History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 87

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 87
USA > Indiana > Noble County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 87
USA > Indiana > DeKalb County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 87
USA > Indiana > Steuben County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 87

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JAMES NORTH. Among the substantial agricultural element of LaGrange County perhaps none of those now enjoy so much prosperity or had more interest- ing variety of experience and early struggles than James North, who is still occupying his farm at Woodruff.

He was born in Lincolnshire, England, February 28, 1851, a son of Richard and Sarah (Baker) North. His parents were reared and married and spent their lives in Lincolnshire. His father was a musician and shoemaker, and it is said that he made some of Queen Victoria's shoes. James North was only eighteen months old when his mother died, and six years later his father died. Opportunities to get an education by formal schooling were denied him, and as an office boy he had to work his own way and make a living as best he could. Frequently he was paid only 3 cents a day for what his strength permitted him to do. He managed to get some edti- cation in the meantime, and in 1875 he left England and came to the United States, landing in New York City. Later he came to Indiana, to the farm of William Baker, a relative, and in the spring of 1876 was employed by Weible Foster, working for him until he was able to buy a tract of land and clear it up and make a farm.

In 1878 Mr. North married Naomi Baker. She was born and reared in LaGrange County. They then settled on their farm and for many years Mr. North kept his affairs growing and prospering until he had sufficient for his own needs. He still owns 160 acres, and has had other land which he has sold to his sons. He and his wife have seven chil- dren: Sarah, a graduate of the common schools, wife of Charles Seigler; Blanche, wife of Ernest Sperrow; Nellie, unmarried; William, a farmer in LaGrange County; George, a farmer in Johnson Township; Lizzie, wife of John Milbon; and Rus- sell, unmarried. The family are members of the Lutheran Church and Mr. North is a republican. At one time he was rather extensively engaged in breeding registered sheep.

HENRY E. KRATZ. For a period of nearly thirty- five years Henry E. Kratz has been the old and re- liable druggist of Angola, and during that time has not only kept his business growing but progressively adapted to the needs and conveniences of the com- munity. His record is a most successful one and is the more conspicuous because of the fact that he started life with no capital beyond his own ex- perience, energy and determination.

Mr. Kratz was born in Lorain County, Ohio, Oc- tober 20, 1857, son of Henry and Barbara (Deichle) Kratz. His parents were both natives of Germany. His father, who was born in 1824, came when a young man to America and settled in Lorain County, Ohio. He married there. His wife's father, John Deichle, settled in Lorain County, Ohio, in 1854, his wife having died near Stuttgart, Germany. Barbara Deichle was born in Germany in 1831. After about six years in Lorain County Henry Kratz moved his home to Henry County, Ohio, and was one of the leading farmers in that rich district until his death in August, 1908. His wife died May 15, 1896. Henry Kratz was one of the very first men in his section of Ohio to become affiliated with the republican party, and remained a stanch adherent the rest of his life. He and his family were members of the Evangelical Church. There were eight children :

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Mary, deceased; Henry; Margaret, deceased; Wil- liam; Katie; John, of Angola; Sarah Jane, deceased ; and Barbara, who died in February, 1917.

Henry E. Kratz spent his early life on the home farm in Henry County, Ohio, attended the public schools there, and in 1878 went to work at Napoleon, the county seat, to learn the drug business. The first year he worked for experience only, receiving no salary. The second year he was paid $50.00 and the third year $100.00. He remained at Napoleon seven years, and on October 5, 1885, opened his business career at Angola as a druggist. He has been in that business longer than any other man and has developed the largest and finest store of its kind in Steuben County. He also owns a half in- terest in the building occupied by the store and owns the old Dr. Morris farm of 120 acres near Angola.

Mr. Kratz is a republican, has served as a member of the Angola School Board, and is a member of the Methodist Church. He married in Henry County, Ohio, Miss Catherine Wise. They have two sons, one of whom is a successful druggist and the other a practical farmer. The older, Melvin, graduated from the Angola High School, attended the Tri-State College and later graduated from the Pharmacy School of the University of Michigan. He is now the competent manager of his father's business. He married Elsie Zabst and has one child, Catherine Laura. The second, Harold Frank- lin, is also a graduate of high school and is now a farmer in Scott Township. He married Vangia Pillrod, daughter of Charles Pillrod, now a resident of Toledo, Ohio. Harold F. Kratz and wife have three children, Louise, Virginia and Henry Franklin, the latter born January 28, 1919.

