USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. II > Part 1
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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE INDIANA
A REVIEW OF TWO CENTURIES OF OCCUPATION OF THE REGION ABOUT THE HEAD OF THE MAUMEE RIVER
By B. J. GRISWOLD
ILLUSTRATED WITH HALFTONE ENGRAVINGS AND THREE HUNDRED PEN DRAWINGS AND MAPS BY THE AUTHOR
VOLUME II, BIOGRAPHICAL
ALSO THE STORY OF THE TOWNSHIPS OF ALLEN COUNTY BY MRS. SAMUEL R. TAYLOR
CHICAGO Robert O. Law Company 1917
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 521249A ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R 1927 L
Publisher's Statement
In issuing these volumes to our subscribers the publishers desire to say a word of appreciation for the editor, Mr. B. J. Griswold. In the course of a long service in like publications, and after laboring with hundreds of writers and editors in many parts of the country, it remains to Mr. Griswold to be esteemed by us the most efficient and in every way the most satisfactory person with whom it has been our province to be associated in a similar line of endeavor. Although relatively a newcomer to Fort Wayne, he has, nevertheless, been able to bring to his work an enthusiasm which usually comes only through long years of intimate association with the locality that is the subject of research. His talents have richly equipped him for preserving not only the verbal story but also the scenic part; and herein is where most histories, both local and general, are remarkably incomplete. The embelishments of these volumes alone make this work unique and valuable, and we enter- tain no doubt that they will be appreciated and long cherished by those who have been fortunate enough to anticipate their worth.
Mr. Griswold was born October 13, 1873, at Osage, Iowa, the son of James J. and Ruth Velerie (Arnold) .Griswold, who still reside there. The father was born in Canada, and the mother in Michigan. After leaving the public school, B. J. Griswold began his newspaper experience in the office of the Osage Weekly News, and was afterward engaged on the staffs of the Waterloo (Iowa) Courier, the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, the Terre Haute (Indiana) Tribune, and the Indianapolis (Indi- ana) Star. He came to Fort Wayne in 1902 and served for nine years as a cartoonist of the Fort Wayne Daily News, and later was engaged in the same capacity with the Fort Wayne Sentinel. Previous to the latter experience he became one of the founders of the Fort Wayne Engraving Company. His present business, the Progressive Advertising Company, was established in 1914. On March 21, 1901, Mr. Griswold was united in marriage with Miss Clara Louise Norton, at Cedar Falls, Iowa. Mr. Griswold is an active member of the Rotary Club, of which he is serving as secretary, and of the Quest Club and the Commercial Club. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Plymouth Congregational church.
THE PUBLISHERS.
Index to Portraits in This Volume
Barnett, Charles Eldridge
39
Bash, Charles S.
43
Bass, John H.
45
Bass, John H., Residence
48
Bowser, Sylvanus F.
82
Breen, William P.
87
Breuer, William
90
Curdes, Louis F.
120
Deihl, Hugh M.
125
Dreibelbiss, John
144
Duemling, Hermann A.
148
Eckart, Fred
153
Ellison, Thomas E.
160
Eward, Edgar D.
169
Foster, David N.
187
Foster, Samuel M.
190
Fox, Louis
194
Guldlin, Olaf N.
243
Hackett, Edward A. K.
252
Hadley, Robert
256
Haffner, Christian
257
Hanna, Samuel
264
Hayden, Fred J.
279
Hoffman, Edward G.
295
Klaehn, W. Robert
333
Klitzke, William C.
335
Kunkle, Erastus B.
344
Lumbard, Sidney C.
365
Menefee, Charles M.
392
Morris, John
408
Morris, Samuel L., Jr.
409
Perfect, Arthur H.
442
Pidgeon, Charles T.
447
Porter, Miles F.
452
Rockhill, Howell C.
480
Rosenthal, Isaac M.
489
Rosenthal, J. Milton
491
Rosenthal, Maurice I.
492
Rurode, Ernst C.
495
Swinney, Thomas W.
563
Taylor, Robert S.
564
Vesey, William J.
582
Welty, Joel
604
Worden, Charles H.
620
Worden, James L.
