USA > Indiana > Steuben County > History of Steuben County, Indiana, together withbiographies of representative citizens > Part 74
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(Koons) Thurstin. After his marriage he settled in Franklin Township, where he was killed in 1848 by descending into a well where poisonous gas had accumulated, his death being instantane- ous. Mr. and Mrs. Thurstin had three children-Calvin H., of Butler, DeKalb County; Phobe, wife of Henry Smith, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Robert J., who died May 15, 1875, aged twenty- four years, was a student at Hillsdale College. In 1851 Mrs. Thurstin married Henry Sanders, the father of Mrs. Van Auken.
Jacob H. Van Auken .- The strength of the live oak remains unknown till tested by storm and time; the tide, unmeasured till it beats against the rocks; the stars unseen till night brings them out; our guiltless Cromwells and inglorious Miltons may sleep in oblivion because they fail to
" Grasp the skirts of happy chance And breast the blows of circumstance."
Thus may begin the written eulogy of the humblest as well as the greatest of men. But he who bravely battles with his envi- ronments to attain a competence or distinction among men, though the exertion of his utmost powers may fail, his best efforts crowned with failure and defeat perch upon his banner; yet if he dies with the consciousness of having done his best, he has attained " the truest success to which man can aspire."
Among the stingy hills of his native region, at a time when the ordinary comforts of life cost far more effort than now, Jacob H. Van Auken grew to manhood. His father, an ex-soldier of the war of 1812, had traded his farm in Pike County, Penn., where our subject was born, Ang. 13, 1810, for a tract of coal land near Pittsburg which he refused to occupy. At five years of age Jacob, the youngest of a large family of children, was thus homeless and face to face with poverty. During the succeeding winters he at- tended the country schools of Sussex County, N. J., his feet clad in rags, later to be exchanged for leather shoes purchased with quails which he had entrapped. The lad's perception and memory were bright and, accordingly, at sixteen he graduated from the college of the common people with the degree of master of the three R's, reading, 'righting and 'rithmetic. Shortly there- after we find him the leading schoolmaster of Peter's Valley, and studying also logarithms and surveying under a private tutor. Among his pupils was Nancy Strawway, nearly five years his junior, to whom in March, 1831, he was married, a relationship
Many
Strawway
WIFEOF J.H. VAN ANKEN.
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which lasted nearly fifty years, to her death July 19, 1878. Four years later, Oct. 6, 1882, he also died from the gradual bursting of the heart. And now both have
" Passed within the silent tent Whose curtain never outward swings."
Among the mementoes of their early life, preserved by the family, is the copybook, the admiration of all, containing his work with the copies set by the master; also the Gunter's rule, Jacob-staff and compass bought by him in New York with the first avails of his teaching, and bearing with him an interesting compan- ionship through life. Soon after their marriage they embarked for the then "far West," intending to settle in St. Joseph County, Mich., but owing to the Black Hawk war they were deterred from going there and stopped at Deerfield, Portage Co., Ohio, the slow and tiresome journey by way of the Erie Canal and lake occupying nineteen days. To them were here born three children. Several years were divided between the little farm and teaching the village school, among the patrons being Jesse Grant, the tanner, father of a son destined in the march of events to become illustrious. Thence they moved to Orange (afterward Chagrin Falls) Cuya- hoga County, and to them were there born twelve children. In the autumn of 1860 they, with their family, came to Pleasant Lake, Steuben County, and purchased the homestead now known, by the arrangement of nineteen stately evergreens in nine straight rows which they planted, as Magic Grove Farm. And here was born one son-he and four of the daughters dying in childhood,
" As fades the flower beneath the frost, Nipped in its early bloom."
Rearing so large a family in increasing comfort, and always of- fering them the advantages of books and schools, three times in life beginning empty handed, yet always refusing any place of honor from his fellows-these circumstances render appropriate a word to the young whose interest may prompt them to follow these lines. He possessed a will and energy that would not per- mit him to sit down in despair, together with courage and pluck to the verge of impulse-qualities which we admire even in an enemy. Moreover he was a skilled artisan in one trade, broom- making, and thus while wrestling to maintain his family during their helpless years, the winter clouds, foreboding privation and want, were ofttimes rifted with the sunshine of profitable industry.
