USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume II > Part 52
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The family of Jacob and Deborah Motter consisted of the following children : Thomas S., of this review ; Margaret, who married J. H. Wolcott, is deceased, but the latter is living in Bloomington, Illinois; George is living at Baldwin, Kansas; Francis A. was accidentally killed by the discharge of a gun when fourteen years old. The above named children were all born on the old home farm on Wea creek. John A., the fifth child, is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church at Kansas City, Kansas; Carrie Dell, who married H. F. Wade, resides in Cass county, Indiana. She was born at Bloomington, Illinois, April 17, 1854. These children all received every ad- vantage possible at the hands of their parents and the wholesome home at- mosphere in which they were reared is clearly reflected in their social nature and everyday lives.
Thomas S. Motter, the subject of this review, had the advantage of a good education in his youth, owing to the fact that his father was a stanch advocate of educational training and gave his children every chance pos- sible. He completed his literary course at Wesleyan University, Blooming- ton, Illinois, where he was a student for two years, after which he studied medicine under his uncle. Dr. F. A. Shultz, thus gratifying a desire of long standing, and during the winter of 1858 and 1859 he attended the lectures in the Eclectic Medical Institute, at Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1859 he began practice at Logansport, Indiana, bringing to his work a well-trained mind and the other necessary characteristics of the successful physician; conse-
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quently he was soon enjoying a liberal patronage which has constantly in- creased since that time until his name has long since become a household word throughout this locality, which has long been noted for the high order of its medical talent. In the fall of 1859, Doctor Motter went to Selma, Alabama, desiring a warmer climate. He opened an office and soon had a good practice. Upon his arrival there he joined a militia company, and when the war between the states began he was elected surgeon of the Fourth Regiment, Alabama Volunteer Infantry (Confederate), having enlisted his sympathies with the Southern cause, and he cared for the wounded in thir- teen battles, many of them the most important of the war. At the first battle of Bull Run he was slightly wounded while on duty, and he gave heroic service at Williamsburg, at the seven days' fighting at Richmond, Gettys- burg, Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and was present at more than fifty skirmishes. At the battle of Knoxville he was shot in the right thigh and captured by Union soldiers, and taken to Fort Delaware, situated on an island twenty-one miles south of Philadelphia in the Dela- ware river, and he had charge of a ward in the hospital for twenty-one months. On June 15, 1865, he was exchanged and, returning to Indiana soon thereafter, he resumed the practice of medicine, and for two years was located at Mulberry. Then he practiced in Lafayette until 1878, when he returned to Mulberry and conducted a drug store for eight years. He was also engaged in the same business at Crawfordsville, Indiana, while he made his home on a farm near the city, in the meantime continuing his profession.
In 1889 Doctor Motter took up his residence at Dayton, Indiana, and, finding such a lucrative practice here and so congenial a field, he has since remained, having had a very large practice. He is frequently called to re- mote parts of Tippecanoe county on important cases and in consultation with other physicians whose skill has been baffled.
One of the most interesting chapters in the Doctor's life history is that bearing on his domestic relations, dating from January 3, 1867, when, at Clark's Hill, this county, he was united in marriage with Electa Bowles, a native of that village, where her birth occurred on November 5, 1847, the daughter of Robert Bowles, who was born October 30, 1818, at Maidstone, Kent county, England, having emigrated from that country to America with his parents when a young man. Upon arriving in this country he penetrated to the interior and finally settled at Clark's Hill, Indiana, and there met and married, in January, 1846, Gensey Buckley, daughter of James Buckley. She was born August 12, 1827, and she became the mother of six children,
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namely: Electa, wife of the subject of this review; Tiffany, who lives in Oklahoma; Delia, who married J. M. McDole, lives at Stockwell, this state; Richard lives at Clark's Hill, this county; John is living in Reno county, Kansas; Edwin's home is near Clark's Hill, Indiana. The mother of the children died April 7, 1864, and Mr. Bowles was married January 3. 1866, to Virginia Lowe, to which union two children were born, Ica, who died at the age of twenty-one years, and Mary, who married Guy Drew, lives in California. Mr. Bowles died February 5, 1889. Mrs. Bowles is also deceased.
