USA > Indiana > Miami County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 34
USA > Indiana > Howard County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 34
USA > Indiana > Cass County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 34
USA > Indiana > Tipton County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 34
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Returning from the army, Mr. Reimbolt spent three months at his Ohio home and came thence to Logansport, which has since been his home. He secured work on the farm of John Seybold for six months and spent the next six months hauling logs for George Burkhart. He was three years in the employ of Isaac Himmelberger, then the most extensive lumber manufact- urer in Cass county, and the year 1879 he spent in getting out staves. In 1880 Mr. Reimbolt began his railroad career as a fireman on the Pan Handle, and continued to do duty in that capacity for six years, two months and eleven days. He was then promoted to the position of engineer, and has since had charge of an engine in the freight service. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
Mr. Reimbolt was married in Logansport, November 22, 1885, to So- phronia, daughter of Charles Reneau. Their children are Clara H., Claude L., Leo F. and Lenora J.
OHN H. RAILSBACK, of Logansport, while yet comparatively a young J man, is, however, one of the oldest in point of continuous service on the Pan Handle Railway at this point. He is a native of Indiana, born in Richmond, Wayne county, October 15, 1854, the son of one of the early pioneers of that county.
David Railsback, his father, was for many years a prominent man in Wayne county as a distiller, farmer and florist. He was born in North Car- olina in 1809, and belonged to a Quaker settlement that came out of the Carolinas very early in the history of the state of Indiana and settled in Wayne county, where he was subsequently married to Mary A. Smith, of Kentucky birth, who is still a resident of Richmond. He died at that place in 1882. Their family was reared in the vicinity of Richmond, and of their five surviving children, John H., the subject of this sketch, is the eldest.
John H. Railsback did his first day's work for the Pan Handle Company in March, 1872, when he began as a brakeman from Logansport. He was
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promoted to the position of baggageman and then to that of passenger con- ductor, and has run all sorts of trains and on all divisions out of Logansport, but for some years has been assigned to the Cincinnati division. His pro- motion from time to time and his long continued service for the company are ample evidence of his faithfulness and his popularity. Fraternally Mr. Railsback is identified with the Masonic order and the Order of Railway Conductors.
Mr. Railsback has a pleasant home and an interesting family. He was married in Logansport, December 23, 1886, to Miss Kate Schaumleffel, a descendant of German ancestors, and their children are Nettie and Helen.
M ARVIN S. LANE, No. 366 West Sixth street, Peru, Indiana, has been a resident of this city for twenty-two years and is now serving his eighth year as a member of the city council, representing the fourth ward.
Mr. Lane is a native of Miami county, Indiana, born in Erie township, April 4, 1850, a son of William W. Lane, whose settlement in this county was in 1842. William W. Lane was born in Ontario county, New York, in 1820, and was a son of William Lane, who was born in Schoharie county, that state. He was a son of William Lane, who emigrated to Ontario county, New York, when the grandfather of the subject of this sketch was thirteen years of age. There the latter grew to manhood and married, and in 1832 removed with his family to Cuyahoga county, Ohio. Of 'their nine children nearly all became early settlers of Miami county, the sons being William W., David Benton, Marvin and Peter, and the sisters, Phoebe, Laura and Lucy. Later several of them took up their residences elsewhere, but it is supposed that all have passed away except Peter, who was born in 1812 and who is a resident of Peru. William W. Lane came to Wabash county, Indiana, and went thence to Grant county, where he married Miss Mary Ann Cole, daugh- ter of Joseph Cole, who was born in New Jersey and removed to Ohio with her parents and thence to Grant county. Joseph Cole was a farmer by occu- pation. After marriage he lived for a time in Grant county and subsequently moved from there to Miami county. In 1858 he removed to Cass county and in 1861 returned to Miami county, where he made his home until 1876. That year he settled in Wabash county, where he passed the residue of his
CHISS, MIAMI, HOWARD AND TIPTON COUNTIES.
life, dying in 1886. He was a soldier in the war of the Rebellion, enlisting in 1863 and serving nearly two years, in the Twelfth Regiment, Indiana Cav- alry. The wife and mother survives her husband and is a resident of Wabash county. They became the parents of ten children, those who are now living being as follows: William, the eldest, who served in the same regiment with his father, is now a resident of the state of Oregon; Marvin S., whose name forms the heading of this article, is the second in order of birth; James, a resident of Wabash county; Sarah, wife of James Armstrong, Miami county; Ada, wife of Andrew Rudisal; Geneva, wife of Benjamin Bannister, of Wabash county; and Edward, also a resident of Wabash county. The deceased members of the family are Viola, Alice and Charles.
