USA > Indiana > Fountain County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 40
USA > Indiana > Warren County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 40
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M. W. Snoddy was married in 1885 to Eliza Jane Holder, daughter of William Holder, a native of Kentucky, from which state he came to Indiana, locating in Fountain county, where he lived with his children, but he was not among the old settlers here. To the subject and wife four children have been born, namely: Walter O., who lives at home and is assisting his father in the mill; Harry M. was next in order of birth; Mont is deceased; Mary married Benjamin Merriman, a railroad man.
Politically, Mr. Snoddy is a Republican and, while he takes more or less . interest in public affairs, he has never been an office seeker.
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Mr. Snoddy has made what he has by hard work and good management. In August, 1906, he put in a substantial cement dam across Cole creek on which his mill is located. The dam is one hundred and twenty-five feet wide and was erected at a cost of three thousand and eight hundred dollars, besides the labor. He now has a most desirable and valuable property.
ANDREW P. CARLSON.
To a great extent the prosperity of the agricultural sections of our great country is due to the honest industry, the sturdy perseverance and the wise economy which so prominently characterizes the foreign element, both those who have come direct from the European nations and their American-born children. All will agree, after so much as a cursory glance over our forty- eight states, that they have entered very largely into our population. By comparison with their "old country" surroundings, these people have readily recognized the fact that in the United States lie the greatest opportunities for the man of energy and ambition. Because of this many have broken the ties of home and native land and have entered earnestly upon the task of gaining in the new world a home and a competence. Among this class was the late Andrew P. Carlson, of Warren township, Warren county, Indiana, who was not disappointed in the fruition of his hopes and who, because of the splendid life he lived here, earned the respect and esteem of all who knew him.
Andrew P. Carlson was born in Smoland, Sweden, and there received his education. In young manhood he emigrated to the United States, 1865 being the year of his arrival, and he came direct to Attica, Indiana, where a brother, Edward, was living. This brother was a mechanic and Andrew, who had worked some at the blacksmith trade in his old country home, was employed in a similar manner here for a time. Later he secured work on a farm. He was industrious and economical and he thus managed to save enough money with which to buy one hundred and twenty acres of land, where the present home now stands, it being located about two and a half miles north of Attica, To this he later added by purchase forty acres, and still later eighty acres more, making altogether one of the best farms in this section of Warren county. It is all good farm land and has been maintained at a high standard of excellence, its fertility never having been impaired by neglect or careless in- attention to the proper rotation of crops. Mr. Carlson was a careful and in-
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dustrious farmer and was not slow to adopt the best methods of conducting his operations, so that he was enabled to reap abundant returns for his labor.
Mr. Carlson was united in marriage to Lottie Carlson, and to them have been born the following children: Emil, at home; Otto; Clint, who is en- gaged with Emil in operating a threshing machine, having a traction engine and all other necessary adjuncts to that line of work; he married Cora Smith, who is now deceased, and they had three children, Earl, Florence and Francis ; Elmer is at home, as are Axel and Elsie.
Politically, Mr. Carlson was a stanch adherent of the Republican party, to which he gave earnest support. His religious membership was with the Lutheran church, the church of his family in Sweden. Mr. Carlson always manifested excellent business judgment and was an indefatigable worker, consequently he made a success of his life work and at the same time won and held the confidence and good will of a host of warm personal friends. The home ties were strong with him and he reared a family to respectable positions in life.
ISAAC A. ROSEBERRY, M. D.
Among the successful and well known physicians of Warren county I. A. Roseberry is deserving of special notice in this connection, for here he has labored successfully for the sick and afflicted and his name is a household word throughout the locality which has long been the scene of his activities, although he hails from the old Buckeye state, which has sent so many of its substantial citizens into the Wabash country during the past three-quarters of a century, and, like most of them, the subject has manifested an abiding in- terest in the growth and general welfare of the same along all lines. He re- sides at the town of Independence.
