HOWARD SQUIRES
As a worthy representative of the prosperous agriculturists of Paw Paw township, and as a former sheriff of Wabash county, Howard Squires is eminently deserving of special mention in this biographical work. A native of Kentucky, he was born December 15, 1841, in Owen county, a son of Martin Squires.

Born, reared and married in Kentucky, Martin Squires began life for himself as a farmer in Owen county. Disposing of his land in that vicinity in 1848, he came with his family to Indiana, making the tedious journey with teams, there having been neither railways nor canals at that early day. Locating in Wabash county, six miles north of Wabash, in what was then Noble township, but is now Paw Paw township, he bought eighty acres of heavily timbered land, and having erected the customary log cabin began the improvement of a homestead. A few years later, again, seized with the wanderlust, he sold out there, and started with his family for the newer country of Minnesota. He traveled as far as Chicago with teams, thence by railroad to Galena, Illinois, where he was stricken with pneumonia, died, and was there buried, his death occurring in 1857, at the age of sixty-one years. His widow continued with her children to Minnesota, going up the Mississippi river on a steamboat.

Eighteen months later she returned with her family to Wabash county, Indiana, by wagon, and located on a farm which her husband had previously purchased in Paw Paw township, two miles west of the present home of their son Howard. She subsequently removed to Roann, where her death occurred March 12, 1913, at the venerable age of ninety-four years. The maiden name of the wife of Martin Squires was Sarah Williams. To them ten children were born, as follows: Eveline, deceased, was the wife of W. R. Keep; Caleb, deceased; Mary, wife of J. W. Strausberg and lives in Detroit, Mich.; Howard, with whom this sketch is chiefly concerned; Catherine, wife of Ed Williams ; John, deceased; George, deceased; Sarah; Thomas; and Ella, wife of John Overley.

A small boy when his parents left Kentucky, Howard Squires was scarce out of school when the family started for Minnesota, where his widowed mother lived with her children for eighteen months. After returning to Paw Paw township, he assisted in the care of the home farm until September, 1861, when he enlisted in Company F, Forty-first Regiment, Second Indiana Cavalry, under command of Captain Alexander Hess. Continuing in service three years, one month, and two days, Mr. Squires participated in all of the important engagements of his regiment. At Archville, Tennessee, he was taken prisoner, but was soon released on parole. After being honorably discharged from the service, Mr. Squires returned to the home farm, where he remained until his marriage.

He subsequently farmed on rented land for a time, and then bought one hundred and twenty acres of land in Paw Paw township, northeast of Roann. Disposing of that a few years later, he bought the hotel at Roann, and ran that for a year. Then trading the hotel for eighty acres of land in Paw Paw township, Mr. Squires was there engaged in tilling the soil until elected sheriff of Wabash county, an office that he filled most satisfactorily for four years. Assuming possession then of his present farm, he has since been successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits.

Politically Mr. Squires is a stanch republican. Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons, and of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Mr. Squires married, in 1873, Miss Alice McCoy, daughter of Thomas and Lucinda (Gamble) McCoy, and into the pleasant household thus established five children have been born, namely: Maude, who married Dow Van Buskirk, cashier of the bank at Roann, has two children, Catherine and James; Ed, who married Jessie Leffel, has three children, Helen, Elizabeth and Fred; Jessie, wife of Fred I. King, of Wabash, has two children, Howard and Miriam; Hazel; and Hugh, who died at the age of eight years.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



WILLIAM BRIGHT
When the Bright family settled on a wilderness farm in Waltz township, this county, in 1845, they probably had not the vision that would enable them to see that farm seventy years later and realize something of the change that would be wrought in the place with the passing years. They did their best with the rugged and primitive means at their command in that early day, and even in their generation great indeed was the extent of progress. But their son, William Bright, today owns the place and has in it one of the finest farming properties in the township. He was born on the old place on February 17, 1854, and is a son of William and Eliza (Compton) Bright. The mother was the daughter of David and Hannah (Beesely) Compton. When Mr. and Mrs. Bright first came to Indiana it was in the year 1837, and they first settled in Decatur county, there continuing until 1845. In that year they came to Wabash county and chose a farm of 160 acres in Waltz township. It was a veritable wilderness then, untouched by the hand of man, and it offered the prospect of years of vigilant toil before more than the barest living might be wrested from its grasp, but these hardy pioneers were nothing daunted by the prospect, and, instead of being discouraged, were filled with a courageous zest that in every age has been the backbone of the pioneer movement. To such men and women is Indiana and every other great state in the union indebted for the progress and growth that is today evidenced, and it is fitting and proper that some mention of their careers, however brief that mention may be, should be sketched into the historical facts of the country.

On November 30, 1869, after years of struggling with his new farm the father died, his widow surviving him until November 29, 1889. They were the parents of nine children, all now deceased with the exception of the subject and one daughter, Sarah, who married Henry Holderman and lives in this county. All the deceased members of the Bright family lie buried in the Mount Vernon cemetery, with the exception of one son, Richard L. Bright, who was buried in Colorado.

William Bright of this review had his education in Waltz township, where he was born and reared. Here he saw much of pioneer conditions and remembers the time when a letter back to the old home in New Jersey required twenty-five cents in postage. He spent his boyhood days between work on the farm and in the school room, and continued on the home place without a break until the spring of 1914, when he moved to Vernon, this county, on a farm of forty acres, which he also owns. In 1879 he married Alice Cochran, a daughter of Frank and Elizabeth (Flook) Cochran, who were the parents of five children, all born in Waltz township. The father of Mrs. Bright served in the Union army during the Civil war as a member of the Eighth Indiana, and he died while yet in the service. The mother still lives in Somerset.

To Mr. and Mrs. Bright were born three children. Edwin was born on September 7, 1881, and died in October, 1912. He married Eliza Vaughan, and their three children were LeRoy, Lorine and Clifford. Myrtle was born on November 21, 1883, and she married Elwood O. Harvey, and has three children: Derwood, Darwin and Dorothy. They occupy Mr. Bright's farm of 185 acres south of Vernon. Clarence, born on February 17, 1886, married Winnifred F. Garst, and he died on May 29, 1913. All three were born on the old home place where the father was born in 1854.

That farm is one of 185 acres, and is one of the comfortable and prosperous places in the township. All the buildings in use today were built by the original owner of the place and were put up by hand, all of the interior work being hand work and very attractive in design. It was finished in the year 1851, and so well was the work carried out and so properly has the place been kept up that the home today looks like a modern dwelling. Mr. Bright also owns a forty-two acre and an eighty acre farm, all in Waltz township, making a total of 307 acres.

Mr. Bright is one of the prominent men of the community, socially and otherwise, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Somerset lodge, at Somerset. He is a progressive in politics, and has a healthy interest in the political activities of the town and county, though he has never been an office seeker or holder. His name is one that stands well to the front in the community, and his labors in his chosen work have made for continued progress all his days.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



JOHN SCHULER
One of the oldest residents of Wabash county is the venerable John Schuler, now more than fourscore years of age, and who from boyhood to his present lengthened span of existence has witnessed the changing course of civilization and the progress of mankind in Wabash county since 1837. While he still gives active attention to business, and is a member of the firm of Schuler & Schuler, conducting an undertaking and house furnishing establishment in the village of Roann, Mr. Schuler many years ago was relieved from the necessity of hard work, but it is a part of his nature to continue active and he prefers to wear out rather than rust out. His experiences have been many, it has been given him to observe the work of nearly three generations of men in Wabash county, and through it all he has borne his own part worthily and with many contributions to the good of the community.

