Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Zadock A. Nye
One of the oldest inhabitants of Wayne county is Zadock Allen Nye, of Richmond, born October 28, 1805; he is therefore now in his ninety-fourth year, and for forty-three years he has dwelt in this town, where he is very well known and most highly esteemed. He has seen this state developed from a wilderness and has himself aided in its progress and civilization. He well remembers how the Hoosier state appeared in the last days of the war of 1812, and year by year since then has watched with deep interest the results of man's labor and enterprise, as he gradually transformed the dense forests and uninhabited swamps into thrifty, fertile homesteads and flourishing settlements and cities.
The first nine years in the eventful life of Mr. Nye were spent in his native town, Barnstable, Cape Cod peninsula, Massachusetts. He is of English descent along both lines, and his maternal great-grandfather was one Hercules Hudges, born in the British isles. In his boyhood he left England and never returned, but settling in Boston he married there the Widow Hinkley and reared a large family. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. One of his children was Lemuel Hudges, who becarrie a resident of Cape Cod, and in that locality the mother of our subject was born. She became the wife of Joshua Nye, whose birth had occurred at the town of Sandwich, Cape Cod, and four children were born to them in Massachusetts. August 26, 1814, the family set out on a journey westward, and were two months on the way ere they arrived at Cincinnati. They went overland as far as Raubstown, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburg), and there embarked on a boat which proceeded down the Monongahela and Ohio rivers. The journey was saddened by the death of little Ezra, an infant of four years, who died before they reached Cincinnati. The other children were Zadock, Mary Ann, and Joshua,—the latter now of Chicago and ninety-one years of age. In November the little family landed in Wayne county, Indiana, but in the following March they removed to Dearborn county, and somewhat later they settled in Franklin county. There the father died April 7, 1840, aged sixty-three years. The wife and mother survived until 1865, when she, too, passed to the silent land, being then eighty years of age. The father was a carpenter by trade, but in the main followed farming. Religiously, he was a member of the Universalist church, and in politics was a Whig.
In his youth Zadock Allen Nye learned the blacksmith's trade and for twenty years he was proprietor of a store at New Trenton, Franklin county, Indiana. In 1855 he came to this county, and for thirteen years resided in Richmond proper. During this period he was not engaged in business, as he had had both legs broken in a railroad accident, and was unfitted for active work for a number of years. In the autumn of 1867 he came to his present home in West Richmond, near Earlham College, and for the succeeding fifteen years was superintendent of the Richmond and Boston turnpike, resigning his position in 1882. He was a stockholder and director in that concern for many years and was of material assistance in making a success of the enterprise. He owns a pleasant home and three and a half acres of land, besides other real-estate in Richmond and in Randolph county, Indiana. Among his possessions here is the building occupied by the blackboard manufacturing company and the one used as a tobacco factory, both being situated on North East street. Originally a Whig, he became affiliated with the Republican party in 1856, and has since been an ardent defender of its principles.
The first marriage of Mr. Nye was solemnized seventy years ago, his bride being Kitty Hinkson, by whom he had two children: Mrs. Julia Case, who died in January, 1895; and Eliza, whose death occurred in childhood. February 14, 1836, Mr. Nye married Rebecca Wildridge, of Franklin county, and of the eight children born to them but two survive, namely: Ezra, a farmer of Randolph county, Indiana; and Ralph W., of Richmond. The latter was engaged in the queensware trade here for several years.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899