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 29
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In 1902 Mr. Fishley married Miss Myrtle Brown. She was born in Union Township of Cass County, Michigan. Her paternal great- grandfather, Joshua Brown, was a native of Southern Indiana, and when a young man came to Elkhart County as one of the first pioneers, and after his marriage located in Cleveland Township. where he bought land and cultivated it until 1847. Selling out. he then moved into Cass County, Michigan, where he acquired a tract of 300 acres and occupied it until his death when about seventy-three years of age. Joshua Brown married Mary Proctor, whose father. John Proctor, was also an early settler of Elkhart County and bought land about five miles southeast of Elkhart, but after several years moved into the village and spent the rest of his time as a local mer- chant. Mrs. Fishley's father was only an infant when his mother died and he was reared by his father and stepmother. His early life was spent as a farmer, and from March, 1865, to August of the
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same year he served with a Michigan regiment in the Civil war. After following farming for a time he acquired an outfit and began the drilling of wells and was in that work for a number of years. In 1885 he moved to Elkhart and is still living in that city, where for about fifteen years he kept a store, handling second-hand goods. On August 14, 1865, he married Eliza Clara Hilton, who was born in Union, Cass County, Michigan, December 17, 1844. Her father, Hiram Milton, was one of the early settlers of Cass County, but in 1850 went out to California as a gold seeker, making the journey across the plains with teams and being several months en route. He started to return by way of the Isthmus, but died while on the way. Hiram Hilton married Ann Eliza Covey, who survived her husband many years and was three times married.
Mrs. Fishley was one of a family of ten children who grew up, their names being Mary E., Clarence and Clara, twins, Aaron Cassius, William Orin, James, Myrtle, Jennie, Lettie and John.
Mr. and Mrs. Fishley have seven children : James Alfred, Frieda Mae, Dorothy Hazel, Luella Jennie, Versa Beatrice, Mildred Eliza- beth and Catherine Lillie. The family attend the Methodist Episco- pal Church, and Mrs. Fishley is a popular member of Pulaski Lodge No. 60, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
HON. CHARLEY SWART. Among the men who have acquitted themselves with notable credit in public life is a native son of Elkhart County, Hon. Charley Swart, representative from this district in the Indiana Legislature. From early manhood he has manifested a lively and discriminating interest in public affairs, the welfare of his community having been with him an object of special desire. As an agriculturist he has contributed to the prestige and growth of his community, and considered from any angle he may be accounted a useful and progressive citizen.
Mr. Swart was born on his father's farm in Jackson Town- ship, Elkhart County, Indiana, September 11, 1872, and is a son of Jelle K. and Hiltje (Symmensma ) Swart, natives of Holland, and grandson of Klaas J. and Rinskey (Klynstra) Swart, also of that country. The grandparents brought their family to the United States in 1854, settling in Jackson Township, Elkhart County, where they passed the remainder of their lives in the pursuits of the soil. The grandparents had four children : Piebe, ex-county commissioner of Elkhart County and now a farmer with a property 21/2 miles southeast of New Paris; Gerrit, who is a retired farmer of that place ; Anna, deceased, who was the wife of Clarkson Cart; and Jelle K. Jelle K. Swart was born April 3, 1842, and was twelve
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years of age when brought to this country. His education was secured in his native land and in the schools of Elkhart County, and his career as a farmer commenced when he left home at the age of twenty-one years, although it was not until six years later that he had land of his own. Until the death of his wife, in 1890, he carried on active operations as a farmer and stockraiser, but at this time is living in retirement at the home of his son Addison, on the Poplar Lane Farm, in Jackson Township, a tract of 160 acres, 11/2 miles west and one-half mile south of New Paris. He has been an industrious and energetic man all of his life, and in his declining years is hale and hearty, possessed of an ample compe- tence and of the esteem and respect of his fellow-men. He was married in 1869 to Hiltje Symmensma, who was also born in Hol- land, and who came to America with her parents as a child. They became the parents of three children, namely: Charley, of this re- view ; Frank, a graduate of the Goshen High School, of Central Normal College, Danville, Indiana, and of Leland Stanford Univer- sity, California, and now district attorney of San Mateo County, California ; and Addison, who is carrying on farming operations in Jackson Township.
