Dr. William H. Sampson, an old physician of Brookston, died at his home in that town April 5, 1913. He was a Hoosier, born in Janesville, December 8, 1839, and became a soldier of the Sixty-sixth Indiana Infantry during the year of his marriage, 1861. After serving throughout the Civil war, he located at Springsboro [sic] and there practiced medicine until 1876, after which he continued his professional career at Brookston until his death. He was the father of six children. As a leading Mason and a member of the Baptist Church, his funeral services were conducted under the forms both of religion and fraternity.
John Saunders, an old-time resident of Monticello, whither he came as a young man in 1854, died in his later home at Lake Cicott, Cass County, on the 25th of October, 1912, at the age of nearly seventy-nine years. His remains were brought to Monticello and interred under the joint auspices of the Methodist Church and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, to both of which bodies he owed a long allegiance. The deceased was an Ohio man, born at Lancaster, Fairfield County, December 11, 1833. He was one of eight children born to William and Matilda Saunders, who had migrated from England during the previous year. In 1854, as stated, John Saunders located at Monticello, where he resided continuously until 1905, when he moved to Lake Cicott. In February, 1857, he married Miss Sarah Imes, a sister of Richard Imes. The three sons and one daughter of that union survive, their mother dying December 22, 1879. By his second marriage to Mrs. Margaret L. Neas he had no children. His widow lives at Lake Cicott.
William E. Saunderson, who died at Monticello, May 15, 1874, in his thirty-eighth year was serving his second term as sheriff of White County. His wife died in October, 1873, and after her death Mr. Saunderson's health began to decline and his death came after a long and painful illness. He was quite popular, a good sheriff and a worthy citizen. His brother, Judge James E. Saunderson, now lives in Fowler, Indiana.
Big Creek Township regards the Schroeder family as one of the most prominent, and a conspicuous representative is Herman Schroeder, the popular and successful merchant at Smithson, Indiana. Mr. Schroeder began his career as a farmer, but since taking up merchandising has gradually extended his trade, his stock and capital, and now has an excellent business.
Herman Schroeder was born near Reynolds in Honey Creek Township, of White County, December 17, 1870. His father, John Schroeder, was a German by birth, and was about seventeen or eighteen years of age when he arrived in Monticello, of White County, during the winter of 1860-61. He came with a relative and his parents followed him several years later. His first work was by the month in the employ of farmers. During the war his chief employer was Roland Hughes. Subsequently he took up farming as a renter, and finally acquired a place in Honey Creek Township. It was unimproved land, and he showed both courage and industry in redeeming it from the wilderness. He afterwards sold this place, then rented for some time and then bought a farm in Big Creek Township. This last named place is now owned by Charles Zarse. Finally John Schroeder bought property in Reynolds, and lived there until his death. John Schroeder married for his first wife Miss Grugel, who died when her son Herman was two years of age. There were four children by the union, and one is now deceased. For his second wife John Schroeder married Mary Fastnow, and they became the parents of five children.
Herman Schroeder grew up on a farm, was educated in the local schools, and with the discipline and experience acquired under his father's direction was ready for independent responsibilities after he married. Mr. Schroeder married Mary Bernfeldt, daughter of Fred Bernfeldt. They are the parents of three children: Fred, Edward and Mabel, all of whom were born in Big Creek Township.
After several years of farming, Mr. Schroeder in 1897 established a general store at Smithson, and opened up with a very small stock. He did not bid for patronage in vain, and in a short time was conducting a profitable business. It has been gradually increased and is now one of the best country stores in the county. Mr. Schroeder is a member of the Lutheran Church at Reynolds, and in politics is a democrat and his father has been likewise minded in the matter of politics.
A medical practitioner of sixty years' activity in White County, Dr. Caleb Scott finally succumbed to the demands of ninety years and on October 2, 1911, died at the home of his married daughter, Mrs. Hattie L. Wilkerson, in Idaville. His remains were interred at the Warden Cemetery near Sitka. The deceased was born in Wayne County, Indiana, and in 1827, when Caleb was about six years old, the family moved to Cass County, near Burnettsville. He early showed an inclination and a talent in treating the sick and, having studied under several local physicians, he moved to Burnettsville in 1847, and the succeeding sixty years he devoted to the practice of his profession, mostly in Eastern White County, with the exception of one year which he spent in Illinois. In 1868 he located on his farm in Liberty Township, upon which he resided until 1906 when he went to reside with his daughter, Mrs. Wilkerson, at whose home he died. Doctor Scott was thrice married and left as descendants, eight children, thirty grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Few families have more interesting associations with the past or have made themselves more efficient factors in the current activities of their generation than the family represented by David A. Scroggs, who has one of the fine farms in the vicinity of Idaville and is now serving as township trustee.
There is an interesting tradition to account for the family name, and the facts here narrated are derived from a memorandum book in the possession of T. E. Scroggs of Leechburg, Pennsylvania. In Scotland the name Scroggs is given to a low scrubby vegetation. Two or three centuries ago, when Scotland was divided among hostile clans and their chiefs were principally occupied in maintaining the dignity of their own positions and doing all they could to humiliate their enemies, a factional feud separated Sir William Murray and his brother James, and in the final issues of the conflict Sir William came off victorious. It was supposed Sir James and all his family were slain. After the battle, while the followers of Sir William were plundering the dead, a baby wrapped in the Murray plaid was found among the scroggs. When it was brought to Sir William he at once recognized his brother's child and not only spared its life but reared it among his own children. The child was nick-named Scroggs, and when he grew up that became his family designation, and the name has since been widely dispersed over the civilized world.
The first of the name to come to this country were four brothers, grandsons of Sir William Scroggs. The exact time of their emigration is unknown, the tradition is that these brothers, to escape religious persecution, went from Scotland to the North of Ireland, and thence to North America, settling in Pennsylvania. Their names were Alexander, Allen, John and James, and some time about the middle of the eighteenth century they all lived in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, at Big Springs, a locality now called Newville. From these four brothers all the known members of the family in this country are descended.
For the purpose of this record special attention is directed to John Scroggs, one of these four brothers. Some time between 1740 and 1750 he moved to North Carolina and bonght land and settled on the South Yadkin River in Iredell County, ten miles north of where Statesville is now located. His farm contained land which is now divided among a number of owners. He went to North Carolina with his wife and two sons, and another son and four daughters were born to them in the latter state. He afterwards married a widow named Eleanor Carson, who, it is a matter of interest to relate, was the grandmother of the famous American scout, Kit Carson. Settling in North Carolina John Scroggs built a double log cabin near a large spring, and subsequently constructed another house on the hill east of the spring, and that home is still standing. He was a man of considerable means, and operated extensively as a planter. Some years later, having bought a farm three miles south of Statesville on Third Creek he built a wheat, corn and lumber mill, which was the second mill built in the northern part of the county. He was a man of fine intellect and of more than average size, and was known as a very hard and stern man. He was a member of the Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church. The names of his children were John, Jeremiah, David, Margaret and James, and there is a record to show that John, the oldest, served in the Revolutionary war in General Davidson's Brigade.
David Scroggs, one of the younger sons of John Scroggs, became the great-grandfather of David A. Scroggs of White County. He married a Miss Moore, and settled on a farm near where his father had lived. The sons of David Scroggs and Miss Moore were Enos, Ebenezer, David and Milas.
David, the third son of David Scroggs, was born in Iredell County, North Carolina January 4, 1798. He moved with his parents to Blount County, Tennessee, and in 1819 married Margaret Delzell. He and his wife reared a family of five sons and one daughter: John D., Elan, James, David, Margaret and Gideon E. In 1832 David removed with his family to Putnam County, Indiana, but in the same year transferred his residence to Carroll County, and in 1836 arrived in White County, among the pioneers. His wife died in White County and his own death occurred in 1875. For a number of years this David Scroggs had the only blacksmith shop between Burnettsville and Monticello.
The late John D. Scroggs, the oldest of the six children of David and Margaret (Delzell) Scroggs, was born in Blount County, Tennessee, October 20, 1820, and died on the old farm near Idaville now occupied by his son David A. on June 5, 1902. He was about sixteen years of age when he came to White County, grew up on a farm, and at the age of twenty began earning his own way by the arduous toil of cutting wood, splitting rails and getting out square timbers. This was his regular work until March, 1847, when he bought the farm on which he spent the remainder of his life.
On March 27, 1851, John D. Scroggs married Maria, a daughter of John Gibson. She lived less than a year, dying in February, 1852. On December 6, 1856, Mr. Scroggs married Eliza C. Carson, who died in April, 1858. There were no children by either of these marriages. On November 19, 1860, he married Mrs. Sarah M. (Duncan) Delzell, who was born November 16, 1831, and died April 26, 1876. She left a family of four children: David A., Susan A., Margaret E., now deceased, and Joseph A. The son Joseph Alfred died unmarried August 20, 1896. The daughter Susan A. lives with her brother David and since the death of his wife is housekeeper. John D. Scroggs was a democrat, and he and his wife were members of the United Presbyterian Church. He was an industrious and successful farmer, and for many years cultivated eighty acres of land.
David A. Scroggs was born on the old home place October 25, 1862. On February 22, 1888, he married Mary A. McClure, daughter of James and Mary (Hall) McClure. The McClure family came to White County from Shelby County, Ohio. Mrs. Scroggs died March 7, 1908. There are two children: Eva M., who was married February 10, 1915, to Roy D. Girard, who was graduated from Purdue University with the class of 1914 and is now farm manager for Reverend Doctor Scoville at Butler, Indiana; and Nettie R., now attending high school at Idaville, a member of the class of 1917.
Mr. Scroggs has spent practically all his life on the old home place, and is still engaged in farming and stock raising, having sixty acres of well improved land. He grew up in the democratic faith, and has always been loyal to that party. For four years he served as a member of the township advisory board, and in the fall of 1914 was elected township trustee and began the duties of that responsible office January 1, 1915. He and his wife and family have always been active in the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Scroggs has some relics that are highly prized by the family on account of their interesting associations. The old blacksmith shop once owned by his grandfather was burned, but the anvil which David Scroggs brought with him from Tennessee was rescued and is still in good condition. Mr. Scroggs also has the first grain cradle which his father bought in 1844, and the hand sickel which was brought to Indiana by the family. Other implements that served an excellent purpose in the early days and are still in good condition are a frow, used to split clapboards, an adz and a broad ax.
Prominent among the energetic and hardy young lads who actively assisted in developing and advancing the agricultural resources of White County was Elam Scroggs, who came to this section of Indiana soon after entering his 'teens, and though but a boy performed his full share of the labor required to redeem a farm from its primeval wildness. A son of David and Margaret (Delzell) Scroggs, who migrated from North Carolina to Blount County, Tennessee, he was born July 15, 1822, on the parental homestead.
When he was fourteen years of age, his parents made an overland trip to Indiana locating in White County, not far from Idaville, where they entered 120 acres of land, from which they improved a homestead. David Scroggs was a natural mechanic, and for several years followed the blacksmith's trade to some extent. Beginning life on his own account Elam Scroggs chose the pleasant and profitable occupation to which he was reared, and as a general farmer met with well-deserved success, becoming owner of a finely improved estate, on which he resided until his death, February 27, 1873.
Mr. Scroggs married Hannah Beard, who was born December 19, 1827, a daughter of Thomas and Sarah Beard, and of their union eight children were born, as follows: Nancy, deceased; Margaret, now Mrs. Watkins; Mrs. Mary E. Roby; Arminda; Mrs. Amanda McCall; Rosa; Mrs. Martha Patten; and David T. Mr. Scroggs was a democrat in politics, and always took an intelligent interest in public matters. He was a member of the United Presbyterian Church at Idaville and on account of his church affiliation never joined any fraternal order. Mrs. Scroggs, a woman of superior business ability, acquired what in her day was a liberal education, and was held in high esteem throughout the community.
David T. Scroggs, the youngest member of the parental household, was born February 26, 1865. He, too, received excellent educational advantages, and as a young man taught school successfully for three terms. He now follows farming and stock-raising, having eighty acres of well-cultivated land, to the care of which he is devoting his time and attention. He is independent in politics, voting according to the dictates of his conscience, regardless of party restrictions. He is not affiliated with any secret organization.
Emory B. Sellers at fourteen years of age left his home and started life's battle on his own responsibility. He was born in Perry County, Ohio, July 4, 1851, and about the close of the Civil war came to White County, Indiana, and found work on a farm belonging to Josephus Lowe near Monon. To him an education was as much as a necessity to his future career. He attended the Brookston Academy, at intervals teaching school, his first term when seventeen years of age. He early determined that the law should be his permanent vocation, and began its study in the few night hours after a weary day of work. He took a course in the Chicago Law School at Chicago, was compelled to leave school on account of lack of funds, and in order to supply this need, among other things, he worked for a time as a brakeman on the Illinois Central Railway.
On March 22, 1872, Mr. Sellers entered the law office of Hon. Alfred W. Reynolds at Monticello, and with that old time lawyer finally formed a partnership, which continued until the election of Mr. Reynolds to the Circuit Court Bench in 1888. In the meantime, in 1884, Mr. Sellers had been elected as State Senator from the counties of White, Carroll and Pulaski, serving through two sessions and then resigning to accept President Cleveland's appointment as United States District Attorney. He held that office until after the election of Benjamin Harrison as President, then returned to Monticello to continue his interrupted practice. From 1889 to 1900 Mr. Sellers was a partner with William E. Uhl, but since 1900 has conducted an individual business as a lawyer.
For forty years Mr. Sellers has been the local attorney for the Monon and the Pennsylvania railroads, and for eighteen years has served the Wabash Railway in a similar capacity. Mr. Sellers is member of the National Conference on Uniform Laws, and belongs to the Indiana State and the American Bar Associations. He is a thirty-second degree Mason of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and in politics a democrat.
Jacob H. Sexton was born in Cabell County, West Virginia, November 28, 1819; died January 24, 1896. He came to White County in 1852 and located on what was known as the Jordon Grove farm, where he resided to the time of his death, a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, whose home was noted for its genial hospitality.
A leading representative of the agricultural interests of Princeton Township, Lewis W. Sexton has spent practically all of his life here and has taken an active part in the various movements which have made for progress and development. Mr. Sexton was born in Hancock County, Indiana, September 22, 1852, and is a son of Jacob H. and Acantha (Hinchman) Sexton.
