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 II > Part 3
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 II > Part 3
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James H. Smith and wife were married October 4. 1866. After their marriage they came to live in Shelby County, where he operated a saw- mill. They then moved to Mercer County, Ohio, where their first son, Judge Smith, was born at Montezuma. In 1868 the family came to Decatur, Indiana, where James H. Smith was employed at the old Shack- ley Wheel Works until that business went bankrupt. He then removed to the southern part of Adams County and worked in a sawmill near Geneva, but in 1886 returned to Decatur. He died at Decatur October 2, 1910. Ilis wife passed away on the 27th of December of the same
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year. James H. Smith served as justice of the peace in Adams County for about twenty years. He is a man whose name deserves to be spoken with honor and respect by every resident of Adams County. He ex- pressed the best of his life and character by his singular devotion to his invalid wife who was bedridden for thirty years before her death. All the accumulations of his producing years he used to help his life com- panion, and with all the anxieties and burdens he never showed a face of worry nor complaint and was self sacrificing and devout to the very end. He and his wife were lifelong members of the Presbyterian Church.
Judge Smith had one brother, Robert, who died in infancy, and has one sister, Eva, who is the present wife of D. Hoagland, a house painter living at Boulder, Colorado. Eva has a son, David Edward Orcutt, by her first marriage.
Judge Smith married Miss Ethel Hale, who was born in Wells County, Indiana, but was reared and educated at Decatur. She com- pleted her education at the Terre Haute State Normal School and for several years was a very successful teacher at Decatur. Her father, John D. Hale, was a former county clerk of Adams County and she is a niece of Silas Hale, one of the associate editors of this publication. Judge and Mrs. Smith have six living children, while one son, James H., died in infancy. The family record is: Bayard H., now in the junior class of Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana; Ramona June, aged seventeen, a senior in the Decatur High School ; Dorothy M., aged fifteen, also in high school; Gretchen, who is in the last year of the grammar school ; Richard A., aged ten years, and a student in the sixth grade; and
Robert E., the youngest, who was born in 1914. Judge and Mrs. Smith are Methodists. He is a Knight of Pythias. is a Lodge and Chapter Mason at Decatur and a member of the Council and Knight Templar Com- mandery at Bluffton and the Mystic Shrine and Consistory of Scottish Rite at Fort Wayne. He is past master of his lodge, serving for twelve years, and is high priest of his chapter and a thirty-third degree mason having received that degree in 1913, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge of the state. Judge Smith is a democrat, and has been delegate to various county, congres- sional and state conventions of his party.
WILLIAM A. KUNKEL. A great man has somewhere been described as one who is so short-sighted that he cannot see the obstacles which lie between him and his goal. Whether this be true of William A. Kunkel or not, certain it is that he has conquered all obstacles that impeded his path to success and he now ranks as one of the leading business men in Wells County, Indiana. As head of a number of important business concerns Mr. Kunkel has met with such marvelous good fortune that it would truly seem that he possesses the "open sesame" to unlock the doors of success. But success in business is not his only distinction. He is one of those broad-minded, patriotic, forward looking men who in every community of the nation are the real conservators of those com- munity destinies which in the aggregate constitute the national destiny and the policies by which America is exercising its influence and power in the world at large. Mr. Kunkel at the present time is Federal Food Administrator for Wells County. He has given up all his business and is devoting his entire time to this important position, sacrificing all those things of individual interest in order that he might do his whole duty to help make the world safe for democracy.
