A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 2, Part 91

Author: Howard, Timothy Edward, 1837-1916
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 887

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CHARLES LUDWIG SCHAFER is one of the practical, progressive and enterprising far- mers of St. Joseph county, whose valuable homestead is located in Union township. He is also a native son of the township, his natal day being the 16th of April, 1859, a son of Conrad and Juliana (Hermann) Schafer, both natives of Germany. In 1851 the father came to the United States, and after spending one year in South Bend returned to Germany and was married, bringing his young bride with him on his return trip, and this time took up his abode in Union township, St. Joseph county. Here he secured land in the Vol. II-32.

dense woods, from which he cut the native timber and continued its improvement until his was one of the valuable homesteads of the township, and was located on the line of Center township, on the Turkey Creek road, eight miles southeast of South Bend. There he lived and labored during the remainder of his life, and at his death, which occurred on the 13th of August, 1873, he left a valuable estate of three hundred and fifty acres. It was seventeen years ere his widow joined him in the home beyond, and in this time she added to the boundaries of the estate, with the help of her children, until it con- tained five hundred and ninety acres, and for one farm she paid eighteen thousand dollars. Both Mr. and Mrs. Schafer were people of excellent business ability, and were numbered among the leading citizens of Union township. In their family were eleven children, all but one of whom grew to years of maturity, and nine are now living. One son, Harmon George Schafer, died three years ago. Their son William now carries on the work of the old homestead. Hannah, the eldest child, re- sides near her old home with her brother Leonard.

On the 15th of March, 1883, Charles L. Schafer was united in marriage to Miss Mary Christina Megerle, a native of Center town- ship, St. Joseph county, and a daughter of Frederick Megerle, a native of Germany and a resident of Union township. The young couple were schoolmates in their childhood days, and since their marriage they have labored together in the establishment of their home and the rearing of their children. Of their eleven children four died in infancy, and the seven now living are Julia, Elton, Louise, Bertha, Edna, Nora and Carl, all at home. After his marriage Mr. Schafer began the improvement of one of his mother's farms in Center township, there remaining until he purchased his present homestead in the fall of 1888. This was formerly known as the old Eli Moon homestead, it having been sold by the Moon heirs to Peter Schafer, of Center township, who in turn sold a half of it to George Beltzer, a brother-in-law of Charles Schafer. After the death of Mr. Beltzer, Mr. Schafer purchased the entire tract, which consisted of one hundred and thirty acres, but he has since increased its boundaries to one hundred and seventy acres, and in 1900 he erected his fine bank barn, forty by seventy-two feet, while four years ago the

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pleasant and commodious residence was built, making this one of the valuable homesteads of the community. The homestead is known as "Idlewild." . Mr. Schafer has carved his way to affluence alone and unaided, by con- stant application and hard work, and his ex- ample is well worthy of emulation. His polit- ical support is given to the Democracy, and he was reared in the Evangelical faith. He is a man of sterling worth, and justly merits the high regard in which he is held.

MAHLON HESTON, the only survivor of the once large and happy family which gathered around the table of the pioneer settler, Gentry A. Heston, of Union township, St. Joseph county, is now living in Lakeville quietly re- tired from the active cares of a business life. The family is numbered among the earliest pioneers of this section of the state, and the various members have taken an active part in its early and subsequent development. Mr. Mahlon Heston was born in Henry county, Indiana, seven miles west of New Castle, September 5, 1826, a son of Gentry Amos and Nancy Ann (Kirk) Heston, both natives of Pennsylvania. From that common- wealth they removed to Indiana about 1820, and when their son Mahlon was nine years old the family came to the St. Joseph river country, remaining one year in Berrien county, Michigan, the father conducting a saw and grist mill four miles from Niles. About 1838 they arrived in Union township, St. Joseph county, Indiana, where the parents spent the remainder of their lives, both dying about 1875. The mother reached the extreme old age of ninety-two years, being the oldest person in the township at the time of her death. During many years they lived and labored on their farm one mile south of Lake- ville, the father also conducting a repair shop on his farm, for he was a wagon-maker by occupation, while the agricultural labor was performed by Mahlon, their youngest son. Ilis brother Amos worked for others, as did also his sisters, and the family numbered fourteen children, of whom eight reached years of maturity, one brother dying in mid- . dle life, while all of the daughters reached advanced ages.

