USA > Indiana > Newton County > A standard history of Jasper and Newton counties, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume II > Part 14
USA > Indiana > Jasper County > A standard history of Jasper and Newton counties, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume II > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
His home life has been ideally happy, and it is only natural that he takes much pride in his children, all of whom show great prom- ise for the future. At Tipton, Missouri, June 14, 1893, he was united in marriage with Stella Naomi Hough, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. Milton T. Hough. To their union were born six chil- dren, and all are living except the first born. George W., the oldest son, now twenty years of age, graduated from the Rensselaer High School, spent one year in the University of Illinois, and another year in the University of Indiana. Vera, the second daughter, is a mem- ber of the class of 1916 in the Rensselaer High School. Ivah, aged fifteen, is a freshman in the high school, while Adna Julian, aged ten, is in the grade schools, and the youngest is Homer Max, now one year old.
LESLIE CLARK is one of the editors and publishers of the Rensse- laer Republican, and as such reference to his career properly belongs in the history of Jasper and Newton counties.
535
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
He was born August 22, 1867, a son of Ezra L. and Myrtie Z. Clark. With a high school education he began learning the printer's trade at the age of sixteen in the office in which he later became one of the owners. After working in various offices in Chicago in 1891 he entered the newspaper business for himself, taking charge as manager and local editor of the People's Pilot in Rensselaer. In 1893 he purchased the Times at Redkey, Indiana, which at that time was one of the booming natural gas towns of the state. Disposing of the Times in 1895, he bought the Fort Recovery, Ohio, Journal, which he conducted until 1897.
Then returning to Rensselaer, he bought the People's Pilot, changing the name to Rensselaer Journal, and making it a republi- can paper. In 1908 the Journal and Republican were consolidated, the ownership later passing into the control of George H. Healey and Mr. Clark, under the firm name of Healey & Clark.
Fraternally Mr. Clark is a member of the Knights of Pythias. On September 12, 1891, he married Almira D. Shriver, a daugh- ter of Joshua and Maria Shriver. Their children are Harold L., Howard B. and Ada Ruth, the sons being associated with their father in the publication of the Republican.
WALTER L. GUMM. While Mr. Gumm is one of the representa- tive merchants in the Village of Remington, Jasper County, where he has maintained his residence since 1878, he has achieved in the attractive domain of floriculture a reputation that transcends even the limitations of the United States, his specialty being the grow- ing of peonies, in which field his experiments and scientific investi- gations have enabled him to produce many new varieties of splen- did order, many hybrids of unequalled beauty. As a merchant he owns and conducts one of the leading hardware establishments of Remington, and as a citizen he is known for his broad mental ken, scientific attainments, sterling character and civic loyalty and pub- lic spirit.
Mr. Gumm was born at Marseilles, LaSalle County, Illinois, on the 17th day of July, 1857, and is a son of St. Clair and Julia E. (Reniff) Gumm, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Massachusetts, so that in their marriage were united the cavalier strain of the Old Dominion and the Pilgrim blood of New England. St. Clair Gumm was a lad of ten years when his parents removed to Illinois and, in 1836, numbered themselves among the pioneers of LaSalle County, where they passed the residue of their lives and where he himself was reared and educated, his boyhood and youth having been compassed by the conditions and influences of the pioneer life. He eventually became one of the prominent and in- fluential citizens of Marseilles, LaSalle County and had much to do with the civic and material upbuilding of that fine little city. He conducted a large and important business as a dealer in real estate and his enterprise in the platting of a number of additions to the
536
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
city gave him foremost place as one of its most public-spirited and progressive men of affairs. Honored by the entire community in which he had passed virtually his entire life, he continued his resi- dence at Marseilles until his death, which occurred in the year 1893 and at which time he was about sixty-seven years of age. His widow attained to venerable age and passed the gracious twilight of her life in the City of Joliet, Illinois, where she was summoncd to cternal rest in August, 1914. Of the family of three sons and three daughters two sons and one daughter are living.
