Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2023 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Centennial History of Grant County, Indiana 1812-1912, Vol. II Compiled from the Records of the Grant County Historical Society, Archives of the County, Data of Personal Interviews, and Other Authentic Sources of Local Information pub. Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York - 1914 Pg. 687-691 JOSHUA STRANGE The prosperity and advancement of a community depends upon the social character and public spirit of its members. In every prosperous town and country center will be found citizens who take the lead and give their energies not alone to their well being, but to the things that mean better and fuller life for all. Such a citizen in Grant county has MR. JOSHUA STRANGE been recognized for many years. As to his position in life and the work to which he has chiefly devoted himself it is somewhat difficult to classify MR. STRANGE. A large number of the years of his active career were spent in farming and stock raising on a large scale in the eastern part of the county in Monroe township, but for a long time his name has been prominently associated with business, industrial and financial organizations in this part of the state. There is no question, however, but that MR. STRANGE represents first and foremost the rural interests of this county. That he is by no means restricted in his activities and sympathies, since he has for some years been a national and state figure in everything that pertains to the development of the country and the welfare of the rural residents. With JOSHUA STRANGE it is a belief like the gospel that civilization rests at bottom on the whole- someness, the attractiveness, and the completeness of life in the country. In the accomplishments of his long and useful life, if he might be privi- leged to express a significance for what he has done he would undoubtedly desire that his life work might stand for something actually done in developing country life to its greater efficiency and prosperity. JOSHUA STRANGE is one of the oldest native sons of Grant county. He was born in this county November 18, 1844, a son of GEORGE and LYDIA (BUCKWALL) STRANGE. His father was born in Highland county, Ohio, November 12, 1819, and gave practically all his life to the occupation of farming. A few years were spent in partnership with WILLIAM HAYES in the packing and shipping of hogs. This enterprise had its seat in Grant county, and the partners bought a large number of hogs at ten cents per pound, after which the market immediately dropped to seven cents per pound. These transactions occurred about 1863, during the height of the Civil war period. the late GEORGE STRANGE came to Grant county in 1841, making his permanent settlement here in that year. Two years previously he had come to the county and selected the site on which he subsequently built his cabin home. After making this selection of his home he walked all the way back to Highland county, Ohio. The settlement of GEORGE STRANGE was one hundred and twenty acres of land in Section Nine of Monroe township, that land having previously been entered by his father ABSALOM STRANGE, who had attained his grant from the government. ABSALOM STRANGE had gone from Ohio to Indiana to enter land, going via Indianapolis to Fort Wayne from Highland county, Ohio, where he returned after entering this land and where he remained until his death. GEORGE STRANGE spent most of the years of his active life in Monroe township, where at one time he owned seven hundred and twenty acres of land. He was a man of remarkable energy, and kept active supervision over his affairs until he was eighty years of age. He and his wife kept their own house and managed their own affairs even when extremely old. In the fall of 1908 MR. GEORGE STRANGE was stricken with heart trouble and never fully recovered previous to his death which occurred October 1, 1909. In politics he was an "old hickory Democrat." For twelve years he served as Trustee of Monroe township, and during that time his annual service to the township never cost the public to exceed $67.00. LYDIA (BUCKWALL) STRANGE, the mother of JOSHUA STRANGE, was born in Highland county, Ohio, September 18, 1819, and died February 19, 1910, being then past ninety years of age. Although at that extreme age her death resulted from a fall when she broke her hip. She was a lineal descendant in the fourth generation from the PRINCESS LOUISA of the female side of the house of Hapsburg. Her grandfather, whose name was ELLIS, was a Revolutionary soldier, and accompanied WASHINGTON on his stormy voyage across the Delaware River to surprise the Hessians at Trenton. The late GEORGE STRANGE and wife were parents of eight children, five of whom are still living. It was the fortune, of which he is now proud, of JOSHUA STRANGE to have been born under a primitive old homestead in the woods of Monroe township, in surroundings, where the wolves and other wild animals were more numer- ous than domestic cattle, and at a time when this country was only a few years distant from its earliest settlement. When old enough to attend school he went to the first school in the district, at Arcana, originally called Mouron, and platted in 1852 for a town, of which MR. STRANGE has the original plat. At this school the teacher and his family lived in half of the school building, only a slight partition separating the two apartments. This school was taught by WILLIAM HARRISON. There are many novel and interesting reminiscences of those days which MR. STRANGE re- lates, and they would all be