To Doctor Motter and wife the following children were born: Robert Lee, May 6, 1870, at Brookston, Indiana, married Eva Patton and they are the parents of one child, Anna Dee, their home being in Montgomery coun- ty, near Crawfordsville; George Edward was born June 25, 1872, at La- fayette and died when three years old; Ada M., who is living at home, was born August 5, 1878, at Mulberry, Indiana; she is a graduate of the Dayton high school and also attended school at Crawfordsville, later attended the State Normal School; she is now an efficient teacher in the Dayton schools. Jay Seymour, the fourth child of the subject and wife, was born May 8, 1884. at Mulberry, Indiana. He is a graduate of the Dayton high school, and he now has a position in the experimental department at Purdue Uni- versity.
The Doctor is a broad-minded man both in his medical and political views, being a pronounced Democrat. In his fraternal relations he became a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Camden, Indiana, having become a member of this organization April 8, 1858. He later dimitted to the Lafayette Lodge, where he now holds membership, having passed all the chairs of the same. He is a member of the Association of Medical Officers of the Army and Navy of the Confederacy, having been identified with this organization since 1901. He is also a member of the Indiana State Eclectic Medical Association ; also the National Eclectic Med- ical Association.
The Doctor has a pleasant and nicely furnished home in Dayton, which is presided over with rare grace and dignity by Mrs. Motter, a woman of many commendable attributes and gracious personality.
In closing this review of one of the leading professional men of Tippe- canoe county and this locality, it is only necessary to state that he is a gentle- man of progressive ideas and generous impulses, highly esteemed by his. fellowmen, and filling a place in the public view which has brought him prominently to the front, not only in professional circles but in the domain
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of citizenship as well. Of fine personal presence and commanding influence he moves among his fellows as one born to do things extraordinary in this world, nevertheless he is kind and affable, easily approached, and all who enjoy the favor of his acquaintance and friendship speak in the highest terms of his many sterling qualities of mind and heart.
JEPTHA CROUCH.
The names of those men who have distinguished themselves through the possession of those qualities which daily contribute to the success of private life and to the public stability and who have enjoyed the confidence and re- spect of those about them, should not be permitted to perish. Such a one is Jeptha Crouch, whose name needs no introduction to the readers of this book, and whose reputation is international, having long been America's leading importer of blooded horses. He was born in Owen county, Ken- tucky, in 1843, the son of William and Polly Crouch, both representatives of excellent old Southern families, the father being an extensive distiller and manufacturer of tobacco, and a man of influence in his locality.
When Jeptha Crouch was twelve years of age, the family moved to Decatur county, Indiana, where they resided for a period of six years, then moved to Indianapolis, in which city they remained four or five years. About 1865 they moved to Monticello, White county.
In the meantime Jeptha had grown to manhood and had received a very serviceable education in different schools, and while a resident of Mon- ticello he married Sarah Hughes, a woman of refinement and affability and a member of one of the leading families of White county. This union re- sulted in the birth of three children, namely: Nannie, George R. and Wil- liam J., all of whom have been given every possible chance in the way of education and business and social training.
After his marriage Mr. Crouch began raising and dealing in horses and cattle. He also conducted a general store for some time at Monticello and he soon built up a good trade with the surrounding country, but finding the stock business more profitable and more in keeping with his tastes, he in time abandoned merchandising and devoted his attention exclusively to live- stock, and year by year he became a more expert judge of horses and how to manage the business profitably. Desiring a larger field in which to carry on his operations in this line, he disposed of his store and other interests at
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Monticello in 1882 and moved to Lafayette, entering the livery business on Main street near Sixth, where he bought and sold horses. Owing to his judicious management his business steadily grew until it reached large pro- portions. Conceiving an idea of establishing a stock farm to which he desired to direct his attention solely, in about 1886 he sold out his livery business and established the Lafayette Stock Farm on a tract of ground about one-fifteenth the size of that now occupied. Having by this time gained a very extensive knowledge of the commercial side of stock raising and selling, Mr. Crouch was successful from the first in this venture and it grew from year to year, until today it enjoys national prestige. For a full history of this vast business, which extends into every state in the Union and into Canada, the reader is directed to the chapter on agriculture and industry in the historical section of this work where a more adequate con- ception of the magnitude of this great stock farm may be obtained.
