William H. Couch, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of William H. Couch
WILLIAM H. COUCH, ticket and freight agent on Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad at Chesterton, was born August 30, 1817, in New York. He is one of six children born to Roswell and Mehitable (Fox) Couch, both natives of Massachusetts. The elder couch was a cooper by occupation. When William was eleven years old, his mother, who had been a widow for two years, went to Wellington, Ohio. He now began to learn the trade of carpenter and joiner, in Elyria, and Cleveland and Medina, under instruction, for about seven years. He then began traveling, and working at Detroit, Grand Rapids, Akron, Wellington (Ohio), and other smaller places, Delaware, in Canada, Norwalk, etc. At Norwalk, he worked for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Company for eight years, in different capacities; at the end of which time he went to Cleveland, where his family still resides. After two years, he was appointed agent at Holmesville, Ind., for four years, when he was sent to Chesterton, where he has had control ever since. There are five by the name of Couch on the road, two cousins, our subject and his two sons. In Ohio, he was Justice of the Peace, County Sheriff, City Marshal, etc. He has been a Masonry, and was Master for five years in Lorain County, Ohio. He was a Whig, Free-Soiler, Abolitionist, and is now a Republican. In his earlier days, he took an active interest in politics. He was married, in 1838, to Catherine Patch, a native of Connecticut. They have three children - Edgar, Frank L., and Mary L. Kirtland, book-keeper in a wholesale furniture store in Cleveland.
Source: Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: Historical and Biographical, Illustrated. Chicago, Illinois: F. A. Battey & Company. 771 p.
Page(s) in Source: 293-294
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook