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 16
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In 1881 Mr. Menaugh was united in marriage with Miss Emma E. Hess, a daughter of Daniel and Esther M. Hess, and to this union there have been born two daughters: Edith, who is the wife of W. J. O'Shea, of Goshen; and Ethel, a graduate of the Goshen High School, who resides with her parents. Mr. Menaugh is interested in fraternal matters to the extent of holding member- ship in Elkhart County Lodge No. 34, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a democrat in his political allegiance and has served two years as a member of the Goshen City Council. Vol. II-10
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FRANK MURDOCK COOK. The distinctive fact in the record of Frank M. Cook of Goshen was his long continued service as a railroad man. For more than thirty years he was connected with what is now the New York Central Railway, and is enjoying an honorable retirement in his fine residence at 117 North Sixth Street.
The Cooks were among the most prominent and best known early families of Elkhart County. About 1836 the family came to Goshen from New York State, and its members subsequently took an active part in promoting and organizing some of the best indus- tries in the county and in this section of the state. They were identified with banking, milling, manufacturing and water power improvement and there is hardly a name with more honorable asso- ciations in the county. The grandfather, John Cook, was one of the organizers of the Salem Bank at Goshen, the oldest banking institution in Elkhart County if not the oldest in the state.
Frank Murdock Cook was born at Goshen December 18, 1852, the oldest son of Henry and Cordelia (Murdock) Cook. His father was born in New York State and his mother at Buffalo, New York. Mr. Cook as a boy attended the public schools of Goshen and continued his education for a time in Detroit, Michi- gan. On leaving school he clerked for John Lott in his store at Goshen and was in his employ until the age of twenty-one. In 1873 his real career began when he was made a fireman with the C. W. & M. Railroad, now part of the New York Central system. In a few years he was promoted to the responsibilities of locomotive engineer, and remained in active railway service as an engineer on that railroad up to 1905, when he piloted his engine for the last time as a regular employe.
Mr. Cook has two daughters, Henrietta and Amy. The latter is now the wife of Verne Lamberson and resides in the City of Elkhart. Mr. Cook is affiliated with Lodge No. 798 of the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks and with Tent No. 75 of the Odd Fellows.
IRVIN J. BECKNELL, M. D. A physician and surgeon at Goshen since 1898, Doctor Becknell is an excellent type of the modern and successful American physician. Through his practice he has con- tributed a large amount of individual service, at the same time has taken a prominent part in the organized activities of the profession, has served in a professional capacity on several boards and organiza- tions, and at the same time has exercised a shrewd business judgment and acquired a liberal material prosperity. In his own profession he
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at once ranks among the ablest medical men in this section of the state. He has been in active practice for about forty-two years, hence has not only broad experience and the prestige that goes with it, but his theoretical training has been as complete and thorough as any other medical man in Elkhart County can claim.
Most of his life has been spent in Indiana, though he was born on a farm in Carroll County, Ohio, December 8, 1846. In Septem- ber, 1853, the family moved to Indiana and located on a farm near Milford in Kosciusko County. His parents were Ananias and Catherine (Weimer ) Becknell. Both were natives of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, the mother born in 1817 and the father in 1819. As Doctor Becknell takes justifiable pride in the attainments of his two sons, it is proper that some consideration should be had of his own forefathers and ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Charles Becknell, was born in Germany, and during his earlier years was a sailor on the high seas. After locating in America he married a woman of his own nativity, and not long afterward they moved to Ohio, where they were early settlers, and spent the rest of their days there. Grandfather Becknell settled in Stark County, and being a well educated man for his time was a teacher in public schools for thirty-three years. He taught both English and German, and was noted for his fine penmanship. Along with teaching he carried on a farm. Doctor Becknell's maternal grand- father, Jacob Weimer, also settled in Ohio at an early day, in Carroll County, and was a farmer by occupation. Both of these forefathers lived to a great age, and longevity has been a marked characteristic of the family. Doctor Becknell was fourth among eleven children born to his parents, and two sons and three daugh- ters are still living. Their parents were members of the German Baptist Church, and the father in politics supported first the whig candidates and afterwards the republican. Doctor Becknell's parents moved from the farm to the Town of Milford during the early 'zos, and they both died there in 1897.
It is not without satisfaction and pleasure that Doctor Becknell speaks of his early associations with an Indiana farm and the atmosphere of rural life. One thing impressed upon him early in his career was the value of hard labor as a factor in the advance- ment of the individual. His education began in the country schools, but he was privileged to attend only a few months each year. In 1866, at the age of twenty, he entered the University of Notre Dame and remained a student there two years. He then spent one term in Hillsdale College in Michigan. With this educational equipment he was prepared for his next grade of service. Securing
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a teacher's license he came into Elkhart County, that being his first acquaintance with this section of Indiana, and was hired to teach in some of the local schools. His work as a teacher alternated with that of a student, and by paying his own way he spent two more years at Hillsdale.
His medical studies were begun under Dr. A. C. Jackson and Dr. P. D. Harding of Goshen, and they were his preceptors at in- tervals for three years. In the meantime, in 1871, he entered Indi- ana Medical College at Indianapolis, and was graduated in March, 1873. By competitive examination before graduation he was as- signed to the position of assistant physician in the City Hospital of Indianapolis, and while in that position took a course in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Indiana, from which he was graduated in March, 1875. On leaving the hospital service he located at his former home, Milford, and practiced his profession there until October, 1876. About that time he married and then went East to New York for the purpose of carrying on his studies in one of the oldest and best equipped institutions of its kind in the United States. From Bellevue Hospital Medical College he was graduated in the spring of 1877. To say that his education stopped there would be an injustice to Doctor Becknell, since he is still a student, a keen observer and a man whose devotion to his work makes him by very nature progressive. In the spring of 1879 he received the honorary degree of M. D. from the Medical College of Indiana, the medical department of Butler University.
After his course in New York he returned to Milford and was engaged in practice in that city for many years until July, 1898, since which time he has built up a large and profitable practice in Goshen. His high standing in his profession is indicated by many relationships with professional bodies. He is a member of the Goshen Academy of Medicine, the Elkhart County Medical Society, the District Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society, the Tri-State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the Big Four Railway Surgeons. He has served as president of the Goshen Medical Society and of the County and District Societies, and was secretary of the Elkhart County Board of Health for five years.
Though he has seldom allowed other interests to interrupt his practice, he has made himself a factor in the business life, especially of Milford, and while there he did much to develop the industrial interests of the town, and is well remembered by his former fellow citizens and is credited with much of the progress and material prosperity of the place. Two additions to the town bear his name. He has not been a politician, though he is a progressive republican.
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While living at Milford, on October 26, 1876, Doctor Becknell married Miss Sarah E. Zook. Miss Zook was of a Goshen family, and thus by another tie, in addition to his early work as a teacher, he was bound to this county. Mrs. Becknell also spent two or three years as a teacher in the schools of Elkhart County. Doctor and Mrs. Becknell take a great deal of satisfaction in the careers of their two sons.
Guy Gaillaird, the older, has distinguished himself by his aca- demie career and has a well deserved reputation as a teacher. Graduating from the Northwestern Military Academy at Highland Park, Illinois, in 1897, he spent the next three years as teacher in the normal and public schools of Indiana. In 1904 he graduated Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University at Evanston, and in the following year was made a Fellow in Physics and gained the degree Master of Science. Then for three years he was in- structor in physics in Purdue University at Lafayette. Next came an appointment as honorary fellow and research assistant to Arthur G. Webster at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1908, and for the next two years he was senior fellow, and in 1911 he graduated Doctor of Philosophy from that university. He is well known in scientific circles, and is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an associate mem- ber of the American Physical Society. In September, 1911, after leaving Clark University, he became head of the Department of Physics in Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, after- wards for two years taught in the department of physics in Syra- cuse University at Syracuse, New York, and in 1915 became an in- structor in the physics department of his alma mater, Northwestern University, at Evanston.
Ralph H. Becknell, the younger son, is now a civil engineer in Utah, having charge of 45,000 acres of land for the Delta Land and Water Company, of which company he is now a director. He was trained for his profession at Purdue University, and for about four years was employed by the Oregon Short Line Railway Com- pany, operating in Oregon and in Salt Lake. He is married, and has his home at Delta, Utah.
BRUCE D. BOWERS. One of the best know residents of Elkhart is Bruce D. Bowers, who for the past quarter of a century has been proprietor of a boat livery on the St. Joseph River, and his enter- prise has more than anything else perfected a service adequate for the enjoyment of this beautiful stream by all who are interested in boating.
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He was born at Port Huron, Michigan, August 31, 1864. His grandfather, Joseph Bowers, spent probably all his life in New York State, and married there a Miss Kestler. David Bowers, father of Bruce D., was born in Herkimer County, New York, learned the trade of carpenter, and quite early in life went out to Missouri and lived in Hannibal, until the death of his first wife. He then went to Canada and continued his trade there until 1861, when he moved to Port Huron, Michigan, and became connected with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. In 1873 he moved to Ohio, living at Air Line Junction three years, later at Elkhart, and was connected with the Lake Shore Railway until about 1888, when he resigned and soon afterwards died at Port Huron. David Bowers married for his second wife Rusanna H. Warner, and she reared four children, named Clara, Bruce D., Homer and Eva. The last named died in 1914. Rusanna Warner was born in Canada, February 9, 1846. Her father, Oliver Warner, was born in 1802, a son of Zacharia Warner, said to have been a Revolutionary soldier and afterwards became a pioneer settler in Ontario, Canada. Oliver Warner bought a tract of Government land twenty miles from London, Ontario, and forty miles from Chatham, and in the midst of the woods built himself a log house in which all his children were born. This house became historic because of its service as a depot on the underground railway at its northern terminus in Can- ada, and many of the slaves after crossing the boundary found refuge there before becoming permanently settled in the land of freedom. Oliver Warner cleared up his farm and lived there until late in life, after which he resided with a daughter twenty miles from the old homestead and died when about eighty years of age. Oliver Warner married Emily Robison, who was born in the Province of Quebec, a daughter of John Robison, who removed to the Province of Ontario and lived there until his death, his wife having died in Quebec. Mrs. David Bowers now resides at Elkhart. She was one of nine children, named John, William, Irene, Zach- aria, Rusanna H., Abigail, Emily, Amanda and Sarah.
Bruce D. Bowers, when about nine years of age, went with his parents to Air Line Junction in Ohio and he also attended school after coming to Elkhart. At the age of sixteen he began his first regular employment in a local paper mill, and that was his principal business until 1800. In that year he established a boat livery on the St. Joseph River, which he has kept up for twenty-five years. Dur- ing the winter seasons Mr. Bowers employs his time in repairing and building boats, but has all he can do during the summer in managing his extensive fleet of row boats, canoes and other river
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craft. The most attractive natural feature of Elkhart is the St. Joseph River, and Mr. Bowers has supplied the service which enables the people to utilize its many advantages.
Mr. Bowers married Emma Bixler, who was born on a farm in Bolivar Township, of Tuscarawus County, Ohio, a daughter of John Bixler. John Bixler was born in Stark County, Ohio, in 1831, a son of John Bixler, who was one of the early settlers in that historic county of northern Ohio. John Bixler the elder bought a tract of timbered land, which he cleared up, and from small be- ginnings, by much industry and economy, became a large land owner in that section of the state. He died at the advanced age of ninety-two. His wife's maiden name was Elizabeth Koehnel. John Bixler, Jr., was reared in Stark County, but as a young man went to Tuscarawus County and located on land which his father had bought, and lived there until 1869, in which year he came to Indiana and located at Bremen, in Marshall County. That was before the railroad had been constructed to Bremen. He worked at the carpenter's trade until his death in 1906. John Bixler, Jr., married Mary Younkman, who was born in Bethlehem, Stark County, Ohio, November 4, 1837. His father, Daniel Younkman, was the son of Daniel Younkman, Sr., a native of Germany, who was brought when a child by his widowed mother to America, and spent his last days in Stark County. He was a farmer and anc- tioneer by profession. The first name of his wife was Nancy, and she was also of German ancestry. Mrs. Bowers' mother is also a member of the Bowers household at Elkhart.