The business of the Lafayette Stock Farm is now conducted in the name of J. Crouch & Son, the latter being George R. Crouch, who usually makes periodical trips to Europe, where he purchases the horses to be im- ported to this country; however, his father frequently attends to this phase of the business, having made a trip abroad for this purpose in 1908. The younger son, W. J. Crouch, also assists in the business. Both he and his brother George R. are regarded as young business men of more than ordi- nary ability, and their futures will doubtless be replete with success and honor for duty well and conscientiously performed. W. J. Crouch married a very estimable lady in the person of Miss Pearl Covington, and this union has resulted in the birth of three children, namely: Elizabeth, Jeptha and Herbert. Nannie, the daughter of Jeptha Crouch, of this review, mar- ried Frank B. Seawright, who is also interested in the Lafayette Stock Farm. They are the parents of two children, Nancy and George R. Seawright.
The position which Mr. Crouch holds among leading horsemen of America is indicated by his prominence in numerous associations and allied interests. He is a large stockholder in the Lafayette Sales Company, one of the largest horse sales associations in America. He was president of the Belgium Horse Association of America for a period of two years, that be- ing the limit, according to its constitution, that any member is permitted to hold the office of president. During his tenure of the same the interests of the association were greatly augmented. Mr. Crouch is a director in the Ohio and Indiana Live Stock Insurance Company. He is a director in the Tippecanoe County Fair Association, in which he takes an abiding inter- est and its continued success is due in no small measure to his influence. Mr.
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Crouch is a director in the Merchants National Bank of Lafayette. For the past fifteen years he has been secretary of the German Hanoverian and Oldenburg Coach Horse Association of America. In all these extensive and varied interests Mr. Crouch has shown himself to be a master of details, possessing rare executive ability and business acumen of a high order. With duties that would crush the ordinary man, he has his labors so systematized that he experiences little or no trouble in doing them. He is a vigorous as well as an independent thinker, a wide reader, and he has the courage of his convictions upon all subjects which he investigates. He is also strikingly original and fearless, having a keen discernment, prosecuting his researches after his own peculiar fashion, caring little for conventionalism or for the sanctity attaching to person or place by reason of artificial distinction, tra- dition or the accident of birth. He is essentially cosmopolitan in his ideas, a man of the people in all the term implies, and in the best sense of the word a representative type of that strong American manhood which commands and retains respect by reason of inherent merit, sound sense and correct con- duct. In short, he is plain and unassuming, deeply enamored of his work, but in the midst of his numerous and pressing duties, he finds time to de- vote to other than his individual affairs, being interested in the community and its advancement and in all worthy enterprises for the good of his fellow- men. Fraternally he is a Mason and a member of the Knights of Pythias.
The Crouch residence, one of the most attractive from an architectural viewpoint and most beautifully located in this part of the state, is frequently the mecca for the best society of Lafayette, and all who visit there find free hospitality and good cheer ever prevailing, the friends of this family being limited only by the limits of their acquaintance. Measured by the accepted standard of excellence, the career of Mr. Crouch, though strenuous, has been eminently honorable and useful, and his life fraught with great good to his fellows and to the world.
OLIVER P. TERRY, M. S., M. D.
Although young in years, the subject of this sketch has forged rapidly to the front in one of the most trying of the learned professions, and judg- ing from the success he has achieved at the outset of his career his future will be replete with large efforts and great plans fulfilled. and he will doubt-
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less be reckoned among the leading practitioners in a community noted for the high order of its medical talent.
