DELAWARE COUNTY INDIANA BIOGRAPHIES
Transcribed from A
Portrait and Biographical
Record of
Published by: A.W.. Bowen and Co.
Chicago
Henry A. Jones is one of the leading men of Washington Township and one
who is always ready to do all in his power to advance the interests of
his community. He was born August 6, 1828, in Adams County Pa.,
being the son of Jacob and Mary Ann (Neely) Jones, both of Welsh
extraction. Jacob Jones was born January 6, 1806, in Cumberland
county, Pa., and Mrs. Jones is a native of Adams County, same
state. Mr. Jones emigrated to Ohio in 1832, lived in Miami
County, upon a farm, for six years, then farmed in Clarke County for
three years, after which he came to Delaware County, Ind., in 1841, and
located in Washington Township, on 120 acres of land. This land
was covered with heavy timber, but he lived to see it under a high
degree of cultivation, and finally died January 5, 1891. His wife
died in Pennsylvania when Henry A. was a mere boy. She was a
member of the Episcopal Church, as also was her husband; the latter was
a strong Republican, and always supported his party ticket. In
1837 he married Maria Packer, who died in 1853. He filled the
office of justice of the peace, and township trustee, and was very
prominent in the affairs of the county.
Henry A. Jones lived with his parents until he was
of age, and then learned the carpenter's trade, but worked at home most
of the time until he reached the age of twenty four, but carpentering
engaged his attention for sometime after his marriage. When this
latter important event occurred he owned ninety one acres of land in
the township named, and lived upon it until 1883. The farm was
located in section 18, and consisted of 165 acres. In the year
named he sold this tract, and bought his present farm near Gaston,
which consists of 164 acres. He also owns four lots in the town
of Gaston, where he has built one of the finest residences in the town,
in which he and his wife expect to spend the remainder of their
days.
Mr. Jones engaged in the mercantile business for a
short time a few years ago, but was burned out and sustained a loss of
$3000.Mr. Jones was married June 24, 1855, to
Miss Mary Reasoner, born January 4, 1833, being the daughter of Peter
and Rhoda (Fry) Reasoner. See sketch of Dr. O. I.. Reasoner,
Union Township. By his marriage Mr. Jones is the father of the
following children: Frances A., wife of Allen Oxley; Julia Ann, wife of
Henry Higdon; John and Jennie, twins. Jennie being the wife of B.
A. Brown; Rhoda C., wife of John Watson; Mary E., wife of Milton
Gwinup; Effie M., wife of Frank Woodring. Mr. Jones and his wife
are members of the Methodist church, and are much esteemed in that
body. He is a strong Republican and always votes for the
candidates of that party.
Washington Maynard is a native of the Buckeye state, and a well known
citizen of Washington Township, Delaware County. He was born in
Tuscarawas County, Ohio, June 21, 1837, being the son of Benjamin and
Letha (Tracy) Maynard, both natives of Virginia. The father
removed to Tuscarawas County when a young man, farming there and
remained there until 1841, when, with his family, he came to Washington
Township and bought eighty acres of land in section 27. Later he
purchased eighty acres, where he remained until his death, which
occurred in August 1883. He and his wife were members of the
Methodist Church. Benjamin Maynard was a Republican, and gave his
hearty support to that party.
Washington Maynard came here with his parents, and remained with them until the age of twenty four; receiving a good common, school education as he grew up. At the age named, he owned forty acres of land in Harrison Township, which he sold, and bought the same amount in section 29 in Washington Township. Here he lived until 1868, and then moved to New Corner, and engaged in mercantile business for fourteen months, at the expiration of which time he sold out and moved back to the farm. Here he remained until 1891, and then again moved to New Corner, where he now lives, and is a notary; having been a justice of the peace for twelve years, he is very familiar with all kinds of legal forms.
Mr. Maynard was married September 24, 1860, to Martha J. Thompson, daughter of David and Melinda (Davis) Thompson. She was born January 10, 1842, in Delaware County. Her father was born October 27, 1817, and her mother May 13, 1820, in Butler County, Ohio, and came to this county in 1840, where Mr. Thompson engaged in farming up to 1872. In this year, he removed his family to Muncie, where he now lives a quiet retired life. He and his wife are members of the Church of God. In politics, he is a prohibitionist, and is very earnest in his support of that party. Mr. Maynard is the father of the following children: Mary Alice, George Thomas, and Munroe, deceased; John and Sherman. He and wife are members of the Methodist Church, both identifying themselves with the church in early life. Mr. Maynard is a trustee in the church and superintendent of the Sunday school. In politics he is a prohibitionist, and firmly believes that party is necessary to the salvation of the country.
Abbott L. Johnson. In the history of Muncie's manufacturing interests, A. L. Johnson is one of the very few whose activity in an important way goes back to the years before the natural gas boom. Having identified himself with the lumber business and manufacturing while Muncie was a city of five thousand people, he has remained here during the subsequent quarter of a century, and the history of this period records his name and influence in connection with every important public undertaking by which the welfare of Muncie has been promoted. Having a prosperous business of his own at the time natural gas was discovered, he at once joined in the public-spirited movement to secure outside capital and enterprise for Muncie, and was actively connected with all the organizations during the early years of Muncie's industrial boom, including the Enterprise Company, the Real Estate Exchange, and later the board of trade. In the history of the last quarter century of Muncie, elsewhere in this work, Mr. Johnson's name is often mentioned with the events of that period, and in this sketch of his career it is necessary only to summarize the main facts of his life.
The family has been resident of Muncie since 1881, when the parents. Henry I. and Eliza (Ferguson) Johnson, who were both natives of New York state, came to this city, where the father lived until his death in 1881. The father was a farmer, but had lived retired in Ashtabula, Ohio, from 1864 until coming to Muncie. Abbott L. Johnson was born in Herkimer county, New York, August 26, 1852, and spent most of his youth in Ashtabula, where he attended the public schools. His first experience in business was with a bent-wood works at Ashtabula, and in 1873, at the age of twenty-one, he was sent to Bluffton, Indiana, to erect machinery and put into operation the bent-wood works which was later acquired by J. H. Smith & Company, and a few years later moved to Muncie. Mr. Johnson moved to Montpelier, where he remained two years, having formed a partnership with J. T. Arnold in conducting an extensive lumber business, under the firm name of A. L. Johnson & Company. This firm established business in Muncie in 1878, and in this way Mr. Johnson became connected with Muncie both as a business man and as a resident. In 1883, in company with W. E. Hitchcock (now president of the Delaware County National Bank), he began the manufacture of skewers, and for many years this enterprise has been an important factor of Muncie's industrial resources. In 1885 Mr. Johnson entered into an active partnership with his brother, the late J. C. Johnson, and together they conducted their lumber and other interests for many years.
With the development of Muncie after the gas boom, Mr. Johnson extended his connection to many other important interests. He is a stockholder of the Muncie Waterworks Company. In the real estate development of Muncie, he is known as the owner of Johnson's first and second additions, and is also interested in Gray's addition, which is one of the best in Muncie. Mr. Johnson is a man of active and progressive citizenship, and as a member of the older group of successful business men is closely identified with the life and affairs of Muncie. His residence on East Washington street is one of the stately and elegant homes of Muncie. In social affairs and the various movements in the interest of culture and practical philanthropy he and his family have taken an active part. He is a prominent Mason, being a member of chapter, commandery, Mystic Shrine and Scottish Rite. The family are members of the Baptist church, in which he has served as deacon and trustee. Mr. Johnson married, in 1872, Miss Florence Merriman, a daughter of Charles Merriman, of Ashtabula, Ohio.
Harry R. Wysor. Many years have passed since the Wysor family became identified with the interests of Delaware county, and its various members have won for the name an enviable distinction by their true worth of character. One of the most important factors in the upbuilding of Muncie was Jacob H. Wysor, the father of Harry, who was connected with many of its leading enterprises, and at all times was a public-spirited, progressive citizen, whose support was never withheld from measures that advanced the public welfare. He was born in Montgomery county, Virginia. December 6, 1819, of German ancestry, his father dying before his birth, and he was an only child. In 1835 he came to Delaware county, Indiana, where he received an excellent education, and in time became one of its foremost business men. In 1841 he embarked in the grocery and dry goods business at Muncie, and although many obstacles barred his path to success, his indomitable energy and perseverance enabled him to surmount them all, and with the passing years prosperity rewarded his efforts. In 1843 he turned his attention to the milling business, but in 1849 the glittering gold fields of California lured him to the Pacific coast, and, abandoning his business, joined the rush thither, meeting with many adventures in his journeyings and in his search for the precious metal, and finally returned to his home in Muncie in 1852. Two years later, in partnership with John Jack, Mr. Wysor built the large grist mill which has ever since been one of Muncie's leading institutions, and after the death of his partner in 1858 the firm's name remained the same His memory is enshrined in the hearts of those who knew him. In his early manhood he married Sarah Richardson, also a native of the Old Dominion of Virginia.
Harry R. Wysor, a son of this honored Muncie couple, was born in this city on the i8th of April, 1858, and received an excellent educational training in its public schools and the Smithson College of Logansport. With his education completed he became associated with the Wysor & Hibbets Milling Company, while in 1881 he took charge of the old opera house, and now owns and manages the Wysor Grand. In addition he owns the Wysor Block, completed in 1906, and it is one of the finest business blocks in eastern Indiana. He ably superintends the many interests of his father. His business career thus far on the journey of life has also been crowned with success. He has made good use of his opportunities, conducting all business matters carefully and systematically, and at the same time he takes an active interest in the welfare of his native city and the city which his father was so instrumental in developing. He served as a member of its city council from 1885 to 1888. and from 1882 until 1884 was a member of its school board.
In 1884 Mr. Wysor was united in marriage to Miss Jennie, a daughter of William Kemper, of Muncie, and they have two daughters, Sarah and Mary. Mr. Wysor has fraternal relations with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Independent Order of Red Men and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Judge J. G. Leffler. a prominent attorney of Muncie, and well known throughout this section of the state in connection with his profession, is one of Delaware county's native sons, born in Hamilton township on the 26th of December, 1864, a son of Philip and Mary (Garick) Leffler, both of whom were born in Ohio. They were, however, brought to Indiana by their famih'es when children, the mother dying when her son, the Judge, was but a little lad of four years. Mr. Philip Leffler, as did his father, also named Philip, followed the tilling of the soil as a life occupation, the elder Mr. Leffler having purchased large tracts of land from the government, and in addition to its cultivation carried on the tanner's trade. He was very successful in his business operations, and both he and his son became prominent in the early life of their section of the Hoosier state. Mr. Leffler, the father of the Judge, was an active worker in the ranks of the Republican party, and served as a loyal and faithful soldier in the Civil war from 1863 until the close of the conflict.
Judge Leffler was reared as a farmer's boy, receiving his primary education in the district schools near his home, this being later supplemented by attendance at the Danville Normal, but he is largely self-educated. At the age of eighteen years he began teaching, spending four years in the Center school of Hamilton township, and in 1884 entered upon the study of the profession which he had determined as his life occupation, his first legal reading being under the instructions of W. W. Orr and J. E. Mellette.
Four years later, in 1888, he was admitted to the bar, and at once came to the front in his profession, for no dreary novitiate awaited him, and from that time to the present his name has been inseparably interwoven with the legal profession in Delaware county. In 1890 the Republican party, of which he has ever been an active and efficient worker, made him the county prosecuting attorney, to which office he was returned in 1892, and later was elected to the high position of circuit judge, being its present incumbent. In 1890 the Judge was united in marriage to Laura, a daughter of Joseph Emerson. His fraternal relations connect Judge Leffler with the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Red Men, and he is also a member of the Sons of Veterans, while his religious affiliations are with the Baptist church, of which he is a valued member. Although in the main self-educated, he is a scholarly man, profound lawyer, an able judge, and is an unassuming, genial and popular citizen.
The Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, like most of our largest manufacturing concerns, was started in a small way, and has been built up by hard work and untiring energy.
The five brothers, founders and present owners of the business, Edmund B., Frank C, William C., Lucius L. and George A., were all born on a farm in Trumbull county, Ohio. While they were all young their father moved to Canandaigua, New York state, where he engaged in the mercantile business and where at the academy they all received their education. Soon after their father's death they all moved to Buffalo and started into the manufacturing of sheet metal specialties, which, in time, called for the use of large quantities of glass, which for a time they purchased in the market. Being unable to get satisfactory service in their purchases, as their demand grew they decided to make the glass themselves, and so erected a furnace in Buffalo, and were operating it when natural gas was first discovered in Ohio and Indiana. Appreciating the advantage that the gas for fuel would be to them, they built at Muncie a furnace, which they ran for awhile as a branch of their Buffalo plant, but gradually they removed one department after another of the Buffalo plant to Muncie and finally abandoned the Buffalo factory entirely. They rapidly increased the capacity of the Munice plant and then acquired plants at other points, so they are now operating factories at Marion, Indiana, Belleville, Illinois, and Coffeyville, Kansas.
The "Ball-Mason" fruit jar, known throughout the whole country, cannot he measured. Many business concerns and moral enterprises owe their excellence and progress largely to his influence. He was in touch with the people, and from a sincere and deep-felt interest in their welfare labored for all that would prove of public benefit until the busy and useful life was ended.
A native of Bracken county, Kentucky, born in 1822, he in 1831, when a little lad of nine years, removed with his father, Anderson Patterson, to Clearmont county, Ohio, locating on a farm near the old General Grant homestead, and there the little son developed and grew to sturdy manhood. In 1838 he entered upon a three years' apprenticeship at the tinsmith's trade, later removing to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he served a year at copper and bright work, and then during the following three years was employed as a journeyman. About this time Mr. Patterson engaged in business on Front street, Cincinnati, establishing the firm of Patterson & Conley, which continued to transact a large and important business until a fire destroyed their plant in 1847. Their insurance had expired the day previous, and thus everything was lost, their loss amounting to about five thousand dollars. After all debts were paid Mr. Patterson went to St. Louis, there to begin anew the battle of life, and on the I5th of May, 1850, having accumulated eight hundred dollars from his hard-earned savings in St. Louis, came to Muncie and invested his capital, at the same time establishing the firm of Patterson & Sample, his partner being Charles P. Sample, and under their skillful management their interests grew and branched out until in 1855 they purchased the Neal McCullough hardware store, reorganizing it and enlarging the hardware department, also adding farm implements of all kinds. With the passing years they became very successful in their ventures, and in 1867 they sold their store to George Seitz, and, going to Indianapolis, formed a company and erected a large blast furnace at Brazil, Indiana, Mr. Patterson superintending the construction of the plant, also sunk a coal shaft and built two miles of railroad, having during that time four hundred men under his direct supervision. After one and a half years had passed, however, he and Mr. Sample returned to Muncie, repurchasing the stock of Mr. Seitz, and they continued in the business until the death of Mr. Sample in 1873, while in the following year Mr. Patterson sold his interest in the business to Mr. Shirk and embarked in the brokerage and private banking business in partnership with Theodore J. Riley. After the latter's death Mr. Patterson devoted his attention to his real estate interests, building, developing, etc., and to his untiring efforts Muncie is largely indebted for much of her present prosperity. He held a high position in business circles in the community for many years, and his activity in that direction justly entitles him to be numbered among the founders of the city, for it is those who promote commercial and industrial activity who are the real builders of a place.
In 1855 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Patterson and Samantha Collier, a daughter of Samuel R. Collier, a well-known citizen of Delaware county, and two children bless this union. The daughter. Cora P.. is the wife of George F. McCullouch. Although Mr. Patterson has passed away, many pleasant memories of him are enshrined in the hearts of his friends, and his influence for good remains with those who knew him.
George H. Koons. The ancestors of George H. Koons emigrated from North Carolina to Indiana at an early day. They were farmers, honest, thrifty, and hospitable, possessing the common virtues of that class.
George H. Koons was bom in Blue River township, Henry county, Indiana, April 2, 1848. He is the son of Peter and Catherine (Rinard) Koons, and the eldest of a family of seven. His boyhood days were spent at home on the farm. His education was begun in the district schools and continued in the New Castle Academy and later in the Indiana University at Dloomington. He taught in the country schools during the winter while yet a student in the New Castle Academy. After completing his course of study there he accepted the position of superintendent of the schools of Middletown. Henry county, Indiana, where he demonstrated his thoroughness and capacity as an instructor and superintendent, raised the standard of the schools and made them a pronounced success. He read law with Brown and Polk, attorneys at New Castle, afterward entering the law department of the State University, from which, in a class of thirty-three, he graduated with honors, receiving his degree of LL. B. in 1871.
After leaving the university he continued the study of law under the instruction and guidance of Hon. Jehu T. Elliot at New Castle for a time, and then began the practice of law in Middletown, Henry county. In 1874 he removed to Muncie, where he has since lived practicing his profession, with the exception of six years, during which time he served as judge of the Delaware circuit court. He is ranked among the best lawyers of the state. His success was not immediate, but came as a result of patient industry, painstaking, intelligent effort.
In politics he is a Republican, with decidedly liberal and independent proclivities. He never in any way encouraged nor countenanced corrupt methods in politics and has steadfastly condemned all corrupt uses of money, often expressing the view that "the corruption of the ballot is a traitorous crime for which there is neither excuse nor palliation." In 1880 he was a candidate for the nomination by his party for the state legislature, but was defeated by the Hon. John W. Ryan. In 1892 he defeated the Hon. James N. Templer at the Republican primary election for the nomination of judge of the Delaware circuit court of Indiana, and was elected to that office, in which he served from 1892 to 1898, discharging his official duties with the diligence, ability, courage and dignity expected of him. He ranked high as a judge. Being conscientious in devotion to duty and just in judgment his decisions were well considered and rarely reversed. He declined to accept "railroad passes" and never used nor traveled on one. He was defeated for renomination by the Hon. Joseph G. Leffler, the present incumbent. Since his retirement from the bench he has ^een diligently engaged in the practice of law in the circuit, appellate and supreme courts of the state, and in the federal courts. He has long been recognized as an able advocate and wise counsellor.
He is a man of broad humanitarian views, thoroughly democratic in bearing, and in close sympathy with his fellow-men, a lover of all that is noblest and best in humanity, a Unitarian in belief and deeply imbued with the philosophy and teachings of Emerson, though a regular attendant at the Universalist church of Muncie. At college he belonged to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He was a charter member of "The Literary and Scientific Association" of Muncie, out of which ultimately was developed the Ethical Society, of which he was for a time president. For many years he has been a member of the State Bar Association of Indiana, and is a charter member of the Muncie Bar Association and its present president.
He was married September 6, 1871, to Josinah V. Hickman, daughter of William H. and Clarissa (Williams) Hickman. Four children have blessed their home, three of whom are Clarissa K., Rebecca E. and George Hickman Koons. Mary Maud, the eldest, passed away at the age of fourteen months and ten days. He is a kind, indulgent husband and father. He is true to his friends and forgiving and forbearing toward all, knowing that "Kindness is a language the dumb can speak, and the deaf can hear and understand."
Hon. George Washington Cromer, member of congress from the Eighth district of Indiana and a lawyer of much renown, was born in Madison county, Indiana, May 13, 1856, his parents being Josiah and Mary (Shultz) Cromer, who were natives of Maryland and Indiana, respectively. In 1857 they established their home, in Salem township, Delaware county, Indiana, their son George being then a mere child, and on the home farm there, for his father was a farmer, he was reared. His early educational training was received in the schools of Salem township, where he also taught for three terms, and he then entered \Vittenberg College of Springfield, Ohio. He next matriculated in the State University at liloomington. Indiana, from which he graduated in 1882 with the degree of A. M.
