USA > Indiana > Whitley County > History of Whitley County, Indiana > Part 75
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JOHN W. CLAXTON.
An interesting character was lost when Isaac Claxton, after completing eighty-five years, departed this life July 2, 1898. As a young man he had come from New York in the late thirties and settled in Noble coun- ty, but soon after became a citizen of Whit- ley, with which his name was ever after iden-
tified. He had a diversified talent and boundless energy and became widely known as a civil engineer, as well as a teacher of long and varied experience. He took state contracts for ditching in early life and em- ployed his winters in teaching "the young idea how to shoot." His teaching experience extended over thirty-eight years, an unusual record. He was married in 1841 to Sarah Crow and settled in Smith township, which locality was his home during much of his career. He was, however, residing in Noble county, some miles north of Churubusco, when his death occurred, his wife also pass- ing away on the same place, May 5, 1888, when nearly sixty-seven years old. Their family consisted of five sons and five daugh- ters. John W. Claxton was the sixth of these, his birth occurring in Noble county. August 20, 1854. He spent eighteen years with his parents, meantime securing his edu- cation in the neighborhood schools. In 1872 he secured work at a sawmill in Thorncreek township, but after working there a year came to Churubusco and took up the calling which has proved the business of his life. He is now the oldest auctioneer in Whitley coun- ty, having followed the occupation over thir- ty-two years. During this time his sonorous voice has become familiar to thousands and his "going, going-gone" has been the finale of'many a sale. The auctioneer must neces- sarily be something of a diplomatist, and it is safe to say that Mr. Claxton knows more people in Whitley county than any other res- ident of the vicinity. Everybody likes him and he likes everybody else. as his nature is genial, his address cordial and his disposi- tion of the kind that makes and holds friends.
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September 4. 1884, Mr. Claxton mar- in some years in different states of the west. ried Eliza Coverstone, who was born in Smith township, July 26, 1858, of pioneer parents. Jacob and Jane (Halterman) Cov- erstone, parents of Mrs. Claxton, settled in Smith township at a time so far back that little improvement had as yet been made and when nearly all the land was wild. Mr. and Mrs. Claxton have two children, Sarah J. and John B., and the family is one of the most popular in Churubusco. In politics Mr. Claxton has always been a stanch Repub- lican, and his fraternal affiliations are with the Knights of the Maccabees.
JOHN W. SMITH.
Among the early settlers of Allen coun- ty was Nathan Smith, who married Barbara Diffendarfer and spent his life in agricultur- al pursuits. After a brief residence in No- ble county, he returned to Allen but spent the latter years of his life at Churubusco, eventually dying there in the seventy-fourth year of his age. His wife died when sixty- nine years old, after becoming the mother of eight children. John W. Smith, the sec- ond. was born in Green township, Noble county, November 3. 1846. He was reared chiefly in Allen county and when fourteen years old went to work for his uncle, A. M. Long, in Whitley county, with whom he re- mained two years. In March, 1864, he en- listed in Company C. Forty-fourth Regiment. Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war, much of his service being as orderly for Gen. James B. Steadman. Returning then to Allen county, he remained two years and then put
About 1870 he came back to Allen county and was engaged in farming one year, but abandoned this for carpenter work, which oc- cupied his time more or less for the next twenty years. Subsequently he was em- ployed for some three years in a cabinet shop and furniture store for S. F. Barr and later took a position with the Wabash Railroad Company and for two years had charge of the water works between Detroit and Lo- gansport and between Michigan City and Indianapolis. After working for the Wa- bash about five years he purchased the fur- nitttre and undertaking business of S. F. Barr, at Churubusco, in partnership with his brother, W. C. Smith. This firm continued for fifteen years when Mr. Smith sold his interest and about 1899 bought the hardware establishment of Alex. Craig & Son. In 1800 was erected a two-story brick building twenty-two by eighty with one-story exten- sion of fifty-two feet, the second floor being devoted to lodge purposes. He has been a resident of Churubusco since 1874 and has done much to assist in building up the city. He has served as a member of the school board and for two years has been one of the most active members of the council.
