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 34
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ing three years found Mr. Rheubottom employed on a paper at Ken- dallville, Noble County, and he then purchased a job-printing plant, which he removed to Middlebury, Elkhart County. Here he soon afterward founded the Middlebury Independent, and his only son became associated with him in the publishing of the same. In 1893 they sold the paper and business and removed to Wakarusa, this county, where they established the Wakarusa Tribune, the same being now owned and controlled by the son, DeAlton Rheubottom, concerning whom individual mention is made on other pages of this
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work, together with further data concerning the Wakarusa Tribune.
In the year 1865 was solemnized the marriage of James R. Rheu- bottom to Miss Mary Gammel, who was born in Sunbury, Delaware County, Ohio, and who was a child at the time of the family removal to Lagrange County, Indiana. Mrs. Rheubottom received excellent educational advantages in her youth, including a course in the La- grange Collegiate Institute, at Ontario, this state. She is a woman of fine intellectuality and admirably fortified convictions, and she has gained much of distinction as a public speaker, especially through her earnest addresses and lectures in advocacy of the cause of temperance, besides which she is an ordained minister of the Christian Church, her first pastoral charge having been over the church of this denomination at Wakarusa. She has since held pas- torates at North Manchester, Sidney, North Webster, Pleasant Hill. and at the present time she is the earnest and reverend pastor of the Christian Church at Millersburg, Elkhart County, besides which she has the distinction of being president, in 1916, of the Elkhart County Woman's Christian Temperance Union, in the work of which she has been a most valued and influential factor. Mr. and Mrs. Rheubottom have one son, DeAlton.
Mr. Rheubottom has been a stalwart and effective advocate of the cause of the republican party, is an earnest member of the Chris- tian Church, and has perpetuated the more gracious memories of his military career by maintaining active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, besides which he is identified also with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, his affiliation with the former being with Star of the West Lodge, at Lagrange, and he having assisted in the organization of the lodge of Knights of Pythias at Middlebury.
DEALTON RHEUBOTTOM. The editor and publisher of the Wakarusa Tribune is a representative of one of the honored and influential families of Elkhart County and is a son of James R. Rheubottom, concerning whom individual mention is made on other pages of this publication, so that further review of the family history is not demanded in the present connection. It may be stated, how- ever, that Mr. Rheubottom succeeded his father in the control of the Wakarusa Tribune, which he continues to maintain at a high standard, as one of the leading and influential papers of the county. his honored father still continuing to be associated with the paper in a somewhat supernumerary way.
De.Alton Rheubottom was born at Lagrange, judicial center of the Indiana County of the same name, and the date of his nativity
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was July 2, 1867. In the public schools of Indiana he continued his studies until he had completed the curriculum of the high school at Kendallville, Noble County, and after his graduation he engaged in teaching in the public schools of Custer, Noble County, later continu- ing his successful pedagogic work in turn at Wayne Center and Ligonier. In 1887 he became associated with his father in the publish- ing of the Middlebury Independent, at Middlebury, Elkhart County, and in 1893 father and son removed to Wakarusa, this county, and established the Wakarusa Tribune. In 1910 they sold the property and business to Samuel E. Harris, in whose employ Mr. Rheubottom of this review continued until 1914, when he purchased the plant and business. He has since continued as the alert, vigorous and success- ful editor and publisher of the Tribune, which is a model country newspaper that effectively stands exponent of local interests and also the principles and policies for which the republican party stands sponsor. The office of the Tribune is well equipped in both its newspaper and job departments, and the business is one of substan- tial order, the paper having a representative circulation in the county. Mr. Rheubottom is a member of the Northern Indiana Editorial Association, both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In the year 1889 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rheubot- tom to Miss Ida May Schwin, who was born in Middlebury Town- ship, this county, a daughter of John Schwin. Her father was born in Switzerland and came with his parents to America, his father having served as a soldier under the great Napoleon and having es- tablished his home in Ohio upon his immigration to the United States. From the old Buckeye State John Schwin came to Indiana and settled in Middlebury Township, Elkhart County, where he still maintains his residence. He first married Miss Mary Spicker. who was born in Ohio, of English lineage, and who died at the age of seventy-five years. Mrs. Rheubottom was summoned to eternal rest on the 9th of July, 1911, and is survived by two sons, Gladstone and Blaine. In 1914 Mr. Rheubottom contracted a second mar- riage, when Miss Bessie Lee Zehner became his wife. She was born at Argus, Marshall County, Indiana, and is a daughter of Gideon P. and Nancy (Cook) Zehner. Her father likewise was born in Mar- shall County, a son of John and Jane ( Wickizer ) Zehner, who were pioneers of that county, where they settled upon coming from Penn- sylvania to the Iloosier State. Mr. and Mrs. Rheubottom are popu- lar factors in the representative social activities of the community and their pleasant home is known for its generous hospitality.
