USA > Indiana > Lake County > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of Lake County, Indiana, with a compendium of history 1834-1904 > Part 45
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
August 18. 1880, he was married to Miss Alice Ballou, and one daugh- ter, Mary Ballou, has been born to them. she now being a student in the Lowell high school and having taken also instrumental music. Mrs. Rich- ards was born in Janesville. Wisconsin, November 2. 1861, being a daugh- ter of Davillo and Mary (Cutler) Ballou. She was reared for the greater part of her early years in Galesburg, Illinois, and received her education in the city schools.
Mr. and Mrs. Richards located as renters in Lake county in 1888. and have made their home in the county ever since. The Richards family traces its ancestry back to the Plymouth Rock Pilgrims. Mr. Richards' father was an important personage, and was appointed by old Governor Richard Yates as a ditch or swamp land commissioner in Illinois. He was the oldest in a family of eighteen children, and was the best educated of them all.
Mr. Richards is a stanch Republican, and has had no cause to falter in his allegiance to the party since casting his first presidential vote for Garfield. Fraternally he is a member of the camp of the Modern Wood- men of America at Lowell.
CHARLES A. TAYLOR.
"Biography is the only true history," says Carlyle, and then the phi- losopher Emerson further asserts that the true history of a nation is best told in the lives of its representative men and women, so that in detailing the careers of the leading citizens of Lake county its own history is like- wise being written. One record that will add to the completeness of this work on Lake county is that of Mr. C. A. Taylor and wife, who belong to the younger class of citizens of West Creek township and whose success in their life work gives them high place in the estimation of their fellow citizens.
Mr. Taylor is a native son of this county. and was born July 16. 1857. being the second in a family of five children, three sons and two daughters, born to DeWitt Clinton and Emma L. (Palmer) Taylor. He is the oldest of those living; his brother Frank J., now married and engaged in stock- raising at Hiawatha. Nebraska, received a college education at Valparaiso and taught school in Lake county three or four years; Emma, the wife of Martin D. Palmer, a farmer of Jennings county, Indiana, received her edu- cation in the Lowell high school: William, who was educated in the public
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
schools and at college, is married and is a farmer and butcher at Lowell.
DeWitt C. Taylor was born in 1826 and died in January, 1888. He was reared to farm life, and his education was mainly self-acquired. Hc was a successful man, being so through the energy and forcefulness of his own character. During his boyhood he had attended the old log-cabin school. He was one of the early settlers of Lake county, and was here before the Indians had left their ancestral haunts. His first home was on the east side of Cedar lake, where he was domiciled in a log cabin for a time, then sold that and moved to Cedar Creek township, and afterward became a pioneer settler of West Creek township. He accumulated over two hun- dred acres of fine land, and did well by his family. He cast his early votes for the Whig party, and later became one of the stanchest supporters of Republican principles, being a warm admirer of Lincoln. He was one of Indiana's brave men who went to the front during the Civil war. enlisting at Crown Point in the Sixty-third Indiana Infantry, along at the first of the war. He was first assigned to the Army of the Potomac and later to the Trans-Mississippi department, and he wore the blue uniform and continued in service until the end of the war, when he returned to peace and quiet labor on his own farm. His wife was born in St. Joseph county of this state, in 1831, and died in March, 1903. Her ancestors were early New Englanders, some of whom were soldiers in the Revolution, which entitles the Taylor family to membership in the patriotic orders of the Sons and Daughters of the Revolution. Both parents of Mr. Taylor are interred in the Creston cemetery, where suitable monuments mark their final resting places.
Mr. Charles A. Taylor was reared and educated in this county, and from his earliest years his training and pursuits have been in farming and stock-raising. When he was twenty-three years old, on August 19, 1880, he was united in marriage to Miss Alice E. Pixley. They have one son, Edson M., who received his diploma from the grammar schools in 1903 and has taken one year's work in the Lowell high school. Mrs. Taylor was born January 20, 1861, a daughter of William H. and Nancy Ann ( Scritchfield) Pixley, whose history will be found in connection with their son Chester Pixley. Mrs. Taylor was reared in this county and educated in the com- mon schools. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Creston.
