USA > Indiana > Tipton County > History of Tipton County Indiana > Part 30
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Mrs. Albershardt was born in Indianapolis, three doors from where
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her husband was born on Washington street, opposite the court house. She was reared and educated in that city. Her parents were natives of Germany and came to this country when quite young. He was formerly in the book and stationery business in Indianapolis. Both are now dead. They had three children, William, Ottillie and Lillie.
Mr. Albershardt is distinguished by the thrift and honesty which char- acterizes all the German descendants who have come to this country. The qualities of the German emigrant have made them the most valuable of all the foreigners who have come to this country. During his business career in this city he has not only gained the confidence of his fellow business men, but as a man of force of character, upright and honest dealings with his fellow citizens in business he has gained the esteem of all who know him.
JOSEPH N. RUSSELL.
The true measure of individual success is determined by what one has accomplished. An enumeration of those men who have succeeded in their special vocations in Tipton county, and at the same time are impressing their personalities on the community, men who are conferring honor on the locality in which they reside, would be incomplete were there failure to make specific mention of the gentleman whose name initiates this paragraph, for he is an important factor in the business life of his community. The splendid success which has come to him has been the direct result of the salient points in his character, for, with a mind capable of laying judicious plans and a will strong enough to carry them into execution, his energy, foresight and perseverance have carried him forward to a position in the front rank of the successful men of his community. He has carried forward to successful completion whatever he has undertaken, and his business methods have ever been in strict conformity with the standard ethics of commercial life. He has taken an intelligent interest in the civic life of the community and has earned the high regard in which he is held by all who know him.
Joseph N. Russell, the son of James Madison and Amanda J. ( Sellers) Russell, was born in Warren county, Ohio, on February 25, 1859. His parents were natives of Ohio, and reared five children, William A., de- ceased; Elizabeth, deceased wife of Taylor B. Durbon ; Joseph N., of Tipton; Annie, deceased wife of William Michaels, and Frank, deceased. The senior Russell was raised in Warren county, Ohio. He was a potter by trade and
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. did all of his work by hand. He was successful and very popular until stoneware, made by machinery, came into vogue, after which he suffered heavy financial losses, which finally drove him out of the business. He later went into the drain tile business in Merrittstown, Ohio. He came to Indiana with his family from Ohio in January, 1871, in a covered spring wagon, and located at Frankfort. After farming for four years he moved to Frankfort, where he became a merchant policeman, and continued in that capacity for twenty-two years. He died in 1896 at the age of seventy-one. His wife is still living in this county. His good nature and genial affability won for him the familiar title of "Daddy," and by this he was known to every one in the city of Frankfort. He and his wife were both members of the Methodist Episcopal church. The maternal grandparents were William and Elizabeth Sellers. They were early settlers of Warren county, Ohio, and died there in the old homestead after having lived about seventy years in that county. They had six children, Ferdinand, Wesley, Robert, Amanda, Mary and Mellie.
Joseph N. Russell was twelve years of age when he came to Indiana. He was educated in the district schools of Clinton county and on October 31, 1874, he started to learn telegraphy. After becoming efficient as a telegrapher he entered the employ of the Logansport. Crawfordsville & Southwestern Railway and remained with them until February 26, 1876, when he took em- ployment with what is now the Lake Erie & Western Railway, and followed the occupation of telegrapher and station agent until 1887, when he accepted the position of train dispatcher at Lafayette until 1894. He then engaged in the hardware business at Tipton for three and one-half years, but, not liking this sort of work, he returned to his first love and then resumed rail- road work at Lafayette and Peru. Indiana, until 1900. In 1900 he located permanently in Tipton, where he purchased the ice plant operated by James M. Loer and has run that business ever since. Later he added the coal busi- ness to his concern, and the two concerns make him one of the most prominent business men of the city.
On the 13th of October, 1881, Mr. Russell married Mary Teter, daugh- ter of Asa and Angeline (Cole) Teter, and they had two children, Cleo and Martha. Cleo died at the age of twenty, after having been married to Forest P. Alford. Martha, the other daughter, married Byron D. Agnew and they live in Tipton. Mrs. Russell was born in Tipton county, Indiana, her parents having come from Virginia and settling in Tipton county early in their married life. Her father died in 1906 and the mother in 1913. They
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had ten children, Martha, Sarah, Matilda, Melinda, Mary, Helena, Malaney, Arthur and Hattie and one who died in infancy.