GEORGE W. MILLER is easily identified among the popular citizens of Stafford Township, not only by reason of his official prominence as township as- sessor but as proprietor of the Pine Hill Farm, a farm with a character of its own both in the mat- ter of improvements and productiveness. This farm contains a hundred forty-four acres and has been the home of Mr. Miller for over twenty years. All his farming methods are progressive and up to date, and the Pine Hill Farm is widely known as the home of some fine registered Shropshire sheep.

Mr. Miller was born in Defiance County, Ohio, December 19, 1871, a son of Henry and Mary (Prettiger) Miller, the former a native of Penn- sylvania and the latter of Defiance County, Ohio. After his marriage his father settled on a farm in Defiance County and spent the rest of his life there. The mother is still living and an active mem- ber of the Christian Church. The father was a democrat and served about six years as trustee of Milford Township in Defiance County. Beginning life comparatively poor, he at one time owned four hundred acres of good land. Of seven children six are still living: Carrie, wife of Frank M. Light ; Flora, wife of J. W. Suffel; Frank H. of Defiance County; George W .; Mary C., wife of Paul B. Hootman; and Lewis, of Defiance County.

George W. Miller grew up on the home farm in Milford Township of Defiance County and acquired his education in the public schools. January 22, 1896. at the age of twenty-four he married Minda P. Hootman. She was born in Defiance County April 9, 1877, and had a common school education. Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Miller moved to their present farm in the eastern part of DeKalb County. They have one son, Donald E., who was born July 22. 1898. He is a graduate of the Butler High School, attended the Tri-State Col- lege at Angola and was a teacher for one year.

Mr. Miller and family are members of the Christian Church at West Milford, Ohio, and he is affiliated with the Ancient Order of Gleaners and is a demo- crat in politics. As a democrat he was elected township assessor of Stafford November 5, 1918. He is also a stockholder in the Hicksville Grain Company at Hicksville, Ohio.

JOHN CRAIG. This is the name of one of the earliest settlers of LaGrange County in the country around Howe. He came here more than eighty years ago and was then a man in middle age. He passed away long since, and of his family of chil- dren, many of whom were identified with the farming community around Howe, only one is now surviving, his daughter Mary, Mrs. Fleming, who is living in Howe.

John Craig was born in Pennsylvania December 23, 1784, was educated there, and on April 29, 1819, married Jane Derr. She was also a native of Pennsylvania. They lived on a Pennsylvania farm until they came West. In the fall of 1835, with their children, they started for the West, their goods being packed in two covered wagons, while a covered buggy was the comfortable vehicle in which Mrs. Craig and some of her smaller children rode. The children consisted of four sons and three daughters. James, Esther, Joseph, and the next younger Wil- liam had died in infancy, Serena, Frederick, Robert and Mary.

When the family got to the "Black Marsh" in Northwestern Ohio they found the roads impassable, stayed there through the winter and the following spring put in a crop. The next fall they resumed their journey in the same wagon, and after some days of slow travel reached the Lima community now called Howe. John Craig soon bought forty acres of timber land near LaGrange, but never settled on it because it was inconvenient to schools. He rented farms in Lima Township for several years and then bought a place three miles northwest of Howe containing eighty acres. Out of the products of his labor he increased his farm to several hundred acres in extent, and improved it with a fine house, which is still standing there. He and his wife lived out their lives in that home. They were active in the Presbyterian Church, and John Craig was a noted Bible student and reared his family in strict obedience to the tenets of his faith.

Of his children James never married and spent all his life on the old farm. Joseph had a good farm near Howe. Frederick was likewise identified with that agricultural community. Robert lived out his life as a farmer in Lima Township. Esther became the wife of William Smith, a pioneer citizen of Howe. Serena was the wife of John Smith, one of the best known citizens of Lima Township and an associate editor of this publication.

