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 97

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 97
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 97

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county, which Mrs. Conrad's father had entered, and built thereon a log cabin, after which they at once set to work to improve the place. On that farm Mr. Con- rad resided until his death, December 8, 1883. In church matters he was always ready to lend a helping hand, in fact, all worthy enterprises found in him a hearty supporter. He was well posted on the current topics of the day, and the principles of the Democratic party recommended themselves to his excellent judgment, and by that party he was elected to a number of positions of trust in Jackson township. His thrift and industry won him good returns, he acquired valuable property, and throughout his life manifested great interest in his home. He was conscientious and public spirited and a valuable and useful citizen. From the age of sixteen years he had to depend upon his own resources, so with truth may be called a self-made man. His wife died at her home in Jackson township November 2, 1886. For twenty-five years before her death she was a member of the German Baptist Church, and up to the time of her death was a trne helpmate to her husband. She bore her husband four children: David, born March 12, 1846; John, born January 13, 1849, who now lives in Union township, a farmer and a man of family; Susan, born June 7, 1851, and died December 1, 1852, and Sarah E., born June 2, 1854, and died September 24, 1854. Mrs. Conrad was a noble mother to her children and in every respect a true Christian and a considerate and generous neighbor. David Conrad, her son, attended the home school and also several terms of the Goshen High School, and received a good practical business education. He taught one winter term of schoo in Union township with good success, and until he attained his majority assisted his father on the home farm, after which he went to Illinois and spent several months. He then returned to Indiana and married Irene Wyland, who was born in Miami county, Ohio, May 26, 1845, being one of eleven children reared by Daniel and Margaret (Howard) Wyland, who moved to that section from Pennsylvania, their marriage taking place in Greene county, where the mother was reared, although she was born in Maryland. After the celebration of their union they settled in Miami county, Ohio, where all their children were born, the youngest being five years of age at the time of their removal to Indiana in 1850. They took up their residence on a farm in Jackson township, Elkhart county, where they lived for a number of years, later moving to Concord township, where the father paid the last debt. of nature in 1882. The mother had died in 1865, both being worthy members of the German Baptist Church. The father was a Democrat and a well-to-do farmer. His children are as follows: Mary A., wife of Owen Cromer, of Troy, Ohio; Susanna, wife of Simon Miller, of Milford, Kosciusko county; George, who is married and lives in Shelby county, Ohio; Jane, who is the wife of Thomas Yates, of Goshen; Harriet, who is the wife of Henry Yates, of Kosciusko county; Catherine, who was the wife of George Wertz, of Oregon, but who died in 1884, leaving one child; Margaret, the widow of John Schreckenganst, who was a soldier in the Civil war, lost two children; Moses, a resident of Jackson township; John, who also resides there; Irene, the wife of David Conrad; and Elizabeth, who is the wife of John Whitehead, of Jackson township. After his marriage Mr. Conrad became a resident of the farm on which he now lives, which be has greatly improved and nicely cleared. It is one of the neatest and best kept places in the county and the buildings are exceptionally fine. There are in all 170 acres which he is tilling, and in addition to this much of his time is devoted to the raising of a good grade of stock, for he has found it a congenial and profitable business. He is well known as a prominent member of the Democratic party, and for twenty years has held the office of township assessor. He is interested in church, school and public matters generally, and socially is a member of the American and State Horticultural Society. Mr. Conrad has been successful as a financier and is considered an exceptionally good judge of stock. He has been a prosperous lumberman, and in this branch of business has made much of his money. He and his wife have a family of five children: William, who was born September 29, 1868, lives on the farm in Jackson township and is

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married to Rose Weaver, a daughter of David Weaver a pioneer of Union township (in politics William is a Democrat); George B., who is now in Dakota, but makes his home with his father, was born July 31, 1870, and is also a Democrat; Mary E., born April 28, 1873, is still at home; Leroy A. was born March 20, 1880; and Delts Hazel, January 31, 1885. Mr. Conrad has traveled a great deal throughout the United States and has made the most of what he has seen and heard, and can recount his experiences in s graphic and plessing manner.

JOHN H. RARICK. This gentleman, whose residence is in Elkhart township, is a prominent farmer, stockraiser and horse breeder, and his fine farm, attests by its thrift and productiveness, the excellent qualities of thoroughness and system which mark the owner. He inherits all his industry and enterprise from his German ancestors, no doubt, and is progressive and thoroughgoing in a marked degree. His father, John Rarick, was born in Pennsylvania and was married in that State to Miss Barbara Heater. Ten children were the fruits of this union: Elizabeth, Catherine, Mary, Nancy, Sallie, Eliza, George, John, Eli and Noah. At an early date Mr. John H. Rsrick moved to Montgomery county, Ohio, and was engaged in tilling the soil there until 1848, when he moved to Elkhart county, Ind., settling four miles west of Goshen. He became the owner of s good farm and resided on the same the remainder of his days, dying when seventy-two years of age. He was s Lutheran in his religions belief and a man universally respected. His father was a native of Maryland and was a saddler by trade. Our subject was born in Mont- gomery county, Ohio, December 23, 1818, and had but a limited common-school education in the old subscription schools of his day. He was reared on a farm and married Miss Esther Kritzer, who was born on the 27th of September. 1825, and who was a daughter of Jacob and Catherine (Baisler) Kritzer. Nine children were born to our subject and wife as follows: Noah, born September 24, 1852; Caroline, . born February 8, 1853; Catherine, born May 3, 1856; Mary, born October 3, 1857; George, born February 21, 1859; Jonathan, born June 25, 1862; Martha, born October 8, 1863; Sarah, born June 14, 1865; and Hariet, born June 7, 1867. Our subject had s brother, Noah, who served in the Civil war and was killed st the battle of Vicksburg, and he named his eldest son after this brother. Soon after marriage, or in 1845, Mr. Rarick moved to Elkhart county and settled on eighty acres of wild land, covered with heavy timber in Harrison township. He began at once to improve and clear his farm, and after many years of hard work and great industry he cleared up a good farm. To the original tract he added from time to time until he owned 300 acres. In 1880 Mr. Rarick moved to his present farm, consisting of seventy- four acres, but still owns the original tract in Harrison township and eighty acres in Union township, making 554 acres in all. He has been engaged extensively in the raising of horses, keeping at one time three Belgian stallions, costing $6,000. He sold two of them and now keeps one weighing 1, 800 pounds, an imported horse and one of the best in the county. Mr. Rarick is a self-made man and owes all his prosper- ity to his own exertions and those of his excellent wife. He is one of the wealthy and influential men of his section and has made all his property by economy and self-denial. He has been honorable and upright in all his dealings and stands high in the estimation of all ss a citizen and neighbor. Both he and wife hold member- ship in the Lutheran Church, and he was at one time elder in the same. In politics he advocates the principles of the Democratic party. His daughter, Caroline, married John Searer, a farmer of Elkhart county; Mary married George Neterer, a farmer of Elkhart township, and is the mother of three children; Catherine married Erias Snyder, a farmer of Elkhart connty, and has four children; and Martha mar- ried Abraham Searer, a farmer of Harrison township, and has two children.

JAMES M. LATTA. His earliest known ancestor was an Irish nobleman whose es- tates were near Donegal, Ireland. William, his son, emigrated to America in 1740 and settled first in New Jersey, subsequently in Westmoreland county, Penn. He served during the Revolution in Morgan's cavalry. Robert, his fourth son, Was

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born in Greensburg, Westmoreland Co., Penn., April 28, 1773, and married Isabella Johnston, an aunt of the governor of that State, on April 28, 1792, and emigrated to Champaign county. Ohio, where his family of four sons and four danghters were born and raised. In 1830 he visited Indiana and bought 6,400 acres of land in the now famous Haw Patch region, lying in Noble and La Grange counties. He was a man of warm impulses, a great student with remarkable executive ability, which was illustrated by his colonizing his vast purchase of land, by selecting one or more young married men of almost every profession and trade (excluding the legal pro- fession) and presenting each of them with a deed to eighty acres of this land on con- dition they emigrate with him and live on the land, thereby surrounding himself with a completed community from the start. He did not neglect the ministry, for which he erected a church building at his own cost, also a school-house. The wis- dom of his selection was shown in the fact that not one abandoned bis trust. He was the arbitrator in all disputes, and none thought of an appeal to the courts from his decision. He also held scholarships in the leading institutions of learning of the State which he dedicated to the use of the children of his colony-excluding hia own grandchildren. He was a man of very distinguished appearance, being six feet four inches in height and weighing 300 pounds, straight as an arrow, temperate in all things but his temper, with smooth shaven face of sublime benignity, pink-white complexion and clear grey eyes. After living twenty-six years on the land he settled, and witnessing the fruition of his cherished plans, he died April 28, 1859. His wife survived him many years and died at the age of eighty-seven years. They were both members of the Methodist Church. He was an ardent Whig in politics. Will- iam, his second son, was born November 6, 1801, died November 6, 1847. He married November 26, 1826, Matilda Prudence Layton, of Clark county, Ohio, and in 1828 emigrated to Elkbart county, Ind., and settled on the land on which he died, now the home of the subject of this sketch. He was judge of probate for a number of years, a director and vice-president of the State Bank, was one of the prime movers in projecting what is now known as the Lake Shore & Michigan South- ern Railroad and its first president, and contributed largely to the early development of the country. He was a member of the Methodist Church, and in politics a Whig. He was a man of good business judgment and at the time of his death was con- sidered one of the wealthiest men in the county. His wife survived him many years, dying in 1872. They had a family of eleven children. The subject of this sketch was the second son, born July 4, 1833. His youth was spent at hard work on the farm. After receiving an academic education he entered the law school at Pongb- keepsie, N. Y., and later Harvard University, after which he began practicing law at Goshen, Ind., in partnership with James M. Defree. On the breaking ont of the war of the Rebellion he was appointed legal adviser of the Tax Commission of Florida, which position he held for three years. He was also the civil provost marshal of Geor- gia, South Carolina and Florida during most of that time. On September 22, 1864, he married Elizabeth Potter Jack, of Greensburg, Penn., whose father served many years in the lower house of Congress, as also on the bench. and whose grandfather was an officer in the Revolutionary war. It was a singular incident his selecting his wife from the town in which his grandfather was born more than ninety years pre- vious. After the war he located in Washington, D. C., in the practice of his pro- fession, but soon became interested in real estate, to which he subsequently devoted his entire attention with conspicnous success. He bought the old homestead and has added to it in area and improvements until it is the finest conntry seat in north- ern Indiana, known as "Fairlawn." His energy and enterprise have been far- reaching, having furnished the entire wooden material for 550 miles of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in New Mexico and Arizona, supplying horses for the United States Government for the war in Utah; owns extensive cattle ranches in New Mex- ico, a business block in the heart of Kansas City, Mo., and very valuable pieces of property in Chicago: is the chief owner, and for some time president, of the Gas

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Company of Albuquerque, N. M. ; president of the Muskegon Machine & Foundry Company of Michigan; president of the City National Bank of Goshen; president of the Pottawattomie Club; president of the Gas Company and of the Citizens Electric Company; was oue of the founders of the Ariel Bycicle Company, and its first presi- dent, etc. He has always been a Republican in politics, never very active and never held a political office. In 1873 he visited Europe as a special commissioner to the Vienna Exposition. After spending fourteen years in Washington he moved to Boston, where he spent six years in educating his family. Mr. Latta has been sig- nally successful in all his business enterprises and very happy in his domestic relations, to which he now devotes most of his time. He has a family of five sons and one daughter. The benefactions of his wife and himself, especially to the Episcopal Church, have been conspicuous, not alone in Goshen, where his wife gave the ground and built the beautiful parsonage at a cost of $4,500 and liquidated most of the debt of the church, but in other places and in many ways.

