USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > Pictorial and biographical memoirs of Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, Indiana, together with biographies of many prominent men of northern Indiana and of the whole state, both living and dead > Part 11
USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > Pictorial and biographical memoirs of Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, Indiana, together with biographies of many prominent men of northern Indiana and of the whole state, both living and dead > Part 11
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got from a fall from a barn, he was rejected. He helped to raise Company D, One Hundred and Eighteenth Ohio; and formed a company of forty men and acted as recruiting agent part of the time during the war. During the winter of 1862-3 he was with the Twenty-third Army Corps. He had a brother Abram, who died in the service, and the latter had a son, sixteen years of age, who was a soldier. George Best had a son, John C., who served through the war. William W. Best remained on the farm until 1891, when he moved to Nappanee. He has been successful in all his business occupations, and is a substantial citizen of the county. He and wife are the parents of children, as follows: D. M., a real estate dealer of Elkhart; William H., in the market business in Nappanee; Lydia A., now Mrs. E. Lienhart, of St. Joseph county; Mary A., now Mrs. J. D. Good, of Nappanee; Margaret E., now Mrs. Christian Johnson; Ada L., now Mrs. Mahlon H. Thomas, of Chicago; John M., residing in Nappanee; Philip I., in Nappanee, and Florence E. Mr. Best and sons are ardent supporters of Democratic principles, and he is a public-spirited citizen. He is now engaged in the real estate, insurance and collecting business. He and wife have a cozy home on South Elm street, near the United Brethren Church, and are highly esteemed as upright, bonorable citizens.
GORDON NOEL MURRAY, editor and proprietor of the Nappanee News, was born July 22, 1852, at the Murray Homestead, in Jefferson township, Elkhart Co., Ind., being a member of a family of six brothers and three sisters. His early years were spent on the farm, receiving an education afforded by the country school of that day, by attending school in the winter season and working on the farm during the summer, until he reached the age of eighteen years, when he moved to Goshen with his parents. There, in 1871, he obtained a situation as an apprentice in a machine shop. Working in various factories in that city until 1874, young Murray took up his residence in Sterling, Ill., where he remained until the spring of 1877; during that interval having charge of a factory as foreman, and being employed as a commercial traveler. Going to South Bend in the same year, young Murray fol- lowed the vocation of a mechanic until the winter of 1877-78, when he entered the mechanical department of the South Bend Herald, then published by his brother, Charles T. Murray. The latter returning to Washington, D. C., in the spring of 1878, the father of the eubject of this sketch-Hon. Charles L. Murray-sold his interest in the Goshen Democrat. and took charge of the South Bend Herald. It was then that young Murray was initiated into the mysteries of journalism, contin- uing as he did in the capacity of business manager and city editor of the Herald until the spring of 1881. After his father disposed of the Herald, at that time, Mr. Murray again entered on the duties of a commercial traveler. In June of the same year, 1881, he was married to Miss Ellen Niles Taylor, at Ionia, Mich. Under a mortgage, the Herald material reverting to his parent, Mr. Murray again returned to the printing business at South Bend in 1882. Forming a partnership with a younger brother, Harris F. Murray, and his father, under the firm name of C. L. Murray & Sons, job printers, Mr. Murray completed his trade in the "art preserva- tive." In the fall of 1884 the job printing office was disposed of, and soon after fell into the hands of prominent Prohibitionists of the State, who had formed a stock company to establish a State organ for their party. Mr. Murray became a stockholder, and was awarded the contract of moving the plant to Indianapolis, where it was consolidated with that of the Monitor Journal, and there he estab- lished the mechanical department of the Indiana Phalanx, now the State Prohibition organ. The Phalanx Company being unable to continue the salary at which Mr. Murray was employed, he removed to Goshen, Ind., where he became identified with the Daily News. He first entered on the duties of solicitor on the road, but soon after became businese manager of the office, and later a member of the firm, as the News Printing Company. He continued there until January, 1888, when he was enabled, through the assistance of Thomas A. Starr, senior editor of the Goshen News, to purchase the Nappanee News, which he has edited during the past five years,
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bringing the paper into local prominence among the publications of northern Indiana. He is one of the directors of the Fair Association of the county, that his father organized in an early day and became the first secretary, holding that position for a great many years. Mr. Murray comes of journalistic stock; he is a self-made man, always having made his way in the world by his own energy since leaving the farm.
