Wabash County, Indiana - The whole text, 1914 (part 9 of 16)

Not long after their marriage the parents of Mr. Starbuck left their native Old North state, and drove overland in a wagon to Indiana, first settling in Wayne county, where they resided until 1847. In that year they again took their horses and drove through to Wabash county, set¬ tling on a farm in Waltz township, about four miles west of Somerset, which had not yet been entered from the Government, although later, when it was possible, it was secured by the father. About ten of the 160 acres had been cleared, and on this had been erected a small log cabin, which was the family home until some years later, when it was replaced by a more commodious and comfortable frame house. About the close of the Civil war Mr. Starbuck removed to Somerset in order that his children might receive better educational advantages, and during the two years that he made his home there served as assessor. He then returned to the Waltz township farm, where he and the mother continued to spend the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of eleven children, and two of their sons, James D. and Milton H., served as Union soldiers during the Civil War, as members of Company A, Eighty-ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry.

The early education of B. F. Starbuck was secured in the district schools of Waltz township, this being supplemented by two terms in the village schools of Somerset. He had early learned the lessons of energy and industry, and a large part of his boyhood had been passed in assist¬ ing his father and brothers to clear the heavy timber from the home farm, to harvest the crops and to help in making the numerous improve¬ ments which were put on the land from time to time. It was but natural that he should adopt agricultural pursuits as his field of operations, and when he had completed his schooling at Someset he returned to the home place. There he made his home until 1893, when he removed to Somerset, where he opened a hotel and restaurant, and four years later, in 1897, sold out and was appointed postmaster. He has ever been energetic, per¬ severing and industrious, and these qualities have enabled him to triumph over all the difficulties that have been found in his path. His main business enterprise is flour and feed, and is the only one in Somerset engaged in that vocation. He also owns the building that contains the postoffice and the feed store. In public affairs he has been prominent. From 1885 until 1888 he served his township as trustee, and in 1897, as above stated, was appointed postmaster at Somerset by President Wil¬ liam McKinley, assuming the office on May 10, 1897. This position he has filled to the present time, to the entire satisfaction of the people of his community. Mr. Starbuck has ever supported the republican party, and is known as one of the reliable stand-bys of this part of the county. His religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has served as a member of the board of trustees.

Joseph Haupert. Although agricultural conditions and methods have changed materially during the past half a century, in which dis¬ coveries and inventions have played such an important part in advancing the prosperity of such fertile farming communities as Wabash county, the need for energy, perseverance and well-directed effort still prevails, and the farmer who rises above his fellows is he who displays these char¬ acteristics in the greatest degree. Among the men of this county who are proving their ability as tillers of the soil and showing their worth as representatives of honored families, Joseph Haupert takes a prominent place. At this time he is the owner of a well-cultivated farm of 100 acres, on the east side of the Laketon road, eight and one-quarter miles north of Wabash, in Paw Paw township, a property which he has brought under a high state of cultivation through intelligent treatment and scientific methods. Mr. Haupert was born on the old family homestead in Wabash county, in a log house, February 19, 1869, and is a son of Frederick and Barbara (Nunemacher) Haupert.

Frederick Haupert was born in Germany, where his father died, and when sixteen years of age he came to the United States alone, his mother later coming to America, and she passed away in Ohio. He had received a good education in the schols of the Fatherland, and had shown himself especially clever at figures, but received no instruction in English until he was past twenty-one years of age, when he paid his own way. Prior to the advent of the railroads in Wabash county he left his home in Tus¬ carawas county, Ohio, and came to the new locality, and was married here tp Barbara Nunemacher. At this time he purchased eighty acres of land in the woods, for which he went into debt, lacking the purchase price of $300. They began their married life in the one-room log house, located in the midst of great growths of valuable poplar, walnut and other timber, the worth of which at that time, however, was not sus¬ pected. Game was plentiful in the woods, and the first year Mr. Haupert had his corn crop totally destroyed by the hordes of squirrels which in¬ fested this section. He kept steadily adding to his land from time to time and was the owner of five eighty-acre farms at one period, but when he died had only three farms, as he had disposed of 170 acres in Lagro township and forty acres in Paw Paw township. He was a self-made man in every respect, A great reader and man of superior intelligence, he was frequently called upon for advice, and settled many disputes among his neighbors. He was a faithful member of the German Lutheran church, and was always a stanch supporter of religious movements, assisting to build all three churches at Urbana. In his political views he was inde¬ pendent, exercising his right of franchise in voting for the man he deemed best fitted for the office, irrespective of party lines. He contributed ma¬ terially to the upbuilding of his community and put up the second log house, which is still standing and occupied by his widow, who has en¬ larged, weather-boarded and plastered it and it is now one of the most substantial in the county. Mr. Haupert was within three months of being eighty-five years old at the time of his death, July 18, 1911, and his death was mourned by a wide circle of friends.

Mrs. Haupert, the widow of Frederick Haupert, has been a resident of Wabash county for more than sixty years, and is one of its best known and most highly esteemed women. She was born in Wittenberg, Ger¬ many, November 26, 1832, and is a daughter of Christofer and Mary (Singlinger) Nunemacher. Her father, a stone mason in Germany, was engaged in making house and barn foundations and wells, and also was the owner of a few fields in his native land. In 1847 the family emigrated to the United States, the journey consuming some seventy-five days on the ocean in a sailing vessel. Just as the party were about to board the ship, one of the women found that she had lost her money which had been tied up in a handkerchief and which she had left in a store. She declared that her brothers, who lived in Pennsylvania, would repay any¬ one who would lend her the money to come to America and Christofer Nunemacher advanced the means, but on arrival in Erie, Pennsylvania, the brothers refused to pay and after three weeks the little party moved on. From Pennsylvania they went to Ohio, where they remained for a little more than a year, and while residing here a son, George, enlisted for service in the war with Mexico, in which he subsequently met his death. Christofer Nunemacher was given seventy-five dollars and 80 acres of land by the Government and came to Wabash county, Indiana, where he had German friends, although he was given only eighty acres, this now being the farm adjoining the one belonging to George Haupert in Paw Paw township. This later proved a good farm, although at that time it was all covered with woods. Wild game was to be found in great quantities, and it was no unusual experience for Mr. Nunemacher to arise in the morning and find tracks where the deer had slept in front of his cabin during the night. Frequently the children, in going to school or after the cows, would become lost in the woods. Christofer Nune¬ macher and his wife were earnest, hard-working, God-fearing people, and when they died were mourned by the entire community.

Mrs. Frederick Haupert was a girl of sixteen years when the family came to Wabash county. She had received a good education in her native Germany, where the schools at that time were greatly superior to those found in the United States, but in this country did not attend school. At first the wilderness of the Hoosier state oppressed her, and she longed for the Fatherland, or for Ohio; but finally became reconciled to her life in the new country, and eventually grew to love her adopted community. Upon coming to Wabash county she began working among the families of the section, first with a Jewish family named Harrif, at Wabash, by whom she was kindly treated, later with Dunkard families of Lagro township, named Blocker and Rennicker, and later with Phil Albers, now deceased, who resided at Wabash. Here she was treated as one of the family, and was given a salary of $1.00 per week, having formerly worked for seventy-five cents per week. Often she worked in the field, with the old-fashioned scythe and other hand tools, and her money was always sent home to her father. She was within one day of being nineteen years of age when she was married by a justice of the peace, at the home of Mr. Albers, to Frederick Haupert, and they at once began their married life in the woods of Paw Paw township. The pioneers of that day had to be satisfied with but few comforts, outside of the absolute necessities. Mrs. Haupert did not know of the luxury of a spring wagon or buggy, or of any of the conveniences, although all of these things have since come to her. An old hand-made flat-iron, which belonged to her mother and which is an illustration of the crude tools of that day, is greatly prized by her. She was strong, able and willing, and a great help to her husband, and with him reared a family which is a credit to her and to the community. Mrs. Haupert still resides on the old homestead, of which she owns eighty acres, the land having been recently divided, her son George Haupert receiving eighty acres on the east and Charles eighty acres on the west, on the Laketon road. Although eighty-two years of age Mrs. Haupert is still alert, active and keenly interested in all that goes on about her. Her life has been an exceedingly full one and she has been blessed with advanced years, in which she has fully and nobly done her part in the wonderful changes which have made Wabash county one of the garden spots of the great state of Indiana. Frederick and Barbara Haupert were the parents of the following chil¬ dren: Jacob, wTho is deceased; Mary; Philimina, wTho is deceased; Mary; Fred; Elizabeth; George, who is living with his mother; Peter; Philip, who is deceased; Joseph, of this review; Charles H. and Rose.

Joseph Haupert was reared on the old homestead, his education being secured in the Half-acre school, to get to which he was frequently com¬ pelled to struggle through great fields of swamp land. He was large for his age, and when still a lad began to do his full share of wrork on the farm, performing a man 's task when he wras but fourteen. He was mar¬ ried in 1904 and continued under the parental roof for one year there¬ after, then purchasing eighty acres of land in Waltz township. There he resided but five months, however, when he disposed of his property and came to the farm on wrhich he nowT resides, the old Downey place. He has remodeled the residence, erected wire fences and made many hun¬ dreds of dollars of other improvements, and nowr has one of the handsome and valuable properties of Pawr Paw township. He devotes his atten¬ tion to general farming and to the raising of cattle and hogs, and has been very successful in his ventures. Known as a man of the strictest integ¬ rity, he has the confidence and respect of his business associates, and wThile he has not been an office seeker he has always been considered a good and progressive citizen, ever ready to assist movements for his com¬ munity Js benefit.

In June, 1904, Mr. Haupert was married to Miss Helena Catherine Wendel, daughter of Christian and Mary (Mattern) Wendel, well-known farming people of PawT Paw township, both of whom are now deceased. Mrs. Haupert 's brother, Edwrard, is a resident of Pleasant township. They have two children, Mary Josephine, born August 28, 1905, and Myron Wendel, born August 1, 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Haupert are'con- sistent members of the German Lutheran church, and have numerous friends in its congregation and in social circles of the township. In his political views he is independent, voting for the man rather than the party.

Erhart Weber. Few of the residents of Paw Paw township have resided in this part of the county longer than has Erhart Weber, sixtyfour of whose seventy years have been passed here. Coming to this sec¬ tion when primitive conditions still remained, when the deer and wild turkey were to be found in abundance, when the log cabin was the main style of architecture, and when the beautiful country of today was still in the making, he has grown up with the county, has helped to foster its growth, and with its prosperity has himself prospered. Today he is the owner of 352 acres of land, secured through his own exertions, and is one of the highly esteemed men of his community, honored alike because of the great development through which he has passed, and for his many sterling traits of character.

Mr. Weber is a native of Ohio, born in Wayne county, January 15, 1844, in the town of Milbrook. His parents were John and Julia (tirosengene) Weber, the former a native of Switzerland, and the latter of France, and bqth of whom migrated to the United States as young people. John Weber was a shoemaker by trade, having learned that vocation in his native land, and for some time conducted a small shop at Milbrook, Ohio. He was married in Wayne county, and about the year 1850, with his wife and three children, a balky mare and a onehorse wagon, came to Indiana and located in Wabash. He had no capital, but was industrious and ambitious and soon secured employment with Mr. Coontz, at the brickyard, where he worked during his first summer in this state. Following this he rented a farm which now forms a part of the property of his son, a tract of eighty acres which was owned by Peter Mount, son of the old banker and large land owTner, and which was managed by James McClure. Through his enterprise and energy, thrift and economy, he was able to secure enough capital to pay part of $800 purchase price for 160 acres of land up the Eel river, in what is now Pleasant township, although at that time it had not as yet been divided. The land was all in the woods, wrild animals abounded and all the privations of pioneer settlement were to be suffered, but Mr. Weber and his family set cheerfully to work to make a home. The mother, however, died here and the father sold the land to his youngest son, Frank, and moved to Manchester. There he was married again, and three years later passed away. Mr. Weber was a self-made man in every sense of the word. With no advantages, either of an educational or financial nature, he entered a new country, among strangers, and fought his way steadfastly upward to a position of importance in his community and financial independence. Among his neighbors he was known as a man of integrity in business and loyalty in friendships, and his support was ever given to worthy causes. He gave each of his children eighty acres of land, all of which, with their help, he had secured and put under cultivation. John and Julia Weber were the parents of the following chil¬ dren: Erhart; John; Henry; Ellen, who is the wife of James Guimip; and Frank, all now living.

Erhart Weber was a lad of six years when he accompanied his par¬ ents from the Ohio homestead to the new region of Indiana, and his youth was spent amid pioneer surroundings. He well remembers the turkeys, deer and wild animals which still made their home in the woods, and also has a distinct recollection of the ague with which the early settlers were afflicted almost without exception. The log schoolhouse on Eel river furnished him with his educational training, and like other boys of his generation and locality when he was not applying himself to gaining a knowledge of the "Three R's" he was helping his father in the work of the homestead farm. He early decided upon his career as an agriculturist, and worked at home until his marriage, in 1868, when he secured eighty acres from his father and embarked in operations on his own account. This tract was located in the woods, but Mr. Weber had had experience already in clearing property, an^d it was not long before he had it under cultivation and with a good home and other buildings. He applied himself industriously to his labors, and as the years passed improved his land, added to his stock, erected new build¬ ings and purchased new equipment, and continued to steadily buy more acres. His residence farm at this time consists of 160 acres, in Paw Paw township, in addition to which he has forty acres across the road and eighty acres east, also in Paw Paw township, and northeast of Roann, and seventy-eight acres near North Manchester, in Chester town¬ ship. Although he is now seventy years of age he still continues his gen¬ eral farming operations with as much success as that which characterized his ventures in his youth when hard work was a necessity. Few men stand higher in the esteem of their fellow-citizens, and few have a better right to the term of self-made man. He was reared in the faith of the Lutheran church. Politically a democrat, Mr. Weber has stanchly sup¬ ported his party, but has not cared to offer himself as a candidate for public office.

Mr. Weber was married in 1868, to Miss Mary Ann Ogden, who died leaving two children: George, who married Dora Dillery, resides at Manchester, and has one daughter, - Pauline ; and Myron, who resides on his father's forty-acre farm, in addition to which he owns eighty acres of his own, and who married Orpha Hainey. Erhart Weber mar¬ ried for his second wife Rilla Hale, who died February 27, 1910, and to this union there is one child : Edith, who married Charles Pottenger and has one child, Carmen. Air. and Mrs. Pottenger reside in Paw Paw township.

Fred Gretzinger. One of the prosperous and progressive farming men in Lagro township is found in the person of Fred Gretzinger, who has spent practically his entire life thus far in this vicinity. ' His suc¬ cess has placed him among the foremost men of the community, and he is a leader in citizenship, in industry and in all those sturdy virtues that make for the development and onward progress of a town, state or a nation. The ancestry of Mr. Gretzinger, who is of sound German lineage, has no doubt had much to do with the matter of his personal prosperity, for he has from his German parents those solid attributes of character that are usually found to enter into a success of that nature of his. The farm of which Mr. Gretzinger is the owner is one of 120 acres, eighty acres of it being on the east side of the road, or range line, and the remaining forty on the west side.

Fred Gretzinger was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on June 29, 1850, and he is a son of George and Christina (Baush) Gretzinger. The father was born at Wittenberg, Saxony, as was also the mother, and both came to the United States young in years, the latter with her parents and the former in company with two boys of his own neighborhood. The voyage of the Baush family was one never forgotten by any mem¬ ber of the little company, for it was one unique and altogether horrible in its aspect. The ship encountered many misfortunes on the way across, and as a result of a series of accidents the crew found itself with¬ out a competent mariner on board, and, without daily accurate reckon¬ ings, the ship lost its way and was a year on the waters. Provisions ran out finally, and they were driven to desperate measures. As a last resort it was decided to sacrifice one member of the surviving company to sup¬ ply food for the others, and when lots were drawn the unfortunate num¬ ber fell to a young woman. The company out of sympathy for the victim deferred the sacrifice as long as possible, and when it seemed that there was no escape for her a sail was sighted on the distant horizon, and soon all were rescued by a friendly vessel. The harrowing experiences of this journey remained with Mrs. Gretzinger to her last moments, though she was but a child when she made the trip across the ocean.

The emigrants, including the Baush family and young Gretzinger and his friends, settled in Ohio when they arrived in America, and there George Gretzinger lived for several years. He was a shoemaker by trade and he worked at the bench for years, until failing eyesight compelled him to turn his attention to other work. Mr. Gretzinger met and mar¬ ried Miss Baush in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and there five of their children were born. They moved to Indiana, making the trip with team and wagon, in the year 1850, and the time consumed in making the journey was from the latter part of July to the middle of October, by which time they reached Huntington, Indiana. They settled in Dallas township, a mile east of the Wabash county line, and there they applied themselves to the business of making a comfortable, or at least a livable, home out of a wilderness such as all settlers in Indiana found in that day. There they experienced all the hardships that primitive farmers can ever know, and performed their full share toward settling up the community where they made their home. They came to be prominent people in the township, and were leaders in thought and action for years. Both lived to the age of seventy-five years, and they died in the same year, she in the spring and he in the autumn following. Mr. Gret¬ zinger had been twice married. By his first wife he had two children,

Eliza and Elizabeth, the latter deceased. The children of his second marriage were Mary, George, deceased ; Fred, of this review ; Catherine, and John and Jacob, both deceased.

Fred Gretzinger was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on June 29, 1850, and he was only a few weeks old when the family moved into Indi¬ ana. He grew up in Dallas township, Huntington county, Indiana, and went to the log school that was located in the district, there learning the rudiments of the common branches in a somewhat indifferent fashion. The father had a forty acre farm, and that was the extent of his property for years, for it was not until after his sons had reached manhood that he added to it from time to time. Fred worked on the home place, and from his father, who was a hard worker and a successful farmer at the same time, he learned a good many things about farming that he has put to use in these later years, though it is equally true that he has learned something about successful farming that his father never sus¬ pected in his day, for Mr. Gretzinger is one who has a progressive spirit, and he is ever on the alert for a new * * wrinkle ' ' in farming methods.

Fred Gretzinger was twenty-seven years old when he married Mary Schenkel on March 17, 1877. She was a daughter of Adam and Margaret (Christman) Schenkel, both of the parents being natives of Germany, who came to the United States very young, the mother being but sixteen years of age then. They located in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, as did also the parents of Mr. Gretzinger, on their arrival on these shores, and later came to Dallas township, Huntington county, where they settled on a primitive farm, and there ended their days after a life of hard work, attended by a fair degree of prosperity. They had seven children : John, Catherine, Mary, wife of Mr. Gretzinger ; Adam, Peter, Sarah and Eliza¬ beth. Mrs. Gretzinger attended the German school that was established in Dallas township, and had a fair training there as a child and while in her early teens. After her marriage to Mr. Gretzinger they settled on the farm of the elder Gretzinger for three years, after which they bought forty acres in Wabash county. This they sold in 1893 and bought eighty acres of their present place in Lagro township, making the purchase of William Kauffman. Mr. Gretzinger lost no time in remodeling the house and fitting up the place until it was in a more habitable state than when it came into his possession, and he has since introduced many improvements on the place, such as tiling the low portions of the land, fencing and building suitable barns, etc. Today he has one of the valu¬ able and highly productive places in the township, and he takes his place among the foremost men of the community.

Mr. Gretzinger is a stanch democrat, fairly active in politics, and he is a member of the German Evangelical church, as is also his wife. The children that have come to him and his wife are six in number and are named as follows: Peter, who is his father's assistant on the farm and who married Elizabeth Schnitz; Adam, married to Cecil Kanour and the father of one child, Lucile; William, married to Mattie Ziner; Frank, Maggie and Laura. Maggie is the wife of R. Meyers and has one child.

John F. Murphy. Bom more than three score and ten years ago in Lagro township, John F. Murphy has not only lived through all the scenes from pioneer times to the more modem electric age, has witnessed such transformations as few other men now living can recall, but at the same time has fought a good fight all his own from poverty to a pros¬ perity only a little short of wealth. It is a story of individual, hard-won success, and is not without its lesson and inspiration.

Mr. Murphy resides five miles east of Urbana, on the Murphy Pike, and owns four hundred acres, one hundred and sixty acres situated in Chester township and the remainder in Lagro. His parents were Oliver P. and America (Flora) Murphy. The former was born near Cincin¬ nati, Ohio, and the latter in Fayette county, Indiana, coming to Wabash county with her mother and a half brother, William T. Ross. The Ross family located three and a half miles south of Lagro, where the Ross Run church now stands, as a family memorial in that locality. Oliver P. Murphy on coming to Wabash county settled on the first farm east of that of William T. Ross, locating there about three years later. Oliver Murphy first came to this country in 1836, and was one of a party of about ten men who came and entered land in the same locality. They walked from Fayette county, Indiana, and after making his selec¬ tion Oliver Murphy walked on to the Fort Wayne land offic.e, paid two hundred dollars in gold for a quarter section at a dollar and a quarter per acre, and in the meantime, in order to prepare his land partially for cultivation, he had deadened a portion of the heavy timber which covered it. After that he walked all the way back to Fayette county, and in 1840 returned to* take possession. He married Miss America Flora, and they began housekeeping in a cabin in the woods. After clearing and cultivating a portion of that land for some years he sold in 1851 and moved to Lagro, where he built a warehouse on the banks of the old canal and engaged in the buying of grain. That venture was not successful and he lost a great deal of money. His death occurred July 30, 1861, when forty-five years of age. His wife passed away in 1871, at the age of fifty-two. Their children were: John Flora, born March 5, 1842; Peter S., born December 11, 1844; Emily, now deceased, born March 11, 1848; Morris, deceased, born February 21, 1850; Caro¬ line, born March 27, 1853 ; Flora Bell, born March 5, 1858. The mother of this family was born in 1820, and the father in 1815.

John F. Murphy was bom March 5, 1842, the eldest of the children, and first saw the light of day on the old home farm first mentioned, and all the children with the exception of the youngest were born there. He was ten years of age when the family moved to Lagro. It was one of the typical old schools which John F. Murphy attended while living in the country, a one-room structure built of logs, heated by a bog fireplace at one end, from which ascended a mud and stick chimney, and all the older boys had as a part of their school duties the task of cutting and bringing in the firewood. While attending that school he sat on a rough slab bench, wrote with a goosequill pen and studied the three Rs, which constituted the bulk of the curriculum in those day. After the family moved to Lagro he attended a one-room school house of frame construc¬ tion. His home was in Lagro until 1870, and during his early youth he had assisted his father in the old grain warehouse situated on the canal.

A few years after attaining man's estate John F. Murphy enlisted, on February 28, 1862, in the Fourteenth Indiana battery, under Captain M. H. Kidd. Captain Kidd was later promoted major, and was suc¬ ceeded by Frank Morris as captain. Mr. Murphy saw long and arduous service as a soldier, and is one of the honored veterans who still survive that great war. On December 18, 1862, at the battle of Lexington, Tennessee, he was taken prisoner, but was subsequently paroled, returned to Indianapolis and was exchanged, after which he rejoined his regiment. He fought with his command in all its many battles and campaigns, and was for thirteen days engaged in the siege of Mobile, Alabama; was at Guntown, Mississippi, where his battery lost two guns, and was in the final great battle of the war at Nashville, besides many others of lesser importance. From the roar of the cannon his hearing was so impaired that he has suffered that incapacity ever since, and that was one of the sacrifices which he made for the Union. His honorable discharge was given at Indianapolis, September 1, 1865, and he then returned to Lagro.

In the .spring following his return from the army, on May 30, 1866, Mr. Murphy married Angeline Anson, who died January 28, 1868, leaving one child. This child, Frank Murphy, lives on the Chester township farm of his father, and he married Eva Huddleston. On September 14, 1869, Mr. Murphy married Elizabeth Bechtol, and to them the following children have been born: Olive, living at home; Irving, who lives across the road from his father's place, and who mar¬ ried Loretta Ellison; Augustus, mentioned at the close of this sketch; Frank, who lives in Chester township; and John Lee, who died when twenty-one years of age. Mr. Murphy also has four grandchildren, namely: Fern, who married Cecil Martin, and has two children, Joseph William and Ralph T.; Ralph; Robert John; and Ruby Elizabeth.

Mrs. John F. Murphy was born three miles north of Marion in Grant county, a daughter of Edward and Emily (Huff) Bechtol. Her father was born and reared in Virginia, and was left an orphan at the age of nine. He came north at the age of twenty-five years, having mar¬ ried in Virginia. His wife was a daughter of John and Dorothea (Chapman) Huff, the Huffs having come from Pennsylvania and the Chapmans from England. Edward Bechtol was a self-made man who never had school advantages, but who, nevertheless, acquired a substan¬ tial position in life. He lived near Marion until Mrs. Murphy was nine years of age, and then settled on the Dora Pike in Wabash county. There he acquired five hundred acres of land. Mr. Bechtol died there, and his wife passed away at Wabash. There were ten children in the Bechtol family, as follows : Francis, who is seventy-nine years of age'

John P. Murphy received his financial start in life from the money paid him as a soldier of the Union. After the death of his first wife he took his little son, then but four months old, to the home of his mother, and was thus free to prosecute his endeavors and finally accumulated enough to enable him to buy his first farm in January, 1876. Previous to this time he had rented land. This purchase was a portion of his present farm in Lagro township. He moved his household to that place on March 22, 1870, and the eighty acres were largely in the midst of the green woods, with a poor log house as the only shelter for his family.

Prom that time forward he steadily prospered, and six years later erected his present comfortable abode. Mr. Murphy has long since reached a position far above want, and does considerable business in loaning his surplus. He has done a large business in live stock, having sold many carloads of cows, though he never bought one. He buys heifers, raises them on his farm, and then sends them to market. He has also dealt in horses, hogs, sheep, and has never sold a bushel of corn from his farm, provided he had anything to feed it to. Another rule of his business life is that he has never given a mortgage. He and his sons now carry on farming operations together. One of the sources of profit from his land has been the timber, much of which has been converted into firewood and sold in the town. Mr. Murphy had very few ad¬ vantages in the way of education when a boy, having had to work too hard to absorb much book knowledge. However, he has since educated himself by outside reading, and has even looked into law books, as he quaintly says. He is one of the honored members of the James H.