Fraternally, Mr. Russell is a valued member of the Knights of Pythias and the Improved Order of Red Men. Politically, he is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, although he has never been a candidate for public office.
Mr. Russell has been a very successful man and does a large business in the city and community. He has passed so many years here that his work is well known, and in this county there is nothing heard concerning him but good words. If it is possible to judge of the success that attends a man's life by the estimation in which he is held by his fellow citizens, then Mr. Russell's life has been one which deserves much credit to himself and his posterity. He is one of the most progressive and wide-awake citizens of Tipton. It is noteworthy that he built the first double house in Tipton county, equipping it with private water systems. He put in the first house furnace in Tipton county. He had the first electrically driven pump in the county, and he was the second man in the county to own an automobile. He has been foremost in advocating all improvements to the city and has paid assessment on every brick street in the city, and there are over eleven miles of such streets. He is the owner of a gas well in the city of Tipton that has been producing gas for fourteen vears.
On April 19, 1908, Easter Sunday, Mr. Russell suffered the loss, by a boiler explosion, of fifteen thousand dollars damage to his ice plant. Though heavily in debt. he overcame this misfortune and rebuilt his plant and con- tinued business at his old stand.
EARL I. HEDRICK.
The following is a brief sketch of the life of one who by close attention to business has achieved success in the world's affairs and has an honorable position among the enterprising business men of the county with which he is identified. It is a plain record, rendered remarkable by no strange or mys- terious adventure, no wonderful and lucky accident and no tragic situation. Mr. Hedrick is one of those estimable characters of strict integrity and strong personality. He commands the respect of his contemporaries in the every- day affairs of his life.
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Earl I. Hedrick, of the firm of Wells & Hedrick Company, was born in Haldane, Illinois, November 12, 1881. He was the son of Charles and Mary (Zollers) Hedrick, both of whom were natives of Illinois. They had five children: Earl I., of Tipton, Indiana; Rozella, Charlotte, Gladys, and Stanley, of Bozeman, Montana.
The father of the subject was raised in Ogle county, Illinois, and was a grain dealer most of his life. He died in Rockford, Illinois, in 1905, at the age of sixty years. His wife is still living at Bozeman, Montana. Both were stanch members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and contributed liberally to the support of that religious body. He was a veteran of the Civil war, en- listing when he was only seventeen years of age, and served throughout that long and bloody conflict.
The paternal grandfather of the subject was Alexander Hedrick. He and his wife were both natives of Pennsylvania and early settlers of Ogle county, Illinois. He died in middle life, and she lived on to advanced old age. They had twelve children: Luther, Alexander, William, George, Oliver, Samuel, Charles, Robert. Mary, Lillian and Fanny.
The maternal grandparents came from Germany to Rochester, New York, and from there they moved to Forreston, Illinois, where they lived to a good old age. They had a large family of children, John, Henry, Samuel, Charles, Catherine, Lena, Mary and Sarah.
Earl I. Hedrick lived in Maryland, Ogle county, Illinois, until he was fourteen years of age, and then went from there to Rockford, Illinois. He attended the public schools in that place, and later entered the service of the Buckbee Seed Company, where he continued for three and one-half years. His next work was in a clothing store in Champaign, Illinois. From there he went to Tipton in March, 1910, and worked two years for George Shortle in the clothing store, after which time he and William E. Wells formed a part- nership and purchased Mr. Shortle's clothing store, and continued the busi- ness up to the present time, under the firm name of Wells & Hedrick Com- pany. They have a finely stocked and up-to-date store, containing all the haberdashery materials which are commonly shown in such stores.
Mr. Hedrick was married to Leone Wright, the daughter of Ira and Mary ( Horner) Wright, December 25, 1907. They are both members of the Methodist church of Tipton. Politically, he is a stanch Republican and advocates the policies of that party. Fraternally, he belongs to Austin Lodge, . Free and Accepted Masons, at Tipton.
