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 50
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Jacob I. Weldy has spent his active career in the fine farming district of Southwestern Elkhart County. His education was ac- quired in the district schools, and until sixteen he lived on his father's farm. His independent career was then inaugurated with a period of working out by the month, and at the time of his mar- riage he became associated with his father-in-law and for seven years worked on the latter's farm. He then made his first purchase, forty acres of land, included in his present farm, which is located on the northeast quarter of section 2, Locke Township 11/4 miles south of Wakarusa. Some years ago Mr. Weldy bought an addi- tional twenty acres, and now has one of the good farm homes in that community and he and his wife have made themselves active factors in the Mennonite Church, in which he is a deacon and they are also active in social and civic affairs. They have a complete set of farm buildings, including a good frame barn which Mr. Weldy built himself. .
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On September 21, 1895, he married Rhoda Priscilla Landis. To them were born four children, Arthur W., Bertha V., Eldon J .. and Myron D. Mrs. Weldy was born in Locke Township, a daughter of Joseph Landis, who was born in Medina County, Ohio, April 30, 1843, and a granddaughter of Daniel Landis, a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. From Pennsylvania Daniel Landis moved to Medina County, Ohio, and developed a farm there. By trade he was a wagon maker, and kept a shop in the nearby Village of Wads- worth and lived in that community until his death. Daniel Landis married Annie Landis, who was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and spent her last years in Medina County, Ohio. She and her hus- band both died before they were forty years of age, and their three surviving children were Barbara, Joseph and Enos. The daughter Barbara died young. Joseph Landis, father of Mrs. Weldy, was two and a half years old when his mother died, and he grew up in the home of his maternal grandmother, who was then a widow. When he was about four years of age she brought him to Elkhart County and settled near Goshen. This maternal grandmother had two sons, Jacob and Fred Landis, and several daughters, all of whom came to Elkhart County. Joseph Landis spent his early youth near Goshen, attended some of the pioneer schools, and at the age of nine- teen began learning the trade of blacksmith. He was first appren- ticed to Amos Jones, who had a shop two miles north of Wakarusa. A little later he went to Wadsworth, Ohio, and spent two years as apprentice to a Mr. Trover, and completed his apprenticeship with Mahlon Loucks in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A master of his trade, he returned to Wakarusa, and conducted a shop there until 1870, when he sold out and built a shop on his own farm on the southeast quarter of section 2 of Locke Township. Subsequently he removed it to section 1. Most of his time there was spent in farm- ing, and after a long and honorable career he died March 28, 1909. In 1870 Joseph Landis married Christiana Freed. She was born on a farm in Holmes County, Ohio, 21/2 miles from Winesburg, November 9, 1850. Her father Jacob Freed was born in Rocking- ham County, Virginia, June II, 1796, a son of Jacob Freed, Sr., a native of Virginia, who married there and moved to Pennsylvania in 1802, living in Fayette County until late in life and then spending his last days in Ohio. Jacob, Sr., married Mary Beidler, who was born in Virginia and died in Holmes County, Ohio. Jacob Freed, Jr., father of Mrs. Landis, was seven years old when his parents moved to Pennsylvania, and he lived in Fayette County of that state until 1819. Then on horseback he made the journey to Holmes County, Ohio, bought land and began clearing up a farm out of the wilderness. His first habitation was a log house, and around it he
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planted a number of apple seeds and in time had a good bearing orchard.
