USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A standard history of Elkhart County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development, Volume II > Part 13
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"His thoughts were strong and they found expression in lan- guage befitting their massive strength. His diction corresponds to his matter; in both there is crystal clearness and granite strength.
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The virtues of thought and diction give permanency to his judicial opinions, and the world will be ages older before they lose their place in legal literature. Lawyers and judges for many genera- tions will look to them as repositories of principles and as models of judicial style. Many of them, indeed, sparkle with gems of thought framed in the rich brocade of faultless rhetoric.
"He was a judge from choice and he turned from places of higher rank and greater emoluments without reluctance or regret. His ambition was to be a great judge, and seldom has a laudable ambition been so fully gratified. Although his work had barely begun, his rank is among the foremost jurists of the land. His virtues and talents fitted him as few men were ever fitted for the office of his free choice, and the rank he so quickly gained vindi- cated the wisdom of his selection; but so eminent were his virtues and so splendid his talents that he would have adorned the highest stations in the land, and, had he entered them, he would there have won a wider renown and greater popular applause than a judge can ever hope to gain. But in his time and in his place no man could have earned a truer fame. We may, indeed, well despair of finding another who shall so truly grace the judgment seat."
ALBERT LEROY FISHER, M. D. Of the medical men now in active practice in Elkhart County, one of the very oldest in point of continuous service is Doctor Fisher, who established his home in the city of Elkhart more than forty years ago. Doctor Fisher has done a splendid work in his profession, and is particularly well known as a specialist in the care and treatment of infants and children, and has brought through that critical period of human life a greater number than probably any other member of the pro- fession in the county.
While medicine and his profession have been the primary ob- jects of his career, Doctor Fisher is a man of versatile interests and accomplishments, and comes of one of the oldest American families of New England stock. Albert LeRoy Fisher was born at Bristol, Ontario County, New York, August 1, 1845, a son of Jeremiah and Altha ( Wilson ) Fisher. His mother was a cousin to Marcus Wilson, the author of the noted series of Wilson's Readers, which furnished a basis for instruction to more than a generation of school children. She was also a niece of Gilbert Wilson of Rich- mond, Ontario County, New York, who lived to be more than ninety- six years of age.
The first of the Fisher family in America was Anthony Fisher, who was born at Sylehans, near Eye, County Suffolk, on the border
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of Norfolk, England, and came to Massachusetts and located at Dedham, in 1637. He died at Dedham, February 13, 1670. His son David, who was born in England, came to Massachusetts Colony in 1640. Doctor Fisher's paternal grandparents were Nathanial and Hannah (Reed) Fisher. The former was born in Massachusetts, October 25, 1756, being the son of a commissioned officer under King George II in the Province of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Nathanial Fisher died August 24, 1821. He was a very young man when the Revolutionary war broke out, and in 1779 enlisted in the Colonial troops for service in that war. He afterwards re- moved, about 1797, from Taunton, Massachusetts, to the Genesee country of New York, locating at Bristol in Ontario County, where he spent his last days. His wife was born in 1760 and died April 20, 1813. They had five children, two sons and three daughters, and of these Jeremiah Fisher was the second. Jeremiah Fisher was born in Ontario County, New York, September 25, 1799, and died May 20, 1861. On January 23, 1823, at East Bloomfield, New York, the Rev. S. Goodale performed the ceremony which made Jeremiah Fisher and Altha Wilson man and wife. She was born June 20, 1804, and died September 29, 1867. Of their eight children, four sons and four daughters, Doctor Fisher, the youngest, is also the only one now living. His father was a farrier and vet- erinary surgeon, and spent all his life on the old homestead at Bristol in Ontario County. He voted the whig ticket when that party was in the vigor of its power and influence, and being a great admirer of the sterling soldier John C. Fremont, supported him as the first standard bearer of the republican party and gave his allegiance to that political organization until his death.