Charley Swart received his education in the district schools of Jackson Township and the public school at New Paris, and when he entered upon his career followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and adopted farming as his life work. Intelligence, industry and well-directed efforts have won him success in a material way, and at this time he is the owner of ninety-eight acres of well- cultivated and productive land, one mile east and one-quarter mile north of New Paris. He has various other interests and is a stock- holder in the Salem Bank at Goshen.
Mr. Swart entered public life when he was elected a member of the township advisory board, and subsequently became township trustee of Jackson Township. After serving six years in this latter capacity, he was recognized as suitable timber for legislative office, and December 31, 1914, was elected to the Legislature, being at present a member of the Sixty-ninth General Assembly of Indiana, where he is capably taking care of the interests of his constituency. He is recognized as one of the working members of the body and has served on several important committees. Mr. Swart is a member of New Paris Lodge No. 888, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
In May, 1896, Representative Swart was married to Miss Emma Smith, who was born in Union Township. Elkhart County, Indiana, daughter of John and Ann Smith, and four children have been born to them: Edna, born February 8. 1807, a graduate of the public
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schools and the Goshen High School; Claude, born August 27, 1898; and Irma, born January 19, 1902, graduates of the public schools; and John, born January 31, 1903, who is still attending the graded schools.
CHARLES C. COLBERT. One of Elkhart's most important and valuable industries is the American Coating Mills, which was organ- ized and established by Mr. Colbert in 1910. The product of this company is fine coated paper, coated boards and similar high grade material used by printers and lithographers for the finest class of printing, lithographing and half-tone work. Aside from its local importance it should also be noted that the American Coating Mills is one of the largest industries of its kind in the United States, and in the tonnage of its products shipped out of Elkhart it excels any other one industry located in that city. The capacity of the mills is twenty tons of finished enameled paper and boards each day, and it has been calculated that the mills run out every twenty-four hours a strip of paper three feet wide and approximately a hundred miles long. This product finds a market not only in all parts of the United States but in the larger cities of South America, Australia, Japan and Europe.
The manager of this industry and the man chiefly responsible for its location at Elkhart is Charles C. Colbert, who is an aggressive young manufacturer with a long experience in paper manufactur- ing. He was born at Lagro in Wabash County, Indiana, April 29, 1879, a son of William and Eliza ( Ross) Colbert. His father, who was born in Ohio and died in 1900 at the age of seventy-four, came to Indiana when a young man, and in 1850 made the journey over- land to California, spending six months in helping to drive an ox caravan to the Pacific Coast. For about fifteen years he was engaged in gold mining, but on returning to Lagro in Wabash County took up general merchandising until 1886. He then re- moved to Maryville, Tennessee, followed merchandising there until 1897, and then lived a retired life in his old home in Wabash County. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, was a Mason, and in politics a republican. His wife was born near Lagro in Wabash County and is still living. Charles C. was the ninth in their family of twelve children, all but four of whom are still living.
Mr. Colbert spent part of his boyhood in Wabash County and part in Tennessee, attended school both at Lagro and at Memphis. His first business experience was as clerk in his father's store, and for about one year he had an active relation with gold mining in Tennessee. Returning to Wabash, he was for eight or ten years
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connected with the Wabash Paper Company, at first as assistant to the shipping clerk, but eventually was promoted to superintendent of the mills and finally to manager. From Wabash he came to Elkhart in 1910 and with associates organized and incorporated the American Coating Mills. This industry employs about 100 men in the various departments and its payroll is an important asset to the local prosperity. Mr. Colbert is not only manager of the industrial organization but is also president of the company.
Fraternally he is affiliated with Hannah Lodge No. 61, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Wabash, with Wabash Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons, with Elkhart Commandery No. 31, Knights Templar, and Murat Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis. Politically he is a republican. On June 14, 1906, he married Miss Florence Hess, who was born in Wabash, Indiana. They have a daughter Florence Eleanor.
