Bartholomew-Decatur County IN Archives Biographies.....Petree, James A. 1846 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/in/infiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 24, 2007, 12:17 pm

Author: B. F. Bowen (1904)

JAMES A. PETREE.

   It is with pleasure that we present to our readers the life record of James
A. Petree, for he is a prominent and influential citizen of Bartholomew county
and one who is, for various reasons, entitled to distinctive representation in
this volume. He is a successful business man, an honored veteran of the Civil
war and is today as true and loyal to his duties of citizenship as when he
followed the old flag on southern battle-fields.

   Mr. Petree was born in Decatur county, Indiana, on the 26th of December,
1846, his parents being Pryor N. and Polly (Freeland) Petree. The father was
born in Union county, Indiana, in 1819 and the mother's birth occurred in Butler
county, Ohio, in 1818. The paternal grandfather of the subject was Adam Petree,
whose birth occurred in Pennsylvania and who became a farmer by occupation. When
a young man he left the Keystone state and made his way to Union county,
Indiana, where he remained until his son Pryor was sixteen years of age. He then
removed to Decatur county and bought a farm of three hundred acres. He did a
great deal of clearing in the early days and thus aided in reclaiming the wild
regions for the purposes of civilization. He also engaged in hunting at an early
period when there was much wild game. Deer and wild hogs were frequently seen
and killed. Adam Petree was a worthy and progressive pioneer and bravely faced
the trials and hardships of frontier life in order to establish a home for
himself and family in what was then the far west. In early manhood he wedded
Lucy Pryor, who was born near the central part of Virginia and who in her early
maidenhood accompanied her parents on their removal from the Old Dominion to
Union county, Indiana.

   Pryor N. Petree was reared amid the wild scenes of frontier life and early
gained practical knowledge of the methods of farming then practiced. Throughout
his entire life he carried on agricultural pursuits and became the owner of five
hundred acres of valuable land, all of which he gained himself through capable
management, untiring industry and sound judgment. The Republican party received
his earnest endorsement and upon election days he gave to its men and measures
his ballot. He was prominent in the ranks of the party and for twenty-eight
years served as one of the committeemen in Rock Creek township. He was justice
of the peace for several years and his capable service and unbiased judgment
"won golden opinions from all sorts of people." He was a Mason and was
identified with the organization at Elizabethtown. Truly a self-made man, he
deserved all the appreciation and honor which that term implies, for
empty-handed he started out upon his business career and whatever success he
achieved was attributable to his own efforts. His business life was ever
characterized by integrity and honor in all transactions and thus he gained for
himself a good name .as well as a comfortable competence. His death occurred
September 26, 1902, surviving his wife nine years, she dying in February, 1893.
In the family were but two children, the brother of the subject being John T.,
now deceased. He was a farmer, owning one hundred and forty acres of land in
Bartholomew county, and he married Martha Boyer, by whom he had two children.
Eva and Delia.

   James A. Petree is today one of the leading and successful agriculturists of
Bartholomew county. In his early boyhood he attended the public schools and when
not engaged with the duties of the schoolroom he worked in the fields upon the
old homestead. In 1864, immediately upon the return of his brother, who had
served in the Third Indiana Infantry, the subject enlisted as a recruit at
Columbus, in Company F, Twenty-second Indiana Infantry. He joined the regiment
at Atlanta, but was sent back to Chattanooga and was with Thomas in the fight at
Nashville. He was then sent via Washington to Moorehead and Goldsboro, North
Carolina, where he became attached to his regiment, which had been with Sherman
from Atlanta. After Johnston's surrender they marched to Washington and
participated in the grand review. He has ever maintained relations with his old
army comrades through membership in the Grand Army of the Republic, and for
sixteen years he has attended the state and national encampments. After the war
he went to Missouri, locating at Breckenridge, Caldwell county, where he
established a mercantile enterprise which he conducted for a year, when it was
destroyed by fire by southern sympathizers, who did not relish the idea of
having a northern soldier in their midst. Returning to his home in Indiana, he
has since carried on agricultural pursuits, residing on his present farm since
1872.

   Mr. Petree has been an active factor in agricultural circles in Bartholomew
county, having assisted in clearing at least three hundred acres of land. He and
his wife own four hundred and fifty-two acres of valuable land in Rock Creek
township, the greater part of which is under cultivation, and which he and his
son operates. He has a splendidly equipped farm, owning his own shredder and
thresher and other fine farming machinery for various purposes. He feeds to his
stock nearly everything that he raises, except his wheat and some hay. He makes
a specialty of the raising of Duroc Jersey hogs and shorthorn cattle. He buys
stock to supply his farm, purchasing in 1903 twenty-seven head of mules to
fatten and sell, besides other stock. He is an excellent judge of farm animals
and rarely, if ever, makes a mistake in judging their value. He has tiling to
the value of about twenty-eight hundred and sixty dollars upon his farm and
splendid improvements are there seen, his place being one of the most attractive
and pleasing as well as profitable in the community.

   In 1870 Mr. Petree was united in marriage to Miss Sarah F. Adams, a daughter
of William C. Adams. The father, a native of Kentucky, followed farming,
merchandising and pork packing at Columbus. He came here with his parents at an
early day and was one of the honored pioneer settlers. In his family were twelve
children and they were reared upon the home farm and became valued citizens of
the community. At one time Mr. Adams was the owner of twenty-two hundred acres
of fine land in Bartholomew county. He was probably acquainted with every man in
the county for he dealt extensively in hogs, mules and colts and to some extent
in cattle, finding this business profitable so that he became one of the
prosperous residents of this portion of the state. Socially he was connected
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the Masonic fraternity and
voted with the Republican party, while in the Christian church he held
membership. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Petree have been born three children: Alonzo, who
was born in 1873, married Ora Robertson and is now assisting his father on the
old home place; Mary, born in 1877, became the wife of James Walker, a farmer,
and since his death she has married Charles Trent, a dentist who is now
practicing in Elizabethtown; Minneskey, born in 1884, is the wife of Frank
Fulton, of Rock Creek township.

   Mr. Petree gives his political allegiance to the Republican party and, as
every true American citizen should do, feels an interest in the success and
growth of the principles which he believes right and which he thinks will best
promote the welfare of the nation. He has, however, never aspired to public
office. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, holding membership with the lodge
at Elizabethtown. Mr. Petree is well known in Bartholomew county, not only as an
honored veteran of the Civil war, but also as a loyal citizen in times of peace
and as a business man, who is found active and energetic as well as reliable in
his trade transactions. His honesty stands as an unquestioned fact in his career
and there are other elements which are equally strong in his character and which
command for him the unqualified confidence of those with whom he is associated.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY
INDIANA

INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GOVERNORS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF INDIANA

ILLUSTRATED

1904

B. F. Bowen PUBLISHER


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/bartholomew/bios/petree743gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/

File size: 8.7 Kb