Dr. Oliver P. Terry is a native of Tippecanoe county, having been born in West Lafayette. July 23. 1882, the son of Frank and Winnie ( Perkins) Terry, an old and highly honored couple, their only child being Oliver P. Terry. He received every care and attention possible at their hands and was given an excellent education, having passed through the local public schools and the high school, after which he entered Purdue University in 1899 when only seventeen years of age, taking a four-years course and graduating from that institution with honor, taking the degree of Bachelor of Science. Having always been a very studious lad he mastered the sub- jects assigned him with ease and dispatch. He was also a student in Chi- cago University for one term. Having decided to make the medical pro- fession his life work, he entered the St. Louis University School of Medicine in the fall of 1904. from which he graduated in 1906, receiving at the same time the degrees of Master of Science and Doctor of Medicine. He evinced an aptitude for this line of work and won the praise of his instructors and fel- low students for his careful and painstaking efforts. Thus he was well equipped for his professional career when he took up the practice in 1907. his success being instantaneous.
Doctor Terry is not only a successful practitioner, but is also the pos- sessor of innate qualities that fit him for an instructor of no ordinary ability and it is not too much to predict that in after years he will become known in more than a local way in this line of endeavor. These qualities were recognized by the board of the medical college in St. Louis where he was a pupil. for he was made assistant in physiology in that institution during the years 1904 and 1905. which position he filled to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. This was an excellent preliminary training in fitting him for the splendid position which he now occupies, instructor of physiology and anatomy in Purdue University. Owing to his thorough preparedness. his natural aptitude and his fidelity to duty he is discharging the duties of this position in a manner that reflects much credit upon himself and the in- stitution.
The domestic life of Doctor Terry dates from June 25. 1907, when he was joined in the bonds of matrimony with Geraldine Drumheller, a cul- tured and talented lady, the representative of an old family of the Mound City. She is a graduate of the high school and the Teachers' College of St. Louis.
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In his fraternal relations, Doctor Terry is a member of the various fraternities of Purdue University. In politics he supports the Republican ticket. He is a member of the American Physiological Society; also the Tippecanoe county, the State and American Medical Societies, in all of which he takes an abiding interest. He is examiner for the North American In- surance Company. In his religious affiliations he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church of West Lafayette, and both he and Mrs. Terry are prom- inent in local social circles, being people of culture, intelligence and hos- pitality.
THOMAS M. MARKS.
It is a tradition of this family that three brothers came from Edinburgh, Scotland, before the Revolutionary war, one settling in Virginia, another in Kentucky and the third in Tennessee. Thomas Marks, son of Aaron, a descendant of the Kentucky pioneer, was born in Nelson county, Kentucky, May 15, 1807. In the spring of 1826 he came to Tippecanoe county, entered eighty acres of land in section 34, Wayne township, built a log cabin and then returned to Kentucky for his bride. This lady was Lydia Howey, member of one of the best families of Kentucky, whose representatives had distinguished themselves in the various wars. Her uncle, Maj. James Howey, was with General Jackson at New Orleans and did valuable work as a scout. After his marriage, Thomas Marks started on his wedding trip with an ox team and after a tedious journey over rough roads arrived at his destination October 26, 1826. He kept adding! to his original eighty acres until he owned, in Tippecanoe and Fountain counties, about five thous- and acres, besides land in Kansas, and was one of the largest land owners of his day in this section of Indiana. He was a thorough business man and aside from his extensive farming operations, a lender of large sums of money, being often employed as administrator to settle estates and act as guardian of minor children. His only office was that of township trustee, his politics being first Whig and then Republican. He was a member of the Baptist church, very active in its affairs and often in pioneer days the quar- terly meeting was held in his large barn. He was liberal, progressive and enterprising and left a distinct impression in the community where he lived. He died September 14, 1876, and his wife on February 13, 1876, both being buried in the Marks cemetery, which is located on part of the land he first entered from the government. They had seven children, who reached ma-
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turity, besides the eldest that died in infancy. Anna, the oldest daughter, married Daniel Crisman, but both are now dead. Jane, deceased, was the wife of Andrew J. Berryhill. Jacob died in February, 1908, leaving a widow and five children, the former since deceased. Aaron makes his home in Lafayette. Elizabeth, deceased wife of John Bowles. Lydia, wife of Marion Duncan, of Jackson township.
