USA > Indiana > White County > A standard history of White County Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and county, Vol. II > Part 11
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Hiram A. Moorhous was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, November 12, 1835, a son of William and Catherine (Minch) Moorhous. William Moorhous was a physician, highly educated, well read and informed on all local and national affairs, and for many years enjoyed a large prac- tice in his profession. He early removed to Indiana, locating at Craw- fordsville, and in 1855 brought his family to West Point Township in White County, where he lived retired until his death in 1871. He was buried at Lafayette. His wife died in Crawfordsville before the family came to White County. Of their six children, only one is now living.
Hiram A. Moorhous spent most of his life in Indiana, acquired his education in the schools that existed during the '40s and '50s, and was about twenty-two years of age when he came with his father to White County. He forthwith became identified with agriculture, and years of labor and effective management eventually brought him to a commenda- ble degree of prosperity.
He was long one of the most familiar factors in the democratic party.
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On that ticket he was elected at different times to the office of county treasurer, served as drainage commissioner, as county commissioner, and was always ready to help out in any movement of importance.
Hiram A. Moorhous died January 15, 1908, in his seventy-second . year. While he affiliated with the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias, he was noted for his devotion to his home and family. On December 25th, Christmas Day of 1869, he married Sarah Irion, daugh- ter of Anderson and Sophia (Gragoo) Irion. The Irion family came to White County from Ohio in 1851, locating on a farm in West Point Township, where her father spent the rest of his career, and both parents died there and are buried in one of the local cemeteries. Mrs. Moorhous is one of ten children, and one of the two still living. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Moorhous were born six children : Merritt; Delbert; Maud, who died in November, 1914; Claudia; Ruth; and one that died in infancy.
THE GENEALOGY OF FAMILY OF J. WESLEY AND HARVEY G. SHULL. While the immediate ancestry of these two well known citizens of White County has been referred to in connection with their individual careers, there is considerable other information bearing upon the family in general in this country which should properly be published in order to give it permanent record. Prof. John W. Scholl, a member of the faculty of the University of Michigan, has given a great deal of study to the various branches of the Scholl-Shull stock in America, and some of his data and conclusions are incorporated in this record.
The father of J. Wesley Shull was Lewis Shull, who in turn was a son of Jacob Shull. It seems probable that the ancestor next preced- ing, that is the great-grandfather of J. Wesley, was Lewis Scholl, who according to the records of Manheim Township, York County. Pennsylvania, made his will August 19, 1813, and it was probated March 11, 1814. His wife's name was Catharine. The probability that this Lewis was the grandfather of the Lewis Shull who died in White County is based upon the fact that the name Lewis is rather unusual among the whole tribe of Scholl-Shull families in America, and as children are often named after grandfathers, the conclusion is that the Lewis Shull of White County was a grandson of the Lewis whose estate was settled in York County, Pennsylvania. It is also known that many people moved from York County across to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the early days, and Jacob Shull, son of Lewis, may have gone to Virginia, married there, and had a son whom he named Lewis.
Professor Scholl's general account of the family lines is quoted as follows: "Manheim township was one of the chief centers of German
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MR. AND MRS. J. WESLEY SHULL FAMILY GROUP
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settlement when the York county lands were first settled, along from 1750 to 1760. It is somewhat toward the south of the county near the Maryland border. A great many families from York and the adjoining counties, Lancaster on the east and Franklin on the west, removed to Maryland and Virginia, especially to the Shenandoah Valley. From the Shenandoah Valley a great many families came later, between 1830 and 1850, to the Ohio lands. They went down the valley to Southwest Virginia, crossed through the Cumberland Gap, then came north over the Old Wilderness Road to Cincinnati, and then up the Miami Valley to the frontier counties. Hence it is probable that Jacob Shull and his wife Polly went from Pennsylvania as young folks to Virginia, married and settled somewhere in the valley, and then the next genera- tion moved on into Ohio.
