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 35
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 35
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L. C. WARING was a railroad man for the most part until he came to Decatur in 1903 and established the Waring Glove Company. From a small plant, with an output used only locally, Mr. Waring has de- veloped a business that is now probably the largest of its kind in Indi- ana and with an output distributed all over the United States and in Canada.
His first shop was on North Second Street. Later it was moved to the corner of First and Monroe streets and in 1912 he erected the pres- ent large plant on Monroe Street, a two-story fireproof and basement structure, with a frontage of 60 feet and depth of 100 feet. The fac- tory has room and facilities for the employment of 125 persons, and about seventy-five people have been kept busy there for several years. The Waring Glove Factory manufactures gloves and mittens of canton flannel, husky cloth and jersey cloth. The capacity of the Decatur plant is about 1,000 daily, and their goods have been kept up to a high standard of excellence and the business has been developed with this standard of quality as its chief asset. Several commercial salesmen represent the company with territory throughout the United States and Canada.
The Waring Glove Company had its original establishment at De- catur, but now maintains two branch houses or factories each of which is larger than the parent plant. One of them is at Huntington and the other at Winchester, Indiana.
Mr. L. C. Waring was born at Greenville, Ohio, in 1861, but was reared in the State of Mississippi, where his edueation was superin- tended by a governess employed for the family. At the age of fifteen he came north to Indiana and entered the service of a railroad. He was employed in different capacities and at different places, Bluffton, Fort Wayne, Hartford City, again at Bluffton, later at Marion, where he remained some years, and finally returned to Bluffton to engage in business for himself. From there he came to Decatur, and this city has been his home and the scene of his activities for the past fifteen years. Mr. Waring has well earned the reputation which he hears in the community of being one of its best and livest business men.
Ile is a bachelor. He is a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and has membership in the Masonic bodies at Bluffton. Fort Wayne and with the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis. Ile is also a Knight of Pythias. Mr. Waring is a democrat in politics, and a member of the Episcopal Church. Among other business interests he is president of the Sehafer Saddlery Company. Decatur. a director in the Old Adams County Bank, and in the First and Hamilton National banks of Fort Wayne.
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J. Q. NEPTUNE, D. D. S. Few professional men of Decatur are bet- ter known throughout Adams County than is Dr. J. Q. Neptune, who enjoys the distinction of being the oldest dental practitioner in this eity, and is also numbered with the substantial agriculturists of the county. There are many interesting features, all creditable, that might be brought forward in making a record of Doctor Neptune's progress from early indigent circumstances to his present financial and social statns. Ile comes of sturdy old pioneer stock, and no one has more reason to take pride in a family's military record, his father having been a brave and faithful soldier in the Civil war, and his youngest son, at the present moment, being one of General Pershing's brave command "somewhere in France."
JJ. Q. Neptune was born August 8, 1859, in St. Mary's Township, Adams County, Indiana, on his grandfather's old homestead, later owned by his father and now owned by Doctor Neptune, never being out of the Neptune name since entered from the Government. His grand- parents were William and Lydia (Beaman) Neptune. The grandfather was born in eastern Ohio, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and the grandmother was of Pennsylvania Dutch stock. Possibly it was 1834 when they first came to Adams County and settled in St. Mary's Township, their first home being a "lean-to" built against a large log. They came from Ohio with wagon and team and fortunately brought two fine milch eows for they found little to subsist on in the new home at first. The grandfather had been a distiller and was well-to-do before he lost his fortune. In the fall of 1835 he built a substantial log cabin on his land which he cleared off before his death. He had children, and one of his sons, James Ira, became the father of Doetor Neptune.
