Biographical sketch extracted from:

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887. pp. 734-737.

LEMUEL BACHELOR, farmer, living one mile south of Bluffton, was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, September 23, 1820, the eldest son of Bazil and Nancy (Jefferson) Bachelor, who had a family of seven children—Lemuel, Ira, Bazil, Alonzo, Rhoda, Lucy and Almira, all living except Ira and Almira. Of those living Bazil, Alonzo and Rhoda reside in Union County, and Lucy in Franklin County, Ohio. The father was a native of Massachusetts, born March 15, 1793, a son of Lemuel Bachelor, who was of English ancestry, and died March 12, 1869, in Wells County, Indiana. The mother was born November 21, 1795, in Rutland County, Vermont, and died March 24, 1883. She was a daughter of Jeremiah Jefferson, who was a second cousin of President Thomas Jefferson and of English descent. The parents were married in New York and moved to Ashtabula County, Ohio, November 7, 1819, where the father followed milling and farming for many years. Mr. Bachelor, the subject of this sketch, passed his early youth in assisting his father on the farm and in attending the subscription schools. He remained with his parents until his marriage, which occurred March 4, 1843, with Miss Louisa J. Richardson, of Cayuga County, New York, a daughter of Richard Richardson, who came to Ohio when Mrs. Bachelor was a child. Our subject followed farming in Ashtabula, his native County, until 1854, when he moved to Wells County, having purchased a farm in Jackson Township the year before he settled on it, and cleared and improved the farm until it was among the best in the township. He remained on this farm until he was elected county treasurer in 1874, when he left the farm and moved to Bluffton to assume the duties of his office, and at the expiration of his term in 1876 was re-elected and filled the office to the entire satisfaction of the people, no man ever having been more faithful to his trust. After the expiration of the four years in office he retired to his farm south of Bluffton, where he and his estimable wife are enjoying the accumulations of many years of hard labor. They have had seven children, six of whom are living—Morris, Willie, Andrew (deceased), Edwin, Mary, wife of E. A. Smith, Cassie, wife of Elias Davis, and Etta, wife of Benjamin Mendenhall. Mr. and Mrs. Bachelor are both members of the Baptist church, and politically he affiliates with the Democratic party, being true to his Jeffersonian ancestry. In 1865 the parents of Mr. Bachelor came to Wells County to live with him, where the father passed the remainder of his days; the mother afterward returned to Ohio and died at the home of her daughter Rhoda. In addition to serving as treasurer of his county two terms he was justice of the peace for twelve years and township trustee two years of Jackson Township. Mr. Bachelor's enterprise and forethought has always been a marked characteristic of his life. A notable incident was his vote in 1872 to aid the Toledo, Thorntown & St. Louis Railroad, when the question was submitted to a vote of the county, he being the only man in his township who had the courage to stand alone and vote his convictions, believing then as now that the general good of the people should be the object in all public questions, and now those who were opposed to the measure admit the wisdom of his course, as the result of the agitation of that enterprise finally resulted in the construction of the present Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City Railroad.