A twentieth century history and biographical record of Elkhart County, Indiana, Part 47

Author: Deahl, Anthony, 1861-1927, ed
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publ. Co.
Number of Pages: 1044

USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A twentieth century history and biographical record of Elkhart County, Indiana > Part 47

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Mr. Dodge has long been very active and prominent in G. A. R. circles. He is affiliated with Elmer Post No. 37. G. A. R., at Elkhart, and has aided in establishing many other posts. He is a past depart- ment commander of the Indiana G. A. R. He and his family worship in the English Protestant Episcopal church.

In May. 1875, Judge Dodge married Miss Jeannette J. Peck, a native of New York. They have two children. James S .. Jr., and Bernice F .. now a student at the University of Chicago. The son, who was born in Elkhart. July 2. 1876, and was reared here. graduated from the city high school in 1806. then entered the University of Indiana. where he completed a scientific course and graduated in 1900, and then took a technical and practical course in hydraulic engineering in the University of the State of Washington. Studying law under the direc- tion of his father. he was admitted to the bar in 1901, and has since been in active legal practice in Elkhart. . He was married in 1903 to Miss Winifred W., daughter of Dr. A. L. Fisher. of Elkhart.

JOHN ENDERS.

Industry, frugality and thrift. coupled with strictest honesty, are the cardinal characteristics of the German- American farmer who has attained prosperity in this land of opportunity. There are numerous examples of this well-to-do class of citizens in Elkhart county, and in nine cases out of ten sich men, when they came to this country. brought next to nothing as far as cash capital is concerned. but many times compensated for this lack by the sturdiness and independence of their characters and their ability to take hold of life in a new country and accommodate themselves to all the circumstances of a rapidly grow- ing industrial and business world. Such a man is Mr. John Enders of Olive township, whose career from the beginning to its present-day suc- cessful culmination it is the purpose of this sketch briefly to delineate.

Born in Hesse-Darmstadt. September 17. 1842. he was the fourth of six children. two sons and four daughters. born to Conrad and Mary ( Stumpf ) Enders. His brother and two sisters are still living : Conrad is married and a farmer in the native fatherland: Elizabeth is the widow of William Warner, a former agriculturist of Union town- ship, this county: Mary is the wife of Christ Eisenach, a carpenter and joiner living in the city of Elkhart. The father and mother both died in their native land, the former at the age of sixty-eight and the latter when eighty-three years old. The longevity of the mother's family was quite remarkable, her father attaining the great age of ninety-nine years and her mother living to be ninety-two years old. Both parents were members of the German Lutheran church.

Reared in his native land to the age of seventeen. Mr. Enders

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then bade adieu to his home and friends and on March 4. 1860, took passage on a sailing vessel at Bremen, whence after a voyage of thirty- five days the vessel landed him at Baltimore, Maryland. Without more than twenty-five dollars in money when he set his foot on Amer- ican soil, among a strange people where he had decided to make both home and fortune, he was thenceforth compelled to rely upon his own resources and those elements of solid and honest training which he had received while under the parental roof. His sister Barbara (now de ceased ) being then a resident of Canada. he made her home his first desti- nation, and after remaining with her and her husband three months they all came to Elkhart county, where they arrived in July, 1860. On his arrival here young Enders was in debt to his sister and-brother-in-law to the sum of $19.84. and it has always been a matter of satisfactory memory that he liquidated this debt with some of his first earnings in this county. That has been one of Mr. Enders' worthy characteristics -- to pay every obligation, whether of money or duty-to the last far- thing, and this trait is not the least among those qualities which have made Mr. Enders universally admired and respected in his county.

Although amply educated in his own tongue, he realized that he must acquire facility in the use of the English language before he could make the substantial progress which he desired. Therefore he entered the public schools, but since the methods of instruction were hardly fitted for his special needs he soon left the schoolroom and entered upon the practical career of daily work and contact with the affairs of life. Mr. Enders is a man of thought and observation, and while not schooled according to the modern methods one almost imme- (liately feels the strength of his character and his breadth of mind when coming into his presence. During the first two years spent in this county he took successive jobs of clearing land, at first a five acre tract. then ten acres, then fifteen, for two years, and in addition to accomplishing this laborious task after his characteristic thoroughness and adroitness. he spent the few hours of the day not devoted to this strenuous toil in studying an English-German dictionary and regular grammar and with its aid reading all the books he could get his hands on.

