Howard-Carroll County IN Archives Biographies.....Viney, John I. 1840 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 21, 2006, 6:17 pm Author: Jackson Morrow JOHN I. VINEY. The subject of this sketch is a well known and popular citizen who has been commissioned pension attorney at Kokomo where his labors among his fellow men have made him a much liked public character, being known as a man of keen perceptive faculties, unusual soundness of judgment and upright in all his dealings with his fellow countrymen, until today his name stands high on the scroll of honored residents of Howard county. John I. Viney was born in Fayette county. West Virginia, January 12, 1840, and came to Indiana with his mother and step-father in 1852, settling in Carroll county. The name of the latter was John V. Fullwider and his mother's name was Francina. The subject was reared to manhood in that county, living there until past twenty years of age, when he felt it his duty to sever home ties and offer his services in suppressing the great rebellion that was threatening the Republic, consequently he enlisted in September, 1861, in Company A, Forty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, at Delphi, Carroll county, with John H. Gould, ex-judge of the circuit court, as captain. The company saw its first service in Kentucky and Tennessee, later in Missouri, where New Madrid was taken; then in Arkansas and Mississippi; was sent to New Orleans, and later returned to Vicks-burg, where it engaged in the great siege for forty-seven days, and was in the army that took Jackson, Mississippi. The company was again sent to New Orleans with General Banks and to Matagorda Bay. The subject was wounded November 3, 1863, at Faux Carion Crow Bayou, Louisiana, receiving a musket ball in the left arm and side. The ball came out and he still has it in his possession, together with a part of the bloody coat sleeve. He refused a discharge from the general hospital, the chief surgeon advising it, and after a furlough of sixty days he rejoined his company at New Orleans, being at that time on the Red river expedition. Being wounded he was refused, but was put in charge of twenty men in guarding repair shops, later serving as military police in New Orleans. He assisted in making out the pay rolls of non-veterans for six or seven regiments. He was discharged December 1, 1864, after an absence from home of three years and three months, and came back to Carroll county. He had met Susan Z. Powell in New Orleans, a southern girl, born in Panola county, Texas, and educated in New Orleans, who then lived at Tangipaho Station, Louisiana, where her parents moved October, 17, 1864, but he left her to come home for the purpose of being mustered out. He sent for her and she came on to Burlington, Carroll county, Indiana. Her family was divided, one brother was a captain on a Confederate gun boat and lost a leg at the battle of Bayou Beth, Louisiana. One brother, Henry, was in the Seventh Louisiana "Tigers". One sister was also in league with the South, but the girl who became our subject's wife was a Northern sympathizer. One brother, who attempted to surrender, was accidentally shot by Federal troops. After returning home Mr. Viney engaged in farming for several years near Burlington, Carroll county. His wound somewhat handicapped him for farm work, and he went to Burlington, engaging in a grocery store for six years. He was postmaster of that town under Harrison's administration, having ably served in that capacity for four years and six months. Then he was elected assessor for one term, after which he was re-appointed postmaster under President McKinley, serving another term for four years and again was re-appoined [sic] for four years, but resigned after nine years of service as postmaster, having been compelled to do so on account of failing health. He came to Kokomo May 29, 1902. For a time he clerked in a store; then operated a garden and since 1906 has been devoting his time exclusively to his duties as pension attorney, having a commission dating back to General Q. C. LaMars as secretary, having served in a similar capacity in Carroll county after the war for three terms. He has also been deputy county assessor for one term and also did other similar work on various boards. He was quarter master of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Burlington, of which he was a charter member, having held the position mentioned until the post was disbanded. Mr. Viney had one son, Claude, by his first wife, living in Kokomo. The first wife of the subject passed to her rest after they had been married sixteen years. The mother of the subject's first wife was a radical Union woman. Mr. Viney married Mary C. McGuire, of Burlington, November 18, 1878. He has the following children by this union: Omar, living in Kokomo; Roscoe, a nail maker; Ethel, a milliner: Myrtle is a school girl in 1908. Mr. Viney is and has been notary public for about eleven years. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He has been well and favorably known wherever he has resided, always maintaining a high standard of living, being upright, industrious, honest and kind hearted, so that he makes friends easily. Additional Comments: From: HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA BY JACKSON MORROW, B. A. ILLUSTRATED VOL. II B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA (circa 1909) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/howard/bios/viney362nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/infiles/ File size: 5.8 Kb