USA > Indiana > Newton County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Benton County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Pulaski County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Warren County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Jasper County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 16
USA > Indiana > White County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 16
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very best class of customers, and in his endeavor to live up to his reputation he but gains so many more patrons.
He was married March 13, 1873, to Susannah Bullard, a native of Logan county, Ohio. Six children have been born to them, viz .: Norine, the wife of Robert Dobbins, of Wolcott; twins who died in infancy; John Henry, who is in the store with his father; and Roland Earl and Goldie F., both at home. Mr. Hughes is a Republican of very decided views and keeps well posted in the affairs of the nation. He is not a politician, the emolu- ments of the petty office-holder not appealing to him. He is a member of Monticello Lodge, No. 107, I. O. O. F., and although a member of the order less than three years he is now past grand. He and his family are com- municants of the Baptist church, and are earnest workers for the advancement of that organization. He has lately been improving his residence property by erecting a commodious and convenient house on Railroad street, making it a most desirable possession, and the visitor is sure of finding the latch- string out and meeting a cheery welcome to his fireside.
SAMUEL DAVIS.
This worthy pioneer of Tippecanoe county has been an important factor in its development, and since 1855 has lived on the homestead where he dwells to-day, in Sheffield township. Among the numerous public enter- prises in which he has aided might be mentioned the Dayton and Lafayette gravel road, which was built through the efforts of a few public-spirited citi- zens in 1861, at which time there were but seven other members of the company in the county, and Mr. Davis was one of the leading directors of the company. In 1890 the road was purchased by the county. Among the neighbors and associates of almost half a century he stands high, his reputa- tion being above reproach.
The founder of the Davis family in America was a native of England. Moody Davis, the father of our subject, was born in New England, January 7, 1785, and was a carpenter and millwright by trade. He married, in New Hampshire, Rebecca Morgan, whose birth had occurred March 26, 1788. They began housekeeping in a hewed-log cabin which the husband built on a quarter section of land that he had purchased in Vermont. Having cleared forty acres of the heavy timber with which it was encumbered, he planted thirty acres in wheat, and, assisted by his industrious wife, he cut the crop with a hand sickle. Heavy frosts ruined his harvests, the times were hard, and he finally traded his land for a team of horses and a wagon, and set out with his little family for western New York. He located within twenty miles of the spot where the famous battle of Lundy's Land was fought, July 25,
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1814, and the following morning Mr. Davis set out for the battle-ground. Arriving there, he found that the carnage had ceased, and that there was plenty of work for him to do, in assisting to care for the wounded and in burying the dead. In 1815 he started with his family to Ohio, going as far as Olean Point, on the Ohio river, in wagons and there he bought a partly- built flat-boat, finished it, and they floated down the stream to Cincinnati. Thence they proceeded to Butler county, Ohio, and at a point on the Big Miami river, about three and one-half miles northeast of Hamilton, Mr. Davis built a gristmill, and operated it for twelve years. He also built a still- house and purchased a half section of land, and from these various sources derived a good income. At the time of his death, February 25, 1835, he was independently well-off, and had no one to thank for it but himself, for by his own sturdy might and fortitude he had carved out his fortune. At one time he made a trip down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans .on a flat-boat loaded with flour and whisky and, having sold the same, he proceeded to walk back, some fifteen hundred miles. He reached home safely with the large sum of money on his person. In early days his mill was a very busy place, as farmers came as far as one hundred miles to have their grain ground. Mr. Davis was a Jacksonian Democrat and, religiously, was a Baptist. His brothers, William and John, and sisters, Amanda and Priscilla, all settled in Ohio and reared their families in that state. Mrs. Rebecca Davis, a typical pioneer woman, brave and hardy, survived her husband, dying February 22, 1849.
Samuel Davis, of this sketch, was next to the youngest of ten children, the dates of whose births are as follows: Josiah, January 3, 1807; Julia A., April 24, 1808; Adeline, March 12, 1810; Moses, March 21, 1812; Almon, September 4, 1814; Mary, February 8, 1817; Azariah, October 23, 1819; Ursula, February 11, 1821; Samuel, September 15, 1823; and Amanda, September 8, 1834.
