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 51
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
William E. Mowbray has fully sustained the prestige of a name that has long been honored in the annals of the history of Miami county, and as a boy he gained thorough fellowship with the arduous labors of the pioneer farm, a discipline which gave to him the vital energy and strength of constitution that have served him well in the later years of his life. He availed himself fully of the advantages of the common schools of the day and was attending the public schools of Peru at the inception of the Civil war. His youthful loyalty and patriotism did not long permit him to remain inactive in the matter of defending a righteous cause, and on the 13th of August, 1862, he enlisted in Com- pany C, Twelfth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. On the 30th of the same month he participated with his command in the battle of Richmond, Kentucky, and here he and the other members of his company were captured by the enemy. He was held a prisoner of war until the 2d of the following month,-a period of about two days, and was then granted a parole. In October his exchange was effected, and he then rejoined his command, with which he was in service on guard duty in and around the city of Memphis, Tennessee, and later on the Yazoo river, where his regiment assisted in checking the advance of the forces of General Joseph E. Johnston, who was threatening the Union lines before Vicks- burg. After the fall of that city his command pursued Johnston's army to Jackson, Mississippi, after which it remained in camp until Octo- ber, when it marched to Chattanooga and arrived in time to participate in the battle of Missionary Ridge, under command of General Sherman. In this memorable engagement he received a gun-shot wound in the right arm, breaking radius, besides which he suffered at the same time a fracture of the ilium, or expanded bone of the hip. His injury was such as to incapacitate him for further field services and on account of his disability he was given his honorable discharge, on the 23d of Novem- ber, 1864, and with the rank of corporal.
Prior to entering the army Mr. Mowbray had taken up the study of law under effective preceptorship and after his return home he resumed his technical reading. In August, 1865, he was admitted to the bar of his native state, and with the exception of an interim of about eighteen months he has been continuously engaged in the active practice of his profession in Peru during the long intervening years, which have been marked by large and worthy accomplishment on his part, with the result that he has for many years held definite precedence as one of the representative members of the bar of Miami county. He retains a large and important clientage and has at all times shown a high and practical appreciation of the dignity and responsibility of his chosen profession, of whose unwritten ethical code he has been an unwavering exemplar. Broad-minded and public-spirited in his civic attitude, Mr. Mowbray has done all in his power to foster those enterprises and influence which
783
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
conserve the well-being of the community and though he has never sought public office he has been aligned as a stalwart and effective advocate of the principles and policies for which the Republican party has stood sponsor. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and he manifests his abiding interest in his old comrades in arms by retaining member- ship in W. B. Reyburn Post, No. 56, Grand Army of the Republic, in his home city. Both he and his wife are earnest and valued members of the Methodist Episcopal church of Peru, and Mrs. Mowbray has long been a popular factor in the representative social activities of the com- munity.
On the 10th of August, 1865, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mowbray to Miss Mary Whitezel, who was born at Boone county, Indiana, and who is a daughter of the late Balthazer Whitezel, an honored pioneer of Miami county. Mr. and Mrs. Mowbray became the parents of twelve children, of whom three sons and two daughters are living. The sons living are: Frederick W. Mowbray, of the lumber company of Mow- bray & Robinson, Cincinnati, Ohio; Merrill Mowbray, of Chicago, Illi- nois; and Capt. Ralph H. Mowbray of the faculty at Culver Military Academy. The daughters are Stella R., wife of Allen G. Trippier, a street contractor, and Clara A. Mowbray, who is at home with her par- ents.
FRANK HOSTETLER. It is most gratifying to note that a goodly quota of the native sons of Miami county have not wavered in their allegiance to the same and that within its borders they have found ample scope for the winning of definite and worthy success. To be classified in this list is Mr. Hostetler, who is a scion of one of the honored pioneer fami- lies of the county and who is now the efficient and valued incumbent of the office of sheriff of his native county. He has been closely identified with the agricultural interests of this section of the state and is the owner of a valuable farm property in the township in which he was born, besides which he proved a successful and popular teacher in the district schools of the county, where he gave attention to the work of the pedagogic profession for several years.
