1900s Newspaper Clippings
1901
Jan. 1901
Obituary of Ben Ackerman
Albion-Ben Ackerman, 71, retired merchant, died Sunday night at this home here following a heart attack.
Mr. Ackerman, a native of Ligonier, was in the mercantile business here 33 years. He was a member of the Albion Masonic Lodge and the Ligonier Elks Lodge.
Surviving are a sister, Mrs. Louis Goldberg, Milwaukee, Wis. and a number of nieces and nephews.
The body is at the Bonham & Miser Funeral House, where friends may call after noon today.
Services will be conducted at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home. Rabbi Frederic A. Dopplet of Fort Wayne officiating. Burial will be in Oak Park Cemetery at Ligonier.
1903
August 19, 1903
Obituary of James Roscoe
The citizens of Noble CO. were much surprised and shocked to learn of the death of Hon. James Roscoe, which occurred at h is residence in York Twp. On Wed am, August 19, 1903.
Mr. Roscoe was attending to his usual and many duties on Tues am and same to Albion to make preparations for threshing. In the pm he was taken with severe pains in his stomach. Dr. Hays of Albion, was summoned and from his treatment he rallied and the pain partially relieve. He rested fairly during the night and in the morning he gave some directions to his employees, but said that he would not attempt to get up. This was before breakfast. Just as they were seating them selves at the table, as strange noise was heard from the bedroom. His wife ran into it, Mr. Roscoe seemed to be strangling and in great pain, and was struggling for breath. They raised his head, but he passed away in a moment without saying a word to anyone.
Mr. Roscoe and his faithful and living wife came to Noble CO. in the spring of 1861, when it was practically a wilderness and they lived here ever since. Their acquaintance has become extensive and there were few person in the Co. who were better know. Their labors have been crowned with success, and the beautiful “Evergreen Farm” will remain as a tribute and monument to their faithful work, and patient and unceasing industry.
James Roscoe was born in Elizabethtown, Essex CO. NY, on Sept. 11, 1833, and was the oldest son of Levi and Eliza Roscoe. He as one of seven brothers and had two sisters, now deceased. He lacked a few days of having reached 70 years of age. He came from Scotch and English ancestry, and was early taught the habits of frugality and industry, and these lessons served him well during his entire subsequent life and contributed in a large degree to the successful acquisition and cultivation of one of the largest farms in N. Ind.
Mr. Roscoe came with his parents to Milan, Erie CO. Ohio, in 1834, where he received his education in the district schools of North Milan, and where he resided until the spring of 1861. He was married to Alcy N. Barr in March 1857. In the spring of 1861, Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe and one child came from Milan, Ohio with a wagon drawn by oxen to Green Twp. Noble Co. Ind. occupying 14 days on the journey. He had bought 80 acres in Green Twp. Before they started. He lived on this land for two years, when, Mr. Roscoe seeing that he could not easily acquire additional land, sold it and bought 160 acres in York Twp. Which was then in a state of wilderness, and which is that part of his farm now situated (on the west side of Ind. 9). He moved onto this place in the spring of 1863. Filled with ambition and blessed with a strong constitution, he tackled the forest and soon subjected the land to the plow. Not satisfied with owning 160 acres he kept buying more timber land, and kept on clearing and improving it until at his death he and his wife were the owner of nearly 600 acres of land, all contiguous and in one body and with large and commodious building thereon. It is a fact worth mentioning that all of this farm cleared by him or under his supervision, and it has been brought to its present condition by the united efforts and plans of himself and wife.
About 25 years ago Mr. Roscoe joined the order of Free Masons at Albion, where he took all the different degrees which this subordinate lodge could grant. He served as officer of this lodge in various ways. He subsequently joined the lodge at Kendallville where he went still higher in Masonry until he became a Knight Templar. Not satisfied with this attainment in 1890 at Indianapolis he took the 32nd degree of the Scottish Rites.
In politics Mr. Roscoe was originally a republican until about 1888, when he became a democrat. In 1890 he was elected to the legislature of the state of Indiana as a member of the House, which office he held for one term. He also held other local offices.
To Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe were born two sons and one daughter. Nelson their oldest child, lived to manhood and married Miss Celia Clark, of Wolf Lake. He died 15 months after their marriage, leaving his wife, who has since deceased, and a son, Nelson J. C. Roscoe, now living. Mrs. Roscoe and her grandson, constitute his direct surviving relatives. He leaves however, surviving him six brothers, four of whom, Caselton, Lei and Ransom of Norwalk, Ohio, were all present at the funeral, and who with his nephew Geo. P. Voorheis of Toledo, Ohio, and his grandson Nelson J. C. Roscoe acted as his pallbearers.
Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe have survived as husband and wife, and are the last to be parted by death, of all the families who lived at Port Mitchell and in that vicinity when they moved to the present location in 1863.
The funeral was held at this home on Sat am under the auspicious of the Masons and buried by the Masonic Ritual.
A large number of friends followed his remains to their final resting place in the cemetery in Albion. G.P.V.
1904
August 1904
Obituary of Hiram Lindsey
Hiram C. Lindsey, one of the oldest residents of Noble County, Ind., having located here when the country was new and the comforts of modern times were unobtainable luxuries, died at his home in Green Twp. Sun. Aug. 28, 1904, aged seventy-eight years, five months and twenty days
He leaves to mourn their loss a wife, three sons and one daughter, one son and one daughter having preceded him to the spirit land, He also leaves three sisters, Mary Richison of Arkansas; Elizabeth McDonald of Washington and Harriet Mohn of Michigan.