Emmett Post, No. 6, G. A. R., at Wabash, and in politics is a demo¬ crat. If one could transcribe all the pictures contained in the early recollections of this venerable Lagro citizen they would present a faith¬ ful representation of pioneer days. He can remember the Indians, when they camped near the old farm, and herds of deer and other wild animals were often seen in the clearings.

Augustus Murphy, a son of the Wabash county pioneer, was born in the log cabin on his father's farm, April 4, 1874. He has followed agricultural pursuits throughout his life, and is now residing on a farm of one hundred and twenty acres of well improved land located one mile south of Serva, in Chester township, Wabash county, engaged in general farming and stock raising. He is a democrat in politics and has fra¬ ternal relations with the Knights of Pythias at Manchester.

whose life and experiences have been fruitful, and one who has been a good business man, an earnest, energetic citizen, and in his personal character well beloved by a large circle of family and friends. His home is in Paw Paw township, on a fine estate of one hundred acres, four miles east of Roann, all the land being located on the south side of the highway.

Lyttleton J. Scott was bora at Brookville in Franklin county, Indiana, September 22, 1839, a son of Job and Lora Ann (Wallace) Scott. His father was bora in Tennessee and his mother in North Caro¬ lina, and they were married in Franklin county, Indiana. Job Scott was a son of Edward Scott, a planter, who moved from Tennessee to Alabama, but soon afterwards returned to Tennessee, and subsequently came north of the Ohio river and located in Franklin county, Indiana, where he bought a farm. During his later years Edward Scott moved into Wabash county, owned a farm here, and lived with his son-in-law Thomas Moore until his death ; being followed three years later by his widow. Edward Scott was one of the prosperous citizens measured by the ideas of wealth prevalent in his time.

Job Scott, the third child in a large family, was twenty-four years of age when the family moved to Indiana. A cabinet maker by trade, he followed the contracting business in Franklin county, and helped to build one section of the Whitewater canal. His business activities brought him both land and money, but like many men he was ruined by his friends, having placed his name on too much paper as security and in the end having practically all his personal resources wiped out. Dur¬ ing his residence in Franklin county he had married, his wife having lived there from girlhood. After his experience of success and adversity in Franklin county, Job Scott brought his family to Wabash county in 1842, and here started in to build up his success from the bottom. For a number of years he worked as a renter on the Henry McPherson farm* and finally saved enough to buy forty acres of land eight miles east of where his son Lyttleton now lives, his farm being in Chester township. Later he sold that property and bought a place in the city of Wabash, where his death occurred at the age of sixty-four years. His widow survived him many years and passed away at the age of eighty-seven. Their four children were: Lyttleton J. ; Martin, deceased; William Riley, and Mary Elizabeth, who died young.

Lyttleton J. Scott was only three years old when he came to Wabash county, and his early recollections embrace some of the most interesting incidents and scenes of pioneer times in Wabash county. The family removed from Franklin county in wagons, and at the time of their arrival Wabash was a small village. The surrounding country, except here and there where some enterprising settler had cleared off a piece of land, was almost unbroken wilderness, and there are very few men who can understand by personal recollection and experience the condi¬ tion of things at that time as can Mr. Scott. Their first home was near the little town called America near Lafontain. Hundreds of Indians were still living in this part of Indiana, and practically the only roads were the old Indian trails. Mr. Scott has himself often seen bands of Indians from fifty to one hundred in number, riding single file one behind the other, the braves being followed by their squaws and with the papooses strapped on their backs. As a matter of fact, his acquaint¬ ance with Indians was much closer than this, since the red man often called at his father's cabin, walking through the deep snow and begging something to eat, and the request was never refused and a supply of corn bread and venison was usually ready for these guests. Mr. Scott as a boy and some of his neighbors often visited the Indian lands along the river to get river plums. He became well acquainted with the Indian customs and peculiarities. He has seen the Indians set up ' 4 poke stalks" and shoot at them with bow and arrow. So far as his own personal observations extended Mr. Scott never knew the Indians to be otherwise than friendly except when they were supplied with bad whiskey.

Mr. Scott remained at home until he was twenty-four years of age, and in the meantime had gone through the usual course of pioneer boys in the local schools. The school house which was his temple of learning was built of logs, it had the typical rough benches without backs, and the only desk was a broad board set aslant around two or three sides of the room. The instruction was limited to the fundamen¬ tals, but he thus gained some knowledge of books and came out of ^chool well equipped by his otherwise practical experience for the duties of life.

On August 20, 1863, Mr. Scott married Sara Jane Maple. After thirty-seven years of happy married life she passed away in 1900. There were three children: Frank Martin, who lives in Wabash, mar¬ ried Nora Speck, and their children are Lyttleton, Harvey, Donald and Pauline; Albert, who lives at Ijamsville in Wabash county, married Elizabeth Fausnough, and they have two children, Earl and Oscar, and an adopted child, Wilma; Nellie who lives with her father, is Mrs. Emanuel Amber, and her four children are Robert Lyttleton, Lowell Scott, Iola Leneva and Herbert, usually called Dick.

Mr. Scott in his early youth learned the trade of stone mason, and followed that vocation for many years in Wabash. About forty years ago he bought his present farm, the old Hensler place. It was prac¬ tically all woods at the time it came into his possession, and its clear¬ ing and improvement has been the result of Mr. Scott 's individual labor and supervision. Many hundred rods of tile has been laid, the low¬ lands have been drained, the woods have been cut down, and it would be impossible to enumerate the many ways in which his own work has contributed to the value of this, one of the best farms in Paw Paw township. His first home there was a log cabin, and he considered that a temporary makeshift as a residence until he could have a bet¬ ter. He was saving money to build when the log house took fire and was burned to the ground, and with its other contents all the money was destroyed except thirty dollars which he happened to be carrying in his pocket. The second house, which was a small frame building, and in which he lived for many years, was built and furnished entirely on credit, but he soon paid off his obligation. In the summer of 1912 Mr. Scott put up one of the best country homes in Paw Paw township, a large ten-room frame building, with a basement under all and with an equipment that lacks nothing which would be found in the city resi¬ dences of the better class. Among other improvements and facilities he had his own light plant, the rooms are heated by furnace, and it is a delightful place in which to spend his declining years. All the invest¬ ment represented by his home and much more is the proceeds of his successful career as a farmer. Mr. Scott paid a little more than two thousand dollars for his present farm, and it is now worth several times that amount. In politics he has usually supported the democratic principles and candidates, beginning about fifty years ago, and in church affairs is a member of the Paw Paw Christian church.

Samuel J. Beciitold. Few men of Lagro township were more highly esteemed among their associates than was the late Samuel J. Bechtold, who met an untimely death in his home community as the result of an unfortunate automobile accident on March 26, 1911. Mr. Bechtold had been a lifelong resident of this township, his birth occurring one mile north of the place he called home during the later years of his life on July 20, 1874, so that he was but thirty-six years of age when his final summons tame. He was one of the many prosperous farmers of the east part of Wabash county, and a man of many sterling qualities that had won for him a host of stanch friends and the confidence of all who shared in his acquaintance. His death was a crushing blow to his family, but it would be difficult to estimate the loss that the township sustained in his passing, for he was a man who was valuable in his citizenship, and one who could not well be spared.

Samuel J. Bechtold was the son of John C. and Fredericka (Fiegle) Bechtold, the father born in Germany and the mother in Ohio, and the subject was one of the eleven children born to them, five of whom died in young life. Mr. Bechtold, in March, 1896, married Lydia Hegel, the daughter of Jacob and Mary (Bitzer) Hegel, and concerning these par¬ ents a fuller sketch will be found elsewhere in this volume, in connection with the life of John C. Hegel, a brother of Mrs. Bechtold. It may be stated here, however, and more or less briefly, that the mother was bora and reared in Wabash county, while the father came to the United States from Germany as a young man, and cleared up a farm out of the Indiana wilderness as his contribution to the development of the state. He retired to Wabash when in his eighties and there died in August, 1910. He was twice married, his first wife having been Louise Bender, who bore him two children, Mary, the wife of Andrew West, and Tina. The seven surviving children of his second marriage are John, to whom a sketch is devoted elsewhere in this biographical work; William; Lydia, widow of Samuel Bechtold of this review; Charles, also named in this work ; Reuben, Harry and Sarah.

mined to make it productive, and it was the successive work of year after year on the part of many men and several generations that grad¬ ually extended the area of cultivation and productivity, and it is that monumental work which constitutes the basis for the present flourish¬ ing prosperity of the entire county. A man now well past the age of three score and ten, George W. Crist of Paw Paw township has per¬ formed his full share of this important labor of development, and his .generous possessions at the present time represent almost a lifetime of fruitful endeavor and judicious management. George W. Crist is pro¬ prietor of one hundred and ninety acres located on the east side of the Minnick Pike about nine miles northwest of Wabash.

