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 32
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odist Episcopal Church, and were the parents of four children, of whom three are now living: T. J .; Henry, a resident of Ligonier ; and Susan, the widow of John Haney, living in Benton Township. Rudolph Hire was born in Benton Township, May 21, 1844, and was here educated in the public schools and reared to manhood amid agricultural surroundings. He married Rachel Clover and they began housekeeping on a farm of forty acres, to which Mr. Hire added from time to time, until at his death he owned in the neighborhood of 1,000 acres. In addition to general farming he was engaged extensively in breeding and feeding cattle and in shipping other stock, and excellent business ability enabled him to make a success of all of his ventures. He died on his farm March 27, 1911, while Mrs. Hire survives him. Mr. Hire was a devout member of and liberal donator to the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a republican in his political views and an influential man in his com- munity, serving for some years as a member of the council of Elk- hart County. Of his three children two are now living: Will; and May, who is the wife of Monroe Ott and lives on the home farm.
Will Hire was not able to secure many educational advantages as ill health in his youth kept him away from school to a large extent. but he has always been a reader and a keen observer and has thus secured a broad knowledge of important subjects. He grew up on the home farm and was married December 25, 1892, to Miss Lora May Juday, who was born May 13, 1872, a daughter of John C. and Mary A. (Smith) Juday, the former of whom is still living in Benton Township. Mrs. Hire was educated in the public schools and secured a license to teach, but never adopted the vocation of educator. Mr. and Mrs. Hire are the parents of one child: Mer- rill J., born June 20, 1895, a graduate of the public schools and of the academic course of Goshen College, and now attending Purdue University.
At the time of his marriage Mr. Hire began farming on his own account, and as his finances have permitted has added to his hold- ings. He has put modern improvements on his property, includ- ing substantial and attractive buildings, and is an exponent of pro- gressive and intensive farming. He makes a feature of buying and feeding cattle and breeds registered Percheron horses and pure-blood Durham cattle, and is considered an excellent judge of live stock. Outside business interests have claimed his attention to some extent and he is now a director in the Farmers & Merchants Trust Company and a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator, both at Ligonier. His political allegiance is given to the republican party. A man of broad outlook, progressive mind and large capacity for painstaking indus-
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try, he is a useful and valued citizen and has done much to advance the progress and development of his part of Elkhart County. Mr. and Mrs. Hire are members of the Richville Methodist Episcopal Church, in which both are active workers, Mr. Hire being a trustee of the church, while both he and Mrs. Hire are teachers in the Sunday School, of which he was at one time superintendent.
BELMONT D. MILLER. One of Millersburg's progressive and popular citizens, who, by his own unaided efforts and individual worth, has gone forward step by step, until he is now at the head of one of the city's most prosperous mercantile establishments, is Belmont D. Miller. In his progress from a poor boy to inde- pendence Mr. Miller gives an equal share of credit to his capable wife, since Mrs. Miller has effectually aided him in all his under- takings and both practically and through advice and counsel has been a sharer in his success.
Born in Noble County, Indiana, November 13, 1872, Belmont D. Miller is a son of James A. and Lydia ( Bowser ) Miller. His father was born in Shelby County, Ohio, and in 1864 went to La Grange County, Indiana, where he met and married Miss Bowser. She was a native of Noble County. In September, 1880, they removed to Millersburg where they have had their home now for thirty-five years. The father is a carpenter by trade, and for a number of years has been employed in that capacity by the New York Central Railroad Company. The other three children are: Charles A. Miller, a barber at Goshen : William, deceased ; Lulu, wife of Harry Beck of Goshen.
Belmont D. Miller grew up in the Village of Millersburg from the age of eight years, attended public schools, and quite early in life assumed the serious responsibilities of providing for his own support. His business experience began as a clerk in the very store which he now owns, and his first employer was W. B. Donald- son. For fourteen years he was in that store, advancing by ex- perience and efficiency from one responsibility to another, and in 1907 he and his brother bought the stock, and it was carried on as Miller Brothers 41 2 years. Since July, 1912, Mr. Miller has been sole proprietor, and has kept up and extended his trade over a wide radius of country about Millersburg. He also owns the building in which his store is located.
