Louis Fuchs

Leave a reply

Louis Fuchs
b. 15 November 1868, Spencer County, Indiana, to Mathias and Dorethea (Zahn) Fuchs
d. 10 January 1948, Telbasta, Nebraska

m. 1 May 1905, Evanston, Spencer County, Indiana
Anna Maria Sophia Wittman
b. 1 February 1880, Spencer County, Indiana, to John B. and Margaretha (Purtzer) Wittman

Children with Anna Maria Sophia Wittman:

  • Ella Anna Mathilda (1906-1979) married Wesley John Graulich
  • Charlotte Lydia (1907-2000) married Edward William Stock
  • Dorothy Edith (1910-1991) married George William Bloemaker
  • Oswald Theodore (1911-1989) married Leona Ida Hagerbaumer
  • Rudolph Henry (b. 1912) married Edna Alsabein Maria Stork
  • Irma Bertha (b. 1919) married Elmer William Stork

Louis was born in Huff Township of Spencer County, Indiana. He moved his family to Sheridan Township, Washington County, Nebraska, sometime after the 1930 U.S. census was taken. He was a farmer in both Indiana and Nebraska.

Submitted by:
Marlene Polster
Crown Point IN
E-mail: marlenepolster@sbcglobal.net

Mary Cynthia Criss

Leave a reply

Mary Cynthia Criss
b. 7 December 1867, Vandalia, Owen County, Indiana, to Henry and Juliette Frances (Roberts) Cross
d. 10 September 1944, Danville, Vermillion County, Illinois

m. 6 June 1883, Vandalia, Owen County, Indiana
Samuel Lewis Cooksey
b. 6 June 1859, Owen County, Indiana, to John Wyatt and Mahulda Mahoney (Ellis/Allis)
Cooksey
d. 9 July 1928, Hume, Douglas County, Illinois

Children with Samuel Lewis Cooksey:

  • Homer Wyatt (1883-1954) married Pearl Thompson
  • Ann Rosella (1890-1982) married Elmer Sunk
  • William Roy (twin, 1896-1958) married Delorus Daugherty
  • Lewis Ray (twin, 1896-1958) married Gertrude Kewitt
  • Gertrude Elizabeth (1897-1977) married (1) Elbert Blaisdell, (2) Edward Lykins
  • Alva Dow (1899-1938) married Virgie Jewel Pate
  • Edith Ethel (1901-1985) married Vance Baxter

Sarah Criss, her son William Cross and his son, Henry Criss, came to Owen County, Indiana from Carroll County, Ohio, in 1935. They settled at Vandalia, Owen County, Indiana. Sarah and her son William are both buried in the Vandalia Methodist Cemetery and Henry is in the Palestine Cemetery in Vandalia. Henry’s daughter Mary Cynthia was born near Vandalia, Indiana. About 1915, Mary and her husband Samuel Cooksey moved to Newman, Douglas County, Illinois. Mary looked after her blind husband’s business affairs, while her daughters did the housework and the sons did the farming.

Submitted by:
Dow Junior Cooksey
Danville IL
E-mail: dcooksey@insightbb.com

Jennie Mae Comer

Leave a reply

Jennie Mae Comer
b. 1 December 1891, Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana, to William Cyrus and Sarah Jane
(Gleason) Comer
d. 2 June 1986, West Chicago, DuPage County, Illinois

m. 1 October 1920, Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana
Orval Hamilton Crisler
b. 10 October 1893, Mount Ayr, Newton County, Indiana, to William Addison and Clara Delilah (Hopkins) Crisler
d. 17 January 1986, West Chicago, DuPage County, Illinois

Children with Orval Hamilton Crisler:

  • William Orval (1922-2005) married Dorothy Helen Olson
  • Virginia Mae (b. 1923) married Leslie Alexander Simpson
  • John Edward (1924-1994) married June Freida Wilson
  • George Hamilton (1925-2000) married (1) Gloria Grover Murray, (2) Barbara Dee Bell
  • Emily Jeannette (b. 1927) married Lyle William Seefeldt

Jennie’s father, William Cyrus Comer, was also born in Indiana. Her mother, Sarah Jane “Jennie” Gleason was born in Michigan, but lived in Indiana as a young woman.

