USA > Indiana > Kosciusko County > A standard history of Kosciusko County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development. A chronicle of the people with family lineage and memoirs, Volume II > Part 34
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In politics he is a democrat, and is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees. On April 15, 1878, he married Miss Priscilla Shaffer. Her father, Henry Shaffer, had for many years been a well known farmer and citizen of Kosciusko County. Mr. and Mrs. Ringle are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. To their marriage were born three children : Mabel died at the age of twenty-one. Jessie Ethel died at eighteen months. The only one now living is Benjamin Franklin.
WILLIAM W. GILLIAM. About forty-five years ago when William W. Gilliam married, he had a very small piece of land as a start towards farming, and since then his own energies and sound intelli- gence have enabled him to accumulate a property which makes him one of the leading farmers and land owners of Wayne Township.
Mr. Gilliam was born in Washington Township of this county April 26, 1850, son of William F. and Mary Elizabeth (Morris) Gil- liam. His father was born in Virginia, and on reaching his majority moved to Ohio and from Fayette County, that state, came to Kosciusko County in the fall of 1845. He lived in Washington Township for some years and later moved to Tippecanoe Township, where he had a farm. In that locality he died September 5, 1882, when nearly sixty- seven years of age. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mary Elizabeth Morris was a native of Ohio and survived her husband. They were the parents of twelve children, those still living being as follows: Clavin, who served as a soldier in the Union army and is now a stock buyer at Warsaw; Minerva, who lives in Rich Creek ; William W .; Angeline, wife of Nathaniel Hover; Emma, wife of French Berry ; Edward, of LaGrange County, Indiana; and Hattie, wife of Harry Kelley, of Warsaw.
William W. Gilliam grew up on the old farm in Tippecanoe Town- ship. He had a common school education and was at home with his parents until twenty-one, when he started out to carve his own for- tune in the world.
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In 1872 he married Miss Mary C. Baker, a native of Kosciusko County. His career has been spent as a progressive farmer of this county. He now owns 330 acres comprising his home place in Wayne Township and also has 145 acres in LaGrange County. He combines good stock with productive fields, and his farm is one of the chief pro- ducing centers of agricultural supplies in the county.
Mr. and Mrs. Gilliam have three children: Mabel, who finished her education in high school and is now the widow of George A. Snyder of Warsaw; Mary, a graduate of the common schools and wife of William R. Hall, of Warsaw; and Fred E., who was educated in the publie schools and is a farmer in Plain Township. He married Irene Hill.
Mr. Gilliam and family are members of the Progressive Brethren Church at Warsaw and he is one of the deacons. Politically he is a republican and is at present serving on the Township Advisory Board.
REV. GEORGE H. THAYER. HON. JOHN D. THAYER. For a period of more than fifty-five years the name Thayer has been one of greatest significance in Kosciusko County. Members of the family have been effective upholders of the Christian religion and every phase of mor- ality and intellectual and spiritual progress. They have been business men of more than ordinary ability, have been leaders in public af- fairs, and the City of Warsaw in particular has cause to remember their attainments and influence with gratitude.
The Rev. George H. Thayer was best known to this community and all over Northern Indiana as a pioneer Methodist preacher, one who was a true missionary and carried the Gospel word to many isolated communities. He was born December 29, 1807, in Brown County, New York. His father was James Thayer, a native of Massachusetts and of colonial ancestry. James Thayer served as captain of a com- pany of militia during the War of 1812. Rev. George H. Thayer was graduated from Onondaga Academy and both prior to his graduation and afterwards he taught school. When about eighteen years of age he was converted and joined the Methodist Church. In 1836 he en- tered the ministry and for a number of years pursued the work with- out compensation, undertaking the arduous role of the itinerant min- ister, walking and riding horseback for miles to keep his appointments. He is properly remembered among the pioneer evangelists of that faith in Northern Indiana. In 1845 he located at Peru, Indiana, and three years later moved to Marshall County. From there in 1859 he came to Bourbon in Kosciusko County, and laid out Thayer's Addi- tion to that town. Rev. George H. Thayer was a man of strong force of character, was public spirited, an earnest worker on matters per- taining to religious and educational development, and for these and many other reasons his life should be a matter of record in Kosciusko County. He was not only devoted to his duty as he saw it, but was an original and profound thinker on many subjects, and a man of en- lightened opinions and convictions. He cast his first presidential ballot for Andrew Jackson, but later became a whig, and still later supported the republican principles. He was a Knight Templar in the
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Masonic fraternity. His death occurred December 6, 1899, at the ad- vanced age of ninety-two years. His first wife was Hannah Griffin, who died in 1865. She was the mother of three children: Heury G., John D. and Frances Augusta. Both the sons became prominent men in Indiana. In 1867 Rev. Mr. Thayer married Mrs. Amelia Crockett. To that union were born two daughters: Lillie and Emma G.
