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 4

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 4
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 4

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MEMOIRS OF INDIANA.

the business of the district, owing to the ill health of his predecessor, was two years behind and in a chaotic condition; but in a little more than a year, so hard did he work, the docket was cleared and so remained until the end of his term. His decisions were noted for their fidelity to just principles and law and few were ever reversed by the Supreme Court-never a criminal case. No other circuit judge of the State was more prompt in the discharge of his duties than Judge Mc- Bride.

In 1890 he removed to Elkhart and the same fall was a candidate on the Repub- lican State ticket for judge of the Supreme Court, but went down with the entire Re- publican ticket in defeat. On December 17, 1890, he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court by Gov. Hovey to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Mitchell. He is a member of the board of trustees of Depauw University and as- sisted in organizing the National Guard of the State and was the first lieutenant colonel of the Third Regiment of Infantry and is second colonel. He is a Thirty-second de- gree Mason, past eminent commander of Apollo Commandery No. 19, at Kendall- ville, a member of the Committee on Grievances and Appeals in the Grand Lodge, a member of the State Encampment of the G. A. R. and a member of the Grand Lodge of I. O. O. F., K. of P., and the A. O. U. W. He is an enthusiastic student of the natural sciences and is one of the best, if not the best, ornithologist and hotan- ist in northern Indiana, having pursued these studies as a recreation. He is also, and has been for more than twenty years, an active member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church.

On September 27, 1868, he was united in marriage to Miss Ida S., daughter of Dr. Chamberlain, of Waterloo, Ind., a lady of rare personal accomplishments, by whom he has four children: Daisy I., born September 25, 1869; Charles H., born November 10, 1871; Herbert W., born October 5, 1873, and Martha C., born February 13, 1876. No family in the State stands higher, socially or neighborly, and no citizen is held in deeper respect than Judge McBride. Mrs. McBride is at this time (1892) Department President of the Woman's Relief Corps Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic.

HON. GEORGE T. BARNEY, attorney at law and general insurance agent, was born April 10, 1822, at Willsboro, Essex County, N. Y., and is the oldest of four living children in a family of thirteen born to the marriage of Samuel Barney and Abagail Adsit. The father was a native of Whitehall, N. Y., and the mother of Willsboro, N. Y., their respective births occurring March 14, 1792, and August 3, 1798. Samuel Barney was also the name of George T. Barney's grandfather, and he, with his three brothers, Solomon, Charles and William, immigrated from Ireland to the colonies of America some years prior to the Revolutionary war. Solomon was the eldest of these brothers, at that time being about twenty years old, and all their immediate relatives being dead he determined, with his brothers, to seek home and fortune in the new world. They settled at Salisbury, Vt., induced to do so by old neighbors having previously crossed the Atlantic and were there doing well, and having been reared in an iron district the brothers engaged in that industry.

All the Barneys in this country are said to be the direct descendants of these four brothers. Samuel Barney, Jr., the father of the Barneys of Elkhart, was a mag- nificent specimen of physical manhood and was a "bloomer," or now known as an ironmaker, by trade. Taking great pride in his work he became an expert and commanded much higher wages than his fellow workmen. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. and the last twenty years of his life lived at Birmingham, Ohio.

George T. Barney, when ten years of age, moved with his parents to Ohio, and in youth secured only the limited education ofthe common schools. When fourteen years old he began life's battles upon his own responsibility, and from that time until attaining man's estate was engaged in carpentering, joining, coopering and kindred pursuits. In 1847 he moved to Kalamazoo, Mich., where, about two years later. he was elected constable. Succeeding this he received the appointment of Deputy

PICTORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL

United States Marshal, and, still later, Government timber agent for the northern district of Michigan. January 15, 1852, he married and moved to Marquette, and at the close of his term was appointed sheriff, and later was twice elected to that position, serving in all five years. He was then elected city recorder, in reality police judge, which he resigned in 1862 to recruit troops to put down the rebellion. Having served eighteen months in Company E, Fourth Ohio Infan- try during the war with Mexico, he was called upon to raise a company. This he did for the First Michigan Infantry and was elected captain; but owing to defective health his services were not accepted by the Government. In 1863 he moved to - Ligonier, Ind., where, with his brothers, he embarked in merchandising, continuing the study of law which he had begun in Michigan and where, while at Marquette, he had been admitted to the bar. In 1867 be removed to Elkhart, began the practice of law in conjunction with writing insurance, at which he has acquired a competency aud at which he is still engaged. Mr. Barney is a Knight Templar Mason, an En- campment Degree Odd Fellow. and was Grand Secretary of Grand Encampment of I. O. O. F. of Michigan. He is a Democrat, and besides having been elected to rep- resent Elkhart county in the lower house of the State Legislature, was elected and served six years as city judge of Elkhart. To his marriage with Mary A. Munsell, one son-George E .- has been born. Both Mr. and Mrs. Barney are members of the Presbyterian Church.

