Wayne County IN Archives Biographies.....Underhill, John August 15, 1775 - September 1, 1834
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Glapha Cox rcoxfam@earthlink.net January 11, 2006, 9:41 pm

Author: History of Wayne County, Indiana;Volume II, (1884)

Perry Township
p. 714 - 716

John Underhill, one of the prominent pioneers of Wayne County, was born in 
North Carolina, Aug. 15, 1775. His father, John Underhill, came to America 
from England about 1770, at the age of sixteen, and was a blacksmith by trade. 
John Underhill, Jr., in early life developed those traits of character and 
those superior natural endowments which enabled him to rise above the 
difficulties which surrounded him in his boyhood and young manhood days, and 
to become one of the most noted men of his neighborhood, especially in the 
field of education. He very early developed a passion for learning, and soon 
mastered all the branches, then taught in the very imperfect district school 
of that day, and reached a position where the average teacher could not aid 
him further. He attended a boarding-school for a few weeks, after which he 
undertook the task of educating himself. He became well versed in history and 
in the polite literature of his day and time. But it was in the field of 
mathematics that he excelled, and made himself felt. He explored almost every 
domain of this important branch of science, commencing on the lowest round in 
the ladder, resting not until he made himself very familiar with, and 
proficient in, the same. At an early age he turned his attention to teaching 
and surveying in his native State. At the age of twenty-five he went to 
Tennessee, where he continued to teach. His teaching was mainly in a private 
school, and such was his skill as a teacher that he soon built up a large 
school. Even men who occupied positions in the higher schools of learning came 
to him for assistance in some of the higher branches of mathematics. He was 
married to Jane Jones, who was born in North Carolina, and who moved to 
Tennessee at the age of seven. Mr. Underhill was strongly opposed to slavery, 
and not wishing to rear his family in a slave State, he came to Wayne County, 
locating at Economy, where he entered immediately upon the practice of his 
profession as a teacher, and had soon built up a flourishing private school, 
which came to be the most famous in its day and time. About 1815 he and a few 
others were the authors of the constitution of the first Manumission Society 
ever organized in the United States. He reared a family of twelve children to 
maturity, and died Sept. 1, 1834, and his wife's death occurred Sept. 14, 
1869. Their youngest child, Jesse B. Underhill, was born Oct. 9, 1829, on the 
farm where he now resides and where he was reared. His education was obtained 
in the schools of his township. He resided with his widowed mother till he 
grew to manhood and assisted and cared for her till her death. He has followed 
farming through life, and is making a specialty of blooded stock. He was 
married Sept. 6, 1869, to Sue Bowers, a native of Pennsylvania, who came with 
her parents to Wayne County in 1863. They are the parents of five children---
John M., Edward F., Alfred C., Annie J. and Emmie Armina.


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