John Gondring was born April 15, 1831, in Treves, in Rhenish Prussia. He is one of six children born to Michael and Catharine (Pfiffer) Gondring, the former a native of Luxemburg, and the latter of Alsace. The elder Pfiffer was a subaltern officer in the French Army in 1812. The elder Gondring was a Prussian Government contractor. When Squire Gondring was thirteen years old, he left Loraine, in one of the French Catholic pilgrimage companies, to Treves, and went to Paris, and was employed in one of the large railroad car-spring manufacturing companies of Paris as errand boy for four years. He then made application to the French Government to go to Algeria to join a colony; he was successful, and went through Marseilles, across the Mediterranean, and was given charge of twenty Spanish jacks, to carry merchandise, etc., and was often called out to fight the native tribes. After about nine months, he went back to France and worked for his old company until the Revolution of 1848; he joined the Paris temporary guard until Napoleon was elected President, in 1849, when he went to Italy, intending to go to Rome to join Garibaldi’s army, but stopped in Piedmont. Here he joined the Italians, but after the defeat at Novara, they were given choice of passes to Hungary or Baden, where there were revolutions, and they went to Baden. He joined the German revolutionists. He was taken prisoner at Rastadt, and sentenced to over three years at isolated labor at the spinning wheel. After his release, he was compelled to join the Huzzars, but in about three days he deserted and went to Antwerp, where he was engaged as hotel porter, on account of ability to speak French and German, until he made enough to take him to America, three months later. He soon went to work on the Sault Ste. Marie Canal at Lake Superior, then soon to Detroit, Chicago, then to different places, and on steamers on Lake Michigan. In 1854, he began work for Hiram Joy, the Chicago ice king, remaining nine years when he bought land near Chesterton; for a year was in Chicago, also at Lake Superior, where he made considerable money. For some time, he was Deputy Sheriff in Houghton, Mich., near Lake Superior. He is the originator of the present brick-yards at New Porter. Since 1875, he has farmed. For four years before, he kept store at New Porter. He has been a member of the I.O.O.F. Lodge. Since 1876, he has been Justice of the Peace. He was married November 15, 1855, to Elizabeth Foederath, a German. She died exactly ten years after her marriage. In 1868, he married Theresa Kuhn, also a German. He has five children living. He is Independent in politics, a public-spirited citizen and a live business man.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 296, 297 Westchester Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

John Hallberg was born May 30, 1825, in Sweden. He is the youngest of three brothers born to John and Mary (Danielson) Johnson, both natives of Sweden. John’s name, Hallberg, was given him on account of his being a soldier; otherwise, it would have been Johnson. When twenty-one years of age, he began working for himself at the trade he had learned under his father, viz., shoemaking. When thirty years old, he began farming and continued up to 1866, when he came to the United States, stopping in New Jersey six months, and Chicago six months, and finally settling on his present farm of forty-five acres of fine land, mostly improved, and his son’s - Pehr Afred’s twenty acres since added. He is a member of the Swedish Lutheran Church. He was a Republican in politics until 1876, when he adopted the Greenback faith. He is one of our first Swedish farmers, and among our best citizens. He was married in 1846, to Eliza Maria Swanson, a native of Sweden. He has two children - John A. (who was given the name “2000" in Sweden, but adopted his father’s name on coming to America), and Pehr A.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 298, 299 Westchester Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

Michael C. Hefron, telegraph operator, was born March 10, 1861, in Chesterton. He is the youngest of two brothers born to Morris and Elizabeth (Ryan) Hefron, both natives of Ireland. The elder Hefron was one of Chesterton’s early merchants and Justice of the Peace. He came to the United States and settled in La Porte, and then came to Chesterton, where he was married, and lived until his death, which occurred in 1863. M. C. Hefron has always made his home in Chesterton, and was connected with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern grain house for several years. He learned telegraphy in Chesterton, and has become among our first-class operators, with a talent and business capacity peculiarly adapted to his chosen profession. He was educated first at Chesterton, and afterward at the St. Paul Academy at Valparaiso, Ind., and as a consequence, is well prepared for business life. He is a student with a library of 150 volumes and periodicals. He takes an interest in political questions, is independent, partaking of the prevailing opposition to the old parties. He is a land-holder, and has already laid the foundation of a future fortune.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 299 Westchester Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

