History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2, Part 23

Author: Clarkson W. Weesner
Publication date: 1914
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 619

USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 23

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corn and cut two hundred shocks of corn. Saving his money carefully, he finally returned to his Ohio home with the intention of entering school and making up for lack of early advantages. But two weeks later found him again in Cass county, where he lived for the following ten years, and spent most of the time in the woods.

In the meantime he had met and wooed successfully the lady of his choice and made preparation to establish a home of his own. He bor- rowed fifty dollars to help buy furniture, and as he recalls that early fitting up of a household, it appears that prices were very high for all ordinary commodities. Calico was forty-five cents a yard, cotton was ninety cents a pound, and many other articles in proportion. On November 16, 1865, was solemnized his marriage with Mary Phelps, who was born and reared in Ohio. Her father was Hiram Phelps. Mr. and Mrs. Hull lived in Logansport one winter and then moved to the country, and lived in the Widow Gay's house, having one room upstairs, and using the woodshed for their kitchen.

In the meantime Mr. Hull continued cutting and shipping staves. He had a contract to furnish the firm of Thompson and Myles seventy- five thousand staves. These he shipped down the old canal, which was the chief route of transportation in those days. In the fall of 1870, he bought one hundred and sixty acres of timberland in the German settlement of Lagro township in Wabash county. Messrs. Thompson & Myles advanced him half of the money to pay for this land. Here he set up a somewhat extensive plant, and began operations on a large scale. He put in sawmill machinery, and took a contract to furnish Thompson and Myles one hundred thousand staves. He also did contract work for the railroad company, and was rapidly advancing to success at the same time clearing off his land and selling the lumber products.

About that time came the worst panic in American history, and it came suddenly, on the memorable "Black Friday," of the year 1873. Mr. Hull had many contracts which were at once countermanded, and he found it practically impossible to collect his outstanding accounts. For some time he managed to stand off his creditors, but in the end, like thousands of others, all his visible property was wiped out, and he was practically bankrupt, although not bankrupt in the official and later meaning of the term, as will appear from subsequent developments. When the clouds began clearing off and he looked around and examined the situation he found that he was worse off than nothing to the extent of thirty-three hundred dollars.

About this time Mr. Hull learned of the existence of a good second- hand augur-tile mill for sale, and was offered a free site and the wood to operate it. From his old friend Hank Stephens, he succeeded in borrowing six hundred dollars with no security except his verbal prom- ise. With that money he started up the tile factory, and made the first round tile used in this section of the state. He had much difficulty at first in selling this new kind of tile, and had even greater trouble in realizing any money from the output, since, as fast as a kiln of tile was burned and racked up, some one of his creditors would be waiting with

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a wagon and cart the tile away. He had no protection against such incursions, and the remarkable thing is that he did not become dis- couraged by these constant obstacles and set-backs. He had supreme confidence in his ability to win out in the end, and kept at it until he succeeded. The tile factory began operating in July, and he worked day and night, scarcely taking time to eat or sleep. The following year he employed many hands, and soon had about three thousand dollars worth of tile piled up in his yard. Hard luck was still with him, for a rainy season set in and it was impossible to move the tile over the road to market. . After Christmas a heavy snow fell, and hiring extra hands to man two teams he soon had all his tile moving. Prior to that time he set up a sawmill, having the engine and car in the center between the two plants, the sawmill at one end and the tile factory at another. Thus he worked both ends from the middle, as it were, and on days when the factory was not turning out tile, the sawmill was cutting lum- ber. In spite of his almost incessant attention to business and his steady yearly surplus, it took about seventeen years to wipe out his obligations and put himself square with the world, at the end of which time he was just about where he had stood when the panic first struck him.

Mr. Hull continued in the tile business for nearly thirty years and sawed lumber for thirty-five years. Since the death of his son, who had been associated with him, Mr. Hull has given up both of those lines of manufacture, and devotes all his time to farming his fine place in Lagro township. Beulah Farm was originally owned by Dr. De Puy. When Mr. Hull bought it he paid one hundred dollars down, and put up a simple four-room house, in which he and his wife lived for seven years. That was followed by the erection of his present substantial home. He also improved with other buildings, and has invested much capital, and both time and labor in the making of this one of the fine farmsteads of Lagro township. From his own factory he supplied tile for hundreds of rods of draining, and all his land is under cultivation. When he bought the land about twenty acres of timber stood upon it, and that was cleared and the available stock sawed in his mill. Besides the two tracts of land already mentioned, Mr. Hull owns two hundred and fifteen acres near Indianapolis, and uses that as a stock farm, from which he ships each year considerable number of cattle and hogs.

