History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 59

Author: Ford, Ira, 1848- ed
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 618

USA > Indiana > LaGrange County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 59
USA > Indiana > Noble County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 59
USA > Indiana > DeKalb County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 59
USA > Indiana > Steuben County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 59

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).

Nathaniel Bangs, son of Azariah, was born May 4, 1770, died at Bakersville, Vermont, January 14, 1867, carpenter, cabinetmaker, millwright. Children of his first marriage were: Amos Parker, born December 29, 1794, died September 21, 1856, and Azariah, born December 7, 1797, died March 7, 1875. Married second Judah Elwell, having two children. Sally Georgia Lyons, born September 26, 1809, died December 10, 1893; and Heman. The mother was drowned in the Erie canal at Lockport, New York, while on her way to visit her son Heman. From 1842 to death, Nathaniel Bangs lived with his son Azariah.

Heman Bangs, youngest child of Nathaniel and Judah (Elwell) Bangs, born at Shaftsbury, Ver- mont, June 14, 1813, died May 31, 1902; went to live with Robert Madison, neighboring farmer at eleven years and at fifteen accompanied him to Genesee County, New York. Started out with $100, purchased farm in 1837 of Holland Company in Niagara County, New York, sold farm in 1839, spent winter in Kalamazoo, Michigan. On March 13, 1840, settled on the Bangs homestead in DeKalb County, Indiana. He was a carpenter, joiner and farmer and a man who was liked by every one and became very prosperous. He was married Novem-

ber 22, 1842, to Catherine Elmira Chaffy, born March 7, 1821, died August 21, 1899, a daughter of Joshua and Polly (Bowers) Chaffy. The Chaffy family came to DeKalb County from New York in 1838, then moved to LaGrange County. Their children were : Eunice L. (Showers), Nathaniel, John H., Matilda (deceased), Winfield Scott, Caroline L. (Vian) and Charles H. Heman Bangs joined the Methodist Protestant Church in 1841, and later both he and his wife united with the United Brethren. Politically he was a whig and then a republican. In 1840 he helped build the first schoolhouse in the township, made the first coffin for the first death in the township, and made the first loom in the county in 1840.

Charles Henry Bangs, youngest child of Heman and Catherine E. Bangs, was born May 26, 1857, on the Bangs homestead in Richland Township, DeKalb County, Indiana. While a young man he became deep- ly interested and was a leader in the lyceums of that day and had a reputation as a debater. He was a musical director, also a teacher in the old singing schools of the tune-fork days. He pursued success- fully the mercantile business for a number of years, when, due to the advancing age of his parents, and for the benefits of a rural environment for the home to be so soon established, he gave up the business of a merchant, for which he was well fitted, for the farm.

Mr. Bangs was married June 25, 1885, to Virginia (Jennie) H. Reynolds, who was born October 8, 1862, at Fairfield Center, a daughter of Jerome and Barbara (Eckert) Reynolds, who died eleven weeks apart, in 1884. They had the following children: Eolian M., Clarence M., Melvin F., Walter T., and Virginia H. To Mr. and Mrs. Bangs the following children were born: Owen Roscoe, Guy Reynolds, Clare W. H., Gladys May and Faye Edna. Owen Roscoe Bangs was born June 14, 1886, secured the degrees of B. S. and A. B. from the Tri-State Col- lege, has taught in all departments of the public schools, has been superintendent of schools for eight years and is now studying in the department of education, Columbia University. He was married November 19, 1911, to Bessie E. Fried, born Feb- ruary 12, 1886, died March 7, 1919. Their son, Rex D., was born January 9, 1913.

Guy Reynolds Bangs was born December 9, 1887, received degrees from Tri-State College, is a grad- uate of the International Business College in Ac- countancy, was for five years superintendent of schools, two years as accountant, and has been pro- fessor of education and registrar in Huntington College. He was married August 21, 1912, to Mabel G. Husselman, who was born January 22, 1893, and they have two children: Una Joyce, born January 24, 1914; and Kenneth Leon, born March 19, 1916.

Clare W. H. Bangs was born May 5, 1890, re- ceived the B. Pd. and A. B. degrees from Tri- State College; A. M. from Huntington College; student in King's School of Oratory, Indiana Uni- versity and Chicago University; completed course in civil engineering ; superintendent of schools three years; professor of sociology and philosophy three years; president of Huntington College four years, resigning to enter law, member of general board of education for the United Brethren Church; gen- eral secretary of education of denomination; mem- ber of American Academy of Political and Social Science; Fellow Royal Society of Arts of London; member of Association of American Colleges, also of the Association of Indiana Colleges; charter member Edward Bangs Descendants; investigator of social problems, Chicago and St. Louis, and at various times a Chautauqua and commencement lec- turer. He was admitted to the bar July 5, 1919. He

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was married July 18, 1917, to Nellie A. Binning, born November 7, 1881, and their son, Charles Edward was born October 12, 1918.

