History of Cass County Indiana : From its earliest settlement to the present time with biographical sketches and reference to biographies previously compiled, Volume II, Part 47

Author: Powell, Jehu Z., 1848-1918, ed; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago (Ill.), pub
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 662


USA > Indiana > Cass County > History of Cass County Indiana : From its earliest settlement to the present time with biographical sketches and reference to biographies previously compiled, Volume II > Part 47


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John Rohrer was born in Wayne county, Ohio, on December 26, 1844, and is the son of Joseph and Maria (Kampf) Rohrer; the father was a son of John Rohrer and the mother daughter of Anthony Kampf, both na- tives of Pennsylvania. The subject came to Cass county in 1851 in com- pany with his parents, and they settled first in Clay township, where they spent the remainder of their lives. The mother died in 1853 and the father survived until 1906. They were the parents of two children, namely : John, whose name initiates this review, and Simon, who married Edith Conger, and lives in Buffalo, New York. In 1854 Joseph Rohrer married Susan M. Tweed, born in 1834, and died in 1912. Of this union were born two children -- Lee, who died in infancy, and Ella, who died at the age of fourteen years. It was in 1902 that Mr. Rohrer moved to his present farm in Bethlehem township, from the old farmstead in Clay township on which he had been reared. The log house that his father first occupied when he moved there years before had been replaced five years later with a concrete dwelling and other suitable buildings. John H. Rohrer remodelled his present residence in the most approved fashion when he came into possession, and the farm has taken on an appearance of fruitfulness and cultivation that is well in accordance with the activities and policy of the owner. In addition to this fine place of two hundred acres, he has a farm adjoining of one hundred and sixty acres in Clay township that is equally prepossessing in appear-


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ance, and his farm holdings in the aggregate mark him as one of the successful and substantial agricultural men of the county.


It is a fact that aside from his meritorious career as a farmer, Mr. Rohrer has also had a brief career as a preacher, having served for seven years in the ministry of the Christian church. He also gave three years to the teaching profession and in 1863, when in the first years of his young manhood, he served eight months in the Civil war with the One Hundred and Eighteenth Indiana Regiment. He is a college man, his higher education having been gained at Alliance, Ohio, and at Indianapolis, where he attended some of the best colleges, and he was prior to that a graduate of the Westville high school, in Westville, Laporte county, Indiana.


On October 12, 1880, Mr. Rohrer married Cecelia M. Williamson, born October 1, 1850, the daughter of Samuel A. and Temperance (Conrad) Williamson, people of Scotch-Irish and German ancestry, respectively. They were married in Bethlehem township, and much of their wedded life has been spent here and in Clay township. They have one child, Clark Rohrer, born on August 3, 1881. The son was married on May 1, 1912, to Miss Grace Horney, born December 7, 1889, the daughter of George and Lucy Horney of Bethlehem township, and they make their home in Bethlehem township, where Mr. Rohrer is engaged in the agricultural industry, in which he received an excellent training at the hands of his father, and in which he is making splendid progress, having the reputation of being one of the most progressive and successful young farming men of the community.


The Rohrers are among the most successful and prominent people in the township where they have long resided, and they enjoy to the fullest extent the hearty regard that is accorded to them by a large circle of friends and acquaintances, who hold them in high esteem because of their many pleasing qualities of heart and mind. They are citizens of the highest order, and have a genuine and wholesome interest in all that leads up to a betterment of social and business conditions of their district. .


WILLIAM SEARIGHT was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 1819, and was a son of Alexander and Elizabeth (Lobaugh) Searight. The Searight family is one descended from William Searight, who came from Londonderry, in the north of Ireland, in the year 1740, or thereabouts, and settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Alex- ander Searight was born on December 29, 1776, and he married Eliza- beth Lobaugh November 15, 1804. In 1838, in "Conestoga" wagons, he drove across the country to Indiana and settled in the dense woods of Jefferson township, in Cass county. There he built a two room log cabin, into which the little family moved, and there began the work of cleaning up their farm. In later years Mr. Searight erected a sawmill on Crooked Creek, their mill being one of the first in that locality. It provided lum- ber for the building of the frame houses built in their community for years, and was a source of considerable profit to its owner. On February 12, 1848, Alexander Searight died. Prior to his death the family built a flouring mill on Crooked Creek, which became famous for the grinding of grain throughout a wide area of the new country. The mill was Vol. 1-23


