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 55
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Born at Clyde, Ohio, February 1, 1852, Warren G. Hill is a son of Daniel and Mandana ( Stephens) Hill. His father was born in Pennsylvania and died at the age of eighty-six, and his mother was a native of New York State and died at the age of seventy- eight. Warren G. Hill was the youngest of their ten children, three of whom are still living. Daniel Hill was a carpenter and contractor by trade, and in his early years successfully performed contracts for the construction of lighthouses along the Atlantic Coast. In 1854 he moved west and settled in Cass County, Michi- gan, in Mason Township, where he found the country still raw and undeveloped, and by his own labors cut the farm from the wilderness. Some years later he removed to Elkhart, and lived retired the rest of his days. He was a whig and later a republican in politics, but made no effort to secure any of the honors of office.
Up to the time he was twelve years of age Warren G. Hill lived in Cass County, Michigan, just north of Elkhart County, and attended the district schools there. From 1864 he has lived in the City of Elkhart, and after pursuing his studies in the Elkhart public schools was also a student in Professor Butler's school at Goshen, Indiana. Merchandising has been his real career since carly youth. His first experience was as clerk in a local dry goods store, but in 1873 he removed to Ellen, Michigan, and conducted a general merchandise establishment for himself up to 1875. Then returning to Elkhart, he established a general store and conducted it on a scale constantly changing and adapted to the needs and demands of his trade and the community up to 1902, when he
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organized the Warren Hill Company, incorporated with a cash capital of $175,000. Mr. Hill became president of the company and for a number of years the business was operated as one of the largest department stores in Northern Indiana, employing as high as a hundred clerks, and in the busy rush season their employees numbered as many as 125. A change was made in the business in 1912, when its character as a department store was abandoned, and the various other departments were sold to the firm of Reynolds- Jewett Company. Since then the Warren Hill Company has been an exclusive clothing store.
What this company means in Elkhart was recently described by the local press, as follows: "For over forty years the name Warren Hill has stood for all that is good in merchandise in Elk- hart and has come to have a high place in the regard of the people as the ideal store. Founded in 1875, the business has grown from small beginnings to a store that is a credit to the city and meets every want in the field in which it specializes. Through courtesy, service and quality, at lowest prices possible, has this store grown, and it points with pride to names on its books that include some of the city's best known and most exclusive men, many of them the sons or grandsons of the firm's original patrons. The com- modious store occupied by the firm is at 219 South Main Street, and contains a floor space of approximately 15,000 square feet. The stock carried is the largest in the city and affords a wide range of choice, while the prices are thoroughly in keeping with the quality of the goods. The firm has always made special efforts to obtain the agency for nation-wide clothing and furnishings, the kind that bears a label that is a guarantee of quality and service in itself."
Mr. Hill owns the large building in which the Warren Hill Company has its store and also has other business property in the city. His own home is a residence he has occupied continuously for the past thirty-five years, and is one of the best known points in the residential district. Through all these years Mr. Hill has been a constant booster for Elkhart's growth and prosperity, and has frequently turned his capital to investments in local enterprises that would help the industrial welfare of Elkhart.
He has served as president of the Century Club for four years, and is ex-president of the public service board.
JOIIN A. ROACH. The roll of men who went forth from Elk- hart County during the dark days of the Civil war to fight in de- fense of the Union contains no more honored name than that of
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John A. Roach, who during two enlistments established an enviable record for valiant and faithful service. Two of his brothers were aiso soldiers in the Union army, and few of Elkhart County's fan- ilies contributed more actively to the perpetuation of the integrity of the state. While not a resident of Elkhart County during the last thirty years, being a business man of Chicago, Mr. Roach is a native son of this Indiana county and for a number of years was engaged in farming and business enterprises there, so that a review of his career is eminently worthy of a place on the pages of this work.
