MILO NELSON. The business of modern stock farming has a fine example on the estate of Milo Nelson in section twenty-seven of Washington township. Mr. Nelson, who is one of the younger generation of Grant county citizenship, belongs to a family which has been here from the early days, has applied business system and common sense industry to agriculture, and has made it pay just in the same proportion as he would have made any other business which he had undertaken profitable and successful. His farm consists of two hundred and twenty-two acres of land, with a twelve-acre timber lot, and most of it is fine pasture land. He raises high grade live stock, both cattle and horses, and does a large business in the buying and selling of cattle and horses. About his home are collected some excellent barns and other buildings, and the entire estate shows the thrift and progressive ideas of a modern farmer. The Nelson home is located on the Hillseimer Road.

Milo Nelson was born in Monroe township, Grant county, April 15, 1872, a son of Martin Nelson, and a grandson of Martin Nelson, Sr. The senior Martin was one of the pioneer settlers of Grant county. Martin Jr., who was born in Ohio in 1833, and died in Grant county in 1911, was a boy when he accompanied his father to this state, and spent all his active career in Monroe township. He was a soldier of the Civil war, and was always known as a man who could bear the responsibilities of citizenship with credit to himself. He married Olivia Coulter, daughter of James Coulter, another early settler of Grant county, who entered land, one hundred and sixty acres from the government in Center township. The mother is living with her children. The children in the family were: Mary B., who died in infancy; Mrs. J. B. Strange, of Monroe township; Lucy, wife of Geo. Stout, their home being near the Canadian line in North Dakota; Milo; Charles, who is in the hardware business in Marion.

Milo Nelson was reared on the old farm in Monroe township. His schooling was that afforded by the district institutions of the country, and he was a scholar in Center school, then in the Mills school for one term, and finished in the Liberty school in Monroe township. When he was twenty-one years of age his father gave him forty acres of land in Monroe township, as his capital for making a start in life, and he soon afterward bought forty acres so that he possessed an excellent little farm of eighty acres. After his father moved to Marion he bought another eighty acres of the old estate, and this quarter section of land he sold in the spring of 1904, and then bought the farm which has been above described. This place was known as the old Nelson Turner farm, which had been entered by its proprietor from the government many years before. At the time Milo Nelson acquired it, it was in a very run down condition, and the present owner has spent several thousand dollars in improvement, remodeling and repairing the house and putting up improved buildings and equipment all about the place. His two barns are especially well built and equipped for the purpose of a stock farm, and in the summer of 1913 he erected a silo with a capacity of 100 tons. Since moving here he has also cleared off thirty-five acres of timber land. Mr. Nelson makes a specialty of raising high grade Percheron registered horses, and has some of the finest specimens of that breed in eastern Indiana. His big horse "Ben" weighs nineteen hundred pounds, and is valued at twelve hundred dollars. Another is "Cleon," a four-year old registered Percheron stallion, valued at one thousand dollars. In 1912 his horses took two ribbons at the Chicago International Stock Show, and was third in the Championship entries against all ages. He also took fourth place in the three-year-old class. Mr. Nelson raises four colts each year, and has made horse breeding a very successful feature of his enterprise. Mr. Nelson and Frank Lenfesty own in partnership the old Coulter farm in Center township which his grandfather, John Coulter, entered. This farm consists of 161 1/2 acres.

In 1895 he married Miss Stella L. Lieurance of Center township, daughter of Elisha L. Lieurance. Their three children are Lesta, aged seventeen; Fred, aged fourteen, and Glen, aged twelve. Politically he is a Democrat, and he has fraternal membership in Lodge No. 253 of the Loyal Order of Moose at Marion, and in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

"BLACKFORD AND GRANT COUNTIES INDIANA, A CHRONICLE OF THEIR PEOPLE PAST AND PRESENT WITH FAMILY LINEAGE AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS"; Complied Under the Editorial Supervision of BENJAMIN G. SHINN; vol. II ; THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY; CHICAGO AND NEW YORK; 1914
Submitted by:Peggy Karol and Karen Overholt


JOSEPH PENDLETON WINGER. The genealogy of Joseph Pendleton Winger of Pleasant is the same as that of D. O. Winger of Richland, both being sons of Joseph Winger. J. P. Winger on November 9, 1890, married Miss Amanda Ellen Shoemaker, of Delaware county, and all of his lifetime has been spent within less than one mile of his birthplace.

