Biography of Joel E. Hartman, pages 844/845/846/847.  History of DeKalb 
County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



Joel E. Hartman

The prosperity and substantial welfare of a community depend very 
largely upon the character and enterprise of its leading citizens.  It 
is the progressive, wide-awake men of affairs that make the real 
history of a county or state and upon them also rests the 
responsibility of giving  moral tone to the body politics, of directing 
thought and shaping opinion, and of taking the lead in all progressive 
measures for the public good.  To this class of strong, virile men 
belongs the well known and the enterprising citizen whose name appears 
at the head of this review, and individual of sterling character and 
sturdy worth, whose influence has always been on the right side of 
every moral issue and whose name stands for what is best and noblest in 
manhood. Joel E. Hartman was born on October 3, 1843, in Lehigh county, 
Pennsylvania, the son of Abram and Catherine (Russell) Hartman. Abram 
Hartman, who was a native of Pennsylvania, migrated in young manhood to 
Ohio, and from that state came to DeKalb county in 1847.  On arriving 
here he bought eighty acres of land in Union township, to which he 
devoted his attention and also gave some of his time to church work, 
being a local preacher in the Methodist church.  He was active up till 
the time of his death, which occurred in August, 1873, on his farm 
three miles west of Auburn.  He was the father of seven children.  The 
eldest, Elvina, was a child by a former marriage and lives in Ashley, 
Indiana.  The other children born by his union with Catherine Russell 
were as follows: Aaron, who is married and has four children, lives on 
a farm close to Sedan, Indiana; John, who is night watchman at the 
Eckhart Auto Manufacturing Company, Auburn, Indiana, is married and has 
six daughters; the other children, besides the subject of this sketch, 
are all deceased, namely: Wesley, Priscilla and Calvin. Joel E. Hartman 
was reared on the paternal farmstead and secured his education in the 
district schools.  In 1864 he was drafted at Kendallville, Indiana, and 
was assigned to the Fifty-third Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, 
under Captain Kingston, the command being assigned to General Sherman’s 
army.  Mr. Hartman took part in many of the most important campaigns of 
the war, being in thirteen different states, spent two weeks in doing 
garrison duty on the Atlantic coast, was transported from Charleston, 
Virginia, to Moorehead City, South Carolina, meeting General Sherman at 
the coast.  His command fought at Kingston, Moorehead City and Raleigh, 
North Carolina, and also took part in the several engagements against 
General Johnson.  His military record was an excellent one in every 
respect and he was honorably mustered out at Washington, D. C., in 
June, 1865. After his discharge from military service Mr. Hartman 
returned to DeKalb county and settled on his present homestead farm of 
one hundred and sixty acres in Smithfield township, which he has 
improved in many respects until now it is one of the best farms in the 
township. The buildings are all substantial in character, the large, 
roomy, modern barn, erected in 1892, being one of its features.  He 
takes great pride in his farm and live stock and has achieved a 
splendid success in his vocation.  The residence, which is attractive 
and conveniently arranged, is provided with many modern accessories 
and, taken as a whole, the farm is a credit to  Smithfield township.  
In 1911 Mr. Hartman purchased eighty acres of land across the road from 
his present homestead on which his daughter, Mertie, now lives. On 
October 5, 1863, Mr. Hartman was married at Auburn, Indiana, to Sarah 
Gushwa, the daughter of Philip and Mary (Moore) Gushwa.  Mr. Gushwa, 
who was a native of Ohio, moved to DeKalb county in 1835, locating on a 
farm two miles north of Corunna, Indiana, where he acquired the 
ownership of one hundred and sixty acres of land.  This land, which was 
bought at a cheap price, was densely covered with timber, most of which 
Mr. Gushwa cleared from the land and put in soil in excellent condition 
for cultivation.  In 1873 he sold forty acres off the side of the farm 
to his wife’s eldest brother, Jacob.  He gave his active years to the 
cultivation of this farm and died there in the fall of 1888.  His wife, 
who also was a native of Ohio, accompanied her husband on their long, 
tiresome journey by wagon and ox-team to their new home and here she 
proved a true helpmate to her husband, assisting him in his work and 
encouraging him by her counsel, and by her life in the community she 
became beloved by all who knew her.  Her death occurred on the old 
homestead in the fall of 1892. To them were born ten children, all of 
whom were born in Ohio, with the exception of the youngest. One of 
these children died in infancy and of the others, six are now deceased, 
Jacob, Elizabeth, John, Susan, Philip and Benjamin.  The three living 
are Jonathan, who is an old soldier and lives at Corunna, and who is 
married and has two children, Charles and Edward; Mary Ann, the wife of 
David Liby, a farmer of Wakarusa, Indiana. and who was a soldier in the 
Civil war, having served three years. They have five children, three 
sons and two daughters.  All of Mrs. Hartman’s brothers were veterans 
of the Civil war. 	To Mr. and Mrs. Hartman have been born eight 
children: Orpheus; Della, deceased; William, Ezra, Mary Catherine, 
Mertie, Emery and Vesta. Of these, Orpheus, who is married and is 
operating a farm at Maurice, Michigan, is the father of seven children, 
four sons and three daughters; William, who also married, lives on a 
farm in Fairfield township, DeKalb county, and has four sons; Ezra, who 
remains unmarried, lives at home with his parents; Mary Catherine is 
the wife of Robert Lockhart, who is represented elsewhere in this work, 
and they have five children, three sons and two daughters; Mertie is 
the wife of Sherman Porter, a farmer, and they live on a farm adjoining 
her father’ homestead.; Emery is a Methodist minister at Evanston, 
Illinois.  He is married, but has no children; Vesta is the wife of 
Earl Hughes, a farmer in Steuben county, this state, and they have one 
child, a son. Politically, Mr. Hartman is a Republican in his views, 
but he has been too busy a man to devote to public affairs, although at 
all times given his support to every movement which promises to benefit 
the community in any way.  Religiously, he is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, to the support of which he contributes liberally of 
his means.  Quiet and unassuming in his attitude, he has earned by his 
earnest a consistent life the warm regard of all who know him.  
Methodical in business, strict in his convictions as to right and 
wrong, genial and companionable, he has earned the high standing which 
he enjoys and is rightfully numbered among the representative men of 
this section of the county.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com