USA > Indiana > Wells County > Biographical memoirs of Wells County, Indiana : embracing a comprehensive compendium of local biography, memoirs of representative men and women of the county whose works of merit have made their names imperishable, and special articles by Hugh Dougherty [et al.] > Part 32
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After this marriage William Bloxsom and wife settled on forty acres of the farm which they now own and on which they live. It was in the woods and abounded in brush and ponds. A log cabin eighteen by twenty feet, put up by themselves, was their first home. They had two cows, one horse and a scanty supply of the rudest kind of house- hold furniture. Not even a cooking stove was to be found in their little home for more than two years after they were married. The first spring eight acres of cleared land was the result of their united labor. Mrs. Bloxsom was in the clearing much of the time, doing her full share toward convert- ing the wilderness into a farm. By the time the first forty acres was cleared an oppor- tunity offered and they bought forty acres adjoining their place on the north. Then the process of improving this tract began and progressed with persistent steadiness. The first tract bought cost ten dollars per acre and it was paid for, in full, in the fall of 1864. He was materially aided in getting out of debt by the money he received as com- pensation for teaching in the winter months.
On December 20, 1864, he became a vic- tim of the draft and joined Company H, Forty-eighth Regiment Indiana Volunteers.
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He followed Sherman from Savannah, Georgia, to Washington, where he took part in the grand review, May 24 and 25, 1865. In July of the same year he was mus- tered out. Although he enjoyed fairly good health in the service, on returning home he was stricken with the ague and suffered so severely from it that by cold weather there was scarcely enough of him left to make a shadow. Nevertheless he managed to make a living and within a few years had the ad- ditional forty acres, on which he had ceased operation when he went into the army, cleared up. In 1868 he was elected justice of the peace and held the office one term. In 1880 he purchased another tract of land, sixty acres adjoining his place. In 1882 he built his present residence and in 1883 he built his barn. Both are substantial and last- ing improvements and add materially to the value of the farm. There are now one hundred and forty acres in the home place and he is the owner of forty acres in section 33, Nottingham township. On his place there are six producing oil wells which yield him an income of about twenty-five dol- lars per month. He carries on general farming and live stock raising on his place, giving special attention to Poland China hogs, shorthorn and Jersey cattle and Shrop- shire sheep. About all the grain and hay that is raised on the place is fed to the stock. He has been frequently called during the past few years to assist in the settlement of estates and to act as guardian for minor heirs. For the past six years he has been a notary public.
To Mr. and Mrs. Bloxsom five children have been born, viz : William F., born June I, 1863, died September 30, 1865; N. Le- ander, born March 5, 1865, married Hannah
Wheeler, January 28, 1891, now resides at Bluffton, and have two children, Paul W. and Ralph T., aged nine and six years, re- spectively. The children make their home with their grandparents on the Bloxsom place; Anna L., born March 20, 1873, mar- ried Thomas Hobbs, a well driller, in 1896, and they reside in Jonesboro ; Mary J., born · August 27, 1875, married Charles Wheeler, and they have one child, Delores, eight months of age; they reside in Jonesboro; an infant son died before a name was con- ferred upon him. All of the children living have been given a good common school edu- cation. Both parents are members of the Christian church and are interested in re- ligious and charitable work. Mr. Bloxsom is a member of the Masonic fraternity at Pennville. In politics he is a Republican, as he expresses it himself, from start to finish. While never seeking office, he has frequently been honored by his party with a place on the county ticket and while he ran well, generally ahead of his party vote, the Democratic majority of Wells county is too strong to be easily overcome. His life has been an active one. It has been good and blameless. He has endeavored to do right at all times and came far nearer doing so than many others of greater pretention. He is a man well worthy of the distin- guished ancestry from which he sprang.
Mr. Bloxsom has one of the best se- lected libraries in Wells county. It contains about two hundred volumes, selected from the best authors in history, biography, fic- tion, poetry, the sciences and also possesses very complete and exhaustive encyclopedias. He has also in his possession an old parch- ment deed, executed August 20, 1838, and bearing the signature of President Martin
THE PROGRESSIVE FARMERS, RALPH AND PAUL BLOXSOM.
