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Biography of COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY
Of Henry County Indiana Surnames mentioned in this biography are: Pickering, Bristol, Gregg, Evans, Cummins, Davis LORING A. PICKERING This enterprising agriculturist and dairyman, now residing in Middletown, Henry County, Indiana is a native of Greensboro, also in Henry County, Indiana, and was born December 29. 1847. He is descended from one of the oldest pioneer families in the state and is a son of Jordan and Catherine( Bristol) Pickering, of whom further mention will be made. Jonas Pickering father of Jordan Pickering was a member of one of the first families of Virginia in which state Jordan was born May 31 1820 and in 1823 or 1824 came to Henry County, Indiana, locating on a farm one mile from the present site of Greensboro. For twenty years he made this farm his home and then retired to the village, but passed his declining years at the home of his son, Jordan, in New Castle, August 1, 1860. His wife, who had borne the name of Ruth Gregg, and whom he married in Loudoun County, Virginia, was born February 23, 1804, and died May 7, 1856. Catherine (Bristol) Pickering was born in Pike County, Ohio, November 30, 1826,and in 1830 was brought to Henry County, Indiana, by her parents. Benjamin and Mary Bristol, who settled one mile west of Middletown on land the father entered just west of the present tin-plate plant. He there erected the family residence in 1846, of bricks made in the vicinity, the edifice being in that day one of the most pretentious in the neighborhood and there it still stands, a landmark and a cynosure, there the father died January 3, 1869, and his widow December 19, 1878. Catherine was married to Jordan Pickering June 28, 1846. When Jonas Pickering came to Indiana he was obliged to cut his way through the forest from New Castle along the banks of the Blue River towards Greensboro, one of the chips taken from a beech tree on that memorable occasion being still preserved by the County Historical Society. On ‘the farm which Jonas had entered Jordan and his brother Joseph were reared to manhood years. They were both voting men when they came to Middletown to operate a tannery, which they had built on the east side of North Fifth Street. They operated this until 1849, when Joseph went to California, hut never returned. He was searched for, for five years, wagons in fragments and bones of horses being found on the route from his last known locality to new diggings and it is supposed that he was murdered by Indians. Jordan Pickering had been reared a carpenter and cabinetmaker and was married in June 1846. He followed his trade until 1854 and then engaged in the drug business, which he conducted until 186o in New Castle. About this time he visited Pike’s Peak, principally with a view of improving his health, and on his return embarked in general merchandising in company with Caleb Johnson, an elderly Quaker preacher, and Thomas Evans at Dunreith, Indiana. This partnership was continued until failing health again compelled Mr. Pickering to seek recuperation in travel and with his family he visited Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. Finding no relief, he returned to Henry County, Indiana, and purchased his wife’s old homestead, although her parents were still living. Here he passed the remainder of his life and died January 2, 1868 at the age of forty-seven years, during fourteen years of which period he had been a sufferer from consumption. He left three children, of whom Loring A. is the gentleman whose name opens this biographical notice, Mary Alice, a maiden lady residing in Middletown with her mother, and Charles J., of the Middletown mill. Mrs. Catherine (Bristol) Pickering, widow of Jordan, continued her residence on the homestead until 1889, her parents remaining with her until their respective deaths. Her father, Benjamin Bristol, who was born in 1798, died from small pox January 3, 1869, and was survived by his wife about eight years and was close to eighty years of age at her death. The farm continues to be the property of the family. Loring A. Pickering managed the home place after his father’s death until about 1873, when his younger brother took charge, Loring A. having decided to embark upon the sea of matrimony. On the 23rd of September 1873, he was united in marriage with Miss Elenor Cummins, who was born in Madison County, Indiana, and was eighteen years of age at the date of her marriage. Mr. Pickering then rented a farm from his father-in-law in Madison County, which he resided upon until 1876, when he went to Sumner County, Kansas, and secured a farm, which had been entered the previous year, for which he paid thirteen hundred dollars and assumed an indebtedness of about nine hundred dollars. On this farm he made his home for twelve years, and in 1891 he sold it for three thousand and one hundred dollars. While a resident of Kansas Mr. Pickering taught school several terms, a profession he had, begun to follow when twenty-two years old, having been educated at Spiceland Academy under the famous Clarkson Davis, but having been obliged to relinquish the full course of study on account of his father’s failing health. He taught in Henry and Madison Counties, Indiana, several terms and in Kansas five years. In Kansas also Mr. Pickering became somewhat prominent in county educational work and was sent as a delegate to a state convention of educators held at Topeka. In 1889 Mr. Pickering returned to his old home in Henry County; two years before he had sold his Kansas farm and the rent of that place during these two years brought him six hundred dollars. After his return to Henry County Mr. Pickering managed the home farm for two years and then, in 1892, bought his present place of one hundred and sixty acres, one half mile north of the corporation limits of Middletown, for which farm he paid eight thousand dollars and has since improved it to the amount of four thousand dollars, crossing it with a large drain which alone cost him two hundred and twelve dollars, to this he has added a short drain which leads to the residence lots and has so arranged his drainage system that at every rainfall the surface water is at once carried off. Mr. Pickering also has two tubular wells, and a windmill that pumps gas for the Citizens Company and which has been in operation nine years. Mr. Pickering conducts a large dairy, keeping about twenty cows, and his barn is arranged in a manner especially designed for handling milk, with much of which he fills bottles made for the purpose, and thus commands almost the entire trade of Middletown. Mr. Pickering has a family of four children, namely: Mackey J., a graduate of the Middletown high school and a student at the State Normal University at Terre Haute, Indiana, three of the oldest children are graduates of Middletown high school. Mr. Pickering and family attend the Christian church in Middletown, in which he is a deacon and the church clerk. Fraternally he has been a Master Mason for more than thirty years and has filled all the offices of his lodge. He and wife are like wise members of the Eastern Star degree, he serving as worthy patron one year; Mrs. Pickering is also a member of the Woman’s Relief Corps. Mr. Pickering keeps himself well read up in current literature, with which he also keeps his family well supplied and having practically retired from the active labor of the farm, enjoys in comfort the high respect of his neighbors which he has so deservedly won. Lora19572@aol.com Related Genealogy Resources: Search OneGreat Family for Pickering Surname New England Early Genealogy for Pickering Surname Family Tree Connection for Pickering
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