Posted on: Biographies of Van Arsdale & Related Families Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/VanArsdaleBios/129 Surname: Andrews, Banker, Brown, Hacket, Hallock, Harris, Keever, Manor, Mulkins, Neal, Ribble, Strong, Suiter, Wilkins, Woolverton, Wolverton, Van Arsdoll ------------------------- Rachel WOOLVERTON – As early as 1820, settlers were making homes along the White river, in the state of Indiana, and among those who came at that date were the parents of the subject of this mention. The grandparents came from Ireland in an early day, but the father and mother of Mrs. WOOLVERTON had grown up in Ohio and Pennsylvania respectively, and came to Delaware county, Ind., in April of the above year, and settled near Muncie. Here her father entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, and here she lived until her marriage. After that event she and her husband settled on a farm of 200 acres, one mile east of Albany, where they remained until the death of Mr. WOOLVERTON, April 13, 1889. Abner WOOLVERTON, the husband of Rachel WOOLVERTON, was born October 20, 1815, near Middletown, Butler county, Ohio, a son of David and Eva WOOLVERTON, of whom he was the eldest child. The others were: Theresa, the wife of [Moses] Dudley HARRIS; Eva, the wife of John SNITER [SUITER]; Jane, the wife of John NEAL; Kate, Isaac, John; and Ella, the wife of Frank B. BANKER. In 1820, Abner accompanied his uncle to Preble county, Ohio, where he grew to manhood, and in 1834, he was married to Miss Abigail KEEVER, who died August 10, 1863. Mr. WOOLVERTON afterward married Miss Rachel VAN ARSDOLL, March 11, 1864, at Mrs. WOOLVERTON’s home, near Muncie, where she had lived from childhood. Mr. WOOLVERTON [sic, should read VAN ARSDOL] came to Delaware township at an early day, when Muncie was known as an Indian village, and by whom it was named. He settled in the woods and built one of the first log cabins that was built in that part of the country. The whole country was sparsely settled and Mrs. WOOLVERTON’s brother, Isaac, was the first white child born in Delaware county. Mr. [Abner] WOOLVERTON was a member of the Christian church, in which he was a minister for nearly forty years. Financially, he was a successful man, and when he was called away from life he was mourned by many. He was a kind husband and a fond and loving father. He left three children by his first marriage and three by his second, they being as follows: Catherine, wife of N.[apoleon] B. STRONG; Eva A., wife of G.[eorge] A. ANDREWS; Sarah, wife of D.[avid] J. MANOR, deceased; Dora A., David, a brick mason, and Hall[i]et A.[bner], a farmer. The father of Mrs. WOLVERTON was a preacher in the Christian church, and the Indians used often to come to be a part of his audience. They respected the family and never in any way molested them. Mrs. WOLVERTON’s family can relate many interesting reminiscences of pioneer life. When her father first settled on the land purchased from the government, he did not even have a cabin for shelter. The first night the family slept by a log fire in the open air with no protection but the hazel brush, and the next day he, with the help of another emigrant by the name of Makeprice, constructed a temporary shed of saplings, which, being too small to accomodate both families with their goods, a part of the latter were, for the time, protected from the rain by a covering of bark. Mrs. WOLVERTON remembers very well the many and uncermonious [sic] visits paid the family by the Indian neighbors, particularly of one old squaw that they called Sally, who thought much of Mr. [Van] ARSDOLL and his family. When her brother Cornelius was two years old, Sally begged the favor of taking him home with her to her wigwam, indicating to his mother by pointing to the sun at what hour she would bring him home. The child was promptly returned at the time promised but old Sally said she “much scared,” thought she had “choked white pappoose almost to death.” She had given him a toothsome mess of venison on which the child had choked. The brothers and sisters of Mrs. WOLVERTON were: Thomas, a farmer [son] of [Jane McClellan and her first husband] HACKET; Mary, wife of William BROWN; John; Nellie, wife of Henry MULKINS; William, deceased; Martha, wife of Christopher RIBBLE; Isaac, Cornelius, Jane, the wife of Francis WILKINS; Lucretia, wife of Charles HALLOCK. Mrs. WOOLVERTON has at present a farm of 1-6 acres of good and well improved land, and also owns a nice home in Albany where she and her family now reside. The family is one of the oldest and best known in Delaware county. Source: A Portrait and Biographical Record of Delaware County, Indiana, etc., publisher A. W. Bowen, Chicago, 1894, pages 564-565. Link: Father, Cornelius Vanarsdoll. URL: <http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/VanArsdaleBios/127>