alumbaugh JAMES FRANK ALUMBAUGH.-The vice president of the First National Bank of Carlisle, Indiana, and a man prominent in the business circles of his town and county, is James F. Alumbaugh, who was born September 10, 1857, in Haddon township, Sullivan county, Indiana, a son of Tilford and Paulina J. (Gobin) Alumbaugh. The father, who was of German descent, always followed farming in Haddon township, until about 1890, when he retired to Carlisle. He was a highly successful farmer and stock-raiser, at one time owning three hundred acres of most excellent Indiana land. Tilford Alumbaugh was born April 1, 1834, in Gill township, Sullivan county, and died March 22, 1900, aged sixty-five years, eleven months and twenty-one days. He was one of seven brothers, two perhaps being younger than he, but he was the last to pass away. The death of both parents within a short time of each other left him an orphan about the age of five years. He lived with his uncle, Morris Roberts, until eleven years old and was then bound out to Milner E. Nash, who died in February, shortly before young Alumbaugh was twenty-one. He remained with the widow during the following summer. In the autumn of 1855 Mr. Alumbaugh went to James M. Gobin's place. This was a turning point in his life, for about one year afterward, on September 11, 1856, he was married to Paulina J. Gobin, daughter of James M. To this union were born three children: Libbie G., James F. and William H., the last named dying in infancy. This left only a brother and a sister. The daughter was the late sister Cauble, of precious memory. The son, James F., one of the leading business men of Carlisle, is the only one now surviving. Uncle "Tip," as Tilford Alumbaugh was called, commenced life with nothing, but by industry and integrity, by economy and good management, he long since secured a competency for himself and his family. He loved his family and served them by self-sacrifice. He obeyed the gospel and became a member of the Providence Christian church in the early sixties. He and his wife were baptized at the same time by Uncle Joe Wolfe, who had also issued their marriage license and solemnized their marriage. Tilford Alumbaugh was a charter member of the Carlisle Christian church, which met first in the old Seminary, then in a rented hall, and finally in the house now occupied by the church. In the building of this house, in 1866, he took a leading part, being a member of the building committee, and contributing largely both of time and money. For many years he served the congregation as elder. In church work, as in everything, he was candid, energetic and decisive. In his death the family lost an exemplary father and husband, the church one of its most valued members, and the community a benefactor. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." A large audience attended the funeral, which took place in the Christian church. Sunday, March 25, at 10:00 A. M., interment being at Engle cemetery. The services were conducted bv the pastor, Rev T. A. Cox.


The mother of James F. Alumbaugh was also a native of Haddon township, born near Carlisle, Indiana, January 5, 1826, the daughter of James M. and Levicy (Booker) Gobin. James M. Gobin was born in Kentucky and his wife in Indiana, and both died in Haddon township, Sullivan county. He was a farmer and also a stock-raiser. In the early sixties Mrs. Alumbaugh became a Christian, uniting with the Providence Christian church, near Paxton, and with her husband she was a charter member of the Christian church at Carlisle. Through all the early struggles and successes of this church, she helped to carry the burdens and rejoice in the victories, and in her last moments the church was her chief source of care. No excuse for absence from the services of the church was satisfactory to her except sickness. She was ready to give of her means as well as her time and personal services toward the support of the teaching of the gospel. Her home was the home of the preacher as long as she was physically able to take care of the house. For months she had not been in vigorous health and for some weeks was quite feeble, but would not give her consent to leave her own home until stricken with paralysis, January 13, when she was removed to the home of her son, James Frank, where she died January 30, 1903. Retiring and modest almost to timidity, she was not a talking Christian but a working Christian. The early years of her married life, when she began with little, as well as in the later years of financial success, she was a true helpmate to her husband, by whose side she stood for more than forty-three years, was a true mother, a good neighbor, a faithful friend and an earnest though quiet Christian.


James F. Alumbaugh was reared to farm labor, receiving his education in the district schools. He engaged in the livery business when twenty-three years old, locating at Carlisle for one year, where he operated the business until he sold it, to engage in the hardware trade, in company with J. N. Roberts, under the firm name of Roberts & Alumbaugh. They also conducted a lumber and grain business at the depot and carried a large stock of farm implements and vehicles. This co-partnership existed until January 1, 1905, when it was dissolved by mutual consent. The hardware business is now conducted by Mr. Alumbaugh's son, under the name of J. F. Alumbaugh & Co. Since January 1, 1905, when Mr. Alumbaugh retired from the hardware business, he has superintended his farm in Haddon township, a two hundred acre tract known as the old Alumbaugh homestead. He is also president of the Carlisle Construction Company, formed for the purpose of constructing gravel and stone walks and roads, and is vice president and one of the original organizers of the First National Bank of Carlisle, a solid financial institution. Like his father, James F. Alumbaugh affiliates with the Democratic party. He is a member of the county council and served two terms on the town council. He takes much interest in educational matters, having served nine years on the Carlisle school board with much credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the district. He belongs to Carlisle Lodge, No. 3, F. & A. M., standing high in the Masonic fraternity.


Mr. Alumbaugh was married June 11, 1884, to Nora May Markee, who was born in Carlisle June 11, 1866, daughter of Isaac Newton and Mary Ann (Ferree) Markee. (See sketch of the Ferree family, elsewhere in this work, with sketch of Edley W. Rogers.) Isaac Newton Markee was born in Tippecanoe, Harrison county, Ohio, February 7, 1832. He was married May 29, 1856, to Mary Ann Ferree Pirtle, of Carlisle, Indiana, by Capt. Wilbur Van Fossen. To this union were born five children: William Allen, Sarah Ellen, Nora D., Maud Winifred and a daughter who died in infancy. Mr. Markee was a shoemaker by trade and a man of good business tact and had the confidence of all who knew him. His father, James Markee, was born in 1795 and is buried in the town cemetery of Robinson, Illinois. The mother, Rhoda Johnson Nevitt, was born in Ohio in January, 1801. Isaac Newton Markee died in Carlisle, Indiana, September 6, 1883, of paralysis of the bowels, having been an invalid for many years. Mrs. Alumbaugh was educated at Carlisle, Indiana, and taught school for a season. One son was born to Mr. Alumbaugh and wife, Harry Tilford, born March 21, 1885. He was educated at Carlisle and at the naval academy at Culver, Indiana, and the Illinois University, after which he returned home. He married Abbie Ross Harris, a native of Richmond, Indiana, where she was reared and educated, and they have two sons: James Winston and Harris Tilford. Mr. and Mrs. James F. Alumbaugh are members of the Christian church. Mrs. Alumbaugh is especially interested in church work, having served eight years as president of the C. W. B. M., three years as junior superintendent of the C. E., a teacher in the Sunday school for twenty-five years, and has always taken an active part in all public charities. At present she is vice president of the National Benevolent Association for Homeless Children, and has done much good for that cause. She is much beloved by children and appreciates greatly the friendship of a child.


The following obituary is taken from the Carlisle (Indiana) News of February 28, 1907:


IN MEMORIAM.


Mary Ann (Ferree) Markee was the daughter of Philip Copeland Ferree and Margaret (Trimble) Ferree. She was born near Paxton, Indiana, at the home of her grandparents, Joel Ferree and Mary (Leeth) Ferree, who were pioneer settlers of this township. The Ferrees are of French Huguenot ancestry, and she bore the name of her great-great- great-grandmother, Madame Mary Ferree, who, with her children, fled from France after the edict of Nantes, came to America with William Penn and founded the first Huguenot colony in Pennsylvania in 1708.


The greater part of Mrs. Markee's life was spent in this community. She received such education as the times afforded, which was meager. At the age of seven she was motherless, and e'er she was sixteen she was bereft of stepmother, father and grandparents. As the eldest of the little flock she bravely took the mother's place until she was incapacitated by illness, when the care of the little brothers was assumed by an uncle and she and her only sister, Sarah Ellen, found homes with maternal relatives.


