USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume II > Part 47
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Mr. Valentine married Hulda Lunblade, who died in 1912. Their children are Myrtle and Ruth, who are now both professional nurses. Mr. Valentine is a member and has served as president of the Scan- dinavian Brotherhood of America. He is active in the Swedish Church at Gary and president of its board of trustees, belongs to the Gary Y. M. C. A., and in polities is a republican.
Ross F. MOORE. The Gary bar has one of its ablest junior members in Ross F. Moore, who has practiced in that city for the past five years, and who is now serving as assistant city attorney of Gary. While his practice is of a general nature, and has ineluded all the routine cases that come before the usual lawyer, he has been employed in some of the more important litigations in the local courts, and again and again has proved himself the equal of older and more experieneed men in the profession.
A native of Indiana, Ross F. Moore was born in Orange County, January 16, 1882, a son of Volney T. and Rachel Moore. His father has been actively employed in the Internal Revenue Service of the United States Government for thirty years. In 1890 the family moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, where Ross F. Moore grew up, acquired his publie school education, and in 1908 was graduated LL. B. from the University of Michigan. His first two years of legal experience were spent in Terre Haute, and on April 1, 1909, he came to Gary with Oliver Starr, but sinee December of the same year has practiced in- dependently.
On January 27, 1912, Mr. Moore married Ettina G. Wythgel of Cleveland, Ohio. He has membership in the University Club, and his polities is republican.
H. C. PETERSEN. The pioneer drug business of Tolleston and eon- sequently of the City of Gary is now conducted by II. C. Petersen, who succeeded to the establishment after it had passed through several hands from the first proprietor. It was Doctor Watson who opened a stock of drugs in the little Village of Tolleston a number of years ago, and the business was subsequently taken over by Mr. Steel, who in turn sold out to Mr. Petersen.
Mr. Petersen is a pharmacist who received his early education in his native land of Denmark, and has been active in that line for a number of years. Born in Denmark, September 9, 1868, when twenty years of age, after graduating from a school of pharmacy in the United States, spent one year in the drug trade at Omaha, Nebraska, and then moved to Chicago. In Chicago, while his experience was partly in the line of staple drugs, he built up a good business as a manu- facturer of flavoring extraets and similar sundries. The quiet routine of his business was broken when he went to Alaska in 1900, and during the following seven years saw all the ups and downs, the vicissitudes and fortunes of the miner. His home was in Alaska until 1907, and on returning to the United States was in Chieago from 1908 to 1910. On August 10, 1910, he bought his present drug store, and has since built up a large and prosperous trade and has one of the most successful pharmacies in all Gary.
On April 15, 1893, Mr. Petersen married Lucia Clemtz. Their one son, Charles, lives at home. Mr. Petersen affiliates with the Masonie
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Order, the Danish Brotherhood, and usually is independent in the exer- cise of his political privileges.
B. L. COGSHALL. In the large staff of men upon whom devolve the responsibilities of management and administrative work in the Indiana Steel Company, B. L. Cogshall has been a member since 1907, and from draftsman in the engineering department has since become secretary to the general superintendent, his present office.
B. L. Cogshall was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1877, a son of James H. and Electa (Force) Cogshall. His father is a graduate of the University of Michigan, a trained educator, and has long been identified with school management. The son received his education in the public schools, and in 1906 graduated from the University of Michigan in the English and in the engineering department as a mechanical engineer. With this preparation for a technical profession, he spent one year with the Western Gas Construction Company of Fort Wayne, and in 1907 came to Gary as a draftsman in the engineering department. He was given his present responsibilities in 1908. Mr. Cogshall was married in 1908 to Clara Landgraff of Muskegon, Michigan. His fraternal affilia- tions are with the Masonic Order and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in politics he is independent.
AUGUST MAYER. Few names have been so long continuously and so prominently identified with Hammond business activities as that of Mayer, and the career of August Mayer has been an important factor in the development of business interests and from every standpoint has been successful.
