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 77
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 77
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William W. Briggs was eight years old when his parents removed to Geneva, and here he finished his education in the public schools, attending up to the age of fourteen. After that he went to work as clerk in a general store, and gradually his industry and knowledge of merchandising enabled him to engage in business for himself. ITe was a hardware merchant of Geneva for ten years. In 1914 Mr. Briggs was appointed postmaster, and has since given all his time to the han- dling of the office and the administration of its affairs.
He is an active democrat, has filled the office of town clerk and is a member of the Knights of Pythias, being past chancellor of Geneva Lodge and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
RICHARD G. CHRISTEN is a member of one of the oldest and most prominent Swiss families of Adams County, and has made his career one of exceptional usefulness and service. He graduated from the City High School at Decatur in 1897, and for a time was employed as a clerk by his father, who was at that time manager of the local gas company of the Natural Gas organization, with headquarters at La- fayette. After giving up this clerkship he went into the cigar and news- paper trade, conducting a well patronized stand in Decatur, and follow- ing that for three years was an employe of the Adams Express Com- pany at Omaha, Nebraska. Mr. Christen has always taken an active part in local democratic politics and has been prominent in party couneils.
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At this writing he is closing his four year term as city bookkeeper of Decatur. He was appointed to that office by the city council in January, 1914, and recently was elected city clerk, his term of four years beginning January 1, 1918.
Mr. Christen is a grandson of the late John Christen, Sr., who was born in Canton Berne, Switzerland, August 9, 1812. He grew up on a farm, but afterwards learned the baking trade. On July 17, 1835, he married Miss Elizabeth Schaad, who was born in Canton Berne January 17, 1814. In 1850 the family came to America and from New York City came west to Adams County, Indiana, settling on a farm in Root Township. The land was partly improved with a log cabin and a log stable and about fifteen acres cleared. The Christens had to be content with the facilities of their one-room cabin for nine years, after which additions were made and the general level of con- venience and prosperity considerably raised. In 1875 the Christens erected a fine brick home. John Christen, Sr., and wife lived out their lives of usefulness in Adams County, were members of the German Reformed Church, and the grandfather was a democrat and filled the office of township trustee for ten years. He and his wife had twelve children, and many of the family are still found in this section of Indiana, all of them useful and honorable citizens.
Richard G. Christen is a son of Godfrey Christen. Godfrey was born in Canton Berne, Switzerland, November 21, 1836, and was a boy when he accompanied his parents to Root Township of Adams County. He grew up on the old homestead and was old enough to bear a part in its clearing and development. When the war broke out he and one of his brothers entered the army, Godfrey becoming a member of the Twenty-seventh Infantry and for his gallant service was promoted to captain. He saw some of the hard and bitter campaigning in the South, but escaped wounds, and after the war returned to Adams County. For a few years he taught school, after which he married Miss Catherine Garver. She was a native of Pennsylvania, and had come to Root Township with her parents. The Garvers constituted a large family and were well known in the farming district of Root Town- ship for many years. Her parents died when quite old. After their marriage Godfrey Christen and wife continued to live in Root Town- ship until two of their children were born, and then removed to De- catur, where Godfrey Christen for two terms, four years, filled the office of county auditor. After leaving office he entered the lumber and planing mill business, and was in the ranks of local business men and a leader in the democratie party for many years. He died in September, 1910, and his wife in March, 1909, at the age of seventy- one. In Decatur they both attended the Presbyterian Church. Their children were: Catherine, Rose, Frank. Richard G., Ruby, twin sister of Richard, and Bruce. All of them are still living and all married except Rose, who is a teacher in the city schools of Decatur and lives with her sister. Mrs. Durkin. Ruby is the widow of Frank Durkin and the mother of two children. Catherine is the wife of S. C. France and their home is on Mercer Avenue in Decatur. Frank Christen now lives in Oklahoma, and by his marriage to Ethel King had two chil- dren, but both of them are deceased. The youngest, Bruce, is billing clerk for the Erie Railway. He married Alice Jackson, and their family consists of IIelen, Daniel, Dorothy, Laura and Martha.
