USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume II > Part 16
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NATHANIEL L. SMITH. The material development of Crown Point, through the erection of its residences, its school buildings and business blocks, owes much to the ability and enterprise of Nathaniel L. Smith during the last twenty years, and to his father in the preceding genera- tion. It has come to be the habit of Crown Point people when a build- ing of the better class is desired to have recourse to Nathaniel L. Smith, as the architect or building contractor.
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Nathaniel L. Smith was born in Crown Point, March 8, 1869, a son of Benjamin A. and Adelaide D. (Fuller) Smith. His father, who estab- lished his home in Lake County in 1865, did a valuable service as a con- tractor and builder, and during his activity erected at Crown Point the Catholic and Lutheran churches, a number of business blocks, and some of the best residences in the older quarter of the city.
Nathaniel L. Smith grew up in Crown Point, was a student in the public schools until finishing the high school course, and trained for his career by serving three years as a pattern maker and then engaged in the practical work of building and architecture. He has drawn the plans as architect for nearly all the best residences in Crown Point. He is also architect of the following school buildings in Center Town- ship: Washington School, Schiller School, Lincoln School, Bellshaw School, and also the Demott High School Building, these being only a few examples of a long list that might be prepared. For the past twenty years practically all his time has been given to his profession as architect.
Mr. Smith has also served his home city as city clerk for the past five years and is now a member of the board of health. Fraternally his associations are with the Masonic Order and the Independent Order of Foresters, belongs to the Business Men's League and to the Horse Thief Association. In December, 1894, Mr. Smith married Matilda Ett- ling, of Crown Point. Their three children are Faye, Thelma and Shirley.
WILLIAM ALLEN SCHEDDELL. The best distinction in any line of business is permanent and continued success, and it is an honor which all recognize, when a man has succeeded in maintaining an establish- ment, against the difficulties which beset every enterprise, keeping it up to a high standard of service, and making it advance with the com- munity and with the requirements of the time, over a course of many years. William Allen Scheddell, who is regarded as one of the most progressive business men and citizens of Crown Point at the present time, has the distinction of owning the oldest drug store under one con- tinuous proprietorship in Lake County. It is more than thirty years since he established his business at Crown Point, and to hundreds of citizens both of the former and the present generation his store is a most familiar landmark in the business district.
William Allen Scheddell was born in Stephenson County, Illinois, April 3, 1855, a son of Oliver Perry and Lucy Ann (Heiser) Scheddell. His parents were substantial farming people in Central Illinois, and it was as a farm boy that William A. Scheddell spent his youth, acquir- ing an education in the local schools and employing his spare time in the harvest fields from the age of ten to nineteen. After a brief experi- ence of three months in a dentist's office he was first introduced to the varied stock of an average drug store at the age of nineteen. His work as a clerk began in the summer of 1875 and continued until the fall of 1879. The drug business, and the same is true of other lines, requires experience as well as capital to conduct it successfully, and Mr. Sched- dell, having had an ample experience but with limited capital, in 1879 embarked in business for himself at Winamac, Indiana, in partnership with J. E. Swartz, under the name Swartz & Scheddell. In August, 1881, ill health compelled Mr. Scheddell to sell out, and after a rest of a few months he came to Crown Point and on November 23, 1881, bought out the store of H. M. Griffin. Then began his long career, for
Nicholas Emmerling
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nearly thirty-three years, in the local drug trade. It is a fact worthy of note that his first store was at 104 South Main Street, and that same number still marks his place of business, although his store is now in a new building. Mr. Scheddell has always been interested in the profes- sional side of his business and especially in the study of the eye. In 1903 he took a long leave from the drug store and pursued the study of the eye, especially with reference to the proper fitting of glasses, at the Northern Illinois College of Optics in Chicago, from which he holds his degree of Doctor of Optics and in which line he has been particularly successful. Mr. Scheddell has also had an important part in local affairs. He was one of the promoters and a charter member of the Chamber of Commerce, and served as a member of the committee on constitution and by-laws. He is a member of the Indiana State Phar- maey Association and of the National Association of Retail Druggists, and is a director in the People's State Bank of Crown Point, having held that post for a number of years. Fraternally his affiliations are with Lake Lodge No. 157, A. F. & A. M., in which he is past master, and with Crown Point Lodge No. 314, Knights of Pythias, of which he was the first past chancellor.
