Madison Loofbourrow
Madison Loofbourrow, farmer, is the only child of Laban H. Loofbourrow, of this township. (For his genealogy, see his father's biography.) He was born February 28, 1839, and spent the years of his minority on the farm, with his father, obtaining a fair education by careful study at the common schools.
He was married, September 1, 1864, to Elizabeth Ellen, only child of Benjamin F. and Hannah (Halsted) Alkire, of Pickaway County. The Halsteds were from New York. To this union have been born eight children': Frank Lee, born July 31, 1865; Laban Van, born February 15, 1867; Don Juan, born November 3, 1868; Nellie, born March 16, 1871; Lucy, born September 21, 1872; Charlie, born in 1874; infant son, deceased, born September 26, 1878; infant daughter, born March 16, 1881.
Following their marriage, they located on the farm where they now reside, since which time they have given special attention to farming, and in this pursuit have prospered. For a number of years past, during the sunimer and fall seasons, he has been a great sufferer from hay fever, on account of which affliction, he has made frequent trips to the wilds of Michigan and the mountains of Virginia, during which time he gives himself up to the excitement of hunting, trapping, and fishing. He has in his possession many trophies of the chase, which he exhibits to visitors with evident delight, recounting his hair-breadth escapes and romantic experiences in the forest.
At one time, while in northern Michigan, in company with an Indian hunter, called " Greasy Jim," the two were attacked by a large she bear, whose cub the party had wounded. The bear sprang upon the Indian, felled him to the ground, and was on the point of sending him to the "happy hunting-ground," when a well-directed shot from the rifle of Mr. Loofbourrow, laid her dead, and rescued the Indian. A moment later, a cub bear, a mate to the wounded one, made its appearance in the bushes, was pursued, captured, and brought home by Mr. Loofbourrow. It became a great pet, but after a few years, fearing it might become vicious, and do some one injury, it was killed.
In the fall of 1879, while in Michigan, at Boardman's Swamps, he was trailing an old bear and her two cubs, and coming suddenly upon them, he shot and killed all of them with four shots, inside of a minute, using a Winchester rifle. He is not only a good hunter, but a skillful farmer, to which statement his well-tilled farm, of two hundred and fifteen acres, bears testimony. His wife is an excellent shot, and can bring the head off' a chicken, off-hand, with ease.
From R. S. Dills' History of Fayette County