Born on his father's farm in Elkhart County, Indiana, July 17, 1843, he is a son of James and Maria ( Hampton) Roach. His father was born near Harper's Ferry, Loudoun County, Virginia, in 1811, and when but a few years old was taken by his parents to Warren County, Ohio, where he grew to manhood and received a public school education. There he married Maria Hampton, who was born in 1812, also at Harper's Ferry. After his marriage James Roach engaged in farming in Ohio. In November, 1840, he cast his first presidential vote for William Henry Harrison. Soon after- ward he started with horses and wagons for Elkhart County, Indi- ana, which was still a new and comparatively undeveloped district of Northern Indiana. Arrived at his destination in Benton Town- ship, he settled among the pioneers of that locality and passed the remainder of his life as an industrious and hard-working farmer. His death occurred in 1858. He and his wife were attendants at the Methodist Church, the only church in their vicinity of Elkhart County. In politics the father was first a whig and later a repub- lican. His widow passed away in 1884, having been the mother of six sons and two daughters. The names of these children were : Mahlon F., Thomas W., James A., Elizabeth M., John A., Charles H., Franklin L. and Sarah J. The three now surviving are Thomas W., John A. and Sarah Jane.
Fifth in order of birth, John A. Roach was reared on the home farm and given his education in the district schools and the Goshen High School. He was only eighteen years of age when with his brother James he enlisted in Company K, Thirtieth Regiment, Indi- ana Volunteer Infantry, for three years or during the war. They were mustered into service at Fort Wayne under Col. Simon S. Bass on September II, 1861. The regiment was sent to Indianapolis for equipment and then to Louisville, Kentucky, where the men received their arms and then embarked in cattle cars for Elizabethtown, Kentucky. After the fall of Fort Donelson in February, 1862, General Grant moved part of his command from Fort Donelson
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across the country to Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, the extreme front being at Shiloh Church in Tennessee, only eight- een miles from Corinth, Mississippi, where the Confederates had established their second line of defense, stretching from Memphis on the Mississippi to Chattanooga. The leader of the Confederates was Albert Sidney Johnston, one of the most brilliant generals de- veloped by the South during the war. Second in command was General Beauregard, who had command of the 30,000 troops at Corinth. On the 3d of April, 1861, Beauregard was re-enforced by General Johnston with about 30,000 more. The Thirtieth Indiana was under the command of General Buell, commander of the Army of the Ohio, comprising approximately 100,000 men in his depart- ment, including those detailed for duty in Kentucky and Tennessee. Early in April General Johnston made his first move to attack Grant at Pittsburg Landing before Buell could join him. In the meantime Buell's forces, including the Thirtieth Indiana, had moved on to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee, and participated in several skirmishes. On April 6th-7th occurred the great Battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing, in which 100,000 men were engaged, with total losses of 23.746 in killed, wounded and missing on both sides. The Confederates had the advantage on the first day, though their great leader, Johnston, was killed, and during the night General Buell's forces came up to relieve the situa- tion. Thus Mr. Roach as a member of the Thirtieth Regiment was in the second day of the great Battle of Shiloh, being with the Fifth Brigade, known as Kirk's Brigade, of McCook's Division, and the regiment met with heavy losses, there being killed, wounded and missing in the brigade 346 men, of whom 129 were members of the hard fighting Thirtieth Indiana. Brigadier Commander Kirk was one of those wounded in this engagement, and Col. S. S. Bass of the Thirtieth Regiment was mortally wounded and died at Paducah, Kentucky, within a few days. After ten hours of desperate fight- ing on the second day of Shiloh the Confederates were obliged to retreat, and a few weeks later the Thirtieth Indiana took part in the siege of Corinth, the capture of which point broke the line of defense established by the Confederates.
