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 24
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LINCOLN M. FRASER. Few if any families in White County have a better claim to distinction by reason of length of residence than the Frasers, a family which settled in the wilderness of this section of In- diana more than eighty years ago, and in its various generations has given both men and women who have been effective workers in their respective spheres and have contributed much both to early and later developments.
Mahlon Fraser, the founder of the family in America as well as in White County, was a native of Scotland. He and his wife Elizabeth first located in Ohio, and from there removed to White County, Indiana, in 1832. Very few white people inhabited this county at the time, and the Indians were more numerous than the whites. Mahlon Fraser located in the woods of Union Township, and built a hewed log house about two miles south of the present site of Monticello. While still engaged in his pioneer activities his life was cut short by death January 15, 1841, aged fifty-one years ten months. His wife Elizabeth died November 26, 1868, aged seventy-one years eleven months two days. They had a family of ten children, five sons and five daughters, namely: John, Joseph A., George, Mahlon, William, Anna, Mary, Maximillie, Elizabeth and Mariah.
William Fraser, one of the sons of this family born to Mahlon and Elizabeth Fraser, had as his birthplace the old homestead south of Monti- cello, and there he grew to manhood. He was born October 6, 1836, and died May 23, 1879, aged forty-two years seven months seventeen days. He was married December 2, 1858, to Miss Maria L. Roberts, who was born March 31, 1839. She still survives and has her home at Delphi. After their marriage they lived for one year on a farm in Monon Town- ship and then returned to the old Fraser homestead. William Fraser and wife were the parents of three children: Martha S., who was born February 22, 1860, and is now the wife of John Van Natta and lives in Carroll County ; Lincoln M., born September 15, 1861; and Edwin J., who was born January 26, 1866, married Hattie Murphy and is also a farmer in Carroll County. William Fraser spent all his life as a farmer, in politics he was a republican, while he and his wife were members of
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the Methodist Episcopal Church. Concerning his religious life as well as his secular career the following article written at the time of his death will serve as a valuable record: "Brother Fraser belonged to a pioneer family of White County, his parents having emigrated to the county over fifty years ago and constituted one of those families in the neighborhood of Pretty Prairie. He was nurtured and educated in western habits and formulas and from his early manhood became an important factor in building up the material and moral interests of society. At an early period of his life he identified himself with the M. E. Church, of which he con- tinued an efficient and honored member to the time of his death. For several years he was a citizen of Monticello and by his correct deport- ment and habits impressed himself upon the community as one of her best citizens and upon the church as one of her most consistent members. Brother Fraser was not simply a nominal member of the church but an ardent lover within her gates and an earnest worker within her walls. He was emphatically a worker in the vineyard of the Lord. He held an official relation to the church for a long time, always ready to give his counsel in devising plans for her spiritual and temporal advancement and supporting it most liberally with his means. Of him it may be said he did what he could but he is gone from us to dwell in the Church Triumphant. To his family and to the church it seems a mystery that he should thus early have been called away. But God knows all things, and in submission to his will we humbly bow, feeling that in his death the community has lost a good citizen, the church a valuable member and his family an irreparable husband and father. His funeral sermon was preached the Sabbath following his demise at his residence, attended by a large concourse of people who exhibited a deep sympathy of feeling and after the sermon following his remains to. the cemetery in Monticello, where his mortal body was interred. The prayer of the writer is that God may bless the family and friends of the deceased, make them good and bring them ultimately one and all to heaven."
Lincoln M. Fraser, son of William Fraser, was born September 15, 1861, in Monon Township, but when a year old came with his parents to the farm where his grandfather had settled nearly thirty years before. He grew up in that neighborhood and received a fair amount of school- ing in the local institutions of learning. On November 23, 1883, he mar- ried Miss Lydia M. Worthington, and they have one daughter, Millie.
