"COUNTIES OF MORGAN, MONROE & BROWN, INDIANA. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL."
CHARLES BLANCHARD, EDITOR. CHICAGO: F. A. BATTEY & CO. PUBLISHERS. 1884.
F. A. BATTEY. F. W. TEPPLE 

MORGAN COUNTY, INDIANA
RAY TOWNWHIP
Page 288

PHILLIP HODGES, the oldest living settler in Ray Township, was born October31, 
1797, in Randolph County, N.C. and is the youngest of the seven children of JOHN 
and MARGARET (LACY) HODGES, of English and Irish descent respectively. John 
Hodges was a native of Herfordshire, England, was born in 1749, and by trade a glover. 
About the beginning of the Revolutionary war, he emigrated to America and served three
 years in that heroic campaign, soon after which he married MARGARET LACY. Philip
 Hodges was reared to farming, with the advantage of some schooling. When of age,
 October, 1818, he moved to Indiana, or Northwest Territory, and took a lease of land 
near Gosport, and where May, 1819, he wedded MISS MARY GOSS (then but 
fifteen years old), daughter of EPHRAIM and ANNA (WORKMAN) GOSS, founders 
of the town of Gosport. Ten children were born to them--EPHRAIM, JOHN (deceased), 
BETHSHEBA (deceased), NOAH, JOSEPH, SARAH (MRS. SIMS), THOMAS, 
ANNA (deceased), HARVEY (deceased) and HENRY C. In 1820, at the Terre Haute
 land sale, he purchased 160 acres in sections 1 and 2, Range 1 east, 11 north--the first 
land sold from the Indian purchase of 1818. In 1824, he located on eighty acres of land 
he had entered in Ray Township, among the hills, and afterward entered 220 more, where 
he remained until 1833, where he entered and occupied 160, where he now resides. To
 this he added 140 acres, all of which he constantly improved, thus possessing 810 acres
of good and well-cultivated land. In 1837, he built his residence, then one of the finest in 
that section. With but a legacy of $150 he began life, and has succeeded by industry and 
skill. Mr. Hodges is yet hale, and useful and benevolent. His present politics is Republican;
 he was formerly a Whig, and gave his first Presidential vote for Mr. Adams. He and wife
 are members of the Christian Church.

Data Entry Volunteer:  Diana Flynn  

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