I G -' > THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE INDIANA A REVIEW OF TWO CENTURIES OF OCCUPATION OF THE REGION ABOUT THE HEAD OF THE MAUMEE RIVER By B. J. GRISWOLD ILLUSTRATED WITH HALFTONE ENGRAVINGS AND THREE HUNDRED PEN DRAWINGS AND MAPS BY THE AUTHOR VOLUME II. BIOGRAPHICAL ALSO THE STORY OF THE TOWNSHIPS OF ALLEN COUNTY BY MRS. SAMUEL R. TAYLOR CHICAGO Robert O. Law Company 1917 "'''-' w 'r.\ : ^ TilZ NEV/ YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R 10'^ 7 L » « • ' • . I » 1 . » Publisher's Statement In issuing these volumes to our subscribers the publishers desire to say a word of appreciation for the editor, Mr. B. J. Griswold. In the course of a long service in like publications, and after laboring with hundreds of writers and editors in many parts of the country, it remains to Mr. Griswold to be esteemed by us the most eflBcient and in every way the most satisfactory person with whom it has been our province to be associated in a similar line of endeavor. Although relatively a newcomer to Fort Wayne, he has, nevertheless, been able to bring to his work an enthusiasm which usually comes only through long years of intimate association with the locality that is the subject of research. His talents have richly equipped him for preserving not only the verbal story but also the scenic part; and herein is where most histories, both local and general, are remarkably incomplete. The embelishments of these volumes alone make this work unique and valuable, and we enter- tain no doubt that they will be appreciated and long cherished by those who have been fortunate enough to anticipate their worth. Mr. Griswold was born October 13, 1873, at Osage, Iowa, the son of James J. and Ruth Velerie (Arnold) .Griswold, who still reside there. The father was born in Canada, and the mother in Michigan. After leaving the public school, B. J. Griswold began his newspaper experience in the office of the Osage Weekly News, and was afterward engaged on the staffs of the Waterloo (Iowa) Courier, the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, the Terre Haute (Indiana) Tribune, and the Indianapolis (Indi- ana) Star. He came to Fort Wayne in 1902 and served for nine years as a cartoonist of the Fort Wayne Daily News, and later was engaged in the same capacity with the Fort Wayne Sentinel. Previous to the latter experience he became one of the founders of the Fort Wayne Engraving Company. His present business, the Progressive Advertising Company, was established in 1914. On March 21, 1901, Mr. Griswold was united in marriage with Miss Clara Louise Norton, at Cedar Falls, Iowa. Mr. Griswold is an active member of the Rotary Club, of which he is serving as secretary, and of the Quest Club and the Commercial Club. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Plymouth Congregational church. THE PUBLISHERS. Index to Portraits in This Volume Barnett, Charles Eldridge 39 Bash, Charles S 43 Bass, John H 45 Bass, John H., Residence 48 Bowser, Sylvanus F. 82 Breen, William P 87 Breuer, William 90 Curdes, Louis F 120 Deihl, Hugh M 125 Dreibelbiss, John 144 Duemling, Hermann A 148 Eekart, Fred 153 Ellison, Thomas E 160 Eward, Edgar D 169 Foster, David N 187 Foster, Samuel M 190 Fox, Louis 194 Guldlin, Olaf N 243 Hackett, Edward A. K 252 Hadley, Robert 256 Haffner, Christian 257 Hanna, Samuel 264 Hayden, Fred J 279 Hoffman, Edward G 295 Klaehn, W. Robert 333 Klitzke, William C 335 Kunkle, Erastus B 344 Lumbard, Sidney C 365 Menefee, Charles M 392 Morris, John 408 Morris, Samuel L., Jr 409 Perfect, Arthur H 442 Pidgeon, Charles T 447 Porter, Miles F 452 Rockhill, Howell C 480 Rosenthal, Isaac M 489 Rosenthal, J. Milton 491 Rosenthal, Maurice 1 492 Rurode, Ernst C 495 Swinney, Thomas W 563 Taylor, Robert S 564 Vesey, William J 582 Welty, Joel 604 Worden, Charles H 620 Worden, James L 622 Biographical Sketches George F. Aichele is senior member of the firm of Aichele & Son, "whicli conducts in Fort Wayne a substantial and representative business in the manufacturing and handling of cemetery monuments of the best modern type, and the concern has acknowledged leadership in this line of enterprise in Allen county, with a large and well equipped establish- ment that has the best of facilities for the handling of all classes of monu- mental and other enduring memorial work on sacred grounds, con- secrated to those who have passed forward to "that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns." Mr. Aichele was born in Wurtenberg, Germany, August 23, 1851, and was a child of three years when he came with his parents to the United States, the voyage across the Atlantic having been made on an old-time sailing vessel of the type then commonly in commission for such transportation service. The family home was established in Kendallville, and there the subject of this review acquired his early education in the public schools. In 1881 he established his home in Fort Wayne and found employment in connection with the line of business of which he is now a prominent representative. He learned the trade of marble and granite cutting in a most thorough way and he has here been established in his indepndent business as a manufacturer of and dealer in cemetery monuments, grave- stones, markers, etc., since 1894, the enterprise, built up on the best of service and honorable methods, being now conducted under the firm name of Aichele & Son. Mr. Aichele is a man of broad views and well fortified opinions, takes loyal interest in public affairs of local order and gives his political support to the Socialist party, though he has never had any desire for political activity or public office. In addition to his business he is the owner of valuable real estate in Fort Wayne, in- cluding his attractive home property. In the state of New York, in 1874, Mr. Aichele wedded Miss Marie Scheymentki, and they became the parents of three children : Wilhelmina D., Clarence, who is a barber and resident of Fort Wayne, and August C, who is associated with his father in business, as junior member of the firm of Aichele & Son. John H. Aiken is another of the native sons of Allen county M'hose ability, ambition and character have brought to him established position- as one of the successful and representative members of the bar of the county, and his precedence has been shown also by his able administra- tion on the bench of the superior court of Allen county, a position of which he was the incumbent about two years. Since his retirement from this judicial office he has given his undivided attention to his substantial and important general law business, and he maintains his offices in the Swinney building. Fort Wayne. Judge Aiken was born in Lafayette township, this county, on the 19th of January, 1870, and is a son of John and Martha J. (Trainer) Aiken, the former of whom was born either in Pennsylvania or Eastern Ohio, and the latter was born in one of the eastern counties of the old Buckeye State. John Aiken came to Allen 18 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES county in 1860 and established his home in Lafayette township, where he owned and improved a good farm. After the lapse of a number of years he sold this property and, after passing an interval in the state of Tennessee, returned to Allen county and engaged in farming in Lake township. He was a Democrat in politics, served as county assessor, and was influential in community affairs. A man of the deepest Christian faith and practice, he served many years as a local preacher in the Metho- dist Episcopal church, and both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives in Fort Wayne, the subject of this review being the youngest of their eight children. John H. Aiken passed the period of his childhood and early youth on the home farm and after profiting duly by the advantages of the public schools he took a course in the old Methodist College in Fort Wayne. In consonance vnih his well defined ambition to prepare himself for the legal profession, he entered the law department of the great University of Michigan, in which he was gradu- ated as a member of the class of 1891 and from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws. In May of that year he was admitted to the Indiana bar and established himself in the practice of his profession in Fort Wayne. He was for a time associated with M. V. B. Spencer, and thereafter he conducted an independent practice until 1905, when he formed a partnership with Homer C. Underwood. This alliance con- tinued until 1908, when Judge Aiken removed to Warsaw, the judicial center of Kosciusko county, where for the ensuing three years he was associated in practice with Judge A. G. Wood. He then returned to Fort Wayne, and here his law business has since been of an individual order. As a skilled trial lawyer he has appeared in connection with much important litigation in the various courts of this section of the state, and from 1900 until November, 1902, he gave most effective service on the bench of the Superior court of the county, from which office he retired to give his undivided attention to his large and representative private law business. In 1896 he was appointed county attorney for the poor, and of this position he continued the incumbent four years. In politics Judge Aiken is a stalwart and well fortified advocate of the cause of the Democratic party, and he is actively affiliated with the Masonic fra- ternity, in which he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, besides being identified with the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a Knight Templar. On the 1st of Septem- ber, 1891, was recorded the marriage of Judge Aiken to Miss Lulu Bush, daughter of Dr. ^Morton W. Bush, of Chelsea, Michigan, and the one child of this union is Arthur L., who is now a resident of the city of Detroit, Michigan. William Albersmeyer is a native German, born on Neveraber 15, 1873, son of Fred and Elizabeth (Heine) Albersmeyer. The father died in Germany and, in 1883, his widow took her family of seven children and came to America, settling in Fort Wayne, where she passed the remainder of her life. The sons and daughters were Fred, Charles, Christ, William, Minnie, Lizette and Hannah. William Avas sent to live with an uncle in Milan township, after the family located in Fort Wayne, and there had such educational advantages as the public scliools offered. He was still in his teens when he took up farming on his oAvn lookout and has since continued to be actively identified with that industry, enjoying a pleasureable degree of success and acquiring possession of ninety acres of the most fertile and productive land in the township. He bought FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 19 unimproved land and has himself carried on the difficult task of bringing it up to its present high state of cultivation, and his work along the lines of diversified farming is highly creditable to him. Mr. Albersmeyer was married, in 1901, to Miss Sophia Dressier, daughter of August Dressier. Four children have come to them — Esther, Iraogard, Elmer and Gertrude. The family have membership in the German Lutheran church and Mr. Albersmeyer is an adherent of the Democratic party in politics. Samuel Rockwell Alden. — Thirty-eight years have passed since Samuel R. Alden established himself in the practice of law in Fort Wayne. In these years he has been a participant in many of the developing pro- cesses that have gone to make that place the prosperous and representa- tive American city it is known to be, and his labors have won for him a position and prominence that might well be envied by his associates. Samuel Rockwell Alden was born in South Wilbraham, Massachusetts, on August 30, 1847, and he is the son of Harlow and Mary Ann (Imson) Alden. Harlow Alden was born in Lyme, New Hampshire. An inventor, dreamer and all-round mechanic, he never made a financial success, though expert in carpentry, cooperage and cabinet work. Disabled during the civil war, in service as sapper and miner, he could not help his son. The mother, spiritual, educated, and energetic, was the formative force in the education and development of her son, and by teaching she was for years the family support. Of mixed descent — English, Scotch, Welsh, German, Dutch and Irish — Samuel R. Alden is a typical American and the twelfth in line from John Alden of Mayflower fame. He came with his parents to Whitewater, Wisconsin, when a small boy and attended the schools in that place. When he had finished his high school course he entered Beloit College, at Beloit, Wisconsin, but his studies were broken off as the result of an injury he sustained in an attempt to stop a runaway. When the Normal School opened at Whitewater, his home town, young Alden began to attend, though he was still suffering from his accident and was able to get about only on crutches. Shortly after that he was appointed to the position of instructor in certain subjects, and for two years taught advanced English and Elocution. His next post was as assistant in Mathematics to Prof. Horace Briggs, at the Buffalo Classical School, a preparatory school for boys. Mr. Alden continued there for two years and in 1874 he went abroad to continue his studies. He attended the University of Leipsic for a year and then entered the University of Heidelberg, after which he spent several months in study in Paris. Returning to his native country he entered Columbia Law School, and he completed a two year course in one year. His admission to the bar of the state of Wisconsin followed shortly afterward and in 1878 he came to Fort Wayne, where he has since been engaged in civil practice, enjoying a marked degree of success and prosperity. Mr. Alden is a prominent Republican and a member of the Baptist church. He has been a Scottish Rite Mason since 1890 and is a member of the Shrine. He has long been a staunch member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, and for several years served as president of its predecessor, the Fort Wayne Club. In December, 1884, Mr. Alden was married to Carrie Savin, the daughter of Auguste F. and Sarah J. (Staniford) Savin, of New York City, where Mrs. Alden was born. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Alden. Whiting, the eldest, is a forester, in the employ of the Canadian Pacific railway and stationed at Calgary, Alberta, 20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Canada. Dorothy is the wife of Fernand Prnssing, a mechanical engineer of Chicago, and, like her new-woman sisters, continues her professional work after marriage. Spencer Thorndyke, a senior at Cornell University, enlisted in the Naval Reserve and is now in the coast patrol guard, sta- tioned at Newport, Rhode Island. Charles B. Aldrich, recognized as a man of excellent professional attainments, has been engaged in the practice of law in Fort Wayne since 1911 and is one of the prominent and influential younger members of the bar of Allen county. A scion of sterling New England colonial ancestry, he was born at Chattanooga, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1885, and is a son of Charles T. and Susetta (Milan) Aldrich. After due preliminary educational discipline he entered historic old Yale University, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1906 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In preparation for his chosen profession he was matriculated in the Chattanooga Law School, in the city of Chatta- nooga, Tennessee, and from the same he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws in the year 1908. In 1910 he completed an efiPective post-graduate course in the law school of Yale University, but he had been admitted to the Indiana bar in the year that recorded his graduation in the Chatta- noosra Law School. In 1911 he engaged in the practice of his profession in Fort Wayne, and since January 1, 1916, has here been a member of the strong and representative law firm of Ryan, Ryan & Aldrich, which controls a substantial and important practice. Mr. Aldrich is a popular member of the Allen County Bar Association and holds membership also in the Indiana State Bar Association. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party, he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic church, and he is af^liated with the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and the Improved Order of Red Men. On the 9th of July, 1912, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Aldrich to Miss Juanita Ryan, of Fort Wayne, and the one child of this union is a son, William. Right Rev. Herman Joseph Alerding", the present bishop of the dio- ce-^e of Fort Wayne, has been the occupant of that exalted station since his consecration, November 30, 1900, and under his administration the diocese has flourished, the churches have been increased in members, church properties improved, and all kindred interests have progressed most satisfactorily. Bishop Alerding was born in Westphalia, Germany, April 13, 1845, and while he was as yet an infant the familj' migrated to America, establishing a home at Newport, Kentucky, where the future Bishop attended the parochial schools of Corpiis Christi church. Bishop Alerding relates that all the children of the parish, boys and girls, num- bering about one hundred and fifty, were taught in one room, by one teacher, which is in striking contrast with the schools of the present day. The education was in every respect strenuous, but the youthful Alerding persisted in his studies, as he had, from his earliest boyhood days, evinced an inclination and a desire to beco)ne a priest. He received his first lessons in Latin from Rev. John VoU, pastor of Corpus Christi church at Newport, and from 1858 until 1859 attended the diocesan seminary at Vincennes, Indiana. The second year of his studies was spe 't in the old St. Thomas Seminary, near Bardstown, Kentucky, and in the fall of I860 he was sent to St. Meinrad's College and Seminary in Spencer county, Indiana, which institution was conducted by Bene- dictine Fathers who had come to this country from Einsiedlen, Switzer- FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 21 land. There young Alerding finished his studies and received the Holy Orders from Bishop de St. Palais, the Tonsure and Minor Orders being received on September 18, 1865, Subdeaconship on June 18, 1867, Deacon- ship on June 21 of the same year and Priesthood on September 22, 1868. After receiving the Holy Orders his first appointment was that of assist- ant to the Rev. John B. Chasse at St. Joseph's church, in Terre Haute, and there he remained until October 18, 1871. While serving there in that capacity he also had charge of the missions at Rockville and Montezuma, the stations at Rosedale in Parke county and the mission at Sullivan and the station at Farmersburg, in Sullivan county. He was removed to Cambridge City, October 18, 1871, and there he served as the pastor of St. Elizabeth's church until August, 1874. He found a demoralized congregation in this place, but he was able to liquidate the indebted- ness on the church property and also to purchase a more favorable site for the erection of a new church building. During his pastorate in Cambridge City he also had charge of the station at Knightstown and Newcastle, in Henry county, and Hagerstown, in Wayne county. The churches at Knightstown and Newcastle were built by him and ■wholly paid for. In the summer of 1874, Father Alerding was transferred to Indianapolis and appointed to the position of procurator for the newly established St. Joseph's seminary, also serving as pastor for the congregation which had regular services in the seminary chapel. The seminary was abandoned after one year, and later Father Alerding was directed to build a new church. In compliance the present St. Joseph's church was erected and the dedicatory services were held on July 4, 1880. Father Alerding continued as pastor of this charge until 1900, wh-^n the See of Fort Wayne became vacant upon the death of Bishop Rademacher, and Father Alerding was appointed to the position, the consecration taking place on November 30 of the same year. In 1901, the first year of his administration, the Bishop's House, at the corner of Lewis and Clinton streets, was erected, and in 1906 a crypt for the burial of church dignitaries was constructed beneath the sanctuary. In 1883 Bishop Alerding published "A History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Vincennes," which book " is a monument to his indus- try and untiring patience," and in 1907 he published "The Diocese of Fort Wayne; a Book of Historical Reference," which increased the debt of gratitude owed him by the thousands of interested members of the Mother Church. John D. Alleger, proprietor of the Monroeville Breeze and Nestor of the Press in Allen county, was born in Danville, Pennsylvania, August 24, 1854. The year following his birth the parents came to Allen county, and here he has spent his life from that time to the present. The first home of the family was in a small house which stood on the grounds now a part of Concordia College. The father owned and oper- ated a portable sawmill and thus it came about that Mr. Alleger lived in various parts of the county. Acquiring only a rudimentary education, he early began that course of industry which has become a settled charac- teristic. He went through the bootblack and newsboy period of busi- ness, in the former of which he was the first in the city, and in his early 'teens was a coachman for Hon. Hugh McCulloch. In 1869 he took up the printer's calling in the old Fort Wayne Gazette office and with slight variation he has been identified with the newspaper business of the county since that time. He worked for three years 22 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES in the Monroeville Democrat office and then returned to Fort Wayne, where he remained until 1881, when he resumed his connection in Mon- roeville. He bought the Democrat, January 1, 1884, and at once changed the name to the Breeze, by Avhich it has been known ever since. He was then without funds, but was enabled to purchase it through the aid of thirty-three citizens who signed a promissory note for $1,000 — on which he borrowed the money. The Breeze has been a consistent advocate of Democratic principles though not a slave to partisan rule. In February, 1874, was solemnized his marriage with Malinda Wass, who has borne him three children, named Mrs. Dovie May Noyer (now deceased) ; William R., and Mrs. Elsie Winifred Battenberg. The son is now associated with the father in conducting the Breeze and thus Mr. Alleger is enabled to give attention to his other interests, among which is a fine farm of seventy-one acres near the town. William R. was married to Susie E. Filler and they have one son — John Carlton — now thirteen years old and a pupil in the high school. Mr. Alleger is, as may be inferred, a Democrat in politics and has held the office of Justice of the Peace for thirty years and through this has come to be known among his acquaintances as Judge Alleger. Fraternally he beloncrs to the Masons, I. 0. 0. F., K. of P. and Jr. O. U. A. W. Albert C. Alter passed his entire life in Fort Wajaie and was but forty years of age at the time of his death, which occurred December 7, 1912. The succinct biography of any man may be summed up in the terse expressions that he was born, he lived and he died, but how much is implied aside from this depends upon the man himself and the use he makes of his powers, the attitude which is his toward his fellow men. Mr. Alter achieved independence and success through his own efforts, but over and above this he held himself true and loyal in all of the rela- tions of life, expressed his buoyant nature in kindly thoughts and kindly deeds, and it may well be said that when he passed from the stage of his mortal endeavors the popular estimate of him was shown in the sorrow and regret that came to the hearts of a host of friends who had been drawn to him during the course of his generous and gracious life. To have gained such friends bespeaks the most and best for any man. Albert C. Alter was born at Fort Wayne on October 18, 1872, and was a son of Nicholas and Barbara (Grotenrath) Alter, the former a native of Fort Wayne and the latter of Cleveland, Ohio. The father was one of the pioneer shoe merchants of Fort Wayne, where he continued to reside until his death and where his widow still maintains her home — at 1040 Lake avenue. From an appreciative estimate that was published some time prior to the death of Mr. Alter may consistently be taken the follo^\^ng quotations: "The subject of this sketch is a living proof of the falsity of the assertion that there is nothing in a name. The verb alter, according to wise old Noah Webster and a few other authorities, means the same as 'change,' and this tells in a word just the manner in which Mr. Alter made his money. No, he didn't make it on 'change,' as many another man has done; he simply made it out of change — small change, pennies, nickels and dimes. He started in as a hustling, thrifty ncM'sboy, crying his wares on the very corner of which he is now the boss— a splendid example for the 'newsies' who congregate there daily and make life interesting for those waiting for their cars. We hope they'll all peruse this little story and profit thereby. One day Mr. Alter found himself in charge of the news stand of the Aveline Hotel. Gradually his prosperity increased FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 23 until he was able to open the present finely equipped cigar and news stand on the busiest corner of the city. All of this and his other evidences of prosperity have been accomplished because he tried to treat everybody right, not forgetting, of course, Mr. Albert C. Alter." Mr. Alter not only thus proved himself a worker when he was a mere boy but he also profited duly by the advantages offered in the public schools of his native city. As a boy he began to assist in the work of his father's shoe store, and later he was for some time employed in the store of A. C. Cott, news dealer. His advancement was shown by his presiding over the news stands in the Aveline Hotel and the Wayne Hotel, and it was in the year 1901 that he opened his cigar and news stand at the corner of Calhoun and Main streets, where he continued to conduct a prosperous business until the time of his death. Mr. Alter was a Democrat in politics, was a communicant of the Catholic church, and was affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks. On the 20th of November, 1902, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Alice Hunt, who was born and reared in Fort Wayne and who is a daughter of James and Mary (Finan) Hunt, the former of whom has been a resident of Fort Wayne from the time of his birth and the latter, now deceased, was a native of Ohio. Mr. Hunt was for many years one of the successful buyers and shippers of live stock in North Indiana and is now living retired in Fort Wayne. Mr. and Mrs. Alter became the parents of three children, two of whom survive him — Charlotte and Julian. The second child, Albert, died in infancy. On the 15th of November, 1915, Mrs. Alter con- tracted a second marriage, and her present husband, Harry C. Beekner, a native of Fort Wayne, is a commercial traveling salesman for the C. T. Pidgeon Millinery Company, of this city. Noali Amstutz is one of the energetic and representative farmers of the younger generation in his native township, is a scion of one of the old and honored families of Allen county, and in his operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower is bringing to bear the best of mod- ern methods and policies, so that the maximum success attends his farm enterprise, besides which he shows his civic loyalty by taking active and liberal interest in community affairs. He is a son of Jacob and Sophia (Culp) Amstutz, and on other pages of this publication are given adequate data concerning the family history. Born in Springfield township, December 2, 1882, Noah Amstutz passed the period of his childhood and youth under the benignant influences and discipline of the home farm and in the meanwhile did not fail to profit fully by the advantages of the public schools of his native township. A young man of alert mentality and definite ambition, he has never severed his allegiance to the great basic industry of agriculture and through the medium of the same has achieved success that has fully justified this fealty. His independent operations as a farmer were instituted on the old homestead, and he is now the owner of a fine farm of one hundred and fifty-four acres in Section 32, Springfield township, as well as a well-improved additional tract of forty-five acres in Cedar Creek town- ship. The year 1917 finds him serving his second term as one of the progressive and valued members of the Allen county council, and he is aligned as a stalwart advocate and supporter of the cause of the Democratic party. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity his ancient- craft affiliation is with Harlan Lodge No. 296, and he is identified also with other York Rite bodies, has received advancement in the Scottish 24 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Rite and is affiliated also with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In 1902 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Arastutz to Miss Millie Knight, daughter of Lewis and Christina (Miller) Knight, of Milan township, and the four children of this union are Kenneth, Jeauette, May and Thelma. The attractive rural home of the family is known for its generous hospitality and is about three- fourths of a mile distant from the village of Harlan. Peter S. Amstutz was born in Springfield township, Allen county, September 27, 1853, on the farm that is now his home, so that he has a record of sixty-four years of continuous residence in the one spot. He is one of the prosperous men of the community, connected prom- inently with various business enterprises in his district, and is a man highly esteemed of all who know him. He is the son of Peter and Barbara (Schulenger) Amstutz, both natives of Alsace, the French province in Germany. Peter Amstutz, the elder, came to America when he was twenty-two years of age and located in Wayne county, Ohio. His marriage took place in Stark county, Ohio, and after several years of residence there he came to Allen county, Indiana, in 1852, settling on the farm now the home of the subject. Nine children were born to Peter and Barbara Amstutz, of which number only two survive. The children, named in the order of their birth, were John, Joseph, Jacob, Lydia, Barbara, Peter, Jr., Mary, Anna and John, the last named being a prosperous citizen of Wayne county, Ohio. The parents spent their lives in work on their Allen county farm, and prospered according to their labors. When they died the home place went to Peter, Jr., the only other surviving child being established in Wayne county, as has been stated previously. When young Amstutz was eighteen years old he engaged in the implement business, using the home place as a center for his operations. In 1901 the Wabash Railroad, cutting through Springfield township, made Grabill a busy center and Mr. Amstutz moved his business to that point. He has carried on a successful trade in farm implements these many years, besides having found many other important enterprises to identify himself with. He is president of a successful lumber company, director of the People's Store Company and a director of the Woodburn Banking Company, of which concern he was one of the organizers. He is also a stockholder in the Harlan State Bank. In 1879 Mr, Arastutz was married to Anna Roth, who was born in Allen county, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Souder) Roth. Mr. and Mrs. Roth were the parents of five children, of which Mrs. Amstutz was the eldest. The others were Levi, Elizabeth, Lydia and Louisa. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Amstutz. Aaron, the eldest, is located on a farm near Harlan, Delbert G. is also located in that vicinity as a farmer. Harvey is on the old home place. Emma is the wife of Albert Neuenschwander, of Grabill, and Viola, the youngest, is at home with her parents. In 1903 the wife and mother died and in later years Mr. Amstutz married Lydia Grabill, who has since shared his fortunes. Mr. Amstutz is a Republican, prominent in local politics, and a public-spirited citizen first and last. He has served his community ably as a director of the school board and has been supervisor of his township on several occasions, as well as holding other township offices from time to time. In all of them he has displayed an aptitude for public service and has amply earned the regard and esteem in which he has long been held by his fellow citizens and neighbors. FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 25 Charles Ashley. — As senior member of the firm of George L. Ashley's Sons, the subject of this review is one of the progressive and successful representatives of the real estate business in his native county, and since the death of their honored father he and his brother, George S., have successfully conducted the substantial business that was founded by the father after he had retired from the office of county recorder, the family having been one of prominence in Allen county for three generations. Charles Ashley was born on a farm in St. Joseph township, this county, a few miles distant from Fort Wayne, and the date of his nativity was March 11, 1876. He is a son of George L. and Josephine (Darling) Ashley, the former of whom was born and reared in this county, where his parents settled in the pioneer days, and the latter was born at Keene, New Hampshire. The parents of George L, Ashley settled in Allen county as pioneers and his father here became a prosperous farmer, with which line of basic industry he continued to be identified until his death. George L. was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and in his independent operations as an agriculturist and stockgrower he eventually became the owner of one of the model farms of St. Joseph township. To the management of this homestead he continued to give his attention until he was elected county recorder, in the autumn of 1904, his inviolable hold upon popular confidence and esteem having been significantly shown in this connection, as he successfully overcame at the polls the large and normal Democratic majority and had the distinction of being the only Republican elected to this office in the county during the entire period of its history. He assumed the duties of the office Janu- ary 1, 1905, and his able administration during the ensuing four years fully demonstrated the consistency of the popular choice of an incumbent. After retiring from office he established himself in the real estate business in Fort Wayne, and his exact and comprehensive knowledge of realty values in this section of the state combined with his executive ability and personal popularity to fortify him splendidly in the development of a substantial business, his two sons having been associated with him in the enterprise which they have effectively continued since his death. George L. Ashley was a man of broad mental ken, of invincible rectitude in all of the relations of life, and held himself true to his high ideals until he passed from the stage of his mortal endeavors, January 5, 1916, the wife of his youth having passed away on the 7th of January, 1879, leaving one son, the immediate subject of this sketch. Mrs. Ashley was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as was also her husband. He married, second, Addessa M. Miller and she bore him the following children : Olive E., wife of Arthur J. Smith, of Fort Wayne ; Oscar J., died in 1913 ; George S., junior member of the real estate firm of George L. Ashley's Sons, and Josephine Margaret, wife of Calvin C. Magley, of Fort Wayne. He married, third, Mrs. Zella Culber, who survives him. Mr. Ashley attained to the thirty-second degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry, and it is pleasing to note that he was treasurer of the class of 1912, in which he and his three sons simultaneously received the thirty- second degree and were duly crowned sublime princes of the royal secret. In the public schools of his native county Charles Ashley continued his studies until he had duly availed himself of the advantages of the high school in Fort Wayne, after which he completed a course in a well ordered business college in this city. He continued to be associated in the work and management of the home farm until he was twenty-four years old 26 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES and when his father was elected county recorder he assumed a position in the recorder's ofifice, in which he served as his father's deputy during the latter 's regime of four years, after which he became a member of the firm of George L. Ashley & Sons, in the real estate business in Fort Wayne. After the death of the honored father the present title of George L. Ashley's Sons was adopted, and the firm controls a well ordered and substantial business in the handling of both city and farm property in this section of the state. Mr. Ashley holds himself unwavering in allegiance to the Republican party, and in addition to his affiliation with the Masonic fraternity, as previously intimated, he is identified also with the Tribe of Ben Hur, both he and his wife being members of the Methodist Episco- pal church. In 1900 was recorded his marriage to Miss Jessie V. Sweet, who was born and reared in Fort Wayne, and they have two children — Charles L. and Marjorie R. Mark Ashton, who was born in Maumee township, January 11, 1876, is now numbered among the representative exponents of agricultural and live-stock industry in this township, his excellent farm, comprising seventy-five acres, being well improved and eligibly situated. Mr. Ashton is a son of Ambrose and Mary Annie (Cummins) Ashton, both natives of Ohio, the former having been born in Brown county and the latter in Clermont county, and both having been children at the time of the removal from the old Buckeye state to become pioneer settlers of Allen county, Indiana. After their marriage Ambrose Ashton and his young wife estab- lished their home on a farm in Maumee township, and there they passed the remainder of their earnest and industrious lives, the passing years bringing to them a consistent measure of prosperity, the while they had inviolable place in the esteem of all who knew them. They became the parents of seven children, and all are living except Clark, who was a twin of the subject of this sketch and who died at an early age, and Clarence F., the youngest of the number, who is also deceased. The sur- viving children are George F., Mrs. Nellie A. Doerring, Joseph L., Mrs. Lily D. Keefer, and Mark. The honored father passed from the stage of Lis mortal endeavors December 24, 1895, the devoted wife and mother having been summoned to eternal rest October 3, 1892. Ambrose Ashton played a large and benignant part in the community life, commanded unqualified confidence and esteem, served as township trustee of Maumee township, and for a number of years held the office of justice of the peace. Mark Ashton is indebted to the public schools of his native county for his early education, and he has been continuously identified v/ith agricultural pursuits from the time of his youth, his independent opera- tions having been instituted on the old home farm, of which his present well improved farm is a part. His political support is given to the Republican party, he is a loyal citizen who gives co-operation in the furtherance of measures and enterprises advanced for the general good of the community, but he has manifested no ambition for public office of any kind. November 1, 1900, stands as the date of the marriage of Mr. Ashton to Miss Lela H. Burrier, who likewise was born and reared in tliis county and who is a member of a family that was here established in the early pioneer days. She is a daughter of George and Alice (Sanders) Burrier. Mr. and Mrs. Ashton have four children, whose names and respective dates of birth are here designated: Florence M., December 22, 1903; George B., September 20, 1906; Frances L., January 30, 1909 ; and Forrest C, December 25, 1912. FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 27 Austin Augspurger is one of the progressive citizens of Maumee township, with place of residence at Woodburn, where he is engaged in the lumber business and also gives some attention to farming. Mr. Augspurger was born, May 23, 1869, and is a scion of a highly respected family, a number of members of which are residents of the city of Fort Wayne. In the lumber business Mr. Augspurger finds opportunity for the exercise of those qualities of thrift and energy with which he is abundantly endowed, and his activities add to the general spirit of enterprise and endeavor which characterizes the prosperous village of Woodburn. The Athenaeum — The following interesting treatise on one of Fort Wayne's modern educational institutions outlines the scope and the accomplishments of The Athenaeum — the Teachers' University of Com- merce— which is preparing great numbers of young people for success in the business world: "Yesterday's solutions won't solve tomorrow's problems. Yesterday's strategies won't surmount tomorrow's obstacles. Yesterday's means are not adequate to tomorrow's demands. Men, methods, ideas, change with the hour. Humanity moves with the calen- dar. Efficiency is the watchword of modern enterprise. To perform a task better, and still better than it was ever performed before ; to save time ; to eliminate waste ; to husband material ; to conserve human en- ergy; all is the keynote of every successful project, be it corporate or individual. Tasks which appeared infinite twenty-four hours agone are accepted as a common fact a day hence. In the sphere of education, as elsewhere, has the spirit of the age been markedly felt. Theory has culminated in fact ; speculation has given place to certainty ; concentra- tion has displaced sporadic eff'ort; misdirected energies have been de- veloped into effective forces ; methods and systems have been subordin- ated to results desired. A process of distillation, as it were, has been going on. The great fact of existence has been subjected to the care- ful scrutiny of the keenest minds, and the result is a scheme of education which more and more nearly approaches the practical ; which approxi- mates the instruction of the individual to the needs of real life. Hand and mind are coming to be trained alike to the solution of the struggles which each one must encounter as a sentient being, dependent upon his own powers for subsistence. In this condition began the present world- wide vocational movement of which the modern commercial training institution is a paramountly important part. In the early part of the present century, Mr. W. J. Bowker and Mr. A. B. Sheron, with the prescience which comes only of strenuous experience, perceived the great field open to a school of learning devoted entirely to the higher lines of this great branch of vocational effort, commercial education. Still further did they realize the splendid results which might accrue to such an institution were its student body selected from a class of people whose education and experience were entirely compatible with, and a logical prerequisite to, the assimilation of such knowledge. The Athenaeum, with its splendid body of former teachers in the public schools, was the magnificent results. As 'Mighty Oaks from Tiny Acorns Grow', as great crusades are born in the development of the few, so do gigantic enter- prises unfold themselves from small beginnings. The lofty structure is but the duplication of story upon story ; the great is but the small built big. The Athenaeum in its incipiency did not differ from a multitude of other great works; its beginning was unpretentious. He who would achieve by new methods must often batter to a breach a granite wall of precon- 28 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES ceived opinion and bias prejudice which will try his soul to the utter- most. With men and states, progress sometimes means near-revolution. The world acknowledges but grudgingly a victory in the winning of which she was not invited to actively participate. In this also, the Athenaeum was like to pioneers in other fields who left the broad avenues and blazed new trails ; storms often clouded the skies of its earlier days. It promulgated a new plan of education. It held forth a new idea of instruction to the youth, that which eliminated all which did not di- rectly bear upon the pursuit in which he purposed to win his subsistence; all which was not a pertinent and necessary part thereof being discarded. It sought patronage from only an adult class of students, whose age, previous education and experience had peculiarly fitted them to enter upon the study of higher commerce with a full realization of the re- sponsibilities thereof. In this last its student body was finally limited to those individuals who had formerly been teachers in the public schools, and who by reason of such previous employment were most free from undesirable or deterrent temperamental characteristics. Still another departure from the beaten paths was inaugurated in that the institution offered a plan of study to be followed by the student at his home, without the immediate presence of the instructor. Thus were the benefits of the work of the institution placed within the reach of those who, by reason of insufficient financial means were unable to cease their daily employment, and who might otherwise have been prevented from ever securing the education of their choice. With a meagre number of students as a nucleus, class followed upon class; year succeeded year; time sped on as only time can to those whose waking hours are filled with busy toil. With a steadfast faith in the everlasting correctness of its ideals, the institution forged steadily ahead with an ever-widening influence. First from adjacent counties, then from neighboring states, and finally from far-distant places over the entire country came patrons, leaders of their respective communities. In like degree was the staff of the institution increased by the addition of members especially trained to perform the duties assigned to them, until the present organization of nearly three score instructors, secretaries, division superintendents and assistants was perfected. Today, wherever commercial education is known and accepted throughout this broad land, The Athenaeum stands forth to beckon the ambitious on toward greater accomplish- ment. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to the Gulf, come splendid types of men and women to secure the superior benefits to be derived from the magnificent organization of the institution and the unbounded enthusiasm which pervades its every member. With an in- comparable student body of former teachers, results are being ac- complished which until the most recent years would have been deemed incredible. Here, indeed, has a new standard of business education been unfurled to the world of commerce ; here has leadership been won and maintained by the soundest of doctrines — Progress — Efficiency — At- tainment." Alfred T. Bailey is one of the three executive principals of the Ban- ner Laundering Company and has been an energetic and resourceful factor in the development and upbuilding of the prosperous and repre- sentative business now controlled by this company, which has one of the most modern and effectively conducted of laundry plants, with facilities of metropolitan order, the Banner laundry being one of the largest and best equipped in northern Indiana and its effective service having gained FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 29 and retained to it a representative and appreciative patronage. The business had its inception in 1896, when Messrs. Oscar C. Leggett, Ade- laide V. Leggett and Alfred T. Bailey opened a modest laundry near ihe corner of Woodlawn and Calhoun streets. One year later removal was made to 1317 Calhoun street, where the headquarters of the concern ware maintained eight years. The business had in the meanwhile greatly ex- panded and at the expiration of the period noted the company found it virtually necessary to establish larger and better quarters, with the re- su t that wise expediency was conserved by the erection of its present substantial two-story building, at 425 East Columbia street. The main building is forty by eighty-three feet in dimensions, the original engine room being thirty-six by thirty feet in dimensions and an addition, thirteen by sixteen feet, having been made to the same. Beginning with a force of only two assistants, the company now gives employment to seventy persons and in the handling of its business nine of the best met- ropolitan type of wagons are utilized. Oscar C. Leggett, one of the hon- ored founders of this important enterprise, continued his association with the same until his death, which occurred April 26, 1916, and the interested principals of the firm are now Adelaide V. Leggett, Alfred T. Bailey, and Grace E. Bailey. In August, 1915, the company was in- corporated under the laws of Indiana and with a capital stock of twenty- five thousand dollars. Alfred T. Bailey was born in Eaton county, Michigan, on August 26, 1869, and acquired his early education i'l the public schools of Ingham county, that state. His initial business experi- ence was gained as clerk in a general merchandise store at Lansing. Later he held a clerical position in the postoffice at that place, and finally he gained two years of practical and effective experience in the lau^idry business. In 1896 he came to Fort Wayne and became one of the founders of the Banner Laundering Company, of which he has remained one o1' the interested principals to the present time, his close application to nisi- ness having not precluded his taking a loyal interest in civic affair and in doing his part to further the advancement of his home. He is actively identified with the Fort Wayne Commercial Club and the Rotary lub, and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. He and his wife are popu- lar in the social activities of Fort Wayne, Mrs. Bailey, whose maiden name w^as Grace Davis, having been a resident of this city at the time of their marriage. Their children are Robert L. and Grace Elizabeth. J. Wade Bailey was born in Newtonville, Essex county, INlassa- chusetts, on August 29, 1879, and is a son of Joseph Tilden and Mabel (Allen) Bailey, both natives of the old Bay state, and both coming from families that date their respective ancestries back to the first settlement of the new world, so that Mr. Bailey may safely claim a purely American genealogy. The elder Bailey was engaged in the banking business in Boston for many years. J. Wade Bailey had his early education in his native city, and when he was graduated from the Newton high school he entered the employ of Fenno Brothers & Childs, then the largest wool dealers in the United States. This firm later sold out to Hartley Brothers, a firm composed of three London and two American merchants, and it may be said in passing that during the panic in the wool market in 1909 this firm failed for about a million and a half dollars. Following that failure Mr. Bailey became connected with the United States Fastener Company, of Boston, and after a year in the Boston offices of the firm he went to Chicago to look after the middle west end of the business, mak- ing his headquarters in Chicago for about two and a half years. He 30 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES left the employ of that firm to engage in the brokerage business, hand- ling manufacturer's lines on a commission basis, and while he was sufficiently successful in the work to warrant his continuation with it, he gave up the business because of the fact that it necessitated constant traveling, a feature that was extremely displeasing to him. Mr. Bailey exchanged his brokerage activities for a connection with the Burroughs Adding Machine Company of Detroit, and going to Peoria, Illinois, was located there for about ten months. He then took a city territory in Chicago for the same company, continuing there for six months, when the company gave him the agency for Northern Indiana, with head- quarters at Fort Wayne. Since locating in that territory Mr. Bailey has realized a generous measure of success in his work of popularizing a device which he claims is solely for the purpose of general betterment of business conditions through the installation of twentieth century methods of handling office records, and he believes that the record of such machines already placed by the majority of manufacturing, whole- sale and banking houses in that locality stands as an endorsement of that statement. Mr. Bailey was married in Chicago on June 27, 1912, to Miss Florence Tyler, daughter of Edward Tyler, a promoter of Detroit, Michigan. They have one daughter, Bertha Bailey, born October 29, 1913. Mr. Bailey is a Eepublican, and socially is a member of the Rotary Club of Fort Wayne. He is also a member of the Commercial Club. Andrew J. Baker is a native son of Fort Wayne, is a representative of one of the old and honored families of this city, and has been for nearly thirty-five years an efficient and valued member of the city fire depart- ment, in which he has held the office of captain since 1894. Since 1899 he has held continuously the office of captain at Fire House No. 7, the preceding five years having been marked by his service in a similar capacity at Fire House No. 5. Captain Baker was born in Fort Wayne on March 6, 1859, and is a son of Henry J. and Mary (Doherty) Baker, the former of whom was born in Germany on August 3, 1828, and the latter in the city of Rochester, New York, August 26, 1836. Henry J. Baker was six years of age at the time of his parents' immigration to America and he was reared and educated in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As a young man, associated with two of his brothers, he became promi- nently concerned with the civic and material interests of Fort Wayne and Allen county, and later in life he became a member of the firm of Murray & Baker, which developed a prosperous enterprise in the manu- facturing of mechanical and gas engines. He engaged also in the real estate business and as an exponent of the same did much to further the development and upbuilding of the present metropolis of Allen county. He laid out the plot of land on which is now located the Pennsylvania railroad depot in Fort Wayne, and his name is fittingly honored and perpetuated in the title of Baker street, in that section of the city. He was also in the saw-mill and general lumber business, and furnished the lumber for the Pittsburg Railroad Company shops. For a number of years he was superintendent of the Wabash and Erie Canal with head- quarters in Fort Wayne, and he was also one of the Directors and a stockholder in the Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad. He was essentially a sterling citizen of much energy, progressiveness and versatil- ity. This honored pioneer was but forty-four years of age at the time of his death, in 1872, and he was influential in public affairs of a local order, his allegiance having been given unreservedly to the Democratic party, and though he was not a seeker of public office he served at one FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 31 time as a director of the • northern state penitentiary of Indiana. His >vidow survived him for more than thirty years and v^'as nearly seventy years of age at the time of her death, in 1904, both having been earnest and consistent communicants of the Catholic church. They became the parents of nine children : Julia, who was born February 12, 1855, is the "wife of Charles E. Stapleford, and they maintain their home in the state of Colorado. Mrs. Stapleford is a woman of fine intellectual and literary attainments and is the author of an interesting published volume entitled "Wahseeola," an Indian word that signifies "The Light of the Tribes at the Meeting Waters," and in 1916-17 she is engaged in the prepara- tion for publication of another work entitled "Under the Yoke of Con- science," that is certain to find popular favor and enduring value. Henry J., who was born November 8, 1856, is bookkeeper for the Clifford Brothers Coal Company of Fort Wayne. Catherina likewise resides in Fort Wayne and is the widow of Victor MuUer. Captain Andrew J., of this review, was the next in order of birth. Ambrose C, born July 22, 1862, still resides in Fort Wayne. Margaret, born April 27, 1864, is the wife of August Steinbrunner, of this city. Lawrence A. still maintains his home in Fort Wayne, where he was born April 4, 1868. Ellen A., born August 25, 1870, died in 1916. Gertrude F., born February 11, 1872, is the wife of James Orr, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Cap- tain Andrew J. Baker acquired his early education in the Catholic parochial schools of Fort Wayne, and as a youth he served an appren- ticeship to the baker's trade, as if to make even more consistent the name which he bears. He did not long devote his attention to this trade, however, and after quitting the same he was for some time in the employ of the United States Express Company. In 1883, when twenty-four years of age, he became a minuteman in the Fort Wayne fire department, and in 1893 he was made a full-pay member of the department. That his service and executive ability were of high order was made manifest in the following year, when he was promoted to the office of captain and assigned to Fire House No. 5, where he remained until 1899, since which year he has been captain at Fire House No. 7, as previously noted in this context. The Captain is a strict disciplinarian but invariably just and considerate, so that he has the implicit confidence and good will of his co-workers and has made an admirable record of service as one of the resourceful and courageous fire-fighters of his native city. His political affiliation is with the Democratic party and he attends and supports the Catholic church, in the faith of which he was reared and of which his wife is a zealous communicant. On January 28, 1885, wass olemnized the marriage of Captain Baker to Miss Matilda O. Weier, who was born in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, and who is a daughter of Martin and Amelia (Weaineer) Weier, both natives of Germany. The name of Mrs. Weier 's first husband was Richter, and the one child of this union is Benjamin Richter, who is employed as a tinner by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Martin Weier, a tanner by trade, established his residence in Fort Wayne in 1861, and here both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. Of their six children Louis J. and Eleanor are deceased ; Mrs. Baker was the third and was reared and educated in Fort Wayne; Mollie is the wife of Frederick W. Yeager, of Chicago; Hattie is deceased, and Anthony is a resident of North Dakota. Captain and Mrs. Baker have but one child, Louis A., who is now a successful and popular traveling salesman for the Mossman-Yarnelle Company, of Fort Wayne. 32 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Joseph J. Baker has been a resident of Fort Wayne from the time of his birth, is a representative of one of the honored German families that was founded in Allen county in the pioneer days, and from his youth has been closely and worthily associated with business affairs in his native city, where for the long period of thirty-one years he was an etricient and valued employe of the United States Express Company, with which he remained virtually until this corporation closed up its business and retired from the field of enterprise in which it had long been a dominating factor. Mr. Baker is now one of the two interested principals in the Zurbuch-Baker Coal Company, which controls a pros- perous wholesale and retail business and in which his coadjutor is Joseph F, Zurbuch, concerning whom individual mention is made on other pages of this volume. Joseph J. Baker was born in Fort "Wayne, December 29, 1860, a son of Jacob and Agatha (Mayer) Baker, the former of whom was born in Hesse- Darmstadt, Germany, and the latter in Geisingeny, a town of the German grand duchy of Baden. Jacob Baker came to America as a young man, about the year 1839, and soon afterward became a resident of Fort Wayne, where he engaged in the work of his trade, that of wagonmaker, but soon afterward became the owner of a sawmill, to the operation of which he gave his attention for a term of years, as one of the substantial and valued business men of Fort Wayne. In 1878 he retired from active business and was \ en- erable in years at the time of his death, in August, 1895, his widow having passed to eternal rest on February 4, 1899, and both having been zealous communicants of St. Mary's Catholic church, of which he was a charter member, his political allegiance having been given to the Democratic party. Of the children the eldest is Mary E., who is now Sister Helen of the Catholic sisterhood of Notre Dame and is giving consecrated service at the present time in the city of St. Louis, Missouri ; Joseph J., of this sketch, was the second child; Father Joachim is a priest of the Catholic church and holds a pastoral charge at Remington, Jasper county, Indiana; and Johanna is the wife of Henry W. Kohr- mann, of Fort Wayne. Joseph J. Baker was afforded the advantages of the excellent parochial schools of St. Mary's church and as a youth entered the employ of the firm of Shaffer & Calbacker, with whom he remained three years. He then entered the local service of the United States Express Company, in the employ of which corporation he con- tinued for thirty-one years, at the expiration of which, in 1914, he became associated with Joseph F. Zurbuch, under the present title of the Zurbuch-Iiaker Coal Company. He is a loyal and public-spirited citizen and takes deep interest in all things pertaining to the welfare of his native city and county, the while be is found aligned as a staunch supporter of the principles of the Democratic party. Both he and his wife are active communicants of St. Mary's Catholic church, in con- nection with which he is a member of the Holy Name Society. On No- vember 18, 1890, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Baker to Miss Eliza- beth Miller, daughter of Joseph and Anastasia (Witz) Miller, of Fort Wayne, and they have three children — Helen, who is the wife of Thomas Harkenriter, of Fort Wayne; Leon J., who is attending the United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis, Maryland; and Agneta, who re- mains at the parental home. Leonard M. Bane — As one generation has followed another on to the stage of life Allen county has not failed so to recruit its bar as to FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 33 maintain at all times a high standard for the same, and the city of Fort Wayne has been the home and professional headquarters of many who have been distinguished figures in the history of Indiana jurisprudence. Leonard Morgan Bane is one of the successful and highly esteemed younger members of the Fort Wayne bar, and has been established in the practice of his profession in the Allen county metropolis and seat of government since the autumn of 1908. His close application and recognized ability have resulted in his developing a substantial law busi- ness and it is constantly and legitimately increasing in scope and im- portance from year to year — a condition that denotes the popular estimate placed upon his ability as an advocate and as a well fortified counselor. The ancestors of the Bane family came to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1687, from Lancaster, England. The name is Scotch-Irish origin. The great-great uncle of Leonard M. Bane on the Bane side of the family, was a captain of militia and an Indian fighter during the French and Indian war. A great-grandfather, Lot Leonard, of the maternal side of Mr. Bane's ancestral line, was a captain in the Revolutionary war. The grandfather of Mr. Bane on his mother's side was of German descent. Mr. Bane was born in Greene county, Pennsyl- vania, on November 8, 1880, and is a son of Morgan A. and Mary E. (Bowser) Bane, the former of whom was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, May 22, 1845, and the latter in Greene county, that state, July 14, 1852. The parents now maintain their home in Washington county, Pennsylvania, where the father is living virtually retired, he having been a successful farmer and also having been for many years engaged in practice as a veterinary surgeon. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party and while he has always taken a loyal interest in public affairs in his community he has not been a seeker of political office, though he held for twelve years the position of school director. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and he and his wife attend the Christian church. Of the children the eldest is David E., who is a resident of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where he is success- fully engaged in the practice of law; Leonard M., of this review, was the next in order of birth ; Seth C. resides in the village of Lock No. 4, Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he holds the position of time- keeper in the American Wire Mills; Orpha R. is principal of the public schools in one of the thriving villages of Fayette county, Pennsylvania; Veronia likewise is a successful teacher in that county; Pearl M. is the wife of Clyde Swaney, of Washington county, Pennsylvania; John R. is engaged in farming near Billings, Montana ; and Joseph H. remains at the parental home. Leonard M. Bane acquired his preliminary educa- tion in the public schools of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and sup- plemented this by an effective course in Madison Academy, at Union- town, that state. Thereafter he was a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of his native state until he initiated his preparation for the legal profession, his service as a teacher having continued for a period of six years. He finally came to Valparaiso, Indiana, where he entered the law department of the Valparaiso University, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1907, and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws, his admission to the Indiana bar having been recorded on the 5th of June of that year. On the 13th of November, 1908, he began the independent practice of his profession in Fort Wayne, and by his ability and effective service he has built up an excellent law business that marks him as one of the representative 34 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES younger members of the Fort Wayne bar. He is affiliated with the In- diana State Bar Association and the Allen County Bar Association, and he has been admitted to practice in the Indiana supreme court as "well as in the United States district court for Indiana. Mr. Bane gives unequivocal support to the principles of the Democratic party, and in Fort Wayne he attends and contributes to the support of the Christian church. In the Masonic fraternity his ancient craft affiliation is with Sol D. Bayless Lodge, No. 359, and in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Eite he has received the thirty-second degree, his maximum York Rite affiliation being with Fort Wayne Commandery of Knights Templars, besides which he holds membership in the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and is identified with the Knights of Pythias and the Loyal Order of Moose. He is an active member and supporter of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, and holds membership in the Uni- versity Club of Fort Wayne and the International Association of Motor clubs. Mrs. Carrie B. Banning, M. D. — In according recognition to the representative members of the medical profession in Allen county it is in order to pay tribute to Dr. Banning, whose services as a physician and surgeon have been marked by success. Dr. Banning has been engaged in the practice of her profession in Fort Wayne since 1898 and gives virtu- ally her entire attention to the treatment of the diseases of women. A woman of culture, the Doctor takes active interest in civic affairs, and is a woman whose friends are many. Dr. Banning was born at Phelps, Ontario county, New York, on the 11th of February, 1857, and is a daughter of Dr. Calvin Hasselton and Jeanette K. (DeLano) Carpenter, both likewise natives of the old Empire state and both representatives of families that were founded in America in the colonial era, the an- cestral record of each family running back in this country to 1638 and both having given valiant soldiers to the patriot forces in the war of the Revolution, so that the Doctor is eligible for and holds membership in the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Dr. Calvin Hasselton Carpenter, a physician and surgeon of much ability, served with distinction as a surgeon with the Union forces in the Civil war, in which he had charge of the Eighteenth Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac, besides having had supervision of hospital boats on the James river, in Virginia. After the close of the war he engaged in the practice of his profession at Geneva, New York, where he became one of the leading exponents of the Allopathy school of medicine and where he died when still a young man, his widow surviving him by many years ; his father was one of the prominent clergymen of the Baptist church in the state of New York for many years prior to his death. Dr. Banning, of this sketch, is the elder of the two children, and her only brother, Jay DeLano Carpenter, died at the age of eleven years. Dr. Banning acquired her early education in well ordered private schools and later attended the University of Wisconsin, at Madison. She likewise gave effective service as a teacher in the public schools, and on February 11, 1879, she became the wife of Edmond P. Banning. Within a period of five years' residence in the city of Boston, Massaclmsettes, she gave special attention to the study of vocal music. Eventually she determined to prepare herself for the profession in which her father had gained distinction. In consonance with this ambition she finally entered the Cleveland University of Medicine and Surgery, at Cleveland, Ohio, and in this institution she was graduated as a member of the class of 1894. FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 35 After thus receiving her degree of Doctor of Medicine she was engaged in practice at Willoughby, Ohio, until 1898, in which year she established her home in Fort Wayne. In this city she has impressed the intervening years with faithful service. The Doctor is a medical inspector of the public schools of Fort Wayne and also for the General Electric Company. She is a prominent member in the Indiana Federation of Women's Clubs, besides which she is identified with college sororities. In a professional way she is affiliated with the Indiana Institute of Homeopathy. Of the children of Dr. Banning the first, Lydia, died in infancy; Carina is the wife of William H. Warrington, of Fort Wayne, is a lawyer by profession and the first woman to be admitted to practice in Allen county. Florida is the wife of Charles Hart, of Fort Wayne ; and John D. is identified with the Doud real estate agency in this city. William N. Barden. — The life of William N. Barden, which came to a close on the 21st of April, 1913, was typical of the men who have entered heartily into the life of the community and made valuable contribution to the true social order. Mr. Barden was born in Genesee county, New York, October 22, 1846, a son of Nathaniel and Loretta (Brown) Barden. His father was a native of New Jersey and his mother of the state of New York, and of their four children, Mary, William N., and Loretta are de- ceised, the only one now living being Charles, who is a resident of Wood- land, Illinois. William N. Barden was only sixteen years of age when he contrived to compass his enlistment for service as a defender of the Union in the Civil war. He became a member of the Eighth New York Heavy Artillery, and in this gallant command he continued his faithful and valiant service for a period of three years. The regiment made a glorious record in the eastern campaigns of the great conflict between the North and the South, and took part in every engagement following the battle of Rappahannock with the army corps and division to which it was attached. After the close of his military career Mr. Barden, a gallant young veteran, came to the west and established his residence at Union City, Branch county, Michigan, where he engaged in the work of the carpenter's trade, his desires and ambitions being centered in identify- ing himself with the higher phases of construction work. Within a few months he was found in Chicago, engaged as a bridge builder. In 1871 he entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, as a constructor of bridges. Later he established himself in business at Val- paraiso, Indiana, and while still a resident of that city he re-entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in the service of which he became eventually locomotive engineer of passenger trains. He was one of the valued and veteran engineers in the employ of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company at the time of his death, and in his forty-three years of faithful and effective service he made a record that inures to his lasting credit and honor. On Christmas day of the year 1872 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Barden to Miss Nettie Buell, who was born and reared in Branch county, Michigan, and who is a representative of one of the oldest, most numerous and most influential pioneer families of that county. She is a daughter of the late Chauncey and Elmira (Blanchard) Buell, both natives of the state of New York, the father having been born in Chenango county and the mother in Onondaga county. Chauncey Buell settled in the vicinity of Union City, Branch county, Michigan, as one of the pioneer farmers of that section of the state, and he had come to Michigan in 1838, the year following that of 36 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES its admission as one of the sovereign commonwealths of the Union. He became one of the prominent and influential citizens of Branch county, and there both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, both of them having been zealous members of the historic old Congregational church at Union City. Of their five children the eldest was William Henry, who became more familiarly known to his host of friends as "Billie Hank" Buell and who served with honor as a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil War, in which he was a member of the Fourth Michigan Battery; he is now a resident of the National Soldiers' Home in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin ; Ira B. became one of the representa- tive farmers and substantial capitalists of Branch county, Michigan, and passed the closing years of his life in Union City, he likewise having been a soldier in the Civil war; Mrs. Barden was the next in order of birth ; Frances is deceased ; and Elnora is the wife of Phinious I. Simons, of Athens, Calhoun county, Michigan. William N. Barden was a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party, received the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite of the Masonic fraternity, was an honored member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and was an active member of the Third Presbyterian church of Fort Wayne, as is also his widow, who takes deep interest in the various departments of church work, her pleasant home being at 206 West Creighton avenue. Edward A. Barnes, the general superintendent of the Fort Wayne works of the General Electric Company, has been a resident of this city for more than a quarter of a century and has been continuously identified with the electrical business during the entire period of his independent career. He is skilled in both the technical and practical knowledge of applied electricity and in his chosen profession has won distinctive suc- cess, as attested by the responsible position of which he is now the in- cumbent. In his personal career and ancestral history are points of more than passing interest, and in view of the present tragic period of "wars and rumors of war" he can not but feel a measure of satisfaction and pride in reverting to the long and able service given by his father as an officer in the British army. Edward A. Barnes can claim the distinction of Oriental birth, though he is a scion of the staunchest of British ancestry in both the agnatic and distaff lines. He was born at Dhurmsala, India, in June, 1865, and is a son of Major Edward Barnes and Georsriana (Carnegy) Barnes, the former a native of Wales and the latter of Scotland. Major Barnes gave distinguished service as an officer in the English army and was assigned to duty in different colonial dependencies of England from time to time, so that his travels were of wide scope. He was in government service with the army in India at the time of the birth of his son Edward A., of this review, and was in active service in South Africa at the time of his death, his widow having passed the closing years of her life in Fort Wayne, where she remained in the home of her son Edward A. until her death, in 1901. The only other surviving child is Colonel Arthur A. Barnes, who was commander of a Wiltshire regiment in England and who is now with his command in the great European war. Edward A. Barnes was a child of four years when he was taken from India to England, where he received excellent educational advan- tages and where he gained his preliminary technical training as an elec- trician. In 1885, when twenty years of age, he came to the United States and established his residence in Ncav York city. There he continued his association with the electrical business until 1889, when he came to FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 37 Indiana and established his permanent home in Fort Wayne. Here he took a position with the Fort Wayne General Electric Company, and with this concern he has continued his effective services during the inter- vening years. The local works of the General Electric Company have owed much to Mr. Barnes for the effective development of the important business of which he is now the general superintendent, and thus he has been a factor in advancing the industrial and commercial prestige of Fort Wayne, where he is known and valued as a loyal citizen, progressive business man and as a captain of industry. In his estimate of the land of his adoption there is naught of equivocation and he is thoroughly in harmony with American sentiment and institutions. His political alleg- iance is given to the Republican party. He is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, and he holds membership in the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, the Rotary Club, the General Electric Quarter Century Club, and the Country Club, as well as of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the American Institute of Metals. On October 16, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Barnes to Miss Katherine Steinbrunner, who was born and reared in Fort Wayne and who is a daughter of Robert and Ignatia (Lais) Steinbrunner, both natives of Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes have two children — Georgiana Ignatia Carneay and Katherine Allison Stuart. Abraham G. Barnett is one of the most venerable of the native sons of Fort Wayne now residing in the city, and he has witnessed the develop- ment of the judicial center of Allen county from the status of a mere village to its present proud position as one of the important industrial and commercial centers and attractive cities of the Hoosier state. He is a representative of a family whose name has been identified with the history of Allen county during the long years that have intervened since the war of 1812, and his father was captain of a company that served at the old fort for some time during the progress of the second conflict with Great Britain. Mr. Barnett was born at Fort Wayne November 10, 1832, and is a son of James and Nancy (Welsh) Barnett, whose marriage was here solemnized in the year 1824. James Barnett came to Fort Wayne in 1812, and after having served as captain of a company that was here stationed during a portion of the war of 1812-15 he continued his residence in Fort Wayne after the war had terminated. In the pioneer days he developed a successful business in the hauling of merchandise and other commodities from Dayton, Ohio, to Fort Wayne, and finally he made judicious investments in land in this part of the state. He became one of the successful and influential citizens of Northern Indiana, did much to further civic and industrial development and progress in Allen county, and it was principally through his financial assistance and generosity that the late Samuel Hanna, another of the sterling pioneers of Allen county, was enabled to engage in the mercantile business and thus to lay the foundation of what became one of the large fortunes here accumulated. James Barnett was born in 1785 and died in 1851. His wife was born in 1801 and died in 1857. Of their seven children, four attained to maturity, and of the number only two are now living — Abraham G., of this review, and Mrs. Susan B. Shoaff, who likewise resides in Fort Wayne. Abraham G. Barnett profited by the advantages afforded in the pioneer schools of Fort Wayne and at the age of about seventeen years he here began clerk- ing in the drug store of Watson Wall. In 1852, when twenty years old, he was one of the adventurous spirits who made the long and perilous 38 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES journey across the plains to California, and four months were demanded in making the trip from St. Joseph, Missouri, the outfitting point, to Placerville, California, a place then known by the significant name of .Hangtown. Mr. Barnett was actively associated with gold mining in the pioneer placer camps of California, and his activities included also service as mail carrier and work as a blacksmith. In 1855 he returned to Fort Wayne, where he engaged in the grocery business, besides becom- ing a successful exponent of agricultural enterprise in his native county. Finally he was appointed United States assessor for the district compris- ing Allen county, and of this position he continued the incumbent three years. His next occupation was in connection with the operation of a local paper mill, and after severing this alliance he established in Fort "Wayne a transfer line. In this field of enterprise he built up a large and prosperous business and to the same he continued to give his general supervision for more than a quarter of a century. Since that time he has lived virtually retired in his attractive home at 2432 South Webster street, and he is one of the well known and highly honored pioneer citizens of Fort Wayne, At the time of the Civil war Mr. Barnett made two attempts to enlist, but on each occasion he was refused the privilege, owing to minor physical ailments. March 3, 1863, he was appointed major in the regular army, but never served. He is the oldest Blue Lodge Mason in Fort Wayne and has taken the York Rite degrees of Masonry and affiliated also with the Scottish Rite. He has always been liberal and public-spirited as a citizen, has maintained lively interest in all things touching the welfare and advancement of his native city and gives his political allegiance to the Republican party. As a young man Mr. Bar- nett wedded Miss Sarah Elizabeth Angell, who was born at Little Falls, New York, and the maximum loss and bereavement in his life came when his gracious and devoted wife was summoned to eternal rest, in 1906. Of the four children who survive the loved mother, Katherine is the wife of W. Bruce Beamer, of Fort Wayne ; Susan M. remains with her vener- able father; Byron H. is individually mentioned on other pages; and James W. is the name of the youngest. Eyron H. Barnett was formerly one of the successful exponents of amusement enterprise in his native city of Fort Wayne, where he was for a time associated in the ownership and operation of the Palace theater, a modern home that provides the best grade of entertainments. The business was effectively conducted by the Fort Wayne Lyric Theater Company, of which Mr. Barnett was secretary and treasurer. Byron H. Barnett was born in Fort Wayne, February 14, 1867, and is a son of Abraham G. Barnett, who conducted in this city a successful transfer business and who is a citizen held in unqualified esteem. Byron H. Barnett acquired his youthful' education in the Fort Wayne schools and as a young man served an apprenticeship to the machinist's trade, in the Fort Wayne shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. As a railroad man he was for five years employed on the Santa Fe in California, and at the expiration of this period he became associated with his father in the transfer business in Fort Wayne. Finally he here bcame associated with Frank E. Stouder in the ownership of the Lyric theater, and four years later, after having conducted the house most successfully, they disposed of the same and built the handsomely equipped Palace theater, which they conducted under the corporate title previously mentioned and with a substantial and representative supporting patronage. In ; , uBUC UBRARYf t ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUND ATtD«j FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 39 politics Mr. Barnett is found arrayed as a loyal supporter of the principles and cause of the Republican party, he and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church, he is affiliated with the local organiza- tion of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and in the Masonic fraternity he holds membership in York Rite bodies, including the Fort Wayne Commandery of Knights Templars, besides which he is affiliated also with the adjunct organization, the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry he has received the thirty-second degree. In 1900 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Barnett to Miss Catherine Auger, daughter of Louis B. Auger, a pioneer florist and well known citizen of Fort Wayne. Mr. and Mrs. Barnett have one son, Abraham Houston, who was born January 27, 1903, and whose educational advantages include those of the Howe Mili- tary Academy, at Howe, Indiana. Charles Eldridge Barnett, M. D.— One of the functions of this publi- cation is to accord recognition to those who touch closely the communal life of Fort Wayne and Allen county, and under these conditions it is pleasing to give consideration to Dr. Barnett as one of the leading surgeons of the county and state. He is engaged in the practice of surgery in Fort Wayne and his success shows the expediency of concen- tration of effort in the one department of his profession. Dr. Barnett was born at Wapakoneta, the judicial center of Auglaize covmty, Ohio, September 30, 1866, and is a son of Rev. William C. and Frances Mead (Sullivan) Barnett, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Virginia. The father, a man of fine intellectuality and exalted charac- ter, gave many years of effective service as a clergyman of the Lutheran church. For many years he was one of the directors of Wittenberg Col- lege, and he continued in the active work of the ministry until his death, which occurred in 1898, in the state of Tennessee, his loved wife having died in 1880, at which time the family home was in Kentucky ; and of their six children three are living. Dr. Charles Eldridge Barnett was a child of two years when his parents removed from Ohio to Boone county, Ken- tucky, where he was reared to the age of fifteen yars and where he attended the public schools. Thereafter he was engaged in teaching for a time and finally he entered Edgewood College at Edgewood, Tennesee, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1888, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. In preparation for his chosen profession he came to Indiana and entered the Fort Wayne College of Medicine, in which well ordered institution he was graduated in 1890, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1893 he took an effective post-graduate course in the Chicago Polyclinic, and a few years later he did excellent post- graduate work in the medical department of the University of the South, at Suawanee, Tennessee. The Doctor has made Fort Wayne the scene of his professional activities since 1896 and he has been not only a leader in surgery but has also been influential in the educational work of his profession. He served as a member of the faculty of his alma mater, the Fort Wayne College of Medicine, in which he held the chair of surgical anatomy and genito-urinary surgery until the institution, together with all other medical colleges in the state, was merged into the medical depart- ment of the University of Indiana, in which he was made adjunct pro- fessor of genito-urinary surgery. The professional novitiate of Dr. Bar- nett was served at Archer, Nebraska. He is actively identified with the American Medical Association; the Mississippi Valley Medical Assoeia- 40 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES tion, of which he was vice-president in 1911, as well as chairman of its surgical section ; the Indiana State Medical Society ; and the Allen County Medical Society, of which he was president during the year 1910-1911. He took a lively interest in the alumni association of Fort Wayne College of Medicine and served at one time as president of the same. The Doctor is a member of the Indiana state committee for the national association of physicians formed for the furtherance of medical preparedness under conditions of war; and of the Council of National Defense under the jurisdiction of the War Department ; is a member of the medical officers reserve corps of the United States Army ; and is an influential member of the American Society of Urological Surgeons. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. In 1898 he gave definite evidence of his loyalty and patriotism by tendering his service and going forth as assis- tant surgeon of the One Hundred and Fifty-Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with the rank of captain. Incidental to the Spanish-American war he continued in active and effective service with this command until the regiment was mustered out, at the close of activities. Dr. Barnett has been a voluminous and an authoritative writer on professional sub- jects pertaining to the diagnoses and treatment of genito-urinary dis- eases, especially from the surgical standpoint. After returning from one of his numerous trips to Europe for post-graduate work he gave to the world some new and valuable surgical knowledge by publishing, in 1910, an article entitled, "The Visicule Seminales," which was copied by the leading foreign surgical journals. In 1913 he published an article entitled "Polycistic Kidney," and, as a matter of purely technical judg- ment on his part, he looks upon these two publications as constituting his most valuable contributions to the literature of his profession. He is one of the Abstract Editors of the Literature of the world under the subject of Genito-Urinary Surgery, also on the advisory board and Colaborator of the Urologic and Cutaneous Review. He is one of the Abstract Editors of Genito-Urinary Surgery in International Abstract of Surgery (Surgery Gynecology and Obstetrics with International Abstract of Surgery). In connection with his study and individual research he continues to make frequent contributions to our leading surgical publica- tions, with his ideals of personal stewardship in thus giving to his con- freres the benefits of his fortuitous knowledge. Dr. Barnett has taken post-graduate work in all of the leading surgical centers of Europe, especially Vienna, Austria, and he has traveled in nearly all parts of the civilized world, with a constant view to expanding his knowledge of surgical science and practice. In politics he gives unswerving allegiance to the Democratic party, and in the Masonic fraternity he has completed the circle of both the York and Scottish Rites and belongs to the Mystic Shrine. James M. Barrett, long connected with the traction systems of northern Indiana in executive positions, has enjoyed for many years an enviable place among the members of the bar of Indiana. For an extended period Mr. Barrett served as the counsel for the several com- panies that developed into the present Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana Traction Company, and latterly, until 1917, he served as president of this important corporation, which not only owns and operates the Fort Wayne city traction system and a seven-mile extension to Robison Park but also owns and operates two important interurban lines, extending to the south and southwest of Fort Wayne. As an authority on corporation law Mr. FORT AVAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY . 41 Barrett has gained a high reputation, although his services in other lines have proved to be most efficacious. As the author of the so-called Barrett law, while a member of the Indiana legislature, his name is favorably known throughout the state. James Madison Barrett was born on a farm in LaSalle county, Illinois, February 7, 1852, and is a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth Barrett, both natives of Ireland, where the father was born in the year 1809, a son of William Barrett. James M. Barrett was the eighth in order of birth in a family of eleven children, of whom nine attained to years of maturity. Benjamin Barrett and his wife came from the Emerald Isle to America in 1834. They established their home in Belmont county, Ohio, where the father continued to be engaged in farming until 1848, when removal was made to LaSalle county, Illinois. There the death of Benjamin Barrett occurred in 1876, his widow surviv- ing him by nearly a score of years and having been eighty years of age at the time of her death, in January, 1894.