USA > Indiana > Whitley County > History of Whitley County, Indiana > Part 101
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dore. Of this family Peter, Charles and Theodore are the only survivors, the latter being a farmer in Crawford county, Ohio, while Charles is a farmer of Troy township, Omar served in Simonson's battery and died in hospital August 13, 1864, at Chatta- nooga, Tennessee. Walter died in the same city but in another hospital about the same time, being in the Seventy-fourth Indiana in which he enlisted at its organization. He was wounded near Atlanta, Georgia, and his life was the forfeit.
Peter V. Gruesbeck was born in Craw- ford county, Ohio, November 5, 1835, and hence was seventeen years old when he ac- companied his parents to Whitley county. In his twentieth year he yielded to a desire to travel, visiting a number of the western states. He taught school in Iowa one year, and in Caldwell county, Missouri, three years. Recrossing the Mississippi he taught in Illinois. In 1860, he returned to Whitley county and after working on a farm taught the succeeding winter. The opening of the Civil war aroused his patriotism and he was quick to respond to the call to arms, enroll- ing his name as a member of the Fifth In- diana Battery, generally known as Simon- son's artillery. With Captain Peter Simon- son he served three years and two months in the western army, being a participant in many of the great battles of the war, in- cluding Perryville, Stone River, Chicka- mauga, Jonesborough, Resaca, and Peach Tree Creek. He received an injury at Stone River that destroyed his right eye, was taken prisoner while in hospital but retaken and subsequently confined in the hospital at Nashville. He was discharged at Indiana- polis in the fall of 1864 and returned to
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Columbia City but next year revisited Mis- souri, where he taught during the winter of 1865 and 1866. In the latter year he en- gaged in the shoe business at Columbia City with Ranson Tuttle, but after continu- ing in this line for five years he retired. He owns a small farm near town and resides on Walnut street in a brick house erected in 1860 by John Cotton, which is one of the oldest brick structures in Columbia City.
In 1866 Mr. Gruesbeck married Anna Maria Gingher, a native of Ohio, and they have had three children: Mary, who died at the age of eighteen: Abigail, wife of Charles Frederick, living in Indianapolis, having two children, Fremont F. and Otto E .: and Irene, who remains with her par- ents. Mr. Gruesbeck is a Republican and an esteemed comrade of the Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is post com- mander. As a veteran soldier of unblem- ished record. a citizen without reproach, and a man of kindly manners, he enjoys de- served esteem during his quiet passage through the evening of life. Mrs. Grues- beck was born in Lancaster, Fairfield county, Ohio, and at the age of eighteen years had come to Columbia City with her father, Henry Gingher, who became a building con- tractor and died at the age of seventy-two years. Her mother, Eliza Evans, had died in Ohio at the age of thirty-six years, when Anna was but a child of eight. She had two brothers, Benjamin and John, who served in the Civil war. Benjamin, who was in the Seventy-fourth Indiana, died in a hospital near Atlanta. John was in the One Hundred Twenty-first Indiana Regiment and after seeing service till the close of the war re- turned only to be a permanent invalid and to die some years later.
SIMON BENNET.
Simon Bennet has spent all of his adult life in Whitley county, engaged in various occupations and has always been justly con- sidered one of the enterprising citizens. As a mechanic, a soldier and a merchant he has so borne himself as to earn the good will and esteem of his neighbors and by industry and careful management has achieved suc- cess in his undertakings. Mr. Bennet was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, October 2, 1842, his parents being Daniel and Mary Ann (Huffer) Bennet. In the fall of 1850 they came to Whitley county, where they purchased and settled on a farm in Wash- ington township, two miles north of Laud. their later years being passed in that village, where the mother died in the seventy-fourth year of her age. He retired to his home- stead where he died at the age of seventy- eight years. They had ten children, of whom Simon was the third. He was only eight years old when brought to Whitley county and worked on the farm until he became of age. For two years thereafter he worked in a saw-mill, then learned the carpenter's trade with Lewis Gross, follow- ing that trade for sixteen years. Mr. Bennet enlisted in October, 1862, in Company C. Fifty-seventh Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which he served ten months under General Rosecrans, then re-enlisted in Company C, Forty-second Indiana, with which he remained about eleven months, being with Sherman on the Atlanta cam- paign and on to the sea. Going with the army north, he took part in the last battle at Bentonville. and on to Washington, par- ticipating in the grand review. Returning to Whitley county, he resumed his trade as
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carpenter in 1866 and continued in this line of work for sixteen years. In 1882, he be- came a clerk in the general store of his fa- ther-in-law. L. S. Maring, at Laud and con- tinued in this employment during the next ten years, until Mr. Maring's death. In 1892 he came into possession of the store, which has since been conducted with a con- tinually growing business. He carries a general stock of merchandise and enjoys a fine trade with the farmers of that prosper- ous section of the county.
