A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 1, Part 89

Author: Howard, Timothy Edward, 1837-1916
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 826


USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 1 > Part 89


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In Ohio Dr. Grimes was married to Caro- line E. Harris, a native of England, but she was reared in America and died in Mishawaka on the 14th of March, 1906. Of their family of four children two are now living, Mrs. R. E. Wilklow and Harriet E., the wife of E. V. Bingham. also of this city, whose his- tory will be found elsewhere in this work. Dr. Grimes owns one hundred and twenty acres of land in Madison township, St. Joseph county. During his early life he voted with the Whig party, and at the organization of the Republican party he joined its ranks, be- ing one of the forty now living in this county who voted for its first presidential nominee, Fremont. and since that time he has continued to support each of its presidential candidates with the exception of Greeley. He has always taken an active part in the public affairs of the locality, and at one time served as the trustee of Mishawaka. Faithful and true in all the relations of life, he need have few regrets in looking baek along the pathway by


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which he has come, and to his children he will leave the priceless heritage of a stainless name and history.


HARRIET L. LINDT, M. D. To those familiar with the residents of Mishawaka Dr. Harriet L. Lindt needs no introduction, for her ef- forts in behalf of the medical profession have gained her a reputation not confined to the limits of the locality. In all that tends to her chosen profession she has taken a deep inter- est, and her zeal has been of that practical kind that secured results immediate and bene- ficial. Mishawaka may well be proud to claim her as a daughter, for her career has been one which reflects honor upon her adopted city. She was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa. June 18, 1878. Her father, John Lindt, was a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, where he was also reared and educated, and became a lawyer of note, receiving his professional training in the Oberlin Law School. About 1873 he came west, locating in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he continued his practice of the law and also took an active part in the public affairs of the community. During the war of 1861-65 he nobly put aside all personal considerations and offered his service to his country's cause, and is now department com- mander for Iowa in the Grand Army of the Republie. In Mishawaka, Indiana, he was married to Sarah Griffin, a native daughter of this city. Her father, Stephen Griffin, was one of the early pioneers in St. Joseph county and Mishawaka, and was one of the first blacksmiths in the county. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lindt continue to reside in Couneil Bluffs, where they are well known and hon- ored residents.


Harriet L. Lindt, their only child, received her literary training in the schools of Conncil Bluffs, and after its completion entered the John A. Creighton Medical College, of Omaha, Nebraska, to prepare for her chosen life work, graduating in that well known institution in 1900. During the following two years she was engaged in practice in Omaha, but in January, 1903, came to Mishawaka, the birth- place of her mother, and entered upon the career which has been so fruitful of good works, kind deeds and loving ministrations. Dr. Lindt is a member of the Omaha Medical Society, and of the Episcopal church. She is and has been a discriminating student, and has gained distinction in the line of her chosen calling. Her strong mentality and intellec- tual attainments, her broad sympathy and


charity and her pleasing social qualities have rendered her very popular and won her the love of many with whom she has been asso- ciated in the active pursuits of life.


HENRY J. GRAHAM, M. D., who is recognized as one of the most promi- nent physicians of Mishawaka, was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, April 28, 1878, the son of John and Rebecca (McLel- lan) Graham, the former a native of Scotland and the latter of Canada. She is now de- ceased, but the husband and father survives, still residing in Canada. After his gradua- tion from the Glencoe high school of Ontario, Canada, the son Henry became a student in the Detroit Medical College, where he com- pleted the course and graduated in 1900. During the two years following this impor- tant event he was connected with the Detroit hospital, while for one year he had charge of the Jackson, Michigan, hospital. In 1903 Dr. Graham became a resident of Mishawaka, where he immediately opened an office for the practice of his chosen profession, and has ever since enjoyed a large and representative patronage. In the line of his profession he is a member of the St. Joseph County Medical Society, the Ft. Wayne Medical Society and the Jackson County Medical Society, thus being enabled to keep pace with the many new discoveries which are constantly being made in the science. Fraternally the doctor has membership relations with the Masonie order. the Knights of Pythias. the Knights of the Maccabees, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, all of Mishawaka.