From his early years until after his marriage, Samuel Davis lived on the old homestead in Butler county, Ohio, and gained but a limited education in the subscription schools of that period. December 14, 1847, he married Abigail, daughter of Dodd and Sarah Lindley. She was of Irish and Dutch extraction and was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, March 12, 1824. The young couple lived for six years or so on the Davis homestead, and in 1855 they set out for their new home in Tippecanoe county, Indiana. Mr. Davis made the trip with two wagons and horses and was six days on the way, for it snowed steadily night and day. The rest of the family came on the rail- road, but the train was snowbound and the short journey took two days to make. Little improvement had been made on the one-hundred-and-fifty- acre tract, part prairie and part timber, on which Mr. Davis settled, but he
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industriously went to work and soon had developed a model farm. He cleared about thirty acres, added thirty-seven acres to his original tract, and built a substantial two-story brick house. He has been very successful as a farmer and business man, and richly deserves the prosperity which he enjoys. He uses his ballot in favor of the Republican party.
The first wife of Mr. Davis died December 3, 1872. She was a member of the Presbyterian church and was loved by all who knew her. Their two children are Alice, born October 1, 1849, and Adeline, born September 16, 1851. The second marriage of our subject was celebrated in this county, September 8, 1874, the lady of his choice being Mrs. Amelia C. Travis. She was born January 4, 1838, in Pickaway county, Ohio, a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Morris) Gougar, of Pennsylvania stock. The mother was a daugh- ter of Samuel and Amelia (Preble) Morris. Mrs. Davis had four brothers and sisters, namely: Martha A., John M., Eleanor E. and Samuel M. Her father was a farmer and seven times did he journey down the rivers from Cincinnati to New Orleans with produce. A worthy member of the Lutheran church, serving for years as a deacon, he exemplified in his daily life the high principles in which he believed. He died January 8, 1857, and his wife passed away September 2, 1853. After the death of her parents, Mrs. Davis came to this county to visit her sister, Mrs. Eleanor Lutz, and the following year was married to Joseph Travis, a farmer and grain merchant. They were married August 11, 1863, and Mr. Travis died April 8, 1871. Mrs. Davis is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church.
The paternal grandparents of Mrs. Davis were pioneers of Pennsyl- vania. On one occasion when Mr. Gougar, assisted by his wife and two elder daughters, was in the field making hay, their cabin was entered by some Indians, who asked the two terrified children who were there, taking care of an infant, where their parents were. The brave children would give no information, but one of the red men discovered their elders in the distant field and the band started in that direction. The little boy and girl thus left alone, snatched up the baby and fled for the nearest fort, which they reached after many weary hours of traveling about one o'clock in the night. The Indians attacked the parents in the field. Mrs. Gougar defended herself vigorously with her pitchfork, but was soon overpowered, scalped, and tied to a bush. The father had no arms with which to defend himself, and as he sprang upon a rail fence near an Indian shot at him. The rail broke beneath the weight and he fell to the ground. Strange to say, the red men believed him dead, and without further notice of him the hostiles dispersed. As soon as he dared Mr. Gougar fled to the forest, and the following day, when searching for his wife, he found her tied to the bush, and still living, though she soon expired. The two daughters were carried into captivity
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and were treated well. They were given a feather bed to sleep on at night, this adjunct of civilization having been taken from one of the cabins which had been raided by them. One of the daughters was afterwards recovered by the family, who paid a ransom for her. The other had blue eyes, and the Indians would not give her up. She married a chief and would never leave them.
EZRA FRANKENFIELD.
A retired merchant and capitalist of Dayton, Tippecanoe county, and one of the most respected citizens of the place is he of whom this sketch is penned. As his surname indicates, he is of German extraction, the name having been originally spelled Frauenfelder. His family, however, is an old one in the United States, as the founder came to America in early colonial days, and the immediate ancestors of our subject were styled "Pennsylvania Dutch." The paternal grandparents were John Abraham and Elizabeth (Schloterbeck) Fraukenfield, and the father of our subject was Simon, who was born in November, 1795, in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He was a man of good education and general ability and for many years he was very successfully engaged in teaching school in Lehigh county and in his native county. Even after he came to Indiana he taught school in Clinton county for a number of years, and thus his influence over multitudes of youthful minds was immeasurable, leaving a mark upon one generation, at least. His fine, keen intellect was balanced by a true, kindly heart and high ideals, and in religious belief he was a Lutheran. It was in 1852 that he came to this state, and thenceforth he dwelt in Madison township, Clinton county, his death occurring there January 6, 1882, when he had attained the vener- able age of eighty-six years. He married Catherine Sloyer, and their chil- dren were Simon, Aaron S., Levi, Ezra, Leah, Naida and Jared. The last mentioned served for three years in the Civil war in the Seventy-second Regi- ment of Pennsylvania Mounted Infantry.