DR. J. B. GREENE is a successful follower of AEsculapins at Mishawaka, and through ability and well-merited success he has built up a practice that is eminently satisfactory. He was born in what is now Fremont, Ohio, on the site of old Ft. Stevenson, May 29, 1843, 8 son of John L. and Maria R. (Du Comb) Greene, the former a native of St. Lawrence county, Ohio, and the latter of French descent. This family is related to the famous Gen. Nathaniel Greene, of Revolutionary fame, and also to Eleazer Greene, who was a captain in the continental army during that war. The paternal grandfather was a soldier in the War of 1812. The grandfather re- moved from New York to Ohio in 1816, taking with him a man by the name of Abra- ham Garfield and a woman named Mary Ballou. They settled in Cuyahoga county, where Mr. Garfield and Miss Ballou were afterward married and became the par- ents of James A. Garfield, the murdered President. Mr. Greene purchased 240 acres of land bounded on the north by Lake Erie, on the west by Cuyahoga River and on the south by what is now Superior street, Cleveland. This tract of land he afterward sold for $1,000 and was very glad to get that price, but at the present time it is worth millions of dollars. He then removed to what was known as the Black Swamp in Sandusky county, Ohio, where he lived until his death in 1863. His wife was a Miss Lynde, daughter of Capt. Lynde, who was captured by the Algieriane and held as a slave until released by Commodore Perry. The wife of Mr. Lynde W88 8 sister of Benjamin Franklin. The maternal grandfather of Dr. J. B. Greene was a sea captain and was the first American sea captain to run the British blockade into Philadelphia in 1812. His wife was a daughter of Christopher Irik, and was de- scended from the famous Stuart family of Scotland, and was on the vessel that con- veved Prince Charlie, immortalized in history and song, across the water. John L. Greene, the father of Dr. Greene, was for many years common pleas judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Ohio; waa a State senator and United States commis- sioner and held other prominent and well-merited positions. After a career of useful- ness he died in 1879. His widow died on her seventy-fifth birthday in 1889. They reared their twelve children to maturity, and although two are now deceased they lived to be over forty years of age: Daniel, who was a soldier in the Mexican war, resides in Arkansas City, Kan., and is sixty-two years of age; Charles is a resident of the State of Washington; Frances E. (Graves) resides in Grand Rapids, Mich. ; Louise S. (Hutson) is a resident of Belleville, Ohio; John L. lives in Fremont, Ohio, is judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit; Minnie D. (Butman), of Fremont, Ohio; George S. (deceased); Dr. J. B .; Vincent D. is superintendent of the Electric Light system of Toledo, Ohio; F. L. (deceased) was president of the constitutional conven- tion of Montana and also of Oklahoma, died at the residence of Dr. Greene in 1890; M. S. is a resident of Anaconda, Mont .; and Margaret (Turck) is a resident of Denver. The subject of this sketch was brought up in Fremont, Ohio, and at the early age of thirteen years, his father being unfortunate in financial matters, he was thrown upon his own resources. He began working for a man by the name of Louis

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Leppelman, a wholesale jeweler and clock dealer of Fremont, Ohio, but received scarcely anything but bis board as compensation. During the three years that he remained thus employed his nights were spent in hard study, for under the able in- struction of Dr. J. B. Rice, now deceased, be began the study of medicine. In February, 1863, he enlisted in Company F, Third Ohio Cavalry, and was soon pro- moted to hospital steward. In 1864, after the battle of Nashville, he was made acting second assistant surgeon and in 1865 was commissioned surgeon of the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh United States Colored Infantry, but did not accept the position. He retired from the service in November, 1865, and at once returned to the Cleveland Medical College, from which he graduated in February, 1867. He then came directly to St. Joseph county, Ind., and after nine months' practice in Wood- land, he took up his residence in Mishawaka, being now the third eldest practitioner, in point of residence in the county. He has been remarkably successful as a healer of the sick, and has ever commanded a large patronage. In 1874 he was nominated for the position of county recorder, but was defeated. On various occasions he has been proffered offices of different kinds, but has always respectfully declined, as the turmoil and contention of the political arena had no charms for him. In 1889- 90 he was medical director of the G. A. R., department of Indiana, and has been chair- man of congressional and county conventions many times. The Doctor is a strong Re- publican and has always been an active worker for his party. In 1890 he graduated from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and at present is a member of the St. Joseph Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical So- ciety, the American Medical Association and is also an honorary member of the Illinois State Medical Association, the Michigan State Medical Association, the Mississippi Valley Medical Society and a fellow of the American Electro Ther- speutical Association. He is a contributor to a great many medical journals, and keeps thoroughly apace with the progress made in the medical world. For the last six years his practice has been contined almost exclusively to diseases of the pel- vis and abdomen, and up to date he connts 132 laparotomies with but ten deaths. He has made special calle into California, Montana, Georgia, Washington City, Ohio, Michigan and Canada, which serves to show that his reputation is not merely local. He has done some very delicate work in the city of Chicago, and has been offered eminent positions in different institutions throughout the country, but has invariably refused them. In January, 1868, he was married in Mishawaka to Miss Mary E. Hagey, by whom he has three living children: Philip D. Marie R. and Grace. Emma died in infancy. The Doctor is a member of the G. A. R., the A. F. & A. M., the K. O. T. M., is examiniog surgeon in the latter organization, also for the Catholic Knights of America and several insurance companies. In the brief outline here given it has been difficult to describe the Doctor's character. The lights and shades can be understood only by those who come in contact with the man un- der various circumstances. It is also difficult to point out the exact traits to which he owes success. Tenacity of purpose has certainly been one of his most distin- guishing traits. Despite obstacles which to many would seem ineurmountable, he pushed his undertakings to a successful issue, and success crowned his efforts. He is eminently the type of the progressive American citizen, and has won the friend. ship of all who know him either in a professional or social way.

