USA > Indiana > Marshall County > A twentieth century history of Marshall County, Indiana, Volume II > Part 21
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Mr. Keen is the third son in a family of eight children, his parents being married in Medina county, Ohio, and moving to Wayne county about two years thereafter. The boy lived with his parents in Ohio until he was about fifteen years of age, when he moved to Fulton county, Indiana, where he remained until his coming to the town of Culver in 1888. Having the mental training derived from a public school education, he engaged in agricultural occupations until he reached his majority, when he became a carpenter, and has followed that trade continuously since. During his long and useful residence in Culver he has also been a leader in public matters, and has well served the town board for a number of years. His membership in that body has included the official position of clerk and president. In his fraternal relations, he is in affiliation with the Knights of Pythias, and has been prominent in the work of the Meth- odist Episcopal church, in which he has long been a trustee. In fact, though he is a man of many interests, through his entire career have run the strong threads of constancy and reliability.
ABRAM SHAFER, who has the honor of being the oldest merchant in business in Marshall county, is conducting a drug and general mer- cantile store in Lapaz. He can also claim the honor of having served as the postmaster longer than any other man in the county, his incumbency as the postmaster of Lapaz covering nineteen years, his last appointment being during the administration of President Mckinley and his first com- mission under President Garfield. He is one of the best known men of North township.
One of the early residents of North township was David Shafer, who was born in Pennsylvania, as was also his father, Abram Shafer. The family is of German descent. Abram Shafer, a weaver and farmer, died in Knox county, Ohio. It was in 1866 that David Shafer came to North township, Marshall county, and after a long life devoted to agricultural
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pursuits he died here in his eightieth year, a member of the Wesleyan Methodist church. Sarah Ridgeway, his wife, was born in Maryland, but reared in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and she lived to the age of seventy- four. Her father, Jonathan Ridgeway, was a southern gentleman. Five sons and four daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Shafer, all of whom attained to mature years, and five are now living.
Abram Shafer, the third born, but the eldest of the living children, was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, February 25, 1845, and was twenty-one when he came with his parents to Marshall county. He became a farmer in early life, and after coming to North township taught school during the first winter, for four years teaching and farming alter- nately. In 1876 he opened a store of drugs, groceries, etc., in Lapaz, and in addition to being the city's oldest merchant and its longest continuous postmaster, he was also the first Republican trustee elected in the township. At the commencement of the Civil war he enlisted for service in Company H, One Hundred and Forty-third Ohio National Guards, and March 1, 1865, became a member of Company F. One Hundred and Ninety-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served until the close of the war as a private. He is now a member of Miles H. Tibbetts Post, No. 160, G. A. R., at Plymouth, Indiana.
Mr. Shafer married, September 15, 1867, Carolina, daughter of John P. and Julia (Beal) Grover, of North township, and they have had five children-four daughters and one son. The only living child is Mary V .. the wife of Charles E. Gordon, a farmer of Ray, North Dakota. Arvilla, who married E. Fluke, has one daughter, Garnet. Mr. Shafer is a stanch Republican.
Mr. and Mrs. Shafer, in the goodness and benevolence of heart. reared a child, a foster-son, William Streck, a resident of Indiana, and a fireman on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. He received a good common- school education at the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Shafer. He served four years in the United States Navy, and his cruise was in almost every lead- ing port in the world. He was honorably discharged from service.
