History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 94

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 94
USA > Indiana > Noble County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 94
USA > Indiana > DeKalb County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 94
USA > Indiana > Steuben County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 94

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).

Mr. and Mrs. Adams were the parents of five children : Perry, born April 5, 1879, died at the age of four years and six days; Ruth, born January 20, 1882, died October 16, 1882; James, who was born February 22, 1884, had a public school education, lived for three years in Ohio, and is now working for his mother the home farm in York Township. He is unmarried and a democrat in politics. Arza, born June 1, 1886, had a public school education and died in York Township, November 9, 1915. He married Hulda Weiss, and she survived him with three chil- dren, Ruth, Russell and Paul. Ralph, born February . 5. 1889, married Lisle Richardson, of Scott Town- ship, and has two children, Herman and Loueze.

In 1912 Mrs. Adams became the wife of Mr. An- drew S. Campbell. He was born in Pennsylvania, November 19, 1852, and is a carpenter by trade, a business he followed for many years. In 1864 he went to Scioto County, Ohio, and for many years lived in the west, having varied experiences in the Black Hills country in and around Denver and Phoenix, Arizona, and was also at New Orleans. He married for his first wife Phoebe S. Foster and had four children, all now deceased, their names being Albert, Della, Hurley and William. The mother of these died in 1884 and Mr. Campbell for his second wife married Matilda Lunsford. Their six children were Walter, Vahn, Harry, Bertha, Stella and Elsie, all of whom are living except Walter.

MONTE L. GREEN has been an important figure in the financial life of DeKalb County for a number of years, and is president of the Garrett Savings, Loan & Trust Company, Garrett, Indiana.

His early life was spent in a number of different localities. He was born in Missouri, January 26, 1870, son of Jesse H. and Louisa D. (Beach) Green. His parents were natives of Indiana, the father born at Moore's Hill and the mother in Henry County, near Lewisville. After their marriage they lived in Spencer, Owen County, Indiana, and at various other localities, moving to Kenton County, Ken- tucky, opposite Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1890. Jesse Green was for over thirty years a postal clerk in the United States Rural Mail Service on various lines and finally on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. When retiring from active service he lived in Bellevue, Campbell County, Kentucky, opposite Cin- cinnati, Ohio, where he is still living past eighty-one years of age. The mother died there April 23, 1905. Of their two children, Glenn Arden and Monte Lee, the latter is the only one now living. Jesse H. Green is an honored member of the Grand Army of the Republic by virtue of his service in the Civil war. April 15, 1861, he enlisted in the navy at New York City, and after leaving that branch of the

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service he enlisted in the Twenty-Fifth Indiana Battery of Light Artillery, and was with his com- mand until the close of the war.

Monte L. Green acquired his education in the public schools, is a graduate of the Indianapolis High School, and had a complete business course in the Cincinnati Business College. For about twenty years he was engaged in the carriage business and other similar lines of activity and in 1907 moved to Auburn, where he was associated with W. H. Mc- Intire. Later he bought stock in the Auburn Sav- ings, Loan & Trust Company, and was its vice president until early in 1913.

Mr. Green, with associates, organized the Savings, Loan & Trust Company of Garrett in 1908. This institution, formerly capitalized at $25,000 and now $40,000, has been one of the bulwarks of DeKalb County finance for the past ten years. Mr. Green is an able financier, and his entire business and civic record has been admirable. He served as president of the Commercial Club while at Auburn, has been much interested in the welfare of local schools in various communities, having been president of the School Board in Ludlow, Kentucky, is past master of the Masonic Lodge and a member of the Royal Arch Chapter, Council and Commandery, also the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Masons, and the Mystic Shrine at Fort Wayne. He and his wife are both active in the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Green has been elder in the church for years and promi- nent in the Fort Wayne Presbytery.

Mr. Green married for his first wife Josephine Pohlman, who died January II, 1906, the mother of two sons, Arden D. and Lyman Dale. For his present wife Mr. Green married Helen Samme Ralston. They have one daughter, Alzein Louise. Mrs. Green was born at Auburn, a daughter of A. J. and Hadessa (George) Ralston. Her mother is still living. A. J. Ralston, who died January 12, 1919, was widely known in DeKalb County, having served as deputy sheriff and deputy treasurer of the county and in various other public offices. Mrs. Green is a graduate of the Auburn High School and has been identified with clubs and civic work for years. During the war she was county chairman of all the loan drives, food conservation and the woman member of the Council of Defense. She was one of the leaders among the women of DeKalb County in auxiliary war activities.

