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 39

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 39
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 39

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E.Willard

ج- الدفيه ج

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1867 he led to the altar Miss Mary E. Keplinger, of Elkhart, by whom he has a daughter, Harriet L. Mr. Clark is a member of the I. O. O. F., in which honorable body he is a valued member. Personally Mr. Clark is a very popular gentleman and he possesses very social and hospitable instincts, and the result is that he has gathered about him & wide circle of friends.

E. P. WILLARD. The credit for a large share of the enterprise which helps to make Elkhart one of the most thriving and bustling cities of northern Indiana, belongs, in a considerable degree, to the worthy gentleman whose name is at the head of this sketch. He is a son of John H. and Eliza Willard, of New Hampshire, and was born at Alexandria, N. Y., July 22, 1842. When he was but three years old his parents moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended school until the age of

thirteen years. They then removed to St. Joseph county, Mich., where he remained on the farm until the beginning of the Civil war between the North and South. He was one of the first to enlist in defense of the " stars and stripes" in the three years' service, going into Company C, Eleventh Michigan Infantry, and participated in the battle of Stone River, Laverne, and was on the raid through Kentucky after Gen. Morgan. After leaving the army he became engaged as news agent on the rail- roads and succeeded so well that he was appointed superintendent of the first office opened in Elkhart by the " Union News Co." of New York, which position he took December 1, 1869, and held until December 1, 1891. He was married to Miss Lillian Alvord, of Jonesville, Mich., September 24, 1872, and lays most of his suc- cess in life to her kind and devoted attention to all his business affairs. she having kept all books for him, and entered most graciously and enthusiastically into what- ever interested him, and we venture to say that in all this broad land there can not be found a happier home or a more devoted couple. There is probably no new enterprise located in Elkhart, or anything of a public nature gotten up in which Mr. Willard is not interested. He is a public-spirited man in the broadest sense of the word, and above all, his labors are not performed with the expectation of always getting a "plum " for his trouble. Among the various enterprises which he has helped along can be mentiond the Elkhart National Bank, of which he is vice-presi- dent, and has been a director since its organization. He helped to organize and procure a charter for the Elkhart Street Railway Company, and has been one of the directors from the beginning, and is its present treasurer. He is one of the owners of the "Elkhart Opera House," and has each year served as a director, and has been the secretary for the past four years. The next enterprise to which he turned his attention was to help organize the Elkhart Electric Light Company, both for arc and incandescent lighting, and Mr. Willard's home was the first private residence in Elkhart lighted by electricity, he having the incandescent lights put throughout his house. This company has a capital stock all paid np of $100,000, and Mr. Willard is its present treasurer, and in fact, there is hardly a public enterprise in which his name is not found. He is a man of money, and assists vigorously any commendable enterprise that points to the glory of Elkhart. He possesses a most genial disposi- tion, and is called by his friends "the sunshine of life," always ready with a joke or a story; he has but recently gone into the real estate and insurance business, and can sell you a nice corner lot in Chicago "if you must have it," but banks on Elkhart every time. Mr. Willard is a moderate dresser, a good liver, and has a handsome home beantifully furnished, and with an elegant wife to preside over all we leave him with the assurance to our readers that never has his honor been questioned, and that his integrity is above criticism, and unto him in very truth can be applied the remark: " Well done thou good and faithful servant." Mr. Willard is a member of the Electro-Galvanic Belt & Appliance Company of Elkhart, an organization backed by strong testimonials as to the high merits of its products. The electric belts of this company are fast superseding all others in existence. Their building, offices and factory are the largest extant. As an evidence of their enormous sales their records show that in one town of 9,000 inhabitants over 900

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belts were sold in one year. The large sales and constantly growing field of opera- tions give evidence of immense possibilities for the future for this company. At this day no one can dispute the beneficial effects of electricity upon the human system, and the efficacy of the belts of this company in the treatment of many forms of disease has long ago been fully established.

HENRY W. HIXON, a prosperous banker of Middlebury, Ind., is descended from the oldest pioneer of Middlebury township, which has the honor to still number among its inhabitants the original pioneer settler, Solomon L. Hixon, now a venera- ble and respected citizen of eighty-seven years. The latter was a son of John Hixon, of German descent, but of old colonial American ancestry, who was born, reared and married in New Jersey, his union being with Miss Mary Landis, a daughter of Henry Landis, of German descent, who was the father of twenty-four children by two wives. Soon after his marriage Mr. Hixon moved to Union county, Penn., and purchased 200 acres of land, and on this well conducted farm he passed the remainder of his days, and died when his son, Solomon L. Hixon, was twenty- one years of age. His wife reached the advanced age of one hundred and two years. David Hixon, the brother of John, was a Revolutionary soldier, becoming a member of the patriot army at the age of sixteen years, and served under the celebrated Gen. Washington throughout the entire war, having been present at the battle of Princeton, N. J., as well as taking part in a number of other severe engagements. Like many other patriots, he did not cease his allegiance to the colonial cause until Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the American colonies. Solomon L. Hixon was born on his father's farm in Union county, Penn., near the Susquehanna River, December 13, 1805, where he received the common- school education which his day afforded, and acquired a knowledge of farm life. After the death of his father, on the 11th of September, 1829, he left the old home- stead and proceeded to Portage, now Summit county, Ohio, making this journey by means of the old-fashioned stage coach, which was then the usual mode of convey- ance, and on foot, by which Istter means he covered no inconsiderable portion of the journey. He purchased 100 acres of land near what is now Akron, Ohio, and which afterward proved to be a very valuable property, a vein of coal seven feet thick having been discovered on it, so that years after it had passed from Mr. Hixon's hands, it sold for $500,000. In Ohio Mr. Hixon followed the trade of a carpenter. In 1827 he married Miss Nancy Ann Remile, danghter of Stephen W. and Nancy A. (Curtis) Remile, the former of whom was of English descent, a native of Vermont, and was one of the early pioneers of what is now Summit county, Ohio, settling near Akron. In 1833 he entered land where Toledo, Ohio, now stands and was also one of the first settlers of Middlebury township, Elkhart Co., Ind., and gave it its name from his native town in Vermont. He died in the fall of 1834. In 1833 Solomon L. Hixon, hearing glowing accounts of the St. Joseph county of Indiana, made s prospecting tour through the State, and in 1834 located land on Section 10, on which he remained one year. He then moved South and took up his residence in s log cabin, on 200 acres of land which he had purchased, and which was slightly improved. On this place he resided for many years, and by industry and hard labor accumulated property. He met with a severe accident in 1842, by the falling of a tree, which deprived him of his right leg. On April 1, 1866, he came to Middlebury, where he has since made his home. He was one of the first permanent settlers of the township. He was the father of five children by his first wife, two of whom are now living: Henry, who was born on March 22, 1833, and Livonia, deceased wife of Charles S. Martin, of Middlebury. Those deceased are: Elizabeth, Stephen and Charles R. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hixon were members of the Baptist Church, and the latter shared with her husband the trials incident to pioneer life, and paid the last debt of nature in 1864, aged forty-nine years. Mr. Hixon is a man of remarkable constitution, and despite serious acci- dents which have made him lame for many years, he has not seen a sick day since

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1864. He is an excellent example of the old-time pioneer settler; honest, upright and straightforward, and willing to make his way in the world by his own unaided efforts, he did not hesitate to bravely enter the wilderness and assist in subduing nature and to make possible the pleasant homes of to-day. To such men as he the people of the present are indebted for the improvements, well cultivated farms and thriving villages which they now enjoy. Mr. Hixon has lived over the entire epoch of the settlement of the great West, for when he was a boy the ax of the settler had scarcely been heard west of Pennsylvania, and to-day the most remote and almost inaccessible regions of his country have prosperous communities. Mr. Hixon, at the patriarchal age of eighty-seven, retains his mental faculties to a remarkable degree. On December 24, 1866, he took for his second wife Mrs. Susan R. Bailey, of Michi- gan, who is still living. Her parents were Isaac and Lucy (Dickennan) Pardee, both of whom were born in New Haven, Conn., and were pioneer settlers of Knox county, Ohio, but in 1849 removed to Berrien county, Mich., where the father soon after died. He was of French descent, although an American born, his father hav- ing been born in France. Henry W. Hixon, son of Solomon L. Hixon, is one of those who, when his country needed his services, did not hesitate to risk his life as a soldier for the preservation of the Union. He was born in Portage county, Ohio, and was brought by his parents to Indiana when an infant, of which section he has been a resident since April 4, 1834. He received a common-school education, and like many of the practical business men of to-day, he was reared a farmer, which occupation he followed until he was over thirty years of age. On August 16, 1862, in the stalwart prime of his manhood, he enlisted at Middlebury in the Twenty-first Indiana Battery, of which W. W. Andrews was captain, and was soon after detailed for service on the gun-boat, "Orient," plying on the Cumberland River, Lieut. Pat- ton being commander of this vessel. This service was principally against the guer- rillas who infested Tennessee and were a great injury to the Union army. Mr. Hixon was in many skirmishes with these desperate and lawless characters, and many of the scenes and incidents connected with this exciting warfare are impressed upon his mind with a vividness which is still unimpaired, and he possesses a fond of interesting reminiscences which he relates in the off-hand manner of the old soldier. One one occasion, while the "Orient " was passing under a rocky precipice, at least 150 feet high, the guerrillas poured a galling tire upon her decks from their mus- kets. A brave but foolhardy Confederate officer exposed himself upon a high rock and lustily cheered his men to encourage them to capture the boat. He was shot through the heart by one of the Union sharpehooters and sprang from the precipice at least ten feet into midair and fell heavily through the top of a cedar growing in a crevice of a rock into the water 150 feet below. His face and figure were im- printed on the mind of Mr. Hixon with the distinctness of a photograph, and can plainly be recalled to this day. In one of their skirmishes with the rebele, on March 25, 1863, Mr. Hixon was in charge of two guns, and after the first discharge, while in the act of reloading one of the pieces, it prematurely discharged and shot away Mr. Hixon's right arm. The gun was badly rusted and honey-combed in the breach, so that kernels of rice could have been dropped into it and sparks of fire had thus been retained. Gen. Crook, then commander of the entire left of Rosecrans' army, then at Carthage, Tenn., afterward examined the gun and told Mr. Hixon that the accident was entirely the result of the defective gun and that it should long before have been condemned, for such carelessness was the cause of maiming many a good officer. After receiving this wound, Mr. Hixon refused to go to the hospital, but secured a private room at Carthage, Tenn., of a lady who was a bitter Confederate and Southern sympathizer. but who kindly cared for him while recovering. He remained at that place until May 18, 1863, then went to the hos- pital at Gallatin, Tenn., and here was honorably discharged on account of his wounde, June 4, 1863, and returned home, where he arrived June 7, 1863. His last act for the Government before leaving the service, was assisting in the arrest of a notorions

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and desperate Confederate spy, named Wood. Mr. Hixon had rendered a service to a Union spy, called " Minnesota Jack," who was suffering from extreme exhaustion, after a severe and long continued fight with the Confederate scouts and guerrillas across the Cumberland River, by allowing him to lie down on his bed, after which this man handed Mr. Hixon his revolver and told him he wanted him to assist him in the capture and arrest of & Confederate spy who was then seated in & neigh- boring saloon, and to precede him thither. Mr. Hixon at once acquiesced and they immediately proceeded thither. With cocked revolver, Mr. Hixon opened the door and leveling his weapon at the spy, ordered him to throw up his hands. The spy, taken by surprise, did so, when the Union spy, exclaiming: "Shoot him if he moves his hands!" promptly shackeled him, the Confederate meanwhile remarking: " Billy, you've got me this time." Four revolvers were found on hie person and be was known to be one of the most resolute and fearless spies of the Confederacy. He met the usual fate of spies and four days later was shot. After his return home, Mr. Hixon resumed farming for one year and then began buying and selling grain and wool in Middlebury, and there, on July 15, 1865, he was married to Miss Nettie Curtiss, a daughter of Charles and Eunice (Creager) Curtiss, the father being a native of Vermont. To Mr. Hixon's union three children have been born: Eliza- beth A., born February 11, 1867; Fred, born March 3, 1870, and Edna, born March 13, 1873. Elizabeth married Dr. L. H. Conley, of Knox county, Ohio, and has three children. Fred has been well educated in the graded school of Middlebury, is a good business young man and is associated with his father in the banking business, to which the latter turned his attention on October 21, 1890. Mr. Hixon is a member of the G. A. R., O. & M. Foster Post, No. 172, and now fills the office of commander. He belongs to the civic society of the K. of P. and politically is & stanch Republican. He commands the unbounded respect of the community at large and has held the office of justice of the pesce continuously for twenty-two years. As a soldier he was prompt and reliable, and as a man of business, he is cousidered intelligent, shrewd and strictly honorable. His name for many years has been synonymous for integrity and good judgment, and has proven him- self one of the most capable and practical of banking men, and his institution holds the confidence of the entire public. His deposits are heavy and his capital large.

W. B. VANDERLIP. Twenty-five years ago a piano was a luxury enjoyed only by a few wealthy families, and the church choirs and parlors that could boast of an organ were not many. Now thousands of houses and choirs resound with the rich tones of the best instruments, and the change marks a revolution in musical educa- tion. In reviewing the cause of this revolution we are compelled to recognize the valuable influence of the trade in pianos and their precursors, cabinet organs, and the valuable work of Mr. W. B. Vanderlip, dealer in musical instruments at Elkhart, in elevating and systematizing the sale of all instruments. The instru- ments he has sold have been instructors, musical missionaries, winning their way into the hearts of the people, and inciting to such better appreciation of the noble art that they became teachers of all classes, and much of the results before us ie the high standard of musical culture established in the city and vicinity, and the enviable reputation of Elkhart in the musical circles of the country is due to the honorable and consistent efforts of Mr. Vanderlip. This gentleman has been a resident of the city for thirty-five years, and during that time his career as a busi- ness man and citizen has been above reproach. He built the first business house on the south end of Main street, which was then in the country, and afterward had five more business houses erected adjoining him. He engaged so actively in business that the people soon invested around him, and it was not long before a thriving town had started up. Mr. Vanderlip was born in Weatherfield Springs, Wyoming Co., N. Y., December 13, 1838, and his parents, George R. and Mary W. (Wiley) Vanderlip, were natives of Connecticut and Vermont, respectively. The ancestors

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were of German and Scotch descent. The mother was a first cousin of General Scofield and died in Californis in 1891, in her eighty-sixth year. The grandparents were well off financially. The maternal grandparents had one son, Perkins Wiley, who sat in the Vermont Legislature for thirteen years. George W. Vanderlip, father of subject, was a wool and cloth manufacturer. In 1847 he came West, making the journey through from Detroit in wagons, and settled in Mishawaka, St. Joseph Co., Ind., where he secured a position as foreman of Henry Johnson's woolen mills. He subsequently superintended John Harper's mills in South Bend, Ind., and was thus engaged for a number of years. Mr. Vanderlip contracted a cold and died with typhoid fever in the year 1852. To his marriage were born six children, five sons and one daughter, and his life was one of hardship and privation in providing for his family and keeping the wolf from the door. He received as compensation for his services $1.50 a day, and was obliged to take three-fourths of that in goods from the store of his employer. All his children are living, viz. : O. W., in Elkhart; George N., in California; John T., of San Francisco, Cal .; W. B., Elkhart; Frank, in California, and Mary, also of the Golden State. The original of this notice was but nine years of age when he came with his parents to St. Joseph county, Ind., and as he still wore aprons, the boys made fun of him and he took them off. His scholastic training was received in the public schools, such as they afforded in that day, and when sixteen years of age he was set to work in the woolen mills of South Bend. He operated two custom cording machines and received as compensation $8 per month and board. The first dress he bought for his mother he paid 10 cents per yard for, and the same goods can now be purchased for 4 cents per yard. He can now get $30 per month for making the same goods and yet it was then good old free-trade times. After working in the mill for one year, Mr. Vanderlip was bound out to a man in Mishawaka to learn the carriage-making trade, receiving $40 for his first year's servico. The following year he received $60, and the third year $80. After working nine months the firm broke up and he mounted a wagon and returned to his home. Following this he hired ont to L. W. Pickering for $18 per month and board, doing all kinds of ornamental painting, and continned with him until cold weather, when he entered the school-room where he remained that winter. The following spring he bought out a $400 stock and went to work for himself. He was engaged very actively as a painter and decorator and followed this successfully for twenty-three years, and his last work in that line was to fresco the Goshen Court-house, which is still there as good as new. About 1880 Mr. Vanderlip engaged in his present business and has succeeded beyond his most sanguine expectations in this occupation. He was the first man to engage in the business in Elkhart to exclusively handle musical instruments, and has Stein- way, Hardidad, A. B. Chase, Sterling and Webster pianos, Story & Clark, Sterling, Chicago Cottage, Hilstrom organs, and also handles all small instruments. He was one of the projectors of the Bucklen opera house and was its first secretary, serv- ing in that capacity for two years. He decorated the building and is still a stock- holder. Mr. Vanderlip is also a stockholder in the Driving Park and is half owner of a cattle ranch in Arizona, at Flag Staff. He and his partner have about 1,500 head of cattle. Our subject is also the owner of several business blocks and is one of the wealthy, substantial men of the place, all the result of his own industry and good management. He owns a number of dwelling houses in the city and an elegant home at the corner of Second and Harrison streets. Mr. Vanderlip may very truly be termed & self-made man, for he came to Elkhart without a dollar, and all he has obtained in the way of this world's goods, has been the result of industry and economy. He was married in 1859 to Miss Belle Hammond, and the fruits of this union were four children, as follows: Lorena, Frank, Leona and W. B., Jr. Mr. Vanderlip has shown his appreciation of secret organizations by becoming a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has reached the degree of Knight Templar. He was the first chancellor commander. He and wife are members of the Episcopal

