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 62
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 62
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Philip Sehug married in Adams County Anna A. Striker. She was born in Ashland County, Ohio, in April, 1864, and was a young child when her parents Andrew and Eliza Striker came to Monroe Township of Adams County. Her father was a native of Germany and her mother of Pennsylvania. The Strikers on coming to Adams County located on a farm, where the parents lived for many years. They finally retired to Berne, where the father died a number of years ago. Mrs. Schug's inother is still living at the age of eighty-five.
Mr. and Mrs. Schug became the parents of four children. Otto F., the oldest, finished his education in a business school in North Dakota, and while in that state he located a claim of 160 acres. He was busy in his preparations for developing this farm when he was suddenly killed, being twenty-three years of age. He was driving a team across a rail- road track when struck by a fast train, both the horses and himself being instantly killed. He was brought back to his native county and buried at Berne. Jesse A., the second son, was like the other children well edu- cated in the local schools at Berne, and is now a stueco worker living in his native village. He married Byrdie Hoffman of Hartford City, Indi- ana, and they have two children, Philip A. and Henry C. The only daughter is Cora P., wife of Chester V. Millikin. They live in Wells County, and both are highly educated young people. Mrs. Millikin was for seven years a teacher at Berne.
The youngest son is Everett J .. the business associate and partner of his father, and a young man of great resourcefulness and business enter- prise. He was born November 11, 1896, is a graduate of the grammar and high schools of Berne, and finished his course in high school with the elass of 1915. He was editor of the school paper while in school and was also president of his elass, and of various literary organizations of the school. For a number of years he was associated with his father in the insurance business, learned it in every detail, and has shown unusual ability in pushing insurance work. In January, 1917, he was made a partner under the name of Philip Schug & Son. They have well arranged and well equipped offices, and the firm undoubtedly handles as much insurance as any other in Adams County. Everett Schug married Miss Esther Acton of Bluffton, Indiana, where she was reared and educated. They were married in October, 1916, and have one daughter, Anna Louise.
Most of the Philip Schug family are members of the Evangelical Association at the Trinity Evangelical Church in Berne. Philip Schug is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, at the local Castle Hall Chapter No. 398.
FRANCIS M. COTTRELL is the only lawyer in practice at Berne, and by reason of almost half a century's experience in the law in this county is one of the oldest members of the local bar and one of the oldest attor- neys in the state.
Mr. Cottrell was born in Union County, Ohio, January 21, 1846. ITis grandfather Robert Cottrell was born in Ireland, probably of Prot- estant ancestry. When a young man he came to the United States and served as a soldier in the War of 1812. He went through the war. par- tieipated in numerous engagements, but came out unhurt, and soon after- ward located in Ohio, where he married and where he spent an active carcer as a farmer until his death. He was quite an old man when he died, and had reared a numerous family. It was through his admiration for Gen. Francis Marion, the great leader of the American Revolution, that the Berne lawyer was given his christian name.
The parents of Francis M. Cottrell were Richard and Cecilia Cottrell.
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His father was born in Union County, Ohio, and lived a brief career as a farmer in that state, where he died in 1850 at the age of thirty-two. Richard Cottrell married Mrs. Cecelia (Hall) Peele, a native of Adams County, Ohio. By her first marriage she had three children, one of whom, William, is now a farmer at Long Lake, Michigan. Mrs. Cecelia Cottrell died in Wabash Township of Adams County, Indiana, at the age of seventy-three. She was an active member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. Francis M. Cottrell is the oldest of three children. His brother Burgoyne was twice married and at his death left four children. The sister Elizabeth died after her marriage to Daniel W. Britt and was the mother of two sons and one daughter.
In 1863, at the age of seventeen, Francis M. Cottrell enlisted in the Tenth Ohio Regiment of Cavalry. He saw much of the strenuous fight- ing and campaigning in which the cavalry forces were engaged. His chief commander was General Kilpatrick, and he was in Sherman's famous campaign from Atlanta to the sea and thence up through the Carolinas, participating at Jonesboro, Goldsboro, Charleston and Augusta until the surrender of Johnston's army and the virtual close of the war. With all his exposure and hardships Mr. Cottrell went through the war unscathed and was mustered out in July, 1865, as a private.
