Charles Allen Whicker, born June 30, 1920, was the son of Otto Whicker, born August 16, 1884, and Martha Snyder Whicker, born October, 1885.

Otto Whicker married Martha J. Snyder in Marion Township, Hendricks County (Hadley is at the border of Clay and Marion Townships) on August 21, 1903. Otto and Martha farmed in Clay Township, Hendricks County, Indiana, near the town of Amo. Otto is also listed as a nurseryman. Otto and Martha had two children:

- Jeanette Whicker, born October 9, 1910, who married Charles E. Vaughn on September 5, 1931.

- Charles Allen Whicker, born , born June 30, 1920, who married Alida Harriet Hadley on December 5, 1938.

Martha Whicker died on November 1, 1959, age 74. Otto Whicker died in March, 1973 at age 88.

Otto Whicker was the son on Allen Whicker (see biography below). Allen Whicker was born March 20, 1837 in Franklin Township, Hendricks County, Indiana, just 5 years after the Whicker family came to Indiana from North Carolina.

On October 30, 1861, Allen Whicker married Amanda J. West who was born October 20, 1843, also in Hendricks County, Indiana.

Otto Whicker was the tenth of 10 children of Allen and Amanda Whicker. As was all too common in the 19th century, three of Allen and Amanda's children died in infancy. Interestingly, Amanda J. West's mother was a Hadley, Sina Hadley West who lived in Chatham County, North Carolina. Sina Hadley was the daughter of Jacob Hadley, the twelfth child or our ancestors Joshua (II) Hadley and Ruth Lindley Hadley. Amanda J. Whicker died January 22, 1901, aged only 57. Two and one half years after Amanda's death, Allen Whicker remarried on May 25, 1903 to Mrs. Ruth Masten Shirley, 15 years younger than Allen.

When they married, Allen was 66, and Ruthie was 51. Records indicate this was Ruth's second or perhaps third marriage, and it would be interesting to know more of her life story. Ruth Masten Shirley had a son, Walter Hodson by a previous marriage. Allen Whicker died on July 6, 1919, aged 82. Allen's son Otto Whicker died in March, 1973 at age 88. Otto's son Charles Allen Whicker died in Plainfield, Indiana on March 18, 2007, aged 86.

Two biographical sketches of the grandfather of Charles Allen Whicker, Allen Whicker, and of the Whicker family coming from North Carolina to Indiana in 1832 are featured below.

ALLEN WHICKER is one of the prominent farmers and a native of Hendricks county, descending from an old American colonial family of North Carolina. James Whicker, grandfather of Allen, born February 16, 1765, was a North Carolinian and a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He married Mary Dean, born July 25, 1770; he was a farmer of Stokes county, where he reared a family:

Benjamin, Sarah, William, Eli, James, Berry and Frederick.

Mr. Whicker lived to be an old man and died in North Carolina.

Frederick, his son and father of our subject, was born in North Carolina, April 3, 1794, became a farmer and married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Abigail Cosner. Mr. and Mrs. Whicker settled on land in Stokes county, N. C., and lived there some years; then moved to Indiana in 1832 and settled in Franklin township, Hendricks county, entering eighty acres and eighty acres more in Clay township.

He cleared up his land in Franklin township and remained here until his death, which occurred in 1855, at the age of fifty-nine years. Mrs. Whicker was a member of the Missionary Baptist church, and died September 22, 1875.

Their children were:

Dorinda, Eliza, John, Lewis, James, Abigail, Mary, Loretta, Frederick, Allen and Sarah, the first eight born in North Carolina and the remainder in Hendricks county, Ind.

Allen Whicker was born March 20, 1837, in Franklin township, Hendricks county, on his father's farm, early learned to work and received but little education in the old log pioneer school-house.

He married, at the age of twenty-four years, October 30,1861, Amanda (born October 20, 1848), daughter of ABRAHAM and SINA (HADLEY) WEST. Abraham West was born in Chatham county, N. C., was a farmer, married there and came to Hendricks county as a pioneer, and settled in Hendricks county as a pioneer, and settled in Clay township.

He reared a family of nine children: William, Washington, Columbus, Diego M., Narcissus, Malissa, Amanda, Ellen and Scipio. Mr. West was a prominent farmer and owned about 480 acres, and assisted his children to homes. He and wife were members of the Methodist church, while he was an early F. & A.M. of Hendricks county, being a member of the Belleville lodge and its treasurer.

He died at the age of fifty-six years, was an industrious pioneer citizen and thought well of by the people.

After marriage Mr. Whicker settled in Franklin township on 120 acres, and lied here until 1882, when he moved to his present homestead, consisting of 456 acres, which he has accumulated by thrift and industry.

His wife inherited a start from he father, Mr. Whicker built a substantial and tasteful brick residence in 1885, and has other good farm buildings, and his farm is well improved and well drained, having several thousand rods of tile. Both Mr. and Mrs. Whicker are members of the Missionary Baptist church and he is one of the church trustees and has been treasurer about fifteen years. He is a republican and is a practical farmer and well known in the county as a reliable man of integrity of character.

To Mr. and Mrs. Whicker have been born nine children:

Mary; George, deceased; Sina; Nora; Simon; Dennis; Effie, deceased; Permon, deceased; and Otto. Mary married John Bundy, a farmer of Franklin township and has two children.