August Mayer was born in Germany, October 3, 1856, and when twenty years of age, on August 28, 1876, arrived in America and located at once in Hammond. In the old country he had learned by a three years' apprenticeship the trade of shoemaker, but his work for the first year was done for the Hammond Packing Company. Following that came a year as a shoemaker, and from 1878 to 1886 he was once more with the packing house. In the latter year he joined his brother Charles and George Drackert in the bottling works in the manufacture of soft drinks, but continued with that old and successful concern but one year. In 1887 he returned to the packing company and was one of its staff until June, 1896. Since that time, in addition to other im- portant interests, Mr. Mayer has been in the saloon business. In 1900 he established a coal and fuel yard, but sold that in 1913. Until the same year he was a director of the Hammond Brewing.Company.
Mr. Mayer is a director of the West Hammond Trust & Savings Bank and treasurer of the West Hammond Building & Loan Association. He was elected and served one term in 1893 as trustee of the Village of West Hammond. Since 1886 he has had membership in the Masonic Lodge and belongs to the Independent Order of Foresters of America. His church is the German Lutheran.
On October 27, 1883, Mr. Mayer married Mary Simmer, who was born in Germany. They have two living children: William H., book- keeper with the West Hammond Trust & Savings Bank, and Charles W., at home. The three children deceased were Mathew, who died at the age of six months; Walter W., who died when three years old; and Gertrude Elizabeth, who died at the age of eight months. Vol. II-22
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E. G. SAYGER. The president of the Hobart Commercial Club for the year 1914 is a citizen whose standing and work in the community have well entitled him to the honorable position as head of the organiza- tion of local business men and citizens who are concentrating their efforts towards making Hobart a real city. Mr. Sayger has for many years been in the railway service, and is now the agent for the Pennsyl- vania Company at Hobart.
E. G. Sayger was born at Akron in Fulton County, Indiana, February 12, 1878. He graduated from the first class of the high school at Akron in 1897, and his first ambition was for a career as teacher, in prepara- tion for which he was a student in the Valparaiso University. After one year as teacher he spent six months in a school of telegraphy, and in October, 1901, began a service with the Pennsylvania Road which has been continuous to the present time. He was first stationed at Hamlet, Indiana, after two years was transferred to Upper Sandusky, Ohio, remained there a year, and was then appointed agent at Columbia City, Indiana, and was identified with that community both as a railway man and citizen for eight years. Mr. Sayger came to Hobart to take up his duties as local agent for the Pennsylvania Company in January, 1911.
Mr. Sayger was married at Columbia City to Miss Lillian Kaler. She had her home in that city, was educated in the public schools, and is now one of the active members of Hobart social circles, belonging to the Reading Club and the Order of the Eastern Star. Mr. Sayger has Masonic affiliations with the lodge and the Royal Arch Chapter at Columbia City.
His election as president to the Hobart Commercial Club occurred on March 4, 1914, and previous to that time he had served as vice president of the organization. His public spirit has manifested itself both in practical work in behalf of the club and for the town in every way. Mr. Sayger is fond of outdoor sports, fishing and camping being his special diversions, and his wife joins him on his excursions to the out-of-doors.
GERLACH BROTHERS. Anyone acquainted with the Village of St. John in Lake County is familiar with the enterprise which constitutes the most important business of the community, known now as Gerlach Bros., dealers in general merchandise, live stock, grain, farm implements. The Gerlach family have been identified with this particular section for thirty years, and their individual success and prosperity has been an important factor in the development of the farming district tributary to St. John.
The business was started at St. John by the father of the present Gerlach brothers, George F. Gerlach, who was a native of Germany, was brought to the United States at the age of six years, and from Virginia came to Lake County, where he grew up and finished his education in St. Vincent's School. In 1884 he established himself in business at St. John, as a dealer in general merchandise, live stock, implements and grain. His death occurred in 1906, and his sons, who had been trained in the business, then took hold under the partnership name of Gerlach Bros. and have made a vigorous campaign for new business and now have the principal trade in their lines over a country for eight or nine miles surrounding St. John. There are four employes required in the business besides the brothers. The capacity of their grain elevator is about 10,000 bushels, and they carry well stocked equipment in general implement and merchandise land.
