Randolph County, Indiana
Harry I. Drollinger
Mr. Drollinger was born in Roann, Wabash county, Indiana, July 25, 1890. He is the son of Martin Van Buren and Celia A. (Belden) Drollinger, and is one of a family of twelve children, namely: Vadia died at the age of thirty-five, leaving a husband and four children; Aaron, a farmer and stockman of Arkansas, is a widower and has two sons; Rose, of Roann, married Marion Miller, a farmer and stock buyer, and their union has been without issue; Leander, a farmer of Wabash county, married Bessie Appleman, and they have one child; William, a farmer of Wabash county, married Bessie Swisher and they have three sons; Irwin died when he was four years old; Eva, of Albany, Indiana, married Milton S. Bolerjack, owner of The Albany Chronicle, and they have one son; Grace, of Fort Wayne, is the widow of Edward Quick, a guard at the state prison, who was killed by a trusty; Marie died in infancy; Grover was next in order of birth; Harry I., of this review, Clyde, of Saratoga, owns and edits The Independent, and he enjoys the distinction of being what is doubtless the youngest editor in Indiana; he took charge of a paper when seventeen years old, formerly owning a paper at Bryan, then purchased the one at Saratoga; he is a practical newspaper man, started at the bottom of the ladder, and the future holds much of promise for him, as it does our subject.
The father, Martin V. Drollinger, was reared on the farm and received a meager education in the early-day schools. He devoted his life successfully to general farming and stock raising, rearing his large family in comfort and respectability on the old home place and gave them proper educational advantages. He was born in Ohio, but was brought by his parents to Indiana when an infant, the family locating on a three-hundred-acre tract which our subject's paternal grandfather had taken up from the government, which he cleared, erected a log cabin and began life here in typical pioneer fashion, and in due course of time had one of the best farms and most comfortable homes in the township. His son, Martin V., became owner of this place, which he conducted in such a skillful manner that it retained its original fertility. The death of Martin V. Drollinger occurred in Fort Wayne October 27, 1911. His widow still survives, being now advanced in years. Like her honored husband before her, she has a host of warm friends in Randolph county.
Harry I. Drollinger grew to manhood on the home farm and there assisted with the general work when a boy, and he received his education in the public schools of Fort Wayne, which has been greatly supplemented in after years by wide home reading and by contact with the business world.
Our subject was married February 16, 1912, to Hattie Stiek, a daughter of Samuel and Eunice Stiek, a highly respected family of Randolph county, where Mrs. Drollinger grew to womanhood and received her education in the public schools. Her father was a cabinet manufacturer.
To our subject and wife one child, a daughter was born on January 1, 1913, who bears the name Marie Dolores.
Mr. Drollinger took up the newspaper business when a boy and has mastered the various departments of the same. He has owned and published The Ridgeville Star for four years and has made his paper a moulder of public opinion in this vicinity and a factor for good, upholding whatever tends to promote the best interests of the township and county. His paper is rapidly increasing in circulation, and it is a valuable news dispenser as well as advertising medium, and is up-to-date from a mechanical standpoint; its proprietor, being an uncompromising Democrat, it has done much for the success of the party in this section of the state.
Past and Present of Randolph County, Indiana, 1914.
Contributed by Gina Richardson