Sina married Lewis Beasley, a school teacher and farmer of Boone county. Mr. Whicker is a progressive man and has given all his children a good education; he is public spirited, in favor of good roads, drainage, etc., and has throughout his life, been a man who has labored hard to make a good home. His family is one of the most respected in Hendricks county.

He well remembers the good old days of the early settlers, when the pioneers made everything they used, by hand; even the plow lines and bed cords were home made of flax which was first broken, then scotched out, then hackeled, spun and made into ropes and clothing. All the clothing and nearly all the tools were home made. Plows were made with wooden mold boards, and the old settlers cut their wheat with reaping-hooks and trampled it out on a hard ground floor and cleaned it with a sheet.

Mr. Whicker has lived from pioneer times through all the modern improvements and yet is a man of only fifty-seven years of age. Nearly all the improvements have been made in the last half a century. In his boyhood's days, there were no matches, and the farmers used flint and steel for lighting fires. The log cabin had doors hung on wooden hinges with wooden latches, and it was the boast of the old settlers that the latch-string was always out. He began married life in a log cabin, with a stick chimney which he made with his own hands.

   Amo Indiana and its surroundings

ALLEN WHICKER Among the citizens of Hendricks County who have built up comfortable homes and surrounded themselves with large landed and personal property, none have attained a higher degree of success than Allen Whicker. With few opportunities except what his own efforts were capable of mastering and with many discouragements to overcomes, he has made an exceptional success of life and in his old age has the gratification of knowing he has the respect of the community in which he has resided all his life, and that it has been benefited by his presence and counsel. He is a link between the old days and the new, for his boyhood days were spent in truly pioneer conditions. Settling in a virgin wilderness, he helped his father to clear the forests, drain the fields and raise the first crops on some of the best land in Hendricks County.

Allen Whicker, the son of Fred K. and Elizabeth (Kosmer) Whicker, was born two miles southeast of Amo, Hendricks County, Indiana, March 20, 1837. His grandfather, James Whicker, was in the Revolutionary War. His grandmother, on his mother's side, was Abigail Pike, who lived to be ninety-six years of age. She was a great patriot during the Revolutionary days, and when the subject of this sketch was a small boy she told him many stories of the dark days of the Revolution.

Her husband was a native of Germany. Mr. and Mrs. James Whicker, the grandparents of Allen Whicker, lived all their lives in North Carolina, and it was in that state that Fred K. Whicker was reared and married. Mr. and Mrs. Fred K. Whicker reared a large family of twelve children, six of whom were born in North Carolina and six in Indiana.

They moved from North Carolina to Indiana shortly before Allen Whicker, the subject of this sketch, was born and located in the virgin wilderness south of Amo. Here they built a cabin of logs, with a puncheon floor and riven door, the entire building being erected without a nail. Wild game of all kinds was abundant in the woods, turkeys, squirrels, deer and all kinds of fur-bearing animals. In order to prepare the land for cultivation they cut down the magnificent oak, walnut and hickory trees and piled them in big heaps and burned them. Timber which was burned in those early days would now be worth several hundred dollars per acre at the present price of lumber.

Fred K. Whicker died at the age of sixty-one and his wife at the age of seventy-eight.

Allen Whicker is the eleventh child in order of birth and the only one living of the twelve born to his parents. He has spent his whole life in this county. He attended the subscription schools in his boyhood days and received a limited education at the three-months terms, which was the length of the school year in his time.

He continued to live and work on the homestead farm until he was twenty-five years of age, when he married and bought forty acres of land of his own adjoining the homestead farm. He has been remarkably successful as a farm and from time to time has added to his possessions until he is now the owner of five hundred and fifty acres of as fine land as can be found in the county. He has for many years made a specialty of cattle feeding and is recognized as one of the largest cattle feeders of the county. He has, in addition to his raising of cattle, also raised large numbers of horses and hogs for the market.

Mr. Whicker was married October 30, 1861, to Amanda West, of near Amo, and to this marriage there have been born six children: Mary, the wife of John Bunny, of Amo; Lina, the wife of William Lewis Beasley; Nora, the wife of Frank Bersbow; Simon, a merchant of Amo; Dennis, who lives near Indianapolis, and Otto, who now operates the home place. Mr. Whicker retired in 1913 from active farm life and divided his land among his children and now lives in Amo.

His first wife died in 1901, and on May 25, 1903, he was married to Mrs. Ruth (Masten) Shirley, who is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Masten. Mrs. Whicker had a son, Walter Hodson, by a former marriage, who resides in Clay Township, west of Mr. Whicker's place.

Mr. Whicker is a loyal member of the Baptist Church of Amo and is a liberal supporter of its various activities. He is a man of sound judgment and sterling integrity and has made his success in life by strict attention to business, starting out with small capital, but a stout heart and willing hands, and he has risen to a place of prominence among the representative citizens of his county. Although he has been very successful in accumulating a goodly share of this world's goods, he has not neglected those finer and higher things in life, but has always identified himself with all movements which tend to elevate the general welfare of the locality in which he has lived for so many years.

Allen Whicker lived to an advanced age for the time, to age 82, and he died in Amo, Hendricks County, Indiana where he had lived all his life on July 6, 1919.