KENNETH W. SELF, who has been an industrious tiller of the soil of Sullivan county since 1869, is a native of Montgomery county, Kentucky, born December 21, 1823, a son of Presley and Helen (Wilson) Self. The father was born July 7, 1787, and died in August, 1864, in Coles county, Illinois, and was buried at Greensburg, Indiana. He was a native of Culpeper county, Virginia. Kenneth W. Self's mother was born in Greensborough county, West Virginia, August 11, 1787, and died in Greensburg.
Presley Self was the son of John and Milly (Harden) Self, both natives of Virginia. They emigrated from there to Kentucky and were among the pioneer settlers of that region. Helen (Wilson) Self was the daughter of Newton Wilson, a native of Scotland who came to this country after his marriage and served in the Revolution in the cause of American independence. By trade he was a weaver, and first located in Virginia, but later moved to Kentucky, where he spent the remainder of his days. The subject's grandfather Self was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was captured at Dudley's defeat, and was never afterward heard of. Presley, the father Kenneth W. Self, was married about 1809 in Kentucky, and resided there until 1824, and then moved to Decatur county. Indiana. He retained his land, however, in Kentucky until about 1855, when he sold and retired from farming, which had been his calling and in which he was very successful. Up to 1840 he was a Jacksonian Democrat, but after that date voted with the Whig party, later espousing the cause advocated by the Republicans, and his last vote was cast for President Lincoln. He was a member of the Christian church, a devoted Christian in word and deed. He was the father of six children: John, born in 1810, was killed by a horse in 1836, in Indianapolis; Joseph, born about 1811, died in 1844; Ruth, born about 1813, died in 1844; Harden, born in 1817, died in 1892; Randolph, born in 1819, died in 1862; and Kenneth W.
Kenneth W. was educated at the old fashioned subscription schools and at a select school for a short time. When seventeen years of age he taught school fifteen months, after which he attended college at what is now the State University. He then resumed teaching school and followed that profession until 1850. During that year he was married in Decatur county, Indiana, and taught school and farmed there until 1863, then moved to Coles county, Illinois, where he continued teaching and farming until 1869, when he went to Jackson township, Sullivan county, Indiana, where he now resides. After coming to this county he also taught school up to 1885. When he first settled in Sullivan county he purchased eighty acres of land, and added thereto until he owned a finely improved farm of one hundred acres, but sold a portion of the tract he had at one time to his son, this leaving him sixty acres. Mr. Self was married July 19, 1850, to a Miss Wood, who was born in 1825, in Mason City, Kentucky, and she died in 1900, on December 28th. She was the daughter of Genoa and Comfort Wood, both of whom were natives of Kentucky. By this union were born seven children as follows: Viola (Stock), born 1852 and now residing in Lewis, Indiana; Samuel O., born June 11, 1855, resides in Sullivan; Laura (Brown), born June 22, 1858, resides in Youngstown, Ohio; Joseph L., born December 19, 1860, resides in Farmersburg; Presley M., born February 27, 1863, resides in Farmersburg; William L., born September 17, 1865, is now at home on the old homestead, and Claborn O., born September 15, 1871, resides in Terre Haute.
In his political choice Mr. Self is a pronounced Republican, formerly being a member of the old-line Whig party, which was merged into the new party in 1856. He has served as a justice of the peace in Decatur county for a period of four years. He is of the Presbyterian church faith and a member of that denomination.