USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 10
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On March 4, 1874, occurred the marriage of Mr. Lawton with Miss Fannie Robbins, a native of Massachusetts. She survives him and resides in Wabash, where she has a large circle of friends and acquaintances, who esteem her highly for her sterling worth and many excellencies of character.
SAMUEL HUBBARD. BENJAMIN F. HUBBARD. CHARLES J. HUBBARD.
One of the old and prominent families of Wabash county is repre- sented by the above names. The Hubbards have lived in Indiana, since the early twenties, and in 1856 their home was established in Wabash county. They were here early enough to assume some of the labors and responsibilities of pioneer existence, and for more than half a century their activities and influence have been among the forces molding and developing the community.
Samuel Hubbard was the founder of the family in Wabash county in April, 1856, coming from Fayette county in this state. Like many other of the early settlers in this section, he was born in North Carolina in Guilford county, in 1798, and he was ten years old when his parents
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moved to Warren county, Ohio, and eighteen months later to Fayette county, Indiana, whence after about two years they went to other coun- ties, and Samuel Hubbard in 1821 at Brookville, Montgomery County, Ohio, married Nancy Gladwell. Two years later, in 1823, Mr. Hubbard located near Evanston (then West Union) in Fayette county, Indiana. Fayette county was then just being filled up by pioneer settlers, and Samuel Hubbard had ample opportunity to select land about as he chose, and having found a suitable tract he built for his family a double log house, and began improving and farming. He and his wife experienced all the sufferings and privations incident to pioneer days. Nancy Hub- bard died on that homestead in September, 1848. To their union were born eleven children. Only three are now living, the two sons being William T. and Charles J. both of Wabash county, while the daughter, Nancy J., the wife of Henry Brolyer, lives at Axtell, Marshall county, Kansas. In May, 1850, Samuel Hubbard married Elizabeth Ann Green, and in April, 1856, moved to Wabash county, locating on land in section thirty, town twenty-eight (Noble township), range six. In that locality he spent the remainder of his days engaged in general farming and stock raising. To his second marriage nine children were born, four of whom are now living, namely : Benjamin F. of Noble township; Melvin and Alvin, twins, the former living in Kokomo, Alvin died in January, 1914; Marcellus C., a farmer of Paw Paw township; and Amanda, who lives in Noble township, the wife of William V. Martindale.
Samuel Hubbard was a man of but limited scholastic training. That deficiency he overcame in a measure, in later years by reading and observation. For a man brought up to manual labor he was an unusu- ally good penman. As a member of the Bachelor Street Christian Church he was active in its support and maintenance, as long as he lived. Per- haps his chief characteristic was his rugged honesty and his unselfish generosity. No traveler ever came to his door hungry or in need of a bed, but his wants were speedily satisfied. As a neighbor his aid was ever ready for those in need of assistance, and his was a character that unfortunately is of a past generation. He died June 30, 1876, and his wife in September, 1875.
Benjamin F. Hubbard the oldest son of the second marriage of Samuel Hubbard was born in Fayette county, Indiana, May 6, 1851. When five years old he was brought to Wabash county by his parents, was reared on a farm, had his education like other boys of the time in the district schools, and had only passed his twenty-first birthday a few months, when on August 8, 1872, he married Naoma F. Ford. Under the necessity of providing a home for two, and coming children, he started farming on his own responsibility, and that was the occupation which absorbed his energy and time until 1904. In that year occurred his withdrawal from the more active cares of life, though he is still a vigorous man, and when occasion requires can work as hard as in younger years. In 1908 his services were drawn into recognition for the benefit of the public welfare, when he was elected trustee of Noble township, a position which he has occupied to the present time. Ben- Vol. II-6
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jamin F. Hubbard is a democrat and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. He and his wife are the parents of four children : John G., who died when nearing his thirty-eighth birthday; Guy L., who mar- ried Leonora Critchelow, and is a farmer in Wabash county; Zella, wife of Leroy C. Lynn of Wabash; and Samuel F., who died when about twenty-three years of age.
