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The People Long-Tail — North Liberty
The People file registers the town's lives at profile strength. this section sweeps what stands behind them: the second rank the same records name once — a trustee here, a mill hand there, a name in a church founding or a store succession — entered at exactly the strength the carrier gives it, no more. Where an entry's profile lives in another file of this build, the entry is a pointer and says so. The register below carries eighty-six numbered entries and the shortfall lines that belong with them; the completeness article at the end lists the names and sources tested and deliberately not entered, with the reason for each.
Rev. Orlando R. Beebe
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Methodist minister; licensed as a local preacher by the Hebron Quarterly Conference 11 May 1872; in 1880 the serving pastor of the North Liberty Methodist circuit (Chapman sketch + Polk 1880–81 agreeing). Chapman pp. 723–724.
V. S. Bulla
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Liberty Township sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
Alex. S. Campbell, M.D.
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
physician at North Liberty from 1871. Chapman, biographies.
Isaac R. Cole
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Methodist class-leader in the town church's founding generation; of the Cole Brothers milling family line (see B5). Chapman pp. 720–723 & biographies.
Ort Cook
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; his father Rev. Elias Cook, an M.E. minister, came to the township in 1847 (entered with the son's sketch). Chapman, biographies.
Isaac Early
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
Martin Finch
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
Geo. R. Flood
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
harness-maker, at North Liberty from 1876. Chapman, biographies.
Jacob Geiger
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
Henry Geyer
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
John Hawblitzel
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
Russel Hoag
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
(d. before 1880, "since deceased" in Chapman's church passage) — a founder-donor of the Seventh-Day Advent Church built 1868, and sketch subject. Chapman p. 720 & biographies.
C. D. Houser
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
of Houser Brothers (general store, 1875) and the North Liberty Manufacturing Company line (B5). Chapman, biographies.
Daniel W. Houser
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
the other Houser Brother; same carrying fact. Chapman, biographies.
William Inman
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
Levi J. Knepp
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
of Houser & Knepp, buyers of the Cole Brothers' manufacturing interest in 1875. Chapman, biographies & p. 720.
Elijah T. Lee
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
blacksmith, at North Liberty from 1865. Chapman, biographies.
John A. Long
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
(d. 27 June 1874) — a member of the German Baptist Church for fifteen years; his death date is the earliest dated death the sketches print. Chapman, biographies.
Norman S. Miller
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
merchant (dry goods, 1865); Justice of the Peace, Township Trustee, and Postmaster appointed by President Lincoln — the township's most-officeholding sketch subject. Chapman pp. 719–720 & biographies.
Gottlieb Prell
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject (his sketch's tail was read); dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies (Part 72).
A. H. Price
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
D. W. Reece
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Township Trustee; member with his wife of the M.E. Church. (His kinsman J. N. Reece is at B7.) Chapman, biographies.
Jacob D. Row
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
David Rupel
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; Chapman's sketch calls him "second permanent settler in Liberty tp.," moved to Liberty May 1836; in the Brethren record (Religion section) he was called to the ministry, built his house with large double doors to double as a worship house, and was ordained 1856. Chapman p. 730; Shultz (1952) via religion findings. The first-settler contradiction his sketch sits inside is printed whole at T-C6.
John N. Rupel
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; his sketch says his father John Rupel "was the first settler in Liberty tp." — against Chapman's own narrative (1833 group; John Rupel arriving Jan. 1836). Both statements stand (T-C6). Chapman p. 730.
Charles Schroeder
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
John W. Shuppert
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
school-teacher for ten years in the township. Chapman, biographies.
Adam Smick
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
Jeremiah Steel
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sawmill man; the township ran five sawmills at Chapman's writing and Steel's sketch carries the trade. Chapman, biographies.
J. A. Varier, M.D.
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
physician at North Liberty (with Campbell, two of the town's four practicing physicians of 1880 are named; the other two are not — B9). Chapman, biographies.
George Waldsmith
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; a 1991 newspaper column — and only that column — names a George Waldsmith as builder of the 1837 gristmill, against Chapman and the nomination, which name no builder. Printed as a conflict (NL-1 C11), not as his fact. Chapman, biographies; Independent-News, 14 Nov. 1991.
Geo. W. Williams
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
sketch subject; dates not extracted. Chapman, biographies.
