One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XXVIII  

BUSART

There were very few of the pioneers of this part of the country who came here from New Orleans. Scarcer yet were the emigrants from the old country who came all the way by water. But such is the distinction enjoyed by the BUSART family, early settlers of the south end of Maxinkuckee lake.

MATHEW BUSART, his wife Rosa, and their four children came from Germany by sailing vessel and landed at New Orleans in 1848. Mathew's brother had come over some years before, and had reached Louisville, perhaps by way of New Orleans. Louisville was the last place Mathew heard of his brother having been. He had dropped out of the world entirely, it seemed. Mathew never heard a word from him. He had some children, too. It was thought maybe he died of yellow fever or cholera, which were bad in those days. Mathew and his family stayed in New Orleans over the winter, and from that city went to Louisville to hunt for the lost brother. They traveled by steamboat on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. From Louisville, where they discovered no trace or clue of the brother, the family set out the next. year, about 1849, for still newer regions. They journeyed to Logansport by canal. There were no railroads then in the whole of the vast trans-Alleghany [Allegheny] territory. They stayed at Logansport a few years, then moved to Marshall County, and bought a farm at the south end of Lake Maxinkuckee. There were 120 acres, known as the FARRAR lands now. The BUSART family reached the lake about 1860.

It was there, right near the lake, that Grandfather BUSART established a permanent resting place for his flock. He built a log house in a clearing, now an open field close to the FARRAR woods. The cabin stood till about fifteen years ago (around 1920), when NICHOLAS BUSART tore it down, he recalls. The wood was given away for firewood; what was left of the old homestead kept other home-fires burning. Mathew and his family lived on this land for about ten years, then sold it and moved to Peru, Mathew died at Peru about 1888, aged around eighty, for he was born in 1807. His wife Rosa preceded him a couple of years in death. Both were buried in Peru. MATHEW and ROSA BUSART were both natives of Germany, and were all their children.

The children of MATTHEW and ROSA BUSART were

Joseph
John
Rosie
Victoria

named in the order of age.

The first of these children, Joseph, was born in Germany in 1834, and died in 1903 on the old home farm at the south end of Lake Maxinkuckee. His death came suddenly. He was sixty-eight. Burial was at Monterey. He was a cooper by trade. When he lived at Logansport as young man he learned the craft. About 1862, he rented a farm between Logansport and Peru, lived there a few years, and in 1865 moved to (Marshall County, near Lake Maxinkuckee. and bought what is now called the NORRIS farm, in the southeast corner of the lake. His father had come ahead of him, about 1860 After living there for about fifteen years, Joseph traded that place for the one his son Nicholas lived on now, consisting of 120 acres and known as the REDEN farm. He moved there in 1881. His wife MARY WALLE, was a native of Germany and was about fifteen years of age when she came to America. The children of JOSEPH an MARY BUSART, six sons and four daughters, were

Joseph, Jr., the, is single and lives at Logansport
John married MARY GOTCHEU. Memphis, Tennessee
Nicholas

present historian of the family, single and live on the home place

William who died in infancy
George married ANNIE ZURN of Monterey.

Both are living on their farm at the south end of Lake Maxinkuckee
Charles, who died in infancy
Victoria, the oldest girl married JOHN KLINE, died in 1925
Mary 1iving [living] in 1934,

the widow of JOHN KNEPPER reside in South Bend now

Rose 1iving [living] in 1934, single and live on the home place
Anna 1iving [living] in 1934,

married HIRAM MESSERSMITH. Both are living, Logansport being their home.

An old map of the township, published around 1894, the BUSART lands are on and near Lake Maxinkuckee. The name is spelled Bozarth. At the southeast corner of the lake there s [is] a represented a parcel of 63.10 acres in the name of "J. BOZARTH." This was Joseph. The land is the NORRIS place. The map a1so shows another plot in the name of J. BOZARTH, consisting of forty acres. The old Washington school house sat in a corner of it. This land is southeast of Joseph BUSART lakeside property. NICHOLAS J. BUSART now lives on the old homestead farm. George and his family occupy a part of it.