USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume II > Part 36
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In civic matters his influence at Hobart is well understood by the people of that community. He helped to organize the Commercial Club, and secured many of the signatures to the original membership. He has great faith in organized movements as a method of getting important things done in a community, and he has proceeded his individual share in the work of upbuilding the Hobart community on the principles that
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this is one of the coming large towns of Northern Indiana. His faith is strong in the municipal ownership idea, and he was one of the pro- gressive men of Hobart who advocated and finally secured the construc- tion of the sewerage and lighting plans through municipal enterprise.
H. E. KEILMAN. The kind of public spirit which constantly plans for the community welfare and is prodigal of personal time, energy and means in getting the plans carried out, has been the chief characteristic of H. E. Keilman's citizenship at Hobart. Mr. Keilman is one of the most successful of local business men, but the successful management of his enterprises has always been accompanied by a constant readiness to leave his own interest and work heart and soul for something he thought Hobart or the vicinity ought to have.
Mr. Keilman was born at Dyer, in Lake County, August 25, 1874. His father was for many years a merchant in Chicago, and his store still stands on Lincoln Avenue in that city. 'Mr. Keilman acquired his early education at Dyer in the country schools until he was seventeen years of age. His own business experience has been in merchandising since his youth, and the people of Hobart credit him as one of the most successful men in the upbuilding of a large and prosperous business. For two years he was employed by a relative in a general merchandise store at Dyer, then transferred to George F. Gerlach for one year, and through the influence of Mr. Gerlach found a place with the wholesale department of Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company in Chicago, and the four years he spent there was a valuable training for his subsequent work. In 1898 Mr. Keilman came to Hobart, and with Edward Scheidt as partner embarked in a small enterprise as junior partner. The first store was in a space 22 by 45 feet, and the stock was limited to a small line of dry goods. In a short time they moved across the street to Main and Third, taking a storeroom 35 by 80 feet, and extending their stock to general merchandise. As an evidence of their enterprise it should be noted that their store was one of the first in Hobart to be equipped with a plate-glass front. Their trade extended rapidly, and it soon became necessary to acquire the adjoining store room, 24 by 80 feet, an arch- way being cut through to connect the two stores. As trade kept expand- ing, they subsequently got a third addition, again cutting through and adding a space 22 by 75 feet. The Keilman Store is now one of the most complete in general lines of merchandise in this part of the state. Many of their regular customers live in Porter County, and their trade extends for a radius of ten to twelve miles about Hobart.
While the building up of such an enterprise has been sufficient to tax the energies of an ordinary man, Mr. Keilman has for a number of years devoted himself unreservedly to the public welfare. In 1905 he was elected trustee, taking his seat on the board in January of the following year, and by reelection in 1909 has served two terms of four years each. His progressive ideas in public matters have been realized in many directions. He undertook an exhaustive study of lighting sys- tems and sewers, and as chairman of the board, after a hard fight, was instrumental in getting the present excellent system of boulevard light and a complete sewer system for Hobart. Much time was spent in investigating and studying the problems presented, and Hobart's im- provements in these lines are a practical monument to his administra- tion. As president of the town board, of which he has been a member for eight years, Mr. Keilman secured an appropriation of $25,000 to
William. Dann
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build the present bridge over Deep River. He is a member of the Com- mercial Club, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus, and in politics is a democrat. His diversions take several directions; he is particularly fond of hunting and all outdoor sports, and is the oldest member of the Hobart Hunting Club.
In 1899 Mr. Keilman married Margaret Froehler of Chicago. They are the parents of eight children, five sons and three daughters, five of whom are attending school.
WALTER G. BLACK. Though not yet thirty years of age, Walter G. Black has made for himself a reputation and a secure place in his profession as a civil engineer. His work has been especially commend- able at Hobart and East Gary, where he had charge of the most impor- tant municipal improvements of recent years. It is ability to do his work well that has brought Mr. Black into prominence, and he is the architect of his own fortune.
