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 66
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 66
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Mr. Fred Schafer married at Decatur Sarah B. Weimer. She was born in Adams County, Indiana, in 1848, and of Pennsylvania par- ents. The Weimers were among the pioneers of Adams County. Her father, George Weimer, fought as a soldier in the Forty-ninth Indiana Infantry during the Civil war, and was sent home on a furlough. While coming home he was taken ill at Kokomo and died there in May, 1863, when a comparatively young man. He left a widow and two daugh- ters, one of them being Mrs. Schafer and the other is Mrs. Olie Miebers, whose husband is secretary of the Schafer Hardware Company. Mr. and Mrs. Miebers have a daughter Georgia, a graduate of the Decatur High School. Mr. and Mrs. Schafer are active members of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and his son is a member of the Masonic order.
Their only son is Chalmers C. Schafer, who was born at Decatur and was well educated in the high school and also in the Culver Mili- tary Academy at Culver. Indiana. He attended the State Normal School at Huntington, Indiana, and then returned to take up an active business career. About eight years ago he organized the Schafer Sad- dlery Company, and four years ago they established a large manufactur- ing plant at Decatur, of which he is manager, secretary and treasurer. This is one of the firms that have given commercial prestige to Decatur all over Northeastern Indiana. They handle a large jobhing business in automobile and bicycle accessories and also sell many steel products. In placing their goods and the manufacturing concerns which they rep- resent they have three commercial men in Ohio, three in Indiana and Illinois. and one in Michigan. This company is composed of C. C. Vol. II-29
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Schafer, Mr. Fred Schafer, and L. C. Warring. Chalmers C. Schafer married Miss Emma Daniels, daughter of Rev. Mr. Daniels of Decatur. They have three children, Gretchen, Frederick and Daniel.
BENEDICKT LINIGER. Many of the most thriving and enterprising agriculturists of Adams County have come across the sea, and having brought to their new homes the habits of industry and thrift common to their countrymen have won success in their ventures. Prominent among the number is Benedickt Liniger, of Preble Township, a progres- sive and prosperous farmer, and a man of far more than average busi- ness ability and judgment. He was born, May 18, 1858, in Berne, Switzer- land, a son of Christian and Magdalena Liniger.
Bred and educated in his native country, Benediekt Liniger came to the United States April 1, 1878, and located in the German settlement, just east of Bluffton, Wells County, Indiana, where for fifteen years he was engaged in business as a cheese manufacturer. In 1884 Mr. Liniger invested in land, buying sixteen acres, lying just across the line in Adams County. He soon disposed of that at an advantage, and for three years rented a farm of 160 acres, and continued the making of cheese. Giv- ing up that business in 1887, Mr. Liniger purchased sixty acres of land in Harrison Township, Wells County, and engaged in agricultural pnr- suits. Selling sixty aeres of that estate at the expiration of twelve years, Mr. Liniger bought 140 acres in French Township, Adams County, and a year later sold it at a good profit. In 1903 Mr. Liniger bought 200 acres of land in Kirkland Township, forty acres of which he subsequently sold, and kept the remaining 160 acres of fine land, on which he has erected good buildings. He has retired from this farm and bought a home in Preble Township, consisting of nine acres, well improved with good buildings. An energetic, hard-working man, possessing sound judg- ment, and good financial ability, Mr. Liniger has been fortunate in his, real estate transactions, while by persistent labor and wise management he made the farm which he left one of the very best in Kirkland Town- ship, all of it with the exception of fourteen acres of native timber being in a fine state of culture.
Mr. Liniger married Christina Dettinger, who was born in Ohio, December 22, 1861, a daughter of John and Mary Dettinger, who reared the following named children : Margaret ; Eliza ; Christina ; Jacob ; John, deceased ; Caroline ; Samuel ; Charles; Mary; Rose; Wilson ; and Emma. Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Liniger, namely : Emma, who married Burt Weaver of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and has one child, Norma; Fred; Frank, deceased: Daniel ; Charles; Julia; Frank; Har- vey; Paulina, deceased; and Rodger. Mr. and Mrs. Liniger are active members of the Reformed Church.
JULIUS J. BRITE. A practical and prosperous young farmer of Adams County, full of push and energy, Julius J. Brite is successfully engaged in his free and independent occupation in Root Township, where he has a most pleasant and attractive home. A native of Adams County, he was born, July 19, 1889, in Washington Township of German ancestry.
