Ernest Henry Witte
was born on August 15th 1896 in Perry County, Indiana to Henry and
Elizabeth (Grothaus) Witte, and built this house in 1924. He grew
up in Bristow, Indiana and served his country in WW1. He also
worked as a clerk in the only general store in town which was owned by
his uncle Ernst Witte. His parents had come to America from
Bremen, Germany. His mother, Elizabeth, was only 16 years old
when she came to America as a stow-a-way with her mentally retarded 18
year old brother, Clamor Grothaus. They all settled in and around
the town of Bristow.
His parents brought with them the deeply religious and strong moral
ethics, which were common in these German people. These traits
were passed on to their children, Ernest, William, Fred and Anna.
E.H. Witte, or "Jake" a name he later became know by, formed the
Missouri Synod Lutheran Church in Bristow since so many of his family
and friends were there. He married Hettie Weedman and had one
daughter, Fae, while they were still in Bristow
When he moved to Medcalf Street in Dale, Indiana in the early 1920's,
he ran the first Ford agency here. He was a teacher and for some
time he rode the railroad cars hauling poultry to New York. His
job was to see that the chickens were fed and watered enroute then rode
the rail again to return to Dale
In 1924, E.H. Witte built this house on the corner of Gaines and Locust
streets and moved in with his wife, 4 year old daughter and his mother
and father. It was about this time that he received the nickname
Jake. It seems his mother had grown tired of trying to keep the
"Ernst" and "Ernest" straight and when a circus came to town, there was
a clown named "Jake Snoodlesnapper", so she said we will just call you
(Ernest) Jake Snoodlesnapper. Needless to say they soon dropped
the "Snoodlesnapper" but he kept the nickname "Jake" the rest of his
life.
As you can tell, his jobs were not rock solid, yet he wanted his mother
and father to be with him. The house was large enough to
accomodate all of them and still have enough room for the son his wife
bore him on March 11th, 1926. They named him Richard Gail and
called him Gail. Joy in the family was short lived when Hettie died just eleven days after giving birth to her son.
Jake worked for his friend E.T. Winkler until 1930. There was a
feed mill on Medcalf Street, across from what would become the city
park. The mill had changed hands a few times and in 1929, went
into a receivership. At the propting of his friend Mr. Winkler, Jake
bought the mill and the ground that went with it. The mill had
last been owned by Wallace brothers and was aptly called Wallace Mill.
When Jake took over, the name was changed to Witte Milling
Company. For the first few years they made mainly flour and corn
meal. In 1937, Jake added a grinding facility and now the mill
could grind and custom mix feed for the farmers in the area. They
made special flour for the St. Meinrad Archabbey and still another
special flour for the pretzel factory in Tell City. Corn meal
went as far away as Lanesville, IN. Local stores bought the Purity brand of flour and cornmeal.
In the years Jake was without a wife, he sent his son back to Bristow
where he knew Gail would be lovingly cared for by Aunt's Sadie and
Dutch and great-aunt Eva. Jake visited him on the weekends.
There were some pretty tough times, having to make such a
decisions, but Jake was a very religious man and his faith in God
helped him know that everything would be all right...even when his
father passed away in 1935. Jake's dad, Henry, had been in charge
of the garden which covered most of the ground south of the house,
where his son Gail lives with his family. Henry was a very quiet,
stern man, but a hard worker, and he would be missed. Henry was
only 67 years old when he died.
In 1937, Jake married again. Her name was Beatrice Hoops and she
was a clerk at the local bank. To the family of "nicknames"
Beatrice was no exception. Jake called her "Booty" and also
stayed with her the rest of her life. Gail had returned to the
home when he was 8 years old (1934) and now the family was whole again,
with the exception of the loss of Henry.
The Mill had become a success. People like dealing with Jake
because he was honest, anxious to please and many "contracts" were
simply hand written notes stuck on a spindle on Jake's desk. Gail
came to work part time at the Mill when he was in high school.
After Gail's graduating high school in 1944 he entered the Naval
Air Corps and studied at Indiana State University in Terre Haute.
Fortunately, the war ended and Gail was never called to serve
active duty. He returned home to become a full time partner with
his father.
In 1948, mother Elizabeth passed away at the age of 80, and daughter
Fae went on to college and received a doctors degree in physical
education. Her profession carried her to California. She
retired at age 55 where she still resides in Scotts Valley at age 87.
With Gail at the Mill, plans and ideas expanded to buying and storing
grain, cleaning seeds for planting and with the purchase of 2 semi
trailers, they hauled grain as far south as Alabama and returned with
lumber. Some days in the harvest seasons, a day at the Mill ran
from 5:30 am to 11:00 pm. This was before machinery and other
equipment save the man hours as well as the backs of the employees.
In 1969, the Witte Milling Company incorporated. Jake was growing
older and after having suffered a heart attack in 1968, he saw the need
for more of the responsibility to pass on to his son, Gail. Jake
came to work every day and his main responsibility become listening to
the grain market reports and keeping a log in a notebook.
In January 1974, Jake had arrived at work at his normal time of 6:00 am
and shortly before the regular closing time of 4 pm, went out to dump a
load of soybeans for a customer. He walked into the office and
sat down in a chair and died peacefully....only after his days work was
done.
The Mill continued to grow and prosper and provided Gail the means to
support his family and educate his children, Vikki, Rick and Sarah.
On April 7th, 1994, Gail and his wife Jean were vacationing
in Tennessee when a call came at 2 am from Sarah that the Mill was
burning. This Mill was built of wood back in 1847 and was a
tinderbox for the blaze that attacked it from an internal electrical
problem. It took 5 hours for Gail and wife to return to Dale to
find only burning timbers and a shell of which had so long been a
landmark in Dale. Cleanup came and then the decision not to try
and rebuild, but to retire.
In August 1994, Gail's son in law, Kenny Neighbors (Sarah's husband)
who had been employed at the mill for some time informed Gail that he
would like to take the remaining buildings and get as much of the
business back as he could. So Gail invested in the re-equiping
the buildings and on September 1, 1994, the Mill was still running, the
longest running continuous business in Dale. This time it was
under the name of Witte Feeds. And the Witte name goes on as a tribute
to one of the greatest human beings in our community. E.H. Witte,
a man who waited until his days work was done before he gave himself
over to his final heart attack. But the name lives on.
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