History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 83

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 83
USA > Indiana > Noble County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 83
USA > Indiana > DeKalb County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 83
USA > Indiana > Steuben County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 83

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).

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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST INDIANA

Grand Army. He was a Baptist and republican. Of four children, one died at the age of ten years and George M. is the only son. Mary is the wife of Frank Olinger and Anna, the wife of Frank Daw- son.

George M. Ditmars grew up on the home farm and atterded the district schools. November 8, 1893, he max, ed Cora E. Olinger, who was born in Keyser Township, a daughter of John S. and Lucy (Yarde) Olinger. Ever since his marriage Mr. Ditmars has lived on the homestead and manages and owns about 120 acres in general farming and stock raising. He and his wife had two children: Chester, who was born October 7, 1895, and died at the age of three years, four months and twenty- five days; and Floyd F., who was born December 6, 1897, and is a graduate of the common schools and has attended the Auburn High School.

Mr. Ditmars is a republican, and though living in a township normally democratic by over eighty votes came within four votes of being elected trustee.

HENRY SUNDAY. A farm in section 8 of Steuben Township has been tinder the continuous ownership and management of the Sunday family for over half a century. Henry Sunday was born there, and for the past fifteen or twenty years has owned the old homestead and has made it the scene of his product- ive labors. He is one of the leading citizens of that part of Steuben County.

Mr. Sunday was born July 2, 1869, son of Andrew and Mary (Ritter) Sunday and grandson of Daniel and Catherine Sunday, early settlers of Steuben County. Both were born in Center County, Penn- sylvania, Daniel in 1809 and Catherine in 1806. They moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio and from the latter state came to Steuben County, Indiana, in 1855, accompanied by their sons John and Dan. Their son Andrew preceded them to this county about two years. Andrew Sunday was born in San- dusky County, Ohio, August 11, 1831, spent the greater part of his life in Steuben Township, and owned a place of 120 acres, which his industry did much to improve and make valuable. He built the barn which is still standing on the farm. He was a hard working man, but did not realize all the" fruits of his industry, since he died February 25, 1870, when not yet forty years of age. Andrew Sunday married Mary Ritter, who was born No- vember 4. 1835, and died April 6, 1912. Her father, Henry Ritter, was born in Union County, Pennsyl- vania, in 1803, was reared in Ohio, and in 1851 set- tled in section 8 of Stenben Township. He brought only a few hundred dollars to that county, lived in a log cabin, and gradually saw his industry bear fruit, and he had a large farm of over 200 acres. Henry Ritter married Mary Harpster, and they were the parents of five children: David, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine, and one daughter that died in infancy. Andrew Sunday and wife had seven children: Levi, born April 11, 1856, died November 26, 1860; Emma J., born June 30, 1857, died August 26, 1858; David, born January 2, 1859; Willie, born December 9, 1862, and died May 8, 1864; Mary Catherine, born June 26, 1864, was married to Jefferson Hartman; Carrie Della, born December II, 1867, wife of William H. Freed, of Steuben County; and Henry. The mother of these children was an active member of the Re- formed Church.

Henry Sunday after getting his education in Steuben Township went to work on the home farm and at the age of about twenty-one rented the farm from his mother. After his mother's death, in 1913, he bought the old homestead and is using it as a general purpose farm, raising the special crops fitted to this climate and livestock.

September 21, 1892, Mr. Sunday married Dora Hoyer. She was born April 26, 1873, in Williams County, Ohio, a daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Saul) Hoyer. Mr. and Mrs. Sunday are members of the United Brethren Church. They have two daughters, Vera G., born March 6, 1897, and Dessa M., born May 17, 1902. Vera is the wife of Bert J. Swager, and her only child, Robert, was born September 7, 1917.

PETER KALB is one of the oldest residents of Wash- ington Township, is now retired from his active responsibilities as a farmer, and is still living at his country home in section 3.

He was born in Westmoreland County, Penn- sylvania, January 17, 1837, a son of John and Phoebe (Howenstine) Kalb. His mother was born in Ger- many and was brought to the United States at the age of three years. John Kalb was a native of Penn- sylvania, was married in that state, and he and his family moved to Ohio with wagons and teams, settling in Stark County. Peter Kalb grew up in that section of Ohio and married there Sarah J. Henning. Not long afterward they came to the woods of Noble County, Indiana, and Mr. Kalb bought eighty acres, which his sustained industry through a long period of years brought under cultivation and gave him a good farm, where he has prospered and where he has lived for half a century. He still owns sixty acres, but has not cultivated it for a number of years.