Dr. Roseberry was born in Warren county, Ohio, near the city of Leb- anon, on May 7, 1832, and he is the son of Abraham and Mary Ann (Stew- art) Roseberry. The father was a native of the Old Dominion, born and reared in Berkshire county, Virginia, and he came to Ohio when a young man and took up farming and there became well established. He reared a family of eleven children, of whom Dr. I. A., of this review, was the second in order of birth.
Dr. Roseberry worked with his grandfather on the farm during the summer months, and in the winter time he attended the district schools, later attending school at Franklin, Indiana, then went to College Hill for two
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terms. He read medicine for some time with his family doctor and also at Waynesville, Ohio, and he attended lectures at Starling Medical College, at Columbus, Ohio, later at the Miami Medical College, at Cincinnati. He went to Centerville, Indiana, in 1: 54 and tauglit school one winter. He came to Independence in 1855, arriving here on April 25th, and he at once went into a partnership in the practice of his profession with Dr. J. O. Wade, which lasted three years. He soon had a large practice which has continued to grow front year to year until he became one of the busiest and most successful physicians of this locality.
Dr. Roseberry was married in 1859 to Martha J. Tebbs, of Williams- port. He later returned to Ohio and remained some time in both Dayton and Waynesville, then returned to Independence, Indiana, in 1878, and has been here continuously to the present time. He was married a second time in 1908 to Margaret Ambler Smith.
The Doctor belongs to the county and state medical societies and the American Medical Association. Although he is now eighty-one years of age, he is one of the best preserved men in the county and looks many years younger. He is a pleasant gentleman in his everyday life, hospitable, kindly and obliging and a favorite with all who know him.
ROBERT J. MILLER.
Robert J. Miller, a prominent citizen and farmer of Jackson township, comes of sterling old Revolutionary stock and is entitled to worthy mention among the leading citizens of the county of which he has long been an hon- ored resident. His parents, Flemon and Crilda (Gooding) Miller, were na- tives of Kentucky and Illinois, respectively. The father grew to maturity in the state of his birth and when a young man learned the trade of weaving and spinning, in addition to which he also became a proficient distiller. He was for some years superintendent of the weaving and bagging works in the Louisiana penitentiary at Baton Rouge and achieved an enviable reputation as an expert worker and efficient manager. At the age of twenty-five he came north and located in Parke county, Indiana, where he was engaged for some time in the manufacture of ropes. Disposing of his interests in that part of the state, he moved to Fountain county, where, in addition to farming, he operated a mill, later becoming the owner of three hundred acres of fine land in Jackson township, which he devoted largely to stock raising and which his son, Robert J., now owns. He was a very active and useful man, filled a large
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ROBERT J. MILLER.
MRS. LEAR MILLER.
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place in the community and his death, which occurred in 1877, at the age of fifty-nine years, was felt as a personal loss by a large circle of neighbors and friends. Robert Miller, father of Flemon, was a veteran of the war for in- dependence and is said to have borne a distinguished part throughout the greater part of that historic struggle. Crilda Gooding, wife of Flemon Mil- ler, was a daughter of Isaac Gooding, who also served in the war of the Revolution and was one of the early settlers of Fountain county. He entered land near the village of Wallace where he improved a farm on which he spent the remainder of his days, dying a number of years ago at an advanced age. Mrs. Miller departed this life in 1891, aged seventy-five years, having borne her husband children as follows: Robert J., of this review; Allen, William H., George, Flemon, Daniel, Alfred; Elizabeth, wife of Alfred Livengood, and Mary, who married James McGivin, of which family the second, third, fourth and fifth in order of birth are deceased.
