Austin E. Upp, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Austin E. Upp
AUSTIN E. UPP. Among the citizens whose lives and services are now at the highest point of usefulness in community and county, and who have labored as efficiently in the development of their locality within recent years as the pioneers of an earlier generation labored during their era, should be mentioned Mr. Austin E. Upp, of Porter township, one of the most highly esteemed citizens of that portion of Porter county.
Mr. Upp, who is of German lineage, is a native of Knox County, Illinois, where he was born on a farm November 20, 1867. He was the second of eight children, five sons and three daughters, whose parents were William C. and Emily (Sherman) Upp. All the rest of the six children now living are residents of Knox county and substantial farming people of that rich agricultural district of Illinois. William C. Upp, the father, was born in Highland county, Ohio, in 1839, and his death occurred in 1910, his entire career having been devoted to farming. Reared in his native county and educated in the common schools, he then moved to Knox county, Illinois, where he was married and made the beginning of a very prosperous career. When he made his first purchase of eighty acres he went in debt for part of it, but his industry and management were so effective in succeeding years that he acquired an estate of two hundred and fifty acres in Knox county. His children were reared to principles of industry and good citizenship, and became in turn worthy of the responsibilities of life. The father was a Republican in politics, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. He and his wife were members of the United Brethren church. Mrs. Upp, the mother, who is still living in Knox county, was born in Illinois, June 30, 1843.
Austin E. Upp was reared on a far, and has given all his active career to his work, and is a practical and successful farmer and stockman. His early education was obtained in the common schools and one year in the grammar school, after which he remained at home until he was twenty-four years of age. Then, on October 29, 1891, he married Miss Orpha M. Speaks. Their only child, a daughter, is Miss Mildred E., who has received the best advantages of home and education that her parents could provide. A bright young lady, she received her diploma from the common schools in 1909, having taken three years' work in two, and will graduate with the class of 1912 from the Boone Grove high school.
Mrs. Upp, who has been a loyal and energetic worker in the mutual prosperity of herself and husband, was born in Knox county, Illinois, April 24, 1870, a daughter of James B. and Malinda M. (Webb) Speaks. Of the nine children, four sons and five daughters, four are now living, and the others are residents of Illinois. Father Speaks, whose death occurred in July, 1911, was born in Warren county, Indiana, in 1839, and was reared near the historical battleground of Tippecanoe. To a large degree he was self-educated, a man of much ability and intelligence, and for many years was a minister of the United Brethren church. He was a soldier of the Civil war, serving for two years as a member of the Eighty-third Illinois Infantry, and was wounded at Fort Donelson. Later he was an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic. His wife, who was a native of Indiana, but of southern family, her father having been a native of Maryland, was a kind and affectionate mother, and the memory of both herself and her husband will always live fresh in the minds of their children.
When Mr. and Mrs. Upp began life together they possessed altogether not more than five hundred dollars, which he had accumulated by his previous labors. For four years they farmed as renters in Illinois, and then moving to Porter county continued in the same way on a farm in Porter township. Their prosperity has therefore been built up from the very foundation by their own energy. In 1904 they went in debt to purchase one hundred and five acres constituting their present homestead, and since then they have been steadily getting ahead and increasing their material possessions until they rank among the prosperous families of the community. Fine stock has always been a hobby with Mr. Upp, and on his place he keeps a pure strain of short-horn cattle. His farm is well adapted to the cereals and to fruit and potatoes.
Since casting his first vote for Benjamin Harrison, Mr. Upp has been a consistent supporter of the Republican party, and has several times been a delegate to the county conventions. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge, No. 52, at Hebron, the Hebron Tent of the Knights of the Maccabees, and the Camp No. 8750 of the Modern Woodmen of America at Boone Grove, having served as clerk and as counsel for the camp. He and his wife are both members of the United Brethren church. They are citizens who have deserved by their solid worth and successful enterprise the high esteem in which they are held in their community and township, and their home is a center for the ideals and high principles which tend to the elevation of American life.
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: 481-482
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