A native of Valparaiso, in Porter County, Walter G. Black was born April 26, 1885, a son of Henry F. and Asenath Black. The father was born in Lake County in 1859, but most of his career was spent in Porter County, where he is now living retired, and at one time was county treasurer. The mother was born at Valparaiso in 1858. Besides the engineer at Hobart there are four other sons and a daughter. An older son, Carl, has for a number of years been engaged in the news- paper business and is now at Valparaiso. The daughter, Louise, is the wife of Walter Coin of Valparaiso. The younger sons live at home with their parents.
Walter G. Black received his education in the common schools until he was thirteen, then spent three years in high school, and by economical use of his resources and by hard work got a university training at Val- paraiso, being graduated with the degree C. E. in 1912. Following his graduation he established an office as civil engineer at Hobart, and has since been employed in the office of city engineer for both Hobart and East Gary.
On April 4, 1912, Mr. Black married Isabel Rowe. She was educated in Hobart in the high schools, and is active in social circles as a member of the Women's Reading Club and the Eastern Star. They have one child, John Henry Black, born September 18, 1913. Mr. Black is affiliated with the Masons and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. A life member of the Commercial Club, this honor was bestowed upon him in recognition of his services as the construction engineer for the installation of the boulevard system of lighting at Hobart. He also had the supervision of the construction of the sanitary sewer system for about eight miles, and water main extension and many other public improvements. He is engineer for the Gary, Hobart and Eastern Rail- road Company, a road which is planned as an important addition to the transportation facilities of Hobart, and which will do a great deal toward extending the prosperity of that city. Mr. Black is a member of the Delta Epsilon fraternity at the University of Valparaiso.
JUDGE WILLIAM M. DUNN. Now serving as city judge of Gary, Mr. Dunn has had a successful and varied career as a lawyer and citizen. He is one of the older members of the bar at Gary, having practiced in the city since 1907, and his services have been employed in a large amount of the litigations arising from both civil and criminal sources, and he has Vol II-17
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represented some of the more important interests, including a railway attorneyship.
William M. Dunn is a native of New Haven, Connecticut, where he was born June 14, 1878, a son of Matthew H. and Kate (Eustice) Dunn. His father is an old railway man, having been in the service in many different parts of the country for a number of years. After getting a high school education, Mr. Dunn was for a time also in the railway service, later was a student and graduated from the university at Chat- tanooga, Tennessee, and in 1907 took his law degree at the Yale Law School. His advent in Gary occurred on Thanksgiving day, November 25, 1907, and being satisfied with the possibilities of the growing city, and after a few successful skirmishes at the beginning of his profession has practiced here with growing patronage and prestige ever since. He is now at the head of the firm of Dunn & Lucas.
On November 26, 1913, Mr. Dunn married Deloma M. Clifford, of Valparaiso, Indiana. For five years Mr. Dunn represented the Wabash Railroad as local attorney, and for one year was attorney for the Penn- sylvania Railway Company. In 1913 he was elected to the office of city judge at Gary and has administered the city court since January 5, 1914. Fraternally his affiliations are with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus, the Loyal Order of Moose, and the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen. During his early manhood, in 1898, when the war broke out with Spain, he enlisted and served in the Third Connecticut Regiment of Volunteers, being mustered out with the rank of lieutenant. His church is the Roman Catholic, and he is one of the trustees of Holy Angels Catholic Church of Gary, Indiana.
AUSTIN L. THOMPSON. One of the oldest and most prominent fami- lies of Lake County is represented by A. L. Thompson of Hobart. Mr. Thompson himself has lived in this county nearly sixty years, and this was his environment while growing to manhood. He went from Lake County to the war, and during the greater part of his active career has been closely identified with the farming and stock-raising interests. As a stockman, particularly in the raising of blooded horses, Mr. Thompson is easily one of the most successful in this part of the state.
A. L. Thompson was born in New York State, August 21, 1842. When he was two years of age his parents moved to Wisconsin, and when he was twelve they established a home in Lake County, among the early settlers. The country schools supplied him with his mental training, while on his father's farm, mind and body were well disciplined, and he lived under the parental roof until he was past twenty-one. At the age of twenty-three Mr. Thompson enlisted in the One Hundred and Sixty-first Indiana Infantry, and went with the regiment into Tennessee and saw some active service before the close of the war. Returning to Lake County at the end of his term of enlistment, Mr. Thompson began life as a farmer, and by industry and intelligent management acquired a substantial position both as a business man and citizen. In 1893 Mr. Thompson began to turn his chief efforts and management to the stock business. Since then he has made a reputation as owner and raiser of many fine horses, and has specialized in the Percheron stock.