Marvin S. Lane, as stated above, was born in Miami county, and made the several changes of residence as indicated by the removal of the family. He was educated in the public schools and taught ten terms of school, and was for a time engaged for the Chicago publishing house of Hugh Heron, in the sale of a publication in Wisconsin. He has been employed at the Lake Erie & Western Railway shops since 1881, and as foreman since 1883.
Mr. Lane was maried in Peru, June 26, 1881, to Miss Jennie Drumm, daughter of William Drumm, of this city, and they have two children: Anna, born July 8, 1883; and Hazel, February 7, 1885.
Mr. Lane is identified with the Miami County Loan & Savings Associa- tion, which he helped to organize, and of which he has since been a director. Politically, he is a Republican. As already stated, he is a member of the city council, to which he has been elected from time to time to represent the fourth ward, and at this writing he is chairman of the fire committee. Mrs. Lane and daughters are members of the Baptist church, at Peru.
As has been seen, Mr. Lane is a representative of one of those pioneer families that more than half a century ago settled in what was then a com- parative wilderness, and who amid privations unknown to the present gener- ation laid the foundation and made possible the privileges of civilized life now enjoyed by their children and children's children.
D R. JOHN E. YARLING, a rising ycung physician of Pern who deserves mention in this biographical work, was born at Shelbyville, Indiana, December 25, 1868, a son of George and Mary E. (Pickett) Yarling, and he 22
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was ten years of age when he lost his father by death : his mother passed away in 1886. The Yarlings were of German ancestry.
Dr. Yarling was educated at the Danville (Indiana) Normal School, and from 1888 to 1894 was engaged in the occupation of teaching. During the last four years of his pedagogical career he was principal of the graded school at Cynthiana, Indiana. In the meantime he pursued the study of medicine, and he at length graduated at the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati, April 19, 1897. The native talent which this young physician evinces in- sures him a rise in his chosen profession.
In politics he is a Democrat, in fraternal relations a Freemason, and in religion he is a member of the First Baptist church of Peru.
Dr. Yarling is one of six surviving members of his father's family. His brother. William A., is an attorney at Shelbyville, this state; Burnett is a merchant of that place; Mary is the wife of Dr. Joseph Bowlby, also of Shel- byville; Zora is the wife of Walter Hungerford, a farmer of Shelby county; and Emma, who is now wife of Otto Billman, a farmer near Shelbyville.
B ARNHART LEARNER. - Probably the oldest living resident of Howard county is Barnhart Learner, who resides on section twenty-six, Howard township, and was born in Baden, Germany, near the Rhine, May 5, 1808. His parents, Martine and Mary (Freilin) Learner, were both natives of Wur- temberg, Germany, and the father was a cooper by trade. He died in Baden, at the age of eighty years, and his wife passed away at the age of seventy. They were members of the Catholic church. They had nine chil- dren, five sons and four daughters, namely: George, John, Joseph, Barn- hart, Reimmond, Mattalien, Anna Maria, Marian and Catharine.
The gentleman whose name introduces this sketch was reared in the land of his birth, and acquired his education there, but his school privileges were rather meager. When a boy his father bound him out to learn boot and shoe making, paying the man to whom he was apprenticed to instruct his son in that pursuit. He served for two and a half years, and in 1832 crossed the Atlantic to America, working for a time at his trade in Philadel- phia, after which he went to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he remained for five years as a journeyman.
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On the 31st of December, 1835, Barnhart Learner married Catharine Huitter, daughter of George and Elizabeth Huitter, and they became parents of eight children: Elizabeth, Mary, Julia, Catharine, George, Emanuel, B. Franklin and John Wesley.