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Church and are worthy and much esteemed citizens of the town in which they reside. They take an active interest in all enterprises for the good of the county, and are well worthy the respect of all.

JOHN H. SMITH is an intelligent and enterprising gentleman who from boyhood has been interested in agricultural pursuits. He ia a thorough master of his busi- ness, has spent many years of his life in developing the country and is in comfort- able circumstances. He was born in Sussex county, Del., September 29, 1809, a son of Cannon and Charlotte (Handy) Smith, who were also born in Delaware. Cannon Smith was reared in his native State and during his younger days spent a portion of his time on the ocean. At the time of his marriage he engaged in farm- ing and this occupation received his attention the balance of his life. His wife was a daughter of John and Elizabeth Handy, who were born and spent their lives in Delaware. In the spring of 1828 Cannon Smith and family emigrated west, stop- ping a short time in Delaware, Ohio, where a brother resided at that time, but in the fall went to Cass county, Mich., and the winter of 1828-9 was spent on the northern border of Beardsley's Prairie in a log cabin which Mr. Smith erected. In the following June land in that vicinity came into market and Mr. Smith entered 160 acres in the southwest part of Beardsley's Prairie. The winter of 1829-30 was spent in the log cabin in which they had resided the previous winter, near which Mr. Smith had rented some land. In the fall of 1829 he began the erection of a house on his own land, which was completed the following spring and the family at once moved into it. It was a frame structure and Mr. Smith himself did the hewing and sawing of the materials, and while the lumber was not finished with modern machinery, and was somewhat rough compared with that of the present day, the building wasa substantial, comfortable structure and was the first building of the kind erected in that section, and one of the very best. The land which he owned was in its native state, and before it could be developed the family had to undergo many privations and hardships. Mr. Smith waa successful in his under- takings and before his death, which occurred on the old homestead in August, 1844, he had accumulated over 1,000 acres of land. He was a great worker and it was due to this, more than to anything else, that his death occurred when it did. His wife survived him until the spring of 1869. They were the parents of ten children : John H., Wesley, Cannon, Lydia and Emeline being the only ones now living. John H. Smith was about thirty years of age when his parents settled in Cass county, Mich., but prior to that time he had received a common-school education in his native State and was brought up by his father to be industrious, economical and honest. At the age of twenty-three years he bought a farm of his own in Cass county, Mich., on which he lived a few years, then diposed of it to a good advantage and purchased 160 acres on the State line in Cass county, and joining the farm on which he now resides. It was in January, 1842, that he settled on his present farm, which now consists of 253 acres, 200 of which are under cultivation. In June, 1832, he volunteered his services to fight the Indiana under Gen. Williams, for which purpose he marched as far as Chicago. He was out ahout one month but did not take part in any engagements. Chicago at that time consisted of a few houses and a great deal of marsh land. Mr. Smith was married January 3, 1833, near Adams- ville, Mich., to Clarissa Beardsley, born near Columbus, Ohio, October 14, 1814, and daughter of Darius and Dorothea (Cone) Beardsley, the former a native of Connecticut, and the latter of New York. Mr. Beardsley was a pioneer of Cass county, Mich, for there he settled in January, 1832, having been a resident of Butler county, Ohio, for thirteen years previous. He was frozen to death in the winter of 1832-3 on his way home from Edwardsburg, being found in the snow three days after, only a short distance from his home. His widow survived him several years. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith thirteen children have been born, the follow- ing of whom are living: Edward, Henry, Walter, Cannon, Angeline A. and Ann H. Those deceased are: Catherine, Charlotte, John, Harriet, Havilah and

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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 39

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

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