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Taylor began as renters in West Creek township, but a year later purchased sixty acres of land where they now live. They went in debt for practically all of this, but their combined industry, economy and capable management have given them a beautiful estate in their own name, improved it immeasurably above its first condition, and made the Taylor farm a model of thrifty and progressive agricultural enterprise. They have since added forty acres to their first farm, and also twenty aeres inherited by Mrs. Taylor. Besides their country farmstead they own a pretty residence property on the west limits of Lowell, and this they contemplate making their home.
Mr. Taylor has been loyal and efficient in supporting the Republican party ever since casting his first vote for Garfield, and has served as a dele- gate to the county conventions. As a resident of the banner township of the county he has done his share in all publie works and enterprises and made his influence felt on the side of progress in social, moral and intellectual affairs.
WILLIAM H. MICHAEL.
William H. Michael is one of the oldest living native citizens of Lake county, but also has many other claims to distinction in connection with his residence herc. He is a man of much ability in the various affairs of life. has been prosperous in huis agricultural and stock-raising enterprises, gives attention to religion and education in his community, and is altogether a type of the true American citizen, self-reliant and upright.
He was born March 23, 1847, and he and his brother Edwin are the only survivors of a family of five children, four sons and one daughter. born to John J. and Wealthy Ann (Green) Michael. He was reared to man- hood in this county, and his education was received in the country schools and in the excellent high school at Westville. He has always taken much interest in good literature, and in his home some good books will always be found handy with their information and culture. He was reared to farm- ing pursuits, and has given his best years and efforts to that line of industry, with the result that he is one of the prosperous farmers of this rich agri- cultural county. As a stockman he makes a specialty of shorthorn cattle, and he justly takes mueh pride in his herd, which at present numbers fifty- five head of registered animals. This stock is of such high grade that a
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
demand comes for them from every part of the country, and he has shipped by express cattle as far west as California and as far east as Maryland. His estate comprises one hundred and sixty-six acres of fine land in West Creek township, and he has a nice residence and delightful home, with all the as- sociations and surroundings capable of making him happy and contented with what the good world has given.
He was with his parents until attaining his majority, and in November. 1872. he was united in marriage with Miss Mary S. Morey. Five children. three sons and two daughters, were born to them, and the three now living are as follows: Loren P. is a mechanical engineer and foreman in the Big Four shops at Mount Carmel, Illinois: he was a graduate in the class of 1896 from the engineering department of Purdue University; he is married and has a son, William Conrad. The second son. Herbert, graduated with the class of '04 in the classical course at Butler University at Indianapolis. Jessie M .. the daughter, is at home, and has received, besides a public school training, a musical education in a conservatory at Chicago and in Indianapo- lis. From this it is evident that Mr. and Mrs. Michael believe in giving their children the best of equipment for life, and the children, in turn, have proved the wisdom of this course by the honorable part they have already taken in life's activity.
Mrs. Michael was born in New Hampshire, in March, 1850. being a daughter of Ephraim and Susan (Peach) Morey, the former deceased and the latter still living in West Creek township. The father of Mr. Michael was born in Orleans county, New York, in 1811. and died in 1897. He was a carpenter by trade, which he followed in the early part of his life, and later gave his attention to farming. He was an old-line Whig, and later a Repub- lican. and served as justice of the peace for a number of years during the early history of Lake county. He came to Lake county as a pioneer in 1838. and his first habitation was a log house, in which his children were also born. He and his wife were Baptists.
Mr. Michael is a stanch Republican, and since casting his first ballot for General Grant, the soldier president, he has been an unfaltering advo- cate of true Republicanism. At various times he has been selected as a dele- gate to district conventions of his party. He and his family are members of the Lake Prairie Presbyterian church, and he has aided by his means in
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
the erection and support of the church. He is a trustee and also treasurer of the official board. The society is in a flourishing condition, and there is a Sunday school with a regular attendance of forty.
PHILIP STUPPY.
German-American citizens have contributed more largely than any other race to the material development and progress of Lake county, and the thrift, honest industry and integrity which are the characteristics of the people as a class can nowhere be better proved than in this county. Among these practical and enterprising men in West Creek township should be men- tioned Mr. Philip Stuppy, who has lived in the county for something over a third of a century and from small beginnings advanced to a place of esteem and affluence among all his fellow men.
