USA > Indiana > Adams County > Standard history of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana : An authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 23
USA > Indiana > Wells County > Standard history of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana : An authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
In 1911 the Berne Witness Corporation outgrew its quarters in the Champion block and the old business property of Sam Kuntz and the lots on both sides of it were bought. The old fire-trap frame buildings were removed and a fire-proof structure was erected. The first floor is devoted to the office and the press room, as well as a stoek room. On the second floor are the composing room and the bindery department. After moving into the new quarters, a new model 8 linotype was added to the model 5, as well as other composing room equipment.
In September, 1911, the capital stock of the company was again increased to $30,000, and there it has remained to the present. In the same month the Witness made its appearance in a different form. as a tri-weekly, and has since eontinned to appear thus. With the ample quarters afforded by the new building, more business was solie- ited, and as a result the company is now printing thirteen different publications from various states. Besides, the job department has been improved to a higher effieieney so that a great deal of catalog and bul- letin work is being turned out by this department for various insti- tutions and societies in this and other states.
On March 1, 1915, in order that he might devote himself exelusively to the business end of the plant, Fred Rohrer, the founder and editor up to this time, resigned from the editorship, and C. T. Habegger, a graduate of Oberlin College, was elected to fill the vaeaney until June,
230
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
1916, when E. H. Sprunger was elected to fill the vacancy left by Mr. Habegger's election as business manager.
RELIGIOUS BODIES
There are four organizations at Berne actively engaged in religious work, and they are mentioned in the order of their accepted seniority -the Evangelical, the Mennonite, the German Reformed and the Mis- sionary churches.
THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH
As stated, the Evangelical Association organized the first congrega- tion, or society, within the limits of the village. In the fall of 1882 fifteen members of that faith met at the schoolhouse (now the Mission- ary Church Building) and, under the lead of Rev. George Roederer, organized a society. Andrew Gottschalk was elected class leader and Sunday school superintendent. Meetings continued to be held in the schoolhouse until 1887, when Abe Hocker built his brick blacksmith shop, with a hall on the second floor which he furnished free to the Evangelical Church. In 1900, when the $6,000 church was built which is now occupied by the society, the membership had reached nearly 100; now (December, 1917) it is 250. The following pastors have served the church since its inception : Revs. George Roederer, J. M. Dustman, A. K. Schaefer, J. E. Stoops, H. E. Overmeyer, Timothy Carrol, J. H. Evans, H. Steininger, J. W. Metzner, C. M. Pierce, D. E. Zechiel, D. B. Koenig, Frank Hartman, C. P. Maas, D. Alfred Kaley, J. O. Mosier and D. O. Wise.
FIRST MENNONITE CHURCH
The handsome and massive house of worship at Berne which is the home of its First Mennonite Church is in keeping with its strength and leadership as a religious body. It is the headquarters building of the national organization of the United States and, in age, is now in its sixth year. At the time of its dedication April 7, 1912, the "Men- nonite" published the following history of the local organization, which, it is needless to say, is authoritative :
"The Mennonite Church of Berne had its origin in the union of two independent congregations which existed in the wilderness of this community from the year 1838 the one, and 1852 the other until 1879, or strictly speaking until 1886, for it was not until then that the two
231
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
congregations, though having used the same church building alter- nately for many years, fully united as one congregation. There are nearly a score of people in the church still living who remember the building of the first church in 1856. Up to that year the meetings were held in the log cabins of the various members. The first church stood in the old little grave yard that is now being abandoned, and was fac- ing the east. It was torn down in the year 1880 and bought by David Sprunger for $25.00. With the lumber he built a number of horse sheds at the new church, which stood for 30 years.
"The oldest of the two original congregations were organized in 1838 by David Baumgartner. He was followed in the ministry by
THE MENNONITE CHURCH AT BERNE
Christian Baumgartner, Ulrich Kipfer, Matthias Strahm, and Chris- tian Augsburger. About the year 1857 or 1858 there was a three- cornered split in this church which caused some members to leave and join the Evangelical Association at New Ville, while Rev. Strahm and a few members went to the New Mennonites, then called 'froelich- anern,' and the balance held together with Christian Baumgartner and Ulrich Kipfer as pastors until Kipfer's death in 1866.