Nathan Demass was born August 4, 1840, in Akron, Ohio. He is one of eight children born to Nathan and Elizabeth (Nye) Demass, both natives of New York. The elder Demass was in the battle of Sackett’s Harbor, in the war of 1812. In 1853, the family moved to Chicago and Nathan began his trade of carpenter, working at it until 1857, when they came to (Old Porter), now Porter, Porter County, and bought eighty acres of land; Nathan stayed on the farm until 1862, when he enlisted in the Seventy-third Indiana; he was with his regiment during all its experience, through to Lexington, Nashville, Alabama, on the Col. Straight raid, captured, exchanged, kept at Belle Isle, City Point, guarding prisoners at Indianapolis, building forts at Nashville, about a year on a Government cotton farm in Alabama, being mustered out 1865. He now returned to Chesterton, engaged in his trade, and was married in January 24, 1866, to Marcia Brush, a native of Vermillion, Ohio, and daughter of a ship-builder. He began carpentering, increasing his business constantly, hiring two men, then three or four, and so on until he has under his supervision from seventeen to twenty men constantly, also five horses for teaming; he contracts for anything in the carpenter line, such as bridge building, schoolhouses, churches, house-moving, etc. His residence is one of the best in Chesterton, and finely situated. He is a member of the Odd Fellows’ fraternity. Mrs. Demass has always been a stanch Republican. He has five children - Charles, Elmer, Gracie, Ray and Bessie.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 295 Westchester Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

P. A. Johnson was born February 27, 1851, in Sweden. He is the youngest of nine children born to Johnnis and Johannah (Donnoldson) Johnson, both natives of Sweden. Young Johnson lived with his father in Sweden until his seventeenth year, when he emigrated to the United States, locating for a time in Paxton, Ill.; thence went to Water Valley, Miss., for about five years, engaging in work in a sash and blind factory; he then came to Chesterton, and, in March, 1881, bought the stock of dry goods and groceries kept in his building by a Mr. Diddie, and has built up a rapidly increasing trade; he has probably one of the best-selected stocks in the place, with a trade second to none; he is a moderate Republican; he is an enterprising young man, of quite habits and good taste.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 301 Westchester Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

Rev. Andrew Challman, minister of the Bailly Town and Chesterton Swedish Lutheran Churches, was born January 1, 1841, in Gottenborg, Sweden. He is the youngest of six children born to Andrew and Christan (Anderson) Kjellman (Swedish spelling), both natives of Sweden. When fifteen years of age, Rev. Challman began for himself, and was engaged for the first four years in Gottenborg, in a carriage factory, and then entered a seminary, in the same place, to prepare himself for a teacher, remaining one and one-half years. He then entered a more advanced institution at Ahlsborg, and studied for two years. He then began teaching in a private school for a personage corresponding to an English earl - Adolph Stackelberg - for two and one-half years, when he came to the United States in 1868, and settled in Bailly Town, and taught in the Swedish congregation one and one-half years, and then went to Chicago intending to go into business, but he was induced to teach in the Immanuel congregation for three years. He then entered the college at Paxton, Ill., (now Rock Island), to prepare himself for the ministry, and was then called to several congregations - among others, Hobart, Ind., - until in 1875, his call to Bailly Town necessitated his settling here, where he has since resided in his fine residence in close proximity to the church. Rev. Challman has always been a Republican, but is independent in local affairs. He was married, in 1866, to Gustafa A. Johnson, a native of Sweden. They have seven children - Samuel, Gust A., David, Anne G., Mary, Robert, and Esther.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 293 Westchester Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