Like many another big American business man William A. Kunkel was born on a farm. He first saw the light of day January 31. 1868, in Vol. II-2
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Lancaster Township of Wells County. He is a son of Michael and Mary (Kleinknecht ) Kunkel, both natives of Pennsylvania. Michael Kunkel when a young man moved to Ohio, lived on a farm in Crawford County until 1848, and then bought a farm of eighty acres in Adams County, Indiana. A few years later he sold this and acquired a tract of a hundred and twenty aeres in section 12, Lancaster Township, Wells County. He was busied with its improvements and made it his home until 1884, when he moved to the city of Bluffton. He died there, an honored and widely esteemed citizen, May 7, 1886. Michael Kunkel married for his first wife Julia Mason, a native of Ohio. She was the mother of four children, Sophia, who died February 15, 1879: Louisa, who died September 20, 1854, and Samuel and Calvin, both living in Lancaster Township, Calvin on the old home farm. For his second wife Michael Kunkel married Mary Ann Kleinknecht. She was born December 3, 1827, daughter of John M. and Anna (Gerhart) Klein- knecht, who located in Lancaster Township of Wells County in 1848. Mr. Kleinknecht died at the home of Michael Kunkel in 1867, and his wife passed away on the old homestead in Lancaster Township in 1859. Both were devout members of the United Brethren Church. The first class of that denomination in Lancaster Township was founded by John M. Kleinknecht, and this eventually resulted in a church organization at Toesin. Mrs. Mary Ann Kunkel, who was for many years a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, died on February 27, 1913. She was the mother of the following children: Martha Ann, deceased : John O .; Lydia Matilda, wife of T. M. Souder; Rebecca J., widow of Henry Masterson : Dora and Theodore H., deceased, and William A.
William A. Kunkel grew up inured to the sturdy discipline of the homestead farm in Lancaster Township, and derived his carly educa- tional advantages from district school No. 1. That he was a real country boy is evidenced by the fact that he was never in town when street lamps were lighted until after he was sixteen years of age. He finished his education in the Bluffton High School, graduating with the class of 1886. He essayed to become a merchant, making a start in Ashbauchers Brothers Clothing Store at Bluffton at three dollars a week. He soon saw that he was not in a congenial line of employment. Leaving the store he taught a country school two terms, and later found employ- ment in the office of the resident engineer of the Clover Leaf Railway. Of all his early experiences this was the most important. It gave him a considerable practical knowledge of engineering, and finally he was appointed assistant to the resident engineer. In 1889 he was made deputy surveyor of Wells County and in the following year at the age of twenty-one was elected county surveyor on the democratic ticket. He was re-elected in 1892. A special feature of his administration of the office of county surveyor was a general concerted movement to improve the public highways of Wells County, and much of the success of this movement was due to Mr. Kunkel's careful and technical skill in handling the proposition in its various details.
Mr. Kunkel credits much of his material success to his extensive operations in the oil field. He first became interested in that industry in 1890, but was unable to give it much attention owing to his duties as county surveyor, until 1894. In 1896 he became associated with the Cudahy Oil Company, in charge of the right of way and pipe line department. In May, 1898, he took full charge of the field production and pipe lines of the company and retained that position for one year after the Cudahy interests were purchased by the Standard Oil Com- pany. Since 1900 Mr. Kunkel has been an independent producer in various oil fields in Indiana, Illinois and Oklahoma.
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However, his business interests could not all be described under a single head. He is owner of over six hundred acres, constituting several well drained and well improved farms in Wells County, all thoroughly drained by many miles of ditch, improved with the best of farm faeil- ities, including hog pens, silos, electric lights and every other equipment devised by modern agricultural seience. Mr. Kunkel is on the board of directors of the Studabaker Bank, the Marion and Bluffton Traction Company, the Bliss Hotel Company, the W. B. Brown Company and other concerns. He is, as these connections and achievements indieate, a man of sound judgment, liberal ideas and progressive methods. Exaet- ness and thoroughness have characterized his life efforts, and what he is and what he has done illustrates what may be accomplished by per- sistent and painstaking effort.
Politically Mr. Kunkel is a firm believer in the principles of the democratie party. He has served as chairman of the Democratie County Central Committee, is at present chairman of the Eighth Con- gressional Distriet and vice chairman of the State Democratie Com- mittee, and in 1916 was a delegate to the Democratie National Convention at St. Louis. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine, and is affil- iated with Bluffton Lodge No. 92, Knights of Pythias, Bluffton Lodge No. 796, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
He and his family are earnest and active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and all of them are leaders in the social affairs of their home community. June 24, 1891, Mr. Kunkel married Miss Minnie A. Morgan of Kelso, Huntington County, Indiana, daughter of John V. and Mary A. (Rauch) Morgan. Mrs. Kunkel was educated in the Bluffton schools and she and Mr. Kunkel were members of the same graduating class of the high school. She was a popular and successful teacher both in the Bluffton and the Huntington city schools before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Kunkel take proper pride in the developing characters and the early achievements of their three children. The oldest, William A., Jr., graduated from the Bluffton High School with the elass of 1911, from the Indiana State University with the degree A. B. in 1916, and spent the following year in Harvard University. He married Miss Lois Steen Nicholson of Wheatland, Knox County, Indiana. 1 / 4 Their romance began while they were students at the Indiana State University; they now live at Bluffton. Kenneth, the second son, is a graduate of the Bluffton High School with the class of 1913 and from the State University with the class of 1917, and is now at home doing his bit for the country and the world as responsible manager of an agricultural enterprise of several hundred aeres. Marjorie, the only daughter, graduated from the Bluffton High School in 1916 and is now a senior in LaSell Seminary at Auburndale, Massachusetts.
