DR. JOHN SLAVENS, physician and surgeon at Brick Chapel, residing on section 29, Monroe township, was born in Montgomery County, Kentucky, March 1, 1811, son of Reuben Slavens, an early settler of Kentucky, now deceased. His great-grandfather, John Slavens, came from Ireland prior to the Revolutionary War. The doctor came to this county in 1826, settling in Monroe township, which was then a wilderness. They had all the experiences incident to pioneer life. He used to roll logs thirty days in succession; also attended house-raisings. He was educated in the subscription school of the early day, and sat on split-pole seats, and wrote on a puncheon pinned to the wall. He taught school five or six years, then read medicine with Dr. A. C. Stevenson, of Greencastle. He began the practice of medicine in 1838 at Portland Mills, this county, and graduated at the medical department of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1848. He has practiced fifty years. There was a time when he knew everyone in the county north of Greencastle. He came to his present home in 1864, where he owns thirty-seven acres of land. He is a member of the Christian church, and is a Royal Arch Mason. He was married May 22, 1842, to Sarah Warden, daughter of William Warden, who was born in Bath County, Kentucky. They have had six children, Henry C. (deceased), Mary E., Isabelle, Julia, Horace G., and Queen. All are married.
Weik's History of Putnam County, Indiana,
Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago 1887
SLAVENS, JOHN, P.O. Brick Chapel, Physician, Section 29, born March 1, 1811, in Montgomery County, Kentucky, son of Reuben Slavens (born in Virginia November 19, 1787) and Elizabeth Hart-Slavens (born in Virginia November 19, 1782). He married May 22, 1842, in Portland Mills, Putnam Co., Sarah Warden, born in Bath County, Ky., June 15, 1818, daughter of William and Catherine Davis-Warden, he a native of Ireland and she of Pennsylvania, by whom he has had six children-- H.C., born February 10, 1843, died April 27, 1851; Mary E., born September 3, 1844; Sarah I., born September 5, 1846; Julia, born April 5, 1849; Horace Greeley, July 16, 1850; and Queen N., born December 22, 1852. Dr. Slavens was second in a family of ten children; he came to this county in 1826, when fifteen years old; attended a subscription school in Section 28, known now as the Brick Chapel, until his twentieth year. The school only being in session during the winter, he worked for his father on the farm through the summer. After leaving school, he taught at intervals for five years, then began reading medicine with Dr. A.C. Stevenson of Greencastle. After two years' study, he began the practive of his profession in Portland Mills. In 1847-8 he attended the Louisville Medical University, where he graduated in the latter year. Dr. Slavens has spent forty years in the practice of his profession in Portland Mills twenty-five years, in Greencastle eighteen months, and where he now resides, fourteen years. He favors all that tends to improve the educational and material advancement of his county, feeling somewhat of a paternal interest in it, having seen its growth almost from its birth. He is a Republican, and has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1845; he and his wife belong to the Christian Church. His son Horace G. is practicing medicine in Humboldt, Allen Co., Kan. The Slavenses are of Irish descent; the Doctor's great-grandfather John, settled in Virginia, where his son Isaiah, grandfather of the Doctor, was born in 1756; he was a soldier in the wars of the Revolution and of 1812, and died in this county about 1844. Dr Slaven's father died in this county February 14, 1872, and his mother September 26, 1846 Both were members of the regular Baptist Church. Mrs. Slavens' parents died in Orange County, Ind., when she was a child.
Atlas of Putnam County, J.H. Beers & Co., Chicago 1879
Thanks to the Putnam County Public Library in Greencastle for their transcription of the portion of the biography that I missed getting copied!