Finally leaving Pennsylvania, Mr. Learner went to Cincinnati, Ohio,. where he left his family while he started out on a prospecting tour in search of a home. He went to Dayton, Ohio, first and then to Germantown, Indi- ana, where he worked at his trade for three years. On the expiration of that period he purchased a distillery, which he operated for eighteen months, but, owing to the hard times and the trickery of those who pretended to be his friends, he lost all that he had. He then went to Marion, Indiana, and later to Broad Ripple, where he again worked at shoe-making. In 1841 he came to Howard county, where he pre-empted one hundred and sixty-eight acres of land, upon which he has since made his home, devoting his energies to farming and stock-raising. In 1850 he made a trip to California with his neighbor, Ephriam Bates, who raised a company for that purpose. They made the journey with ox teams, and six months were consumed before the completion of the trip.
Mr. Learner remained in California two years, and met with only fair success. In 1852 he returned to his Indiana farm and while making his way to his home met an old neighbor, Nathaniel Lindsay, of whom he asked for news concerning his family, and learned for the first time that his wife was dead. Their log cabin had caught fire and Mrs. Learner, who went outside to extinguish the flames in the lath and mud chimney, met her death by the chimney falling upon her. This left Mr. Learner with a family of motherless children. His old neighbor, Mr. Bates, with whom he went to California, had died in Sacramento, of cholera, leaving a widow with five children, Jane, Matilda, Anna, William and Aaron. In 1853 Mr. Learner married Mrs. Bates, the children all joyfully agreeing to the marriage, and the union proved a very happy one. Mrs. Learner died in 1897, at the age of eighty-seven years. She was a member of the Methodist church. Mr. Learner was a Catholic in early life and his first wife was a Lutheran, and each, without the other's knowledge, joined the Methodist church on the same day, wishing to break the news to the other as a surprise, and thus they were happily united in one religious faith. In his political views Mr. Learner was formerly a Whig and is now a Republican. In his business
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interests he has been very successful, and at one time was the owner of more than five hundred acres of land, but has given much of this to his children. He still, however, retains possession of the old homestead together with some other property, and on the old farm has resided for half a century. His life span covers ninety years, and throughout this long period his ster- ling worth has ever commanded the respect of all men and made him a most worthy citizen of the community.
W ILLIAM P. CHICK. - For more than a third of a century William P. Chick has resided on the farm in Jackson township, Cass county, which is now his home, and unaided has placed one hundred acres of the quarter section which he owns under a high state of cultivation. The well tilled fields and substantial improvements on the place indicate his busy life, and to-day he is numbered among the substantial and highly respected citi- zens of his community.
Mr. Chick was born in Gallia county, Ohio, on the 16th of March, 1825, and when four years old accompanied his father on his removal to Scioto county, Ohio, where he remained until seventeen years of age. He acquired his education in a log school-house of primitive construction, furnished with slab seats, and therein mastered the common English branches of learning. At the age of seventeen he began life for himself by working as a farm hand by the month. Leaving the parental roof he went down the Ohio river to Missouri and remained in that state for five years, chopping wood in the lumber regions and working on a farm. On the expiration of that period he returned to Ohio, where he engaged in farming until 1854.
In that year Mr. Chick came to Cass county, Indiana, making the jour- mey by team and locating in Tipton township near Walton, where he pur- chased sixty acres of wild land. He developed that farm and made his home thereon until the fall of 1863, when he removed to his present farm, which he had purchased in the spring of 1854. It was a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of canal land, heavily covered with timber, wild and unimproved. Only about one acre had been cleared, but with characteristic energy Mr. Chick began its development, and soon acre after acre was placed under the plow. The rich soil yielded good harvests in return for the seed planted,
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and by the careful management of his business interests and the utmost fair- ness in all trade transactions, the owner has become one of the substantial. farmers of the community. His first home was a log cabin of three rooms. but in 1886 it was replaced by a more modern and commodious residence.
Mrs. Chick, who has been to her husband a faithful companion and help- meet on the journey of life, bore the maiden name of Mary A. Shope, and. by her marriage she became the mother of three children, but one died ittt infancy and James A. died at the age of five years. Nancy E., the daughter. is now the wife of John Shope. Mr. Chick has resided in Cass county for forty-four years, and has not only been an eye witness of much of its growth and development but has also borne his part therein. He aided in laying out the roads in his section of the county, and has largely advanced the agri- cultural interests of the community which have added greatly to the general prosperity and progress. He is highly esteemed for his many excellencies of character and his worth is widely recognized.
