USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 38
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Mr. Ragan is a member of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic church at Lagro, and he is fraternally identified with the Maccabee lodge at that place. He is a Democrat and active in politics in the town and county, though not an office holder or a seeker after official honors. Like most of his family, Mr. Ragan was given a fairly good education, for his father, though himself almost wholly untutored, believed in education and gave to his children the best advantages he could provide.
Edward and Lewis, brothers of the subject, were for some years pro- prietors of a drug store at Lafayette, which business they discontinued in 1906 because of the ill health of Lewis. After a good bit of moving about in search of renewed strength and health Lewis Ragan died at Tucson, Arizona, January 26, 1907, and was brought back to Lagro for burial. All the other members of the family are still living.
PLEASANT A. LINES. At present living a somewhat retired life, Pleasant A. Lines has been one of the industrious men of Wabash county, linking his name with all that is honorable in agriculture and
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being wise and progressive in individual life. He came to Liberty town- ship during pioneer days and has lived through the period of wonder- ful development which has transformed this region into one of the richest agricultural sections of the state, witnessing its growth and materially contributing to its welfare. Now, in the evening of life, secure in the knowledge of a long and honorable record, he is quietly enjoying the comforts which his years of industry have brought.
Mr. Lines was born in Rush county, Indiana, January 16, 1840, and is a son of Thomas H. and Nancy (Sailors) Lines, natives of Rush county, where they were reared, educated and married. As early as 1842 they came to Wabash county, locating in Liberty township, where the father entered 1191/2 acres of land, which he subsequently cleared from the timber and brush and improved into good tillable land. He continued to make his home on this property during the remaining years of his life, and through energetic and well-directed management was able to become the owner of a handsome and valuable property. Mr. and Mrs. Lines were the parents of ten children, of whom five are living at this time : Pleasant A .; Marshall, who resides at La Fontaine; Martha, his twin, who resides at La Fontaine and is the wife of Tobe Miller; and Monroe, a farmer of Liberty township.
Pleasant A. Lines was past two years of age when he came with his parents to Wabash county, and his education was secured in the early district schools of Liberty township, which he attended a short time each winter while spending the summer months at farming the homestead. He was given his liberty by his father when he was twenty years of age, but had no capital save his industry and determination to succeed. Soon Mr. Lines secured employment at clearing land and preparing it for "rolling," a task for which he was paid $3.25 an acre, three or four days being consumed in clearing an acre, and thus he prepared eleven acres. Subsequently he was engaged with his father and brother in conducting a threshing machine, and when the season was over engaged in splitting rails at fifty cents per hundred, getting out about 300 a day and continuing to be thus occupied until he was twenty-two years of age. It was in such tasks that Mr. Lines secured the capital which formed the nucleus for his present ample fortune. A large part of his youth was passed in the school of hard work, but it was excellent training, and his experience furnished him with much that was to prove useful to him in the years that followed.
On December 29, 1861, Mr. Lines was married to Miss Flora A. Tyner, who was born in Rush county, Indiana, and came to Wabash county with her parents as a child. Three children were born to this union, of whom two are living at this time: Ursala, who is the wife of Asa Roby, of Liberty township; and Alva, who married Grace Dawes. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Pleasant A. Lines settled down to agricultural pursuits in Liberty township, and here, as the years have passed, they have accumulated more and more land until they now own 650 acres, a part of which, about 240 acres, are owned by Mrs. Lines and her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Tyner. This venerable lady has
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reached the age of ninety years, born March 4, 1825. Her husband, Elijah Tyner, died in April, 1877, and Mr. and Mrs. Lines have lived on the Tyner farm ever since. Thus Mr. Lines has lived within a mile of his present home for seventy-two years. It is also the home of Mrs. Tyner. The accompanying portrait of the five generations, all living in Wabash county, represents Mrs. Elizabeth Tyner and her daughter, Mrs. Flora Ann Lines, the latter's son, Alvah Lines, his daughter, Mrs. Pauline Clark, and her son, Garnett L. Clark. Mr. and Mrs. Lines are widely known in the community as people of genuine worth and stability, who take a pride in their community and have at all times endeavored to advance its best interests. They are faithful members of the Antioch Baptist church, and Mr. Lines is a republican, although he has never taken much part in public life.
