USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A twentieth century history and biographical record of Elkhart County, Indiana > Part 63
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Frank M. Beckner has spent his entire life in Elkhart county and can remember back to the time of the little log schoolhouse. His father was one of the pioneer school-teachers. . At a later day substantial frame schoolhouses were built and the son enjoyed better educational priv- ileges. He was reared to farm life, early becoming familiar with the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist, and he con- tinned to engage in the tilling of the soil until, feeling that his first duty was to his country, he enlisted on the 5th of August. 1862. enroll- ing his name with the boys in blue of Company E. Seventy-fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. There were two other sons of the family in the service-Jacob and Levi, the former dying of typhoid fever while in the army. Frank M. Beckner joined his regiment at Goshen, although the organization was effected at Fort Wayne. He was under command of Captain William Jacobs, and the regiment was assigned first to the
Susan Büchner
Strante In Became
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Army of the Ohio, but was afterward transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, under General Thomas, who was familiarly and affec- tionately calied " Pap" Thomas by his troops. The first action in which Mr. Beckner participated was the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, and he took part in the battle of Stone River in the summer of 1863. His next action was at Tullahoma, Tennessee, and there he with others suffered a sunstroke so that he was off duty for about a week. He then joined his regiment at Winchester, Tennessee, where the troops were encamped. but he was left in the hospital there while his command took part in the battle of Chickamauga. He was also in the spectacular engagement of Missionary Ridge and had made the charge up the mountain side with his regiment, reaching its summit and within ten feet of the rebels when a minie-ball struck his left hip below the pelvic bone, and the bullet passing around toward the front was extracted by a surgeon in the center of the abdomen. The wound was a very serious one and it disabled him from active service, after which he was trans- ferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps, at Jeffersonville, Indiana, acting there as orderly in the quartermaster's office. It was on the 25th of November. 1863. that he was wounded and he afterward remained in the quartermaster's department until honorably discharged at the close of the war on the 27th of June. 1865. On the field of battle he dis- played marked valor and his loyalty was ever above question. The nation rejoicing in the surrender of General Lee's army on the 9th of April. 1865. was, however, plunged into gloom five days later when the news of the assassination of President Lincoln was received. Those are two dates that Mr. Beckner will never forget. His military service covered two years, ten months and twenty-two days and then with an honorable record as a sollier he returned to his home.
Almost a year had passed. however, before Mr. Beckner recoy- ered from his wound and was able to take up the duties of life as an agriculturist. He first worked as a farm hand for a time and later procured a farm of his own. He was married November 6, 1870. to Miss Susan Rohrer, who was born in Elkhart county, January 2, 1836. She was educated in the common schools, has been a faithful companion and helpmate to her husband and in the care of their home and the rearing of their children. Her father. Samuel Rohrer, was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, near Dayton, in 1811, and died in 1873. He was a young man who came with his parents to Elkhart county. Indiana, settling in Jackson township amid pioneer conditions and envi- ronments. He entered upon what proved to be a successful business career and in addition to agricultural interests he was a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church. Both he and his wife were very devoted Christian people, laboring untiringly for the growth of the church and the extension of its influence. There were only two chil- dren in their family. the sister of Mrs. Beckner being Mary Rohrer. who died in January, 1904. The parents have also passed away. Mrs.
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Rohrer, who was born in Preble county, Ohio, about 1816, died in May. 1896, at the age of eighty years. To Mr. and Mrs. Beckner have been born two daughters: Wilma is the wife of W. H. Farris, an agricul- turist, residing near Kendallville, Indiana, where he has a fine farm. They have two children, Leah and Marie.
Florence Beckner became the wife of John May, a resident of North Manchester, Indiana, and they have one child, Lure. Mrs. May was educated in the public schools of New Paris and Leesburg. Indiana. Mrs. Florence Beckner May was born at New Paris, May 9, 1875, and was married in 1894 to Mr. May. They have resided at North Man- chester, this state, for almost eleven years, but at the present time are resi- dents of South Bend, Indiana. Mrs. May is a member of the Christian church, is past president and secretary of the Ladies' Aid Society of the church, is also a member of the Woman's Relief Corps, being past president and secretary of this order, and also a member of the Ladies' of the Maccabees, being past record keeper and organist of this order.