Gladys May Bangs was born August 18, 1892, received Bachelor of Music degree from Tri-State College; student of voice and piano, Pittsburgh ; student in King's School of Oratory. Studied piano under Roy David Brown of Chicago; is a graduate of Huntington College Academy and department of Domestic Science. For two years Miss Bangs has been associate teacher of piano with Professor Roy David Brown in the Huntington College Conserva- tory of Music. Faye Edna Bangs, the youngest daughter, was born September 13, 1897; is a grad- uate of the Tri-State College Academy, also of King's School of Oratory; student in Huntington College; has taught in all departments of the pub- lic schools; was supervisor of music and art for four years in high schools; and has done commer- cial designing and platform work.

Mr. and Mrs. Bangs have interested themselves largely in civic betterment and movements for civic advancement. Feeling keenly the lack of educational facilities in their youth, they have worked for a better school system and have inspired and aided their children to secure the best education possible. They have always been active in moral reform and religious work. Their convictions upon the foundation principles underlying character have been clear, definite and fearlessly followed. Mr. Bangs has been an active organizer in the republican party. For fourteen years he was an officer in the DeKalb County Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, dur- ing thirteen years of which he was actuary, through which capacity he has formed a wide acquaintance through the county. Early he became interested in the study of soils and soil fertility, and for four- teen years has been the official district crop reporter for the United States Department of Agriculture, making surveys that include farm labor, costs, crop conditions, varieties of wheat, etc. For twelve years he has been a notary public of Indiana.

GEORGE W. HOFF, county treasurer elect of La- Grange County, has lived here seventy years, and long before he entered politics and became a prom- inent figure in the life of the county he had builded on a firm foundation a solid prosperity as a farmer and land owner in Clay Township, where he still resides.

Mr. Hoff was born in Johnson Township March 3, 1849, a son of Michael and Hannah (Mowers) Hoff, the former a native of Maryland and the lat- ter born in Virginia, a daughter of Isaac Mowers. Grandfather Michael Hoff, Sr., was born in Ger- many, and married Mary Bennett, also of that coun- try. Michael, Sr., became a distiller in Maryland and reared a family of ten children. Michael, Jr., came to LaGrange County in 1848 from Richland County, Ohio. He established a general store at what is now called Woodruff, but after about two years moved to a farm in Johnson Township and in 1868 established his home in Newbury Township where he lived until his death in 1886. His wife passed away in 1879. Their children consisted of Sarah, Melancthon, Mary, Samuel, George W., Isaac, Catherine and Andrew.

George W. Hoff as a boy attended one of the district schools in Johnson Township, later attended the Collegiate Institute at Ontario, Indiana, and completed a course of business training at Hills- dale College in Michigan. For about ten years he taught winter terms of school and part of the time farmed during the summers. He bought his first land, fifty-eight acres, in 1873. That acreage is still part of his much larger and more valuable holding,

comprising 320 acres, all of which he has bought and paid for out of his individual efforts. He has improved it with splendid buildings, his home being in section 6, his farm being the east half of that section.

Mr. Hoff married in 1876 Anna Lampman, daughter of Arad Lampman. They have five chil- dren : Nellie, Festus, Irma, Alsa and Jasper. The son Jasper was one of the LaGrange County boys to see active service in the great war. He was a member of the Three Hundred and Seventh Unit of the Medical Reserve Corps, was attached to the Seventy-seventh Division, went to France in Au- gust, 1918, and participated in the battle of the Argonne Forest.

Mr. Hoff was elected county treasurer of La- Grange County in November, 1918, and his official term begins in January, 1920. He is affiliated with the Lodge of Maccabees, and he and his wife are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at LaGrange.

NATHANIEL. B. GRIFFIN. For many years to come as a result of the great war the problem of feeding humanity is going to be an international one, and the solving of it is going to devolve principally upon the American farmers. For this and other cogent reasons the vocation of farming has gained and will retain an added dignity and importance which will attract to it still more of the representative men of the country. One of the men who long ago recognized the desirability of this line of endeavor is Nathaniel B. Griffin, of Otsego Township, Steu- ben County, Indiana. He was born in Jackson Township. DeKalb County, Indiana, July 15, 1852, a son of Eli B. Griffin.