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Van Buren. Two of the grandsons of the subject, Ralph T. and Paul W., though but lads, are possessed of splendid business ability. Recently they made a contract with the Mullen-Blackledge Company, of Indian- apolis, Indiana, to raise and deliver to them an acre of tomatoes, the land belonging to their grandfather. The product amounted to nineteen tons and thirteen hundred and seventy pounds, for which the boys received almost one hundred and forty dollars. They also raised almost forty dollars' worth of melons, thus enabling their grandfather to deposit in the bank almost one hundred and seventy-five dollars, subject to their order.
JOSEPH UNRUE.
A list of Jackson township's enterpris- ing farmers and prominent citizens would be incomplete if it did not include the name of the well known gentleman whose simple life story is told in these lines. A resident of Wells county since his twelfth year, he has literally grown up with the country, and few have been more active than he in be- half of the agricultural interests of the township which is proud to claim his citi- zenship. Joseph Unrue is an Ohio man and the son of George and Mary Unrue, who for many years were residents of Mont- gomery county, that state, the father a na- tive of Virginia. The subject's paternal grandparents were George and Catherine Unrue, who moved from Virginia to Ross county, Ohio, when their son George was about seven years of age. Subsequently the family moved to Montgomery county, where George, Jr., grew to maturity and
married Mary Eubank, daughter of Heze- kiah and Christina Eubank, early settlers of that part of the state.
By occupation George Unrue, Jr., was a stone mason, but later in life he devoted the most of his time to agricultural pursuits. In October, 1852, he came to Wells county, Indiana, and purchased a piece of woodland in Jackson township on which, with the aid of his son and the few neighbors in the vicinity, he hastily built a log cabin, six- teen by sixteen feet in area and six feet high. Into this rude dwelling of a single room his family was domiciled and during the first years of their residence eight acres. were partially cleared and planted in corn. Mr. Unrue brought with him sufficient pro- vision for one year, obtaining his meat the meantime from the wild game with which the woods then abounded. In the course of a few years he had a comfortable home and in due time became one of the prosper- ous farmers of his township, as well as one of its most highly esteemed citizens. His wife died in 1878 and in 1894, after reach- ing a good old age, he too was called from the scenes of his earthly trials and suc- cesses. George and Mary Unrue were the parents of four children, three of whom are living, the subject of this sketch being the oldest of the family. John the second in order of birth, is a farmer of Jackson town- ship and lives on part of the old homestead ; Henry, the third, is deceased, and Cather- ine, the youngest of the number, is the wife of Isaiah Barnes, of Warren, this state.
Joseph Unrue was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, on the 24th of March, 1840. He received his preliminary education in the district schools of his native place and at the age of twelve was brought by his par-
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ents to Wells county, since which time, as already stated, his life has been very closely identified with the growth and development of Jackson township. Here he attended school a few months of each winter until reaching the age of eighteen, meanwhile assisting to clear the farm and tend the crops, proving a strong and willing hand at all kinds of work required in carving a home from the wilderness. When nineteen years old he began taking contracts for clearing land and in this way worked until his marriage, which was solemnized March 25, 1861, with Miss Charlotte Athan, whose birth occurred in Jackson township in the year 1843. Mrs. Unrue is the daugh- ter of Jacob and Mary Athan, who moved to Ohio from Virginia in an early day and from the latter state to Wells county in 1838. They were among the earliest set- tlers of Jackson township and spent the re- mainder of their lives on the land which Mr. Athan originally purchased from the government. Of their four children three are yet living, Mrs. Martha A. Webb, Mrs. Unrue and Wilson, a resident of the state of Washington; Hannah Eliza has been a number of years deceased.
Mr. Unrue spent the first year of his mar- ried life with his father-in-law and during the ensuing ten years rented land of his wife's uncle, Thomas Athan. He then moved to his father's place, which he culti- vated about ten years, and at the end of that time again took charge of his father- in-law's farm which he made his home until 1872. In that year he purchased a small . tract of land in section 6, Jackson township, on which he built a rough log cabin, but after occupying the place about one year sold out and later bought forty-five acres of
the Athan farm. Moving to the latter, he farmed it in connection with rented land until 1889, when he changed his residence to the old family homestead for the purpose of taking care of his father in his old age.
