USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 58
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JESSE H. KUNSE. A successful business man as general contractor and builder, and also a farm proprietor in Noble township, Mr. J. H. Kunse has lived in Wabash county over sixty years, and represents old pioneer stock.
Mr. Kunse was born on March 25, 1853, one of the children of David and Maria (Crawford) Kunse, natives of Virginia and Ohio, respectively. His parents were pioneers in Wabash county and citizens who con- tributed from first to last in generous measure to the development and upward progress of the communities wherein they maintained a home
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in various periods. David and Maria (Crawford) Kunse were married in Germantown, Ohio. In the 'thirties they moved from Fayette county, Indiana, to Wabash county. The father was a brickmaker by trade, and made brick and built a house, after which he returned to Conners- ville, in Fayette county. On bringing his family to Wabash county he settled on a piece of land in the central part of the county, built a log cabin on a spot that is now occupied by one of the fine homes of the county, and there his children were born and reared. He applied himself with enthusiasm to the task of clearing up a part of the land. He built a cane mill and made many gallons of molasses for the early settlers, though it was operated by man power. This was the first mill of the kind in that district. Mr. Kunse was further distinguished as being the man who made the first bricks used in the community. He cleared about sixty acres of timber, using the lighter timber for his brick kilns. David Kunse died in August, 1889, just about two years after the passing of his faithful wife. Nine children were born to these parents. Two of them died in infancy. They were born on the farm where the parents carried on the best activities of their lives, and all were educated in the schools of Wabash. In childhood they attended a frame school that stood on the river. The Miami schoolhouse was constructed by their father, and though all the children in town attended, half the building was sufficient for their accommodation. Three months was the average length of the school year.
When Jesse H. Kunse finished his educational training, he learned the brick making business with his father and later went to Mobile, Alabama, where he made twenty-five thousand brick and laid them. Then return- ing to Wabash county he settled in Noble township. He has long been engaged in brick making and in contracting here, and prominent among those buildings that he has had in charge have been the South Side school, the Methodist Episcopal church and the brick work on the Big Four buildings. Mr. Kunse is also the owner of a fine farm, but for a number of years until his son grew up hired labor to operate it.
Mr. Kunse married Cora Markley, the daughter of Daniel Markley, and to them has been born one son, Robert, who is a graduate of Purdue University, and since then has been operating his father's farm and experiencing a degree of success consistent with the scientific training he had in his university career along that line. The son married Beatrice Franklin, a daughter of Leslie Franklin, of Lafayette.
The family maintain their residence on the farm, the home being one that was built by David Kunse. Certain improvements have been made in the place, and the barn is practically new, but in the main, the old . place is much as it was left by the man who shaped it into a habitable dwelling place from the wild and uncultivated spot that he found. There are one hundred and forty acres, and Robert Kunse of the third genera- tion successfully conducts the agricultural activities that have made it one of the most productive and fertile spots in the county.
Socially the Kunse family is prominent in and about Wabash. Mr. Kunse is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is a Mason
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of Knights Templar degree. He has always been a stanch republican and has been active to a fair degree in the work of the party up to the time of the birth of the progressive party, when he transferred his allegiance to the new faction.
PROF. L. D. IKENBERRY. The senior member of the faculty of Man- chester College is Prof. L. D. Ikenberry. He was born in Franklin county, Virginia, in 1866. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors came from Germany.
He received such education as the public schools of Virginia gave thirty years ago. He then entered Bridgewater College, Virginia, where he spent two years in preparation for teaching. He taught in Daleville College, Virginia, from 1891 to 1893 and later was president of the same institution, 1897-1900.
In the meantime he had continued and completed his college course at McPherson College, Kansas, Kansas University and Ohio State Uni- versity. From this last named institution he received the A. M. degree in 1900. In the same year he was called to Manchester College to act as Chairman of the Faculty. Since then he has been continually con- nected with the institution. During the years when the school was having its greatest difficulties he was one who helped to keep it going.