Mr. Scheddell was married February 19, 1883, to Miss Mabel Van Cleve Scull, who was born in Danville, Indiana, a daughter of J. F. and Emma (Yount) Scull. Her father was a prominent educator, and for twenty-two years served as superintendent of the public schools of Rochester, Indiana.
NICHOLAS EMMERLING. Since January 1, 1899, this name has stood for service of a particularly valuable nature in Hammond. Mr. Emmer- ling is a kindly and capable undertaker, and for fifteen years has given a service second to none in equipment, in care, and in distinctive appro- priateness in every detail.
Nicholas Emmerling was born at Crown Point, Indiana, February 12, 1869, and represents one of the old German-American families of Lake County. His parents were George and Catherine (Long) Emmerling. His father was an industrious farmer and for nine years was superin- tendent of the county asylum. Nicholas Emmerling received a public school education at Crown Point, and was one of the first graduates from the Chicago School of Embalming. He has been identified with his pres- ent profession ever since leaving the farm, and has been in Hammond since the beginning of 1899. His place of business is at 111 Sibley Street.
Mr. Emmerling takes an active part in social and civic affairs of his home city. He belongs to the Hammond Commercial Club, the Catholic Order of Foresters, the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Benevolent League, the Royal League, the Modern Woodmen of America, the North American Union, the L. O. T. M., the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Knights of the Macca- bees. He and his family worship in the St. Joseph's Catholic Church. At Crown Point, on July 10, 1900, Mr. Emmerling married Ola May Mann. They have one child, Eltisa Catherine, who is now attending school.
GEORGE J. WEIS. One of the younger business men of Crown Point, George J. Weis began his career as a clerk, and finally reached that goal of every ambitious clerk, a mercantile enterprise of his own. Vol. II- 8
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George J. Weis was born in Lake County, March 25, 1883, a son of the late Daniel and Barbara Weis. His father was a pattern maker by trade. With an education acquired in the Crown Point public schools and the Catholic parochial schools, Mr. Weis spent twelve years, beginning with early boyhood as clerk in a grocery store, and in 1906, at the age of twenty-three, established what is known to all the housewives of Crown Point as the Depot Meat & Fish Market. This enterprise he has made one of the most popular markets in the city, and at the same time has given the influence of a liberal public spirit to the promotion of the movements which make Crown Point a better and larger place in the scale of Lake County cities.
Mr. Weis is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, belongs to the Catholic Order of Foresters and with his family worships in St. Mary's Church. He was married in 1909 to Wilhelmina Horst of Crown Point. They have lost one child, Genevieve Margaret, and their other daughter is Mary Angela.
OTTO J. BRUCE. The membership of Mr. Bruce in the Lake County bar covers a period of more than twenty years. Anyone acquainted with the standing of the different lawyers during this period and with their activities as court and office practitioners, knows that Mr. Bruce is one of the ablest men in his profession and his professional and civic relations are sufficient proof of his success.
Otto J. Bruce was born in Pulaski County, Indiana, October 25, 1870. His parents, farming people at Bruce Lake, are Daniel and Sarah (Hizer) Bruce. From the public schools Mr. Bruce continued his studies in the Central Indiana Normal College at Ladoga, graduating in 1890, was for three years a teacher in the country schools, and took his law course at the University of Michigan, which graduated him LL. D. in 1893. In July of that year he opened his office at Crown Point, and has been connected on one side or the other with a large part of the important litigation tried in the local courts. Mr. Bruce served four years as deputy prosecuting attorney of the county and is now local attorney for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company and a director of the South Side Trust & Savings Bank of Gary. Other public serv- ice has been as secretary of the board of education in 1913-14.
Mr. Bruce affiliates with the Knights of the Maccabees, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Knights of Pythias, is clerk of session in the Presbyterian Church and for the past twelve years has been super- intendent of the Sunday School. He is a member of the Crown Point Pleasure Club.
