Area towns founded by Raub family members

South Raub

Raub

Earl Park

Chalmers

white-county-history.org/raub

Brian Capouch

brianc@palaver.net

The Raub Family

Northwest Indiana Pioneers

Thank you!!

• Gordon Denton
• Gary Steinhardt
• Dave Bangert

Thesis: Members of the Raub family played a crucial role in the settlement of NW Indiana because they had a nose for loess, and amazing connections.

1. South Raub

Tippecanoe County

1830s

Why the Wea Plains?

• Natives were already intensively farming there
• Soils are naturally well drained
• Area soils are prime farmland
• Northwest Indiana was only acquired in1832

The Raubs had a nose for loess

loess: a loosely compacted yellowish-gray deposit of windblown sediment of which extensive deposits occur, e.g., in eastern China and the American Midwest.

Soils formed from loess are found in each of the areas where the Raub family was prominent 

There is even a soil series named Raub

RAUB SERIES. The Raub series consists of very deep, somewhat poorly drained soils that are deep or very deep to dense till. The Raub soils formed in loess or other silty material and in the underlying loamy till. They are on till plains.

Indiana's Ur-Raubs

Jacob Raub, Sr. 1796-1849

• Went from New Jersey to Ross Co. Ohio 1820s
• Moved to Tippecanoe County 1836
• Likely founded grain business later run by his sons
• His wife Maria from the noted New York Ostrander family
  • Dr. Tobias Ostrander -The Mathematical Expositor
  • Dr. Edward Ostrander - First physician in Ross Co., Ohio

John Raub 1805-1849

• Little is known about his life
• Most likely followed his older brother to Indiana
• Married Caroline Earl in Tippecanoe Co. 1837
• Died in 1849, buried in Sumner Cemetery, Earl Park
  • Odd, no record he ever lived near Earl Park
  • Earl Park wasn't platted until 1872

After Jacob Sr.'s death, his children divided land and spread out

Why is the newer community Raub, and the older one South Raub?

The Raubs had amazing connections

2.Chalmers

White County

1860s

Jacob Raub, Jr. 1835-1925

• m. Sallie Reynolds, daughter of Benjamin
• Platted Chalmers 1873 (Carr farm?  Ross farm?)
• Business partner w/brother William
  • Grain and livestock dealers, farmers
• Founded Bank of Chalmers 1891
  • sons Charles and Clyde stayed in Chalmers

Three of his sons settled elsewhere

• Edward: Indianapolis attorney
• Joseph: Indianpolis insurance executive
• George: Logansport banker
• They founded Indianapolis Life Insurance Co.

Miller Raub 1864-1919

• Son of Jacob Jr.'s brother Andrew 
• Came to White County in 1886
  • Farmed with uncle Albin Raub (Chafee Farm)
• Organized Chalmers Telephone Co.
• 1912 purchased Burgett's mercantile
  • Operated as Miller O. Raub & Co. 
• Administrator of Sarah L. Allen estate

3.Raub and Earl Park

Benton County

1870s

Adams Danforth Raub 1840-1918

• Father was John Raub, mentioned earlier
  • Mother was Caroline Earl
  • Named for her brother Adams Earl
  • Her story ends in mystery
• Married Nancy "Nanny" Hardesty Jones​
  • her sister married Senator Daniel Voorhees
  • Raub's stepson John Paul Jones was prominent lawyer in Washington D.C.
• Platted both Raub (April) and Earl Park (July) in 1872
• Partnered with his namesake uncle; became a "land baron"

He was also an author

About those connections. . . 

Sunny Crest was built in 1916 by Josiah and Stella Portteus

Anson LeRoy Portteus

• Born in Benton Co., first cousin of Josiah Portteus
• President, Indianapolis Life Insurance Co. 1934-1947
• Company was founded in 1905 by Jacob Raub's sons
• By 1990s was Indiana's 3rd largest insurance company
• Merged with Aviva Life and Annuity 2008

Indiana State Historical Society

Indianapolis Life Insurance Co.

The Land Barons

• *Moses Fowler 25,000
• *Adams Earl 11,000
• Edward Sumner 36,000
• *Parnham Boswell 12,000
• Cephas Atkinson 12,000
• *Adams Raub 6,000
• Lemuel Milk 65,000
• J.M. Gaff 16,000
• *Alexander Kent 25,000
• James Goodwine 10,000

James and Suzanna Hawkins

• Very early (1820s) settlers on the Wea Plains
• Quakers--part of Underground Railroad
• Co-founders of the Farmer's Institute
• Their children were well-connected
  • daughter Eliza married Moses Fowler
  • daughter Martha married Adams Earl
  • son James married Jane Sumner

Sumner bought his original 36,000-acre holding from Alex Coquillard, who later went on to found the city of South Bend

Adams Earl

• Adams Raub's uncle and namesake
• Large wholesale grocer in Lafayette
• Banker
• Interest in packing and slaughterhouse in Chicago
• Crystal Ice Co. Kankakee
• Early importer of Hereford cattle
  • Shadeland Farm

His name lives on

• Earl Park
• Earl Avenue, Lafayette
• Earl Street, Chalmers
• Earlhurst Building, Lafayette
• Adams Earl Luxury Condos, Lafayette

Moses Fowler

• Also came from Ross Co., Ohio
• Banker
• Farmer and Cattleman
• Partner in slaughterhouse
• Sold groceries and dry goods
• Railroad Founder
• Founder/benefactor of Fowler
• Said to be richest man in Indiana
• Partnered with John Purdue
• Owned big farm abutting Brookston

I have a shirt-tail connection to his lavish mansion

For further research 

• Whatever happened to Caroline Earl Raub?
  • Biography says "died many years ago" but:
  • She married John Carpenter b. 1808
  • They had a son, Dewitt W. b. Nov. 1859
  • After 1870 census the trail went cold!
• How did John Raub wind up buried in Earl Park?
• Benjamin Reynold's findagrave son Levi
  • Shows he died @age 6
  • Yet he was alive to plat an addition to Chalmers!
• Shadeland Farm: Hawkins, Earl, separate or same?