History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 86

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 86
USA > Indiana > Noble County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 86
USA > Indiana > DeKalb County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 86
USA > Indiana > Steuben County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 86

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).

Van Goodwin

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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST INDIANA

office of Best & Bratton. He was with them two years, and in 1893 was made a partner of the firm, and has been steadily engaged in practice ever since. Mr. Yotter is a democrat and a. member of the Knights of Pythias, and he and his family are communicants of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In October, 1897, he married Gussie B. Best, a daughter of John G. Best and a niece of Judge D. R. Best. Mrs. Yotter died in 1900, leaving one child, Karolyn, who died December 20, 1909, at the age of ten years. In 1902 Mr. Yotter married Rena Sears, daughter of Charles E. and Maggie (Veasey) Sears, of LaGrange County. They are the parents of four children: Anna Marie, born December 13, 1906; George Albert, born July 13, 1909; Edward Sears, born May 12, 1914; and Ruth, born July 13, 1916.

HARVEY WILSON. The increased demand for foodstuffs, with the consequent betterment of mar- keting facilities and advance in prices, have led a number of essentially representative men to return to the farm and devote themselves to agricultural pursuits. That this move was a patriotic one goes without saying, but the success which is attending these experienced farmers shows that it was one of good judgment as well. One of these men is Harvey Wilson, whose family has been connected with the cultivation of the land of Steuben County for many years. He is now living on the home- stead of his father in Otsego Township, where he owns a finely cultivated and well improved farm.

Harvey Wilson was born in Wayne County, Ohio, March 27, 1858, a son of Alexander Grifan and Ann Jane (Maxwell) Wilson, he born in Pennsyl- vania, October 15, 1829, and she in Ashland County, Ohio, November 10, 1828. They were married in 1850, and in the fall of 1860 they came to Steuben County, Indiana, locating on a farm in Otsego Township entered from the Government by Joshua Hunt. After the death of the mother in 1906 the father retired, but he is still living. They had nine children born to them, namely: Wesley, Olive Curtis, Samuel James, Harvey, Minerva Jane, Mar- cella, Alexander, Franklin and Leander.

The boyhood and youth of Harvey Wilson were spent on the home farm, and he acquired a knowl- edge of the fundamentals of education in the dis- trict schools. His first business experience was gained in the mercantile field, in which he remained for three years, operating in Troy Township, De- Kalb County, Indiana. He then conducted a wagon route from Hamilton to the outlying rural district for three years in the interests of Hagerty and Swaidner. Mr. Wilson then engaged with Byers brothers and Wesley Davis in the poultry, butter and egg business at Angola, but left it in 1914 to buy his present farm, which is a portion of the one his father purchased upon coming to Steuben County. . He erected a new barn in 1917, making it conform to sanitary regulations and sufficiently commodious for all purposes for which it is used, and remodeled the house, making it modern and very comfortable. Here he carries on general farming and stock rais- ing, and as he thoroughly understands all the details of his work is making money. Politically, he is a strong republican. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias. The Methodist Episcopal Church holds his membership and benefits by his generous donations.

In 1881 Mr. Wilson was united in marriage with Phebe Elizabeth Baker, who died in November, 1901, leaving two children, Jacob Griffin, who married Eunice Skelton, and they have a son, Rosco, and Jessie, who married Curtis Casebere, of Edgerton, Ohio, and has four children, Earl, Wannita, Aletha

and Ruth. In 1907 Mr. Wilson was married to Mat- tie Goudy, a daughter of William and Mary E. (Dirrim) Goudy, pioneers of Steuben County. Mr. and Mrs. Goudy lived at Orland, Indiana, but sub- sequently went to Nebraska. Coming back to In- diana, they lived for a time in DeKalb County, but later bought land in Richland Township, Steuben County, and still later moved to Otsego Township, settling near Cold Lake, where he died in February, 1904, Mrs. Goudy surviving him and is still living on the farm. William Goudy was a son of Samuel Goudy. Mr. and Mrs. Goudy had the following family: William, who died in infancy, Fletcher, Frank. Mattie, Charles, Robert, Fannie, Timothy and Crissie. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have one son, Raymond, who was born April 28, 1914. The Wil- son and Goudy families are among the old estab-

lished ones in this part of Indiana, and their mem- bers stand very well wherever they are found. The majority of them are interested along agricultural lines, are owners of property and in every way sub- stantial and influential citizens, who hold the respect and confidence of their fellow citizens. It is such people as these which make the United States what it is, and enable it in times of stress to measure up to the highest standards of manhood.

