USA > Indiana > A History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922 > Part 55
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California, where he was connected with Elisha Babcock in the erection of the Coronado Beach Hotel, but in 1889 returned to Evansville. He spent a short period at Columbus, Ohio, but again came to Evansville in 1890 and entered Igleheart Brothers, of which company he is now vice-president and general manager. He has taken an interest in civic affairs at Evansville, and was a mem- ber of the city council in 1902 and 1903. October 12, 1886, Mr. Igle- heart married Miss Belle Smith, of Indianapolis, and their only liv- ing son is Austin S. Austin S. Igleheart, was born October 25, 1889, at Evansville, where he acquired a public school education. then attended the University of Wisconsin, from which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1912. In the following year he entered the family business, and in 1915 took up his present work as advertising and sales manager of the cake-flour department, a position which he holds at this time. Mr. Igleheart is a member of the local Rotary Club and director of the state Chamber of Com- merce. July 4, 1918, he enlisted for service in the World war and entered the Officers' Training Camp at Great Lakes Naval Train- ing Station, as a seaman of the second class. Although he was not active after the armistice was signed, he did not receive his honor- able discharge until July 4, 1922. He returned to business life in January, 1919. In 1915 Mr. Igleheart married Miss Suzanne Brid- well, and they are the parents of three children : Austin S., Jr., born September 31, 1916; Evelyn, born April 16, 1920; and James W., born March 17, 1922.
George W. Turnham. Among the old and honored residents of Evansville, one who commands respect no less for his business ability than for his good citizenship and well-spent life is George W. Turnham. While he has been somewhat retired from active affairs during recent vears, he still has large real estate interests which engage his attention and in the handling of which he demonstrates the retention of the acu- men and sagacity that won him success in former years. Mr. Turnham was born on a farm near the little village of Dale, Spencer county, In- diana, January 7, 1850, and is a son of David and Nancy (Jones) Turnham. David Turnham was born in Tennessee, whence he came with his father to Indiana, the family settling in Spencer county. Reared to an agricultural life, he engaged in farming for many years, but later in life became a merchant and conducted a mercantile business during the last two decades of his career. He died in 1884, at the age of eighty-one years, while Mrs. Turnham passed away in 1898, when nearly eighty-seven years of age. Mr. Turnham was a boyhood play- mate of Abraham Lincoln. He was twice married, and of his seven children three are living: Mrs. Hannah T. Jackson, of Oakland City, Indiana; Thomas R., of Rockport, this state; and George W., the youngest of the family. George W. Turnham was educated in the public schools and in his youth assisted his father in the work of the home farm. Later he became the elder man's assistant in the store, and when his father died, in 1884, he took over the proprietorship and con- tinued to conduct the business, at the same time caring for his invalided mother. In 1899, his mother having passed away the year before, Mr.
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Turnham located at Evansville, where he bought a home and embarked in the real estate business. He continued in this line actively for a number of years, and, as before noted, still has large holdings. Mr. Turnham has always maintained an excellent reputation for honorable dealings and has the full esteem and respect of his fellow-citizens. A Republican in his political views on national policy, he is inclined to be independent in purely local matters. He has always been active in church work, and is now a member of the Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church. He is not a lodge man. April 30, 1907, Mr. Turnham was united in marriage with Miss Retta Mckinley, who was formerly a teacher in the public schools of Troy and Tell City, Indiana. She is a daughter of William and Mary (Mastin) Mckinley, and is a distant relative of President McKinley.