In 1884 Mr. Fraser began the buying of stock, and has been in that business ever since and is one of the chief buyers in this section of Indiana. He also buys produce, and has an interest in a meat market in Monticello. Mr. Fraser is now a progressive in politics. He served two terms as a member of the town council of Monticello, and for a number
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of years has had his home in that city. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees, with the Lodge and Encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, also with the Order of Rebekahs, with the Knights of Pythias and the Pythian Sisters, the Improved Order of Red Men and the L. O. O. M. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Church.
GEORGE CRISSINGER. White County lost one of its ablest farmers and most capable citizens in the death of George Crissinger on December 19, 1912. Mr. Crissinger had for more than thirty years been active in his business and as a home maker in Cass Township, and had a large and well adapted farm in section 3 of that locality. He was industrious, knew farming in all its details, and came to possess a faculty for suc- ceeding in practically every enterprise he undertook. His name was also a synonym for honesty and upright living, and he was one of the best representatives of White County people.
George Crissinger was born in Indiana Creek Township, Pulaski County, Indiana, November 4, 1852, the sixth in a family of seven born to Daniel and Matilda (Plotner) Crissinger. The family was of German stock, having first settled in Pennsylvania and later moving out to Pulaski County, Indiana, where George's parents both died. He grew up in that county, received only a common school education, and at the age of twenty-two started out in life for himself. On July 4, 1874, he married Miss Mary A. Gaby, daughter of George and Lois (Randall) Gaby of Pulaski County. To their marriage were born seven children : Matilda, deceased; Stella Melissa; James E .; Blanche and Leola, de- ceased; Leona and Iona, twins. Mr. Crissinger was also survived by seven grandchildren, one brother, two sisters, while a host of relatives and friends paid due respect to the honored citizen whose life for more than sixty years had been one to command respect and admiration.
George Crissinger and wife removed to White County in 1880, and located in the woods of Cass Township. From Joseph Nice they bought one hundred and forty-eight acres of land, with practically no improve- ments, and set themselves industriously to the task of creating a home. In that Mr. Crissinger was duly successful, and when he died left some extensive improvements in the way of residence and farm buildings and a general increase in the value and productiveness of his fields. He was a democrat in politics but cared little for the excitement of party con- tests. He was a member of the New Dunkards Church. He had first united with the Christian Church at Indian Creek in 1873, but later he and his wife became identified with the New Dunkards. His chief inter- ests were home and church and he was a trustee of the Indian Creek
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Church, to which all the members of his family belonged with the excep- tion of the daughters.
James Edward Crissinger, who is now the active representative of the family in Cass Township, was married November 30, 1907, to Miss Cora Hall, whose people came to White County from Boone County, Indiana. Her parents were John and Vashti (Henry) Hall, both still living. Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Crissinger have four children : Ralph W .; William A .; Fern, who is deceased; and Mary V.
DAVID IMLER. When mention is given to those families who were actively identified with the early development of White County, reference should be made to the Imlers, who were established in this part of Northwestern Indiana more than sixty years ago and whose names have been significant of the best qualities associated with the sturdy early settlers. While David Imler was a child when brought to the county he has himself spent nearly fifty years of honored and sub- stantial manhood in this county and is a farmer and citizen who stands among the leaders in Liberty Township. He owns a valuable and well improved farm of 160 acres in section 14 of that township.
Born in Marion County, Ohio, December 1, 1848, a son of Henry and Hannah (Walters) Imler, he accompanied them to White County in 1851. The Imlers are of Pennsylvania Dutch stock, and both the parents were born in this country and were married in Ohio. On coming to White County they located in that portion of Liberty Township where David Imler has long had his home. They bought eighty acres from William Connell and later preempted eighty acres direct from the Government. These two eighties comprise the farm which in its present state of development belongs to David Imler. Henry Imler was a man who possessed great energy and did much to improve his land, among other things carrying out an extended plan of ditching. He died about twenty years ago, while his wife was ninety-eight years old at the time of her death. Henry Imler was active in public affairs of a local nature and in politics a democrat. His wife was a member of the Presbyterian Church. Both are now at rest in the Indian Creek Cemetery. The three children living from the ten born to them are named David, Maria and Elizabeth.
