History of Elkhart County, Indiana; together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history: portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 70

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, C. C. Chapman & co.
Number of Pages: 1192

USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > History of Elkhart County, Indiana; together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history: portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 70

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Jeremiah Dunmire, deceased, was a native of Stark county, Ohio, and was born July 9, 1841. His parents were Gustavns and Julia A. Dunmire. natives of Pennsylvania. He came to Elkhart county in 1864, and pursued the vocation of a farmer until his death. He was married Ang. 2, 1862, to Miss Mary Overmyer, who was born in Sandusky county, Ohio, July 10, 1844, and is a daughter of Elias and Judith Overmyer, natives of Pennyslvania. They had 9 children, viz .: Ellen, Rosanna, Emma, John, James, Elizabeth, Rufus, Charles and George. He had been a worthy member of the Lutheran Church since 1861. His father resides in Huntingdon county, Pa. at the advaned age of 74 years. Mr. Dunmire died Dee. 26, 1879, loved and respected by all. Mrs. Dunmire still resides on the farm, which consists of 124 aeres on section 33, Concord town hip.

Frederick C. Eckelman, M. D., was born at Selin's Grove, Union (now Snyder) county, Pa., Nov. 3, 1836, son of Francis and Barbara ( Bauman) Eckelman, natives of Pennsylvania; father was a farmer by oeenpation and was much respected in his community; he died in Northumberland county, in that State, in 1858; the Doctor's mother is still living, and resides at Selin's Grove, Pa. The subject of this sketch passed his early years on his father's farm, receiving a common-school education and attending one year at Union Seminary at New Berlin, Pa. When of age his father died, and he took charge of the estate and carried on the farm about a year. In the spring of 1838 he commenced the study of medicine in the office of Dr. P. R. Wagenseller, at Selin's Grove, and the following fall and winter he attended lectures at the Penn- sylvania Medieal College at Philadelphia; in the spring he returned to his studies at Selin's Grove, and the fall and winter of 1860-'61 attended another course of medical lectures at the same college, where he graduated the ensuing spring. Ile then came West, lo- cating in Bristol, this county, where he at once commenced the practice of his profession, meeting with good success.

April 9, 1861, at Mottville, Mich., by Rev. A. S. Bartholomew, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Luke, a native of Selin's Grove, Pa., and a daughter of Abram Luke. The Doctor immediately commenced keeping house at Bristol, where he continued his prac- tice until the spring of 1866, when, not having much faith in the future growth of that place. although his patronage there surpassed

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

that of any other physician of that town, he removed to Des Moines, Iowa, and shortly afterward to Tipton, Cedar county, Iowa, where he carried on a drug store and practiced medicine for four months; he then sold out and located in Buchanan, Mich., where he followed both these businesses until the fall of 1867, when he again sold out and finally removed to Elkhart city, for which place he had always entertained some feeling of partiality. By this time he had become considerably redneed financially, and his start here, therefore, was on a very limited scale. He opened a drug store at 130 Main street, and, offering his professional services to the public, he soon more than re- gained his former footing in this county, and took a high rank as one of its leading physicians; his practice at present is second to none in the city. At first he resided for three years, with his family. in the upper story of the building in which he had his drug store; he then built the large store which he now occupies, 20 by $0 feet. and two stories high, of brick, and one of the best buildings on Main street. In 1876 he erected a very fine private residence on 2d street, at a cost of abont $15.000. It is of Milwaukee brick, with artificial stone trimmings, and is the latest style of architecture. It is two- stories high, with basement. and 30 by 55 feet. The house is fur- nished in modern style, with all the conveniences necessary to comfort and economy. It has a Bell telephone which connects with his place of business. The grounds surrounding the residence are finely ornamented with walks, shrubbery and a fountain, the latter supplied with water by a windmill. It is an ornament to the city and speaks much to the Doctor's credit in the way of enterprise. He is very pleasantly situated in all matters necessary to the con- forts of life, financially, socially and in his family, His children are Minnie V., Metius M. and Ora S. The Doctor is a member of the Odd Fellows and Knight Templar orders.

