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 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77
ducing oil wells from the proceeds of which he receives a liberal share of his income and in connection with farming he devotes con- siderable attention to the oil industry, hav- ing a complete mechanical outfit for driving and drawing pipes. He does this kind of work of winter seasons and at odd times and has made it very remunerative, being one of the most efficient workman in the oil fields. Mr. Wheeler has made a success of raising live stock and takes great interest in all matters which promise good to the agri- cultural interests of his township and county. Politically he is a Republican and since his twenty-first year has been an active worker in the party. Fraternally he is a member of the Odd Fellows order, Leaf Lodge No. 145, at Pennville, Indiana, also belonging to the encampment degree, in which, as in the subordinate lodge, he has been honored with high official station. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have two children, Vida, born on the 28th of October, 1895, and an infant that died unnamed.
Mrs. Wheeler was born April 9, 1870, and is the daughter of Alexander and Fran- ces (Dawley) McDaniel. Mr. McDaniel was born December 29, 1815, in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, of which state his parents, Amos and Catherine McDaniel, were also natives. He grew to manhood in the county of Bedford and there married Mary Evans, of whom he had four children, Louisa, deceased, Harvey, Amanda, de- ceased, and Catherine. The mother of these children dying in 1853, Mr. McDaniel sub- sequently took a wife in the person of Miss Frances Dawley, who was born September 22, 1832, the daughter of Gideon and Lucy Dawley, natives of Rhode Island. These parents lived to a good old age, the father
258
WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
dying at ninety-four, the mother in her ninety-first year. In an early day, Mr. Mc- Daniel came to Wells county, Indiana, set- tling on eighty acres of wild land from which he cleared a fine farm and on which his death occurred in 1899, his wife dying on the 2nd day of August, 1894. His second marriage resulted in three children, Amos, Lucy' and Eva.
LEWIS C. ABSHIRE.
One begins to realize that the good old . state of Indiana is growing old, as well as some of her people, when he finds a family which has inhabited the state for five gen- erations. Such a family is that of Lewis C. Abshire, the subject of this sketch, who was born in Nottingham township, Wells county, Indiana, July 4, 1861. His father was C. B. Abshire, a native of Henry county, Indiana, but who was one of the first settlers of Wells county. The wife of C. B. Abshire, mother of Lewis C., was Julia A. Jones, a native of Wells county, and she was the daughter of Michael and Nancy (Abshire) Jones, who were among the first settlers of Wells. Dawson, the son of Lewis C. Ab- shire, now in his thirteenth year, is of the third generation from Michael and Nancy Jones.
Lewis C. Abshire was not any more for- tunate than some other children in that mat- ter of procuring an education. Two counties had combined to supply the schools of Har- rison township, Blackford county, and Chester township, Wells county. At the age of fifteen he quit school and has devoted himself ever since to labor. When seven- teen years of age he went out to work by the
month, his parents permitting him to have full control of his wages. After working one season for Lemuel Tate, in Chester town- ship, he went to Kansas and was employed there three years. The region of hot winds, cyclones and prohibition did not fulfill the measure of his requirements as a home, so he returned after three years and entered the employ of J. C. Maddox, in Chester township. He and his mother jointly owned a tract of forty acres of land in Chester township, and about this time they sold it. With his share of the purchase money he bought, a tract of one hundred acres, the same on which he now resides. This he has improved by clearing and ditching it into a very fine farm. For two or three years after purchasing this place he cultivated it, making his home with the family of his hired man.
On February 22, 1885, he was united in marriage to Miss Emma Dawson, who was born April 7, 1863. She is the daughter of George and Louisa (Lockwood) Dawson, and is now a resident of Union City. Mrs. Dawson died when her daughter Emma was an infant of only one year, and the young people immediately took up their residence upon the farm and there they have lived ever since. Mr. Abshire has been very successful in his business of farming, raised large crops of grain, hay and vegetables, also breeding and feeding cattle, horses, hogs and sheep. All of his life has been devoted to the culti- vations of the soil and caring for his flocks and herds. When the oil fever was at its height he devoted some time and money to it and derived some benefit therefrom, but he recognized the fact that the production of oil in this region is a thing of the past.
