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 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
Dr. Reynolds was born in New York State at Buffalo, on February 22, 1842, a son of George Warren and Mary (Hughes) Reynolds. He had already taken up the study of medicine, but when the war came on, he enlisted from New York State, and on being sent to the front was as- signed as a steward in the Union hospital at Knoxville, Tennessee. He remained in active service until the close of the war, for three years, being mustered out in 1865. His older brother was General John F. Reynolds, who lost his life on the battle field of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. After the war Dr. Reynolds continued the study of medicine and was graduated from Rush Medical College of Chicago in 1872. He then, located for practice in Chicago, and acquired a position hardly second among his contemporaries. For a number of years he was pro- fessor of physical diagnosis and diseases of the chest in the Rush Medical College. Dr. Reynolds was as well known in social and fra- ternal circles as in his profession. He was a thirty-second degree Mason, was active in the Grand Army of the Republic, was a member of the Sons of New York Club, and affiliated with the Order of Foresters, the Knights and Ladies of Honor and the Good Templars. He had mem- bership in the Fox River Valley Medical Society, and was president of the Lake View Building & Loan Association for eighteen years. Dr. Reynolds and wife had two children, but both died in infancy.
The body of Dr. Reynolds was brought to Peru for interment, and
---
"REYNOLDS REST"
RESIDENCE OF MRS. GEORGE W. REYNOLDS, MIAMI COUNTY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1913
Dr. George WReynolds
Mors George W.Reynolds
467
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
he now rests in the beautiful cemetery near this eity. A monument of white Carrara marble, seulptured in Italy, and proeured by Mrs. Rey- nolds, now marks the site of the family lot in Peru.
Sinee her husband's death, Mrs. Reynolds has established at 582 W. Main Street in Peru, the beautiful home known as Reynolds Rest, this place being opened on April 14, 1910. Mrs. Reynolds was born Septem- ber 25, 1855, at the corner of Fifth and Hood Streets in Peru in the old Struble home, a daughter of Phillip and Barbara (Friesaunse) Struble. Among the other reminders of the Struble family in this county was the old Struble school house a noted eenter of social and other gatherings in Washington township in its time and named for the Struble family. Mrs. Reynolds is a cousin of John and George Struble and Melkie Struble, and of Mrs. Barbara Daniels, all of whom are prominent families of Washington township. She was also a cousin of Jacob Betsner, formerly a well known groeery man of Peru. She is also a cousin of Sister Rose Cecile of St. Mary of the Woods at Terre Haute. Mrs. Reynolds was reared in Indianapolis, and after her mar- riage moved to Chicago, where she and her husband had a beautiful home on Washington Boulevard. In Chieago Mrs. Reynolds was well known as a club woman, was an offieer in Lady Washington Chapter No. 28, Order Eastern Star of which Chapter she was a life member, and also belonged to the Chieago Woman's Club, the West Side Literary Club, the Sons of New York Club, and was eonneeted with the activities of Hull House and an associate in charitable work with Miss Jane Addams. She was familiarly known as Mrs. Dr. Reynolds since she was an assistant to her husband in his medical profession and was his eon- stant companion. Dr. Reynolds was noted for driving fast horses and elegant equipages and both he and his wife were fond of horsebaek riding. The Reynolds home was noted as a social eenter and place of entertainment for the best social eireles of Chicago. They moved in the same soeial sphere with Mrs. Potter Palmer, who sinee the death of Dr. Reynolds has honored Mrs. Reynolds with a tieket to the Charity Ball of 1909. Dr. and Mrs. Reynolds were both exeeedingly hospitable and knew the art of entertaining to perfection. Mrs. Reynolds had considerable skill as a musician, had a trained voiee for singing and both she and her husband were fond of daneing. She frequently won honors as a euchre player and possesses some sixty first prizes won in the various elubs of which she was a member.