It will hardly be necessary to state that the chief characteristic of Mr. Hull has been hardworking industry. At one time he moved into Wabash, intending to retire, and live without work. However that soon became so monotonous that at the end of three years he was back on his farm, with the idea firmly fixed in his mind that it was far better to "wear out than to rust out." However, he does not claim to be the only worker at Beulah farm. Mrs. Hull, his wife, has been the best kind of a helpmate, and to her is due a great deal of credit for their united success. Each one can still do a good day's work on the outside, although of course they do not attempt what they did a few years ago.

Mr. Hull has never entered politics to any extent. He votes the pro- hibition ticket, and it is worth while to state that he was a voter for that Vol. II-13

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ticket back in the days when it had very few supporters, and it required some moral courage to support openly such a cause. The subsequent growth of the prohibition movement has been regarded with much pride and satisfaction by Mr. Hull, and it is to such men as he that the chief credit is due for the extension of the temperance wave into all parts of the nation. Mr. and Mrs. Hull are members of the Evangelical Associa- tion at Wabash.

Their only son and child was George Dallas Hull, who died in his thirty-sixth year. After working as a bookkeeper for three years, he became an active partner with his father in the tile business, and was a well equipped young business man, whose early death proved a severe bereavement to his parents, and was a distinct loss to the citizenship of the community.

JOHN IRA WILLCOX. That enterprise and good management are well rewarded in the country life of Wabash county needs no better illustra- tion than the career of John I. Willcox, whose fine homestead known as Brooklet Farm, of eighty acres lies in Lagro township, southeast of Urbana. Every improvement and every detail of appearance about this farm indicates prosperity, well ordered and intelligent husbandry, and the thrift and system which make a success of any line of business. Besides the fine Brooklet farm, Mr. Willcox is half-owner in the old Willcox homestead of one hundred and ninety acres, situated in the same township. His career has been one in which self-help has been a prom- inent factor and is a matter of encouragement to younger men now starting out in the world. When he was twenty-one he entered into an agreement with his father, by which he had to work for the latter at wages of one hundred dollars per year, including board and clothes, and with the additional privilege of cultivating a piece of land in crop for himself and also doing any odd jobs he could find when there was no work at home. He fulfilled his agreement to the letter, and saved every cent of his salary until he was married, when he started out for himself as a renter.

John Ira Willcox is a son of Jonathan and Marcia Russell Willcox. Jonathan Willcox was born in Fayette county, Indiana, a son of Ira, who came from Massachusetts, and who in turn was a son of Daniel Willcox. The Willcox family's genealogy has been compiled by some of its members in the east, and that record shows that the name was established on the shores of Massachusetts Bay in the early colonial epoch, and at least one ancestor came over in the Mayflower. In the different generations, mem- bers of the family have attained prominence in affairs in Massachusetts. Jonathan Willcox grew up in Fayette county, Indiana, and like his father became a farmer. When a young man he moved to Wabash county and married Martha Russell, who was a daughter of John Russell, one of the pioneers of Lagro township. Jonathan Willcox bought eighty acres in the midst of the green woods, and a portion of the canal land at Lagro town- ship. By dint of much heavy labor he cleared up this place, increased its limits from time to time, and prospered there as a farmer until his death

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MR. AND MRS. GEORGE PRETORIUS

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in 1904 when past seventy years of age. His widow is still living on the old place. Martha Russell Willcox is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, native women residents of Lagro township. She is now seventy-six years of age, and was born and reared within one mile of her present home. Jonathan and wife became the parents of the following children : John Ira, William N. of Lagro township; H. Oscar, of Lagro township; Elizabeth, deceased; and Alice, deceased.

