Biographical History of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski Counties, Indiana, Illustrated, Volume 1, pp. 75-77 Lewis Publishing Company, 1899 CAPTAIN WARREN SHEETZ CAPTAIN SHEETZ is a native of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, his birth occurring on the 9th of October, 1837. He was the third child of the eleven children of FREDERICK and ELIZA C. (TAYLOR) SHEETZ, the parents being natives of Hampshire County, Virginia, and very early pioneers of Tippecanoe County, locating on a farm near Lafayette in 1821. There FREDERICK grew to manhood, learning the miller’s trade, an occupation which he followed for many years, and in 1845 he bought a farm and ended his days in agricultural pursuits, his death occurring there in 1864; and his wife survived till 1867. The Captain's ancestors on his father's side were German, and on his mother' side they were Scotch-Irish. Of their large family all are living so far as known to the subject of this sketch, excepting a brother who died in the army. EDWARD F. is a farmer in Spink county, North Dakota; HARRIET became the wife of W. S. VAN NATTA, whose sketch is given elsewhere in this work; WARREN, whose name heads this sketch; ALFRED, who was a member of Company D, Tenth Indiana Infantry, and died in the army service in 1863; MARGARET, the wife of MR. KELSO, lives near Indianapolis: her first husband was GEORGE SHIGLEY; CHARLES is a farmer near Lafayette; WILLIAM T. has been lost to his family for many years and is presumed to be in the far west, if living; FREDERICK is a bookkeeper at Indianapolis; FRANK is a farmer near Lafayette; ROBERT is a prosperous machinist at Muncie, this state; and MARIA VIRGINIA is the wife of DR. B. F. BEASLEY, who is a successful physician at Lafayette, this state. The paternal grandfather of our subject was a native of Virginia, FREDERICK SHEETZ by name; and the maternal grandfather was ROBERT TAYLOR, also a native of the Old Dominion; and both families were prominently identified with the history of that state. CAPTAIN SHEETZ received a common-school education in his native county, and his early life was spent on his father's farm, where he remained until his enlistment in the army, at the age of twenty-four. He was one of those who promptly responded to their country's needs, and enlisted on the 18th of September, 1861, as a private in Company D, Tenth Indiana Infantry. On the organization of the company he was appointed one of the five sergeants and served in that capacity one year. In recognition of his special fitness to command, his devotion to duty and bravery on the battlefield, he was commissioned first lieutenant and soon thereafter was promoted to the rank of captain; and for two years he commanded his company and was present with it in all the dangers of three years' active service at the front. The first rendezvous of the regiment was at Louisville, Kentucky, where it was assigned to the command of General Thomas; and it afterward participated in active maneuvering and skirmishing against guerrillas in Kentucky. The first general engagement was at Mill Springs, which was quickly followed by the terrific battles at Shiloh and Corinth, Mississippi. It was next attached to the Fourteenth Army Corps and marched upon Nashville, Tennessee; made a forced march from Nashville to Louisville in pursuit of General Bragg, of the rebel forces, and had various skirmishes in Tennessee; returned to Nashville, and thence went out on the Chickamauga campaign, where, going into the battle of Chickamauga with forty men, CAPTAIN SHEETZ brought his company out with only thirteen men capable for service, twenty having been killed or wounded. He remained at Chickamauga from September 15, 1863, until February, 1864, during which time the regiment was recruited and given the opportunity to re-enlist in the field. CAPTAIN SHEETZ was detailed to bring the soldiers home on return furlough, and was home thirty days; but as an organization they did not improve the opportunity. The siege of Chattanooga being raised, the Captain and his company started out on the Atlanta campaign, but his term of service expired before he reached Atlanta, and the regiment was relieved at Ringgold, Georgia, and returned to Indianapolis, where it was mustered out of service, September 18, 1864. Returning from the war, CAPTAIN SHEETZ resumed agricultural pursuits, purchasing a farm of two hundred and forty acres southeast of Fowler, upon which he lived till 1885. By reason of failing health he retired from active labors of all kinds and located in Fowler, where he has resided since his retirement from the farm. Of the social orders CAPTAIN SHEETZ selected only the one which brings together for mutual protection and counsel his old army comrades, and accordingly he has been a member of the Grand Army post from its earliest history, and in this he has taken great interest. He recognizes the G. A. R. button as a "badge of honor," conveying to him in unmistakable language the mortality of man. He realizes that it is a society with a “time limit,” and that soon the final reveille will call the last veteran to his eternal rest. He recognizes the emblem of the order as the “insignia of rank,” telling to the world that the wearer was not only a defender of liberty and union, but also that his military record bore the closest scrutiny, for no traitor or convicted coward can enter the portals of the order. CAPTAIN SHEETZ has served in all the official capacities of the local post, excepting that of adjutant, and is proud of his connection with the “time-limited and fire-tested fraternity.” In matrimony CAPTAIN SHEETZ was united, September 6, 1870, with MISS HARRIET H. JOHNSON, a daughter of WILLIAM R. and MARGARET (FINCH) JOHNSON, early settlers of Benton County. Her father was a prosperous farmer and stock-grower, who died in 1863, at the age of fifty years, and her mother is still living on the old home farm near Oxford, at the age of seventy-five years. MR. and MRS. SHEETZ became the parents of four sons and two daughters. The two first born-THEODORE M. and MARGARET E.- died of diphtheria, the latter in infancy, their deaths occurring within a few days of each other; LAURA A. is the wife of CHARLES B. McKNIGHT, an attorney in Fowler; DAVID C. is a clerk in the shoe store of Van Natta & Evans, also in Fowler; WARREN, Jr., is a student in the Fowler schools; and CHESTER is living with his aunt at Lafayette. On the 31st of August, 1885, having but recently returned from the farm to Fowler, MRS. SHEETZ died. This was a severe blow to the family, and the Captain still realizes his loneliness and the disruption of family affairs. Since the occurrence of this sad event he has made his home for the most part with his married daughter, MRS. McKNIGHT. In his political sympathies CAPTAIN SHEETZ has always voted with the Republican party, in whose councils he has always been active and influential; but with the advancing years and bodily infirmity he has relinquished to some extent his former political enthusiasm. He has held the position of trustee of Pine Township two terms, or four years, and he held a similar position in Center Township (Fowler) for a like period. He is not connected with any church organization, though his wife was a devout Christian lady, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. (**Fowler is in Benton County, IN)