After the war he returned home to Franklin County, Ohio, where he worked on a farm. In 1867 he came to Adams County, Indiana, and engaged in farming in Wabash Township. In 1880 he traded his farm for a farm in Jefferson Township. While there he began the study of law, continuing farming in the meantime until 1886 when he gave up farming and practiced law in 1903. He moved to Berne, being admitted to the bar at Decatur in that year. Most of the important law work originating in and around Berne has been committed to his charge, and he is not only one of the oldest but one of the most respected attorneys for his services and abilities. He is a member of the Adams Connty Bar Association.
Mr. Cottrell married in Ohio in 1867 Margaret Priest, who was born and reared and educated in her native state. To their marriage were born four children. Ida J. is the wife of Henry Zink of Anderson, Indi- ana, and the mother of a family. Anna married Alvin Vorhees and lives at Geneva, Indiana, their family consisting of four sons. Rosetta is the widow of B. Parr and lives east of Berne, the head of a household of ten children. Arthur Hall is a farmer at Knox, Indiana, and is married and has sons and daughters. For his second wife Mr. Cottrell married at Berne Mrs. Alice (Fleetwood) Farlow. By her first husband she has one son, Earl F., now a farmer in Adams County, and a bachelor. Mrs. Cottrell was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, in 1859, and was seven years of age when she came to Adams County with her parents William and Hettie (Timmons) Fleetwood, who were also natives of Ohio. They died in Adams County, Indiana, her mother at the age of fifty-five. Her father passed away quite recently in May, 1917, and in the following month would have celebrated his eighty-fourth birthday. Mrs. Cottrell is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Politically he has always followed the fortunes of the republican party, and for eight years served as justice of the peace in Jefferson Township.
JACOB SCHUELER. Among the native horn citizens of Adams County who aided in every possible way its growth and development, stands Jacob Schueler, whose birth occurred in Preble Township, November 4, 1860, on the farm of his father, George Schueler.
George Schueler was horn in Ohio, of German ancestry. He became familiar with agricultural pursuits as a boy, and in early manhood
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made his way to Adams County, Indiana. Settling in Preble Town- ship, he bought 160 acres of land, from the Hoffman heirs. He cleared the larger part of it, and was there successfully engaged in general farming until his death. His wife, Mary Furmann, was born in Ger- many, and as a young girl came with her parents to Adams County, Indiana, where she grew to womanhood, and was married. She was the mother of eleven children. The seven by her first husband, Peter IIoffman, being Daniel, Henry, Martin, Christian, Elizabeth, Sophia, and Susanna Hoffman, and the four by her second husband, Fred, Jacob, Mary, and John Schueler. George Schueler died in February, 1893, and his wife in June, 1905. Both parents were members of the Ger- man Lutheran Church.
As a boy Jacob Schueler acquired a good education in the parochial and public schools, and on the home farm obtained a practical knowl- edge of agriculture. He subsequently purchased, in Preble Township, a portion of his father's estate, and after his mother's death he bought the rest from the Schueler and Hoffman heirs. He has since been pleasantly and profitably engaged in general farming, managing his property with ability and success.
Mr. Schueler married. in April, 1887, Katherine, daughter of Henry Smith, who reared two other daughters and one son, Louisa, Christina and John. Six children have made their advent into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Schueler, namely : Otto, who married Freeda Prange of Wells County, Indiana; Clara, wife of Adolph Biebrich, of Root Township; Adolph ; Hermann ; George; and Robert. Loyal to the religious faith of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Schueler are valued members of the German Lutheran Church.
NATHAN B. SHEPHERD is one of the oldest business men of Geneva, where he is manager of the Geneva Elevator Company. He is a native of Adams County and for forty years has been more or less actively identified with the hay and grain trade.
The settlement of the Shepherd family in Adams County was al- most coincident with the period of the earliest pioneers of this section. The Shepherds are an old Virginia family. Mr. Shepherd's grand- parents were William and Olivia P. (Emery) Shepherd, both natives of Virginia, the former born August 18, 1788, and the latter August 19, 1788. They married in Virginia, July 14, 1809, and became the parents of eight children. From Virginia they sought homes in the Northwest country, were pioneers in Franklin County, Ohio, and about 1838 came to Northeastern Indiana and located in a wilderness home in section 36 of Wabash Township. William Shepherd was a man of substantial means and enterprise and accumulated here some 1,200 or 1,400 acres of land. He was a prosperous business man and a leading citizen in the community, and died in this county June 17, 1862. His wife passed away April 25, 1856. William Shepherd also had a patriotic record, having served his country in the War of 1812, and it was during that war that he gained his first knowledge of the country north of the River Ohio. He served at the siege of Fort Meigs and at the siege of Toledo.