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burned in later years, its destruction supposedly being of incendiary origin, and this misfortune crippled the financial resources of the Sea- right family. Alexander Searight and his wife were the parents of nine children, William of this review, being the seventh born of that num- ber. After the burning of the mill, William Searight and a brother, Alexander, went via the Isthmus of Panama to California in 1849. There he was engaged in teaming and freighting goods to the mines, this busi- ness resulting in a profit of a nice order, until in 1852 when he returned to the states, making the return trip via the Overland-Southern-New Orleans route. He was engaged in farming and lumbering until 1864, then removed to a farm, where he died on September 25, 1877. Mr. Searight was married on April 6, 1854, to Emily Vanatta, a native of Warren county, New Jersey, and they became the parents of three chil- dren, as follows: George W .; William L .; and Harry A.


.HARRY A. SEARIGHT was born in Cass county, on September 21, 1860, and is the son of William and Emeline (Vanatta) Searight. Concern- ing the former, appropriate mention is made in the preceding article dedicated to William Searight, so that further details as to the family and ancestry of the subject are not required here.


Harry A. Searight received his education in the district schools and Logansport high school, and began teaching in the rural districts when he was nineteen. He continued his work in this line for eleven years. In 1889 he became superintendent of the schools of Cass county, serving one term of two years in that office. He entered the government rail- way mail service in 1891, in which line of work he has ever since continued.


On December 24, 1889, Mr. Searight was united in marriage with Miss Disa Gorden, daughter of William M. Gorden, one of the early set- tlers and well known men of Cass county, and to their marriage four children were born, as follows: William H .; Grace G .; Anna M .; and Margaret E.


Mr. Searight and his family are members of the First Presbyterian church of Logansport.


JOHN DODT. One of the prosperous and progressive business men of his community is John Dodt, who was for years engaged in business in Lucerne. On March 1, 1913, he changed location to Hamlet, Indiana, to engage in the implement and garage business. He has made good in the business and is the owner of a nice farm in Jefferson township, in addition to his valuable property in Lucerne. He is a man who has proven his worth to the community as a citizen in no uncertain terms, and it is the men of his stamp and order who have done much to further the best interests of their communities, wherever they have been found.


John Dodt was born in Cass county, in 1861, the 26th of April being his natal day, and is the son of Henry and Katherine Dodt. He was one of the eight children of his parents, the others being as follows: Henry, William, Charles, Frederick, Daniel and Andrew. He was reared on the home farm and when he reached years of young man- hood engaged in business in the grocery line in Lucerne, in which he


THIE FRUSHOUR FAMILY GROUP


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continued with a due measure of prosperity until ten years ago. That period marked the change in his business from a grocer to a dealer in farming machinery and implements. With the passing years Mr. Dodt acquired some property in Lucerne, as well as a fine farm of seventy- five acres in Jefferson township, which yields him a nice income annually. Mr. Dodt has given valuable service in public offices in his town, and has been a member of the advisory board of the Harrison township, and is now serving his second term in that office. He served as supervisor of roads for something like eight years, or two terms, and has also been justice of the peace. A Democrat, he takes an intelli- gent and interested part in the activities of the party in his district, and is a member of the Presbyterian church, of which his parents also were members.


On February 18, 1886, Mr. Dodt was united in marriage with Miss Carrie Johnson, and they have a family of seven children: Charles, the eldest, was born on December 6, 1886; he is married to Miss Lillie Ream, the daughter of William Ream. Their marriage was celebrated on April 15, 1908. Bertha is married to Fred Erwin. Harry married Miss Bertha Meyers. Florence married Clark Stevens. The three young- est children, Mary, Elsie and Alice are unmarried, and share the pa- rental home.


The Dodt family is one that has long enjoyed the friendship and high regard of the best people of the community which has represented their home for so many years, and they are in every detail worthy of the high place they occupy in popular confidence and esteem.


MRS. ETTA FRUSHOUR was the wife of the late William Frushour, a man who was all his life a resident of this township, and who passed his life on the farm on which he was born, and where his death occurred, and one of the substantial citizens of Bethlehem town- ship. His widow occupied that place, and like him, was regarded as one of the most estimable and honorable of people. She maintained her high place in popular confidence and esteem, and was prominent in every good work that found expression in her community.