Best known in the city of Wabash of the children of Samuel Hubbard is Mr. Charles J. Hubbard, who has had a long and active career as a manufacturer, merchant, and is now in the real estate and insurance busi- ness. Next to the oldest of the living children of Samuel Hubbard's first marriage, Charles J. Hubbard was born in Fayette county, Indiana, July 14, 1839. Most of his schooling was received in his native county, and he was seventeen years old when he came to Wabash county, which has been his home ever since. He was reared on a farm, but a few years after reaching his majority chose a business career. On November 6, 1860, lie married Carolina C. Palmer. In 1864 he moved to the City of Wabash, and was for four years engaged in brick manufacture there and after that up to 1890 employed his energies in various occupations though most of the time in the agricultural implement business. Since 1890, Mr. Hub- bard has had an office for the handling of real estate, loans, and insurance. In politics he is a democrat, and since eighteen years of age has been a member of the Christian church. On February 21, 1897, his first wife died, and on November 21, 1910, he married Mrs. Menora Smallwood.
THOMPSON R. BRADY, M. D. Both in the broad field of citizenship and in devotion to the interests of his profession, Dr. Brady has had a notable career during the seventy years of his residence in Wabash county. Dr. Brady is now one of the oldest native citizens of this county. There are many distinguishing points in his life, beginning with nearly three years of active service in the uniform of a Union sol- dier, followed by upwards of forty years of active practice of his pro- fession, and by service at different times in county and state offices. In all the responsibilities thrust upon him, he has acquited himself with credit and with benefit to his community, and is a man whose achieve- ments and attainments well deserve this record in a history of the county.
The Brady family is not only of pioneer settlement in Wabash county, but is one of the older stocks in the United States. The founder of this branch came from Scotland to America in 1708, and was named Hugh Brady. He settled in eastern Pennsylvania. John Brady, one of his sons, held the rank of Colonel in the Revolutionary war, and was killed by the Indians, in 1778. Col. Sam Brady, a son of Col. John, was a celebrated Indian fighter, and made a name for himself in the annals of early Indian warfare. Other members of the family served the colonies in their struggle for independence. Beginning with the emigrant ancestor Hugh Brady, the line of descent down to Dr. Brady is traced through Ebeneazer Brady, William Brady, James Brady, Cleason Brady, and William Brady, the last being the father of the doctor, and was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, in 1817. Grandfather
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Cleason Brady settled in or about Marietta, Ohio, in the early days, later moved to Muskingum county, and from there in 1844 followed his son William to Wabash county, and died at his home six miles southeast of Wabash in 1859. He was one of the ardent abolitionists before the war, and at one time operated a switch of the underground railway.
William Brady in Muskingum county, September, 1841, married Frances J. Imlay. With his wife's family he immediately came by wagon to Wabash county. In Liberty township he preempted a quarter section of land, and entered upon its improvement. Practically every acre was covered with a heavy growth of walnut, oak, hard maple, and other native wood. The soil for cultivation in those times was much more valuable to the settler than timber, and it is not difficult to under- stand the motive which caused those settlers to cut down such magnifi- cent specimens of the forest, and such trees as were not worked up into rails or into fuel was usually piled in heaps and burned. The first home of the Brady family in Wabash county was a round-log cabin, fourteen feet square, with a stick and mud chimney at one end, rising from an old-fashioned fireplace. There were no windows, and the floor was in just one degree advance above the beaten ground which might have been . found in many pioneer cabins, the Brady home having an old puncheon floor. A few years later that cabin was replaced by a hewed log cabin, which was regarded as very pretentious dwelling and above the average to be found in that community.
Mr. and Mrs. William Brady became the parents of ten children, and of those seven are now living. William Brady never aspired to political office, and as a consequence his name does not appear in the official rec- ords of the county. However, he was devoted to the cause of religion, and was for many years an elder in the Presbyterian church. In politics he was first a whig casting his first presidential ballot for William Henry Harrison in 1840, and sixteen years later voted for John C. Fre- mont and was ever afterwards a loyal republican. His death occurred September 10, 1869, and his widow survived until August 7, 1895.
