History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 6

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 6
USA > Indiana > Noble County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 6
USA > Indiana > DeKalb County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 6
USA > Indiana > Steuben County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 6

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).

CAPT. GEORGE H. COSPER. For many years a re- tired resident of Hamilton, Capt. George H. Cosper spent his active years chiefly in DeKalb County and went from that locality when a youth to serve in the Union army during the Civil war. The Cosper fam- ily established itself in the wilds of DeKalb County three quarters of a century ago, and of the names longest identified with that locality that of Capt. George H. Cosper is held the highest honor.

He was born in Chemung County, New York, July 2, 1842, a son of Charles and Lucinda (Weeks) Cosper. His father was born in Pennsylvania in 1808 and his mother in Vermont in 1812. They married in New York State and in 1844 came West by such means of conveyance as were then available and secured Government land in Wilmington Town- ship of DeKalb County. A log house was their first home in the wilderness, and successive years brought them increased material circumstances and comfort. About the beginning of the Civil war Charles Cosper left Indiana and went to Minnesota. He died at Glenville in that state in 1872. His widow then returned to Steuben County and lived at Hamilton until her death in October, 1893. Mr. Cosper was a whig and republican in politics and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He and his wife had the following children: Ransom, Elizabeth, Emeline, Mary, Wesley, Catharine, George H., Amy, James, Lucretia, Martha and Henry. Those still living are Emeline, Catharine, George, Amy, James, Lucretia, Martha and Henry.

George H. Cosper spent his boyhood in the woods of Wilmington Township and acquired his educa- tion largely through study at home and as oppor- tunity offered. There were few good public schools in his early youth. In the first summer of the Civil war he enlisted in Company F of the Forty- Fourth Indiana as a private. He was in camp two months before he was sworn in and mustered on September 21, 1861. He saw nearly four years of

service, receiving his honorable discharge Septem- ber 14, 1865. He was in all the battles of the Forty- Fourth Regiment, and was promoted to the rank of captain. He received a shot in the face at Shiloh, and was again wounded at Stone River.

The war over, Captain Cosper returned to DeKalb County and was engaged in farming until 1885, when he sold his place and bought property in the Village ot Hamilton, where he has enjoyed the com- forts that are his due for his record as a soldier and his industry as a citizen. Captain Cosper has always been a stanch republican, but has never sought office. However, while in DeKalb County he served as constable. He is present commander of Leman Griffith Post No. 387 of the Grande Army of the Republic, and is a member of the United Brethren Church.

February 18, 1864, he married Miss Evaline Dir- rim. She was born in DeKalb County, April 17, 1845, where her parents, Isaac and Eleanor (Wycoff) Dirrim, had settled in the preceding February. Her parents developed a farm in that county, but spent their last years in Hamilton, where her father died in 1892 and her mother in 1900. There were ten children in the Dirrim family: Sarah, Eliza, Han- nah, Evaline, Cyrus, Lavina, Peter, Martha, Mary and Ida. Those still living are Eliza, Evaline, La- vina, Peter and Mary.

Captain and Mrs. Cosper have had a happy mar- ried life for fifty-five years, having celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1914. With five children of their own they have seen numerous grandchildren grow up around them. Their oldest child, Marshall, was educated in the public schools and is now a farmer in Otsego Township of Sten- ben County. He married Ida Sanxter, and their children are Harley, Lena, George, Pearl and Addie. The second child of Mr. and Mrs. Cosper was named Addie, and died at the age of six years. Florence is the wife of Monroe Garber, of Quincy, Michigan, and they have three children, Lola, Floyd and John. Mary was first married to Ernest Wright, by which union she had two daughters, named Anna and Alta, and is now the wife of Elmer Wideman, of Detroit, Michigan. By her second marriage she has two sons, Albert and George. Leona is the wife of Fred Spurling, station agent at Hamilton. She has reared one of her sister Mary's children, Alta, who is now attending high school.

CHARLES H. TURNER has been one of the busy and useful men of Steuben County for a great many years, and the greater part of his efforts and ex- perience has been applied to developing a farm which his father once owned in Millgrove Town- ship.