Mrs. Revnolds had the opportunity and the taste for enjoying world travel. She possesses the faculty of humor, and tells many interesting anecdotes and reminiseences from various journeys around the world. She first toured the globe in 1896, and has been on every great body of water on the earth's surface, and has never been seasiek. At one time she was on a Pacific Ocean steamer which eaught fire and lias had many other alarming experienees during her journies on land and on sea. In 1896 on a trip to England, she was at a banquet presided over by the Prince of Wales, afterward King Edward of England, and was also received by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. She has visited nearly all the European Royal palaces including the Vatiean at Rome, and greeted the late Pope Leo XIII, and she was also a visitor in the palace of the late President Porfirio Diaz in the City of Mexico. She has at- tended receptions and has mnet the great publie leaders of America, ineluding President and Mrs. Cleveland, President Harrison, William McKinley and Mrs. McKinley, and also ex-Presidents Roosevelt and Taft and their wives. On eoming nearer home, Mrs. Reynolds recalls an event which in years to eome will be considered an historical oceasion worthy of remembrance, the dedieation of Peru's new $300,000 court
468
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
house when Governor (now Vice-President) Marshall, presided over the ceremonies. This dedication occurred on April 6, 1911. Mrs. Reynolds has now returned to her native city to spend the evening of an eventful life, and here enjoys the kindly esteem and admiration of the best people of the city.
FRANKLIN K. MCELHENY. Miami county at the time of this writing is signally favored in the personnel of its corps of executive officials, who are ordering its affairs with ability and fidelity, and one of the valued and popular administrative officers of the county is Mr. McElheny, who is serving as county auditor, of which position he has been the incumbent since 1910. He is known as one of the liberal and progressive citizens of Peru and had been for a number of years closely identified with the news- paper business in this thriving little city, where he is still one of the own- ers and publishers of the Miami County Sentinel.
Mr. McElheny claims the old Hawkeye state as the place of his nativ- ยท ity but is a scion of a family whose name became identified with civic and industrial affairs in Indiana in an early day. He was born at Mount Pleasant in Henry county, Iowa, on the 2d of November, 1861, and was the fourth in order of birth in a family of six children, of whom three are now living. He is a son of Thomas K. and Melvina (Woods) McElheny, the former of whom was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, and the latter in Stark county, Ohio. Thomas K. McElheny was a child of about one year at the time of the family removal from Ohio to Carroll county, and later the family home was established in Cass county, where he was reared to manhood, received a good common-school education and learned the carpenter's trade, in which he became a skilled workman. As a young man he engaged in the work of his trade at Delphi, Carroll county, where his marriage occurred, and after assisting in the erection of the county court house in that town he went to Henry county, Iowa, where he aided in the erection of the buildings of the state insane asylum at Mount Pleasant. In 1862 he returned with his family to Delphi, Indiana, where he continued his successful work as a contractor and builder until 1869, as did he later, for four years at Rochester, the judicial center of Fulton county. In 1873 he established his home at Peru, capital of Miami county, and here he continued as one of the representative contractors and build- ers of this section of the state for many years, with high reputation for integrity and stability of purpose and for civic loyalty of the highest order. He was a stalwart in the camp of the Democratic party and served six years as township trustee of Peru township. He was an active and valued member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and served many years as treasurer of the same. His religious views were in accord with the tenets of the Presbyterian church, though he was not formally identified with any religious organization. He passed to the life eternal on the 25th of January, 1909, secure in the un- qualified esteem of the community which had represented his home for more than thirty-five years. His widow, now venerable in years, still resides in Peru, and is held in affectionate regard by all who have come within the compass of her gracious and kindly influence.