Jennie’s mother died following childbirth, and Jennie was sent to her maternal grandparents in Ottawa County, Michigan, to be raised there. She returned to Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana, at age nine in 1900 to live with her aunts, Mary and Lizzie Comer, at their boarding house on South Cullen Street. She stayed there until adulthood.

Jennie left Indiana in 1912 to attend nursing school in Chicago but returned again to Rensselaer to work as a registered nurse at Jasper County Hospital following her graduation. There she became re-acquainted with her husband-to-be and former classmate, Orval Hamilton Crisler. They married in 1920 and quickly were parent of five children.

In 1927, the family moved to Waukegan, Illinois. Later they moved to Chicago, then to Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Following her husband’s retirement, they moved to Dunedin, Florida. At her death at age 94, Jennie’s body was returned to Rensselaer, and she is buried there next to her husband of 65 years in Weston Cemetery.

Submitted by:
Leslie S. Hall
Waynesboro, VA
E-mail: geniehall75@gmail.com

Heinrich Martin Wittman

Leave a reply

Heinrich Martin Wittman
b. 27 September 1890, Spencer County, Indiana, to Johann B. And Margaretha (Purtzer) Wittman
d. 29 June 1964, Winslow, Dodge County, Nebraska

m. 1 December 1914, Winslow, Dodge County, Nebraska
Martha Marie Louise Moeller
b. 16 January 1896, Nickerson, Nebraska, to William and Louise (Hoegermeyer) Moeller
d. 8 May 1965, Fremont, Nebraska

Children with Martha Marie Louise Moeller:

  • Agnes Lydia (1917-1964) married Vernon Henry Louie Hilgenkamp
  • Clarence Henry (1919-1984) married Marguerite Carolyn Feiler
  • Arnold William (1922-1973) married Anna Marie Walther
  • Leona Louise married Floyd John Walter Hilgenkamp

Henry was born in Huff Township of Spencer County, Indiana, but moved to Nebraska with his family around 1914. Like many ancestors of that era, he was a farmer.

Submitted by:
Marlene Polster
Crown Point IN
E-mail: marlenepolster@sbcglobal.net

Orval Hamilton Crisler

2 Replies

Orval Hamilton Crisler
b. 10 October 1893, Mount Ayr, Newton County, Indiana, to William Addison and Clara Delilah (Hopkins) Crisler
d. 17 January 1986, West Chicago, DuPage County, Illinois

m. 1 October 1920, Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana
Jennie Mae Comer
b. 1 December 1891, Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana, to William Cyrus and Sarah Jane (Gleason) Comer
d. 2 June 1986, West Chicago, DuPage County, Illinois

Children with Jennie Mae Comer:

  • William Orval (1922-2005) married Dorothy Helen Olson
  • Virginian Mae (b. 1923) married Leslie Alexander Simpson
  • John Edward (1924-1994) married June Freida Wilson
  • George Hamilton (1925-2000) married (1) Gloria Grover Murray, (2) Barbara Dee Bell
  • Emily Jeannette (b. 1927) married Lyle William Seefeldt

The Crisler family, headed by Orval’s grandfather, Hamilton Crisler, came to Indiana in 1846 and settled in the Haw Creek Township of Bartholomew County. They moved to Newton County, Indiana in 1861 when Hamilton purchased 240 acres of land in Jackson Township near the later town of Mount Ayr.

Orval moved with his parents to a farm northeast of the town of Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana, in 1910. Following his marriage in 1920, he and his wife and their five children, moved to Waukegan, Illinois, in 1927. Orval enrolled in the LaSalle Extension School in Chicago and completed his education, becoming an accountant. The latter part of his working career was as an accountant, comptroller, and secretary/treasurer for the Chicago-based Gulbransen Piano Company.

