Biography of Timothy H. Dirrim, page 150.  History of Northeast Indiana; 
LaGrange, Steuben, Noble, and DeKalb Counties, Vol. II, under the editorial 
supervision of Ira Ford, Orville Stevens, William H. McEwen, and William H. 
McIntosh.  The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York, 1920.  

   Timothy H. Dirrim, a resident of Hamilton where he is practically 
retired, has enjoyed a life of unusual effort and experience. He has been a 
farmer, merchant, hotel proprietor, and when well past middle life he went 
to the Northwest and took up a homestead claim and developed it.
   Mr. Dirrim, who represents one of the old and prominent families of 
DeKalb County, was born in Franklin Township of that county, May 23, 1857.  
His grandparents were Richard and Hannah (Wycoff) Dirrim, the former a 
native of Delaware. Richard Dirrim died in 1875, at the age of ninety 
years.  He was a soldier in the War of 1812.  At the time of his death his 
descendants numbered 142. Richard Dirrim moved to Wayne County, Ohio, in 
1883.  His children were Zachariah, Hannah, James, Isaac, William H. and 
Eleanor. 
   William H. Dirrim, father of Timothy, was born in Carroll County, Ohio, 
July 8, 1820, and grew  up in Ohio.  September 12, 1839, he married 
Christiana Haughey, who was born in Eastern Ohio, near Wheeling, Virginia, 
in 1820, daughter of Robert and Hannah (Wycoff) Haughey. William H. Dirrim 
was educated in Ohio and in 1844 came to DeKalb County, Indiana, and the 
following fall settled on 160 acres of wild land in section 11 of Franklin 
Township.  The land was covered with heavy timber and the first winter he 
lived in a rude house without glass in the windows and with the openings 
covered with muslin cloth.  The door was pinned and bolted together without 
the use of a single nail.  His wife at that time spun all the wool for the 
clothing, and William H. Dirrim made the shoes for the family.  For a term 
or two he and his wife both taught school in the neighborhood. The first 
wheat crop he raised brought him only 48 cents a bushel at Fort Wayne.  It 
had to be hauled to Fort Wayne and in the absence of a team and wagon he 
paid one shilling a bushel for that service. Gradually the area of 
clearing grew until he had 100 acres under cultivation and had a good 
residence and other buildings.  He served as assessor of Franklin Township 
two terms, was also township trustee, and he was a very prominent Methodist. 
For twenty years he served as district steward of the Methodist Church and 
had the ministry of the district Conference covering a period of fifty 
years.  He and his wife had nine children: Hannah J.; Robert R.; William 
Samuel; Mary E., who died a the age of eight years; Mary Elizabeth; 
Christiana; Francis A., who died at the age of four year; Caroline and 
Timothy.
   Timothy H. Dirrim acquired his education in the public schools of 
Franklin Township and one term at Butler, Indiana, and one term at 
Hamilton.  As a young man he farmed with his father on the shares, and in 
the spring of 1888 he moved to Hamilton and for about four years was clerk 
in a drug store.  In 1892 he bought a furniture and undertaking business at 
Hamilton, and was one of the successful merchants of that place until he 
sold out in 1904.  He then built the Fish Lake Hotel and was its landlord 
for five years.  The hotel property he traded for a farm of eighty acres 
in Otsego Township, and has since sold thirteen acres and owns the rest. 
In December, 1913, Mr. Dirrim went to Montana and filed on a homestead in 
Blaine County and spent four summers improving it. 
   Mr. Dirrim served as a notary public for sixteen years.  He is a member 
of the Church of Christ.
In 1895 he married Miss Lulu Garver, daughter of Isaac and Emeline 
(Cummings) Garver.  Her father was a farmer in Defiance County, Ohio, 
served a justice of the peace there for twenty-eight  years, and during 
that time married over 200 couples.  He was also a commissioner of 
Defiance County one term.  The children of Isaac Garver were: Adella, 
Dora, Lula and Owen.  Mr. and Mrs. Dirrim have two adopted children, 
Pauline and Harry.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com