ALLEN WHICKER

Among the citizens of Hendricks County who have built up comfortable homes and surrounded themselves with large landed and personal property, none have attained a higher degree of success than Allen Whicker. With few opportunities except what his own efforts were capable of mastering and with many discouragements to overcomes, he has made an exceptional success of life and in his old age has the gratification of knowing he has the respect of the community in which he has resided all his life, and that it has been benefited by his presence and counsel. He is a link between the old days and the new, for his boyhood days were spent in truly pioneer conditions. Settling in a virgin wilderness, he helped his father to clear the forests, drain the fields and raise the first crops on some of the best land in Hendricks County.

Allen Whicker, the son of Fred K. and Elizabeth (Kosmer) Whicker, was born two miles southeast of Amo, Hendricks County, Indiana, March 20, 1837. His grandfather, James Whicker, was in the Revolutionary War. His grandmother, on his mother's side, was Abigail Pike, who lived to be ninety-six years of age. She was a great patriot during the Revolutionary days, and when the subject of this sketch was a small boy she told him many stories of the dark days of the Revolution. Her husband was a native of Germany. Mr. and Mrs. James Whicker, the grandparents of Allen Whicker, lived all their lives in North Carolina, and it was in that state that Fred K. Whicker was reared and married. Mr. and Mrs. Fred K. Whicker reared a large family of twelve children, six of whom were born in North Carolina and six in Indiana. They moved from North Carolina to Indiana shortly before Allen Whicker, the subject of this sketch, was born and located in the virgin wilderness south of Amo. Here they built a cabin of logs, with a puncheon floor and riven door, the entire building being erected without a nail. Wild game of all kinds was abundant in the woods, turkeys, squirrels, deer and all kinds of fur-bearing animals. In order to prepare the land for cultivation they cut down the magnificent oak, walnut and hickory trees and piled them in big heaps and burned them. Timber which was burned in those early days would now be worth several hundred dollars per acre at the present price of lumber. Fred K. Whicker died at the age of sixty-one and his wife at the age of seventy-eight.

Allen Whicker is the eleventh child in order of birth and the only one living of the twelve born to his parents. He has spent his whole life in this county. He attended the subscription schools in his boyhood days and received a limited education at the three-months terms, which was the length of the school year in his time. He continued to live and work on the homestead farm until he was twenty-five years of age, when he married and bought forty acres of land of his own adjoining the homestead farm. He has been remarkably successful as a farm and from time to time has added to his possessions until he is now the owner of five hundred and fifty acres of as fine land as can be found in the county. He has for many years made a specialty of cattle feeding and is recognized as one of the largest cattle feeders of the county. He has, in addition to his raising of cattle, also raised large numbers of horses and hogs for the market.

Mr. Whicker was married October 30, 1861, to Amanda West, of near Amo, and to this marriage there have been born six children: Mary, the wife of John Bunny, of Amo; Lina, the wife of William Lewis Beasley; Nora, the wife of Frank Bersbow; Simon, a merchant of Amo; Dennis, who lives near Indianapolis, and Otto, who now operates the home place. Mr. Whicker retired in 1913 from active farm life and divided his land among his children and now lives in Amo. His first wife died in 1901, and on May 25, 1903, he was married to Mrs. Ruth (Masten) Shirley, who is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Masten. Mrs. Whicker had a son, Walter Hodson, by a former marriage, who resides in Clay Township, west of Mr. Whicker's place.