History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2, Part 1

Author: Clarkson W. Weesner
Publication date: 1914
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 619

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STOR

STATE

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SOCIETY

FOUNDED 1848

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HISTORY OF .

WABASH COUNTY INDIANA

A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People, and Its Principal Interests

Compiled under the Editorial Supervision of

CLARKSON W. WEESNER WABASH

Assisted by a Board of Advisory Editors

VOLUME II

ILLUSTRATED

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1914

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History of Wabash County

HENRY CORBIN PETTIT. Probably no family in the history of Wabash county has given more faithful, able and distinguished public service during a long period of years as the Pettit. In the law, in local affairs, and in the larger interests and stations of national life, the record is almost continuous from the time John U. Pettit settled at Wabash as a pioneer more than seventy years ago until one splendid chapter of individual accomplishment and influence was concluded in the death of Henry C. Pettit on July 26, 1913.

Henry Corbin Pettit was born at Wabash November 20, 1863, a son of John Upfold and Julia (Brenton) Pettit. The family was established in America by John Pettit, an English gentleman who emigrated early in the eighteenth century and settled in Connecticut. Through him and his wife the line is traced to their son Jonathan, born in 1752, and who married Agnes Riddell; to their son George, born in 1780, who married Jane Upfold, and they in turn were the parents of John U. Pettit. Jon- athan Pettit, who was born at Sharon, Connecticut, was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and thus the Pettit family at Wabash is one of the few in the county with Revolutionary antecedents. George Pettit, who was born at Albany, established the profession of law in the lineage, and his record as an attorney and jurist was maintained by both his son and grandson.

John U. Pettit, who was regarded as one of the best read lawyers and a man of many brilliant parts during his generation in Wabash county, was born at Fabius, New York, in 1820, graduated at Union College in Schenectady in 1839, and established his home at Wabash in 1841, be- ginning the practice of law among the pioneer bar of Northeastern In- diana. While he followed the law for many years, much of his life was spent in active public service. In 1850 he was appointed Consul at Maranham, Brazil, serving also as vice-consul, which gave him super- vision of ten other consulates in Northern Brazil. On returning from South America, he was elected from the eleventh Indiana district to congress, and was representative from 1854 until 1860. In 1864 Miami and Wabash counties sent him as their representative to the Indiana legislature, and re-elected for the following term, served as speaker of the house. During the war he was chosen colonel of the Seventy-fifth Regiment of Indiana Infantry, but ill health compelled him to resign his

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commission before seeing active service. He later took a prominent part in the organization of the Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home at Knights- town, Indiana. In 1872 he was elected to the office of judge of the circuit court comprising the counties of Miami and Wabash, and held that posi- tion until October 22, 1879. In early life he was a Democrat, but in 1856 began to support the principles of the new Republican party and held to that faith until his death in 1881. Judge Pettit was married November 25, 1858, to Miss Julia Brenton, and they were the parents of the following children: Otto Brenton, Nellie Holmes, Henry Corbin, Eliza Hamilton, Jane Upfold, and Mary Heffron. Mrs. Pettit survived her husband until July 18, 1908, and both are now at rest in Wabash cemetery.

Henry Corbin Pettit, second son of his parents, received his early education in the schools of Wabash, and while in his sophomore year in the high school was given an appointment to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he was graduated in 1883. It was his ambition to pur- sue a public career through the avenue of the navy, but the fact that so large a class was graduated from the academy in that year made it necessary to eliminate some from the service, and he thus returned home and took up the study of law in the office of Judge Calvin Cowgill and Judge Shively. Admitted to the bar on March 20, 1886, a few days later he was admitted to practice in the supreme and appellate courts of the state, and on January 1, 1887, was admitted in the United States courts of Indianapolis. At the same time he began practice as a member of the law firm of Cowgill & Shively, and subsequently was in practice with Thomas L. Stitt under the firm name of Pettit & Stitt, but with- drew in 1897 to become legal adviser for the firm of A. M. Atkinson & Son, loan agents for the Aetna Life Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut.

