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 73
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sibly be desired by the most ambitious of citizens and they are held in high esteem by their neighbors. Mr. Smuts, it will be seen from the foregoing, is what is usually termed a self-made man and too much credit cannot be awarded him for persist- ing in following the habits he formed when young, which persistency has culmi- nated in placing him in his present exalt- ed position. Blessed with robust health throughout life and an equal temper, he now, in his mellow middle-age, enjoys ex- istence only as it can be enjoyed by those who have been temperate in all things.
JAMES M. SETTLEMEYER.
Very few men of wealth or prominence interested themselves in the early settle- ment of eastern Indiana. Government land was so plentiful all over what had formally been the Northwest territory that it was no object for land syndicates to get possession of and control it, even if such a thing as a land syndicate had existed in those days. In most instances the gov- ernment and the settler made their trans- actions direct, and they were always satis- factory. Even then, however, there were a few who realized that eventually the land would become valuable and strained every nerve to get possession of as much as their means would allow. To them the usual reward of foresight has been meted out. They increased their material wealth many fold. One of these was William Set- tlemeyer, father of John M. Settlemeyer, the subject of this sketch, who at one time in the early days of the settlement was the
owner of many hundred acres in Indiana and Ohio. At his home in Warren county, Ohio, he owned a fine farm of two hundred acres and he also had a clear title to some fifteen hundred acres in Indiana and Ohio.
James M. Settlemeyer, was born in Wayne county, Ohio, December 30, 1845. The family of his father were natives of Virginia, though of Scotch ancestry. His mother's maiden name was Ann Wilker- son and she was of a Lexington, Ken- tucky, family. Mr. Settlemeyer had serv- ed as a soldier in the war of 1812, being stationed at Fort Recovery, Ohio. His family consisted of four sons who reached maturity, three of whom are still living, James M., Bayless N., of the old home- stead, and John, of Roanoke, Indiana. The father died in his Ohio home Septem- ber 7, 1876.
James M. Settlemeyer grew to man- hood on his father's farm. He secured a good education in the district schools, and made his home beneath his father's roof until he was twenty-five years of age. He then rented a tract of land owned by his father in Union township, Wells county, and with an assurance that the place would some day be his, he came out to Wells county in 1869 and entered upon the task of clearing the land, making a farm of it and a home upon it. September 22, 1872, he was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Jacobs, a native of Dekalb county, Indiana, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. Jacobs, early settlers of Wells county, coming here when she was but a child. The young people, soon after their marriage, established themselves in house- keeping upon the farm, and thereafter it was noticed that the clearings, the drainage and the fencing progressed with much more
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energy and zeal than theretofore, further evidence of the fact that matrimony is always productive of industry and thrift. At the present time the farm is splendidly im- proved, being cleared, well drained and fenced. A large, handsome, well finished residence has been erected and a substantial and commodious barn and all ncessary out- buildings give comfort and convenience to the place.
Mr. and Mrs. Settlemeyer are the parents of one son, Lawrence, born August 19, 1876. He attended the district school and acquired a good education, later attending some three terms at the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso. He was married on the 27th day of April, 1895, to Miss Etta M. Roe, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Roe, of Union township. One son has been born to them, Kenneth W., born June 20, 1902. His life has been devoted to the farm in asso- ciation with his father. He is interested in breeding Poland China hogs and in this line has met with commendable success. The farm has three flowing wells, offering an abundant supply of water for the stock.
In politics James M. Settlemeyer is a Republican, sincere and consistent. He be- lieves in his party and in its principles and makes every effort to compass its success, not particularly for his own good or that of the party, but for the good of the country. He interests himself in politics purely from patriotic motives. The great questions of state which are constantly arising can be handled and disposed of, in his opinion, bet- ter by the Republican party than any other. He has served as committeeman from his township a number of times, was a delegate to the last Republican state convention and is at present a member of the advisory board of
the county. Mrs. Settlemeyer is a member of the United Brethren church at Zanes- ville, that congregation being identified with what is termed the "radical wing" of that denomination.