- After attending the common schools of his native county, James M. Barrett was given the opportunity of attending the Mendota College, at Mendota, Illinois, and after leaving this institution he entered the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1875. He had pursued a literary course in the university, thus following a natural inclination to acquaint himself with the broad scope of this branch of work undertaken so thoroughly by the Ann Arbor institution. Mr. Bar- rett's university course was followed by a brief course of study in the law offices of the firm of McCagg, Culver & Butler, prominent Chicago attorneys, and thereafter he spent a period of study at Princeton, Illinois. He was attracted to Fort Wayne in the early weeks of 1876 and reached the city on Washington's birthday anniversary of that year. Shortly after his arrival he was admitted to the bar of Allen county. Mr. Barrett found it advisable to devote his studies largely to the intricacies of corporation law, and his determined action along this line has brought him a designation as a man of keen perception, yet one with a knowledge and appreciation of the rights of men that have won for him the victory in many a hard-fought legal battle. For a considerable period Mr. Barrett was associated in practice with Samuel L. Morris and R. C. Bell, and after the death of the latter the firm of Barrett & Morris continued until the recent addition of Edward G. Hoffman to the personnel of the firm. An extensive suite in the Shoaff building marks the location of this important legal union. For several years before his selection as president of the Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana Traction Company Mr. Barrett served as the counsel for the company. His knowledge of this branch of commercial activity has made his service and advice of incalculable value to other traction systems in which he holds a financial interest. Mr. Barrett is interested in a number of manufacturing industries, including the Packard Company, makers of the famed Packard pianos and player- pianos, and he is a member of the directorate of this concern. In 1896 Mr. Barrett was appointed a member of the board of trustees of Purdue University, at Lafayette, Indiana, by Governor Claude Matthews. He served on the board with former President Benjamin Harrison, who was selected the same year. In 1886 he became the Democratic candidate for state senator, to represent the P^'ort Wayne district, and his popularity was demonstrated by the splendid majority that was awarded him at the polls. During his first term in the senate he was prominently identified with the creation of many constructive laws. Among the important acts 42 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES was that which insured for Fort AVayne the choice of his home city as the seat of the Indiana School for Feeble Minded Youth. During the im- portant session of 1889 Mr. Barrett was the acknowledged leader of his party in the senate, serving as chairman of the judiciary commJttee and as a member of many other committees whose functions Avere of marked importance to the success of momentous measures of that session. Senator Barrett was the author of a number of important bills, and proved to be an able and discriminating legislator. Faithful to the interests of the people, he was uniformly recognized as an impartial representative of his district and of the state. Mr. Barrett has achieved a reputation not only as a ready, forceful and eloquent speaker but he has also shown himself to be possessed of great strength of character and thus has ever held an inviolable place in the hearts of the people of his community. Mr. Barrett is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Benevo- lent & Protective Order of Elks. He finds delight in his affiliation with the Fort Wayne Country Club, and his active interest in civic affairs is suggested by his membership in the Fort Wayne Commercial Club. The recognition of his personal worth is indicated in his membership in the American Academy of Social Science, the American Geographical Society, the American Municipal League, the American Bar Association and the Indiana Bar Association. On the 28th of June, ]877, Mr. Barrett was united in marriage with Miss Marian A. Bond, daughter of Charles D. and Lavinia (Ewing) Bond, of Fort Wayne. Mr. Bond was a former president of the Fort Wayne National Bank, which is now known as the Old National Bank, and his wife was a daughter of Judge Charles W. Ewing, the first attorney to locate in Fort Wayne and one of the earliest judges of the circuit court of Allen county. To James M. Barrett and his wife have been born four children : Florence Ewing, wife of George T. Ladd, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; Charles W., master mechanic of the Pennsylvania Railroad shops at Sunbury, Pennsylvania ; Walter A., me- chanical engineer with the Bass Foundry & Machine Company, Fort Wayne; and James Madison, Jr., now (1917) a student in the University of Michigan, in the literary department of which institution he was graduated in 1916 and in the law department of which he is a member of the class of 1918. James M. Barrett has always been a liberal con- tributor to every movement for the advancement of Fort Wayne and the state of Indiana, and he is truly counted as one of Indiana's "most valuable citizens. Louis L. Bart, one of the prominent real estate men of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was born in Mallet Creek, Ohio, a village in Medina county, that state, October 28, 1875. He is of German extraction, his father, Leonard Bart, having been born in Germany, March 31, 1832. He learned the shoemaker trade and conducted a shoe store in Washington, D. C, after his arrival in this country. He espoused the cause of the north in the War of the Rebellion, serving at the battle of Bull Run and others. Later he married Helen Miller, a native of Newark, Licking county, Ohio, and taking his bride to Mallet Creek, established himself in the shoe trade. He conducted a shoe store for thirty-two years, retired, and is still living in the town of his adoption. To him and his wife were born six children, five of whom are living. Louis L. Bart, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the common schools at Mallet Creek, Ohio, and in the high school at York, Ohio, from which institution he was graduated with the class of 1891. Immediately upon 1 Hi-. .vj\ PUBLIC LIBRARY J ASTOR, LENOX j TIUDEK FOUNDATION I ^HM^HK- ---- -'^T,:'rr<:^ Hhhf 1 1 ^^^^^^^fl^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l /^^H 1 1 WL 5 ^^^^^^^2«g^^^H FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 43 receiving his diploma he interested himself in the profession of teleg- raphy and followed it for twenty-two years. For fifteen years he was associated with the Nickel Plate Railroad at Fort Wayne, thirteen of which he was train dispatcher. He forsook this calling, however, to take up that of the real estate business, establishing himself in business in 1913. He has met with success in this new pursuit and is now the vice-president of the Wildwood Sales Company. But this on? o^^ce does not require all his time and he is also a director in the Morris Plan Bank, vice-president of the Fort Wayne Real Estate Exchanc^e, and is on the executive committee of the Railroaders' Realty Company. Mr. Bart has always given the Republican party his political support, although he has never entered the lists as a candidate for office. He is a Knight Templar, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and also a member of the Shrine. He is a member of the Commercial C^ub, serving that organization on the membership committee. On June 29, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bart to Miss Josephine Shue- maker, and this marriage has been blessed with one son, Robert Rosen- thal Drayer Bart. Charles S. Bash. — Measured by its rectitude, its productiveness, its pervading altruism and its material success, the life of the late Charles S. Bash, of Fort Wayne, counted for much, and in this history of the city and county in which he passed the major part of his life and to whose civic and material progress he contributed in large measure, it is most consistent that a review of his career and a tribute to his memory be incorporated. His influence extended in many directions, his broad business activities inured to the commercial prestige of Fort Wayne, and his insistent civic loyalty and progressiveness were not a matter of mere sentiment but of constructive achievement. He marked by distinctive personal accomplishment a place of his own in connection with economic, industrial and social affairs of Allen county, where his name and memory shall he held in lasting honor. Mr. Bash was born at Roanoke, Hunting- ton county, Indiana, July 28, 1853, and at his home in Fort Wayne, he rested from his labors and passed to the life eternal on the 24th of Septem- ber, 1916, after an illness of several months' duration. Of his attitude in the closing days of his earnest and prolific life the following pertinent statement has been written: ''His indomitable courage and his deter- mined refusal to submit to the domination of physical ills were such that until two weeks prior to his death his condition was not thought to be serious." In the year following that of his birth the parents of Mr. Bash removed to Fort Wayne, and here he passed the residue of his life. Here he continued his studies in the public schools until he had duly profited by the advantages of the high school, and soon afterward he became associated with the firm of S. Bash & Company, which was well established in the seed and produce commission business and of which his father, Solo- mon Bash, was the executive head. This firm was founded in 1868, the in- terested principals in establishing the business being Solomon Bash, P. D. Smyser, and P. L. McKee. Solomon Bash was long known and honored as one of the representative business men and influential citizens of Fort Wayne and he became president of the commission house of S. Bash & Company after the same was incorporated under the laws of Indiana. Of this office he continued the incumbent until his death, which occurred in 1914. His son, Charles S., subject of this memoir, then assumed control of the extensive and well ordered commission business, of which he 44 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES became the sole owner, the other members of the company having retired. His intimate and prolonged association with the business thus established in the early days gave to him the strongest of reinforcement in carrying forward the important industrial and commercial enterprise, and in this connection the following estimate is worthy of perpetuation: "Having entered the employ of his father when a young man, he had practically grown up with the business, and his knowledge in this line was so broad and accurate that he was justly considered an authority and that his advice was often solicited and as frequently valued. Few men had a wider or more general acquaintanceship throughout northern Indiana than did Mr. Bash, the nature of his business bringing him into specially close touch with the representative agriculturists in this favored portion of the Hoosier state. ' ' A man of splendid force and much reserve energy, Mr. Bash did not limit his activities to the seed and produce business, and his interests became many and varied in connection with commercial, industrial and semi-public enterprises, the while he was known as one of Fort Wayne's most alert, progressive and loj^al citizens. Mr. Bash was one of the organizers and incorporators of the Salamoni Mining & Gas Company, and this became one of the most important concerns with which he had constructive alliance. It was essentially due to the zealous and well ordered efforts of Mr. Bash that natural gas was first brought into Fort Wayne, and it was in his home that the first natural gas piped into the city was burned. In that pioneer period -pf the development of the natural gas industry in northern Indiana; In. 1890, the introduction of the gas in Fort Wayne was an event of importance, and many persons assembled to witness the result of the experiment when Mr, Bash lighted the first flame. He had the circumspection and initiative that make for self-confidence, and he was ever ready to support his confidence in con- crete action, so that it was characteristic of the man when he became the prime mover in the organization of the natural gas company and the subse- quent exploitation and development of the gas resources of this part of the state. In this field w^as given one evidence of his progressiveness and ready grasping of opportunity, and it is a matter of record that later appreciable financial returns came from the development of the natural gas business throughout the eastern and central parts of Indiana. Mr. Bash was one of the organizers and original stockholders of the Home Telephone & Telegraph Corapanj^, and was characteristically resourceful and influential in the upbuilding of its excellent system of service. He was likewise one of the incorporators of the Wayne Knitting Mills and gave to the incipient enterprise the valuable aid that resulted in its devel- opment from modest proportions to an important status as one of the leading concerns of its kind in the United States. Mr. Bash established the first fertilizing plant in this section of Indiana, and was for some time a director of the Hamilton National Bank and of the Fort Wayne Electric Works. His judgment was always assured in connection with business affairs and he was always ready to back this judgment by financial co- operation and personal effort in the support of enterprises that tended to advance the general welfare. There were few public enterprises in Fort Wayne in which he did not figure prominently and effectively. Concerning one of the most important undertakings that received his earnest and thoughtful advocacy the following statements have been made: "Just as he caught the vision of what the gas and telephone in- dustries might mean to the commonwealth, so he felt and realized the FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 45 possibilities and value of a barge canal through Fort Wayne. He was one of the pioneer boosters and hardest workers for the so-called Toledo, Fort Wayne & Chicago canal. For years he was a member of the board of directors of the Erie & Michigan Deep Waterways Association, and in December, 1915, he was an influential delegate to the national rivers and harbors congress. In the furtherance of the construction of the oanal he made a number of promotive trips with the late Hon, Perry A. Randall and delivered forceful speeches in favor of the project. It was one of his fondest hopes that he might see Lake Erie and Lake Michigan connected with Fort Wayne by a barge canal. He was confident of the ultimate construction of such a waterway. Having been for many years engaged in the shipping business, he could fully gauge the benefits to be derived from such transportation facilities, and he gave unsparingly of his time and money in forwarding the movement. " As a broad-minded and public- spirited citizen, Mr. Bash was strongly fortified in his convictions concern- ing governmental and economic matters and was aligned as a stalwart supporter of the principles of the Republican party. His civic loyalty was clearly shown by the effective service he gave as a member of the munici- pal board of public works, during the administration of Mayor Oakley, and by his several years' membership on the board of education. His deep interest in the cause of the Republican party became specially notice- able during the national campaigns of 1896 and 1900, when he became associated with Dr. A. E. Bulson, Jr., E. F. Yarnelle, and A. T. Lukens, in forming the "Big Four Quartet," an organization that traveled exten- sively through this section of the country during each of these campaigns and sang stirring songs in the Republican meetings held to further the cause of President McKinley and that of the party in general. Mr. Bash was a zealous member and supporter of Westminster Presbyterian church, in which his widow retains active membership, and such were his charac- ter and services that he signally honored the city in which he spent virtually his entire life and in which the community manifested a sense of personal loss and sorrow when he was summoned from the stage of his mortal endeavors. In April, 1882, was solmenized the marriage of Mr. Bash to Miss Flora E. Orr, who survives him, as do also nine children — Charles S., Jr., Joseph W. and Howard 0., all of whom are identified with business affairs in Fort Wayne ; Hester, who is the wife of Miles F. Porter, Jr., of this city; Virginia, who is the wiie of Hale Bradley, of Huntington, Indiana ; Clara, who is the wife of Arthur Schreck, of Fort Wayne ; and Misses Lucy, Julia and Marian, who remain with their widowed mother in the beautiful family home in Fort Wayne. John H. Bass — The name of John H. Bass is inseparably connected, in a most enviable way, with the financial and industrial life of Fort Wayne and the middle west during a period of more than sixty years. The activities of Mr. Bass in his home city date from the year 1852 when, at the age of seventeen, he inaugurated that vigorous, intelligent business career which has raised him to the pinnacle of success and placed his name among the captains of industry. Fort Wayne takes just pride in Mr. Bass as one of her foremost, substantial, progressive citizens. The monster plant of the Bass Foundry & Machine Company, spreading its departments over an area of more than five city squares in length will ever stand as a monument to his genius and ability— for Mr. Bass, unlike many another man similarly situated, has been careful to keep his hands and his mind closely upon the developing business which has grown to 46 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES such large proportions and has refrained from delegating the care of his larger affairs to others. The Bass Foundry & Machine Company had its inception in 1853, when it was organized as Jones, Bass & Company. John H. Bass came to Fort Wayne in the preceding year from Salem, Livingston county, Kentucky, where he was born, November 9, 1835. Mr. Bass is descended from early families of Virginia and the Carolinas prominently identified with the colonial history of the nation. The grandfather of John H. Bass on the side of the father was Jordan Bass, born in Virginia in 1764, from which state he moved to Christian county, Kentucky, in 1805, in the midst of the troublous conditions which pre- ceded the war of 1812, in which Kentucky and Indiana took such a prominent part. He died in 1853 at the age of eighty-nine years. Sion Bass, father of John H. Bass, was born in Virginia, November 7, 1802. From the age of three, he was a resident of Kentucky and rose to prom- inence in the conduct of commercial affairs and the owner and cultivator of large areas of farm land. The wife of Sion Bass was Miss Jane Todd, born in Charleston, South Carolina, June 19, 1802, the daughter of John Todd, also a pioneer settler of Kentucky. Sion Bass and wife remained in Kentucky until 1866, when they came to Fort Wayne and spent their closing days with their son, John H. Bass. The mother died August 26, 1874, and the father August 7, 1888. They were the parents of six children, four of whom attained to maturity. John H. Bass is the only surviving member of the family. In this connection it would seem en- tirely proper to refer briefly to the services and military record of Colonel Sion S. Bass, elder brother of John H. Bass, whose name is held in tender remembrance by the veterans of the Civil war and who have named one of the local posts of the Grand Array of the Republic in his honor. Sion S. Bass, who was born in Kentucky in January, 1827, came to Fort Wayne in 1848, as the first representative of the family to settle in In- diana. To his honor it may be said that he represented the type of pioneer manufacturer who laid the foundation for much of the active development in many lines of endeavor. As a member of the firm of Jones, Bass & Company, which was succeeded by the Fort Wayne Machine Works, he became indirectly one of the founders of the Bass Foundry & Machine Works, which was sold to the Pennsylvania railway for shop purposes and other industries which have resulted from the parent institution. Lincoln's call for volunteers in 1861 appealed to him so strongly that he gave up, with temporary intent, the conduct of his affairs in order to give his services to his country. His first service was in giving assistance to the formation of the famous Thirtieth Indiana volunteers of which he was made colonel. This regiment took an active part in the maneuvers which led up to the battle of Shiloh. Early on the second day of that battle, the regiment, without time to rest from an arduous march to the field, was ordered to advance. Amid a deadly fire, the regiment pushed forward, led by Colonel Bass, who fell with a mortal wound. Many others fell in that fearful advance at Shiloh. The comrades of Colonel Bass, after a brief memorial service, sent the body back to Fort Wayne, where a city already in mourning for many others M^ho sacrificed their lives in that immortal battle, bowed in deeper grief over tbe fallen leader of the,gallant Thirtieth. John H, Bass attendea the schools of his native county in Kentucky, and there gave evidence of a strong adaptability for the lines of study which later developed in the modern type of business man. For a time he enjoyed the instruction of a private tutor. He was seventeen years of age when hp came to Fort FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 47 Wayne, in 1852, to begin his actual commercial career. For a time he was employed in a grocery store, and then served as a bookkeeper for the contracting firm of Samuel and William S. Edsall. Then he joined his brother, Sion S. Bass, as an employe of Jones, Bass & Company, where he served as bookkeeper from 1854 until 1857, when the firm dissolved partnership. During these years, Mr. Bass had, by studying at night, perfected himself as an accountant. In 1857, when investments in Iowa lands proved an attractive venture, he went west and spent $3,700 in the choicest farm lands he could find. He remained two years, watching carefully the real estate conditions, and returned with $15,000 in cash and the deeds to real estate worth $50,000. The close application to the study of business methods fitted him, by the year 1859, to employ his capital, in company with that of Edward L. Force, in the establishment of Bass & Force. The aggregate output of the concern during the first t"welve months reached $20,000. This plant stood on the site of the present Pennsylvania railway shops and became the nucleus of this great industrial department of that system. The example of Mr. Bass in ven- turing the investment of his money in manufacturing enterprises at that time was a great incentive to others to do likewise, with the result that Fort Wayne early became famed as a manufacturing center. Between the years 1860 and 1863 the business was owned and conducted by Mr. Bass and Judge Samuel Hanna. In 1863 Judge Hanna transferred his interests to his son, Horace Hanna, whose death occurred six years later. At that time Mr. Bass purchased the stock held by the Hannas and has since been the sole owner of the business and, under his sole management, it has had a wonderful prosperity. Employment has been given to thou- sands down through the years, and many of Fort Wayne's substantial citizens have been drawn and held there through their connection with the Bass Foundry & Machine Works. In 1898 the company -was in- corporated with a capital of $1,500,000, which was later increased to $2,200,000. This corporation owns and operates a branch plant at Rock Run, Alabama, which mines and smelts a large part of the ore used in the products of the Fort Wayne plant. The fine grade of pig iron which is made into car wheels comes largely from the affiliated Alabama con- cern. From time to time larger and better buildings have been added to the Fort Wayne plant. An average of 2,500 men are employed here, with an annual payroll (1917) of $1,500,000. The tonnage of manufactured material shipped from the two plants aggregates 300,000 tons annually. ^ The chief products of the Fort Wayne plant are car wheels, axles, iron and steel forgings, Corliss engines, boilers, complete power plants and gray iron castings. The product of the Rock Run plant is high grade furnace pig iron. The Fort Wayne plant covers an area of twenty acres. Twenty-five thousand acres of land are included in the Rock Run mining district owned by the company. Raw material from which the Fort Vf ayne plant produces its finished products is shipped to the city by the train load. The many departments of the business are operated "like clockwork" and the products of the Bass establishments have made a reputation for themselves and Foft Wayne all over America. After Mr. Bass established the Fort Wayne plant on a prosperous basis, he gave a portion of his attention to other lines of indu.^try which indicate his ability in many directions. In 1869 he founded the St. Louis Car Wheel Company, at St. Louis, Missouri, in which he held a controlling interest and served as its president until he disposed of his interest in the com- pany. In 1873 Mr, Bass, despite the conditions which characterized the 48 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES panic of the period, established an extensive iron works in the city of Chicago, a venture which suggests the qualities in the character of Mr. Bass which enables him to view the future and its possibilities with a keener understanding than that which is vouchsafed to mo«t men of large affairs. Without that degree of daring which characterizes the plunger, but with a marked foresight and sagacity, coupled with good judgment, he recognized the possibilities of the city of Chicago and "got in on the ground floor" just as that city was beginning to recover from the effects of the destructive fire of two years before. The Chicago venture like that in St. Louis proved to be a large paying investment. In addition to the Alabama mining properties, and those already de- scribed, Mr. Bass is heavily interested in a large foundry at Lenoir, Tennessee, Avhich is also supplied with raw material from the Alabama mines. During his many years of residence in Fort Wayne Mr. Bass has shown a broad public spirit. He was one of the owners of the original street railway system, when the horse-drawn cars were employed. The Citizens' Street Railway Company was incorporated in 1871, to operate the system. On the 22nd of August, 1887, on the foreclosure of a mortgage for $20,000 executed to Oliver P. Morgan and Ed^v^ard P. Williams, the property rights and franchises were sold to Mr. Bass and Stephen B. Bond, representing the Fort Wayne Street Railway Company, which was brought into existence to acquire the property. The system then consisted of about two miles of single track on Calhoun street, from Main street to Creighton avenue, on Creighton avenue from Calhoun street to Fairfield avenue, and on Wallace street from Calhoun to Hanna streets. The cars were operated at intervals of twenty minutes. Asso- ciated with Mr. Bass and Mr. Bond in this ownership were Jesse L. Williams and Charles D. Bond. These men were the owners of large tracts of land south of the Pennsylvania tracks and east of Calhoun street, and the extension of the line served in the early development of that outlying district. This company owned the street railway lines until August, 1892, when a reorganized company converted the property into an electrically-propelled system. For many years Mr, Bass has been one of the chief stockholders of the First National Bank of Fort Wayne. During thirty years he held the office of president and resigned January 9, 1917. He is also a member of the boards of directors of the Old National Bank and of the Hamilton National Bank. The latter was merged with the First National Bank on April 7, 1917, and the institution is now known as the First and Hamilton National Bank. The beautiful suburban home of ]Mr. Bass — known as Brookside — is the most widely known estate in this region. In the midst of a large park of three hun- dred acres with broad areas of artificial lake, the mansion has a most beautiful setting. Here, Mr. Bass maintains a deer and buffalo park, and conducts a large dairy and stock farm. To the breeding of Clydesdale horses and Galloway cattle Mr. Bass has devoted much attention during the past quarter century. Direct importations are made from Europe. Upon this farm are to be found some of the finest specimens of live stock in the world. Exhibits at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, in 1893, and at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, in 1904, are note- worthy as receiving many first prizes. In various portions of Allen county, Mr. Bass owns fifteen thousand acres of land, while his land holdings in other parts of Indiana and in other states are extensive. He owns eighteen thousand acres of mineral land in Alabama. In the city of Fort Wayne he possesses a large number of commercial and residential If llillliijlif III III lltl II IH " TIUOE^ i VvUN' FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 49 properties. So wide are his investment interests that these suggestions must suffice to indicate their aggregate valuation which may be esti- mated at between five and six millions of dollars. Mr. Bass has ever given his support to the principles of the Democratic party. In 1888 he was chosen as a delegate from Indiana to the national convention of his party and was nominated as presidential elector in that year. Mr. Bass is prominent in Masonic affairs of Indiana; he has been honored with the 1 hirty-Third degree of the Scottish Eite. He is a member of the First Presbyterian church. lu 1865 Mr, Bass was united in marriage with Miss Laura H. Lightfoot, daughter of the late Judge George C. and Melinda (Holton) Lightfoot. Mrs. Bass was born in Falmouth, Ken- tucky, and resided there with her parents at the time of the marriage. Two children have been born to them, Laura Grace, wife of Dr. Gaylord M. Leslie, of Fort Wayne, and John H., -whose death occurred August 7, 1891. This brief review of the active life of Mr. Bass suggests nothing of the geniality of the man which has not only surrounded him with the warmest of friends but which has enabled him to establish such a re- lationship between the executive and the productive departments of his large enterprises as to preserve the highest degree of harmony and con- sequent efficiency. To him Fort Wayne owes much of the inspiration which has lifted her to a high place among the cities of the middle west. Conrad Bayer, one of the specially alert and progressive business men of Fort Wayne, has been a resident of this city from his early youth and by his own ability and efforts has risen to a status of prominence and influence in connection with the representative commercial activities of the Summit City. His popularity is unqualified and is indicated in his being more familiarly knoM^n as "Coony" Bayer, this pseudonym being utilized in connection with the large and important industrial enterprise which has been developed under his able direction, for he is president and treasurer of the Coony Bayer Cigar Company, which owns and con- ducts one of the largest cigar manufactories in northern Indiana. This extensive enterprise was founded by him in 1891, and operations were instituted upon a very modest scale, as in this original manufactory he gave employment to but one man, the while he himself vigorously worked also at his trade, after having served a thorough apprenticeship as a cigarmaker. Not only effective service and excellent products were necessary to effect the evolution of the extensive business now controlled by the company of which he is executive head, but also the energy, cir- cumspection and initiative and constructive ability which he was able to bring to bear. He continued business in an individual way until about 1902, when, to meet the constantly increasing demands placed upon his establishment, he effected the organization and incorporation of the present stock company, of which he has been president and treasurer from the beginning, William A. Bayer being superintendent and gen- eral manager, and Frederick Bayer the secretary of the company, which was originally incorporated for fifteen thousand dollars. No more pertinent voucher for the splendid expansion of the enterprise can be found than in the fact that in 1914 the capital stock was increased to one hundred thousand dollars, the executive officers remaining the same. In connection with the business and manufacturing departments of this now large industrial and commercial enterprise an average of about seventy- five persons are employed. In 1901 the factory headquarters were established in a building erected for the purpose, at the corner of Wayne aiid Barr streets, but within a comparatively few years these accommo- 50 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES dations proved inadequate, with the result that in 1915 the company erected its present modern building of five stories, at the corner of Cal- houn and Levs^is streets, the same affording the aggregate floor space of seventeen thousand square feet. The high grade of the products of this manufactory constitutes its best commercial asset, and the annual out- put of cigars is now in excess of four million, while the trade is con- stantly being expanded into a broader field. Conrad (Coony) Bayer was born in the Kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, on the 27th of November, 1871, and thus he was a lad of about ten years when, in 1881, he accompanied his parents, Michael and Dorothea (Stuber) Bayer, on their immigration to America, the family home having soon afterward been established in Fort Wayne, where he was reared to adult age and where he continued to attend the Lutheran parochial schools until he was eligible for entrance in a local business college, in which he com- pleted an effective course. In the establishment of Dessauer & Company he learned the trade of cigarmaker, and later he was in the employ of W. H. Ortman, engaged in the same line of business. In 1891 he severed this alliance to establish his independent enterprise as a manufacturer of cigars, and from a small beginning he has evolved one of the large and prosperous manufacturing and commercial industries of the metrop- olis of Allen county, besides h?ving shown his progressiveness and self- reliant energy in connection with other lines of enterprise. He is president of the Bayer Realty Company, and is a member of the directorate of the German-American Bank of Fort Wayne. In politics Mr. Bayer accords staunch allegiance to the Democratic party, he is a valued member of each the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, Rotary Club and Retail INIerchants' Association, and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the Order of Buffaloes, and the Turnverein. On September 30, 1901, Mr. Bayer wedded Miss Anna Hofer, daughter of Andreas and Christine Hofer, of Fort Wayne, and the two children of this union are Ralph Conrad, who was born July 12, 1904, and Dorothy Christine, born November 21, 1916. Mrs. Mary J. Beardsley — It is specially gratifying to present in this history a brief review of the life record of this venerable and revered native daughter of Allen county, who is a representative of one of the best known and most honored pioneer families of the county, her par- ents having here established their home more than four score years ago. Mrs. Beardsley celebrated in November, 1916, the eighty-third anniversary of her birth, and as she has lived in Allen county all her life it may well be understood that her memory forms an indissoluble link between the pioneer past and the twentieth century of opulent prosperity and progress in this section of the Hoosier state. Mrs. Mary Jane (Wood) Beardsley has the distinction of having been the first white child born in Perry township, this county, and the time of her nativity was November, 1833. She is a daughter of Albert and Nancy (Dunton) Wood, both of whom were born and reared in Jefferson county, New York, where their marriage was solemnized and whence they soon afterward, in 1833, came to Indiana and numbered themselves among the very first settlers in the wilds of what is now Perry township, Allen county, where the father set to himself the herculean task of reclaiming a farm from the forest. Of the twelve children Mrs. Beardsley was the first-born, and in the year that marked the establishing of the new home in Allen county she here gained the prestige of being the first white child born in Perry town- FORT WAYNP] AND ALLEN COUNTY 51 ship, as previously noted. Of the other eleven children, all likewise natives of this county, one died in infancy, and the names of the others are here indicated in their respective order of birth : John Wesley, Richard Freeman, Amos Mason, Oscar B., Julia, Etta, Lucy, Commodore, William and Charles. Besides Mrs. Beardsley only four others of the children are living at the opening of the year 1917 — Richard F., who is now a resident of the state of Kansas, where he has been for many years a prosperous farmer ; Oscar B., who resides at Monroe, Grant county, In- diana ; Lucy, who is the wife of Henry McCarthy, of Columbia City, Whitley county, Indiana ; and William, who owns and resides upon his father's old homestead farm in Perry township, one mile west of Hunter- town. William Wood is one of the extensive landholders of Allen county and is one of the substantial and representative citizens of his native township. He has five sons, two of whom are successful teachers in the public schools. Albert Wood, father of the gracious pioneer woman to whom this sketch is dedicated, reclaimed much of his land to cultivation and was influential in community affairs during the entire period of his residence in Allen county. He died on his old homestead when he was sixty years of age, and his wife attained to the remarkable age of ninety years. He left to his widow and children the old homestead of one hundred and ten acres, and a part of the tract which he originally ob- tained from the government is now owned by Henry N. AVilliams, of Fcrt Wayne. Mary Jane Wood was reared under the conditions and influ- ences of the pioneer days and acquired her early education in the old- time log schoolhouse, the while she gave active assistance in the domes- tic activities of the modest but happy pioneer home. In 1849, at Hunter- town, was solemnized her marriage to James Oliver Beardsley, and he was fifty-six years of age at the time of his death, in 1878. During all of the long years from the time of her marriage to the present Mrs. Beardsley has lived continuously at Huntertown, save for a period of one year which she passed at Aub^^rn, Dekalb county. Under the administra- tion of President Grant her husband served two terms as postmaster at Huntertown, and for a time he held the position of deputy postmaster, besides having given effective service also as justice of the peace. Mr. Beardsley was a citizen of sterling character and marked ability, and he ever commanded the unqualified confidence and esteem of his fellow men. His political allegiance was given to the Republican party, he was a Master Mason, and was an earnest member of the Universalist church, as is also his widow, who owns and resides in one of the attractive homes of Huntertown and who is surrounded by a host of loyal and appreciative friends who accord to her the most sincere affection. Physical disability prevented Mr. Beardsley from serving as a soldier during the Civil war, but he supported the Union cause to the fullest extent of his ability, be- sides having paid for a substitute for one of his friends who had been called to the Union service but w^hose circumstances were such as to make it almost impossible for him to leave home. Mr. and Mrs, Beardsley be- came the parents of no children, but, lacking filial solicitude on this ac- count, Mrs. Beardsley feels a gracious compensation in the devoted love of her many friends. Montgomery G. Beaver, one of the essentially progressive and repre- sentative business men of his native city of Fort Wayne, is virtually the successor to the substantial lumber business that was here founded by his honored father more than half a century ago, the history of the enter- prise having been consecutive and having continued at all times in the 52 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES control of the Beaver family, so that the extensive and important business now conducted by Montgomery G. Beaver, in the retail lumber trade and the operation of a most modern planing mill, may consistently be noted as one of the pioneer industrial and commercial enterprises of the metropo- lis and judicial center of Allen county. Mr. Beaver was born in Fort Wayne April 10, 1867, and is a son of Augustus and Mary Emily (Parks) Beaver, both of whom are now deceased, the father having l3een born in Pennsylvania and the mother in Indiana, in which latter commonwealth their marriage was solemnized. Of their two children the subject of this review is the younger, and his sister, Florence, is the wife of Watson Nicholson, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Augustus Beaver established him- self in the wholesale lumber business at Fort Wayne more than fifty years ago, and as a man of energy, uprightness and sagacity, he developed a most prosperous business, his status as one of the prominent business men and influential citizens of Fort Wayne having been maintained until his death, which occurred when he was about 80 years of age. He con- tributed materially to the civic and commercial prosperity of the city and county and his name merits an enduring place in the history of Fort Wayne. Montgomery G. Beaver made good use of the advantages afforded in the public schools of Fort Wayne and as a youth became closely associated with his father's lumber business. By personal inclina- tion and ambition, as well as through paternal direction and encourage- ment, he thoroughly informed himself in all details of the business, and he is a recognized authority in lumber and building material values, as well as in the technical details of manufacturing in this line. At the age of 21 years he was admitted to partnership in his father's business, and after the death of his mother he purchased the entire business, which he has since conducted in an individual and distinctively successful way, the enterprise being now of retail rather than wholesale order and a well equipped planing mill having been operated as an important adjunct of the enterprise. In the spring of 1917 Mr. Beaver completed the erection and equipment of a new planing mill of the best modern standard, the building being of brick and steel construction and thoroughly fire-proof. The plant has its own electrical equipment throughout, the machinery and accessories are of the latest improved order, and the mill has ample capacity for turning out the best work in an expeditious way. The office headquarters of the mill and lumber yards are at 2047 Broadway. In this connection Mr. Beaver gives employment to an average force of from fifteen to twenty men, including a number of skilled operatives in the mill. He is not only an alert, vigorous and progressive business man but also a loyal and public-spirited citizen, with secure place in the confidence and good will of the urban community that has ever represented his home. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, he is a valued member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, in the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides being affiliated with the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and both he and his wife are members of Plymouth Congre- gational church. January 10, 1893, recorded the marriage of Mr. Beaver to Miss Edith R. Cutshall, who likewise was born and reared in Fort Wayne, and whose father, William H. Cutshall, is now a retired farmer of this county, his wife being deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Beaver have one son, Melvin Montgomery, who is associated with his father's lumber business. He was graduated in the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 53 as a member of the class of 1916, and in that institution completed both literary and business courses. Sylvanus B. Bechtel. — The application of ability and energy to his service with S. F. Bowser & Company has brought to Mr. Bechtel consecu- tive and noteworthy advancement with this important Fort Wayne con- cern, and he now holds the exacting and responsible office of general manager, with secure status as one of the representative business men of the younger generation in Allen county's metropolis and judicial center. Mr. Bechtel was born in Barry county, Michigan, June 17, 1878, and the place of his nativity was the fine old homestead farm of his parents, Joseph K. and Mary (Benjamin) Bechtel, the former of whom was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, and the latter in the state of Pennsylvania. The father long held prestige as one of the substantial farmers and honored citizens of southern Michigan, where he continued his identification with the basic industries of agriculture and stock- growing until the time of his death, his widow now being a resident of Toledo, Ohio. Of the children the eldest is William H., who resides at Caro, Tuscola county, Michigan ; Barbara is the wife of Guy E. Pierson, of Wayland, Allegan county, that state ; Clarence W. died when about 37 years of age ; the subject of this review was the next in order of birth ; and Roy W. is now a resident of the city of Toledo, Ohio. Sylvanus B. Bechtel continued his studies in the public schools of Michigan until he had completed the prescribed curriculum of the high school at Way- land, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894. There- after he proved the solidity and efficacy of his academic discipline by three years of successful service as a teacher in the schools of his native state and after his retirement from the pedagogic profession he went to the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he held a position in the business department of the Daily Democrat until 1899, when he came to Indiana and established his home in fort Wayne. He arrived in this city in July of that year and entered the employ of S. F. Bowser & Company, his original post in the office of this representative manufacturing concern having been that of correspondent. He was soon given charge of the collection department, and of this position he continued the incumbent until June 1, 1901, when he was promoted to the post of superintendent of salesmen. One year later he was advanced to the management of the mail-order and advertising department; on January 1, 1906, he became assistant general manager ; and on the 1st of March, 1914, there came the ultimate in the recognition of his ability and efficient service, when he was appointed to his present important office, that of general manager. The record made by Mr. Bechtel during the period of his association with this company bears its own significance and denotes the fiber and pro- gressiveness of the man himself. In politics Mr. Bechtel is arrayed with the progressive wing of the Republican party; he and his wife hold membership in the South Fort Wayne Baptist church ; he is affiliated with York and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, as well as the adjunct organization, the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and he is a popular member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, the Quest Club, the Fort Wayne Country Club, and the University Club of Fort Wayne. On the 27th of June, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bechtel to Miss Marie M. Russell, who was born in Fort Wayne and who is a daughter of William J. and Mary (Brew) Russell, her parents being now residents of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where her father 54 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES holds the position of master carpenter for the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad. Mr. and Mrs. Bechtel have two children — Kenneth B. and Mary Catherine. Henry W. Becker has proved a loyal and influential figure in connec- tion with business and civic affairs in his native city of Fort Wayne, where he is now giving characteristically efficient service as a member of the municipal board of public works, an office of which he has been the incumbent continuously since 1905 and in which he has done much to further the efficient and important work of this department of the munici- pal government. Mr. Becker was born in Fort Wayne February 21, 1859, and is a son of Frederick and Margaret (Jennewein) Becker, both natives of Swaarbriiken, Prussia, Germany, where they were reared and educated and where their marriage was solemnized. The parents of the subject of this review came to America in 1848, a year specially marked by large immigration from Germany to the United States, and the father became one of the successful exponents of the blacksmith trade and business in Fort Wayne, where he commanded unqualified popular esteem and was a substantial citizen at the time of his death, in 1882, at the age of sixty- three years, his widow having survived him by several years and both having been earnest communicants of the Lutheran church, his political convictions having been shown forth in the loyal support which he gave to the cause of the Democratic party. Of the children the eldest is Frederick, Jr., who still resides in Fort Wayne, as do also Minnie, Charles and Mary, Henry W., of this review, being the youngest of the number. Henry W. Becker acquired his early education in the parochial school of the Lutheran church on Barr street, and as a youth he served a thorough apprenticeship to the stonecutter's trade, which, as a skilled artisan, he followed for the long period of twenty years, within which he was concerned in much important contract work in his native city. His induction into public service came when he was chosen deputy assessor of Wayne township, and his effective service in this capacity made him a normal candidate when, in 1900, he was elected township assessor, on the Democratic ticket. Of this office he continued the incumbent four years, and then, in April, 1905, he was appointed a member of the board of public works of Fort Wayne, under the administration of Mayor Henry C. Berghoff. He has received reappointment under each successive mayor and is one of the valued factors in connection with the administration of public affairs in his native city, to which his loyalty is of the most insistent type. As may be inferred from a foregoing statement, he is found arrayed as a staunch advocate of the principles of the Democratic party. On the 3d of September, 1883, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Becker to Miss Lavina Englert, a daughter of the late Frank Englert, of Fort Wayne, and of the children of this union Magdalin and Margaret still remain at the parental home ; Florence is the wife of Paul Lauer, of Fort Wayne ; and Henry Roy and Frederick are still members of the parental circle. William Becker. — The German contingent in Allen county, Indiana, has from the early days been one of prominence and influence in the furtherance of social and industrial advancement and prosperity. He whose name initiates this paragraph was born in the province of Hanover, Germany, October 25, 1860, and was a vigorous and ambitious young man of twenty-three years when he came to America and established his home in Allen county. His parents, Henry and Sophia (Tye) Becker, passed FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 55 their entire lives in the German fatherland, and of their seven children the subject of this review was the sixth in order of birth; Henry died in Germany; Jacob still resides in his native province; Ferdinand died in Germany; August is a retired grocer residing in Fort "Wayne and now gives his attention to the handling of bonds and other high grade secur- ities, he and the subject of this sketch being the only representatives of the immediate family circle in the United States ; Minnie and Sophia, the only daughters, both died in their native land. After duly profiting by the advantages offered in the excellent common schools of his home province William Becker there attended the Lutheran parochial schools for four years, after which he completed an effective course in a business college at Petershagen. The promptings of youthful ambitions led him to sever the home ties when he was a young man of twenty-three years, and his success during the intervening period has fully justified his course in immigrating to America and establishing the stage of his activities in Allen county. Here he has become one of the specially energetic and pro- gressive farmers of Adams township, though his original field of activity was in Wayne township, where he lived during the early period of his residence in the county. When Mr. Becker purchased the present model farm of one hundred and thirty acres the place was equipped with eleven primitive log buildings and in general had little suggestion of the thrift and prosperity now in evidence. The old buildings have been replaced by modern structures of the best type, including the attractive and com- modious farm residence, which is equipped with modern improvements, including a hot-water heating system, and Mr. Becker has further im- proved the place by constructing good fences, by clearing away much underbrush and by bringing his land up to the best stage of productive- ness. He is essentially one of the vigorous, progressive and successful representatives of the basic industries of agriculture and stock-growing in Allen county, and in all of the relations of life he has so borne himself as to command the confidence and good will of his fellow men. He is a staunch and valiant supporter and advocate of the cause of the Republican party and has been one of its influential representatives in Adams town- ship, where he