From: methomas(a)parlorcity.com
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Kizer, Keyser, Coner, Comer, Rinaker, Runyon, Burgess,
Dickerson, Dickason
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Ui.2ADI/2492
Message Board Post:
Biographical sketch extracted from:
Biographical Memoirs of Wells Counties, Indiana. Logansport: B.F. Bowen,
1903. 1887. pp. 285-286.
A native of Champaign county, Ohio, Martin Kizer was born April 24, 1841,
a son of Martin Kizer, who was born in the same county December 19, 1819,
and on the same farm. Martin Kizer, Sr., was a son of Joseph and
Catherine (Coner) Kizer, who were natives of Virginia. Joseph Kizer
settled with his family in Champaign county, Ohio, in 1813, and there
passed the remainder of life, having had born to them eight children,
namely: Peter, Philip, Daniel, Benjamin, Charles, Polly, Cornelius and
Martin, all now deceased.
Martin Kizer, Sr., grew to manhood in Champaign county, Ohio, and there
married Mary A. Rinaker, who was born June 4, 1820, in Page county,
Virginia. She was a daughter of Abraham and Mary Rinaker, also natives of
the Old dominion, and after his marriage Martin Kizer, Sr., and his wife
lived in the old homestead until the fall of 1851, when they removed to
Adams county, where Martin, Sr., bought two hundred and two acres in the
woods at two dollars and a half per acre, put up a cabin eighteen by
twenty feet and cleared up four acres, hiring Robert Simminson to do the
clearing. By the end of the first year seven acres had been cleared, and
from that time on six or eight acres were cleared per year until
sixty-five acres were placed under cultivation. On this farm Martin Kizer
died November 6, 1878, while Mary A. is yet living, aged eighty-two years
old, at Beuna Vista, with her daughter, Mrs. Rosanna Christman. To
Martin, Sr., and wife were born five children, viz: Mart!
in, whose name opens this record; Catherine, deceased wife of Joseph
Runyon; Philip, deceased; Rosanna, wife of William Christman, and Emanuel.
Martin Kizer, at the age of ten years, came with his parents to
Indiana. They located in Adams county, where young Martin attended the
public schools until twenty-one years old, and then taught one term, but
did not like the vocation on acount of its being too confining. He
continued to live with his father until he reached his twenty-second year,
and on July 30, 1863, married Mary Ann Runyon, who was born October 7,
1840, in Champaign county, Ohio, where her parents, John and Mary Runyon,
natives of Virginia, had settled in 1842. From Champaign county the
Runyon family moved to Adams county in 1842 and lived under a beech tree
until they had an opportunity of putting up a cabin, and there the parents
died, the mother at the age of sixty-six years and the father at eighty-three.
After his marriage Martin Kizer erected a cabin on his father's farm, in
which he lived four years. The father then presented the son with a
forty-acre tract of wild land, on which the latter built a dwelling,
eighteen by twenty-two feet, and here he and wife lived until 1883. Mr.
Kizer cleared off his forty-acre tract, then sold it and bought one
hundred and twenty acres, to which he removed and on which he still
resides. The high ground on this place had been cleared, but there were
no ditches in the low ground. Since then Mr. Kizer has, however, done an
immense amount of ditching and draining and has made many other
improvements. He has seven producing oil wells on his premises, yielding
from ninety to one hundred and fifty dollars per month, and besides
carrying on general farming he breeds Chester White and Duroc hogs and
Holstein cattle.
The marriage of Martin Kizer and Mary Ann Runyon has been crowned with
five children, viz: Emma C., born August 13, 1866, is now the wife of
Andrew Burgess and has five children, Mildred, Josie, Welford, Bessie and
Marie; Thomas E., born April 4, 1869, is a teacher in Wells county and is
also attending school at Angola; Cora E., born September 3, 1871, was
married to Samuel Dickerson, but died November 29, 1899; William W., born
February 13, 1874, is still with his parents; Orlando O., born February 5,
1877, is also at the paternal home.
Mr. Kizer is a Democrat in politics and has served as trustee of Adams
township. In religion he and family are Methodists and to his church
Greenwood cemetery in Adams county was donated by Martin Kizer, Sr.
When Martin Kizer, the younger, started housekeeping he had one yearling
colt and a cow, but not swine, and he also had thirty-five dollars in
cash, but through his industry and skill he has been able to add
continuously to his possessions ever since and today stands among the most
substantial and respected farmers of his township and community.
From: methomas(a)parlorcity.com