Shelby  County,  Indiana
Biographies

Jacob  Laymon

          Jacob Laymon  was born October 3, 1834, in Shelby county, Indiana.  He was the son of  Lewis  and  Eliza (Doughman) Laymon.  The father and mother were from Ohio, coming to Shelby county about the year 1830.  The land was wild and unimproved, but by dint of hard labor and much sacrifice, they cultivated it until they made a respectable farm out of it.  Then they disposed of it and removed to Owen county, where they remained until 1865, when they removed to Johnson county, where they lived until they crossed the river.
          Lewis Laymon was the son of  John Laymon, the grandfather of our subject.  He, too, coming from Ohio, settled in Owen county.  He was a farmer and preacher of some reputation and sucess in the Separate Baptist church.  He baptized hundreds of converts, and was a man of wide influence, doing much good.  He had eleven children:  Lewis,  Allen,  John,  Joseph,  Susan,  Elizabeth,  Nancy,  Jemima, and three others who died in infancy.  All four sons were ministers, including the father of our subject, who was also quite a farmer.  To Lewis Laymon and wife were born six children, only one of whom, our subject, is now living. Those deceased are  Mary,  Jemima,  John,  Phelan, who was a soldier in Company H, Fifty-ninth Regiment; and  Eliza.  The parents were model characters, and stood high in the community as earnest, consecrated Christians.
          Jacob, our subject, was raised on a farm and did much towards bringing the country out from its wildness.  His early education was of the pioneer style.  Even the school privileges were ancient, puncheon floor and seats, and the old-fashioned fireplace and stick chimney, and this coupled with several miles walk each morning and evening made education an acquisition with sacrifice.  In 1864 Mr. Laymon enlisted in Company G, Thirteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, serving until the discharge of his regiment at Indianapolis at the close of the war.  He was in all the skirmishes and battles in which his regiment participated.
          December 22, 1856, he married  Rhoda Landrum, from Kentucky.  To them were born four children;  Lewis, a farmer of Washington township, who married Alice Mills;  Eliza died aged twenty years;  William, living on a farm in Washington township, and  Dora, married  Hasting Sherrow  and died in Greene county.  Mr. and Mrs. Laymon as both earnest and consistent members of the Christian church.  He is a Republican in politics, having filled acceptably the office of township supervisor.  They moved to their present home in 1888, and are now living peaceably and retired from the laborious duties of life.  His present farm consists of one hundred and thirty-two acres, which he has improved, and in 1902 he built his present comfortable dwelling.  He also owns sixty acres in Washington township.  Their children run the farms, leaving their parents to enjoy the retirement they so richly deserve.
Biographical Memoirs of Greene County, Ind. with Reminiscences of Pioneer Days, B.F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, IN, 1908
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