Though recognized as one of the ablest lawyers at the Wabash bar, and with a large and satisfactory practice for a quarter of a century, Mr. Pettit, like his father, was much in public service and was honored both at home and outside the state. In 1887 he became a member of the Wabash City council, and was elected mayor for two years in 1888, being the youngest executive the city ever had. In 1894 he was elected to the Indiana General Assembly, was re-elected in 1898, and during his second term was speaker of the house of representatives. Governor Mount in 1899 appointed him a member of the Morton Monument Com- mission. In 1900 President Mckinley gave him appointment as a mem- ber of the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy, and the same president in the following year made him United States Marshal for the district of Indiana, an office to which he was re-appointed by President Roosevelt, and his service was continuous for practically ten years, until May, 1911.

The late Mr. Pettit was a charter member of Wabash Lodge Knights of Pythias, and belonged to St. Anastasia Mesnil Lodge of Odd Fellows, which was founded and named by his father. He also had membership

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in the Wabash County Bar Association, the Semper Idem Club of Wabash, and his church home was the Presbyterian.

A brief estimate of his character was thus phrased by one who knew him well: "He was essentially a man who did things. Endowed with a clear and active mind, tirelessly industrious, persistent and inde- fatigable in the discharge of every duty, unswerving in his devotion to what he believed to be right, kind and considerate to all with whom he was associated, broad minded and generous, the world is the better for his having lived in it. In his personal relations he was unfalteringly loyal, and was preeminently faithful to every trust. His fidelity, whether in his political, professional or private life, was proverbial. He courted and enjoyed the felicities of the family circle, and it was in his home that he found his greatest happiness."

On October 3, 1888, Mr. Pettit was married to Eva Stitt, daughter of William S. and Mary (Lutz) Stitt. Mrs. Pettit and their one daugh- ter survive, Mary, who was born in 1898.

It was with more than an ordinary sense of community loss that Wabash county regarded the recent death of Mr. Pettit. Quiet and unassuming in matters that pertained to himself and his own interests, he had been one who could not be silenced when matters relating to the public welfare came up for discussion. A man of ambition and filled with energy, it was hard work that brought on the illness preceding his death. The life of such a citizen is one of the factors that has lifted Wabash to a high position among Indiana communities, and while his achievements were noteworthy and his success was above the average, it can be truly said that his most distinctive achievement was his charac- ter-that supreme attribute which remains when the earthly tabernacle dissolves.

CHARLES S. HAAS. Indelibly impressed on the pages of Wabash's business history, the name of Charles S. Haas stands conspicuously forth as that of one who has been prominent in newspaper work and in financial circles of the city. He has possessed the power of foresight which recognized the resources of this region and has had the executive ability and merit to marshal and put in working order the forces of progress, development and upbuilding as manifest in journalistic and banking circles. Mr. Haas is a native product of Wabash, having been born in a house at the corner of Market and Miami streets, November 26, 1859, a son of Adam and Eliza E. (Kidd) Haas, the former a native of Harper's Ferry, Virginia, of German descent, and the latter a native of Connersville, Indiana.

Adam Haas was born in 1799 and when a boy was taken by his par- ents to Licking county, Ohio, where he was reared and given a common school education. He came to what is now Wabash county, Indiana, as early as 1836, and settling among the pioneers erected a home and here passed the remainder of his long and useful life. Not long after locating here he embarked in general merchandising, dealing largely in dry goods, and became prominent in his life of endeavor, following the