Walter L. Gumm acquired his early education in the public schools of Marseilles, his native place, and there also he pursued a course of higher academic study in the Mary A. Pickett Seminary, in which he and the other children of the family held free-tuition scholarships, by reason of the fact that their father had, with characteristic liberality, donated five acres of ground on which the seminary buildings had been erected.
In 1874, when about seventeen years of age, Mr. Gumm went to Forrest, Livingston County, Illinois, where he entered upon a practical apprenticeship to the tinner's trade, in the meanwhile having also the privilege of gaining detailed knowledge of the re- tail hardware business. He became a skilled artisan at his trade in due course of time and during the long intervening years he has been actively identified with the hardware business.
In April, 1878, about three months prior to attaining to his legal majority, Mr. Gumm came to Jasper County, Indiana, and established his residence at Remington, where he has continued to reside during the long intervening period of nearly forty years, within which he has so applied his energies and ability as to achieve distinctive success and to become one of the representative men of this section of the county.
Upon his arrival in Remington Mr. Gumm assumed a position in the hardware store of J. E. Hollett, with whom he continued to be most pleasingly associated until 1892, when he purchased the store and business of Mr. Hollett and assumed sole control of the enterprise that has been signally prospered under his progressive and well ordered management. His establishment is well equipped in all departments and the substantial and representative patron- age accorded to him gives patent evidence of the confidence and esteem in which he is held in the community.
Mr. Gumm may be considered distinctly favored in that his tastes and inclinations have led him into another field of enterprise and aesthetic exploitation through which he has found unqualified pleasure and satisfaction as well as financial profit. He believes that he inherited from his mother his fondness for plants and flowers, and his initial efforts in floriculture were conducted on a modest scale and with the sole idea of personal recreation and pleasure. He began growing flowers on the grounds of his home, and his success led him into constantly expanding activities in this
537
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
ideal field of enterprise, with the result that he has become one of the best known and most successful representatives of floriculture in this section of Indiana, while as a specialist in the raising and developing of new types of peonies he has gained a reputation that places him in the very front ranks. At the time of this writing, in the autumn of 1915, Mr. Cumm displays at his fine modern home and grounds 500 different varieties of peonies, with plants of the same to the prodigious number of 60,000. He ships peonies and other choice cut flowers to Chicago and other cities, far and near, and for his peony roots has been developed a demand throughout the civilized world. In 1915 he received orders from the interior of western China, near the line of Thibet, and the transfer of the shipment from his headquarters to its destination required four months. Each successive season finds him shipping the fine floral products from Remington to the most diverse sections of the United States, as well as to foreign countries, and it is to be doubted whether any other man in Jasper County has developed a com- mercial enterprise of so far-reaching proportions. A visit to his beautifully kept propagating grounds is a revelation, especially when recognition is taken of the fact that aside from all this Mr. Gumm is an active and successful merchant who abates not his careful and able supervision of his hardware business.
He is known for his progressiveness and liberality and is ever ready to lend his influence and tangible co-operation in the further- ance of measures and enterprises tending to advance and solidify the civic and material prosperity of his home town and county. For a time he was a valuable contributor to leading periodical and standard works pertaining to scientific floriculture, but such literary digression made little appeal to him and he finally curtailed his services in this direction. In politics Mr. Gumm is found aligned as a stalwart in the ranks of the republican party, and in the time- honored Masonic fraternity he has completed the circle of both the York and Scottish Rites, with affiliation of maximum order in the former as a member of St. John's Commandery of Knights Templar at Logansport the while he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in the consistory in the city of Indianapolis, where also he is affiliated with the adjunct Masonic organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is identified likewise with the Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. Both he and his wife are zealous and valued members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Remington and they have long been prominent and influential figures in the representative social life of the community.
On the 14th of December, 1881, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Gumm to Miss Rose J. Hart, daughter of Esau Hart, who was for many years a prominent citizen of Remington. Mr. and Mrs.
