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 56
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 56
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Mrs. Anna Rupert, whose maiden name was Trippy, was born in Van Wert County, Ohio, March 13, 1862, a daughter of Levi and Ma- tilda (Fisher) Trippy, representing an old family of Van Wert County.
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Mrs. Rupert was one of eight children, her brothers and sisters being Henry N., Mary, Thomas, Susan, Jennie, William and Nora.
Mrs. Rupert was well educated both in local schools and at home and was well prepared for the responsibilities she assumed when on December 30, 1880, she married Louis L. Rupert. Mr. Rupert was born in Allen County, Ohio, February 17, 1861, a son of Louis and Sarah (Wagner) Rupert.
Mr. and Mrs. Rupert came to Adams County on March 20, 1894. At that time they possessed a modest capital and their children were all very young. They bought sixty acres of land in Monroe Town- ship and straightway began making improvements and by dint of hard work and perseverance were able to accumulate more land and gradually provide for all the principal necessities of their growing family and accumulate something of a surplus against old age. Their first purchase put twenty acres more to their farm, later there was a second purchase of twenty acres, and finally the farm was rounded out by another thirty-five aeres and forty acres, so that the Rupert homestead now occupied by Mrs. Anna Rupert consists of 180 acres of well tilled soil and improved with excellent buildings, constituting one of the model farms of the township.
All of this, together with his devoted labors as a minister of the United Brethren Church, stand as testimony to the good life and work of Rev. Mr. Rupert, who died December 28, 1910. He was laid to rest in Maplewood Cemetery at Decatur.
Mrs. Rupert has six living children. Margie F., the oldest, married Frank Armstrong, and their two children are Louis S. and Sylvia R., the former thirteen and the latter eleven years of age. William T., the second child, married Verna Raudenbush, and their children are Floyd L., born May 22, 1911 ; Glenn A., born July 27, 1913, and Ruby T., born March 23, 1916. Jesse F., the third of the living children, married Ada Robinson and has one daughter, Mabel M., born November 17, 1914. The three unmarried children of Mrs. Rupert are Mary I., Harvey E. and Sylvan. These children were all given the advantages of the local schools, and all the family are members of the United Brethren Church except the daughter Mary, who is a member of the Friends Church. Three children are deceased, Sarah A., who married Charles Helmer: Francis A., who died in infancy; and Cynthia M., who married Henry Sanders, and was killed in an automobile accident at a railroad crossing.
FRED MUTSCHLER. Among the active and prosperous business men of Adams County, not one is more worthy of special mention in this volume than Frederick Mutschler, an extensive stock buyer and seller, and proprietor of a well-kept and well-patronized meat market. A native of Germany, he was born in Heidelberg, September 27, 1864.
His father, Frederick Mutsehler, Sr., spent his entire life in Ger- many, dying on his farm at a comparatively early age, in 1881. His widow remained in Germany until 1886, when she came to the United States to join her children, who had preceded her, and after spending a year at the home of her son, Frederick, who was then living in Adams County, Indiana, on a farm, located in Decatur, where her death oc- curred about twenty years later. She reared four children, as follows : Philip, now living in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Peter, a resident of Chi- cago, Illinois, married; Sophia, wife of Peter Kirsch, a well-known lumberman of Decatur, Indiana; and Frederick.
Brought up on a farm, Frederick Mutschler was well trained in agricultural pursuits in his native land. Coming to America in 1881,
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he sailed from Rotterdam, and landed at Castle Garden, New York. He subsequently spent six months in Pennsylvania; from there coming to Western Indiana to join his brother, Philip, who had been in this country for sometime. He began work as a farmhand, and when ready to begin life on his own account began farming in Adams County. In 1902 Mr. Mutschler moved from his farm to Decatur, and engaged in the livery business one year; he then engaged in the meat market and stock business continuing until the present time, also buying and selling cattle, and in the managing of his finely equipped market on North Monroe Street. His store is one of the best of the kind in the county, being up-to-date in every respect, and well kept as regards its sanitary conditions.