James Ira Neptune was born in Ohio and was eight years old when he accompanied his parents to Adams County, Indiana. When the Civil war came on he entered the Union army as a drummer boy in Company K, Eighty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. At one time he was captured by the Confederates with his regiment, but was paroled and finally exchanged, and he immediately returned to his command and served through three years. Many times his life was en- dangered, but he escaped all serious injury and lived to return to his home, where his death occurred in 1904. In 1852 he made the trip to California, going by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and passed through many adventures while in the mining distriets. He was married first to Lorena Jacobs, who belonged to an old county family, and they had one child, Louisa. His second marriage was to Mrs. Isabelle (Flagg) Barnhart. She is a daughter of Samnel Flagg and wife, who came to Adams County as the first pioneers on St. Mary's River and lived for a time with friends on what was known as the Devil's Backbone. Samuel Flagg later became a merchant and tavern keeper in Decatur. He died at the age of eighty-one. By her first marriage, the mother of Doctor Neptune had one daughter, Mary Celestia Barnhart, who is the wife of John Bradlock, who was one of the youngest soldiers enlisted for the Civil war from Adams County. They have nine children and live in Nebraska. Five sons and four daughters were born to the second marriage of James Neptune. J. Q., C. R. (Dick), and Frances, wife of ex-Attorney General N. G. Denman of Toledo, Ohio, are living. The deceased are Lovinia, Harry, Curtis. Samuel Oren, Latell Annota, and one died in infancy. The mother of Doctor Neptune lives in the Town of Willshire, Van Wert County, Ohio, and is now aged eighty- three years.
In his boyhood Doctor Neptune had very few advantages, times he- ing hard. The youth was ambitious and early determined to learn the
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profession in which he has become eminent, but in large measure he had to make his own opportunities for schooling and progress in the direction he wished to go and these often entailed self-denial and wounds to his pride that were hard to bear. However he never turned back and the time came when he reached his goal and on March 6, 1886, he was most creditably graduated from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, Cincinnati. On June 9, 1886, he came to Dectaur and opened an office on Second Street, where he remained for twelve years, and for ten years his brother, Dr. C. R. (Diek) Neptune, was associated with him, the latter now having a separate office. Doctor Neptune in 1898 moved to his present location, in the Spangler Block, on East Sec- ond Street, where he has fine accommodations, including a waiting room, an operating room and a laboratory, all connected. His equipments are those made use of by modern dentists and his treatments are according to the latest scientific discoveries in dental surgery.
Doctor Neptune was married first to Miss Clara Counterman, who was born at Willshire, Van Wert County, Ohio, and died at Decatur in 1906. She was a lady of education and refinement and for seven years prior to her marriage had been a school teacher in Ohio. She was the mother of two sons, both of whom survive: Gregg C., who is a grad- uate of the Northwestern Dental School and is now in practice in the city of Winnipeg, Canada, with bright professional prospects; and James Glenn, who served first on the Mexican border and became a sea- soned and well trained soldier and was a member of the contingent selected to accompany General Pershing to France for service in the World war.
Doctor Neptune married for his second wife Celeste Kintz, a lady of great musical talent and leading member of the choir in the Roman Catholic Church, of which body she is a member. Doetor and Mrs. Neptune have three children : E. Isabel, Mary D. and Robert Jean.
In addition to his large practice, Doctor Neptune's income is con- siderably derived from other sources, for he has additional interests. He owns 180 acres, all in one traet, situated in St. Mary's Township, Adams County, which farm is well improved and very productive. He also owns his grandfather's old farm of forty acres, situated in the same township.
Doetor Neptune, like his talented wife, is very musical, and is especially proficient as a player on the snare drum, and has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church choir for thirty years. He has long been active in the Masonic fraternity, being a member of the Council, and for twenty years has had charge of the musical pro- grams for the lodges, and also for public occasions, such as Decoration Day and other meetings of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is an inter- ested and generous member of this religious body at Decatur. Visitors to his office and home may be permitted to examine a very large and interesting collection that the doctor has made, some of these being old family relies and others curiosities brought from distant parts. He values the drum sticks which his father beat on the snare drum as he marched toward the enemy, a drummer boy, so many years ago. A number of game trophies may also be noticed decorating the walls. His friends know that these have been secured through Doctor Neptune's own prowess during his periods of recreation, when he hunts wild game in the northwest and the Rocky Mountains.
MATHIAS KIRSCH, who has been actively identified with the busi- ness and eivie life of Decatur for the past thirty years, is cashier and
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one of the organizers of the People's Loan and Trust Company of Decatur.
