Adam Edinger, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Adam Edinger
ADAM EDINGER. The industry and economy of the German-Americans have everywhere developed latent resources of soil and raw material and often actually made the desert blossom. Comfortable homes have followed in their path, and their children have been reared to lives of usefulness and good citizenship. In Porter county the citizens of this class have been important factors in creating the modern prosperity, and one of the foremost to be mentioned in this number is Mr. Adam Edinger, whose residence in the county began more than half a century ago.
He is a native of Rheinpfaltz, Germany, where he was born December 25, Christmas day, 1838, being the fifth in a family of six sons and one daughter born to Michael and Eve Edinger. The three still living are: Michael, who for six years served in the German army and has spent the rest of his active career in agriculture in his native land, having a family and comfortable home there; Adam; and Frank, also a resident of Germany, who is married and is proprietor of a large blacksmithing establishment. Michael Edinger, the father, who died when Adam was seven years old, spent his life in the Rheinpfaltz and was a substantial farmer. He was a member of the German Lutheran church, while his wife, who is also deceased, was a Catholic.
Up to the time he was nineteen years old, Adam Edinger was reared in his native land, and received a solid education in the German schools. In the spring of 1857, having determined to seek his fortune in the new world, he embarked on a sailing vessel at Havre, France, and after a voyage lasting fifty-nine days through wind and weather landed at New York, where all the passengers were thankful for their escape from the trials of sea and storm. A stranger in a strange land, with a dollar and a half in money and a railroad ticket to Valparaiso, he came on to Porter county to begin his new career, and on arriving had just twenty-five cents. As a wage earner he worked for seven years receiving at first fifteen dollars a month, then eighteen, and then still more, so that at the end of his term of years, having always been economical, when he settled up with his employer, his credit balance was eight hundred dollars, which was the capital with which he actually began business career in this county.
He bought his first forty acres of land in Boone township, paying all but two hundred dollars of the purchase price, and it contained a little log cabin as one of the chief improvements. He sold this land at the time of his marriage to Miss Lucretia Cornell, which occurred April 15, 1866. She was a daughter of I. C. Cornell, one of the pioneers of this county. To their marriage two children, a son and daughter, were born, namely: Alva C. and Ida. Alva C., who superintends his father's estate, was educated in the common schools and is a practical agriculturist, and one of the young men of the township held in the highest regard for his ability and integrity. He is a Democrat in politics, a member of the Knights of Pythias, and he and his wife are members of the Christian church. He married Miss Bessie Stevens, and they have two sons, Harry and Willard, both now in school. Ida Edinger is now the wife of J. W. Dysard, a farmer of LaPorte county, and they are the parents of five children: Offley, Stanley, Walter, Russell and Esther. She obtained her education in the common schools, and both she and her husband are members of the Christian church. Mr. Edinger and wife gave their children good home training as well as good school advantages.
Mrs. Adam Edinger, whose native state was Ohio, was a little girl of three years when she came with her parents in a wagon drawn by ox team to Porter county, and she was reared amid the real pioneer environment of that time. She was a member of the Presbyterian church. She was born in 1830 and passed away in 1886, she and her husband having been companions on the journey of life for twenty years. She now rests in the Cornell cemetery of Boone township.
For five years after their marriage they remained on the Cornell homestead, and then bought the one hundred and sixty acres which constitutes the present Edinger estate. They went in debt five thousand dollars for this property, and by thrifty management and industry paid it clear in five years' time, so that the home is a monument to their early labors and sacrifices. All the improvements they placed on the farm themselves. The first dwelling was a frame structure erected seventy-three years ago, all the timbers being hewn with axe, and this building is still standing. They also bought one hundred and sixty acres in Pleasant township, but afterwards sold it. Mr. Edinger during his early life in this county cut grain with the old-fashioned sickle, and one of his fingers is still lame as the result of a wound inflicted by this ancient form of grain implement. He also used the old cradle for reaping. His earliest recollections recall some of the Pottawatomie Indians that used to frequent this region, and he has seen numbers of deer and wolves. Valparaiso was then a straggling village, and the best and closest market for this vicinity was Michigan City. The Pennsylvania railroad was built two years after he located in the county.
In politics Mr. Edinger is a Democrat, but he has often voted for the man rather than the party. A devout member of the Christian church, he aided in the erection of the church building at Boone Grove, and has always done his part in the movements for the welfare and advancement of his township and community. Having witnessed all the development of this region since he came here more than half a century ago, he is one of the worthy old-time citizens whose careers of honesty and industry make up the most interesting and valuable records of local history.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. 881 p.
Page(s) in Source: 455-459
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