This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Drinkwater, Murphy, Mills, Wood, Curlee, Scott, Hodgin, Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Fi.2ADE/1068 Message Board Post: This book has no cover, and no index, and no author. I bought it on Ebay; it just has the insides, but it is full of Indiana biographies. I am not researching this family, just thought I would share. I do not know anymore about these families or these surnames. I do not know if there is any other information in the book about the family mentioned. Typed by Lora Radiches: Surnames in this biography are Drinkwater, Murphy, Mills, Wood, Curlee, Scott, Hodgin, WILLIAM W. DRINKWATER, dealer in real estate, insurance and loans, formerly secretary and treasurer of the Farmers Trust & Savings Bank of Kokomo, has been a resident of Howard County for sixty years. He started life with a strong capacity for work, a sound intelligence, and his capabilities have steadily grown with the years and with added responsibility, and to say that he is one of the most highly respected esteemed of Kokomo is only stating a common opinion of his fellow men. Mr. Drinkwater was born at Ithaca, Ohio, April 80, 1855, son of Thompson and Rebecca (Murphy) Drinkwater. His father was born in Cincinnati a short time after his parents came to America from England. Thompson Drinkwater in December, 1865, brought his family to Indiana and settled on a farm five miles east of Kokomo, in Howard Township, Howard County. He was both a farmer and carpenter, and did considerable business as a contractor in Indiana. He died in 1875, leaving his widow, three Sons and five! daughters. William W. Drinkwater grew up on the home farm, and was accustomed to work and perform the never-ending routine of duties at home from an early age. Besides his employment in the fields he learned under the direction of his father the use of the tools of the carpenter, and was thus doubly prepared for a career of usefulness. He was twenty years of age when his father died, and that threw upon him the responsibilities of taking charge of the farm and helping to provide for the support of his mother and his sisters. He manfully met these obligations until his mother married again four years later and moved to Kokomo. In the meantime Mr. Drinkwater had attended school, one of the old log cabin schools of Howard County, and still later attended the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso. After leaving the home farm he worked as a carpenter, and when he married he rented a farm in Miami County and after six years bought land of his own. His care! er as a farmer continued until 1889, when he sold his land and moved to Kokomo. In Kokomo during the past forty years he has enjoyed a very successful experience in real estate, insurance and banking. He was for a number of years a member of the firm Duke Brothers & Company. In February, 1912, the business of that firm was consolidated with the Kokomo National Hank, resulting in the Farmers Trust & Savings Bank. Mr. Drinkwater because of his long experience in that field was put in charge of the mortgage loan and trust department of the bank and was given the offices of secretary and treasurer and a member of the hoard of directors, which he held for eighteen years. Mr. Drinkwater has at all times manifested a keen interest in those matters of community progress related to the improvement of the schools, the advancement of moral and religious organizations, and takes a special pride in his part as a member of the city school board for three years in the constructio! n of the Kokomo High School Building in 1915. He was chairman of the board when this school was erected. Mr. Drinkwater since early manhood has voted the Republican ticket, but has never been a seeker for political honors. An organization with which he and his family have been closely identified for many years is the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Drinkwater for thirty-three years has been church treasurer and trustee. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, member of the Independent Order of Red Men, the Tribe of Ben Hur and the Knights of the Maccabees. The chief inspiration of his business career has been his home life. Mr. Drinkwater married Miss Emma Mills, of Howard County, Indiana, daughter of William and Margerie Mills. To their marriage were born four children, Mazy B., John 0., Charles M. and Paul E., and at the present time Mr. Drinkwater has eleven grandchildren, ten of whom are boys. The daughter Mazy was born May 9, 1882, and ! is the wife of Mr. C. R. Wood, formerly of Kokomo, now of Webster Grove, Missouri. Mr. Wood has for many years been identified with the paperboard business, and at St. Louis has charge of the sales department of the River Racine Paper Company of Monroe, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Wood have five sons, three of whom are in the midst of their college and university careers: George W., a student in Washington University at Saint Louis; Charles R., in the University of Michigan; Richard, a student in the University of Missouri at Columbia; and Worley D., and Robert M., who are in high school at Webster Groves. John 0. Drinkwater was born July 8, 1884, finished his education in the University of Wisconsin at Madison and is in the real estate and promotion business at Kokomo. He married in June, 1924, Lelah Curlee and has two sons, John C., and David A. Charles M. Drinkwater was born April 26, 1886, and finished his education in the universities at Ann Arbor,! Michigan, and Madison, Wisconsin. He is now a resident of Dayton, Ohio, is in the hospital supply business and travels extensively, coming in contact with all the large hospitals throughout the country. He married in 1915 Marie Scott, of Kokomo, and their children are William S., Charles M. and Nancy M. Paul E. Drinkwater was born at Kokomo August 18, 1890. He graduated from the Kokomo High School when his father was chairman of the trustees of the school board, and finished his academic education in the university at Madison, Wisconsin. He married Mary L. Hodgin, of Kokomo, in May, 1917. Due to the health of his wife they moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he took a position with the Valley Bank and soon was promoted to the position of assistant credit clerk, which position he held until his health required his getting outdoor exercises. He was a natural mechanic and his education was along that line, and after leaving the bank he took up the development of! a cooling and heating system, on which he secured a patent and had entered into a contract with a large New York electric manufacturing company to perfect and manufacture the cooling and heating system, which was to take effect on July 1, 1922 but due to his failing health the contract was not consummated. He died while on a visit in Kokomo on July 10, 1922, leaving his widow and a son, Edwin L. Drinkwater, who was born at Phoenix in August, 1920, where they are now living.