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BIOGRAPHIES OF NOTABLE RESIDENTS OF LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA
From the "Encyclopedia of Genealogy and Biography of Lake County, Indiana" from 1834-1904
Submitted by K. Torp and B. Ziegenmeyer
WILLIAM J. McALEER.
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William J. McAleer, a prominent lawyer of Hammond and prosecuting attorney of the thirty-first judicial circuit of the state of Indiana, has had seven years of creditable and successful practice at the law, all in Hammond, and his popularity in the city and county is shown by his election and reelection to the important administrative office which he now holds. He was a teacher a number of years, and also followed other occupations before taking up the law, and all in all he has had a career of which he may well be proud.
Mr. McAleer was born in Gray county, Ontario, Canada, July 31, 1867, a son of John and Frances (Burchill) McAleer, both natives of Canada. His mother was one of the fourteen children born to Jason Burchill, a native of Ireland and a Methodist preacher, who emigrated to Canada about 1840, and died there when eighty-four years of age; his wife was Isabell Brown, and she lived to be eighty-three years old. The father of John McAleer was William McAleer, who was born in Ireland and emigrated thence to Canada, where he spent the remainder of his long life of ninety-seven years, being a farmer by occupation. His wife, Nancy (Brown) McAleer, attained the advanced age of eighty-six years.
John McAleer, the father of William J. McAleer, was a Canadian farmer all his life. He held the office of reeve for many years, and also other minor offices. He died in 1901, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife survives him, and is now sixty-three years old. They were both Methodists. They were the parents of five children: Edith, the wife of R. T. McGirr, of Maford, Canada; William J.; Martha, the wife of David Berridge of Thessalon, Algoma, Canada; Annie, the wife of Thomas Brooks, of Thessalon; and Robert, of Thessalon.
Mr. William J. McAleer was reared on a farm in Canada, and after a course in the district schools graduated from the Owen Sound Business College, in 1886. He then came over into the United States, and for six years was engaged in teaching in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. From there he went west to the state of Washington, and was employed by the government in the Indian service for two years at Granville, Chehalis county. He resigned his position and came to Valparaiso. Indiana, and entered the college- there. In 1897 he graduated with the degrees of B. S. and LL. B., and in the same year was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law at Hammond. In November, 1900. he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney, leading the Republican ticket in that election, as he also did in the election of 1902. He is one of the professors in the law department of the Valparaiso Normal College.
Mr. McAleer has been in the Republican ranks ever since attaining man-hood, and is an interested political worker. He affiliates with Garfield Lodge No. 569, F. &. A. M., and also with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His residence is at 368 State street. He was married May 21, 1892. to Miss Ethelia Hembroff, a daughter of Joseph and Harriet (Grady) Hemhroff. They have two children, Leoda and Vema.
Dr. John Higgins, who for some time before his death, on April 7, 1904, lived as a retired physician, was one of the early settlers of Crown Point, and in community affairs was prominent and influential, so that his life record forms an important chapter in the history of the city in which he made his home. He was born in Perry, Wyoming county, New York, May 28, 1822. Ebenezer Higgins, his grandfather, was born in Connecticut, the family having continuously remained in that portion of the country. David Higgins, the father, was also born in Connecticut and became a civil engineer. He married Miss Eunice Sackett, a native of Vermont, and his death occurred in New York. In their family were ten children, of whom Dr. Higgins was the seventh in order of birth. He was only about four years old when his parents removed from Wyoming county to Osborn, New York, where he remained until fourteen years of age. The family home was then established at Seneca Falls, where he remained until sixteen years old, when he came with his mother to the west, arriving at Chicago, Illinois, on the 2d of July, 1838. After a brief period passed in that city he removed to Vermilion county, Illinois, where the following winter he was engaged in teaching school. He afterward worked on a farm through the summer months and in the winter seasons continued teaching until 1843, when he took up the study of medicine. In the winter of 1843-44 he came to Lake county, Indiana, and in May of the latter year established his home at Crown Point, where he began studying medicine with Dr. W. C. Farrington, who directed his reading for about two years.
In the year 1850 he went to California, crossing the plains to Sacramento, and spent a year in the mountains. On the expiration of that period he returned to Frankfort, Illinois, and in February, 1859, he established his home at Crown Point, Indiana. There he continued in practice until 1861, when he was appointed surgeon of the Twelfth Illinois Cavalry, but was employed mainly as a brigade surgeon and in general hospitals in Chicago and Washington, where he remained for three years and four months, rendering active and efficient aid to the wounded soldiers. He made a most creditable record as an army surgeon, his aid being of great value to those who needed professional services.
In 1865 Dr. Higgins returned to Crown Point and located where he now lives. He was in active and continuous practice until 1900, and he had a large patronage, his efforts being very effective in alleviating human suffering. He kept in touch with modern progress in the line of his profession and through broad study maintained a foremost position among the representatives of his calling. He was examiner for different life insurance companies, and in the early days of his practice he rode for long distances across the country, even traveling from twenty-five to forty miles to attend a patient, his practice extending into Porter county, Indiana, and into Illinois.
In 1847 Dr. Higgins was united in marriage to Miss Diantha Tremper, who was born in Lewiston county, New York, and died in 1898. They had one daughter, Eunice A., who is now the widow of Julius W. Youche. Dr. Higgins was a Mason for many years and in early life was a Whig, casting his ballot for William Henry Harrison, although he had not then attained the age of twenty-one years. He continued to affiliate with the Whig party until the organization of the Republican party, after which time he was one of its stalwart advocates. He was at the time of his death the only surviving member of his father's family of ten children, one of whom died when forty-four years of age, three between the age of sixty and seventy, two between seventy and eighty and two between the ages of eighty and ninety. In his practice he was connected with the Indiana Medical Society, and was at one time a delegate to the American Medical Association. He long maintained a creditable position as a leading representative of the medical fraternity of northwestern Indiana, and his prominence in his profession was well deserved and his success was justly merited. He was very widely known throughout this portion of the state because of his active connection with the profession, which is of the greatest possible value to humanity, and was ever accounted one of its foremost members on account of his skill and also because of his fidelity to the ethics of the profession.
David D. Griffith is filling the position of city treasurer of Whiting, and is one in whom his fellow townsmen have had confidence because his ability and fidelity have been tested in business and social life. He was born in South Wales on the 20th of March, 1844, and is a son of David and Ann (Jenkins) Griffith. The days of his childhood and youth were passed in his native country and his education was acquired in the schools there. He came to America in 1870, when about twenty-six years of age, attracted to the new world by the hope that he might find improved business conditions and greater opportunities here. He located first in Hubbard, Ohio, but soon removed to Pennsylvania, establishing his home in Oak Hill, that state, where he remained for about three years. On the expiration of that period he removed to Churchill, Ohio, near Youngstown, and subsequently he resided at New Straitsville, Ohio. On leaving there he came to Whiting, Indiana, in 1895, and entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company, with which he was connected continuously for eight years or until 1903, when, following the incorporation of Whiting as a city, he was elected the first city treasurer and is now acting in that capacity. He was chosen to this position on the Republican ticket and since coming to America he has been a stanch advocate of Republican principles. He keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day and warmly espouses the party by which he was chosen to office.
In 1865 Mr. Griffith was united in marriage to Miss Annie Owens, a native of South Wales, and they are now the parents of six living children, three sons and three daughters, namely: William, Sarah, Thomas, Gomer, Margaret and Amelia. They also lost one son, David, who was killed by an explosion in a mine in British Columbia, and was under ground for five months before discovered.
Mr. Griffith is quite well known in fraternal circles, being a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias Lodge, of which he is now financial secretary; the Whiting Mutual Benefit Association, of which he is secretary, and Ivorites Lodge, a Welsh organization. He is a very public-spirited man and takes an active interest in all things pertaining to the welfare and upbuilding of his community. No citizen of Whiting is more thoroughly representative or more devoted to the promotion of her welfare than Mr. Griffith, whose name is widely known for the prominent part he has taken in local interests. He has never regretted the step which he took when he left his native country and came to the new world, for he has thorough sympathy with the free institutions and the governmental policy of the United States and there is no more loyal American than this adopted son. He has been connected with the Baptist denomination the most of his days, in this and the old country.
William E. Smith, present incumbent of the office of assessor of Ross township, has been identified with the farming interests of Lake county and at present owns a farm on section 18. He has lived in this county for over forty years, so that he is familiar with most of its history subsequent to the real pioneer epoch. During all this time he has had a busy career, devoted mainly to agriculture, but has also found time to give to the management of the affairs of his community, in which he has been esteemed and honored throughout his life.
Mr. Smith was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, June 6, 1847, on the old homestead where his father, Amos Smith, was born, and where he followed farming until his death in young manhood, in 1852. Mr. Smith's mother was Harriet (Ellis) Smith, who died in 1858, leaving four orphaned children.
Mr. Smith has a brother, Cyrus, who is a prominent farmer also in section 18 of Ross township, and whose life history is given on other pages. Mr. W. E. Smith was reared on the old Pennsylvania homestead to the age of sixteen, receiving his education in the public schools. He came to Lake county, Indiana, in 1863, and for a time also attended the public schools here. Farming has been his principal occupation since arriving at manhood, and his nice farm of fifty acres is well improved and highly cultivated.
Mr. Smith is a steadfast Republican, and takes considerable interest in local politics. He was appointed to the office of assessor, holding it four years by appointment, and was then elected for one year, and in 1900 was re-elected for a full term, discharging its duties at the present time and having given a most painstaking and satisfactory administration for nine years. For several years he also held the office of township supervisor.
He was first married in 1870, to Miss Cassie Booth, who had one daughter, Mabel, now the wife of Frank F. Peterson, a farmer of Ross township. Mrs. Smith died in 1874. and in 1881 Mr. Smith married Miss Caroline Harper, a native of Ashtabula county, Ohio. There are no children by this marriage.
D. M. Vanloon is one of the revered patriarchs of Hobart, who has attained the age of seventy-seven years and who for fifty-seven years has been a resident of this part of the state. For a long period he was identified with building interests, and has contributed in no small degree to the progress and improvement of the community. He is now living retired, and he enjoys in high measure the respect and good will of his fellow men, who have long been familiar with the history of his upright career.
Mr. Vanloon was born in Bradford county, Pennsylvania, December 18, 1827, his parents being Everett and Elizabeth S. (Miller) Vanloon, who were natives of Pennsylvania. He remained at home until about twenty-five years of age, assisting in the work of the home farm. In the year 1846 he became a resident of LaPorte county, Indiana, and the following year arrived in Lake county, settling about three miles south of Hobart, where he devoted his energies to agricultural pursuits. When twenty-five years of age, however, he began learning the carpenter's trade, which he followed for a long period, being closely identified with building interests in this portion of the state.
In 1861 Mr. Vanloon responded to his country's call, enlisting as a member of Company H, Ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for three months. He was then honorably discharged on account of disability. He was one of the first men to enlist from Lake county, but was unable to endure the hardships and rigors of war. He then returned to Hobart and again took up work at the carpenter's trade, which he followed continuously until 1896. In that year he retired from active business life and is now enjoying a well merited rest.
In 1864 Mr. Vanloon was united in marriage to Miss Johanna Switzer, and they have become the parents of four children, of whom two are now deceased, Elizabeth and James Justin. Those still living are Rudolph D. and Lawrence F.