Mr. Mutschler married, in Adams County, Catherine Kirsch, who was born in Baden, Germany, and as a child came with her parents to Indiana. Five children have been born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Mutschler, namely : Emma, who married Edward Worthman, died at the birth of her first child, who also died at the same time; Ella, who was graduated from the Valparaiso Normal School, is a successful teacher; Albert, an expert butcher, is superintendent of his father's shop; Huldah, wife of Benjamin Shroyer, of Decatur, an engineer in the sugar beet plant, and they have one son, Frederick; and Edgar, a well educated young man of twenty years, is in his father's employ. Mr. and Mrs. Mutschler are members of the Reformed Church, and the father and sons are democrats in politics.
ERNEST W. BUSCHE. By close application, untiring energy, and a diligent use of his faculties, Ernest W. Busche, of Washington Town- ship, who began life for himself on a low rung of the ladder of at- tainments, has steadily forged his way upward, and now occupies a position of note among the extensive and prosperous farmers of Adams County. A native of Germany, he was born, May 16, 1873, in Helpson, near Hanover, where his parents, Henry and Sophia (Nieman) spent their entire lives.
At the age of fifteen years, Ernest W. Busche came from Germany to the United States, and during the next seven years lived with an uncle in Tipton County, Indiana, where for a time he attended the public schools, continuing the studies that he had previously begun in his native land. With an inclination for reading, and a great desire for learning, he has since added materially to his elementary educa- tion, and keeps well informed on the questions of the day. Starting in life on his own account in March. 1895, Mr. Busche purchased a few acres of land and engaged in agricultural pursuits. Disposing of that land, he bought forty acres in Tipton County, Indiana, and in 1901 purchased 106 acres more in that locality. Selling out that property a year later, Mr. Busche came to Adams County, Indiana, in February, 1902, and bought 160 acres of good land lying a half mile east of Monroe. In 1910 he bought forty acres of near-by land, and now has a well-managed and well-appointed farm of 200 acres, on which he is carrying on general farming in a highly satisfactory manner, finding both pleasure and profit in his labors.
Mr. Busche married. March 28, 1895, Nettie A. Smitson, who was born and educated in Tipton County, Indiana. Her parents, Henry and Mary Smitson, reared two children, Nettie A. and Andrew, who married Ella Schinlaub. Mr. Smitson is still living, but his wife died many years ago, her death occurring September 16, 1889. Mr. and Mrs. Busche have two children, namely: L. Martin, born November 23, 1897, is attending Purdue University, in Lafayette, Indiana; and
GARRET C. BERLING
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Louise, born March 24, 1901, is a high school pupil. Mr. and Mrs. Busche are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Po- litically Mr. Busche has always been identified with the republican party. Fraternally he is a member of Decatur Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons; and of Monroe Lodge No. 6840, Mod- ern Woodmen of America.
ULRICH SPRUNGER. Prominent among the enterprising and self- reliant men who are ably conducting the agricultural affairs of Adams County is Ulrich Sprunger, of Monroe Township, a farmer of practical experience and much ability. A worthy representative of the native- born citizens of Adams County, he was born in Monroe Township, January 7, 1860, of honored Swiss ancestry.
His father, Christian Sprunger, was born in Berne, Switzerland, and in early life, about 1852, immigrated to Indiana. Locating in Adams County, he bought eighty acres of absolutely wild land in Monroe Town- ship, and at once began the heroic task of placing it under cultivation. There he lived with his family for many years in true pioneer style, depending principally upon the productions of the soil and the game to be found for their subsistence, Fort Wayne being the nearest market and trading post. Not a furrow had been turned on the land he pur- chased, but the soil yielded readily to cultivation, and in the course of a few years he had improved the homestead property upon which he and his wife spent the remainder of their years. He married Mary Anna Lehmann, a native of Adams County, and in the log cabin to which he took her as a bride their ten children were born, namely : Katie; Mary ; Elizabeth ; Barbara; Anna, deceased ; Rosa ; Rachel ; Joel ; Gideon ; and Ulrich.
After completing his education in the district schools, Ulrich Sprunger began working with his father, and under his training ac- quired knowledge and experience of value. In May, 1885, he pur- chased, in Monroe Township, sixty acres of his present estate, and has since increased its acreage by the purchase of fifty more acres. Here Mr. Sprunger has labored diligently and successfully, improving and beautifying his farm, which yields him rich returns each year. He has a good residence and comfortable and substantial farm buildings, everything about the place being indicative of thirft, peace and plenty.
