USA > Indiana > Clay County > A History of Clay County Indiana (Volume 2) > Part 33
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improved the homestead on which he lived until his death at the age of seventy-eight years. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Price, survived him until she had reached the age of four score years and four.
Alonzo Sutton, the father, was of a family of five children. He was born in Clermont county, Ohio, in 1845, and when ten years old came with his parents to Indiana, attending the district schools of Washington township, Putnam county, and assisting his father in the clearing of the homestead land and the improvement of the farm. When ready to establish a homestead on an independent basis, he purchased land near the parental homestead in Washington township, a portion of this tract being cleared and having a log cabin as another feature of its improve- ments. With the brightening of his agricultural prospects and actual condition as well, he bought adjoining land, including the old home farm, and is now the owner of a valuable estate of two hundred acres. He has erected substantial farm buildings, made other improvements and has all the appointments of a modern farmer and the prosperous urbanite. The elder Mr. Sutton married Miss Sarah C. Hutcheson, daughter of Peyton and Keziah (Morelan) Hutcheson, and their six children are Albert Luther, Herbert E., Clifford P., William H. H., James A. and Nellie P. Sutton.
Of a studious nature, Herbert E. Sutton was given excellent educa- tional advantages, attending the public schools, the Central Normal Col- lege at Danville, and the State Normal School at Terre Haute. At the age of eighteen he began teaching in the Black Hawk district, Washing- ton township, after which he taught one term in the primary school at Manhattan, three terms in Hutton (Vigo county) and eleven terms in Harrison township-a record of service that speaks for itself of his suc- cess as an educator. In 1897 he returned to the calling of his forefathers by renting land in Harrison township and engaging in general agricul- tural operations. Later he bought a fine tract in the fertile valley of the Eel river, and since that time has been very extensively employed in general farming, both as a renter and an owner of land. He gives spe- cial attention to the raising of grain, with corn as his chief and most certain crop.
On March 23, 1897, Mr. Sutton married Miss Sophronia Miller, a native of Sullivan, Indiana, where she was born on the 13th of January, 1872. At the time she was also a successful teacher, being a lady of thorough education and pedagogical training. After completing the graded course at Sullivan, Mrs. Sutton spent three years in the Terre Haute High School and a like period at the Indiana State Normal, after which she taught four years in Benton county and two years in Vigo county. Her father, James E. Miller, is now living in Danville, Illinois, and was one of the pioneers of Sullivan county, Indiana. He is a native of Edgar county, Illinois, but when five years of age came with his father to that section of Indiana. He is a veteran of the Union army, and although he saw much active service and survived the dangers of the battle-field, he nevertheless narrowly escaped with his life, for while guarding a bridge he received a shock from a lightning bolt which nearly terminated his career and from the effects of which he has never fully recovered. His service in the Civil war was as a member of the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Mr. Miller married Miss Nancy J. Parker and their offspring are Sophronia (Mrs. Sutton) and Robert P. Miller. Robert and Mary Parker, the
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parents of Mrs. Miller, were pioneers of Vigo county, locating in Lost Creek township, her place of birth, and purchasing the farm on which they spent their last years. Mr. and Mrs. Herbert E. Sutton have three children, viz: James H., May C. and Edith L. Mr. Sutton's fraternal membership is with the F. & A. M. (Clay City Lodge, No. 562) ; he is a Republican in politics.
HON. RALPH W. Moss was born on a farm adjoining Ashboro, in section 17, Clay county, April 21, 1862, and for a number of years has been prominent in the business life of this community and active in its political councils. He is one of the brightest and best senators the dis- trict has ever had, and was elected to that high office in November, 1904, for Clay and Owen counties. In the session of 1907 he was elected to represent Clay and Vigo counties in the state senate.