Mr. Vanloon holds membership with the Hobart Post No. 411, G. A. R., and in politics he is an earnest Republican and is now filling the office of justice of the peace, being strictly fair and impartial in the discharge of his duties. A review of his life record shows that at all times he has been loyal to principle, faithful in the performance of every task assigned him, honorable in his business relations and straightforward in all his dealings with his fellow men. Moreover, he is entitled to distinction as a pioneer settler of Lake county, having been an interested witness of its growth and development for fifty-seven years. Great changes have occurred in that time, and Mr. Vanloon has endorsed every measure which he believed would contribute to the county's progress, and in his community has aided materially in advancing the substantial upbuilding and development of Hobart.
The business interests of Hobart find a worthy representative in John L. Fiester, a general merchant of the town. He has always lived in this section of the country, and early became imbued with the enterprising spirit which has been the dominant factor in producing the wonderful and substantial development of the middle west. His birth occurred in Chicago on the 28th of November, 1858, his parents being Jacob and Mary (Thering) Fiester, both of whom were born in Switzerland. Coming to America in early life they were married in this country. The father was employed as a fireman in steamboats on the Mississippi river for about ten years, and in 1854 he went to Chicago, where he secured employment in a rolling mill.
His last days, however, were passed in Hobart, where he died in 1900 and where his widow is still living. They were the parents of thirteen children, six of whom yet survive, three sons and three daughters.
John L. Fiester, the third of the living children, was reared and educated in the city of his nativity, where he remained until eighteen years of age, when he secured employment on a farm in Lake county, Indiana, being thus employed for five years. He came to Hobart in 1883, and was engaged in the butchering business for five years in partnership with James Roper. He then sold out and formed a partnership with Lewis Passow, this relation being maintained for two years, at the end of which time Mr. Passow died. Mr. Fiester then took entire charge of the business, but a year later admitted John Killigrew, and they were together in business for eleven years, when Mr. Fiester sold out. He then turned his attention to the hardware trade, conducting a store for about six months, and his next venture was in the line of jewelry merchandising, becoming proprietor of the store which he now owns. He carries a well selected line of general merchandise, and by reason of his earnest efforts to please his patrons, his reasonable prices and his straightforward dealing, he has secured a patronage that is constantly growing and has assumed profitable proportions.
The home life of Mr. Fiester is very pleasant. He was married June 28, 1883, to Miss Amanda Passow, a daughter of Ernst and Mamie Passow. This union has been blessed with three sons: Frank, Edward and Walter. Mr. Fiester is a member of the Independent Order of Foresters, and politically is a Democrat. He has been a representative of Hobart's business interests for twenty-one years, and his enterprise has contributed to the commercial activity of the town and at the same time has made his own career one of signal success, in which he has risen from a humble financial position to one of affluence.
W. B. Owen, superintendent of the National Fire Roofing Company at Hobart, Indiana, is a young man whose responsible business position indicates his marked capability and enterprising spirit. He is numbered among Indiana's native sons, his birth having occurred in Porter county on the 31st of October, 1882. His father, William B. Owen, was born in Crown Point, New York, in 1835, and about 1878 became a resident of Porter county, Indiana. He was a prominent brick manufacturer of Porter and Lake counties, establishing his home in the latter about 1886. There he founded a brick manufacturing plant, which he conducted until his death in 1901. This became a leading industrial enterprise of the county and was a factor in the business prosperity of the community in which it was located. Mr. Owen's father was well known in temperance circles, took an active part in the work of suppressing the liquor traffic and gave his political allegiance to the Prohibition party. He served as town trustee of Hobart for about twelve years and was greatly interested in the development and progress of the town. He was also a prominent Mason and was an active and zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal church, his life being in consistent harmony with his professions. He married Miss Annie Pride, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who came to America with her parents when but six years old. She was a resident of Chicago for some years, and she died in Lake county, Indiana, in November, 1897. Mr. and Mrs. William B. Owen, Sr., were the parents of four children, three sons and a daughter: William L., who is studying medicine in Chicago; Jessie and Robert, who are deceased; and W. B.
W. B. Owen, the youngest of the family, pursued his early education in the public schools of Hobart and afterward attended the Chicago Manual Training school for three years. He was then associated with his father in business, and in 1902 was made superintendent of the National Fire Roofing Company, which position he now holds. He has a thorough and accurate knowledge of the business in both principle and detail, and combined with his executive force and keen discernment he has been enabled to so control the affairs of the company as to make its interests very profitable. He now has in his employ one hundred and five men, and the enterprise of which he is the head is one of the most important productive industries of the county. Fifteen hundred car-loads of the products were shipped in the year 1903. The company also owns a large plant at Twin Bluff, Illinois, near Ottawa, of which Mr. Owen is superintendent and there they do about one-half the amount of business transacted at Hobart.
In 1902 Mr. Owen was joined in wedlock to Miss Eva May Kitchem, a daughter of Albert Kitchem. They have one child, Jessie. Like his father, Mr. Owen is a most stalwart advocate of temperance principles and gives his political allegiance to the party which embraces his views on this question. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and his has been an upright and honorable career. In all of his business life he has never been known to take advantage of the necessities of his fellow men, but places his dependence upon the sure and safe qualities of energy, good workmanship and honorable dealing - which always prove an excellent foundation upon which to rear the superstructure of prosperity.
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Dr. Fred Castle, who was formerly engaged in the practice of medicine, enjoying a large and lucrative practice and rendering valuable assistance to his fellow-men, is now living retired in Lowell. He is a native of Franklin, Franklin county, Vermont, his natal day being August 9, 1840. His father, Stanley Castle, was also born there and was a. farmer by occupation. He left New England, however, in 1847, and made his way westward to Lake county, Indiana, locating in Cedar Creek township, where he secured a tract of land, which he developed into a rich and productive farm. Prospering in his undertakings, he added to his possessions from time to time until his realty holdings aggregated about seven hundred acres.
Dr. Castle is the elder of two children, and was a lad of seven summers when brought by his parents to Lake county. His early education was acquired in an old log schoolhouse, such as was common in pioneer days of this portion of the state. He afterward attended Valparaiso College, and, while there pursuing his study, enlisted in response to the country's call, becoming a member of Company G, Twelfth Indiana Cavalry, in 1863. He joined the army as a private, but was made orderly sergeant and did active service until the close of the war, when he received an honorable discharge from the hospital in which he had been for six months on account of rheumatism.
When the country no longer needed his services Dr. Castle returned to Lowell, where he remained for a year and a half, ere he had sufficiently recovered his health to engage in active business. At the end of that time he began teaching in the public schools and also taught vocal and instrumental music. Later he retired from the field of public-school education in order to devote more time and attention to music. He also took up the study of medicine, and after pursuing his reading for five years he was graduated from the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor with the class of 1869. He practiced medicine for ten years in Minnesota, being located at Caledonia, Houston county. He was forced to abandon the practice, however, on account of rheumatism, and then returned to Indiana, after which he devoted his time to farming for a number of years. At length he divided his land among his children, but still continues the supervision of the property. Dr. Castle owned at one time about three hundred and fifty acres, and he still has control of two hundred and fifty acres.
He was married to his present wife in 1878. She bore the maiden name of Rachel Ellingsen, and to them have been born three children: Carrie M., who is now the wife of Cecil M. Johnson, who resides upon one of her father's farms; John; and Nellie M.
Prior to the Civil war Dr. Castle was a Democrat, but at that time he joined the Republican party and has since been unfaltering in support of the party and its platform. He is a member of Burnham Post, G. A. R.. and is a Royal Arch Mason. Coming to Lake county in early boyhood days, he has witnessed the greater part of its growth and improvement as it has emerged from pioneer conditions to take its place among the leading counties of this great commonwealth. Whatever has been accomplished here in the way of progress and improvement has been to him a matter of deep interest, and inasfar as possible he has co-operated in the work for the general good.
William M. Fester is the efficient and popular agent of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad at Hobart, and his relations in a business and personal way with this city have been most pleasant and profitable. He was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, September 16, 1861. His father, James Foster, was a native of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, and was of Scotch-Irish descent. He followed the occupation of farming in early life, and at one time was engaged in the operation of a sawmill and the manufacture of lumber. At the time of his death, however, he was connected with the steel industry in Pittsburg, where he died in 1880. His wife and the mother of Mr. Foster was Charlotte Benton, also a native of the Keystone state, where much of her life has been passed, but she is now living in Hobart, Indiana, at the age of seventy-five years. Her parents were English born, and some of their children were also born in England. James and Charlotte Foster had five sons and two daughters: Sarah Antoinette, who died in December, 1897; John Benton, who is a foreman in the Edgar Thompson Steel Works at Braddock, Pennsylvania; Henry Albert, who was engaged with a publishing company at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and was formerly train dispatcher at Fort Wayne for the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad; William M., who is the fourth child and third son; Marian A., who died in infancy; James Alexander, who is a foreman in the machine shops of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he entered as an apprentice, in 1886, and has occupied positions in several other machine shops since then, returning to the Pennsylvania Company's shops in 1901, and was promoted to his present position of foreman in 1903; and Richard Franklin, a telegraph operator at Liverpool, Indiana, with the Pennsylvania system, who was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, July 28, 1871. This son, the youngest of the family, is an especially proficient musician and performer on the mandolin, possessed of much artistic skill, besides being so capable in his serious line of work.
Mr. William M. Foster was reared and educated in Pennsylvania, attending school at Pittsburg for one year. He was a traveling man for four years; representing different lines of business. In 1887 he took up the study of telegraphy at Fort Wayne in the office of the Pittsburg. Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad. He had completed his term of apprenticeship in one year, and then served a year as extra operator. In December, 1889, he was given a regular position, and in 1892 was appointed relief agent. In 1895 he was transferred from the latter capacity to the post of station agent at Hobart, which position he is still filling to the entire satisfaction of his company. He is a very capable man, and his courtesy in the treatment of the patrons of the road has won him high commendation and been a chief factor in his success. Mr. Foster is a true-blue Republican, and fraternally is affiliated with Camp No. 5202, M. W. A., and with the M. L. McClelland Lodge No. 357, of the Masonic order at Hobart. He and his wife are members of the Unitarian church at Hobart.
Mr. Foster's wife, to whom he was married on June 24, 1896, was Miss Julia C. Butler, a daughter of William M. and Elizabeth (Johnson) Butler. The history of her father, a pioneer of Chicago and of Lake county, is detailed below. Mrs. Foster was born in Chicago, July 4, 1871, and she spent some of her girlhood days in Hobart. She received her education in the grammar schools and in the Hobart high school, and she completed her education in the Valparaiso Normal College. Her own educational qualifications led her into teaching, and before her marriage she was known as one of the successful teachers in the public schools of Hobart and Liverpool. Her interests are still afforded as far as possible to literary affairs, and she is a member of the Woman's Reading Club of Hobart. She is among the most highly esteemed ladies of Hobart, and her social relations are with the best people of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Foster have two children: The son, James Moulton, was born July 8, 1897 and Helen Virginia was born April 30, 1900.
Shortly after their marriage Mr. Foster purchased a comfortable and commodious modern residence on Cleveland avenue in Hobart, really ex-changing for it his residence property in Fort Wayne. Mr. Foster takes great pride in his nice home, and gives attention to the adornment of the nice grounds about the house, while Mrs. Foster does her part so well for interior comfort and beauty.
There follows the obituary of Mrs. Foster's father, as clipped from an issue of the local press dated in December, 1895.