For over thirty years Mr. Settlemeyer has resided in Union township and during all that time no public enterprise has been brought to the front in which he has not taken a leading, active part, public improve- ments of all kinds having always found in him a steadfast friend and promoter. He is never afraid, in public affairs or in private matters of his own, of the expenditure of a few dollars when the resultant good promises to overbalance the outlay, being never actu- ated by what is known as "a penny-wise policy." Strictly conscientious, fair and honest in all of his dealings, he believes in the full application of these principles to mat- ters in which the public is interested and well deserves the success which he has at- tained.
JOHN F. ROE.
The youth who remains close to the par- ental roof will not see as much of the world or its people as will he who roams about ; but it is safe to predict that at the end of a given period gold pieces will be jingling in the pockets of the first when pennies will not be sufficiently numerous in the pockets of the second to make a noise. This thought is very forcibly expressed in the saying, which is almost of sufficient antiquity to be re- ferred to as a proverb, "A rolling stone gathers no moss." There are, however, ex- ceptions to all rules and one of the exceptions to the above is J. F. Roe, of Union town-
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ship, Wells county, the subject of this sketch. He spent ten years of his early manhood at various points in the great west, employed in various positions, contracted no very bad habits and returned to the county of his nativity, with money in his pocket. He might have had a good deal more money if he had never traveled, but certainly he would not be possessed of a tittle of the information that is his regarding this wonderful country in which we live and the remarkable people who inhabit it.
John F. Roe, familiarly called Frank, is a son of Isaac and Catherine (Thomas) Roe and was born in Union township, Wells county, Indiana, July 8, 1859. His father was a native of Ohio, where he grew to manhood. In 1826 he came to Indiana and settled on land near where the city of Indi- anapolis now stands. He remained there three years, then in disgust returned to Ohio. Soon afterward the paternal grand- father of the subject decided to look over Indiana for himself. He rode on horseback from his home in Ohio to Randolph county, Indiana, a distance of one hundred and thir- ty miles, selected a tract of eighty acres of land, then went to the land office at Fort Wayne, made the official 'arrangement re- garding his entry and returned to his home in Ohio. Within a very short time the fam- ily had packed up and were on their way overland in a big wagon to their new home. While the father was building his cabin the family camped on the ground where the town of Ridgeville now stands.
In 1846 Isaac Roe was united in mar- riage to Miss Nancy Renbarger and a little later they moved to Union township, Wells county, where he entered a quarter section of government land in section 17. He built
a home, the typical log cabin of that period, and applied himself with zeal and energy to the clearing and improvement of his land. By the end of the first year his young wife died, leaving his home desolate. After re- maining a widower for more than ten years, he was for a second time united in marriage. On this occasion his bride was Miss Cathar- ine Thomas, and one child, J. F. Roe, the subject of this sketch, was born to this union. The young mother was permitted to care for her little son but one year, when death claimed her. The maternal grand- mother, Mrs. Thomas, then took the boy and reared him until he was nine years old when he was taken by an uncle, Benjamin Roe, at Ridgeville, Randolph county, which re- mained his home until he was sixteen years of age. During his residence in Ridgeville he attended the public schools and made rapid progress in his studies. He especially excelled in penmanship and mathematics, which secured for him a position in one of the local mercantile establishments, which he held for three years. A desire to see more of the world then took possession of him and he went west, where he remained for ten years, engaged in different kinds of em- ployment at various points. He worked in an express office for a time, then in a hard- ware store, finally making the trip to Cali- fornia, where he worked on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Later he took a position for the Lake Hemett Land and Water Com- pany, of Lakeside county, California. It was a very responsible position and he held it for a number of years. Like the lamb that had wandered from the fold, he at last yearned to come home, and arrived in Wells county in April, 1889.
In November of the following year,
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1890, Mr. Roe was united in marriage to Miss Della Young, a daughter of Samuel and Christina Young, of Allen county, In- diana, who had moved to Wells county in 1876 and settled on a farm in Union town- ship. She was born in 1868, and was a young lady of intelligence, refinement and fair education. Their married life of twelve years has been most happy, although no chil- dren have come to bless their union. His farm of one hundred and sixty acres lies three and one-half miles north of Markle and is one of the most desirable farms in the township, consisting of a tract entered and improved by his father and has never been. transferred by deed. In politics he con- fesses to being a Democrat, but he is never a partisan. Like all men who have traveled -
much, he has broad and liberal views on all questions which arise, whether religious, po- litical or social. While rather steadfast in his views on questions to which he has given consideration, he always exhibits a hearty re- spect for the opinions of others. Having few domestic cares, he and his wife employ their leisure time in the perusal of good books, with the result that it would be difficult to find a household every member of which is as well informed on nearly every subject and as well versed on current questions and the topics of the day. They are a model couple, loving and respecting each other and warmly admired by their neighbors and friends.
THOMAS B. MORRIS, M. D.
Back to that cradle of much of our na- tional history, the Old Dominion state, must we turn in tracing the genealogy of Dr. Mor-
ris, and at a later period the family name and that of the collateral line became promi- nently identified with the history of Ken- tucky, whose annals have been dignified by the lives and labors of those with whom our subject is linked by consanguinity. Per- sonally he is numbered among the represent- ative members of the medical profession of Wells county, being established in practice in the attractive village of Mount Zion. De- voted to the noble and humane work which his profession implies, faithful and indefat- igable in his efforts, he has not only earned a due reward in a temporal way, but has also proved himself eminently worthy to ex- ercise the important functions of his call- ing, by reason of his ability, his abiding sym- pathy and his earnest zeal in behalf of his fellow men. His understanding of the science of medicine is broad and compre- hensive and the profession and the public have accorded him the high esteem and con- fidence justly due under such conditions and with such attributes as are his.
Dr. Morris is a native of Bracken coun- ty, Kentucky, having been born on a farm near the town of Augusta, on the 6th of Aug- ust, 1848, and being a son of John P. and Mary Ann (McClennahan) Morris, both members of old Kentucky families and both natives of that state. Capt. Philip Buckner, the maternal grandfather of John P. Morris, was born in England, on the 13th of May, 1747, and as a young man he emigrated to America, being here married, in 1772, to a Miss Daniels, of Port Royal, Virginia. At the outbreak of the war of the Revolution he espoused the cause of the colonists and served in the Continental line, while for com- missary supplies which he furnished from his home in Virginia he received at the close of
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1
the war land warrants, on which he made selection of lands in Kentucky and Ohio. He brought his family and his negroes down the Ohio river on flatboats, disembarking at Louisville, which was then a small village, and later returned to Virginia and organ- ized a company of families who came to Kentucky and under his supervision organ- ized a colony at Augusta, Bracken county, of which town he was thus the virtual founder. He acquired an extensive landed estate, having erected his first dwelling in the year 1797, and it is interesting to note in the connection that the foundations of this an- cient building are still standing. Captain Buckner donated large tracts of land to the town of Augusta, and it was through his progressive spirit that the colony and town flourished to so notable a degree. He was the first representative from that county in the legislature of Kentucky and was one of the framers of the constitution of the com- monwealth, having been a member of the first constitutional convention, while his sons-in-law were the first officers elected in Bracken county after its erection. He was a man of fine mentality, genial and hospit- able and a true type of the old-school gen- tleman. He assisted many persons in se- curing farms and establishing homes and no man in the locality had a firmer hold upon public confidence and esteem. When well advanced in years he retired to a distance of fourteen miles in the wilderness in order that he might have access to more game, having been an enthusiastic nimrod and an expert shot. He died at his home in Bracken coun- ty on the 24th of October, 1820, in the ful- ness of years and well earned honors. His son-in-law, Dickinson Morris, grandfather of Dr. Morris, was the first sheriff of Brack-
en county, and one of the influential citizens of the locality. He became an able surveyor and as such had charge of the surveying of the greater portion of Bracken county, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death. His eldest son, B. S. Morris, be- came a distinguished member of the bar, was the second mayor of the city of Chicago, Illinois, and for a number of years was judge of the circuit court in that state. The third son, Philip B., was an extensive farmer in Kentucky, where he passed his entire life.