"In the year before, 1865, one Christian Augsburger, father of Aaron C. Augsburger in Berne, was also chosen minister, but in 1869 he associated himself with the Old Mennonites. Thus Rev. C. Baum- gartner was the only pastor of this church until 1871. The congrega- tion then had a church building in French Township. The other
232
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
branch, organized in 1852, had Peter S. Lehman, father of J. F. Leh- man, present Sunday school superintendent, as its first pastor, and then Christian Sprunger, 1856, Peter Habegger, 1865, and Peter Neuenschwander, 1876.
"Of all the preachers named thus far only the last one is still liv- ing. He seceded from the organization in 1879 or 1880 when the second church was built, because it was too stylish for him. He still has a congregation of his own, mostly his own household and relatives numbering in all between 25 and 30 members, who hold meetings in a small building on the Schweizer Schwander farm one-half mile west of Berne.
"All these ministers who served these early congregations were chosen to their important calling by lot, and this is the way it was usually done, after a certain Sunday had been designated as the day on which a new preacher was to be chosen.
"Any member of the congregation had the privilege of nominating any one as candidate for the lot, and nominations were continued until closed by a motion to that effect. Then they took a number of books, sometimes equal to the number of candidates nominated and sometimes one more, and in one of these books they placed a slip of paper, and set them in a row on a table or on the pulpit and made all candidates march by and take one of the books, and the one who happened to get the book with the slip of paper in it, was regarded as the one whom God had chosen to be the shepherd of His sheep.
"The last time a lot was cast in this way by the congregation here was in 1868 when it fell on S. F. Sprunger, then a young man with a vivacious disposition. Rev. Christian Baumgartner, pastor of the other congregation in French Township, came and ordained him, but before young Mr. Sprunger took up the preaching of the Word he went to Wadsworth, Ohio, and attended a Mennonite School for two years and a half to prepare himself for his life work. In doing this, however, he sinned in the eyes of the senior pastor, Rev. Christian Sprunger, and many members of the congregation, which had called him to the ministry; and consequently, when he returned from Wadsworth, in 1871, they refused to let him preach, because they did not believe in an educated ministry. On the other hand, Rev. C. Baumgartner, of the French Township society, was glad to open the doors of his church for him and listen to him. Also a certain per cent of C. Sprunger's congregation who went to French Township to hear S. F. Sprunger when he preached there, finally demanded that he be given the use of the church here on such Sundays when Christian Sprunger did not preach himself. Nearly all churches in those days
233
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
held meetings only every other Sunday. Thus Rev. S. F. Sprunger preached here and in French Township alternately for about ten years. Rev. Christian Baumgartner died in 1878 and a few years after that the French Township church was abandoned and the building sold.
"In 1879 a new church was built here and used alternately by Revs. Christian and S. F. Sprunger and their respective followers until 1886 when the two congregations fully united as one body. In the same year a large addition was built to the church, and two more in 1899, so that it easily seats 1200, and many times on special occa- sions sheltered from 1,500 to 1,600 people.
"On June 11, 1903, after having preached to the same people nearly every Sunday for thirty-three years, Rev. S. F. Sprunger re- signed on account of failing health, and on October 18th of the same year Rev. Christian Sprunger died. He had been unable to preach for many years prior to his death, and had lost all his faculties. In the meantime the congregation had seenred Rev. J. W. Kliewer, a young Russian Mennonite and graduate of the Theological Seminary at Evanston, Illinois, as its pastor and he proved a worthy successor of Rev. S. F. Sprunger whose place was hard to fill. It was he who urged the building of the new church as much as anybody else and laid the corner-stone on July 10, 1910, but was ealled away from this field before the church was completed, to accept the presidency of Bethel College, a Mennonite institution at Newton, Kansas."
A number of important and interesting facts must be added to complete the history of the First Mennonite Church of Berne. On Sunday, March 31, 1912, the last Sunday school was held in the old church, about 1,000 members and teachers being in attend- anee. Good Friday following marked the last gathering of the church society in the old home, and the new church was dedicated on Sun- day, April 7th. The evolutions from the old to the new included the following steps: Building of the first church in 1856; erection of the second, 1879; second old church enlarged in 1886 and 1899; corner- stone of the new church laid July 10, 1910, and dedicated on Easter Sunday, April 7. 1912. The total cost of the church property was more than $56,000, and of the building alone $52,000. The style of the edifiee is modernized Renaissance. It is built mainly of brick and its ground dimensions are 158 by 85 feet. For the accommodation of members who attend from a distance and must ride to the services a huge barn was constructed on the grounds 132 by 180 feet, inclosed under one roof.