SAMUEL E. BARNEY, manager of the American Mutual Life Insurance Company, is justly recognized as one of Elkhart's foremost citizens. A native of Birming- ham, Erie Co., Ohio, his birth occurred December 16, 1833, being the youngest of thirteen children, four yet living, born to the marriage of Samuel Barney and Abi- gail Adsit, appropriate reference to whom is made in the biography of his brother. Hon. George T. Barney, which appears above in this volume. His youth and early manhood were passed in the county of his birth, during which time he was eo- abled to secure the rudiments of a fair practical education from the common schools, and in working at the various callings which seemed most remunerative, chiefly at farming, in a woolen mill and at cabinet making. When about eighteen years old he began teaching school and continued this interruptedly five terms, when he be- came a clerk at Defiance, Ohio, and later bookkeeper for a merchant at Napoleon. In order to better equip himself for business he took a course of instruction at a com- mercial college in Cincinnati, and then, with the expectation of learning teleg- raphy. started for St. Louis. While en route on an Ohio River steamer he met and formed the acquaintance of Maj. Gen. Rawlings, of Mound City, Ill., and one of the well-known men of the State. Imagining that Mound City was a place of con- siderable importance, through the representation of Gen. Rawlings, he was induced to abandon his St. Louis expedition in order to identify himself in business at this place; but instead of a city, or even a thrifty village, he found one large store owned by Gen. Rawlings and but little else. The prospect for a town was so good that young Barney determined to give it a trial as a home, especially as he was offered a position of clerk and private secretary for Gen. Rawlings, who, although a man of much natural ability and doing an immense business, was possessed of but little or no educa- tion. The place grew rapidly in importance, and besides filling his position with satis- faction, Mr. Barney was elected city clerk, superintendent of a branch railway and was appointed assistant postmaster. After remaining with Gen. Rawlings over two years, he associated himself as a partner in the dry goods trade upon his own responsibility, but after three years' residence in Mound City sold his interest and in the winter of 1858 embarked in mercantile pursuits at Green Springs, Ohio. Three years later he moved to Ligonier, Ind., where he was engaged in merchandising five years. In January, 1867, he came to Elkhart, which has ever since been his home. He was one of the organizers and is the present treasurer and manager of the American Mutual Life Insurance Company of Elkhart, which under his wise management has assumed a prominence in insurance circles that reflects much credit on Mr.

MEMOIRS OF INDIANA.

Barney and upon the city. In his diversified business career there is one important item worthy of mention and of which the public is not aware. During the earlier years of Mr. Barney's manhood the country was flooded with "wildcat " and coun- terfeit money and proved a source of great annoyance and loss to merchants. Just as the poet or singer inherits the gift of their calling, and without being able to explain the reason why, just so Mr. Barney inherited the gift of detecting spurious currency, no matter how perfect the counterfeit, at sight. This gift was turned by him to practical use on more than one occasion, and he justly became authority on good and bad money. Although a Democrat in politics, Mr. Barney has never aspired to political preferment. He is slow to decide upon questions presented to him, but when once his position is taken it requires proof of the most positive char- acter to change his views. So stanch is he that many have unjustly attributed to him the term of "crank," when the exact reverse is the truth. While a believer in the principles of the Democratic party, he votes for men regardless of party affilia- tions in local affairs. Mr. Barney is a Mason and one of the city's prosperous busi- ness men. On the last day of December, 1863, Agnes E., eldest daughter of Rev. Joseph Adderly, of Mishawaka, became his wife and to this union these children have been born: Ernest Adderly, who died when seventeen months old; Richard Carlyle; Wade Hampton; Hugh Comyn (the original manner of spelling the family name of Cummings) and Terrence LeRoy.