John Ira Willcox was born on the old homestead in Lagro township, July 30, 1860. The house in which he was born was a little log building, containing only one door and two windows, and a portion of that structure is still standing, an interesting landmark at least to the Willcox family. When a boy he went to a school whose furnishings and equipment were of the primitive type, and many a day he spent on benches without backs, and conned the old blue back spelling book and other books of that day and generation in the school world. In the meantime he had gained a practical experience in methods of farming, and as already related was getting ready for an independent career. On February 22, 1887, when twenty-seven years old, Mr. Willcox married Emma Amacher, a daughter of Gottlieb Amacher, and wife, who came from Switzerland and were farming people in Marshall county, Indiana. Emma was born in Marshall county, and her death occurred in April, 1901. To the marriage of Mr. Willcox and wife were born five children, as follows: Ruth, who married Jacob Harrell, lives in Lagro township, and has one child, Irene; Alva Morton ; Edward; Claude; Leatha. The sons are all now active helpers on the home farm.

After his marriage Mr. Willcox rented land for a few years. In 1893 he came to his present place which three years later he was able to buy from its owner, William Welsh. The house and other buildings are attractively located at some distance back from the highway, and there is comfort in abundance for the family, and good cheer for all visitors at the Willcox home. Two small streams running through the farm suggest the name Brooklet Farm, which has been a popular designation of the place for several years, and the name was recorded in the year 1913. Mr. Willcox is a prohibitionist, recruited from the ranks of the republi- can party. He and his children are members of the Evangelical Associa- tion.

GEORGE PRETORIUS. In the following sketch of a Wabash county family that needs no introduction to proclaim them of the best citizen- ship, there appears in every paragraph the spirit of rugged German hardihood and courage of an indomitable faith in personal efficiency when measured against the forces of the wilderness, and a vigor of accomplishment that is an inspiration to later beginners in the struggle of existence.

At Urbana, no man is better known or held in more esteem than George Pretorius, who owns one hundred and twenty-two acres, situated partly in Lagro and partly in Paw Paw township. George is a son of Jacob and Catherine (Schultz) Pretorius, both of whom were natives of

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Germany, the former of Bavaria, and the latter of Prussia. Jacob came to the United States at the age of seventeen years in 1836. Catherine Schultz came when twenty years old, with her parents, and located in Tuscarawas county, Ohio. Her father Peter Schultz owned thirteen acres of land in Germany, which was considered a good estate. He sold it, and the proceeds were sufficient to move his family to the United States, pay for one hundred and twenty acres of Tuscarawas land, and also pay a Jew one hundred and twenty-five dollars to get his son George smuggled out of the army and out of the country, George having com- pleted only one year of service in the army. Later the Schultz family sold out their land in Tuscarawas county, and came to Lagro township, Wabash county, Indiana, locating on the farm now owned by William Yentis. There both Peter Schultz and wife died.

Jacob Pretorius, as already stated, was seventeen years of age when he left Bavaria. Unable to secure a passport permitting him to leave his native land, by the aid of a teamster he hid himself in a wagon under- neath four feet of hay. When the wagon arrived at the boundary line, a guard rammed his sabre into the hay up to the hilt, and almost dis- covered the young refugee. After getting into France he walked twenty- one days across the country before reaching a port, and embarking for the United States and freedom. While in Germany he had learned the trade of shoemaker, and after landing from the sailing vessel at Castle Garden, he had hardly a cent, but the following day found a job at his trade in a shop on Broadway. The next day when he endeavored to report for work, he lost his direction and wandered seven miles from the shop before a friendly German clerk, who was sweeping off the sidewalk, found out his plight, and taking off his apron kindly showed the raw German his proper destination. After working on Broadway for one year, he was joined at Castle Garden by his father Jacob and his mother, and then they all went west to Tuscarawas county, Ohio. There Jacob bought forty acres, and lived in Tuscarawas county for sixteen years. When twenty-five years of age, he married Miss Schultz and they moved to Indiana and bought eighty acres in Paw Paw township of Wabash county. Jacob and his wife both died on that homestead, she on Decem- ber 23, 1896, and he in May, 1897. His last years were spent at the home of his son George. Jacob Pretorius was a prosperous and sub- stantial farmer, and acquired about two hundred acres of Wabash land, forty acres of the farm being contained in the present estate of George Pretorius. He was one of the ardent democrats in his locality. Many interesting characteristics might be cited of this old German settler. He was unexcelled as an axman, and was considered an expert on what was called "corner work," and could fashion out with his ax or draw knife, wooden hinges, and other furnishings and equipments used in the early days. He was accordingly often called upon to help construct many of the early log houses of Wabash county. When he first located here he cut down trees to clear a space in which to erect his own cabin. The stumps of these trees sprouted up, and deer often wandered into the clearing to eat off the tender shoots. During the first winter of his