ABRAHAM LIVENGOOD. There is a substantial place in Concord Township which has represented home for one family through- out a period of more than eighty years. Few if any families ante- dated the Livengoods in Elkhart County.
The venerable pioneer was the late Abraham Livengood, who died about thirty-five years ago, but whose children still occupy the old homestead. Before his eyes the entire pioneer history of Elk- hart County was unrolled. He saw that country as a young man of hope and enthusiasm in the latter part of the decade of the '20S. He saw it at a time when it required diligent search to discover any of the handiwork of civilized man. There were a few Indian paths and blazed trails of pioneers leading from one isolated log cabin home to another and from the distant market towns. It was one great stretch of forest and prairie. There were no highways leading up and down, and no railroads for many years. There were no mills, no towns, no postoffices, and to those who were dependent upon the resources of society and civilization it was a dreary and unattractive waste, though it afforded delight to the independent and self reliant pioneer.
Abraham Livengood was born in Somerset County, Pennsyl- vania, January 14, 1806, quite early in the nineteenth century and more than a century ago. His parents were Peter and Barbara Livengood. In 1815 his parents, when he himself was about nine years of age, pushed out of Pennsylvania and into the wilderness of the new State of Ohio. They settled in Stark County, where they were alongside the first settlers, and the parents spent the rest of their days in that locality.
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Thus from an early age Abraham Livengood had a taste of pio- neering, and grew up in an environment which stimulated him to a career of adventure and experience in a new country. He lived in Stark County until 1828. In the meantime he had married, and accompanied by his young wife he came to what is now Elkhart County, Indiana. That was several years before the county was set off and formally organized. He made the journey with wagon and team, camping by the wayside. At first his journey was through fairly well settled communities. The rude habitations along the road became fewer and fewer, and the last forty or fifty miles he seldom came across a civilized abode. Practically all of Elkhart County was then unoccupied Government land and could be bought in any quantity at $1.25 per acre. While agricultural products could hardly be obtained, the pioneer had abundance of wild game, includ- ing deer, turkeys and bear; there were wolves to frighten the chil- dren and the live stock and to howl about the cabins all night long, and the Indians still lingered though they were seldom hostile.
Soon after coming here Abraham Livengood selected a tract of land in section 17 of what is now Concord Township. There he cut away the trees in order to make a clearing for his first log cabin. With the assistance of some neighbors he constructed that house and he and his little family occupied it as a home for several years. It should be stated that when Abraham Livengood came to Con- cord Township there was only one building on the site of the City of Elkhart. In fact the number of settlers in the entire county were not more than a handful until the year 1830. The Livengood family had to depend upon their own household industry to supply them- selves with the comforts and conveniences of life. It was almost impossible to get goods which a modern state would demand, since the market towns were hundreds of miles away. The family dressed in homespun, and they lived on the rude and simple fare of the pioneer. Abraham Livengood was a man remarkable for his industry. With the assistance of his children he cleared up and improved a large amount of land, and erected a substantial brick house and also a solid frame barn. Among other things for which he should be remembered was the setting out of one of the first orchards in the county.
Abraham Livengood lived a life of usefulness and honor and passed away on the old homestead on July 7, 1879. He was a devoted member of the United Brethren Church. He had a brick kiln on his own farm, and burned the brick and donated them for the building of the first church of that denomination.
He was twice married. In 1826 he married Miss Catherine Noff-
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singer. She died in 1841, the mother of several children. On November 2, 1842, he married Mary Whittig. She was born in Stark County, Ohio. Her father, Frederick Whittig, was a native of Germany, came to America when a young man, accompanied by his family, and settled in Ohio. His first wife died there, and he married for his second wife Mrs. Barbara (Odeaffer) Haney. About 1832 Frederick Whittig came to Indiana, and settled in Con- cord Township of Elkhart County. He was also among the pio- neers, though conditions had improved somewhat in the few years since Abraham Livengood's first settlement. Mr. Whittig died a few years after coming to Elkhart County, but his widow, the mother of Mrs. Livengood, survived a number of years. Mrs. Livengood was one of the last of the old pioneer women of Elkhart County to pass away. She died March 30, 1913. She became the mother of thirteen children, and the ten whom she reared were named Cather- ine, (who died aged nineteen ), Edward, William, Ellen, Rebecca, Alma, Albert, Frederick, Martha and Edith. The son Albert and the daughter Edith are now the residents upon and occupants of the old homestead farm in Concord Township, as was also a half sister, Anna, who died in January, 1916.