Mahlon Heston, the only living member of the family, was inured to the work of the farm during his early youth, for as a boy of fifteen he practically cleared the old home- stead of its dense growth of timber and placed the fields under cultivation. Throughout

nearly his entire life he made a home for the family, and by purchasing the interests of the other heirs he in time became the sole owner of the old farm, to which he added from time to time until he owns one hundred and fourteen acres, all in one tract. The soil is rich and the fields are under an excellent state of cultivation, while large and sub- stantial buildings adorn the premises, which stand as mute reminders of his industry and ability. In 1892, however, he left the farm and removed to Lakeville, where he is now enjoying the rest which he has so truly earned.

On the 10th of December, 1850, Mr. Heston was united in marriage to Nancy Eastburn, who died after a happy married life of eighteen years, without issue. On the 6th of March, 1869, Mr. Heston wedded Harriet Ross, who was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, March 19, 1832, and was reared in Holmes county, Ohio. When twenty years of age she was united in marriage to Charles A. Barkley, they afterward removing to Indiana, and thirteen years later she be- came the wife of Theodore Tibbitts, an ex- surgeon in the Civil war. By her marriage to Mr. Barkley she became the mother of four children: James W., of Lakeville; Francis A., who is engaged in the livery business in Lakeville; Emma Alice, the wife of Schuyler Robertson, who served as the sheriff of St. Joseph county, and now resides in the city of Lakeville; and Milton C., who died in South Bend at the age of forty-two years. When sixteen years old Mrs. Heston became a member of the teacher's profession, thus continuing until her marriage, and after becoming a widow she taught in the schools of Marshall county, Indiana. For over fifty years she has been a faithful member of the Church of the Disciples or Christian church, as has also Mr. Heston. The congregation at Lakeville was organized at a meeting held by Rev. J. A. Clark about 1865, at which time protracted meetings were held for seventeen days, resulting in the organizing of the Christian church of Lakeville, Mr. Heston paying all the expenses and donating the land on which to erect its house of worship. His path has been marked by worthy motives and good deeds, and when the time comes for him to lay down the responsibilities of life he will leave a record that is well worthy of emulation.

DR. JOHN MOORE, deceased, was born at

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Millersburg, Ohio, August 3, 1836, and died at Lakeville, Indiana, April 23, 1904, after a brief illness from pneumonia, aged sixty- seven years, eight months and twenty days. He was a widely known practitioner. Thus might some chronicler write, in a cold per- functory way, if in the years to come he were to gather mere statistics for some local his- tory, and in the statement he would note the two momentous moments of a soul,-the period of its advent into our sphere of action, and the period of its departure from among us. But life is more than a mere matter of birth and death. It is more than perfunctory statistics. True, these place a soul in a special point of time. They identify and segregate but they do not characterize. Mere coming and going do not differentiate and individualize. It is action that gives form and solidity and personality and fills the interim between that mystery called birth and that other deeper mystery called death. Action, then, in- dividualizes and solidifies thought and im- pulse, reason and emotion into character. Dr. John E. Moore was essentially a man of ac- tion, of strong and energetic action, which individualized him and gave that bent to his character by which we know him best. Analyzed, we can say he was amiable, gener- ous, sympathetic, open-hearted and true, and when we say this much of him we feel that we have given that cue to his character which made him the indulgent husband, the high- minded citizen, the sympathetic physician, the typical Mason, the sunny-hearted, ap- proachable man that he was.

Dr. John Moore was a son of John G. and Margaret (Miller) Moore, to whom were born nine children, the son John being the fifth in order of birth. The paternal grandfather, Gabriel Moore, was a native of Ireland, but came to America in 1813, locating in Holmes county, Ohio. Of the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. John G. Moore, all are now deceased with the exception of two daughters, one at Aletha, Kansas, and one in Illinois, and one son, Dr. Allen Moore, of North Liberty, Indiana. The father came to St. Joseph county, Indiana, in 1865, estab- lishing his home in Harris township, and his death occurred in South Bend, where the later years of his life were passed, in June, 1883.