That was his home until the spring of 1861, when he and his family set out for Elkhart County, Indiana. Here he paid $1900 for 240 acres of land in Locke Township. That district was then sparsely settled and very little of the work of draining, clearing and cultivation had been accomplished. After buying the land he re- turned to Ohio and in the fall of the same year started West with his family. His daughter Mrs. Christiana Landis at one time wrote a paper which was read before a family reunion, and some of its sentences contain a graphic description of the discouragements which a family of homeseekers had to contend with in seeking out a new home in the West. The following is a quotation from that paper : "When Jacob Freed moved to Indiana the roads in many places were swampy and spongy. Chills and ague were the plague of the country. Many people would tell them along the road, 'You can't get through. Some places there is no bottom.' One man said, 'there are holes where the wagon goes down gosuck.' Others would say 'you had better get your coffins made first.' But with all these remarks Jacob Freed with his caravan journeyed on until the desti- nation was reached, and he settled on his farm, bought of Mr. Far- ley, in a little log cabin 18x20 feet." He located in the southeast quarter of section 2, and there he erected a good set of frame buildings and lived until his death in 1868. His first marriage March 15, 1827, was to Anna Freed, who died May 25, 1834, leaving two sons, John and Andrew. On November 10, 1836, he married Mrs. Margaret (Holdeman) Yoder. She was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1810, and her father Christian Holdeman was a native of Pennsylvania, and in 1825 made a pioneer settlement in Wayne County, Ohio, where he improved some land and spent his last days. Christian Holdeman married Christiana Buzzard, who was also a native of Pennsylvania and surviving her husband came to Elkhart County and spent the rest of her life in Olive Township. By his second marriage Jacob Freed had four children : Catherine, Mary, Joseph and Christiana. Joseph enlisted at the age of eighteen in the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and died while in service a year later. Jacob Freed was reared in the Mennonite Church and spent many years as a preacher of that denomination. Mrs. Weldy's grandmother reared five children by her first marriage, John, Elizabeth, Jacob, Mary and Samuel.
REV. ARTHUR E. WEYRICK. A well known minister of the Evangelical Church for a number of years, Rev. Mr. Weyrick re- cently retired from that work on account of impaired hearing, and
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is now one of the successful and prosperous farmers of Baugo Township in Elkhart County.
He was born at Manchester in Summit County, Ohio, June 29, 1870, and his father was Isaac Weyrick, who was born in Snyder County, Pennsylvania, October 18, 1832. His paternal grandparents were George W. and Frances ( Farnsworth) Weyrick, both natives of Pennsylvania, from which state they moved to Ohio in 1835. They made their removal by wagon and team, since that was years before any railroads were constructed in that section of the Middle West. They located in Summit County where the grandfather bought land and improved a farm out of the wilderness. Isaac Weyrick, his son, and the father of Rev. Mr. Weyrick, grew up on a farm, learned the blacksmith trade, and for several years conducted a shop in Manchester and later at Loyal Oak in the same county. In 1880 he came out to Elkhart County and lived a few years there, thence moved to St. Joseph County, Michigan, and remained there until the death of his wife, December 24, 1913. He now makes his home among his children. His first wife was Elizabeth Carmany, who died leaving four children named Editha, Cora, George and Daniel. For his second wife the father married Mary Ann Carmany, sister of his first wife. She was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, and died in St. Joseph County, Michigan. She reared three sons named Arthur, Anson and Ernest.
Arthur Weyrick grew up in his father's home in Ohio and in Elkhart County, attended the schools of those two localities. and found his first regular employment in a musical instrument factory, where he remained about five years. For another five years he was connected with the wholesale house of J. J. Hoffman & Son.
In 1897 he was licensed to preach in the Evangelical Church, and in 1901 he assumed an active part in church affairs, and from that time has had pastorates in different localities, and was superin- tendent of the camp ground of the church near Syracuse, Indiana, for four years. In the meantime his hearing became impaired, and he found it necessary to give up the active responsibilities of the ministry, though he is still devoted to church and does a great deal to keep up its influence in his home locality.
On retiring from the ministry he bought a farm in Baugo Town- ship, and is now actively engaged in farming. He is a member of the Maple Ridge Grange.
In 1895 Mr. Weyrick married Dora E. Witwer, daughter of Henry and Mary (Zumbaugh) Witwer. Mr. and Mrs. Weyrick are the parents of four children : Fern, Ralph, Wilma and Laura.
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CHARLES MCDONALD. The building up of every great city and section in the land has come through the practical, working energy of its business men. Industry and commerce unite, directed by the keen, far-sighted sense of able men, and from this union springs capital and independence, and those things which make possible comfort and contentment and afford promise of law and order and safety in the present as well as security for the future. Goshen. Indiana, in its ambitions for growth, development and added im- portance, looks to its business men and feels safe in relying on such sturdy examples of good citizenship as Charles McDonald, who is president of the Goshen Churn & Ladder Company, one of the city's substantial and expanding enterprises.
