Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 34, Number 177, Decatur, Adams County, 27 July 1936 — Page 20

PAGE TWENTY

Early Decatur Residents

Interesting Recollections Are Detailed By Mrs. Obenauer

By HATTIE OBENAUER One ut wy early recollections Is walking down First Street one summer morning. I was a small child and all my impressions were vivid. We were moving to a new home across the river: we now call it the homestead. Each member of the family wanted to help in some way. So my grandmother carried a large glass lamp which it would be difficult to pack and place in one of the wagons, and I was trusted to carry a tin lantern, both necessities at that time. The morning was hot and when we turned from Jefferson into First, going north, we passed under the welcome shade of big locust trees. They had been planted on each side of the street and were nearly a foot in diameter. When in bloom the fragrance was pleasant. They were not in bloom then but we enjoyed the shade. It was a familiar street to me. On the east side my Aunt Kate and Uncle, Dr. and Mrs. Chamber lived and across the street Mr. Lamer, father of Mrs. John Burk. On the corner was Mrs. Mite's house. We crossed Madison Street. A vacant lot and then came the large two-stbry house of Mr. Jacob King, father of Mrs. Bain and Mrs. Huffman. On the east side was Mr A. J. Hill, father of Mrs. F. V. Mills and next to that another big white frame house where Mr. James Patterson, grandfather of Dr. Patterson lived and then Dr. and Mrs. Van Simcoke and on the corner on the west side, Dr. < Trout, Senior, father of Dr. Dallas Trout, had his home and separate office set in a large yard with blooming shr u bs and flowers. There we turned and went east but the locust shade continued on north past the old Methodist church on the corner of Jackson Street. Behind the trees and pick- . et fences, were pleasant homes and flowers and vines. Second Street contained the few ■ business houses of the town and also some of the best residences. The locust trees stood in front of

the houses and flowers and oreh- ■ ards at the side. Third Street had trees in front , of the houses but Fourth Street , and beyond had few houses in , those days. It was in this part the . maple trees were planted when | the town grew west. In early Decatur the streets were muddy. The sidewalks were ( of wood and often out of repair. , . Only a small part of the year was , walking or riding a pleasure. Adams County was covered with ] closely growing timber. The land | was level. After heavy rains water : • stood on the ground. It required a j generation of hard toil to clear the land for farming and cut through roads. A second genera- j ’ tion toiled to ditch the land. The | • timber furnished money to pay for ( that. Since the land is cleared, j ditched and good roads cross ev- j ery part of it, we find it a pleas- j ing topography, gently rolling, in , places with small streams lending ( aversity, and enough woods, most- j ly second growth, to add to the j beauty of the laud. In that early j time the woods and the mud were f discouraging. 1 can remember how anxious my j father was to secure our first rail- j .‘oad. the Cincinnati, Richmond and Fort Wayne, now a division of < the Pennsylvania R. R. He said, “It will get us out of j the woods.’’ And it did. He worked t very hard going for months by buggy or on horseback over bad roads, plodding from farm to farm ( to secure favorable action for an j election for a county subsidy. This , secured, he acted as director from the county on the railroad board < of directors without pay until the time of his death, a period of a- * bout thirty years. Character Os Early Settiers Our early settlers were not only as a class, intelligent people but brought with them from comfortable homes in eastern Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas ideal and familiarity with good styles of architecture. Decatur had many large houses for the size /if the town, well designed and well built. Mr. Dayton Nuttman built three houses we would be proud to see erected in Decatur now. One I first knew as the home of a Mr. Riddle stood on the corner now occupied by Mr. A. J. Smith's house. It was a large two story frame house painted white with green shutters. It was destroyed by fire long ago. The second still stands on First Street and was many years the home of Mrs. Billie Miesse Philips recently c eceased. They were the same style of architecture. Hid third house is now the Elk's home on North Second Street. The same general arrangement but much larger, taller and grander. What a house it must have, been at that time! It would be interesting to know who was his architect The | ground- were large one-half block 1 inclosed with ts picket fence. A! glass greenhouse or conservatory