served one term as township supervisor. He and his wife are active communicants of the German Lutheran church in the village of New Haven, which is about 1% miles distant from their fine rural home. November 3, 1887, recorded the marriage of Mr. Becker to Miss Sophia Fuelling, who was born and reared in Adams county, Indiana, a daughter of Frederick and Lizetta (Mayland) Fuelling, both of whom were born in Germany, both having been young folk when they became residents of Fort Wayne, Indiana, where their marriage was solemnized and whence they removed to Adams county, where the father passed the remainder of his life as a prosperous farmer, the widowed mother having later returned to Fort Wayne, where she died at a venerable age. Of the children of this honored couple the eldest was Louise, who became the wife of Frederick Kukelhan, both having been killed in a railroad accident at Maples, Allen county, November 9, 1907; Frederick is a resident of Root township, Adams county ; William and Charles died in infancy ; Mrs. Becker was the next in order of birth ; William remains on the old home- stead farm in Adams county; Otto died in infancy; Elizabeth is the wife of Gottlieb Berger, who is engaged in the dry goods business in Fort Wayne, with a well appointed establishment on Calhoun street; Ernest maintains his home in Root township, Adams county ; and Minnie died in 56 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Becker have but one child, Arthur, who is asso- ciated with his father in the work and management of the home farm ; he wedded Miss Edith Behrman, and their two children are Naomi and Wilma. Fred C. Beckman is a son of Edward Beckman and the grandson of Henry Beckman, who settled in Washington township as early as 1832, spent his life there and there reared his family. Among his chil- dren was Edward, who married Eliza Gerding, and they became the parents of ten children — Edward, Louis, Louise, Sophia, Justine, Eliza, Fred C, Herman, Julia and Charlotte. The two named last are deceased, each dying at the age of six years. In 1892 Edward Beckman was elected treasurer of Allen county, was re-elected in 1894 and served in that capacity until January 1, 1897. Fred C. Beckman was born on August 9, 1881, reared in Washington township and educated in its schools. He began farm life on the home place, continuing to make that his home until 1906, when he took up his residence in St. Joseph township. He is living now in that community and is the owner of one hundred and forty acres in Section 6. He has made practically all the improvements himself and the place is in a much better state of productiveness than when it came into his hands. The buildings have been remodeled under his supervision, fences have been erected and tiling has been put in, so that the farm is today one of the fine places of the township. General farming and stock-raising are carried on suc- cessfully. Mr. Beckman was married on May 24, 1906, to Miss Amelia Henschen, daughter of Frederick and Amelia (Rehorst) Henschen, farm- ing people of Washington township, where they are still resident. Four children have been born to the Beckman house — Lucile, Herbert, Ruth and Morris. The family are members of St. Paul's Lutheran church at Fort Wayne. Herman Beckman has been the exponent of progressive methods in his operations as a farmer in Washington township, and his home is one of the finest examples of modern building that is to be found in the township today, if not, indeed, the finest. His farm is up-to-date in every detail and reflects much credit upon its owner. Mr. Beckman is one of the younger farmers of the community. He was born on Jan- uary 11, 1884, in Washington township, son of Edward and Eliza (Ger- ding) Beckman, concerning whom extended mention will be found on other pages of this work. Herman Beckman attended the common schools of his native village as a boy and applied himself to farming on the home place, where he is still in charge. He now is the owner of one hundred and seventy acres in Washington township, on which he has carried on progressive and profitable farming that has placed him in the front ranks of the successful men of the village. He has lately completed the erection of a fine modern bungalow, so well planned and carried out that further mention may properly be accorded to it. The place is equipped with every modern convenience, and no city dwell- ing is better provided with the comforts of urban life than is this farm house of Mr. Beckman 's. Electric lights, modern furnace, open plumb- ing, hot and cold running water, modern laundry equipment in basement with clothes chute from top floors to laundry and service elevators from kitchen to basement, make up some of the labor-saving devices and aids to comfort that are so necessary in these days and so seldom found in the farm home. Mr. Beckman was married, in 1909, to Marie Schow, FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 57 daughter of Ludwig Schow, concerning whom extended space is given elsewhere in these pages. He and his wife are members of St. Paul's Lutheran church in Fort Wayne and in politics he is a Democrat. He is not active in local politics beyond the demands of good citizenship and has no fraternal affiliations. John Beckstein is one of the native sons of Allen county who is aiding definitely in the upholding of its prestige along the line of agri- cultural enterprise and is one of the substantial farmers and represent- ative citizens of St. Joseph township, where he is the owner of a well- improved farm of eighty acres, in Section 29. Mr. Beckstein was born in the township that is now his place of residence and the date of his nativity was August 14, 1861. He is a son of John and Frederica (Bufink) Beckstein, both of whom were born in Germany and were young at the time of coming to America. They settled in St. Joseph township more than half a century ago and the present farm of their son John, of this review, is a part of their old homestead, upon which they continued to reside until their death. Of the children only three are now living — John, George and Henry. The mother passed to the life eternal, in 1877, and the father was one of the venerable and honored pioneer citizens of St, Joseph township at the time of his death, in September, 1914. He whose name introduces this article was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm, profited duly by the advantages of the schools of his native township, and has never faltered in his alle- giance to the basic industry of agriculture, through the medium of which he has achieved definite success. He owns and resides upon a portion of his father's old homestead farm, as previously stated, and upon the same has made numerous improvements that mark the demesne as a model farm. Industry and good management have characterized his activities as an agriculturist and stock-grower, he is independent in politics, has had no inclination toward public office, but takes loyal interest in those things that touch the communal welfare. Both he and his wife hold membership in St. John's Reformed church in the city of Fort Wayne. The home farm is about four miles distant from the city mentioned and receives service on rural mail route No. 15 from the county seat. On November 28, 1894, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Beckstein to Miss Christina Denges, who likewise was born and reared in this county, a daughter of Christian and Elizabeth (Hansel) Denges, her parents having been children at the time of the imigration of the respective families from Germany to America and both families having established homes in Allen county in the pioneer days. Of the ten children of Mr. and Mrs. Denges five are living — Henry, Christ, Caroline, Sophia and Christina. Mr. and Mrs. Beckstein have five children, namely: Walter, Selma, John, Jr., Edna and Hilda. George W. Beers has been a resident of Fort Wayne for nearly a quarter of a century and has been specially prominent and influential in the promotion of industrial enterprises — notably along the line of public utilities. It was under his personal direction that the lines of the Postal Telegraph Cable Company were brought into Fort Wayne, he was the chief factor in effecting the organization of the Home Telephone Company, of which he was the first president, and he has not only been a strong, positive and efficient force in the establishing of independent telephone services but has also been prominent in the manufacture and distribution of gas in northern Indiana. He is one of the substantial and valued 58 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES citizens of Allen county and is entitled to definite representation in this history. Mr. Beers was born in Darke county, Ohio, on the 7th of June, 1859, and is a son of the late William J. and Amanda (Ward) Beers, both of whom passed the closing years of their lives in the old Buckeye state, where the father had been for many years an able and successful member of the bar of Van Wert county. Of the five children only George W. and Kate are now living, and the latter is the wife of Walter S. Allyn, of Cleveland, Ohio. In the public schools of his native state Mr. Beers acquired his early education and as a youth he gained practical experi- ence in surveying and general civil engineering work. In this connection he was associated with the engineering corps that had charge of the con- struction out of Van Wert of the Cincinnati Northern Railroad. Later he was concerned prominently with timber development enterprises, mainly in the state of West Virginia, and in 1893 he established his permanent home in Fort Wayne. He has done much in furthering enterprises along the line of applied electricity, and, as before stated, he had charge of the extending of the Postal Telegraph lines into Fort Wayne, besides which he was the dominating force in establishing the system of the Home Telephone Company in Allen county and has otherwise been prominently interested in the exploiting and establishing of independent telephone lines. A business man of circumspection, energy and initiative, Mr. Beers has made a most successful record, and as a citizen he has been liberal and progressive. Well fortified in his convictions concerning govern- mental and economic policies, he is independent in politics and instead of being restricted by mere partisanship he gives his support to men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment. In the Masonic fra- ternity he is a Knight Templar, a member of the Mystic Shrine and has received also the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. Both he and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian church of Fort Wayne. In 1884 Avas solemnized the marriage of Mr. Beers to Miss Catherine Numbers, who was born at Decatur, Adams county, Indiana, and the two children of this union are Dan N., who is identified with business interests in Fort Wayne, and Ruth, who is the wife of William T. McKay, of this city. Joseph W. Bell has been a resident of Fort Wayne for nearly forty years and during this long period he has been continuously identified with business interests that have had distinct bearing on the civic and material prosperity of the community. For twenty years he was here engaged in the wholesale saddlery and hardware business, and since his retirement therefrom, in 1911, he has given his attention to the real estate business, in which his operations have been confined to the handling of his own properties, entirely aside from commission transactions. He is the owner of valuable realty in Fort Wayne, both improved and unim- proved, and his activities in his present line of enterprise are conducive to further development and progress in the metropolis of Allen county, even as his previous business enterprise contributed to the commercial prestige of Fort Wayne. In the agnatic line Mr. Bell is of sterling Scotch lineage, as a scion of the third generation of the family in America, and in his character and achievement he has manifested the inviolable integ- rity for which the Scotch people have ever been noted. Joseph William Bell was born at Coshocton, Ohio, and the date of his nativity was De- cember 1, 1853. He is the eldest in a family of three children, and the other two are Mrs. Laura Bell LcM^is, of Cleveland, Ohio, and George A. Bell, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Benjamin Franklin Bell, father of him FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 59 whose name initiates this article, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and was but seven years of age at the time of the family immigration to America. He here acquired a liberal education, and his advantages included those of the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware. He prepared himself for and entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he gave many years of earnest, able and consecrated service in the vineyard of the Master. For ten years he was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Delaware, Ohio, and thereafter he held various other pastoral charges, including a number of important order, the closing years of his life having been passed at Wellington, Ohio, where he died at the age of 59 years, his cherished and devoted wife, a woman of singularly gracious personality, having been 48 years of age when she was summoned to the life eternal. At the age of twenty-four years Rev. Benjamin F. Bell wedded Miss Lucinda McMorris, daughter of Joseph McMorris, who was a successful millwright and prominent citizen of Dresden, Muskingum county, Ohio, and concerning the three children of this union due mention has already been made in this context. Joseph W. Bell was signally favored in being reared in a home of culture and refinement and his public school education was supplemented by a course in his father's alma mater, the Ohio Wesleyan University. At the age of twenty-five years he entered the wholesale hardware business at Mansfield, Ohio, where he remained five years. He then, in 1885, came to Fort Wayne, where he has since maintained his home and where for twenty years, as previously noted, he was successfully established in the wholesale hardware and saddlery business. Mr. Bell has always stood exponent of loyal and public-spirited citizenship, has given unfaltering allegiance to the Re- publican party, has become affiliated with the York, Scottish Rite and Shrine bodies of the Masonic fraternity, is an active member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, and both he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church. On the 26th of December, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bell to Miss Elizabeth Reed, daughter of the late Nicholas S. Reed, of Mansfield, Ohio, and the two children of this union are Guy Reed Bell and Benjamin Rector Bell, both of whom are associated with their father in the real estate business, as representative young men of Fort Wayne. Henry E. Bell, who has been the popular mail carrier on rural routes Nos. 2 and 5, from the village of New Haven, since 1907, is a scion of one of the well-known families of Allen county, where the marriage of his parents was solemnized, but he claims the Sunflower State as the place of his nativity. He was born in Reno county, Kansas, Sep- tember 12, 1872, a son of Robert S. and Lucy (Burgess) Bell, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Allen county, Indiana, where her parents settled in the pioneer days. The mother passed to the life eternal, in 1876, and the subject of this sketch is the eldest of the three children, the other two being Eugene H. and Robert. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Bell removed to Kansas, where they gained a due quota of pioneer experience, and upon their return to Allen county settled on a farm in Jefferson town- ship. The father became one of the substantial agriculturists of the township, made good improvements on his farm, including the erection of excellent buildings, and he lives in New Haven, the death of his wife having occurred in 1877. Henry E. Bell was about two years old at the time of his parents' return from Kansas to Allen county, where 60 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES he was reared to manhood on the home farm and where he profited by the advantages offered in the schools of Jefferson township. He continued his active alliance with agricultural enterprise until he assumed his present position as rural mail carrier, in which his service has given unequivocal satisfaction and in which he has made a fine rcord, as attested by the commendation of the patrons of the two routes which receive his attention. In politics Mr. Bell is a Republican, and he is affiliated at New Haven with the organizations of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On October 5, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bell to Matilda J. Cameron. She is a daughter of James and Matilda Cameron, the former of whom was born in Scotland and the latter in Allen county, Indiana, where their marriage was solemnized, Mrs. Bell being the first in a family of seven children and the names of the others being here designated: John A., Martha Maude, Harriett G., one who died in infancy, Lily May, Mary Winona and James Ross. Mr. and Mrs. Bell have no children, but Mrs. Bell has one son by a former marriage — Roy M. Tirabrook, who is associated in the conducting of an automobile garage in the city of Fort Wayne. Gustave Bengs. — The Engineering Company, located at Fort Wayne, of which Gustave Bengs and his brother are the moving spirits, is one of the leading enterprises of its kind in the state. It was organized in 1907, and in 1908 it was incorporated under the laws of the state, at which time the capital stock was increased from $15,000 to $100,000. The com- pany engages in the manufacture of beams, channels, angles, plates, sheets, steel for buildings, iron stairs, ornamental railings and grills, with special attention given to the manufacture of machinery for use in milk condensing, their product in that line being used from coast to coast. The factories are established at the corner of Winter street and the Wabash railroad, and they have most admirable facilities there for the efficient handling of their products. Gustave Bengs is of German origin, born in that country on January 2, 1871, and he is the son of Herman and Anna (Alf) Bengs, both of German birth and ancestry. The father was a stone cutter by trade and came to Fort Wayne with his family in 1883, direct from Germany. The parents, who are no longer living, reared a family of nine children. All survive but two, and the subject was the fourth born in the family. He had his education for the most part in Fort Wayne, attending first the parochial school of the German Lutheran church, and later entering the old Methodist College, where he took a course in mechanical engineering. Following his gradu- ation from that institution Mr. Bengs entered upon an apprenticeship in the Bass Foundry & Machine shop in Fort Wayne, and he served long and faithfully in that shop, adding to his college training valuable experience that has since proved itself of inestimable value to him in his business. Leaving the shop he engaged in business with Frank Gruber in a boiler making enterprise, and after eighteen months sold his interest to his partner, after which he went to Philadelphia and entered the service of the John Baizley Iron Works. He was there for about five years, and from Philadelphia he went to Los Angeles, California, in search of a suitable location for business. He spent six months in that quest and returning to Fort Wayne joined his one-time partner, Frank Gruber, continuing with him for two years. Once more he sold out to his partner, this time to engage in business with his brother, Otto, who is his partner FORT WAYNE AND ALLExM COUNTY 61 today in the business conducted under the name of The Engineering Company, whose activities have been described in an opening paragraph. The Bsngs brothers have every reason to feel pride in their accomplish- ments in the past ten years as the proprietors of this thriving business, and they have won the confidence and good will of the business interests of the city. Mr. Bengs married Anna Heine in August, 1898. She is a daughter of Fort Wayne, and her family has long been established in the county. Mr. and Mrs. Bengs have three children — Herbert, Raymond and Alfred — fine boys who are growing up in the public schools of the city, and who give promise of splendid futures. The family are members of the German Lutheran church and Mr. Bengs is a Republican in politics, but not a politician. Edward P. Bennigen, whose well-developed executive ability comes into efi'ective play in his native city, has won by his own ability and efforts a merited advancement in the service of the Pennsylvania Pail- road Company, in the freight department of which in the city of Fort Wayne he is now serving as chief bill clerk. Mr. Bennigen was born in Fort Wayne, August 24, 1872, a son of Henry E. and Mary C. (Meyer) Bennigen, the former of whom was born in New Jersey and the latter in Fort Wayne, both having been of sterling German lineage and having passed the closing years of their worthy and unassuming lives in Fort Wayne, the father having been for nineteen years employed as a skilled machinist in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He was a sterling citizen who commanded the esteem of all M^ho knew him and both he and his wife were earnest communicants of the Catholic church. Of their nine children the subject of this review- is the eldest; Charles F. still resides in Fort Wayne, as does also Bertha, who is the wife of Louis Neef ; Agnes is the wife of Edward Wehmeyer, of this city; George W. and Arthur still reside in Fort Wayne; Estella is the wife of Oliver Reed, of this city ; Esther died in childhood ; and Albert likewise resides in his native city. Edward P. Bennigen acquired his early education in the German parochial schools of the Catholic church in Fort Wayne but began to depend largely upon his own resources when he was a lad of but thirteen years. For a time he was employed in a local clothing store and later found employment along mechanical lines in the Olds Wagon Works, with which he continued his association until 1893. In the following year he entered the service of the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company and in 1895 began his work in its freight department, with which he has since been identified and in which he has won advancement to the responsible position of chief bill clerk. He gives his political allegiance to the Republican party, is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and both he and his wife are communi- cants of the Cathedral parish of the Catholic church in their home city On June 27, 1906, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bennigen to Miss Amelia N. Hitchens, who was born in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, and they have two children — Elva Mary, who was born July 6, 1907, and Kenneth C, who was born March 19, 1909. John Benzinger. — Among the many successful and capable farmers of Marion township who claim that prosperous community as their birth- place may be mentioned John Benzinger, who was born in Marion town- ship on June 29, 1859, the son of Fred and Catherine Benzinger. Fred Benzinger was born in New York state of German parents, and he ac- companied them to Allen county as a boy. They drove an ox team across 62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES the country and experienced many hardships that made the trip a life- long memory to all who participated and were of sufficient years to re- member anything. The family settled on a tract of land in Marion township, and John Benzinger is the owner of that farm today. A single cabin of logs with old time puncheon floor was the first rude home that sheltered the Benzingers, in marked contrast to the commodious dwelling that is the family home of the representative of the name at this time. Fred Benzinger was a farmer all his life, a hard working man and a good citizen, and he was able to accumulate some property during his active years. He was a Democrat and a member of the German Lutheran church, and his children numbered seven. John, the first born, is the immediate subject of this family review. Fred lives in Fort Wayne. May is married. Rosa is the wife of Henry Rievel. Lena is deceased, as is also the seventh child, the latter dying in infancy. John Benzinger had his education in the German Lutheran schools of his community, and early learned to apply himself to the duties that presented themselves in the management of the home place with his father. He continued there until the death of Fred Benzinger, when he inherited the home place, and from then on he gradually accumulated other properties in the township. He carries on diversified farming on a generous scale, enjoying a well mer- ited success in his work. He is a Democrat in politics, prominent in local politics, and a member of the German Lutheran church from infancy. He was married in January, 1888, to Miss Carolina Waterback, who was born in Germany. They have three children — Frederick, William and Mary, the two younger ones still at home with the parents. Gustav A, Berghoff. — See Rub-No-More. Hubert Berghoff has been closely associated with his elder brothers, Herman, now of Chicago, Henry, and his younger brother, Gustave, in the development of one of the important industrial enterprises of Fort Wayne, that of the Berghoff Brewing Association, but in 1908 impaired health caused him to retire from active business, though he still is the nominal secretary of the Rub-No-More Soap Company, which has de- veloped in Fort Wayne an extensive and prosperous manufacturing en- terprise that adds materially to the city's commercial prestige. Hubert Berghoff was born in the town of Dortmund, Westphalia, Prussia, and the date of his nativity was November 21, 1860, his parents, Anthony and Elizabeth (Boellhauve) Berghoff, having passed their entire lives in that section of the German empire ; the father died in 1777 and the mother in 1884. He whose name introduces this article gained his early education in the excellent schools in his native land, and he was nineteen years of age when he severed the home ties and came to America, where, on the 12th of February, 1880, he joined his elder brothers, Herman and Henry, who had establislied their residence in Fort Wayne and concerning whom further mention is made on other pages of this publication. During the earlier years of his residence in Fort Wayne Hubert Berghoff' was as- sociated with the wholesale house of A. C. Trentman, and in 1889 ' he formed an alliance with his two brothers in establishing the enterprise that has been developed into the extensive business now controlled by the Berghoff Brewing Association. As previously stated, he has been prac- tically retired from active business responsibilities since 1908. Like his brothers, Mr. Berghoff' has proved one of the liberal and public-spirited citizens of Fort Wayne and has supported measures and enterprises that have tended to advance the civic and material prosperity of the com- munity. On October 11, 1882, was solemnized his marriage to Miss FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 63 Johanna Mayer, daughter of Lawrence Mayer and a representative of one of the old and influential families of Allen county. Of the children of this union the eldest is Hubert, Jr., who is bookkeeper in the offices of the Berghoff Brewing Association ; Herman is similarly engaged in the offices of the Rub-No-More Soap Company; Henry E. is secretary and treasurer of the Fort Wayne Carriage Works; and Elizabeth remains at the parental home. Forrest B. Beyer, of the Beyer Grocery Company, of Fort Wayne, has proved a vital and resourceful factor in the developing of the sub- stantial wholesale business now controlled by this representative com- mercial concern and is known not only as one of the influential young business men of the metropolis of Allen county but also as one of specially high scholastic and scientific attainments. Mr. Beyer was born at North Manchester, Wabash county, Indiana, May 21, 1886, and is a son of Cyrus C. and Melissa Catherine (Baker) Beyer, who now maintain their home in the city of Kendallville, Noble county, where the father is engaged in the wholesale produce business, besides which he is one of the interested principals in the Beyer Grocery Company, at Fort Wayne. Forrest B. Beyer was a boy at the time of the family removal to Ken- dallville, where he continued his studies in the public schools until he had completed the curriculum of the high school. In pursuance of his higher educational discipline he entered historic old Yale University, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1908 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Later he completed a post-graduate course in Leland Stanford Junior University, at Palo Alto, California, and from this institution he received the degree of Master of Arts. For one year thereafter he served as chemist for the Twenty-Mule Team Borax Company at Alameda, California, and later he held the position of organic chemist for the Bureau of Science at Manila, P. I. In 1913 he came to Fort Wayne and associated himself with the wholesale grocery business then conducted under the title of Beyer Brothers Com- pany, and this alliance he has since continued with marked success, the concern having been reorganized in 1916 under the present title of the Beyer Grocery Company. His associates in the substantial and constantly expanding enterprise are his father, and George H. Crouse and Irvin W. house through its trade territory, and in the establishment itself an Von Gunten. Four traveling salesmen represent this wholesale grocery house through its trade territory; and in the establishment itself an adequate corps of clerical and general assistants is maintained. Mr. Beyer takes lively interest in all things tending to advance the commercial and civic welfare and progress of the Summit City, is an active member of the local Commercial Club and Rotary Club, and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. On the 1st of September, 1909, Mr. Beyer wedded Miss Ethel C. Reyher, daughter of Jacob Reyher, of Kendallville, and the one child of this union is Forrest B., Jr., who was born November 5, 1914. Clarence F. Bicknell. — When Clarence Ford Bicknell came to Fort Wayne, in 1902, to assume the management of the Fort Wayne Daily News, every newspaper in the city entered upon a period of develop- ment until, today, no city of its size in America can boast of superior purveyors of the news of the world or more effective wielders of public opinion. Mr, Bicknell was born on a farm near Freelandville, Knox county, Indiana, December 26, 1864. In his native town he attended the public schools and the German Evangelical schools. The death of 64 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES his father, wheu Clarence had reached the age of twelve, brought to him early in life the necessity of making his own way in the world, and he commenced by engaging in farm work during his summer vaca- tions while continuing his studies in the winter. At the age of sixteen he began the teaching of a rural school and was engaged for two winters at the same school. The next few years of his experience form an interesting study, but the true philosophy of his activities is shown by the use to which he put his experience. The fact that he was a student in the University of Indiana at Bloomington, from 1883 to 1885, that he left the university at the end of his sophomore year, and, within a short time, was "wiping" engines at night in the roundhouse of the Burlington railroad at Lincoln Nebraska, brings to the mind an inquiry which is readily answered by Mr. Bicknell himself who says that his earnest desire, on leaving school was to "go west and grow up with the country." The Lincoln railroad shops offered the opportunity and Mr. Bicknell grasped it. For seven months, during his work in the roundhouse, he gathered much experience which has been of inesti- mable value to him in later years. From this work he was advanced to a clerkship in the office of the general superintendent of the road. During his three years in this capacity he perfected himself in stenog- raphy and his wider knowledge of the business of the department gave him an advancement to a position in the general passenger department of the Burlington road to Omaha. He remained here for four years, being promoted successively to the positions of head of the advertising depart- ment and cashier. In 1893, having for some time wished to enter busi- ness for himself, he purchased a weekly newspaper circulated in the towns of Gas City and Jonesboro, Indiana. In 1896, after a successful management of the property, he sold it, and, in connection with his brother, Ernest P. Bicknell, now Director General of Civilian Relief of the American Red Cross Society, purchased a controlling interest in the Terre Haute (Indiana) Tribune, of which publication he served as the business manager. In 1899 he sold the Tribune, but remained under contract as its manager until the spring of 1902, when he came to Fort Wayne and purchased the Fort Wayne Daily News for himself and his brother from William D. Page, its founder. Mr. Bicknell has man- aged the property with splendid success from the beginning of his con- nection with it. From a paper of small size and circulation, he has given it a high position of sustained popularity and influence. While a resi- dent of Omaha, Mr. Bicknell, at the age of twenty-three, was united in marriage with Miss Clara A. Sluss, of Bloomington, Indiana. To Mr. and Mrs. Bicknell have been born three daughters, Ruth, Marguerite and Winifred. Mr. Bicknell is a member of the South Wayne Baptist church. He is a Mason, a member of the Scottish Rite body and the Shrine, the Knights of Pythias, the Maccabees, the Commercial Club and the Quest Club. In politics he has always been a staunch exponent of the principles of the Republican party. For two years he occupied the position of chairman of the Republican party of the Twelfth Congres- sional District. Through the medium of his newspaper, his activity in many organizations, and his wide acquaintanceship, Mr. Bicknell has taken advantage of his exceptional opportunities to support every great public movement which has for its object the good of the many. Charles L. Biederwolf, the efficient and popular secretary of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, naturally is unequivocally loyal to FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 65 Indiana, as this is his native commonwealth, and he is not only a member of the bar of the state but has also gained broad experience through service as private secretary to two representatives of Indiana in the United States congress, so that, all in all, his activities have been of that broadening type that makes him specially eligible for the furtherance of the high civic ideals and progressive policies of the vigorous organiza- tion of which he is now serving as secretary. Mr. Biederwolf was born at Monticello, the judicial center of White county, Indiana, September 27, 1876, and is a son of Michael and Abbie (Snetzer) Biederwolf, both of whom were born in the historic old city of Strassburg, Germany, and were married in Reading, Pennsylvania. Michael Biederwolf was a car- penter by trade but he eventually engaged in the lumber and coal busi- ness, in which he developed a prosperous enterprise, both he and his wife having been residents of Monticello at the time of their death and both having been earnest members of the Presbyterian church, the while the father was found arrayed as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party. Charles L. Biederwolf continued his studies in the public schools of his native place until he had availed himself of the advantages of the high school, and thereafter he attended the Gem City Business College, at Quincy, Illinois, and Wabash College, at Crawfords- ville, Indiana, in which latter he was a student for one year. In the prose- cution of his law studies he attended the law department of the University of Ohio for two years, as a member of the class of 1898, and he finished his technical course in the law department of the University of Indianapolis in which he was graduated in 1901, and from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws, with virtually concomitant admission to the bar of his native state. In 1904 he established his home in Fort Wayne, and thereafter he served in turn as secretary to Hon. Newton W. Gilbert, representative of the Twelfth Indiana district in the United States con- gress, and the latter 's successor, Hon. Clarence C. Gilhams. His secre- tarial duties involved his residence in the city of Washington during the sessions of congress, and his effective services as secretary gave him a specially close and comprehensive knowledge of public affairs. His incumbency as secretary to Hon. Clarence C. Gilhams terminated in 1909, and on the 26th of March, 1910, he became secretary of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club. In this executive office he has done splendid service in systematizing and vitalizing the work of the club and has aided greatly in making it an influential exponent and promoter of the civic, industrial and commercial interests of Fort Wayne and Allen county. His popularity and the estimate placed on his administrative ability are further shown in his having been chosen secretary also of the Rotary Club of Fort Wayne, which position he held for one year. As implied by his service as secretary to the congressmen previously mentioned, Mr. Biederwolf is staunchly aligned as an advocate and supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and he takes lively interest in the party cause. In addition to his membership in the two representative clubs of which he is secretary, he is a member of the Fort Wayne Country Club, and he is affiliated with the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and the Friars. January 28, 1904, gave record of the marriage of Mr. Bieder- wolf to Miss Katherine Shanahan, daughter of Michael and Mary Shana- han, of Wabash, this state, and both are popular in the social life of their home city. They have no children. 66 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES William Bittler has given nearly half a century of effective service in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and is one of the veteran men of this corporation in the city of Fort Wayne. Tech- nical and executive ability on his part have not failed of official recog- nition in the passing years, and, since 1875, he has had full charge of the maintenance and repair work on the water stations of what is known as the western division of the Pennsylvania Lines — between Crestline and Chicago being the line over which he has jurisdiction in his assigned position. He has the status of an expert stone mason, and it was his ability along this line that led to his advancement in the service of the great corporation with which he has been long identified, the while his sterling characteristics and worthy achievement have brought and re- tained to him the fullest measure of official and popular confidence and good will. Mr. Bittler was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, Decem- ber 19, 1850, and in the same historic old commonwealth were born his parents, Reuben and Elizabeth (Smith) Bittler, the father having been a shoemaker by trade and vocation and both he and his wife having been residents of Reading, Pennsylvania, at the time of their death. Of the children Mary, Rebecca and Leah are deceased ; Emma still resides at Reading, Pennsylvania; Hannah is the wife of Jacob Wannemaker, of New York city ; William, of this review, is the elder of the two sons ; and Samuel is a resident of Pennsylvania. As a boy and youth William Bittler gained practical experience and discipline in connection with farm industry in the old Keystone State and in the meanwhile attended the public schools when opportunity offered. At the age of sixteen years he made his way to Tiffin, Ohio, where he worked about eight months as a stone mason, a trade in which his natural predilections and careful application eventually gained to him full qualification as a jour- neyman. In 1868 he came to Fort Wayne and here was employed at his trade by the late Henry Paul, father of William Paul, who is still a resident of this city. On August 6th of the following year Mr. Bittler took a position as stonemason and pipe man in the employ of the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company and then initiated his service in looking after the water stations of the company on the 'western division. In 1875 his ability and effective service brought to him advancement and from that year to the present he has been in full charge of the work of keeping in proper condition the water stations of the company on the line between Crestline, Ohio, and the city of Chicago. Mr. Bittler is one of the oldest employes of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company attached to the Fort Wayne headquarters, is well known and held in high esteem among the railroad men and the same estimate is placed upon him by all others who know him. He has never swerved in his fealty to and appreciation of Fort Wayne, takes loyal interest in the city's prosperity and progress, has served as a trustee of the municipal water system, is a Democrat in politics, and he and his wife are earnest communicants of the Lutheran church, in the faith of which he was reared. On October 3, 1873, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bittler to Miss Mary Jacobs, who was born in Germany and came to America when young. Of the four children of Mr. and Mrs. Bittler the eldest is Edward, who is now assistant cashier of the People's Trust Company of Fort Wayne ; George is the recent state treasurer of Indiana ; Hannah remains at the parental home ; and Herman is identified with business FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 67 interests in his native city, all of the children having honored the family name and the city of their nativity. Albert J. Black has been a resident of Allen county from the time of his infancy, has been for many years a successful representative of agricultural industry in Milan township and is a progressive and influ- ential citizen whose secure vantage-place in popular esteem is vouchsafed by his incumbency of the office of county commisioner, to which position he was elected in 1912 and in which he has been the earnest advocate and supporter of measures and enterprises that have conserved the best interests of the county and its people. Mr. Black was born in Erie county, Ohio, on the 18th of June, 1862, and is the only surviving child of Joseph and Matilda (Chester) Black, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Ohio, their marriage having been solemnized in the Buckeye state and the father having been a sailor on the Great Lakes in his young manhood. The subject of this review was an infant at the time of the family removal from Ohio to Allen county, Indiana, in 1863, and here his father became a substantial farmer and representative citizen of Milan township, where he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. Albert J. B^ack acquired his early education in the public schools of Allen county, was reared to the invigorating discipline of the farm and during the long intervening j^ears he has not been deflected from the line of close allegiance to the basic industries of agriculture and stock-growing, of which he is now a prominent and enterprising exponent in this county, his well improved farm of one hundred acres being one of the model places of Mil an township and being still under his active supervision, though his official duties as county commissioner demanded his presence in Fort "Wayne during an appreciable portion of each year during his incum- bency of that position. Mr. Black is an active and influential Allen county representative of the Democratic party and prior to his election to the office of county commisioner had served four years as township trustee in Milan township. The marriage of Mr. Black was to Miss Alice M. Swan, who was born and reared in Allen county, and they have two daughters, both of whom have received excellent educational advantages and both of whom have been popular and efficient teachers in the schools of the^'r native county. Senora, the elder daughter, is the wife of Samuel Spindler, of Milan township; and Josephine is the wife of Ray Irving, of the same township. Louis C. Blase is a popular and successful business man in the metrop- olis of his native county, where he was local representative of the Cad- illac Sales Company for six years, which controlled a substantial business from its headquarters at Fort Wayne. Mr. Blase was born in this county on September 5, 1881, and is a scion of a family whose name has been worthily identified with the history of the county for fully three-quarters of a century. His father, the late Louis Blase, passed virtually his entire life in Allen county, and the widowed mother now resides in the city of Chicago. Louis C. Blase is indebted to the public schools of Fort Wayne for his early educational discipline and is one of the loyal and progressive young business men of this city. He is independent in pol- itics, is an active member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, is affili- ated with the local lodge of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, holds membership in the Country Club and both he and his wife are communicants of St. Paul's Lutheran church. On January 5, 1916, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Blase to Miss Ella Beverforden, and 68 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES they have one child, Barbara. They are popular factors in the social life of their home city. William Blessing is known as one of the most progressive and suc- cessful exponents of agricultural and live-stock industry in his native county, is a scion of a sterling pioneer family, and owns and resides upon the fine old homestead farm, in Section 24, Lake township, which was the place of his birth, the date of his nativity having been December 14, 1861. He is a son of Peter and Catherine (Dush) Blessing, both of whom were born in Germany and were young at the time of the emi- gration of the respective families to America, the mother's parents having settled near Kendallville, Indiana. Peter Blessing was a sturdy and ambitious youth at the time when he came to the United States and passed the first year in the state of New York. He then came to Allen county, Indiana, and turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. It is a matter of record that this honored pioneer cradled wheat on the ground now comprised in the beautiful suburban residence district known as Bloomingdale — virtually an integral part of the city of Fort 'Wayne. He eventually became the owner of a farm three miles north of Fort Wayne, but his old homestead is the place now owned and occupied by his son William, the immediate subject of this review. Here he estab- lished his residence in 1885, and by the later purchase of additional tracts of land became the owner of one of the large and valuable landed estates of the county, the home farm of William Blessing now com- prising one hundred and sixty acres of as finely improved and fertile land as is to be found in this favored section of the Hoosier common- wealth. Peter Blessing contributed, through his energy, ability and civic loyalty, much too the development and progress of Allen county, his was inviolable place in popular confidence and good will, and he con- tinued to reside on his farm until his death, which occurred August 27, 1897, his widow surviving him by a decade and a half and having been venerable in years when she passed to the life eternal, on December 10, 1912. Both were devoted communicants of the Lutheran church and in politics the father was a staunch Democrat. Concerning the children the following brief record is entered : George is a prosperous farmer of Lake township ; Henry is deceased ; Charles is a representative farmer in Washington township ; Mrs. Mary Fick is deceased ; William, of this review, was the next in order of birth; John likewise is a successful farmer of Lake township ; Elizabeth, Frederick and Otto are deceased. While early accorded his full meed of responsibility in connection with the work of the home farm, William Blessing by no means failed to improve the educational opportunities that were afforded in the school of district No. 5, Lake township. He continued to be actively associated with farm enterprise until he was twenty-five years of age and thereafter devoted eight years to work at the carpenter's trade. He then returned to the old homestead farm and to the same has since continued to give his active and effective supervision, besides which he has added mate- rially to the excellent improvements that had been made by his honored father. He erected the attractive and commodious modern house that is now the family home, has provided a number of minor farm buildings and also erected a silo of large capacity. While utilizing his land for well-ordered agriculture of diversified order Mr. Blessing gives special attention to the raising of the better types of live stock, including short-horn Durham cattle and Chester White swine. He is liberal and FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 69 loyal in his civic attitude, takes lively interest in local affairs, but has never consented to become a candidate for public office of any kind. His political support is given to the Democratic party and both he and his wife are zealous ceJ'mmunicants of St. John's Lutheran church in their home township. April 25, 1907, recorded the marriage of Mr. Blessing to Miss Mary Anderson, who was born in Sweden, a daughter of the late Anders Pearson and Mary (Johnson) Ajiderson. Of the other chil- dren it may be recorded that Christena (Mrs. Johnson) is now a resident of Michigan ; Peter resides in the city of Fort Wayne, as does also Mrs. Hannah Rudolphson;' and Niels, John, Caroline and Carrie still remain in Sweden. Mr. and Mrs. Blessing have three children — Hilding D., Douglas A. and Astrid M., and the family is one of prominence and popularity in the social activities of the home community. Maximillian J. Blitz was assigned in 1890 to the position of city ticket agent at Fort Wayne for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, which is more commonly known as the Nickel Plate Railroad, and also manager of Kinner's ticket office in Fort Wayne, which office he bought in 1891, though he had in the meanwhile identified himself with other lines of enterprise, through association with which he gradually matured his executive powers, and in 1895 was led to establish and develop his present representative general insurance agency, in connection with which he conducts a substantial real-estate business. Mr. Blitz was born at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 16th of October, 1871, and is a son of Leopold and Sarah (Spear) Blitz, both of whom vv'^ere born and reared near the city of Berlin, Germany. Leopold Blitz came to America about the year 1842 and both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives at Cleveland, Ohio, where he had long been a representative merchant and honored and influential citizen. In the public schools of his native town Maximillian J. Blitz acquired his early education, which was supple- mented by an effective course in the Spencerian Business College at Cleve- land, Ohio. In 1885 he became assistant city ticket agent in Cleveland, Ohio, for the Nickel Plate Railroad, and after serving in this capacity two years he was^ advanced to the position of assistant ticket agent for the Detroit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Company. This incumbency he retained two years, at the expiration of which, in 1890, he came to Fort Wayne to assume the position of city ticket agent for the same company, with incidental management of Kinner's ticket office. In 1895 he was appointed local agent for the Preferred Accident Insurance Company, of New York, and in the following year he was made district manager for this company for the northern half of Indiana. This expe- rience led to his assuming the agency for other leading insurance com- panies and eventuated in his developing one of the leading general insur- ance agencies in the city of Fort Wayne, as previously intimated. He is now general agent for northeastern Indiana for the Hartford Accident & Indemnity Company ; general agent for the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, and local agent for the following named and impor- tant companies: The Commercial Union, of New York; the Firemen's Fund, of California ; the Niagara Underwriters ; the North River Standard Insurance Company, of Hartford, Connecticut; the Sterling Fire Insur- ance Company, of Indianapolis, and the Standard Live Stock Insurance Company, which likewise has its general offices in the capital city of Indiana. Mr. Blitz maintains spacious and well-appointed offices in the Shoaff Building and in the same gives employment to a corps of six 70 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES efficient assistants. His business is now of broad scope and has been built up through careful and progressive policies and straightforward dealings, the same forces having been brought to bear also in connection with his substantial real-estate enterprise, which likewise is of a general order. The political proclivities of Mr. Blitz are indicated by the staunch allegiance which he gives to the Republican party, and both he and his wife hold membership in the First Presbyterian Church, of Fort Wayne. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity his ancient craft affiliation is with Wayne Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and he is further actively identified with the local chapter of Royal Arch Masons, the Fort Wayne Commandery of Knights Templars, Fort Wayne Consistory and also the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles. of the Mystic Shrine, Mizpah Temple. He is likewise an appreciative affiliant of the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and holds membership in the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, the Country Club, and the local Press Club. He takes much interest in military affairs and was an active member of the Fort Wayne Rifles. April 28, 1897, was the date on which was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Blitz to Miss Edith May Barcus, daughter of Hezekiah and Emerilis (Bennett) Barcus, of Fort Wayne. Mr. and Mrs. Blitz have three children, whose names and respective dates of birth are here noted : John Kinner, July 4, 1899 ; Richard Thompson, January 16, 1902, and Edith Maxine, May 25, 1914. The Blue Cast Magnetic Springs. — Allen county is to be considered greatly favored in the prestige given by the Blue Cast Magnetic Springs and Sanitarium, which give to the county a reputation for the best of natural and properly amplified facilities for the successful treatment of many of the ills to which human flesh is heir. As the wonderful remedial powers of the waters of the Blue Cast Springs become better and more widely known, in the same ratio is the popularity of the fine sanitarium that has been provided in connection with the same to become more and more one of the leading health meccas of the middle west. No other springs in Indiana can claim waters of greater and more assured medicinal value than those of the Blue Cast Magnetic Springs, and to the splendidly equipped sanitarium are drawn each year greater numbers of health-seekers whose faith in the institution is virtually to be assured through beneficial results. In a publication of this order it is impossible to enter into details concerning the analysis of the Blue Cast waters or the manifold attractions of the sanitarium and its beautiful park, for all these matters are adequately described in the literature sent forth by the institution itself and available to all who make application for the same, but as the developing company has made the institution one of the really great health resorts of Indiana and one that contributes in many ways to the precedence of Allen county, it is but due that a brief review be incorporated in this history of the county. To accomplish this end most consistently the following quotations are taken from an attract- ive brochure issued by the Blue Cast Magnetic Springs Company : ' ' Blue Cast Magnetic Springs and Sanitarium are located in beautiful Blue Cast Park, two miles north of Woodburn, Indiana. Woodburn is on the main line of the Wabash Railroad, seventy-five miles from Toledo, Ohio, and fifteen miles from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Direct connections are, therefore, possible with all railroad and interurban lines running into these two traffic centers. Blue Cast Park is on the Maumee river, con- sists of eighty-five acres, half of which is a fine grove, fronting for over FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 71 a half mile on the beautiful Maumee river. High banks, splendid scenic views, good boating and fishing, afford most desirable sport and recre- ation. Blue Cast Magnetic Springs have long been known to residents of the surrounding country, who have enjoyed refreshment and kept in health for many years by partaking of this natural tonic from the crude springs. Now the healthful and invigorating properties of Blue Cast magnetic spring water have become available for the multitudes of sick and ailing and those desirous of continued well being. The name Blue Cast is derived from the very slight bluish tint which distinguishes the water. Another part of the name. Magnetic, is derived from the fact that the water has been endowed by Nature with a peculiar magnetic force rarely found in any mineral water of any kind, the world over. Iron or steel when immersed in this water will become magnetized. This wonderful invigorating force is imparted to those who bathe in Blue Cast water, exerting a powerful tonic and metabolic influence on the cell life of the body. The speedy and popular endorsement of these curative and tonical waters is amply justified by the searching analysis of their properties which has been made by well-known and authoritative chemists. The official analysis establishes beyond a doubt that Blue Cast Magnetic Spring water not only possesses refreshing and exhilar- ating qualities, but is Nature's own remedy for many common and chronic ailments." The water is further attractive as a high-grade table beverage, and in connection with the sanitarium has provided a bottling department with the best modern facilities, so that the product may readily be shipped to all parts of the country without the slightest deterioration,. From an auhoritative analysis and incidental report made by a leading chemist are taken the following statements: "This is a very fine water for internal medication and is adapted to a wide range of medical uses: the magnesium carbonate is especially good in all stomach disorders and its sulphate acts mildly on the bowels, while the potassium salts aid all the eliminative organs and act as alteratives." Of Blue Cast Sani- tarium the following brief description has been given: "The building is a modern, fire-proof, steel and concrete structure, steam heated, electric lighted, with hot and cold Blue Cast Magnetic Spring water in every room. No expense has been spared to carry to the extreme in this sani- tarium all the purposes for which it has been constructed, — the comforts of home, rest, recreation and the renewal of the health of patients." The bath facilities are of the best modern type and make provision for the use when expedient of the wonderful magnetic mud that has been impreg- nated by the springs. An efficient medical staff is maintained in con- nection with the institution, and there are few health resorts in the United States that can offer greater attractions for recreation and health- building. For full information concerning the institution application should be made to the general manager, George A. Hogue, who is treas- urer of the Blue Cast Company and who has been the dominant force in the development of this splendid health resort. George A. Hogue was born at Akron, Summit county, Ohio, on January 17, 1875, and is a son of Albert and Samantha (Rollins) Hogue, both likewise natives of the old Buckeye state, the father having been long employed as an expert machinist in the old Buckeye mower and reaper works at Akron. George A. Hogue is indebted to the educational institutions of his native state for his early scholastic training, and as a youth he became associated with contracting work in railway construction. He initiated his activ- 72 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES ities along this line in 1892 and eventually became an independent and successful contractor. He obtained and completed the contract for the construction of the line of the Ohio Electric Railway from Lima, Ohio, to Fort Wayne, and had the supervision of all construction work in that connection except the building of the sub-stations. Within his active career as a contractor he built six hundred miles of electric railway — principally in Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. He thus developed to the full his admirable initiative and administrative powers, and when, in 1912, he identified himself with the development and exploiting of the Blue Cast Magnetic Mineral Springs he came to the work splendidly equipped. He effected the organization of the Blue Cast Company, which purchased the land and erected the fine sanitarium now conducted under his direct and effective management, and while the company had the best of medium through which to justify such exploitation it has been in large measure due to the earnest and well-ordered efforts of Mr. Hogue that this fine Allen county institution has been brought before the people of the country and the success of the enterprise made cumulative in character. In politics he is a Republican, and in his civic attitude he is characteristically loyal,' progressive and public-spirited. In 1898 he wedded Miss Lua Harrison, daughter of J. B. and Carrie Harrison, of Cleveland, Ohio, and the two children of this union are Earl Harrison Hogue and Bonita Goldie Hogue, the son being now a cadet student in Pillsbury Military Academy, in the state of Minnesota. William F. Borgmann. — It is signally consistent that in this volume be entered a tribute to the memory of the late William F. Borgmann, who passed his entire life in Allen county, who was a representative of one of the sterling families that was here founded more than half a century ago and whose impregnable hold upon popular confidence and esteem was manifested in all stages of his career, especially during the period of his effective service as chief of the police department of the city of Fort Wayne. He had become associated with his father in the conducting of a prosperous business in Fort Wayne, under the title of the Brown Trucking Company, and his untimely death was the result of a pitiable automobile accident in which he was so severely injured that he died soon afterward. He was born in Fort Wayne on August 7, 1865, and here his death occurred on April 13, 1912. Mr. Borgmann was a son of William and Lesette (Brockmeyer) Borgmann, both of whom were natives of Germany and came to this country when young. The father was a boatman on the old Wabash & Erie Canal %vhen a youth and in later years served for a considerable time as a member of the Fort Wayne police force. Upon his retirement from this service he and his son, William F., became allied in business under the title of the Brown Trucking Company, and with this enterprise he continued to be identified until his death, which occurred in 1908. William F. was the second of a family of five children, all of whom were born and reared in Fort Wayne. He was but fourteen years old when, after having attended school, he began to give his father valuable assistance in the latter 's trucking business, and they became very successful along this line, both having been connected with the same until their death. Like his father, William F. Borgmann made a splendid record of faithful and efficient service in the Fort Wayne police department. In 1890 he became a patrolman and not only won promotion in turn to the offices of sergeant and captain but also proved so unmistakably his ability and FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 73 good judgment that he was finally chosen chief of police. His admin- istration in this important office was most effective and popularly satis- factory, and he continued the incumbent of the post until 1910, when he resigned. In 1898 he had become associated with his father in pur- chasing an interest in the business under the title of the Brown Trucking Company, and after his retirement from the municipal service gave his attention to this business until his demise. Mr. Borgmann was a most stalwart and loyal advocate and supporter of the cause of the Demo- cratic party and was a consistent communicant of Trinity Lutheran church, earnest in his support of church work and active in the affairs of the parish, of which his widow continues an active communicant. On July 4, 1886, he was united in marriage with Miss Anna Hunche, a native of Lima, Ohio, and a daughter of Henry F. and Anna (Reber) Hunche, both natives of Germany. Henry F. Hunche was born and reared in Germany and came to the United States in 1861. He died, in 1911, his wife having passed away in 1891. Mrs. Borgmann remains a resident of Fort Wayne and maintains the attractive homestead at 420 Fourth street. In the community her circle of friends are legion an entertain for her the warmest regard. In conclusion is entered brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Borgmann : Edith is the wife of Paul Charle, of Fort Wayne, and they have three children — John (deceased), William and Virginia. Walter A., who is now his father's successor as president and general manager of the Brown Truck- ing Company, wedded Miss Pauline Doenges, of Fort Wayne, and they have one son, William W., born May 18, 1913. Irene is the wife of John C. Marshall, of Fort Wayne, and they have two children — Stephen M., born March 24, 1911, and Helen, born January 19, 1913. Ellas H. Bookwalter. — Allen county is favored in having drafted well-qualified officials to direct the various departments of its govern- ment, and he whose name introduces this article gave a short but effective service in the office of county recorder, to which position he was elected in the autumn of 1916, his assumption of his official duties having occurred on the 1st of the following January. His incumbency of the position was only for the period of three months, as he died on April 4, 1917, mourned by a large circle of friends. Elias Hubbard Book- waiter was born in Wabash county, Indiana, May 9, 1854, a son of Josiah and Elizabeth (Riley) Bookwalter, the former of whom was born at Eaton, Preble county, Ohio, on April 1, 1827, a date that denotes that his parents were pioneers of that section of the Buckeye State. Josiah Bookwalter was reared and educated in Ohio and, in 1850, came to Indiana and engaged in farming in Wabash county, where he also oper- ated a blacksmith shop. In the autumn of 1866 he came with his family to Allen county and thereafter continued to be engaged in farming in St. Joseph township, until 1870, when he removed to Fort Wayne and became a traveling representative for the Keeler Dental Company. In 1885 he retired from active business life and now resides in the city of Indianapolis, April 1, 1917, marking his attainment of the patriarchal age of ninety years. He is a Republican in politics, having been affiliated with the party during practically the entire period of its existence; he has long been identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and the passing years have found him a consistent and devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church. His wife likewise was an earnest member of this religious denomination, her birth having occurred at 74 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Baltimore, Maryland. Josiah Bookwalter is to be given honorable mention as one of the most venerable of the surviving veterans of the Civil "War, in which he served as a valiant member of Company E, One Hundred and Thirtieth Indiana Infantry, he having won in the same promotion from private to the office of corporal. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Of the children the eldest is John A., residing at Indianapolis; Elias H., of this review, was the next in order of birth ; Charles A. is one of the influential citizens of Indianapolis and has served as mayor of the capital city ; Lucinda is the widow of Newton Cook and resides in Seattle, Washington; and James E. is a resident of Halstead, Harvey county, Kansas. Elias H. Bookwalter gained his rudi- mentary education in the schools of Wabash county and was about twelve years old at the time of the family removal to Allen county, where he was afforded the advantages of the city schools of Fort Wayne. As a youth he entered the service of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette and with this representative newspaper continued to be associated for twenty-eight and one-half years, after which he rounded out his alliance with practical journalism by continuing his connection with the Fort Wayne Sentinel for eighteen and one-half years — or until he assumed the office of county recorder. His broad and varied experience in con- nection with newspaper business brought to him extensive and accurate knowledge concerning Allen county and its people, and this information proved a fortifying influence in making his administration as county recorder specially efficient and commendable. Mr. Bookwalter was never deflected from the course of loyal allegiance to the Republican party and he gave active service in behalf of its cause. He was affiliated with James B. White Camp No. 152, Sons of Veterans, and Harmony Lodge No. 19, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In September, 1874, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bookwalter to Miss Catherine Perrin, daughter of the late James and Keziah (McWhorter) Perrin, of Bourbon, Marshall county, Indiana, and the only child of this union was Clyde R., who passed his entire life in Fort Wayne and was forty years of age at the time of his death, November 22, 1915. He was married, in 1897, to Stella A. Botzum, of Akron, Ohio, and they have one child, Velma R. Clyde R. Bookwalter was owner of the Fort Wayne Tea & Coffee House and was prominent in fraternal circles. Rev. John H. Bosch. — The Reformed church in Indiana claims as one of its able, vigorous and zealous clergymen the Rev. John H. Bosch, who has served with utmost fidelity and efficiency as pastor of St. John's Reformed church, of Fort Wayne, since 1895, and whose earnest efforts have done much to forward the spiritual and temporal interests of this old and important parish, the church edifice of which is situated on Washington Boulevard, west. Mr. Bosch was born in the picturesque Rhein Province of Germany, September 8, 1867, and is a son of Henry and Sibilla (Peschken) Bosch, the father having been a prosperous farmer in that favored section of the German empire. He whose name introduces this review found the period of his childhood and early youth compassed by the conditions and influences of the home farm, and his early educational discipline was received in the Lutheran paro- chial schools of his native province. At the age of twenty years he came to the United States and shortly afterward entered Calvin College, in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, where he prepared himself for matric- ulation in Heidelberg Theological Seminary, at Tiffin, Ohio. In this FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 75 latter institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894, and prior to this had gone to Chautauqua. New York, where he pursued the special study of the Hebrew language under the private preceptor- ship of the late and revered Rev. William H. Harper, D. D., who later became president of the great University of Chicago. This effective special course enabled him to complete in two years the prescribed three years' curriculum of the Heidelberg Theological Seminary, and it has been a matter of enduring satisfaction to him that he was thus able to know and receive instruction from Doctor Harper, one of the greatest educators and university executives that America has known. On January 13, 1895, Mr. Bosch was ordained a clergyman of the Re- formed church and was duly installed pastor of his present parish, this result having been achieved through the action of "a committee of the Zion's classis of the Synod of the Northwest of the Reformed Church of the United States," and Rev. John Kuelling having been chairman of the ordaining and installing committee. Within the earnest and vigorous pastorate of the present incumbent the parish of St. John's Reformed church, of Fort Wayne, has expended more than thirty thou- sand dollars in the improving of the church property, and all of this appreciable amount has been paid in full, so that the parish is free from indebtedness. In 1916 was erected a new and modern parsonage, at a cost of eleven thousand dollars. The church has six hundred and seventy-five communicants, implying a congregation of fully one thou- sand persons. In addition to his zealous pastoral and executive duties Mr. Bosch was for twelve years editor and publisher of a periodical known as Gemeinde Bote, published in the German language. The paper was discontinued, in 1915, but in 1917 it was re-established and is now published in the English language. St. John's Reformed church, of Fort Wayne, was organized, in 1844, by fourteen families as constituent members, and concerning the growth and development of the historic old parish adequate mention is made in the general church history appearing in this publication. The church is identified with the South- western Synod, and the assembly of this synod, for 1917, was held in Fort Wayne. St. John's church has the largest congregation of all individual parishes in the synods of either .the Southwest or Northwest, and the former synod has been entertained by the historic Fort Wayne church on three different occasions, prior to 1917. Mr. Bosch was for twelve years a member of the board of directors of the Orphans' Home, besides being treasurer of the noble institution, for which he handled in this period funds to the amount of -more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. At the present time Mr. Bosch is a member of the board of trustees of the Central Publishing House of the Reformed Church of the United States, and he is vice-president of the board, this publishing house being established in the city of Cleveland. Mr. Bosch is a Republican in politics and is known as a broad-gauged, progressive and public-spirited citizen who takes deep interest in civic and govern- mental affairs, though he has had no desire to take an active part in political maneuvers. He is a devotee of Outdoor sports and while in college gained championship honors in tennis. He takes lively interest in base ball, basket-ball, foot ball and all manner of athletics, and he and his wife enjoy to the full the boating, fishing and general pleasures incidental to their annual summer vacations in Northern Michigan, be- sides which he has indulged in various hunting trips in which he has 76 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES brought down deer and other large game. In 1899 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bosch to Miss Frances R. Schweds, daughter of Rev. F. R. Schweds, D. D., who was pastor of St. John's Reformed church, of Fort Wayne, from 1868 to 1873, and under whose direction the present fine church edifice was erected. Mrs. Bosch was born in the old parson- age of this church and prior to her marriage had been a successful and popular teacher of German in the high school of the city of Terre Haute, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Bosch have three children — Aurelia, Paul and Theodore. John Bostick passed his entire life in Fort Wayne, was a scion of one of the well-known and honored pioneer families of Allen county, and by his character and achievement he reflected dignity upon his native city, where he was long and prominently concerned with business affairs and where he won success through well-directed endeavors. A man of fine attributes of character and genial and kindly disposition, he com- manded the high regard of all who knew him and thus set at naught any application of the scriptural aphorism that ' ' a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." Mr. Bostick was born in Fort Wayne June 26, 1847, and here his death occurred two weeks prior to his fifty- fourth birthday anniversary. He was a son of Emanuel and Harriet (Kline) Bostick, who came from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and estab- lished their home in Allen county fully three-fourths of a century ago and who passed the residue of their lives in Fort Wayne, where the father built up a prosperous merchant tailoring business. The third in order of birth in a family of nine children, the subject of this memoir acquired his early education in the public schools of Fort Wajme, and he learned the tailor's trade under the effective direction of his father, by whom he was eventually admitted to partnership and after whose death he continued independently to carry on the successful merchant tailoring business until about 1883, when he engaged in the real estate business. Of this latter and important phase of productive enterprise he continued to be a' prominent and successful exponent until the close of his life, and incidentally he did much to further the normal development and upbuilding of his native city, which he had seen grow from a village to a civic and commercial center of metropolitan status. He accumulated an appreciable amount of valuable realty in Fort Wayne and vicinity, and of the same his widow still retains a considerable part, her beautiful home, at 426 East Wayne street, being known for its hospitality as a center of representative social activities. Mr. Bostick was a loyal advo- cate and supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, was actively affiliated with the time-honored Masonic fraternity and was a zealous communicant of the English Lutheran church, as is also his widow. He passed from the stage of his mortal endeavors on June 12, 1901, in the very prime of his strong and useful manhood and with an unsullied record as a man of sterling character and as a citizen of high ideals. On Sep- tember 1, 1870, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bostick to Miss Louisa Deppeler, who likewise was born and reared in Fort Wayne and whose parents, John and Elizabeth (Weyseit) Deppeler, both natives of the fair little republic of Switzerland, established their home in Fort Wayne many years ago. Mr. Deppeler became one of the representative merchants of this city and was one of the honored and influential citizens of Allen county, both he and his wife having continued their residence in Fort Wayne until their death. Mr. and Mrs. Bostick became the FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 77 parents of four children, all of whom are living except the first born, Edward, who died at the age of three years and three months. The three surviving sons, Samuel W., John D. and William E., are actively concerned with business affairs in Fort Wayne and the two first men- tioned still remain with their widowed mother, Delbert D. Boston, who is giving effective and loyal service as town- ship trustee of his native township and is engaged in the barber business at Harlan, was born in Springfield township on August 18, 1866, a son of Thomas and Lavina (Snyder) Boston, both natives of the state of Ohio. Thomas Boston was born and reared in Stark county, Ohio, a representative of a sterling pioneer family of that section of the Buckeye State, and was a young man when he came to Allen county, Indiana, and numbered himself among the pioneer exponents of agricultural in- dustry in Springfield township, where his marriage was solemnized and he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, he having been for many years one of the substantial citizens and representative farmers of the township. He was a Republican in his political proclivities and both he and his wife were consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mary Ellen, the first of their five children, is deceased, and the survivors are : Myra, Elizabeth, David and Delbert D. He whose name initiates this article was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and in the meanwhile profited by the advantages afforded in the schools of his native township. He continued his association with agricultural enterprise until he was twenty years of age, when he learned the barber's trade, to which he has since devoted his attention. With the exception of two years passed at Findlay, Ohio, he has been engaged in the work of his trade at Harlan during the intervening years, and here he has a well-equipped shop of modern appointments and the best of sanitary provisions, so that his trade is of representative and appreciative order. Mr. Boston is unflagging in his allegiance to the Republican party and in his loyalty to his native township and county. He was elected trustee of Springfield township in November, 1914, and is now the efficient and progressive incumbent of this office. He is affiliated with Harlan Lodge No. 296, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, he and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in their home community their circle of friends is limited only by that of their acquaintances. On November 6, 1889, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Boston to Miss Ella Furney, who was born and reared in this county and is a daughter of Jeremiah and Isabell (Cummings) Furney. Mr. and Mrs. Boston have two children— Beryl, who is the wife of DeGroff N. Swartz, a prosperous farmer of Springfield township ; and Donald M., who remains at the parental home. Daniel Bottenberg, who died March 12, 1917, and who was one of the venerable and revered citizens of Monroe township, is specially entitled to recognition in this history of Allen county, within whose borders he maintained his home from his boyhood and in which he was a representative of a sterling pioneer family. Though he later retired from the arduous labors that long engrossed his time and attention, he continued to reside upon and give a general supervision to his fine farm, which comprises one hundred and sixty acres and which is eligibly situ- ated in Section 22, Monroe township. Mr. Bottenberg was born in Butler county, Ohio, April 19, 1835, and was one of the members of a family of twelve children, only three of whom now survive. He was a son of 78 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Jacob and Nancy (VanHorn) Bottenberg, the former of whom was born in Maryland of German lineage, and the latter in New Jersey, of staunch Holland Dutch ancestry. The parents removed to Ohio in the early '30s and in 1849 they came with their children from Butler county, that state, to Allen county, Indiana, where the father obtained a tract of heavily timbered land, in Marion township, and there he began the reclaiming of a farm under the primitive conditions that marked the pioneer era in the history of the county. His earnest and strenuous efforts brought to him independence and he and his wife lived to see their pioneer log house give place to a more modern and pretentious building. They continued to reside on their farm until he moved to Monmouth and there he died in 1869. Their names merit a place on the roster of the honored pioneers of Allen county. He whose name intro- duces this review gained his rudimentary education in the common schools of the old Buckeye state and was a lad of about fifteen years at the time of the family removal to Indiana. He assisted his father in the her- culean work of reclaiming the old homestead farm and remained at the parental home until he had attained to his legal majority, with a due quota of incidental discipline that tended to broaden his mental horizon. After leaving the home of his parents he farmed rented land for a number of years, and he then purchased his present homestead, which he devel- oped into one of the well-improved and valuable rural estates of Monroe township. As a loyal and liberal citizen he aided in the support of those things that advanced the general welfare of the community and he gave unfaltering allegiance to the Republican party, though he had at no time any desire for public office of any kind. Both he and his wife were zealous members of the Lutheran church in their community and he served the same in the offices of trustee and elder at the time of his death. Through his own well-ordered efforts Mr. Bottenberg made his way to the goal of worthy prosperity and enjoyed the rewards of former years of earnest toil and endeavor, the while both he and his wife rested secure in the high regard of all who knew them. In 1857 was recorded the marriage of Mr. Bottenberg to Miss Elizabeth Lenhart, who was born in Ohio and who is one of the four surviving members of a family of twelve children. Her parents, John and Rebecca (Burroughs) Len- hart, were born, respectively, in the states of Pennsylvania and Maryland, and the father was twelve years of age when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Ohio, where he was reared to adult age. In 1839 John Lenhart removed from Ohio to Adams county, Indiana, where he settled on an embryonic farm in the midst of the almost unbroken forest and there he reclaimed a productive farm. The original family dwelling was a pioneer log house with clapboard roof weighted down with poles, with puncheon floor and wide fireplace as interior provisions, and with door fitted with the old-time latch string that was always left hanging on the outside, as an evidence of the hospitality of the little domicile in which dwelt contentment and happiness. The parents of Mrs. Bottenberg remained on this old homestead until their death. Concerning the five children of Mr. and Mrs. Bottenberg the following brief record is given in conclusion of this sketch : Jason remains with his mother and has the active management of the old home farm ; John P. is the second son and is engaged in farming in this county; Nellie is the wife of Henry Bowers; Mary L. is the wife of William C. Foster, and they now reside FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 79 in the state of Michigan; and Zenus J., the youngest of the children, resides in Monroe township. Oscar Boulton is one of the native sons of Allen county who has brought to bear a strong and well-poised mentality as well as significant enterprise and progressiveness in the furthering of his successful activ- ities as an agriculturist and stock-grower, and he is now one of the representative exponents of these fundamental industries in his native township of Springfield, where he has made the best of improvements upon his fine farm of one hundred and eighty-five acres, in Sections 27 and 28, the homestead being about one and a half miles distant from the village of Grabill, which is his postoffice address. Mr. Boulton was born in Springfield township, February 2, 1862, a scion of a sterling family that was founded in this county full seventy years ago. He is a son of Henry and Helen (Hatch) Boulton. Henry Boulton was born in England and was fifteen years of age when he came to America with his parents, the home being established in Erie county, Ohio, where he was reared to manhood and whence he came to Allen county, Indiana, in 1847. He purchased a tract of land in Springfield township and from the virgin forest reclaimed a pro luctive farm. There he continued his residence until he had attained to advanced age, when he retired from active labors and established his home in the village of Harlan, where both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives in gracious peace and prosperity and with secure place in the esteem of all who knew them. Louisa, the eldest of their children, is deceased, and all of the others are living, namely : Nettie, Emma, Mary, Flora, Oscar, Ida and Minnie, the subject of this review being the only son. Oscar Boulton was reared to the sturdy and invigorating discipline of the home farm and his alert and vigorous mentality prompted in him such ambition that he was not content with the advancement made by avail- ing himself of the advantages of the public schools, but furthered his academic knowledge by attending for one term the normal department of what is now the great Valparaiso University. That he made good use of the opportunities thus afforded him is evidenced by the effective service which he gave as a representative of the pedagogic profession. For eight years he was in active service as a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of his native county and thereafter turned his attention with equal earnestness and circumspection to farm enter- prise, in which he has achieved unequivocal success, his present fine farm of one hundred and eighty-five acres giving definite evidence of thrift and prosperity. In 1917 he purchased a residence in the village of Harlan, where he contemplates making his future home. Mr. Boulton is found aligned as a well-fortified advocate of the principles of the Republican party and takes loyal interest in community affairs, though he has manifested naught of ambition for the honors or emoluments of public office. He attends and supports the Methodist Episcopal church at Grabill, of which his wife is an active member. On April 24, 1890, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Boulton to Miss Isa Burchfield, who likewise was born and reared in this county, a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Safford) Burchfield. Mr. and Mrs. Boulton have no children of their own, but in their home they are carefully rearing an adopted daughter, Julia Hamilton, who accords to them true filial affection. Jesse W. Bowers, M. D., has fortified himself with that resolute integrity of purpose and that thorough technical preparation which make 80 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES for unequivocal success in the medical profession, and he is recognized as one of the able and representative physicians and surgeons of the younger generation in the city of Fort Wayne, where he has been estab- lished in the general practice of his profession since the summer of 1908 and where his success is on a parity with his unqualified personal popular- ity. Doctor Bowers was born at Van Wert, Ohio, October 15, 1882, and is a son of George W. and Annie E. (Webb) Bowers, Avho still reside in that attractive little city of the Buckeye state, the father having been for a number of years identified with railroad operations, later having become an exponent of agricultural industry and being now successfully established as an apiarist at Van Wert, as an enthusiast and authority in bee culture and the producing of the finest grade of honey. Doctor , Bowers is indebted to the public schools of his native city for his early educational training, which was supplemented by a course in the Western Ohio Normal School, at ]\Iiddlepoint, as well as by a thorough course in the Ohio Northern University, at Ada, in which he took a scientific course, as a member of the class of 1901. In preparation for his chosen profession he entered the Eclectic Medical College in the city of Cin- cinnati, this being one of the foremost schools of the Eclectic system in the Union, and in the same he was graduated as a member of the class of 1908 and with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He gained val- uable experience by serving as an interne in Seton Hospital, Cincinnati, prior to his graduation, and on June 3, 1908, he established his residence in Fort Wayne, where his close application and effective service have resulted in his building up a substantial practice. The Doctor is a member of the State Medical Society and the American Medical Asso- ciation, has attained the thirty-second degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and the York Rite of the Masonic fraternity, besides being affiliated also with the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the Tribe of Ben Hur and the Modern Woodmen of America. On Decem- ber 20, 1903, was recorded the marriage of Doctor Bowers to Miss Alby Beck, daughter of Daniel and Margaret (Rank) Beck, of Van Wert, Ohio, and the two children of this union are : Gab. w^ho was born May 20, 1905, and Feme, who was born January 9, 1908, William E. Bowers. — One of the progressive and prosperous younger men of New Haven, resident there since 1903, is William E. Bowers, pro- prietor of the New Haven Tribune and since 1905 manager of the New Haven Telephone Company. Mr. Bowers was born in Jefferson township, Allen county, Indiana, on February 24, 1874, and is the son of David B. and Lucinda (Lesh) Bowers. The father was born in Mans- field, Ohio, and the mother in Lewisville, Ohio. Mr. Bowers was a farmer, coming with his parents to Allen county in 1848, where they bought a farm, locating in Jefferson tow^nship. He later purchased the original tract and also added thereto, carrying on active farming operations until 1911, when he retired and moved to Fort Wayne. He died April 9, 1917. Mrs. Bowers died on the home farm in 1906. She and her husband were members of the Methodist Protestant church and were active workers in the church in the years of their residence in Jefferson township. Their children were seven in number. Alfaretta is the wife of J. F. Hathaway, of Fort Wayne. William E., of this review, was the second born. Harry H. lives in Dayton, Ohio. John E. is a resident of Washington, D. C. Glenola is the wife of Earl Schnitz, of Fort Wayne. Arthur died in infancy and Frances died at the age of seventeen years. William B. PORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 81 Bowers had his education in the schools of Jefferson township, the New Haven and Fort Wayne public schools and the Ohio Normal University at Ada, Ohio, where he took a scientific course. His education finished, he engaged in teaching and for three years was employed in the schools of Jefferson township. He then spent one year in the Marion (Ind.) Law School, after which he taught in the Marion schools for three years and in 1903 came to New Haven and bought the Tribune, which he published successfully until January 1, 1917, when he leased the paper to C. F. Moon. In 1905 he became manager of the Home Telephone Com- pany, of New Haven, and he is now serving as president of the North- eastern Indiana Telephone Association. Mr. Bowers is a Republican in politics, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and of the New Haven Commercial Club, one of the live organizations of the town. His fraternal relations are confined to identification with the Modern Wood- men of America. He was married on January 15, 1902, to Miss Pearl Allen, the daughter of Hiram and Amanda (Lancaster) Allen, of Marion, Indiana. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bowers — Arthur and Jeannette, now attending school in their home town. W. J. Bowker. — See Athenaeum, Allen A. Bowser is first vice-president of the. corporation of S. P. Bowser and Company, manufacturers of oil tanks and pumps and one of the most important manufacturing and commercial enterprises of Port Wayne. He is a nephew of the sterling and representative citizen whose name gives title to this well-known concern. Mr. Bowser was born in DeKalb county, Indiana, on February 19, 1865, and is a son of Alexander and Laurinda (DeVilbiss) Bowser, the former of whom was born in Allen county, the latter in the state of Ohio. The father, a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of this section of Indiana, who is now living retired in Port Wayne, followed the carpenters' trade for a long period and developed a substantial business as a contractor and builder. Later he and his son Allen, together with Sylvanus h\ Bowser, commenced the business in which he continued until his retirement a few years ago. Allen A. Bowser was a child at the time of the family removal to Port Wayne, where he acquired his early education in the public schools. At sixteen years of age he began working with his father in the carpenter business and at twenty years they started the making of pumps in a barn at the rear of their home. Since this time Mr. Bowser has been an invaluable aid in the extensive industrial enterprise con- ducted under the incorporated title of S. P. Bowser and Company. His inventive genius has produced many of the ideas of intrinsic value to this company. As first vice-president of this concern he has become an influential figure with secure status as a captain of industry in Port Wayne. Loyal and progressive in his civic attitude, he is aligned as a stanch supporter of the principles of the Republican party. In 1892 he married Miss Lottie Pierson, who was born and reared in Allen county and who served her community and church nobly until her death in November, 1916. Mr. Bowser himself has served the United Brethren church in many substantial ways, including the superintending of the Sunday school for the past twenty-six years. An only child, Jennie L. Bowser, resides with her father in their beautiful home on East Pontiac Street. Albert S. Bowser. — Of the younger business men of Fort Wayne, Albert S. Bowser is a most fitting representative. Of unostentatious de- 82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES meanor, never given to spectacular or pretentious display, Mr. Bowser, in his capacity as secretary of S. F. Bowser & Company and as the manager of the Michigan district in the sales organization of the company, has risen to the best opportunities of his connection with the enterprise founded by his father, S. F. Bowser. He has been actively connected with practically every department of the home office of the concern and is thoroughly acquainted with the details of the immense organization. Mr. Bowser was born in Fort Wayne July 28, 1886, the son of Sylvanus and Sarah F. (Russell) Bowser. A biographical review of S. F. Bowser appears elsewhere in this volume. Albert S. Bowser was educated in the public schools of Fort Wayne, and, following his period in the high school, he entered actively upon his business career with S. F. Bowser & Company, in December, 1906. On the 12th of September, 1907, he was united in marriage with Miss Ida Pearl Kickley, of Fort Wayne. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bowser — Bon Silene and Albert S., Jr. Mr. Bowser is a member of the Masonic fraternity, including the Mystic Shrine, and actively connected with the Friars Club and the Country Club. His election to the presidency of the Senate Club in 1917 placed him at the head of one of the live organizations of the younger business and professional men of the city, an honor which bespeaks his popularity among his associates. Mr. and Mrs. Bowser are active mem- bers of Plymouth Congregational church. Sylvanus F. Bowser is a striking example of the stalwart manhood of the middle west — an illustration of the attainment of true success through the application of sterling principles of action. As the head of one of the most widely famed manufacturing institutions of America — one with distribution centers in the capitals of Europe as well as in the chief cities of the United States — his name is known and spoken wherever commercial oils are sold or used. The hundreds of salesmen who tell of the superior merits of the self-measuring oil storage devices manu- factured by S. F. Bowser & Company, Inc., not only give a service of untold worth to millions of purchasers but they also spread abroad the good name of Fort Wayne to every quarter of the civilized world. Mr. Bowser is a man of enthusiasm, far-sightedness and of unbounded energy and capacity for thought and work. With high ideals of his duty toward his fellow men, he has built solidly upon the foundation of real success. His fraternal spirit is reflected throughout the organization of the office, the factory and the sales force. Mr. Bowser is a native of Allen county, of which Fort Wayne is the seat of government. He was born in Perry township August 8, 1854, and is a son of John H. and Eliza (Keiger) Bowser, both of whom were born and reared in Penn- sylvania, where their marriage was solemnized. They became the par- ents of thirteen children, of whom six are deceased. John H. Bowser removed from Pennsylvania to Perry tov/nship, Allen county, Indiana, in 1833, and here he developed a valuable farm in the midst of the virgin forests. Here he and his wife resided until the close of their days. Syl- vanus F. Bowser was reared on the home farm and attended the common schools. In 1882 he became a traveling salesman for the wholesale paper house of W. H. Wells and Brother, of Chicago. It was in 1885, while he was still employed by the Wells concern, that there came to him the idea of the self-measuring oil pump which was an entirely new device, the first of its kind and which was destined to revolutionize the oil handling business of the world. From the time the first pump was made, \ .e^S^^o^'' ^>:- \ FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 83 Mr. Bowser, through the organization of the company after he had thor- oughly tested his invention, has constantly overcome all difficulties, until to-day the company's managers are recognized the world over as oil storage and handling experts, producing devices for the small user as well as those demanded by the largest and most complete factory or railroad plant. At the time of his discovery Mr. Bowser — as we find by referring to his own story of the business — had been compelled to refrain from hard manual labor, an account of a physical breakdown, and at this time on account of financial difficulties, he deeded his home to a creditor and engaged for his family small living quarters consistent with his meager means. The story of his struggle against ill health and threatened want, coupled with the courage and energy of the future manufacturer, is one of inspiration and hopefulness to every youth into whose life it may come. Referring to the day when things began to take on a new significance, Mr. Bowser says in his little booklet, entitled "A Dream and a Reality": "It was one morning in the early spring of 1885 that I was going out on a five o'clock train, in pursuit of my business as a salesman. Therefore, I arose at four o'clock, and, among other things, I wanted to leave my wife with a good supply of water for the day. The well from which we got our water was about seventy feet deep, and our means for getting it were somewhat primitive, not- withstanding the same is in use now, here and there through the country, and doubtless forever will be. Over the well was built a little house and up in the roof was a big, grooved swivel-wheel over which the long well rope passed so that a bucket could be made fast to each end of it. By letting one bucket down for water, you at the same time would be drawing up the other bucket full of water. The little house over the well was unusually high. It simply had a roof on it and was not enclosed and the well being deep and the night still and very cold, the steam that came out of the well froze on the ropes thus exposed between the mouth of the well and the roof. Therefore, in order to draw water in this manner, this frozen, frost-covered rope had to pass through my hands, and it being a very cold morning, its sting was added to my hands. I took my grip and made the train. I went to Decatur, twenty-two miles south of Fort Wayne ; here I got a team of horses and a sleigh and drove to Pleasant Mills, some six miles southeast. From there I drove to Will- shire, Ohio, three and one-half miles farther on. It was on this drive from Pleasant Mills to Willshire that my mind turned to the unpleas- antness of drawing water out of this deep well on a cold morning. My thoughts turned to devising some better way, at which time I saw, as it were, a pump cylinder at the bottom of the well sufficiently large to hold a pail of water, the same being provided with a discharge pipe and a pump rod, similar to our present pump, and so arranged that with one full stroke I could discharge a bucketful of water. This looked good to me, and I thought if it was good and practical, maybe I could work up a little business out of it by manufacturing it for the market. Upon returning home I took it up with my brother, who was an engineer on the Pennsylvania Railroad and lived the second door from me, drawing water from the same well. Neither of us being versed in this kind of business, but my brother having an acquaintanceship with a patent- model maker who was quite well versed in mechanics of this sort, we went down and laid the matter before him. He took out of his drawer a little book which treated of subjects of this kind and showed us 84 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES therein the great pressure that would be necessary to raise the water to the surface from so deep a well, which convinced us that it was abso- lutely impractical. This settled it, for the moment at least, but when I got out alone and was thinking the matter over, it came to me in almost audible words : 'Why will it not do for oil? It is never far away.' And as this was going through my mind I could see, as it were, an oil tank sitting in the corner of a grocery and I could see another oil tank sitting beneath, in the corner of the basement of the grocery, and as basements are never very deep I felt sure that my pump would work satisfactorily in either of these tanks. So, in a few days, when my brother was in, I took this proposition up with him. He readily agreed with me that in this case the pump would work entirely satisfactorily, but he sug- gested that everybody was supplied with oil tanks and there would be no market for them. But as my business was selling goods, I did not see it in that way." The narrative goes on to tell of the inventor's securing five orders within the following two days, for his pump, which was as yet a dream. None of these orders were filled until three months later, but from that time forward the Bowser pump grew in popular favor until, as in the case of the year 1916, the sales of S. F. Bowser and Company totaled the splendid sum of six and one-half million dollars. The total number of office and factory employes is about 1,200, while the sales force has an aggregate of 550 men scattered over the civilized world. "A volume coulu be written of the dark and trying times before the idea came to me," says Mr. Bowser, "and two volumes could be written of the times since ; but you will observe that had it not been for these trying times and misfortunes, of which I have had many, together with my broken health, I would not have lost my home, I would still be a traveling man and there would have been no 'Bowser pump' to-day." Mr. Bowser has been active for many years in every great movement for the advancement of his fellow men. Daily he is called upon to give his means and his voice to the improvement of the welfare of the people of his own and other communities. Although he is a leader in the conduct of the affairs of the First Baptist Church, his benevolences are widespread. In polities he is a supporter of the principles of the Republican party. On October 11, 1876, Mr. Bowser was united in mar- riage with Miss Sarah F. Russell, who likewise was born and reared in Allen county and who is a daughter of William and Sarah Russell, residents of Fort Wayne at the time of their death. Mr. and Mrs. Bow- ser became the parents of six children, as follows : Harry M., Eva C. (now Mrs. Leland F. Johnson), William Hugh (an invalid), Albert S., Ethelyn V. (now Mrs. Daniel G. Milligan) and Mildred L. Bowser. In honor of an invalid son, Mr. and Mrs. Bowser have erected a beautiful place of worship for the Free Methodist denomination, and the same is known as the Hughie Bowser church, the edifice standing near the extensive plant of S. F. Bowser & Company, Edward B. Boyle has been engaged in business in Hoagland for the past eighteen years and has enjoyed a fair measure of success in that time. Prior to his connection with his present enterprises he was iden- tified with the farming industry, in which he was reared on the home farm of his parents, who were Daniel and Elizabeth (Minick) Boyle, natives of Ireland. They came from their native land in the year 1832, settled in Huntington county, and Mr. Boyle found work on the old canal. After some time spent in that work he had saved enough to make pos- FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 85 sible the purchase of eighty acres of government land, and from then until his death he was successfully engaged in agriculture in Huntington county. He was a Democrat, a member of the Roman Catholic church, and he died at the age of fifty-six years, leaving four children. Ellen married John Tooley and is deceased, John Patrick was the second born. Edward is the immediate subject of this review, and Mary died in Chicago as the wife of "William Thomas. Edward Boyle was educated in the parochial schools at Hesse Cassel, and up to the age of sixteen years spent much of the time with his uncle in that place. He later branched out for himself and up to the age of thirty-two was connected with farming and kindred occupations. In 1899 he engaged in the saloon business in Hoagland, where he has since been successfully established. He is a director in the Hoagland State Bank and is fraternally identified by his membership in the Independent Order of Eagles. A Democrat, he has been influential in local politics, and is a member of the Catholic church at Hoagland. He was married on November 5, 1904, to Mary Schmidt, and they have two children — Robert Patrick and Eugene Charles. Conrad Branning merits recognition in this history by reason of his status as one of the loyal and popular citizens and substantial farmers of Aboite township, where he is the owner of a well-improved farm of one hundred and sixty acres and where his success has been consonant with the energy and good judgment he has brought to bear in the various departments of his farm enterprise. He was born in Germany, on Sep- tember 9, 1855, and is a son of Henry and Minnie Branning, who came with their family of nine children to America in the year 1881, their arrival in the port of New York city having been on June 22 of that year. They came forthwith to Indiana and after residing for a time in the vicinity of the city of Vincennes they came to Allen county, where they passed the remainder of their lives, the father having been an industrious and successful farmer. Conrad Branning acquired in his native land his early educational training and there also he learned the mason's trade. He was about twenty-five years of age when he accom- panied his parents on their immigration to the United States and for many years he continued to follow the work of his trade, first at Vin- cennes and later in Fort Wayne. He finally sold his business at Fort Wayne, where he had become a successful contractor, and in 1896 pur- chased eighty acres of his present homestead farm, the additional eighty acres having been secured at a later date. He has shown his energy and progressiveness in the improving and management of his farm, which is devoted to diversified agriculture and stock-growing and which gives definite evidence of thrift and prosperity. He takes loyal interest in public affairs of a local order and is a staunch Democrat in politics, he and his family being earnest members of the German Lutheran church. On October 10, 1880, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Branning to Miss Sophia Dammeyer, whose parents passed their entire lives in Ger- many. Only a few months after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Branning came to America, and they have been devoted companions and co-workers during the years that have brought to them a generous measure of inde- pendence and prosperity. Of their children the first born was Minnie, who died in infancy. The second child likewise was given the name of Minnie, and she is now the wife of Lemuel McKenzie. William, the third child, is deceased. Sophia remains at the parental home. Edmund and 86 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Esther are twins and both are married and well established in life, Edmund having one son, William, and Esther, who is the wife of M. B. Marshall, having two children, Conrad and Catherine. Henry and Louise, the next two of the children, are deceased ; and those who remain members of the parental home circle are Ferdinand, Charles, Fritz, Mary, Theodore and Irene. Charles W. Branstrator was born in Lafayette township on the old William Branstrator place, settled by William Branstrator as long ago as in 1848. He was the father of the subject and he was long and prom- inently identified with that district, witnessing its development along many lines, and being a contributor to its worthiest advancement. He came from Warren county, Ohio, where the family had long been estab- lished in farming activities. William Branstrator married Catherine A. Hill, also of Ohio birth and parentage, and they were the parents of a family of twelve children. Frances E. died on April 13, 1913. Sarah B. is the wife of Henry Cress. Martin Luther died in infancy. Andrew Dallas lives in Fort Wayne. Anna Catherine married George Welbaum. William David is living in Warren county, Ohio, the old family home. Jason D. is a resident of Wayne township. James Calvin died in infancy. George B. Mc. is a resident of Fort Wayne. Charles W. is the subject. Rosa Jane and Delia May are deceased. The parents were members of the Unitarian church. Mr. Branstrator was a Mason and was long prominent in his community in a political way, serving as a trustee of the township in the early years after its official formation. He died May 1, 1900, and his wife April 13, 1913. Charles W. Branstrator had better educational advantages than the average farm youth. He fol- lowed his high school training with a course in the Fort Wayne College, thereafter spending two years in the University at Valparaiso, where he took a scientific course of study that included engineering. After finishing his university course he taught school from 1890 to 1892, in the latter year being elected to the office of County Surveyor of Allen county and serving as County Survej'^or for three consecutive terms. After his term of service he surveyed the Wabash Railroad line from Fort Wayne to Butler, and later spent six months in Oklahoma on an engi- neering work. Still later he spent some months in Fort Wayne as an engineer and in 1900 came to the home farm. He returned to Fort Wayne, however, but in 1904 once more came back to the old farm, and he may be found there at the present writing, where he has made a name for himself as a feeder of sheep, cattle and hogs. He has been very successful in his stock-farming and feels satisfied that he has found his rightful place in life. Mr. Branstrator is a Mason and a Democrat. He was married on April 14, 1895, to Miss Eda Kimmell, daughter of Jacob and Louisa (Fisher) Kimmell, the father a native of Pleasant township and the mother born in New York city. They were farmers in Pleasant township for many years, and both are now deceased. They had two children — Eda, wife of the subject, and Thomas, who is con- nected with the electric light plant in Fort Wayne. Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Branstrator, here briefly named in the order of their appearance. Grace K. is a student at Valparaiso University. Helen is at home with the family. Charles is attending the high school in Fort Wayne. The others are Clover Hill, Clara, Mabel, Ann, Sarah Jane and Martha W. All are at home. 1 iC Li ASTOJ<, LEic TILDEN FOUNCfi', ■i FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 87 Mrs. Anna Brauneisen is a life-long resident of Indiana and has made her home in Fort "Wayne since 1884, when she and her husband opened a grocery store and identified themselves with the community life. When in later years the health of the husband failed Mrs. Brauneisen assumed responsibility for the success of the enterprise and continued to operate it with much success until 1910, when she sold the business and turned her attention exclusively to china painting, which had long been a hobby with her, and which has claimed her attention since then both profitably and pleasureably. She has an ever increasing patronage in Fort Wayne and vicinity, and besides executing orders for the work, she conducts classes in the art of china painting and is generally regarded as an expert along those lines. Her study of ceramics has been a far-reaching one, and it is a subject that claims a large share of her attention, though she has been able to devote some time to real estate operations along very successful lines. She has built and sold two fine residence properties in the city, and is now the owner of a third at No. 2014 Webster Street. She also owns a store building at No. 1602 Wells Street, and some other property in the city. Mr. and Mrs. Brauneisen had one son — a brilliant youth who gave promise of imusual accomplish- ments in music. He died suddenly at the age of sixteen, just as he was graduated from a local business college. Mrs. Brauneisen is a member of the Roman Catholic church and is devoted to the work of the parish, though the demands her profession make upon her time prevent her from participating to any extent in the social activities of those circles in which she is known and esteemed. William P. Breen. — Fort Wayne and Allen county are grateful for the influence of the citizenship of a man of the type of William P. Breen, one of the most widely known members of the Indiana bar. Mr. Breen was born in Terre Haute, Vigo county, Indiana, February 13, 1859, the son of James and Margaret (Dunne) Breen, both natives of Ireland, born in 1820 and 1821, respectively. In 1840, the father at the age of twenty, severed the ties which had bound him to the Emerald Isle and came to America. After a brief residence in the east, he came west and settled at Terre Haute, where he remained until 1863, in which year the family removed to Fort Wayne. Mr. Breen not only attained to prominence as one of Fort Wayne's representative business men, engaged in mer- cantile lines, but he interested himself with marked effect in civic affairs. For a number of years, he served as a member of the city council, and, at the time of his death, was a member of the board of waterworks trustees. This was in 1883. William P. Breen was the only child of James Breen and his wife. He attended the parochial school conducted by the Brothers of the Holy Cross, and followed this with a course in Notre Dame University, from which institution he was graduated in 1877, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Upon his return to Fort Wayne, Mr. Breen entered upon a course in the study of law in the offices of Coombs, Morris & Bell, and, in 1879, was admitted to the bar of Indiana. At this time, Mr. Breen was but twenty years of age. From the beginning of his career in the law until November 15, 1882, the time of the death of Judge Warren H. Withers, Mr. Breen was associated with Judge Withers in a most successful practice of his profession, and then, for a period of eleven years, he continued an individual practice of increasing importance, until, in 1893, he formed a co-partnership with John Morris, Jr., son of Judge John Morris, The latter was one of the foremost jurists 88 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES of his time; his death occurred in 1905. The firm of Breen & Morris, which has continued since its formation, is recognized as one of the most influential in the state of Indiana. The enviable position of Mr. Breen among his fellow-members of the Indiana bar is suggested in his election as president of the Indiana Bar Association for the years 1903 and 1904, as a member of the executive committee of the American Bar Association from 1903 to 1906, and as a delegate to the Universal Con- gress of Lawyers and Jurists, in 1904, at St. Louis, under the appointment of President Roosevelt, Republican. Although always a vigorous advo- cate of Democratic principles, Mr. Breen has never sought political honors. His activities have been recognized in his selection as a delegate to the National Democratic Convention at St. Louis, in 1916, and a member of the committee to visit President Woodrow Wilson at Shadow Lawn, New Jersey, in September, 1916, to give him official notification of the action of the convention. Mr. Breen 's keen power of thinking, his readiness of speech and his popular method of treating questions of wide importance has given him a place of prominence among the public speakers of Indiana. His opinions and his influence are ever sought by those who feel deeply the need of the co-operation of a man whose word finds weight with the many who seek the truth along many lines of endeavor. On May 28, 1884, Mr. Breen was united in marriage with Miss Odelia Phillips, daughter of Bernard P. and Caroline (Vogel) Phil- lips, of Fort Wayne. Mr. Breen is the president of one of the city's substantial financial institutions, the People's Trust and Savings Com- pany, of Fort Wayne, which occupies its own modern six-story building, centrally located. He is a member of the Catholic Club, of New York. He is a member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club and of the Fort Wayne Country Club. Every movement for the substantial betterment of the community finds a stanch advocate in Mr. Breen. No member of the bar has conferred greater honor or distinction upon the profession in Allen county and the state of Indiana. Admittedly a man of resources, he is recognized among the men of his profession as one who is a close student of every element which comes into every case presented for his consideration — quick to recognize and to anticipate difficulties and to overcome them — forceful in the presentation of his arguments — he has gained and held the respect and admiration of all who have in any way been connected with the activities of his professional or private life. James J. Brennan has been identified with railway affairs since his early youth and his activities have touched both steam and electrical transportation, in the latter department of which he has achieved dis- tinctive success and precedence, as evidenced by the fact that he is at the present time superintendent of transportation for the entire system of the Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Traction Company, which con- trols and operates about 230 miles of traction service, in Indiana. He maintains his residence and official headquarters in the city of Fort Wayne and as one of the representative business men of the metropolis of Allen county he is specially entitled to recognition in this history. Mr. Brennan was born in the historic old town of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, on July 8, 1870, and is a son of Martin and Catherine (McCabe) Brennan, who were residents of West Virginia at the time of their deaths, both having been born in Ireland. Martin Brennan was a youth when he came to the United States, in 1847, and he first established his residence at Charlestown, West Virginia, whence he later removed to Harper's FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 89 Ferry. During the major part of his active career he was closely iden- tified with railroad operations and through his industry and well-ordered efforts he won independence and a fair measure of temporal prosperity, both he and his wife having been zealous communicants of the Catholic church. Of their children, Elizabeth still resides at Harper's Ferry; James J., of this review, was the next in order of birth; John resides at Harper's Ferry, and William E. maintains his home at Harrisonburg, Virginia. In his native place James J. Brennan attended school until he was fourteen years of age, when he there entered the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. He won advancement until he became identified with the train service of this company, and later he was similarly engaged at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Compan}'. Later he became identified with the operation of an electric railway at Wheeling, West Virginia, and there- after his activities in this same direction involved his service in Cleve- land, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan. In 1905 he came to Fort Wayne and assumed the position of superintendent of overhead construction for the Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Traction Company, and his ability and efliective service eventually led to his promotion to his present responsible post, that of superintendent of transportation for the entire local and interurban system of this corporation. He has proved one of the world's workers and his advancement represents the result of his ability, ambition and well-ordered endeavors. In politics Mr. Brennan maintains an independent attitude, he is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, and both he and his wife are active communicants of the Catholic church. On May 21, 1892, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Brennan to Miss Bessie Winston, of Wheeling, West Virginia, and of their five children the first two, Cyril and Mary Agnes, are deceased; William Edward is a student in the great University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, as is also Joseph F. ; and Thomas James remains at the parental home. August Brenneke was a young man of twenty-eight years when he established his home in this county, in 1884, soon after his arrival in America. When he severed the ties that bound him to his native land he came to this country with no definite financial resources and dependent upon his own ability and efforts in making his way to the goal of inde- pendence and prosperity. That success has attended him generously within more than thirty years of residence in Allen county is vouched for not only by his influential association with the banking business at Woodburn, but also by his ownership of one of the valuable estates of Maumee township. Mr. Brenneke was born in Germany January 13, 1856, and is a son of Frederick and Caroline (Neward) Brenneke, who passed their entire lives in Germany, the father having been a farmer by vocation. In the excellent schools of his native land August Brenneke received his early educational discipline and there also gained his initial experience in connection with practical farm industry. In 1884 he came to the United States and established his permanent residence in Allen county. Here he bought a tract of cut-over land in Maumee township, and he reclaimed, drained and otherwise improved this property, which is now one of the fine farms of the county. With increasing financial means, Mr. Brenneke continued to make judicious investments in farm land, and he is now the owner of a finely improved estate of two hundred and fifty acres, divided into two farms, each of which is improved with 90 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES modern buildings and kept up to the highest standard in all respects. Mr. Brenneke has been a man of assertive and self-reliant ambition and enterprise, has ordered his course on a high plane of integrity and honor and has achieved large and well-merited success through his own well- applied energy as a progressive agriculturist and stock-grower. His political support is given to the Republican party, he has served as trustee of Maumee township, and he and his wife are earnest communicants of the Lutheran church. In 1889 Mr. Brenneke wedded Miss Sophia Feusse, daughter of Henry and Margaret Feusse, of Adams county, Indiana, and this gracious union has been blessed with three children : Henry is suc- cessfully established in the mercantile business at "Woodburn, and Herman and William are, respectively, managers of two of their father's fine farms in Maumee township. William Breuer. — As the American republic stands to-day pre-emi- nent among nations in its capacity for the conducting of commercial and industrial affairs of great scope, so does the splendid enterprise of the Berghoff Brewing Company, of Fort Wayne, stand as a conspicuous example of the truth of the above statement, even as it does also of the great value of our German element of citizenship. The history of this representative Fort Wayne concern covers a period of more than thirty years, its business has been at all times conducted with scrupulous integ- rity both in the matter of maintaining the high standard of production and in the honorable methods employed in all trade transactions. The result has been the upbuilding of a business that far transcends local limitations and that marks the Berghoff Brewing Company as 6ne of the leading institutions of its kind in the Union, the capacity of its extensive and finely equipped plant being tested in supplying the demands of a trade that extends into divers states of the Union and that has made the Berghoff beer famed in such metropolitan centers as the city of Chicago. Of this company William Breuer is vice-president, and prior to giving a brief review of his career it is but consistent that there be entered a resume of the history of the important corporation of which he is thus a valued executive. In the year 1885 the Herman Berghoff Brewing Company was incorporated with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars and with Herman Berghoff as president and Hubert Berghoff as secretary and treasurer, the original plant of the company having been established at the corner of Washington Avenue East and Grant Street. The original principals were insistent in bringing the output of the brewery up to the highest German standard, and this policy has been maintained during the long intervening years, so that the Berghoff name now implies the maximum of purity, of proper maturing of all products and of a standard from which there have been all too many lapses in the record of American manufacturing of malt bever- ages. In 1899 a reorganization of the concern was effected under the title of the Berghoff Brewing Company, and the capitalization was in- creased to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of common stock and an equal amount of preferred stock. At this juncture the officers of the company became as here noted : Herman Berghoff, president ; Hubert Berghoff, vice-president ; Stephen B. Fleming, secretary and treasurer, and William Breuer, superintendent. Three years later each the common and preferred stock was doubled, and at the present time the common stock is represented in the noteworthy sum of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, with preferred stock of equal amount. The personnel PUBLIC LFer' TltDJEN FOUN-DATION FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 91 of the executive corps at the opening of the year 1917 is as here recorded : Gustave A. Berghoff, president; William Breuer, vice-president; Stephen B. Fleming, treasurer, and Martin C. Norton, secretary. All of these officers are likewise directors of the company, and the directorate includes also Charles Weatherhogg and G. R. Johnston. All of the directors are residents of Fort Wayne with the exception of Mr. Fleming, who now maintains his home in New York city, and Mr. Johnston, who resides in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The plant of this great brewery utilizes about one and one-half city blocks, the average annual output is one hundred and eighty thousand barrels of beer and the bottling department turns out an average of one hundred and twenty thousand bottles daily. The company represents not only one of the most important industrial enterprises of Fort Wayne, but is also given the distinction of being the most extensive shipper on the line of the Nickel Plate Railroad. William Breuer was born in Westphalen, Germany, on October 23, 1852, and is a son of Carl Ludwig and Catherine (Helle) Breuer. He was reared and educated in his native province and as a youth served a thorough apprenticeship to the brewer's trade, under the unexcelled German system, his apprenticeship having been initiated May 16, 1866, several months prior to his fourteenth birthday anniversary. In 1881 he came to the United States, and after passing about three months in the city of Rochester, New York, he came to the west and found employ- ment at his trade in the city of Chicago, where he remained about nine months. He then went to Neillsville, the judicial center of Clark county, Wisconsin, where he held a responsible position in a brewery for two years. He then established a brewery at Boscobel, Grant county, that state, where he remained until 1885, when he came to Fort Wayne and assumed the position of superintendent of the plant of the Herman Berg- hoff Brewing Company, in the development of whose splendid business he has been an influential and valued factor, the while he has gained secure place as one of the representative captains of industry in the metropolis of Allen county, prior data in this review having sufficiently indicated his advancement in the control and management of the affairs of the Berghoff Brewing Company. In politics Mr. Breuer gives un- wavering allegiance to the Republican party, he is actively identified with the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, of which he is a trustee, and he is serving as a member of the board of park commissioners of his home city, besides which he is a trustee of Concordia College, one of the important educational institutions of northern Indiana. Both he and his wife are communicants of the German Lutheran church. On Novem- ber 23, 1884, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Breuer to Miss Caroline Rodewald, a native of Germany, and they have four children : William, who is actively associated with business affairs in Fort Wayne; Amelia, who is the wife of Kurt Johns, of Newark, New Jersey, and Delia and Louise, who remain at the parental home. Eugene H. Briggs, who exercises important functions in the position of executive assistant in the offices of the great manufacturing estab- lishment of S. F. Bowser & Company, one of the leading industrial concerns of Fort Wayne, is a scion of stanch old colonial stock in New England, on both the paternal and distaff sides. He was born in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, on July 15, 1874, and is a son of Rev. Lewis L. and Mary T. (Howarth) Briggs, the former a native of Providence, Rhode Island, and the latter of Dover, New Hampshire. The father, a man 92 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES of high intellectual attainments and mnch oratorical ability, served many- years as a clergyman of the Universalist church, his death having occurred in 1893, and his widow survived him by a score of years, she having been summoned to eternal rest in 1913. Of the three children Irene C. is the wife of Thomas G. Rees, of Boston, Massachusetts; Lewis H. died in infancy, and the subject of this review is the youngest of the number. Eugene H. Briggs attended the public schools at Lynn, Massachusetts, and he initiated his business career by assuming a clerical position in a banking institution in the city of Boston, in 1895. He continued his association with banking enterprises until 1910, and in the meanwhile his ability and effective service gained to him consecutive promotion. In the year last mentioned he became factory salesman in New England for the important firm of S. F. Bowser & Company, and in 1913 he came to Fort Wayne, where he now holds the responsible post of executive assistant in the offices of this important concern. Mr. Briggs is found aligned as a loyal advocate of the cause of the Republican party, and at Wakefield, Massachusetts, he still maintains affiliations with Golden Rule Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. On October 1, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Briggs to Miss May Katherine Wyman, who likewise was born in the city of Boston, and they have two children — Lewis L. and Norma H. Stillman B. Brokaw has held since the autumn of 1916 a position with the municipal waterworks department of Fort Wayne and takes loyal interest in all things pertaining to the welfare and advancement of his native city. He was born in Fort Wayne and is one of the three surviving children of the late Samuel L. Brokaw, who was born at Galena, Ohio, April 20, 1840, and died in Fort Wayne on April 28, 1907. As a young man Samuel L. Brokaw served as a member of Company K, One Hundred and Eighth Ohio Infantry, with which he served four years, or virtually during the entire period of the great civil conflict through which the integrity of the Union was preserved. He was dis- charged shortly before the close of the war, as the result of physical disability, and his record was that of a loyal and valiant young soldier of the Union, In 1867 he established his home in Fort Wayne, where he passed the remainder of his life. He was engaged in railroad work during the major portion of the long intervening years and the last ten years of his life were marked by his efficient service as county health officer, in which position he made an admirable record. His widow still resides in Fort Wayne, and with her remain her tAvo daughters, Estella 0. and Irene Sinex Brokaw, who, with Stillman B., subject of this review, are the only survivors in a family of nine children. Stillman B. Brokaw was educated in the public schools of Fort Wayne and while yet in his 'teens entered the employ of Albert Tomkinson, who was here engaged in the plumbing business. His work in this connection was so well per- formed that he won advancement and eventually became an indispen- sable factor in the business, with which he continued to be associated until he assumed his present municipal position. On May 18, 1910, Mr. Brokaw married Miss Mary E. Tomkinson, a daughter of his employer, Albert Tomkinson, and the one child of this union is Herbert James Brokaw. Mr. Brokaw is a Republican in his political allegiance and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. The attractive family home is at 411 Kinnaird Avenue. FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 93 Frank I. Brown is a recognized authority in connection with the grades and valuations of lumber and holds the responsible position of lumber agent for all lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company of the divisions and branches west of the city of Pittsburgh. He has maintained his home in Fort Wayne for nearly forty years and is one of the well- known and representative citizens of the Allen county metropolis. Mr. Brown was born at South Orange, New Jersey, on June 20, 1856, and is a son of John S. and Adelaide (Freeman) Brown, of whose seven children he is the youngest. The parents were born and reared in New Jersey, with whose history the family names have been identified for many gen- erations, and the father was one of the successful farmers of that state, within whose borders he and his wife continued to reside until their deaths. Frank I. Brown received the advantages of the public schools of New Jersey and also those of the Newark Military Academy, in the metropolis of his native state. As a youth he was concerned with mer- cantile business in Newark, and in 1880, as a young man of twenty-four years, he came to Fort Wayne and entered the employ of the firm of Hoffman Brothers, for whom he acted as lumber inspector. With this concern he continued his effective services nearly seven years, and he then accepted a position as lumber agent for the Pittsburgh, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, commonly known as the Nickel Plate. With this company he continued his association in this capacity for twelve years and in January, 1900, he severed this connection to assume his present and similar office in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. His official duties cause him to travel extensively, and he is familiar with lumber resources and conditions in the various sections of the Union. Though never a seeker of public office of any kind, Mr. Brown is aligned as a loyal supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and in his home county he is an active and appreciative member of the Fort Wayne Country Club. He is also vice-president of the United States Field Trial Club, of Grand Junction, Tennessee, and is well known as a breeder of English setters. Mr. Brown frequently is called to officiate as judge at the Grand Circuit Field trials. On January 15, 1896, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Anna Bond, of Fort Wayne, no children having been born of their union. Martin C. Bruick. — The Bruick family, represented in St. Joseph township by Martin C, of this review, had its establishment in America in the year 1834, when his parents — Morris Bruick and Martha Cue — aged nine and seven years, respectively, came with their parents and settled in Adams township. There the young people were reared in the wilderness and, growing up as neighbors and lifelong acquaintances, their marriage followed quite as a matter of course. They settled in the community where they had been reared, became worthy contributors to the industrial life of the township, and were the parents of a family of eight children. They were John, Adam, Anna, Elizabeth, Martin, Henry, William and Jacob, all living at the present writing. The parents are now deceased — his passing being in the year 1887 and hers in 1892. Martin Bruick had a common school training in Adams township and early turned his attention to farming, in which he has since been occupied successfully. He is the owner of one hundred and fifty-four acres in St. Joseph township, on which he may be said to have made all the improvements. He married, in 1892, Sophia Goeglein, daughter of George Goeglein, concerning whom more extended mention will be found on 94 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES other pages of this work. Seven children have come to Mr. and Mrs. Bruick— Hulda, Liiella, Arthur, Amiel, George, Arnold and Carl. The family have membership in the German Lutheran church, and Mr. Bruick is a Democrat in politics. George H. Buck has been engaged in the fish business in Fort Wayne since 1890 and has built up through effective service a substantial and representative trade, his well-equipped establishment being situated at 720 Harrison street. Mr. Buck was born in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, July 29, 1861, a son of Charles W. and Louisa (Durfee) Buck, natives of the state of New York and both now deceased, the father having been a railroad man during the greater part of his active life and he and his wife having been residents of Fort Wayne at the time of their death. Of their children the eldest is Lucy, who is the wife of Cyrus Crabbs, of Indianapolis, and the subject of this review was the second in order of birth; Mary is the wife of James Doudrick, of Kansas City, Missouri; Ada is the wife of Frank Cornish, a contractor in Fort Wayne; Edward is a locomotive engineer and now resides in the state of California. He whose name initiates this paragraph acquired his youthful education in the public schools of Indianapolis and Fort Wayne and thereafter was identified with railway service until he estab- lished his present business enterprise, in the conducting of which he has shown the care, discrimination and progressiveness that invariably make for success worthy of the name. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accept- ed Scottish Rite, besides having completed the circuit of the York Rite, in which his maximum affiliation is with Fort Wayne Commandery of Knights Templars. He is identified also with the Mystic Shrine and the Knights of the Maccabees, and is an active and popular member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club. The maiden name of the first wife of Mr. Buck was Ella J. Baughman, and she is survived by two daughters— Grace, who is the wife of John flengstler, of Fort Wayne, and Maude, who is the wife of Walter Kruse, of this city. The second marriage of Mr. Buck was solemnized in 1901, when Miss S. Ellen Uran became his wife. She was born in Michigan and is a daughter of John and Ola (Hayes) Uran. Mr. and Mrs. Buck have one son, George H., Jr. Ernest F. Bueker, who has been one of the energetic and successful representatives of farm industry in Aboite township, came from Ger- many to America in 1870, when a youth of about sixteen years, and estab- lished his home in Fort Wayne within a short time after his arrival in the United States, In character and ambition he proved himself well equipped for the achieving of success through personal endeavor and for the long period of twenty-two years was engaged in the work of his trade, that of plasterer. Through this medium he gained the financial resources that eventually enabled him to purchase his present farm of eighty acres, where he has erected good buildings and made such other improvements as denote significantly the spirit of thrift and enterprise. As an agriculturist and stock-grower Mr. Bueker won substantial success and still owns his valuable farm property, though he is now living virtually retired in Fort Wayne, where he has a pleasant home at 1923 Hanna street. Loyal to and appreciative of American institutions, Mr. Bueker gives stalwart allegiance to the cause of the Republican party and takes lively interest in public affairs of a local order. He is affili- FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 95 ated with the Masonic fraternity and also with the St. John's Reformed church in Fort Wayne, as was also his wife, who died May 24, 1917. Mr. Bueker was born in Westphalia, Germany, on May 15, 1854, a son of Frederick and Sophia (Buller) Bueker, who came to the United States, in 1871, and settled in Fort Wayne, their son Ernest, of this review, having preceded them to this city by about one year. Here the father engaged in the work of his trade, that of cooper, and here his death occurred in 1886, his devoted wife having been summoned to the life eternal, in 1882, and both having been zealous communicants of the Reformed church. Of their children the eldest is Frederick, who is a retired farmer living in Fort Wayne ; Frederica is the wife of Christian Tschannen, a farmer in Aboite township; Caroline and Lottie are deceased ; Lizetta is the widow of Henry Hilgeman, deceased ; Ernest F., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth ; and Henry is deceased. Ernest F. Bueker acquired his early education in the excellent schools of his native land and was an ambitious and self-reliant young man when he severed the ties that bound him to the fatherland and came to the United States, due record having already been given concerning his career since that period. October 3, 1878, recorded his marriage to Miss Lizetta Hildebrand, who was born in Fort Wayne, January 15, 1857, a daughter of William and Marie (Hencheon) Hildebrand, both now deceased. Mr. Hildebrand was for a number of years identified with various lines of business enterprise in the city of Indianapolis and finally removed to Fort Wayne, where he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. In conclusion is given brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Bueker: Minnie is the wife of Charles Stillborn, of Fort Wayne, and they have two children — Irma and Elmer. Carl, who likewise resides in Fort Wayne, married Miss Minnie Goette, and they have four children — Mildred, Minerva, Nellie and Melba. Edwin resides in Fort Wayne, the maiden name of his wife was Jenette Presler and they have two children — Freda and Kathryn. William, who has charge of the old home farm in Aboite township, wedded Miss Ella Nicholson, and they have one son, William Aaron. Ernest is engaged in farming in Whitley county. Freda is employed as a skilled stenog- rapher in the offices of the S. F. Bowser Company, Fort Wayne, and remains at the parental home. Bertha also makes her home with her father. Matilda is the wife of Edwin Beard, of St. Joseph township. Frederick J. Bueker is one of the representative farmers of the younger generation in his native township of Washington, and his homestead, comprising one hundred and ten acres, has been bj'^ him greatly improved since it came into his possession, so that it is consistently to be designated as one of the model farms of Washington township. He was born in this township March 19, 1879, a son of Frederick W. and Frederica (Oslag) Bueker, both of whom were born in Prussia and were young folk at the time when they came to the United States. The first husband of Mrs. Bueker was William Kolmartin and they became the parents of three children — William, Sophia and Henry J. — of whom only the last mentioned is living, he being one of the successful farmers of Washington township. Mr. Kolmartin died, in 1876, and on February 7, 1877, his widow became the wife of Frederick W. Bueker, the subject of this review being the eldest of the three children of this union ; Edward resides on the old homestead farm of his father, and Mrs. Eliza Most is now a resident of the city of Bujffalo, 96 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES New York. Frederick W. Bueker became one of the substantial ex- ponents of agricultural industry in Washington township and upon his retirement from active labors removed to the city of Fort Wayne, where he and his wife still maintain their home. He whose name initiates this article gained his early education in the public and the Lutheran pa- rochial schools of his native township and as a lad of thirteen years began to render effective aid in the work of the home farm, with the manage- ment of which he continued to be associated until he initiated his inde- pendent activities as an agriculturist and stock-grower. He purchased his present farm in 1910 and has brought the same under a high state of cultivation, the place being devoted to well ordered agriculture of diversi- fied order. Mr. Bueker erected on his farm the present commodious and attractive residence and also the barn and other farm buildings of minor order, ndustry and progressiveness have brought to him merited pros- perity and he is one of the substantial and popular citizens of his native township, his political allegiance being given to th eRepublican party and both he and his wife being active communicants of St. John's Re- formed Lutheran church in the city of Fort Wayne, from which their home is about three miles distant, on rural mail route No. 1. On June 27, 1909, Mr. Bueker wedded Miss Sophia Ungerer, who was born and reared in this county, a daughter of George and Magdalena (Hammerbacher) Ungerer, both natives of Bavaria, Germany, their marriage having been solemnized in Allen county about the year 1870. The father is now living retir din Fort Wayne, where he was for a number of years suc- cessfully engaged in the contracting business, and his devoted wife passed to the life eternal, March 28, 1912. Mr. and Mrs. Bueker have four chil- dren— Carl, Florence, Doris and John. John Buell has been a resident of Allen county since he was twenty- seven years of age, is now one of the progressive and representative farmers of Aboite township, and his success as one of the world's pro- ductive workers has been of unequivocal and meritorious order. He is a citizen who can claim the historic Old Dominion state as the place of his nativity, and he is a scion of one of its old and honored families. Mr. Buell was born on a farm in Rockingham county, Virginia, July 22, 1857, and is a son of William C. and Hannah (Canup) Buell, both of whom passed their entire lives in Virginia, where the father was a rep- resentative of agricultural industry during his entire active career. He was long known as one of the most active and influential advocates of the cause of the Republican party in his county and he served two terms as deputy sheriff of Rockingham county. Of his children the eldest was Milton, who served as a soldier in the Civil War, at the age of eighteen years, and who supposedly sacrificed his life in battle, as the other mem- bers of the family lost all trace of him within a short time after he had gone to the front; the second child died in infancy and the third was John, subject of this review; Maria became the wife of John Fleming and continued to reside in Virginia until her death; Miss Catherine still maintains her home in Virginia, as does also William, who is a prosperous farmer in Rockingham county; and Sarah Jane likewise remains in the old home state and county. John Buell passed his boyhood days under the turbulent conditions that prevailed in Virginia during the period of and subsequently to the Civil War, and his early education was gained mainly in the old-time subscription schools of his native commonwealth. He continued to assist his father in the operations of the home farm FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 97 until he had attained to the age of twenty-three years, when he came to the north. He first went to Ohio, where he was employed one year. He was twenty-seven years old when he came to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and here he obtained employment as a locomotive fireman on the Pennsyl- vania Railroad. He was thus engaged three years, and later was em- ployed by the month at farm work. For one year he worked in a meat market in Fort Wayne, a similar period was given to service as motorman on the street-car lines of the city, and he next worked a year in a black- smith shop. After his marriage he rented from his father-in-law a farm and continued his operations under these conditions for twelve years. He then purchased forty-six acres in Aboite township, and to the same he has since added until he now has a fine farm of one hundred and sixty- one acres, the same being devoted to well-ordered agriculture and the raising of good livestock. Mr. Buell erected the present modern and attractive house on his homestead, has provided other excellent farm buildings, and is known as one of the vigorous and progressive exponents of farm enterprise in Aboite township. Taking loyal interest in com- munity affairs, he has had no desire for public office, but he is found aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party. On the 4th of March, 1891, Mr. Buell wedded Miss Ida F. Clark, wlio was born and reared in this county and who is a daughter of Enoch and Anna (Shippey) Clark, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Clark came from Maryland to Allen county and became one of the successful farmers and stock-growers of this section of the state, besides having given much effective service as a veterinary surgeon. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Buell the eldest is Chauncey, who is a skilled mechanic and is employed as such in Fort Wayne; Grace holds a position in a hospital in Fort Wayne ; Paul is, in 1917, attending business college in that city; the fourth child, a son, died in infancy; and Oliver is the youngest member of the home circle. Henry F. Busching. — One of the substantial and prospering farmers of St. Joseph township is Henry F. Busching, who has been devoted to the development of one of the attractive farms of the community in the past years. He is of German birth and parentage, born in Germany on October 4, 1857, son of Karl and Sophia Busching, who lived and died in their native land. They had five children — Mary, Karl, Henry F., Sophia and Minnie. Henry Busching had his education in his native community and came to America in 1881, locating first in Fort Wayne, where he found work on a farm in that vicinity. He later secured em- ployment in the Bass Foundry & Machine Shop was there employed in various capacities until 1882, when he located in St, Joseph township, purchasing fifty acres of farm land and applying himself to its develop- ment. This acreage he has since increased by the purchase of another fifty-acre tract, and his farm of one hundred acres is partly improved and on the way to further development. Industry and ambition are salient qualities of his nature and success is bound to be his portion. Indeed, he is already classed with the successful men of the community, and rightly so, in view of his accomplishments from the humble begin- nings that were his. Mr. Busching was married, in June, 1882, to Mary Blume, daughter of Henry and Minnie Blume, early settlers in Allen county and highly esteemed among its citizenry. Seven children have been born to the Buschings — Addie, Emma, Mary, Fred, Henry, Herman, and William. Mary died in July, 1914, and the wife and mother passed 98 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES away on May 5, 1907. The family are Lutherans and members of that church, and take an active part in its activities, as well as in the social affairs of the community. Mr. Busching is independent in politics and an excellent citizen without being active in the politics of his community. James F. Butt — One of the foremost men of Maumee township, Allen county, Indiana, is James Butt, born in Erie township, Miami county, on March 25, 1860, on the old Wabash & Erie canal. He is the son of William and Elizabeth (Lesher) Butt and the grandson of William Butt, a pioneer to Allen county from Ohio in 1832. The record of the migrations of the Butt family from 1832 up to 1875 accounts for numerous changes in residence, and a brief recounting of those moves would read something as follows: Came from Pickaway count}^ Ohio, in 1832; settled in St. Joseph township, Allen county, Indiana, where they farmed until 1846, and then went to Miami county, Indiana, where the son Wil- liam, father of the subject, remained until 1863, returning in that year to Allen county and settling on a farm in the vicinity of New Haven, where he was engaged in farming until the fall of 1865. He then moved back to Miami county and remained there until 1867. In the spring of that year he came to Allen county once more and there farmed until the death of his wife in February, 1869. In the next year he remarried and took up his residence in Miami county, remained there to 1875, operating a newly acquired farm, and in that year moved to the old home farm in Miami county, where he passed the rest of his days, death claim- ing him there on March 31, 1907. He was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, on May 10, 1829, and his life was that of a successful and energetic farmer. There were three children of his first marriage : James F., of this review, Ida and Dora. His second wife was the mother of two daughters — Effie and Rose. Mr. Butt was a prominent man in his community always, and wherever he went found his place in the public life of the town and township, and filled numerous public offices during his life time. James F. Butt had the average amount of schooling that is the lot of the country boy, and when he was sixteen he began active farm life on the farm home. He remained on the home place until he was twenty-one, gathering an experience and training that guaranteed him individual success in his own independent career. He came of age in March, 1881, and in June, 1882, bought from his father the home farm of 131 acres in Maumee township, which place has formed the nucleus of his present farm of 491 acres. It is worthy of mention that this 131 acres was deeded by the government to William Butt, grand- father of the subject, in 1832, and has been in the family possession ever since. William Butt, the original owner, did much improvement work on the place, and was himself one of the foremost men of his day in that district. He was one of the charter subscribers to the Fort Wayne Sentinel, a daily newspaper established in 1833, and the first paper that came from the press came into his possession and was cherished by him during his lifetime. The present owner of the old Butt farm is recog- nized as one of the leading stockmen of Allen county, and he is widely known for the Duroc-Jersey hogs he raises on his place each year, from six to eight hundred head being the yearly product of the place. It is stated on authority that he has sold more hogs yearly than any other man in Indiana, with a similar acreage as a basis of operations. In 1915 he fed 14,000 bushels of corn to that year's hogs. Mr. Butt was married on January 18, 1883, to Miss Lucretia Johnson, the daughter of Edward FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 99 and Cynthia C. (Pearson) Johnson, who were among the early settlers of Allen county and were prominent in the county all their active lives. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Butt. Jessie L. is married, and she and her husband live on the home place with the parents. They have two children — Ivan and John. William Edward, the second child of Mr. and Mrs. Butt, is professor of economics in the Kentucky State University. He has two children — Olin and Arthur. James F., Jr., is married and lives in the vicinity of the old home. He is his father's assistant on the home farm. Mr. Butt has taken his place in the public life of the community, and it is a notable fact that he served Maumee township as trustee in 1884 when he was but twenty-four years of age, and held the record then for the youngest trustee in the state. He was re-elected in 1886, and since that time has held other offices of public trust. He is a Democrat in politics, and fraternally has membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being affiliated with Lodge No. 463 at Antwerp, Ohio. Frederick C. Buuck is to be consistently designated as one of the representative farmers of Allen county, and his well improved homestead, comprising sixty acres, is eligibly situated in Marion township. That he has proved himself loyally interested in community affairs and has gained secure place in popular esteem is indicated by the fact that he is serving as township trustee, to which office he was elected in 1914. Mr. Buuck was born in Adams county, Indiana, February 18, 1864, a son of Ernest and Sophia (Kleinschmidt) Buuck, both of whom were born in Germany. Ernest Buuck was a lad of seven years when he accompanied his parents on their immigration to the United States and the family home was established in Adams county, Indiana, where he was reared to manhood under the conditions and influences of the pioneer days, assisted in the development of the home farm and profited by the advantages of the schools of the locality and period. He eventually instituted independ- ent operations as a farmer and became one of the prosperous and honored exponents of agricultural industry in Adams county, where he continued to reside until his death, in 1911, his wife having preceded him to the life eternal by about two years, and both having been earnest members of the Lutheran church. Mr. Buuck was a Democrat in politics and was one of the loyal young men of Indiana who went forth in defense of the Union when the Civil war was precipitated on the nation. He enlisted as a pi'ivate in Company D, Fifty-first Indiana Infantry, and with this gallant command continued in active service at the front until he was so severely wounded as to incapacitate him for further activity, with the result that he was accorded an honorable discharge, after having taken part in a number of severe conflicts. In later years he signalized his abiding interest in his old comrades by retaining affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. Frederick C. Buuck, the immediate sub- ject of this review, was the third in orler of birth in a family of eleven children; Louise resides in the city of Richmond, Indiana; Minnie is the widow of Gustav Rumphe and maintains her home in Fort Wayne ; Ernst still remains in Ad-ams county; Martin is deceased; William is a pros- perous farmer in Adams county; Mary, Sophia and Anna are deceased; Elizabeth is the wife of Christian Mahrnowald, of Jeft'erson township, Allen county ; and Christian resides in Fort Wayne. Frederick C. Buuck grew to adult age under the invigorating discipline of the home farm, continued to assist in its work and management until he was twenty-two < -' I ■ .-'■ i M 100 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES years of age and in the meanwhile had not failed to profit by the advan- tages afforded in the public schools of his native county. Upon leaving the parental home he came to Fort Wayne, where he was employed three years in the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The free and inde- pendent life of the farm, though demanding much of arduous toil, made insistent appeal to him and caused him soon to resume his alliance with agricultural industry. He purchased his present homestead of sixty acres, upon which he has made the best of improvements, including the erection of his commodious house and other good farm buildings, and he has so applied his mental and physical powers as to make of his farm industry a distinctive success, his attention having been given to diver- sified agriculture and to the raising of good live stock. Mr. Buuck is a stalwart in the local camp of the Democratic party, takes lively interest in all that concerns the well-being of his home township and county, ahd has given most effective service in the office of township trustee. Both he and his wife are earnest communicants of the German Lutheran church. On December 4, 1888, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Buuck to Miss Mary Doehrmann, daughter of Conrad and Minnie (Zwick) Doehrmann, of Adams county, and the two children of this union, Martin and Freda, still remain at the parental home. James B. Cahill is junior member of the representative firm of Getz & Cahill, which conducts one of the well appointed undertaking and funeral-directing establishments of Fort Wayne, and on other pages of this work is made individual mention of his associate in the ' business, Joseph F. Getz. Mr. Cahill was born in Cass county, Indiana, on the 26th of August, 1879, and is a son of James Cahill, who was for a number of years engaged in farming in Cass county and who later removed to the city of Logansport, that county, and entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, with which he continued his identifica- tion many years. He died October 3, 1899, and his wife is living in Fort Wayne. James B. Cahill acquired his early education in the St. Vincent Catholic parochial schools of Logansport and supplemented the same by a course in Hall's Business College of that city. He then assumed a position in the Logansport offices of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, but later prepared himself for the undertaking business, in which connection he acquired a thorough knowledge of the modern system of embalming. For a time he was employed in the under- taking establishment of Potter & Moffitt, in Muncie, this state, and in 1900 came to Fort Wayne, where he entered the employ of the firm of Schone & Veith, being their first licensed embalmer. With this concern he continued his effective services until July, 1908, when he formed a partner- ship with Joseph Getz and established their present business enterprise, in connection with which they have the most approved facilities for careful and consistent service as embalmers and general funeral directors. Mr. Cahill is affiliated with the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Order of Foresters, the Catholic Benevolent League of Indiana, and of the Holy Name Society of the cathedral parish of the Catholic church in the city of Fort Wayne, both he and his wife being earnest communicants of this parish. He is identi- fied also with the Married Men's Society of the cathedral and is a member of the Retail Merchants' Association of Fort Wayne. On June 22, 1910, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Cahill to Miss Eleanor Reinhart, who was born at Fort Wayne June 24, 1880, and who was educated in FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 101 St, Mary's parochial schools. She is a daughter of Matthias and Anna Marie (Bargus) Reinhart, both deceased. Stephen A. Callahan is one of the representative younger members of the bar of his native county and since his retirement from the office of assistant prosecuting attorney of Allen county has been engaged in the independent practice of his profession in Fort Wayne, v^ith secure standing and reputation as a resourceful trial lawyer and vi^ell fortified counselor. Mr. Callahan was born at Fort Wayne on July 30, 1888, and is a son of James T. and Margaret (Dolan) Callahan, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Indiana. The father holds the position of chief train dispatcher at Fort Wayne for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, and he and his wife have maintained their home in Fort Wayne for thirty years. Of their four children the subject of this review is the third; Winifred remains at the parental home; Frank J. is associated with the Moran Ice Company; and Robert is, in 1917, a student in the Fort Wayne high school. Stephen A. Callahan acquired his early education in the excellent Catholic parochial schools of Fort Wayne and in preparation for his chosen profession entered the law department of the great Valparaiso University, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1909 and from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws, with virtually coincident admission to the bar of his native state. For two and one-half years after his graduation he was associated with the well known Fort Wayne law firm of Leonard, Rose & Zollars, and he was then appointed deputy prosecuting attorney of the county, a position in which he made an admirable record and from which he finally retired to engage in active general practice in an individual way. Mr. Callahan is a staunch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, is a communicant of the Catholic church, is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and the Loyal Order of Moose. May 26, 1914, recorded the mar- riage of Mr. Callahan to Miss Esther Auger, who likewise was born and reared in Fort Wayne and who is a daughter of Louis and Lydia (Bird) Auger, the former of whom is deceased. Warren D. Calvin, M. D., is above all else a man of distinct individu- ality, and that individuality is the positive expression of a strong and loyal nature that in turn exemplifies itself in the true stewardship of good works and kindly deeds. The Doctor is a man of thought and efficient service, and as a true humanitarian he is free from bigotry and intolerance in all of the relations of life. He is one of the essen- tially representative physicians and surgeons of Allen county and is engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Fort Wayne. Like many another American who has achieved success and prestige in professional life, Dr. Calvin passed the period of his childhood and youth under the effective and invigorating discipline of the farm, and of the enduring value of this discipline he is deeply appreciative. On the old homestead farm of his father, two and one-half miles distant from Bryan. Williams county, Ohio, Dr. Warren D. Calvin was born, May 27, 1867, his father having been "a farmer good, with corn and beef and plenty," and where he himself early gained a full quota of experience as he "mowed and hoed and held the plow," his active asso- ciation with the basic industry of agriculture having continued under these benign conditions until he was nineteen years of age, the while he waxed strong of brain and brawn, as he had not failed to make good 102 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES use of the advantages of the district schools. In this connection it has been recorded that "He attended a country school which at times en- rolled more than sixty pupils and which, because of certain local in- fluences involved in the personnel of the patrons of that school, was peculiarly an intellectual rural center. Algebra and Latin were taught at times and from its walls there emerged scores and scores of teachers, many of whom later became able representatives of the legal, medical, pedagogic and ministerial professions, it being worthy of note that one of the students for which this school stood sponsor eventually be- came United States representative to Mexico." Dr. Calvin expresses his sense of thankfulness for the fortuitous influences that compassed him in the formative period of his youth and he reverts with great satisfaction to the vitalizing privileges that were his in the school above mentioned. He followed the prevailing ambition of the youth of that rural community and put his scholastic attainments to practical test by entering the field of pedagogic service. At the age of seventeen years he assumed charge of his first school, and in the meanwhile he furthered his own education by attending the- autumn terms in the high school at Bryan, the judicial center of his native county. When nineteen years of age he devoted a portion of his time as a traveling representative and salesman for A. H. Andrews & Company, manu- facturers of school apparatus and furniture, with headquarters in the city of Chicago. His vaulting ambition to gain a liberal education did not overleap the bounds of practical judgment, and it can not be regarded as other than fortunate that the young man was compelled to consult ways and means in the attainment of the desired end and that he was virtually dependent upon his own resources in defraying the expenses of his higher academic and his professional education. In the autumn of 1887 Dr. Calvin entered the preparatory department of Hiram College, of which institution the late General James A. Garfield, former president of the LTnited States, was a graduate and of which he later served at president. In this college the Doctor gave his attention to fortifying himself further for the vocation of teaching, in which field he had at the time a future engagement. However, his desire for a higher education resulted in his continuing his studies in Hiram College until his graduation, as a member of the class of 1892, and with the degree of Bachelor of Science. During his junior and senior years he was associated in the editorial work of the two college publi- cations— the annual and the periodical college paper. In the meanwhile he had formulated definite plans for his future career, and in consonance therewith, in September, 1892, he entered the celebrated Rush Medical College, in the city of Chicago. There he continued his technical studies three years, during which he was joint owner of the college med- ical journal, besides having been its editor in chief during the last year. He was also the chief promoter and a member of the editorial board of the first medical annual ever published in connection with a medical college. During the summer vacations of his eight collegiate years Dr. Calvin continued his successful service as a traveling salesman for A, H, Andrews & Company, the concern previously mentioned, and from this service he obtained the financial returns necessary for the continuance of his studies. He was graduated in Rush Medical College as a member of the class of 1895, and prior to making a permanent location he determined to gain preliminary experience of a practical and varied order. Thus it was that after receiving his degree of Doctor FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 103 of Medicine he served his professional novitiate by engaging in active general practice at Canby, Yellow Medicine county, Minnesota, where he remained nine months. This was followed by one year of surgical work of official order along the course of the Chicago drainage canal, which was then in course of construction, his headquarters being at Riverside. Upon completing this service he came to Fort Wayne, where he has been established in the active practice of his profession since April, 1897, and where his unequivocal success offers the best voucher for his ability, discrimination and personal popularity. He gives his attention largely to the phase of practice involved in internal medication and he has long controlled a large and representative practice that denotes him as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Allen county. Dr. Calvin maintains active and appreciative membership in the American Medical Association, the Mississippi Valley Medical Asso- ciation, the Tri-State Medical Association, the 12th District Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society, and the Allen County Medi- cal Society. He was a member of the faculty of the Ft. Wayne Medical College, and is now (1917) on the Hope Hospital staff. He is medical examiner for eight important life insurance companies and has the distinction of being a member of the United States Medical Reserve Corps, in which he has the rank of first lieutenant. In politics Dr. Calvin believes in supporting men and principles rather than being constrained by strict partisan lines, but if definite political classification were given he would probably be designated as a progressive Republican. In religion the Doctor gives his only denial to the family patronymic, for he goes far afield from the old Calvinistic doctrines and believes that the dogmatic theological creeds are altogether inimical to the interests of mankind, the while he maintains that man's religious nature can incor- porate all its wants under the two tenets of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, untrammeled by creed, ordinances, definite ritualism and mysticism. He believes also that every person should have a vacation from his professional or other vocational work, in order that the mind may dwell upon a different environment and the cells used in the prosecution of his daily employment and thus given a brief and complete rest, with resultant vitalization. In harmony with this conception. Dr. Calvin has taken trips to various parts of the United States and the Canadian provinces, and in each of these digressions he has found it his greatest pleasure to view and contemplate the grand and beautiful spots of nature, especially in the ascending to the mountain heights and fastnesses where nature rules supreme, or at least where the puny handicraft of man is comparatively infinitesimal. In June, 1897, Doctor Calvin wedded Dr. Jessie Carrithers, who is associated with him in practice. Like the average American, Doctor Calvin finds in his ancestral lineage a record that involves the use of the much- discussed hyphen. In short, he is of Scotch, English and Swiss lineage, through being a scion of the Scotch family of McGowan, the English families of Churchill and Kelsey, and the Calvins of Switzerland. Of his forbears who came to America, some established themselves in Puritan New England and some in cavalier Virginia. Later migrations brought other generations of the respective families into contact in the historic old Connecticut Western Reserve of Northern Ohio, and from that section of the old Buckeye state came the first representatives of the Calvin family into Williams county, Ohio, where the subject of this sketch was born. 104 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES William H. Carbaugh, well-to-do farmer and veteran of the Civil war, has been a resident of Allen county for more than fifty years. He began his career in this region as a day-laborer, from which phase he advanced to the position of renter, and later to the dignity of owner of his own place, and he has enjoyed a comfortable prosperity as the reward of his honest efforts to gain independence. He was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, on January 7, 1840, and is the son of Joseph and Margaret (Miller) Carbaugh, who came to Whitley county in 1856 and passed the remainder of their lives in this region. The father worked for years as a laborer. He and his wife reared a family of five children. They were Mary Elizabeth, deceased; William H., the subject of this sketch; John, who is deceased; Susan Catherine, living in Fort Wayne, and Albert, who died in 1915. William H. Car- baugh had the typical log-school education common to the youth of his time, and he was still quite young when he applied himself to the difficult work of clearing land. He worked at that until he was tAventy-two years of age, and then enlisted for service in the Civil war. He was a member of Company E, Eighty-eighth Indiana Infantry, and he served through to the end of the war, participating with his regiment in many of the hard fought engagements of the war, conspicuous among them being Perry ville, Stone's River and Chickamaugua. When the war ended he returned home, married soon afterward and with his young wife went to Kansas, where he was engaged in various occupations for two years. They returned to Allen county in 1875 and Mr. Carbaugh applied himself to such work as he could find to do, and for several years was employed as a laborer in the community where he settled. In 1876 he rented a farm and for some years worked on the basis of a renter, when he was able to buy a place of his own. He is living to-day on the forty-acre tract he bought then, and on which he gained a pleasing measure of financial independence. On March 19, 1867, Mr. Carbaugh was married to Miss Elizabeth Johnson, the daughter of James and Rebecca (Baxter) Johnson, who came from Pennsylvania to Ohio and thence to Allen county in 1854. They were farming people and among the best people in their community. A family of fourteen children was reared under their roof. They were Noah, Frances, Isabelle, Harriet, Isaac R., Jacob, Harvey, Abraham, Elizabeth, Lewis, Josiah, Martha, Anna and John. Harvey is living in Lafayette township ; Elizabeth is the wife of the subject; Josiah is a resident of Missouri and Anna is living in Wells county, Indiana. The others are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Carbaugh have three children — Oliver, of Fort Wayne; Frank, of Lafayette town- ship, and Alonzo, of Lagrange county, Indiana, where he is engaged in farming. Frank had three children — William Arthur, Gertrude Marie and Lulah, the last two named surviving. Alonzo has six children — Clarence, Edna, Mildred, Ralph, Glenn and Harold. Edna is the wife of Claude Lovell, of Lagrange, and Glenn died in 1907. Edna Lovell has two children — Alvin Alonzo and Ethel, so that Mr. and Mrs. Car- baugh are distinguished among their friends as great-grandparents. William L. Carnahan was a man whose character was the positive expression of a strong, loyal and noble nature, and it was given him to leave a last impress upon the civic and business life of the city of Fort Wayne, where he was long and prominently identified with the wholesale boot and shoe business and where his fine character and superior ability made him a resourceful force in furthering the industrfal and commercial prestige of the Allen county metropolis. He was one FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 105 of the most honored and influential business men of the city at the time of his death, which occurred on June 26, 1897, and this history exercises a consistent function when it accords within its pages a tribute to his memory. Mr. Carnahan was a native of Indiana and a represen- tative of a sterling pioneer family of Tippecanoe county, where he was born on March 5, 1837. His father became a representative merchant in what is now the thriving city of Lafayette, that county, and it was in the schools of that place, which was then a mere village, that the subject of this memoir acquired his early education. He later was graduated in the University of Indiana, at Bloomington, and throughout the rest of his long and useful life he was known as a man of fine intel- lectual attainments as well as of marked business acumen. At the inception of his business career, in 1856, Mr. Carnahan became a pioneer of the state of Nebraska, where he remained three years, during which time he was engaged in the mercantile business in the city of Omaha, besides having served as a clerk in the United States land office at that place. In 1860 he returned to Indiana and established himself in the mercantile business at Delphi, the judicial center of Carroll county. Two years later he returned to Lafayette, where for the ensuing two years he was engaged in the boot and shoe business in a retail way. He then accepted a position as traveling salesman for the firm of Carnahan, Earl & Company, manufacturers of and wholesale dealers in boots and shoes, with factory and general headquarters at Lafayette. Eighteen months later he was given an interest in the business and the title of the firm was then changed to Carnahan Brothers & Company. For five and one-half years thereafter Mr. Carnahan continued his re- sourceful activities as traveling representative for the firm, and his ster- ling character, his ability as a salesman and his unqualified popularity proved potent in expanding the business of his firm and popularized its products in a constantly expanding trade territory. In 1872 he came to Fort Wayne and founded the wholesale boot and shoe house of Carna- han, Skinner & Company, and he thereupon assumed the supervision of the clerical and sales departments of the new establishment, his fine administrative ability and thorough technical knowledge giving him special influences in directing the development of the business of the new firm, which was succeeded in 1875 by that of Carnahan, Hanna & Company. He continued as one of the principal and chief executives of this firm and also of its successor, that of Carnahan & Company, which was organized in 1886 and in which his coadjutor was Emmet H. McDonald. He continued as the executive head of the large and prosperous business controlled by this firm until death terminated his activities and brought a close to his long and honorable business career, throughout which his integrity had been inviolable, his progressiveness and energy prodigious and his success unequivocal. The fullest measure of success is ever to be won by loyal and worthy service, and Mr. Carnahan always measured up to the highest standard of business ethics, even as his private life was marked by fine ideals and by kindliness and consideration that won to him the confidence and high regard of all with whom he came in contact. He was essentially a business man, and thus had no desire to enter the turbulence of practical politics or to seek public office, though he gave a staunch allegiance to the cause of the Republican party and was liberal in his civic attitude. He was a consistent member of the Episcopal church, as is also his widow, who still maintains her home in Fort Wayne, 106 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES a city that is endeared to her by the hallowed memories and associations of the past. In the year 1864 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Carna- han to Miss Clara L. Hanna, daughter of the late James Bayless Hanna, eldest son of Judge Samuel Hanna, one of the honored pioneer citizens of Allen county, and of this union were born four children, all of whom survive the honored father. Louise is the wife of Dr. Nelson Lloyd Deming, of Litchfield, Connecticut ; Robert Hanna Carnahan is one of the representative business men of Fort Wayne, and Clara C. and Vir- ginia C, remain with their widowed mother in the attractive home in Fort Wayne and as popular factors in the representative social life of their native city. The grandchildren of William L. Carnahan are Nelson Lloyd Deming, Jr., and Mary Louise Deming, the children of Dr. and Mrs. Deming, and Robert Hanna Carnahan, William Lumbard Carnahan and Sidney Lumbard Carnahan, children of Robert Hanna Carnahan and Constance Lumbard Carnahan, deceased. Charles L. Centlivre. — It was given to the subject of this memoir to wield large influence in connection with the upbuilding of one of the now extensive and important industrial enterprises of Fort Wayne, that of the Centlivre Brewing Company. Mr. Centlivre came to Fort Wayne in 1862 and here became associated with his brother, Frank, in the found- ing of the Centlivre Brewery, the plant and business of which have been developed from a modest nucleus to the point that places the concern among the largest and most successful of its kind in Indiana. Charles L. Centlivre was a man of sterling character, of splendid energy and re- sourcefulness in business and of that intrinsic and well based civic loyalty that makes for ideal citizenship. Mr. Centlivre was born at Valdien, Canton Dammarie, Arrondissement of Belfort, Haut-Rhin, Alsace, France, on September 27, 1827, and was sixty-seven years of age at tlie time of his death, in 1895. He was reared and educated in his native province and there learned the cooper's trade under the effective direction of his father. He became a skilled workman through his thorough appren- ticeship, and came to America in 1841, the voyage across the Atlantic having been made in one of the primitive sailing vessels of the type com- mon to that period. Mr. Centlivre established his residence in the city of New Orleans, and shortly afterward, when the city became the stage of a frightful epidemic of cholera, returned to his native land. After a comparatively brief visit to the old home he came again to the United States, and on this occasion was accompanied by his father and by two of his brothers. Landing in the port of New York city, the father and sons came to the middle west and made their home at Massillon, Stark county, Ohio. Within a short time Charles L. Centlivre engaged in the work of his trade at Louisville, that county, and in 1850 went to Clayton county, Iowa, where he established a small brewery in the village of McGregor. He was one of the pioneer business men of that section of the Hawkeye state and continued to operate his brewery at McGregor until 1862, when he came to Fort Wayne and formed a partnership with his brother, Frank, in the founding of the Centlivre Brewery. With characteristic energy and thoroughness the brothers applied themselves to the producing of high-grade output and the incidental development of the business. During all the long intervening years the Centlivre Brewing Company has maintained the highest reputation for business policies of the most upright and progressive order and for the turning out of products of the best order. The plant of the company is now one FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 107 of extensive and thoroughly modern order, and the trade of this pioneer industrial concern is of large volume and most substantial ramifications. Mr. Centlivre gave his splendid energies to the upbuilding of the busi- ness and continued his active association with the enterprise until the year prior to his death. He was liberal and public-spirited as a citizen, took lively and constant interest in the welfare of the city in which he long maintained his home, and as a citizen and business man his name and memory are here held in lasting honor. The company of which he was one of the founders now bases its operations on a capital stock of three hundred thousand dollars, his son, Louis C, is president of the corpor- ation, another son, Charles F., is treasurer, and John Ruess is secretary. John W. Chapman. — One of the foremost men of Hoagland is John W. Chapman, prosperous farmer, now living practically retired from farming activities. For more than half a century he applied himself diligently to agricultural pursuits, and he is to-day enjoying a well earned rest from his labors of those years. Mr. Chapman was born in Pennsylvania on April 19, 1834, and is the son of John and Sarah (Keese) Chapman, both born in that state. They moved to Ohio in 1844; settled on a farm and after four years came to Indiana, settling in Adams county. In 1855 they moved to Allen county, and this section of the state was their home from then until their death. They were the parents of nine children, of which number two are now living. John AV. Chap- man was reared and schooled in Indiana, and in early manhood turned his attention to farming. From then until the year 1913 he might be said to have labored continuously, and it is gratifying to be able to note that he succeeded admirably in his work. Two fine farms were his at one time, and when he retired from active life, in 1913, he sold one place. The other he still owns, though he takes no part in its man- agement. In 1865 Mr. Chapman married Miss Eunice Harrod. She was born in Allen county, of farming people, and to her and her husband five children were born. They are William, Charles L., Almina, Arminda E. and Delilah. The last named is deceased and Almina is the wife of David McKennan. In 1909 the family suffered the loss of the wife and mother, and the entire community mourned her passing. Mr. Chapman is a Democrat, but has never been an office holder or a seeker after political favors. Reason Clayton was a small child when his parents brought him from his native state and settled in Allen county, Indiana, and this section of the state has been his home without interruption from that day to this. He was born in Ohio, Wayne county, on September 22, 1847, and is the son of John and Elizabeth Smith Clayton. The father was a Virginian by birth and the mother an Ohioan. As a young man John Clayton left his native state and located in Ohio, where he married, and in 1848 he took his family to Allen county. There the mother died in 1850, leaving four children, two of whom are now living. The father married again, and of six children born of that union all but one are living. He married a third time, and one son was born. In 1897 John Clayton died at his home in Madison township. Reason Clayton left the parental home at the early age of nineteen. He had up to that time attended school with a good deal of regularity, and was qualified, ac- cording to the standards of the day, to teach in the district schools in the winter seasons. This he did for a number of years, teaching during the winter months and farming in the summer. In 1888 he bought the farm on which he now lives. It comprises 165 acres in Sections 23 and 108 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 24, in Madison township, and is one of the attractive farms of the com- munity. General farming is carried on very successfully, and progres- sive and productive methods are favored on the Clayton farm. Mr. Clayton is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and is a Democrat in politics. He was married in 1872 to Miss Mary Youse, a native daughter of Allen county, and they are the parents of three children — Otto 0., Flora E., and John Fred. Flora lives at home and John is now in Phila- delphia in the government service. Mrs. Clayton is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Guy Colerick is herein mentioned as one of the prominent attorneys of the city of Fort Wayne and in the practice of his profession he is well maintaining the prestige of the family name. In the legal circles of Allen county the Colericks have been prominent since the establish- ment of civil courts there, the first of the family to establish himself in the practice being David H. Colerick, who came from Lancaster, Ohio. He became very prominent as an attorney and as a public spirited citizen, and it seemed that his ability was transmitted to his sons, six of whom were engaged in the practice of law here at one time. One of these sons was Henry Colerick, the father of the subject of this biographical review, and he was widely known as one of the leading trial la"\vyers in northern Indiana. Guy H. Colerick was born in Fort Wayne, November 20, 1879, and in the public schools of that city obtained his preliminary education. By a process of natural selection he decided upon the law as his pro- fession, and in pursuance of that determination entered the office of his uncle, Walpole G. Colerick, where he remained as a student and a practioner until 1907, having been admitted to the bar soon after attain- ing his majority. In 1907 he formed a partnership with his father, the late Henry Colerick, and together they were successfully engaged in practice until the death of the latter, in 1909. A partnership was then formed by Guy Colerick and Harry G. Hogan, and this association has continued to the present time, the firm of Colerick & Hogan having a clientele that is representative and of a high order. Mr. Colerick served as city attorney — which position was filled by his honored father for a number of years — from 1906 to 1910, and after a four-year interim he was again appointed to the place, in 1914, and is the present incumbent of that office, serving his second term. Mr. Colerick is a Mason, having attained to the Fourteenth degree of the Scottish Rite, a member of the Loyal Order of Moose and the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, in which last organization he is a Past Exalted Ruler. In politics he is a Democrat. Adam CoUis. — For the past thirty-six years Adam Collis has been located in Fort Wayne and during that time was in the employ of the Pennsylvania system in its machine shops for thirty-five years. He has practically watched the city grow up, and almost as many summer suns and winter snows have passed over his head as Fort Wayne herself has experienced. Mr. Collis was born in Cambria county, Pennsylvania, on August 26, 1847, and is the son of Nicholas and Frances (Balwebber) Collis, both born and reared in France. They came to America as young people and Mr. Collis located on a Pennsylvania farm, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was an ambitious and hard working man, and might have passed to a comfortable old age after a life of toil, but was killed in middle life as a result of a runaway accident on his farm. Adam Collis was the only child. When he was about twelve years old the subject moved to Blair county and there went to school a few winter FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 109 terms. He entered the railroad shops at Altoona, Pennsylvania, and there learned the machinist's trade. He took his first position as a boy of sixteen in the machine shops of the Pennsylvania road at Altoona, and he continued there until 1880, when he came to Fort Wayne, and was here em- ployed by the same company, so that his service with the Pennsylvania road covered a period of more than half a century. He was pensioned in September, 1916. Mr. Collis married Mary Wyrough, of Altoona, Penn- sylvania, on January 16, 1872, and they have six children. Frank, the eldest, lives in Edmonton, Canada ; John is with the City AVater AVorks in Fort Wayne ; James is engaged in mining operations at Prescott, Arizona; Oscar is connected with the Emrich Baking Company, of Fort Wayne; Hugh is a machinist with the Pennsylvania road, located in Fort Wayne, and Mary, the only daughter and the youngest of the family, died at the tender age of four years. Mr. Collis and his sons are Democrats in politics and the family are members of the Catholic church. Thomas L. Comparet, who holds the office of bookkeeper for the Bass Foundry, an important industrial concern of Fort Wayne, is a representative of sterling pioneer families of this favored section of the Hoosier state and is a scion of a staunch French family that was early settled in Montreal, Canada — fully a century and a quarter ago. He whose name initiates this paragraph was born at Fort Wayne August 1, 1865, and is a son of David F. Comparet, who was born at Fort Wayne on March 6, 1826, when the future metropolis of Allen county was little more than a frontier hamlet. David F. Comparet was a son of Francis and Eleanor (Gnau) Comparet, the former of whom' was born at Montreal, Canada, in 1796, it having been given him to become one of the very early settlers of northern Indiana and one of the honored and . influential pioneers of Allen county, where he had the distinction of being the first to serve in the office of coi^nty commissioner. He was a charter member of the first Masonic lodge organized at Fort Wayne and took deep interest in this fraternity, though he was a communicant of the Catholic church, the rules of which he measurably transgressed when he became a Mason. David F. Comparet became one of the ener- getic and successful business men of Fort Wayne, where he was engaged in the operation of a flour mill, besides developing a prosperous enter- prise in the buying and shipping of grain, hogs and general lines of farm produce. As a young man he wedded Miss Sarah H. Columbia, a daugh- ter of Dana Columbia, who established his residence at Fort Wayne in 1834. David F. Comparet and his wife continued to maintain their home in Fort Wayne until her death, and they became the parents of seven children : Harriet is deceased ; Charles is now a resident of the city of Indianapolis ; Fannie is deceased ; Addie is the wife of Henry W. Matson ; William is deceased ; Thomas L., of this review, was the next in order of birth, and Thomas is deceased. Thomas L. Comparet acquired his early education in the Fort Wayne schools and when but twelve years of age he began also his experience in connection with the practical affairs of life, by serving as a newsboy for the Fort Wayne Gazette. Later he assumed a clerical position in the employ of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, subsequently being similarly in the service of the Lake Erie and Western Railroad, his labors in these two connec- tion having covered a period of about eight years. For one year there- after he was in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and he then assumed the position of cashier for the Empire Line. In 1893 110 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES he became bookkeeper for the wholesale grocery house of McDonald & Watt, with which concern he thus continued his services until August, 1895, since which time he has held the responsible position of bookkeeper for the Bass Foundry, with high standing as a capable executive and skilled accountant. Mr. Comparet takes loyal interest in all things touching the welfare and progress of his native city and county, is a Republican in his political allegiance, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and. both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. On September 25, 1888, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Comparet to Miss Jennie F. Cam; bell, who was born and reared in Allen county and vWio is a daughter of George B. and Lydia (Wass) Campbell, the former a native of the state of New York und the latter of Allen county, Indiana. Mr. Cam'^bell was a popular conductor in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and was killed '-■'■ a railway accident, his widow being still a resident of Fort Wayne and Mrs. Comparet being the eldest of their two children : the younger of the children is George E., who resides in Fort Wayne and is cashier in the local offices of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Comparet the eldest is Irene, who Avas born October 30, 1890. and who is the wife of Carl Getz, the efficient city forester of Fort Wayne ; Myrtle, who was born August, 1893, died in infancy ; Irma, who was born August 24, 1896, and Ralph, who was born in 1890, remain at the parental home. Eli Conrad is a son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Bartch) Conrad, who settled in Allen county, in 1871, and there spent the remaining years of their lives. The son, Eli, was born on February 8, 1879, one of a family of twelve sons and daughters reared on the homestead farm in Cedar Creek township. The others are John, of Wells county, Indiana; Jacob, of Grabill, in Cedar Creek township ; Henry, who is deceased ; Elizabeth, also deceased ; Minnie, the wife of William Shultz, of Fort Wa.yne ; Kath- erine, the wife of Albert Freis, of Springfield township ; Susan, who mar- ried Andrew Roth, of Grabill ; Lydia, a school teacher in Cedar Creek township ; Andrew, of Grabill ; Albert, also of that place, and a daughter who died in infancy, and who was the seventh child. Eli and Elizabeth, it should be said, were twins. The father of this family was an Ohioan by birth and a native of Star county, while the mother was of German birth and ancestr5^ She came to America in girlhood and died in 1886. Eli Conrad remained on the home farm until he reached the age of twenty-two, when he went to St. Joe, Indiana, and there engaged in the implement business. After one year he returned to Cedar Creek town- ship and became identified with the buying and shipping of stock in his county, to which work he has since been devoted with much success. He has also become the owner of a fine farm in Section 18 and his residence is one of the comfortable and spacious ones of his township. Mr. Conrad was married to Lydia Roth on September 4, 1907. She was born in Allen county and is a daughter of Levi and Elizabeth (Witmer) Roth, which family is mentioned elsewhere in the pages of this work as prominent and popular residents of the town of Grabill. To Mr. and Mrs. Conrad two sons have been born — Willard Willmore, born August 20, 1909, and Paul Severn, born on August 15. 