USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume II > Part 3
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In 1863 he was appointed by Governor Morton a delegate from the Ninth Congressional District to attend the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, and stood very near President Lincoln at the delivery of that short memorial address which will live and be read while the world stands.
Judge Turner was always interested in education. About 1855, he and a few other men of like taste erected a building called the "Acad- emy" and for several years they paid a teacher to conduct a school that the young might have better opportunities than were afforded by the public schools at that time. He was a member of the United Pres- byterian Church in Hebron for many years, and a supporter of and worker in the Presbyterian Church of Crown Point.
Mr. Turner was a factor in procuring for Crown Point its first rail- road in 1865, then called the Great Eastern, and he deserves special men- tion as one of the charter members and organizers and soon afterwards president of the First National Bank of Crown Point, which remained for ten years the only bank in the county. He remained active in this bank until 1883. Doubtless there was no time in his most discreet, indus- trious and honorable life when these qualities could be of greater serv- ice to the community, than during the pioneer period of banking in Lake County, and much credit is due him and others associated with him for Lake County's banking record. No depositor in the county ever lost a single dollar through the banks, and considering the remarkable growth in population and business that is truly a most creditable forty years' banking record for any county.
In summing up Mr. Turner's life, these striking characteristics must be recalled by those with whom he came in contact, namely, his natural . honesty, his unselfishness, his intolerance for shams, and his abhorrence of indolence.
FREDERICK R. MOTT. Prominent among the live, wide-awake busi- ness men of Hammond is Frederick R. Mott, who came here while the town was yet in its infancy, there having been but six houses in the place at the time of his arrival, and in its development and growth he has been an important factor. A native of Illinois, he was born in the City of Chicago, July 29, 1857, of substantial German ancestry.
His father, the late Jacob H. Mott, was born and bred in Germany, and as a young man came to America in order to better his fortunes. Coming westward from New York, he settled in Chicago in 1852, and was soon carrying on a thriving business as a contractor and builder, in that capacity erecting many of the earlier business blocks of that won- derful city. Meeting with much success in his operations, he continued an active worker until his death, at a comparatively early age, in 1875. He married, in Chicago, Mary Bausch, a native of Germany, who proved herself a true helpmeet. Vol. II~ 2
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Frederick R. Mott was educated in the public schools of his native city, acquiring an excellent knowledge of the common branches of learning. At the age of seventeen years he came to Hammond, Indiana, as an employee of the G. H. Hammond Company, which he entered in a humble capacity. Proving himself industrious and eminently faithful to the duties imposed upon him, he was promoted from time to time, eventually becoming head bookkeeper and foreman of the beef depart- ment of that great corporation. In 1887 Mr. Mott embarked in business on his own account as a real estate agent, and as a private operator has met with undisputed success in his undertakings, being now one of the best known and most prosperous real estate men in this section of Lake County. He is president of the Lake County Title & Guarantee Com- pany and vice president of the Hammond Savings & Trust Company. During his residence in this place Mr. Mott has witnessed its growth from a hamlet of six houses to its present proportions as a municipality, and in its advancement has generously lent his aid and influence. For several seasons after his arrival in Hammond the Michigan Central Railroad was the only line passing through the place, but now its rail- way facilities are most excellent, and an interurban line connecting Hammond with Chicago makes local travel easy and pleasant.
Mr. Mott married June 24, 1884, Miss Emma Hohman, a daughter of Ernst W. and Caroline (Sipley) Hohman, of whom a brief account may be found on another page of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Mott have five children, namely : Irene, Frederick, Robert, Louis and Walter. Politically Mr. Mott is a republican, and has served his fellow-men most faithfully in official capacities, from 1894 to 1898, having served as mayor of the city. Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Free and Acepted Order of Masons, is a Knight Templar and a Shriner.