Ezra Frankenfield was born November 28, 1828, in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and after he had mastered the "three R's " and the common branches of learning in the public schools he began his mercantile career by accepting a position as clerk. From the time that he was eighteen until he was twenty-five years of age he was employed in a store at Siegfried's Bridge, Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1854 the young man came to this county with his newly wedded wife, and on the 8th of May he took a posi- tion in the store of S. Favorite & Son, as a clerk. Having remained with that firm for about six years he embarked in the mercantile business on his own account, and by his judicious methods, his industry and regard for his
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customers he won the esteem of all who had dealings with him. As the years rolled by he gradually amassed a competence and is now well-to-do, having an abundance for his declining years. In his political belief he is a Democrat. Active as a Mason, he was one of the early members of the lodge at Dayton, and in all local enterprises he has ever been interested and helpful. Both he and his wife are members of the Reformed church, and their lives have been examples of noble Christian manhood and womanhood.
In the summer of 1853 Mr. Frankenfield married Miss Amelia Kohler, whose birth had occurred August 24, 1834, in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. Her father, Joseph Kohler, was a marble-cutter by trade, and followed farm- ing as his chief occupation in life. In 1855 he moved to Indiana with his family, and partly cleared two farms in Clinton county, his homestead being a valuable place of eighty acres. He was a member of the German Reformed church, and in political faith was a Republican. He was upright and honor- able and reared his children to be good and useful citizens. His wife, the mother of Mrs. Frankenfield, was a Miss Magdelena Saeger prior to her mar- riage. Two of their sons were soldiers in the Civil war. Peter was for three years in the Indiana infantry service, and Harrison was for nearly four years in the cavalry service of this state. The other children were Mary, Walter, Amelia, Caroline, Hannah.
The eldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Frankenfield is Ellen J., wife of W. I. Slipher, a manufacturer of Mulberry, Indiana; Sarah A., the next in order of birth, married Wilbert M. Baker, of Lafayette; Laura R. is at home; Albert L. married Ella Everest, and is a farmer of this county; William E., who married Edith Thompson, is station agent at Goldsmith, Indiana, and Ira C. is the youngest of the family, and is engaged in business at Sims Station, Grant county, Indiana.
AUBURT L. BERKLEY, M. D.
Dr. Berkley is a resident physician and surgeon of Rensselaer, Indiana, and is a young man of promise and ability. He located here some three years ago, and the care and skill evinced in all cases under his charge soon won him the confidence of the people. His parents, John L. and Mary J. (Brown) Berkley, reside in Illinois. The father is a native of Charleston, that state, and in early life was a merchant, but later engaged in milling.
Dr. Berkley was the second of a family of four children, and was born August 31, 1870, in Douglas county, Illinois. There he grew up, attended school and assisted his father about the mill. He early developed a love of books, and was particularly interested in anything treating on medicine or surgery. His one aim and ambition was to become a physician, but in this
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he was discouraged by his family, until he was almost uncertain whether he would like it. However, he determined to give it a trial, and a very short time served to convince him that it was a profession in which he would succeed. After reading a year with Dr. Rutherford he took a regular course in Rush Medical College, in Chicago, from which institution he graduated in 1895.
He at once came to Rensselaer, opened an office, and began the active practice of his profession. He has met with unlooked-for success, and won the regard of his people, who depend on him in many of the cases of sur- gery requiring skillful treatment. He has a natural talent in this direction, and his uniform care and kindness, as well as the success that attends his min- istrations, have gained for him a large and lucrative practice. He is one of the prominent men of the city, and his friends bespeak him a brilliant future. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and united with the Methodist Episcopal church on Washington avenue, Chicago. He is an attendant of that body here, and stands well both socially and professionally.
