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 26
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FRED E. WILLSON. The Willson family have played their useful part in Elkhart County affairs for thirty or forty years. Fred E. Willson has one of the delightful country homes of Osolo Town- ship, and is now filling the responsible post of township trustee, to which he was elected in 1914. His home is on rural route No. 1 out of the City of Elkhart.
Mr. Willson has a very interesting family history. He was born in Massena Township of St. Lawrence County, New York, in 1857, and various members of the family have been identified with that interesting section of the old Empire State for generations.
His ancestral line goes directly back to one Benjamin Willson, who was a distinguished member of the house of York during the
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English civil wars. He also bore the title of Earl of Warwick from 1640 to 1658. By his first marriage thiis earl had two sons, one of whom died young, and the other was also named Ben- jamin and succeeded to the ownership of his father's estate in the City of London. He was also a mariner and in 1665 he came to America, settling at Charlestown, Massachusetts. However, he kept his home on board ship until his house was completed. This Benjamin Willson married Anna Baumland. Next in line comes Jeremiah, who was born while the family still lived on board ship in Boston Harbor October 22, 1665. For a number of years he was employed by the Provincial government. He married Hannah Bemin, and they reared six sons.
One of these sons was Samuel, who married Molly Davenport, and they spent most of their years in Petersham, Massachusetts, where Samuel died January 1, 1777. An interesting story is told concerning his participation in the first years of the Revolutionary war. At the outbreak of the struggle he was engaged to transport the provisions for the American army. On arriving at a camp of soldiers with supplies, a number of the soldiers noticed that some of the packages were marked U. S. It was the first time so far as known that such a designation was ever used, and they at once exclaimed "Uncle Sam," and thus was started a familiar term which has been in popular use as a personal designation of our Govern- ment.
Next in line in the family was John Willson, who was born July 3, 1735, and spent his life at Petersham, Massachusetts, where he died October 12, 1804. His wife's first name was Hannah.
Their son John H. Willson, grandfather of Fred E. Willson of Elkhart County, was born at Petersham, Massachusetts, April 16, 1764. From Massachusetts he went to Vermont and from there to Louisville, St. Lawrence County, New York, and became one of the very first settlers along the St. Lawrence River. He located on Croyle Island, where he was given a lease of sixty acres of land. In the early part of the War of 1812 a man called at his house and asked for something to eat. He said he was trying to escape to the United States from Canada. It turned out that he was a spy in the employ of the English government. Mr. Willson gave him a loaf of bread and he departed with it under his arm. A few minutes later a company of six English soldiers, including the former visitor, the spy, appeared, arrested Mr. Willson on the charge of harboring refugees, took him to Cornwall and kept him in prison nearly a year. However, he was well treated and was made a "trusty." One night the jailer offered him a chance of Vol. IT-16
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escape. He was told to throw his clothes over the fence, which he did, and he had also been told where to find a boat in the St. Lawrence River. He did as directed, found the boat and pushed out into the stream. The boat soon proved unseaworthy and was leaking rapidly. Having noticed from which direction the wind was blowing before starting, and though it was pitch dark, he man- aged by fast bailing and hard rowing to make his way to the far shore of the river. After the war he continued to make his home on Croyle' Island until his death, which occurred about 1846.
The father of Fred E. Willson, John W. Willson, was reared on that island in the St. Lawrence River and lived there until 1841, when he removed to Messena Township in the same county and followed farming until 1859. In that year he went to what was then the western wilderness in the State of Michigan. After living four years in Bara County, Michigan, he went to Riverton in Mason County. That section of Michigan was then the untouched and unbroken wilderness which subsequently furnished a harvest for Michigan lumbermen. Mr. Willson took a homestead, started at once to clear up a farm, and erected a log house. Ludington was then only a small village, and the nearest railroad was at Grand Haven, seventy miles away. His determined labors brought about the improvement of some fifty acres of land, and he continued to live in Mason County until 1881 when he sold out and came to Elkhart. At that time his home was on the River Road and later he moved into the city and died at Elkhart at the age of eighty-four. His wife's maiden name was Mary Eunice Taylor. Her parents were Elon and Cyrena ( Carpenter) Taylor. Elon Taylor was born in Vermont and from that state made a journey with wagons and teams to Louisville, St. Lawrence County, New York, where he was also one of the early settlers. Mrs. Willson died at the age of sixty-one. She reared six children : Norman, John, James, Alice, Albert and Frederick Elon. The son Norman, who was born March 28, 1841, enlisted in Company G of the Twelfth Michigan Infantry during the Civil war and died while in service on March 6, 1862. The son John died at the age of seventeen. James re- mained a resident of Ludington, Michigan, until after the death of his wife and he now makes his home with his brother Fred in Elkhart County. Alice married Nelson Bressau, who for sixteen years was in the postal service at Elkhart and is now living at Moravia, California. The son Albert is a resident of Elkhart.
