USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume II > Part 46
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C. O. Holmes was educated in the common and high school at Thayer, Indiana, and for two and a half years, from January, 1902, to June, 1904, was a student at North Park College in Chicago. His business career began as an employee of the Lake County Savings & Trust Com- pany at Hammond, where he remained until August, 1905. He was then deputy clerk of the United States Court at Ilammond and also did public reporting until May, 1906. Since that date Mr. Holmes has been identified with the growing City of Gary, having come to Gary as private secretary to A. F. Knotts. He was in Knotts' service until 1907, and in the meantime in 1906 was elected town clerk and in the same year appointed a member of the Gary Board of Education. an office he has held with the exception of one year ever since. Mr. Holmes has had an important part in developing the magnificent institutions of which Gary is so justly proud. He assisted in the organization of the Young Men's Christian Association, the library, the Methodist Epis- copal Church and taught the first Sunday school class. In July, 1907. Mr. Holmes organized the C. O. Holmes & Company, real estate and insurance firm, and in March, 1908, this became Holmes, Kuss & Com- pany. In March, 1909, Mr. Holmes organized the Calumet Trust & Savings Bank, which nine months later was merged with the First
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Trust & Savings Bank, and in January, 1910, he took the prominent part in organizing the South Side Trust & Savings Bank, with which the two former institutions were merged. When Mr. Holmes was elected president of the Calumet Trust & Savings, at the age of twenty-five. he was probably the youngest bank president in the state. Besides himself as president, the other officers of this institution are: William Feder, vice president, who holds the degree LL. D. from the University of Budapest; T. T. Snell, vice president (president of the First Na- tional Bank of Gary ) ; C. R. Kuss, secretary-treasurer; and L. P. Kuss, manager of rentals and insurance departments.
Mr. Holmes is also a director in the bond house, Counselman & Company of Chicago, in the Calumet Business College Association, in the North Park College of Chicago, and director and treasurer of the Ridgemoor Real Estate Company. He was Gary's first republican pre- cinet committeeman but is now independent in politics, while one of the prime movers and organizers of the progressive party in his home district. Mr. Holmes is president of the board of trustees of the Meth- odist Church at Gary. Mr. Holmes has spent a couple of winters in Louisiana, where he is interested in a large reclamation project.
On September 25, 1907, he married Lydia C. Perry, daughter of Andrew Perry of Harcourt, Iowa. Mrs. Holmes attended the North Park College at Chicago. They have one child, Martha Louise, born January 8, 1913.
AMERICAN STEEL FOUNDRIES. One of the oldest as well as one of the largest of, the great industries concentrated about Indiana Harbor is the American Steel Foundries, established there in 1903. Its plant and grounds cover about fifty acres, and upwards three million dollars are invested in real estate, buildings, machinery and equipment, the average number of employees is about twelve hundred with an estimated annual payroll of one million dollars. Most of the labor is skilled, and the major- ity of the employees have their homes in the vicinity of Indiana Harbor and create a community spirit and add to the industrial permanence of this city. The American Steel Foundries make open-hearth steel castings of every description, and the products are sent to the rolling mills. Some special lines of product include locomotive castings, machinery castings, power plant work, special alloy steels, etc.
The organization and the facilities of the plant measure up to the highest standards of local industries in the Calumet region. In the general offices, the staff of executives and clerks have their own lunch room, while outside means of recreation are afforded by the tennis courts, baseball grounds, and other equipment which tends to promote good feeling and loyalty among all branches of the service.
The principal executive officers of the company are Dudley Shoe- maker, who is the works manager, and has been identified with the company six years. H. D. Hammond is production engineer, has been with the company eight years, and at the Indiana Harbor plant for one year. William Gilmore is superintendent of the No. 1 foundry, and has been identified with the plant for the past four years. W. A. Faison is superintendent of the No. 2 foundry and has been here three years. J. C. Parsons has been with the company for two years.
