One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XXVIII  

SPANGLER

A good many years ago, in the words of the family historian, there was born in Union County, Pennsylvania, a man named GEORGE SPANGLER. He married SOPHIA KLECKNER. They were the parents of

Samuel twin [ to Levi]
Levi twin [ to Samuel]
Eliza
Mary
Rebecca
Hannah

These children were born in Pennsylvania. Levi was killed in the water-mill. Later, the rest of the family moved to Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio. Reuben, says the historian parenthetically, was born in Pennsylvania and later moved to Illinois, where the rest of the family lost track of him.

It was the family of SAMUEL SPANGLER that migrated to the region of life Tippecanoe River and Lake Maxinkuckee. Samuel was born August l0, 1807 was married to RACHEL REED in Union County, Pennsylvania. They were the parents of;

William
Mary Ann
Hannah
Sophia
Margaret
Catherine
Peter
Jane
Uriah
Adam
Francis

The father, Samuel, who not a native of Union County, Pennsylvania, died April 11, 1862, in Monterey, Indiana. He had removed in a comparatively early day to the vicinity of that settlement on the banks of the Tippecanoe. His wife, RACHEL (REED) SPANGLER, was born August 1, 1810, in Union County, Pennsylvania, and died January 9, 1899, at Maxinkuckee, Indiana. She was burried [buried] at Monterey.

The WALLE familyr [family] came to the Tippecanoe River location some time before the Civil War, perhaps in the 'fifties. The route of the family migration was from Pennsylvania to Ohio, then nearly direct to the farm they settled on, near Monterey. A log house was erected there, [the] SPANGLER home in the new country. The location was east of the present village of Monterey, and was almost on the Fulton-Pulaski county line, about midway between Monterey and Delong. The old log house stood until quite a recent date. It was on the south side of the present road connecting Monterey and Delong.

Only one member of the family came to Union Township to settle permanently. That was Peter. It was right after the Civil War that he came and located on the east side of Lake Maxinkuckee, in the village by the same name. The date of his coming is apparently not on record. It was doubtless in the late 'sixties, in '67 or '68, for Peter lived at the Allegheny House ill Maxinktickee [Maxinkuckee] for a period of sixty-five or sixty-six years, it has been estimated.

PETER SPANGLER was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, near Hessville, September 2, 1842, and was married, September 3, 1865, at Maxinkuckee, after his return from the war, to HARRIET ANN BOGARDUS, only child of Abram W, and FRANCES BOGARDUS. The Bogardus family had come to Maxinkuckee early. It was before the SPANGLERs came. Harriet Ann was born September 3, 1840, in Springfield, Ohio, and lived there until six years of age. She came with her parents to New Palestine, Ohio, where she lived until she was fifteen. Then she came on still farther with her parents, finally to Maxinkuckee. She lived at Maxinkuckee and at Plymouth most of the time since. She passed away July 27, 1909. There were three children, two girls and a boy, all living in 1934.

It was in 1855 that PETER SPANGLER, with his parents, moved to Miami County, Indiana. They did not stay there for long. About 1856, when Peter was fourteen years old, they came to the vicinity of Monterey, the big family of them, father and mother, Peter and all his brothers and sisters. They made quite a colony all their own. When Peter died, in 1933, the rest of the brothers and sisters had passed on before him, except Adam, who was then living in Mishawaka.

The blood of battle sort of ran in the family. Peter's grandfather, GEORGE SPANGLER (set down as Michael in one account), was killed in the Battle at Brandywine, September 11, 1777, from the revolutionary side.

Peter and his brother William both served in the Civil War.

Peter enlisted from Plymouth and was mustered into service at Indianapolis, February 10, 1862, as a private in Company C. 48th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under Captain WILLIAM RICE and Colonel EDWARD J. WOOD, to serve three year, during the war. The regiment was assigned to Quincie's Division, 17th Corps, Army of the Tennessee, and participated in engagements at Corinth, Mississippi, April 30th to May 30th; Iuka, September 19th; Corinth, October 3-4; Iuka, Vicksburg Siege, May 22-July 4, 1863. Having taken part in the Battle of Raymond, May 13; Jackson, May 14, and Champion's Hill, May 16, he was veteranized in Alabama, January, 1864, was furloughed home, and returned to Alabama until June. Then, a little later, he was busily engaged in chasing guerrillas through Georgia and protecting Sherman's railroad communications against Atlanta. He joined Sherman's army on his march to the sea, November 15-December 10; thence through the Carolinas, ending with the Campaign at Raleigh. At Indianapolis, at the close of the war, he was honorably discharged, July 15, 1865. William, Peter's brother, was captain of a colored regiment during the war.

