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 23
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GEORGE B. HOOPINGARNER, M. D. A physician and surgeon whom during more than twenty years of practice at Elkhart local citizens have come to esteem and admire is Doctor Hoopingarner, who has conducted not only a large private practice but has also identified himself closely with local movements for the uplifting
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of the professional standards and for the betterment of public health and security. Doctor Hoopingarner is a studious, industrious and thoroughly capable physician, and in quoting this general esti- mate which he holds in the community there can be found no stronger commendation of a member of his profession, which is not a calling that seeks the abnormal notice of the world.
He comes by his profession naturally, since his father was likewise a solid practitioner of the old school. Dr. George B. Hoopingarner was born in Hamilton, Steuben County, Indiana, September 13, 1856, a son of Dr. John J. and Ellen (Brown) Hoopingarner. His father was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, in 1824, and died in 1907, and his mother was born in Wayne County, Ohio, in 1825, and they were married in 1852. Doctor Hoopingarner is the second in their family of six children, three daughters and three sons.
His father was well trained for his profession in the schools and colleges, attending public schools and academies, graduating in 1852 from the Western Reserve College of Medicine at Cleveland. He was located in practice at Cleveland until 1854, then removed to Hamilton in Steuben County, Indiana, and in 1864 to Butler, Indiana, and his permanent location at Milford, Kosciusko County, was made in 1879. He spent the rest of his life there in general practice, and also served as justice of the peace at Milford for several years and filled other township offices. He was a member of the Indiana State Medical Association and the American Medi- cal Association, served for several terms as master of Kosciusko Masonic Lodge and held all the chairs in his lodge of Odd Fellow- ship. He belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church and in poli- tics was a democrat.
Dr. George B. Hoopingarner as a boy attended the Butler High School and the Bloomington High School, from which he graduated in 1874, and prepared for his profession in the University of In- diana at Bloomington. However, he was graduated M. D. from the Indiana Medical College, now the Medical State University, and later took a diploma from the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia. For about seven years he was engaged in practice at Sidney in Kosciusko County, but in February, 1892. located at Elkhart. Few members of the profession in Elkhart County have been more alert and studious in keeping up with the rapid advance of the medical science. He has taken post-graduate courses in the Pennsylvania School of Anatomy and Surgery and also in the Chicago Polyclinic, the Chicago Medical College and the Philadelphia Polyclinic. Doctor Hoopingarner is a member of the
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Elkhart Academy of Medicine, the Elkhart County Medical Society, the Indiana Medical Association and the American Medical Asso- ciation. His high standing in the local fraternity is indicated by his service for twelve years as secretary of the board of health at Elkhart up to 1909, and in 1913 he was again appointed to the same position, his present term expiring in January, 1917.
Outside of his profession and his home interests Doctor Hoop- ingarner has given much attention to Masonic affairs. In 1896-97 he served as master of Kane Lodge No. 183, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; was high priest in 1894 of Concord Chapter No. 101, Royal Arch Masons; was past eminent commander in 1896-97 of Elkhart Commandery No. 31, Knights Templar; was the first secretary and past worthy patron of Starlight Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. He also served as secretary of the Royal Arch Chapter for thirteen years. In politics he is a democrat.
In July, 1882, Doctor Hoopingarner married Miss Jennie Spar- lin, who died in 1885, leaving a daughter, Abigail, who died at the age of twenty-two. In October, 1890, the doctor married for his second wife Josephine Felkner, who died in 1891, also leaving a daughter, Mary J., who is now the wife of Albert J. Johnson, and lives at Fort Morgan, Colorado. On June 26, 1895, Doctor Hoopin- garner married for his present wife Linnie MI. Vallance. They also have a daughter, Isabella.
JOSEPH WEIS. Some of the finest citizens of this section of Indiana have been from the sturdy little republic of Switzerland. Among these are the Weis family, represented by Mr. Joseph Weis, for many years a substantial farmer in Baugo Township. He and other members of the family, in return for the advantages of American citizenship, have repaid their adopted country by lives of sturdy thrift and sober industry, of undiminished loyalty, and of upright conduct in their individual relations and as members of the communities where they have spent their lives.
