Adam Zeigler

   Adam Zeigler, one of Greene township's best known and most substantial farmers
and landowners and proprietor of an admirable farm plant on rural mail route No. 1
out of Portland, is a native son of Jay county, a member of one of the real pioneer
families of Jay county, and has lived here all his life. Mr. Zeigler was born on a farm
in Knox township on July 3, 1858, and is a son of Adam and Mary M. (Foss) Zeigler,
who had settled m that township twenty years before that date, the second white family
to locate in that township, the pioneer John Brooks and family being the only whites
in the township at the time the Zeigler's came.

   The elder Adam Zeigler was a Pennsylvanian, born in York county, Pennsylvania,
October 22, 1809, a son of John and Matilda (Tharpe) Zeigler, natives of that same
county, of Pennsylvania Colonial stock, the former a son of Sharpe Zeigler, who also
was born in Pennsylvania. John Zeigler, who was a hotel keeper, died when his son
Adam was ten years of age and his widow moved with her family to Adams county,
Pennsylvania, where presently young Adam was apprenticed to a hatter. He completed
his apprenticeship and for some years followed the vocation of hatter.

   When twenty-three years of age he married Mary M. Foss, who was born in Adams
county, Pennsylvania, daughter of Jacob Foss, of Hampton, that county, and two or
three years later, in. 1836, moved to Ohio, making the trip in a one-horse wagon. His
destination was Carlisle, in Clark county, and when he arrived there he had but $1. Mr.
Zeigler found employment at Carlisle and remained there two years, acquiring- a
sufficient fund to enable him to make an entry of some land over here in Indiana where
new lands then were beginning to attract the attention of many prospective settlers in
that part of Ohio. It was in 1838 that Adam Zeigler came with his family to Indiana,
driving through with a two-horse wagon. He entered a quarter section in section 24 of
Knox township and thus became the second permanent settler in that township. The
task of making a farm out of the densely wooded tract was no small one, but he got the
job done in time and later increased his holdings to as much as 500 acres, but by
divisions cut these holdings down to 183 acres, a part of this being in Greene township,
at the same time finding time to do well his part in the general development of the
community in which he had settled. On that farm the elder Adam Zeigler spent the
remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1893. An older chronicle says of Adam
Zeigler, the pioneer, that he was one of the first stock dealers in his part of the
county, and often drove stock to the Cincinnati, markets. He has assisted in building
roads, bridges, school houses and churches, and every enterprise calculated to improve
his township or county has had his assistance and encouragement."

To Adam and Mary M. (Foss) Zeigler were born twelve children, of whom but four are now living,
the subject of this sketch the last born having three brothers, John, William and Rudolph
Zeigler, the other members of this family having been Abigail, Abner, Templeton,
Elizabeth, Roland, Ellen, LaFollette and one who died in infancy.

   The younger Adam Zeigler grew up on the home farm in Knox township and his
schooling was received in the neighborhood schools. When sixteen years of age he
began working "on his own" and was so occupied until his father presently gave him 'a
''forty" which he began to develop and on which he established his home after his
marriage at the age of twenty-five. Since taking- possession of that place Mr. Zeigler
has improved it and has added to his holdings until now he owns 168 acres in Knox and
Greene townships, his home being situated in the latter township. In addition to his
general farming Mr. Zeigler has long given considerable attention to the raising of
live stock and has done well. He is a Democrat and has ever given a good citizen's
attention to local political affairs, but has not been a seeker after public office.

   In August, 1881, Adam Zeigler was united in marriage to Julia C. Deeds, who also
was horn in this county, and to this union five children have been born, namely: Lula
Pearl, who married Charles Hoagland, of this county, and has one child, a daughter,
Mary H.; Alonzo E., who also continues to make his home m this county and who
married Edith Crissler and has one child, Mabel G.; Abbie, who married Claude
Slick, now residing at Portland; Bertha H., who married Earl Daniels, of this county,
and Ora A., who is unmarried and is living on the old home place. Mrs. Zeigler also
is a member of one of the pioneer families of Jay county, her parents, Christian and
Christena (Moots) Deeds, having come over here from Ohio in the spring of 1856
and settled in Greene township, at the point now occupied by the village of Blaine.
Christian Deeds developed a good piece of property and was one of the
influential men in his neighborhood. He later moved to Greene township, near where
Mr. Zeigler lives, and on that farm he spent his last days, his death occurring in the
fall of 1893, he then being eighty-three years of age. He was an European by birth, a
native of the kingdom of Wurtemburg, but upon attaining his majority came to this
country and presently located in Preble county, Ohio, where he married Christena
Moots, a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Michaels) Moots. She preceded him to
the grave more than ten years, her death having occurred in the spring of 1883, she then
having been sixty years of age. They were the parents of nine children, of whom Mrs.
Zeigler was the last born.

Biographical & Historical Record of Jay County, Indiana, Lewis Publishing Company, 1887