When the school was re-organized under its present management he was elected secretary, which position he still holds. To him is due much of the credit of the recent success of the college. Mathematics and Astronomy are his favorite subjects. His official duties do not permit him to do as much teaching as formerly.
Prof. Ikenberry was married in 1894 to Miss Lizzie Bucher, a native of Pennsylvania, who was educated at Bridgewater and Daleville Col- leges. To them have been born two daughters, Anna Kathryn, born at Ada, Ohio, and Flora Marie born at North Manchester, Ind.
Prof. and Mrs. Ikenberry enjoy a large circle of friends. He is active in the work of the Church of the Brethren, being an ordained elder in the church.
WILLIAM H. PEEBLES. Sixty-three years have come and gone since the Peebles family were established in Wabash county in the spring of 1851. Theirs was the usual lot of the early settlers, and the associations of the family in Wabash county include log cabin homes, primitive schools, limited market facilities, and all the changing conditions which marked the last century. William H. Peebles was a small boy of nine years when the family came to Wabash county, and in his own lifetime has witnessed many changes, has done well for himself and his family, and is one of the sterling citizens of Noble township.
William H. Peebles was born in Clinton county, Ohio, July 8, 1841, a son of John E. and Mary A. (Hunnicutt) Peebles, both of whom died on the Wabash county farm. When the family settled in Noble township, nearly all the country was wild, and the land had little im- provement except a small log cabin. Indians still dwelt in this neigh-
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borhood, and though not hostile their presence at times was annoying. The family of John E. and Mary A. Peebles comprised six children. Elizabeth, Steven T., Benjamin F. and Micajah are all deceased. The two still living are William H. and Mary, now Mrs. Mary J. Hollings- worth of Marion, Indiana. In the years while these children were grow- ing up schools were primitive as compared with present educational facilities, and the boys and girls in the Peebles family did not fare any better than the average youth of their time.
After his experience as a youth on the farm and in the district schools was completed, William H. Peebles took up the serious business of life and in December, 1865, married Lydia J. Jones. She was the daughter of Daniel and Sylvia Jones, who were among the early settlers in Wabash county. To this union have been born five children : Florence, the first, married William Galamore and they live in Wilmington, Clin- ton county, Ohio; Rosaline, deceased; John Clinton married Edith Bruner and lives in Noble township of Wabash county; Roscoe W. graduated from Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana, in June, 1914; and Oris died in infancy. All the children were born in Wabash county.
Mr. Peebles moved to his present farm in 1891. It comprises fifty- one acres of highly cultivated and valuable land, and besides the home place he is proprietor of seventy acres located about one mile south. Farming has proved a profitable business for Mr. Peebles, and his long residence in one community has been accompanied by the neigh- borly traits and the public spirit which make the good citizen. A member of the Friends church, he has served as a trustee and an elder, and has also been quite active in Republican politics.
ZIMRI FAWCETT. Few of the citizens of Wabash county have done more to advance the interests of agriculture than has Zimri Fawcett, of Paw Paw township, for his intelligent application of progressive methods to his operations and his unceasing efforts to simplify his work and increase production have stimulated others to greater endeav- ors and thus placed his community among the leaders in agricultural development. He is now living a retired life, for his ventures have been successful and he is now enjoying the fruits of his years of toil, but he still takes an interest in the various advancements connected with the work of the husbandman, and through his influence is still proving a beneficial factor in the county's farm life.