March 26, 1872, Mr. Smith married Miss Mina, daughter of Nelson Compton, who came to Smith township as far back as 1834. He entered a farm from the government and both himself and wite ended their days on this place. Soon after his marriage, Mr. Smith bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in Republic county, Kansas, but only remained in that state until the sum- mer of the following year. His return to Whitley county recalled the days of the old settlers, as he made the trip in a "prairie
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schooner." Mr. and Mrs. Smith have two living children: Willard Zur, associated with his father in business; and Ethel A., wife of Elmer E. Gandy.
JOHN M. DEEM.
Whitley county was largely settled by Ohioans, and these in turn were either na- tives of the states farthier east, or descend- ants of those who crossed the Alleghanies in the "early days" so often mentioned in con- nection with the pioneers. Lewis Deem, who was born in 1818, married Catherine Birney in Stark county, Ohio, and came to Whitley county in the fall of 1854. They settled on a farm in Smith township, where the father died December 10, 1879, his wife, who was somewhat his senior, passing away when eighty-three years old. This worthy pioneer couple had three children: David died in Smith township in his twenty-ninth year; Eliza is the wife of George W. Kri- der, of Smith township; John M. Deem, who was born in Stark county, Ohio, January 16, 1861, and hence was about three years old when his father settled in Whitley county. He grew to manhood on his father's farm and was reared to hard work from his ear- liest boyhood. He was ambitious to learn and obtained a good education in the con- mon schools, supplemented by a course in the high school in Columbia City. His first venture in the business world was as a teach- er, which occupation he followed for sey- eral terms, but his main business has been that of farming, raising, buying, shipping and selling stock. He purchased the old homestead of one hundred and sixty acres to which he has added seventy-one acres, his
farm now consisting of two hundred and thirty-one acres. He has greatly improved this place since he came into possession by remodeling the house, building a bank barn. draining, and by hard work making it one of the best farms in the county for grain and stock raising. He was often called on to fill the minor offices in his township and is regarded as a safe and reliable citizen. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and takes much interest in the affairs of the order, having filled all the offices in the lodge and being a representative to the grand lodge. In 1900 Mr. Deem retired from ac- tive business on the farm and took up his residence in Churubusco, where he is in en- joyment of general respect from all his neighbors. He has done much for the gen- eral good, urging the draining of swamps and the straightening of public roads.
March 29, 1874. Mr. Deem was married to Emma Jane Mowrey, by whom he had four children : William L. : Alice M., wife of William Johnson : Herber E .; and Flor- ence. The sons each have a farm near Chur- ubusco. The family has been long and fa- vorably known about Churubusco and their friends are not only numerous, but ap- preciative of their sterling worth. Mr. Deem is a Republican and has served on county committees and in various conven- tions.
JOHN A. PRESSLER.
When the Presslers and Duplers are mentioned, old-time residents of Whitley county recognize the names as those of very early settlers. Valentine, son of John Press- ler, came to Whitley county as far back as
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1846. In March, 1855, he married Diana, daughter of Jonathan Dupler, who came with her parents in 1840 and settled on a farm in Thorncreek township. He spent many years in improving this place and finally died there, January 11, 1894, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. His widow survives and resides on the place originally settled more than half a century ago. Val- entine Pressler was a man of popularity and influence during the active period of his life and for fifteen years had the office of town- ship assessor. His wife has long been an active member of the Christian church and noted for her interest in all charitable 11n- dertakings. This worthy couple had thir- teen children and the second in age was John A. Pressler. He was born on his father's farm in Thorncreek township, August 29. 1858, and from early boyhood manifested a desire to obtain a good education. He succeeded in this and put his qualifications to test by teaching many years in his native township. Altogether his work as a teacher had extended over seven years and in Au- gust, 1888, he left the farm to engage in the grocery business at Churubusco. After a few years he disposed of his interests and resumed teaching, which occupation he fol- lowed four years. He then abandoned teach- ing permanently to accept a position as as- sistant cashier of the Exchange Bank owned by O. Gandy & Co., and he has since retained this employment.
