HUNTINGTON COUNTY,
INDIANA
BIOS
Daniel
Zent
Among the old
pioneers of Huntington
county whose efforts have brought this section of the state from its
primitive wilderness to the present advanced condition, and whose lives
speak in emphatic terms of the value of industry, economy and
frugality, none living command the respect and admiration of the
generation of to-day to a larger extent than does he whose name
introduces this article,--Daniel Zent. He was born in Richland county,
Ohio, March 16, 1819, and has consequently just reached his
eighty-second year, still retaining in a large degree the vigor of mind
and body that has characterized him in every juncture of life. His
parents were Jacob and Sallie (Koon) Zent, both of whom were natives of
Pennsylvania, and both were descendants of the early Dutch emigrants
whose strength of body and virility have done so much toward placing
that great commonwealth far toward the head of the great states of the
nation. In the year 1837 the family came to Salamonie, his father
entering land some four miles east of Warren. The first seven years of
his residence here was on leased land, near Warren, but he began the
clearing of his own tract, to which he devoted the remainder of an
industrious life, though some years later he secured a second farm and
resided upon that as long as he lived, dying at the age of ninety-four.
He had the old qualities of his ancestors well developed, and was
competent to withstand the greatest amount of severe and trying labor,
his vigor carrying him some ten years past the death of his wife, with
whom he had lived for more than sixty years. Of thirteen children born
to this estimable couple, Daniel was the eldest; ten of them reached
mature years, and five were still living in the year 1901. John served
through the war, going in at the start, and is now an inmate of the
Soldiers' Home at Marion. Al the others are still living in the
vicinity of Warren. When Daniel was seventeen his father consented to
let him do for himself, and he set to work at such employment as the
time afforded, mainly clearing land. When he had obtained something of
a start he decided to pass through life with the assistance and
co-operation of the woman of his choice, Miss Mary Back, to whom he was
married December 16, 1838, just three months before reaching his
twentieth year. She was the daughter of Aaron and Elizabeth (Hammer)
Back, who had settled near Warren, and entered a half-section of land.
He had come from Preble county, Ohio, where Mary was born, she being
some three years his senior. Her father presented her with eighty acres
of wild land, and upon this they soon began to develop a farm. He made
a small round-log cabin, with puncheon floor, clapboard roof, wooden
hinges to the door, and all of the most simple and primitive nature,
but it gave shelter. He had but an ax and a mattock, no team nor wagon;
in fact, not even a gun. He cleared five acres the first winter,
getting it ready to plant to corn. Getting in shape to plow, the
question was how to secure a horse. He started out, and, after walking
the greater part of two days, found a man who said he had some colts in
the woods, and if he would find them he could have his pick for
forty-five dollars, and would take his notes, knowing he had no money
to pay for it. After a good deal of travel and hard work he found the
colts and got them into a pen where he could catch one, which he took
home and broke, so that he could scratch his ground over with a shovel
plow sufficient to get his corn planted. The crop proved a good one,
and he was able to sell about forty dollars worth of corn, which placed
him in easy circumstances. The first year a neighbor--James
Morrison--allowed him to plant ten acres of wheat on his land, he going
to Ohio for the seed. He jumped at this chance and had a very good crop
of wheat, harvesting one hundred and fifty-six bushels. At harvest he
secured nine men with sickles, and in one day the crop was placed in
shock. It was threshed by tramping and was cleaned by one man letting
the grain fall through wind made by the other with a sheet, one end of
which was tied to a stake, while the other was skillfully shaken in
such a manner to create quite a breeze. Wheat was so scarce that all of
this was kept for seed, men coming many miles to get some to sow the
next fall. One man came from near Ft. Wayne, having heard of it, but
had no money for the two bushels he wanted, so he left his gun, saying
he would come the next year for it, but he never showed up and that gun
afforded means for many a feast for the little family.