622
Biographical Sketches
George F. Aichele is senior member of the firm of Aichele & Son, which conducts in Fort Wayne a substantial and representative business in the manufacturing and handling of cemetery monuments of the best modern type, and the concern has acknowledged leadership in this line of enterprise in Allen county, with a large and well equipped establish- ment that has the best of facilities for the handling of all classes of monu- mental and other enduring memorial work on sacred grounds, con- secrated to those who have passed forward to "that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns." Mr. Aichele was born in Wurtenberg, Germany, August 23, 1851, and was a child of three years when he came with his parents to the United States, the voyage across the Atlantic having been made on an old-time sailing vessel of the type then commonly in commission for such transportation service. The family home was established in Kendallville, and there the subject of this review acquired his early education in the public schools. In 1881 he established his home in Fort Wayne and found employment in connection with the line of business of which he is now a prominent representative. He learned the trade of marble and granite cutting in a most thorough way and he has here been established in his indepndent business as a manufacturer of and dealer in cemetery monuments, grave- stones, markers, etc., since 1894, the enterprise, built up on the best of service and honorable methods, being now conducted under the firm name of Aichele & Son. Mr. Aichele is a man of broad views and well fortified opinions, takes loyal interest in public affairs of local order and gives his political support to the Socialist party, though he has never had any desire for political activity or public office. In addition to his business he is the owner of valuable real estate in Fort Wayne, in- cluding his attractive home property. In the state of New York, in 1874, Mr. Aichele wedded Miss Marie Scheymentki, and they became the parents of three children: Wilhelmina D., Clarence, who is a barber and resident of Fort Wayne, and August C., who is associated with his father in business, as junior member of the firm of Aichele & Son.
John H. Aiken is another of the native sons of Allen county whose ability, ambition and character have brought to him established position . as one of the successful and representative members of the bar of the county, and his precedence has been shown also by his able administra- tion on the bench of the superior court of Allen county, a position of which he was the incumbent about two years. Since his retirement from this judicial office he has given his undivided attention to his substantial and important general law business, and he maintains his offices in the Swinney building, Fort Wayne. Judge Aiken was born in Lafayette township, this county, on the 19th of January, 1870, and is a son of John and Martha J. (Trainer) Aiken, the former of whom was born cither in Pennsylvania or Eastern Ohio, and the latter was born in one of the eastern counties of the old Buckeye State. John Aiken came to Allen
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
county in 1860 and established his home in Lafayette township, where he owned and improved a good farm. After the lapse of a number of years he sold this property and, after passing an interval in the state of Tennessee, returned to Allen county and engaged in farming in Lake township. He was a Democrat in politics, served as county assessor, and was influential in community affairs. A man of the deepest Christian faith and practice, he served many years as a local preacher in the Metho- dist Episcopal church, and both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives in Fort Wayne, the subject of this review being the youngest of their eight children. John H. Aiken passed the period of his childhood and early youth on the home farm and after profiting duly by the advantages of the public schools he took a course in the old Methodist College in Fort Wayne. In consonance with his well defined ambition to prepare himself for the legal profession, he entered the law department of the great University of Michigan, in which he was gradu- ated as a member of the class of 1891 and from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws. In May of that year he was admitted to the Indiana bar and established himself in the practice of his profession in Fort Wayne. He was for a time associated with M. V. B. Spencer, and thereafter he conducted an independent practice until 1905, when he formed a partnership with Homer C. Underwood. This alliance con- tinued until 1908, when Judge Aiken removed to Warsaw, the judicial center of Kosciusko county, where for the ensuing three years he was associated in practice with Judge A. G. Wood. He then returned to Fort Wayne, and here his law business has since been of an individual order. As a skilled trial lawyer he has appeared in connection with much important litigation in the various courts of this section of the state, and from 1900 until November, 1902, he gave most effective service on the beneh of the Superior court of the county, from which office he retired to give his undivided attention to his large and representative private law business. In 1896 he was appointed county attorney for the poor, and of this position he continued the incumbent four years. In politics Judge Aiken is a stalwart and well fortified advocate of the cause of the Democratic party, and he is actively affiliated with the Masonie fra- ternity, in which he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, besides being identified with the Ancient Arabie Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a Knight Templar. On the 1st of Septem- ber, 1891, was recorded the marriage of Judge Aiken to Miss Lulu Bush, daughter of Dr. Morton W. Bush, of Chelsea, Michigan, and the one child of this union is Arthur L., who is now a resident of the city of Detroit, Michigan.