GEORGE JOSEPH ZAHM. About forty-five years ago George Joseph Zahm began his activities as a farmer and citizen in Wabash county. He undertook the pioneer work of clearing off a tract of land and convert- ing its acres into cultivated fields, and the result of those labors are now witnessed in his beautiful country home of eighty acres in Lagro township, about two miles east of the village of Speiker, on the south side of the road. Mr. Zahm and his family have always been known for their quiet prosperity and solid integrity, and such has been the record of his past years that he can rest content with his accomplishments and enjoy the prosperity won through long years. Mr. Zahm has lived in Wabash county since the fall of 1868.
He was born in Perry county, Ohio, October 7, 1838, and has already rounded out more than three-quarters of a century of human life. His parents were Nicholas and Elizabeth (Garhart) Zahm. The parents were born in Germany and were married in Oldenberg. While living in the Fatherland Nicholas Zahm practiced the trade of shoemaker, but after his marriage and after six children had been born they emigrated to the United States, where three other children subsequently came into their household. For ten years their home was in Wayne county, Ohio, where the father bought a farm, and, selling that place, he moved to Perry county, Ohio, and bought a place containing sixty-two acres. Both he and his wife passed away on the old homestead, she in 1857 at the age of sixty-five, and he in 1874 on his eighty-seventh birthday. Their children were named as follows: Nicholas, Margaret, Catherine, Ann, Peter, Jacob, John, all of whom are now deceased; Mary, widow of John Bletzacker of Lancaster, Ohio, and George J., the youngest.
George J. Zahm spent his early boyhood in Perry county, Ohio. When he was six or seven years of age he began walking back and forth to the district school, which was kept in a log building, and he spent many weary hours sitting on the rough log benches, made from split chestnut trees, smoothed off on the upper side, and supported by wooden pins driven into the under side. The work on a pioneer farm was never ending, and consequently the boys of that generation found more prac- tical training in plowing and planting and in swinging an ax than they
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got in the schools. George Zahm from an early age took his place in the woods and in the fields, helped clear the land and assisted his father with the cultivation until he was about sixteen years of age. At that time he began working at the carpenter's trade, under his brother Jacob, and for about ten years that was the source of his livelihood.
On June 14, 1864, he married Mary M. Clark, a daughter of Francis and Rebecca (Flowers) Clark. This family had early settled in Perry county, and their home was about one mile from the Zahm farm. Mary Clark was born there, and she and George Zahm were children together, and were thus married out of the same neighborhood and had the same early associations. In the fall of 1865 Mr. and Mrs. Zahm moved to Huntington, Indiana, which was then a comparatively small village, though a hustling business place. In Huntington Mr. Zahm spent about three years in the carpenter's trade and was gradually getting a little bit ahead in the world. His wife's parents had come to Huntington at the same time, buying a farm near the county seat, where they lived until their death. All made the trip from Ohio with horses and wagons, very much after the pioneer style.
In 1868 Mr. Zahm took a contract to cut timber for his brother-in- law, William Anderson, who had bought a large tract of timber land from John Roach of Huntington. After about one year with Anderson Mr. Zahm bought his present farm in Wabash county. Its former owner was Judge J. D. Connor of Wabash. Nearly every acre of the land was at that time covered with heavy timber, and there was not a building or improvement on the farm. Mr. Zahm put up a little cabin, which is now used as a kitchen of his more commodious home, and from time to time, as his means and time allowed, he added to his residence, until it is now both an attractive and comfortable home, situated behind the trees and well back from the public highway. As soon as he had pro- vided for the simplest living necessities Mr. Zahm undertook the clear- ing of the timber from his land. He cut and hauled the logs to the canal at Lagro, which was then an important shipping point, and thus practically all the merchantable timber on his land went by the water route to market. In this way he gradually cleared off his fields, tiled it and otherwise improved the land, and for many years followed general farming with increasing prosperity. About three years ago he began renting out his fields, and has since retired from active business.
