Taken from book entitled "Biographical and Genealogical History of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton Counties, Indiana" . Compiled by Indiana University Libraries, pub Chicago; 1898, Lewis Publishing Company. Two Volumes. Loaning library : Indiana Unisersity Librarires DDS, 1320 E. 10th #E065 , Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA. taken from Volume 2 ; pages 1008-1010 includes photo of Ebal and Hannah (Baldwin) Teter. EBAL TETER - If one desires to gain a vivid realization of the rapid advance in the civilization which the last few decades have brought about, he can listen to the stories that men who are still living among us, and by no means overburdened with years, can tell of their early life. The subject of this sketch is a venerable and highly respected citizen, now living retired in Goldsmith, Tipton, Indiana, has many interesting reminiscences of pioneer days in this locality. Mr Teter was born in Pendelton county, West Virginia, April 23, 1823, and is a son of George Teter, also a native of that state. The paternal grandfather, George Teter, Sr. came from Germany with two brothers and first located in North Carolina, but later removed to West Virginia, spending his last days on a farm in Pendelton County. He died at the age of sixty-nine years. In his native state, George Teter, Jr. married Sarah Harper, also a native of Pendelton county, and a daughter of Jacob Harper, who was also one of three brothers to emigrate from Germany to America, one settling in Pennsylvania, and another in North Carolina, while he took up his residence in West Virginia. He was a farmer by occupation, and died about the age of eighty years. In this family were twin daughters, Sarah, the mother of our subject, and Mary, who lived to the extreme old age of of one hundred years. In 1840 the parents of our subject removed to Hamilton county, Indiana, but the following year came to Tipton county, where the father took up land from the government as soon as it came into market, making his home thereon until called to his final rest, at the age of seventy-one years. His wife died at the age of sixty-nine. Ebal Teter is the eighth in order of birth in their family of ten children, and was seventeen years old when the family removed from his native county to Hamilton county, Indiana, coming to what is now Tipton county a year later, it being then called the Miami Reserve. On section 12 of Jefferson township, he secured a claim of one hundred and sixty acres. On the 18th of December, 1843, he married Miss Hannah Baldwin, who was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, July 13, 1824. Her parents, Josiah and Lydia (White) Baldwin, were likewise natives of that state, and there the mother died when Mrs Teter was only five years old. With her father she came to Wayne County, Indiana, in 1830, and six years later they removed to Hamilton County, where she was principally reared. She is the sixth child and second daughter in a family of eight children. Mr and Mrs Teter began their domestic life in a little log cabin, ten by twelve feet, erected in the midst of the woods, and their furniture consisted of one homemade bedstead, two old chairs, a table and two cupboards put upon pins driven into the wall. Light was admitted through one greased-paper window, and the door was of clapboards with the latch-string always hanging out. Mrs Teter made all the clothes for her family, spinning and weaving the cloth and also her table linen and bed-clothes. Five dollarswould have purchased all the dishes, cooking utensils and other things which they bought for their little house, and one dollar a year was not expended on clothes outside of what Mrs Teter manufactured. The first butter-paddle she owned she had constructed herself out of a large poplar chip, this being over half a century ago. Wild game of all kinds, including deer, furnished the household with meat, and one night in his own dooryard Mr Teter killed two immense turkeys, on e weighing twenty-three punds and the other twenty-two, after they were dressed. He was one of the best shots in the county and could hit a turkey in the eye at almost any distance ! In those early days their nearest market of any importance was LaFayette, forty-five miles away, and they experienced all the hardships and privations of pioneer life but as time advanced the comforts of civilization were added to their home, and they became quite prosperous, owing to their industry, perseverance, good management and economy. For forty-five years they lived on the one farm, in the meantime converting the wild tract into one of the most desirable places of the locality. Mr Teter still owns the place having added to the original quarter-section eighty acres on the east and twenty on the west, and the little home long since gave place to a more commodious and modern residence. The family have left the farm however, and now live in Goldsmith. To Mr and Mrs Teter were born nine children, as follows : Mahlon L., Josiah A., Melvina J., Enos H., who died at the age of thirteen months, Elizabeth A., Asa E., Eber W., and Ebal H., twins, and Abraham A. In 1864 Mr Teter enlisted in Company F, Eleventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of the war. His son, Mahlon S., was in the same struggle, serving for two years in Company A, One Hundred and Thirtieth, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and participating in many hard-fought battles, but fortunately, he escaped uninjured. Mr and Mrs Teter are both earnest and consistent members of the New-Light Christian Church, with which they have been connected for half a century, and in which he has served as elder and trustee for many years. In Politics Mr Teter is now a Republican. He would have voted for James K Polk had he been able to go to the polls. That president signed the deed to his farm, but it was not recorded until November 30, 1897 ! Mr Teter was a member of the first jury ever called in the county, court being held in the old court-house located on the site where the new one now stands. We thus see that he has been prominently identified with the interests of the county, from the very beginning, and he stands today one of its most honored and highly esteemed pioneers. COMPILER's NOTE : I am interested in this family, as two sons of Ebal and Hannah (Baldwin) Teter, namely Ebal H and Eber W, married into my mother's maternal ancestry lines, of Smith and Foster. Ebal H married Mary W Smith, dtr of Squire Smith and Sarah Ann Cracraft, and Eber W married Flora D Foster, dtr of Richard Harrison and Sarah (Barr) Foster. Richard Harrison Foster relates back to the Coons family of Culpeper, Virginia. Anyone that has connections to these families, please contact me. Tonnie Cates