October 26, 1869. Mr. Bennet married Amina, daughter of L. D. and Elizabeth Maring, a native of Jefferson township. where she was born March 23, 1845. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have had five children : Desta P., who died when two years old: Ada S., wife of Orlando Sheets, operating the old Bennet homestead; Zella, wife of Oscar B. Robbins, of Loveland, Colorado: Zora, wife of Franklin F. Frame, of Fort Wayne; and Leonard R., a bookkeeper in a wholesale grocery company at Fort Wayne. Mr. Bennet is a Republican, has always taken an active interest in public affairs and is considered one of the influen- tial men of his township. At the settlement of his father's estate, Mr. Bennet purchased the homestead, containing the same tract upon which his father had begun to clear out a farmi from the wilderness.
DANIEL REDMAN.
For more than fifty-one years this gen- tleman has been a resident of Whitley coun- ty. In politics, as a member of the church
and in his social relations he has endeavored as best he could to influence his fellowmen along right lines and to benefit himself by benefiting others. Meantime as a farmer and merchant he has conducted business ac- cording to the golden rule with the result that he has achieved a fair measure of finan- cial success. while gaining the esteem of neighbors and patrons. Daniel Redman is a native of Jefferson township, where he was born August 29, 1855. His parents were Henry J. and Catherine ( Huffer) Redman, the former a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, and the latter of Maryland. Early in the 'fifties they bought land in Jefferson township, where he died about 1879, but his widow survives and is living on the old homestead at the age of eighty- seven years. They had eight children, of whom Daniel was the fifth. He grew up on the parental farm of one hundred and five acres, which he now owns, and there he has spent all his life except three years, during which he has been a resident of Laud. His principal occupation was farming until 1892, when he established a store at Laud as dealer in harness and buggies, which he conducted in connection with his farm. He enjoys a good trade in this line and derives a substantial revenue from the old home- stead farm of which he is now the sole owner. For many years Mr. Redman acted with the Republican party, but becoming dissatisfied with its attitude towards the liquor traffic he allied himself with the Pro- hibitionists, of whose cause he is now a stanch advocate.
July 10, 1879. Mr. Redman was mar- ried to Amelia E., daughter of Alexander and Savilla Ummel, formerly of Washing-
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ton township, where the mother died. the father surviving at an advanced age. Mr. and Mrs. Redman have had seven children of whom the survivors are Sherman A .. Simon R., May N .. Nellie M. and Ralph W. Elsie E., wife of Winfield O. Smith, died in Washington township, and Elma E. died when about six months old. Mr. and Mrs. Redman are active members of the United Brethren church in which he has held various official positions, being superintendent of the Sunday-school for many years. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows and Knights of the Maccabees.
JOHN T. FRY.
John T. Fry, pioneer farmer of Thorn- creek township, was born in Holmes county, Ohio, August 7, 1846, and is a son of Da- vid and Nancy (Ewing) Fry, both natives of Pennsylvania. The paternal grandpar- ents were Jacob and Eve Fry, also natives of Pennsylvania. They were the parents of nine children, all of whom are now deceased. They came to Holmes county, Ohio, in an early day and resided there the remainder of their active years. David Fry was a lad of eight summers when he accompanied his parents to Holmes county. Spending his boyhood days under the parental roof, he early became familiar with farm work. He married in Holmes county and in the spring of 1866 came to Whitley county. Nancy (Ewing) Fry died in 1861 in Ohio, being a devout member of the Presbyterian church. David and Nancy (Ewing) Fry were the parents of seven children : Mary ; Martin L.,
who died at Chattanooga, Tennessee, about 1898; Eli died in childhood; John T .; Mi- nerva, wife of George H. Hurd, of Eldo- rado, Kansas; Joel died at thirty-one; David Harvey died in childhood. During his life in Whitley county David Fry worked at the carpenter's trade, the last years of his life being passed with John T., in whose home he died in 1892, aged eighty-nine years.