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George M. Gerlach, one of the two brothers, received his education in the common schools, and was married, June 6, 1910, to Adeline Stark, of St. John, who received her education in that community and in the Lowell High School. Their two children are, John, two years of age, and Genevieve, not yet a year old. The family are members of the Catholic Church.
Joseph M. Gerlach, the other brother of the firm, was born March 1, 1877, was educated in the St. John public schools, and acquired his business training under his father. In September, 1897, he married Sophia Engelking of Iowa.
HENRY HATHAWAY. Special interest attaches to the Hathaway family in Lake County, since it was among the pioneers, and Henry Hathaway, now in the third generation, has enjoyed the best elements of success both in farming and in business, and throughout life has steered an honorable and straightforward course.
Henry Hathaway was born in Kankakee County, Illinois, June 15, 1858. He was one of three children born to Bethuel and Lucinda (Hayden) Hathaway, the parents having united two of the oldest families of Lake County. The pioneer was Peter Hathaway, who was born in New Jersey about the close of the Revolutionary war, and about 1839 became a citizen of Lake County. He was the father of a large family, and all of them became active in church and Sunday school work and even to the present day have kept up the influence of people who live according to the best standards and ideals. Bethuel Hathaway was born in New York State in 1815 and died in Lake County when about seventy years of age. When he came to Lake County, in 1838, one year before the rest of the family, he walked most of the distance and about 1843 bought 160 acres of land in West Creek Township, an estate which is still owned by his family.
When Henry Hathaway was five years of age his parents returned to Lake County, and he went to school at the Hayden Schoolhouse in West Creek Township. At the age of eighteen his education was finished, and he then began practical work on his father's place. He and his brother Mahlon conducted the old homestead five years, and the three children finally inherited the farm, and eventually Henry bought his sister's interest and finally a portion of his brother's interest. His farm now comprises 200 acres of well cultivated and fertile soil, and its management is now entrusted to his son, Harry C. Hathaway. Mr. Hathaway is now in business at Lowell, in partnership with Dye and Brown, in the Belshaw Lumber Company. They have one of the larg- est and best equipped yards in the county and supply lumber and all kinds of building material and send these supplies throughout the township.
In March, 1883, Mr. Hathaway married Jennie Maxwell, who was born in Ohio, but was educated in the country schools of Lake County and for five years before her marriage was a teacher in West Creek Township. She is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of their children, Abbie E., aged twenty-eight, is the wife of Fred Dahl of West Creek Township; Harry C., who is twenty-six years of age and is now married to Miss Lyrell Diss, is the active manager of the home farm, is engaged in dairying and has a large herd of Holsteins; Ethel, who is now Mrs. H. B. Wason, is aged twenty-four; and Grace, the youngest child, is sixteen years of age and is attending high school
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at Lowell. The three older children were successful teachers in Lake County.
Some mention should also be made of Mr. Hathaway's important part in local affairs. He is a republican, and in 1906 was appointed township trustee to fill the vacancy left by Fred Sunderman. In 1909, so capably had he performed his duties under appointment, he was elected for the regular term in that office. The citizens of the town- ship look back upon the eight years of his trusteeship as the best period for public improvements in the entire history of that locality. A fine stone road has been constructed, three new central schools have been erected, and a joint high school with Cedar Creek and Lowell is now under construction in Lowell.
REV. GEORGE THEGZE. The St. Michael's Greek Catholic Church at Gary as an institution has two years of history. It has already had a remarkable growth, and has a liberal support and attendance from its communicants in this city. The membership comprises 300 families, or about fourteen hundred sonls. Up to the present time the church buildings have been temporary and altogether inadequate for the service demanded, but under the able administration of the pastor, Rev. George Thegze, the prosperity of the church is such that extensive building plans have been undertaken, and ground has been acquired from Monroe to Thirteenth streets, and a church edifice is to be built at a cost of about fifty thousand dollars, and a schoolhouse to be under the supervision of the Greek Catholic sisters, will cost about twenty-five thousand dollars. The parish is in a splendid condition and few churches of this denomina- tion has progressed so rapidly as St. Michael's.