DR. THEODORE P. MOYER is acknowledged a leader in the ranks of the dental fraternity in South Bend, and he has risen to his present enviable position through earnest study, close . application and marked ability. With a na- ture that could not be content with medi- ocrity and prompted by a laudable ambition to rise in his profession, he has steadily advanced and gained prestige that is indi- cated by the regard which his fellow practi- tioners entertain for him and by the liberal patronage which he receives. He was born in St. Catherines, Lincoln county, Ontario, Canada, on the 8th of January. 1869, a son of David H. and Anna Moyer, both also na- tives of Canada.


In the public schools of his native county Theodore P. Moyer received his literary edu- cation, while his professional studies were


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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.


pursued in Buffalo, New York, graduating from the University of Buffalo in 1897. He then began the practice of his profession in Ashtabula, Ohio, where he remained for a year and a half, coming thence to South Bend in 1898 and entering the ranks of the dental profession. During the first two years of his residence here the doctor was associated in practice with Dr. D. B. Calvert, but since that time he has been alone, maintaining an office in the Dean building.


In 1898 Dr. Moyer was united in marriage to Miss Alice Guy, a daughter of Andrew and Jane Guy, of Ashtabula, Ohio, and they have one son, Harold, born on the 3d of July, 1901. Dr. Moyer and wife are members of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal church. while fraternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen. He is very prominent in the mu- sical circles of South Bend, and is now serv- ing as bass singer in St. Paul's church.


A. P. SIBLEY. There is ever a degree of satisfaction and profit in scanning the life history of one who has attained an eminent degree of success as the direct result of in- dividual efforts; one who has had the cour- age, patience, perseverance, energy and economy, together with the mentality, to di- rect his endeavors toward the desired end, and the singleness and steadfastness of pur- pose which has given true value to each consecutive detail of effort. As a distinctive type of this kind of man we can refer with singular propriety to the gentleman whose name forms the caption of this review.


A. P. Sibley, late president of the Sibley Machine Tool Company, of South Bend, was born in Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the 30th of April, 1847, his father, Paul Sib- ley. also being a native of that state. The family, which is of English ancestry, is traced back to the early part of the seventeenth century, when the first American ancestor came from England and located in New Hampshire, thence removing to Massachusetts. The surname Paul has descended through many generations, the great-grandfather, grandfather and father by that name having been Massachusetts farmers. The death of Paul Sibley, the father, occurred in his na- tive county, when A. P. Sibley was but ten years of age. His wife (nee Esther Stone), also born in the old Bay State, was a sister of Amasa Stone and an aunt of Mrs. John Hay. She lived to the age of forty-seven years and reared a family of six children,


two sons and four daughters, but only two are now living-the daughter being Mary, wife of George L. Hobbs, of Massachusetts.


A. P. Sibley, the fifth child in order of birth and the only member of the family to live in Indiana, was reared and educated in his native county of Worcester, and after completing his studies learned the trade of a machinist at Warren, Massachusetts, being employed for eight years on contract work in the shops of L. W. Ponds. In company with John R. Mills he made the machinery which they brought to South Bend in 1874. and with which they embarked in business. They were also accompanied by George O. Ware, and the firm of Sibley, Wells & Ware founded an establishment for general ma- chine repairing at the foot of Washington street. Later they moved to what is now known as the old Bissell machine shops. and four years afterward, upon the retirement of Mr. Wells, the firm became Sibley & Ware. In 1883 their shops were destroyed by fire, and in the same year the site on which the present plant stands was purchased and the buildings erected, but on account of the fail- ing health of Mr. Ware, Mr. Sibley purchased the entire business in May. 1904, at which time it was incorporated under the name of the Sibley Machine Tool Company. This cor- poration, of which he was president, employs about one hundred operatives, makes a spe- cialty of power drills and is one of the largest establishments of the kind in northern In- diana. Mr. Sibley is also vice-president of the Merchants' National Bank of South Bend.