JOHN T. STRINGER, active in business life in Donaldson as proprietor of a hotel and livery barn, is a native son of Indiana, and the spirit of enterprise and progress which has been a dominant factor in the upbuild- ing of this section of the country is manifest in his life. He was born in Center township, Marshall county, February 3, 1840. His father. Joseph S. Stringer, who has departed this life, was for many years con- nected with private interests in Center township. He was a native of Pennsylvania and a blacksmith by trade, acquainting himself with that line of business in Ohio. He was married in Wyandot county, Ohio, to Miss Katherine Cummings, who was a native of the Buckeye state, and as years passed children were added to the family circle to the number of seven-three sons and four daughters-John T. being the second son. At a very early period in the development and improvement of Marshall county, Joseph S. Stringer arrived within its borders, settling in Center township. He had previously come to Ohio, this state, and for a brief period was a resident of Laporte county, where he conducted a blacksmith shop. Upon coming to Marshall county, however, he turned
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his attention to general farming, cleared his land of the timber and improved the place. It seems hardly possible that it is within the memory of a living man when this district was largely wild and uninhabited, but John T. Stringer, of this review, goes back in memory to the time when the land was largely unclaimed and uncultivated, when the few homes were mostly log cabins and when there was little promise of future devel- opment and progress. His father assisted in transporting the Indians from the county and reclaiming the district for the uses of the white race. He lived upon the old homestead until his death in 1855. Thus passed away one of the honored pioneer settlers who had aided in laying broad and deep the present foundation and progress of the county. In politics he was a lifelong Democrat, loyal to the party because of his firm faith in its principles, which he believed to be most conducive to good government. He was known to all the pioneer settlers of Marshall county at an early day and was recognized as an enterprising business man, who in addition to the cultivation of his farm successfully engaged in raising fine horses.
Spending his boyhood days under the parental roof, John T. Stringer was educated in the schools of Plymouth, and lessons of industry and integrity were impressed upon his mind by his home training. He continued upon the old homestead until after the outbreak of the Civil war, when, feeling that his first duty was to his country, he joined the Union army on the 4th of January, 1862, and was assigned to duty with Company F of the Third Washington Cavalry. He remained at the front for three years, or until July 17, 1865, when he was honorably discharged. He participated in the battle of Red River and other important engagements of the Civil war. On the 4th of July, 1864, he sustained a sunstroke at Brownsville, Arkansas, but was not injured by rebel bullets during the entire period of his military service. When the war was over he was discharged at Mound City, Illinois, and returned home with a most creditable record as a soldier.
When he had again located in Marshall county Mr. Stringer once more turned his attention to general agricultural pursuits. In 1877 he made preparation for having a home of his own by his marriage to Mrs. Harriet (Hazleton) Henry, the daughter of James Hazleton, who was a farmer of Center township. Mrs. Stringer was born in Ohio and by her first marriage became the mother of two sons and two daughters. Unto our subject and his wife were born two sons, Elza and Ira, both of whom were natives of West township, but the latter is now deceased.
Mr. Stringer lost his first wife in 1896 and for his second wife chose Miss Nora M. Miller, whom he wedded August 27, 1897, and two chil- dren were born to them-Lillie Pearl, who died at three years of age, and Lucinda Irene, the joy of the home. Mrs. Stringer is a native of Argos, Indiana, and was born April 5, 1877, a daughter of John R. and Amelia (Brown) Miller. Her parents are residents of South Bend, Indiana. Her father is a mechanic and in politics a Democrat. Her mother was born in Germany and came to America when she was three years of age and was reared in the United States. Mrs. Stringer was educated in the common schools and she is a member of the United Brethren church.
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
Although he has spent the greater part of his life in Marshall county, Mr. Stringer was for four years a resident of California, where he remained for the benefit of his health. He benefited by the salubrious climate of that district and after his return purchased a farm of forty acres in West township. With characteristic energy he began its further development and improvement and labored actively in the work of the farm until finally he sold out and went to Kansas. After a year, how- ever, he returned and bought another farm of eighty acres of improved land. At different times he purchased other property and sold and traded farm land, eventually coming into possession of his present place. He is now proprietor of a hotel in Donaldson, in which he is making earnest efforts to please his patrons, with the result that he is doing a good business, and the hotel is popular with the traveling public. In the management of his interests he displays sound judgment and excellent ability. Fraternally he is connected with the Grand Army of the Republic and thus maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades. In citizenship he is as true and loyal to his country as when he followed the old flag upon southern battlefields and defended the Union cause.