During his early. life Dr. John Moore taught school in Marshall county and when nineteen years of age came to Lakeville. where he made his home with his brother Robert,

with whom he studied medicine, and later pursued a medical course at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1860. In the following year he began practice and continued for forty years, and in that time his practice grew to extensive proportions. In the line of his profession Dr. John Moore held membership relations with the State Medical Association, and the County Medical Association, while fraternally he was a Knight Templar Mason, serving as master of the Lakeville lodge at the time of his death, and for many years he had been the life of the lodge. Although not a politician, he was a member of the Democracy and was always well informed on the leading questions of the day.

On the 18th of June, 1862, Dr. John Moore was married to Harriet A. Johnson, a daugh- ter of L. P. Johnson, of South Bend, and whose death occurred in 1866, when . but twenty-four years of age. On the 31st of De- cember, 1867, the Doctor married Ella, the daughter of Jonathan and Eliza (Harvey) Cunningham. The father was killed by a fall on the ice at Walkerton, Indiana, and the mother later made her home with Mrs. Moore, her death occurring just six months before that of the Doctor. She has two brothers, Oliver Cunningham, an attorney of South Bend, who became a member of Dr. John Moore's home when but nine years of age, and resided with them until his graduation, and Andrew Cunningham, a farmer of Walkerton, Indiana.

Dr. John Moore always sought the sunny slopes of life. There was a latent optimism in his every thought. He met the buffetings of fate as a something requisite to the de- velopment of his life and character. The clouds might obscure his sky, but that was secondary to the fact that the sun shone on, and though its rays might not light up his pathway, yet they fell in full glory upon some one else, and there was light in the world as a consequence. The winter of dis- content to others was the raucous herald of springtime to himself, and, instead of the rude sting of frosty winds, he ever felt the melting breath of the hyacinth drift up the paths of life. He gathered sunshine out of the years, and, weaving it into the fabric of his character, reflected it again into the lives of those about him. In his sympathies for the distressed he embodied the essential ele- ments of the physician of the old school. The beneficiaries of his ministrations to hearts

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bereaved and spirits sorely burdened are as many as the beneficiaries of his professional skill. For the solace he brought to others, fully as much as for his services profes- sionally, will he be long remembered.

In keeping pace with his profession and in his active practice of the same he typified the spirit and the characteristics of a physician of the new school. His was a composite of the traditional and the ethical in his chosen pro- fession. His continuous practice in this vicinity for nearly a half century made him a familiar figure to everyone, and as Dr. "John," he was their physician, their coun- sellor and their friend. This is not the only home where the sorrow is deep and soul-felt. In nearly every home in this section there is unfeigned sadness over the unexpected de- parture of one of the people loved. Devoted to his profession and ever regardful of the distress of others, he denied himself that re- spite which his long years of active service had won him, and in responding to the need of others he contracted the disease which caused his death. It was a case of profes- sional martyrdom. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend." It were indeed a tragedy, name- less and inexplicable, if we should feel and know that somewhere such devotion shall not receive its merited reward.

Ile emulated the Masonic virtues. To those of us who have sat with him in the charmed circle of the Essenes, there comes a remem- brance of moral precepts inculcated sweet as the breath of violets. Whether directing the craft at labor or mingling with them at re- freshments; whether leading the candidate from worldly darkness and ignorance into the golden glow and glory of Masonic light and beauty; whether raising the fallen brother from the low level of esoteric sepul- ture or following the departed brother to that bourne from whence no traveler returns; in every feature he exemplified Masonry in its highest and noblest attributes. To-day his column is broken, his jewel is cast down, and his brethren mourn. Evergreen as the sprig of acacia which we wear will we keep his memory.

