USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. II > Part 73
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in that position, as has already been stated. Mr. Serva has had about eight years of military service, though all of it has been of a peaceful nature. While in Canton high school he was a member of Company C, Canton Independent Battalion, and was a sergeant in his company. During his university days he was a member of Company A, a picked company, known at the time as one of the best-drilled military companies in the United States. It was challenged by a number of similar organ- izations from all over the country, and won out against all comers. Mr. Serva was a commissioned officer in the university regiment and was commissioned all the way up to the rank of first lieutenant. On Sep- tember 15, 1896, Mr. Serva was married to Miss Antoinette M. Biechle, daughter of Leopold Biechle, a retired merchant of Canton, Ohio. They have one son-Albert Edward Serva, born January 9, 1902. Mr. Serva is a Republican in the matter of national politics, but in local issues always takes an independent stand. He is a member of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic church of Fort Wayne and of the Knights of Columbus. Other orders with which he is identified are the Elks, the Jovian Order, the latter being an electrical society, and the Phi Gamma Delta, his college fraternity. He is also a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the American Society for the Advancement of Sci- ence, the National Geographic Society, the Fort Wayne Country Club, and the University Club of Fort Wayne. He is now (1917) aide to the directors of the United States Naval Consulting Board.
Amasa Shaffer .- One of the prominent families of Madison township is represented by Amasa Shaffer, who was born in the community that is now his home on January 4, 1853. He is a son of John and Martha J. (Robinson) Shaffer, born in Ohio and there reared. They came to Allen county, Indiana, in 1841, and were here married. They settled on a farm, or on what promised one day to be a farm, though it was a good deal of a wilderness at that time, and they built a log cabin on the place, in which the family lived for some years. Later the cabin gave way to a more pretentious dwelling, but it is probable they were quite as happy in the log cabin as in the frame house. The father died, in 1903, and the mother passed away, September 26, 1916, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. Of their ten children, two are now living. Amasa Shaffer was reared and educated in Allen county, and lived on the home place until he was twenty-two years old. He married Miss Samantha Jane Peckham then and set up an establishment of his own. Mrs. Shaffer was the daughter of William and Margaret (Heaton) Peck- ham, people of Ohio birth who came to Indiana soon after their marriage, and their daughter, Samantha Jane, was born in Allen county, Indiana. Eight children were born to the Peckhams, two of the number being deceased. Following his marriage Mr. Shaffer settled on a sixty-acre farm, situated in Section 35, in Madison township, and there resided until March, 1917, when he sold the place and the family established its home in Monroeville. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Shaffer are eight in number, and the family is distinguished by its possession of two pairs of twins. The children are here named in order of their birth : Oscar E., of Fort Wayne; Elmira P., the wife of R. Adams; Clyde W. and Claude J., twins; Edgar A., prominent in the Masonic order in Allen county ; Nellie M .; Delma R. and Velma D., the second pair of twins. Mr. and Mrs. Shaffer are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Shaffer is now serving as a member of its board of trustees. He is a
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Democrat, it should be said in passing, and served the township as trustee for six years.
Jesse B. Shaffer .- To no one element of citizenship does Allen county owe more for her eminent precedence as a stage of advanced agricultural enterprise than to the large contingent of citizens of German birth or lineage who have been identified with the development of the county in the progressive stages of its history, many of the honored and influential pioneer families having been representatives of the sturdy German stock that has played so important a part in the civic and material achievement of our great republic. He whose name initiates this review may well take pride in being the scion of one of the fine German families that was founded in Pennsylvania in an early day and that in later generations was to wield much influence in connection with the normal development and progress of northern Indiana. Jesse B. Shaffer, who is now one of the substantial agriculturalists and stock-growers of Maumee township, with a fine farm of ninety-one acres, in Section 6, was born in Springfield township, this county, December 10, 1860, a son of Henry and Johanna (Gorrell) Shaffer, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio, and both young at the time of the removal of the respective families to Allen county, Indiana, in the early pioneer days. After their marriage the parents of Mr. Shaffer settled on a farm in St. Joseph township, near Fort Wayne, and later removed to a farm in Springfield township, where the father continued his activities as an enterprising agriculturalist and stock-grower until he was well advanced in years. He then retired and established his home in the village of New Haven, but passed the closing period of his life in the city of Muncie, this state. His wife survived him and was a loved member of the family circle of her son, Jesse B., of this review, at the time that she too was called to the life eternal. Of the eight children the sixth and seventh, Henry and Charles, died in infancy, and the eighth, Earl, is also deceased. Those surviving are: Sophia, Gold, Mary, Laura and Jesse B., so that the subject of this sketch is the only surviving son. To the public schools of Springfield township Mr. Shaffer is indebted for his early educational discipline and as a youth he gave vigorous assistance in the work of the home farm. He eventually initiated independent activities as a farmer in Springfield township and later was a resident of the village of Harlan, that township, for two years. He then removed with his family to Antwerp, Paulding county, Ohio, where he engaged in the hoop mill business and there continued his residence six years, within which he served two years as a member of the city council. Upon leaving Antwerp he returned to his native farm, where he has since continued his progressive and successful activ- ities as an agriculturalist and stock-grower. His is one of the valuable farms of Maumee township and on the same he has made the best of permanent improvements, including buildings, fences, tile drainage sys- tem, etc. He is a vigorous and public-spirited citizen and served two years as a member of the advisory board of Maumee township, his polit- ical allegiance being given to the Republican party. In the village of Harlan he maintains affiliation with Lodge No. 331, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The year 1881 recorded the marriage of Mr. Shaffer to Miss Nellie Feighley, daughter of the late John W. and Matilda (Rei- chart) Feighley, the former of whom was born in Maryland and the latter in Ohio, where their marriage was solemnized and whence they came to Allen county and settled in Maumee township. Later they
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resided for a time in the village of Harlan, but finally returned to the farm in Maumee township, where they passed the residue of their lives, their children having been five in number-Theodore, Daniel (deceased), Viola, Nellie (Mrs. Shaffer), and Garry, who died when three days of age. Mr. and Mrs. Shaffer have two children: Jennie is the wife of Aaron Garrell, of Milan township, and they have three children-Roy, Myra and Dora. Herbert Shaffer, the younger of the two children, is engaged as a barber at Woodburn. He married Miss Bessie Burrier, and their two children are Ray and John.
William H. Shambaugh .- One of the most able and popular mem- bers of the bar of Allen county is William H. Shambaugh, whose long service in his native county has stamped him as a valuable citizen in many of the phases of active public life. Mr. Shambaugh was born in Allen county, December 24, 1858, son of Daniel and Sarah (Yeiser) Shambaugh, both of whom were natives of the state of Pennsylvania. The father was born in 1816 and the mother in 1830. From Pennsyl- vania they removed to Ohio and from the latter state came to Allen county, Indiana. William H. Shambaugh, the youngest in a family of five children, passed his boyhood days on the farm and obtained his early education in the rural schools. In 1877 he entered the normal school at Lebanon, Ohio, and in the same was graduated as a member of the class of 1879. In the autumn of this same year he took charge of the public schools of Fremont, Indiana, where he remained three years. He then, in the fall of 1882, established his residence in the city of Fort Wayne. His inclinations were toward the study of law, and he was afforded an opportunity to carry forward his plans in the office of Judge Samuel R. Alden. One year later he was admitted to practice in the courts of Allen county. Since 1885 he has been engaged in general practice in Fort Wayne, his talents summoning him to participation in some of the most famous cases heard before the local and state courts. Through the years of his active life since reaching his majority Mr. Shambaugh has labored diligently in the interests of the Democratic party. A public speaker of clear mind and impressive delivery, he has proved to be a powerful force in directing the destinies of his party in Indiana. In 1886 he was elected to membership in the general assembly of the state of Indiana, by a majority of nineteen hundred votes. In 1888 he was re-elected, by a majority of four thousand two hundred and thirty-three votes-a clear demonstration of his wide popularity and the value of his services as a public official. In the final session marking his service in the legislature he was awarded every recognition as a leader of the house of representatives. For twelve years Mr. Shambaugh served as city attorney of Fort Wayne, and during his incumbency of this office his keen vision and professional ability enabled him to con- tribute to the development of the many interests of the city. His service as a member of the board of trustees of the Fort Wayne schools is but another evidence of his true worth to his community. Mr. Shambaugh is an active member of the Masonic bodies-a Knight Templar and a member of the Scottish Rite class of 1889, and he is a Shriner and an Elk and a valued member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, the Rotary Club and other organizations which need the support and activity of a man of his strength of character and willingness to give of his talents to the general good. The maiden name of the wife of Mr. Shambaugh was Louise Robertson, and she was a daughter of Col. Robert A. Robert-
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son, long an honored and influential citizen of Fort Wayne. Mrs. Sham- baugh's death occurred in 1914 and she is survived by three sons-Wil- lard, Howard and Robert. Mr. Shambaugh was the nominee on the Democratic ticket for mayor of Fort Wayne, in 1894, and he is the author of the present municipal charter of Fort Wayne, which was written in 1893 and became effective in May, 1894.