J. Chester Vaught. In his special field of endeavor, which has largely to do with furnishing materials for the construction of homes, buildings, bridges, etc., J. Chester Vaught occupies a leading place at Evansville. Still numbered among the younger generation of business men, his advance has been rapid, and at the present time he is either president or a high official in several enterprises which give added prestige to Evansville as the home of important industries. Mr. Vaught was born at Evansville, October 6, 1892, and is a son of Jo- seph M. and Alice (Day) Vaught. His father was born May 4, 1867, at Paradise, Kentucky, and in 1890 came to Evansville, where he be- came identified with the Crown Pottery Company. Mrs. Vaught was born in Kentucky, June 19, 1868. After securing the advantages of a public school education, J. Chester Vaught entered upon his business career as an employe of George L. Mesher & Company, a concern with which he remained one year and six months. He then transferred his services to the International Steel and Iron Company, with which he was associated for ten years, and during the World war spent one year with the Emergency Fleet Corporation of the United States Government Shipping Board. In June, 1919, Mr. Vaught became the organizer of the Evansville Structural Supply Company, which he has since served in the capacity of president, and in which he has been a leading factor in building up a large and profitable business. Mr. Vaught has various other interests, being president of the Home Build- ers, Inc. ; president of the Donaldson Arms Realty Company, and secretary-treasurer of the Rotrava Engineering Corporation. Nat- ural abilities and capacity for continued and painstaking endeavor have been concomitants in the achieving of success by Mr. Vaught, while his high standing in the estimation of his associates rest upon a career that has always been featured by honorable dealing and a strict living up to agreements and contracts. In politics, Mr. Vaught sustains liberal views, not being bound down by any hard and fast rules pertaining to party lines. He is president of the Optimist Club, and a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Evansville Engineering Society and the Evansville Credit Men's Association, and also belongs to the Bayard Park Methodist Episcopal Church. . June 10, 1914, Mr. Vaught married Miss Edna Massburg, who died without issue, May 2, 1920.
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HISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY
Albert J. Veneman. While some men achieve success along certain lines and in certain professions, undoubtedly there are those who are born to them, their natural leanings and marked talents pointing unmistakably to the career in which subsequently they reach distinction. With some, the call of the church cannot be disobeyed; to others the science of healing appeals ; the business mart or the political arena en- gage many, while there are still others who early see in their visions of the future, their achieving in the law as the summit of their ambition. To respond to this call, to bend every energy in this direction, to broad- en and deepen every highway of knowledge, and finally to enter upon this chosen career and find its rewards worth while, that has been the experience of Albert J. Veneman, senior member of the well-known Evansville law firm of Veneman, Welborn & Roberts. Mr. Veneman was born at Evansville, December 31, 1870, and is a son of August and Julia (Reitz) Veneman. His paternal grandfather, Theodore Vene- man, was born in Germany, and became a pioneer of Evansville, where he arrived during the early '40s. He was a lawyer by profession, his chief work in his calling being the settlement of estates for the German settlers. In 1858 he served as treasurer of Vanderburgh county. His death occurred in 1872. Theodore Veneman and his wife made five trips back to Germany, and it was on one of these visits that their son, August, was born. He was brought back to Evansville as an infant, and here grew to manhood, acquiring his education in the public schools. During his career he followed several lines of business, and at the time of his death, in 1880, when he was thirty-five years old, was engaged as an accountant. Mrs. Veneman died in 1879, aged thirty- one years. They were the parents of three sons: Albert J., Edward and Oscar. Albert J. Veneman attended the parochial schools of Ev- ansville and acquired his professional education in the law department of Indiana University. Admitted to the bar in 1898 he at once took up practice at Evansville, where he has since practiced. For fourteen years he maintained a law partnership with Judge Logsdon, and in 1913 was formed the partnership of Veneman & Welborn. In 1919 Louis L. Roberts was admitted to the firm, which became, as at present, Vene- man, Welborn & Roberts, forming one of the formidable combinations of the city. A Democrat in politics, he has been active in the ranks of his party and has held a number of positions of importance, having been city attorney of Evansville, county attorney of Vanderburgh county, and in 1911 a member of the State Legislature, when he was made speaker of the House. He is one of the trustees of the Willard Library, a member of the board of trustees of the Anti-Tuberculosis Society and a trustee of the Gibault Home for Boys, at Terre Haute, Indiana. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, and he and the members of his family belong to St. Benedict's Catholic Church. February 14, 1901, Mr. Veneman was united in marriage with Miss Anna Helen Kelly, of Bloomington, Indiana, and to this union there has been born one child: Mary Gertrude, a student at As- sumption High School for Girls.
