USA > Indiana > Huntington County > History of Huntington County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 28
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Fraternally Mr. Bocock is prominent in the ranks of the Masonic order, belonging to Mount Etna Lodge No. 333, F. & A. M., and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Landissville, being past grand and a member of the Grand Lodge of the state and the Encampment, and both he and his wife are connected with the Rebekahs at Landissville. In political matters he is a democrat, and has taken some interest in local affairs, although he has not been a seeker after personal prefer- ment.
DAVID MARKLEY. So long as the veterans of the great Civil war re- main they will be accorded a great volume of gratitude and admiration from the generations who now enjoy the prosperity of a united country. In the fast thinning ranks of the union soldiers, now represented by a mere handful in Huntington county, the name of David Markley is prominent, since for three years he carried a musket in the splendid armies operating in the Mississippi Valley up to the fall of Atlanta, and when his military service was over he returned to the quiet vocation of
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farm and fireside. Mr. Markley has for thirty years been a resident of Jackson township, and is the owner of a place of eighty acres, located three miles southeast of Roanoke.
David Markley was born in Carroll county, Ohio, January 1, 1838, a son of Robert and Leah (Cogan) Markley. Both parents were born in Pennsylvania, moved from that state to Ohio, and lived there until death. Of the twelve children six are living in 1913, the brothers and sisters of David being named as follows: John, Samuel, Robert, Jess and Margaret J., widow of Isaac Hibbs.
The early life of David Markley was spent on an Ohio farm, and while growing up he received such school advantages as were allowed to Ohio boys during the forties and fifties. Ou reaching manhood the war of the Rebellion broke out, and in 1862 he went to the front as a private in Company D of the Fifty-Second Ohio regiment of infantry. After a brief experience in the Army of the Potomac, the regiment was sent west to join in the great campaigns then being inaugurated in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. He fought at the battles of Perry- ville, at Stone River, at Chattanooga and Chickamauga, participated in the tedious hard-fought advance up to Atlanta, and altogether saw three years of active fighting and campaigning. Since the war he has en- joined his associations with old army comrades, and has membership in the McGinnis Post of the Grand Army at Roanoke. Mr. Markley is a pensioner, and receives thirty dollars each month as a slight token of the regard in which our government holds its defenders. After receiving his honorable discharge Mr. Markley returned to Ohio, and in that state on October 18, 1866, married Rachel Simmers, who was born and reared in Ohio.
In 1883 Mr. Markley brought his family to the farm where he now lives in Jackson township. He has been prosperous in his undertak- ings, and can now enjoy the fruits of a long and well spent life. Mr. Markley has membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, affiliates with Little River Lodge No. 275 of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, and with the Encampment at Huntington, and in politics he is a democrat.
Mrs. Markley died in August, 1907. The only son and child is Daniel W. Markley, who was born April 5, 1867. He attended school in Ohio until he was sixteen years of age, and finished in Jackson township, where he now lives. On February 3, 1898, Daniel W. Markley married Ida B. Scott, who was born in Wells county, Indiana, July 10, 1873, and grew up and received her training in that county. To their mar- riage have been born two children, David R., born November 14, 1904; and Mary J., born November 5, 1910.
JOHN A. RINDCHEN. A resident of Huntington county for more than thirty years, Mr. Rindchen represents the substantial German ele- ment in the citizenship, is a man whose native intelligence and diligence have brought him a generous prosperity as a farmer, and who has in many different ways received tokens of esteem on the part of his neigh-
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bors and fellow citizens. At the present time he is serving as a member of the county council of Huntington county.
John A. Rindchen was born in Starke county, Ohio, June 19, 1869, a son of Adam and Catherine (Zellers) Rindchen. His father, born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1844, when about two and a half years of age, in 1846, was brought by his parents to the United States, and their set- tlement was made in Starke county, Ohio, where he grew to manhood and married Catherine Zellers. Starke county was her native place, and she grew up in that locality. Her death occurred in Starke county, De- cember 14, 1875, and she was the mother of four children, three daugh- ters and one son John A. The daughters are Julia, wife of Lewis Dil- linger, of Jackson township; Cora, wife of Clarence Schlott, of Starke county ; and Katie, unmarried. In 1879 the father married for his sec- ond wife Julia Judd. In the year following their marriage they left Stark county and settled in Huntington county on the old farm in Jackson township, where all his subsequent life was passed. He died in Roanoke, February 2, 1913. His second wife died September 10, 1905, and he later married Mary Olmstead, who survived him. Adam Rind- chen was a Democrat in politics, and a man specially well known among his fellow countrymen.
