USA > Indiana > Allen County > History of the Maumee River basin, Allen County, Indiana > Part 18
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Upon the close of his second term in congress Judge Lowry re- sumed the active practice of law in Fort Wayne, extending his prac- tice throughout the district and being an exemplar of the activity and industry which ought to characterize the earnest and conscien- tious lawyer, and holding rank as one of the most distinguished mem- bers and veterans of the Indiana bar. He continued in active serv- ice as a practitioner until he was summoned from the field of his mortal endeavors, secure in the high esteem of all' who knew him personally or by reputation.
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LOUIS RASTETTER.
In the death of the honored subject of this memoir, on the 9th of February, 1898, there passed away another member of that group of distinctively representative business men who were the leaders in inaugurating and building up the industrial and commercial in- terests of Fort Wayne and Allen county. Greater fortunes have been accumulated here by others, but few lives furnish so striking an ex- ample of sound business principles and safe conservatism as does his. The story of his success is not long nor does it contain many excit- ing chapters, but in it lies one of the most valuable secrets of the prosperity which it records; his business and private life are replete with interest and incentive, no matter how lacking in dramatic action. It is the record of a noble life, consistent with itself and its possibilities in every direction.
Louis Rastetter was born in Baden, Germany, on the 3Ist of May, 1834, and was the son of Andrew and Anna Mary (Sutter) Rastetter. He was educated for a teacher by his parents, but his inclinations led him to learn the machinist's trade. At the age of twenty years he came to America and landed in New York, unac- companied by any relatives and without so much as even a friend in the new land. He was fortified against hunger and want only be- cause of his energy and pluck, as he had but fifty cents in his pocket when he landed in New York. However, he had well learned the machinist's trade in his native land and could command a good posi- tion if opportunity but favored him. After many trials and tribula- tions such as a raw country lad, unable to speak the native tongue, is bound to have in a strange country, with neither relatives nor friends to guide him, he finally arrived at Rochester, New York, having worked his way as a coal shoveler on an Erie Canal barge. His ability as a machinist was promptly recognized at Rochester,
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where he remained two years, going from there to Buffalo, where he worked one year, from whence he came to Fort Wayne. Here he found employment at the old Wabash shops and, by working diligently and practicing rigid economy, accumulated sufficient means to enable him to take a trip to Germany in November, 1859, to visit his parents. Returning to this country in June, 1860, he resumed his position in the Wabash shops. However, being of a self-reliant nature and possessed of an honest faith in his own ability to succeed, he started in business for himself and set up a small machine shop on West Jefferson street, near the corner of Harrison street. It was in this shop that he constructed the clock which graced the tower of the court house which was demolished in 1900. For forty odd years that clock ticked the seconds into minutes and tolled the hours into days. His son, W. C. Rastetter, who purchased the clock at the time the court house was demolished, says the clock is in good condition and will run for forty odd years more. Many of the older inhabitants of Fort Wayne will remember when, many years ago, the first steam fire engine was added to the volunteer fire department. The first man to operate this engine was Mr. Rastetter, who was chosen because of his thorough mechanical ability, and his services afterwards proved very valuable to the community.
Mr. Rastetter conducted his small machine shop on Jefferson street until 1870, at which time he accepted the position of master mechanic in the wheel works then conducted by N. G. Olds. Here he remained until the fall of 1876, when, with two associates, he went to Lima, Ohio, and established the Lima Wheel Works, engaging in the manufacture of hubs, spokes and buggy bows. At the end of four years and a half Mr. Rastetter sold his interests to his partners and returned to Fort Wayne, establishing himself in business in 1881 at the corner of Jefferson and Calhoun streets. The business grew rapidly and, to secure more room, the factory was, in 1886, removed to a larger building at the corner of Broadway and the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway. Nine years later these quarters also had been outgrown and the business was removed to its present location in the two-story brick buildings on grounds covering about two acres located on Wall, Nelson and Garden streets. Here a full line of buggy bows and bent carriage wood work, also bicycle wood
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rims, steering wheels for automobiles and other special bent wood work is being manufactured. This is one of the most important manufactories in Fort Wayne and the product is sold not only in this country, but throughout the civilized world.
On the 4th of August, 1860, Mr. Rastetter was united in mar- riage to Miss Elizabeth Hauenstein, who was born in Fort Wayne March 27, 1841, the daughter of John and Mary Hauenstein, natives of Switzerland. To Mr. and Mrs. Rastetter were born seven chil- dren, of whom four are living, namely: William C., Helen, Charles and Mary. Fraternally, Mr. Rastetter was a member of the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and took a deep interest in the success of that beneficent order. The career of this honored citizen affords an impressive example of what energy, directed and con- trolled by correct moral principles, can accomplish in overcoming un- favorable environment and lifting its possessor from a comparatively humble origin to a position of usefulness and affluence. Eminently a self-made man, having carved his own way in the world, he ranked with the most enterprising and successful of his compeers and won a name and reputation which placed him among the representative citizens of his city.