Hon. John D. Thayer, who left an indelible impress not only upon business affairs but upon the public life of Kosciusko County, was one of the sons of the late Rev. George H. Thayer. John D. Thayer was born in Syracuse, New York, May 27, 1840, and when about five years of age accompanied his father to Peru, Indiana, spent part of his early youth in Marshall County, and went with his father to Bourbon in Kosciusko County in 1859, and helped the latter develop a farm there. Thus the early circumstances of John D. Thayer were those of a rural community. He gained his education in district schools and came to manhood on the old farm near Bourbon. He also supplemented his early education by a course in DePauw University at Greencastle, Indiana. He had also taught school prior to going to college.
It was his early ambition to become a lawyer, though destiny over- ruled and his life work was chiefly in business and industrial affairs. He lived at both Bourbon and Plymouth for several years, and at Plymouth clerked for a brother in a grocery store. Subsequently the two brothers engaged in the grain business.
In 1862 John D. Thayer married Sara Erwin, daughter of Elijah and Mary (Scott) Erwin, who were Quaker settlers in Marshall County, Indiana. About a year after his marriage Mr. Thayer moved to Warsaw, and that city was thenceforth his home. With his brother Henry G. he bought the mill west of the square which originally was built by Colonel Chapman. This industry they operated for a num- ber of years. In 1876 John D. Thayer bought the Big Four grain ele- vator, and operated it until he sold the building to J. F. Beyer to be used as a barn. He next bought the elevator originally owned by Sam- uel Oldfather. He continued in the elevator and grain business until his death.
In many ways Mr. Thayer was prominently identified with the affairs of Warsaw. He was an ardent republican and was twice hon- ored by election to the Lower House of the State Legislature, and once to the State Senate. He was not a silent member of the legislative body, but did much to shape legislation during his term of service. He was author of some of the measures still found on the statute books of the state. Fraternally he was active in the Masonic Order, attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and was also a Knight Templar. Anything that was undertaken to make a better and greater city was sure to appeal to him, and he took a great deal of pride in the prosperity and welfare of his own community, and in every way possi- ble assisted its progress.
This sterling citizen of Warsaw passed away January 28, 1895. He and his wife were the parents of six children, two of whom died in in- fancy, and the other four are Mattie O., now Mrs. E. E. Hendee, of
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San Diego, California ; Jessie ; Harry D., a resident of California ; and Mary.
Mrs. Thayer was of the Quaker religious belief, but owing to the fact that there was no organization of Quakers at Warsaw she and the rest of her family attended the Presbyterian Church. In her younger days she taught school, and through all her life she kept in close touch with educational affairs. She was an able helper and adviser to the able man with whom she lived for a period of thirty-three years. Her death occurred September 10, 1914. She took a very active part with other Warsaw women in the work of the W. C. T. U., and some forty years ago she was one of the participants in the liquor crusades. She was also a member of the Zerelda Reading Club, and she and Mr. Thayer were among the charter members of the local chapter of the Order of Eastern Star.
JOHN S. CONKLIN has become well known to different farming sec- tions in Kosciusko County as a veteran thresherman. He has been operating threshing outfits over this district for over twenty-five years. Mr. Conklin is also a practical farmer and his home is 21/2 miles south- east of Warsaw.
He was born on the southeast corner section of Wayne Township on February 8, 1869, son of Cyrus E. and Isabel J. (Lucas) Conklin. Mr. Conklin grew up on the farm where he was born and attended the district schools to the age of eighteen. After that he worked at home and at the age of twenty-one, on July 12, 1890, married Miss Laura J. Walker. Mrs. Conklin was born half a mile north of her husband's birthplace, and they attended the same school and were in the same classes.
