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 57

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 57


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William Lytle married Amelia Dye on April 5, 1863. She was a daughter of Cornelius and Catherine (Copie) Dye, who came to Indiana from Ohio. Amelia (Dye) Lytle was born on March 17, 1850, and when she was seven years old her mother died, so that she was from that time on reared in the home of John F. and Rebecca Fultz. William and Amelia Lytle became the parents of ten children, of which number nine are yet living. Concerning them the following brief men- tion is made at this juncture: Edward is a resident of Royal Center; Florence is the wife of James Fuller; Anna married George Schlegen- mitch ; Stephen is a farmer in Tippecanoe county, Indiana; Effie mar- ried Warren Harvey, of Logansport, Indiana; Gertrude is the wife of W. P. Wray, of Logansport ; Homer, the subject of this review ; Fred is a resident of Anderson, Indiana; Gilbert, of Boone township, with his mother.


Mrs. Lytle is. a member of the Evangelical church of Royal Center, and is active and prominent in the work of the various departments of that body, with which she has long been identified in a praiseworthy manner. She is the owner of a fine farm of one hundred and forty- three acres of land in Boone township, upon which she is living at the present time, the same being operated by her sons, Homer and Gilbert.


Homer Lytle is a member of Royal Center Lodge No. 462, Knights of Pythias, and he is a stanch Democrat in his political adherence. Gil- bert Lytle is a member of Royal Center Lodge No. 585, A. F. & A. M., and has served one year as senior deacon of the lodge. Both brothers are prominent and popular in the community which has long represented their home, and have the esteem and confidence of all who know them.


WILLIAM LYTLE


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BRUCE E. BUTZ. Without any but the meagrest education, without business training, business influence or financial backing, Bruce E. Butz has arisen above the material difficulties that beset the path of the young ventured into commercial and manufacturing waters and established himself safely and soundly upon the rock of success. Today the lumber business he managed and helped establish in Walton, known as the Wal- ton Lumber Company, is one of the prosperous and rapidly advancing young business concerns of the county, and its proprietor is part owner and manager of the establishment. His career has not been without its ups and downs, but such has been the courage and integrity of the man that he has been able to reach his present place of security despite the difficulties he has encountered.


Bruce E. Butz was born on December 15, 1884, in Deer Creek town- ship, Cass county, on the old Snider farm, near Young America. He is the son of Charles H. L. and Jennie (Snider) Butz, the father a native of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and the mother of Deer Creek township, where she was born and reared, the daughter of pioneer parents of this section. Charles H. Butz came from his native state to Indiana in 1876 and here, after his marriage, engaged in agriculture and like pursuits. They reared a family of five children, named as follows : Harry W .; Ora E., who is the manager of the Indiana Business College in Logansport, Kokomo and Marion, Indiana; Bruce E., of this brief review ; Anne, the wife of Howard Bone, and Frank, who married Ressie Rife.


Bruce Butz as a boy in his native community attended school in District No. 4 of Deer Creek township. He finished his education in Dis- trict No. 5, and then gave his entire attention to the work of the home farm until he reached the age of twenty years. At that age he started working for the Galveston Lumber Company and as an employe of that concern he learned the lumber business in all its varied details. In 1906 he came to Walton and took management of the Walton Lumber Con- pany, of which he is the head, and he has since conducted a successful lumber business in this place. He is the only man in Walton who has a financial interest in the firm, the capital stock of the corporation being subscribed by outsiders.


On Christmas day, 1907, Mr. Butz married Audrey Murphy, a daughter of Charles and Maggie (Ault) Murphy, and they have two children: Charles D. and Creston B. Butz.


Mr. Butz is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Masonic fraternity, and his churchily relations are with the United Brethren at Galveston. He is active in the work of the church and prominent in all its concerns, as is also his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Butz are highly esteemed in Galveston and enjoy the friendship of the best people of the com- munity.


JARED B. RICE. Cass county is admirably located for the successful prosecution of farming, for the soil is exceedingly fertile, the climatic conditions almost ideal, and transportation facilities unsurpassed. How- ever, although the agriculturist here has these advantages. he cannot compete successfully with others unless he carries on his operations according to modern ideas, and uses improved machinery in his work.


