USA > Indiana > Miami County > History of Miami County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 25
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On October 6, 1896, occurred the marriage of Mr. Newman and Miss Emma J. Guard, daughter of William Guard, of New Waverly, Cass county, Indiana, and to this union there have been born five children, as follows: Katharine Pearl, born November 26, 1897; William Byron, born December 15, 1900; Mildred Pauline, born January 28, 1904; Vernice Caroline, born March 23, 1907; and Edna Lucile, born Feb- ruary 15, 1910. In his political proclivities, Mr. Newman is a republican, but has never been an aspirant for personal preferment in public life, his ambitions having been satisfied by his farming operations. For some years he has been connected with the local lodge of the Masonic fra- ternity. As a citizen, as an agriculturist, as a friend and as a neighbor he has faithfully performed the duties of life, and for this reason is entitled to a place among the representative men of his community.
DR. LAUGHLIN O'NEAL MALSBURY has been identified with the med- ical profession in Peru and this county since the early nineties, coming here soon after he had finished his medical training. He is one of the successful and prominent men of the profession in the county, and has a worthy place in the community in which his skill has been applied for the past twenty years.
Dr. Malsbury was born in Grant county, Indiana, on August 27, 1867, and is a son of Jacob and Helen (Dunn) Malsbury. The father was born in New Jersey and in his younger days came to Grant county, locating on a piece of wild land, which he in the course of time reclaimed and developed. He made his home on that place until death called him in 1875. Death called the mother in 1892.
Of the seven children of his parents, Laughlin O'Neal Malsbury was the youngest born, five of the number being alive today, and one of them, a sister, Sarah C., being a teacher in the East Main street school in Peru, and a brother, Jacob O., who is nine years older than the sub- ject, has also been practicing medicine here. As a boy Laughlin O'Neal Malsbury attended the Somerset schools, graduating from the Somerset high school, and he grew to manhood on the home farm. His public school training was followed by a literary training in the Northern Indiana Normal, passing four summer terms there and teaching in the winter seasons to defray his college expenses. It was upon the advice of Dr. Laughlin O'Neal, the family physician of the Malsbury's located at Somerset, Indiana, for whom young Malsbury was named, that he was induced to train himself for the medical profession. He entered the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, now known as the Uni- versity of Louisville, matriculating there in February, 1890, and in 1891 he was duly graduated with the degree of M. D. Succeeding this he attended the New York Post Graduate Schools where he took a special course in the diseases of women and children, and in 1892 he came to
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Peru as house surgeon for the Wabash Railway Hospital, under the supervision of Dr. Carter B. Higgens. One year later, the young doctor, fortificd by this experience, established himself in independent practice in the town of Peru, and here for the past twenty years he has been in continuous activity in his professional capacity.
In addition to his private practice, Dr. Malsbury is connected pro- fessionally with a number of local concerns, among which may be men- tioned the Metropolitan, Equitable and Manhattan Life Insurance com- panies, for whom he is medical examiner, and has been for some years. He also holds the same relative position with the Bankers' Life of Iowa, the Washington Life, the Provident Life & Trust Company, the Phoenix Life, the Reserve Loan Life and the Public Savings Company. He is official surgeon for the Union Traction Company, the Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana Traction Company and the Winona Traction Com- pany, all of which, in conjunction with a wide private practice along general lines, make him one of the busiest medical men in the county.
Dr. Malsbury is a member of the Miami County and the Indiana State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association. In his professional capacity he has also given public service as secretary of the Board of Health of Peru, which office he now holds.
A Republican in his political convictions, Dr. Malsbury has in his own quiet way been identified with local affairs in the government of the city and county. For six years he was commendably connected with the school board of Peru as a member and it was during that service that the Seventh Street school was built, as well as the public library, both of which have added not a little to the status of the town.
