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- BIOGRAPHY:
Smith:Warner 9 (Owner: alschi38 <http://www.ancestry.com/community/member/profile.aspx?cba=alschi38>)
http://debmurray.tripod.com/indiana/indbioref-13.htm
MERL LONGFELLOW GOCHENOUR. A leading member of the Kosciusko County bar since 1912, Merl Longfellow Gochenour, of Warsaw, senior member of the firm of Gochenour & Graham, has been identified with much important litigation which has come before the courts, and has demonstrated the possession of superior talent and a natural liking for the calling for which he is so well equipped. While he is a busy lawyer, constantly engaged in his professional duties, he has found time to participate largely and prominently in public civic affairs, his connection with which has shown him to be a man of vision and enlightened views.
Mr. Gochenour was born on a farm near Palestine, Kosciusko County, Indiana, in July, 1888, and is a son of John David and Junia Estelle (Longfellow) Gochenour. His paternal grandfather was William Gochenour, who was born in Shenandoah County, Virginia, and in young manhood removed to Ohio, where he met and married Salome Winters, a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. From Ohio William Gochenour made his way at an early date to Kosciusko County, Indiana, where he passed the rest of his life in agricultural operations and was one of the well-known and highly esteemed men of his community. John David Gochenour was born on his father's farm in Kosciusko County, April 22, 1858, in the same house in which his son, Merl L., was later to be born, and received a public school education. He was reared amid agricultural surroundings and in young manhood adopted farming as a vocation and followed it with success throughout his life. In 1885 he was united in marriage with Miss Junia Estelle Longfellow, who was born in Delaware County, Ohio, a daughter of Amos Longfellow, a captain of infantry during the war between the states, who died soon after the close of the war from the injuries and hardships which he had undergone during his military experience. Mrs. Gochenour's mother was a Davis, of the Virginia family of that name. To Mr. and Mrs. Gochenour there were born three children: Merl Longfellow, of this review; Verna, who is deceased; and Opal Helen, the wife of Baltzer A. Neuer, of Huntington, Indiana.
The early education of Merl Longfellow Gochenour was acquired in the country schools of Harrison Township, Kosciusko County, which he attended for eight years, following which he spent three years in the Burket High School and one year in the high school at Warsaw, and was graduated from the Warsaw High School in 1906. He then entered Indiana University, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts as a member of the class of 1910, and in the following year was given the degree of Master of Arts by Harvard University. For one year thereafter he was head of the history and government departments of the Oklahoma State Normal School, at Edmond, Oklahoma. In 1912 he returned to Warsaw and, after being admitted to the bar and to practice before the Supreme Court, entered into a law partnership with the late Andrew G. Wood. This partnership continued until Mr. Woods' death, following which he practiced alone for five years and then formed the present firm of Gochenour & Graham, with Ezra W. Graham. Their practice is large and important, and Mr. Gochenour is prominently known as an energetic, reliable lawyer, who is thoroughly grounded in the principles of all departments of his calling.
During the World war Mr. Gochenour was very active. He was chairman of the War Loan organization in Kosciusko County, Indiana. He has made the conservation of our natural resources a hobby for years, was a pioneer in the work of the Izaak Walton League of America and for three years edited the Arms and Ammunition department of Outdoor America, the official magazine of the Izaak Walton League. He was chairman of the constitution committee, in the first national convention of that organization, of the resolutions committee at the second convention, and at the third national convention was chairman of the legislative committee.
For the next three years Mr. Gochenour was a national director and served as chairman of the state legislative committee of Indiana, where, in collaboration with Mr. Graham, his law partner, he drew the conservation bills, fathered by the League, most of which are now on the statute books. Politically a Democrat, he was president of the Jackson Club at Indiana University, during his college days, but has never mixed politics with his law practice. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian Church, and fraternally he belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks . Mr. Gochenour has hunted big game in most of the Canadian provinces, principally in British Columbia and Alberta, and has written extensively for leading American periodicals dealing with out-door subjects, such as Field and Stream, etc. He holds a fellowship in the American Museum of Natural History, is a participating member of the American Geographical Society, and a member of the American Forestry Association. At present and for the past five years Mr. Gochenour has been operating three farms, one of them the old Gochenour homestead, founded by his grandfather in 1832. On these holdings he has been doing some practical conservation and in sixty acres of native woodlands has been planting several hundred trees each year from the Indiana State Nursery. In addition to his conservation example he is conducting a successful venture in the polling of the milking type of Shorthorn cattle, and has one of the best herds in Northern Indiana.
In 1913 Mr. Gochenour was united in marriage with Miss Lois Eliza Chapman, of Warsaw, and to this union there have been born two children: John Chapman, born in 1915, who is attending Warsaw High School; and Jane, who was killed in an automobile accident when six years of age. The pleasant family home is at 830 East Center Street.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3 By Charles Roll, A.M. The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
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1906 - 1981 (74 years)
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