In the home he made and cherished there is the sadness which knows no consolation, and there lies the shadow of a sorrow which will not depart. Dr. John Moore spent his life in unselfish devotion to others. We can do no better thing to indicate our apprecia-

tion of that devotion than by ministering to and offering our sympathy to those dear ones he left behind. At an hour like this wealth and wisdom are poor and paltry things. Reason and argument refuse an explanation of such bereavement. The flash of gold and jewels cast no gleam into the soul when sore distressed. Love and tenderness alone,-the tenderness the Doctor had for the veriest child that approached him,-are efficacious in their ministry. We can whisper hope. We can offer our willing hands. We can tender our love and sympathy. These are the only gifts that death will take to soften down its bitterness. We can offer these as our only token and sign that the life of one so sud- denly removed from us still lives on in goodly deeds and tender ministrations. This is the rosemary which we lift up out of the memories of our departed friend and say, "This is for remembrance, Dr. John; and this is for thee."

In some other sphere where love is more than a broken reflection and tenderness and sympathy compose the soul's pure atmos- phere, the inexplicable wherein we grope to- day will all be made plain. Standing amid the mists of this hour, we wave our farewell to one who has drifted from our shores as softly as a rose petal falling in the airs of June, and the sky is leaden. But looking to the East there is a gleam of purple, and we know that we shall meet again.

CADMUS CRABILL.

ISAAC SHETTERLY, extensively engaged in agricultural pursuits at his farm on the state line in Harris township, St. Joseph county, was born in Union county, Pennsylvania, No- vember 28, 1844, a son of George and Eliza- beth (Keely) Shetterly, natives also of that commonwealth. They came to St. Joseph county, Indiana, about 1854, where they re- sided for many years, but their deaths oc- curred in Berrien county, Michigan, he at the age of seventy-four years, and she at the age of sixty-six years. They were the parents of six children : Susan and Eliza, both deceased; George, of Edwardsburg, Michigan; Ellen, deceased; Isaac, whose name introduces this review; and Jeremiah, of Cass county, Michi- gan.

Isaac Shetterly when about ten years of age accompanied his parents on their removal to Portage Prairie, Berrien county, Michigan, where he resided for four or five years, thence locating in Ontwa township, Cass county,

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that state. About thirty-five years ago he took up his abode in Harris township, St. Joseph county, Indiana, and during the past twenty-five years has resided on his present home farm, consisting of eighty-four acres in section 8, on the state line, while Mrs. Shet- terly owns fifty acres just across the line in Milton township, Cass county, Michigan, the entire northern side of the former place also bordering the state line. The entire tract is devoted to general farming purposes, and is a rich and well cultivated farm. Throughout his entire life Mr. Shetterly has resided on a farm, but during more or less of the time until ten years ago worked at the mason's trade in addition to his agricultural pursuits.

In 1866 occurred the marriage of Mr. Shet- terly and Miss Malinda Rogers, who was born in Cass county, Michigan, a daughter of John Rogers, a native of Pennsylvania. The wife died seven years after her marriage, leaving one child, Hattie Bell, whose death occurred at the age of eighteen years. December 29, 1880, Mr. Shetterly married Sarah Eliza Grif- fith, who was born in Milton township, Cass county, Michigan, October 24, 1846, and has always resided in this vicinity. Her great- grandfather Griffith came to America from England, and her parents, Mathew and Emeline (Smith) Griffith, were natives of Sussex county, Delaware, but came to St. Joseph county, Indiana, with their parents in their early youth. The father, who was born on the 10th of March, 1811, came to this vicinity three years after his wife's arrival, and his death occurred in Milton, Michigan, January 28, 1879. Mrs. Griffith was born on the 1st of December, 1815, and was thirteen years of age at the time of the removal of her family to this county, her death occurring at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Shetterly, November 11, 1899. She was a daughter of Cannon and Charlotte (Handy) Smith, born February 15, 1783, and June 15, 1784, re- spectively, and the mother died in St. Joseph county, Indiana, November 7, 1899, and the father in Michigan on the 28th of January, 1879. At the time of their removal here only two or three white families resided within the borders of this vicinity, and often their door yard was filled with Indians. Their home was a little log shanty, erected without nails, and their journey hither was made by wagon and they were obliged to cut their way through. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Griffith, namely: William Cannon,

of Centerville, Michigan; John Wesley, a resident of Harris township; Sarah Eliza, the wife of Mr. Shetterly ; and Lydia A. Dunning, of Cass county, Michigan. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Shetterly has been blessed by the birth of two children, Alva Homer, at home, and Lawrence Grenville, who died at the age of thirteen years. Mr. Shetterly gives his political support to the Democratic party where national issues are involved, and locally claims the right to vote for the men whom he regards as best qualified to fill public of- fices. He and his wife are worthy members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Smith's Chapel in Cass county, Michigan.