His brother, Charles T. Murray, at one time editor of the South Bend Herald, and later the well-known Washington correspondent, now has a newspaper bureau in New York City; and during the presidential campaign of 1892, juat closed, was employed in furnishing special matter for the New York Herald. His brother, Edward Murray, a writer and contributor of well-known ability, is business manager of Paper and Press, Lithographer's Journal, and the Spanish-American publication, Papel y Prensa, of Philadelphia. Harris F. Murray, a younger brother, ia on the Oregonian, of Pendleton, Ore. Mr. Murray's uncle, F. W. Murray, was for a quarter of a century connected with the presa of Cincinnati, as a contributor and compositor. Mr. Murray's father, Hon. Charles L. Murray, the pioneer journalist of Elkhart and Kosciusko counties, was born in 1815, in a small town called Mur- raysfield, in Bradford county, Penn. His parenta were Philadelphians. He was paternally Scotch and maternally English. His paternal grandfather waa an officer in the Revolutionary war, and his profession (religious) was, first a Baptist, and then a Universalist minister, and was one of eight brothers who settled in western New York after the Revolution. His maternal grandfather was a Quaker, and fol- lowed the business of an architect in Philadelphia, where C. L. Murray's parents were born. While the family resided at Athens, on the Susquehanna River, his father was appointed justice of the peace for life, by the governor of Pennsylvania, under the old constitution. Mr. Murray began, about the year 1828, to learn the printer's trade. The paper was published in Towanda, and supported John Q. Adams for President. His brother-in-law, W. Jenkins, leaving Towanda, Mr. Murray went with the family to Huron county, Ohio, where he was engaged in the first anti-Masonic printing office in the State. In 1831 Mr. Jenkins moved the office to Columbus, Ohio, where Mr. Murray followed him as an apprentice. Com- pleting his trade in 1833, he went west to aeek his fortune. Having a relative at Jacksonville, Ill., on his father's side (Murray McConnel), he worked in that place on a paper published by a Mr. Edwarda. Taking the prevailing diaease of the country-ague-he returned to Columbus, Ohio, by joining hia father's nephew in taking a drove of horses through that were being bought for the Philadelphia market. Mounted on a horse young Murray crossed the State from St. Louis via Vincennes, and in spite of the terrible condition of the roada at that time, reached Columbus in aafety. Here he again worked for his brother-in-law and became fore- man of the office of the Western Hemisphere, the Democratic organ of the State. Young Murray was then in his eighteenth year, and he continued in the employ of the paper until a difficulty arose between him and one of the proprietors. Soon afterward the paper changed hands, and its name changed to the Ohio Statesman, when Mr. Murray again accepted a position in the office, and continued there until 1834. He then went to Piqua, Ohio, on the solicitation of citizens there; and, in company with his brother-in-law, D. B. Espy, established the Piqua Courier. The paper was printed on an old wooden press that had been brought from Philadelphia at an early day. The Courier, with Charles L. Murray as editor, was the first paper in the State which run up the name of Gen. Harrison for President in 1835. Mr. Murray purchased the interest of his brother-in-law in 1836. He was married to a Kentucky lady, by the name of Ann Maria Spriggs, in July of the same year. A party of citizens from Goshen, Ind., solicited Mr. Murray to remove to that town, and he accepted the offer, aelling the Courier to one Barrington. In company with Anthony Defrees, of Goshen, Mr. Murray went to Cincinnati and bought an outfit, shipped it to Dayton by canal, and the balance of the way it was transported to
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Goshen in wagons via Ft. Wayne. The first issue of the Goshen Express, C. L. Murray as editor, appeared in February, 1837. Mr. Defrees soon sold his interest to Mr. Murray, who continued as its editor, at intervals, and under different names, until 1840. At this period, as a Whig candidate, he was defeated for the anditor- ship of Elkhart county, the Democrats having a large majority in the county. Mr. Murray was appointed postmaster at Goshen, under President Harrison, in 1840, and sold his printing office shortly afterward. He was removed from office during the administration of John Tyler. Mr. Murray, having purchased some land north of Goshen, turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, devoting his time during the winter to working at his trade, or in reporting the proceedings of the Senate for the Indiana State Journal. In 1846 he printed