Robert J. Miller, to a brief review of whose career the reader's attention is respectfully invited in the following lines, is a native of Indiana, born in Parke county on August 26th of the year 1848. Removing with his parents when quite young to Fountain county, he was reared at the family home in Jackson township and at intervals during the years of his childhood and youth attended the schools of the neighborhood until acquiring a tolerably thorough knowledge of the branches constituting the course of study. Ar- riving at manhood's estate, he farmed for three years and then entered a general store at Waveland, Parke county, where he remained two years, dur- ing which time he became familiar with merchandising and earned the repu- tation of a capable and popular salesman. Resigning his position at the lat- ter place, he spent one year in a similar capacity in Bloomington and then returned to Fountain county, where he has since lived and prospered as a tiller of the soil, owning at this time a splendid farm of three hundred seventy-six acres in Jackson township, all under cultivation, highly improved and bearing every evidence of capable management. In addition to agricul- ture and stock raising, Mr. Miller is connected with various enterprises of a business nature, including among others the Amanda May Milling and Min- ing Company, of Eagle county, Colorado, of which he is president, besides being interested in other mining properties in the vicinity. During the past twelve years he has spent his summers in Eagle county and his interests there have proved quite remunerative. His mines are in a very rich mineral district and, while thus far fully meeting his expectations and justifying the expense of development, he looks for larger and much more remunerative returns from them in the future than in the past.
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Mr. Miller has always taken an active part in political affairs and for a number of ycars has been one of the influential Democrats of Fountain county. In recognition of services rendered his party he was elected in November, 1898, sheriff of the county, which office he held until January, 1903, and in the discharge of the duties of which he earned an honorable reputation as a capable, obliging and exceedingly popular public servant. Wide awake, enter- prising and thoroughly up-to-date; he keeps in touch with the best thought of the day in the matter of agriculture, cultivates his land after the most ap- proved methods and, believing in utilizing his means for worthy objects, he has provided for his family one of the finest rural homes in Fountain county and equipped it throughout with modern improvements and conveniences. In his fraternal relations he holds membership with the Masonic, Odd Fellow and Pythian orders, having filled all the chairs in the local lodges of the two former organizations. He is also interested in private, charitable and benevo- lent enterprises, being liberal to those in distress and never turning a deaf ear to the worthy poor.
Mr. Miller, on November 4, 1869, was united in the bonds of wedlock to Lear Myers, daughter of Eli and Susanna (Darr) Myers, of North Caro- lina, to which union eight children have been born, namely : Julius, who mar- ried Rena Swain, is a prosperous farmer of Cain township; Amanda is the wife of Alexander Starnes, a resident of that township also; Flemon, de- ceased ; William A., a farmer of Cain township, his wife having formerly been Anna Kenyon; Perry Franklin, deceased; May, now Mrs. John Lind- quist ; Thomas H., who married Leona Alexander, and Robert L., who mar- ried Lena Banty. The living members of the family are well settled in life, prosperous and highly esteemed in their respective communities, all being residents of Fountain county. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are members of the Christ- ian church, to which religious body several of their children also belong. Few men in Jackson township are as well known as the subject. In all the relations of life he stands above reproach, his dealings have ever been honorable and to a marked degree he commands the respect of his neighbors and fellow citizens.
WILLIAM WALLACE ROBB.
But few men in Warren county, Indiana, have witnessed the phenom- enal changes that have taken place within the limits of the county within the past seventy-five years and still live to narrate their experiences from the early pioneer days up to the present hour of an advanced civilization, as
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docs William Wallace Robb, the venerable subject of this biographical men- tion, and now a highly respected retired farmer in Washington township.
Mr. Robb, who owns a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, sit- uated about one and one-quarter miles west of Williamsport, was born on June 20, 1837, and is the son of William and Abi (Higginbotham) Robb. The father was a native of Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and the mother of Brown county, Ohio. They came to Fountain county, Indiana, in 1829, re- maining there one year, and then came to Warren county, locating three-quar- ters of a mile west of Williamsport, where the Bush farm is located. On that farm the subject of this sketch was born, in a pioneer log cabin and amid primitive surroundings. He secured his education in the schools of that period, his vacation periods and morning and evening hours being spent in work on the farm. He engaged for a time in teaching school in this county, and then for a short period was engaged in the general mercantile business, but eventually he returned to agriculture as his permanent vocation. He started out on a comparatively modest scale, the first piece of land which he bought, and which is now a part of the homestead, comprising seventy acres .. To this he added ninety acres and then one hundred acres, which latter he subse- quently gave to his daughter, Mrs. Lona Shannon. Mr. Robb during his active years was a hard-working, energetic and persistent worker, leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to create a good home. In this effort he was eminently successful and he was long considered one of the leading farmers in Washington township. Mr. and Mrs. Robb, after many years of hard, unremitting toil, were enabled to relinquish the labors. of the farm to other and younger hands and are now living in honorable retirement.
