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 33
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WILLIAM VAUS SPENCER. Many of the old and substantial families of White County either bear the name of or are directly related to the Spencers. There were a number of the family who came here in the early days, and since then they have inter-married extensively, and it is doubtful if any name occurs more frequently in the chronicles of family relationship in this publication than that of Spencer. With few exceptions the members of the family have been farming people, and have been equally well noted for their upright lives, and their influence directed steadily toward the upholding of church, morality, schools and all other things for the good of the community. This branch of the Spencer family originally lived in Hampshire County, now Mineral County, West Virginia, but then known only as West Virginia. Arthur and Sarah Spencer lived there, and among their children was Andrew who was born in Hampshire County, now Mineral County, and died in Princeton Township of White County, April 9, 1887, at the age of seventy-six. He was buried in the Dobbins Ceme- tery. In the fall of 1846, Andrew Spencer brought his family out to Indiana and located for several years in Jasper County, but in 1851 permanently settled in Princeton Township. He was a farmer all his life, and at the time of his death had a small place of forty acres. In early life he voted with the whig party and later with the republi- cans, and was a member of the Christian Church. Andrew Spencer married Elizabeth A. Dobbins, a daughter of Samuel Dobbins of Vir- ginia. They became the parents of twelve children, and six of these came to White County with their father. The only four now living in White County are: Samuel T .; William V .; Sarah A., who is the
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widow of James Rogers and living in Wolcott; and James G., who lives near Lee in Monon Township, and first married Elizabeth Folks and second Mrs. Eva Williams.
The oldest living member of the family is Samuel T. Spencer, who was born in what is now Mineral County, West Virginia, June 2, 1837, and was still a lad when he came with his parents to Indiana. He grow up on a farm, and one of the early incidents which he recalls is when he went with his father, Andrew, to Lafayette to buy groceries for the first store established at Bradford, now Monon, by Louis Cham- berlain. It was a matter of three days to make the trip to and from Lafayette with the stock of goods and these were the first groceries taken into the new village and sold there. At that time the railroad was just being built through White County. When a young man of twenty-five, on August 30, 1862, Samuel Spencer enlisted in Company G of the Sixty-Third Indiana Infantry at Wolcott. He was mustered in at Indianapolis, and saw active service until his honorable discharge at Albany, New York, May 29, 1865. He was with Sherman's army from Lookout Mountain until the fall of Atlanta, and then went back into Tennessee with "Pap" Thomas from Columbia to Nashville. Later he was in the operations toward Wilmington, North Carolina, but was taken ill at Kingston in that state, and sent for recovery to New York. On December 21, 1865, a few months after his return from the army, he married Nancy J. Bunnell, a daughter of John B. and Sarah Bun- nell, of Princeton Township, and a family well known and mentioned elsewhere. The eight children born to their marriage were: Flora, deceased; Reed; Edgar; Evert, deceased; Orpha, deceased; Leta A .; Sarah A., deceased; and Pearl J. Of these children Reed married Flora 'Goodrich, and their three children are Ada, Russell and Gwen- dolyn; Reed is a druggist in Wolcott. Edgar, also a druggist at Wol- cott, married Lillie Brown, and their two children are Raymond and Maurice, the latter deceased. Leta A. married S. C. Uhl, who is else- where mentioned. Pearl J. married John J. Sell and lives in Brook, Indiana.
Samuel Spencer has been a farmer all his active career, is a republi- can in politics, and in 1886 made the race for election as county com- missioner, being defeated by only ten votes. He and his wife are mem- bers of the Christian Church and both support that society liberally. Samuel Spencer has made all his prosperity by himself and now owns 350 acres of land and some town property.
William V. Spencer, a younger son of Andrew and Elizabeth A. Spencer, has spent practically all his life in this part of. Indiana and
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has made his career profitable to himself and of service to his com- munity.
He was born January 31, 1847, while his parents were living in Hanging Grove Township of Jackson County. Three years later the family returned to White County, but when he was still a child they spent another two years in Jasper County and then settled permanently in White, where William has since lived continuously. As a boy he attended such schools as were maintained in the country districts of White County fifty and sixty years ago, and was so strongly influenced by his early environment that he has never been content to follow any other business than that of agriculture.
