John Gidley, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of John Gidley
JOHN GIDLEY is a native of England, and a son of John and Mary (Maddock) Gidley, both natives of England. His parents came to America in 1833, and moved to Porter County, Ind., in 1840, locating one mile east of Hebron, where they died. Owing to the early apprentice system of England, our subject obtained by a meager education before his tenth year, when he was bound to a farmer, from whom his unexpired term of six years was purchased when he came away. On coming to this country, he engaged in boating on Lake Erie, and afterward drove stage to Michigan, and reached Porter County, Ind., in 1838. At Shelbyville, Shelby Co., Ind., December 12, 1837, he was married to Miss Mary Davis, daughter of Archibald and Sandal Davis, a native of Kentucky. To this union succeeded eight children - Mary S., Elizabeth A., (deceased), Sarah (deceased), John A., Louisa P., Andrew B., Henry W. (deceased) and George W. Mr. Gidley first farmed on rented land, afterward, purchasing twenty acres, and adding forty, and later, eighty acres thereto, until he had 180, on which he lived until 1879, when he retired to Hebron, to live in ease and comfort. Mr. and Mrs. Gidley are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and among the first in Hebron at its organization. Mr. Gidley has been Steward and Trustee for thirty years.
Source: Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: Historical and Biographical, Illustrated. Chicago, Illinois: F. A. Battey & Company. 771 p.
Page(s) in Source: 321
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Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook