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 113

Author:
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Brothers
Number of Pages: 786

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 113
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 113

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PICTORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL

out early in the morning and be gone until 9 or 10 o'clock at night. Making up his mind to enter Government land, young Newell married Miss Lucinda Johnson, a relative of Col. R. M. Johnson, and in 1835 he loaded all his effects into a wagon and started toward the setting sun. He got as far as Maumee Swamp, when he got stuck and called on an old lady living in the neighborhood for help. He hitched four yoke of oxen to the wagon and after five days crossed the swamp, a distance of thirty miles. He came on to Adamsville, Mich., stopped for a short time, and then came down to what is now Osolo township, Elkhart county, where he bought 100 acres of land adjoining his present place. Eight acres of this were improved and a comfortable one-room log house was on this place. Into this he bronght his young wife and immediately entered upon his career as a pioneer. However, he did not live here very long before misfortune overtook him, death claiming his young and beautiful wife. He was the father of two children by this union, one now living, George. This left Uncle Nat alone, but he went to work with a strong mind and ready hands to provide for the little family left to care for. At that time there were but five white families in the township, but the Indians were to be found in numbers, and they often supplied our subject with venison. etc., and often worked for him. His nearest postoffice was Adamsville, but shortly after settling here A. O. Bugby opened & postoffice in the township. Mr. Newell soon bought another quarter-section of land, for which he paid $8 per acre, with no improve- ments. He is now the owner of 700 acres of land, 500 acres without a stump, and although he went into debt for his land he has long since paid that off and is to-day one of the most independent farmers of his section. He was married the second time in 18- to Miss Mary Ales, by whom he has one child living, Matt. Although well along in years, time has dealt leniently with Uncle Nat, and although eighty-two years of age he is still able to do a good day's work. His son, George Newell, a prominent farmer of Section 21, was born on the home place, in Osolo township, Elkhart county, May 12, 18-, is the only one living of the children of his father's first marriage. He was reared on the farm and assisted his father in clearing and developing the home place. He was educated in the district schools, the school-house being a little log cabin with the rude furniture of that day, and in this he received instruction for about two months each year, when some difficulty would break up the school. He remembers when there were no cook stoves and when all the cooking was done in an oven on the fireplace. All the plowing was done by oxen, and when eleven years of age he was placed between the handles of the old wooden plow, with ten yoke of oxen to control. He remained with his father until twenty-three years of age, and when the war broke out he enlisted in the Second Indiana Cavalry, Company M, under Capt. J. A. S. Mitchell, of Goshen. He started from home on horseback and went to Indianapolis, Ind., where he was mustered in and rode on South. His first engagement was the bloody battle of Shiloh. Afterward he was in the battle of Pea Ridge, and at Murfreesboro he was captured and paroled. He was wounded st Hartsville, Tenn., by a minie-ball, and also had his horse shot from under him in this battle. He would not go to the hospital, but marched on foot thirty-two miles, partly through swamps, and was fed by the colored people. On reaching Murfreesboro the whole regiment was captured but soon paroled. Mr. Newell was then detailed in the quartermaster's department and served in the same until the close of the " war. Then, after three years' service, he came home and resumed farming, which he has continned up to the present time. He owns three farms, consisting of eighty acres esch, all of which is under cultivation. Mr. Newell has never sought office of any kind, but attends strictly to business. He has a herd of twenty head of fine Jersey cows and runs what is known as the Cream Dairy Farm. He selected his wife in the person of Miss Sarah A. Compton. s native of this county, and their nuptials were celebrated in 1864. Two children were born to this union, viz., Minnie and Nattie. Mr. Newell is one of the prominent farmers of the county and is quite wealthy.

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MEMOIRS OF INDIANA.