Mr. Fawcett has been a lifelong resident of Wabash county, having been born on a farm in Noble township, west of the city of Wabash, November 3, 1854, a son of Milton and Sarah (Haines) Fawcett, natives of Ohio, where they were educated, reared and married. After the birth of their first child they migrated to Indiana by way of wagon, settling in the woods west of Wabash, where not a stick of tim- ber had yet been cut. It is related that the father, standing in one spot, and that not any appreciable distance from his door-step, could "shoot enough squirrels to last over Sunday." On this wild forty-
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acre farm Mr. Fawcett put up a log cabin, but after he had made a number of other improvements disposed of it and moved to what is now the city of Wabash, buying 127 acres which land is all now in the city limits and the owner of which is Allen W. King. A man of pro- gressive spirit, far ahead of his day, he took the lead in agricultural work in his section, and made his property pay him full value for the labor he expended upon it, generally raising eighty bushels of corn to the acre. Coming to this locality a poor man, through intelligent work and perseverance he rose to a position of substantiality, and when he passed away, at the age of fifty-four years, of typhoid fever, no man in the community stood higher in public esteem. He invested to some extent in realty, and was the owner of many shares in the old Tole (now Mill Creek) turnpike. He was a republican, but not an office seeker. Mrs. Fawcett nursed her husband and children when they had the typhoid fever, and came safely through that siege, but ten years later contracted the disease herself and did not recover there- from. Mr. and Mrs. Fawcett were the parents of five children, the first born in Ohio, and the last four in Indiana, namely: Mordecai, who is deceased; Zimri, of this review; Mary Elizabeth, deceased, who was the wife of John Werst; Levi, who met his death in the great San Francisco earthquake; and Lydia, who is the wife of Elwood Ridenour.
Zimri Fawcett was born in the little primitive log cabin on the first farm, but when he was a boy the family moved to Wabash. Like all farmers' sons of that day, he was early set to such tasks as could be accomplished by youthful hands, and when he was only three years of age, while picking up chips after the ax of his brother Mordecai, he lost the index finger on his right hand. He assisted in the work of clearing the homestead from the timber and was trained thoroughly in agricultural work by his father, whose progressive spirit and enter- prise the youth inherited. His educational training was secured in the old home district schools of his day, and he remained at home until his marriage, November 18, 1880, to Miss Julia Koons, the daughter of Absalom and Isabella (Ray) Koons. In the meantime he had pur- chased a farm on the Mill Creek turnpike, which is now the home of Sam DuBois, and there lived during the first nine years of his mar -. ried life. This was a tract of thirty-four acres, and it was so highly developed and improved that in 1890 he sold it at the then record price of $100 an acre, considered so astonishing that the newspapers of this section all printed an account of the transaction. His present farm, a tract of 108 acres, in Paw Paw township, on the east side of Laketon turnpike, about seven miles north of Wabash, he purchased for forty dollars an acre from the Heath heirs. He completed clearing the land, put in many rods of tile (one ditch costing $478), erected a set of seven buildings, put up a new modern residence, and now values his property at $200 an acre. Like his father, Mr. Fawcett has de- lighted in making his land produce great crops. On some of his prop- erty he has raised 100 bushels of corn to an acre, and holds many prizes won as premiums at corn shows held at Urbana and other points. Vol. II-82
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He has also raised 1000 bushels of oats on ten acres. While he special- izes in these, he also carries on general farming and stockraising through his sons, he having retired from the active labors of the farm. Mr. Fawcett bears a high reputation in business circles and has numerous friends throughout Wabash county. Politically a republican, public life has held out no attractions for him, he preferring to remain a simple tiller of the soil. His religious faith is that of the Quakers, in which he was reared.
Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Fawcett: Olzro, of Chester township, Wabash county, who married Katie Miller and has three children,-Maxwell, Eunice and Paul; Harley E., who is engaged in cultivating the home farm; Lilly, who is the wife of C. R. Ball and has two children, Dorothy, a resident of Noble township, and a daughter Helen, born April 13, 1914; Nellie, who is now Mrs. C. C. Myers, of Texas; and Orval B., who is at home.
JAMES P. Ross. A career of quiet but faithful performance of duty has been that of James P. Ross, who has been identified with the office of County clerk at Wabash for a time which makes him a veteran at the courthouse, and for forty years he has had an active part in local politics. As a young man he carried a musket in the ranks of the Union army, and in every capacity in which he has served he has discharged. his obliga- tions with credit, and is a man whose name and career has a fine fitness in the records of Wabash county.