March 18, 1886, Mr. Pressler married Miss Emma E. Cotterly, who was born in Thorncreek township, November 3. 1865. Her father, John Cotterly, was a native of Berne, Switzerland, married Anna Born, of Ohio, and came to Whitley county in 1850.
settling on a farm in Thorncreek township. Mrs. Pressler is a sister of Mrs. George R. Hemmick, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume, and her family is among the oldest in the county. She was a teacher in the public schools for ten years and is a lady of unusual intelligence. Mr. Pressler held the office of clerk and treasurer of Churu- busco for five years, and has long been re- garded as one of the progressive citizens of the place. His fraternal affiliations are with the Masonic Order, of which he has for years been an esteemed and influential ment- ber. He and his wife are members of the Baptist church and active in its religious and charitable work. Churubusco numbers among her citizens no man who stands high- er or has done more for the town than Mr. Pressler. Enterprising, energetic and thor- oughly competent as a business man, his ad- vice is sought and his help appreciated wher- ever anything is to be done to forward the interests of the community or advance the course of progress.
GEORGE H. TAPY.
Prof. George H. Tapy, county superin- tendent of Whitley county schools, was born in Clay county, Indiana, the son of Francis H. and Wilhelmina Tapy. Fran- cis Tapy, when a youth, accompanied his parents upon their removal from Ohio to Indiana. His father, Harman Tapy, was a native of Germany, though he lived in Ohio and settled in 1844, near the town of Brazil, where he purchased land and engaged in agricultural pursuits. Prof.
George A Taky
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Tapy's mother, also born in Germany, bore period of four years. At the end of that time he was promoted to the superintendency of the schools of that city, in which capacity he continued until 1899, when he was elected county superintendent of schools, which re- sponsible and exacting position he has filled with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the public to the present time, in the meanwhile demonstrating executive ability of high order and winning a conspicuous place among the leading school men of the state. It is a fact worthy of note that Prof. Tapy was not a candidate for the place he now holds, the honor coming to him without any solicitation on his part, being a recogni- tion of services faithfully and efficiently ren- dered while at the head of the school system of South Whitley and elsewhere. At the ex- piration of his first term. June, 1903, he was re-elected and, as stated above, his official duties have been discharged in such a capable and satisfactory manner that the schools of Whitley county now compare favorably with the best in Indiana. Many needed reforms having been introduced since he took charge of the office, and the entire system advanced to a higher standard of efficiency. the maiden name of Wilhelmina Telgemier. She came to America when but five years of age, subsequently married Mr. Tapy in Clay county and there reared her family, and spent the greater part of her life, belonging with her husband to the large and respectable middle class that constitute much of the moral bone and sinew of the American Re- public. The early life of the subject of this sketch was spent under the rugged but wholesome influences of the farm and proved conducive not only to healthful physical growth, but also to the development of those qualities of mind and heart which enter so largely into the formation of correct habits and well rounded character. In his child- hood and youth he attended the district school near the parental home, where he pursued the common branches of study, until his fourteenth year, when he entered upon a high-school course, which being finished he became a student at the Valparaiso Normal School. After attending that institution at intervals until 1886, he took a course at Wabash College, graduating therefrom. The training there received especially fitted him for the profession as an educator, which The better to arouse a professional inter- est among the teachers, he has been very active in the matter of county and township institutes, in addition to which line of work his suggestions concerning educational mat- ters command respectful attention in all the conventions and teachers' associations which hie attends. He is a ready platform speaker and his ability as such has been recognized and utilized by the management of the Winona Assembly, where he appears every season as lecturer to the summer school of line of work he began when but seventeen years of age, teaching school in his native county. After two terms in the graded school of Poland, he took charge of the school at Etna, where he remained two years, the first year in the public schools, the second year teaching a private school in a public hall, having forty pupils. At the expiration of that time, in 1891, he was in- duced to come to South Whitley and accept a position in the schools of that place, filling the place with an honorable record for a teachers. He is also keenly alive to the
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value and necessity of the reading circle as an educational force and in addition to keep- ing alive an interest in the work in the schools of his own jurisdiction is now sery- ing as president of the State Reading Circle Board, to which position he was chosen at the meeting of the State Teachers' Associa- tion in the year 1902. He also served some- time as editor of the Country School Depart- ment in the Educator Journal, the official organ of the teachers of Indiana, and by his clear, forcible and logical articles was influential in arousing a lively interest and no little enthusiasm among the teachers of the rural districts.