His first wife died in this county, and was the mother of eight children, four of whom are still liv- ing: Amanda, wife of Sam Shoupe; Phoebe, wife of Adam Stump; Millie, wife of Marshall Draime; and Edward, of Washington Township. Mr. Kalb married for his second wife Lydia A. Deardorff, who died in 1907. She was the mother of one daugh- ter, Maude May, born September 21, 1885.

Mr. Kalb is a member of the Christian Church and is a republican in politics. He served as town- ship supervisor fourteen years.

ELROY BROOKS, a retired farmer living at Angola, was born in York Township of Steuben County April 12, 1856. His grandfather was a native of England, and he brought his family of ten children to America and settled in Steuben County. Elroy Brooks' father was born in England. He was reared and educated in Steuben County, and left his farm of fifty acres to enter the Union army in Company B of the One Hundredth Indiana Infantry. He died as a result of exposure and hardship in the war. His wife was Barbara Douglass, and their children were Elroy, Elizabeth, Jay and Samuel.

Elroy Brooks spent thirty years of his life as a successful farmer. He owned a good place of forty-six acres in Millgrove Township. Since 1912 he has lived at Angola. In 1878 he married Rosella Robnet, daughter of James and Cloa Robnet. To their marriage were born five children: Cora, wife of Henry Nelson; George, who was killed August 15, 1918; Dora, wife of Worthy Crowell; Barbara, wife of Wade Crampton, of Otsego Township; and Samuel I.

FRANK M. BROWN, a resident of Fremont, is one of the largest land owners and farmers in Steuben County and is a member of a family that has been identified with this part of Northeast Indiana since pioneer days. The Brown family has always been one of prominence and its members have a record of unadulterated American patriotism.

Several of his early ancestors lived at Windham, Connecticut, and they were represented by service in the Revolutionary war. His great-grandfather

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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST INDIANA

was Elijah Brown, who was a son of Stephen, a grandson of John and great-grandson of Ezekiel Brown, a line of ancestors going back to the very earliest times of the Connecticut colony. Elijah Brown was born in 1773 and married Elizabeth Greenfield.

Russell Brown, grandfather of Frank M. Brown, was born in Stephentown, Rensselaer County, New York, January 24, 1805. In 1828 he married Laura Sweet, of Stillwater, New York. Her father, Wil- liam Sweet, was a Revolutionary soldier. In 1836 Russell Brown came to LaGrange County, Indiana, and for many years was identified with the upbuild- ing and improvement of that locality. He and his wife had five children, Philena, who died at the age of fifteen, Ezekiel, Warren, Erastus and William.

Ezekiel Brown, father of Frank M. Brown, was born in Cayuga County, New York, in 1830, and was about six years old when brought to LaGrange County. He attended a log cabin schoolhouse and in 1858 moved to Steuben County and became a merchant at Crooked Creek. Soon afterward he bought 250 acres of land, about 100 acres of which was in stumps. Eventually he had over 500 acres, constituting one of the finest farms in Steuben County, improved with splendid buildings. The Brown home was always noted for its hospitality. Ezekiel Brown represented his county in the State Legislature in 1878. In 1855 he married Mary C. Barry, daughter of John and Mary A. (Darrow) Barry, natives of Orleans County, New York, who came to Indiana in 1835. Ezekiel Brown and wife had two sons, Frank M. and Clinton M.

Clinton M. Brown, who was born February 2, 1859, attended high school at Angola, graduated from Hillsdale College in Michigan in 1881, and in the fall of the same year moved to Nebraska, and in many ways has been prominent in that state. He now lives at Cambridge, Nebraska, where he is president of the First National Bank of Cambridge. He is an attorney by profession and represented his district in the State Legislature. He also owns and manages a large cattle ranch in Wyoming.

Frank M. Brown, who was born January 3, 1858, in Applemanburg, Springfield Township, LaGrange County, received his early education in Jamestown Township of Steuben County. He attended high school at Angola and took up farming at an early age, having made a definite choice of his vocation as an agriculturist. He farmed in Jamestown town- ship from 1882 until the spring of 1916, at which time he retired with an adequate competence for all his future requirements. Since then he has lived in Fremont, but he still owns three farms aggregating 526 acres, some of it the finest land in Steuben County.

January 3, 1882, Mr. Brown married Myra Wilder, who was born in 1860, a daughter of Norton and Lyda (Shut) Wilder. Her father came to James- town Township in 1858. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have three children: Lewis Glenn, born January 6, 1883, married Pearl Leg and has two children, Roscoe and Russell. Lucile, born May 15, 1884, is the wife of Elmer Van Gilter, living on a farm in James- town Township, and their children are Marjorie, Maxine and Roherta. The youngest, Laura Bell, born May 14, 1891, is the wife of L. W. Masters, a dentist by profession.