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That the majority of the farmers are progressive is proven by the number of finely developed farms to be found all over the county, a fact that has very materially raised the standard of excellence here and placed Cass among the leaders in agriculture in Indiana. One of the men who has assisted in bringing about this desirable condition is Jared B. Rice, of section 17, Clinton township, who, alone and unaided, has brought his present farm of eighty acres to a state of high cultivation, although when he first settled here, a quarter of a century ago, this land was entirely covered with heavy timber.


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Jared B. Rice was born in Washington township, Carroll county, Indiana, July 30, 1862, and is a son of Solomon and Hannah A. (Pitt- man) Rice, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of In- diana. Solomon Rice came to Indiana in young manhood, and settled . in Carroll county, from whence he enlisted, in February, 1863, in Com- pany K, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for service in the Civil war. He had a long and honorable service, receiving his discharge in September, 1865, when he returned to agricultural pursuits, in which he was engaged until his retirement, and is now a resident of Logansport. He and his wife had nine children, of whom eight are now living; William H., who is married and a resident of Logansport; Jared B .; Martha A. who is deceased; John C., mar- ried, rural carrier R. F. D. No. 33, Clymers; Emma, who is the wife of Harry Yost, of Logansport; George E., married, a farmer of Clinton ton township; Solomon, Jr., a resident of Clymers, Indiana; Anna, the wife of Hiram Isaacs, of Clymers; and LeRoy E., who is carrying on operations on the old homestead place.


Jared B. Rice was reared on the homestead farm in Clinton township and attended the district schools until he was about seventeen years of age, at which time he began farming on his own account, although he continued to live under the parental roof. In December, 1887, he was married to Miss Mary E. Yeakley, who was born in Cass county, Indiana, and to this union there have been born two children: Julia, born in March, 1889, a graduate of the Logansport Commercial College and now bookkeeper for H. G. Reed, at Clymers, Indiana; and Agnes, born September 18, 1893, a graduate of the Logansport high schools, who makes her home with her parents. A pleasant, outspoken man, true to his word, and with the courage of his convictions, he has thoroughly established himself in the confidence of his neighbors and associates, and his title of "self-made man" has been won by perfectly legitimate meth- ods. His farm of eighty acres is well cultivated, bears heavy crops and shows, in its prosperous appearance, the presence of able and thrifty. management. While the greater part of his time is given to general farming, he has also devoted considerable attention to the breeding of stock, and his pure Duroc hogs have attracted attention at a number of live stock fairs.


WALTER A. HOUSE. Much of the wealth of Cass county lies in her splendid farming districts, represented by innumerable well-kept and bountifully productive estates that had their inception, insofar as present-day conditions extend, in the labor and initiative of those hardy pioneers who sought out this region many decades ago. How well they


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wrought and how successful they were is a story that may only be touched upon in passing here, but that they built up sturdy foundations on which their numerous progeny might rear the fair structure of pros- perity is a fact that is obvious to all. Today the prosperous and thriving farms, conducted along both general and specific lines of agriculture, constitute a happy feature of Cass county, and the men who are carry- ing forward the work then begun are worthy successors of their worthy ancestors. Walter A. House, owner and manager of the Plain View Stock Farm, is a striking example of men of this type.


Born in Cass county, Indiana, on the 24th day of January, 1872, Walter A. House is the son of Simeon A. and Elizabeth (Adams) House. The father was a native of Preble county, Ohio, whence he came to Indiana when he was a young man of twenty-five and settled in Jackson township. Here he married a native daughter of Cass county, Elizabeth Adams, as has been mentioned, and to them were born seven children, named as follows: Jessie B., Walter A., Nola, Luther, Orba, Pear and Ernest.


Walter A. House attended the common schools of his native com- munity as a boy and finished his education at Schyenne school, there receiving educational advantages somewhat better than those accorded to the average country youth of his district. He was well trained in the work of the farm as a boy at home, it is needless to say, and up to the time when he was twenty-two years of age he remained on the home place as the principal assistant of his father. In 1894 he married Nellie Eckley and established a home of his own. She was a daughter of John and Amanda Eckley, and to them four children have been born : Earl, Edna, Cressa and Alta.