Mr. and Mrs. Bowers have two living children, named Dora and Allen. The daughter Dora is the wife of Frank Davis, and they have a son named Lawrence.
WILLIAM H. BRUSMAN. At Elkhart the leading firm in the coal, coke and building material business is Brusman & Holdeman. This is a business of long standing, having been started twenty years or more ago by Mr. Brusman, who as a citizen has many interesting relations with Elkhart. He was formerly a railway man, having been connected with the Lake Shore at Elkhart for a number of years, and with other local industries until engaging in business for himself.
A native of Indiana, William H. Brusman was born in Noble County January 29, 1861, a son of Isaac and Nancy ( Kahlor) Brusman. His father, who was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1828, died December 2, 1914. His mother, who was born in Stark County, Ohio, in 1830, died in 1898. Of their eight children,
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four are still living, and William H. was the fifth in order of birth. His father was married when quite young and about the same time moved to Indiana, locating in Allen County, where his first home was a log house. He was a pioneer, cleared off a part of the forest and rendered land which for ages had been unproductive a place of cultivation and improvement for civilization. After about five years in Allen County he sold his property and removed to Noble County, again bought land and engaged in farming and in that substantial vocation he spent all his active years. He was a member of the Evangelical Church, and though well informed on public questions and voting first with the whig and later with the repub- lican parties, he never showed any inclination to become a politician and office holder.
The old homestead in Noble County was the scene and environ- ment of William H. Brusman's early career. While growing up there he attended the district schools, and on leaving his books also left the farm and came to Elkhart to secure employment in the railway service. He worked as a common laborer and as assistant baggageman in Elkhart with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern for about two years, and then found a place as packing and shipping clerk with Harvest Queen Flour Mills. He was with that local industry for about eight years, and then started teaming. Up to the fall of 1894 Mr. Brusman served as car inspector with the Lake Shore at Elkhart, and then engaged in business for him- self as a dealer in wood. He increased the capacity of his yards and engaged in the coal trade, and gradually came to handle build- ing materials. For twenty years now his business has been grow- ing, and under the firm name of Brusman & Holdeman he handles a large share of the trade in these commodities at Elkhart. The office and yards of the firm are at 330 South Main Street.
Mr. Brusman is numbered among the original fire fighters of Elkhart, having been a member of the first volunteer fire depart- ment and serving altogether for nine years. Along with his old friend and neighbor, E. A. Campbell, who was the first chief, he helped to pull the rope and drag the primitive fire fighting appara- tus of the times around the town and was always ready to sacrifice his own comfort and business to oppose this destructive element. For a time Mr. Brusman also served as assistant chief of the vol- unteer department. Outside of this he has never cared for public office, and politically is a republican voter. He is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America.
In 1882 Mr. Brusman married Mary L. Maurer. She was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of Reuben and Sophia Reigle Maurer.
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Both her parents were born in Pennsylvania, and when Mrs. Brusman was a small child they removed to Three Rivers, Michi- gan, where her father was a machinist and blacksmith. Mr. Brus- man and wife have one daughter, Lulu B.
LEONARD DINEHART. This publication exercises one of its most consistent and important functions when it enters tribute to so honored and noble a pioneer as the late Leonard Dinehart, who established his home in Elkhart County more than seventy years ago, who played a large and benignant part in connection with the civic and material development and upbuilding of the present City of Elkhart, whose strength was as the number of his days and who marked the passing years with large and worthy achievement. He was a scion of a sterling old family, of Holland Dutch lineage, that was founded in America in the colonial era of our national history, and his ancestral record was one in which he could well take distinct pride. Within the period of the War of the Revolution his paternal grandfather, who was a native of Holland, was enabled to save the life of Robert Livingston, the distinguished patriot who later became governor of the State of New York, and the future governor marked his appreciation of this noble act by providing Mr. Dinehart, his rescuer, with a grant of land on the border of Lake Copake, in Col- umbia County, New York, this ancestral homestead being also not far distant from the Hudson River.