Dr. Thompson R. Brady was born in Liberty township in the old log- cabin home previously mentioned, January 1, 1843, and has already passed the psalmist's allotted time of human life, threescore years and ten. His was the experience of many pioneer boys, and as soon as his strength permitted he found plenty to do in grubbing, clearing, planting and harvesting. Most of his preliminary education was given him by his mother, who was a woman of unusual culture, and who though bur- dened with the usual responsibilities of a pioneer woman, still found time to instruct her children. For a few winters he attended a district school, and was also a student at the Huntington Academy. In the meantime the Civil war had come on, and in the vacation following his first year in the academy, he enlisted on August 16, 1862, in Company F, of the One Hundred and First Indiana Infantry. He was sent to the front in time to participate in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, in the Tullahoma Campaign, in the critical battle of Chickamauga, and at Missionary Ridge received a gunshot wound in the left shoulder.
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His wound did not keep him long from active service, and he was a participant in the weeks of constant fighting which led up to the capture of Atlanta, where his regiment took part, and after the fall of Atlanta, he was with the troops under Sherman in their march to the sea, went up to the Carolinas, and as a culmination of his military experience marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in the grand review of the victorious Union army in Washington. His honorable discharge was dated June 24, 1865, though he was not mustered out until the first of July following.
On returning home Mr. Brady resumed his school studies, and for a time was engaged in teaching. In the fall of 1866 he entered upon the study of medicine, with Dr. William G. Armstrong of LaFontaine, and the fall of 1867 saw him entering the medical department of the Uni- versity of Michigan at Ann Arbor. After one year in the Michigan Uni- versity he entered Rush Medical College of Chicago, and was graduated M. D., from that splendid old institution in March, 1869. On beginning practice Dr. Brady first located at Lincolnville in Wabash county, and for seventeen years actively served the community as a physician and surgeon. His residence at Lincolnville terminated in 1886 when he was elected clerk of the circuit court of Wabash county, an office to which he gave four years. On leaving that office he resumed his prac- tice in the city of Wabash, and continued it actively until recent years, and is now practically retired, from professional work.
In 1908 Dr. Brady was elected joint senator to the state legislature from Wabash and Fulton counties, and served in the sessions of 1909 and 1911. For nine years, beginning in 1897, he was secretary of the pension board. Dr. Brady is a Presbyterian in religion and a repub- lican in politics. He has attained the Knight Templar degrees in Masonry, and is also affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Royal Arcanum.
His first marriage occurred April 2, 1868, when Elizabeth J. Dough- erty became his wife. At her death on February 14, 1869, she left one son, Thomas D., who died at the age of eighteen years. On June 2, 1870, Dr. Brady married Emma L. Brown, and their union was blessed with eight children as follows: William Selden; John C .; George F .; Oliver, deceased; Margaret M., Mrs. Dr. L. E. Jewett; Fanny, who died when twenty-four years old in 1904; Lucretia G., Mrs. Leonard Stauffer; and Jennie A., a teacher in the Wabash public schools.
ALVAH TAYLOR. Aside from the fact that Alvah Taylor is one of the oldest members of the Wabash county bar, having practiced law in the city of Wabash continuously for forty-five years, no small distinctions are attached because of the saintly character and long-continued benev- olent activity of his father, who was one of the old-time ministers of the gospel in Indiana, and whose life of service for his Master continued without interruption until the close of his life when ninety-five years of age.
Mr. Alvah Taylor is a native of Indiana, and was born on a farm six miles west of Connorsville, Fayette county, June 30, 1839. His parents
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Aloch Taylor.
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Alvah Taylor was about seventeen years old when the family estab- lished its home in Wabash county, and practically all his youthful train- ing was on a farm. From the district schools he later came to Wabash and prepared for college by three years of study in the Wabash high school. In September, 1861, he entered Wabash College at Crawfords- ville, and was graduated Master of Arts from the old Indiana College in June, 1865. In the meantime his collegiate career had been interrupted by the call to military service. On May 4, 1864, he enlisted in Company G of the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Indiana Infantry, and his mili- tary service for the most part was in and around Tullahoma, Tennessee, in doing garrison and guard duty. He received his honorable discharge on October 10, 1864, and then came home and resumed his studies.