November 18, 1869, Mr. Spencer married Miss Hannah R. Dyer, who was born in White County, April 23, 1851, the fifth in a family of eight children, three sons and five daughters, of Mortimore and Lury (Barnes) Dyer. Four of these children are yet living: Mrs. Spencer; Mary, the widow of John Lyons and a resident of Wolcott Indiana; Samuel, engaged in the real estate business at Wolcott and married to Martha Groomes; and Lury, wife of Anson Hoppe, also of Wolcott. Mr. Dyer, the father, was a native of Virginia and a suc- cessful agriculturist and stock raiser. He came to White County in 1848, locating in Princeton Township, and became the owner of 440 acres of land, all lying within the borders of this county. In his politi- cal affiliations he was first a whig and then a republican, and both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Church, although later in life she united with the Baptists. Mrs. Dyer was also a native Vir- ginian, and both she and her husband received their educational train- ing in the primitive schools of the early days and both now lie buried in Dyer Cemetery. Mrs. Spencer is a granddaughter of a soldier of the War of 1812. She was reared and educated in White County, and in their young lives both she and her husband attended the sub- scription schools, furnished and equipped with the old-fashioned bench seats and long writing desks of a board, and where they wrote with the old-time goose-quill pen. They began their married life without capital, but with an abundance of industry, and this has enabled them to advance far on the road to prosperity. Mr. and Mrs. Spencer have reared a family of children who do them credit and most of whom are now occupying positions of honor and usefulness. Their children were ten in number as follows: Delia, wife of Homer James, who is men- tioned elsewhere; Pleassie, who died after her marriage to Charles Grow; Mortimore, who died at the age of eighteen; Claude, who lives in Jasper County, married Mabel Cook and has four children : Okle, Kenneth, Gerald and Harold; Tabor, who lives in Princeton Town-
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ship, married Lelia Pettit and they have three children: Virgil, Floyd, and Loues; Verlie, who is living at Swayzee, Indiana; Lida, whose home is in Cincinnati, where she is a stenographer; Lloyd C., at home ; and Essie Carmine and Inza Gail, both of whom are successful teach- ers in Howard County, Indiana. They are graduates of the Wolcott High School, were also students at the University of Valparaiso, and have been in the teachers' profession for ten or eleven years.
For thirty-eight years Mr. Spencer and family have lived on his fine farm of 105 acres three miles north of Wolcott. Every one of these years he has superintended the planting and harvesting of crops, and the aggregate of his productive labor has spelled success, so that now that his children are self-supporting, he and his wife can look into the future without dread, and their retrospect of accomplishment is equally pleasing. Office holding has had no attraction for Mr. Spencer, and he has been content to vote either as a republican or progressive. His wife is an active member of the Christian Church.
FRANK S. CHENOWETH. In Princeton Township, five miles south- east of Wolcott, and on Rural Route No. 11, out of Reynolds, one of the homes which suggest comfort and enterprise and the best standards of Indiana agriculture, is that occupied by Frank S. Chenoweth. Mr. Chenoweth has had a somewhat varied and active career, was in busi- ness as a meat dealer for a number of years, has a reputation over White County and elsewhere as a capable auctioneer, but for prac- tically twenty years has devoted his best energies to the development of land, and while providing for his family has also accumulated the honors of good citizenship and the kindly and helpful relations with the community.
