Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Abram Garr
In the death of Abram Garr, Wayne county lost one of its most valued citizens. His entire life was spent within its borders, and for a number of years he was in control of what is probably the chief industrial interest of the county. In America "labor is king," and the sovereignty that the liberty-loving people of this nation acknowledge is that of business. The men of influence in this enlightened age are the enterprising, progressive representatives of commerce, and to such ones advancement and progress are due. Abram Gaar was one who had the mental poise and calm judgment to successfully guide and control gigantic business affairs, and at the same time he had a keen appreciation of the ethics of commercial life, so that he not only commanded the respect of his fellow men for his uprightness, but also excited their admiration by his splendid abilities.
Mr. Gaar was born in Wayne county, November 14, 1819, and during his infancy was taken by his parents to Richmond, where he spent his remaining days. His educational privileges were those afforded by the subscription schools of the period and he received his manual training in his father's cabinet shop. He served a regular apprenticeship, and in 1845, when his father embarked in the foundry business, Abram, being a natural mechanic, worked at pattern-making, building wooden machinery and other labors in connection with the foundry business. After a short time, however, misfortune overtook the enterprise and he was thus thrown out of employment. He was then about eighteen years of age, and during the two succeeding years he was in the employ of Ellis Nordyke, a millwright. All this time he was gaining a good practical knowledge of mechanical work that well fitted him for his greater responsibilities in connection with the Gaar Machine Works. About 1840, however, a period of financial depression and consequent business inactivity came upon the country, and as there was not much demand for mechanical work, he turned his attention to literary pursuits. He attended school for some time, his last teacher being James M. Poe, under whose direction he pursued his studies in 1842. The following year he entered the employ of J. M. and J. H. Hutton in the old Spring foundry machine shops, and there devoted himself untiringly to his duties, thus mastering the business in principle and detail. He also saved the major part of his wages until, in 1849, having acquired considerable capital, he purchased the plant, with his father, his brother, John M., and his brother-in-law, William G. Scott, as partners. The business was reorganized and conducted under the name of A. Garr & Company, and from that time until his death, forty-five years later, Abram Gaar was actively connected therewith and contributed in no small measure to its success. On the 1st of April, 1870, the business was incorporated under the name of Gaar, Scott & Company with a paid-up capital of four hundred thousand dollars, and he was elected president, a position which he continued to fill, with marked ability, until his demise. The business steadily grew in volume and importance until it had assumed extensive proportions and was accounted the leading industrial concern of the county. In its management Abram Gaar displayed splendid executive power and keen discrimination, and he was widely recognized as a most capable business man.
On the 26th of March, 1851, Mr. Gaar was united in marriage to Miss Agnes Adams, born May 2, 1831, a daughter of Henry and Agnes (Chapman) Adams. She was born on a farm south of Richmond, but spent the greater part of her girlhood, until her ninth year, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in Illinois. Her mother died in the latter state, after which the family returned to Wayne county. Mr. Adams was connected with the firm of Gaar, Scott & Company for a long period, and died in his seventy-fourth year. Mrs. Gaar was reared in Richmond from the age of nine, and from her thirteenth year until her marriage, at the age of nineteen, she acted as her father’s housekeeper. To Mr. and Mrs. Gaar were born four children: Oliver P., Clem A., Samuel W. and Nettie R. The daughter is the wife of S. S. Stratton, Jr., and all are residents of Richmond.
In 1867 Mr. Gaar became a member of the Methodist church, to which his widow belongs, and at all times was a liberal contributor to church and charitable interests. His support and cooperation were withheld from no enterprise calculated to prove of public benefit. He voted with the Democracy in early life, but when the Missouri Compromise was repealed, his opposition to slavery led him to join the Republican party, with which he affiliated until his death. Education, temperance, political reform and morality always found in him a friend, and in 1883 he donated five thousand dollars toward the erection of the First Methodist church in Richmond. In 1868 he was elected one of the trustees of the Home for Friendless Women, and for nine years gave his services to that institution without pecuniary reward. He was a man of large heart and broad humanitarian principles, and his public career and private life were alike above reproach. In 1876 he erected a beautiful residence on his farm two miles from the city, and made it one of the most attractive homes in Wayne county. There, in the midst of family and friends, he spent many delightful hours, for he was a man of domestic tastes and was never happier than when ministering to the happiness of his wife and children. He died February 10, 1894, and the community mourned the loss of one of its most valued citizens.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899
In all ages there has been no class of literature more sought after in public libraries, and its pages more earnestly perused, than that of biography, and especially is the history of men's lives interesting, who entered the wilds pf any new country and claimed the virgin soils as their heritage. The reader finds it wonderfully absorbing from the first to the last chapter, and then there is a powerful impulse to read it over and over again. The trials, and successes of the early settlers; their wars and 'treaties with Indians; captures, escapes and almost miraculous recoveries of women and children; great conspiracies, which only lacked success to change the history of our country and turn backward for a whole century the course of civilization; -romance, sentiment, toil, tribulation and gigantic achievements of a class of brave and hardy men and women, of whom their descendants can not learn enough, will probably never find a more complete and attractive record than in the present volume.
Had not Homer tuned his lofty lyre, observes Cicero, the valor of Achilles had remained unsung. The valor of our pioneers was never surpassed, and with another Homer to celebrate their achievements the grandest epic in all literature would enrapture our age.