valuable material for local history. His attendance at the district school was completed in a school house erected by the community and it is noteworthy that MR. STRANGE now owns all the land where this school house stood; the old site at the present is abandoned, and the school was supplanted by a new frame building with the Masonic Hall over the school rooms. When he was nineteen years of age, MR. STRANGE entered the old seminary at Marion, where he was a student thirty-six days, and at the end of that time attained eighteen months' license for teaching. His first term of school was at Griffin school district, where he taught two terms during the years of 1864-65-66. He also taught two terms at the Number One school house in Monroe township. At the subsequent examination he obtained a certificate for two years, but declined any further solicitations to teach, and thence forward devoted all his time to stock raising and farming. It is one of the distinctions of MR. STRANGE as a farmer that he was probably the first man in the county to undertake the breeding of thorough-bred short-horn cattle on any commercial basis and produced the first herd of show cattle in the county. His business of farming was begun on eighty acres of land in section twelve of Monroe township, where he remained for two years. During that residence he built a log house, and began housekeeping in a room eleven by fifteen feet. Two years later, having sold out, he bought the northeast quarter of section fifteen in Monroe township, and this fine body of land is still among his possessions. He remained there until 1883, in which year he built his present beautiful country home at the little village of Arcana, which is located just north of his former place and in section ten of Monroe township. He moved into the new home in January, 1884, and continued his residence there until November, 1903, at which latter date he moved to Marion, locating first at 3628 South Washington Street, a property which he still owns, and where he lived until he bought and built his present home at 612 South Bronson Street. MR. STRANGE is a large land owner and at the present time has 600 acres in this county. His active career as a stockman began in 1879, when he took up the breed- ing of thoroughbred short-horn cattle. In 1890 tuberculosis appeared in his herd and he had to dispose of all the survivors. In 1889 he began the breeding of pure Shropshire sheep, and continued in that industry as long as he remained on the farm. MR. STRANGE in 1889 became actively identified with the gas boom in this county. He was one among a number of associates who organized the gas company and constructed a pipe line into the town of Van Buren. He was president of this company, the Arcana Gas Company, and finally became sole owner of its stock and equipment. While operating in this field he struck the first oil well in the township, and when his gas well gradually developed into oil he invented a separator which facilitated the pro- duction of the oil. In 1902 the American Window Glass Company bought out all his holdings and developments and leased his territory. The flourishing town of Van Buren in the northeast corner of Grant county, will always owe a debt to MR. STRANGE as the leader in its early develop- ment. In 1903 he secured options on two different tracts of land near the town and later bought them by the acre. They comprised twenty acres within seventy-five feet of the center of town, and he platted this land sold as business and residence lots. Subsequently he bought another tract and influenced the railroad to build a new depot on his land. His enterprise made Van Buren largely what it is at the present time. His property there he sold almost entirely at a large profit during the days of rising values, and after completing his sales he retired largely from active business and has since turned over the management of his farm to his son. However, MR. STRANGE has by no means given up his interest in scientific agriculture, and devotes a large part of his activities and energies to means and practices for the improvement of country life. His public and semi-public services have been so numerous and varied that it will be difficult to enumerate even the most important of them. First and foremost should be mentioned his interests in the good road movement. MR. STRANGE is one of the vice presidents of the State Good Road Association, and was chosen one of the directors of the National Good Road Congress. He ahs been officially connected with a number of good road conventions, but has not been able to attend many of them. In 1910 he was president of the Farmers National Congress which convened at Lincoln, Nebraska, and before which he delivered as his annual address a carefully thought out and worthy paper on "Federal Appropriation on Roads, as to its application and Workable Plan," an article which in substance was recently submitted to SENATOR BOURNE, Chairman of the Congressional Committee on Federal Aid to Postal Roads. SENATOR BOURNE has requested MR. STRANGE'S opinion with regard to a series of questions relating to federal cooperation in promoting the good roads movement. MR. STRANGE has been a member of the Christian church since 1866. Fraternally he has been affiliated with the Odd Fellows since 1890. In following out the varied activities of this remarkable citizen it is of interest to note that he was one of the original grangers in Grant county, having become active in that order during the early seventies. he was secretary of the first granger organized in the county, and subsequently became master and later