Although Dr. Malsbury is and has always been a Republican in poli- tics, he with others of the city formed a Citizens City Ticket for the pur- pose of selecting city officers for the city. A ticket was formed in Octo- ber, 1913, being composed of Republicans, Progressives and Democrats. Dr. Malsbury was selected as the candidate for Councilman for the Sec- ond Ward of the city which polled eighty-six Democratic. He was opposed by a Democratic candidate and a Socialist candidate as well as by members of the Republican party, who claimed to have been disfran- chised, but nevertheless Dr. Malsbury was elected by one hundred and eighty-two votes on November 4, 1913, and took his office January 5, 1914, as councilman of the Second ward. In addition to his professional con- nections in Peru, Dr. Malsbury is represented in a fraternal way by his membership in the Masonic Order, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree, and has membership in Mizpah Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, while his churchly relations are maintained as a member of the Presbyterian church of Peru.
CHARLES FRED FITE. In a business directory of Miami county, Mr. Fite would be mentioned as a postmaster and in the insurance business at Denver. A directory is often a very defective guide to the important interests and attainments of a man, as in this instance. Probably no resident of Miami county has contributed more extensively in practical acquisitions to the field of natural science than Mr. Fite. He is dis- tinguished for his ardent love of all creatures in forest and field, has been both a discovered and collector, and as an ornithologist ranks among the leading authorities on bird life in the country.
Brown county, Ohio, was the birthplace of Charles Fred Fite, born in that locality, December 6, 1850, one of five children, two of whom are now living. Their parents were Andrew J. and Lavina (Bingamon)
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Fite, both natives of Ohio, and both descended from German stoek. Andrew J. Fite followed carpentry as a trade, and from him Charles F. Fite learned that oeeupation which he followed for a number of years, and thus acquired a liking for exaet meehanies.
As a boy he had opportunity to acquire only a limited edueation, sinee his time was principally occupied with farm work. In 1858 the family located in Madison county, Indiana, settling in the woods. There Mr. Fite lived until manhood, and followed the earpenter's trade for some years. In 1872 he transferred his residence and occupation to Galveston in Cass county, where he remained for about one year. From Cass county he came to Miami county, spending thirteen years in the eity of Peru, during seven of which he was employed in the Howe factory, two years as a police officer and four years in selling nursery, stoek. He has been a resident of Denver since 1885, and for several years continued as a nursery stock salesman. In 1889 he was appointed postmaster of Denver, serving four and a half years under the Harrison administration, then being relieved by President Cleveland. Under President Roose- velt in 1906 he was again appointed to the office, and has held the posi- tion to the present time. In 1901 Mr. Fite began writing insurance, and has continued in this line ever since.
By instinet and also by self-training, he has always been a naturalist. He has loved ever since his boyhood the open, and wandering in the woods and field has always been his greatest delight. He has skilled himself in the observation of the life and habits of insects, animals and especially of birds. This pursuit of knowledge among wild life led him to the study of taxidermi, and gradually he began aetive praetiee in preserving in his cabinet specimens of such rare animate life as he could capture or procure. Of late years the greater part of his attention has been devoted to science. In his researches he has been led into many remote quarters of America, including different portions of Canada. He is a skillful rifle shot, but is not a hunter in the ordinary sense for the sake of killing or for the flesh of fowl, but takes particular interest in hunting game in order to better understand its nature and habits. He has killed specimens of nearly all the large game in America, ineluding elks, deer, bear, wolves, mountain lions, and with the exeeption of the grizzly bear, has practically proeured a representative of every individ -* ual in the larger animal creation whose habitat is in America. In addi- tion to his own work he has been called upon to preserve the skins of lions, tigers, leopards, and almost every animal known to the American menagerie.
As already mentioned Mr. Fite is a particular authority on bird life. IIe has taken his greatest pleasure in following and observing the habits of this department of the animal kingdom and there is probably no naturalist in Indiana, who is better informed on bird lore than Mr. Fite. One of his valuable discoveries was the unearthing of an almost perfect tusk of the prehistorie beaver, so elassified by the specialists at Earlham College. This tusk was found across the line of Miami county near Mud Lake in Fulton county. He has also discovered the remains of two mastodons in Miami county, one in Perry township and one in Union township near Deedsville. The latter was almost perfeet but very few bones being missing and even the cartilage holding the joints together being yet undissolved by time and deeay. This splendidly pre- served speeimen is now in the publie museum of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mr. Fite has also been a collector of coins, eggs, butterflies, moths, ete.
