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 44
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HENRY ALTMAN. Among those men who constitute the pioneer citi- zenship of Warren township none is more deserving of mention than is Henry Altman, who has been a resident of the community since 1839, coming here with his parents as an infant one year of age. His entire life has been devoted to agricultural activities in this community and he is the owner of a fine farm of eighty acres of land just a mile north of the town of Bippus. His life has been a quiet and eventful one, and a brief account of it, with some slight mention of his parents and their part in the early life of the community is eminently fitting in a work of the character and purpose of this one.
Henry Altman was born on July 25, 1838, in Stark county, Ohio, and is the son of John and Mahala (Cooper) Altman, both of whom were natives of Stark county, and there were reared, there educated and there wedded. John Altman was a son of Henry Altman, who with his wife came to America direct from Ireland.
John Altman came to Indiana from Stark county, Ohio, in Septem- ber of 1839, and located in Warren township, of Huntington county. His was the fifth family to settle in the township, then in a totally unde- veloped and uninviting state of wilderness, and he settled in Section 14. In the spring of that year Mr. Altman had come out alone. cleared a
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spot for a cabin and built thereon a small log house, to which in Septem- ber following he brought his little family. Here he spent the remainder of his life, and to the day of his death he was busy with the Herculean task of reclaiming that bit of wilderness, which in time came to be a productive and comfortable farmn.
Mr. Altman is a leading citizen of the community, even as his son is now. He was long trustec of the township, and for seventeen years he served in the office of justice of the peace. He was the father of sixteen children, of which number eight are living at this writing.
Henry Altman was the oldest of the family and was born in Ohio just a year before the family migration to Huntington county. He was reared in the community that has since been his home, and attended school when he might, though it may be said that the advantages he received as an American boy were exceedingly slight and wholly inade- quate to the capacity and demands of the mind of the alert and aggressive youth.
Mr. Altman married Elizabeth Krider, who was born in Stark county, Ohio, in August, 1849, and they became the parents of a large family, numbering nineteen children. Eleven of the number survive at this time (1914) and are named as follows: John, Harvey, George, Daniel, David, Henry, Betty, Mahala, Barbara, Jane and Orpha.
Twenty-five grandchildren delight the advancing years of these fine old people, and they may well be said to have added much to the life of their community in the lives of their children and their grandchildren, as well as in their own upstanding and worthy careers.
Mr. and Mrs. Altman are members of the German Baptist church, and have long been devout Christian workers therein. They are quiet and simple people, who have lived near to nature and who have won and retained through long years the esteem and kindly regard of all who came within the sphere of their influence.
Mr. Altman owns today the farm he acquired as a youth of twenty- two years, and he has passed his life upon it since then. When he first came to Huntington county the record is that there were but two frame buildings in the county. One of them, an old "tavern," stood near where the library now is located, Dr. Tate's buildings being the others.
In his farming activities Mr. Altman has for a good many years been devoted to the care and nurture of bees, and now has forty-one stands of them. It is a subject on which he is well informed, for he has made of it a close and careful study during the sixty years of his farming opera- tions, and it is said that some of the finest honcy ever produced in the state has come from his apiary.
MARVIN O. GIBLER. The farm of Marvin O. Gibler in Warren town- ship is undeniably one of the fine places of the community, and is a credit to its proprietor and owner as well as to the town. Walnut Ridge Farm, as it is very properly called, is one of the productive and well kept places hereabouts, and it is known for its productions in fine Jersey- Duroc hogs and Holstein cattle, to both of which Mr. Gibler has devoted
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a good bit of attention in recent years. Mr. Gibler's place is located in Sections 8, 9 and 10 of Warren township, and lies two miles north of the town of Bippus and ten miles northwest of Huntington, so that he is provided with a ready market at his hand at all times.
Clear Creek township, Huntington county, was the birthplace of Marvin O. Gibler, and his natal day was March 31, 1873. He is a son of Elias and Delilah (Shanks) Gibler, the father and mother also having been born in Clear Creek township. The family is one that was for a good many generations located in Pennsylvania, and the paternal grand- sire of Mr. Gibler of this review came to Indiana from his native state in young manhood, continuing as a resident of Clear Creek township until two years prior to his passing, dying in South Whitely, Indiana. His wife lived to the age of ninety.
