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Below is a family biography included in The History of Switzerland County, Indiana published by Weakley, Harraman & Co. in 1885.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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STEPHEN HUMPHREY, one of the early settlers of this county, was born in Vermont in 1791. He grew to maturity in his native State, and in 1812 started West, and stopped for a time at Niagara Falls, where he was employed in the army, but was not an enlisted soldier. His father, Ebenezer Humphrey was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and all through it. Indianus Humphrey now has a powder-horn which he carried while in the service, bearing date June 7, 1776. Stephen Humphrey came to Ohio after the war of 1812, and spent two or three winters teaching school in Athens County. He then came to this county and purchased the land (sixty acres) on which Indianus Humphrey now resides, and built a cabin. This was about 1816. He married Hannah Barrows in 1817 in Athens County, Ohio, and there his two eldest children, Theodore and Grovelina, were born. In about 1821 he came with his family and settled on his farm, and resided there till his death, September 16, 1865; widow dying December 23, 1874. He added 100 acres to his original sixty, and was fifteen or twenty years township trustee. He was identified with the Universalist Church. Hannah Barrows was a daughter of George Barrows and Eunice (Culver). Her father was a soldier in the Indian war, and was in this county, in the service, soon after the murder of Grant by the Indians on Grant’s Creek. The Humphreys were of English, the Barrows of Scotch descent. Stephen Humphrey reared five children: Grovelina, Theodore, Paulina, Indianus and Delilah; all grew to maturity, and married and settled in this county; all now living but Theodore.

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This family biography is one of 215 biographies included in The History of Switzerland County, Indiana published in 1885 by Weakley, Harraman & Co.  For the complete description, click here: Switzerland County, Indiana History and Genealogy

View additional Switzerland County, Indiana family biographies here: Switzerland County, Indiana Biographies

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