Fred E. Willson was still an infant when his parents moved west to Michigan, and he grew up largely in Mason County of that state, attending some of the pioneer schools. In fact, the school
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he attended was held in a log house. Later he attended Hillsdale College for a business course. Mr. Willson has done some pioneer- ing on his own account, having in 1883 moved out to Western Kansas, where he took up a homestead and lived in one of the typical homes of that time and place, a sod and stone house. Dur- ing the six years spent in Kansas he improved quite a large tract of land but he was not content to remain a permanent resident in that then very uncertain country. He sold out and returning to Elkhart entered the employ of the Kimbark factory for two years, was then in the offices of the Elkhart Carriage and Harness Company six years, at the end of which time he bought his present farm in Osolo Township. 11/2 miles north of the City of Elkhart. Here he has enjoyed all the comfort and prosperity that usually go with an up-to-date and progressive Elkhart County farm.
In 1901 Mr. Willson married Mrs. Ella (Taylor) Shepard. She was born at Louisville, St. Lawrence County, New York. Her father, Elery Taylor, was born in Louisville, a son of Elon and Cyrena (Carpenter ) Taylor. Mrs. Willson's father located on the banks of the St. Lawrence River and was for many years suc- cessfully engaged in dairy farming. He built a commodious brick house near the river and surrounded it with large barns and other buildings, and kept his home there until his death on September 16, 1915, at the very advanced age of ninety-one years. Mrs. Willson's mother before her marriage was Louise Taylor, daughter of James Taylor who married Miss Bard. She died in 1870. Mrs. Willson was one of six children: Louise. Walter, Frank, Ella, Lucy and Emma. Mrs. Willson also has a half sister Jessie and a half brother Albert E. Both Mr. and Mrs. Willson are members of the local Grange.
MICHALL FETTERS. One of the oldest native citizens of Elk- hart County is Michall Fetters, now living retired in comfort and plenty at the City of Elkhart. The name Fetters has been intimately associated with the development of this county from the very begin- ning, and there have been Fetters here as long as the county has been an organized division of the state. Mr. Fetters himself can recall the time when as a small boy the first railroad lines were put through the county. The old days of stage coach, overland trails, plank roads and other features of primitive pioneer life, are matters of personal recollection. Martin Van Buren was president of the United States when he was born, and he was just about of age when Abraham Lincoln first became a candidate for the presidency. Every important phase of Elkhart County's development has oc-
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curred during his lifetime. It is doubtful if the county has any citizen better informed regarding its history.
His birth occurred in Goshen Township December 18, 1839. His grandfather Peter Fetters was probably a native of Pennsylvania and was of German ancestry. From Pennsylvania he moved out to Ohio, becoming one of the early settlers in Montgomery County in the vicinity of Dayton, where he bought land and improved a farm. He was a man of unusual enterprise and succeeded in every- thing to which he turned his attention. In 1830, with two or three of his sons, he made a tour of Northern Indiana including that section which a little later was organized as Elkhart County. In this county he bought considerable land, including a portion of the present City of Goshen. Having made his land purchases he and his sons returned to Montgomery County, Ohio, and Peter Fetter remained there until late in life, when he came to Elkhart County and lived with his children until his death at the age of seventy- five. Peter Fetters married Margaret Wysgiver, who was also a native of Pennsylvania and who died a few years before her hus- band. They reared nine children: Samuel, Peter, Philip, John, Michall. Daniel, Margaret, Mary and Katie.