Rev. George Thegze, pastoral head of the Greek Catholics in Gary, was born at Berezna, Hungary, in 1883. His father and mother now live in Binghamton, New York, where his father is priest of St. Mary's Church. His father is now sixty-five years of age and his mother fifty- two. Father George Thegze was married in 1906, and has three children, the oldest being six years and the youngest about one year old. Father Thegze is independent in politics.
JOSEPH CHRISTY. A number of examples might instantly be recalled of successful and increasingly prominent business men in the Calumet region who a few years ago arrived from foreign countries, took their places in the ranks of labor in the great industries of this region, and have since graduated into independent business or the professions. One of these is Joseph Christy, treasurer of the Tolleston Concrete Company, a business which in a few years has been developed to large proportions at Gary.
Joseph Christy was born in Bohemia, Austria, September 24, 1878. His early life was spent in his native land, and on coming to the United States in 1906 got his first experience as a laborer at South Chicago. In 1907 he moved to Gary, and during the past three years has been identified with concrete contracting. He was with the Square Deal Contracting Company until 1910, and has since been associated with Mr. J. Q. James and is now manager and treasurer of the Tolleston Concrete Company, which was recently organized and incorporated. Mr. Christy was married in 1903 to Barbara Stienhiber of Hungary. Their five children are, Gisella, Tiellie, Emil, Clara and J. G.
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LAWRENCE W. MCNAMEE. For more than twenty years actively in the service of the Steel Company in the Chicago district, Lawrence W. McNamee came to Gary at the founding of the city and has been promi- nent in local affairs ever since.
Lawrence W. McNamee was born in New York State, a son of Jackson and Mary J. McNamee. His father was an accountant and the son has followed in the same general line since his early education in the grade and the high schools. His first business employment was with a wholesale printing firm at Albany, then with a shoe house at Utica, a drug and grocery wholesale firm of Utica, and then with a wholesale grocery house at Albany. In January, 1892, Mr. MeNamee became bookkeeper and chief clerk with the Illinois Steel Company in its plant at North Chicago. Three or four years later he was transferred to the general office for three months, and then sent to South Chicago and served as assistant auditor two and a half years. He was with the Milwaukee Works four years, and for a similar period served as auditor in the Joliet Works. In April, 1906, Mr. McNamee was appointed auditor for the Indiana Steel Company, and to a similar position with the Gary Land Company and the Gary Heat, Light & Water Company. These were the three business organizations which practically founded Gary, and he has been one of the company officials on the ground throughout the entire history of this great center of industry. Since 1909 Mr. McNamee has been local auditor for the Illinois Steel Company.
In 1886 occurred his marriage with Jennie McAlister Ross of Utica, New York. At her death in 1906 she left a son, Lawrence R. In 1909 Mr. McNamee married Mary I. Cheeseman, of Joliet, Illinois. Mr. McNamee is a director and vice president of the Gary Young Men's Christian Association. He belongs to the Commercial Club, has taken the lodge, chapter and commandery degrees in the Masonic Order, is an Episcopalian in religion, and in politics independent.
TOLLESTON CONCRETE COMPANY. As a new city built from the foundation up on lines of permanence and on the basis of a great com- mercial destiny Gary has from the beginning employed only the best materials and methods of construction in practically all its private and public improvements. The use of concrete as a building material has, of course, been noteworthy from the start, and several companies and groups of men have done a large business merely in concrete construc- tion. Most prominent of these is the organization now known as the Tolleston Concrete Company, which was established under its present corporate title in May, 1913. The constituent officers and organizers of the company are : Mike Zimmerman, president; Joseph Christy, treas- urer; and J. Q. James, secretary. These same men have been associated in cement and concrete construction since 1906, and the record of their work would make a long list and comprise the most important uses of concrete in the city. They built the Commercial Club Building so far as its concrete construction was concerned, and the same is true of the Stevens Building, the Steiner and Miller buildings, and nearly every business house on Washington Street had some contribution from them. The company employs forty-five or more workmen and has facilities for undertaking the most extensive contracts in that line.
J. Q. James, secretary of the company, was born in Mattoon, Illinois, in 1860. After his early education he found work with the Steel Company at South Chicago and spent fifteen years in one department.
