My Genealogy Hound

THOMAS R. HARDY, a native of Perry County, Ind., was born April 15, 1836, the eldest of five children, only two of whom are now living, born to J. and Eliza B. (Royston) Hardy. The father was born and raised in Bracken County, Ky., and in 1830 removed to Rome, Perry Co., Ind., where he engaged in merchandising, and later conducted a similar business in Stephensport, Ky. He died at that place in 1850. His widow was a native of Maryland, and died at Rockport, Ind., in February, 1883. Our subject was raised to years of maturity by his parents, receiving his education from the common schools and graduating from a business college at Indianapolis. He clerked in his father’s store in boyhood, and later engaged in a like occupation at Henderson, Ky. In 1858 he came to Rockport, Ind., and engaged in the grain trade along the Ohio River for a Louisville firm. In 1860 he embarked in the dry goods trade here, and has been actively engaged in that business and dealing in tobacco, grain and general produce to the present time. In these combined pursuits he has been very successful, and as he began life a poor boy he can justly be considered a self-made man. In 1855 Mr. Hardy married Kate Semonin, by whom he is the father of one son. In 1858 he was left a widower, and the year following united in marriage with Jennie Ellis, and to their union have been born three children, named Thomas R., Harry E. and Annie P. In politics Mr. Hardy has been a Republican since the war, and is at present president of the Citizen’s Bank of Rockport. Mrs. Hardy is a member of the Presbyterian Church.