The present auditor of Miami county was an infant at the time of his parents' return to Indiana, and within the gracious borders of the fine old Hoosier state he has continued to maintain his abode during the long intervening years, which have been marked by worthy accomplishment on his part. He gained his initial educational discipline in the public schools of Delphi and Rochester and was in his twelfth year at the time of the family removal to Peru, where he has since maintained his home and where his unequivocal vantage-place in general confidence and esteem
469
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
shows that he has fully measured up to the demands of the metewand of popular approbation. He availed himself of the advantages of the public schools of Peru and at the age of fifteen years he began working in the factory of the old Howe Sewing Machine Company, which at that time represented the leading industrial enterprise of Miami county. Later he worked in other factories and shops. In 1878 Mr. McElheny entered upon an apprenticeship to the "art preservative of all arts," in the office of the Peru Republican, and there he acquired facility as a compositor, in both newspaper and job work-a discipline that has consistently been termed equivalent to a liberal education. He continued to devote himself primarily to work at the printer's trade until 1899 when he acquired an interest in the Miami County Sentinel, in the mechanical work of the office of which he continued to assist, as did he later in that of the editorial department.
He is still one of the owners of the plant and business of the Sentinel and his services in connection with the paper have been potent in bringing the same up to a high standard. The Sentinel is issued on Wednesday and Saturday of each week, as a six-column quarto; is an effective ex- ponent of local news and interests ; has an excellent circulation; received a representative advertising patronage ; and is a staunch advocate of the cause of the Democratic party. The plant is well equipped in both its newspaper and job departments and Mr. McElheny still continues to give a general supervision to its affairs.
A leader in the local ranks of the Democratic party, Mr. McElheny made his second appearance as a candidate for public office in 1910, when he was made the nominee of his party for the position of county audi- tor, to which he was elected, by a gratifying majority, in November of that year. He has given a most circumspect and efficient administration of this important office, which touches all departments of the county gov- ernment, and his service has met with distinctive popular approval. Hc has a wide circle of friends in his home county, is one of the progressive and public-spirited citizens of Peru, and here he is affiliated with the lodge and chapter bodies of the Masonic fraternity, as well as with the Knights of Pythias and the Loyal Order of Moose.
A red-letter day in the life history of Mr. McElheny was January 31, 1894, for then was solemnized his marriage to Miss Margaret A. Mclaughlin, of Peru, who has assisted in making the family home one of ideal order and who is a popular figure in the social activities of her home city. Mr. and Mrs. McElheny have four children-Louise, Robert, Anna and Richard.
Mrs. McElheny is a native of Decatur county, Indiana, where she was born July 19, 1867, a daughter of Thomas and Ann (Cuff) McLaughin, natives of the Emerald Isle. Mrs. McElheny was educated in the common schools and she has been an able assistant to her husband in the rearing of their children as well as in counsel and advice in the establishing of their happy home. They are giving their children the benefits of a good, edu- cation. The daughter Louise was graduated with the class of 1913 from the Peru High School and Robert and Anna are still students in the high school. Richard the youngest, is in the sixth grade of the public school.
CHARLES H. BROWNELL, president of the Citizens' National Bank of Peru, Indiana, was born in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, on the 2d of June, 1847, and is a son of Abner C. and Eliza (Smith) Brownell. The father was prominently identified with business activities in Cleveland until 1857, when he came with his family to Peru, Indiana, and here he was for some time associated with his father-in-law, Jesse Smith, in the distil- ling business. He was a man of much initiative and constructive ability
470
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
and soon gained a position of prominence in connection with the business activities of Miami county. He was one of the organizers of the Citizens' National Bank in 1871, this institution having been the successor of the private banking house of Bonds, Hogland & Company. He attained a large and worthy success and was one of the honored and influential citi- zens of this section of the state at the time of his death, which occurred in 1878. He was a staunch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party and prior to coming to Indiana he had served as mayor of the city of Cleveland, Ohio. He was about sixty-five years of age at the time of his death, and of his children, one son and one daughter are now living.