Mr. Lindsey was born in Knox county, Ohio, March 8, 1826 and was a son of Jacob and Sarah (Craven) Lindsey. He came to Ind. in 1839 and located on the farm where he died. His father died the same year they moved here leaving the support of the family to the care of the two sons. The older of the two sons met an untimely death by drowning two years later, leaving the younger to support the entire family and inured to toil the from his early youth and was a valuable assistant to in clearing and developing much of the land in Green Twp. which was then a howling wilderness, there being but two families within a radius of five miles and but one house marked the site where Churubusco now stands when he came to the state. Being compelled to rely so completely on himself, he developed a business capacity remarkable in one of his years and soon won the admiration and respect of those with whom he had dealings for his sagacity. Near the age of thirty he was united in marriage to Miss Barbara Lock, May 12, 1855. He united with the Baptist near his home commonly now as Ite Brush, and later with the Merriam Christian Church. He was a firm believer in Christ and His teachings, and bore his suffering patiently until the end.
The funeral services were held at the Merriam Christian Church, at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, conducted by Rev. R. W. Page. The remains were interned in the cemetery near by. The neighbors were very kind during his sickness and burial.
1905
June 1905
D. E. A. Spencer
Died Thursday Night At His Home
An Old Settler of Albion
Came to Noble County With His Parents 1833
One by one the pioneers of No. Co. are falling and crossing the mystic river to the other shore.. Deacon Ezra Allen Spencer, who has been afflicted several months with illness, died at this home in Albion, No. Co., Ind., aged 75 years,7 months and 21 days.
Mr. Spencer was born Oct. 17, 1829, in Huron Co., Ohio, and in 1834, he and his father, Samuel Spencer, moved to No. Co. and settled near the Union Church in Jefferson Twp. Later he bought a mill site on Lewis branch near Albion, and erected a sawmill thereon.
The boy, Deacon, was physically strong, and the hardships of pioneer life farm work, made it necessay for him to take up another occupation. His father sent him to Greenfield, Ohio, where he learned the trade of tailor and returning to Albion he became identified with the business interests of the town and so remained until his demise.
On Jan. 21, 852, he was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Bowen, who survives him. Three children were born, Amanda, who died in infancy, Fitch J. Spencer, who resides at Wauseaon, Ohio, and Edward F., who resides in this city.
Mr. Spencer is one of the last leaves of the storybook of pioneer days, and it is but a coincidence that his life, a page in the history of No. Co., should have been torn out on the day set apart to do honor to pioneer survivors. The writer feels that it will be more than of passing interest to the community to read some comment on the life just passed to higher hopes.
Children were a passion with him and there are a few young men, who were reared in Albion, who can look back to some happy times in the tailor shop. Many were the pranks we played but we know he enjoyed them. In school children he took delight, for in them he received that which was denied him. He loved to learn with them their lessons and as we think back that a really deep mind was thirsting and craving for knowledge and between the hours of toil we know, too, that he acquired a mu8ch broader and deeper learning than many of us who have had modern school advantages.
He was a student of natural history. He loved flowers and his little garden was always full of the good old-fashioned bloom. He learned much of birds and animals and his shop was a wonder place in specimens prepared by himself. With the simplest tools he made carvings in wood that would do credit to the skill of a master of the art.
Now that existence here is closed, we feel that his life has been a useful one. Along with the hardships attending the early settlement, business reverses which several times reduced him to the beginning point and a naturally weak constitution, he has been able to close without his abilities and with assets in worldly goods and lessons of energy and right living to the present generation.
The obsequies were held at the late residence at 2 o’clock, Sun P.M., conducted by Rev. M. R. Mohler, pastor of the Lutheran church, and was attended by a large concourse of relatives and friends. Internment in the Albion cemetery. We extend condolence to the relatives in their hour of affliction and sorrow.
Albion Democrat June 12, 1905
1907
January 1907
Obituary of Eva P. Earnhart
Eva, daughter of Martin and Barbara (Haas) Snyder, was born in Alxaxw, Germany, Sept. 4, 1838. She came with her parents to the U.S.A. in June 1841, settling near Akron, Ohio. In 1856 she came to Sparta Twp. Noble Co., Ind.
She was married to Thomas P. Earnhart, Sept. 28, 1860 settling on a farm in York Twp. T this union were born eight children, three of whom have passed to the spirit world. There remain to mourn her death, three sons, two daughters, two brothers, three sisters, five half-sisters, seven grandchildren and many other relatives and friends.
In 1898 she moved to Perry Twp. with her son and the nest year to Wolf Lake with her daughter where she resided until her death, Jan 28, 1907. Her age was 68 years, 4 months and 24 days. She was a member of the German Reform church from her girlhood, but there being no church in this country of her chosen profession, she worshipped in the Methodist church at Wolf Lake.
The funeral services were held at the M. E. Church at Wolf Lake, Ind., conducted by her pastor, Rev. E. Sarah, who preached from Genesis 5:24. Although it was snowing heavily, a large crowd of people filled the church to show their respect to a good woman, whose quiet and consistent Christian life for many years in their midst had won their admiration.
Mrs. Earnhart raised a large and respected family, all of whom are indebted to her for her noble life and devotion to her home and family. Her example and influence upon her children will always remain as a sweet memory of a loving and now sainted mother. The internment was in the Sparta cemetery.
1909
Former Noble County Citizen
It may not be generally known that Lucien C. Wheeler, the secret service officer who is managing President Taft’s extended trip over the continent, is an Indianan, once removed. He belongs to the family of Wheelers who were among the early enterprising and influencial settlers of Noble County. His father, C. E. Wheeler, a prominent lawyer of Cedar Rapids, was born in Albion, and has a number of relatives there. Mrs. Emily Spencer, residing west of this city, is his aunt
Kendallville News 1909