Biography of Nelson Chaney, pages 945/946/947.  History of DeKalb 
County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



Nelson Chaney



	In the early days of the Middle West was often a tempting field 
to energetic, ambitious, strong-mined men, and Indiana was filled with 
them during the time she was struggling up to a respectable position in 
the sisterhood of states.  There was a fascination in the broad field 
and great promise which this newer region presented to activity and 
which attracted many men and induced them to brave the discomforts of 
the early life here for the pleasure and gratification of constructing 
their fortunes in their own way and after their own methods.  The late 
Nelson Chaney, for a long lapse of years one of the most substantial an 
prominent citizens of DeKalb county, became identified with this 
favored section of the country at an early date and from the first 
wielded a potent influence.  He gave to the world the best of an 
essentially virile, loyal and noble nature and his standard of honor 
was absolutely inflexible.  He was a citizen of high civic ideals, and 
ever manifested his liberality in connection with measures and 
enterprises tending to advance the general welfare of the community 
honored his residence.  He was the architect of his own fortune and 
upon his career rests no blemish, for he was true to the highest ideals 
and principles in business, civic and social life.  He lived and 
labored to worthy ends and as one of the sterling citizens and 
representative men of his locality in a past generation his memory 
merits a tribute of honor on the pages of history.

	Nelson Chaney, whose death occurred at his home in Richland 
township, DeKalb county, Indiana, on April 21, 1913, was born in 
Harrison county, Ohio, on August 15, 1827.  In early years the family 
moved to Ashland, Ohio, where he received his education and was reared 
to manhood. In 1853, desiring larger opportunity for advancement and 
for the exercise of those qualities, which so especially fitted him for 
the life of a pioneer, he came to DeKalb County and purchased a tract 
of land in the woods.  To the clearing of this land and the development 
and cultivation of a farm he applied himself with such energy and 
perseverance that in due time his farm became known as one of the best 
in the entire locality, and on this place he resided continuously up to 
the time of his death.  His career was a long, busy and useful one, 
fraught with much good to himself and family, and his memory will long 
be revered by all who have had occasion to come in contact with him on 
life’s highway. Though successful in his material affairs, he revered 
allowed the pursuit of wealth to warp his kindly nature; but preserved 
his faculties and the warmth of his heart for the broadening and 
helpful influences of human life, being to the end a kindly, congenial 
friend and gentleman whom it was a pleasure to meet.  He reached the 
advanced age of eighty-five years. Having lengthened out his life far 
beyond the Psalmist’s allotted three score and ten, until he was 
permitted to witness the vicissitudes of the most remarkable epoch in 
the world’ s history, in all of which he was an interested spectator, 
and, indeed, played no inconspicuous part in pushing forward the wheels 
of civilization in his own locality.  There is no doubt but that his 
long life was due to his sterling character, his conservative habits 
and his pure thinking.  He was even-tempered, patient, scrupulously 
honest in all his relations if life, hospitable an charitable and his 
many kindly deeds were actuated from his largeness of heart more than 
from any desire to gain the plaudits of his fellow men.  However, his 
record is too familiar to the readers of this work to require any 
fulsome encomium here, his life speaking for itself in stronger terms 
than any phrases the writer could employ.  In all that constituted true 
manhood and good citizenship he was a worthy example and none stood 
higher that he in the esteem and confidence of the circles in which he 
moved.

	On June 15, 1855, Nelson Chaney was united in marriage with Mary 
Ann McCague, who was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, on July 
6, 1833, and whose death occurred on January 15, 1884. Soon after her 
birth her parents moved to Holmes county, Ohio, and in the fall of 1848 
they came to DeKalb county, Indiana.  Soon after he marriage to Mr. 
Chaney they moved onto the farm on which the remaining years of their 
life were spent, and which was not at the time improved to any 
considerable extent.  In 1866 Mrs. Chaney embraced Christ as her 
Saviour and, with her husband, joined the United Brethren church at 
Shower’s Corners, of which she and her husband were faithful and 
honored members until their deaths.  She was in the truest sense of the 
word a helpmate to her husband, encouraging him by her counsel and 
assisting him by her labor to create a home in the wilderness where 
they might rear their family of children.  To her relatives and friends 
she left a priceless legacy of her life---a legacy of endurance, 
courage, patience, faith, hope and love.  Her life was a nobly lived 
and beautifully closed, and he record spoke of the sublime courage born 
of faith and hope.

	To Nelson and Mary Ann Chaney were born eight children, one of 
whom died in infancy, and a son Nelson Milford, was killed by a train 
at Auburn at the age of nineteen years.  The other children, all 
surviving, are: William, at home; Irvin, at Rock Island, Illinois; Mrs. 
J. W. Sheffer, of Auburn, this county; Mrs. E. C. Walker, of Fort 
Wayne, Indiana; Mrs. William Bowman, of Corunna, this county, and Mrs. 
A.B. Raub, who remains at home.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@cltnet.com