On October 28, 1886, Mr. Sprunger married Anna Liechty, a daugh- ter of Jacob and Marie Liechty, who came to Indiana from Switzerland, and settled in Wayne County, Ohio, where their eight children were born, their names being as follows: Samuel, deceased ; Emanuel ; Chris- tian, deceased ; Jacob ; Peter ; Elizabeth ; Anna, now Mrs. Sprunger ; and Joel, deceased. The father of these children died December 27, 1907. and the mother July 12, 1910. Nine children have been born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Sprunger, namely : Dora, born June 25, 1887 ; Walter, born January 1, 1888; Oscar, born October 2, 1890; Joel, born September 23, 1892; Eldon, born November 20, 1894; Powell, deceased, born May 31, 1897; Marcus, born February 19, 1899; Mary, horn May 25, 1901 ; and Freda, born April 23, 1903. Walter, serving in the United States army, is now at Camp Taylor, Kentucky. Oscar, Joel and Eldon are also in the service. Mr. Sprunger is not identified with any political party, being independent in his views. Himself, wife and family are members of the Mennonite Church.
GARRET C. BERLING. For a period of nearly thirty years Garret C. Berling was one of Decatur's most influential business men. When a young man with little capital he started out over the county buying
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produce in a single wagon and at the time of his death was head of the Berling Produce Company, handling goods in wholesale lots, and afford- ing a market which was patronized by producers all over Adams County while there were several branch establishments in other towns.
Mr. Berling was known in Hanover, Germany, November 27, 1854. He was of old German stock and of Catholic family. His parents, John and Catherine (Fullenkamp) Berling, spent all their lives in Hanover, where his father, a blacksmith by trade, died at the age of about fifty. The mother passed away when about seventy years of age. They had two sons, one of whom died in infancy, and one daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Steinberger, who is still living in Hanover and mother of a large family.
Garret C. Berling grew up in his native country and was well educated in the German schools. He came to America at the age of seventeen. One of the principal reasons why he sought a home in America was to avoid the compulsory military service. He left his home October 4, 1871, and took passage on the steamer Baltimore in the North Sea and after one day at Southampton, England, crossed the ocean, arriving at Baltimore, Maryland, October 22, 1871. It was a somewhat stormy passage. From Baltimore he proceeded over the Baltimore & Ohio Railway to Cincinnati and then crossed the Ohio River to visit relatives at Covington, Kentucky. In November of the same year he came to Adams County and joined an unele, Mr. Fullenkamp. During 1873-74 he attended school across the line in Ohio, and then returned to Decatur and in 1875 set up a business for himself, driving a huekster wagon over the country, purchasing butter, eggs, poultry and other produce. He shipped most of his stock to market at New York and Phila- delphia. He rapidly gained the confidence and acquaintance of all the growers of produce over a wide territory and in the course of time he was able to set up a business at Decatur to which the produce was brought to him by the raisers themselves. From time to time an increase in his facilities was required, and at the time of his death he had a large ware- house, 40 by 100 feet, and also a branch house at Berne, in Adams County.
Mr. Berling died at Decatur October 23, 1904. He was a very popular merchant, an excellent citizen and noted for his sterling character and the quiet efficiency he exercised in every undertaking, whether it was something that concerned himself or the community at large. Many years ago he bought a fine ten-room residence at the corner of Jefferson and Fourth streets, and Mrs. Berling and some of her children are still living there. Mr. Berling was known as a very ardent democrat and took much interest in polities and all progressive matters. He was prom- inent in the Catholic Church.
At Decatur in 1880 he married Miss Helena Hartman. She was born in Eastern Pennsylvania July 17, 1858, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Herman) Hartman. Her father was born in Pennsylvania a short time after his parents came to this country from Germany. The Hartmans were nineteen weeks in crossing the ocean on an old fashioned sailing vessel, and the grandparents spent the rest of their lives in Pennsylvania. Joseph Hartman was married in eastern Pennsylvania and his wife died when Mrs. Berling was nine years of age. He lived to be past sixty and died in 1883. He was a boatman by occupation and was a member of the Catholic Church while his wife was a Lutheran. Mrs. Berling grew up in Pennsylvania and in 1873 came to Decatur to join a family of relatives namer Bermenkamp. She lived with them seven years until she married. Mrs. Berling is an active member with her family of St. Mary's Catholic Church. She has been a devoted mother and may be justly proud of the records of her children. Her oldest child, Joseph,
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is unmarried and lives with his mother and is active manager of the Berling Produce Company. He is affiliated with the Knights of Colum- bus, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and other local organ- izations. The second child, Mary, is at home and is bookkeeper for the company. Edward, also at home and single, is buyer for the company, and a member of the Knights of Columbus. The son William conducts the company's branch plant at Bluffton, where he resides. He married Edna Echinger and has a son, William, Jr. Matilda is at home and works as assistant bookkeeper for the company. Geneve is bookkeeper for the Adams County Creamery Company. Agnes took the veil as a Catholic sister in 1907 and is now known as Sister Mary Coletta of the Order of St. Agnes of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and for the past four years has been a teacher at Yonkers, New York. All the children grad- uated from the parochial schools at Decatur. The boys took courses in the Business College at Fort Wayne and the daughters are graduates of the Sacred Heart Convent of Fort Wayne.
JACOB W. JOHNSTON was born and has lived all his life on one farm in Adams County. He is one of the men who are in a position by ex- perience to appreciate the assertion that "home keeping hearts are hap- piest," and it is a tribute to his steadfastness of character that he has been content to live in and witness the successive changes of one locality for over fifty years.
This farm where he was born and where he now lives is near Wash- ington Church in section 18 of Washington Township, five miles south- west of Decatur. He was born there October 23, 1853, son of Thomas and Eliza (Ball) Johnston. His father, who was a native of Maryland, went with his parents to Tuscarawas County, Ohio, where he grew to manhood and where he married his first wife. Impelled by the desire for new land in a less densely populated section he came to Adams County in pioneer days and here entered a quarter section from the Government in section 18, Washington Township. Thomas Johnston did much of the heavy work of clearing and improving on that land, and its first crops were grown from his planting. His first wife died there and all their four children are now deceased. He married for his second wife Eliza Ball, daughter of James Ball. Thirteen children were born to the second marriage, and those still living are: Rebecca, widow of Charles F. Chaney of Plymouth, Indiana; Martha J., wife of George Christ of Richland Township; Abner S. of Kansas City; Barton B. of Linn County, Kansas; Rachel A., wife of Abe Stoneburner of Decatur ; Miss Mary L. of Decatur.
Jacob W. Johnston as a boy attended district school near the old homestead, and at the same time developed his strength by the duties of the farm. Some years after reaching manhood on April 27, 1888, he married Miss Sarah E. Burkhead. She was born in Illinois but was reared and educated in the schools of Adams County, Indiana. Seven children have been born to their marriage: Mary A., wife of Dallas Grim; John F. of Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Ada L., wife of William Martin ; Eliza, wife of Edward Arnold; Thomas V., of Decatur; Elmer D., unmarried and at home; and Anna P., wife of Roy Jahn, who is now in the United States army at Camp Taylor.
The Johnston family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington Township and Mr. Johnston is one of the church trustees. He belongs to the Adams County Detective Association and in politics is a democrat. His farm consists of 100 acres that has produced prob- ably fifty or sixty crops and is still fertile, productive, under a high Vol. II-25
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state of cultivation and one of the best farms and finest homesteads in the county.
GEORGE A. KINTZ. Few of the farmers of Washington Township in Adams County have made a better showing from a similar beginning than George A. Kintz. He has gained prominence in the agricultural sections of the county as a farmer and stock raiser, and worthily takes his place among the representative citizens of the county.
Mr. Kintz has been a resident of Adams County forty years and has lived on his present farm for the past sixteen years. His farm consists of eighty acres of the fine soil of Washington Township and under his management his fields have grown the best erops year in and year out. Among improvements should be mentioned a substantial six-room house, practically new, a barn 36x60 feet recently completed, with additional shelter for horses and cattle. As a crop grower Mr. Kintz has in many seasons succeeded in producing fifty bushels of corn to the acre, twenty bushels of wheat and forty bushels of oats.
He came to Indiana from Ohio. He was born in Seneca County of that state in 1856, son of Lewis and Elizabeth (Kuhn) Kintz. His parents were both natives of Pennsylvania and after their marriage in that state they moved to Seneca County, Ohio. The father was a cooper by trade, but after moving to Ohio followed farming. He was a man of much industry, a good provider, and lived a long and useful life, passing away at the age of seventy-five, his wife died at the age of eighty-nine. Both were lifelong members of the Catholic Church. Their family consisted of six sons and four daughters, all but one growing up. Among these children were: Henry M .; Louise; Ann, who died after her marriage; Agnes, who is married; Andy, deceased; Edward, who lives west of Decatur ; George A .; Josie, who is married and has a family in Root Township; and Lewis, who died in infancy.