The old Weis family homestead was two miles south of Misha- waka in St. Joseph County, Indiana, where Joseph Weis was born January 23, 1851. His father, Christian Weis, was born in Canton Berne, Switzerland, where the grandparents spent all their lives. There were two brothers of Christian Weis who came to America. Peter settled in Marshall County, Indiana. Ullery first lived in Pennsylvania and afterwards moved out to Iowa. Christian Weis himself grew up and received his education in Switzerland, and was still a young man when he came to America. The sailing ves- sel which brought him over was seventy days between ports.
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Landing in New York, he went directly to Hancock County, Ohio, and there bought forty acres of timbered land. Here he undertook the heavy task that confronted the pioneer. He built a log cabin and after clearing about ten acres of the soil, sold out and came to Indiana, locating in Marshall County. Here his capital was in- vested in another tract of timbered land. He lived there but a short while, and then moved to St. Joseph County, where he was among the early settlers. His purchase of eighty acres was situated two and a half miles southwest of Mishawaka. A log cabin had been built by some previous occupant of the land, and there was a small clearing, otherwise there were no improvements of any importance, and Christian Weis again set himself to a work to which he had become inured by several previous experiences. In the course of time he placed about sixty acres of his land under cultivation, and left the farm with a set of excellent frame buildings. On selling that homestead he bought a place of two hundred acres two miles south of Mishawaka. That was a farm in a fair condition of im- provement, having about ninety acres under cultivation, though the rest was covered with a heavy growth of beech and maple. The price he paid for this farm was $11,500. That was almost a high. record price at the time for such a farm and such improvements. On that estate he continued prosperously engaged in general farmi- ing and stock raising and lived there until his death at the age of seventy-three. Christian Weis married Annie Heime. She was also born in Switzerland and her parents spent all their days in that republic. Mrs. Christian Weis died at the age of seventy-four. She was the mother of ten children whom she reared, namely : Chris, Annie, Elizabeth, Ullery, Peter, John, Henry, Mary, Joseph and William.
Mr. Joseph Weis in his early life had some taste of pioneer ex- perience, and he at different times came face to face with hard- ship and adversity. However, his career as a whole has been one of steady progression towards a substantial condition of prosperity, and he had all the advantages of living in a home of one of the most prosperous citizens of St. Joseph County. He attended dis- trict school and developed his physique by working on the farm. His own career began as an independent farmer on rented land in Baugo Township of Elkhart County. Later he bought the farm, which he now owns and occupies. This Weis homestead, located in Section 15. is one of the best improved places of the entire township, and is devoted to general farming and stock raising pur- poses.
When twenty-two years of age Joseph Weis took a partner for
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his life journey in the person of Miss Barbara Hauenstein. She was born in Baugo Township, daughter of Andrew and Margaret (Bobb) Hauenstein. Her father, Andrew Hauenstein, came to America with his parents and bought a farm in Section 22 of Baugo Township, a great many years ago, and lived in that com- munity until his death. Mrs. Weis' maternal grandfather was John Bobb, a native of Germany, who came to America late in life and spent his last days in Baugo Township. Mrs. Weis' mother and sister Anna and brother Martin also came to America.
Mr. and Mrs. Weis have reared a family of eleven children : Matilda, Anna, Peter, Rose, Maggie, Mary, William, Minnie, Lizzie, Louise and Alvina. The daughter Matilda married Harvey Shaum and their eight children are Mary, Joseph, Lawrence, Martin, John, George, Barbara and Nora. Anna married Carl Huffman. Peter is married and has three children, named Margaret, Lester and Catherine. Rose is the wife 'of Walter Ditch. Maggie married Frank Watkins and their five children are Edna, Grace, Dorothy, George and Ruth. Mary married Roy Keyser. Minnie by her marriage to Warren Emmons has a son named Clarence.
EDWARD AUGUSTUS CAMPBELL. The present city treasurer of Elkhart is one of the oldest of that city's residents, long active in business, and both in private life and in public affairs has probably been as closely identified with the growth and development of this prosperous industrious and commercial center as any other man now living.
The early life of Edward Augustus Campbell was one of hard- ship and privation, and his experiences would have deterred a less determined and resolute young man from gaining a position of success and influence in the world. He was born in New York City, at 37 Broad Street, now in the heart of the business district, on October 20, 1844, a son of Augustus and Mary (Conklin ) Camp- bell. His father was born in Metuchen, New Jersey, in 1806, and died September 5, 1887, at the age of eighty-one years, five months, three days. His mother was born in New York City in 1823 and died in 1845 at the age of twenty-one years, eight months, when her son, Edward A., was an infant. He was her only child. The father was a contractor in New York City for a number of years, and later followed the same line of business across the river in Brooklyn. He was first a whig and later a republican, and voted with that party until the campaign in 1876, when Samuel J. Tilden ran for the presidency against Hayes. With that election he became a democrat, and so remained the rest of his life.