This is one of the flourishing financial institutions of Adams County. It was organized and began business on January 2, 1915. The first officers were James Rupel of Bryant, Indiana, president (now de- ceased) ; John LaFollette of Portland, Indiana, vice president ; Mathias Kirsch, cashier; and W. A. Lower, secretary. Mr. Kirsch was elected to the office of president to succeed Mr. Rupel and the vice president now is H. M. Gillig. The bank still retains its original capital stock of $50,000, and though in existence less than three years its prosperity and growth have been nothing less than remarkable. At the beginning of its second year its resources had climbed to over a hundred eighty-two thousand dollars, at the beginning of the third year to approximately two hundred seventy-eight thousand dollars, while in June, 1917, the reported resources were almost three hundred thirty thousand dollars. The bank pays four per cent interest on time deposits and the growth and prosperity of the institution are proof of the wisdom of its founders. The management throughout has conducted the business with special emphasis upon safety and service, and while it has all the facilities for the service of a general banking institution, it also provides safety by insuring all the money deposited in its keeping.
Mr. Kirsch is a banker and business man of wide experience. For eight years before entering the People's Loan and Trust Company he was vice president of the Old Adams County Bank. He has been in the lumber business at Decatur for thirty years, and is still carrying on a big business in that line, with extensive retail yards handling building materials and supplies, builders hardware, lumber, etc. He engaged in the lumber business at Decatur in 1887. Prior to entering the lumber business in Decatur he was in the mercantile business in Bellmont, Wabash County, Illinois, for about eleven years.
Mr. Kirsch was born in the beautiful old City of Heidelberg, Ger- many, August 17, 1856. He comes of an old family of Baden people. His grandfather, Adam Kirsch, was born in 1805. Two sons of Adam, Christoph and Carl, came to America about 1848. They crossed the ocean in sailing vessels, being several weeks en route, and first landed at New York City. Carl was a teacher by profession and first located at Pittburgh, but later came to Indiana and was a successful educator for fifty years. He died a number of years ago, leaving a family of children. Christoph Kirsch separated from his brother and went to the mining distriets of Lake Superior. He was there four years, and then planned to go out to California and become a gold miner. In the meantime he went back to New York, and while there decided to return to the old country for a visit. A good many years passed before he saw America again. In Baden he fell in love with a young woman of that country, Katharina Stern, a native of Baden and of old German stock. They married and for several years continued to live in Germany. The children born to them were Barbara. Mathias, Peter and Catherina. In 1868 the entire family, together with Christoph's father, Adam, came to America. They embarked on the boat Saxonia, a combined sailing and steamship, and after a voyage of fourteen days landed in New York City. From there they came west to Fort Wayne and soon afterwards settled in Preble Township of Adams County. Here Christoph Kirsch bought a partly improved farm. On that old homestead the grand- father, Adam Kirsch, passed away in 1880. His wife had died in Ger- many in 1859 in middle age. In the old country the family were Evan- gelical Protestants, but after coming to Indiana became affiliated with the German Reformed Church. As American citizens all the male members of the family became democrats. Grandfather Adam Kirsch
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liad three other sons who also came to America, Valentine, Peter and Adam, Jr. Adam is still living. Valentine served as a soldier in the American Civil war, going through as a private, and died at the age of eighty-three years in Illinois. Ilis brother, Peter, is also deceased, having married and leaving a family. Adam is a farmer in the state of Minnesota and has a family.
Christoph Kirsch and wife in their latter years lived retired at Decatur, where he died at the age of seventy-one and she at the age of seventy. Christof was born in 1828 and his wife in 1833. Their two daughters are both now deceased, but were married and left families. The sons, Peter, John and Mathias are all living and all married and have childen. Peter is a resident of Decatur, while John has his home in Fort Wayne.
