Source: T.B. Helm, History of Wabash County (1884), p. 455

SAMUEL BUSSARD

Samuel Bussard was born in February, 1812, in Frederick County, Md.; moved to Ohio in 1831, and to Wabash County, Ind., in September, 1837, having entered 320 acres of land in October, 1836, on a small creek in the northern part of what is now Pleasant Township, settling on the banks of the creek; and on that agreeable, delightful spot has been his happy home from that day to this, lo! these forty and six years. His marriage took place in Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1834, the name of the woman of his early choice being Mary Lindermuth. His first wife died and he married again, in 1857, his second companion being Ann Knoop, a sketch of whose family is given further on.

Mr. B.'s family has not been large, since he has had only four children, three of whom are living. One daughter is the worthy and beloved wife of Henry L. Groninger, and one son has built a large and elegant brick house on the north bank of the creek, opposite his father's dwelling.

Mr. B. has known much of the hardships and privations of frontier life, too much to recount in this brief sketch of his pioneer days. During the first years of his residence in Wabash County, he went to mill sometimes at Goshen, Elkhart County, and he has bought salt at $16 a barrel, having paid also 16 cents a pound for nails at Liberty Mills. In going these trips to mill or to market, two or three teams would go in company, to help cut out the road or to assist one another through the mud. At one time Mr. Herindean's family had no bread from July to September. They lived on pumpkins and potatoes, and the latter part of the time, and till corn became fit to grind, they grated it on a piece of old tin pan with holes punched in it.

Mr. B. is a Lutheran in religion, and a Democrat in political faith; a gentleman of business activity, of honor and integrity, owning a large farm and managing his affairs with high and distinguished success.

Ann (Knoop) Bussard, second wife of Samuel Bussard, is the daughter of Michael and Nancy (Sheets) Knoop. The father was born in Ohio near Cincinnati in 1797, and the mother in Pennsylvania, also in 1797. Mrs. Knoop's father moved to Tennessee, and in 1811, to Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Knoop were married in 1819, and they moved to Darke County in 1832, and to Wabash County, Ind. (Wabash Town) in 1834, and to their land in Chester Township in February, 1835. Mr. K. had eleven children, raising ten of them, as follows:

George resides in Kansas, single, a traveler; Isaac had four children, died in 1853; Elizabeth, died at two months; Olive resides above Liberty Mills, Ind., has no children, husband a farmer; Ann (Bussard), Pleasant Township, no children, husband a farmer; Benjamin lives in Chester Township, four children, farmer; Andrew, home in Kosciusko County, Ind., four children, is a farmer; Martha resides in Whitley County, Ind., has eight children, husband a farmer; Sarah has her home in Kansas, is the mother of ten children, and her husband is a farmer; Lydia resides in Huntington County, Ind., has had eight children, husband a farmer; Jan, Huntington County, Ind., four children, and she, too, is the wife of a farmer. Mrs. B. was married in 1857, as already stated. Her father died in 1869, aged seventy-two years, and his widow is still alive, hearty and strong at the age of eighty-six, able to read common print without the aid of glasses. Her father was a Universalist, and her mother a Methodist. He was a Democrat in early life, voting for "Old Hickory." But he changed in Gen. Harrison's time, and from that day was a Whig and a Republican.

Mrs. Samuel Bussard's father, Michael Knoop, had no team and no money. He managed to raise a little corn the first year by hoeing among the trees. He did have a horse to mark it out with, but it died and the crop was worked entirely with a hoe. The patch had just been cleared and not much could be done in it in any way. Mr. Knoop had a hog. One day a bear caught it and was hugging it bear-fashion and gnawing away at the hog's back bone, while the poor creature was squealing for dear life. Mr. Knoop shot the bear and then knocked it on the head. The beast was very large, but poor in flesh. The time of the year was in the month of November.