DANIEL ELY, one of the well circumstanced farm- ers of Bloomfield Township, has always regarded it as his peculiar good fortune that his lot was early cast in LaGrange County. He came here when about eleven years of age and had already been making his own way in the world for a year or so. He accompanied a party of eight other persons, and has a vivid memory of the trip, which began at Ashland, Ohio. The first stage of the journey was Mansfield, a distance of twelve miles. The trav- elers had horses and wagons, but on account of the deep mud they did not arrive at Mansfield until an entire day had been consumed. At Mansfield the wagons, horses and goods were put in a railroad car and all shipped to Fort Wayne. Thence they came to Mongo by way of the old Plank Road, then a toll road. Among the other members of the party recalled by Mr. Ely were Pet Long and George Price.

Mr. Ely was born in Crawford Township of Coshocton County, Ohio, March 30; 1851. His par- ents, Frederick and Barbara (Switzer) Ely, were both natives of Germany, and his grandparents on both sides spent all their lives in the Fatherland. Frederick Ely had been married and had lost one wife in Germany: By that union he had a daughter,

Margaret. Later he married Barbara Switzer, and in 1835 he and his wife and his first child, Margaret, came to America, landing in Baltimore. With a one-horse wagon he made the journey across the mountains to Coshocton County, Ohio, settling in the midst of the woods. It was necessary to cut a road three miles from the main highway to get into his land. He acquired eighty acres there, cleared some of it and had considerable progress toward improvement when death overtook him when he was still comparatively young. His wife also died in Ohio, and they are buried in a cemetery at New Bedford. Both were members of the Lutheran Church. Their children were Frederick, Lewis, John, Leah, Rachel, Henry, George, Michael, Mary and Daniel. The only ones now living are Leah, Henry and Daniel.

Daniel Ely, owing to the fact that he had to get out and work and make his own way from the age of nine, had limited opportunities to gain an educa- tion, though he attended schools some both in Ohio and in Indiana. He came to LaGrange County in 1862, and at first worked for his board, later was paid nominal wages, and he began his independent career as a farm renter. In the fall of 1878 he bought sixty acres in Bloomfield Township, and on that land he has lived now for forty years with the exception of two years when he was in the meat business at Lima or Howe. When he acquired the land only about twenty-five acres had been cleared, and he has since cleared twenty-five acres more, and now has a farm of a hundred acres, well adapted for general farming purposes. The improve- ments when he bought the land consisted of only a few poor buildings, and he now has ample buildings and all facilities for his work and for comfortable living. He has also taken an interested part in local affairs and has served as township supervisor.

In June, 1876, Mr. Ely married Miss Rebecca McKinzie. She was born in Somerset County, Penn- sylvania, a daughter of Jesse and Leah (Hoffmyer) McKinzie. Her mother was a native of Maryland and her father of Pennsylvania. Her father died at Springfield, Illinois, while en route to the West. Her mother afterward went to Canada, and in 1865 came to LaGrange County and subsequently became the wife of Levi Dague. They moved to Michigan, but eventually returned to LaGrange County, where Mr. Dagne died in 1909, while Mrs. Ely's mother passed away in 1914, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ely.

Mr. and Mrs. Ely have the following children : Charles S., at home on the old farm; Lula, Mrs. Lyle Shank, of Angola, where her husband is now in his second term as county superintendent of schools of Steuben County; William H., at home, and Laura Edna, a teacher, also at home. Mr. Ely and his sons own about 440 acres of land.

JOSEPH T. MCELROY for many years has been one of the leading farmers and enterprising citizens of Clear Lake Township in Steuben County. He is the son of an old soldier and the family have lived here for over a half a century.

Mr. McElroy was born at New London, Huron County, Ohio, February 9, 1860, a son of Robert and Alzina (Brooks) McElroy. His mother was a native of Huron County and a daughter of Minchell Brooks, who became one of the pioneers of Clear Lake Township, locating on the land where Joseph McElroy lives today. Alzina was one of a family of eleven children.