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same occupation until 1864, at which time, owing to failing health, he relinquished active work and lived practically retired until his death, August 10, 1868. Mr. Haas was an old line whig in politics and was one of the organizers of the republican party in 1856. Prior to and during the war between the North and the South he took an important part in the operation of the famous Underground Railway, the figurative appellation for a spontaneous movement in the free states extending sometimes into the slave states themselves to assist slaves in their efforts to escape from. bondage to freedom. He was a man of unques- tioned honor and prided himself in the reputation for probity which he had built up. He was extremely conservative, never taking a chance when slow conservatism was an assured success. His two predominant characteristics were his careful attention to business and his beautiful domestic relations. He loved the quietude of his home, where, sur- rounded by family, friends and books, he partook of his greatest pleas- ure. But while he was extremely conservative in handling his business transactions, he was never close in his contributions to worthy public enterprises, and his private benevolences were numerous and liberal. He was married in 1857 to Mrs. Eliza E. (Kidd) Mount, daughter of Edward and Christina Kidd and widow of Peter Mount. They became the parents of one son: Charles S., and the mother died August 7, 1903. By her first husband she was the mother of two daughters.

Charles S. Haas has spent his entire career in Wabash. He received his education in the public schools of this city, and as early as 1881 became identified with newspaper work, as a reporter on the Wabash Courier, and from that time to the present the greater part of his time and attention have been given to journalism. In August, 1883, he became city editor of the Fort Wayne Sentinel, but in December of that same year returned to Wabash as city editor of the Courier. In the spring of 1887, he assisted in the consolidation of the Plain Dealer and the Courier, the latter going out of existence as far as name was con- cerned. Mr. Haas became editor of the Plain Dealer, and in 1909 was made president and manager of the Plain Dealer Company, in addition to which he has continued in the position of editor. To make a perma- nent impression upon the public with which he has to deal requires something more than talent-it calls for positive genius, and the fact that an editor can make a deep and lasting imprint upon the public conscience, shows him to be possessed of that genius. Through Mr. Haas' efforts, the Plain Dealer has become a power throughout Wabash county, and, not strangely, reflects a great deal of his personality. In the world of finance, Mr. Haas is equally well known and his achievements have probably been as many and as important. In 1888, he was one of the incorporators of the Wabash National Bank, in which he still continues to be a stockholder. In 1902, he was one of the leading factors in the incorporation of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank, of which he became a member of the board of directors, in 1908 was elected vice- president of that institution, and in January, 1910. was elected to the presidency of the bank to succeed Judge Shirley at the time of the

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latter's death. Mr. Haas is a director and treasurer of the Wabash Exchange and was president of the Carnegie Library Board from 1902 until 1910, being at present the secretary of that board. He is a mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, and popular with the members of the local lodge. He has ever taken a keen interest in public matters, but his only political office has been that of alderman, he having served as a member of the Wabash City Council from 1883 to 1887.

On December 5, 1894, Mr. Haas was married to Miss Lilla M. Pyke, daughter of Charles W. and Mary B. Pyke, of an old and honored family of Fort Wayne.

WABASH CABINET COMPANY. The prosperity of Wabash as an in- dustrial city, where a large proportion of the population depend upon the payrolls of the local factories for their living, owes much to the Wabash Cabinet Company, which furnishes employment to several hun- dred people, and now produces an output valued at over half a million dollars annually. The distribution of its goods, comprising fine cabinet woodwork and office devices, furthermore tends to increase the distinc- tion of Wabash as a manufacturing center.

Though the Wabash Cabinet Company is now on a most prosperous commercial basis, and in its cash benefit is a splendid institution, the striking feature of the enterprise is the remarkable struggle, now fin- ished, by which the concern was raised from bankruptcy and by able financial and industrial management placed upon its present secure footing. Its success has therefore been not only an interesting record in itself, but has been especially helpful in incentive and example for other similar concerns in this city, and the entire community therefore takes pride in what has been accomplished by the officers of the cabinet company, headed by its president, Thomas F. Vaughn.

