USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A twentieth century history and biographical record of Elkhart County, Indiana > Part 81
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BUCKNER F. FREELAND.
Buckner F. Freeland, closely associated with industrial and manu- facturing interests in Middlebury, being the owner of the Pioneer Manu- facturing Company, was born in Preston county, West Virginia, in 1848. The family is of English lineage and was founded in the new world by John Freeland, who, on crossing the Atlantic to America. set- tled in Preston county, West Virginia, where he died at the venerable age of ninety-two years. His family numbered thirteen children, of whom Aaron was the fourth in order of birth. One son, George, was in the Civil war with the Seventeenth West Virginia Volunteer Infan- try. His son. Aaron Freeland, was born in Preston county and was in the service of the government during the Civil war. He did not enlist in the army, but his sympathies were with the north. He held membership in the Episcopal church and in his political views was a Democrat. His business affairs were capably managed and he became quite well to do. He married Elizabeth Bucklew, who was born in Preston county, West Virginia, where she died in May, 1862. She was one of the four children of Jonas and Peggy ( Morris) Bucklew. the former of English and the latter of Pennsylvania Dutch descent. Mr. and Mrs. Freeland became the parents of five children : Mary Catherina, the deceased wife of William Taylor; Buckner F. : John W .. a prosperous farmer of Preston county, West Virginia; Florida, the wife of O. C Humphries, a railroad man living at Elkins, West Vir- ginia; and Missouri, who married Clark Fickey, and after his death
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became the wife of a Mr. Davis, who is a mason living at Terra Alta, West Virginia.
Buckner F. Freeland pursued his studies successively in the schools of Terra Alta and Webster. West Virginia, and Oakland, Maryland. He was reared upon his father's farm and in 1862 he entered the gov- ernment service as a teamster, remaining thus until January. 1865. when he regularly enlisted in the Sixth West Virginia Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war, being mustered out at Wheel- ing. He then returned to his home in Grafton, West Virginia, where he was employed for a year by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Com- pany as brakesman. He then returned to the home farm for another year and in November, 1867, he came to Elkhart county, Indiana, locat- ing at Millersburg, where he followed carpentering and other pursuits. Subsequently he entered the service of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Company. with which he learned telegraphy and for twenty-one years he was operator and agent for the company at Millers- burg and Vistula. He then resigned and came to Middlebury where he began the manufacture of fanning mills and grain cleaning machines. continuing in that enterprise for three years. He next began the manu- facture of galvanized tanks, heaters, feed cookers and wind mills and is still carrying on this business under the name of the Pioneer Manu- facturing Company. The output of the factory is now large and the business is profitable.
Mr. Freeland was married in May, 1868, to Miss Mary G. Stauf- fer, who was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1848 and was one of a family of four children. Mr. and Mrs. Freeland have eight children : Curtis .1., a manufacturer of Sturgis, Michigan; Lora, the wife of Frank Van Epps, who is in the railroad service and makes his home at Jacksonville, Florida: Bruce W., also a manufacturer of Sturgis: Lloyd B., who is associated with his brothers in their manu- facturing interests; Roy W .; Amy, at home; \mos J., who is with his father; and Emmert, who died in infancy.
Mr. Freeland votes with the Democracy. His advancement has been won through his own efforts and his business prosperity is well merited, as it is the reward of earnest labor. He has based his business principles and actions upon strict adherence to the rules which govern industry, economy and unswerving integrity. What he is to-day he has made himself. By constant exertion, associated with good judg- ment, he has raised himself to the creditable business position which he now holdis, having the friendship of many and the respect of all who know him.
EDMUND P. RUCKER.
Edmund P. Rucker, editor of Truth, published at Elkhart, was born July 11, 1878, at Louisville, Kentucky, his parents being Alexander Campbell and Anna M. (Stultz) Rucker. The father was a lawyer by
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
profession and the ancestral history of the Rucker family can be traced back to the Huguenots.
E. P. Rucker acquired his early education in the public schools of his native city and continued his studies in the Louisville Manual Train- ing High School. He has always had a taste for newspaper work, both in writing and drawing, and a year after leaving school he became a reporter for Louisville papers. In his school days he had carried papers for different newspaper offices in his native eity and when he put aside his text-books he spent six months in Texas for the benefit of his health, after which he returned to Louisville and as before stated. entered upon his business career as a reporter. He was thus engaged until 1901, when he removed to Elkhart and in December of that year became editor of Truth, which position he still holds.