Mr. Hostetler was born on the old homestead farm of the family, in Erie township, this county, and the date of his nativity was March 22, 1859. His father, Jacob Hostetler, was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on the 8th of January, 1826, and was a son of Benjamin and Catherine (Miller) Hostetler, pioneer settlers of the old Buckeye state. Jacob Hostetler was reared and educated in Ohio and there continued to reside until 1847, when he came to Indiana and numbered himself among the sturdy pioneers of Erie township, Miami county, where he secured a tract of one hundred acres of wild land and instituted the reclamation of a farm in the midst of the forest. He erected as the family domicile a log house of the primitive type common to the locality and period, and after thus providing a home he took unto himself a wife, in the per- son of Miss Elizabeth Shelter, their marriage having been solemnized on the 25th of June, 1848, and Mrs. Hostetler likewise having been born and reared in Ohio. The young couple established their Lares and Penates in the pioneer log cabin and the same became representative of the ideal associations that should apply to the word home but which are too much in abeyance in these latter days of migratory impulses on the part of the American people. Enduring together the hardships and toils which ever fall to the lot of the pioneers, Mr. and Mrs. Hostetler developed a productive farm and reared their large family of children to lives of usefulness and honor. Jacob Hostetler was a man of strong individuality and broad views and was a leader in sentiment and action
784
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
in his community, where he ever commanded unqualified popular con- fidence and esteem. He was a staunch supporter of the principles and policies of the Democratic party and he served with ability in the office of township trustee. There were few dramatic incidents in his career, which was marked by earnest industry and generous accomplishment, and though he lived a simple and unostentatious life he accounted well to himself and to the world as an upright and valuable member of the community to whose civic and industrial development he contributed his quota. He passed from the stage of his mortal endeavors on the 12th of November, 1892, and his cherished and devoted wife survived him by a decade. She passed to eternal rest in May, 1912, venerable in years and a devout member of the United Brethren church, and her memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her gentle and kindly influence. Of the eleven children the firstborn died in infancy, and the others are all living,-six sons and four daughters. The names of Jacob and Elizabeth (Shelter) Hostetler merit enduring place on the roll of the honored pioneers of Miami county.
Frank Hostetler, the seventh in order of birth of the eleven chil- dren, found his childhood and youth compassed by the sturdy discipline of the home farm, and he early gained wholesome fellowship with hon -- est toil and endeavor, the while he waxed strong in mental and physical powers. He made good use of the advantages afforded to him in the local schools, as is shown by the fact that the discipline thus gained enabled him to qualify as a teacher in the district schools, in which he taught one term, and then furthered his own education by attending for a time the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute. For sev- eral years thereafter he gave his attention to teaching in the country schools during the winter terms and continued his active association with farm work during the intervening periods. He finally engaged in farming in an independent way, in Erie township. He had been one of the leaders in the ranks of the Democratic party in his section of the county and had served three terms as trustee of Erie township. In 1910 he was elected county sheriff, by a gratifying majority, and his administration has been marked by circumspection, fidelity and discrim- ination, so that he made an admirable record during his first term and was retained in office by re-election, his present term expiring January 1, 1915. He is indefatigable in the discharge of his official duties and in the maintenance of law and order, and he shows neither fear nor favor as executive in the important position of which he is the valued incum- bent.
He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, No. 52, the Tribe of Ben Hur, and the Loyal Order of Moose, and he holds mem- bership in the United Brethren church.
April 24, 1884, recorded the marriage of Mr. Hostetler to Miss Sarah A. Dice, who likewise was born and reared in Erie township, and who was a daughter of the late Michael Dice, a representative farmer of that township. She died in October, 1907. The five children of this union are Ray E., Ralph W., Mark B., Eva Lois, and Frank L.