John A. Rindchen was eleven years old when he came to Huntington county, grew up at the old homestead in Jackson township, and con- tinued in the local schools the education which had been begun in Ohio. While his advantages were only those possessed in common by most of the boys with whom he grew up, Mr. Rindchen has made the best use of his opportunities, is a man of intelligence and wide observation, and has been able to take a useful part in life in all the responsibilities to which he has been called. After his school days were ended he lived at home, and assisted in the management of the home acres until his mar- riage.
That event was celebrated January 18, 1894, when Miss Wilhelmina Vollmar became his wife. She is a daughter of Peter and Wilhelmina (Ellow) Vollmar, and was born in Dallas township of this county and reared there and in Jackson township. Mr. and Mrs. Rindchen have three sons : Walter G., born September 10, 1894, graduated from the com- mon schools and is now a student in the Roanoke high school; Melvin, born November 13, 1896, is a graduate of the common schools, and is also in high school; Carl, born January 22, 1899, is now in the eighth grade.
Mr. Rindchen has been an independent farmer now for about twenty years. His neighbors speak of him as one of the most hard working citizens of the community, a man who tends his fields not only with diligence but also with care and regularity, and it is therefore not dif- ficult to understand his present prosperity. He is the owner of a fine place of one hundred and two acres in Reserve Number fifty-two, about three miles southeast of Roanoke. The business carried on at this farm may be briefly described as general farming and stock raising and each year enough stock and other crops go to market to pay a good return on the investment and labor, leaving a surplus for the bank account, and
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at the same time keeping up the improvements and the fertility of the farmn. Mr. Rindchen and family worship in the Methodist Episcopal church at Roanoke, and he has a prominent part in the society being one of the trustees, treasurer, and assistant superintendent of the Sunday school. Fraternally he and his wife belong to the Knights and Ladies of the Maccabees. As to politics, he supports the Democratic cause, and in 1913 the county board of commissioners appointed him a member of the county council.
J. LUTHER ZIRKLE. In Jackson township, the southeast quarter of section thirty-six, comprising the full one hundred and sixty acres, is the site of one of the best stock farms in eastern Indiana. Mr. Zirkle is proprietor, while not an old resident of Huntington county is an old hand at farming and stock raising, and has few equals in Huntington county. His special line of industry is the raising and breeding of pure strains of Jersey cattle and Duroc hogs. He also buys stock by the carload and sces them shipped to the market every year, a large num- ber of both cattle and hogs. A fair valuation of his farming estate would be close to twenty-five thousand dollars, and that figure indicates the ex. cellence of its improvements, and the high standards of agricultural en- terprise as conducted under the Zirkle management.
J. Luther Zirkle was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, Sep- tember 6, 1861. A farm was his birthplace, and he comes of substan- tial German stock, his grandfather Ludwig Zirkle was a native of Ger- many and emigrated to the United States and located in Virginia early in the nineteenth century. The father of the Jackson township stock raiser was born in Virginia, and lived and died on Smith Creek in that state. On his mother's side, Mrs. Zirkle is descended from the Funk- housers, who came from Switzerland, the family being founded in the United States by two brothers, John and Christopher Funkhouser, who located in 1700 in New Amsterdam (now New York). Mrs. Zirkle's mother was Lydia Tussing, the youngest daughter of Daniel and Dorothy Tussing, and by her marriage to Lewis Zirkle, had two children Luther and Maggie.