The present pastor of the church is Rev. P. R. Schroeder, who sne- eeeded Rev. S. F. Sprunger in June, 1912. Mr. Sprunger is pastor
234
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
emeritus, but has retired from active work in favor of the younger man. The membership of the church is now 920. Among the various activities inaugurated by the congregation under Mr. Schroeder's ministry may be noted the organization of an Intermediate Christian Endeavor Society and a nursery for the care of children under four years, open for the Sunday morning services, both founded in 1913; and the commencement of English evening services in the spring of 1917.
THE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH
The Reformed Cross congregation of the German Reformed Church at Berne is about thirty years old, although the denomination had been represented in the country a few miles from the present site of the city since 1869. In December of that year Rev. F. Huellhorst, pastor of the Reformed Church at Vera Cruz, Indiana, organized a congrega- tion by that name and in the following year the members built a house of worship three miles southwest of Berne. It was served as a part of the Vera Cruz charge for almost thirty years, Revs. F. Huellhorst, A. Bollinger, Peter Vitz, J. Otto Vitz and Herman Heusser being its minis- ters. In 1888, during the pastorate of the last named, the old school building was bought for a house of worship to accommodate those who resided in the village. In the following year the two congrega- tions felt themselves strong enough to call a resident pastor, and Rev. A. Baeder located at Berne in that capacity. Since his time, the Re- formed Cross congregation has been served by Revs. B. Ruf, E. H. Vornholt, H. H. Kattmann and F. W. Hoernemann. The large brick church now occupied was completed in 1896, and is the home of 365 communicants.
THE MISSIONARY CHURCH
The Missionary Church at Berne, under the pastorate of Rev. S. J. Grabill, originated in the defection of John A. Sprunger from the Mennonite Church, in 1900, and the organization of the Light and Hope Society under his leadership. The movement was under the general control of the Christian Missionary Alliance and it was then that its members at Berne assumed the name by which the society is still known, the Missionary Church. Services were first held in the old Reformed Church. In the year named (1900) new congregations were formed both at Berne and about three and one-half miles west of the city.
235
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
JOHN A. SPRUNGER AND HIS ORPHANAGE
John A. Sprunger was one of the strongest and, in some ways, the most remarkable man who ever lived at Berne. Especially during the decade of 1880-90, his activities and his personality seemed to be every- where. He was a man of striking energy and enthusiasm, and what- ever he undertook completely possessed him. During the earlier period of his residence at Berne he devoted himself, with all his practical powers, to the material upbuilding of the community with which he had cast his lot. A native of Berne, Switzerland, and a son of Abra- ham B. Sprunger, who was also one of the prominent men of the coun- ty and town, he was brought to Ohio by his parents when an infant and soon afterward the family home was fixed on section 32, Monroe Township, just west of the present town plat. There he lived until he had reached his twenty-first year, farming and attending the German schools in the neighborhood. His first decided step toward independence was to "bny his time" of his father by giving his note for $100, and to engage in saw-milling and running a threshing machine. In the meantime the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad had commenced to open up the country and Berne had been platted and made some steps forward as a town; so much so, that in 1875 Mr. Sprunger established himself in the new place as a dealer in hardware and machinery. In 1876 he engaged in general building and erected a grain elevator and several residences at Berne. He commenced to deal in live stock during 1878-79, and in the latter year became a member of the firm of Sprunger, Lehman & Company, of which he was the manager-and surely a very active one. In 1883 he built what was then considered a very fine residence and in the following year erected the flour mills. In 1884-85 he erected twelve dwelling houses, and the Champion Block, then the most substantial business structure in Berne and in which his firm conducted its large business. In 1883 he built the Eagle Hotel, which added to the general standing of the town. In short, as intimated, for many years Mr. Sprunger was the dominat- ing force at Berne in all its business and industrial advancement.
At the height of such activities, the tide was turned into another channel. Mr. Sprunger had always been a leader in the Mennonite Church and its Sunday school, and his wife, nee Katie Sprunger, had also gone hand in hand with him in all religious work. Both their children had died and their strong natural love of home and family turned their minds and hearts toward the care of orphans. Soon Mr. Sprunger's entire time and strength were dedicated to the founding of a local orphanage, and in the fall of 1891 he erected a
236
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
large frame building as a home for children thus bereft. Mrs. Sprunger cooperated with him in every possible way to make the enterprise a noble success, and at one period of its Home life more than one hundred orphans found a shelter and parental affection and protection at the Berne Orphanage. The undertaking met with a sad set-back in April, 1895, when three children were burned in the fire which destroyed the building completely. A more substantial brick structure replaced it, but in 1902 the Home was closed and Mr. and Mrs. Sprunger moved to Cleveland, where they again em- barked in the same line of philanthropie work. Mr. Sprunger died in 1911, and his remains were brought to Berne for burial. His useful and benevolent works have brought honor and love for his memory. His honored widow still resides at Berne and is continuing the work of his later years by caring at her own home for eight orphans who could not ask for a kinder or more thoughtful mother than she.
THE LOCAL LODGES
The churches are so active in Berne that the secret and benevolent lodges are not as strong as in many other communities. The Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows and Masons, however, have had organiza- tions of more or less prosperity, especially the first named. The Berne Lodge No. 398, Knights of Pythias, was instituted December 5, 1893, with twenty-three charter members and three admitted by card. The first officers of the lodge were as follows: Andrew Gottschalk, P. C .; J. W. Stoneburner, C. C .; R. K. Allison, V. C .; J. A. Anderson, prel- ate; R. Lehman, M. of E .; P. T. Longacher, M. of F .; T. G. Hopkins, K. of R. & S .; F. C. Foreman, M. at A .; J. E. Mahoney, I. G .; D. L. Shalley, O. G. The present membership is about eighty, and the officers in service : P. C., T. A. Gottschalk; C. C., H. A. Whiteman ; V. C., C. G. Emick; prelate, Charles Braun; M. of W., T. A. Gott- schalk; K. of R. & S., C. H. Schenk; M. of F., F. C. Foreman ; M. of E., J. G. Kerr; M. at A., Charles Heare; I. G., Cy. Liechty ; O. G., William Thompson.
Berne Lodge No. 838, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was in- stituted in January, 1906, and the Masons at Berne effected an organi- zation at a still later date.
CHAPTER XIII
GENEVA AND MONROE
THE OLD TOWN OF ALEXANDER-TOWN OF BUFFALO PLATTED-EVO- LUTION OF GENEVA-A RAILROAD TOWN- GENEVA, THE INFANT- PEN-PICTURE OF GENE STRATTON-PORTER-EDUCATION, EARLY AND LATE - AS A CENTER OF METHODISM - UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH - GENEVA INCORPORATED - EARLY IN THE NEWSPAPER FIELD - THE BANKS OF GENEVA - PATRIOTIC ORGANIZATIONS - SECRET AND BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES - OLD TOWN OF MONROE - THE RAILROAD REVIVAL-THE BANK AND TELEPHONE SYSTEM- FINE HIGH SCHOOL - BUSINESS HOUSES AND NEWSPAPER - THE CHURCHES- DECATUR AND MONROE M. E. CIRCUITS-NOT A STRONG LODGE TOWN.
The Town of Geneva, in the southern part of Adams County seventeen miles south of Decatur, is a neat and growing place on the Grand Rapids & Indiana line and the center of the Limberlost region, made memorable by several of Gene Stratton-Porter's best stories and, since its swampy lands were drained and cultivated, brought to a high standard of agricultural efficiency and prosperity. The town, which has been known under several "aliases," is now the shipping and the banking point for a large distriet permanently productive of live stock, grain, sugar beets, and other riches of the soil. It numbers among its industries and business establishments a mill, an elevator, two banks, and a score of stores, general and special. The town has a good school, two churches, and, to round out its life, a newspaper which has been established for more than thirty years.