Mr. and Mrs. Zahm are now living comfortably at their old home- stead, which represents their joint labors and economy, and their chil- dren are all married and have left home, except Miss Rose, the youngest, who lives at home and looks after her parents with admirable filial devo- tion. Mr. Zahm is a self-made man in the fullest sense of the term, and everything that has come to him is the result of hard and honest toil. He is a man of his word, which once given is never broken; is fair and just in all his dealings, and has a host of friends in Wabash county.
Mr. and Mrs. Zahm are the parents of the following children: Wil- liam Clement, who married Cora Hamilton and has one child, Marie; Pius Francis, the second child of Mr. and Mrs. George J. Zahm, died
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aged about one year; Louis, who married Melinda Hamilton, a sister of Mrs. William C. Zahm, and she died in August, 1909; Clara, who is now Mrs. John T. McGuire and has one child, Pearl; Edward, who married Bessie Frushure, has a daughter, Virginia, and Miss Rose. The Zahms are members of St. Patrick's Catholic church at Lagro, and Mr. Zahm was for twenty-five years honored with the position of trustee in the church. On Sunday, June 14, 1914, Mr. and Mrs. Zahm celebrated their golden wedding.
JOHN DAVID MILEY. The fertile fields of Wabash county have fur- nished a field of labor for many of this section's most substantial citi- zeus, for this is pre-eminently an agricultural community, and the leaders in business, social and public life are found among the tillers of the soil. John David Miley, whose comfortable home and fine farm are located in Waltz township, belongs to the class of progressive, enter- prising farmers who are maintaining the standard of agricultural supremacy in Wabash county. He owns two farms, aggregating 101 acres. He was born on a farm in Darke county, Ohio, December 26, 1850, and is a son of Isaiah and Elizabeth (Dininger) Miley, the former a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and the latter of Ohio.
Isaiah Miley, a painter by trade, was a young man when he migrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio, and in October, 1859, came from the latter state to Indiana, but prior to that, in 1836, he served under Gen. Sam Houston in the United States army in Texas. He settled on a farm in Waltz township, about two miles north of the present home of John D." Miley, and there rounded out his life, having devoted his attention to farming and stock raising with a reasonable measure of success. He was married at Germantown, Montgomery county, Ohio, to Miss Elizabeth Dininger, and they became the parents of two sons and seven daughters : Henrietta, Catherine, Elizabeth, Daniel, John David, Melisena, Fannie Mary, Ann and Ida E. Of these all except the last named were born in Darke county, Ohio. Daniel Miley served during the last eight months of the Civil war as a private in the Fortieth Regiment, Indiana Volun- teer Infantry, and received his honorable discharge at the cessation of hostilities. The mother of the foregoing children died in 1894.
John David Miley was educated in the district schools of Waltz town- ship, and grew up to agricultural pursuits, in which he has spent his entire life. He is the owner of sixty acres in his home property, and also has forty acres near the home place, about one-half mile north. A good residence, substantial barns and outbuildings, improved machinery, good stock and well-tilled fields all testify to the enterprise of the owner, whose efforts have been consecutive and well directed, bringing him, therefore, a substantial financial return. In his political affiliations Mr. Miley is a stalwart republican, unswerving in support of the principles of that party. In the position of trustee of Waltz township, in which he served four years, and as justice of the peace for eight years, he discharged his duties with a singleness of purpose that won him the con- fidence of the community, and in business matters he also is well worthy
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of the respect in which he is held. A member of the Lutheran church, he has been liberal in his support of its various movements, and has served at various times as deacon, elder and member of the board of trustees.
Mr. Miley was married (first) to Miss Mary Alice Toomire, daughter of Bryant Toomire, and to this union there have been born four children, namely : Olive Blanche, Ida Bertha, Roscoe Reiman and Rev. Henry Germann, all born in Waltz township. Mrs. Miley died in 1879, and Mr. Miley was married (second) to Martha E. Ridenour, daughter of Isaiah A. and Elizabeth (Snavely) Ridenour. Her brothers and sisters were as follows: Elnora, who is deceased; Louisa, who married Ira Malotte; Levi; Minerva, who is deceased, and David, who married (first) Inez Bickel and (second) Gertrude Votair. To Mr. and Mrs. Miley there have been born children as follows: Luther Ernest, who is deceased; Franklin Orlando, who married Beulah Bond; Harry Benjamin; Rev. George Walten: John David, Jr., who married Kizzie Jacob; Lorin Edward, Lolo Elizabeth, Dwight L. and Charles Arthur, all born in Waltz township.