Mr. Turner was born in that township, November 2, 1862, son of William W. and Susan (Salisbury) Turner. His mother was born in Steuben County in 1839, daughter of a prominent pioneer, Chester D. Salisbury. The record of the Salisbury family will be found on other pages. William W. Turner was born in Connecticut in 1831, a son of Joseph and Sally Anna (Horton) Turner. Sally Anna Horton was born in Coldbrook, New Hampshire, in 1805. Joseph Turner was a shoemaker by trade and followed that occupation for many years in New York State. Wiliam W. Turner when about eighteen years of age, in 1848 came from New York to Indiana, settling in Millgrove Township of Steuben County. He lived with his older brother, Nathan, for a time, worked out for other farmers, and after a few years bought a piece of wild land in section 14. Some of it had been cleared, but he put up his first buildings among the trees and worked

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST INDIANA

along steadily increasing the area of cultivation and giving the farm other improvements until he had a valuable place of 152 acres. He and his wife had three children: Charles H., Myrtle, wife of C. O. Jones, and Julia M., wife of C. C. Mitchell.

Charles H. Turner, only son of his parents, ac- quired his education in the Turner School of Mill- grove Township, graduated from the high school at Orland, and for two winter terms he taught in one of the country districts. He was in the old home with his parents until 1895, in which year he

built his present commodious residence and has been farming independently there for a quarter of a century. He owns 180 acres in sections 14 and 23, and does general farming and stock raising. Like his father he is a member of the Grange.

Mr. Turner married in 1894 Lucy M. Shutts, a daughter of Herman C. and Mary (Collins) Shutts. Her father came to Steuben County in 1860, and some of the important facts in his family history are published on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Turner have three children: Hilda M., born in 1895, is a graduate of the Orland High School and of the South Bend Business College; Marian H., born in 1900, is a graduate of high school and is the wife of Lyston C. Keyes; and Willa S., who was born in 1910.

THOMAS A. PARKER. The County Farm advisor for Steuben County is Thomas A. Parker, who has spent practically all his life in this section of North- eastern Indiana. He was born in Kosciusko County, a son of Elijah J. and Ada Mary (Orr) Parker. His father was born in Kosciusko County and his mother at Westminster, Ohio. His father is still farming in Kosciusko, and on the home farm Thomas A. Parker grew up. He is a graduate of the Warsaw High School and received his degree Bachelor of Science from Winona College in 1915. He also graduated in 1917 from the College of Liberal Arts at Winona.

Mr. Parker was formerly a teacher in the high school at Pierceton, Indiana, and for oute year taught in the Vocational School at Metz. In March, 1918, he was appointed county agricultural agent of Steuben County, and took up the duties of that office in the same year, and all through the critical season of 1918, when American agriculture meant so much to the world welfare, he was busy doing his part in the agricultural communities of Steuben County.

He is a member of the Rotary Club of Angola, is a Baptist, and a Mason and Knight of Pythias. In January, 1917, Mr. Parker married Esther H. Parker, daughter of Murray and Margaret (Morris) Parker. They have one son, Thomas A., Jr., born May 27, 1918.

EMMET B. CHARD is a successful farmer of Scott Township, who has applied himself not only to his individual labors as a producer, but also to some of those broad movements and efforts now affecting for the better agricultural conditions and the inter- ests of farmers.

Mr. Chard was born in Richland Township of Steuben County January 11, 1885, a son of Robert and Dorcas (Thompson) Chard of Angola. He grew up on a farm as a boy, attended public schools and the Tri-State Normal College, and has taken the short course in agriculture at Purdue Uni- versity. Since early manhood he has given his best energies and study to farming, and is now making a success of the management of the 200-acre farm owned by his father in Scott Township. His father bought this place February 22, 1899. Mr. Chard is a breeder of Shorthorn cattle and Percheron horses.

He is a member of the Angola Co-operative Ship- pers Association and was formerly identified with the Valley Shippers Association. He is also active in the Bate Farmers Club, composed of twelve families and holding social and business meetings once a month. He has served as chairman of the club. In politics he is a republican and is a member of the Christian Church.

December 31, 1909, Mr. Chard married Miss Pearl Beard, daughter of Gates and Louise Beard of Scott Township. They had two children: Esther, who died in infancy, and Robert Gates, born June 9, 1915.

ALBERT F. STRAW. The enterprise of the Straw brothers at Fremont is a reflection of the increasing interest paid to the dairy business in Steuben Coun- ty. Straw brothers operate a model creamery and are also manufacturers of ice cream in large quan- tities, a delicious product that is distributed over many towns around Fremont.