ROBERT OWEN, born at Newton, Montgomeryshire, England, in 1771, married a Miss Dale, daughter of David Dale, in 1801, and died at the place of his birth No- vember 19, 1858. Although receiving bat a limited education he was a great reader, became a deep thinker and obtained renown as the great social reformer of the day. His early career was passed in commercial pursuits, and at eighteen was a stock owner in a manufacturing establishment; later he became owner of a large cotton factory at New Lanark, Scotland, where he introduced a sys- tem of reform which was not only successful at the time but became highly popular. Becoming an author of considerable note on his favorite topic, he pub- lished, in 1812, his "New Views of Society ; or, Essays Upon the Formation of Human Character," and later a work entitled "Book of the New Moral World." Throughout these writings he advocated modified communism, absolute equality in all rights and dnties and the abolition of all superiority, even that of capital and intelligence. His immense wealth and peculiar doctrines attracted numerous fol- lowers. In 1823, at his own expense, he purchased from the society of Harmonists, in Posey county, Ind., their possessions for $150,000, and peopling the district with his followers endeavored to make practical the views he held. The effort was an ab. solute failure. In 1827 he returned to Europe and at different places in Great Britain again attempted the establishment of communistic societies, with a similar result as that attained in the United States. In 1828, upon invitation from the Mexican Government, he resumed his efforts upon Mexican soil, but the result was failure as previously. He branched off into journalism and as a lecturer, at both of which he attained distinction because of the earnestness and intelligence with which he advo- cated his remarkable views. During his last years he became a believer in spiritu- alism and was a firm advocate of the precepts of that belief.

GEORGE M. BIRD is a dealer in coal, wood, lime, cement, salt, seeds and feed at the corner of Pigeon and Main streets, Elkhart, Ind., is conducting a business that has commended itself to the approval of the public for a number of years past. He is full of business life and energy and is trustworthy to a fault. He is a product of Clayton, Lenaway Co., Mich., where he first saw the light on the 2d of December, 1850. being one of four children born to the marriage of Reuben E. Bird and Caroline Canniff, the former a native of the Green Mountain State and the latter of New York. The father was a farmer and merchant by occupation. and in an early day emigrated to Michigan and was the founder of the town of Clayton. where he died. His widow now resides in the only house now standing in the town 3

PICTORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL

that was built when Mr. Bird first settled here. The surviving members of the family are: Chauncey N., George M., Lydia E. and John E. Three children are deceased. In the town of Clayton the boyhood days of George M. Bird were spent and there his education was obtained. When a mere youth he began traveling as a salesman and for a period of twenty years he was on the road, during which time he saw a great deal of the country and gained a wide and thoroughly practical experi- ence in the business affairs of life. At various times during his career he was in the employ of the following houses: C. K. Hawley, of Cleveland, Ohio; M. L. Hull, of Cleveland; Selling Bros., of Detroit, Mich .; May Bros., of Rock Island, Ill., with whom he remained nine years and for five years was with Burley & Terrill, of Chicago. After leaving the road he came to Elkhart and engaged in his present business, in which he has been remarkably successful, owing to the fact that he is prompt in filling orders, strictly honorable in every transaction and a genial and decidedly agreeable companion. His business increased so rapidly that he had to extend his premises, which kept him very busy in supplying the wants of his numer- ous patrons. He gives constant employment to a large force of men and has a number of teams that are kept constantly busy in delivering his goods to all parts of the city. Mr. Bird is well known in the business circles of the place, is rated high commercially and is esteemed as a public-spirited citizen. He is a Knight Templar in the A. F. and A. M. and is recorder of his lodge. In 1882 Miss Mollie Lyou, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, became his wife and their union has resulted in the birth of the following named children: Reuben A., aged eight years; Onlee M., aged three years, and Harrold C., aged one year.

