USA > Indiana > Porter County > Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana : historical and biographical > Part 30
USA > Indiana > Lake County > Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana : historical and biographical > Part 30
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He was under Gen. Taylor, and participated in the engagements of Palo Alto, Monterey, Buena Vista, and all the movements of Taylor's army after crossing the river at Brownsville until the capture of the City of Mexico. At close of the war, he returned to Maryland. His father had been a large slave-owner, but after his failure in business and his death, the family were left in reduced circumstances. Our subject, being strongly opposed to slavery, and thinking to make a better livelihood in a free country, started on foot for the Northwest in the fall of 1852, his total possessions at the time amounting to $8 in cash. At Wooster, Ohio, where he had an aunt living, he engaged at carpentering with a Mr. Daily, formerly of Valparaiso, Ind., and with him remained a year. He then started West, and, reaching Valparaiso, and liking the place and the people, concluded to make it his home. Here he resumed his trade, which he followed until the breaking-out of the war of the rebellion. The news of the fall of Sumter reached him while he was at work on a frame fence for T. B. Cole, when he instantly dropped his tools and went down town and enlisted for the war as a private in Company H, Ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, being the second to volunteer from Porter County. On the election for officers, Mr. Suman was chosen First Lieu- tenant. The day before going to the front, April 21, 1861, he was united in marriage to Miss Kate M. Goss, and, leaving his bride, took part in the three months' service, participating in the battles of Philippi, Laurel Hill and Carrick's Ford. The regiment was then mustered out, came home, and re-organized for three years, Mr. Suman being chosen as Captain of his Company-H. He received his commission August 29, 1861, and as a Captain served until August 20, 1862, when, by reason of vacancy, he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel of the Ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. As such he served until, through the resig- nation of Col. Blake, he was promoted to the Colonelcy of his regiment April 17, 1863, and with this rank remained in active service throughout the war. March 13, 1865, he received from headquarters a document, a portion of which read as follows : "You are hereby informed that the President of the United States has appointed you, for gallant and meri- torious services during the war, a Brigadier General of volunteers by brevet." The war being virtually over, Col. Suman declined this pro- motion, as he did not enter his country's service for the sake of honors, but in her defense. Of all Indiana's Colonels, he alone preserved and retained the field books. July 28, 1865, he was appointed Second Lieu- tenant in the Thirty-eighth Infantry, regular army, and this appointment he also declined. On being mustered out, he returned to his wife, and, purchasing a farm in Jackson Township, moved thereon and engaged in agricultural pursuits until April, 1881, when he moved to Valparaiso and received his appointment as Postmaster in April, 1882. On his farm, which comprises over 400 acres, the B. & O. R. R. Company have erected a station, which is named in his honor. Mr. Suman is a Repub- lican in politics, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and Mrs. Suman is a member of the Presbyterian Church. To them have been born four children-Ada May (now Mrs. Lawry, of Kansas), Alice Bell, Bessie E. and Frank T. Besides the battles already spoken of, Col. Suman took part in the following : Greenbrier, Buffalo Mountain, Shi-
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loh, Perryville, Stone River (here he was twice wounded; one wound, by a minie ball passing through his body, being very severe), Chicka- mauga, Lookout Mountain (where he was slightly wounded), Missionary Ridge (and here again he received another wound), Ringgold, Dalton, Resaca, Culp's Farm, Pine Top Mountain, Rough's Station, Peach Tree Creek, siege of Atlanta, Lovejoy's Station, Franklin, Nashville and many other engagements and skirmishes. Col. Suman never curried favor with his superior officers, and all he is, and has been, came through his own self-reliance.
WILLIAM C. TALCOTT, son of Joseph and Rebecca Talcott, was born in Dalton, Berkshire County, Mass., December 25, 1815, and during the first year of his age his parents moved their family to Madi- son, Lake Co., Ohio, where he resided with them till the age of ten, and then with others until nearly twenty, when he came to La Porte County, Ind., in August, 1835; in the spring of 1837, he came to Porter County, where he has resided ever since, except perhaps the years 1843 and 1844, which were passed at Waterford, La Porte County, and 1845 and 1846, near South Bend. He was married, May 1, 1838, to Miss Maria Luther, who has borne him six children, of whom two sons and one daughter died young. Of the three surviving, Henry is a District Judge in Kansas ; Joseph, is a postal clerk between Crestline and Chicago; the youngest, Charles, is his father's partner in the publication of the Porter County Vidette at Valparaiso, and is also Treasurer of the School Board. Will- iam C. Talcott became religious at the age of fifteen, and began studying for the Presbyterian ministry, but during his studies his faith in endless punishment became so shaken that he abandoned the intention. Becom- ing pretty well established in the belief of Universalism, he acted as a pioneer preacher of that creed for about ten years, when he lost his faith in spiritual worlds and beings, and since 1845 his creed has consisted of " doing as you would be done by;" and in that year he founded a com- munity on this basis near South Bend, which failed only through a dis- agreement among the investors in the land, whereby the better part of the promised site was lost. In 1840, Mr. Talcott was elected Justice; was appointed Probate Judge in 1849, and was elected to the same office in 1850; he resigned in 1852, to accept the Democratic nomination for Assemblyman, but being an earnest temperance and anti-slavery advocate, was defeated. In 1856, he was elected Common Pleas Judge, and was twice re-elected, serving twelve years, after which he for six years prac- ticed law. His experience as a publisher began in 1846, at South Bend, where he started the Spirit of Reform, hoping to advance a reform in spelling, of which he is still a devoted advocate. In 1847, he bought a half-interest in the Western Ranger, published at Valparaiso, and was part- ner in it nearly two years; then bought the other half, entitled it the Practical Observer, made it a temperance, anti-slavery and otherwise reformatory Democratic paper until 1854, and after that Republican till 1857, when by reason of employment on the bench he sold out. But in 1874, he pur- chased the Vidette, as the successor. by another name, of what he sold, and after a few months his son, Charles R., became a partner with him, and since then the firm has made that paper what it is. Mr. Talcott has had some experience in Porter County in surveying, teaching, preach-
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ing, farming, publishing and practicing and administering law, and his experience in these things, with his economic tendency of mind, have made him a devoted advocate of economical reforms as advocated for years past in the Vidette. His life has been a peaceful one, a plain and tolerably temperate and healthy one, and since relieved of apprehension of hell-fire for himself or others, whom he cared for measurably as him- self, a happy one, he having been growing happy with increasing years despite the lack of hope of anything beyond this life but sleep, believing that he is habitually the happiest person in the world.
RUFUS P. WELLS, coal dealer, a native of Athens County, Ohio, was born December 5, 1817. He is one of a family of ten chil- dren born to Varnum G. and Sarah (Davis) Wells, who were natives respectively of Rhode Island and Maine, and of Welsh and English descent. Varnum G. Wells was a millwright, and came to Marietta, Ohio, in about 1800, and there married. He served in the war of 1812, and held a Captain's commission. At the close of the war, he removed to Athens County, Ohio, where he engaged in farming and working at his trade until his death in 1835, preceded by that of his wife in 1833. Rufus P. Wells was reared in Ohio until seventeen years old. In the fall of 1837, he and his half-uncle and family moved to Indiana, and that winter our subject remained in Elkhart County. In the spring of 1838, he came to Porter County, and worked around at odd jobs for four years. He then engaged in teaching winters and working summers. September 30, 1849, Mr. Wells married Miss Maria Smith, and moved upon his farm in Porter Township, which he had purchased in 1844. He yet retains the old farm, which now consists of 320 acres. He was elected in 1870 to the office of Clerk of Courts of Porter County, by the Repub- lican party, taking his seat in November, 1871; afterward was re-elected, serving in all eight years. Since that time, he has been dealing in coal and looking after his farm. Mr. Wells is a member of the F. & A. M., and a member of the Christian Church. His wife died in 1875, leaving three children-John Q., Orrin M. and Mary E., now Mrs. C. E. Man- deville. March 10, 1878, Mr. Wells married his present wife, Mrs. Ruth (Winspear) Shenck, a native of England.