During a short time after his graduation Mr. Cromer edited the Muncie Times, and he then read law and began the practice of his chosen profession in 1886 at Muncie, which city has ever since been his home and the scene of his activities. His political career began with his professional, for in the same year in which he began the practice of law he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Forty-sixth judicial circuit of Indiana, to which position he was re-elected in 1888. The duties of this office he discharged in a manner highly creditable to himself and satisfactory alike to his friends and those who opposed him politically. In 1892 he was made the chairman of the County Central Committee and a member of the State Republican Committee for the Sixth congressional district. Two years later, in 1894, Mr. Cromer was elected to the highest office within the gift of the people of the city, that of mayor, while his services were next called into requisition by an election, in 1898, to the Fifty-sixth congress. He served with much ability in this high office, and two years later was re-elected to congress, and again to the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth congresses. Thus Mr. Cromer has not alone attained prestige and success in the practice of his profession, but has been conspicuously identified with many interests which have subserved the material prosperity of Indiana, proving a valuable factor in the legislative and political councils of his state.
He married, in 1895, Miss Fannie J. Soule, of Chicago. Illinois.
George W. Maring. Concerning the glass manufacturing firm of Maring, Hart & Company, who were among the early manufacturers to locate in Muncie after the natural gas boom, much has been said on other pages of this history. The third member of this firm, George W. Maring, has been identified with Muncie as a citizen since 1888, and he belongs with that notable group of business men who, during the last twenty years, have built Muncie from a town to a city. Until the discontinuance of the window glass industry in this city, he was actively connected with those interests, and his company also conducted two bottle plants at Dunkirk. A few years ago he sold his interests, and though since retired from the industrial affairs of his city, he is active in financial and civic matters. He was one of the organizers of the Merchants National Bank of Muncie.
Before coming to Muncie in 1888 Mr. Maring had spent most of his life in his native state of Ohio, where, in Monroe county, he was born August 15, 1843. His parents, Peter and Edith (Davis) Maring, were also natives of Ohio and spent their lives in that state, the father being" a carpenter. Reared in Somerton, Belmont county, George W. Maring was pursuing an apprenticeship in the harness and saddle-maker's trade when the war broke out, and finally unable to resist the call of duty, he enlisted, August 16, 1862, in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio Infantry, and served throughout the conflict until he received an honorable discharge on March 23, 1865, together with a surgeon's certificate of disability. At the time of his discharge he was serving as corporal and color guard of the regiment. He saw hard service, but was not Ohio. Three years later he removed to Chillicothe, Missouri, and engaged as clerk in the drug business. After about two years in the drug trade he engaged as traveling salesman for the wholesale glass firm of J. M. Maring & Company, in which occupation he spent about seven years. About this time the firm of J. M. Maring & Company was reorganized under the firm name of Maring, Hart & Company, the firm being composed of J. M. Maring, T. F. Hart and George W. Maring.
While engaged in this business he was located at Bellaire, Ohio, a flourishing center of the glass trade during the eighties. After the discovery of gas about Muncie, this town became well advertised to all the manufacturers of Ohio, especially the glass makers, who found in the Magic City a veritable Eldorado for their industry. Mr. Maring and his associates were among those attracted to this city, and his energy and enterprise were important contributions to the increasing greatness of the city. Mr. Maring married, in 1877, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Van Scoyoc of Pennsylvania.
W. E. Hitchcock. The men of influence in this age are the enterprising, progressive representatives of commerce, and to such ones advancement and progress are due. Mr. Hitchcock has the mental poise and calm judgment to successfully guide and control large business affairs, and at the same time he has a keen appreciation of the ethics of commercial life, so that he not only commands the respect of his fellow-men for his uprightness, but also excites their admiration by his splendid abilities.
Mr. Hitchcock was born in Meriden, Connecticut, January 30, 1859, one of the two children of E. A. and Mary A. (Greene) Hitchcock. Removing with his parents to Ashtabula, Ohio, he received a good practical English education in its public schools, and at the early age of fifteen years he became a teller in an Ashtabula bank, continuing to successfully discharge the duties of that important office for several years. From 1876 until 1879 he served as a bookkeeper for the Meriden Britannia Company, and then returned to Ashtabula to assist his father in, his large manufacturing enterprise, which in 1884 they removed to Muncie and formed a partnership with A. L. and J. C. Johnson. Mr. Hitchcock is now the sole manager of this extensive concern, and in discharging his duties he has displayed splendid executive power and keen discrimination, and is widely recognized as a most capable business man. His interests, however, are many and varied, and he is also serving as the president of the Delaware County National Bank, the Muncie Savings and Loan Company, and is a director in the Muncie Trust Company, the Muncie Electric Light Company, and an officer in several manufacturing corporations, and many others of the leading institutions of the city owe their existence and subsequent prosperity to his wonderful ability. His name' is indissolubly connected with the public annals of Delaware county, for he is an active worker in the ranks of the Republican part}', and as its representative has held many positions of honor and trust. He was for several years president of the Metropolitan Police Board of the city, and is known as one of the most honorable public men in Muncie. His fraternal connections are with the Masonic order. He also served as colonel on the staff of Governor Durbin during his term of office.
On the 3Oth of September, 1885, Mr. Hitchcock was united in marriage to Miss Estelle Morehouse of Muncie.
Charles Henry Church has been a resident of Muncie since March, 1887, at which time he removed to the city from New London, Ohio, and soon thereafter assisted in organizing the Delaware County Bank, a state institution. He was chosen as cashier, and in that position continued until in 1892 it was succeeded by the Delaware County National Bank, when he was made its cashier, and has continued as such for the period of twenty years in the same location. His career as a banker dates from 1872, when he organized the First National Bank at New London, Ohio, and was selected as vice-president and manager, continuing until his removal to this city. In 1888 Mr. Church became the organizer and charter member of the Muncie Savings and Loan Company, was made its treasurer, in which position he still remains. As an indication of his banking qualifications, he was invited to assist in the organization of the Indiana Bankers' Association, and was one of the charter members, numbering about twenty-five. It now numbers over four hundred members, and during the year 1906 Mr. Church was selected and served as president of the institution.
Mr. Church is a native of New York, born in Chenango county, in a small hamlet called Church Hollow, named in honor of the Church family. A postoffice was established under that name, with William Church, his father, as postmaster, and who was also a merchant for many years in that section. Mr. Church received the usual academic education in his native county, and engaged in the mercantile business for several years, in fact, mercantile and banking interests have engaged his attention from boyhood, and throughout his active business career he has always enjoyed the deserved confidence of all with whom he has been associated. In the interests of Muncie he has always taken an active part and in various ways contributed to its progress and upbuilding. While an ardent supporter of the Republican party, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, he has never sought political preferment.
At the age of twenty-six he was united in marriage to Miss Lou Tyler, a daughter of Henry P. and Ann Tyler of Norwalk, Ohio. They have two children, William and Ernest, both of age, one engaged in business at Muncie and the youngest, Ernest, at the University of Indiana. Mr. Church has been quite active as a Mason in the Masonic orders, and at present is treasurer of the Muncie Comnianclery of Knights Templar.
James Boyce, of Muncie, Indiana, was born near Belfast, Ireland, April. 7, 1833. His parents, Hugh and Margaret (Wilson) Boyce, of Scotch descent, were also born there. He received a common school education from six to twelve years and became very proficient in his studies, helping the teacher during the last year. After leaving school at that age he worked in a linen factory for four years at eight cents a day of twelve hours. At this time, October 8, 1848, he suffered the loss of his mother, leaving him virtually an orphan, owing to the destitution of his family, his father being a drunkard. He still continued to work in the same factory, receiving nine cents a day without board, and subsisting on cornmeal mush and buttermilk twenty-one meals per week. He was taken to France to educate the French boys in his line, starting at fifteen cents per day and rapidly advancing to eighty-three cents. After remaining there for two years he again returned to Belfast and stayed there for nearly two years. He was then solicited to take charge of a number of expert girl linen spinners that were employed for a linen factory in Lile de Flanders, and so returned to France. Working at this for a few months and finding himself out of employment and longing to get back to St. Germains, where he first worked, he walked from Lile de Flanders to St. Germains, a distance of three hundred miles, where he was gladly welcomed by his old employer, who placed him to work. Arriving at the age of twenty-one, tired of his every-day work, he went to Havre intending to enlist in the British navy for the Crimean war, but providentially he was otherwise persuaded to go to the United States as a sailor. Obeying the advice of his good Samaritan he shipped as an ordinary seaman to New York, arriving there after a tedious voyage of nine weeks. There being no linen factories in this country he was compelled to accept any kind of labor, and his first job was driving a team on the Erie canal, but afterward he received employment in a flax mill at Little Falls, New York, which at twenty-three dollars per month led to his success. Having become an expert in this new line in the flax business, he was engaged for one year at fifty dollars per month at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. There Mr. Boyce became acquainted and married Miss Eliza McKennet, a lady of Scotch-Irish descent, April 5, 1857. Soon after his marriage he engaged in the flax business for himself in a small way, about ten miles from Cuyahoga Falls, but in a few weeks his dam washed away and not being able to build up again he went to Newton Falls, Ohio, and finding employment in his line remained about two years. At this time, taking Horace Greeley's advice, he started for Shakkoppee, Scott county. Minnesota, with his wife and child, and two hundred and fifty dollars in money. Not being able to find employment or buy a home he left his wife and child there for a time and went to Greenville, Mississippi, and working at ditching he cleared thereby three hundred and five dollars. lie then returned to Minnesota and bought eighty acres of land and all the flaxseed obtainable in the drug stores in St. Paul and Minneapolis and sowed the first two acres of flax sown in Minnesota. But not being able to purchase machinery to scutch it in the fall he left his family again temporarily and went to Newton Falls and returned home again in the early spring with two hundred and ten dollars to show for the winter's work, working fifteen hours a day five days in the week and nineteen hours on Saturday. On his arrival he sowed twenty acres and then proceeded to construct a breaking and scutching machine and horse power of his own invention, cutting the logs from his own woods, giving one-half of the lumber for sawing and one-half of the other half for the carpenter work. With this he scutched the twenty acres, and when ready for shipment it was valued at about twenty-five hundred dollars. The fire fiend destroyed the warehouse, together with all his farm product, dwelling, furniture and nearly all the family clothing, and, as he carried no insurance, it left him nothing but his farm. But his misfortunes on the frontier had only begun. The next spring typhoid fever entered his family, taking his wife and one child, leaving him with two children to commence the world anew. Mr. Boyce then sold everything left and returned to Ohio and bought one-third interest in a flax factory in Alliance, and after two months purchased the other two-thirds, and later sold out for the sum of two thousand dollars. With this he moved his family to Wooster, Ohio, and purchased one-fourth interest in a flax factory, and later bought another fourth, making half interest, but at the end of two years fire wiped out the profits for the two years, there being no insurance. Building it up again, better than ever before, at the end of the fourth year he sold out for ten thousand dollars. With this he moved his all to Muncie, arriving on the 4th of July, 1870, being the first individual coming into town with that amount of money. Commencing the first factory in a small way, inventing and manufacturing labor-saving machines, he soon became the largest flaxbagging manufacturer in the world. He afterwards installed D. handle machinery, and produced more of such handles than any other concern in the world. Mr. Boyce engaged in many other lines of legitimate and speculative enterprises, namely, the manufacture of shoe rivets, and baskets, oil and mining operations. During his first fourteen years he suffered many losses by fire.
Mr. Boyce has found time, notwithstanding his business cares, to discharge official duties. His first office was chairman of the board of county commissioners of Scott county, Minnesota. He was three times elected councilman from the Fourth ward in Muncie. He has taken all the degrees of Odd Fellowship, passing through both chairs, and all in the Masonic fraternity up to the Shrine, and is now a member of the Elks and a charter pany, capitalized at two hundred thousand dollars, during its existence of eight years, whose history is elsewhere given. Mr. Boyce was first in every new improvement, putting in his residence the first bath tub, steam heating plant, street lighting, and also built the first electric light plant; had the first lawnmower, and many other minor matters too numerous to mention.
Mr. Boyce's first wife died June i, 1865. He was married in Alliance, Ohio, January 7, 1866, to Mrs. Eliza Shaffer, who died April 18, 1875, leaving him with a family of seven children. He married July 10, 1875, Miss Margaret Mohler, by whom he has two children. Of his eleven children seven survive, three sons and four daughters.
We seldom see such perseverance through difficulties, such buoyancy of spirit under such heavy afflictions and such fertility of resources in repairing losses. All advantages seem to have been withheld, and overtaken by many disasters, he has succeeded only, as it were, by wresting success from the grasp of fate. Through life his motto has been, great hope, no fear. The force of his character is manifest in the fact that while he manages his private affairs with such ability, he yet has sufficient mental power to act with effect in other situations. While being retired from active business at seventy-five, he is physically and mentally sound and still takes a fatherly interest in city affairs for the mutual interest.
Stafford B. Perdiue, the sheriff of Delaware county, is one of the most popular and efficient officials of the county, and is also a representative of one of the honored early families of this section of the state. His father, the Rev. Abner Perdiue was born, reared and married in Guilford county, North Carolina, there receiving his educational training, and was fitted for the Methodist ministry. When only seventeen years of age he began preaching, continuing his ministerial labors in North Carolina and Virginia until 1831, when he removed with his family to Indiana, stopping for a few years in Henry county and then removing to Delaware county. On his arrival here he entered land from the government two miles west of Muncie, where he improved an excellent farm, carrying on his agricultural labors in addition to his ministerial work, and in his later life was also engaged in merchandising at Tabor and Gaston. After his removal to Indiana he transferred his labors from the Methodist Episcopal to the Protestant Methodist church, and to him belongs the honor of having organized and started most of the churches of that denomination in Henry and Delaware counties. He also taught in the early schools of this county. Rev. Perdiue was an ex cellent orator, well versed in theology, and he officiated at more funerali and solemnized more marriages than any other minister in this section oi the state. Though many years have elapsed since his death in February, 1875, the influence of his conscientious, just career, his kindly, generous heart and sympathetic manner abides. Mrs. Perdiue bore the maiden name nf Frances Finlay and was a native of Delaware county.
Among the native sons of Delaware county is numbered Stafford B. Perdiue, whose birth occurred in Monroe township on the 26th of January, 1868, and in its public schools he received the educational training which fitted him for life's responsible duties. During the first years of his active business career he followed agricultural pursuits, but at the age of nineteen years engaged in the barber business in Muncic, and in November, 1905, was elected to the office of sheriff of Delaware county, the duties of which he has since discharged in a satisfactory and commendable manner. Since reaching mature years he has been a zealous worker in the ranks of the Republican party, and is at all times a loyal and public-spirited citizen, actively interested in all measures advanced for the good of the people.
In 1888 Mr. Perdiue was married to Miss Hattie B. Kiger, a daughter of Charles Kiger, of Delaware county, and their only daughter is Charlotte F. Mr. Perdiue holds membership relations with the Delaware lodge of Masons, and is a worthy member of the Methodist church.
Robe Carl White, believed to be the youngest postmaster that Muncie has ever had, is a good example of what determination to win will do, and of how obstacles to progress may really be blessings in disguise. Truth to tell, however, he was not born in a log cabin, as persons who succeed in life are supposed to be, but instead he first saw the light of day in his parents' substantial frame dwelling in Delaware county, and during his early years pursued the common life of a Hoosier schoolboy. In his life thus far he has seen much of hard work and study, something of adventure and considerable of success.
Mr. White is the son of Samuel S. and Mary (Andrews) White, both of whom were natives of Indiana and the former of whom is still alive and living north of Muncie, a respected pioneer of the county. His mother died in March, 1905. His father, who came to Delaware county in 1836, where he has lived most of the time since, once served as county commissioner.
Robe Carl White was born on the old family homestead near Muncie on August 27, 1869, and was not yet thirty-eight years old, therefore, when he became postmaster of Muncie in March, 1907. Previous to his becoming postmaster he had been city attorney of Muncie, resigning that position to accept the postmastership. and had been prominently identified with the Republican politics of the city, county and district before holding any public office. Mr. White attended the district schools of Delaware county and the city schools of Muncie until he was fourteen years old, at which time, in 1883, he accompanied his parents to lola, Kansas. There he continued his education and was graduated from the lola high school after completing a Tiring of this life, however, and being ambitious to succeed more rapidly than he believed was possible as a country school teacher, he joined the great rush into Oklahoma in 1889—the rush that has become historic. There was something dramatic and appealing in this rush as a result of which towns with thousands of inhabitants sprang up in a single night from barren prairies, and it fired Mr. White's imagination, as it did that of many another. The Scott brothers, friends of White, one of whom is now Congressman Charles F. Scott, of Kansas, had resolved to start the first newspaper in Oklahoma, and White was asked to become a reporter for it, a position he accepted with alacrity. The rush into the territory began at noon one day and that same night the Scott brothers issued from a tent the first copy of the first newspaper in the territory, the Oklahoma Journal, on the site of Oklahoma City. In a few days the paper was in its own building, and for months, during which the Scott brothers fairly rolled in wealth, while their job presses ran night and day, Mr. White acted as head reporter for the Journal. But after he had participated for a year in the strenuous western newspaper life the old desire to continue his education again took possession of him. He had managed to save a little money, and with it went to Chicago, where he took a course in Bryant & Stratton's Business College, from which he was graduated in the spring of 1890. It was the business experience gained in Chicago that enabled him to realize his cherished aim, the taking of a college course. By means of it he was enabled to secure employment as an accountant while he was taking a law course of four yeara in the University of Minnesota. He was graduated from the university in, 1896. Mr. White was then offered a scholarship in Hobart College, New York, but financial reasons prevented his accepting the offer. It had become necessary for him to do something to bring in a greater income than he had been receiving.
For the three years following his graduation Mr. White practiced law successfully in St. Paul, Minnesota, and then came to Muncie, after his many years of absence, and formed a partnership with Ira J. Young, under the firm name White & Young, this partnership continuing until 1906, when Mr. White became identified with the administration of Mayor Leonidas A. Guthrie as city attorney. Then he was appointed by the president to be postmaster of Muncie on the joint recommendation of Senators Beveridge and Hemenway, of Indiana, his appointment coming just before the dedication of the handsome new federal building in Muncie, of which he is now, by reason of his office, custodian.
But while Mr. White's life has largely been one of business activity, he has not neglected altogether the social side of it. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of the Independent Order of Red Men and of the Modern Woodmen of America.
He was married in 1896 to Miss Agnes L. McSorley, of Red Wing. Minnesota, where the marriage ceremony was performed.
H. C. Raymond. One of the leading citizens and influential business men of Muncie is H. C. Raymond, who is now serving as vice president of the Delaware County National Bank and in many other ways is connected with the leading interests of the county. His birth occurred near Fairmont, West Virginia, May 4, 1852, and in that commonwealth his parents, Octavius and Elizabeth (Fleming) Raymond, were also born. The father died when his son H. C. was but nine months old, and when a lad of seventeen years, in 1869, he came to Muncie to make his home with his brother, who was engaged in agricultural pursuits in Delaware county. Completing his education in the schools of this city, Mr. Raymond taught for nine years in the country schools, after which he abandoned the professional for a mercantile life and for a time was engaged in merchandising at Cowan, Indiana. He was next employed as a salesman for the firm of Chandler & Taylor, of Indianapolis, and a short time afterwards entered upon his long connection with the Indiana Bridge Company, with which he was associated for eighteen years. In 1905 Mr. Raymond was made the vice president of the Delaware County National Bank, which is regarded as one of the most reliable financial concerns in this part of the state, and its constantly growing business attests its popularity. He is also interested in other enterprises, being a director of the Muncie Trust & Savings Company and the Mutual Home and Savings Association; he is also the present city comptroller, and for seven years has served as a member of the city council, while for two' terms he has been a member of the school board. He is progressive and resolute in all his transactions, and as the result of his capable management he has gained a place among the substantial citizens and most highly *.steemed business men of his county.