The boyhood of David Imler was spent on the old farm, and that has been the center of his activities since his early years. He remained with his parents and gradually assumed many of the burdens and responsi- bilities of the farm management. During his active years he has profit- ably carried on general farming and stock raising, and has been pros-
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pered beyond the average. In politics he is a democrat and takes a good citizen's interest in affairs.
Since he was twenty-one years of age Mr. Imler has had the responsi- bilities of a family and thus he and his good wife have always been associated in creating their destiny. On December 20, 1871, Mr. Imler married Christyanna Smith, a daughter of Charles G. and Rieuann (Mattix) Smith. In the years that followed six children blessed their home: Samuel; Rebecca Ann, who married Jacob Hepp; Delilah, who married Charles Bell; Silas, deceased; one that died in infancy; and Loretta, deceased.
REUBEN IMLER. The late Reuben Imler was a resident of White County from childhood until the time of his death, which occurred on his fine homestead farm, in Liberty Township, on the 31st of October, 1905. He was a man of utmost rectitude and integrity, marked the passing years with worthy achievement and accounted well to himself and to the world in all the relations of life, so that he naturally held inviolable place in the confidence and good will of all who knew him. Further data concerning the family history is given on other pages of this work, in the sketch of the career of his brother, David Imler. He whose name initiates this memoir was a man of deepest loyalty and patriotism, and he honored Indiana by his faithful and valiant service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war.
Reuben Imler was a son of Henry and Hannah (Walters) Imler and was born in Marion County, Ohio, on the 22d of July, 1841, so that he was sixty-four years of age at the time of his death. The family removal from Ohio to Indiana occurred in 1852, when Reuben was a lad of eleven years, and settlement was made on a pioneer farm in Liberty Township, White County, where the subject of this memoir was reared to maturity and duly availed himself of the advantages of the common schools of the period. He here continued to be actively identified with agricultural pursuits until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he found his youthful patriotism roused to responsive protest and finally, on the 4th of January, 1864, enlisted as a private in Company F, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which he continued in active and efficient service until fully a year after the surrender of General Lee, his honorable discharge having been received April 10, 1866. He won promotion to the office of corporal and was discharged with this rank. The exposures and other hardships incidental to his military service made severe inroads on his constitution and he never fully regained his physical well-being. His continued interest in his old comrades in arms was shown by his active affiliation with the Grand
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Army of the Republic, in the affairs of which he took an active part, his political allegiance having been given to the democratic party, but the only public office of which he consented to become the incumbent was that of township assessor, in which he served one term, in 1880. He was a consistent member of the Church of God, familiarly designated as the New Dunkard Church, and of the same his widow has long been a devoted adherent.
After the war Mr. Imler returned to White County and here the residue of his career was one of close and active identification with the basic industries of agriculture and stock-growing, in which connection he eventually became the owner of an excellent farm of forty acres, 21% miles west of the Village of Sitka, where his widow still resides and retains the ownership of the property, the same having been brought into a high state of cultivation and equipped with the best of improved ments by Mr. Imler, who was known for his progressiveness and good judgment in the carrying forward of his farm operations. Mr. Imler was the incarnation of honesty and integrity of purpose, punctilious in meeting all financial obligations, and at the time of his death not a cent of indebtedness rested upon his estate.
On the 18th of September, 1867, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Imler to Miss Mary A. Bailey, who was born January 20, 1847, and who is a daughter of Nathan and Sarah Bailey, who came to White County in 1859, from Tippecanoe County, Mr. Bailey having become one of the substantial farmers of White County, where. he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives.
In conclusion is entered brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Imler: Margaret Emma is the wife of Sanford Luse, of Liberty Township, and they have one child, Clementine; Sylvester Francis, who is a resident of Steptoe, Whitman County, Washington, married Mahalia Rowan and they have four children,-Maria, Emma, Reuben and Alwilda; Estella Blanche is the wife of Philip Conwell, of Liberty Township, this county, and they have six children,-Clarence, Dale, Mildred, Cassius, Stanley and Margaret; Olive Clementine died when young ; Cassius D. is individually mentioned on other pages of this publication ; and Alwilda Ellen is the wife of Charles B. Wilson, of Honey Creek Township, this county, their three children being Enid E., Grace and Donna Blanche.