In Decatur Richard G. Christen married Miss Florence Campbell. She was born in Adams County forty years ago, and was educated in parochial schools. IIer mother died some years ago. Mrs. Christen
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is an active member of St. Mary's Catholic Church, while Mr. Christen is a Presbyterian. They are the parents of three children: Catherine E., aged fourteen. and in the eighth grade of the city schools; Earl, aged ten, and in the fifth grade: and Virginia R., who is one year old. Mr. Christen has recently completed a new, modern and conven- ient residence and has surrounded himself and family with many of the comforts in keeping with his local prominence as a citizen.
PETER MYER, whose long and industrious career identified him with Washington Township, retired from his fine farm in that part of Adams County in February, 1912, and has since lived at 923 Mercer Avenue in Decatur. He still owns his farm of eighty acres in section 21 of Washington Township, and he bought this place in 1894. It was the old Frank Gass farm, Mr. Gass having acquired the land direct from the Government. Many substantial values were added to the farm hy Mr. Myer during his active ownership and control. He especially improved it in the way of drainage and the erection of substantial buildings. It has a large barn 35 by 72 feet, a corn crib with a capacity of 1.200 bushels, and several other structures which it would cost a large amount of money to duplicate at the present time. The buildings are well grouped and arranged for getting work done efficiently and promptly. The farm has a good residence of seven rooms. The land is admirably situated, is almost surrounded by good pike roads on the south, east and west, and on the west line of the farm extends an ave- nue of evergreen trees that mean much as a wind break. While the land has been farmed for many years its fertility has been well con- served, and Mr. Myer many times has produced crops of oats thresh- ing 45 bushels to the acre, wheat 25 bushels and corn 70 bushels.
Mr. Myer has lived in Ohio and Northeastern Indiana for more than a quarter of a century. He was born in Bavaria, Germany, March 8, 1849, and comes of the thrifty Bavarian stock, his forefathers having all been farmers and all of them members of the Catholic Church. His grandfather, Peter Myer, was one of the soldiers from the southern German provinces who served under the great Napoleon. He was under that great leader almost sixteen years and yet there is no record that he was ever wounded or captured. He followed Napoleon in many of his campaigns throughout Europe and was in the most disastrous one, that against Russia, where he suffered untold hardships on account of the cold and the snows as the beaten army retreated after the Russian campaign.
The parents of Mr. Peter Myer were John Christ and Mary (Hess) Myer, both natives of Bavaria. The father served as a soldier under the first Emperor William. All the children were born in the old country, and some of them died there. Peter Myer was the oldest son. In December, 1865, when Peter was sixteen years old, the family left Germany, went through France by way of Paris, and at Havre em- barked on the sailing vessel Margaret. The voyage that followed al- most ended in disaster. The boat was on the ocean for sixty-seven days, and on account of storms and high waves nearly foundered. The ship arrived in New York harbor with its hold full of water and the passengers were all glad to escape the fate of a watery grave. After a week spent in New York the Myer family came on to Ohio and lo- cated permanently near Bellevue in Huron County. Here the parents secured sixty-eight acres of land but in 1868 gave up their Ohio farm and moved to Washington Township of Adams County, where John C. Myer bonght 100 acres of almost completely wild land. After clear-
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ing it up he sold and bought another farm, owned and cultivated this for a number of years and finally retired to Decatur, where he lived until his death, when past ninety-one years of age. His wife died in 1905, at the age of eighty-seven. From the time they came to Adams County they were active members of St. Mary's Catholic Church, and John C. Myer was a democrat. In their family were three sons and two daughters who are still living.
Mr. Peter Myer was almost a man in years when he came to Adams County, and here, after leaving home and starting out for himself, he married Catherine Lesser. She was born in Prussia, came to America when a young woman and died in Washington Township at the age of twenty-seven. She was also a member of the Catholic Church. All her six children, three sons and three daughters, died in infancy. Three years after the death of his first wife Peter Myer married at Otterville. Ohio, Mrs. Louisa (Hug) Troll. Her first husband, Joseph Troll, died at the age of thirty years. He was a native of Seneca County, Ohio, and of German and French parentage. At his death he left three children. The oldest of these, John, lives at Fostoria, Ohio, and by his marriage to May Parch has three children, Albert, Eleanor and Frances, the last dying in November, 1917, at the age of four years. Katie Troll, who lives in Fostoria with her children, Maria, Janet and Margaret. is the widow of W. MeClellan, who died seven years ago. Joseph Troll is employed in the Allen car shops at Fostoria. Ohio, and by his marriage to Fannie Frankert has children named Lonise, Richard and Martin.