OLIVER E. BELT. The Belt family is one that found its way into Indiana in about 1858. They are of Holland ancestry, and the first of them to settle in this state, John William Belt and his family, were born and reared in Holland, coming direct from Amsterdam, Holland, to Elkhart County. From then down to the present time they have been honorably connected with the agricultural life of Elkhart Township and county, and in Oliver E. Belt the land of his fathers has a worthy representative of the many splendid charac- teristics that are ever attributes of that country and her people.
Oliver E. Belt is a prominent farmer and stockman of Elkhart Township. His farm is an eighty acre tract, adjacent to the Town of Goshen, and he was born in Union Township, Elkhart County, on August 24, 1880. He is the son of William and Martha ( Peffly) Belt and the grandson of John William and Seibrig (Smith ) Belt, the latter being the Holland ancestors of the subject. William, father of Oliver E., was born in Elkhart County. On September 12. 1859, in the year following the arrival of his parents in this region. Here he was reared, educated, and here he later married. After his marriage to Martha Peffly they lived in a rented house in Union Township and farmed on rented land for twelve years. He gave up farming for a while, and spent six years in Goshen, where he was employed by a local concern, and then returned to farm life. He
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bought a twenty acre farm, which he later increased to eighty acres, and on that place he still lives and enjoys a reasonable measure of prosperity. To him and his wife four children were born. Oliver C., of this review; Rosie, a high school graduate; Floyd H. and John W., both attending high school in Goshen.
Oliver C. Belt lived at home until he was twenty-five years of age. When he had completed his high school training he engaged in teaching, and was two years employed as a teacher in the Elkhart Township schools, with excellent success. He then entered the government service, in which he continued until his marriage in 1905. After his marriage Mr. Belt settled on his present farm in Elkhart Township, where he has since continued, and he has made a good deal of progress in his farming venture. General farming and stock- raising claim his attention, and his eighty acre tract gives every evi- dence of the thrift and industry that are the natural attributes of his countrymen.
Mr. Belt was married on January 4, 1905, to Susanna Yoder, the daughter of Adam and Anna (Honderich ) Yoder, now deceased. Their two other children were Lydia, the wife of David Smoker, and Ira, who died in March, 1914. To Mr. and Mrs. Belt one child has been born, Mary Winifred, one year old at this writing.
Mr. Belt is a republican in politics, and is active in the best interests of his community.
WILLIAM BELT. One of the progressive and prosperous farm- ing men of Elkhart County is William Belt, a resident of Elkhart Township for a quarter of a century and the representative of a highly esteemed family of this part of the state. He was born in Kosciusko County, Indiana, on September 12, 1858, and is the son of John William and Seibrig ( Smith) Belt, both of them born and reared in the vicinity of Amsterdam, Holland.
These worthy people were married in their native community and in 1858 they came to America, bringing their two small children, and settled in Elkhart County. Soon thereafter they located in Kosciusko County, and there their third child, William, of this review, was born. Still later they moved back to Elkhart County and bought a small farm, where they spent the remainder of their lives. They were people of many splendid qualities of heart and mind, excellent neighbors and the truest friends, and they had a wide acquaintance in and about their county. No people in their district were better loved than these quiet, whole-souled Hollanders, and when the father died he was mourned by all who knew him. Ile passed away in 1902 when he was seventy-five years, and his
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widow still survives, her home being in Wakarusa, Elkhart County. She is eighty-four years old, and one of the best loved and most highly honored women of the community. To them were born six children, four of whom grew to years of maturity. The living children are William, of this review; Margaret, the wife of Thomas Nettrour; John, who married Eva Stiver and lives in Jefferson Township, Elkhart County ; and Martha, the wife of Peter Kauffman in Wakarusa Township.