J. W. VAN DREW. A resident of LaGrange County nearly fifty years, J. W. Van Drew is one of the stanch and sturdy followers of agriculture in Johnson Township, and is a man who in all the relations of a busy life has stood true to principle, has been successful in his affairs, and is known and

honored for the fine family and good influence that has always radiated from his home.

Mr. Van Drew, who lives in section 19 of Johnson Township, was born in Pennsylvania, June 17, 1850, a son of Jacob and Margaret (Neighwander) Van Drew. His parents spent all their lives in Pennsyl- vania, where his father was a farmer. His father was a democrat, and he and his wife were members of the Mennonite Church. Of their seven children six are still living: Sarah, J. W., Jennie, Sarah, Eliza and Margaret.

J. W. Van Drew grew up on his father's farm and had a common school education. At the age of twenty he left home and came to Indiana, and in 1872 settled in LaGrange County. He married Alice Case. She became the mother of three chil- dren, two of whom are still living: Guy, a mer- chant at Des Moines, Iowa; and Ray, a merchant at Valentine, Indiana. On November 7, 1889, Mr. Van Drew married Emma Charles. She was born in Seneca County, Ohio, a daughter of Jasper E. and Susanna (Grossman) Charles. Her parents were born and were married in Franklin County, Penn- sylvania, moved from there to Seneca County, Ohio, and in 1873 settled at Woodruff in Johnson Town- ship of LaGrange County, Indiana. Mrs. Van Drew received her education in the schools of Ohio and Indiana. She became the mother of three children. Loyd C., who had a high school education and a business course at Fort Wayne, Indiana, was with the American Expeditionary Forces in France and is now at home. Hazel M., after three years in high school, took the nurse's training course, is a grad- uate nurse of Christ Hospital at Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1918 engaged in Red Cross work. Florence M. left high school to train in the Lutheran Hos- pital at Fort Wayne. Mrs. Van Drew is a member of the Lutheran Church. In politics Mr. Van Drew follows the democratic allegiance. His place of business is a farm of sixty-nine acres, where he gives his time to general farming and stockraising.

EARL REED, one of the oldest residents of Steuben County, figured for many years as a prominent timber buyer throughout Northern Indiana, and is now busily engaged in looking after and supervising his fine farm just east of Fremont.

Mr. Reed, who was brought to Steuben County when a child, was born in Richland County, Ohio, November II, 1842, son of James and Adaline M. (Weber) Reed, the former a native of Seneca County, Ohio. Adaline Weber was a daughter of David and Lucy Weber. James Reed followed farm- ing in Richland County, Ohio, and in 1853 brought his family to Salem Township, Steuben County, buying eighty acres. Later he lived in Pleasant Township and still later in Scott Township, where he died.

Earl Reed attended school in Pleasant Township and as a young man began farming there. When about thirty-four years old he took up the business of buying timber for Huffman Brothers of Fort Wayne. He also bought for the Michigan Tie Com- pany of Grand Rapids. It was a business that re- quired much travel and gave him the acquaintance of the owner of nearly every important timber lot in Northeast Indiana. He thoroughly understood his business, relied upon honest principles of dealing, and has a host of friends among his former patrons. In 1904, after retiring from business as a timber buyer, he bought his present farm just out of the corporation limits of Fremont. He owns 100 acres, and has done much to improve it in material build- ing equipment and also in increasing the fertility of the soil. Mr. Reed is a man of modern and pro- gressive views in this respect, and every year feeds

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a large number of live stock not only for the profit there is in it but to conserve the fertility of his farm. Each winter he feeds a large number of lambs.

Mr. Reed married for his first wife Alta Mabery, daughter of Daniel Mahery. She was the mother of three children, Lula, Clyde and Carl. Clyde mar- ried Lona Boor. For his second wife Mr. Reed married in 1889 Rachel Hodges, daughter of Charles Hodges.

JONAS M. HUTCHINS has lived most of his life - in Noble County. Farming has absorbed his ener- gies and has given him the substantial prosperity he now enjoys. At the same time he has taken an interest and helpful part in all commercial affairs, including the church and educational interests, and is still giving his time to the operation of his farm in section 2 of Wayne Township, on rural route No. I out of Kendallville.