W. C. WELLS, County Recorder, was born in Fulton County, Ohio. March 22, 1848. His father, David Wells, was born in Maryland in 1800, married Rebecca Jones in Ohio, and by her had twelve children. He had come to Ohio when a boy, and there Mrs. Wells died. About 1845, Mr. Wells married Mrs. Catherine J. (Crane) Maxwell, a widow with two daughters. In March, 1854, this couple came to Porter County, where they had relatives living, and where Mr. Wells had, the previous year, purchased 160 acres of land on Section 33, Centre Township. Into a log cabin on the place, Mr. Wells moved his family and household goods and began clearing. That fall-1854-the father and two sons died of typhoid fever. The mother, with her remaining children, shortly after moved to Union Township, where she married J. G. Curry, and died in October, 1864. Mr. W. C. Wells was reared chiefly in Porter County, and when but little over fifteen years of age enlisted, December 5, 1863, in Company E, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Indiana Volunteer In- fantry. He was chosen Third Sergeant, and the spring of 1864 went to
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the front and joined Sherman's army at Resaca, Ga. He participated in all the movements of that army until the capture of Atlanta, when his corps -Twenty-third-came back to Nashville with Gen. Thomas, engaging on the way in a running fight with Gen. Hood's command. After the bat- tle of Nashville, the were sent via Washington to North Carolina, where they remained in active service until the close of the war, Mr. W. re- ceiving his discharge October 20, 1865. On his return to Porter County, he engaged in farming, and has remained here ever since, except one year, when he resided in Minnesota. He was married in 1868, to Victoria Morrison, of Porter County, and to this union have been born five chil- dren-Maud, Mabel, Guy, Paul and Ray. Mr. Wells is a member of the A., F. & A. M., and he and wife are members of the Methodist Episco- pal Church. He is a Republican, and in 1878 was elected County Re- corder, with a majority over three competitors of about five hundred. In July, 1882, he was re-elected. He was also elected Justice of the Peace and Township Assessor in Pleasant Township, from which he moved to Valparaiso, when elected County Recorder.
THERON C. WHITE, of the firm of White, McFetrich & Co., lumber dealers, was born near Goshen, Mass., December 10, 1815, son of Frebun and Betsey White, who were parents of three sons and one daughter, the last now deceased. The family moved to Wayne County, Penn., in 1819, where they tilled a small farm, engaged in the lumber trade, operated a saw-mill, conducted a mill-wrighting business, and for a few years manufactured large numbers of umbrella handles. There the father died, August 9, 1844, and in January, 1855, Theron C. came to Valparaiso, to which place his brother Daniel had preceded him in 1850, a younger brother, Samuel, and his mother following in the spring of 1855. The mother died here in June, 1856, and Samuel returned to Pennsylvania the same year. Theron C. was married in Pennsylvania, to Salina A. Horton, December 15, 1837. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the parents of four children-Delia, wife of Reason Bell ; Levi T .; Freelove, now Mrs. John W. Elam, and Calista, the wife of F. M. Frasier. Mr. White is a Republican, he was County Surveyor for two years ; owns ten acres adjoining the city limits, and a good house, and the firm of which he is a member is doing a very large trade. His grandfather, Ebenezer White, was a direct descendant from Peregrine White, of " Mayflower " renown, and the family line runs back to England as far as the fifteenth century.
DANIEL S. WHITE was born in Hampshire County, Mass., November 18, 1817, and in 1819 was taken by his parents to Wayne County, Penn., where he was reared. He was married, in 1843, to Louisa Kellogg, who bore him two children-Martha J., now Mrs. James Mc Fetrich, and Edwin F., who married Emma Dunning, and is now re- siding in Kansas. The mother died in April, 1868. In September, 1869, Mr. White married Henrietta Cunda, who died July 25, 1870. His third wife was Mrs. Mary A. (Pierce) Wheeler, widow of Daniel Wheeler. In March, 1850, Mr. White came to Valparaiso with his father-in-law, Azor Kellogg, and was his partner in a foundry ; he after- ward built the first steam mill in the city for Crosby & Hass ; was en- gaged for three years in saw-milling at Prattville, with Theron C. White ;
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then with John Kellogg started the first planing-mill in Valparaiso, build- ing the engine, and after that engaged in running a planing-mill and dealing in lumber, first under the firm name of White, Hunt & Co., and now under that of White, McFetrich & Co. Mr. White is a Democrat. He has served as Township Trustee, and is one of the most substantial citizens of Valparaiso. He is a Presbyterian, having held official position in that church for upward of thirty years.
BENJAMIN WILCOX, deceased, was a native of Middletown, Conn., was born May 18, 1816. He was a son of Benjamin Wilcox, who was a ship-builder of Middletown, and of English descent. Benjamin, Jr., spent his early years in his native town, afterward moving with his parents to LeRoy, N. Y., and from that time started in life on his own responsibility. He taught school and worked his own way through col- lege, and graduated from Williams College in about 1840, and soon af- ter this took the Principalship of Yates Academy, in Orleans County, N. Y., and while officiating in this capacity married in 1843, in Durham, Conn., Miss Harriet M. Parmalee, who was born in December, 1824, and was a daughter of Phineas Parmalee, of Durham. Succeeding his mar- riage, Mr. Wilcox remained as Principal of Yates Academy for some time, afterward going to Wilson, Niagara County, and assuming the Principalship of the Wilson Collegiate Institute. In 1856, he removed to River Falls, Wis., and took the Principalship of the academy at that place, and also engaged in a drug trade and farming, and remained there until 1864, when he came to Valparaiso, Ind., and took charge of a school, and afterward was elected Principal of the Public Schools. In 1870, he went to South Bend, and was elected Principal of the Public Schools there, which position he retained until his death, August 16, 1875. His first wife died in 1853, and to their marriage were born three children, all yet living. His second wife was Caroline E. Parmelee, sister of his first wife, and this lady bore him three children, and is yet living in South Bend. Mr. Wilcox was a Republican, a member of the Masonic fraternity, and was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church at the time of his death. W. P. Wilcox, a son by his first marriage, was born in Wilson, N. Y., June 23, 1848. He established his drug store in Valparaiso in 1870, but previous to that time was in the drug trade here, in partnership with W. A. Bryant. He was married, December 31, 1872, to Ella C. De Groff, of Valparaiso, and to them has been born one son-Willis D.