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In 1840 he served his Government by surveying in the northern part of Michigan, a calling (bequeathed to several of his sons) which occupied a portion of his time and secured to him a large acquaintance during a residence of nearly thirty years in Ohio. On one occasion his assistant was an uncouth but active boy whose manners and intelligence excited his interest. He was the son of a poor widow living in the same neighborhood. He counseled the youth to attend the select school of his friend, Dr. Harlowe. Late in life he again visited his young friend, now a full man, and exchanged with him the old salutations of " Jake" and " Jim." The latter urged him warmly to attend in his company an im- portant event. Jim, whose surname was Garfield, was about to assume "in Republican simplicity the mastership of the helm of State."
In politics he was a firm believer and fearless advocate of the principles which underlie our form of government as taught by Thomas Jefferson. And as his pathway led through the darkest valley of our national experience-the war between the States- and as in those times, fraught with peril, his position was misun- derstood and misrepresented by men who assumed, without truth, to possess loftier patriotism for our popular institutions than he, some ray of light may properly be shed upon this meager picture of his life. As in history, the war among the States of Greece blighted the flower of hope for Democratic freedom and inaugurated a rule of tyranny; and the internecine strife between the plebeians and patricians of that ancient republic which had stood against the world led to the overthrow of Rome and the establishment of an empire on her ruins; so he believed that our social compact, a union of States based upon reciprocity and brotherly love, could not survive the shock and strain of a mighty civil war. In this in- stance he was happily mistaken. For a patriotic people, North and South, learned from that struggle to cherish the arts of peace above the arts of war. And while advocating in the midst of unforeseen dangers, not peace on any other than honorable terms, he yet counseled his two sons to be true soldiers during the war and at its close promptly advocated full acquiescence in its logical re- sults as well as a generous policy toward the veteran soldiers.
His religious views, with which he lived and died, like his politi- cal opinions, may be illuminated by reference to Jefferson, in harmony with that wave of liberal thought that once wrought a moral revolution in France, "reached Germany and swept over
C
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the Netherlands," carrying with it many of the best minds in the infant republic destined to become, under the benign influence of untrammeled thought, like a tale of romance, the giant of the West. He was not an agnostic, refusing to canvass what he con- ceived to be the unknowable because his faith in the { power of argument to decide the warfare of opinion was supreme. While rejecting with scorn all slavery of thought or fear and spurning with contempt what he believed to be the hand-forged shackles of human creed, yet embracing not the " sprinkle with perfume and cover with flowers that I may thus enter upon eternal sleep" of Mirabeau, but in common with the most of the race he enter- tained a belief that the " darkness" which fell from his dying lips was pierced by some star of hope. He was reared a Presbyte- rian, to which church he belonged until he became convinced that the propositions on which the Christian religion is founded, to wit: The immaculate conception, the wandering of a star, the trinity, the vicarious atonement, the doctrine of endless punishment, the prophecies and miracles, are all contrary to the laws of nature, and consequently could not be true. He believed that the Koran, the Veda Shasta, the Bible and all other books are the productions of man. He believed in one God and that the God of Nature, and that the only revelation from him could come through her laws, and that he who studied and learned the most of these received the greater amount of revelation. He closed his eyes in death in the arms of the son who bears his name with others of his chil- dren near him, the faculties of his mind unimpaired, believing, and satisfied with his belief, that if man uses his reason which the God of Nature has given him and acts honestly and conscien- tiously upon the conclusions thus arrived at, that certainly no harm can come to him in the future. On Sunday morning follow- ing his death not less than a thousand persons attended the burial services in the grove at Pleasant Lake. An obituary was read by the oldest son, C. E. Van Auken, after which J. H. Burnham, of Saginaw City, Mich., delivered a scholarly address, subject: Our Relation to Nature. Music by Freygang's Orchestra. Seven sons and two daughters were present, six sons acting as pall- bearers, the other, with the daughters, sons' wives, grandchildren, and other relatives and friends following the remains to their final resting place in the city of the dead by the side of the mother whose steadfast character had tempered his prosperity and upheld him in adversity through life.