We give a portrate of Dr. Eckelinan in this volume,

Joel Ellis, one of the retired citizens of Elkhart, was born in Otsego county, N. Y .. Feb. 14. 1821. His father's name was Jacob, and he is the brother of John W. Ellis, whose sketch appears on page 820. When Joel arrived in this county with his par- ents he was nearly 12 years of age. Ile remained with his father on the farm till he was 24, when he was married to Miss Emeline Bailey. He soon afterward engaged in the forwarding and commission business on the St. Joseph. an enterprise of much con- sequence at that period, and one which has made him a historical character in the progress of Elkhart county. From 1846 to 1851. Mr. Ellis continued the business, until his name became a house- hold word over an extent of country 30 miles to the south and eastward. At that day the only ontlet to this region for market purposes was down the St. Joseph to the port of the same name on Lake Michigan. Mr. Ellis owned boats and three warehouses. the latter being situated on the Elkhart, a little above its confluence with the St. Joseph. Remains of one of these warehouses are still standing. One of these warehouses was at the foot of Wash-

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

ington street, another on Sycamore street, and a third on lot No. 3. The means of transportation employed by Mr. Ellis were keel- boats, and these towed by light draft steamers. At the time men- tioned there were 20 or 25 boats running between Elkhart and St. Joseph, of which five were steamers. Besides these there were numerous flat-boats. There was usually from 25 to 30 inches of water on the shoals, and quite large cargoes of produce were taken down the river. The steamers would carry 300 bushels of corn, and the keel boats much more. Among the shippers at Mr. Ellis' doeks were Barnes & Defrees, Hawks Bros., of Waterford; Mr. Bivens, of Oswego; Mr. Darrough, of Benton, and Harris Bros., of Mon- ocut. All kinds of merchandise were brought up from St. Joseph. Mr. Ellis relates how, at one time, just before the opening of navi- gation, he had 27,000 barrels of flour in his warehouses at one time. This was in the spring of 1847. But the time came when the building of the Michigan Southern railroad destroyed the im- portance of the St. Joseph river as an avenue of traffic, and Mr. Ellis found, as many another man has found, that what was a great benefit to the community at large was a serious interference with his own present profits and his future prospects. In 1852 naviga- tiou on the St. Joseph river, for commercial purposes, elosed forever, and the keel boats and steamers went into a perpetual ordinary, or were knocked in pieces for other utilities than conveying farm prod- nets to market. Mr. Ellis found his warehouses deserted, and the corn, wheat and flour of the region, and the merchandise that was needed in it, going and coming on the M. S. railroad. Relne- tantly he yielded to the inevitable, locked his empty ware- houses, tied up his boats or run them down the river for sale, and turned his attention to other and more modern pursuits. But it was a serious loss to him. The last cargo was a load of high wines for Hawks Bros., which was shipped in the Red Rover, Capt. James Smith. The barge never came back, but was sold in St. Joseph. After he had closed the forwarding and commission business Mr. Ellis took up his residence on a farm of 320 acres that he owned south of Elkhart, and improved it. In 1863 he returned to Elk- hart to reside, having exchanged a portion of his farm for 90 acres within the corporate limits of the town. This property has grown quite valuable by the growth of the city, and a portion of it has been sold as city lots. Mr. Ellis' residence is situated on Burg street, in one of the finest portions of North Elkhart. He is a member of the order of Odd Fellows, and occupies a high social position in his locality. Mr. and Mrs. Ellis have 6 sons and 1 daughter. Jacob is employed as a railroad man; Wm. D. is mar- ried and is an employe in Mayor Conn's music-horn factory; Charles F. also is an attache of that establishment; Mace P. is railroad- ing; Fred L. and Joel Ellis, Jr., are at home, and Clara, the daughter, is also at home.