Fully three generations of the Chenoweth family have been identi- fied with White County. They came when the country was new and shared in the discomforts of pioneer existence and did something to extend the area of cultivation and provisions for homes and institutions in this region. In America the Chenoweths have lived since the years preceding the American Revolution. Two brothers of the name came to this country from England, and from one of these was descended Thomas Chenoweth, grandfather of Frank S. Chenoweth. Thomas Chenoweth was born January 29, 1787, only a few years after the close of the revolution and a short time before the United States had for- mally been gathered together in one stable federal government under the constitution. He was a son of Richard and Martha Chenoweth. On April 13, 1813, Thomas Chenoweth married Asenath Mounts, who was born January 9, 1797. Of their children the only one to grow up
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was Ira, three of whose descendants now live in Indiana in the battle- ground community. For his second wife Thomas Chenoweth married, March 25, 1819, Sarah Steenbergen, who was born March 25, 1801. The two children of this union were: Peter H. S. B. and Charles. The latter has descendants now found in Tippecanoe County. Prior to the year 1848 Thomas Chenoweth and his three sons, Ira, Charles and Peter moved out from Miami County, Ohio, to Big Creek Township in 'White County, settling on what is now known as the George Wol- verton farm. Thomas Chenoweth, though at that time past middle life, was well fitted for the duties of leadership into a new country. He was a big man physically, and had the strong elements of charac- ter which well fit in with the pioneer type and with the best ideals of Christian citizenship. In the early days he was known as a whig and later became a republican voter, but it is not known that he ever held office and probably never cared for such distinction. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Peter H. S. B. Chenoweth, one of his sons, was born September 26, 1822, and died December 15, 1860, in the prime of his useful man- hood. He was buried in Big Creek Township in the old Carr Cemetery just south of Chalmers, where the remains of his wife also repose. He was married July 13, 1848, the year he came to White County, to Mag- dalene Schuetz, who was born in Wayne County, Indiana, July 4, 1827. of Pennsylvania Dutch and German descent. Her parents were Anthony and Esther Schuetz. Anthony Schuetz deserves remembrance for the fact that he constructed the old Schuetz Mill, now known as Oakdale, which is said to have been the first mill ever built on the Tippecanoe River. Peter Chenoweth and wife became the parents of three chil- dren: Dr. William S., now deceased; Gilbert A., who lives in Colorado; and Frank S. The mother of these children died January 16, 1908.
Frank Schuetz Chenoweth was born on what is now known as the old George Wolverton place in Big Creek Township, August 21, 1860. The advantages and circumstances of his youth were similar to those of other farmer boys in White County during the '60s and '70s, and his education came almost entirely from country schools. He has no con- scious remembrance of his father, who died a few months after the birth of this son. His father was a whig and republican, a Methodist, and followed the vocations of farming and mason work. On September 26, 1888, Frank S. Chenoweth married Lizzie Hemmer, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, July 1, 1865, the third of the nine children, five sons and four daughters, of Peter and Mary Magdalene (Miller) Hemmer. Six of these children are yet living, namely: Theresa, the wife of Thomas Doudicon, an engineer at Danville, Illinois, and they
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have three children: Katie, the wife of M. A. Lewis, a merchant at Peru, Indiana, and they have six children; Mrs. Chenoweth was the next born; Peter, Jr., a resident of Effingham, Illinois, and superin- tendent of a canning factory, married Lena Ruppert and has three children; Mamie, wife of Jacob Vogel, a farmer in White County, and they are the parents of seven children; and John, a resident of Fountain, Michigan, married Miss Marie Seymour and has three chil- dren. Mr. Hemmer, the father, was born in Bavaria, Germany, Janu- ary 6, 1832, and came to the United States when nineteen years of age, at that time a poor but industrious lad. In 1874 he came with his family to White County, and this county continued his home until his death, which occurred on the 1st of August, 1898. He was a democrat politically, and both he and his wife were members of the Catholic Church. Both now lie buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery at Reynolds, Indiana. Mrs. Hemmer was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, March 2, 1835, was reared to young womanhood in her native land, and then came to the United States. The vessel on which she took passage was wrecked, and the voyage consumed three months. Mrs. Chenoweth was educated in the parochial schools of her church. She and her husband began their married life poor in pocket but rich in industry and perseverance, and together they have won for themselves a promi- nent place in the life of their community. Four children were born into their home, Robert E., who lives with his father and mother ; Helen M., the wife of Charles Van Voorst of West Point Township, and the mother of one child named Frank William; Paul G., who also lives at home; and Loretta L., deceased.