Reuben Imler was a man of broad human sympathies and was always ready to aid those in affliction, and in their home he and his good wife reared three children besides their own, besides giving fostering care to several other children in indigent circumstances. He was a man of broad mental ken and was a specially earnest student of the Bible. His remains
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were laid to rest in the Warden Cemetery, in Liberty Township, and his memory is held in lasting honor in the county where he long lived and labored to goodly ends.
CASSIUS D. IMLER. He whose name initiates this paragraph is a rep- resentative of the third generation of the Imler family in White County and is well upholding the prestige of a name that has been signally honored in connection with civic and industrial activities in this com- munity. By virtue of the fact that on other pages of this volume is entered a memorial tribute to Mr. Imler's father, the late Reuben Imler, it is not necessary to repeat the data in the present article. In the Village of Sitka, in Liberty Township, Cassius D. Imler conducts a thriving general merchandise business, and the success of this enterprise rests securely upon adequate service, fair and honorable methods and the personal popularity of the progressive and energetic proprietor of the business.
On the old homestead farm in Liberty Township, where his widowed mother still resides, Cassius D. Imler was born on the 30th of July, 1880, and he early began to contribute his quota to the work of the home farm, the while he was afforded the advantages of the excellent public schools of the county. He continued his association with agricultural pursuits until he had attained to his legal majority, and he has since developed marked ability in connection with the mercantile business, in which he acquired practical experience prior to establishing his present inde- pendent enterprise in this line. In 1903 Mr. Imler was employed in the general store of Charles Frost, at Sitka, and in the following year he occupied a clerical position in the mercantile establishment of Marsh Brothers, at Burnettsville, this county. For the ensuing five years he was again associated with the work and management of the home farm, after the death of his honored father, and on the 30th of October, 1912, about one year after his marriage, he purchased the general store of Pearl Frost, at Sitka, where he has since continued the business, the same having increased materially in scope and importance under his effective administration. Mr. Imler is essentially one of the representa- tive citizens of his native township and is progressive and public-spirited in his civic attitude. Aligned as a staunch advocate and supporter of the principles of the democratic party, he has taken a lively interest in local affairs of public order and he is now serving with marked efficiency as township trustee, the duties of which position he assumed on the 1st of January, 1915. At Monticello Mr. Imler is affiliated with the Improved Order of Red Men, and both he and his wife hold membership in the
MR. AND MRS. CASSIUS D. IMLER FAMILY GROUP, LIBERTY TOWNSHIP
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Missionary Baptist Church at Sitka, in which he is a teacher in the Sunday School.
On the 15th of February, 1911, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Imler to Miss Elizabeth Collins, who was born in Adams County, Ohio, August 23, 1876, a daughter of Francis E. and Julia Ann (Gra- ham) Collins, in whose family were four children, one son and three daughters, of whom three are living: Lina, who is the wife of Harry Lucas, of Pontiac, Illinois, and a contractor ; Mrs. Imler; and William, a resident of Buffalo, Indiana. Mr. Collins, the father, was a native of Ohio and an agriculturist. From Ohio he moved to Illinois in 1884, and after about twenty years in the latter state came to Monticello, White County, Indiana. He gave his political support to the republican party. Mrs. Collins, also a native of Ohio, died in August, 1909. She was a member of the Christian Union Church. Mrs. Imler supplemented her common school training by attendance at the Gibson City, Illinois, High School, of which she is a graduate, and by two terms at the Summer Normal at Normal, Illinois. She then became a successful teacher and taught eleven years in Ford County and three years in White County. The only child of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Imler is a daughter, Olive Ruth.