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ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
WILLIAM E. REYNOLDS, JR.
It can not be other than gratifying, in view of the nomadic spirit which is growing to animate all classes of American citizens, to find a locality in which are to be found citizens of worth and prominence who have passed their entire lives in the communities in which they were born and who command the confidence and respect of those who have been familiar with their entire careers. In the older settled sections of the east we find instances where property has been held from generation to generation by one family and where the old homesteads signify something more than mere names, but in the middle and western states this condition has not been so pronounced. In Allen county, Indiana, however, as the pages of this publication clearly prove, are found many representa- tives of families who here initiated the work of reclaiming the virgin wilderness and who here made for themselves homes which their descendants are glad to retain in their possession. One of the scions of pioneer stock in Monroe township is the subject of this review, who is one of the substantial citizens and representative farmers of that section of the county and who has ever commanded the unqualified regard of the people of the community in which he has lived from the time of his birth to the present.
William E. Reynolds was born on the old homestead farm in Adams township, Allen county, Indiana, on the 31st of October, .1849, and is a son of William and Jane (Driver) Reynolds, both of whom were born in the state of Ohio. Jane Driver, whose father, an Indian trader, was killed in the war of 1812, was born in a cave near Defiance, Ohio, and was brought to Fort Wayne when but a few days old, being the youngest occupant of the fort at the time of the historic fight between General Wayne's forces and the Indians. William Reynolds came to Allen county, Indiana, in an
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early day and here developed a good farm in the midst of the forest, becoming the owner of a valuable place in Adams township, where he continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits until his death, while to him was accorded the confidence and popular esteem which are the diametrical result of subjective worth of character. His devoted wife continued to reside on the old homestead until she too was summoned to the land of the leal. Both were devoted mem- bers of the Dunkard church, and in politics the father was originally an old-line Whig and later a Republican. In the family were seven children, of whom six are living at the time of this writing, in 1905. It may be said that the Reynolds family has been identified with the annals of American history for several generations, the original ancestors having come from Scotland to this country in the colonial epoch of our national history.
The subject of this review was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm, in whose work he early began to assist in a material way, while he duly availed himself of the advantages af- forded in the common schools of the locality and period, thus laying the foundation for that adequate and practical knowledge which, enhanced by personal application and experience, has served him so well throughout the course of his busy and successful career as one of the progressive and energetic farmers and stock growers of his native county. He continued to be associated in the work and management of the home farm until he had attained the age of thirty-five years, and he has been possessed of his present fine home- stead since 1890. His farm is located in Monroe township, about three miles distant from the thriving town of Monroeville, and it comprises one hundred and twenty acres of most arable land, while the improvements of the place are of superior order, including a commodious and attractive residence. Mr. Reynolds has never failed to show a loyal interest in the welfare of his native county and has been ready to lend his aid and co-operation in the supporting of measures for the general good of the same. While never ambitious for public office he has been found stanchly arrayed as an advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, while he keeps well informed as to the questions and issues of the hour. He is one of the sterling citizens and substantial farmers of the
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county and is well entitled to the recognition accorded him in this publication. Both he and his wife are valued members of the Lutheran church, and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
In the month of February, 1879, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Reynolds to Miss Mary Fry, who was born and reared in Madison township, being a daughter of Conrad and Mary Fry, who were numbered among the honored pioneers of this section of the county, whither they came from Germany, their native land. They continued to reside on their homestead until called upon to answer the inexorable summons of death, and their names merit a place of honor upon the roll of the worthy pioneers of Allen county. Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds have two children, Frank A. and Lulu M., the former being a prominent and popular farmer of Monroe township, where he has lived from the time of his birth, while the latter re- mains with her parents on the homestead farm. On the 17th of April, 1900, Frank A. Reynolds was united in marriage to Miss Amy Rose, and they have two children, Harry C. and Carl. Frank A. follows in the footsteps of his father in the matter of politics and is a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, while his religious faith is that of the Lutheran church, under whose tenets he was reared.
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CHRISTIAN WIESE.