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BULLOCK BROTIIERS. Lake County has special reason to be proud of the achievements of the Bullock family. It was established in the county during pioneer times, and its members are found in various pro- fessions and lines of business, all useful and honored in their respective spheres. The two young men comprising the firm of Bulloek Bros. at Hobart have a reputation far more than local in the field of electrical engineering and invention. These brothers are Asa C. and Gilbert D. Bulloek, and their partnership style was begun in October, 1913. They do a general electrical business, but the specialty by which they are best known is wireless telegraphy. They have invented, improved and applied wireless apparatus and in the current literature of that depart- ment of electricity their names frequently appear as contributors and workers. They have had special suecess with the high frequency Tesla eoils, and have in operation one of the largest plants of this kind in the world. These coils are manufactured in their own laboratory. The eoil is capable of six million voltage, with a frequeney of one million cyeles per second, with two million alternations. Recently the brothers have carried out a series of experiments on a new system of wireless telephony, with gratifying suecess, and over their apparatus have conducted con- versations with Chicago and nearby towns. Another important invention is a new style rotary, employing a low speed motor which gives a high pitch spark on a low speed motor. This is considered by the brothers one of the most important of all their improvements. Wireless apparatus now in use in many parts of the world has received a number of improve- ments at the hands of Bulloek Brothers. Their work has been described and they themselves have contributed artieles to such well known tech- nical journals as the Modern Electric and Mechanics.
Gilbert D. Bullock was born in Hobart, April 12, 1887, received most of his education in the Chicago publie schools, but took his last year in the Hobart High School. He specialized in electricity and has been a constant reader as well as a practical worker in that line.
Asa C. Bullock was born in Hobart, August 1, 1891, attended the schools of Chicago and for three years the Hobart High School. He is a graduate of the Dodge Institute of Telegraphy at Valparaiso, and also took a special course in wireless telegraphy.
Gilbert Bulloek was assistant wireless operator on the U. S. S. Louisiana and with that battleship traveled to many ports of the globe. Asa was an operator of wireless on the Great Lakes, and has traveled pretty much all over the western hemisphere. Besides their special laboratory and plant for wireless apparatus the brothers do a general electrical supply and contracting business.
Asa Bullock. the father of these two sons, was born in Laporte. Indiana. August 17, 1855, was educated at Crown Point, and was one of the first students in the law department of the University of Val- paraiso. For fifteen years he practiced his profession in Chicago, but returned to Lake County and located in Hobart in 1904. He was one of the prominent attorneys of the county, and has represented many important corporate and financial interests. He represented the Earl real estate properties in this seetion, and some years ago took a chief part in buving the right of way for the Elgin. Joliet & Eastern Rail- road. He handled a number of other railroad deals, and was promi- nently connected with the Earl estate. Mr. Asa Bullock's sudden death was regarded as a special loss to the profession in Lake County. A horse which he was driving became frightened by an automobile on
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September 24, 1905, and the injuries sustained in the accident caused his death four days later.
The grandfather of the Bullock brothers was Moses Bullock, one of the early pioneers of Lake County, and one of the first to hold the office of county surveyor. The maternal grandfather of the brothers was Moses Hull, one of the early newspaper men of Hobart, and in his time was regarded as one of the ablest Bible students in the county. Cynthia E. Hull, wife of the late Asa Hull, was born in Iowa, June 24, 1858, and while she has given all her years to her home and the welfare of her children, is also a believer in woman suffrage.
Gilbert Bullock is a director in the Court of Honor and a member of the Hobart Commercial Club. Asa is secretary of the Court of Honor and also connected with the Commercial Club. The oldest of the brothers is Moses H. Bullock, born February 8, 1878, educated in Hobart and in Chicago, and now engaged in the contracting business. Oliver R. Bullock, another brother, has made his way to the top in the electrical profession, was a student in Purdue University, and is now an electrical engineer with the Government employed at the Panama Canal. At one time he was superintendent of electrical construction at the steel mills in Gary. There are also three sisters: Alfa, the oldest ; Amanda is the wife of Fred Carr of Miller; and Isa is one of the very successful primary teachers in Lake County.