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He was an ardent student, a keen debator, and advocated his views with warmth and vehemence. Denied in youth the equip- ment in science obtainable in our day of multiplied facilities, his love of study, and especially of mathematics in which he developed uncommon talent, never forsook him. A salient point in his in- tellectual make-up not to be overlooked was his power of criticism. His perception of the errors of style or logic in a discourse seemed intuitive. An intelligent friend, A. V. Ball, with whom he was associated in business during some of the happiest and most pros- perous years of his life, has said that in all his intercourse with men he never knew another so able to defend himself with his tongue. His power of language and invective seemed as sponta- neous as the well of feeling from which they sprung-his mental sword had two edges, reason on one side and sarcasm on the other.
They who with filial affection pen this sketch, well knowing that the highest ornament of human discourse is its fidelity to truth, and while anxious to hold aloft his virtues as worthy of imitation, would yet acknowledge his faults or foibles whatever they may have been, and cover them over with the mantle of charity His generous impulses were such as to make him ever the willing friend of those in need, and sometimes, also, the victim of designing men
And now, speaking for the young, to him and all the mighty band of pioneers who, with no other than the magic wand of toil, have changed the vast and frowning forest into fruitful fields and happy homes, we bid yon hail and farewell.
" Who are the nobles of the earth, The true aristocrats, Who need not bow their heads to lords, Nor doff to kings their hats ?
" They are the men of toil Who cleave the forest down, And plant amid the wilderness The hamlet and the town."
Nancy Van Auken .- We who have attempted to write a short biography of our mother find it no easy task. True mothers are, in the estimation of their children, faultless; and to attempt to discourse upon the many virtues and unselfish charities of a mother is entirely too delicate a matter to be dealt with in so meager a manner. Seated ready for the task, with pen already dipped in ink, the first thoughts that come to us are her last words, her last
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wistful look upon us, and then, as the vivid recollection of the many, many loving kindnesses of mother, cluster about us, the heart beats quick, the eyes are filled, and the fingers refuse to write. * *
* We pause, we linger for a time in reverie, until the fac- ulties are again collected. * * Nancy Strawway was born and reared among the mountains of New Jersey. She was born at a time when the heart of this country was stirred to quick and resolute action in consequence of the last war with England, and not unlikely many of the sterling qualities which she possessed were imbued upon her by her mother at this critical juncture. When quite a young girl she was sent from her father's poor and lowly home (for he was a miner for iron ore) to live with her uncle, Joseph Harvey, where an opportunity for getting an education was possible. For four years she attended school under the in- struction of Jacob H. Van Auken, who afterward became her consort for the remainder of her life, with whom she lived nearly fifty years, rearing a large family of children. And for these many years she was truly both Secretary and Treasurer of her entire fam- ily, and a living encyclopedia for the same. Her willingness and ability to do for, and her zealous and watchful care over her own household and family, were barely ever equaled and could not be excelled by any mother on earth. The children were lullabied to sleep at night by her tuneful song, while yet her hands found work to do. In addition to doing her own housework with neatness and dispatch, she still found time to spin the yarn and knit the stock- ings for the family, and once, when the stern decree of fate had robbed them of every farthing, with six small dependent children, with almost superhuman effort she found time to spin the flax and weave the cloth for summer clothing for herself, her husband and her little ones, and at the same time delivering bright and mellow words of hope and consolation to those about her. She was en- dowed by nature with a strong and vigorous constitution, added to which was a cultivated and well-balanced mind which well fitted her for the office of maternity, which she so well and nobly filled.
The order of her motherhood is as follows-Sarah Jane, born Aug. 11, 1832, died Jan. 14, 1834, at Deerfield, Ohio; Calvin E., born July 29, 1835; James 'H., born Oct. 2, 1837; Horace N., born Oct. 23, 1839; Maria, born Aug. 9, 1841; Nancy, born Sept. 20, 1842, died Aug. 30, 1845, at Orange, Ohio; Phebe Elizabeth, born Dec. 8, 1843; Mary Jane, born March 9, 1845; Amos B., born July 19, 1847, killed by lightning at Red Oak, Iowa, Aug. 4,
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1874; David E., born Sept. 17, 1848; Frank B., born Nov. 13, 1850; Jacob J., born Feb. 8, 1852; Nannie, born June 27, 1854, died Sept. 4, 1856, at Chagrin Falls, Ohio; Leah Katherine, born Feb. 25, 1856, died Aug. 28, 1856; William P., born Dec. 23, 1858; Perry D., born Feb. 28, 1861, died Nov. 16, 1865, at Pleasant Lake, Indiana.