Elias Gibler had one son,-Marvin O. of this review, and he was reared in Clear Creek township on what was known as the old Alex Gibler farm. He attended the common schools of the community as a boy, and when he quitted his studies there he turned his whole attention to farming. He was married at the early age of nineteen years, Sarah Rose being united in marriage with him on October 15, 1892. She was a native of Warren township and a daughter of William and Rebecca Rose, and was reared in the community of her birth, there attending the schools that were provided. For a time after their marriage they lived in Clear Creek township, coming to Warren township in 1902 and here purchasing the Thomas Bolinger farm. Mr. Gibler has made many improvements in the place since it came into his possession, building a fine barn in 1911 and remodeling the house in 1912, so that it is now one of the comfortable and commodious farm dwellings in the township.
Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gibler. Mabel is a graduate of the Bippus high school and is now living at home. Walter is attending the Bippus high school, and Lucile is yet a student in the graded schools of the town. The family are members of the Evangelical Lutheran church, and Mr. Gibler is a Republican, though not an active worker in the field of politics. He is a man of many excellent traits of character and has a splendid standing with his fellow men.
MATTHIAS S. MYERS. Closely identified with the agricultural inter- ests of Huntington county, Matthias S. Myers is profitably engaged in general farming in Jefferson township. Mr. Myers is widely known as proprietor of the Avondale Farm, which with its improvements, its excellent management, and its regularity of production stands as one of the best examples of that agricultural district.
A native of Ohio, Matthias S. Myers was born July 24, 1841, in Fairfield county, coming on both sides of the house from thrifty German ancestry. His father, Michael Myers, was born and reared in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where his parents settled on coming from Ger- many to America. In 1834 he migrated with his family to Fairfield county, Ohio, where he bought land, and was afterwards diligently em- ployed in tilling the soil until his death. He married, in Bucks county,
G Maud Myers,
M. S. Myers.
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Pennsylvania, Rachel Kratz, who was born in that county, and died on the home farm in Fairfield county, Ohio. Eleven children were born of their marriage, six of whom were living in 1914, as follows: Emeline ; Erwin C .; Matthias S .; Hannah, wife of John Hansberger; John and Albert.
Brought up on the parental farm, Matthias S. Myers attended the district school throughout the days of his boyhood and youth. Having good mental ability he was given excellent educational advantages, fitting himself for a teacher. In 1862 he came to Jefferson township in Hunt- ington county, and for two terms taught successfully there, beginning in 1866. When ready to settle permanently in life, Mr. Myers purchased his present farm of sixty acres, which is advantageously located in the northeast quarter of Section 23, Jefferson township, being one mile north, and two miles west, of Warren on the Lewis gravel road.
Mr. Myers married January 23, 1868, Elsie Corey. Her father, Stephen Corey, a native of New York state, was married in Rush county, Indiana, to Mary Downard, who was born in Kentucky, and in 1838 they located in Grant county, Indiana, where their daughter Elsie was edu- cated. Mrs. Elsie Myers died in 1884, while yet in the prime of life, leaving three children, namely: Lewis J. of Huntington; Lelah Elsie, formerly a school teacher, and now the wife of Henry Schwob of Clear Creek township; and Arthur C., also a school teacher, of Jefferson township, who married Mary Shideler.
Mr. Myers married for his second wife, December 24, 1885, America M. Everett, who was born in Hancock county, Indiana, and educated in the Greenfield schools and the Indiana Central Normal College at Dan- ville. She subsequently taught school in Hancock county for seven years and in Huntington county for three years, having been eminently successful as a teacher. Her father was Harmon Everett, who was a first cousin to Edward Everett and related to Edward Everett Hale and Helen Keller. Harmon Everett's father came to Indiana in the early thirties, locating in South Bend, and, a carpenter and contractor by trade, constructed the first bridge across the St. Joseph river at South Bend. He afterwards moved to Hancock county, Indiana, where he died at the age of eighty-five years.
Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Myers, namely : Nellie Kate, the oldest, who was graduated from the Warren high school and has completed a course of study at the Indiana State Normal School, is teaching in the Christman school, Jefferson township; E. Everett, a graduate of the Warren high school and formerly principal of the Union Township high school, is now a student in the Indiana State Normal School; Irma Gladys, who was graduated from the War- ren high school, is now teaching in the graded schools of Clear Creek township.