On April 21, 1001, he married Miss Grace Garmon, a daughter of Frederick Garmon. Mrs. Miller is a graduate of the Middle- bury High School, and by trade is a milliner. Mr. Miller is af- filiated with Goshen Lodge No. 12. Ancient Free and Accepted
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Masons, and with Millersburg Lodge No. 328 of the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is independent.
SYLVESTER A. WIDNER. There is no name that has better asso- ciations and signifies more in a business way at Millersburg than that of Sylvester A. Widner, who has lived in part of Elkhart County most of his life, began his career as a blacksmith appren- tice, has since expanded that one enterprise to an important shop and warehouse for the handling of hardware and implements, and is also president of the Millersburg State Bank. Thus his relation- ship with Clinton Township has been of a broad and uniformly successful character. He has had pleasant associations with the people of his home township, has built up a reputation for thor- ough integrity, fair and square dealing and a judgment which led him to continued advancement in prosperity.
Though his home for so many years has been in Indiana, Syl- vester A. Widner was born in the State of Iowa August 11, 1856, a son of John and Margaret (Gaston ) Widner. In 1858 the fam- ily moved to Syracuse, Indiana, where John Widner conducted a blacksmith shop until the breaking out of the Civil war. In 1862 he enlisted for service in the Union army, and continued a soldier until the close of hostilities, when he returned home a corporal, and a record for bravery and efficiency which will always be a matter of pride among his descendants. After the war he resumed his trade and in 1869 moved to Millersburg, where he continued to follow blacksmithing until he retired in 1883. Since then, while independent financially, he has never been content to give up work altogether, and still employs his time at wood working in Millers- burg. He is now eighty-four years of age and has voted the repub- lican ticket since that party was organized. Of his nine children, seven are still living: Henry resides in Elkhart: Sylvester A., of Millersburg : Sarah, deceased; Laura, wife of G. D. Babcock of Chicago; Charles, who is a traveling salesman living at Indianapo- lis: Frank, now retired, a resident of Ohio; Fred, of Goshen; Eugene, whose home is in Quincy, Michigan, but who is a travel- ing salesman.
Sylvester A. Widner grew up as the average Indiana boy did fifty years ago, and the necessities of the family and the house- hold made it necessary for him to become self supporting at as early an age as possible, and consequently his education was some- what neglected. At the age of fourteen he left school and started to learn and work at the blacksmithing trade. In 1873 he formed a partnership with his father, and they were associated together
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in the shop for about fifteen years. During 1880-81 Mr. Widner lived in Lignonier, and he and his brother were blacksmiths to- gether for some time. Since 1899 he has been in the business for himself and has expanded his industry to the handling of a large stock of hardware, buggies and implements. It was his success as a mechanic and merchant which proved the foundation for the solid prosperity which he now enjoys. Mr. Widner took an active part in organizing the Millersburg State Bank, has been a director since it started, subsequently was elected vice president, and is now its presiding officer. The other officials of this substantial institu- tion are S. F. Evans, vice president ; Leland Calbeck, cashier; while the directors are S. A. Widner. S. F Evans, S. J. Strauss, B. F. Deahl, S. L. Thomas, B. F. Dewey, Daniel Mckibbin, Joseph Gar- ber and Henry Long.
Mr. Widner is well known over Elkhart County, and is a popu- lar member of Goshen Lodge No. 12 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. In politics he is a republican. He married Miss Jennie A. Sweet. Their one daughter graduated from the Goshen High School, became the wife of Nichols Guilloms, and died leaving five children. Of these grandchildren four are still living, and have their home with grandfather Sylvester A. Widner at Millersburg. Their names are Esther, Mary, Rufus and Julian.
ISAAC RICHARDS. A large and comfortable home at the little Village of Waterford, south of Goshen, furnishes an attractive place in which Doctor Richards and his wife may spend their declining years. He has already passed the age of three-quarters of a century, and has crowded a great many activities and experiences into this period. He was a gallant soldier on the Union side in the Civil war, and has spent most of his life in Elkhart County, where he is well known and highly respected.