A portrait of Mr. Joel Ellis appears in this volume.

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

John W. Ellis, of the Excelsior Starch Works. Elkhart, was born in Oswego county, N. Y .. in the year 1825. He was the son of Jacob and Catharine (Burch) Ellis. Mr. Ellis' boyhood and vonth were passed on his father's farm. His family removed to Elkhart, Ind .. in 1531, and settled upon wild land, among the Indians, in what is now Concord tp. When Mr. Ellis was 1s years of age he found employment in a store in Elkhart as a clerk. His employer was Philo Morehouse, and he remained with him about two years. He then engaged in trade on his own account at Edwardsburg. Mich. In one year he made a change to Wauke- gan. Wis., remaining there till Is50, when he went out among the pioneers to California, and was engaged in mining there for two years. He went out in what was called the "second emigration." overland, making the trip in 52 days. from the Missouri river to Sac- ramento, the quickest passage of that season. Ou returning he again engaged in trade at Waukegan, and continued in that line till 1856. when he came to Elkhart. and here was engaged in merchandising and farming till 1873. He still owns a farm in this vicinity. When the Excelsior Starch Mills were built he joined the stock company, assisted in establishing the works, and has since given his attention to promoting the snecess of the enterprise. Ile is also connected with the Eagle Knitting Factory, and is a director in that company. Mr. Ellis, in 1849, was married to Miss Clarissa Green. They have 5 children : Mary C .. Jay B .. Colonel Fremont, James S. and Lulu Belle. Mary C. is married to Ross F. MeGregor, Dayton, O., who is a steam-engine mann- facturer. Jay B. is a machinist, and has a shop in Elkhart. Colonel F. is a physician ; was a graduate of the New York Homeo- pathie College. and is practicing in Ligonier. Ind. James S. is connected with the Eagle Knitting Works. Luln is attending school. Mr. Ellis is a member of the Congregational Church in Elkhart, and is a Deacon in that organization. Ile is a member of the Masonie order, and holds the rank of Sir Knight. He was a member of the City Council in 1876 and 1878. From 1861 to 1×75 he was Assessor of the town and tp. of Elkhart, and thus acquired a thorough knowledge of the value of property here. Mr. Ellis has been secretary of the Excelsior Starch Mills for the last three years, and a director of the company since its organization.

Mr. John W. Ellis' portrait appears in this work.

Orlund S. Emerson, foreman in the machine department. Elk- hart, Ind., was born in Kennebec, Maine, May 29. 1536, and is a son of Asa P. and Mary (Solo) Emerson, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Maine. While in early childhood he was taken by his parents to Waterville. Me., where he was reared : his education was received in the schools of that town. He was married Oet. 6. 1857. to Caroline N. Crane, by whom he has had 3 children: 2 of these are living, viz .: Fred O. and Marietta. Chas. M. is deceased. Mr. Emerson learned the machinery business while in Waterville. Me., where he worked for seven years. then

HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

went to New York city, and was engaged for one year in the same business with Vernes, Bard & Co., a fire-engine company. At the expiration of that time he went to North Vassalboro, Me., where he remained for five years, then to Vermont, and passed seven years at his trade in the towns of Franklin and Concord, then he went to La Porte and thence here. In politics he is a strong Republican.

F. B Erwin, paper manufacturer, St. Joseph Valley Mills, was born in Randolph county, Ind., in 1836. Ile was the son of George W. Erwin, and Catharine (John ) Erwin. His father was a farmer near Lafayette, Ind., but in 1851 embarked in paper man- ufacture in Middletown, Ohio. IIe was in the business at that place 20 years, and in 1873 built the Elkhart Writing-Paper Mill, with the assistance of other parties. The firm was then known by the style of Erwin, Upp. & Co. Two years afterward Mr. J. C. Lane bought Mr. Upp's interest, and the firm of Erwin, Lane & Co. was formed. This company includes among its members J. C. Erwin and F. B. Erwin. The latter was onee interested in a vanilla-paper mill with his brother, and has followed paper manu- facturing since he was 18 years of age. He was also a hnmnbor dealer and contractor. Ile came to this State in 1873, to superin- tend the building of his father's mill. Ile was married in 1858 to Miss Rachel McQuiety, of Middletown, Ohio. They have two sons, both of whom are now attending school. He is a Freema- son, and in politics a Republican.

