USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume II > Part 11
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Dr. George Lindsay Smith was born in Watford, Ontario, Canada, June 1, 1876. His parents were substantial farming people of Ontario, George and Mary Ann (Thomas) Smith. Doctor Smith grew up in Ontario, attended the grade and the high schools, and began earning his living as clerk in a general store in Michigan. After that he was for one year with a livery and grain establishment, and in 1900 entered the Chicago College of Dental Surgery, working to pay most of his tuition while in school. Graduating with his degree as dental surgeon in 1903, in the same year he established an office in Hammond and long since acquired a clientage which takes all his time. Doctor Smith was hon- ored as the first president of the Lake County Dental Society, and also has affiliations with the Northern Indiana, the Indiana State and the Chicago Dental Societies. He is a Mason, with affiliations with the Lodge, Chapter, Knight Templar Commandery and Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Hammond Country Club.
On October 10, 1906, Doctor Smith married Edith Hammond, daugh- ter of Thomas and Helen Hammond, of Hammond. They are the par- ents of two children : Helen Elizabeth and Edith Louise.
THOMAS WILLIAM OBERLIN, M. D. The medical profession at Ham- mond has one of its ablest representatives in Dr. Thomas William Oberlin, who is a man of broad experience, well traveled, splendidly equipped professionally, and during the past fifteen years has acquired success and high standing in his community.
Thomas William Oberlin was born at Mansfield, Ohio, February 1, 1875, a son of W. K. and Catherine (Ford) Oberlin. His father was a lumberman. Dr. Oberlin attended the public schools of Ohio, and took his collegiate work in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware. His medical studies were pursued in the medical department of the North- western University at Chicago, an instituiton that gave him the degree M. D. in 1898. Since graduating he has been identified with Hammond, and has a large general practice but is particularly well known as a specialist in children's diseases. Since locating at Hammond he inter- rupted his practice for post-graduate study in the Harvard Medical
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School in Boston, Massachusetts. His professional abilities commended him to the people of Lake County, so that for eight years he held the office of health commissioner. Doctor Oberlin has membership in the . Lake County Medical Society and the Indiana State Medical Association.
Fraternally his relations are with the Masonic Order and the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks, is a Knight Templar and Shriner Mason, and is past exalted ruler of the Hammond Lodge of Elks. His church is the Presbyterian. At Mansfield, Ohio, April 12, 1899, Doctor Oberlin married Duey L. Wolff. They have one child, Katherine Gray.
ELDRIDGE MADISON SHANKLIN, M. D. In Hammond for the past eleven years one of the recognized specialists has been Dr. E. M. Shank- lin, whose practice is confined to diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat.
Eldridge Madison Shanklin was born in Carroll County, Indiana, October 31, 1875, a son of John C. and Mary (Olds) Shanklin. His father was a merchant and banker and as the son of fairly prosperous parents, Doctor Shanklin was able to secure liberal advantages and opportunities for entrance to his profession. For a time he attended country schools, was a student in the high school at Frankfort, was in Hanover College, Indiana, and in April, 1902, was gradnated M. D. from the Medical College of Indiana, Indianapolis. From the first he spe- cialized on diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, and after eighteen months in Indianapolis moved to Hammond, where his private practice has been increasingly large and profitable every year.
In 1910 Doctor Shanklin was elected coroner of Lake County, and served during 1910-11. He is a former president of the Lake County Medical Society, and for the past two years has served that body as sec- retary. He also has membership in the Indiana State Medical Asso- ciation and the Tenth District Medical Association. Doctor Shanklin has been assigned the task of editing "The Bulletin." the official organ of the Lake County society. Doctor Shanklin has for some years been prominent in Masonry, being a past master of the lodge, and at the present time holding chairs in both the chapter and commandery. He is a past exalted ruler of Hammond Lodge of Elks.
In 1902 Doctor Shanklin married Adelaide Lecklider of Indianapolis. Their three children are Elinor, John Eldridge and James Gaylord. The family are members of the Presbyterian Church.
WILLIAM E. J. KOLB. For a number of years Mr. Kolb has been well known in the business community of Hammond, and is now serving as city clerk. Ilis record as an official has been characterized by fidelity in performance and an obliging courtesy to all who use his office, and he is one of the most popular officials at the city hall.