538
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
Gumm have one daughter, Lillian Irma, who remains at the parental home.
HENRY WARD MARBLE. Since the time of its organization, the policy of the Bank of Wheatfield has been directed by men bear- ing the name of Marble, its founder, the late Horace Marble, and his son, its present chief executive officer, Henry Ward Marble. Under their management the institution has enjoyed a steady growth in patronage and a reputation as a sound, conservative banking concern.
The late Horace Marble was born June 10, 1839, in Benning- ton County, Vermont, and was nine years of age when brought by his parents to Lake County, Indiana. He grew to manhood on the home farm, and in the year 1861 enlisted in Company E, Ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which he served gal- lantly until the close of the Civil war, receiving his honorable dis- charge in 1865 at which time he bore the rank of captain by brevet. In 1866 he was united in marriage with Miss Mary E. Booth, who died at Hobart, Indiana, in 1872, leaving two daughters : Mrs. Kate Ott, of Crown Point, Indiana; and Mrs. Bernice Clark, of Wheat- field. In 1873 Captain Marble was married to Miss Martha Skin- ner, who still survives him, and they became the parents of two chil- dren : Henry Ward; and Mrs. Ruth Salisbury, of Crown Point.
In 1880 Horace Marble was elected sheriff of Lake County and served capably in that office for two terms, or until 1885, when he was elected county auditor, a post which he retained until 1893. During the period of his official service he made extensive purchases of land in Wheatfield Township, Jasper County, and from that time until his death, which occurred June 15, 1910, at the family home north of the Town of Wheatfield, devoted much of his atten- tion to his landed interests and to the management of the Bank of Wheatfield, the presidency of which he retained until the time of his death. In Mr. Marble's death the community lost one of its most highly respected and best known citizens. He was a man of intellectual gifts, with excellent business judgment and foresight, and of the strictest integrity. During his connection with the Bank of Wheatfield his personality was largely responsible for the great increase in the business of the concern, while his genial, courteous manner drew all to him. He was prominent in Masonry, belonging to Wheatfield Lodge No. 642, Free and Accepted Masons, and had attained to the Knight Templar degree, and prominent Masons from all over the state were present at the funeral, as were leading men from all walks of life. Interment, under the auspices of the order, was made at Wheatfield Cemetery.
Henry Ward Marble was born April 24, 1878, at Hobart, In- diana, and received his education in the public schools of Crown Point, and Northwestern University, at Evanston, Illinois, which institution he attended for one year. He accompanied the family
HORACE MARBLE
539
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
to Wheatfield in 1896, and has here resided to the present time. At the time of his father's death he succeeded to the presidency of the Bank of Wheatfield, which has continued to grow and pros- per under his management. A republican in politics, Mr. Marble has taken an interest in political and public affairs, and in 1914 was elected a member of the board of county commissioners of Jasper County, which position he retains. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, at Wheatfield, Indiana, and a thirty-second degree Scot- fish Rite Mason at Indianapolis.
GREENIP I. THOMAS. The eldest in a family of four children, of whom three are living, Mr. Thomas was born in White County, Indiana, on the 17th of August, 1862, and both his paternal and maternal ancestors were numbered among the sterling pioneers of the Hoosier State. The career of Mr. Thomas has been one marked by determined effort and he has been in the most significant sense the architect of his own fortune, as he became dependent upon his own resources where a mere lad, owing to the death of his father. He has encountered adverse conditions and met with serious re- verses, but against each of these experiences he has brought to bear undaunted courage and determination, has profited through the les- sons of adversity as well as through those of success, and in all the relations of life has remained true and steadfast, so that his re- ward, in the unqualified respect and good will of his fellow men, has not been denied to him and is looked upon by him as a due com- pensation. He has maintained his residence in the village of Rem- ington since 1905 and is here engaged in the general hardware busi- ness, as one of the representative merchants and loyal and progres- sive citizens of this fine little city of Jasper County.