J. Luther Zirkle grew up on a Virginia farm, and beginning about his sixth year was allowed to attend the district schools three or four months every year. The other months were set aside for his practical training in farm duties, and the development of his character and museles by contact with the natural work of a Virginia homestead. He remained at home, and assisted in farm duties until he was twenty-six years of age. On December 22, 1886, he married Miss Clara V. Theis, who was born in Shenandoah county, Virginia, February 3, 1864, and was educated in the Virginia common schools. Her parents were Chris- tian and Ellen Grimm Theis, her father a native of Germany, and her mother born in Shenandoah county, Virginia. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Zirkle lived in Virginia, and rented his father's farm a short while, then bought one hundred and seventy-six acres from his father, and lived on that farm for twelve years. In the meantime a considerable
MR. AND MRS. LEWIS M. SOUERS
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degree of prosperity had blessed their efforts, and Mr. Zirkle finally de- cided to leave the east. Selling out his Virginia holdings, he moved out to Oklahoma territory, and bought three hundred and twenty acres in Canadian county. Two years in Oklahoma were not without a material increase to his fortune, but satisfied him with western experience, and on leaving Oklahoma he came to Indiana. His first purchase here was one hundred and sixty acres in Tippecanoe county, where he lived for five years. From there he came to Huntington county, and bought the quarter section in Jackson township, which has since been the scene of Zirkle farm and stock raising enterprise.
Mr. and Mrs. Zirkle have become the parents of four children. Paul graduated from the Huntington high school in 1907, and now lives in Chillicothe, Ohio; Samuel married Maggie Greer, and is a farmer of Allen county, Indiana; Ellen is a graduate of the Huntington high school, and received training for her profession as a graduate nurse in the Hope Hospital at Fort Wayne; Viola is a graduate of the Roanoke high school, and is now a teacher. The family are members of the Lutheran church, and Mr. Zirkle is one of the elders in the St. John's church in Union township of Wells county. Since getting the right of preference by reaching years of manhood he has voted consistently in support of the democratic party, and while a resident of Virginia, served as justice of the peace.
LEWIS M. SOUERS. When Lewis M. Souers was one year old his parents came to Huntington county and settled on a farm here, so that he has spent practically all his life in this section of the state. He was born in Wayne county, Ohio, on September 17, 1837, barely missing Indiana nativity, but the long residence he has maintained on Indiana soil makes him essentially a native son, though he may not claim that right by reason of his birth. He has all his life been identi- fied with farming activities, and has added something of value to the development of the county, bringing to a fine state of cultivation his own property, one of the best farms in the county, encouraging progress in the lives of his neighbors, and rearing a fine family that has added, in turn, to the best interests of the community.
Mr. Souers is a son of Reason and Hannah (Merriman) Souers, Ohio people by birth and parentage, and they came to this state and county in 1838, locating in Rock Creek township, in Section 32, and here they lived for many a good year. The father died in Lancaster township. To him and his wife were born five children,-Lewis M. of this review being the eldest. Levi Souers, next in order of birth, is now deceased ; Henry M. served in the Forty-seventh Indiana Regiment during the Civil war, as color bearer of his company, and he passed through from the beginning of the conflict to the end, and is now living, a resident of Maryville, Missouri. Anna M. is the widow of Uriah Herran, of Union township; and Eleanore M. died at the age of eleven years.
Lewis M. Souers, as a boy in Rock Creek township, to which he came as an infant, attended the subscription schools common to that period,
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and he received a fairly good common school training in that way. He was a studious boy and made the best of such opportunities for education as came his way, and that spirit of self-improvement has been manifested in his entire life. His father was prosperous, and when the boy was twenty-one, he gave him an eighty-acre farm on which to start life independently, and to this he in later years, through his own industry and good management, was able to add another eighty, so that he has a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in the southeast quarter of Section 29, Rock Creek township. Here he has spent his active life in farming and he has enjoyed more than the average measure of success. He has been an industrious and progres- sive farmer, and in many ways an advanced one, so that his pros- perity is well merited, and has been a worthy example to his fellow citizens. His farm, which lies some five miles north of Warren and four miles south of Burrows Corners, is located on the Burrows Cor- ners Road, and is very conveniently situated in the matter of its loca- tion.
It will be seen that Mr. Souers has lived in Rock Creek township since 1838, a period of a little more than seventy-five years, and there is not a man in the township today who has so fine a record for agri- cultural accomplishment as has he. He bought his second eighty in 1881, and has been busy with his place year in and out from the beginning of his active farming up to the present time. He has a record among his neighbors as the producer of bumper corn crops, and has on many occasions demonstrated his ability to take from his soil more than a hundred bushels of corn to the acre.