At this time Lewis C. Abshire is the owner of a splendid farm of two hundred
,
259
WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
and twenty acres, well improved as to effi- cient drainage and substantial buildings. It is a sure crop getter, failures or even partial failures being practically unknown. He and his wife are the parents of one son, Dawson, a bright, intelligent youth now in his thir- teenth year, born September 16, 1890. The family are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church, with membership at Shinn chapel. In politics Mr. Abshire is a Repub- lican and always sufficiently interested in the success of his party to take a hand in the campaign. On a number of occasions he has been a delegate to congressional conven- tions and generally represents his township in the county convention. He is a live, en- ergetic, intelligent man, whose work is al- ways effective and whose promises are in- variably fulfilled.
SIMON BOWER.
At present a farmer, but by trade a car- penter, Simon Bower, of Nottingham town- ship, Wells county, Indiana, was born in Amanda township, Fairfield county, Ohio, August 30, 1848, a son of Joel and Susan (Shoemaker) Bower.
Joel Bower was born in Pennsylvania, a son of Simon and Hannah Bower, and lo- cated in Ohio when a young man; there he married Miss Shoemaker, a native of the Buckeye state, and a daughter of Henry Shoemaker, and settled down for awhile at his trade of making shoes, a fact that his son well remembers from having been frequently brought into contact with his father's knee- strap. In 1853 Joel Bower brought his family to Wells county, Indiana, and pur-
chased eighty acres of wild woodland a mile and a half southwest of Reiffsburg. His first dwelling was a hewed-log house, twen- ty by twenty-four feet, one and one-half stories, chinked with mud and covered with a lap-shingle roof. He made an effort to continue at his trade, but the patronage not being ample for the support of his family, he had recourse to the practice of the neigh- boring pioneers and began clearing up his land, a task he finally accomplished, and eventually became the owner of five hundred and twenty acres, on which he passed the re- mainder of his life.
To Joel and Susan (Shoemaker) Bower were born eleven children, viz: Henry, Simon, the subject, E. J., Rebecca, deceased, Israel and Hannah, twins, Israel dying in infancy. Willison died in childhood, Jacob, Noah, Mahala, and Frank, the last named also deceased. Mrs. Susan Bower was called away in the course of time, and Joel took for his second wife Cynthia Arnold, who still survives and is the mother of two children, Joel D. and Cynthia, the former of whom died in 1896.
Simon Bower attended school in Not- tingham township during the winter season or whenever he had an opportunity of do- ing so, until he was twenty-one years old, and acquired a better knowledge of mathe- matics than is usually the case in rural dis- tricts. From childhood he had always had a desire to learn the carpenter's trade and on
attaining his majority began learning this branch of mechanical industry. Prior to this time he had felt himself to be quite wealthy when he was the possessor of a quarter dollar, but in the fall of the year in which he became of age he went to Ohio and worked, principally at carpentering, for
260
WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
nine months, saved the surplus of his earn- ings over the cost of his living, and became an employe of David Lukins, also as a car- penter. The following spring he began work on a barn for Alexander DeLong, and when that was completed built a barn for David Cellsor, a task which occupied him for about a month, and then began business on his own account as a contractor and builder, and continued in this line until 1879.
In the meantime Simon Bower was joined in marriage with Miss Sarah C. Moy- er, who was born August 31, 1852, on a farm adjoining that on which he and family now live. Mrs. Sarah C. (Moyer) Bower is a daughter of William and Mary E. Moy- er, the former of whom was born in Ohio and the latter in Pennsylvania, but was taken to Ohio by her parents when she was nine years old. William and Mary E. Moyer both came to Wells county with their par- enst' families respectively, grew to matur- ity, were here married, and here passed the remainder of their lives. They had born to them two children, viz: Sarah C., now Mrs. Simon Bower, and Eliza.
On marrying, Simon Bower settled on the farm he now occupies, the only structure thereon being a hewed-log house, six- teen by eighteen feet, and one and `a half stories high, the corners and every- thing else being prepared in advance and ready to be raised, the only time this was ever done in the township. Mr. Bower forth- with cleared up fifteen acres of his land and placed upon it all the improvements, which now include a handsome modern dwelling and all necessary farm buildings. The ditch- ing of the place has been a matter of special attention, and he probably has more rods of ditching than has been done on any farm of
the same dimensions in the townships of Nottingham and Harrison, in the latter of which forty-eight acres of his eighty-eight are situated.