Mrs. Hedrick was born in Lincoln, Illinois, her parents both being
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natives of Indiana and now living at Windfall. . They had several children who lived to maturity, Anna, Elizabeth, Viola, Leone, Harold and Herbert.
Mr. Hedrick's life in Tipton county has been filled with activity and usefulness, and his untiring energy and good business ability have won for him in the short time he has been in this county a conspicuous place among the leading men of the county. He makes his presence felt in every endeavor in which he has taken a part, and by his unpretending bearing and strict in- tegrity he has elevated himself in the confidence of his fellow citizens.
NICHOLAS S. MARTZ.
Nicholas S. Martz, deceased, who during his life was one of Tipton's most prominent and public-spirited citizens, represented two of Indiana's earliest pioneer families, while in the generations still further back the names of Martz and McCormick appear among the defenders of the country in its struggles against England. With the same spirit that animated his ancestors, Mr. Martz, in his turn, responded to his country's call for aid against its own sons, and he has a military record which adds new honor to the family name. He was born in Arcadia, Hamilton county, Indiana, on November 10, 1845, the son of Moses and Tabitha (McCormick) Martz. On the maternal side, Mr. Martz traces his ancestry from a certain McCormick of Scotch stock, who came from the north of Ireland to Virginia in 1700 and settled near Winchester. His son, John, was born on August 13, 1754, and as a young man fought in the war of the Revolution. He enlisted twice in Virginia,- once in 1775 and again later,-while near the end of the struggle he took up arms again as a soldier from Pennsylvania, whither he had moved in the meantime. John McCormick married in Virginia, on March 4, 1785, Cath- arine Drennan, and in 1808 the whole family migrated to the territory of Indiana. They journeyed overland with horses and wagons and a part of the journey was made down the Ohio on flatboats, and, as there was trouble with the Indians at the time of their arrival, they remained for some time in a fort, but Mr. McCormick was the first man to leave its protection and venture elsewhere. He located on the land adjoining Connersville, Indiana, and remained there the rest of his life, passing away on April 18, 1837. His wife, who lived until February 22. 1862, reached the ripe old age of ninety- three years. Their large family, who lived to grow up with the exception of
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two, were born as follows: Sarah, April 22, 1786; Anna, September 6, 1787: Samuel, September 23, 1789; John, September 15, 1791; William, September 27, 1793; Joseph, September 7, 1796; James, December 5, 1797; Elizabeth, March 29, 1800; Jane, June 4, 1802; Robert, June 19, 1804; Lewis, June 9, 1807 : Catharine. December 20, 1808; David, January 24, 1811, and Mary, July 9, 1813.
John McCormick, fourth son of John, first, was born near Winchester, Virginia, and was seventeen years old when the family came to Indiana. In 1811 he was married, near Hamilton, Ohio, to Bertha Case, who was born in Bolton county, Kentucky. Her people were originally from Pennsylvania and eventually settled in Ohio. The following year, when the war of 1812 broke out, John McCormick left his young wife in order to enlist and served throughout the war. On his return they lived with his parents and remained there until 1820, when they made a home of their own on the present site of Indianapolis, being the first settlers there. So wild was it then that they had to cut a road into their location, some sixty miles, while during their first years there wolves were very numerous, as well as Indians. When the family first came eleven men accompanied them to help put up a cabin, and then left them alone in the forest. Mr. McCormick held a quarter section along the White river under a title from the Indians, given after the peace treaty at St. Marys, Ohio. During the two years he remained there he and his wife kept a hotel, boarding the men who platted the city of Indianapolis, he also keeping the ferry, using a log canoe. In 1822 Mr. McCormick moved five miles up the river to near the present site of Crown Hill cemetery, and there built a saw-mill, with corn cracker attached, which he ran for three years before his untimely death, on August 25, 1825, when only thirty-four years old. He was a member of the Baptist church, as his wife was during her earlier years, but later she united with the Christian church. They were the parents of five children, Katie, William, Wesley, Tabitha and Levina. The two last, who were twins, married twin brothers, Moses and Isaac Martz. After her husband's death, Mrs. McCormick married John King, a farmer of Morgan county, Indiana, and they had two sons, Cornelius and John. Mrs. King was again left a widow, and after remaining on her farm for some years she finally moved to Arcadia, making her home with her daughters, and lived there until her death, which occurred in 1875.