MORDECAI F. CHILCOTE.
A group of the prominent men of Jasper county, Indiana, would be decidedly incomplete without the addition of M. F. Chilcote, who has wooed fortune with gratifying results in the legal profession. He has been a resi- dent of Rensselaer for many years, and a leading lawyer of the Jasper county bar since 1868. He was born at Wooster, Wayne county, Ohio, November 4, 1840, and is a son of Mordecai and Elizabeth A. (Cuthberson) Chilcote. Mordecai Chilcote, Sr., was likewise a native of Ohio, and con- tinued to reside there until 1852, when he took his family to Eaton county, Michigan. In 1877 he moved to this county, but returned to Hillsdale county, Michigan, where he died. The mother is still living and makes her home in this city.
Our subject spent much of his earlier, life on a farm, attending the pub- lic schools of his native state, and there receiving his primary education. After the family moved to Michigan he was able to pursue an academic or seminary course, and when eighteen entered Olivet College, of which Pro- fessor Fairchild was president. He took a two-years course of study at that institution, and then came to Jasper county to teach school, as the most available work to be secured.
In 1861 he enlisted in the Ninth Indiana Regiment for three months, and re-enlisted in the Forty-eighth Regiment. Six months later he was pro- moted to the rank of lieutenant, and soon afterward to a captaincy. His
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field of service was in West Virginia, and in the Department of the Ten- nessee, where he took part in many of the fiercest encounters of the war. After his return to his home he once more engaged in teaching, and com- menced the study of law in the office of Hammond & Spitler, of Rensselaer. He graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in April, 1868, and has been in continuous practice in this city since then. He is a man of excellent legal attainments, and stands high in the legal profession throughout the state, while he is characterized by his cool, calm judgment and strong common sense. He has for three years past been local attorney for the Monon Railway.
Mr. Chilcote was united in the holy bonds of matrimony in September, 1865, to Miss Lizzie H. Hammond, a daughter of Nathaniel and Hannah (Sering) Hammond, and a sister of E. P. Hammond, of Lafayette, Indiana. The father of Mrs. Chilcote was born at Blue Hill, Maine, in 1786, and died in 1877. Her mother was born in Ohio in 1803. Two sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. Chilcote. The elder, Fred L., is cashier of a bank in Albany, Indiana, and the younger son, Gaylord H., is a teacher in the public schools of Los Angeles, California. Mrs. Chilcote died January 15, 1885.
Mr. Chilcote has been a member of the school board of Rensselaer for eighteen years, and is interested in advancing the cause of education, while he assists, in every way that is open to him, in the growth and symmetrical expansion of all the institutions of the county. He is a Republican in his political views, and for ten years was chairman of the county central com- mittee. He was a delegate to the national Republican convention, at Min- neapolis, in 1892, from the tenth congressional district.
JAMES M. SWADLEY.
James Madison Swadley, of Pine Village, Adams township, Warren county, Indiana, is a well known citizen and a representative of one of the early families of this county. His father, Nicholas Swadley, was a native of Ohio, the Swadley family being among the primitive settlers of Highland county, that state. Nicholas Swadley grew up in his native county and married Nancy A. Chaney. Her parents were from Pennsylvania, but had settled in Ohio in the pioneer days. In 1826, about a year after their mar- riage, Nicholas Swadley and wife removed to Indianapolis, and there he engaged in work 'at his trade, that of wagon-maker. He established the first wagon shop in Indianapolis, and although he was successful and was ear- nestly solicited to remain, he was not satisfied in his new home, and three years later returned to Ohio. About 1830 he came back to Indiana, bring- ing his family with him and locating at Shawnee Mound, Tippecanoe county.
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Ten or twelve years later he removed to a place one mile and a half north of Shawnee Mound. Later he located at Odell's Cross Roads, in the same county, and established a shop. About 1846 he crossed the Wabash and settled on the Kickapoo river in Warren county, where he engaged in farm- ing, which he had followed for a number of years previously, having abandoned his trade a few years after coming to Indiana. At the last loca- tion mentioned he continued to live until his death, at the age of sixty-six years. Nicholas Swadley was an industrious, worthy citizen, highly esteemed. He was a justice of the peace for many years, and occupied that office at the time of his death. Politically, he was a Democrat. His wife survived him about seven years. They were the parents of six children- five sons and one daughter-all of whom are living except the eldest son, Wesley, who died in California a number of years ago. The second is James M., the immediate subject of this sketch; John, a resident of Lafay- ette; Nicholas, of Pine Village; and George, of Wabash, Indiana. The daughter is Sarah Ann, wife of Dr. James McMullen, of Pine Village.