Died, December 1, William M. Butler, Sr., one of Hobart's oldest residents. He was a native of Watertown, New York, where he was born January 22. 1824. He came to Chicago in 1837, and was one of the far-sighted pioneers who watched the frontier trading post develop, like the fairy castles of a single night, into the representative commercial metropolis of a continent. Mr. Butler was engaged in the hardware business there until the great fire. He then moved to Hobart. where he has ever since resided. He leaves a wife and ten children, an interesting family, to whom the sincere sympathy of this community is extended in their bereavement. The funeral services were held Wednesday forenoon from the home.
"We see but dimly through the mists and vapors."- And perhaps most dimly on this earth can we penetrate the veil which covers the inmost heart and impulses of our fellow men. We see the puppets play upon the boards; but of the hand behind the curtain which controls and impels them, we know nothing.
Mr. Butlers was a unique character-rugged, and strong of purpose and will. All-sufficient unto himself, he possessed his hopes and his ambitions, and he fought and struggled for them with a silent determination which was only the stronger because its ordinary indications were repressed. He had many acquaintances, yet the number of men who really knew him was very few. Those who were permitted to see beneath the stern and rugged exterior found something, within the inner self of the man, to understand and look upon with no little admiration. He had had his troubles and his disappointments; and out of them he had brought one strong desire to provide for the children whose happiness and worldly welfare was, as a matter of fact, his highest wish. Taciturn he was, and not given to revealing his inner emotions to those about him. And yet he had moments when he unbent, when his grim silence seemed to relax; and in those moments, which were seldom seen by any except his family, there could be read the better nature which dominated his life's hard and really unselfish struggle.
He possessed in an exceptional degree the refined education and deep mental grasp which might have made him a highly known student and thinker had he chosen. His ideal of life was a plain and far from idyllic one. He was faithful to his religious tenets to the end, and in accordance with a previously expressed desire, the funeral address was made by the eloquent Cora L. V. Richmond, of Chicago, one of the most brilliant leaders of the Spiritualistic exponents in America. Appropriate music was pleasingly rendered by the quartette choir of the Unitarian church.
Perhaps no one business enterprise or industry indicates more clearly the commercial and social status of a town than its hotels. The wide-awake, enterprising villages and cities must have pleasant accommodations for visitors and traveling men, and the foreign public judges of a community by the entertainment afforded to the strangers. In this regard the Conrad Hotel, of which Mr. Conrad is proprietor, is an index of the character and advantages of Tolleston, for the hostelry will rank favorably with those of many a larger place, and its genial proprietor neglects nothing that can add to the comfort of his guests.
Mr. Conrad is a native of Germany, his birth having occurred in the fatherland on the 9th of September, 1841. He was there reared, his boyhood days being quietly passed, and the public schools of Germany afforded him his educational privileges. After putting aside his text-books he began preparation for life's practical duties by serving an apprenticeship to the cabinet-maker's trade. He began when fourteen years of age and worked on that way until twenty years of age, when, in accordance with the laws of the fatherland demanding military service from every able-bodied son. he joined the German army and served for three years.
Desirous of benefiting his financial condition Mr. Conrad resolved to come to America, having heard much of its superior business opportunities and possibilities. Accordingly he bade adieu to home and friends and in 1866 sailed for the new world, landing eventually at New York. He did not tarry in the eastern metropolis, however, but made his way at once into the interior of the country, locating in Chicago, where he followed his trade as an employee until 1870. In that year he removed to Clarke Station, where he entered the employ of the Washington Ice Company, but later returned to Chicago, although he still remained in the service of the Washington Ice Company. In 1879 he came to Tolleston, where he embarked in the hotel business, in which he has continued to the present time, covering a period of twenty-five consecutive years. As hotel proprietor he is well known, being a genial landlord, and has made it his study to understand the needs and wishes of his guests and to meet these inasfar as is possible. He has obtained a good patronage and has made the Conrad Hotel a credit to the town.
In 1870 was celebrated the marriage of August Conrad and Miss Harmena Ratzlow, who died in 1898 leaving four children, namely: Otto. Emma. Minnie and Paul, all of whom are yet under the parental roof.
Mr. Conrad has been quite active and influential in public affairs in his community and is a recognized leader of public thought and action in Tolleston, where his worth and ability have been recognized by election to public office. In 1892 he was chosen by popular suffrage to the position of township trustee, in which capacity he served in a most acceptable manner for four years. He then was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry Seegers in the office of trustee. He was also supervisor for two terms, or four years. Mr. Conrad cast his first presidential vote for General Grant, but since that time has been a Democrat and is a stanch advocate of the party, believing that its platform contains the best elements of good government. Mr. Conrad is well known in his part of the county and has been identified with its upbuilding and progress through a quarter of a century. In every office that he has been called upon to fill he has discharged his duties with promptness and fidelity so that over the record of his public career as well as his private life there falls no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil. He came to America empty-handed, but the strong and salient characteristics of the German people have been manifested in his career, and the hope that led him to come to the United States has therefore been more than realized. As time has passed he has made financial progress and has also gained in addition to his material success the good will and confidence of those with whom he has been associated.
Alexander C. Thompson, formerly identified with agricultural interests in Hobart and now living a retired life, was born in the town of Streetsboro, Portage county, Ohio, on the 10th of July, 1838, and is the third son in a family of eleven children, whose parents were John and Elizabeth (Cock-burn) Thompson. The father was a native of Edinburg, Scotland, and the . mother was born in Dalkeith, Scotland. They were married in that country, and two of their children were born there, but the others were born in Ohio.
Alexander C. Thompson was reared in the county of his nativity, pursued a common school education, and afterward spent one year in Hiram College when General James A. Garfield was a teacher there. He was reared to farm labor and continued upon the old homestead until 1861, when he left the plow and donned the blue uniform in defense of the stars and stripes. He enlisted in Company E, First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, as a private, in response to President Lincoln's first call for troops. He served for one year and then returned to Portage county, Ohio. Later he visited different states of the Union and finally located in Ford county, Illinois, at Paxton. There he was engaged in farming for four years, after which he came to Lake county, Indiana, in 1865. He then bought a farm in Ross township of partly improved land, and devoted his attention to its further cultivation and development until 1897. He placed the fields in excellent condition so that they returned to him large crops. He made substantial improvements upon his land and conducted his farm interests according to the most approved plans and progressive ideas. Year by year his financial resources were increased through the sale of his harvests, and in 1897, with a very desirable competence, he retired from business life and took up his abode in Hobart.
In 1862 Mr. Thompson was united in marriage to Miss Mary J. Watson, a native of Lorain county, Ohio, and a daughter of John and Elizabeth Watson. This marriage has been blessed with three children: Frederick, William and Hugh. The family is widely and favorably known in Hobart, and their circle of friends is extensive. Mr. Thompson has figured quite prominently in public affairs, and his worth and ability have been recognized by his fellow citizens, who have frequently called upon him to serve in public office. He was county assessor for two years, previously he was assessor of Ross township for eighteen years, and in all matters of citizenship has been progressive and helpful. His political allegiance is given the Democracy, and he is a Mason, belonging to the Hobart Lodge! He has a pleasant home in Hobart and other property there, and in addition he owns his valuable farm of two hundred acres in Ross township, which he now rents. He has one of the old deeds executed by President Fillmore, which is a rare document.
In the field of political and commercial life in Hobart John Hillman is well known and is numbered among the leading and influential citizens of the town. A young man, he possesses the enterprising spirit of the west, which has been the dominant factor in producing the wonderful development of this section of the country. He is the chief executive officer of Hobart and is giving to the town a progressive and business-like administration.
Mr. Hillman was born in Elgin, Illinois, on the 7th of May, 1870, and is a son of Frederick and Hannah (Moss) Hillman, both of whom were natives of Germany, where they spent their childhood days and were married. John Hillman is their youngest son. His mother was twice married and has one daughter and two sons by her last marriage.
In his early boyhood Mr. Hillman was brought to Lake county and was reared upon the home farm in Hobart township, pursuing his education in the common schools. He remained with his step-father until he started out in life .on his own account, and then engaged in the saloon business, which he conducted continuously since 1889. He is also a stockholder and director in the First State Bank of Hobart, and is thus connected with financial interests in his part of the county. He has also taken an active part in public affairs, and is now serving for the third year as a member of the town board and at this writing is president of that body. In fact, he has continued as its chief executive officer throughout his connection therewith, and his efforts in behalf of Hobart have been practical, effective and far-reaching. He is chairman of the township central committee of the Republican party, and does all in his power to secure Republican successes. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Foresters of America. September 27, 1889, Mr. Hillman was united in marriage to Miss Mary Neiman, and to them has been born a son, Fred. They have many warm friends in Hobart and throughout the surrounding district, and their own home is noted for its gracious hospitality.
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James Brannon, now deceased, was a well-known and highly respected citizen of Lake county, and his life record should form a place in the history of this section of the state. He was born in Boston, Summit county, Ohio, July 3T, 1819, and was a son of William Brannon, a native of Pennsylvania and of Irish descent. The father died in Boston, Summit county, Ohio, when his son James was but nine years of age. The boy afterward lived with an uncle until sixteen years of age, when he started out in life on his own account. He worked by the month for two years and never lost a day during that time. When living in Ohio he belonged to an independent military company and took part in the drills which were common at that time. Although he earned but eight dollars per month at farm labor, he managed to save most of the amount, and with the money which he had acquired he came to Indiana in 1843, establishing his home in Lake county. Here he preempted a tract of land, first owning a farm of eighty acres, to which he afterward added forty acres. Later he sold that property and bought a soldier's land warrant, wherewith he secured one hundred and sixty acres of land in West Creek township, becoming owner of this property in 1850. As a farmer he was energetic, practical and progressive. He worked hard year after year, and as his financial resources increased he extended the boundaries of his farm by additional purchases until at the time of his death in 1898 he was the owner of seven hundred and fifty acres of very valuable land, which had been accumulated through his own industry, perseverance and capable management.
Mr. Brannon was very well known in the county as an honored pioneer settler and enterprising agriculturist, and as a citizen he favored public progress and improvement along material, social, intellectual and moral lines. He served as a trustee of West Creek township for twenty years, and was a life-long Republican, heartily endorsing the principles of the party. He held membership in the Presbyterian church, in which he served as an elder for a number of years and he was very liberal in his contributions to the cause of Christianity. His life was at all times actuated by honorable and manly principles.