EDWARD A. KROST, D. D. S. It is in harmony with the fitness of things that the son of one of Lake County's pioneer families should occupy such a post of honor as mayor of the City of Crown Point. The Krost family have been identified with Lake County more than sixty years, and Doctor Krost, in addition to his work as a dentist, has been more or less closely connected with public affairs for the past twenty years. When Crown Point changed its government from that of a town to that of a city in July, 1911, he was elected the first councilman from the Fourth Ward, and served in that position until the final illness of the late and first mayor, Harold Holton Wheeler, at which time the council elected Doctor Krost as acting mayor. After Mayor Wheeler's death the council chose him to fill the unexpired term, and on November 4, 1913, at the regular city election, he was chosen the second mayor of Crown Point for a term of four years, beginning January 1, 1914. Due to these active relations with the city government at its beginning, his name will have a permanent place in the annals of Crown Point as long as that city exists.
Edward A. Krost was born at Crown Point February 13, 1874. His father, the founder of the family in this county, John Krost, was born August 6, 1828, in Brandscheid, Germany, and died at Crown Point. Indiana March 28, 1890. He was educated at the University of Trier (or Treves) and in 1851 left Germany and settled in Ross Township of Lake County in April, 1853. For several years he was employed as a clerk in Hale's store at Merrillville, in Lake County, and later engaged
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in farming. During the period of the Civil war he was elected and served as county treasurer, and later held the office of county auditor. He was a man of high civic and personal character, and some special mention is made of him in the old settlers' reports by Rev. T. H. Ball for the year 1893. John Krost was married at the Turkey Creek Church December 23, 1854, to Katherine Horst, a daughter of Nicholas and Barbara Horst. The Horst family emigrated to America in 1843, first settling in Chicago, and moving to Ross Township, in Lake County, in 1852. Katherine Horst was born at Daun, Prussia, January 24, 1836, and died in Crown Point Jannary 21, 1877.
Edward A. Krost grew up in Crown Point, attended the local public schools, took a commercial course in the University of Notre Dame at South Bend, and later pursued two distinct professional courses, grad- uating in pharmacy from the University of Valparaiso in 1900, and from the Chicago College of Dental Surgery in 1902. Since the latter date he has been in active practice as a dentist at Crown Point. From 1892 to 1896 Doctor Krost served as deputy recorder of Lake County.
Fraternally he is affiliated with Lake Lodge No. 157, A. F. and A. M .; with Lincoln Chapter No. 53. R. A. M., both at Crown Point : and with Valparaiso Commandery No. 28, K. T., at Valparaiso. In 1903 he was worshipful master of Lake Lodge. He is also a member of the Crown Point Chamber of Commerce, of the National Dental Association, the Indiana State Dental Society, the Northern Indiana Dental Society, and a member of the dental fraternity, Delta Sigma Delta, and of the supreme chapter of that organization. He is also a member of the Chicago Dental Society. Doctor Krost is a life member of the Lake County Old Settlers and Historical Association, and much interested in its affairs. Another connection is with the National Geo- graphic Society.
At Crown Point on March 18, 1895, Doctor Krost was married by Rev. T. H. Ball to Jennie May Lathrop, who represents one of the old and prominent families of Lake County. Mrs. Krost was educated in the Crown Point public schools. Her parents were Charles L. and Arabella (MacDonald) Lathrop, her father for many years a prominent business man of Crown Point. Mrs. Krost is a granddaughter of Alex- ander and Ruth A. MacDonald, who were early settlers of Lake County. Alexander MacDonald was one of Crown Point's first attorneys, having come from New York State, and during the decade of the '50s repre- sented the county several terms in the State Legislature. His deathi occurred at Crown Point February 5, 1869. Ruth A. MacDonald, his wife, was familiarly known to the people of Crown Point as "Aunt Kate." She was born at Akron, Ohio, October 2, 1826, and died at Munising, Michigan, August 31, 1905, her body being now at rest in the Crown Point Cemetery. Rev. Mr. Ball, the pioneer minister of Lake County, preached the sermon of this good woman, and in the course of his address said: "She was a faithful mother to many, and a well known, highly esteemed woman in Crown Point for nearly fifty years."
Doctor Krost and wife are the parents of two children: Karl Lathrop Krost, born May 12, 1896; and John Rodger Krost, born November 9, 1898. Both were born in Crown Point and are now attending the Crown Point High School.