Mary Craig, the only one of the children now living, was born November 9, 1834, and was carried in her mother's arms during the long journey from Pennsylvania west. On November 9, 1871, she be- came the wife of William Fleming, now deceased. Mr. Fleming had a son by a former marriage, Oran A., now superintendent of the LaGrange city schools. Mrs. Fleming before her marriage adopted Lucinda Switzer at the age of ten years, reared her, and this foster daughter is now Mrs. Frank Cook, of Lima Township. After the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Fleming they lived on his farm a mile away from her home, and later retired to Howe. Mr. and Mrs. Fleming were active members of the Baptist Church at Howe. Mr. Fleming was a son of Abbott and Margaret Fleming, the former a

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pioneer Baptist minister of LaGrange County. William Fleming was born on the farm where he spent most of his life.

Though Mrs. Fleming is eighty-five years of age, she does all her own housework, from choice, not from necessity, and the neatness and system with which she keeps her home might well be a model for emulation for younger housekeepers. She is also well known in her community for her kindness and cheerfulness, and she has many interesting reminiscences drawn from her memory of events in the Howe community for fourscore years.

WILLIAM MCKINLEY. In the years to come his- torians in writing of the period of the great war will not confine all their attention to military tactics, but will give due credit to the important part played by those who through their industry and experience made possible the control of the warring nations by furnishing a sufficient amount of food. It is now generally recognized that hunger foments more dis- content and consequent uprising than any other cause, and if a people are well fed they are generally found to be contented and willing to let existing conditions continue. The farmers of the United States have nohly risen to meet the demand of the world for foodstuffs, and Indiana occupies a fore- most place among the states in agricultural suprem- acy. This enviable place has been gained entirely through the efforts of its farmers, and of them Steuben County has furnished its full quota, one of them being William Mckinley, of Scott Township.

William Mckinley was born in Ashland County, Ohio, October 10, 1856, a son of William Mckinley, and grandson of Samuel Mckinley, the latter being a native of Ireland. The elder William Mckinley was born in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, and he was a second cousin of President William McKin- ley. When he was still a boy his parents moved to Ohio, and there he was reared. In the fall of 1862 he moved to Jackson Township, DeKalb County, Indiana, and remained there until 1887, when he became a resident of Butler Township, DeKalb County, and there he died in 1896. He was first married to Mary Shinniman, and they had three children, Bell, Benjamin and Adam. After the death of his first wife he was married to Sarah Romine, born in Johnson Township, LaGrange County, In- diana, and they became the parents of the following children : Ross, James, Samuel (who was drowned at the age of twelve years), Frank, William, Steve, Almindo and Almeda, twins, Jane, Louise and Alex- ander.

William Mckinley, whose name heads this review, was reared in Jackson Township, DeKalb County, where he attended the public schools, and having learned the principles of farming from his father he started in that line of endeavor after attaining his majority, first in Jackson Township, but in 1881, moving to Butler Township in the same county, he remained there until 1889, at which time he went to Union Township, DeKalb County. After eight years in the latter township he moved to his father's old farm, and took care of his mother until her death two years later. He then bought a farm in Jackson Township, DeKalb County, on which he lived for seventeen years, leaving it in 1917 and selling the farm to buy one in Pleasant Township, Steuben County. In February, 1919, he sold at a profit his property in Pleasant Township, and bought his pres- ent farm of eighty-one acres in section 18, Scott Township, where he is now doing general farming and stock raising.

In 1888 Mr. Mckinley was united in marriage with Miss Etta Swank, a daughter of George and

Minerva (Woodring) Swank, farming people of Jackson Township, DeKalb County, Indiana. Mrs. Mckinley was one in a family as follows: Anna, Etta, William, Ella, Myrtle, John and Maude. Mr. and Mrs Mckinley became the parents of children as follows: Thomas Franklin, who is deceased; and Milo, who married Clara Beebe, and has one son, Robert J. Mr. and Mrs. Mckinley are very well and favorably known in the several communi- ties in which they have lived, and although newly come to Scott Township, they have already estab- lished themselves in the confidence of their neigh- bors. The success which has accompanied Mr. Mc- Kinley in his former efforts promises equal pros- perity in his new locality, and he is planning some very desirable improvements on his property, which will add to its value and perhaps furnish new ideas to his associates in the agricultural line. While his private affairs have hitherto absorbed all his time so that he has had no opportunity to enter public life, Mr. Mckinley is to good a citizen not to be in- terested in local matters and to give the best element his hearty support in every particular.