John Schuler was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, on December 19, 1832, a son of Robert and Elizabeth (Rantz) Schuler. Both parents were born in Pennsylvania, and the father was a farmer, owning a place in Lycoming county. In 1837, being inspired by the news of the great western country, he sold out his land in Pennsylvania, started west with wagons and teams, and after a six weeks' journey across the mountains of western Pennsylvania, across Ohio, he arrived in Wabash county. The little family party consisted of the husband and wife and eleven children. At the time of their arrival the Wabash and Erie canal had not yet been completed, so that practically the only means of reaching this part of the state from the east was by the overland roads. In the village of Wabash at that time was a double log cabin used as a tavern, but the Schuler family did not spend the night there, electing to remain in the shelter of their own wagon. The Indians throughout this section were more numerous than the whites, and the progress of civilization had hardly made a clearing except here and there, so that the country was practically in its primitive state of nature. Robert Schuler, the father, bought eighty acres of land three miles north of the present village of Roann in Pleasant township. Subsequently, as his prosperity and means increased he bought three or four other eighties. On the first farm there stood a hewn log house, which furnished a shelter for the family for some time. The equipment of that early home was extremely primitive. A large walnut door, two windows, covered with greased paper, a puncheon floor, an open fire place, with a mortar and stick chimney, were the more familiar and conspicuous features of the residence. In 1840 the father built a new home on the river, two miles north and a mile east of Roann in Paw Paw township, but on the Pleasant township line. This new home was considerably in advance of the first, but its outer structure was still of hewn logs. Some years later the father and mother went east to visit old friends and relatives in Pennsylvania., and while there they were thrown from a buggy and the father died in 1848, as a result of that accident. The mother recovered from her injuries, returned to Indiana, and died twenty years later in the state of Minnesota. Their twelve children are mentioned briefly as follows: Hannah, who married William Johnson, both are deceased; Daniel, deceased; Philip, deceased; Polly, who married William Robinson, both are deceased; Elizabeth, who became the wife of William Townsend, both now deceased; Henry, deceased; Sarah, who died at the age of sixteen; Samuel, deceased; Margaret, the deceased wife of Theo Sower; John; Jacob; and Nancy, who married Daniel Thurston, and both are deceased. The brothers John and Jacob now own the old homestead of one hundred and seventy-three acres on the Pleasant township line in Paw Paw township.

John Schuler was about five years old when the family made its long trip from Pennsylvania to Indiana. He retains many interesting recollections of early days in Wabash county, and while he was developing his strength at home, in the pursuits of the fields and the woods, he had many acquaintances which are no longer possible to the children of Indiana. Indians came and went so frequently as to excite no surprise, and it was possible to stand in the doorway and with a rifle shoot deer and other wild game, and in the recesses of the woods, from which they would come forth at night, were a number of wild eats, catamounts, and other beasts of prey. Elkhart was the nearest market and a center of supply for flour, salt and other necessities. At that time the site of the village of Roann was in the midst of the wild woods, and only two or three taverns stood between the Schuler home and the village of Wabash. About three months every year John Schuler would go to school. The old school which he recollects attending during those sessions was kept in a log house, with split log benches, supported from the floor by wooden pins, with a broad board around the room for a desk, and the boys and girls studied from books that are now hopelessly out of fashion and out of print, and wrote with a quill pen, manufactured for the occasion by the schoolmaster. He not only developed his mind but also his body by helping clear the land, plant the fields, and harvest the grain with scythe and sickle. In 1857 John and Jacob Schuler went to Kansas, and while there on an Indian reserve between Manhattan and Topeka, Jacob contracted small pox. During the five weeks of his illness he was cared for by his brother John, and so successfully did the latter cope with the dread disease that no marks were left.

On February 21, 1861, was celebrated the marriage of John Schuler to Jennie W. White. Her parents were Robert and Elizabeth White, who had come from Ohio. Mrs. Schuler was a young woman when she left her Ohio home to find a place in the home of her uncle, Robert Chinworth in Pleasant township of Wabash county, her father having died when she was a small girl.

After his marriage John Schuler moved to a place two miles west of Laketon, and he spent two years on a brother's farm. Returning to the old place he lived there until 1900, and in the meantime he and his brother Jacob had bought the interests of the other heirs in the one hundred and seventy-three acres. Mr. Schuler and his brother have added to the area of the old homestead, and John Schuler now has forty-three acres of his own adjoining the old place. In 1900 Mr. Schuler moved into the village of Roann, and engaged actively in business with his son Robert. In 1898 they had bought the undertaking and furniture store at Roann from Colt & Oswald, which during the following year was conducted under the firm name of Lowman & Schuler. Then Ed Case bought the Lowman interest, and after running for a year as Schuler & Case, the establishment passed entirely into the control of the Schulers, father and son, and is now run by the firm of Schuler & Schuler. The first store stood across the street, and the building was burned in February, 1901. On the present site they erected what is the largest and best equipped store building in Roann, built on foundations 44 x 76 feet, with a basement and a second story. They keep a complete stock of house furnishing goods, and also have a complete equipment of funeral supplies, with a large barn and rooms for caskets, keep a funeral car, and all other facilities for first-class service in the undertaking business. There is no other town in the state of Indiana that has a finer undertaking service than is furnished by Schuler & Schuler. The entire store is a credit to a community of this size, and it is due largely to the enterprise of its owners, and partly to the fact that Roann is situated in the midst of as fine a farming community as can be found in Indiana, and the people who live in that section are willing to support the very best. Robert Schuler, the son of John, studied a course of embalming at home, and took the examination before the state board and made a very creditable grade with an average of eighty-six.

Mr. Schuler and wife have three children: Robert F., who married Emma Hensler, a daughter of George Hensler; Laura, who married F. W. Eby of Paw Paw township, and has two children, the first being Mabel and the second Harry, who by his marriage to Hazel Long has a daughter Jane Josephine; and Maggie E., the wife of Edward Case, of Akron, Indiana, and by their marriage there is a daughter, Ruth Janette. Mr. Schuler is a member of the Presbyterian church. He is distinguished as one of the very few original members of the Republican party in Wabash county. He cast his first presidential vote for John C. Fremont in 1856. Notwithstanding that original alliance and long continued support of the republican party, Mr. Schuler is now found in the ranks of the progressive party. Outside of his local interests at Roann, he oversees the management of his farm, and at one time did a considerable business as a stock shipper.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



CHARLES MILLER
While Charles Miller claims the Buckeye state as his birthplace, it was only three months after his name was added to the family roll that the Miller family settled in the woods of Paw Paw township, only a mile east of where Mr. Miller has his fine country home. In all other particulars he is a Wabash county product, and is a loyal and progressive citizen of this favored section of Indiana. Few farmers are more emphatically business men than Charles Miller. He has kept up with the times, and often in advance, though his keen judgment has given him as much success as some more conservative neighbors. His homestead comprises two hundred and fifty-five acres on both sides of the Laketon road, in Paw Paw township, about eight miles north of Wabash, his comfortable residence being located on the west side of the highway.

Charles Miller was born near Massilon, Ohio, October 23, 1856, a son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Fetzer) Miller. His parents were both natives of Germany, were married in that country, and then seeking better opportunities for themselves and their family they emigrated to the United States and found a home in the state of Ohio. They bought a small farm in Stark county, but in 1856 came further west and settled in what was then Noble township, now Paw Paw township, one mile east of Charles Miller's place. All the land in that vicinity was then covered with woods, and it was necessary to clear a space among the trees in order to have room for a log cabin home. Both the parents lived there until the close of their days, and the father passed away in 1886 at the age of fifty-eight and the mother in 1907 aged seventy-five. Jacob Miller was a poor man when he came to America, was inc1ustrious, thrifty, and honorable in all his relations, and the family reached a position of prosperity, owning three hundred and twenty acres of land.