H. H. HIGHLANDS. As a business man Mr. Highlands, during six years of residence in Gary, has been best known for his establishment as a plumbing, heating and electrical supply contractor. Mr. High- lands, however, is more than a merchant, and has come into a number of useful relationships with this community and is one of its most public spirited citizens. His experience covers a broad range of work in connection with the installation and supervision of gas, waterworks and other public utilities, and he is one of the best known men in Indiana in the plumbing business, having served for some time as head of the State Association of Plumbers. Mr. Highlands has been iden- tified with his business in several different states, and came to Gary and founded his present business in March, 1908. His first shop was in the Gary Building, but in September, 1911, he moved to a store of his own, at the corner of Seventh and Washington streets. This is a two- story building, 30 by 95 feet, and he has a staff of expert workmen to carry his service all over Gary and to many places in the vicinity.
H. H. Highlands was born in Carroll County, Ohio, in 1858, and both his parents are now deceased. His education was acquired in the public schools until he was eighteen, and since that time his energies have been taken up almost entirely with his trade and with a number of important responsibilities in connection with public utility companies. His first employment was with the Alliance Gas, Light & Coke Company, and he rose to the position of superintendent for that company when twenty-two years of age. At the age of twenty-five he engaged with the American Waterworks and Guarantee Company at Pittsburgh, and that company placed him in a number of positions of independent respon- sibility. He was sent out to Muncie. Indiana, to take charge of the Muncie Gas Company, also had the management of the Muncie Water- works Company, later was superintendent of the Marion Gas Company at Marion, Indiana, of the Galion Gas Company at Galion, Ohio, and had charge of the company's interests at Braddock, Pennsylvania.
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While at Braddock he built the waterworks, and also put in the water- works at Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Mr. Highlands for some years was engaged in business for himself at Muncie, and came from that city to Gary.
At Muncie, in 1888, occurred his marriage to Miss Margaret H. Smith. They are the parents of two children, aged twenty-two and nineteen years. Both in social and civic circles Mr. Highlands has been an active factor at Gary for a number of years. He is chairman of the board of trustees and was chairman of the building committee of the Elks Club; has long been identified with Masonry, with member- ship in the Knight Templar Commandery and with the Indianapolis Consistory of the thirty-second degree ; is a director of the Commercial Club and was also on its building committee ; is a progressive in politics and a member of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Highlands is now a vice president of the National Master Plumbers' Association, and for two terms was president of the State Association of Plumbers. He also served one term as president of the Indiana State Retail Merchants' Association, and for three years was president of the Gary Board of Public Safety.
C. T. EADUS. The Gary Construction Company, of which Mr. Eadus is secretary and treasurer, has a record of seven years' successful business, and has been one of the important concerns through which the vast volume of construction work, especially in street paving, has been performed during the seven years of marvelous development in this city. The Gary Construction Company was established July 3, 1907, and at the same time the Gary Supply Company was started, both concerns being products of the same capital and largely under the same management. The officers at the beginning were: A. E. Knotts, presi- dent; Dolly Knotts, vice president; II. G. Davis, secretary and treas- urer. Mr. Davis resigned his office in 1912, and was succeeded by Mr. Eadus.
The Gary Construction Company has constructed about fifty miles of streets in Gary, and street paving and general contracting comprise the work which this organization and facilities are best adapted to handle. The company has also laid about one hundred and fifty miles of side- walks in and about the city. The Gary Supply Company maintains large yards for dealing in coal, feed, roofing materials and other build- ing supplies. The Supply Company is located at Eleventh and Broad- way, and Mr. H. Crawford is its manager.
C. T. Eadus was born at Kouts, in Porter County, Indiana, November 15, 1869. DeMott Eadus, his father, died in 1869, and the mother, Henriette J. (Weight) Eadus, subsequently married B. Kouts. With a meager common school education, Mr. Eadus from an early age has made his own way in the world, and his first regular employment was in the railway service. He learned telegraphy, became an operator, was ad- vanced to the position of train dispatcher, and also as agent. In 1908 Mr. Eadus went with the Illinois Steel Company at South Chicago, taking charge of the freight department in the auditor's office. From there he came to Gary in September, 1910, and has since been identified with the Gary Construction Company, at first in a clerical capacity, and took the management and the office of secretary and treasurer on January 1, 1913.
Mr. Eadus was married, in May, 1910, to Dot Anderson. Fraternally
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he has affiliations with the Independent Order of Foresters and in politics upholds the old and tried principles of the republican party.