In November, 1900, Mr. Rucker was married at Atlanta, Georgia. to Miss Laura Thomas Crider. Fraternally he is an Elk and a Samari- tan. He has always been interested in outdoor athleties, played foot- ball in his earlier years and was associated with many sports in Louis- ville. He is ever striving for a high standard in journalism and has largely kept his paper up to his ideals in this regard.
AUGUSTUS G. SHETTEL.
Among the worthy citizens that Pennsylvania has furnished to Elkhart county Augustus G. Shettel is numbered. He was born in York in the Keystone state in 1852, the fifth in a family of six children whose parents were John and Sarah ( Gross) Shettel, both of whom were natives of York. Pennsylvania. The father was of German deseent and was a farmer by occupation. He belonged to a family of seven children of which he was the third. He became well to do in his busi- ness interests and was known as a man of genuine personal worth. He possessed strong convictions and unfaltering determination in support of what he believed to be right and he was moreover a man of charitable views and kindly nature. In politics he was a stanch Republican and he was an active worker and interested member of the Lutheran church. in which he served as deacon, while for many years he was superinten- dent of the Sunday school. He enjoyed the highest esteem of friends and neighbors and was well known throughout the community in which he made his home. He died in 1902 at the advanced age of eighty-six years, while his wife, still surviving him, is now eighty-three years of age. She too is of German lineage and is one of the six children of Daniel and Sarah ( Myers) Gross, the former a farmer by occupation. Mr. and Mrs. Shettel were married in 1842 and their family were as follows: Daniel, who died in York; Samuel, who is living in York ; Louisa, deceased ; Caroline, the wife of Augustus Hoover, a eigar manu- facturer of Zion's View, Pennsylvania: Augustus G. : Emma, at home ; and John, living in York, Pennsylvania.
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Augustus G. Shettel was educated in the 'public schools of his native place and worked on the farm through the days of his boyhood and youth, continuing at home with his father until twenty-one years of age. He arrived in Indiana in 1874. settling in Middlebury, where he secured a position in the general mercantile store of his cousin, A. S. Gross, with whom he remained as a clerk for eight years. Then in con- nection with John C. Mehl he purchased the store from Mr. Gross and the business was conducted under the firm name of Shettel & Mehl for three years. On the expiration of that period they sold out to A. F. Wilden of Goshen, with whom Mr. Shettel remained as a clerk through the succeeding three years. He also acted as salesman with the firm of C. Stutz & Son for seven years, but in the meantime he purchased a farm in Jefferson township, comprising one hundred acres of land and on this he took up his abode after leaving the mercantile house of Stutz & Son. A few months later, however, he returned to Middlebury and purchased the large business block belonging to Jacob Pfeiffer. He carries a well selected line of goods and is constantly enlarging his stock in order to meet the demands of a growing trade.
On April 14, 1880, Mr. Shettel was married to Miss Rosalia Hall, a daughter of Joshua Hall and a native of Cass county, Michigan, born in 1857. Her father was a farmer who came from New York at an early day and settled in Michigan. In his family were eleven children, of whom Mrs. Shettel is the youngest. By her marriage she has become the mother of three children: Claude, born March 20, 1881 ; Walter, September 15, 1882; and Roy, September 8, 1888. The parents are members of the Lutheran church and are actively interested in its work in various departments. Mr. Shettel is a stanch Republican, unswerv- ing in his allegiance to the principles of the party. He has passed on the highway of life many who started out better equipped for the jour- ney, having more advantageous surroundings, but through his own exer- tions he has attained an honorable position and prestige among the busi- ness men of Middlebury and with signal consistency it may be said that he is the architect of his own fortunes, one whose success amply justifies the application of the somewhat hackneyed but most expressive title " a self-made man."
ELLSWORTH VARNS.