CLAY W. METSKER, the publisher and proprietor of the Plymouth Democrat and the Plymouth Daily Independent, two of the leading jour- nals of Marshall county, is also one of the political leaders of the "Hoosier" state. His first political work was in Beloit, Wisconsin, where he resided for four years, there serving as the chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, and returning to Plymouth he was in the spring of 1900 nominated for the legislature and elected in the following fall by the Democratic party. For two years he repre- sented Marshall county in its legislative halls and since that time has been twice president of the Northern Indiana Electoral Association. At the present time he is the secretary of the Democratic Editorial Association of Indiana. In 1904 he was selected to make the political address before the Democratic Editorial Association at Indianapolis, this being the sounding of the keynote for the coming Democratic campaign, and in the following year he was again chosen by his party to make the speech which was to launch it forth in the campaign. This speech was copied in all the Indiana papers, as well as many throughout the United States.
This prominent Indiana journalist and politician, Clay W. Metsker, was born in Carroll county, Indiana, near Delphi, September 20, 1869. His father, A. J. Metsker, was a native son of Henry county, Indiana, a farmer by occupation, and his residence is now in Plymouth, Indiana. Mrs. Metsker is also living. She was born in Henry county, Indiana, and bore the maiden name of Amanda Worl. They have five living children. Their son, Clay, their second child and eldest son in order of birth, grew to years of maturity in his native county of Carroll, and he supplemented his common school education by a five years' attendance at DePauw University, a member of the class of 1891, and he now has membership with the Greek fraternity Phi Delta Theta. For four years during his college course he also taught school, and after completing his education he spent one and a half years in reading law under the pre- ceptorship of Attorney Newberry Howe, of Delphi, Indiana. It was by
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accident that he drifted into the journalistic field, and purchasing the Beloit News in September, 1892, he was for four years a resident of Beloit, Wisconsin, where in addition to his newspaper work he also became actively interested in politics. He sold his paper there in the fall of 1896, and in July, 1897, purchased the Daily and Weekly Inde- pendent in Plymouth, while on the 20th of March, 1902, he purchased of Daniel McDonald & Company the Plymouth Democrat, with which he has consolidated the Weekly Independent. Mr. Metsker is a member of the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal church, and also has fraternal relations with the Knights of Pythias order, he having erected the building in which the lodge is now located.
He married, in 1894, Miss Nellie Camp, a daughter of Dr. Charles and Emma (Reist) Camp, of Camden, Carroll county, Indiana, where Mrs. Metsker was born, reared and educated. She also attended DePauw University. They have become the parents of four children, of whom three are living: Roland B., Helen Damaries and Winifred Jean. Richard died in infancy. Mr. Metsker has other business relations in Plymouth outside of his journalistic work, being one of the city's real estate owners. While engaged in educational work he served in 1889-90 as principal of the Deer Creek school in Carroll county.
JACOB CARBIENER was born in Wayne county, Ohio, May 26, 1852. but for thirty-five years he has been a resident of Marshall county and has been prominently identified with its business interests during the entire period. His father, George Carbiener, was born in Alsace, France, and spent the first twenty-five years of his life in his native country, coming thence to America and locating in Wayne county, Ohio. From there he came to St. Joseph county, Indiana, April, 1854, and resumed his agricultural labors in Union township, his death there occurring at the age of seventy-four years. His wife and the mother of Jacob was also a native of France, and she lived to the age of forty-one years. Nine children, three sons and six daughters, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Car- biener, all of whom grew to years of maturity and all but the first born are now living.
Jacob Carbiener was a lad of two years when the family left Wayne county, Ohio, for St. Joseph county, Indiana, and on the old home farm in Union township he grew to manhood's estate and received his educa- tion in the public schools. During his boyhood days he also assisted his father in clearing and improving his land, and remaining at home until his twenty-first year he then moved to a farm in German township, but after one year there he became interested in sawmilling in Bremen and continued in that vocation for twenty years. He then returned to the farm and continued its supervision until coming again to Bremen in 1903. His estate is located a half mile west of the city and at the present time he is conducting a tile manufactory there. He also owns another farm in Ger- man township, the boundaries of one containing eighty acres and the other ninety, and both are valuable and well improved estates.
