Wayne County Biographies



Part of the Indiana Biographies Project



John Hatfield

John Hatfield, liveryman, Richmond, is the son of Thomas Hatfield and grandson of Jonas Hatfield, who was born, reared and married in Pennsylvania. He removed to Kentucky about 1793, but shortly after settled in Montgomery County, Ohio. Early in the present century he settled on Greens Fork, Clay Township, Wayne Co., Ind., where he experienced all the privations of pioneer life till his death, in 1817. He was a member of the Society of Friends. His wife, Rachel, died at Washington, Ind. Their children — Thomas, Jonas, John, Nathan, Deborah, Rachel, Mary and Ann — all settled in Wayne County. Thomas, father of our subject, was a native of Pennsylvania, but came with his father to Indiana and bought a farm comprising the present site of Washington, which he cleared and laid out that village. He resided there many years and followed the carpenter's trade and kept an inn. The latter part of his life was spent in Wabash, Ind., until a few years previous to his death, when he returned to Washington, and died in 1853. His wife survived him till 1875. Their children were — Lydia, widow of John Martindale; Jonas; Richard, deceased; Mary, widow of George Gill; John; Matilda, wife of Charles Hobson, of Kansas; Melinda, who was married to Cyrus E. Gales, but are both now deceased, and Jane, wife of Edwin Freel, of Huntington County, Ind.

John Hatfield, whose name heads this sketch, is a native of Wayne County, where he has spent most of his life. He learned the carpenter's and cabinet maker's trade at which he worked several years, but is now a prominent liveryman of Richmond.

Source:
History of Wayne County, Indiana. Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co. 1884. Volume 2