Mr. Brannon was united in marriage to Miss Eleanor Foster, on the 17th of May, 1851. She was born in Bradford county, Pennsylvania, March 25, 1832, and was a daughter of Elijah D. and Jemima (Nichols) Foster. Her father was born in Brookfield, Massachusetts, and came to Lake county in 1843., locating on a tract of land in West Creek township, where he engaged in general farming throughout his business career. He passed away at the advanced age of eighty-three years and his wife lived to be fifty-six years of age. Both parents of Mrs. Brannon had been married before, and the father had two sons by his former marriage, who were early settlers of Lake county, A. D. Foster coming to Indiana in 1837, while George S. Foster arrived in 1838. There were but two white families in this part of the county at that time. The mother of Mrs. James Brannon was Jemima Nichols, and she was born near Chelsea, Orange county, Vermont, February 7, 1792. She married first Amos Loveland. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, entering the ranks at the age of fourteen. He was present at the execution of Major Andre. His occupation was that of an agriculturist. He was a Democrat in his political affiliations. The grandfather Nichols was also a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Brannon's grandmother was a niece of the celebrated Cotton Mather of historic fame. The parents of Mrs. Brannon had ten children, and she was but eleven years of age at the time of the removal of the family to this state. She has since lived in Lake county, making her home here from a time in which there were no frame houses in the county, all the dwellings being built of logs. She has, therefore, witnessed the greater part of the growth and development of this portion of the state and can relate many interesting incidents concerning pioneer life and experience here. To Mr. and Mrs. Brannon were born five children: Lucina, the wife of M. E. Belshaw; Julia, the deceased wife of T. A. Wason; Perry, who lives in North Dakota; George D., who is a practicing physician at Crown Point; and Melvin, who has charge of the Biology Department in the State University at Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Mrs. Brannon is the owner of a valuable farm of one hundred and seventy-one acres, which she rents. She holds membership in the Presbyterian church at Lowell and is well known throughout the county, being a representative of one of the honored pioneer families.
Hon. Thaddeus S. Fancher has been an attorney at Crown Point, Indiana, for over thirty years, and has been interested in the draining and improvement of the swamp land of southern Lake county. He has depended on his own efforts for the advancement made in his profession, having defrayed his early expenses for education by teaching school. He has had a very successful career, both from his individual standpoint and for the general welfare, and his services to the county and state as a legislator and promoter of public improvements indicate his worth as a citizen.
His grandfather, Thaddeus S. Fancher, was of French descent, a native of Connecticut, and was a pioneer to Huron county, Ohio, where his son, T. S. Fancher, was born in 1809. The latter lived all his life on one farm in Greenwich township, Huron county, and was a prosperous farmer, living to be eighty-four years old. He was a member of the Methodist church. He married Amy Chapman, who was born and reared in Richland county, Ohio, and is now living in Huron county at the age of eighty-seven. Her father, Cyrus Chapman, was of Scotch descent and a pioneer of Richland county. These parents had ten children, eight sons and two daughters, and five are living at present.
Hon. Thaddeus S. Fancher, who is the seventh child and fourth son, was born in Huron county, Ohio, August 31, 1848, and was reared there. His schooling was received in the familiar little red schoolhouse, which was situated a mile from his home, and which contained the primitive equipment of the temples of learning of that day, such as hard slab seats, board writing desk, etc. After leaving the district school Mr. Fancher began attending Oberlin College, teaching school during the winter to pay expenses. He came to Crown Point in 1868, and for the following two years read law with Major Griffin and taught school. In 1870 he went to the Michigan State University at Ann Arbor, and in 1871 graduated in the law department. He had been admitted to the bar in Crown Point in 1870, and immediately on his return from Ann Arbor took up practice. He lost no time in gaining a client or patronage of some kind, for eighty cents was the entire capital to tide him over the initiatory stages of practice. In the same year he was married and settled down to the career of usefulness which has been continued to the present. In 1873 he was elected county superintendent of schools for a term of two years, and was re-elected, but served only a short part of this term, resigning to take up practice. He was prosecuting attorney of the county for four years, and in 1879 was elected to the state legislature by the Republican party. In 1881 he was returned to his seat by the largest majority ever given any candidate in the county up to that time. He was eighty-one days in the first session and one hundred and one in the second, two of the longest sessions on record. The state statutes were revised at the time, and he was one of the revision committee. Since 1881 he has been continuously engaged in practice and also in dealing in land.
Mr. Fancher owns a large tract of land in Lake county, and for the past fifteen years has made a specialty of constructing ditches and draining marsh land. He has had the legal business involved in the construction of over one hundred and fifty miles of ditching, authorized under the law of 1881 passed while he was a member of the legislature, and which has cost the landowners up to this time two hundred thousand dollars, and has resulted in untold benefit to the citizens of Lake county. This land in the Calumet district was formerly worth comparatively nothing, but now sells for sixty, seventy and eighty dollars per acre. The first ditch which he constructed in the Kankakee marsh in 1885 is known as the Singleton ditch, and is seventeen miles long and cost seventeen thousand dollars.
Mr. Fancher married, in 1871, Miss Ardelle Washborn, a daughter of Charles A. and Marietta (Griffin) Washborn. They have one son. Thaddeus Milton Fancher, who is attending the schools of Crown Point. Mr. Fancher is a member of the Masonic order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Charles E. Nichols, a representative of the business life of Lowell, is engaged in dealing in hay, grain and seeds. He has lived in Lake county throughout his entire life, his birth having occurred in West Creek township, on the 14th of December, 1861. His grandfather, William Nichols, was born in New York and was of French and English descent. His father. H. R. Nichols, was born in Madison county, New York, and came to Lake county in 1836, casting in his lot among the pioneer settlers of this portion of the state. He first located in Crown Point, afterward lived in Cedar Creek township, and subsequently in West Creek township. Lake county; he entered land from the government and developed the wild tract into richly cultivated fields, continuing his active connection with fanning interests throughout the period of his business career. He lived to be seventy-nine years of age and spent sixty-two years of that time in Lake county. His early political allegiance was given to the Whig party, and upon its dissolution he joined the ranks of the new Republican party, with which he continued to affiliate until his death. He was well known in this portion of Indiana, and as a pioneer settler he aided in laying broad and deep the foundation for the present development and progress of the state. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Phoebe Eliza Kenyon, and was a native of Rhode Island, whence she was brought to Lake county, Indiana, in 1838, when but twelve years of age. Her father, John C. Kenyon, was one of the earliest settlers of Lake county and made his home at Pleasant Grove from the time of his arrival in this state until his death, which occurred in 1888. Mrs. Nichols still survives her husband, and now resides in Lowell in her seventy-eighth year. She has been a resident of Lake county for sixty-five years, and has, therefore, been a witness of the greater part of its growth, development and upbuilding. She can relate many interesting incidents of pioneer days and is familiar with its history from the period of early settlement here down to the present time. To Mr. and Mrs. H. R. Nichols were born six children, three sons and three daughters, all of whom were natives of Lake county, while five are still living, namely: William C, a resident of Lowell; Irving, who died at the age of thirty-one years; Hannah N., the wife of Mortimer Gragg, of Topeka, Kansas; Ella M., the wife of Cyrus Dickenson, of Lowell; and Alma, the wife of Edson Foster, of Chicago Heights, Illinois.
Charles E. Nichols, the youngest member of the family, was but six years of age when his parents removed from the farm to Lowell and there he began his education in the public schools. No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of life for him in his boyhood. When nineteen years of age he entered business life as a dealer in hay and grain, being associated with his father and brother from 1880 until 1886. In the latter year he went to Chicago, where he was engaged in the same line of business for about seven months, and from 1887 until 1890 he was a grain dealer of Crown Point. He again went to Chicago, in 1890, where he remained for about a year and while there was a member of the board of trade. In 1891 he returned to Lowell, since which time he has engaged in dealing in hay, grain and seeds at this place. He makes large purchases and sales, and his well conducted business interests have brought to him very gratifying success. He has now a very large patronage, and his annual sales reach an extensive figure. He is a stockholder and director in the Lowell National Bank and is well known in business circles as one whose success is the legitimate outcome of his energy, determination and honorable dealing.
In 1888 Mr. Nichols was united in marriage to Miss Edna May Smith, a daughter of T. M. Smith, of Hammond, Indiana, and they have one child. Stella. Mr. Nichols belongs to Coif ax Lodge No. 378, F. & A. M., and to Lowell Lodge No. 300, K. of P. In politics he has ever been a stanch Republican, has served as a member of the school board, and takes an active interest in the cause of education and in everything pertaining to the welfare and upbuilding of his native county. With the exception of the brief intervals passed in Chicago, he has always resided within the borders of Lake county, and his life record is therefore well known to his fellow-citizens here, while the fact that many of his stanchest friends are numbered among those with whom he has been acquainted from boyhood is indicative of the fact that his career has ever been such as to command respect and confidence.
In July, 1904, Mr. Nichols was appointed by the President of the National Hay Association, chairman of the Arbitration National Committee. At the convention at St. Louis, Missouri, Mr. Nichols attended and it was subsequently that he was appointed to this responsible position.
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Horatio R. Nichols was born in Fenner, Madison county, New York, January 25, 1818, and died in Lowell, April 13, 1897, leaving to mourn him a devoted wife, five children, four sisters and one brother, one son, three sisters, and one brother having preceded him to the Spirit Land. His age at the time of death was seventy-nine years, two months and seventeen days.
Mr. Nichols worked upon his father's farm, following the usual routine of a farmer boy's life; that is, laboring on the farm during the summer, attending the district school in winter, until he had reached his eighteenth year. At this time a tide of emigration set in towards the great and growing west. A strong desire took possession of Mr. Nichols to see the western country, and, although yet in his teens, he, in company with his brother, bade adieu to the old homestead and set upon their journey towards the setting sun. They reached LaPorte, Indiana, June 2, 1836. Here he sought and obtained work on a farm, where he remained until December following, when he again started west, arriving in this county the same month. Liking the appearance of this part of the country he concluded to settle here. A man by the name of Nolan who preceded Mr. Nichols about two years to this county, lived in a little cabin near where the brickyard of H. J. Nichols was, which is now Washington street on the west side. The Nichols brothers purchased Nolan's claim, which then included a large share of the site of Lowell, for which they paid two hundred and fifty dollars. Mr. Nolan moved farther west. In the following May Mr. Nichols moved onto his claim, where he and his brother continued to live alone for several years. They were known by the neighbors as "the old bachelors." After having "batched it" for five years Mr. Nichols concluded it was not "good for man to be alone." So he wooed, won and wedded Miss Phoebe E. Kenyon, January 23, 1845. Fifty years from that date a golden wedding was given in their capacious west side home. Mr. Nichols was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal church at the age of thirteen years and reunited with the church in Lowell under the ministry of J. F. McDaniel. His first vote for president was cast for Martin Van Buren in 1840. Thus you see he identified himself with the Democratic party, but being of philanthropic turn of mind and believing that all men should be free he became a Free Soiler. Since 1856 he has voted with the Republican party. At the time Mr. Nichols settled here his nearest neighbor on the west was Robert Wilkinson, who lived where Mrs. Marvin now lives. Jacob Mendinthall lived where Captain J. L. Manning now lives; Samuel Bryant, Duane Bryant and Elias Bryan lived on the Perry Jones farm, Ross Sanger farm, and John Nichols farm, respectively. Although Mr. Nichols was not one of the oldest settlers here he lived to see this part of the country reclaimed and made to blossom and bloom as the rose.
Funeral services, which were attended by a large concourse of sorrowing friends, were held at the Methodist Episcopal church, the Rev. J. B. Sites, assisted by Rev. E. P. Bennett, officiating, after which the mortal remains of the beloved man were interred in the Lowell cemetery, there to rest until the great judgment day comes.
Numbered among the leading business men of Hobart is William Scharbach, a dealer in lumber and building materials. He is a native son of Germany, and in his career has manifested many of the strong and sterling traits of the people of the fatherland. His birth occurred in Sophienhoff bei Demmin, Stettin, October 15, 1843, his parents being William and Mary (Stoll) Scharbach, both of whom are now deceased. His father came to the United States in 1867, locating in Chicago.
