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 9
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In 1890 Mr. Longley married Nellie Brubaker. She was born at Kendallville, Indiana, a daughter of Michael and Hannah Bru- baker, who were natives of Pennsylvania and on coming to Indiana settled in Kendallville. Both are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Longley have five children : Cleo, Hazel, Ruth, Jesse and Walter. Mr. and Mrs. Longley are both members of the United Brethren
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Church, in which his parents were also active. His principal fraternal connection is with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
JOHN W. CORNELL. One of the old and honored residents of Goshen, Indiana, is John W. Cornell, of No. 418 First Street, a Union veteran of the Civil war, who for a long period of years was identified with the business interests of this city, as well as with the agricultural affairs of Elkhart County. His career is expressive of the possibilities of country life when directed by a well-trained mind, an earnest purpose and an appreciation of its benefits and advantages; it is also an illustration of the fact that the country- bred lad may be become successful in business affairs granted he has the determination and energy.
Mr. Cornell was born in the City of Goshen, Indiana, August 10, 1839, and is therefore one of its oldest native born citizens. He is a son of Dr. Jacob and Mary ( Hubble ) Cornell. the former born in Franklin County, Ohio, in 1809, and the latter born in Meigs County, Ohio, in 1812. His paternal grandfather was Benjamin Cornell, a native of Virginia, who married Miss Rosie Foley, of Virginia, and on the maternal side the grandfather was Abijah Hubble, a pioneer settler of Meigs County, Ohio, and a minister. Dr. Jacob Cornell received his education in the common schools of Franklin County, Ohio, and later went to the graded school in Clark County, Ohio, in which community he also began the study of medicine. In 1833 he removed from Ohio to Elkhart County, Indiana, and there, in the community of Middlebury, entered the practice of his profes- sion. In common with the pioneer physicians of other communities during the day, he was forced to cover a wide territory, traveling many miles on horseback, or with his buggy, to visit his patients. During the forty-five years of his practice he became well known and greatly beloved all over this part of the county, and when his death occurred there were many left to mourn him as one whose sympathetic, kindly and skilled ministrations had on many occasions kept death away from their door.
John W. Cornell received his early education in the Middle- bury Township District School and his boyhood and youth were passed on the farm of his father located in the vicinity of the Town of Middlebury. In August, 1862, at that place, he enlisted for service in the Twenty-first Indiana Light Artillery, Capt. W. W. Andrew commanding, and with that command was sent to Kentucky, where the men received their first taste of battle. Going thence to Georgia, they took part in various engagements there, fought at
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Chattanooga and the fierce engagement at Nashville, Tennessee, and saw much active service through the campaign. Mr. Cornell served faithfully for something less than three years, having an excellent record for courage and faithful discharge of duty, and received his honorable discharge June 19, 1805.
Returning to his Indiana home, Mr. Cornell resumed the voca- tions of peace as a farmer and soon thereafter established a home of his own when he was united in marriage with Miss Lydia L. Ulch, formerly of Ohio and a daughter of Andrew Ulch. Mr. and Mrs. Cornell then moved to La Grange, Indiana, where they farmed for some twelve years. They then removed to Goshen in 1888, where Mr. Cornell formed a partnership with his brothers, Jacob B., Milton A. and Byron M. Cornell, under the style of Cornell Brothers, and founded a mercantile establishment, the stock of which consisted of groceries, boots and shoes. Twelve years later Jacob B., Byron M. and John W. Cornell retired from the business.
John W. Cornell then went to Colorado and farmed four years at Limon. Returning then to Goshen, he has since that time been living comfortably and contentedly in his home at No. 418 First Street.
Mr. and Mrs. Cornell have been the parents of five children : Arthur M., who is engaged in the profession of civil engineering at Newark, Ohio, with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad ; Lola, who is the wife of Max M. Mahn and resides at Goshen ; Norman J., who is with a Chicago bond company; and Roscoe Conklin, who also resides in that city, and is manager of the Chicago Examiner. Mr. Cornell is a member of Howell Post No. 90, Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Indiana, of which he was commander for twelve years, senior vice commander for three years and post quar- termaster for the past three years. While he has retired from active business affairs he still takes a keen and helpful interest in the wel- fare of his city and can be counted upon to give his faithful support to all useful measures.