Allen county has a due quota of the sterling German-American citizens, whose value in any community is never problematical, and prominent among the representatives of this class in Adams town- ship is numbered Mr. Wiese, who is a successful and influential farmer of this attractive section of the country. Mr. Wiese was born in Wiedersheim Reojioungbezirk, Minden, Prussia, on the 9th of March, 1829, and was there reared and educated, having been a youth of fifteen years at the time of the family immigration to America. The father of the subject likewise bore the name of Chris- tian and he was a farmer in Prussia, while he served seven years during the bitter warfare between Prussia and Austria. He died when his son and namesake was a lad of about eight years of age. In 1844 his widow, in company with her children, came to America to join her son Charles, who had come here four years previously and located in Allen county, Indiana, where he had secured em- ployment in connection with the construction of the old Wabash & Erie canal, while he had also secured a tract of wild land, in com- pany with his maternal uncle, Henry Moeller, who had accompanied him to the United States. This eighty acres of land was in Adams township, and on the same the Martin Evangelical Lutheran church was later erected. Charles continued to reside on this farm until his death, when about fifty years of age, while his mother here passed the remainder of her life, while the subject of this sketch continued to be associated with his brother Charles in the work of the farm until he married and established a home for himself. At the age of sixteen years, a few months after his arrival in this county, Mr. Wiese secured work in driving horses in connection with the oper- ation of the canal, receiving five dollars a month and board in recom- pense for his services during the first year, while his wages were
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raised by two dollars the second year. So faithful had been his service, however, that after three months of the second year had elapsed, his employer, Captain Jacob Steger, paid him nine dollars a month, with credit for three months at the same rate, while he also paid his physician's bill during an interval of illness, without deducting from his wages during the time of enforced idleness, while the Captain later raised his salary to ten dollars a month, appreciat- ing his careful attention to duty in all details. After being thus em- ployed as driver on the canal for a period of four years Mr. Wiese became associated with Captain Lempke and two other men in the purchase of a boat and horses, and thereafter they utilized the boat for two years in transporting freight to Toledo, the subject acting as steersman on the boat, the receipts from the operation of the boat being barely sufficient to enable the interested principles to meet payments on their investment. In the winter seasons Mr. Wiese devoted his attention to cutting and hauling wood, while a portion of this time he received only his board in payment for his arduous labor. After the first two years each of the owners of the boat cleared fifty dollars a month from its operation during the open sea- son. Upon the completion of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad the canal service fell into practical disuse, and after nine years of identification therewith Mr. Wiese disposed of his interest in the boat, the amount received, with his savings, aggregating about seven hundred dollars. He had purchased eighty acres of land, in Adams township, for a consideration of twelve hundred dollars, and on the place had put up a log house, the year before retiring from the canal enterprise.
On the 16th of December, 1853, Mr. Wiese was united in mar- riage to Miss Anna Elizabeth Weisheit, who was born in Erksdorf, Kurhessen, Prussia, on the 18th of December, 1832, and he and his wife located on the farm, which has ever since been their home and which has been developed into one of the valuable places of the county, its area having been augmented by the purchase of an adjoin- ing tract of thirty acres, while the best of improvements have been made, including the erection of the present residence, in 1870, the same being commodious and substantial, while the other farm build- ings are in harmony therewith. In addition to carrying on a general
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farming enterprise Mr. Wiese has given no little attention to horti- culture, and he usually disposes of his products in the line in the Fort Wayne market. He has a fine orchard of twelve acres, and he secures large yields of fruit of excellent varieties. He early began the institution of an effective drainage system on his farm, utilizing tile, and in this one branch of improvement he has expended more than two thousand dollars, while he has shown an equally progressive spirit in the management and regulation of all departments of his farm work.
In politics Mr. Wiese is a stanch advocate of the principles of the Democratic party, and he and his wife are prominent and valued members of the Evangelical Lutheran church, as was also his first wife, both having been early identified with the church in Fort Wayne and having later been numbered among the organizers and original members of the Martin church, in Adams township, while he is at the present time the only survivor of these original members. The first church was erected in 1854 and was constructed of logs. He assisted in the building of this little edifice, which stood on the Martin Bohne farm, and a few years later this was abandoned and a new log church was erected on land donated by Charles Wiese and Henry Moeller. This building was utilized by the congregation until the erection of the present attractive edifice, in 1870. Mrs. Wiese was summoned to the life eternal in June, 1880, and of the ten children the three eldest all died within a few weeks of each other. Those living are Carl H. G., who resides on his farm in Jefferson township, Allen county, is associated in the management of the home farm; Martha Anna Louisa, who is the wife of William Prange; Sophia Louise, who is the wife of Frederich Bradtmueler ; Anna Katherine Elizabeth, who remains at the paternal home, being a trained nurse; Maria Eleanora, who is the wife of Paul Zink; Heinrich Frederich Ferdinand, who remains on the home farm and who married Miss Amelia Roemer, and Sophia Maria, who is the wife of William Wissmann, of Saint Paul, Fayette county, Illinois, all the other children remaining residents of Indiana.
In 1891 Mr. Wiese married a second time, being then united to Mrs. Elnora (Moeller) Boester, widow of Henry Boester. She was born in Prussia and came to Indiana with her parents when a child. No children have been born of this union.
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WILSON CLARK.