Charles McDonald was born in Elkhart County, Indiana, August 29, 1864, the fifth son born to his parents, J. J. and Sarah (Max- well) McDonald. The father, J. J. McDonald, was born in Berkeley County, West Virginia, removing from there to Ohio in youth and coming to Indiana in 1855. During his active years afterward he was engaged in agricultural pursuits in Elkhart County, where he became a man of means and of local prominence, serving for some years as a trustee of Union Township. His death occurred there in 1905. The mother of Charles McDonald was a native of Clark County, Ohio. She died in Elkhart County, Indiana, in 1910.
In the public schools of his native county Charles McDonald pursued his studies until about eighteen years of age, when he de- cided to become self supporting, and, as he was not needed on the home farm, he entered the employ of a company operating at Goshen and made himself so useful that he was retained by the firm for seven years, in the meanwhile learning much about business methods. He continued in one capacity or another in a similar industry for some years, accumulating capital and making firm business friends, and in 1901, in association with John B. Hager, John B. Cripe, Aaron Hartzler and L. G. Grady organized the present manufactur- ing company. Under the management of the organizers the busi- ness was conducted until 1909, when Aaron Hartzler sold to Arthur C. Estes. In 1910 the business in its scope and importance justified incorporation and the present name was selected, the Goshen Churn & Ladder Company.
This enterprise at the time of incorporation had a capital stock of $10,000, which has been increased to $40,000. John B. Hager was elected president and served in that capacity until his death, in 1913, when Charles McDonald was elected president and continues at the head of the company, husbanding its resources and directing its policy with ever increasing success. The other officers are : John
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B. Cripe, vice president and general manager, and Arthur C. Estes, secretary and treasurer.
On December 22, 1891, Mr. McDonald was united in marriage with Miss Rosetta Pepple, who is a daughter of William Pepple, one of the old residents of Union Township, Elkhart County. Mr. and Mrs. McDonald'have no children. He has never been very active in politics, but is known as a man who may be depended on to support all worthy measures for city and section. The family residence is numbered 208 South Eighth Street, Goshen.
FRANK BRUMBAUGH. Prominent among those whose initiative energy and executive ability have made them prominent and influ- ential forces in the furtherance of the prestige of the City of Elkhart as an industrial and commercial center of importance, a place of special distinction must be accorded to Mr. Brumbaugh, who is a man of fine technical ability in his chosen domain of activity and who also has shown marked circumspection and judgment as an administrative officer. He is secretary and treasurer of the Elkhart Bridge & Iron Company, and in a preliminary way it is deemed but consistent to make certain quotation, with minor paraphrase and elimination, from an article that appeared on one of the leading daily papers of Elkhart in June, 1915:
"In Elkhart we have one of the best known bridge-building con- cerns in the country, one that has gained in its special field a reputa- tion that places it in the front ranks and the work of which has been such as to gain the commendation of hundred of municipalities in widely scattered parts of the United States. Of course this has redounded to the benefit of the city and has helped materially to bring Elkhart products to the forefront. Of course we refer to the sterling industrial enterprise here represented by the Elkhart Bridge & Iron Company. The company was organized about eleven years ago, succeeding the old Elkhart Bridge Company, and the present company was incorporated in 1904, with a capital stock of $10,000. Mr. Frank Brumbaugh, a bridge-builder of more than thirty years' experience, and one who has overcome seemingly insuperable obstacles in the bridge-building line, is the active man- ager of the concern and of its business, keeping in close touch with all contracts handled by his company, as well as with the affairs of the local plant and office.
"The plant of this company occupies the greater part of five acres of floor space and employment is given to a force of about one hundred fifty men,-all mechanics of the highest type and receiving good wages. The large structure that is devoted to the
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principal work of the company is replete with the latest type of machinery known to the iron-working industry and includes numer- ous time and labor saving devices, while safety and wellbeing of the employes are looked after with scrupulous care. All of the bridges erected by the company are the product of the local plant. The company manufacture a large variety of structures, ranging in price from $25 to $25,000, and embracing bridges from 6 to 500 feet in length. These require an enormous amount of steel and iron, and the large total of 5,000 tons of metal is used every year to make Elkhart bridges for the spanning of brooks and rivers in all parts of the United States. Mr. Brumbaugh, whose knowledge extends to all branches of the business, came here originally from Canton, Ohio, where he was connected in an important capacity with a large firm of bridge builders. The company which he has so ably managed is one of the busiest in Elkhart and is doing its share toward making Elkhart 'America's Best 25,000 City.'"
