Biography of Heman Bangs, pages 723 / 724.  History of De Kalb County, 
Indiana.  Inter-State Publishing Company, Chicago, 1885.

Heman Bangs, farmer, section 11, Richland Township, was born in Bennington 
County, Vt., June 14, 1813, a son of Nathaniel and Judah (Elwell) Bangs, of 
English descent.  His great-grandmother went with her sixteen sons to the 
place of enlistment and saw them all enrolled in the service of the United 
States in the Revolutionary war.  She died at the age of 104 years.  His 
father died at the age of ninety-seven years.  His mother was drowned in the 
Erie Canal, at Lockport, N.Y., when on her way West to visit him.  She was 
in the fifty-first year of her age.  When our subject was eleven years old 
he went to live with Robert Madison, a neighboring farmer, and remained with 
him till manhood, moving with him when fifteen years of age to Genesee 
County, N.Y.  When he reached his majority he had $100 as a nucleus upon 
which to build his future.  After working a time by the month he bought a 
farm in Niagara County, N.Y., of the Holland Company, and lived there two 
years.  In 1839 he sold his farm and came West.  The first winter he spent 
in Kalamazoo, Mich., and March 13, 1840, came to De Kalb County, Ind., and 
settled on the farm where he now lives.  It was heavily timbered, and 
neighbors were few, there being but twelve families in Richland and three 
in Fairfield Township at the time.  He was a young man of energy and 
ambition and went bravely to work to make a home.  He also for a time 
worked at the carpenter and joiner’s trade in connection with farming, 
there being a demand for that kind of labor.  In addition to his home 
farm, Mr. Bangs has had 320 acres of land which, he has given to his 
children.  He has been prosperous in his business operations, and is now 
one of the wealthiest farmers of Richland Township. He was married  Nov. 
22, 1842, to Catherine E. Chaffy, who came to De Kalb County from New York 
in 1838, and subsequently moved to Lagrange County.  They have had seven 
children---Eunice L., Nathaniel, John H., Winfield Scott, Caroline L., 
Charles H., and Matilda (deceased).  In 1841 Mr. Bangs united with the 
Protestant Methodist church, but afterward transferred his membership to 
the United Brethren church, which church his wife joined later.  He has 
always taken an interest in church and Sabbath-school matters, and has for 
several years been a Trustee and Steward, and Leader of the United Brethren 
church for five or six years, and Superintendent of the Sabbath-school.  
Politically he was formerly a Whig, and is now one of the foremost workers 
in the Republican ranks.  In the spring of 1840 Mr. Bangs helped to build 
the first school-house in Richland Township.  He also made the first coffin 
for the first person who died in the township, it being for a child of 
Obadiah Smith.  The first loom in the county was made by Mr. Bangs in the 
spring of 1840.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com