Biography of Edwin Erwin, pages 847/848.  History of DeKalb County, 
Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



Edwin Erwin



	Edwin Erwin, one of the substantial farmers and progressive 
citizens of Smithfield township. DeKalb county, Indiana, was born on 
November 8, 1838, in Stark county, Ohio. Later he moved to Henry 
county, that state, and from thence came to DeKalb county, Indiana, in 
1853, in company with his parents, who bought eighty acres of land near 
Waterloo, this county.  Not an inch of this land had been cleared, the 
only improvements being a log house and barn, and here they lived about 
three years, when the father traded the farm for a store in Uniontown, 
Indiana.  He operated this store successfully for three years and then 
traded it for a farm of sixty acres north of Waterloo. Edwin Erwin 
worked on different farms in this county, and eventually bought the 
farm of sixty acres from his father, William Erwin, and kept the same 
for two years, finally selling it to Jacob Shuman.  He then bought 
forty-seven acres of land in section 16, Smithfield township, to which 
he some time later added forty acres more. The original forty-seven 
acres was largely covered with timber, which he cleared from the land 
and then erected a number of good, permanent farm buildings.  He moved 
on to this farm in 1883, and about three years later moved to the forty 
acres adjoining, on which he now lives an which he has successfully 
cultivated, it being now considered on of the choice farms of 
Smithfield township.

	In 1868 Mr. Erwin married Elizabeth McEntarffer, who was born on 
October 30, 1844, in DeKalb county, the daughter of Michael and Anna 
Mary (Hamman) McEntarffer, who emigrated for Stark county, Ohio.  She 
has spent her life on the farm, assisting in the improvements and 
upbuilding of the same. They have become the parents of seven children: 
Lotties; Allison, deceased; Arthur, Mina, Maude, Thomas and Byrd.  Of 
these Lottie is married; Arthur is married and farms the home place, 
which the subject has rented to him; he is the father of two children, 
Charles and Minnie; Allison died at the age of nine years; Mina became 
the wife of Ira Bachtel, a farmer near Waterloo, and is the mother of 
two children, Rhea and Mildred; Maude became the wife of Lewis Ritter, 
a farmer in Steuben county, this state, and they have two children, 
Marcelus and Irene; Thomas lives at home with his parents and is 
unmarried; Bertie became the wife of Garry Ritter, of Montpelier, Ohio, 
and they have two children, Gerald and Velma.

	Politically the subject of this sketch has during the major part 
of his life been an adherent  of the Republican party, but is now 
independent in politics, especially in local affairs. He served as   a 
member of the advisory board of the township for eight years, and is 
still influential in local affairs. Religiously, he is not a member of 

any church, though he gives his support to every moral question before 
the people.  Socially, he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic 
post at Waterloo, this membership being particularly consonant from the 
fact that in September, 1861, he enlisted as a member of the Second 
Regiment Indiana Cavalry at old Camp Morton, Indianapolis, Indiana, 
under Colonel Bridgeland.  His regiment went out as an independent 
command, furnishing its own horses and guns, but later an order was 
issued that no independent regiments were allowed by the government, 
and the horses and guns were sold to the government and the men went 
out as a volunteer regiment.  Mr. Erwin served over three years, and 
was mustered out in October, 1864, at Indianapolis.  He saw much active 
service, taking part in a number of the most important battles of that 
war, and attained to a high place in the esteem of his fellow comrades 
because of his faithfulness and courage in battle.  Quiet and 
unassuming in his disposition, Mr. Erwin is well liked by his neighbors 
and exerts a beneficent influence on everything with which he is 
connected.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@cltnet.com