Fort Wayne Street Bridge

Melvin Alford, son of Tliram and Susannah (Adams) Alford, was born in Ohio in IS-il; his father was a native of Vermont, and of Scotch descent, and liis mother of Pennsylvania, and of English ancestry. He ^vas educated in the common schools of Ohio, and learned the business of stone and brick laying, in which he has been ver}' successful in a business point of view; has done some of the best work in the city of Goshen. April 23, 1S66, he married Loramie Beatty, and they have 1 child. Leland B., born March 4, 1S77. In 1S61 Mr. Alford enlisted in Co. I, 49th Ohio Vol. Inf., and was discharged at the close of the war in 1865. He started out as 8th Corporal and was mustered out as 2d Corporal; he was in every battle in which the army of the Cumberland engaged, under Col. Gibson, one of Ohio's greatest orators. Mr. A. was never in the hospital during the service. In politics he is a Bepublican. He has been a resident of Elkhart county most of the time since 1S65, and has followed farming for the last nine years, and also kept his other business going most of the time. He owns 104 acres of good land on sec. 1.

Passage source: History of Elkhart County, Indiana : Together with Sketches of Its Cities ... and Biographies of Representative Citizens : History of Indiana, Embracing Accounts of the Pre-historic Races .., published 1881.

D. W. Dinius, miller at Benton, was born Oct. 21, lSi9, in Huntington county, Ind., the son of Hirain and Hester (Eripley) Dinius, natives of Ohio and of German descent; educated in the common school in this State; learned the miller's trade, and was eight years in the employ of C. & E. Hawks, Goshen; he was brought up, however, on the farm. As a miller he has been remarkably successful. He is now running the "Benton Mills," having rented them Aug. 9, ISSO, when the}' had pretty well run down, but he has brought them up to the highest standard. Business has so increased that he now runs the mills night and day, being assisted at night by his father. In 1872 Mr. D. W. Dinius married Sarah Moore, and they have 2 sons. Politically Mi'. D. is a Kepublican.

Passage source: History of Elkhart County, Indiana : Together with Sketches of Its Cities ... and Biographies of Representative Citizens : History of Indiana, Embracing Accounts of the Pre-historic Races .., published 1881.

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Read the whole chapter on Elkhart Township - 67,768 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.