Newton co IN Biography


JOSEPH M. CHIZUM.  Practically every successful career is actuated
by an earnest purpose and an energy of action sufficient to carry out 
definite plans of accomplishment.  As a result of such policies Joseph
M. Chizum has made himself one of the leading farmers and stock raisers
and business men of Newton County.  Since an early age he has been self-reliant and dependent, and he owes his success chiefly to the plans
which have originated in his own mind and to the energy with which he
has carried them out.
   He is a native son of Newton County and was born June 16, 1864.  His 
parents were Joseph W. and Mary Jane (Hanger) Chizum, the former a native
of Ohio and the latter of Virginia.  Grandfather Chizum was a pioneer 
settler in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, locating on a farm near Stockwell
in 1840.  He was a successful farmer and spent the rest of his days in
that community.  He was a faithful Methodist and became identified with
the Republican party upon its organization.  Joseph W. Chizum was fifth
in a family of six children, and in 1856 he brought his little family 
to Newton County.  Newton County was then a wilderness and thus he bore
a worthy part in its pioneer activities.  His first home was on a forty-acre tract of land which he bought in Section 31 of Beaver Township.  In
that one community he lived until his death in 1892.  Those were years 
of strenuous work coupled with sound business sense, and as a result he
left an estate of eight Hundred acres.  He was a devout Methodist and
of his family of six children, three are still living.
   The fifth in order of birth among these children, Joseph M. Chizum has 
spent the best years of his life in Newton County.  He received a good
education, beginning in the district schools, and graduating in 1885 
from the Northern Indiana Normal at Valparaiso.  After his college career
he spent three years in the grain business at Morocco, but has since 
devoted his best energies, his time and his enthusiasm to farming and 
stock breeding.  Mr. Chizum owns a splendid estate of two hundred and 
twenty acres near Morocco, and altogether his ownership extends to 
seven hundred of the fertile acres of Newton County.  As a stock raiser
his reputation is based upon the breeding and raising of Percheron 
horses, Durham cattle, and other first class livestock.  He resides in 
the Town of Morocco.
   Mr. Chizum is a director of the Farmers Bank at Morocco and has
identified himself with other enterprises for the good of the county.
He has served as county commissioner, and is prominent in Masonry in 
Morocco, being both a York and Scottish Rite member, (Indianapolis) and 
having attained the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite.  He also
belongs to the Knights of Pythias, Castle Hall No. 492.  Mr. Chizum is
unmarried and though without domestic cares and responsibilities has a 
large and varied business to absorb all his energies.  His estate is 
known as The Maple Grove Farm.

   From A Standard History of Jasper & Newton Counties, 1916, Vol. II, p. 612
 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons.
Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain
the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative
of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof
of this consent.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submitted By Gerald Born
Email - Wizzofozl0@aol.com