Besides general farm products, Mr. Bow- er raises large numbers of cattle and hogs, but makes a specialty of the latter, giving preference to Chester Whites, of which he last year sold nearly seven hundred dollars' worth; his cattle are chiefly of the Red Polled strain, and he feeds nearly all his grain to his live stock, finding it to be more profitable to sell the fattened stock than the grain itself. Still Mr. Bower finds time to do all his own carpenter work, thus saving the expenditure of many a dollar. To Simon and Sarah C. Bower have been born four children, viz: Samuel, born September II, 1872, and married to Leave Lyons; John WV., born December 27, 1876, and now the husband of Mary Speheger : James M., born June 9, 1880, and Irene L., born January 30, 1891.
Mr. and Mrs. Simon Bower are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in politics Mr. Bower is a Prohibitionist, hav- ing been an advocate of its principles for the past fifteen years. He has not used to- bacco in any form since 1871 and has not once swallowed a glass of whiskey sold at a saloon.
William Moyer, the father of Mrs. Sar- ah C. Bower, was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, a son of Jonathan and Mary Moyer. natives of Pennsylvania. William Moyer came to Wells county, Indiana, in 1849, with his parents, and here married Mary Reiff April 9. 1851. Mary Reiff was a daughter of John and Susannah Reiff, who came from Pennsylvania to Wells county, Indiana, in 1845, and settled near the pres-
261
WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
ent town of Reiffsburg, which town was laid out by John Reiff and named in his honor. Mr. Moyer passed the remainder of his life on his farm, but his widow still survives at the age of seventy-three years, being still quite strong and active.
GEORGE DULINSKY.
Weaving, like spinning, in the homes of the country is a thing of the past. Yet less than forty years ago it was no very rare thing to hear, on approaching a farm house, the hum of the spinning wheel or the rattle of the shuttle in the loom. Of either accom- plishment, weaving or spinning, the present generation knows comparatively nothing. In the early settlement of Indiana weaving was a species of skilled labor much in de- mand. William Dulinsky, father of George, the subject of this sketch, was a weaver and put his knowledge of the business to good use while clearing his land and making a home for his family in Wells county during the 'fifties.
George Dulinsky, the ' subject hereof, was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, July 26, 1844. He was the son of William Dulin- sky, a native of Poland who came to America when a lad of only fourteen years. William's first employment in this country was in a woolen mill in the east. He was a steady lad, observant and quick to learn, and when given an oportunity to learn weaving he made the most of it. Becoming an expert weaver, he decided to try his fortune in the west. He secured a position in his business in Pickaway county, Ohio, where he met and married Miss Mary Leist, a native of the
same place. She was a daughter of George and Barbara Leist, natives of Pennsylvania, but had come to Ohio and made settlement there early in life: They spent the remain- ing years of their lives in their new home in Ohio.
For a number of years after their mar- riage, Mr. and Mrs. William Dulinsky con- tinued to reside in Pickaway county, he working at his trade of weaving. Finally, in 1850, he moved his family to Wells coun- ty, Indiana, bought a farm of forty acres in the woods of Nottingham township and pro- ceeded to make a home. A log cabin, stable and five acres of cleared land were all the improvements there were on the place. For fifteen years this constituted the home of the family. During this time William Du- linsky equipped an apartment which he de- voted to the business of weaving. He was about the only weaver in that region and consequently had plenty to do. In 1864 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of timber lands west of where his son George, the subject of this sketch, now resides. This place he cleared, improved and occupied until his death, which occurred in 1891. He fol- lowed the business of weaving until 1881, when he gave it up as unprofitable and no longer of much use in a country place. Mrs. Dulinsky is still living on the old home place. She is eighty-four years old, but strong and active. She is the mother of five children, four of whom are still living. George, the subject hereof, is the oldest of the family ; Samuel and Levi both reside on the old home place : Ellen is dead and Barbara resides with her mother.
The opportunities for receiving an edu- cation afforded to George Dulinsky were by no means all that could be desired. In those
262
WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
days the public schools of Nottingham town- ship was open only three months in the year. These three months, however, were utilized by George to the very best advan- tage. He attended the sessions right along up to the time that he was nineteen years of age. A year previous he began working out by the month, but continued to make his home with his parents. On June 27, 1869, he was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Yarger, who was born in Ohio, November 22, 1842. She was the daughter of Joseph and Margaret Yarger, old settlers of Wells county, but both now deceased. The first year of their married life Mr. and Mrs. Du- linsky occupied the William Oswart farm, the next three years he cultivated his father's farm and for the next four years he was on the McClain place. By this time he had ac- cumulated sufficient money to purchase a place of his own. He bought sixty acres of timber land, paying four hundred dollars cash and going in debt for as much more. This he has cleared and improved and upon it he now resides.