Mr. Mathias Kirsch married at Fort Wayne an Adams County girl, Amanda Langenbacher. She was born in Adams County June 20, 1857, and was reared and educated here in the public schools. Her father, Mathias Langenbacher, was a native of Baden, Germany, and in the old country learned the trade of clock maker. He followed that trade to some extent in Indiana, but after his marriage engaged in farming in Preble Township, and he died at the age of seventy-eight, in Decatur. His wife's maiden name was Harriet Spangler. She was a native of Ohio, and died also in Decatur, at the age of seventy-four. The Langenbachers were active members of the Reformed Church. Mrs. Kirsch had one sister, Sarah, wife of A. H. Sellemeyer of Decatur. They have two children, Jesse and Esther. Esther is now in China as a mis- sionary. Mr. and Mrs. Kirsch have three children: Della was born at Bellmont, Illinois, was educated in Decatur and is the wife of Fred Reppert. They have two children, Helen O. and Rollin M. Otto L., the older son of Mr. Kirsch is manager of his father's Iumber business. Ile married Miss E. Selig of Fort Wayne. The youngest child, Harold E., has completed his education and is assisting his brother in the Iumber business. The family are all members of the Reformed Church, in which Mr. Kirsch has served as an elder for thirty years. Ile is a democrat in polities.
ALBERT D. HUNSICKER. Energetic, industrious and well acquainted with modern business methods, Albert D. Hunsicker of Decatur, Adams County, has a well-stocked grocery in that city, and is rapidly building up a Inerative trade in western Indiana and eastern Ohio, being well liked by all classes of people. A son of David Hunsieker, he was born in Decatur, January 31. 1882, of German ancestry.
His paternal grandfather, Gavrette Hunsicker, was born in Penn- sylvania, of substantial German stock. Early in life he eame to Indi- ana, and having established himself permanently in Monroeville, Adams County, was there engaged in the draying business the greater part of his active life. living there until his death, in 1914, at the age of four score years. Ile was a democrat in politics, and belonged to the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, of which his wife was also a member. He mar- ried Catherine Hiser, who was born in Pennsylvania, and died in 1916 in Bluffton, Indiana, at the home of her son, Henry, when about eighty years old. They were the parents of four children, as follows: A son that died in infancy; David, father of Albert D. of this sketch ; IIenry, living in Bluffton, Indiana, is married, but has no children; and Allie, wife of Charles Myers of Fort Wayne, lost her only child, a danghter, that died in young womanhood.
Ilaving obtained his early education in Monroeville, David IIun- sicker began life there as a drayman. Coming from there to Adams County, he was for fifteen years engaged in the grocery business in Decatur, after which he traveled on the road as commercial salesman for
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a while. On the completion of the Fort Wayne & Springfield Trac- tion Company's road, he accepted his present position as conductor, and in the years that have since elapsed he has been very fortunate, never having had an aeeident of any kind.
The maiden name of the wife of David Hunsicker was Catherine Ahr. She was born in Adams County, Indiana, in 1857, a daughter of Jacob and Mary A. (Blocher) Ahr, the former of whom was a native of Germany, while the latter was born in Ohio, of German parents. Pioneer settlers of Indiana, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Ahr cleared and im- proved a farm in Adams County, and there lived to a good old age, honored and respected people. Of their family of six daughters and two sons, two daughters are dead, and the other children are married, and have pleasant homes of their own. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. David Hunsieker, who have been residents of Decatur for many years, four children were born, as follows: Albert D .; Dallas A .; Vera, wife of Owen Davis of Decatur; and Ada, who died in early life.
Albert D. Hunsieker obtained his first mercantile knowledge and experience behind the counter in his father's store, in Decatur. Sub- sequently, in company with his brother, Dallas A. Hunsicker, he was for five years engaged in the bakery and confectionery business in the same city. Disposing of his interest in the firm, Mr. Hunsicker was in the employ of Everett & llite from June, 1913, until he opened his present store, while there obtaining a praetieal insight into the details of the wholesale grocery business. Establishing himself in Decatur, on Second Street, in December, 1916, Mr. Hunsieker opened his store, which is finely stoeked with a varied assortment of the best line of staple groceries to be found in any market, and has met with genuine suceess in his business efforts, his business being in a flourishing condition, with a constantly increasing trade.