Mrs. Winger is a daughter of David and Leah (Deeter) Shoemaker, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio, but a pioneer Delaware county family. Her brothers and sisters are: Sarah, George, Hettie, Levi, Solomon, Anna, John, Harrison, Ira, Oliver, Fred, Mary and Ephraim. The Winger family belongs to the German Baptist or Church of the Brethren community centering at Vernon in Wabash county with a branch community church at Cart creek, while Mrs. Winger came from a similar community in Delaware county.

The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Winger are: Alva M., Lewis D., Jesse E., Anna L., Raymond A., Joseph R, Ruth E., Mary E., Orval J., Herbert M. and Edith L. The son Alva M. is married to Miss Mabel E. Patterson and has one child, Alva Carl. There has been very little sickness in the family, and the children have been given educational advantages beyond the Cart Creek school, the oldest son having attended North Manchester German Baptist College, of which a cousin, Otho Winger, is president (see article, Church of the Brethren). Four of the children are in Sweetser high school, Lewis D. and Jesse E. being seniors there.

While Mr. and Mrs. Winger have their family about them, they have had the necessary comforts of life which are so often acquired after the children quit the parental roof, and all the advantages found in any rural community are found at the Winger homestead. The modern farm machinery, manure-spreader, milk separator, incubator, — all came in turn. Just as their father, Joseph Winger, had the first Star cornplanter drawn by two horses, some of the sons have been among the first to use the automobile, and for two years the Winger place has been lighted with electricity generated from a dynamo stationed in an enclosed porch, and enough current is generated on wash-day when the power is in use to light the house, barn and out buildings, even a light in the silo. Each member of the family is taught economy—turn off a light when done with it.

The Winger house was modern a few years ago, and has been doubled in size. With cement walks, electric lights and a complete water system, there is little to be desired in rural life that is riot installed in the household. The original Winger homestead was a splendid farm with improvements abreast of the times, and all the children have remained near it and all have up-to-date improvements. The water-shed between Pipe creek and Cart creek is on the J. P. Winger land, and part of his drainage is into the Wabash and part into the Mississinewa. Before his farm was drained the water from the two creeks would sometimes overspread and reach, and it would require only a short drain to connect them at any time, the land being level in that vicinity. There is no more productive farm land in Grant county than in this Pipe creek and Cart creek basin, and the Wingers all understand about maintaining soil fertility—are all of them scientific farmers.

With two streams as outlets, drainage has always been possible and the ditching machine has been used on the farm frequently. He does not invest in a ditching machine, but the Irishman and his spade are no longer the method—he hires the man who owns the machine. Mr. Winger never sells hay or grain, but feeds everything grown on the farm and cattle and hogs have both been "mortgage lifters" with him. While he had a "nest egg" from his father, he has always added acreage as he could buy it, and three hundred and thirty-five acres in the immediate community is a good showing. However, his land is not all in one tract, there will be places for his sons about him, and when he retires from active life he will not move to town, but will perhaps build a home near Cart Creek church and still have oversight of the farm. Mr. Winger had one tenant ten years until the latter had saved enough to purchase a small farm for himself. His sons will in time be his tenants.

Mr. Winger was among the early Hereford cattle breeders to conduct an auction at his farm, and his offering attracted many buyers. While this Pipe creek-Cart creek soil becomes mud when mixed with water, cement has been used until the feeding and care of stock has been reduced to the minimum of labor, and all livestock is under shelter. A catalpa grove of a thousand trees serves as a windbrake, and it is an excellent rendezvous for hogs—they are not troubled with flies. Mr. Winger escaped hog cholera for many years, until 1913, when he lost nearly his entire herd. Recently he has sought advice from the farm agent, saying he regards this innovation as an excellent thing—up-to-date ideas suggested to farmers who may not read the agricultural press. While all these conveniences at the Winger farm are the result of labor, Mr. Winger believes in taking advantage of opportunities, and he welcomed the farm agent as a forward movement in agriculture. As a member of the Advisory Board of Pleasant Township Mr. Winger was one of the prime movers in the building of the new grade and High School Building at Sweetser. Has been a director of the Farmers State Bank at Sweetser since its first organization, January 3, 1913, which has been a great innovation for the community and very successful from a financial standpoint.

"BLACKFORD AND GRANT COUNTIES INDIANA, A CHRONICLE OF THEIR PEOPLE PAST AND PRESENT WITH FAMILY LINEAGE AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS"; Complied Under the Editorial Supervision of BENJAMIN G. SHINN; vol. II ; THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY; CHICAGO AND NEW YORK; 1914
Submitted by:Peggy Karol and Karen Overholt


DANIEL O. WINGER. Martin Wenger, of South Bend, in his "History of the Wenger Family" says their home in Europe was the Palitinate, Germany, but through tradition it is learned that they originally came from Switzerland. In the region in which they were located a peak exists, bearing the family name known as the Wengern Alp.