After Corinth the regiment started on the march with Buell's army across Alabama to Chattanooga, spending July 4, 1862, at Huntersville, Alabama, and then continuing on the long and tedious movement and arriving on the west of Tennessee River opposite Chattanooga the latter part of July. On August 20th they were ordered to move up to the Cumberland Mountains, and to come down from the Cumberland Gap and crossing the Tennessee River
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at that point, to move on to Chattanooga. The two Confederate armies in Chattanooga immediately moved up to Cumberland Gap, preventing the Army of the Ohio from coming down to the Gap. Buell's army turned west to the Cumberland Mountains and the Confederates went north, intending to reach Ohio and Indiana be- fore the Army of the Ohio, thus drawing the war back to the north- ern states. On account of the circuitous route Buell's army marched three or four days and nights constantly to arrive at Louisville and prevent the Confederate armies from invading Indiana and Ohio. At Perryville, Kentucky, the Thirtieth Indiana Regiment was held in reserve to guard the railway, but was later sent on to Lexington and then to Franklin, there being skirmishes all along . the line of march. After arriving at Bowling Green, Kentucky, John A. Roach was stricken with typhoid fever and was removed to a hospital at Louisville, where he remained for many weeks, hovering between life and death. When able to be moved he was sent by the medical department to Indianapolis, where he received his discharge on account of disability December 11, 1862. His regi- ment in the meantime, or what was left of it, went on and partici- pated in the battles of Murfreesboro or Stone River. James A. Roach served the full term of three years, and was mustered out as sergeant of Company K in the fall of 1864. He had fought in the battles of Murfreesboro or Stone River, at Chattanooga, Look- out Mountain, Missionary Ridge Chickamauga and Atlanta. Men- tion should also be made of the record of the other brother who served as a soldier. This was Franklin L., who enlisted as a recruit in the Seventy-fourth Indiana in the spring of 1864 and with other recruits was immediately sent to the regiment, which was then in front of Atlanta. Though but sixteen years of age, and not accus- tomed to climate and hardships as the older members of the regi- ment were, he took his place side by side with the veterans, in the swamp and low grounds, or in the rifle pits, and proved one of the most gallant young volunteers of the regiment. During the siege of Atlanta, which lasted for 120 days, he was taken sick with typhoid malaria, and was sent back with other sick and wounded to Chat- tanooga. He died in the ambulance while being taken from the train to the hospital and was buried in the National Cemetery on Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga.
The comforts of home and the loving attention of home folks soon had John A. Roach on the high road to recovery after he left the army, and in 1864, when Governor Morton sent out a call for 100-day men, he became one of the organizers of Company D of the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Regiment of Indiana Volunteer
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Infantry, recruiting thirty-five men at Benton in Elkhart County. He was elected captain of the Goshen company at Goshen, and the regiment going to Indianapolis was mustered into service. Soon discovering that there was some designing going on among the dis- satisfied men in his company, Mr. Roach in order to prevent fric- tion in the ranks resigned the captaincy and took his place as a private, and as such served faithfully and well for one month be- yond the full time. His company was detailed for guarding the railway communications between Nashville, Tennessee, and Atlanta. Georgia.
On receiving his second honorable discharge, after a service made notable by faithful and courageous conduct under all circumstances, Mr. Roach returned to Elkhart County, where he was engaged in farming until March, 1868. At that time he embarked in the dry goods business, which was continued until 1873, and in that year he made his first ventures in the real estate line at Goshen. He spent a short time in Michigan, and in 1884 removed to Chicago, where for many years he has been established in real estate, loan and security business. His broad and practical experience and thor- ough knowledge of conditions and values have made him a medium for the transaction of many large and important deals. His offices are on the twelfth floor of the Unity Building.
Mr. Roach has never lost interest in his old comrades of the Blue. He first became a member of the Grand Army of the Re- public when he joined the post at Ligonier, later demitted and joined the post at Goshen, and is now a valued comrade of Meade Post No. 444 at Chicago. His first presidential vote was cast for Abra- ham Lincoln in 1864, and since that time has been an unswerving republican.
In March, 1870, Mr. Roach married Miss Mary E. Harris, who was born at South Bend, Indiana, May 7, 1848, a daughter of Leon- ard H. and Rosalie Harris, both natives of New England. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Roach. One of them, Robert H., was accidentally killed by the cars at Hyde Park, Chi- cago, in 1883. The five living children are: Leonard H., who is associated with his father in the real estate and securities business ; Charles H .; John A., Jr., who continued the military record of the family by service in the Spanish-American war in an Indiana regi- ment under Colonel Studebaker, and subsequently became a civil engineer, being now superintendent of maintenance and way of the New Mexico Division of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Rail- way, with headquarters at Las Vegas, New Mexico; Rosalie, who is the widow of the late Chauncey Fassett; and Walter O., a resi- dent of Chicago ..
