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 36
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 36
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In Washington Township he married Miss Mary Tonnellier. She was born in that township February 2, 1851, and his lived in this county practically all her life. Her parents were Nicholas and Margaret ( Milliken) Tonnellier, both natives of Alsace, born near Metz of Ger- man and French extraetion. When they were still young people they
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eame at different times and by different routes from Havre, France, to America, and met and married at Louisville, Kentucky, moving at once to Adams County, Indiana, where their respective parents had secured some wild land. Mrs. Miller's grandparents died on farms in that township. The parents of Mrs. Miller also spent their lives here, where her father died in 1876. 1Ie was born in 1825. IIer mother died in 1902 at the age of eighty-six. Her father was a butcher by trade, and for a number of years did butchering for many people in and around Decatur. The Tonnelliers were all aetive supporters of the Catholic Church. Mrs. Miller was the oldest in a family of three chil- dren. Her two brothers are John and Nicholas, the former married and living at Decatur and the other still a bachelor.
Mr. and Mrs. Miller have reared a family of children who do eredit to the parents and to their early training. The oldest born, Margaret, died in her twenty-fifth year. John is a prosperous young farmer in Washington Township and by his marriage to Rose Kerger has a family of children named Elma, Clarden, Martin and Helena. Mary is the wife of Julins Kohne, a Washington Township farmer, and their chil- dren are Leon, Carl, Mary and John. Elizabeth, the wife of Benjamin Eiting of Washington Township, is the mother of Bernard, Katherine, Margaret, Robert and Mary E. Casper, unmarried, is handling the old farm of his father, his active associate being his next younger brother, Peter. Clara C, is still at home and like the other children was well educated in the parochial and public schools. Elnora took the veil on August 15, 1917, and is now known as Sister Priscilla in the order of St. Agnes at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Agnes is now a mem- ber of the same convent at Fond du Lae and is a candidate for the duties and responsibilities of a nun.
J. A. BRICKLEY, member of an old and prominent family of Wells County, resident here since the early '50s, has contributed not a little to the prestige of the family name by his individual career as a success- ful teacher and latterly as a banker at Uniondale.
Mr. Briekley was born in Rock Creek Township of Wells County October 8, 1870, a son of Alfred and Barbara (Haflich) Briekley. His grandfather was George Briekley, who was born in the State of Penn- sylvania and when a young man removed to Trumbull County, Ohio. He married there Miss Belinda Wolfcale and they became the parents of ten children. In 1851 the family came to Wells County, locating in seetion 1 of Rock Creek Township, where George Briekley improved a farm and made it his home for about fifteen years. After that he moved to Huntington County, bought another farm, and died there in 1878 at the age of sixty-seven. Several of his children became well known citizens of Wells County.
Alfred Briekley was born in Ohio, as was his wife, but grew up in Wells County and spent an active and prosperous career as a farmer in Rock Creek Township. He died July 19, 1907, and his wife on April 25, 1916. Their children were: William, deceased; Sarah, de- ceased : Katherine, who married John Ditzler: Anna. deceased ; John Milo; Lewis, who married Alice Nash; Andrew, who married Mary Lang: Mary, who became the wife of John Gardenour: Joshua: Cora; Nettie, deceased ; George, who married Aliee Crum ; and Joshua A.
J. A. Briekley grew up on his father's farm and obtained the larger part of his education in the public schools of Sugar Grove, Rock Creek Township. At the age of twenty he qualified as a teacher, and was actively engaged in educational work in different parts of his na- tive county from 1890 until 1908. He left the schoolroom to take a
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place in the State Bank of Uniondale, of which he is now cashier. He has been cashier of that institution since it was organized and is also one of its directors.
Mr. Brickley is affiliated with Uniondale Lodge No. 259, Knights of Pythias, and Ossanippa Tribe No. 357 of the Improved Order of Red Men at Uniondale. Ile is a democrat in politics and a member of the Lutheran Church.
On November 11, 1911, Mr. Brickley married Miss Cecile Lesh, daughter of James and Sarah (Staver) Lesh of Union Township. The Lesh family have been residents of Wells County for several genera- tions. Mrs. Brickley's brothers and sisters are: O. E. Lesh, who mar- ried Margaret Stine: Ada, wife of Ray Bumphrey of Huntington, Indi- ana ; Graee, unmarried : Ella, wife of Amber Orr of Warren, Ohio; and Edna, wife of Charles Kleinknight of Fort Wayne. Mr. and Mrs. Brickley have three children, Darrell K., Ola Irene, and Brooks Franklin.
