USA > Indiana > Miami County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 44
USA > Indiana > Howard County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 44
USA > Indiana > Cass County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 44
USA > Indiana > Tipton County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 44
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Daniel A. Shenk was reared in his native county and educated in its district schools, and for the most part he has devoted his energies to agri- cultural pursuits. About 1880 he went to Indianapolis and turned his atten- tion to the hat business. He, however, remained there only eight months. Returning to Howard county, he began dealing in agricultural implements, and from that drifted into the stock business. He bought large quantities of live stock, which he shipped to the eastern markets, -Pittsburg and Buffalo, -- and continued that business several years. In 1886 he settled on the farm which he previously owned and where he yet lives, and has since given his attention to farming and stock-raising. He handles stock of different kinds and is raising thoroughbred horses, having some fine brood mares. His horses are among the best in the county. Besides this farm Mr. Shenk owns property in Kokomo.
Mr. Shenk is a most public-spirited and enterprising man. He was rocked in a Republican cradle and has been faithful to the principles advo- cated by the Republican party ever since he became a voter. He has filled some minor offices of prominence and trust, including the office of township trustee, and in the county would be a formidable candidate for any official position he might seek.
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Mrs. Shenk was before marriage Miss Rosa Ingels, and is a daughter of George and Mariah (Robertson) Ingels. Her maternal grandparents were Moses and Mary (Woorle) Robertson, both of Virginia birth and Irish descent, who left the old dominion at an early day and became pioneers of Indiana. The Robertson family was composed of ten children, namely: John, Zachariah, Lucinda, Matilda, Eliza, Hulda, Mariah, Malinda, Jane and Amanda. The children of George and Mariah Ingels are John R., J. Marian, Abraham G., Rosa and Clara O. Mrs. Ingels died in January, 1894. She was a member of the Christian church, and a woman of many excellent characteristics, loved by all who knew her. George Ingels was born in Wayne county, Indiana, January 4, 1823, son of John and Rosa (Garr) Ingels. John Ingels was a son of James and Catherine (Boone) Ingels, the latter being a first cousin of the famous Daniel Boone, of Kentucky. James Ingels was a native of England. He and a brother came to America together and settled first near Philadelphia, and later he came west and became a prominent and well-to-do farmer and slave owner of Kentucky. John Ingels was born in Kentucky, May 30, 1793, and died March 1, 1859. His wife died November 4, 1877. In the year 1816 they moved up into Indiana and settled in Wayne county, where he entered land and improved a farm. Sell- ing his farm, he moved to Fayette county and there bought a large tract of land and developed a fine farm, where he reared his family and where he spent the rest of his life and died. Both he and his wife were members of the New-Light church. His wife, Rosa, was a daughter of Abraham Garr, who was of German descent and belonged to the fifth generation of the fam- ily in America. He was born in Virginia, moved from there to Kentucky, and in 1805 came to Indiana, locating in Wayne county, near the old block house, where he cleared and improved a farm. He died there about 1864. He and his wife were members of the Baptist church. Following are the names of his children: Jonas, Fielding, Larkin, Able, Fannie, Rosie, Martha and Eliza. John Ingels' children were Thomas, James, George, Abraham, Catherine, John, Joseph, Marion and Boone. The mother of this family died January 3, 1894. She was a consistent member of the Christian church for many years, and to this church the father also belongs. Politic- ally he has always been a strong Republican.
Daniel A. and Rosa Shenk have been blessed with two children, namely: Oma M., born November 8, 1887; and George B., March 11, 1893.
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N ATHAN W. DOAN, M. D .- This pioneer physician of Tipton county conducted a successful practice in New Lancaster and vicinity for up- ward of thirty years and probably is better known throughout this region than any other citizen. His life has been a busy and useful one, filled with hardships and severe privations in former years, and yet always devoted to the benefit of his fellowmen. Unsparing of himself he rode on his trusty horse through swamps and over roads totally unworthy of the name to the bedsides of the sick and suffering, more often than not furnishing his own drugs and supplies, as well as his services, free, as the people were poor and money was a very scarce article hereabouts in those pioneer days. When fever and chills were common and quinine was in great demand he used quantities of the drug in his practice, paying seven dollars an ounce for it. Like the ministerial circuit-riders of old, he was obliged to seek outside of his profession for the means of livelihood, and he accordingly bought the farm where he now resides. At the time it came into his possession it had a few acres cleared and a log house and barn stood upon it. The Doc- tor set out an orchard and now has ninety acres cleared, tiled and provided with ditches. The old cabin has been superseded by a good frame house, and a large barn and other substantial improvements make this a model farm. In 1896 the Doctor came to live upon the farm again and soon will retire from practice, thenceforth to enjoy in quiet and plenty the remaining years of his life.