The Moss family is one of the oldest and best known in Clay county. In 1826 George Moss, the grandfather of Ralph W., and a son of George and Lydia (Bilderback ) Moss, located with his parents in Sugar Ridge township, Clay county, where the senior Mr. Moss entered several hun- dred acres of timber land. The wife of George Moss, Jr., was Zorada A. Jenkins, and among their children was James T. Moss, the father of Ralph W. He was born on the 6th of December, 1837, in Sugar Ridge township, and always resided here, a carpenter, contractor and mill owner. He built a grist mill at Ashboro in 1868, but this was burned in August, 1871, when full of grain, and he thereby sustained heavy losses. In his early manhood his father gave him a few acres of land, and he added to it from time to time until he owned, at the time of his death, a farm above the average in acreage and one of the finest and most pro- ductive in the state of Indiana. Mr. Moss never in all his life attended a show of any kind, and never joined a church or society excepting the Grand Army of the Republic, his services in the Civil war entitling him to membership in that order. He enlisted August 11, 1862, in Company I, Eighty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered out June 12, 1865, with the rank of second lieutenant. He served his township one year as an assessor, and was elected to the state legislature in 1890.
James T. Moss married Sarah E. Eppert, who was born in Perry county, Ohio, March 17, 1839, a daughter of Edward and Sena (Wil- kins) Eppert, natives respectively of Baltimore, Maryland, and Ohio, and a granddaughter of Jacob and Susanna (Bown) Eppert. The eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Moss, Alvernon P., born August 16, 1859, died on the 15th of May, 1891. He always resided on the home farm and had mar- ried Hattie Grayson, born in Iowa in 1866, and had one child, Harry A. He was born January 3. 1888, and with his mother now resides with Mrs. Moss and her son Ralph.
Ralph W. Moss supplemented his common-school training by attend- ance of one year at Purdue University, and after the close of his school days was associated with his father and brother in conducting a general farming business, and also taught school for ten years during the winter months. Since his father's death he has had entire supervision of the homestead, and since 1905 he has been conducting his cattle feeding on the principles advocated by the experimental station at Purdue University. He has never married, and resides with his mother and brothers on the old Moss farm. He gives his political allegiance to the Democratic party, and is a member of the blue lodge, chapter, commandery and the Eastern
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Star of the Masonic fraternity. He served as master of Center Point lodge No. 597 for several years, and is a charter member of Brazil com- mandery and also of the blue lodge of Center Point. His religious affilia- tions are with the Universalist church.
Senator Moss was nominated by the Democratic party for congress- man in the fifth congressional district May 26, 1908, and was elected in November of the same year.
LOUIS SCHAUWECKER .- Occupying a place of importance among the leading merchants of Harrison township is Louis Schauwecker, of Clay City, the senior member of the firm of Schauwecker & Crabtree, dealers in hardware, furniture, and implements. A man of tried and trusted integrity, upright in his dealings, he is held in high respect throughout the community in which he resides. A son of Jacob Schauwecker, he was born August 30, 1851, in Coshocton county, Ohio, of German ancestry.
Jacob Schauwecker was born, reared and educated in Wurtemberg, Germany, and there served an apprenticeship at the tanner's trade. He afterwards went to France, and for a number of years followed his trade in Paris. Then, accompanied by three of his brothers, he came to the United States. Two of the brothers settled in New York, but the third brother, Fred Schauwecker, located in Coshocton county, Ohio, where Jacob joined him. Subsequently going to Bedford, Ohio, Jacob Schau- wecker there took unto himself a wife, and for a few years worked at his trade in that locality. In 1853, with his wife and children, he came to Indiana, settling in Clay county. Here he bought forty acres of land, upon which there was a clearing of two acres and a small log cabin, into which the family moved. Soon afterwards he entered a tract of heavily timbered government land, established a tannery, and for about twenty years worked at his trade, and at the same time superintended the im- provement of his homestead. He occupied the original log cabin but a short time, replacing it with a substantial house made of hewed logs, later building a commodious frame house. The last years of his life he devoted his attention entirely to farming, the many valuable improvements that he had made giving him all the comforts of an eastern home. He lived to a good old age, passing away in 1885. His wife, whose maiden name was Catherine Weinz, was born in Pennsylvania, of Dutch ancestry, and died a year before he did, in 1884. They were the parents of six children, namely: Mary M., Louis, Louise M., Gotlieb, Saloma and Matilda. Saloma married Frederick Burkey and moved to Missouri, where a few years later her death occurred. The other children are all married and reside in Clay county.