CHARLES S. NIBLICK. The name Niblick is practically synonymous with banking at Decatur, and the family have been identified with the oldest bank in the county, the Old Adams County Bank, practically from its beginning. Charles S. Niblick is a son of one of the founders of this institution and is now the bank's president.
The history of the institution goes back to July, 1871, when Joseph D. Nntman and Jesse Niblick established a private hank under the firm name of Niblick & Nutman. They were subsequently associated with Robert Allison and David Studabaker, under the name Nibliek, Nutman & Company. Mr. Nutman soon retired and the name was changed to Niblick, Studahaker & Company.
The Adams County Bank was organized in 1874 with a state eharter,
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and a capital stock of $50,000. The capital was increased in 1882 to $75,000. The first president of the bank was Jesse Niblick and the first vice president, David Studabaker. In 1887 the officers of the bank were David Studahaker, president; Jesse Niblick, vice president; Wil- liam II. Niblick, cashier; and Edward Ehinger, assistant cashier. The bank home has been a landmark in the Decatur business district and was erected by Mr. Jesse Niblick in 1876, a substantial briek structure at the northwest corner of Second and Monroe streets.
The first charter expired in 1894, and it was renewed, but at that time the bank took the title of The Old Adams County Bank and in 1914 it was rechartered under this name. It is now operating under the third successive charter and it is a significant tribute to the per- sonnel of the men who have presided as officers and directors that not a single dollar of the depositors' money has ever been lost through mis- management or any neglect. At the present time the capital is $120,000, with surplus of $10,000. It is doubtful if any city of the size in Indiana has a stronger and better conducted institution. Its total resources in 1917 aggregated over $1,200,000, and over $1,000,000 are on deposit.
The first cashier was R. B. Allison. Jesse Niblick remained as an active officer until his death, and William H. Niblick was president of the institution at the time of his death in November, 1896. He was succeeded by R. B. Allison. Charles S. Niblick became an assistant cashier early in the history of the institution, was made cashier in 1896, and on January 1, 1907, succeeded Mr. Allison as president. Mr. Edward X. Ehinger has been cashier since January, 1907, and A. D. Suttles has filled the post of assistant cashier for the past ten years. In addition to the splendid management afforded the bank's affairs, the banking house has also been equipped with every modern facility to protect its funds from fire or burglar.
Mr. Charles S. Nibliek was born in the city of Decatur, and grew up there, attending the common and high schools. While still in high school at the age of fourteen he became a bookkeeper in the bank, and has filled every position in the institution with the exception of vice president.
Mr. Niblick is a son of Jesse and Catherine (Closs) Niblick. The Niblick family originated in County Armagh, Ireland, and were Irish. As far back as the record goes they have been industrious, public-spirited citizens, well educated, and letters still preserved of the great-grand- father to his sons, James and Robert, show that this ancestor was a man of more than ordinary learning and of judgment. It has been characteristic of the family to get out and work for anything that would help the community, and this trait is as prominent today as it was in earlier times.
The late Jesse Niblick, father of Charles S., was born in what is now Carroll County, Ohio, August 12, 1826, son of James and Anna (Carter) Niblick. James Niblick and his brother Robert were among the earliest pioneers of Adams County. James was born in Ireland, January 19, 1803, and was brought to America by his parents, growing up in New York and in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. He was a cooper by trade, and followed that occupation in Adams County until November, 1836. He settled on a farm in Washington Township several miles from Decatur. In 1869 he moved to Missouri and died a few weeks later at the age of sixty-nine. Ile was a member of the Presbyterian Church and filled several minor offices as a gift of the democratic party. His first wife, Anna Carter, was born in Maryland, and died at the family home near Decatur August 12. 1838. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She had eight children, one of whom was the late Jesse Niblick.
