John W. Phares
John W. Phares is a native of Shelby County, Ind., and was born January 6, 1837; he was the third
of twelve children born to John and Sarah (Wicker) Phares, natives of Ohio and North Caro-
lina. John Phares removed to Shelby County, Ind., when but twelve years of age, with his father, who
was one of the pioneers of that county. He there spent his boyhood days and was married in 1831.
For the last thirty years, he has been actively engaged in the ministry of the Missionary Baptist Church,
and is yet living in Shelby County. He and wife are now quite old, and have been members of the
same congregation for about forty years. The subject of this sketch received a limited education in the
common school, and later attended high school; he worked the farm in the summer and taught school
in the winter for ten years, and in 1873 removed with his family to Howard County, locating on his pre-
sent farm of sixty acres; he has always been a member of the Republican party, and was elected Jus-
tice of the Peace in 1874, serving one term. Mr. Phares was married, November 21, 1861 to Miss
Samantha Carmony, born October 20, 1841, and the daughter of John and Sarah A. Car-
mony, of Shelby County, Ind. Mr. and Mrs Phares had five children - S. Emma, J. William,
M. Elva, Anna F. and Espy Otto. Mrs. Phares died April 28, 1877, an earnest Christian
woman, a member of the Union Baptist Church. Mr. P. is a prominent worker in the same church,
being a Class-Leader and Secretary of the Quarterly Conference.
From the 1883 History of Howard County, Indiana - Blanchard.
Contributed by Dave Richey
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