John Brite, Mr. Brite's father, was born in Germany, and as a child was brought by his parents to the United States. After attaining his majority he embarked in agricultural pursuits on his own account, for a few years renting land in Washington Township. In 1891 he bonght a farm of eighty acres in the same township, and managed it success- fully until 1893, when he sold it at an advantage. Ile married, in 1886, Margaret Koenig, who was born in Germany, and at the age of
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four years came with her parents to Indiana. She died August 18, 1895.
Brought up on the home farm, Julius J. Brite received a good com- mon school education, and being an extensive and intelligent reader keeps himself well informed on the topies of the day. He was well drilled in the agricultural branches as a boy and youth, and soon after his mar- riage settled in Root Township on the farm which he now owns and occupies, assuming its possession on November 29, 1914. It consists of forty acres of highly productive land, advantageously located in the southwest corner of Root Township, and is amply supplied with all the necessary buildings and equipments for carrying on his work successfully.
Mr. Brite married, September 23, 1914, Miss Gertrude Geels, a daugh- ter of George and Anna Geels, who reared three other children, namely : Joseph H .; John F .; and Mary, who is in St. Agnes Convent, in Wis- consin. Mr. and Mrs. Brite have two children, John G. and Roman J. Religiously Mr. Brite and his wife are members of the Roman Catholic Church.
JOHN O. DAILEY, whose carcer as a farmer, stockman and banker is probably familiar to most of the people of Wells County, has in addition to his individual success many associations and ties to make him execed- ingly loyal to the county of his birth.
Mr. Dailey was born in Lancaster Township of Wells County, April 21, 1870, and is a member of a family that has lived in this section since the days of wild Indians, the big timber and log cabins. His father was the late James Dailey, who in his time was accorded some of the highest honors paid to a public spirited citizen in the county.
James Dailey was horn at Camden, New Jersey, September 24, 1815, and died in his eighty-fifth year on January 27, 1900. His parents were James and Mary Ann (Miller) Dailey, who in 1827, when their son was twelve years of age, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in the following year to Franklin County, Indiana, and in their wilderness home in that section James Dailey spent his youth, getting only a rudimentary educa- tion in the subscription schools but developing strength of muscle and good judgment by the heavy work of clearing and cultivating a pioneer farm. Despite the lack of early advantages he qualified himself to teach school, and some of the first money he earned after his majority was in teaching the children of people among whom he had grown up. Ile also learned the trade of carpenter and was largely employed as a car- penter or teacher until coming to Wells County.
In March, 1842, he arrived in this county accompanied by his wife and one child. His cash possessions on reaching here were only 75 cents. He located on a rented tract in section 10 of Lancaster Township, and his first crop was put in on the five acres which constituted the only clearing. A year later he bought on credit and moved to a forty acre tract in the heavy timber on section 21 of the same township. That was his home for seven years, and besides clearing away some of the woods and brush, he taught school and worked as a carpenter. His chief busi- ness was farming, and from that source he gained a prosperity that made him one of the substantial citizens of Wells County. For many years he owned one of the larger farms of Lancaster Township.
He had not been long in the county before his character and abilities brought him public attention, and in 1845 he was elected magistrate of his home township. He resigned the duties of this office in 1850 upon his election as county auditor. He filled the office two terms, and during that time lived at the county seat at Bluffton, the homestead being where the county jail now stands. In 1850 he also helped take the census
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of Wells County. He was deputy and acting sheriff of the county in 1865-66 and for several years was a member of the Bluffton School Board. In 1867 he returned to his farm in Lancaster Township and after that was repeatedly honored with local offices. He was a inember of the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternity, and had voted the democratic ticket from the time of Andrew Jackson.
James Dailey was twice married. In Franklin County, Indiana, November 1, 1837, he married Lydia Garton, daughter of Jonathan Gar- ton. She died on their farm in Wells County February 13, 1850, in her thirtieth year. She was the mother of five children: Charles, Lewis, Joseph S., Mary Ann and Rachel. Of these children Joseph S. became one of the most eminent members of the Wells County bar, while Lewis entered the Union army as first lieutenant of Company 1 Twenty-second Indiana Infantry, being the youngest officer in his regiment, and died in his twentieth year at the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas. The daugh- ter Rachel married Thomas J. Sowards of Lancaster Township.