J. D. WILSON, carpenter and proprietor of planing-mill, was born in Luzerne County, Penn., October 2, 1829. He is one of six living children in a family of eight born to William and Rachel (Clark) Wilson, who were natives of New Jersey and of German descent. William Wil- son was a farmer by occupation, and followed that through life. He died in Pennsylvania at the age of sixty-three, in 1861; his widow died in 1879, at the age of eighty-three. J. D. Wilson was reared on his parents' farm, received a common school education, and in 1853 came to Indiana. He went to Lake County first, remaining there about a year ; then came to Valparaiso and began working at the carpenter trade, at which busi- ness he has ever since been employed. For fifteen years, he was in the employ of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Company, supervising the construction of bridges and wood work between Valpa-
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raiso and Fort Wayne. Two years of this time he resided at Warsaw, Ind., and with the exception of this time has always resided in Val- paraiso. In 1872, he purchased his present planing-mill on East Main street, and has since been manufacturing doors, sash, blinds, moldings, etc., and everything pertaining to planing-mill work. He has all the latest improved machinery, keeps employed an average force of ten men, and transacts an average annual business of over $20,000. Mr. Wilson was married in Lake County in 1855, to Miss Nancy P. Brown, and to their union were born six children-Ed. L., Rachel, Emma J., and Hylin, living, and William and Frank S., deceased. The parents are members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Wilson is a Republican and a member of the Masonic fraternity, being a Sir Knight of Valparaiso Commandery, No. 28.
JOHN W. WOOD was born in Ross Township, Lake Co., Ind., March 13, 1838, one of a family of eight children born to John and Hannah (Pattee) Wood, natives of Massachusetts and of English descent. The father was born in 1800, learned the tanner's trade, was married in 1825, and in 1835 came to Lake County, and entered 160 acres of land as a mill site on Deep River, Ross Township, built a cabin, and the next spring brought out his wife and five children. John W. Wood was reared in Lake County, received a good education, taught two terms of public school, and when twenty-one began farming on his own account. August 14, 1861, he married Miss Maggie A. Hollett, daughter of Thomas A. and Deborah A. (Coleman) Hollett, and came to Valparaiso in 1862 and clerked until 1865, when he started in the grocery trade, which he has ever since successfully conducted. Mr. Wood is a Repub- lican, and a member of the City Council. Mrs. Wood was born in Orange County, N. Y., March 18, 1841, is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and the mother of five children, viz., Mary, Fred A., New- ton A., Harry G. and Glen (deceased).
W. A. YOHN, M. D., was born in Porter County, Ind., March 29, 1850, and is the eldest of a family of five children, four yet living, born to Frederick and Margaret (Hewlings) Yohn, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio respectively, and paternally of German descent, and maternally of French parentage. These parents were married in Champaign County, Ohio, in 1848, and the same year, emigated to northern Porter County, and about four years after this returned to Champaign County, Ohio, not being able to undergo the malarial fevers of this section at that time. They remained in Ohio until March, 1882, when they returned to Porter Town- ship, and are yet living there, engaged in farming. Dr. Yohn made his home with his parents until he reached his majority, during which time he received his early education from the common schools where he re- sided, afterward attending schools of higher grade and graduating from the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso in 1874. In that year he began the study of medicine with Dr. Hankinson, since deceased, afterward reading under his own option, having access to the library of Dr. Coates. The winter of 1878-79, he attended medical lectures at Columbus Medical College in Ohio, and the winter of 1879-80 attended and graduated from the Medical College of Indiana, the Medical Depart- ment of Butler University. The following year, he received the hon-
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orary degree of Doctor of Medicine, from the Kentucky School of Medi . cine, and the spring of 1880 he located in Valparaiso. Besides attending to his work as a physician, Dr. Yohn occupies the Chair of Natural Sciences in the Normal School of Valparaiso, and in July, 1881, was elected to the Chair of Chemistry in the College of Physicians and Sur- geons of Chicago. Dr. Yohn is a Republican, a member of the Blue Lodge in Masonry, and was married in January, 1875, to Miss Mary E. Dunham, of Sandusky County, Ohio.