JAMES F. ATWOOD. The career of James F. At- wood reflects practical and useful ideals, and its range of activities has included the promotion of agriculture and the best interests of the community in politics and education. Mr. Atwood belongs to a prominent old family of LaGrange County, and has spent the greater part of his life in Johnson Township.

He was born in New York State December 17, 1846, a son of Andrew J. and Sarah J. (Kaple) Atwood. His father was born in Vermont in 1815 and his mother in Massachusetts in 1813. They were married in New York State, and in 1853 came to Indiana and settled on the shore of a little lake which for many years has been known as Atwood Lake. Andrew Atwood spent the rest of his life there. He was one of the prominent members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. He was also a republican, and a man of substantial influence in public affairs as well as prosperous in business. He served nine years as county commissioner of LaGrange County. Four years of this time was during the Civil war, when the county commissioners had many unusual responsibilities. Andrew Atwood and wife had five children : Isabel, who never married; Harriett, who died at the age of seventy; Bernard, who died when eighteen months old; James F .; and Jennie, widow of John Schermerhorn.

James F. Atwood attended district school of a a primitive kind, and from early manhood to the present has been a farmer. He married for his first wife Clarissa Dallas. They had two children, Clarence F. and Grace L. The latter was well edu- cated in the public schools and by private tutors and is the wife of William Bower. After the death of his first wife Mr. Atwood married Ida Dallas. She is a member of the Baptist Church. In politics Mr. Atwood is a democrat. He owns 325 acres of land and has earned an enviable prosperity sufficient for all his future needs.

His son, Clarence Atwood, who lives on the old farm on the bank of Atwood Lake, was born there and was well educated, graduating from the Wol- cottville High School in 1905. Since then he has been busily engaged in farming. February 14, 1914, he married Lonise Kitchen, daughter of S. M. and Anna (Rowe) Kitchen. Her father was born in Clear Spring Township and her mother in the same locality. S. M. Kitchen was a son of John and Mary (Butler) Kitchen, the former a native of Canada and the latter of Ohio. They were pioneers of LaGrange County. S. M. Kitchen and wife were

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married in August, 1890, and are the parents of eleven children.

Mrs. Louise Atwood was educated at Topeka, Indiana, graduated from the high school at Goshen, and was a successful teacher for four years. Clar- ence Atwood is affiliated with Ionic Lodge No. 380, Free and Accepted Masons, and he and his wife are members of the Eastern Star. Politically he is a republican. Clarence Atwood handles a large farm of 297 acres, and in live stock gives special attention to Duroc hogs. He and his wife are both stockholders in the Wildman State Bank at Wolcottville.

CLYDE C. CARLIN. Through a period of three- quarters of a century Steuben County has been able to appreciate the services of the Carlin family, at first as pioneer farmers and homemakers, later as influential figures in educational and other phases of professional and public affairs. Of those still living in the county there are Robert V. Carlin, who for many years was superintendent of education in the county, and his son Clyde C., long one of the prominent members of the bar in Angola.

The family was founded here by Robert Carlin, who was born in one of the eastern states in 1806. He married Sarah Perkey, whose birth occurred in 18II. They were early settlers in Wayne County, Ohio, and from there came to Steuben County, Indiana, in 1840 and located in the woods of Rich- land Township. They made a home there and Sarah Carlin died in 1865 and her husband in 1868. Of a family of thirteen children twelve reached, mature years.

Robert V. Carlin was born in Wayne County, Ohio, February 26, 1834, and was six years old when brought to Steuben County, where he was reared and educated. After the limited advantages ac- corded by the district schools of Richland Town- ship he entered at the age of eighteen Mount Union College at Alliance, Ohio, where he came under the instruction of the noted Professor Holbrook, after- ward founder of the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. Robert V. Carlin graduated from Hillsdale College in Michigan in 1866, and during the next four years was principal of the Angola High School. In 1870 he was elected county re- corder, and filled that office with characteristic efficiency for eight years. He then resumed teach- ing, and in 1883 was elected county superintendent of schools and filled that office continuously for fourteen years. His is one of the longest records in the educational annals of Steuben County. For the past twenty years he has lived retired. He is a republican, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he and his wife both active members of the Christian Church.

