Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.
Luman W. LeMasters, an honored veteran of the Civil War and one of the best known farmers and landowners of Jay county, proprietor of "Lookout Hill Farm" in Madison township, where he makes his home, this farm being on rural mail route No. 6 out of Portland, is a "Buckeye" by birth, but has been a resident of this county practically all the time since he was twelve years of age, a period of about seventy years, and thus has been witness to and a participant in the amazing development that has taken place in this community since what might properly be regarded as pioneer days, for there was still much of the primeval wild here when he first came to this county. Mr. LeMasters was born on a farm in Shelby county, Ohio, October 19, 1842, and is a son of Luman W. and Nancy (Young) LeMasters, Virginians, who became residents of Ohio in their childhood days and were there married. The elder Luman W. LeMasters was born in that section of the Old Dominion that came to be organized as West Virginia in Civil War times. He was reared as a farmer and also became a "local" preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church. After his marriage he made his home on an eighty-acre farm which he owned in Shelby county, Ohio, and there remained until 1854, in which year he moved with his family over into Indiana and located on a quarter section of land he bought in Madison township, this county, the west "eighty" of which is now owned by his son Luman, the subject of the sketch. On that place the elder Luman W. LeMasters and his wife spent the remainder of their days, their influence for good in that community continuing a pleasant memory in the neighborhood. He died on April 15, 1888, and his widow survived until August 26, 1904. They were the parents of nine children, six of whom are still living, the subject of this sketch having three sisters, Phebe J., Mary P., and Martha J., and two brothers, Jacob and John LeMasters. As noted above, the junior Luman W. LeMasters was twelve years of age when he came to Jay county with his parents in 1854. He grew to manhood on the home farm in Madison township, completing his schooling in the neighborhood schools and by two years of attendance at the old Farmers Academy at College Corner, and was living on the farm when the Civil war broke out. On July 21, 1861, he enlisted his services in behalf of the cause of the Union and went to the front as a member of Company C of the 39th regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which presently was reorganized as the 8th Cavalry, and with that gallant command was serving when on July 3, 1863, while on a charge against the enemy at Deckers Forge, two and one-half miles south of Winchester, Tenn., he was shot through the left breast, receiving a wound which terminated his further usefulness as a soldier, putting him on the invalid list. In March, 1864, Mr. LeMasters received his discharge and in the following fall was married and began farming for himself as a renter of land in this county. Three years later he moved over into Darke county, Ohio, and was there engaged in farming for nine years, at the end of which time he returned to Jay county and took charge of the home farm in Madison township. In 1904 he bought the west "eighty" of that quarter section and is still living there, practically retired since 1907, renting his fields. Mr. LeMasters is a Republican, is a member of Henry McLaughlin Post, No. 516, Grand Army of the Republic, at Salamonia, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church of that village. It was on October 2, 1864, that Luman W. LeMasters was united in marriage to Mary K. Chew, who has thus been his helpmate for more than fifty-seven years. Mrs. LeMasters was born in Camden county, New Jersey, February 13, 1847, and is a daughter of Dr. Ezekiel and Caroline B. (Woolston) Chew, both of whom were born in that same state. In 1855 Dr. Ezekiel Chew moved with his family from New Jersey to Farmersville, Ohio. Two years later he moved to Ft. Jefferson, in Darke county (Ohio) and after a sometime residence there came to Indiana. He made several changes of residence after coming to this state, but finally located in St. Joseph county, where his last days were spent, his death occurring there in August, 1888. His wife died on February 27, 1879. They were the parents of ten children, of whom seven are living, Mrs. LeMasters having one sister, Sarah F., and five brothers, Nathaniel D., Cooper, Charles, Virgil and Donald Chew. To Luman W. and Mary K. (Chew) LeMasters have been born ten children, Beulah S., Luman C., William C., Elsie, Bertha, Ord O., Edith, Maude, Arthur and Vernon, all of whom are still living. Beulah S. LeMasters married L.L. Rockwell, who is engaged in the garage business at Ft. Recovery, Ohio, and has four children, Claude, a Noble township farmer, who married Opal Loy and has two children, Catherine M. and Duetta; Opal, who married Daniel Grile, who is operating a garage at Geneva, Ind., and has two children, Lester and John Lynn; Edith, wife of Cecil Bickel, a Madison township farmer, who has one child, and Anna. Luman C. LeMasters, a farmer of Madison township, married Belle Wehrley and has twelve children, Clarence, a Madison township farmer, who married May Bickel and has three children, Kenneth, Mary I. and Luman; Chesley, now living at Richmond, Ind., who married Clara Burkey and has two children, Donald and Doris; Bertha, who married Russell Hercules, of Richmond, Ind., and has two children, Mervil and Isabella; Floyd, a Noble township farmer, who married Opal Gagle and has one child, Remonda; Gerald, who is the garage business in Pennville and married Mabel Kantner and has one child, Maxine; Stanley, who is at home; Dorothy, wife of Charles Hunt, of Richmond, Ind.; John, a teacher in the schools of the county, making his home in Madison township, and who married Dorothy Delauter and has one child, Geraldine, and Freda, Ord, Mary O., and Elvin C., who are at home. William C. LeMasters, who is now living at Victor, Col., where he is the proprietor of a moving picture theater, married Lella Lewis and has four children, Gladys, who married Lloyd G. Moser, of Mt. Rosa, Col., and has two children, Carrie and Bobby; Lella, who married Earl Slinkard and is living in California, and Ralph and William, at home. Elsie LeMasters married M.J. Adkinson, a farmer of Madison township. Bertha LeMasters married John Yaeger, who is now principal of schools at Brazil, Ind., and has six children, Clarence, Mary, Helen, John V., George W., and Luther L. Dr. Ord O. LeMasters, now a practicing physician at Sidney, Ohio, married Emma Garmenhouser. He and his wife have an adopted daughter, Isabella. Edith LeMasters married Henry Mineholtz, who is now engaged in the mercantile business at Alamosa, Col., and has four children, Wilhelmina, Lucile, Helen E. and Marjorie M. Maude LeMasters married Dr. S.W. Phillips, a veterinary surgeon, now living at David City, Neb., and has two children, Donald and Louise. Arthur LeMasters married Maude McLaughlin and is now engaged in the garage business at Geneva, Ind. Dr. Vernon LeMasters, a veteran of the World war and a practicing physician, now living at Sidney, Ohio, married Helen Garmenhouser and has one child, a son, Robert. Doctor LeMasters was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Medical Corps of the United States army during the war and served for eighteen months overseas. Mr. and Mrs. LeMasters were among the most active promoters of the movement which led to the organization of the Methodist Episcopal church at Salamonia in 1876 and thus for more than forty-five years have been prominently identified with that congregation. Mr. LeMasters served as a member of the board of trustees of this congregation until 1920 and for more than forty years was class leader, while for many years Mrs. LeMasters was one of the leading teachers in the Sunday school.
John Newmark at TransylvanianDutch started this Monday genealogy meme, which has quickly spread throughout the Geneablogger community. I am excited to be a participant and transcribe the records of my family.
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