Eli B. Griffin was born in Pennsylvania, in Febru- ary, 1802. and his wife, Eliza (Bundy) Griffin, was born in Pennsylvania in April, 1812, a daughter of Nathaniel Bundy. In 1846 Eli B. Griffin moved from Pennsylvania to Jackson Township, DeKalb County, Indiana, becoming one of the pioneers of that section. There he entered eighty acres of land and lived there until 1865, when he moved to Wil- mington Township in the same county, on a farm of 140 acres which he had purchased, and there he continued to reside until his death. He and his ex- cellent wife had the following children: Thomas, Susan, Charles, George, Polley, William, Edward, Maria, Nathaniel B. and Nelson.

Until he was twenty years of age Nathaniel B. Griffin remained with his father, during that period learning how to be a farmer and attending the dis- trict schools. For the subsequent four years he worked for neighboring farmers, and then he was married and started for himself on rented land. Later he bought a farm, conducting it until 1901, when he traded it for his present one of 140 acres in section 30, Otsego Township, and here he is profitably engaged in general farming and stock raising, his success in this line proving his good judgment in selecting this line of work.

In 1876 Mr. Griffin was united in marriage with Miss Viola Cameron, a daughter of William and Sarah (Carlin) Cameron, and they had two chil- dren: Luella, who died at the age of fourteen years, and Etta, who married Charles Crowl and has three children, Viola, Fred and Laurence. Mrs. Griffin died in 1906, and in 1909 Mr. Griffin was married to Mrs. Agnes Cook.

William Cameron, the father of the first Mrs. Griffin, was one of the prominent men of Steuben County, Indiana. He was born at Abernethy, Scot- land October 23, 1817, he being the second of the nine children born to George and Janet Cameron, who came to the western district of Canada in 1834.

GEORGE W. HOFF

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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST INDIANA

The mother survived the change but four years, dy- ing in 1838, and in 1848, the father dying, three of the children, including William, came to Indiana, he settling in Richland Township, on 160 acres of land in section 8. John Cameron, a brother, also set- tled in Richland Township, Steuben County, but he died in 1878. Donald, the other brother, settled in Posey County, Indiana. In. 1864 William Cameron sold his farm, which he had considerably improved, and bought another farm in section 29, Otsego Township. Although a poor man upon coming to Steuben County, through his industry and thrift he accumulated property and died a wealthy man. He was married in March, 1843, to Sarah Carlin, a na- tive of Wayne County, Ohio, where she was born February 1, 1826, a daughter of Robert and Sarah Carlin, who settled in Richland Township in 1841. William Cameron and his wife became the parents of the following children: Robert, Jane, Juliet, Sarah, John, Maria, Viola and one who died in infancy.

Nathaniel B. Griffin is a man who possesses will and resourcefulness and has known how to so con- duct his farm as to gain a good return on his in- vestment of time and money. He has recognized the importance of operating according to modern methods in order to produce large crops and market them expeditiously and his experiments with their attending results are matters of considerable inter- est to those of his neighbors less experienced than he.

JAMES A. SHOUP. The Shoup family was estab- lished in LaGrange County, Indiana, over sixty years ago, and through its sturdy qualities has grown and prospered, and its members of today are people of worldly substance and of trustworthy character. A well known and highly respected member of this family is James A. Shoup, who owns one of the fine farms of Clay Township. James A. Shoup was born in Eden Township, LaGrange County, March 28, 1857, two years after his parents came to this sec- tion.

They were David and Abigail (Evans) Shoup, both natives of Pennsylvania, who, prior to 1855, when they came to Indiana with their eight children, had spent their lives in their own state. Their first pioneer home of logs was on a tract of eighty acres situated in Eden Township. To this twenty acres were added, and on this homestead of 100 acres both parents died. Of their family of ten children James A. was the youngest, the others being as fol- lows : Simon, Margaret, William, Urilla, Abram, Charlotte, John, Dorsey and Thomas. The father united with the republican party on its formation. Both he and wife were faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

James A. Shoup grew up on the old homestead and remembers many interesting events of early days here. One in which he was annually interested in hoyhood was the sugar maple camp, as it was his business to attend to all the jobs a boy could do during the boiling of the sap and "sugaring off." He attended the country schools and in the course of time became owner of a part of the old home farm. That land he traded for fifty acres situated in Clay Township, which tract he sold in 1905 and bought his present farm of 101 acres in Clay Town- ship, which lies about 21/2 miles from LaGrange. He carries on general farming and also has been a member of a threshing outfit for many seasons. Few farmers in this section are better posted as to agricultural conditions and farm values in the county. He has a wide acquaintance and many friends.

