My Genealogy Hound

James C. Jeffries, a farmer of Black township, Posey county, Indiana, was born in that township November 12, 1842, son of James S. and Rosanna (Curtis) Jeffries, the farmer born in Mecklenberg county, Virginia, and the latter a native of North Carolina. Mr. Curtis, grandfather of James Jeffries, removed from North Carolina to Tennessee, and then to Indiana, at a very early date before much of the country was cleared. James S. Jeffries was born in 1799, and he came to Indiana with his parents in 1811, the year of the earthquake at New Madrid, Mo. The grandfather Jeffries was an early-day teacher and farmer, operated the ferry at McFadden’s Bluff, now Mt. Vernon, and was the first ferry man at that place. He removed to the South later, where he died. Grandfather and Grandmother Curtis and James S. Jeffries and his wife died in Black township. James C. Jeffries received his education in the common schools and in the city schools of Mt. Vernon, and after finishing the course he began teaching in Posey county. Some of the school buildings were of logs with home-made furniture. In his twenty-seven years of teaching Mr. Jeffries only taught ten and one-half months outside of Posey county. A part of these twenty-seven years Mr. Jeffries had been farming in the summer time, and in 1889 he discontinued teaching and engaged in farming and stock-raising. He never had to make a second trial for his certificate, his grades always being good. Mr. Jeffries can remember when the country was timbered and log rollings were in vogue in the spring, the feast being ham and eggs. He is an active Democrat. His fraternal affiliations are with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. James C. Jeffries married Miss Martha Templeton, daughter of Gilbert and Martha (Holland) Templeton, who was educated in the schools of Mt. Vernon. The father of Martha Holland was Hezekiah Holland, a doctor and minister in Posey county, where he died. Mrs. Holland died in Kentucky. Mrs. Jeffries was born in Posey county, and attended school near her father’s farm. She is the sister of Worth Templeton, former trustee of Black township. Mr. and Mrs. Jeffries became the parents of nine children: George W., William H., Mattie, Ruth and Albert, all deceased; James G., at home with his parents; Julius W. married Nellie Armstrong, daughter of Frank J. and Fannie Armstrong, has one child, Mary, and they live at home on the Jeffries farm; Octavia, married Christian Moritz and lives in Nebraska; and Louis E., lives in Illinois, married Maggie Trafford, daughter of Edward and Dorcas Trafford, has one child, Norma Fern.