James P. Ross is a son of William Olin Ross, who was one of the pioneers of Wabash county. He was born on his father's farm in Noble township, Wabash county, September 15, 1846. When he was three years of age his father died, and the widow and the children had many hard- ships and privations in order to make a living and keep up the semblance of a home. As a boy James P. Ross worked at any honorable occupation that presented. In a tan yard he was given employment in beating tan bark, and an interesting phase of his early experience was as a printer's devil and paper carrier on the old Wabash Intelligencer at a time when Naaman Fletcher was editor. He also was employed by the farmers in the neighborhood, and dropped corn in the field, swung an axe, and there are few tasks which might be enumerated in the local industry of that town which he did not perform. Necessarily, in view of this constant work from childhood, he had little opportunity to attend school, and has had to perfect his education by self study rather than under the in- struction of teachers.
In 1864, when he was seventeen years old, he was engaged in selling war stationery throughout the country, and one day started for Peru, ostensibly on this business. However, he kept on to Indianapolis, and in that city on February 28th enlisted in the Fourteenth Indiana Bat- tery. With his command he reached the front in time to join the army under Thomas which crushed the hopes of Hood in the great battle of Nashville. After that his battery was sent to Mobile Bay and partici- pated in the reducing the fort and the capture of that city. This battery was the first to open fire on Spanish Fort, and also played its guns upon
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Fort Blakely. On September 1, 1865, some weeks after peace had come between the armies, he was given his honorable discharge and then re- turned to Wabash county. Here he found employment as clerk in a drug store at Wabash, and later started a book store, and sold books and stationery and other sundries to the trade for several years. In November, 1867, Mr. Ross had his first experience as a public servant in the office of Deputy County Clerk. For eight years he held that position and became thoroughly familiar with all the details of the office, and in 1875 the people of Wabash county elected him to the office of County Clerk. He gave a capable administration of the office for four years, and since retiring has at different times returned to the office as deputy under four administrations. His entire official connection with the clerk's office covers a period of twenty-three years, and when any- thing somewhat remote in records is an object of search at the court- house the final authority and source of knowledge is usually designated as James P. Ross. For the past twenty-eight years Mr. Ross has de- voted his attention chiefly to the insurance and real estate business.
There is probably not a man in Wabash county better known than Mr. Ross. A republican in politics, he has for forty years kept in touch with political conditions, and has attended a great number of county, district and state conventions of his party. He is one of the honored veterans of the war, and is a former commander of the local grand army post. In Masonry he has taken the degrees of the Blue Lodge, the Chapter and Council, and is also a Knight of Pythias.
In February, 1876, Mr. Ross married Alice Burnes, daughter of Rev. John Burnes, a prominent Presbyterian minister. Mr. and Mrs. Ross are the parents of the following children and have ten grandchildren : Ruth, Mrs. Thomas R. Aten, of Nevada, Ohio; Florence, Mrs. Wheeler O. North, of San Diego, California; Elizabeth, Mrs. Daniel M. Gillen, of Wabash ; Esther, Mrs. Paul Evvinghouse, of Wabash; Ina, Mrs. Paul J. Wilson, of Detroit, Michigan; and Vida, a teacher in the public schools of Wabash.
HENRY MILLS. The residence of this venerable gentleman in Wabash county covers a period of more than sixty years, he having taken up his abode here in 1854. From that time until the present he has been engaged in a variety of pursuits, all connected with the rising mercantile, commercial and agricultural interests of this sec- tion, with whose growth he has been intimately related, and with whose phenomenal prosperity he has prospered. At this time he is vice president of the Browne-Mills Electric Company, of North Manchester, and of the J. A. Browne Company, of this city, and also has large farm- ing interests near Laketon and North Manchester.