Ellsworth Varns, a member of the firm of Wise & Varns, dealers in hardware in Middlebury, was born in Berlin, Ohio, in 1862 and is of Scotch descent. His father, Joseph Varns, was a native of Pennsyl- vania and one of a family of seven children. He was reared to the occupation of farming, which he followed as a life work and he was a faithful member of the Presbyterian church, so that at his death, which occurred when he was at the comparatively early age of thirty-eight years, he left behind him the record of an honorable career. His political allegiance was given to the Republican party and he never faltered in
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
his support of any cause which he believed to be right. His wife bore the maiden name of Eliza Strubbe and was a native of Germany, whence she came to America with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harman Strubbe, in the year 1845. They located near Winesburg, Ohio, where her father followed the trade of cabinet making. In his family were nine chil- dren. Mr. and Mrs. Varns became the parents of four children : George S., who is a farmer and mail carrier on a rural route: Jefferson, a farmer living near Millersburg, Ohio; Ellsworth, of this review; and Jessie, the wife of Jacob Eusey, a railroad engineer living in Millersburg, Ohio.
Ellsworth Varns pursued his education in the common schools of Berlin, Ohio, and was reared to farm life, taking his place in the fields at an early age and assisting in all the departments of farm labor until after he had attained his majority. In 1887 he came to Indiana, set- tling at Middlebury, where he has since made his home. Here he entered into partnership with William W. Wise and established a hard- ware store, in which they are still engaged under the firm name of Wise and Varns. They carry a carefully selected line of shelf and heavy hardware and their business has enjoyed a healthful growth, their trade now bringing to them a gratifying income annually.
Mr. Varns has been married twice. In 1888 he wedded Miss Jen- nie Thompson, a daughter of R. B. Thompson. She died in 1891 at the age of twenty-eight years, leaving two children : Reginald and Flor- ence. Mr. Varns was married in 1896 to Clara Hoover, a daughter of Samuel and Catherine Hoover and a native of Middlebury, born in 1870. There is a son and daughter by this union, Clarence and Cath- erine. Mlr. Varns votes with the Republican party and is now serving as a member of the school board. The cause of education finds in him a warm friend and he is equally helpful in his advocacy of all measures for the public good. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons and the Knights of Pythias and in his life exemplifies the beneficent spirit of those organizations. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church and are held in warm regard by all who know them.
MARTIN V. STARR.
As editor and manager of the News-Times Printing Company it has been the fortune of Mr. Starr to build up and place in the first rank of importance among Elkhart county journals, first the Goshen News, and later, by consolidation, the News-Times, the history of which large newspaper enterprise has been detailed on other pages of this work.
Mr. Starr has been identified with the newspaper and publishing business since his school days, and his rise in the field of journalism is due to his own unaided efforts. Born August 12, 1861, in Williams county, Ohio, on the Starr homestead farm, at the age of seventeen. after having attended the common schools, he resolved to learn the
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
printer's trade, for that purpose entering the office of the Hicksville ( Ohio) News, then owned by his brother. As an apprentice he mastered the trade of typographer and passed successfully through all the branches of work which form the best preparation for the career of journalist and publisher. In partnership with T. G. Dowell, a young business man at Hicksville, he purchased the Vezes plant, and for several years success- fully conducted the paper. At the age of twenty-one Mr. Starr was elected township clerk, and later was chosen secretary of the Fair .Is- sociation.
In December, 1883, having sold out his interests in Ohio, he came to Goshen, which has since been his home. He and his brother estab- lished the Daily News in Goshen, and he became successively reporter, editor and manager of this well known newspaper. When the Newes and the Times were consolidated in 1901 Mr. Starr continued as editor and manager.
Active and influential in the movements which during the last few years have resulted in a general advance along the line of industrial and civic prosperity for Goshen, Mr. Starr has taken a prominent part in the work of the Goshen Commercial Exchange and all other co-operative and organized efforts for the city's welfare. He is a communicant and senior warden of St. James' Episcopal church, and fraternally is affiliated with the Masons, Knights of Pythias and Maccabees.
Mr. Starr married, in 1886, Miss Marie Cleis, who died in 1889, leaving two children, Cleis William and Marie. June 26, 1895, he mar- ried Miss Mary Louise Butterfield, and they have a daughter, Harriet.
HORACE H. MOSIER.