N. P. BANKS. While with the business community of Lake County, Mr. Banks is perhaps best known as scientific farmer and banker: the
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usefulness of his long and active career has not been entirely confined to his achievements in practical commercial and agricultural life. When a boy during the dark days of the '60s he fought as a Union soldier, and is one of the few surviving veterans who are still active in business affairs. In a later paragraph mention will be made of a number of important movements in civic affairs of which Mr. Banks has been inter- ested, and his influence and leadership has been as substantial facts in his career as his individual success. Mr. Banks is president of the First State Bank of Hobart.
His birth occurred in Lake County, Ohio, in 1846, but when he was six weeks old his parents moved to Laporte County, Indiana, and when he was seven years of age they established their home in Lake County, Indiana. The common schools supplied his early instruction until he was sixteen, and it is an interesting fact that the school he attended in those early days is still standing as a landmark illustrating educational progress, the building being at least sixty-five years old.
Early in his youth the nation became involved in the serious busi- ness of war, and at the age of sixteen young Banks enlisted in Miller's Chicago Battery, and saw three years of active service in the various campaigns of the Middle West. He held the rank of sergeant, and was generally called the "kid of the company." He participated in the great Battle of Chickamauga during the Atlanta campaign, in the cam- paign through Eastern Tennessee, and was also at Chattanooga. His command was a part of the Fourth Army Corps, to which a large share of the credit is given for defeating Hood's army. Though in so many battles and through so much hard service for three years, Mr. Banks was never wounded, and returned to Lake County a veteran soldier at the age of nineteen years. His schooling was then continued until he had fitted himself for a teacher, and while instructing a sehoolroom full of boys and girls during the winter he followed farming, first as a renter and then invested his savings in a small place of eighty acres. With that as a nuelens he kept increasing his farm land until he had a fine estate of 240 acres. In subsequent years as an incident of his general prosperity he has dealt extensively in farm lands, but has always kept his farm of 240 acres, and nses it for dairy and mixed farming, raising cattle, hogs, sheep and sending everything to the market in a form of product which will not decrease the fertility of the soil. Mr. Banks is an exponent of modern scientific farming methods, and the value of his advocacy of such methods is strengthened by the peculiar success which he has himself made by following out his ideas. Before the Farmers Institute of his section he has read several papers, and agriculture is a topic on which he can discourse ably and interestingly by the hour. Farming, says Mr. Banks, as a science is still in its infancy, and the results which will follow from a general adoption of the improved methods now advocated will increase the economic wealth of the country astonishingly, and farming will really become what it has long been proclaimed as the solid basie industry of America. Mr. Banks main- tains that agriculture will be an integral part of instruction in every school.
He is president of the First State Bank, which has a capital of $25,000 and $8,000 surplus, and its stockholders are all well-known citizens in this section of Indiana. Besides his farming and banking
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business he is also interested in real estate and has transacted a number of important deals in Lake County.
Mr. Banks married Clara Chandler, who was born in Vermont, but was brought to Ross Township in Lake County when a child. They have four children, all daughters. The oldest daughter married J. M. Sholl, who died, leaving five children. The other married daughter is the wife of Dr. John W. Iddings, of Lowell, Indiana, and they have five children. The other two daughters, who are both at home, are Carrie and Florence.
Mr. Banks has long been identified with the Grand Army of the Republic and also with the Masonic order. Until about three years ago his home was on his farm, about two miles out of town, but he then built a bungalow and moved into the Town of Hobart. He is secretary of the Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, covering fire and lightning insurance, with headquarters at Hobart, and all its business limited to Lake County. Its policies outstanding and covering the property of the county amount to about four million dollars in insurance. Mr. Banks is a republican in politics.
