On the Wing

Here are the pictures again.

The answers:

1. If you guessed Amos James Casbon for this one, you would be partially correct; but the correct answer for the year 1956 is Herbert Aylesworth Casbon (1910–1989). The house is located in the southwest quarter, Section 32, Township 34 North, Range 6 West (Porter Township, just southwest of Boone Grove). Amos purchased the property in January 1901, shortly after his marriage to Carrie Belle Aylesworth.^[5] He built the farm and raised his family there (see “The Amos Casbon Farm, Boone Grove, Indiana”), but he eventually moved down the road a bit. His original farm passed on to his son Herbert (“Herb”) and his wife Evelyn (Stupeck, 1914–1978). The farmhouse and many of the buildings seen in the photograph are still there today.
2. Lynnet Marquart Casbon (1899–1983). This farm belonged to my great uncle Lynnet (husband of Belle, the poet). Although Lynnet owned the property in 1956, I don’t know if he ever lived there. He resided in Valparaiso since at least the early 1930s. The farm was located in the southwest quarter of Section 9, Township 33 North, Range 6 West, about 4 ½ miles east of Hebron (Boone Township). The property has an interesting history. The original patent for the land was granted to a man named James Hall in 1840.^[6] It was then purchased by Giles Aylesworth, who sold it to his new son-in-law, Sylvester Casbon, in 1861.^[7] Sylvester sold it to his brother-in-law, Porter Aylesworth, in 1865, as part of a land swap for Porter’s property in Lake County.^[8] Porter moved to Iowa, and sold the land back to his father Giles in late 1868.^[9] Giles died in 1880, and Sylvester Casbon’s son, Lawrence Leslie Casbon, acquired it as part of a partition settlement of Giles’ estate, in 1881.^[10] Lawrence moved his family to Morgan township in about 1908, but retained the property. He eventually divided his properties in Morgan and Boone Townships between his three sons, Leslie, Loring, and Lynnet, with Lynnet getting the Boone Township property. I’m not sure, but I think the house is still there, just off of Highway 8.
3. Floyd Sylvester Casbon (1902–1987). Floyd was the son of Charles Parkfield (half brother to Lawrence Leslie Casbon) and Julia (Bidwell) Casbon. The property is contained within the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter, Section 31, Township 35 North, Range 5 West, in Center Township, just southwest of Valparaiso. I haven’t pieced together the entire history of this property, but I know that Sylvester purchased it in 1905.^[11] He may have conveyed it soon thereafter to his son Charles P, since a plat map of 1906 shows it in Charles’ possession.^[12] At some point, it must have passed on to Charles’ son Floyd. The house is still there, about one mile south of Graceland Cemetery on the west side of Smoke Road. When I drove past last April with my father, the property was in disrepair.
4. This was Amos James Casbon’s (1869–1956) farm in 1956, the same year he died. This land is in the northeast quarter of Section 6, Township 33 North, Range 6 West (Boone Township), just a quarter mile south of his original home. Amos bought the property in 1917, extending his previous holdings.^[13] I’m not certain, but I believe he built the house shown in the photo, since earlier plat maps do not show a structure at that location. We caught a glimpse of the house’s interior in the photo showing Amos with 3 generations of his descendants. The property changed hands several times following Amos’ and Carrie’s deaths, but the original home is still there, and now owned and occupied by one of their great grandsons.
5. Loring Peter Casbon (1896–1970). This property, located in the northwest corner of Section 6, Township 34 North, Range 5 West (Morgan Township), is the only one of the farms I visited as a child. All my memories of visiting there are happy ones. I even stored my footlocker of belongings in Aunt Norma’s attic during my college summer vacations! This is the property that Loring’s father, Lawrence, bought in 1908 when he left Porter Township.^[14] Lawrence bought about 160 acres, and later divided it, with Loring getting the southern 80 and my grandfather Leslie getting the northern 80 acres. The farmhouse preceded Lawrence’s ownership, and is even noted on the 1876 plat map.^[15] The buildings are still there and occupied, but no longer in the family.
6. Harry James Casbon (1906–1965). Harry was also one of Amos’ sons. Amos purchased this plot, part of the southeast corner of Section 31, Township 34 North, Range 6 West (Porter Township), in 1907.^[16] The house was about one-third mile north of Amos’ farm, on the west side of the road. (This stretch of County Road S 400 West should really be called “Casbon Road,” because roughly one-half mile of it is, or was, occupied by Amos and his descendants!) I don’t know when ownership of the property transferred from Amos to Harry and his wife Helen (Thatcher, 1907–1982), but they were living there with their two children at the time of the 1940 census.^[17] Harry’s son Harry Dale inherited the property after Helen’s death in 1982. It was eventually subdivided and sold to multiple buyers.^[18] From Google Maps satellite view, it doesn’t look like the original buildings are still there.