John C. Erwin, of the firm of Erwin, Lane & Co., of the Elkhart Writing-Paper Mills, was born in Wayne Co., Ind., Nov. 28, 1838. He was the son of Geo. W. Erwin, and brother of F. B. Erwin. He was connected with his father and brothers in the paper manufacture in Middletown, Ohio. The elder Erwin was instrumental in the building of five different paper mills in Middletown, the greatest paper pro- ducing town in the State. Jolin C. and his brother, F. B. Erwin, were interested in a vanilla paper mill in Ohio. From 1865 to 1873 John C. Erwin and his father were interested in the fonnd- ing and management of the first writing-paper mill in Ohio. In the latter year they established a writing-paper mill in Elkhart. and F. B. Erwin, having, with his brother, sold the vanilla mill in Ohio, came to Elkhart and assisted in building the mill, and sub- sequently took an interest in it, in connection with the firm of Er- win, Lane & Co. John C. Erwin is connected with the Butler Paper Company, of Chicago, and is a director in that organization. Mr. Erwin was married to Miss Mary Hagaman, of Middletown, Ohio, in 1867. They have 3 children, Catharine, George, and an intant, the oldest being 12 years of age.

Simon Exsig was born in Stark county, Ohio, March 8, 1819, and is a son of John and Susannah Essig, natives of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. He was reared on a farm, and received a common-school education, in an old-fashioned country school-house. Ile was married Dec. 5, 1839, to Miss Polly Wertenberger, a na- tive of Stark county, Ohio. They have had 9 children, 7 living,

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

viz .: Susannah, Lydia, John, Simon, Lewis, Lovina and Solomon. Mr. Essig came to this county in 1856. He had nothing to begin with in life except a good constitution and a will ; and has now a good home. In politics he is Democratic. Three of his uncles were soldiers in the war of 1812, and his Grandfather Essig served as blacksmith from beginning to end of the Revolution, in Gen- eral Washington's command.

Judge Isaac N. Everett was born in VanBuren county, Iowa. in 1843, when that State was a Territory. His parents had removed to that then wild and remote country from Champaign county, O., and returned to the latter locality in 1851. They made the journey out and return by wagons, as there were no railroads in the West at that early day. When Isaac was 12 years of age his father died, but he was enabled to begin a course of study preparatory to a col- lege course; when, however, the call for troops to put down the Rebellion became pressing, Judge Everett responded to the patri- otic voice, and enlisted in the 31st Ohio Infantry. Under Gen. Rosecrans he made the march through Kentucky to Murfreesboro, and on to Tullahoma, and was in the campaign that resulted in the battle of Chickamauga and the capture of Chattanooga. He was also in the Atlanta campaign. He then obtained a furlough and re- turned to Ohio. When he reached the front again, Sherman had cut loose from Atlanta, and had torn up the railroad tracks in his rear. Mr. Everett was in the movement through the Carolinas toward Richmond, resulting in the capture of the rebel capital. He was honorably discharged at Washington, after the grand review. He spent the subsequent winter in Louisville, Ky., and at length entered Wesleyan University, Delaware, O. In 1867 he read law in the office of Munger & Walker, Findlay. O., and thereafter spent one year in the law department of the Michigan University, Ann Arbor. He graduated at the end of that curriculum in the spring of 1869, and located at San Antonio, Texas, for practice. He was elected by the Legislature of that State Judge of the 26th judicial district, which lay north of SanAntonio, and held that position for four years, when he resigned, which was in 1848. The same fall he returned to the North and settled in Elkhart. He opened a law office here and was elected City Judge in 1879. He was married in 1873 to Miss Mary Phillips, of Kenton, O. They have 1 son. Judge Everett is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