The Straw family was one of the first to locate at the Village of Fremont, and three generations have lived there. The first generation was headed by Frederick Straw, who was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, June 9, 1811, a son of George and Elizabeth Straw. In 1832 Frederick married Cath- erine Wagner, who was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in 1813. They came with their chil- dren to Indiana in the spring of 1856 and bought land just west of the present site of the depot at Fremont, which then contained only a store and a blacksmith shop. Frederick Straw cleared up most of his land from the heavy timber and improved a farm of 180 acres. His wife died June 17, 1871, and he passed away about 1891. He was a Jackson democrat until the republican party was formed, after which he was one of its firm adherents. Fred- erick Straw and wife were the parents of eight chil- dren.

One of them was Elias Straw, who was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, November 9, 1834, and was married there in 1855 to Catherine Baker. She was born in the same county in 1839, a daughter of Frederick Baker. Elias Straw came to Steuben County at the same time with his father and bought a tract of land in section 28. Later he bought an- other place and for many years was successfully identified with farming. He was a republican in politics, but his chief interest outside of his farm and family was the Evangelical Church. He organ- ized a society of that denomination near his home, and was very attentive to his duties as a church man, being class leader for many years. He and his wife had the following children: William R .; John, who died at the age of thirteen; Albert F .; Granville E .; George W .; Augusta, who died at the age of two years; Harvey H .; and Herman, who is associated with his brother Albert in the creamery business as a member of the firm Straw Brothers.

Albert F. Straw was born in Fremont Township, Jannary 6, 1861, and spent his boyhood days on a farm, attending the local public schools. For many years he has been a practical farmer and owns a place of 104 acres in Fremont Township, besides property in the village. In 1913 the Straw Brothers Creamery was built at Fremont, and since that time it has consumed a large part of the dairy products in that locality. The brothers are very enterprising business men and know their special line thoroughly.

Mr. Straw is a republican and a member of the Evangelical Church. In 1889 he married Mary Ackerman. She died in 1894, leaving no children. In 1899 he married Belle Wise, who died in 1902. Mr. Straw married for his present wife in 1904

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST INDIANA

Linnie Friday. They have three children, Arva, Virgil and Clifton.

LEWIS A. KEESLAR. While Mr. Keeslar for over thirty years has been identified with the farming and community interests of Steuben County, his home is still close to the locality of his birth, over the state line in the historic Gilead Township of Branch County, Michigan. He represents some of the old and prominent families of Southern Michi- gan, people who developed that region from a wil- derness of swamps, woods and "oak openings."

Mr. Keeslar was born in Gilead Township, July 9, 1858, and is a son of William and Sally (Green) Keeslar. Peter Keeslar, his grandfather, was born in New York State in 1800 and died in 1887. He arrived in Gilead Township of Branch County in 1836, entering ninety acres of timbered land. He put all the buildings and other improvements on the farm and lived there until his death. His children were Joseph, Wiliam, George and Clarissa by his first wife and by a second marriage he had children named Charles, Daniel, John, Mary and Jennie.

On the maternal side Lewis A. Keeslar is related to an even older pioneer family of Gilead Township. His maternal grandfather was David Green, who married Maranda Chocker. Both the Greens and the Keeslars were remarkable for much of the de- velopment that has transformed a beautiful region of Southern Michigan into beautiful farms and homes. They lived in the same community where Bishop Chase, the first Episcopal bishop west of the Alleghany Mountains, had his home in old Gilead Township.

William Keeslar, who was born in New York State in 1827, and died February 15, 1912, spent many years as a farmer in Gilead, beginning with forty acres of wild land which he paid for by money earned at work by the month. The first forty acres he increased to the extent of 120 acres, and in 1874 left his farm and spent one winter in Coldwater and then moved to a farm near Burr Oak, where he remained nine years. In 1884 he bought 115 acres in Millgrove Township of Steuben County, Indiana, and lived there until his death. His wife, who was a native of Seneca County, New York, died July 8, 1900. Their children were five in num- ber, two of whom died in infancy. Those to reach mature years were Louisa C., Lewis A. and Al- fred R.

Lewis A. Keeslar acquired his early education in the public schools of Gilead Township, attended school in Coldwater one winter, and finished his education at Burr Oak. He has been farming in Millgrove Township for over thirty years, and made his first purchase of twenty acres in section 16 of that town- ship in 1888. Gradually as a result of many years of toil and good management his property has grown until it now comprises 175 acres, ninety-five in Millgrove Township and eighty acres across the line in Gilead Township of his native county. It is divided into two farms, and on one of these Mr. Keeslar has erected practically all of the substantial buildings. In recent years the heavier responsibili- ties of managing these places have developed upon his two sons.

