FRANK D. PENCE. As the owner of a large and well equipped livery and sales stable in the city of Anderson, Mr. Pence has gained marked success and is known as one of the aggressive, enterprising and substantial business men of Madison County. In addition to a general livery business of important order he has built up a profitable enterprise in the buying and selling of horses, and he is recognized as an authoritative judge of equine values. He has a wide circle of friends in Madison County and further interest attaches to the record of his achievement by reason of the fact that he is a native son of this County and a member of one of its old and honored families.
Mr. Pence was born on the homestead farm of his father, in Richmond Township, Madison County, Indiana, and the date of his nativity was April 19, 1865. He is a son of John J. and Rhoda (Coburn) Pence, the former of whom continued to reside on his farm until his death, in 1908, at a venerable age, his devoted wife having passed to the life eternal in 1893 and having been a daughter of John Coburn, another sterling pioneer of Indiana and for many years a well known citizen of Richland Township, Madison County. John J. Pence was born near Connersville, Wayne County, Indiana, and virtually his entire active career was one of close and effective identification with the great basic industry of agriculture. He was numbered among the early settlers of Madison County and was long known as one of the representative farmers and stock-growers of Richland Township, where he was the owner of an excellent farm of one hundred and twenty-eight acres, upon which he made the best of improvements, including the erection of substantial buildings. He died in Union Township. He was a soldier during the Civil war and a Democrat in politics. He was a man of inflexible integrity and well fortified views, was liberal and loyal as a citizen and commanded the high regard of all who knew him. His father, Adam Pence, was one of the very early settlers of Madison County and did well his part in the development and upbuilding of this section of the state, the while he was known and honored for his sterling qualities.
Frank D. Pence has never had cause to regret the discipline which he received in the formative period of his life, and in connection with the work of the home farm he learned valuable lessons of responsibility and practical industry. He made good use of the advantages afforded in the district schools and continued to be associated with his father in the work and management of the home farm until he had attained to his legal majority. At the age of twenty-five years he took unto himself a wife, who has proved a devoted companion and helpmeet, and shortly after this important event in his career he rented the old Pence homestead, upon which he instituted independent operations as an agriculturist and stockgrower. He applied himself with characteristic energy and ambition and thus his success was of substantial order. After the passage of a few years he purchased a farm of one hundred and twelve acres, in Union Township, and in addition to continuing his successful operations as an agriculturist he began to purchase horses, which he brought into good condition and placed upon the market. His operations in this branch of his enterprise expanded in scope and importance and at various times he was the owner of exceptionally valuable horses, several of which he sold at an approximate sum of five hundred dollars each. He is still the owner of his farm, upon which he has made such improvements as to mark the place as one of the model farms of the County, and he gives to the place a general supervision and he is also the owner of a considerable amount of real estate in the city of Anderson.
Mr. Pence continued to reside on his farm until 1899, when he removed to Anderson, where he engaged in the livery business and also continued the buying and selling of horses, in both of which lines of enterprise he is now one of the leading representatives in Madison County. In 1906 Mr. Pence purchased the Oliver Osburn livery and sales stables, which constitute one of the landmarks of Anderson, and here he has since continued his successful business operations. His stables are well supplied with excellent horses and vehicles and he gives careful attention to maintaining of the livery department of his business at a high standard, with the result that the same received a large and appreciative patronage. His operations as a dealer in horses are based on a technical knowledge gained through wide experience and he controls a most prosperous business in this line.
Though liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude, Mr. Pence has had no desire for the honors and emoluments of political office. He accords a staunch allegiance to the Democratic party and in a fraternal way he is identified with the local organizations of the Loyal Order of Moose and the Improved Order of Red Men.
In the year 1892 Mr. Pence was united in marriage to Miss Susan Bronenburgh, of Chesterfield, this County, and they became the parents of three children, Leslie and Hazel M., both of whom are deceased; and Harold L., who remains at the parental home, the same being an attractive residence at 802 Park avenue.