"No matter how the name is now spelled, the original form is Scholl. This name belonged to a family in Southern Germany ever since the adoption of surnames back in the thirteenth century. In the grand-ducal archives of Wurtemberg, at Karlsruhe, is preserved a Latin document concerning a quarrel about monastery lands at Herre- nalb under the rule of Count Eberhard of Eberstein. Among the witnesses to this document is a certain Henrico Schollen, the Latin for Heinrich Scholl. This paper was signed in 1207 A. D. Now we do not know that this Henry is the ancestor of all existing Scholls, but he must have belonged to the family of the earliest ancestor of the tribe. We know nothing more about this person but it is apparent that he was a man of prominence and influence among the vassals of Count Eberhard and that he was educated in the Latin.
"We have no record of Scholls in the next two hundred fifty odd years, but in 1484 Caspar Scholl died in Dinkelsbuehl, a city in German Bavaria, just a few miles across the border from Wurtemberg. He was a goldsmith. He had three sons, Caspar, Wolfgang and Michael, from whom descends nearly all the numerous Scholls now living in all parts of Wurtemberg, Baden, Bavaria, Alsace and elsewhere. These three sons were boon traveling companions of the great Emperor Maxmilian I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. For their 'honor, honesty, good manners, virtue and reason' and their 'pleasing and faithful, useful and willing services' Maximilian renewed and confirmed to them in 1500 A. D. the grant of a coat of arms and crest, which are preserved to the present day. Since this was a renewal, we must assume that the family had been among the feudal gentry before. I think that Maximilian's grant merely extended the right to the coat of arms to the whole German Empire of that day.
"We know some lines of Scholls existing today in Rhein-West- Vol. II-7
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phalian Territory in Hesse-Nassau, Brandenburg, Pomerania, which have not been proved to belong to this Wurtemberg family, but' those . who know most about them are convinced that they all belong together and descend from a common ancestor, probably lying somewhere back of that Caspar of Dinkelsbuehl.
"It is not generally known from what places the American immigrant Scholls came, but most of them came from such districts as Westphalia, Rhine Province, Rhine Palatine, Alsace, Switzerland, Wurtemberg and the Black Forest of Baden, thus showing that they are undoubtedly descendants of the same old European family above mentioned.
"Most of them came to America to escape religious persecution or military service contrary to their consciences or because their fortunes were ruined by war's ravages. Some possibly later to mend their fortunes because of the glowing accounts of interested immigration agents.
"No one will probably ever know all the Scholls who came to America in the early day. Most of them came to the port of Philadel- phia between the years 1700 and 1770, except such new arrivals as came in the 1830, 1848 and 1881 immigrations. One of the earliest to arrive was Pieter Jansen Scholl, a Hollander from The Hague, who was in New York before 1680. Johannes Scholl and Peter Scholl were naturalized in Pennsylvania in 1708-09. They settled at Skippach near Philadelphia and Johannes died there in about 1740, leaving a number of children. Friedrich Scholl came September 11, 1728. His descend- ants spell the name Shull and are tolerably well worked out. Johannes Scholl (name also spelled Schott and Schoule) came with wife Catharine and three children in 1732. Michael Scholl, Sr., aged sixty-three and Michael Scholl, Jr., aged twenty-six, arrived in 1738. Peter Scholl, aged twenty-eight, arrived August 27, 1739. His descendants are all recorded except a few by Mr. H. G. Shull of Germantown, Pennsylvania. Carl Scholl, Joseph Scholl and Johan Friedrich Scholl (name spelled also Schulle) and Andreas Scholl came in 1749. Christian Scholl arrived in 1751. Balthasar Scholl came November 8, 1752. One of his descendants is now in Allentown, Pennsylvania. On the same ship came a fourteen year old boy, Johan Peter Scholl, the sole survivor of his family, the rest dying of ship's fever on the voyage; also an eleven year old girl, daughter of Phillip Scholl, Anna Susanna Dorothea Scholl, who had run away from home to escape a stepmother, as the family legend says. These two worked to pay back their passage money and married later, about 1772. Their descendants are mostly collected and published by Alton G. Scholl, now of Atlanta, Georgia. Georg Friedrich Scholl came September 10, 1753, and Johan Friedrich Scholl,
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aged twenty-one, came October 2, 1753. It is probable that it was one of these Friedrichs whose death was recorded in York county in 1774, and he was probably the ancestor of Professor Scholl of Ann Arbor. Philip Scholl, father of Anna mentioned above, came over about 1755-57, bringing his sons Michael, John Stephen and Philip, Jr., with him. The early generations of this family are fairly well known. Andreas Scholl arrived August 8, 1764; Jacob Scholl, October 16, 1768; Johan Nickel, or Michel, Scholl on the same date. There may have been others but. the names are recorded, Schall, Schaal, Schaul, Schahl, Schell, etc., so it is quite impossible to be more certain. From these arrivals have descended all our scattered families, and among them was probably the immigrant ancestor of the Shull brothers in White county."