Doctor Doan is a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred in Knox county, May 4, 1829. He is a son of John and Betsey (Trump) Doan, both of whom were natives of Virginia, in which state their marriage was solem- nized. The father was a shoemaker and harness manufacturer by trade. He died in Madison county, Ohio. When he was an infant our subject was taken to the home of an uncle who kept the child until he was six years old, then returning him to his father. When the lad was fourteen he was living with his sister and other relatives and was so unfortunate as to have his right arm crippled. His sister persuaded him then to commence the study of medicine, rather an ambitious project, as hitherto he had received but a lim- ited education in the subscription schools of the period. The youth was apt and earnest as a student, however, and carried out his sister's plan with a zeal which surprised everyone. Many an evening he read the pages of borrowed medical works by the light of the hickory bark in the old-fashioned
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fire place or by the sputtering lard-oil lamp. Years passed, though, before he considered himself competent to enter the medical profession and in the meantime he read and studied constantly. He became quite an architect and draughtsman, making plans for bridges, etc., and at the same time en- gaged in farming. In 1851 he was married, in Ohio, and two years later removed to Hendricks county, Indiana. He went to Chicago and spent one year in a medical college, after which he commenced practicing in the town of Pittsboro. From there he went later to Brownsboro, and in 1869 going to Atlanta, Indiana, started the first drug store there and also practiced his profession. The same year he disposed of the store and came to Lancaster, where, as previously stated, he was a pioneer physician. About 1870 he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and after attending lectures in the medical college was graduated. He has been a strong Republican and was once mentioned as a candidate for the legislature, but has not been an office-seeker. Frater- nally he is a Mason.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Doan were reared in the faith of the Society of Friends and adhere to their early tenets. Mrs. Doan's maiden name was Elizabeth W. Shinn. Her father, Thomas Shinn, was a native of New Jersey and was a farmer by occupation. He died at his home in Waynes- ville, Warren county, Ohio, where he had lived for several years, respected and loved by all who knew him. Three of his sons, Richard, George and James, served in the Union army during the civil war and the life of the second named was sacrificed to his country. The sisters of Mrs. Doan are Mary A. and Sarah. Seven children blessed the marriage of the Doctor and wife, namely: Theron F., a painter by trade; Francis L., who died at the age of thirty years; Mrs. Ida Yarling; Leslie E., a farmer; Arthur W., a carpenter; Schuyler, a carpenter; and Jesse, a farmer.
A LBERT B. SWITZER .- Men of talent and integrity constitute a pros- perous state, especially if public sentiment is such that that class of men can have any influence at all; and fortunate it is for this country that such men are most generally honored with position. Among these we can decidedly number the subject of this sketch, who is an attorney and counselor at law in Peru.
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A native of Louisville, Kentucky, born June 28, 1858, he has been a resident of Indiana since his early childhood. For a number of years he was a successful educator, being a gentleman of liberal culture. He began teach- ing school at the early age of seventeen years, and with the means he saved he entered the National Normal at Lebanon, Ohio, then conducted by the noted Albert Holbrook, and for a time pursued the curriculum of that lively institution. Teaching again, to obtain the means, he next entered the Purdue State University at LaFayette and pursued his studies there as far as the senior year. In 1881 he was a professor at Amboy, taught two winter terms at Mexico, was for some time principal of the Chili schools, and in the winter of 1885-6 was superintendent of the Remington schools in Jasper county.
In 1885, soon after he left college, he was married to Miss Ida E. Moore, who had been one of his pupils while teaching at Mexico. In 1884 he read law under the tuition of the Hon. John Overmyer, of North Vernon, this state. His first practice of law was in Peru. In 1893 he removed from Peru to Parsons, Kansas, where, after a residence of thirteen months he was elected prosecuting attorney; but, not altogether pleased with Kansas, he returned to Peru at the close of his official term. His father-in-law died very suddenly in 1888, and he took charge of the settlement of the estate. The home of the widow and family is on West Sixth street, Peru, where the subject of this sketch and family also reside. Mr. Switzer is a gentleman of fine attainments, speaks the German language fluently, possesses the rare distinction of being a thirty-second-degree Mason and is a member of Murat Temple Shrine at Indianapolis.
His father, Peter Switzer, was born near Hanover, Germany, and was brought to America by his parents when a child. They first located in Cin- cinnati, Ohio, and subsequently removed to Louisville, Kentucky. At the age of about twelve years Peter Switzer was sent back to Germany to be educated, and was there a number of years, meanwhile taking a wife. Returning to America he located at Louisville and there pursued the occupa- tion of painter, in which he had become proficient during his residence in Germany. In 1861 he removed to Rockford, Indiana. When his two eldest sons, one of whom was Albert B., had attained an age that rendered them serviceable on a farm, he purchased land near the line of Jennings and Bar- tholomew counties, Indiana, settled there and proceeded with agricultural pur-
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suits. Being a man of considerable education himself, and fully appreciating the value of mental culture, he desired for his boys better educational opportuni- ties than his rural district afforded; and yet such were his limited circum- stances that both the sons could not be spared from the farm at the same time; and it was at length decided that Albert, the subject of the foregoing sketch, should first be favored with these larger opportunities, and accord- ingly, at the age of seventeen years, he began teaching, as already stated. Mr. Peter Switzer is now a resident of Elizabethtown, Indiana; his wife is deceased. Their family consisted of four sons and four daughters. The eldest son, Philip, is a machinist by occupation and a resident of Franklin, Indiana. The second is Albert B. William P. is a resident of Manistee, Michigan. John M., the youngest, graduated at Leland Stanford, Jr., Uni- versity, in California, in the class of 1898, and is a resident of the Pacific coast. He enlisted in the United States service, being mustered in with Company K, First California Volunteer Infantry, as corporal. He was with the first expedition to go to the Philippine Islands and took part in two engagements. He is a brilliant young man, and when the troops landed at Honolulu he responded to the toast, " The Stanford Students at Honolulu." Three of the four sisters are living, -Carrie, in Elizabethtown, this state, and the others are wives of farmers, also in this state.
VICTOR E. SEITER .- Five years ago the Logansport State Bank was V incorporated and Mr. Seiter, one of the foremost in its organization, was elected vice-president of the new institution, now ranked among the best in Indiana. His excellent financial ability is a matter of general knowlege in this community, as is also the interest which he takes in all public improve- ments and local enterprises.
In tracing the history of our subject it is found that his father, Joseph Seiter, was a native of Baden, Germany, and was but seventeen years of age when he started out to seek his fortune in the United States. He landed in New Orleans after a long sea voyage and proceeded up the Mississippi river to Cincinnati. Then he drifted to Chicago and after a time to Indianapolis. In the last named city he met the lady whom he afterward made his wife, Catherine Vollmer, a native of Stuttgart, Germany. She had emigrated to
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this country only a short time previously and is still living in her comfortable home in this city. Joseph Seiter learned the milling trade in Germany, but when a resident of Cincinnati he mastered the baker's and confectioner's trades and concluded to devote himself to these callings (the two practically in one), which he preferred. Soon after his marriage he removed to Wabash, Indiana, and was occupied in carrying on a bakery business there for about one year. In 1857 he came to this city, followed the same trade for a short period and then located in Toledo, Ohio, where he conducted a bakery until April, 1863.
