Biography of Samuel A. Mumaw, pages 999/1000/1001.  History 
of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., 
Indianapolis, 1914.



Farming is becoming recognized as a profession and the 

future farmers of our country will be trained as carefully 
as are our ministers and physicians. Purdue University now 
gives a four-year course in agriculture, leading to the 
Bachelor of Arts degree. The 1913 Legislature of this state 
created a new official known as the county agent, whose 
duties are to give expert advice to farmers on all subjects 
pertaining to agriculture. The short courses given at 
Purdue every year are being attended by increasing 
thousands of farmers and their sons. The tendency of all 
this points to a new era in farming. Farmers’ institutes 
are being held throughout the state and have been the means 
of keeping the farmers  abreast of the times. Agriculture 
is becoming a science and the most successful  farmer today 
is the man who studies his business. Such men as these are 
the men who make good officials was well as good farmers, 
and such a farmer and official is Samuel A. Mumaw, the 
subject of this brief sketch.  Samuel A. Mumaw, the son of 
David A. and Rebecca (Helsey) Mumaw, was born in Stark 
county, Ohio, May 26, 1877. His parents were both natives 
of Shenandoah county, Virginia, where David A. Mumaw grew 
to manhood and married. He enlisted in the confederate army 
from Virginia, July 15, 1861 and remained in service until 
the close of the war. He belonged to Company K, Thirty-
third Regiment, at the opening of the Civil war and 
continued in active service throughout that memorable 
conflict, making a brilliant record as a soldier and being 
mustered out at the end of nearly five years’ service with 
a slight scalp wound.  He was in the battle at Gettysburg 
and Winchester and many other noted battles. After the war 
he returned to his native state of Virginia, where he 
continued to reside until 1871, when he moved to Stark 
county, Ohio. Here he purchased land and improved it, but 
thinking he could improve his fortunes by going to Indiana, 
he came to DeKalb county, this state, in 1886 and purchased 
a farm in Wilmington township of forty acres. Here, at the 
age of seventy-nine, he is still actively engaged in 
agricultural pursuits, being probably the oldest farmer in 
active service in the county today.  His wife is the same 
age as himself and is still in good health. Her parents 
were of German extraction. To Mr. and Mrs. David A. Mumaw 
have been born five children, Charles, of Butler, Indiana, 
who has been shipping agent for the Butler Wind-mill 
Company for the past seventeen years; John B., a plumber of 
Butler; Jacob, a telephone lineman of Eaton, Ohio; Sarah, 
who married Oliver Keysbury and lives in Fort Wayne, 
Indiana, and Samuel A., the immediate subject of this 
sketch. Samuel A. Mumaw was educated in the district 
schools of this county and continued to reside under the 
paternal roof until he was married at the age of twenty-two 
years. Upon his marriage on December 13, 1899, to Anna M. 
Sechler, he moved on to his mother-in-law’s farm, fifty-six 
acres in Concord township. Mrs. Mumaw is the daughter of 
William and Rachel (Nelson) Sechler, her father being a 
native of Pennsylvania, of German stock. Mrs. Sechler was 
of Irish descent, her parents being pioneers of Concord 
township, where her father followed agricultural pursuits 
all his life. They were both members of the German Lutheran 
church. Mr. Sechler died in April, 1884, and his wife’s 
death occurred on October 30, 1903. Mrs. Rachel Sechler 
first married Samuel Armstrong, and had one son by this 
marriage, Samuel, who married Ethel Imhoof and now lives in 
Concord township. Some years after the death of her first 
husband, Mrs. Rachel Armstrong married William Sechler, and 
to this union  were born two children, and infant daughter, 
deceased, and Anna M. Sechler, the wife of the subject of 
this sketch.  Mr. Mumaw is the owner of a fine farm in 
Concord township comprising fifty-six acres and carries on 
a general farming business. Besides raising all the crops 
common to this locality, he has made a specialty of raising 
horses and hogs and has been uniformly successful in all 
his business transactions. The esteem in which he is held 
in his community is shown by the fact that he was appointed 
to the office of trustee of Concord township in July, 1911. 
In the conduct of his official affairs in his township, Mr. 
Mumaw has taken a commendable interest and has won the 
approval of all the citizens of his township, irrespective 
of party affiliations. He has taken a very active interest 
in the question of good district schools and has made a 
special effort to secure the best possible teachers for the 
township schools. He has just completed the erection of the 
best school building in DeKalb county. He has also been an 
advocate of good roads and has succeeded in adding a few 
miles of improved highway to the township system each 
years. He and his wife are members of the Lutheran church 
at St. Joe and contribute liberally of their means to 
support the various activities of that denomination. Mr. 
Mumaw is also a valued member of the Knights of Pythias and 
take an active interest in the fraternal affairs of that 
body. In all of his business dealings Mr. Mumaw has so 
conducted himself that he has won the confidence and 
approval of all of the good citizens of his community, not 
only in his business relations, but in every effort to 
elevate the moral, intellectual or social standard of his 
locality.

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com