Mr. Fite is a Republican in polities, and a member of the Masonie and Independent Order of Odd Fellows fraternities. In 1871 he mar- ried Miss Ruth Stevens at Galveston, Indiana .. Their one son is William A., a minister of the Christian church, whose home is now in Paduean,
COUNTRY RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. PHILIP MILLER "PINE GRANGE"
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Kentucky. For his second wife Mr. Fite married Harriet Jones. No children were born to this union. His third and present wife had the maiden name of Pearl M. Rhodes, and they are the parents of six chil- dren, namely : Fred Marcus, Charles Andrew, Opal May, Virgil Roose- velt, Claude Taft and Esther Alice.
PHILIP MILLER. One of the' citizens of Miami county, who began his career in a log-cabin home, labored with courage and industry to develop a wilderness of forest into a broad landscape of farms, and have subsequently reaped the rewards of such diligence in ample mater- ial prosperity, is Philip Miller, now a resident of the little village of Miami in Deer Creek township. Mr. Miller has lived in this county for more than sixty-five years, and that in itself constitutes a distinction among the living residents of this county. Since the settlement of the Miller family here, in the late forties, there have been successively intro- duced the railroad and the telegraph, the numerous other improvements in method of communication and transportation, and a vast number of facilities and comforts such as were hardly dreamed of when Philip Miller was a boy in the old pioneer home in the southern part of Miami county. He himself can remember when it required two days to make the journey from their old home to Peru, and the old road which they then followed led through the dense woods, the streams had to be forded, oxen were used to haul the wagons, and it was a very important improve- ment for the community when the citizens got together and put up small wooden bridges over some of the streams.
Philip Miller was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, May 19, 1837, a son of Jacob and Nancy (Pratt) Miller. The mother's people were from Pennsylvania. Jacob Miller and family came to the west and located { in Miami county in 1848, spending the first winter in the settlement of Bunker Hill, in an old cabin. Later they secured a farm and resided there for nine years. The father died in Ohio and soon after coming to this county, the mother married for her second husband Joseph Lari- mer, who died several years ago.
The family was in rather poor circumstances and the early death of the father added to the burden which Philip Miller had to bear at an early age. In this state of affairs he remained at home and contributed to the support of his mother and family throughout his early youth, and on the death of his mother he continued on the old homestead which had only been rented, and by his own frugal thrift and industry paid for it and became its owner. « By a life of honorable dealings and con- tinued industry he has enjoyed a considerable degree of material pros- perity, and when he retired some years ago from active farm life he owned ninety acres, which was improved in the manner of twentieth cen- tury agricultural methods, and with some excellent modern buildings. He himself had done nearly all the clearing and it continued to be his home until 1897. He then sold the original place and bought an adjoin- ing farm of eighty acres which he still owns. However, at that time he and his family moved to Kokomo and from there came to Miami and have since lived in his attractive old home in this village.
Mr. Philip Miller served in the army as a Union soldier and was a member of Company A of the Thirty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He went out from this county in August, 1861, and on the 7th of April, 1862, was wounded at Pittsburg Landing having his left arm shot off, so that he was incapacitated and was given an honorable discharge. For a number of years he was one of the active members of the local G. A. R. Post.
Mr. Miller was first married in 1865 to Miss Amanda J. Wilson, who
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died in 1874. They were the parents of one child, John L. Miller, who married Ida Poff. In 1875 Mr. Miller married Miss Elizabeth Weaver. Mrs. Miller represents an old family in Miami county, since her father David S. Weaver, came here in 1857. The Weaver home was a log cabin of two rooms and it was in this rude shelter that the family spent the first six years in this county. The father subsequently put up a comfortable frame house and added increasing improvements and facili- ties up to the time of his death in 1888 at Bunker Hill. When the Weaver family first settled in this vicinity the land was all covered with timber, and enough space had to be cleared from the dense wood and the thickets of underbrush before the cabin could be erected and before any land could be sown to crops. The mother of Mrs. Miller died about ten years ago. \ Two of her brothers served in the army, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington Weaver. Mr. and Mrs. Miller attend the German Baptist church. Mr. Miller was for three terms of two years each, assessor for Deer Creek township and for the past sixteen years has been a notary public. He has lived throughout his life according to the principles which make for upright characters, and has always enjoyed the respect which is paid to a useful and worthy member of the community. The country residence of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Miller is known as "Pine Grange." -
CHARLES W. LONG. One of the prominent citizens of Jefferson town- ship, now residing at the town of Denver, Mr. Charles W. Long has spent all his career in Miami county, and belongs to one of the families which identified themselves with this section when all the country was new.