delegate to the state grange. He organized at Marion the largest grange with charter membership in the history of the order. MR. STRANGE was also a member and was constituted state organizer for the Mutual Benefit Association, during its existence. Co-operative movements with objects for the extension of practical benefit and for educational ends had always enlisted the hearty cooperation of MR. STRANGE, and he has been identified with a number of minor enterprises of kindred nature. Politically his interests and activities have always been directed to the agrarian movement. In 1888 the Democrats, without his consent or know- ledge, nominated him for the office of representative to the state legislature. In 1890 at the organization of the new People's party, he was nominated for the legislature and the Democrats refused to name a candidate against him. However, he was defeated. In 1890 he was elected treasurer of the State Central Committee and in 1892 state chairman of the People's party with headquarters at Indianapolis. In the same year he was nominated and received the largest vote in the state for congress from the People's party. He was a delegate to the National Convention at Omaha, being chairman of the Indiana delegation and a member of the platform committee. The platform drafted at the Omaha convention by the committee of twenty-seven, of whom he was one, was one of the most remarkable documents in the history of American political parties, especially since it is said to have furnished more material for active legislation than any other platform before or since. MR. STRANGE was also a member of the National Committee of the Populist Party. In 1894 MR. STRANGE was nominated for congress by the Peoples party, an honor which he declined, and in the same year was a delegate to the National People's party convention at St. Louis when the nominees were BRYAN and WATSON. He took an important part in the deliberations and actions of that convention. In 1902 he was given the honor of writing and introducing the first resolu- tions covering the initiative and referendum, that being the first time in the history of American party conventions that such a resolution was introduced, and actually constituted a part of the platform. In 1895 GOVERNOR MATTHEWS appointed MR. STRANGE a delegate to the Farmers National Congress at Atlanta, Georgia. he is a life member of that congress and has served it officially for eight years, four years as second vice president, two years as first vice president, and two years as president, and for six years on the program to respond to address. He was elected president at Raleigh, North Carolina in 1909, and made the program for the 1910-1922 session. MR. STRANGE is a member of the National Civic Federation, and at the meeting in January 1910 of the governors of the various states at Washington he was one of the committee at large on resolutions. The governor of Indiana, subsequently appointed him one of the executive council of the Civic Federation on uniform legislation of the state. He is also a member of the executive committee of the State Conservation Association. MR. STRANGE was on the program at the meeting of December 11-12-13, 1912 of the Good Roads Congress at Indianapolis, and was for ten years presi- dent of the State Farmers Congress. On the subject which in a general manner is covered by these organizations mentioned, and on a great many other public questions, MR. STRANGE has been for years a keen and advanced thinker, and it is a special satisfaction that in later years he has seen many of plans and methods which he advocated anywhere from twenty to thirty years ago now instituted and a regular part of our civic code. In all matters pertaining to the farmer, MR. STRANGE is readily recognized as a national figure. He is one of the vice presidents of the National Citizens League on currency and banking reforms. He was appointed from the National Civic Federation, by its president, SETH LOW, as one of the committee of one hundred on immigration, and also on other committees notably that on distribution, and also on the one for the enforcement of the pure food laws. MR. STRANGE was one of the prime movers in the organization of the Grant County Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, a company which now carries an insurance business aggregating three and a half million dollars. He drafted the bill for the organization of the State Cyclone and Hailstorm Insurance Company of Indiana. For four years he was state secretary of the State Farmers Mutual Union Insurance Company, and at one time also represented Indiana in the National Union of the same company. He took a foremost part in the Farmers Institute of Indiana, and every honor and opportunity for service in these different capacities have come to him as a natural demand for one equipped and experienced for the best possible service, and he has given in their behalf a great deal of disinterested- ness and totally unpaid service. MR. STRANGE was united in marriage on March 1, 1866, to MISS EUNICE LEONARD, a daughter of GEORGE W. and HANNAH LEONARD, who were natives of Clinton county, Ohio. MRS. STRANGE was born in Grant county, August 3, 1845. Of the six children born to their union, only two now survive, WILLIAM T. STRANGE, who is active manager of the farm in Monroe township; and DR. LEONARD STRANGE, D. D. S., who for the past three years has been supervising the operation of eight hundred acres of land in Saskatchewan, and is not now engaged in the practice of his profession. ================================================================================