Benjamin Pindar

Many families in Harrison Township were deeply involved in the battles of the American Civil War. One such family was that of Benjamin Pindar, whose grandfather, Edward Pindar, had fought in the Revolutionary War. The Pindars came from Virginia. Ben Pindar's wife was Sarah Ann Small. They had four children: Perry, who died in the Civil War; Ben S. Pindar, who enlisted in the 14th Regiment, O.V.M. and then re-enlisted and became a captain; Ann; and Susan. Ben Stuart Pindar attended school at Heidelburg and obtained a lawyer's certificate in 1859; he also taught school.

Captain Pindar married Eva Choat who had gone to Oberlin and also taught school. When her brother William Choat, Napoleon's postmaster, went off to war, Eva became Napoleon's postmistress (1861-1864).

Col. Choat and Captain Pindar made many trips back into Ohio from the battle fronts to recruit men for the army. It is said that on one trip they brought back two Negroes, the first Negroes ever seen in Napoleon. They were with General Sherman and saw the burning of Atlanta. Here, Col. Choat was killed and Capt. Pindar brought his brother-in-law's body back to Napoleon by train to be buried in a Napoleon cemetery.

Upon his resignation from the army in January, 1865, Capt. Pindar was unable to use his lawyer's certificate or to teach because of deafness caused by the cannon's roar. There upon, he took his family, including his father, and joined that great wave of homesteaders headed west. It was 1867 and in Nebraska he found his land and unlike many, secured a firm hold. Typically, the Pindars organized the first school district in Otoe County, Nebraska. A Civil War diary written by Capt. Pindar in 1863 and 1864 is now owned by his granddaughter, Mrs. Mary Chaplin of Bennet, Nebraska.

Ben's sister, Susan, married John W. Morris who had set up a blacksmith shop in Napoleon. Records of this family, as well as records of the Choats are not available.

Ben's other sister, Ann, is often mentioned in the diary. She married John Wesley Fiser (also from Virginia) and they lived in a log cabin just southeast of Napoleon. Fiser was a carpenter as well as a farmer and he built numerous houses besides his own in Harrison Township.

Their children were: Ben, who stayed on the homestead; Heinse, who moved to Michigan; James, who ran a tile mill at Shunk and became Malinta's doctor and had two children, Don and Winifred (Bick); Dell who married John Brillhart and had four sons, Vern, Clyde, Bertrum, and Ray; Usher, a Napoleon lawyer; Nina, a teacher who married G. F. Hays* and had three children, Gerald, Elizabeth, and Bertha (Younkin); and Hattie (Blue), a teacher. "Bird" Brillhart and "Jerry" Hays** are the only two Pindar or Fiser descendents living in the immediate area.

*Frank Hays (1859-1922) was the son of Archibold C. and Catherine (Yost) Hays. He was Hamber's postmaster and by 1900 was Henry County's recorder.

**Jerry Hays was the builder and proprietor of the Hays Park Lane Bowling Center (1932-1969). He married Alise Jettinghoff of Delphos, Ohio. They had one daughter, Nancy. She and her husband William Ganthrop and two sons, Clinton and Peter reside in Columbus, Ohio.

Submitted by Bertha Younkin