Mr. Raymond was united in marriage in 1877 to Margaret A. Louthain, of Indiana, and they have four sons. He holds membership relations with the Masonic order in Muncie, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.
Rev. Jacob W. Heath. One of the best-known citizens of Delaware county was Rev. Jacob W. Heath, nearly all of whose life was passed within the borders of this county. He was thoroughly earnest and sincere in all his thoughts, words and deeds, and his noble, manly life proved an inspiration to many of his friends and associates. Though he has passed to his reward, the influence of his conscientious, just career, his kindly, generous heart and sympathetic manner abides.
His family was founded in this country by his great-grandfather, wno with two brothers came from London, England, and lived for some time Ib Maryland, where the grandfather Jacob was bom and reared. In his young wagon and arriving in Wayne county in October, 1828. In the following year, however, the husband and father came to Delaware county and entered land, this being at a time when the county's voters numbered less than two hundred, and much of the land where Muncie now stands was congress land, subject to entry at one dollar and a quarter an acre. Locating in Salem township, Mr. Ralph Heath erected a little cabin home, and December 25, 1829, brought his family hither. This was then a lonely section, where the bears, panthers and other wild animals roamed at will through the dense forests, and the children of the family shared in the rugged pioneef life. Mr. Heath was a Christian man, and his cabin became the preaching place for the Methodist Episcopal missionaries for years.
In this Christian home Rev. Jacob W. Heath learned the lessons of purity, gentleness of manner and integrity of character which characterized his after years, and he lived at home with his parents and attended the district schools until of age, also working on the farm during the summer months. During the years of 1848-9 he was a student in the Delaware County Academy, and after leaving that institution taught school for some time. Turning his attention from a professional to a business career, he was engaged in farming until 1868, when he came to Muncie and engaged in the grocery, real estate and life insurance business. At the early age of sixteen years Rev. Heath had joined the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he filled the offices of leader, trustee, steward, Sunday-school superintendent, exhorter, and from 1877 was a local minister. As would be expected of such a man, true in all his relations to his fellows, he was loyal to his duties as a citizen and used his franchise in favor of all noble principles and upright candidates for public office, his sympathies being with the Republican party. He was an active and efficient worker in its campaigns, but at all times he was a strong temperance advocate.
In 1850 Rev. Heath was married to Rhoda A., a daughter of Rev. Abner Perdiue, and they became the parents of eight children, six sons and two daughters: John B., Frederick W., Perry S., Fletcher S., Cyrus R., Cassie E. and Mary A. Arthur B. W. died in infancy. Rev. Heath exemplified in his life the beneficent spirit of the Masonic order, of which he was long a faithful member, having become a member of Delaware lodge, F. and A. M., in 1856. Though he has been called to his home beyond, he is kindly remembered by his many acquaintances and friends of former years.
C. B. Fudge, engaged in the clothing business, ranks today among the most successful and leading business men of Muncie. Nearly his entire life has been passed within the confines of Delaware county, and his advancement has been along the lines of the city's growth, due to progressive, resolute purpose and laudable ambition. His birth occurred in Xenia, Ohio, September 24, 1863, a son of John S. and Martha (Booths) Fudge, both also born in that commonwealth. In 1864, however, the family came to Delaware county, Indiana, establishing their home in Niles township, where the father was engaged in agricultural pursuits for many years, retiring to private life about ten years before his death, which occurred in 1899, aged seventy-one years.
The district schools of Delaware county afforded C. B. Fudge with the educational training which he enjoyed in his youth, and after leaving the schoolroom he spent one year as a clerk in a store in Albany. Returning on the expiration of that period to Muncie, he was for twelve years employed as a clerk, and in 1899 formed a partnership with G. W. Bliss in the clothing and gentlemen's outfitting business, the firm name being Bliss & Fudge. Purchasing his partner's interest, Mr. Fudge incorporated the business in 1903, and under his skillful management it has now reached extensive proportions, placing its proprietor among the foremost business men of Muncie. Mr. Fudge has also many other interests, but his time is principally devoted to his clothing business.
In June, 1892, occurred the marriage of Mr. Fudge and Nellie M. Armitage. She is a daughter of Dr. D. R. Armitage, of Delaware county, and three children have been born to bless the union, Mildred Marie, Robert Armitage and Carl Sellers. Mr. Fudge has membership relations with the Masonic order, belonging to the Muncie lodge, chapter and commandery, and has passed all the chairs in the latter. His religious affiliations are with the Presbyterian church. Success has crowned his well-directed and enterprising efforts, and it is the wish of his many friends that the master of "Fairacres," a beautiful country seat three miles from Muncie, may be numbered among the valuable citizens of Delaware county for many years to come.
Hon. Leon Idas A. Guthrie, a distinguished member of the legal profession, is honored and respected in every class of society and is a leader in the public life of his city and county. His name is a familiar one in political and professional circles, and by reason of his marked intellectual activity he is well fitted to aid in molding the public policy as the mayor of Muncie. For many years the Guthrie family have been closely associated with the progress and development of Delaware county, it having been in a very early day in its history that John Milton Guthrie, the grandfather of Leonidas, took up his abode within its borders, but soon after the birth of his son James he moved to Iowa, where he spent the remainder of his life and became a prominent factor in the community in which he made his home, Guthrie county in that state having been named in his honor. Soon after his public schools of Muncie he began the study of shorthand and bookkeeping. His first employment along that line was with the Muncie Glass Company, of Muncie, with which he remained until 1893, when he took up court reporting and from 1894 until 1897 was the court reporter of Randolph county, Indiana. Going thence to Indianapolis, he served as stenographer of the appellate court until he was made the official reporter of the Delaware circuit court. In the meantime Mr. Guthrie had entered upon the study of law, his preceptors being Gregory, Silverburg & Lotz, and after his admission to the bar in 1897 he served two years as probate commissioner of Delaware county, resigning that position to become mayor of Muncie, to which high office he had been elected in November, 1905. In this position he has been very efficient and faithful, making a most competent officer.
In June, 1905, Mr. Guthrie was united in marriage to Ethel, a daughter of Robert Calvin Peterson, of Delaware county. In his political affiliations Mr. Guthrie has always been a zealous Republican, active in campaign work and laboring earnestly for the adoption of its principles. He is also a member of the Masonic and other orders, and is widely and favorably known in Muncie and Delaware counties.
W. A. Thompson. The work of the legal profession is to formulate, to harmonize, to regulate, to adjust, to administer those rules and principles that underlie and permeate all government and society and control the varied relations of man. As thus viewed there attaches to the legal profession a nobleness that cannot but be reflected in the life of the true lawyer, who, conscious of the greatness of his profession and honest in the pursuit of his purpose, embraces the richness of learning, the profoundness of wisdom, the firmness of integrity and the purity of morals, together with the courtesy and the general amenities of life. A prominent representative of the bar of Delaware county is W. A. Thompson, who was born in Shelby county, Indiana, August 8, 1840, his parents having been among the early pioneers of that county, where they were also highly respected-. Their son, W. A., who was one of fourteen children, spent the early years of his life on a farm, supplementing the instruction which he received in the district school near his home by attendance in the high school at Shelbyville, while later he spent two years in Moore's Hill College. At the age of eighteen he became principal of the graded school of St. Paul, Indiana, and later taught for some time in Shelby county.
When seventeen years of age Mr. Thompson united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1862, when a youth of twenty-two years, he entered its ministry, spending seven years in the Southeastern Indiana conference. After the death of his first wife, which occurred in 1865, he returned to Moore's Hill College for one year, after which he again resumed his ministerial labors, thus continuing until failing health caused him to abandon his chosen labor, and he retired from the ministry in 1870. Shortly afterward he began the study of the law under the preceptorship of Judge Lamb, completing his studies with the firm of Gordon, Browne & Lamb, of Indianapolis, and in 1871 began practice in association with General Thomas Browne at Winchester, while from 1873 to 1874 he was with Judge J. J. Cheney, from 1874 to 1879 was associated in practice with Judge L. J. Monks, and afterward formed a partnership with Captain A. O. Marsh and his brother, J. W. Thompson, the firm name becoming Thompson, Marsh & Thompson. On the 25th of December, 1889, Mr. Thompson came to Muncie and formed a law partnership with Judge Ryan, but he is now engaged in practice with his son, and the firm of Thompson & Thompson is well known in the legal circles throughout this section of the state. From the beginning of his career as a lawyer Mr. Thompson has met with success, his deep research and thorough preparation of every case committed to his care enabling him to meet at once any contingency that may arise. His arguments are strong, clear, decided, and follow each other in natural sequence, forming a chain of reasoning that his opponents find difficult to overthrow. He is an active and ardent Republican, but has at all times refused to accept office, desiring rather to confine his entire attention to his legal practice.
In 1863 Mr. Thompson was united in marriage to Mary R. Wilkinson, whose death occurred in 1865, leaving one child, and in 1868 he married Elizabeth S. Lamb, the daughter of Judge Lamb, of Indianapolis. He ranks high at the bar of this section of the state, and Muncie numbers him among her influential and honored adopted sons.
Calvin S. Wachtell. For over seventy years Calvin S. Wachtell has traveled life's journey, and now, in the evening of a long, useful and honorable career, he is enjoying a well-earned rest, in a great measure relieved of the burdens of an active business life. He has been prominent in public life as well as in business circles, and is leaving the impress of his individuality for good upon many lines of progress and advancement in the city where he has so long made his home. He was born near Springfield, Ohio, December i, 1837, a son of Jonathan and Permelia (Baxter) Watchell, natives respectively of Pennsylvania and Maryland, and the father was of German descent. In 1839 the family came to Muncie, where the father was engaged in the manufacture of chairs and furniture, and his active life was brought to a close in 1850, while his widow survived until 1891. Mr. Wachtell gave a lifelong support to Democratic principles, and both he and his wife were Presbyterians, they having been instrumental in founding the first church of that denomination in Muncie, in which he served as deacon and trustee.
Calvin S. Wachtell, the youngest of their six children, grew to years of maturity in this city, receiving his education in its early schools, and then learned the trade of harnessmaking. In 1874 he was elected the city clerk and auditor of Muncie, continuing in those offices for twelve years, but in the meantime, in 1879, he had embarked in his present business, dealing in wagons, harness, hardware, etc., and from a small beginning he has advanced its interests to its present large proportions. His is not only one of the largest business concerns in this city, but also one of the oldest, and to him belongs the distinction of being one of the oldest business men in Muncie. At the present time, however, his interests are ably looked after by his son, F. L. Wachtell. the senior Mr. Wachtell thus being relieved of many of his former cares. His interests in this city have been many and varied, and he is now serving as the president of the Muncie Lubricating Company, and is a director and one of the founders of the People's National Bank.
In 1862 Mr. Wachtell was united in marriage to Miss Susan L. Anderson, a daughter of John Anderson, of Niles township, Delaware county. Mr. Wachtell has long been numbered among the prominent and progressive citizens of Muncie and has been called to many offices of trust in financial and business circles. He is a Republican in his political affiliations, and fraternally is a member of the order of Odd Fellows. The Christian church of Muncie numbers him among its valued members, and he has served as a clerk and deacon therein for many years.
James W. Meeks, the eldest son of Robert Meeks, one of the bestknown and most prominent business men of this city and county, whose biography appears on another page, was born in Muncie on the i4th of December, 1849. After completing his education in the city schools he learned cabinetmaking under his father's efficient supervision, and when twenty-two years of age he became interested in the firm. From that time forward he has devoted his talents and energies to the building up of the business, which with the passing years has constantly developed both in volume and importance and has long been numbered among the leading business institutions of Delaware county.
Mr. Meeks married, in 1876, Miss Louesa C. Hummell, who was born in Connersville, Indiana, the daughter of Joseph and Mary Hummell. Their children are Amelia B., the wife of Ollie J. Campbell; Sarah M., now Mrs. Alfred C. Danks; and Robert H., who married Etta Payton. Mr. Meeks has membership relations with the Odd Fellows fraternity, the Knights of Pythias and the Red Men, and is identified with the Republican party. He is a member of and an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has served as treasurer for fifteen years, and during a similar period has also been treasurer of the Preachers' Aid Society of the Northern Indiana conference.
Orlando Jay Lotz. The name of Orlando J. Lotz is enduringly inscribed on the pages of Indiana's political history in connection with the records of her jurisprudence. His superior ability won him marked success, he was crowned with high judicial honors, and in business and private life he won that good name which is rather to be chosen than great riches. He was one of Indiana's native sons, born on the i5th of January, 1852, the eldest of nine children born to Jeremiah C. and Melissa (Schuff) Lotz. In 1861 the father received an appointment under Lincoln in the treasury department and took his son Orlando with him to Washington, where the lad attended the public schools for four years. The father still holds the appointment given him in 1861, being one of the oldest men in the service, and he has reached the age of eighty years.
In 1866 Mr. Orlando Lotz returned to his former home and entered the high school at Fort Recovery, Ohio, graduating therefrom in 1870. Two years later, in 1872. he began the study of law, and in 1874 graduated with the highest honors in the National Law School in Washington, D. C. His preparation was thorough and comprehensive, and the favorable judgment which was passed upon him in his early years was never set aside or in any degree modified during his career at the bar and on the bench. In 1885 he was appointed judge of the Forty-sixth judicial circuit by Governor Gray, and at the election two years later he was returned to the office, although a Democrat in a district with a Republican majority of twenty-five hundred, which speaks volumes for his ability and the high regard in which he was held by his fellow citizens. For eight years Mr. Lotz continued to discharge the duties of that office, and in 1892 was elected a member of the appellate court of Indiana, in which he served until January, 1897, when lie resigned the office to resume his private practice of law at Muncie, as a member of the firm of Gregory, Silverburg & Lotz, thus continuing until his death on the 5th of February, 1902. He was a man of strong character and of great generosity and exemplary habits, and concerning his life there was never an evil report. He had a keen, analytical mind, quick to grasp and determine disputed questions, and his public opinions as preserved in the appellate court reports are logical and display deliberation and research, also showing a master mind in principles of law and equity. But death, untimely and unexpected, took from Delaware county one of its most prominent citizens, where he passed away in the prime of life, but left behind him a pure and noble record of honesty, industry and perseverance. A selfmade man, in his efforts to reach the goal of his professional ambition he overcame the obstacles that lay in his path, and his high and sj>lendid example has left a lasting impression upon the profession in which he won distinction and was universally esteemed.
Mrs. Lotz bore the maiden name of Amanda Inlow and is a native of Delaware county. Her father, Walter Inlow, was numbered among the honored early pioneers of the county, and Inlow Springs, which were found Greene county, Pennsylvania, July 21, 1825, a son of Thomas and Sarah (Shideler) Mitchell, both natives of Pennsylvania, the father born in 1801 and the mother in 1802, and they were of Irish and German lineage respectively. Their marriage was celebrated in 1822, and in 1830 they removed from their native commonwealth of Pennsylvania to Miami county, Ohio, where the father followed agricultural pursuits and died in 1861. His widow afterward went to California, where at the home of her only daughter, Mrs. Carl, she passed away in death in 1866. In their family were the following children: John A., deceased; Harvey, whose name introduces this review; Isaac, deceased; Margaret, who married Wesley Carl; Shadrick; and David.
On his father's farm in Miami county, Ohio, Harvey Mitchell was reared to years of maturity, in the meantime receiving his educational training in the nearby log schoolhouse, and he taught and attended school alternately until his graduation from the academy at Troy, Ohio. For three years thereafter he pursued the study of medicine under a practicing physician, whence he took two courses of lectures in the Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, and in 1850 located for the practice of his chosen profession at Granville, Delaware county. During the long period of fourteen years Dr. Mitchell successfully pursued the practice of medicine in that city, removing at the close of the period, in 1864, to Muncie, where he has ever since remained. About 1900, after half a century of activity, he retired from the profession because of advanced years and also on account of a broken hip. In these days of splendid highways who can recall what it meant to be a pioneer physician, riding far and near in all kinds of weather. On his patient, plodding horse the doctor often visited as many as sixty patients in a day, traversing the muddy roads on many a dark, stormy night, courageously bearing cheer and comfort to the distant patient.
On the 4th of October, 1853, at Granville, Indiana, Dr. Mitchell married Miss Catherine Ash, who was born in Greene county, Ohio, May 30, 1837, a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Driscoll) Ash, both of whom were also born in Ohio, from whence they removed to Delaware county, Indiana, in 1853. and later to Illinois. Two children were born to Dr. and Mrs. Mitchell, Sarah Florence, who died in 1866, aged eleven years, and Harriet B., the wife of Charles H. Anthony, of Muncie. They also have one grandchild, Harvey M. Anthony. Prior to the Civil war Dr. Mitchell allied his political interests with the Democracy, but since that time he has been identified with the Republican party. In his early life he became a member of the Christian church, but in later years has attended the Methodist Episcopal, of which his wife has long been a member.
John W. Dragoo, the secretary of the Western Reserve Life Insurance Company, is a member of one of the oldest and most prominent families of Delaware county. His grandfather, Peter Dragoo, was one of the first to take up his abode within its borders, coming from West Virginia in 1835 and entering from the government eighty acres of land in section 19, Perry township, Delaware county. There he lived for many years, and there his death finally occurred at the advanced age of ninety-two years. He was born in West Virginia, but, as has been noted, came to Delaware county in a very early day in its history, when deer and other wild game roamed at will through its forests. Building him a little log cabin in the woods, he began life here in true pioneer style, and his time was thereafter devoted to clearing and cultivating his land. He married Martha Jones, and they became the parents of the following children: William, deceased; Lemuel, a farmer of Perry township, this county; John, who died during his service in the Civil war; Sarah, now Mrs. Winget, and a resident of Liberty township ; Mary, Mrs. Kerns, of Monroe township, and Samuel J., on the old homestead farm. Mr. Peter Dragoo was a stanch and true pioneer, loved and honored by all who knew him, and he took an active part in the early history of his community.
William Dragoo, Sr., a son of this honored old Delaware county pioneer, was born in West Virginia in 1828, and was seven years of age at the time of the family's removal to Delaware county. He followed the occupation of farming throughout his entire business career, and his life's labors were ended in death in 1890. He married Amelia Gibson, who was born in 1833, and her father, Robert Gibson, was one of the early pioneers of Delaware county. Unto Mr. and Mrs Dragoo were born the following children: John W., whose name introduces this review; Laura B., now Mrs. Childs, and a resident of Benton township; Nancy J., Mrs. Clevenger, and a resident of Muncie. The Republican party received Mr. Dragoo's active support and cooperation, and he was a prominent and worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Dragoo is yet living.
Mr. John W. Dragoo was born in Pern- township on the /th of May, 1858, and the educational training which he received in the district schools near his home was supplemented by attendance at the Muncie High school and the State Normal at Terre Haute. This excellent training was received by his own efforts, and after its completion he taught until his twenty-sixth year. During the seven years which followed he was employed at farm labor, and then again entered the schoolroom as a teacher, spending two years in the schools of Center township and seven years as principal of the Roosevelt school in Congerville. During the following fourteen months Mr. Dragoo was paying teller of the Merchants' Bank, and in September, 1899, was elected trustee of Center township, remaining as the incumbent of that position for four years. Previous to this time he had served his county as its assessor for one term. He is a Republican in his political affiliations. On the organization of the Western Reserve Life Insurance
nd is a member of the Methodist church, in which he is serving as superintendent of the Sunday-school. He is also secretary of the Board of Children's Guardians, vice president of the Orphans' Home board and is a member of the town council of Riverside, where he resides.