ERNEST R. CALVERT. The success of the Calvert-Downer Hardware Company of Gary, a concern mentioned elsewhere on these pages, is largely the result of the thorough experience and expert knowledge of its president, who has been in the manufacturing and wholesale and retail lines of the business since boyhood.
Ernest R. Calvert was born in Union City, Iowa, March 25, 1883, a son of John T. and Louise A. Calvert. His father is a retired farmer of Iowa. With public school education and a training in a business college at Dubuque, Iowa, Ernest R. Calvert began his practical career with the Schreiber-Conchar Manufacturing Company, and rose to the responsibility of assistant superintendent with that concern. The com- pany manufactured a line of hardware specialties at Dubuque, and Mr. Calvert's experience was an important training for his later career. The firm was finally bought out by Loetcher-Ryan Manufacturing Com- pany, and Mr. Calvert remained with the new house as assistant super- intendent, and in 1904 went on the road and called on the wholesale hardware trade all over the United States. In 1910 he was called from his traveling position and made manager of the Chicago branch office of the firm.
Mr. Calvert has been president of the Calvert-Downer Hardware Company of Gary since it was organized in November, 1910, and still . remained with the Loetcher-Ryan Manufacturing Company for a couple of years, from which he resigned in the spring of 1912 and has had his family and home in Gary since April of that year.
Mr. Calvert was married, September 8, 1909, to Anglyn R. Murphy of Dubuque, Iowa. They have one daughter, Loraine Hilary. The family are Catholics in religion, and Mr. Calvert is independent in politics.
DR. HAROLD STEPHENS. Among the several able and thoroughly qualified members of the dental profession in Gary, Dr. Harold Stephens has a record of proficiency and success and has had his office in this city for the past four years.
A native of Newcastle, Pennsylvania, born in 1886, Doctor Stephens is a son of John and Anna Stephens. His father has been identified with the steel and iron business all his active career, and moving to Indiana Harbor in 1901 became superintendent of the steel plant in that city, but is now living retired.
Doctor Stephens had a public school education, and in 1909 gradu- ated from the Indiana Dental College. His first year of practice was spent at Indiana Harbor, and in 1910 he moved to Gary, and now has a well located office and about all the practice he can handle. He is a member of the University Club of Gary.
PAUL HAYMAN. The Gary Furniture Company is an example of successful merchandising, developed on the basis of reliable goods, steadily increasing volume of sales and commercial ability and integrity. The proprietors know their business, and have succeeded in building up the best concern of its kind in Gary. The Gary Furniture Company is the successor to the Gary Furniture & Carpet Company, which was established in 1907. In 1908 Messrs. Paul Hayman, Al Goodman and
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Max Koltinsky bought interests in the business, and in 1910 it was incor- porated under the present name, and its store moved to its present site at 717 Broadway. As the largest store of its kind handling all grades of furniture and meeting all the demands of the local trade, the com- pany occupies a three-story building at 717 Broadway, 125 by 150 feet, and have ample space for the display of the goods and the care of the large and varied assortment which they handle.
Paul Hayman is a native of Germany, born in 1872, and coming to the United States in 1897, when twenty-five years of age. He has been active in mercantile lines ever since coming to this country, and in Chicago became buyer for the S. Ledrer & Company of South Chicago, and was with that firm until 1905, and was then buyer for J. M. Carrol of Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago. In 1906 Mr. Hayman came to Gary and opened a store at this place for Alschuler and is thus one of the pioneer merchants of the city. After that for a few months he continued with S. Ledrer as buyer, and then in 1908 took an active interest in the present furniture business. In 1900 Mr. Hayman was married to Minnie Koltinsky. They have three children, two daughters and one son, named Helene, Lillian and Herbert. Mr. Hayman affiliates with the Loyal Order of Moose and in politics is a democrat.
DR. ALEXANDER P. CRAIG. One of the successful practitioners of dentistry in Gary is Doctor Craig, who has lived in the city for the past six years, and after graduating from college began practice in 1913.