Mr. Keeslar married June 18, 1881, Miss Jennie D. Cross, daughter of Leonard and Asenath (Ar- nold) Cross. Their two sons are Glenn and Carl. Glenn married Janet Gillis and has three children, Orion, Evelyn and Dnane. Carl married Bessie Berry, and their family consists of Donald, George, Helen and Ray.

DEWITT EWERS, who for a third of a century has been identified with the business of brick manufac-

ture and is manager of the Angola Brick & Tile Company, one of the largest industries of its kind in Northeast Indiana, is a native of Steuben County, and represents several of the oldest families estab- lished here, including the Stockers and Sowles.

He was born in Pleasant Township December 21, 1869, a son of Sylvester and Estella (Stocker) Ewers, who were also natives of Pleasant Township, the father born in 1845 and the mother in 1854. The paternal grandparents were James Benjamin and Harriet (Sowle) Ewers. Harriet Sowle was born January 7, 1814, and was one of a number of this family to become identified with the earliest pioneer development in Pleasant Township. James B. Ewers and wife were married in Ashland County, Ohio, and came to Steuben County in 1838. The Sowle ancestry goes back 700 years in English annals and to the year 1140 in France. James B. Ewers was a cooper by trade and died in 1872, at the age of sixty-two, while his widow survived him until 1898. Of their fifteen children only one is now living, Mrs, Melissa Dixon of Sparta, Wisconsin.

Mr. DeWitt Ewers' maternal grandparents were Leland Howard and Lucy (Mallory) Stocker, the former a native of Vermont. They were also among the early settlers of Steuben County.

Sylvester Ewers received a public school education and learned the trade of brick mason. In the '70s he also took up the manufacture of brick and in 1879 · moved to Jamestown and in 1880 to Angola, where he started a brick yard, which was the primary industry now known as the Angola Brick & Tile Company. For a number of years he was associated with his brother Ora under the name Ewers brothers, brick manufacturers. He bought out his brother's interests in 1889 and continued the business until 1893, when it was incorporated as the Angola Brick & Tile Company. Sylvester Ewers owned three- sevenths of the stock in that corporation. He con- tinned giving his time and attention to his business affairs until his death on July 9, 1910. He was a good business man and an equally good citizen and helped make the City of Angola what it is today. Politically he was a democrat and at one time was a greenbacker. He was affiliated with the Masons, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and was a member of the Christian Church. His widow is still living at Angola.

They had a family of nine children, named DeWitt, Eugene, James, John, Lucy, George, Maud, Mildred and Elizabeth. Three are now deceased, John, Lucy and Elizabeth.

DeWitt Ewers was educated in the schools of Angola, where he has spent most of his life. He attended the Angola High School, and finished the commercial course of the Tri-State Normal. For thirty-three years he has been connected with the brick and tile company and was an active associate with his father and uncle for seventeen years and since the incorporation of the company has been its manager.

Mr. Ewers is a prohibitionist in politics. He was a member of the first council of the City of Angola. He is a member of the Masonic Lodge and Knights of Pythias and of the Christian Church. In 1893 he married Miss Ida May Eckman, who was born in Whitley County, Indiana, daughter of George and Marion (Taylor) Eckman. She was only seven years old when her mother died, and her father afterward came to Steuben County and died at Metz, where Mrs. Ewers lived until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Ewers have two children. Leland, born August 31, 1894, was educated in the grammar and high schools of Angola and is now associated with his father and is also engaged in the coal business. Marion, born March 18, 1901, is a student

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST INDIANA

of the Angola High School. Mr. Ewers' nephew, Ralph Ewers, a son of his brother Eugene, is now serving in the One Hundred and Forty-Sixth Artil- lery with the Army of Occupation in Germany.

MAURICE C. LEMMON has been figuring as one of the leading men in the agricultural industry of Steuben County for over thirty years. He has a large farm in Steuben Township, his address being at Pleasant Lake. He is a native of that county, and his people have lived there for over three- quarters of a century.

Mr. Lemmon was born in Otsego Township No- vember 9, 1862, a son of David Riley and Lorana (Tuttle) Lemmon. The grandparents, Maurice and Lucinda Lemmon, came to Steuben County in 1842 and acquired the farm which their son David Riley afterwards owned. Grandfather Maurice Lemmon died at the age of thirty-two and his wife at forty- eight. They had four children, Bert, David Riley, Brace and Clay. The mother of these children afterward married David Lemmon, a brother of her first husband, and by that union also had four children, Tina, Adhill, Mildred and Burr.

