Henry Mearling, who has been a resident of Sugar Creek township, Hancock county, Indiana, for the past thirty-two years, is one of the well-known citizens of this locality and is accounted an efficient farmer as well. His birth occurred on May 22, 1871, in Germany, and he is the son of Henry and Christina (Hoffmeier) Mearling, both natives and life-long residents of that country. Henry Mearling, Sr., was born in 1833 and died in 1911, his wife following him two years later. They were the parents of the children whose names follow: Christina, Louise (deceased), Sophia, Minnie, Henry and August.

Henry Mearling spent his early life in his native land, where he also received his education, assisting his father with the work on the home farm and herding sheep. In September, 1887, at the age of sixteen, he immigrated to America and established himself in this county, to which place his three sisters, Christina, Sophia and Louisa, had preceded him. He immediately took up his residence with his sister, Mrs. Christina Weibkey, following the trade of a carpenter for a period of six or seven months, after which he was employed by neighboring farmers until he reached the age of twenty-five years. On March 4, 1896, Henry Mearling and Sophia Hoff were untied in marriage and six children were born of their union, namely: Harry, Frieda, Alfred, August, Gilbert and Wilma. Sophia (Hoff) Mearling was born on December 10, 1875, in Sugar Creek township, Hancock county, Indiana, and is the daughter of Frederick and Louisa (Woempner) Hoff.

Following his marriage, Henry Mearling rented the farm of George Huntington, in Buck Creek township, and engaged in farming for two years, after which he purchased sixty acres of land one mile south of Julietta, Franklin township, Marion county, Indiana, remaining there for two years. He then sold the place, in the fall of 1899, and purchased the present farm of seventy-three acres in the north half of the southwest quarter of section 18. Four years after the purchase of this property he moved his residence from the rear of the place to the front and the following year erected a commodious barn, forty-eight by sixty-eight, a large corn-crib, a granary and tool-shed an other necessary buildings. Beside his own farming interests, Henry Mearling cultivates a neighboring property consisting of one hundred an ten acres, seventy-two acres of the two places being devoted to the raising of small grain, fifty acres to corn and eighteen acres to hay. About one hundred head of Duroc-Jersey hogs are fed out, while twenty head of Shorthorn cattle and thirteen head of Norman draft horses are retained on the farm.

In all matters of religion, Henry Mearling is faithful to the German Lutheran church, of which he was a trustee for four years. His wife is also a member of this denomination and an active worker in same. Politically, he is a stanch Democrat and is active in all local elections.

Transcribed from History of Hancock County, Indiana, Its People, Industries and Institutions by George J. Richman, B. L., Federal Publishing Co., Indianapolis, Indiana, 1916. Page 1024-1025.

Submitted by Sylvia (Rose) Duda, Laingsburg, MI October 25, 2001.

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