the Republican at Monoquet, Kos- ciusko county, for one year, under an engagement with land owners there, who were trying to locate the county seat. This was the first paper ever printed in the county. From there he moved to Indianapolis and became assistant editor of the State Journal. In the fall of the following year he returned to his farm in Elkhart county, where his family resided until 1870, though Mr. Murray was still in the habit of going to Indianapolis to report in the Senate, where he served seven ses- sions in that capacity. In 1859 he was elected by the Republicans, joint-represent- ative, from the counties of Elkhart and Lagrange, by a majority of 900. He served through both extra and regular sessions, and took an active part in important subjects under consideration. In 1860 he was elected to the Senate by over 1,200 majority. He had the advantage of the acquaintance of nearly all the public men of Ohio and Indiana. He was purely a self-made man, never having attended school a day after he was eleven years of age. On the first call of the Government for 75.000 men to put down the rebellion, he wrote out a muster-roll, signed it, placed it in the auditor's office of the county, wrote out and had published in both Goshen papers the first call for volunteers in that city, after which he went out into the townships and made speeches for recruits. After he had raised a sufficient number of men for a company, through a call in the papers, he met the men at Goshen and placed in nomination a captain and first lieutenant, and leaving them to complete the organization, departed for Indianapolis to attend the extra session of the Legislature, called by Gov. Morton, to equip the Indiana troops for the three months' service. The quota of troops being filled when the men arrived, they were discharged and returned home. Mr. Murray procured a place as private in Capt. Mann's company, from the city of Elkhart, and, when marching orders came, left his seat in the Senate and boarded a cattle train with the boys one morning, after having lain with them on the ground all night near the Union depot. After serving the three months as a private, he returned home and completed his term in the Senate. On February 1, 1862, he left Camp Ellis, near Goshen, with the Forty- eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, as quartermaster, and remained with the reg- iment about two years, until he received his discharge, by reason of severe illness that incapacitated him from duty. In 1870 Mr. Murray sold his farm and removed his family to Goshen, where he soon bought a half interest in the Democrat, which paper he edited until the fall of 1877. About that time he moved to South Bend and took charge of the Herald, which plant he had owned for several years previons, in partnership with his son, Charles T. Murray. He continued to edit the Herald until he sold the office in the fall of 1880. In 1882 the material of the Herald returning to Mr. Murray under a mortgage, and the "good will" of the office hav- ing been taken from him through the connivance of the man to whom he had sold the office, whereby he met the first real financial loss during his entire newspaper career. he, in company with his two sons, Gordon N. and Harris F., opened a job priuting office at South Bend. Having reached that age when mechanical work became burdensome to him, he was gratuitously employed as editor of the Sun, a Prohibition organ, printed at the job office through arrangements with local adher- ents of that party. The office was sold during the fall of 1884, and was afterward
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removed to Indianapolis. At this period Mr. Murray retired from active business life, though he continued to contribute to the columns of the New York Voice, Chicago News, and other journale, over his signature, up to within a few months of his death. He died at his home in the city of South Bend, July 15, 1889. It will be seen by this sketch that the subject thereof was closely identified with the early history of Elkhart county, and later of St. Joseph county. He was a pol- itician from his boyhood, and was particularly "at home with his pen" on all political questions and political history of his time. He was counted as one among the most fluent, yet vigorous writers, in the field of northern Indiana journalism, during his newspaper work therein. Mr. Murray was first a Whig, then a Repub- lican, from that party's infancy until the time of the "Liberal" movement that followed Horace Greeley. He affiliated with the Democratic party until the Pro- hibitionists organized in the State, when he adopted that political faith, to which he strictly and conscientiously adhered; and was prominent in drafting, in a measure, that party's State platform in 1888.