LUTHER McCOY was one of the successful farmers of Elkhart county, Ind., but was born in the southern part of Maine on March 11, 1822, being 8 son of David and Rebecca (Hartline) McCoy, the former of whom was born in Scotland and at an early day left the land of "thistles and oatmeal" to seek his fortune in the New World, and took up his residence in the Pine Tree State, where he reared a family of thirteen children: John, Margaret, James, Mary, William, Sarah, David, Samnel, Oliver, Luther, Benjamin, Daniel and an infant. All these children are dead but Luther and Daniel, the latter being a resident of Peoria county, Ill. The family moved back to Scotland when Luther was only a year old, but remained there only a short time when they again came to the United States and this time settled in Pennsylvania and later in Ohio. They resided in Hamilton county, of the latter State until 1861 or 1862, when Tazewell county. Ill., became their home, and there the father and mother were called from life, both being over one hundred years of age at the time of their deaths. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and being of industrious and prudent habits, they acquired a good prop- erty. Luther McCoy was reared principally in Ohio on a farm, but received a lim- ited education, and remained at home until he was about twenty-three years of age. He then went to California to prospect for gold, taking the overland route to that section, and remained there for abont one year and upon his return to the East he stopped in Iowa where he worked on a farm for some time. Succeeding this he went to Knox county, Ill., where he farmed for several years. Following this he went to northern Iowa, where he continued to till the soil until 1859, then came to Indiana. Some time later he started to Illinois, but upon reaching Elkhart county, this State he decided to settle on a tract of land which he owned here, re- siding for some time in Locke township. He later bought a farm in Harrison town- ship and has, for the past twenty seven years, tilled it successfully. His acreage now amounts to 119, all of which is well tilled and shows that a man of thrift has the management of affairs. It was but little improved at the time of his purchase, but through his energy is now as good as any in the county. He is engaged in general farming and gives considerable attention to stockraising. A Republican in poli- tics, he takes an active interest in such matters and has held a number of township offices. He was married in Illinois in 1854 to Miss Sarah Allen, who was born in Michigan, August 13, 1840, a daughter of James and Mary (Howard) Allen, both of whom were York State people and were early settlers of the State of Michigan, and afterward of Illinois. They were the parents of three children: Orange, who died at the age of eight years; Sarah and Marrilla. The father of these children died in Lake county, Ind., but the mother is still residing at Saline, Mich., at the advanced age of eighty years. To Luther McCoy and his wife seven children were born, all of whom are living but one: William was born December 26, 1858, resides in Elk- hart, and he and his wife are the parents of three daughters-Elsie, Elvs and Ethel; Ira was born in Illinois, November 15, 1859, is a man of family, having two children- Clyde and Ira D., and is living in Elkhart: James M. was born February 22, 1863, and died at the age of twelve years; Charles was born January 16, 1870, and re- sides at home; Pearl was born April 27, 1874; Viola was born November 13, 1876; Mary was born April 15, 1880. Mrs. McCoy's maternal grandparents were John and Mary (Haraway) Howard and her paternal grandparents James and Rhoda (Martin) Allen. Mr. McCoy and his family are among the prominent people of ' Harrison township, and being active in forthering good causes, sre deservedly pop- ular and have many friende.

EDWIN H. STEVENS of Elkhart county, Ind, springs from an old colonial fam- ily that took root on American soil during the early history of this country. The family came from England and became prominent in the New England States, many members of the family, to-day, being prominent in the various walks and professione of life. In this branch of the family there is a tradition that four brothers founded the family in America and that two of them were soldiers in the American Revoln-

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tion, one of whom was taken prisoner, and while being conveyed to England died and was buried at sea. The other brothers settled in Connecticut and from one of them Benjamin Stevens, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, is descended. He was born in the Nutmeg State, there tilled the soil, but eventually moved to Brad- ford county. Penn., of which section he was one of the pioneer settlers. His chil- dren were named as follows: Ebenezer, Joel, Benjamin, Zera, Charles, Olive, Lydia, Thersa, Nancy and Thankful. He was a substantial and enterprising citi- zen and in middle life died in Bradford county, Penn. Ebenezer Stevens, his son and the father of the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this sketch, was born in Salisbury, Conn., October 31, 1792, and for a business learned the manu- facture of cloth. In early manhood he went to Bradford county, Penn., with his parents, where he was united in marriage to Miss Dolly Strope, of Dutch stock, whose remote ancestors settled in the Mohawk Valley, N. Y., where they acquired consid- erable property and later removed to the Susquehannah Valley, Penn. To Mr. and

