Prominent among the substantial farmers and representative citizens of Blue River township is the well-known and popular gentleman to a brief review of whose life and characteristics the lines which follow are devoted. Levi Jessup is one of six children born to Jonathan and Mary (Bundy) Jessup, natives of Wayne county Indiana, his birth occurring in Blue River township, Hancock County, on the 23^rd day of October, 1851. The names of his brothers and sister are as follows: Josiah B., a farmer and stock raiser of Blue River, who married Lydia M. Holloway; Susannah, who died in the year 1878, was the wife of Joseph L. Binford and spent her life within the present limits of the above township; Elizabeth, wife of J. P. Cox, of Grant county, died in October, 1882; Eunice, now Mrs. John W. Hill, lives in the county of Rush, and Mary Amy, wife of James H. Parnell, of Blue River township.

Levi Jessup was reared on a farm, received a common school education and remained with his parents until 1872, on January 22^nd of which year he entered the marriage relation with Miss Mary Ann Binford, also a native of the township of Blue River. Her father, Joseph Binford, who was born June 29, 1817, in North Carolina, moved in an early day to Hancock county, Indiana. He married Elizabeth C. Hill, whose family were among the pioneers of Rush county. She died in 1860, when Mary Ann was eight years of age. Her father married, for a second wife, Mary Elizabeth (Hunnicutt) White. In 1881 they removed to Carthage, where he died October 16, 1889, while she is now living with a daughter in Greenfield. They reared the following children, viz: Charity B., wife of William Toms; Anna J., wife of Joseph Pritchard; Oliver L. married Martha A. Andrews: Mary Ann; Louisa, who is the wife of John Lewallen; Elizabeth B., wife of Jesse M. Stone. Besides the children named Mr. Binford had two by the second marriage, Caroline B., wife of Walter C. Henley, and Joseph Omar Binford, who married Eva I. Cook.

Joseph Binford was the son of James L. and Mary Ladd Binford, natives of North Carolina and Virginia respectively, the former a son of James and Hannah Binford, who lived and died in North Carolina. James L. Binford, about the year 1826, moved to Hancock county, settling in Blue River township, of which he was one of the early pioneers. Mrs. Jessup was given eighty acres by her father at her marriage and when the estate was divided she received sixty acres more, making one hundred and forty acres in the present farm, all of which was formerly in the Binford homestead. Soon after marriage Mr. Jessup received the value of forty acres of land from his father’s estate and in 1880 he bought the Cook farm of one hundred acres adjoining the home farm on the north. Subsequently, 1885, he bought an additional eighty acres in section 28, making an aggregate of three hundred and twenty acres in as desirable location as there is in the county, tow hundred and twenty-five acres being in cultivation.

Mr. Jessup cultivates his fields with the greatest care and method and, understanding fully the nature of soils, rarely if ever fails to keep his place to its full producing capacity. His farm is exceedingly desirable for its location, rich in its native fertility and valuable for its general improvements, high state of cultivation and its many attractive features as a model rural home. The condition of the premises and good repair of fences and buildings give the place the appearance of thrift and order such as few farms possess. Mr. Jessup is certainly a representative man in all that pertains to his chosen vocation and by industry, prudence and good judgment in the management of his affairs has accumulated a comfortable fortune. He is an able financier, usually correct in his judgment of matters of business, and may be taken as a notable example of the exercise of the sound underlying principles which invariably win success for their possessor.

Mr. Jessup and daughter are members by birthright of the society of Friends at Walnut Ridge. He is a Republican.

Mr. and Mrs. Jessup have one daughter, Iola, a young lady of refinement and general culture graduating in 1901 from the Carthage high school and now a student at Earlham College.

Transcribed from Biographical Memoirs of Hancock County B. F. Bowen, Publisher, Logansport, Indiana, 1902 Pages 399-400.

Submitted by Sylvia (Rose) Duda, Laingsburg, MI Sept. 22, 2003.

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