The youth of Doctor Fisher was spent at Bristol in Ontario County, New York, where he attended the public schools, and was also a student in the East Bloomfield Academy. He prepared for his profession in the Hahnemann Medical College at Philadelphia, from which he was graduated M. D. in the class of 1871. His first location for practice was at Vicksburg, Michigan, but in May, 1872, he removed to Elkhart, Indiana, and from the first years has en- joyed a gratifying practice, and his reputation and standing are second to none among the medical men of the county. He is a member of the Elkhart Academy of Medicine, the Elkhart County Medical Society, and the American Institute of Homeopathy, and has served as president of the city and county societies.
Doctor Fisher has an interesting wife and one of the most livable and attractive homes in Elkhart. On January 2, 1872, soon after he began practice, he married Carrie A. Wheelock. She was a
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native of the same community in which he was reared, at West Bloomfield, Ontario County, New York. Her family is one of equal distinction and associations with the American colonies of New England. Her parents were John and Deborah (Plimpton) Wheelock. She was the youngest of their three children and their only daughter. Her parents were both natives of New York State, where her father was a successful farmer and spent his life on his homestead. Mrs. Fisher's ancestry goes back to Ralph Wheelock, a fine old English Puritan, who was born in Shropshire in 1600, was educated at Clare Hall in Cambridge, and received his master's degree in 1631. He was descended from Hugh de Whelock, who in the reign of Henry II had received from Roger Mainwaring a title to all of the latter's claims to the village of Wheelock. Ralph Wheelock gained no small distinction as a Puri- tan minister before he left England, and in that period of active religious persecution endured a great deal for conscience's sake. He came to America on the ship Hector with other Puritans and established himself at Watertown, Massachusetts, from which com- munity so many of the prominent New England families trace their descent. While he could not be brought to settle as a regular pastor in any one church, he preached for a number of years around Dedham, and was an important factor in solving all the problems which the early pioneers had to work out. The first important thing which Mr. Wheelock is known to have done after moving from Watertown to Dedham was the signing of his name in July, 1637, to the Dedham Covenant. His is the tenth name on the list of more than a hundred. From the standpoint of modern American life a peculiar interest attaches to the fact that he taught the first free school in Massachusetts, and one of the first in New England. This school he conducted at Dedham from 1644 to 1651, and after- wards taught at Medford. He was the instructor of his own son Eleazer at Dedham, and also had as a pupil young Timothy, the son of John Dwight, subsequently so distinguished as an educator and religious leader. Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, the first president of Dartmouth College, was a great-grandson of Ralph Wheelock, the pioneer. Another great-grandson was Ephraim, who served four years in the French and Indian wars, and held the rank of captain during the siege of Louisburg. Later when the colonies declared their independence he held the rank of colonel in the colonial troops, and participated in the first council of war, held at Cambridge, April 20, 1775. Other great-grandsons of the emi- grant Ralph Wheelock who saw active service as officers in the Revolutionary war were Anthony. Moses, Gershom and Simeon.
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Mrs. Fisher's mother's family, the Plimptons, likewise furnished soldiers to the winning of independence.
Doctor and Mrs. Fisher are the parents of two daughters : Hally J. ; and Winifred, the wife of J. S. Dodge, Jr., living in New York City. In 1913 Doctor Fisher was elected city councilman at large by the people of Elkhart, an office which came to him absolutely without his seeking. In his profession, in his home, and in his varied intellec- tual interests and avocations Doctor Fisher finds constant enjoy- ment, and lives a full and active life. His favorite recreation is hunting in the Rocky Mountains and in the Ozarks. He has a number of fine trophies as evidence of his trips in the West and Southwest. There are few museums in the country which con- tain a better collection of firearms of all kinds and dates than those owned by Doctor Fisher. Some of these firearms date back to hand cannon, which had no lock of any kind or any mechanical device for firing. Each one is properly labeled and described, and his collection of nearly four hundred weapons of various kinds has been gathered from the United States and all parts of the world. Doctor Fisher in politics is a progressive thinker. He is a gentleman of rare interest and charm, a most agreeable com- panion, but in every sense of the word is unassuming, and only his best friends appreciate the real depths of his character and the many fine qualities of his nature. Both he and his wife are entitled to membership in the Sons and Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution, and few members of that order have better au- thenticated ancestry who were active participants in the wars of the colonies. Doctor Fisher is also vice president of the Elkhart County Historical Society.