Mr. and Mrs. Myers arc faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Warren, in which he has served as class leader for over forty years. Fraternally M. Myers is a member and past grand of Salamonia Lodge No. 392, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; a member of the
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Grand Lodge, and has attended the Sovereign Grand Lodge; is a mem- ber and past chief patriarch of Warren Encampment No. 265, at War- ren, Indiana, and has represented that Encampment at the Grand En- campment. Both Mr. and Mrs. Myers are members of the Rebekah Lodge at Warren. An active worker in the Republican ranks, Mr. Myers takes an intelligent interest in local and county politics, and has served as a delegate to various county conventions. Mr. and Mrs. Myers are held in the highest regard as neighbors, friends and citizens through- out the community in which they reside, their many sterling traits of character and correct moral principles winning the respect of all.
JOHN H. SELL. The sturdy German stock has many representatives in Huntington county, and John H. Sell is in the second generation of a German family, though he himself is American born and a native of the township and county in which he now has his home. Mr. Sell is a farmer, but has accumulated much property and business interests through his effective management and is proprietor of the Eric Fairview Farm, comprising one hundred and twenty acres in section twenty-eight, and adjoining the town of Bippus on the west.
Mr. Sell was born on that farm, April 14, 1870, a son of Felix and Caroline (Brodbeck) Sell. His father died in 1909, but his mother is still living. Ilis father was a native of Germany, and his mother of Pennsylvania, both being of German stock. The father came to the United States with his parents when two years old, and the family were among the carly settlers in Huntington county. Of eight children in the family seven are still living, mentioned as follows: Mary, wife of Frank Rickard; Emma, wife of Fred Spath; John H .; Ida, wife of John Voght; Clara, wife of Jacob Urschel; George, a farmer in Wabash county ; Teresa, wife of Philip Schenkel.
Mr. John H. Sell grew up on the old farm in Warren township, was reared.in a home of substantial comfort, though with no luxury, and went through the usual discipline of farmer boys in that vicinity, attend- ing school during the winter, and assisting in the plowing and planting and other farm work during the summer months.
In 1893 Mr. Sell married Miss Sarah Eberhart, who was born in Wabash county, and like her husband received a common school educa- tion. After their marriage Mr. Sell was employed in a sawmill at Bippus, and then engaged in farming on his present place. He and his wife have become the parents of six children, mentioned briefly as follows: Lulu M., born September 14, 1894, and a graduate of the common schools ; William E., born August 4, 1896, a graduate of the grade schools and . of Bippus high school; Iva I., born February 4, 1898, now a student in high school ; Harmon L., born August 11, 1900; Edward A., born Febru- ary 29, 1904; Woodrow W., born July 15, 1913.
As the name of his last child would indicate, Mr. Sell is a loyal Demo- crat, and an enthusiastic admirer of the now incumbent president of the United States. He has served in the office of deputy assessor in Warren township, in 1910 was elected a member of the township advisory board,
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and in 1914 was appointed trustee of Warren township. Mr. Sell is a director in the Bippus State Bank, and as a general farmer and stock raiser carries on a flourishing industry on his land. He and his family are members of the German Evangelical church at Bippus, and he is one of its deacons.
JACOB WETTERS is one of the farmers of Huntington county, and one whose success has been won entirely as the result of his own well directed efforts. He had very little capital when he started in life at the age of twenty-one, and his subsequent accumulations has placed him among the substantial citizens of Warren township. Mr. Wetters is owner of one of the fine farms in that township, known as the Pine Grove Farm, con- sisting of eighty acres and located three miles east of Bippus and six and a half miles northwest of Huntington, in section twenty-four. It is a splendidly improved farm, but Mr. Wetters also has one hundred and thirty-five acres situated in Clear Creek township. Nearly all this farm property represents his individual accumulation, since he and lis wife started out more than forty years ago.