Mr. Thomas is a son of John William and Judethia A. (Alkire) Thomas, whose marriage was solemnized in White County, this state, where the respective families settled in the early pioneer days, when the locality was little more than a wilderness. John W. represented White County as one of Indiana's valiant soldiers in the Civil war, at the inception of which historic conflict he enlisted in Company K, Fifth Indiana Cavalry, with which gallant command he participated in many engagements, including a number of im- portant battles, and proved himself a loyal and efficient soldier of the Union, his record in this connection having been such as to reflect enduring honor on his name and memory.
After the close of the war John W. removed with his family to Kansas, where he became a pioneer farmer, but losses through drought and grasshopper scourges made the venture altogether precarious, besides which the locality in which he lived was at times menaced by hostile or depredating Indians, so that he con- sulted expediency by returning with his family to White County, Indiana, where he resumed agricultural operations and where he died about the year 1872, his life having undoubtedly been shortened
540
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
by the hardships he had endured while serving in the Civil war, his physical powers having been much impaired after the close of his military career. His widow later became the wife of John Toothman, of Idaville, White County, and she passed the closing years of her life at Remington, Jasper County, where she died on the 20th of June, 1912, her first husband having likewise preceded her to eternal rest.
Greenip I. Thomas remained with his mother on the old home- stead farm near Idaville, White County, during the period of his infancy, his father having at the time been absent at the front in defense of the integrity of the nation. After the war, and while he was a child of about four years, the family removed to Kansas, as previously noted, but within a few years was made the return journey to White County, Indiana, where he remained on the farm and attended the district schools until the death of his father, at which time he was a lad of about ten years. He soon afterward began to depend upon his own exertions in providing his livelihood, and he initiated his labors in the employ of a farmer, who paid him five dollars a month for his services. Later he worked for a time for a compensation of only board and clothing. He turned his youthful attention to whatever occupation would give him an honest living, and among his early experiences was that of filling grain sacks and carrying corn cobs in the grain elevator at Reynolds, White County, at the dignified salary of twenty-five cents a day. Thereafter he continued at farm work, in connection with which he was employed for six years by J. N. Zea, residing two miles east of Remington, Jasper County. He received $12.50 a month for the first six months and thereafter his salary was $16.75 a month. He was frugal and careful, placing true valuation upon the fruits of his ardous toil and endeavor, and at the expiration of the six years he found himself possessed of $1,200,-representing his savings and the interest accumulated on the same. At this juncture in his career he wedded Miss Sarah E. Owens, whose parents came from Cass County to Jasper County, and for the ensuing four years he conducted independent operations as a farmer. Through misrepre- sentations made to him in purchasing his hotel in Saybrook, Illi- nois, and through his lack of experience in affairs of business, he ยท lost his property and was compelled again to make a new start. He was able to resume his farming operations in Jasper County, and at > the expiration of four years he engaged in the meat-market business at Rensselaer, the judicial center of Jasper County, but the incidental credits which he extended to patrons and from which he realized virtually no ultimate returns, the enterprise eventually re- sulted in a disastrous way, with attendant loss to him of his invest- ment and previous monetary accumulations. A depressing situa- tion, but Mr. Thomas was yet a young man and was not of the nature to be daunted even by repeated attacks of adversity. Under these conditions he found employment as superintendent of the
5441
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
farm of J. M. Kcene, fifteen miles north of Rensselaer, and he con- tinued his services in this capacity after Warren Springer became owner of the property. Finally he rented the farm from Mr. Springer, and through his energy and good judgment in his opera- tions in the raising of hay and cattle he again placed himself finally upon a basis that made possible his eventual gaining of financial independence once more.