Charles W. Long was born in Richland township, May 26, 1866, and was a son of Charles M. and Cynthia Abigail (Griswold) Long. The career of Charles M. Long, one of the venerable pioneers of Richland township, is given at proper length on other pages of this work. The nine children in the family of the parents were as follows: Clara, de- ceased; Maggie, wife of Alonzo Cunningham of Richland township; Archibald J., of Richland township; Effic, deceased; Charles W., Ina, widow of the late Nathan Fouts; John Foster, of Richland township; Uly C., of Richland township; Witty Chester, of Richland township.
Charles W. Long was reared on the home farm, was educated in the public school, completing his training at Denver. He started out for himself at the age of twenty-one in 1887. After getting some independ- ent experience he was married on February 16, 1888, to Miss Myrtle Brower, who was born October 10, 1868, a daughter of Joseph and Samantha O. (Kirby) Brower. From the time of his marriage until the fall of 1908, Mr. Long was actively identified with farming enterprise, and in that time provided well for his family, and accumulated a sub- stantial property. In that year he moved to Denver, and has since been engaged in the stock business and giving general supervision to his farm. He owns 95.86 acres in Richland township. The three children born to his first marriage are: Lyman Russell, Victor H., and Willis L. The mother, who was an active member of the Methodist church died March 1, 1904. On June 12, 1905, Mr. Long married Miss Sylvia Brower, a sister of his first wife. Mrs. Long was born July 10, 1881, and she is the seventh in a family of ten children, three sons and seven daughters, born to her parents. There are seven living. Father Brower was a native of Indiana, Miami county, and he was a farmer and also a member of the Dunkard Church. He was a successful man and a Republican. He died in Miami county. Mother Brower was a native of Miami county and she was a member of the Dunkard Church and a
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resident of Denver, Indiana. Mrs. Long was educated in the common schools and was reared in Miami county. She is a member of the Meth- odist church and also of the Ladies Aid Society of her church. She is an able factor in the establishment of their beautiful home in Denver. She is a model housekeeper and her pretty home is the welcome haven of their many friends. Her brothers and sisters living are: Deo O., a resident of Miami county and an agriculturist. He married Miss Jerusha Kenley and they have two sons, Ivan and Avery. They are members of the United Brethren Church. Benjamin is a resident of Miami and he is an agriculturist. He married Miss Rena Fouts and has one son, Farrell. He is a member of the Progress church. Nettie, a resident of Peru, Ind. She is a modiste. She is a member of the Christian church. Mrs. Long is next in order of birth. Ethel is the wife of Geo. Sullivan, a resident of Peru, and timekeeper of the Model Gas Engine Co. They have two children, Joseph and Robert. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan are members of the Baptist church. Katharine is the wife of Samuel Coffman, a resident of Ripley, Tennessee, and they have one little son, Marshall Brower. Ruth is the wife of Lester Hait, a resident of Peru, Ind.
In the campaign of 1912 Mr. Long voted with the Progressive party. He and his wife are members of the Methodist church, and he is pres- ident of the Denver Commercial Club, a position which indicates his public spirit, and his desire to serve his community in every way that he can to advance its general welfare.
HENRY LEWIS. The president of the Farmers Bank of Denver, since its organization, Mr. Lewis is one of the those men in whom a community places its confidence by reason of tried integrity and long and successful management in business affairs. Mr. Lewis has him- self been a farmer during the greater part of his career, and has lived in this section of Miami county for more than half a century, since his childhood.