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JOHN P. STAUFFER. The sterling citizen to whom this sketch is dedicated has been a resident of Elkhart County since the days of his infancy and is a member of one of the sterling pioneer fam- ilies whose name has been identified with the civic and industrial history of this county for more than sixty years. Mr. Stauffer has been a successful and progressive representative of the basic indus- try of agriculture, and is the owner of a fine farm, a portion of which is within the corporate limits of the Village of Wakarusa, so that his attractive home is most eligibly and pleasantly situated. He still gives a general supervision to his farm, but is living virtually retired from the more onerous labors that so long engrossed his time and attention.
Mr. Stauffer was born on a pioneer farm about one mile west of Galion, Crawford County, Ohio, and is a scion of a sturdy German family that was founded in Pennsylvania in the colonial epoch of our national history, his father, Jacob Stauffer, having been born at Wrightville, on the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, and having been a son of Jacob Stauffer, Sr., who likewise was a native of the old Keystone State and who removed thence to Ohio and numbered himself among the pioneers of Crawford County, where both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives and where each attained to advanced age.
Jacob Stauffer, Jr., father of the subject of this sketch, was a lad of eleven years at the time of the family removal to Ohio, and he was reared to manhood under the pioneer conditions that then ob- tained in Crawford County. After his marriage he continued his residence in the Buckeye State until 1852, when, accompanied by his wife and four children, as well as by his father-in-law and the lat- ter's family, he came to Elkhart County, Indiana, the entire journey, which involved no little toil and difficulty, having been made with teams and wagons. Mr. Stauffer purchased eighty acres of land, comprising the east half of the northwest quarter of section 18. Har- rison Township, and the family home was established in a pioneer log house that had been erected on the place, the land having about three acres cleared. Mr. Stauffer vigorously set to himself the ardu- ous task of reclaiming his land to cultivation, and in the course of time he cleared the greater part. He then bought another tract of eighty acres, comprising the west half of the southwest quarter of section 7, same township. This latter tract was heavily timbered, but he cleared much of it within the years that followed. On his original homestead he erected good buildings, and there he continued to reside until his death, at the age of seventy-seven years. His wife, who attained to the age of seventy-eight years, bore the maiden
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name of Anna Pletcher, and she was born near Galion, Ohio, a daughter of Jacob Pletcher, who likewise became a pioneer of Elk- hart County, as previously intimated in this sketch. Mr. and Mrs. Stauffer became the parents of six children, namely: Margaret, Bar- bara, Samuel, Eliza, Jane, John P., and Henry W.