His wife Jennie was a registered nurse who worked at the Jasper County Hospital in Rensselaer as a surgical nurse and radiology technician prior to her marriage. Orval was a farmer, having taken over the family farm after the death of his father in 1911

After his retirement, Orval and Jennie moved to Dunedin, Florida. They returned to the Chicago area in the mid 1980’s and both died there in 1986. They were sent home to Indiana for burial in Weston Cemetery in Rensselaer, Indiana

Submitted by:
Leslie S. Hall
Waynesboro, VA
E-mail: geniehall75@gmail.com

Helen Louise Brewer

Leave a reply

Helen Louise Brewer
b. 20 April 1913, Wabash, Indiana, to Lewis Lenard and Elsie Marie (Burnworth) Brewer
d. 28 May 1985, Denver, Colorado

m.
Eldon Corneal Bell
b. 20 November 1910, Markle or Roanoke, Indiana, to William Arthur and Ethel Merle (Houser) Bell
d. 25 August 1961, Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana

Children with Eldon Corneal Bell:

  • Norman L. (b. 1933)

Born in Indiana, Helen lived most of her life in Fort Wayne, Allen County. Both Helen and her husband retired from General Electric. She moved to Denver to be with her only son, Norman, after the death of her husband.

Helen was a member of Eastern Star.

Submitted by:
Diane Ely
Florissant MO
E-mail: dianeely@att.net

Claude Clinton Bowen

Leave a reply

Claude Clinton Bowen
b. 28 October 1895, Carlisle, Sullivan County, Indiana, to James Marion and Mary Elanore (Booker) Bowen
d. 5 November 1977, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio

m/1. 6 June 1917, Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana
Pearl May Shipp
b. 13 October 1898, Hutsonville, Crawford County, Illinois, to James Nathan and Arena Evaline (Dillon) Shipp
d. 13 July 1928, Merom, Sullivan County, Indiana

m/2. 19 January 1951, Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana
Gladys Norris Bowman
b. 16 Apr 1897
d. 25 May 1972, Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana

Children with Pearl May Shipp:

  • Nathan Clinton (1918-1989) married Bertha Mae (Green) Lackey
  • Charles Edward (1921-1967) married Beatrice Elaine Blackburn
  • Myrtle Irene (1923-1999) married Harley Wilbur Wilson
  • Charles Kenneth (1926-1979)

Claude Clinton’s grandfather Tavner B. Bourne/Bowen, at age 18, with his father Moses Bourne, mother Judith (Branham) Bourne and siblings moved from Jessamine County, Kentucky, in 1836 and settled in Widner Township, Knox County, Indiana. They moved to Sullivan County, Indiana, about 1870 and remained there.

Claude Clinton married and settled in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana. He moved to Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1972 after the death of his second wife Gladys to live with his oldest son Nathan. He remained there until his death and is buried in Grandview Cemetery in Terre Haute. His wife Gladys is buried beside him….

He was a veteran of World War I, having enlisted in Carlisle, Sullivan County, Indiana, on 17 August 1918. He was honorably discharged 26 December 1918 at Camp Sheridan, Alabama. He received the WWI Victory Button (Bronze, and the WWI Victory Medal.

Claude worked for the Terre Haute Paper Company, 19th and Penn Railroad, and retired from the Weston Paper and Manufacturing Company, all in Terre Haute, Indiana, in December 1964.

Submitted by:
Nathan Clinton Bowen, Jr.
Fayetteville NC
E-mail: bowenate@aol.com

Margaretha Purtzer

Leave a reply

Margaretha “Maggie” Purtzer
b. 8 October 1851, Spencer County, Indiana, to Nicolaus and Kunigunda (Eckert) Purtzer
d. 12 June 1922, Winslow, Dodge County, Nebraska

m. 15 May 1877, Spencer County, Indiana
Johann “John” B. Wittman
b. 25 May 1850, Germany
d. 11 Oct 1912, Spencer County, Indiana

Children with Johann B. Wittman:

Maggie was born in Huff Township of Spencer County, Indiana, and spent most of her life there. Her husband farmed in Spencer County, died there, and is buried there as well. After his death, Maggie moved to Dodge County, Nebraska with one of her sons. She died in Nebraska but was returned to Indiana for burial.

Submitted by:
Marlene Polster
Crown Point IN
E-mail: marlenepolster@sbcglobal.net

Damon Wilsey Pugh

Leave a reply

Damon Wilsey Pugh
b. 15 May 1913, Shelburn, Sullivan County, Indiana, to Robert Webb and Flossie Mamie (Smith) Pugh
d. 4 September 2002, Hohenwald, Lewis County, Tennessee

m/1. 11 August 1934, Sullivan, Sullivan County, Indiana
Doris Esther Harris
b. 26 July 1914, Prairie Creek, Vigo County, Indiana, to Elza Wales Jennings and Bertha Florence (Clouse) Harris
d. 23 June 2001, Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana

m/2. 1961
Doris Jean Fanning
b. 24 Mar 1931
d. 26 October 2002

Children with Doris Esther Harris:

  • Shirley Arlene (b. 1936) married Thomas David Thomson
  • Kenneth Duane (b. 1937) married Janice Southwood
  • Glenn Harold (b. 1941) married Carol Ann Curry

Children with Doris Jean Fanning:

  • Susan Jean (1951-2006) married (1) Thomas C. Kilpatrick, (2) Malcolm Sidney Wright, Jr.