His birth occurred in Summit County, Ohio, July 24, 1839. His parents David and Elizabeth ( Shaffer) Richards were both born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, grew up as children together. married, and then located on a farm in Pennsylvania. David Richards was a carpenter by trade and followed that vocation both in Penn- sylvania and after coming to Summit County, Ohio, where he also had a little homestead of ten acres. David Richards died in 1841 and the widowed mother brought her family to Indiana in 1854. locating in Elkhart County. She was the mother of four daughters and three sons, all of them now deceased except Doctor Richards. The daughter Sarah became the wife of Benjamin Wal- mer. Mary .A. was the wife of Lewis Wolf. Maria and Catherine
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never married and lived with their brother Isaac. Samuel was a carpenter by trade, and David likewise followed the same occupa- tion.
Fifteen years of age when the family came to Elkhart County, Isaac Richards grew up in this locality, completed his education in such district schools as could be found here sixty years ago, and made his work a source of support to his widowed mother until he was twenty-four. In August, 1863, he enlisted in Company E of the Seventy-fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry and from that time until the close of hostilities was almost constantly on duty and though in the war less than three years there were few Indiana soldiers who saw more arduous campaigning and participated in more battles. The nineteen engagements in which he fought were those at Hartsville, Rolling Fork, Hoover's Gap, Dug Gap. Chicka- mauga, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, Buzzard's Roost, Kingston, Kenesaw Mountain, Lost Mountain, Dallas, Chattahoochee, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Rocky Creek. Savannah and Raleigh. He was thus in the great campaign led by Sherman and other Union generals which broke the back of the Confederacy, and he accompanied Sherman on his march from Atlanta to the sea. He was wounded at Jonesboro, but reported for duty the following morning and had soon recovered his complete health.
After his return to Elkhart County Doctor Richards spent one years as a clerk in a store. He then began the manufacture of balsams, cordials, liniments, pills, plasters, golden tincture, a hlood purifier and an ague remedy, and for more than a generation the Richards remedies were well known and widely used all over the Middle West. They were extensively sold by agents and the busi- ness proved very profitable. Doctor Richards had his manufactur- ing plant at Waterford.
In 1870 he married Lydia A. Benner. She died in 1806. In December, 1908, he married Martha E. Hough, a cousin of James Whitcomb Riley, the famous Indiana poet. She was born in Wayne County, Indiana, August 23, 1840, a daughter of Alfred and Anna ( Marine) Hough, but was reared in Middlebury of this county, attending the public schools and the Ladies Seminary at Bristol. Mrs. Richards for many years was one of the popular and successful teachers in this and other counties. Doctor and Mrs. Richards belong to the Evangelical Church, and both take much interest and part in Sunday school affairs. He is a member in high standing in Howell Post No. 90, Grand.Army of the Republic, and practically since the organization of the party has loyally supported the republican principles and policies. Doctor Richards and wife
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have a handsome stucco house of seventeen rooms in Waterford, the only residence of that type in the village.
JOHN W. DUNMIER. All the qualities of the thrifty, upright and honorable citizen have been exemplified by John W. Dunmier of Concord Township. Mr. Dunmier is a native son of Elkhart County, was born in the township where he now lives, and has been very successfully engaged in agriculture for nearly thirty years His people came from Ohio and the different lines of ancestors be- fore him were among the pioneers of that state, coming to Indiana from Sandusky County.
In Concord Township John W. Dunmier was born June 19, 1868. Going back to his paternal grandfather, that ancestor was Gustavus Dunmier, a native of Pennsylvania, from which state he went as a pioneer to Stark County, Ohio, and after some years to Sandusky County, settling near Freemont, where he bought land and lived till late in life. In 1864 he sold out and moved to Henry County, Ohio, where he acquired a farm and spent the rest of his years. Gustavus Dunmier married Julia Waitman, who died a few years before her husband, and he then married a second time.