The marriage of A. P. Sibley was cele- brated in June, 1876, when Eva, the daugh- ter of Robert Hardy, of South Bend, became his wife, and their three children are Olive, Walter and Helen. Mr. Sibley was an in- fluential supporter of the Republican party, and from 1904 to 1906 represented the First ward in the city council. He was a member of the Commercial Athletic Club and of the Methodist Episcopal church. In noting his prominence and broad usefulness it is inter- esting to remember that his location was a matter of pure accident. At the time of his journey hither he and his companions had purchased tickets for Chicago, intending to stop off at different places on the route: but they continued on as far as Towa. where they spent one week, expecting to return di- rectly to Lynn, Massachusetts. But hearing


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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.


of Elkhart, Indiana, they stopped off at that place, and missing their train the following morning decided to locate in South Bend. Thus it was that Mr. Sibley became a resi- dent of that city of thirty-three years' stand- ing, during which period he enjoyed a con- tinuous and prominent identification with its


progressive and meritorious interests. His career was ever such as to warrant the trust and confidence of the business world, and his activity in financial circles forms no unim- portant factor in the history of St. Joseph county.


While Mr. Sibley devoted the greater part of his attention to his private affairs, his in- fluence in public matters was great and his judgment eagerly sought and highly valued. Against his wishes he was elected to the city council in 1904, being considered a valuable addition to Republican leadership and the public service, giving as he did the same care- ful attention to his public duties as he had to his private affairs. When he refused a re- nomination in 1906, it was felt that the city had lost the services of a most superior pub- lic servant, and when the community learned of his death, which occurred May 25, 1907, it was fully realized what a broad and lead- ing part he had played in the best citizenship of South Bend. The irreparable loss, how- ever, was to his most intimate relatives-his widow, his son and two daughters, who had been knit to him by years of thoughtful care and affectionate solicitude, and his sister of the earlier years, Mrs. Mary Ilobbs, of Spen- cer, Massachusetts. These, as well as his warm friends and close business and indus- trial associates, appreciated his stalwart man- hood and his high worth, from personal con- tact and the inner view of character.


THE O'BRIEN VARNISH WORKS. One of the most extensive manufactories of South Bend and one of the largest industries of a sharply limited nature in the West, is known as the O'Brien Varnish Works. located at the corner of Washington and Johnson streets. The business was established and incorpo- rated by P. O'Brien in 1878, and he has been its president ever sinee. The other offieers of the company are his sons-Samuel P., W. D .. George L. and F. J .- all keen and popular business men, who have joined their abilities to those of their father to develop one of the largest manufactories of superior var. nish in the country. The high reputation both of the management and the output is na-


tional, and therefore materially adds to the importance of South Bend as a commercial and industrial center.


Sixteen years ago the company erected a linseed oil mill, with a capacity of 225,000 bushels of flax seed annually, and thousands of barrels of oil and large quantities of oil cake are yearly shipped from the plant, some of the output being exported to Europe. Th .: company is independent in its transactions, and has always maintained such a high stand- ard of its products that it is the general ad- mission of dealers and consumers alike that the aim of its trademark has been fully real- ized; the legend thereon inscribed is "Agimus antecedere," "We strive to excel."


Mr. O'Brien. the founder of the cosmo- politan business which now extends through- out the United States and Canada, and has branched into no small portion of the old world, has been the leading figure of the great industry for almost half a century. He is therefore a notable force in the ma- terial progress of South Bend, and is placed high in the class of famous manufacturers which have given the city a standing in the enterprising and growing municipalities of the country.


ALMOND BUGBEE. In the death of Almond Bugbee St. Joseph county lost one of her most prominent and useful citizens. His in- fluence for good was widely felt, and his ex- ample was indeed worthy of emulation. He was at all times actuated by the highest mo- tives and the most lofty impulses; he lived for the benefit of others, and his memory re- mains as an unalloyed benedietion to all who knew him. The history of South Bend would be incomplete withont the record of his life. so intimately was he connected with indus- trial institutions.