William E. J. Kolb was born in Chicago, June 6, 1878, a son of Jacob and Henrietta (Pfrommer) Kolb. His father was a hotel pro- prietor, a business which he prosecuted the greater part of his active career. The son received a public school education at Hammond, to which city the family moved in 1885. Subsequently he was a student in the Cook County Normal at Chicago, and also attended a business college. IIis first regular experience in business affairs was as a boy when he delivered a newspaper route for Chicago papers. That was followed by employment with a tea and coffee firm as head clerk and salesman, and in 1905 he became connected with the F. S. Betz Com- pany, and when he left that concern was at the head of the drug depart-
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ment. Mr. Kolb's official record began as collector for the city water department, from which place he was promoted as assistant city treas- urer, and on November 4, 1913, he was elected to his present office as city clerk for the regular term of four years. Mr. Kolb is president of the Hammond Wrecking Company. He has membership in the Chamber of Commerce, with the Masonic order, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Odd Fellows Lodge, No. 676, at Hammond.
At Hammond, on October 11, 1903, he married Miss Marie Koehler, a daughter of August and Emily Koehler. Their two children are Frederick August and William Herman. The family worship in the Lutheran faith.
JOHN O. BOWERS. As a lawyer Mr. Bowers has been identified with his profession in Lake County for the past twenty years. During a greater part of this time his home and his office were at Hammond, and for twelve years he served with efficiency and honor as referee in bank- ruptcy for the Twelfth Referee District of Indiana. Mr. Bowers was one of the first private investors in the new City of Gary, where he has ac- quired large and substantial interests, and has had his home in that city for the past four years.
A native of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, John O. Bowers is a son of John and Sarah R. Bowers. Before he was a year old his father died, and his training devolved upon his mother. He got his early education by attending the public schools. Like many successful lawyers, he entered his profession after a long novitiate as a teacher. In 1886 he graduated from the State Normal School at Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. He spent several years as a teacher in his native state, and then came to Valparaiso, Indiana, and studied law in the college of that city, graduating in 1889. After a prospecting tour through the Northwest, and a brief residence at Pittsburg, Kansas, Mr. Bowers returned to Indiana, and took the principalship of the public schools at Whiting.
In 1894 Mr. Bowers began the practice of law at Hammond, and during 1895-97 was deputy prosecuting attorney under Thomas Heard. After the passage of the Federal Bankruptcy Act of 1898, Judge John H. Baker of the United States District Court appointed Mr. Bowers referee in bankruptcy for the Twelfth Referee District, including the counties of Lake, Porter, Starke, Newton, Jasper and Pulaski, to which were subsequently added the counties of St. Joseph, Laporte and Mar- shall. Every successive two years he received reappointment to his office, and continued the responsible duties of referee until he resigned in May, 1910. During this long period of service he acquired an ex- tended acquaintance over all Northwest Indiana, and among the notable cases that came under his jurisdiction were four large bank failures with thousands of creditors, and he was highly commended for his legal ability in the decision of the many different questions and the successful adjustment of many complicated interests involved. While serving as referee he also carried on his practice at Hammond.
As already stated, Mr. Bowers was one of the first private investors in real estate at the City of Gary. He began buying property there at the commencement of the city's growth, and has done much to improve his property, having constructed two well known buildings, the Indiana and the Juniata buildings. He has other property in that city. His home has been in Gary since the fall of 1910. Mr. Bowers is now a
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director of and an attorney for the International Trust and Savings Bank of Gary.
On October 25, 1895, he married Nellie A. Blackman, of Allegan, Michigan. The eight children born to their marriage are: Sylvan For- rest, Harold Eldon, Lucy Ora, deceased, Marjorie Elizabeth, John Oliver, Dorothy Naomi, Allen Conley, deceased, and Sherwood. Mr. Bowers is one of the influential members of the progressive party in Lake County, and in 1912 was the candidate on that ticket for Congress from the Tenth Congressional District.
