Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana, 1903. pp. 470-471.

SAMUEL M. KREIGH.

It is always pleasant and profitable to contemplate the career of a man who has made a success of life and won the honor and respect of his fellow citizens. Such is the record of the well-known farmer whose name heads this sketch, than whom a more whole-souled or popular man it would be difficult to find within the limits of the township where he has his home.

Samuel M. Kreigh, one of the prominent and influential residents and farmers of this township, was born to Samuel and Magdaline (Beck) Kreigh in Jefferson township, October 16, 1851. He is a descendant of a sturdy race of Germans, his father's family being native Pennsylvanians, while the mother was a native German, having come to Pennsylvania as a child. The Kreigh and Beck families lived as neighbors in Jefferson township and in the course of time their children grew to maturity; little playfellows became sweethearts and the marriage of Samuel Kreigh and Magdaline Beck was the culmination of many years of friendship. The young couple first settled on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, where their family was reared, the husband becoming one of the first threshers of this part of Wells county. In 1881 his wife died and he later removed to Walkerville, Michigan, where he still lives at the advanced age of seventy-seven years. Their family consisted of eight children, five girls and three boys.

Samuel M. Kreigh was early employed in his father's saw-mill, soon learning the business and became head sawyer. Being closely confined to his post at the mill, his education was limited to about six years' study in the county schools, necessitating his learning his arithmetic after he had reached the mature age of twenty-one. His wages amounted to two dollars and a half a day and on this salary he ventured into matrimony, being married November 17, 1872, at the age of twenty-one, to Miss Elizabeth S. Rupright, a daughter of John Rupright and sister of W. H. Rupright. She was born September 20, 1865, and received a fair education in the common schools. Soon after his marriage Mr. Kreigh quit the mill business, which had been removed to Williamsport, and rented the old farm and settled down to the life of a tiller of the soil. He later bought forty acres of it and, inheriting forty acres more, began in a modest way to accumulate property. He has made many improvements on the place, building substantial structures and putting his farm on a plane with the best in the county. For fifteen years he operated a threshing machine and made most of his living in that way.

Of the subject's ten children, nine are living: Albert A. married Alice Hoover and lives in Ossian; Costello E. is the wife of John Souards, of Lancaster township; Joseph Vernon is employed in the tile mill at Echo, Indiana; Wilson W. is teaching in the Jefferson township schools; Chancy C., Jerald Glenden, Ida A., Laura L. and Dale D. Mrs. Kreigh is a member of the Prebyterian [sic] church at Elhanan and has reared her children in that faith. Mr. Kreigh has served as supervisor of the township, and as a delegate to Democratic conventions. Being a genial, big-hearted man, he is able to sway the thoughts of his associates and his party is well cared for when her affairs are put into his hands. Mr. Kreigh suffered a great misfortune in the loss of his left hand, which was crushed in a corn husking machine some eight years since, the loss placing upon him a severe handicap in the conduct of his farming operations.