On November 8, 1862, Mr. Robb was united in marriage with Mary C. French, the daughter of Samuel and Mary C. (Bowlus) French, and to them were born two children, Lona and Henry H. Lona is the widow of John A. Shannon, who met his death in a railroad accident near Fowler. They had two children, Rollin Robb and Rainey Harper. Samuel French was a native of Vermillion county, Indiana, and his wife of Hagerstown, Maryland. He was educated in Vermillion county, and followed the vocation of farming and stock raising. He took premiums on stock shipped to Chicago and was an up-to- date man. He was self made, starting with nothing, and at the time of his death he was the owner of six hundred acres of land. He married Mary C. Bowlus, and their children were as follows: Louis, a farmer of Fountain county, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work ; Mary Cleantha, wife of the subject; Henry S., who died on December 23, 1900. Samuel French
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moved to Warren county when a young man and spent his life here, dying on May 27, 1887, at the age of sixty-four years. She was a member of the Christian church.
Politically, Mr. Robb has been a life-long supporter of the Democratic party and, though advanced in years, he still takes a live interest in public affairs. Mr. and Mrs. Robb's religious membership is with the Christian church, to which they have belonged for fifty years. He early established a reputation for industry, honesty, integrity, prudence and judgment, such as few attain. His common sense and foresight, together with the traits above enumerated, enabled him to establish a career highly successful in all its parts. He accumulated wealth in an honorable way and dealt with his fellow men in a manner that always won for him their high regard and confidence.
PAYTON MELTON.
The subject of this sketch is another of the old soldiers whom it gives the historian, the greatest pleasure to place on record. This should be done with all our honored veterans of the Civil war before it is too late to get the full particulars from their own lips. Their sacrifices were too great not to deserve ample mention in the pages of history. It meant a great deal to quit all pursuits and go away to the war, with the chances against him of ever coming back, or if he came back to do so with shattered health for the re- mainder of his life or in a crippled condition. But such were the chances taken willingly by Payton Melton; in fact, he seemed to enjoy taking chances to save the old flag from treason. Let us learn a little more about this gallant old soldier and retired farmer, of the village of Independence, Warren county, where he has spent his long and useful life; however, most of it has been lived in the country near here, but he has never cared to leave his native county for an abode elsewhere.
Mr. Melton was born in Adams township, this county, December 19, 1839, and is the son of Stephen and Eleanor (Easterling) Melton. His father was born in Virginia, where he spent his earlier days and from the Old Dominion he removed to Warren county, Ohio, where he maintained his home until 1826, then came to Warren county, Indiana, locating in Adams township, where he entered three hundred and twenty acres from the govern- ment, where the subject of this sketch was born. He was a hard worker and a good manager and in due course of time he had a good farm under cultiva-
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tion and in his day was one of the leading farmers of this locality, and here he spent the rest of his life, his widow surviving him some time. Stephen Melton served as a private in Capt. Timothy Dalton's company, Seventy- eighth Regiment of Virginia militia, in the war of 1812. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, only two of whom are now living, Payton, of this review, and Mrs. Melissa Gibson.
Payton Melton was educated in the common schools and worked on the
1 farm during his school days. He was married on February 20, 1873, to Mary James, and to this union three children have been born, two of whom are de- ceased; Olive married Frank May, and they have one child, Zue, who is at- tending school. Mr. Melton was married a second time, his last wife being Mary Farmer, nee Mckenzie.
Mr. Melton enlisted on August 4, 1862, in Company I, Seventy-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under Captain'Hill, and he served three years in. the Army of the Cumberland, seeing considerable hard service and participat- ing in numerous hard-fought engagements, in all of which he conducted him- self as a gallant and loyal American soldier. He is a member of the Kenesaw Post, Grand Army of the Republic. His family belongs to the Quaker church.
JOHN G. HEISCHMAN.