PETER J. DILSCHNEIDER. In the modern city no municipal service has been developed to a higher point of efficiency and of greater use- fulness to the property and welfare of citizens than the fire protection service. In its fire department the City of Hammond need fear com- parison with no other city in the Calumet region, for both in equip- ment and personnel it is modern and to the highest degree effective. The present chief of the Hammond Fire Department has been a member of the service for the past sixteen years, having gone in at the bottom and worked his way up to his present office on the basis of merit and constant and vigilant fidelity to his duties, and courageous conduct in every emergency.
Peter J. Dilschneider was born at St. John, Lake County, Indiana, in 1873. His parents, John P. and Katherine Dilschneider, were among the old residents of this county, and his father was a shoemaker. The son received a public school education, and when a boy entered the employ of the old Spring works at Hammond, and was connected with that concern for fifteen years. In 1898 he entered the fire department as common fireman, was promoted to captain, then to assistant chief, and has been at the head of the department since 1904. Mr. Dil- schneider is a member of the International Fire Engineers' Association. Fraternally he affiliates with the Fraternal Order of Eagles and his church is St. Joseph's Catholic.
THE HAMMOND SAVINGS AND TRUST COMPANY. Though one of the more recent additions to Hammond's financial institutions, the Savings and Trust Company has been able to offer exceptional services to the business community, and has steadily prospered from the day its doors were first opened for business. The company was organized in May, 1909, with an original capital of $30,000. The first officers were: Adam R. Ebert, president ; Fred R. Mott, vice president; Frank Ham- mond, secretary and treasurer; and Walter H. Hammond, assistant secretary and treasurer. In 1911 the business justified an increase of capital to $50,000. At the present time, besides its capital, the company has a surplus of $12,500, and its deposits are $250,000. The company has all the facilities for the administration of trusts, operates an insur- ance department, and does a large business in general banking and savings, paying the regular rate of three per cent on savings deposits.
Frank Hammond, secretary and treasurer of the company, is one of Hammond's younger business men, and a son of the late honored pioneer, Thomas Hammond, and his wife, Helen (Potter) Hammond. Frank Hammond, who was born in the City of Detroit, May 15, 1875, was brought to Hammond in 1877, and received his education in the grammar schools and high schools and the Indiana State University. His business career began in the auditing department of the G. H. Hammond Packing Company, and gradually led him into larger and
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varied responsibilities. Since his appointment, in 1901, Mr. Hammond has served as deputy collector of internal revenue in this district. He was the founder of the real estate and insurance business which with the organization of the Hammond Savings and Trust Company was taken over as a department of that new business, and he has been secre- tary and treasurer of the company from the beginning. Mr. Hammond is also secretary and treasurer of the Hammond Suburban Realty Com- pany, and for almost twenty years has been closely associated with Hammond life and business affairs.
Mr. Hammond is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Country Club, has taken the chapter degrees in Masonry, and affiliates with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In January, 1898, at West Pullman, Illinois, he married Nellie DeBow, daughter of Lewis H. DeBow. Their four children are Virgene E., Alice L., Thomas D., and Dorothy G.
EDWARD AUGUST AUBRY. Now serving as city comptroller of Ham- mond, E. A. Aubry has been identified with Lake County in various capacities for a number of years, and always has enjoyed a reputation for integrity and good service in whatever relation he has sustained either to private business or to public affairs.
Edward August Aubry was born at Canton, Ohio, December 24, 1871, a son of August and Mary Aubry. His parents were substantial farming people, and in 1890 the family moved to White County, Indiana. Thus, after a public school education, which was finished while he lived in Ohio, Mr. Aubry followed various lines of work until August, 1895, and then entered the Valparaiso University, where he spent one year in the department of pharmacy and was graduated in 1897. His home has been in Lake County since 1902. After coming to Indiana he worked for two years in the drug business, taught school from 1892 to 1896 and again from 1898 to 1902, and in the latter year once more engaged in the drug business as a pharmacist. In 1903 he became a clerk for the railway company at the Chicago Junction, and in 1905 went with the Indiana Harbor Railroad at Calumet Park, remaining until July 1, 1906. On September 1, 1906, came his appointment as deputy treasurer of the City of Hammond, and he was employed in that service until March 9, 1911. At the latter date Mayor Smalley appointed Mr. Aubry city comptroller, and in 1914 he was again con- firmed in this position. During 1913 Mr. Aubry, as a side line, built the Aubry Theater at 253 Hohman Street. This is one of the small but handsome and well-equipped places of amusement in the city, and is a brick structure 25 by 116 feet, specially designed and constructed for purposes of a theater and seats 300 persons.