JOHN J. HOSTETLER. It is as a builder and contractor that John J. Hostetler has made his most productive efforts, and as such he is well known in Elkhart and vicinity. Mr. Hostetler had an important part in constructing several of the fine bridges which spanned the St. Joseph River in Northern Ohio and he has done much building work since locating at Elkhart in 1907.
He was born on a farm near the Village of Emma in LaGrange County, Indiana, February 25, 1866. His father was Moses M. Hostetler, a native of Holmes County, Ohio, and his grandfather
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was Moses J. Hostetler, who was born in Lancaster County, Penn- sylvania, of early German ancestry. From Pennsylvania the grand- father removed to Ohio and took up a home in the wilderness of Holmes County where he bought a tract of land near Winesburg and improved a farm. He also owned and operated a flour mill in Winesburg. About 1847, having sold his possessions there he moved to Indiana and located in LaGrange County. That county was still comparatively new, and he bought a tract of land near the present site of the Village of Emma, the land being covered by a heavy growth of black walnut and poplar timber. It must always be a matter of regret to the present generation that the early settlers had so little use for the magnificent timbers on the land, which was really then an incumbrance and a serious obstacles to the main business of farming. In clearing up the land large logs were rolled together in heaps and burned, and only part of the best of the black walnut timber, which would now be worth a fortune, was used for fence rails. Grandfather Hostetler after clearing up his land continued as a successful farmer in LaGrange County and at the time of his death left an estate of 240 acres of improved land including a set of substantial farm buildings. He died at the age of eighty-six. Moses J. Hostetler married Eva Mast, who was born in Pennsyl- vania and lived to be nearly ninety years of age. She reared fourteen of her sixteen children.
Moses M. Hostetler, father of the Elkhart contractor, was very young when brought to Indiana, and he grew to manhood in La- Grange County. His independent career was as a farmer on rented land and like others of the name he had a natural bent for mechanics and for many seasons operated a threshing machine, at first with one of the old fashioned horse powers. About 1878 he bought a farm adjoining the old homestead. Its chief improvement was a commodious and substantial hewed log house. By weatherboarding the outside and by ceiling the inside he made a very comfortable home, and the old house is still standing. It was in that home that Moses M. Hostetler passed away at the age of fifty-eight. He married Mary Ann Mehl, who was born in Holmes County, Ohio, daughter of Christian and Anna ( Shrock) Mehl, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Ohio. Mrs. Ann Hostetler still owns the old homestead in LaGrange County, though she makes her home in Goshen. She is a splendid pioneer woman, and is revered by a large family of children. She reared fourteen named Leander J., John J., Amos, Christian, Lizzie, Anna, Polly, Milo, Munroe, Willis, Lillie, Cleveland, Eldon and Harland, all of whom reached maturity and married and all are now living except Milo who died at the age of twenty-six.
Vol. II- 6
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John J. Hostetler spent his youth on the old homestead in La- Grange County. His education came from the rural schools, and with a strong inclination for mechanical pursuits at the age of sixteen he became a practical apprentice at the carpenter's trade. Some years later he worked in a blacksmith shop in Elkhart, but in 1878 went to Tuscarawas County, Ohio, set up a blacksmith shop at Shanesville, but after operating it a year expanded his business into that of contractor and builder. In that capacity he erected many houses, bank barns and other structures in that part of Ohio. In 1902 he became construction foreman in the employ of E. J. Lander, who had the contract for building the cement bridge over the Tus- carawas River at Canal Dover. That was the first cement bridge ever constructed across the Tuscarawas.
In 1905 Mr. Hostetler went to Mishawaka, Indiana, and was foreman of construction for the cement bridge built across the St. Joseph River at that point. He officiated in a similar capacity for one of the handsome structures that span the St. Joseph at South Bend. Since locating permanently at Elkhart in 1907 he has con- tinued his business as a contractor and builder and owing to his long and successful experience in that line has had almost constant em- ployment for his capital, equipment and time and energy. He has recently branched out into farming, having bought a place in 1915 on the east bank of the Elkhart River in Concord Township. Much of his time during the winter of 1915-16 was spent in building and in other improvements on the farm.
