Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Atkinson, David C. 1870 - ************************************************ 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 December 8, 2006, 5:11 pm Author: T. H. Ball (1904) DAVID C. ATKINSON. David Clarence Atkinson, attorney-at-law at Hammond, is one of the young members of the bar of Lake county, and during his five years' practice in Hammond has gained a most creditable degree of success. He has also some business interests in the city and various properties in the county. He is a public-spirited man., capable and stanch in his citizenship, and thoroughly representative of the best interests of his city. Mr. Atkinson was born near Oxford, Benton county, Indiana, April 8, 1870, a son of Robert M. and Nancy E. (McClimans) Atkinson, both natives of Ohio. The family history goes back to the English Quaker settlement of Pennsylvania in 1682, when the first Atkinson ancestors settled there. Of such forefathers were Joseph and Susanna (Mills) Atkinson, both natives of Pennsylvania, and who were married there, becoming the parents of eleven children. They were the great-grandparents of David C. Atkinson. Joseph was a weaver by trade, but later came to Ohio and took up farming. He bought two hundred acres of land in Clinton county, but fifteen years later, through a defective title, lost his purchase money and all his effects, and after that farmed the place on the shares until his death in 1830. He was one of the pioneers of the state. Thomas M. Atkinson, the tenth child in the family of Joseph and Susanna Atkinson, was born in Pennsylvania, but came to Ohio in early youth. He was educated in a log schoolhouse, and mainly by his own efforts secured a good education. He was an eager and intelligent reader, and possessed a fine library. At the acre of twenty years he married Miss Frances Head, and then moved to Greene county, Ohio, where he bought two hundred acres of military land and engaged in farming. He afterwards became one of the pioneers of Benton county, Indiana, where he herded cattle, and drove them to market at Philadelphia. He was a vigorous and active man, and when he had already rounded the sixtieth turn on life's journey he walked all the way from Benton county to Philadelphia to attend the Centennial celebration of 1876. He had also planned to walk to the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, but died the preceding winter at the advanced age of eighty-three. He was first a Quaker in religious faith but later espoused the Spiritualistic faith. He was a prominent man in his community. He was one of the first commissioners of Benton county, and in 1865 he represented Benton and White counties in the lower house of the Indiana legislature. He was an abolitionist and later a Republican. In 1830 he traded a horse worth fifty dollars to Luke Conner for two thousand acres of what were known as the "lost lands" in the south part of Benton county. He soon afterward sold this claim for one hundred dollars, but in 1848 purchased part of it back at thirteen dollars an acre, and moved his family to the land, on which he lived until a few years before his death. The land became very valuable and most productive farming property. He and his sons subsequently bought up nearly all the original two thousand acres, and also owned twelve hundred acres besides. His wife also lived to a good old age, passing away when eighty-one years old, and they were the parents of twelve children, six sons and six daughters. Nine of these sons and daughters likewise attained to length of years, and they were all farmers or farmers' wives. Robert M. Atkinson, the son of Thomas M. Atkinson, was a farmer and stock-raiser in Benton county, and one of the county's most highly esteemed citizens. He served several terms as commissioner of Benton county. He died there in February, 1881, at the age of fifty-six years. His wife survived him until August, 1889, at which time she was fifty-five years old. She was a Methodist. They were the parents of six children, five sons and one daughter, as follows: Morton C., of Oxford, Indiana; Thomas L., of Toledo, Ohio; Wilbert M., of Benton county; David C., of Hammond; Alice, wife of William Forsythe, of Indianapolis; and Curtis, of Oxford, Indiana. Nancy E. Atkinson, the mother of these children, was a daughter of William and Nancy (Pearson) McClimans, who were parents of twelve children. Her father was of Irish descent, and her mother of German ancestry. Her father lived in Ohio, and died there past middle life, in 1840. David C. Atkinson was reared on his father's farm in Benton county. He received his early education in the district schools and then at the Oxford, Indiana, high school. He later entered the preparatory department of the State University, took the regular course in the university, graduating in 1893. In the following year he was a student in the University of Chicago, and received the degree of Master of Philosophy. His law studies were pursued at the Northwestern University Law School, where he was graduated in 1896 with the degree of LL. B. He was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of Illinois, and on moving to Indianapolis was admitted to the Indiana bar in September, 1896. He carried on active practice in Indianapolis until March, 1899, and then opened his office in Hammond, which he has made the scene of his activities ever since. Mr. Atkinson is a member of Hammond Lodge No. 210, K. of P., also of Royal League Council No. 38. He is a member of the Hammond Club. In politics be is a Republican, and he and his wife have church membership with the Plymouth Congregational church at Indianapolis. In addition to his pleasant home at 368 South Hohman street, he is interested in farm property. He is secretary of the Dermicilia Manufacturing Company. Mr. Atkinson married, in June, 1895, Miss Lillian Knipp, a daughter of Fred and Pauline (Youche) Knipp. They have one daughter, Helen. Additional Comments: Extracted from: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Genealogy and Biography OF LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA, WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 1834—1904 A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. REV. T. H. BALL OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO NEW YORK THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1904 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/lake/bios/atkinson424gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 6.7 Kb