History of Northeast Indiana : LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties (Volume 2) Author: Ira Ford
Page 106

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History of Northwest Indiana

George Straw is the present assessor of Clear Lake Township, beginning the duties of that office when his term as township trustee left off. That is evidence of his high standing as a citizen, and he is also one of the capable farmers of that locality
and has spent the greater part of his life as an agriculturist in Steuben County.

The history of Steuben County has frequent records concerning the Straw family. His grandfather, Frederick Straw, was born in Pennsylvania, June 9. 1811, a son of George and Elizabeth (Gearhart) Straw. Frederick Straw came from Pennsylvania to Steuben County in the spring of 1856, buying land just west of Fremont. He became owner of 180 acres, constituting one of the best farms in the township. Frederick Straw was a democrat until the republican party came into existence, and after that affiliated with the new organization. In 1832 he married Catherine Wagner, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1813. She died in 1871, the mother of eight children: Elias, Anna, Elizabeth, George W., Frederick, Amanda, Benjamin and Philip A.

Elias Straw, father of George Straw, was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, November 9, 1834, and died in 1892. In 1855 he married Catherine Baker, a native of the same county, born in 1839, a daughter of Frederick Baker. The year after their marriage they came to Steuben County, locating at Fremont when it contained only two general stores. Elias Straw soon bought land in section 28 of Fremont Township, and in 1864 acquired another farm of 120 acres, where he spent the rest of his active life. He was a republican, and he and his wife were members of the Evangelical Association. They had eight children: William, John, Albert, Granville, George, Harvey, Augusta Jane and Hermie.

George Straw who was born in Fremont Township, August 2, 1868, acquired his education in the district schools there and the high school at the Village of Fremont. Along with farming he has had much business experience. As a young man
he clerked a year in a dry goods store at the Village of Ray. In 1890 he went to Iowa and was a salesman of agricultural machinery, with headquarters at Columbus Junction, for one year. On his return from Iowa he began farming in Fremont Township, lived there until 1909, and then sold his property and his present place in Clear Lake Township. He has 112 acres in section 18, and during his ownership all the buildings have been remodeled and improved. He handles much good stock, being a breeder of Holstein cattle.

Mr. Straw served as township trustee from 1914 to 1919, and in the fall of 1918 was elected assessor.

In 1891 he married Miss Lulie Young, a daughter of L. I. C. and Elizabeth (Potter) Young. Her father was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, in 1837, a son of Charles and Nancy (Scothorn) Young, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of
Virginia. His parents were married in Ohio in 1818, and his father spent most of his active life as a farmer in Sandusky County. L. I. C. Young grew up on the home farm with his widowed mother, and in 1858 came to Steuben Township and settled in
section 18 of Clear Lake Township. He taught school and worked his farm alternately, and in 1862 enlisted in Company A of the Twenty-Ninth Indiana Infantry. Though sick part of the time, he was with his command until October, 1865. After the war
he resumed farming and also became prominent in local affairs. L. I. C. Young married Elizabeth S. Potter in 1862. They had eight children : Theresa M., J. Orville, Lulie E., who was born September 26, 1868, Armina V., Ozra V., Eda Z., Amie P. and
Mattie E.

Mr. and Mrs. Straw are the parents of five children, Walter, Clayton, Hubert, Edith and Lewis. Walter married Bessie McTaggart and Clayton married Beulah Duguid. The son, Walter, saw some of the heaviest fighting in the great war. He
went overseas with the Eighty-Fifth Division, landing in France August 2, 1918. He was soon transferred to the 139th Infantry in the Thirty-Fifth Division, and before the signing of the armistice was under fire for twenty-one days. The heaviest
fighting seen by any American division was in the Argonne Forest, and he was a participant there. During 1919 he has been a student in the university maintained for the “Men in Khaki” at Lyons, France. The son. Hubert Straw, was also in training for military duty, being a student of electricity at Washington, D. C. He was taken ill with the influenza there and in the spring of 1919 was still in a military hospital.