At the time of their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Beckner located on a farm south of New Paris. where they lived for five or six years, and then selling that property he purchased one hundred and ten acres of land in Turkey Creek township. Kosciusko county, whereon he resided for twenty years. Again selling out he came to New Paris, where they now reside, and Mrs. Beckner's mother made her home with them until her death. Mr. Beckner well deserves the rest which has been vouch- safed to him and is now one of the honored, retired farmers of the county, having in previous years lived a life of such intense and well directed activity that he is now enabled to put aside active business cares. He cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln and has never faltered in his allegiance to the Republican party since that time. He has been selected as a delegate to county conventions, but has never been an aspirant for political honors and offices. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and Mrs. Beckner belongs to the Ladies' Aid Society. Both are interested in Sunday-school work and Mr. Beckner has been one of the church trustees. They enjoy the unqualified confidence and good will of all who know them and are surrounded by many friends in the pretty little village of New Paris, in which they now reside.
EARNEST A. SKINNER.
Earnest .A. Skinner, who has been a member of the Elkhart county bar since 1899, in which time he has taken his place among the many able lawyers of this county, both in legal prestige and in clientage, was born in Orion, Oakland county, Michigan, April 28, 1875. He is a son of Lucius A. and Ida G. ( Cornell) Skinner, natives of Michigan, who now reside in Elkhart, having taken up their residence there in 1899.
Mr. Skinner, who is the only child of his parents, at the age of
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
two years was taken from his birthplace to Gaines, Michigan, and a year later to Laingsburg, same state, where he spent the remainder of childhood and youth, securing a high school education. He has al- ways been a hard worker, applying himself to every task in hand with the painstaking care and diligence which produce results in every voca- tion of life, but which are at the very bottom of success in a legal career. It was in Owosso, Michigan, that Mr. Skinner began his preparation for the legal profession, studying there in a law office two years, and then attended the University of Michigan, where he took the three years' course in the law department and graduated in 1899. In July of the same year he located at Elkhart, and was admitted to the Elkhart county bar, November 8. 1899. having previously, June 19, 1899, been admitted before the supreme court of Michigan.
Mr. Skinner has identified himself thoroughly with the city of his residence, and is well known not only professionally but as a citizen and social factor. Ile served two years as member of the Elkhart city council, giving his time and talents without reserve to the administra- tion and improvement of his eity. In politics he is a stanch Republican. fraternally is a Master Mason, an Odd Fellow and a Woodman of the World, and is a member of the Congregational church.
Mr. Skinner married, in 1899, on December 27. Miss Bertha .1. Wider. She is also a member of the Congregational church.
GEORGE M. YOUNG.
Mr Young is a native of this county and was born February 28. 1861. He is the youngest of six children-five sons and one daughter -born to Edward and Catharine Young. Five are living. Mary is the wife of Owen Dorsey. a resident of Oswego, Kosciusko county, who is an agriculturist. William is a resident of the city of Goshen and he is a wholesale lumber dealer. Fremont is a resident of Adrian, Mich- igan, and is a lumber manufacturer, and is married. Charles is a resident of Morris, Illinois, and he is an attorney at law, successful in his profession.
Father Young was born in Ohio in 1820 and died in 1801. He was reared in his native state. He was a cabinet maker. He emi- grated to this county many years ago, when the county was new. He was a stalwart Republican. He and his wife were adherents of the Lutheran faith. He died in Benton township.
Mother Young was a native of Pennsylvania and came from the old Pennsylvania German stock. She was devout in her faith. She was born 1823 and died October 16, 1884.
Mr. Young was reared in his native county till the age of nineteen. when he went to La Salle county, Illinois, and was there two years as an agriculturist. He has been reared as a tiller of the soil and was in business as a buver and seller of lumber in Elkhart county. He received
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
a common school education. At the age of twenty-one all the cash cap- ital he had was about $400, which he had carned by honest effort. So we may say he began at the bottom of the ladder of life.