David Riley Lemmon was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, November 26, 1839, and was about three or four years old when his parents came to Steuben County. He grew up on the homestead, made a choice farm of it, and of the 160 acres he sold sixty-two and a half acres to his son Morton. He also owned forty acres in another place and still another tract of fifty-five acres. In politics he is a republican. His wife, Lorana Tuttle, was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, April 15, 1838, and they were married February 20, 1861. Her parents were Lemmon and Lora Tuttle. Mrs. David R. Lemmon died May 12, 1899, and a few years later her husband moved to Pleasant Lake, where he is now living retired. They had a family of nine children, all still living, named Maurice, Cora, Morton, Lora, Chaplin, Vira, Bessie, Ethel and Elsie.

Maurice C. Lemmon spent his early years on his father's farm and attended the district schools and the Pleasant Lake High School. He has given all his time and energies to farming since he was twenty-two years of age, and after renting for three years he bought in 1889 the place where he now lives, comprising 152 acres. Much of the land was rough and uncleared, and he has since put it into cultivation and has improved the farm with good buildings. Mr. Lemmon is a republican, but has never sought political office.

In 1884 he married Miss Anna Beecher, daughter of Truman and Statira (Brown) Beecher. Her mother died in 1901 and her father is now living at Hamilton. Mr. and Mrs. Lemmon have three children: Russell finished his education in the Pleasant Lake High School and died in 1906, at the age of twenty years. Bernice, who was educated in the Pleasant Lake High School, married Clarence Brooks, of Pleasant Lake, and they have two chil- dren, Alice Jean and Maurice George. The son Beecher also had a high school education, and on July 27, 1917, enlisted in the regular army, and served until granted an honorable discharge April 25, 1918. At the time of his discharge he was a sergeant in the quartermaster's corps.

TRUMAN A. BEECHER, one of the oldest residents and business men of Hamilton, Indiana, where he has lived more than sixty years, was born in Craw- ford County, Ohio, May 25, 1837, a son of Truman and Hannah (Sloane) Beecher. His father was

born at Litchfield, Connecticut, and his mother near Steubenville, Ohio, and they were married in the latter state in 1824. Truman Beecher and a partner built the first ten locks on the Ohio Canal at Akron, Ohio. Later he moved to Fredericksburg in Wayne County and also lived at Wooster, the county seat of that county. His business as a contractor took him to various localities. He also lived in Crawford County, and in 1845 brought his family to Franklin Township of DeKalb County, Indiana. He soon moved to Albion in Noble County, where his wife died in 1850. About that time he fitted up a com- pany for the overland route to California, and while on the way west he took sick and died at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, when about sixty years of age. His children were John Sloane, Mary, Philemon, Henry and Truman A.

Mr. Beecher's maternal grandfather, John Sloane, was a distinguished figure in Ohio and national his- tory. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1779 and at an early date moved to Ohio. During the War of 1812 he was a colonel of militia. He was a member of the Legislature in 1804-06, serving two years as speaker. He was United States receiver of public monies at Canton from 1808 to 1816, and at Wooster from 1816 to 1819. He represented his district in Congress from 1819 until 1829. He was a warm friend and admirer of Henry Clay, and at a time when the presidential election was decided by the House of Representatives in the contest between Adams, Clay and Crawford, he refused a high presidential appointment offered as a reward for his voting for Adams, and remained true to Clay. A warm friendship existed between him and the great Kentucky whig statesman. John Sloane was also clerk of the Court of Common Pleas seven years, secretary of the State of Ohio three years and was appointed United States treasurer and served from November, 1850, to April, 1853. He died at Wooster, Ohio, in May, 1856.

Truman A. Beecher was eight years old when his parents came to DeKalb County, Indiana. He at- tended public schools and after the death of his father and mother he returned to Wooster, Ohio, and lived with his distinguished grandfather, John Sloane. As a youth he learned the trade of tinner, and in 1858, on coming to Steuben County and locating at Hamilton, he opened a tinner's shop. He was in business steadily for over fifty years, until he retired in 1915. Mr. Beecher owns a good home in Hamilton. He has been a steadfast re- publican, his father having been an old-line whig. In religious views he is liberal. On May 4, 1862, he married Miss Statira Brown. She was born in Erie County, Ohio, in 1840, and died in 1901. Mr. and Mrs. Beecher had ten children, including several pairs of twins: Minnie; Anna, wife of Maurice Lemmon; Harriet Stowe; Nettie and an infant sister ; William, whose twin died in infancy; Frank C. and Fannie C., twins; and James Garfield, who was born the day Garfield was elected president.

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.

History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 6

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