WILLIAM H. HOLDEMAN. Among the newspaper men of northern Indiana who have done so much in the past and are planning eo wisely to help forward the inter- ests of their sections in the future, we are pleased to mention Mr. William Holde- man. This gentleman is the editor and proprietor of the Nappanee Advance, established September 11, 1891, and owes his nativity to Indiana, born in Randolph county, August 18, 1847. His great-grandfather, Christian Montel, was a Hessian soldier, and was brought over by King George to fight the Continental army. He was captured by the latter and willingly fought on the other side until the close of the war. He then settled in Virginia and was there married. Jacob Holdeman, grand- father of subject, was born in Virginia in 1787, and married to a Mise Montel. In. 1842 he and family moved to Randolph county, Ind., purchased a tract of land and settled in the woods where they remained ten years, from there they moved to Elkhart county, settled on a farm in Union township, and after residing there ten years moved to Kosciusko county, wherethey purchased land south west of Nappanee. Thisthey sold later and moved to Webster. Mr Holdeman died December 13, 1866, at the home of his son, Christian, in Elkhart county. A Whig in politics at an early day he later espoused the principles of the Republican party, and remained with that until his death. In religiou he was a member of the United Brethren Church, and was active in his support of the same. His son. Christopher, father of our subject, was born in Preble county, Ohio, April 7, 1820, and came with his father to Randolph county, Ind., where he grew to manhood. He married Miss Eliza Study, a daughter of Levi and Mary Study, and a native of Wayne county, Ind., born November 7, 1816. She died at her home northwest of Goshen, Ind., February 27, 1887, and was one of these children, as follows: Matilda, Levi, Abraham, Jesse, William, Charlotte, Eliza and Catherine; only the following are now living: Matilda, Catherine, Elizabeth and Jesse. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Holdeman moved to Jackson township, Elk- hart county, Id., and there reared a family of eight children, as follows: Mary A., born February 17, 1846, married C. K. Stauffer and resides on a farm east of Elk- hart; Jesse, born January 10, 1849, married Miss Belle McCloud and resides in Kosciusko county, near Milford (he has a family); Charlotte, born September 3, 1852, married Rev. W. Bussard, a minister in the German Baptist Church, and has several children; Alice J., born May 23, 1858, became the wife F. P. Shultz, of Jefferson towaship, Elkhart county; one child, not named, died in 1849; Minerva J., died April 13, 1862, when nine months old; Israel, died in 1856, when two weeks old, and William H., our subject. The father of these children is still living and although well along in years, enjoys comparatively good health. A Republican in politics, he keeps himself well posted on all the current topics of the day, and a United Brethren in his religious views, he is active in all good work. William H. Holdemao received the rudiments of his education iu the district schools of Jackson township, attending during the winter months and assisting his father with the farm
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work in summer. At the age of twenty years he commenced teaching school in Elkhart county, and later had the advantages of the Normal School and Butler Col- lege, Goshen, and also at Hillsdale College, Michigan. In 1879 be opened a normal school at Nappanee and later became high school principal. Afterward he became editor and proprietor of the Nappanee News, then the only newspaper in the town, aud this he conducted very successfully until January 28, 1888, when he sold to G. N. Murray, the present editor. Then he moved to Hicksville, Ohio, purchased The Independent, which he afterward changed to a Republican paper, and moved from there to Woodlawn Park, Chicago, where he owns a good property near Jackson Park. Returning to Nappanee he started The Advance, the only official Republican organ in this part of the county. He is very successful as a newspaper man, and although but recently started, his paper commands an ever widening area of circulation.
He
is a Methodist in his religious views and is active in church, town and county affairs. On April 25, 1882, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary I. Holloway, who was born September 28, 1855, and whose parents, L. D. and Elizabeth (Dehoff) Hollo- way, were pioneers of Columbiana county, Ohio. She is one of five children, as fol- lows: Mary I., Jennie, Walter T., Harvey and William, all living except Harvey. Mr. and Mrs. Holdeman have two interesting children: Hazel Elizabeth, born Juue 8, 1888, at Hicksville, Ohio, and Lloyd Holloway, born June 14, 1891.
LESTER F. BAKER, founder of the D. H. Baker & Bro. boot and shoe store of South Bend, Ind., is a native of the Empire State, born in Oneida county, August 19, 1819, and is a son of Eleazer Baker, who was a native of Connecticut, born in 1793, but who died in Orleans county, N. Y., in 1836. He was a commission merchant by occupation, and in 1825 settled in western New York when that part of the State was a wilderness. He was one of the pioneers. The mother of our subject, Susan (Love) Baker, was born in Oneida county, N. Y., in 1797, and died in 1877. Lester F. Baker was the eldest of eight children born to this worthy couple and is the only one of two now living. He was educated in the district and private schools and from the age of fourteen until eighteen he worked on a farm. He then branched out to fight his own way in life and was engaged in varions occupations until twenty years of age when he began teaching school in hie native State. As compensation he received from $15 to $25 per month and "board around." This profession he followed for six years, and in 1846 he came to Akron, Ohio, where he engaged in the stove and tinware business for some time. From there he went to Sandusky City, thence