The Sexton family originated in Germany, but for generations its members have lived in America, being early settlers of Virginia. Jacob H. Sexton was born in Cabell County, Virginia (now West Virginia), and in the spring of 1852 moved to Hancock County, Indiana. In the following fall he moved to Jordan's Grove, West Point Township, White County, and in the next spring came to Princeton Township, settling on property on section 21, where he made his home until his death, January 24, 1896. He was buried in Wolcott Cemetery. Mr. Sexton married, in Virginia, Miss Acantha Hinchman, a daughter of William Hinchman, and a sister of William Hinchman, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. Three children were born to this union: Sarah J., who died at the age of fourteen years; William T., who married Permilia Cain, lived for a time at Wolcott and died at Medaryville, Indiana; and Lewis W. Jacob H. Sexton was a democrat, and at one time was a candidate for the office of county commissioner. He was steward and treasurer of the Methodist Episcopal Church. A quiet, unobtrusive, rather cautious man, he was not one to thrust himself forward or to be liberal with advice. Physically he was a large man, weighing 220 pounds, and was considered the strongest man in the township for his years. When he came to White County he had but $700, but through ability and industry he accumulated a handsome property and at the time of his death was the owner of 240 acres of good land, well cultivated and improved with modern buildings and the latest farming appliances. Mrs. Sexton, who was born September 28, 1828, still survives her husband and makes her home with her son.
Lewis W. Sexton was an infant when brought to White County, secured his education in the country schools, and has passed practically his entire life in the atmosphere of the farm. He is a believer in the use of modern methods, belonging to the energetic, pushing class that maintains agricultural standards, and for about eight or nine years has also been engaged in the fire insurance business. He owns 160 acres of good farming land, highly improved, also has a good deal of city realty, and owns stock in the newly-organized Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company at Wolcott. He is a democrat, but has not been inclined toward public service, save as a good and public-spirited citizen. With his family, he belongs to the Christian Church, of which he has been deacon and elder for seven or eight years.
In 1873 Mr. Sexton was married to Miss Sarah O. Briney, a daughter of Perry and Anna Briney, early settlers of White and Carroll counties. Two children have been born to this union: Dora E., who married J. F. Duncan, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work; and Lulu B., who married Lester J. Morrow, proprietor of a harness store at Linden, Indiana, and has two children—Eugene Francis and Rex Byron.
Susan Murray Shackelford was born in Miami County, Ohio, November 24, 1834, and died in Monon, Indiana, September 30, 1914, aged seventy-nine years, ten months and six days. She came to this county when a girl and was married to John McManis, January 30, 1855. To this union nine children were born, all dying in infancy but one, a daughter, Jennie, who at the age of seventeen, married James P. Gwin, agent of the Monon Railroad Company and ex-sheriff of White County. She died July 17, 1881. The husband of Mrs. McManis died January 20, 1866, and in 1876 she married Jonathan Kellogg, who died in 1896. After his death she lived alone about a year and then for several years made her home with James P. Gwin and family, later returning to her own home and still later having her sister, Mrs. Minerva Chamberlain, with her until her death. Mrs. Kellogg had resided in the township sixty years and had been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church fifty years. She was a woman of many commendable virtues and was highly esteemed wherever known. She was known familiarly as "Aunt Susan" far and near until latterly it was changed to "Grandma." During her active life she was a strong factor in the social life of the community. She was a helpless invalid for six years prior to her death, but the tender regard of those who loved her went far toward relieving the bitterness of affliction. When the end came, it was truthfully spoken, "A good woman has passed to her reward."
Alexander R. Shafer, a native of White County, a son of Samuel Shafer, was born on December 25, 1838. On July 3, 1887, he married Miss Alberta Osman, by whom he had one child, a daughter, now living in Illinois. He died the latter part of March, 1895, at his home south of Monticello, having spent his entire life in White County. A life of fifty-six years spent in one locality is a good test of a man's wearing qualities and Mr. Shafer stood the test. His brother, John P. Shafer, still lives about five miles south of Monticello.
This venerable resident of Union Township, now in the eighty-fifth year of his life, came to White County when it was a wilderness. He recalls the fact that in coming to the county he passed down the Wabash River, and at Peru people told him that there was not enough land out of water in White County to build a house upon. Nevertheless he stuck to his determination, and the prosperity which has rewarded his years has been sufficient compensation for the early trials and labors he endured.
Henry Shafer was born in Wayne County, Indiana, December 1, 1831, a son of John and Elizabeth Shafer. He was the second in a family of nine children, five of whom are still living, one of them being Andrew Shafer of Idaville. From Wayne County the family removed to Delaware County, and thence to this county. Coming here in 1856, the father bought land at Idaville, and Henry was associated with his father in its management for several years.
Mr. Shafer was married in Delaware County to Elizabeth Johnsonbaugh, daughter of John Johnsonbaugh. To this union were born five children. Mrs. Shafer died and he afterwards married Mrs. Benjamin Fisher, whose maiden name was Lydia Barnard, daughter of Jonathan Barnard. By the second marriage there were two children: Ella, who married William Marburger; and Elizabeth, who died at the age of two years.
Mr. Shafer has occupied his present farm for a great many years. He was a miller by trade, and took up the work of that trade in 1851. He is now the owner of a good farm of 120 acres, and its improvements represent his individual efforts. He is a member of the Brethren Church, and in presidential elections casts his vote as a democrat, but otherwise is independent.
John M. Shafer was perhaps as well known in and about Monticello as any one who lived here the latter half of the last century. He was the son of Andrew and Sarah Shafer, was born in Delaware County, Indiana, September 30, 1845, and ten years later came with his father's family to White County, where his life was spent. When a lad of eighteen he enlisted in the service of his country, but was rejected on account of his age, but he made a second attempt, was accepted and went as a private in Company B, One Hundred and Forty-second Indiana Volunteers, under command of Captain Thomas, and was honorably discharged in July, 1865. On February 17, 1869, he married Miss Isabella Clingan and to this union were born four children, three of whom, George A., of Peru, Lulu S. Bernfeldt, of Logansport, and Mary E. Springer, of Columbus, Ohio, are yet living.
He was an ardent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and, "his word is as good as his bond," was the words of confidence on the lips of men with whom he did business. He died at his home in Monticello, July 20, 1911.
For fully eighty years the Shafer name has been represented in the role of honorable citizenship in White County. John P. Shafer has himself spent more than seventy years in the county, having been born here, and is the owner of one of the good country homes in Union Township. Mr. Shafer has a record as a Union soldier during the Civil war, and in addition to his private business has at different times helped to carry on the burdens of local government.
John P. Shafer was born in Union Township of White County, February 9, 1841. His parents were James and Susan (Peebles) Shafer. They were Ohio people, and were married in 1832 in Perry County, and two years later started for Indiana, driving a covered wagon to White County. James Shafer secured a farm of eighty acres in Union Township, and on that land erected a small cabin, which was his first home. His location was in the midst of the heavy timber, and in subsequent years he cleared off the heavy woods, brought many acres under cultivation, and increased his land holdings until he was one of the most substantial men in Union Township. The original log house which he put up eighty years ago is still standing on the farm, though no longer a place of human habitation. He and his wife both died on the old homestead. In politics be was a whig for many years, and when that party organization was dissolved became a republican.
John P. Shafer, who was the fifth in a family of eight children, grew up in White County, and his education came entirely from the country schools of his generation. He was just coming into manhood when the war broke out, and in 1862 he enlisted in the Twelfth Indiana Infantry and remained until getting his honorable discharge in 1865. On account of illness he was disabled for service a large part of the time, and consequently did not participate in all the battles and campaigns which are part of the record of his regiment. However, he was present in the battle of Richmond, Kentucky, in 1862, and was in the hard fighting in front of Atlanta on July 26 and 27, 1864.
At the age of twenty-six, not long after the war, Mr. Shafer married Mary E. Wall, daughter of Daniel and Ann T. (Perry) Wall. The Wall family came to White County in the early days. Mrs. Shafer died without children. Mr. Shafer married for his present wife Clara J. Simons, daughter of George H. Simons. To that marriage were born two children: James H., who married Josephine Price, daughter of Frank Price, and they are the parents of four children, John, Frank, Joseph and Mary, all natives of White County; Margaret M., the second child, was born in White County and is unmarried.
Mr. Shafer has a well improved homestead in Union Township, comprising seventy-nine and a half acres. This is land which he acquired in an unimproved condition, and its present value and improvements are all the result of his own management. He has succeeded as a general farmer and has surrounded his family with all the necessary comforts of life. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, and fraternally he is affiliated with the lodge of Masons at Monticello and also with the Eastern Star. In public affairs be has served as supervisor of his township, and is an active republican.
Linas H. Shank, a well known citizen of Chalmers, died of heart disease in the streets of Chalmers, in July, 1912. He was a local republican leader and an esthusiastic [sic] Knight of Pythias.
A life of unassuming worth and admirable achievement was that of the late James K. Sheets, who was a representative of an honored pioneer family of Indiana and who maintained his home in White County from 1876 until his death, which was of tragic order, as he was killed by a falling tree on his homestead farm, on the 28th of February, 1883. He not only stood for productive usefulness in the practical activities of a workaday world but also manifested his abiding patriotism and loyalty by serving as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. His course was guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and his name is held in lasting honor in White County, though his life came to an untimely end ere he had completed a decade of residence in the county. His widow and two younger sons still reside on the fine homestead farm of eighty acres, in Monon Township, and in addition to this place the sons have extended their farming operations on to adjoining land, which they rent.
Mr. Sheets was a native of what is now the State of West Virginia, though the same continued an integral part of the Old Dominion State of Virginia for nearly a quarter of a century after his birth. He was born in one of the Virginia counties now included in West Virginia, on the 15th of October, 1837, and was a son of Samuel and Katie (Snyder) Sheets, both natives of one of the European countries, probably Germany, their marriage having been solemnized in their native land. Upon coming to America they established their residence in West Virginia, but in the '40s they immigrated thence to Indiana and became pioneer settlers in Clinton County, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Of their children only three are now living,—John, Andrew and Rebecca.
James K. Sheets was reared and educated in Clinton County, this state, where he early became familiar with the conditions and influences of the pioneer era and where he continued to be identified actively with agricultural pursuits until the call of higher duty came with the outbreak of the Civil war. On the 30th of August, 1862, he tendered his services in defense of the Union, by enlisting as a private in Company K, Seventy-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which command he continued in active service at the front until the close of the war. He participated in many engagements, including a number of important battles, and made an excellent record as a faithful and gallant soldier. After receiving his honorable discharge Mr. Sheets, as a youthful veteran of a great internecine conflict, returned to the parental home in Clinton County. Shortly afterward was there solemnized his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Burns, whose death occurred within a brief period thereafter. On the 24th of February, 1873, Mr. Sheets wedded Miss Lisetta Landis, who was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1850, and who is a daughter of Sam'l and Katie (Felthuf) Landis, honored pioneers of Clinton County. Mrs. Sheets still survives her husband, as previously intimated in this context, and concerning their children the following brief data are incorporated:
Rosa K., who was born December 15, 1873, is the wife of Hugh DeVault; Dora Belle, who was born July 24, 1875, is the wife of John DeVault; Samuel Hiram, who was born December 4, 1877, and the maiden name of whose wife was Edith Said, upheld the military prestige of the family name by his service as a soldier in the Spanish-American war, for which he enlisted, at Monticello, this county, as a member of Company I, One Hundred and Sixty-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry; James Harvey, who was born September 30, 1879, and Charles Williams, who was born September 25, 1881, remain with their widowed mother on the old homestead and are numbered among the progressive agriculturists and stockgrowers of their native county, their enterprising spirit having been shown in their renting and cultivating tracts of land adjacent to the homestead place; the sixth child was born June 27, 1883, and died on the 24th of the following September.
The subject of this memoir continued his operations as a farmer in Clinton County until the spring of 1876, when he came with his family to White County and established his residence on the farm of eighty acres now occupied by his widow and two younger sons. He became one of the substantial agriculturists and stock-growers of the county and as a man of sterling character and much ability he was influential in public affairs in his home community, his inviolable place in popular esteem having been shown in his being called upon to serve in the office of supervisor of Monon Township. His tragic death was deeply deplored in the community but his name and memory are honored by all who knew him, the while his sons have effectively continued the enterprising labors which he instituted and as loyal and steadfast citizens have honored the name which they bear.
Mr. Sheets was inflexible in his support of the principles for which the republican party has ever stood sponsor in a basic way and was a consistent and zealous member of the Baptist Church, in which he had served as an official prior to his removal to White County, his widow likewise being an earnest member of this religious denomination and being a woman whose gracious personality has endeared her to those who have come within the sphere of her influence. She assumed heavy responsibilities upon the death of her honored husband, and the loving care she gave to her fatherless children finds its reward in the deep filial solicitude which they accord to her.
Samuel Shenk, an old resident of White County, was born in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, October 15, 1829, being one of the six children of Abraham and Magdalena (Overholser) Shenk, both of Pennsylvania. His father died at the old home when Samuel was but ten years old, but for eight years he worked and attended school, then for six years he labored on a farm and in the spring of 1856 he came to White County, locating on the farm of 160 acres, which he has owned for almost sixty years, and which is now one of the best farms in White County. On October 26, 1852, he married Catharine H. Behm, of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. To them was [sic] born one son, Henry D., and a daughter, Clara B., both now living in Monticello. Mr. Shenk retired from the farm and in the spring of 1902 moved to Monticello where his wife died May 8, 1914.
It has been the privilege and fortune of Charles H. Shigley, one of the substantial farmers of White County, to realize many of his worthy ambitions, and through the exercise of good judgment and business sagacity to wrest from his opportunities a full measure of success. He has spent his entire life in the State of Indiana, having been born in Tippecanoe County February 10, 1867, a son of Noah B. and Sarah (Stewart) Shigley, and a member of an old and honored family of that county, where it was founded by his grandparents, natives of Ohio, who migrated to Indiana at a very early date in the state's history.
Noah B. Shigley was a man whose career was an unusual one because of the extremes of poverty and substantiality which it included. He was born in Indiana and grew up amid pioneer surroundings, in a neighborhood destitute of schools, so that his education was necessarily of the scantiest kind. No other advantages were granted him, and he thus began life badly handicapped, but he possessed good habits, was thorough and thrifty, ambitious and determined, and through the possession of these qualifications and the willingness to work day and night he won his way to success. From working as a farm hand for others at small pay, he steadily advanced himself to a place where he was independent and in the possession of 700 acres of land, the head of a large and well established family, and the recipient of the esteem and respect of the people among whom he lived and labored. He came to White County in 1868 and settled first in Prairie Township, where he purchased 320 acres of land at $35 per acre, this being all unimproved land at that time. There the father did all the tiling, fencing and draining, and also erected the barn, the house being there at the time of his purchase. Mr. Shigley continued to be engaged in general farming and stock-raising operations during the balance of his career, or until 1903, when he retired from active pursuits and moved to his comfortable home at Chalmers. There Mrs. Shigley died in 1904, while he survived until 1908. In the family of Noah B. and Sarah Shigley there were eight children, Charles H. being the next to the last in order of birth.