In the class of pioneer settlers of Wayne county to whom such honors are due, we record that of the Gaar family, who have from 1807 brilliantly marked a pathway in the history of Wayne County. The family are of German extraction, but the time the ancestors first stepped on American soil is not definitely known. Abraham Gaar (grandfather of the President of Gaar, Scott & Co.'s Machine Works) was born in Hanover County, Va., Feb. 28, 1796, and grew to manhood in his native State, a living witness to many of the hardships of the war that freed America from English tyranny. He married Dinah Weaver who was also a native of Virginia and of German extraction. In 1805 they with their family moved to Kentucky, but afterward thought a more desirable location could be found and accordingly, in the spring of 1807, made their advent into what is now Boston Township, Wayne Co., Ind. Here Abraham entered from the Government a quarter-section of wild land. The programme was first to fell the trees and open out a spot on which to raise the necessaries of life together with that of erecting a rude log cabin in which to move his family. Ere long the bleak winds of winter began to play about the pioneer's home, and chinking and plastering the openings in the log hut became a duty, in order to secure comfortable quarters for the winter. Even in this early day, when churches and the glad tidings of salvation were seldom proclaimed aloud, this noble family never neglected the duty to their God, hence were ever faithful members in the regular Baptist church and were noble assistants in establishing a church of their choice. They were ever active in every good work. He succeeded well through life; although he came to Wayne County comparatively poor, by good management, willing hands and a brave heart he accumulated a good property. Aug. 20, 1861, ended the earthly career of one of the noblest pioneers of Wayne County, viz.: Abraham Gaar. His wife, Dinah, died Sept. 26, 1834, aged sixty-six years, ten months and one day.
They were the parents of eight children—Jonas; Fielding, who died in Utah; Larkin, who now resides on the old homestead in Boston Township; Abel, now resides in Michigan; Fannie, deceased, wife of William Lamb, of Iowa; Rosa, deceased, wife of John Ingels; Martha, wife of Jeptha Turner, and Eliza J., wife of Thomas Henderson, of Iowa. Jonas, the father of our subject (Abram), was born in Madison County, Va., Feb. 1, 1792. He and his younger brother, Fielding, were both soldiers in the Indian war of 1812, doing duty on the frontier in defense of the homes and lives of the border settlers. Jonas being a youth of fifteen when his father settled in Eastern Indiana among the wilds of nature, it became his duty to assist in clearing up his fathers farm, which he nobly performed. On reaching his majority, having acquired a limited education only, in the pioneer schools, he thought it advisable to take up some trade and accordingly settled upon that of cabinet-making, and in 1820 settled in the hamlet of Richmond to conduct his trade, where he continued several years. He was a man of progress and advancement, and in 1835 he, in company with Abel Thornley and Job W. Swain, established a foundry and machine shop, which was put into operation by the water draining from a swamp into the river near where the present county jail is located. This enterprise only survived a few years, and for about one decade he was identified with other interests. In 1849 he, together with his sons Abram and John M., and son-in-law, Wm. G. Scott, bought of Jesse M. and John A. Hutton, their machine works, which later grew into the extensive spring foundry, subsequently into the Gaar Machine Works, and lastly into the Gaar, Scott & Co.'s Machine Works. Jonas Gaar lived to be identified in the history of the above works until June 21, 1875, when death released his earthly cares. He was through life an active worker in all causes tending to elevate society and to the upbuilding of mankind. His wife, to whom he was joined in 1818, was Sarah Watson, a native of Kentucky, and died Nov. 8, 1863. They had eight children—Abram, born Nov. 14, 1819; Malinda, born Nov. 11, 1821; John Milton, born May 26, 1823 Samuel W., born Oct. 22, 1824; Fielding, born Jan. 1, 1827 Emeline, born June 16, 1829; Elizabeth, born July 27, 1831 Fannie A., born Oct. 5, 1833. Abram, the eldest of the family, and now President of the Gaar, Scott & Co. Machine Works, is a native ot Wayne County. His father moved to Richmond when he (Abram) was in infancy, hence he has been almost a life-long citizen of the city of Richmond. His boyhood aud youthful days were spent in his father's cabinet shop together with some time in the primitive schools of that day. Having been an apprentice with his father a few years, in 1835, when his father engaged in the foundry, Abram being a natural mechanic, worked at pattern-making, building wooden machinery, etc., though but about eighteen years old, but misfortune soon over-took his father and Abram was soon out of employment in that institution. During the years of 1839 and 1840 he worked with Ellis Nordyke at millwrighting. At this period hard times were inevitable and he gave up mechanics for a time and turned his attention to a literary pursuit. He attended school for some time and in 1842 closed his last session with James M. Poe as teacher. In 1843 he resumed mechanical labor by engaging with J. M. & J. H. Hutton in the Old Spring Foundry machine shops. Here he devoted his time closely letting his wages stand until 1849 when he, his father, brother J. M., and brother-in-law Wm. G. Scott bought the foundry and started under the name of A. Gaar & Co. Here the foundation was laid for the future extensive manufactory of Indiana. From this junction to the present Mr. Gaar has been closely identified with the works. Politically Mr. Gaar was reared a Democrat and so continued until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, when he left the party and became a Republican from that time forward, although he is not an office seeker. He belongs to no secret order, but has at all times been in sympathy with and advocated the cause of temperance. In 1867 Mr. Gaar became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which his wife, to whom he was joined March 26, 1851, also belongs. He has always been a liberal contributor in all enterprises tending to elevate mankind and society, and toward the erection of the First Methodist Church in Richmond in 1883, he contributed over $5,000. In 1868 he was elected one of the Trustees of the Home for the Friendless Women, where he served about nine years without remuneration, which he did cheerfully. In 1876 he erected a very superior residence on his farm two miles from the city, where he now lives with every comfort and pleasure necessary to life.
Source:
History of Wayne County, Indiana, Vol. II, Inter-state Publishing Co., Chicago, 1884