The first purchase of land which he made in this county was forty acres, but he had to go in debt for most of this. Persistent industry paid off this obligation by 1872. His first home was a primitive log cabin, which he erected in 1867, and he has experienced many other pioneer conditions that are now no longer a part of life in this part of the world. On selling his first forty acres he purchased his present eighty acres in section 12 of Olive township. The development which this estate has undergone through the work and management of Mr. Enders is almost mconceivable at the present time. Near his beautiful two-story brick residence stands a small. weatherbeaten frame house and also a little barn, which were the improvements in the way of buildings when he bought the place in 1877. and the difference between

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these structures and the present large and comfortable buildings which make up his homestead tell in a most graphic manner the story of his material progress and prosperity. His large bank barn is seventy-two by forty feet in ground dimensions, with eighteen-foot posts. Fences are in excellent condition. a thousand rods of tiling drain his land, there is a splendid orchard, and general appearances in whatever way you look speak of thrift, good management and solid worth.

Mr. Enders shows his interest in the progress of the years with their panorama of events and his desire to make permanent record of the fleeting scenes of life by keeping a diary of his own affairs and experiences and also some of the things which happen in the world about him. He has followed this custom faithfully since 1872, and. in his wonderfully neat penmanship, has recorded all his business trans- actions, the state of the weather and many other matters of interest to himself and family. The keeping of such a record is of itself an indi- cation of the system and co-ordination of details which have figured so prominently in his attainment of success.

On September 16. 1866, Mr. Enders married Miss Nancy Fink, and in the years since that happy event their home has been blessed by the advent of seven children, three sons and four daughters, five of whom are still living : Mary is the wife of Abram Hunsberger. a prosperous farmer of Olive township, and they have three children. Clem, Ray and Ferne · Mrs. Hunsberger was a successful teacher five years. Albert, a farmer of Olive township. married Miss Ellen Eby and has three chil- dren, Oma. Florence and Ruth. Clara is the wife of Charles Shutts. a farmer of Olive township. John, who completed his literary education at the Northern Indiana College at Valparaiso and who taught four years in his home district and is now a successful teacher in the city of Elkhart, carrying a three years' license, is, in addition to his other work, reading law and contemplates taking up active practice in the near future : he married Miss Helen Dodson. Clayton, who is likewise a well educated young man, has directed his energies to farming in Olive township: he married Miss Myrtle Boose of Wakarusa.

Mrs. Enders was born May 1. 1849. her birthplace being in Olive township only a mile east of where she and her husband now reside. She was reared and educated in this county, and since her marriage has proved an admirable helpmate to her husband in the making of a model home and also in the proper rearing of her fine family of children. Mr. Enders and wife are members of the German Evangelical society. He identifies himself prominently with all matters of local, township and county progress. and the weight of his influence can always be counted upon in the prosecution of a worthy cause. By fulfilling conscientiously and fairly all the duties which a lifetime brings. by standing firmly on the foundation of his own character and keeping himself independent so far as possible from chance and circumstance, by maintaining all his relations with family and society on the highest plane of honor,

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he has earned the respect and esteem of all who know him, and the life career of John Enders deserves enduring record in the history of his county.

EDWARD LIENHART.

Edward Lienhart, a self-made, successful business man and influ- ential citizen of Wakarusa, has in the course of ten years, beginning even on borrowed capital, built up a business enterprise which is well on a par with any similar establishment in the larger cities of northern Indiana and which is recognized as the leading furniture and undertak- ing house in this part of the county. Conservative in business, having learned through wide experience to make each step carefully and surely, but in regard to public advancement and progress most liberal-spirited. Mr. Lienhart is a typical representative of the class who are winning success by judicious and most creditable methods and who are the power- wheel in every up-do-date community.