Thomas J. Sheehan is recognized as one of the vigorous and repre- sentative exponents of agricultural and live-stock industry in his native county and his well improved farm of seventy-five acres, in Sections 16 and 9, Monroe township, is a model of thrift and good management. In his farm industry Mr. Sheehan gives special attention to the raising of good breeds of live stock and has made this department of enterprise very successful, as he has studied means and methods and obtains the maximum returns, as does he also through his scientific agriculture. That he has secure place in the esteem of his home community needs no further voucher than the statement that he is serving as trustee of Monroe township. His success represents the direct results of his own energy and ability, and thus he has been in the true sense the architect of his own fortunes, besides which he is certain to make consecutive advancement in connection with productive industry. Mr. Sheehan was born in this county, where he was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and where he profited fully by the advantages afforded in the public schools. His parents, Daniel and Charlotta (Jones) Sheehan, were both born and reared in the state of Ohio, and the father became one of the sterling young pioneers of Allen county, Indiana, where he has maintained his home since 1844, and there he reclaimed and improved a productive farm, his cherished and devoted wife having passed to eternal rest in 1906, and of their six children all are living except one. Upon coming to this county Daniel Sheehan purchased a tract of land, the major part of which was still covered with the native timber. He erected a log house of the pioneer type and this continued to be the family domicile until circumstances justified its replacement by a more modern and commodious house, of frame construction. Daniel Sheehan still survives and is one of the sterling and honored pioneer citizens of the county. Thomas J. Sheehan, the immediate subject of this review, continued to assist his father in the work and management of the old homestead farm until he was twenty-seven years of age, when he wedded Miss Emma Smith, who likewise was born and reared in Allen county, a daughter of August and Sophia (Meyers) Smith, the former of whom is deceased and the latter still maintains her home in Allen county. After his marriage Mr. Sheehan began his independent career as a farmer and purchased his present farm. He has made many improvements on the place, has materially increased its productiveness in the domain of diversified agriculture, and, as before stated, has been specially pros- perous as a grower and feeder of live stock. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party and he is vitally interested in all things pertaining to the welfare of his native county, especially of Monroe town- ship. of which he is now serving as trustee. At Monroeville he is actively affiliated with Lodge No. 293 of the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons. Mr. and Mrs. Sheehan have an interesting family of six children: Ruth A., who was graduated in the celebrated Valparaiso University, is now a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of her home county;
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Nola M. is a student in Valparaiso University; and the four younger children are members of the ideal home circle.
