Abraham L. Klingler
 

"The Song of the Forge" has ever been pleasant to the ears of Abraham L. Klingler, a skillful and popular blacksmith of the village of Terhune, Marion township, Boone county, whose well-equipped shop draws hundreds of patrons from remote parts of the locality, for here they know that they will receive prompt and careful attention. A criterion of his high-grade work is shown from the fact that many of his customers have patronized him for a number of years, refusing to have any other to do their blacksmithing. It is as much of an art to shoe a horse properly as it is to fill a tooth scientifically or adjust a pair of spectacles to failing eyes, and it takes close observation and long practice to become an expert farrier. Those personally acquainted with Mr. Klingler may note a similarity in Longfellow's "village smithy, a man with large and sinewy arms as strong as iron bands," not so much perhaps, from a physical resemblance and certainly not that he "stands under a spreading chestnut tree," for Mr. Klingler has one of the most up-to-date shops to be found in the county, but at least from a standpoint of honesty, for "he looks the whole world in the face, and goes on Sunday to the church." Mr. Klingler was born in Union township, Boone county, January 9, 1862. He is a son of Francis and Mary (Mullen) Klingler, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of North Carolina. Both grandparents of our subject were early settlers in Boone county, and here the parents of the subject were early settlers in Boone county, and here the parents of the subject were married and settled on a farm in Union township. Fourteen children were born to them, six of whom are living at this writing, namely: Sarah is the wife of Jacob Dye, of Nebraska; John lives at Gadsden, Indiana; William N. lives in Union township; George and Morton both live in Union township; Abraham L. lives in Marion township. Abraham L. Klingler was reared on the home farm and educated in the rural schools. When seventeen years of age he started out for himself, and with his mother moved to Brown county, Indiana, where he remained seven months, then returned to Boone county and began working out by the day in Union township. In 1883 he took up his residence in Terhune and, with his brother, George, conducted a portable sawmill for a period of ten years; selling out he went to Kirklin and started with his brother. Two years later he returned to Terhune, took over the sawmill which his brother had conducted in the meantime, and since then he has also conducted a blacksmith shop here. His brother George went to Mississippi in 1897 and remained in that state three years, conducting a sawmill, and, coming back, he started a drug store, operating three years in Terhune. Mr. Klingler carries on a general blacksmithing business, including repairing, horseshoeing and woodwork, and is kept very busy. His work in all lines is high-class. He owns a lot and a half in the village of Terhune where his shop is located. He also owns seven and one-half acres of valuable land just east of the village, on which he has a fine residence, which is neatly furnished. He has remained unmarried. Politically, he is a Republican, but has never been active in political affairs. Fraternally, he belongs to the Improved Order of Red Men, Lodge No. 117, of Sheridan, Indiana.

Submitted by: Amy K. Davis
Source: "History of Boone County, Indiana," by Hon. L. M. Crist, 1914