Samuel Williams
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Methodist founder-generation member (B3) and sketch subject. Chapman pp. 720–723 & biographies.
Jonathan Witwer
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
farmer, section 9; he and his wife "are members of the Christian Church" in 1880 — Christian Church members in the township a generation before any congregation is seated there. Chapman, biographies.
John Kane
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
of the 1833 first settlements near the townsite (Chapman and Howard agreeing). Chapman p. 718; Howard p. 281.
Jacob Earhart
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
of the 1833 group. Same carriers.
John Earhart
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
of the 1833 group. Same carriers.
Isaac Townsend
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
of the 1833 group. Same carriers.
Jacob Rupel
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
arrived in the 1836 wave (after John Rupel, Jan. 1836); one of the eight settlers Chapman names as organizing the township in May 1837. Chapman p. 718.
Joseph Liggett
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
1836 wave; one of the eight organizers. Chapman p. 718.
Amos Liggett
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
named by Howard among the early settlers (not in Chapman's organizer list). Howard p. 281.
Samuel Loring
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
one of the eight organizers (Chapman); Howard names a Samuel Loring and a James Loring both among the early settlers. Chapman p. 718; Howard p. 281.
James Cole
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
one of the eight organizers; also a named founder of the Methodist church (1851). Chapman pp. 718, 720.
Daniel Ross
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
early settler named by Howard only. Howard p. 281.
Jesse Palmer
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
early settler named by Howard only. Howard p. 281.
Levi Collins
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
early settler named by Howard only. Howard p. 281.
Benjamin Collins
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
early settler named by Howard only. Howard p. 281.
Franklin Pearce
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
early settler named by Howard only. Howard p. 281.
Jacob Dukeman
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
early settler named by Howard only. Howard p. 281.
Rheinhard Cripe
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
early settler named by Howard only; the Cripe name runs on in the township's Brethren ministry (B7). Howard p. 281.
John Quigley
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
named founder of the Methodist church, 1851. Chapman p. 720.
Henry Reamer
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Methodist founder, 1851, and class-leader. Chapman p. 720.
Sumner G. Williams
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Methodist founder, 1851. Chapman p. 720.
Thos. Faulkner
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Methodist class-leader in the founding generation. Chapman p. 720.
James Harvey
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
donor to the Seventh-Day Advent Church (1868) — and the town's general-store keeper from ~1845 to 1867 (B5): the same name in both passages; Chapman prints both, and the identity is his text's, not this section's inference. Chapman pp. 719–720.
Elias Styles
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Seventh-Day Advent donor, 1868. Chapman p. 720.
Jacob Styles
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Seventh-Day Advent donor, 1868. Chapman p. 720.
Anson Worster
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Seventh-Day Advent donor, 1868. (The name echoes in Worster Lake at Potato Creek — no connection is asserted; the lake's naming is the park leg's record.) Chapman p. 720.
Adam Rupert
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Seventh-Day Advent donor, 1868. Chapman p. 720.
James P. Antrim
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
elected Justice of the Peace at the township's first election, spring 1837, held at his own house. Chapman p. 718. (As co-proprietor he is a People-leg profile subject; he is entered here in his officer capacity only, at line size.)
Norman S. Miller
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
JP, Trustee, Postmaster (B1.19). D. W. Reece — Trustee (B1.22).
Howard Ch. VIII §5 names NO township officers or trustees
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
in the text read — the section carries the 1837 formation order and the 1866 Lincoln split, and no officer roll. Printed as a tested absence; Howard Vol. 2 (biographical, unread in both passes) is the named settler for any officer line it carries (G-LT-2). No trustee list is fabricated to fill the brief's expectation. - The modern trustee line (Sue Dittmar, trustee in 2011, "Former" by 2025; the unsettled present holder, G-GV-4) is Government's record and the living gate's — no long-tail entry.
James Downey
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
built the first house in North Liberty, 1837 (four more the same year). Chapman p. 719; Howard.
E. S. Reynolds
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
kept the town's first store after Daniel Antrim's one year (succeeded 1840). Chapman p. 719.
A. P. Richardson
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
storekeeper from 1840 to ~1845. Chapman p. 719.
Hiram Bean
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
with Alonzo Hill, built the township's sawmill, 1839, near the later gristmill on Potato Creek. Chapman p. 719.