Charles H. Sheldon, who was a resident of Fort Wayne for a quarter of a century, and who here developed a prosperous business enterprise, continued his active association with the civic and business interests of the Allen county metropolis until the time of his death, which occurred November 17, 1905. His active career was marked by earnest, worthy and successful endeavor and his high sense of personal stewardship was shown in all of the relations of life, so that he merited and received un- qualified popular esteem. Mr. Sheldon was born at Northampton, Massa- chusetts, on November 10, 1854, and thus his death occurred exactly one week after the fifty-first anniversary of his birth. He was a scion of sterling old colonial stock in New England and his parents, Arnold and Melinda (Towne) Sheldon, passed their entire lives in Massachusetts, Charles H. having been the eldest of their five children; Herbert, the second son, likewise is deceased; Emma is the wife of Reuben Rich, of Providence, Rhode Island; Clara is the wife of William Marden, of Milford, Massachusetts; and Walter is now a resident of Columbus, Ohio. Charles H. Sheldon acquired his early education in the public schools of the old Bay state, and he was twenty-one years of age when he left Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, and established his residence at Columbus, the capital city of Ohio. There he established a shop for the re-blocking and repairing of hats for both men and women, and with this line of enterprise he there continued his association about three years, at the expiration of which, in August, 1878, he came to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and established himself in the same line of business. He de- veloped a substantial and prosperous enterprise and became the owner of the building in which he conducted his flourishing business, his energy, reliability and progressiveness having conspired to develop the leading enterprise of this order in northern Indiana. After his death his widow sold the property and business, or, rather, exchanged the same for her present attractive home, at 1107 Hanna street. In politics Mr. Sheldon was a supporter of the Republican party, and in a fraternal way he was affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. On August 8, 1878, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sheldon to Miss Frederica Zuloman, of Columbus, Ohio, in which city she was born and reared, and their bridal tour was virtually their journey to the new home in Fort Wayne. Mrs. Sheldon is a daughter of Frederick and Henrietta (San- bold) Zuloman, both of whom were born in Germany and both of whom were residents of Columbus, Ohio, at the time of their death. Of the seven children Mrs. Sheldon was the second, and her elder sister, Pauline, still resides at Columbus, as do also Elizabeth, Charles and Frederick; Amalie is the widow of Victor Orthofer and maintains her home in Co- lumbus, as does also Minnie, the youngest of the children. Mr. Sheldon is survived by one son, Frederick, who remains with his widowed mother in Fort Wayne.
E. Clarence Shell, president and manager of The Pape Furniture Company, which conducts in Fort Wayne a most substantial business, is consistently to be designated as one of the representative business men of the metropolis of Allen county, and though he claims the old Empire state as the place of his nativity he is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of Allen county, within whose limits his paternal grand- father, Philip Shell, settled in 1833, having secured a tract of land near
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Hall's Corners, where he developed a productive farm and there he and his wife passed the residue of their lives, as honored pioneers of this favored section of the Hoosier state. E. Clarence Shell was born in the city of Albany, New York, on February 4, 1859, his parents, Frank V. V. and Margaret Jane (Reid) Shell, both having been natives of that state, though the former had accompanied his parents to Indiana and was temporarily a resident of Albany at the time of the birth of the subject of this review. Frank V. V. Shell became one of the representative mem-
bers of the bar of Allen county, where he was engaged in the practice of his profession, both at Monroeville and Fort Wayne, besides which he became identified with mercantile business in Fort Wayne, where he died in 1903, his widow, who celebrated her eightieth birthday anniver- sary in 1916, being still a resident of Fort Wayne and being revered by all who have come within the compass of her gracious influence. Of the three children E. Clarence is the eldest; Hattie is the wife of John C. Heller, of Fort Wayne; and Myron J. is a resident of Hicksville, Ohio. E. Clarence Shell acquired his youthful education in the public schools of Allen county and as a boy gained his initial business experience as a clerical assistant in the White fruit store, in which he remained two years. Thereafter he was employed about six years in a grocery estab- lishment in Fort Wayne and then entered the employ of the old Fort Wayne Manufacturing Company, with which he continued his services about two years. In 1891 he became bookkeeper and manager for the Pape Furniture Company and continued the incumbent of this position until 1893, when he formed a partnership with A. C. Buetel and engaged in the furniture business. The firm built up a large and prosperous business and, in 1900, Mr. Shell purchased his partner's interest and assumed full control of the enterprise. To meet the increasing demands of his trade he effected the organization and incorporation of the present company, in which there are two other stockholders, and of which he has since continued president and manager. Mr. Shell is one of the substantial and progressive business men of Fort Wayne, is loyal and public-spirited in his civic attitude, is a Democrat in his political alle- giance, and both he and his wife are communicants of the English Lu- theran church. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides which he is affiliated also with the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and the Royal League. On October 7, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Shell to Miss Anna Thain, who was born and reared in Fort Wayne and who is the popular chatelaine of their attractive home.
