Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1913 — Obituary of David Nowels. [ARTICLE]

Obituary of David Nowels.

David Nowels, son of John ahd Hettie Volgamen Nowels, was born in Hohnes county, Ohio, September 15, 1821, and died at his home in Rensselaer January 16, 1913, at the age of 91 years, 4 months and 1 day. He was the seventh son of a family of eight sons and three daughters. When he was three years of age his parents moved to Portland, Fountain county, Ind., where the mother died in JB3O. This broke -up the home and scattered the family. In the fall of 1834 his father, John Nowels, with his eldest daughter, her husband, Joseph Yeoman, moved to the rapids of the Iroquois. David, then a lad of thirteen, accompanied them, and on the east bank of the river near where the Nowels house now stands, they pitched their tent and proceeded to erect a cabin, the first to be erected on the site where the city of Rensselaer now stands, and within the limits of Jasper county. Young Nowels was the first white boy who ever came to the county and he has resided here from that early period until his death, in all, more than 78 years. It was interesting to hear him relate has experiences among the Indians, who were then numerous, and of the privation he with others endured in their endeavor to ob-

tain a living while building a home in the wilderness. At the age of 17 he purchased his time of his father and secured employment in carrying the mail from Logansport to what was then known as Bunkum in Illinois. He would make twu trips each week on horseback and often at no place on the route would there be a letter in the mail bag. On March 10, 1842 he was married to Phebe Piper (Benjamin). They began house'keeping about 5% miles northwest of Rensselaer In a cabin erected one day, and they occupied it the next day. Their chairs and table were the sleepers of the hut and for a bed holes were bored in the walls and poles driven in, supported by pqsts. On this was put clapboards and these were covered with hay. They had but two knives and two forks and when company would come they would pass these around, and he said that as hard a day’s work as he ever did was for a half salt barrel for a wash, tub, but the husband loved the wife ancT she loved her -husband and for each other they were willing to endure and to labor. Of children there were born to them nine, three of these dying in infancy and Ezra C. dying at the age of 56, at Lamar, Colo. The other five were W. R. Nowels and Mary E Gray, of this city; C. D. Nowels and Ida Randle, of Parsons, Kans.: and D. B. Nowels, of Lamar, Colo. These survive him. His wife de--parted this life December 8, 1907, they having lived together almost 66 years. After his wife’s death he lived with his son, W. R. Nowels, at the old homestead in this city. He was the pioneer in the effort to remove obstructions from the Iroquois river and which Anally ended in the drainage of the same as it is today. He also performed an important part in the construction of the Narrow Gauge Railroad (now the Monon) and when the

project was about to fail for want of funds to put the road across the Wabash river in order to receive the local aid voted by the city of Delphi. he came to its aid and furnished the money that finally secured the success of the road. In nil his successful business career he was always the friend of the poor, and under no condition would he resort to any means by which they would be oppressed <sd it was seldom if ever that he demanded or W'ould take as security a chattel mortgage. He never united with any religious denomination, feeling always a sense of his unworthiness. He often expressed himself as being pained when seeing those who made lout} professions, doing those things that to him seemed to be wrong. In doctrine he leaned strongly toward the Primitive Baptists. His rule of conduct in life was tp do unto others as hq would have others do to him, and it can be truly said he was loved by all, rich or poor, and in death all felt and mourned his loss. Appropriate funeral services were held at the M. E. church, conducted by Elder J. H. Oliphant, assisted by Rev. Harper, and Interment In Weston cemetery.