At the age of twenty she was married to William Linder Pirtle, son of Jacob and Lydia Pirtle, a young man of sterling qualities. He was a tanner, in partnership with Isaac Shannon, the home and tanyard occupying a block on Harrison street. In 1852, she united with the Methodist church. She and her husband were immersed in Busseron creek, near Ledgerwood's Mill, by Rev. J. W. Julian. Her marriage was a happy one, but the young husband contracted quick consumption from overwork and exposure, and in August, 1853, she was left a widow with a young child, Margaret Olly (Mrs. Walstine Rogers), who survives her, the other daughter, Laura Jane, having died in infancy.


The widow was married. May 29, 1856, to Isaac Newton Markee, son of James M. and Rhoda Markee, of Palestine, Illinois. The ceremony was performed at her home by Squire Van Fossen, and the fiftieth anniversary of the event was quietly celebrated in Chicago last May. Of this union five children were born, four of whom survive her: William Allen Markee, of Chicago; Sarah Ellen (Mrs. Frank Buckley), of Monett, Missouri; Nora May (Mrs. Frank Alumbaugh), of Carlisle, Indiana; Maud Winifred (Mrs. George R. Miles), of Chicago. The second child, a daughter, died in infancy.


Mr. Markee's health failed, and while the children were yet young she bravely became the bread-winner of the family and performed both father and mother's part in caring for and educating her children. She faithfully ministered to her invalid husband until his death, September 6, 1883. At this time all her children were married and well launched in the world, except the youngest, and to better her condition she decided to leave her native state. The inherited pioneer spirit of her ancestors asserted itself and she turned her face westward to what seemed to her the Land of Promise-Antelope Valley, in northwest Nebraska. A colony under the leadership of Rev. J. A. Scamahorn, of Sullivan, was organized in 1884. About sixty or seventy-five families from Sullivan and Carlisle made up the party. Those from Carlisle were Mrs. Markee and daughter, Maud, Dr. W. A. Lisman, Samuel and Albert Helms, Jacob Milam, Alonzo, John, Joseph and Oscar Estabrook and Charles Speake. They went a hundred miles beyond Valentine, the terminus of the railroad, and settled on government land in the valley of the Antelope, in what is now Sheridan county, Nebraska. Mrs. Markee was then past fifty-four years of age and was companioned only by her young daughter. For thirteen years she lived there, enduring all the hardships incident to pioneer life. Everything was in the experimental stage, failure after failure rewarding their efforts. The severe winter, lack of rainfall and failure of crops all tended to discourage the little band of settlers. Strong men faltered, weak ones turned back, but Mrs. Markee bravely plodded on, firm in her confidence in the final success of the venture.


The years sped apace; success seemed within her grasp-the years of toil were bearing fruit-when suddenly the realization came that old age was upon her. She turned over the management of her affairs to her youngest daughter and finally yielded to the desires of her elder children to leave the scene of her struggles and returned to the land of her birth to spend the evening of her life with her children and grandchildren. Her industry, her public spirit, her high ideals, have made a lasting impression on the community which she helped to found. Her name is a synonym of courage, and there are many friends there who will mourn the passing of her brave spirit. Her life here since her return has been very happy. She has divided her time between her four daughters and has watched the development of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren with satisfaction.


To look back over seventy-six years of useful life, to realize that no duty has been left undone, to sleep every night with a clear conscience, to feel that in all the walks of life she has acquitted herself nobly and well, to see her children grow up and fill honorable places in the world, to bear with patience the affliction which came upon her when paralysis robbed her of her activity, to be tenderly ministered unto during the year of her helplessness by her devoted children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to enjoy at intervals the relatives and friends who came with words of cheer, to have a heart full of gratitude and thankfulness and to preserve an abiding faith in an All Wise Creator-this has been her portion; this has constituted the glow which pervaded her sickroom. Her life went out like the passing of a perfect day, in a glorious sunset.


"Her children rise up and call her blessed," and in all this world of shadows they see no shadow of a final parting from her. Three of her daughters were at her bedside when the end came. The simple funeral service was conducted at her home Wednesday afternoon by Brother and Sister Edwards, the details having been arranged in accordance with her wishes. The body was borne to its last resting place in the Carlisle cemetery by members of her own family.