Walter C. Wack. In a large manufacturing city, where many interests meet and clash, and supremacy at the best of times is main-
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tained only through the exercise of unusual business ability, importance attaches to those whose foresight and good judgment, supplemented by experienced trade knowledge, enable them safely to guide great enter- prises. By no means all of the business ventures entered into at Evans- ville in 1865 can be located at the present time, although many started with far better prospects than did the Wack Collar Company, of which Walter C. Wack is now the head. Mr. Wack was born at Evansville, August 7, 1882, and is a son of Charles P. and Louisa (Miller) Wack, natives of Germany. Charles P. Wack was about twelve years of age when he immigrated to the United States with several sisters, the lit- tle party locating at Evansville, where Mr. Wack learned the trade of collar maker in the harness factory of one Elliott, an early business man here. During the period of the Civil war he served as a member of the Home Guards at Evansville, and immediately after the close of that struggle Mr. Wack embarked in business on Third Street. Later he moved to the present site of the City National Bank, and still later founded a harness and saddlery manufacturing plant on First Street, at the present site of Raphael Brothers, this being in the early '80s, fol- lowing which it was moved to upper First Street. After having been conducted successfully for many years, the sudden financial panic of 1893 struck the country, and this business, like many others, caught unprepared for such a contingency, were greatly embarrassed and had to curtail their operations to a great extent. The founder, however, stuck by his business until his death in 1907, when he was sixty-nine years of age. Mr. Wack was not only widely known in the harness and saddlery business, but for years enjoyed quite a reputation as a singer at the Opera House. He and his worthy wife were the parents of seven children : Anna (Mrs. John Dausman, of Evansville) ; Elsa (Mrs. Louis A. Geupel, of Evansville) ; Marie (Mrs. Oscar R. Witte, of St. Louis) ; Minnie; Meta ; Walter C., and Erna, the last of whom is de- ceased. Walter C. Wack attended the public schools until he was in the seventh grade, at which time he left to enter Lockyear's Business College, where he pursued a business course. He then learned the sad- dlery business under his father, and after the elder man's death took charge of the business, although, owing to lack of capital, it was being conducted in a very modest manner, the plant producing only about from six to twelve collars a day. Mr. Wack, however, felt that the business was not destined to be an insignificant one, because the supe- riority of the Wack horse collar had been established for many years, and dealers, if they could be notified, would not be slow in supporting a greater manufacture and sale. Mr. Wack tried for several years to interest capital in the project, and through perseverance and undying faith in his product, finally secured the financial aid which he sought. Accordingly, in 1911 the Wack Collar Company was founded, on the present site of Guthrie & Company, and in 1919 moved to its present location at 23 North Water Street, where the concern is producing from twenty-five to thirty dozen collars daily. The Wack horse col- . lar is now known and handled in all the eastern, western and middle western states. Mr. Wack devotes all his time to his business, although he maintains connections with several civic, social and fraternal bodies.
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He is inclined toward Republicanism as a voter, but more often acts independently of party lines. February 12, 1911, Mr. Wack married Elizabeth A., daughter of Henry and Amelia Hilgagaick, of Evans- ville, and to this union there has been born one daughter: Ruth Marie.
Reavill Millard Walden, M. D. Although numbered among the younger physicians and surgeons of Evansville, Dr. Reavill Millard Walden is a man of broad experience. His training has been thorough and comprehensive, and he is recognized as a potent factor in the med- ical profession of this city. He was born in Warrick County, Indiana, October 23, 1889, a son of Dr. William Walden and Lenora (Hub- bard) Walden, the former of whom was born in Warrick county in 1861, and the latter in Vanderburgh county in 1865. Dr. William Wal- den is still engaged in the practice of medicine in his native county, where he is recognized as a man of sterling qualities and splendid pro- fessional ability. Doctor Reavill Millard Walden acquired his early education in the public schools of Warrick county, and upon his grad- uation from the high school there, in 1909, he entered the medical de- partment of the University of Louisville, and was graduated from that institution in 1913, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After spending one year as interne at the Louisville Hospital, he came to Evansville, where he established himself in the practice of his profes- sion, but like many other young men, his career was interrupted tem- porarily by the World war. He enlisted in the service at Evansville, August 17, 1917, and went to Fort Benjamin Harrison, as First Lieu- tenant, United States Medical Corps. From there he was transferred to Deming, New Mexico, in the surgical service of the base hospital, subsequently being sent to Oklahoma City, where he pursued a course in war surgery. He was later sent to Camp Travers, San Antonio, Texas, where he saw service in the base hospital, and from that point he was sent to Blackpool, England, at which place he received his Captain's commission. There also, he attended the Royal Army Med- ical School, where he took a course of instructions in war surgery. From this point he went to the third general hospital at Oxford, Eng- land, where he received instructions in surgery under Sir Robert Jones. He then took a like course at Newton Abby, England, after which he entered the base hospital, Sixty-nine Surgical Service at Sa- venay, France. He was at this point when the Armistice was signed, and was sent back to the United States, being honorably discharged at Chillicothe, Ohio, August 19, 1919. In January, 1920, Doctor Walden again resumed the practice of his profession at Evansville, and has since been one of the active practitioners of this city. He is a deep stu- dent, an original investigator, and keeps in close touch with all that re- search is bringing to light in the field of scientific knowledge, and as a man of marked intellectual activity, his labors have given impetus to the medical profession of this city. He has always maintained the highest standards of professional ethics, and at all times his career has been loyal, energetic and circumspect. He is a member of the Vander- burgh County Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He also has numerous connec- tions of a social, civic and business nature, and his labors have merited
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and received the respect and homage of his professional colleagues as well as the general public.