He was born in Bavaria. Germany. April 20, 1845. being the second child of Adam and Elizabeth (Lindemer) Stuppy. There were seven chil- dren, four sons and three daughters, and four others are still living and all residents of Germany, as follows: Mary E., wife of Mr. Kaufman, of Bonn, Germany, a farmer; Magdalene, wife of a Mr. Guider; Amelia, who is married: and Adam. The father of this family was also a native of Bavaria, was born in 1819 and died in 1862, and followed farming most of his life. He was a man of superior education, having been trained for the priesthood. His wife was also born in the same locality, and died when her son Philip was an infant.
Mr. Philip Stuppy was reared to farm life, and received his education in the German tongue. He is the only one of the family who decided to leave his fatherland and seek better opportunities in the occident, and he was twenty-one when he crossed the ocean. He left the fatherland in com- pany with one of his comrades, on June 28. 1866, and sailed from Havre, France, and landed in New York. For the first four years he employed him- self at Scranton, Pennsylvania, accepting any work which would give him an honest dollar. He finally bought a piece of land in Wyoming county, but after a year sold and came to Lake county, arriving here in 1871. He purchased forty acres of land with a little house and stable and with few improvements. He has since added to his possessions till he is now the owner of one hundred and sixty-eight acres of choice land. and has one of the
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
model farmsteads of the entire township of West Creek. He came here early enough that much of the land was unimproved, and has thus witnessed most of the agricultural development and material progress.
On February 12. 1867, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Rodel, who became the mother of two children, a son and a daughter. the latter dying in infancy. The son. Philip P., is a prosperous farmer in West Creek town- ship. Mr. Stuppy lost his first wife in Pennsylvania. in September, 1870, and on March 1. 1871, married Miss Bridget Murphy. Three sons and two daughters came to this second union, and four are living: John A .. a farmer on his father's place. completed the common schools and took the teacher's course in Valparaiso: Emma L., who attended high school and was a teacher in her home township six years, is the wife of Lewis Belshaw. of West Creek township; Frank M. graduated from the Lowell high school in 1898, attended the University of Indiana and took a business course at the Valparaiso normal, and is now a practicing attorney at Crown Point: Edgar T., the youngest, was educated in the Lowell high school and is now a practical farmer and stockman. Mrs. Stuppy was born in county Mayo. Ireland.
Mr. Stuppy is a Democrat, but cast his first presidential vote for Grant, although he has since upheld the principles of the Democracy. He was selected as a delegate to the state convention of the party in 1896, and at various times has been sent to the county conventions. He was once can- didate for the office of county commissioner. He has always performed his share of the civic duties devolving upon the public-spirited man, and the general welfare of his community finds in him a loyal advocate. He aided in the erection of the Methodist Episcopal church at Creston, and has duly proportioned his time and energies toward all proper enterprises, social. intellectual and personal.
CYRUS HAYDEN.
Cyrus Hayden was born in Lake county over sixty years ago, to be exact. on the 24th of September. 1843. so that he is among the oldest of the native born citizens of the county. He has spent the adult years of his life in useful activity in farming pursuits, and from an impecunious beginning has, by his constant industry and sagacious management, acquired a measure 31
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
of success such as to place him among the truly representative men of the county.
He was the youngest of thirteen children, eight sons and five daugh- ters. whose parents were Nehemiah and Harriett (Kitchell) Hayden. Six of this family are still living, and all residents of Lake county. The Hay- den family long since gained the reputation of being one of the most pro- gressive in the west part of the county. The parents migrated out to this part of northwest Indiana when the country was all a wilderness, without railroads, and everything in the primitive condition of unsettled regions.