LAYTON M. NORTH. With the increasing perspective of national life more and more honor will be shown to the veterans of the great war which cemented the integrity of the union of states. It has been the good fortune of Liberty Township to have among its residents for more than thirty years one of these veterans in the person of Layton M. North, whose long life has not been without important accomplishment in other directions though his services during the days of trial in the '60s must constitute a perpetual debt of gratitude upon the future generation.
A native of Ohio, Layton M. North was born in Miami County Feb- ruary 5, 1837, a son of William M. and Esther (Hall) North. The North family has long been identified with America, and was established at Charleston, South Carolina, about the time Lord Baltimore established his colonies in Maryland. Mr. North's great-grandfather, John North, served as a soldier under General Washington in the Revolutionary war, and was with that great general at Valley Forge. The grandfather, also named John North, and his brother, Joseph, were both soldiers in the War of 1812, and the former drove a six-horse team and the latter led four pack horses from Fort Wayne through to Detroit, Michigan, when the Indians were in this part of the country. The war record of the family has been further perpetuated by Allen A. North, the son of Mr. North, who was a private in the Spanish-American war, and was
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in Porto Rico. He participated in the battle of San Juan Hill, and well remembers Colonel Roosevelt's "Rough Riders." William M. North and wife are both deceased and are buried in Miami County, Ohio. Four of their eleven children still survive.
From the common schools that existed in his youth in Ohio Layton M. North acquired the rudiments of an education, and was already a capable and industrious young man when the war came on. On October 28, 1861, he enlisted in Company B of the Seventy-first Ohio Infantry under Colonel Mason. He joined the army at Paducah, Kentucky, and was a participant in those great campaigns which opened up the Missis- sippi Valley to the Union forces. At the battle of Shiloh he was wounded and received an honorable discharge in the fall of 1863. On his return to Ohio he engaged in farming, and about a year later assumed new responsibilities by his marriage on August 15, 1864, to Miss Martha Tucker. About a year ago Mr. and Mrs. North celebrated the golden anniversary of their wedding, and a large number of children and grand- children as well as hosts of friends do them honor in their declining years. Mrs. North is the daughter of Jonathan and Sarah (Swisher) Tucker of Ohio. To their marriage were born ten children: Doshia, who married Frank Coonrod; Minnie Jane, who married Owen Robison; Sarah Esther, who married William Helfrich; Ida Maggie, who died at the age of two years; John Leon; William Weldon; Mary L., who mar- ried Wilbur Patterson; Allen Arvilla ; Julius Noah, who lives in Chicago; and Elizabeth Caroline, who married Frank Powell.
It was in 1878 that Mr. North brought his family to White County and located in Liberty Township. At that time he bought his present farm of eighty acres in section 10, but his subsequent labors and improve- ments have almost transformed the land in the past thirty-five years. He remodeled the old home, has constructed barns and other outbuild- ings, and after rearing and carefully providing for the needs of his children he has ample provision for his declining years. Mr. North is a Lincoln republican in politics, and for four years served as a justice of the peace. He is a member of the Grand Army Post at Monticello and with his family worships in the Christian Church at Buffalo. The home of this honored citizen of White County is located on Rural Route No. 1 out of Monticello. In retrospect it may be added that Mr. and Mrs. North have attended the log cabin schools of the early days, where the seats were benches, the writing desks a long board and their pens the goose quill made by the teacher. Later, after the school days were ended, Mrs. North wove flax and jeans for clothing for her family, and also colored the yarn for their socks and stockings, while Mr. North wielded the old-fashioned sickle and swung the cradle from early morn until
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late at night. As the years have passed they have kept pace with advancements and improvements, and White County numbers them among her worthy and substantial citizens.
WILLIAM HICKMAN. The substantial kind of success which is the fruit of hard labor, intelligent performance of the duties that are con- nected with agricultural management, and the fulfillment of the obliga- tions imposed by family and society, is that now enjoyed by William Hickman, who owns one of the largest rural estates in Liberty Township. About forty years ago he began his independent career with little more than willing hands and an earnest purpose, and has since surrounded himself with the comforts of prosperity, with home and children, and with a large circle of loyal friends.
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