In taking up the personal history of William Scharbach we present to our readers the life record of one who is widely and favorably known in Hobart and Lake county. His education was acquired in Germany, and he remained there until after he had attained his majority. He was but twenty-four years of age, when in 1867 he bade adieu to friends and native land and sailed for the United States, hoping that he might find better business opportunities in the new world. He did not tarry long on the Atlantic coast, but made his way at once into the interior of the country, locating in Chicago, where he was engaged in the lumber business. He came to Hobart in 1893 and established the lumber yard which he is now conducting. He deals in all kinds of lumber and building materials, and has developed an enterprise which has reached extensive and profitable proportions. Ernestly desiring to please his patrons, he has through his obliging manner, honorable dealing and reasonable prices won a large share of the public trade. He also conducts a planing mill in connection with the lumber trade.
In 1868 Mr. Scharbach was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Hagen, who was born in Germany and came to America in 1867. They have five children: Frank, William, Emil, Bernhard and Frederick.
Mr. Scharbach is recognized as a stalwart Republican and has been town trustee for one term, but his time and attention are chiefly devoted to his business interests, in which he has met with signal success.
Frank C. Scharbach, the eldest son of William Scharbach, was born in Chicago, January 31, 1873, and was largely reared in that city, attending German schools. He was also a student in Concordia College at Milwaukee,. Wisconsin, for three years, during which time he made a special study of languages. After completing his education he joined his father in the lumber business. He was twenty years of age when he came to Hobart, and he is now a well known factor in commercial circles. He, too, is a stanch Republican and is very active in the work of his party, serving as chairman of the township central committee. He is now precinct committeeman of the second precinct of Hobart township. On the 29th of September, 1895, he wedded Miss Mary Schumacher, a daughter of John Jeremiah Schumacher, and they have one daughter, Gertrude. Both Mr. Scharbach and his son are well known, and the business enterprise and laudable ambition of the young man, supplementing the sound judgment of the senior partner, render this firm a very strong one in Hobart.
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William Edward Belshaw, formerly identified with agricultural and horticultural interests in Lake county and now living a retired life in Lowell, manifested throughout his business career those sterling traits of character which lead to honorable and satisfactory success. He was resolute and energetic and these qualities were resultant factors in winning him the prosperity that he now enjoys. He was born in West Creek township, Lake county, September 28, 1848. His father, William Belshaw, was a native of England and when a young man came to America, locating at Door Prairie, LaPorte county, Indiana, whence he came to Lake county about 1836. Few settlements had been made within the borders of this county at that time. Much of the land was still in possession of the government, and in consequence was uncultivated and unimproved. The streams had not been bridged and the forests were uncut, and it remained to such enterprising and progressive citizens as Mr. Belshaw to reclaim the wild district for the purposes of civilization. He secured a tract of land from the government and developed a good farm in West Creek township, whereon he spent his remaining days, his life labors being ended in death when he was seventy-one years of age. His religious views were in harmony with the doctrines of what is known as the Church of God. He married Harriet Jones, a native of Ohio, in which state she was reared until eight years of age, when she came to Lake county, Indiana, with her father, Harry Jones, the family home being established in West Creek township amid the conditions of frontier life. Mrs. Belshaw lived to be about sixty-eight years of age. By her marriage she became the mother of seven children, three sons and four daughters, of whom one daughter died in infancy. The others are all living, as follows: William Edward, of this review; Mrs. Mary Cathcart, of LaPorte, Indiana; Florence, the wife of James Chitwood, of Lowell; Charles, who is a resident of Oregon; Lucy, the wife of Sherman Hayden, of Los Angeles, California; and John, a farmer, of Eugene, Oregon.
William Edward Belshaw was reared under the parental roof upon the old homestead farm in West Creek township. His education was acquired by attending the common schools for about two months in the winter season, and throughout the remainder of the year he worked upon the home farm, doing such service as his age and strength permitted. As the years advanced he gained in proficiency and he continued to assist his father until twenty-four years of age.
On Christmas day of 1874 Mr. Belshaw was united in marriage to Miss Lucina Brannon, daughter of James and Eleanor (Foster) Brannon, who are mentioned on another page of this work. Mrs. Belshaw is their oldest child and was born and reared in West Creek township, Lake county. Mrs. Belshaw received her primary education in the district schools and Lowell high school and then she was a student in the Western Female Seminary- at Oxford, Ohio, for two years. She was a successful teacher in her native county for six years. Religiously she is a member of the Presbyterian church, and was also a teacher in the Sunday schools.
She is the mother of six children, three sons and three daughters, and five are living, as follows: J. W. Belshaw is a successful attorney-at-law in Lowell; he graduated in the class of 1892 in the Lowell high school and afterwards was a student in the Normal at Valparaiso. He was a teacher one year in the Lowell high school and a number of years in his native county. He read law with Attorney R. C. Wood and upon his being admitted to the bar began the practice of his profession at Lowell. He wedded Miss Maud Holshaw, in July, 1898, and one little daughter graces this union, by name Ernestine. He has an attractive residence in Lowell, and is one of the representative citizens of the village. Lewis D.. a resident of West Creek township and a farmer, wedded Miss Emma Stuppy, and has two daughters, Mabel and Edith. Lewis graduated from the teachers' course in Valparaiso Normal and taught four years in Lake county. His wife was also a teacher in the same county. Albert B., also a resident of West Creek township and a practical farmer, wedding Miss Matilda Hadders. Julia, at home with her parents, was educated in Lowell high school, but her chosen profession is music. She was educated in music at Steinway Hall at Chicago, and is a successful teacher in west Lake county. She is a member of the Presbyterian church. Edith, the youngest, is in the fourth grade of the public schools. Mrs. Belshaw's progenitors were heroes in the Revolutionary war and the direct descendants are eligible to become members of the society of Sons and Daughters of the Revolution. Mrs. Belshaw went with her husband as a bride to a part of the old Belshaw homestead in West Creek township, and there Mr. Belshaw was engaged in general farming until 1895. In that year he built his present brick residence in Lowell, took tip his abode thereon and is now engaged in fruit-growing. His life has been characterized by unfaltering industry and good management, and success has attended his efforts. He is now the owner of a farm of one hundred and thirty-six acres, on which his son resides. He is also a stockholder in the State National Bank, of Lowell, and his wife is the owner of a farm of one hundred and thirty acres in West Creek township, to which Mr. Belshaw gives his personal supervision.
Mr. Belshaw gives his political allegiance to the Democracy and has been chairman of the township central committee. He takes an active interest in the work of the party, and his efforts in its behalf have been effective and far-reaching in the locality where he resides. He is at the present writing nominee for county treasurer on the Democratic ticket. He keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day and also has a broad general knowledge of matters touching the general interests of society and the welfare of the country. Having spent his entire life in Lake county, he is well known to its citizens, and the fact that many of his friends are numbered among those who have known him from boyhood is an indication that his career has been honorable, straightforward and worthy of respect.
Wesley Pattee, of West Creek township, belongs to that better class of citizens whose lives form the truest history of any portion of country, national or local, and his genealogical and personal record has many points of interest and worth to add to the value of this history of Lake county.
He is a native of northwestern Indiana, having been born in the county of LaPorte, May 22, 1836. He was the fifth of a family of eight children, six sons and two daughters, whose parents were Lewis and Susan (Munger) Pattee, and he is the youngest of the three yet living, the other two being: Cyrus, married and a retired farmer of Lowell; and Sophronia, wife of Volney Dickey, of Grant Park, Illinois. Two of the sons were in the Civil war as members of Company B, Twentieth Indiana Infantry, and were taken prisoners at the battle of Gettysburg and starved in the prison pens of Libby and Belle Isle. Mr. Pattee's father was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1803. and died aged seventy-three in 1876, He lived in Canada until he was of age, then came to Huron county, Ohio^ where he remained till after his marriage, and took up his abode in LaPorte county. Indiana, at the first years of that county's history. From there, after a few years' residence, he moved over to West Creek township in this county, and twenty years later became a resident of Kankakee county, Illinois, where he passed the rest of his life. He purchased four hundred acres of land in this latter county, and in his later years enjoyed very comfortable circumstances. He was a successful man in business affairs, was known for his decided and strong character, and made his influence felt wherever he lived. His ancestry was traced back to France, while his wife was of Scotch lineage. His wife, Susan Munger by maiden name, was born in Seneca county, New York, in 1803, and she attained the great age of ninety-two years. She was a Presbyterian in faith.
Mr. Pattee was reared in LaPorte county during the first twelve years of his life, and then in Lake and Kankakee counties. He is one of the men of the present who can look back to a log cabin school as the scene of their first educational experiences. The building which he recalls having attended in West Creek township was constructed of hewn logs and was about twelve by twenty feet in dimensions. He did his writing on a long board placed aslant on pins driven into the wall, and he sat on a rough bench with no back. The teacher's place of honor was a mere stool. Light and ventilation came through the apertures left by the removal of two logs, filled in with panes of glass. He studied the elementary spelling book and Smith's arithmetic, while seated around the big box stove that occupied the center of the room. Subscription schools were the only kind known at that time, and twenty dollars was looked upon as a munificent salary to pay a teacher each month. During his own lifetime and in this very township of West Creek Mr. Pattee has witnessed a progression and even revolution of educational methods and equipment such as were not brought about in all the centuries before the time of his youth. And not alone in education has Mr. Pattee seen and been a part of progress. He and his wife well remember when not a railroad crossed the bounds of Lake county, while now fifteen lines network the county in every direction. He has been in Chicago when the teams would mire down on the State street thoroughfare; Lowell was not thought of in his youth, and while he was growing up-the now rich agricultural region of West Creek township was mainly a marsh.
When Mr. Pattee was twenty-six years old, on December 13, 1862, he married Miss Elizabeth Pattee, and they have lived and plied their daily tasks side by side now for over forty years. During this time six children, three sons and three daughters, were born to them, and three are living. Hattie is the wife of Richard Sailor, a prosperous farmer of Eagle Creek township, this county, and they have seven children, all living, Walter, Munger, Elmer, Chester, Mabel, Cirilla and Mildred, of whom Walter and Munger have reached the eighth grade in school; Mrs. Sailor was a teacher for two years in her home county. Miss Cora, who was educated in the Lowell high school, is noted for her special proficiency as an artist in crayon and oil, and some of her finely wrought crayon pieces hang on the walls of the Lowell National Bank and attract attention from all visitors, while her exhibits at the county fair have always won the ribbons. Cyrus, the only son living of Mr. and Mrs. Pattee, took two years' work in the Lowell high school and completed the course in the Vories Business College at Indianapolis in 1902. He is a member of the Lowell band, affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, lodge No. 300, at Lowell, and with the Knights of Columbia Council No. ??, and is a stanch Republican and an ardent supporter of "Teddy" and his party.
Mrs. Pattee was born on Door prairie, Scipio township, LaPorte county, February 13, 1837, and was the second in a family of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, she being the oldest of the five survivors; Melvina is the wife of C. C. Pattee, a retired farmer of Lowell; Emily is the widow of Israel Koplin, of Kansas; George is married and farming in LaPorte county: and James is married and residing on the old homestead in LaPorte county. Mrs. Pattee's father was born in Canada and came to Huron county. Ohio, at the age of twelve, growing to manhood there. He was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and was also a sailor on the great lakes, having put into the- port of Chicago when there were but two houses there. He came to LaPorte county and purchased land of the government, being among the very early settlers of that county, and his son James has in his possession the parchment deed to the land. He was an old-line Whig and later a Republican. He and his wife were members of the Baptist church at Door Village, and he helped erect the edifice there. His wife was born in Huron county, Ohio, and was seventy years old at the time of her death.