ALVIN A. GOODWIN has heavy responsibilities in a business way, being manager of the Goodwin Lum- ber Company, one of the chief firms engaged in hard- wood lumber manufacture in Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan. Mr. Goodwin for many years has been engaged in the lumber business either as a retailer or manufacturer, and is a member of one of the old and prominent families of Northeastern In- diana.

He was born at the Town of Waterloo in DeKalb County September 8, 1872, son of Leander S. and Rebecca (Hively) Goodwin. His grandfather, Sam- uel Goodwin, was born in Pennsylvania in October, 1816, son of David and Catherine (Zimmerman) Goodwin. In 1822 the Goodwin family moved to Wayne County, Ohio, later .to Ashland County, where David Goodwin died, and Samuel Goodwin grew up in Ashland County and in 1843 married Elizabeth Good. From that section of Ohio in 1854 they moved to DeKalb County, Indiana, and settled on a farm near Waterloo in Union Town- ship. Samuel Goodwin cleared away the woods and made a choice farm of 115 acres and accumu- lated a good property which kept his age free from care and labor. His wife died in 1865. Two of his brothers, David and Daniel, also came to De- Kalb County, and as they had adjoining land the three families constituted almost a community. By his first marriage Samuel Goodwin had five chil- dren : Mary E., who died in 1918; Leander S .; Jo- seph W., of Fremont, Indiana; Lucy, who married Stephen George; and Alice, who became the wife of William Atwood. Samuel Goodwin married for his second wife Mary Brubaker, a widow, and they had three children, Ina, Frank and William.

Leander S. Goodwin was born in Ashland County, Ohio, August 18, 1846, and was about eight years old when the family moved to DeKalb County. He grew up on a farm there, acquired a public school education, and in addition, to farming he sold agri- cultural implements and was also a dealer in timber lands. He was a republican, and during the session of 1895 served as postmaster of the House of Ren- resentatives in the Indiana Legislature. He died in 1898, and his wife, who was born in Ohio in 1847, died in 1884. Both were active members of the United Brethren Church. Leander Goodwin and his first wife had five children: Etta; Ella, ticket agent

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at Waterloo; Alvin A .; Elizabeth, who died in 1876; ing young life went out because of the ravages of and Samuel L. Leander Goodwin married for his the disease. second wife Jennie Lawhead, and they were the par- ents of three children, Martha, Jay and William. Both Jay and William have been soldiers in the great war. Jay is now with the army in France. William has been assigned to duty on the military police in New York City.

Alvin A. Goodwin grew up in DeKalb County, at- tended the public schools, and in 1891, at the age of nineteen, went to Pleasant Lake in Steuben County and entered the service of his uncle, Joseph W. Goodwin, in the saw milling business. In 1900 Mr. Goodwin bought a local lumber and coal yard, and continued that business for twelve years, building it up to large proportions and selling out at a figure which represented a comfortable com- petency. For many years he had been engaged in the manufacture of lumber, and, as above noted, is manager of the Goodwin Lumber Company, which has a number of mills in Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana. In 1918 this corporation fur- nished about $75,000 worth of lumber for govern- ment purposes. Mr. Goodwin is also the owner of the Standard Body Company, of White Pigeon, Michigan, which company builds cabs and bodies for automobile trucks, and their product is sold through- out the central states, mostly from their distribut- ing branch in Detroit. Their slogan-"From Tree to Truck" is well known in the motor truck world and the factory is always away behind in filling orders because of its being impossible for the pro- duction to keep pace with the increasing business. The product of this factory is seen throughout the country, on the busy streets of all the large cities and on country roads.

While so much of his time has been taken up with practical business affairs Mr. Goodwin is known to a great many people not in a business way but as an author. His poetry has attracted much atten- tion, and has been published in some of the lead- ing magazines, also in the columns of the Fort Wayne daily papers. Some of his selected poems have been published in book form. Mr. Goodwin is affiliated with Pleasant Lake Lodge No. 593, Free and Accepted Masons, with the Order of Gleaners, and with the United Commercial Travelers of Fort Wayne. He and his family are members of the United Brethren Church.