Plain View Stock Farm, comprising one hundred acres of the finest land in the county ; came to Mr. House through his own well applied energies, and his success today represents the sturdy labors of his earlier years. The place is located four miles due north of Galveston, and is one of the fine and showy places of the township.


The House family are members of the United Brethren church, and Mr. House further manifests interest in affairs of this nature by acting as superintendent of the Sunday school, in which he has done excellent work among the young of his community. He has prospered specifically in his stock-farming; always keeping in view that the best is none too good, buying and raising pure bred stock whenever circumstances will permit, and he is freely regarded in the township as one of the most intelligent and successful stockmen in the community. Not only as a source of profit but to maintain the fertility of the farm.


HENRY N. MILLER was born in Greene county, Ohio, March 30, 1842, and is a son of John E. and Catherine (Minnick) Miller. His father, a native of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, migrated to Ohio in young manhood, and later, in 1844, came to Cass county, Indiana, where he spent the remainder of his life in the cultivation of the soil. He became one of the prominent agriculturists of his day and locality, was success- ful in his operations, wielded a wide influence among his fellow-townsmen in matters of general importance, and at his death left a wide circle of friends to mourn his loss. He and his wife became the parents of ten


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children, of whom six still survive, as follows: Elizabeth, who married a Mr. Neff; Henry N .; Eliza, who married a Mr. Britton; Caroline, who married a Mr. Toney ; Jane, who became the wife of a Mr. Wilson; and Harriet, who married Dr. Delzell.


Henry N. Miller grew to manhood in Deer Creek township, his educa- tion being secured by attendance during the winter terms in the old Miller school. During the summer months he assisted his father in plowing, in clearing and in grubbing, and in the various other employ- ments incidental to the planting and gathering of crops. He was about twenty-one years of age at the time of his father's death, and at that time he took over the home farm and assumed the responsibility of caring for the family.


In 1866 Mr. Miller was married to Miss Alice Riggle, who died leaving five children ; John, William, Oscar, Belle, who married a Mr. De Haven, and Harry. In 1886 Mr. Miller was married again, when occurred his union with Josie E. Baughman, daughter of Oliver E. and Matilda (Nabors) Baughman, of Fairfield county, Ohio, who migrated to Carroll county, Indiana, and became prominent farming people. Four children were born to this union; Leah, who married a Lybrook; Carl, who resides at home, and Ruth and Arthur, deceased.


EDGAR C. CRIPE. Among the younger generation of agriculturists of Cass county, one who has spent his entire life within its limits is Edgar C. Cripe, of Deer Creek township, who is ably managing operations on his father's farm of eighty acres. Mr. Cripe was born on this farm No- vember 11, 1889, and is a son of Jacob and Sarah (Smith) Cripe. His father, a native of Clinton county, Indiana, was only eighteen years of age when he came to Cass county, and here he has since resided, now being retired from active pursuits. He has been closely identified with the agricultural interests of the county and has, as well, gained a posi- tion of confidence in the regard of his fellow citizens. He and his wife have had five children : Lyna, who married a Mr. Burroughs; Effie, who became the wife of a Mr. Wolf; Eunice, who married a Mr. Hoover; Frank and Edgar C.


Edgar C. Cripe was given good educational advantages, attending first the common schools of Deer Creek township, later the Young America high school, and finally the institution at Manchester, Indiana, where he passed one year. During all of this period he was engaged in assisting his father in the work connected with the home farm, was reared to habits of industry and integrity, and thoroughly trained in the duties with which every good farmer should be conversant. At the time of his marriage he took over the management of the home place, which he has since conducted for his father. The excellence of his early training has been shown by the able manner in which he has carried on the business of the farm, his land yielding large and abundant crops and his cattle being sleek and healthy and bringing top-notch prices in the markets. His entire attention has been devoted to his farm and his home, and he has found time for neither politics nor fraternal work. Among his associates he is known as an industrious, enterprising young farmer, possessed of progressive ideas and the ability to carry them out. He has many friends who have followed with gratified approval his rise in the agricultural world.


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In 1908 Mr. Cripe was united in marriage with Miss Nellie Turn- paugh, and they have had two children: Robert and Keith.