Hon. Horace H. Mosier, representative from his district to the state legislature and manager of the Bristol Banner, was born in New Haven, Allen county, Indiana, January 13. 1872. His father, Cyrus F. Mosier, was a native of Seneca county, New York, and was a son of Cyrus and Rebecca (Weeks) Mosier. The great-grandfather was a soldier of the Revolutionary war, valiantly aiding in the struggle for independence. Both Cyrus and Rebecca Mosier were natives of the Empire state, and the former, in connection with the millwright business. conducted a carriage factory. The Weeks family was related to the Mosier family in the maternal line. Several members of the family were killed in the memorable Wyoming massacre. In the family of Cyrus and Rebecca ( Weeks) Mosier were three children : Horace, deceased ; Cyrus F. : and Charles, who was drowned in a spring.
Cyrus F. Mosier was only two months old when his father died and his mother removed to Corning, New York, where she remained for six years. She then went to New Haven, Indiana, where she mar- ried Rufus McDonald, one of the prominent men of that locality. By this union there were two children, of whom one is living-Rufus.
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
When a boy Cyrus Mosier was thrown upon his own resources, but though he met many hardships and difficulties he was equal to all of them, possessing great determination and strength of character. With what he was able to save from his meager wages, he paid the expenses of his education, and at the end of six years of strenuous work he secured the principalship of the school in which he had been an apt pupil. He put aside his duties in the schoolroom, however, in 1861, and was the first man in DeKalb county to respond to President Lincoln's call for troops, joining Company F. Twelfth Indiana Regiment, as a private. Later he was made a sergeant of Company E, Fifty-fifth Regi- ment, and still later was commissioned first lieutenant of Company D. One Hundred and Eighteenth Indiana Infantry, serving in that capacity for two years and one month, or until about the close of the war. He was captured with seven thousand men, but made good his escape without seeing the inside of prison walls. He was in many hotly con- tested battles and proved himself a brave and intrepid soklier.
Following the war Cyrus F. Mosier was engaged in the manufacture of brick for two years, when he returned to New Haven, Indiana, where he engaged in teaching school. For seventeen years he was one of the prominent educators of that section and was widely known and hon- ored for his ability, contributing in large measure to the substantial improvement of the schools. He served for two terms as city attorney of New Haven, being elected on the Republican ticket, in an acknowl- edged Democratic stronghold-a fact which plainly indicated his per- sonal popularity and the confidence reposed in him. He afterward removed to Maysville. Indiana, and established a newspaper, but in the spring of 1877 he came to Bristol and founded the Bristol Banner, a partisan organ that made itself a monitor and guide for the Repub- lican party within its jurisdiction. He was chosen twice to represent his district in the state legislature, where he served with credit and distinction both to himself and party, and then declined a renomination. He was president of the People's Mutual Benefit Society for a number of years and contributed in large measure to its prosperity. He was also treasurer of the Fidelity Building and Savings Union of Indianapolis. and spent much of his time in that city. He held membership with the Grand Army of the Republic and the Odd Fellows, and he was always a public-spirited citizen, ready to do his share to further any enterprise for the advancement of his city or state. He wielded a wide influence, leaving the impress of his individuality for good upon many lines of public thought and action.
On the 24th of May, 1862, Cyrus F. Mosier was married to Drusilla I ... Roe. They lost two children, Urtes V. and Inez B., and their sur- viving son is Horace H. Mosier. The father died in April. 1901. at the age of sixty-one years.
Horace II. Mosier acquired his education in the public schools of Bristol and Indianapolis and in the Northwestern Military Academy of
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
Chicago. He completed a course in stenography and typewriting in the Business College at Indianapolis, after which he accepted a position with the People's Mutual Benefit Society, at Benton Harbor, and thence canie to Elkhart for the same company. Later he entered into business rela- tions with the Fidelity Building and Savings Union, at Indianapolis, where he remained for eight years, when his health failed and he spent eighteen months in recuperating. He next opened a fire and life insur- ance office at Elkhart and afterward in Indianapolis, and in December, 1898, lie returned to Bristol to take charge of the Bristol Banner, a weekly paper, established by his father in 1877, and now conducted and published by him. Under his guidance the Banner has maintained a position among the leading papers of the county and through its columns he champions many measures of a salutary nature, proving of direct benefit to the community at large.