Animated by the strictest principles of honesty and integrity, a man of strong intellectual force and one who has worked his way to independence, is this well known citizen and substantial farmer, of Aboit township, where he has resided for many years, while still further interest attaches to his career by reason of the fact that he is a native of Allen county, and representative of one of its honored pioneer families.
Mr. Clark was born on a farm in Wayne township, near the Rudisill mill, on the St. Joseph river, on the 24th of April. 1839, and when we note the fact that the old mill is still standing it may well be understood that the same is one of the landmarks of the county. Of John and Mary (McLean) Clark, parents of our sub- ject, we record that the former was born in Kentucky and the latter in Dayton, Ohio, in which latter place their marriage was solemnized. The father was a tanner by trade and followed this vocation in early life. About the year 1837 he came to Allen county, Indiana, having previously been engaged in farming near Dayton, Ohio. Prior to coming to Fort Wayne he engaged in contracting on the Miami canal, but the result was such a financial loss to him as to place him in somewhat straitened circumstances for a time. He died in 1855, in the sixty-third year of his life. In 1841 he removed from Wayne township to Aboit township, but he eventually returned to the for- mer, where he passed the closing years of his life. While residing in Aboit township he was engaged in agricultural pursuits, having rented a farm of Allen Hamilton. He was twice married, and the mother of our subject was the second wife. She survived her hon- ored husband by a number of years, being called to the life eternal in 1877 and having passed her declining years in the home of her son Benjamin, in Aboit township. Of the children four lived to
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attain maturity, namely: Wilson, to whom this sketch is dedi- cated; Mary, who has never married and who has been for the past thirteen years matron of the Home for Emergencies in the city of Fort Wayne; John, who was identified with the sawmilling in- dustry in this county for a number of years, died in 1877, and Benjamin, who was a successful farmer in Aboit township, died at the age of thirty-one years.
Wilson Clark secured his early educational training in the com- mon schools of Allen county, and that he made good use of his opportunities in the line is evident when we advert to the fact that in his youth he taught successfully for several terms, in Wayne and Aboit townships. His first pedagogic endeavors were made in what is now known as No. 6 school in Aboit town- ship, the same having been originally designated as the Bullard school. As a boy he had attended school here, in a little log cabin of the primitive sort, but on the same site had been erected the first frame school house in the township at the time he was called upon there to serve as instructor. Our subject was not yet sixteen years of age at the time of his father's death, and he con- tinued to reside with his mother until his marriage, in the meanwhile providing for the maintenance of the family. He was married at the age of twenty-eight years, and for several years thereafter he was engaged in farming on rented land, in Wayne township, having leased the same farm on which his father had resided and there re- mained for several years. In 1881 Mr. Clark purchased his present farm, in section 14, Aboit township, paying sixteen hundred dollars for eighty acres. There were no buildings on the place and all the marketable timber had been cut off, leaving the land covered with underbrush and second-growth timber. The task which confronted Mr. Clark was a rather formidable one, and while engaged in pre- paring his own land for cultivation he was compelled to rent other land to utilize for farming purposes. He finally reclaimed his land, which he has made one of the attractive and valuable farms of the township, while he has shown much discrimination in effecting per- manent improvements of good order. He erected a house on the farm soon after coming into possession of the property, and this building is still standing, being a part of the present residence, which
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is a comfortable and commodious dwelling, remodeled and enlarged from the old structure. Mr. Clark devotes his attention to general farming and to the growing of live stock of good grade and in suf- ficient numbers to make proper use of the products of the farm. He is known as a progressive and public spirited citizen, but has never sought or held office or been called upon to serve as juryman. In his political proclivities he is a supporter of the Democratic party in so far as national issues are involved, while in a local way he maintains an independent attitude.
In the year 1867 Mr. Clark was united in marriage to Miss Jane Partner, who was born in the state of Pennsylvania, being a daughter of Henry Partner, who came to Allen county, Indiana, when she was a child of eight years. Of the nine children of this union all are living except Henry, who died at the age of ten years. Con- cerning the others we record that William E. is a representative farmer of Lafayette township; John A. is a successful farmer of Aboit township, and for a period of about sixteen years he was a popular teacher in the public schools of Allen county; H. Walton was also a successful teacher and is now identified with the govern- ment fish and fisheries commission in the city of Washington; Ger- trude is the wife of A. W. Hanson, assistant secretary of the In- diana Young Men's Christian Association, with headquarters in the city of Indianapolis; Wilson, Jr., married Miss Elma Jackson and still resides at the parental home, being associated with his father in the work and management of the farm; Anna was engaged in teach- ing in the public schools for four years and is now with her parents, as are also Elizabeth and Florence. The family enjoys marked pop- ularity in the community, and a gracious hospitality is ever in ev- dence in the home.
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