At the death of his father, Mr. Unrue took charge of the farm and from that time to the present he has been engaged in agri- culture and stock raising with most grati- fying results. He is a man of progressive tendencies and to say that he has made a success of life is to state what is apparent to all who know him or have heard of his in- dustrious habits and enterprising methods. Like a number of his neighbors and fellow citizens, John Unrue has the good fortune to live in one of the rich oil producing dis- tricts of Indiana and receives from thirty- five to fifty dollars per month income there- from. This has been a very material aid to him and the prospects are fair for other wells and much larger income from the oil interests in the no distant future. As a stock raiser Mr. Unrue has made consider- able money, there being a large and con- stantly increasing demand for the fine breed of hogs to which he has devoted much attention of recent years. As a citizen he enjoys the confidence and esteem of the community, holding worthy prestige as a neighbor and no one has ever had occasion to question the loyalty of his friendship. He is a good and just man, and has always en- deavored to square his life according to the precept of the Golden Rule and to do all the good within his power among those with whom he is brought in contact. Fraternally he belongs to Warren Lodge No. 392, I. O. O. F., and politically is and always has been a staunch supporter of the Democratic party. He is recognized as an effective
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worker in campaign years and, though by no means a seeker after the honors or emolu- ments of office, the people of his township elected him twice to the position of justice of the peace. After serving in that capacity for eight years and proving a most efficient dis- penser of justice, he resigned the office, re- fusing to fill out his second term.
Mr. and Mrs. Unrue have had born to them seven children, but, as with the major- ity of families, the angel of death has crossed their threshold until there are only four of the number left ; the names of these offispring are as follows: George, de- ceased ; Nancy J. married William B. Mil- ler, who lives on a part of the home place and works in the oil fields; Jacob S. is de- ceased ; Mary I. is the wife of Henry Zent, a resident of Jackson township; Hannah C., now Mrs. John M. Sprow, lives in the town of Warren, and Sarah E., who mar- ried Elam Sprow, a painter, residing on a. part of the subject's farm. Mr. and Mrs. Unrue have in their possesion an old parchment sheepskin deed, executed under the administration of President Van Buren and bearing his signature.
W. A. SHUMAKER.
The two most strongly marked char- acteristics of both the east and the west are combined in the residents of the section of country of which this volume treats. The enthusiastic enterprise which overleaps all obstacles and makes possible almost any undertaking in the comparatively new and vigorous western states is here tempered by the stable and more conservative policy that
we have borrowed from our eastern neigh- bors, and the combination is one of peculiar force and power. It has been the means of placing this section of the country on a par with the older east, at the same time pro- ducing a reliability and certainty in busi- ness affairs which is frequently lacking in the west. This happy combination of char- acteristics is possessed by the subject of this brief review, W. A. Shumaker, of Har- rison township, Wells county.
W. A. Shumaker is a native of Lincoln, Nebraska, and was born in 1868, the son of W. L. and Mary S. (Horne) Shumaker. The Shumaker family is originally of Scotch origin and in the subject is em- bodied the more prominent traits of that nationality. The subject's father was a man of good education and acquired considerable reputation as a teacher. During the war of the Rebellion he served in the postoffice de- partment and did much effective service in the line of duty. At the close of the war he left the Buckeye state and went into the poultry business in Jonesboro, Grant county, Indiana, and remained so engaged until his death. He was a good manager and acquired a fair share of this world's goods. He was the father of two sons, the subject and S. F. S. F. Shumaker was edu- cated in the public schools of Peru, Indi- ana, and was afterward engaged in the poul- try business at Warren, Indiana, and later at Bluffton. He is now at Chicago, Illi- nois, and connected with Armour & Com- pany. He has been twice married, first to Lena Sprowl, of Warren, and after her death to Miss Bessie Plessinger, the daugh- ter of Mayer Plessinger.
WV. A. Shumaker was given the advant- age of the common schools and acquired a
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good practical education. He early became identified with the poultry business, being employed by his father. Subsequently he was employed by the Horne Produce Com- pany and still later by the firm of S. Tudor & Company, now managing the latter com- pany's business at Bluffton and Montpelier. By close attention to the details of the busi- ness and a watchful regard of his em- ployers' interests, he has won their confi- dence and is now given full charge of their business at the two places mentioned. The business has grown rapidly in the last few years and now amounts to very considerable proportions, being counted among the county's leading industries.