The Crist family was numbered among the pioneers of Wabash -county. George W. Crist was born on his father's farm a mile and a half south of his present residence on December 26, 1842. His parents were John D. and Mary M. (Michael) Crist. His father was a Virginian .and his mother a native of Preble county, Ohio, where they were mar¬ ried, the father having come out from Virginia at the age of twenty- -one. While in Preble county one son, Leander, was born, and they then moved to Wabash county. At that time there were no railroads, and the only means of transportation was by wagon over the rough trails, or by boat along the canals and rivers. The Crist family chose to make their emigration with wagons and teams, and they finally arrived in what was then an unbroken forest, in the locality where George Crist was born. For a short time they enjoyed the hospitality of an earlier pioneer, James Jack, who, in the kindly spirit of helpfulness which was so characteristic of early settlers, helped the newcomer to put up a log house. That house was the birthplace of George W. Crist. It was prac¬ tically bare -of comforts, had a puncheon floor, and the furniture was of the rudest and most practical sort. The father got his land cheap, but was confronted with the tremendous task of clearing it before it could be made profitable for cultivation. The one horse which he had to work the land was a young, spirited iron-gray, and when the wolves came -around at night it was difficult to restrain him until a stable could be completed that afforded both shelter and protection to the animal. All the rest of his days John D. Crist lived there, labored to chop down the trees and grub the stumps, and his first log home was replaced with a large two-story log building. As comforts and means became more plentiful he weather-boarded the log frame, sealed it tight, and made it one of the better dwellings in that community. The logs which origi¬ nally entered into its construction were of large size and of walnut and poplar. After his death his widow moved to Roann and died there. John D. Crist had one hundred and ten acres in his first farm, and subsequently added another eighty acres, all of which lay in Paw Paw township. The five children were : Leander, deceased ; George W. ; Louisa T., who died young; Levina Ellen, wrho also died young; Frank, who is the proprietor of the old homestead.

George W. Crist had his first conscious recollection of the old home-' stead, still largely surrounded by heavy forest, and as soon as he was old enough he began to swing an axe and help chop trees and clear off the brush, besides handling the plow and other implements of agricul¬ ture. For a time he attended a log school house at the corner of old Mr. Jack's farm, and one of his early teachers was Willis Bryan, a sketch of whom appears in this work. While attending school under Mr. Bryan, Mr. Crist and some of the other boys planned a joke on the schoolmaster. They put a board over the chimney, so that the smoke from the fireplace was unable to find its usual exit, and poured out into the schoolroom so that the master and the other scholars had to leave. His response to this funning of the older boys was to treat them to a large basket of apples. After all these years, it would hardly be neces¬ sary to name all the boys who participated in that mischief, but some of them no doubt will read these lines and recall the incident.

Mr. Crist lived at home, without any special incidents except such as were common to the rural life of boys and young men of that time, and on October 16, 1866, married Ann E. Jack, one of the popular girls of the neighborhood. She died December 26, 1898, after they had been happily married for more than thirty years. She was the oldest daugh¬ ter of John D. and Catherine (Stewart) Jack. To their marriage were born two children : Edwin M. Crist is now active manager of his father's farm. He and his father together own a section of land in Western Kansas. Edwin married Edna Hetzler, daughter of Michael Hetzler, and they have two children, Lenore and Marion Lowell, Edwin Crist lives in a house adjoining that of his father, and on his father's farm. Lilly M. Crist, second child, is the wife of Senator L. A. Baber. Senator Baber came to Wabash county from Ohio, gained a substantial position as a general merchant and automobile agent at Roann, and is now serving in the state senate, representing Wabash and Fulton counties. Mr. and Mrs. Baber have one child, Carl Crist Baber, who now lives in Wabash.

After his marriage nearly fifty years ago, George W. Crist and wife first began domestic life on a very simple scale. Their first home was a little log house on a farm rented from Ed Busick, a mile and a half south of the present Crist farm on the west side of the same road. After about sixteen months there, he moved to his present place. One hun¬ dred acres of this on the north side were inherited from his father's estate, his mother having acquired it from William Watson, and it was originally in the old Wigham tract. The rest of his land Mr. Crist bought from a cousin, John Bickel. Though the Crist farm now pre¬ sents a smiling landscape of fields and meadows it was in a very differ¬ ent condition when he first settled. Woods covered most of the acreage, and as he had little capital he made a log cabin serve the purposes of a home. Near that little cabin home stood some immense trees, and had one of them fallen it would easily have crushed the cabin. To remove this danger Mr. Crist soon cut them down, and for many years his axe was busy in chopping down timber that would now be worth a large sum of money. After the years had given him prosperity, in 1883 he built his present commodious ten-room frame house. Four years later, in 1887, he erected a large barn, and that was burned in 1896. Besides the improvements on his own home grounds, Mr. Crist put up a large residence for his son, bams and other improvements. Many rods of tile have been laid on the low parts of his land, fences have been strung around the fields, and few men have produced more regularly and in larger quantity the staple crops of this county than George W. Crist. His prosperity is also represented by the ownership of town property in Roann and Winona. Mr. Crist is a trustee of the Presbyterian church at Roann, and a democrat in politics, though never active nor a seeker for office. His support has always been readily enlisted for any move¬ ment which would improve local conditions, and he was largely instru¬ mental in getting the Minnick Pike alongside his place built. It was he and Mr. Minnick, now deceased, who carried around the petition, and he now has the satisfaction of residing on one of the best constructed thor¬ oughfares in this part of the county. Mr. Crist employs some of his time in writing fire, lightning and wind insurance for the Huntington County Farmers' Mutual Company.

Jacob Pretorius. A well-known and successful agriculturist of Wabash county, Jacob Pretorious is the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of fine land lying six miles east of Roann, on the north side of the road, and also has title to forty acres lying on the Laketon road, both tracts being located in Paw Paw township. A son of Jacob Pre¬ torious, Sr., he was bom February 13, 1849, in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, where he spent the first three years of his life.

Jacob Pretorious, Sr., was born and educated in Germany, living there until eighteen years old. Emigrating then to the United States, he located in New York, and the following year his parents crossed the ocean and joined him in the Empire state. Later the entire family moved to Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and there Jacob Pretorious, Sr., married Catherine Schultz, a native of Germany, who came with her parents to America at the age of twenty years. In 1851 he came with his family to Indiana, journeying with teams to Wabash county, at times being obliged to cut his way through the dense forest. He located on eighty acres now owned and occupied by his son, the subject of this sketch, and immediately began its improvement. He met with fine suc¬ cess in his pioneer labors, and subsequently purchased another tract of eighty acres in Paw Paw township, and continued his agricultural operations. The land roundabout was in its primitive condition when he bought it. After he had cleared an opening, he built a round log house and stable, and soon was enabled to make other needed improvements. There were no saw mills near, and he was forced to split plank for the floors of his cabin. He afterwards gave three big walnut trees for Urbana's first upright saw mill. When he had his original purchase well improved, he bought forty acres of land in Urbana, Wabash county, and on the farm which he there improved he and his wife spent their remaining years.

John H. Renner was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, received his early education there, subsequently took a course of study at Otterbein University, and began the study of medicine at Starling Medical College in Columbus, Ohio. He finished his study of medicine at the Chicago Medical College, where he was granted his degree of doctor of medicine. His practice was first established at West Baltimore, in Ohio, and three years later, in 1886, he moved to Wabash county, locating at Lagro. His office was with Dr. R. Toby until the latter moved out to Illinois four years later. Dr. Renner then practiced alone until his son was gradu¬ ated in medicine, and they worked in partnership under the name of Drs. John H. and M. E. Renner for ten years. The son then moved to Urbana, in this county, and the father continued his active work in the field of medicine until his death in 1901.

Dr. John H. Renner first married Mary Catherine De Rumple, whose people came from Pennsylvania. There were two children by that mar¬ riage : Dr. Maly E. and Jennie, now Mrs. F. M. Keith. Mrs. Catherine Renner died in West Baltimore, Ohio, in 1863. The senior Dr. Renner later married Jennie McVicker, who is still living. The children by that union were : J. Charles, Samuel S., James and Joseph, twins; Robert D., Sadie, now Mrs. M. McNown, and Uriah.