After their marriage they took charge of the Conklin home farm, later lived on the Walker farm, and from that moved to another place nearby. When twenty-five years old, in 1895, Mr. Conklin bought his first threshing outfit and has been continuously in the business with all the changes and incidents thereto for more than twenty-five years. He is now using his fourth outfit, which represents a remarkable advance over the first machinery, which at the time was the best on the market. Mr. Conklin had the distinction of operating the first wind stacker over a district between the Nickel Plate Railroad and the Pennsylvania lines.
Mr. and Mrs. Conklin have seven living children. Frank, a grad- uate of the Warsaw High School and who also studied at Winona, be- came first sergeant in the One Hundred and Thirteenth Mobile Ord- nance repair shops and now in France. Harry, who also represents the family in army service, is a graduate of the common schools and is a member of Battery D of the One Hundred Thirty-seventh Field Ar- tillery and now in New Jersey. Mary is a graduate of the common schools and is the wife of Carl Funk. Eva is still at home and Zola May and Lola Fay, twins, born December 17, 1911, have recently be- gun their school careers. The youngest of the family is Ralph, aged five years.
Mr. Conklin is affiliated with Lodge No. 515 of the Independent
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Order of Odd Fellows at Claypool and is also a member of the Loyal Order of Moose. Politically he votes as a democrat in national affairs, but is liberal and gives his support to the best man in local questions.
JACOB W. MATZ, who has a fine farm property in the northeast cor- ner of Wayne Township, is of that type of citizens who begin life with- out special advantages or the inheritance of means except the ability to toil and make the best of environment.
He has proved himself one of the sturdy characters of Kosciusko County, and though he and his wife had absolutely nothing when they married they are now possessed of some valuable property and have gained an enviable station in life.
Mr. Matz was born in Franklin County, Ohio, April 18, 1860, son of Daniel and Mary A. (Matz) Matz. Both parents were natives of Berks County, Pennsylvania. They spent their last years in Ohio. Of their six children five are still living: Sidney ; Orlando Franklin ; Ida J., a graduate of the Wooster High School and of Akron College, and now a teacher in the schools of Akron; and Ella, wife of Loren Lounsbury, of Akron.
Jacob W. Matz grew to manhood in Wayne County, Ohio, and was educated in the district schools. He was only thirteen when he started to make his own living. For several years he worked on a farm at wages of only $4 a month. On the 24th of December, 1882, he arrived in Kosciusko County. He was poor and practically a stranger, and for several years he continued to do farm work at wages.
On November 19, 1885, he married Lydia Freesner. Mrs. Matz was born in Hocking County, Ohio, and was two years old when her parents moved to Kosciusko County, where she grew up and received her education in the district schools, and she also taught school in the county. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Matz rented land in the county until 1900, when they achieved one definite advance in pros- perity by purchasing seventy-three acres of land where they now live. Since then other items have been added to their prosperity, and besides they have twenty-five acres in Tippecanoe Township and fifty acres in Plain Township.
Mr. and Mrs. Matz have also been active in the affairs of their com- munity and are members of the Progressive Brethren Church at Dutch- town. In politics Mr. Matz is a republican. He and his wife have three children : Ida A., a graduate of the common schools and wife of R. W. Kile; Anna, who has finished the work of the common schools and lives at home; and Luella, who is also at home. All are graduates of the common schools.
JOHN D. GODDARD, owner of one of the largest farms of Kosciusko County, has spent practically all his life in Indiana, and is an honored surviving veteran of the Civil war. He fought valiantly for the cause of the Union, and his entire career may be described as a battle, since he had to struggle for his own living when a mere boy. With the aid of a good wife he has acquired substantial means and is one of the
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leading men of this county. His farm home is in section 2 of Wayne Township.
Mr. Goddard was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, near Battle- ground, November 9, 1842, son of Benjamin H. and Nancy (Deardoff) Goddard. His father was a native of the State of Maine and his mother of Ohio. Both families were pioneers in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, where Benjamin Goddard and wife married and where they lived on a farm until 1846. In that year they removed to Newton County, Indiana, which was then just beginning to be settled. Benja- min Goddard died there in 1847. His wife married again and survived him nearly fifty years. She passed away at Morocco, Indiana, in 1904. Benjamin Goddard and wife had five children: Sarah Ann, who died in 1874; Matilda, widow of Lafayette Mccullough, living at Leon, Kansas; Catherine, widow of Finley Shaffer, a soldier of the Civil war; John D .; Melissa, wife of John Smart, living near Morocco. The sec- ond husband of Nancy Goddard was Andrew Murphy, who gave up his life as a soldier of the Union during the Civil war.