Then he left everything to the management of his wife and started forth to battle for the land of his adoption. Enlisting in Company K, Sixty-sev- enth Ohio Infantry, as second lieutenant, he served until 1863, when he resigned his commission and returned to his family in Toledo. A few weeks previously his place of business had been destroyed by fire and he felt that his presence was absolutely required at home, else he would not have given up his army service. The same year, 1863, the family returned to Logans- port and for the next ten years Mr. Seiter was the owner and manager of one of the largest bakeries in the place. In 1873 he erected a three-story brick block at No. 223 Fourth street and from that time until his death he was interested in the liquor business at this location. He died in August, 1892, aged fifty-six years.
Victor E. Seiter is a native of Toledo, Ohio, his birth having taken place in that city December 19, 1859. He was but four years old at the time his parents permanently settled in Logansport and his education was gained in her schools. He was but sixteen when he assumed the full charge of his father's business, for he had early manifested his ability as a financier. In 1884 he became the secretary of the Jenney Electric Light and Power Com- pany and served in that capacity until 1889, when he was made treasurer and manager as well, and these three offices he continued to fill with ability for the next three years. After his father's death he took charge of his business affairs and in May, 1893, sold out the liquor store. Since then he has been the vice-president of the bank already mentioned.
In his relations with the fraternities, Mr. Seiter has borne a conspicuous place and is highly esteemned in the various organizations with which he is identified. In the Masonic order he belongs to Tipton Lodge, No. 33, F. & A. M., Logan Chapter, No. 2, R. A. M .; Logansport Council, No. 11; St.
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John Commandery, No. 24, Knights Templar, and Indiana Consistory; and he is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is also connected with the Inde- pendent Order of Foresters and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
B ENJAMIN E. WALLACE .- The well-known proprietor of " The Great Wallace Shows," is a resident of Peru, his beautiful home being located at No. 110 North Broadway. His name is a familiar one throughout the entire country, but though he spends much of his time in travel he is regarded as one of the valued and progressive citizens of Peru. His grandfather, John (. Wallace, was a soldier in the war of 1812, under General William Henry Harrison, in whose command he fought in the battle of Tippecanoe, together with various other battles against the Indians in the Wabash valley. He was a native of Pennsylvania and continued to make his home there until his death. Ephraim Wallace, the father of our subject, was born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, in 1819, and having attained to man's estate married Rebecca Elliott. In 1863 he came to Miami county, Indiana, locating on a farm in Washington township, where he spent his remaining days. He became the father of eleven children, but only three are now living, Ben- jamin E. being the only surviving son. A daughter, Alice, is a resident of Chicago, and Emma makes her home in Pennsylvania.
Benjamin E. Wallace was born in the Keystone state in 1847, and came to Miami county with his father's family in 1863. He was for a number of years engaged in the livery and stock business and has always had a special fondness for animals, studying their habits and modes of life until he has a comprehensive understanding of them. In 1884 he established the nucleus of what has become one of the most extensive enterprises of its kind in the United States, -the Wallace circus and menagerie. It would be outside the limits of this publication to give an extended account of his accomplishments in this direction; suffice it to say that from the beginning he has met with excellent success. In 1884 he began his travels with a wagon show, travel- ing through Virginia and Kentucky. The following year he traveled by steamer from Pittsburg, exhibiting in the various towns on the Ohio river and its tributaries. The same year he took wagons and closed the season at New Orleans, shipping the exhibition home by rail. The next year, 1886,
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Mr. Wallace began his travels by rail, and since that time, with his combined circus and menagerie, he has visited every town of importance in the United States. During all the years that have elapsed since he established this enterprise as a wagon exhibition he has kept constantly adding thereto, investing vast sums of money, in the determination to make his the best show on the road. That he has succeeded is fully verified in the opinion and the applause of the public. At the close of . each season he returns to his home in Peru. His beautiful farm of several hundred acres, at the confluence of the Wabash and the Mississinewa rivers, affords elegant winter quarters for his vast menagerie. Here follows a period of rest and recuperation and of training for the coming year. The energy and business capacity necessary to obtain such an extensive menagerie and circus attraction and successfully manage the same are remarkable and are possessed by but few.
Mr. Wallace is a public-spirited and highly esteemed citizen and is deeply interested in the welfare of Peru. His wife, a most estimable lady, was formerly Miss Florence Fuller, daughter of Reuben Fuller, who was for many years a well-known hotel proprietor of Peru.