John P. Stauffer was a child of one year at the time of the fam- ily removal to Elkhart County, and though the settlement of this county had been instituted a quarter of a century previously, but comparatively little of the land had been cleared and the present site of the thriving Village of Wakarusa was a virtual wilderness, while both Elkhart and Goshen were small villages. Thus Mr. Stauffer has been able to witness and assist in the development and upbuilding of this now opulent section of the Hoosier State, and his memory constitutes a link between the pioneer days and the twen- tieth century of splendid advantages and great prosperity. He as- sisted in the work of the home farm as a boy and youth, and in the meanwhile profited duly by the advantages afforded in the district schools. He remained at the parental home until the time of his marriage, and in the meanwhile he had purchased forty acres of land in section 13. Olive Township. For a time he lived in a rented dwelling, as there was no house on his own farm, and as an agricul- turist and stockgrower he has stood exponent of energy, discrimina- tion and progressiveness, so that he has fully merited the distinctive success which had crowned his efforts and made him one of the substantial and valued citizens of the county in which he has passed practically his entire life. In 1886 Mr. Stauffer purchased the fine farm on which he now resides, and which includes that part of the southwest quarter of section 25, Olive Township, that is now com- prised in the Village of Wakarusa. This is one of the specially pro- ductive and finely improved farms of Elkhart County, and the build- ings are of the best order, including a commodious brick residence, a large and modern barn and other needed farm buildings. In poli- tics Mr. Stauffer gives his support to the independent party, though never a seeker of public office, and he is a member of the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church, of which the late Dr. John Alexander Dowie, of Chicago and Zion City, was the founder.
At the age of thirty-one years Mr. Stauffer wedded Miss Sarah Eshelman, who was born in Ohio, a daughter of Joseph Eshelman. She became a devoted member of the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church and she was a woman whose gracious attributes gained to her the high regard of those who came within her influence. She was called to the life eternal in 1909, and is survived by five chil- dren,-Sadie, Boyd, Joseph, Virgil and Clarence. Sadie is the wife
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of Albert Ehret. Boyd married Miss Jessie Knepple and they have one child, Josephine.
AMOS WELDY. One of the family names best known and most highly esteemed in Elkhart County is that represented by the life and activities of Amos Weldy, who bears the reputation of being a real farmer, a man who makes agriculture a successful business instead of a haphazard pursuit, and has deservedly prospered.
.He was born on the farm which he now owns and occupies in Locke Township April 27, 1873, and is a son of Abraham and Nancy (Yoder) Weldy. The history of the Weldy family and its relation- ship has been told on other pages and need not be written here.
It was on the old home farm that Amos Weldy spent his youth, while acquiring his education in the rural schools, and having been trained from an early age to farm responsibilities, did much to assist his father in farm management for some years. In 1903 he went to Wakarusa, having rented his farm, and spent the next three years clerking in a store. Returning to the farm, he has since applied his energies successfully to general farming and stock raising. His father had constructed a nice set of frame buildings, and Amos has remodeled the house and now has it heated by furnace, lighted by gas, bathroom with hot and cold water, and it has all the con- veniences of a modern country home.
At the age of twenty-one he married Amanda Hartman, who was born in Elkhart County September 23, 1873, a daughter of Adam and Nancy ( Brenaman) Hartman, a granddaughter of Adam Hart- man and great-granddaughter of Samuel Hartman, who was born in Germany and came to America living in Pennsylvania and Ohio until late in life, and then came to Elkhart County where he died. Considerable space is given on other pages to the Hartman family in Elkhart County.
Mrs. Weldy died in 1907. In 1908 he married Mary Kohli, who was born in Putnam County, Ohio. Her father, Isaac Kohli, a na- tive of Switzerland, came to America in young manhood, lived for a number of years in Ohio, and then settled in Union Township of Elkhart County, where he spent his last days. His wife's maiden name was Christine Shank, who was born in Putnam County, Ohio, a daughter of Henry and Elizabeth ( Bare) Shank. Henry Shank was born in Virginia, was an early settler in Putnam County, Ohio, purchasing Government land, and spent the rest of his years on the farm which he had cleared up from the wilderness.
By his first marriage Mr. Weldy had two children, Cora and Ray. Cora is the wife of Harry Holdeman. By the second union there is Vol. 11-21
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one daughter named Esther. Mr. and Mrs. Weldy are members of the Holdeman Mennonite Church.
SAMUEL FREED. In the farming districts of Elkhart County are many prosperous and progressive men who believe that the happiest life as well as the most independent is to be. lived on the farm. Prominent among these is Samuel Freed of Locke Township. Mr. Freed is a native of Elkhart County and has spent practically all the days of his life on the farm where he was born, and is known, as an excellent farmer and man who can be depended upon in matters of local moment.