William H. Couch, ticket and freight agent on Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad at Chesterton, was born August 30, 1817, in New York. He is one of six children born to Roswell and Mehitable (Fox) Couch, both natives of Massachusetts. The elder couch was a cooper by occupation. When William was eleven years old, his mother, who had been a widow for two years, went to Wellington, Ohio. He now began to learn the trade of carpenter and joiner, in Elyria, and Cleveland and Medina, under instruction, for about seven years. He then began traveling, and working at Detroit, Grand Rapids, Akron, Wellington (Ohio), and other smaller places, Delaware, in Canada, Norwalk, etc. At Norwalk, he worked for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Company for eight years, in different capacities; at the end of which time he went to Cleveland, where his family still resides. After two years, he was appointed agent at Holmesville, Ind., for four years, when he was sent to Chesterton, where he has had control ever since. There are five by the name of Couch on the road, two cousins, our subject and his two sons. In Ohio, he was Justice of the Peace, County Sheriff, City Marshal, etc. He has been a Masonry, and was Master for five years in Lorain County, Ohio. He was a Whig, Free-Soiler, Abolitionist, and is now a Republican. In his earlier days, he took an active interest in politics. He was married, in 1838, to Catherine Patch, a native of Connecticut. They have three children - Edgar, Frank L., and Mary L. Kirtland, book-keeper in a wholesale furniture store in Cleveland.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 293, 294 Westchester Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

D. A. Fisher is a native of the State of Indiana, where he was born in 1855; he is the eldest of the four children of William and Nancy (Bryant) Fisher, both living in Lake County. The schooling obtained by D. A. Fisher was first received at a district school, and afterward at the Normal School of Valparaiso, which he attended five terms; he then engaged in farming. On June 7, 1876, he was married to Miss E. L. Bliss, daughter of W. O. Bliss, native of the State of New York, and a farmer. Mr. Fisher continued farming until 1881, at which time he engaged in his present business of hardware dealing at Hebron, where he has a fine location and an excellent trade, carrying a stock worth $1,500 to $2,000. In 1879, Mr. Fisher visited Colorado and other Western points, being absent about eight months.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 320 Boone Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

David Hurlburt was born in Athens County, Ohio, March 4, 1816, and is the eight of the nine children of Reuben and Rachel (Johnson) Hurlburt, the former a native of New Jersey, and the latter of Pennsylvania. His parents moved to what is no Porter County in 1834; both died in Porter Township. David Hurlburt was seventeen years of age when he settled in the wilderness, and his opportunities for schooling were the very worst. In 1851, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Spafford, a native of Wayne County, Ohio, and daughter of Chester and Margaret Spafford. This union was fruitful by three children - Chester, Edith A. and Ruth S. Mr. Hurlburt continued farming in Porter Township, where he owned 160, and to which he added forty-five acres; this he sold and purchased eighty acres, to which he added by degrees until it embraces 320 acres. He came to his present farm in 1872, and before giving his children portions, he possessed 700 acres; he also has thirty head of cattle, 100 hogs and twenty-five milch cows, and will average 200 tons of hay per year. Mrs. Hurlburt is a member of the Christian Church.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 321, 322 Boone Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

David Long, one of Porter Station’s business men, was born in 1839, in Buffalo, N. Y. He is one of five children born to Benjamin and Seba (Stayle) Long, both natives of Pennsylvania. When David was thirteen years of age, they came to Porter Station, and engaged in farming and milling; when David was eighteen, he owned the present Pierce Mills, of Union Township, until about twenty-four years old, when he went to Jackson Township and engaged in saw-milling. In 1869, he and others built the Liberty Mills, at present owned by Mr. Wheeler. In 1877, he went to Millersburg, Ind., and remained about two years. He then came to Porter Station and embarked in his present business. He has the only rooms of the rind in town, kept in an orderly manner. In politics he has always been independent, and votes for the man and not the party.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 303, 304 Westchester Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

Davis Bryant is a native of Ohio, and was born September 26, 1824; he attended a subscription school some little time in Ohio, being eleven years of age when his father came to and located in Lake County, Ind., where he went to school for a part of two winters, and remained on the paternal farm until manhood. On October 21, 1858, he was married to Miss Mary E. McGill, daughter of Robert and Susan McGill. Mr. Bryant then began farming on his own land, and, together with his brother, Robert, purchased 480 acres adjoining, and again 100 acres. At present he gives much attention to raising sheep, of which he has 280 heard, and handles fifty head of hogs annually, with from twenty to twenty-five head of cattle. Mr. Bryant has one of the finest farms in the county, with a fine brick house, commodious buildings, and many needful improvements, all of which he greatly enjoys. He has one child by adoption, Nettie M. Bryant. Mrs. Bryant is a member of the United Presbyterian Church.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 316 Boone Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

