History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 99

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 99
USA > Indiana > Noble County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 99
USA > Indiana > DeKalb County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 99
USA > Indiana > Steuben County > History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II > Part 99

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).

October 24, 1881, he married Sophia Rasler. Mrs. Fair was born in Noble County, Indiana, October 15, 1855, a daughter of George and Margaret (Neff)

Rasler, both natives of Pennsylvania. Her father was born in 1808 and her mother in 1814. They were married in Ohio, came to DeKalb County, Indiana, at an early age, and in 1857 moved to LaGrange County and located in Springfield Township. Her father for a time rented the Wash Greenfield Farm and then bought twenty acres in Milford Township, moving to that place in 1862. Her father died there September 10, 1882, and her mother June 3, 1892. In the Rasler family were nine children: Daniel, born July 27, 1835, and died April 30, 1917; David, born November 18, 1837, and died September 8, 1841; Philip Noah, born May 13, 1840, and died March 30, 1904; John, born December 2, 1842, and died November 26, 1900; George, born December 22, 1845, and died February 20, 1846; Aaron, born October 22, 1848, and died March 15, 1860; Mary Ann, his twin sister, born October 22, 1848, and died July 7, 1894; Gilbert, born June 15, 1851, died July 23, 1862; and Sophia, Mrs. Fair, who is the youngest of the family, born October 15, 1855.

Mr. and Mrs. Fair had four children: George, the oldest, was born November 6, 1882, was educated in the high school at Mongo, and now works the home farm. Celestia, born April 24, 1886, is a graduate of the eighth grade and the Mongo High School. Ellen, born September 27, 1888, died in in- fancy. Stella, the youngest daughter, was born April 24, 1893, and completed the work of the grade schools and the Mongo High School, attended the LaGrange High School and the Tri-State College at Angola, and was a successful teacher in North Dakota until she married Lewis O. Magnus. Mr. and Mrs. Magnus live near Sterling, North Dakota, and have one child, Chester Irvin.

BART HANSELMAN. A new flag has been added to those of our country during the past couple of years, and it hung in the windows of homes all over the land while those whom the service stars repre- sented were serving in the different branches of the a:my and navy during the great war. Although the majority of these flags are now carefully stored away among the precious mementoes of the families to whom they belonged, the boys being happily so many of them back on our own shores, they will never be forgotten or what they represent held in light esteem. Steuben County sent the very flower of its young manhood to France to do battle against a common enemy, and its soldiers of this war rank with those of the old soldiers of the Civil war still answering to roll call in the flesh. One of the patriotic families who is proud of the fact that one went out from their home in response to the call of the Government is that bearing the name of Hansel- man, of whom Bart Hanselman is one of the pros- perous farmers of Otsego Township.

Bart Hanselman was born in Pleasant Township, Steuben County, Indiana, in the City of Angola, September 25, 1865, a son of John Q. and Margaret (Kankamp) Hanselman, and grandson of Aaron and Christina (Read) Hanselman, natives of Pennsyl- vania, who became pioneers of Steuben County, lo- cating in Steuben Township at a very early day and developing a valuable farm from the wilderness. Their children were as follows: John Q., George, Lynn, Elizabeth, Eliza, David, Peter, Daniel and Lewis.

John Q. Hanselman was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, January 25, 1836, and he died January 19, 1918, in Otsego Township. His wife was born at Bremen, Germany, April 4, 1841, and died in Otsego Township, June 17, 1907. She was a daugh- ter of John and Lucile Kankamp. In young man- hood John Q. Hanselman was engaged in teaming

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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST INDIANA

from Waterloo to Angola but later bought 140 acres of land on section 5, Otsego Township. After the death of his wife he lived at the home of his son Clarence Hanselman, but died at the home of his son Bart. Their children were as follows: Flor- ence, who died in childhood; Bart, whose name heads this review ; Lillie, who married Harvey Har- man; Morton; and Clarence.

Bart Hanselman attended the local schools of Otsego Township and grew up amid healthy sur- roundings, learning to be useful on his father's farm. On December 24, 1890, he was united in marriage with Jennie McMillan, born in Scott Township, Steuben County, a daughter of George and Mar- garet Jane (Magers) McMillan, the former born in Livona, Cattaraugus County, New York, March 7, 1831, and the latter born in Marion County, Ohio, March 23, 1832. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. Hanselman, John McMillan, came to Steuben Coun- ty, Indiana, about 1836, and was one of the first set- tlers of Scott Township, there entering eighty acres of wild land, on which he spent the remainder of his life. His children were as follows: Jane, Mary, Annania, George and John. George McMillan be- came a farmer of Scott Township, owning forty acres of land, on which he lived practically all of his life. He died in 1904, his widow surviving him until February 24, 1916. Their children were as follows: Elva, Melvin, Olive and Jennie. The mother of Mrs. Hanselman, Margaret Jane (Mag- ers) McMillan, was the daughter of Peter and Eliza- beth (Ramsey) Magers. Peter Magers located in Scott Township in 1836, there entering land, but went back to Ohio for his family, and they spent the remainder of their lives in this township.

After his marriage Mr. Hanselman began farming in Scott Township, remaining there for nine years, when he moved to Fremont Township and was en- gaged in farming for three years. In 1903 he honght his present farm of 1447/2 acres of land in section 6, Otsego Township and Scott Township. This farm is one of the best improved in his locality, and his buildings are in fine condition. Here he is engaged in general farming and stock raising. Mr. and Mrs. Hanselman have had the following children born to them. Nola M., is a graduate of the Angola High School, also attended the Tri-State College, of An- gola for two terms, and then taught the school of district No. 5 in Otsego Township for one year. She was then married to Carl Henney, and they have a daughter, Eileen Jeanette. Robert B. attended the Angola High School and the International Business College, of which he was a graduate, and entered the United States navy and saw service in England and France in the paymaster's department of the yeomen. The Hanselmans and all their connections are among the very early settlers of Steuben County, and to them and theirs is due the credit of develop- ing much wild land and laying the foundations for the present prosperity and improvements which are such marked features of this rich agricultural region. These pioneers endured much in the way of hard- ships and privations, but they labored wisely and well, and their descendants are enjoying the fruits of their industry and foresight.

FILLMORE PRICE. Many relationships would serve to identify the citizenship of Fillmore Price with Noble County. He has lived in Perry Township all his life, more than sixty years, represents one of the early families in that section, has been a practical and successful farmer, is a former township trustee, and is almost as well known in the city of Ligonier as in his immediate locality. His farm home is in

section 8 of Perry Township, five miles northwest of Ligonier.

He was born in Preble County, Ohio, December 7, 1856, and was brought to Noble County, Indiana, when only two years old. His parents, Jacob and Elizabeth (Lock) Price, were also natives of Preble County. Elizabeth Lock was born in the same house as her son Fillmore. In 1858 the family came to Noble County and settled three miles northwest of Ligonier. They sold that property in 1876 and bought where Fillmore Price now lives. His parents spent the rest of their days here, the father dying in 1894 and the mother in 1917. They were members of the Christian Church and Jacob Price always took an active interest in local affairs, was a republican, and served a number of years as road supervisor. He and his wife had four children, one of whom died in infancy, and Melzina is also deceased. The only surviving daughter is Sarah J., wife of A. J. Price, of Missouri.

Fillmore Price attended the district schools of Perry Township and lived at home to the age of twenty-two. On January 1, 1880, he married Anna Rachel A. Hoshaw, who was born in Elkhart County, Indiana, November 19, 1860, but was reared and educated in Noble County. Ever since their mar- riage Mr. and Mrs. Price have lived on their present farm, which comprises 100 acres, and is devoted to general farming and stock raising. Mr. Price is also a stockholder in the Citizens Bank of Ligonier and the Farmers Elevator there.

Politically his actions have all been in line with the republican party, of which he is one of the most influential members in his community. He served as township assessor ten years, and his term as trustee ran from 1915 to 1919. He and his wife are members of the United Brethren Church, and he has served as a noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is also a member of the Encampment at Ligonier. He is also affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees.

Mr. and Mrs. Price have two children. Bertha B. is a graduate of the common schools and wife of Harry Haller. Mr. and Mrs. Haller live just across the road from her parents. Willard B. had two years in high school and is a graduate of the Elk- hart Business College and now lives in South Bend.

JOSIAH J. MILLER. Of the various Miller families represented in the citizenship of Northeastern In- diana that containing Josiah J. Miller, a well known farmer and leader in the Mennonite Church in New- bury Township of LaGrange County, has been iden- tified with this part of Indiana for many years.