THOMAS M. BUSBY. Through almost forty years Thomas M. Busby has been numbered among the citizens of Miami county, and for the greater portion of this time has been accounted one of its leading and progressive agriculturists. It is not alone, however, in agricultural mat- ters that he is widely known and has made such a distinct success, for in public life he has taken no less prominent part and has rendered his fellow-citizens distinguished service. Mr. Busby has spent his entire life in the Hoosier State, being a native of Madison county, where he
785
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
was born December 1, 1843, a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (McAlister) Busby, and a grandson of Isaac Busby and John McAlister.
Silas Busby was born in Wayne county, Indiana, and as a lad was in the habit of driving a team to Cincinnati, Ohio, a journey which con- sumed four days, and his bed at night being made in the wagon. From Wayne county he moved to Madison county at an early day, and there in young manhood took up the vocation of agriculturist, in which he has been engaged all of his life. He still resides on the old homestead in Madison county, advanced in years, but still active in his daily routine of duties.
Thomas M. Busby received his education in the little log schoolhouse of his vicinity in Madison county, the terms being limited to three months in the winters. Like other farmers' sons of his day, he spent the other months of the year in the work of the farm, and there was but little time for the recreation of youth. However, he was taught to be industrious, energetic and self-reliant, and at the time of his marriage he was able to locate on a property of his own, thoroughly familiar with every detail of farm work. In 1874 he left Madison county and came to Miami county, here settling on his present property, which at that day, however, bore but little resemblance to the fine farm of today. The buildings that stood at that time have all been improved, other structures have been erected, and modern improvements of every char- acter have been made. The property now consists of 1061/2 acres, all in a high state of cultivation, the land returning excellent crops for Mr. Busby's intelligent labor. He has devoted the greater part of his time to general farming, and the success which he has attained in his efforts gives ample evidence of his skill in his chosen vocation. His operations in the business world have been such as to gain him general confidence and wide popularity, and few men in Jackson township can boast of a wider circle of friends. Mr. Busby has attended the Friends' Church and liberally supported its movements. A Democrat in his political views, for three years he was superintendent of the turnpike, acted in the capacity of county councilman for some time, and at present is serving as a member of the board of county commissioners. He has brought to his public service a high ideal of the duties of official posi- tion, and his work has but served to raise him in general public esteem. Mr. Busby has interested himself to some extent in fraternal matters, and now holds membership in Converse Lodge No. 320, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and Converse Lodge No. 601, of the Masonic body.
On December 11, 1864, Mr. Busby was united in marriage with Miss Eliza Ellen Mars, daughter of Nathan Mars, and to this union there have been born three children, namely: Augustus E., who married Mary Weiss, of Madison county, and is now engaged in farming in that county ; Silas E., who married Carrie Hustage, and now makes his home in Jackson township; and Hester, who became the wife of William York, and lives in Cass county, where he follows farming.
BENJAMIN E. WALLACE. The circus business, which is most pecu- liarly an American institution and which has reached its crowning dis- tinction in this country, has long had an able and popular representative in the person of this well known and highly honored citizen of Peru. The Wallace Show, or circus, has been signally free from flamboyant policies and has gained a high reputation as one of the country's lead- ing attractions in this popular line of entertainment, clean and effective in the operation of its various departments and conducted on a scale that has made it one of the highest class. In proximity to the thriving
786
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
little city of Peru, which has been his home for forty years, Mr. Wallace maintains the winter quarters of his show, and the same has had marked influence in fostering various industrial and business enter- prises in Miami county, the while it is a source of pride to citizens of all classes. Mr. Wallace is widely known as a progressive, able and reliable business man, and his interest in his home city has been shown in many helpful ways. Here he has varied capitalistic investments of import- ant order, in addition to the extensive affairs of his great amusement enterprise, and he has won success and high personal honors through his sterling character and well directed efforts. No history of Miami county could be consistent with itself were there failure to record spe- cific recognition to this popular and representative citizen.