The country schools of White County furnished Charles H. Shigley with his
educational advantages, and when his studies were completed he started
helping his father in the development and cultivation of the home farm. At the
age of twenty-seven years he was married to Miss Nora A. White, a daughter of
Daniel White, early settlers of Crawfordsville, Indiana. Two children have been
born to Mr. and Mrs. Shigley on the farm which they now occupy, Harry and Sadie.
At the time of his marriage Mr. Shigley located on his present property of 195
acres, which is one of the good farms of the community. The buildings are modern
and substantial and the improvements are up-to-date in every way, and Mr. Shigley
has devoted a great deal of time and effort to putting in tiling. He is considered
a good, energetic and progressive agriculturist, combining time-tried and
practical methods with the experiments and innovations of the present day, and
so directing his labors that they bring him a maximum of return for a minimum of
work. His reputation in business circles is an excellent one, for he has always
shown fidelity to engagements. Politically a democrat, Mr. Shigley has served
his township very acceptably as a supervisor, and at all times has displayed his
earnest desire to help his community and his county to further development and
prosperity.
The late Henry C. Shoop, whose life was conspicuously identified with the agricultural development of White County, Indiana, during the period from 1867 until his death in 1900, was one of those who wielded the implements of construction after having used those of destruction, for he came here not long after his services closed as a soldier of the Union during the great war between the forces of the North and the South. Mr. Shoop was born at Greenup, Cumberland County, Illinois, September 23, 1840, and was a son of Dr. John and Susanna (Yontz) Shoop, natives of Virginia, both of whom have been deceased for many years.
Henry C. Shoop was educated in the public schools of Greenup, where his father was engaged in practice as a physician, and as a youth learned the trade of harness maker, although this he subsequently abandoned to devote himself to agricultural operations. When the Civil war broke out, he enlisted with other young men of his community in Company D, Twenty-first Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and while serving with this organization was dangerously wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro. When he had recovered from his injury, he remained in the service, being taken into the public service at Indianapolis, Indiana, and continued to be so engaged until the termination of his term of enlistment, when he received his honorable discharge. At that time Mr. Shoop returned to his home at Greenup, Illinois, and there resumed his trade as a harness maker, being engaged in business with his brother until April, 1867, at which time he came to White County, Indiana, and settled on a farm located in West Point Township. There he developed a good property, made numerous improvements, and continued to carry on general farming and stockraising operations until his death, which occurred May 9, 1900, when he was fifty-nine years, seven months and sixteen days old. A staunch republican in politics from the days of Lincoln, he ever took a keen and intelligent interest in political affairs, and was often active in local campaigns, although he never held public office himself. He is still remembered by the older generation as a man of industrious habits, strict integrity and probity of character, and a citizen who was at all times willing to do his full share in behalf of the community welfare.
Mr. Shoop was married October 4, 1868, to Miss Mary G. Baker, daughter of Charles F. and Ann J. (Gill) Baker whose biography appears elsewhere in this work. To Mr. and Mrs. Shoop there were born nine children, as follows: Orville, who is deceased; Edith, who resides with her mother at Monticello; Charles; Alice, who is the wife of William Anheier; Orlo D.; George; Ray; Anna L., a resident of Indianapolis; and Harold H.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Shoop continued to reside on the farm in Round Grove Township for four years, and then came to her present home at Montiello [sic]. She is a faithful member of the Methodist Church.
While the immediate ancestry of these two well known citizens of White County has been referred to in connection with their individual careers, there is considerable other information bearing upon the family in general in this country which should properly be published in order to give it permanent record. Prof. John W. Scholl, a member of the faculty of the University of Michigan, has given a great deal of study to the various branches of the Scholl-Shull stock in America, and some of his data and conclusions are incorporated in this record.
The father of J. Wesley Shull was Lewis Shull, who in turn was a son of Jacob Shull. It seems probable that the ancestor next preceding, that is the great-grandfather of J. Wesley, was Lewis Scholl, who according to the records of Manheim Township, York County, Pennsylvania, made his will August 19, 1813, and it was probated March 11, 1814. His wife's name was Catharine. The probability that this Lewis was the grandfather of the Lewis Shull who died in White County is based upon the fact that the name Lewis is rather unusual among the whole tribe of Scholl-Shull families in America, and as children are often named after grandfathers, the conclusion is that the Lewis Shull of White County was a grandson of the Lewis whose estate was settled in York County, Pennsylvania. It is also known that many people moved from York County across to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the early days, and Jacob Shull, son of Lewis, may have gone to Virginia, married there, and had a son whom he named Lewis.
Professor Scholl's general account of the family lines is quoted as follows: "Manheim township was one of the chief centers of German settlement when the York county lands were first settled, along from 1750 to 1760. It is somewhat toward the south of the county near the Maryland border. A great many families from York and the adjoining counties, Lancaster on the east and Franklin on the west, removed to Maryland and Virginia, especially to the Shenandoah Valley. From the Shenandoah Valley a great many families came later, between 1830 and 1850, to the Ohio lands. They went down the valley to Southwest Virginia, crossed through the Cumberland Gap, then came north over the Old Wilderness Road to Cincinnati, and then up the Miami Valley to the frontier counties. Hence it is probable that Jacob Shull and his wife Polly went from Pennsylvania as young folks to Virginia, married and settled somewhere in the valley, and then the next generation moved on into Ohio.
"No matter how the name is now spelled, the original form is Scholl. This name belonged to a family in Southern Germany ever since the adoption of surnames back in the thirteenth century. In the grand-ducal archives of Wurtemberg, at Karlsruhe, is preserved a Latin document concerning a quarrel about monastery lands at Herrenalb under the rule of Count Eberhard of Eberstein. Among the witnesses to this document is a certain Henrico Schollen, the Latin for Heinrich Scholl. This paper was signed in 1207 A. D. Now we do not know that this Henry is the ancestor of all existing Scholls, but he must have belonged to the family of the earliest ancestor of the tribe. We know nothing more about this pcrson but it is apparent that he was a man of prominence and influence among the vassals of Count Eberhard and that he was educated in the Latin.
"We have no record of Scholls in the next two hundred fifty odd years, but in 1484 Caspar Scholl died in Dinkelsbuehl, a city in German Bavaria, just a few miles across the border from Wurtemberg. He was a goldsmith. He had three sons, Caspar, Wolfgang and Michael, from whom descends [sic] nearly all the numerous Scholls now living in all parts of Wurtemberg, Baden, Bavaria, Alsace and elsewhere. These three sons were boon traveling companions of the great Emperor Maxmilian [sic] I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. For their 'honor, honesty, good manners, virtue and reason' and their 'pleasing and faithful, useful and willing services' Maximilian renewed and confirmed to them in 1500 A. D. the grant of a coat of arms and crest, which are preserved to the present day. Since this was a renewal, we must assume that the family had been among the feudal gentry before. I think that Maximilian's grant merely extended the right to the coat of arms to the whole German Empire of that day.
"We know some lines of Scholls existing today in Rhein-Westphalian Territory in Hesse-Nassau, Brandenburg, Pomerania, which have not been proved to belong to this Wurtemberg family, but those who know most about them are convinced that they all belong together and descend from a common ancestor, probably lying somewhere back of that Caspar of Dinkelsbuehl.
"It is not generally known from what places the American immigrant Scholls came, but most of them came from such districts as Westphalia, Rhine Province, Rhine Palatine, Alsace, Switzerland, Wurtemberg and the Black Forest of Baden, thus showing that they are undoubtedly descendants of the same old European family above mentioned.
"Most of them came to America to escape religious persecution or military service contrary to their consciences or because their fortunes were ruined by war's ravages. Some possibly later to mend their fortunes because of the glowing accounts of interested immigration agents.
"No one will probably ever know all the Scholls who came to America in the early day. Most of them came to the port of Philadelphia between the years 1700 and 1770, except such new arrivals as came in the 1830, 1848 and 1881 immigrations. One of the earliest to arrive was Pieter Jansen Scholl, a Hollander from The Hague, who was in New York before 1680. Johannes Scholl and Peter Scholl were naturalized in Pennsylvania in 1708-09. They settled at Skippach near Philadelphia and Johannes died there in about 1740, leaving a number of children. Friedrich Scholl came September 11, 1728. His descendants spell the name Shull and are tolerably well worked out. Johannes Scholl (name also spelled Schott and Schoule) came with wife Catharine and three children in 1732. Michael Scholl, Sr., aged sixty-three and Michael Scholl, Jr., aged twenty-six, arrived in 1738. Peter Scholl, aged twenty-eight, arrived August 27, 1739. His descendants are all recorded except a few by Mr. H. G. Shull of Germantown, Pennsylvania. Carl Scholl, Joseph Scholl and Johan Friedrich Scholl (name spelled also Schulle) and Andreas Scholl came in 1749. Christian Scholl arrived in 1751. Balthasar Scholl came November 8, 1752. One of his descendants is now in Allentown, Pennsylvania. On the same ship came a fourteen year old boy, Johan Peter Scholl, the sole survivor of his family, the rest dying of ship's fever on the voyage; also an eleven year old girl, daughter of Phillip Scholl, Anna Susanna Dorothea Scholl, who had run away from home to escape a stepmother, as the family legend says. These two worked to pay back their passage money and married later, about 1772. Their descendants are mostly collected and published by Alton G. Scholl, now of Atlanta, Georgia. Georg Friedrich Seholl came September 10, 1753, and Johan Friedrich Scholl, aged twenty-one, came October 2, 1753. It is probable that it was one of these Friedrichs whose death was recorded in York county in 1774 and he was probably the ancestor of Professor Scholl of Ann Arbor. Philip Scholl, father of Anna mentioned above, came over about 1755-57 bringing his sons Michael, John Stephen and Philip, Jr., with him. The early generations of this family are fairly well known. Andreas Scholl arrived August 8, 1764; Jacob Scholl, October 16, 1768; Johan Nickel, or Michel, Scholl on the same date. There may have been others but the names are recorded, Schall, Schaal, Schaul, Schahl, Schell, etc., so it is quite impossible to be more certain. From these arrivals have descended all our scattered families, and among them was probably the immigrant ancestor of the Shull brothers in White county."
A native of White County and a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of this section of the Hoosier State, Harvey George Shull has been identified with the great fundamental industry of agriculture during his entire active career, has made the same a medium for the achievements of large and worthy success, and he stands today as one of the prominent citizens and substantial farmers of his native county, within whose borders virtually his entire life thus far has been passed. His advancement as one of the world's productive workers has been the result of his own well directed endeavors and he has made of success not an accident but a logical result.
At the old homestead in section 14, Jackson Township, this county, Mr. Schull was born on the 14th of November, 1840, his father, Lewis Shull, having come to White County from Ohio, about the year 1835, and having become one of the pioneer settlers and industrious agriculturists of Jackson Township, where he reclaimed his land from a virtual wilderness. Lewis Shull was of German lineage, was born in the State of Virginia, where the family was founded in an early day, he and his wife held membership in the Baptist church and in politics he was first a whig. He continued his residence in White County until his death, and both he and his wife were well advanced in years when they were summoned from the stage of their mortal endeavors secure in the high regard of the community in which they had long maintained their home.
Reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm, Harvey G. Shull early gained abiding appreciation of the dignity and value of honest toil, and he realized that upon the same be must needs depend for the winning of individual independence and prosperity. Through energy and good judgment he has made consecutive advancement and he is now the owner of a well improved farm of 140 acres seven miles north east of Monticello, in Liberty Township, the very appearance of this excellent homestead giving evidence of unalloyed thrift and prosperity. Mr. Shull is emphatically loyal in supporting measures projected for the general good of the community and has been a leader in progressive movements in the improving of public roads and the providing of adequate drainage facilities, his own farm having an excellent system of tile drains of the best modern type.
Mr. Shull accords unwavering allegiance to the cause of the democratic party, is essentially progressive and public-spirited as a citizen, and while he has never sought political office he has been made the candidate of his party for township trustee and once before the convention as county commissioner, the normal republican majority in the township compassing his defeat, though he was elected township supervisor and continued the able incumbent of this office for seven years. He and his wife hold membership in the Baptist church at Sitka, Indiana, and he is liberal in the support of its various activities.
On the 25th of December, 1864, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Shull to Miss Mary Jane Clark, of Jackson Township, and her death occurred October 20th of the following year. November 25, 1869, Mr. Shull wedded Miss Sarah E. Ballinger, a daughter of Joshua and Elizabeth (Edwards) Ballinger, sterling citizens of Jackson Township. Mrs. Shull is a native of Logan County, Ohio, born January 20, 1852. There were five children, one son and four daughters in the Ballinger family, and Mrs. Shull is the only survivor. Her father was born in Logan County, Ohio, educated in the primitive schools and was an agriculturist by occupation. In 1857 he and his wife came in pioneer style by wagon, driving their stock all the way from Ohio to Liberty Township, White County. He was a democrat. He died in 1886, and is buried in Jackson Township. Mrs. Ballinger was born in Ohio and died in 1869.
Mrs. Shull received only an ordinary education and has been a true wife and mother. She has always stood by the side of her husband with counsel and advice and in the rearing of her children to honorable and useful lives. She and her husband are kind hearted and true friends, and always ready to aid the poor and needy.
To Mr. and Mrs. Shull have been born ten children, concerning whom the following
brief record is entered in conclusion of this article: Charles A., who is a
prosperous farmer of Liberty Township, married Miss Zirbie Hickman, and their
children are Zella and Paul. Effie E., the second child, died young. William
Leonard, who resides at Sitka, this county,
married Miss Mary Luta Hughes, they have no children. William Leonard was a teacher
for sixteen years in White County. Essie is the wife of Daniel Marburger, of
Liberty Township, and they have three children,—Pauline, Harvey Milton,
and Donna Belle. Alice is deceased. Harry B. married Miss Elpha Maud Terrell,
August 15, 1915, and resides in Joliet, Illinois, both he and wife having been
teachers. Lloyd J., who resides at Frankfort, Clinton County, married Miss Minnie
Moore and they have no children. James Madison, a resident of Brook, Newton County,
married Miss Laura Sentz, and they have one child, Keith Kenneth. Fred is in New
York City, but makes his home with his parents, being inspector of The Prudential
Casualty Company. Lulu is the wife of Wilbur McMullen, of Cass Township, their
one child being James Byron.