The father of the Geneva business man was Edward Shepherd, who was born in Franklin County, Ohio, July 5, 1826, and died in Adams County December 14, 1866. He was about twelve years of age when he came to Adams County, and he grew up on a farm and followed agriculture in Wabash Township during his active years. He married in that township April 23, 1847. Lucy A. Buckingham. She was born in Maryland May 25, 1826, and survived her husband many years. Her
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parents, Nathan and Frissell (Michael) Buckingham, were also natives of Maryland, moved from there to Fairfield County, Ohio, and seven years later went to Jay County, Indiana, where Nathan Buckingham died June 6, 1852, and his wife in 1868. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Edward Shepherd and wife were also active Methodists. They became the parents of nine children : William E., born March 7, 1849; Margaret E., born December 29, 1850; Nathan B .; Martha A., born August 17, 1854; Pyreny J., born March 17, 1856, and died September 2, 1881; Alfred A., born January 10, 1858, died November 7, 1877; John H., born August 5, 1860, died November 11, 1866; Morton G., born February 3, 1863; and Emma, born September 18, 1865, died January 17, 1878. Of this family only three are living today, Nathan, Morton, of Portland, Indiana, and Martha, widow of Jacob Butcher.
Nathan B. Shepherd was born on his father's farm in Wabash Town- ship June 3, 1852, and as a boy his growing strength was more and more taxed to help in the clearing and improvement of the farm. He was only fourteen years of age when his father died, and after that prac- tically supported himself. His education was confined to the advan- tages of the local schools, and in 1871, at the age of nineteen, he began working in a stave factory at Bluffton. He followed different occupa- tions for some years. and in 1877 went to work for the Geneva Hay & Grain firm of S. W. Hale & Brother. That business he has given prac- tically forty years of his energies and experience. In 1902 he engaged in business for himself, and for a number of years has been manager of the Geneva Elevator Company.
Mr. Shepherd has also participated generously in local affairs, and from 1898 to 1902 was postmaster of Geneva. He is a republican, as was his father before him. He has served as noble grand of Geneva Lodge No. 634, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, has sat in the Grand Lodge, and is a member of Geneva Lodge No. 621, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
On October 26, 1879, Mr. Shepherd married Miss Sarah E. Connor. who was born in Jay County, Indiana, June 15, 1856. daughter of William and Catherine (Farbee) Connor, natives of Ohio and early settlers in Jay County. Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd have four sons : Earl, a graduate of the Geneva High School and of Purdue University in the civil engineering course; William E., a graduate of the Geneva High School; Charles and Clarence, who likewise have completed the work of the local high school.
JOSEPHUS MARTIN, the leading coal merchant at Geneva, has made a creditable record of business enterprise and is adding to the many associations which the name Martin has with the business and pioneer life of Adams County.
Ile was named for his grandfather, Josephus Martin, one of the early settlers of Hartford Township, where the family was established fully seventy years ago. Josephus Martin was a native of Virginia, born in Hampshire County September 30, 1803. The family had lived in Virginia for several generations, the grandfather of Josephus having located there about the time of the Revolution. Josephus Martin when a small boy went with his parents to Warren County, Ohio, and in that state he grew to manhood. On March 25, 1830, he married Cath- erine Summerfelt, who was horn in New Jersey, July 7. 1814. She died January 19, 1844, and on January 27. 1845, Josephus married Elizabeth Deffenbaugh, whose father, John Deffenbaugh, became well known in Adams County, Indiana. By his first marriage Josephus Mar-
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tin had six children, and was the father of eleven by his second wife. Grandfather Josephus Martin died in 1884.