In 1895 Mr. Goodwin married Miss Lena Bigler of Pleasant Lake. Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin have two children : Van, whose individual sketch follows; and Verne, born June 29, 1902, still in high school.

Politically Mr. Goodwin is a republican, but has been too busy to concern himself with the responsi- bilities of public office, though he is an active worker for his party and served on the Credentials Com- mittee at the State Convention in 1916.

VAN BIGLER GOODWIN. In vegetation the flower is often esteemed more than the fruit. Childhood and youth are the flower of human growth, and their perfect symmetry and beauty, when their time of fruitage in experience and achievement is denied, frequently represent the greatest ultimate good within the compass of mortal vision.

It was the brevity of his years, and not any im- perfection involved in youth itself, that lent a tragic aspect to the death of Van Bigler Goodwin, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin' A. Goodwin of Pleasant Lake, which occurred on October 12, 1918, as a result of influenza in the terrible epidemic whichi swept the country.

Although but twenty years of age-he was born September 6, 1898-he was one of the most widely known men of Northeastern Indiana and a promis-

He first became widely known as one of the best basket ball players in the country, his skillful and at the same time clean playing winning him friends by the thousands, and this, added to a remarkable irresistible personality, made him one of the best liked young men of the several counties of North- eastern Indiana.

At the conclusion of both the 1917 and 1918 basket ball tournaments at Kendallville, at which place some eighty players had been in action, he was selected as one of the two "forwards" on an "All-Star" team, the selection being made by the referees who knew none of the players of the tournament.

Many fans mourn his death, for he made hun- dreds of friends in surrounding towns who never failed to get an inspiration from his smile which he always carried even in the heat of the game, and it is conceded by all who knew him that he was one of the factors in making basket ball a popular game in this part of the state.

A remarkable circumstance is, that his friends were not confined to those of his own age, but busi- ness and professional men of all ages, and those much younger than he, were among his best friends and he will always live in the hearts of those who were fortunate enough to meet him.

"Van, you're gone but not forgotten, By the world you left behind ; From old age back to the cradle, By every class of human kind."

LEDGER D. MCKIBBEN. It is a fortunate and truly American community that reflects the progressive spirit of such citizens as Ledger D. Mckibben. Mr. Mckibben is a member of an old family of La- Grange County and is living on the farm near Val- entine, where he was born February 18, 1881.

His parents were James S. and Lissa A. (Van- kirk) Mckibben, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Bloomfield Township, LaGrange County. They were married in this county and lived on the farm until the spring of 1905, at which time they moved to the City of LaGrange and are now living retired. Both were charter members of the Methodist Church at Valentine, and the father served it many years as a trustee. Formerly a re- publican, he is now an equally ardent prohibitionist. James S. Mckibben and wife had two sons: Orley R., a farmer in Bloomfield Township; and Ledger D.

Ledger D. Mckibben grew up on the home farm and is a graduate of the LaGrange High School with the class of 1900. Before getting married and set- tling down to the serious occupation of farming he taught district schools for three years. June 15, 1904, he married Alice E. Scott. She was born at Ontario, Indiana, and her father, J. G. Scott, is prominently known as a former county treasurer of LaGrange County. Mrs. Mckibben is a graduate of the Howe High School with the class of 1899. To their marriage were born four children: J. Scott, a graduate of the common schools in 1919; Lucile Iona, Francis E. and Carol E. The family are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Valentine. Mr. Mckibben teaches a class of boys and young men in the Sunday school and Mrs. Mckibben is a teacher of the young ladies' class. Out of his Sunday school class there were eleven young men who went into the service in the World's war, five going overseas to France, and two wounded in action. Politically Mr. Mckibben is a prohibi- tionist. His farming activities are conducted on a model place of ninety-seven acres, and besides look- ing after his farm he handles the local agency for the Overland automobile.

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SAMUEL E. WEAVER, who is one of the leading farmers and is secretary of the Shipshewana Ship- pers' Association, has proved the truth of the con- tention that whoever is willing has a place of useful- ness and honor in his community.

He was born at Nappanee, Indiana, February 26, 1880. His father, Emanuel Weaver, was born in Holmes County, Ohio, in 1849, grew to manhood in Elkhart County, Indiana, and moved his family to LaGrange County in 1890. In 1876 he married Mag- dalena Yoder, who was born in LaGrange County in 1854. They are now retired and have a home with their son Samuel. Of their seven children whom they reared five have college degrees.