His birthplace was in Wayne county, Indiana, where he was born January 29, 1850, one of the ten children, seven of whom are now liv- ing; born to the marriage of Samuel Lewis and Mary Matchet Lewis. The father was a native of Indiana, and the mother of Virginia. Samuel Lewis being left an orphan at an early age was bound out to a Dunk- ard preacher, who combined farming with his spiritual vocation. With this minister and family he continued making his home until his mar- riage, after which he followed the cooper's trade in Hagerstown, Indi- ana, for a livelihood, but finally bought forty acres of land near that town, establishing his home there and taking up farming as his regular vocation. Subsequently he moved to another farm, and in 1856 in the month of April came across the country in a covered wagon, which sheltered his wife and family and many of their household goods to Miami county, purchasing a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Richland township about half a mile east of the present site of Denver. This property was sold to Mr. Lewis by Eli Freestone.
On that estate Samuel Lewis continued to live engaged in farming and improving its possibilities and resources until his death, which occurred May 7, 1872, when he was fifty-six years of age. Samuel Lewis was a man of but ordinary education, owing to the circumstances of his boyhood, but was throughout his career an eager rcader, and by all his circle of acquaintances was considered an unusually well informed man. He was brought up in the Dunkard religious faith, and always respected and gave his preference to that sect, though he was a mem- ber of no religious organization. His most marked characteristics were
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his untiring industry, his temperate habits, and his general upright- ness of moral life and character. It is a noteworthy fact that he always abstained from the use of intoxicants and tobacco in any form. He was a man whose life was a credit to the county, and to such men the present generation owes a debt of gratitude. His wife survived him many years, passing away in 1905 at the age of eighty-five.
Henry Lewis, who has proved a worthy successor of his honored father, was only six years of age when the family came to Miami county. As a boy he assisted in the work of the home farm during the summer season, and as opportunity offered attended the neighbor- ing district schools. When his father's death occurred he at once took charge of the home place, and continued its operation until November, 1906. In that year he moved into Denver, and has made his home in that thriving little village of Miami county. He became one of the group of farmers and business men in this vicinity who organized the Farmers Bank of Denver, and when the organization was completed he was the choice of the others for the office of president, and has directed the management of the bank from its beginning. · It is a sub- stantial institution, and in its deposits and general resources is an index to the fine prosperity existing in this portion of Miami county.
Mr. Lewis is a Republican in politics, and in 1896 was the nominee of his party for the office of county commissioner. The normal Dem- ocratic majority at that time ran from five to six hundred, and when it is stated he was defeated by only nine votes, his strength as a citizen and popularity are illustrated more graphically than by any other means. Mr. Lewis at the present time besides his interest in the bank at Denver, is the owner of two hundred and seventy acres of land in Miami county, but for several years has not been actively identified with farm work.
He was married May 20, 1887, to Miss Josephine Cool, a daughter of Powell Cool, a farmer of Union township. To their marriage has been born one son, Edgar. He was educated in the common schools and the Dodge School of Telegraphy, of Valparaiso, Ind., and after a year or two spent with a railroad he was one of the instructors in that school. He wedded Miss Harriett Wright, and resides in Denver, Indiana, and he manages his father's farm. He is a member of the Baptist church and his wife of the Church of The Brethren.
Mrs. Josephine Lewis was born in Miami township, Miami county, October 12, 1857, the youngest of six children, three sons and three daughters, born to her parents. The eldest is Christopher, a resident of Los Angeles, California, and a mechanic and is married. Emiline is the wife of Job Smith, a resident of Cass county, Indiana. Jonathan is a resident of Carman, Oklahoma, and he is an agriculturist and is married. Angie is the wife of James Hallecke, a resident of Rochester, New York, and an insurance man. Ira is deceased. Mrs. Lewis is next in order of birth. Her father was a native of New York and was a farmer. He was reared in his native state until young manhood and educated in the common and high schools. He located in Union town- ship, Miami county, near the Weasaw Baptist church and he came here in 1839. He was a Whig and Republican. Both he and his wife were members of the Baptist church and he was one of the charter members. He died in 1877, aged sixty-two years. Mrs. Cool was also a native of New York and came to Miami county in 1838, when she was sixteen years of age. Bear, deer, panthers and wolves as well as plenty of Indians were here at that time. She died in 1905, aged eighty-four years. Mrs. Josephine Lewis was educated in the common schools of
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