But two years old when he was brought by his parents to Clay county, Louis Schauwecker has no recollection of any other home than this, his adopted one. The pioneer log house in which he attended school was rude in construction, with a puncheon floor, slab seats without backs, and no desks, a board placed against the wall serving instead, and the scholars taking turns in writing upon it. It had no windows, a board being raised to admit light. In his boyhood the family lived in true pio- neer style, depending upon the productions of the soil and the game to be found in the forest for their subsistence, and wearing garments made by the mother from materials which she carded, spun and wove from either flax or wool grown on the farm. Reared to habits of industry, Louis began when a lad to assist in the tan yard, and afterwards on the farm.
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Subsequently, assuming the responsibilities of a married man, he located in Owen county, where for two years he operated a saw mill. Returning then to Harrison township, he was for a number of years engaged in agricultural pursuits, at the same time operating a threshing machine. Coming to Clay City in 1890, Mr. Schauwecker embarked in business as a dealer in furniture and hardware, and has continued until the present time, his son-in-law, George P. Crabtree, being now associated with him. This enterprising firm has built up an extensive and lucrative business, carrying a full line of furniture, heavy and shelf hardware, stoves, car- riages, and farm implements of all descriptions, and having a trade in these goods that is not surpassed in this part of the state.
Mr. Schauwecker was married, in 1874, to Hannah Gonser. She was born in Bowen county. Indiana, a daughter of Eli and Ellen Gonser, both of whom were born in Pennsylvania, of Dutch ancestry. Mr. and Mrs. Schauwecker are the parents of four children, namely: Nora B., Catherine A., William M. and Edgar J.
GEORGE CHARLES HOFFMAN .- Coming from thrifty and substantial German ancestry, and the representative of a prominent pioneer agricul- turist of Clay county, George C. Hoffman has during his entire life been intimately associated with the farming interests of this part of Indiana. Energetic and enterprising, he is carrying on his chosen vocation in a businesslike manner, his well cultivated farm, with its substantial dwelling and good barn and outbuildings, being indicative of his industry and good management. A son of Conrad Hoffman, he was born March 19, 1854, in Posey township, Clay county. His grandparents on the paternal side were lifelong residents of Bavaria, the only members of their family to emi- grate to this country having been their sons, Charles and Conrad. Charles located in Posey township, and there spent the remainder of his life, em- ployed in tilling the soil.
Born in Bavaria, Conrad Hoffman came to America in 1853, being nine weeks in sailing across the Atlantic. Locating immediately in Clay county, he bought one hundred acres of land in Posey township, in section twelve, and in the log cabin which had previously been built his son George Charles was subsequently born. Brazil was then a mere hamlet, and the surrounding country was a wilderness. The railroads had been very recently built, and the railway station was a small log cabin standing in the midst of the thick woods. When he first came here he used to take his grist to the mill at Cloverland on horseback, fol- lowing a path made by blazed trees. Clearing a good homestead, he resided here until his death, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife, whose maiden name was Eve Falcott, was also born and bred in Bavaria. She came to this country on the same sailing vessel that he did, and they were married immediately after landing. She died in December, 1900, in Posey township. She bore her husband five children, namely : George C., Annie B., Annie Catherine, John P. and Barbara.
Beginning as a boy to assist his father in clearing a homestead, George Charles Hoffman remained beneath the parental roof-tree until ready to set up an establishment of his own. When he married his father gave him seventy-four acres of land in section fourteen, Perry township, land that is included in his present farm. Moving with his bride into the log cabin, with its frame addition, he lived there five years. Capable and industrious, Mr. Hoffman met with success from the first,
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and as years sped on field after field was added to his original farm, the log cabin has been replaced by a substantial frame house, good outbuild- ings have been erected, and he has now two hundred and twenty-four acres of fertile land in one body. He has made valuable improvements on the place, setting out a large variety of fruit trees of all kinds, and is known far and wide as a successful and prosperous farmer.