SAMUEL OMAR BARWICK, M. D. For many years one of the men of highest standing in the medical profession of Elkhart County has been Dr. S. O. Barwick of Elkhart. A steadfast ambition and physical and moral courage took Doctor Barwick through many of the struggles and adversities of early youth, and to paraphrase the classic words, being not unacquainted with trials and sufferings him- self, he has learned to sympathize with others subject to similar misfortunes. Doctor Barwick is a man of versatile intellect and ac- complishment. He has spent a great deal of time and money in com- piling the records of the Barwick family in America, being author of the "History of the Barwick Family," and has also written some excellent prose and verse which have been published from time to time.
Samuel Omar Barwick was born in Sandusky, Iowa, May 9,
S. O. Barwick. M.D.
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1863, and is a son of James Edward and Rebecca ( Hixson) Barwick. His father was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, December 30, 1830, and died in 1870 in Warren County, Indiana. James E. Barwick was the only son and child of James Jump and Emaline (Gaines) Bar- wick. James Jump Barwick, grandfather of Doctor Barwick, was born in Queen Anne County, Maryland, May 3, 1800. The exact relationship preceding this ancestor has not been authoritatively established, but the logical presumption is that James Jump Barwick was the son of Edward Barwick, who was married August 4. 1799, to Sarah Jump.
In his little book on the history of the Barwick family Doctor Barwick has shown that this family has lived in America more than two and a half centuries. The original progenitors settled in Maryland about eighteen years after the first permanent colony was established there. After a long and careful examination of the records of many branches of the Barwick ancestry, Doctor Barwick sums up some of his generalizations in the following sen- tences which deserve repetition in this brief sketch: "Of their religious attitudes we have accounts of their earlier church rela- tionships. My large correspondence with the Barwicks establishes the fact that their religious attitude is most commendable, and of those who are not identified with some church there is a refining tone which is to this day traceable back to the English stock. As an enterprising people, agricultural and the various business pur- suits have engaged them. Some are ministers, some are doctors, some are legislators, some are teachers and others filling various positions, while none are known to have been engaged in the saloon business at any time in this country. It can be said that the Bar- wick family stands as a worthy, upright, common people, and of industrious habits. Above all. it is not known of any Barwick in this country being a criminal or convicted of a crime."
In his researches Doctor Barwick discovered a number of refer- ences to the careers of prominent men of the Barwick house in Eng- land, some of them standing high in court and political life and in the professions. The first record to be found in America pertained to Daniel Barwick, who arrived in Maryland in June, 1652. How- ever, the principal ancestor of the Barwicks in America was John Barwick, who came to Maryland in 1664, as is shown in the patent records in the land office at Annapolis. This John Barwick had three sons named John. William and Edward. Edward, whose will was probated in 1762, had sons named William, John, James, Nathan, Edward, Jr., Joshua and Solomon. It was Edward, Jr. among these children who was probably the father of James Jump Barwick, the grandfather of Doctor Barwick.
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James Jump Barwick at a very early date came west and set- tled on the Ohio River, where he was engaged in boat building. He was married August 19, 1828, to Emaline Gaines of Chillicothe, Ohio, and afterwards married Miss Nancy Brown, while his third wife was Betsy Ann Pugh.
James Edward Barwick, father of Doctor Barwick, was reared in Warren County, Indiana, was a mechanic by trade, a man of exemplary habits, thoroughly respected, of fair ability and of good appearance. He had a strong inclination to the medical profession, a subject which he studied to some extent, but while living at San- dusky, Iowa, began preaching in the Methodist Church and for some years served as a local preacher. He had united with the Methodist Church at Shelbyville, Illinois, in 1857. Miss Rebecca Hixson, who became his wife, was born in Preble County, Ohio, October 30, 1834, and she died in 1912. They were married in Sandusky, Iowa, and the six children of their union were: Mary, who died in infancy; William, and Edward, who also died in infancy ; James Frank, who was born in lowa March 28, 1861, was reared in Preble County, Ohio, taught school for several years, and is now engaged in the general merchandise business at Hockley, Texas, and is married but has no children; the next in order of age is Dr. S. O. Barwick; while the youngest, Rev. Henry Milton Barwick, died March 7, 1908. For a number of years the father of these children followed the business of carpenter and contractor. In politics he was a whig and later a republican.