There are very few family names that have a longer identification with White County than that of Shull. The record of their activities has been as honorable as it is long. From the time the pioneer cleared out the first space for his home in Jackson Township down to the present there have been substantial farmers in the family, and success in the field of agriculture has been accompanied by a public spirited attitude toward all home institutions and improvements, including churches, schools, good roads, and all those facilities which enhance the attractiveness of country life. J. Wesley Shull has for many years pursued his vocation as a farmer in Jackson Township, and is one of the oldest native sons of that community.
He was born on section 14 in Jackson Township, October 24, 1845. His grandparents, Jacob and Polly Shull, were born about 1790 and were married in Virginia about 1810. To their union were born seven children: John, Lewis, George, Jacob, Margaret Westerfield, Polly Wescoe and Sarah Detamore. After Jacob Shull's death his widow Polly and the seven children moved to Ohio, probably to Preble County, and about 1834 they moved to Indiana. Lewis Shull, father of J. Wesley, was born January 10, 1813, in the old State of Virginia and died in White County, July 4, 1853. From Virginia he went over the mountains into Ohio in the early days, and in the latter state was married to Clementina York, daughter of Jeptha and Susanna York. Not long after his marriage he brought his wife to the wilderness of White County, Indiana, where he entered 120 acres of Government land in section 14 of Jackson township, and began making the improvements for a home there in July, 1835, just eighty years before these words were written. Lewis Shull was of German descent, made agriculture his life long vocation, and for many years was a consistent advocate of those political principles contained in the platforms of the whig party. He and his wife were members of the Baptist Church. Both are now deceased and are buried in Davis Cemetery in Cass County. Their nine children were named William C., Martha J., Margaret A., Harvey G., Jeptha J., J. Wesley, Mahala C., Mary Matilda and Bellender L.
J. Wesley Shull can remember a time when Jackson Township was still largely a pioneer section. His early life was spent on the old farm in section 14, and his education was limited to the common schools which were then maintained in White County. He has an important military record as a soldier of the Union during the trying days of the Civil war. In the fall of 1863 he left the home farm and at Burnettsville enlisted and was mustered in at Michigan City in Company F of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. This regiment was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, and he continued under the command of Sherman until the fall of Atlanta in 1864. After the capture of Atlanta he was sent back into Tennessee under General Thomas, and fought in one of the last great battles in the Western Department, at Franklin, Tennessee, where he was wounded in the right foot. He saw much of the hard side of military life, suffered from exposure and hardship, but remained in the service until getting his honorable discharge, April 19, 1866.
At the close of the war Mr. Shull returned home and took up his regular vocation as a farmer, which he has followed steadily now for nearly half a century. On March 1, 1867, he married Miss Margaret A. Price, daughter of Aaron and Mary (Hancock) Price, who were likewise early settlers in Jackson Township. To their marriage were born eight children, as follows, Addie, who married Henry Eller of Rock Lake, North Dakota; Ira M., who married Jennie Smith of Elwood, Indiana; Mary C. and Wesley A., both deceased; Lola, wife of Frank Godlove, living south of Idaville; one that died in infancy; Maggie, who is unmarried and lives at Monticello; and Omar R., who is still single and is at Pemberton, British Columbia. The mother of these children was taken away by death June 22, 1888. On September 18, 1889, Mr. Shull married Effie A. Neel, a native of White County, born August 4, 1858, the youngest of the nine children, five sons and four daughters, in the family of Abram and Eliza (Gibson) Ned, who were among the early settlers of Jackson Township. One of the four children of this union died in infancy, and the others are all at home—Edna E., Leta E. and Leo L. The daughters have received high school educations and Leo is a student in the eighth grade. Mrs. Shull was reared and educated in her native County of White. She is a member of the Church of Christ, Scientist is a firm believer in its teachings, and has had experience in the power of its healing of disease. She is a lady of genial, cordial nature, and has nobly filled her sphere as a wife and mother.
Mr. Shull has long taken an active part in the Church of God or the New Dunkards, served as deacon ten years and for eight years has been an elder. For a number of years he was superintendent of the Sunday school of the church. In politics he naturally aligns himself with the republican party, but in recent years has supported the prohibition ticket. In 1874 he was elected township assessor, and has never neglected an opportunity to do his part in the community advancement. Mr. Shull removed to his present farm in March, 1872. It is a fine place of 120 acres, situated 4 1/2 miles northwest of Burnettsville, and is known as "The Forest Dale Stock Farm." The land has been cleared and tiled under his personal supervision, and in the past forty years its value has increased many fold.
Elizabeth Sill, widow of William Sill, died at her home in Monticello, September 6, 1882, in her eightieth year. She was a perfect type of the grand heroic wives and mothers who laid the foundations upon which the superstructure of our society rests today. Her husband was commissioned by Gov. Noah Noble, on July 18, 1834, clerk of the White Circuit Court, which for two years held its sessions at the home of George A. Spencer in Big Creek Township and she could recall reminiscences of Judge John R. Porter, the first circuit judge, whose circuit included all the territory north of Putnam County, to Lake Michigan, of Andrew Ingram, the first, and Joseph A. Wright, afterwards governor, the second prosecuting attorney of the White Circuit Court. All these men, in their day, sat at the hospitable board presided over by Mrs. Sill, as did Albert S. White, John Pettit, Tighlman A. Howard, Edward A. Hannegan, Henry S. Lane and many others whose lives form an important part of the history of the State of Indiana. In fact Mrs. Sill in her life linked together the past and present of our history for more than half a century. She nobly filled the duties of wife, mother and friend. She was the mother of three daughters, Miranda J. Reynolds, deceased, who married James C. Reynolds; Sarah, who married Sylvanus Van Voorst, and who died many years ago; and Georgiana, widow of the late Calvin Reynolds, who now lives with her son, William M. Reynolds, about a mile east of Monticello. She was also the mother of Robert W. Sill and Milton W. Sill, both deceased, and through each of these sons and daughters she has left descendants who are now living among us active and useful lives. Of all the pioneer women of White County none filled a larger space in our local history than Mrs. Sill. She was a Christian woman and well and worthily did she illustrate in her life the virtues and graces of her chosen faith.
Milton M. Sill, son of William Sill, who erected the first house in Monticello, was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, May 20, 1833, came with his parents to Monticello in the fall of 1834, and died here at the home of his son, Charles W. Sill, June 22, 1903, after a continuous residence of nearly sixty-nine years. During this long period his activities were closely interwoven with the town's social, professional and business life. He had been a teacher in the public schools, editor of the Monticello Herald, an employee in the paymaster general's office at Washington, filled the position of provost marshal and the offices of county surveyor and county sheriff; also justice of the peace. At the time of his death he was engaged in writing a history of White County, which was printed serially in the White County Democrat during 1901, 1902 and the first half of 1903, but which he did not live to complete. December 3, 1859, he was married to Mary McConahay, who died October 10, 1873, leaving him with five small children, William, Charles, Bertha, Nina and Edward, all of whom reached adult age and were living at the time of his death. He never remarried. His funeral was under the auspices of Libanus Lodge No. 154, F. & A. M., of which he was long an active member.
William Sill was one of the very first settlers in Monticello, having come here in 1834, when he erected the first house built in Monticello on lot No. 1, being at the souihwest corner of Marion and Bluff streets. He was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, August 9, 1801, and on November 22, 1822, was married to Elizabeth Martin, who died in Monticello, September 4, 1882. His father, Adam Sill, was a native of England and came to the United States about the close of the Revolutionary war and after a brief residence in New York removed to Kentucky. In 1830 William Sill removed to Tippecanoe County and in the autumn of that year removed to near the present location of Brookston, where he taught a school and in 1834 came to Monticello. In 1834 he was elected to the offices of clerk, auditor and recorder, which offices he held until his death on January 7, 1846. He was the father of the late Capt. Robert W. Sill, one time sheriff of White County, Miranda J. Reynolds, Milton M. Sill and Mrs. Georgiana Reynolds, all of whom, except the last named, are dead. William Sill was a pioneer of White County. For twelve years after its organization he wrote all the records of its three principal offices and filled all these positions with honor to himself and credit to the family name.
James P. Simons, recorder of White County for eight years, and for almost twenty years editor of the White County Demoerat, has been a resident of Monticello and its immediate vicinity nearly all his life. He was born in Prairie Township, southeast of Brookston, November 9, 1866, and was the oldest of nine children born to George H. and Mary (Welch) Simons. His ancestors were residents of the mountainous region now composing the eastern part of the present state of West Virginia, and, as the name indicates, were of Semitic origin. His great-great-grandfather, Christian Simon, as the name was then spelled, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He left three sons, Jacob, George and Abraham; the last two being only half brothers of the first. A son of Jacob Simon, also named Jacob, married his half cousin, Priscilla Simon, daughter of the above named George, and to them on August 29, 1837, was born George H. Simons, who came with his father's family to White County in 1848, locating a few miles south of Monticello, where his father died May 16, 1853. January 23, 1856, George H. Simons was married to Mary Welch. George H. died at his home south of Monticello May 19, 1913, and his wife, Mary, died in March, 1914. Both are buried in Riverview Cemetery, east of Monticello.
At the age of eighteen James P. Simons began teaching in the public schools of White County, his first school being at Badger Grove, in Prairie Township, in the winter of 1874-5. His last term was at the Smith schoolhouse, south of Reynolds, in the winter of 1882-3. In November, 1882, he was elected recorder of White County and moved to Monticello in 1883. He was re-elected in November, 1886, serving until July 7, 1891. In December, 1894, he formed a partnership with Mr. A. B. Clarke and purchased the White County Democrat from John A. Rothrock, and continued as editor of that paper until May, 1914, when he sold his interest to the Democrat-Journal-Observer Company, the present publishers.
September 21, 1881, he was married to Miss Sarah E. Johnson, of Reynolds, whose father, Jeremiah B. Johnson, was a member of Company G, Forty-sixth Indiana Volunteers, and was killed at the battle of Jackson, Mississippi, in July, 1863. Her mother, Emily J. Johnson, never re-married and died at her daughter's home in Monticello, July 17, 1915, at the age of eighty-three. To James P. and Sarah E. Simons have been born seven children, Walter A., Frank L., Maude, Howard J., George B., Hazel and Esther, all of whom are still at the parental home except Frank, who resides in Fresno, California, and Howard, who was married to Miss Faye Hanawalt, June 27, 1915, and resides at Fowler, Indiana.
Though James Edward Sites died when in the prime of manhood, as a farmer he left considerable property, and in every relation his reputation was unassailable and according to the highest standards of integrity. Mrs. Sites and her children now reside in Jackson township on their fine farm, which Mr. Sites had bought a short time before his death.
James Edward Sites was born in Grant County, West Virginia, October 10, 1867, a son of Sampson G. and Catherine (Simons) Sites. The family is of German extraction. Mr. Sites remained at home and received his early education in country schools, and at the age of twenty-one moved out to Illinois, spent a year there, went back home, and once more took up his residence in Iroquois County, Illinois.
It was in Illinois that he married Miss Christina Wieland on October 11, 1899. She was a danghter of Michael and Rosanna (Weidner) Wieland, the family having come from Weilenberg, Germany, in 1883, and locating in Iroquois County, Illinois. Both Mrs. Sites' parents are now deceased, her father having died September 11, 1886, and her mother on June 28, 1913. Her father is buried in Illinois and her mother in Pine Creek Cemetery in White County. Of the seven Wieland children four are living; Christina; Mrs. Catherine Hall; Mrs. Anna Lewarn and William M.
Mr. and Mrs. Sites became the parents of four children: Laura Elizabeth, born February 12, 1901; Edith Marie, born October 13, 1902; James William, born March 9, 1904; and Joseph Russell; born August 23, 1905, and died July 17, 1906.
James Edward Sites died July 23, 1906. Mrs. Sites and her children moved to their present farm of one hundred eighteen acres in Jackson Township in 1907, this property having been acquired before his death. Mrs. Sites now rents her farm, and has ample means to rear and educate her children. Mr. Sites was a republican and was a member of the Dunkards Church at Pike Creek, as is also his wife and the children are members of the Burnetts' Creek Church. He was a great lover of home and delighted to entertain his friends. At the time of his death one of the local publications fittingly commemorated his memory, and an excerpt is here given as follows:
"The deceased brother united with the German Baptist Church at the age of nineteen years, in Grant County, West Virginia. After coming to Indiana he transferred his membership to the Pike Creek congregation of White county. Ever since his union with the church he had endeavored to live a consistent Christian life.
"When we look over the place where this beloved brother lived and see the oncoming harvest which he planted but will never be permitted to reap, we are sad, but our sadness is in a measure diverted when we survey the good seeds of life that he has sown, and we have the blessed assurance that he is now reaping an abundant harvest in the world beyond this vale of tears.
"Today while we consign his body to mortal earth whence it came, we know that his spirit is not there, but has taken its flight to God who gave it--with Him to dwell in a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens, where sorrow and tears never come.
"Funeral services were held in the Pike Creek Church at three o'clock Wednesday afternoon, Rev. Heater, of Burnettsville, conducting the same, assisted by Rev. David Dilling. Interment in the Pike Creek cemetery."
One of the old and honored residents of Brookston, whose memory goes back to the time when he picked strawberries on the present site of this thriving little city, Thomas W. Sleeth is now living in retirement after many years passed in agricultural pursuits in White County. A resident of this county since his infancy, his life has been passed within its borders, and he has seen and taken part in the activities which have transformed this part of Indiana into one of the most fertile sections of the great Middle West.
Mr. Sleeth was born August 24, 1840, in Greene County, Ohio, a son of Alvin and Eliza Ann (Fauquier) Sleeth. He is of Scotch-Irish descent, belonging to a family which originated in Scotland, where the name was spelled Leeth, but which was changed to Sleeth in Ireland. His great-great-grandfather, Thomas Sleeth, was born in County Armagh, Ireland, and came to America about the year 1756, landing at Jamestown, Virginia, where Alexander Sleeth was born. He subsequently moved to what is now Harrison County, West Virginia. In the Revolution he was with a regiment of Virginia infantry till the end of the war. The family was taken to Greene County, Ohio, by grand father Thomas Sleeth in 1810, who was an infantry soldier in the War of 1812, and who subsequently came to White County, Indiana, in 1839, and settled in Prairie Township, where he built one of the first frame houses erected.
