Biography of Washington Betz, pages 898/899/900/901. History of DeKalb County, Indiana; B.F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914. Washington Betz In writing the history of this county and taking note of the many men who have been prominent in its public affairs or in its business interests it is necessary that we mention Washington Betz, who died May 30, 1913, for he was long identified with agricultural pursuits and moreover was a man of such sterling worth that he aided in promoting the prosperity of the county. He was born on May 23, 1847, in Columbiana county, Ohio, and is a son of Henry and Catherine (Stull) Betz. The father, who was born in Bedford, Pennsylvania, was a farmer by vocation, coming to Ohio in 1812. He located in Columbiana county, where he followed farming pursuits, remaining there until his death, which occurred on October 2, 1887. In young manhood he gave some attention to pedagogical work and was a successful school teacher. A Democrat in his political faith and a Lutheran in his religious belief, he was a man of honest convictions and in the community where he lived was held in the highest and best regard because of his upright life and useful influence. To him and his wife were born eleven children, as follows: Levi, deceased; Maria, who is now eighty-two years of age, is still living in Ohio; William, who is a retired farmer, lives at East Rochester, Ohio; John is deceased; George died in 1902; Margaret, who lives at Mapleton, Ohio, at an advance age, is a widow; Henry died in 1906; Jefferson, who lives on a farm with his children at Hamilton, Indiana, is a widower, his wife having died in 1910, after which he sold his property; Elizabeth died in 1909; Alvin, who, though sixty-nine years of age, is till actively engaged in farming, lives near East Rochester, Ohio; the subject of this sketch was the youngest of these children. Washington Betz was reared on the home farm and followed agricultural work all his life. He moved to the present homestead in Smithfield township, DeKalb county, in 1877, his first purchase here comprising seventy acres, to which he added forty-five acres comprising of the old Schiffli farm , and later bought twenty-five acres of Lew Collins and in the spring of 1910, bought forty acres more of the Parnell heirs, thus making a total of one hundred and eighty acres of land. He made many permanent and substantial improvements on this land, among the first being the removal of the buildings close to the road. He cleared the land, which was most of if in its original state of wildness and made of it a very productive and valuable estate. He lived on the farm, which he thus improved for thirty-six years or up to the time of his death, which occurred on May 30, 1913. The day before his death he deeded forty acres of his land to his son, Clyde, leaving an estate of one hundred and forty acres. Mr. Betz was progressive and enterprising in his methods, keeping up with the most advanced ideas relating to agriculture, and for many years his farm was considered one of the most valuable in this section of the county. On April 13, 1869, Mr. Betz married Mary Musser, daughter of John and Sarah Ann (Hammer) Musser. Mr. Musser was a native of Stark county, Ohio, and came to Franklin township, DeKalb county, Indiana in 1851, the journey being made by wagon, together with thirteen other families. They settled first on a farm of forty acres in Franklin township, where they remained until 1860, when, selling that farm, they moved in the spring of the following year to another farm of eighty- five acre in same township, which Mr. Musser bought later. During 1860 he bought forty acres of government land, for which he paid the regulation price of one dollar and quarter per acre, to which he latter added nine acres. He bought seventy acres, subsequently eighty more and still later another eighty. The forty acres, which he bought from the government he had sold prior to this time and the other purchases mentioned above were made during the years 1861 and 1869. In 1893 Mr. Musser moved to Hamilton, Indiana, where he built a large and handsome residence and in 1899 he married his second wife, whose maiden name was Alice Harger. His death occurred April 21, 1900. His wife was a native of Stark county, Ohio, and was but nine months old when she was brought to Franklin township, DeKalb county, where her death occurred at Hamilton in 1894. To them were born five children: Mary (Mrs. Betz); Emanuel, deceased; William, Amanda and Edwin. An uncle of Mrs. Betz, Samuel Musser, enlisted during the war of 1861 for three months’ service at Taylor’s Corners, Indiana, and at the end of his first period he re-enlisted for three years, dying a short time afterward in an army hospital in Tennessee. To Mr. and Mrs. Betz were born ten children, as follows: Anna is the wife of William Kline, a farmer living about one and one-half miles from Fairfield Center, and they have one child, Lester; Eugene died at the age of twenty-nine years, his death being the result of an accident in the Great Western Railroad yards in Chicago; Bertha is the wife of Chester Barker, a farmer near Springport, Jackson county, Michigan, and they have one child, Clyde; Alice is the wife of Ezra Brand, a farmer near Fairfield Center, and they have five children; Frank, deceased, Ethel, John, Howard and George; Ida, who is unmarried, remains at home with her mother, as does Mary; George, after attending the common schools of Franklin township, was graduated in the Ashley high school in 1902, and then took the teacher’s course in the Angola Normal School, where he graduated in 1903. The following year he took special teacher’s work in the State Normal School at Terre Haute, and in 1905 went west on an extended vacation. He returned to the Terre Haute Normal in 1907, and on the 2nd day of July of the latter year he was married to Lurah Armstrong. On July 2, 1907, he left for the Philippine islands, where he taught school for the government. He remained there four years and after a visit home in July, 1911, returned to his work, where he is employed as superintendent of the schools in Tarlack province, in the Philippines. His wife, who also is well educated, teaches with him; Blanche, who is unmarried and remains at home with her mother, is a successful school teacher at Ashley; John, who is a successful farmer at Springport, Michigan, married Lena Kuckuck, and they have one child, Howard; Clyde, who lives on the homestead farm, married Fay Teeters on June 3, 1913, the daughter of Orpheus and Ada L. (Osborn) Teeters, living at Angola, Indiana. Clyde was educated in the common schools and high school at Ashley, and then took teacher’s training at Winona Lake, Indiana, in 1910. He taught three years in three different schools in Smithfield township and in the spring of 1913 he took up farming on the old home place. Politically, Mr. Betz was a lifelong Democrat and, though taking an active interest in the success of his party, he never aspired to political offices of any nature. His religious faith was in harmony with the creed of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was a faithful member and to the support of which he contributed of his means. His business career was not only a successful one, but an honorable one as well, and the most envious could not grudge him his success, for it was gained by the most straightforward methods. Hard work and good management proved the basis of his prosperity and made him a man of affluence. He leaves behind him a memory worthy to be cherished and revered and his name should be enrolled among the representative men who have been valued citizens of the county. Domestic in his tastes, his greatest pleasure was in the family circle, while among his fellows his companionable and genial nature commanded him to their attention and he was well liked throughout the community where he had resided for so many years, and where he had ever exerted his influence for the welfare of his fellow man. Submitted by: Arlene Goodwin Auburn, Indiana Agoodwin@ctlnet.com