Mr. Lienhart was born in Perth county. Ontario, Canada, March 9, 1861, being second in a family of four children, three sons and one daughter, born to George and Eve ( Baker) Lienhart. He has a brother and sister living, Adam, who is a blacksmith of Kalamazoo, Michigan. and Lizzie, who is the wife of Irving Welsh, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The father, who was born in Canada and died in Kalamazoo at the age of sixty, was a skillful blacksmith, for twenty years being foreman of a large establishment in Kalamazoo, and was very successful in his business affairs. Politically he was a Republican, and he and his wife, who was born in Germany and died in 1865, were members of the Ger- man Lutheran church.

Having been brought to Elkhart county at the age of three years. his parents coming here before locating at Kalamazoo and living about three years in Wakarusa, Mr. Lienhart has been identified with the county for the greater part of his life. Losing his mother when four years old and his father not many years later, as an orphan boy he had to face the world alone. After his common-school days were over he took a course in the normals at Wakarusa and at Fort Wayne, and when he began earning his own way at the age of sixteen he was entirely without capital. Entering upon his career as teacher, he taught in one township ( Madison) in St. Joseph county for thirteen years, and for two years in Elkhart county, one year in the town school of Wakarusa. He concluded to enter the medical profession, and for that purpose spent eighteen months studying under the preceptorship of Dr. Sensenich, the well known physician of Wakarusa. By that time, however, he had decided on a business life, and he went into the business of an under- taker. He has two diplomas, one from the Massachusetts College of Embalming and the other from the Barnes School of Embalming at Chicago, and also holds his state license as embalmer issued on examina- tion. In the spring of 1896 he erected a small frame structure on West

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY

Waterford street, and there began with a small equipment compared to his present day establishment, having borrowed money both for building and for purchasing his first stock. In iso7 he added a stock of furniture, and each succeeding year has witnessed a steadily increasing success in every department of his enterprise, indicated in the erection of new buildings and broadening out along all lines. To-day his business is housed in a brick structure one hundred and forty by twenty-two feet. two stories, with cement floor, containing a most complete stock of fur- niture, house furnishings, kitchen ranges, pianos, and a fine line of caskets. In 1904 he purchased an elegant $1,800 Cunningham hearse and erected a large barn forty-five by thirty-five feet, with galvanized iron roof. Out of debt, with a gilt-edged credit established, with an annual volume of trade reaching twenty thousand dollars, Mr. Lienhart may well be proud of his successful career. for it was without a start based on capital and by dint of industry and conservative management and business integrity and fair treatment that he has gained and merited his present condition. In addition to his principal business, he is owner of a cottage home, a well improved farm of one hundred acres in Madi- son township. St. Joseph county, and also a half section in Davison county, South Dakota, two miles from Mitchell, the county seat. He is thus one of the most substantial business men of his part of the county. Eminentty public-spirited, he has always taken much interest in his town and county as civic communities, and his influence is found on the side of progress. He is a Republican in politics and cast his first presidential vote for James G. Blaine.

March 26, 1882, Mr. Lienhart married Miss Annettie Shaum. They have a large and happy family, who have always been under the best of home influences and those who have entered practical careers are show- ing good ability and prospects of fine success. The children named from oklest to youngest are as follows: Calvin Irving, who is a graduate of the Wakarusa high school and also attended Elkhart high school, is now a successful teacher in Olive township and intends to embark in the real estate business, being already owner of a section of land in Colorado: Lizzie Ursula, who was educated in the home high school, is a modiste ; Emma Elnora, who will enter high school in 1906; Mable May, in the seventh grade: Edna Ruth. in the fourth grade: Dewey, also in school : and Allert Karl and Goldie Marie, the youngest. Mrs. Lienhart was born in Wayne county, Ohio, February 15. 1863, was reared to the age of thirteen in her native state, and thereafter in Indiana, receiving her education in the public schools. Her father, Joseph Shaum, lives in St. Joseph county and is a prosperous farmer. She is a member of the Women's Relief Corps and one of the esteemed ladies of Wakarusa.

ALPHA C. CULP.