Leonard Dinehart was born at Copake, Columbia County, New York, on the 6th of May, 1818, and thus he was nearly eighty-three years of age at the time of his death, which occurred at his home in Elkhart, Indiana, in January, 1901. He was one of the well known and highly honored patriarchs whose memory linked the pioneer past with the latter-day era of opulent prosperity and prog- ress in this section of Indiana, and his character and services were such that in every publication touching the history of Elkhart County there is imperative consistency in according to him at least a brief memorial tribute.
Leonard Dinehart was a son of Peter Dinehart, who was born in Holland and who was young at the time of the family immigration to America, his father having been one of the sterling representa- tives of the fine Holland element of citizenship which was so prom- inent in the early history of the Empire State. The grandfather of the subject of this memoir was one of the loyal patriots who served in the War of the Revolution, in which great struggle for independence he was a valiant soldier of the Continental forces com- manded by General Washington. With no measure of uncertainty
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may it be said that each successive generation of the Dinehart family has stood exponent of the same lofty spirit of patriotism and civic loyalty, and the representatives of the family have done well their part in the furtherance of the march of civilization and development as the star of empire has continued its course to the West.
Peter Dinehart continued his residence in Columbia County, New York, until his removal to Penn Yan, Yates County, that state, where he died at the age of sixty-seven years, his widow, whose maiden name was Margaret Bechtoff, having attained to the vener- able age of eighty-seven years and their children having been seven in number.
Leonard Dinehart was reared to maturity in his native state, in whose common schools he acquired his early educational discipline, and he continued his residence in Yates County until 1844, when, accompanied by his wife and their two children, he set forth to establish his home in the pioneer West. At Buffalo, New York, they embarked on a vessel known as the "Commodore Perry," but this sailing vessel met with disaster, by being wrecked near Huron Harbor, Ohio. The passengers and crew were saved, however, and Mr. Dinehart and his little family remained at Huron Harbor until the storm had subsided on Lake Erie, when they boarded the "Robert Fulton," by means of which vessel the voyage was continued to Toledo, Ohio. From that place was afforded transportation by canal to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and after proceeding from the latter point to Columbia City, Whitley County, Mr. Dinehart left his wife and children and proceeded on foot to the little hamlet of Elkhart, where he procured a team and wagon and then returned for his family, whom he brought by this method of transportation to his destination in Elkhart County. Here he purchased forty acres of heavily timbered land, the same lying contiguous to the present Oak- land Avenue in the City of Elkhart. On this tract he erected a pioneer log house, and the same continued to be the family domicile for a number of years. He instituted the reclamation and cultiva- tion of this original farm, on which he continued his residence about ten years. He then bought eighty acres on what is now Prairie Street, and he became one of the successful and representative farm- ers of the county, increasing prosperity enabling him to make addi- tions to his holdings until he became the owner of a fine landed estate whose area was somewhat more than 200 acres. In a log house that had been erected on the Prairie Street property the family home was maintained for a number of years, within which frame additions were made to the building. Finally Mr. Dinehart erected a commodious and substantial brick house, and in this fine old home-
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stead, which is still occupied by his daughter, he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in January, 1901. He was a man of great energy and resourcefulness and much of his prosperity was due to the great but gradual appreciation in the value of his real- estate holdings. He was influential in the community life for many years, was a stalwart advocate of the principles of the republican party and both he and his wife were earnest and consistent members of the United Brethren Church. They were sincere and kindly in all of the relations of life and commanded the unqualified esteem of all who came within the sphere of their gracious influence, while the names of both merit enduring place on the roll of the honored pioneers of Elkhart County.
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