L. E. SOMERS, M. D., one of the latest recruits to the medical profession of Wells County, is a man of splendid education, did excel- lent work as a teacher in carlier years, and is thoroughly devoted to his profession. Although quite a young man, and only recently located at Craigville, his services have received much appreciation in this com- munity.
Doctor Somers was born in Lancaster Township of Wells County April 5. 1888, son of Henry W. and Otta F. (Johnston) Somers. His parents are old residents of Wells County, and still live on their farm in Jefferson Township.
Doetor Somers received his first advantages in School District No. 12 at Greenwood in Jefferson Township. He graduated from the Ossian High School in 1908 and the following year took a normal course at Angola preparatory to teaching. For two years he worked in the country schools of Jefferson Township, and at the end of the first year married Miss Augusta M. Kroder, daughter of Henry and Minnie (Thatcher) Kroder. Her mother is now deceased and her father lives at Clifton, New Jersey. Doctor and Mrs. Somers have one child, Gerald, six years old.
In the fall of 1911 Doctor Somers began the study of medicine and entered the University of Indiana at Bloomington, where he pursued the regular academie course and was graduated Bachelor of Science in 1915. In 1917 he graduated from the University School of Medicine with the degree Doctor of Medicine, and on June 20, 1917, located at Craigville in Lancaster Township.
JAMES E. SETTLE. One of the enterprising and successful farmers of Nottingham Township, Wells County, is James E. Settle, who is a representative of one of the old and substantial families of this section of Indiana. James E. Settle was born in Nottingham Township, Sep- tember 10. 1881, and is a son of Winfield S. and Elizabeth ( Albertson) Settle.
Winfield S. Settle was born in Roekingham County, North Carolina, November 20, 1841. llis parents were Josiah and Nancy A. (Graves) Settle, both natives of North Carolina. the former of Scotch-Irish and the latter of German aneestry. When Winfield S. was six years old his parents moved to Butler County, Ohio, where he grew to manhood and lived until the death of his father, in 1869. when he came to Wells County, Indiana, his mother, in 1877, having taken up her home in Richmond, Indiana, where she died.
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On January 26, 1864, Winfield S. Settle enlisted for service in the Civil War, entering Company F, Eighty-fourth Indiana Infantry, later being transferred to the Fifty-seventh Regiment, and remained under military orders until the close of the war. Ile took part in many of the most decisive battles of that great struggle, these including Tunnel Hill, Resaca, Kingston, Pumpkin Vine Creek, Kenesaw Mountain, Neal Dow Church, Peach Tree Creek and Vining Station. At the last named place he was taken siek and was released on a furlough of ten days, re- joining his regiment in time to participate in the battle of Lookout Mountain. He was finally honorably discharged at Indianapolis, Indi- ana, and reached his home in Ohio in January, 1866.
When Mr. Settle came to Wells County in 1869, he located on the northeast one-quarter of seetion 30. He recognized that it was good, arable land, but there had been but little improving and the land was practically uneleared. For a number of years he labored hard here, never sparing himself, and developed one of the most productive farms in Nottingham Township and lived on the same farm until his death, which occurred March 30, 1903. At that time he was known and re- spected all over the county. He was prominent in the United Brethren Church and had served as a trustee for eight years, as steward two years, as class leader three years and as superintendent of the Sunday school for three years. In polities he was a republican and was in the confidence of the party leaders and was a member of the County Central Committee.
Winfield S. Settle was married April 24, 1869, to Elizabeth Albert- son, who was born in Adams County, Indiana, a daughter of Charles and Mary Ann (Brown) Albertson, the former of whom was born in Randolph and the latter in Jay County, Indiana. They became the parents of ten children, as follows: Anna, who is the wife of Edward S. Wolfe, residing at Domestie, Indiana; William H., who is a farmer in Nottingham Township; Olive, who is the wife of George Templin, a farmer in this township: Winfield, who is a university graduate, and is a minister in the United Brethren Church and for the past seven years has been stationed at Lynconville, Indiana; Thomas, James E. and Charles, all of whom are farmers in Nottingham Township; Walter B., who lives at Phoenix, Indiana; Hazel, who is the wife of Hugh Gehrett of Nottingham Township; and one who is deceased.
James E. Settle grew up on his father's farm and attended the district sehools. His first venture into business was as a worker in the oil fields, where he was employed for seven years. Since that time he has devoted himself to farming and owns a well cultivated traet of forty acres located in Nottingham Township. Ile is a careful, indus- trious and judieions farmer and understands how to make his business profitable. After his marriage he lived for a time at Phoenix, then moved on his father's farm and from there came to his own property.