About 1887, the year before his marriage Mr. Chenoweth engaged in the hardware business at Chalmers, and spent three years as a mer- chant in that village. While there he also bought grain for the Wil- liam Scott & Company of Indianapolis. His next enterprise was oper- ating a butcher shop for three years, but at the end of that time he sold out and engaged in a similar business at Wolcott, where he re- mained about a year and a half. It is recalled that he built the first structure on the south side of Main Street in Wolcott, now known as the Jackson Meat Market. His original enterprise there was burned out, but he rebuilt and finally sold and came into Princeton Township in 1895, locating in sections 34 and 35, range 5 west, where he has since applied himself industriously to farm enterprise. When his shop was burned in Wolcott it practically spelled bankruptcy for him, at least cleaning out all of his visible resources, and had to begin all over again, putting his foot on the first round of the ladder towards prosperity. He has since regained more than he lost and is now the owner of 140
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acres of land in Princeton Township. For the past five years he has paid much attention to his work as an auctioneer, and his services are in great demand by all people holding sales. It is said that he has probably sold more real estate at auction than any other man in White County. As a farmer he has taken special pride in developing his land from a crude and unprofitable condition until it now stands as one of the representative farmsteads of White County. An important part of the improvement has been the laying of many rods of tile, so that the land is practically now all drained and susceptible of intensive cultivation every season. He may take the more credit for the fact that he has performed most of the labors himself. His individual experience in this work made his services all the more valuable when he held the office of drainage commissioner two years.
Though never a seeker for office, Mr. Chenoweth has been quite active in republican politics. He belongs to no secret fraternities, and he and his wife are members of St. Joseph's Catholic Church at Rey- nolds, and give liberally to its support. Besides the raising of crops he pays much attention to blooded Duroc Jersey hogs and in every sense of the word is a progressive farmer and a live and public-spirited citi- zen.
GEORGE D. DYE. Prominent among the native-born citizens of White County that have been active and influential in advancing its material prosperity, whether relating to its mercantile, industrial or agricultural welfare is George D. Dye, of Wolcott, one of the leading lumber merchants of this part of Indiana. He was born, July 3, 1870, in Princeton Township, a son of James W. and Nancy T. Dye.
Having laid a substantial foundation for his future education in the public schools, George D. Dye completed a business course of study in Danville, Indiana. Ready to begin life for himself, he went to Ben- ton County, Indiana, and was there engaged in the lumber business for eight years, having had a large yard at Boswell. Returning then to White County, Mr. Dye became interested in the same line of in- dustry at Wolcott, since that time having served as secretary of the Coburn-Dye Company, which is carrying on an extensive lumber busi- ness. Mr. Dye possesses excellent financial ability, and has wisely in- vested a part of his money in farming property, in 1913 having pur- chased 120 acres of the old Dye homestead.
Mr. Dye married, September 12, 1894, Mintie Irion, a daughter of Robert F. and Lavina (Carr) Irion, and to them five children have been born, namely : Robert, Letha, Russell, Helen, and Janet June. Robert M. received his diploma from the public schools, graduated from Vol. IT-20
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the Wolcott High School, class of 1913, and is now in the junior year at Purdue University, in the electrical engineering department. Letha L. also received her diploma from the public schools, and is now a senior in the Wolcott High School. G. Russell finished the public schools and is in the second year of the Wolcott High School. Helen E. is in the sixth grade of the public schools. Janet June is the baby of the home. In his political affiliations, Mr. Dye is an earnest supporter of the principles of the democratic party, and at the present writing, in 1915, is serving as treasurer of the local school board. Fraternally he is a member of Wolcott Lodge No. 180, Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons; and of Monticello Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. Religiously he and his family worship at the Baptist Church at Wolcott, Indiana.
ROBERT F. IRION. Endowed by nature with a keen, practical busi- ness ability, the late Robert F. Irion, of Wolcott, was for many years the owner of a large and well-appointed farm in West Point Township, and in its successful management contributed largely toward the de- velopment of the agricultural interests of White County. A native of Ohio, he was born in Fayette County, January 3, 1847, coming on both sides of French extraction. His parents, Anderson and Sophia (Dragoo) Irion, migrated from Ohio to Indiana in 1853, locating in West Point Township, where they took up 700 acres of wild land, and on the farm which they redeemed from the wilderness spent their remaining years.