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DAVID ANGLEMYER. Now living retired at Nappanee, David Anglemyer was for a long period of years a capable and active farmer in Elkhart County, and has earned the right to spend his later years somewhat at leisure. His own family has lived in Elk- hart County for more than sixty years, and his wife's people came here at an even earlier date.
He was born on a farm in Medina County, Ohio, September 2 1845. His father, Jonas Anglemyer, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and was still a child when his father died and came with his widowed mother to Medina County, Ohio, where a little later he was bound out and learned the carpenter's trade. About 1853 Jonas Anglemyer brought his family to Elkhart County. At that time Goshen was such a small village that one hotel was suffi- cient to accommodate the traveling public. Locating in Harrison Township, he bought eighty acres of land 41/2 miles northeast of Wakarusa. The improvements comprised a log cabin and a small patch of clearing amidst the heavy timber. Even at that time it was not unusual for deer to run in considerable numbers through the woods and over the prairies, and much of the meat to supply the larder of a household was furnished by wild game. Jonas Angle- myer was a man of steady industry and devoted many years to the clearing up of his land, but died at the comparatively early age of forty-five years.
Jonas Anglemyer married Elizabeth Flook, who was born in Pennsylvania, and she died about 1888. She reared ten children : Isaac, Samuel, Joseph, Eliza, Mary, David, Levi, Henry, Jonas and William. Isaac went south and was married in Tennessee and dur- ing the war served in the Confederate army while at least two of his brothers were fighting on the Union side. The son Joseph was a soldier in the Seventy-fourth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers.
David Anglemyer, who also has a military record, was eighty years of age when he came to Elkhart County, and he received most of his education in the pioneer schools of Harrison Township. At the age of nine he was bound out to Abraham Means, a farmer, and grew up in the Means household until he was eighteen.
Still a boy in years, but with a man's responsibilities and patri- otic devotion, he enlisted in January, 1864, in Company K of the Twelfth Michigan Volunteers, and went south and was with his regi- ment in various movements until late in the fall of 1864, when on account of illness he was detailed as nurse on a hospital boat until the spring of 1865. He then rejoined his regiment and was active in the service, thereafter principally guard duty, until the regiment was honorably discharged on February 15, 1866, nearly a year after the close of actual hostilities.
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On returning to Elkhart County David Anglemyer took up and learned the trade of carpenter. He followed that a number of years, but about 1884 settled on a farm in Union Township and began the improvement and the general cultivation of his land. In 1906, having a competency, he rented the farm and bought some city property in Nappanee, where he has since lived.
In 1867 Mr. Anglemyer married Lydia Hartman. She was born in Ohio, a daughter of Adam Hartman. Mrs. Anglemyer died in 1880. On September 7. 1883, he married Barbara Hartman. She was born in Harrison Township of Elkhart County, July 26, 1855. Her father, Valentine Hartman, was born in Germany October 27, 1806, a son of Samuel Hartman. Grandfather Hartman came to America accompanied by his family and located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, later going to Ashland County, Ohio, and when quite an old man he came to Elkhart County and spent his last days here. Mrs. Anglemyer's father was still a boy when he came to America, was married in Pennsylvania, and lived in Ashland County, Ohio, until 1850. Then accompanied by his wife and five children he made the entire journey to Elkhart County with ox teams; acquiring a tract of timbered land in Harrison Township he built a log house and thereafter for a number of years applied himself industriously to the clearing up of his farm. In time he cleared the entire tract, substituted substantial frame buildings for the old log structures, and lived there honored and useful until his death at the age of seventy-five. His wife was Mary Smelzer, who was born in Pennsylvania March 11, 1811, and who died at the age of seventy-six. The Hartman children were: John, Catherine, Mary, Nancy, Peter, Valentine. Samuel and Barbara.
By his first marriage Mr. Anglemyer reared five children named William and Moses, twins, Lottie, Albert and Matie. The son Wil- liam married Saloma Yoder and their five children are Pearl, Ray, William, Agnes and Grace. The son Moses married Della Whittle, and their three children are Mabel, Celesta and Harry. The daugh- ter Lottie married Leander Bigler, and they have three children, Viola, Harry and John. Albert married Amanda Wise and has eight children. Matie is married and has three children, Wyatt, Ralph and Harriet.