When they started in life at the time of their marriage, the Dulinskys were owners of very little property. He had a two-year- old colt and two pigs and she had a cow. From this small beginning they have by hard work and good management secured a very fair start in life. In 1880, after buying their place, he built a round-log house eighteen by twenty-four feet, and a pole barn. Both were raised the same day. While clearing his land he continued to rent some ground, farmed it and made a good living for his family. He also worked at ditching and such other employment as he could secure. He is now the owner of a well improved farm of eighty acres, seventy of which is under cul-
tivation. In 1895 he erected a handsome, comfortable home and a substantial, commo- dious barn upon the place. He carries on gen- eral farming and stock raising, prefers Po- land ·China hogs, but is of the opinion the better success is secured by a mixture with the Chester White. The ordinary run of cattle he considers quite good enough to at- tain success with on the farm, if the pro- ducts are fed instead of being sold. On his place he has six oil wells from which he realizes a nice little sum each month. Farm- ing has been his life work and he has made it profitable.
Along toward the latter days of the war, in 1865, George Dulinsky was drafted for service in the Federal army and taken to Wabash. It was the last call made for troops and was most peremptory. He and thirteen others were taken forthwith with- out getting any time whatever to adjust their affairs. Only seven were needed, but fourteen were drawn. The seven were se- cured from his fellow victims of the draft before Mr. Dulinsky's turn on the list came, so he was permitted to return home without a uniform.
To Mr. and 'Mrs. Dulinsky six children have been born, viz: Orlando, born Decem- ber 10, 1869, married Della Ira, now lives in Nottingham township and is working in the oil fields ; Mary Estella died in child- hood : Emma, born June 29, 1875, married Bert Kelley and now resides in Nottingham township ; she is the mother of two children, Lelo F. and Marion; Lewis was born June 13. 1878, and resides at home with his parents ; Nora died in infancy : Oscar died in childhood. In politics George Dulin- sky is a Democrat, always votes the ticket and warms up some during the heat
263
WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
of the political campaign. In local affairs, however, he prefers to be independent and vote for the man. He is a man who com- mands the respect and esteem of all his fellow citizens.
O. R. WILLIAMS.
This young and prosperous farmer of Jackson township, Wells county, Indiana, was born September 17, 1870, two miles south of Bluffton, on the state road, in the same county. J. W. Williams, father of O. R. Williams, was a native of Fairfield county, Ohio, a son of Jesse Williams, and while still single came to Wells county, In- diana, about the year 1865, and began working at bridge building and also at cab- inetmaking, in Bluffton, although he had been reared a blacksmith by his father, who was noted for his skill in this branch of the mechanical arts. He married, about 1867, Miss Martha Vennemmon, whose mother is still living at the age of ninety years.
After marriage J. W. Williams located on the farm two miles south of Bluffton, where his son, O. R. Williams, was born, but four years later came to Jackson town- ship, and here lost his wife, June 10, 1884. In the September following, Mr. Williams married Mrs. Kittie Smith, who still lives to share with him the blessings as well as the sorrows of life. 'In 1900 J. W. Williams retired from farm life and now lives in Warren, enjoying in peace and com- fort the competency his early industry gained him. To the first marriage of J. W. Williams were born three children, namely : Adrian, now a resident of Jackson town-
ship; O. R., whose name opens this biog- raphy, and William, who has his residence in Idaho. To the second marriage there has been no issue.
O. R. Williams attended the district schools of Jackson township, Wells county, Indiana, until he was seventeen years of age and assisted in the cultivation of the home place until he was twenty, when he went to the city of Butte, Montana, and worked in a smelter for a year, then re- turning to Wells county. Here he and his father purchased sixty acres of the farm on which he now lives, but which was then all in the woods. He set himself energetically to work and cleared off all but ten acres and in July, 1898, purchased his father's interest in the place.
In 1901 Mr. Williams erected a substan- tial and commodious barn on his farm and in 1902 began the erection of an elegant residence. He rents out his farming land, however, and devotes his attention to his oil wells, of which he owns five producers, which bring him in twenty-five to thirty dollars each per month, and he has not lost a day at this industry for the past three years.
Mr. Williams was joined in marriage November 23, 1893, with Miss Emma Slusher, a daughter of Josiah and Naomi Slusher, whose biography will be found on another page of this volume To this happy marriage have been born four children, to- wit: Fred, November 8, 1894; Arthur, September 30, 1897; Howard, March 26, 1900; and an infant daughter, born Octo- ber 10, 1902.