James M. Swadley, the oldest of the surviving members of the family, and from whom the facts for this sketch were obtained, was born in Indian- apolis, Indiana, April 14, 1827, and nearly all of his life has been spent in Tippecanoe and Warren counties. He began learning the trade of wagon- maker of his father when he was only twelve years old, has followed the business together with blacksmithing for sixty years, and is still, though now seventy-two years of age, hale and hearty and actively engaged in business in Pine Village, where he has lived since 1852, the year the village was laid out. He was the first postmaster of Pine Village. The mail was then received only once a week, and he could easily carry all the mail received weekly in his coat pocket.
Mr. Swadley has been three times married. His first wife was Martha Crowell, who left three children, her death occurring at the birth of the youngest. Two of this number are living,-William and Samantha. His second wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Jane Thomas, died, leaving a daughter, Anna. For his third companion, with whom he now resides, he wedded Miss Lydia H. Goss, of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, to whom he has been married for fourteen years.
THE PETER FAMILY.
In Tippecanoe and Clinton counties, Indiana, there is perhaps not a family better known or more highly respected than the Peter family. They spring from sturdy German ancestry, their forefathers being among the primitive settlers of Pennsylvania and known as Pennsylvania Dutch.
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William Peter, the original pioneer of Indiana, was born in Pennsylvania, in the town of Lehigh, in the year 1780. He was a farmer and wagon- maker, and married Julia Ann Kernin, or Kern as the name was finally spelled. She also was of Pennsylvania-Dutch stock and on her mother's side descended from the Bear family. Lehigh county was her native place. Her parents' names are not remembered, but she had two brothers, Nich- olas and Christopher, and a sister, Sarah, who married a Mr. Jacoby.
William Peter, and wife settled in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, on a farm. In 1817 they moved to Butler county, Ohio, where they settled in the fall of that year, the journey being made with horses and wagons. He bought land, prospered and finally became the owner of four hundred acres, which he sold at a fair price for those days, and in the fall of 1832 moved to Indiana and settled in Ross township, Clinton county, on the line between that county and Tippecanoe. Here he purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land, on which were slight improvements, and sub- sequently he bought and entered more land in these counties until he owned about three thousand and three hundred acres. He was a man of remarkable perseverance and energy, and his foresight and sagacity enabled him to see the great advantage of securing land for his children. Few of the pioneers in this part of Indiana were better known than he. He was a member of the German Reformed church and an elder in the same for many years.
The following family record was translated by Rev. Zimmerman from his old German family Bible, which was printed at Basle, Switzerland, in 1798:
" William Peter, married August 8, 1802, to Julia Ann Kernin, by Rev. Stobrech. Children: William Peter, born in Northampton county, Penn- sylvania, September 25, 1803, baptized in Lutheran church October 30, 1803. Witnesses: William Peter and wife. Henry Peter, born September 3, 1804; baptized September 30, 1804. Witnesses: Henry Peter and Susannah, his wife. Leah Peter, born March 12, 1806; baptized April 4, 1806. Witnesses: Nicholas Kern and wife, Hannah. Daniel Peter, born September 5, 1807; baptized September 21, 1807. Witnesses: John Kern and his wife. Jona- than Peter, born March 8, 1809; baptized April 3, 1809. Witnesses: Jacob Holwig and his wife, Elizabeth. John Adam Peter, born May 26, 1810; baptized July 1, 1810. Witnesses: Johanis Kern and his wife, née Mary Peter. Mary Peter, born August 26, 1811; baptized September 29, 1811. Witnesses: Jacob and Mary Miller. Susan Peter, born. March 27, 1814; baptized May 19, 1814. Witnesses: Jacob Kern and his wife, Susannah. Emanuel Peter, born February 19; 1816; baptized March 31, 1816. Wit- nesses: Joseph Peter and Susannah Kern. (All the above named were born
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