Biography of Willis Archibald Dannells, pages 712/713/714.  History of 
DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 
1914.



Willis Archibald Dannells



	The gentleman to a brief review of whose life and characteristics 
the reader’s attention is here with directed is among the favorably 
known and representative citizens of Auburn, DeKalb county, Indiana. He 
has by his indomitable enterprise and progressive methods contributed 
in a material way to the advancement of his locality and during the 
course of an honorable career has been successful in his business 
enterprises, having been a man of energy, sound judgment and honesty of 
purpose, and is thus well deserving of mention in this Volume.

	Willis A. Dannells was born in Adams county, Indiana, on February 
25, 1859, and is the son of Archibald and Lucinda (Blunvelt) Dannells, 
the former a native of the Hoosier state and the latter of Ohio. Willis 
A. Dannells came to this county in 1861 with his parents, who settled 
in section 7, Wilmington township, where his father had bought a farm.  
The latter had been a soldier in the Civil war, serving practically 
throughout that conflict, and his death occurred on March 15, 1866.  
Subsequently his widow married Henry Funk and they remained on the home 
farm and in Butler, her death occurring on the old home place.  She was 
born at Columbus, Ohio, on February 11,1825, and was there  reared to 
womanhood, being married in her eighteenth year to Mr. Purdy.  The 
latter died in 1846, leaving one son, Wilson Purdy.  Eventually Mrs. 
Purdy became the wife of Archibald Dannells, whose death occurred in 
1866, leaving to her care of five sons and a daughter, of whom three 
sons and a daughter survive her.  She removed to DeKalb county, 
Indiana, in 1861, settling on the farm where she died four miles west 
of Butler, in the seventy-seventh year of her age, her death occurring 
on January 22, 1902.

	Willis A. Dannells was reared on the Wilmington township farm and 
after his marriage, which occurred in 1882, he remained in the 
operation of the farm for twenty-six years.  In 1908 he moved to Auburn 
and bought the splendid residence property on East Ninth street, where 
he now resides.  He still owns a fine farm in Wilmington township, 
situated on the main road west of Butler, the place being characterized 
by a high type of improvement in every particular, embracing a good and 
attractive house, large and well arranged barn, with large stock barns 
and other necessary outbuildings, all of which reflect credit on the 
owner and which have made the place one of the most valuable farms in 
this section of the county. Methodical and practical in all he does, 
Mr. Dannells during the years in which he gave personal attention to 
the operation of the farm, neglected no detail of its operation and 
achieved a splendid reputation among his fellow agriculturists as a 
progressive and enterprising farmer and business man.

	On November 19, 1882, Mr. Dannells was married to Dora B. 
Collins, the daughter of George and Elizabeth (Cray) Collins.  When 
Mrs. Dannells was not quite six years old her parents moved to Franklin 
township, DeKalb county, Indiana, where they bought a farm and there 
they lived until the last three years of the father’s life.  The latter 
was a lifelong farmer and enjoyed the respect and esteem of all who 
knew him.  His death occurred on April 10, 1906, at the age of seventy-
eight years, his wife dying on November 19, 1904, at the age of 
seventy-two years.  Both were members of the Evangelical church.  Mr. 
and Mrs. Dannells have no children of their own, but out of the 
kindness of their hearts they adopted a girl, Alice Lantz, by name, who 
was left and orphan at the age of six years, and was thirteen years of 
age when she entered their home.  She is now the wife of Clyde J. 
Snyder and they live on the Dannells farm, to the operation of which 
they give their personal attention.  Mrs. Snyder is the daughter of 
Arthur and Martha (Faust) Lantz. She is the mother of four children, 
Willis Arthur, Lawrence, Amos, Vera Naomi and Glenn Elber.

	Politically, Willis Dannells is a stanch Democrat and has been 
active in the advancement of the party interests in his county, being a 
familiar figure in the party councils and influential in the 
organization.  In the fall of 1908 Mr. Dannells was elected a member of 
the board of county commissioners, assuming the office on January 1, 
1909, and so satisfactory was his administration that in 1910 he was 
again elected for a three-year term, his present term expiring on 
January 1, 1915. To Mr. Dannells is due the credit and responsibility 
for the new court house just completed at Auburn, for when, during his 
first term, the question of a new court house had been agitated, and it 
was known that there was some opposition to it on account of the 
additional taxes which it would entail, and when the question of 
deciding the matter came up to the board, a retiring member of the 
board who had no political position at stake stood for the improvement, 
the other member of the board refused to vote either way and it was 
left for Mr. Dannells to decide.  He met the issue fairly and squarely, 
and, true to his honest convictions in the matter, voted for the new 
building, regardless of whether the act would prove popular or not.  
The court house has been build and in universally pronounced an 
unusually fine building, one of which the county should be justifiably 
proud, as special feature of this building being its natural lighting 
facilities, which care unusually excellent for so large a building.  
The decorations and interior furnishings of the building are also in 
perfect harmony with the remainder of the structure, and the enterprise 
as a whole reflects great credit on the commissioners and particularly 
Mr.Dannells, who was closely in touch with the erection of the building 
throughout the work.  He is splendid example of the virile, 
progressive, self-made man who believes in doing well whatever is worth 
doing at all, a man of keen discernment and sound judgment, and 
therefore he enjoys the confidence and good will of the entire 
community in which he lives.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com