Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Palmer, Dennis 1830 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 17, 2006, 9:32 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

DENNIS PALMER.

    Dennis Palmer, old settler and man of affairs of Lake county, has been for
many years a leading spirit in the commercial and industrial development of Lake
county and particularly of that portion where the town of Palmer is situated,
which was founded on his land and named as a lasting memorial to his life and
services in behalf of the community. He was one of the influential residents who
contributed of their own means and lent their vigorous efforts for railroad
building in this county. Many enterprises of private business and public nature
have engaged his attention during a long life of over seventy years, and his
place in the county is one of honor, high esteem and most public-spirited and
useful performance of his part in life.

    Mr. Palmer was born in Lorain county, Ohio, August 21, 1830. His father,
also named Dennis, was born in Massachusetts, whence he moved to New York state,
and from there to Ohio, settling first in Lorain county, then in Crawford
county, and about 1854 came to Lake county, Indiana, where he passed his
declining years and died at the age of eighty-two years. His wife, Olive Terril,
was a native of Connecticut, but was reared in the early times of Lorain county,
Ohio, and died in that state at the age of eighty.

    Mr. Palmer was the only son of his parents' five children. He was seven
years old when he moved to Crawford county, Ohio, where he was reared. His
education was acquired in one of the primitive old log-cabin schools. He
remained in that county for two years after his marriage, and in 1854 moved to
Mason county, Illinois, but after six months came to Lake county and took up his
first residence in Winfield, Winfield township. He was there six years and then
came to the place where he has ever since made his place of residence, for over
forty years. During his more active career he engaged in various kinds of
business, in the raising and shipping of stock, merchandising and farming. A
town was laid out on his land in 1882 and named in his honor. At present he owns
only one hundred and seventy acres in this vicinity, but once was possessor of
six hundred. Much of the growth and prosperity of this region is due to his
active efforts. He has one son, Richard, who is in the real estate business in
Kansas City, Missouri. He owns lands in Kansas, but these are under the control
of this son and his grandson.

  Mr. Palmer started out in life without a dollar, and the story of his life is
one of self-achievement, industry and capable business management. He therefore
deserves the esteem which is accorded him in Lake county, and the weight of his
opinions has in many ways been felt throughout the county. He has in the main
retired from active pursuits, and confines most of his attention to lending
money and dealing in securities. He has been a strong Republican since the
organization of the party, and has served as township trustee one term, and was
justice of the peace for twenty years. He was an old-line Whig and at the birth
of the Republican party espoused its principles and voted for Fremont, then
Lincoln, Garfield, Blaine and McKinley.  He helped in getting the lines of the
Pennsylvania and the Erie railroads run through Crown Point, which resulted in
much of the subsequent prosperity of that town as a commercial center. He was
the first man to sign the right of way and give a mile of his own land to the
Erie road, doing this with the understanding that the line should be constructed
through Crown Point. He also assisted in taking up subscriptions for the
Pennsylvania Railroad, signing •his own name for one hundred dollars. Through
many such enterprises he has made his influence felt for good in Lake county,
and is one of the best known and truly successful men of the county.

    Mr. Palmer was married, May 12, 1852, to Miss Mary Wilson, and of the two
children, both sons, born to them, one is living, Richard, also mentioned above.
Richard Palmer was born February 17, 1853, and was reared in this county, being
educated in the common schools. He has been engaged in the stock, real estate
and the banking lines of business, and for some time he resided in Monona
county, Iowa, and carried on stock, banking and mercantile enterprises. He
married, November 4, 1875, Miss Mary E. Fargo, by whom he had one son, Mark S.
D., who was educated in the common schools and at the Valparaiso College, and is
now postmaster at Eskridge, Kansas; at the time of receiving his official notice
he was the youngest postmaster in the United States. This grandson of Mr. Palmer
was married on August 1, 1899, to Miss May E. F. Parsonage, who was born in
Wabaunsee county, Kansas, June 17, 1879, her parents being still living and
farmers in Wabaunsee county, and she received a high school education and for
some time was a teacher. The one daughter of this marriage, Lois Zoe, is thus a
great-grandchild of Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, so that there are four generations
alive at the present time. Mark S. D. Palmer is a Republican, having ?cast his
first vote for McKinley, and fraternally he is associated with Tent No. 79, of
the Maccabees, at Eskridge, and with the Ancient Order of United Workmen No. 165.

    Mr. Richard Palmer's first wife died December 10, 1880, and by his second
wife he has six children, as follows: John R.; Alice, who is in the high school;
Maude, in school; Fayette, Lucile and Katie. On February 27, 1902, Mr. Richard
Palmer married Mrs. Mary E. (Hatterly) Luth, who was born in Harrison county,
Iowa, November 5, 1866, being a daughter of James and Hannah Hatterly. She was
educated in the common schools, finishing at the Shenandoah high school, and she
taught in Iowa for a year and a half. By her marriage to Henry Luth one son,
Leslie E., was born, he being now fifteen years old and a student in the public
schools of Kansas City, where his parents reside. Richard Palmer moved to Kansas
City in June, 1903, and engaged in the real estate business. He is a Republican,
having cast his first vote for Hayes, and he has always supported those
principles. His wife is a member of the Christian church, and they are generous
in regard to the benevolences.

    Mrs. Dennis Palmer was born in Wyandotte county, Ohio, February 19, 1833,
and was a daughter of Daniel and Sarah (Taylor) Wilson. She was one of thirteen
children, and six are yet living. She was reared in her native state, and her
first school was a log cabin, with a mud and stick chimney, with benches of
slabs resting on four pins for legs, and the desk for the older scholars a long
board resting on pins driven into the wall. She used the goosequill pen, usually
fashioned out with the knife of the master, who, for a portion of her school
days, was none other than her future husband. Mr. Palmer. Much more might be
related of those early pioneer days.

    For half a century have Mr. and Mrs. Palmer traveled the journey of life
together, sharing the joys and sorrows as they have followed one close on the
other. And now at the eventide of life, when the sun of their careers is fast
setting, they can look back over the past years as over a golden harvest field
where the garnered sheaves of golden deeds lie before God and man as proofs of
their noble characters and generous endeavors, so that all—son, grandchildren
and all who come after them—may rise up and call them blessed.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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