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MONROE LINES. Belonging to that class of workers whose practical education, quick perceptions and great capacity for painstaking in- dustry have advanced them to positions of importance and independ- ence in the field of agricultural endeavor, Monroe Lines is widely and favorably known to the people of Liberty township, among whom he "has spent his entire life. The long period of his association with the citizens of the rural communities of Wabash county has established for him a reputation for ability, resource and unflagging industry, and he may be numbered among the captains of success who have piloted their own ships into a safe harbor.
Monroe Lines was born in Liberty township, Wabash county, In- diana, October 23, 1852, and is a son of Thomas H. and Nancy E. (Sailors) Lines. His parents were natives of Rush county, Indiana, where they were reared, educated and married, and in 1842, came to Wabash county and located in Liberty township, the father entering 1191/2 acres of land, which he subsequently cleared from the timber and improved into good tillable farm soil. He continued to make his home on this property during the remaining years of his life and through energy and enterprise was enabled to become the owner of a handsome and valuable property. Mr. and Mrs. Lines were the parents of ten children, of whom five survive: Pleasant A., who is engaged in farming in Liberty township; Marshall, who resides at La Fontaine; Martha, his twin, who is the wife of Tobe Miller and resides at La Fontaine; and Monroe.
The boyhood and youth of Monroe Lines were passed in much the same manner as those of other youths of his day and locality, the short winter terms being passed in the district schools of pioneer Wa- bash county, while during the remainder of the year he worked on the home farm, where he resided until his marriage, August 14, 1874, to
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Missouri A. Moore. She was a daughter of William Moore, who came from Rush county and entered land in Waltz township, Wabash county, at an early date and continued to be engaged in agriculutral pursuits throughout a long and active career. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Lines, of whom three are living at this time: Virden, born July 15, 1875, a graduate of the common schools, married, and past grand of Metosmia Lodge No. 533, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and also a member of the Grand Lodge; Orlie O., born December 2, 1883, who married Elva Gross and lives at Marion, Indiana; Ernest E., born June 19, 1888, single and living at home, being his father's assist- ant on the farm; Atha, born February 2, 1881, now deceased; and Alverette, who died as a child.
After his marriage Monroe Lines settled down to agricultural pur- suits, in which he has continued to be engaged to the present time, being widely known as a skilled farmer, a good judge of live stock, and a first-class business man who has never stooped to dishonorable methods. His reputation as a citizen is that of a man possessed of public spirit and pride in his community, and his friends are as numerous as his acquaintances. Mr. Lines is now the owner of ninety-one acres of good land, located in sections 19 and 30, Liberty township, which has been accumulated through his industry and enterprise, and upon which he has made numerous improvements of a handsome and valuable character. For many years Mr. Lines was identified with the republican organization, but at the birth of the new progressive party, in 1912, he transferred his allegiance to that political power, with which he has ' since acted. He has never been an office seeker, but has ever been ready to perform his full share of the duties of citizenship.
EDWIN DAWES. Any history of Wabash county would be decidedly incomplete that did not make extended mention of Edwin Dawes, now living retired in Wabash at an advanced age, for sixty years have passed since he first came to what was then the little frontier village of Wabash, and his was probably the first frame house to be erected in the county south of the Wabash river. His career since that time has been con- temporary with the county's history, and through a life of industry, perseverance and well-applied effort he has gained a position for himself among the leading citizens of his community. Mr. Dawes is of English nativity and was born August 27, 1835. Edwin Dawes, his father, after whom he was named, was the third assistant cashier of the Bank of. England in London, and this occupation the younger Edwin Dawes was being educated for. His father dying before he had attained manhood, Edwin, Jr., induced his mother to allow him to come to the United States before settling down, and accordingly, in the fall of 1853, accom- panying a family of his acquaintance by the name of Gibson, he took passage on board a sailing vessel, and after a tempestuous voyage of seven weeks landed at New York City.