John D. Goddard started to make his own way in the world when only ten years old. He was employed at monthly wages on a farm to the age of eighteen. He responded with all he had to the call of President Lincoln for volunteers to put down the rebellion and on September 7, 1861, enlisted in Company D of the Ninth Indiana In- fantry. He was with the regiment on constant duty until mus- tered out three years later in September, 1864. He was wounded in the great battle of Chickamanga. His first battle was at Greenbrier. following which he participated at Stone River, Chickamauga, and a number of the battles leading up to the Atlanta campaign. Following the war he returned to Newton County, Indiana, and resumed his ca- reer as a farmer.
On February 15, 1866, Mr. Goddard married Mary J. Kessler. Mrs. Goddard was born in Newton County September 4, 1845, daugh- ter of David and Rachel (Fisher) Kessler. Her father was a native of Virginia and her mother of Indiana. Her parents were the first couple married at Battle Ground. Mrs. Goddard was reared in Jasper County, now Newton County, Indiana. Her father was a stanch re- publican and a member of the United Brethren Church.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Goddard settled on the farm of his father-in-law, and later he bought the farm and was greatly pros- pered as a farmer in Newton County until he left there in 1901 and came to Warsaw. In Kosciusko County Mr. Goddard has invested heavily in land and now owns 535 acres.
Mr. Goddard is one of the interesting men who voted for President Lincoln during the Civil war times. He became a republican then and has always been true to the doctrines of the party. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Warsaw, and he is affiliated with his old army comrades in the Grand Army Post.
Mr. and Mrs. Goddard have had the following children: Clara, of Denver, Colorado; Anna, deceased ; Rachel Raye, wife of Alexander Craig, of Bristow, Connecticut ; William, who owns a farm in Cali-
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fornia ; Belle, wife of Charles Hines and living in San Francisco; and Blanche, wife of Clint Dederich, of Warsaw.
WILLIAM H. ORR. The winning of a comfortable prosperity after many struggles with fortune and the establishment of a home and place as an honored and influential citizen of his community is a short measure of the accomplishment of William H. Orr, who for many years has been identified with Kosciusko County. Mr. Orr is proprie- tor of the well known Brookside Farm, comprising 160 acres 31/2 miles northeast of Warsaw in Wayne County.
He is a native of Wayne County, Ohio. 'His first place was in Orr- ville, a town which was laid out by three brothers, Smith, James and Samuel Orr, all of whom emigrated from Ireland, first settling in Phila- delphia and from there going to Wayne County, Ohio, when it was a wilderness community. Of these three brothers James Orr was grand- father of William H. Orr. His children were named Barr R., Samuel, James, William, Henry, Elizabeth, Mariah, Margaret, Mary, Amanda.
Samuel Orr, the father of William H. Orr, married Mary McClel- lan, of Apple Creek. They had two children, William H. and Ann Eliza, the latter dying at the age of fourteen. Samuel Orr died in Ohio, and his widow, about 1852, brought her family to Indiana, locat- ing at Anderson, and about 1855 going by ox team to Noble County, Indiana.
When he was sixteen years old William H. Orr left home and started to make his own living. He had the equipment of a district school education. After some years of self support he entered, at the age of twenty-three, Valparaiso College and was graduated in the teachers and business course. For a time he was located at Ligonier, and for about eighteen years was in business in Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan. In April, 1891, he traded for a farm and later bought his present place, the Brookside Farm in Kosciusko County.
Mr. Orr has four children : Mabel, wife of Homer Van Curen ; Iva, wife of Walter Hover ; Mary, wife of Earl D. Keefer ; and William A., who is a graduate of the Warsaw High School and is still at home. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Morris Chapel, and Mr. Orr is one of the trustees. He is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees at Ligonier and in polities is a democrat. Judge William Orr, a prominent figure in the bar and affairs of Wayne County, Ohio, is a first cousin of Mr. Orr's father.
HARRY LATHROPE is one of the oldest residents of Kosciusko County. He has been identified with the county in the capacity of a substantial mechanical workman or as a farmer for fully half a century. He is now proprietor of a good farm of forty acres known as the Silvias Ramble Farm, located 31% miles southeast of Warsaw in Wayne Town- ship, on rural route No. 6.
Mr. Lathrope is a native of England, having been born at Denby Dale in Yorkshire April 8, 1849. He was sixteen years old when he came with his parents to the United States in August, 1865. The family located at Warsaw, where Harry Lathrope grew to maturity.