While Mr. and Mr. Myer have no children of their own they have reared a foster daughter, Sophia Rosalia Troll, since she was two years old. She was born in Seneca County, Ohio, and was reared and has received a careful education at the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Myer. She was in the parochial schools until thirteen, then in the grammar and high schools, and graduated at the head of her class in 1917. She has a certificate as a teacher and recently passed a civil service examina- tion and has been assigned to a government position in Louisville, Ken- tueky. Mr. Myer contributed both means and labor to the building of the present edifice of St. Mary's Catholic congregation, and he and his family are regular worshipers within its walls. Politically he is a democrat.
MATHEW F. HARRIS. Noteworthy for his keen intelligence and for the assured position he has attained in mercantile circles, Mathew F. Harris, a Decatur grocer, is meeting with undoubted success in his business, being junior member of the prosperous firm of Fisher & Harris. A son of Frank Harris, he was born June 22, 1877, in Butler County, Indiana, where his childhood days were spent.
Mr. Harris' paternal grandparents emigrated from Alsace-Lorraine to the United States, coming with their children in a sailing vessel and landing in New York. They subsequently lived a few years in Roch- ester, New York, from there moving to Edgerton, Ohio, where the grandfather, foreman of a section on a railroad, was accidentally killed, and where his wife afterward died.
Born in Alsace-Lorraine, Frank IIarris was a lad of nine years when he crossed the Atlantic with his parents. Ile attended school in New York City and in Rochester, and after going to Rochester worked under his father as a section hand. Continuing in the railway service, he subsequently served in the transportation department at Kendallville, In- diana, and later being in the car department at Butler, Indiana. and
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in Peru, Indiana. In 1900 he went to Indianapolis, and was there employed in the railroad shops until 1908, when he met with a fatal accident, shipping and falling while trying to mount an engine. He married, in Edgerton, Ohio, Elizabeth Theel, whose parents moved to a farm in that locality from Pennsylvania, where she was born. She died in Indianapolis before her husband's demise, while undergoing an operation. Of the ten children born of their union eight are liv- ing, and five are married, two of the unmarried daughters occupying the old homestead in Indianapolis.
Mathew F. Harris began his mercantile career as a clerk in the general store of Hugh McCaffrey in Peru, growing up in the business along with his present partner, Mr. Fisher. Mr. Harris developed good business energy and talent, and when the firm of which Mr. McCaffrey was made treasurer, with Mr. Fisher as president and Mr. Harris as vice president, was incorporated Mr. Harris was given charge of the hardware department, a position for which he was eminently fitted, having become familiar with dealing in that line of merchandise while with Mr. McCaffrey. In 1915, having placed the business of the Peru department store under the care of a supervisor or manager, Mr. Har- ris, in company with his old friend, companion and business associate, John Fisher, established himself in business at Decatur, Adams County, and as junior member of the enterprising firm of Fisher & Harris is carrying on a thriving and remunerative business as a cash grocer, his trade extending into all the nearby counties and into Ohio. The firm is advantageously located on Second Street, at the head of Court Street, and has an attractive stock of all kinds of staple groceries, Messrs. Fisher and Harris catering to the tastes and needs of their many gen- erous patrons.
Mr. Harris married, in Logansport, Indiana, Catherine Huffman, who was born in that city, coming from German ancestry and parentage. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Harris, namely : Florence E., a student in the parochial school, has been confirmed in the Catho- lie Church; Mary V., a bright little lass of ten years, also attends the parochial school; George F., born in 1910; and Flotida, who was born during the memorable flood of 1913, just as her parents, who had been forced to flee from two different houses on account of the high water, arrived in a boat at the third house in which they sought safety.
True to the religious faith in which both were reared, Mr. and Mrs. Harris are members of Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Church. Politically Mr. Harris is a straightforward democrat. Fraternally he is a member of Decatur Council, Knights of Columbus; of Peru Coun- cil, Catholic Knights of America; and of Decatur Lodge, Loyal Order of Moose, in each of these orders being active and prominent.