On the 5th of July, 1893, Mr. Mosier was married to Miss Jennie E. Bickel. a daughter of Charles E. and Harriet Bickel. She was born August 23, 1871, in Bristol, in which city her father was a pioneer hardware dealer. They have two children, Marie G. and Bruce B. Mrs. Mosier is a member of the Episcopal church. Mr. Mosier belongs to the Masonic lodge in Bristol. the chapter at Elkhart, and also holds member- ship relations with the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Maccabees, Woodinen and Samaritans.
Mr. Mosier's study of the principles and movements involving the progress and welfare of the country has led him to give an unfaltering support to the Republican party and his fitness for leadership and devo- tion to the general good has caused his selection for public honors and responsibilities. He has been president of the town board of Bristol and in 1904 he was elected to represent his county in the state legislature and is now chairman of the committee on house and roll bills and also served on the education, reformatory institutions and other committees. He is a student of the signs of the times and the advocate of progress whether in or out of office, laboring as earnestly for the general welfare through the columns of his paper as in legislative halls.
JOSEPH HOLTON DEFREES.
Joseph Holton Defrees. the senior member of the law firm of Defrees, Brace & Ritter, of Chicago, was born in Goshen, Indiana, April IO, 1858. His ancestors were French Huguenots, who came to this country prior to the war of 1812, in which conflict the family was rep- resented. The parents of our subject were James Mckinney and Vic- toria ( Holton) Defrees. They died during the childhood of their son Joseph, who was accordingly reared by his grandfather. Joseph 11. De- frees. a prominent citizen of Indiana and a member of congress from that state during the reconstruction period. His brother. John D. Defrees, was the founder of the Indianapolis Journal and was the public printer under Presidents Lincoln, Grant and Hayes.
Dax N. Defreex
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
Having laid his educational foundation in the public schools of his native state, Mr. Detrees of this review continued his studies in Earlhan College, of Richmond, Indiana, and later pursued a course of study in the Northwestern University of Illinois. At the age of eighteen years he began preparation for the bar as a student in the law office of Baker & Mitchell, of Goshen, Indiana, for many years the most prominent law firm in northern Indiana, and upon the election of Judge Mitchell to the supreme bench of that state Mr. Defrees became a partner of Mr. Baker, under the firm style of Baker & Defrees, while later the firm be- came Baker. Defrees & Baker. In 1888 Mr. Defrees came to Chicago and here has made a specialty of corporation and real-estate law, and has secured an extensive clientele in those departments of jurisprudence. For a time he engaged in practice as a member of the firm of Shuman & Defrees, later with the firm of Aldrich, Payne & Defrees, and is now the senior member of the firm of Defrees, Brace & Ritter, which ranks high at the Chicago bar. Since his twenty-second year Mr. Defrees has engaged continuously in the practice of law, and his professional career has been characterized by unflagging industry, without which there can he no success in this the most exacting of all the professions.
On the 4th of October. 1882. Mr. Defrees married Miss Harriet Mc- Naughton, of Buffalo, New York. They have one child. Donald De- frees, who was born in 1885. His primary education was acquired in the Princeton-Yale School, of Chicago, and St. Paul School, of Concord, New Hampshire. He graduated from Yale University with honors in the class of 1905. He is now a student at the Harvard Law School.
Mr. Defrees is a welcome member of the Union League, Hamilton. City, Law and Chicago Clubs, of the Midlothian Country Club, and is a valued representative of the Chicago Bar Association. In politics he is an earnest Republican, and though never an aspirant for office has a full appreciation of the responsibility that rests upon every American citizen to support the measures which are best calculated to promote the welfare of the nation.
FREDERICK M. AITKEN, M. D.
Dr. Frederick MI. Aitken, for thirty-five years a member of the medical profession in Bristol, occupies the position in public regard to which his years of practice and ability justly entitle him. He was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1846, and is of Scotch lineage, his grandfather. John Aitken, having been a native of Scotland, whence he came to America about 1790. He was a shoemaker, as was also his son Andrew, who later, however, turned his attention to merchandising. Andrew Aitken, father of Dr. Aitken, was born in New York city and about 1846 removed to Buffalo, where he engaged in the shoe busi- ness. In 1850 he came to Bristol. Elkhart county, where he engaged in the boot and shoe business and eventually conducted a general mercan-
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