Mr. Taylor read law under the direction of the late John U. Pettit at Wabash, and was admitted to the bar in April, 1868. While carrying on his studies he was also deputy circuit court clerk by appointment. It is an interesting fact that Mr. Taylor read law in the same office that he now occupies, at 131 South Miami Street. In July, 1868, he accepted a partnership with his former preceptor under the firm name of Pettit, Taylor and Brenton. When Mr. Brenton retired from the firm in 1871 the business was continued under the name of Pettit & Taylor, until 1873. In the latter year, Mr. Pettit was elevated to the office of Judge of the Wabash Circuit court, and since then, for forty years, Mr. Taylor has conducted a large individual practice.
Since casting his first vote in 1860, for Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Taylor has been a consistent republican. It is noteworthy that he has never been drawn aside from his profession as a lawyer into the adjacent field of politics, and has never held an elective office. Fraternally he affiliates with the Grand Army of the Republic, and with the Tribe of Ben Hur. Religiously he was reared in the faith of the old-school Baptist church, and has been a member of that denomination at Pleasant View, a church which his father organized, since 1861. However, his wife belongs to the First Methodist Episcopal church of Wabash, and Mr. Taylor is one of the trustees in that church.
On May 21, 1864, was celebrated the marriage of Alvah Taylor with Anastasia L. Stratton, a daughter of Mark Stratton. Mark Stratton was an early settler, and many years ago held the office of county com- missioner in Wabash county. To their marriage have been born two children; Horace B., who died when nineteen years old, and Grace, wife of Will H. Clothier, of Marion, Indiana. They have one child, Anastasia. Mrs. Alvah Taylor died April 28, 1883. Mr. Taylor on May 8, 1884, married Mrs. Mary L. McClure, daughter of Luther Waite, and the widow of Camillus McClure.
ALVAH A. GARBER, although still a young man, is one of the promi- nent, influential and valued residents of Wabash, his position in public regard being indicated by the fact that he has been recorder of the county since November, 1912, and to him may be attributed the excellent system that has made his one of the best managed offices in the county.
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He has been, moreover, prominent in educational circles, and for some years was one of the most popular teachers in Wabash county, where he became widely and favorably known. Mr. Garber was born on a farm about one-half mile east of Laketon, Wabash county, Indiana, September 23, 1881, and is a son of Joseph and Clara F. (Kitterman) Garber, both of whom are now living near North Manchester, Indiana.
Alvah A. Garber received his early training on his father's farm and his education, primarily, in the district schools. Subsequently he attended the Servia graded and high school, spent one year at North Manchester College, and completed his high school work by being graduated at North Manchester with the class of 1902. During the fall of that year he began teaching school, and in this he continued ten and one-half terms, three terms being in district schools of Chester township, one year in the graded school at Servia, three years in the Chester township high school and the balance of the time served in the capacity of superintendent of the Noble township schools outside of the city of Wabash. During this long period Mr. Garber made himself known all over this section of the county, and such a fav- orable impression did he create that he was urged by his many friends to make the race for public office. Finally, in 1912, he acquiesced and was made the nominee of his party for the office of county recorder, and in the elections that followed in November of the same year received a handsome majority. He may well feel a just pride in the record that he has made in office, for he has instituted many movements for the improvement of the department and has always been a stalwart champion of the interests of the city and county of Wabash and has done much for their furtherance. He supports democratic poli- cies and principles and is regarded as one of the strong and influential men of his party here. In his fraternal relations, Mr. Garber is asso- ciated with the Masons and the Knights of Pythias lodges, where his pleasing and genial personality has endeared him to a wide circle of friends.
On August 1, 1905, Mr. Garber was married to Miss Ruby Willis, who died Christmas evening of that same year. On June 2, 1909, Mr. Garber was married to Miss Nora A. Peden, who was born in Chester township, Wabash county, a daughter of James S. and Charlotte Peden, farming people of this county.