THE OLD TOWN OF ALEXANDER
The original town from which Geneva was evolved was called Alexander, and was located near where the old Godfrey trace erossed the Fort Recovery, or Huntington Road in section 32, Wabash Town- ship. There stood the log cabin of one Alexander Hill, a pioncer of hospitality and prominence, and when Charles Lindley laid out a
237
238
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
town at the cross-roads on August 4, 1838, he gave it the imposing name which Mr. Hill bore. Alexander, as then laid out, comprised twenty-eight lots, and was divided north and south by Main, Jackson and Van Buren streets, and east and west by North and South streets. On the east side of Main, on the banks of the Limberlost Creek, Mr. Hill erected the first tavern and some of the first settlers went so far as to say that it even preceded the town itself. The building is said to have been a two-story hewn-log structure, with a front of rough boards. Jacob Conkle was also an early resident of enterprise, burned the first brick kiln in Wabash Township, built the first saw- mill operated by steam at Alexander in the early '50s, and was the first postmaster after the office of Limberlost was established.
TOWN OF BUFFALO PLATTED
But Judge David Studabaker is generally accorded the honor of being the father of Geneva; for on the 28th of July, 1853, he platted the Town of Buffalo directly to the north in section 29, Wabash Township. The postoffice of Limberlost accommodated both settle- ments, Jacob Conkle being first placed in charge of it. During the period of their partial development and until about five years before Geneva (half a mile north of Buffalo) became a railroad station on the newly-completed Grand Rapids & Indiana line, the steam saw- mill at Alexander conducted a brisk business. In 1866 it was almost wrecked by an explosion.
EVOLUTION OF GENEVA
The original Town of Buffalo, platted by Judge Studabaker in 1853, contained thirty lots, the streets named being Van Buren and Ring- gold streets running north and south, which were crossed by Kossuth Street. In Angust of that year C. A. Wilkinson laid out an addition of twenty-nine lots, which extended the town to the then proposed Cincinnati, Union City & Fort Wayne Railroad, the right-of-way of which had recently been located. Judge Studabaker then extended his addition still further to the north by purchase; the Butcher heirs . also platted an addition, and then in 1871 came the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, and in the northern border of what had become a continuons settlement fixed a station called Geneva. That name was the rallying point for a consolidated town.
239
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
A RAILROAD TOWN
The first regular passenger trains on the railroad commenced to run on Christmas day of 1871. The surveyors located the station at the crossing of the railroad by what is now Line Street, and the company arranged with J. D. Hale to erect a building which should serve as a depot and a grain house, and over which he was to preside as station agent. Mr. Hale let the contract to a carpenter, who built such a structure for $100, 14 by 28 feet in dimensions. This building, which was completed very early in 1872, was the first structure of any kind erected on the railroad plat, and served even as a grain house until the Hale warehouse and elevator were finished in 1877. The depot part of the building was used for a ticket, express and telegraph office, with Mr. Hale and his brother, S. W. Hale, as agents and operators.
GENEVA, THE INFANT
In regard to the early matters connected with the original Geneva, Snow's History of Adams County states: "As soon as convenient office room could be secured at Geneva the postoffice was moved to the new part of the town. Charles D. Porter and Emerson Kern built store houses south on Main Street in Buffalo, but as the station was located further north and buildings began going up, they abandoned their first store-rooms and built on Line Street. Mr. Porter established the first drugstore in Geneva, but if he had not married Geneva Strat- ton, a country girl who was the daughter of Mark and Mary Stratton, of Wabash, it is probable that the historian would have eut this matter short. But the fact that the pioneer druggist of the place became the husband of the naturalist-authoress brings his own life into reflected prominence.
Charles D. Porter was born in Decatur, April 3, 1850, the eldest son of Dr. John P. Porter, and soon after leaving school engaged in the drug trade at Fort Wayne. He moved to his native place not long after and located at Geneva in 1872. His father, a brave surgeon connected with the Eighty-ninth Infantry, was killed by guerrillas during the Civil war and the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic honored his name by assuming it officially. The son, Charles D., married Miss Stratton April 21, 1886, so that his claims to dis- tinction appear to be mainly by blood inheritance and by marriage. Some years after that event, which occurred twenty-three years after the birth of the bride on a farm near North Manchester, Mr. Porter also engaged in the banking business.
240
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
PEN-PICTURE OF GENE STRATTON-PORTER
Several of the present-day residents of Geneva were acquainted with young Mrs. Gene Stratton-Porter before she had made a literary name. One of them, Silas W. Hale, an advisory editor, writes: "She was a very domestic woman and devoted herself to her household duties, and to the study of botany and birds. She was so engrossed in her studies that she had no time for society, and seldom appeared at any of its functions. But she delighted in hitching up her horse to a small buggy, or wagon-loading in her gum boots, ladders, spade
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.