Robert McElroy was born in Canada East March 13, 1833, a son of Robert and Mary Ann (Hamilton) McElroy, natives of Ireland. Robert McElroy at the age of thirteen was left an orphan and had to

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make his own way in the world. In 1859 he married Alzina Brooks in Huron County, Ohio. In 1862 he left his family to go into the army, serving with the Twelfth Ohio Battery. He was in many of the great battles of the war, including Fredericks- burg, Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Resaca. His term of service lacked only a few days of being three years. He was twice wounded and injured while in the army. For many years he was a member of the Grand Army Post at Fremont, and a stanch republican in politics.

While he was in the army Minchell Brooks came to Clear Lake Township of Steuben County, accom- panied by his daughter, Mrs. McElroy, and her children. Robert McElroy rejoined his family here, and spent the rest of his life in section 33, where he owned a large farm of 195 acres. He and his wife had ten children: Joseph, Jane, Flora, Bessie, Catherine, Eliza, Hattie, Minchell, Ulysses and John.

Joseph T. McElroy was about three years old when brought to Steuben County, and he acquired his education in the township schools of Clear Lake and York. He remained at home with his parents working on the farm until twenty-four, and at that time was married and then joined farming with work at the masonry trade. Mr. McElroy owns a farm of 120 acres, and during his ownership he has set up all the buildings and most of the fences, and has greatly increased its value and productiveness. Mr. McElroy married Ida Sunday. They have three children : Ralph, Rush and Louisa.

GUY E. MILLER. One of the prosperous young farmers of Steuben County, whose family is one of the old established ones in Northeastern Indiana, is Guy E. Miller, whose grandfather was numbered among the pioneers of this locality. Guy E. Miller was born on his present farm in Pleasant Township, December 13, 1880, a son of Marquis and Imogene (Yager) Miller, and grandson of Oliver Miller.

Oliver Miller was a cabinet maker by trade, and he also owned and operated a water power mill at Gage Lake. During those early days the cabinet makers were depended upon for coffins in which to bury the dead of the settlements, and Oliver made many of them. In those times the coffins were made of hard woods, and some of them were beautifully carved, for it was not until a later date that the present kind of caskets were put into general use. Oliver Miller lived at Gage Lake until his death, having settled there upon his arrival in Steuben County. He married a Miss Kemp, and they had the following children: Ivan, Marquis, Jem and two daughters are deceased.

Marquis Miller was born near Gage Lake, Jack- son Township, Steuben County, in 1855. His wife, Imogene Yager, was born in Pleasant Township, Steuben County, and died in 1886. After attending the local schools Marquis Miller became a student of the Angola High School, and he also attended Hillsdale College. For eight terms after completing his education Mr. Miller taught school in Steuben County. After his marriage, however, he com- menced farming on the place now owned hy his son, Gny E., and lived here the remainder of his useful life, his death occurring as the result of an accident, when he was run over by a wheat binder, he dying ten minutes later. He and his wife had two chil- dren, namely: Guy E. and Mary E. The daughter, married Henry Voight, an engineer on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. After the death of his first wife Marquis Miller was married to Mrs. Ellen Walter, widow of Calvin Walter.

Guy E. Miller grew up on his father's farm and attended the district schools of his native township

and the Tri-State College at Angola. In 1905 he was married to Annetta Wells, a daughter of Edgar Wells, and they have three children, namely: Mar- shall A., Hope E. and Russell E. At the time of his marriage Mr. Miller rented the homestead of 160 acres, and here he has since carried on general farming and stock raising. When his father died in July, 1917, he inherited the farm. He is a member of the United Brethren Church, in which both his parents were very active workers. They were ex- tremely religious people and exerted a strong influ- ence for good in their community. Guy E. Miller has devoted his life to farming, understands the business in all its details and takes a pride in living on the property which has been in his family for so many years. Both he and his wife are very popular in their neighborhood, and their many friends enjoy visiting at their pleasant rural home in Pleasant Township.

ANDREW ROBERT BADGER has been well satisfied to spend all the years of his life in Steuben County. Prosperity has rewarded his labors and persevering efforts, and for many years he has enjoyed the good will and esteem of his home community. He has reared and provided for a family, and all these things are achievements worthy of a man's best ambition.

Mr. Badger was born on the old Badger home- stead in Scott Township, September 26, 1852, a son of John C. and Sarah (Camp) Badger. His parents were both born in Morrow County, Ohio, were mar- ried in that state and came to Steuben County in 1850, settling in Scott Township. Their first home was on forty acres covered with heavy timber, and under the trees John Badger put up a rude log cabin. Later he bought another forty acres and eventually sold both tracts and bought eighty acres in York Town- ship. He also acquired sixteen acres known as the old Headley farm. His last days were spent on the forty acres in Scott Township where he had first settled. He cleared up a large amount of land in Steuben County that is now cultivated to grain and other crops. He was a republican and a member of the Christian Church. To his marriage were born seven children: Melvin, Charles B., Andrew Robert, Joseph, Ada and John and one that died in childhood. Joseph and Ada are also deceased.