Recalls Beauty 1 -— Mrs. Hattie Studebaker Obenauer Mrs. Hattie Studebaker Obenauer, prominent Decatur woman, tells in the Centennial edition of some of the early residences and beauty spots of Decatur. opening from the dining room on the south side. The lawn was planted with flowers and evergreen trees. I remember seeing blue hyacinths growing in the I grass forty years after they nad j been planted. At the rear of the i house was a stable and a vegetable garden and an orchard. When Mr. Nuttman moved to Fort Wayne he sold, it and it passed through several hands and in 1867, Mr. Jesse Niblick, Sr., purchased it and it was the home of his family pver fifty years. Another large house I was familiar with was the home of my uncle. Mr. Joseph Crabbs, on the southwest corner of Second and Jackson streets. It had only a quarter of the block in the grounds but it had the orchard at the side and rear, the stable, the vegetable garden, the flowers and shrubs and the two-story white house with green shutters. I remember especially the fire place in the sitting room, between two large windows. On the mantle were glass candle sticks with pendant prisms. I imagine the prisms caught and held my fancy. In late years when the Interurban Company acquired the ground, the house was purchased and moved to North Fifth Street where it still is a beautiful home. There were about a dozen other large houses in the village and a number of smaller houses and cottages with trees and attractive flowers and vines. Rugg's First Brick House Mr. Samuel Rugg built the first brick house in Decatur. It stood about where Schmitt's meat market now is, not on the corner. Many interesting facts are told about Mr. Rugg. When my father was a young man. Mr. Rugg was county recorder and he was deputy recorder and, lived in the Rugg home. Mr. Jesse Niblick, Sr. was also a boarder and several other young men. On Christmas, Mr. Rugg presented each of the young men with a Bible. They were alike, small, fine paper, good print, well bound in leather with small bronze clasps. When I went to college, my father gave me his Bible. It has Mr. Rugg's inscription “David Studabaker 1852.” It is carefully preserved. Court House Unpainted The county recorder’s office at that time was in one of the small brick buildings on the • county square. The court house was a plain un-

We Know —of no other place in the world we would rather call “home.” ' The good fellowship and friendly “howdy” so warmly expressed by those we know has been characteristic throughout the past hundred years. Every good wish for a successful Centennial and a hearty welcome to all visitors. H. A. Colchin Maker of k z —N.H. C. — \ X CI G A R S

painted two-story building located where Dr. Frohnapcl lives. A very good picture of this building is in Mr. Snow's History of Adams County. , In the Public Square, as it was called, were three buildings. Two small one-story brick buildings, facing Second Street, having four rooms each. Two of these rooms were allotted to clerk, recorder, auditor and treasurer. At the south west part of the square, where the "Peace" monument stands, was the sheriff's residence of frame and joined to it a hewer log jail, also two stories in height. In front of the offices and about the square were the universal locust trees. Founder's Generous The three men who founded Decatur were men of vision and generous in gifts to the county and village. Among the gifts was much of the land for the town and also land for the parks. The laud from Marshall street to the junction of Third and Fifth Streets. The land from the junction of Mercer and High Streets, including, and beyond the hospital. They gave a lot for each of the three existing churches, Legion park,' which was given for a seminary but utilized for a cemetery and that broad street, designated as "Market Street' and intended as such. It now has the west side cut ■ off and the remainder is called South First Street. Os my father's stories of Mr. Rugg. whom he admired, was this, I liked best. Mr. Rugg was in the U. S. land office in Fort Wayne when the following story, which j was going the rounds, was told. How Root Township Was Named On the completion of the building the New York and Erie Canal in New York state, then considered. a great engineering feat, a banquet was held in the city of Albany and Governor Roop of New York was called to reply to the toast "The Army and the Navy” and then repeated “The Army and the' Navy.” Ex-governor Clinton the most popular after dinner speaker in the country, sat next to him and prompted, “May they never want." Making a fresh start, Governor Root shouted, "The Army and the Navy, may they never want,” and stopped. Again Clinton softly prompted, “And never be wanted.” Root again shouted, “and never be wahted,” and sat down, it was the shortest and best j speech of the evening. The story caused so much laughter that Mr. Rugg named the first township in Adams county for Governor Root and so this Root township received its name.

t u . YEAR TO YEAR r( ' 1 (Continued From Page 17) s from Willshire, Ohio across Adams County, through Decatur to Fort Wayne, constructed. Decatur t became an incorporated town. A . total of seven school houses in the . county. i 1854—Presbyterian church erectt ed in Decatur. Six room frame i school house erected in Decatur r on lots, 100, 101 and 102. • 1855—Town of Buena-Vista (al- . so called Linn Grove) platted by i Robert Simison. g 1856 —First school house on . (townsite of Berne built by John 1 Sprunger. i,| 1857 —First brick business buildj ing in the county erected in Deca- . tur by Joseph and Perry Crabbs. 1860— Population of county 9,- , 253. Population of Decatur about - 500. 1861— Company “C” of the 47th Indiana Infantry organized witjh Esasis W. Dailey, Captain. Zjon t Reformed Church organized and 1 erected church. f 1862 —Company "H" of the 89th Indiana Infantry recruited in Adi- ams County. Enos W. Erick, A. J.

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT MONDAY. JULY 27, 1936.