ENGELBERT ZIMMERMAN, journalist, was born in Blumen- feld, Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany, December 10, 1839, and is the eldest of three children born to Joseph and Walburg Zimmerman, also natives of Baden. In 1846, the parents emigrated to the United States, and settled at Fort Wayne, Ind., where Engelbert was educated in a pri- vate school. On the 8th of January, 1854, he entered the office of Thomas Figar, editor and publisher of the Fort Wayne Sentinel, and served an apprinticeship of six years at the printing business. On the 17th of February, 1860, he accepted the formanship of the Columbia City News, then published by I. B. McDonald, which position he held, together with that of local editor, until the 14th of November of the same year, when he bought the office from Mr. McDonald for $600, and infused new life into the establishment. He continued the publication of the News until some time in the spring of 1864, when he was compelled to suspend its publication on account of rapidly failing health. He remained out of business for several months, spending most of the time on the Atlantic Coast. In June of the same year (1864), having fully recovered, he started the Columbia City Post, with an entirely new outfit of material and continued its publication without interruption until December, 1865, when he sold the office to his brother, Frank J. Zimmerman, who had learned the " art preservative " under him. On the 14th of January, 1866, he com- menced the publication of the Fort Wayne Daily and Weekly Democrat, and November 14, 1868, he sold the office. He then purchased the Wyandot Democratic Union, at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, from Col. Robert D. Durum, which he published for nearly two years. On the 7th of March, 1871, he issued the first number of the Valparaiso Messenger, and at once made it a financial success. In politics, he has always been an uu- swerving Democrat, but never a party "hack " for the spoils. In 1862, he was married to Lucinda H. Watson, of Lima, Ohio, at Columbia City, Ind., by the Rev. Luke Dorland, pastor of the Presbyterian Church. He had seven children by this marriage, namely, Arthur F., born at Colum- bia City, Ind., October 11, 1863; Joseph E., born at Columbia City, December 20, 1865 ; Clement A., born at Fort Wayne, December 10, 1866 ; Andrew J., born at Fort Wayne, October 9, 1868; Walburg, born at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, April 9, 1879; Grace L., born in Val- paraiso, June 9, 1871 ; Horace G., born in Valparaiso, October 18, 1873 : Lucinda H., born in Valparaiso, May 3, 1878. (Grace L. and Lucinda H. are dead.) On the 3d of May, 1878, his wife, with whom he had lived happily and prospered, died, and he remained a widower for two years. On the 14th of June, 1880, he was married to Mary A. Mc- Mahon, a native of Indiana, by Rev. Robert Beer, pastor of the Presby- terian Church of this city. By this marriage, he had one child-Bertha
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F., born June 12, 1881. As a journalist, he is a ready and forcible writer. He is warm-hearted, generous to a fault, and never goes back on a man who has ever befriended him. On the 1st of August, 1881, he sold a one-half interest in the Messenger to Prof. H. B. Brown, of the North- ern Indiana Normal School. Mr. Zimmerman was the first man in Val- paraiso to introduce steam presses. The Messenger is one of the estab- lished fixtures of the city, and wields great influence in the county and city.
CENTRE TOWNSHIP.
JOHN B. BRADLEY was born in Essex County, Mass., May 28, 1831, and is the youngest of nine children of Joseph and Charlotte (Bar- ker) Bradley, four of whom are still living. Mr. Bradley lived in Essex County until he was eighteen years old, serving a three years' appren- ticeship to a machinist. He then went to California in search of gold, and returning to Essex County, worked at his trade about one year ; thence he moved to Dunkirk, N. Y., where he worked two years, and then to Sandusky, Ohio, where he remained five years. In Novem- ber, 1857, in Sandusky City, he was married to Mina Smith, by whom he has had eleven children-the names of those living being Lottie, Joseph, Herbert, Annie, Guy, Bessie, Hattie, Daisy and John. Mr. Bradley came to Porter County in 1863, and, excepting two years' ab- sence at Fort Wayne, has resided here ever since. Mr. Bradley's grand- father was in the Revolutionary war, taking part at Bunker Hill; his father was an ensign in the war of 1812. He resides three miles north of Valparaiso, on his farm of eighty acres, and is a generous-hearted and respected citizen.
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