Alpha C. Culp, of Wakarusa, a native son of Elkhart county and resident here most of the years of his life, has made himself conspicu-

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ously useful as a factor for the upbuilding of his community, and busi- ness and industrial affairs have felt the impulse of his activity in and about Wakarusa for a number of years.

Mr. Culp was born in Elkhart county. May 25. 1862. being the third in a family of ten children. seven sons and three daughters, whose parents were Josiah and Susannah (Culp) Culp. Of the ten. five are living. Amos is a carpenter of Wakarusa: Reuben is a farmer living in Olive township: Lydia is the wife of A. L. Mover. a farmer of St. Joseph county: Sarah is the wife of Andy Matz. of Marshall county. Indiana. The father, who was a native of Ohio and now resides in Marshall county. this state. located in Elkhart county about 1857. and was a successful agriculturist here for a number of years. He is an ardent Republican, and he and his wife were Mennonites. The mother died at the age of forty-one.

Mr. Culp lived on a farm until attaining his majority. A common school education. since supplemented by close observation and appli- cation to all matters connected with his advancement in the world. has sufficed him for his career. As early as the age of thirteen he le- gan learning the carpenter's tra le as apprentice under his uncle. and until 1893 followed with little break his trade in Wakarusa and vicinity. He began taking building contracts at the age of twenty-one. and as one goes about this part of the county numerous beautiful residences may be pointed out as the result of Mr. Culp's skill and workmanship.

July 19. 1884. Mr. Culp, who was then twenty-two years old and at the auspicious beginning of his career. married Miss Emma Kronk. Mrs. Culp. whose father is one of the leading citizens of Wakarusa. was born in this county and was educated mainly in the Wakarusa schools. After his marriage Mr. Culp spent one year in Elkhart. but then returned to Wakarusa and resumed his career as contractor. It is with considerable satisfaction that Mr. Culp can point. from the viewpoint of his present condition. back to the time when he was twenty-two years old and with a cash capital of less than one hundred dollars, and it is due entirely to his industry and skill that he has be- come a substantial and well circumstanced citizen of the county. Dur- ing those first years of his career he worked at his trade during the open seasons and during the winter was in the lumber business. He has made considerable furniture. being a skilled cabinet maker. and he possesses and treasures dearly some of the first pieces which he inade.

The handsome Christian church at Wakarusa, which was dedicated in January. to05. is perhaps the most conspicuous monument to Mr. Culp's skill as an architect as also to his excellent executive ability and management displayed through all the chapters of the church's history. This beautiful edifice was built at the very low figure of $7.314.12. and is one of the buildings to which the citizens of Wakarusa point with commendable pride. Mr. Culp was a prime mover among the people of

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his denomination in securing the erection of a new church home, made the first proposition for its construction, and, when this was rejected, persisting in his plan, and with the constant co-operation of the Sunday school and other public-spirited members of the congregation, he finally consummated the erection of a church which will long be among the most creditable of this town's architectural ornaments.

\ stanch Republican when it comes to politics, Mr. Culp cast his first presidential vote for James G. Blaine, and has never since wavered in his support of his party. He has often been selected as delegate to county conventions, but further participation in practical politics has been denied him because of his busy career.

In 1893 Mr. Culp became connected with the Schafer and Mishler Lumber Company of Wakarusa. Two years later he followed the com- pany to South Bend. where he remained eighteen months, until the dis- solution of partnership, and he then accepted a position with Sanders and Egbert of Goshen. He has been very successful in business affairs, and he and his wife are now just in the prime of life where they can most enjoy the fruits of success.

Fraternally he and his wife affiliate with the Knights and Ladies of Columbia at South Bend. They are members of the First Christian church at Wakarusa, and Christian ideals and influences have always permeated their home life. He is chairman of the board of trustees, and was chairman of the building committee during the erection of the new church building. He has been superintendent of the Sunday school five years, and takes especial interest in Christian work among the young people.