JOHN WISSINGER, whose connection with a combination of business enterprises has made him one of the leading and substantial men of Onward, Indiana, owes his success in life to hard work intelligently di- rected, to inherent ability of a versatile nature, and to a perseverance that has kept him steadily at whatever task he has found himself until it has been ended in successful accomplishment. He has been farmer, sawmill operator, lumberman, cider manufacturer and threshing ma- chine owner in turn, bringing to each venture an enthuisasm and pro- gressive spirit that would admit of no defeat, and in the midst of these multitudinous activities has always found time to give to the promotion of his community's welfare. Mr. Wissinger is a Hoosier by birth, hav- ing been born May 7, 1858, in Washington township, Miami county, and is a son of Isaac and Mary (Straup) Wissinger. His father, a native of Ohio, grew up near the city of Dayton, from whence he came to Indiana in young manhood, settling in Miami county, where he con- tinued to spend the remainder of his life on a farm which he had pur- chased in Washington township. He and his wife became the parents of four children, as follows: William; John; Elizabeth, who married Mr. Cripe; and Sarah, who married Mr. Metzgar.


John Wissinger grew to manhood on the old home place in Miami county, and there attended the country schools of Washington town- ship, in the meantime being reared to agricultural pursuits and to habits of industry, sobriety and honesty. He continued to assist his father until he reached man's estate, at which time he began renting land, thus being able to accumulate enough means to purchase his first property, which he still owns. On this land he earned the capital with which he bought his present valuable town property, and after some years spent in farming he entered the sawmill business, which he has built up to large proportions, his trade extending throughout the sur- rounding country. Later, Mr. Wissinger became the proprietor of a cider business, and at this time he is distributing the famous Wissinger cider to the wholesale trade throughout Indiana. In addition to these enterprises, he has operated a threshing outfit for the past twenty-two years, traveling all over Cass county. From the foregoing it may be seen that Mr. Wissinger is a man of progressive spirit, commendable industry and unflagging energy. In his various and varied enterprises he has ever been known as a man of the highest integrity, and his trans- actions have always been of a strictly legitimate nature. He has cared little for politics, and has never sought public preferment on his own account, although he has been a staunch supporter of good government and takes a pride in furthering the interests of his adopted locality.


Mr. Wissinger was united in marriage with Miss Sophia Tillett, daughter of Michael and Susanna (Smith) Tillett, and to this union there have been born seven children, as follows: Susanna, who is married and has three children-Paul, Bernie and Margaret; Charles, who married Laura Rose, and has five children-Donald, Bady, Nancy, Lawrence and Lester; Millie, deceased, who was the wife of Harley Linderman; Pliny, the wife of L. Kesling, who has one child-Walter; Vol. II-28


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Bessie, who married a Mr. Bird, and has one child-Marie; and Lloyd and Sylvia, who are attending school. Mr. and Mrs. Wissinger are members of the Baptist church, in the work of which they have been commendably active.


CHARLES D. CARPENTER, M. D. Probably there is no learned pro- fession that demands so much of its members as that of medicine. The conscientious physician of today has little rest, as when he is not min- istering to the sick he must spend a great deal of time in study along the lines of his profession in order to keep in touch with the discoveries that are constantly being made. The physician in general practice has to give more of himself in his work than those who confine themselves to specialties or to office consultation, as regardless of personal inclina- tion he must fare forth at all times and in all degrees of weather to answer the calls of those dependent upon him. Cass county knows of many of these self-sacrificing men, who regard their work as a sacred duty, and none enjoys a larger amount of good will in his community than Dr. Charles D. Carpenter, of Walton.


Doctor Carpenter comes of a line of physicians. His grandfather, Eber Carpenter, M. D., was an old New England physician, and his father, Dr. George H. Carpenter, was also engaged in practice for many years. The latter was born in 1820, at Alstead, Cheshire county, New Hampshire, and there received his common school education, reading medicine in the office of his father. In 1842 he came to Athens, Ohio, the journey from Buffalo, New York, being made by stage coach, as the railroads had not yet extended their lines that far west. During the Civil war he enlisted in the Ninety-first Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which he was for a time surgeon, but failing health caused his retirement from the service. For some years he practiced in Boston and other large cities, but eventually was forced into permanent retire- ment. Doctor Carpenter married Miss Mary Welch, daughter of Judge John Welch of Athens, Ohio. Judge Welch at one time was chief justice of Ohio and was thirteen years on the Supreme bench and a member of Congress from the fifteenth district. Two children were born to Dr. and Mrs. Carpenter : Charles D., and Helen B., a graduate of the New York College, who is now living in Seattle, Washington.