On January 1, 1889, Mr. Hostetler married Lydia S. Troyer, who was born at Shanesville, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Her father was Seth Troyer, and her grandfather Daniel Troyer, the latter a native of Pennsylvania and a pioneer of Holmes County, Ohio, where he improved a farm and lived there until his death. Grandfather Troyer's first wife and the grandmother of Mrs. Hostetler was named Bontrager. She died quite young while her husband lived to be nearly seventy years of age. Mrs. Hostetler's father was a successful farmer and owned and operated 226 acres in Tuscarawas County. He married Mary Garber, who was born in Strassburg, Ohio, daughter of Jacob Garber, and she afterwards came to Indiana and died at the age of seventy-six. She reared eight children named Amanda, Elizabeth, Daniel, Lydia S., Martha, Malinda, Mary and Sarah.
Mr. and Mrs. Hostetler have reared eight children named Keturah, Orpha, Mary, Grace, Anna, Naomi, Ruth and Pauline. The daughter Naomi died at the age of four years. Keturah mar- ried George Weaver, and they have a son named Wilber Loyal.
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The daughter Orpha married Menna Landis. Mr. and Mrs. Hostet- ler were both reared in the faith of the Mennonite Church and have always remained loyal to that creed.
WILLIAM WHITTENMYER CURRIER. For twenty years or more one of the dependable florists of Elkhart has been W. W. Currier. His success has been largely due to the fact that he is a florist by profession and not merely a business man who has adopted that fine art as a source of livelihood. When he was a boy he found more pleasure in growing and cultivating plants than in any other pursuit or recreation. He developed his early tastes, and is a man who can speak with authority on the many problems involved in the growth and culture of decorative plants. By close study and experi- ment he has succeeded in raising the very best plants and flowers. He has always analyzed the soil, and has the ready art of being able to adapt the application of plant food so as to get the best results. Thus the output of his greenhouses has a high degree of superiority, and has a large and appreciative custom, though his plant is one of modest proportions and he has never aimed to excell in quantity so much as in quality.
He was born on a farm eight miles south of Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana, in 1870. His father, Nathan Plummer Currier, was born in 1837 on the same farm, where grandfather John Cur- rier had located as a pioneer fully eighty years ago. John Currier was a native of Germany, and his mother lived to be one hundred and eight years of age. In fact, longevity has been a marked family characteristic in all the generations. John Currier was one of the first settlers in Porter County, and bought a tract of timber land eight miles south of Valparaiso, and his first home there was a log cabin. He was a man whose chief distinction was ability to work hard and follow out a given course with undeviating persistence. In the course of time he hewed a farm from the wilderness and con- tinued to live there until his death. His natural life was shortened by falling into a well while it was being dung, and from the injuries he died. His widow survived him for a number of years and died at the age of ninety-three.
Nathan P. Currier, father of the Elkhart florist, subsequently bought the interests of his brothers and sisters in the old homestead of 260 acres in Porter County. Like his father, he was very active and strong and a hard worker, and made a substantial success out of general farming and stock raising, which was supplemented by his work as a butcher. In 1887, having leased his farm, he moved into the City of Valparaiso and continued in the butcher business there
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for several years. He is now spending his declining years quietly at Los Angeles, California. He married Mary Carpenter, who was born at New Carlisle, Indiana, where her parents were pioneer settlers. Nathan P. Currier and wife reared the following chil- dren : Mattie, John, William W., May, Mamie, Georgie, Calista and Bessie.
William W. Currier attended the country schools in his youth and at the age of seventeen went to Chicago and gained some metro- politan experience in the buying and selling of vegetables. As already noted, in early youth, he began the practical study of plant life, and he early determined to make the propogation and cultivation of plants his main business. In 1891 he moved to Elkhart and two years later established his present business.
In September, 1897, he married Miss Ella Adams, who was born in Cass County, Michigan, daughter of Nathan and Lizzie Adams. Her father was a veteran of the Union Army during the Civil war.