Damon Pugh’s ancestors, Evan and Sarah (Cloud) Pugh migrated to Madison County, Indiana in 1826 from Licking County, Ohio. The family remained in central Indiana in the area of Madison and Delaware counties until early in the 1880’s when the Damon’s grandfather, Joseph I. Pugh, moved, following the death of his first wife, to Sullivan County, Indiana. In 1885, Joseph married Clara Delia Dudley in Sullivan County and became parents of ten children. Today their descendants continue to live in Indiana’s Sullivan and Vigo counties.

In 1960, Damon and Doris Harris divorced. It was then that he left Indiana. He lived for a time in Mississippi and married a second time to Doris Jean Fanning Thrash. Later they made their home in Hohenwald, Tennessee, where they lived and worked for thirty-five years. They died there in 2002.

Damon produced a memoir in 1994 entitled, “My First Eighty Years: Memories of a Man of Sullivan County, Indiana.” It includes stories from his early years on a farm in Sullivan County. As an adult, he mastered a variety of occupations, acquiring a handful of patents in the process. The first two were created for coal processing when he ran the above-ground operations at Jonay Coal Mine near Sullivan, Indiana. He spent the last forty years of his life in sales of heavy equipment used in farming, lumbering, and building operations.
Submitted by:
Shirley Pugh Thomson
Walnut Creek CA
E-mail: thomsonsa@astound.net

Nathan Clinton Bowen

Leave a reply

Nathan Clinton Bowen
b. 30 January 1918, Carlisle, Sullivan County, Indiana, to Claude Clinton and Pearl May (Shipp) Bowen
d. 26 December 1989, Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina

m. 1 Jun 1938, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Bertha May (Green) Lackey
b. 13 November 1914, Bradford, McKean County, Pennsylvania, to Elba Seymour and Margaret “Minnie” (Butler) Green
d. 9 August 1971, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio

Children with Bertha May Lackey:

  • James Nathan (1938-1941)
  • Nathan Clinton, Jr. (b. 1940)
  • Jacqueline Jean (b. 1942) married Mr. Virag
  • Carol Ann (b. 1943) married Mr. McCracken
  • Claude David (1945-1980)
  • Paul Revere (1948-2003)
  • Sharon Lee (b. 1953) married Mr. Kokoruda

Nathan’s family originally came to Indiana in 1836 from Jessamine County, Kentucky. He was born in Haddon Township of Sullivan County, Indiana, and worked on a farm until he was 18 and joined the Army. While on furlough in 1937, he met his future wife at the Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, Ohio. They married on 1 June 1938, and he was honorably discharged a little over a year later at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana.

He and Bertha May settled in Cleveland where they raised their family. She was born Bertha May Green, but after her mother divorced Elba Green in 1924 and married James Joseph Lackey, Bertha was adopted by Lackey and changed her name to Lackey.

In March of 1944, Nathan was drafted and served with Company D, 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. He was severely wounded in action outside of Aachen, Germany and was hospitalized in England before being transported to a hospital in Pennsylvania. He was again honorably discharged on August 3, 1945.

Nathan was a machinist and worked at the Cleveland Pneumatic Tool Company, Cleveland Rock Drill Division of Leroy Company, and was Forman at the Elwell Parker Electric Company,
making electric customized truck lifts. He retired from Elwell Parker in 1978 and later moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, to live with his daughter, Carol Ann, due to ill health.

For his combat service during World War II, Nathan received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with Bronze Star Attachment, World War II Victory Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, Honorable Discharge Service Lapel Button WW II, Expert Infantry Badge, and Sharpshooter Badge with Carbine and Rifle Bar.

Submitted by:
Nathan Clinton Bowen, Jr.
Fayetteville, NC
E-mail: bowenate@aol.com