Mr. Settle was united in marriage with Miss May McClain, horn August 29, 1880, a daughter of William and Anna McClain, and they have two children, both sons, Clifford and Cleland. Clifford Settle was born October 8, 1903, and has done well in school, completing the com- mon school course with credit and at present being a student in the high school at Petroleum. The younger son, born August 1, 1906, is still in the common school. The family belongs to the United Brethren church and Mr. Settle is a steward. He is a republican in polities.
J. FRED FRUCHTE for many years has stood before the citizens of Adams County as a successful teacher, lawyer, business man and just now as a very vigorons public official, being prosecuting attorney in his seeond term.
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Mr. Fruchte comes of old German ancestry. Ilis grandparents were born in Germany and left that country about the time of the German revolution in 1848. They brought with them two or three children, and crossed the ocean on an old fashioned sailing vessel, being several weeks in making the voyage. From New York they came on west to Preble Township of Adams County, Indiana, and planted their first home in the midst of the heavy forest. The cultivated clearing was gradually extended around their humble home, and in that environment their children grew up. The grandfather died only a few years after coming to Adams County, when still in the prime of life. His widow survived him many years. They are buried side by side in the old Salem Reformed Church cemetery and both were very active in that church from its very beginning. Their children were: William, Lewis, Henry, John, Sophia, Elizabeth and Mary. All but one daughter are still living, and of those living all but one son have their homes in Adams County.
Lewis Fruchte, father of the prosecuting attorney, was born in Preble Township on Christmas day of 1850. He grew up on the farm and was well disciplined in its duties, in addition to the advantages he obtained by attending the schoolhouse located at the corner of the old Fruchte farm. He was confirmed in the Reformed Church which also occupied a tract of ground on the old Fruchte homestead. He married a neighbor girl, Miss Louisa Sherry, who was born in Preble Town- ship in 1849 and like her husband was confirmed in the old Salem Reformed Church and educated in the same schoolhouse. After their marriage they secured a farm of their own, and by earnest and effective toil developed its possibilities, put up substantial buildings, and for many years in succession grew erops, reared their family and gradually prospered in material goods and in the esteem paid to good and useful citizens. Their farm consisted of 110 acres, and it remained their home until they removed to Decatur in August, 1892, buying a good house at the corner of Fourth and Jackson streets. The mother died at Decatur in 1909. Her children have always paid her a great debt of gratitude because of her devotion to them in their younger years and also for the work and co-operation she gave her husband in making and establishing a home. The father is still living hale and hearty. He is a democrat in polities and for nine years was township trustee. These parents had three children, Mary, Fred and Lucy. Mary married Albert Reppert and they own and occupy a farm of 160 acres in Kirkland Township of Adams County. The daughter Lucy grew up on the old farm and was educated with her brother and sister in the old district school and mar- ried Ferd L. Litterer. She died at the home of her father in Decatur June 8, 1913, at the birth of her first child. This child was christened Lewis John Litterer. Mr. Litterer, the father, is still living with the elder Mr. Fruchte at Decatur.
J. Fred Fruchte was born on the old homestead February 24, 1876, and was a pupil in the local district school until thirteen. He made rapid progress in his studies, and only became discontented at school because he was held back and prevented from advancing as rapidly as possible. He therefore left school, went to work, and at the age of nine- teen gratified his desire and ambition by attending a normal school at Anderson, Indiana, when that school was first established. He was a student there forty weeks and at the end of thirty weeks was given a year's license as a teacher by Professor J. F. Snow of Adams County. Mr. Fruchte taught his first school in District No. 5 of Preble Town- ship and later was transferred to his old home district No. 6. He taught there four years and for one year was a teacher in the city schools of Decatur. While in his home district he developed a first grade high-
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school class at the end of two years and by the vigorous vitality of his instruction and.leadership made that one of the best district schools in the county at the time.
In the meantime he had attended a business college at Marion, Ohio, and took up the study of law in the Indianapolis College of Law where ne completed his course in 1903 and was admitted to the bar the same year. Mr. Fruchte has been in practice at Decatur since 1904 and has enjoyed a large and successful general business in the law. At the same time he has been a dealer in real estate and insurance, and for some years has been associated with Mr. Daniel Berry in handling horses. This is one of the principal firms of horse dealers in Northeastern Indi- ana. Several times a single sale has reached over $100,000 and their sales have involved a million dollars worth of business in a single year. Mr. Fruchte has always taken a lively and active part in the democratic party. He has filled the office of prosecuting attorney for the past three years, first taking the office in 1915. He was re-elected in 1916 and his present term expires January, 1, 1919. On February 26, 1917, Mr. Fruchte was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Indiana. He was a member of the Decatur School Board in 1913-14, resigning when he entered upon his duties as prosecuting attorney.