Edward B. Waldschmidt. One of the enterprising business men of Evansville, who has already made a success of his career principally because he had the vision to recognize opportunity, the courage to grasp it when it presented itself and the ability to so manipulate it that it redounded to his advantage, is Edward B. Waldschmidt, proprietor of the Indiana Specialty Company and special agent for Dayton Scales Company. Mr. Waldschmidt was born April 5, 1885, at St. Louis, Missouri, a son of Philip and Kath- erine (Witt) Waldschmidt. His father died when he was two years old, in 1887, and the widowed mother brought her son to Evansville, where she has since resided with him. The education of Mr. Waldschmidt was necessarily confined to attendance at the Evansville graded schools, after graduation from which he secured employment in the grocery store of Adam Adler. For thirteen years he worked for Mr. Adler, faithfully looking after his interests and enjoying his employer's full confidence. It was while thus employed that Mr. Waldschmidt saw the opportunity of securing the agency for the Dayton Scales Company, and having saved some small capital he acquired the agency, covering a territory of nine counties. As his sales and commissions gradually grew, he founded what is now known as the Indiana Specialty Company, at No. 810 Main Street, and now handles a complete line of grocery and meat market fixtures, including cash registers, refrigerators, grocery display counters, adding machines, meat slicers, safes, credit account registers, butchers tools and supplies, electric coffee mills and meat choppers, safes, Grueudler freezer counters and coolers. He has built up his business through energy, ability and honorable dealing, and is accounted one of the reliable and capable business men of his adopted city. In 1918 Mr. Waldschmidt was united in marriage with Olga, daughter of the late Frank Moers, of Evansville, and to this union there has been born one son: Paul Edward. Mr. and Mrs. Waldschmidt are members of Assumption Catholic Church. In politics Mr. Waldschmidt maintains an in- dependent attitude. He belongs to the Knights of Columbus and the Travelers Protective Association and has several civic con- nections.