Alvin Sleeth was born in Greene County, Ohio, December 12, 1812, and on first coming to White County settled in Prairie Township in 1841. In the spring of 1845 he purchased a farm of 120 acres in section 24, township 25, range 4 Prairie Township, a farm which is now owned by his son, Thomas W., but he did not live long thereafter, passing away September 29, 1846. He was an old line whig in his political views, and his religious connection was with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Sleeth was married in Miami County, Ohio, to Ella Ann Fauquier, a member of a family of English origin, and a daughter of Thomas and Phoebe (Hathaway) Fauquier, and to this union there were born two sons, Thomas W. and William H. Alvin Sleeth was laid to rest in Pretty Prairie Cemetery, while the mother survived him many years, reared her boys to manhood and brought them up to habits of industry and probity, and died January 24, 1892, after a full and useful life, aged seventy-seven years.
Thomas W. Sleeth was one year old when brought by his parents to White County, and his education was secured in the public schools of the country districts. When the Civil war came on he had just about attained his majority, and October 5, 1861, enlisted in the Forty-sixth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, as a private in the company, A, of Capt. John H. Gould, of Delphi. During the next thirty-seven months he served with that famous and hard-fighting organization, being honorably discharged at Indianapolis, Indiana, December 1, 1864. His military career was one filled with much active service and he participated in many sanguine battles, in which he bore himself as a brave, capable and faithful soldier. At the great battle of Champion Hills he received two wounds, the scars of which he carries to this day.
His military service completed, Mr. Sleeth returned to the farm, and during the remainder of his active career he devoted himself to the pursuits of the soil, winning success as a general farmer and stock-raiser on his farm of 160 acres, located in Prairie Township. He has lived in his comfortable home since his retirement in 1913. Many years have passed since his boyhood here, but he still remembers the strawberry patches on the present site of Brookston, at a time when he was compelled to go to Pittsburg, Carroll County, for his nearest trading point. He is a member of Anchor Lodge, No. 289, Knights of Pythias, at Brookston. He is a republican in his political views but has been content to remain simply a voter, his only appearance as a candidate being when he was his party's candidate for the office of county treasurer.
Mr. Sleeth married Miss Susanna J. Barr, daughter of Cyrus and Margaret Barr, early settlers of White County, and granddaughter of John Barr, who donated a part of the land on which the Town of Monticello now stands. One child was born to Mr. and Mrs. Sleeth, both mother and child dying at its birth. He was married the second time to Miss Feddie K. Cox, daughter of Richard and Jane (Newell) Cox, and granddaughter of Robert Newell, who was one of the first settlers of Prairie Township, and assisted in the organization of White County, serving for a time subsequently as county commissioner.
William H. Sleeth, brother of Thomas W. Sleeth and son of Alvin and Eliza Ann (Fauquier) Sleeth, was born May 20, 1843, on his parents' farm on section 26, range 4, Prairie Township, White County, Indiana. Throughout his active career he was a farmer, but in 1889 retired and moved to Brookston, where he has considerable realty holdings, as well as some stock in the Bank of Brookston. He was married in 1873 to Miss Mary M. Barr, daughter of Alfred and Maria M. Barr, early settlers of White County, and to this union there were born two children: Charles M., an engineer on the M. & St. L. Railway, living at Oskaloosa, Iowa, has two children, John W. and Paul H.; and Laura M, who is the wife of Paul Lindermann, of Lafayette, Indiana and has two children, Alma Pauline and Lyman S.
On August 12, 1862, William H. Sleeth followed his brother into the ranks of the Union army for service during the Civil war, enlisting in Company D, Twelfth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, an organization with which he served for thirty-five months. He was wounded at the battle of Resaca, May 13, 1864, following which he was confined to the hospital for thirteen months, and received his honorable discharge at Jeffersonville, Indiana, July 2, 1865. Other noted battles in which he participated were Vicksburg, Jackson, Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge, and he also fought through the Atlanta campaign, his war record being an admirable one. He has always been an active worker in the ranks of the republican party, and has held several public offices, being postmaster of Brookston from 1890 to 1894, and township trustee from November, 1900, until January, 1905. His fraternal connection is with Anchor Lodge, No. 289, Knights of Pythias, at Brookston.
Actively identified with the development and advancement of the agricultural interests of White County, Albert C. Sluyter is a worthy representative of those courageous pioneers who settled in Liberty Township in the days of its infancy, and subsequently spent the very best years of their lives in redeeming from its primitive wildness a portion of this beautiful country. A grandson of Jonathan W. Sluyter, the pioneer ancestor, he was born, September 1, 1878, on the farm where he now resides, and on which the birth of his father, the late Abram Sneathan Sluyter, occurred on November 24, 1842. Of Scotch-Irish descent, Jonathan W. Sluyter was born, January 17, 1796. In 1836 he came with his bride to White County in search of a permanent location. Settling in Liberty Township, he bought eighty acres of land in section 15, buying it from Mercer Brown, who entered it from the Government, and having cleared a part of it, he and his wife there spent their remaining days.
Abram Sneathan Sluyter was brought up in pioneer days, obtaining his education in the typical log schoolhouse, and during his youth and early manhood assisted in redeeming the parental homestead from its original wildness. He continued as an agriculturist throughout the greater part of his life, spending one year, however, as a general merchant in Buffalo. On April 5, 1863, he married Sarah Emeline Morral, who was likewise of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and to them four children were born, as follows: Annette May, born January 14, 1864, died in infancy; William S., born March 21, 1865; John S., born October 4, 1869; and Albert C., of this brief sketch. Neither of the parents are now living, the death of the father having occurred January 9, 1913, and that of the mother on March 3, 1915. Both are buried in the Buffalo Cemetery.
Succeeding to the free and independent occupation of his immediate ancestors, Albert C. Sluyter began life on his own account soon after attaining his majority, and has since carried on farming and stock raising under most favorable conditions, in all of his undertakings meeting with acknowledged success.
On January 30, 1900, Mr. Sluyter was united in marriage with Caddie E. Freeman, a daughter of William and Belle (Reinhardt) Freeman, and they are the parents of two children, namely: Arthur M., born December 27, 1900; and Wilbur R., born September 23, 1902. Mr. Sluyter is a stanch [sic] adherent of the republican party, and both he and his wife are members of the Christian Church.
Born in Ulster County, New York, January 16, 1829, Hiram Sluyter came with his parents to White County in probably 1837 or 1838, locating in Liberty Township, just south of the present village of Buffalo, where he resided until his death, December 7, 1900, at the age of nearly seventy-two years. Mr. Sluyter was one of the successful farmers of the county and was held in high esteem. He served twelve years as justice of the peace. September 29, 1850, he was married to Elizabeth J. Dibra, and to them were born three sons, of whom Francis M. and Samuel D. are still living, and the latter being a well known physician, formerly of Chalmers and now practicing his profession in Wolcott.
Rev. Gilbert Small was born in Argyle, New York, February 7, 1828. He was a graduate of Argyle Academy and Union College and later studied in the Associate Theological Seminary at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. He became pastor of the United Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, where he remained some years, until 1867, when he located at Idaville. He severed his relations with the United Presbyterian Church in 1877 and united with the Presbyterian Church, filling vacancies in the Logansport Presbytery for several years. About 1890 he quit the active ministry and devoted himself to his books and to writing for various periodicals. He founded the Idaville Observer for his two sons in 1886. In 1896, at the age of sixty-eight years, he united with the Masonic fraternity, receiving the blue lodge, chapter and council degrees at Monticello, and for some four years prior to his death he was an able contributor to Masonic literature, his contributions to the Masonic Advocate being copied in Masonic publications all over the world. He died July 20, 1904, at the age of seventy-six, leaving two sons, twins, William R. and Albert G., now residents of Indianapolis; a daughter, Mrs. McArthur of Troy, New York, and a son, Dr. Harry E. Small.
With the death of James C. Small at his home in section 2 of Cass Township, June 18, 1908, there passed from the ranks of local citizenship one of the most highly respected men of White County. He had lived in Indiana practically all his life and for a great many years was a resident of White County, having come to this county from Cass County. He was of a genial and generous disposition, made friends wherever he was, and also possessed a keen business judgment and provided liberally for his family. He was an active re1igious worker and minister of the Church of God for many years.
James C. Small was born in Henry County, Indiana, July 15, 1837, a son of Andrew and Eleanor (Wilburn) Small. The family is of Scotch-Irish descent. Mr. Small was educated in Indiana, attending the country schools of Cass County, to which locality the family had removed in 1847 when he was ten years of age. He also attended what was known as the old Brimstone School. When nineteen years of age he started out for himself and moved to the State of Iowa, where he spent about two years in a new country. Coming back to Indiana, he took up the vocation of farming to which he gave the best part of his subsequent life. In the spring of 1883 Mr. Small removed to White County and bought 150 acres of land in Cass Township. He put up the home and other buildings, and was engaged in general farming and stock raising there until his death. Mrs. Small now has in that home a fine property, and in many ways it is the equal of any farm estate in Cass Township.
Many years ago Mr. Small was ordained a minister in the Church of God, and at different times preached at Headlee and Pepper churches and at Fair Oak and Pious. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Royal Center. His body was laid to rest in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
Mr. Small was three times married. His first wife was Caroline Kistler, who was the mother of three children, and the second was Rachel Yount, who likewise had three children. On March 28, 1875, in Cass County Mr. Small married Miss Sarah Rhodes, daughter of Richard and Jerusha (Smith) Rhodes. The six children by this marriage are: Harry; Kittie, wife of Christ Ploss; Daisy, wife of Isaac Louderbach; Andrew; John; Goldie, who died in 1888. In 1900 Mr. and Mrs. Small removed to Winamac, but in March 1907, returned to White County, and he lived quietly on his farm and was engaged in its duties and in his work as a churchman until his death. He was a republican in politics, and made himself a factor in local improvements, having served as township supervisor, and aiding in the construction of good roads in the locality of his home. For many years his principa1 interest was the church and he worked effectively to advance the cause of religion and general morality in his community. He was also a soldier in the Twelfth Indiana Cavalry, and was in service for two years, receiving then his honorable discharge.
Nearly seventy years ago the Smith family came into White County. They did their share of the heavy task of clearing up the wilderness, were substantial cultivators of the soil, have stood as good honest citizens in all the relations of community life, have performed with credit the military duties of citizenship, and are a family who as a whole would do credit to any county.
Bernard G. Smith, who came to White County as a boy, is now living retired at Monticello, after having spent many years as a farmer and stock raiser. He was born in Harrison County in what is now West Virginia, but was then the Old Dominion State, February 19, 1838, a son of Abel T. and Deborah Spencer (Wilson) Smith. Mr. Smith's grandfather, Col. Benjamin Wilson, was a soldier in both in the Revolutionary war and the War of 1812, and he well remembered seeing General Washington. He was a native of Randolph County, Virginia, and was the organizer of Harrison County of that state. He was appointed clerk of the court and held the office for thirty years, and his son John held the same office for twelve years, making forty-two years of county official service for father and son. The grandfather Wilson was the father of thirty children by his two wives, and twenty-nine of the children reared families of their own. Bernard G. Smith's parents were likewise natives of Harrison County, and emigrated from old Virginia to Indiana and settled in White County, Indiana, in 1846. There were nine children in the family, and three of these are still living. The occupation of the various members of this family in White County have [sic] been as farmers and stock raisers. The father was a whig in politics and later affiliated with the republican party, and took quite an active interest in local affairs, holding the office of trustee in his home locality, Big Creek Township. He died January 17, 1875, his wife having passed away in 1871, and both were laid to rest in Bunnell's Cemetery. As pioneers they had to experience all the hardships incident to early life in White County.
Bernard G. Smith received his education in the local public schools in the '40s and '50s, having attended one of those primitive temples of learning long since obsolete in Indiana. Reared on a farm, he was well prepared for that vocation when at the age of twenty-two he started for himself, working the home place in partnership with his father. On July 5, 1862, be enlisted in Company K of the Fifth Indiana Cavalry, was mustered into service at Indianapolis and after an honorable record as a soldier was mustered out in the same city. The Fifth Cavalry Regiment spent a large part of its service engaged in guerilla warfare and in skirmishing against Morgan, and later was with Sherman's army in its victorious march across Southeastern Tennessee and Georgia. He was wounded in the battle of New Hope Church, and received slight wounds at other times. He entered the United States service as a private, and the first commission he received was that of second lieutenant, then first lieutenant and detailed as quartermaster of his regiment. Shortly before he was mustered out of service he was commissioned captain of Company K, Fifth Indiana Volunteer Cavalry, and was honorably discharged September 29, 1865.
After the war Mr. Smith returned to the quiet vocation of farming, and on October 14, 1869, married Emma B. Lane, daughter of Abraham C. and Eliza Robinson (Wooley) Lane. To their marriage were born five children: Robert Colfax; William Haymond, deceased; Nellie O., wife of Luther Larue, of Kent, Ohio; Maud L.; and Eliza D., deceased.
While a farmer Mr. Smith gained a considerable local reputation for his success in the raising of blooded Durham cattle, Shropshire sheep and the Poland China hogs. At one time he owned a property of 340 acres, and still owns 164 acres in Big Creek and Honey Creek townships. In September, 1902, he gave up active supervision of his farming interests, and has since lived in Monticello. He is a stockholder and director in the White County Loan and Trust Savings Company. While a stanch republican in politics, he has steadfastly refused any official honors, and has no public record save that of a good citizen.
Jacob Clay Smith was born in Lafayette, Indiana, January 28, 1845, died in Monticello, August 4, 1905. He joined the Tenth Indiana as drummer boy at the beginning of the Civil war, and later became a private in Company C, Sixty-ninth Indiana. He located in Monticello in 1869, where he was employed in the Herald office for a time and later in the Constitutionalist office. In 1878 he founded the Nationalist, a populist paper, which he continued to publish intermittently until a short time before his death. He was married in 1873 to Miss Euphemia Black, who is still living with their only daughter, Mrs. Stella Black, in Indianapolis.
By reason of the extent and quality of his usefulness, his commercial soundness and acumen, his public spirit, integrity, and nearness to the fundamental requirements of citizenship, John H. Smith affords an encouraging example of success gained through the proper use of everyday abilities and ordinary opportunities. Of Mr. Smith it may be said that his life-work is a response both to his early teaching and to the needs of his maturer years. He has laboriously climbed the steps of the mercantile and financial ladder, and today, as cashier of the State Bank of Chalmers, is one of his community's substantial men.