Mr. Cyrus Hayden was reared to farm life, and has from boyhood known the details of farming and stock-raising. He is one of the citizens of West Creek township who in their childhood attended the old log-cabin school-house. The school was located a little north of the Hayden home- stead, on section 12 of West Creek township, and the size of the building was about fourteen by sixteen feet, with one or two rough windows, and a wood-stove to furnish heat. He sat on a slab seat supported by wooden legs, and when he became classed with the older boys and girls he used as a desk the slanting board that ran nearly around the room and rested on pins driven into the wall. His pen was a goosequill. fashioned into the necessary shape by the schoolmaster. From the conditions of which this school was a representative Mr. Hayden has seen Lake county pass through a most wonderful period of development, witnessing when a small boy the advent of the railroad and then the many other concomitants of rising civiliza- tion, until he now lives in a county that is among the most highly im- proved of the middle west and contains all the arts and industries and in- stitutions of twentieth century life.
He remained at home until he was fifteen years old, when his father died, and he then lived with his brothers for three years. When he was ready to begin on his own account all he had was a team, so that he has risen from the very bottom of the ladder. In his early days he has raked the grain after the old-fashioned cradle, and has seen the hay cut down with a scythe. It is a well remembered event when the first reaper came into his neighborhood, and with that machine it was necessary to rake the grain by hand off the platform, and the reaper could also be used as a mower.
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
He has thus been intimately acquainted with all the improvements in agri- cultural processes as they have been introduced.
During the war Mr. Hayden offered his services to the Union cause. enlisting in Kankakee county, Illinois, in Company K. One Hundred and Thirteenth Illinois Infantry. He joined his regiment at Memphis, and was then assigned to duty in the trans-Mississippi department. He did guard and patrol duty, and got as far south as New Orleans. He was still in the service when the glad news of Lee's surrender came, followed five days later by the distressing tidings of Lincoln's assassination. He received his honor- able discharge at Chicago, and then returned home to take up his duties as a peaceful citizen.
September 1, 1864, he was married to Miss Caroline Cleaver, and five children, two sons and three daughters, were born to them, three of the children being still living: Myrtie, the wife of William Einspahr, a farmer of West Creek township, finished the public school work and took instruc- tion in music. Thuel A. was educated in the country schools and the Lowell high school, and prepared himself for teaching, which profession he followed very successfully in this county, having taught in his home township for four years; he is now a successful farmer of West Creek township, and married Miss Minnie Shirley, an old soldier's daughter, and they have a son, Hugh. Mamie, the youngest, is at home, and she graduated from the public schools in 1904 and has also taken music. Mrs. Hayden was born in Yel- lowhead township, Kankakee county, Illinois, June 15, 1846, and was the second of five children born to Woster D. and Eliza A. (Sargeant) Cleaver. four of the family being alive at the present writing and residents of Lake county. Mrs. Hayden was reared and educated in Illinois and was a teacher in her native county for three years. Her father was born in Connecticut. April 7, 1816, and died November 28, 1867. He was a carpenter and joiner by trade. In young manhood he came to Illinois, where he resided till his death. He was a strong Republican in politics. He and his wife were members of the Christian church. His wife was born in Fountain county, Indiana, December 31, 1825, and passed away August 14, 1807.
During the first year of their married life Mr. and Mrs. Hayden were tenant farmers in Yellowhead township of Kankakee county. He then purchased eighty acres in West Creek township of this county, and this
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
land was the nucleus around which they have since built up their fine estate. Their first eighty was in the condition of nature, and it was by his persever- ing labor that it became such a profitable piece of agricultural land. There was a lone burr-oak tree on the place. and it stood for many years as a natural guide-post to the traveler across the prairie, being finally cut down by Mr. Hayden in the spring of 1904. His first home was a little frame building. and the barn was small and roofed with hay. But the days of early struggle and hard labor have given place to comfortable circumstances, and Mr. and Mrs. Hayden now look out upon a beautiful estate of three hundred and forty acres, all of which is in West Creek township with the exception of five acres in Cedar Creek. They have a nice country residence, and they take munich satisfaction in the knowledge that their possessions are the result of their own work. Mr. Hayden is a Simon-pure Republican, and has cast his ballot for the presidential candidates from Lincoln down.
BENJAMIN L. P. BELL.