Peter Fetters, Jr., father of Michall Fetters, was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 1806, but grew up in Montgomery County, Ohio. He was a young man who possessed the many vigorous characteristics of his father and he accompanied the latter on his journey in 1830 as a prospector over various sections of Northern Indiana. Three years later in 1833 he came out and made a perma- nent settlement in Elkhart County. As there were no railroads and even the highways were little better than Indian trails, he made this journey with wagon and team. The wagon was one of the old crooked-sill Pennsylvania wagons, of a type long since obsolete. To this was attached a team of six horses and it required several days to make the journey from Western Ohio to Goshen, where they first located. Their first home there was a log cabin, and he then removed to land his father had given him about a mile east of the present site of the courthouse. There in the midst of the timber he began the heavy task of hewing out a farm. It was a wild region, filled with Indians, wild deer, turkey and many kinds of game. Many times the Indians visited the Fetters cabin but no act of hostility marred the record of the family's relations with these aboriginal dwellers. In 1847 Peter Fetters and family moved into Goshen, and he there became proprietor of the American House, which was the leading hotel at that time, located at South Main and Lincoln Avenue. The American House under his proprietor-
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ship became one of the principal social centers of the town and was a bustling lively place, especially when the stages came in bringing their travelers from every direction. In 1850 he moved his hotel to the corner of Fifth Street and Lincoln Avenue, and continued to keep a public house there until 1853. In that year he bought a home in the village and remained there until his death at the age of seventy-seven. Peter Fetters, Jr., married Sarah Parks, who was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1812, a daughter of John and Margaret Parks. Mrs. Fetters died at the age of forty-five, leaving four children: Margaret, Michall, Martha and Mary.
Michall Fetters had the usual opportunities of the pioneer boy during the decades of the '4os and '50s to attend local school. However, he made the best of his opportunities and acquired a very excellent education. After his marriage he located on a farm and continued farming actively until December 3, 1861. At that date he entered the service of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company. He was first employed as a brakeman at wages of $25 a month. In 1866 he was promoted to conductor and continued one of the efficient and trusted employes of the cor- poration for twenty years. On leaving the railroad service he resumed farming near Goshen, remained there ten years, then moved to the City of Elkhart in order that his son might have the advantages of city schools. After five years he returned to the farm, but in 1911 gave up active work and has since lived quietly retired in Elkhart.
In 1860 Mr. Fetters married Caroline Ferguson, who was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, a daughter of Robert and Belinda ( Barber) Ferguson. The only son of Mr. and Mrs. Fetters is James Frederick Fetters, who married Martha Pearl Planck, and their three children are named Mary Elizabeth, Margaret Louise and James Frederick. Besides this son Mr. and Mrs. Fetters have reared four orphan children. One of these Viola is the wife of John O'Hearne. Their adopted daughter Lida married Irvin Price. Eddie is now deceased and the fourth is Will Davis.
ISRAEL IMMEL. The most stable and satisfying compensations of country life have rewarded the well directed efforts of Israel Im- mel. who, still in the prime of manhood, finds himself the fortunate possessor of a valuable and productive farm and of the esteem and regard of his fellow-citizens. While he is now living retired from active pursuits, contenting himself with the supervision of his prop- erty, which lies three-quarters of a mile south of New Paris, he
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has by no means lost interest in the advancement of his community, as he is at this time serving in the capacity of trustee of Jackson Township and thereby rendering signal service to the locality in which his entire life has been passed.
Israel Immel was born February 22, 1870, on his father's farm in Jackson Township, Elkhart County, Indiana, and is a son of Israel and Eve (Coughman) Immel. His father was one of the early settlers of this part of Elkhart County, coming here in 1840 and becoming one of the substantial men of his community and the owner of a farm of 480 acres. He passed his life as a farmer and stockraiser, won the respect and confidence of his townsmen and died November 12, 1875, being survived by Mrs. Immel until Decem- ber 25. 1900. They were the parents of ten children, of whom four are living at this writing: David; Minnie, who is the wife of James Johnston; Tillie, who is the wife of Joseph Kauffman, a resident of New Paris, Indiana ; and Israel.
