Tilghman Fish, the well known and progressive citizen of Knightstown, Indiana, was a soldier of the Civil War, in Company I, 3rd Indiana Cavalry, which organization he was active in recruiting. When the company was fully organized, he was the unanimous choice of his comrades for First Lieutenant, and was commissioned as such, September 13, 1861, and mustered into the service of the United States, October 18, 1861. On account of failing health, he was forced to resign, January 25, 1862. While his time at the front was brief, it did not measure his service during the War. After his return to Knightstown, he was very active in support of the Government, in encouraging enlistments, in soliciting and forwarding to the front sanitary and other supplies and in caring for the families of absent soldiers. In the great emergency which threatened the permanency of the Union, he did his full and entire duty.
Lieutenant Fish was born near Baltimore, Maryland, November 28, 1829. His parents were Tilghman and Eliza Fish, who came to Indiana in 1836 and settled at Richmond, Wayne County, where they remained three years. They then moved to Greensfork, in the same county, where they lived for seven years. Then removing to Raysville, Henry County, the father there bought or built and operated a woolen mill until 1852, when he disposed of the same. In 1856, the elder Fish removed with all his family, except the son, Tilghman, to Iowa, settling near Columbus Junction, in Louisa County, where the parents died and were buried. The other children of this family were Frank, who died at Richmond; Elizabeth; Anna Eliza; Amanda and Evan.
When his father sold the woolen mill as above stated, young Tilghman Fish removed to Knightstown and has made that place his home to the present time, witnessing its growth from a small, straggling village to a thriving, enterprising, beautiful town, and himself playing an important part in this growth. He was for nine years in the grocery business and then for twenty eight years in the hardware trade. He is now retired from active business but devotes a portion of his time to the Citizens' State Bank at Knightstown, of which he is vice-president and director.
Mr. Fish was first married to Elizabeth Anderson, who died in 1853, about a year after their marriage. He afterwards married Margaret J. Bell, in Knightstown, October 20, 1854. They have no children. Mrs. Fish is a daughter of Harvey and Nancy Bell. She was born in Augusta County, Virginia, December 20, 1829, and came with her parents to Indiana in 1832. The Bell family first settled in Rush County, near the old town of West Liberty, where they lived until 1840, when they removed to Knightstown, where Mr. Bell, for the remainder of his life, was a prominent business man and a highly respected and honored citizen. Harvey Bell was born in 1806 and died in 1886. His wife was born in 1809 and died in 1842. They were married in Virginia in 1827. Both are buried in the old Barrett Cemetery, Rush County, near the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home.
Tilghman Fish is a member of the Jerry B. Mason Post, No. 168, Grand Army of the Republic; Golden Rule Lodge, No. 16, A. F. and A. M.; Royal Arch Chapter, No. 33; Cryptic Council, No. 29, and Knightstown Commandery, No. 9. Knights Templar, all of Knightstown. Politically, he has been a Republican from the organization of the party.
Mr. Fish's long and active business life merits the confidence and esteem of all who have been honored by his acquaintance. No man in Knightstown or, for that matter, in Henry County, enjoys a more enviable reputation.
Source: George Hazzard, "Hazzard's History of Henry County, Indiana: 1822-1906", New Castle, Ind.: G. Hazzard, 1906.
Charles H. [Plimpton] b. May 23, 1845; m. Nov. 4, 1867, Mary A., dau. of Hon. Harvey Bell, formerly of Virginia; and has been in the railroad business since the war, as locomotive engineer and passenger conductor; Danville, Ill. Mustered into the service of the United States July 31, 1862, in the 15th Massachusetts Regiment; transferred Sept. 1, 1863, to Co. F., third Veteran Reserved Corps, then located at New Haven, Conn., where his term of service expired. He was in the "Seven-days'-fight," Second Bull's Run, South Mountain, and last at Antietam, where the "Old Fifteenth" suffered as it never did before. Near the close of the last-mentioned battle, he was severely wounded in three places and taken prisoner. After being a prisoner three days he was recaptured by his own regiment, and then conveyed to the Battlefield Hospital. The surgeons there decided to amputate his left leg above the knee-joint. This he opposed so strongly that he was left to care for himself. In intense suffering, by ambulance and by railroad, he was taken to Philadelphia. There, by the aid of the most skillful surgeons, and good nursing, he recovered.
The patriotism which seems to have pervaded this whole family, in the person of this boy of seventeen years of age was peculiarly high-toned and enthusiastic. Earnestly he plead with his parents, and proudly he stepped forth to enter the already thinning ranks of the glorious "Old 15th."
Source: Levi B. Chase, A genealogy and historical notices of the family of Plimpton or Plympton in America: and of Plumpton in England; Hartford, Conn.: Plimpton Mfg. Co. Print., 1884
J. F. Bell was born in Virginia in 1831, a son of H. Bell, of Knightstown. He received a common-school education and then went into a shop to learn the trade of a tinsmith. He followed that and the hardware business till 1871 when he moved to his present home and has since been engaged in farming and stock raising. He was Postmaster of Knightstown ten years. He was married in 1851 to Angeline, daughter of John Pride, a native of Indiana. They have no children. Politically Mr. Bell is a Republican. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
Source: History of Henry County, Indiana; Chicago: Inter-State Pub. Co., 1884