Mary A. Shoup .- Among the estimable women who have helped to make Roanoke the pleasant village it is, Mary A. Shoup may be mentioned prominently. She has been identified creditably with community life since 1871 and her influence has ever been a worthy one. She is a native daughter of Wells county, Indiana, born on May 14, 1849, daughter of Evan and Eliza (Johnson) Belle. They were North Carolinians by birth, and came in youth to Indiana. Evan Belle early in life became a land- owner in Wells county and was one of the responsible men of his com- munity through his long and useful career as a farmer. To him and his wife were born four children. John, the eldest, died in 1868. Mary A. is the subject. Martha J. lives in Fort Wayne and William M. is in Zanesville. Mary A. Belle was married on October 19, 1882, to William H. Shoup, son of Jacob and Rachel (Cain) Shoup. They were Ohioans
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of German ancestry, and farmers all their lives. Their children num- bered seven and are named in the order of their appearance as follows: Mary, Daniel, William, Sophia, Joseph, John and Jacob. The two first named are deceased. William is the husband of the subject. Mr. and Mrs. Shoup have three children, who are still to be found under the parental roof. They are Carrie, Chloe and Emma.
Bartlett W. Shryock is one of the successful and popular young representatives of the automobile business in his native city of Fort Wayne, where he has well-equipped salesrooms and is the enterprising agent for the well-known Buick and White automobiles. He established this business in the autumn of 1913, and his success has fully justified his choice of vocation, the while his record of sales indicates alike his ability and the popular favor in which are held the cars that are handled by him. He is one of the progressive young business men of Fort Wayne, is a loyal supporter of the activities of the Commercial Club, of which he is an active member, is independent in politics, and his religious faith is that of the Protestant Episcopal church, of which his parents likewise are earnest communicants, the family being one of prominence in the social life of the community. Bartlett Ward Shryock was born in Fort Wayne on March 17, 1889, a son of Dr. William Wilson Shryock and Louise (Ward) Shryock, both of whom were born and reared in this county, with whose history the respective family names have been long and worthily identified, the father being a leading representative of the profession of dentistry in his native county and having a large and successful practice. He whose name introduces this sketch is indebted to the public schools of Fort Wayne for his early educational discipline and after his graduation in the high school he completed a course in electrical engineering in the University of Pennsylvania. Since his return to Fort Wayne he has been engaged in the automobile business and is making of his independent enterprise in this line a distinctive success.
William W. Shryock, D. D. S .- Possibly the finest tribute which the dental profession can pay to a fellow-member is to give him promi- nence in its councils of deliberation. William Willson Shryock, of Fort Wayne, has been honored by the Indiana State Dental Society to election to every office in that body, with the exception of secretary. Such is the sort of recognition granted by the dentists of the state. At home, the honors have been still more marked, for Dr. Shryock has filled every office of the Isaac Knapp Dental Coterie, composed of leading members of the profession in Fort Wayne. He is an active member. also, of the National Dental Association. Dr. Shryock is a native of Hoosierdom, born in DeKalb county, May 27, 1857. He attended the public schools of Fort Wayne after the family removed to this city, and then entered the office of S. B. Brown, M. D., D. D. S., as a student. Here he remained three years. The natural fitness of Dr. Shryock for the practice of the pro- fession which had attracted his early consideration was developed through a course in the dental department of the University of Michigan, followed by two years spent in the offices of leading practitioners, after which he entered the Indiana Dental College, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. He is a member of the Delta Sigma Fraternity. Dr. Shryock, as an authority in his professional practice, is frequently called upon to give clinics dealing with unusual cases before local, state and national societies. He maintains a modern office suite at No. 129 West Berry street. December
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