On April 21, 1851, James Dailey married Adeline E. Niblick, who was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, November 9, 1829, daughter of James and Anna (Carter) Niblick. The Niblicks are prominent among the leading pioneer families of Adams County, Indiana, where they established their home, a few miles west of Decatur in the year 1838. Mrs. James Dailey is still living, in her ninetieth year, in perfect health, and with intellect as unimpaired as many a woman of forty. She is one of the historic personages of these two counties, and her memory travels back a longer time in the now dim and distant past than perhaps any other resident. There are many incidents of pioneer life of seventy or eighty years ago which are still fresh in her mind. She became the mother of eleven children, named briefly as follows: Edgar A., who married Annie Ritchie; James T., who first married Cora Sunibr and for his second wife Ellen Fitzgerald; Edessa M., who married Lemuel Stur- gis; Dora J., who married Ben Hoover; Augusta May, who became the wife of P. P. Hartman; Robert M., who married Ellen Nash; Nellie A., wife of A. C. Ferguson ; Willard L., who died in his nineteenth year ; Melbra Addie, deceased; John O .; and Jesse N., who married Eva Hoover.
John O. Dailey spent his early life on his father's homestead in Lan- caster Township, was educated in the public schools there, and after reach- ing his majority applied his efforts to farming. He now owns a fine stock farm of 140 acres, improved with excellent home and barns and other buildings, does general farming and stock raising, feeding hogs by the hundred and cattle by the carload, and is one of the largest stock shippers out of Wells County. Mr. Dailey is a man far above the aver- age intellectuality and has always possessed the ability to make money and render important service in a business capacity. A number of years ago he became interested in the private bank of Tocsin as a stockholder and cashier, and the management of that successful institution has largely devolved upon him. Mr. Dailey is a democrat in politics and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias lodge.
On February 21, 1906, he married Miss Ella J. Ferguson, daughter of James and Mary Ferguson of Jefferson Township, Wells County. Mrs. Dailey's brothers and sisters are: Eliza, wife of Frank Archibald ; Clar- ence, who married Artie Leisure: Grace, wife of J. C. Gallivan ; Victor, unmarried ; and Floyd, who married Opal Paulison. Mr. and Mrs. Dailey have three bright young children : James Ferguson, aged ten ; Mary Adeline, aged three; and Jesse Victor, who was born in 1916.
MARTIN H. KIRCHNER. Prominent among the native-born citizens of Kirkland Township, Adams County, who have spent their lives within
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its precincts, and have aided in every possible way its development and growth, whether relating to its agricultural, financial, or industrial in- terests, stands Martin H. Kirchner, whose birth occurred on the farm of his father, William R. Kirchner, April 5, 1869.
William R. Kirchner was born, bred and married in Germany. Com- ing to America with his bride, he spent about two years in the East, work- ing at his trade of a baker, first in New York City, and later in Phila- delphia. Coming from the latter place to Adams County, Indiana, he bought a farm of sixty acres in Kirkland Township, and began to clear and improve a homestead. He subsequently purchased another farm, containing forty acres, and managed them both most successfully, plac- ing them under a high state of culture. A man of good business capacity, public-spirited and enterprising, he became prominent in the administra- tion of local affairs, and served most acceptably in various official posi- tions. For six or more years he was township supervisor, and for twenty- three years was township assessor. Ile was very popular as a man and a citizen, and his death, in July, 1905, was deemed a loss to the entire eom- munity.
William R. Kirchner married, while yet a resident of Germany, Paulina Otto, and into the household thus established eight children were born, a's follows : Paulina, Mary, Elizabeth, Ida, Rosalia, Martin H., John, and Ilenry. The mother died in April, 1907. Both she and her husband were members of the German Lutheran Church, and reared their family in the same faith.
Succeeding to the pleasant and profitable oceupation to which he was reared, Martin H. Kirchner is numhered among the substantial and pros- perous farmers and stoekraisers of Kirkland Township, where he has spent his entire life. He married, November 5, 1893, Anna Fuhrman, a native of Adams County. IFer father, Charles Fuhrman, was born in Germany, and at the age of two years was brought by his parents to Adams County, Indiana. Mr. Fuhrman married Minnie Nuerge, a native of Adams County, and they became the parents of six children, William ; Anna ; Amelia ; August; Ernst; and Minnie. Mr. and Mrs. Kirchner have five children, namely : Herbert, Frances, Amalia, Paula, and Mil- dred. Mr. Kirchner helped to build the first telephone line in Kirkland Township and was president of the company for two years and trustee for eleven years. He also helped to form the Preble Telephone Com- pany. He played for twenty-one years in the Preble Cornet Band which he helped to organize. Mr. Kirchner is a member of the Luth- eran Church and was a trustee of the church for two years and a deacon two years. Politically he is a stanch democrat.