Mr. Smith was born in Jasper County, Indiana, October 24, 1869, and is a son of Erastus and Sarah (Layman) Smith. Erastus H. Smith came from the Town of Troy, Ohio, to Jasper County, Indiana, but later moved to White County, Indiana, and bought in Round Grove Township a farm of 260 acres, totally unimproved save for a log house. There he did much work in tiling and putting up buildings, and while residing in that community was an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church, assisting in putting up the church of that denomination at Pine Grove. Later, Mr. Smith moved to Battle Ground, a small town, and entered the livery business, in which he was engaged until his retirement some fifteen or twenty years later, when he retired and disposed of the business. A very active democrat, Mr. Smith served for a number of years on the school board and in other local offices. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity. John H. Smith was the sixth of eleven children born to his parents. After the death of the mother the father married again, being united with Mary Tolby, the daughter of John Russell, and the widow of John Tolby, a Methodist Episcopal minister. Mrs. Smith became the mother of two sons, who still survive, B. Wilson and Horace Erastus.
After attending the public schools of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, John H. Smith entered upon his career in the capacity of clerk in a general store located at Battle Ground. Later he went in the same line of work to Lafayette and then to Chalmers, where he was married to Millie Minch, the daughter of George and Catherine M. (Luther) Minch. On his arrival in Chalmers, Mr. Smith went to work in the general store of Smith & Fisher, the senior partner being his brother, who, after two years, disposed of his interests to Mr. Fisher. At that time was formed the firm of Smith Brothers, which continued to do business for twelve years, at the end of which time John H. Smith, having decided to enter the banking business, disposed of his interests in the general store to his brother and became cashier of the State Bank of Chalmers, a position which he has retained to the present time. Since he has been connected with the State Bank of Chalmers, Mr. Smith has done much to increase its business, for his well-known integrity is such as to attract depositors and gain their confidence in the institution's stability.
Mr. Smith is a member of the Baptist Church, and is fraternally connected with the Knights of Pythias, Castle Hall Lodge, No. 178, and the Modern Woodmen of America, Chalmers Camp, No. 6058, both of Chalmers. A democrat in his political views, he has taken an active interest both in the success of his party and the public affairs of his community, and for six years, from 1909 until 1915, has served Big Creek Township in the capacity of trustee.
Mahlon F. Smith, a veteran of the Civil war, who as a mere boy served, under Capt. John C. Brown, in the Twentieth Indiana Infantry, was born in White County in 1842 and died at his White County home, March 20, 1891, leaving a widow and one son, Bernard. The widow died some years ago and the son married and is now living in Fowler, Indiana. Captain Brown was a great admirer of Mr. Smith, who assisted in carrying the captain to the rear in an engagement wherein the captain was seriously wounded, and at his death wrote a beautiful tribute to the memory of Mr. Smith in which he said he was absolutely devoid of fear and was a soldier in the truest sense of the word. His wife, whom he married in 1868, was a Miss Mary Kenton, a granddaughter of Simon Kenton of Indian fighting fame.
Mrs. Mary A. Smith was a daughter of William M. Kenton and granddaughter of Simon Kenton, the noted pioneer and Indian fighter. She was born in Big Creek Township, southwest of Monticello, March 10, 1841; was married to Mahlon F. Smith, who died some years prior to her death, leaving her one child, Berney K. Smith, now a resident of Kokomo.
The thirty-six years that Rolandus L. Smoker has spent in White County have been years productive of useful effort, a growing prosperity, and a valuable influence to the community. Mr. Smoker's chief work has been as a substantial farmer, but for the past ten years he has been identified with the urban life of Monticello, both as a business man and as a public~spirited citizen.
Rolandus L. Smoker comes of an old Pennsylvania family, and was born in Mifflin County of that state, at Lewistown, September 30, 1850. His parents were Felix and Margaret (Keever) Smoker, both natives of Pennsylvania, and of German parentage. The Smoker family was brought to America from Germany in the days before the introduction of steam-propelled vessels, and found homes in Pennsylvania when that was compaartively [sic] new country.
One of a family of twelve children, only five of whom are still living, Rolandus L. Smoker was reared in his native state of Pennsylvania, spent his boyhood on a farm and had an education from the district schools of that period, his attendance being frequently interrupted owing to the need of his services at home. Mr. Smoker began battling with the world on his own responsibility at the age of twenty-one, and in 1878 came west to White County. Here he invested in 200 acres of land, in Monon Township, and employed the judgment and industry characteristic of the man in the improvement and cultivation of that tract, which is now one of the fine farmsteads of White County.
In 1904, with an assured competence, Mr. Smoker sold his farm in the country and has since lived in Monticello. Here he has been engaged in lie livery business, and is also a member of the undertaking firm of Smoker & Russell. His interest in local affairs led to his election in 1914 as a member of the city council, where he is doing all he can to manage the city's affairs to the interest of its inhabitants. Mr. Smoker is a democrat in politics, and fraternally is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1882 he married Alice C. Imes. Their two children are: Effie May, wife of Luther Hobaugh, and Charles L. Mr. and Mrs. Smoker are members of the Presbyterian Church.
Henry Snyder, who claims to be the oldest continuous resident of White County, was born at the northwest corner of Main and Jefferson streets in Monticello, on March 31, 1837, when there were less than half a dozen buildings in the town. He is a son of Rev. Abraham and Margaret Falk Snyder, and with his father, assisted by numerous yokes of oxen, boasts of having broken up more acres of new land than any other man in the county. He also assisted, about the year 1850, in digging the first or old race on the east side of the river opposite Monticello.
In 1861 he enlisted in the three months' service, his term expiring on July 4th of that year, hut as on that date he was fighting the battle of Rich Mountain, Virginia, he was not discharged until several days later. On October 13, 1861, he re-enlisted in Company E of the Forty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry and was commissioned second lieutenant. On June 12, 1862, he was promoted to captain of his company. Meanwhile on December 8, 1861, he was married to Miss Charlotte Downs and the day after his marriage left to join his company in Logansport and was with his command for three years and one day. Captain Snyder participated in the battles of Champion Hill, sieges of Vicksburg and Jackson, as well as many other union engagements and was also in the famous expedition of General Banks up Red River in which for 200 days he was in hearing of guns of the enemy.
At Sabine Cross Roads he commanded his regiment where he lost over 100 men and on the retreat was shot in the right leg by a sharpshooter and carries the ball yet in his leg. This put him out of active duty.
Captain Snyder holds a cane given him by the Old Settlers' Association of White County at its annual meeting in 1913 for being the oldest continuous resident of the county.
He is one of the four living charter members of the Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 73 in Monticello. A member of Tippecanoe Post No. 51, G. A. R. A member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and an ardent republican. His wife, to whom was [sic] born no children, died February 24, 1913, since which time he has lived in the old home awaiting only the time when he, too, can be "mustered out."
John Snyder, one of the early settlers of White County, purchased 275 acres of land near the present site of Guernsey in 1848. This he sold in 1876 and purchased a farm in Liberty Township but removed to Monticello several years later. He was born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, September 22, 1821, and in early life followed the trade of tanner. He was twice married, first to Nancy Way in 1841, who died in 1852, leaving three children. In 1854 he was again married to Nancy J. Bratton, who, with four children, survived him. Among the earliest recollections of the writer, reaching way back to early childhood at the beginning of the Civil war, is Uncle Johnny Snyder as a neighbor when neighbors were scarce and a friend when friends were most needed. His visits were always welcome and visits to his hospitable home were always a treat.
Philip Snyder, an old veteran dropped out of the ranks at his home in Norway, September 4, 1909. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, July 4, 1833, he married Sarah J. Hanaway, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1854, and for several years lived on what afterward became the great battlefield. He gave his services to his country in the great conflict between the states and at its close came hack to White County, where he farmed for several years and then engaged in the woolen factory and dry goods business in Monticello. He was buried with military honors by Tippecanoe Post, G. A. R.
Present county assessor of White County, William F. Snyder is one of the older native sons of the county, and represents a pioneer family in the settlement and development of this section.
William F. Snyder was born in the little community of Norway, White County, February 14, 1857, a son of Abraham and Margaret (Strauss) Snyder. His father was a native of Pennsylvania and his mother of Virginia. The families came to this county separately, and the parents were married here. It was during the decade of the '30s that the Strausses and Snyders located in White County, and they gained land directly from the Government. Abraham Snyder was one of the substantial farmers of the county, and was also a tanner by trade. He was a man of no little influence in his community, was a republican in politics, and was ordained and served for a number of years as local preacher in the Methodist Church. His death occurred in February, 1879, and he was survived by his wife until February, 1908. Both are buried in the Pike Creek Cemetery. They were the parents of twelve children, and five of these are yet living.
William F. Snyder spent his early life on a farm, attended the district
schools as opportunity permitted, and when twenty-one years of age started
out to engage in the battles of the world for himself. He has been a farmer,
and his principal success has come from the vocation of husbandman in Honey
Creek Township. In 1898 he moved into the Village of Reynolds, where he and
his family now reside. Mr. Snyder is a republican in politics, was elected
township trustee of Honey Creek Township in 1904, and at the present time
is serving as county assessor. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias,
Castle Hall No. 154, at Reynolds, and his church is the Methodist. In 1879
Mr. Snyder married Mary Swisher, daughter of Samuel Swisher, of Pulaski
County. To their marriage have been born seven children, of whom five are
living, namely: Charles F., a farmer at Reynolds, married Amanda Kochel,
and they have a son, Fayette; Chester, who is associated with his father
in business at Reynolds; Bertha, the wife of Charles Crane, a motorman at
Indianapolis; Nellie, wife of Fred Hanna, a farmer of Jackson Township, and
they have a little son, Paul; and Blanche, wife of Harvey
Stevenson, the manager of a theater at Frankfort, Indiana.
Daniel P. Spears, born in Erie County, Ohio, December 29, 1822, died at his home
in Morrison, Illinois, March 27, 1906. He was one of the early business men of
Monticello, being in partnership here with W. H. Davis from 1851 to 1858. In the
latter year he located in business in Morrison, Illinois, and was one of the
successful merchants of that city. December 6, 1858, he was married to Miss Mary
Shafer, daughter of Mrs. Susan Shafer, who resided about five miles south of
Monticello, and sister of John P. Shafer, who still resides there. The widow,
three sons and one daughter are still living.
Calvin C. Spencer was a son of George A. Spencer,
who was among the first
settlers, locating in White County in 1829. The latter brought his family to the
county in 1830, when Calvin C. was only one year old—he having been born
in Perry County, Ohio, August 6, 1829. December 8, 1858, he was married to Mrs.
Sarah J. Haven. To them were born five children, three of whom are still living.
They are Attorney Charles C. Spencer, of Monticello, Fred Spencer, of Chicago,
and Mrs. Rae Rubwright, of Evansville. Mr. Spencer's great-grandfather, Thomas
Spencer, is said to have been one of the colonists who came over with Lord
Baltimore in 1630. The father, George A. Spencer, served under General Brown in
tbe War of 1812. Mr. Spencer died February 14, 1898.
Charles C. Spencer, son of Calvin C. and Sarah Jennings Spencer, was born January 6, 1868, in a log house in section 12 in Big Creek Township, now in Union Township, White County, used in 1834 and 1835 as the residence of George A. Spencer, his grandfather, and also for a courthouse. In 1869 his father, Calvin, moved to a log house in section 18 about one mile east, soon supplanted by a large frame house, in which he lived until 1881, moving into a new house a half mile east in section 7, both of which he now owns. He graduated from both the College of Liberal Arts and law school of DePauw University in 1889. He has been engaged in farming and the practice of law all the time since 1889. He is a member of the Chicago bar and of the Lake County, Indiana, Bar, and lives in Monticello where he has practiced law since 1890. He was city attorney of Monticello from 1894 to 1898 appointed by a republican board of trustees, though he was a democrat. He helped the city get one of the best and cheapest systems of water works in the state without the waste or graft of a dollar, and he successfully defended the Town of Monticello against a suit in the Federal courts for about $25,000 on a refunding school bond issue and has earned the reputation of winning some of the largest verdicts and settlements against railroads and corporations in Northwestern Indiana. He was a law partner of Judge T. F. Palmer from 1891 to 1894, and of W. H. Hamelle since 1897. He also maintains a law office at Hammond, Indiana, where the firm name is Spencer, Cowger & Thomas, the firm name at Monticello being Spencer, Hamelle, Cowger & Thomas. He has never aspired to office, though he takes an interest in politics. He has always been an independent democrat.
George Armstrong Spencer, second son of Thomas and Margaret Armstrong Spencer, was born January 16, 1794, in Turkeyfoot Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and in 1809 moved to near Somerset, Perry County, Ohio. His grandfather, James Spencer, Jr., the revolutionary soldier, came from England in 1764 and settled in Turkeyfoot Township, Pennsylvania, where Thomas, George A. Spencer's father, was born October 26, 1765.
In the fall of 1829 George A. Spencer and his brother-in-law, Benj. Reynolds, walked from their home in Perry County, Ohio, to what afterwards became Big Creek Township, White County, Indiana, and started the building of a 12 by 12 log house. He returned to Ohio alone, leaving again June 1, 1830, with his family, his brother James and family and the family of Benj. Reynolds; he arrived at the log house Reynolds had completed in the meantime, on June 20th, and the three families (fifteen in all) occupied this house in section 12 until a few months later each had built a new log house, Reynolds in section 13, and George A. Spencer in section 12, a log house 16 by 20, which was later enlarged and weather boarded, and also used for the first courthouse of the county, George A. Spencer being the first county treasurer. The first court of the county for two years from October 13, 1834, was held here, during which time lawyers, who afterwards gained state and national reputations practiced law and attended court here, among them being Rufus A. Lockwood, who won a $25,000 fee afterward as chief counsel in the famous John C. Fremont land title litigation in California; John U. Pettit, afterwards judge of Indiana Supreme Court; Albert S. White, afterward United States senator; Samuel Huff; Ira Ingraham, and others. George A. Spencer was the first justice of the peace in the county and continued as such for thirty years. He served in the War of 1812 and was always a patriotic and public-spirited man, a strong, self-reliant and positive character in every respect, a strict churchman and a man of the highest integrity, a good business man, having accumulated a large estate, he was yet a most generous man and neighbor, whose hospitality was unexcelled.
James S. Spencer, one of the pioneer newspaper men of White County, still lives in Liberty Township. He was born in Adelphi, Ross County, Ohio, March 18, 1838, and came to Monticello with his father's family in 1848, in and near where he has resided for more than two-thirds of a century. He was married December 25, 1860, to Emma L. Skinner, of Valparaiso, Indiana, to whom were born seven children: Schuyler C., DeFoe, Bessie L., James H., Kizzie and Pearl, twins, and Emily S., the latter three dying in infancy. DeFoe died April 4, 1894, aged twenty-eight years, leaving a wife, Mrs. Anna B. and one son, DeFoe. In 1859 Mr. Spencer founded the Spectator, now the Herald. He is a Civil war veteran and for eight years was engaged in the drug business in Remington. His oldest son, Schuyler C., is the leading lawyer of Seattle, Washington. James H. is a contractor in Los Angeles, California, and his daughter, Bessie, is the wife of I. W. McOwen, connected with the Joliet, Illinois, Daily News. Mr. Spencer is a man of positive character, a member of the Presbyterian Church and ardent in his support of the temperance cause.
