James  Amos

          Frances  and  Elizabeth (Manuel) Amos  were natives of Rockingham county, North Carolina, where the former was born in 1802.  After they were married they decided that better prospects awaited them in the growing commonwealths of the Northwest, and so they bundled up their belongings and started out on the tedious trip over the mountains to the Ohio river.  It was in 1829 that they reached Jefferson county, Indiana, and they spent a year in that section of the state.  The next move was to Shelby county, where the head of the house leased land and worked it for two years.  He then entered one hundred and twenty acres and began in earnest the hard task of redeeming the place from the wilderness.  In time he added other land to his original purchase until his holdings amounted to a handsome acreage which under his close attention, was gradually changed into a respectable farm.  He spent the balance of his life in clearing and cultivating his farm, finally ending his days in 1872, after the completion of his sixty-nine year.  His wife had died in 1860, and both are buried in the family cemetery on the old homestead.  They were active members of the Methodist Protestant church and fine types of the county's first settlers.  They became the parents of eleven children, namely:  Francis, deceased in youth;  Nancy, widow of  John Weber, of Moral township;  William deceased husband of  Lucinda Hutchinson;  Lucy, deceased wife of  John J. Tucker;  Matilda died in infancy;  Sarah, widow of  Samuel Arbuckle, and resident of Indianapolis;  Jane, wife of   Washington Holmes, of Shelbyville;  Madama, deceased wife of  John Hoop;  Melissa, wife of  Madison Ellis, of Boone county, and  John.
          James W. Amos, third of this large family, was born in Moral township, Shelby county, Indiana, December 4, 1836.  He grew up to the hard work of a pioneer boy, helping to roll the logs, grub the underbrush and clear crop.  Between times he picked up a little book learning at the old-fashioned subscription school held in the rude log house of those days.  He remained with his father until he was twenty-seven years of age, by which time he felt the impulse to establish a home for himself.  In the early sixties he rented a tract of land and worked it for eleven years, but in 1874 bought sixty-two acres on which he spent much time and work in clearing, but eventually had the pleasure of seeing himself surrounded by a productive farm with all needed improvements.  Afterwards he bought thirty-five acres more which makes his home place amount to ninety-seven acres.  Since coming into possession Mr. Amos has greatly improved the place by putting up a new barn, new outbuildings, new residence and other additions, to say nothing of the fencing, clearing, and other steps necessary to make a modern farm.  Some of the old rails in the fences around his place were split by Mr. Amos himself in the early sixties.  In 1863 he married  Mary E., daughter of  William  and  Catherine (Hoop) Martin, and born in Vermilion county, Indiana, March 29, 1844.  William was a North Carolinian by birth and, when a boy, was brought to Shelby county by his parents, George  and  Elizabeth (Kiddle) Martin, who were among the first settlers of Moral township, but later removed to Illinois, where they died.  After growing to manhood in Shelby county, William Martin went to Vermilion county, to which place his future bride also came a year after his arrival.  She was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of  Peter Hoop, but after the death of her parents in Ohio, she came to Shelby county with a brother who later went to Vermilion county.  The children of  William and Catherine (Hoop) Martin, who were married in 1840, were  Jane, who died young;  Mary E. (Mrs. Amos), and  John deceased.
          Mrs. Amos is a genuine type of the pioneer woman, and can talk interestingly of the old days when she learned to card, spin and weave homespun clothes for the family.  Mr. and Mrs. Amos have had two children:  Lucy, deceased, wife of  Elias Bishop, left two children,  Harry C. and  Grace May;  Delia, second daughter of Mr. Amos, is the wife of  Benjamin Lee, and resides in Fairland.  They have seven children:  Walter,  Edna,  Harry,  Chalmer,  George,  Andy  and  Mary (twins).  Walter, the oldest, married Cordiac Young, resides in Moral township, and has one child, Arthur.
Chadwick's History of Shelby Co., Ind. Pages 829-830
Contributed by Kathy Ridlen

Biography Index       Main Page