Mr. Bugbee was born in Hyde Park, Ver- mont, January 3, 1815, a stirring period in our national history, and was left without father or mother when ten years of age. The educational training which he received was obtained in the distriet schools, and at the age of sixteen. in Strafford, Vermont, he learned the tanner, currier and shoemaker's trades, and at the same time, although but a mere boy, acted as assistant postmaster. On reaching his twenty-first year he started west. his objective point being Milwaukee, Wiscon- sin, but on his way thither he heard much concerning the prospeets to be found in South Bend and he determined to direct his steps


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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.


to this city and see for himself. Reaching his destination on the 9th of March, 1837, he was at once pleased with the village and its people, so he cast in his lot with its early settlers, and from that time until his busy and useful life was ended in death he was ever a stalwart supporter of its institutions. His first employment here was as a shoe- maker, and in December, 1837, he started a shoe store of his own. In 1842, however. Mr. Bugbee purchased a tannery of G. D. Edge, which he enlarged, equipped with water power, and at that time gave employment to more men than any one employer in Sonth Bend. He was the first person in this city to sell shoes ready made, and with Alexander Foote organized the first incorporated com- pany in the city, "The Cordwainers' Union," for the manufacture of boots and shoes, it being also the first co-operative union incor- porated in Indiana and of which Mr. Bugbee was made the president. In its management he displayed splendid executive power and keen discrimination, and he was widely rec- ognized as a most capable business man.


The first tannery which Mr. Bugbee owned was burned, and although he immediately re- built the flood of 1856 swept away the dam across the river. He then erected a furni- ture factory on the same site, which he leased, and this, too, was destroyed by fire. Again he rebuilt, this time leasing it to a Massa- chusetts firm. while it was afterward leased to the Judson Montgomery Company, the Studebaker Brothers and to Alexis Co- quillard, to whom he ultimately sold the property. At the close of the war he re- tired from business, choosing to rest from the arduous cares as he passed down the western slope of life. Mr. Bugbee was a director in the State Bank of Indiana, and also as- sisted in organizing the St. Joseph County Savings Bank, of which he was the first treas- urer. The canse of humanity never had a truer friend, and while he was deeply con- cerned in numerous philanthropic enterprises he was more especially identified with the tem- perance cause.


On the 28th of April. 1844. Mr. Bughee was nnited in marriage to Miss Adelia Ann Crocker, who was the lady principal of the first academy of South Bend. Her death oc- curred January 28. 1861. Willis A. was the only child of this marriage, and he is truly a worthy son of a worthy sire, well known in the business cireles of South Bend. The sec-


ond marriage of Mr. Bugbee was celebrated January 13, 1881, when Miss Mary P. Moody became his wife. She was a native of New- buryport, Massachusetts. Mr. Bugbee died May 24, 1904, and the community mourned the loss of one of its most valued citizens.


ANDREW KUNSTMAN. Since the early days of St. Joseph county the Kunstman family has occupied a distinctively honorable place in its history, and Andrew Kunstman, whose death occurred May 23, 1907, represented it with high credit as one of the most respected citizens of South Bend. About two years ago he retired from active business to the restful comforts of his pleasant home at 230 North Lafayette street, and for some time prior to his death was suffering with loco- motor ataxia, although his trouble had not deterred him from out of door exercise. Some two weeks before his demise he had his first stroke of apoplexy, and was bedfast there- after, the second stroke proving fatal in about an hour.


In Mr. Kunstman's sudden death Union township lost a native son, his birth in that section of the county ocenrring July 21, 1863. He was the younger of two children- a son and a daughter-born to Andrew and Barbara Kunstman, an account of whose lives will be found in another portion of this work. Andrew Kunstman. Jr .. received his early education in the schools of Mishawaka and South Bend, and pursued his higher studies at Notre Dame University. At the age of twenty-three he entered upon the ae- tive duties of a business life, condneting operations on his own account in South Bend until Jannary, 1906, when failing health in- dneed his retirement. At that time he had not only acquired considerable wealth in his business enterprises, but was a stockholder in the American Trust Company and the owner of a building on Washington street and what are known as the Kunstman Flats. So that he was able to pass the last years of his life free from worldly anxieties. and left his family in comfortable circumstances.


On October 2, 1889. the deceased was umited in marriage to Ann Elizabeth Boye, a native of Valparaiso, Indiana. and they bo- came the parents of two children-Harold. now attending the high school at South Bend. and Marguerite, a student at the Sisters' Academy, of that place. Mr. Kunstman was a member of the fraternal orders of Elks and Eagles, also of the Commercial Club:


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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.


was a Republican in his political affiliations, but preferred to concentrate his attention and his abilities on the development of his business interests and the domestic duties of a good husband and father. That he made many friends and retained them through life is an evidence of his just, steadfast and alt ... gether substantial character.