1911. Mr. Conrad is a Republican and is prominent in the activities of the local Grange, of which he is a director, and with his wife has membership in the Mission church. FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY HI Ernest W. Cook, vice-president and secretary of the Citizens Trust Company, of Fort Wayne, and prominently identified with other local business institutions of representative order, is a scion of staunch Rev- olutionary stock in America and in all of the relations of life has exem- plified true American spirit. His versatility and progressiveness have been shown through his association with varied phases of business enter- prise, and he has even endured the strenuous ordeal of close alliance with newspaper enterprise. As one of the loyal citizens and representa- tive business men of Fort Wayne he is properly given definite recogni- tion in this history. Mr. Cook was born at Manchester, Delaware county, Iowa, on February 5, 1861, a date indicating that his parents were numbered among the pioneers of the Hawkeye state. He is a son of Albert H. and Emily J. (Knapp) Cook, the former of whom was born in the vicinity of Saratoga Springs, New York, and the latter in New England, wiiere her ancestors settled in the early colonial days, her paternal grandfather having been a valiant soldier under General Wash- ington in the war of the Revolution. Albert H. Cook and his wife were persons of superior education and both became successful teachers in the public schools, the father having long devoted his attention to service in the pedagogic profession. He died at the age of sixty-eight years and his widow maintains her home in Fort Wayne. He was a stalwart Republican in politics and he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his widow. Of the children the subject of this review is the eldest ; Clarence F. is associated with the Overland Automobile Company in Fort Wayne ; Rose L., was for twenty-five years employed in the offices of the Tri-State Bank, of Fort Wayne, and Alba is the wife- of Jesse F. Patterson, of Logansport, Indiana, her husband being a division superintendent of the Vandalia Railrt^ad. Ernest W. Cook acquired his early education in the public schools of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and his initial business experience was gained when he was a lad of twelve years. At this juncture in his career he vitalized and adorned the independent vocation of newsboy, and later found employment in the office of the Fort Wayne Sentinel, under the direction of William Fleming. He projected his ramifications into all departments of news- paper work, and the experience he thus gained justified the oft-repeated statement that the discipline of a newspaper office is the equivalent of a liberal education. Finally he emancipated himself from the thrall of journalism and became cashier in the Fort Wayne freight house of the Wabash Railroad. Later he was freight and ticket agent for the same road in the city of Defiance, Ohio, and in 1893 he returned to Fort Wayne and became associated with the late Hon. Perry A. Randall and Robert T. McDonald in the purchase of the plant and business of the Ryan Transfer & Storage Company. He was manager of this business about three years, and then sold his interest in the same to assume the office of secretary of the Allen County Loan & Savings Association, in the development of which he wielded much influence and his alliance with which continued until 1899. In 1900 Mr. Cook became identified Avith the organization and incorporation of the Citizens Trust Company, of Fort Wayne, of which he has served as secretary since that time and of which he has been vice-president also since 1915. He has shown energy and ability in the upbuilding of the business of this substantial and repre- sentative financial institution and is a prominent figure in the financial circles of northern Indiana. Mr. Cook has ever been an ardent advocate of the principles of the Republican party, has been an active worker in its 112 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES ranks and for tAventy years served as treasurer of the committee in Allen county. In the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, his maximum York Rite affiliation being with Fort Wayne Commandery of Knights Templars, besides which he is a member of the adjunct Masonic body, the Mystic Shrine. He is affiliated also with the local organizations of the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Aside from his association with the Citi- zens Trust Company Mr. Cook is a director of the Lincoln Life Insurance Company and the Trade Mark Title Company, and was for a time treas- urer of the Physicians' Defense Company, which latter was merged with the Medical Protective Company. He has been specially zealous and influential in connection with the work of the public schools of Fort Wayne, has been a member of the board of education since 1905 and is now president of the board. Mr. Cook is a man of broad intellectual ken and much literary ability, and he has made many effective contribu- tions to the columns of the Fort W^ayne newspaper press — especially in the promotion of high civic ideals and progressive industrial and commer- cial policies. On September 11, 1880, was solemnized the marriage of Mr, Cook to Miss Charity Carnrike, daughter of John Carnrike, of Fort Wayne, and concerning the children of this union the following brief data are available : Harry L., is assistant superintendent of one of the great steel mills at Gary, Indiana; Frank E., is owner of a restaurant at Seal Beach, California, and Flora E., is the wife of Walter H, Bauer, general manager of the American Chicle Company in the city of New York. William P. Cooper has the best of reasons for paying the staunchest allegiance to his native city of Fort Wayne and to northern Indiana, for he is a scion of one of the most honored and influential families of this section of the Hoosier commonwealth, his father having settled in Fort Wayne in 1824, when the old fort was still in evidence and when Indians were yet to be found in large numbers in this part of the state. The pioneer house that was erected by his father, in 1835, at the site now designated as 321 East Berry street. Fort Wayne, figures as the birthplace of William Pinkney Cooper, and the date of his nativity was August 27, 1852. His father, Henry Cooper, was born at Havre de Grace, Maryland, in 1793, and was a representative of one of the patrician colonial families of that historic commonwealth. Henry Cooper received in his youth the best of educational advantages, as guaged by the stan- dards of the locality and period, and he became a man of fine intellectual and professional attainments. He was the second lawyer admitted to practice in Allen county, Indiana, and gained precedence as one of the most able and distinguished members of the Indiana bar of the early days, his practice before the supreme court of the state having been for a considerable period larger than that of any other lawyer eligible for practice in that tribunal, at Indianapolis. His name appears fre- quently in the Blackford reports of the decisions of the supreme court and also in the other early Indiana court reports. By very reason of conditions prevailing in the pioneer days his law business was one of broad itineracy, and extended throughout the various counties of north- ern Indiana, He made his appearance in the courts at the judicial centers of the various counties by traveling back and forth on horseback, with the old-time saddlebags, in which he carried his requisite legal books. In the same manner he made his journeys to the capital city of the state, and he followed trails through the forests, frequently forded FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 113 streams and lived up to the full tension of pioneer days in thus making his visitations to such now important centers as Indianapolis, Wabash, Huntington, Goshen, Elkhart and South Bend. He was distinguished for his profound learning, brilliant repartee and dignity of character. He was a man of most gracious personality and for many years his his- pitable home, on East Berry street, Fort Wayne, was the stage of much of the representative social life of the little town. Letters which he wrote to his wife from Indianapolis and which are now in the possession of his son, William P., of this review, specially warned her against letting the children play with the Indians, the town at that time having been a mere straggling settlement around the old fort which gave to the present city its name. Henry Cooper's first wife bore the family name of Silvers, and both of their children, Edward and Henry, are deceased. After the death of the wife of his young manhood, Henry Cooper, Sr., wedded Mrs. Eleanor Munson, who was the widow of James P. Munson, and who had two children by her first marriage. The elder of the two, Charles A. Munson, became a prominent citizen of Fort Wayne and served as sheriff of Allen county. At the time of his death, which occurred in Mercy hospital, Chicago, in 1901, Mr. Munson Avas the western representative in that city of the Fort Wayne Electric Works. He was twice made the Democratic nominee for state auditor of Indiana, but his defeat in each instance was compassed by normal political exigencies. Lucretia M. Munson, the younger of the two children, is the widow of Diedrich Meyers and resides in Fort Wayne. William P. Cooper, of this sketch, is the only child of his father's second marriage, and he was about six months of age at the time of the death of his distinguished sire, in March, 1853. His devoted mother passed away November 19, 1883, at the age of 70 years and 5 months. Mr. Cooper secured his elementary education in the public schools of Fort Wayne, graduating from the high school in 1868. He for a short time served as city editor of the Fort Wayne Gazette and then entered Dartmouth College, where he was graduated in 1873. His taste for literature and his fine critical acumen were rec- ognized at college and, with other honors, he was made class poet. After his graduation he studied law in the Columbia Law School, New York city, and also in the office of Cook & Nassau of that city, and with Hon. Robert Lowry, of Fort Wayne. However, the field of journalism held for him more attraction, and he relinquished his legal studies and began his professional life as city editor of the Fort Wayne News, being also at different times city editor of the Sentinel, the Gazette and the Journal, besides serving efficiently as Fort Wayne correspondent for the metropolitan papers. With a literary style of marked simplicity and directness, his was the rare charm of a "wit that without wounding could hit," but while his humor would lend grace alike to the worst prosaic "locals" or to an important article, his perfect taste was his marked characteristic. In 1888 Mr. Cooper left Fort Wayne to take a position on the editorial staff of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, where he also did special work covering assignments of importance in and out of St. Louis. Later he returned to Fort Wayne to become managing editor of the Journal for a short time, when he quit journalism and en- entered into the insurance business. In this were also exhibited those sterling qualities which insured his former success and in 1895 he was appointed general agent of the New York Life Insurance Company which responsible position he still holds. Socially Mr. Cooper belongs to the Greek letter society. Kappa Kappa Kappa of Dartmouth College, is a member 114 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES of the Commercial Club, and is a member and ex-president of the North- ern Indiana Life Underwriters Association. In June, 1896, he was elected a member of the board of school trustees, serving three years, the last two years as president of the board. In 1901 he was appointed a member of the Board of State Charities, serving under the administrations of both Governor Durbin and Governor Hanley. August 30, 1887, Mr. Cooper was united in marriage with Miss Nellie Brown, of Lafayette, Indiana, a woman of fine intellect and an artist of marked ability, and to them was born, July 10, 1888, a son, Brown, was was graduated in the Fort Wayne high school in 1906, and then entered his father's Alma Mater, Dartmouth College, from which he received, in 1910, the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and has since been associated with his father in the life insurance business. Politically Mr. Cooper is a Democrat, but de- clined to support the free-silver doctrines of Mr. Bryan and twice voted for McKinley. He represents the best type of citizen and dignified self- respecting manhood. Thomas B. Coppock, secretary, treasurer and manager of the S. P. Coppock & Sons Lumber Company, is distinctively one of the vigorous and progressive young business men of Fort Wayne and the company of which he is an executive is one of the most important lumber concerns in northern Indiana, with headquarters in the city of Fort Wayne and with branch yards at Memphis, Tennessee, and Tyronza, Arkansas — so that its supply of resources and incidental facilities are of the best. As practical manager of the large yards and general business in Fort Wayne, Thomas B. Coppock has shown exceptional energy and resource- fulness and represents the best type of the aggressive young business men of the twentieth century. The youngest in the family of nine chil- dren, Mr. Coppock was born at Beloit, Mahoning county, Oliio, on March 14, 1882, and he is a son of Samuel P. and Anna (Buckman) Coppock, both natives of Pennsylvania. The father became prominently identified with the lumber business in Ohio and in 1898 removed with his family to Fort Wayne, where he established the present business of the S. P. Coppock & Sons Lumber Companj^ which is incorporated under the laws of Indiana, and in the control of which two of his sons are asso- ciated with him. He is one of the representative citizens of Fort Wayne, a broad-guaged business man of wide experience, and one who is liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude. His wife is now deceased. Thomas B. Coppock is indebted to the public schools of the Buckeye state for his early educational discipline and he was about sixteen years of age at the time of the family removal to Fort Wayne. Here he availed himself of the advantages of the high school and thereafter completed a thorough course in a local business college. Since leaving school he has been actively identified with the business founded by his father, and in the connection he has fully demonstrated his initiative and executive ability. He gives loyal support to the cause of the Republican, party, is a member of the Fort Wayne Rotary Club, and in the Masonic fraternity has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, the York Rite and the Shrine. On May 28, 1908, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Coppock to Miss Mabel Coverdale, who was born and reared in Fort Wayne, her father, Asahel S. Coverdale, being one of the principals of the grocery firm of Coverdale & Archer, of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Coppock have one child, a daughter, Martha Florence. FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 115 John Coutter. — John Coulter's parents were German people who came to America in their youth, married and settled in Dearborn county, Indiana, and there engaged in farming and lived active and wholesome lives for many years. They reared a fine family of eleven children, the subject being the first born, and about five years ago they retired from activities attendant upon farm life and settled down to a quiet and peaceful old age, secure in the esteem and confidence of their many friends and able to enjoy with a good conscience the fruits of their earlier years of toil. Tliey were Andrew and Louise (Meyer) Coutter, and their children are here briefly mentioned as follows: John, the subject of this sketch ; Sarah, living in Cincinnati, Ohio ; Elizabeth, who is deceased; Carrie, also deceased; Catharine, living in Aurora; Anna; William, also of Aurora, Indiana; Mary, Henry and an infant child are deceased, and Charles, the youngest of the family, lives in Illinois. John Coutter was brought up to farm life, and he and his brothers and sisters had their schooling in the schools of Dearborn county. In 1886, when he was twenty-five years old, he left the home farm, where he had been his father's valued and able assistant, and settled on a rented place, the occasion of his removal being his marriage, which took place in the same year. He rented for ten years and was a successful farmer, despite the fact that he owned no land. In 1896 he returned to the home place, and after a short while bought a farm of ninety-one acres in Pleasant township. He has applied himself with diligence to the work of manag- ing this farm from then to the j)resent time, and has enjoyed a very marked success in the years that have passed. Mr. Coutter was married on February 17, 1886, to Miss Anna Harris, the daughter of John and Margaret (Greave) Harris. They were German people who came to America in young life, and they recall that the trip covered a period of fourteen weeks. As farming people they have been most successful, and they have affiliated themselves with American life in such a manner as to be recognized among the best citizens in their community. They were the parents of a fine family of eleven children, named Henry, Dorothy, Margaret, Mary, Anna, John, William, Sophia, Matilda, William Henry, Benjamin and Fred. Henry and William died, and when the ninth child was born his parents named him William Henry in memory of the others. Anna became the wife of Mr. Coutter, and they have a family of five children — Ernest, Homer, Louise, Clare and Martin. The eldest, Ernest, is located in Fort Wayne, where he is associated as a bookkeeper with the City Lighting Plant; Homer is deceased; Louise married Thaddeus Grossman and the two younger children are still with their parents. Mr. Coutter is a Democrat in politics, and he and his family are members of the Lutheran church, of which faith their families have long been faithful adherents. David H. Crabill. — The parents of David Crabill are found mentioned at some length in another article in these pages, so that it is sufficient to say at this point that they were David and Sophia (Ridenour) Crabill, and to proceed with data concerning the life and activities of the im- mediate .subject. David H. Crabill was born in Ohio on February 18, 1845, and died on March 25, 1916, at his home in Monroe township, where he had lived for more than a quarter of a century. He was a farmer all his life, as were his parents before him. He had his education in Allen county, where his family had located when he was a small child, and in 1875 he married Marj^ J. Laughlin, who was born in Lake township, 116 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Allen county, and was the daughter of James and Catherine (Darby) Laughlin, both natives of Pennsylvania who settled in Allen county, Indiana, soon after their marriage. These sturdy people were pioneers in every sense of the word, and they knew Allen county in the early days when its green acres of the present period were covered with dense forest growths. Mr. Laughlin hewed a small open space in the wilder- ness he chose to locate upon and there built a rude cabin home, with typical puncheon floor and string latch peculiar to the day. There they lived and with the passing years the forest faded away gradually, as a result of the constant labors of Mr. Laughlin and his growing family, so that the time came when they found themselves the possessors of broad acres that yielded rich harvests annually. Of their six children born there, two are now living, and the parents themselves have long since passed on. Following his marriage to Mary Laughlin, the daughter of these pioneers, Mr. Crabill bought a farm of 115 acres in Section eight, Monroe township, and that place has been the family home down to the present day. Mr. Crabill made a point of intelligent farming and as a result enjoyed a pleasureable degree of material success in his work. Six children were born to them — Emma C, Agnes Sophia, John E., Charles L., Frank D., and another who died in infancy. Mr. Crabill died in March, 1916, leaving his widow comfortably established in the family home. George D. Crane. — There was no element of futility or indirectness in the career of the late George D. Crane, of Fort Wayne, who here maintained his home for half a century and who expressed amidst "all of the changes and chances of this mortal life" the assurance of strong and worthy manhood. He was long known as one of the able and influential exponents of expert accounting and abstracting in Fort Wayne, his sterling character and his unquestioned ability gained to him inviolable confidence and esteem and he was made the administrator or trustee of several large estates in Allen county. He continued his asso- ciation with his business until his death and was deeply interested in the preparing and maintaining of authentic abstracts of real estate titles in his home county. He was a broad-minded, upright and loyal citizen, was a stalwart advocate of the principles of the Republican party, was a Knight Templar Mason and was an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his widow. It may consistently be said that he was one of the pioneer business men of Fort Wayne at the time of his demise and it is but consonant that in this history be entered a tribute to his memory. Mr. Crane was born in Montgomery county, New York, on February 6, 1842, and thus he was seventy-four years of age when he was summoned to the life eternal, on June 22, 1916. He was a son of Edward S. and Catherine (Lawson) Crane, both likewise natives of the old Empire state, where the father was a farmer. In 1856 the family removed from New York state to Stephenson county, Illinois, and the parents passed the closing years of their lives at Freeport, that county. Their children were four in number — Adaline, Louisa, Char- lotte and George D. — and all are now deceased except Louisa, who re- mains with Mrs. Crane in the attractive old family home in Fort Wayne and in the most gracious companionship since the death of the revered husband and brother. Mr. Crane gained his early education in the schools of his native state and was a lad of fourteen years at the time of the family removal to Illinois. He continued to attend school at FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 117 Freeport and later completed a course in a commercial college. His initial business experience was in the insurance business at Freeport, when he was eventually transferred to Dayton, Ohio, where he remained until he came to Fort Wayne, about the year 1866, Here he became associated with Sanford Lombard in the insurance business, and so continued for a brief period. On February 17, 1869, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Crane to Mrs. Addie J. (Edsal) Bayless, who has been a resident of Fort Wayne from the time of her birth and who is a daughter of John and Mary (DeKay) Edsal, who were born and reared in New Jersey and who were numbered among the sterling pioneers of Fort Wayne. Mrs. Crane is the only one surviving of a family of three children and she was an infant at the time of her father's death. In her widowhood Mrs. Crane is sustained and comforted by the hallowed memories that touch the long and devoted companionship of her husband and herself, and she is further fortified by the filial solicitude of her two children and by the love of friends who are tried and true. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Crane the elder is Harvey E., who holds a posi- tion with the Fort Wayne Electric Works ; and Alice is the wife of Frank D. Bond, of this city. George Rockhill Craw is a native son of Fort Wayne who has shown much versatility and resourcefulness as a business man and whose activ- ities have been varied and important in connection with the newspaper and advertising business. He established and developed in the city of Chicago the George R. Craw Advertising Agency, but eventually, in 1913, sold this business to engage in cutlery manufacture, which business he sold in order that he might return to Fort Wayne and assume the super- vision of his father's large and important business interests, the impaired health of his sire having brought about the latter 's virtual retirement. Upon his return to Fort Wayne George R. Craw assumed, among other responsibilities, the active charge of the Portland furnished apartment building, a fine modern structure owned by his father and aunt. In the spring of 1914 he effected the organization of the Portland Hotel Apart- ments Company, of which he is now president, secretary and treasurer, as well as manager, his father having been president of the company up to the time of his death, February 14, 1917. George R. Craw was born in Fort Wayne March 10, 1875, and is a son of Edward L. and Maria (Rockhill) Craw, the former a native of Cleveland, Ohio, where his father served as sheriff of Cuyahoga count}' during the Civil war, and the latter of Fort Wayne, Indiana, where her father, William Rockhill, established his home many years ago, in the early pioneer epoch of the city's history. Edward L. Craw, who at the time of his death was practically retired, was for a long period a prominent exponent of the real estate business in Fort Wayne and did much to advance the physical development and upbuilding of the city. He was one of the honored and influential citizens of the Allen county metropolis and seat of government ; served in former years as assistant postmaster of Fort Wayne, a position of which he continued the incumbent sixteen years. He was a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party and a communicant of Trinity church, Protestant Episcopal, as was also his wife, who died in 1900. Of the three children the subject of this review is the only survivor, James Edward and Esther Louise having died in infancy. George R. Craw attended the Fort Wayne public schools until he had profited by the advantages of the high school, and at the age of nineteen years be- 118 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES came advertising manager of the Fort "Wayne Journal-Gazette. In this connection his record was one of successful achievement and after some years of service he went to the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, and became advertising manager for the leading firm of Pettibone Brothers Manu- facturing Company, military purveyors and manufacturers of lodge para- phernalia and regalia. After holding this position two years he went to the city of Chicago and assumed the position of editor of the Mail Order Journal. Later he there organized and established the George R. Craw Advertising Agency, and his technical ability and experience en- abled him to develop a substantial and prosperous business. After disposing of his interest in this agency he became identified with the cutlery-manufacturing business in Chicago until the ill health of his father led him to return to Fort Wayne, as previously noted. Mr. Craw developed in connection with his newspaper and magazine work in Chicago, special literary ability, and his editorial work was of superior order. He wrote for and conducted special investigations for the Chicago Tribune and wrote for numerous periodicals. He was made a member of the famous Chicago Press Club, and finds satisfaction in maintaining this affiliation since he departed from the western metropolis. His politi- cal allegiance is given to the Republican party and he and his wife hold membership in Trinity church, Protestant Episcopal. On July 21, 1913, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Craw to Miss Blanche Marie Collins, who was born and reared in Chicago, and the one child of this union is a winsome little daughter, Barbara Jane, who was born May 13, 1915. William H. Crighton, who holds the position of chief draftsman at the Fort "Wayne plant of the General Electric Company, is a man of recognized technical and executive ability and is consistently to be designated as one of the unequivocally popular and public-spirited citi^ zens of the Allen county metropolis. Mr. Crighton was born at Fort "Wayne on the 19th of October, 1864, and is a son of "William and Mary Elizabeth (Kennedy) Crighton, the former of whom was born in Man- chester, England, and the latter in Guelf, Canada. "William Crighton died January 2, 1917, after many years of active and effective service as a mechanical engineer. He was a staunch Republican in politics and an active member of the Presbyterian church. His wife died March 23, 1909. Of their children, three are deceased — John, Stanley and Grace, The surviving children are : David, Thomas, "William H, Jane and Frank. "William H. Crighton attended the public schools of Fort "Wayne until he had attained the age of sixteen years, when he found employment at the plant of the Kerr-Murray Manufacturing Company, with which he remained about six years, during which he gained practical and varied experience as a draftsman and fortified himself excellently for the pro- fession to which he has continued to give his attention in a successful and influential way. He was thereafter in the employ of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company for several years and, in 1891, he became asso- ciated with the drafting department of the General Electric "Works at Fort "Wayne, with which important concern he is now chief draftsman. He is a Republican in politics and both he and his wife are active members of the First Presbyterian church. On the 4th of June, 1891, was solemn- ized the marriage of Mr. Crighton to Miss Luretta Esther Hulse, who was born and reared in Fort "Wayne, and their three children are Ken- nethe, Malcolm and Stanley. FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 119 Calvin Crow comes of a family of old settlers in Allen county, his ' paternal grandfather having settled there with his family as early as 1851. Even at that time, it might almost have been said that Wilderness was King, and the section and a half that this sturdy pioneer bought for a homestead was in a state of nature, and aflPorded ample opportunity for the exercise of the virtues of energy, industry, patience and perse- verence, not even omitting the virtue of pluck, which is the inevitable team-mate of the others. The family came from Morrow county, Ohio, where they had been long established, and the grandsire of the' subject was long a prominent man in his community, serving as county com- missioner of Allen county for many years. He was a Democrat, a staunch Methodist and his family was reared in that faith. James Crow, his son, spent his life in devotion to the farming industry in Lafayette township, and he died there. His widow survives and is now resident in Zanesville. She was Lydia Boelinger in maidenhood. The children of James and Lydia Crow were five in number. Calvin, subject of this sketch, was the first born. Peter, the second child, died in boyhood, and Joseph died in infancy. Michael lives in Wells county, Indiana, where he is engaged in the contracting business, and Martin died at the age of seventeen years. Calvin Crow was born in Lafayette township on December 16, 1861, and was reared on the home farm and educated in the common schools of his native village. He was reared to a thorough knowledge of farm life and the duties attendant upon such life, and when he decided to establish a home of his own, he rented a farm and settled down to make a living from the soil. He prospered and in a few years became the owner of a fine farm of 117 acres, on Avhich he lives at this time. He is reckoned among the capable and progressive farming men of the township today, and is well entitled to the distinction. He is a Democrat, like his father and grandfather, a member of the Odd Fellows and of the Modern Wood- men of America. He was married on June 23, 1887, to Miss Laura Swank, the daughter of Thomas Swank, now deceased. She died on November 12, 1912, and is buried in Zanesville, Indiana. She was the mother of two children — Claude, a prosperous farmer who is married and the father of a little daughter, Helen Marie Crow, and Carrie, the wife of Glenn Kiplinger. Arnold G. W. Curdes is one of the progressive young business men of his native city of Fort Wayne and though he prepared himself for and did successful work in the legal profession, he has found it more to his taste to give his attention to vigorous business enterprise and is now engaged in the building of high-grade houses in Fort Wayne, as a representative of the Home Builders' Association. Mr. Curdes was born in Fort Wayne on April 2, 1887, and is a son of Louis F. and Clara J. (Harris) Curdes, the former a native of Wittesingen, in Hessen, Germany, where he was born in the year 1863, and the latter was born at Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1865. Further mention of the parents is not demanded in this connection, for on other pages is entered a review of the career of the father, who is a sterling and honored citizen of Fort Wayne. Arnold G. W. Curdes continued his studies in the Fort Wayne public schools until he had completed a course in the high school, and thereafter he attended the Culver Military Academy, the celebrated Indiana school situated on the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee. He next entered the law department of the University of Indiana, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1906, and from which he received the degree of 120 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Bachelor of Laws, with virtually coincident admission to the bar of his native state. From 1907 to 1909, inclusive, he was engaged in the general practice of his profession in Fort Wayne, and for the ensuing two years he held the position of general manager of the Fort Wayne Hosiery Com- pany. Since his retirement from this position he has given his attention most successfully to home building enterprise in his native city, and in this field of endeavor he has found ample scope and opportunity for the achieving of success worthy of the name. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, his religious faith is that of the Lutheran church, and in the time-honored Masonic fraternity his ancient-craft affiliation is with Home Lodge, No. 342, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons. He has received also the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry and is affiliated with Mizpah Temple, Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, besides being a member of Concordia Lodge, No. 228, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On August 18, 1908, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Curdes to Miss Mabel Edith Wood, daughter of Frank and Margaret (Steinhaur) Wood, of Fort Wayne, and the two children of this union are Virginia Wood Curdes and Louis Arnold Curdes, their respective years of birth having been 1909 and 1910. Louis F. Curdes has shown in his independent career a vital energy and resourcefulness that have brought to him not only a large measure of success but also a position of prominence and influence in connection with one of the most important lines of enterprise touching the civic and material welfare and progress of the community. As a vigorous repre- sentative of the real estate business he has done much to further the ad- vancement and upbuilding of the city of Fort Wayne, and his versatility and his cumulative success are the more gratifying to note by reason of the fact that, coming from Germany to America when a mere youth, he has relied entirely upon his own resources in making his way forward to the goal of independence and prosperity — the record of his advance- ment offering both lesson and incentive. Louis Frank Curdes was born in the village of Wettesingen, Province of Hessen Cassel, Germany, May 22, 1863, and is a son of Henry and Henrietta (Klingelhofer) Curdes, both of whom passed their entire lives in that section of the German Empire, where the father died in 1873 and the mother in 1887. Louis F. Curdes attended the excellent schools of his native province until he was eleven years of age, and thereafter he continued his higher studies in the well ordered gymnasium at Warburg, Westphalia, and a similar institution at Hademar, in Hessen Nassau. At the age of sixteen years he came to the United States, and after passing a few months in the home of his sister, Mrs. Amelia Brown, at Defiance, Ohio, he came to Fort Wayne to visit another sister, Mrs. Mary Kriger, who died in childbirth only one week after his arrival in the city in which he was destined to gain prece- dence as a representative business man. After the death of his sister Mr. Curdes was here variously employed for several mouths, within which period he worked for the White Fruit House, the firm of K. B. Miller & Company, dealers in men's furnishings, and the book store of Sieman Brothers. In 1881 he entered the employ of the Packard Organ Company, with which he continued his association during the ensuing twelve years — or until the financial panic of 1893 brought about so great a curtailment of the company's business that he withdrew from its employ. Ambitious and self-reliant, he carefully consulted ways and means and finally estab- lished himself in the real estate business, his early sales having been made ASTOK, Lti- ' FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY 121 on a commission basis. His indomitable energy and honorable methods so expanded his business that in 1895 he was enabled to engage in buying and selling real estate in an independent way. His first venture under these conditions was that of purchasing nineteen lots in the Ewings Grove addition to Fort Wayne, and he was successful in exploiting and selling these properties advantageously. A year or so later he bought one hun- dred lots in the Industrial Park addition, and, with increasing confidence and characteristic circumspection, he later amplified operations by the purchase of sixty lots in the Swinney addition. To Mr. Curdes is in large measure due the- splendid development of these properties and also of seven hundred and forty-four lots of which he assumed control in the beautiful Forest Park addition to the city. His activities have been in- sistent and cumulative and have included the development of Forest Park boulevard, the Driving Park addition, containing one hundred and five acres, and numerous smaller additions and subdivisions, including Weisser Park, the Driving Park addition likewise continuing its development under his effective supervision. Mr. Curdes has become one of the fore- most exponents of real estate interests in Fort Wayne and through his broad operations has shown his faith in the future growth and increasing prosperity of the metropolis and judicial center of Allen county. Con- cerning his admirable activities in his chosen sphere of enterprise the following pertinent statements have been written: "Mr. Curdes is a man of artistic temperament and talent, and has been able to visualize in his own mind the beautifying of a landscape that to others represented but shrub-covered, barren knolls, and some of Fort Wayne's most beauti- ful additions and charming drives are but the outgrowth of his planning. He has had and still retains the utmost confidence in the splendid future of Fort Wayne, and the additions which he has so successfully exploited have been planned not only for the present but also for the city that is to be." In politics Mr. Curdes is unwavering in his allegiance to the Republican party, he is an active and influential member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, and both he and his wife are communicants of <he German Lutkeran church. On June 18, 1885, was solemnized the n>arriage of Mr. Curdes to Miss Clara J. Harris, daughter of John Harris, a prosperous hardware merchant of Fort Wayne. Of the four children of this union Arnold G. W., and AValter L. are associated with their father in the real estate business; Herbert died at the age of ten months; and Helen L., the only daughter, now Mrs. Arthur W. Rose, is a popular factor in the younger social circles of her native city. Charles E. Dailey followed the blacksmith business in Leo, Cedar Creek township, from 1892 to 1915, when he retired from active labors and settled down to a life of comparative ease. He was born in Cedar Creek township on July 1, 1867, son of Samuel and Mary (McCrory) Dailey, both of Pennsylvania birth. They came to Allen county in about 1846, locating on a wilderness farm in this township and there spent the remainder of their lives. The father died, in 1880, leaving a fine improved farm of one hundred acres, and the mother is now living quietly in Leo, Indiana. They were the parents of seven children. Wil- liam M. lives in Leo. Dora is the wife of C. L. Hollopeter, of Wooster, Ohio. Franklin met his death by accidental drowning. Charles E._ was the fourth child. Sarah became the wife of Samuel Souder, of Michigan. Nevada lives in Fort Wayne, and Abner is located in Grabill. Mr. Dailey stayed on the home farm up to the age of twenty-five years, when he 122 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES went to St. Joe, Indiana, and there learned the trade of a blacksmith. He worked there for two years, then returned to Allen county and, settling in Leo, built and equipped a modern blacksmith shop, which he operated with all success until he retired, in 1915. Mr. Dailey was mar- ried on March 22, 1891, to Miss Nellie Maxfield, who was born in Leo, Indiana, and five children have been born to them. George, the eldest, is located in Detroit, Michigan, and the others — Marjorie, Ronald, Ada and June — are still in the parental home. Mr. Dailey is a Democrat, active in local politics, and was one of the township trustees from 1908 to 1916. He is a Mason and a member of the Eastern Star, his wife also having membership in that branch of Masonry. John Dalman. — Not all men are permitted to order their lives exactly to their liking but they are the strong and worthy ones who make the best possible use of their powers and wrest from fate the fullest measure of success