Mr. Fruchte is affiliated with Kekionga Lodge No. 165, Knights of Pythias, has filled all the chairs and is past chancellor. He is a member of the Reformed Church and his wife of the Methodist. In October, 1908, at Decatur Mr. Fruchte married Miss Myrtle M. Beachler. Her father, William Beachler, was for four years superintendent of city schools at Decatur.
OSCAR L. VANCE. A conspicuous figure in the business life of Adams County, Oscar L. Vance, head of the enterprising firm of Vance & Hite, is carrying on a substantial business as a dealer in men's and hoys' ready made clothing, and in haberdashery, of which he carries a full line. His large store, 100 feet by 20 feet, located at the corner of Second and Madison streets, is up-to-date in its equipments and furnish- ings, and in addition to its salesroom and store rooms having a tailoring and a cleaning department; the store, owing to the demands of its large and constantly increasing trade, has recently been remodelled, and two whole floors and part of another floor are now occupied by the firm. A native of Adams County he was born, October 15, 1874, in Blue Creek Township, on the farm of his parents, both of whom died many years ago.
Having obtained his rudimentary education in the public schools, Mr. Vance taught for three years in the district schools of his native township. Subsequently entering the Tri-State Normal School, at Angola, Indiana, he was there graduated with the class of 1897. Coming immediately to Decatur, Mr. Vance was for four years principal of the ward schools, and the following year taught English and English-Latin in the Decatur High School. In 1902 he embarked in mercantile pur- suits, becoming junior member of the newly-organized firm of Acker, Elzey & Vance, dealers in men's clothing and furnishing goods. A year later, Mr. Acker retired from the firm, which then became Elzey & Vance. Mr. Elzey subsequently disposed of his interest in the business, and two new members being admitted the firm name was changed to Vance, Hite & Macklin, and in 1912 Mr. Macklin withdrew, and the firm has since carried on business under its present name, Vance & Hite. During the fifteen years that he has been in business in Decatur, Mr. Vance has met with gennine success, gradually working his way up from the junior member of the firm with which he is associated to its head.
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An active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Vanee, who has been a Bible student for many years, is very prominent in Sunday school work, and for a long while has conducted, after his own methods, a regularly organized Bible class, teaching the spiritual side of the scriptures, rather than the literal. An interesting and inspiring teacher, his efforts have been fruitful, and the class membership is con- stantly inereasing. From his elass, which is graded like any school, he recently graduated twenty-nine pupils, a number of which he expects to double at the next graduation, his elass being larger than any other Bible class in the Chieago Conference.
Mr. Vance has always been active in public affairs, and a liberal sup- porter of all beneficial movements. For six years he served as a member of the Decatur Board of Education, being especially interested in school matters. Ile is prominent in Masonie eireles, belonging to the Blue Lodge, the Shrine, and the Fort Wayne Consistory. He also belongs to Kekionga Lodge No. 165, Knights of Pythias, which he has several times represented at the Grand Lodge of the state.
Mr. Vance is the patentee of an automatie loek, known as the Vanee Safety Lock, and has 6,000 combinations. This lock, for which there is a growing demand, was put on the market by the Vanee Safety Lock Company, of which Mr. Vanee is a stoekholder and the president, it having a paid up capital of $10,000.
Mr. Vance married, in Decatur, Anna Sellemeyer, whose parents, Frederick and Elizabeth (Miller) Sellemeyer, are well known and highly respected throughout the eity. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Vance is a daughter, Lee Anna, who is still at school.
EDWARD L. CARROLL. The courageous spirit that keeps an indi- vidual perseveringly striving even after repeated disappointments and misfortune is exemplified strikingly in the character of Edward L. Carroll, a successful business man of Decatur, and an extensive dealer in coal, feed and seeds, and a jobber in supplies of various kinds. Mr. Carroll has been, in his career, engaged in enterprises of important and varied nature and has made and lost several fortunes, on each ocea- sion when he has received serious set-backs having fought baek with un- diminished spirit and won his way to the front again. Today he is ae- eounted one of the leaders of the Deeatur business eontingent and that he is so is a deeided tribute to his unfaltering perseveranee and un- conquerable courage.