John T. Fry's active connection with the cultivation of the farm began as soon as he was old enough to handle the plow. He worked in the fields through the summer months and in the winter seasons pursued his studies in the district schools until he was seventeen years of age, thus acquiring a good common school education. Novem- ber 24, 1867, Mr. Fry married Miss Cath- erine E., daughter of John and Mary Ann (Fichthorn) McClain. She was born in Greene county, Ohio, June 28, 1847. John and Mary Ann McClain were residents of Columbia township, Whitley county, from 1848 and were the parents of seven chil- dren. They were members of the Methodist church and were highly respected in their community. Mrs. McClain died in 1872 and her husband in 1896. Mr. and Mrs. Fry have had eight children: Mary Etta, wife of Jesse S. Engle, of Thorncreek township; Cora M., wife of William Ra- rick, a resident of Noble county ; John F. married Rosa Nobles and resides in Noble county ; William David married May Ben- nett and lives in Noble county ; Bertha. wife of Charles Weeks, of Noble county; Par- menis E. married Zora Williams, of Noble county ; Jennie, wife of Lafayette Hill, of Noble county; George, who is with his.
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parents. In 1881 Mr. Fry purchased fifty- eight acres of woodland and recognizing the fact that in America "labor is king," he put forth every energy to advance his interest by means of persistent, earnest toil and as the result of his work he is today the pos- sessor of a productive and valuable farin, all of which is under the plow except two acres. The farm has a good house and barn upon it and everything is neat and thrifty in appearance and he has the satis- faction of knowing that it is the result wholly of his personal exertion, ably second- ed by a most suitable companion.
In February, 1864, Mr. Fry enlisted in Company H, Fifty-ninth Indiana Infantry, with which he served until the end of the war. He participated in a few skirmishes, but no great battles. He is a member of English Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Etna, of which he is past commander and present officer of the day, and thus main- tains pleasant associations with his com- rades who wore the blue. To his country he is today as true and loyal as when he fought on southern battlefields and he gives his earnest co-operation to every movement and measure which he believes will prove of benefit to county, state or nation. He is a genial gentleman, of social nature and has a wide circle of friends throughout this and adjoining counties.
EDWARD C. SCHOENAUER.
Among the younger generation none are better or more favorably known in his sec- tion of Whitley county that the subject of
this sketch. As a farmer and merchant he has led an industrious life, meeting with the usual ups and downs that attend all the un- dertakings of men, but on the whole achiev- ing success and having something to show for himself in a financial way on the right side of the ledger. The Schoenauers are one of the old families of Whitley, the founders having settled in Jefferson town- ship at an early day and being identified with its agricultural development for many years. Edward C. was born May 12, 1868, in Whitley county, his parents being Fred- erick and Sarah Schoenauer, and he was one of a family of ten. He was reared on the homestead in Jefferson township, worked for his father until twenty-one years old, then rented the farm for a few years, after which he sold out and removed to Defiance county, Ohio. There he bought a small farm on which he lived about one and a half years. Returning to Whitley county, he clerked in the hardware store of his brother, William, at Laud. At the end of a year he purchased a half interest in the business and three months later became the sole owner of the entire establishment. Since 1896 he has built up a good trade with the farmers in that prosperous section. He has aspired to 110 official position, preferring to devote all his energies to his mercantile af- fairs, his only work aside from this being as treasurer of the Farmers' Mutual Tele- phone Company in which he is a stockholder.
March 9, 1892, Mr. Schoenauer was married to Emma E., daughter of Adamı Geitsey, of Defiance county, Ohio. Her parents died when she was a young girl and she remained in her native county until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Schoenauer have
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three children, whose names are Estie, Er- tember, 1861, he enlisted in Company A. vin and Clarence and the family enjoy a wide acquaintance as well as general popu- larity among those who know them. Mr. Schoenauer retired from the hardware busi- ness in January, 1907, by selling to D. Tschantz & Company. His political affil- iations are Democratic.
REV. DANIEL W. SANDERS.