On February 17, 1878, Mr. Hoffman married Annie Barbara Holde- fer, who was born March 23, 1855, in Hancock county, Indiana, a daughter of John Holdefer, a native of Bavaria. . John Holdefer and his brother George were the only members of his family to come to the United States. George settled in Butler county, Ohio, making that his permanent home. John Holdefer was a young man when he bade good- bye to home and friends and came to America to establish a home. After living for awhile in Butler county, Ohio, he married, and with his young wife came to Hancock county, Indiana. A few months later he settled in Clay county, buying a tract of land in Posey township. Assuming pos- session of the log cabin standing on the place, he at once began the work of reclaiming a farm from the forest, and was there employed in tilling the land the remainder of his life, passing away at the age of seventy- seven years. The maiden name of his wife was Eve Teifel. She was born in Bavaria, a daughter of George Teifel, who emigrated from his native land to America and lived for a short time in Ohio. From there he came to Posey township, Indiana, where he improved land and lived for a number of years. After his children had grown up and married Mr. Teifel went to Charleston, Illinois, where his death occurred the following year. Mrs. Eve (Teifel) Holdefer died at the early age of thirty-two years, leaving a family of children, of whom four grew to years of maturity, as follows: Elizabeth; Annie Barbara, wife of Mr. Hoffman ; John ; and George. Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman have two children, namely: Sophia and Jacob H. The son is associated with his father in farming. Sophia married Albert Taggart, and has four children, Carl, Fred, Annie and Alvah Agnes. Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman are members of the German Lutheran church.
SAMUEL G. RALSTON, secretary and treasurer of the Indiana Mer- cantile Company and who is also the manager of the same company, is well known as a representative business man whose alert, enterprising spirit and keen discernment enable him to carry forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes. He was born in Waverly, Morgan county, Indiana, September 22, 1856, his parents being James G. and Mary Jane Ralston. The father was born in county Donegal, Ireland, of Scotch parentage on the 29th of August, 1825, and died at Amo, Indiana, March 17, 1889. His wife, who was a native of Hendricks county, Indiana, born May 10, 1835, passed away April 17, 1891. Mr. Ralston had come to America in 1847, being forty-two days on the ocean, as passenger on a sailing vessel which at length dropped anchor in the harbor of New York. Subsequently he located near Columbus, Ohio, where he remained for a short time and then removed to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he was married. Later he removed to Amo, Indiana, where he engaged in general merchandising and was also agent there for the Vandalia Railroad Company from 1858 until 1874. He continued to carry on general merchandising for many years, or until within a short time prior to his death, and was well known as a reliable, enterprising
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business man. He was a member of the Presbyterian church in early life but as there was no church of that denomination in the locality in which he settled he joined the Methodist Episcopal church. His political allegiance was given to the Republican party but while he kept well informed on the questions and issues of the day he never sought or desired office, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his business interests, which were carefully managed. Unto him and his wife were born five children.
It was through the medium of the common schools that Samuel G. Ralston acquired the education that equipped him for life's practical and responsible duties and after putting aside his text-books he began learn- ing telegraphy at Cartersburg, a station on the Vandalia Railroad. He was afterward a trainman on the road and in 1874 became station agent at Amo, Indiana, where he filled the first water tank with a hand pump. He continued as station agent and telegraph operator there until 1883. He went to Terre Haute, where he was train dispatcher for the Vandalia R. R. for about one and a half years, when he took charge of the station at Montrose, Illinois, where he continued for three or four months. He came to Brazil. Indiana, on the 27th of October, 1884, and was engaged with the Vandalia Railroad Company until 1887. In that year he went to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and acted as train dispatcher for the Cotton Belt Railroad until January, 1888, when he returned to Brazil, accepting a clerical position with the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad. He left that position on the 31st of March, however, and on the Ist of April, 1888, engaged with the Brazil Block Coal Company, with which he has since continued as paymaster. His duties and responsibilities have also been increased by his election to the office of secretary and treasurer and now in connection with the executive interests of the business he is proving a strong factor in its success. He is also manager of the Indiana Mercantile Company and in the control of his business affairs displays keen discrimination and sound judgment.