Mr. Young wedded Miss Cynthia V. Hawkins, October 18, 1884. One son was born. Osman J., who died at the age of sixteen. Mrs. Young was born in Benton township. February 23, 1864, and is the fourth in a family of five children born to Joseph and Mary J. ( Coons ) Hawkins. Only two children are living-George Hawkins, a resi- dent of Mason City, Iowa, and Mrs. Young.
Father Hawkins was born in Elkhart county in 1834 and died in 1896. He was a cooper and sawyer by trade. He was in the Civil war, a member of the One Hundred and Fifty-second Indiana Volunteer In- fantry. He was Republican in politics and voted for Lincoln. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic at Ligonier, and then at Millersburg.
Mother Hawkins was born in Washington county, Ohio, July 1. 1831, and is yet living in Benton, aged three-quarters of a century. She is a member of the Methodist church.
It was in 1897 when Mr. and Mrs. Young located on their present farm of sixty acres, and he has twenty acres more in Benton township. They have one of the cosiest cottage homes in the township. and Mrs. Young's house is a model of neatness. He is a stalwart Republican and cast his first presidential vote for Blaine. In 1900 Mr. Young was elected to the position of Trustee of Benton township. During his ad- ministration he erected one large iron bridge over the Elkhart river, and built a great deal of gravel roads. Ile left his township in a splen- did financial condition. Fraternally Mr. Young is a member of the Knights of Pythias, No. 328. at Millersburg. Mr. and Mrs. Young are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Benton.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WHITMER. M. D.
Benjamin Franklin Whitmer, for many years one of the best known and most successful Elkhart county physicians, was born in Snyder county, Pennsylvania, January 31, 1838, and for forty years has devoted his energies to the medical profession. His parents were Henry and Mary ( Stahl) Whitmer, both born in Pennsylvania, the father of English and German descent. and they were married in the Keystone state. and the father died when the son Bejamin was four years old. There were five children in the family.
Dr. Whitmer passed his early years in Snyder county, where he attended first the country schools and then those at New Berlin and Selinsgrove. For a serions occupation he first directed his attention to shoemaking, learning the trade and working thereat for six months, and later spent a year at the tailor's trade. The more vigorous pursuit of swmilling next commanded his labors, and he was engaged in that
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work for seven years. To acquire a better education he attended Union Seminary, graduating in a three years' course, after which he once more worked at sawmilling. He then began the study of medicine, and with interims of practice he continued until his graduation, in 1868, from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. He practiced for six months in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, and then entered the army as a sur- geon. serving during the last three years of the Civil war, and after the war also continued as army surgeon in the Eighth Infantry of the regu- lar army until 1867. He practiced at Millersburg. Pennsylvania, until 1874, for the following two years was in Philadelphia, and then came to Elkhart county, which was henceforth to be his permanent field of practice. He had his office at Millersburg for six years, and then moved to Goshen, where he has been caring for a large and profitable business to the present time.
Dr. Whitmer affiliates with the Grand Army of the Republic and is also a Master Mason. He married Mrs. Louisa Slate, who died some years ago.
GEORGE W. FLEMING.
George W. Fleming, deputy clerk of the Elkhart circuit court, has been more or less actively identified with the official and business life of the county for the last ten years, beginning before he had attained his majority. As a young man, of progressive and energetic character, of steady business ability and popular and engaging personality. he has per- formed an excellent part in the affairs of his county and promises well for his future career.
Mr. Fleming belongs to the county by birth, having been born in the city of Elkhart, on June 3. 1878. His parents were Denton .A. and Frances ( Brodrick) Fleming, who were both born in the state of Mich- igan. The mother died in 1893. The father, who resides in Elkhart. has a most creditable record as a railroad engineer, having pulled the throttle for the Lake Shore road for some thirty-seven years. Three sons and one daughter made up the family, but George and his sister are the only children now living.
Mr. Fleming grew up in his native city, where, besides attending the public schools, he was a student in the Elkhart Commercial College. and some years later became a student in Woods' Commercial College at Washington, D. C., where he graduated in June, 1902. His connection with the official affairs of this county began in 1896, when he was dep- uty clerk of the Elkhart circuit court, under George H. Fister, under whom he served three years, and then for a year under Louis .A. Den- nert. Resigning. he accepted a position in the census bureau at Wash- ington. D. C., and it was while in that position that he attended. even- ings, the business college in that city. On his return to Elkhart he ac- cepted a position in the Indiana National Bank as assistant bookkeeper. January 1. 1903. he once more came to the circuit clerk's office, as dep-
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
uty under M. H. Kinney, and these duties still occupy his time and at- tention.