The subject was united in marriage with Miss Constance J. Martin, of Warren, In- diana, and to them one daughter has been born, now an interesting and charming lit- tle miss of ten years. Fraternally Mr. Shumaker is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and is also a member of Bluffton Lodge No. 92, K. of P. He is not a member of any church, but at- tends the Presbyterian church and is a lib- eral supporter of the same. In politics he is a straight Republican and takes a keen interest in the party's success, but does not actively participate in the campaign work, being satisfied with the casting of his ballot. He is an ardent admirer of outdoor sports and his vacations are passed with his rod and gun. He is of a jovial and happy dis- position and is blessed with a host of warm personal friends, who admire him not only for his pleasant disposition, but for the manly and exemplary qualities which are his. He has always been an honorable, up- right man, industrious, temperate and eco- nomical, has performed well his part as a
factor in the body politic and no one ques- tions his standing as one of the leading citi- zens of his community.
P. S. GREEN.
The history of the Hoosier state is not an ancient one. It is the record of the steady growth of a community planted in the wil- derness in the last century and reaching its magnitude of today without other aids than those of continued industry. Each county has its share in the story, and every county can lay claim to some incident or transac- tion which goes to make up the history of the commonwealth. After all, the history of a state is but a record of the doings of its people, among whom the pioneers and the sturdy descendants occupy places of no sec- ondary importance. The story of the plain common people who constitute the moral bone and sinew of the state should ever at- tract the attention and prove of interest to all true lovers of their kind. In the life story of the subject of this sketch there are no striking chapters or startling incidents, but it is merely the record of a life true to its highest ideals and fraught with much that should stimulate the youth just start- ing in the world as an independent factor.
P. S. Green is a native of Wells county and a descendant of one of its old and highly respected pioneers. The American branch of the family appears to have had its origin in New York many years ago, and from there representatives moved west- ward, settling in Ohio. In the latter state was born James Green, who in young man- hood married Rebecca Koon, the couple,
1
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about 1842, moving to Wells county, Indi- ana, and settling in the township of Not- tingham. James Green cleared and devel- oped a farm from the dense woods in which. he originally built his cabin home, and in due time became one of the leading citizens of his community. After tilling the soil for some years he turned his attention to merchandizing, opening a general store in Nottingham township, which was highly prized by the people in that part of the county. For a while he prospered and made money, but later met with reverses which seriously crippled his business and caused the loss of the greater portion of his earnings. A man of much energy, he re- fused to become discouraged and by suc- cessful management eventually rallied from his disaster and again succeeded in accumu- lating a comfortable competence, including a good farm of one hundred and sixty acres on which he lived for a number of years. Subsequently he took up his residence in Bluffton, where he spent the remainder of his days, honored and respected by all who knew him.
James and Rebecca Green were the par- ents of ten children, namely : Mary A., Andrew, Amelia, James, Peter S., Char- lotte, Rebecca, Charles, Benjamin and Nancy E. Six of these children are still living, three being well known residents of Wells county.
Peter S. Green, of this review, was born March 25, 1851, in Nottingham town- ship, and grew to young manhood on his father's farm. He attended the public schools of winter seasons until about the age of nineteen and then began working in a flouring mill with the object in view of learning the miller's trade. He followed
the business for five years in his native county and then went to Michigan, where he spent two years similarly engaged, re- turning to Bluffton at the end of this time and entering the employ of John Van Horn. Later Mr. Green worked for John P. Clayton, with whom he remained about one year, and in 1880 went to work in a saw-mill for Jacob North, where he re- mained until about 1884. Severing his con- nection with his employer, he next turned his attention to carpentry and after follow- ing this trade two years, again engaged with Mr. North, in whose employ he contin- ued for some time to his financial advan- tage. Later Mr. Green bought grain for Studebaker, Sale & Co. at Markle for three or four years, also spending a year or more at Warren buying grain. In addition to the above brief outline of his active business career, he spent some time in the employ of M. D. Brown and in 1896 purchased the flouring-mill at Bluffton which he now owns and which he so successfully operates. Mr. Green has been a very busy man, and in the main success has crowned his efforts as miller. Since moving to Bluffton he has thoroughly remodeled his mill, supplying it with machinery for the manufacture of his White Rose brand of flour. He is fam- iliar with every detail of milling and by giv- ing his customers a superior article has not only built up an extensive business, but has placed himself in independent circum- stances financially.