And now, at the time of writing this sketch (1885), fifty-four years have elapsed since her marriage, and were it possible for a reunion of her own children with their families, sixty-seven living souls would call her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, while twenty-three lie covered with the clods of the valley. How wonderful!
She did not live quite the allotted " threescore and ten years," but she lived to do and accomplished much. She lived to send sons to the civil war, and to see them return with the scars of bat- tle. She lived to see her sons emerge from the colleges of learning of her country, with honor to her and credit to themselves. She lived to see sons fill places of trust and honor given them at the hands of their countrymen. She lived. to see her daughters rear families for usefulness. She "plied the steady oar" to a purpose, and with the habits of industry and frugality as a part of her very existence, the constant presence of which had a telling influence upon her family around her, a sufficient fortune was gathered to- gether to insure her plenty in her declining years, and the endur- ing marks of her handiwork in beautifying her home will stand as living monuments to her praise for centuries to come. Would that all mothers of the children of earth could emulate her example.
And now we think the words of the poet will clearly and plainly apply to her, and are here appropriate:
" Blessings on the hands of women, Angels guard and give them grace In the palace, cottage, hovel, No matter where the place.
" ()'er her may no storm-clouds lower, Rainbows be ever gently curled, For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rocks the world."
The obituary notice printed in the Angola Herald was as fol- lows: Aunt Nancy Van Auken, wife of Jacob H. Van Auken, died at the family residence two miles northeast of Pleasant Lake at 8:15 p. m., July 19, 1878. Her disease was enlargement of the
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liver, a post mortem revealing a condition of that organ known as " Lardacious;" also were found within the gall bladder three gall stones lying side by side, of precisely the same shape and size, being almost perfect cubes, the faces of which were quite one half inch. Her condition caused no alarm until about eight weeks before her death, when the enlargement became noticeable and from that time she knew the end was near, but she did not take to her bed until the very last, her last conscious words being, " My children, was I ever so sick, so deathly sick?" From this time until her death, about twenty-four hours later, she was in a
semi-unconscious state. Her age was sixty-three years, seven months and twenty-seven days. Born at Morristown, Morris Co., N. J., on the 22d day of November, 1814; was married at Sandyston, Sussex County, March 3, 1831, by Peter Young, Esq., (father of our old townsman, Andrew Young). She was the mother of sixteen children, nine sons and seven daughters. Four of the daughters and one son died in childhood. One son Amos, was killed by lightning, in Iowa, and had he lived he would have been thirty-one years old on the same day of his mother's death. The funeral was held in the grove which surrounds and adorns the last home of the departed, one of the most beautiful spots on earth, made lovely by her own hands. The discourse was de- livered by Dr. Wilson, of Auburn, assisted by Prof. Hull, of Montgomery, Mich. The discourses were in keeping with the life of the deceased and were full of words of consolation for her family, such as would have come from her silent lips could they have spoken. The mother had the satisfaction of having all her living children minister to her wants during her last sickness and with their hands to wipe away the dew of death from her fading brow, and as she had no belief in a future punishment, nor expec- tation of meeting an angry God, she passed away as she had lived, with fortitude, courage and serenity.
The large concourse of people in attendance at the funeral attest the esteem of the community for the deceased and their sympathy for the bereaved family.
Silas R. Williams was born in Otsego County, N. Y., in 1847. In 1863 his father, Thomas L. Williams, came to Steuben County. and afterward went to Milwaukee, Wis., where he still resides. He came to this county in the spring of 1862. He enlisted in the war of the Rebellion in the Seventy-fourth Indiana Infantry and served till the close of the war. He participated in the important
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events of the last part of the war in which General Sherman's army was engaged, among others the siege of Atlanta and the march to the sea. Mr. Williams lives on section 11, Steuben Township, a part of the farm of Abner Winsor, and is engaged in general farm- ing. Mr. Williams married Sarah A. Staley, a native of Angola, born in 1849, the only surviving child of Christian Staley. They have three sons-Mild. R., Claud H. and Roy W.