Prof. Tapy is a gentleman of scholarly tastes and attainments and, possessing great force of character as well as a pleasing per- sonality, his efforts in behalf of education have been fruitful, of beneficial results and it is not too much to state that none of his predecessors were more popular among the teachers of the county or enjoyed a greater degree of public esteem. With all of his success in his chosen field of endeavor and his standing as an educator and official, he is nevertheless a man of conservative de- meanor, and with becoming modesty shrinks from rather than courts the publicity 'to which his service so manifestly entitles him. He is a young man in the vigor of his power and his usefulness and his career in the past justifies his many friends and admirers in the prediction, that the future awaits him with still brighter laurels and a more extended sphere in which to exercise his ability.
Prof. Tapy was married August 28, 1895. to Miss Charlotte Clark, of Coesse, liliana, daughter of John O. Clark, a resi- dlent of that place. Before her marriage
Mrs. Tapy was a teacher in the public schools of Whitley county, and having kept in close touch with the trend of the educational thought, she not only sympathizes with her husband in his work, but assists and en- courages him in all his efforts, proving a true helpmate in all that the term implies.
FRANCIS M. SONDAY.
Thought but a short time a resident in the town no citizen has impressed himself more favorably on the community, which is due to his genial character, his friendly greeting to everybody as well as his excel- lent business habits and reliability as a citi- zen. He is full of enterprise and has already done much to improve the conditions of his adopted home and altogether has been a val- uable addition to the commercial and social life of this enterprising and progressive lit- tle city. His parents, Jacob and Barbara Sonday, were settlers of Jay county, where they earned their livelihood by farming and were esteemed members of the community in which they lived. Francis M. Sonday, the second of their nine children, was born in Jay county, June 8, 1873, and was reared to manhood in the place of his nativity. Be- ing studious and attentive, he received a good education in the common schools, which has served him a good purpose through life. His parents were poor, however, and before reaching his majority he was compelled to "strike out for himself" as they say in the country. In 1892 he secured employment at farm work in Allen county and kept at this for about three years, when he took personal
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charge of his own farm of one hundred and forty acres. Wearying of this, he concluded to try another line and in 1900 opened up in the general mercantile business at Ari, one of the live towns of Allen county, and near his home place. He was appointed post- master of the place and acted as local agent for the Wabash Railroad Company. He re- mained at Ari for fifteen months and then returned to his farm, which he sold and in April, 1906, came to Churubusco, where he purchased the furniture and undertaking business of E. L. Welshmier, enlarged the stock and otherwise improved the plant and now conducts a first-class establishment. In 1906 he erected a commodious store building, twenty-two by ninety with three floors, built of cement blocks, equipped it thoroughly and by paying strict and personal attention to all the details has enjoyed a full measure of prosperity. He is public spirited and enjoys the confidence and esteem of all his towns- men. In 1892 Mr. Sonday was married to Miss Alice Galloway. Both Mr. and Mrs. Sonday are identified with the United Brethren church.
GEORGE R. HEMMICK.