Mrs. Stevens were born six children: Celinda, Edwin H., Lucinda M., William Wallace, Lydia and George. After his marriage Mr. Stevens resided on & farm in Bradford county, Penn., for some years, then purchased 8 mill and manufactured cloth in Tioga county, N. Y., for a number of years, then sold hie property and bought & farm in the same neighborhood near Owego, N. Y., where he became a charter member of the Owego Baptist Church. He took a very active interest in religious matters, was a devont Christian and assisted liberally with his means to support hie church. When his family were all grown he disposed of his property there and removed to Kansas, where he built a house near the Neosho River with the intention of making a settlement, but being a strong advocate of the anti-slavery cause and one of the original abolitionists,. he was obliged to leave that section on account of the troubles there, and soon after "pitched his tent" in Indians, his residence from that time (1857) until his death being in Elkhart county. He built him a substantial residence, in which he passed many useful years of his life and in which he died January 31, 1880, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. Dolly, his widow, died February 23, 1892, at the advanced age of ninety-three years. He was a man of great integrity of character, upright and honorable in every particular and commanded respect from all classes. In his younger days he was a man of great energy and was very industrions. One of his sons, George W., was & soldier in the Fifth Kansas Cavalry, was in several battles, was taken with lung fever at Helena, Ark., and died at Kansas City in 1865 from the effects of this illness. He held the rank of first lieutenant in his company, and was about to be promoted to a captaincy when his last illness overtook him. He was a gallant soldier, and although he did not fall on any battlefield, he none the lese died for his country. Ebenezer Stevens was a man of strong religious convictions. His was one of those sterling characters, the memory of which his descendants will always delight to honor. Edwin H. Stevens, the subject of this sketch, was born February 12, 1822, in Brad- ford county, Penn., and when young went with his parents to Tioga county, N. Y., where he received a limited education in the common schools, but was afterward fort- quate enough to attend the Owego Academy, a State institution, at which time one of his schoolmates was Thomas C. Platt, now ex-Senstor Platt of New York. After finishing his education Mr. Stevens made a tour of inspection through the West, vis- iting different points in Wisconsin, the city of Chicago and other places, and re- turned home the same year. In 1851 he engaged in the mercantile business at Ashland, Ohio, but the following year embarked in the same occupation in Goshen, Ind. On March 10. 1853, he led to the altar Miss Mary C. Violett, who was born April 9, 1831, in Elkhart county, a daughter of Major Violett, one of the prominent and honored citizens of this section. (See sketch of the Violett family.) Mr. Stevens remained in Goshen for about two years after his marriage and in 1854 settled on a farm a short distance northwest of the town. This farm he cleared and greatly im- proved, planting orchards and erecting substantial buildings. At the end of ten

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MEMOIRS OF INDIANA.

yeara he returned, and having, by industry and economy accumulated a substantial property, he interested himself in financial matters in the way of loaning money and doing a general brokerage business. In 1869 he again turned his attention to agri- cultural pursuits, purchasing a fine tract of land three miles northeast of Goshen, consisting of 320 acres on which he remained until he retired from active work in 1891. He now resides in his pleasant and commodious residence in the city of Goshen, but still takes a vigorous interest in business matters. His family circle was made complete by the birth of five children: Charles, Jesse F., Emma V., Mattie E. and Morton E. Both Mr. and Mrs. Stevens are members of the Baptist Church of Goshen and Mr. Stevens is now church trustee. Politically he is & firm Republican and was one of the original anti-slavery men of New York State and had the honor of casting his first vote for that stanch anti-slavery candidate, James G. Birney. During the war he was warmly patriotic and enlisted in the first com- pany that Elkhart ever raised. This company reported to the governor at Indiana- polis and went into camp at Camp Morton. There being a surplus of men, his company was not received and was shortly afterward disbanded. Mr. Stevens is 8 man in whom the people of Elkhart county have the utmost confidence, and for whom they have unbounded respect, and the interests of which he represented in the State Legislature in 1878-9. He is one of the well-known men of Goshen, his integrity is unimpeachable and stands very high as an honored citizen. He is a man of active and intelligent mind and has always taken an active interest in public affairs, and has given efficient aid to the cause he believed to be right and has always worked for the good of his country and section. He keeps himself well informed on all matters of importance and is a man of wide experience and general information, which he has acquired by extensive reading and by his experience of eight years when a young man in New York State as a school teacher and a superintendent of schools. Although a man of liberal means and frequently solicited to do so, he has taken no interest in holding public office, preferring the quiet and peace of his home life to the strife and turmoil of politics. His daughter, Jessie F., married R. M. Woodford, cashier of the Peoples' Home Savings Bank of San Francisco, Cal., by whom she has one child, Donna L .; Emma V. married B. N. Cornell, a grocer of Goshen, by whom she has one daughter, Mary L .; Mattie E. married Frank L. Woodford, of Kansas City, in the Pacific & United States Express office, and has two children, Edwin and Frank; and Morton E. was graduated from the law department of the State University at Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1889, was admitted to the bar in Michigan and settled at Trinidad, Colo. He is a young man of brilliant attainments, capable, ambitious, energetic and is a successful and rising young lawyer. He is the present attorney at Trinidad for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company.