As a boy, Israel Immel passed his time on the home farm and in attendance at the district schools as well as the public schools of New Paris, thus receiving a good education. He was reared to habits of thrift and industry and carefully trained as an agricul- turist, and when twenty-five years of age founded a home of his own, when he was married. He continued to be engaged in farm- ing until 1900, when he retired from active labor and took up his residence at New Paris, where he has since lived quietly, his busi- ness activities having been confined to the supervision of his farms. His Jackson Township property, located not far from New Paris, consists of 125 acres of well cultivated land, which is admirably suited to general farming and stock growing. There he has a set of substantial and attractive buildings, with improvements of the latest kind, including modern power machinery with which the land is worked under up-to-date methods.
Since the attainment of his majority, Mr. Immel has been a stanch and unswerving democrat. He first entered public life in 1900 when he was elected a member of the board of trustees of Jackson Township, and served in that office until 1904. Again, in 1914, he became the candidate of his party for this position, and was elected, since which time he has faithfully looked after the interests of the township and its people. As a fraternalist, Mr. Immel holds membership in New Paris Lodge No. 888. Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is vice grand and in which he is popular with his fellow members. His contribution to the upbuilding of his adopted community includes his handsome modern residence, which he erected in 1914.
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Mr. Immel was married April 29, 1896, to Miss Leota Clayton, who was born in Van Buren Township, Kosciusko County, and is a graduate of the public schools.
FRANK E. HELPIN. For more than twenty-three years Frank E. Helpin has been one of the leading contractors and builders at Elk- hart, and the trade of mason was what he learned as a principal vocation in early manhood, and he has followed it consistently ever since. He is well known in Elkhart, where he has served as a mem- ber of the city council, and belongs to a number of organizations.
He was born at Three Rivers in St. Joseph County, Michigan, October 15, 1857. His father, John Helpin, was born in Toronto, Canada, and of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Coming to the United States, he served an apprenticeship at the mason's trade in Troy, New York, and then came west and worked as a mason in the vicinity of Dayton, Ohio, until 1854. when he located at Three Rivers, Michigan. Not long afterward he bought a farm near that town and superintended the farm and conducted his business as a mason and builder until his death at the comparatively early age of forty- four years. After locating in Three Rivers he married Lydia Petre, who was born in Batavia, New York, and whose father died when she was very young and her mother then married again and came West in 1854, locating in Three Rivers. Mrs. John Helpin died at the age of fifty, leaving three children, named Frank E., Wil- liam G. and Jessie L. Mr. and Mrs. John Helpin were both mem- bers of the Baptist Church.
Nearly all the life of Frank E. Helpin has been spent within a radius of thirty or forty miles about Elkhart, either in Southern Michigan or Northern Indiana. He attended the public schools at Three Rivers, and at the age of sixteen began an apprenticeship at the mason's trade, and he worked five years, at the end of which time he was pronounced a master workman and has followed the trade actively either as a journeyman or as a contractor for nearly forty years. He worked in Three Rivers and in many localities surrounding that city for about five years, then engaged in busi- ness at Constantine, and from there, in 1892, came to Elkhart, where he has since been successful in business as contractor and builder.
In 1882 Mr. Helpin married Dora L. Hummer, who was born in Peoria, Iowa, daughter of Jacob P. and Catherine (Zimmerman) Hummer. Jacob Hummer, a native of Ohio, in early youth came to Elkhart County, where he was almost a pioneer. A few years later he moved to St. Joseph County, Michigan, thence to Iowa,
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where he remained only two years, and returning east again, located in St. Joseph County, Michigan. During the Civil war he was a member of a Michigan regiment, and after the war he lived quietly in St. Joseph County, following his vocation as a carpenter until 1894, when he went out to the Northwest, and has since lived at Philomath in Oregon.
Mr. and Mrs. Helpin have reared two sons and a daughter: Arthur E., William L. and Leta C. The son William married Laura Kennedy, and they have a daughter named Ruth Elizabeth, and the family live in Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Helpin is an active member of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church and her daughter Leta belongs to the St. John's Episcopal Church. Mr. Helpin is af- filiated with Elkhart Lodge No. 425, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He has always taken an interest in public affairs, particularly at Elkhart, and while in the city council was a mem- ber of the ordinance committee.
