VERLING STANLEY. A man who is well known to the citizens of his community by reason of his former connection with work of a journalistic nature, Verling Stanley has for a long period been prominently identified with the farming and stock raising interests of Stony Creek Township, where he is the owner of a well-cultivated farm of 260 acres. Mr. Stanley was born in Hamilton County, Indiana, June 16, 1857, and is a son of Isaac and Hannah (Nuby) Stanley.
Isaac Stanley was born in Clinton County, Ohio, and was about sixteen years of age when brought to Hamilton County, Indiana, by his parents. Here he engaged in agricultural pursuits and was reasonably successful in his operations. and at the time of his death, in 1898, his community lost one of its best citizens. His wife, a native of North Carolina, was about three years of age when brought to Hamilton County, and here her death occurred in 1911. They were members of the Friends’ Church, in the faith of which they were married, and were the parents of five children, as follows: Verling; Melissa, who became the wife of Prof. Fellows, was a graduate of the high school and a former teacher; Edgar A., who is engaged in farming in Hamilton County, Indiana; Melvina, residing at Anderson, Indiana, the widow of Junius Knight; and Lydia, the wife of H. W. Ramsey, who is engaged in farming in Boone County, Indiana.
Verling Stanley received his primary education in the district schools adjacent to his father’s farm, and supplemented this by attendance at the Union High school, at Westfield and by a course in the Indianapolis Business College. Succeeding this, he accepted a position on the Newcastle (Indiana) Mercury, where he learned the printer’s trade, and later, in company with Prof. Fellows, bought the Grant County Republican, of Marion. One year later they sold this publication and Mr. Stanley went to Ohio, where he was editor and publisher of the New Holland News, which he conducted for one year, then becoming interested in several other newspapers in Ohio. After a short period spent at his trade, 0n a Kansas City newspaper he received a government appointment to a position in the government printing office at Washington, D. C., in which he remained four years. In 1895 Mr. Stanley came to Lapel and purchased the News, of which he was editor and publisher for four years, and at the end of that period retired from newspaper life to engage in farming and stockraising. He is now the owner of a handsome tract of 260 acres, all in a high state of cultivation, which has been rendered more valuable by the erection of a set of buildings of substantial character and architectural beauty, Mr. Stanley has proved as good a farmer as he was newspaper man as evidenced by the gratifying success which has rewarded his efforts.
On August 14, 1898, Mr. Stanley was married to Mrs. Isabella V. (McClintock) Ward, who was born in Jackson Township, Madison County. She was educated in the district schools of her native Township, and was there married, November 4, 1888, to Walker Ward, who is now deceased. One child was born t0 this union, Grace L., born August 22, 1889, who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley have had one daughter Verlina M., born May 24, 1900, who is now in the seventh grade in the public school at Lapel.
Mr. and Mrs. Stanley are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Lapel, in the work of which she has been very popular, numbering many friends in the wide acquaintance they have formed since locating in their present home. In political matters, Mr. Stanley became an adherent of Progressive principles in 1912, but he has never sought public office, being content to confine his activities to his farm, of which he has every reason to be proud, He is a member of the I. O. O. F., the K. of P. and the Red Men.