CHARLES C. SCHLICHTER, a general farmer, residing in Gill township, Sullivan county, Indiana, is numbered among the citizens who are making good progress in the pursuit of agriculture within this section of the state. He is a native of Dresden, Muskingum county, Ohio, born December 25, 1839, a son of Jacob F. and Susan (Miller) Schlichter, both of whom were natives of Germany. The father was born in 1807 and came to America in 1826. He lived in New York a short time, being employed in a paint and soap factory, where he was seriously injured by falling into a paint vat. He was united in marriage in New York and moved to Dresden, Ohio, where he purchased a farm on the Muskingum river and there resided until 1841. He then bought a farm in Pike county, where he lived about twelve years, and then removed to Perry county, remaining but a short time, when he retraced his steps to Pike county, where he bought the farm on which he died about 1855, his wife having passed away in 1841. The grandfather of Charles G. was mayor of the city in which he lived in Germany for many years. At one time he sent his son, Jacob F., five thousand dollars in gold as a gift. From the foregoing and other information it appears that the Schlichter family were from among the better classes of the great German empire.
Though he had only about three months' actual schooling, Charles C. Schlichter, who is now sixty-nine years of age, by persistent study, has become a well informed man. The greater part of his study was while serving in the army. When seventeen years of age he was bound to a farmer in Ohio and remained with him until about twenty years of age, when he went to Portsmouth, Ohio, where he was employed at a hundred and fifty dollars a year, working in a nursery most of the time. A part of his time he assisted his employer in a shoe store. Mr. Schlichter remained here until the Civil war broke out, when he enlisted as a member of Company C, Fifty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving four years, five months and twenty-five days. He enlisted November 16, 1861, and was discharged February 1, 1864. He then re-enlisted in the same regiment, January 1, 1865, and was honorably discharged April 25, 1866. During his exceedingly long service in the army of his country, he participated in ten battles and was wounded in his right hand and also in the right shin. He acted as commissary sergeant a year and a half, but was not promoted, he was engaged in the following battles: Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, April 6 and 7, 1862; Siege of Corinth, Mississippi, May, 1862; in 1863 at Port Gibson, May 1, Champion Hills, May 16, Siege of Vicksburg, June and July, Jackson, July 12 to 15, all in Mississippi, and Carrion Crow Bayou, Louisiana, November 23; during 1864, at Sabine Cross Roads, April 8, Monett's Ferry, April 23, and Snaggs' Point, Mav 5, these three battles being in Louisiana.
After his return from the war he went back to Portsmouth, Ohio, and was employed in a rolling-mill about one year, after which he went to Des Moines, Iowa, and on to Dallas county of the same state, and there had charge of a farm belonging to a doctor, a resident of Des Moines. This place contained an even thousand acres of land, and here he remained for two years; then returned to Portsmouth, Ohio, where he was employed with a large coal company for the next two years. The succeeding year he was in a rolling-mill, which business failed on account of a panic in money matters. Mr. Schlichter then purchased a dairy, which he operated five years, having two hundred and seventy-two customers. His health failing, he bought a farm of one hundred and forty acres, situated seven miles distant, and there he remained for eleven years. He traded this place for four houses in Portsmouth, but later disposed of all his property in Ohio, and came to Gill township, Sullivan county, Indiana, his present home. His daughter had already come here two years before. He settled here at the time of the McKinley flood. Mr. Schlichter purchased one hundred and ten acres of land, upon which he resided until recently, when he sold his place for $8,175 and now lives retired. When he came to this section he bought good corn at fifteen cents a bushel. He did general farming and raised some swine, his large experience peculiarly fitting him for intelligent work as an agriculturist of the up-to-date type.
It is not the lot of all men, indeed of few, to escape through so long a term of years without being duped or caused to part with a part of their hard earned money, and Mr. Schlichter did not escape. He engaged in the coal business in Ohio, in partnership with a man named Draper. They had $2,500 in the bank and about two months later his partner drew the same out and gambled it all away. Politically Mr. Schlichter is an avowed Republican. While a resident of Ohio, he served as trustee for eight years and was also on the school board in that state. At one time he held membership with the Odd Fellows order and held various official positions in his lodge, but has not been connected with the fraternity for several years.
While on a furlough he was happily united in marriage, June 15, 1864, to Mary Elizabeth Hauck, who was born in Meigs county, Ohio, March 25, 1840, a daughter of Charles J. and Mary A. (Holstetter) Hauck. The father was a native of Germany, as was the mother, who was born March 15, 1810; Charles Hauck was born about the same time as his wife and he came to America in 1831, going to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he mastered the trade of shoemaking, serving three years. He married and remained there five years, and then moved to Chester, Ohio, where he followed his trade and purchased a small farm. There he made his home for many years, but later removed to a farm of one hundred and eighty acres, which he bought within a few miles of Pomeroy. Here he spent the balance of his days, dying in 1877, while his wife survived twelve years longer. Mr. and Mrs. Schlichter are the parents of the following children: Mary Anna, wife of William D. Prose, residing near her parents and the mother of six children; Valentine George, married Almira Andrea and they live on his father's farm and have six children; Caroline Susan, wife of Alexander Prose, who lives near the parents' farm, and they have three children.