Born in Missouri, April 25, 1859, Mrs. Frushour was the daughter of Paul and Ellen (Long) Gundrum. Paul Gundrum was a native Indianian, who came from Winnimac, Indiana, in 1869, and settled in Cass county, where Mrs. Frushour, his daughter, was reared. He died on March 2, 1912, after having passed a life devoted to farming and kindred activities. They were people of German ancestry and descent. The mother died on the 8th day of April, 1912, surviving her honored husband by but a very brief period, as will be seen. Etta Frushour was their only child.


In her young maidenhood Mrs. Frushour married William Frushour, the date of their marriage being October 21, 1880. He was a son of old pioneers of Cass county, and he was born on the farm where he passed his life and died, and where his widow also died. His father came here in a most primitive period and located a farm, putting up a rude log house and settling down to farm life in a new and untaught country. Heavy timber growths covered the land at that time, and this was gradu-


1


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ally cleared away and the farm came to take on an aspect of homelike- ness that has been only intensified with the passing years. Indians were not strangers to the settlers of that time, and trying times were experienced by the sturdy family who settled in the wilderness. The farm as it originally stood comprised one hundred and twenty acres of land, but the pioneer father and his sturdy sons continued to add to their holdings by purchase, until at the time of the death of William Frushour, the home place aggregated some eight hundred acres of the most arable land in Cass county. Building work has been kept up on the place from year to year, and the dwelling and other buildings are of the most modern and approved type in all that makes for comfort and convenience.


William and Etta Frushour had three children. The eldest of these, Essie, married Edward Johnson, and they had two children,-Russell, born April 22, 1902, and Mary Hazel, born August 6, 1906. For her second husband Essie wedded Francis M. Bolton, September 25, 1912. Mr. Bolton is a native of Cass county, Indiana, born July 6, 1873, and educated in the common schools. He is an agriculturist and belongs to the Gleaners. Mr. and Mrs. Bolton reside in Bethlehem township. Frank was the second child of his parents. He was born in 1884, and died on January 17, 1912. Cecil, born in 1895, died on November 12, 1912.


Mrs. Frushour and her family were members of the Presbyterian church of Bethlehem township for many years and she maintained an active position in the various departments of the activities of that body. She was a woman of the most excellent traits of mind and heart, and was a leader in thought and action in her community, where her accomplish- ments gained her an enviable position in the esteem of her many friends and acquaintances.


Mr. Frushour passed away at his home on December 7, 1909, at the age of fifty-five years, and his death is still felt in a community that had known him intimately all his life and which recognized his many splendid qualities and his worthy and consistent life. Mrs. Frushour departed this life Jannary 19, 1913, and she was interred in Mount Hope cemetery, Logansport, Indiana.


JOHN J. HELMS. One of the well improved and prosperous farms in this state in northeastern Cass county near Hoover is that owned by John J. Helms, who has been identified with this part of Cass county for the past quarter of a century, and who has acquired a liberal share of material goods, and at the same time has won a place of high esteem in the community. Both he and his wife represent old Indiana families, and Mrs. Helms' people were pioneers of Cass county.


John J. Helms was born in Hamilton county, Indiana, December 30, 1857. His parents were Calvin Fletcher and Priscilla (Woods) Helms. There are two brothers of John J. Helms, namely: William J. who married Lydia Wiseman; and Elworth, who married Claire Lanb. All the family were born and reared in Indiana and its members have lived in the state practically from the pioneer time.


On the ninth of January, 1888, Mr. Helms was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Crook. Mrs. Helms is a native of Cass county, and her parents were Patrick and Nancy (Stevens) Crook. Her father died


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in March, 1885, while her mother is still living and resides at her home. Her father had come to Cass county from Wayne county, settling in Clay township, and later moving to his permanent home farm, where he bought one hundred sixty acres. At the time of his settlement, the land was covered with woods and it required all of the labor of a pioneer to clear it off for cultivation. There were no railroads, and the only means of travel was by wagon or horseback, and in making the trip from Wayne county they were on the road for one week. The Crook family has been well known for many years in Cass county, and Mrs. Helms has six brothers and one sister, whose names are as follows: Charles, who died in 1896; William, who married a Miss Eliza Young; Margaret, who died in 1862; Jacob wedded Elizabeth Young; Ashford; James, who died in 1888, and Williard, who married Mary Rush.