Edward F. Schaper was born January 25, 1851, in Hanover, Germany. He is the eldest of four children living, born to Gottlieb and Johannah (Martens) Schaper, both natives of Germany. The maternal grandfather was an officer and served in the Franco-Prussian war, and his wife was of French birth. Edward lived in Germany until his seventeenth year, when he emigrated to the United States and settled in Fond du Lac, Wis. Here he began learning his trade of jeweler, and about eighteen months, when he came to Crown Point, Ind., where he was in ill-health for nearly a year. Hobart was his next home for three years. In February, 1876, he came to Chesterton, and established his present firm. He keeps a fine stock of clocks, watches, jewelry, plated ware, musical instruments, etc.; also, a line of tobaccos and cigars. He has built hp the finest trade in the country around outside of Valparaiso or Michigan City. He began an apiary, and expects to enlarge it in the future. He has been a member of the I. O. O. F. fraternity, and is a member of the Bee-Keeper’s Association of Chicago he has always been an Independent in politics, having voted with all the different parties, and is an intelligent man of quiet habits. He was married, May 6, 1877, to Amalie Koehne, a native of Fond du Lac, Wis. They have two children - Clara and Matilda.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 311 Westchester Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

Elias Bryant is a native of Boone Township, Porter County, Ind., and is a son of Simeon Bryant, who came to Porter County in 1835, and located on the land now owned by his son. At that period, the nearest white neighbor was four miles distant, and his sister, Margaret, was the first white girl born in the county. Simeon Bryant died on the farm; his widow is yet living and active. The education of our subject was but that of the day, and poor. On November 20, 1867, he was married to Miss Fannie Adams, daughter of George W. Adams, a carpenter and farmer. Mr. Bryant continued to farm on the old homestead; afterward he received thirty acres from his father; he then purchased fifteen acres, and late forty acres, making eighty-five acres, and he has fifty acres of pasture and timber land one-half mile distant. Mr. and Mrs. Bryant have four children - Julia, Emma, Lorentine and E. Edmond. Mrs. Bryant belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 317 Boone Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

Frederick Michaels, merchant and Postmaster at Porter Post Office, was born April 27, 1829, in Prussia, Germany. He is the only child living of Frederick and Wilhelmina (Mix) Michaels, both natives of Germany. The elder Michaels had a trade, not common as a trade in this country, viz., the finishing and adjusting ornaments, crosses, etc. on towers. Mr. Michael’s father died when the former was ten years of age; and four years later our subject began shoemaking in Breslau, and traveled in Germany until 1853, when he came to the United States and settled in La Porte, where he remained until 1855, engaged as tailor, shoemaker, etc. He then came to Porter Post Office without money, and engaged in railroading and carpentering, and took his present store, then very limited. He has been engaged as merchant, exclusively, for about twenty years, and has built all his buildings himself. He has two dwellings, store and dwelling, green house, windmills, etc., in “Old Porter,” and nearly a quarter section of one of Westchester’s finest farms, know as the Frayd farm, what is known as the “depot ground,” and town lots, etc. He has a fine family vault in the Bailly Town Cemetery, value about $1,000. He was made Postmaster January 15, 1873, and has held the office ever since. He is a member of the Valparaiso Commandery, No. 28, and also of the Consistory. He owns a business block in Chicago, on Ogden and Central park avenues. Since the birth of the Republican party, he has been on of its stanch supporters. He married, after he came to Porter County, Mrs. Henriette Dedskind, a native of Saxony, now deceased. In 1876, he married his present wife - Bertha Fleming, a native of Saxony, and sister of his late wife. He has an adopted child - Paul F., and five step-children - Hilmar, Mrs. Franciska Faust, Mrs. Emma Lyon, Martha Fleming and Curt.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 305 Westchester Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