On August 31, 1863, Mr. Thompson married Elizabeth Barney of Lake County. Her death occurred January 14, 1914. Theirs was an ideal companionship, prolonged more than half a century, and many people of Lake County will recall the happy occasion when they cele-
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brated their golden wedding anniversary. Their five children, three sons and two daughters, are all living, the girls living in Lake County, and the sons in Porter County, and all substantial farming people. There are also twenty-six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. At the golden wedding anniversary, besides the five children, with their husbands and wives, there were twenty-five grandchildren and the great-grand- child present, and the photograph of that notable family group is one of Mr. Thompson's most cherished possessions. For twenty years Mrs. Thompson was an invalid, and while attending to business Mr. Thompson was devoted to her care and was almost constantly with her. Neverthe- less, he has found time to take much interest in town affairs, and has manifested his public spirit at every possible occasion. He is an esteemed member of the Grand Army Post, and in politics a democrat. It is a matter of interest to note that when Mr. Thompson located at Hobart the village had only three houses.
On the 19th of October, 1914, Mr. Thompson married Mrs. Irene Pattee, a native of Sandusky, Erie County, Ohio, who was born July 17, 1844.
JOHN MATHEWS. Now more than fourscore years old, John Mathews is still regarded as one of Hobart's most influential citizens. His career has exceptional interest. He responded to the first call for soldiers to put down the rebellion. Twice he voted for Lincoln. In his memory are stored words heard from the lips of such national leaders as Douglas and Dan Voorhees, and he followed such generals as Sherman and Thomas in the war. Of a pioneer family in Northwestern Indiana, he is now one of the "grand old men" of Lake County.
John Mathews was born in Ross County, Ohio, in 1833, and at an early age his parents moved to Fulton County in the same state, and after four years there to Porter County, Indiana, establishing a home near Hebron in 1840. Thus the early years of his boyhood John Mathews spent in Northwest Indiana, and on April 14, 1861, almost as soon as the news of the fall of Fort Sumter was received and the first call issued for troops, he joined Company H of the Ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. That was in the three months service, and was followed by his enlistment for three years. He went out as a member of Company E in the Thirty-eighth Indiana Infantry, and his service continued until the close of the Rebellion. He followed the flag in the many bloody campaigns through Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia, participated at Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, the campaign leading up to the fall of Atlanta, and then returned with the forces of Thomas which at the battle of Franklin routed and completed the ruin of the Southern army under Hood. During the early weeks of his career as a soldier while in West Virginia Mr. Mathews was wounded on July 8, 1861.
Following the war, in 1865, Mr. Mathews established his home in Hobart, and has been a resident of that little city of Lake County for nearly half a century. In 1858 he had married Louisa Hardesty of Porter County. Her death occurred in 1859, and in March, 1860, he married Mary Crisman of Porter County. Mr. Mathews has one son living in Pullman, Illinois, born December 22, 1860, and for many years identified with the Pennsylvania Railway Company. This son has two daughters, both unmarried.