Mr. Williams is a member of Lodge No. 784, I. O. O. F., at McNatts, and in poli- tics is a Republican. He is one of the re-
264
WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
spected young men in Jackson township, as it is well known that he has made all he is worth through his personal exertions, he having had nothing at the start, and having made his first "stake" of four hundred dol- lars while in Montana. His industry and strict integrity have always been matters of commendation by his neighbors, and he and his estimable wife are held in the highest regard by all classes of the community.
NATHAN MACY SCOTT.
The years of the Civil war in America frustrated more plans for young people than any other years in our history. Affairs of the heart and the plans growing out of them were not the only affairs of young people that suffered by the strife going on during this period south of the Ohio river. The life course of thousands of young men was materially changed by a term of service in the army. Few youths who entered the army were able, when they returned, to carry out their plans as at first contemplated. One who came about as near doing so as any, probably, was Nathan Macy Scott, of Not- tingham township, Wells county, the subject of this sketch. As a young man, in 1860, his purpose was to secure a good, liberal education, and the breaking out of hostilities found him alternately teaching and being taught ; that is, he taught school in the win- ter and in the summer and fall attended
school, himself, as a student. When the boys returned from the war, of all his com- rades in arms he was about the only one not too proud to go back to his desk in the school room and to his studies.
Nathan Macy Scott was born February 21, 1842, in Penn township, Jay county, Indiana. He was the son of Stanton and Esther (Edmondson) Scott, and his pater- nal grandparents were Joshua and Abigal (Stanton) Scott. Joshua Scott was a native of Scotland, emigrated to North Carolina when a young man, and married Abigal Stanton, who was an aunt of President Lin- coln's secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton. Joshua was by trade a blacksmith, but de- voted the latter part of his life to agricul- tural pursuits. Stanton Scott, father of the subject, was born June 26, 1807, grew to manhood in Clark county, Ohio, and there married Ester Edmonson, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth ( Morsel) Edmonson, the father of English ancestry, the mother of Irish. After his marriage Stanton Scott settled on a farm in Logan county, Ohio, where he remained a few years. In 184I he moved to Jay county, Indiana, and lived there three years on a rented farm. While still renting in Jay county, he secured eighty acres of land in Wells county, the same on which his son Thomas now lives, deadened some of the timber, preparatory to clearing, and built a log cabin. In the spring of 1845 he moved to this farm, at that time there being no human habitation on the road all the way from Pennville. His cabin was eighteen by twenty-two feet in size, built of round logs, "chinked" and plastered with clay. The entire personal property of the family consisted of two cows, two horses, some chickens and a few necessary articles of household furniture. Stoves in those days were not much in use and all the cooking was done at the big fireplace. Although but three years of age at this time, Nathan M. Scott well remembers the neighbors and
NATHAN M. SCOTT.
-
MRS. NATHAN M. SCOTT.
265
WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
where their homes were located. Joseph Williamson lived one and a fourth miles southeast, Darius Shinn's home was a mile south, John Dawson lived one and a half miles northeast, Joseph Blunt and Michael Jones about one and a half miles northwest. There were no public roads at this time ex- cept the old state road, which was merely an Indian trail. Stanton Scott died August 24, 1855, leaving a widow and seven children, the oldest being seventeen years of age. One son, Thomas, was fifteen years . old and Nathan was but thirteen years of age at the time of their father's death. The bereaved mother, though by no means physi- cally strong, determined to keep her little ones together. With her untiring exertions and the assistance of her oldest daughter and two sons, she was successful in doing so. The children were Mary, deceased ; Thomas, who now lives on the old home place ; Nathan, the subject; Elizabeth married B. L. DeWeese, of Balbec; Joshua, a resident of Nottingham township; Elma J. ; Rebecca, deceased. The good mother lived to see all of her surviving children comfortably settled in life, dying July 4, 1896, aged eighty-six years, one month and twenty days. She was a devout member of the Friends church and was a woman of good intellect and splendid memory. In the early years of her woman- hood, before her marriage, she was a school teacher. She and her husband, Stanton Scott, were married September 21, 1836. At the time of their settlement in the woods of Wells county the denizens of the forest were disposed to be neighborly. Porcupines, ground hogs and 'possums burrowed under their cabin and made their home there. Pennville, which was then called Camden, was the nearest town and was nine miles
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.