William Albersmeyer is a native German, born on Nevember 15, 1873, son of Fred and Elizabeth (Heine) Albersmeyer. The father died in Germany and, in 1883, his widow took her family of seven children and came to America, settling in Fort Wayne, where she passed the remainder of her life. The sons and daughters were Fred, Charles, Christ, William, Minnie, Lizette and Hannah. William was sent to live with an unele in Milan township, after the family located in Fort Wayne, and there had such educational advantages as the public schools offered. He was still in his teens when he took up farming on his own lookout and has since continued to be actively identified with that industry, enjoying a pleasureable degree of success and acquiring possession of ninety acres of the most fertile and productive land in the township. He bought
19
FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY
unimproved land and has himself carried on the difficult task of bringing it up to its present high state of cultivation, and his work along the lines of diversified farming is highly creditable to him. Mr. Albersmeyer was married, in 1901, to Miss Sophia Dressler, daughter of August Dressler. Four children have come to them-Esther, Imogard, Elmer and Gertrude. The family have membership in the German Lutheran church and Mr. Albersmeyer is an adherent of the Democratic party in politics.
Samuel Rockwell Alden .- Thirty-eight years have passed since Samuel R. Alden established himself in the practice of law in Fort Wayne. In these years he has been a participant in many of the developing pro- eesses that have gone to make that place the prosperous and representa- tive American eity it is known to be, and his labors have won for him a position and prominence that might well be envied by his associates. Samuel Rockwell Alden was born in South Wilbraham, Massachusetts, on August 30, 1847, and he is the son of Harlow and Mary Ann (Imson) Alden. Harlow Alden was born in Lyme, New Hampshire. An inventor, dreamer and all-round mechanie, he never made a financial success, though expert in earpentry, cooperage and cabinet work. Disabled during the civil war, in service as sapper and miner, he could not help his son. The mother, spiritual, educated, and energetic, was the formative foree in the education and development of her son, and by teaching she was for years the family support. Of mixed descent-English, Scotch, Welsh, German, Dutch and Irish-Samuel R. Alden is a typical American and the twelfth in line from John Alden of Mayflower fame. He came with his parents to Whitewater, Wisconsin, when a small boy and attended the schools in that place. When he had finished his high school course he entered Beloit College, at Beloit, Wisconsin, but his studies were broken off as the result of an injury he sustained in an attempt to stop a runaway. When the Normal School opened at Whitewater, his home town, young Alden began to attend, though he was still suffering from his accident and was able to get about only on erutehes. Shortly after that he was appointed to the position of instructor in certain subjects, and for two years taught advanced English and Elocution. His next post was as assistant in Mathematies to Prof. Horace Briggs, at the Buffalo Classical School, a preparatory school for boys. Mr. Alden continued there for two years and in 1874 he went abroad to continue his studies. He attended the University of Leipsie for a year and then entered the University of Heidelberg, after which he spent several months in study in Paris. Returning to his native country he entered Columbia Law School, and he completed a two year course in one year. His admission to the bar of the state of Wisconsin followed shortly afterward and in 1878 he came to Fort Wayne, where he has since been engaged in civil practice, enjoying a marked degree of success and prosperity. Mr. Alden is a prominent Republican and a member of the Baptist church. He has been a Seottish Rite Mason sinee 1890 and is a member of the Shrine. He has long been a staunch member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, and for several years served as president of its predecessor, the Fort Wayne Club. In December, 1884, Mr. Alden was married to Carrie Savin, the daughter of Auguste F. and Sarah J. (Staniford) Savin, of New York City, where Mrs. Alden was born. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Alden. Whiting, the eldest, is a forester, in the employ of the Canadian Pacific railway and stationed at Calgary, Alberta,
20
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCIIES
Canada. Dorothy is the wife of Fernand Prussing, a mechanical engineer of Chicago, and, like her new-woman sisters, continues her professional work after marriage. Spencer Thorndyke, a senior at Cornell University, enlisted in the Naval Reserve and is now in the coast patrol guard, sta- tioned at Newport, Rhode Island.