The Western Reserve Life Insurance Company was incorporated July 27, 1906, as a mutual life insurance company, with twenty-one directors. It was later reorganized as a legal reserve company under the laws of Indiana, with the following officers: D. B. Campbell, president; J. W. Dragoo, secretary; D. A. McLain, treasurer; Dr. L. L. Ball, medical director, and H. H. Orr, attorney. Its capital is over one million dollars, and it has offices in the Wysor block.
Robert I. Patterson, one of the best-known men in Delaware county, prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic and in politics, is a native son of Indiana. He was born in the city of Muncie on the 28th of March, 1843. His father, Samuel R. Patterson, who was born in the state of Vermont on the i6th of September, 1816, came to Indiana when a young and unmarried man, locating in Delaware county, where he followed his trade of a tin and copper smith in Muncie. He was at one time a tin and stove merchant at Chicago, and also at Ottawa and other points in Illinois. When the Civil war was inaugurated Samuel R. Patterson was residing near Winchester, Indiana. He enlisted on the i6th of September, 1861, as a private in Company I, Thirty-sixth Indiana Infantry, and was in active service until after the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, where he received a severe wound and died from its effects in the United States general hospital at Jeffersonville, Indiana, September 24, 1864. He had married, November 15, 1839, Miss Jane Turner, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky, August 6, 1820, and is now, 1907, residing in Portland, Indiana. She is a daughter of Bevans and Percilla (Beswick) Turner, the former of whom was a native of Delaware and the latter of Maryland. They came to Indiana in 1823, first settling in Wayne county, but in the year of 1826 took up their abode in Delaware county, thus becoming numbered among its earliest pioneers. Unto Samuel R. and Jane Patterson were born the following children: Eliza, who married J. S. Martin; Robert L, the immediate subject of this review; Agnes, now Mrs. Elam Osborne; Electa, the wife of E. P. Thornburg; Charles T., who died when twenty-eight years of age; Sarah E., the widow of J. P. Edwards; Jennie, now Mrs. John P. Willis, and Lucinda B., Mrs. Reece Coulter.
Robert I. Patterson received a common-school education, and on the 29th of July, 1861, when but seventeen years of age, he enlisted in Company E, Nineteenth Indiana Infantry, as a private, and after serving the term of his enlistment he reenlisted in the field for three years more. He was wounded at the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg, and at the latter was also taken prisoner. His services were with the celebrated Iron brigade, it being the First brigade, First division of the First army corps of the Army of the Potomac, also the first brigade organized" in. the Union army, and the official records show that it sustained a greater loss in actual killed than any other. Mr. Patterson has an individual record of fourteen general engagements, besides the minor battles and skirmishes in which the brigade took part. On the 21st of March, 1864, he received an abdominal injury by being thrown from a railroad car, and in consequence was discharged September 9, 1864, as a corporal. The date of his reenlistment above referred to was December 31, 1863.
Mr. Patterson has long been active in Grand Army affairs. He is a charter member of Williams Post No. 78, department of Indiana, G. A. R., of which he has been post commander. He has also been honored by his comrades by an election to the office of senior vice commander, Department of Indiana, G. A. R. In the Indiana legislature of 1876-7 Mr. Patterson was a clerk in the lower house, and from the expiration of that period until 1883 he was a railroad postal clerk. On the 7th of February, 1882, he was appointed postmaster at Muncie, continuing in the office to the 5th of March, 1887, when he took up the pension agency, and in 1889 was admitted to practice in the interior department as a pension attorney. This work he has ever since continued. In 1902 he was the successful Republican candidate for clerk of the Delaware county circuit court, his term of office expiring on the 1st of January, 1908. Mr. Patterson is also the patentee of the "J. I. C." currycomb and a fruit jar fastener. But perhaps in all his varied attainments he is best known as a poet, many of his poems having been extensively published in newspapers and periodicals, while many of them have become well known through their rendition at national and state encampments of the Grand Army of the Republic and other occasions by his daughter Pearl, who has earned a wide reputation as an elocutionist.
In 1868 Mr. Patterson married Miss Mary E. LaFavour, who was born in Muncie, May 29, 1850, and they have reared the following named children : Arie Inez, the wife of Edwin H. Bath, a merchant of Muncie; J. Earl, deputy county clerk; and Pearl, the wife of W. R. Bean, of Streator, Illinois. Mr. Patterson is a.member of the Senior Order of American Mechanics, and also affiliates with the Odd Fellows fraternity.
Dr. William A. Spukgeon, who for many years has been actively engaged in the practice of medicine in Muncie, Indiana, is one of the most talented members of the profession in the city, and has clone as much to elevate the standard of the medical profession in the state as any other man. He was born at Salem, Washington county. Indiana, February I, 1852. He is the eldest son of Wiley and Mary F. (McKinney) Spurgeon, both also near Salem. He served under General Taylor in the Mexican war. He became prominent in the history of his locality in Indiana, holding many official positions of honor and trust. He has for many years been an active member and elder in the Christian church. His home, with his aged companion, is now (1908) on the farm near Becks Grove, Indiana, where they enjoy a competency gained by years of industry and economy.
The early years of the life of Dr. Spurgeon were spent on a farm. He attended the common schools near his home until sixteen years of age. During the following four years he was a student in the Clear Springs Academy, at Salem, Indiana, and at college in Bedford. Indiana. In 1871 he began the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. George H. Chute, of Freetown, Indiana. The following year he entered the PhysioMedical Institute at Cincinnati, Ohio. After one college year in this institution he matriculated as a student in the Physio-Medical College of Indiana, from which he graduated in 1875. He returned to his former preceptor, entered into partnership with him, which relation continued until 1877. Soon after his graduation Dr. Spurgeon was elected to the chair of descriptive and surgical anatomy in the college from which he graduated. He continued a member of the faculty, delivering a course of lectures each year until 1893, when he resigned his professorship in order to devote more time to his practice. In April, 1880, Dr. Spurgeon located in the city of Muncie, Indiana, his present home. He very soon took high rank in the profession. He has been an active member of the Physio-Medical Association of Indiana since 1875, serving one year as its president and contributing largely to its literature. He is a member of the American Association of Physio-Medical Physicians and Surgeons and served as a delegate from that society to the World's Congress of Physicians and Surgeons which met in New York in 1891. He was selected as a delegate from the American Association to the International Congress of Physicians and Surgeons which met in Madrid, Spain, in 1905. He is also a member of the Indiana Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He was appointed a member of the state board of medical registration and examination by Governor Mount in 1897, being twice reappointd to this position by Governors Durbin and Hanly, serving three years as vice president and three years as president of this body. He wrote the constitution and by-laws of the American Confederation of Examining Boards, and took active part in the organization of that body, which is made up of the state medical examining boards of the United States. For a number of years past he has served as president of this organization, in which position he now (1908) continues to serve.
For the most part the Doctor has given his political support to the Republican party. In 1886 he became actively identified with the prohibition movement and made a number of vigorous campaigns in the interest of that party. In 1888 he was its candidate for the legislature; in 1890 for the office of secretary of state. In 1892 he gave his political support to William McKinley and the Republican party, not being in sympathy with the free silver doctrine of the Prohibition and Democratic parties. He is a forcible, fluent and dignified speaker whose honesty cannot fail to impress his hearers.
The doctor was married on August 29, 1872, to Miss Elvira Chute, daughter of his preceptor and partner. Of this union wer£ born three sons and one daughter. The eldest son, George Wiley, and the second son, Alva Osten, died in infancy. .The third son, Orville Elmer, and daughter, Mary Alice, are living in Muncie. The son, Dr. O. E. Spurgeon, is the junior member of the firm of Drs. Spurgeon and Spurgeon and is actively engaged in the practice of medicine. The daughter, Mary, is the wife of Dr. J. M. Quick, of Muncie. Mrs. Spurgeon died at Freetown in the summer of 1878. In the summer of 1883 Dr. Spurgeon was united in marriage to Miss Minerva A. Whitney, daughter of Lafayette Whitney, of Muncie. Of this union there were born five children, Nora June, Olive Fern, Kenneth Albertus, William Chase and Wiley Whitney, all now living in Muncie except the eldest daughter, Nora June, whose death occurred in the summer of 1905.
The doctor early united with the Christian church (Disciples), and has given much time to church work. He was oidained an elder in the First Christian church of Muncie, Indiana, in 1881. It was very largely due to Dr. Spurgeon's efforts that the present magnificent edifice of that denomination was erected in the city of Muncie, he being at the time president of the board of trustees and chairman of the building committee. He drafted the plans and superintended the construction of this splendid edifice.
John Seymour Ellis. One of the most interesting of the prominent characters whose worth and merit have graced the history of Delaware county is to be found in the personnel of John S. Ellis, at this date one of the three commissioners of his county. He is genial and entertaining in manner, bright and keen of intellect, his writings are entertaining, and his education has been supplemented by extensive reading and a wide and varied experience.
The birth of Mr. Ellis occurred in Knox county, Ohio, August 15, 1839, his parents being Robert and Casander (Schweckard) Ellis. The father was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, October n, 1796, and died in Delaware county, Indiana, in December, 1864. He was a son of William and Eleanor Ellis, the former of whom was a native of Montgomeryshire, Wales, and was a soldier in the Colonial army during the American revolution. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Ellis, John Schweckard, was of German lineage, and his daughter, the mother of Mr. Ellis, was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, in 1810, while her death occurred in Delaware county in 1865. With her husband she now lies buried in Beech Grove cemetery at bode in Hamilton township, from whence they removed to the township of Delaware, and there they spent the remainder of their lives. Mr. Ellis was reared a Friend or Quaker, and the mother was for many years a worthy and acceptable member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He gave his political support to the Republican party. During his early life he followed the trade of a stone mason, but his later and the greater part of his life was devoted to farming. In their family were ten children, of whom one daughter died at the age of three years, while the remainder grew to manhood and womanhood.
When a little lad of ten years John Seymour Ellis accompanied his parents on their removal to Delaware county, Indiana, where he completed his educational training, and thereafter taught school for two terms. At the early age of thirteen years he began the battle of life for himself, and four years later he went to Iowa and engaged in herding cattle. One year later, when he had reached his eighteenth year, he took up carpentering, thus continuing for three years, and after his marriage, in 1860, he located two miles south of Muncie and resumed the work of his trade. About four years afterward he moved into Muncie, where for several years he held clerical positions with mercantile concerns, was also a traveling salesman for a time, served as deputy postmaster of Muncie, and has been prominently engaged in newspaper work. Mr. Ellis also served as a justice of the peace for four years, and in 1902 was elected to his present position as a commissioner of Delaware county, to which he was reelected in 1904, and is also vice president of the State Association of County Commissioners. The Republican party receives his active support and cooperation, and his fraternal relations are with the Masonic order, he having served as a member of the building committee during the erection of the Masonic Temple.
Mr. Ellis has been twice married, wedding first, on the 28th of August, 1860, Sina E. Rickard, who was born in Delaware county, Indiana, April 20, 1842, and her death occurred in the city of Detroit, Michigan, July 3, 1895, leaving two children—Fred M., who was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, August 3, 1870, and is now manager of a brewing company in Columbus, Ohio, and Charles H., who was born in Muncie, May 31, 1879, a°d 'ls cashier of the People's National Bank of Muncie. December 17, 1896, Mr. Ellis married Mrs. Milla Sanders, the widow of John F. Sanders, an attorney of Muncie. She was born in this city, Jannuary i. 1845, a daughter of William Barnes, who was one of the first residents of Muncie. His wife, Evaline (Watchell) Barnes, was also a member of a pioneer family.
As has been noted, Mr. Ellis is a writer of ability and note, and has contributed to the public much well-accepted poetry of various thought. He is the author of an interesting work entitled "Songs of. St. Matthew," a metrical paraphrase of the gospel of St. Matthew. He is also the author of a condensed history of Delaware county, Indiana. He is bright and strong in his writings, and is a member of the Association of Western Writers.
J. Harv. Koontz, prominently identified with the agricultural development of Delaware county, was born in Fayette county, Indiana, December 27, 1827. He obtained a good elementary education in the local public schools and later attended the academy. He is a son of Jacob and Debra (Combs) Koontz, both natives of Virginia.
Jacob Koontz, the youngest of a family of four children, was reared in Virginia, and emigrated to Ohio in 1820, settling at Brownsville, where he remained for about five years. Following this he moved to Fayette county, Indiana, and located at Alquina. He moved next to Henry county and in 1829 plotted the town of Middletown, which town developed into a prosperous and successful business community. Mr. Koontz was intimately connected with the industrial and material development of that section of the state until 1850, when he died as a result of the milk sickness, at that time so prevalent. The mother of our subject, after the death of Jacob Koontz, was married to William Doherty, of Ohio. To the first union were born the following children: Alary, Jane, Aclison (deceased), B. Frank, Lorenzo D. and J. Harv., the subject of this sketch. To the latter marriage four children were born: Sarah, Mrs. Guthrie; Isabell; Debra, Mrs. Williams, and B. Frank.
J. Harv. Koontz remained at home until he reached the age of sixteen, when lie decided to strike out for himself, and began chopping wood on the banks of the Ohio river. He had a great variety of experiences on the river, devoting himself to several different lines of work, and in 1871 settled upon the farm where he now resides.
His marriage occurred in 1855 to Miss Anna Brown, a daughter of John B. Brown, a pioneer settler of Delaware county. Her death occurred in 1856. In 1857 he was married for the second time to Miss Amanda E. Shinner, who was born in Madison county, Indiana, in 1840. She was the daughter of Jacob and Catherine Shinner. To this second union five children were born. Through a long residence Mr. Koontz has become well known and enjoys the respect and esteem of all who know him.
Harv M. Koontz, secretary of the Muncie Trust Company and president of the Muncie police commission, is one of the best and most favorably known men in Delaware county, where he was born on the I4th of November, 1863, a son of J. Harv and Amanda (Shinier) Koontz, among the oldest and most highly respected citizens of Mount Pleasant township. There they have spent many years of their active and useful lives, and the father is not only well and prominently known but is also a successful farmer and an diana. Returning thence to his home, he accepted the position of deputy county auditor in 1886, a position he held for one year, and after an intermission of short duration he was again made the deputy in this office, where he remained for about one year more. Mr. Koontz was then variously employed for several years, during which time he was in the abstract and insurance business for a period and was also connected with the Merchants' National Bank for one and a half years. In 1901, when the Muncie Trust Company was organized, he was elected secretary of the organization, and has since been the incumbent of the position. During Mayor Sheritt's administration he served as city comptroller for one and a half years. In politics he has long been active as a Republican, and for two years was chairman of the county central committee, serving well his fellow men whether in political or professional life. His fraternal relations connect him with the order of Knights of Pythias. In 1888 Mr. Koontz married Miss Wynona Long.
Joseph A. Goddard is an honored soldier of the Civil war and a man who for a number of years has held a representative place among the leading business men of Muncie. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, December 17, 1840, his parents being John Henry and Ann (Wilson) Goddard, both natives of England. They left their native land during their childhood days, coming to America, the mother with her parents and the father came when a boy alone, and for a time after his arrival, the father resided in Buffalo, New York, removing thence to Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life. The mother died in 1847, aged thirty-seven. The father's labors were ended in death in 1882, aged seventy-one years.
Joseph A. Goddard attended the public schools in his native state of Ohio until his thirteenth year, when he laid aside his text books and entered upon a six years' apprenticeship at the printer's trade in Ravenna, that state, but after two years gave up the idea of becoming a printer and instead was employed at farm labor until 1858. In that year he went to Cincinnati and entered his uncle's wholesale grocery store, with whom he remained until 1862, when, believing that his country needed his services and putting aside all personal considerations he entered the Fourth Ohio Cavalry as a private soldier. He was promoted and commissioned after six months' service in the ranks, as second lieutenant, first lieutenant and then captain, and was assigned to Company D, the same regiment, on detached service. He continued as a soldier throughout the entire campaign, serving with the Army of the Cumberland and participating in many of the historic battles of the war, including those of Chickamauga and Nashville. In January, 1864, he was made staff quartermaster and aide on General Elliott's staff cavalary and his military career is one of which he may be justly proud, covering as it does a long period of arduous service in his country's cause.
Returning to his home in Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Goddard was there connected with the wholesale grocery trade until his removal to Muncie, Indiana, in 1874. where he began in the retail grocery business in a small way, becoming a member of the firm of Adamson & Goddard. This partnership continued until 1881. when Mr. Adamson took the retail department and Mr. Goddard the wholesale, the latter carrying on business in a little store on South Walnut street between Main and Jackson. With the passing years his trade grew in volume and importance until it became necessary to enlarge its scope. He built and occupied the building southeast corner Walnut and Adams streets. This building becoming too small for his increasing business he removed to Mulberry and Charles streets. In 1905 the magnificent and commodious building on Seymour street which he now occupies was erected. To him has come the attainment of a distinguished position in connection with the business interests of the city. His is truly a successful life, but the success which he has achieved is but the reward of labor and integrity in business.
In 1866 occurred the marriage of Mr. Goddard and Miss Mary Hough, she being a daughter of William Hough, an honored pioneer of Wayne county, Indiana. They have become the parents of three children, one son, William H., who is now in business with his father, and two daughters, Grace and Anna, the former being the wife of C. M. Rich, of Muncie. The family is connected with the Society of Friends, of which Mrs. Goddard is a lifelong member. Mr. Goddard is a member of Williams Post, G. A. R., and the Loyal Legion.
John Rollin Marsh, secretary and chief engineer for the Indiana Bridge Company, began his business career in the employ of this firm August i, 1887, as a civil .engineer, and not long afterward was promoted to the position of chief engineer and later to the secretaryship also. He was born in Muncie, Indiana, January 13. 1863, his parents being John and Mary (Mitchell) Marsh. Mr. Marsh, the father, was born in Preble county, Ohio, August 22, 1811, and in his veins mingled the blood of the Anglo-Saxon with that of the Teutonic race. His father, Timothy Marsh, was the son of John Marsh, who came to this country from England and settled in what is now Germantown, Montgomery county, Ohio, afterward serving in the American army throughout the Revolution. The mother of John Marsh bore the maiden name of Mary Clawson, and was born near the mouth of the Little Miami river, August 22, 1778, and is said to have been the first white child born in the territory of Ohio. She died at the age of ninety years, at the home of her son, Searing Marsh, near Logansport, Indiana, September 15, 1877. Her father was John Clawson, a German, who settled first in Kentucky and afterward in Ohio. He too took part in the American war for independence, and was noted for his sterling character.
John Marsh, the father of John Rollin, was reared under the pioneer conditions of the early days, and therefore obtained but a limited educational training. At the age of seventeen he went to Eaton, Ohio, and served as an apprentice of five years at the hatter's trade, while later he began his career as a business man at Camden, Ohio, as a hatter. He continued there with success up to 1847, when he entefed the dry goods trade, and one year later was elected the treasurer of Preble county. He held the office by re-election for three terms, and in the fall of 1854 removed to Wayne county, Indiana, and became president of the Cambridge City Bank. In 1856 Mr. Marsh became a citizen of Muncie, and at the same time organized the Muncie branch of the State Bank of Indiana, becoming its president. In 1865 this institution was converted into the Muncie National Bank, and he remained its president until 1874, when he sold his interest and retired from business. It was only a short time, however, until he was induced by his friends to organize the Citizens' Bank, in November of the same year, which institution was on the roth of March, 1875, converted into the Citizens' National Bank, and being given his choice of positions he became its cashier, a position he held up to the time of his death, in 1887. He was one of the organizers of the Republican party, and his views were ever afterward in accord with the principles set forth by this party. He became a Master Mason in 1838, and rose to the rank of a Knight Templar, being always active in the order. In 1854 he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and at the time of his death he had been for years a trustee of the organization. Mr. Marsh was twice married. On the 25th of May, 1835, he married Margaret, the daughter of Nathan and Jane (Carr) Mitchell, both natives of Maryland and pioneers of Ohio. Four children were born of this union, and the mother died of cholera in 1849. August 29, 1854, Mr. Marsh married for his second wife Mrs. Mary Mutchner, nee Mitchell, who also bore him four children. She died in 1899. He was well informed, an excellent business man, a public spirited citizen, honest in his dealings, and kind and faithful as a friend, husband and father.
