The Hyphen Family Lineage

[Article David C. Stults, from History of Huntington County, Indiana by F. S. Bash (1914), pp814-816.]

DAVID C. STULTS. In Huntington county Mr. David C. Stults, the present efficient and honored township assessor of Clear Creek township, has maintained his residence since his childhood days, save for a period of six years passed in the state of Kansas and a brief residence in other Indiana counties. He is a worthy representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of Huntington county, where he is well known and where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances. He has led a life of signal activity in the various fields of enterprise in which he has directed his efforts, and his standing in the community is such as to render most consonant a brief review of his career as a consistent contributor to the history of the county that has long been his home, and in which he has an impregnable place in popular confidence and esteem. Further honor is his by reason of his having been a soldier in an Indiana regiment of the Civil war.

Mr. Stults claims the old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity. He was born on a pioneer farm in Stark county, Ohio, on the 13th of February, 1845, and is a son of John and Mary (Becher) Stults, who were born and reared in Pennsylvania, where their marriage was solemnized and where they continued to reside until their removal to Ohio. In the latter state they maintained their home in Stark county until 1848, when they came to Huntington county, Indiana, and settled on a partially improved farm in the northeast corner of Warren township. John Stults reclaimed much of his land to cultivation and became one of the representative agriculturists of Warren township, where he continued to reside on his old homestead for many years, his death having occurred in 1881 and his devoted wife having survived him by several years. Of the seven children only two are now living-David C., of this review, and Amanda J., who is the widow of Jacob D. Howenstine.

David C. Stults was a child of three years old at the time the family removed from Ohio to Huntington county, and he continued to reside on the old homestead farm until he had attained the age of fourteen years. His early educational advantages were limited to a somewhat desultory attendance in the primitive common schools of the locality and period, but he has not failed to profit duly from the lessons since learned in the stern school of experience, so that he has become a man of broad views and mature judgment. At the age of fourteen years Mr. Stults initiated his semi-independent career, by obtaining employment in a sawmill. He familiarized himself with the practical details of this line of industry and in a later period operated a sawmill on his own responsibility. At the age of twenty-four years Mr. Stults wedded Miss Henrietta Eva Minnich, their union having been solemnized on the 31st of May, 1869, and soon after this important event in his career Mr. Stults established his residence in the village of Roanoke, Huntington county, where he became associated with his father-in-law, Michael Minnich, in the conducting of a gristmill. He was thus engaged for a period of three years and he then removed to Whitley county, this state, where he operated a sawmill for a number of years, his connection with this line of industrial enterprise having covered a total of about fourteen years, and his operations having been attended with substantial success. After his retirement from the sawmill business Mr. Stults devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits in Huntington county until 1885, when he removed with his family to Kansas, where he was engaged in farming and working at the carpenter's trade during a term of six years. He then returned to his old home county and located at Goblesville, where he has since maintained his residence and where his attractive homestead is a comfortable dwelling, the property including an acre of ground and being owned by him. Mr. Stults has distinctive mechanical skill and ability and after his return to this county he was employed for several years as head sawyer in the sawmill operated by John Goble, at Goblesville.

Mr. Stults was but sixteen years of age at the time when the Civil war was precipitated on the nation, and in 1864, at the age of nineteen years, he was able to give decisive evidence of his patriotism, as he then enlisted as a private in Company I, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which command he proceeded to the front and with which he served six months, at the expiration of which he received his honorable discharge, the war having closed with victory for the cause in which he had tendered his services. He perpetuates the more gracious memories and associations of his military career by his affiliation with J. F. Miller Post, No. 399, Grand Army of the Republic, at Leoti, Kansas, in which organization he has held various official preferments. He was likewise affiliated with the Leoti lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he served as noble grand in 1887, and is a member of the adjunct organization, the Daughters of Rebekah, with which his wife is also affiliated. In later years the membership of Mr. Stults has been with La Fontaine Lodge, I. O. O. F., Huntington, Indiana, also the Encampment branch of the order.

In politics Mr. Stults has been found arrayed as a stanch supporter of the basic principles of the republican party, and he now designates himself a progressive republican, as he keeps himself fortified in the questions and issues of the day and never lacks the courage of his convictions. He served a number of terms in the office of justice of the peace of Clear Creek township, and has been township assessor since 1911, his administration having been marked by utmost fidelity and efficiency.

Mrs. Stults has proved a devoted companion and helpmeet to her husband, and their home is known for its ideal relations and generous hospitality. Mrs. Stults likewise is a native of Ohio, but was a child at the time of her parents' removal to Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Stults have four children, concerning whom brief record is here given: Emmett D. is engaged in the transfer business at Hoisington, Kansas; Charles H., who maintains his home in Huntington, Indiana, is a locomotive engineer by vocation and is employed as such by the Erie Railroad Company; Bessie D., who likewise resides in Huntington, is the widow of William Karnes; and Ora J. is also a resident of the city of Huntington.