Abner Winsor is one of the most widely known and most es- teemed citizens of Steuben Township. He has been identified with the history of the county since its beginning, and has ever been in the front rank of its progressive and energetic citizens. He was born in the town of Hartwick, Otsego Co., N. Y., Sept. 29, 1812, a son of Joseph and Phœbe (Harris) Winsor, natives of Rhode Island, where they were reared and married, removing soon after to Otsego County, N. Y. Abner Winsor was reared on his father's farm. His opportunities for obtaining an education in his early life were quite limited, being only such as the common schools afforded. In September, 1835, he came to Steuben County, Ind., and entered between 800 and 900 acres in Steuben Township, the principal portions of which were as follows: The north half of section 14; the southeast fractional quarter of 14; the east half of the southwest quarter of 14; the east half of the northeast quarter of 15; the southwest quarter of 11, and the west half of the north- east quarter of 11. After entering his land he returned to New York and Jan. 7, 1836, was married to Lucinda Robinson, a native of Hartwick, born March 10, 1819. The following March they moved to their pioneer home, and began the improvement of his land. Their first house was a board shanty, which he built in April, 1836, and their second a log cabin, built the next fall. Not having a cook-stove Mrs. Winsor cooked by a fire on the outside of the cabin six months. In the winter of 1836-'37 Mr. Winsor built a small frame house in which they lived fifteen years. In 1836 he set out an orchard, which was the first in the township; most of the trees are living and productive. In 1850 he sold forty acres of land on section 11, including his residence, to I. D. Mor- ley, and in 1852 built a house on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 15, which at that time was the finest in the county, and put up suitable farm buildings. He also built a two- story tenement house, and set out another orchard. The most of the land described above was timber openings with a rich and pro- ductive soil. He improved all except such as he reserved for nec-
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essary woodland, and made one of the finest farms in the county, living on it till 1876. His faithful wife who had shared with him the hardships and struggles of a pioneer life, and who had lived to reap some of the rewards of their labors, died Feb. 14, 1873. In 1868 Mr. Winsor went to Chicago, where he remained two years, and then passed some time in the South. He still owns the old homestead, where he spends a portion of his time; his residence, however, is in Grand Rapids, Mich. In addition to his farm he owns valuable property in Kent County, Mich., and also city prop- erty in Chicago. Mr. Winsor has but one daughter-Mary Estella, who was born in 1846. She has been twice' married. Her first husband was Orlando P. Fisk, who at his death left six children- Winsor W., Mark H., Charles O., M. Stella, Lilly L. and Clara L. Her present husband is Orson W. Fisk, a brother of her first hus- band. They have one child-Carlotta M. They live on the old homestead in Steuben Township.
William Wolf was born in Loudoun County, Va., Aug. 6, 1805, and when an infant his parents moved to Ohio, settling in Colum- biana County, where he was reared and educated. He married Catherine Fetterhoff, a native of Pennsylvania, reared in Dauphin County. After their marriage they moved to Ashland County, Ohio, and in 1864 to Steuben County, Ind., and settled on the northeast quarter of section 7, Steuben Township. A brother, Daniel Wolf, settled near Hamilton several years previous, and died there in February, 1884. His father had also come to Steu- ben several years before and lived with his son-in-law, George Dahof, till his death. Mr. Wolf has a fine farm and is one of the most prosperous citizens of the township. To Mr. and Mrs. Wolt have been born fifteen children, fourteen of whom are living and have families-John, Susanna, Andrew, Jacob, Adam, Joseph, Mary Ann, Catherine, Magdalena, William, Amos, Lydia, Front and Phœbe. One daughter, Sarah, died July 5, 1869, aged twenty- three years. Joseph lives on the homestead and has charge of the farm. He was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, in 1839. He has been twice married. His first wife was Jane Anderson, a native of Ireland, who at her death left four children-Charles, Martha O., Harvey E. and Florence. He subsequently married Emma L. Tubbs, danghter of Leroy Tubbs, of Salem Township, Steuben County. They have one child-Emma J.
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