Mr. Carroll was born in Logan County, Ohio, February 8, 1858. His father, Thomas Carroll, was born in Ireland, about 1830, of an old Irish family of Catholie stoek, and about the year 1849 eame to the United States and located in Ohio. There he was married to Lueinda Biekham, who was born in Pennsylvania, and who, like her mother, had been a spinner and weaver. The Biekham family moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio on horseback, and mother and daughter soon found their services in the new community in much demand, they weaving the greater part of the flax and wool in their neighborhood. Thomas Carroll was a man highly educated, a real Irish gentleman, and one of the best mathematicians and astronomers in Ohio. After his marriage he settled on a farm and later bought a general store at Huntsville, conducting both for four years, when he sold his farm and traded his stoek of merchandise for another farm in the vicinity of Huntsville. He spent two years on this property and then went into the elevator business at Huntsville with Messrs, Herrin and Ed- miston, and one year later bought their interests in this enterprise, which he conducted until 1897, in which year he turned it over to his
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son, Edward L. Mr. Carroll died at Huntsville at the age of eighty- two years and Mrs. Carroll when seventy-six years of age. They were members of the Catholic Church, to which faith Mrs. Carroll had be- come a convert, and were greatly esteemed and respeeted as people of the highest character and principles. Of their children, Edward L. is the eldest ; Mary J. is married and resides in Ohio; Charles P. is also married and lives in that state; and Thomas F. and Robert are married and live in Michigan.
Edward L. Carroll was edueated in the public schools of Ohio, and in youth and young manhood was engaged in various enterprises, prin- cipally with his father. He conducted the business established by his father at Huntsville until 1901, in which year he came to Deeatur and purchased the business of J. D. ITale, which had been established about thirty years ago by Mr. Hale, consisting of five grain elevators, of which four are in Adams County and one in Wells County. In 1907. with cer- tain Toledo parties, Mr. Carroll established the United Grain Company, with 109 county and city grain elevators in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, including an elevator at Chicago with a capacity of 250,000 bushels; one
at South Bend, Indiana, of a like capacity; and elevators at Buffalo,
New York, and Toledo, Ohio, each with a capacity of 500,000 bushels. An office was operated at each of these points, with Mr. Carroll in charge of the Buffalo office. After seven years he disposed of his interests. In 1909 he incorporated the Ward Wire Fence Company and erected a large plant in the north end of Decatur, spending $16,000 in develop- ment, but in the following three years lost in the neighborhood of $5,000 and thereupon sold out. In December, 1909, he had temporarily retired from business, and in the year that followed more misfortune came to him, for he lost in death his father, his mother-in-law, his brother and his brother-in-law. When he was again ready to engage in business, Mr. Carroll started his present large enterprise, which has been an unqualified success, and in which, no doubt, he will be able to recoup his losses. He is engaged in jobbing in stuceo, stucco materials, flour, feed, bran, chicken feed and other supplies, and also has a large trade in retail eoal, salt, lime, ete., and employs five people in his large plant, situated at the corner of Second and Jefferson streets, Decatur.
Mr. Carroll was married in Logan County, Ohio, to Anna C. Shangh- nessy, who was born in that county, of Irish parents, John and Margaret (Brellehan) Shaughnessy, who were married inf Ireland, emigrated to Canada, and then came to Logan County, Ohio, where they died, the mother at the age of sixty-seven years and the father when seventy-one years of age. They were Catholies. Of their five daughters and one son, four of the daughters are living, and two of them are married. Mr. and Mrs. Carroll have two children : Blanche M. and John Clayson. Blanche M. married Daniel R. Vail, of Decatur, who is connected with his father in the operation of strawboard factories at Delphi and Marion, Indiana, and also in the ownership of large tracts of timberland in Southwest Missouri, thirty miles of railroad and four heading and stave factories. Mr. and Mrs. Vail have one daughter: Mary L., eight years of age. John Clayson Carroll, who is associated with his father in busi- ness, married Leiah Miller, of Greenville, Ohio. and they have a son John. All the members of these families are Catholics, Mrs. Leiah Car- roll being a. convert to that faith. and they attend St. Mary's Church. Mr. Carroll and his sons are fourth-degree members of the Knights of Columbus, Edward L. Carroll having been the founder of the council at Decatur. Mr. Carroll has been active in the ranks of the demoeratie party, as an advisor, although he has not taken such a prominent part since settling permanently at Deeatur. He has not sought office. In
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