Now living virtually retired in the fine little City of Monticello, the judicial center of his native county, Mr. Spencer is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of White County, where his parents established their residence more than eighty years ago, and his gracious wife is a representative of a family that was founded within the borders of this county at an even earlier date. Both the Spencer and the Roberts families played a large part in the initial stages of civic and material development and progress in White County, reclaiming farms from the virgin forest, enduring the vicissitudes that fell to the lot of the loyal pioneers and laying the firm foundations on which their descendants have reared to superstructure of latter-day prosperity and progress. The members of the Spencer family in White county have been conspicuous as landholders and successful agriculturists, have stood exponent of the highest personal integrity and marked business ability and have exemplified the best ideals of useful and productive citizenship. Perry Spencer has full upheld the honors of the name which he bears and is today the owner of one of the largest and best improved landed estates in White County, the greater part of this valuable property having been accumulated through his own ability and well directed efforts.
Perry Spencer was born at the old homestead of his father, in Union Township, this county, on the 16th of August, 1841, and is a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Barnett) Spencer, the former of whom was born in Maryland and the latter in Ohio, their marriage having been solemnized in the old Buckeye State, whence they came to White County, Indiana, in 1832. Thomas Spencer was a tanner by trade but after establishing his home in White County his splendid energies found play primarily in agricultural operations. He obtained a tract of wild land, there established his home in a log house of the primitive type common to the pioneer days, and then set to himself the herculean task of felling the forest trees and reclaiming his land to cultivation. Indomitable energy and perseverance, coupled with mature business judgment, enabled him to achieve large and worthy success and incidentally to do much in furtherance of the social and industrial development and upbuilding of the county. At the time of his death, which occurred November 23, 1870, he was the owner of about 800 acres of land, devoted to diversified agriculture and to the raising of live stock. His devoted wife, who had been his faithful and valued helpmeet, was summoned to the life eternal in November, 1869, and the remains of both were laid to rest in the county that had long represented their home and on the list of whose sterling pioneers their names merit enduring place. Of their eight children, Perry Spencer, of this review, is the only survivor. Thomas Spencer was a man of strong individuality and well fortified convictions, was a loyal supporter of the cause of the democratic party, and was a loyal citizen who commanded the unqualified esteem of the community in which he maintained his home for nearly two score years.
Perry Spencer was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and acquired his early education in the common schools of the pioneer era in the history of White County. His independent career as a farmer was initiated when he was twenty-three years of age and about the same time he had the wisdom to fortify himself still further by taking unto himself a wife, the bride of his youth having continued his earnest coadjutor and devoted companion during the long intervening years. Mr. Spencer had all of ambition and determination when he started to make his own way toward the goal of worthy success and independence, but he had the good judgment to make his advancement by such stages as were consistent with his financial means and personal powers, so that his progress was made along safe and conservative lines and with slight element of risk or uncertainty. His ultimate achievement is represented in a fine landed estate of about 1,000 acres of land, all within the borders of White County, and he has stood as one of the most progressive and substantial exponents of agricultural and live-stock industry in this favored section of the state. He continued to give his active supervision to his extensive farm operations until about the year 1909, when his advancing years and adequate financial resources justified him in retiring from the active labors that had long engrossed his attention, and he removed with his wife to Monticello, where they own and occupy an attractive residence and find themselves in the most congenial environment, surrounded by friends who are tried and true and compassed by those familiar scenes that are pregnant in gracious memories of the past.
Mr. Spencer has at all times been loyal and public-spirited as a citizen and has shown lively interest in local affairs. He has retained unwavering allegiance to the democratic party, has found many opportunities to do good in his community and has served two terms as a member of the board of county commissioners, an office in which he was a staunch advocate of progressive policies and yet of consistent economy in the administration of county affairs. While not a member of any religious or fraternal organization, Mr. Spencer has shown a charitable and generous spirit and has seldom refused liberal support to worthy causes.
On the 12th of November, 1863, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Spencer to Miss Susan Roberts, who likewise was born and reared in White County and who is a daughter of John and Martha (Dyer) Roberts, her parents having become pioneer settlers of this county, where they established their home in the year 1831 and where they passed the remainder of their long and useful lives, secure in the unqualified esteem of all who knew them.
John Roberts was born July 16, 1804, and his death occurred December 7, 1872; his wife was born November 2, 1810, and she long survived her husband, her age at the time of her death having been eighty-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts were born and reared in the State of Ohio, were members of early pioneer families of that commonwealth, and there their marriage was solemnized on the 27th of December, 1827. In the following year they came to Indiana and established their residence in Tippecanoe County, where they remained until 1831, when they came to White County and settled on 160 acres of Government land three and one-half miles southwest of the present site of Monticello, the county seat. There was no Monticello in existence at that time, and in her venerable years Mrs. Roberts, appreciative of the urban attractions of the fine little city of the present, often called attention to the fact that she could well remember when the first building was erected on the site of Monticello and when this section was a virtual wilderness, with Indians and wild game much in evidence. In 1866 Mr. and Mrs. Roberts removed from their farm to Monticello, and for several years after the death of her husband she kept house alone in her comfortable village residence. She passed her later years in the homes of her children, and died at the home of her son, Robert D., who was then serving as county commissioner of White County. Of the eight children of John and Martha (Dyer) Roberts the eldest was Thomas, who was born December 30, 1828, and who met an accidental death, by shooting, on the 9th of July, 1861, he having been killed by the Indians near Sioux City, Iowa, and they stole his horse; William, who was born April 17, 1832, died at Winfield, Kansas; John and James, twins, were born July 29, 1834, and both died in the year 1837, the former on the 28th and the latter on the 31st of October; Robert D., was born January 21, 1837 and his wife, whose maiden name was Susan Scouden, passed away December 23, 1910, and of their nine children—two sons and seven daughters—one son and three daughters are deceased: Maria Louisa, who was born March 31, 1839, is the wife of William Frazer, of Delphi, Carroll County; Susan, wife of the subject of this review, was the next in order of birth, the date of her nativity having been November 6, 1841; and Edwin Ruthven, who was born January 23, 1843, died young.
Mr. and Mrs. Spencer have one son, Robert, who was born June 5, 1868, and who resides upon and operates the old homestead farm on which he was born, in Union Township. He married Miss Gertrude Beshoar, daughter of Daniel Beshoar, and their only child is Ralph, who was born on the 24th of February, 1904.
At Zanesville, Ohio, on November 5, 1833, was born to Dr. Robert and Eleanor Spencer, a son who later was christened William and became one of the prominent pioneers of White County. His father was a successful physician and after several years of general practice he was elected professor of anatomy in Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1855, and held that position for seven years when he was appointed surgeon of the Seventy-third Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and died in the service in 1863. A few years later his widow died of a disease of the heart and both are buried in the old cemetery north of Monticello. Dr. William Spencer studied medicine with his father for a time and in 1855 graduated from the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. For six years he engaged in the practice with his father at Monticello when he entered the military service and was commissioned captain of Company E, Forty-Sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, but after seven months' service he resigned to accept a position with his father in the Seventy-third Indiana Regiment. He was captured by the Confederates in Morgan county, Alabama, on April 30, 1863, and was held a prisoner until November 22d of the same year when his exchange was effected. On April 16, 1864, he accepted a commission as surgeon of the Tenth Tennessee Cavalry but later was transferred and served for a time on the staff of General Jackson and on August 5, 1865, was discharged when he returned to Monticello, opened a drug store and engaged in the practice of medicine. Doctor Spencer was married on New Year's Day, 1856, to Miss Harriet V. Kistler, who died in 1888, and this union was blessed by three children, Charles (deceased); Gertrude, now the wife of Curtis D. Meeker; and May, the wife of Samuel A. Carson, president of the State Bank of Monticello. Doctor Spencer was successful in all of his business ventures and at his death, which occurred at Monticello, October 26, 1901, left a large estate. He was a Presbyterian and quite prominent in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
This sketch should not be closed without a reference to his military career which was most unusual. For seven months he was held in Libby Prison under sentence of death, as hostage for a Doctor Green, a rebel surgeon, but by intervention of Governor Morton his life was spared and he was exchanged and came back north.
Many of the old and substantial families of White County either bear the name of or are directly related to the Spencers. There were a number of the family who came here in the early days, and since then they have inter-married extensively, and it is doubtful if any name occurs more frequently in the chronicles of family relationship in this publication than that of Spencer. With few exceptions the members of the family have been farming people, and have been equally well noted for their upright lives, and their influence directed steadily toward the upholding of church, morality, schools and all other things for the good of the community. This branch of the Spencer family originally lived in Hampshire County, now Mineral County, West Virginia, but then known only as West Virginia. Arthur and Sarah Spencer lived there, and among their children was Andrew who was born in Hampshire County, now Mineral County, and died in Princeton Township of White County, April 9, 1887, at the age of seventy-six. He was buried in the Dobbins Cemetery. In the fall of 1846, Andrew Spencer brought his family out to Indiana and located for several years in Jasper County, but in 1851 permanently settled in Princeton Township. He was a farmer all his life, and at the time of his death had a small place of forty acres. In early life he voted with the whig party and later with the republicans, and was a member of the Christian Church. Andrew Spencer married Elizabeth A. Dobbins, a daughter of Samuel Dobbins of Virginia. They became the parents of twelve children, and six of these came to White County with their father. The only four now living in White County are: Samuel T.; William V.; Sarah A., who is the widow of James Rogers and living in Wolcott; and James G., who lives near Lee in Monon Township, and first married Elizabeth Folks and second Mrs. Eva Williams.
The oldest living member of the family is Samuel T. Spencer, who was born in what is now Mineral County, West Virginia, June 2, 1837, and was still a lad when he came with his parents to Indiana. He grow [sic] up on a farm, and one of the early incidents which he recalls is when he went with his father, Andrew, to Lafayette to buy groceries for the first store established at Bradford, now Monon, by Louis Chamberlain. It was a matter of three days to make the trip to and from Lafayette with the stock of goods and these were the first groceries taken into the new village and sold there. At that time the railroad was just being built through White County. When a young man of twenty-five, on August 30, 1862, Samuel Spencer enlisted in Company G of the Sixty-Third Indiana Infantry at Wolcott. He was mustered in at Indianapolis, and saw active service until his honorable discharge at Albany, New York, May 29, 1865. He was with Sherman's army from Lookout Mountain until the fall of Atlanta, and then went back into Tennessee with "Pap" Thomas from Columbia to Nashville. Later he was in the operations toward Wilmington, North Carolina, but was taken ill at Kingston in that state, and sent for recovery to New York. On December 21, 1865, a few months after his return from the army, he married Nancy J. Bunnell, a daughter of John B. and Sarah Bunnell, of Princeton Township, and a family well known and mentioned elsewhere. The eight children born to their marriage were: Flora, deceased; Reed; Edgar; Evert, deceased; Orpha, deceased; Leta A.; Sarah A., deceased; and Pearl J. Of these children Reed married Flora Goodrich, and their three children are Ada, Russell and Gwendolyn; Reed is a druggist in Wolcott. Edgar, also a druggist at Wolcott, married Lillie Brown, and their two children are Raymond and Maurice, the latter deceased. Leta A. married S. C. Uhl, who is elsewhere mentioned. Pearl J. married John J. Sell and lives in Brook, Indiana.
Samuel Spencer has been a farmer all his active career, is a republican in politics, and in 1886 made the race for election as county commissioner, being defeated by only ten votes. He and his wife are members of the Christian Church and both support that society liberally. Samuel Spencer has made all his prosperity by himself and now owns 350 acres of land and some town property.
William V. Spencer, a younger son of Andrew and Elizabeth A. Spencer, has spent practically all his life in this part of Indiana and had made his career profitable to himself and of service to his community.
He was born January 31, 1847, while his parents were living in Hanging Grove Township of Jackson County. Three years later the family returned to White County, but when he was still a child they spent another two years in Jasper County and then settled permanently in White, where William has since lived continuously. As a boy he attended such schools as were maintained in the country districts of White County fifty and sixty years ago, and was so strongly influenced by his early environment that he has never been content to follow any other business than that of agriculture.
November 18, 1869, Mr. Spencer married Miss Hannah R. Dyer, who was born in White County, April 23, 1851, the fifth in a family of eight children, three sons and five daughters, of Mortimore and Lury (Barnes) Dyer. Four of these children are yet living: Mrs. Spencer; Mary, the widow of John Lyons and a resident of Wolcott Indiana; Samuel, engaged in the real estate business at Wolcott and married to Martha Groomes; and Lury, wife of Anson Hoppe, also of Wolcott. Mr. Dyer, the father, was a native of Virginia and a successful agriculturist and stock raiser. He came to White County in 1848, locating in Princeton Township, and became the owner of 440 acres of land, all lying within the borders of this county. In his political affiliations he was first a whig and then a republican, and both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Church, although later in life she united with the Baptists. Mrs. Dyer was also a native Virginian, and both she and her husband received their educational training in the primitive schools of the early days and both now lie buried in Dyer Cemetery. Mrs. Spencer is a granddaughter of a soldier of the War of 1812. She was reared and educated in White County, and in their young lives both she and her husband attended the subscription schools, furnished and equipped with the old-fashioned bench seats and long writing desks of a board, and where they wrote with the old-time goose-quill pen. They began their married life without capital, but with an abundance of industry, and this has enabled them to advance far on the road to prosperity. Mr. and Mrs. Spencer have reared a family of children who do them credit and most of whom are now occupying positions of honor and usefulness. Their children were ten in number as follows: Delia, wife of Homer James, who is mentioned elsewhere; Pleassie, who died after her marriage to Charles Grow; Mortimore, who died at the age of eighteen; Claude, who lives in Jasper County, married Mabel Cook and has four children: Okle, Kenneth, Gerald and Harold; Tabor, who lives in Princeton Township, married Lelia Pettit and they have three children: Virgil, Floyd, and Loues; Verlie, who is living at Swayzee, Indiana; Lida, whose home is in Cincinnati, where she is a stenographer; Lloyd C., at home; and Essie Carmine and Inza Gail, both of whom are successful teachers in Howard County, Indiana. They are graduates of the Wolcott High School, were also students at the University of Valparaiso, and have been in the teachers' profession for ten or eleven years.