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From there he came to Gary, in 1906, and his business career has since been in association with Mr. Christy and Mr. Zimmerman in concrete construction. His company constructed all the curbs for the Gary Land Company in the First Subdivision, except those on Broadway and Fifth Avenue, and also laid most of the sidewalks in the same part of the city.
Mr. James, in 1882, married Mattie D. Stubbins of Charleston, Illinois. Their two children are: Samuel H., an architect in Gary, and Miss Louise, who is society reporter on the staff of the Gary Post. In politics Mr. James is a republican.
BENJAMIN F. HAYES. A former sheriff of Lake County, Benjamin F. Hayes grew to manhood in this community, has been identified with different lines of endeavor, and for a number of years has handled a large and exclusive real estate business at Crown Point. His reputa- tion is that of a successful and practical business man, and noted for honesty and efficiency in every undertaking with which his name has been connected.
His birth occurred in Muscatine, Iowa, April 4, 1859. His father, Morris Hayes, a tailor by occupation, moved to Lake County, Indiana, in 1871, and Benjamin F. Hayes finished his training in the public schools of this county. His early experience was in a meat market, in the ice business, but for the past fifteen years he has been known through his transactions in real estate, and the chief part of his business is in handling his own property. In 1913 Mr. Hayes laid out what is known as the Hayes East Park Addition of nineteen acres to Crown Point. Both city and farm property in large and small lots passes through his hands, and he has done much to develop Crown Point as a residence city.
For your years the people of Crown Point honored him with the office of city marshal, and his official record in the sheriff's office was for two terms, or four years.
Mr. Hayes is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, at Crown Point, and the Hammond Lodge of Elks. He married Nettie L. Maxwell, daughter of William and Roxanna Maxwell. Her father is a prominent farmer and cattle raiser of Lake County.
FREDERICK W. DENCER is the plan engineer of the American Bridge Company at the Gary plant. Mr. Dencer is a product of the modern American system of technical education and besides his responsible rela- tions with the Bridge Company is well known to the profession by affiliation with the technical societies and with local civic and social bodies.
A Chicagoan by birth, Frederick W. Dencer was born August 18, 1876, a son of M. and Ida Dencer, his father being a sash and door manufacturer of that city. Mr. Dencer for several years was a student in the Chicago Mannal Training School, and is a graduate civil engineer from Purdue University with the class of 1898. Practically all his experience has been in the line of structural steel. For three years he was a designer in the bridge department of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway. In 1901 he became identified with the American Bridge Company at Chicago, and in 1903 was made plant engineer for the Lassig and American plants of that corporation in Chicago. From there, in 1911, he was sent to Gary as plant engineer for the Gary plant.
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Mr. Dencer was married, August 1, 1900, to Emma B. Thiel of Chicago. Their two children are: Frederick A., born in 1901; and Marjorie B., born in 1912. Mr. Dencer has membership in the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Western Society of Engineers. He belongs to the Phi Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Pi fraternities in addition to the Masonic Order. He is a Presbyterian, and in politics a progressive republican.
GRANT HAYDEN. Many years ago, when Lake County was a wilder- ness, the first Hayden came to this region, settled among the woods, and the people of that name were effective workers in transforming the barren land into cultivated fields. Grant Hayden is a grandson of the original pioneer, and though starting his career with the prestige of a substantial family has really earned all that he has, and probably would have been equally prosperous if he had started without a cent from anybody. His home is located near Lowell, on Rural Free Delivery Route No. 3.
Grant Hayden was born in West Creek Township of Lake County, June 3. 1864. His parents were Lewis and Lucinda Hayden. His father was born in Lake County and died at the age of seventy-two, and his mother was a native of Ohio and passed away when twenty-eight years of age. It was Grandfather Nehemiah Hayden, a native of Ohio, who established the family name and fortune in Lake County as early as 1842. There were no railroads through this section at that time, and he made the trip from Ohio with an ox team and wagon, was at that time the father of a family of nine children, and had only 75 cents in money when he arrived in Lake County. He acquired a tract of raw land, and a part of his original farm is still owned by his descendants.
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