John A. Martin, father of the Geneva business man, was born in Adams County, in Hartford Township, April 30, 1849, a son of Josephus and Elizabeth (Deffenbaugh) Martin. He grew up on a farm, and though his early advantages were confined to the district schools he acquired a good education. At the age of eighteen he went to work for himself, and on February 17, 1874, he married Elizabeth Baker. She was born in Clear Creek Township, Fairfield County, Ohio, August 4, 1848, daughter of Abraham S. Baker, who became an early settler in Wells County, Indiana, moving there when his daughter Elizabeth was only four years of age. John A. Martin after his marriage engaged in farming and stock raising until January 28, 1881, when he removed to Geneva and became associated with W. W. Roberts in the general mer- chandise business. His activities as a merchant were brief, being in- terrupted by his death on August 28, 1885. His widow still survives him and lives at Geneva. She was the mother of four children, Effie A., Luther, Minnie A. and Josephus. Effie married Frank Fiter, of Geneva, and she is now proprietor of a dry goods store in that town. Luther is a farmer in Hartford Township. Minnie A. is deceased.
Josephus Martin was born in Hartford Township of Adams County June 17, 1881, and has spent practically all his life at Geneva. He at- tended the public schools there, and in 1901 graduated from the Vorhees Business College at Indianapolis. Choosing a business career, he be- came bookkeeper for the firm of Hardison & Stewart at Geneva, and was connected with that business for eleven years. In August, 1912, he bought a half interest in the retail coal firm from A. P. Hardison and thus established the firm of Hardison & Martin, who today do most of the coal business in and around Geneva.
Mr. Martin married, January 9, 1904, Miss Ruby L. Cooper, who was born at Mechanicsburg, Indiana, and received most of her ednca- tion in the common schools at Pennville in this state. Mr. and Mrs. Mar- tin have two children, John E., born in January, 1905, and Georgia M., born in August, 1909. Mr. Martin is a member and has filled various chairs in Geneva Lodge No. 621, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. and in politics is a republican.
JOHN P. SHOEMAKER. A life of steadfast purpose and of effective fulfillment has been that of John P. Shoemaker, a retired farmer now living at Geneva. Mr. Shoemaker has been known to the people of Adams County as a good citizen and one whose efforts have been ac- companied by definite results throughout the period of his manhood.
Mr. Shoemaker is a native of Hartford Township, Adams County. where he was born June 1. 1852, son of Jacob M. and Mary (Pontius) Shoemaker. His parents were both natives of Pickaway County, Ohio. They were early settlers in Hartford Township of Adams County, the old home being three miles west of Geneva. Mary Shoemaker died on that farm and the father subsequently moved to Geneva and married again. By his first wife there were four children : John P., Daniel P., Amos P., and Lydia, wife of John Heller, all of Hartford Township.
John P. Shoemaker grew to manhood on the old farm three miles west of Geneva and his carly advantages were those of the district schools. Ile lived at home until the age of twenty-one, and a little later he bravely assumed the responsibilities of married life and provision for a home of his own.
January 17, 1875, he married Sarah E. Taylor, who was born in Nottingham Township of Wells County, Indiana, November 12, 1853.
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After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Shoemaker moved to a farm in Jay County, Indiana, where they lived as renters for seven years. Return- ing to Hartford Township Mr. Shoemaker bought eighty aeres and this was the nucleus of his gradually increasing estate which now com- prises 2391/2 acres of some of the best land in that township. Mr. Shoe- maker though he has lived in Geneva since 1912 still gives much of his time to the active supervision of his farm lands.
He and his wife have six children: W. O. Shoemaker, a farmer in Hartford Township; Clifton, a farmer in Jay County, Indiana; Alva, a farmer in Hartford Township; S. O. Shoemaker, of Hartford Town- ship; Harold and Ruth B. Shoemaker.
CHARLES REICHELDEFFER of Geneva is a man of experience and achievement out of the ordinary. More than any other local citizen he is credited with the primary work which brought about the building of the B. G. and C. traction line from Bluffton to Geneva, and in many ways he has unselfishly promoted the good and the welfare of this section of the state.
His present substantial position in Adams County takes on a new sig- nificance when the conditions and environment of his early life are understood. Mr. Reicheldeffer never had a boyhood and there was never a time within his recollection when he did not stand face to face with the serious responsibilities and the hard toil required to keep him out of the depths of poverty.
He was born in Hartford Township of Adams County April 4, 1858, a son of Charles and Sophia (Pontius) Reicheldeffer. Both parents were natives of Ohio, his father of Piekaway County. The parents immedi- ately after their marriage came to Adams County, locating in Hartford Township, where Charles senior followed the trade of blacksmith. He was the first blacksmith in that township. It was some weeks before the birth of Charles Reicheldeffer that his father met his death when killed by a falling tree in 1858. That was the circumstance which more than anything else influenced the early destiny of Mr. Reicheldeffer. His widowed mother was left with three small children, and she did her best to bring them up during the fourteen years of her widowhood.