Of stanch Scottish lineage, Benjamin R. Wallace claims the fine old Keystone state as the place of his nativity, and he is a scion of a family that was early founded in that commonwealth. He was born at Johns- town, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, on the 14th of October, 1847, and is a son of Ephraim and Rebecca (Elliott) Wallace, who had a large fam- ily of children four sons and five daughters. Ephraim Wallace was an industrious and independent member of the farming community in Cambria county until 1863, when he came to Indiana and established his home on a farm in Washington township, where his death occurred in July of the following year, his wife surviving him by a number of years.
In the schools of his native state Benjamin E. Wallace gained his early educational discipline and his initial experiences in the practical affairs of life were those gained in connection with the work of the home farm. He was a lad of about sixteen years at the time of the fam- ily removal to Miami county, Indiana, and about one year later, in Feb- ruary, 1865, he gave distinctive evidence of his youthful patriotism and loyalty by enlisting for service as a soldier in the Civil war. He became a member of the Thirteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, but had just reached the stage of activities in Virginia when General Lee surrendered and the long and weary conflict came to an end. He received his hon- orable discharge and soon afterward initiated his independent career by engaging in the livery business in Peru. With this line of enterprise he continued to be actively and successfully identified for eighteen years, and in 1884 he withdrew from the same to turn his attention to the cir- cus business, his predilection for which was intensified by an inherent love of horses, his father and other forbears having been great fanciers of the noble animal. He began the show business upon a very modest scale and through careful policies, progressive methods and constant effort to give the best possible entertainment to the public, he met with constantly growing popular favor and patronage, amplified his business as rapidly as circumstances justified and finally developed the great shows which bear his name and to the management of which he contin- ues to give the major part of his time and attention. He keeps his stock menagerie up to the highest standard and during the show season gives employment to about six hundred persons. His winter quarters are of the best order and include the ownership and operation of nineteen farms in Miami county, the same having an aggregate area of more than two thousand acres. The commissary and stock-ration departments of his show business have placed insistent demands upon the agricultural resources of Miami county and the mere quartering of his extensive shows in the county has had distinctive value in the supporting and furthering of various industrial and commercial enterprises, and thus in fostering the civic prosperity of the community.
. Mr. Wallace is president of the Wabash Valley Trust Company, of
787
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
Peru, which is one of the substantial and representative financial and fiduciary institutions of this part of the state, and he is also a stock- holder in various other industrial and commercial enterprises that are conserving the prestige of his home city. In politics Mr. Wallace ac- cords a stalwart allegiance to the Republican party, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. He is widely known throughout Indiana and other states of the Union and has a wide circle of stanch friends.
In the year 1874 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wallace to Miss Florence Fuller. No children have been born to this marriage. The Wallace home on North Broadway is one of beauty and comfort with expansive and beautifully adorned grounds.
CHARLES E. CORY has since 1895 been identified with the circus busi- ness in varied capacities, and in recent years has held the position of assistant manager of the business of Benjamin E. Wallace, who has long been prominent in the show business. Mr. Cory was born in Peru, Indiana, on May 11, 1871, and is a son of David H. and Mary (Fuller) Cory.
David H. Cory, together with his father-in-law, Reuben Fuller, for many years conducted the Bearss Hotel in this city, and in 1874 re- moved to St. Paul, where Mr. Fuller died. The Corys later returned to Indiana and settled in Richmond, where the father engaged in rail- road work.
Charles E. Cory received his early education in the public and high schools of the cities wherein he was living in those early days, and when he was seventeen years old branched out for himself in the employ of Rugg, Fuller & Company, Mr. Fuller being his maternal uncle. This concern was engaged in the plumbing and steam heating supply busi- ness, and Mr. Cory continued in their employ until 1890, when the firm was succeeded by the Crence Company, with whom he continued until 1894. In the latter year he returned to Peru and in the spring of 1895 entered the employ of Benjamin E. Wallace, who has long been in the circus business. Mr. Cory continued with Mr. Wallace in one capacity and another, and is today, and has been for a number of years, assistant manager of the great show business owned by Mr. Wallace.
