Jay County Indiana Biographies
Adam ZEIGLER, one of Greene township's best known and
most substantial farmers and landowners and proprietor of an admirable
farm plant on rural mail route No. I out of Portland, is a native son of
Jay county, a member of one of the real pioneer families of tills county,
and has lived here all his life. Mr. ZEIGLER was born on a farm in Knox
township on July 3, 1858, and is a son of Adam and Mary M. (FOSS) ZEIGLER,
who had settled m that township twenty years before that date, the second
white family to locate in that. township, the pioneer John BROOKS and
family being the only whites in the township at the time the ZEIGLER's
came. The elder Adam ZEIGLER was a Pennsylvanian, born in York county,
Pennsylvania, October 22, 1809, a son of John and Matilda (THARPE)
ZEIGLER, natives of that same county, of Pennsylvania Colonial stock, the
former a son of Sharpe ZEIGLER, who also was born in Pennsylvania. John
ZEIGLER, who was a hotel keeper, died when his son Adam was ten years of
age and his widow moved with her family to Adams county, Pennsylvania,
where presently young Adam was apprenticed to a hatter. He completed his
apprenticeship and for some years followed the vocation of hatter. When
twenty-three years of age he married Mary M. FOSS, who was born in Adams
county, Pennsylvania, daughter of Jacob FOSS, of Hampton, that county, and
two or three years later, in. 1836, moved to Ohio, making the trip in a
one-horse wagon. His destination was Carlisle, in Clark county, and when
he arrived there he had but $1. Mr. ZEIGLER found employment at Carlisle
and remained there two years, acquiring- a sufficient fund to enable him
to make an entry of some land over here in Indiana where new lands then
were beginning to attract the attention of many prospective settlers in
that part of Ohio. It was in 1838 that Adam ZEIGLER came with his family
to Indiana, driving through with a two-horse wagon. He entered a quarter
section in section 24 of Knox township and thus became the second
permanent settler in that township. The task of making a farm out of the
densely wooded tract was no small one, but he got the job done in time and
later increased his holdings to as much as 500 acres, but by divisions cut
these holdings down to 183 acres, a part of this being in Greene township,
at the same time finding time to do well his part in the general
development of the community in which he had settled. On that farm the
elder Adam ZEIGLER spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in
1893. An older chronicle says of Adam ZEIGLER, the pioneer, that he was
one of the first stock dealers in his part of the county, and often drove
stock to the Cincinnati, markets. He has assisted in building roads,
bridges, school houses and churches, and every enterprise calculated to
improve his township or county has had his assistance and encouragement."
To Adam and Mary M. (FOSS) ZEIGLER were born twelve children, of whom but
four are now living, the subject of this sketch the last born having three
brothers, John, William and Rudolph ZEIGLER, the other members of this
family having been Abigail, Abner, Templeton, Elizabeth, Roland, Ellen,
LaFollette and one who died in infancy. The younger Adam ZEIGLER grew up
on the home farm in Knox township and his schooling was received in the
neighborhood schools. When sixteen years of age he began working "on his
own" and was so occupied until his father presently gave him 'a ''forty"
which he began to develop and on which he established his home after his
marriage at the age of twenty-five. Since taking- possession of that place
Mr. ZEIGLER has improved it and has added to his holdings until now he
owns 168 acres in Knox and Greene townships, his home being situated in
the latter township. In addition to his general farming Mr. ZEIGLER has
long given considerable attention to the raising of live stock and has
done well. He is a Democrat and has ever given a good citizen's attention
to local political affairs, but has not been 'a seeker after public
office. In August, 1881, Adam ZEIGLER was united in marriage to Julia C.
DEEDS, who also was horn in this county, and to this union five children
have been born, namely: Lula Pearl, who married Charles HOAGLAND, of this
county, and has one child, a daughter, Mary H.; Alonzo E., who also
continues to make his home m this county and who married Edith CRISSLER
and has one child, Mabel G.; Abbie, who married Claude SLICK, now residing
at Portland; Bertha H., who married Earl DANIELS, of this county, and Ora
A., who is unmarried and is living on the old home place. Mrs. ZEIGLER
also is a member of one of the pioneer families of Jay county, her
parents) Christian and Christena (MOOTS) DEEDS, having come over here from
Ohio in the spring of 1856 and settled in Greene township, at the point
now occupied by the village of Blaine. Christian DEEDS developed a good
piece of property and was one of the influential men in his neighborhood.
He later moved to Greene township, near where Mr. ZEIGLER lives, and on
that farm he spent his last days, his death occurring in the fall of 1893,
he then being eighty-three years of age. He was an European by birth, a
native of the kingdom of Wurtemburg, but upon attaining his majority came
to this country and presently located in Preble county, Ohio, where he
married Christena MOOTS, a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (MICHAELS)
MOOTS. She preceded him to the grave more than ten years, her death having
occurred in the spring of 1883, she then having been sixty years of age.
They were the parents of nine children, of whom Mrs. ZEIGLER was the last
born