It is a matter of both personal and civic pride to Mr. Banks that the first rural free delivery route in the West was started from Hobart, and it was he who took the lead in getting that experiment tried. The first gravel road in Lake County had Hobart as its terminal point, and extended from there to the waters of Lake Michigan, a distance of eleven miles. This improved highway became a factor in rural free delivery proposition, since a good highway was almost essential to the success of delivery of mail in the country districts. Mr. Banks got up the petition applying for a rural route, wrote to Congressman Crum- packer, and as a result the postoffice department elected Hobart as its point of experiment in this part of the country. In 1897 Mr. Banks also was chiefly instrumental in having the plan of free transportation for public school children first given a practical trial in Indiana at Hobart. As a result of his correspondence with the state superin- tendent, who said that Mr. Banks not only had the right, but it was his duty to have facilities for the children to get to school, a vehicle was provided to bring in the children living along one road to the Hobart schools, and this experiment was one of those preliminary to a broad application of the plan, now in use to a greater or less extent in nearly every Indiana county. At the present time five busses travel the roads running out of Hobart and bring in the children from the country every morning and return them to their homes at night. The schools of Hobart Township were the first in Lake County to float a United States flag over the schoolhouses.
NORTHERN STATE BANK. SAMUEL J. WATSON. The finest bank build- ing the Lake County is occupied by the Northern State Bank of Gary. This handsome structure was completed in March, 1913, and affords ample facilities for an institution which has been growing and pros- pering steadily from its foundation. The Northern State Bank was organized by Samuel J. Watson and his friends, and opened for busi- ness on July 1, 1909. Mr. Watson was the first and is still president, Harry Watson and II. H. Harries, vice presidents and W. D. Hunter, cashier. The bank started with seventeen or more stockholders, and its original capital was $50,000. In 1911 its stock was increased to $100,000,
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and the prosperity and patronage of the bank are well indicated by recent figures for deposits, which aggregated more than a third of a million dollars. The bank was located at 581 Broadway until its pres- ent home was completed.
Samuel J. Watson, president of the Northern State Bank, has had a progressive and successful business career. Born in Pennsylvania in 1877, he graduated from Princeton University in 1899, and is an example of the college man who has made good in the commercial world. For eight years following his graduation he was in the milling business in Chicago, and became treasurer of the Star and Crescent Milling Com- pany of that city. In 1909 he came to Gary, and was one of the men who were in at the foundation of the modern industrial city. Mr. Wat- son has a wife and four children, and is one of the leading men, both in business and civic affairs at Gary. He affiliates with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and belongs to the University Club.
WILLIAM CHARLES BELMAN. There are several reasons which justify brief mention of Mr. Belman's name and career in any history including the City of Hammond. In the first place, he was upwards of twenty years superintendent of the local schools, and it was under his direction and largely as a result of his work that the admirable school system was first organized and put on an effective basis. For many years Mr. Belman has been best known to the citizens of Hammond as a banker, and as cashier of the First National Bank has handled the funds and looked after the patronage of the largest financial institution in Lake County. In various other ways he has always been active as a citizen and business man, and is one of the enterprising leaders in local affairs.
William Charles Belman was born in Detroit, Michigan, May 1, 1860. William Fletcher Belman, his father, was a harness manufacturer of Detroit. The maiden name of the mother was Matilda Sabine. Mr. Bel- man received his early education in the public schools of Michigan, and later attended the Valparaiso College at Valparaiso, Indiana. His early career was all devoted to educational work, and for two years he was principal of the schools at Lowell, in Lake County, and for eighteen years was superintendent of schools at Hammond. When Mr. Belman took charge of the Hammond schools in 1883, all the schools were conducted in one building, the staff of instructors comprised five teachers, and there were two hundred pupils. Before he gave up his work eighteen years later, the Hammond school system had attained the proportions of a large community, and he had the supervision of half a dozen school build- ings, a large staff of teachers, and looked after the educational welfare of several thousand pupils. In 1901, after leaving school work, Mr. Bel- man was made cashier of the First National Bank of Hammond, and has since held that office with credit and to the entire satisfaction of the stockholders and general public. Mr. Belman was also one of the organiz- ers and secretary and treasurer of the Lake County Savings and Trust Company. Since 1888 he has been president of the Hammond Building, Loan and Savings Association, an institution which he was also instru- mental in organizing. In church affairs Mr. Belman has long been promi- nent in the Hammond Methodist Church and has done a great deal of work as a member of the official board. His fraternal affiliations are with the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias, the Royal League, the National Union, and he was one of the organizers of the Hammond Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Belman's first wife was Nettie E. Smith,
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and after her death he married Emma L. Rork, who is also deceased and who was the mother of his only living child, Creighton Rork Belman, now a student in school. Mr. Belman's present wife was Sarah Starr, who for many years was active in school work and was identified with the Hammond schools before her marriage.