Charles Reicheldeffer never had any schooling and had to pick up his knowledge largely through experience and observation. In those early years when ordinarily he would have been in school and under the shelter of home he was working out for wages of 10 cents a day. At one time he hired out to a man and the employment was so distaste- ful that he ran away. His mother put him in the service of John Glend- ening, an Adams County farmer, with whom he remained three years at $5 a month. He also spent a year with Alexander Bolds, and finally took employment with J. W. Watson, to whom he gave the best of his energies for five years, and while there he met his wife, who was also an employe of the Watson home.
Mr. Reicheldeffer carly displayed the elements of character and in- dustry which canse men to place confidence in him and among others his uncle showed a willingness to back him up in independent enterprise, and with that support he went in debt for a tract of land where he lived and farmed for seven years.
Some of the most interesting of his experiences were in Western Kansas, during the pioneer epoch. Having disposed of his holdings in Adams County, he went to Gray County, Kansas, and remained in that frontier district for eleven years. His name belongs prominently with the history of the county and especially with the county seat of Ingalls, which he helped promote and build. Altogether his Kansas experience
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was not fruitful of the material elements of success. He worked at different things, and finally was induced to put his money in a coal business at Ingalls. His lack of early education here showed itself, and he went into the coal business without the slightest knowledge of how to figure the value of a ton. He had to learn from other people, and as he was not unwilling to accept advice and assistance he made progress and eventually became an expert in mercantile calculations and trans- actions. From the coal business he engaged in the lumber business at Ingalls, and in the course of time was a general merchant, handling coal, lumber, groceries, dry goods, boots and shoes, drugs and hard- ware. At one time he had a partner in this business but finally bought him out and was sole proprietor. His prospects were hright until the prevailing hot winds of Western Kansas seared and desolated the entire country and his business suffered along with the farms and home making attempts of the other settlers.
In the meantime he had acquired forty acres of land in Adams County, Indiana, and from Kansas he returned to take possession of this and has since busied himself with farming and with the various other interests which he has acquired in the county. He has done much for the Geneva community in addition to securing the construction of the interurban line. Mr. Reicheldeffer was one of the organizers of Geneva Lodge No. 621, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, being a charter mem- ber. In politics he is a republican and his wife is a member of the Eastern Star. Mr. and Mrs. Reicheldeffer have four children : W. H., who is connected with the Great Northern Railway at Great Falls, Mon- tana; Luella, a resident of Chicago; Effie, deceased; and Ernest, who lives at home.
BENJAMIN O. JONES is proprietor of the lumber yards at Geneva, and is one of the energetic and constructive factors in business affairs of Adams County. While he has lived in this county only a few years Mr. Jones represents a family that were pioneers here.
Mr. Jones was born in Van Wert County, Ohio, March 11, 1874, a son of Benjamin and Mary (Dailey ) Jones. Benjamin Jones, a native of Medina County, Ohio, was brought to Adams County, Indiana, in 1846, when nine years of age. The Jones family located east of Decatur, in the midst of the heavy timber, and two years after they came here the father died and after that the support of the rest of the family devolved largely upon the youthful shoulders of young Benjamin. He worked hard, spending the winter months in the woods clearing the land for cultivation and was the mainstay of the family until he was twenty-four years of age. ' At that time he was called to the service of his country, enlisting in Company A of the Forty-seventh Indiana Infantry. After three years he veteranized, and altogether was in the army four years and four months, until the close of hostilities. He thus proved faithful to those primary interests which revolve around the family and its integrity and also to that patriotism which makes men give up their all and sacrifice everything for their country. At the end of the war he returned to Adams County and married Mary Dailey. Mary Dailey was born in Adams County, Indiana, in 1846, a daughter of James and Mary Dailey. She is still living in Van Wert County, Ohio, where they settled soon after their marriage, and where Benjamin Jones, Sr., died in 1903. He was a republican and an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic. One interesting relationship is that Ben- jamin Jones, Sr., had a grandmother on his father's side who was a niece of Benedict Arnold, whose name figures ingloriously in the an- nals of the American Revolution. Benjamin Jones and wife had thirteen
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