Dr. Augustus A. Fahnestock was born in Harper's Ferry, Va., Sept. 25, 1833. His father, Alfred Fahnestock, was a native of Baltimore, Md., and his mother, Eleanor Fahnestock, of Peters- burg, Va. They removed with their family to Lancaster, Ohio, in 1835. In 1849 our subject went to Rochester, N. Y., where he became well versed in the sciences of botany and chemistry. He remained in Rochester three years with Ellwanger & Barry, nurserymen of that place. He was then appointed Professor of Botany and Chemistry in the New York Central Medical College, which position he held for three years. He then went to Albany,

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

N. Y., and superintended the construction of a large hot-house and grapery at that place. In 1856 the Doctor went to St. Louis, Mo., and there became foreman for Seigle Bros'. nursery. He soon afterward took charge of the nursery of Asa Horr, in Dubuque, Iowa. In 1858 he went to Toledo, Ohio, and in company with his father and another gentleman, established a large nursery there. During the winter of 1861-'2 he attended lectures at the Cleve- land Medical College, and paid his tuition by delivering lectures upon botany. He graduated at Hahnemann Medical College at Chicago, and then began the practice of medicine in Monroeville, Ohio. At the end of five years he went to the old homestead, and attended to repairs for two years. In 1870 he came to Elkhart and engaged in the practice of medicine. He makes the diseases of women a specialty, and has been eminently successful. The Doctor has one of the finest medical libraries in all Northern Indiana. He was married in 1854, to Miss Susan A. Wood, a native of Ithaca. N. Y .; this union has been blessed with 6 children, of whom 5 are living, viz .: Eleanor E., Catharine W., Grace, Charles L. and William M. Eleanor is a prominent teacher in the Asylum for Feeble-minded Children, in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. F. is a descendant of Count Von Joseph Fahnestock, first Prime Minister of Prussia in 1659, who married a daughter of John Sobieski, King of Poland.

Dr. A. L. Fisher was born in Ontario county, N. Y., Aug. 1, 1845, and is a son of Jeremiah and Althea (Willson) Fisher, the former a native of Bristol, N. Y., and the latter of Ontario connty, N. Y. Jeremiah Fisher's great grandfather was a commissioned officer under King George II. in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. His wife (our subject's mother) is a cousin of Marcius Willson, author of the noted series of Willson's Readers; and she is a niece of Gilbert Willson, of Richmond, Ontario county, N. Y., who is 95 years old. The Doctor received his literary education in East Bloomfield Academy, and is a graduate of Hahnemann Medica College, of Philadelphia, Pa., having received his diploma in 1871. Previous to his graduation he practiced one season in Kal- amazoo county, Mich. After graduation he remained one season in Michigan, and then went to Shelbyville, Ind., where he remained but six months. Then, in 1872, he located in Elkhart, and has had a constantly increasing practice until his field of labor is very large. In 1872 he married Miss Carrie A. Wheelock, of West Bloomfield, N. Y., by whom he has 2 children: Hally and Winifred. He makes a specialty of diseases of infants and children, with which he is eminently successful.

