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 4
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Mr. Hawks was born at Waterford, Elkhart County, Indiana, November 20, 1844, the son of Cephas and Dalinda ( Bliss) Hawks. His father, a native of New York, passed his youth and acquired his education in that state, following which he came to Indiana and took up his residence at Waterford. There he was engaged in a variety of ventures until coming to Goshen, where he followed merchandising and milling, as well as other commercial ventures, until the time of his death.
Frank E. C. Hawks received his education in the graded and high schools of Goshen and at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and acquired his early business training under his father, with whom he remained until about twenty years of age. In 1864 he enlisted in Company F, 134th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel McChesney, and served faithfully with that regiment until the close of the war, when he received his hon- orable discharge. Returning to Goshen, he resumed his activities in his father's business enterprises, and continued to be connected therewith until 1883. when he became identified with the Goshen Milling Company. This concern has enjoyed a long and honorable career and is one of the leading industries of its kind at Goshen. Encouraged by the success of this venture, Mr. Hawks subse- quently founded the Hawks Coal Company, which was followed by the Hawks Electric Company, and both of these concerns have enjoyed prosperity and high business reputation, developing surely and consistently under the strong guiding hand of their founder. The capacity of the mills is 600 barrels daily, and while water power is plentiful, Mr. Hawks has installed steam power of 300 horsepower. Although now seventy-one years of age, when most men would consider they had earned a rest from their active labors,
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Mr. Hawks continues in the daily management of his affairs, with alert and unclouded mind and undiminished bodily power, and early and late is to be found at his offices in the Hawks Building. Nearly every enterprise in the city tending to the public good has felt the beneficent influence of his generous abilities. For a period of eight years he was a member of the Elkhart County Council and during six years of that time served as president of that body. At present he is a member of the Goshen Hospital Board and one of its most active workers. He has never lost interest in his old army comrades and belongs to Howell Post No. 90, Grand Army of the Republic, being also a member of Calanthia Lodge No. 41, Knights of Pythias.
In 1866 Mr. Hawks was married to Miss Zoradia Sherwood, and to this union there has been born one daughter,-Gertrude.
AUGUSTUS M. BICKEL. The chief institution of Elkhart for many years has been its shops and division headquarters as an im - portant station on the New York Central lines. Railway men have naturally made Elkhart their home and headquarters, and many of the most esteemed citizens are men who are and have been con- nected with the great transportation industry. An interesting event in railway circles occurred on December 14, 1914. After many years of efficient service as a locomotive engineer he was honor- ably retired by the corporation and given a pension as a mark of gratitude for his loyalty and as a just measure of compensation for the numberless trains he had piloted out of this division and conducted safely up and down the road.
For nearly all his life Mr. Bickel has been a resident of Elkhart and was born in that city on Middlebury Street August 29, 1852. He comes of German ancestry, and his grandfather Andrew Bickel, a native of Pennsylvania, moved out to Stark County, Ohio, locating near Uniontown, where he resided a number of years, and on re- suming his westward journey came overland, before the days of railroads, to Elkhart. He bought a considerable tract of land east of the city in Concord Township and superintended its improve- ment and was engaged in the general farming industry in that local- ity until his death. Andrew Bickel married Catherine Swinehart, who was also born in Pennsylvania. Both lived to a ripe old age, and both were active members of the German Evangelical Church.
John B. Bickel, father of the retired engineer, was born near Uniontown, Stark County, Ohio, in 1829, grew up on a farm, made that his regular vocation, and was for many years a practical farmer in Elkhart County. He finally moved out to Coolidge,
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Kansas, where he farmed a few years, and then spent the rest of his days in Colorado, living in Denver for a time and afterwards in Webster, where he died in 1891. John B. Bickel married Caroline Hummer, who was born in Ohio, a daughter of John Henry and Mary Hummer. Her father was a native of Pennsylvania of Ger- man ancestry, while his wife was born on the ocean while her people were migrating from Germany to the United States. John H. Hum- mer and wife afterwards moved South and spent their last days near Huntsville, Alabama. Mrs. Caroline Bickel died at Denver. Colo- rado, in 1898, and she reared a family of ten children.