Mr. Souers is a stanch democrat, active for a good many years in the interests of the party, and he has been prominent in local politics for a long period of years. He has served in numerous town- ship offices, among them trustee of Rock Creek township, and assessor of the township.
Mr. Souers married Evaline Johnson and she died in 1898, leaving six. children, four of whom are living at this writing. William B. is a resident of South Dakota; Jefferson M. lives in Oklahoma; Thomas R. is located in Warren, Indiana; and Anna L. is the wife of Clarence E. Hart, the daughter and her husband living with Mr. Souers and car- ing for him in his advanced years. He is a member of the Baptist church, long active in the work of that organization in his community, and he reared his family in the same faith. He has long been, and still is, one of the solid, steadfast citizens of the town, and no man in the community has a better standing with the people than he, or a wider circle of stanch friends. His life has been a worthy one, and a creditable example to the generations that have come up in his midst during the seventy-five years of his continuous residence in the township, and the value of such a career will not be gainsaid.
JOHN E. SETTLEMYRE. One of the oldest and most substantial fami- lies of Huntington county is that of Settlemyre, whose scope of activities
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and center of residence has been chiefly in Jackson township. It is in Jackson township that John E. Settlemyre, a representative of a younger generation, now lives, as one of the leading farmers and stock raisers.
Mr. Settlemyre occupies a portion of the old homestead on which he was born February 2, 1876. He is a son of John M. Settlemyre, the mother's maiden name having been Margaret Arick. Both those names are well known in this section of Indiana. The father was born in Warren county, Ohio, and the mother in Wayne county of the same state. He was brought when a child to Huntington county, the Settle- myre family having arrived in 1860, and the Aricks in 1859. The father and mother grew up in Jackson township, were married, and con- tinued to live here until their companionship was broken by the death of John M. Settlemyre, on January 29, 1911. His widow is still living in Jackson township. There are only two living children, one of whom is James W. Settlemyre of Huntington.
John E. Settlemyre was reared on the old homestead, attended the district schools, and his education was partly the result of book training and partly from practical experience as a farm boy. At the age of nine- teen he took up farming as a practical career, and a year or so later established a home of his own. On April 17, 1897, he was united in marriage with Miss Effie Lawrence. Her parents were John J. and Mary (Shank) Lawrence. Mrs. Settlemyre grew up in Allen county, Indiana, where she got her education in the common and high schools. Mr. and Mrs. Settlemyre are the parents of eight children, mentioned as follows: Agatha, a student in high school; Bayless, a student in the Roanoke high school ; and the younger children are Russell, Ervin, Everett, Pearl, Mina, and Mary.
Mr. Settlemyre affiliates with the Knights of the Maccabees, and the L. O. O. N. at Huntington. In local affairs, he has taken quite an active part, and as a party man affiliates with the Republican interests. His farm comprises two hundred and eighteen acres, a portion of Reserve No. 42 and 52. The homestead has many improvements which class it with the best farms of Huntington county, and its situation is two and a half miles south of Roanoke, and nine miles northeast of the county seat of Huntington. Mr. Settlemyrc does a good deal of stock breeding and is one of the most successful stockmen in his neighborhood. He buys his feeders by the carload, brings them out to his farm, fceds the grain and other produce of his land, and every year sends away to market several carloads of cattle and hogs.
JOHN M. KRIEG. Born on the farm adjoining his present home, on May 13, 1862, John M. Kreig has spent his life in the community which he now claims as home. He is a son of George L. and May A. (Wilhelm) Krieg, and it should be said that the father was born in Germany and came to the United States when he was about twenty years old. His wife was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, but they were married in Lancaster township, Huntington county, Indiana, and this place continued to be their abiding place to the end of their lives.
