshing machine in the fall of the year. Mr. Batson now owns forty acres of land on which he lives. He and his wife are both connected with the Campbellite (Christian) church, of which they are consistent members. Politically the subject has always acted and voted with the Democratic party. He is of a class which is rapidly passing away and has witnessed all the stages of development of his locality from a comparative wilderness to its present highly improved and well cultivated condition. He has seen the evolution in temples of learning from the log cabin with puncheon floors and greased paper window lights, and subscription school, to the palatial buildings now devoted to the uses of the common schools of the country, and in all the multitudinous and laborious changes that have transformed the face of nature he has well borne his part. In the course of nature it will not be many years until the last of these hardy pioneers will be gathered to their fathers. While it is scarcely possible for the present generation to realize what they have passed, the greatest compliment they can pay to their memory is to emulate their example.

Bio transcribed by wwkly@citznet.com