MARVIN CAMPBELL. Becoming identified with South Bend over thirty-five years ago, Mr. Campbell has, since that time, been con- nected with many activities of the city, but has become best known as a manufacturer. After coming here in 1870, at that time a young man of twenty-one years, and fresh from college, he spent two years as a teacher of mathematics in the South Bend high school. During the following fifteen years the eiti- zens always spoke of him as one of the en- terprising hardware merchants and a publie- spirited helper when needed in a movement of a general nature. In 1888. as treasurer and partner of the Mishawaka Woolen Man- ufacturing Company, he became associated with one of the most important manufactur- ing concerns of the two cities, and his energy and business ability were recognized as a fac- tor in its snecess until the past year (1906), when he disposed of his interests.


In 1893 the South Bend Folding Box Com- pany was organized. This is now and has been for several years one of the largest en- terprises of the kind in the west. Its prod- uet, which a quarter of a century ago had only a very limited use, is now indispensa- ble and peculiarly adapted to the demands of modern business, and as such has attained a. use and demand as extended as commeree and industry. For a number of years Mr. Campbell and his sons have been sole own- ers of this establishment, and under their skillful management it is constantly growing.


Among other well known business inter- ests in which Mr. Campbell's influence is felt, are the South Bend National Bank. and the Long Distance Telephone Manufacturing Company, of both of which he is president.


Mr. Campbell, whose later years have wit- nessed the business sueeess above noted. was born on a farm near Valparaiso. Mareh 13. 1849. a son of Samuel A. and Harriet (Cor- nell) Campbell. His father, who was born in New York in 1821, aeeompanied his pa- rents to Indiana in 1833, their settlement on a farm two miles east of Valparaiso being in the nature of a pioneer endeavor. On


that same farm where the family located nearly three-quarters of a century ago, the father still lives, having reached the ripe age of eighty-six years. His wife, who was born in Ohio in 1826, died many years ago, in 1865.


Reared on a farm, Marvin Campbell at- tended district school and completed his edu- cation in the old V. M. & F. College at Val- paraiso. Before moving to South Bend he taught mathematics in the high school of his home city for one year. In 1874 he married Miss Lydia A. Brownfield, a daughter of another pioneer family of 1833, her parents being John and Lydia ( Beeson) Brownfield. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell's children are: John Brownfield, Harriet B. and Marvin Rudolph. The sons are, respectively, secretary and su- perintendent, and treasurer, of the Folding Paper Box Company, and are thoroughly capable young business men. The daughter is the wife of Dr. W. A. Hager, of South Bend. The family are members of the Meth- odist church, of which Mr. Campbell is a trustee and in 1904 was a delegate to the quadrennial general conference at Los An- geles. He affiliates with Lodge No. 45, of the Masons. Some years ago Mr. Campbell took an influential part in local polities, and from 1883 to 1885 represented St. Joseph and Starke counties in the state senate. He is president of the board of trustees of the Epworth Hospital at South Bend. and is a member of the board of trustees of De Pauw University.


C. B. STEPHENSON. The Stephenson broth- ers are among the most prominent manufac- turers of South Bend. C. B. Stephenson, a. worthy and prosperous member of the fam- ily, was born in Wabash county. Indiana, on the 12th of August, 1845. His father. Amos T. Stephenson, was a native of Iredell county. North Carolina, but as early as 1837 eame to South Bend, where he married Miss Priscilla O. Wall. The maternal grandfa- ther, Benjamin Wall. became a resident of South Bend in 1836. and was highly re- spected as a useful and honorable pioneer.


Mr. Stephenson received his early educa- tion in the publie schools of South Bend. later attended the Ypsilanti (Mieh.) Union Seminary. and for a time served as a elerk in the postoffice of the former place. At that time there were only two elerks in that serv- ice. and they were not broken down by over-work. Afterward the youth spent four


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