JAMES H. CONNER, one of Curry township's farmers and stock raisers, was born in Hamilton township, Sullivan county, Indiana, April 21, 1873, a son of Isaac and Mahala (Severns) Conner. Immediately after their marriage they came from Ohio to Sullivan county, Indiana, locating one mile northwest of the town of Sullivan, where the husband and father entered eighty acres of land in the dense woods. After a time he traded that farm for the place where his widow now resides, owning two hundred and seventy-eight acres in that farm and two hundred and eighty acres in another tract, all in Hamilton township. He was one of the most prosperous agriculturists of the community, and his was one of the best stock farms in the county. He was well known and honored in the community in which he so long made his home, a stanch Democrat and an active political worker, and he died at his home in Hamilton township June 25, 1902, being laid to rest in Wall's cemetery. He was born in Holmes county, Ohio, in 1833, and his wife was born in Coshocton county, Ohio, and. as above stated, is now living at her home northwest of Sullivan. She is an earnest and faithful member of the Christian church, as was also her husband, and he assisted in the erection of many of the houses of worship in this community. They raised a large family of ten children, as follows: Frank, who married Martha Barnes and resides in Sullivan; Eva and Emma, twins, but the latter died at the age of thirty years, while the former married John Wilson and is living in Turman township; Samuel, who married Stella Marts and is living in Hamilton township; Flora, the wife of John Woodward, of Hamilton township; Stewart, who is with his mother; Lou, wife of Frank Wible, of Sullivan; James H., who is mentioned later; Gertrude, the wife of J. H. Parks, of Sullivan; and Myrtle, who became the wife of Ben Mattix and is living in Hamilton township.
James H. Conner remained at home and worked with his father until his marriage, and after that event he continued to farm the old homestead for four years, when he went to Terre Haute and for two years was employed on public works there. Returning at the close of that period to his mother's farm, he lived there for one year and then located on a farm four miles northwest of Sullivan, and from there in 1907 he came to his present homestead one and a half miles northeast of Shelburn, which he purchased at that time. The farm contains eighty-two acres of excellent and well improved land, and Mr. Conner is engaged in both grain and stock farming.
On the 1st of November, 1896, he was married to Maud Dailey, a native of Paxton, Indiana, born January 9, 1880, a daughter of John and Martha (Arnett) Dailey, and a granddaughter of John Dailey and E. W. and Martha (Purcell) Arnett. Mrs. Conner's great-grandmother, Nellie Purcell, was born and reared in Sullivan county, and is now the oldest living representative of five generations of her family, and her home is in Paxton. E. W. Arnett survives his wife and is living on a farm north of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Conner have two children, Isaac Leland and Leo D., born respectively March 25, 1898, and June 26, 1901, and both are attending school. Mr. and Mrs. Conner hold to the religion of the Christian church, and he is a stanch supporter of Democratic principles.