A NDREW J. PHELPS, late of Miami county, Indiana, was born in Lewis county, New York, November 21, 1836, son of Bissell and Margaret (Louks) Phelps. This branch of the Phelps family in America trace their history to New England, their founder having come to this country from Eng- land in colonial days. Bissell Phelps was a son of Noah and Ruth Phelps and was born in Lewis county, New York, March 27, 1804, was reared to farm life and received for that time a good education. He married, in Herkimer county, New York, Margaret Louks, a native of that county and a repre- sentative of an old Holland-Dutch family that settled in New York at an early day. The children of Bissell and Margaret Phelps were Andrew J., Charles, Margaret and Caroline. In the spring of 1853 Bissell Phelps came to this state and settled on eighty acres in the woods in Clay township, Miami county, where he passed the rest of his life and where he died April 4, 1898, at the ripe old age of ninety-three years and eight days. He cleared and placed his land under cultivation. He took an interest in all that pertained to the welfare of his locality, and he lived to see the wonderful development which has transformed this part of Indiana from a wilderness to a well cultivated farming district .
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Andrew J. Phelps was about seventeen years old when he came with his parents to Indiana. Previous to this time he had had good educational advan- tages and had graduated in an academy in his native state and after coming to Indiana he engaged in school-teaching. For ten years he taught in Miami county, chiefly in Clay and Deer Creek townships, and for nineteen years he served as township trustee. He was a great student. His reading covered a wide field and his love for books led him to accumulate a large and well selected library, the best library in the county, outside of Peru. After his marriage he purchased eighty acres of the farm now occupied by his widow and family, having earned every dollar of the purchase money by school-teaching. The improvements on this place at the time he bought it consisted of a log cabin and four acres of cleared land. He carried forward the work of clearing and cultivating, and as the years passed by and prosperity attended his efforts he purchased other land until his farm contained three hundred acres, and in 1884 he built a modern and commodious residence which has since been occupied by his family and where the surroundings give evidence of culture and refinement as well as prosperity. For a number of years Mr. Phelps was largely interested in the stock and dairy business, and the dairy business is still carried on here by his sons, their herd numbering about thirty milch COWS.
Mr. Phelps was married in Deer Creek township, Miami county, December 21, 1869, to Miss Caroline Wyrick, who was born in De Kalb county, Indiana, February 8, 1844, daughter of Jacob and Mary (Fegley) Wyrick. Jacob Wyrick was a son of Martin and Ruth Wyrick, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of North Carolina. At an early day Martin Wyrick removed to Montgomery county, Ohio, and improved a farm where now stands the city of Dayton. Both he and his wife were of English origin. Their children were Jacob, Maggie and Sarah. The father died in middle life and the mother lived to be ninety-six years old. Both were members of the Baptist church.
Jacob Wyrick, the father of Mrs. Phelps, was born in Montgomery county Ohio, and was reared on his father's frontier farm. He married Mary Fegley, daughter of John and Catherine Fegley. After marriage they settled on the old Wyrick homestead and remained there until November, 1837, when they removed to Indiana and took up their abode in De Kalb county, their loca- tion being on one hundred and sixty acres of timber land, to the development
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and cultivation of which he devoted his energies. It was on this farm that Mrs. Phelps was born. He continued farming at this place until late in life, when he retired. He died at the residence of his son William, in Steuben county, this state, at the age of eighty-two years. To him and his wife were born the following named children: Drusilla, Joseph, Julia, Rebecca, Susan, Elizabeth, Caroline, Herman, Wood, Edmund and William. Mr. Wyrick was a member of the United Brethren church.
Mr. and Mrs. Phelps became the parents of five children, -George B., Frank, Albert J., Thomas and Nelson. George B. is a graduate of Amboy Academy and the other children are in school, having the advantage of both good schools and a refined home. Mrs. Phelps is a member of the United Brethren church, and Mr. Phelps, while not a member of any church organ- ization, was a liberal supporter of churches. He donated the ground on which the United Brethren church is built and contributed liberally toward the erection of the building. He died August 1, 1897.