Mr. Mills was born November 18, 1839, in Montgomery county, Ohio, and is a son of John and Mary Ann (Singer) Mills. His father was born at Mount Holly, Monmouth county, New Jersey, a son of Joshua and Lucy (Curlis) Mills, there being seven sons and four daughters in the family. John Mills received a good common school education,
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and after spending some time in studying surveying went to Montgom- ery county, Ohio, in young manhood. There he was married to Mary Ann Singer, and in June, 1854, they came to Wabash county, Indiana, and settled east of North Manchester. Mr. Mills devoted the greater part of his attention to agricultural pursuits and was successful in his ventures because of his industry, perseverance and well-directed ef- forts. A republican in politics, he took a keen and intelligent interest in local matters, and was known as one of his party's influential men. His death occurred about thirty years ago, and he was survived by his widow for about eight years.
Henry Mills received his education in the vicinity of his birth- place, and accompanied his parents to Wabash county as a lad. Here he grew to manhood on the home farm, and on December 25, 1859, was united in marriage with Miss Rachel Baugher, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Baugher, pioneers of Whitley and Noble counties. Three chil- dren have been born to this union, namely : Eleanora, who is the wife of J. A. Browne; John A .; and Elizabeth B., who resides with her parents. After his marriage, Mr. Mills embarked in agricultural operations on his own account, but in 1864 moved to North Manchester, where he established himself in the grocery business, to which he subsequently added a stock of clothing. He continued to be the proprietor of this enterprise for some thirty years, during which it grew to large pro- portions, due to his energy and progressive spirit. In January, 1882, he embarked in the lumber business with J. A. Browne, under the firm style of the J. A. Browne Company, a firm which is still rated among the leading business houses of the city. The electric lighting plant at North Manchester was established by George Burge, but after several years of changes, during which the affairs of the plant were in anything but a satisfactory condition, it became the property of Mills & Browne, and has since remained under their control. It has continued to be successful, and is giving the people of the city excellent service. During his long residence in Wabash county, Mr. Mills has invested considerable capital in farming properties, and at this time owns two fine tracts, of 250 and 270 acres respectively, near North Manchester and Laketon, these properties being operated by renters under Mr. Mills' supervision. He is a stockholder and director of the Lawrence National Bank and one of his city's leading business citizens along various lines of endeavor. ยท In politics a republican, he has never cared for public office, preferring to confine his attentions to his extensive private interests. In a general way he is interested in the Christian Science church.
DR. LEWIS H. TENNANT. More than forty years of medical practice in this part of Indiana has given to Dr. Lewis H. Tennant a reputation that places him among the foremost medical men of the county. He began his practice in 1870 and from then until now there has been no cessation in his ministrations to the sick of whatever community he has found himself resident in. He has his residence in North Manchester. Of Canadian nativity, Dr. Lewis H. Tennant was born at Hamilton, On-
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tario, on November 28, 1837, and is the son of Dr. Lewis W. and Eliza- beth (De Witt) Tennant, natives of Connecticut and New Jersey, respect- ively. The father was a stanch Democrat in his political faith, and while resident in Canada during the troublous times between the opposing political factions of British opinion, he left the country and came to the United States. . They first located at Wyandotte county, Ohio, later removing to Lake county, Indiana. There the wife and mother passed away in 1847, after which the father took up his residence in Kosciusko county, dying there in 1865.
He was a medical man and practiced the profession of medicine all his life.
Dr. Lewis H. Tennant was a babe of eight months when his parents moved from Canada to the States, and he had his early education in the public schools. He early decided upon his father's profession as the one best suited to himself, and after adequate preparation for that work, he established himself in Warsaw, Kosciusko county, opening an office for the practice of medicine and there continuing until 1893. It was in that year that he came to North Manchester, and here he has since been successfully engaged in his profession. He has a widespread practice and an excellent reputation in profesional circles.