At the time of accepting a position with his present firm John R. Marsh had just graduated from the School of Mines, Columbia College, New York, as a mining engineer, in 1887, having pursued a four years' course. Previous to this, in 1879, ne nad graduated from the Muncie high school. After leaving the high school as a graduate he accepted the position of deputy clerk of the Delaware county circuit court, while later he became deputy county recorder, in both of which positions he served several terms under different officers, proving himself a very efficient and capable assistant. In his present position of secretary and chief engineer of the Indiana Bridge Company, he has attained a thorough and intricate knowledge of civil engineering, having few equals in this line in the entire state, and he is well and favorably known among experts in his profession.
On the 5th of August, 1889, Mr. Marsh married Miss Susie Ryan, daughter of John W. and Lida (Jenkins) Ryan, of Muncie. Both he and his wife are members of the Episcopal church, and in politics he is a Republican. He was for some years a member of the "Library Board," and was secretary of the committee that had charge of the building of the elegant library building. He was also a member of the board of park commissioners at the time that Mr. McCulloch donated the McCulloch Park, and it was this board that developed the park and made all the improvements that have been made to the present time.
Source: A twentieth century history of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume 2 By General William Harrison Kemper
Washington Maynard came here with his parents, and remained with them until the age of twenty four; receiving a good common, school education as he grew up. At the age named, he owned forty acres of land in Harrison Township, which he sold, and bought the same amount in section 29 in Washington Township. Here he lived until 1868, and then moved to New Corner, and engaged in mercantile business for fourteen months, at the expiration of which time he sold out and moved back to the farm. Here he remained until 1891, and then again moved to New Corner, where he now lives, and is a notary; having been a justice of the peace for twelve years, he is very familiar with all kinds of legal forms.
Mr. Maynard was married September 24, 1860, to Martha J. Thompson, daughter of David and Melinda (Davis) Thompson. She was born January 10, 1842, in Delaware County. Her father was born October 27, 1817, and her mother May 13, 1820, in Butler County, Ohio, and came to this county in 1840, where Mr. Thompson engaged in farming up to 1872. In this year, he removed his family to Muncie, where he now lives a quiet retired life. He and his wife are members of the Church of God. In politics, he is a prohibitionist, and is very earnest in his support of that party. Mr. Maynard is the father of the following children: Mary Alice, George Thomas, and Munroe, deceased; John and Sherman. He and wife are members of the Methodist Church, both identifying themselves with the church in early life. Mr. Maynard is a trustee in the church and superintendent of the Sunday school. In politics he is a prohibitionist, and firmly believes that party is necessary to the salvation of the country.
Abbott L. Johnson. In the history of Muncie's manufacturing interests, A. L. Johnson is one of the very few whose activity in an important way goes back to the years before the natural gas boom. Having identified himself with the lumber business and manufacturing while Muncie was a city of five thousand people, he has remained here during the subsequent quarter of a century, and the history of this period records his name and influence in connection with every important public undertaking by which the welfare of Muncie has been promoted. Having a prosperous business of his own at the time natural gas was discovered, he at once joined in the public-spirited movement to secure outside capital and enterprise for Muncie, and was actively connected with all the organizations during the early years of Muncie's industrial boom, including the Enterprise Company, the Real Estate Exchange, and later the board of trade. In the history of the last quarter century of Muncie, elsewhere in this work, Mr. Johnson's name is often mentioned with the events of that period, and in this sketch of his career it is necessary only to summarize the main facts of his life.
The family has been resident of Muncie since 1881, when the parents. Henry I. and Eliza (Ferguson) Johnson, who were both natives of New York state, came to this city, where the father lived until his death in 1881. The father was a farmer, but had lived retired in Ashtabula, Ohio, from 1864 until coming to Muncie. Abbott L. Johnson was born in Herkimer county, New York, August 26, 1852, and spent most of his youth in Ashtabula, where he attended the public schools. His first experience in business was with a bent-wood works at Ashtabula, and in 1873, at the age of twenty-one, he was sent to Bluffton, Indiana, to erect machinery and put into operation the bent-wood works which was later acquired by J. H. Smith & Company, and a few years later moved to Muncie. Mr. Johnson moved to Montpelier, where he remained two years, having formed a partnership with J. T. Arnold in conducting an extensive lumber business, under the firm name of A. L. Johnson & Company. This firm established business in Muncie in 1878, and in this way Mr. Johnson became connected with Muncie both as a business man and as a resident. In 1883, in company with W. E. Hitchcock (now president of the Delaware County National Bank), he began the manufacture of skewers, and for many years this enterprise has been an important factor of Muncie's industrial resources. In 1885 Mr. Johnson entered into an active partnership with his brother, the late J. C. Johnson, and together they conducted their lumber and other interests for many years.
With the development of Muncie after the gas boom, Mr. Johnson extended his connection to many other important interests. He is a stockholder of the Muncie Waterworks Company. In the real estate development of Muncie, he is known as the owner of Johnson's first and second additions, and is also interested in Gray's addition, which is one of the best in Muncie. Mr. Johnson is a man of active and progressive citizenship, and as a member of the older group of successful business men is closely identified with the life and affairs of Muncie. His residence on East Washington street is one of the stately and elegant homes of Muncie. In social affairs and the various movements in the interest of culture and practical philanthropy he and his family have taken an active part. He is a prominent Mason, being a member of chapter, commandery, Mystic Shrine and Scottish Rite. The family are members of the Baptist church, in which he has served as deacon and trustee. Mr. Johnson married, in 1872, Miss Florence Merriman, a daughter of Charles Merriman, of Ashtabula, Ohio.
Harry R. Wysor. Many years have passed since the Wysor family became identified with the interests of Delaware county, and its various members have won for the name an enviable distinction by their true worth of character. One of the most important factors in the upbuilding of Muncie was Jacob H. Wysor, the father of Harry, who was connected with many of its leading enterprises, and at all times was a public-spirited, progressive citizen, whose support was never withheld from measures that advanced the public welfare. He was born in Montgomery county, Virginia. December 6, 1819, of German ancestry, his father dying before his birth, and he was an only child. In 1835 he came to Delaware county, Indiana, where he received an excellent education, and in time became one of its foremost business men. In 1841 he embarked in the grocery and dry goods business at Muncie, and although many obstacles barred his path to success, his indomitable energy and perseverance enabled him to surmount them all, and with the passing years prosperity rewarded his efforts. In 1843 he turned his attention to the milling business, but in 1849 the glittering gold fields of California lured him to the Pacific coast, and, abandoning his business, joined the rush thither, meeting with many adventures in his journeyings and in his search for the precious metal, and finally returned to his home in Muncie in 1852. Two years later, in partnership with John Jack, Mr. Wysor built the large grist mill which has ever since been one of Muncie's leading institutions, and after the death of his partner in 1858 the firm's name remained the same His memory is enshrined in the hearts of those who knew him. In his early manhood he married Sarah Richardson, also a native of the Old Dominion of Virginia.
Harry R. Wysor, a son of this honored Muncie couple, was born in this city on the i8th of April, 1858, and received an excellent educational training in its public schools and the Smithson College of Logansport. With his education completed he became associated with the Wysor & Hibbets Milling Company, while in 1881 he took charge of the old opera house, and now owns and manages the Wysor Grand. In addition he owns the Wysor Block, completed in 1906, and it is one of the finest business blocks in eastern Indiana. He ably superintends the many interests of his father. His business career thus far on the journey of life has also been crowned with success. He has made good use of his opportunities, conducting all business matters carefully and systematically, and at the same time he takes an active interest in the welfare of his native city and the city which his father was so instrumental in developing. He served as a member of its city council from 1885 to 1888. and from 1882 until 1884 was a member of its school board.
In 1884 Mr. Wysor was united in marriage to Miss Jennie, a daughter of William Kemper, of Muncie, and they have two daughters, Sarah and Mary. Mr. Wysor has fraternal relations with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Independent Order of Red Men and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Judge J. G. Leffler. a prominent attorney of Muncie, and well known throughout this section of the state in connection with his profession, is one of Delaware county's native sons, born in Hamilton township on the 26th of December, 1864, a son of Philip and Mary (Garick) Leffler, both of whom were born in Ohio. They were, however, brought to Indiana by their famih'es when children, the mother dying when her son, the Judge, was but a little lad of four years. Mr. Philip Leffler, as did his father, also named Philip, followed the tilling of the soil as a life occupation, the elder Mr. Leffler having purchased large tracts of land from the government, and in addition to its cultivation carried on the tanner's trade. He was very successful in his business operations, and both he and his son became prominent in the early life of their section of the Hoosier state. Mr. Leffler, the father of the Judge, was an active worker in the ranks of the Republican party, and served as a loyal and faithful soldier in the Civil war from 1863 until the close of the conflict.
Judge Leffler was reared as a farmer's boy, receiving his primary education in the district schools near his home, this being later supplemented by attendance at the Danville Normal, but he is largely self-educated. At the age of eighteen years he began teaching, spending four years in the Center school of Hamilton township, and in 1884 entered upon the study of the profession which he had determined as his life occupation, his first legal reading being under the instructions of W. W. Orr and J. E. Mellette.
Four years later, in 1888, he was admitted to the bar, and at once came to the front in his profession, for no dreary novitiate awaited him, and from that time to the present his name has been inseparably interwoven with the legal profession in Delaware county. In 1890 the Republican party, of which he has ever been an active and efficient worker, made him the county prosecuting attorney, to which office he was returned in 1892, and later was elected to the high position of circuit judge, being its present incumbent. In 1890 the Judge was united in marriage to Laura, a daughter of Joseph Emerson. His fraternal relations connect Judge Leffler with the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Red Men, and he is also a member of the Sons of Veterans, while his religious affiliations are with the Baptist church, of which he is a valued member. Although in the main self-educated, he is a scholarly man, profound lawyer, an able judge, and is an unassuming, genial and popular citizen.
The Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, like most of our largest manufacturing concerns, was started in a small way, and has been built up by hard work and untiring energy.
The five brothers, founders and present owners of the business, Edmund B., Frank C, William C., Lucius L. and George A., were all born on a farm in Trumbull county, Ohio. While they were all young their father moved to Canandaigua, New York state, where he engaged in the mercantile business and where at the academy they all received their education. Soon after their father's death they all moved to Buffalo and started into the manufacturing of sheet metal specialties, which, in time, called for the use of large quantities of glass, which for a time they purchased in the market. Being unable to get satisfactory service in their purchases, as their demand grew they decided to make the glass themselves, and so erected a furnace in Buffalo, and were operating it when natural gas was first discovered in Ohio and Indiana. Appreciating the advantage that the gas for fuel would be to them, they built at Muncie a furnace, which they ran for awhile as a branch of their Buffalo plant, but gradually they removed one department after another of the Buffalo plant to Muncie and finally abandoned the Buffalo factory entirely. They rapidly increased the capacity of the Munice plant and then acquired plants at other points, so they are now operating factories at Marion, Indiana, Belleville, Illinois, and Coffeyville, Kansas.
The "Ball-Mason" fruit jar, known throughout the whole country, cannot he measured. Many business concerns and moral enterprises owe their excellence and progress largely to his influence. He was in touch with the people, and from a sincere and deep-felt interest in their welfare labored for all that would prove of public benefit until the busy and useful life was ended.
A native of Bracken county, Kentucky, born in 1822, he in 1831, when a little lad of nine years, removed with his father, Anderson Patterson, to Clearmont county, Ohio, locating on a farm near the old General Grant homestead, and there the little son developed and grew to sturdy manhood. In 1838 he entered upon a three years' apprenticeship at the tinsmith's trade, later removing to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he served a year at copper and bright work, and then during the following three years was employed as a journeyman. About this time Mr. Patterson engaged in business on Front street, Cincinnati, establishing the firm of Patterson & Conley, which continued to transact a large and important business until a fire destroyed their plant in 1847. Their insurance had expired the day previous, and thus everything was lost, their loss amounting to about five thousand dollars. After all debts were paid Mr. Patterson went to St. Louis, there to begin anew the battle of life, and on the I5th of May, 1850, having accumulated eight hundred dollars from his hard-earned savings in St. Louis, came to Muncie and invested his capital, at the same time establishing the firm of Patterson & Sample, his partner being Charles P. Sample, and under their skillful management their interests grew and branched out until in 1855 they purchased the Neal McCullough hardware store, reorganizing it and enlarging the hardware department, also adding farm implements of all kinds. With the passing years they became very successful in their ventures, and in 1867 they sold their store to George Seitz, and, going to Indianapolis, formed a company and erected a large blast furnace at Brazil, Indiana, Mr. Patterson superintending the construction of the plant, also sunk a coal shaft and built two miles of railroad, having during that time four hundred men under his direct supervision. After one and a half years had passed, however, he and Mr. Sample returned to Muncie, repurchasing the stock of Mr. Seitz, and they continued in the business until the death of Mr. Sample in 1873, while in the following year Mr. Patterson sold his interest in the business to Mr. Shirk and embarked in the brokerage and private banking business in partnership with Theodore J. Riley. After the latter's death Mr. Patterson devoted his attention to his real estate interests, building, developing, etc., and to his untiring efforts Muncie is largely indebted for much of her present prosperity. He held a high position in business circles in the community for many years, and his activity in that direction justly entitles him to be numbered among the founders of the city, for it is those who promote commercial and industrial activity who are the real builders of a place.
In 1855 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Patterson and Samantha Collier, a daughter of Samuel R. Collier, a well-known citizen of Delaware county, and two children bless this union. The daughter. Cora P.. is the wife of George F. McCullouch. Although Mr. Patterson has passed away, many pleasant memories of him are enshrined in the hearts of his friends, and his influence for good remains with those who knew him.
George H. Koons. The ancestors of George H. Koons emigrated from North Carolina to Indiana at an early day. They were farmers, honest, thrifty, and hospitable, possessing the common virtues of that class.
George H. Koons was bom in Blue River township, Henry county, Indiana, April 2, 1848. He is the son of Peter and Catherine (Rinard) Koons, and the eldest of a family of seven. His boyhood days were spent at home on the farm. His education was begun in the district schools and continued in the New Castle Academy and later in the Indiana University at Dloomington. He taught in the country schools during the winter while yet a student in the New Castle Academy. After completing his course of study there he accepted the position of superintendent of the schools of Middletown. Henry county, Indiana, where he demonstrated his thoroughness and capacity as an instructor and superintendent, raised the standard of the schools and made them a pronounced success. He read law with Brown and Polk, attorneys at New Castle, afterward entering the law department of the State University, from which, in a class of thirty-three, he graduated with honors, receiving his degree of LL. B. in 1871.
After leaving the university he continued the study of law under the instruction and guidance of Hon. Jehu T. Elliot at New Castle for a time, and then began the practice of law in Middletown, Henry county. In 1874 he removed to Muncie, where he has since lived practicing his profession, with the exception of six years, during which time he served as judge of the Delaware circuit court. He is ranked among the best lawyers of the state. His success was not immediate, but came as a result of patient industry, painstaking, intelligent effort.
In politics he is a Republican, with decidedly liberal and independent proclivities. He never in any way encouraged nor countenanced corrupt methods in politics and has steadfastly condemned all corrupt uses of money, often expressing the view that "the corruption of the ballot is a traitorous crime for which there is neither excuse nor palliation." In 1880 he was a candidate for the nomination by his party for the state legislature, but was defeated by the Hon. John W. Ryan. In 1892 he defeated the Hon. James N. Templer at the Republican primary election for the nomination of judge of the Delaware circuit court of Indiana, and was elected to that office, in which he served from 1892 to 1898, discharging his official duties with the diligence, ability, courage and dignity expected of him. He ranked high as a judge. Being conscientious in devotion to duty and just in judgment his decisions were well considered and rarely reversed. He declined to accept "railroad passes" and never used nor traveled on one. He was defeated for renomination by the Hon. Joseph G. Leffler, the present incumbent. Since his retirement from the bench he has ^een diligently engaged in the practice of law in the circuit, appellate and supreme courts of the state, and in the federal courts. He has long been recognized as an able advocate and wise counsellor.
He is a man of broad humanitarian views, thoroughly democratic in bearing, and in close sympathy with his fellow-men, a lover of all that is noblest and best in humanity, a Unitarian in belief and deeply imbued with the philosophy and teachings of Emerson, though a regular attendant at the Universalist church of Muncie. At college he belonged to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He was a charter member of "The Literary and Scientific Association" of Muncie, out of which ultimately was developed the Ethical Society, of which he was for a time president. For many years he has been a member of the State Bar Association of Indiana, and is a charter member of the Muncie Bar Association and its present president.
He was married September 6, 1871, to Josinah V. Hickman, daughter of William H. and Clarissa (Williams) Hickman. Four children have blessed their home, three of whom are Clarissa K., Rebecca E. and George Hickman Koons. Mary Maud, the eldest, passed away at the age of fourteen months and ten days. He is a kind, indulgent husband and father. He is true to his friends and forgiving and forbearing toward all, knowing that "Kindness is a language the dumb can speak, and the deaf can hear and understand."
Hon. George Washington Cromer, member of congress from the Eighth district of Indiana and a lawyer of much renown, was born in Madison county, Indiana, May 13, 1856, his parents being Josiah and Mary (Shultz) Cromer, who were natives of Maryland and Indiana, respectively. In 1857 they established their home, in Salem township, Delaware county, Indiana, their son George being then a mere child, and on the home farm there, for his father was a farmer, he was reared. His early educational training was received in the schools of Salem township, where he also taught for three terms, and he then entered \Vittenberg College of Springfield, Ohio. He next matriculated in the State University at liloomington. Indiana, from which he graduated in 1882 with the degree of A. M.
During a short time after his graduation Mr. Cromer edited the Muncie Times, and he then read law and began the practice of his chosen profession in 1886 at Muncie, which city has ever since been his home and the scene of his activities. His political career began with his professional, for in the same year in which he began the practice of law he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Forty-sixth judicial circuit of Indiana, to which position he was re-elected in 1888. The duties of this office he discharged in a manner highly creditable to himself and satisfactory alike to his friends and those who opposed him politically. In 1892 he was made the chairman of the County Central Committee and a member of the State Republican Committee for the Sixth congressional district. Two years later, in 1894, Mr. Cromer was elected to the highest office within the gift of the people of the city, that of mayor, while his services were next called into requisition by an election, in 1898, to the Fifty-sixth congress. He served with much ability in this high office, and two years later was re-elected to congress, and again to the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth congresses. Thus Mr. Cromer has not alone attained prestige and success in the practice of his profession, but has been conspicuously identified with many interests which have subserved the material prosperity of Indiana, proving a valuable factor in the legislative and political councils of his state.
He married, in 1895, Miss Fannie J. Soule, of Chicago. Illinois.
George W. Maring. Concerning the glass manufacturing firm of Maring, Hart & Company, who were among the early manufacturers to locate in Muncie after the natural gas boom, much has been said on other pages of this history. The third member of this firm, George W. Maring, has been identified with Muncie as a citizen since 1888, and he belongs with that notable group of business men who, during the last twenty years, have built Muncie from a town to a city. Until the discontinuance of the window glass industry in this city, he was actively connected with those interests, and his company also conducted two bottle plants at Dunkirk. A few years ago he sold his interests, and though since retired from the industrial affairs of his city, he is active in financial and civic matters. He was one of the organizers of the Merchants National Bank of Muncie.