Churubusco, one of the lively and pro- gressive towns of Whitley county, has been noted for the public spirit of its citizens. The general feeling has been to do what was necessary to help the town forward by bring- ing about improvements, securing good gov- ernment and thus aiding to make the people happy and contented. Perhaps no man has contributed more in this way, according to
his means, than the well known jeweler whose personal and business career it is here the purpose to present in brief outline. George W. Hemmick, the founder of the family of this name in Whitley county, be- came a settler as far back as the latter part of the forties. He bought land in Columbia township, but being a plasterer by trade did most of his work at the county seat. His death occurred at Columbia City in the sixty- ninth year of his age, after a life of activity. which secured him many friends and gen- eral respect. When a young man in Ohio he married Mary Winget, who also died on the farm at the comparatively early age of thirty-eight, after becoming the mother of eight children. George R. Hemmick, the sixth of this family, was born in Columbia township, November 23, 1859. He was reared in Columbia City and as he grew up had the benefit of the schools of that place and thus obtained a fair education. He re- mained at home until twenty-one years of age. meantime learning the jeweler's trade with A. H. Woodworth, at which he worked until 1885. He spent two years in Chicago in the same line and in 1887 came to Churu- busco, where he established himself in busi- ness and has continued without interruption to the present time. During his residence in Churubusco he has taken much. interest in public affairs and his popularity is attested by the fact that he held the office of clerk and treasurer of the town for two years.
January 21, 1882, Mr. Hemmick was married in Columbia City to Miss Amanda J., daughter of John and Anna (Born) Cot- terly. The father was a native of Berne, Switzerland, and married his wife in Whit- ley county in 1850, settling in Thorncreek
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township. He died on his farm there, No- vember 10, 1882, in the fifty-first year of his age. Mrs. Hemmick, who was born on the homestead in Thorncreek township, was the third of her parents' ten children. Mr. and Mrs. Hemmick lost two children in infancy and have an only daughter, Lenora. Mrs. Hemmick is an active member of the Bap- tist church, and her husband is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he is an active participant. The family is highly re- spected at Churubusco and are welcome in the best social circles of the town.
BRUCE D. HART, M. D.
Among the professional men now on the stage of action in Whitley county, none give higher promise of success and future useful- ness than the above popular physician of Churubusco. He has the friend-making tal- ent, so essential to success in any line, and the push and vigor without which none are thoroughly equipped for the struggles of this active age. He has educated himself with care, is devoted to his profession and is im- bued with those instincts of sympathy and patience, which are so essential to the devo- tees of the healing art. David and Lucy (Kinmont) Hart became residents of Thorn- creek township in the spring of 1866, where they lived and carried on agricultural opera- tions for a number of years. Eventually, as age approached and they felt the effect of advanced years, they concluded to retire and in the early nineties located at Columbia City. Mrs. Hart died in February, 1904. and her hushand passed away December 8.
1906. Bruce D. Hart, one of the nine chil- dren, was born on the farm in Thorncreek township, October 5, 1878. He grew up on the paternal homestead, going through the experiences usual with the farmer boy and when of age entered as a student at Franklin College, where he devoted himself to assid- uous study for a year. He then accepted a clerkship in a drug store, that line of busi- ness being in accord with the plans he had formed for his future. After three years of this experience, he took up the study of medicine in earnest and after a brief prepar- atory course entered the Keokuk (Iowa) Medical College. He devoted two years to work in this institution and a similar period in the Indiana Medical College at Indianap- olis, where he was graduated in the class of 1906. In June of that year he returned to Churubusco and began the practice of his profession with such earnestness that he has already in the brief time since elapsing se- cured a solid standing as one of the coming men of Whitley county's medical fraternity.
October 18, 1906, Dr. Hart married Miss Nina Merrill, a popular young lady of Prophetstown, who has proved a welcome ac- cession to the social circles of Churubusco. Dr. Hart is a member of the Whitley County Medical Society and keeps abreast of all the advances and improvements in his profes- sion. Dr. Hart is a Republican.
ISAAC HUMBARGER.
Among the pioneer settlers of Thorn- creek township are Frederick and Elizabeth (Hetrick) Humbarger, both natives or Perry
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county, Ohio. They came to Whitley coun- ty-six years. They had eight children : John. ty in 1852 and bought two hundred and thir- ty-four acres of land which has grown great- ly in value by their efforts. Frederick died June 5, 1897, but his widow still lives on the old homestead. They were members of the Lutheran church and Frederick was a Democrat and served several times as trustee of Thorncreek township. They had six children, four reaching maturity: Caroline, deceased wife of John W. Waterfall ; Mary, wife of Ira Spittler, of Columbia township; Isaac and Lucy Alice, wife of Frank Miller, of Fort Wayne.
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