About the middle of the eighteenth century they began immigrating to the United States. In the United States they first settled in Lancaster and Franklin counties, Pennsylvania, and then with a roving spirit began migrating to various parts of the United States. The branch of the family to which the subject of this sketch belongs left Pennsylvania and settled in Roanoke county, Virginia. Virginia being a slave state without many educational facilities, the Wengers in that region became careless in preserving their family name of Wenger and most of them under the sway of popular dialect substituted an "i" in place of the ‘e" thus changing the name to Winger. In a similar way from time to time various changes have been made such as Wingard or Wingert.

Joseph Winger, son of Martin and Elizabeth Frantz Winger, was born in Roanoke county, Virginia, April 23, 1825. He came to Indiana in the spring of 1847. He first went to Elkhart county but later he came to Grant county and there he hired to work on the farm of Shadrach Lawson for seven dollars a month. In the autumn he returned to Virginia and remained there until the autumn of 1849. While there he married Mary M. Dermond of Roanoke county and then accompanied by his wife, father, mother, brothers, and sisters, he again returned to Indiana. He settled upon a tract of land known as the "Woods' Land" upon which he lived six years. He then moved on a farm in Pleasant township, section 18. On January 8, 1856, the wife and mother passed away leaving three children: John M., born June 16, 1850; Sarah E., born June 28, 1852 and died June 21, 1884; Madison D., born August 27, 1855, and died August 11, 1870.

He then married Elizabeth Showalter, a native of Preble county, Ohio. From this union issued eight children: Samuel E., born February 12, 1858, and died January 20, 1860; Daniel O., born February 28, 1860; Orlando C., born February 26, 1862; Joseph P., born June 30, 1864; Abigail A., born August 29, 1867 and died June 28, 1906; Ida F., born February 3, 1870; Mahlon D. S., born October 2, 1877; and one which died in infancy.

Although Joseph Winger came into a wilderness with practically no resources, he came out a man of fortune. He proved himself to be a man successful in business and he wielded an influence throughout the community in which he lived that caused people to seek his advice. He had a limited education yet he had natural ability which enabled him to keep abreast of the times and accumulate enough of a fortune to give each of his children a fine start in life after his death which occurred April 6, 1895. His widow occupied part of the old homestead and survived him eighteen years, but at the age of seventy-six years, two months and twenty-six days, on May 3, 1913, she quietly passed to her home beyond. A magnificent monument has been reared to the memory of the departed ones in the Vernon Cemetery, which is the family burial ground. This cemetery is referred to in the chapter, ‘‘The Church of the Brethren," writter by Professor Otho Winger, son of John M. Winger. Most of Joseph Winger's family affiliated themselves with the Church of the Brethren and have their place of worship at Cart Creek, which is situated on a part of the old family homestead.

Daniel O. Winger by birthright was a Democrat, but since that party stood for licensing the liquor traffic, he left it believing that to license a traffic that debauched his fellow-man was a sin and upon this theory he became an uncompromising Prohibitionist and votes the ticket. He was active in the wet and dry campaign in Richland township and at every opportunity uses his influence to advance not only temperance, but all forms of morality, intelligence and religion in his community. He represents a family which has always borne an honorable part in the history of the extensive community Lying both in Grant and Wabash counties.

Daniel O. Winger was born in Pleasant township, Grant county, Indiana, and he lived in this township until he was twenty-three years of age. He was married October 27, 1883, to Ida Victoria Bechtel, daughter of Samuel and Julia York Bechtel and granddaughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Stapleton Bechtel. Her grandfather bought the Miller farm (see chapter on Pleasant Township in history), from the "Joaquin Miller" family. (See chapter on the Miama Reserve.) Mrs. Winger's ancestry came from Pennsylvania and Ohio, and finally located in Pleasant township, the historic township of Grant county, and occupied by land that will always be associated with thoughts of the "Poet of the Sierras." Her grandparents on her mother's side were Alfred Y. and Sarah Ann York, residents of the same township.