In 1880 Mr. & oup was married to Miss Amelia

Sigler, who was born in Clear Spring Township, LaGrange County, and is a daughter of William and Lydia Sigler, early settlers in that part of the county. To Mr. and Mrs. Shoup the following chil- dren were born: Pearl, who married Roy Shrock, and they have five children, Theron, Calvin, Paul, Allen and Wilmer; Orley, who operates the farm for his father; Lillie, who married Mathias Schem- erhorn, and they have had six children, Leroy, Clyde, Gladys, Marlow, Roscoe and Dale; Ottp, who is deceased; and Clair, who married Ada Charles, and had twin sons, Homer and Omer, the latter of whom is deceased. Mr. Shoup has always been identified with the republican party, but has never concerned himself about a political office, although undoubtedly well qualified for many. He has been a liberal supporter of schools and churches and has done his part in securing the county's fine road system.

WILLIAM M. BALLENTINE. For a number of years William M. Ballentine has been rated as one of the independent and successful farmers of Butler Town- ship in DeKalb County. Some of his good neigh- bors and friends remember a time when he was working as a farm hand or as a renter and know that his good fortune and present prosperity have been well merited and earned by an efficient career of hard labor and good management.

Mr. Ballentine, whose home is in section 17 of Butler Township, was born in DeKalb County, Sep- tember 27, 1866, a son of James and Emeline (Mon- roe) Ballentine, both natives of Ohio. His father, who was born in Richland County, married after moving to DeKalb County, Indiana, and settled down on land east of Auburn, where he spent the rest of his life. He was a Union soldier for eight- een months and an honored member of the Grand Army. Politically he was a republican. There were three children: William M., Phoebe, wife of Jacob Kemery, of DeKalb County, and Samuel, who is employed in the elevator at St. Johns, Indiana.

William M. Ballentine grew up on a farm near St. Joe, attended. the district schools and was fifteen years old when his father died. After that he, being the oldest child, had to assume most of the responsi- bilities of working the fields and to a large degree he filled his father's place. His mother afterward married again, and when about twenty-one years of age he moved to Butler Township and worked out as a farm hand.

December 22, 1891, he married Elnora Smith. She was born in Butler Township, March I, 1870. After their marriage Mr. Ballentine was a ditch contractor about two and a half years and for three years worked on the section of the New York Central lines. He began his independent career as a farmer on land he owns today. At that time he was a renter, but he has since bought the farm, seventy- six acres. He is also a stockholder in the Garrett elevator. A democrat in politics, he has filled the office of supervisor.

Mr. and Mrs. Ballentine have four children. Arlo E., a graduate of the Garrett High School, attended North Manchester College, and is a foreman of car repairing at Garrett. Fred is a graduate of the common schools, lives on a farm in Keyser Town- ship, and married Bernice P. Rugman. Raymond, the third son, is a graduate of the Garrett High School, also attended a business college at Fort Wayne, and married Velma Grove. Mabel Lucile is the fourth and youngest child. Mr. Ballentine has four grandchildren, Josephine L. and James H., children of his son Fred; and Omar and Virginia M., children of Arlo.

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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST INDIANA

SAMUEL A. ANSPAUGH. A resident of Steuben County since 1870, Samuel A. Anspaugh, has had a lifetime of extreme activity and usefulness, for ten years was superintendent of the County Farm, and for over thirty years has given his time and man- agement to his own farm in Richland Township. Mr. Anspaugh was well fitted for the vigorons life he has lived. He is a splendid specimen of physical makeup, would pass for being ten years younger than he really is, and has the muscular development of an athlete.

He was born at Florence in Williams County, Ohio, July 16, 1852. His father, John Anspaugh, was born in Stark County, Ohio, a son of Jacob and Barbara Anspaugh, natives of Pennsylvania. The family removed from Stark to Williams County in 1844, and John Anspangh was married there April 27, 1847, to Sarah Ann Cain. She was born in Har- rison County, Ohio, October II, 1830, a daughter of Samuel and Hester Cain. John Anspaugh and wife lived for several years in Williams County, and on March 8, 1870, settled in section 5 in Richland Township, Steuben County, where he acquired eighty acres of land. In early life he was very fond of hunting. He was a republican, and he and his wife were members of the United Brethren Church. John Anspaugh died June 5, 1904. He was the father of seven children, all born in Wil- liams County, Jacob, Samuel, Benjamin, Hester, wife of Charles D. Bowles, John L., Mrs. Amanda Flegal and Henry G.

