Beckwith, H. W. History of Fountain County, Indiana. Chicago: HH Hill, 1881. "Troy
Township." Pg. 130. George Nebeker, banker, Covington. Much of the improvement and
prosperity of Fountain county is due to the energy, enterprise and perseverance of a few
of the early pioneers, and there were none, probably, who took a more active part
in the building up of all institutions pertaining to the general welfare of the pioneers
than Mr. Lucas Nebeker, the father of the subject of this brief memoir. He was born in the
State of Delaware, but subsequently became a resident of Pickaway county, Ohio, and in
1823 came west and entered land lying about three miles north of Covington, now forming a
part of the fine farm of 640 acres owned by his son, George Nebeker. In 1824 he raised a
small crop, built a cabin, and prepared a home for his family, whom he moved out in the
fall of that year. The family consisted of his wife, Hannah (Morris), and eight children.
He was a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a hard worker in promoting
the cause of religion in those days. His cabin, which was the first shingle-roofed
building ever erected in the county, and which is still standing,was often selected as a
meeting place of bishops and other prominent men of the church, to whom Mr. Nebeker
extended a generous hospitality and a helping hand. His identification with the early
settlement is given more extensively in the
general history of the county. Geo. Nebeker was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, August 20,
1813. His early life was spent in Fountain county, where he acquired such education as the
imperfect school system of those times afforded. Possessing, even in boyhood, a clear
analytical mind, and having been taught by his father those principles of honesty and
industry, Mr. Nebeker, without an apparent effort, grew rapidly to a position of
prosperity and influence. He has taken an active part in almost every enterprise the
object of which was to benefit the people of Fountain county. In 1850 he was one of a
company of four who began the building of the bridge across the Wabash river. This bridge
was
subsequently completed at a cost of about $20,000, and is still the only wagon bridge
across the river that affords a market to the people whose trade is tributary to the
commercial interests of Covington. Mr. Nebeker was formerly a member of the whig party,
but since its demise has been a strong republican. In 1862 he was appointed the first
collector of internal revenue in Fountain county, and in 1863 was appointed by President
Lincoln one of the three
commissioners of the Board of Enrollment for his district. This appointment necessitated
his removal to La Fayette; and just here it may be well to state that Mr. Nebeker was
married in 1832, to Miss Mary, daughter of George Steely, by whom he reared a family of
four sons and two daughters, and who died September 7, 1870. Mr. Nebeker has given each of
his children a classical education. In 1863, when obliged to go to La Fayette, he moved
his wife and three youngest children to Evanston, near Chicago, where the children were in
college during the time that Mr. Nebeker was in the employ of the government and for two
years after the close of his services. Mr. Nebeker has held the office
of president of the First National Bank of Attica, in which he is a stockholder, since its
organization, and in 1867, at the organization of the Farmers' Bank of Covington, by
himself, Mr. Gish, and others, he was elected president of that institution, and is still
connected with it in that capacity. At this bank he spends a part of his time, though Mr.
Gish is the active member of the firm. Mr. Nebeker was for a long time one of the
directors of the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western railroad, and he is now connected
in that capacity with the new railroad, in which he is a stockholder, that is in course of
construction between Attica and Covington. He has for many years been a member of the
Methodist Episcopal church, and he is also a Knight Templar and member of the order of A.
F. and A. M. November 15, 1871, he was married to Miss Louisa Moore, widow of Wm. Moore,
who resided in Terre Haute, Indiana. She is a lady of refinement and culture, and in every
way well worthy to be the wife of a man whose name and reputation stand without a reproach
before a people among whom he has spent sixty-six years of his life.