Alonzo Hill
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Bean's sawmill partner, 1839. Chapman p. 719.
Tyra W. Bray
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
St. Joseph County Surveyor; surveyed the town plat (the dedication Howard quotes). Howard, Ch. IX §2.
Dell M. Woodward
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
founded the North Liberty News 23 March 1895 and was its editor-proprietor into the 1900s (office 137 N. Main St.). Howard, Ch. IX §2; Commercial nomination. (The newspapers branch pass, NL-7, carries the press whole; entered here because the brief's sweep covers every second-rank name the record carries.) 67. The Cole Brothers (firm entry) — planing mill/manufacturing from 1866; burnt winter 1871; Cole, Ragon & Co. formed 1 Jan. 1873 built the North Liberty manufacturing establishment; Houser & Knepp bought the Cole interest 1875; the separate home manufacturing company's machinery went to Schwartz & Tischer of Walkerton (a boundary firm — Walkerton's file's). Chapman p. 720. The mill-course names McKenzie (gristmill control, 1852) and the Bowen partnership (1874) stand in the Story of North Liberty section at the strength reached there and are pointed to, not re-entered.
John Heim
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
supervised the WPA park work of the 1930s at North Liberty Park (the 2007 Park nomination's record). Park nomination (Greiff, 2005).
Alfred Heim
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
North Liberty native; interviewed 30 Oct. 2005 as the nomination's oral-history base (brother of John Heim). Park nomination.
Richard Heim
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
WPA worker who did stone work at the park; interviewed 30 Oct. 2005. Park nomination.
Frederick Karst
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
author of Potato Creek: From Pioneer Mill Stream to Gentle Lake (1980), the Park nomination's book source. (Book entered; the man's dates are not held — see Completeness.) Park nomination bibliography; ISL county list. 72. The Commercial nomination's named commercial line is institutional (the News office at 139/137 N. Main; the Community State Bank's 1960 building at 109 N. Main) — its individual owners/builders beyond Woodward (B5.66) were not extracted at name level in the passes' reads; the nomination text itself is the settler (G-LT-3). The preparers (Kurt West Garner, 2012; Glory-June Greiff, 2005) are present-day professionals — Completeness, living gate.
J. N. Reece
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
principal of the town's graded school c. 1880. Chapman p. 723.
George Sands
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
teacher in the lower department c. 1880. Chapman p. 723.
John W. Shuppert
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
ten years a township school-teacher (also B1.27; entered once, here cross-noted). Chapman, biographies.
Gary G. Nelson
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
principal of North Liberty Elementary in September 1965, when he announced the opening enrollment. (Nelson → Romer succession is gap G-SC-7; Romer is a present holder — Part A pointer only.) Independent-News, 9 Sept. 1965, snippet strength.
Rev. A. Badley / Bradley
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Methodist pastor at the first church's building, 1851. Spelling conflict C21-trio stands (Chapman "Badley" / Howard "Bradley"; transcription artifact not excluded; page images settle). Chapman p. 720; Howard p. 281.
Rev. R. H. Sanders / Saunders
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
pastor at the 1878 replacement building. Same spelling-conflict discipline. Same carriers.
Rev. Samuel T. Cooper; Rev. H. B. Ball; Rev. Nelson Green; Rev. James Green; Rev. Samuel Godfrey; Rev. J. C. Metzger (Chapman: "Metsker"); Rev. S. Lamb; Rev. C. W. Miller
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Methodist ministers named by Howard in the township's course. One line for the set; Howard names them as a succession without individual dates in the text read. Howard p. 281.
Dr. Sylvester Laning
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
layman and licensed lay reader through whom St. Philip's Episcopal Mission was founded c. 1873 under Bishop Talbot. Diocesan Archives via religion findings.
Rev. George Magill
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
(of St. Paul's, La Porte) — earlier Episcopal missionary work at North Liberty, before any building. Diocesan Archives.
Rev. Walter Scott
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
(of Bristol) — given charge of St. Philip's in 1894, with New Carlisle. Rev. Clarence Brandt — missionary at New Carlisle who did pastoral work at St. Philip's. Diocesan Archives.
Abraham Whitmer
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Brethren elder of Sumption Prairie/South Bend, organizer of Pine Creek (1854) and elder over the mother congregation ("the Whitmer Church"). Shultz (1952) via religion findings.
