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Surnames: Wolf, Bramer, Bringham, Dumas, Heffner, Jarrell, Lake, Powell, Schwigler, Tull,
Wettschereck, Widmer/Widimer,
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Hi.2ADI/1513
Message Board Post:
Past and Present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Illustrated, Vol. II, pp. 1111-1114
B. F. Bowen and Company, Publishers, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1909
JOSEPH WOLF
From the study of the life history of JOSEPH WOLF one may learn
valuable lessons. The spirit of self-help is the source of all-genuine worth in the
individual and is the means of bringing to man success when he has no advantage of wealth
or influence to aid him. It illustrates in no uncertain manner what it is possible to
accomplish when perseverance and determination form the keynote to a man's life.
Depending upon his won resources, looking for no outside aid or support, MR. WOLF has
risen to his present position in the agricultural circles of Tippecanoe County.
JOSEPH WOLF is a native son of Tippecanoe County, having been born on Hogs-Point December
8, 1849, and is a son of PETER and SUSANA (POWELL) WOLF. PETER WOLF was a native of Ohio,
born January 4, 1816, and came to Tippecanoe County when in his fourteenth years, landing
here on October 6, 1830. His parents were MR. and MRS. PHILIP WOLF, who had sixteen
children, only six of whom lived to maturity. PHILIP WOLF was a farmer and was one of the
first settlers in Tippecanoe County. PETER WOLF was compelled to earn his own living from
early boyhood. For seven years he was employed in a gristmill at the modest wage of three
dollars a month and he worked in the harvest field with a reap hook for thirty-seven and a
half cents a day. There were no schools here then and he was not given the opportunity to
secure much of an education. He was industrious and energetic and his determination to
succeed bore fruit, so that eventually he found himself in fairly comfortable
circumstance!
s. It is said he was the first man to sell fresh meat in Lafayette. He worked in a
slaughterhouse, but frequently sold meat on his own account. He bought veal at one dollar
a pound and a half a head and made good money in the retailing of the meat. He paid
eleven and a half-dollars for the first cow and calf sold in Lafayette, which was
considered a fair price, as cows generally sold for seven to nine dollars. Eventually MR.
WOLF turned his attention to farming, to which he applied himself for a while during the
summers. He killed much wild game and the subject now has in his possession a rifle
eighty-five years old which his father used on his hunting excursions. The subject also
owns a pair of hames made by his father. MR. WOLF cleared four acres of land, for which
he received a yoke of calves, made rails for three and a half dollars a thousand and cut
cordwood for twenty-five cent a cord, cutting more than one thousand cords. There is thus
gained some idea of the!
conditions which confronted this worthy pioneer in his efforts to get ahead financially.
SUSANA (POWELL) WOLF was born in 1825 and her death occurred in 1871, after a painful
illness of fifteen years duration. Her parents were of English birth and she was but a
child when the family came to Tippecanoe County. PETER WOLF died in 1896. During his
last years he had been in sore straits financially, because of the long and painful
illness of his wife, which called for constant financial expense, and, in addition, his
son PHILIP had a sunstroke, which resulted in total blindness, and in the effort to
restore sight to the afflicted man much money was spent. The marriage of PETER and SUSANA
WOLF took place in 1847, and they became the parents of ten children, namely: JOSEPH, the
subject of this sketch; PHILIP, deceased; one unnamed that died in infancy; JOHN, of
Shelby Township, this county; GEORGE, of Wabash Township; ANNA, who married a MR. JARRELL
and lives in Shelby Township; on that died in infancy unnamed; CHARLES, of Washington
Township; MINNIE, married a MR!
. BRINGHAM and lives in Washington state; ELLEN married a MR. HEFFNER and lives in
Lafayette.
JOSEPH WOLF remained under the parental roof until after he had attained his majority,
when he started out for himself. He had attended a few short terms in the subscription
schools of the day, but his school education was limited. Being the eldest of the
children, he was compelled most of the time to remain at home and assist in the arduous
work of clearing the land and putting it in cultivation. His first independent start was
as a farm hand, for which he received modest wages. Fifty cents in cash was the sum total
of his capital when he left home. He was a faithful and steady worker and was exceedingly
frugal of his means, so that as the months went by his cash capital gradually increased.
Eventually he was enabled to buy a tract of land in section 16, Shelby Township, for which
he paid twenty dollars per acre. When he secured the land, it was practically all in
timber. This he cleared off, and tiled and ditched the land, so that it at length became
one of the be!
st and most productive tracts of land in that locality. The property is in a fine state
of improvement and every detail of the work is under MR. WOLF's personal supervision.
Among other improvements, it may be noted that he has on the place twenty-six swinging
gates and one hundred and sixty-five rods of ten-inch tile. The outbuildings are all well
cared for and in all respects the place is one that its owner may well feel a pride in.
When JOSEPH WOLF was twenty-two years old he was married to EMMA DUMAS, who was a year and
four months his junior in age. They kept house for the subject's father for about two
years, when they moved to their own property. They became the parents of two children.
One child died in infancy and the survivor is ADA MAY, who married WILLARD LAKE; they live
at Octagon, Indiana. On the 6th of December, 1876, MR. WOLF married LUCINDA ELLEN TULL,
who was born in Tippecanoe County in 1852, the daughter of WILLIAM TULL. The children
born to this union are as follows: GEORGE E., who married SADIE SCHWIGLER and resides in
Wabash Township, they being the parents of one child; MINNIE is the wife of AUGUST BRAMER,
of Wabash Township, and they have three children; PETER A. married JOSIE MAY WIDIMER
(should be Widmer?), lives in Shelby Township, and they have one child; EFFIE IOMA, who
married GEORGE WETTSCHERECK, of Wabash Township, is the mother of two children; WILLIAM
J., at home; C!
HARLES GROVER, at home; RAYMOND, at home; LUINDA, deceased.
In politics, the subject is a Democrat and has served as supervisor of his township,
though he is not in any sense an office seeker. He and his wife are members of the United
Brethren church in Wabash Township, in which MR. WOLF takes a very active part. Through
the efforts of MR. WOLF mostly, this church was built, and at the time the work was
projected there was but five dollars in the treasury, but he pushed the project through to
successful outcome. He has always been a liberal supporter of the church and, though not
an educated man, he is a close reader and a deep thinker and is generally considered a
well-informed man. He is public-spirited and took a prominent part in securing the
construction of many of the gravel roads of the community, donating himself a half-mile of
road.
When MR. WOLF started out for himself he had nothing but a team and wagon, and a cow and
calf, and the death of his first wife left him heavily in debt, but he has paid off every
dollar of encumbrance and is now considered a well-to-do man, this situation being gained
only through his own efforts. He is a man of many fine personal qualities of character and
enjoys the warm regard of all who know him.