Augustus M. Bickel grew up in Elkhart, attended the public schools and gained a substantial education and at the early age of eighteen, nearly forty-five years before his retirement, he entered the employ of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Com- pany. At first he was a section hand, but was soon transferred to the freight house, afterwards secured a place in the operating serv- ice as a brakeman, running on the western division. He was next promoted to locomotive fireman on the same division, and on Sep- tember 11, 1873, reached the coveted post of engineer. For twenty- one years he conducted many of the fast passenger trains over the New York Central lines. He was efficient, genial, loyal to the com- pany and popular among the men. In 1894 he was given another promotion to road foreman of engineers, and continued in active service in that capacity for twenty years until he was retired at the date mentioned.
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On October 19, 1872, Mr. Bickel married Lydia Ulrich, She was born in Venango County, Pennsylvania, December 10, 1851, a daughter of Valentine Ulrich and a granddaughter of John Ulrich. John Ulrich was born in Germany and came to America with his parents, who located in Snyder County, Pennsylvania, and there he grew up to learn the trade of tanner, and for many years conducted a successful business in that line in Snyder County, where he lived until his death. Valentine Ulrich was born near Selins Grove, Sny- der County, Pennsylvania, and in early manhood learned the trade of carpenter. Later he bought a farm near Franklin, in Venango County, and not only looked after its cultivation but also continued his trade as carpenter until 1866. In that year he brought his fam- ily west to Indiana, buying a farm about 21/2 miles east of Elkhart and he gave his attention to its management until his death at the age of eighty-four. Valentine Ulrich married Miss Rebecca Stuck, who was also born near Selins Grove in Snyder County, Pennsyl- vania. Her father, Frederick Stuck was born in the same county of German ancestry, was a cabinet maker by trade and was also an Vol. II-3
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early settler in Elkhart County, locating in Concord Township, where he bought a farm on the River Road and made it his home until his death at the age of eighty-one. His wife survived him four years. Mrs. Bickel's mother died at the age of eighty-one, hav- ing reared five daughters and five sons to do her honor and keep her memory green.
Mr. and Mrs. Bickel have reared three children in their home at Elkhart, named William W., Minnie Agnes and Della T. The son William married Catherine Ryan; Minnie is the wife of Cleo B. Bowman and has a son named Robert A. Della is the wife of John T. Ryan.
Mr. and Mrs. Bickel are active members of the German Lutheran Church. Fraternally he is affiliated with Kane Lodge No. 183, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Concord Chapter No. 101, Royal Arch Masons, Elkhart Council No. 79, Royal and Select Masters, and Elkhart Commandery No. 31, Knights Templar. He is also a popular member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engi- neers, and is former president of the Traveling Engineers Asso- ciation. Politically his affiliations have always been with the republi- can party and he has cast his vote intelligently and has worked whenever possible for community benefit. Outside of his home in Elkhart he has invested his surplus capital from time to time in real estate, and owns a fine farm of eighty acres two miles from the city on the Middlebury Road. His city home is on St. Joseph Street. where he erected a commodious and comfortable residence in 1889. He also has a pleasant summer home where he and his family spend some weeks each year on the shores of Baldwin Lake in Michigan.
JOHN W. ELLIS. Every one in Elkhart County knows the venerable John W. Ellis of Elkhart, and succeeding generations ought to read and admire the record of this pioneer, who now in his ninety-first year lives largely in the past and its happy memories.
The span of this one man's life covers practically the entire civilized history of Elkhart County. His parents located among the Pottawattomie Indians in this part of Northern Indiana in 1831. John W. Ellis was then six years old. Andrew Jackson was still president of the United States. At that time Indiana was separated many weeks from the Atlantic coast, and there was no means of communication except by slow going boats or the overland trail. Mr. Ellis lived to a time when the space of a breath is sufficient to bring his community into touch with remote continents, and while the nature of men and women is still largely as it was eighty-five years ago, the material aspects of the world and the improvements
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of civilization have been improved more during that time than in all the centuries that preceded. As an item of what he has wit- nessed Mr. Ellis recalls the fact that from 1834 to 1852 the St. Joseph River was the one important highway by which the prod- ucts of Elkhart and other Northern Indiana counties found an out- let to market.
