USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume II > Part 49
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Bank of Gary, in August, 1913, were approximately $1,900,000. The present bank building, with its classic front, was erected in 1907, and plans are at the present time being prepared for the erection of a hand- some seven-story combined bank and office building, on one of the principal business sites of Gary.
Thomas T. Snell, president of the First National, was born at Clinton, Illinois, January 3, 1879, a son of James T. and Hannah A. Snell and a grandson of Thomas Snell, who was one of the pioneers of Illinois, settling in that state in 1832, and prominent as a railway contractor and banker. James T. Snell was also prominent as a banker. Thomas T. Snell was given liberal advantages as a youth, graduated from the noted Preparatory School at Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and subsequently from Andover Academy of Massachusetts, was a student of law in the Illinois Wesleyan Law School, but since the age of eighteen has made banking his serious career and vocation. Mr. Snell is married, is a member of the Gary Club of Elks and of other local civic and social organizations.
GEORGE W. YOUNG. As a building contractor the career of George W. Young since he located at Gary in 1910 has been one of important achievement, and a long list of building operations conducted under his name and through his enterprise might be mentioned. Skill in the practical details of the work, good management of the resources and opportunities at his command, and a thorough reliability in carry- ing out his contracts, have been the secrets of Mr. Young's success as a building contractor.
Mr. Young comes from Clay County, Indiana, where he was born in 1868, a son of J. H. and Harriett (Staley) Young. His father was a wagon maker by trade, and skill in technical pursuits is a charac- teristic of the family and accounts for Mr. Young's present profession. After his education in the public schools his time was spent- in learn- ing the carpenter trade, and from 1892 to July, 1910, he was in busi- ness as a contractor at Terre Haute, Indiana. The latter date was the time of his establishment at Gary, and some space will be used to indi- cate his work in the past three or four years.
The Zerkler Moore Building, the Frelander Flats, the Zoll Flats, both fire stations of the City of Gary, a part of the Gem Building, a number of small flats, the Goodman and Davis Flats at Seventh and Washington streets, comprising twelve flats and seven store rooms, the Foyer Building on Broadway, comprise a partial list of his work as a contractor in Gary. Mr. Young has his offices in the Goodman & Davis Building just mentioned. Besides a complete equipment for conduct- ing business, he employs from four to thirty laborers and skilled work- men, and his average force numbers about fifteen. He occupies a resi- dence of his own in Gary.
In 1891 Mr. Young married Sarah L. Layer of Terre Haute. Their three children are, Eva L., who married R. F. Everts of Clinton, In- diana; Lola M., wife of L. E. Blackmer of Galesburg, Illinois; and George Hobart. Mr. Young affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a state organizer and deputy supreme dictator of the Loyal Order of Moose. In politics he is a progressive republican.
ARTHUR T. FREER. The Gary bar has no more successful and abler firm of lawyers than that of MacCracken & Freer. Mr. Freer, the
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junior member, has practiced law in this city since February, 1908, and his work in the profession and as a citizen has brought him influ- ence and place as a leader in the community.
Arthur T. Freer was born at Gilbertsville, New York, September 21, 1883, a son of Charles F. and Della D. Freer. His father was a manufacturer, and the son was given liberal advantages at home and in school. From the public schools he entered Hamilton College of New York, and later was in college at Cornell University, from which he was graduated in the law department in 1907. A few months after completing his preparation for his profession, Mr. Freer came to Gary in February, 1908, and was in practice as senior member of the firm of Freer & O'Callaghan until March 1, 1910. At that date the firm became MacCracken & Freer & Bartlett, but Mr. Bartlett left Gary in November, 1911, and the other two partners have since looked after a large and important clientele.
Mr. Freer was married January 21, 1912, to Edna B. Sperry, of Jersey City, New Jersey. Mr. Freer affiliates with the law fraternity Delta Theta Phi, with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. the Gary University Club and Commercial Club, is a republican in politics, and a member of the Presbyterian Church.
JAMES T. CLARK, M. D. Until his recent retirement from the pro- fession and concentration of his interests in the State of Arkansas, Dr. James T. Clark was regarded as one of the ahlest and was undoubtedly one of the most successful physicians and surgeons of Hammond. Doc- tor Clark still has many interests to identify him with Lake County and Hammond, though his home is now in Fordyce, Arkansas.