On May 16, 1894, Mr. Bruce married Lilian May Foster of Ladoga, Indiana. Her parents are James W. and Louisa Foster, her father a prominent farmer and president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank at Ladoga. To their marriage have been born four children: Foster Otto, Leone Elizabeth, Robert Wallace, and Dorothy Lilian.
WALTER STUBBS PAINTER. There is not a citizen of Crown Point who does not speak with pride and commendation of the public schools of that community. While other cities in the Calumet district surpass Crown Point as to value and extent of material equipment, in actual results as measured in the influences and thoroughness of training afforded to the pupils, the Crown Point schools will rank abreast of any in Northern Indiana. Any further description of the schools of Crown
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Point would be repetition, since an account is contained on other pages of this work, and it is only pertinent to speak at this point of the super- intendent of the public schools since 1911, a date which has been a point of beginning for many of the chief reforms and constructive exten- sions which have brought the local schools to their present high standing.
Walter Stubbs Painter, whose name is well known among all Indiana educators, was born in Wabash, Indiana, August 30, 1878, a son of Henry W. and Mary (Stubbs) Painter. His father was a farmer, and the son while a boy lived in Wabash County, later moved to Henry County with his parents and attended the public schools there. His family being of that religious sect known as Quakers his education was continued in the Friends Academy at Spiceland and was completed by graduation in 1904 from Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana. He had begun his life work during college terms, and taught four years before graduation. Three years were spent as principal in a private school in Ohio, two years as superintendent of the Upland public schools, and after two years as superintendent at Lowell in Lake County Mr. Painter came to Crown Point in 1911 and is now beginning his fourth year of active service. He began attending the Columbia Univer- sity Summer School in 1911 and received the degree of Master of Arts in 1914, from that institution.
Mr. Painter has numerous relations with educational and other organizations, including the National Geographic Society, the Superin- tendents Research Club of Indiana, the Indiana State Teachers' Asso- ciation, the City and Town Superintendents' Association of Indiana, the Northern Indiana Teachers' Association, the Lake County Teachers' Association, of which he has served as president, and he is now presi- dent of the Lake County High School Oratorical and Athletic Associa- tion. He and his family are members of the Friends Church.
On August 2, 1905, Mr. Painter was married at Richmond to Jennie Bond, daughter of Jehiel and Anna Bond, who were farming people. Mr. and Mrs. Painter are the parents of two children, twins, Lowell W. and Mildred E.
AMOS ALLMAN. One of the best remembered and most deserving of remembrance among the early settlers of Lake County was the late Amos Allman, who first became identified with Crown Point more than seventy years ago, and who was one of the foremost business men of the county until his death at Crown Point on January 14, 1897, when about seventy- two years of age.
Amos Allman was born at Atwick, Yorkshire, England, February 17. 1825, a son of Major and Margaret (Haxby) Allman. In 1826 the mother died, leaving six children, of whom Amos was the youngest, and in 1830 the family left England for Canada, and in 1843 they moved to Lake County. Amos Allman lived in Canada for several years while a boy, gained most of his school education there, and in 1842 began an apprenticeship at the tailor's trade in Sturgis, Michigan. Coming to Crown Point in 1843, he took up work at his trade, but finally abandoned it on account of failing eyesight. For several years he was in mercan- tile business at Sturgis, Michigan, but in 1855 returned to Lake County and thereafter was a resident at Crown Point with the exception of a few years until his death. His father had served as county recorder until his death in 1856, and Amos Allman was elected to succeed him and filled the office for eight consecutive years. He was also for a time
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deputy revenue collector. On leaving the office of recorder, on account of his experience which had given him a thorough knowledge of land titles, he engaged in the abstract and real estate business, and has the distinction of having opened the first strictly abstract of title office in Lake County. He was a very successful business man, handled a vast volume of real estate transactions, and also did much development work in the improvement of real estate.