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Mr. Mathews is the oldest Mason in the lodge at Hobart, having taken his master's degrees in August, 1866. He served three terms as worshipful master of his lodge. He also belongs to Lodge No. 333, I. O. O. F., in which he was honored for eight terms as noble grand and as secretary for seven years. Mr. Mathews is one of the esteemed mem- bers of the Hobart Commercial Club, and has always taken much part in local civic affairs. He is a member of the Unitarian Church, and in politics is a republican. In his early youth he heard Stephen A. Douglas in one of his speeches, and later knew personally such men as Colfax, Voorhees and other noted Indiana citizens. His first presidential vote was cast for John C. Fremont for president in 1856, and he voted for Lincoln in 1860 and in 1864, casting his ballot at Valparaiso. Mr. Mathews was in Washington at the time of the grand review of the Union army following the surrender of Lee. In his younger days he was a musician, and one of the leaders in musical circles at Hobart. When Mr. Mathews settled at Hobart it was a village with only a few houses, and he has witnessed practically the entire growth and develop- ment of that thriving community. For twenty-eight years he has dis- pensed local justice through the office of justice of the peace, but expects to retire during the year 1914. Though not a lawyer, he has frequently been consulted on matters of law by members of the bar, and his opinion is one esteemed among all who know him. Among the many measures of local improvements with which he has been influentially identified should be mentioned the campaign for placing the light and waterworks plant of Hobart under municipal ownership. Mr. Mathews also recalls as one of many reminiscences of the past that he has hunted ducks and rabbits over the country now covered by the prosperous industrial com- munity of Gary.
BLAZ A. LUCAS. A member of the bar at Gary, where he has practiced since 1911, Blaz A. Lucas is a well trained young lawyer, and has already proved his ability in a number of well contested cases in the local courts.
Blaz A. Lucas was born in Croatia, Austria, January 26, 1883, a son of Mathew and Theresa Lucas. His father emigrated to the United States in the same year that the son was born, and the family followed after him in 1885. Their home was in Calumet, Michigan, in the midst of the mining region of the northern peninsula, and Mathew Lucas worked as a miner in that vicinity for some years, and later conducted a general merchandise store. The son grew up in Calumet, acquired a public school education, and at the beginning of his career for a livelihood was employed in a store and also in the Calumet State Bank. His ambition was for a profession, and largely through his own efforts he paid his way through the law department of Valparaiso University, where he was graduated in 1911. In the same year he came to Gary and joined Judge William M. Dunn, one of the older lawyers in point of practice at Gary, and the firm of Dunn & Lucas has since enjoyed a large share of the local business.
Mr. Lucas on May 4, 1908, married Blanche Plummer, of Bay City, Michigan. They have an adopted child, Bernard. Mr. Lucas affiliates with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Croatian Sons. His church is the Catholic and in politics he is a democrat.
INDIANA HARBOR NATIONAL BANK. The oldest bank of Indiana Harbor and the only one under national charter is the Indiana Harbor
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National Bank, whose splendid resources are indicated by its capital of $100,000, a surplus of more than $25,000, and approximately three- quarters of a million dollars in deposits.
The Indiana Harbor National Bank was organized under its present charter on April 6, 1912, and succeeded the Indiana Harbor State Bank, which had been organized under a state charter January 16, 1905, with a capital stock of $50,000. That bank in turn was the successor of the old Lake County State Bank, an East Chicago organization of 1903, which was extended to serve the community of Indiana Harbor. The organizers of the Indiana Harbor State Bank were : W. R. Holligan, T. F. Donovan, James D. Erskin, Otto J. Gondolf, the first cashier, and Albert DeW. Erskin, president. Early in December, 1906, the holders of a large portion of the stock sold their interests to G. J. Bader, Fred J. Smith and others, and the board of directors then elected were as follows : G. J. Bader, president ; J. H. Youche, vice-president, and F. H. Ericson, cashier. In February, 1909, J. G. Allen was elected cashier and has since held that post.
On the incorporation under a national charter in 1912 the following officers and directors were chosen: G. J. Bader, president; Fred J. Smith, vice-president; J. G. Allen, cashier; George M. Witt, assistant cashier ; W. R. Holligan and T. F. Donovan. The number of directors were increased from five to seven in January, 1913, causing the addition of J. H. Youche and C. A. Westberg. During the summer of 1914 Mr. Westberg resigned and Mr. Witt was elected to the vacancy. The bank owns its own site and building, the banking house having been erected in 1907-08 and occupied since May, 1908. The building covers ground 48 by 130 feet and a portion of the first floor is occupied by the United States postoffice and the upper part is for offices.