J. WESLEY SHULL. There are very few family names that have a. longer identification with White County than that of Shull. The record of their activities has been as honorable as it is long. From the time the pioneer cleared out the first space for his home in Jackson Township- down to the present there have been substantial farmers in the family, and success in the field of agriculture has been accompanied by a public spirited attitude toward all home institutions and improvements, includ- ing churches, schools, good roads, and all those facilities which enhance the attractiveness of country life. J. Wesley Shull has for many years. pursued his vocation as a farmer in Jackson Township, and is one of the oldest native sons of that community.
He was born on section 14 in Jackson Township, October 24, 1845. His grandparents, Jacob and Polly Shull, were born about 1790 and were married in Virginia about 1810. To their union were born seven. children : John, Lewis, George, Jacob, Margaret Westerfield, Polly- Wescoe and Sarah Detamore. After Jacob Shull's death his widow Polly and the seven children moved to Ohio, probably to Preble County .. and about 1834 they moved to Indiana. Lewis Shull, father of J. Wesley, was born January 10, 1813, in the old State of Virginia and died in White County, July 4, 1853. From Virginia he went over the mountains into Ohio in the early days, and in the latter state was married to Clementina York, daughter of Jeptha and Susanna York. Not long after his marriage he brought his wife to the wilderness of White County, Indiana, where he entered 120 acres of Government land in section 14 of Jackson township, and began making the improve- ments for a home there in July, 1835, just eighty years before these- words were written. Lewis Shull was of German descent, made agriculture his life long vocation, and for many years was a consistent advocate of those political principles contained in the platforms of the.
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whig party. He and his wife were members of the Baptist Church. Both are now deceased and are buried in Davis Cemetery in Cass County. Their nine children were named William C., Martha J., Margaret A., Harvey G., Jeptha J., J. Wesley, Mahala C., Mary Matilda and Bel- lender L.
J. Wesley Shull can remember a time when Jackson Township was still largely a pioneer section. His early life was spent on the old farm in section 14, and his education was limited to the common schools which were then maintained in White County. He has an important military record as a soldier of the Union during the trying days of the Civil war. In the fall of 1863 he left the home farm and at Burnettsville enlisted and was mustered in at Michigan City in Company F of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. This regiment was as- signed to the Army of the Cumberland, and he continued under the com- mand of Sherman until the fall of Atlanta in 1864. After the capture of Atlanta he was sent back into Tennessee under General Thomas, and fought in one of the last great battles in the Western Department, at Franklin, Tennessee, where he was wounded in the right foot. He saw much of the hard side of military life, suffered from exposure and hard- ship, but remained in the service until getting his honorable discharge, April 19, 1866.
At the close of the war Mr. Shull returned home and took up his regular vocation as a farmer, which he has followed steadily now for nearly half a century. On March 1, 1867, he married Miss Margaret A. Price, daughter of Aaron and Mary (Hancock) Price, who were likewise early settlers in Jackson Township. To their marriage were born eight children, as follows: Addie, who married Henry Eller of Rock Lake, North Dakota; Ira M., who married Jennie Smith of Elwood, Indiana; Mary C. and Wesley A., both deceased; Lola, wife of Frank Godlove, liv- ing south of Idaville; one that died in infancy; Maggie, who is unmar- ried and lives at Monticello; and Omar R., who is still single and is at Pemberton, British Columbia. The mother of these children was taken away by death June 22, 1888. On September 18, 1889, Mr. Shull mar- ried Effie A. Neel, a native of White County, born August 4, 1858, the youngest of the nine children, five sons and four daughters, in the family of Abram and Eliza (Gibson) Neel, who were among the early settlers of Jackson Township. One of the four children of this union died in infancy, and the others are all at home-Edna E., Leta E. and Leo L. The daughters have received high school educations and Leo is a student in the eighth grade. Mrs. Shull was reared and educated in her native County of White. She is a member of the Church of Christ, Scientist, is a firm believer in its teachings, and has had experience in the power
mrs g Shull
Harvey & Shull
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of its healing of disease. She is a lady of genial, cordial nature, and has nobly filled her sphere as a wife and mother.
