Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Fleming Wasson
Fleming Wasson was born in Bourbon County, Ky., Jan. 1, 1807, and was taken to Preble County, Ohio, when an infant, where he was reared and educated in the log-cabin subscription schools. At the age of nineteen he began working for John Chayes and Dudley Andrews, pork packers and dealers in boat supplies, of Cincinnati, Ohio. He superintended their packing a number of years, and during the summer season was engaged in their store, remaining with the firm twelve years. For twenty consecutive winters he was superintendent of W. Coleman's slaughter-house in Cincinnati. He superintended the same business at Princeton, Ind., Nashville, Tenn., and other places till 1855, when he, in connection with Brown and Morrow, engaged in slaughtering and packing in Richmond, Ind., superintending the business four years. He also managed the same business in Richmond for Vanneman, Reed & Co. He superintended the packing for George Ellis & Co., of Anderson, Ind., for five years, and for Colonel Slute, of Marion, Ind., some time. Since retiring from the business he has followed agricultural pursuits on the farm entered by his grandfather in 1806.
He was married April 10, 1834, to Priscilla, daughter of Eli and Dorcas (Brice) Minor, both now deceased. Mrs. Wasson died in November, 1860. Of the twelve children born to this union six survive — Fanny; Josephine, wife of Sanders Widup, of Kosciusko County, Ind.; Minor B., of Wayne County; George W., of Nebraska; Emma, wife of J. F. Parsons, of Danville, Ind.; and Louise K. Those deceased are — John, Willie, Harry, and three who died unnamed. Mr. Wasson was made a member of Boliver Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Richmond. His grandfather, Joseph Wasson, was born and reared in South Carolina, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, where he received seven wounds. He subsequently removed to Bourbon County, Ky., and in 1806 settled in Wayne County, Ind., where he entered a quarter-section of land which is now owned by our subject. He died at an advanced age. Our subject's father, David Wasson, was born in South Carolina, and was married in Kentucky to Elizabeth Fleming, and to them were born six children — John, Fleming, Milos (deceased), Martha (deceased), James and Sally. He came with his father to Indiana in 1806, and in 1808 removed with his family to New Paris, Ohio, and followed farming till his death, at the age of forty-two years. After her husband's death our subject's mother was married to Jonathan Matchett, by whom she had one son — David J. She died in Wayne County aged fifty-five years.
Source:
History of Wayne County, Indiana, Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co. 1884. Volume 2