John Wood Ellis was born in Oswego County, New York, Aug- ust 12, 1825, a son of Jacob and Catherine Ellis. His father was a son of Jacob Ellis, Sr., served as a revolutionary soldier with General Washington at Valley Forge. Catherine Ellis was a daughter of Thomas Burch, who was a soldier at the beginning of the Revolution in 1776.
The first schools kept in the present city of Elkhart, and taught by his sister, Mariah Ellis, was attended by John W. Ellis during his early boyhood. He grew up among the first pioneers and the Indians, and certainly there is no other citizen of the county now living whose recollections embrace so much of the first events in this part of the state. At the age of twenty-one he engaged in the mercantile business, but sold out in the spring of 1850 and joined that host of argonauts who went across the plains in search of gold in California. There are a few, but not many, of those pioneer gold seekers left to tell the story, and John W. Ellis is one of them. After a varied experience in the West he returned to Elkhart and resumed his business as a general merchant.
His name is closely associated with some of the first manufac- turing enterprises of Elkhart. In 1872 he engaged in the manufac- ture of starch, the factory being known as the Excelsior Starch Company, and he was secretary of this company and active in the business for twenty-two years. Later he turned his attention to the paper manufacturing business and was president of the Elkhart Paper Company for several years.
During the War of the Rebellion Mr. Ellis did his share in keeping full the quota of his township, and he also filled the office of township assessor from 1860 to 1872 and at different times has held several minor offices. In 1856 he assisted in making the republican party in Indiana, and has staunchly and steadfastly voted to support its principles and candidates ever since, and is one of the few original republicans still left in Indiana. In the Masonic Order he advanced to the rank of Knight Templar, is a charter member of the Elkhart Century Club, and belongs to the Congre- gational Church.
On July 26, 1849, at Waukegan, Illinois, John W. Ellis married Clarissa W. Green, daughter of Isaiah and May Green, who came
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from Vermont and in the early days her father was in the shoe busi- ness. To their marriage were born five children: Mrs. May C. McGregor, Jay B. and John F., who are both practicing physicians ; James S. Ellis, now deceased; and Mrs. Lulu B. Brillows.
JOSEPH M. FARRELL. Among the native sons of Elkhart County who have contributed creditably to her growth and progress in a busi- ness way may be mentioned Joseph M. Farrell, secretary and man- ager of the Goshen Sash & Door Company, with which firm he be- came associated in about 1902. His connection with the firm has been unbroken since that time, and he has played an important part in the successes of his company. Mr. Farrell was born in Goshen on June 9, 1878, and he is a son of George W. and Susan Matilda (Latta) Farrell. The father, long a resident of Goshen, was pro- bate commissioner of Elkhart County through many years, and the mother is a daughter of Matilda and William Latta. Joseph M. Farrell is one of three sons born to his parents, the others being Alonzo M. and Porter M. Farrell. The last named began his business career as clerk in a store in Goshen at a wage of three dollars a week. His rise in the merchandise world was continuous, and from that post he advanced to that of buyer for one of the principal stores in Goshen. Today Porter Farrell is located in New York City, and is connected with a well known wholesale establishment, with a salary of $20,000 a year. Alonzo M. is engaged in business in Goshen. The mother of these enterprising young men is a woman of remarkably brilliant qualities, and takes a leading part in the social activities of the community wherein she has long lived.
Joseph M. Farrell was educated in the public schools of his native community and in the Tri-State Normal School at Angola, Indiana. When he had finished his normal training Mr. Farrell engaged in the teaching profession and for seven years he gave worthy service to the cause of education in his capacity as a teacher. He then with- drew definitely from that field of activity and associated himself with the Goshen Sash & Door Company, of which he soon became secretary and manager. Mr. Farrell is intimately acquainted with every department of the business, and under his active management the concern has made notable progress in recent years.
In 1905 Mr. Farrell married Miss Maude Snobarger, a daughter of Jacob Snobarger of Goshen, an old and highly esteemed citizen of the city and county. He was prominently identified with the business activities of Elkhart County for many years, and held numerous im- portant public offices during his lifetime. Mrs. Farrell had her edů- cation in the schools of Goshen and has all her life enjoyed a pleasing
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popularity in social circles of the city. She is the mother of two sons,-Joseph M. Jr. and Robert M. Farrell.
Mr. Farrell is prominent in fraternal circles. He is a Mason of the thirty-second degree and is affiliated with Goshen Lodge No. 12, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Goshen Commandery No. 50, Knights Templar and Mizpah Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic Shrine at Fort Wayne. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Elks, his connections in these orders being with the Goshen lodges.
DANIEL M. BECHTEL. For a great many years the name Bech- tel has been one of more than ordinary significance in business affairs in Elkhart County, and is almost equally well known in the cities of Nappanee and Goshen. Daniel M. Bechtel, who is a son of the late Samuel Bechtel, has had varied associations with mer- cantile and banking affairs at Goshen, and is now head of a real estate and insurance business which handles a large share of the transactions in those lines not only in Goshen but in all the sur- rounding country.
It was at Goshen that Daniel M. Bechtel was born November 12, 1878, a son of Samuel and Mary ( Myers) Bechtel. His father was born in Pennsylvania and his mother in Hillsdale, Michigan. It is probably as a banker that Samuel Bechtel is best remembered. Many years ago he organized the Farmers & Traders Bank at Nappanee in Southwestern Elkhart County, was connected with it for a long time, and was also one of the founders of the Newell Brothers Dry Goods Store at Goshen, which was also conducted under the name Bechtel & Newell, and was in its time the leading dry goods store of the county seat. Samuel Bechtel was a man of many interests, was public spirited in everything he did, and his death in 1887 was a distinct loss to the community.
Daniel M. Bechtel acquired his education in the village schools both at Nappanee and Goshen, and is a graduate of the Goshen High School, and for two years was a student in DePauw Univer- sity at Greencastle. On the completion of his education he returned to Goshen, and took up a business career, at first under the name Lint & Bechtel, later for three years as Bechtel & Bechtel, follow- ing this for seven years he was manager of the Elkhart County Trust Company. Since leaving the trust company Mr. Bechtel has been engaged in the real estate and insurance business, with offices over the Salem Bank. He handles both city and farm properties, and in addition to acting as broker in many of the most important transactions recorded in the county, has some extensive and valu- able real estate holdings of his own in Goshen.
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Mr. Bechtel married Matilda Bowman of St. Louis, Missouri, daughter of Charles G. Bowman, a prosperous citizen of that place. To their marriage have been born the following children: Samuel B., Florence M., Charles G. and Daniel M. Jr. The family reside at 107 East Madison Street. For two years Mr. Bechtel served as secretary of the Elkhart County Fair and Agricultural Association, and has been working for and an advocate of every improvement that would mean a better and greater Goshen and Elkhart County. In politics he is a democrat and served as chairman of the Demo- cratic State Central Committee until September 15, 1915. Fratern- ally his associations are with Goshen Lodge No. 12 Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons ; with the Knights of Pythias and the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks.
JESSE W. STAGE, D. D. S. With a large and successful prac- tice at Goshen, which city has been his home for the past seventeen years, Doctor Stage takes a very active part in dental organizations and the general professional interests, and is also a successful business man, being a director of the State Bank of Goshen.
A native of Indiana, born in LaGrange County near Topeka July 23, 1871, Doctor Stage's ancestry goes back to' Holland, from which country two brothers came over many generations ago, and from one of these brothers descended a numerous ancestry now found in nearly all the states of the Union. Doctor Stage's grand- father was Samuel Stage, formerly of New York State. The father of Doctor Stage was Sanford S. Stage, who was born in 1837, became an early settler in LaGrange County, and married Cornelia A. Wells, who was born, in Indiana, a daughter of Wilson Wells. She died in July, 1878.
