Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1902 — WEDDED SIXTY YEARS AGO. [ARTICLE]

WEDDED SIXTY YEARS AGO.

Mr. and Mrs. David Nowels Celebrate The Sixtieth Anniversary of q Their Marriage. *Tt is given to but few men and women to take so leading a part in the history and as active a part in the development of a town and county as has fallen to the lot of David Nowels and his good wife, Phoebe Ann Benjamin Piper Nowels. Having lived for a space of 67| years and 64 years, respectively, in this county, and for some 22 years in this city, they have seen a wilderness full of halfnaked savages transformed into a splendid city and a county filled with scores of thrifty and prosperous farmers. The fleet-footed Indian, the fleeter deer, the fox and wolf, the millions of wild geese, ducks, and sandhill cranes, chickens, and quail, still live in the old man’s memory, as though but yesterday he were pursuing them. And a mighty hunter was he, and an innumerable fund of interesting stories he can tell of his prowess in the chase. A Mr. Nowels was born in Holmes county, Ohio, Sept. 15, 1821, and moved from Bunkum (now Iroquois) 111., to this city in the fall of 1834. Mrs. Nowels was also born in Ohio, (Fayette county) Feb. 22, 1819. His father, together with Mr. Joseph Yeoman, who had married a sister to Mr. Nowels, built a log cabin where the Nowels House now*.stands. Four years later found Mr. Nowels carrying mail from Logansport to Bunkum, which required three days to make the trip The postoffices then on this route were Logansport; one, half way between Logansport and Monticello; Monon; Rensselaer; one south of Brook; and Bunkum, in Illinois. In 1842, March the 10th, Mr. Nowels was married to Phoebe Ann Piper, a widow, who 10 days after her first marriage lost her husband, he perishing in a frightful storm on the 28th day of Dec. 1838, while going on foot to Laporte. His body was not recovered until the next spring. Nine children were born to this union—Jared, who died in infancy; Ezra Crane, who died in Lamar, Colorado, a few months ago; / Wm. Riley, now of Flora, Ind.; Chas. Dalias, of this city; Mrs. Mary Ellen Grow, also of Rensselaer; Eliza Jane, who died in infancy; Eliza Jane (named fcr her little sister then dead); who also died in infancy; David Benjamin, of Lamar, Colo.; and Mrs. Ida Ann Randle of Rensselaer. Mr. and Mrs. Nowels have 27 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. In their green old age their faculties are undimmed and they enjoy reasonably good health. On last Monday the sixtieth wedding anniversary of this worthy couple was observed in their usual quiet and home-like way. The Democrat wishes them good health and that they may live to enjoy many more anniversaries.