For thirty-eight years Mr. Spencer and family have lived on his fine farm of 105 acres three miles north of Wolcott. Every one of these years he has superintended the planting and harvesting of crops, and the aggregate of his productive labor has spelled success, so that now that his children are self-supporting, he and his wife can look into the future without dread, and their retrospect of accomplishment is equally pleasing. Office holding has had no attraction for Mr. Spencer, and he has been content to vote either as a republican or progressive. His wife is an active member of the Christian Church.
For nearly half a century the splendid thrift and enterprise of the German settlers have been manifested in the rural community about Reynolds by members of the Spinn family. John L. Spinn is a progressive young agriculturist and the owner of a fine farm two miles northwest of Reynolds, comprising 131 acres. Its improvements at once classify him as a leader in agricultural affairs. He is a son of the original settler, who came here from Germany half a century ago and gave the honorable start to the family destiny in this part of the world.
The emigrant was Henry Spinn, late of White County, who was born in Mecklenburg, Germany, November 10, 1831. He married Sophia Wagner, and in 1865 set out for the New World, spending sixteen weeks en route on the ocean. On reaching Reynolds, Henry Spinn found employment with the railroad and continued at that hard labor five years. Both he and his wife exercised the closest economy, and with the savings of the railroad work he was finally able to buy eighty acres of land. After that he was a substantial farmer until he retired in 1894. The last fifteen years of his life he spent chiefly in the Village of Reynolds, but after the death of his wife on June 27, 1905, he returned to the country and lived with his son John until about a year before his own death, which occurred July 14, 1909. Henry Spinn was a democrat from the time he qualified as an American citizen, but was no office seeker. He was a member of the German Lutheran Church and contributed liberally to its support. Though he began life in America on a plane with many newly arrived foreigners, at the time of his death he was the owner of about 350 acres of the fine farm lands of White County, and also had some property in town. He was helpful to his neighbors, and was interested in those movements that meant better living for the community. He was laid to rest at the German Cemetery in Reynolds. Of the ten children born to Henry and Sophia (Wagner) Spinn, five died in infancy, and the others are mentioned briefly as follows: Fred, who married Amelia Milling and lives in Honey Creek Township, has three children; William, who lives in Honey Creek Township, married Ida Selmer, and has three children; John L.; Matilda, the wife of Otto Levering, living at Lafayette, and the mother of one child; Anna married William Buss and lives in Honey Creek and has two children.
John L. Spinn was born in Honey Creek Township June 24, 1875. He grew up on a farm and as a preparation for life combined the training of farm work with the advantages of the local schools. Mr. Spinn married Sophia Milling, daughter of John and Wilhelmina Milling of Kankakee County, Illinois. To their union have been born four children, Lulu M., Della W., Lillian E. and Mabel F., all living at home.
Mr. John L. Spinn has devoted his active career to farming, and his industry now shows forth many substantial results. He is a democrat, though without pretensions for office, and is content to do his public work in the quiet role of a private citizen. He and his family are members of the German Lutheran faith.
Capt. James G. Staley, of Company F, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, was killed in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, November 30, 1864, and his remains were brought to Monticello for burial in the old cemetery. He was a true patriot and in the beginning of the war served for two years in the Ninth Indiana Volunteers. He received his commission as captain in January, 1864, and in March left to join in the Atlanta campaign. In the battle of Franklin he was commanding his company when a minnie [sic] ball struck him in the forehead, killing him instantly. His funeral at the Methodist Church in Monticello was largely attended. The Rev. H. Cissel preached the sermon and an account written for the Herald stated that when the casket was lowered many shed bitter tears. His grave is one of the many landmarks in the old cemetery.
What is now one of the most notable banking organizations of White County was started as a private bank in August, 1902, under the name Bank of Burnettsville, by W. C. Thomas and J. C. Duffey. Under this co-partnership the capital stock was $10,000, and a building was specially erected for the purposes and uses of the bank. Mr. J. C. Duffey was the first cashier. In July, 1907, the private organization was succeeded by the State Bank of Burnettsville operating under a state charter and beginning with a paid-up capital of $25,000. August 1, 1912, the capital was increased to $30,000.
The stockholders at the time of its incorporation were: J. C. Duffey, W. C. Thomas, L. A. Goddard, the prominent Chicago banker and president of the State Bank of Chicago, Dr. Walter McBeth, F. A. Duffey, James D. Brown, C. M. Mertz, J. J. Buchanan, Frank Davis, T. F. Pierce, J. W. Foust, F. S. Girard, R. C. Marsh, H. H. Marsh, A. C. Hufford, C. B. Watts, Floyd Miilion, A. A. McLeland, J. M. Love, Turpie Saunders. The first set of officers were: W. C. Thomas, president; E. B. Thomas, vice president; J. C. Duffey, cashier; and F. A. Duffey, assistant cashier. The original directors were: W. C. Thomas, J. C. Duffey, F. A. Duffey, James D. Brown, C. M. Mertz, T. F. Pierce.
In July, 1913, Mr. J. C. Duffey was made president, while F. A. Duffey succeeded him as cashier; W. C. Thomas became vice president, while E. B. Thomas retired from the official position he had formerly held, though still keeping his stock. The directors are still as at the time of incorporation.
The Bank of Burnettsville has made steady gains since incorporation, and has regularly paid 6 per cent dividends semi-annually. What little stock has been sold has commanded prices of $200 a share, and that fact alone indicates the exceptional prosperity of the institution. At the present time the bank has a surplus of $8,500.
A list of the stockholders in this bank at the present time contains the following names: J. C. Duffey, W. C. Thomas, E. B. Thomas, F. A. Duffey, James D. Brown, T. F. Pierce, C. M. Mertz, J. J. Buchanan, Frank Davis, J. W. Foust, F. S. Girard, H. H. Marsh, A. C. Hufford, C. B. Watts, A. A. McLeland, Wilbur Crowell, C. E. Girard, Turpie Saunders, L. A. Goddard, Milt Crowell, Milt K. Reiff, J. R. Doan, F. C. Gibson, Elliott Crowell, John Gorman, Harry Showalter and Walter McBeth.
For many years one of the most prosperous and highly esteemed farmers of Big Creek Township, was George Stephan, born in Germany, March 7, 1831. His father brought his family to Massillon, Ohio in 1846. Here he was married to Miss Louise Werts, April 2, 1855, and in 1858 they came to White County, purchasing a fine body of land a short distance northeast of Chalmers. Here they lived until a few years before his death, when they removed to Monticello. He died at his home there, March 4, 1905, leaving a widow, one daughter and two sons.
John S. Stevenson, born in Sussex County, England, December 3, 1830, died at his home in Monticello, March 22, 1905. He was one of nineteen children born to Richard and Mary Stevenson. He came to America about 1850 and soon after located near Monticello. Later he moved to Kansas, but returned to Monticello in 1879. He was a member of the Twentieth Indiana Volunteers and was wounded at Gettysburg.
Harrison S. Stine was born in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, on April 17, 1836. He came to Wabash County, Indiana, in 1850, and nine years later removed to Burnettsville and began teaching school. In 1866 he was married to Miss Isabel Hanna. He died January 29, 1890, after an illness of one year, of heart failure. His son, Albert B Stine, former postmaster at Burnetts Creek, is still living. Mr. Stine was an old line democrat and took a deep interest in the success of his party, though he never sought any office.
Mrs. Hannah Stout (Grandmother Stout) was an Ohio woman, born near Dayton, and died December 3, 1912, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. James Wilcoxon. Had she lived until the succeeding 6th of March she would have been ninety-four years old. Mrs. Stout came to Indiana in 1845, settling first in Tippecanoe County; thence, with her husband and children, she moved to White County in 1853, residing for a time on the Kenton farm and later, for a long time on the Spencer farm, south of Monticello. Her husband, Reuben Stout, died in 1877, and thereafter she lived with her daughters. Mrs. Stout was almost a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She left three daughters and a son.
A representative of a family whose name has been identified with the civic and industrial activities of White County for more than half a century and with the history of Indiana for nearly seventy years, Marion J. Swartzell has through his own well~ordered endeavors and progressive policies gained secure place as one of the successful and representative agriculturists of White County, where he is known as a steadfast, reliable and loyal citizen, who eminently merits the confidence and good-will so uniformly accorded to him in the community. His well-improved farmstead of eighty acres gives every evidence of thrift and good management and is eligibly situated in Cass Township, 1 1/4 miles northeast of the Village of Headlee. In addition to carrying forward his farm operations with energy and discrimination, Mr. Swartzell also operates each season two thoroughly modern threshing outfits, with which he covers a wide field of service and controls a profitable business. Aside from his individual activities he gives loyal support to those enterprises and agencies that tend to further the general social and material prosperity of the community, and while never a seeker of public office he is found aligned as a stalwart advocate of the principles of the republican party. He is not formally identified with any religious body, hut accords liberal support to the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his wife is a zealous adherent.
Samuel Swartzell, father of him whose name introduces this article, was born in Union County, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of October, 1825, and died at his old homestead farm in Cass Township, White County, Indiana, on the 22d of January, 1893, secure in the high regard of all who knew him. He was a scion of one of the sturdy German families that settled in Pennsylvania in an early period of our national history, and in the old Keystone Commonwealth were born and reared his parents, John and Elizabeth Swartzell, who came to Indiana about three years after he had here established his home, their settlement in Cass County having occurred in 1851. A few years later the parents removed to Starke County, where they passed the residue of their lives.
Samuel Swartzell was reared to the discipline of the old home farm in Pennsylvania and in his youth he also learned the trade of cooper, at which he became a skilled workman. In 1848, when about twenty-three years of age, he came to Indiana and entered claim to a tract of 160 acres of wild land near the present Village of Royal Center, Cass County. In the following year was solemnized his marriage to Miss Lovisa Snetchen, and they became the parents of six children—Alvin B., Abraham, Lydia, Rachel, John M. and Hannah. Of these children only Rachel and Hannah are now living. Some time after the death of his first wife Samuel Swartzell was united in marriage to Miss Mary A. Burns, this nuptial ceremony having been performed in 1859 and Mrs. Swartzell having been born in Union County, this state, a representative of a sterling pioneer family, the date of her nativity having been October 15, 1837. The names of the eleven children of this union are here indicated in respective order of birth: Elizabeth, Adam, Marion J., Isaac W., Albert P., Jasper F., Martha M., Melissa J., Andrew J., Celestia M., and Ada H. All of the children are living except Adam and Celestia M. Isaac W., who is a prosperous farmer of Cass Township, married Miss Zeta McCloud. Marion J., the immediate subject of this review, was born in Cass Township, this county, on the 23d of February, 1862.
Samuel Swartzell improved his farm in Cass County and there continued his residence until 1861, when he sold this property and removed with his family to White County where he was the owner of a valuable farm of eighty acres, in Cass Township, at the time of his death he having contributed his quota to the social and industrial development and progress of the county and both he and his wife having stood as true exemplars of the Golden Rule—folk of strong character and invincihle integrity. Both were earnest communicants of the German Lutheran Church and in politics Mr. Swartzell was aligned with the democratic party until the climacteric period of the Civil war, when he found that the republican party stood sponsor for principles and policies more thoroughly in harmony with his convictions and views, with the result that he espoused its cause, of which he ever afterward continued a staunch advocate.
On the 19th of September, 1892, was solemnized thc marriage of Marion J. Swartzell to Mrs. Rebecca H. (Kistler) Davis, a daughter of William and Maria Kistler, who were early settlers in Cass County, where Mrs. Swartzell was born and reared. The two children of this union are Jasper Clyde and Hazel F., both of whom remain at the parental home and are popular young people in the social activities of tbe community.
The chimneys that mark the home and the chief interests in life for Perry E. Swisher, are located in Honey Creek Township, 3½ miles northwest of Reynolds. Mr. and Mrs. Swisher, among other accomplishments, have a fine family of children, most of them grown and well established in independent homes. They are not people of great wealth, and have never sought such distinctions, but at the same time they have prospered and have collected around them many of the evidences of essential happiness. Mr. Swisher is one of the best farmers in Honey Creek Township and has a very high-grade place.
Perry E. Swisher is the son of Samuel and Philadelphia (Dickey) Swisher. The Swisher family is of Pennsylvania Dutch stock, while the Dickeys were from New Jersey. Samuel Swisher began his political life as a democrat, but subsequently turned to the republican party. He went from Pennsylvania to Ohio, and in 1856 was among the early settlers of Pulaski County, Indiana. He was born in 1816 and died at the age of sixty, on August 12, 1876. Though he belonged to no church and to no secret organization, he was a man of upright character and had a great many warm friends.
Perry E. Swisher, who was the fifth child in his father's family, was born in Jasper County, near Medaryville, February 14, 1859. In his twenty-first year, on August 12, 1879, came the first great event of his life—his marriage. He was married in the home of the bride—a log house in White County—to Miss Amanda A. Retherford, a daughter of Jonathan and Sarah Jane (Rutherford) Retherford. The Retherfords came from Virginia to White County, in June, 1873, and Mr. Retherford was a carpenter by trade. He had lived in Lafayette as early as 1852, and after spending about six years in White County returned to that city.
Mr. and Mrs. Swisher became the parents of seven children: Stella, the first born, died in infancy; Florence married Leonard Hoffman, lives three miles north of Chalmers, and has two children, Albert and Margaret. Larkin G., who lives in Chicago, married Theresa Becker. Clark W., who is also a resident of Chicago, married Maude Fulkerson, and has a child named Lloyd. Carrie is the wife of Charles Robinson, living in Lafayette, and they have a child, Wilbur. Leo Earl lives at home, and the youngest child died in infancy.
Perry E. Swisher began his active career as a trapper. He worked as a farmer, was paid monthly wages, and also did the strenuous work of ditching. He was honest, faithful and diligent, carefully saved his money, and finally had enough to permit him to venture into farming for himself. He bought forty acres of land, and he has developed it and improved it and has since increased it to eighty acres. Mr. Swisher is a republican and is a broad-gauge man in local politics. He was a candidate on the republican ticket for the township advisory board in Honey Creek, and though running far ahead of his ticket he was defeated. Mrs. Swisher is a member of the Methodist Church and Mr. Swisher gives it liberal support. She is also a member of three church societies at Reynolds. Mr. Swisher is a trustee and treasurer of the Swisher Cemetery and always stands for local improvements and betterment. He has lived at peace with the world and with his neighbors, and never sued a man and was never sued in his entire career.