The formal history of the Wabash Cabinet Company began in the . year 1883, when the H. C. Underwood Manufacturing Company built a plant and began turning out a large line of wood specialties. It was a corporation of local individuals, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, but in a few years the capital was increased to fifty thousand dollars. The first president was A. M. Atkinson, with M. R. Gardner as secretary and treasurer. On April 1, 1900, the name of the company was changed to the Wabash Cabinet Company, the same officers continuing in executive management of the concern until the death of Mr. Atkinson, when he was succeeded by John A. Bruner as president. In December, 1904, the business was transferred to the creditors, and was operated in their interests until 1907. The creditors then forced a formal receivership, the Central Trust Company of Indianapolis taking charge of operations for two years. On March 20, 1909, came the sale of the business by order of the court. The plant and the business were bought and reorganized under the name of The Wabash Cabinet Com- pany, with Thomas F. Vaughn as president, J. D. Adams as vice presi- dent, Curtis McPike as second vice president, and W. H. Urschel as secretary and treasurer.

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With the close of the receivership and the reorganization comes the most interesting part of the company's history. When the business was placed in receivership its debts were in excess of $175,000, and from experience with other industries similarly involved it appeared that the holders of claims would realize only a small percentage of the total. It was about that time that Thomas F. Vaughn was employed to take the management of the plant and operate it under a creditors' committee. Then followed the receivership, when additional outlays of $25,000 were forced upon the struggling industry. The experience of Mr. Vaughn, however, demonstrated hopeful possibilities for the business, and it was a result of what he had done that reorganization was effected in 1909.

The history of the company since its reorganization was told in the Plain Dealer in its issue of April 9, 1914, which recorded the payment of the last dollar of indebtedness of the concern. It was a story of able financial administration which has an appropriate place in any history of Wabash county, and the newspaper article is herewith quoted. Dur- ing the reorganization and in the provisions made for paying off the indebtedness, "those persons who did not care to take the optional ten- year five percent bonds at par for their claim were paid their propor- tionate share from the amount received from the new company in pay- ment for the factory. Of the $175,000 in obligations then outstanding the holders of $160,000 elected to take the bonds and the holders of $19,000 were paid $10,450 and the debt extinguished.

"It should be said in this connection that Mr. Vaughn earnestly requested all the creditors to take the bonds and get every dollar com- ing to them, he expressing confidence that he would be able to pay in full in less than the full ten years. Perhaps, in addition to this, he was naturally influenced by the inconvenience of raising ten thousand dol- lars in cash at that time wherewith to make the adjustment with creditors .wishing to withdraw.

"But the company at last squared away for good or ill, with its mortgage of $106,000, a distressingly thin bank balance, and with abso- lutely no credit rating by the commercial agencies. It was a hand-to- mouth existence that the crippled corporation lived for two or three years, banks declining to make it loans and compelling it to do business badly handicapped on its slender resources. Its orders increased in vol- ume, its profits were carefully husbanded, bills were met as promptly as possible, and the confidence of and in the management slowly grew. The first six months' interest on the bonds was paid when due, and thenceforward there was never a default.

"On January 1, 1914, only $19,000 of the original $106,000 remained unpaid, and last Monday the final lot of $19,000 was taken up and Mr. Vaughn, with the $106,000 of cancelled bonds, went to Indianapolis, where the trust company which served as trustee of the mortgage de- stroyed the bonds and executed a release of the mortgage, which, turned over to Mr. Vaughn, was placed on record in the Wabash county re- corder's office Wednesday evening.

"Thus in five years, what appeared to be a concern involved in hope-

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MRS. W. S. STITT

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CAPT. W. S. STITT

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less ruin has paid every dollar it owed, has a large fund of cash and receivables and an established business among the most prosperous in the state of Indiana. The factory output last year aggregated over half a million dollars, more than three hundred persons were given steady employment, and at this time there are firm orders on the books exceeding $200,000, or enough to run the factory full-handed for sev- eral months, with as much more in sight. All of this was accomplished through the executive skill of Mr. Vaughn, with the able assistance of his business associates, including J. D. Adams, W. H. Urschel and Curtis McPike, and without the aid of the banks, the policy from the beginning being to scrupulously avoid going in debt, buying only as the cash de- mand for the finished product of the factory developed."