On the 12th of March, 1874, Mr. Carbiener was united in marriage to Susanna Link, a daughter of John and Hannah Link, and they have five children-Clarence D., Grace, Arthur, Nora and Earl. Mr. Car-
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biener is a Democrat politically, and has been an active worker in the local party ranks. For five years from 1890 he served his township as is trustee, and in 1900 was re-elected for his second term in that office, his administration therein covering a period of nine years.
GEORGE W. LEMLER may well be classed among the self-made men of Marshall county, for he entered the business world at an early age and has since steadily and persistently forged his way to the front until at the present time he is the owner of a fine estate of three hundred and fifty acres in Center and West townships. During the first five years of his business life he worked as a farm hand, and after his marriage he farmed on rented land for four years, operating the Crawford and Halsey farms, and as a renter he was very successful, saving during the time over four thousand dollars. He was then able to buy one hundred and twenty acres, the purchase price being sixty-five hundred dollars, but he has since added to his original purchase and is now the owner of three hundred and fifty acres of rich and well cultivated land.
Mr. Lemler, although so long and prominently identified with the interests of Marshall county, is a native son of New York, born on Long Island March 20, 1856, a son of George Frederick and Margaret ( Miller ) Lemler, both of whom were born in Germany. They were married in their native land, from whence in 1855 they emigrated to America, and after spending a little less than two years on Long Island they came to Marshall county, Indiana, arriving here in the year 1857, and they estab- lished their home on a small tract of land in Bourbon township. That farm continued as their home until the death of the husband in 1879, and the wife survived him until eight years ago, dying in South Bend, Indiana. After coming to America Mr. Lemler followed agricultural pursuits and also worked as a railroad section watchman at night. They had eight children, of whom George was the third oldest, and the early years of his life were spent on the old home farm in Bourbon township. He had to work hard as a boy and his life's activities had been devoted to the work of the farm. He remained at home until he was twenty years of age and shortly afterwards, in 1880, was married to Mary Rufus. They have two daughters, Grace and Emma. Mr. Lemler stanchly upholds the principles of the Republican party.
GEORGE M. PLAKE, justice of the peace in Lapaz, has been a lifelong resident of Marshall county, covering a period of fifty years, and he was born in its township of North, February 22, 1857. John Plake, his father, came to the county as one of its pioneers, moving first from his native state of Kentucky to Rush county, Indiana, and thence on to Marshall county. He was a farmer and was identified with much of the early history of this community., He lived to the age of sixty-five years, and his wife, who was a widow at the time of her marriage to Mr. Plake, was sixty-four at the time of her death. She was Rosana Vin- nedge. Four sons were born of that marriage, and by a former marriage of Mr. Plake he had eight children, six daughters and two sons.
George M. Plake, the third of the four sons born to John and Rosana (Vinnedge) Plake, spent the first seven years of his life in North
Nusbaum Tu.D.
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township, and then going to Polk township was there reared and educated, remaining at home until he was twenty-one. For a time he was a clerk in a general store and then learning the barber's trade followed it as a business in Lapaz until 1890. During seventeen years he has been in business here continuously, and since 1899 has served as a justice of the peace. He is a Democrat in national politics and an active public worker.
January 21, 1888, Mr. Plake married Ida M. Casaday, a daughter of Simon H. Casaday, of Tyner City, Marshall county. Their two sons are Don and Forest. By a former marriage Mr. Plake is the father of another son, Modest.
Mrs. Plake, mother of George M. Plake, was the first white woman married in Marshall county. The early progenitors of Mr. Plake came from England ; also his mother's ancestors.
CHARLES E. NUSBAUM, M. D. The Nusbaum family, of which Dr. Charles E. Nusbaum, a prominent physician and surgeon of Bremen, is a representative, traces their ancestry to the land of Switzerland, from whence came John Nusbaum, the grandfather of the Doctor, to the United States in about 1820. He first established his home in Ohio, and from that state journeyed to Elkhart county, Indiana, and located at Middleburg during an early day in the county's history. He was a min- ister in the Mennonite church and was one of the leading citizens of . Elkhart county during its early pioneer days. It was during his residence in Ohio that his son, D. B. Nusbaum, was born, and removing to Elkhart county, Indiana, with his parents, he became identified with its agri- cultural interests and farming continued as his life occupation, his death occurring when he had reached the age of sixty-five years. During his early life he married Harriet Griner, who was also born in Ohio, and she is now a resident of Goshen, Indiana. They became the parents of four children, three daughters and a son, namely: Alice, the wife of E. E. Mummort, of Goshen : Charles E., the subject of this review; Emma, the wife of C. G. Wiggins, of Chicago, Illinois ; and Carrie, a teacher in the business college of Elkhart.