William Belt spent his early years in the family home, attend- ing the schools that the district provided in his time, and when he was twenty-one he married Martha Peffly, the daughter of John and Mary ( Spohn) Peffly, who were of German ancestry. The date of his marriage was November 13, 1879, and after that impor- tant event the young people settled on a farm in Union Township, where they lived for a year. They then moved into the community where they now reside, settling on a farm adjoining the one they later acquired and now live on. They rented a farming property there for three years, after which the family moved into the Town of Goshen, Mr. Belt securing employment with a lumber concern in that town, and for six years he was thus occupied. Mr. Belt was not satisfied away from the life of a farm, and he accordingly secured a place of twenty acres, to which he has since added enough to give him a total acreage of eighty acres. The place is in the New Paris community, about 41/2 miles southwest of Goshen. The family has resided here since 1891, and in that time they have prospered most happily. Mr. Belt is regarded as one of the foremost men of his township, and certainly he has manifested a wholesome interest in its progress. His fellow townsmen, recognizing his enthusiasm for good roads, have retained him in the office of highway commis- sioner for the past four years, and he has rewarded them properly in the character of his service. He is a republican, and a leader in local politics.
Five children were born to the Belts, four of them living to years of maturity. They are Oliver, Rose, Floyd and John. The fifth child, Nora, died at the tender age of five years. Oliver E., the first born, is one of the prominent men of Elkhart Township, and he is specifically mentioned elsewhere in this work. Rose M. lives at home, as do also the two younger children, Floyd and John. All have had good educational advantages, and they are young people of excellent character and give promise of much that is creditable as citizens of the coming generation.
CLARENCE M. MILLER. Just five miles southeast of the town of Goshen lies the 100 acre farm of Clarence M. Miller, a well-
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to-do farmer and stockman of Elkhart County. Mr. Miller has been a resident of this section of the country from birth and has done his own share in promoting the agricultural interests of the community wherein he has made his home. He was born in Harrison Township, Elkhart County, on September 29, 1882, and is the son of A. D. and Emma ( Nusbaum) Miller.
A. D. Miller, also, is a native son of Elkhart County, born in Union Township, and he is now living in Goshen. He is the son of Adam and Mary (Davenport) Miller, both of Pennsylvania birth and parentage. Adam Miller came to Indiana as a boy with his parents and settled on the Elkhart Prairie, as it was called, and his family was one of the oldest in the county. He still lives and has his residence with his children in Goshen. In middle life Adam Miller took up Government land in the state and he gained a good deal of prominence in his district as a farmer of means and pro- gressive ideas. His son, A. D., father of the subject, married the daughter of John and Eva (Engle) Nusbaum, and their children were six in number, and named as follows: Clarence, of this review ; Eva, the wife of William Neff; Nina, living at home; Myrtle, also at home; Oscar, married Netta Myers and lives in Goshen; and Bertha, a graduate of Goshen College, also living with her parents.
Clarence M. Miller lived at home with his parents until he reached the age of twenty-five. He had his education in the public schools of his home community, and had the advantage of two years in the Goshen High School. He was identified with the grocery and dry goods business as a salesman for about three years, when he entered the Barnes School of Anatomy and Embalming at Indianapolis, and was graduated from the school in 1906. He then turned his attention to farming and was in that work for two years, when he returned to Goshen and there took up his residence. After a year in Goshen he accepted an offer to go to Colorado as department manager for a prominent furniture and carpet house. He spent a year in that work, deciding that he liked his native state well enough to return to it, and he came back, locating in New Paris with a business house, where he continued until 1914. In that year he gave up business and returned to his farm on South Prairie, where he has since enjoyed the prosperity that is the portion of the wide-awake farming man in Indiana. His post office address is Rural Route No. 9. Goshen, Indiana, and they are near enough to the city to enjoy its advantages, being free from any of the disadvantages of town life.
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