Jeremiah V. Dunmier, father of John W., was born on a farm in Stark County, Ohio, July 9, 1841, and was still in his teens when his parents moved to Sandusky County. He learned the trade of blacksmith, but followed it only two or three years, and during most of his life was a practical farmer. It was in 1863 that Jeremiah Dunmier came to Elkhart County, accompanied by his wife and two children. He located in Concord Township, and after two years bought a tract of forty acres. A very small portion of this was cleared for cultivation, and that and a log cabin comprised the only improvements. Jeremiah Dunmier had industry which made his efforts count in a pioneer community, and in a few years he had most of his land cleared and in cultivation. Five years later he sold the first farm, which was the place where John W. Dunmier was born, and then bought land in section 33 of the same town- ship. On the new purchase there was a substantial frame house. Jeremiah Dunmier continued his business as a general farmer, and cleared and improved much of his new purchase, erected a solid frame barn, and continued to make his home and the center of his activities on that farm until his death in 1879.
On August 2. 1862, Jeremiah Dunmier married Mary Over- mier. She was born in Sandusky Township of Sandusky County, Ohio, July 22, 1844, and the Overmiers were also among the pioneers of that section of Northwest Ohio. Her father was Elias
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Overmier, a native of Pennsylvania, while her grandfather Ben- jamin Overmier was also born in Pennsylvania in Northumberland County, and was a descendant of John George Overmier, who came from his native Germany to America during the colonial era and settled in Pennsylvania. Benjamin Overmier spent all his active life in Pennsylvania and died while in his prime. The maiden name of his wife was Margaret Hendricks. She survived her husband, and with her six small children moved to Ohio, and they became early settlers in Sandusky County. She kept her family together by dint of much hard work and self sacrifice until each had a home of his own. Her death occurred in Sandusky County when upwards of eighty years. Elias Overmier, who was the oldest of the six children, was still a small boy when his father died, and he soon afterward assumed many of the responsibilities connected with the support of the household. He bought ten acres of land in Sandusky Township, and engaged in farming and remained in that locality until his death at the age of fifty-eight. Elias Overmier married Judie Albert. In order that the relationship may be kept straight it should be stated that Elias Overmier and his wife Judie were the maternal grandparents of John W. Dunmier. Judie Albert was born in Northumberland . County, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Peter Albert, who was a native of Germany and came to America when a young man, living in Pennsylvania for several years and then going as a pioneer to Sandusky County, Ohio, where he bought a tract of timbered land and cleared up a good farm before his death. Peter Albert married Barbara Hensel, who was also born in Germany, and came in girlhood to America with her parents. Judie ( Albert) Overmier died in Sandusky County at the age of eighty-two years. The two children that she reared were Mary, who married Jeremiah Dunmier, and Lucina, who married Adam Stein, and they still live in Sandusky County.
Mary (Overmier) Dunmier grew up in a pioneer time and among pioneer conditions in Northwestern Ohio. She attended a public school or rather a subscription school taught in a log cabin. The seats were of split logs, held up from the floor by wooden pins. There were no backs to these seats and there were no desks in the modern sense of the term. A broad board set at an incline around the wall served as a writing desk. She acquired many of the household arts of the early days. She learned to card, spin and weave, and as a girl she dressed in homespun. This noble pioneer mother reared eight of her nine children. Their names were: Ellen : Rosa Ann; Emma C .; John W .; James ; Elizabeth ; Rufus 11. : Charles Elmer ; and George Marion.
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Thus it is seen that John W. Dunmier comes of very hardy and thrifty pioneer stock. He acquired his own education in the rural schools of Elkhart County and Concord Township, and was quite young when he started to assist in the work of the home farm. He lived at home until twenty-one, then started on an independent career as a farm hand, working at monthly wages. This he followed for one year, then went back to the old home- stead, and by years of effective management, careful economy, has become proprietor of the old home place and still occupies it.
On November 12, 1891, Mr. Dunmier married Florence Cook. She was born in Penn Township of St. Joseph County, Indiana, a daughter of John and Geneva (Tibbetts) Cook, and a grand- daughter of Robert and Catherine ( Lichtenburger) Cook, while her maternal grandparents were Abner and Mary ( Matthews) Tib- betts. Both the Cook and Tibbetts families are well known in Elkhart County genealogy. Mr. and Mrs. Dunmier are the parents of four children, Roscoe, Pearl, Eunice and Carl. Both Mr. Dun- mier and his wife take much interest in the Patrons of Husbandry and are members of the Fairview Grange and the Elkhart Pomona.