JULIUS HAUGK. The tilling of the soil was the first occupation to which Julius Haugk gave his attention after coming to Adams County about thirty-five years ago. Now, however, he is more widely known on account of his activity and prominence as a stone quarryman and as a road builder. He has built or has supplied the materials for build- ing some of the finest stretches of improved highway in Adams County and in various other sections of this part of the state.
He is a successful business man and has been an equally alert and progressive citizen all the years he has spent in this country. His loy- alty to America is all the greater because this country afforded him the opportunity which, hy proper utilization of his energy and ambi- tion has brought him a modest fortune. When he landed in America he had only $10 in cash and a snit ease. He was born in the Kingdom Vol. II-34
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of Saxony, near Ludwig, on September 6, 1863. His ancestry for generations had been German tillers of the soil, and his father, Wil- helm Haugk, died in the old country in September, 1882, at the age of fifty-one. The father married Johanna Voght, who died in 1908, when nearly eighty years of age. Both parents were active members of the Lutheran Church. Julius Haugk is one of seven children. His five brothers are still living in the old country. He and his sister were the only ones to make America their home, and it was through means supplied by him that his sister was able to come to America. She is now Mrs. William Kling of Union Township, Adams County.
Julius Haugk had an early education and training of the thorough kind supplied by German institutions and schools. On September 6, 1883, his twentieth birthday, he embarked on a vessel at Hamburg, and thence by way of Hull and Liverpool, England, crossed the ocean to Quebec, Canada, and on September 27th arrived at Decatur, Indiana, making the entire journey in the rather quick time, for those days, of three weeks. Coming to Adams County, practically friendless, un- known and without capital, he at once showed the spirit of enterprise and energy which have been responsible for his subsequent success, and was soon earning wages and making friends in Union Township, where he lived for seventeen years. During that time he acquired a farm of 185 acres, and left it in a high state of improvement. He then moved to Root Township and was identified with farming for a number of years, but since 1902 has given most of his attention to the operation of stone quarries. While his home is at Decatur his busi- ness interests are wide-spread. He owns a fine farm of 137 acres in Root Township, with a complete equipment of house, barns and other facilities. His principal quarry is located on the Big Four Railway in the City of Decatur. Here he operates two crushers and has a com- plete equipment of other tools and facilities for the manufacture of crushed stone and of limestone for fertilizing purposes. His market is all over this section of Indiana, and during a large part of the season his equipment is worked to full capacity, 800 tons per day. He has organized the business so as to promote rapid work, capable of prompt fulfilling of contracts, and usually keeps about seventeen men em- ployed. Mr. Haugk also owns the Ford garage block on West Madi- son Street, and has much other property, including 252 acres of land near Houston, Texas, lands in Tennessee, and a large stone quarry in Arkansas.
Probably no other individual operator has supplied the material or constructed more stone roads in Adams County than Mr. Haugk. Fully fifty miles of high class highway are to his credit. In 1903 he built the Woods Road on the state and county line in Blue Creek Town- ship, a stretch of highway 61% miles long. When the first stone road was being advocated in that township Mr. Haugk found a capable ally in the late James Winnie, one of the most popular men of the township, whose influence and efforts were largely instrumental in convincing the people of the permanence and the practical utility of stone roads and enabled Mr. Haugk to carry his point of getting a stone surface laid instead of other usual materials. Mr. Winnie is remembered for many other labors which he carried on and which made for the progress of the community and served to overcome popular preju- dices that always stand in the way of forward movements. The year following the construction of the Woods Road Mr. Haugk supplied the material for more than ten miles of stone road in Blue Creek, Hartford and Washington townships. This constituted the largest single road construction enterprise ever undertaken in one year in
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Adams County. The county engineer at that time was George MeKain.
In 1904 Mr. Haugk married in Preble Township Miss Eliza Kie- fer, who was born in that township February 14, 1871, and grew up on the farm where she was born, a daughter of Jacob and Matilda (Smith) Kiefer. Her father was born in one of the Rhine provinces of Germany and her mother in the Kingdom of Saxony, and they were young people when they came with their respective parents in the days of sailing vessels to America. The Kiefers and Smiths were sterling pioneer families in Preble Township of Adams County, where they put up with the simple comforts of log cabins in one of the wildest dis- triets of the county. Mrs. Haugk's parents, Jacob and Matilda, are still living, the former at the age of ninety and the latter at eighty. The old pioneer Kiefer farm is now owned by their son, Martin Kiefer. Mrs. Haugk's grandparents lived to be very old and their names de- serve to be associated with much of the commendable pioneer activi- ties of this county. As church people they were loyal to the Lutheran faith. Mr. and Mrs. Haugk are German Lutherans and in politics he is a republican.
It now remains to say a few words concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Haugk. The oldest, Robert, is associated with his father in the stone quarry management at Decatur, and by his marriage to Hazel Butler, of Decatur, has two children, Robert, Jr., and Elizabeth. Agnes, the second child, married Mary Brittner, of Decatur. Herman is also with his father and brother in the quarry business and is mar- ried. Fred died at the age of five years. The younger children still at home, three of them in school, are Mary, IFulda, Anneta and Edna.
ADAM J. SMITH. As long ago as thirty years local publications in Adams County spoke of Adam J. Smith as prominent in the lumber business. At that time his name and the operations of his firm were known chiefly in a restricted field, but at the present time is undoubt- edly one of the leading wholesale dealers in hardwood lumber in the Middle West.
Ile came to Decatur in 1884 and started to work for Colter & Com- pany, sawmill operators, with mills at Areola, Decatur and Monmouth, Indiana. Ilis wages at the start was $1.75 a day. This was soon increased to $50 a month. His ambition and enterprise did not long keep him in the ranks of wage earners. On June 5, 1884, he began buying timber and lumber to supply the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railway Company. In the fall of 1886 Mr. Smith associated himself with Alexander R. Bell under the name Smith & Bell, and they at once began extensive operations in logging and manufacturing ties for the Clover Leaf Railway. At that time the Clover Leaf was being changed from a narrow gauge to a standard gauge railway, all the way from Toledo to St. Louis. For two years the firm of Smith & Bell gave their exclusive attention to tie contracting. In 1888 they built their first sawmill at Decatur. They soon bought the old Coles sawmills at Liberty Center, Indiana, and a little later the old Adams sawmill at Bluffton. These were old established mills. A few years later they established a mill at Raymond, Indiana, and these four mills were operated at fullest capacity for a number of years. About 1905-06 the mill at Decatur was burned, making an almost complete loss. The firm soon after sold out the mills at Bluffton and Liberty Center, the visible supply of hardwood lumber having been largely exhausted in those localities. Since then the business has been wholesale dealers in hardwood lumber, and they have bought from the chief sources of supply in Indiana, Ohio, Kansas and Missouri. With headquarters at
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Decatur, Mr. Smith has conducted a business of almost national im- portance. He has traveled in every state of the Union, to look after his business interests, and has been twice to the golden shores of the Pacific. He and his wife a number of years ago made a trip to Hono- lulu and while there they called on the old queen "Lil." Mr. Smith has shipped timber all over the country and into Canada. Mr. Bell continued his active associate and partner for many years, but finally withdrew, Mr. Smith purchasing his interests. At different times he has changed his source of timber supply, getting much material from the Southern states and also from Michigan. He has shipped lumber from coast to coast, and about three years ago he bought his brother's sawmill at Decatur, and has used this mill to manufacture an exclusive grade of white ash and walnut lumber. This lumber is sold to the manufacturers of automobile trucks. The white ash is gathered from Indiana, Michigan and Ohio and his mills sell in very large quantities. Some contracts have called for as much as $150,000 worth of timber at one time. He also owns and operates a hardwood lumber mill near Poland, Michigan. During the first four months of the year 1917 Mr. Smith supplied more than 450 carloads of lumber to his customers, Any man might feel a just pride in the quality of his patronage. Mr. Smith has business dealings with some of the largest consumers of lumber in the country, and it illustrates the high class of his business when it is stated that for years he has never had any losses to exceed $100 on any contract. Mr. Smith is one of those big and broad gauged business men who are generous in testifying to worth and value of their subordinates. He has surrounded himself with some of the picked men in the lumber trade, and has been willing to pay the highest salaries for capable men both in the operating and in the selling end of his business. Two of his trusted and efficient lieutenants are Mr. Anderson and Mr. Colter, who have done much to give efficiency to the business.
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