In the public schools of his native city Charles H. Brownell gained his very early training, and he was but ten years of age when came the family removal to Peru, Indiana, where he has since that time maintained his home, save for a brief interval passed in the early part of his life in travel and in residence in Indianapolis. In Peru he continued to attend the public schools until he was matriculated in Amherst College, from which he was graduated in 1871, after which he spent a year and a half in travel in European countries. During that time he gave special atten- tion to the subject of languages, and upon his return he read law under the direction of Hon. R. P. Effinger of Peru. In the fall of 1873 he entered the Columbia Law School in New York, from which he was grad- uated in 1875. For the ensuing three years Mr. Brownell was in the office of Baker, Hurd & Hendricks in Indianapolis, and the death of his father in 1878 necessitated his return to Peru. It was then that Mr. Brownell abandoned the practice of law and took up the various business interests of his deceased father. In 1882 he became vice-president of the Citizens' National Bank with which the elder Brownell had long been associated, and in 1883 he succeeded Dr. C. Darwin as president of the bank, which position he still holds. Mr. Brownell has also been a director of the National Bank of Indianapolis for many years, and also of the Union Trust Company of that city, so that banking and matters of finance generally, occupy the major part of his time and attention. He was one of the promoters and organizers of the Wabash Valley Trust Company, of which he has served as vice-president since its organization.
Mr. Brownell is interested in the manufacturing activities of the city, and has always taken an active part in the promotion of railroad interests that would result beneficially to Peru, his efforts having been influential in the acquisition of many manufacturing enterprises of the city.
In 1882 Mr. Brownell was married to Miss Augusta P. Erhardt, who was born in New York City and who came to Peru at an early age. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Brownell, Carrie, who is the wife of Rev. Edward P. Averill, former rector of Trinity church in Peru, and now rector of a church at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Emma L., who mar- ried Robert A. Wason, of Delphi, an honored and talented member of Indiana's brilliant corps of authors.
JOHN H. FIDLER. The owner of a fine landed estate of about five hun- dred acres, in Cass and Miami townships, Mr. Fidler has been a resident of Miami county since 1905 and has long been recognized as one of the most vigorous and successful representatives of the agricultural and stock-growing industries in this section of his native state. After many years of earnest and fruitful endeavor, he is now living virtually retired in the city of Peru, where he owns an attractive home, and he still gives a general supervision to the operation of his valuable farm property. He is a scion of a family whose name has been worthily linked with the annals of Indiana history since the early pioneer days, the period thus repre- sented being fully eighty years. Mr. Fidler is known as one of the stead-
471
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
fast and upright citizens of Miami county and as one who has ever done his part in the furtherance of social and industrial advancement, the while he has impregnable vantage-ground in popular esteem.
Mr. Fidler was born on the old homestead farm of the family, in Miami township, Cass county, Indiana, on the 19th of October, 1861, and was the fourth in order of birth of the six children of Jesse and Melinda J. (Helvie) Fidler, four others of the children still surviving the honored parents. Jesse Fidler was born in Pennsylvania and was a lad of about ten years at the time of the family removal to Cass county, Indiana, in 1832. Settlement was made in the midst of the forest wilder- ness, about one-fourth mile distant from the present village of Lewis- burg, in Miami township. At that time the white, settlers were few and Indians were far more in evidence, the while the pioneers depended upon the plentiful wild game in supplying the family larders, it having often been possible to shoot deer from the doorsteps of the primitive log- cabin homes. The father of Jesse Fidler entered claim to a tract of gov- ernment land and essayed the herculean task of reclaiming a productive farm from the virgin wilds. The land thus secured remained in the pos- session of his descendants until within the second decade of the twen- tieth century, and the name of Fidler was closely identified with the initial stages of development and progress in Cass county, as well as in the later years of its opulent prosperity. Representatives of the family in the various generations kept pace with the march of progress and thus aided in the marvelous transformation of a forest wilderness into a popu- lous county of beautiful farms, and thriving villages and cities. The tales of the pioneer days have often been told and there is no need in this article to revert to the trials and vicissitudes endured by the members of the Fidler family when they thus courageously established a home in a new country and set themselves vigorously to the arduous toil and manifold responsibilities which ever are the portion of the pioneer under such conditions. Jesse Fidler, a man of unassuming worth of character, of ex- cellent mental gifts and of untiring industry, acquired a competency through his well ordered endeavors in connection with the great basic in- dustry of agriculture, and he continued to reside on his old homestead in Cass county until his death. He passed to his reward in the fulness of years and in the high regard of all who knew him, and his name merits place on the roster of the honored pioneers who have done their part in the development and upbuilding of a great state. He was one of the organizers of the Pipe Creek Christian church, and of the same he and his wife continued zealous and valued members until their death.
Reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm, John H. Fidler was not denied the closest and most arduous "communion with nature in her vis- ible forms," and he waxed strong in mental and physical powers under the conditions and influences that compassed the days of his childhood and youth. His early educational advantages were those of the district school, and this training was supplemented by a course in the Northern Indiana Normal School, now known as Valparaiso University, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1886. Thus well equipped for the work of the pedagogic profession, he devoted his attention to teaching in a district school during the winter of 1886-7, and since that time he has found it expedient and a matter of personal satisfac- tion and profit to accord unwavering allegiance to the industries of agri- culture and stock-growing, of which he has been a most alert and progres- sive representative and in connection with which he is now the owner of a finely improved and valuable landed estate of about five hundred acres, in Miami and Jefferson townships, Miami and Cass counties. In the midst of his unremitting application in this important field of endeavor Vol. II-3
472
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
he has shown a deep and loyal interest in those agencies and influences which tend to foster the general welfare, and while he has manifested no aspiration for public office he has been a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, so that he views with unmixed complacency the results of the national election of November, 1912. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and was reared in the faith of the Christian church, of which his wife is a zealous member and to the support of which he makes liberal contribution.
On the 12th of February, 1889, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fidler to Miss Olive S. Newman, who was born and reared in Miami county and who is a daughter of Thomas I. Newman, a well known and highly esteemed citizen of the county, where his father, Samuel K. New- man, was a pioneer settler and a man of marked influence in local affairs. Mr. and Mrs. Fidler became the parents of five children, Bertha, who died at the age of four years; William, who died when two years of age; a son who died in infancy, unnamed; and Ocal and Katharine, who remain at the parental home.
ELIAS BUTT. Sixty-eight years have passed since the Butt family came to Miami county, and Elias Butt has been a resident of the county all these years from the time he was fourteen years of age, and has wit- nessed and borne a part in every important era of the county's develop- ment.
Elias Butt, one of the few old settlers yet remaining, was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, May 25, 1831. He was one of a family of eleven children, three of whom are now living, nine sons and two daughters, whose parents were William and Effie (McIntyre) Butt. William Butt was a farmer, and he followed that occupation all his life. In 1833 he brought his family to Allen county, Indiana, settling in the woods about seven miles northeast of Fort Wayne. There remained the family home for twelve years, and in 1845, in order to procure more land for his growing family of children at a less price, the father traded his homestead in Allen county, for four hundred and eighty acres of land in Erie township of Miami county. Only about thirteen acres of this place had been cleared, and on the land stood a small brick house, and the tradition is that this structure was put up by the Indians, although its exact history cannot be ascertained. William Butt lived in that house for a time until he was able to erect a two story hewed log house. When the family took up its residence in Miami county, the country all about them contained very few settlers, and nearly every home was isolated by a wide stretch of forest or prairie land from its nearest neighbor. Flour and lumber mills were so scarce that the settlers from their neighborhood frequently took their sacks of corn on horseback as far as Wabash to get it ground.
During the early years of his residence William Butt found it more profitable to lease a portion of his land to other settlers; he was a hard worker and industrious citizen, one who applied his energies to toil early and late, and in the course of a few years had brought his large estate to a point of thorough improvement and cultivation. In this way he provided a home and means for his family. He was a Democrat in politics, and his practical good points enabled him to give service of exceptional value in the office of township trustee, and other positions of trust. He com- manded universal respect because of his sturdy honesty, his rugged self respect, and his views that every man should live his life according to the dictates of his conscience. His death occurred in 1869, his wife having passed away in 1856.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.