Mr. Wetters belongs to one of the older families of Huntington county. He was himself born in Wayne county, Ohio, February 5, 1842, a son of Jacob and Kingold (Howenstine) Wetters. Both parents were natives of Germany, where they were married and came to America and after some time spent in Ohio moved to Huntington county, Indiana, in the year 1842, soon after the birth of their son Jacob. They located in Warren township, and stayed there until their death. The father, who was a member of the Lutheran church, was a quiet man in his rela- tions with the community but possessed a reputation for honesty and integrity, and was one of the original Republican voters in this town- ship. There were seven children and six are now living, as follows : Maria, widow of Jacob Kettering, of Huntington; Jacob; William, a farmer of Warren township; Lizzie, wife of Peter Michel of Warren township; Henry of Bippus; Anna, wife of Christ Walters of Wabash county.
Jacob Wetters was reared in Warren township, and his education was supplied by the district schools of the character which could be found in this county fifty and sixty years ago. His home was with his father until he was twenty-one years of age, and as already stated he began on practically nothing.
In 1869 he married Charlotte A. Rice of Wayne county, Ohio. Mr. Wetters and wife have two living children: William F. Wetters of Clear Creek township; and John Wetters of the same township.
The family worship at the Lutheran church at Funk. In politics he is a republican, and has taken considerable part in township and county affairs.
GEORGE D. ELLIS is numbered among those who in recent years have contributed to the agricultural growth, development and importance in Huntington county, and at this time is cultivating a handsome property
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in Rock Creek township. He has spent his entire life in this community and his activities have not alone placed him among the substantial farmers of the county, but have been carried on in such a straightforward manner as to gain the respect and esteem of those with whom he has been brought into contact. Mr. Ellis was born in Lancaster township, Huntington county, Indiana, April 18, 1874, and is a son of Clinton C. and Mary E. (McGovney) Ellis.
Clinton C. Ellis was born in Adams county, Ohio, and came to Hunt- ington county, Indiana, in young manhood. He became the proprietor of a drug business at Mount Etna, and was also the owner of a hand- some farn in Lancaster township. He was a man of industry and energy, and accumulated a competency through honorable dealing. Mr. Ellis passed away February 19, 1910, while the mother still survives and makes her home in Majenica. They were the parents of six chil- dren, of whom five survive: Belle, who is the wife of J. C. Kitch, of Huntington, Indiana; William L., a resident of Lancaster township; J. F., also of Lancaster township; Ella, who is deceased; George D .; and Jesse, of Huntington.
George D. Ellis was born on the old family farm in Lancaster town- ship, and was there reared to manhood, his education being secured dur- ing the winter terms in the district schools, which he attended until reaching the age of eighteen years. He continued at home as his father's assistant until he was twenty-three years of age, and at that time, Sep- tember 4, 1897, was married to Miss Sarah E. Fist, who was born and reared in Lancaster township and educated in the public schools and the Huntington high school. After their marriage they moved to Rock Creek township and settled on the farm on which they now reside, a tract of 160 acres of excellent land which has been brought to a high state of cultivation. To be recognized as a useful and constructive citi- zen of a community in these modern days of intelligent competition means something, and that a citizen is so brought forward is usually disclosed by investigation to mean that he possesses abilities and quali- fications of a high order. Mr. Ellis is known as a progressive and ener- getic citizen, who has the welfare of his community at heart, and as a business man whose dealings have ever been of a strictly legitimate char- acter. He has shown much interest in stockraising, and in this line has won a full measure of prosperity.
Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ellis, namely: Edna, a graduate of the common schools and now a student in the Rock Creek Center High school; Walter, twelve years of age, and Martin, eight years old, the latter two attending the graded schools. The members of the family attend the Methodist Episcopal church at Majenica, Mr. Ellis being a member of the board of trustees thereof. He is a democrat in his political views, but has not cared to enter public life, preferring to devote his entire time and attention to his agricultural activities. Diligent and persevering in all his labors, he has brought himself to a high place in the community in which he has made his home for so long, and is entitled to the respect and esteem in which he is universally held.
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CHARLES W. MEYER. That Huntington county has been prominent in agriculture during recent years is due not to the labors of one man or group of men, but to the aggregate endeavor of many. Among those who have been leaders in this work and have pushed forward the wheels of progress is Charles W. Meyer, a representative agriculturist and highly esteemed citizen of Rock Creek township, who is the owner of 173 acres of land and is proud of the fact that he has accumulated all of it through the force of his own well-directed efforts. He has been a resident of his present community since 1901, and during this time has identified himself with every movement calculated to benefit his com- munity, the welfare of which he has ever held at heart. Mr. Meyer was born in Tipton county, Indiana, on February 28, 1864, and is a son of Charles F. and Margaret (Wygant) Meyer.
