SOURCE:1884 History of Owen County, p. 903 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Gosport and Wayne Township. JAMES W. WASHBURN, second son of Jonathan and Nancy (Watson) Washburn, was born in Hampshire County, Va., November 14, 1801. His parents moved into Kentucky in 1804, and subject came to Owen County, Ind., in 1859, where he has since lived. May 29, 1826, he was married in Clark County, Ky., to Matilda Dean, by whom he has had born to him seven children -- Sarah Jane, deceased; Robert D.; Martha A.; John W., died in the army; Elizabeth, deceased; George W. and Joseph S. Mr. Washburn joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in the year 1828, and has ever since been an active worker therein. In his youth he joined the State Militia, but found it little to his taste, and soon abandoned it. At the death of his father, the estate was left $300 in debt, and Mr. Washburn having learned the chairmaker's trade in Kentucky, he and his brother made chairs and paid the debt off. In his after life he manufactured fanning mills and wagons, and carried on a small farm at the same time. He followed his different mechanical pursuits probably as much as sixty-five years during his life. In politics, he has been a Democrat since the war. DATA ENTRY: Glorianne Fahs