Charles B. Aldrich, recognized as a man of excellent professional attainments, has been engaged in the practice of law in Fort Wayne since 1911 and is one of the prominent and influential younger members of the bar of Allen county. A scion of sterling New England colonial ancestry, he was born at Chattanooga, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1885, and is a son of Charles T. and Susetta (Milan) Aldrich. After due preliminary educational discipline he entered historic old Yale University, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1906 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In preparation for his chosen profession he was matriculated in the Chattanooga Law School, in the city of Chatta- nooga, Tennessee, and from the same he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws in the year 1908. In 1910 he completed an effective post-graduate course in the law school of Yale University, but he had been admitted to the Indiana bar in the year that recorded his graduation in the Chatta- nooga Law School. In 1911 he engaged in the practice of his profession in Fort Wayne, and since January 1, 1916, has here been a member of the strong and representative law firm of Ryan, Ryan & Aldrich, which controls a substantial and important practice. Mr. Aldrich is a popular member of the Allen County Bar Association and holds membership also in the Indiana State Bar Association. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party, he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic church, and he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and the Improved Order of Red Men. On the 9th of July, 1912, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Aldrich to Miss Juanita Ryan, of Fort Wayne, and the one child of this union is a son, William.
Right Rev. Herman Joseph Alerding, the present bishop of the dio- cese of Fort Wayne, has been the occupant of that exalted station since his consecration, November 30, 1900, and under his administration the diocese has flourished, the churches have been increased in members, church properties improved, and all kindred interests have progressed most satisfactorily. Bishop Alerding was born in Westphalia, Germany, April 13, 1845, and while he was as yet an infant the family migrated to America, establishing a home at Newport, Kentucky, where the future Bishop attended the parochial schools of Corpus Christi church. Bishop Alerding relates that all the children of the parish, boys and girls, num- bering about one hundred and fifty, were taught in one room, by one teacher, which is in striking contrast with the schools of the present day. The education was in every respect strenuous, but the youthful Alerding persisted in his studies, as he had, from his earliest boyhood days, evinced an inclination and a desire to become a priest. He received his first lessons in Latin from Rev. John Voll, pastor of Corpus Christi church at Newport, and from 1858 until 1859 attended the diocesan seminary at Vincennes, Indiana. The second year of his studies was spent in the old St. Thomas Seminary, near Bardstown, Kentucky, and in the fall of 1860 he was sent to St. Meinrad's College and Seminary in Spencer county, Indiana, which institution was conducted by Bene- dictine Fathers who had come to this country from Einsiedlen, Switzer-
21
FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY
land. There young Alerding finished his studies and received the Holy Orders from Bishop de St. Palais, the Tonsure and Minor Orders being received on September 18, 1865, Subdeaconship on June 18, 1867, Deacon- ship on June 21 of the same year and Priesthood on September 22, 1868. After receiving the Holy Orders his first appointment was that of assist- ant to the Rev. John B. Chasse at St. Joseph's church, in Terre Haute, and there he remained until October 18, 1871. While serving there in that capacity he also had charge of the missions at Rockville and Montezuma, the stations at Rosedale in Parke county and the mission at Sullivan and the station at Farmersburg, in Sullivan county. He was removed to Cambridge City, October 18, 1871, and there he served as the pastor of St. Elizabeth's church until August, 1874. He found a demoralized congregation in this place, but he was able to liquidate the indebted- ness on the church property and also to purchase a more favorable site for the erection of a new church building. During his pastorate in Cambridge City he also had charge of the station at Knightstown and Newcastle, in Henry county, and Hagerstown, in Wayne county. The churches at Knightstown and Newcastle were built by him and wholly paid for. In the summer of 1874, Father Alerding was transferred to Indianapolis and appointed to the position of procurator for the newly established St. Joseph's seminary, also serving as pastor for the congregation which had regular services in the seminary chapel. The seminary was abandoned after one year, and later Father Alerding was directed to build a new church. In compliance the present St. Joseph's church was erected and the dedicatory services were held on July 4, 1880. Father Alerding continued as pastor of this charge until 1900, when the See of Fort Wayne became vacant upon the death of Bishop Rademacher, and Father Alerding was appointed to the position, the consecration taking place on November 30 of the same year. In 1901, the first year of his administration, the Bishop's House, at the corner of Lewis and Clinton streets, was erected, and in 1906 a crypt for the burial of church dignitaries was constructed beneath the sanctuary. In 1883 Bishop Alerding published "A History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Vincennes," which book " is a monument to his indus- try and untiring patience," and in 1907 he published "The Diocese of Fort Wayne; a Book of Historical Reference," which increased the debt of gratitude owed him by the thousands of interested members of the Mother Church.