Mr. Fleming married. April 19, 1900, Miss Emma Leah Lindsley, of Goshen. They have one child. Florence. Mr. Fleming is a stanch Republican, having cast his first presidential vote for Mckinley. Fra- ternally he affiliates with the order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Samaritans.
CHAUNCEY DALLAS SHERWIN.
Chauncey Dallas Sherwin, one of the oldest living native sons of Goshen, who has spent most of the years of his active career in this county, and who has taken a prominent part in business, legal and polit- ical affairs, is at present the honored incumbent of the office of post- master at Goshen, a position which his efficiency and public-spirited energy have enabled him to fill to the entire satisfaction of all concerned.
Mr. Sherwin was born in Goshen, November 27, 1845, being a son of Leander and Elizabeth: ( Stevens ) Sherwin, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of New York state. The parents were mar- ried at Batavia, New York, and in 1837 came to Elkhart county, dur- ing the pioneer epoch, settling in the old town of Waterford. The father later moved to Goshen. For many years during his later life he was an invalid. He died in 1888, at the age of eighty-seven, and his wife passed away in 1869, aged sixty-three. They were the parents of five children, but Chauncey and a sister are the only survivors.
Mr. Sherwin was thrown on his own resources at a very early age. and practically from the time he was twelve years old was the mainstay of his parents. He has thus been the architect of his own fortunes, a self-made man who has deserved all the rewards which the world has given him. Ilis education, very limited in extent, was received in the Goshen public schools, and later he took a commercial course in East- man's Business College in Chicago, but this was after the war. At the age of eighteen he enlisted, in April, 1864, in Company D, One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Indiana Infantry, and served his term of four months. when he was honorably discharged. He began railroading in the em- ploy of the Michigan Southern, continuing until October, 1867, when he become a clerk for the Hawks dry-goods firm. In 1869 he went to Minneapolis, and after a short experience there became a salesman of notions and white goods for a Chicago house. He was on the road five years. While employed in a brick yard at Goshen he became a good friend of Mr. Thomas Dailey, and on the latter's election to the office of county clerk in 1874 became his deputy, a position which he filled for eight years. While discharging the duties of this position he at the same time applied himself diligently to the study of law, and in 1878 was admitted to the bar. In 1882 he was a candidate for the office of county
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
clerk, but escaped election by fifty-two votes. Twice previous to this he had served as chairman of the Republican county committee. From No- vember, 1882. to July, 1884, he was bookkeeper for John H. Lesh and Company, and at the latter date went to Nebraska. Returning to this city in 1886, he continued the practice of law, which he had begun at Sargent, Nebraska, and for some years was with the firm of Baker and Miller. On February 14, 1902, he became postmaster of Goshen through appointment by President Roosevelt, and has . faithfully served Uncle Sam and his numerous constituents to the present time.
Mr. Sherwin has two children, Ethel and John D. He has affilia- tions with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and has been actively identified with Howell Post No. 9, G. A. R., since its organiza- tion, having been the first adjutant of the post.
SCHUYLER COLFAX HUBBELL.
Schuyler Colfax Hubbell, who is a true son of Elkhart county, born and reared and always making his home in the county, has for the past ten years been one of the successful and able lawyers of Goshen, attending to an increasing practice and gaining a place of influence among the men who care for the legal interests of the county.
Mr. Hubbell was born on a farm half a mile southeast of the town of Benton, January 25, 1869. Of one of the pioneer families of Elk- hart county, his grandparents, Elisha and Millie Ann Hubbell, came here during the primitive times. His grandmother is still living, making her home with her daughter, Mrs. E. R. Lacy. Mr. Hubbell's father was Merrill E. Hubbell. who was born in this county. and who served three years as a soldier in the Twenty-first Battalion of Indiana Light Artillery. After the war he returned, married and began farming near Benton, but his career was cut short by death in 1873, when his only son and child, Schuyler C., was but four years old. His wife was Julia Butler, and she resides in Goshen, being sixty-one years old. She continued to live in Benton for some time after her husband's death, and when her son was fourteen years old she moved to Goshen.