Mr. and Mrs. Pattee began their domestic life in Yellowhead township in Kankakee county, Illinois, and lived for a time in a little log cabin home, but prosperity soon came to them and gave them a good home and com-fortable circumstances. They resided in Kankakee county until 1882, when they took up their home a half a mile from the postoffice of Lowell in West Creek township. They remodeled the house into a pretty country residence, put up various good buildings on the farm, and their estate is now known as one of the valuable and model farm properties of the township. They have one hundred and six acres lying in West Creek and Cedar Creek townships, and of this twenty-six acres lie within the corporation of Lowell. One of their valued possessions is a parchment deed executed April 1, 1848, under the signature of President Polk, and this is one of the few documents of the kind in west Lake county.
Mr. Pattee is a Republican, having cast his first presidential vote for the first Republican nominee, General Fremont, and he has never deviated in his support of the Grand Old Party. Mrs. Pattee is a member of the Christian church.
Daniel Beauman Sturtevant, of section 28, Ross township, has lived in this vicinity all his life, and from his boyhood days of sixty years ago to the present almost the entire development of Lake county has taken place, so that few men are better informed by actual personal experience of the material history of this portion of the county. He has lived continuously on one farm for over fifty-five years, and all the associations and interests of his life are bound up with it, and there it is his good pleasure to pass the remaining days of his busy and prosperous career and await the summons from an activity that has borne much fruit and been worthy and beneficial to the community in general.
Mr. Sturtevant was born in Porter county, Indiana, just three miles east of the farm where he has lived so long, on April 27, 1840. His father, John Sturtevant, was born in the town of Barton, Vermont, in 1806, and was reared, educated and married there. He came to LaPorte county, Indiana, in 1833, being one of the first carpenters to follow his craft in that now populous county. In 1836 he moved to Porter county, locating on the farm where he remained until 1848, when he settled on the old farm in Lake county now owned by his son, and where he died on January 1, 1858. He belongs to the list of early settlers of the county, and was also successful in his general career. He married Miss Louise Cass, who was a native of New Hampshire and a cousin of Dr. Lewis Cass, who was one of the pioneers and foremost men of Lake county. She died at the age of thirty-eight years, having been the mother of three sons and three daughters.
Mr. D. B. Sturtevant, who was the second child and eldest son, was eight years old when he went with his parents to Lake county, so that most of his boyhood was spent on the farm which as a man he has tilled and made the source of his livelihood. He is now the owner of about five hundred acres, some of it in Porter, county, and on this he is still actively engaged in general farming and stock-raising. He has about a hundred and fifty head of cattle and a good lot of hogs. His farm is one of the model places of the township, and he has made it so mainly by his own labors and most efficient management. Mr. Sturtevant was a raiser of the registered Herefords for a number of years, but has now retired from that business. He has given his best years and efforts to this life work, but has also taken an intelligent interest in the world about him, co-operating in community affairs and regularly casting his ballot at national elections for Democratic principles.
Mr. Sturtevant was married in 1866 to Miss Eugenie Wood, who was born in Iowa, but came to Lake county in girlhood. They are the parents of four children, John, Judson, Flora and Carrie. John was a student of Valparaiso College. Mrs. Sturtevant was born in Keosauqua. Iowa, October 31, 1844, a daughter of John and Caroline (Brown) Wood. Her father was a native of Vermont and her mother of Virginia. Her great-grandfather, David Wood, was a hero in the Revolutionary war, and the gun he carried in the war is yet in the family as a souvenir.
Mrs. Sturtevant was reared and educated in Ohio. She came from a family of teachers. Mrs. Sturtevant is a member of the Christian church of Deep River, Indiana.
Edwin Michael is one of the native born citizens of Lake county and one who has an honored place in the county as an upright man and citizen. He is one of the oldest of those still living who were born in this county of Lake. He was born September 17, 1840, being the older of the only two living children of John J. and Wealthy Ann (Green) Michael, his brother being William H. Michael, who is a prosperous farmer in this county and a raiser of blooded Durham cattle, and whose personal history will be found on other pages of this work.
His father was a native of New York state, was born March 22, 1811, and died about 1898. He was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and in the after years of his career followed farming. He was reared to the age of twenty-eight in New York state, receiving his education in the old-fashioned public schools of that early epoch. About 1839 he came to Lake county, Indiana, having been married to Miss Green in the state of Michigan. He was a poor man when he came to this county, and his first purchase of real estate was one hundred and sixty acres of state land, at a cost of about a dollar and a half an acre. His first habitation was a little log cabin, in which his son Edwin and the other children were born. He added to his land until his estate at one time comprised three hundred acres of choice land. He was in politics an old-line Whig, merging later into a Republican, the cardinal tenets of which party he advocated all his life. He and his wife were Baptists. His wife, who was a native of Michigan, died at the age of about twenty-six years, when her son Edwin was about six years old.
Mr. Edwin Michael was reared in Lake county, with the exception of four years spent in Westville, LaPorte county. He received a good common school education and had the benefit of attendance at the well-known Westville high school. He also took the literary course at the old University of Chicago, when that institution was located on Cottage Grove avenue. He taught school for two years in Haskell station in LaPorte county, and for two years in Lake county. He is a man of more than ordinary intellectual attainments, and as a farmer and as a business man has been noted for his progressive ideas and energetic activity.
When this country was in the throes of war and civil strife he bravely offered his services, and his life if need be, to the Union and the honor of the old flag. He enlisted at Lowell, August 12, 1862, in Company A, Ninety-ninth Indiana Infantry, and his regiment rendezvoused at South Bend. The first captain was Daniel F. Sawyer, but before the company returned from the front there were three other captains, namely, K. M. Burnham, R. H. Wells and Alfred H. Heath. His regiment was assigned to the western department under General Sherman, and he was with this intrepid commander on his most memorable campaign. He participated at the siege and capture of Vicksburg, was at the battles of Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge, being in the charge up the east end of Missionary Ridge. Then he was under fire for one hundred continuous days during the Atlanta campaign. At the battle of Resaca he was in the hottest fight of his career, one of his comrades being shot down at his side and he himself
narrowly escaping the storm of death. He was on the skirmish line at the fierce engagement at Dallas. He made the famous march to the sea across the state of Georgia, in which Sherman's men cut a swath sixty miles wide. From the sea he was on the long march up through the Carolinas on to Washington city. Two dates in his soldier's life he will never forget-the surrender of Lee and the assassination of Lincoln. He was at Raleigh, North Carolina, when the glad intelligence of the former reached the tired army, bringing joy and hope of home and friends to the poor soldiers. And five days later the death of the martyr president cast a gloom over the entire army previously so happy. On reaching Washington he participated in the grand review of Sherman's battle-scarred and tattered veterans, and on June 5, 1865, he received his honorable discharge, after having served his country faithfully for three years. He then went home and donned the peaceful garb of a civilian, to participate for the rest of his life in the work and public activity of his home community.
Mr. Michael married, January 1, 1866, Miss Thirza H. Dyer, and five children, a son and four daughters, have graced this union: Margaret A. is the wife of H. D. Gerrish, who is engaged in mining in Bay Horse, Idaho, and they have one child, Karlton. Earl J., who is a general merchant and dealer in mining supplies in the same locality of Idaho, married Miss Roles and has one daughter. Miss Ida L., who was educated in the common schools and at the Valparaiso Normal, has been a successful teacher in the city schools of Hammond for the past three .years, and also taught four years in her home township. Miss Julia M., who was educated in the Hammond high school and at Valparaiso, is at home with her father; is a teacher in her home township, and taught for two years in Idaho. Miss Edna R. was educated in the Hammond high school and is a teacher in Bay Horse, Idaho. Mr. Michael may well feel a large degree of pride in his children's enviable record in the field of active life.
Mrs. Michael was born in Wheaton, Illinois, February 4, 1844, and for some time was a successful teacher in that state. She is now an invalid.
Mr. Michael was old enough to cast a vote for Lincoln's second election, but was not permitted to vote because of being in the ranks. However, he has actively supported every candidate of the Grand Old Party ever since. He was elected in 1888 to the office of trustee of his township, this being the most onerous public office in the county. During his incumbency he supervised the erection of three schoolhouses and had to look after the welfare of twelve schools. He is a man well fitted by intelligence, experience and personal integrity to fill any office his fellow - citizens may give him, and he is public-spirited and thoroughly interested in everything pertaining to the growth and advancement of the county. His farm comprises one hundred and seventy-four acres of fine land all in West Creek township, and in the summer of 1903 he erected one of the most beautiful and modern residences in the township. Fraternally Mr. Michael is a member of Burnham Post No. 276, G. A. R., he being past commander. There are about sixty-five active members of the post at this writing, which is a large body considering the fact that the Grand Army is the only organization which never increases in number.
When the tocsin of war sounded in 1861 and men from all stations and walks of life flocked to the standard of the country to uphold the Union cause, Frank P. Sherart was among the number who donned the blue uniform and went to the south in defense of the nation's starry banner, and in all matters of citizenship he has been equally loyal even though he has not worn the dress of the soldier. A native of Erie county, Ohio, he was born on the 28th of December, 1836, and is a representative of an old Pennsylvania family of German lineage. His father, George Sherart, was born in Pennsylvania in 1800 and in 1809 accompanied his parents on their removal to Erie county. Ohio, where he was reared, educated and married. He then located on a farm, removing afterward to Allegan county, Michigan, where he lived until 1853, when he came to Lake county, Indiana. He located in the southern part of this county and spent his remaining days upon his farm in West Creek township, where he died at the age of sixty-three years. He was a Whig in his political affiliation in early manhood, and upon the dissolution of that party he joined the ranks of the new Republican party. His religious faith was indicated by his membership in the Presbyterian church. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Cuddeback, was born in New York in 1799 and died in 1892 at the very advanced age of ninety-three years. She was of Holland descent. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. George Sherart were seven children, three sons and four daughters, all of whom reached adult age.
Frank P. Sherart, now well known in Lowell and Lake county, was the fifth child and third son of that family. He came to Lake county in 1854, when but seventeen or eighteen years of age. His education was acquired in the public schools of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, and about 1858 he went from the last named state to Caldwell county, Missouri, where he was engaged in teaching in the district schools for four terms. About 1861 he returned to Lake county and began farming in West Creek township, but the same year he responded to his country's call for aid to preserve the Union, enlisting as a member of Company B, Twentieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He served as a private of that company for two years and was then honorably discharged on account of physical disability. He returned to his home, but as soon as he had sufficiently recovered his health he re-enlisted, this time becoming a member of Company C, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He joined the regiment as a private and was afterward commissioned second lieutenant of Company C, with which he served for three months, after which he returned to Indianapolis, Indiana. His next enlistment made him a member of Company K, One Hundred and Forty-second Indiana Infantry, but though he joined this command as a private he was soon made second lieutenant and was afterward promoted to the rank of adjutant of the regiment. He served until after the close of the war when, in July, 1865, he was honorably discharged. He was a brave and loyal soldier and gallant officer and he never faltered in the performance of any duty throughout his military experience.
On returning to private life Mr. Sherart engaged in farming in West Creek township, Lake county, but in 1865 removed to Lowell, where he began merchandizing, carrying on that pursuit for a number of years. He was also for several years engaged in contracting and bridge building, but is now living retired, having acquired a competence which enables him to put aside his business cares and spend his remaining days in the enjoyment of the fruits of his former toil.