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Jesse Niblick was ten years of age when brought to Adams County, and he grew up to manhood here, with the exception of one year spent attending school in Ohio. As a boy he learned the shoemaker's trade, and in 1846 engaged in that line of business for himself. In 1866 he entered general merchandising with John Crawford, under the name Niblick & Crawford, and that business is still continued under the name Niblick & Company at Decatur. He was prominent in many matters that advanced the commercial and civic welfare of Decatur. In 1848 he was elected clerk of Washington Township, and from that year until 1865 was either clerk or trustee, sometimes holding both offices. In the fall of 1865 he was elected treasurer of Adams County and reelected in 1867. For a number of years he was also a trustee or councilman of Decatur. October 16, 1851, he married Miss Catherine Closs, who was born in Germany and was brought to America by her parents, John and Catherine Closs, at an early age. Jesse Niblick and wife had eight children, seven of whom grew up. Their names were: William, John, James K., Mary, Amelia, Charles S. and Daniel. The mother of these children was a member of the Catholic Church and reared her family in the same faith.
On January 8, 1889, Charles S. Niblick married Miss Minnie Wal- dron. She was reared and educated in Niagara Falls, and was the child of Catholic parents. Mrs. Niblick is a woman of many splendid qualities of heart and mind and a leader in all local affairs. Mr. and Mrs. Niblick have four children: Naomi, born and educated in Decatur, attended school at Fort Wayne, and is now the wife of Perry A. Gandy, a banker and real estate man at Cherubusco, Indiana. James Stewart Niblick was educated in the public schools and in the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he graduated M. D. in May, 1917, and is now finishing his preparation as an interne in a Chicago hospital. In June, 1917, he married Miss Elizabeth MeLuckie of Chicago. The two youngest children of Mr. and Mrs. Niblick are Charlotta Z., aged four- teen, and Margaret, aged twelve, both attending the parochial schools. All the family are members of the Catholic Church, in which Mr. Niblick is church secretary. He is also treasurer of the Knights of Columbus of Decatur and is treasurer of the Local Lodge of Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, being a charter member of both these organiza- tions. Politically he is affiliated with the democratic party.
EDWARD GREEN. Adams County has learned the value and appre- ciates the services of Edward Green through the splendid work he has done in the office of sheriff. He was elected on the democratic ticket to that office in the fall of 1914, beginning his duties on January 1, 1915. In the fall of 1916 the people of the county felt that his work deserved another term and re-elected him. Mr. Green has long been active in county and state politics and for the past ten years has served as a member of the County Central Committee.
His home has been at Decatur since 1893. Among other interests he was chief of police three years and for three years was deputy sheriff. For four years Mr. Green served as a conductor and motorman on the Fort Wayne and Decatur Interurban Electric Railway. Everything that he has turned to have shown him a man of energy and of capacity, and he possesses unusual qualifications for his present work.
Mr. Green was horn north of Bucyrus in Crawford County, Ohio. November 2, 1866. When he was eight years old his parents moved to Mercer County, Ohio, but in 1885 came to Adams County, Indiana, locating on a farm in St. Mary's Township. It was on that farm that Edward Green grew to manhood and for the past thirty years has had indeed a busy and responsible career.
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His parents were John and Mary (Hildebrand) Green, both natives of Crawford County, Ohio, and of German ancestry. The Hildebrands and Greens were pioneers of Northwestern Ohio, and helped to redeem portions of the wilderness of that country to the uses of civilization. The paternal grandparents were Frederick and Regina Green, natives of Wurtemberg, Germany. Christopher and Margaret Hildebrand were natives of the same kingdom. These two families came to the United States about the same time, locating in Liberty Township of Crawford County. The grandparents spent the rest of their lives in that section. All were members of the Lutheran Church and politically the families were democrats. Sheriff Green's mother died when he was six years of age. He has one sister, Mrs. Amanda Teeple of Vicksburg, Michigan. The father married a second wife, Lucida Gay. By this union there were two children, Ida and Burt. The former lives with her father in Decatur and Burt is clerk in a large department store at Toledo, Ohio. Sheriff Green's father has lived retired for a number of years in Decatur and is now seventy-five years old, his wife being seventy-two.