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JOHN W. CALL. Some of Indiana's oldest stock is represented in the new industrial City of Gary, and perhaps the best example is John W. Call, who succeeded Mayor Knotts as postmaster in 1908, and is now serving in his second term in that office. Mr. Call belongs to a family which has been identified with Indiana for more than seventy-five years, and he came from the thriving industrial City of Elwood in Madison County to join in the development and assist the progress of the wonder- ful community along the lake shore in northern Lake County.
John W. Call was born in Madison County, Indiana, March 17, 1847. His parents, John and Mary Call, who came from North Carolina, settled in Madison County in 1837. That was in the good old log cabin days, when all kinds of game was to be had at the expense of very little effort on the part of the hunter, and frequently deer and other animals could be trapped on the doorway of a settler's home. The senior Call was in his time and locality somewhat of a nimrod, and was noted for his skill as a hunter. John W. Call was reared in Madison County, received an education in the pioneer public schools, and also attended a seminary at Marion. Mr. Call has the distinction of being one of the youngest sur- vivors of the great war of the '60s, having volunteered in 1865, when eighteen years old, and serving for several months in Company I of the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Indiana Regiment. He received an honorable discharge from military service, and after returning to Madi- son County spent about eighteen years more or less closely engaged in educational work. At the same time he spent his summers clerking in a drug store and in other occupations, and from 1874 to 1877 was pro- prietor of a drug establishment of his own. During his long residence at Elwood he devoted his attention to farming, to trading in livestock, and was the possessor of a first class country home in Madison County. His residence at Elwood covered a period of about twenty years. From that city he moved to Gary in 1907, only a few months after building operations had begun on an important scale. In a short time Mr. Call was made street inspector, and in 1908 was appointed postmaster. In 1912 he was again chosen for the same office, and his present term ex- pires in 1916. During his residence in Elwood Mr. Call served as city commissioner for eight years, and was also city judge for two years, and mayor for two years.
On December 29, 1870, Mr. Call married Minerva McMahon, of Elwood, and of a prominent old family in that section of the state. Mr. Call and wife had three sons and one daughter, one son being deceased. He has been a republican in politics ever since casting his first vote for General Grant in 1868, and his wife is a member of the Methodist Church. As postmaster of Gary, Mr. Call has had to supervise an office and a business which has been growing so rapidly that its facilities never were at any time equal to the demand. He has maintained an excellent organ- ization, and in many ways has made the postal service a benefit to the local business community. Several of the recent extensions of the postal service have been introduced since Mr. Call took the Gary office, includ-
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ing parcels post, the postal savings bank, and at the same time the general volume of business has shown a remarkable increase.
VICTOR K. ROBERTS. Both the law and business have furnished the field of successful effort for Mr. Roberts at Lowell, and though a young man he has succeeded in building up the largest insurance business in that city, has a substantial practice as a lawyer, and in other ways has made himself a factor in local affairs.
Victor K. Roberts was born in Wayne County, Illinois, November 6, 1886. Reared on a farm, with a country school education up to the time he was seventeen, he afterwards spent three years in Valparaiso University, one year in the preparatory course, and in June, 1910, graduated from the law department. Mr. Roberts has since been admitted to the state and federal courts, and was engaged in practice at Lowell in partnership with J. Will Belshaw until August, 1912, at which date he moved across the street and opened an office for himself. The legal business entrusted to his charge has always been performed with an ability and skill that has rapidly increased his reputation as a lawyer, and he is one of the successful younger members of the Lake County Bar. He has a complete new law library.
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