CHARLES O. WOOD. Although a native of Michigan, born in Detroit, December 5, 1845, all Mr. Wood's recollections are of Elkhart county, for he was but eighteen months old when his parents came to this connty. Here he was reared and here he has spent the principal part of his days. All his interests are centered in this county and he understands, as it were, by instinct, the needs, social and industrial, of this vicinity and has a thorough knowledge of its resources. His parents, Orlando L. and Elizabeth (Hicks) Wood, were natives respectively of Canada and Genesee connty, N. Y., and were married in Detroit, Mich., whitber their parents had moved. Orlando L. Wood was a captain on a lake steamer for eight years for the American Fnr Company. He first went on the water as a sailor when a boy and when twenty-two years of age he was in command of a vessel. After following the sea for fourteen years, and after being in many storms, wrecks, etc., in 1847 he came to Elkhart county, Ind., and located on the farm now owned by Charles O., our subject. He first purchased 160 acres of wild land, worked on this during the winter months, making many improvements, and during the summer season he returned to the sea. His farm was covered with timber, principally oak, and he erected a little log cabin in which he lived until he conld build a better one. He

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subsequently left the lakes and settled permanently on his farm. During the war he was township trustee and also held other local positions. He soon made many fine improvements on his place, and here his death occurred in 1888; his widow is still living. They were the parents of two children, a son and a daughter, the latter, Anna, dying December 4, 1891. Charles O. Wood, the son, passed his boyhood and youth on the farm in Elkhart county and received his education in the schools of the same. He has always made his home on his father's farm and has witnessed the marvelous growth and rapid settlement of this county. He is now the owner of 154 acres joining the corporation of Elkhart, having sold seventy acres to the Elk- . hart Driving Association, which is located just west of his residence. He has one of the best improved and most productive farms in Osolo township. The soil is a sandy loam, very productive, and he raises all kinds of grain. He is also actively engaged in stockraising and has some fine animals. Progressive and enterprising, he is one of the representative agricultorists of the county and keeps his farm in excellent condition. The marriage of Mr. Wood with Miss Amanda Young, a native of Canada, took place in 1878, and two children have blessed their home: Jesse and Herbert.

THE CULP FAMILY are among the most prominent of the early families of Elk- hart county, Ind., and have for many years ranked among its leading agriculturists, in following which calling the male members of the family have been pronouncedly successful. Henry J. Colp, who is a successful tiller of the soil of Harrison town- ship, is a native of Ohio, a son of John and Sarah (Wisler) Culp, and a grandson of Henry and Elizabeth (Clipper) Culp, who came to this country from Germany, Henry, the grandfather, being an earnest member of the Mennonite Church throughout life. For many years he made his home in the asylum that had been provided by the forethought of William Penn, but in an early day removed to Ohio, where he was called from life on August 13, 1868, at which time he was in good circumstances financially, his valuable property having been acquired through his own efforts. Ha was active in politics and first supported the Whig party, and later the Republican party. In addition to following the occupation of farming, he also worked at shoemaking, and in early days the pegs which he used in their construc- tion were made by hand. His wife, Elizabeth, died in Ohio in 1867, at the age of eighty years, having become the mother of thirteen children: George, who is a resi- dent of Nappanee; Michael and Jacob, who reside in Ohio; Anthony; John; Joseph; Henry; Samnel; Magdaline; Elizabeth; Barbara; Daniel and Fannie. Barbara (Mrs. Heatwole), is a resident of Goshen. All these children reared families but Samuel, who died when young, and nearly all became residents of Elkhart county, but all are now deceased with the exception of George and Barbara, in Indiana, and Michael and Jacob, in Ohio. John was born in Pennsylvania, but wheu only two weeks old was taken to Columbiana county, Ohio, in which State he was reared on a woodlaod farm. He attended the early subscription schools of Ohio, which were in vogue at that period, in which he succeeded in obtaining a fair knowledge of books. He attained a vigorous manhood, owing to the healthy, out-door life that he led, and was very much given to athletic sports and was probably one of the greatest wrest- lers that Ohio ever had. He was married in Ohio, in 1837, to Miss Sarah Wisler, daughter of Christian and Susan (Holdeman) Wisler, mention of whom is made in the sketch of the Wisler family, that appears in this work. Mrs. Culp was born in Bucks county, Penn., in 1818, and was one of the youngest members of her parents' family. She removed to Ohio with her parents, was married there, and there re- sided until about 1850, when she came with her husband to Elkhart county, Ind., and settled in Harrison township, and located on the farm which is now owned by John H. Whisler. At that time it was heavily wooded, but with industry it was soon converted into a good farm. The father had come to this section in 1848, and located the farm, after which his family came and for some time thereafter lived in a little log cabin which Mr. Culp erected. As the country improved, this structure