The children born to Daniel O. and Ida Victoria (Bechtel) Winger are: Nellie Grace, wife of Oscar Fleming, born August 15, 1884; Alma Francis, wife of Guy Wood, born September 16, 1886; Joseph Homer, born November 29, 1888; Clement Alfred, born August 1, 1891, married to Hallie Smith; and Roger Daniel, born February 16, 1896. Clement has made a study of salesmanship, bidding for patronage as an auctioneer, and has been successful in his experience. All live on farms except Roger, who is following teaching as a life profession and is a minister in the Church of the Brethren. There is one grandchild, Myron Wood, son of Alma Francis. The Winger family has always been characterized by good citizenship in Grant county.

"BLACKFORD AND GRANT COUNTIES INDIANA, A CHRONICLE OF THEIR PEOPLE PAST AND PRESENT WITH FAMILY LINEAGE AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS"; Complied Under the Editorial Supervision of BENJAMIN G. SHINN; vol. II ; THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY; CHICAGO AND NEW YORK; 1914
Submitted by:Peggy Karol and Karen Overholt


REVEREND DAVID E. MYERS, present Chaplain of the National Military Home near Marion, Indiana, has held this post for twenty-one years, during which time he has won many friends outside as well as inside of the institution. He himself is a veteran of the Civil War, and has had many years of experience in ministering to men, for he entered the service of his church at the age of twenty and he is now over seventy years of age.

David E. Myers was born on the twenty-third of January, 1840, eight miles southwest of Dayton, Ohio. His father was Benjamin Myers, and his mother was Katherine (Hoover) Myers. His father was a native of Reading, Pennsylvania, and his mother was born near Hagerstown, Maryland. His father lived to be eighty-six, and his mother seventy-five years of age and both of them lived near Dayton, Ohio until they died. Thirteen children were born to Benjamin and Katherine Myers, David E. Myers being the eighth in order of birth.

The district schools near Dayton, and the common schools of Dayton furnished Mr. Myers with his early education. He counts as valuable one year of private study under Dr. Kephart. He entered Otterbein University near Columbus, Ohio, in 1862 and remained there until he was called to fill a vacancy in the ministry of the United Brethren Church. He had become a member of this church, of which he is still a member, about four years previous to this time. He also became a member of the Miami Conference of this church in 1862, is still a member of it and regularly attends its annual meetings. At the age of twenty-three he became identified with the Ohio National Guard and helped to recruit and organize a battalion of eight companies for the Union. By this organization he was appointed acting Chaplain. They were soon called to the front where he served for one year in the ranks of the Union Soldiers. He was mustered out at the close of the war at Columbus, Ohio, and returned to his home near Dayton.

After the war he pursued his theological studies, and in 1867 was ordained as an elder in the United Brethren Church. He served for a number of years in this ministry in Ohio, and it was in 1880 that he came to Marion, Indiana. For several years he was in charge of ministerial work in the counties of Wabash, Grant and Howard, and for two years had charge of the church in Union City, Indiana. During this time he made many acquaintances and friends throughout this whole section.

It was in 1893 on the first of September, that he was appointed Chaplain of the National Military Home near Marion. He has served in this office ever since that time.

For thirty years he has been a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and has filled many of the offices of the General Shunk Post No. 23 of the Department of Indiana at Marion.

On the third of September, 1865, Mr. Myers was married to Malinda Emaline Tribbey, a daughter of George Tribbey of Clinton county, Ohio. Six children were born of this union, two of whom are dead. Those living are as follows: George E. Myers of Indianapolis, Indiana; Paul P. Myers, of Grinnell, Iowa; T. A. Myers of Chicago; and Luella B. Myers, who makes her home with her father. Mrs. Myers died on the 17th of June, 1905.

Mr. Myers has had quite a variety of experiences in the ministry, as a Pastor of a Circuit consisting of several churches; as Pastor of the City church: Presiding Elder or Superintendent of a Conference district; and as Chaplain in the employment of the National Government.

Chaplain Myers speaks of his work at the Military home with evident enjoyment and seems thoroughly appreciative of the splendid treatment given the disabled veterans by the National Government. That which he seems to have enjoyed most however was the period of his life when he travelled Circuit.

"BLACKFORD AND GRANT COUNTIES INDIANA, A CHRONICLE OF THEIR PEOPLE PAST AND PRESENT WITH FAMILY LINEAGE AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS"; Complied Under the Editorial Supervision of BENJAMIN G. SHINN; vol. II ; THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY; CHICAGO AND NEW YORK; 1914
Submitted by:Peggy Karol and Karen Overholt


RICHARD M. JOHNSON. This well known Grant county farmer and business man came here when a child more than sixty years ago, and long since acquired a substantial position as a man of affairs, and head of one of the important families of this community.