Andrew Robert Badger grew up in Scott Town- ship, attended public school there and finished his education with two terms in the Angola High School. Since his school days were ended he has been a busy worker, and for several years as a young man was a carpenter. He now owns eighty acres in York Township, fifty-three acres in Scott Township and has done well with all departments of his farming and has specialized somewhat in pure bred Duroc Jersey hogs and Shropshire sheep.

Mr. Badger is a republican and a member of the Christian Church. In 1878 he married Mrs. Alice Henney, of Steuben County. Of the six children born to their union four died in infancy. Their only living son, Roy, born in 1885, was educated in the public schools and is a miller hy trade and now proprietor of the Berlin Mills. He married Emma Wilson and has one daughter, Lois. Lura Badger is the wife of Ford Kleckner and has two children, Robert and Alice.

EMANUEL ULM is one of the oldest native born residents of Spencer Township, DeKalb County. He was born in that locality more than seventy years ago. He participated in some of the pioneer events in that section of the country and at the age of fourteen was delegated as an employe of Uncle

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Sam to carry the mail from Spencerville to Butler three times a week. He began his independent career with only a common school education and with no capital except his own good will and energy, and has made himself one of the prosperous and influ- ential citizens. During the late war Mr. Ulm was a subscriber to Liberty Bonds to the extent of $1,600.

Mr. Ulm, whose farm is a mile and a half north of Spencerville, was born in the same locality, Decem- ber 22, 1847. Some of the interesting pioneer inci- dents of old Concord Township, now Spencer Town- ship, revolve around his father, Nelson Ulm, who came to the county in 1834. Nelson Ulm was born in Knox County, Ohio, lost his father when he was six years of age and was then bound out. He came to DeKalb County at the age of sixteen with Daniel Rhodes, another pioneer settler, and lived with and worked for Mr. Rhodes until he was twenty-one. Nelson Ulm and the Rhodes family arrived in 1834. and Nelson Ulm located on the present site of Spencerville. In the fall of that year he drove from Fort Wayne the first hogs and cows ever brought to Spencerville, and during the following winter he took two bushels of corn on a hand sled to mill at Fort Wayne. Out of one of his experiences in the woods of this section he gave the name Buck Creek to one of the streams of DeKalb County. He mar- ried Elvira Lockwood, a native of Vermont. He was a democrat, and both were members of the Methodist Church. In the Ulm family were ten children, the two now living being Emanuel and Harlow, the latter of St. Joe, Indiana.

Emanuel Ulm attended common schools to the age of fourteen and after that worked for his living. He made his first purchase of land when he bought twenty acres, and his present farm comprises ninety- five acres. He is a general farmer, and out of the land he has earned his prosperity. He is a stock- holder in the bank at Spencerville and his good business judgment has caused him to be called upon to settle several estates. He is a democrat in politics.

April 15, 1872, Mr. Ulm married Mary A. Gill. She was born in Stark County, Ohio, and was edu- cated in the common schools. They had two sons. The older, John E., is a farmer in Spencer Town- ship. Walter E., who died at the age of twenty-six, was a graduate of high school, attended college at Valparaiso and was a teacher.

FRANK B. CLINE is proprietor of a prosperous and well ordered farm in Bloomfield Township of La- Grange County, which has been his home over a quarter of a century. However, he has lived in this township of LaGrange County practically all his life and his people came here in pioneer times.

He was born in Bloomfield Township June 27, 1864, a son of William A. and Mary Eliza (Spears) Cline. His mother was a native of Springfield Township, LaGrange County, while his father was born in Ohio, a son of William and Ellen (Gibney) Cline. Ellen Gibney was born either in Ireland or in this country soon after her parents came from Ireland. William Cline, who was probably born in Pennsylvania, came with his wife to LaGrange County at an early day. The maternal grandfather of Frank B. Cline was Thomas Spears, who came from Ohio about 1835 and entered eighty acres of heavily timbered government land just north of Brushy Prairie. He died there in 1850, and his widow subsequently became the wife of Mr. Sears, grandfather of Charles Sears, a well-known La- Grange County farmer. She owned the farm on which the Village of Helmer now stands, and spent her last years there.