George A. Kintz grew up in his native state and was educated in parochial schools. At Tiffin, Seneca County, he married for his first wife Margaret Geary, who was born and reared and educated in Tiffin, of Catholic parents. She died in Washington Township eight years after her marriage at the age of thirty-five. Mr. Kintz had four children by his first wife. Angeline, the oldest, is the wife of Herbert Lackenangh and they now live at Fort Wayne and have two children, Henry George and Marjorie Catherine. Maggie is the wife of Joseph Smith, a carpenter at Decatur, and their two children, Geraldean and Gerald, are both at- tending school. A twin sister of Maggie, Elizabeth, died in childhood. The youngest Lewis is unmarried and lives in Michigan. Mr. George Kintz married for his second wife at Tiffin, Ohio, Mary Herrick. She was born there thirty-six years ago, was well educated, and has proved a splendid wife and mother to her family. They have three children : Andrew, aged nineteen; Hubert, aged seventeen; and Bernard, in his fifteenth year. All the family are active members of St. Mary's Cath- olie Church at Decatur. Mr. Kintz votes as a democrat, and has filled various offices such as school board member, supervisor of roads and township assessor.
HENRY EITING. Of the men who have made farming and the man- agement of land and its resources their chief business in life, undoubt- edly one of the successful in Adams County is Henry Eiting of Wash- ington Township. Mr. Eiting is an old timer of this community, grew up here from early childhood, and his boyhood strength and enthusiasm were contributed to the sum total of labors by which his family sue-
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ceeded in the heavy pioneer task of developing a portion of Adams County's original wilderness.
Mr. Henry Eiting's present fine home is a farm of 206 aeres in sec- tions 4 and 9 in Washington Township, close to the corporation limits of Decatur. He really has two complete farms, each with a set of farm buildings. Both homes contain eight rooms each. ITis own home is a well built stucco residence and the other is occupied by his son Ben- jamin. Besides the houses there is a large group of detached buildings, both small and large, used for the various purposes of shelter for stock, grain and implements. Practically all the land is under cultivation except fifteen aeres of native timber. It is well drained and productive soil, and its resources are apparently better preserved now than ever before, though Mr. Eiting himself has farmed this tract continuously for over thirty years. As a erop producer he ordinarily gets 60 bushels of corn to the acre, about 25 bushels of wheat, and 50 bushels of oats. Ile has also grown sugar beets on a considerable scale. This farm has been the home of Mr. Eiting since 1881, and most of the clearing and original work of cultivation were done by him.
Mr. Eiting has been a resident of Washington Township of Adams County since 1855. He was born in Prussia, Germany, in April, 1850, and came to the United States with his mother and a brother. His father had preceded the family to the United States in 1854, first locat- ing at Minster in Anglaize County, Ohio, where one of his brothers, John, had established a home six years before. Still another brother of the father, Wilhelm, came to the United States some years later. The Eiting family lived for many generations as substantial farming people in Germany and all of them were Catholics in religion. Mr. Henry Eiting is a son of Casper and Margaret (Sehrer) Eiting, both of whom were born and grew up neighbors in Germany and were married there. After they came to the United States one other child was born, John. Casper Eiting and wife after establishing their home in Adams County rented land for a time, and later bought a traet of raw land in Washing- ton Township. Here they experienced all the early conditions of pioneer life. On their homestead of 160 acres Henry Eiting, then a boy of ten years in 1860, cut down the first tree to make the clearing on which their one room log cabin was erected. Year after year of hard toil followed, and in the course of time the parents had nearly all the land cleared and in cultivation. The old log house was supplanted by a substantial brick house. The mother of Henry Eiting died in this home in 1872 in middle age. Casper Eiting afterwards married Mrs. Christina Schrader, and they continued to live on the old farm until their death. One child was born of the second marriage, Anthony, who died young. Casper Eiting died at the age of seventy-six, followed by his second wife two years later at the age of sixty. Both were active members of St. Mary's Catholic Church at Decatur.
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