In 1887 Mr. Edward Green married at Monroeville, Allen County, Miss Amanda Heath, who was born in Van Wert County, Ohio, in 1863. She lost her parents when she was very young and grew up with rela- tives and made her own way in the world from the age of twelve. Her father was named Benjamin Heath. Mr. and Mrs. Green have four chil- dren, Lawrence, Otto, Edith and Rose. Lawrence now thirty years of age is employed with a produce company at Decatur and by his mar- riage to Florence Haag has a son Stanley. Otto, aged twenty-eight, was educated in the local public schools and is still a resident of Decatur. He married Silva Dropleman and has two daughters, Mary E. and Martha J. Edith, aged twenty-six, is the wife of Bernard Voglewede of Decatur and they have two children, Edward and Joseph H. Rose is a graduate of the high school and is now the wife of Paul Burgess, a resident of Rockford, Ohio. They have one son, Arthur W.
The Green family are members of the Evangelical Church. Frater- nally Mr. Green is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Loyal Order of Moose. Since the beginning of the present war Mr. Green has been called upon to perform one of the offices of greatest responsibility in the county, as chairman of the local county conscription board.
HON. JOHN WILSON TYNDALL, editor-in-chief for Adams County of this publication, has been a man of varied interests and affairs in the county for over thirty years.
Ilis chief business at present is with the Krick, Tyndall & Company, manufacturers of drain tile at Decatur. This company was incorporated in 1898. Their plant has an immense output, aggregating in value over $100,000 a year, and the product is shipped all through Northeastern Indiana, Northwestern Ohio and to Michigan. They have facilities for making all kinds of tile anywhere from three inches to twenty-seven inches in diameter. It is one of the leading industries of Decatur and the raw material is obtained from a splendid supply of clay in this im- mediate vicinity. From forty-five to fifty persons are given employment in the business.
The manufacture of clay tiles was begun here in 1892 by Henry Krick. Mr. Tyndall has been identified with the business since 1896. At that time he had just completed his last term as city engineer of Decatur. His part in the business has been chiefly as sales manager, the office he still holds.
Mr. Tyndall has spent all his life in Adams County and was born in
JOHN W. TYNDALL
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Blue Creek Township, October 30, 1861. He grew up and received his early advantages in the schools of Blue Creek, and afterwards attended Valparaiso College, where he took work in the commercial, scientific and classical departments and was graduated in 1885. He paid all his own expenses at college by teaching. He taught his first term at the age of seventeen and for the four years before he, reached his majority paid his father $100 annually for his time.
While attending school Mr. Tyndall also took up the study of civil engineering and surveying and in 1886 was nominated and elected to the office of county surveyor. He filled that office continuously for four terms, eight years, and at the same time was city engineer of Decatur and held that office altogether ten years. He was city engineer by ap- pointment two years and by election for two four-year terms. It was while Mr. Tyndall was city engineer that the city waterworks were in- stalled and the first brick paving laid on the streets.
In the fall of 1904 he was elected on the democratic ticket for the State Senate. That year he was one of the two senators of Indiana chosen from the democratic party. The other senator was from the southern part of the state. Mr. Tyndall represented his constituency in Northeastern Indiana with credit and efficiency throughout the two ses- sions. He has always been active in local polities, and has served as chairman of the Democratic County Committee and in other capacities.
The Tyndall family is of Irish and Welsh ancestry, and was founded in this country by three brothers who came from England, two of them before the Revolutionary war. The one from whom Mr. Tyndall is descended located at Philadelphia soon after the war for independence. The grandfather, Ortalic Tyndall, with two brothers, William and Henry, came to Ohio from Pennsylvania and located in Crawford County. There the boys grew up and William and Henry later moved to Van Wert County, Ohio. Ortalie came in early times to DeKalb County, Indiana. He married a Miss Chilcote. They spent the rest of their lives on their pioneer homestead and that land is still owned by the family, being occupied by a grandson of Ortalic named William Tyndall. Ortalie and wife lived to be about eight years of age. They were active members of the English Lutheran Church and he was a whig in polities.
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