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Below is a family biography included in The History of Posey County, Indiana by John C. Leffel and published by Standard Publishing Company in 1913.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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James Cale, a member of one of the pioneer families of Kentucky and Indiana, was born April 3, 1829, son of Ellison and Margaret Cale, natives of Kentucky, who came to Posey county, Indiana, where James was born and reared. After finishing common school he began farming and accumulated a large fortune before his death. He bought his farm in Smith township in 1849, and on May 2 of the next year married Jane Jolly, daughter of Maxie and Nancy (Price) Jolly, natives of South Carolina, who came to Posey county in 1804, and are said to have been the first settlers near Stewartsville, where they located in the midst of the forest, there being no road, or even trail, near their home. Here a small clearing was made and a cabin built. The clearing was added to from time to time and the land farmed. Eight years after his location here Mr. Jolly joined the army of Gen. W. H. Harrison and helped drive out the Indians in the Wabash valley. Upon the restoration of peace he returned to his horns and continued farming and stock-raising. He was a blacksmith by trade, and being the only skilled workman in the vicinity, he had plenty of this kind of work. He helped build the first church in Posey county, which was located in the grove where Stewartsville now stands. In the erection of the building a log fell and killed a little boy, and his was the first grave in the church yard. This cemetery in the church yard is now said to the largest in the county. Mrs. James Cale is the sixth child in a family of eleven children, of whom only herself and one sister are living. She was born April 14, 1825, and attended such schools as were in those days available. The first one was held in her father’s kitchen, before any school building had been erected in the county, and the first teacher was James Wasson. When school buildings finally were erected they were of logs with puncheon seats and no ceiling except the boards of the roof. Heat was furnished by large fire-places. In those days the woods of Indiana were full of Indians and wild animals. The Jolly family had a neighbor by the name of Parks who was a bee hunter, and who had three children whom he was accustomed to take with him on his expeditions into the woods. One day when he had just cut down a bee tree on the Wabash the Indians came up and killed him and took his children captives. When they did not return the neighbors went to look for them, finding the body of Mr. Parks, but before they got it home they were ordered to Vincennes for the War of 1812. At that time there were no towns of New Harmony, Mt. Vernon or Evansville, and Mr. Jolly went to Red Banks, now Henderson, to trade. This was through woods uninhabited except by wild animals and Indians. Mr. and Mrs. Cale became the parents of five children: Annie, Sidney (deceased), Delia (deceased), Oscar, and Maxie (deceased). Annie married James Kimball and they live in Gibson county. They have no children. Sidney married Joseph Davis and lived in Gibson county until her death. Joseph Davis and Sidney Cale had five children — Mabel, Delia, James, Ewell K. and Lois. Delia Cale married Dr. Thomas Young, of Poseyville and they had one child, Morris, who was two years of age when his mother died and who was raised by his grandmother Cale.

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This family biography is one of 232 biographies included in The History of Posey County, Indiana by John C. Leffel and published in 1913 by Standard Publishing Company.  For the complete description, click here: Posey County, Indiana History and Genealogy

View additional Posey County, Indiana family biographies here: Posey County, Indiana Biographies

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