On the 23d of September, 1868, Mr. Sherart was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Craft, a daughter of H. W. and Mary R. (Beach) Craft, who came from Fredericktown, Knox county, Ohio, to Lake county, Indiana, in March, 1857. They settled at Crown Point. The Craft family traces its ancestry back to 1050. About that time the spelling of the name was changed from Croft to its present form. H. W. Craft, the father of Mrs. Sherart, was a miller and millwright by trade and built a mill at Crown Point and also one at Lowell. He also became a large landowner and was prominent and influential in industrial circles in this part of the state. To him and his wife were born seven children, two sons and five daughters, of whom Mrs. Sherart is the third child and third daughter. By her marriage she has become the mother of two children: Maude, the elder, is the wife of Theodore Henry, who is assistant manager of the Denver Republic, published at Denver, Colorado, and they have one son, Sherart, who is now four months old. Charles, the younger child, is an electrician located at Hammond, Indiana.
Mr. Sherart has voted for each presidential candidate of the Republican party since casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1860. He has been a trustee of the town of Lowell, but has never been very active in seeking public office, preferring to do his duty as a private citizen. His business interests have largely claimed his time and attention, and through their careful conduct he has eventually won a very gratifying measure of prosperity.
Fred L. Sunderman is one of the representative citizens and agriculturists of West Creek township, and a man who, by his industry, honesty and integrity, has proved himself worthy of the confidence of the public. He is a fine type of the young and progressive farmer, and has been very successful in this line of work, but he is also well remembered in the township for his excellent work as an educator, and his influence and efforts are still cast strenuously for higher ideals in all departments of civilization.
He is a native son of the township in which he has played so important a part since arriving at manhood. He was born April 9, 1866, and is the third of the eight children, three sons and five daughters, born to Simon and Lena (Moeller) Sunderman. Seven of the children are yet living, three in West Creek township, and the others are as follows: Simon is a farmer of Vinemont, Alabama, and is married; August, who is a successful rancher at Pilot Rock, Oregon, having a wife and family, is also a minister of the Christian church, and after his education in the public schools he took a theological course at Berea College; Margaret, who is a resident of Chicago, is a successful teacher in the city schools; Lena is a resident of Lowell, and wife of Peter Danstrom.
The history of father Sunderman is most edifying to this generation, and shows what German pluck and perseverance can do in this country. He was born in Lippe-Detmold, Germany, in 1831, and is still living in West Creek township, being the owner of the estate of one hundred and thirty-four acres which his son Fred now conducts for him. He was reared and educated in his native land, and was there married to the good woman who so nobly assisted him through many subsequent years. While in young manhood he emigrated to America, embarking on a sailing vessel at Bremer-haven, and being on the ocean six weeks before he landed at New York. He came at once to Lake county, Indiana, and about forty dollars in cash was all the worldly possessions he had at the outset of his career. He began wage-earning at thirteen dollars a month, and after continuing this for a year came to West Creek township, where for three years he worked on the shares. He finally purchased eighty acres, going in debt for it, but by industry he cancelled tire indebtedness and continued adding to his landed estate until he now has one hundred and thirty-four acres, with all its excellent improvements, forming a monument to his former diligence and prosperity from small beginnings. He has never aspired to office, but is a stanch Republican and supports the doctrines of his party. He is a member of the German Methodist denomination at Cedar Lake. His good wife, who was born in the same part of Germany as he. died in 1890, and she was an industrious and frugal woman. While in Germany she worked for a money consideration of four dollars per year, which in itself is a graphic illustration of the difference in economic conditions on the two sides of the Atlantic.
Mr. Fred L. Sunderman was reared in his home township. After he had completed his training in the common schools, in the fall of 1885 he entered the Valparaiso Normal, where he took the teachers' course, and came home from there to engage in the teaching profession, which he followed in his home township with great success for eight years. Besides his work in the teachers' course at Valparaiso, he also graduated in the pharmacy, scientific and classical departments of this well-known school. He still retains his enthusiasm for the education of the masses and the increasing and broadening of the individuality of every girl and boy in America.
May 12, 1898, Mr. Sunderman married Miss Angeline Fleming, and a son and a daughter have been born to them, named Ruth Bernice and Charles Fleming. Mrs. Sunderman was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, December 12, 1868. Her father, William Fleming, is still living, being a prosperous retired farmer residing in Delavan, Illinois. Mrs. Sunderman was reared in Illinois, and received a fine higher training at the Normal University of Illinois, also at a normal in Ohio, and finished the scientific course at the Valparaiso Normal in the class of 1896. She was a very successful teacher for ten years before her marriage, one year of the time being spent at Geneva, Indiana, and the other years in Illinois. Both Mr. and Mrs. Sunderman are lovers of good literature, and in the busy activity of life have not forgotten how to study and apply their minds and thoughts to the things of the mental and the spiritual domains. They are both attendants of the Lake Prairie Presbyterian church, and contribute in accordance with their means to the benevolences. Mr. Sunderman by his uprightness in conduct and integrity in all of life's relations has gained the confidence of his fellow-citizens to an unusual degree, as is attested by the fact that he received the nomination for trustee of West Creek township and, at the present writing, is a candidate with absolute certainty of success at the hustings.
E. Batterman, proprietor of a blacksmith and machine shop at Hobart, was born in Will county, Illinois, March 5. 1858, and is a son of Charles and Johanna (Dasher) Batterman, both of whom were natives of Germany, the father having been born in Hanover and the mother in Hamburg. They came to America, establishing their home in Illinois, and there the subject of this review was reared, pursuing his education in the common schools of Will county. After putting aside his text-books he learned the trade of a blacksmith, serving a two years' apprenticeship in Hobart, Indiana. He began work in this line at the age of twenty-two years, and on the completion of his apprenticeship was employed in the railroad shops of the Nickle Plate road for about six months. In 1880 he opened a shop of his own at Hobart, this establishment being only sixteen by twenty feet. Here he has since remained, and has built one of the finest blacksmith and machine shops in the county. The building is forty by one hundred feet, two stories in height, and is constructed of brick. There is a wagon shop, twenty-four by forty feet, in addition to the other department. He is now recognized as one of the leading business men of the town, a prominent representative of its industrial interests. In his chosen field of labor he has become an excellent workman, and his capability and reliable business methods have formed the strong elements in his successful career.
In 1882 Mr. Batterman was united in marriage to Miss Carrie Richards, and they have one daughter, Lena, who is now the wife of Plin Trusdale, of Chicago. Mr. Batterman has been a life-long Republican, and upon the ticket of that party was elected town treasurer, which position he now holds. He belongs to the Independent Order of Foresters, Lodge No. 141, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 144, and in the latter has taken the degrees of the encampment. He is well known in northwestern Indiana, his business extending largely over Lake and adjoining- counties. His shop is one of the leading industries of the kind in this part of the state, and in addition to the work which he does as an artisan he handles all kinds of agricultural implements and sells directly to the farmers. As a citizen he has contributed in no small degree to the upbuilding and development of Hobart, and whatever tends to benefit the community receives his endorsement and co-operation.
The German-American element in our citizenship has long been recognized as an important one. for from an early age the Teutonic race has carried civilization into pioneer districts of the world and has introduced the progress made in the fatherland. Mr. Gruel is a worthy representative of the German people, and in his life record has shown many of the commendable traits of the men of his nationality. He was born in Pomerania, Germany, October 9, 1860, and when eleven years of age was brought to America, becoming a resident of Chicago. He attended school there during the two years of his residence in that city, and in 1873 he came to Hobart. Here he worked in a brickyard for a time, and was afterward engaged in the saloon business there for about ten years. In 1893 he established a meat market and also began dealing in live-stock. He feeds, sells and ships stock, and operates quite extensively in this line at the present date. He has also built some business blocks in Hobart and has thus contributed in appreciable manner to the substantial development of the town.
In 1884 Mr. Gruel was united in marriage with Miss Emma Krieger, a native of Porter county, whence she removed to Lake county, Indiana. Her father was Frederick Krieger, an early settler of Porter county and of German lineage. Mr. and Mrs. Gruel have one daughter, Matilda. Mr. Gruel is one of the leading business men of Hobart, and his private affairs are capably and successfully conducted, while his co-operation in public measures has been a factor in the development and improvement of the town. He is a most earnest and stalwart Republican, and he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias fraternity. He was reared in the Lutheran faith, and at all times his life has been actuated by honorable principles, which have formed the basic element in his success.
Andrew J. Smith, editor of the Hobart Gazette, at Hobart, Indiana has been numbered among the enterprising citizens of this Lake county town for nearly twenty years, and for the past fifteen years has been identified with the Gazette. This is the only newspaper of the town, having always maintained its own against several ephemeral rivals that have for varying periods set up and then struck their editorial tents in this town. Like all newspapers, the Gazette has not traveled a continuous "primrose path." nor yet has it had many vicissitudes or crises in its existence, but under the conservative and business-like management of its publishers, who have always given the people a sheet worth reading, it has enjoyed a continually increasing success, and is now numbered among the substantial, permanent and prosperous institutions of Hobart. The Gazette was founded in Hobart in August, 1889, by George Narpass and G. Bender, and under foreclosure sale and at the instance of a number of citizens was bought by Mr. Smith in the following December. The plant is up-to-date and complete for a town of the size, having a large power cylinder press, and in circulation and general patronage the paper ranks among the foremost of the county. The Gazette is conducted on independent lines, the two publishers being of opposite political tendencies, and thus their paper is unbiassed and practical in treating all questions and problems of community and county concern. While their endeavors are most successfully directed toward making their publication a weathervane to indicate the direction of public opinion and a mirror of current events, their columns also always show a public-spirited interest in the welfare of town and county and their editorial influence is ever for the progress and upbuilding of the community's institutions and interests.
Mr. Smith, most of whose adult life has thus been identified with Hobart, was born at Mottville, St. Joseph county, Michigan, March 20, 1861 (?), being one of five children, two boys and three girls, born to John A. and Emeline (Shellenberger) Smith. His father died in February, 1900., but his mother is still living on the home farm of three hundred acres in Elkhart county, Indiana.
Mr. Smith had the wholesome rearing and training of a farmer boy, living from the age of five to eighteen on the farm in Elkhart county. He had taught one term of school before he was eighteen, and from the time he attained that age until he entered newspaper work in 1890 he was almost continuously engaged in that profession, the last four years of the time having been spent as principal of the Hobart schools, so that his residence in this town dates from August, 1886. In the interims of his teaching he studied at the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, and in 1885 graduated in the scientific class of that institution. During three summers before 1890 he conducted normal classes in Elkhart county, and had a reputation in that county as one of the best instructors engaged in that line of work. By his purchase of the Gazette plant late in 1889 his energies were directed to newspaper work, and he has made that his principal vocation to the present. He was sole owner of the plant until the fall of 1891, when he sold a half interest to Mr. Nevin B. White, and the firm has since been Smith & White. They also carry on a general real estate, loan and insurance business.
July 7, 1884, Mr. Smith married Miss Elva L. Stiwaid, of Lorain county, Ohio. There are no children of this marriage, and after twenty years of happy wedded life Mr. Smith lost his wife on February 2, 1904.
