CALEB H. CONVERSE

    Rev. Jeremiah Converse, the Grandparent of Caleb, was a native of New Hampshire.  He joined the Colonial army when sixteen years of age, and was sent out with a company of scouts who were decoyed by the Indians, and but three of the command returned.  He was wounded in the shoulder, but escaped, and soon after the close of the war in 1814 moved with his family and settled on Darby Plains, in Madison County, Ohio.  He was a cripple for life from the wound, but lived to attain the advanced age of eighty-two years, dying in 1837.  Parley Converse, father of Caleb, was the second son, born in Vermont.  He was a minuteman drafted in the war of 1812, but did not serve.  He was a mechanic, and held the office of Justice of the Peace many years.  His wife, whose maiden name was Arpe Hemenway, was a native of Vermont, who bore him five children, all of whom lived to maturity.  They occupied a pioneer home in Madison County, in 1819, when she died in 1823.  His death occurred at the home of his son Caleb, in this county, and was in eighty-sixth year of his age.  The subject of this sketch was born in Addison County, Vt., in 1810.  He was married in 1830 to Miss Lovica L. Retch, a native of Madison County, Ohio.  After his removal to Union County, he settled in Champaign County, but returned in 1846 and occupied his present estate consisting of 227 acres, valued at $65 per acre.  He was Justice of the Peace for a time, and served the county as Clerk and Treasurer in its primitive days.  Seven children born to him, are all living, viz.: Nathan W., Obel B., Sarah, wife of G. D. Mitchell, Orson P. and John L., both served in the Union Army during the rebellion; Bushrod W., and Orinda J., wife of Elon Smith.  Family is connected with the M. E. Church of Unionville Center.