Mr. Hubbell was well advantaged in youth and early manhood from an educational standpoint. Attending the public schools of Benton and Goshen he graduated from the Goshen high school with the class of 1887, after which he continued his preparatory work in the Ann Arbor high school for two years. After a course of two and a half years in the literary department of the University of Michigan he entered the law department there and was graduated with a degree in 1895. In the meantime, in 1804, he had been admitted to the bar at Goshen, and as soon as he left school he took up active practice in this city-at first alone, then the firm of Davis, Hubbell and Davis, and in 1901 the firm of Miller. Drake and Hubbell. He has a good practice, is noted as a keen attorney and a
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persistent worker. In politics he votes the Republican ticket, and fra- ternally is a Knight of Pythias.
Mr. Hubbell married, in 1897. Miss Harriet, a daughter of the late Judge Joseph A. S. Mitchell.
SIMON P. CULP.
A native son of Elkhart county, of a family long noted for integ- rity of character and for the success and usefulness of their individual careers, Mr. Simon P. Culp is an enterprising agriculturist of Harrison township who well represents both his county and his family. Born here June 14. 1861, he was next to the youngest of the eight sons and four daughters of Anthony and Susannah ( Bixler) Culp. Nine of the children are still living, and all in Elkhart county except Jacob B., the eldest, who is a farmer at Hutchinson, Kansas.
The father was born in Pennsylvania, August 19, 1814, and died in 1892, when nearly eighty years old. He accompanied, when young. his father to Ohio, and from that state drove a wagon through to In- diana in 1852. Settling in Harrison township, he purchased one hun- dred and sixty acres of land, and this is the farm which comprises Mr. Simon P. Culp's homestead. The first home of the Culps in this county was a log cabin, and it was in this primitive abode that Simon was
born. The first cutting of grain which they made was done with an old-fashioned sickle, the use of this ancient implement being made neces- sary by the stumps and trees in the hastily cleared field. The father adhered, politically, to the Whig party, voting for "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," and at the birth of the Republican party espoused its prin- ciples. He and his wife were Mennonites, and aided in the erection of the first church near his home. His wife was born December 25. 1821, and died May 27, 1900.
Reared in this county, acquiring his education in the country schools and by personal application, Mr. Culp's life has been cast along those lines which would entitle him to the distinction of a self-made man, for the success he has attained has been the result almost entirely of his own efforts. At the age of twenty-one he received a horse, but other- wise had no capital except character, honesty and physical strength. He was a renter on his father's farm and also worked by the month, spent one year in Kansas, and on his return he and his brother Anthony N. found a tract of one hundred and sixty acres that they desired very much to buy. Without money enough to complete the deal, their father came to the rescue with two thousand dollars, saying " Here's the money, boys, now make your mark." A year later they had repaid the two thousand dollars and within two years had cancelled all the indebt- edness against their farm. an accomplishment not gained, however, ex- cept by the hardest kind of work, rigid economy and close attention to business, which would bring success in any undertaking.
Simon P. Culp no family
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On May 10, 1891, Mr. Culp married Miss Marelda Parsel, by whom he has three children. Claude C. is a bright young student now in the fifth grade; Chloe M. is in the first grade ; and the youngest is Mary P. Mrs. Culp was born in St. Joseph county February 22, 1868, being a daughter of John and Mary ( Tintzman ) Parsel. Her father, now deceased, was a farmer, and her mother is yet living at the age of more than three score and ten, her home being with Mrs. Culp.
Mr. Culp now owns the old homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, being as choice land as can be found anywhere in this part of the county. His two-story and basement brick residence is one of the comfortable homes for which the township of Harrison is noted. He has constantly improved his farm, and, without a dollar of incumbrance against it. he may well be proud of what he has acquired during the years of his active career. Mr. Culp is a trustee of the Mennonite church in Harrison township, and also assistant superintendent of its Sunday school. A broad-minded man, able in the performance of duty, reliable in business and affairs of trust, he has long held an esteemed position in his community, and the story of his career deserves more than passing mention.
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