William P. Walsh. In a career that has been remarkable in a number of ways, William P. Walsh of Evansville has worked his way slowly but surely up the ladder of success until he has arrived at a position where he justly may be classed with the substantial men of his city. His outstanding achievement has been the devel- opment of the Walsh Baking Company, of which he is the proprie- tor, an enterprise of which he has made a decided success after it had been considered a hopeless proposition by a great national corporation. Mr. Walsh was born at Quebec, Canada, July 18, 1871, and is a son of William and Catherine (Short) Walsh, the former a native of Limerick, Ireland, and the latter of Cork. Wil-
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liam Walsh was but seven or eight years of age when he accom- panied his three elder brothers and mother to America, and throughout his life worked as a ship laborer. He died in 1903 at Chicago, at the age of sixty-eight years, his widow surviving him seven years. She was also a small child when brought by her par- ents to America. There were five children in the family: William P., Samuel Joseph and three girls. When he was but a small lad William P. Walsh decided upon the securing of a practical edu- cation. Even when a boy his greatest pleasure was found in hard work, and before he was ten years of age he had started to work in a sawmill, where he did a grown man's labor. While not attend- ing the parochial schools of Quebec, he worked during the summer months in a hotel for three years, but left this position to go to Chicago, in order to be with his brother and parents. Having been endowed with splendid physical proportions and strength, when he was only fifteen years of age he secured a position as trucker in the freight house of the Lake Shore & Michigan Central Railroad, at Chicago, where he remained four years. At the end of that time he came to a realization that he was making no progress, and left his position to go to work in the shipping room of the F. H. Hill Burial Case Company, where, at the end of two weeks, he had attained his ambition of being given a salary of $2 per day. After six months he was placed in charge of the shipping department, with twenty-five men under his supervision, and remained with that concern for three years. Following this, Mr. Walsh was with The Hub, the big Chicago clothing store, for one year, leaving his posi- tion to engage in work at the World's Columbian Exposition (Chi- cago World's Fair) and after working for more than a year was assistant general foreman over 750 men. In 1895 he embarked in the grocery business at Chicago with his brother, but after one and one-half years accepted a position with the David F. Bremner Baking Company. He started driving a wagon and selling crack- ers to the Chicago trade, continuing thus for three years, and was then on the road as a salesman. When the Bremner interests were taken over by the National Biscuit Company, Mr. Walsh con- tinued with the new owners, covering Illinois territory for seven or eight years. He was then transferred to Milwaukee as sales manager for two years, and subsequently was transferred to Evansville as general manager of the plant of the National Biscuit Company. In 1910 the company decided to cease operations in the bread business in this city, devoting their energies entirely to the cracker business. Mr. Walsh, feeling sure that if his ideas were carried out and his methods followed the proposition could be made a paying one, purchased the bread business of the company, established the Walsh Baking Company, and has developed one of the most prosperous enterprises of its kind at Evansville. That he is a business man of excellent ability is shown in the fact that, start- ing without any capital, within the space of thirteen years he has developed one of the largest exclusive bread businesses in the
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State, of which he is sole owner. He has been admitted to mem- bership in the Quality Bakers of America, an organization which limits its membership to 100 in the United States, this being recog- nition both of the superiority of his product and of his personal business integrity. Mr. Walsh is a director in the North Side Savings and Loan Association, president and a director of the North Side Realty and Insurance Company and president and a director of the Park Hill Development Co., which is now develop- ing Memorial Park Cemetery, and which is expected, upon com- pletion, to be one of Evansville's most beautiful spots. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, the B. P. O. Elks, the Knights of Columbus and the Country Club, and in politics is inclined to favor the Democratic party, although somewhat of an independent voter. With his family, he belongs to the Catholic church. April 28, 1897, Mr. Walsh was united in marriage with Anna, daughter of Redmond and Bridget Bransfield, of Chicago, and to this union there were born six children, of whom three survive: William Red- mond, Helen Marie and Mary Aline. Mr. Walsh was one of the organizers of the North Side Business Men's Association, which was active in building up the North end of the city, and for three years served as its President.
Henry B. Walker. Representing the third generation of a fam- ily of attorneys, Henry B. Walker, of Evansville, has not alone attained a high place in the ranks of his profession, but has been an active factor in various movements making for civic betterment and has occupied several positions of importance in public life. Mr. Walker was born at Evansville, March 10, 1885, a son of James Tyler and Lucy (Babcock) Walker. A review of the life of his father will be found elsewhere in this work. Mr. Walker attended the Canal Street public school in boyhood, following which he pursued a course at the Evansville High School (now known as the Central High School) from which he was graduated in February, 1902. Entering Princeton University, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from that institution in 1906, and after pursuing a law course was admitted to the bar and returned to Evansville. Here he joined his father's firm in 1907 and has since been engaged in a regular practice which has established his repu- tation for ability in the profession of his choice. In 1917 Mr. Walker enlisted in the United States Army and was given a cap- tain's commission, being assigned to the Quartermaster Corps, where he was in charge of commandeering and adjustments sec- tion, Subsistence Division, in the Office of the Director of Pur- chase, Storage and Traffic. Later he was assigned to the Food Purchase Board, and received his honorable discharge from the ser- vice in April, 1919. He is now lieutenant-colonel in the Quarter- master Reserve Corps. At the time of his discharge Mr. Walker returned to Evansville and resumed practice. He has numerous activities to hold his attention aside from those of a purely per- sonal character. He is first vice president of the Evansville Cham-
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