Doctor Barwick was a very small boy when his father died, and much of his youth was spent in Preble County, Ohio. When seven years of age he was placed with a farmer to earn his board and clothing, and continued as a farm hand up to the age of twenty- one. In this time his educational advancement was almost entirely dependent upon his vigorous efforts and his keen observation and habits of study. In his twenty-fourth year, in the spring of 1887. he entered the Salina Normal University at Salina, Kansas, and remained there until the fall of the following year, when he returned to Preble County. At that time he took up the study of medicine and pharmacy, and for one year was in the Ohio State Medical U'niversity at Columbus, and after two terms in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, was graduated M. D. June 5, 1804. For a year and a half Doctor Barwick practiced at Brookville, Ohio, but on November 16, 1895, moved to Elkhart County and enjoyed an excellent practice at Wakarusa until May 21, 1904. He has since lived in the city of Elkhart, and with the increasing leisure which many years of successful work in his profession have earned him,
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he has turned his attention and ability more and more to those intel- lectual and social avocations which enable him to perform the greatest possible service to humanity. He devoted several years of hard work, involving much investigation, and much personal expense for examination of records, in order to produce the little volume already mentioned. He is a thoroughly Christian gentleman, is an ardent advocate of the prohibition cause, and is known as an enthusiastic and aggressive worker in any undertaking with which he allies himself.
On November 3, 1895, Doctor Barwick married Miss Minnie May Landis. She was born near Brookfield, Ohio, daughter of John G. and Mary ( Peffely ) Landis, who were also natives of Ohio. Her father is now deceased, and her mother is still living. Her father was a successful farmer in Ohio. Mrs. Barwick was the second in a family of three children. To her own marriage have been born seven: Bertha Rebecca, Loyd Frank, Samuel Omar Jr., now deceased, John Calvin, Frances May, Wendell Philips and James Edward.
Physically Doctor Barwick is a giant, standing six feet six inches in height, of splendid constitution and health and of com- manding address. Such has been his life that he may be considered a splendid example of the "mens sana in corpore sano." He has professional affiliations with the Elkhart Academy of Medicine, the Elkhart County Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Association, and with the Indiana State and the National Eclectic Medical Associations. He is past president of the Elkhart Humane Society. Doctor Barwick has written several poems which appeared in the columns of the Chicago Herald during 1914-15. Most people know these through his pen name, M. D. Longman, and his manner of expressing himself in verse and the imagination with which he clothes familiar subjects are well illustrated in some verses which appeared in March, 1915. and are quoted herewith :
THE OLD SAINT JOE
Oh, the silent winding stream, Tinged in color like the sky, Along thy banks are pleasing scenes, While in thy bottom secrets lie.
Onward do thy waters flow, Listless as the stilling wind, It's in thy valley grains do grow, And flowers with many a blend.
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Born with nature and of art,
Fed with rippling little streams, While birds around thy surface dart, And to thy waters, stately elms lean.
Oh, the product of creation morn, 'Twas then thy course was designed,
Of thy beauty, the Master gaveth form, And in thy waters, the fish we find.
Muffled is thy flowing voice, And ruffed is thy surface by the breeze, But to the sportsman, thou art his choice, For pleasures in thy water, he sees.
Then silvery white, is thy body at night, When kissed by the light of the moon, And many a day thou art bright,
Because of the shining sun at noon.
So glide thy way through the earth, Onward, and forever flow, While to the boatman, give him mirth, For thy name is, The Old Saint Joe.