The most elaborate history is necessarily an abridgement, the historian being compelled to select his facts and materials from a multitude of details. So in every life of honor and usefulness the biographer finds no dearth of incidents, and in summing up the career of any man the writer needs touch only the most salient points, giving only the keynote of the character, but eliminating much that is superfluous. Consequently, in calling the reader's at- tention to the life record of the worthy gentleman whose name heads this paragraph no attempt shall be made to recount all the important acts in his useful life, nor recite every interesting incident in his career, for it is deemed that only a few of them will suffice to show him to be eminently worthy of a place in this volume along with his fellows of high standing and recognized worth.
John G. Heischman, well known general merchant at Independence, Warren county, Indiana, was born June 23, 1860, in Tippecanoe county, this state. He is the son of Christian and Catherine ( Bierlein) Heischman.
The father of the subject was born in Germany in 1820 and there he
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spent his earlier days, and there he received a good education in the common schools. When a young man he determined to cast his lot with Americans and accordingly set sail for our shores, after he had served his required time as a soldier in the German army. In due course of time he became very well established in America through hard and persistent work, and here he was married. Only one child was born to Christian and Catherine (Bierlein) Heischman-John G., of this sketch.
Mr. Heischman, of this review, grew to manhood in Tippecanoe county and there he received his education in the common schools, working on the farm during his school period, but he seemed to have a natural bent for a business career rather than for farming, so he took up merchandising, buying his present store in Independence twenty-three years ago. He was successful from the start and has enjoyed a large and lucrative patronage all these years, always carrying a large and carefully selected stock of general merchandise which he has sold at reasonable prices, and his popular and widely known store is the largest of its kind in Warren county. He has accumulated a com- petency and is one of the substantial and representative citizens of the lower part of the county.
Mr. Heischman was married in 1884 to Caroline Hechtel, the daughter of Christian and Margaret (Schaff) Hechtel. They were natives of Bavaria, where they lived and died. Mrs. Heischman is the youngest of nine children. She was born in Bavaria on July 12, 1863, and came to America in 1881, living in New York three years.
Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Heischman: Margaret, who is the wife of Eldo Michael, has one son, Malden; Pauline, second child of the subject, is at home; George, Francis and May are deceased.
Fraternally, Mr. Heischman is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Improved Order of Red Men, and in religious matters he belongs to the Lutheran church and Mrs. Heischman to the Christian church. Politically, he is a Democrat, and is influential and active in upbuild- ing his town and community.
WALTER BRUTUS.
Prominent among the younger generation of farmers who have contrib- uted to the material prosperity of Warren county is the well known and en- terprising gentleman whose name appears at the head of this sketch. Walter Brutus is a native of Warren county, and the older of two children, whose
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parents, Henry and Clara (May) Brutus, have been life-long residents of this part of the state and who now live in the township of Warren, where the father is a well-to-do farmer and large land owner. The subject was born in the above township on the place where lie now resides on December 13, 1886. His early years were spent amid the active duties which are the necessary ac- companiment of rural life, and while still a youth he learned the meaning of hard work and how to place a proper value upon the same. During the fall and winter months he attended the old Bunker Hill school in Warren township, where he laid the foundation of an education which was subsequently com- pleted in the Northern Indiana Normal University at Valparaiso, where he took the full classical course and earned an honorable reputation as a student.
Mr. Brutus is not of the large and rather narrow minded class that be- lieves intellectual training to be inimical to farm labor. On the contrary his idea, which is the correct one, is that education should better fit one for the proper cultivation of the soil and that the more the mind is trained the greater the agriculturist appreciates the honor and dignity of this the noblest calling in which mankind ever engaged. At one time he contemplated engaging in educational work, and to this end took the necessary examination and secured a teacher's license, but his services being required on the farm he did not carry his intention into effect. On leaving the university Mr. Brutus returned home and took charge of the family homestead, a splendid farm of two hun- dred and sixty acres, which he has since managed with marked success and of which he and his father are joint proprietors. Without invidious comparison it may be safely asserted that the above farm is one of the finest and best im- proved in Warren township and among the most valuable in the county. No reasonable means have been spared in its development and in making it, in all the term implies, a beautiful and attractive rural home.
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