Josiah J. Miller was born in Newbury Township, October 19, 1870, a son of John J. S. and Nancy C. (Miller) Miller and a grandson of John Miller. John J. S. Miller was born in Newbury Township, May 23, 1846. His wife, Nancy Miller, was born in Pennsylvania, December 20, 1853, a daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Yoder) Miller. John J. S. Miller grew up in Newbury Township, married there, and in 1881 took his family to St. Joseph County, Michigan, and lived there until about 1903, when he returned to LaGrange County and is still living in Newbury Township. He and his wife had six children: Josiah J., George Monroe, Elizabeth, James Elmer, Mary Matilda (who died in child- hood) and Lanra.

Josiah J. Miller attended the district schools of Newbury Township until he was eleven years old, and after that finished his education in Michigan. At the age of twenty-one he began working as a farm hand, and continued earning monthly wages in that way for three years. In 1902 he and his

Casper Bardon MinnieM Bardon

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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST INDIANA

father bought a farm in section 22 of Newbury Township and subsequently he bought out his father's interest and now owns 13134 acres. He practices general farming and livestock husbandry on a successful scale, and has a group of fine build- ings, nearly all of which have been put on the land during his tenure of ownership.

For the past seventeen years Mr. Miller has also officiated as pastor of the Shore Mennonite Church, doing that work, according to the custom of the church, without compensation. In 1895 he married Magdalena Yoder, daughter of Joseph C. Yoder. To their marriage were born Irwin, Percival J., Mabel Elizabeth, Orpha, Rachel and Clara. The mother of these children died in 1907. Mr. Miller married Mrs. Anna Weaver in 1909. She was the widow of Willis D. Weaver. They have one daugh- ter, Alta and by her first marriage Mrs. Miller has a son, Ralph.

BURRITT S. WALTER, the present county treasurer of LaGrange County, has taken an active part in public affairs for a number of years and at the same time has played a busy role in farming and in various other enterprises.

He was born in Clay Township of LaGrange County July 11, 1869, son of Valentine and Lydia (Shipley) Walter. His parents were both born in Ohio, but when children were brought by their re- spective parents to LaGrange County, both families settling in Clay Township. Valentine and Lydia attended district school there and after they were grown they married, and for a number of years were substantial farming people there. They now live retired at LaGrange. The father is a republican and both are members of the Lutheran Church, Valentine having been officially connected with the congregation for a number of years.

Burritt S. Walter was the only one of the two children of his parents to survive infancy. He grew up on the home farm in Clay Township, and in addi- tion to the district schools attended a high school at LaGrange. Since early manhood he has found abundant opportunity to test his ability in business affairs. He owns a splendid farm of 420 acres in Clay Township, and is also interested in sixty acres in another township in the county. For a number of years he has done a large business buying and shipping cattle and horses. He is president of the LaGrange Automobile Company, director of the LaGrange Trust Company, is treasurer of the La- Grange Combination Sales Company, and is a stock- holder in the Noble Truck Company.

Politically he has long been identified with the republican party and for six years was township assessor in Clay Township. He is now serving his second term as county treasurer, and no more care- ful and efficient custodian of the public funds of the county ever held office at the courthouse in La- . independence.

Grange. Mr. Walter is a member of the Lutheran Church and one of its trustees, and is affiliated with LaGrange Lodge No. 141, Knights of Pythias.

He married Lou S. Latta, who was educated in the common schools of this county and before her marriage was a teacher for several terms. They have four children: Rollo N., a graduate of high school and for two terms a student in the Angola Tri-State Normal and now cashier of the LaGrange Truck Company; Nina, wife of Forest Aldrich ; Russell L., a graduate of the LaGrange High School and a practical farmer in Clay Township; and Monroe, who is a graduate of high school and is now a student of dentistry.

CASPER BARDON is an old and prominent resident of LaGrange County, a prosperous farmer in Van Bu-

ren Township, and is especially esteemed because of his service as a Union soldier during the Civil war.

He was born in Germany June 12, 1841, and in 1847, at the age of six years, came to America with his parents, Michael and Catherine (Buckner) Bar- don. The family lived in Pennsylvania for eight years and then settled in Van Buren Township of LaGrange County. Michael Bardon acquired a tract of land, cleared some of the woods away and built a log house 12 by 18 feet as the first home of his family. Like so many of his countrymen, he was industrious and thrifty and made a good farm. Dur- ing his lifetime he built a large barn 40 by 60 feet. The comfortable and commodious house still stand- ing on the farm was built by Mr. Casper Bardon, who is a carpenter by trade. Michael Bardon died in 1894, at the age of seventy-seven, and his widow survived until 1904, when she was eighty-five years of age. Their children were Margaret, Elizabeth, Susan, Casper, Catherine, Mary, Louis, Frederick, Henry and Charlotte.