Mr. Ralston was married June 27, 1887, to Miss Adeline Parker, who was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, and died April 18, 1900. Four children were born of that marriage. Albert L., who was graduated from the Brazil high school, afterward attended Purdue University, from which he was also graduated with the class of 1905, earning the Wilbur scholarship. He is now with the Westinghouse Electric Company, located in New York city as one of their expert engineers. Frances Ruth, also a graduate of the Brazil high school, is now attending the State Normal at Terre Haute. Mary H. is a student in the high school at Brazil and George P. died in infancy. Having lost his first wife, Mr. Ralston was married on the 24th of January, 1902, to Miss Mary E. McCrea and they are now pleasantly located in Brazil, the hospitality of the best homes being freely accorded them.
Mr. Ralston is well known in fraternal circles, belonging to Terre Haute Lodge, No. 19, A. F. & A. M., with which he has been affiliated since 1883. He is also a member of Brazil Chapter, No. 59, R. A. M., of which he served as secretary for one term. He likewise belongs to Brazil Commandery, No. 47, K. T., of which he is the treasurer and for eighteen or nineteen years he has been master of finance in Brazil Lodge, No. 30, K. P. He is highly esteemed by his brethren of all these orders, for he is loyal to their teachings and purposes and manifests the beneficent spirit upon which they are based. He is now serving for a second term as a
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LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
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W.C. Diel.
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inember of the Brazil school board and is its treasurer. His political views accord with the principles of the Republican party and his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Presbyterian church. The success he has achieved in business is the outcome of his persistency of purpose, his fidelity and the able manner in which he has met every duty that has devolved upon him. In business trustworthy, in fraternal rela- tions loyal, in citizenship faithful and progressive, he has been found in every relation of life a man whom to know is to respect and esteem.
WILLIAM C. DIEL .- Progressive and enterprising and well versed in agricultural lore, William C. Diel, of Dick Johnson township, has built up an extensive and remunerative business as market gardener, the pro- ductions of his greenhouses meeting a ready sale in near-by and more distant cities. A native of Indiana, he was born December 13, 1864, in Jackson township, Clay county. He comes of thrifty German stock, being a descendant in the fifth generation from the emigrant ancestor, Adam Diel, who emigrated from Germany to this country, the line being con- tinued through Henry Diel, a native of Pennsylvania; Jacob Diel, Sr., who was born in Pennsylvania ; Jacob Diel, Jr., and William C. Diel. A more extended history of the Diel family may be found elsewhere in this volume, in connection with the sketch of David Diel.
Jacob Diel, Jr., was born in August, 1835, in Wayne county, Indiana, and when but a child was brought to Clay county by his parents. At that time Brazil was but a hamlet, and the surrounding country a dense wilderness, through which deer, bears and other wild beasts roamed at will, and wild turkeys and other game were plentiful. Although never learning a trade, he was a natural mechanic and for a number of years operated a shingle mill, managing that in addition to his labors as a farmer. During the Civil war he enlisted as a private in Company E, Fifty-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry, of which all of his brothers were members, and served his country bravely. After leaving Jackson town- ship he lived for a few years in Perry and Cass townships, and is now a resident of Terre Haute. His wife, whose maiden name was Huldah Slack, was a daughter of John and Margaret (Wright) Slack, natives of North Carolina and pioneers of Clay county. She reared three children, namely : William C., the subject of this sketch ; Joseph D. ; and Francis M.
Having completed his early education in the public schools, William C. Diel began as a youth to make himself useful, his first employment being in his father's sawmill. At the time of his marriage he began farm- ing on his own account in Cass township, remaining there until 1892. Going from there to Terre Haute, he worked first in the car shops, later following the carpenter's trade for awhile, and then entered the employ of L. H. Mahan, a market gardener, under whose instruction he became familiar with the special branch of agriculture in which he is now engaged. Returning to Clay county in 1901, Mr. Diel lived in different places for two years, in 1903 establishing himself on the farm where he now resides and beginning his present profitable work. Here he is well equipped for gardening purposes, the several greenhouses which he has built having a combined area of twenty-three thousand feet, giving him ample room for the raising of lettuce, of which he makes a specialty, his reputation in this line being one of which he may well be proud.
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