The third child in the family, Charles Miller was just three months of age when his parents moved to Wabash county, and his early recollections were of that community. The old homestead was the scene of his boyhood days, and while at home he learned the lessons of industry, he also attended the district school in that neighborhood. His labors helped to clear a portion of the father's farm, which is now owned by Charles Carnes. Mr. Miller lived at home until March 20, 1879, which was the date of his marriage to Caroline Pretorius. Her parents were Jacob and Catherine (Schultz) Pretorius, and the Pretorius family, which has long had a prominent part in the activities of Wabash county, is sketched elsewhere in this publication under the names Jacob and Joyce Pretorius, brothers of Mrs. Miller. After his marriage Mr. Miller moved to a portion of his present farm, at that time owned by his father. His career began as a renter, and he and his wife contrived to prosper steadily and to provide a good home and living in that way for nine years. He then bought the eighty-six acres from his father, and has added more lands from time to time, until his is now one of the large and valuable farm estates of Paw Paw township. His business is general farming and stock raising, and there are few farmers in Wabash county who have more business transactions than Mr. Miller. He has remodeled all the buildings on his farm, has put in many rods of tile, and his work has contributed to the substantial improvements of the land and its resources.

Mr. Miller and wife are the parents of eleven children, mentioned briefly as follows: Albert, who lives on a farm owned by his father west of the homestead in Paw Paw township, married Rose Schultz, and their children are Kenneth, Elmer and Gilbert; Clarence, who lives on his father's land across from the neighboring schoolhouse, married Freda Barker, and their one child is Edward; Katie is the wife of Osro Faucett, whose home is south of Manchester in Chester township, and their children are Maxwell, Eunice and Paul; Anna married Fred Barker, living south of Wabash and in Waltz township, and is the mother of two children, Howard and Irene; Mary, who lives in Paw Paw township, is the wife of George Flora, and their children are Ethel and Beulah; Freda is unmarried; Pauline married William Barker, who lives west of Laketon in Pleasant township, and their daughter is Dorothea; Earnest, Ida, Homer and Edith are the youngest of the family, and all still at home or in school. All of the children were born on the Miller farm, and Mr. Miller and wife have taken great pains to give them the best of home training and suitable school advantages. Mr. Miller and wife are members of the German Lutheran church at Urbana, and in politics he is a republican.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN STARBUCK
No history of Wabash county and its representative citizens would be complete were not mention made of B. F. Starbuck, affectionately known to his many friends as "Uncle Frank" Starbuck. He is a native of Indiana, having been born in Wayne county, about nine miles north of Richmond, December 6, 1846, and is a son of Andrew R. and Avis (Gardner) Starbuck, natives of North Carolina.

Not long after their marriage the parents of Mr. Starbuck left their native Old North state, and drove overland in a wagon to Indiana, first settling in Wayne county, where they resided until 1847. In that year they again took their horses and drove through to Wabash county, settling on a farm in Waltz township, about four miles west of Somerset, which had not yet been entered from the Government, although later, when it was possible, it was secured by the father. About ten of the 160 acres had been cleared, and on this had been erected a small log cabin, which was the family home until some years later, when it was replaced by a more commodious and comfortable frame house. About the close of the Civil war Mr. Starbuck removed to Somerset in order that his children might receive better educational advantages, and during the two years that he made his home there served as assessor. He then returned to the Waltz township farm, where he and the mother continued to spend the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of eleven children, and two of their sons, James D. and Milton H., served as Union soldiers during the Civil War, as members of Company A, Eighty-ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry.

The early education of B. F. Starbuck was secured in the district schools of Waltz township, this being supplemented by two terms in the village schools of Somerset. He had early learned the lessons of energy and industry, and a large part of his boyhood had been passed in assisting his father and brothers to clear the heavy timber from the home farm, to harvest the crops and to help in making the numerous improvements which were put on the land from time to time. It was but natural that he should adopt agricultural pursuits as his field of operations, and when he had completed his schooling at Someset he returned to the home place. There he made his home until 1893, when he removed to Somerset, where he opened a hotel and restaurant, and four years later, in 1897, sold out and was appointed postmaster. He has ever been energetic, persevering and industrious, and these qualities have enabled him to triumph over all the difficulties that have been found in his path. His main business enterprise is flour and feed, and is the only one in Somerset engaged in that vocation. He also owns the building that contains the postoffice and the feed store. In public affairs he has been prominent. From 1885 until 1888 he served his township as trustee, and in 1897, as above stated, was appointed postmaster at Somerset by President William McKinley, assuming the office on May 10, 1897. This position he has filled to the present time, to the entire satisfaction of the people of his community. Mr. Starbuck has ever supported the republican party, and is known as one of the reliable stand-bys of this part of the county. His religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has served as a member of the board of trustees.

Mr. Starbuck was married at Somerset, Indiana, December 12, 1867, to Miss Mary Shoop. Her father passed away when she was very young. Her mother, Elizabeth Shoop, later married Ezra Hawkins, and both are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Starbuck have no children.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



JOSEPH HAUPERT
Although agricultural conditions and methods have changed materially during the past half a century, in which discoveries and inventions have played such an important part in advancing the prosperity of such fertile farming communities as Wabash county, the need for energy, perseverance and well-directed effort still prevails, and the farmer who rises above his fellows is he who displays these characteristics in the greatest degree. Among the men of this county who are proving their ability as tillers of the soil and showing their worth as representatives of honored families, Joseph Haupert takes a prominent place. At this time he is the owner of a well-cultivated farm of 100 acres, on the east side of the Laketon road, eight and one-quarter miles north of Wabash, in Paw Paw township, a property which he has brought under a high state of cultivation through intelligent treatment and scientific methods. Mr. Haupert was born on the old family homestead in Wabash county, in a log house, February 19, 1869, and is a son of Frederick and Barbara (Nunemacher) Haupert.

Frederick Haupert was born in Germany, where his father died, and when sixteen years of age he came to the United States alone, his mother later coming to America, and she passed away in Ohio. He had received a good education in the schools of the Fatherland, and had shown himself especially clever at figures, but received no instruction in English until he was past twenty-one years of age, when he paid his own way. Prior to the advent of the railroads in Wabash county he left his home in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and came to the new locality, and was married here to Barbara Nunemacher. At this time he purchased eighty acres of land in the woods, for which he went into debt, lacking the purchase price of $300. They began their married life in the one-room log house, located in the midst of great growths of valuable poplar, walnut and other timber, the worth of which at that time, however, was not suspected. Game was plentiful in the woods, and the first year Mr. Haupert had his corn crop totally destroyed by the hordes of squirrels which infested this section. He kept steadily adding to his land from time to time and was the owner of five eighty-acre farms at one period, but when he died had only three farms, as he had disposed of 170 acres in Lagro township and forty acres in Paw Paw township. He was a self-made man in every respect. A great reader and man of superior intelligence, he was frequently called upon for advice, and settled many disputes among his neighbors. He was a faithful member of the German Lutheran church, and was always a stanch supporter of religious movements, assisting to build all three churches at Urbana. In his political views he was independent, exercising his right of franchise in voting for the man he deemed best fitted for the office, irrespective of party lines. He contributed materially to the upbuilding of his community and put up the second log house, which is still standing and occupied by his widow, who has enlarged, weather-boarded and plastered it and it is now one of the most substantial in the county. Mr. Haupert was within three months of being eighty-five years old at the time of his death, July 18, 1911, and his death was mourned by a wide circle of friends.

Mrs. Haupert, the widow of Frederick Haupert, has been a resident of Wabash county for more than sixty years, and is one of its best known and most highly esteemed women. She was born in Wittenberg; Germany, November 26, 1832, and is a daughter of Christofer and Mary (Singlinger) Nunemacher. Her father, a stone mason in Germany, was engaged in making house and barn foundations and wells, and also was the owner of a few fields in his native land. In 1847 the family emigrated to the United States, the journey consuming some seventy-five days on the ocean in a sailing vessel. Just as the party were about to board the ship, one of the women found that she had lost her money which had been tied up in a handkerchief and which she had left in a store. She declared that her brothers, who lived in Pennsylvania, would repay anyone who would lend her the money to come to America and Christofer Nunemacher advanced the means, but on arrival in Erie, Pennsylvania, the brothers refused to pay and after three weeks the little party moved on. From Pennsylvania they went to Ohio, where they remained for a little more than a year, and while residing here a son, George, enlisted for service in the war with Mexico, in which he subsequently met his death. Christofer Nunemacher was given seventy-five dollars and 80 acres of land by the Government and came to Wabash county, Indiana, where he had German friends, although he was given only eighty acres, this now being the farm adjoining the one belonging to George Haupert in Paw Paw township. This later proved a good farm, although at that time it was all covered with woods. Wild game was to be found in great quantities, and it was no unusual experience for Mr. Nunemacher to arise in the morning and find tracks where the deer had slept in front of his cabin during the night. Frequently the children, in going to school or after the cows, would become lost in the woods. Christofer Nunemacher and his wife were earnest, hard-working, God-fearing people, and when they died were mourned by the entire community.

Mrs. Frederick Haupert was a girl of sixteen years when the family came to Wabash county. She had received a good education in her native Germany, where the schools at that time were greatly superior to those found in the United States, but in this country did not attend school. At first the wilderness of the Hoosier state oppressed her, and she longed for the Fatherland, or for Ohio, but finally became reconciled to her life in the new country, and eventually grew to love her adopted community. Upon coming to Wabash county she began working among the families of the section, first with a Jewish family named Harrif, at Wabash, by whom she was kindly treated, later with Dunkard families of Lagro township, named Blocker and Rennicker, and later with Phil Albers, now deceased, who resided at Wabash. Here she was treated as one of the family, and was given a salary of $1.00 per week, having formerly worked for seventy-five cents per week. Often she worked in the field, with the old-fashioned scythe and other hand tools, and her money was always sent home to her father. She was within one day of being nineteen years of age when she was married by a justice of the peace, at the home of Mr. Albers, to Frederick Haupert, and they at once began their married life in the woods of Paw Paw township. The pioneers of that day had to be satisfied with but few comforts, outside of the absolute necessities. Mrs. Haupert did not know of the luxury of a spring wagon or buggy, or of any of the conveniences, although all of these things have since come to her. An old hand-made flat-iron, which belonged to her mother and which is an illustration of the crude tools of that day, is greatly prized by her. She was strong, able and willing, and a great help to her husband, and with him reared a family which is a credit to her and to the community. Mrs. Haupert still resides on the old homestead, of which she owns eighty acres, the land having been recently divided, her son George Haupert receiving eighty acres on the east and Charles eighty acres on the west, on the Laketon road. Although eighty-two years of age Mrs. Haupert is still alert, active and keenly interested in all that goes on about her. Her life has been an exceedingly full one and she has been blessed with advanced years, in which she has fully and nobly done her part in the wonderful changes which have made Wabash county one of the garden spots of the great state of Indiana. Frederick and Barbara Haupert were the parents of the following children: Jacob, who is deceased; Mary; Philimina, who is deceased; Mary; Fred; Elizabeth; George, who is living with his mother; Peter; Philip, who is deceased; Joseph, of this review; Charles H. and Rose.

Joseph Haupert was reared on the old homestead, his education being secured in the Half-acre school, to get to which he was frequently compelled to struggle through great fields of swamp land. He was large for his age, and when still a lad began to do his full share of work on the farm, performing a man's task when he was but fourteen. He was married in 1904 and continued under the parental roof for one year thereafter, then purchasing eighty acres of land in Waltz township. There he resided but five months, however, when he disposed of his property and came to the farm on which he now resides, the old Downey place. He has remodeled the residence, erected wire fences and made many hundreds of dollars of other improvements, and now has one of the handsome and valuable properties of Paw Paw township. He devotes his attention to general farming and to the raising of cattle and hogs, and has been very successful in his ventures. Known as a man of the strictest integrity, he has the confidence and respect of his business associates, and while he has not been an office seeker he has always been considered a good and progressive citizen, ever ready to assist movements for his community's benefit.

In June, 1904, Mr. Haupert was married to Miss Helena Catherine Wendel, daughter of Christian and Mary (Mattern) Wendel, well-known farming people of Paw Paw township, both of whom are now deceased. Mrs. Haupert's brother, Edward, is a resident of Pleasant township. They have two children, Mary Josephine, born August 28, 1905, and Myron Wendel, born August 1, 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Haupert are consistent members of the German Lutheran church, and have numerous friends in its congregation and in social circles of the township. In his political views he is independent, voting for the man rather than the party.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



ERHART WEBER
Few of the residents of Paw Paw township have resided in this part of the county longer than has Erhart Weber, sixty-four of whose seventy years have been passed here. Coming to this section when primitive conditions still remained, when the deer and wild turkey were to be found in abundance, when the log cabin was the main style of architecture, and when the beautiful country of today was still in the making, he has grown up with the county, has helped to foster its growth, and with its prosperity has himself prospered. Today he is the owner of 352 acres of land, secured through his own exertions, and is one of the highly esteemed men of his community, honored alike because of the great development through which he has passed, and for his many sterling traits of character.

Mr. Weber is a native of Ohio, born in Wayne county, January 15, 1844, in the town of Milbrook. His parents were John and Julia (Grosengene) Weber, the former a native of Switzerland, and the latter of France, and both of whom migrated to the United States as young people. John Weber was a shoemaker by trade, having learned that vocation in his native land, and for some time conducted a small shop at Milbrook, Ohio. He was married in Wayne county, and about the year 1850, with his wife and three children, a balky mare and a one horse wagon, came to Indiana and located in Wabash. He had no capital, but was industrious and ambitious and soon secured employment with Mr. Coontz, at the brickyard, where he worked during his first summer in this state. Following this he rented a farm which now forms a part of the property of his son, a tract of eighty acres which was owned by Peter Mount, son of the old banker and large land owner, and which was managed by James McClure. Through his enterprise and energy, thrift and economy, he was able to secure enough capital to pay part of $800 purchase price for 160 acres of land up the Eel river, in what is now Pleasant township, although at that time it had not as yet been divided. The land was all in the woods, wild animals abounded and all the privations of pioneer settlement were to be suffered, but Mr. Weber and his family set cheerfully to work to make a home. The mother, however, died here and the father sold the land to his youngest son, Frank, and moved to Manchester. There he was married again, and three years later passed away. Mr. Weber was a self-made man in every sense of the word. With no advantages, either of an educational or financial nature, he entered a new country, among strangers, and fought his way steadfastly upward to a position of importance in his community and financial independence. Among his neighbors he was known as a man of integrity in business and loyalty in friendships, and his support was ever given to worthy causes. He gave each of his children eighty acres of land, all of which, with their help, he had secured and put under cultivation. John and Julia Weber were the parents of the following children: Erhart; John; Henry; Ellen, who is the wife of James Guimip; and Frank, all now living.