Few men in Whitley county are better known than this ex-soldier, ex-county offi- cer. prominent Mason and minister of the gospel for more than thirty years. His im- mediate ancestors were southerners, his progenitors being English, Irish and Welsh, who came to this country during the eight- eenth or early in the nineteenth century. Mordecai Sanders, his grandfather, was an early settler of Georgia, but removed to Ohio when that state was still in its forma- tive period and became a farmer in Carroll county. With him came his son, Mordecai, then three years old, who grew up on the farm and spent his entire life in Ohio. He died at the age of seventy-three years, while on a visit to Virginia. He married Ann Edwards, a native of Loudoun county. Vir- giria, and of English extraction. They had seven children : Ezra. who died a few years ago in Colorado : John E., a Baptist minister. of Modesto, California ; Daniel and William G., deceased: Mary, wife of John S. Iden, of Monett. Missouri: David T., of Colo- rado: and Amos R., who died in childhood.
Daniel W. Sanders, the third son, was born in Carroll county, Ohio, May 17, 1842, and grew up on his father's farm. In Sep-
Second Regiment West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry, which was made up entirely of Ohioans, the quota for Ohio being full at that time. Besides himself, there were two others of the Sanders brothers in this regiment and in the same troop. all of whom escaped injury during their subse- quent service. After two years Mr. San- ders was discharged on account of ill health. but later re-enlisted in the One Hundred and Fortieth Regiment Ohio National Guards, with which he remained until 'dis- charged at Gallipolis in 1865. He saw much scouting and skirmishing, but partici- pated in none of the historic battles.
After returning home he studied medi- cine with Dr. Bean at Syracuse, Ohio, and practiced awhile but eventually concluded that the profession was not exactly to his tastes. Being of a religious turn, he applied himself to the study of theology, reading alone without a preceptor until he mastered the general outlines of the subject and felt sufficiently equipped to speak for the Mas- ter. He preached two years in Ohio, when he transferred his labors to Indiana, where he was ordained a minister of the Baptist church in 1876. During the subsequent years he officiated at various places, includ- ing Larwill and Oswego. In 1882 he ac- cepted a call to the church in Columbia City and served this church three years, re- moving to Wellington. Kansas, for two years and then became pastor of the church at Greensburg, Indiana. During his three years' incumbency there he was instrumental in the erection of a $10.000 church. In 1890 he removed to Montpelier, but after a pastoral service there of twelve months
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returned to the field of former service at Columbia City for three years. A severe bronchial affection, which had become chronic and was aggravated by speaking, finally compelled him to retire and he went west as a means of recuperation. Returning in 1894 he was nominated on the Repub- lican ticket as candidate for auditor of Whitley county, was elected and served a term of four years to the entire satisfaction of his constituency. After retiring from office he resumed ministerial work and has since been preaching with but brief inter- missions. Of late years his efforts have been mostly confined to supplying churches that have no regular preacher. He has proved popular wherever he has served and during his long and self-sacrificing labors has gathered a host of friends, who admire him for his meritorious personal qualities as well as for his noble work in uplifting and bettering humanity. He has been an honored member of the Masonic fraternity for forty-four years and is an esteemed com- rade of the Grand Army of the Republic.
In October, 1863, Mr. Sanders married Jane E. Bailey, of Meigs county, Ohio, who died twelve years later, leaving two chil- dren. Emma married David H. Illick, a telegraph operator of the state of Washing- ton, and they have one son, Walter. Mattie is the wife of Charles N. Briggs, of Colum- bia City, and has one child, Robert. In Au- gust, 1876, Mr. Sanders married Sarah Ann Hartsock, of Wayne county, Ohio, who for thirty years has proven a most valued help- mate and companion. They have one son, Walter, who is in the jewelry business at Walkerton, Indiana. He married Winifred Buckles and has two children, Nellie and Evelyn.
GEORGE WILSON KELSEY.