Mr. John J. Helms came to Cass county in 1888, settling upon the farm which he still occupies. The place at that time was improved with a small frame house, and barn, and with his subsequent thrift and prosperity he has remodeled both of them and not only made them modern, but representative of the thorough business-like conditions which are maintained all over the estate. He is the owner of one hundred and fifty-five acres and cultivates it practically all himself. He and his wife have labored together to effect a comfortable prosperity and to create a good home for their children, and their work has been entirely successful. Mr. Helms is a member of the Christian church, and in politics is a Republican. He and his wife are the parents of five children : Herman Clifford, born November 4, 1889; David Ross, born July 18, 1891; Ruth, born September 6, 1892; Laura, born June 15, 1895; Anna, born September 29, 1899. The son Herman married Lola Leffel, and the daughter Ruth married Hubert Moss.


GEORGE L. BEECHER. Of Cass county farmer citizens, who began their careers with practically nothing, and have used a splendid industry to make a modern homestead out of the wilderness of brush, and against all the obstacles of nature, one of the best examples lives in Adams township, Mr. George L. Beecher. Mr. Beecher's address is R. F. D. 12 miles No. 21. It is at that point on the rural free delivery route that his present homestead, with all its excellent improvements, is located. Some twenty-three years ago Mr. Beecher took this place when it was covered with woods and brush, and much of the land was under water during the seasonal part of the year, and his first home was a log cabin, which existed there at the time of his removal. All these things have given way to a modern system of cultivation, and he is now one of the most progressive and prosperous farmers of Adams township.


George L. Beecher was born in Peru township, Miami county, In- diana, September 22, 1862. His parents were William V. and Julia A. (Beecher) Beecher. The family were originally from Pennsylvania, and the name of the paternal grandfather was Benjamin Beecher, and of the maternal grandfather William Beecher. The father, during his early life, moved from his native state to Ohio, locating first near Columbus, where he was married, and where he lived for about four years and was engaged in his trade as carpenter. Later he moved to


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Indianapolis, where he followed the same occupation, and then came to Peru township in Miami county, Indiana. This last removal occurred in 1860, and in Miami county he became a settler upon a farm, which was his home until 1871. At that date he bought a home in Jefferson township, of the same county, and there continued his quiet occupations of a farmer and substantial citizen, up to the time of his death, which occurred on the twenty-third of September, 1900.


George L. Beecher remained at home until he was twenty-one years of age, and in the meantime had acquired a fair education in the district schools, and by the work and responsibilities of the home farm had developed good physical powers and a knowledge of the business of farming. Beginning for himself, without any capital, he first rented a farm in Adams township of Cass county, but a year later returned to Miami county where he lived as a renter for five years. After this he came to the homestead which he still occupies. It was eighty acres of land, but of this quantity only twenty-five acres could be worked, since all the rest was covered with brush and timber and water, and it was by dint of hard labor and close and thrifty management that he cleared up the land and tiled it until now the entire farm is productive and cultivatable. Besides the lack of other improvements, the farm had only a log house, and a rough barn, and these two have long since yielded to a comfortable and attractive residence, and first class improvements in barns and outbuildings.


Mr. Beecher was married March 2, 1884, to Miss Sarah E. Fisher. Their five children, with dates of birth as follow: Clinton E. born Feb- ruary 9, 1885; Lyman E., born December 13, 1886; Wreathe Fern, born December 29, 1886; Walter V., born November 19, 1895; and Truman, who died in infancy.


Clinton E. received a common school education and one term in the Twelve-Mile high school and two terms in Marine Normal. He wedded Miss Grace HI. Condon, second child of Merrill Condon and Mary Elrine. Mr. and Mrs. Beecher are members of the Brethren church. He is a Republican, a resident of Fulton, Indiana, and a carpenter. Lyman E. also received a common school education and is a resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota, employed in a department store. He married Lorina Jamica. Wreathe Fern is the wife of Rev. Charles W. Ronk, of Bridgewater, Virginia, a finely educated man. They have one little daughter, Mildred Christine. Truman died aged 15 months. Walter V., the youngest, graduated from the public schools in the class of 1910 and did two years high school work in Twelve-Mile school and is a great lover of mathematics.