Charles D. Carpenter attended the common schools of Athens, Ohio, following which he spent some time in Keene, New Hampshire, and on his return took his first course in medicine in Cleveland. His medical studies were completed in the Ohio Medical College, from which he was graduated on March 1, 1872, and at that time he became his father's associate in practice. In 1877 he became a member of the first board of the Columbus Hospital for the Insane, but resigned from that posi- tion to return to private practice. Doctor Carpenter has been an ex- tensive traveler. His first location was Marysville, Ohio, but several years later he went to Chicago and engaged in practice there. Subse- quently he moved to Belvidere, Boone county, Illinois, and later to Carthage, Missouri. Since 1899 Doctor Carpenter has been in continuous practice at Walton, where he has secured a large and lucrative pro- fessional business. Wherever he has been located he has gained uni- versal esteem and has steadily won friends by his reliability and warm


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sympathy. Unsolicited, he has received many testimonials to his skill and kindly interest in his patients. He is a close student, an able physician, and a steady-handed surgeon. The services of such a man are a valuable boon to any community and the people of Walton man- ifest their appreciation of the service rendered by Doctor Carpenter in choosing their community as the field of his labor.


In 1882 Doctor Carpenter was married to Miss Rena Vlereborne, of Pickaway county, Ohio, a member of an old and prominent family. Two children were born to this union: Rosalie, who married C. C. Bumgarner, and Dorriss, a graduate of the Walton high school, who is now in her freshman year at the University of Indiana.


Doctor Carpenter is fraternally connected with Lodge No. 423, of the Masonic order, of which he has served as master, and Walton Lodge I. O. O. F., and Logansport Lodge No. 66, B. P. O. E. For four years he was chairman of the pension board at Belvidere, Illinois. He has identified himself with all movements that have made for progress, and has done his share as a citizen in promoting good government.


LEANDER MCFADDEN. With supreme faith in the future of Walton, with the ability to profit by present conditions and with the desire to aid others to do so, Leander McFadden, proprietor of the Walton ele- vator, is one of his city's representative business men, and through pre- cept and example has encouraged the advancement of good citizenship. A self-made man, who appreciates the value and dignity of hard labor, in that it was the medium through which he attained independence and position, Mr. McFadden has steadily forged upward, his activities being of benefit not only to himself but to his community as well. Mr. McFad- den was born in Ashland county, Ohio, and is a son of Alfred and Eliza- beth (Richards) McFadden. His father, a farmer by occupation, spent his early life in Wayne county, Ohio, but later made removal to Ashland county, where he established the McFadden home, and there spent the rest of his life in tilling the soil. He was the father of five children, as follows: Diana, who married a Mr. Simmons; Franklin P. and Oliver, living in Cass county ; Leander ; and Essie, who married a Mr. Rickett.


Leander McFadden spent his boyhood much the same as other far- mers' lads of his day and locality, pursuing his studies during the win- ter months and devoting his summers to assisting his father in the work of the home farm. On reaching manhood, he began farming with his father on shares, and then for five years rented his father's farm of 115 acres. At the end of this time he became interested in the lumber busi- ness at Twelve Mile, Cass county, in company with his brother, Frank- lin P. McFadden, an association that proved eminently satisfactory. For a number of years he was in business in Allen county, Indiana, and still retains a half interest therein. For the past eight years Mr. Mc- Fadden has devoted his attention to the grain business, and in 1910 came to Walton and purchased his present elevator. Through the exercise of good judgment, natural ability and constant industry, he has made a success of his numerous ventures, and is today justly con- sidered one of his adopted city's reliable business citizens. He has never taken more than a passing interest in matters of a political nature, preferring to confine his energies to the field of business rather than to the public arena. Movements tending to advance the community or its




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