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settlement he cleared up four acres, ready to plant corn, nearly all the trees which measured more than eighteen inches in diameter, being deadened and allowed to stand. After planting the corn the squirrels came in such numbers as to constitute a dangerous pest, and he appointed his children Jacob and Kate in the field whose duty it was to alarm the animals with some sort of rattle, but in a short time even this device proved ineffective. Fearing that he would lose all his farm, the pioneer hired Tom and Arch Dunfee at three cents a head to kill the squirrels. These young men killed one hundred and seventy-five in a day and a half. That is an illustration of one of the many things against which the first settlers had to contend, in order to raise crops and support themselves. There were no good roads in the entire county when the Pretorius family settled here, and much of Lagro and Paw Paw township was swampland, and the first settlers usually cut roads through the woods and the higher grounds around these swamps, and that accounts for the zigzag and circuitous highways which at one time wound from place to place in the county.

Jacob Pretorius and wife had the following children: Sophia, now deceased, who was Mrs. Henry Eiler; Catherine, who married Daniel Conrad; Jacob who lives on the old home farm; Mary, Mrs. John Baum- baugh; Josephine, the widow of Gottlieb Smelzley; George; and Caro- lina, Mrs. Charles Miller.

George Pretorius was born on the old homestead in Paw Paw town- ship, April 15, 1858. There his birth occurred more than a quarter of a century after the beginning of county government, and he experienced some of the drawbacks and limitations which were characteristic of the pioneer days. He was unable to go to school until he reached the age of nine years, in consequence of the fact that no school building had been erected in that vicinity before that time. He stayed close to home, grew up in the small neighborhood in which he was born, and was never out of Wabash county until after eighteen years old. Then, in 1877, he made a trip to what he regarded as the metropolis, Fort Wayne, and was employed for one season in a brick yard. Returning home he bought a team and began farming on his present place which was then owned by his father and his brother Jacob.

In September, 1880, when he was twenty-two years of age he married Elizabeth Haupert, daughter of Frederick Haupert, a pioneer of Paw Paw township. Mr. and Mrs. Pretorius have eight children as follows: Emma, who is the wife of Homer Haupert, and has one child, Harland; George, who is a well known stock shipper of Urbana, and who married Lela Rife; Fred, who married Matilda A. Mattern; Joseph; Cora, Mrs. Louis Wolfe; Edith, a high school student at Lagro; Florence; and Lena.

Mr. George Pretorius follows general farming and is noted as a stock shipper. In 1911 he and his son George shipped out of Wabash county, three hundred thousand dollars worth of live stock. A few years ago from his farm he sold six and three-tenths acres for the sum of $1,943.00. This land is now an addition to the town of Urbana, having been plotted and sold as town lots. He has steadily prospered as a farmer since

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beginning here more than thirty years ago, and under his immediate supervision has cleared thirty acres of the land and has put in more than two thousand rod of tile. Mr. Pretorius is a stanch republican, and is a trustee of the German Evangelical church.

DAVID GROVE Fox. Few of the citizens of Wabash county are more widely or favorably known to the people of this section than is David Grove Fox, a veteran of the great Civil War, through which he served with the utmost bravery, and the owner of forty-five acres of land on both sides of Rock Spring Pike, about two miles east of Lagro, in Lagro township. Mr. Fox was born July 22, 1840, near Washington Court House, Fayette county, Ohio, and is a son of William and Elizabeth (Willard) Fox. His life from early boyhood has been one of constant industry and earnest endeavor, and from modest circumstances and obscurity he has become one of the leading agriculturists of his locality and the owner of one of the most desirable locations in Lagro township.