The Martz family is of German descent, and was first represented in America about 1700. The earliest definite information is of Nicholas Martz,
(21)
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born February 25, 1762, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. By occupation he was a farmer and a cabinet-maker. He was an immense man, weighing over four hundred pounds at his death, and seems to have been equally unusual in character. One of his eccentric actions was to make his own coffin several years before his demise.
Peter Martz, son of Nicholas Martz, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on February 26, 1787. When twenty years of age he moved from Pennsylvania to Pickaway county, Ohio, and again moved, in 1816, to Indiana. At first he bought a tract of land in what is known as the Twelve- Mile strip, but later he took up one hundred and sixty acres three miles from Cambridge City, Indiana, and, building a log cabin, he there spent the typical life of a frontiersman. Besides farming, he went extensively into milling and owned the first grist mill in the territory. Mr. Martz was a soldier in the war of 1812, was a strong Whig in his political views, and in religion was a member of the Lutheran church. In 1808 Peter Martz was married to Christina Myers, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1790. Her parents moved to Ohio, and there her father died, while her mother's death occurred considerably later in Indiana. The married life of Mr. and Mrs. Martz con- tinued until 1872, when Mr. Martz died in Arcadia, whither he had moved four years earlier in order to be near his sons, Moses and Isaac. His wife died in 1879, near Montpelier, Indiana, where she was living with one of her daughters. She and her husband were the parents of eleven children: Henry, who married Barbara Gaylor and died, leaving two children, Edward and Sarah; Charles married Betsy McGill, and they left six children, Peter, Cath- erine, Lydia, Andrew J., John and Christina; Moses and Isaac were twins; Sarah married Andrew Doyle, and they and their seven children reside in Wisconsin; Mary, deceased, was the wife of John Reams, to whom she bore five children, Elizabeth, William H., Letta E., John Wesley and Lydia J .; Catherine is the widow of Wesley Swafford, and has five children, Mary, Perry, Harriett, Christina and Martha Ann; Samuel, deceased, married Mary J. Berry, and they had five children, Emma and Linville. deceased. Lewis, Edward and Anna; Eliza, deceased, married Eli McConkey, and had children, Peter, John, Reuben, Mary J., Angelina, Prudie, Rose, Anna, Emma E. and Cynthia; Jacob married Rebecca Ann Price, and both have died, leaving three children, George, Sarah Ann and Jennie; Barbara mar- ried Edward Rogerson, and both are deceased, leaving five children, Etta, Delvina, Eliza, Frank and Jennie.
Moses Martz was born May 27, 1812, in Pickaway county, Ohio, but
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came to Indiana when only four years of age. He received the limited education of most boys on the frontier, and was brought up to be a miller. On March 27, 1834, he married Tabitha McCormick, who was born at Con- nersville, February 27, 1816, and who had grown up on the frontier like himself, and had received little education, her only school books having been the spelling book and New Testament. After their marriage they lived three years on Peter Martz's farm, and then, in 1837, moved to Hamilton county. Moses and Isaac Martz located there together, owning two hundred and forty acres just west of what is now Arcadia, and both became prosperous and well-known citizens. Moses Martz cleared about one hundred acres of his land, living meantime in a log cabin. He acquired seven acres adjoining Cicero creek, with the water rights and, putting up a flouring mill, conducted the same for more than twenty years, after which he turned it over to his son, John. He was a progressive man always, and had one of the first steam engines used in milling in Indiana, while he was also one of the first to own a reaping machine and sewing machine; also had the first wheat mill used in. Indiana, and was one of the first to take stock in the I. P. & C. railroad. Mr. Martz prospered and added to his original share of land bought by the brothers until he owned one hundred and sixty acres, six of these acres lying within the village limits of Arcadia.