Mr. and Mrs. Culp have no children of their own, but in the goodness of their hearts have adopted their little niece Flossie. She is in the public school, bright in her studies and with fondness and talent for music, so that her foster parents have recently purchased a piano for her delectation and musical culture. Mr. and Mrs. Culp are people of aspirations, with desires reaching beyond their local confines and lim- itations and are constantly seeking to broaden their lives. In line with such ambitions they made a trip to the Pacific coast in 1902, visiting Los Angeles. San Francisco, Ogden, Salt Lake City. Grand Canyon. and other points of interest included in their three months' itinerary.

FRANK W. BROWN.

Frank W. Brown, who was admitted to the bar and located for practice at Wakarusa in June, 1899, has during the subsequent six years built up a most gratifying business in his profession and in real estate, loans, insurance, etc. A man of fine executive ability, an organizer as well as a manager, a good representative of the profession which has been most potent in shaping the civic and political destinies of our re- public, commanding the highest esteem among all classes of his fellow

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citizens, Mr. Brown, though still young in years, fills a prominent place in Wakarusa and this county.

It is also a pleasure to list Mr. Brown among the native sons of Elkhart county, for he was born on a farm in Olive township June 28, 1869. being the third of eight children, three sons and five daughters. born to William and Anne ( Bell) Brown, and six of the children are yet living. The father, who was born in Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania, April 11, 1838, is still living in this county, although retired from active affairs. During earlier years he followed the trade of carpenter and joiner, at which he was a skilled workman, and has also farmed a large part of his life. Educated in the common schools, the father re- inained in his native state of Pennsylvania until he was nineteen years old. When he began his career he was without a dollar, and has made all his worldly possessions by industry and judicious economy and man- agement. After coming to this county his first purchase of land was forty acres in Olive township, and he went in debt for most of this, but he was favored by prosperity until at one time he owned two hundred and sixty acres, while his present estate consists of one hundred and forty acres and is one of the handsome and well improved farmsteads of the township. He is a Republican in politics and has supported those doctrines since casting his first vote for Lincoln. He was a soldier of the Civil war, serving thirteen months with Company C, Thirteenth In- diana Volunteers, being in the engineering corps, and was under General Terry at the capture of Fort Fisher. Mrs. Anne Brown, the mother, was born in Indiana and died in 1876.

Mr. Brown spent the first eighteen years of his life on a farm. Well advantaged from an educational standpoint. he received his diploma from the common schools at the age of fifteen, and at nineteen was graduated from the Wakarusa high school. He also got a teacher's cer- tificate, but has never been an active member of the profession. In the spring of 1889 he left Indiana and located near Sterling, Illinois, spend- ing a short time on a farm there, and then went out to California, where he employed himself as farm hand, teamster and in various sorts of work for three years. On his return to his native county he took a position in a clothing store in Wakarusa, and for the following three years sold clothing, groceries and dry goods. In 1896 entering the law department of the University of Michigan. he pursued the full course there and graduated in the class of 1899. In June of the same year he located in his home town of Wakarusa, where he has been steadily climbing the road to legal success. He is a member of the Elkhart County Bar Asso- ciation.

A loyal Democrat, he cast his first vote for Cleveland and has been an effective worker in his party. In 1900 he was candidate on his party's ticket for state representative, and in 1904 was candidate for prosecuting attorney. Fraternally he is a member of the Maccabees tent at Wakarusa.

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Mr. Brown married. August 12, 1804. Miss Dora E. Letherman. They have two little sons. Vance M. and Donald. Mrs. Brown was born in this county December 21. 1873. was educated in the common schools and graduated from the Wakarusa high school, became a teacher, teaching in St. Joseph county three years and in one of the grades of the Wakarusa schools for three years, and is thoroughly at home in all departments of social and domestic life. Her father is still living, but her mother is deceased, and she is the youngest of eleven children, all of whom are living. She is one of the active members of the Ladies' Aid and of the Search Light Club, which is a social and literary club with high aims and like accomplishments and is one of the important organizations of its kind in the county.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of Elkhart County, Indiana, Part 47

Author: Deahl, Anthony, 1861-1927, ed Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publ. Co. Number of Pages: 1044

Author: Deahl, Anthony, 1861-1927, ed
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publ. Co.
Number of Pages: 1044