Mr. Shull has long taken an active part in the Church of God or the New Dunkards, served as deacon ten years and for eight years has been an elder. For a number of years he was superintendent of the Sunday school of the church. In politics he naturally aligns himself with the republican party, but in recent years has supported the prohibition ticket. In 1874 he was elected township assessor, and has never neglected an opportunity to do his part in the community advancement. Mr. Shull removed to his present farm in March, 1872. It is a fine place of 120 acres, situated 41/2 miles northwest of Burnettsville, and is known as "The Forest Dale Stock Farm." The land has been cleared and tiled under his personal supervision, and in the past forty years its value has increased many fold.
HARVEY G. SHULL. A native of White County and a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of this section of the Hoosier State, Harvey George Shull has been identified with the great funda- mental industry of agriculture during his entire active career, has made the same a medium for the achievements of large and worthy success, and he stands today as one of the prominent citizens and sub- stantial farmers of his native county, within whose borders virtually his entire life thus far has been passed. His advancement as one of the world's productive workers has been the result of his own well directed endeavors and he has made of success not an accident but a logical result.
At the old homestead in section 14, Jackson Township, this county, Mr. Schull was born on the 14th of November, 1840, his father, Lewis Shull, having come to White County from Ohio, about the year 1835, and having become one of the pioneer settlers and industrious agricul- turists of Jackson Township, where he reclaimed his land from a virtual wilderness. Lewis Shull was of German lineage, was born in the State of Virginia, where the family was founded in an early day, he and his wife held membership in the Baptist church and in politics he was first a whig. He continued his residence in White County until his death, and both he and his wife were well advanced in years when they were summoned from the stage of their mortal endeavors, secure in the high regard of the community in which they had long maintained their home.
Reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm, Harvey G. Shull early gained abiding appreciation of the dignity and value of honest toil, and he realized that upon the same he must needs depend for the
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winning of individual independence and prosperity. Through energy and good judgment he has made consecutive advancement and he is now the owner of a well improved farm of 140 acres seven miles north- east of Monticello, in Liberty Township, the very appearance of this excellent homestead giving evidence of unalloyed thrift and prosperity. Mr. Shull is emphatically loyal in supporting measures projected for the general good of the community and has been a leader in progressive movements in the improving of public roads and the providing of adequate drainage facilities, his own farm having an excellent system of tile drains of the best modern type.
Mr. Shull accords unwavering allegiance to the cause of the demo- cratic party, is essentially progressive and public-spirited as a citizen, and while he has never sought political office he has been made the candidate of his party for township trustee and once before the conven- tion as county commissioner, the normal republican majority in the township compassing his defeat, though he was elected township super- visor and continued the able incumbent of this office for seven years. He and his wife hold membership in the Baptist church at Sitka, Indiana, and he is liberal in the support of its various activities.
On the 25th of December, 1864, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Shull to Miss Mary Jane Clark, of Jackson Township, and her death occurred October 20th of the following year. November 25, 1869, Mr. Shull wedded Miss Sarah E. Ballinger, a daughter of Joshua and Elizabeth (Edwards) Ballinger, sterling citizens of Jackson Township. Mrs. Shull is a native of Logan County, Ohio, born January 20, 1852. There were five children, one son and four daughters in the Ballinger family, and Mrs. Shull is the only survivor. Her father was born in Logan County, Ohio, educated in the primitive schools and was an agriculturist by occupation. In 1857 he and his wife came in pioneer style by wagon, driving their stock all the way from Ohio to Liberty Township, White County. He was a democrat. He died in 1886, and is buried in Jackson Township. Mrs. Ballinger was born in Ohio and died in 1869.