His birth occurred on the home farm July 10, 1861. His ances- try goes back to thrifty German people of Bucks County, Pennsyl- vania, where it is thought his great-grandfather Jacob Freed was born. This ancestor subsequently removed to Rockingham County, Virginia, where after a few years spent in farming he returned to Pennsylvania, locating in Fayette County, and from there moved to Holmes County, Pennsylvania, where he spent his last days. His wife was named Beidler, who was born in Pennsylvania and died in Holmes County, Ohio. They reared four sons and four daughters named Henry, John, Jacob, Abraham, Catherine, Elizabeth, Mag- dalene and Barbara.
Jacob Freed, the grandfather of Samuel Freed, was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, in July, 1792, and was seven years of age when his parents returned to Pennsylvania, where he grew to manhood and soon after moved to Ohio and found a home in the heavy forest of Paint Township in Holmes County. The princi- pal improvement on the land was a cabin built of round logs.
It was in 1852 that the Freed family set out for Indiana, and they made the entire distance by teams and wagons, comprising a colony of about eighteen persons, and being twelve days en route. Grandfather Jacob Freed located in Locke Township, buying the southwest quarter of section I and the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 2. On the land in section 2 was a round log house, and the family occupied that as a residence for about a year. Grandfather Freed subsequently erected a frame house, also a barn, and carried on the work of improvement until most of the land was cleared and under cultivation. He lived there until his death in 1867. His wife was named Nancy Freed, a daugh- ter of John Freed. She died in 1834. Jacob Freed married for his second wife Margaret Holdeman. By the first marriage there were two children, John and Andrew, while those of the second mar- riage were his son Joseph and three daughters named Catherine, Mary and Christiann.
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John Freed, father of Samuel, was born on a farm in Paint Township of Holmes County, Ohio, January 25, 1824. He is still living at this writing at the remarkable age of ninety-two, hale and hearty, possesses all his mental faculties and has good sight and hearing and has an excellent memory. He grew up and received his early education in Holmes County, and accompanied other members of the family to Elkhart County in 1852. He bought the north- west quarter of section 3, which had a cabin of round logs and ten acres of partly cleared ground. Moving into the log cabin, he started at once the heavy work of clearing up the land, and at the same time in order to have a little cash for household expenses he worked at the carpenter's trade. Later he built a commodious hewed log house, and this is still standing, but would hardly be recognized as a log house, since the frame work has been weatherboarded and painted. In that one community he has had his home for nearly sixty-five years and has prospered as he deserved. John Freed was married in Ohio in 1845 to Catherine Newcomer, who was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, a daughter of Jacob Newcomer, a native of Pennsylvania and an early settler in Columbiana County. Mrs. Catherine Freed died in 1866, leaving four children: Jacob, Paul, Henry and Samuel. In 1867, John Freed married for his second wife Catherine (Boyer) Kilmer, who was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of George and Sarah ( Moyer) Boyer, and the widow of Samuel Kilmer. She died in February, 1913, at the age of eighty- nine, and by her first union had four children named Isaac, Eliza- beth, Philip D. and John H. The venerable John Freed was reared and is still faithful to the Mennonite Church.
Samuel Freed was born about nine years after the family came to Elkhart County, and his years have been spent in industry, in growing prosperity, and in influential citizenship on the farm where he first saw the light of day. Educated in the district schools, he began when quite young to assist in the farm work, at the age of eighteen he left home and started to learn the carpenter's trade, a vocation which he followed steadily and profitably for twenty-five years. During six years of that time he lived in Polk Township of Marshall County, but since 1901 has returned to the old home- stead and has applied himself to its cultivation and improvement. He is a general farmer and stock raiser, and has made good in all the relations of life.
In 1886 Mr. Freed married Susanna Rentsberger, who was born in Polk Township of Marshall County, Indiana, a daughter of John Rentsberger, a native of Holmes County, Ohio. John Rentsberger came to Indiana when a young man and developed a farm from a
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tract of woodland in Polk Township of Marshall County, where he remained until his death. The maiden name of his wife was Ade- line Metcalf.