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To George and May Krieg ten children were born, eight of whom are now living. John M., whose name introduces this brief review, was born third in line, and he was reared on the home place, attending the Lan- caster schools and thus gaining a slender knowledge of the three R's in his boyhood. He went to school three months in the winter until he reached his early teens, and all his summers were spent at work on the farm. He continued there as his father's assistant until he was twenty- one, when he launched out into independent farming. He had no capi- tal, but he rented the place adjoining his father's, and there he applied diligently the principles he had learned and practiced while with his father. The result was a fair measure of prosperity, and in time he was able to buy the place, operating it nine years as a renter, before he felt himself able to buy it. The farm is one of one hundred and sixty acres and is situated about six miles south of Huntington, in Section twenty- three. It is a well kept and productive place, reflecting wholesome credit upon its owner.
Mr. Krieg married Mary Batson on February 14, 1884. She was born and reared in Lancaster township, and like her husband, had her education in the common schools of the district. Two children have been born to them. Clyde C., the eldest, a graduate of the Majenica high school, died at the age of nineteen years, and Mamie is the wife of Har- mon Hoover. She and her husband make their home with Mr. Hoover's parents. All the family have membership in the Majenica Christian church, and Mr. Krieg is treasurer of the church, and otherwise active in its work.
Mr. Krieg is a Democrat in his politics, and though he has never taken active part in the public life of the community, his influence lias been a healthy one, and has stood for progress and development. His progressive ideas have made themselves evident first of all in his home and in the management of his private affairs, and his farm shows some of the finest buildings in the township. As a general farmer and stock- man he is regarded as one of the most capable and prosperous men of the community, and rightly so.
DALLAS WORSTER. In Majenica, Huntington county, Indiana, Dallas Worster is prominent as the manufacturer of drain tile, brick and build- ing block, and here he has carried on his manufacturing activities since 1908, when he bought a half interest in the plant and became a member of the firm of Klepser & Worster. For three years the business con- tinued under that firm style, when J. T. Ellis purchased a half interest, and the business was then operated under the name of Worster & Ellis. In 1913 another change was made in the management, when Joseph T. Mills purchased the interest of Mr. Ellis, and Worster & Mills are now in control of the plant. The product of the plant is one that finds a ready market in Huntington county, and Worster & Mills run it at its capacity the year around.
Mr. Worster is a native son of Blackford county, Indiana, born in August, 1878, and he is a son of James T. and Eliza J. (Hickman)
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Worster, who were among the early settlers of Blackford county. Dallas Worster was reared on a farm in Blackford county and he had his edu- cation in the district schools of his native community, spending the winter months in study and the remainder of the year on the home farm. With the death of his father he rented the farm and for a few seasons operated it, but in 1908 was induced to venture in his present enterprise, which has proved a pleasing success.
In 1900 Mr. Worster married Nora Tom, a native of this vicinity.
Mr. and Mrs. Worster are members of the Methodist Episcopal church of Majenica, and politically, Mr. Worster is a Republican though he has never been one to assume an active part in the politics of the community. He is a quiet man, intent upon his business activities, and by reason of his sterling attributes of character, has the confidence and high regard of the entire community.
ANDREW EMANUEL HEINEY. One of the well known and progressive farming men of Lancaster township is Andrew Emanuel Heiney, pro- prietor of Locust Grove farm, and a trustee of Lancaster township. Mr. Heiney has long been a resident of Lancaster township,-all his life thus far, in fact, and his acquaintance in the town and throughout the county is a wide one. He was born in the vicinity of his present resi- dence on December 27, 1862, and is a son of Abraham and Catherine E. (Klepser) Heiney, the father being a son of Jacob Heiney, of Wayne county, Indiana.
Abraham Heiney came to Huntington county in early life and settled in Lancaster township, there spending the remainder of his life. He was a quiet man, always busy attending to his own affairs, and a citizen whose influence was of the best in his community. He was long a mem- ber of the United Brethren church. To him and his wife were born ten children, eight of whom are now living. They are as follows: Jacob W., of Dallas township, this county; Hannah M., the wife of Levi Powell, of Kansas; Andrew E., of this review; George N., of Missouri ; Sarah, who married Roscoe Boyd, of Grant county; Samuel L., also a resident of Grant county; Elizabeth, wife of William A. Stephens, of Lancaster township; Susan J., wife of C. Richardson, of Grant county.
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