No man is better known in Washington township than the subject of this sketch and none has done more to help in its growth and development. As a farmer, public official and merchant he has come in constant contact with the people and by his courtesy and accommodating ways he lias made friends with everybody. Mr. Kelsey is a son of Aaron and Rebecca (Jeffries) Kelsey, was born in Jefferson township Oc- tober 20, 1857, and named in honor of the Rev. Wilson Thompson, a minister of the Primitive Baptist church. William Kelsey, his gradfather, came from Rush county, Indiana, and settled in Whitley county in 1851. Aaron, though a native of Rush county, spent nearly all his adult life in Whitley county, engaged in farming. When about fifty-six years old he met with a violent death in Jefferson township as the result of a horse falling upon him. His back was broken and he died in a few hours after suffering excruciating agony. He left four children, George W., Amos H., Ruth E. and Nancy. George W. received the usual common school education as he grew up on the parental farm and later took a course at the Valparaiso Normal, also at- tending a while at the old Methodist Epis- copal College in Fort Wayne. For ten years after leaving school he was engaged in teaching, chiefly in Whitley county, and then spent two years in farming. At the expiration of that time he went to Hunting- ton, Indiana, where he was engaged for three years in the grocery and restaurant business. Returning to Whitley county, he resumed his old calling as a farmer, but being obliged to give this up, owing to ill
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health, he established a hardware store at Laud, which afterwards was changed into the grocery business and this he has contin- ued to the present time. For several years Mr. Kelsey held the offices of notary public and justice of the peace in Washington township. He is still an incumbent of the last mentioned office by a recent election on the Democratic ticket, he having always been an adherent of that party.
September 5. 1890, Mr. Kelsey was married to Miss Sabina E., daughter of Jo- seph Metzler, of Washington township. They have four children, of whom Hazel A., Alice and Oreda are living. Homer, a bright and promising boy, died in the third year of his age.
JACOB KICHLER.
Jacob Kichler, the eighth of ten chil- dren, was born in Germany March 17, 1847, and was in his seventeenth year when he crossed the ocean to join his two brothers in Indiana. One of these served three years in the Civil war and one lost his life at the time of an explosion on a steamboat on the Red river. In May, 1870, his mother with two daughters and one son followed to America, living three years at Lafayette and thence to Churubusco, where she remained during her lifetime, dying at the age of seventy, and is buried in the Catholic cemetery at Ege, Noble county. Jacob found employment on a farm in Allen county until November, 1864, when he went to Lafayette and learned the baker's trade. During the next two
years he mastered the details. After working as a journeyman in various cities- he finally settled in 1872 at Topeka, Kan- sas, where he conducted a bakery and gro- cery for three years. In 1875 he came to Churubusco, where he has since been con- ducting a combined bakery and grocery and has come to be regarded as one of the fixed institutions of the place. He has met with success, as he has the German persistency, frugality and other sterling qualities of his nationality. It is almost unnecessary to add that he knows everybody in the town, is liked by all and that he is universally re- garded as a valuable citizen. He served one term as a councilman and was a member of the first school board of Churubusco. He is always ready to help public enterprises and has done his full share in pushing forward the development and welfare of his adopted home.
November 1, 1875, Mr. Kichler was married at Rochester, Indiana, to Miss Amelia Angermann, a native of Saxony, who was born in 1849. They have had four children: Daisy, a stenographer in Chi- cago; Catherine, wife of Otto Shealy; John, who died when about eighteen months old; and George W., an attorney of Churu- busco. Mr. Kichler is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias.
Otto Shealy. Mr. Kichler's son-in-law, as conductor on the Pennsylvania Railroad, was in charge of the train held up by the car-barn bandits, who shot the brakeman for refusing to cut off a car for them to escape upon. After their capture Shealy was on his return trip and carried the ban- dits into Chicago. Mrs. Shealy is a grad-
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uate of the American Conservatory of Mu- sic in Chicago and is herself a teacher of music.
JAMES B. GRAWCOCK.
William and Martha (Bennett) Graw- cock settled in Noble county some years be- fore the Civil war and there spent most of their married lives, though in 1899 they came to Churubusco, where on May 4. 1900, the father succumbed to illness. James B. Grawcock, the eldest of his ten children, was born in Kosciusko county November 5, 1856, and in the common and high schools of Noble county received his education. At twenty-one he came to Churubusco and en- gaged in the manufacture of brick and tile, to which he devoted the ensuing fifteen years. He then embarked in the retail lum- ber trade, which he has followed until the present time, handling also lime, cement and coal. He is widely known as the inventor of a brick and tile kiln which has had exten- sive sale and use in several states. He in- stalled the electric lighting plant at Churu- busco for the lighting company. For seven years Mr. Grawcock has been a member of the Churubusco city council and is truly a "city father," his interest in all that concerns the welfare of the community be- ing sincere and active.
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