Mr. Hutchins was born in section 2 of Wayne Township, May 21, 1852. His parents were Roscoe and Susie (Stahl) Hutchins. Roscoe Hutchins was born in Knox County, Maine, March 8, 1831. His father, Henry Hutchins, took his family from Maine to Ohio in 1834, locating near Fostoria, where he lived and died. His children were Roscoe, Charles, Franklin, Lydia A. and Almetia. The son Franklin was a Union soldier and was killed in the great battle of Chickamauga.

Roscoe Hutchins grew to maturity in Seneca County. Ohio, attended the common schools there, and soon after his marriage brought his bride to Indiana, in 1851, locating in Wayne Township of Noble County. He lived the rest of his life in section 2 of that township, from which community he went out when the Civil war was raging as a member of Company K, 46th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and though he was on constant duty for three years he was never wounded. At the close of the war he rejoined his family in Noble County, and thereafter was a successful farmer. He was a democrat in politics. Of his children, six in num- ber, two are still living, Jonas M. and Lydia Ann Eliza, the latter being the wife of George R. Lovett, a farmer in LaGrange County, Indiana. The de- ceased children are: Delcena, who married Frank Bower and died at the age of twenty-four; Frank- lin, who died when two years old; Jerome D., who died at the age of twenty-one; and Henry, who died when fifty-five years old.

Jonas M. Hutchins spent his early life on the home farm in Wayne Township, and while there put in the usual time attending the district schools. He was with his parents to the age of twenty-one, and earned his way by contributing his labors to his father. He also worked as a farm hand by the month, and gradually accumulated enough to enable him to buy his first farm, consisting of fifty- four acres. He did well in handling that land and has since increased it by eighty acres, giving him a well proportioned and arranged farm of a hun- dred and thirty-four acres, highly improved and well stocked.

Mr. Hutchins married for his first wife Opal Myers. She was the mother of two children: Bes- sie F., wife of Clarence Simon, and Sterling, a graduate of the common schools and now living at South Milford. For his second wife Mr. Hutchins married Ida May Randal. To this mar- riage were also born two children: Wava B., a graduate of the common schools, and also a student at the European Schools of Music, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, is the wife of Roy C. Green; Audrey S .. a graduate of the South Milford High School class of 1917, is the wife of Fred C. Zimmerman. The

family are members of the Evangelical Church. Mr. Hutchins is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias Lodge at Kendallville, being a past .chan- cellor and a member of the Grand Lodge. He has filled the office of justice of the peace in his pre- cinct for the past ten years, and has gained much esteem in his community for his impartial handling of the various cases tried before him. He is very active in his church, and is a democrat in politics.

JOHN DYGERT. The record of the Dygert family has an inalienable right in the affairs of Steuhen County, where the name has been represented promi- nently for over eighty years.

John Dygert was born in Montgomery County, New York, February 27, 1826, a son of Adam and Jane (Duesler) Dygert, both natives of New York. The Dygert family after leaving Montgomery County lived for two years in Seneca County and later in Monroe County, New York. In the early thirties Adam Dygert came to Steuben County and entered land in York Township, acquiring 160 acres. In 1838 he settled his family there, and he and his wife lived in the county until death. They were members of the Presbyterian Church, and in that generation the politics of the family was democratic." Adam Dygert and wife had children named Lany, Abraham, William, Christian, Levi, Benjamin, Harvey, John, Jeremiah and Henry Adam, John Dygert being the only one still living.

John Dygert was twelve years old when he arrived in Steuben County October 19, 1838. For over eighty years he has been a witness of changing scenes and conditions. He attended some of the early day schools and as a youth he manufactured many grain cradles and also worked one year at the blacksmith's trade. As a farmer he bought a tract of cranberry land two miles east of Angola, and later bought the farm where his sons Levi and Carl reside and where he makes his home. Mr. Dygert is independent in politics and has served as assessor and township treasurer and has been an active leader in the Grange and Farmers' Alliance and in other local movements. He is the last sur- viving county official of the group who were in- cumbents of office when the court house was built. At that time he was serving as county commissioner. He is liberal in his religious views.

In 1851 John Dygert married Caroline Stotts, of Steuben County. She died in 1875, the mother of two children: Charles F., a farmer in Scott Town- ship, and Sarah Jane, who became the wife of Jackson Nisinger and has two children, Merle and Caroline.

April 20, 1881, Mr. John Dygert married Miss Mary Grubb. She was born in Richland County, Ohio, September 27, 1843, a daughter of John and Mary (Bellamy) Grubb. Her parents were natives of England and her father was killed by a falling tree in Richland County, Ohio, in 1845. Mrs. Dygert came with her widowed mother to Steuben County in 1862. Her mother died February 1, 1881. In the Grubb family were seven childern: Sarah, William, Ann, John, who died while a soldier in the Civil war, Alice, Elizabeth and Mary.