On both the paternal and maternal sides Mr. Brumbaugh is a representative of sterling pioneer families of fine old Stark County, Ohio, where he himself was born on the 24th of June, 1868. He is a son of Conrad and Rebecca (Schlott) Brumbaugh, both of whom passed their entire lives in that county, where their respective parents settled in the pioneer days, upon removal from Pennsylvania, the lineage of both tracing back to staunch German origin. Conrad Brumbaugh was a skilled carpenter and cabinetmaker by trade but the major part of his active career was marked by close and success- ful identification with the basic industry of agriculture, of which he was a prominent and honored representative in Lake Township. Stark County, where he continued to reside until his death, at the venerable age of eighty-four years, and where he was influential in public affairs of a local order. He was a stalwart adherent of the democratic party and was called upon to serve in various town- ship offices. His wife was seventy-seven years of age at the time of her death, and of their five sons and five daughters the subject of this sketch is the youngest.
The boyhood and early youth of Frank Brumbaugh were com- passed by the benignant influences and discipline of the old home- stead farm, and he acquired his early education in the district schools of his native county. Like his father, he has much natural ability along mechanical lines, and as a youth he learned the carpenter's trade, largely under the direction of his father. At the age of twenty-one years he entered the employ of the Canton Bridge Com- pany, at the county seat of Stark County, and there he gained such proficiency as a machinist and general mechanician that he made
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rapid advancement and soon became a foreman in the practical supervision of bridge construction. After remaining with this com- pany five years Mr. Brumbaugh resigned his position and accepted that of foreman and contracting agent for the Bellefontaine Bridge Company, at Bellefontaine, Ohio, his services in this capacity having taken him into all sections of the Union.
In 1893 Mr. Brumbaugh came to Elkhart as representative of the company last mentioned, and here he has maintained his resi- dence and business headquarters during the intervening period of nearly a quarter of a century. In 1900 he effected the organization of the Elkhart Bridge Company, and after having had the manage- nent of its business about two years he became one of the organizers of its successor, the Elkhart Bridge & Iron Company, of which he has since been secretary, treasurer and general manager.
Mr. Brumbaugh is essentially a business man and has had no desire to enter the arena of practical polites or to assume any public office. In national affairs he gives allegiance to the democratic party, but locally, where no governmental issues are involved, he gives his support to the men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, without consideration of partisan lines.
In the time-honored Masonic fraternity Mr. Brumbaugh has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, his affiliation being with the consistory at Fort Wayne, this state. At Elkhart his York Rite affiliations are with Kane Lodge, No. 183, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; and Concord Chapter, No. 101, Royal Arch Masons. At Canton, Ohio, he maintained active membership in a lodge of the Knights of Pythias, and he is a member of Elkhart Lodge, No. 425, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On the 18th of April, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Brumbaugh to Miss Maggie J. Dewey, who was born and reared in Clinton Township, this county, and the one child of this union is Beatrice I., who remains at the parental home.
JEROME MARTIN, now living retired at Wakarusa is one of the surviving veterans of the Union army during the Civil war, and few soldiers had a longer or more active service with an Indiana regiment during that struggle between the North and South.