Mr. and Mrs. Freed have six children, Hattie, Ada, Nina, Mary, Lillian and Forest. The daughter Ada is the wife of Ira Strouder and has a daughter named Beatrice. Nina married Jesse Bowers, and their two sons are Paul Samuel and Cloyse. Mr. and Mrs. Freed are members of the Church of the Brethren at Wakarusa.
HENRY LETHERMAN. A representative of one of the old and honored families of Elkhart County, Mr. Letherman has here main- tained his home from the time of his birth to the present and he has won substantial success and prestige as one of the progressive agriculturists and stock-growers of his native county, with secure status as a loyal and public-spirited citizen who is worthy of the unequivocal esteem in which he is held. His well improved home- stead farm is eligibly situated in section 35 Olive Township, and he is the owner also of valuable farm property in St. Joseph County. The family of which he is a member was founded in Elkhart County more than sixty years ago and the name which he bears has been closely and effectively linked with the development and progress of this favored section of the Hoosier State.
In Olive Township, this county, Mr. Letherman was born on the 8th of December, 1861. His father, Isaac Letherman, was a na- tive of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he was born October 21, 1827, he having been a lad of seven years at the time of the family immigration to Ohio, the journey through the pioneer wilds having been made with teams and wagons, by means of which were transported all of the family effects, and wayside camps having been established by the parents while en route, for the cooking of food and for sleeping by night, several weeks having been required to make the long and arduous trip. The father of Isaac Letherman obtained a tract of wild land in Wayne County, Ohio, where he improved a productive farm and where he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives.
Isaac Letherman was reared to manhood under the discipline of the pioneer farm in Wayne County and the somewhat primitive schools of the locality afforded him his early educational training. His marriage was solemnized in Wayne County, and there he con- tinued his residence until 1853, when he removed to Indiana and settled in Olive Township, Elkhart County, where he purchased a tract of land in section 35, the only improvements on the place hav- ing been a log cabin and ten acres of cleared land. Wild game was
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most plentiful, including deer, wild turkeys, etc., and through this source the family larder was often replenished. With characteris- tic energy Mr. Letherman devoted himself to the reclamation of his land, and he eventually brought the greater part of the same under effective cultivation, besides which increasing prosperity was indicated likewise by the excellent buildings which he erected on the homestead. This sterling pioneer passed the closing period of his life in generous retirement, in the Village of Wakarusa, where he died on the 18th of November, 1910, at the venerable age of eighty- four years and secure in the high regard of all who knew him. His wife, whose maiden name was Rachel Shaum, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, on the 6th of May, 1831. Her father, John Shaum, was born in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, on the 25th of September, 1797, and was a son of Johannes Shaum, who was born and reared in Germany and who left the parental home when a lad of sixteen years and showed his youthful courage and ambition by immigrating to America. He had no money with which to pay his passage on the old-time sailing vessel, and thus after his arrival in America he was indentured, or "bound out." in accordance withi his previous agreement, until he had earned the money with which to repay for his passage. He passed the remainder of his life in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1812, his re- mains resting in the pioneer cemetery at Bangor, that county.
John Shaum, maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was reared in Northampton County and as a young man he left the old Keystone State and set forth for what was then considered the Far West. He made his way on foot to Ohio, thence went over into the Dominion of Canada, but he eventually returned to Ohio and thence made his way back to the old home in Pennsylvania, after having walked a distance of more than 1,000 miles. While in Ohio he purchased a tract of land in Wayne County, and in 1830 he established his home on this embryonic farm, his family ac- companying him and the journey being made with team and wagon. In Chester Township, that county, near the locality locally known as "Eight Square," he developed a good farm, upon which he erected a substantial brick house, this domicile having continued as his abiding place until his death, his old homestead being known to the present day as the "Grandfather Farm." He was ordained a min- ister of the Mennonite Church in 1830, and later was made a bishop of this denomination, in the service of which he labored with all of consecrated zeal and devotion, his death having occurred on the 8th of December, 1882. On the 19th of October, 1817, was sol- emnized the marriage of Rev. John Shaum to Miss Sarah Buzzard,
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