Mr. and Mrs. Dygert had three sons: Ora Clyde, Carl and Levi. Carl married Grace Weicht, and their six children were John, Audra, deceased, Mil- dred, Louise, Galen and Herman.

Levi Dygert, who was born on the home farm in 1885, was educated in the common schools, and for a number of years with his brother Carl has worked the homestead. He is independent in poli- tics, a member of the Odd Fellows and Moose. In IQII he married Miss Balding, who was born in Scott Township June 3, 1891, daughter of George

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and Alice (Nisinger) Balding. Her father died in 1894. Levi Dygert and wife have two children : George Wendell, born January 26, 1913, and Rollin John, born February 27,- 1917.

WARREN D. WELLS. This veteran editor and newspaper man of Northeast Indiana has evidently had very few of the vicissitudes and rapid changes of the average publisher, since he has been a fixture and a useful one at Fremont for over a quarter of a century, where he founded and has conducted the Fremont Eagle.

Mr. Wells was born in Allen County, Indiana, November 17, 1859, a son of John and Julia (Dewey) Wells. His mother was a native of Steuben County, New York. John Wells was born in 1825 and spent many years of his life as a farmer in Allen County, Indiana, where he died in 1901. His widow after his death made her home with her only son and child, Warren D., at Fremont, where she died in 1911.

Warren D. Wells acquired a good education, at first in the public schools in Allen County, later in Fort Wayne College and also in Valparaiso College. He taught school several years, and in 1889 began the printing trade at Fort Wayne. Three years later, in 1892, he came to Fremont and established the Fremont Eagle, a paper that has stood for the best interests of the community, has been published and owned by Mr. Wells for a quarter of a cen- tury, and has become a highly successful property.

Mr. Wells while he has given his time to the management of his newspaper has also been a figure in the public affairs of Steuben County, and held the office of County Recorder from 1908 to 1912. He is a Mason and Knights of Pythias.

In 1884 he married Anna M. Clark, a daughter of Thomas R. and Margaret ( Miller) Clark. They have a family of six children: Emma G., wife of Otto O. Wolter; Arthur D., who married Hazel Whitmore; Edgar D., who married Edith Birch ; Donald H .; Henry F., who married Sylvia Noggle ; and Winifred. Arthur has followed in his father's footsteps as a journalist and is editor of the Orland Zenith, published at Orland, Indiana. Mr. Wells is very proud of the fact that three of his sons were in the country's service during the war, Edgar, Donald and Henry. Donald is now managing editor of Base Hospital Journal at Camp Sherman, Ohio. Henry is with Battery C. of the One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Field Artillery, and is with the American Army of Occupation in Luxemburg.

CHARLES RAMER. Though a comparatively brief life was vouchsafed to Charles Ramer, he devel- oped a real farm out of the woods of Clear Spring Township, and left his family in comfortable cir- cumstances. He was highly esteemed as a citizen and was true to himself and to all the duties and obligations of life.

He was born in Brown County, Ohio, January 14, 1861, a son of Henry and Catherine (Suffel) Ramer. His parents were both natives of Germany. Henry Ramer came to the United States when a young man, and after a year or two went back to the Fatherland to settle up his father's estate. On his second trip to this country he met Catherine Suffel, and on May 27, 1859, they were married and in the same year located in Brown County, Ohio. Henry Ramer was born April 22, 1830, and his wife was born April 16, 1838. They were the parents of twelve children. In 1877 the family moved to Noble County, Indiana, and in 1896 to LaGrange County, where Henry Ramer died July 15, 1897, and his widow March 23, 1905.

Charles Ramer was sixteen years old when brought to Indiana, had a farm rearing and a com- mon school education, and on April 19, 1885, mar- ried Mary A. Reidenbach. She was born in Elk- hart Township of Noble County May 3, 1862, a daughter of Philip and Catherine (Kermin) Reiden- bach. She was reared on a farm in Noble County and had a common school education.

Mr. and Mrs. Ramer after their marriage lived in Noble County a few years, and on coming to LaGrange County located on the place of 160 acres which at that time was all in the woods and which Mr. Ramer's industry converted into the good farm which it is today. He died there in the midst of his labors, when he was beginning to realize their fruit- ·age, on May 30, 1916. He was active in the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, as is Mrs. Ramer, and in politics was a democrat.

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History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 83

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