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THOMAS F. LOVATT, a member of the board of commissioners of Fulton county, and one of the extensive and most progressive
farmers of Indiana, is a native of Pennsylvania, born at Spruce Hill.
Juniata county, in 1845. He is the son of William H. Lovatt, a
native of Staffordshire, England, who was born Feb. 13, 1812, and
came to the United States in 1842, settled in Pennsylvania and in
the spring of 1848 removed to Troy, Ohio, and later removed to
Piqua, Ohio, and in 1852 he came to Indiana and settled at Peru,
where he is now residing. The mother of Mr. Lovatt was born in
Juniata county. Pa., in 1819, and died at Peru, Ind., Dec. 26, 1877.
Mr, Lovatt received a common school education and then learned
the tailor's trade and then the moulder's and machinist's trade, and
for a number of years managed Hackley's foundry and machine
works at Peru and in 1879 he purchased the plant and continued the
same, until 1885, when he sold out and went to Ashtabula county,
Ohio, and engaged in farming. There he had 400 acres of land and
in 1886 made a trade for 806 acres in Fulton county, and to that he
has since added forty acres, making now in one body 846 acres.
This land was for many years known as the Rettig farm and is located six miles southwest of Rochester. Mr. Lovatt has employed
his best effort and used a large sum of money in the improvement of
this farm until now it is one of the best farms in northern Indiana.
Mr. Lovatt also owns a farm of 170 acres located on the Wabash
river, six miles from Peru, where he has valuable holdings. These
farms are supplied with the latest improved machinery known to the
science of agriculture and are arranged for raising and caring for
stock. Mr. Lovatt was united in marriage April 11, 1878, to Mrs.
Louisa Hackley, a native of Ohio. The father of Mrs. Lovatt was
Samuel Rector, who was born near Lexington, Ky. He was a
soldier in the war of 1812. He died in 1847 and is buried at Peru.
Both the grandfathers of Mrs. Lovatt were soldiers in the Revolutionary war. To the first marriage of Mrs. Lovatt are these three
children, viz.: Emma, now Mrs. A. Clevell; Cora A., now Mrs. H. E.
Frick, of Peru, and L. R. Hackley, now a resident of Indianapohs,
and connected with the electric light company of that city. Politically Mr. Lovatt is a pronounced republican and in 1894 was elected
a commissioner of Fulton coutjty, and during his term as such the
new court house has been erected. He is a member of the Masonic
and Pythian fraternities. He is a man of affairs and fully abreast
of the times.
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