In 1909 Mr. Cory married Miss Mary Murdock, of LaFayette, Indi- ana, and they have three children: Mary, born in 1910; James M., born in 1911, and David Wallace, born in 1912. Mr. Cory is a Chapter Mason at Peru, and is a member of the Commandery at Wabash, and is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is popular and prominent in his business, and is well and favorably known in Peru and Miami county, where his life has been an open book since he was born in this community some forty years ago.
HENRY BERGER. Among those pioneers who founded homes in the midst of the wilderness of Miami county, one whose activities were a credit to himself, and now a kindly memory in the hearts of his descend- ants was the late Henry Berger, who founded the well known family of that name, now represented by a prosperous farmer of Perry township, and in the same generation by the present county clerk of Miami county, A. S. Berger.
Henry Berger was born in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, June 17, 1826, and in 1847, the year in which he arrived at his majority, reached Miami county. His first settlement was in what is now Union township, where he worked industriously, and made the start which enabled him on January 19, 1850, to marry Lavina Swank. Having thus given hostages to fortune, he and his bride moved to what is now
788
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
Perry township, where he bought twenty-five acres of woodland, and proceeded to build a log cabin in which he and his wife started house- keeping. As the years passed by, seven children came into their house- hold, named Charles, Abraham, William, Philip, Henry, Mary and Sarah. During the early days in Miami county a disease known as milk sickness was prevalent, and was much dreaded by all residents. It often proved fatal, and one of the afflictions of the Berger family was the death of the son Philip from this disease when six years of age. All the rest of the children above mentioned, grew to manhood and woman- ·hood and have filled honorable positions in life.
In 1861 Henry Berger enlisted in the service of his country, and was one of the officers of the First Cavalry, the Twenty-Eighth Regi- ment of Indiana Volunteers. When the war was over, he again took up his career as a farmer, and from the twenty-five acres which he had first secured in the midst of the green woods; he gradually developed his holdings and by industry and good management prospered until he was the owner of two hundred and twenty acres, and was regarded as one of the successful farmers in the northern part of Miami county. Thus for more than half a century Henry Berger lived and did his part as a member of the community, and after a short illness from pneu- monia, died on January 31, 1899, one of the honored old settlers. His widow survived him three years and died December 29, 1902.
Of their children, Abraham Berger, father of Aaron S. Berger. the present county clerk was born in Perry township, and still lives on his old homestead there, one of the prosperous farmers and an influential citizen. Abraham Berger married Mary Landis, and they became the parents of three children.
AARON S. BERGER. The efficient and popular county clerk of Miami county is one of the native sons of the county who has here found ample opportunity for productive effort and for the gaining of success worthy of the name, the while his present official incumbency vouches for the staunch hold he has upon the confidence and esteem of the people among whom he has lived from the time of his nativity. Prior to assuming his present important post Mr. Berger has made an excellent record as a teacher in the public schools and had also carried forward the work of preparing himself for the legal profession, to which he still intends to turn his attention, as at the present time he is a member of the bar of the Miami Circuit Court.
Mr. Berger was born in Perry township, this county, on the 6th of May, 1880, and is a son of Abraham and Mary (Landis) Berger, who still reside on their old homestead farm in that township, where the father has long been a representative exponent of the agricultural in- terests of the county. He is one of the honored and influential citizens of Perry township and is a Democrat in his political proclivities. They have three children, of whom the subject of this review was the sec- ond in order of birth.
The invigorating and sturdy discipline of the home farm compassed the boyhood and early youth of Aaron S. Berger, and his preliminary educational advantages were those of the district schools, in which he applied himself with such diligence and ambition that he proved him- self eligible for pedagogic honors, as he began teaching in the country schools when nineteen years of age. Through his earnings in this voca- tion he defrayed the expenses of a course of study in the Northern Indi- ana Normal School and Business College, at Valparaiso, an institution now known as Valparaiso University. He attended this school for the greater part of three years, and in the meanwhile he determined to
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.