A lad of six years when brought to White County, Robert F. Irion was educated in the district schools, and on the parental homestead was reared to habits of industry and economy. Choosing farming as his life occupation, he started for himself in a small way at the age of twenty-two years, and having met with well-merited success in his undertakings, he bought land as opportunity offered, in due course of time becoming proprietor of a finely-improved farm of 320 acres, located in West Point Township. There Mr. Irion devoted his time and ener- gies to general farming and stock raising, displaying excellent judgment in his operations. In 1906, having accumulated considerable wealth. he moved to Wolcott, where he lived retired from active pursuits until his death, June 30, 1914. Mr. Irion was a man of recognized worth as a citizen, and enjoyed to the utmost the esteem and confidence of a large circle of friends and acquaintances. He was a strong republican in poli- tics, and took a genuine interest in public affairs, but never sought office. At the time of his death he was serving as vice president of the local state bank.
Mr. Irion married, October 2, 1870, Miss Lavina M. Carr, daugh- ter of John HI. and Martha (Gray) Carr, who came from Fayette
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County, Ohio, to White County, Indiana, locating at West Point Town- ship in August, 1853, where both lived during their remaining years, Mrs. Carr dying in 1864, and Mr. Carr in 1866. Three children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Irion, namely : Minnie Glenn, who died in childhood; Bertie; and Mintie, wife of George D. Dye, of whom a brief sketch may be found on another page of this work.
ALBERT PLUMMER. Princetown Township is located in the midst of a rich agricultural region, and among the enterprising and self-reliant men who ably conduct its farming interests is Albert Plummer, of whom we write. A son of John Plummer, Jr., he was born January 3, 1847, in Cass County, Indiana, of Welsh and German ancestry.
His paternal grandfather, John Plummer, Sr., came to Indiana in pioneer days, when a large part of this section of the country was still the happy hunting ground of the Indians, and the wild beasts of the forest roamed at will through the land. He came from Maryland to Fayette County, and in the '30s located in Cass County. He secured a tract of wild land in Fayette County, and began the improvement of a homestead, on which he and his faithful helpmeet spent their remaining days.
John Plummer, Jr., was born on the parental homestead, in Fayette County, near Connersville, in 1826, and was there reared to agricul- tural pursuits. He was wedded in Cass County in 1846, and coming with his family to White County in 1852, he located in West Point Township, where, on Sections 8 and 9, he obtained possession of 200 acres of land, taking up 120 acres of it from the government. Laboring with untiring energy, he cleared and improved a productive farm, and was there a resident until his death in 1889. His body was laid to rest in the West Point Cemetery, beside that of his wife, who passed to the life beyond in 1883. He was a man of ability and integrity, interested in local affairs, and served several terms as township trustee, being elected on the republican ticket. He built, on Section 6, one of the old frame schoolhouses in 1864, and his son Albert erected a new one there about 1899.
John Plummer, Jr. married, in 1846, in Indiana, Mary Rader, who was born in 1830, in Knox County, Tennessee, six miles south of Knoxville, and of the six children born of their union four are living, as follows : Albert ; Stephen A .; Noble A .; and Nancy Jane, wife of J. J. Morehouse. Both he and his wife were Methodists in religion, and reared their family in the same faith.
Having acquired a practical common school education in the rural schools, and a thorough knowledge of agriculture under his father's
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instruction, Albert Plummer began the battle of life for himself on attaining his majority. Settling in Princeton Township, he subsequently invested his hard-earned money in land, buying 100 acres on Section 30, and has since improved the fine farm that he now owns and occupies. With characteristic perseverance and diligent labor, he has carried on mixed husbandry with unquestioned success, his estate ranking among the best in the vicinity. A republican in his political views, he has served for five years as township trustee in West Point Township.
Mr. Plummer married, February 20, 1870, Malinda Cotton, a daugh- ter of William R. and Susanna (Rice) Cotton, who came from Monon- galia County, Virginia, to Woodford County, Illinois, and came to White County about 1868. Mrs. Plummer, who was a woman of fine qualities, generous and hospitable, and an active church worker, died January 24, 1911, and was buried in the rural cemetery at West Point Township. Both she and Mr. Plummer united with the Methodists many years ago, and held high rank among the valued members of the organi- zation. Three children were born of their union, namely: Leota, born December 29, 1871; Everett R., born April 29, 1874, died May 15, 1897 ; and Letta, twin sister of Everett R.
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