From the American metropolis Mr. Dawes went to Ohio, but after a short stay heard of the growing city (or, rather, the frontier village)
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named Wabash, in Indiana, and concluded to come here on a prospecting trip. He landed here via the Wabash & Erie Canal, and, being attracted by the possibilities of the place, induced his widowed mother and his brother to come to this place in 1855. For a time they resided on a tract of land in Noble township, south of the Wabash river, having purchased 240 acres of land from the Government. This land is now known as Coppock farm. As has been said, their dwelling on this land was probably the first frame residence in the county south of the river. It was while living here that Edwin Dawes was married to Rebecca Jane Miles, daughter of John Miles, who was also a pioneer of Wabash county, and shortly after this event he moved to Wabash, and in part- nership with Simpson Jones, long since deceased, embarked in the retail boot and shoe business. After a number of years he sold his interest in this business, and, associated with Eli Sumner, entered the planing mill and lumber field, with an establishment one square east of the Wabash depot. Some years later the mill was destroyed by fire, with practically no insurance, and about this time Mr. Sumner died. Mr. Dawes then accepted a position with a wholesale grocery establishment, . as a traveling salesman out of Toledo, Ohio, and continued to be so engaged for a number of years. When the C., W. & M. Railroad was put through, a store was built at Treaty, in Wabash county, and the owners, needing an expert bookkeeper and general assistant, persuaded Mr. Dawes to remove to that point, where for upwards of a score of years he aided in operating the store and in conducting the railroad station, the post office, the warehouse and other ventures of the owners. There his wife died in 1894. Since that time practically Mr. Dawes has lived with his children, retired from the more active cares of life. Mr. Dawes had a long and honorable business career, during which he ever mani- fested the strictest integrity and probity. Never incurring obligations that he did not meet nor making engagements that he did not fill, he won the unqualified trust of the business public, and his name became a synonym for commercial honesty and enterprise. In politics he is an old-time, unswerving republican, and in the early years of the Civil war and prior thereto he was prominently identified with the Underground Railroad, that system by which so many slaves found their way from the South to Canada and freedom. In religion Mr. Dawes is a Quaker, in which organization he was elder for years, and, although he has mixed with people of other denominations, he even yet frequently uses the "thee's and thou's" of the old-time members of the Society of Friends. He and his wife were the parents of four sons and one daughter, all of whom are still living.
Lindley A. Dawes, an ex-postmaster at Wabash, is the oldest of the children of Edwin Dawes, the old settler. He was born in the frame dwelling house erected by his father in Noble township, his birth occur- ring January 30, 1858. He was reared for the most part in the city of Wabash, and received his education in the public schools of this city, fol- lowing which he aided in the work of the store at Treaty and eventually became the owner of that business, which he subsequently traded for a
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livery barn in Wabash. This he conducted for some twenty-two years, later trading it for 140 acres of land in Noble township, which he still owns and upon which he now resides. He also owns 120 acres in Lagro township. On March 8, 1910, he was commissioned postmaster at Wa- bash, a position he continued to occupy until the spring of 1914. Mr. Dawes, naturally, is a republican, and has been stanch in his support of the principles and candidates of the Grand Old Party. He has been prominent in fraternal work, and at this time is a member of the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of the Maccabees and the Independent Order of Foresters. Like his father, he is widely known throughout this part of Wabash county, and is held in high regard by a host of warm and appreciative friends.
On June 29, 1879, Mr. Dawes was married (first) to Miss Etta Coble, who died in 1891, the mother of three children: Elmina, who became the wife of Charles Jacobs and died in 1911; Corral, who is now the wife of Walter Thomas, and Nellie, who married Lee Wright. Mr. Dawes was married (second) August 22, 1903, to Miss Nellie Brumfield, and to this union there have been born two sons: Barton B. and Lindley A., Jr. Both Mr. and Mrs. Dawes belong to religious denominations, the former to the Quakers and the latter to the Presbyterian church.
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