The officials elected at the reorganization of the company and above mentioned are still in their respective positions. The present capital stock is $175,000, fully paid up, and with a surplus of $78,000. The output of the plant both in quantity and in value is fully three times as much as ever before in the history of the business. About one hun- dred and twelve thousand feet of floor space are occupied by the machin- ery, the stock room and other quarters used in the business.

Aside from the practical accomplishment, what the influence of this business record will be to Wabash in the future is well told in another paragraph quoting from the article above mentioned: "The Wabash Cabinet Company thus points the way to success for existing Wabash industries and for those yet to come. Mr. Vaughn has clearly proved that energy, prudence, foresight and a genius for getting the orders will build up a flourishing factory enterprise in Wabash as well as in other cities, and there is no one in this city where such industries are so sorely needed, who will begrudge Mr. Vaughn and his associates the fruits of their labors in making The Wabash Cabinet Company the splendid monument to their ability it now is."

Thomas F. Vaughn, president of the Wabash Cabinet Company, and whose connection with local manufacturing at Wabash began on Janu- ary 1, 1905, is a native of Rhode Island. When a young man he went to Chicago and practically his entire business career has been spent in different lines of manufacturing. That he has special genius for in- dustrial reorganization and development needs no further proof than the above record. Mr. Vaughn is a Knights Templar Mason, also a thirty- second degree Mason and a member of the Shrine, is president of the Wabash Exchange, is affiliated with the Elks Lodge, and is married and has three children.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM S. STITT. Now one of the oldest living natives of Wabash county, William S. Stitt has had a varied career in business and public affairs, won a lieutenant's commission by gallant service in the Civil war, and has taken a prominent part in the establishment and management of several public utilities in Wabash. Through the accom- plishments of his individual lifetime he has won an honored name in

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Wabash county, and his career is made additionally interesting from the fact that he is a son of the pioneer Archibald Stitt.

A special honor should be paid to the name of Archibald Stitt as one of the early contractors in the construction of the old Wabash and Erie Canal through Wabash county. That work places him in a rela- tion of peculiar interest in the early history of this county, and the fact that from about 1840 until his death he was a resident at or near Wabash, fortifies his claim to mention among the pioneers. In many other ways he was a man of distinction, both by character and by his work. A native of county Down, Ireland, he came to the United States in 1809 when about seven or eight years of age. His parents located at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where Archibald grew up and learned the trade of shoemaker. For a time he was also employed in an iron foundry at Huntingdon. But his career was destined to occupy a much larger field and range of activities than was afforded by either of these mechanical trades. In Huntingdon he married Catherine Simpson. In 1832, leaving his family in the east, he came west to Indiana, and became one of the contractors in the construction of the Wabash and Erie Canal, a waterway which was then being built as one link in a great scheme of internal improvements, only a few years later to be succeeded and rendered obsolete by the rapid progress of railway construction. His first work was in Tippecanoe county, then in Carroll, then Miami county, and finally in Wabash county. His coming to Wabash county was in 1839 or 1840, and here he became superintendent of the division from Fort Wayne to Logansport, a position which he held until 1850. In the meantime the purchase of a tract of land south of Rich Valley in Noble township gave him a still more permanent connection with Wabash county, which was ever thereafter his home. His land was situated between the canal and the river. It was originally covered with a heavy growth of walnut, hard maple, and other wood, and most of that timber was cleared away, some of it converted into rails and fire wood, but great quantities and many noble specimens of the forest were piled into heaps and burned, without regard to their future value. If those trees were standing today, they would be worth a fortune.

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History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2, Part 1

Author: Clarkson W. Weesner Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Number of Pages: 619

Author: Clarkson W. Weesner
Publication date: 1914
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 619