JOHN W. DUNN. Noteworthy among the prosperous and progressive agriculturists of Wells County, John W. Dunn occupies a place of prominence among the active farmers of Liberty Township, his well-tilled land being rich and productive, and in its improvements and appoint- ments hearing evidence of the skill and ability with which it is managed. A son of S. W. Dunn, he was born in Randolph County, Indiana, March 28, 1862.
S. W. Dunn, a native of Darke County, Ohio, eame to Indiana as a young man, and for some time worked as a farm laborer in Randolph County. There, after his marriage, he bought land, and embarked in agricultural pursuits on his own account. Disposing of his farm a few years later, he moved to Miami County, Indiana, where he was engaged in business as a contractor and builder until his death, while yet in the prime of manhood. He was active in republican ranks, and a valued member of the Wesleyan Church. His wife, whose maiden name was
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Lonisa A. Cossey, was born in North Carolina, in Randolph County, and as a young girl came to Randolph County, Indiana, with her parents. Four children were born of their union, two of whom are living, as follows: Edward, a resident of Randolph County, Indiana ; and John W.
A lad when the family moved to Miami County, John W. Dunn ac- quired his early knowledge of books in the public schools of Amboy. Left motherless when young, he began life as a wage-earner before enter- ing his teens, working at various employments and trades, including that of painting. Becoming interested in agriculture, he obtained a prac- tical knowledge of its many branches, and after his marriage settled on a farm in Miami County of forty-one acres belonging to his wife. He afterward traded this for an eighty acre one and then again traded the eighty acres for 100 acres near Bunkerhill. He then sold this and pur- chased the Funk farm, lying east of Bluffton, in Lancaster Township, Wells County. Occupying that place a few years, Mr. Dunn sold out, and moved to Southeastern Missouri, where he obtained title to 400 acres of land, which he has now sold at a nice profit. On November 15, 1914, Mr. Dunn returned to Liberty Township, and having assumed pos- session of his present fine farm of 185 acres has since been prosperously engaged in adding to the fertility of the soil, having now one of the most valuable and attractive estates in the vicinity. He has purchased a farm of 160 acres in Rock Creek Township, one of the good farms of Wells County.
Mr. Dunn married Mary A. Snyder, who was born in Miami County, Indiana, March 26, 1864, a daughter of Cornelius Snyder. Six children . have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Dunn, namely: Nora, wife of George Melvin Clark ; Wilber R., who is married to Miss Mable Graham and lives in Lancaster Township; Charles I .; Orrel L .; Audrey D .; and Alice F. Politically Mr. Dunn is a republican, but he has never sought public office. Religiously he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
HENRY M. CROWNOVER, proprietor of the Brookside Farm in St. Mary's Township, has made his years and experience count toward use- ful ends not only as a farmer but also as a teacher and educator of the young. Mr. Crownover has spent more than twenty years in school work and is still in duty as a teacher of the eighth grade in the Pleasant Mills public schools.
Mr. Crownover and wife now enjoy one of the up-to-date modern homes of the county, located in section 31 of St. Mary's Township and on Route No. 1 out of Pleasant Mills. Mr. Crownover was born in Wayne County, Indiana, September 18, 1867, a son of John and Mary ( Mitten- dorf) Crownover. His father was born in Wayne County, Indiana, and his mother in Germany, coming to the United States with her parents when ten years of age. She grew up in Franklin County, Indiana, mar- ried there, and after a time they settled on a farm in Wayne County, Indiana. In 1881 John Crownover moved his family to Howard County, Indiana, where he spent the rest of his days. His widow is still living in that county. He was a democrat, but never sought office, and was one of those quiet, unassuming, industrions characters who do much good in life without attracting the abnormal notice of their fellow men. There were six children in the family, four of whom are still living: John, em- ployed by Scars. Roebuck & Company of Chicago; Henry M. ; Mary C., wife of Charles Randall ; and Elizabeth, wife of Curtis Poster.
Henry M. Crownover grew up on his father's farms in Wayne and Iloward counties. He was about fourteen years old when the family moved to Iloward County. His education was acquired in the district
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sehools in the locality of his home, and he also attended Normal School at New London and Kokomo. For twenty-seven years Mr. Crownover has tanght school, spending twenty-two years in Howard County and five years in Adams County.
