Source: NMHS Newsletter, May 1992

Noah Lindsey-Early Wabash County Pioneer  
By Michael R. Hayes

This article was compiled from the Wabash County History and the Reminiscences of Harry Leffel.  The interview was apparently held in 1892.

Noah Lindsey, born in Franklin County, Virginia on September 27, 1814, came with his parents to Preble County, Ohio in 1815.  He came to Chester Township in 1839 and located on 80 acres, later the farm of the late Daniel Garber, southeast of North Manchester, and after ten years, located in Pleasant Township, again in the woods.  In the late years of his life he said that the double log house was the only building in Laketon.  A man named Johnson and his partner named Burr, kept store in one room and two families lived in the other.

Noah said that on his way to the township in 1839, he stayed in Wabash.  Court was in session in a one-story frame house near where the marble shop on Canal Street now stands (1892).  Judges Jackson, Keller and another man were on the benches at the time.  He said there was a striking difference between that courthouse and the present one.  There was but one brick building in Wabash and it was all woods north of the public square.  There were but two houses on the trail between Wabash and Laketon.  The road was known as the Mail Trace Road and had been surveyed and the trees blazed before he came to the country.  He chopped out the road from Liberty Mills to the Lagro Township line.

Noah said that Michigan City was the nearest market place for wheat and the only place where salt could be bought by the barrel.  Two of his neighbors and he with wagon loads of about 25 bushels of wheat each, were eight days making the trip.

Eli Harter lived in the cabin on the farm now occupied by Joe Crill.  (The site of the West Manchester Church) and the farm west of the Laketon Road all were in this farm, the building being on the Laketon Road on the southwest side of the creek and on the northerly side of the road where it angles southwest.  The only house between Laketon and Manchester belonged to Eli Harter. 

“John Ogan built the cracker near North Manchester.  The stone was a large grindstone which cost him $18.00.  After Mr. Harter commenced grinding wheat and corn at his mill where Straus/Gingericks mill now stands, Ogan went out of the milling business and rigged up the grindstone to run by water power as an accommodation to himself and neighbors.”  Noah said he later got possession of the stone and preserved it as a relic.

Noah Lindsey married Deborah Fannin on June 5, 1842.  She was a daughter of Bryant and Rachel Fannin, also early pioneers.  Noah and Deborah had 11 children.  William H. ---May 16, 1850-March 31, 1873, Mary E. ---Dec. 7, 1854 to Feb. 15, 1877, and Joanna ---Oct. 6, 1868 to Oct. 21, 1878, are buried at Laketon Cemetery in the old section, with their parents.  Other known children were Rachel, born in 1847, Edward born in 1853, Martha, born in 1857 and David L., born in 1859 or 1860.  The other four children are unknown.

Noah Lindsey was a member of the United Brethren Church and lived a Christian life for more than 50 years.  He died July 28, 1893 at age 78 years, 10 months and 1 day.  The funeral took place at Ijamsville church before a large congregation, conducted by Rev. Mattox of Laketon.  Deborah, his wife, died Nov. 23, 1893