Casper Bardon finished his education in the com- mon schools of LaGrange County, and in 1862, at the age of twenty-one, enlisted in Company D, Thirtieth Indiana Regiment. His second enlistment was in Company A, One Hundred and Forty-Second Indi- ana Infantry and was with his command until the close of the war. He participated in many cam- paigns and many engagements and was in the great battles of Gettysburg and Nashville. When the war was over he returned to Van Buren Township, and had thirteen acres of the old homestead. Later he bought the 138 acres which he now owns and where he lives, near Scott, and he also owns a life lease on forty acres in Van Buren Township. He has worked at his trade as carpenter and has made a competence as a farmer. He cast his first vote for Lincoln and has been a stanch republican ever since. He is a Lutheran in church membership, while his first wife was a Baptist, and the present Mrs. Bar- · don is a Methodist.

In 1872 he married Miss Lois Berry, a daughter of Conrad Berry, of Van Buren Township. Their only child was stillborn. Mrs. Bardon died in 1903. In 1905 he married for his present wife Minnie M. (Shelby) Johnson. She was the mother of one son by her first husband, Clarence Johnson, who owns his own farm in Colorado and married Viva Smith, a daughter of George P. Smith, of LaGrange.

HENRY H. BODIE, whose home is in Jamestown Township of Steuben County, is now practically retired, after many years of well spent toil and thrifty husbandry as a farmer. When a boy he had to get out and make his own way in the world, and in all his active career he has sought no help which he could not repay and has thoroughly earned his

Mr. Bodie was born in Putnam County, Ohio, March 19, 1860, son of Joseph and Rhoda Ann ( Martin) Bodie. Joseph Bodie enlisted in the Union army in 1861, and served faithfully until his death at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1864. About the time of his death his widow and her family moved to Allen County, Indiana, and she survived her hus- hand nearly half a century, passing away in 1909, at the age of eighty-one. Her children were Hannah, Barbara, Margaret, Isaac, Christene, William, Sarah, Joseph, Henry H. and Emma.

Henry . H. Bodie when nine years old came to Steuben County to live with his sister Margaret, who married Amos Gleason and lived in Jackson Town- ship. He had little time or opportunity to attend school, and at an early age went to work for neigh- horing farmers by the month. Having accumulated

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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST INDIANA

some equipment and with his experience he began renting land from Gideon Davis, whose daughter he married. In 1903 he moved to Jamestown Town- ship and bought eighty acres which his son Roy now operates. Mr. and Mrs. Bodie for the past eight years have lived in comfort on a small place.

Mr. Bodie is a republican, and he and his wife are members of the Latter Day Saints Church. In 1880 he married Allie V. Davis, who was born in Jackson Township of Steuben County August 27, 1856, a daughter of Gideon and Eleanor (VanCleve) Davis. Her father came from the State of New York to Jackson Township in 1837, settling on the 140-acre farm where he died in 1888, at the age of sixty-three. Her mother was born in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and passed away in 1912, aged eighty-two. In the Davis family were four children : Americus, Viola, Allie and Elmer. Mr. and Mrs. Davis also reared Edwin Owen Collins, a son of Truman Collins, until he was seventeen years of age, and also Harriett Collins.

Mrs. Allie Bodie's early school days were spent in the No. 6 Schoolhouse in Jackson Township. She finished the work there and entered the high school at Angola, Indiana, under the teaching of R. V. Carlin, L. R. Williams, A. W. Long and others. After completing her studies there she took up teaching, and was a most successful in- structor, and probably as well and as favorably known as any teacher in the county.

Mr. and Mrs. Bodie have three children: Inez, Roy G. W. and Zelma. Inez, born June 10, 1882, was educated in the public schools of Jackson Town- ship, the Flint High School, was a successful teacher for several years, and is the wife of Bert Collins. Mr. and Mrs. Collins had four children, Lowell, Loene, Max and Robert Bodie, but the last named died in infancy. Roy G. W. Bodie was born Sep- tember 22, 1886, and completed his education in the Jamestown High School. He is a successful young farmer, working his father's place of eighty acres in

Jackson Township, is a republican, and he and his . was a wilderness, and long years before the building wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1905 he married Ethel DeLancey, a daughter of Charles and Emma Delancey, of a family well known in Steuben County and referred to on other pages. Roy Bodie and wife have four children, Arnona, Roy Charles, Clyde Henry and Beatrice Lula. The daughter Zelma Bodie, born February 27, 1892, was educated in the public schools and the Jamestown High School, and is the wife of Ray DeLancey, a son of Charles DeLancey, above mentioned. They have four children, named Opal, Oral, Merlyn and Arlene. They live on the De- Lancey farm at Gage, Indiana.