His home has been in Elkhart County upwards of seventy years, and his life has been a busy and useful one. He was born on a farm near Thompsontown in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, Febru- ary 3, 1842. His grandparents were Christian and Hannah (Gray- bill) Martin, who were farming people of Pennsylvania and lived
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to a good old age. Christian Martin, father of Jerome, was born in Pennsylvania in 1813, learned the trade of carpenter and followed that occupation in his native state until 1848. Then accompanied by his wife and four children he started west, with a wagon and team of horses. Between Pennsylvania and Elkhart County they crossed but one line of railroad. By the slow overland route it required several weeks to make the trip, and arriving in Elkhart County they lived a year in Harrison Township and next bought a tract of land in Olive Township. This was a frontier community at the time, and the site of the present City of Wakarusa was a wilderness. Christian Martin built a cabin of round logs, and with his own hands rived the boards to cover the roof. The stick and mud chimney stood at one end, and furnished the fireplace at which meals for the family were cooked. In course of time Christian Martin had made a good farm, having cleared up most of the land, and the old log cabin was replaced by substantial frame buildings. There he lived out his life and died at the age of eighty-one. Chris- tian Martin married Catherine Sarer, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1817 and died at the age of sixty-five. Their children were Jacob, Jerome, Susanna, Abraham, Lydia, Jane, George and Christian.
Six years of age when his family made the eventful journey to Elkhart County already described, Jerome Martin had his share of pioneer experiences. He attended one of the early schools of Olive Township, walked night and morning a mile and a half through the woods to the schoolhouse of hewn logs. As soon as his strength permitted he bore his share of responsibilities in connection with the clearing and cultivation of the home farm and in that way his early life was spent until March, 1862.
At that date he enlisted in Company K of the Ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. His service was for three years or until the close of the war. The record of that regiment is his individual record as a soldier. He served successively in the commands of Buell, Rosecrans, Grant and Sherman. He had his baptism of fire at Shiloh, was at Stone River, Chickamauga, and fought with Sher- man's great army in all the hundred days of advance upon Atlanta, including the siege of that city, and was afterwards at Jonesboro and Lovejoy Station. He was with the troops sent back under General Thomas in pursuit of Hood's army, and fought both at Franklin and Nashville. The closing months of his service were spent in Ten- nessee and Alabama, and he was honorably discharged at Huntsville in the latter state.
With this splendid record as a soldier he returned home and
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became a farmer on the old homestead, but afterwards learned the trade of carpenter. Soon after the Village of Nappanee was started and established he took up his trade there, but after three years returned to the farm and continued its cultivation until 1905. In that year he moved to Nappanee, but a few months later went to Wakarusa, where he has since lived, enjoying the competence which his earlier years of industry and thrift have given him.
In I891 Mr. Martin married Hannah Doremyer. She was born in Kosciusko County, Indiana, near Mentone. Her grandparents moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio, and her grandmother was of English birth, and afterwards came west and died in Kosciusko County. Jacob Doremyer, father of Mrs. Martin, was born in Pennsylvania and about 1855 located in Harrison Township of Kosciusko County. There he and his family lived in a log house for some years, until increasing prosperity enabled him to provide better for home wants. Jacob Doremyer died at the age of forty- seven. His wife, whose maiden name was Susannah Brilhart, was born in Troy Township of Morrow County, Ohio, and died at the age of twenty-seven, leaving two children, Melcena and Hannah. Jacob Doremyer married for his second wife Margaret Lloyd, who survived him and married a second time. There were five children of this union: Socrates, Harriet, Fanny, Jacob and Cyrena, Mr. Martin is a member of Custer Post of the Grand Army of the Republic and Mrs. Martin belongs to the Woman's Relief Corps.
JEREMIAH BECHTEL for half a century has been a factor in the farming, milling and financial life of western Elkhart County. For the past twenty-five years he has been at the head and president of the Exchange Bank of Wakarusa.
Most of his childhood and youth were spent in Elkhart County, though he was born in Blair County, Pennsylvania, September 30. 1848. His great-grandparents were natives of Germany, and on coming to America settled in Pennsylvania. Henry Bechtel, his grandfather, was an early settler in Huntingdon County, Pennsyl- vania, and was twice married, being the father of nine children.
Daniel Bechtel, father of the Wakarusa banker, was born in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, October 15, 1822, a son of Henry and Barbara Bechtel. Reared on a farm and trained to habits of industry, he worked at home until twenty-one, then married, moved to Ohio, locating in Stark County, and a year and a half later coming to Elkhart County, Indiana. Here he bought eighty acres of land. With very limited capital he went in debt for the land, but he possessed the qualities that make a success in a new
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