Dr. Tennant is a member of the Blue Lodge of the Masons, and is a member of the United Brethren church. He is a veteran of the Civil war, having enlisted early in the fight as a member of Company C, Fourth Indiana Cavalry, serving three years. He was honorably discharged at Indianapolis in 1865, immediately after which he returned home. He was married in that year to Miss Elizabeth Barron, a daughter of John Barron of Logansport, and to them nine children have been born. They are here named as follows: John; Charles; Demarious, now the wife of Emmett Mills of Kosciusko county; Lewis W., engaged in the practice of medicine at Larwell; Walter ; Frank; James; Frederick and Otis.
Doctor and Mrs. Tennant are among the most highly esteemed people of Manchester, where they have a wide circle of friends.
ABSALOM WILSON. Known in Wabash county as a successful and prosperous farming man, Absalom Wilson has made his home in these regions since his birth, which took place in Peru township, Miami county, on November 16, 1864. He is a son of Absalom and Magdalene (Fisher) Wilson, both natives of the state of Virginia, but who were married in Miami county.
In the year 1835 Absalom Wilson, Sr., came to Miami county from his native state, in company with his father, George Wilson. He at once established himself in farming activities here, and his son, Absalom, attended the Miami county schools. When he grew up he remained there until the year 1849, and in that year he went to California, during the gold excitement which prevailed throughout the country. He drove an ox team across the plains, and he met with severe hardships while on the trip, one incident of which was the falling ill of one of the members of the party, named Glassburn, with a sharp attack of cholera, and
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which resulted in his death. The others of the party, impatient to be gone and fearful of the outcome of too close contact with the victim, went on, leaving Mr. Wilson to care for the unfortunate man, it being impossible for him to leave his erstwhile companion to die alone on the plains. He nursed him tenderly until his death, and then buried him. He, himself, fell a victim of the disease, and was nursed through his illness by a man named Cady. It later happened that this Mr. Cady met with an accident resulting from an explosion of dynamite, and Absalom Wilson cared for his injuries. So it is that "chickens come home to roost," as the old familiar saying has it, though in this instance the chickens were birds of beautiful plumage, indeed. When Mr. Cady was able to travel the two young adventurers set out for home together, and they lived neighbors in Miami county to the time of their death.
The first farm of the senior Absalom Wilson consisted of two hundred acres, with a log cabin in the woods, and there he continued to make his home to the end of his days. At one time he was engaged in the woolen mills in Peru, and for a number of years was occupied in packing pork. He was county commissioner of Miami county for one term, and was trustee of Peru township on one occasion. His father before him was a county commissioner of Miami county when the old court house was first built in Peru, so that the Wilson men have been identified with the public life of Miami county for many years. Absalom Wilson was an Odd Fellow, and was a Democrat in politics. He was long a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, but his wife was a member of the Dunkard church.
Nine children were born to Absalom and Magdalene (Fisher) Wilson, named as follows: Oscar, who married Julia C. Scovil; Thomas Jeffer- son, who married Emma Wallace; George F., who married Emma Jane Butt; Omer, who married Dora Bell; Absalom, of this review; Oliver, who married Della Gangeer; Lena, unmarried; Ella, who married Wil- liam Richer and after his death married Clarence Stadler; and Noah, who married Emma Craning.
Absalom Wilson married in 1891 Christena Working, a daughter of John and Amanda Working. She was also born in Miami county. To them have been born nine children: Sylvan is the eldest; Levi married Clytis Nash; Allen, Ira, Byron, Frances, Owen, Oscar and Absalom are the others. The two eldest children were born in Miami county, the next four in Pulaski county, and the three youngest in Wabash county.
After his marriage Mr. Wilson farmed the home place for about two years, and with the settling of his father's estate he moved to Pulaski county. He later came to his present place in Noble township, Wabash county, where he has a fine farm of two hundred and fifty-five acres, much of it under the plow and yielding richly to his careful handling.
The family are members of the United Brethren church, and Mr. Wilson is a Democrat. His aged mother, now in her eighty-third year, is still on the old homestead in Miami county, and is bright and active for one of her years. ".
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