JOHN W. SLEAR. By half a century of residence John W. Slear is considered one of the old timers of Elkhart. He came here and joined his fortunes with the young city soon after the close of the war. He himself had been a soldier for several months in that struggle. He came with recommendations as a skillful harness maker, and soon found work in that line. His capacity for long and faithful service is well indicated in the fact that for forty con- secutive years he was with the Elkhart Carriage and Harness Manu- facturing Company.
Born on a farm in Lewisburg Township of Union County, Penn- sylvania, January 6, 1843, he represented some of the fine old Ger- man stock that helped to colonize Pennsylvania in the early colonial epoch. His father, Elias Slear, was born in Pennsylvania, and the grandfather, William Slear, was also a native of that state and lived for many years near Philadelphia, but later moved to Western Penn- sylvania and spent the rest of his days at Allegheny. Elias Slear was reared on a farm, but when a young man went to Union County, Pennsylvania, and bought a farm in Lewisburg Township. That was his home until 1877. when having sold out, he moved to Luding- ton, Michigan, buying a new farm in that heavily timbered country and continued to till it until his death at the age of sixty-six. His wife's maiden name was Susanne Kohler, who was born in Pennsyl- vania and died in 1908 at the age of seventy. Her father, Peter Kohler, was of German ancestry and spent all his days in Penn- sylvania.
John W. Slear grew up in Pennsylvania, acquired his education
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in the common schools, and when only a boy began an apprentice- ship in the harness trade. Early in 1863 he was one of the Penn- sylvanians enrolled for the three months' service who beat back the sudden invasion of Lee's army. He enlisted in Company D of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, and crowned his service by participating in the great three days' battle of Gettysburg. Having received his honorable discharge with the regiment at the end of the term, he then resumed work at his trade.
In 1865 Mr. Slear came to Elkhart, and after employment as a journeyman workman for a time he opened a shop of his own. A few years later he entered the employ of the Elkhart Carriage & Harness Manufacturing Company as a cutter and continued with that concern, one of its most valued and esteemed employes, for nearly forty years until 1915. Even yet Mr. Slear is unable to con- tent himself with a well earned idleness, and he employs his time clerking in a store.
In 1865 he married Joanna Smith, who was born in Elkhart, where her parents were early settlers. She died in 1868, leaving two children : Charles W. and Edwin. On May 28, 1878, Mr. Slear married for his second wife Louisa Walter. She was born near Nappanee in the southwestern corner of Elkhart County, where her father, George Walter, was an early settler. Mr. and Mrs. Slear have three children, Nora, Pearl and Walter.
Something should also be said of Mr. Slear's public activities. His good citizenship has been one of the factors of his life. In politics he is a democrat, and in various ways has served his party in his home county. For eight years he was an alderman, represent- ing a district that usually gives a strong republican majority. He was also a park commissioner four years. In Elmer Post Grand Army of the Republic he has formed many interesting associations with the surviving veterans of the Civil war. He served as quarter- master and at the present time is officer of the day.
JACKSON E. SCHUTT. The greater part of his active lifetime of forty years Mr. Schutt has spent in Indiana, partly as a farmer, partly as a merchant, and is best known to the people of his home community of Elkhart as a manufacturer. He is a man of un- doubted integrity, one who makes good his word whenever pledged. and though his life has been usually cast in the quieter routine and vocations, he has been thoroughly true to his obligations, and is a man highly respected and properly honored.
He was born on a farm ten miles north of Fort Wayne in Allen County, Indiana, June 1. 1855. His father, Andrew J.
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Schutt, was born in Yates County, New York. Grandfather Abraham Schutt was a native of Holland, and on coming to America located in Yates County, New York, where he lived until 1859. Coming West, he spent one year in Michigan, and then came to Elkhart County, where he rented what was then known as the Dodge but now as the Pope farm, in Cleveland Township. That was his home for twenty-two years, after which he went to Kendall- ville, Indiana, and lived out his declining years with his son-in-law Captain Eddings. He died at a good old age.
