WALTER ISANOGEL, Special interest attaches to the career of this well known and highly esteemed citizen of Chesterfield, for he is a native of Madison County, a representative of one of its sterling pioneer families and has been prominently concerned with civic and business activities in the County which has ever been his home.
Mr. Isanogel was born on a farm in Union Township, Madison County, Indiana, on the 3rd of January, 1863, and is a son of Jacob and Mary (Goheen) Isanogel, whose names are prominently identified with the annals of Madison County, where they took up their abode in the pioneer epoch of the County’s history. They became the parents of eleven children-John T., Solomon, William, and Isaac, who are deceased; Samuel E., who is a resident of Union Township; Walter, who is the immediate subject of this review; Ott0 D., and Sarah, who are deceased, the latter having been the wife of John Coburn; Caroline, who is the wife of Stephen Fosnot, deceased; Estaline, deceased; and Mary B., who maintains her home at Chesterfield, Jacob Isanogel, who accompanied his parents. on their removal from Preble County, Ohio, to Madison County, Indiana, in the pioneer days, was a son of Solomon and Elizabeth (Su- man) Isanogel. His father, who was of stanch German lineage, was born in Frederick County, Maryland, and came to Madison County, Indiana, in the ’50s. Under the administration of President Van Buren he here entered claim to eighty acres of government land, in Union Township, and he reclaimed the same to effective cultivation. He became one of the substantial pioneer farmers of this favored section of the state and his old homestead is still owned by representatives of the immediate family, whose name has been most worthily linked with the civic and industrial development and upbuilding of the County. Jacob Isanogel was long numbered among the representative agriculturists and stock growers of Madison County, commanded inviolable place in popular confidence and esteem, and made his life count for good in its every relation. Both he and his wife continued to reside on the old homestead farm, one and one-half miles northeast of Chesterfield, until they were summoned to eternal rest.
He whose names initiates this review was reared to the Sturdy discipline of the home farm and gained his preliminary education in the district schools. Later he availed himself of the advantages of the public schools of Chesterfield, and his ambition was further shown by his becoming a student in the University of Indiana, at Bloomfield, and where he admirably fortified himself for the pedagogic profession, of which he was an able and popular representative for a number of years, as a successful teacher in the schools of his native County, He was principal of the Green Branch school and later of the school on Seventh street in the village of Chesterfield, where he held also the position of principal for a period of ten years, In Chesterfield he served as assistant postmaster under the regime of Mr. Krettenbarger, and thereafter he had charge of the public schools of this village, his assumption of this important position having been made in 1897. Thereafter he served for some time as deputy in the office of the County treasurer, after which he was again employed as an effective teacher in the district schools of the County, He engaged in the general merchandise business at Chester- field, where his personal popularity and the effective service given brought to him a large and representative patronage. He retired from this line of enterprise in 1910 and has since given his attention principally to the management of his real estate and other property interests.
Mr. Isanogel is a man of broad and well fortified views concerning matters of public polity and has shown a lively interest in all that con- cents the welfare of his native County and state. Liberal and progressive in his civic attitude, he has been a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the Christian church in their home village, where he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and its adjunct organization, the Daughters of Rebekah, as well as with the Improved Order of Red Men and the Modern Woodmen of America.
On the 4th of July, 1889, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Isanogel to Miss Minnie Bronnenberg, daughter of Ransom Bronnenberg, concerning whom specific mention is made on other pages of this volume, Mr. and Mrs. Isanogel have four children-Velma, Helen. Robert E., and Olga E. Velma married Edgar Click of Anderson Township, a farmer; Helen is teaching at Ingalls, she attended the University of Indiana. The two younger children are attending the public schools of their home village.