Salt was a most
difficult article to
obtain in those early days, and Zent recalls that once, having some
shoats, he butchered them, and packing the meat into the bed of a wagon
struck out for Muncie, thinking to get salt there and preserve the
meat, but there was no salt to be had, though he was able to sell the
pork. Being determined to secure salt, he went on to Easton, Preble
county, Ohio, where he managed to get four barrels at four dollars per
barrel, and this he brought home, being gone about three weeks on the
trip. He sold two barrels at twelve dollars on his return, and felt
well repaid for the journey, during which time he had lived on corn
bread and venison. He later secured another eighty acres, making him a
valuable farm of one hundred and sixty acres, upon which he lived until
some five years since, when he removed to the village and is now living
in the ease from hard labor made possible by the many years of close
application and constant energy that has characterized his life. His
wife's father, Aaron Back, had passed the latter years of his life in
the home of Zent, finally falling from his chair, dead, while in the
act of reading his Bible, his last thought being of the world beyond,
to which he was called so suddenly. Her sister Harriet also made her
home with them for some years, reaching rather advanced years herself,
and finally answering the summons which none can escape. The amount of
work necessary to clear up a farm in the woods is almost incalculable,
but with good health and hearts undaunted they held persistently to the
course they had mapped out, knowing that the result would insure a
handsome competence for their declining years. Too much credit cannot
be accorded the brave men and no less determined women who settled down
with a determination to win, realizing that each year meant a
continuance of the labor they had before them. Being stout of body and
willing of hand, he availed himself of every means to make an
advancement, often having jobs of clearing some miles from home. He
speaks of one instance when he had taken a job of Samuel Jones, some
three miles distant, and thought at first he would build a log pen and
remain there over night rather than to make the long walk, but one or
two nights' experience satisfied him, the wolves howling about all
night to such an extent that no sleep could be secured, and from that
time he walked the long distance night and morning. He recalls that at
one time he secured the job of cutting and splitting thirty-six hundred
rails, for which he received a horse, and that but a few weeks later
the animal was stolen from him. In the clearing of land, such men as
were favored with sufficient teams to give the power, all saplings the
size of a man's leg were cut some distance above the ground and then
pulled out by the roots. Few could do this, so that in most cases the
saplings that could be spanned by the hand at shoulder height were dug
out with the mattock, and he so cleared about one hundred and
forty-five acres for himself. He worked at sixty cents per day while
clearing a great deal of land for others, and was glad of the chance.
After living twelve years in the original cabin he erected a hewed-log
house, which was finished up in good shape, making a very comfortable
home, and is still in use as a residence. While Mr. Zent and his
estimable wife have not been blessed with children of their own, they
have ever been ready to supply a home to others who needed the
ministrations of friends. At one time they took into their home a poor
cripple boy, knowing that there never would be any financial
recompense, and made his life as pleasant as it were possible, only,
however, to see the boy gradually losing vitality and finally pass away
from his hard lot in life, but made somewhat easier by this respected
couple who had observed the injunction to "do it unto the least of
these." Another boy of six years was supplied with a comfortable home,
and grew nicely toward a brilliant youth, when, having arrived at the
age of ten, he met with a mishap by falling into a kettle of boiling
lard, and was so injured that death came to end his misery. While Mr.
Zent has ever adhered to the faith of the Democratic party, he has
never aspired to public position, realizing the importance of education
that was denied him, but, despite all that, his neighbors insisted on
placing him in some of the township positions, where he made a good
record. In looking back over the history of the past sixty years he
feels that no mistake was made when he came to Salamonie, and in proof
of the fertility of the soil calls attention to the fact that the first
piece of land that he placed in cultivation, and which has been tilled
for sixty years, one thousand and forty bushels of corn were harvested
from twenty acres in the year 1900.
The neighborly
relations that were so
essential in those early days have ever been adhered to by him through
life, and he feels that it would have been difficult to have found a
more agreeable class of people to live among than those who settled
this region. He was never sued but once, and that was by a doctor for a
twenty-five-cent fee for pulling a tooth. It was at a barn raising, and
the doctor, not having his instruments said if he would go to his
office for the instrument he would then pull the tooth. Pay was offered
at the time, and it was about a year before suit was brought. Zent put
in a counter claim of thirty cents for going after the instrument, and
the matter never came to trial. He has made it a point to keep out of
debt, not having given a note for forty years. He recalls the time when
but one cabin, that of the Souers family, was on the line of road
between Warren and Huntington. But one other person, Mrs. Matilda
Morrison, widow of Leander Morrison, is still living among all those
who were here when he came sixty-four years ago. At that time some
seven hundred Indians were still camped below Huntington, and they
would frequently be met in the woods while out on some hunting
expedition, though no trouble ever arose between them and the settlers.
