Charles Thomas Casbon was the third surviving child and second surviving son of Thomas and and Emma (Scruby) Casbon. He is the first Casbon family member in my records to bear the name Charles. Like his brother Sylvester, his life is relatively well documented, thanks both to his long life and his biography, published in History of Porter County, Indiana (1912).[1]
Here is an image of Charles’ baptismal record of December 20, 1840.[2]
Detail from Meldreth (Cambridgeshire) parish register, baptisms 1840. (Click on image to enlarge)
The biography says this about Charles’ earliest days:
Mr. Casbon was born November 6, 1840, in Cambridgeshire, England, twenty-two miles from London, the son of an English farmer, Thomas Casbon and wife, Emma (Scruby) Casbon. When the son was five years old his father determined to bring his family to America, which was then a land of opportunities and almost undeveloped resources.[3]
To my modern eyes the description of Charles’ father Thomas as “an English farmer” overstates Thomas’ social standing in England, and diminishes the social and economic conditions that must have influenced his decision to leave England. In fact, Thomas was described in the census as an Agricultural Labourer.[4] As such, he would have been a wage earner and low in the social order; he did not own land and did not have the right to vote.[5],[6]
Being only 5 years old when he left England, Charles probably had only dim memories of his life there. He came of age while the family was living in Ohio. The History of Porter County, with a mix of fact and fabrication, tells us,
Throughout the years of his boyhood Charles Casbon was familiar with that old and trusted periodical journal, the New York Tribune, which regularly found its way to the home and was read more or less by all members of the household. Its great editor of the time, Horace Greeley, the author of the exhortation, “Go west, young man, and grow up with the country,” frequently wrote and edited the news with that sentence as his text.
It was partly with the inspiration derived from the Tribune, and also from the spirit of pioneering which had possessed his father before him, that caused Charles Casbon on arriving at his majority to start for the west. In company with a friend, George Bittner, in March, 1862, he arrived at Valparaiso, a small place at that time, where he paused in his journey and in this vicinity has remained ever since, to his own profit and to the benefit of the community.[7]
In this rosy description, the facts that are most likely accurate are the name of his travel companion and the approximate date of his travel to Indiana (see “Why Indiana?”). The author/editor of the biography likely embellished the story to make it more interesting for readers.
We are told that “on December 31, 1868, he returned to his Ohio home and there married Miss Mary E. [Mc]Marrell, who has been his companion on the road of life for nearly forty-five years.”[8]
Marriage record of Charles and Mary McMarrell, Holmes County, Ohio, 30 December, 1868.[9]
(Click on image to enlarge)
Mary was 4 years Charles’ junior. They grew up on nearby farms, both being listed in Washington Township, Holmes County, Ohio, in the 1860 census.[10],[11] Were they sweethearts before he left for Indiana in 1862, Charles age 21 and Mary 17, or did they become close on subsequent family visits to Ohio? Before his marriage, Charles “worked among the farmers, then rented a farm and cultivated it on shares.”[12] After returning to Indiana with his bride,
Mr. Casbon bought a little farm of forty acres, paying a hundred and fifty dollars in cash and going in debt for the remainder. A little log cabin and a pole stable constituted the chief improvements, and in this humble home the young people, with willing industry and the hope and enthusiasm characteristic of youth, began their career in Porter county.[13]
This land purchase was probably the one recorded January 13, 1871, in which Charles bought the SW ¼ of the SW ¼ of Section 13, Township 34, range 6 from his father Thomas for $1,000.[14] Charles’ small farm can be seen in this 1876 plat map of Porter township.[15]
Detail from 1876 plat map of Porter township, Porter county, Indiana,
showing property belonging to Thomas, Charles, and Jesse Casbon.
(Click on image to enlarge)
“Four children were born to them: Lillie, who died at the age of one year, Lodema, Sina and Lawrence.”[16] We have met Lawrence and Sina previously in this blog (see “Lawrence J Goes Transcontinental” and “Cousins”). Lillie May was born in 1870 and died September 9, 1871. [17] Lodema Evaline was born October 24, 1871; Sina Jane, March 27, 1873; and Lawrence John August 26, 1875.[18],[19],[20]
Family portrait, probably taken mid- to late 1890s. Front, L to R: Charles & Mary;
Back, L to R: Lodema, Lawrence, and Sina. Photo courtesy of Ron Casbon.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Charles continued to expand his landholdings, apparently doing well enough at farming that he was able to retire and move into town (Valparaiso) in 1903.[21]
The History of Porter County includes this lovely detail about Mary’s travels:
From August to October [year not given] Mrs. Casbon visited the beautiful scenery of Yellowstone Park, also San Francisco, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Catalina Island, then Camp Meeker, Seattle, Washington, Spokane Falls, Salt Lake City (where she visited the great Mormon Temple) and finally Denver, Colorado.[22]
One wonders why Charles did not accompany her. Perhaps his health did not allow it at this point in his life. Charles biography also gives us this photograph of Charles and Mary (and probably Sina) in front of their Valparaiso home at 203 Monroe Street.[23]
L to R: Mary, Charles, and (probably) Sina, about 1912. The original home is no longer standing.
(Click on image to enlarge)
The final words about Charles in the Porter County history are these:
Though always a busy man during his residence in the country, he had the welfare of the community at heart, and for a number of years filled the office of supervisor of his township. In politics he is a Democrat, and takes a broad-minded view of the social and political problems both at home and at the nation at large. He and his wife are members and liberal supporters of the Christian church of Valparaiso.[24]
Charles passed away in Valparaiso October 26, 1915 at the age of 74.[25] Mary survived him by another 12 years, passing away February 26, 1928 at the age of 83.[26] Both are buried at Maplewood Cemetery, in Valparaiso. Their only living descendants are through their daughter Lodema, who married Hiram Church in 1890.[27]