Edwin D. Foster, carriage-maker, was born in Granville, Wash- ington county, N. Y., in 1824. He was the son of Wm. and Fanny (Evans) Foster. They removed to Ohio when Edwin was three years of age. His father died Jan. 13, 1859, his mother continuing to re- side on the old homestead. Edwin began to learn the trade of a blacksmith when he was 19 years of age. Subsequently he learned

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

the carriage-maker's trade. Before leaving Ohio he married Eliza J. Hayden, of Mnnson, Geauga county. He came to Elkhart in February, 1858, and opened a shop near his present site. About 1865 he was elected Marshal of Elkhart, and served two years. He bought the commodions brick carriage factory that he now ocen- pies, of Harper & Rittenhouse. The building had been occupied as a furniture and window-shade factory, had been burned and re- built, but not finished. Mr. Foster completed it, and fitted it up for the purposes of a carriage factory. His sons learned the trade with him, and were for some time employed in the shops. When Charles Alvin was 21, he took a half interest in the enterprise, and Alex. Gordon also joined in partnership. He retired after three years, and the brothers, Alvin and George, have latterly carried on the business under the firm name of Foster Bros. George H. Foster, one of the brothers, has been Deputy Postmaster for several years. There are 7 sons in Mr. Foster's family, 5 of whom are of age. All but 1 are over six feet in height, and 1, Frank, is six feet three inches tall; the father is six fect, six and one-halfinches in-altitude; 3 of the children are married. Mr. Foster is a member of the Meth - odist Church, and has been a Good Templar for 26 years, and mem- ber of one lodge of that organization for 20 years, and he has been all along a strong temperance man. The Fosters are making a fine line of carriages, and the work that they produce contrasts sharply with the cheap vehicles that more pretentious factories are turn- ing out for the deception of unwary purchasers.

Dr. C. S. Frink, the subject of this sketch, is at this time the oldest active practitioner of regular medicine in the city of Elkhart. He was born in Jefferson county, N. Y., April 3, 1835, but in the following year he was initiated into the mysteries of back-woods life in the Hoosier State. His parents, Nathan and Marian (Pease) Frink, both natives of New York, with his 3 sisters and 1 brother, settled in Noble county in the fall of 1836, and at once began the task of clearing up a farm in the heaviest of heavily tim- bered land, near the head-waters of the Elkhart river. The work was hard, but the father's persevering energy, aided by his eldest son, at last conquered, though the idolized mother died in less than a year, leaving a truly desolate family. The hand of poverty rested heavily on the household and sadly interfered with the edu- cational ambition of the subject of this sketch. The common school and later on in life the Fort Wayne College, for a short time, gave him all the opportunities he had excepting his own unaided but determined efforts. In 1854 he began the study of medicine, and in the spring of 1859 he graduated at the Medical Department of the University of Michigan. He then located in Rome City, Ind., where he practiced his profession until the fall of 1862, when he received a commission as Assistant Surgcon, U. S. Vols., and was assigned to hospital staff dnty in Washington, Nashville and Knoxville, Tenn., until January, 1864, when he was promoted Surgeon U. S. Vols., and assigned to the field, at

JC, Eckelman

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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY.

first in charge of the Operating Board of the 23d Corps, then as Surgeon-in-Chief of the 1st Division and afterward to the 3rd Division of the same corps, commanded by Gen. J. D. Cox, on whose staff lie remained until the close of the war, filling the posi- tion of Medical Director of the corps during the last four months of its existence. After being mustered out of the service, he was breveted a Lieut. Colonel of U. S. Vols. for gallant and meritorious conduct in the field, the commission being signed by Andrew Johnson. In the fall of 1865 he located in Elkhart and resumed the practice of medicine. He was married in the fall of 1858 to Miss Arabella J. Vermilyea, by whom he has had 4 children, 2 of whom are living, Elloine and Charles W. In 1869 his wife died and two years afterward he married Mrs. Angeline S. Lowe, of Phila- delphia. The fruits of this union have been 4 children, 3 of whom are living, viz .: Lauer S., Emily and Maud. The Doctor has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since his fifteenth year, and his wife was of a Quaker family, but has from childhood been a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and latterly of the Methodist Church.

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History of Elkhart County, Indiana; together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history: portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 70

Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, C. C. Chapman & co. Number of Pages: 1192

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, C. C. Chapman & co.
Number of Pages: 1192