William Meyer

            WILLIAM MEYER was born in Kingdom of Hanover, Germany, March 18, 1828, and is one of seven sons of Christian and Maria (Cook) Meyer, only two of whom are living. His father was born in Hanover in 1792; he was by trade a shoemaker, and served under Napoleon in his campaigns; he was at the siege of Moscow and at Waterloo, and was unharmed; he died in Hanover in 1876. His mother was also born in Hanover in 1800, and died in 1864. William learned the shoemaking trade, at which he worked while in Germany. He served three years in the German army, during the war against the Danish King.

    On June 1, 1851, he was married to Joanna Seuram, in Dessau, Hanover. To this union, two children were born –Christian and Henry. On October 6, 1863, Mr. and Mrs. Meyer landed in New York, with but five francs in hand; here he remained four years, working at shoemaking, then moved to Fort Wayne, then to Stark County, Ind., then to Valparaiso, where he purchased land in about 1880; his wife died August 17, 1882. They both joined the Methodist Church, in New York, in 1853. Mr. Meyer now resided two miles north of Valparaiso; he is a gardener, and owns a timber tract of twelve acres in Liberty Township.

Source: Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana. Historical and Biographical. Weston A. Goodspeed, Historical Editor. Charles Blanchard, Biographical Editor. F.A. Battey & Co., Publishers, 1882, page 287.