Mr. Aubry married Mary Paschall of Rochester, Indiana, a dangh- ter of Henry and Rachel Paschall, her father having been a farmer. They are members of the All Saints Church, and since 1898 he has been affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees, belongs to the Knights of Columbus, and is an active member of the Hammond Cham- ber of Commerce.
AMERICAN TRUST AND SAVINGS BANK OF HAMMOND. There is per- haps no surer index to the remarkable commercial development of the Calumet region than is illustrated by its financial institutions. Few of these have long years to give them prestige, yet on the score of
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resources, presidential management and business service they stand to better advantage than many older concerns. An excellent example of these newer financial houses is the American Trust and Savings Bank of Hammond.
July 15, 1911, the bank was opened for business, having passed through the preliminary stages of organization by men who are officers and directors at the present time. The cash capital paid in was $100,- 000, with a large deposit on the opening day. The business has stead- ily increased until at the present time the assets are over $400,000. The first day's business was a favorable augury of the continued success of this firm.
This prosperity has been due to the untiring efforts of the directors and employees, who are some of Hammond's foremost business men, including O. A. Krinbill; Charles H. Mayer, vice president; J. E. Brennan; Emil Minas; William J. McAleer, the president; George B. Sheerer; Anton H. Tapper; Carl Bauer; Daniel Brawn; H. M. John- son, the secretary ; H. O. Reissig, the assistant secretary; and Edward Eggerbrecht, the teller.
The bank is housed in the Henderson Building at 182 East State Street. This is a two-story brick building, which previously had con- tained storerooms, with apartments on the second floor. The banking fixtures are of golden oak, with white tile floor, and another convenient room is just off the lobby. The vault is of Herring-Hall-Marvin Company make, and is constructed entirely of steel, with solid steel walls, ceiling and floor, which makes it one of the most secure vaults in the State of Indiana. The outer doors of the vault alone weigh seven tons each, and the shipping weight of the vault entire was sixty- five tons. The foundation on which the vault rests is a solid block of concrete six feet in depth. There are 2,250 safety deposit vaults, all equipped with master-key and combination locks. Other facilities include the bond and document safe, and filing cabinet and book racks in the interior of the vault.
HENRY OTTO REISSIG. One of the young men who typify and give energy to modern commerce in Hammond is H. O. Reissig, of the American Trust and Savings Bank. Still in his twenties, he has proved his usefulness and has a promising career ahead.
A native of Lake County, Henry Otto Reissig was born March 22, 1887, a son of Henry and Margaret Reissig. His father has been for a number of years, and still is, connected with a wholesale grocery house in this city. Mr. Reissig received his education in the public schools at Hobart, attended a business college, and with this preliminary equipment spent one year with a firm of wholesale grocers, and then entered banking as clerk and bookkeeper with the First National Bank of Hammond. Later he served the Citizens German National Bank as bookkeeper and teller, and in July, 1911, with the organization of the American Trust and Savings Bank, identified himself with that insti- tution as paying teller, and later was made assistant secretary. Mr. Reissig also has other business relations, and is secretary of the Hammond Brass Works. On April 6, 1910, he married Anna M. Mayer, a daughter of C. H. Mayer of Hammond. They are the parents of one child, Orville Arthur. The church of which they are members is the Lutheran, and both are well known in Hammond social circles.
graph Toner in. if
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THOMAS JOSEPH TONER, M. D. Doctor Toner began practice at Gary, October 24, 1908. Each succeeding year has witnessed an increase of his success and prestige as a physician and surgeon, and latterly his time and energies have been taken up chiefly by his growing surgical practice. Doctor Toner's training and practice have given him excep- tional qualifications for his chosen work and he enjoys the full con- fidence of his patrons and his place in community esteem is secure.