to Cincinnati, and for two years, or until 1852, was engaged in railroad work on the Chicago, Hamilton & Dayton Railway, which was then building. In the last mentioned year, in company with his brother, Darwin H., he came west in search of a good business location, and after much hunting decided that South Bend, Ind., was the best place, all things con- sidered, that they could find. In May, 1852, they opened a boot and shoe store opposite the South Bend National Bank as it now stands, and remained there from May to October, when they removed to Michigan street, three doors from Wash- ington street. Six months later they removed their goods one door south from that place and there the firm remained for twenty years. Then they removed to the present location on the corner of Michigan and Washington. In 1861 Mr. Baker retired from the boot and shoe business and since then has given his attention to his real estate interests. He is the owner of some of the best property in the city and has ever been thoroughgoing and enterprising. He was married in 1849 to Miss Mary R. Willey, of Delaware, Ohio, born in that town in 1826, and they have two daughters: Susan, now Mrs. William Nickell, residing in Waukesha, Wis., and Idla, now Mrs. Frederick Sanborn, of South Bend. In politics Mr. Baker is a stanch supporter of Democratic principles, and cast his first presidential vote for Martin Van Buren in 1840. In his religions sentiments he is a Presbyterian. In the year 1875 he was elected to the common council of the city of South Bend and served in a creditable and efficient manner for two years. In 1889 he was appointed
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by the Indiana General Assembly as one of the trustees of the Northern Indiana Asylum for Insane at Logansport. This appointment was made without his knowl- edge and was a great surprise for him. Mr. Baker has passed many years of his life in St. Joseph county and in every walk of life has acquitted himself in an upright, honorable manner. He is known far and near as a man of kind disposi- tion, and an intelligent and worthy gentleman. He has ever been interested in the public welfare, and while he has ever attended strictly to his private affairs, he shirked no duties as a loyal citizen.
WILLIAM R. BOYD is the president of the South Bend Lumber Company, which was organized and incorporated December 1, 1889, with a capital stock of $32,000 with the following officers: William R. Boyd, president; Frank Colmar, vice-pres- ident, and S. A. Hillier, secretary and treasurer. The company was the consol- idation of the lumber interests of Leach & Jackson and Boyd & Hillier, the latter firm having purchased the business of the former a short time previous to the organ- ization of the South Bend Lumber Company. A large planing mill and sash and door factory is operated in connection with the business, the annual volume of which amounts to about $150,000. Mr. Boyd was born in Harford county, Md., August 27, 1841, to Weston and Hannah (Parsons) Boyd, the former a native of Harford county and the latter of Baltimore, Md. Weston Boyd was born about the year 1810. His parents, who were natives of England, came to America in colonial times, and although the grandfather was a tanner by trade he did not follow that occupation after coming to America, the occupation of agriculture being his life work after locating in Maryland. Previous to his death he owned a large amount of property within thirty-six miles of Baltimore, which was the family home- stead for many years and where the paternal grandfather and grandmother passed their lives. Weston Boyd, when a lad, went to Baltimore, where he learned the car-
penter's trade, which he followed during his lifetime. After his marriage in Bal- timore to Miss Parsons, he located at Havre de Grace, Md., where the family lived a number of years and where the subject of this sketch was born. With the excep- tion of a few years in Washington, D. C., Mr. Boyd resided in this place until his death, in June, 1857. His wife survives him and at present makes her home with her son, John T., in Alexandria. Va. She bore her husband three children: John T., William R., and Charles W. (deceased.) One child was born to Mr. Boyd by a former marriage: Sarah I., wife of James Whittington of Philadelphia, Penn. William R. Boyd was reared in his native town, where he received his initiatory education which he afterward finished in the public schools of Washington, D. C. In 1857 he was apprenticed in that city to the carpenter's trade, serving four years. At this period the war came on and Mr. Boyd enlisted at 10 o'clock on the 10th of April, 1861, becoming a member of Company A. District of Columbia Vol- unteer Infantry, which was the first mustered into the service and before the call for volunteers. A peculiar feature of this company was that every one of its mem- bers were born south of Mason and Dixon's line, with the exception of one French- man and one Irishman. The company was organized shortly after the election of Lincoln to participate in his inauguration and at that time had the right-of-line at the caremonies. It was composed of patriotic, loyal men, who had organized to protect the life of the President during the inaugural ceremonies, as his life had been repeatedly threatened. During the three months for which the members of the company had enlisted, their time was chiefly taken up with guard duty. Mr. Boyd was in the employ of the Government in the quartermaster department during the war and was among a crowd of 500 volunteers engaged in repelling the guerrillas under Mosby at Manassas Junction. At the close of the war M. Boyd disposed of his furniture business at Alexandria, which he had operated a short time, and came to South Bend, Ind., where he began working at his trade. In 1882 he formed a partnership with S. A. Hillier under the firm name of Boyd & Hillier, in the lumber business, which firm has been succeeded by the South Bend Lumber
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