Erhart Weber was a lad of six years when he accompanied his parents from the Ohio homestead to the new region of Indiana, and his youth was spent amid pioneer surroundings. He well remembers the turkeys, deer and wild animals which still made their home in the woods, and also has a distinct recollection of the ague with which the early settlers were afflicted almost without exception. The log schoolhouse on Eel river furnished him with his educational training, and like other boys of his generation and locality when he was not applying himself to gaining a knowledge of the "Three R's" he was helping his father in the work of the homestead farm. He early decided upon his career as an agriculturist, and worked at home until his marriage, in 1868, when he secured eighty acres from his father and embarked in operations' on his own account. This tract was located in the woods, but Mr. Weber had had experience already in clearing property, and it was not long before he had it under cultivation and with a good home and other buildings. He applied himself industriously to his labors, and as the years passed improved his land, added to his stock, erected new buildings and purchased new equipment, and continued to steadily buy more acres. His residence farm at this time consists of 160 acres, in Paw Paw township, in addition to which he has forty acres across the road and eighty acres east, also in Paw Paw township, and northeast of Roann, and seventy-eight acres near North Manchester, in Chester township. Although he is now seventy years of age he still continues his general farming operations with as much success as that which characterized his ventures in his youth when hard work was a necessity. Few men stand higher in the esteem of their fellow-citizens, and few have a better right to the term of self-made man. He was reared in the faith of the Lutheran church. Politically a democrat, Mr. Weber has stanchly supported his party, but has not cared to offer himself as a candidate for public office.

Mr. Weber was married in 1868, to Miss Mary Ann Ogden, who died leaving two children: George, who married Dora Dillery, resides at Manchester, and has one daughter, Pauline; and Myron, who resides on his father's forty-acre farm, in addition to which he owns eighty acres of his own, and who married Orpha Hainey. Erhart Weber married for his second wife Rilla Hale, who died February 27, 1910, and to this union there is one child: Edith, who married Charles Pottenger and has one child, Carmen. Mr. and Mrs. Pottenger reside in Paw Paw township.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



FRED GRETZINGER
One of the prosperous and progressive farming men in Lagro township is found in the person of Fred Gretzinger, who has spent practically his entire life thus far in this vicinity. His success has placed him among the foremost men of the community, and he is a leader in citizenship, in industry and in all those sturdy virtues that make for the development and onward progress of a town, state or a nation. The ancestry of Mr. Gretzinger, who is of sound German lineage, has no doubt had much to do with the matter of his personal prosperity, for he has from his German parents those solid attributes of character that are usually found to enter into a success of that nature of his. The farm of which Mr. Gretzinger is the owner is one of 120 acres, eighty acres of it being on the east side of the road, or range line, and the remaining forty on the west side.

Fred Gretzinger was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on June 29, 1850, and he is a son of George and Christina (Baush) Gretzinger. The father was born at Wittenberg, Saxony, as was also the mother, and both came to the United States young in years, the latter with her parents and the former in company with two boys of his own neighborhood. The voyage of the Baush family was one never forgotten by any member of the little company, for it was one unique and altogether horrible in its aspect. The ship encountered many misfortunes on the way across, and as a result of a series of accidents the crew found itself without a competent mariner on board, and, without daily accurate reckonings, the ship lost its way and was a year on the waters. Provisions ran out finally, and they were driven to desperate measures. As a last resort it was decided to sacrifice one member of the surviving company to supply food for the others, and when lots were drawn the unfortunate number fell to a young woman. The company out of sympathy for the victim deferred the sacrifice as long as possible, and when it seemed that there was no escape for her a sail was sighted on the distant horizon, and soon all were rescued by a friendly vessel. The harrowing experiences of this journey remained with Mrs. Gretzinger to her last moments, though she was but a child when she made the trip across the ocean.

The emigrants, including the Baush family and young Gretzinger and his friends, settled in Ohio when they arrived in America, and there George Gretzinger lived for several years. He was a shoemaker by trade and he worked at the bench for years, until failing eyesight compelled him to turn his attention to other work. Mr. Gretzinger met and married Miss Baush in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and there five of their children were born. They moved to Indiana, making the trip with team and wagon, in the year 1850, and the time consumed in making the journey was from the latter part of July to the middle of October, by which time they reached Huntington, Indiana. They settled in Dallas township, a mile east of the Wabash county line, and there they applied themselves to the business of making a comfortable, or at least a livable, home out of a wilderness such as all settlers in Indiana found in that day. There they experienced all the hardships that primitive farmers can ever know, and performed their full share toward settling up the community where they made their home. They came to be prominent people in the township, and were leaders in thought and action for years. Both lived to the age of seventy-five years, and they died in the same year, she in the spring and he in the autumn following. Mr. Gretzinger had been twice married. By his first wife he had two children, Eliza and Elizabeth, the latter deceased. The children of his second marriage were Mary, George, deceased; Fred, of this review; Catherine, and John and Jacob, both deceased.

Fred Gretzinger was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on June 29, 1850, and he was only a few weeks old when the family moved into Indiana. He grew up in Dallas township, Huntington county, Indiana, and went to the log school that was located in the district, there learning the rudiments of the common branches in a somewhat indifferent fashion. The father had a forty acre farm, and that was the extent of his property for years, for it was not until after his sons had reached manhood that he added to it from time to time. Fred worked on the home place, and from his father, who was a hard worker and a successful farmer at the same time, he learned a good many things about farming that he has put to use in these later years, though it is equally true that he has learned something about successful farming that his father never suspected in his day, for Mr. Gretzinger is one who has a progressive spirit, and he is ever on the alert for a new "wrinkle" in farming methods.

Fred Gretzinger was twenty-seven years old when he married Mary Schenkel on March 17, 1877. She was a daughter of Adam and Margaret (Christman) Schenkel, both of the parents being natives of Germany, who came to the United States very young, the mother being but sixteen years of age then. They located in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, as did also the parents of Mr. Gretzinger, on their arrival on these shores, and later came to Dallas township, Huntington county, where they settled on a primitive farm, and there ended their days after a life of hard work, attended by a fair degree of prosperity. They had seven children: John, Catherine, Mary, wife of Mr. Gretzinger; Adam, Peter, Sarah and Elizabeth. Mrs. Gretzinger attended the German school that was established in Dallas township, and had a fair training there as a child and while in her early teens. After her marriage to Mr. Gretzinger they settled on the farm of the elder Gretzinger for three years, after which they bought forty acres in Wabash county. This they sold in 1893 and bought eighty acres of their present place in Lagro township, making the purchase of William Kauffman. Mr. Gretzinger lost no time in remodeling the house and fitting up the place until it was in a more habitable state than when it came into his possession, and he has since introduced many improvements on the place, such as tiling the low portions of the land, fencing and building suitable barns, etc. Today he has one of the valuable and highly productive places in the township, and he takes his place among the foremost men of the community.

Mr. Gretzinger is a stanch democrat, fairly active in politics, and he is a member of the German Evangelical church, as is also his wife. The children that have come to him and his wife are six in number and are named as follows: Peter, who is his father's assistant on the farm and who married Elizabeth Schnitz; Adam, married to Cecil Kanour and the father of one child, Lucile; William, married to Mattie Ziner; Frank, Maggie and Laura. Maggie is the wife of R. Meyers and has one child, Wilbur. Laura, the youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. Gretzinger, resides at home.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



JOHN F. MURPHY
Born more than three score and ten years ago in Lagro township, John F. Murphy has not only lived through all the scenes from pioneer times to the more modern electric age, has witnessed such transformations as few other men now living can recall, but at the same time has fought a good fight all his own from poverty to a prosperity only a little short of wealth. It is a story of individual, hard-won success, and is not without its lesson and inspiration.

