Robert P. Hamilton, a leading farmer of Needham Township, Johnson County, Ind., living one and one-half miles southeast from Franklin, on the Edinburg state road, was born in Union Township, Johnson County, Ind., on January 31, 1839, and was the eleventh of twelve children, born to Micajah and Elizabeth Luyster. The father was born in Culpepper County, Va., in 1797, and died May 5, 1878. The mother was born in 1797, and died January 7, 1884. The father was of English, and the mother of Dutch, extraction. When a boy the father left Virginia, and settled in Mercer County, Ky. His father dying when he was quite young, he was early thrown upon his own resources, being “bound out” soon after the family reached Kentucky, to Garrett Cozine, and during his teens was a wagoner, and drove a six-horse team from Kentucky to the inland towns of the southern states. In the summer of 1834 he came to Johnson County, and entered 240 acres of land, in Section 26, and immediately moved his family from Kentucky, but did not locate on his 240-acre farm until 1837. He followed farming as a life vocation, and was a member of Shiloh Presbyterian Church. He married Elizabeth Luyster in Kentucky. She was an aunt of Capt. H. H. Luyster, of Franklin. Our subject was reared on the farm, and secured a limited education in the public schools. He emigrated to Kansas in the fall of 1860, and remained there until the summer of 1861, and then returned to Indiana. He enlisted in the Federal Army, in August, 1862, in Company E, of the Seventh Regiment of Indiana Infantry, as a private. At the discharge of the Seventh Regiment, in 1864, near Petersburgh, Va., he was transferred to the Nineteenth Indiana Infantry, and a week later was placed in Company G, of the Twentieth Regiment of Indiana Infantry. He was mustered out of service near Washington, D.C., on May 31, 1865, having served almost three years, and passing through the battles of Antietam, Second Bull Run, Petersburgh, the Wilderness campaign, and on to Richmond, and was at the final surrender of Appomattox. After the close of the war he returned to Johnson County, Ind., and purchased a farm of 136 acres, in Section No. 32; the same place was exchanged in about 1870 for another farm of 160 acres, in the same section, on the Martinsville road. In 1876, he removed to Florida and remained there for two years, and then returned to Johnson County, settling on his old farm. On September 6, 1887, he swapped farms with E. O. and J. W. Peggs, and removed to his present farm, near Franklin, which embraces 147 acres, more or less, upon which he has a substantial brick residence. He is a member of the Shiloh Presbyterian Church, and of Wadsworth Post, No. 127, G. A. R. In politics, he is a republican. He was married on October 30, 1868, to Margaret J. Graham, who was born in Johnson County, Ind., on September 3, 1845, and was the daughter of James H. Graham. She died May 11, 1878, leaving one son—Arthur G., who was born June 22, 1871. Mr. Hamilton was married again on January 31, 1882, to Sallie C. Covert, who was born in Johnson County, Ind., on December 16, 1850, and is the daughter of John R. Covert. To this union one daughter, Roxy C., was born December 23, 1882. Mrs. Hamilton is a member of the Shiloh Presbyterian Church, and her husband is an elder of the same church.