WILLIAM D. MIDDLETON, proprietor of the Elkhart Business College and Short- hand and Typewriting Institute, has been very successful in his chosen field of labor, for he has administrative capacity of a high order, is full of expedients and his mind is always on his work and his heart in it. The school over which he presides is never allowed to stagnate or to become disorderly, and as he possesses a genial and kindly disposition there are few among either pupils or associates who do not esteem him as a friend. He was born in St. Joseph county, Ind., near South Bend, December 23, 1843, a son of William and Rebecca (Gillam) Middleton, who emi- grated from Ohio and located in St. Joseph county, Ind., during the early history of that section, being among its pioneers. The father was a farmer and carpenter, but he and the mother have for a number of years been deceased. William D. Middleton was the fifth of the seven children born to them, and obtained his educa- tion in the schools of Warren and Marion counties, Iowa, and in Bryant & Stratton's Business College of Indianapolis, Ind. On the 20th of June, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, Eighteenth Iowa Infantry, but owing to a severe spell of typhoid fever he was unfitted for further duty and was discharged from the service February 28, 1863. After his recovery he joined Company K of the Ninth Michigan Cavalry, enlisting April 1, 1863, with which regiment he served until the war closed. In the siege of Atlanta he was captured and taken to Andersonville prisou, in which and other prisons he was confined for a period of seven months. He remained in cap- tivity until the war closed and suffered all the privations and hardships which were the lot of those confined in that foul pen. He was in twenty-six pitched battles, but fortunately was never wounded. He returned home with the rank of first ser- geant and at once began learning the mason's trade, at which calling he worked during the summer and devoted his attention to teaching school during the winter months for several years. Owing to failing health he was compelled to abandon manual labor and turned his attention solely to teaching, for which calling he had always had a liking and natural aptitude. The professor has called Elkhart his home for forty-three years and during this time he has been one of its most sub- stantial and enterprising citizens. In 1887 he established his present school, and public education in Indiana has no more earnest advocate and co-operator than he. No one more thoroughly understands its needs and interests, and perhaps no one is

MEMOIRS OF INDIANA. 1142575

better qualified, through long experience and loving labor in its behalf, to bring it to that high state of perfection which its present rapid advancement assures. His school is carried on throughout the entire year and is recognized as one of the lead- ing business colleges in the country, for he has many pupils from Chicago and Indianapolis, as well as from all parts of the country. He is a member of the G. A. R. and Knights of Pythia -. On the 25th of March, 1866, he was married to Mrs. Isabella Morgan, of Branch county, Mich., by whom he has had three sons and five daughters.

DR. J. F. HARRIS is a skillful and well-known veterinary surgeon of Elkhart, Ind., who has attained to much skill in his calling and has won a reputation that is by no means undeserved. By years of patient study he has become thoroughly posted in all the branches of his profession and has found it not only profitable but also pleasing. He was born in Huron county, Ohio, August 26, 1836, to Andrew R. and Elizabeth (Laughlin) Harris, natives of York State and Pennsylvania respectively. The family came from the New England States, having originally come from Old Eng- land and were early settlers of this country. The paternal grandfather, Zurile W. Har- ris, was a soldierin the Revolutionary war, in which struggle the maternal grandfather, William Langhlin, also took part, and in the war of 1812 became an officer. In the history of the United States mention will be found of this colonel, his great uncle, Will- iam B. Matherson, who was colonel in the Mexican war. The Harris family were among the pioneer settlers of Ohio and in the county of Huron Zurile W. Harris carried on farming and the cooperage business quite extensively. He died in Seneca county, Ohio. The maternal grandfather settled in Pennsylvania and also tilled the soil, but subsequently removed to Richland county, Ohio, where he died. Andrew R. Harris was a cooper and farmer, which occupations he followed in Porter county, Ind., near Valparaiso, in the vicinity of which place he resided until his death. He and his wife became the parents of six sons and four daughters, of which family five members are now living: Dr. Joseph F. ; Washington R., who served in the Ninety- ninth Indiana Infantry, and was wounded in battle; VanBuren, who died in the late war, having held the rank of orderly sergeant; LaFayette (deceased) served one year in the civil war; Mary, Eliza J., Ella (deceased), Josephine, William (de- ceased), and Jackson (deceased). Dr. Joseph F. Harris, the subject of this biog- raphy, was principally reared in Richland and Wyandotte counties, Ohio, and re- ceived his education in both public and private schools. His spare moments were spent in wielding the hoe and following the plow on his father's farm, and while so doing he not only learned what hard work meant, but he also learned lessons of in- dustry, honesty and perseverance which have since been of material benefit to him in his walk through life. From his youth he has been a lover of horses, and after deciding to devote his time and attention to curing the ills horseflesh is heir to, he began working at the profession under Dr. Levi A. Cass, of Porter county, at Horse Prairie, nine miles southwest of Valparaiso. He also studied medicine for three years, but never practiced only in his own family. He has studied the horse patiently and perseveringly, and in his treatment of that noble animal has been uni- versally successful. In 1886 he came to Elkhart, Ind., of which city he has since been a resident, where he has built np a practice, although large, is constantly on the increase. In 1859 he was married in St. Joseph county, Ind., to Miss Rachel H. Paddock, by whom he has ten children: Albert A., Franklin, Sarah E., wife of William Riley, of Valparaiso; John, De Wain, Emery, James, Mary, Rebecca H. and Edward. The Doctor has never had a physician in his house except on two ceca- sions, when one of his sons had a leg broken and the other received a gun-shot wound through the stomach. The family are hale and hearty. Dr. Harris has two uncles (doctors) by the name of Cornelius and Milo Blachley. Blachley's Mill, Wayne Co., Ohio, is named after the doctors. also Blachley Corners. of Porter Co., Ind., where they lived fifty years and practiced medicine. Both are deceased. Dr. Cornelius carried on farming and owned a carding mill, grist-mill and saw-mill

PICTORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL

on Salt Creek in Porter county, Ind., at the time of his death. He raised eight children, four sons and four daughters. Que son, Napoleou B. Blachley, was shot in the Union army. Col. Dewitt Hodgton, his brother-in-law, was shot dead on the battlefield in the Union army. Three of the Blachleys married three sisters of the sub- ject's mother-two doctors and one farmer and carding-mill owner by trade.

ANDREW STEPHENS, funeral director and undertaker, Elkhart, Ind. The business in which this well-known gentleman is engaged is a very important one to society, and among its essential requirements it is important that its representatives shall be sympathetic, experienced and reliable. The business has been in successful opera- tion since 1854 and the establishment is well equipped with all articles pertaining to this line of business, and everything for the plainest or most imposing funerals can be readily furnished. Mr. Stephens is prompt in meeting his engagements, per- forms his duties with accuracy and propriety and he can always be depended on iu matters pertaining to the last rites of burial. Mr. Stephens was born in Dauphin county, Penn., May 29, 1832, a son of Andrew and Mary (Braden) Stephens, also natives of the Keystone State, and of English and Irish lineage. The father died iu January, 1832, having been a farmer throughout life and a soldier in the war of 1812. He had four sons and one daughter, of whom the subject of this sketch is the youngest. He remained in his native county until twenty years of age and, like a dutiful son, assisted his mother on the home farm and also at the trade of carpenter and joiner. In 1852 he moved with his mother westward and for three months was a resident of Steuben county, Ind., at the end of which time he came on to Elkhart county, and here Mr. Stephens began working at his trade, which he followed for two or three years, embarking in his present business in the spring of 1854. The firm was at first known as B. F. & A. Stephens, and continued such for about twenty- two years; then for three years was simply A. Stephens, and is now Stephens & Son. Mr. Stephens is one of the oldest business men of the city and during his long con- nection with mercantile interest has been honorable and upright in every respect and has made many friends by his straightforward course through life. At the time of his settlement the town was but a small hamlet of three or four hundred population, and almost the entire growth of the town and county has been witnessed by Mr. Stephens. He is a member of the Indiana State Undertakers' Association and Chosen Friends. In the early days of Elkhart he was a town trustee. He was mar- ried in 1860 to Miss Frances E. Hall, by whom he has four children: Lillie, Luella, Henry E. and Charlie A. He and his family attend the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he is a member.

PERRY L. TURNER. Of the younger element of our prominent, energetic and in- fluential citizens, none are better known than Mr. Perry L. Turner, one of the dis- tinguished attorneys of Elkhart. During the years he has practiced his profession here he has shown himself to be endowed with superior ability, and his comprehen- sive knowledge of the law, together with the soundness of his judgment, secured him almost immediate recognition at the bar. Since that time to the present he has so identified himself with the affairs of the place that its history can not be recorded with- out according him a conspicuous and honorable part. Mr. Turner is now acting as United States Commissioner, by appointment from the Hon. William A. Woods; is at present the efficient and popular attorney of the city of Elkhartand a member of the law firm of Chamberlain & Turner, both men of high moral character who are universally respected and esteemed. Mr. Turner is a native of the city of Elkhart, born in Osolo township, October 27, 1860, and is a son of Lyman and Tamar (Wilkinson) Turner, both of whom came to this country as early as 1849 and were here married. They became the parents of five children, one only, besides our subject, now living- Dr. Porter Turner. The father died October 19, 1888; the mother is still living. Our subject passed his youthful days in assisting his father on the farm, and supple- mented a common-school education by graduating from the high schools of Elkhart. Following this he took a select literary course at the University of Chicago and Val-

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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 4

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

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