William A. Cline was reared in Ohio and came to

LaGrange County with his parents about the time he reached his majority. After his marriage he moved to a farm in Bloomfield Township and lived there until his death. He and his wife had five children: Milton, who died in infancy; Mary J., wife of Orval Anderson, occupying the old Cline homestead : Frank B .; Nellie, Mrs. Charles Hill, and Mrs. Rachel L. Smith.

Frank B. Cline received his educational advantages in his native county, including one year in the Howe High School. Since then he has been a farmer and about twenty-six years ago removed to his present farm, where he has developed the land and put up all the substantial buildings. For the last four years he has given particular attention to the hreeding of Jersey cattle. Mr. Cline is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias.

February 3, 1887. he married Miss Carrie Hackett. She was born in Wisconsin but her father, Minor Hackett, lived for a number of years in LaGrange County. Mr. and Mrs. Cline have two children : Fred S. and Vera Lucile. Fred, associated with his father on the farm, married in the fall of 1911, Miss Troy B. Marks. a daughter of Charles B. Marks of LaGrange County. They have two chil- dren : Lloyd M. and Gladys Merle. Vera Lucile is the wife of William Hostettler, in the garage busi- ness at Topeka, Indiana.

ALBERT G. GRUBB, M. D. For a quarter of a cen- tury Doctor Grubb practiced medicine and carried on various responsibilities in the business and civic affairs of the community of Mongo. He has the distinction of being the oldest volunteer from LaGrange County in the late World war. He entered the Medical Corps and rose to the rank of captain. Since his discharge he has been located at LaGrange.

Doctor Grubb was born in Hancock County, Ohio, January 15, 1862, a son of William B. and Nancy (Warner) Grubb. His father was born in Hancock County in 1833 and his mother in Wood County, Ohio, in 1835. They were married in Hancock County and in the fall of 1865 came to LaGrange County, Indiana, and settled in the Village of Van Buren. William B. Grubb was also a physician and surgeon, and his services joined with those of his son give a continuous record of the Grubb family in this profession in LaGrange County for more than half a century. He practiced medicine at Van Buren until a few years before his death, and then moved to Montagne, Michigan, where he died August 14, 1901. His wife died near the Village of Van Buren in 1879. He married for his second wife Ada Dalton, daughter of James Dalton, of Van Buren Township. By this marriage there is one son, Earl Grubb, a farmer in Springfield Township. Dr. Albert G. Grubb was the only one of his mother's children to survive infancy. The elder Doctor Grubb was a democrat in politics.

Albert G. Grubb received his education in the schools of Van Buren Township, and by attending the LaGrange County Normal was prepared for his early career as a teacher. He taught in Van Buren Township, in St. Joseph County, Michigan, and also during a residence of four years in Kansas. Doctor Grubb soon after his marriage moved out to Kansas. He engaged in the mercantile business in partnership with T. J. Thurston a former resident of LaGrange County, a native of Van Buren Town- ship and a soldier of the Twelfth Indiana Cavalry in the Civil war. Mr. Thurston is now seventy-six vears of age and resides at Seattle, Washington. Doctor Grubb also published a newspaper at Alton, Kansas, the Western Empire. He sold this paper

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and disposed of his other interests in the Sunflower State in 1889 and then entered the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons at Chicago. At his graduation in 1892 he received the gold medal for the highest general average in his classes through the entire course. In later years he did much post-graduate and clinical work, attending the New York Post- Graduate School, the Bellevue Hospital, and doing clinical work at Mayo Brothers in Rochester, Minne- sota, and at Chicago. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical Associations. After graduating Doctor Grubb located at Mongo, and was a busy practitioner there until 1917. Early in the war he joined the Medical Reserve Corps, was commissioned a first lieutenant, and on August 7, 1917, reported for duty at Fort Douglas, Utah. He was assigned to the Forty-Third Regiment, and was with that regiment until the 15th of October, when he was ordered to Garfield, Utah, and made head medical supervisor of ten camps, five in Utah and five in Idaho. January 3, 1918, he was commissioned captain, and was ordered back to Fort Douglas, Utah, where he continued on duty until receiving his honorable discharge on account of disability February 22, 1918. Doctor Grubb on September 9, 1918, located at LaGrange, and here has resumed his private practice.

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History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 94

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