Dr. M. E. Renner has lived in Lagro township since 1867. He was born near Dayton, Montgomery county, Ohio, February 23, 1860. The first seven years of his life were spent in Ohio, and he grew up to man¬ hood in Wabash county. The public schools furnished the foundation of his educational equipment, and subsequently he began reading medicine under the preceptorship of his father, in whose office he remained for two years, and quite often went out on professional rounds with the older doctor, and thus acquired a great deal by observation as well as by study of books. Another experience of his young manhood which should be noted was that three years were spent in the office of the old Lagro Express, one of the early newspapers of Wabash county. It was in the days which antedated by many years the modern newspaper facilities, and the young man learned to stick type at the case, worked the old hand press, did reporting, wrote editorials, and did all the other miscellaneous detail connected with getting out a country newspaper. From his father's office he entered the medical department of the Uni¬ versity of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where he continued until graduated M. D. with the class of 1881. That year he returned to Lagro, became junior member of the firm of Renner & Renner, and father and son practiced together for ten years. During that time, according to the records of the old Fort Wayne College of Medicine, Dr. M. E. Renner held the chair of professor of physiology in 1883-84-85-86. Dr. Renner, after ten years association with his father, left Lagro and located at the village of Urbana, which was his home for twenty-two years. He is best remembered for his work in that vicinity, since he returned to Lagro only recently, in May, 1913, though the prestige of his large practice and the bulk of his patients have followed him to Lagro. While in Urbana Dr. Renner, who is a natural musician, and also has a cultural taste in the art, organized the Renner twelve-piece orchestra, of which he was conductor. His three daughters were instrumental players in the orchestra, and for several years the organization furnished highclass music for church entertainments, old settlers' meetings and other social gatherings all over the country. That orchestra is an organization that will long be remembered as an important contributing factor to social entertainment in those days. Dr. Renner still retains most of his prac¬ tice at Urbana, and ranks among the leading physicians and surgeons of Wabash county. Like his father, he never fails to respond to a call on account of physical difficulties, though sometimes a conflict with duties, incident to his large practice, makes it impossible for him to reach hi& patients as soon as he could wish. However, there is one important con¬ trast between the practice of the father and son. The former used a faithful old horse in making his rounds. The son employs a more ex¬ peditious, though perhaps not so faithful, means of conveyance, the modem automobile.

Dr. Renner is a republican in politics, but is not a rabid partisan, and will support the candidate on another ticket provided he thinks him superior to the nominee of his own party. He has served as treasurer of the township and on the village council and in other local places.

Dr. Renner is a member of the Wabash County Medical Society, the State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. He wa& married April 9, 1884, to Margaret E. Harbison, daughter of Dr. John H. Harbison, now deceased, who was a prominent physician and also a manufacturer at Spencerville, Ohio. The doctor and wife have three children: Harriet E., now the wife of George W. Riddell, Jr., who lived in New Mexico; Margaret Edith, who is a teacher in the Lincolnville schools, and Mary Eunice, who is a teacher of music. All the daughters are well trained in music and have a special talent in one department or other of that art.

Henry Eiler, the owner of a nice farm of ninety-one acres in Paw Paw township, located about two and a half miles northwest of Urbana, is one of the successful and prosperous farming men of this county. He has made his own way in the world and has accumulated a competence for his declining years, but the real struggle experienced in the establishing of this sturdy German family in Wa¬ bash county was in the generation previous to his, when his parents first succeeded in getting a foothold on American soil. Mr. Eiler was. bom in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on November 5, 1840, and he is a son of Jacob and Philopena (Fetzer) Eiler, both natives of Bavaria. They were married there and came to the United States with one child, Jacob, Jr., then an infant. They borrowed money to pay their passage across, and when they found themselves in America they were put to the immediate necessity of paying that debt before they might make any move towards establishing themselves permanently. They remained in Albany, New York, for two years, the father working diligently to get money enough to move his family to Ohio after he had paid his debts. He earned three shillings a day cutting cord wood during much of that time, and each night when he returned home he carried a bundle of dry wood for the next day's usage. In the early thirties they came to Ohio, settling in Tuscarawas county, and there he leased land for some time, at the end of the time moving to Wabash county, Indiana, where he bought eighty acres for $360.00. He went in debt for the land, and in order to make a payment on it he remained in Wabash, working by the day. For two years he worked thus and then the family moved to the farm in Paw Paw township. Later he bought forty acres in Lagro township. Jacob Eiler died at Urbana, aged seventy, and the mother died some years later on the old home farm, having made her home with her son, Jacob Eiler, from the death of her husband until she passed away.

Jacob Eiler was long regarded as one of the substantial citizens of Wabash county, and he had a prominent place in his community in his latter years. He was a man of splendid physical strength, and coming into Wabash county at a time when ague was prevalent and few escaped its ravages from season to season, he never experienced an attack of that malady. He worked hdrd all his days, and though he was penni¬ less when he settled here, he was worth more than $10,000 when he retired from active farm life. He and his wife were the parents of four children. Jacob is a resident of Urbana ; John is located at Muncie, where he is prominent in business; Henry is mentioned in a later paragraph as the subject of this family review ; and Philipina, the wife of Phil Keller, is a resident of Wabash. The first child, Jacob, was born in Germany. John was born in New York, and the other two in Ohio.

Henry Eiler was a child of about nine years when the family moved into Wabash county, Indiana, making their way via Lake Erie and the canal, and he settled with the family on the farm in Paw Paw township as soon as it was possible for them to arrange for it. He had little or no schooling as a boy, and helped with the farm work from the first. The family lived in a small log cabin that still stands on the old place, and Mr. Eilef* has vivid recollections of the cold winters spent in that little home, when the snow blew through the chinks in the wall and to keep warm was a task indeed. Many a morning when he and his brothers awakened they crept from their blankets to find them covered with snow drifts that had seeped in through the night and covered them quietly, but they were healthy and strong, blessed with stout consti¬ tutions and unpampered by excess of comfort, so that sleeping beneath a snow drift wrought them no hardship, and little discomfort, since they slept soundly beneath their chilly coverings.

When Henry Eiler was twenty years old he enlisted in Company B, Forty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Regiment, with Captain Goodman at the head of his company. He served through the entire period of hostilities, once being taken prisoner while out foraging for chickens. This happened at New Iberia, Louisiana, and he was taken to Alexander, in Louisiana, and six weeks later he was exchanged and joined his regi¬ ment. He passed through the Vicksburg campaign and saw much service up to the time when his regiment was mustered out at Baton Rouge in October, 1865. He was also at Mobile, Alabama. He then returned to Wabash county and took up life where he had left off four years before.

On March 4, 1868, Mr. Eiler was married to Miss Sophia Pretorius, a daughter of Jacob Pretorius, a family that is mentioned at some length elsewhere in this work. She died on September 15, 1892, leaving children as follows: Mary, the wife of Peter Haupert, now deceased, and she left six children when she died, Ida, Ross, Laurence, Joseph, Ory and an infant deceased. Sarah Eiler was the second child of the family; she died at the age of three years; John married Clara Rautenkranz and their children are Gerald, Laura, Matilda and Mary ; Henry married Ursa Alger and their children are Myrtle, Beulah and Donald ; Jacob, who married Rose Signs, has four children, Franklin, Carl, Irma and Lelah; Ann Eiler died at the age of twenty years.

After his marriage Mr. Eiler moved to the farm he now occupies. After the death of the father he bought out the other heirs, and he is now the sole owner of the old home place. He has carried forward the work of development that his father inaugurated on the place long years ago, and the farm today is one of the thrifty and presentable looking ones of the township, reflecting in a large measure the spirit of thorough¬ ness and progressiveness that mark its owner.

Mr. Eiler is a republican and a member of the G. A. R. at Wabash. He is a member of the St. Peter's Evangelical church of Urbana, and takes a generous interest in the work of the church. He is especially devoted to his membership in the G. A. R., and finds much pleasure in his attendance at the annual encampments, many of which he has attended in various parts of the country.

Daniel Conrad. During the fifty-four years that have marked Daniel Conrad's residence in Wabash county he has been an eye-wit- » ness to a phenomenal growth and development. From the days when he cleared the timber with his trusty axe, burning the felled trees with little thought of the fact that in the years to come these sturdy growths of poplar and walnut would be almost priceless, to the present, with its prosperous farms and thriving villages, he has seen the forward march of civilization as it has swept away primitive conditions for modern methods and enlightenment. Mr. Conrad has not been alone a specta¬ tor, however, for his sterling citizenship and energetic activities in the field of agriculture have contributed materially to the movements which have resulted in placing Indiana in a foremost position among her sister states, for, like others of his race, he has always been a home-maker and it is to the maker of homes that civilization owes its very existence. Mr. Conrad was born in the town of Baumhaulter, Germany, which lies between the River Rhine and France, February 28, 1842, and is a son of Charles and Catherine (Conrad) Conrad.