Mr. and Mrs. Anglemyer have four children : Walter, who died at the age of twenty; Reuben, Mary and Amy. The son Reuben married Maude Ganger and has two children, Edwin and Hubert. Mary married Noah Gingerich and has a daughter named Marjorie Lucile. The daughter Amy is a student in the University of Cli- cago. Mr. and Mrs. Anglemyer are both active members of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church.
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DAVID G. LEHMAN. The Lehman family have been identified with Elkhart County more than fifty years. They have been sub- stantial farmers, business men, loyal and public spirited citizens, and in every way have measured up to the best standards of truth and honor. David G. Lehman is one of the best known citizens of the entire county. He was formerly in the real estate business at Goshen, but his time is now taken up almost entirely by his duties as an auctioneer. He is in demand all over this section of Northern Indiana and during the active seasons of the year there is hardly a day he does not superintend a sale of greater or less magnitude. His offices are at 116 South Main street, Goshen.
A native of Indiana, he was born in Harrison Township of Elkhart County June 17, 1864, being the oldest son of George P. and Lydia (Good) Lehman. His father was born near Massillon in Stark County, Ohio, spent his boyhood and gained his education there, and in 1850 moved to Indiana and established his home on one of the new farms in Elkhart County, where for many years he was actively engaged in agricultural pursuits. He is still living at the age of seventy-nine, and his good wife is also living.
David G. Lehman acquired his education partly in the common schools of the country and partly in the Millersburg school. In 1888, having demonstrated an inclination for business affairs and for those which brought him in contact with men and varied inter- ests, he went on the road as salesman for a Buffalo firm, and for a number of years traveled over the states of Indiana, Ohio, Iowa and to some extent in Pennsylvania.
On leaving the road Mr. Lehman moved to Goshen and estab- lished an office in the real estate business, but gradually his services were more and more sought as an auctioneer. He has exceptional ability, amounting almost to genius, as a salesman, and particularly as an auctioneer. Gradually the demand for his services in con- ducting auction sales became such that he has had to devote to it practically all his time. He now conducts between one hundred forty and one hundred sixty-five auction sales every year.
On October 24, 1889, Mr. Lehman married Miss Julia A. Kauff- man of Elkhart County, a daughter of Jonas and Leah (Stutzman) Kauffman. The Kauffman family are also old residents of Elkhart County. Mr. Lehman and wife have children named Inez, Marie, Agnes, Mabel, Douglas K. and Lucille.
In politics Mr. Lehman is a republican. For eight years he did some effective service for his home city as a member of the city council. IIe has prospered in business and evidences of his pros- perity are found in the large and comfortable home at 805 South Main street, besides a good farm in this county.
Sand 2: Spohn.
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HON. SAMUEL F. SPOHN. The chief executive of the City of Goshen, Hon. Samuel F. Spohn, entered business life at Goshen something more than a quarter of a century ago. Up to this time he had received fair educational advantages and had some experience as a country school teacher and as a county official, but it was not until five years later, or 1894, that he entered upon the career in which he was to gain a fortune and to make his name known in nearly every country in the civilized earth. It has been in connec- tion with the preparing and manufacture of specifics for the pre- vention of contagious diseases among horses and livestock generally, under the name of the Spohn Medical Company, that Mr. Spohn has achieved his greatest success, but as the years have passed he has also interested himself in outside ventures of large magnitude, and at the same time has applied himself to the advancement of his community, so that today he is probably as well known as a public- spirited and helpful citizen as he is as a man of business.
Mr. Spohn has the distinction of being a native son of Elkhart County, having been born on a farm in Concord Township, August 16, 1855, his parents being Daniel and Mary M. (Nodle) Spohn, natives of Ohio, and the former of German lineage. Daniel Spohn came to Elkhart County, Indiana, in 1844 and his wife two years later, and they were here married, four sons and two daughters being born to this union. After a number of years passed in agricultural pursuits, the father died in 1858, and the mother, a woman of force of character, sweet disposition and more than ordinary business ability, was left to rear her children, which she did in a manner that fitted them for lives of usefulness in the various walks to which they have since been called. Her death occurred in 1893.
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