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When Edward A. Campbell was still a small child his father married a second time, and the inharmonious surroundings caused him to leave home at the age of eleven. Going to Connecticut, he entered into a formal contract, in other words, was "bound out" to a farmer, the agreement being that when he reached the age of twenty-one he should receive $100 cash, a suit of clothes and a Bible. In a few months he became the subject of much ill treat- ment from the wife of the farmer, and his independent spirit again caused him to break away, and he then returned to Brooklyn, and was at school there for six or seven months, having begun his edu- cation in that city. His next employment was in a wholesale hard- ware store with his uncle, Isaac Amerman, who was manager of the business. In 1855 he came with this uncle out to St. Joseph, Michigan. His uncle established and conducted a sawmill on the St. Joseph River, about nine miles from the village of St. Joseph, and Mr. Campbell found plenty of occupation around that mill. About two and a half years later he received a serious injury in the machinery, and had to return to New York City to undergo a surgical operation. After recovering he went to Rahway, New Jersey, and learned the carriage trimmer's trade. Again coming West in 1859, he spent about six months working at his trade in Dowagiac, Michigan, then removed to Kalamazoo, where he lived up to July, 1865.
It was in the latter month and year that Mr. Campbell identified himself with Elkhart, Indiana, then a small village and with little more than average promise of becoming a city. At Elkhart he en- gaged in business for himself and for thirty years conducted a well patronized shop for carriage trimming and painting. With this business he laid the substantial foundation of a prosperity which is now ample for all his needs, and in addition he has also provided liberally for his home and those dependent upon his exertions.
A number of interesting items concerning the early history of Elkhart can be found in the record of Mr. Campbell's citizenship. He was a member of the old volunteer fire department, and in May, 1875, was appointed the first chief of the regularly organized fire department at a salary of $50 per year. He served three years in that position, and gave the city its first efficient organiza- tion for fire protection. In 1886 he was elected to the office of city treasurer, and succeeded himself in that position for a period of eight years, four successive terms. Many recall the interesting campaign he made for election as county treasurer. Though duly elected, his election was contested by his opponents, and the case was taken into the court, and after a thorough trial and investiga-
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tion the judge held that Mr. Campbell was the rightful possessor of the office. He gave to it a capable administration for one term. In November, 1913, Mr. Campbell was elected city treasurer, the office which he had held many years before, and has been engaged in its duties since January 3, 1914. He was elected on the progres- sive ticket, and led all other candidates in the number of votes received. At the present time he is a democrat in politics, and for the past twenty-four years has been an active member of Elk- hart Lodge No. 75 of the Knights of Pythias, and is also a mem- ber of Elkhart Lodge No. 425 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On February 22, 1864, before he was twenty years of age, Mr. Campbell married Martha A. Fosdick, and their married life has been happily continued now for more than half a century. She was born at Inlet Grove, Lee County, Illinois. The children are two in number: Gertrude Martha, wife of E. Hale Robinson; and Edward Fosdick, who married Leona Brough, and their two daugh- ters, Martha Leona and Mary Ellen, are the only grandchildren of Mr. Campbell.
HON. EVERETT GOLDTHWAIT. A former mayor of Elkhart and for many years one of its active and enterprising citizens, Everett Goldthwait when he first came to the city, forty years ago, was employed during the construction of the old city hall. He was a native of Maine and belongs to one of the historic old families of the Pine Tree State and of New England.
He was born in that part of Biddeford, Maine, known as Bidde- ford Pool, on December 6, 1851. His ancestors were Englishmen who settled in Massachusetts during the early colonial period. One of these ancestors at one time filled the office of clerk of Boston. . His great-grandfather, Tristam Goldthwaite, was a native of Massa- chusetts, and emigrated to what is now York County, Maine, be- coming one of the first settlers at Biddeford. He improved a farm and erected a commodious two-story frame house in which he lived until his death. This farm has been handed down from father to son, and is still owned and occupied by the descendants. It is a quaint and interesting old structure, having been built in 1734, and has long been considered one of the chief landmarks of the town. A view of the house and premises appears in an old work entitled "Gleanings from the Sea," published by J. W. Smith of Andover, Massachusetts. Mr. Goldthwait's grandfather, also named Tristam, who was born at Biddeford, spent his life in and around that village, and for several years was in the government service as keeper of the Wood Island light.