Mr. Green has been twice married, the first time in 1878 to Miss Hattie Bennett, daughter of R. C. Bennett, a union termin- ated by the death of the wife in 1885. Sub- sequently he entered into the marriage re- lation with Emma Estabrook, who has pre-
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sented him one child, Howard Dale Green, whose birth occurred on the Ioth of May, 1890. Politically, Mr. Green is a Republi- can, but not an active party worker, having no taste in that direction; nevertheless he has pronounced convictions and keeps well posted on matters of state and national leg- islation, also reads much concerning the great political and industrial questions in which the people are interested at the pres- ent time. £ In every relation of life Mr. Green is known as an honest, incorruptible man, who has ever tried to do his duty as he sees and understands it, and whose word wherever he is known has all the sanctity of a written obligation. In the most liberal sense of the term, he is an optimist, and be- lieves in getting out of life all the enjoy- ment and sunshine possible to be had. Social to an eminent degree and popular with all classes, he numbers his warm personal friends by the score and all who come with- in the range of his influence pronounce him the soul of honor and a prince of good fel- lowship. He has made the world brighter and better by his presence and when the time comes for him to cease life's labors and join the great majority, he will be sadly missed by those whose burdens he light- ened, and into whose pathway he cast so many garlands of love and joy.
THOMAS W. WHEELER.
Few citizens of Wells county are more entitled to the term "self made man" than the subject of this review. His rise from a condition of obscurity to a conspicuous place among the leading agriculturists of his town-
ship shows him to be the possessor of an en- terprising spirit of high order, while his re- spectable social standing attests the esteem in which he is held by the people with whom he mingles. Thomas W. Wheeler is an Indianian by adoption, being a native of Bedford county, North Carolina, where his birth took place on the 17th day of June, 1863. His father was Thomas Wheeler, a descendant of one of the old families of the Old North state, and his mother, Sarah J. McFarland, was also born and reared in that commonwealth. These parents were mar- ried in their native county and continued to live there until the breaking out of the Great Rebellion, when Mr. Wheeler was impressed into the Confederate service, although a Union man in sentiment. Determined not to fight against his convictions, he deserted one night while on guard duty and after a long and trying experience finally made his way northward as far as Henry county, Indiana, where he concluded to remain until the close of the war. For several years he supported himself by working at the car- penter's trade and earned the reputation of an industrious and skillful mechanic. As soon as conditions in the South would per- mit, he sent for his family and in due time the domestic circle was reunited, after which Mr. Wheeler settled on a farm and engaged in agriculture in connection with his trade. The family remained in Henry county until 1872 when they removed to the county of Jay, settling in Penn township, where Mr. and Mrs. M. Wheeler and several of their children still reside. Thomas and Sarah Wheeler have reared a very large family, fourteen children in all, of whom nine are living, namely : Julian F., Walter, Thomas W., John A., Charles, Edgar, Anna, Mary
MRS. T. W. WHEELER.
T. W. WHEELER AND DAUGHTER.
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and Joseph ; the names of those deceased are William, Ernest, Hannah and Allie.
Thomas W. Wheeler was born while his father was in the Confederate service and was about three years old when the family moved to Indiana. The surprise when he and his father first met was mutual, neither having seen the other up to that time. Of course the child did not know his parent and it required several days to establish a friendship for him. Thomas being one of the older boys, much of the family support fell to him as soon as he was able to work, in consequence of which his educational ad- vantages were considerably limited. He was permitted to attend the district schools until his thirteenth year and then began working for a farmer in the neighborhood, turning one-half of his earnings into the family fund. He continued as a farm laborer at monthly wages until attaining his majority, during the greater part of which time he was in the employ of Joseph Hudson, one of the prom- inent and well-to-do, men of Blackford county. Meanwhile, having accumulated sufficient means to justify him in taking a companion for life's journey, Mr. Wheeler, on the Ist day of February, 1890, was united in marriage to Miss Eva McDaniel, after which he began farming for himself on a part of his father-in-law's place in the county of Wells. Ten years later he moved to his present farm adjoining to the McDaniel homestead and in 1902 purchased the latter place, making his real estate at the present time one hundred and four acres, nearly all of which is in cultivation. Mr. Wheeler be- gan with nothing and the beautiful home which he now owns is the well-merited re- sult of his honest toil and successful man- agement. On his place are a number of pro- 17
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