E. (Washington) Fenson
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Brethren minister who moved within the Pine Creek bounds in 1852; co-minister at the 1854 organization. Shultz (1952).
William Johnson; Abraham Miller; Michael Miller
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Pine Creek's first deacons, 1854. One line for the set. Shultz (1952).
The in-town Brethren elders' line, book-time (c. 1952):
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Eli Heestand, Jacob Hildebrand, Howard Dickey (one year each after 1917); J. F. Appleman (4 years); Orville Houser (5); C. C. Cripe (15); Ira Long (5); E. Wayne Gerdes (from 1950); pastors Ira Long (1944–1950) and Homer Shrock (from 1950). One line for the set — the Religion section carries the congregation whole. Shultz (1952).
Spouses and children:
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Chapman's sketches name spouses (with dates) and children who stayed, as the genre does — the NL-2 extraction read the sketches for settler value and did not extract spouse/children lines name by name. They are therefore NOT entered. G-LT-1 — settler: a sketch-level extraction from the Archive.org page images (or a full-text search of the transcription) of Chapman pp. 723–732, run name by name.
The other two physicians of 1880:
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
Chapman's town census counts four practicing physicians; the sketches name two (Campbell, Varier). The other two are unreached — settler: the same sketch-level extraction; Polk's 1880–81 directory (which the Religion section read for Beebe) is the second settler.
Dates "not extracted"
Long-tail register, at the strength cited
in B1 entries 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 15, 20, 21, 23, 26, 28, 32: the subjects are reached, their sketch dates are not — same settler as G-LT-1. No date has been guessed.
The 1875 atlas directory — not read, gap printed whole (G-AT-1)
Named gap; settler named
The Liberty Township directory in the 1875 Higgins, Belden & Co. atlas (pp. 94–95) — the only 1870s name-roll for this township beyond the two histories — was not read in any pass of this build. The Archive.org text layer for the volume's back pages does not carry the directory in the passages any pass opened; the atlas reads for the other legs used the front matter and the views. No name from pp. 94–95 is entered anywhere in this build, and none is reconstructed or inferred. NAMED GAP G-AT-1. Settler: the atlas's page images for pp. 94–95 (Archive.org / HathiTrust) read name by name — also the settler for the atlas-views page-numeral variance (conflict C67) and a partial settler for the first-decades hotel gap behind G-FR-9.
Completeness — names and sources tested and not entered, with the reason
The branch pass's negative register
A wholesale re-listing of every Chapman spouse and child was tested and not entered — it would double the register with names no source carries facts for; spouses and children enter only where a fact attaches, and the shortfall is printed as gap G-LT-1. Howard's Chapter VIII §5 biographical index names no township officers — a tested absence, printed so the officers article is not read as incomplete against Howard. The Walkerton (Lincoln Township) cluster in Howard Vol. 2 is a different township's people; the cluster's one Liberty fact is carried by the Walkerton build's files, and the names are not re-entered here. Wakarusa names with North Liberty predicates (the Harvey cluster) are cross-pointed, not entered — Wakarusa is Elkhart County ground, and duplication across builds is a defect. Levi J. Knepp enters once, in the Chapman rank; his second appearance (Houser & Knepp) is the same man, stated. Dr. Walter E. Schermerhorn, the school superintendent of the county histories' education chapters: no Liberty predicate in the record opened — pointer kept, not entered. Post-1950 living townspeople named in any fetched source stand outside this register under the living-person discipline: a name with no death record held is not entered beyond what a public record itself prints. And the men under their commanders' names (Companies E and K, Captains John B. Baird and Nicolas Badger, Col. Barnes) are commanders of companies with named Liberty men; they are not entered as townspeople.
The long-tail's conflicts, printed whole
Carried in the build's register
The sweep surfaces no new name-level conflict of its own beyond those the People file prints (C52–C61) — the Chapman-rank entries restate the People register's subjects at line strength on the same carriers, and the spelling classes (Liggett/Leggett, Early/Earley, Steel/Steele) print in both files unmerged, identically. The today file's conflicts (C70–C75) stand in North Liberty Today. What the search adds is not conflicts but the shortfall lines themselves — dates "not extracted" across a dozen Chapman entries, unnamed spouses across several — printed as gap G-LT-1 rather than smoothed: the register's second rank is exactly as deep as the carriers were read, and the depth audit will measure it.