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gave way to a better habitation, and at the time of his death, in 1867, he had & very comfortable home and was in good circumstances financially. Besides farming he followed the occupation of painting, and while in Ohio he conducted a fulling and carding machine and also & saw mill. He was a life-long member of the Men- nonite Church, and the principles of the Republican party always commended themselves to his judgment. He was public spirited, held a number of local offices, and was interested in all movements which tended to improve the section in which he resided. His widow survives him at the age of seventy-five years, and makes her home with Henry J., her son. She has been a life-long member of the Men- nonite Church and has been a very active and effective worker for the cause of Christianity. She became the mother of thirteen children, the following of whom are living: Henry J .; Elizabeth, who married David S. Fox, of Olive township; Melchor, who is & resident of Elkhart; Hannah, who is Mrs. Anthony Myers, of Olive township; Alpha, who resides in Harrison township; Magdaline, who first married J. Rule and is now the wife of John Michael; Naoma, who married Samuel Bear, and is a resident of Greencastle, Ind .; Susan, who married Josiah Culp, died after rearing & family; Sarah became the wife of Mr. Scott, and the rest of the children died in infancy. The mother of these children is still in the enjoyment of good health and in the good will of numerous friends whom she has gathered about her by her kindly and generous disposition and Christian spirit. She and her husband endured many hardships during their first years of their residence in this country, but their persistence overcame the many obstacles that strewed their pathway, and they were soon in command of a comfortable competency, and beyond the reach of pinching poverty. They reared a large family to industrious and honorable man- hood and womanhood, and had every reason to be proud of the result of their efforts. Their son, Henry J. Culp, was born in Ohio, February 18, 1840, and was a lad when the trip to Indiana was made. He attended the district schools of his section, in which he acquired a good education, and his naturally good constitution was still further improved by the wholesome life he led, for he was compelled to assist his father on the farm as soon as he was old enough. When only & lad he was considered very ingenius and could turn his hand to almost any kind of me- chanical work, for the bent of his mind ran in that direction. At an early age he turned bis attention to carpentering and built a large number of houses in Elkhart county, doing a general line of contracting and building, in which work he showed himself to be competent and skillful. He is a wide-awake and successful business man, very popular throughout the county, and for nearly thirty years has followed the undertaking business, for which work he seems to be especially adapted, as he is upright in every particular, is prompt in fulfilling his contracts and is kind and sympathetic in his disposition. He was one of the first to establish that business in a first-class manner in the county, and has erected for his own use three hearses and funeral cars, the first about twenty years ago, which, at that time, was the hand- somest in the county. He made the car which is used by Culp & Son, of Goshen, which is superbly fitted up and very handsome of its kind. In 1892 he made and put in use the finest funeral car ever used in the State, and which is entirely on a new plan, has many improvements and is justly considered a work of art. It is of his own invention and workmanship and is a credit to his skill, taste and knowledge of the requirements of the business. He is a first-class mechanic and is an artist in the way of designs. He has made a study of his calling, uses the greatest care in his work and his duties to the dead are performed in a most skillful and delicate manner. In company with his son Ephraim, he established himself in the undertaking business in Goshen, in 1890, but the conduct of this establishment is left in the hands of his son, who is well qualified for the work. The establishment is known as Culp & Soo, and these gentlemen expect to open a like establishment in Waka- rusa, in place of that which is on the farm of MIr. Culp, in Harrison township. Mr. Culp is a public-spirited citizen and is held in high respect by all who know him.

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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 113

Author: Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Brothers Number of Pages: 786

Author:
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Brothers
Number of Pages: 786