Charles F. Meyer was born in Germany and as a young man emi- grated to the United States, believing that in this country could be found greater opportunities for success. Here he met and married Margaret Wygant, who had come to the United States in young woman- hood, and they began housekeeping in Tipton county where Mr. Meyer continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits until the time of his death in 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Meyer were the parents of seven children, of whom six are living: Henry, who is the owner of a farm in Lan- caster township; John, living at Tipton, Indiana; Matilda, who is the wife of Joseph Glass, of Elwood, Indiana; Charles W .; Emma, who is the wife of William Wymer, of Tipton county, Indiana; and William, also of Tipton county.
Charles W. Meyer was born in the family homestead in Tipton county, and grew up a farmer, his boyhood being passed much in the same manner as that of other farmers' sons of his day and vicinity. The long summer months were spent in the tasks pertaining to the operation of the home farm, and during the short winter terms the lad attended the district schools, this latter training being later supplemented by attendance at the high school. He remained under the parental roof until he was twenty-three years of age, at which time he began agri- cultural operations on his own account. He was married in 1890 to Miss Emma Schall, who was born and reared in Tipton county and educated in the common schools. In 1901 Mr. Meyer sold his farm in Tipton county and came to Huntington county, purchasing his present property of 173 acres, section 18, Rock Creek township. This he has brought up to a high state of cultivation and has improved it with numerous build- ings, including the handsome country residence, built by Mr. Meyer in 1909 and finished in quarter sawed oak. He is a general farmer and is known to be progressive, enterprising and industrious, and, although a quiet, unassuming man, exerts a distinct influence for good in his com- munity. In politics he is a democrat, but public life has held out no attractions to him, and he has been content to devote his energies to the successful tilling of his land. Fraternally, he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Warren, Indiana, and the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks at Huntington. His religious belief is that of the Lutheran church, and Mrs. Meyer is a Methodist.
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Mr. and Mrs. Meyer have one daughter, Opal Ruth, a graduate of the public schools and now the wife of Clive W. Summers, who is assist- ing his father-in-law in the cultivation of the farm.
DAVID CHAMNESS. After a long and honorable career spent in agri- enltural pursuits, David Chamness is spending his declining years at his comfortable home, located one-half mile south of the city of Andrews, in Dallas township. He is a veteran of the great Civil war, and whether in war or in peace he has always shown himself an upright, loyal and useful citizen. He was born in Wayne county, Indiana, March 14, 1841, and is a son of William and Mahalia (Heaston) Chamness. His mother, a sister of Israel H. Heaston, of Huntington, Indiana, was born in Ohio, but came to Indiana as a child with her parents and grew to womanhood in Wayne county, where she met and married Mr. Chamness. Mr. Chamness was a native of North Carolina, and after his marriage removed to Wayne county, where he met an accidental death, following which she was married to Benjamin Kauffman, the father of J. H. Kanff- man, of Andrews, Indiana.
David Chanmess was reared by his stepfather and secured his educa- tion in the public school. He was brought up a farmer, and during the Civil war became a soldier in the Union army, enlisting July 4, 1863, in Company F, One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment, Indiana Vohmteer Infantry, from Wabash county, which organization saw active service in several hard-fought engagements. At the expiration of his term of service, Mr. Chamness received his honorable discharge and returned to his native county, where he again engaged in tilling the soil. He has been married three times, his first two wives living but a short time after their marriage. On December 29, 1866, he married Susan Jones, who was born in Randolph county, Indiana, in 1845, and removed with her parents to Wells county in December, 1846, the family settling on a farm in Chester township. There Mrs. Chamness received her education in the public schools and resided at home until her marriage. Nine children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Chamness, of whom eight are living at this time : Alma, who became the wife of Tobias MeClintock: Catherine, who is the wife of John P. Shutt, of Lancaster township, this county : John, who married Mrs. Stech: Cary, who married Ella Lantz; William, who married Mary Gehris; Mahalia, who is the wife of Charles Losson ; JJames, who married Zelda Poulson, and resides in Wells county ; and Mary E., who is the wife of George Miller, of Dallas township.
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