EARL LEMMON is a son of Clay Lemmon, who was the youngest son of Maurice and Lucinda Lem- mon, and was born in Otsego Township, August 18, 1844. On October 10, 1861, at the age of seventeen, he enlisted in Company K of the Forty-Fourth In- diana Infantry, and saw a long period of interesting and arduous service. He was at the battle of Shiloh and the siege of Corinth, and after a period of con- finement in the hospital was honorably discharged in the fall of 1862. About a year later he enlisted as a veteran in Company H of the Seventy-Fourth In- diana Infantry and joined the regiment in Chatta- nooga in time to participate in the Atlanta campaign. He was with Sherman on the march to the sea and was in the Grand Review at Washington. in May, 1865. He received his honorable discharge July 24. 1865, and was not absent a day from his regi- ment during his second enlistment. In 1869 he settled on a farm in section 20 of Otsego Township. He became prominent in local affairs, was elected

township trustee in 1876 and again in 1878, and did much to improve school facilities of the township. He was elected justice of the peace in 1880, and in 1884 was elected treasurer of Steuben County, an office he held from 1885 to 1889. As a farmer he had begun in the woods and had cleared up a place of 120 acres, his first home being a log cabin. After 1885 he made his home in Angola. After retiring from the office of county treasurer he studied in a college at South Bend and was trained for the profession of optician, which he followed many years in Angola. He married September 19, 1869, Jane Cameron, who was born in Richland Township of Steuben County January 27, 1846, a daughter of William and Sarah Cameron. They became the parents of four children: Sarah Erdine, wife of John E. Kratz, of Angola; Ernest, who died in infancy; Edith, who died in February, 1918, at the age of forty; and Earl.

Earl Lemmon, who was born on the old home- stead in Otsego Township September 17, 1883, lived in Angola from the age of two years until he was twenty-five. He is a graduate of the Angola High School, and in 1902 he began working the home farm and after the death of his father in 1917 acquired this property and has been busily engaged in general farming and stock raising. In politics he is a republican.

In November, 1907, Mr. Lemmon married Miss Ethel Dirrim, daughter of Lincoln Dirrim and a granddaughter of Wesley Dirrim, these constituting some of the oldest and most honored names of Steuben County citizenship. Mr. and Mrs. Lemmon have four children, named Esther, Elsie, Edith and Clay.

HARRY B. SCHLOTTERBACK. This is one of the oldest family names in the history of Perry Town- ship in Noble County. The family was established here in the earliest pioneer times, when the county of the first railroad or other modern improvements. The present representative of the name Harry B. Schlotterback, is not only one of the leading farmers of Perry Township, but has been honored by his fellow citizens with the responsibilities of the im- portant office of township trustee, of which he is the present incumbent.

Mr. Schlotterback was born in the same township March 26, 1870, a son of Henry and Sarah E. (Davis) Schlotterback. How early the family was established in this section of Noble County is in- dicated by the fact that Henry Schlotterback was born in Perry Township, October 30, 1834, more than eighty-five years ago. His wife was also born in the same township in 1842. Henry died in October, 1917, and his wife in 19II. He was a re- publican and always followed farming as his occu- pation. There were seven children in the family : Eden H., a mechanic at Ligonier; Anna, wife of William Lacounts ; Harry B .; Emma, wife of Albert Deardorff; John M., who lives in Canada; Jesse E., of Wawaka; and Louis E., of Ligonier.

Harry B. Schlotterback received his education in the district schools and lived at home until he was twenty-one, at which time he acquired a home of his own by his marriage to Miss Lizzie M. Pollock, a sister of Charles E. Pollock, one of the well known citizens of Washington Township of Noble County. Mr. and Mrs. Schlotterback have two children: Marian L., a graduate of the Ligonier High School and still at home; and Melvin, who is in the third year of the high school.

Mr. Schlotterback is an active republican in poli- tics, and was elected on that ticket to his present

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History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Volume II, Part 99

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