Biography of William Henry Bachtel, pages 830/831.  History of DeKalb 
County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.

William Henry Bachtel

Among the citizen of Smithfield township, DeKalb county, Indiana, who 
have built up a comfortable home and surrounded themselves with valuable 
landed estates and personal property, few have attained a higher degree 
of success that the subject of this sketch.  With few opportunities 
except what his own efforts were capable of mastering and with many 
discouragement’s to overcome, he has made and exceptional success  in 
life and in his old age has the gratification of knowing that the 
community in which he resides has been benefited by his presence and 
counsel.
	William Henry Bachtel is a native of DeKalb county, Indiana, born 
on March 12, 1863, on a farm in Smithfield township and is a son of 
Henry and Mary (Moyer) Bachtel.  Henry Bachtel, whose death occurred on 
July 23, 1913, was born in Holmes county, Ohio, on February 19, 1829, 
the son of George and Catherine (Mammaw) Bachtel, both of whom were 
natives of Pennsylvania.  He was reared in his native county and came to 
DeKalb county in 1850, where he was employed at the trade of a blacksmith, 
which he had learned in his home community and in which he had been 
employed since the age of nineteen years.  He followed this pursuit at 
Auburn for a great many years, and in 1860 bought the Mortorff farm 
near Summit, comprising one hundred and twenty acres, which he 
operated until the fall of 1863, at the same time giving some 
attention to the trade of blacksmith.  In the latter year he bought a 
farm of one hundred and twenty-four acres south of Waterloo, to which 
he gave his attention and to which he added by later purchases.  In 
1865 Mr. Bachtel was drafted for the war, but sent a substitute in his 
stead.  He lived on this latter farm, now known as the Bachtel 
homestead, until his death, which occurred on July 23, 1913.  His 
wife, May (Moyer) Bachtel, to whom he was married on April 29, 1852, 
died on March 15, 1895.  Mr. Bachtel had improved his farm erecting 
the buildings now upon it, among the structures erected by him being a 
barn fourteen by thirty feet in size, and which was added to until it 
now measures forty by seventy-six feet, and in other ways he made many 
substantial improvements which indicated him to be a man of progressive 
ideas and up-to-date in his tendencies.  After the death of his wife, 
Mr. Bachtel made his home with his son on the old homestead. He was a 
sober, earnest, hardworking man, regarded as one of the foremost farmer 
in the community, and was a loyal and active member of the United 
Brethren church.  To him and his wife were born nine children, two of 
whom died in infancy, the others being Delilah, the wife of Robert 
Patterson, who is a shoe dealer of Waterloo; Emanuel, deceased; John 
Wesley, who lived to manhood near Waterloo and died in 1908, at his 
father’s home; Mahala, the wife of Henry D. Shoemaker, of Smithfield 
township, this county; William H., the immediate subject of this sketch; 
Ada F., the wife of Daniel Dilgard, of Montpelier, Ohio; Emma, who died 
at the age of twenty-five years; Albert, who died in childhood, and 
Bert, who is living on the old homestead.
	William H. Bachtel was reared on the paternal farmstead, securing 
his education in the common schools and engaged in teaching schools in 
different townships in the county during the winter months, farming in 
the summer. In 1894, two years after his marriage, he bought his 
present farm, on which he located in 1892.  Four acres of this land is 
in standing timber and seventy-six acres under cultivation.  Mr. 
Bachtel’s barn, the oldest in the township, burned on July 30, 1913, 
and he is now engaged in the erection of a new one, which, when 
completed, will be one of the finest in Smithfield township.
	On March 27, 1892, Mr. Bachtel married Mary Jane Walker, the 
daughter of Eli Walker, who is represented elsewhere in this work, and 
therefore Mrs. Bachtel’s personal family history will not be repeated 
here. To Mr. and Mrs. Bachtel have been born two children, Harry Earl 
and Estel Vern.
	Politically, Mr. Bachtel has given his support to the Republican 
party consistently since attaining his majority and has been active and 
influential in it support.  Fraternally, he is a member of the Knights 
of Pythias at Waterloo, being interested in the workings of that order.   
He is essentially a man of affairs, of sound judgement, keen discernment, 
farseeing in what he under takes and every enterprise to which he has 
addressed himself has resulted in satisfactory financial returns.  His 
success in life has been the legitimate fruitage of consecutive effort, 
directed and controlled by good judgement and correct principles, and 
because of his high qualities of character he is eminently deserving 
of the confidence and regard which are bestowed upon him in the 
community in which he resides.

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