Thomas Joseph Toner was born on a farm near Kenosha, Wisconsin, February 3, 1876. His parents were Charles and Ellen (Rategan) Toner. His early education was finished in the Kenosha High School, and before and during his student days in medicine he was a successful teacher. Doctor Toner taught in the Kenosha public schools and later in Cook County, Illinois, and the City of Chicago. From the means secured by this work he prosecuted his studies in medicine at the North- western University of Chicago and was graduated M. D. in 1906. Two years were spent as an interne at the Michael Reese Hospital of Chi- cago, and with this broad and thorough training Doctor Toner came to Gary and has been successful from the very start. In 1913 Doctor Toner spent two months in the clinics of Europe.
Doctor Toner has membership in the Gary and County Medical societies, in the Indiana State Medical Association, the American Medical Association, and the Chicago Medical Society. He also belongs to the Gary University Club, is a member of the Board of Health, and takes an active interest in the public health movement both in his own com- munity and as an important subject of both local and national concern.
WALTER BLAKESLEY CONKEY. The W. B. Conkey Company was one of the industries which moved to Hammond at a time when that city was making special efforts to increase the scope of its industrial field, and since locating there its payroll has been one of the steadiest and most valuable assets of the working community. In the field of printing, bookmaking and general publishing, the W. B. Conkey Com- pany is easily one of the largest and best known in the entire country. Its organization and facilities have been directed along one special line and for the primary purpose of rapid edition printing and binding of books and catalogues in large quantities. During the thirty-five years of its history this company has manufactured catalogues for nearly every large mercantile establishment in the country, and has printed some of the largest books and most extensive editions ever turned out.
The plant covers nearly eight acres of ground, and is located in a park of nearly twenty acres, surrounded with trees and shrubbery, and the construction and general facilities within the plan and the environ- ment are such as to class this as one of the most satisfactory manufac- turing plants in the entire country. The building is absolutely fire- proof, is equipped with every device and machine for printing and book- making, and the employees have every sanitary facility that the science of modern business can supply. The W. B. Conkey Company at Hammond represents an investment of about $1,000,000, about fifteen hundred persons are on its payroll, and the annual amount paid out in wages and salaries is more than a third of a million dollars.
The business is the product of the originality and enterprise of one man, Walter Blakesley Conkey. Mr. Conkey was born at Sterling, Ontario, July 13, 1858, a son of Willard and Emma (Blakesley) Con- key. With a public school education, he learned the trade of printer Vol. II-6
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in Chieago, and as a very young man started in business on his own account and with a very small job office. He is himself a practical printer, but early in his career turned over the technical details to others while he looked after the executive end, and kept inereasing his plant, adding new departments, until the incorporation of the W. B. Conkey Company, of which he has been president from the start. The general offices of the company are in Hammond, Indiana, and branches are maintained in Chicago and New York.
Mr. Conkey is president of the Franklin Printing and Publishing Company and the Automatie Justifier Company, and was for twelve years a director and six years president of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association. He is a member of the Society of the Sons of the Amer- iean Revolution and of the Society of Colonial Wars. His home is in Hammond, where he has membership in the Hammond City Club, and in Chicago in the Union League, the Chicago Athletic, South Shore, Chieago Automobile, and the Chicago Press clubs. He is also a mem- ber of the Aldine Club of New York. He is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Shrine. Mr. Conkey married Kate Phillips, and their children are Walter, Henry, and Jane P.
PETER AUSTGEN. The present chief of Hammond police has won his promotion on merit, and has a splendid record as an administrative and executive official, entrusted with the direction of the forces which maintain law and order in a large city.
Peter Austgen was born April 5, 1871, at St. John, in Lake County, a son of John and Katie (Bohr) Austgen. His father was a farmer, and the son grew up on a farm until he was nineteen years of age, in the meantime attending the Schererville public schools. When Peter Austgen came to Hammond he found employment in the rolling mills and spent three and a half years in one of the departments of nail manufacture. In 1895 he entered the employment of the Hammond company, but after a year and a half he went to work as a motorman for the Hammond, Whiting & East Chicago Railway Company. At the end of about four years he resigned his work as a motorman, and on February 6, 1900, began his duties as patrolman on the police force. After six years in the ranks he was promoted to sergeant, two years later was made captain, and in 1909 was raised to chief of police, and that honor came to him unsolicited and as a direct tribute to his previous record for courageous and successful accomplishment of every duty assigned him.
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