MICHAEL AND JOHN SCHLEMMER. Among the families of foreign birth and ancestry that have added in a very material way to the growth and development of Wabash county may be mentioned the Schlemmer family, of which Michael Schlemmer was the founder. He came from the land of his birth, Bavaria, Germany, in the year 1852, settling in Wabash, Indiana, at the outset. His first employment was as a farm "hand" for a Mr. Bruner, whose farm lay just south of Wabash, and he worked for that gentleman for a time at a daily wage of fifty cents. Mr. Schlemmer, it should be understood, had left his family in Bavaria, and it was his ardent hope and ambition to be soon able to bring them
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to America, where they might be together again. In the course of time his native thrift and frugality made it possible for him to send back for the family, and they came out in the year 1854, about a year and a half after the head of the house had gone to prepare a place for them in the new world. They moved directly to the farm where Michael Schlemmer was still employed and they continued there for about two years. He then moved to Wabash and began to be employed with the old time hardware firm of Bruner & Eikenberry, and after a season of connection with that concern he was employed as a day laborer in the employ of the city, so continuing up to the time of his death.
Among the children of Michael Schlemmer was John, born in Bavaria in about 1841, and who died on October 26, 1906. He was a lad of twelve years when the family followed the father to the United States, and he was one of six children. Of that family only one now lives,- Adam Schlemmer.
John Schlemmer had only a limited education, for opportunities were not plenty in his boyhood for schooling. As soon as he was old enough to be of any use in the world, he was put to work and he early began to earn his own living. He worked in the woolen mills at Wabash until the Civil war broke out, and he lost no time in affiliating himself with American citizens by enlisting for service in the Union army. He enlisted on August 19, 1862, in Company A, Seventy-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which was organized at Wabash in 1862, and in the same month, with his command, went to Louisville, Kentucky, and there became attached to the Fortieth Brigade, Twelfth Division of the Army of Ohio. The Seventy-fifth Regiment was afterwards identified with other brigades and divisions. Mr. Schlemmer's first active service was with his company in pursuit of General Bragg through Kentucky, thence to Bowling Green, Scottsville, Gallatin, followed by the pursuit of General Morgan through Cave City, Nashville and Murfreesboro. The battle of Tullahoma was followed by his first great battle, at Chicka- mauga and soon thereafter came his participation in the engagements at Dalton, Rocky Face Ridge, Buzzards Roost, Resaca, Adairsville, Etowah River, Pumpkinvine Creek, Allatona Hills, Burnt Hickory, Kene- saw Mountain, Pine Mountain, Lost Mountain, Pine Knob, Smyrna, Campground, Peach Tree Creek, Jonesboro, and Lovejoy Station. Then followed their pursuit of General Hood into Alabama, with the March to the Sea with Sherman soon after, they passed thence through the Carolinas and the final and culminating event of the war, the Grand Review at the Nation's Capitol. The military career of Mr. Schlemmer was arduous and extremely praiseworthy, and may justly be a source of pride to his descendants.
Mr. Schlemmer was mustered out on June 8, 1865, and returning home, he resumed work in the woolen mills at Wabash. He was mar- ried in 1865 to Elizabeth Geible, who was also an employe of the woolen mills at that time, and in 1870, owing to the ill state of his health result- ing from his severe military experiences, he was compelled to give up his work in the mills. He entered the employ of H. O. Markley &
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educated in the public schools and reared to agricultural pursuits, in which he was engaged throughout the remainder of his life. In 1843, he moved to Liberty township, Wabash county, at a time when Indians still roamed the woods and wild game was to be found in abundance, here entering land from the Government. However, he never lived on this land, but became superintendent for the heirs of the Wood estate, who owned extensive tracts here at that time. While thus engaged, Mr. Bloomer began buying and selling land, but for the greater part resided on the Wood property until 1872, when he made removal to his own land, which he later traded for a gristmill at Somerset, the operation of which held his attention until the close of his life. He died October 27, 1890, while his wife passed away in 1904, both in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which they had been lifelong members. Mr. Bloomer was a man who attended strictly to his own affairs. Methodical in his habits, he accumulated a satisfactory share of the world's goods; possessed of the strictest integrity, his reputation in his community was high and he commanded universal respect.
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