The reminiscence has been carried down in the family that when Peter began voting, he voted for ABRAHAM LINCOLN, casting, his first ballot, it is said, for the Great Emancipator.

When the war was over had Peter had married, he and his bride stayed a while at Maxinkuckee, but soon afterward went to Plymouth to live. They spent only a short time there before returning to Maxinkuckee. In that community, Peter owned and sponsored a hotel or fisherman's paradise, the Allegheny House, and it was there in past and bygone days that many of the year celebrities of Indiana, and in fact the United States, would go for rest and recreation. We are told, also, that it was at SPANGLER's widely-known inn that General LEW WALLACE wrote his first chapters of "Ben Hur." In later years, Peter was a carpenter and brick mason and helped to construct many of the buildings of Culver Military Academy.

Peter was the seventh child of SAMUEL and RACHEL REED SPANGLER. There was another PETER SPANGLER in the township. He was Peter J., a preacher and for some time the pastor of Zion Church. Peter SPANGLER of Maxinkuckee had no middle initial.

At the home of his daughter, Mrs. LAURA BABCOCK, at Rochester, Peter SPANGLER passed away, August 17, 1933. He lacked only sixteen days of being ninety-one. His three children were:

Laura Ellen, who married Dr. ISAAC L. BABCOCK.

There were eight children, three now deceased. The doctor died in 1913, The widow is still living.
Frances Jennetta, Peter SPANGLER's second daughter

is married to HOLLIS N. BLAIR, There were two daughters. The parents and children are all living.
George McOuat, the youngest of Peter's family,

was born at Maxinkuckee July 5, 1872, and in 1896 was married to MARGARET C. KNAUR at Otterbein, Indiana. All are living, the parents in Culver and Byron in Indianapolis. There was one son born to them.:
Byron

Judge WILLIAM SPANGLER, Peter's brother, was educated in the public schools of Ohio and received his collegiate training at Westerville College. He studied law in the office of Judge FINNEFROCK at Fremont, Ohio, with ex-President RUTHERFORD B. HAYES as a fellow student. Then he practiced law in Missouri, at Plymouth and Monterey, and moved to Winamac in 1868. He was the first judge of this 44th judicial circuit in Indiana, having been appointed in March, 1883, by Governor ALBERT G. PORTER. and served until November 12, 1884. He practiced law in Winamac until his death in that community, January 18, 1908. His son John, an only child, is a lawyer there now. WILLIAM SPANGLER was born in Union County, Pennsylvania, April 16, 1831, and was married in '65 to MARY I. PHIPPS.

Turning to the family record, we find the following information concerning the other brothers and sisters, the children of Samuel and RACHEL SPANGLER:

Mary Ann was born in Union County, June 17, 1833;

was married to Henry Eickes; and died September 23, 1899, in Ohio.
Margaret was born in Union County, April 21, 1838;

was married in '66 to DANIEL ARMSTRONG; and died at Plymouth, December 30, 1876. There were no children.
Catherine was born January 21, 1840;

married Eli Parker in 1860; and died at Culver, August 7, 1906. There were six children.
Hannah married GEORGE WASHINGTON WYLIE,

and died at Rochester, December 20, 1905. There were three children.
Sophia was born October 15, 1836,

and died at Plymouth, January 31, 1923. She married JOSEPH LOPP in '56. He died in 1910. There were four children.
Jane was born March 11, 1844,

and died at Monterey, September l3, 1865.

Uriah was born January 27, 1846, and died in November, 1905.
Adam was born February 10, 1848.

He married ELIZABETH DEMONT. There were five children.
Francis C. was born February 8, 1850,

and died at Maxinkuckee, August 6, 1878. He was buried at Monterey.