The early days, however, had few of the comforts of life, which the Martz family later enjoyed. When they began housekeeping, Mrs. Martz had to weave the cloth from which their clothing was made, and the farming had to be done with the rude implements of the day. When they moved to their own land near Arcadia there was no log cabin on it, and while one was being built Mrs. Martz and her eight-weeks-old baby had only a temporary shelter, warmed by a burning log heap. Having in that period experienced to the full the hardships caused by poor roads or none, Mr. Martz became a firm advocate of good roads and was a stockholder in the first gravel road ever built in this county. Nothing has done more to develop central Indiana . than its gravel roads, and Mr. Martz not only supported with words, but, besides paying his regular taxes for the cause, contributed four hundred dollars. All projects for improvement received his hearty support and he was recognized as a citizen especially identified with the development of his region and deserving of especial honor. Prosperous and influential as he was. Mr. Martz achieved it all by his own efforts, except for a legacy of one thousand dollars left him by his father.
Isaac Martz, who conducted a steam mill in Arcadia for years and was
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always in close touch with his brother, also won an honored position in the county.
The children born to Moses and Tabitha Martz numbered eleven: John, deceased, married Margaret Johnson, and they had six children, Alonzo, who died in infancy, Josephine, Etta, Flora, and Hattie and Mattie, twins; Cornelius, deceased, married Martha Cruzan, and they had two children, Albert E., and Alice, wife of C. M. Burroughs, of Sullivan county, Indiana; Catherine married Henry Hackley, of Kokomo; Eliza Ann married Stillman Montgomery, of Tipton, and has five children, Rosa, Effie, Minnie, Nola and Bertha; Nicholas S., deceased, the subject of this sketch; Emma is the wife of Samuel Dickover, and they have six children, Clark, Elmer, Minnie, Daisy, Grace and Frank; Christina, deceased, and Peter were twins; the latter, who was treasurer of Hamilton county, married Maggie Gray, of Wayne county, Indiana, and they had three daughters, Leota (deceased), Golda and Bertha; Arminda is the wife of Dr. Cyrus Harbaugh, a practic- ing physician of Lafayette, and they have three children, Jewel, Merle and Nina : Moses C. and Isaac C. were twins; the latter married first Alice Wright, who died, leaving one child, Neva. By his second marriage, to Jennie Thomas, there was born one son, Karl. He then married for his third wife Laura Smith, and they had two children, Beulah and Forest. Moses C. Martz, the youngest son of Moses, was born on September 30, 1857. On May 23, 1880, he was married in Arcadia to Clara E. Phyllis, who was born on October 16, 1863, in Hamilton county, Indiana. They were the parents of the following children : Gale, who died in infancy ; Raymond Paul, Edith Shirley, Mildred Alice, Harrison M., and Marjorie (deceased). Mr. and Mrs. Martz lived to see thirty grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren, and died surrounded by the devoted care and affection of their posterity. Mrs. Martz outlived her husband, dying in November, 1905, while Mr. Martz died in November, 1900. He was a Republican in politics, while in religious faith both were members of the Christian church.
Nicholas S. Martz, deceased, the subject of this sketch, was born in the Arcadia homestead, November 10, 1845, and grew up amid pioneer sur- roundings. He received a common school education, going regularly to the little log school house until he was fourteen, but he was considerably younger when he began to work evenings in a flour mill. In 1862 he enlisted as a drummer boy in Company C, Seventy-ninth Regiment Indiana Volun- teer Infantry, and served five months, participating in the battles of Richmond Hill and Perryville, and then was honorably discharged in December, 1862.
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He remained at home until June 1, 1863, when he re-enlisted in Company G, Sixth Regiment Indiana Cavalry, under Capt. W. S. Jewell, to serve three years, and was on duty until September 15, 1865, at the close of the war, when he was discharged at Murfreesboro. During his term of service he was promoted from a private in the ranks to corporal and then orderly ser- geant, while for a time he acted as captain of his company and as sergeant major of his regiment. He was in the great Atlanta campaign and took part in most of its battles, including that of Pumpkin Vine Creek, when General McPherson was killed. He was also in the battles of Knoxville and Nashville under General Thomas. His company was one which accompanied Fitzpatrick as far as Macon, Georgia, on his raid for the rescue of the prison- ers at Andersonville, and they were in almost daily skirmishes. Mr. Martz in the course of his army life was several times wounded by the enemy, but always succeeded in escaping and was never seriously wounded, receiving only slight injury to his left shoulder. Neither was he ever in hospital, but was on active duty throughout his whole military career.
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