One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XXIX  

ENSERM

Quite a number of years ahead of the SICKMANs, the MENSER family came and settled in the Sickman Community. Of course, when the MENSERs arrived there, it was not called the Sickman neighborhood. It was then, no doubt, the Menser neighborhood.

The MENSER family moved out here around the year 1853. Antecedents of the Union Township settler originated in Pennsylvania. From that State the family went to Ohio. JOEL MENSER and his wife Sarah moved direct from Stark County, Ohio, to the northwestern section of Union Township. They were among the earliest of the settlers of the Sickman school neighborhood. In that vicinity, Joel accumulated considerable land. The old MENSER homestead is still standing there, across from the site of the Sickman school, on Young Road. The place is now owned by J. D. HEISER.
JOEL MENSER's lands in the 'seventies consisted of eighty acres south and southwest of the Sickman school; west of that, also on the south side of the road, 57 acres; and west still farther and adjoining the last mentioned acreage, a plot of twenty acres off and south of the road.

Joel's wife was SARAH BENNER before her marriage. She died twenty-six years ago, or in 1909. Joel's death occurred in 1884. The children of JOEL and SARAH MENSER were six in number. All of them are now deceased except one. There were five boys and one girl

MOSES MENSER of Culver

Moses, the surviving brother, was born in Union Township, April 14, 1856. He will have passed his seventy-ninth mile­stone in 1935. His first wife was BARBARA WERNER. The Werners were from Aurora, Illinois. The mother died when Frank was three weeks old. To this union was born one child:

Frank, now of Culver, Frank is a widower.

The second wife of MOSES MENSER was, before her marriage, EMMA GEISELMAN. Like the MENSERs, the GEISELMANs came from Stark County, Ohio. And they settled not far from where the MENSERs homesteaded. The GEISELMANs came to Starke County, Indiana, and settled near the Union Township line in the section known as North Union. Four children were born to MOSES and EMMA MENSER. One of them has passed away. The parents are living in Culver.

Mary, who died at the age of twelve years
William, who was born in Ohio and who died in Union Township
Dave, who died in the winter of '33-'34 in Mishawaka
Joel, who was called Jake and who never married, deceased
Urias, the youngest, deceased, his son:

Harry, is a resident of Culver.