Before coming to Muncie in 1888 Mr. Maring had spent most of his life in his native state of Ohio, where, in Monroe county, he was born August 15, 1843. His parents, Peter and Edith (Davis) Maring, were also natives of Ohio and spent their lives in that state, the father being" a carpenter. Reared in Somerton, Belmont county, George W. Maring was pursuing an apprenticeship in the harness and saddle-maker's trade when the war broke out, and finally unable to resist the call of duty, he enlisted, August 16, 1862, in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio Infantry, and served throughout the conflict until he received an honorable discharge on March 23, 1865, together with a surgeon's certificate of disability. At the time of his discharge he was serving as corporal and color guard of the regiment. He saw hard service, but was not Ohio. Three years later he removed to Chillicothe, Missouri, and engaged as clerk in the drug business. After about two years in the drug trade he engaged as traveling salesman for the wholesale glass firm of J. M. Maring & Company, in which occupation he spent about seven years. About this time the firm of J. M. Maring & Company was reorganized under the firm name of Maring, Hart & Company, the firm being composed of J. M. Maring, T. F. Hart and George W. Maring.
While engaged in this business he was located at Bellaire, Ohio, a flourishing center of the glass trade during the eighties. After the discovery of gas about Muncie, this town became well advertised to all the manufacturers of Ohio, especially the glass makers, who found in the Magic City a veritable Eldorado for their industry. Mr. Maring and his associates were among those attracted to this city, and his energy and enterprise were important contributions to the increasing greatness of the city. Mr. Maring married, in 1877, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Van Scoyoc of Pennsylvania.
W. E. Hitchcock. The men of influence in this age are the enterprising, progressive representatives of commerce, and to such ones advancement and progress are due. Mr. Hitchcock has the mental poise and calm judgment to successfully guide and control large business affairs, and at the same time he has a keen appreciation of the ethics of commercial life, so that he not only commands the respect of his fellow-men for his uprightness, but also excites their admiration by his splendid abilities.
Mr. Hitchcock was born in Meriden, Connecticut, January 30, 1859, one of the two children of E. A. and Mary A. (Greene) Hitchcock. Removing with his parents to Ashtabula, Ohio, he received a good practical English education in its public schools, and at the early age of fifteen years he became a teller in an Ashtabula bank, continuing to successfully discharge the duties of that important office for several years. From 1876 until 1879 he served as a bookkeeper for the Meriden Britannia Company, and then returned to Ashtabula to assist his father in, his large manufacturing enterprise, which in 1884 they removed to Muncie and formed a partnership with A. L. and J. C. Johnson. Mr. Hitchcock is now the sole manager of this extensive concern, and in discharging his duties he has displayed splendid executive power and keen discrimination, and is widely recognized as a most capable business man. His interests, however, are many and varied, and he is also serving as the president of the Delaware County National Bank, the Muncie Savings and Loan Company, and is a director in the Muncie Trust Company, the Muncie Electric Light Company, and an officer in several manufacturing corporations, and many others of the leading institutions of the city owe their existence and subsequent prosperity to his wonderful ability. His name' is indissolubly connected with the public annals of Delaware county, for he is an active worker in the ranks of the Republican part}', and as its representative has held many positions of honor and trust. He was for several years president of the Metropolitan Police Board of the city, and is known as one of the most honorable public men in Muncie. His fraternal connections are with the Masonic order. He also served as colonel on the staff of Governor Durbin during his term of office.
On the 3Oth of September, 1885, Mr. Hitchcock was united in marriage to Miss Estelle Morehouse of Muncie.
Charles Henry Church has been a resident of Muncie since March, 1887, at which time he removed to the city from New London, Ohio, and soon thereafter assisted in organizing the Delaware County Bank, a state institution. He was chosen as cashier, and in that position continued until in 1892 it was succeeded by the Delaware County National Bank, when he was made its cashier, and has continued as such for the period of twenty years in the same location. His career as a banker dates from 1872, when he organized the First National Bank at New London, Ohio, and was selected as vice-president and manager, continuing until his removal to this city. In 1888 Mr. Church became the organizer and charter member of the Muncie Savings and Loan Company, was made its treasurer, in which position he still remains. As an indication of his banking qualifications, he was invited to assist in the organization of the Indiana Bankers' Association, and was one of the charter members, numbering about twenty-five. It now numbers over four hundred members, and during the year 1906 Mr. Church was selected and served as president of the institution.
Mr. Church is a native of New York, born in Chenango county, in a small hamlet called Church Hollow, named in honor of the Church family. A postoffice was established under that name, with William Church, his father, as postmaster, and who was also a merchant for many years in that section. Mr. Church received the usual academic education in his native county, and engaged in the mercantile business for several years, in fact, mercantile and banking interests have engaged his attention from boyhood, and throughout his active business career he has always enjoyed the deserved confidence of all with whom he has been associated. In the interests of Muncie he has always taken an active part and in various ways contributed to its progress and upbuilding. While an ardent supporter of the Republican party, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, he has never sought political preferment.
At the age of twenty-six he was united in marriage to Miss Lou Tyler, a daughter of Henry P. and Ann Tyler of Norwalk, Ohio. They have two children, William and Ernest, both of age, one engaged in business at Muncie and the youngest, Ernest, at the University of Indiana. Mr. Church has been quite active as a Mason in the Masonic orders, and at present is treasurer of the Muncie Comnianclery of Knights Templar.
James Boyce, of Muncie, Indiana, was born near Belfast, Ireland, April. 7, 1833. His parents, Hugh and Margaret (Wilson) Boyce, of Scotch descent, were also born there. He received a common school education from six to twelve years and became very proficient in his studies, helping the teacher during the last year. After leaving school at that age he worked in a linen factory for four years at eight cents a day of twelve hours. At this time, October 8, 1848, he suffered the loss of his mother, leaving him virtually an orphan, owing to the destitution of his family, his father being a drunkard. He still continued to work in the same factory, receiving nine cents a day without board, and subsisting on cornmeal mush and buttermilk twenty-one meals per week. He was taken to France to educate the French boys in his line, starting at fifteen cents per day and rapidly advancing to eighty-three cents. After remaining there for two years he again returned to Belfast and stayed there for nearly two years. He was then solicited to take charge of a number of expert girl linen spinners that were employed for a linen factory in Lile de Flanders, and so returned to France. Working at this for a few months and finding himself out of employment and longing to get back to St. Germains, where he first worked, he walked from Lile de Flanders to St. Germains, a distance of three hundred miles, where he was gladly welcomed by his old employer, who placed him to work. Arriving at the age of twenty-one, tired of his every-day work, he went to Havre intending to enlist in the British navy for the Crimean war, but providentially he was otherwise persuaded to go to the United States as a sailor. Obeying the advice of his good Samaritan he shipped as an ordinary seaman to New York, arriving there after a tedious voyage of nine weeks. There being no linen factories in this country he was compelled to accept any kind of labor, and his first job was driving a team on the Erie canal, but afterward he received employment in a flax mill at Little Falls, New York, which at twenty-three dollars per month led to his success. Having become an expert in this new line in the flax business, he was engaged for one year at fifty dollars per month at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. There Mr. Boyce became acquainted and married Miss Eliza McKennet, a lady of Scotch-Irish descent, April 5, 1857. Soon after his marriage he engaged in the flax business for himself in a small way, about ten miles from Cuyahoga Falls, but in a few weeks his dam washed away and not being able to build up again he went to Newton Falls, Ohio, and finding employment in his line remained about two years. At this time, taking Horace Greeley's advice, he started for Shakkoppee, Scott county. Minnesota, with his wife and child, and two hundred and fifty dollars in money. Not being able to find employment or buy a home he left his wife and child there for a time and went to Greenville, Mississippi, and working at ditching he cleared thereby three hundred and five dollars. lie then returned to Minnesota and bought eighty acres of land and all the flaxseed obtainable in the drug stores in St. Paul and Minneapolis and sowed the first two acres of flax sown in Minnesota. But not being able to purchase machinery to scutch it in the fall he left his family again temporarily and went to Newton Falls and returned home again in the early spring with two hundred and ten dollars to show for the winter's work, working fifteen hours a day five days in the week and nineteen hours on Saturday. On his arrival he sowed twenty acres and then proceeded to construct a breaking and scutching machine and horse power of his own invention, cutting the logs from his own woods, giving one-half of the lumber for sawing and one-half of the other half for the carpenter work. With this he scutched the twenty acres, and when ready for shipment it was valued at about twenty-five hundred dollars. The fire fiend destroyed the warehouse, together with all his farm product, dwelling, furniture and nearly all the family clothing, and, as he carried no insurance, it left him nothing but his farm. But his misfortunes on the frontier had only begun. The next spring typhoid fever entered his family, taking his wife and one child, leaving him with two children to commence the world anew. Mr. Boyce then sold everything left and returned to Ohio and bought one-third interest in a flax factory in Alliance, and after two months purchased the other two-thirds, and later sold out for the sum of two thousand dollars. With this he moved his family to Wooster, Ohio, and purchased one-fourth interest in a flax factory, and later bought another fourth, making half interest, but at the end of two years fire wiped out the profits for the two years, there being no insurance. Building it up again, better than ever before, at the end of the fourth year he sold out for ten thousand dollars. With this he moved his all to Muncie, arriving on the 4th of July, 1870, being the first individual coming into town with that amount of money. Commencing the first factory in a small way, inventing and manufacturing labor-saving machines, he soon became the largest flaxbagging manufacturer in the world. He afterwards installed D. handle machinery, and produced more of such handles than any other concern in the world. Mr. Boyce engaged in many other lines of legitimate and speculative enterprises, namely, the manufacture of shoe rivets, and baskets, oil and mining operations. During his first fourteen years he suffered many losses by fire.
Mr. Boyce has found time, notwithstanding his business cares, to discharge official duties. His first office was chairman of the board of county commissioners of Scott county, Minnesota. He was three times elected councilman from the Fourth ward in Muncie. He has taken all the degrees of Odd Fellowship, passing through both chairs, and all in the Masonic fraternity up to the Shrine, and is now a member of the Elks and a charter pany, capitalized at two hundred thousand dollars, during its existence of eight years, whose history is elsewhere given. Mr. Boyce was first in every new improvement, putting in his residence the first bath tub, steam heating plant, street lighting, and also built the first electric light plant; had the first lawnmower, and many other minor matters too numerous to mention.
Mr. Boyce's first wife died June i, 1865. He was married in Alliance, Ohio, January 7, 1866, to Mrs. Eliza Shaffer, who died April 18, 1875, leaving him with a family of seven children. He married July 10, 1875, Miss Margaret Mohler, by whom he has two children. Of his eleven children seven survive, three sons and four daughters.
We seldom see such perseverance through difficulties, such buoyancy of spirit under such heavy afflictions and such fertility of resources in repairing losses. All advantages seem to have been withheld, and overtaken by many disasters, he has succeeded only, as it were, by wresting success from the grasp of fate. Through life his motto has been, great hope, no fear. The force of his character is manifest in the fact that while he manages his private affairs with such ability, he yet has sufficient mental power to act with effect in other situations. While being retired from active business at seventy-five, he is physically and mentally sound and still takes a fatherly interest in city affairs for the mutual interest.
Stafford B. Perdiue, the sheriff of Delaware county, is one of the most popular and efficient officials of the county, and is also a representative of one of the honored early families of this section of the state. His father, the Rev. Abner Perdiue was born, reared and married in Guilford county, North Carolina, there receiving his educational training, and was fitted for the Methodist ministry. When only seventeen years of age he began preaching, continuing his ministerial labors in North Carolina and Virginia until 1831, when he removed with his family to Indiana, stopping for a few years in Henry county and then removing to Delaware county. On his arrival here he entered land from the government two miles west of Muncie, where he improved an excellent farm, carrying on his agricultural labors in addition to his ministerial work, and in his later life was also engaged in merchandising at Tabor and Gaston. After his removal to Indiana he transferred his labors from the Methodist Episcopal to the Protestant Methodist church, and to him belongs the honor of having organized and started most of the churches of that denomination in Henry and Delaware counties. He also taught in the early schools of this county. Rev. Perdiue was an ex cellent orator, well versed in theology, and he officiated at more funerali and solemnized more marriages than any other minister in this section oi the state. Though many years have elapsed since his death in February, 1875, the influence of his conscientious, just career, his kindly, generous heart and sympathetic manner abides. Mrs. Perdiue bore the maiden name nf Frances Finlay and was a native of Delaware county.
Among the native sons of Delaware county is numbered Stafford B. Perdiue, whose birth occurred in Monroe township on the 26th of January, 1868, and in its public schools he received the educational training which fitted him for life's responsible duties. During the first years of his active business career he followed agricultural pursuits, but at the age of nineteen years engaged in the barber business in Muncic, and in November, 1905, was elected to the office of sheriff of Delaware county, the duties of which he has since discharged in a satisfactory and commendable manner. Since reaching mature years he has been a zealous worker in the ranks of the Republican party, and is at all times a loyal and public-spirited citizen, actively interested in all measures advanced for the good of the people.
In 1888 Mr. Perdiue was married to Miss Hattie B. Kiger, a daughter of Charles Kiger, of Delaware county, and their only daughter is Charlotte F. Mr. Perdiue holds membership relations with the Delaware lodge of Masons, and is a worthy member of the Methodist church.
Robe Carl White, believed to be the youngest postmaster that Muncie has ever had, is a good example of what determination to win will do, and of how obstacles to progress may really be blessings in disguise. Truth to tell, however, he was not born in a log cabin, as persons who succeed in life are supposed to be, but instead he first saw the light of day in his parents' substantial frame dwelling in Delaware county, and during his early years pursued the common life of a Hoosier schoolboy. In his life thus far he has seen much of hard work and study, something of adventure and considerable of success.
Mr. White is the son of Samuel S. and Mary (Andrews) White, both of whom were natives of Indiana and the former of whom is still alive and living north of Muncie, a respected pioneer of the county. His mother died in March, 1905. His father, who came to Delaware county in 1836, where he has lived most of the time since, once served as county commissioner.
Robe Carl White was born on the old family homestead near Muncie on August 27, 1869, and was not yet thirty-eight years old, therefore, when he became postmaster of Muncie in March, 1907. Previous to his becoming postmaster he had been city attorney of Muncie, resigning that position to accept the postmastership. and had been prominently identified with the Republican politics of the city, county and district before holding any public office. Mr. White attended the district schools of Delaware county and the city schools of Muncie until he was fourteen years old, at which time, in 1883, he accompanied his parents to lola, Kansas. There he continued his education and was graduated from the lola high school after completing a Tiring of this life, however, and being ambitious to succeed more rapidly than he believed was possible as a country school teacher, he joined the great rush into Oklahoma in 1889—the rush that has become historic. There was something dramatic and appealing in this rush as a result of which towns with thousands of inhabitants sprang up in a single night from barren prairies, and it fired Mr. White's imagination, as it did that of many another. The Scott brothers, friends of White, one of whom is now Congressman Charles F. Scott, of Kansas, had resolved to start the first newspaper in Oklahoma, and White was asked to become a reporter for it, a position he accepted with alacrity. The rush into the territory began at noon one day and that same night the Scott brothers issued from a tent the first copy of the first newspaper in the territory, the Oklahoma Journal, on the site of Oklahoma City. In a few days the paper was in its own building, and for months, during which the Scott brothers fairly rolled in wealth, while their job presses ran night and day, Mr. White acted as head reporter for the Journal. But after he had participated for a year in the strenuous western newspaper life the old desire to continue his education again took possession of him. He had managed to save a little money, and with it went to Chicago, where he took a course in Bryant & Stratton's Business College, from which he was graduated in the spring of 1890. It was the business experience gained in Chicago that enabled him to realize his cherished aim, the taking of a college course. By means of it he was enabled to secure employment as an accountant while he was taking a law course of four yeara in the University of Minnesota. He was graduated from the university in, 1896. Mr. White was then offered a scholarship in Hobart College, New York, but financial reasons prevented his accepting the offer. It had become necessary for him to do something to bring in a greater income than he had been receiving.
For the three years following his graduation Mr. White practiced law successfully in St. Paul, Minnesota, and then came to Muncie, after his many years of absence, and formed a partnership with Ira J. Young, under the firm name White & Young, this partnership continuing until 1906, when Mr. White became identified with the administration of Mayor Leonidas A. Guthrie as city attorney. Then he was appointed by the president to be postmaster of Muncie on the joint recommendation of Senators Beveridge and Hemenway, of Indiana, his appointment coming just before the dedication of the handsome new federal building in Muncie, of which he is now, by reason of his office, custodian.
But while Mr. White's life has largely been one of business activity, he has not neglected altogether the social side of it. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of the Independent Order of Red Men and of the Modern Woodmen of America.
He was married in 1896 to Miss Agnes L. McSorley, of Red Wing. Minnesota, where the marriage ceremony was performed.
H. C. Raymond. One of the leading citizens and influential business men of Muncie is H. C. Raymond, who is now serving as vice president of the Delaware County National Bank and in many other ways is connected with the leading interests of the county. His birth occurred near Fairmont, West Virginia, May 4, 1852, and in that commonwealth his parents, Octavius and Elizabeth (Fleming) Raymond, were also born. The father died when his son H. C. was but nine months old, and when a lad of seventeen years, in 1869, he came to Muncie to make his home with his brother, who was engaged in agricultural pursuits in Delaware county. Completing his education in the schools of this city, Mr. Raymond taught for nine years in the country schools, after which he abandoned the professional for a mercantile life and for a time was engaged in merchandising at Cowan, Indiana. He was next employed as a salesman for the firm of Chandler & Taylor, of Indianapolis, and a short time afterwards entered upon his long connection with the Indiana Bridge Company, with which he was associated for eighteen years. In 1905 Mr. Raymond was made the vice president of the Delaware County National Bank, which is regarded as one of the most reliable financial concerns in this part of the state, and its constantly growing business attests its popularity. He is also interested in other enterprises, being a director of the Muncie Trust & Savings Company and the Mutual Home and Savings Association; he is also the present city comptroller, and for seven years has served as a member of the city council, while for two' terms he has been a member of the school board. He is progressive and resolute in all his transactions, and as the result of his capable management he has gained a place among the substantial citizens and most highly *.steemed business men of his county.
Mr. Raymond was united in marriage in 1877 to Margaret A. Louthain, of Indiana, and they have four sons. He holds membership relations with the Masonic order in Muncie, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.
Rev. Jacob W. Heath. One of the best-known citizens of Delaware county was Rev. Jacob W. Heath, nearly all of whose life was passed within the borders of this county. He was thoroughly earnest and sincere in all his thoughts, words and deeds, and his noble, manly life proved an inspiration to many of his friends and associates. Though he has passed to his reward, the influence of his conscientious, just career, his kindly, generous heart and sympathetic manner abides.
His family was founded in this country by his great-grandfather, wno with two brothers came from London, England, and lived for some time Ib Maryland, where the grandfather Jacob was bom and reared. In his young wagon and arriving in Wayne county in October, 1828. In the following year, however, the husband and father came to Delaware county and entered land, this being at a time when the county's voters numbered less than two hundred, and much of the land where Muncie now stands was congress land, subject to entry at one dollar and a quarter an acre. Locating in Salem township, Mr. Ralph Heath erected a little cabin home, and December 25, 1829, brought his family hither. This was then a lonely section, where the bears, panthers and other wild animals roamed at will through the dense forests, and the children of the family shared in the rugged pioneef life. Mr. Heath was a Christian man, and his cabin became the preaching place for the Methodist Episcopal missionaries for years.