Mr. Ilunsieker married, in Belding, Michigan, Emma Fisher, who was born near that eity, June 25, 1885, a daughter of John and Josephine (Breninger) Fisher, natives respectively of Ohio and Michi- gan, but both of German aneestry. Mr. Fisher was engaged in the manufacture of lumber for many years, owning and operating a sawmill, and also being a tiller of the soil, but he and his wife are now living retired in Michigan, their home being in Marion. They reared two children, Mrs. Hunsieker, and a son, Joseph Fisher, who is married, and lives on the old home farm with his wife and daughter, Althea, a child of nine years. Mr. and Mrs. IInnsicker have two children, namely : Leona V., born in 1904; and Donald D. Mr. and Mrs. Hunsieker are members of the Methodist Episeopal Church, and contribute liberally towards its support. Fraternally Mr. Hunsieker is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Mrs. Hunsicker belongs to the Daughters of Rebekah.
ANDREW MILLER. The roster of agriculturists of Adams County who have participated prominently in the movements which have served to bring about the progress and advancement of this section of the state would be incomplete without the name of Andrew Miller, who, though now living retired in Decatur, has for many years been interested in farming and stoek raising in Washington Township, which is owned by his sons. Mr. Miller's town home is at 266 South Fourth Street.
A young man who had been over from the old country only a few years, and whose experience had netted him little financial capital, An- drew Miller located in section 10 of Washington Township, December 31, 1873. With his brother Paul he acquired a traet of wild woodland, and their united labors eleared away a space for their first home and Vol. II-16
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gradually put the land in cultivation by the strenuous process of clear- ing and draining. In March, 1878, Andrew Miller sold his interest to his brother and bought for himself ninety-seven acres in another part of the same section. This likewise underwent many improvements at his hands, including the erection of a good home and various farm buildings. In 1882 he and his brother bought a seventy-five aere farm, and by subsequent purchases of smaller properties he built up a nice estate, all of which is under cultivation and thoroughly well drained, there being still about sixteen aeres of native timber. He also owned another eighty acre farm which he sold to his son, John. Mr. Miller retired from the responsibilities of farming in 1914, and has since lived in Deeatur.
Ile was born near the River Rhine in Bavaria. Germany, April 20, 1849, and is of old Bavarian stoek and of Catholie ancestry as far baek as the record goes. Ile is the third sneeessive member of the family to bear the name Andrew, which was also the name of his father and grandfather. Grandfather Andrew was born in Bavaria about 1780 and followed the usual family occupation of farming. He married a girl of the same village, a Miss Wise, who died in the prime of life, leaving eight children, the oldest being fourteen years old. The father kept this family together and reared his children to manhood and womanhood, and all of them married but one. All are now deceased. Grandfather Andrew died at the age of sixty-three years.
Andrew Miller, father of the Adams County resident, was born in Bavaria in 1806 and spent his life in a rural environment. His first wife was a Miss Cline, who was born in a neighboring parish and about the same year as her husband. She died at the birth of her seeond child, and both children died in infaney. Andrew afterwards married Margaret Leteher, who was born and reared in the same seetion of Bavaria of Catholie aneestry. These worthy parents continued to live in their native province the rest of their years. The father died in . 1882 at the age of sixty-six and the mother in April, 1886. One of their danghters. Elizabeth, unmarried, died January, 1917, in Ger- many at the age of seventy-one. The other children who remained in Germany are also deceased, and the only two living of the family in this country are Andrew and his brother Paul.
Mr. Andrew Miller grew up in his native Bavaria and acquired the usual edneation and experience of a southern German boy. When in his twentieth year on October 8, 1869, he embarked on a vessel at Ham- burg, the steamship Harmonia, and after a rather speedy voyage for those days landed at Castle Garden on the 26th of October. He was a raw German youth, without any special training, with praetieally no knowledge of the English tongue. but was ready to meet conditions as they arose and adapt himself to the new land and its people. From New York he went to Buffalo and in that eity worked for eight months in a packing house. Continuing westward he reached Sandusky, Ohio, from there went to Norwalk in Huron County, and for a time was em- ployed in a brick yard for a Mr. Garretson in that county. For three years he was a farm hand. After a brief stay in Missouri Mr. Miller returned cast and located in Adams County, Indiana, which has now been his home for forty-four years and where he has prospered and he- come one of the substantial eitizens.
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