Amos Allman was married November 26, 1857, to Olive Wilcox, who died June 1, 1859. On March 22, 1860, he married Miss Mary A. Luther, who was the mother of his five children. Mary (Luther) Allman belonged to a prominent Lake County pioneer family, was born in New Hampshire, October 18, 1832. In 1834 her parents, James and Irena (Ransom) Luther, moved West, to Indiana, took up a tract of wild land in Porter County, and in that county Mrs. Allman was reared and educated. Her children by her marriage to Amos Allman were: Walter L .; Mary I., wife of Judge W. C. McMahan : Claude W .; Jessie May, wife of Frank B. Pattee; and Nellie L., wife of James B. Neal.
WALTER L. ALLMAN. The Allman-Gary Title Company of Gary and Crown Point, has the oldest business of its kind in Lake County. It was founded by the late Amos Allman about 1864, and in 1872 he opened the first strictly abstract of title office in the county. The business has been continuous from that time until the present, when it is conducted under the title Allman-Gary Title Company. Walter L. Allman became a member of the firm in 1876, and Claude W. Allman in 1888. In 1907 a consolidation of two abstract firms operating in the county occurred, and the business was conducted under the name Allman Bros. & Din- widdie until 1910, when the present firm was incorporated with a capital stock of $100,000. The company now has records and indexes concern- ing Lake County real estate running back for forty years, and sneh has been the record for reliability and accuracy of the company that it is said that its abstracts are accepted without question by attorneys every- where. The company now has two complete sets of abstract indexes, and keeps one at its office in Gary and the other at Crown Point.
Walter L. Allman. a son of the late Amos Allman, was born in Crown Point. October 6, 1861, and has spent practically all his life in Lake County. He was educated in a select school and the public schools, and at the age of eleven began to learn typesetting in the office of the Crown Point Herald. When about fifteen he was taken into his father's office and was given a thorough training in the abstract of title business. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted to a partnership, and after his father's death became senior partner of Allman Bros. Mr. Allman became cashier of the Commercial Bank of Crown Point at its organiza- tion in 1895, and in 1904 was elected vice president of the institution. He was county auditor during most of the year 1905, being appointed by the county commissioners to fill a vaeaney. He was also president of the town board of Crown Point from 1906 to 1909, during which time many public improvements were made. Mr. Allman, in 1892, married Miss Arvilla E. Sings, who died in 1894. In 1900 Miss Eva Dyer became his wife. She was born in Kankakee County, Illinois, a daughter of Thomas Henry and Alta (Smith) Dyer, was educated in the publie schools of Crown Point and at the Chicago Female College in Morgan Park. Illinois. Previous to her marriage she was a successful teacher. Mr. and Mrs. Allman have two children, a son. Amos Dver. born April
Virgil S. Reiter.
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8, 1901, and a daughter, Ada, born June 10, 1911. Walter L. Allman is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, is a republican in politics, and has for a number of years been one of the most influential men in business and public spirited in all his relations with the community.
JUDGE VIRGIL S. REITER. Now serving as judge of the Superior Court at Hammond, Virgil S. Reiter has been a member of the Indiana bar and in active practice for the past twenty-five years. He has exempli- fied all the success and the generous public service of a most representa- tive lawyer. He has been honored on a number of occasions with posi- tions of responsibility and trust, and though he began life without special advantages, has found a place in the front ranks of the learned profession and is an influential factor in public affairs.
Virgil S. Reiter was born in Fulton County, Indiana, September 17, 1864. His parents were Jacob M. and Susan (Bair) Reiter, his father having been for many years identified with business as a general mer- chant. Judge Reiter spent most of his boyhood and youth at Rochester, Indiana, where he attended the public schools, finishing his course there in 1881. In Heidelberg College, at Tiffin, Ohio, he took the classical course and was graduated in June, 1886, Bachelor of Arts. Returning to Rochester, he applied himself energetically to the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1889. The first four years of his active prac- tice was spent in Rochester, and he served that city as city attorney from 1889 to 1893. Since August, 1893, Judge Reiter has been a resident of Hammond, and in this city and vicinity has enjoyed a large general prac- tice as lawyer, having had his full share of the local business in the vari- ous county and state courts. Officially he served as city attorney from 1902 to 1904, and in 1900 was appointed United States commissioner. The latter office he held until his appointment as judge of the Superior Court in August, 1907. Under that appointment he filled the office until 1909, and in the meantime, in 1908, was regularly elected to the term of six years, which expires in 1915. Judge Reiter has made an enviable record as a jurist, and as a trial judge has the utmost confidence and respect of both the bar and the laity. Judge Reiter was county chairman of the Republican Central Committee from 1898 to 1902.