In this Christian home Rev. Jacob W. Heath learned the lessons of purity, gentleness of manner and integrity of character which characterized his after years, and he lived at home with his parents and attended the district schools until of age, also working on the farm during the summer months. During the years of 1848-9 he was a student in the Delaware County Academy, and after leaving that institution taught school for some time. Turning his attention from a professional to a business career, he was engaged in farming until 1868, when he came to Muncie and engaged in the grocery, real estate and life insurance business. At the early age of sixteen years Rev. Heath had joined the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he filled the offices of leader, trustee, steward, Sunday-school superintendent, exhorter, and from 1877 was a local minister. As would be expected of such a man, true in all his relations to his fellows, he was loyal to his duties as a citizen and used his franchise in favor of all noble principles and upright candidates for public office, his sympathies being with the Republican party. He was an active and efficient worker in its campaigns, but at all times he was a strong temperance advocate.
In 1850 Rev. Heath was married to Rhoda A., a daughter of Rev. Abner Perdiue, and they became the parents of eight children, six sons and two daughters: John B., Frederick W., Perry S., Fletcher S., Cyrus R., Cassie E. and Mary A. Arthur B. W. died in infancy. Rev. Heath exemplified in his life the beneficent spirit of the Masonic order, of which he was long a faithful member, having become a member of Delaware lodge, F. and A. M., in 1856. Though he has been called to his home beyond, he is kindly remembered by his many acquaintances and friends of former years.
C. B. Fudge, engaged in the clothing business, ranks today among the most successful and leading business men of Muncie. Nearly his entire life has been passed within the confines of Delaware county, and his advancement has been along the lines of the city's growth, due to progressive, resolute purpose and laudable ambition. His birth occurred in Xenia, Ohio, September 24, 1863, a son of John S. and Martha (Booths) Fudge, both also born in that commonwealth. In 1864, however, the family came to Delaware county, Indiana, establishing their home in Niles township, where the father was engaged in agricultural pursuits for many years, retiring to private life about ten years before his death, which occurred in 1899, aged seventy-one years.
The district schools of Delaware county afforded C. B. Fudge with the educational training which he enjoyed in his youth, and after leaving the schoolroom he spent one year as a clerk in a store in Albany. Returning on the expiration of that period to Muncie, he was for twelve years employed as a clerk, and in 1899 formed a partnership with G. W. Bliss in the clothing and gentlemen's outfitting business, the firm name being Bliss & Fudge. Purchasing his partner's interest, Mr. Fudge incorporated the business in 1903, and under his skillful management it has now reached extensive proportions, placing its proprietor among the foremost business men of Muncie. Mr. Fudge has also many other interests, but his time is principally devoted to his clothing business.
In June, 1892, occurred the marriage of Mr. Fudge and Nellie M. Armitage. She is a daughter of Dr. D. R. Armitage, of Delaware county, and three children have been born to bless the union, Mildred Marie, Robert Armitage and Carl Sellers. Mr. Fudge has membership relations with the Masonic order, belonging to the Muncie lodge, chapter and commandery, and has passed all the chairs in the latter. His religious affiliations are with the Presbyterian church. Success has crowned his well-directed and enterprising efforts, and it is the wish of his many friends that the master of "Fairacres," a beautiful country seat three miles from Muncie, may be numbered among the valuable citizens of Delaware county for many years to come.
Hon. Leon Idas A. Guthrie, a distinguished member of the legal profession, is honored and respected in every class of society and is a leader in the public life of his city and county. His name is a familiar one in political and professional circles, and by reason of his marked intellectual activity he is well fitted to aid in molding the public policy as the mayor of Muncie. For many years the Guthrie family have been closely associated with the progress and development of Delaware county, it having been in a very early day in its history that John Milton Guthrie, the grandfather of Leonidas, took up his abode within its borders, but soon after the birth of his son James he moved to Iowa, where he spent the remainder of his life and became a prominent factor in the community in which he made his home, Guthrie county in that state having been named in his honor. Soon after his public schools of Muncie he began the study of shorthand and bookkeeping. His first employment along that line was with the Muncie Glass Company, of Muncie, with which he remained until 1893, when he took up court reporting and from 1894 until 1897 was the court reporter of Randolph county, Indiana. Going thence to Indianapolis, he served as stenographer of the appellate court until he was made the official reporter of the Delaware circuit court. In the meantime Mr. Guthrie had entered upon the study of law, his preceptors being Gregory, Silverburg & Lotz, and after his admission to the bar in 1897 he served two years as probate commissioner of Delaware county, resigning that position to become mayor of Muncie, to which high office he had been elected in November, 1905. In this position he has been very efficient and faithful, making a most competent officer.
In June, 1905, Mr. Guthrie was united in marriage to Ethel, a daughter of Robert Calvin Peterson, of Delaware county. In his political affiliations Mr. Guthrie has always been a zealous Republican, active in campaign work and laboring earnestly for the adoption of its principles. He is also a member of the Masonic and other orders, and is widely and favorably known in Muncie and Delaware counties.
W. A. Thompson. The work of the legal profession is to formulate, to harmonize, to regulate, to adjust, to administer those rules and principles that underlie and permeate all government and society and control the varied relations of man. As thus viewed there attaches to the legal profession a nobleness that cannot but be reflected in the life of the true lawyer, who, conscious of the greatness of his profession and honest in the pursuit of his purpose, embraces the richness of learning, the profoundness of wisdom, the firmness of integrity and the purity of morals, together with the courtesy and the general amenities of life. A prominent representative of the bar of Delaware county is W. A. Thompson, who was born in Shelby county, Indiana, August 8, 1840, his parents having been among the early pioneers of that county, where they were also highly respected-. Their son, W. A., who was one of fourteen children, spent the early years of his life on a farm, supplementing the instruction which he received in the district school near his home by attendance in the high school at Shelbyville, while later he spent two years in Moore's Hill College. At the age of eighteen he became principal of the graded school of St. Paul, Indiana, and later taught for some time in Shelby county.
When seventeen years of age Mr. Thompson united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1862, when a youth of twenty-two years, he entered its ministry, spending seven years in the Southeastern Indiana conference. After the death of his first wife, which occurred in 1865, he returned to Moore's Hill College for one year, after which he again resumed his ministerial labors, thus continuing until failing health caused him to abandon his chosen labor, and he retired from the ministry in 1870. Shortly afterward he began the study of the law under the preceptorship of Judge Lamb, completing his studies with the firm of Gordon, Browne & Lamb, of Indianapolis, and in 1871 began practice in association with General Thomas Browne at Winchester, while from 1873 to 1874 he was with Judge J. J. Cheney, from 1874 to 1879 was associated in practice with Judge L. J. Monks, and afterward formed a partnership with Captain A. O. Marsh and his brother, J. W. Thompson, the firm name becoming Thompson, Marsh & Thompson. On the 25th of December, 1889, Mr. Thompson came to Muncie and formed a law partnership with Judge Ryan, but he is now engaged in practice with his son, and the firm of Thompson & Thompson is well known in the legal circles throughout this section of the state. From the beginning of his career as a lawyer Mr. Thompson has met with success, his deep research and thorough preparation of every case committed to his care enabling him to meet at once any contingency that may arise. His arguments are strong, clear, decided, and follow each other in natural sequence, forming a chain of reasoning that his opponents find difficult to overthrow. He is an active and ardent Republican, but has at all times refused to accept office, desiring rather to confine his entire attention to his legal practice.
In 1863 Mr. Thompson was united in marriage to Mary R. Wilkinson, whose death occurred in 1865, leaving one child, and in 1868 he married Elizabeth S. Lamb, the daughter of Judge Lamb, of Indianapolis. He ranks high at the bar of this section of the state, and Muncie numbers him among her influential and honored adopted sons.
Calvin S. Wachtell. For over seventy years Calvin S. Wachtell has traveled life's journey, and now, in the evening of a long, useful and honorable career, he is enjoying a well-earned rest, in a great measure relieved of the burdens of an active business life. He has been prominent in public life as well as in business circles, and is leaving the impress of his individuality for good upon many lines of progress and advancement in the city where he has so long made his home. He was born near Springfield, Ohio, December i, 1837, a son of Jonathan and Permelia (Baxter) Watchell, natives respectively of Pennsylvania and Maryland, and the father was of German descent. In 1839 the family came to Muncie, where the father was engaged in the manufacture of chairs and furniture, and his active life was brought to a close in 1850, while his widow survived until 1891. Mr. Wachtell gave a lifelong support to Democratic principles, and both he and his wife were Presbyterians, they having been instrumental in founding the first church of that denomination in Muncie, in which he served as deacon and trustee.
Calvin S. Wachtell, the youngest of their six children, grew to years of maturity in this city, receiving his education in its early schools, and then learned the trade of harnessmaking. In 1874 he was elected the city clerk and auditor of Muncie, continuing in those offices for twelve years, but in the meantime, in 1879, he had embarked in his present business, dealing in wagons, harness, hardware, etc., and from a small beginning he has advanced its interests to its present large proportions. His is not only one of the largest business concerns in this city, but also one of the oldest, and to him belongs the distinction of being one of the oldest business men in Muncie. At the present time, however, his interests are ably looked after by his son, F. L. Wachtell. the senior Mr. Wachtell thus being relieved of many of his former cares. His interests in this city have been many and varied, and he is now serving as the president of the Muncie Lubricating Company, and is a director and one of the founders of the People's National Bank.
In 1862 Mr. Wachtell was united in marriage to Miss Susan L. Anderson, a daughter of John Anderson, of Niles township, Delaware county. Mr. Wachtell has long been numbered among the prominent and progressive citizens of Muncie and has been called to many offices of trust in financial and business circles. He is a Republican in his political affiliations, and fraternally is a member of the order of Odd Fellows. The Christian church of Muncie numbers him among its valued members, and he has served as a clerk and deacon therein for many years.
James W. Meeks, the eldest son of Robert Meeks, one of the bestknown and most prominent business men of this city and county, whose biography appears on another page, was born in Muncie on the i4th of December, 1849. After completing his education in the city schools he learned cabinetmaking under his father's efficient supervision, and when twenty-two years of age he became interested in the firm. From that time forward he has devoted his talents and energies to the building up of the business, which with the passing years has constantly developed both in volume and importance and has long been numbered among the leading business institutions of Delaware county.
Mr. Meeks married, in 1876, Miss Louesa C. Hummell, who was born in Connersville, Indiana, the daughter of Joseph and Mary Hummell. Their children are Amelia B., the wife of Ollie J. Campbell; Sarah M., now Mrs. Alfred C. Danks; and Robert H., who married Etta Payton. Mr. Meeks has membership relations with the Odd Fellows fraternity, the Knights of Pythias and the Red Men, and is identified with the Republican party. He is a member of and an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has served as treasurer for fifteen years, and during a similar period has also been treasurer of the Preachers' Aid Society of the Northern Indiana conference.
Orlando Jay Lotz. The name of Orlando J. Lotz is enduringly inscribed on the pages of Indiana's political history in connection with the records of her jurisprudence. His superior ability won him marked success, he was crowned with high judicial honors, and in business and private life he won that good name which is rather to be chosen than great riches. He was one of Indiana's native sons, born on the i5th of January, 1852, the eldest of nine children born to Jeremiah C. and Melissa (Schuff) Lotz. In 1861 the father received an appointment under Lincoln in the treasury department and took his son Orlando with him to Washington, where the lad attended the public schools for four years. The father still holds the appointment given him in 1861, being one of the oldest men in the service, and he has reached the age of eighty years.
In 1866 Mr. Orlando Lotz returned to his former home and entered the high school at Fort Recovery, Ohio, graduating therefrom in 1870. Two years later, in 1872. he began the study of law, and in 1874 graduated with the highest honors in the National Law School in Washington, D. C. His preparation was thorough and comprehensive, and the favorable judgment which was passed upon him in his early years was never set aside or in any degree modified during his career at the bar and on the bench. In 1885 he was appointed judge of the Forty-sixth judicial circuit by Governor Gray, and at the election two years later he was returned to the office, although a Democrat in a district with a Republican majority of twenty-five hundred, which speaks volumes for his ability and the high regard in which he was held by his fellow citizens. For eight years Mr. Lotz continued to discharge the duties of that office, and in 1892 was elected a member of the appellate court of Indiana, in which he served until January, 1897, when lie resigned the office to resume his private practice of law at Muncie, as a member of the firm of Gregory, Silverburg & Lotz, thus continuing until his death on the 5th of February, 1902. He was a man of strong character and of great generosity and exemplary habits, and concerning his life there was never an evil report. He had a keen, analytical mind, quick to grasp and determine disputed questions, and his public opinions as preserved in the appellate court reports are logical and display deliberation and research, also showing a master mind in principles of law and equity. But death, untimely and unexpected, took from Delaware county one of its most prominent citizens, where he passed away in the prime of life, but left behind him a pure and noble record of honesty, industry and perseverance. A selfmade man, in his efforts to reach the goal of his professional ambition he overcame the obstacles that lay in his path, and his high and sj>lendid example has left a lasting impression upon the profession in which he won distinction and was universally esteemed.
Mrs. Lotz bore the maiden name of Amanda Inlow and is a native of Delaware county. Her father, Walter Inlow, was numbered among the honored early pioneers of the county, and Inlow Springs, which were found Greene county, Pennsylvania, July 21, 1825, a son of Thomas and Sarah (Shideler) Mitchell, both natives of Pennsylvania, the father born in 1801 and the mother in 1802, and they were of Irish and German lineage respectively. Their marriage was celebrated in 1822, and in 1830 they removed from their native commonwealth of Pennsylvania to Miami county, Ohio, where the father followed agricultural pursuits and died in 1861. His widow afterward went to California, where at the home of her only daughter, Mrs. Carl, she passed away in death in 1866. In their family were the following children: John A., deceased; Harvey, whose name introduces this review; Isaac, deceased; Margaret, who married Wesley Carl; Shadrick; and David.
On his father's farm in Miami county, Ohio, Harvey Mitchell was reared to years of maturity, in the meantime receiving his educational training in the nearby log schoolhouse, and he taught and attended school alternately until his graduation from the academy at Troy, Ohio. For three years thereafter he pursued the study of medicine under a practicing physician, whence he took two courses of lectures in the Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, and in 1850 located for the practice of his chosen profession at Granville, Delaware county. During the long period of fourteen years Dr. Mitchell successfully pursued the practice of medicine in that city, removing at the close of the period, in 1864, to Muncie, where he has ever since remained. About 1900, after half a century of activity, he retired from the profession because of advanced years and also on account of a broken hip. In these days of splendid highways who can recall what it meant to be a pioneer physician, riding far and near in all kinds of weather. On his patient, plodding horse the doctor often visited as many as sixty patients in a day, traversing the muddy roads on many a dark, stormy night, courageously bearing cheer and comfort to the distant patient.
On the 4th of October, 1853, at Granville, Indiana, Dr. Mitchell married Miss Catherine Ash, who was born in Greene county, Ohio, May 30, 1837, a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Driscoll) Ash, both of whom were also born in Ohio, from whence they removed to Delaware county, Indiana, in 1853. and later to Illinois. Two children were born to Dr. and Mrs. Mitchell, Sarah Florence, who died in 1866, aged eleven years, and Harriet B., the wife of Charles H. Anthony, of Muncie. They also have one grandchild, Harvey M. Anthony. Prior to the Civil war Dr. Mitchell allied his political interests with the Democracy, but since that time he has been identified with the Republican party. In his early life he became a member of the Christian church, but in later years has attended the Methodist Episcopal, of which his wife has long been a member.
John W. Dragoo, the secretary of the Western Reserve Life Insurance Company, is a member of one of the oldest and most prominent families of Delaware county. His grandfather, Peter Dragoo, was one of the first to take up his abode within its borders, coming from West Virginia in 1835 and entering from the government eighty acres of land in section 19, Perry township, Delaware county. There he lived for many years, and there his death finally occurred at the advanced age of ninety-two years. He was born in West Virginia, but, as has been noted, came to Delaware county in a very early day in its history, when deer and other wild game roamed at will through its forests. Building him a little log cabin in the woods, he began life here in true pioneer style, and his time was thereafter devoted to clearing and cultivating his land. He married Martha Jones, and they became the parents of the following children: William, deceased; Lemuel, a farmer of Perry township, this county; John, who died during his service in the Civil war; Sarah, now Mrs. Winget, and a resident of Liberty township ; Mary, Mrs. Kerns, of Monroe township, and Samuel J., on the old homestead farm. Mr. Peter Dragoo was a stanch and true pioneer, loved and honored by all who knew him, and he took an active part in the early history of his community.
William Dragoo, Sr., a son of this honored old Delaware county pioneer, was born in West Virginia in 1828, and was seven years of age at the time of the family's removal to Delaware county. He followed the occupation of farming throughout his entire business career, and his life's labors were ended in death in 1890. He married Amelia Gibson, who was born in 1833, and her father, Robert Gibson, was one of the early pioneers of Delaware county. Unto Mr. and Mrs Dragoo were born the following children: John W., whose name introduces this review; Laura B., now Mrs. Childs, and a resident of Benton township; Nancy J., Mrs. Clevenger, and a resident of Muncie. The Republican party received Mr. Dragoo's active support and cooperation, and he was a prominent and worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Dragoo is yet living.
Mr. John W. Dragoo was born in Pern- township on the /th of May, 1858, and the educational training which he received in the district schools near his home was supplemented by attendance at the Muncie High school and the State Normal at Terre Haute. This excellent training was received by his own efforts, and after its completion he taught until his twenty-sixth year. During the seven years which followed he was employed at farm labor, and then again entered the schoolroom as a teacher, spending two years in the schools of Center township and seven years as principal of the Roosevelt school in Congerville. During the following fourteen months Mr. Dragoo was paying teller of the Merchants' Bank, and in September, 1899, was elected trustee of Center township, remaining as the incumbent of that position for four years. Previous to this time he had served his county as its assessor for one term. He is a Republican in his political affiliations. On the organization of the Western Reserve Life Insurance
nd is a member of the Methodist church, in which he is serving as superintendent of the Sunday-school. He is also secretary of the Board of Children's Guardians, vice president of the Orphans' Home board and is a member of the town council of Riverside, where he resides.
The Western Reserve Life Insurance Company was incorporated July 27, 1906, as a mutual life insurance company, with twenty-one directors. It was later reorganized as a legal reserve company under the laws of Indiana, with the following officers: D. B. Campbell, president; J. W. Dragoo, secretary; D. A. McLain, treasurer; Dr. L. L. Ball, medical director, and H. H. Orr, attorney. Its capital is over one million dollars, and it has offices in the Wysor block.
Robert I. Patterson, one of the best-known men in Delaware county, prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic and in politics, is a native son of Indiana. He was born in the city of Muncie on the 28th of March, 1843. His father, Samuel R. Patterson, who was born in the state of Vermont on the i6th of September, 1816, came to Indiana when a young and unmarried man, locating in Delaware county, where he followed his trade of a tin and copper smith in Muncie. He was at one time a tin and stove merchant at Chicago, and also at Ottawa and other points in Illinois. When the Civil war was inaugurated Samuel R. Patterson was residing near Winchester, Indiana. He enlisted on the i6th of September, 1861, as a private in Company I, Thirty-sixth Indiana Infantry, and was in active service until after the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, where he received a severe wound and died from its effects in the United States general hospital at Jeffersonville, Indiana, September 24, 1864. He had married, November 15, 1839, Miss Jane Turner, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky, August 6, 1820, and is now, 1907, residing in Portland, Indiana. She is a daughter of Bevans and Percilla (Beswick) Turner, the former of whom was a native of Delaware and the latter of Maryland. They came to Indiana in 1823, first settling in Wayne county, but in the year of 1826 took up their abode in Delaware county, thus becoming numbered among its earliest pioneers. Unto Samuel R. and Jane Patterson were born the following children: Eliza, who married J. S. Martin; Robert L, the immediate subject of this review; Agnes, now Mrs. Elam Osborne; Electa, the wife of E. P. Thornburg; Charles T., who died when twenty-eight years of age; Sarah E., the widow of J. P. Edwards; Jennie, now Mrs. John P. Willis, and Lucinda B., Mrs. Reece Coulter.