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William Henry Goldthwait, father of Everett, was born in the same place in which his son Everett was later born, and spent his youth at the old lighthouse, and early took up the vocation of pilot. Later he operated a pleasure yacht known as the Lawson, and was familiarly known by the summer residents as Captain Bill. He died at the age of fifty.
Mr. Goldthwait's mother before her marriage was Elizabeth Tarbox. She was born on Biddeford Plain, and in the same house was born her father, Samuel Tarbox, while her grandfather, Samuel, was also a native of Biddeford, and the great-grandfather Tarbox was a native of Massachusetts and one of the first settlers at Bidde- ford. During the War of 1812 English warships entered the har- bor and destroyed several vessels, and a ball from one of the cannons landed on the Tarbox farm. Elizabeth's father secured this and kept it at his home for a number of years, but finally presented it to the Saco and Biddeford Historical Society. Elizabeth Tarbox' mother was Miriam Dyer, and her father, John Dyer, was born in Massachusetts of early colonial ancestry and became a resident at Biddeford. Elizabeth Tarbox Goldthwait survived her husband and died at the age of seventy. She reared six children: Henry, Alonzo, Samuel T., Everett, Rose Merriam and Elizabeth Wilma. The son Samuel located at San Diego, California, where for twenty- five years he was superintendent of bridges and sewers. The son Alonzo lived at Indianapolis, Indiana, where he died from injuries received in a railway accident. The daughter Elizabeth, now de- ceased, married Ellsworth Hathaway. Rose M. lived in Lawrence and Boston, Massachusetts, for a number of years, but now makes her home with her brother. In 1911 she went abroad, sailing from Boston, and visited the Azores, Gibraltar, Algiers, Genoa, Naples, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, Palmermo and Alexandria, being accompanied on this trip by Mrs. Goss of Salem, Massachusetts.
Everett Goldthwait grew up in the old coast town in Maine which was his birthplace, and hardly completed the course of the com- mon schools before he took up life as a sailor, at first on a pilot boat operating around the harbor. At seventeen he made a trip on the coasting schooner Chowan, of which his brother Henry was captain. They carried a cargo south, delivering it at points along the Chesapeake Bay and the Albemarle Canal, and refilled it with oysters, which they delivered at other points along the coast. They also went up the river to the home of General Fitzhugh Lee, and took on a cargo of lumber for home ports.
It was in 1870 that Mr. Goldthwait came West, then a youth of nineteen, and entered the employ of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati
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& Lafayette, now a part of the Big Four Railway, as brakeman. With his brother Alonzo he later engaged in the wood and coal business at Indianapolis, which continued until 1875, in which year he moved to Elkhart. Ground was just being broken for the old City Building, and he worked in various capacities during the construction of the old City Hall, after which he entered the em- ploy of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company as an apprentice in the machine department. This was his work for a number of years, but he finally resigned and with his ex- perience and skill engaged in a business of his own, organizing the Elkhart Frog & Crossings Company, which erected the first factory building in the Ellis Addition. Mr. Goldthwait superin- tended the work there for about a year, but this was one of the local industries carried down in the failure of the Indiana State Bank. After the works were closed he returned to the employ of the Lake Shore Railway Company, and remained until 1911. Since 1912 Mr. Goldthwait has carried on a prosperous business and has a well equipped plant for the florist trade.
In 1874, a year before coming to Elkhart, he married Miss Laura Hirst. She was born at Uplands, near Chester, Pennsyl- vania, a daughter of Benjamin Hirst, who was a native of Man- chester, England, where he was reared and educated. Benjamin Hirst came to America to accept the position of superintendent for the J. P. Crozier Mills at Uplands, Pennsylvania, remaining there until 1856, when he went to Wilmington, Delaware, and that city was his home until his death. He was a mechanic with undoubted genius, and invented and patented several devices which are still used in all the large textile mills in the United States. Benjamin Hirst married Mary Pell in Lincolnshire, England. Her sons, Edwin and Benjamin, two of her brothers, two nephews and two prospective sons-in-law, all served in the Union army during the Civil war, and she herself became a nurse in the First ward of the Mount Pleasant Hospital at Washington, D. C. President Lincoln himself was a frequent visitor at that hospital and always brought dainties for the patients. Mrs. Goldthwait in her home at Elkhart has a bowl which she highly treasures, this bowl having been filled with jelly when President Lincoln brought it to the hospital during the dark days of the Civil war. Mrs. Benjamin Hirst survived her husband many years and spent her last days in Elkhart. She reared seven children, named Edwin, Emma, Alice, Harriet, Benjamin, Mary and Laura.