In October, 1897, he married Miss Josephine Kingsley, of Hammond, a daughter of Edward H. and Frances M. Kingsley, her father having been formerly a merchant at Jackson, Michigan. To the marriage have been born two children : Eline Frances and Virgil S., Jr.
Since its organization Judge Reiter has been president of the Ham- mond Chamber of Commerce, which became an institution for the wel- fare of Hammond and as a means of co-operation for local business men in 1912. He worships in the Presbyterian church, and fraternally is a Knight Templar Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine, and belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He also has membership in the Hammond Country Club, the Hamilton Club of Chicago, and has a large acquaintance with prominent men in public and business life both in Lake County and elsewhere in Northern Indiana and in Chicago.
JOHN BROWN. The First National Bank of Crown Point is the pioneer banking house of Lake County, and it is a matter of pride to all who have been connected with that institution that not only has the bank continued steadily to perform its appropriate service in the business com-
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munity, without the loss of a dollar to its depositors, but also for the fact that its influence has undeniably been strongly effective in upholding the conservative and substantial prestige of all other banking institutions of the county. The First National is a splendid bank, with prestige, age, influence and solid integrity. It is a fine monument to the business power of the community, and also to those who were identified with its founding and with its successful administration through forty years.
The First National Bank was established in 1874, and John Brown, now its president, was one of the original incorporators, and is now the dean of Lake County bankers. Its first president was James Burge, who was succeeded by David Turner, and Mr. Brown became the third president. Its capital stock and surplus now total $100,000, and a few years ago the bank erected a stone building costing $22,000 on the site of the old banking house which had been occupied for thirty-five years.
It is as banker and business man, soldier, farmer and stock raiser, public official and leading citizen, that John Brown is known to Lake County and in fact to all Northwestern Indiana. He is one of the oldest families in Lake County, and John Brown himself was born in Eagle Creek Township of this county October 7, 1840. Of Scotch ancestry, his grandfather, also named John Brown, was born in New York State, held the rank of major in the American troops during the War of 1812. was active in public affairs, and was ninety-three years of age at the time of his death. Alexander F. Brown, father of the Crown Point banker, was born in Schenectady County, New York, in 1804, and in 1837 established a home in Eagle Creek Township of Lake County, among the few pioneers then occupying not only that township but the entire area of this county. With his own labors he hewed a farm out of the wilder- ness, and through his industry, his fine moral and Christian character, and acknowledged usefulness in the community, was regarded as one of the leading citizens. In politics he was a stanch whig. A Presbyterian, he did much to further and build up the activities of that church. Besides his work as a farmer he also did railroad building by contract, and continued active in business until he met his death in a runaway accident in 1849, when only forty-five years of age. Alexander F. Brown married Eliza M. Barringer, who was born in the same part of New York as her husband, and who died in Lake County when seventy- three years of age. She was a pioneer woman possessed of the many simple yet sturdy virtues of womanhood which have so many times been attributed to the courageous women who shared with their husbands the toils and difficulties of the frontier. When her husband died she had a family of five children, and it was her influence and her practical man- agement of business affairs that gave them a good training and enabled them to start in life without any distinct disadvantages. These children were named: Mary; John; William B .; Anna; and George, who was born after his father's death and died at the age of twenty-nine.
John Brown was reared on a farm, and while attending school with perhaps as much regularity as the average boy of that time and com- munity, he also did much to assist his widowed mother. At the age of twenty-one, in 1862, John Brown enlisted for service in the Civil war as a private in Company I of the Fifth Indiana Cavalry. He subsequently became a sergeant in his company, and his military record was one of active and faithful service through some of the hardest campaigns of the war. He was sent South into Kentucky, and was with the troops which pursued John Morgan on his raid through Indiana and Ohio, and
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