Mrs. Shull received only an ordinary education and has been a true wife and mother. She has always stood by the side of her husband with counsel and advice and in the rearing of her children to honorable and useful lives. She and her husband are kind hearted and true friends, and always ready to aid the poor and needy.
To Mr. and Mrs. Shull have been born ten children, concerning whom the following brief record is entered in conclusion of this article : Charles A., who is a prosperous farmer of Liberty Township, married Miss Zirbie Hickman, and their children are Zella and Paul. Effie E.,
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the second child, died young. William Leonard, who resides at Sitka, this county, married Miss Mary Luta Hughes, they have no children. William Leonard was a teacher for sixteen years in White County. Essie is the wife of Daniel Marburger, of Liberty Township, and they have three children,-Pauline, Harvey Milton, and Donna Belle. Alice is deceased. Harry B. married Miss Elpha Maud Terrell, August 15, 1915, and resides in Joliet, Illinois, both he and wife having been teachers. Lloyd J., who resides at Frankfort, Clinton County, married Miss Minnie Moore and they have no children. James Madison, a resident of Brook, Newton County, married Miss Laura Sentz, and they have one child, Keith Kenneth. Fred is in New York City, but makes his home with his parents, being inspector of The Prudential Casualty Company. Lulu is the wife of Wilbur McMullen, of Cass Township, their one child being James Byron.
HENRY C. SHOOP. The late Henry C. Shoop, whose life was con- spicuously identified with the agricultural development of White County, Indiana, during the period from 1867 until his death in 1900, was one of those who wielded the implements of construction after having used those of destruction, for he came here not long after his services closed as a soldier of the Union during the great war between the forces of the North and the South. Mr. Shoop was born at Greenup, Cumberland County, Illinois, September 23, 1840, and was a son of Dr. John and Susanna (Yontz) Shoop, natives of Virginia, both of whom have been deceased for many years.
Henry C. Shoop was educated in the public schools of Greenup, where his father was engaged in practice as a physician, and as a youth learned the trade of harness maker, although this he subsequently aban- doned to devote himself to agricultural operations. When the Civil war broke out, he enlisted with other young men of his community in Company D, Twenty-first Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and while serving with this organization was dangerously wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro. When he had recovered from his injury, he remained in the service, being taken into the public service at Indian- apolis, Indiana, and continued to be so engaged until the termination of his term of enlistment, when he received his honorable discharge. At that time Mr. Shoop returned to his home at Greenup, Illinois, and there resumed his trade as a harness maker, being engaged in business with his brother until April, 1867, at which time he came to White County, Indiana, and settled on a farm located in West Point Township. There he developed a good property, made numerous improvements, and con- tinued to carry on general farming and stockraising operations until his
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death, which occurred May 9, 1900, when he was fifty-nine years, seven months and sixteen days old. A stanch republican in politics from the days of Lincoln, he ever took a keen and intelligent interest in political affairs, and was often active in local campaigns, although he never held public office himself. He is still remembered by the older generation as a man of industrious habits, strict integrity and probity of character, and a citizen who was at all times willing to do his full share in behalf of the community welfare.
Mr. Shoop was married October 4, 1868, to Miss Mary G. Baker, daughter of Charles F. and Ann J. (Gill) Baker, whose biography appears elsewhere in this work. To Mr. and Mrs. Shoop there were born nine children, as follows: Orville, who is deceased; Edith, who resides with her mother at Monticello; Charles; Alice, who is the wife of William Anheier ; Orlo D .; George; Ray; Anna L., a resident of Indianapolis; and Harold H.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Shoop continued to reside on the farm in Round Grove Township for four years, and then came to her present home at Montiello. She is a faithful member of the Meth- odist Church.
CHARLES W. FIELD. A comparatively recent addition to the citizen- ship of White County, Charles W. Field of Monticello has contributed his energies as a farmer, stock man and stock shipper, is considered a financial and business factor in that community, and is a live and enter- prising citizen.
Charles W. Field was born November 19, 1858, at Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois, being one of the four children born to Harry C. and Elizabeth P. (Reasoner) Field. His parents came out from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, were early settlers in Central Illinois, and spent a large part of their lives on a farm in that rich and prosperous agri- cultural section of Bureau County.
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