Bio. of Charles Osborn-1016

History of Wayne County, Indiana, Vol. II, Chicago, Inter-State
Publishing Co., 1884. Page 703. (Perry Township) (transcript)
[See an 1872 bio. of Charles Osborn-1016]
[See an 1882 bio. of Charles Osborn-1016]

Charles Osborn. -- Matthew Osborn was a native of England. His son,Daniel Osborn, was born in Sussex County, Del., March 14, 1745, and married Margaret Stout, a native of York County, Pa. Charles Osborn was born in
Guilford County, N.C., Aug. 21, 1775. In 1794 he moved with his parents to Knox County, Tenn., where he was married Jan. 11, 1798, to Sarah Newman, a native of Virginia. In the fall of 1811 he moved to Lost Creek, Jefferson County, where his wife died Aug. 10, 1812, leaving seven children -- James,born Nov. 10, 1798; Josiah, born March 2, 1800; John; Isaiah; Lydia,
afterward Mrs. Eli Newlin, born Oct. 6, 1805; Elijah, born Nov. 15, 1807; Elihu, born Feb. 9, 1810. Sept. 26, 1813, Mr. Osborn married Hannah,daughter of Elihu and Sarah Swain, and to them were born nine children --
Narcissa, born June 20, 1814; Cynthia, born Sept. 30, 1815, married A.Liggerfoose; Gideon S., born Aug. 12, 1817; Charles N., born Sept. 20,1819; Parger B., born Oct. 14, 1821; Jordan, born Aug. 6, 1823; Benjamin,born Nov. 21, 1825; Sarah S., born Feb. 21, 1828, married J.B. Bonine; Anna, born Aug. 20, 1830, Married Jesse East. Charles Osborn was a minister in the Society of Friends. He was the organizer of the manumission societies of Tennessee and North Carolina in the year 1814. Although reared in a slave State his sympathies were early enlisted in the behalf of the slave, and he became his life-long friend. In the fall of 1816 he moved to Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, where he published the Philanthropist, a religious
anti-slavery paper. In January, 1819, he moved to Wayne County, Ind.,settling where the town of Economy (which he afterward laid out) now stands.
In 1842 he moved to Cass County, Mich., and in 1848 to Porter County, Ind.,where he died Dec. 20, 1850. Charles Osborn was a minister of some note in the Society of Friends. He visited nearly all the meetings of his church on this continent, and many of them more than once, traveling several thousand miles to accomplish it, much of the time on horseback. In 1832 and 1833 he
visited meetings in Great Britain and the continent of Europe. His devotion to the slave, and especially his opposition to colonization, cost him his
position in the society, and he was one of the leaders in organizing the society of Anti-slavery Friends, of which he was a member at the time of his
death. His widow lived with her daughter, Mrs. Bonine, till Feb. 12, 1878,when she died, aged eighty-eight years. Isaiah Osborn, a son of Charles and Sarah (Newman) Osborn, was born in Knox Co., Tenn., Nov. 25, 1803. In 1816 he moved with his father to Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, where he learned the printer's trade in the office of the Philanthropist, and in 1819 came with
his father to Wayne County, Ind. In the fall of 1822 he went to Greenville,
Tenn., and worked in a printing office two years for $100 a year and his
board, most of the time in the office of the Genius of Universal
Emancipation. In the fall of 1824 he returned to Centreville, Ind., and
worked on the Western Emporium till the spring of 1827, when he returned to
Wayne County and entered the land on which he afterward lived, the patent
bearing date April, 1828. Early in 1829 he was elected Justice of the
Peace, an office he held four years. In the meantime he cleared his land,
planted an orchard, and built a house preparatory to moving to his farm. He
also taught school and worked at his trade in the winter. In the winter of
1832 he worked for Septimus Smith, publisher of Western Times, riding from
Economy to Centreville and back each week, attending to the duties of
Justice one day in the week and setting the required amount of type,
receiving $3 a week for his services. For a number of years he was Assessor
and Collector of Taxes of the northern townships. He moved to his farm in
1833, and there died, June 16, 1846. His educational advantages were
limited, but by his own efforts he succeeded in obtaining sufficient
education to enable him to fill responsible positions in church and State.
He was a consistent member of the Society of Friends. June 24, 1829, he was
married to Lydia, daughter of Job and Rhoda Worth. She was born in Guilford
County, N.C., Nov. 1, 1805, and in 1823, moved with her mother to Randolph
County, Ind. To Mr. and Mrs. Osborn were born eight children -- Caroline,
born Feb. 4, 1831, is the wife of William Edgerton, and lives near Dunreith,
Henry Co., Ind.; Charles W.; Rhoda, born Dec. 7, 1834, died Sept. 9, 1859;
Edmund B., born Nov. 4, 1836; Lawrinda, born Oct. 1, 1838, married Thomas
Ward, of Wihchester, Ind.; Narcissa, born Oct. 30, 1840, married Henry W.
Charles; died Sept. 24, 1878; Martha W., born Feb. 15, 1843, died March 31,
1848; Eunice, born May 4, 1845, died April 7, 1848. Mrs. Osborn is a woman
of rare ability. Left a widow with eight children, the eldest but fifteen
years of age, with but little means and several debts incurred by her
husband's sickness, she went to work with energy, and succeeded in paying
the debts and rearing her family, giving the six that grew to maturity a
better education than the majority of children at that day received. After
remaining a widow twelve years and rearing her children, she married David
Maxwell, and moved to Union County, Ind., and from thence to Dunreith,
Henry County, where she lived till Mr. Maxwell's death in 1880. Since then
she has lived with her son Charles, near Economy. She has been a lifelong
member of the Society of Friends, and has held many important positions in
the society. Her life has been one of faith and good works, and she still
takes great interest in the moral and religious work of the day.



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