Biography of Henry Dapp, pages 878/879/780.  History of DeKalb County, 
Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



Henry Dapp



	Agriculture has been an honored vocation from the earliest ages, 
and as a usual thing men of honorable and humane impulses, as well as 
of energy and thrift, have been the leading patrons of husbandry.   The 
farm has been the fruitful soil from which has emanated the moral bone 
and sinew of the nation, and from the labors of the field have come 
forth in to the most exalted planes of usefulness the strongest men of 
the country, while all who have appreciation of true values will regard 
with admiration the dignity of the farmer and the value of the work he 
accomplishes. Among enterprising citizens of DeKalb county is the 
subject of this brief sketch, who is an honored resident of Smithfield 
township, with whose agricultural development and progress he has been 
intimately identified, while he has so lived as to merit and receive 
the fullest measure of popular confidence and esteem.

	Henry Dapp was born on January 19, 1860, in Alsace, France now 
belonging to Germany.  He is the son of Alois and Elizabeth (Martin) 
Dapp, both of whom were born, reared and married in Alsace, where the 
father followed the pursuit of farming.  Henry Dapp was reared in his 
native locality and in 1880, at the age of twenty years, accompanied 
his parents on their emigration to America, settling at once in Summit, 
DeKalb county, Indiana, where the father bought one hundred and sixty 
acres of splendid land, comprising the northeast quarter of section 14, 
where he made his home, given his undivided attention to the 
cultivation and improvement of his farm as long as he lived.  He was a 
man of sterling qualities of character and enjoyed the respect of the 
entire community.  To him and his wife were born six children, namely: 
Henry, the immediate subject of this sketch; Stacy, the wife of John 
Trapp, of Garrett, this county; Caroline was the wife of Joseph Deitch, 
of Avilla, Indiana, and is now deceased; Clementine is the wife of 
Anthony Grist and lives at Garrett; Louise and Elizabeth are twins. 
Elizabeth, deceased, was the wife of William Long and lived at Fort 
Wanye until her death.  The father of these children died on January 1, 
1899, and the mother on December 1, 1897.

	The subject of this sketch lived on the old home place, 
eventually buying eighty acres from his father and after the latter’s 
death he bought out the interests of the other heirs in the remaining 
eighty acres of the estate, thus being now the owner of the entire farm 
of one hundred and sixty acres.  The place is well improved in every 
respect, the fertility of the soil having been maintained by judicious 
attention to the rotation of crops and fertilization, and Mr. Dapp has 
achieved a splendid success in his operations.  He carries on a 
diversified system of farming, raising all the crops common to this 
locality and gives some attention to the breeding and raising of live 
stock, in which he has met with success.

In 1884 Mr. Dapp married Magdalene Schiffli, a daughter of Anthony 
Schiffli, and to this union have been born eight children, namely: Mary 
is the wife of John May, who lives near her father’s farm in 
Smithfield; they have two children, Agnes and Esther; Elizabeth is the 
wife of Matthias Hohl, and they live west of the Catholic church in 
Smithfield township; they have two boys, Henry and Alvin; Theresa is 
the wife of John Schlusser, who lives in the western part of Smithfield 
township, and they have a son, Paul Louis; Anthony lives near his 
sister in Smithfield township and married Esther Gabe; John is 
unmarried and is attending St. Meinard College in southern Indiana; 
Louise, Albert and Katies are at home with their parents.  Mr. Dapp and 
his family are all earnest members of the Catholic church.  Their lives 
have been such as to earn the warm commendation of all who know them, 
for they have been true to their highest conceptions of right and in 
civic life of the community.  Mr. Dapp has taken an intelligent 
interest, giving his support at all times to every movement, which has 
for its object the advancement of his fellow men.  Personally, he is 
genial and companionable and has won a host of warm personal friends.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com