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He was educated in the schools of England, and spent a three years' apprenticeship learning the blacksmith's trade.
Mr. Lathrope married Huldah Elder. Mrs. Lathrope was born 51/2 miles from Warsaw in Washington Township September 25, 1858. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lathrope located at Warsaw, where he followed his trade for many years. In 1910 they moved to their present comfortable home in the country. They became the parents of two children, both deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Lathrope made a trip back to England in April, 1892, and spent several months in the old country visiting friends and familiar scenes. Mr. Lathrope is a mem- ber of the Church of England and is a republican in politics.
JONATHAN WYLAND. Some highly developed farms lie along rural route No. 6 out of Warsaw in Wayne Township, and one of them is the place of Jonathan Wyland in the southeast corner of that town- ship, in section 36. Mr. Wyland has given a good account of his en- ergies and abilities and deserves to rank well to the front among the farming men of one of the richest agricultural sections of Indiana.
Mr. Wyland is a native of Kosciusko County, born in Tippecanoe Township April 22, 1862, son of Jonathan and Rebecca (Bowman) Wyland. His father was a native of Ohio and his mother of Penn- sylvania. Both parents came to Indiana in early days, the Wylands lo- cating in Kosciusko County and the Bowmans in Noble County. Jon- athan, Sr., and wife after marriage located on a farm in Tippecanoe Township, where he entered 126 acres of government land, and there they spent their useful careers. Both were active Christians, and very fine people. Of their fifteen children the following are still living : Daniel, of Michigan ; Nathaniel, of Oregon ; Alfred, of Michigan ; Ford, who lives in the State of Washington ; Emanuel, of Kosciusko County ; Elizabeth, wife of Emanuel Fanciel, of Noble County, Indiana ; Mary M., wife of Daniel Llewellyn, of Elkhart County, Indiana; and Jonathan.
Jonathan Wyland grew up on the old homestead in Tippecanoe Township and was educated in the district schools. At the age of twenty he started to make his own living and did farm work until his marriage in December, 1885, to Miss Caroline Mindline, of Tippecanoe Township. Mrs. Wyland is a native of Ohio, but has spent most of her life in Kosciusko County.
The first five years after his marriage Mr. Wyland did farming and saw milling and in 1890 moved to Wayne Township, and has owned and occupied his present home in the southeast quarter of that township since 1910. By the united industry and economy of himself and good wife he has built up a fine estate of 180 acres. His reputation as a farmer is most widely known as a successful breeder of Shorthorn cattle. His herd is headed by Warsaw Victor. He also breeds Duroc and Poland China hogs. He is a prohibitionist in politics and is very active in the United Brethren Church.
He and his wife have two children : Lester E., born May 20, 1891, is a graduate of the common schools and of Winona Academy in 1910, and by his marriage to Margaret Hickok has four children, named
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Margaret, Rose M. and Catherine, twins, and Florence V. Both he and his family are members of the United Brethren Church. Devona, the second child, born February 22, 1897, is the wife of Royce Harsh- mer, of Wayne Township.
HOMER T. MENZIE is one of the residents of Kosciusko County with whom love of land, of peace and industry is a dominant characteristic. Mr. Menzic has one of the good farms seven miles east of Warsaw, on rural route No. 3, and does a splendid business in general farming and stock raising.
He was born at the place he now owns December 24, 1884, son of William T. and Emily (Groves) Menzie. His parents were also born in Kosciusko County and represented early pioneer families here. The mother was born in Washington Township October 8, 1848. After their marriage they settled on the farm where their son Homer now lives, and the father lived there until his death on December 8, 1885. There were five children: Verna, wife of H. C. Rosselot, of Long Beach, California; Ada, wife of D. F. Van Nattor, on a farm in Wash- ington Township; Mary, wife of F. P. Benton, at Warsaw; and A. G., who is foreman for the Winona Electric Light & Water Company.
Homer T. Menzie grew up on the old homestead, gained his educa- tion in the common schools, and was reared and trained in the occu- pation which he has followed chiefly throughout his active career. On reaching manhood he went east and for eleven months was foreman in the plant of the New York Glucose Company at Jersey City and was also weighmaster for the same company. After his marriage he re- turned to Kosciusko County and has been busily engaged in farming, supervising his fields and erops, and he also buys carload lots of live- stock, pasturing and finishing them for market.
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