WILLIE C. TEMPLIN FAMILY

 

            Willie Colbert Templin was one of eight children born to Isaac and Elizabeth Mitchell Templin. His great-great-grandfather, James Templin, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War from Pennsylvania. James Templin married Mary Salmon and they had six sons and two daughters. A son, Terah, was born near Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 1778.

 

            The Templin family moved from Pennsylvania to Mason County, Kentucky, then to Highland County, Ohio, where Terah married Esther Wilson on May 29, 1804. Her parents had come to Ohio from Pennsylvania by ox team in 1778. Her father also served in the Revolutionary War. Twelve children were born to Terah and Esther Wilson Templin.

 

            In the fall of 1832, Terah took a trip on horseback to Indiana seeking more land. The next spring, he sent two of his sons, Newton and Milton, to raise a crop on his Indiana land.

 

            Newton and Milton Templin raised a crop but did not like the new Indiana country. So many people were sick and they also became ill with the “fever”. They received mail only once a month and were homesick. When they returned to Ohio, they advised their father to stay where his family had good health.

 

            However, Terah’s oldest sons, John W. Templin, born on July 23, 1805, and married to Mary (Polly) Medsker, born on March 29, 1809, made a deal with his father to take over the new land. John and his family came to Hendricks County in 1834 to farm just north of Danville.

 

            John W. and Polly Medsker Templin had 11 children, three of them born in Ohio and the others born in Hendricks County. John W. died on August 20, 1858, near Danville. Three of his children preceded him in death and two died in 1859.

 

            Several of John W. Templin’s brothers and sisters moved west from Ohio to Indiana. James Harvey Templin and his sister, Martha Templin, who married Isaac Lawson, both came to Danville. Martha and Isaac Lawson were the parents of Dr. W. T. Lawson, who practiced medicine in the Danville area until he was over 90 years of age.

 

            Isaac, a son of John W. and Polly Medsker Templin, was born on October 6, 1848, and married Elizabeth Mitchell, born on March 27, 1877. Elizabeth Mitchell (B. May 31, 1853; D. March 25, 1938) was one of 21 children born to William Mitchell and two wives. Elizabeth’s mother was Martha King Mitchell. The Mitchell family came to the Danville area in 1832.

 

            The children of Isaac and Elizabeth Mitchell Templin were:

 

            Cyrus (B. January 4, 1878; D. March 18, 1940), Ida Louvena (B. May 6, 1879; D. October 19, 1955), Mary (B. April 14, 1881; D. April 13, 1947) Willie Colbert (B. July 21, 1885), Martha (B. June 27, 1887; D. May 14, 1968) and Herman (B. January 20, 1892; D. May 1, 1958).

 

            Isaac Templin died on March 31, 1918. Two of his children died young and two – Herman and Martha – never married.

 

            Ida Louvena Templin married Charles S. Brooks on February 20, 1899. They had one son, Ralph Brooks, who became editor of the Indianapolis Star Sunday magazine. Ralph married Nina Henry and they had one daughter, Barbara. Ralph died suddenly in his office in April 1965.

 

            Mary Templin married Delmer C. Warnock, on May 14, 1914. They had one daughter who died young and two sons, Maurice, a farmer, and Mervin, a trucker. Maurice Warnock married Audra Runion. Mervin married Maxine Small. They have one son, Michael, and two daughters, Marilyn and Melody.

 

            Willie Colbert Templin married Elsie Ellen Stipe, daughter of Morton and Mary Kendall Stipe, on November 19, 1912. They have one son, Harold Henry, who married Dorothy Elizabeth Blair, daughter of Harry and Nora Hardwick Blair on June 26, 1941.

 

            Harold and Dorothy Templin have tow sons, Harry William, born on July 1, 1942, a graduate of Rose Hulman Institute at Terre Haute and an engineer; and Harold Robert, born on April 24, 1949, a graduate of Indiana State University at Terre Haute and a geologist; and a daughter, Norellyn Elizabeth, born on August 23, 1943, who attended Bethany College in West Virginia.

 

            Harry W. Templin married Sarah Jane Myers. They have a daughter, Charlotte, and a son, Jeffrey.

 

            Norellyn Templin married Michael Cain, a career man in the U. S. Air Force. They are stationed in Okinawa where they went on July 1, 1975 on a 30-month assignment.

 

            Willie Templin and his family in 1924 moved from the rural area of Hendricks County to Lawton Avenue in Danville. In 1942, they moved to East Street in Danville. Their home was destroyed by the tornado that devastated northwest Danville in 1948 and both he and his wife were injured. They built a new home on the same location, and Willie Templin retired in 1950 from Linda Division of Union Carbide Corporation after 26 years of employment.

 

            Willie Templin has been a farmer and carpenter and enjoys his retirement with his hobbies of gardening, woodworking, collecting antiques and reading. He is a member of the Danville Christian Church and the Hendricks County Historical Society. Elsie Templin died on February 7, 1968. Their son, Harold Templin, is employed as a clerk at the Danville Post Office.

 

 

Article from The History of Hendricks County, 1914-1976

Chapter 4, pages 571-572