COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY
Henry County, Indiana
B.F. Bowen
1920
Page 330 and 331
Surnames in this biography are: Graves, Dipboye, Hart, Sheds, Marsh, Bushong, Ringo
JOSEPH GRAVES
One of the most enterprising, experienced and successful agriculturists of Henry County, Indiana, is Joseph Graves, an ex-soldier, who was born in a cabin on the farm he now owns, his nativity taking place April I 3, 1839. Most children in Henry County at that early day had their nativity in a log cabin, but while the old cabin has long since disappeared to give way to a modern structure, Mr. Graves is still an active factor in the husbandry of the township. The parents of Joseph Graves, Sidney and Margaret
(Dipboye) Graves, were respectively natives of Pennsylvania and Virginia and were married in the latter state. About 1834 they came to Indiana and settled on the farm now owned by their son Joseph, but which was without any special improvements save a small log cabin and a few acres denuded of their forest growth, but of which Sidney later put sixty acres under cultivation. On this farm the parents lived until 1868 and then retired to Middletown, where the father died in his seventy-ninth year, and the mother then made her home with her children, spending her latest years at the home of her son Joseph on the old homestead, dying at the age of eighty-two years, eighteen years after the death of her husband. Their family comprised twelve children, of whom ten attained mature years, the eldest dying in childhood and the youngest when sixteen. Of those who grew to maturity, George H. died in Delaware County; two reside in Henry County, Joseph, of this notice, and Lizzie, wife of William
Leiphardt, of the Middletown woolen factory. Joseph Graves has lived on the homestead all of his life excepting nearly three years that he passed in the army. On the 8th of August 1862, he enlisted at Middle town, in Company H, Sixty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, of which Frederick Hoover was the first captain and later David
Yount. Mr. Graves was captured by the enemy at Richmond, Kentucky, but was soon exchanged and took part in all the marches, skirmishes and battles in which his regiment was engaged. He received a slight wound at Champion Hill, back of Vicksburg, Mississippi, but did not leave the ranks, was promoted to be corporal, and was honorably discharged July 5, 1865, with his regiment, after serving nearly three years. After the war Mr. Graves returned to the old homestead and when his parents retired, in 1868, he rented the place until his father's death, when he bought it from his mother and was able to pay for it. It then consisted of one hundred acres, but he has since added to it until it now covers one hundred and forty-seven acres and extends into Delaware County. In 1880 he built his commodious barn, which has a dry and airy basement, and in 1897 erected his modern and tasty dwelling, which favorably contrasts with any in the township. He raises all the grains indigenous to the climate and converts his corn into hogs, of which he fattens from forty to fifty each year, although he no longer takes an active part in the farm work, as he rents out the farm but retains his interest in its productions. Mr. Graves was united in marriage April 9, 1868, with Miss Elizabeth Hart, daughter of Heth J. and Julia Ann Hart, both now deceased. Mrs. Graves was born in Middletown and was reared one-half mile east of the village, being a playmate of her husband in her childhood days. Mrs. Julia Ann Hart was a native of Virginia, but was married in Henry County, Indiana, having come here when eleven years old with her mother and step-father. Peter Sheds. Heth J. Hart came here when a boy with his parents, John and Margaret (Marsh) Hart, who settled on the Andy Bushong farm, east of Middletown. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Graves were named as follows: George 0., a farmer in Delaware County; Emma, wife of Frank
Ringo, of Middletown; Lester, at Shirley; Willie, a teacher in the high school in Middletown and a student in the State University; Cora, who died when seven years old, and Ethel, a school girl in Middletown. In politics Mr. Graves is a Republican, while his religion is that of the Christian New Light church. He is one of the most highly esteemed citizens of Fall Creek Township and the village of Middletown, and his family enjoys with him the respect of all who know them, Mr. Graves being especially honored as an ex-soldier.
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