Mr. Smith has never held office, but has been nominated for county auditor of Lake county in 1904 on the Democratic ticket. He has at various times had nominations to local offices urged upon him. In his individual political beliefs he is a Democrat of the old-time, conservative, sound-money stamp, and as a private citizen is interested in the success and growth of his party. He has been a Mason for the past seventeen years, was master of his lodge for seven years, and has since been secretary. He affiliates with M. L. McClelland Lodge No. 357, F. & A. M., at Hobart; Valparaiso Chapter No. 79, R. A. M., at Valparaiso; Valparaiso Commandery No 28, K. T., at Valparaiso; is a member and past chancellor commander of Hobart Lodge No. 458, Knights of Pythias; a member of Hobart Tent No. 65, K. O. T. M. He is secretary and treasurer of the Hobart Gun Club, and is an active member of various social organizations. He was christened and reared in the faith of the Dutch Reformed church, of which his mother is still a member.
Mrs. Eliza L. Marvin, who passed from among the living July 31, 1904, was a foremost representative of the remarkable pioneer women so few of whom remain in Lake county from the days gone by. All history shows how conspicuous a part the wives and daughters have played in the national development and material, social and intellectual welfare of the country, and the pioneer class to which Mrs. Marvin belonged is especially worthy of honor when the annals of a section of country like Lake county are under consideration, as in this volume of historical and biographical narrative. The women were often no less forward than the men in blazing the way of civilization and making the wild country produce of the fruits necessary to mankind. Mrs. Marvin had been a resident of Lake county since 1847, and she could look back to the time when this part of Indiana was in its virginity, and she had witnessed the wonderful development which has transformed a profitless section of country into as rich an agricultural and industrial community as can be found anywhere in the state. In her time the great trunk lines of railroad have been thrown across the county, the manufacturing plants of colossal size and importance have been established in the Lake cities, and all the institutions of learning, religion and charity have grown up.
Mrs. Marvin was born in Wayne county, Michigan, August 13, 1827, so that her life has spanned, with its seventy-seven years, the gulf from the most primitive times of the middle west to the present phenomenal development of civilization in the same territory. She was the eldest of seven children, four sons and three daughters, born to Hiram S. and Mary W. (Holley) Fuller, and of these she had just one brother living, Charles Fuller, who is married and resides at Salida, California. Hiram Fuller was born in the old Green Mountain state of Vermont in 1801, and died in July, 1878. He was reared in his native state till he had almost reached manhood, and his common school education was finished off at a seminary. His parents moved to Whitehall, New York, and he resided there for eight or ten years. From New York he came west to Michigan and settled at Northville, in the pioneer days, and purchased some timber land and began his career as a farmer. In those early days he often drove an ox team to Detroit for provisions. He sold his one hundred and sixty acres in the fruit belt of Michigan and in 1847 came to Lake county, Indiana, and located on a previous purchase of four hundred acres of wild land in West Creek township. Their settlement in the county was at an early enough date that the deer were still plentiful, and Mrs. Marvin remembers having seen as many as ninety at a time in the vicinity of the homestead. Mr. Fuller was for many years a Whig in politics, but from the birth of the Republican party espoused its principles till his death. He was a man of much decision of character, was a friend of education and all interests conducive to the welfare of his community, was domestic in his tastes and a lover of home and children, and his beneficent influence continued to live in the noble womanhood of his daughter. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church, and he helped found the church in West Creek township and assisted in the building of the church edifice. Mrs. Marvin's mother was a native of York state, and was born in the Genesee valley in September, 1808, and died in 1878, having been reared and educated in New York state. She was a kind and affectionate mother, and the spirit of her teachings and her character is still potent in the world.
Mrs. Marvin was a young lady of about twenty-one years when she came to Lake county, and her education had already been completed in the common schools and an academy in Michigan. She was an assistant in the Northville public schools for about two years and also followed the profession of teaching after she came to Indiana, on December 6, 1851, she was united in marriage with Mr. Charles Marvin. He was born in the state of Connecticut, and died June 16, 1892. He was reared by his uncle and aunt and received a good education. His younger years were spent in the capacity of a salesman in the south, being in New Orleans for six months, after which he came north. Much of his life was spent as a merchant, but after his marriage he became an agriculturist. He was thrifty and a good financial manager, and at the time of his marriage he owned about six hundred acres of land in West Creek township. He was a strong anti-slavery advocate, and followed the banner of the Republican party until his death. He was a very successful stock-raiser and farmer, and was known and admired throughout Lake county for his firm integrity and prominence in the affairs of citizenship. He was reared in the Presbyterian faith.
At her husband's death Mrs. Marvin had to assume a large business responsibility in the management of the estate left her, and during the subsequent years she displayed an acumen and sagacity rarely found in those of the gentler sex. She was a genial and cordial lady, and had many friends. Her bright mind delighted to wander among the scenes of early days, and on the page of her memory was written a record of many events and scenes of the first half of the past century. She had seen the city of Chicago when teams were stalled along the business thoroughfares of Lake street on account of the mud and mire, and she also knew the city with its population of nearly two millions. She was a woman of charitable and generous instincts, and never failed to respond to benevolent causes worthy of her consideration.
Mr. and Mrs. Marvin had no children of their own, but in the goodness of their hearts they adopted a boy and a girl, named Edward Prosser and Ellen Rollins, and reared and educated them, surrounding them with the best of influences and comforts. The former died after reaching young manhood, and the latter married Philip Stuppy, a farmer of West Creek township. Mrs. Marvin retained until the last the active management and oversight of the estate of three hundred acres, part of which is located in Illinois, and she had a beautiful home in which to pass the final years of so useful and noble a career as had been vouchsafed to her.
N. P. Banks, one of the practical and progressive farmers of Hobart township, resides on Section 6, and for many years has been a resident of the county. He was born in Lake county, Ohio, September 25, 1845, and in the paternal line is of Holland-Dutch lineage. His great-great-grandfather was born in Holland and, coming to America, served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Orin Banks, the father of N. P. Banks, was born in New York, and was reared and married there, the lady of his choice being Miss Olive Brown, whose birth occurred in the Empire state and who was of English descent. He emigrated to Ohio in an early day, settling in Lake county, whence in 1845 he removed to LaPorte county, Indiana, establishing his home just within the boundary limits of LaPorte city. He afterward lived in Scipio township, that county, and in 1852 he came to Lake county, settling in Ross township, where he carried on farming. His last days, however, were passed in Hobart township, where he died at the age of fifty-seven years. He was a very public-spirited man, and was justice of the peace for a number of years. He also belonged to the Baptist church, was very active and zealous in its work, filled the office of deacon and did everything in his power to advance the cause of Christianity in his community. His life was honorable, his actions manly and sincere and he left to his family the priceless heritage of an untarnished name. His wife, a most estimable lady, lived to be about seventy-two years of age. In their family were twelve children, of whom two died in infancy, while ten reached manhood or womanhood and eight are now living.
N. P. Banks is the youngest son and eleventh child of the family, and was but six weeks old when he landed in LaPorte county, Indiana, with his parents. Seven years later he came with them to Lake county, and was largely reared in Hobart township, acquiring his education in the public schools. He was but sixteen years of age when in 1862 he enlisted in Miller's Chicago Battery for three years' service. He was No. 4 on the gun, and was afterward corporal chief of the caisson and gunner. During the last year of his service he held the rank of sergeant and received an honorable discharge in 1865, after having been a member of the army for almost three years. He was the youngest man in his company, and he took part in seventeen important battles and thirty-four skirmishes, including many of the most hotly contested engagements of the war. Among the number were the battles of the Atlanta campaign, and though he was often in the thickest of the fight he did not receive even a scratch in all of his service. When the country no longer needed his aid he was honorably discharged at Chicago in 1865, and returned to his home in Lake county with a most creditable military record.
Desirous of enjoying better school advantages Mr. Banks then attended high school for one term, and later he engaged in teaching school through four winter seasons, while in the summer months he worked for wages on the farm.
On the 14th of February, 1869, occurred the marriage of Mr. Banks and Miss Clara E. Chandler, a daughter of T. P. and Betsey (Woodmansee) Chandler. The parents were natives of Vermont and in their family were four children, of whom Mrs. Banks is the youngest. Her birth occurred in the Green Mountain state January 1, 1850, and by her marriage she has become the mother of six children: Mary, the wife of J. M. Sholl; Carrie E., who is attending college at Oberlin, Ohio; Myrtle L., who is engaged in teaching in the schools of Hobart; Bessie, the wife of Rev. Dunning Idle, a celebrated minister of the Methodist Episcopal church; Flora, who is attending school in Hobart; and Marian, deceased.
After his marriage Mr. Banks located upon a farm in Hobart township and has since been engaged in general agricultural pursuits. He now has two hundred and forty acres of land, which is a well developed property, the fields being highly cultivated, while upon the farm are good buildings and all modern equipments. This constitutes one of the attractive features in the landscape, and a glance indicates to the passer-by the care and supervision of an enterprising, progressive owner. Mr. Banks is a stockholder and also a director in the First State Bank of Hobart. Mr. Banks is a director of the Lake County Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company, organized some years ago on a small scale, and now embracing the whole county. There are 1,310 policies and the insurance in force is about $2,150,000.00, which exists amongst the best farmers of the county. There are five directors, four of them being N. P. Banks, Albert Foster, Star A. Brownell and John Borger. In public affairs he has also been prominent and influential, and his influence is always given on the side of right, reform and improvement. He was township trustee of Hobart for five years, and he has always been a stanch Republican, putting forth strenuous effort in behalf of the party. He maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades through his membership in Hobart Post No. 411, G. A. R., and he also belongs to the Odd Fellows society, No. 333, at that place. In matters of citizenship he is as true and loyal as when he followed the nation's starry banner upon the battlefields of the south.
August Voltmer is a representative of that fine class of German-American citizens who have been such an important factor in the development of the material resources and in the social and intellectual life of Lake county. He is himself still a young man in point of years and vigor, but for the past twenty or more years has been making his influence felt for good and advancement in this county, and is also prosperous to an unusual degree in his own affairs.
He is a native of Will county, Illinois, where he was born October 28, 1861, being the fifth in a family of seven children, three sons and four daughters, born to Henry and Mary (Rabe) Voltmer. These children are all living, and there are three others who are residents of Lake county, namely: Henry, Lizzie, and Mary, who is the wife of William Neidert, a farmer of West Creek township. The father of the family was born in Germany, in the province of Hanover, and he is still living at the age of eighty years. He was a mechanic until he came to America, and since then he has given his attention to farming. He emigrated to this country when a young man, and from New York came to Will county. Illinois, being a poor but honest and industrious man, and in the course of his active career he accumulated one hundred and sixty acres in Will county, and also purchased two hundred and eighty acres in West Creek township of this county, where he still makes his home. He received his education in both the German and English tongues. He is a Republican, and is a member of the Lutheran church, as also was his good wife, who died about 1896.
Mr. August Voltmer was reared and educated in Will county, Illinois, and by early training is familiar with both the German and the English languages. He was reared to farming life, and has given principal attention to stock-raising. He has a number of pure-blooded Chester White swine, and his cattle are of high-grade Durhams.
He was married, May 2, 1897, to Miss Lena Balgemann, and of this union three children have been born, Martha, Hilda and Lydia. Mrs. Voltmer was born in Kankakee county, Illinois, and was reared in that state, her parents both being alive and residents of the county of Kankakee.
Mr. Voltmer and his brothers own two hundred and seventy-nine acres of g