Samuel A. Anspaugh received most of his educa- tion in Williams County, Ohio. He was eighteen years of age when he came to Steuben County with his father, and from that time forward was able to make his own way in the world. In 1878 he was appointed to the responsible and exacting duties of superintendent of the Steuben County Farm, and he gave a careful administration of that institution for ten years. In March, 1888, he retired and lo- cated on his home farm in section 5 of Richland Township. He has remodeled the house, put up other buildings, and has the eighty acres in a fine state of productiveness. He raises a great deal of live stock. Mr. Anspangh served fourteen years as supervisor of the Township of Richland. He is one of the active members of Lodge No. 236 of the Masonic Order at Angola.

January 1, 1876, he married Margaret Cameron, daughter of John and Mary (Carlin) Cameron. The Camerons are an old and prominent family of Steuben County. Mr. and Mrs. Anspangh have one son, George E. Anspangh, who has distinguished himself in the field of scholarship and education. He graduated from the Tri-State College at Angola, entering that institution at the age of thirteen and graduating at sixteen. Later he graduated from the Indiana State University at Bloomington and is also a graduate of Columbia University. At pres- ent he is principal and superintendent of the City High School at Farmer City, Illinois. George E. Anspaugh married Edith V. Mohler, and they have three children, Edith L., Robert E. and Helen May.

RALPH WALDO SHEFFER, assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Angola, has spent all his life in that city and is a son of the veteran editor and newspaper man of Steuben County, William K. Sheffer.

His great-grandfather, Moses Sheffer, was a min- ister of the Baptist Church in Pennsylvania. The paternal grandparents were Adam and Rachel (Starr) Sheffer, the former born in Maryland in 1826 and the latter in Pennsylvania in 1825. They were married in Ohio, and for many years lived in

Morrow County, that state. On coming to Indiana they settled near Mount Pleasant in Noble County, were farmers there many years, and subsequently moved to Kendallville, where Mrs. Adam Sheffer died. Adam Sheffer died at Angola. He was a democrat, and he and his wife were members of the New School Baptist Church. Their children were: Dennis, who died young; Banner R., William K., Barton S., Sylvester S., and Mary Etta.

William K. Sheffer was born in Morrow County, Ohio, July 6, 1845. He lived there to the age of nineteen, acquiring a public school education. Later he taught in the same district where he had learned his first lessons. In 1864 he moved to Noble County, Indiana, was a teacher for some time, and first en- gaged in the printing business at Kendallville. In 1872 he entered the office of the Ligonier Banner under John B. Stoll, later a prominent newspaper man of South Bend. He was with the Banner until July, 1877, when he came to Angola and bought a half interest in the Herald from William B. Mc- Connell. The Angola Herald was established in 1876. W. K. Sheffer in January, 1878, became sole owner and proprietor and editor, and in subsequent years steadily promoted its influence and prosperity. He was with the Herald continuously for twenty- nine years except for two years when absent from Angola. He sold the Herald in 1889 to John F. Schuman and William Blatner. During the snc- ceeding two years he was associated with his younger brother, Sylvester S. Sheffer, in the publication of the Kendallville News. He then returned to Angola and repurchased the Herald. In 1906 he again sold the Herald to Ernest C. Klink, who later sold to Harvey W. Morley, the present owner and publisher. Soon afterward he took up the real estate, insurance and loan business, was for several years local corre- spondent and is now in charge of the circulation department of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette at Angola. He is an active democrat in politics. His wife was a member of the Christian Church, where the family attend worship.

November 27, 1873, at Ligonier, William K. Sheffer married Miss Eliza A. Pence, who was born in Stark County, Ohio, August 16, 1851, daughter of Samuel N. and Hannah Pence. A record of the Pence family is published on other pages of this publication. William K. Sheffer and wife had the following children: Lenora Elma, born June 6, 1876, and died in 1904, wife of John R. Pulver, by whom she was the mother of four children, named Anna M., Agnes, William F. (who died in infancy), and Ruth Elma. The second child, Samnel E., born in 1880, is a printer with the South Bend Tribune, having learned the business with his father. Laura Bessie died in infancy. Ralph Waldo is the fourth in age. Mary Ethel is the youngest.

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History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 59

Author: Ford, Ira, 1848- ed Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 618

Author: Ford, Ira, 1848- ed
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 618