From "Standard History of Adams and Wells County, Indiana," published 1918
JAMES N. SHADLE is a native son of Chester Township, Wells County, and
for over forty years has applied his energies to the business of farming and
stock raising and is easily one of the most substantial business men and
citizens of that community. His farm is in section 8 of Chester Township.
He was born in that township October 26, 1854, a son of Philip and
Margaret (Donnelly) Shadle. Philip Shadle is a remarkable instance of
longevity, and despite his hardships and experiences as a pioneer in Wells
County is still living at the venerable age of ninety-two. He was born in
Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, April 14, 1825, son of Philip and Mary (McGlade)
Shadle. His father was a native of Center County, Pennsylvania, while Mary
McGlade was two years old when her parents came from Ireland. The
grandparents married in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and for twenty-five
years made their home in Lebanon County. In 1836 they removed to Wayne
County, Ohio, a year later to Holmes County, and in the fall of 1847 traded
the Ohio farm for 110 acres of wild land in Wells County, Indiana. Philip
Shadle, Sr., was a carpenter by trade and hewed out the logs for his home in
Wells County and made the first substantial house of the kind in Chester
township. His wife died in Wells County in January, 1855, and he passed away
in 1874.
The venerable Philip Shadle was reared and educated in Ohio, and in
Wayne County, that state, married August 7, 1845, Miss Margaret Donnelly, a
native of Pennsylvania and daughter of John and Fannie (Singer) Donnelly, also
natives of Pennsylvania. The Donnelly family moved from Pennsylvania to Wayne
County, Ohio, about 1835, and in 1850 went to Holmes County, Ohio. Philip
Shadle brought his family to Wells County the year after his fatherÂ’s
settlement, and located on a tract of sixty-five acres of the old homestead.
He looked after the farm while his father followed his trade as a carpenter,
and being a man of great strength and industry he cleared up with the
assistance of his children fully 150 acres of the virgin land of Chester
Township. He became owner of a fine farm and he kept in close touch with its
operation until advanced years. His good wife was born January 14, 1829, and
their companionship was one of remarkable length, being terminated after more
than seventy years by her death on January 21, 1917. For years they were
faithful members and active workers in the United Presbyterian Church. Philip
Shadle was a man of affairs in his township and county, was township trustee
six years, and as a republican at one time was chairman of the Republican
Committee in his home township. He and his wife had a large family of fifteen
children, and six sons and two daughters are still living: William A., James
N., Lucetta, wife of John Godfrey; Reason, Samuel, John, Eli and Ada, wife of
Frank Stair.
As member of such a family, James N. Shadle naturally learned habits of
industry and thrift when a boy, and those were perhaps more important to his
later life than the formal instruction he acquired in the neighboring district
schools. He assisted his father in clearing away some of the land, in getting
the farm into cultivation, and was well prepared to assume the serious
responsibilities of making a home when he married.
In 1875 Mr. Shadle married Miss Caroline Penrod. They are the parents
of three children. Oscar lives near the old home and is married; Mertie is
the wife of Lester Clark; and Maude married John Osborn.
The Shadle family are active members of the Christian Church.
Politically Mr. Shadle votes as a republican. He is a public spirited man in
his community, and has allied himself with various movements for general
advancement in addition to the responsibilities he has long carried as a
farmer. Mr. ShadleÂ’s farm comprises 220 acres, and he has always used it for
breeding and raising of good grades of livestock of all kinds.