March 31, 1868 .. Robert V. Carlin married Miss Maria Kinney. She was born November 18, 1831, daughter of Joseph J. and Emily ( Hitchcock) Kin- ney, natives of Vermont, who moved to Ohio in 1830 and to Steuben County, Indiana, in 1851. Joseph Kinney died in 1853 and his wife in 1879. Robert V. Carlin and wife had two children, Emily dying in infancy and Mrs. Carlin died April 8, 1916.

Clyde C. Carlin was born at Angola, July 28, 1870, and had a liberal education as the foundation for his professional career. He attended the Angola High School, graduated in 1888 from the Tri-State Nor- mal College at Angola, and in 1892 received his diploma from his father's alma mater, Hillsdale College. He was associated with E. O. Rose in founding the Angola Magnet in 1893, and was con- nected with that paper about a year. He then dili- gently pursued the study of law with William M.

Brown, and in 1898 formed a partnership with his preceptor, and for twenty years has been one of the busy lawyers of Steuben County. Mr. Carlin is a republican, is a member of the Masonic Order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has been one of the influential men in his community. October 1, 1911, he married Gertrude Hauver, of Angola, daughter of Henry Hauver, a former county sheriff.

CHARLES W. BROWN. A lawyer by training but a farmer by inheritance and choice, Charles W. Brown has made for himself a distinctive place in the community of Springfield Township, LaGrange County. He has prospered in his business affairs and has so arranged his private matters as to have time not only for civic duties but the pleasures and pursuits of literature.

He was born in Springfield Township April 19, 1868, oldest child of Warren and Falona (Baxter) Brown, hoth of whom are living. He attended country district school at intervals from the age of four until sixteen. At the age of twenty-one he took a business course at Angola in the Tri-State Col- lege, and subsequently pursued the study of law in Huntingdon, Tennessee, under the direction of James H. Land. He was admitted to the Carroll County bar May 6, 1899. Still later he studied the Indiana statutes and reports for several months at Marion under the supervision of G. A. Henry. Convinced that he had more ingenuity in other directions than in the field of law, he never engaged in it as a profession, although he served as justice of the peace in Springfield Township for ten years, from 1905 until 1915, and since 1915 has held a commission as notary public.

He grew to manhood in the vicinity of his birth- place and has lived in that community the greater part of his life. He became acquainted with the duties of his father's farm, and though he appre- ciated the never ending drudgery he was also at- tracted by the other advantages of the country, especially the free open air and the wide out of doors, the wholesome exercise and the abundant opportunity for a well balanced and useful existence. In 1905 he took up his residence on the place of ninety acres known as the "Valley Farm," and that has since been his home. For five years he farmed this place and since then. has rented the land for the most part and has occupied his time in the broader problems of farm management and in literary pursuits. During his mature years he has been a diligent student, and takes delight in his library of six hundred volumes on a variety of sub- jects.

Mr. Brown has never joined any church organi- zation. His religious views are between those of the Unitarian faith and the Freethinker. Politically he is inclined to acceptance of the socialist doc- trines. In 1901 he joined the association known as the Improved Order of Red Men, Suwanee Tribe No. 311 of Stroh, and continued his membership until the Tribe disbanded in 1917. In 1918 he con- nected with the Masonic fraternity, Philo Lodge No. 672, at Stroh. He has also been a member since 1912 of the Mississippi Valley Historical As- sociation, the Indiana Historical Society, and since 1913 of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical So- ciety.

As to his ancestral record and immediate family Mr. Brown furnishes an account which is a matter of interesting record to the people of LaGrange County and can best be told in his own words :

My most remote ancestor of whom there is record was one John Brown who came to America from England in 1624 with the John Robinson Company,

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landing in Massachusetts Bay or Plymouth Har- bor. He was one of three brothers who early came to America, one of them crossing' on the Mayflower and being one of the original band of Pilgrims. My Brown ancestors for several generations dwelt in Killingly, Windham County, Connecticut. In the meantime they married into Irish families and sub- sequently emigrated to more western states.

Another branch, the Olneys, were early members of the Roger Williams Colony in Rhode Island, in which state many of their descendants still live.

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History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 87

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