John Pickett Morris, father of the Doc- tor, was rcared and educated in Bracken county, where he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, in which he was en- gaged from his youth until his death, in Oc- tober, 1895, at the venerable age of eighty- three years, having resided continuously on one farm for the long period of sixty years, while the old homestead is still in the pos- session of the family. His devoted wife, who was born in Farquhar county, Virginia, accompanied her parents on their removal to Kentucky when a child, and there was reared and educated, and she died on the old homestead on the 5th of August, 1868, at the age of fifty-two years. They became the parents of eight sons and one daughter and all are living with the exception of two of the. sons, while Dr. Morris and his brother Sam- tel B., of Liberty Center, Wells county, are the only representatives of the family in In- diana.
Dr. Morris, of this sketch, was born on the old homestead farm, twelve miles west of Augusta, Bracken county, Kentucky, and his early educational discip- line was received in the public schools of his native state. In 1869, when about twenty- one years of age, he came to Wells county,
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Indiana, to visit relatives, and here he en- gaged in teaching in the district schools about two years, and while thus engaged he became so impressed with the attractions and advantages of this section of the state that he determined to take up his permanent residence here. He had previously taken up the study of medicine under the preceptor- ship of an old and able physician of Ken- tucky and after coming to Indiana he con- tinued his technical reading under the direc- tion of his brother, Dr. George P. Morris, who was at that time established in the prac- tice of his profession in Grant county. In 1879 he was matriculated in the Fort Wayne Medical College, at Fort Wayne, this state, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1881, receiving the degree of Doc- tor of Medicine and being thoroughly forti- fied for the practice of his chosen profession, since he had been a close and appreciative stu- dent of both medicine and surgery and had spared no pains to secure the best experience in practical clinical work while pursuing his collegiate course. After his graduation Dr. Morris established himself in practice at Roll, Blackford county, Indiana, where he re- mained until 1883, when he came to Mount Zion, Wells county, which has since con- tinued to be his place of residence and his professional headquarters. He has built up a large and representative practice, which ex- tends throughout a wide radius of country, and his success has been the diametrical re- sult of his assiduous application, his unwav- ering devotion to his work and his constant and careful study of the sciences of medi- cine and surgery, in which he keeps in touch with the advances made from year to year, having recourse to the best standard and periodical literature pertaining to the same.
The Doctor is an honored member of the Wells County Medical Society, and has been a delegate from the same to the Indiana State Medical Society, in which also he re- tains membership, while he has also been a delegate to the conventions of the American Medical Association. He is held in high esteem by his professional confreres, being ever mindful of the ethics of the unwritten code, and is frequently called in consultation by other members of the profession. His practice has far exceeded in extent the lim- itations which he had considered possible, and both as a physician and a man he holds the unequivocal confidence and esteem of the community in which his services have been of so marked value and in which he has at- tained high prestige in his profession. The Doctor is the owner of two valuable farms in Wells county, on one of which are eight producing oil wells, through which he secures a good income, both farm properties being rented. In politics he gives his allegiance to the Democratic party so far as state and national affairs are involved, but in local matters, where no issue is to be considered, he is independent rather than holding to strict partisan lines. The Doctor served three years as postmaster of Mount Zion, under the administration of President Cleve- land. He is a charter member of Mount Zion Lodge No. 684, I. O. O. F., in which he is past noble grand, while he has repre- sented the same in the grand lodge of the state on three different occasions. He and his wife are valued and active members of the Methodist Protestant church.