Alexander P. Craig was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1888, a son of Alexander and Cecelia (Sullivan) Craig. His father is a master mechanic, and brought the family to Gary in 1908. Doctor Craig is a graduate of the high school at Lackawanna, New York, and after some varied experience and employment in his early manhood entered the University of Indianapolis and graduated in 1913 from the dental department. Returning to Gary, he has since succeeded in establishing himself on a profitable basis in his profession. Doctor Craig is a Catholic, and affiliates with the Knights of Columbus. In politics he is a progressive.
EDWARD C. LUEDTKE. The Wabash Pharmacy at 848 Broadway in Gary is one of the finest stores of its kind in the city, and is a credit to its proprietor, Edward C. Luedtke. Mr. Luedtke bought this estab- lishment on March 22, 1913. It was previously conducted by the Seuer Drug Company, having been established by that concern in 1911. Mr. Luedtke is a graduate pharmacist, a very capable man in his line, and has put himself on a fair way to large and continued snecess as a merchant.
Edward C. Luedtke was born at Laporte, Indiana, December 9, 1891, a son of William and Angusta (Geissler) Luedtke. His father was for a number of years foreman in the Rumely Products Company at Laporte. Growing up in his native city Mr. Lnedtke spent eight years in the parochial schools, finished the high school course at Laporte, and in April, 1912, graduated from the Illinois School of Pharmacy in Chicago. His career in his profession has been spent entirely in Gary and he is already independently established and his success is assured. Mr. Luedtke affiliates with the Loyal Order of Moose, is a democrat in national politics, but independent in local affairs, and is a member of St. John's Lutheran Church.
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HARRY B. BARKER. The name of Mr. Barker is most prominently identified with Gary as a real estate man, and the volume of his trans- actions is sufficient to indicate him as a leader in that business. Like the majority of Gary citizens, he is full of enthusiasm and public spirit for the great industrial and commercial center which he is proud to claim as his home, and where he has lived since Gary was in its forma- tive stages of development.
At Chicago, Illinois, Harry B. Barker was born, March 30, 1884, a son of Louis and Rebecca Barker. With an education in the public schools, and a business college, his first regular experience was in the employ of the Pullman Dining Car Company, and it was followed in 1902 by employment with a real estate firm at Indiana Harbor. While there he got his first insight into real estate conditions in the Calumet region, but it was five years before the beginning of his enterprise independently. Two years of the intervening time was spent in travel in Old Mexico, and in 1907 he established an office at Gary, and was on the ground early enough to take part in some of the pioneer real estate operations in the city. Among the important deals handled by him in whole or in part have been the King's Addition in the west part of the city, the Gary Park Addition, and the Second and Third Gary Park additions, and at the present time Mr. Barker controls more than five hundred of the best lots in Oak Park and the Second Oak Park Addition. A great amount of smaller and individual sales have been transacted through his office. Another enterprise for which he is responsible was the erection of the Mott Building at Twenty-fifth Avenue and Broadway. Mr. Barker affiliates with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and in politics is a republican.
CARL A. VALENTINE. During a residence at Gary since 1910 Carl A. Valentine has not only been one of the leaders in the real estate business, but has gained a secure position generally in business and civic affairs. Mr. Valentine is one of the leaders and most influential men among the Swedish people of the Calumet region.
Although he was born in Sweden May 10, 1858, Carl A. Valentine has lived in America since he was twelve years of age, and most of his training and associations have been in American institutions. His parents, Fred and Sophie Valentine, emigrated to the United States in 1870, locating at Moline, Illinois, where the father was employed as a mechanic in the John Deer Plow Works. Carl A. Valentine is a man of liberal education, and besides the public schools was a student in Augustana College at Rock Island. For several years during his younger career he taught school, was engaged in business a short time at Minne- apolis, and while there was an owner, founder and editor of a Swedish newspaper. On moving to Chicago in 1889 Mr. Valentine engaged in the real estate business, and has made a large success of that line, with which he has been familiar through an experience covering a quarter of a century. In 1910 he moved his office and activities to Gary. As a man of culture and considerable literary experience, besides his brief newspaper career, he has written and published several books. Mr. Valentine was one of the organizers of the Oakland Cemetery at Gary, and is interested in the Riverside Land Company at East Gary and is president of the American Land and Investment Company. In 1910 he put on the Central Park Addition to Gary.
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