Andrew J. Schutt when only a boy left home, and accompanied two older brothers to Noble County, Indiana, where he lived until his marriage. He then bought a tract of land in Allen County containing about six acres cleared and with a log cabin in which his son Jackson first saw the light of day. From this somewhat primi- tive beginning Andrew J. Schutt worked hard to clear and improve his land, and in 1859 went to Noble County and bought a better farm, on which he lived until 1864. In that year he came to Elk- hart County, purchasing 150 acres, in Cleveland Township, a place containing a good set of buildings, and on which he engaged in general farming and stock raising for five years. Having sold out he bought from his brother Abram a farm in Osola Township, and occupied that one place for twenty-nine consecutive years. He then traded it for a 100 acre farm one mile west of Edwardsburg in Cass County, Michigan, only a few miles north of the Elkhart County line. That was his home for nine years, and he then retired from active affairs and is now living with his children, being a welcome guest at any of their homes. Though eighty-six, he is vigorous in mind and body and enjoys life to the full. Andrew J. Schutt married Lydia Buckingham, who died when seventy-seven years of age. She reared one son and two daughters, the daughters being Electa J. and Bertha L.
The only son of the family, Jackson E. Schutt spent his early life on the different farms owned and occupied by his father as above recorded. His early education came by attending the country schools of Indiana and he was also a student in the city schools of Elkhart. Reared as a farmer, he found that a more or less congenial occupation for a couple of years after his marriage, but then entered merchandising at Huntertown, located about ten miles north of Fort Wayne. He kept a general store there, supply- ing merchandise to a large neighborhood, and continued the business for ten years. He then came to the City of Elkhart and employed himself in various enterprises until 1908, when he started the manu- facture of cement blocks, a business which he has since continued
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and which has grown to liberal proportions, and gives him a very substantial living.
In 1880 Mr. Schutt married Cora A. Kingsley, who was born in Osola Township of Elkhart County, a daughter of C. R. and Olive (Johnson) Kingsley. Mr. and Mrs. Schutt reared two daugh- ters, Bertha I. and Olive M. Bertha is the wife of Fred Roe, while Olive M. married O. R. Steihn and they have two sons named De- vere and Reynold. Mr. and Mrs. Schutt also had two sons named Otha and Charles, but the former died at the age of five and the latter at the age of thirteen.
EDWARD W. WALKER. It was with a record of large construc- tive business activity that Edward W. Walker finished the course of a long and honorable career and died at his home in Goshen April 9, 1914. Around his name were associated many of Goshen's sub- stantial and successful business affairs. He was a splendidly upright and able citizen, and his death marked the close of a lifetime that was unusually fruitful.
Though most of his life was spent in Elkhart County, Edward W. Walker was born in Holmes County, Ohio, in 1831. He was about eighty-three years of age when he died. At the age of four he was brought to Indiana, his parents settling in LaPorte County, but in 1859, after he had grown up and received such education as was possible to boys of that time he came to Elkhart County. In 1862 Mr. Walker located in the city of Goshen, and for a number of years was identified with the wholesale furniture business. He later became interested in the banking business, and was one of the chief organizers of the City National Bank, and was one of the members of that well known institution up to the time of his death.
Mr. Walker first married in 1859 Sarah Stuart, who died about five years later. In 1869 he married Miss Hannah Field Brown. She was the daughter of Benj. Brown, and is a highly cultured and educated woman, having attended the eastern colleges and prior to her marriage was a popular and successful teacher. Mrs. Walker still presides over the beautiful Walker home at 113 South Fifth Street. This is one of the residential landmarks at Goshen, a large brick structure that has stood for many years and yet is thoroughly modern in all its appointments. Mrs. Walker is a member and one of the most liberal supporters of the First Presbyterian Church.
ISAAC W. MILLER. During more than a quarter of a century of activity in connection with the building and contracting business in Goshen, Isaac W. Miller has established a reputation for responsi-
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ble financial management and systematic and accurate execution of every contract that he undertakes, even down to the last detail. In recent years he has put up some of the more notable business and public structures in the city, and he has constantly all the work which his organization and facilities can perform.
He comes of one of the older families of Elkhart County, and was himself born in this county, four and a half miles south of Goshen in Harrison Township in January, 1852. His father, the late Henry Miller, who died in 1903, was also born in Indiana, and though a farmer for many years later became a contractor and builder and established himself in that business at Goshen. Henry Miller married Miss May Riley, a native of Indiana, who is still living, and resides on the old homestead in Harrison Township.
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