Dr. Charles E. Nusbaum, the only son of the family, was born at Middlebury, Elkhart county, Indiana, January 23, 1868, and after com- pleting his education in the public schools of that city he became a student in the Valparaiso University and pursued special courses. For seven years he taught in the schools of Elkhart county, but in the meantime having decided upon the practice of medicine as his life occupation he began his professional studies at the age of twenty-one under the pre- ceptorship and in the office of Drs. Heatwole & Harding, of Goshen. During the winter months he attended the Northwestern University, graduating from that institution in 1893, and during about eleven months thereafter he practiced at Auburn, Indiana. From there he came to Bremen and entered upon his successful professional career in Marshall county. Dr. Nusbaum has an elegantly equipped office, fine medical library, and his reception rooms for his patients are models of cleanliness and order. Such apartments as the Doctor possesses are a credit to the town of Bremen. On January 17, 1894, the Doctor was married to Miss Celestia Brown, of Goshen, Indiana. The Doctor's wife was an accom-
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plished lady in music and educational lines. She died suddenly on February 10, 1895.
September 17, 1895, Dr. Nusbaum was married to Flora Mensel, a daughter of August Mensel, of Bremen, and they have two sons, David and Noble. The Doctor is a member of the Marshall County, the Indiana State and the Thirteenth Congressional and the American Medical Soci- eties, and also has membership relations with the Masonic, the Knights Templar, the Maccabees, the Knights of Pythias, the Yeomen and the Eastern Star orders. In his political affiliations he is a Democrat, and for six and a half years served as a member of the town board, while during the past ten years he has served his city as a health officer. He is a member of the United Brethren church.
WILLIAM H. MATTHEW, a prominent attorney at Plymouth, Indiana, was born in Leeds, England, December 21, 1871, and is a son of John and Betsey (Mawson) Matthew, natives of England, who came to the United States in 1881 and located at Vernon, Trumbull county, Ohio. They returned to England in 1883, where they remained until 1885, at which time they came back to the United States and located at Platteville, Wisconsin. After an eighteen months' residence at this place they removed to Culver, Indiana, and are at the present time residing at Plymouth. Their family comprised two children, our subject being the elder. The daughter, Mary, is now residing in South Bend, Indiana.
William H. Matthew was ten years of age upon coming to America, and received his education in the public schools. For eight years he taught school in Marshall and adjoining counties, beginning at the age of sixteen years. He has been throughout his life a diligent student and has collected a library of some 2,000 volumes, for the larger part works on history and political economy. He began the study of law in the office of Samuel Parker, a former attorney at Plymouth and now located in South Bend, Indiana. Mr. Matthew was employed, for a time, by the Vandalia railroad as a warehouseman at St. Joseph, Michigan. During his period of school teaching he employed his vacations in work upon the farm.
Mr. Matthew has served for four years as deputy county clerk under K. F. Brooke. In 1902 he entered the law office of Samuel Parker, where he remained until 1906, when Mr. Parker removed to South Bend to become one of the law firm of Anderson, Parker & Cranbill. Since that time Mr. Matthew has practiced alone. He was acting city clerk for some time under Arthur E. Roads, who was unable to attend the sessions of the council by reason of an accident.
Mr. Matthew is vitally interested in township and county politics and is well known in political circles. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church at Culver and has been for years a teacher in the Sunday school at Culver and Plymouth. His class at Plymouth now numbers thirty-five adult members, averaging about thirty years of age. He has been a constant attendant of the Sunday school since his tenth year. He belongs to the Masonic order at Plymouth.
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