Doctor Stage acquired his early education in the common and high schools, also attended the normal schools at Valparaiso and Angola, and taught in the common schools of Noble County and at Ligonier for five years. He entered the Dental College at Indianapolis, where he was graduated in 1899. He then located in Goshen, opened an office which is one of the best equipped offices for dental practice in Elkhart County, and has enjoyed a splendid practice.
In 1002 he married Miss Clara Rodibaugh, daughter of Lorenzo D. Rodibaugh of Elkhart County. They are the parents of two children, Stanley and Eloise.
With success in his profession, Doctor Stage has become recognized as a factor in business and social life at Goshen. He was the first president of the Goshen City Dental Society, has served
Res Samavol Joder
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on various committees of the State Dental Society, and is now a member of the State Department of the National Dental Relief. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. Dr. and Mrs. Stage reside at 803 South Sixth Street.
REV. SAMUEL YODER. Now living retired in his pleasant home on Wagner avenue in the City of Elkhart, this venerable citizen became a resident of this county more than sixty years ago, when a youth of sixteen years, and he has witnessed the development of the county from little more than a forest of wilderness as to its present condition of opulent prosperity, and the upbuilding of the City of Elkhart from a mere village to a place of truly metropolitan pretentions. His career has been marked by earnestness, fidelity and noble service in all of the relations of life and for many years he gave himself with all of consecrated zeal and devotion to the work of the ministry of the Mennonite Church. Though denied the advan- tages of higher academic education in his youth, his alert mentality and undaunted ambition enabled him through self-discipline and well directed reading and study to acquire a really liberal education and to develop that mature judgment which, as coupled with high ideals and deep appreciation of the well-springs of human thought and action, has made him a most effective leader and counselor of his fellowmen, whom he has ever striven to aid and uplift. His work as a Christian minister has covered in the past a wide field, and his character and achievement as well as his secure status in the con- fidence and affectionate regard of the people of Elkhart County, make especially consistent the tribute accorded to him in this publi- cation, though its necessarily circumscribed limitations make it im- possible to indulge in extended genealogical record or critical analysis and interpretation of character.
In that part of Columbiana County, Ohio, that now constitutes the major portion of the County of Mahoning, Rev. Samuel Yoder was born on the 2d of May, 1835. His father, Samuel Yoder, Sr., was born in Pennsylvania and was a son of John Yoder, who like- wise was a native of the old Keystone State, within whose borders the family was founded in the colonial period of our national history, the lineage tracing back to staunch German origin. John Yoder, the family name of whose wife was Kaufman, finally immigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio and became a pioneer settler in what is now Mahoning County, where he purchased a tract of wild land, near Columbiana Station, and developed the same into a productive farm, both he and his wife having there continued their residence until death.
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Samuel Yoder, Sr., was young at the time of the family removal to Ohio, where he was reared to manhood on the pioneer farm and where he eventually became the owner and operator of a farm near the homestead of his father. There he died when but thirty-two years of age, an upright and worthy citizen and an earnest member of the Mennonite Church, as was also his wife. He wedded Miss Margaret Holdeman, who was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and who was a young woman when she was left a widow, with the care of their five children, none of whom had attained to adult age, namely : John, Elizabeth, Jacob and Nancy, twins, and Samuel. The widowed mother eventually contracted a second marriage and her second husband was Rev. Jacob Freed, who was a clergyman of the Mennonite Church, the children of this union being Katie, Mary, Christiann and Joseph.
In 1851 the entire family came to Indiana, the journey being made overland with teams and wagons and through the forests in which the roads were little more than blazed trails for much of the distance, but slight improvements having been made in many of the counties of Northern Indiana at that period. Mr. Freed purchased a pioneer farm 11/2 miles south of the present Village of Wakarusa, Elkhart County, and there the family home was maintained in a primitive log house for a number of years, after which a more com- modious and pretentious frame building was provided. With the aid of his stepsons, Mr. Freed made improvements on the farm and brought much of the land under effective cultivation, this old home- stead continuing to be the place of residence of both himself and his wife until the close of their lives, and Mrs. Freed having been seventy-eight years of age when she was summoned to the life eternal, a woman of excellent mentality and one whose life had been notable for kindliness, industry and all good works.
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