REMUS BURNS. One of the fine country homes of Baugo Town- ship, which for years has given a distinctive character of prosperity and well ordered enterprise to the country life of this section, is the Burns place, now owned and occupied by Remus Burns, who ac- quired it from his father, Felix Burns. The Burns family was established in Elkhart County long before the era of railroads, and did their full share in the strenuous toil of the pioneers. Remus Burns became successful after an apprenticeship of hard work and thorough experience in farm life, and at the present time is con- sidered one of the most substantial and influential men of his lo- cality.
He was born in Baugo Township October 11, 1877. The original settler in this county was his grandfather, John Burns, who was born in Miami County, Ohio, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. From Ohio he emigrated to Indiana and became one of the early settlers in Elk- hart Township. He bought a tract of timber land about two miles west of the present site of Waterford, and in the valley of the Elkhart River. He improved a good farm there, and made it his honte until his death at the age of sixty-four. John Burns married Mary Rohrer, who was also born in Ohio. She survived her hus- band and died at the age of about seventy. She reared seven children, named Esther, Thomas J., Felix, Elizabeth, Jane, Ellen and Frank.
Felix Burns, who was born in Elkhart Township of this county, August 12, 1844, though a youth at the time, made a very honorable record as a soldier during the dark days of the Civil war. He
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grew up in his native township and had much experience as a farmer along with the advantages given him in the local schools. When about twenty years of age, in 1864, he enlisted in Company E of the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Regiment of Indiana Volun- teer Infantry, and went out for the hundred days service. He was with his command in Tennessee, and after the expiration of his term he received an honorable discharge and returned home. Early in 1865 he enlisted a second time, this enlistment being with Com- pany E of the One Hundred and Fifty-second Indiana Infantry, and during the closing months of the war he was sent to Harpers Ferry and into West Virginia, and most of the time was on guard duty. He continued with the army until September, 1865.
It was in 1868 that Felix Burns bought a farm in Baugo Town- ship and established himself as a general farmer in that locality. Several years later he moved to the City of Elkhart. made his home there twelve years, and then bought a home south of the city, where he still lives.
In 1866 Felix Burns married Magdalena Funk. She comes of an old American family, but of German origin. She was born in Wayne County, Ohio, January 12, 1846. Her father was Michael Funk, probably born in Ohio. Michael's father, who was the maternal great-grandfather of Remus Burns, was Samuel Funk, who was born in Pennsylvania, and was probably of German parentage. Samuel Funk at the time of the War of 1812 started with a Pennsylvania regiment to enforce General Hull's army in Detroit. While coming west he passed through the valley in which Wooster, Ohio, is situated. In the meantime word came that Gen-
eral Hull had surrendered his army at Detroit, and the Pennsylvania regiment soon went back to its home state. The impression which
Samuel Funk received in passing through the Ohio valley was so strong that a few years after the War of 1812 he brought his family and settled near Wooster, and lived there until his death. His son Michael came to Indiana at an early day and bought a tract of timbered land near Huntington. That property was in his estate at the time of his death. However, he did not become a permanent settler in Indiana, but returned after the purchase to Wayne County, Ohio, and lived there until the close of his honorable life. Michael Funk married Magdalena Myers. She was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of Henry B. Myers, who was also a native of Penn- sylvania, and one of the early settlers in Wayne County, Ohio. Henry B. Myers bought a tract of land about seven miles from Wooster, and lived there until 1854, when he moved west and settled in Elkhart County, locating in Olive Township, where he
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bought land and continued its cultivation and management until . his death at the age of seventy-three. Henry B. Myers married Mary Whistler, who was born in Pennsylvania and who, surviving her husband, died at the home of her son in her ninety-second year. Mrs. Felix Burns was but an infant when her mother died, and she was then reared in the home of her maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Myers, and came out to Elkhart County with them in 1854. She was well educated, and when only eighteen years of age started to teach school, and continued that work until her marriage on April 12, 1866. Mr. and Mrs. Felix Burns reared two children : Ada, who married Charles Cooper, and she died at the age of twenty- seven, leaving a daughter, Miriam, and Remus.
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