Notes:
both buried Butler, IN
Data source is the 1990 book, "Moomaw-Mumma-Mumaw-Mumaugh Genealogy" compiled by Robert Austin Moomaw (deceased).
From the "Biography of Samuel A. Mumaw", pages 999/1000/1001.
History of DeKalb Co., IN;
B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.
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SAMUEL A MUMAW
Farming is becoming recognized as a profession and the future farmers of our country will be trained as carefully as are our ministers and physicians. Purdue University now gives a four-year course in agriculture, leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree. The 1913 Legislature of this state created a new official known as the county agent, whose duties are to give expert advice to farmers on all subjects
pertaining to agriculture. The short courses given at Purdue every year are being attended by increasing thousands of farmers and their sons. The tendency of all this points to a new era in farming. Farmers' institutes are being held throughout the state and have been the means of keeping the farmers abreast of the times. Agriculture is becoming a science and the most successful farmer today is the man who studies his business. Such men as these are the men who make good officials was well as good farmers, and such a farmer and official is Samuel A. Mumaw, the subject of this brief sketch.
Samuel A. Mumaw, the son of David A. and Rebecca (Helsey) Mumaw, was born in Stark county, Ohio, May 26, 1877. His parents were both natives of Shenandoah county, Virginia, where David A. Mumaw grew to manhood and married. He enlisted in the confederate army from Virginia, July 15, 1861 and remained in service until the close of the war. He belonged to Company K, Thirty-third Regiment, at the opening of the Civil war and continued in active service throughout that memorable conflict, making a brilliant record as a soldier and being mustered out at the end of nearly five years' service with a slight scalp wound. He was in the battle at Gettysburg and Winchester and many other noted battles. After the war he returned to his native state of Virginia, where he continued to reside until 1871, when he moved to Stark county, Ohio. Here he purchased land and improved it, but thinking he could improve his fortunes by going to Indiana, he came to DeKalb county, this state, in 1886 and purchased a farm in Wilmington township of forty acres. Here, at the age of seventy-nine, he is still actively engaged in agricultural pursuits, being probably the oldest farmer in active service in the county today. His wife is the same age as himself and is still in good health. Her parents were of German extraction.
To Mr. and Mrs. David A. Mumaw have been born five children, Charles, of Butler, Indiana, who has been shipping agent for the Butler Wind-mill Company for the past seventeen years; John B., a plumber of Butler; Jacob, a telephone lineman of Eaton, Ohio; Sarah, who married Oliver Keysbury and lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Samuel A., the immediate subject of this sketch. Samuel A. Mumaw was educated in the district schools of this county and continued to reside under the paternal roof until he was married at the age of twenty-two years. Upon his marriage on December 13, 1899, to Anna M. Sechler, he moved on to his mother-in-law's farm, fifty-six acres in Concord township. Mrs. Mumaw is the daughter of William and Rachel (Nelson) Sechler, her father being a native of Pennsylvania, of German stock. Mrs. Sechler was of Irish descent, her parents being pioneers of Concord township, where her father followed agricultural pursuits all his life. They were both members of the German Lutheran church. Mr. Sechler died in April, 1884, and his wife's death occurred on October 30, 1903. Mrs. Rachel Sechler first married Samuel Armstrong, and had one son by this marriage, Samuel, who married Ethel Imhoof and now lives in Concord township. Some years after the death of her first husband, Mrs. Rachel Armstrong married William Sechler, and to this union were born two children, and infant daughter, deceased, and Anna M. Sechler, the wife of the subject of this sketch. Mr. Mumaw is the owner of a fine farm in Concord township comprising fifty-six acres and carries on a general farming business. Besides raising all the crops common to this locality, he has made a specialty of raising horses and hogs and has been uniformly successful in all his business transactions. The esteem in which he is held in his community is shown by the fact that he was appointed to the office of trustee of Concord township in July, 1911. In the conduct of his official affairs in his township, Mr. Mumaw has taken a commendable interest and has won the approval of all the citizens of his township, irrespective of party affiliations. He has taken a very active interest in the question of good district schools and has made a special effort to secure the best possible teachers for the township schools. He has just completed the erection of the best school building in DeKalb county. He has also been an advocate of good roads and has succeeded in adding a few miles of improved highway to the township system each years. He and his wife are members of the Lutheran church at St. Joe and contribute liberally of their means to support the various activities of that denomination. Mr. Mumaw is also a valued member of the Knights of Pythias and take an active interest in the fraternal affairs of that body. In all of his business dealings Mr. Mumaw has so conducted himself that he has won the confidence and approval of all of the good citizens of his community, not only in his business relations, but in every effort to elevate the moral, intellectual or social standard of his locality.
Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com