Born a few weeks earlier than the noble queen who has just passed to
the shadowy Kingdom, he came to this region before she had been
proclaimed the ruler of England, and long before the "Fatherland" of
his own ancestors had been even dreamed of as a great empire. He has
seen the greatest of revolutions in the commerce and civilization of
the world, remaining one of the thousands who helped make this country
and live to see the twentieth century. For more than sixty-two years
has he and his beloved companion traveled the pathway of life, the
vicissitudes of those years ever finding them working in harmony, the
union of hands and hearts having become cemented into a union of souls
and spirits as well. Well may they take pride in the part they have
taken in developing one of the finest sections of a most excellent
state, and when time to them shall be no more may they receive that
welcome plaudit as they pass to the other shore--"well done, thou good
and faithful servant."
Submitted by Ida Maack Recu
Source: From Biographical
Memoirs of Huntington County, 1901, pages 420-423
P.W Zent
P.
W. Zent, one of Huntington's prominent citizens, is a native of Stark
County, Ohio, and was born May 22, 1827. He was the seventh of eleven
children born to Samuel Zent, a native of Franklin County, Pa., of
German descent. His mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Hege,, was
also a native of Franklin County, Pa., of German descent. She was a
descendant of Hans Hege, the progenitor of the Hege family in the
United States, who emigrated from Switzerland, crossed the ocean on the
ship, James Goodwill, commanded by David Crockett, and reached the City
of Philadelphia on the 27th day of September, 1827. He settled upon a
farm in Lancaster County, Pa. He was the father of several daughters
and a son named John, who was married to Elizabeth Pealman. By her he
became the father of eight children, one of whom, Christian, married,
as his second wife, Maria Shank. This marriage resulted in the birth of
seven children, one of whom was Elizabeth Hege, who, through her
marriage to Samuel Zent, became the mother of P. W. Zent. The subject
of this sketch was reared upon a farm in his native county, and during
that time received in the district school an ordinary common school
education. For a few years after he became of age he farmed the old
home place in Stark County. In 1852 he came to this county and located
in Jackson Township where he pursued the vocation of a farmer until
about 1859, when he removed to a farm in Clear Creek Township. There he
resided until the spring of 1876, since which time he has been a
resident of Huntington. Here he was engaged in the grocery business and
the sale of agricultural implements until his retirement from active
business, which occurred in 1884. He was married October 10, 1849, to
Belinda F. Ritter, also a native of Stark County, Ohio, born January 4,
1828. She was the daughter of Henry and Sarah (Kryder) Ritter, who were
natives of the state of Pennsylvania. This union was broken by the
death of Mrs. Zent on the 2d of January, 1853. His marriage to
Catharine H. Gallatin occurred March 2, 1854. She was born in Franklin
County, Pa., March 30, 1832, being the daughter of Daniel and Hannah
(Howard) Gallatin, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania, of German
descent. The first marriage of Mr. Zent resulted in the birth of two
children, Lovenia C. and Franklin S., both of whom are living. He and
his present wife are the parents of two children, Isaac N. and Howard
F., the former of whom died in infancy. Howard F. Zent has the general
agency of the State for the J. I. Case machinery, and resides, at
present, in Indianapolis. Mr. and Mrs. Zent are members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Politically, the former is a Republican.
For six years he served as president of the Huntington Agricultural
Society, and he was instrumental in effecting a re-organization of that
society. From boyhood he has been an ardent temperance worker, and, in
sentiment, is a prohibitionist. He takes an active apart in Sabbath
School work, and at this time, he is superintendent of a very
interesting and successful school in the Methodist Episcopal Church of
this city.
(source: Biographical Sketch of P. W.
Zent (b. 1827) from History of Huntington County, Indiana (Brant &
Fuller: Chicago 1887. Biographical Sketches of Clear Creek Township.
Pages 562 and 563)
(submitted by Ida Maack Recu)