Mr. Murphy resides five miles east of Urbana, on the Murphy Pike, and owns four hundred acres, one hundred and sixty acres situated in Chester township and the remainder in Lagro. His parents were Oliver P. and America (Flora) Murphy. The former was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, and the latter in Fayette county, Indiana, coming to Wabash county with her mother and a half brother, William T. Ross. The Ross family located three and a half miles south of Lagro, where the Ross Run church now stands, as a family memorial in that locality. Oliver P. Murphy on coming to Wabash county settled on the first farm east of that of William T. Ross, locating there about three years later. Oliver Murphy first came to this country in 1836, and was one of a party of about ten men who came and entered land in the same locality. They walked from Fayette county, Indiana, and after making his selection Oliver Murphy walked on to the Fort Wayne land office, paid two hundred dollars in gold for a quarter section at a dollar and a quarter per acre, and in the meantime, in order to prepare his land partially for cultivation, he had deadened a portion of the heavy timber which covered it. After that he walked all the way back to Fayette county, and in 1840 returned to take possession. He married Miss America Flora, and they began housekeeping in a cabin in the woods. After clearing and cultivating a portion of that land for some years he sold in 1851 and moved to Lagro, where he built a warehouse on the banks of the old canal and engaged in the buying of grain. That venture was not successful and he lost a great deal of money. His death occurred July 30, 1861, when forty-five years of age. His wife passed away in 1871, at the age of fifty-two. Their children were: John Flora, born March 5, 1842; Peter S., born December 11, 1844; Emily, now deceased, born March 11, 1848; Morris, deceased, born February 21, 1850; Caroline, born March 27, 1853; Flora Bell, born March 5, 1858. The mother of this family was born in 1820, and the father in 1815.

John F. Murphy was born March 5, 1842, the eldest of the children, and first saw the light of day on the old home farm first mentioned, and all the children with the exception of the youngest were born there. He was ten years of age when the family moved to Lagro. It was one of the typical old schools which John F. Murphy attended while living in the country, a one-room structure built of logs, heated by a bog fireplace at one end, from which ascended a mud and stick chimney, and all the older boys had as a part of their school duties the task of cutting and bringing in the firewood. While attending that school he sat on a rough slab bench, wrote with a goose quill pen and studied the three Rs, which constituted the bulk of the curriculum in those day. After the family moved to Lagro he attended a one-room school house of frame construction. His home was in Lagro until 1870, and during his early youth he had assisted his father in the old grain warehouse situated on the canal.

A few years after attaining man's estate John F. Murphy enlisted, on February 28, 1862, in the Fourteenth Indiana battery, under Captain M. H. Kidd. Captain Kidd was later promoted major, and was succeeded by Frank Morris as captain. Mr. Murphy saw long and arduous service as a soldier, and is one of the honored veterans who still survive that great war. On December 18, 1862, at the battle of Lexington, Tennessee, he was taken prisoner, but was subsequently paroled, returned to Indianapolis and was exchanged, after which he rejoined his regiment. He fought with his command in all its many battles and campaigns, and was for thirteen days engaged in the siege of Mobile, Alabama; was at Guntown, Mississippi, where his battery lost two guns, and was in the final great battle of the war at Nashville, besides many others of lesser importance. From the roar of the cannon his hearing was so impaired that he has suffered that incapacity ever since, and that was one of the sacrifices which he made for the Union. His honorable discharge was given at Indianapolis, September 1, 1865, and he then returned to Lagro.

In the spring following his return from the army, on May 30, 1866, Mr. Murphy married Angeline Anson, who died January 28, 1868, leaving one child. This child, Frank Murphy, lives on the Chester township farm of his father, and he married Eva Huddleston. On September 14, 1869, Mr. Murphy married Elizabeth Bechtol, and to them the following children have been born: Olive, living at home; Irving, who lives across the road from his father's place, and who married Loretta Ellison; Augustus, mentioned at the close of this sketch; Frank, who lives in Chester township; and John Lee, who died when twenty-one years of age. Mr. Murphy also has four grandchildren, namely: Fern, who married Cecil Martin, and has two children, Joseph William and Ralph T.; Ralph; Robert John; and Ruby Elizabeth.

Mrs. John F. Murphy was born three miles north of Marion in Grant county, a daughter of Edward and Emily (Huff) Bechtol. Her father was born and reared in Virginia, and was left an orphan at the age of nine. He came north at the age of twenty-five years, having married in Virginia. His wife was a daughter of John and Dorothea (Chapman) Huff, the Huffs having come from Pennsylvania and the Chapmans from England. Edward Bechtol was a self-made man who never had school advantages, but who, nevertheless, acquired a substantial position in life. He lived near Marion until Mrs. Murphy was nine years of age, and then settled on the Dora Pike in Wabash county. There he acquired five hundred acres of land. Mr. Bechtol died there, and his wife passed away at Wabash. There were ten children in the "Bechtol family," as follows: Francis, who is seventy-nine years of age and is living in Seattle, Washington; John, of Lagro township; Mrs. Elizabeth Murphy; Anna, who lives in Marion; Edward, of Wabash; Wesley, of Marion; Emma, of Wabash; Alice, whose home is in Marion; Sylvia, of Wabash; and Alena, of Marion.

John F. Murphy received his financial start in life from the money paid him as a soldier of the Union. After the death of his first wife he took his little son, then but four months old, to the home of his mother, and was thus free to prosecute his endeavors and finally accumulated enough to enable him to buy his first farm in January, 1876. Previous to this time he had rented land. This purchase was a portion of his present farm in Lagro township. He moved his household to that place on March 22, 1870, and the eighty acres were largely in the midst of the green woods, with a poor log house as the only shelter for his family. From that time forward he steadily prospered, and six years later erected his present comfortable abode. Mr. Murphy has long since reached a position far above want, and does considerable business in loaning his surplus. He has done a large business in live stock, having sold many carloads of cows, though he never bought one. He buys heifers, raises them on his farm, and then sends them to market. He has also dealt in horses, hogs, sheep, and has never sold a bushel of corn from his farm, provided he had anything to feed it to. Another rule of his business life is that he has never given a mortgage. He and his sons now carry on farming operations together. One of the sources of profit from his land has been the timber, much of which has been converted into firewood and sold in the town. Mr. Murphy had very few advantages in the way of education when a boy, having had to work too hard to absorb much book knowledge. However, he has since educated himself by outside reading, and has even looked into law books, as he quaintly says. He is one of the honored members of the James H. Emmett Post, No.6, G. A. R., at Wabash, and in politics is a democrat. If one could transcribe all the pictures contained in the early recollections of this venerable Lagro citizen they would present a faithful representation of pioneer days. He can remember the Indians, when they camped near the old farm, and herds of deer and other wild animals were often seen in the clearings.

Augustus Murphy, a son of the Wabash county pioneer, was born in the log cabin on his father's farm, April 4, 1874. He has followed agricultural pursuits throughout his life, and is now residing on a farm of one hundred and twenty acres of well improved land located one mile south of Serva, in Chester township, Wabash county, engaged in general farming and stock raising. He is a democrat in politics and has fraternal relations with the Knights of Pythias at Manchester.

Augustus Murphy married, on the 28th of December, 1898, Miss Emma Troxel, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Amacher) Troxel.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



LYTTLETON J. SCOTT
The name of Lyttleton J. Scott is undoubtedly one of the best known among the older settlers of Wabash county, and wherever it is spoken it recalls not only an early settler, but one whose life and experiences have been fruitful, and one who has been a good business man, an earnest, energetic citizen, and in his personal character well beloved by a large circle of family and friends. His home is in Paw Paw township, on a fine estate of one hundred acres, four miles east of Roann, all the land being located on the south side of the highway.

Lyttleton J. Scott was born at Brookville in Franklin county, Indiana, September 22, 1839, a son of Job and Lora Ann (Wallace) Scott. His father was born in Tennessee and his mother in North Carolina, and they were married in Franklin county, Indiana. Job Scott was a son of Edward Scott, a planter, who moved from Tennessee to Alabama, but soon afterwards returned to Tennessee, and subsequently came north of the Ohio river and located in Franklin county, Indiana, where he bought a farm. During his later years Edward Scott moved into Wabash county, owned a farm here, and lived with his son-in-law Thomas Moore until his death; being followed three years later by his widow. Edward Scott was one of the prosperous citizens measured by the ideas of wealth prevalent in his time.

Job Scott, the third child in a large family, was twenty-four years of age when the family moved to Indiana. A cabinet maker by trade, he followed the contracting business in Franklin county, and helped to build one section of the Whitewater canal. His business activities brought him both land and money, but like many men he was ruined by his friends, having placed his name on too much paper as security and in the end having practically all his personal resources wiped out. During his residence in Franklin county he had married, his wife having lived there from girlhood. After his experience of success and adversity in Franklin county, Job Scott brought his family to Wabash county in 1842, and here started in to build up his success from the bottom. For a number of years he worked as a renter on the Henry McPherson farm and finally saved enough to buy forty acres of land eight miles east of where his son Lyttleton now lives, his farm being in Chester township. Later he sold that property and bought a place in the city of Wabash, where his death occurred at the age of sixty-four years. His widow survived him many years and passed away at the age of eighty-seven. Their four children were: Lyttleton J.; Martin, deceased; William Riley, and Mary Elizabeth, who died young.

Lyttleton J. Scott was only three years old when he came to Wabash county, and his early recollections embrace some of the most interesting incidents and scenes of pioneer times in Wabash county. The family removed from Franklin county in wagons, and at the time of their arrival Wabash was a small village. The surrounding country, except here and there where some enterprising settler had cleared off a piece of land, was almost unbroken wilderness, and there are very few men who can understand by personal recollection and experience the condition of things at that time as can Mr. Scott. Their first home was near the little town called America near Lafontain. Hundreds of Indians were still living in this part of Indiana, and practically the only roads were the old Indian trails. Mr. Scott has himself often seen bands of Indians from fifty to one hundred in number, riding single file one behind the other, the braves being followed by their squaws and with the papooses strapped on their backs. As a matter of fact, his acquaintance with Indians was much closer than this, since the red man often called at his father's cabin, walking through the deep snow and begging something to eat, and the request was never refused and a supply of corn bread and venison was usually ready for these guests. Mr. Scott as a boy and some of his neighbors often visited the Indian lands along the river to get river plums. He became well acquainted with the Indian customs and peculiarities. He has seen the Indians set up poke "stalks" and shoot at them with bow and arrow. So far as his own personal observations extended Mr. Scott never knew the Indians to be otherwise than friendly except when they were supplied with bad whiskey.

Mr. Scott remained at home until he was twenty-four years of age, and in the meantime had gone through the usual course of pioneer boys in the local schools. The school house which was his temple of learning was built of logs, it had the typical rough benches without backs, and the only desk was a broad board set aslant around two or three sides of the room. The instruction was limited to the fundamentals, but he thus gained some knowledge of books and came out of school well equipped by his otherwise practical experience for the duties of life.

On August 20, 1863, Mr. Scott married Sara Jane Maple. After thirty-seven years of happy married life she passed away in 1900. There were three children: Frank Martin, who lives in Wabash, married Nora Speck, and their children are Lyttleton, Harvey, Donald and Pauline; Albert, who lives at Ijamsville in Wabash county, married Elizabeth Fausnough, and they have two children, Earl and Oscar, and an adopted child, Wilma; Nellie who lives with her father, is Mrs. Emanuel Amber, and her four children are Robert Lyttleton, Lowell Scott, Iola Leneva and Herbert, usually called Dick.

Mr. Scott in his early youth learned the trade of stone mason, and followed that vocation for many years in Wabash. About forty years ago he bought his present farm, the old Hensler place. It was practically all woods at the time it came into his possession, and its clearing and improvement has been the result of Mr. Scott's individual labor and supervision. Many hundred rods of tile has been laid, the lowlands have been drained, the woods have been cut down, and it would be impossible to enumerate the many ways in which his own work has contributed to the value of this, one of the best farms in Paw Paw township. His first home there was a log cabin, and he considered that a temporary makeshift as a residence until he could have a better. He was saving money to build when the log house took fire and was burned to the ground, and with its other contents all the money was destroyed except thirty dollars which he happened to be carrying in his pocket. The second house, which was a small frame building, and in which he lived for many years, was built and furnished entirely on credit, but he soon paid off his obligation. In the summer of 1912 Mr. Scott put up one of the best country homes in Paw Paw township, a large ten-room frame building, with a basement under all and with an equipment that lacks nothing which would be found in the city residences of the better class. Among other improvements and facilities he had his own light plant, the rooms are heated by furnace, and it is a delightful place in which to spend his declining years. All the investment represented by his home and much more is the proceeds of his successful career as a farmer. Mr. Scott paid a little more than two thousand dollars for his present farm, and it is now worth several times that amount. In politics he has usually supported the democratic principles and candidates, beginning about fifty years ago, and in church affairs is a member of the Paw Paw Christian church.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



SAMUEL J. BECHTOLD
Few men of Lagro township were more highly esteemed among their associates than was the late Samuel J. Bechtold, who met an untimely death in his home community as the result of an unfortunate automobile accident on March 26, 1911. Mr. Bechtold had been a lifelong resident of this township, his birth occurring one mile north of the place he called home during the later years of his life on July 20, 1874, so that he was but thirty-six years of age when his final summons came. He was one of the many prosperous farmers of the east part of Wabash county, and a man of many sterling qualities that had won for him a host of stanch friends and the confidence of all who shared in his acquaintance. His death was a crushing blow to his family, but it would be difficult to estimate the loss that the township sustained in his passing, for he was a man who was valuable in his citizenship, and one who could not well be spared.

Samuel J. Bechtold was the son of John C. and Fredericka (Fiegle) Bechtold, the father born in Germany and the mother in Ohio, and the subject was one of the eleven children born to them, five of whom died in young life. Mr. Bechtold, in March, 1896, married Lydia Hegel, the daughter of Jacob and Mary (Bitzer) Hegel, and concerning these parents a fuller sketch will be found elsewhere in this volume, in connection with the life of John C. Hegel, a brother of Mrs. Bechtold. It may be stated here, however, and more or less briefly, that the mother was born and reared in Wabash county, while the father came to the United States from Germany as a young man, and cleared up a farm out of the Indiana wilderness as his contribution to the development of the state. He retired to Wabash when in his eighties and there died in August, 1910. He was twice married, his first wife having been Louise Bender, who bore him two children, Mary, the wife of Andrew West, and Tina. The seven surviving children of his second marriage are John, to whom a sketch is devoted elsewhere in this biographical work; William; Lydia, widow of Samuel Bechtold of this review; Charles, also named in this work; Reuben, Harry and Sarah.

Mrs. Bechtold was born on the old Hegel farm, and the log house in which she was reared is still standing. She attended the district school near the farm, and remained quietly at home until her marriage to one of the brightest young men of the community, and one who in the few years of his life fully lived up to the expectations of the community regarding his future, in so far as his life extended.

Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bechtold: Ruth, aged sixteen; Naomi, now twelve years old; Emma, in her tenth year; Lela, aged eight, and Samuel Elmer, four years old, who was an infant at the time of his father's untimely death.

When Mr. Bechtold married he settled down on eighty acres of the old home farm, to which he later added forty acres and still later an additional eighty, making 200 acres in all. He was a successful farmer, living well up to the best that was known and practiced in agricultural circles, and he enjoyed a prosperity that places him among the foremost men of the township. He was a Republican and a member of the Evangelical Association, and his fraternal affiliations were with the Masonic order. Since the death of Mr. Bechtold his widow has retained the management of the farm, and her brother, Harry Hegel, conducts the general affairs of the place under her direction.