Samuel E. Weaver attended primary school in Elk- hart and, LaGrange counties, graduated from the common schools in 1894, from the Newbury Town- ship High School in 1899, being a member of the first class of the commissioned school, and after finishing high school did teaching, being connected with the schools of Newbury Township from 1899 until 1908. In 1911 he graduated from Goshen College, and from 1912 to 1917 was superintendent of the Newbury Township High School. He was only thirteen years of age when he took his place as a farm hand dur- ing the summer months at wages insignificant com- pared with modern salaries even on a farm. He never missed a summer of work on the farm until 1909 when he was in college. It is within the strict limits of truth to say that Mr. Weaver began his career absolutely without capital. By a singular com- pensation of energies, thrift and good business abil- ity he is now proprietor of an eighty-acre farm nearly paid for, keeps pure bred stock, and for a number of years has been one of the successful ex- ponents of alfalfa growing in his locality.

During the war Mr. Weaver was a solicitor for the Red Cross and Y. M. C. A. funds, and as a notary public he worked almost night and day filling out the boys' questionnaires. He has held a commission as notary public since January 22, 1918. He also gives much of his time to his duties as an official of the Shippers' Association at Shipshewana. Mr. Weaver has been an active member of the Mennonite Church since 1899 and in 1904 was ordained to the min- istry and was a preacher in his home locality until 1916, when he resigned on account of ill health and lack of support.

In 1902 he married Miss Fanny Stahly, who died a year later after giving birth to son, Stahly Weaver. In 1904 he married Laura Johns, a daughter of Jacob Johns and member of the Johns family after whom Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was named. They have two children: Rachel Weaver and Eunice Weaver.

LAFAYETTE BURKETT has deserved well of his fel- low men by reason of the four years he spent in the Union army during the Civil war, by over fifty years of residence accompanied by hard work and productive effort in Steuben County, and through all the responsibilities and duties of life he has proved faithful.

Mr. Burkett, who lives in Angola, retired, was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, December 25, 1841, son of Peter and Sarah (Burkett) Burkett. His father was born in Pennsylvania and his mother in Sandusky County, Ohio. The great-grandfather, John Burkett, was a native of Switzerland and came to the American colonies in time to serve in the war of independence as a member of Wash- ington's army. He afterward removed to Ohio, and died in Sandusky County at the advanced age of ninety-nine years, eleven months and twelve

days. His son William Burkett was a soldier in the War of 1812. Thus the record of the Burkett family is almost unsurpassed for American patriot- ism and military service. Peter Burkett, father of Lafayette, spent his life in Sandusky County, Ohio, where he died when his son Lafayette was a small child. The latter's mother married again and had nine children. Lafayette Burkett at the age of fifteen came to Steuben County, Indiana. He was then dependent upon his own resources and worked by the month or by the day. In August, 1861, he enlisted in Company B of Mcclellan's Dragoons, and served eighteen and a half months with that organization. At Harrison Landing he was taken

ill with typhus fever, and received an honorable discharge. He soon re-enlisted this time in Com- pany K of the Seventh Indiana Cavalry, and was with that command two and a half years. His total service in the Union army was four years lacking six days. While in a campaign in Mis- sissippi between Okalona and Pontotoc he was wounded and received a furlough.

After the war Mr. Burkett returned to Steuben County and resumed work by the day. Finally he invested his modest capital in twenty acres of land, and sold that and acquired sixty-three acres in Scott Township. He lived on that farm for thirty- three years, and laid the bulk of his prosperity while there. On November 12, 1917, he came to Angola, and has since sold his farm and owns a good home on Broad Street.

Mr. Burkett has always been a steadfast repub- lican in politics, is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and he and his wife are affiliated with the Christian Church.