Thomas M. Marks, fifth of the above list, was born in Wayne town- ship, Tippecanoe county, July 28, 1842. As he grew up on the farm he received a fairly good education in the district schools, supplemented by two terms at Greencastle Academy in 1859-60. Since engaging in business for himself, he has always lived on the farm at present occupied by himself, and his residence is only a short distance from the place of his birth. He has farmed extensively and with success, the only intermission being from 1896 to 1898, when he spent two years in Lafayette as a contractor in building the boulevard around the city. After taking possession of his land, he found it necessary to do a great deal of clearing. as it was largely covered by heavy forest. At present he owns some six hundred acres of land, of which the land entered by his father is a part. For years Mr. Marks was an extensive breeder of Poland China hogs and Shorthorn cattle, with fine horses on the side, and his name became widely known as the owner of first-class livestock. Feeling the need of rest, however, and being independent of hard work. he rented out his land some years ago and now lives in retirement.
October 1, 1868, Mr. Marks married Sarah E., eldest daughter of Daniel Lane, of Jackson township, by whom he has had ten children. Lydia, wife of John Fouts, resides in Wayne township. Cora married William Horn, of Jackson township. Jacob and Ellis are also residents of Jackson township, while Thomas is dead. Anna Caroline, wife of Edward Reeves, lives in Wayne township. Charles D. and Floyd are also residents of Wayne township, while Della is at home. Mr. Marks has always been an active Republican, and for twenty years served as a member of his party's central committee. He is a member of Shawnee Lodge. No. 129. Free and Accepted Masons, at Odell's Corners, and has held all the chairs, up to the worshipful master. His wife is a member of the United Brethren church, and the family enjoy high social standing in the county. In fact, no pioneer family and their descendants stand higher in Tippecanoe county than that of Marks, and Thomas M. ranks as one of its worthiest members. As developers and makers of the county, none have higher claims than they, and from the time of the settlement of the first pioneer. nearly eighty-four
WILLIAM H. BURKHALTER
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ยท years ago, up to the present time, the name of Marks has been highly re- spected, and those who bore it were always numbered among the county's best citizens. The good wishes of thousands of friends follow Thomas M. Marks in his retirement with fervent hopes for a long life and happiness.
WILLIAM HENRY BURKHALTER.
The history of Tippecanoe county is not a very old one. It is the record of the steady growth of a community planted in the wilderness within the last century and has reached its magnitude of today without other aids than those of industry. The people who redeemed its wilderness fastnesses were strong-armed sons of the soil who hesitated at no difficulty and for whom hardships had little to appal. The earliest pioneers finished their labor and passed from the scene, leaving the country to the possession of their descendants, who builded on the foundation which they laid so broad and deep. Among the latter class is the prominent retired farmer and enterprising citizen by whose name this article is introduced. The county was yet to some degree in the formative period when he came upon the scene, and he did much to assist in the development of the wonderful resources of a county that now occupies a proud position among the most pro- gressive and enlightened sections of Indiana.
William H. Burkhalter was born in Clinton county, Indiana, on the 6th of September, 1841, and is a son of Edward and Elizabeth (Rycraft) Burkhalter. The subject is descended from sturdy German ancestry, his great-grandfather. Ullery Burkhalter, having emigrated from Germany in an early day and settled in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. He was by trade a saddler, but was also a successful agriculturist. He bought an entire section of land, which was densely covered with the primeval forest trees, but which, under his persistent labor, was cleared and made into a productive farm. He was a member of the German Reformed church and lived in the honor and respect of all who knew him to a venerable age.
Peter Burkhalter, the subject's grandfather, was born on the homestead in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, and was brought up to the life of a farmer, in which he also was successful. He was a soldier of the war of 1812. Unfortunately for him, he went security for a county treasurer, who abscon- ded and therehy Mr. Burkhalter suffered a loss of twenty thousand dollars, practically his entire wealth. His only worldly possessions left were five horses and a two-wheeled chaise and several other vehicles. In this con-
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