On the IIth of May, 1875, Dr. Morris was united in marriage to Miss Sarah A. Lee, who was born in Wells county, being a daughter of Jonathan R. and Susanah (Ban- ,
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ter) Lee, well known residents of the coun- ty. She was eighteen years of age at the time of her marriage, having been reared and educated in her native county and being a lady of gracious presence and distinctive refinement. Dr. and Mrs. Morris are the parents of two sons, namely: Oscar E., who married Miss Maud Huffman and who is one of the successful young farmers of Wells county ; and George B., who is a stu- dent in the Indiana Medical College, at In- dianapolis, being a member of the class of 1903; he married Miss Rosa Wallace and they have one child, Lillian Maxwell.
D. D. STUDABAKER.
Success in this life comes to the deserv- ing. It is an axiom demonstrated by all human experience that a man gets out of this life what he puts into it, plus a reasonable interest on the investment. The individual who inherits a large estate and adds nothing to his fortune cannot be called a successful man. He that falls heir to a large fortune and increases its value is successful in pro- portion to the amount he adds to his wealth. But the man who starts in the world un- aided and by sheer force of will, controlled by correct principles, forges ahead and at length reaches a position of honor among his fellow citizens achieves success such as representatives of the two former classes neither understand nor appreciate. To a considerable extent the subject of this sketch is a creditable representative of the class last named, a class which has fur- nished much of the bone and sinew of the country and added to the stability of the gov- ernment and its institutions.
D. D. Studabaker is a native of Wells county, his birth occurring in Harrison township on the 4th of May, 1840, a son of the pioneers, William and Sarah A. (Thomp- son) Studabaker. He was reared upon the parental homestead and attended the sub- scription schools. Though his earlier educa- tion was necessarily limited, he has by close observation and contact with the world be- come well-informed and thoroughly in touch with modern business methods. David early formed an inclination for dealing in stock. He remained with his father until he was twenty-two years of age and in 1862 undertook to operate the farm of Capt. Peter Studabaker while the latter was absent in military service. The subject farmed this property until 1866, when he set- tled on a farm adjoining the one on which he now lives. He has engaged in the various lines related to agriculture, including farm- ing, stock grazing, buying and selling, in all of which he has been successful, achieving an enviable reputation through his straight- forward and honorable business meth- ods. He was an extensive stock-shipper of the county to within twenty years, though since that time he has confined his operations principally to baling and shipping hay and straw. Aside from the varied interests per- taining to the farm, Mr. Studabaker has also done some contracting in the construc- tion of gravel roads in this and Grant coun- ties, his efforts in this line being the greatest of any citizen of the county. He built the second gravel road in the county, the one from Bluffton to Mount Zion, and among others which he constructed were the fol- lowing: The Markle, Gregg, Bluffton and Rifeton, Little, Poor Farm, Air Line, Stahl, Keystone, Gavin and others, the total amounting to fifty miles in Wells and eight
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in Grant county. He bears the reputation of an honest and conscientious contractor and all of his transactions in which the public in- terests have been involved have been con- ducted so as to win the approbation of the people.
In the winter of 1865 Mr. Studabaker was united in marriage with Miss Esther E. Stahl, the daughter of Abraham and Rebecca Stahl. She was born in Ohio, but her par- ents came to Wells county in the spring of 1838, settling in Nottingham township. To this union have been born six children, three of whom are deceased. Those living are Hugh, an engineer on the Rock Island Rail- road; Sarah, the wife of Ross DeVore, and Nora, who is at home. Mr. Studabaker is affiliated with the Democratic party. Though not a member of any church, he has ever been a liberal contributor to their support and casts his influence invariably on the side of morality and the higher interests of the community. With him to see and un- derstand the right is to do the same under all circumstances, fearlessness in the dis- charge of duty being one of his dominant characteristics, while he is ever careful and considerate of the feelings and opinions of those from whom he may honestly differ.
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