John D. Alleger, proprietor of the Monroeville Breeze and Nestor of the Press in Allen county, was born in Danville, Pennsylvania, August 24, 1854. The year following his birth the parents came to Allen county, and here he has spent his life from that time to the present. The first home of the family was in a small house which stood on the grounds now a part of Concordia College. The father owned and oper- ated a portable sawmill and thus it came about that Mr. Alleger lived in various parts of the county. Acquiring only a rudimentary education, he early began that course of industry which has become a settled charac- teristic. He went through the bootblack and newsboy period of busi- ness, in the former of which he was the first in the city, and in his early 'teens was a coachman for Hon. Hugh McCulloch. In 1869 he took up the printer's calling in the old Fort Wayne Gazette office and with slight variation he has been identified with the newspaper business of the county since that time. He worked for three years
22
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
in the Monroeville Demoerat office and then returned to Fort Wayne, where he remained until 1881, when he resumed his connection in Mon- roeville. He bought the Democrat, January 1, 1884, and at once changed the name to the Breeze, by which it has been known ever since. He was then without funds, but was enabled to purchase it through the aid of thirty-three citizens who signed a promissory note for $1,000- on which he borrowed the money. The Breeze has been a consistent advocate of Democratic principles though not a slave to partisan rule. In February, 1874, was solemnized his marriage with Malinda Wass, who has borne him three children, named Mrs. Dovie May Noyer (now deceased) ; William R., and Mrs. Elsie Winifred Battenberg. The son is now associated with the father in conducting the Breeze and thus Mr. Alleger is enabled to give attention to his other interests, among which is a fine farm of seventy-one acres near the town. William R. was married to Susie E. Piller and they have one son-John Carlton- now thirteen years old and a pupil in the high school. Mr. Alleger is, as may be inferred, a Demoerat in politics and has held the office of Justice of the Peace for thirty years and through this has come to be known among his acquaintances as Judge Alleger. Fraternally he belongs to the Masons, I. O. O. F., K. of P. and Jr. O. U. A. W.
Albert C. Alter passed his entire life in Fort Wayne and was but forty years of age at the time of his death, which occurred December 7, 1912. The suecinct biography of any man may be summed up in the terse expressions that he was born, he lived and he died, but how much is implied aside from this depends upon the man himself and the use he makes of his powers, the attitude which is his toward his fellow men. Mr. Alter achieved independence and suceess through his own efforts, but over and above this he held himself true and loyal in all of the rela- tions of life, expressed his buoyant nature in kindly thoughts and kindly deeds, and it may well be said that when he passed from the stage of his mortal endeavors the popular estimate of him was shown in the sorrow and regret that came to the hearts of a host of friends who had been drawn to him during the course of his generous and gracious life. To have gained such friends bespeaks the most and best for any man. Albert C. Alter was born at Fort Wayne on October 18, 1872, and was a son of Nicholas and Barbara (Grotenrath) Alter, the former a native of Fort Wayne and the latter of Cleveland, Ohio. The father was one of the pioneer shoe merchants of Fort Wayne, where he continued to reside until his death and where his widow still maintains her home-at 1040 Lake avenue. From an appreciative estimate that was published some time prior to the death of Mr. Alter may consistently be taken the following quotations : "The subject of this sketch is a living proof of the falsity of the assertion that there is nothing in a name. The verb alter, according to wise old Noah Webster and a few other authorities, means the same as ' change,' and this tells in a word just the manner in which Mr. Alter made his money. No, he didn't make it on 'change,' as many another man has done ; he simply made it out of change-small ehange, pennies, nickels and dimes. He started in as a hustling, thrifty newsboy, crying his wares on the very corner of which he is now the boss-a splendid example for the 'newsies' who congregate there daily and make life interesting for those waiting for their cars. We hope they'll all peruse this little story and profit thereby. One day Mr. Alter found himself in charge of the news stand of the Aveline Hotel. Gradually his prosperity increased
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