Richard M. Johnson was born in Green county, Ohio, September 21, 1842, a son of Enos and Martha (Pierce) Johnson. The family are of old Southern stock, and the parents were born in North Carolina, were married in North Carolina, and then joined in the great migration from those states, moving out with a horse and cart, and finally arrived in Green county, Ohio, with only twenty-five cents of available capital. Enos Johnson followed his trade of a shoemaker, which he had learned in the south, until he was about forty years of age, when he moved on to the west and arrived in Grant county in 1850. He bought eighty acres of school land in Blackford county, but later sold that and lived in Center and afterwards in Monroe Township of Grant county, where he was a prosperous farmer and owned a good quantity of well improved land. His wife died there in August, 1880, when about three score years of age. She was a devout Methodist. Enos Johnson died in Monroe township at the home of his daughter, during the winter of 1895, being then an old man, his birth having occurred May 30, 1812. He was likewise a Methodist, a Democrat in politics, and a man of substantial character. Of the thirteen children some died young, and seven are still living, all of whom have been married and have had children, and there are now two widows.

Richard M. Johnson, who was the fifth child, and the first son in this large family, was eight years old when his people came to Grant county, and grew up and received his education in Monroe township.

He early acquired an interest in the land and more or less actively identified with farming, he has spent much of his time and acquired much of his prosperity from trading and speculation. In 1908 Mr. Johnson and wife spent a winter in California, and since then all their winters have been passed in Florida, returning to Grant county only with the opening of the summer season. Mr. Johnson was identified with the Democratic party as a voter until 1884, when he transferred his support to St. John, and has ever since been an active Prohibitionist, and very decided in his advocacy of that party. He has served officially as assessor in his home township.

Richard M. Johnson first married Phama Gage, of Grant county, who was born in Licking county, Ohio, March 23, 1840, but was reared in Grant county, where she died June 7, 1873. She was the mother of two children Phama E., who died in infancy, and one that died unnamed. Mr. Johnson for his second wife was married in Monroe township to Sarah E. Moon. She was born in Clinton county, Ohio, August 23, 1854, at the age of five years came to Grant county, with her parents, Thomas Moon, and lived in this vicinity ever since. Her father, Thomas Moon was born in North Carolina in 1798, a son of Joseph and Ann Moon, who spent all their lives in North Carolina, and were of English stock. They were farmers, and close adherents of the Friends church. Thomas Moon and wife were married in Clinton county, Ohio, and were farmers there and also in Monroe township in Grant county, where he died. His wife passed away in Clinton county, Ohio, when her daughter now Mrs. Johnson was three years old. Thomas Moon married for his second wife, about the time he came to Indiana, Eleanor (Hinshaw) Holloway, who died in 1893. Thomas Moon died in 1868.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Johnson have the following children: Margaret E., born September 26, 1880; Jason, born January 6, 1883, educated in the Jonesboro school, and now a farmer in Whitley county, married Emma L. Knick, but has no children; Edith, born March 31, 1886, graduated from the Jonesboro high school, completed her education in the Marion Normal College, was for some years a teacher, and is the wife of James Arthur Loughry, a dentist of Ohio, and a graduate of the Ohio Medical College, their home now being in Cleveland, Ohio, and they have one son, James R., born July 19, 1912. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and family are all members of the Friends Church, Mrs. Johnson's birthright being Quaker.

Margaret E. Johnson, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Johnson was born September 26, 1880, was educated at Jonesboro and in the Marion Normal College, graduating in oratory in 1901, and for some time was a teacher of expression. She married Forrest C. Miller, who was born in Henry county, Illinois, April 25, 1881, and is also a graduate of the Marion Normal College, with the class of August 1903. After his commercial education he was a teacher in the commercial department of the Muncie business college, and then accepted a place of trust and responsibility with the Thompson Bottle Company at Gas City as credit man and cashier, and was with that large plant for eight years. Mr. Miller is now regarded as one of the best equipped young business men of Gas City, and is associated with Mr. A. L. Prickett in the lumber business. Mr. and Mrs. Miller own a beautiful home on east Main Street in Gas City, are educated and cultured young people, and leaders in the younger social set. They have one daughter, Dorothy M., born April 12, 1905, and now in the third grade of school.

"BLACKFORD AND GRANT COUNTIES INDIANA, A CHRONICLE OF THEIR PEOPLE PAST AND PRESENT WITH FAMILY LINEAGE AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS"; Complied Under the Editorial Supervision of BENJAMIN G. SHINN; vol. II ; THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY; CHICAGO AND NEW YORK; 1914
Submitted by:Peggy Karol and Karen Overholt


Deb Murray