Here’s an old map (1876) of Porter County, showing the approximate locations of these farmsteads. The time frame for the map doesn’t match that of the aerial photographs, but I like the map, and it shows the township names and numbered sections corresponding to the property descriptions. Astute readers will notice that Boone Grove is in the “wrong” location on the map, having relocated to its present position with the coming of the railroad in 1883.^[19]

Well, how did you do on the quiz? Don’t be disappointed if you didn’t get 100%. Anything better than 50 percent should be considered very good! The six farm owners are divided equally between two branches of the family (James [~1813–1884] and Thomas [1803–1888]). A member of one branch today is probably separated from the other by three or more degrees of kinship, and would be unlikely to know where they lived. How many of us know where our third cousins, or our first cousins three times removed, live today?

[1] “Photographs & Historical Images: Aerial Homestead Images of Porter County, 1956,” Porter County, Indiana (http://www.inportercounty.org/PhotoPages/DruryPorterCounty1956/DruryPorterCounty1956.html : accessed 11 March 2018).
[2] Steve Shook, Porter County, Indiana, a Part of the INGenWeb Project (http://www.inportercounty.org/ : accessed 11 March 2018).
[3] “John Drury,” FindAGrave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/68344319 : accessed 11 March 2018), memorial no. 68344319, created by Eva Hopkins, 14 Apr 2011; citing Chesterton Cemetery, Chesterton, Porter, Indiana.
[4] “New Historical Group Starts in Chesterton,” The (Valparaiso, Indiana) Vidette-Messenger, 18 Oct 1948, p. 8, col. 6; online image, Newspaper Archive (accessed through participating libraries : accessed 11 March 2018).
[5] Porter County, Indiana, Deeds, Book 60:37, Hattie Dye to Amos J Casbon, warranty deed, 14 Jan 1901; County Recorder’s Office, Valparaiso.
[6] U.S. Department of the Interior, “Search Documents by Type,” Bureau of and Management, General Land Office Records (https://glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx#searchTabIndex=0 : accessed 11 March 2018), search terms: “Indiana” “Porter County” “Township 33 North” “Range 6 West” “Section 9.”
[7] Porter County, Indiana, Deeds, N: 12–13, Casbon Sylv from Aylesworth, Giles, warranty deed, 19 Dec 1861.
[8] Porter County, Indiana, Deeds, R: 13, Casbon S to Peter Aylsworth, warranty deed, 14 Oct 1865.
[9] Porter County, Indiana, Deeds, V:39, Aylsworth Porter to Aylsworth Giles, warranty deed, 29 Dec 1868.
[10] Porter County, Indiana, Deeds, Book 35: 276-9, partition deed, 23 Apr 1881.
[11] Porter County, Indiana, Deeds, Book 65: 533, Francis White to Sylvester Casbon, warranty deed, 23 May 1905.
[12] “Center Township Maps,” link for “1906 Plat Map,” Porter County, Indiana (http://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/CenterTownshipMaps.html : accessed 11 March 2018).
[13] Porter County, Indiana, Deeds, Book 60:37, Frank Phillips to Amos J Casbon, warranty deed, 22 Dec 1917.
[14] Porter County, Indiana, Deeds, Book 69: 124, Herbert J Fish to Lawrence L Casbon, warranty deed, 10 February 1908.
[15] “Morgan Township Maps,” link for “1876 Plat Map,” Porter County, Indiana (http://www.inportercounty.org/Data/Maps/MorganTownshipMaps.html : accessed 11 March 2018).
[16] Porter County, Indiana, Deeds, Book 68: 103, Anna Young to Amos J. Casbon, warranty deed, 1 Apr 1907.
[17] “United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V1YG-1Z4 : accessed 26 July 2017), Harry J Casbon, Porter Township, enumeration district 64-20, sheet 5B, line 70, family 88; citing NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 1086. RG 29.
[18] Ron Casbon [(e-address for private use),] to Jon Casbon, e-mail, 10 Mar 2018, “Amos’ second home,” Jon Casbon’s online correspondence folder [(e-address for private use),], Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2018.
[19] Steve Shook, “The Chicago & Atlantic Railway Wreck at Sandy Hook, 1887,” 1 Dec 17, Porter County’s Past: An Amateur Historian’s Perspective (http://www.porterhistory.org/2017/12/the-chicago-atlantic-railway-wreck-at.html : accessed 11 March 2018).
[20] Illustrated Historical Atlas of Porter County, Indiana (Valparaiso: A.G. Hardesty, 1876), p. 22; online image, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4093pm.gla00036/ : accessed 11 March 2018), image 14 of 63.