Mrs. George L. Beecher is a native of Miami county, Indiana, born July 9, 1858, and she is the fifthi born in a family of nine children, five sons and four daughters born to Benjamin and Elizabeth (Rush) Fisher. Six of the children are residents of Indiana and two brothers, Abram and Isiah are residents of Michigan. Mrs. Beecher's father was of Ger- man lineage and the name "Fisher" was originally spelled "Fischer" in the German.


The Beechers have a five-passenger touring car of the Ford make and their estate is called "The Crescent Stock Farm."


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C. T. KINZIE. The last sixty years have brought many and marked changes to what is now Cass county. Half a century or more ago there were large areas of land, extending for miles in unbroken forest, a few settlements having been made along the streams, but practically all that part now included in Adams township could be secured for homesteads from the government by those in search of permanent homes, by the payment of a very small amount of money. It was at a time when people spoke of a dollar as made up of one hundred cents. and dollars were scarce with the pioneering class, and when Abraham Kinzie paid for a claim of 160 acres of virgin land, his capital was about exhausted, although this land, now worth hundreds of dollars, was secured for thirteen dollars an acre. The Kinzies came to Indiana from Virginia, a vigorous, enterprising family, members of which have ever since been identified with the development of Cass county. C. T. Kinzie, who may almost call himself a native of Cass county, having been brought to this section in his infancy and spent sixty-one years here, is one of the respected citizens and prosperous agriculturists of Adams township, his 276 acres of fine land representing two separate farms. He was born January 1, 1852, in Franklin county, Virginia, and is a son of Abraham and Charlotte (Shawalton) Kinzie, and a grandson of Abram Kinzie and George Shawatter.


C. T. Kinzie was brought as an infant to Indiana, the trip from Virginia, made by wagon, taking six weeks. The family first settled on the old Tabor farm, a tract of 160 acres, where a two-room log house and small log barn were built, and this land was subsequently cleared by the father and his sons, and is now the property of Mr. Kinzie's brother. Here Mr. Kinzie was reared to manhood, his education being secured in the primitive schools of his day and locality, and he was thoroughly trained in the rudiments of farming and taught to respect the honor and dignity of hard labor, thrift and industry. After his marriage, he settled on the John Leffel farm, where he resided for fifteen years, working this land in conjunction with his brother and building good structures on his half of the property. Later he traded his land for 144 acres in Adams township, on which there was a log house and barn, and there spent six years, greatly improving this farm. In the meantime he secured two hundred acres in Miami township, south of the river, and also his present farm in Adams township, a tract of thirty-three acres, which he has continued to cultivate to the present time, and on which he now resides. He is an able agriculturist, taking advantage of all the aids that invention, discovery and science have made, and his success has been commensurate with his hard and faithful labor.


In 1872 Mr. Kinzie was married first at New Waverly, Indiana, by Dr. Quick, to Miss Mary Moore, and they became the parents of nine children, as follows: Ida, who married Amos Eller ; Lottie, who became the wife of William Kinger; Noah, who married Clara Moss; Elsie, who married Charles Angle; Laura, who married Ray Movtz; Maggie, who married Harry Miller; Marian, who married Elva Wagner; Martha, who married Irvin Angle; and Teresa, who became the wife of Emmett Buskirk. His first wife died in 1897, and he was married second to Miss Lillie Harris. His third union occurred in 1902, when he was married to Mrs. Fannie (Altice) Dillon, and she died in March. 1909.


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having been the mother of three children; Claudine, who was born in March, 1903; Cecil Abraham, born in October, 1904; and Sarah, born in October, 1907. Mr. Kinzie is a consistent member of the old Dunkard church, and he is a Republican in politics.


WILLARD AULT. The title of Willard Ault to a position among the representative men of Cass county lies not only in the fact that he has resided here for more than a quarter of a century, but also as one who has contributed in no small degree to the growth and development of his section. Mr. Ault's present handsome farm in Adams township was but a worthless stretch of timbered ground, devoid of any improve- ments save several primitive log buildings, and the property bore little resemblance to the present Maplehurst Farm, which, with its stately structures, its well-kept fields and its herds of sleek cattle, presents an air of prosperity that at once assures the visitor of Mr. Ault's ability as an agriculturist. He was born March 11, 1866, in Miami county, Indiana, and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Price) Ault, and a grand- son of Frederick Ault and Charles Price. Mr. Ault's father died in 1883, while his mother still survives and lives in Adams township.




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