ALEXANDER G. SCHLIEKER, M. D. When Doctor Schlieker recently, in January, 1914, retired from the office of mayor of East Chicago, he left a record for practical accomplishment and efficient administration such as no other mayor in the history of that city had ever equaled. Doctor Schlieker, besides his splendid civic service, is related to East Chicago in several interesting capacities. He was one of the first drug- gists to engage in business in that city nearly twenty-five years ago. For a number of years he has been an active physician and surgeon, with growing emphasis on his surgical practice, and there are many ways in which he might well be considered East Chicago's foremost citizen.
Born at Chilton, Wisconsin, April 24, 1868, Alexander G. Schlieker is a son of Henry and Eliza (Oberkircher) Schlieker, his father a sub- stantial farmer. Doctor Schlieker, after getting his education in the public schools, learned the drug business, and not long after the estab- lishment of East Chicago, choosing this locality for his business career, on February 4, 1890, started one of the very first drug stores and thus has a position among the pioneer settlers of East Chicago. After a number of years in the drug trade, Doctor Schlieker aspired to an independent profession, and finished his course in medicine at the Northwestern University in Chicago in 1900. Since then he has devoted himself assiduously to his practice, and in surgery is regarded as the most expert in his line in the city. Doctor Schlieker is a member of the Lake County and Indiana State Medical societies and the American Medical Association, and in 1907 was honored with the office of president of the county society.
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In 1895 Doctor Schlieker married Florence Cresswell of Chicago. Their two children are Grant and Florence. The doctor has affiliations with the Masonie Order, including the Knights Templar, the Scottish Rite and the Mystic Shrine; also with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the East Chicago Com- mercial Club. In politics he is a republican, and besides his recent office at an earlier date he was health officer and township physician several years.
Elected mayor of East Chicago in 1909, Doctor Schlieker served from the beginning of 1910 until January 5, 1914. Of his competence and the general popularity of his administration as mayor it is not necessary to speak, since the community will long have grateful remem- brance of his work. Some statistical facts may serve to indicate what Doctor Schlieker did as mayor. On the basis of official records it is easy to prove that he built more streets and sidewalks than were con- strueted during any previous administration. Within that four years the fire department was given complete new apparatus, including new hook and ladder trucks, electric fire alarm system on all the streets, and another noteworthy improvement was the setting up of appropriate street signs at all street intersections. At the present time East Chicago has 8.6 miles of pavement, laid at a total cost of $239,875.68; 13.1 miles of macadam roads, which cost $90,000.00; 3.4 miles of brick pavement, which cost $179,544.12; 2 miles of brick pavement now under construc- tion, which will cost $200,000.00; 12.7 miles of asphalt pavement, which cost $557,191.44; 58.3 miles of 6-foot sidewalk, costing $242,777.52; 7.1 miles of brick sewer, costing $517,931.56; 27.3 miles of pipe sewer, installed at a cost of $358,719.78; 27 miles of house connections, which cost $70,000.00. Since East Chicago became a city a great amount of permanent improvement has been done, but during the four years of Doctor Schlieker's administration more than forty per cent of the above enumerated municipal improvements were built.
THOMAS J. STEARNS. One of the old settlers of Lake County, a man whose enterprise and capital have been employed to build up and improve several localities, Thomas J. Stearns is particularly identified with the commercial center of East Gary, where he now has his home. The inci- dents of his career have been sufficiently eventful so that their narration would make a long story, and the following sketch will reveal only an outline suggestion of a long and useful life.
Thomas J. Stearns was born in Porter County, Indiana, six miles west of Valparaiso, February 28. 1842. His education was that furnished by the country schools near Wheeler until he was eighteen. The following year was spent with his father on a farm in Lake County, a mile west of Hobart, and at that time there was only one school in the township. When the war broke out between the North and the South he had only recently passed his nineteenth birthday. In 1861 Mr. Stearns was one of the ardent youths of Indiana who responded to the early calls for soldiers to put down the rebellion, and went into the Fourth Indiana Battery under Capt. A. K. Bush and Mark DeMot as first lieutenant, and was with the Army of the Cumberland, participating in several of the hardest fought battles of the war. He was in the great battle of Shiloh in April, 1862, fought at Perryville, later at Stone River, was in the operations about Chattanooga, and at Lookout Mountain was taken prisoner and for six weeks was held a eaptive in the notorious Libby
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