I Hill and Robert D. Patterson were captains successively. Company “I" 89th Indiana Infantry was also recruited in Adams County with Hen-1 ry Banta, Peter Lltzel and John J. ( Chubb, captains. Company “K” 89th Indiana Infantry was an Ad1 ants County company. Edwin S. I Metzers, captain. 1863 Many Adams County men joined the 11th Calry afterwards Company "C” 126th Indiana Volunteers. Morval Blackburn, captain. The “Decatur Eagle" started publication at the county seat. A. J., Hill, editor. 1864— A number of Adams County men joined the 13th Cavalry. Adams County furnished about 700 soldiers for the Civil War. 1865— End of Civil War. Adams County soldiers mustered out of

Had Picturesque Homes]

J the service. 1866 Town of Salem platted by : 'George W. Syphers. 1870— First bank in Adams County organized at Decatur by Jesse Niblick and J. D. Nuttman. afterwards incorporated as the Adams County Bank. Population of coun ty 11,382. Town of Peterson located but never platted. 1871— Town of Berne located., platted by Abraham Lehman and John Hilty. Seventy Mennonite immigrants settled in that neighborhood. Cincinnati. Richmond and Fort Wayne Railroad completed and train service established. First business building in Berne erected by Thomas Harris. 1872— Town of Williams platted | by David Crabbs irtfil Benjamin J. i Rice. First brick school house in

■ The Gas Industry Is The Community Hewer of Wood Down the highway of the years, thousands of men and women have marched to contribute to the development of Indiana and of Adams County, which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary as a county. One hundred years ago, when fewer than two thousand persons lived in the county and when much of the state resembled the Limberlost of storied fame, the infant gas industry had only recently made its bow on the eastern seaboard. By the time Adams county had observed its twenty-first birthday — with a trebled population and free schools featuring this period of its growth — Robert Wilhelm von Bunsen had perfected his burner that made it possible to burn ooal gas economically with an intensely hot but smokeless flame. As Adams county passed through the Civil War period, sending 1,206 volunteers to the Union army, and onward to the turn of the century, the gas industry was becoming more and mor ea vital factor in “modern” living, progressing as civilization progressed and lessening the work of man and w oman. Where the early Adams county residents spent hours in the woods to cut enough timber to provide fuel for the winter — ask the venerable oldsters about those days! — one escapes this tail today, when the gas industry is figuratively the hewer and drawer of wood for your fuel. For a few cents a day, the 1936 home-maker can cook with gas, enjoy hot water always on tap and, for a few cents additional, can enjoy gas refrigeration. Today more than 25,060.000 American women cook with gas, because it is the quickest, most economically method of cookery. As Adams county starts on the first decade of its second hundred years, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company w ishes to extend its congratulations and best wishes to the community. An Advertisement by the Northern Indiana Public Service Company C. A. STAPLETON, DISTRICT MANAGER

Adams County erected in » Township. known as the Dent School house. Catholic brick church built at Decatur. "Heaaton ! House", tavern built at c ' eneva - First grain market established a Geneva by S. W. and J. D. » ale - 1873— Adams County Court House completed at cost of $90,000.00. Town of Ceylon platted by B. B. Snow. Daniel D. Heller first County Superintendent of schools. First tavern built at Berne. 1874— The “Decatur Democrat" j started publication. Joseph McGonagle. Editor. Geneva incorporated as a town. 1875— Adams County Agricultural Association formed. County infirmary erected, farm consisting of 1270 acres, south near Decatur. A | $2,000,000 house was constructed.

Adams County hud a total of 90 Hchool houses, all log or frame except two. the Dent School and the Hartman School. 1876 First Newspaper in Geneva published, called "The Triumph." 1877- Buena Vista graded school organized. O. W. Luckey. pal1878- Monmouth graded school organized. Ray Berge, Toledo. St. Louis and Kansas City it R (now Nickle Plate) built. Third brick school house in the ■ County built at Geneva. Large part of the business section of Deca- ■ tur burned. 1879- P1 eas a n t Mills graded I school organized. George W. Petverson, Principal. Two story brick . 1 gehool building erected al Mor.

i mouth. First frame B< . hoo 77JW ing erected at Berm- s ( ., uh(i nonite Church erected at 1880 Town of < uryviUe bv Henry Jackson. p m , !fa . l .'W . | County 15.385. ■ i 1881-Geneva "N ew# - ! I publication at Geneva. j 1882 Fire destroyed a tion of the business distrin Icatur. Chicago and Atlantic i (now the Erie) complete (Henry, Post G. A. R W 'i Decatur also the John p • G. A. R. Post at Geneva. 'ujH ’ | incorporated as a city. j I [Merryman. Mayor. Town of I ley founded by Jacob 1883 Town of Rivarre platted by George Bip pils ' tur National Rank, second (Continued On Page