The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
Born 18 January 1848
The tie, exactly: native son of the county and a Harris Township farmer from 1870 — Jacob and Hannah (Graham) Shimp's son, whose farm, "the Burr Oaks," Chapman already lists in 1880 at sixty acres on Section 11, valued at sixty-five dollars an acre.
The course: his standing work was the St. Joseph County Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company, which he served as a director for eight years and then as president — a farmer-run institution of exactly this ground's economy, and the reason a township farmer carries a full sketch in a county history. His township and county service (assessor nine years, trustee two terms, jury commissioner sixteen years, and a Democratic candidacy for county commissioner) stands in the Government leg. His marriage carries one of this section's small printed conflicts: Howard gives his marriage to Sarah J. Longley as 16 March 1869, at her parents' residence in Greene Township; Chapman gives 16 March 1870, and adds that Sarah was born 15 April 1849 in Elkhart County. Both dates stand.
Sources:
- Howard (1907), vol. 2, biographical sketches — the John M. Shimp sketch.
- Chapman (1880), Harris Township chapter — the Burr Oaks, Section 11, and the 1870 marriage date.