The parents of Mr. Conrad, second cousins and natives of Germany, were both bom in 1800, and in their native land lived on a small farm. In 1846 the father disposed of his holdings, gathered his family about him and sailed for the United States, where he purchased a farm amid the high hills and heavy woods of Tuscarawas county, Ohio. This continued to be his home until 1864, at which time he came to Wabash county, Indiana, here purchasing eighty acres of land, of which forty had been cleared, from Michael Becker. He continued to reside here and develop a productive farm until his death, at the age of seventyfour years, having gained a material competence through his energy and perseverance and holding the respect and esteem of his numerous acquaintances by reason of his many sterling qualities of mind and heart. Part of his old home still stands, having been greatly improved and added to, and now forms the residence of Daniel Conrad. The mother passed away when eighty-five years of age, and had the follow¬ ing children: Catherine, deceased, who was the wife of Fred Wassem; Julia Ann, who died a maiden; Elizabeth, deceased, who was the wife of Jacob Shultz; Caroline, who was the wife of Mike Goss of Ohio; Charles, who is deceased; Henry, who is a resident of Pennsylvania; and Daniel, of this review.

Daniel Conrad was a child of four years when brought to the United States by his parents, the journey across the ocean requiring thirtythree days in a sailing vessel. His boyhood and youth were passed among the hills of Ohio, and the highest hill in the state was near his old home in Tuscarawas. The district school in which he secured most of his education was not a pretentious structure, as there were cracks in the wall that one could see through, but it was beautifully located between the woods and hills, a good spring of water was easily reached, and the children were a sturdy lot to whom sickness was a complete stranger. When he was not attending school, Mr. Conrad was engaged in assisting his father clear the home place, and so he continued until reaching the age of eighteen years, at which time he came to Wabash county to make his home with his sister, Mrs. Shultz, who was living one mile south of Urb'ana. When Mr. Conrad's family came to Indiana, four years later, he went to make his home with them. For some years Mr. Conrad turned his hand to whatever honorable occupation presented itself, for the most part being engaged in general farming, although for a long period he operated a threshing machine, and for eight years a clover huller. In November, 1870, he founded a home of his own when he married Miss Catherine Pretorius, daughter of Jacob and Catherine (Shultz) Pretorius, a review of this family being found in the review of Jacob and George Pretorius, brothers of Mrs. Conrad, in another part of this work. After his marriage Mr. Conrad purchased a small farm near the one he now occupies, and while residing there had his home in a little log house. Subsequently he moved to his present place, which he purchased about 1887 after the death of his mother. He cleared much of this property, and now has ninety-seven and one-half acres under cultivation, this land being devoted to general farming. Mr.

Conrad's ventures have proved successful, for he has been energetic and enterprising, and his activities have been directed intelligently and along modern lines. As a man he is esteemed for his integrity, his honorable dealings and his fidelity to friendship and business engage¬ ments, while as a citizen he is known as one who at all times is ready to assist in forwarding movements making for the betterment of his community morally, financially or along the lines of education. Many years have passed since he assisted his fellow-pioneers in the building of their primitive log homes, yet his step is still firm and his mind alert and none take greater interest in the trend of the times or in matters of real importance. Throughout his life he has been a demo¬ crat, but his activities in politics have been confined to his support of friends. His religious connection is with the German Lutheran church.

Mr. and Mrs. Conrad were the parents of ten children, as follows: Lena, who married Fred Roudenkranz, of Urbana, Indiana, and has two children, Carl and Eunice; Charles, of Indianapolis, who married Eva Weitner; George, of North Manchester, Indiana, who married Myrta Elliott, and has one son, Lloyd; Daniel, a resident of Paw Paw town¬ ship, who married Pearl Baker, and has two children, Duert and Vera; Fred, who married Catherine Miller, and has five children, Marie, Gerald, Laura, Edith and William, and resides in Noble township; Katie, who married Peter Arshel, of Huntington, Indiana, and has four children, Edith, Lucille, Howard and Mary; Clarence, who married Bertha Wensel, of Lagro township, and has two children, Louise and Paul ; Henry, of Indianapolis ; and Albert and Joseph.

Speicher Family. In about the year 1550, when Queen Elizabeth was on the throne, being a stanch Protestant, she persecuted the Catholics, just as her forerunner, Mary, had treated the Protestants. At this time our Speicher ancestor, about seven generations back, had to flee from his home to avoid being killed, he being a Catholic priest. In Switzer¬ land, near the French line, he took refuge at a farm house, in a granary and farm implement storage building, called a Speicher in the German language. Here he was sustained by the owner, and later his priestly locks were cut off and he was clothed as a farm hand in coarse clothing and wooden shoes. Shortly after this the authorities came to search for him, but after searching the premises they decided that he was not there, as they did not suspect that this coarsely dressed farm hand could be the priest for which they were searching.

To avoid any further trouble he changed his name, giving his name as - Speicher, in remembrance of the building in which he was concealed. As he was compelled to keep his real name a secret for so long a time, it is not definitely known just what it was.

Being an educated man, he was soon asked to teach this farmer's children. Then later the neighbors wanted their children taught also. Thus he became the village schoolmaster. When death made invasion into their midst they turned to the schoolmaster for a short funeral

A few years later he married a princess, and the family was con¬ sidered of very high standing, one of his sons later becoming the German ruler's bodyguard.

When he died he was highly embalmed and his body put into a vault, where it remained a hundred years, at which time the body was taken out and looked upon, he being of the royal line. At this time it is said that his grandson kissed the face of his grandfather, the first Speicher.

There is a story told of the Austrian invasion into Switzerland, in which a descendant of the first Speicher is said to have broken ranks when the Swiss were about defeated, and, turning back to his comrades, said, "Remember my family if I fall, and rushing forward with his rude instrument of war, something like a spear, he with his hands and with this weapon mowed them down as they came to him until he was standing nearly alone to his waist in blood and dead bodies. Seeing his courage, the others rushed forward, and the Austrians were frightened and defeated.

John Speicher was born in the canton of Berne, Switzerland, June 20, 1808. He was educated in Berne, and served faithfully as a soldier in the Swiss army for a term of years. In his father's family there were three boys and two girls. The father decided to give all his wealth to the younger son, Benjamin. So the others, having to shift for themselves, went to Germany and later to America. After the father's death, how¬ ever, the other children each got one thousand dollars by contending for it.

It is this youngest son's descendants that are now to be found in Switzerland. They were very extravagant, having fine coaches, maid and men servants. They also had their swell receptions. Thus they were soon reduced to poverty, and to this day those who have been at Berne find them still in the old castle, but all has become dilapidated, and they are living in poverty and ignorance, with their fellow men in Switzer¬ land.

When John Speicher had served his term of years in the army he determined to go to America, whence came fabulous stories of freedom and plenty, and there investigate the chances of bettering his condition. Leaving his native land unattended, he went to Germany, thence to France, where he took passage in a three-mast vessel which was bound for New York. The brave little vessel encountered many heavy storms and sixty days were consumed in the voyage, but at last land was sighted and the grateful passengers gave a prayer of thanksgiving. He at once went to Holmes County, Ohio, where he secured a position in a mill, remaining four years, and learning to speak the English language. He soon saw that America was the poor man's country and he thought of his friends at home who were toiling against adverse circumstances, so he returned to Switzerland with glowing accounts of his adopted land and induced about one hundred to return with him, among which com¬ pany was his brother Christ, and his sweetheart, Miss Elizabeth Krebs, to whom he was united in bond of matrimony, October 11, 1834, soon after reaching Ohio. Soon after this he purchased forty acres of land in Holmes county and built a grist mill of his own, as he had thoroughly learned this trade, ere he was called " Honest John Speicher, the miller,"

Sixteen children were bom to them, eleven sons and five daughters. One daughter died in infancy, but the others all grew to manhood and womanhood. In 1852 he disposed of his property in Ohio and moved to Indiana, locating in Wabash county. He made this journey on the Erie and Wabash Canal. He purchased about two hundred acres of slightly improved land in Lagro township, which is now located about one mile east of Urbana, and made it his home for many years, or to the time of his death, in the year 1879. The entire county was then in the early stages of development, there being no railroads, and Wabash was only a small town. They often walked to Huntington or Ft. Wayne to do their shopping. Mr. Speicher was energetic and accumulated a great deal of property, owning at one time about one thousand acres of land.

He had strong political convictions, and although he had identified himself with the whigs, at the advent of the new anti-slavery republican party he cast his vote for their first candidate, John C. Fremont. Two of his sons were laid on the altar of his country in the war of the rebel¬ lion which soon followed. They were John and Frederick. His was a deeply religious nature, and when he spoke the name of God he uncov¬ ered his head in reverence. The Bible was also very sacred to him and it is said that at one time when a minister entered his home and thought¬ lessly laid his silk hat on the Word of God, lying on the stand, he brushed it off, saying, "Excuse me, but nothing should lie on this Book." Through his generosity a church was placed not far from his home, on the estate of one of his sons, which has since been removed to Urbana, being the Church of the Evangelical Association in that place.

Joseph Benjamin Speicher, the sixth son of John Speicher, was born in Holmes county, Ohio, March 25, 1841. He came with his parents to Wabash county in 1852, in which county his entire life was spent. When quite a young man he learned the carpenter trade, by working with his older brother Samuel and later with his brother-in-law, Peter Mattern. He was a very diligent worker and for as much as a year at a time never lost a day. He spent most of his time at his trade until he was thirty years old, when on May 4, 1871, he was united in matri¬ mony with Miss Katherine Richer, daughter of John and Magdalene Richer, one of the early settlers of Miami county, residing near Peru. At this time he settled on an eighty acre farm which he had purchased of his father. Four daughters and one son were born to them. They are Clara, of Chicago ; Lewis, residing near Bolivar, having been united with Inez Morford, in 1907, and to which three children have been born, namely, Eva Katherine, Paul Lewis, and Joseph Eugene. The other three daughters are Martha, Esther and Ruth.

He like his father was an ardent republican up to the year 1885, when he heard of the prohibition party, and that it stood for the destruction of the liquor traffic. He immediately announced to his friends and neighbors that he would vote that ticket, and although they plead with him long and hard, and though the cause was a very unpopular one, he could not be persuaded from his purpose, and remained faithful to the prohibition cause to the time of his death.

He became very much interested in Sunday school work about the time that his own little flock were old enough to go to Sunday school, and acted in the capacity as superintendent for many years. Later he fell in with workers in the organized Sunday school work and attended a number of the State, National and International Conventions of that body, which took him to such cities as Boston, Denver, Colorado, and Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1898 he attended the international convention in London, England. He sailed on July 1, on the steamship Catalonia of the Cunard line, cele¬ brating the fourth of July on shipboard, in midocean. It was on this night that he experienced the thrilling experience of "a fire at sea." Having a brave band of men and women on board, who gave the captain and brave crew no extra trouble but who assembled on the deck for prayer and to await the outcome, the seamen were, enabled by toiling all night long to raise the burning bales of cotton from the hold of the ship and throw them overboard, and thus their lives were spared, for which they devoutly thanked God. It was at this time that he traveled through England, Germany and France into Switzerland, to see what might be found of the old Speicher estate, being the only one of the Speicher descendants thus far to return to the land of their nativity. He found them living in ignorance and far ' ' behind the times, ' ' as we would say, but anxious to come to America, "the land of blessing," as they say.

For a number of years he held the office of superintendent of the eleventh district in the Sunday school work, and in traveling over this territory in the interest of the work he was sometimes away from home for several days at a time and always on Sunday, as then he visited the rural Sunday schools, striving to encourage them in the work of training the young in the study of the Book of Books. He held this office up to the time of his death and only gave up the long Sunday trips when he was physically unable for the drives. When in his last sickness his only regret was that he had not been more efficient and been able to do more for his Master. His very soul was wrapped up in this work, and no doubt Eternity will tell of the good that was accomplished. He was well known in this capacity in Wabash, Huntington, Miami, Fulton, Kosciusko and Whitley counties. "Yea, they rest from their labors and their works do follow them.,,

At the time of his death he was living on the old Speicher homestead farm which he had purchased about fifteen years before his death, and where his widow and daughters still reside.

Valentine M. Mattern. This sterling old citizen of Wabash county, now living retired from active pursuits, has been a resident of the county for a period of thirty-eight years, during which time he has been identified with agricultural pursuits. When he came to the United States from Germany, he was possessed of but little capital and few friends; today he is the owner of valuable farming land, has a fine home at Urbana and other assets, and is widely known and highly esteemed all over this section. Mr. Mattern 's life has been an active and industrious one, and it has been made successful through his con¬ stant perseverance and well-directed labors. He has seen many changes in the county since his arrival here, has viewed the sparsely settled district blossom into a prosperous farming community, with beautiful homes, churches and schools, and has been an eye-witness to the wonder¬ ful development wrought by the invention and adoption of modern machinery and methods. Each of these changes has found him an active participant, ever doing his full share of the work allotted to the settlers in the line of material advancement, and now in his declining years he may view with satisfaction his past life, safe in the contented knowledge of having faithfully performed his each and every duty.

Valentine M. Mattern was born June 17, 1843, in Germany, his parents being Valentine and Elizabeth (Beamer) Mattern, who both passed away in the Fatherland, the mother dying when he was still an infant, and the father meeting death at the age of seventy years, in 1878. Valentine Mattern followed farming during the greater part of his life, was an industrious, hard-working citizen, and became the owner of seventy acres of land in different parts of his country. He and his wife were the parents of six children, as follows: John, who is deceased ; Elizabeth, who became the wife of Wilhelm Snyder and is now deceased ; Valentine M., of this review; Carl, who died in young manhood, in Germany ; and Peter and Adam, who are both deceased.

The public schools of his native land furnished Valentine M. Mattern with his educational training, and he was reared to trkits of honesty and integrity and to the vocation of farmer. He was an ambitious and determined youth, and soon, like thousands of others of his country¬ men, seeing no future ahead of him in Germany, he decided to try his fortunes in the United States. Accordingly, three days before Christ¬ mas, 1868, he left the shores of the Fatherland, and January 12, 1869, arrived safely at the port of New York, from whence he immediately made his way to Indiana. At Plymouth, Marshall county, he met his brother, John, who had preceded him to this country some years and who was the owner of a farm in the vicinity of Bremen. Mr. Mattern accompanied his brother to his farm, where he remained for a short time, and soon secured employment among the people of that region, commanding good wages because of his willingness and ability. For seven years he accepted such honorable employment as he could find, working as a farm hand and in sawmills, etc., and also during this time was engaged to some extent in buying and selling Marshall county land.

On January 26, 1876, Mr. Mattern was united in marriage with Miss Julia Wassem, daughter of Fred and Catherine (Conrad) Wassem. He had saved some $700 or $800 when he came to the United States, and by the time he was married he had increased his capital to $1,800, but was compelled to go into debt to pay for his first eighty acres of land, for which he paid $3,000. This property was located in Noble township and had but few improvements, but Mr. Mattern cleared and ditched it, put in numerous improvements and erected buildings, and later added forty acres by purchase, which was followed by another fortyacre addition. There he continued to reside for twenty-eight years, when he retired from active pursuits, turned his property over to his children, and went to live in his comfortable home at Urbana. Mr. Mattern had erected two sets of buildings and made his farm one of the most attractive and valuable 160-acre tracts in the county. He devoted the greater part of his time to general farming, but also met with well-merited suc¬ cess in raising hogs, cattle and colts, for which he always received topnotch prices in the markets. He still is the owner of the 160-acre farm, and has eight acres at Urbana, where his home is located. He is a stockholder in the Farmers State Bank of Urbana, and has always encouraged local enterprises and assisted movements for the general welfare. He is a democrat in his political views, but has never been an office seeker, having believed that he could serve his community better as a good, public-spirited citizen, leaving the activities and doubt¬ ful emoluments of the political arena to others. With his family he attends the Evangelical church at Urbana, and has been a liberal con¬ tributor to its movements. Those with whom he has had business deal¬ ings know him as a man of honor and integrity, who has great respect for commercial ethics. During his residence here of nearly forty years he has become acquainted with people in all walks and conditions of life, and the general esteem in which he is held is sufficient evidence of his true worth and# fidelity.

Mr. and Mrs. Mattern are the parents of the following children, who have been given good educational advantages and have fitted into their proper places in the community, a credit to themselves, their sec¬ tion and their parents: Elizabeth, who is the wife of John Carnes, and a resident of Paw Paw township; Catherine, who is the wife of Adam Keefaber, who is engaged in operating a part of Mr. Mattern 's old homestead in Noble township; John, who married Elizabeth Danner and is successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits in Paw Paw town¬ ship; Rose, who became the wife of Harvey Haupert, and lives near Treaty, Indiana ; William, who married Lula Lutz, and resides on part of the Noble township farm owned by our subject'; Carrie is now Mrs. Roy Haupert and a resident of Lagro township, this county ; and Carl, who married Gladys Smith, is engaged in farming in Noble township.

Chris Hettmansperger. From no other foreign land has come such thrifty and substantial colonists as from Germany, and the better class of the German people have in many communities been the solid bulwarks of local industry. It is as true in Wabash county as else¬ where, and perhaps no family better typifies this sturdy people than that of Chris Hettmansperger, who is one of the prosperous citizens of Lagro township, and the possessor of a well cultivated and valuable estate of thirty-seven acres, three-quarters of a mile east of Speicher. Mr. Hettmansperger began his cereer as a renter and laborer, and a few years ago paid cash for his present place.