Charles Morten Echelbarger
For upwards of sixty years the Echelbarger family has lived in Grant County, their labors having been chiefly identified with the honorable arts of agriculture. The original Echelbarger homestead on Section Twenty-two of Green Township, five miles south and half a mile west of Swayzee is now occupied by C. M. Echelbarger, who ahs spent all of his years on this place, and in his time has witnessed and assisted in development from an area of timber and lowland to a farm measuring up to all the high standards of Grant County agriculture.
C. M. Echelbarger was born on this homestead, September 6, 1863, a son of Michael and Frances A. (Bell) Echelbarger. His father was a native of Brown County, Ohio, and the mother was born in Henry County, Indiana. The father moved from brown County to Henry County, where he met and married his wife, and about 1856, they came to Grant County, locating on the farm which is now the property of C. M. Echelbarger. The father gave himself energetically to the improvement of his land, cleared and ditched a large portion of it, and was the owner of a nice homestead of eighty acres. He was the father of eight children, four of whom are living, in 1913, namely:
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Phoebe C., wife of William Eakens.
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John, who married Ellen Eakens.
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Thomas, who married Emeline Hawk.
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C. M., the youngest.
The father died August 11, 1886; the mother died August 3, 1893.
Mr. Echelbarger was reared on the homestead, attended the district school in the neighborhood, and has been a tiller of the soil practically all his life. He has always lived on the home place and took care of his father and mother as long as they lived. On January 10, 1884, Mr. Echelbarger married Flora Williams, who was born in Liberty Township of Grant County, May 14, 1855. Her parents were Ben F. and Mary (Jackson) Williams, the father a native of Kentucky, and the mother a native of Wabash County, Indiana. Her father came from Kentucky, and located in Wabash, Indiana, where he was married. From this State he enlisted for service in the Union army, during the Civil war, and was through a small portion of the hostilities. He was the father of four daughters, all of whom are living in 1913, the other members of the Williams family besides Mrs. Echelbarger being:
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Nancy B., wife of Hiram Bolton.
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Anna, wife of Homer G. Hale of Elwood.
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Elizabeth, wife of Lewis Bates, of Jennings County, Indiana.
Mrs. Echelbarger's father, Ben F. Williams, died in 1887, and the mother is still living.
To Mr. and Mrs. Echelbarger have been born two daughters: Verdie, a graduate of the common schools, and on February 11, 1904, became the wife of D. M. Wimmer. Minnie is the wife of Orvil Stevenson, of Green Township. They were married March 18, 1913. The family are members of the Methodist Church at Point Isabel. Fraternally Mr. Echelbarger is affiliated with Point Isabel Lodge No. 510, I. O. O. F., and has also taken the encampment degrees of the order and is past chief patriarch. He and his wife are also members of the Rebekah Lodge, and Mrs. Echelbarger is past noble grand in the organization. In politics Mr. Echelbarger is a Republican, and has been one of the influential men in his section of the county. On his farm he does general farming, and is the owner of one hundred and thirty-two acres. He has also bought and shipped stock a considerable extent, and is an enterprising and shrewd business man.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.