Benjamin L. P. Bell. chief of the Hammond fire department, has had a career in this important branch of public service lasting over fifteen years, both in the employ of a private concern and with the municipality. The fire- man does more for the conservation of property than any other individual. and he has a proportionately high regard in the public favor and esteem. Heroes are discovered every day in this branch of municipal service, yet their quiet performance of duty goes on without interruption and their deeds often fail of casual mention in the press. The Hammond fire department has developed and maintains as high a state of efficiency as that of the near-by city of Chicago, and takes rank among the best of the state, so that Mr. Bell occupies both an honorable and a responsible position in the city of his choice.
Chief Bell was born in Chicago, Illinois, November 14, 1849, a son of Joshua and Hannah (Weaver ) Bell. the former a native of Ireland and the latter of New York state. His grandfather, also Joshua Bell, was of Scotch ancestry, but was born, lived and died in Ireland, having been the father of several children. The younger Joshua Bell emigrated from Ireland in 1819. and became a shoe merchant in Montreal, Canada, where he lived until the rebellion in 1836. He then came to Chicago, in the early period of that
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
city's history, and remained there till his death in 1875, when he was eighty- four years old. His wife. Hannah Bell, was one of a good-sized family of children born to Benjamin and Phoebe ( Paddock) Weaver, the former of whom was a native of Onondaga county, New York, was a farmer, and lived to be over ninety years old. Mrs. Hannah Bell survived her hus- band until 1883. being sixty-three years old at the time of her death. She had come to Chicago in 1833. when the Indians still made it their haunt. Both she and her husband were Protestants. They had four children, three sons and one daughter : Joshua, of Chicago: Kossuth H., of Chicago: Ben- jamin, of Hammond; and Grace, deceased, who was the wife of Henry F. Schiefer, who is also deceased.
Mr. Benjamin L. P. Bell was reared in Chicago, attending the public schools, and later took a course in Bryant and Stratton's Business College. He learned the plumber's trade, and followed that for a number of years in Chicago. He came to Hammond in 1889 to take the position of fire mar- shal for the Hammond Packing Company, and two years ago was appointed to the office of fire chief of the city fire department.
Mr. Bell was married August 6, 1890, to Miss Agnes Henrietta Holi- man, a daughter of Ernest W. and Caroline ( Sibley) Holman, who were the first settlers of the original town of Hammond, and whose six children are still living. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bell. Fred J .. Grace Lena. Alice and Gladys Hohman Bell. Fred J. and Alice both died when about a year old; and the other two are in school. They reside at 276 South Hohman street, where Mr. Bell built a good home in 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Bell are members of the Episcopal church, and he affiliates with Garfield Lodge No. 569. F. & A. M., and with Hammond Commandery No. 41. K. T. He is a strong Republican in politics.
WILLIAM T. DICKINSON.
William T. Dickinson is so well known as a worthy citizen of West Creek township as to need hardly any introduction to the readers of this volume. He has spent all his life in the county, and in farming and stock- raising has found the proper sphere for the successful direction of his ener- gies, but in addition is also a public-spirited man and willing to serve the common weal wherever possible.
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
He was born in Lake county, July 26, 1860, and is the sixth of nine children, six sons and three daughters, born to Thomas and Rachel (Miller ) Dickinson. Of this family the six yet living are as follows: Minerva, wife of E. L. Watson, a farmer of Cedar Creek township; Susie, widow of G. H. Baker and a resident of Lowell; William T .; S. E., a farmer of Cedar Creek township, and married: P. B. and E. G., residents also of Cedar Creek township.
Thomas Dickinson, the father, was born in Yorkshire. England, De- cember 30. 1821, and died December 16, 1892, and followed farming during most of his career. When about eight years old he accompanied his mother to America, the voyage being made on a sailing vessel and being protracted forty days on account of storms. For three years he and his mother lived in Philadelphia, and then moved to Ohio, where he lived until the spring of 1860, when he came to Lake county and took up his residence on a tract of land two miles south of Lowell. He was reasonably successful in his life work, and was held in high esteem by his fellow men. He always sup- ported the Republican party until his death. He was a member of the Odd Fellows lodge at Lowell for many years before his demise. He was bap- tized in the Established Church of England. Rachel, his wife, was born in Ohio in February, 1825, and is now living at a very advanced age in Cedar Creek township, being a very bright old lady.
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