William Fox was born in South Carolina, and as a young man moved to North Carolina and later to Clinton county, Ohio, where he was married to his first wife, a native of Germany who had come to the United States as a child of two years. They later went to Fayette county, Ohio, and there Mrs. Fox died without issue. Later Mr. Fox was married to Elizabeth Willard, and in September, 1850, they moved to Grant county, Indiana, and located at Meir, then called Union City, where they passed their remaining years on a farm, the mother dying in 1861, while the father, for many years retired, passed away in 1870, when about ninety years of age. They were the parents of nine children : David Grove; Hannah; Daniel, who served as a member of the Second Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War; Rachael, who is deceased; Henry; Isaac, who is deceased; George, deceased; Alphonse; and William, deceased.

David Grove Fox was a lad of ten years when the family came to Indiana and he still remembers the trip in the old Virginia "scoop-bed" wagon and "Quaker rocker" buggy, the little party bringing their household effects and eleven head of horses. The father purchased about twenty acres of land, at twenty-two dollars per acre, and this the lad helped to clear, and as the years passed and more acreage was added he assisted in the clearing of some 200 acres of land. During the winter months, while other lads were attending school, he worked in the saw- mills, and an educated Virginian who was staying at the Fox home helped him with his arithmetic, so that he was soon able to tell the various sizes of lumber, although he had not yet learned how to write. In 1862 he offered his services to his country during the struggle between the Union and Secession, and in August of that year became a private in Company I, One Hundred and First Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Capt. George Steele. He continued to serve until June 9, 1865, when he received his honorable discharge after a service characterized at all times by the utmost bravery and faithfulness to duty. While in the army Mr. Fox made the most of his opportunities and learned among other

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things how to write, so that he not only was able to send messages home of his own but often wrote letters for his comrades. He participated in the battles of Milton; Chickamauga, where he was wounded; Missionary Ridge, Atlanta Campaign and Jonesboro, and took part in the various skirmishes of his regiment and did much forage duty. He was finally mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, and received his honorable dis- charge at Indianapolis, Indiana, with an excellent record. While home on a furlough of fifteen days, October 25, 1864, he was married to Miss Adeline Parker, daughter of Isaac and Melinda (Wire) Parker. Mr. Parker was in Mr. Fox's company during the Civil War and served through the struggle, being shot through the arm at Chickamauga. He died in 1892, while Mrs. Parker passed away three years later.

After his return from the army Mr. Fox rented land in Grant county, but one year later moved to Wabash county and rented George Todd's farm in Lagro township, on which he lived for twenty-one years, during which time he cleared it, tiled it well, developed it into one of the valuable properties of the township, and moved the house from the canal to a more desirable site. In 1890 he left that farm and bought forty-seven acres on the river. During this time Mr. Fox had hired many hands, and had the reputation of being an excellent farmer. It is thought that Mrs. Fox has given an example of her excellent ability as a cook to about everybody in this part of the county, for an extra place is ever ready for the visitor at their home. Hospitality has ever been one of their chief characteristics, and a meal and a bed, as well as a place for the visitor's horse, are always kept ready. It had always been Mr. Fox's desire to obtain possession of his present farm, the old Badger place, and in 1904 he grasped the opportunity of becoming its owner. Here he has erected new buildings, including a modern residence, com- modious barns and substantial outbuildings, and has made improvements of the finest kind. He has up-to-date equipment and the latest manu- facture of machinery, and the whole appearance of his property denotes good management and prosperity. A lover of fine horses, he at all times keeps several of the very best in his stable. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Fox: Mary Alice, who is the wife of Fred Shaw, of Huntington county and has two children: Grace, the wife of Daniel Young, and Nellie, wife of Julius Rudick; Charles, of Wabash, who married Flora Roser, and has five children : Cleotis, Dewey, Roy, Crystal and Edith; and Glenn, formerly a teacher in the high school, and now a member of the retail hardware firm of Fox & Bechtol, at Urbana, married Sylvia Odem, and has one child, Lois. Mr. Fox is well known in fraternal circles being a member of the Subordinate Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Lagro and the Encampment at Wabash. In political matters he is a republican, but he has taken only a good citizen's interest in public matters. He and Mrs. Fox are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and are known all over Wabash county, where they have many warm friends.

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History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2, Part 23

Author: Clarkson W. Weesner Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Number of Pages: 619

Author: Clarkson W. Weesner
Publication date: 1914
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 619