On June 7, 1863, while he was a soldier, he mar- ried Sarah Zimmerman. She was born in Penn- sylvania September 30, 1841, a daughter of Godfrey and Sarah (Cramer) Zimmerman. In 1852 they identified themselves with the community of Steuben County, Indiana, settling in Scott Township. They were farmers there and Mrs. Burkett's mother died August 6, 1871, at the age of sixty-three and her father in 1881, at the age of seventy. There were seven children in the Zimmerman family, the three now living being Mrs. Burkett, Jane and Mary. Mr. and Mrs. Burkett have had the satisfaction of seeing children grow up around them, and they also have a number of grandchildren. Their oldest child, Ada, is the wife of Clark Ellis and has two children, Ford and Welma. Welma is the wife of Earl Berry and has a daughter, Martha, and they live in Phila- delphia, where Earl Berry is an engineer. William Lafayette Burkett lives in Angola and is married. Ethel first married William Zimmer and for her second husband Samuel Ramsey, and her only child, Sarah Elizabeth Ramsey, was two and a half years old when Ethel died, the daughter being now tender- ly cared for in the home of her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Burkett. Maud Bell is the wife of J. C. Gilbert. Daisy, who died at the age of twenty-five, was a very talented young woman, a proficient musician, a great worker in the Christian Church and a teacher in the high school at Angola. Her sisters Mand and Ella also taught school.

BOYD M. DAVIS is owner of a drug business at Ashley which his father conducted for a number of years, and is a graduate pharmacist from the North- western University of Chicago.

He was born at Ossian in Wells County, Indiana, March 22, 1885, a son of Andrew B. and Bertha A. (Hayward) Davis. His father was born on a farm near Ossian in 1855 and for about thirty-six years was engaged in the drug business. The mother is still living at Ashley. Both were members of the

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Methodist Church, and the father was a Knight of Pythias and Mason and was the first chancellor of the Knights of Pythias at Ossian.

Politically he was a republican and held the office of postmaster eight years. There are five living children : Dessie, a graduate of the Ossian High School, wife of Thomas Sharp, of Flint, Michigan ; Boyd M .; Hope, a graduate of the Ashley High School; Orville, who graduated from the Hudson High School; and Everett, attending high school at Ashley.

Boyd M. Davis received his education in the grammar and high schools at Ossian and later entered the pharmacy department of Northwestern University. He had eight years of practical experi- ence with the H. B. McCord drug store at Auburn, Indiana. He bought his father's business at Ashley in 1915, and he also owns the business block and a home in Ashley and is an active member of the Cooperative Association.

He married Elta R. Ritter, of Hudson, Indiana, a graduate of the high school of that town. They have two children, Winford and Marjorie. Mr. Davis is affiliated with Ashley Lodge No. 394, Knights of Pythias, and is the present keeper of records and seals of the lodge. He is also a member of Lodge No. 614, Free and Accepted Masons, and Hudson Chapter No. 152, Royal Arch Masons.

WILLIAM MARCUS GALLUTIA. One of the men who is successfully engaged in farming in Steuben Coun- ty is William Marcus Gallutia, a son of David and Mary (Fox) Gallutia and grandson of Joseph and Lucy Gallutia and George and Emeline (Gordon) Fox. Joseph Gallutia was a farmer of Ohio, where he and his wife both died. They had the follow- ing children: David, who was the father of Wil- liam Marcus, and Milo, who died at the age of thirty-three years in Steuben County, was living with his brother David. George Fox was born in June, 1816 and his wife was born in April, 1815. They came to Steuben County many years ago, buy- ing 120 acres of land which they cleared, and on which he died in 1902, his wife passing away in November, 1886. Their children were as follows: Mary; Malissa, who is the wife of Joseph Hatha- way; and Amy, who is the wife of Christopher Baker.

David Gallutia was born in Morrow County, Ohio, in 1840, and his wife was born in 1843. They were married in Ohio in 1860, and came to Steuben County, Indiana, in the fall of 1865, buying forty acres of woodland in York Township. For a time they lived in a log cabin, but later replaced it with a frame house. After ten years on this farm they sold and bought eighty acres, also in York Town- ship, where he died in 1890, his widow surviving him until May 13, 1916, when she too passed away. He was a democrat, and prominent in local matters. Both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but she later joined the Christian Church. They had the following children: William Marcus, who was the eldest; Emma, who is de- ceased; Charles; George; and Elnora, who lives with her eldest brother and keeps house for him.

William Marcus Gallutia was reared and educated in York Township, and has always been a farmer. In 1900 he bought eighty acres of land in Richland Township, and has operated it ever since, being a general farmer and stockraiser. He has always voted the republican ticket and takes an intelligent interest in the affairs of his community, but has not sought political honors. For many years he has been a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Gal-

lutia has never married. As he has devoted all of his attention to farming, he understands it thorough- ly and has been very successful with his work and is accounted one of the most representative agricul- turalists of his township.

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History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 86

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