The manner of Mr. Bechtold's death was as follows: A brother-in-law, Mr. Fults, had purchased a new automobile, and Mr. Bechtold, who was an experienced driver and the owner of a machine of his own, accompanied him on a trip one afternoon for the purpose of teaching Mr. Fults to run the machine. All went well until Mr. Fults attempted to guide the machine out of a wagon rut. Just then it chanced that there was a steep grade in the roadway, sloping into the old canal bed at a pitch of about forty degrees. The auto ran safely out of the rut and was running at the angle of the road when the wheel on the high side struck a rock, on which the machine turned turtle and rolled to the bottom of the canal bed, carrying its occupants with it and landing right side up, one wheel planted squarely across the neck and chest of Mr. Bechtold. Mr. Bechtold lingered until the next day, but he never regained consciousness, and the last perceptible flame of life flickered out on Sunday evening.

Mr. Bechtold was buried under the auspices of Antioch Lodge, No. 410, Royal Arch Masons, of which he was a member, with Rev. F. F. McClure, pastor of the Bethel Evangelical church, of which Mr. Bechtold was a member, presiding. Resolutions of sympathy were passed by the Masonic lodge of Andrews of which he was a member, and by the Knights of Pythias of Andrews, with which he had also been affiliated, and expres¬sions of sympathy and respect were forthcoming from all who knew the man and understood something of the loss that his family and the entire community had sustained.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



GEORGE W. CRIST
Though the pioneer days of Wabash county are closed, some of the older settlers are still alive, and a number of men can be found who bore the brunt of leadership in clearing and striking out the path of progress in this county. Practically every acre of ground in Wabash county represents the labor of some man who determined to make it productive, and it was the successive work of year after year on the part of many men and several generations that gradually extended the area of cultivation and productivity, and it is that monumental work which constitutes the basis for the present flourishing prosperity of the entire county. A man now well past the age of three score and ten, George W. Crist of Paw Paw township has performed his full share of this important labor of development, and his generous possessions at the present time represent almost a lifetime of fruitful endeavor and judicious management. George W. Crist is proprietor of one hundred and ninety acres located on the east side of the Minnick Pike about nine miles northwest of Wabash.

The Crist family was numbered among the pioneers of Wabash county. George W. Crist was born on his father's farm a mile and a half south of his present residence on December 26, 1842. His parents were John D. and Mary M. (Michael) Crist. His father was a Virginian and his mother a native of Preble county, Ohio, where they were married, the father having come out from Virginia at the age of twenty-one. While in Preble county one son, Leander, was born, and they then moved to Wabash county. At that time there were no railroads, and the only means of transportation was by wagon over the rough trails, or by boat along the canals and rivers. The Crist family chose to make their emigration with wagons and teams, and they finally arrived in what was then an unbroken forest, in the locality where George Crist was born. For a short time they enjoyed the hospitality of an earlier pioneer, James Jack, who, in the kindly spirit of helpfulness which was so characteristic of early settlers, helped the newcomer to put up a log house. That house was the birthplace of George W. Crist. It was practically bare of comforts, had a puncheon floor, and the furniture was of the rudest and most practical sort. The father got his land cheap, but was confronted with the tremendous task of clearing it before it could be made profitable for cultivation. The one horse which he had to work the land was a young, spirited iron-gray, and when the wolves came around at night it was difficult to restrain him until a stable could be completed that afforded both shelter and protection to the animal. All the rest of his days John D. Crist lived there, labored to chop down the trees and grub the stumps, and his first log home was replaced with a large two-story log building. As comforts and means became more plentiful he weather-boarded the log frame, sealed it tight, and made it one of the better dwellings in that community. The logs which originally entered into its construction were of large size and of walnut and poplar. After his death his widow moved to Roann and died there. John D. Crist had one hundred and ten acres in his first farm, and subsequently added another eighty acres, all of which lay in Paw Paw township. The five children were: Leander, deceased; George W.; Louisa T., who died young; Levina Ellen, who also died young; Frank, who is the proprietor of the old homestead.

George W. Crist had his first conscious recollection of the old homestead, still largely surrounded by heavy forest, and as soon as he was old enough he began to swing an axe and help chop trees and clear off the brush, besides handling the plow and other implements of agriculture. For a time he attended a log school house at the corner of old Mr. Jack's farm, and one of his early teachers was Willis Bryan, a sketch of whom appears in this work. While attending school under Mr. Bryan, Mr. Crist and some of the other boys planned a joke on the schoolmaster. They put a board over the chimney, so that the smoke from the fireplace was unable to find its usual exit, and poured out into the schoolroom so that the master and the other scholars had to leave. His response to this funning of the older boys was to treat them to a large basket of apples. After all these years, it would hardly be necessary to name all the boys who participated in that mischief, but some of them no doubt will read these lines and recall the incident.

Mr. Crist lived at home, without any special incidents except such as were common to the rural life of boys and young men of that time, and on October 16, 1866, married Ann E. Jack, one of the popular girls of the neighborhood. She died December 26, 1898, after they had been happily married for more than thirty years. She was the oldest daughter of John D. and Catherine (Stewart) Jack. To their marriage were born two children: Edwin M. Crist is now active manager of his father's farm. He and his father together own a section of land in Western Kansas. Edwin married Edna Hetzler, daughter of Michael Hetzler, and they have two children, Lenore and Marion Lowell, Edwin Crist lives in a house adjoining that of his father, and on his father's farm. Lilly M. Crist, second child, is the wife of Senator L. A. Baber. Senator Baber came to Wabash county from Ohio, gained a substantial position as a general merchant and automobile agent at Roann, and is now serving in the state senate, representing Wabash and Fulton counties. Mr. and Mrs. Baber have one child, Carl Crist Baber, who now lives in Wabash.

After his marriage nearly fifty years ago, George W. Crist and wife first began domestic life on a very simple scale. Their first home was a little log house on a farm rented from Ed Busick, a mile and a half south of the present Crist farm on the west side of the same road. After about sixteen months there, he moved to his present place. One hundred acres of this on the north side were inherited from his father's estate, his mother having acquired it from William Watson, and it was originally in the old Wigham tract. The rest of his land Mr. Crist bought from a cousin, John Bickel. Though the Crist farm now presents a smiling landscape of fields and meadows it was in a very different condition when he first settled. Woods covered most of the acreage, and as he had little capital he made a log cabin serve the purposes of a home. Near that little cabin home stood some immense trees, and had one of them fallen it would easily have crushed the cabin. To remove this danger Mr. Crist soon cut them down, and for many years his axe was busy in chopping down timber that would now be worth a large sum of money. After the years had given him prosperity, in 1883 he built his present commodious ten-room frame house. Four years later, in 1887, he erected a large barn, and that was burned in 1896. Besides the improvements on his own home grounds, Mr. Crist put up a large residence for his son, barns and other improvements. Many rods of tile have been laid on the low parts of his land, fences have been strung around the fields, and few men have produced more regularly and in larger quantity the staple crops of this county than George W. Crist. His prosperity is also represented by the ownership of town property in Roann and Winona. Mr. Crist is a trustee of the Presbyterian church at Roann, and a democrat in politics, though never active nor a seeker for office. His support has always been readily enlisted for any movement which would improve local conditions, and he was largely instrumental in getting the Minnick Pike alongside his place built. It was he and Mr. Minnick, now deceased, who carried around the petition, and he now has the satisfaction of residing on one of the best constructed thoroughfares in this part of the county. Mr. Crist employs some of his time in writing fire, lightning and wind insurance for the Huntington County Farmers' Mutual Company.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914



Deb Murray