SAMUEL LOCKWOOD for whom the Township of Locke was named is deserving of record among the pioneers of Elkhart County. though unfortunately little data is available for a biography.
He was born at Windsor in Windsor County, Vermont, was reared there, and after his marriage in 1836 came to Elkhart County. He came west by way of the lakes and went as far as Chicago, which had been incorporated as a village only a few years before and was still a very small town. Having landed at Chicago, he started with a team and wagon and drove through to Elkhart County, accom- panied by his wife and six children.
Arriving here he settled in a part of the unbroken wilderness in the southwestern section of the county, buying a tract of timbered . land in section 3 of what is now Locke Township. There he erected a log cabin, and for a number of years lived with few neighbors and endured all the privations of pioneering. Samuel Lockwood died at the old home in section 3 in 1846. The maiden name of his wife was Sarah House. She died in 1858. The remains of both these worthy pioneer people were laid to rest on their home farm.
JAMES F. BOYER. A native son of the City of Elkhart and a rep- resentative of a sterling family whose name has been identified with the civic and material activities of Elkhart County for virtually half Vol. 11-20
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a century, Mr. Boyer holds in his native city the important and re- sponsible position of general manager of the C. G. Conn Company, one of the greatest of all concerns in the world engaged in the manu - facturing of band instruments. Mr. Boyer is a man of high musi- cal attainments and has been associated with many distinguished musical organizations and activities, as later paragraphs of this article will effectually indicate.
James F. Boyer was born at Elkhart on the 14th of June. 1871, and is a son of Edward K. and Louisa G. ( Kantz) Boyer, both na- tives of Pennsylvania, where the former was born, in Snyder County, on the 10th of January, 1845, and where the latter was born January 22, 1844, their marriage having been solemnized in the old Keystone State, on the 2d of February, 1866, and of their two chil- dren the subject of this review being the elder ; the younger, Clyde C., maintains his home in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Edward K. Boyer was a son of Philip S. and Amelia (Kessler) Boyer, both of whom passed their entire lives in Pennsylvania and both of whom were of German lineage. Edward K. was about eleven years of age at the time of the death of his parents and was thereafter reared in the home of his uncle, with whom he remained until he had attained to the age of seventeen years, his early associa- tions having been those of the farm and his educational advantages those afforded in the common schools and academy of the locality and period. At the age last noted he signalized his youthful patriot- ism and loyalty by tending his services in defense of the Union. The Civil war had been in progress about one year when he enlisted in a Pennsylvania volunteer regiment of infantry. With this command he served until the expiration of his term, and in 1864 he promptly re-enlisted as a veteran, in the Seventy-fourth Pennsylvania Volun- teer Infantry, with which he continued in service until victory had crowned the Union arms. Among the more important battles in which he took part may be mentioned those of Antietam, Chancel- lorsville, Bermuda Hundred and Fort Fisher.
After the close of his gallant military career and the reception of his honorable discharge Mr. Boyer returned to his home in Penn- sylvania, and in February, 1866, he was there married, as previously stated. On the 17th of the following August he and his bride estab- lished their home at Elkhart, Indiana, where for some time Mr. Boyer was employed in the woolen mill of Palmer & Davenport. Thereafter he was employed four years in the local foundry of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, next passed one year as clerk in the grocery establishment of F. I. Kremer, and thereafter he was engaged in the grocery business in an independent way for
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a period of about three years, as a member of the firm of Kinzie & Boyer. He then formed a partnership with M. L. Stevenson, with whom he continued to be associated in the same line of retail enter- prise for several years. In 1879 MIr. Boyer was appointed street commissioner of Elkhart, but the demands of his business associa- tions caused him to refuse this tender of office. He was affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was a staunch republican in politics and served many years as a trustee of the English Evangelical Church in Elk- hart, of which his widow likewise is a devout member. For a long period of years Mr. Boyer was numbered among the representative business men of Elkhart, and as a citizen he ever commanded in- violable place in popular confidence and esteem. During the closing years of his life he lived virtually retired, and at his home in Elkhart his death occurred on the 22d of May, 1910, his widow still main- taining her residence in this city, which is endeared to her by the associations and gracious memories of many years.
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