George Brough was born in Derbyshire, England, June 19, 1817, and is the third of the twelve children of George and Ann M. Brough. The school privileges of our subject were much straitened, he being needed to labor at home. On coming to America, he hired by the month, and in sixteen years was enabled to purchase eighty acres in Boone Township, in the year 1850 - a portion of his present farm. In October, 1849, he was married to Miss Mary J. Oliver, a native of Ohio, daughter of John and Elizabeth Oliver. To this union succeeded ten children - Peter, William, Charles, Abigail, David, Margery, Sarah (deceased), Eliza (deceased) and George. For a time, Mr. Brough farmed on rented land, until he could improve his own, to which he has added, and now he numbers 207 acres, well developed and improved. He raises hogs, cattle and horses, as well as the staple products, likewise making annually about one hundred tons of hay. Mrs. Brough is a member of the Christian Church.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 315 Boone Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

George H. Riley, M. D., was born in Cherry Valley, N. Y., April 12, 1853. He is one of nine children, living, born to Nelson and Hannah (Wing) Riley, both natives of Cherry Valley. The elder Riley is a retired farmer, living in La Porte, Ind.; was a high school teacher for fourteen years in New York, and has taken pains to educate all his children. When Dr. Riley was about seven years of age, the parents moved to La Porte County, living on the farm until the Doctor was seventeen; he had graduated at the La Porte High School, and now began teaching and studying medicine, paying his own way through college after two years in the school room. He graduated at the Rush Medical College, of Chicago, in the spring of 1875; he then began the practice of medicine in New Buffalo, Mich. After four years of successful practice, he found a better place in New Troy, where he built up a lucrative practice, but, having lost his wife, he came to Indiana, and has been associated with Dr. Green in the practice of medicine and the drug business. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., and has taken all the degrees. Dr. Riley held the office of School Superintendent in Michigan; he is a moderate Republican, but favors the financial theories of the National party. He married Mary E. Phillips, a native of Michigan, and an educated lady, having been a teacher for several years. They had one child- Carrie E.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 310 Westchester Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

G. W. Maxwell is a native of Franklin County, Ind., and a son of James and Mary (Thorn) Maxwell, the former a native of Pennsylvania, the latter of Maryland. The education of G. W. Maxwell was limited to what could be acquired in pioneer days, his father dying when he was two years old. In February, 1853, he was married, In Decatur, County, Ind., to Miss Martha A. Belt, a native of Ohio; her father was a farmer, and her mother a nurse. Mr. Maxwell moved to Lake County in 1856, and engaged in farming, purchasing 80 acres, and also 40 in Porter County, where he removed in 1871, and located one mile south of town on 120 acres, on which he lived until removing to Hebron, one year ago, leaving the farm to the care of his son. His wife died July 9, 1853. His second marriage was to Miss Margaret Downs, a native of Franklin County, Ind., by whom he had five children - William, George R., Albert F., Mary E., and Bertha. Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell are members of the Christian Church, of which the former is a Deacon and likewise Treasurer.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 322, 323 Boone Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing

Henry Berdine was born in the State of New York June 20, 1831, and was a son of Nicholas Berdine, who was also a farmer. Henry Berdine came to Lake County, Ind., where he obtained a fair education at the common schools, and grew to manhood. On the 2d of October, 1856, he was united in marriage to Rachel Sherwood, a daughter of William and Jane (McCullough) Sherwood; her parents came to Porter County about the year 1847. This union was blessed with eight children - William N., Willis, Amos, Harry, Carrie A., Ralph, Clark and Leroy. After marriage, Mr. Berdine commenced farming on 100 acres, to which he added 140 acres; this land he improved by the necessary buildings and appurtenances, and was prepared to enjoy life when removed by death, October 14, 1880, since which event Mrs. Berdine, aided by her children, has managed the business successfully. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Source: “Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana, Historical and Biographical,” Goodspeed and Blanchard, 1882 page 314, 315 Boone Township
Data entry volunteer: Suzan Schaeffing