M ARK WALLACE, Logansport. - Among the trustworthy and popular passenger engineers of the Pan Handle Railway Company who make their daily runs from and to Logansport, none perhaps are more worthy of personal mention in this work than the subject of this sketch, Mark Wallace.
Mr. Wallace is an Irishman and possesses all of the sterling character- istics which have brought his countrymen to the front in the New World. He was born in county Wexford, Ireland, December 5, 1848, son of John and Ellen (Mahoney) Wallace, the former a butcher by trade. Of the five children composing the Wallace family, Mark is the only surviving son and the only one of the five that came to America. He may be said to have begun life at the age of fourteen, when he started out as a farm hand in his native county. Although he had ample employment at fair wages from time to time till he came of age, he had not accumulated more than sufficient to pay his passage to the United States. He was induced to come to this country by the presence of friends at that time in Logansport, Indiana, and came via Castle Garden, in 1869, landing in this city with less than a dollar in his pocket. His first job was as a section man. This he discarded after six
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months for the more promising and remunerative position of " wiper " in the Pan Handle round-house. He went from the round-house to the blacksmith shop, as a helper, and in 1872 was placed on an engine as a fireman. His work was satisfactory and his promotion to the position of engineer came in the ordinary course of events. In 1876 he was given a switch engine in the Chicago yard and ran it till 1879, when he went out on the road. He remained in the freight service till 1893, when he was promoted to the pas- senger service, running on the north end of the Chicago division.
In November, 1874, Mr. Wallace was married, in Chicago, to Miss Mary Farrell, and they have six children, namely: Annie, John A., Will- iam, Thomas, Mary and Charles. John A. is a shop clerk in the employ of the Pan Handle.
Mr. Wallace is an active member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, has been chief engineer in the order and is now its first assist- ant chief.
W ILLIAM H. SELLERS .- For many years an active factor in the busi- ness life of Kokomo, Mr. Sellers is now living retired, for his former toil through many years brought to him a capital that now enables him to put aside the more arduous duties of life. He comes from an old Kentucky family of Scotch descent, and his grandfather, Robert Sellers, born in that state. spent his entire life there, following the occupation of farming. He had four sons and three daughters, which family included Joseph Sellers, father of our subject. He, too, was born in Kentucky and prepared for the bar, becoming a well known lawyer. In early life he removed to Preble county, Ohio, where he married Miss Elizabeth Ward, a native of Pennsyl- vania, and a daughter of Samuel Ward, who was born in the Keystone state, and was of German descent. He devoted his life to agricultural pursuits, and emigrating westward located on a farm in Pulaski county, Indiana, at an early day. His death occurred there at the age of seventy-five years.
In 1827 Joseph Sellers removed to Logansport, Indiana, and for a num- ber of years resided on a farm near that city, at the same time practicing law in the county seat. About 1848 he took up his residence in Logansport, where he continued in the active and successful practice of his profession until he had attained a ripe old age. He died in that city in 1882, when about
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eighty-six years of age, and his wife passed away in 1886, at the same age. She was a member of the Christian church, and Mr. Sellers was a regular attendant on its services and always contributed liberally to the support of the church. Before the war of the Rebellion he served as a member of the Logansport city council for a number of years and was also justice of the peace several years. He took an active part in public affairs and was a leader in thought and action. When a boy of about fifteen years he joined the Amer- ican army, then engaged in its second war with Great Britain, the war of 1812, and throughout his life, like a loyal soldier, he discharged the duties and obli- gations that rested upon him. He had twelve children, eight sons and four daughters, of whom five are now living: Morris L. ; Joseph S., of Logans- port; William H .; Henry C., of Kokomo; and Irene, wife of William M. Kreider, of Logansport.
William H. Sellers was born near Logansport, Cass county, February 28, 1836, and resided on the home farm until twelve years of age, when his parents removed to the city. He attended the district schools of the coun- try, the public schools of the town, and at the age of sixteen began learning the machinist's trade, serving a four-years apprenticeship. On the expira- tion of that period he went to Camden, Preble county, Ohio, where he engaged in clerking in a dry-goods store for his uncle, William Pottenger, for ten years. In 1863 he responded to the call of his country for aid, and joined the " boys in blue " of Company E, One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Ohio Infantry, being one of six brothers in the army.
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