February 3, 1897, he married Laura G. Ilanna of Howard County, Indiana. Mrs. Crownover was born in that county and was educated in the public schools there. She is a daughter of Palestine Hanna and a granddaughter of J. L. D. IIanna, who was a pioneer teacher for twenty years in Indianapolis. Both the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Crown- over, Mary and Valencia, are now deceased, but they have reared in their home an adopted son since he was seven years of age, Ilarry S. Crown- over, who finished the work of the common schools at the age of thirteen. Mrs. Crownover is interested in public work, being one of the chairmen of the Third Liberty Loan Committee and president of Food Conserva- tion of St. Mary's Township. She also cares for state wards, having one in her home almost constantly and does much charity work. Mr. and Mrs. Crownover are members of New Zion Christian Church in Howard County. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and both he and his wife are members of the Ancient Order of Gleaners. Po- litically Mr. Crownover is a democrat. As a farmer he has given much attention to the better grades of livestock, and his education and good judgment have brought him many of the more pleasant circumstances of life.
EDWIN M. RAY is member of a pioneer family of Adams County and his name has been one of increasing prominence in the Village of Berne for the past twenty-two years. He is now secretary and treasurer of the A. J. Moser & Company, a firm that does a large and extensive business in the village and throughout the surrounding country in automobile accessories and repair work and in vapor, steam and hot water fitting.
Mr. Ray was born in Monroe Township of Adams County October 14, 1869, grew up on a farm, and besides the advantages of the district school he attended the old Normal institution at Angola. He had just reached his majority when he took his first school, and for six years was engaged in teaching the country districts, in French Township and in his native township. Then twenty-two years ago he moved to Berne and here he continued his work as a teacher in the local schools for six years.
On leaving educational work Mr. Ray found employment with the Berne Supply Company, but after a time took up the newspaper busi- ness with the Berne Witness, and was secretary and treasurer of the pub- lishing company for several years. On February 17, 1910, he became secretary and treasurer of the A. J. Moser & Company.
This is an incorporated business, having operated under a charter since September, 1904. However, the business is much older than that, having been established many years ago by A. J. Moser, president of the company. At the time of the incorporation the capital stock was fixed at $17,500, but it was inereased in August, 1913, to $30.000, and on De- cember 23, 1916, $30,000 of preferred stoek was authorized.
Mr. Ray has made a successful business record in spite of the fact that he lost his father when he was a small boy, and from an early age has had to depend largely on his own resources. He is a son of Levi W. Ray, and a grandson of John W. Ray, one of the real pioneers of Adams County.
Jolin W. Ray was born in Cecil County, Maryland, April 16, 1817, a son of Jonathan and Deborah Ray. Jonathan Ray was born in 1792, served as a soldier in the War of 1812, and died in Allen County, Ohio, in 1878. John W. Ray was only six years of age when his parents re-
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moved to Jefferson County, Ohio, and later to Harrison County, in which state he spent his early life. It was in the fall of 1851 that he eame to Adams County, Indiana, and located on 160 acres of land in Blue Creek Township. Ilere after completing a log house he began the work of elearing, and in the course of time his land responded to his efforts and became one of the best farms in the township. He continued to live on his land until 1884, when he moved to the Village of Salem, where he died a number of years ago. October 27, 1842, John W. Ray married Merty Smith, a native of Jefferson County, Ohio. She died January 19, 1880, the mother of nine children : Catherine, Mary, Levi W., James H., David S., Margaret, Martha, Rosa, and Lemuel. John W. Ray in 1884 married Mrs. Rebecca Gilpin Campbell. Levi W. Ray was born in Ohio, and after a brief though industrious career as a farmer died at the age of forty-seven years. He married in Monroe Township Miss Sarah J. Harris, who was born there about 1850, member of another pioneer family of the county. She died in 1887. Her parents were William and Julia A. (Jones) Harris, both natives of Knox County, Ohio. After their marriage and the birth of one child they removed to Adams County, securing a traet of eighty acres of Government land near the center of Monroe Township. This was cleared up and some crops were made before any of the roads had been laid through that district. William Harris was a man of much energy and good busi- ness principles and eventually extended his farm to comprise 280 acres. Though he died at the age of forty-seven he was aecounted one of the most financially prosperous citizens of the township. His widow survived him many years and passed away about 1910. She was born in 1830. The original eighty acre homestead of the Harris family is still owned by the younger daughter, Mrs. William Hendricks. The Harris family were Lutherans, while the Rays for generations have been Methodists.
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