DR. ROBERT MOORE, deceased, was born in Holmes county, Ohio, April 19, 1829, and died in Lakeville, Indiana, May 11, 1900, aged seventy-one years and twenty-two days. He was the eldest of a large family of children, the son of a pioneer farmer, and grew to manhood on the farm where he was born. He assisted his father in clearing the land and tilling the soil. His father, in speaking of his great helpfulness at this period, said: "Robert worked faithfully then, as always. His hard work helped to make the old farm a profitable and beautiful place; helped to make life easier and more pleasant for his mother, myself and the younger children. In the year 1848, when we built our new brick house, Robert carried every brick that went into that structure. Later he helped me to reap the harvest and house the grain. But farm life was becoming distasteful to him, he began to feel a restless desire to do some- thing for himself, to see something of the world. One day, when we were working to- gether in the field, he suddenly stood erect, looked over the old place earnestly, then threw down his hoe and said, 'Father, this day farm work and I part company forever.' The individuality, so strong within him, had asserted itself.'

For a few months he taught school, but in the spring of 1848, when he was nineteen years of age, he began the study of medicine in Millersburg, Ohio, under Dr. Welsh, of whom he always spoke as "My kind old pre- ceptor." He studied diligently for two years, then entered medical college at Cleveland, Ohio. In 1852 the gold fields of California lured him over the plains. He met the party with which he was to journey at St. Joseph, Missouri, but the old Pontiac on which they took passage was wrecked, and he lost all his

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provisions and medical supplies. All but two of the party turned homeward, but he, with characteristic firmness, held to his purpose. He joined an overland party consisting of forty-one persons, including women and children. They crossed the river at St. Joseph, Missouri, and there began the journey of six long months over desert wastes and smiling valleys. Many times they paused to receive the last message of the dying, to minister to the cholera-stricken patients, to hollow a narrow bed in the desert sand for some comrade, child or broken-hearted mother fallen by the way, or to encourage the living to renewed hope and energy. For six long months, and then a weary party, few in num- bers, reached the "Land of Sunshine", whose fields of gold had lured them so far from home and friends, and entered upon a career of hardships and temptations which tried men's souls, where the mettle of man's nature was thoroughly tested, and the survival of the fittest was the rule.

For five years he remained in California following mining and the practice of medi- cine. Having accumulated a snug sum, in 1857 he returned to his home in Millersburg, Ohio, and on March 19 of the same year, was married to Maria Asire, of Medina, Ohio. To this union four children were born-Dr. M. L. Moore, of Los Angeles, California, D. L. Moore, of La Paz, Indiana; Mrs. Carrie Gray, of Galveston, Indiana; and Luna, who died twenty years ago. His wife, three child- ren and nine grand-children, together with two brothers, Dr. John Moore, of Lakeville, Indiana; and Dr. Allen Moore, of North Liberty, Indiana, and two sisters, Mrs. Sarah Wallack, of Olatha, Kansas, and Mrs. Emma Fuller, of Keokuk, Iowa, survive him. Mrs. Wallack is present with us to-day, and his baby sister is at home too ill to be present. -

Immediately after his marriage he came to Lakeville, Indiana, where he has lived for forty-three years, and where for forty-two years he has actively engaged in the practice of medicine, pausing only when the hand of disease was laid heavily upon him. Forty- two years of labor in behalf of suffering humanity ! What a history lies back of all these years of useful labor, for with him it was a labor of love. He loved his chosen pro- fession as a mother loveth her child, and his great heart grew more sympathetic and his kind hand more tender as he ministered more and more to the suffering and dying, sor-

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A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 2, Part 91

Author: Howard, Timothy Edward, 1837-1916 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 887

Author: Howard, Timothy Edward, 1837-1916
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 887