SAMUEL MOYER is a real estate dealer and treasurer of the Electric Galvanic Belt Company, of Elkhart, enjoys the highest of reputations for honorable methods and sterling integrity, and is greatly aided in maintaining that high standard of financial probity for which the real estate market of the place is noted. He was born in Ash- land county, Ohio, October 2, 1842, to Daniel and Catherine (Swartz) Moyer, native Pennsylvanians, who were of German ancestry. The paternal grandfather, Samuel Moyer, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and by occupation was a farmer, a calling he followed in Pennsylvania until his death. Samuel Moyer was born in 1770 in Bucks county, Penn., was married to Sophrana Sechler, 1792. Their union was

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blessed with ten children. In 1819 his wife died, and in 1821 he emigrated to But- ler county, Penn, with his family. He was again married, to Susan Boyer, and had three children. In 1851 he died at the age of eighty-one years. The names of his children are: Debora, who married David Shaner, and had six children; Benjamin, who married Mary Boyer, and had eight children; Sarah, who married George Boyer, and had fifteen children; Samuel, who married July Ann Rice, and had eighteen children; Catherine, who married Abraham Tinsman, and had eleven chil- dren; Jacob, who married Lyda Shaner, and had sixteen children; Abraham, who married Martha Trausue, and had eight children; Mary, who married Samuel Boyer, and had six children; Elizabeth, who married William Lutz, and had nine children; Daniel, who married Catherine Swartz, and had five children; Joseph, who married Rebecca Rice, and had four children; Susan, who married Henry Bixler and had four children; Nancy, who married David Bookwalter, and had three children. Daniel Moyer followed in his worthy father's footsteps, and throughout life tilled the soil, an occupation he found congenial and therefore profitable. He removed with his family by wagon to Ashland county, Ohio, where they remained until 1848, when they packed their household goods and started overland to Elkhart county, Ind., where they purchased an eighty-acre tract of land, for which $12 per acre was paid. This acreage he afterward greatly increased, and became the owner of a large amount of land. In 1864 he started to Canada on a ministerial trip, being sn earnest and eloquent minister of the Mennonite Church, but was killed in a railroad accident near Hillsdale, Mich. His widow died in 1884, having borne him five children, four of whom are living: William, Samuel, Daniel and David. Samuel was but six years of age when he came to Elkhart county, and in his early life became inured to hard labor on the farm. He continued to follow the plow nntil 1882, having for fifteen years prior to this time been a resident of Cass county, Mich. At the above mentioned date the city of Elkhart became his home, and for three or four years be discharged the duties of street commissioner. In the spring of 1892 he, with E. P. Willard, embarked in the real estate business, which they still successfully carry on. He is the owner of considerable town property, and they are also joint proprietors in one of the most wonderful inventions of the age-that of an electric belt. an account of which will be found in another part of this work. As a real estate dealer Mr. Moyer is thoroughly posted in his locality, and has a complete and intimate knowledge of every section, and those contemplating the purchase of property can fully rely upon his sound judgment and judicious advice to secure the most desirable and remunerative investments. In March, 1865, he was married to Miss Maria I. Funk, by whom he has one child living whose name is Mason and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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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 97

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

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