Robert I. Patterson received a common-school education, and on the 29th of July, 1861, when but seventeen years of age, he enlisted in Company E, Nineteenth Indiana Infantry, as a private, and after serving the term of his enlistment he reenlisted in the field for three years more. He was wounded at the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg, and at the latter was also taken prisoner. His services were with the celebrated Iron brigade, it being the First brigade, First division of the First army corps of the Army of the Potomac, also the first brigade organized" in. the Union army, and the official records show that it sustained a greater loss in actual killed than any other. Mr. Patterson has an individual record of fourteen general engagements, besides the minor battles and skirmishes in which the brigade took part. On the 21st of March, 1864, he received an abdominal injury by being thrown from a railroad car, and in consequence was discharged September 9, 1864, as a corporal. The date of his reenlistment above referred to was December 31, 1863.
Mr. Patterson has long been active in Grand Army affairs. He is a charter member of Williams Post No. 78, department of Indiana, G. A. R., of which he has been post commander. He has also been honored by his comrades by an election to the office of senior vice commander, Department of Indiana, G. A. R. In the Indiana legislature of 1876-7 Mr. Patterson was a clerk in the lower house, and from the expiration of that period until 1883 he was a railroad postal clerk. On the 7th of February, 1882, he was appointed postmaster at Muncie, continuing in the office to the 5th of March, 1887, when he took up the pension agency, and in 1889 was admitted to practice in the interior department as a pension attorney. This work he has ever since continued. In 1902 he was the successful Republican candidate for clerk of the Delaware county circuit court, his term of office expiring on the 1st of January, 1908. Mr. Patterson is also the patentee of the "J. I. C." currycomb and a fruit jar fastener. But perhaps in all his varied attainments he is best known as a poet, many of his poems having been extensively published in newspapers and periodicals, while many of them have become well known through their rendition at national and state encampments of the Grand Army of the Republic and other occasions by his daughter Pearl, who has earned a wide reputation as an elocutionist.
In 1868 Mr. Patterson married Miss Mary E. LaFavour, who was born in Muncie, May 29, 1850, and they have reared the following named children : Arie Inez, the wife of Edwin H. Bath, a merchant of Muncie; J. Earl, deputy county clerk; and Pearl, the wife of W. R. Bean, of Streator, Illinois. Mr. Patterson is a.member of the Senior Order of American Mechanics, and also affiliates with the Odd Fellows fraternity.
Dr. William A. Spukgeon, who for many years has been actively engaged in the practice of medicine in Muncie, Indiana, is one of the most talented members of the profession in the city, and has clone as much to elevate the standard of the medical profession in the state as any other man. He was born at Salem, Washington county. Indiana, February I, 1852. He is the eldest son of Wiley and Mary F. (McKinney) Spurgeon, both also near Salem. He served under General Taylor in the Mexican war. He became prominent in the history of his locality in Indiana, holding many official positions of honor and trust. He has for many years been an active member and elder in the Christian church. His home, with his aged companion, is now (1908) on the farm near Becks Grove, Indiana, where they enjoy a competency gained by years of industry and economy.
The early years of the life of Dr. Spurgeon were spent on a farm. He attended the common schools near his home until sixteen years of age. During the following four years he was a student in the Clear Springs Academy, at Salem, Indiana, and at college in Bedford. Indiana. In 1871 he began the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. George H. Chute, of Freetown, Indiana. The following year he entered the PhysioMedical Institute at Cincinnati, Ohio. After one college year in this institution he matriculated as a student in the Physio-Medical College of Indiana, from which he graduated in 1875. He returned to his former preceptor, entered into partnership with him, which relation continued until 1877. Soon after his graduation Dr. Spurgeon was elected to the chair of descriptive and surgical anatomy in the college from which he graduated. He continued a member of the faculty, delivering a course of lectures each year until 1893, when he resigned his professorship in order to devote more time to his practice. In April, 1880, Dr. Spurgeon located in the city of Muncie, Indiana, his present home. He very soon took high rank in the profession. He has been an active member of the Physio-Medical Association of Indiana since 1875, serving one year as its president and contributing largely to its literature. He is a member of the American Association of Physio-Medical Physicians and Surgeons and served as a delegate from that society to the World's Congress of Physicians and Surgeons which met in New York in 1891. He was selected as a delegate from the American Association to the International Congress of Physicians and Surgeons which met in Madrid, Spain, in 1905. He is also a member of the Indiana Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He was appointed a member of the state board of medical registration and examination by Governor Mount in 1897, being twice reappointd to this position by Governors Durbin and Hanly, serving three years as vice president and three years as president of this body. He wrote the constitution and by-laws of the American Confederation of Examining Boards, and took active part in the organization of that body, which is made up of the state medical examining boards of the United States. For a number of years past he has served as president of this organization, in which position he now (1908) continues to serve.
For the most part the Doctor has given his political support to the Republican party. In 1886 he became actively identified with the prohibition movement and made a number of vigorous campaigns in the interest of that party. In 1888 he was its candidate for the legislature; in 1890 for the office of secretary of state. In 1892 he gave his political support to William McKinley and the Republican party, not being in sympathy with the free silver doctrine of the Prohibition and Democratic parties. He is a forcible, fluent and dignified speaker whose honesty cannot fail to impress his hearers.
The doctor was married on August 29, 1872, to Miss Elvira Chute, daughter of his preceptor and partner. Of this union wer£ born three sons and one daughter. The eldest son, George Wiley, and the second son, Alva Osten, died in infancy. .The third son, Orville Elmer, and daughter, Mary Alice, are living in Muncie. The son, Dr. O. E. Spurgeon, is the junior member of the firm of Drs. Spurgeon and Spurgeon and is actively engaged in the practice of medicine. The daughter, Mary, is the wife of Dr. J. M. Quick, of Muncie. Mrs. Spurgeon died at Freetown in the summer of 1878. In the summer of 1883 Dr. Spurgeon was united in marriage to Miss Minerva A. Whitney, daughter of Lafayette Whitney, of Muncie. Of this union there were born five children, Nora June, Olive Fern, Kenneth Albertus, William Chase and Wiley Whitney, all now living in Muncie except the eldest daughter, Nora June, whose death occurred in the summer of 1905.
The doctor early united with the Christian church (Disciples), and has given much time to church work. He was oidained an elder in the First Christian church of Muncie, Indiana, in 1881. It was very largely due to Dr. Spurgeon's efforts that the present magnificent edifice of that denomination was erected in the city of Muncie, he being at the time president of the board of trustees and chairman of the building committee. He drafted the plans and superintended the construction of this splendid edifice.
John Seymour Ellis. One of the most interesting of the prominent characters whose worth and merit have graced the history of Delaware county is to be found in the personnel of John S. Ellis, at this date one of the three commissioners of his county. He is genial and entertaining in manner, bright and keen of intellect, his writings are entertaining, and his education has been supplemented by extensive reading and a wide and varied experience.
The birth of Mr. Ellis occurred in Knox county, Ohio, August 15, 1839, his parents being Robert and Casander (Schweckard) Ellis. The father was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, October n, 1796, and died in Delaware county, Indiana, in December, 1864. He was a son of William and Eleanor Ellis, the former of whom was a native of Montgomeryshire, Wales, and was a soldier in the Colonial army during the American revolution. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Ellis, John Schweckard, was of German lineage, and his daughter, the mother of Mr. Ellis, was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, in 1810, while her death occurred in Delaware county in 1865. With her husband she now lies buried in Beech Grove cemetery at bode in Hamilton township, from whence they removed to the township of Delaware, and there they spent the remainder of their lives. Mr. Ellis was reared a Friend or Quaker, and the mother was for many years a worthy and acceptable member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He gave his political support to the Republican party. During his early life he followed the trade of a stone mason, but his later and the greater part of his life was devoted to farming. In their family were ten children, of whom one daughter died at the age of three years, while the remainder grew to manhood and womanhood.
When a little lad of ten years John Seymour Ellis accompanied his parents on their removal to Delaware county, Indiana, where he completed his educational training, and thereafter taught school for two terms. At the early age of thirteen years he began the battle of life for himself, and four years later he went to Iowa and engaged in herding cattle. One year later, when he had reached his eighteenth year, he took up carpentering, thus continuing for three years, and after his marriage, in 1860, he located two miles south of Muncie and resumed the work of his trade. About four years afterward he moved into Muncie, where for several years he held clerical positions with mercantile concerns, was also a traveling salesman for a time, served as deputy postmaster of Muncie, and has been prominently engaged in newspaper work. Mr. Ellis also served as a justice of the peace for four years, and in 1902 was elected to his present position as a commissioner of Delaware county, to which he was reelected in 1904, and is also vice president of the State Association of County Commissioners. The Republican party receives his active support and cooperation, and his fraternal relations are with the Masonic order, he having served as a member of the building committee during the erection of the Masonic Temple.
Mr. Ellis has been twice married, wedding first, on the 28th of August, 1860, Sina E. Rickard, who was born in Delaware county, Indiana, April 20, 1842, and her death occurred in the city of Detroit, Michigan, July 3, 1895, leaving two children—Fred M., who was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, August 3, 1870, and is now manager of a brewing company in Columbus, Ohio, and Charles H., who was born in Muncie, May 31, 1879, a°d 'ls cashier of the People's National Bank of Muncie. December 17, 1896, Mr. Ellis married Mrs. Milla Sanders, the widow of John F. Sanders, an attorney of Muncie. She was born in this city, Jannuary i. 1845, a daughter of William Barnes, who was one of the first residents of Muncie. His wife, Evaline (Watchell) Barnes, was also a member of a pioneer family.
As has been noted, Mr. Ellis is a writer of ability and note, and has contributed to the public much well-accepted poetry of various thought. He is the author of an interesting work entitled "Songs of. St. Matthew," a metrical paraphrase of the gospel of St. Matthew. He is also the author of a condensed history of Delaware county, Indiana. He is bright and strong in his writings, and is a member of the Association of Western Writers.
J. Harv. Koontz, prominently identified with the agricultural development of Delaware county, was born in Fayette county, Indiana, December 27, 1827. He obtained a good elementary education in the local public schools and later attended the academy. He is a son of Jacob and Debra (Combs) Koontz, both natives of Virginia.
Jacob Koontz, the youngest of a family of four children, was reared in Virginia, and emigrated to Ohio in 1820, settling at Brownsville, where he remained for about five years. Following this he moved to Fayette county, Indiana, and located at Alquina. He moved next to Henry county and in 1829 plotted the town of Middletown, which town developed into a prosperous and successful business community. Mr. Koontz was intimately connected with the industrial and material development of that section of the state until 1850, when he died as a result of the milk sickness, at that time so prevalent. The mother of our subject, after the death of Jacob Koontz, was married to William Doherty, of Ohio. To the first union were born the following children: Alary, Jane, Aclison (deceased), B. Frank, Lorenzo D. and J. Harv., the subject of this sketch. To the latter marriage four children were born: Sarah, Mrs. Guthrie; Isabell; Debra, Mrs. Williams, and B. Frank.
J. Harv. Koontz remained at home until he reached the age of sixteen, when lie decided to strike out for himself, and began chopping wood on the banks of the Ohio river. He had a great variety of experiences on the river, devoting himself to several different lines of work, and in 1871 settled upon the farm where he now resides.
His marriage occurred in 1855 to Miss Anna Brown, a daughter of John B. Brown, a pioneer settler of Delaware county. Her death occurred in 1856. In 1857 he was married for the second time to Miss Amanda E. Shinner, who was born in Madison county, Indiana, in 1840. She was the daughter of Jacob and Catherine Shinner. To this second union five children were born. Through a long residence Mr. Koontz has become well known and enjoys the respect and esteem of all who know him.
Harv M. Koontz, secretary of the Muncie Trust Company and president of the Muncie police commission, is one of the best and most favorably known men in Delaware county, where he was born on the I4th of November, 1863, a son of J. Harv and Amanda (Shinier) Koontz, among the oldest and most highly respected citizens of Mount Pleasant township. There they have spent many years of their active and useful lives, and the father is not only well and prominently known but is also a successful farmer and an diana. Returning thence to his home, he accepted the position of deputy county auditor in 1886, a position he held for one year, and after an intermission of short duration he was again made the deputy in this office, where he remained for about one year more. Mr. Koontz was then variously employed for several years, during which time he was in the abstract and insurance business for a period and was also connected with the Merchants' National Bank for one and a half years. In 1901, when the Muncie Trust Company was organized, he was elected secretary of the organization, and has since been the incumbent of the position. During Mayor Sheritt's administration he served as city comptroller for one and a half years. In politics he has long been active as a Republican, and for two years was chairman of the county central committee, serving well his fellow men whether in political or professional life. His fraternal relations connect him with the order of Knights of Pythias. In 1888 Mr. Koontz married Miss Wynona Long.
Joseph A. Goddard is an honored soldier of the Civil war and a man who for a number of years has held a representative place among the leading business men of Muncie. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, December 17, 1840, his parents being John Henry and Ann (Wilson) Goddard, both natives of England. They left their native land during their childhood days, coming to America, the mother with her parents and the father came when a boy alone, and for a time after his arrival, the father resided in Buffalo, New York, removing thence to Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life. The mother died in 1847, aged thirty-seven. The father's labors were ended in death in 1882, aged seventy-one years.
Joseph A. Goddard attended the public schools in his native state of Ohio until his thirteenth year, when he laid aside his text books and entered upon a six years' apprenticeship at the printer's trade in Ravenna, that state, but after two years gave up the idea of becoming a printer and instead was employed at farm labor until 1858. In that year he went to Cincinnati and entered his uncle's wholesale grocery store, with whom he remained until 1862, when, believing that his country needed his services and putting aside all personal considerations he entered the Fourth Ohio Cavalry as a private soldier. He was promoted and commissioned after six months' service in the ranks, as second lieutenant, first lieutenant and then captain, and was assigned to Company D, the same regiment, on detached service. He continued as a soldier throughout the entire campaign, serving with the Army of the Cumberland and participating in many of the historic battles of the war, including those of Chickamauga and Nashville. In January, 1864, he was made staff quartermaster and aide on General Elliott's staff cavalary and his military career is one of which he may be justly proud, covering as it does a long period of arduous service in his country's cause.
Returning to his home in Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Goddard was there connected with the wholesale grocery trade until his removal to Muncie, Indiana, in 1874. where he began in the retail grocery business in a small way, becoming a member of the firm of Adamson & Goddard. This partnership continued until 1881. when Mr. Adamson took the retail department and Mr. Goddard the wholesale, the latter carrying on business in a little store on South Walnut street between Main and Jackson. With the passing years his trade grew in volume and importance until it became necessary to enlarge its scope. He built and occupied the building southeast corner Walnut and Adams streets. This building becoming too small for his increasing business he removed to Mulberry and Charles streets. In 1905 the magnificent and commodious building on Seymour street which he now occupies was erected. To him has come the attainment of a distinguished position in connection with the business interests of the city. His is truly a successful life, but the success which he has achieved is but the reward of labor and integrity in business.
In 1866 occurred the marriage of Mr. Goddard and Miss Mary Hough, she being a daughter of William Hough, an honored pioneer of Wayne county, Indiana. They have become the parents of three children, one son, William H., who is now in business with his father, and two daughters, Grace and Anna, the former being the wife of C. M. Rich, of Muncie. The family is connected with the Society of Friends, of which Mrs. Goddard is a lifelong member. Mr. Goddard is a member of Williams Post, G. A. R., and the Loyal Legion.
John Rollin Marsh, secretary and chief engineer for the Indiana Bridge Company, began his business career in the employ of this firm August i, 1887, as a civil .engineer, and not long afterward was promoted to the position of chief engineer and later to the secretaryship also. He was born in Muncie, Indiana, January 13. 1863, his parents being John and Mary (Mitchell) Marsh. Mr. Marsh, the father, was born in Preble county, Ohio, August 22, 1811, and in his veins mingled the blood of the Anglo-Saxon with that of the Teutonic race. His father, Timothy Marsh, was the son of John Marsh, who came to this country from England and settled in what is now Germantown, Montgomery county, Ohio, afterward serving in the American army throughout the Revolution. The mother of John Marsh bore the maiden name of Mary Clawson, and was born near the mouth of the Little Miami river, August 22, 1778, and is said to have been the first white child born in the territory of Ohio. She died at the age of ninety years, at the home of her son, Searing Marsh, near Logansport, Indiana, September 15, 1877. Her father was John Clawson, a German, who settled first in Kentucky and afterward in Ohio. He too took part in the American war for independence, and was noted for his sterling character.
John Marsh, the father of John Rollin, was reared under the pioneer conditions of the early days, and therefore obtained but a limited educational training. At the age of seventeen he went to Eaton, Ohio, and served as an apprentice of five years at the hatter's trade, while later he began his career as a business man at Camden, Ohio, as a hatter. He continued there with success up to 1847, when he entefed the dry goods trade, and one year later was elected the treasurer of Preble county. He held the office by re-election for three terms, and in the fall of 1854 removed to Wayne county, Indiana, and became president of the Cambridge City Bank. In 1856 Mr. Marsh became a citizen of Muncie, and at the same time organized the Muncie branch of the State Bank of Indiana, becoming its president. In 1865 this institution was converted into the Muncie National Bank, and he remained its president until 1874, when he sold his interest and retired from business. It was only a short time, however, until he was induced by his friends to organize the Citizens' Bank, in November of the same year, which institution was on the roth of March, 1875, converted into the Citizens' National Bank, and being given his choice of positions he became its cashier, a position he held up to the time of his death, in 1887. He was one of the organizers of the Republican party, and his views were ever afterward in accord with the principles set forth by this party. He became a Master Mason in 1838, and rose to the rank of a Knight Templar, being always active in the order. In 1854 he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and at the time of his death he had been for years a trustee of the organization. Mr. Marsh was twice married. On the 25th of May, 1835, he married Margaret, the daughter of Nathan and Jane (Carr) Mitchell, both natives of Maryland and pioneers of Ohio. Four children were born of this union, and the mother died of cholera in 1849. August 29, 1854, Mr. Marsh married for his second wife Mrs. Mary Mutchner, nee Mitchell, who also bore him four children. She died in 1899. He was well informed, an excellent business man, a public spirited citizen, honest in his dealings, and kind and faithful as a friend, husband and father.
At the time of accepting a position with his present firm John R. Marsh had just graduated from the School of Mines, Columbia College, New York, as a mining engineer, in 1887, having pursued a four years' course. Previous to this, in 1879, ne nad graduated from the Muncie high school. After leaving the high school as a graduate he accepted the position of deputy clerk of the Delaware county circuit court, while later he became deputy county recorder, in both of which positions he served several terms under different officers, proving himself a very efficient and capable assistant. In his present position of secretary and chief engineer of the Indiana Bridge Company, he has attained a thorough and intricate knowledge of civil engineering, having few equals in this line in the entire state, and he is well and favorably known among experts in his profession.
On the 5th of August, 1889, Mr. Marsh married Miss Susie Ryan, daughter of John W. and Lida (Jenkins) Ryan, of Muncie. Both he and his wife are members of the Episcopal church, and in politics he is a Republican. He was for some years a member of the "Library Board," and was secretary of the committee that had charge of the building of the elegant library building. He was also a member of the board of park commissioners at the time that Mr. McCulloch donated the McCulloch Park, and it was this board that developed the park and made all the improvements that have been made to the present time.
Source: A twentieth century history of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume 2 By General William Harrison Kemper