HARVEY WAMBAUGH. One of the sons of Elkhart County who has found on his "native heath" ample opportunity and scope for productive enterprise and who has shown distinctive initiative and progressiveness is Harvey Wambaugh, the founder and executive head of the Wambaugh Sanitary Milk Company, concerning which a preliminary description may consistently be made by offering the following slightly paraphrased quotations from an article that ap- peared in one of the Elkhart newspapers of comparatively recent date :
"In every city there is one firm in each branch of business that has won for itself definite precedence over all others. Such a concern in Elkhart is the Wambaugh Sanitary Milk Company. The growth of this business is nothing short of phenomenal, but the great success of the Wambaugh Dairy has not been accidental. On the other hand, it is the result of honest, unceasing endeavor to supply the citizens of Elkhart with milk and dairy products of the highest quality and second to none in the entire state. At the very start, about fifteen years ago, Harvey Wambaugh saw the possibilities in extending to the public the most sanitary and whole- some milk and cream. With characteristic business acumen he
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set about to supply the demand along this line, and today the name of Wambaugh stands for everything that is good in the way of dairy products. The Wambaugh establishment is recognized as one of the best of its kind anywhere. Its business had reached enormous proportions and is still expanding, every day recording additions to the list of patrons. The premises occupied by the company com- prise a large cement-block structure at the corner of Sixth Street and Indiana Avenue, and the plant is equipped with the very latest type of pasteurizing and bottling machinery. Cleanliness is more than a rule here. It is the law, and is rigorously followed by every employe, extraordinary precautions being taken to keep all products at the ultimate of purity and wholesomeness. Fully a thousand gallons of milk are handled daily, and the product is exclusively derived from the finest cows of Elkhart County, some ninety farm- ers in the vicinity of Elkhart contributing to the supply. Ten wagons are constantly engaged in delivering milk and cream to the city's homes. Harvey Wambaugh, the founder of the business, is still active in its management. To him is due a great debt from the citizens of Elkhart, by reason of his conscientious and effective efforts to supply to them milk and milk products absolutely free from contamination. He ranks as one of the city's most success- ful and energetic business men, devoting much time to the advance- ment of all projects for the public good."
On the homestead farm of the family, in Concord Township, Elkhart County, Indiana, Harvey Wambaugh was born September 7, 1878. He is a son of William and Elizabeth ( Doering ) Wam- baugh, both of whom were born in Hessen, Germany, and the mar- riage of whom was solemnized in Elkhart County, where the father died in 1900, at the age of sixty-eight years, his widow, who was born in 1842, being still a resident of the county that has long represented her home and that is endeared to her by the memories and associations of many years. Of the six children, all of whom are living, the subject of this review was the fifth in order of birth.
William Wambaugh was reared and educated in his native land, and in 1860 he embarked on the sailing vessel that afforded him transportation to the United States. The voyage consumed six weeks, and within a short time after landing in the port of New York City Mr. Wambaugh made his way to Ohio, where he re- mained several years, during which he gave his attention principally to the work of his trade, that of shoemaker. From the Buckeye State he came to Elkhart County, Indiana, and purchased a farm in Concord Township. There he turned his attention to diversified farming and stock-growing, and through his good management
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and unabating industry he eventually accumulated a well improved and valuable landed estate of 300 acres, the excellent house and other buildings having been erected by him. He was a sturdy, vigorous and progressive farmer, a loyal and sterling citizen, and he ever commanded the confidence and high regard of his fellow men. He manifested no desire for political activity or office, though according staunch support to the cause of the democratic party, and he was a zealous communicant of the German Evangelical Church, as is also his widow.
As a boy and youth Harvey Wambaugh lent his aid in the work of the home farm, and in the meanwhile he profited duly by the ad- vantages afforded in the public schools of the vicinity. He con- tinued to be associated with his father in the management of the farm until he had attained to his legal majority, and then initiated independent operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower on the old homestead, where also he began his activities in the line of enterprise of which he is now one of the foremost representatives in his native county. In 1904 he removed to the city of Elkhart and became the founder of the business of which he has since continued the executive head and which has been adequately described in a preceding paragraph.
Not along business lines only has Mr. Wambaugh been alert and progressive, but his activities have touched also the community affairs through his standing forth as a loyal and public-spirited citizen, who is ever ready to lend his influence and co-operation in the furtherance of enterprises and measures projected for the general good. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party, and both he and his wife hold membership in the German Evangelical Church.
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