Upon leaving the Springer farm Mr. Thomas purchased 206 acres of land, in Union and Barkley Townships, Jasper County, and he here conducted successful operations as a farmer and stock- grower, besides making various substantial improvements upon the property. He remained on this homestead about five years and then removed to the little village of Fair Oaks, likewise in Jasper County, this action having been taken principally for the purpose of giving his one child better educational advantages. The same motive led to his removal to Remington in 1905, his residence at Fair Oaks having covered a period of about three years, during which he gave his attention to handling of real estate. Upon re- moval to Remington, Mr. Thomas engaged in the farm implement business, and he still retains a financial interest in the business, but since 1912 his personal supervision has been given to his hardware business, which has become one of substantial and profitable order and with which he has been identified since the year noted. He is a straightforward, reliable and enterprising business man, and as a citizen gives his influence and co-operation in the furtherance of measures and undertakings advanced for the general good of the community. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity at Remington, In- diana, No. 351 and the Knights of Pythias Castle Hall No. 58 and both he and his wife are zealous members of the Christian Church.
On the 26th of October, 1883, within a few months' after attain- ing to his legal majority, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Thomas to Miss Sarah E. Owens, who was born in Cass County, this state, as previously intimated in this article. Their only child, Opal M., was born May 11, 1889, became the wife of Louie E. Dowell, and the supreme loss and bereavement in the devoted mari- tal life of Mr. Thomas and his wife came when their daughter was summoned to the life eternal in the flower of her young woman- hood, her death having occurred on the 28th of November, 1914. In their home they are rearing with true parental solicitude the son of Mr. Thomas' brother, and the name of this foster son is James Orville Thomas.
AUGUST BERNHARDT. It is difficult for those who know August Bernhardt as the proprietor of a handsome and valuable country estate of 257 acres near Remington to realize that when he arrived in this section of Indiana less than twenty years ago he was possessed
5-12
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
of but little capital save a generous share of ambition and determina- tion, and had to overcome many difficulties in the way of advance- ment. Many years of consecutive industry have brought him well merited success and his career is a demonstration of the fact that honest labor is the best foundation upon which to built a structure of prosperity.
IIe was about twenty-one years of age when he came from his native land of Germany to the New World with its opportunities. He was born in Wuertemberg, Germany, August 18, 1863, a son of Joseph and Agatha Bernhardt. While a German boy he acquired the substantial education given to the children of that country, and had also trained himself so as to be able to utilize opportunity when it came to him. In 1884 he immigrated to America, and for thirteen ' years lived in Livingston County, Illinois. From there he moved , to the vicinity of Mount Ayr in Newton County, and four years later, in 1901, came to Carpenter Township in Jasper County, where his name now stands for solid industry and success. He has applied himself to the general work of farming and stock raising, and in both lines has met with success. He is a public spirited citizen and his abilities have been recognized by his fellow citizens who have elected him to the office of membership on the township advisory board, where he has served since January, 1915, and he is also superintendent of the Lewis Alter road. In politics he is a repub- lican.
In 1890 Mr. Bernhardt married Miss Maggie Conrad, who was born in Illinois, a daughter of Peter and Maggie Conrad, both of whom were natives of Friesland, Germany, and who on coming to America settled in Peoria, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Bernhardt became the parents of four children, one of whom died in infancy. Mary Elizabeth is now the wife of Paul Weiss and lives in Carpenter Township. George William and Harry A. are farming at home with their parents. Mr. Bernhardt and his wife are held in high esteem in Jasper County.
FRANK C. RICH. With a business experience covering many years of successful effort, Frank C. Rich came to the office of county treasurer of Newton County, a man well fitted for any emergency. To him the financial field was already familiar, its opportunities known and its dangers well charted. The same open- eyed, conservative methods that had brought him business success in his private enterprises, were adopted as safe and sure, when he assumed the duties of county treasurer. That he still enjoys the same confidence and esteem from his fellow citizens is apparent in the fact that he has twice been re-elected, serving now in his second term. When it is realized that the county treasurer receives and disburses all the revenues and other public moneys belonging to the county, the grave responsibilities attaching to this office may be understood.
Miss Sarah E. Stembel
Des .O. Stembel
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.