Mrs. Goldthwait is a highly cultured and educated woman and finished her schooling in the Wesleyan Female College at Wilming-
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ton, Delaware. A student at the same time was the daughter of Vice President Hamlin, and Mary Harland, who subsequently mar- ried Robert T. Lincoln, was a boarding pupil of the school while Mrs. Goldthwait was there. Mrs. Goldthwait by early training be- came an accomplished artist, and the walls of her home are adorned with a number of her paintings.
Mr. and Mrs. Goldthwait reared a daughter named Nellie, who graduated from the Elkhart High School in 1899, and was especially ' gifted in music. She died at the age of eighteen, just at the en- trance upon a beautiful womanhood. In 1900 Mr. and Mrs. Gold- thwait united with the First Baptist Church, and he is chairman of the board of deacons of that church, and is trustee and a member of the board of managers of the Railroad Men's Christian Associa- tion. He cast his first presidential vote for General Grant and has always taken an active part in local affairs and an interest in local and general politics. His public service has been especially im- portant to his home city, having served two terms as a member of the city council and one term as mayor. He is now superintendent of parks of Elkhart.
WILLIAM HENRY CALDWELL. One of the attractive home places within the city limits of Elkhart is that owned by William Henry Caldwell, who in the course of his active career covering almost half a century has shown special proficiency not only in general farming but as a fruit grower. For many years he was in the famous fruit belt of Western Michigan in the vicinity of Benton Harbor, and he has applied his experience and skill to a very productive enterprise on his small place in Elkhart and is illustrating the possibilities of a few acres capably managed when devoted to fruit and crops that find a ready sale in a nearby market.
A native of Ohio, he was born near Palmyra March 13, 1852. His father was Jesse Caldwell, a native of the same state, and the grandfather John Caldwell was probably a native of Pennsylvania and settled in Ohio in the early days, where he spent his last years. Jesse Caldwell, the father, grew up on a farm, and lived in Ohio until 1855. He married a Miss Filaann Horton, who died in 1855, leaving two children: Charlotte, who married James Field, and William Henry. In the year of the mother's death Jesse Caldwell loaded all his wordly possessions into a wagon and with his little family made an overland journey to Michigan. He located in a wilderness section of that state, buying a tract of timbered land, and with a log house as his home started to develop a farm. In 1865 he sold that farm and removed to Laporte County, Indiana,
L. D. VAN DORAN
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where he acquired a tract of land, only a few acres of which were cleared and the chief improvement was a log house. There, two years later, in 1867, he passed away. He married for his second wife Susanne Gingrich, who became the mother of two daughters, Susanne and Hulda, and she subsequently married Mr. Cooper and returned to Ohio.
William Henry Caldwell was only three years of age when he went with the family into the wilds of Michigan. He attended one of the pioneer schools in that state, and his education was practically finished when he was fifteen years of age, and after his father's death he started out to earn his own living. He made the best of his opportunities and has always been self-reliant and industrious, and these qualities have given him independence. For several years he worked at monthly wages on a farm, and being prudent and thrifty he saved most of his wages, and finally was able to buy a tract of land in Pulaski County, Indiana. After farming there five years he sold out at a profit and moved to the vicinity of Benton Harbor, Michigan. He bought a home in the city and for four years was employed by the Graves Lumber Company. He then invested his modest capital in a fruit farm near Benton Harbor, and for two years raised small fruits. On account of ill health he sold out and went to the State of Washington, visiting different places on the Pacific Coast, but after a few months of recuperation re- turned to Benton Harbor and again bought a fruit farm. This he operated three years, then sold out and went South to Lawrence- burg, Tennessee, where on a farm of his own he was engaged in general agriculture and fruit growing for three years. Then once more he was back in Benton Harbor and resumed fruit grow- ing there until 1909. Since that year his home has been in Elk- hart, where he bought five acres of land on Johnson Street, within the city limits. Mr. Caldwell now finds profit and pleasure in the raising of small fruits, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries being the principal crops.
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