ERNER C. MERLEY .- The subject of this sketch, now deceased, came V to Union township, Miami county, Indiana, in 1868, direct from Hesse- Cassel, Germany, where he was born November 30, 1844. He served four years in the German and Prussian wars, and emigrated to America on the same vessel on which the lady sailed who afterward became his wife. He worked as a general laborer until he had accumulated several hundred dollars, which he invested in the farm where his orphaned children now live. He went in debt thirteen hundred dollars on the first forty-acre tract; this indebtedness he liquidated and at length purchased eighty acres additional, which he paid for, besides making all the improvements, embracing a neat and commodious farm house, good barn and other outbuildings, and fifteen hundred rods of tiling. On reaching this county he had but thirty-five cents and when he was married was eighty dollars in debt. This is a most remark- able instance of "prosperity in adversity;" but just as the home was cleared of debt and in a condition to warrant a peaceful and happy old age free from life's harrowing cares, he was suddenly called away by death, May 30, 1895.
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The cause was congestion of the stomach, terminating his life after three days' illness. For his wife he had married Anna Katherine Swalm, also a native of Hesse-Cassel, born July 20, 1847, the marriage taking place in 1869, in Miami county, Indiana. After his death she remained to take care of the children until April 24, 1898, when she, too, passed to the other world, at the family home, after a lingering illness dating almost from the time of her husband's death. Both are buried in the I. O. O. F. cemetery at Deeds- ville, Mr. Merley having been an active member of that time-honored order. They were members of the German Lutheran church, but all their children are members of the United Brethren church. He was a road supervisor for eight years in Union township.
Of their eight children, six remained to mourn the untimely death of their kind and provident parents. The eldest, Dora, is the wife of Clinton Dell and resides at Kalkaska, Michigan; John is a foreman in a factory at Peru; George F. has charge of the parental homestead; and the following named are still living there: Rosa, Oren and Nellie. Henry died in his nine- teenth year, and Clevey died at the age of twelve years.
The information for this sketch is furnished by George F. Merley, the eldest son at home. He is a young man of twenty-six years, born May 7. 1872, educated in the public schools and at the North Manchester (Indiana) College, also at the Marion Normal School and at the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute, spending the year 1895-6 at the last named institution. He has devoted seven years to teaching, besides his school attendance, which covered a portion of each year. He has in view the legal profession and has already commenced a course of reading. He is a member of Peru Lodge, No. 539, I. O. O. F.
April 5, 1898, he was united in matrimony with Miss Nora E. Poor, a daughter of Archibald and Isabel Poor, the latter of whom is deceased. She was born in Peoria, this county, and when married was a saleslady and post- office clerk in her native village.
The sons are all Democrats in their politics, as was their father.
R' EV. GEORGE BOZELL .- This highly esteemed citizen and appreci- ated Christian minister, residing on section 24, Cicero township, is a native of Champaign county, Ohio, born. June 17, 1821. His father, Ezekiel
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Bozell, was a native of Virginia, where he was reared and married, and moved to Ohio in early day, settling on a farm. In 1824 he moved to Bar- tholomew county, Indiana, locating again on a farm, where he finally died at the age of about sixty years, an exemplary member of the Christian church. His father, Henry Bozell, was also a native of the Old Dominion, was a farmer by occupation and supposed to have participated in the Revo- lutionary war. He was of French and Irish descent.
Mr. Bozell's mother, whose name before marriage was Lucy Robinson, was also a native of Virginia and brought up there, and died at the age of sixty-years. Her father, also a native of that state, was of French and Irish ancestry.
Rev. George Bozell, the ninth of the ten children in the above family (all of whom grew up to years of maturity), was three years old when brought by his parents to Bartholomew county, this state, in which locality he was reared, attending the subscription schools in the log school-house of the period. He remained an inmate of his parental home till he had passed the age of twenty-two years, when he started out in his own care. Bor- rowing the money to pay for his marriage license and the minister a mar- riage fee, he was united in matrimony January 12, 1843, with Miss Mary A. Bishop, a native of Johnson county, Indiana, and reared in Shelby county, this state, a daughter of Lewis Bishop.
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