Dr. James T. Clark was born in Antwerp, New York, March 9. 1861, a son of Owen and Mary Clark. His father being a farmer and laborer, the son had no particular fortune in his youth, and has ef- fected his own success and progress in the world. He was educated in the public schools, had hospital experience in Big Rapids, Michi- gan, and in 1881 entered the University of Michigan where he spent two years in the medical department, and finished and graduated M. D. from the Rush Medical College in Chicago in 1884. The active pro- fessional career of Doctor Clark thus covers nearly thirty years. His home and practice were in Big Rapids, Michigan, until 1895, when he moved to Hammond, and soon built up a reputation and a large busi- ness as a physician and surgeon in that city. He lived in Hammond until August, 1913, when he moved to Fordyce, Arkansas, and is en- gaged in the real estate business and other affairs in that locality. Dur- ing his residence at Hammond Doctor Clark served two years as sec- retary of the City Board of Health, was a railway surgeon, and for a number of years was president of the medical staff of the St. Mar- garet's Hospital. While regarded as a successful physician and as a result of many years close attention to his profession he acquired a competence, Doctor Clark was also known for his exceptional generos- ity and it would hardly be possible to overestimate the amount of prac- tice that he performed without remuneration and without attempt to collect his dues. It was in no small degree due to the enterprise of Doctor Clark that St. Margaret's Hospital was established and became an important institution in Hammond. Doctor Clark is a past exalted . ruler of the Hammond Lodge of Elks.
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He was married in Big Rapids, Michigan, in 1885, to Marion B. Palmer. Mrs. Clark died in August, 1910. There is an adopted daugh- ter, Lillian Clark.
BERNHARDT H. KRUEGER. The Hammond Monumental Works, of which Mr. Krueger is proprietor, is a Hammond establishment with seven years of prosperous history. Besides its chief output in granite and marble monuments and headstones, the concern also does a large amount of building, stone-cutting and interior marble finishing. The main plant is located at 1137-43 South Hohman Street.
Bernhardt H. Krueger is a substantial representative of German- American citizenship, was born in Germany, January 20, 1865, came to America in 1880, and graduated as a marble cutter in Chicago, where he continued in business for a number of years. For two years he was foreman in the Humboldt Park Monumental Works, and in 1907 moved to Hammond and established his present flourishing business.
Mr. Krueger was married in Chicago to Bertha Koss. Their six children are: Benjamin, Amanda, Walter, George, Ella and William. After the death of his first wife Mr. Krueger married Matilda Knickle- bine of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The only child of this marriage, Ed- ward, died at the age of two years. Mr. Krueger believes in fraternal societies, and affiliates with the Masonic Order, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the auxiliary, the Rebekahs, and also with the Woodmen of the World. He belongs to the Hammond Commercial Club and his interests in music make him a member of the Saengerbund.
CLARENCE I. HOFFMAN. A successful business man and public- spirited citizen of Hammond, Clarence I. Hoffman began his career as a worker for others, and by industry and ability became master of his own circumstances and now is at the head of one of the most important building contracting firms in the Calumet district.
Nearly all his experience has been along the lines of building and general construction work, and his father before him was a carpenter and builder. Clarence I. Hoffman was born in Valparaiso, Indiana, September 5, 1882, a son of Winfield S. and Antoinette Hoffman, both of whom were natives of Porter County, Indiana. With an educa- tion acquired in the common schools and with considerable experience and training under his father, C. I. Hoffman established himself at Hammond on January 30, 1901, as clerk in the Erie freight office. Then followed successively a number of business relations, with the Western Car Construction Company as foreman; as carpenter and millwright for three years with the Standard Oil Company at Whiting; with the firm of Beckwith & Hays as foreman in the construction of the Chicago & Southern Indiana Railway; with a contractor engaged in the building of houses and other buildings for the Standard Steel Car Company; then as general foreman with the Smith Construction Company. after which he began an independent career as a contractor and builder. It was in 1908 Mr. Hoffman built his first house as an independent contractor, and in 1911 he enlarged the scope of his busi- ness by constructing houses on his own responsibility and selling house and ground to individual purchasers. On March 19, 1912, Mr. Hoff- man organized the Clarence I. Hoffman Construction Company, with a capital of $25,000. The first officers were J. M. Stinson, president ; Vol. II -- 23
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Daniel Brown, vice president; J. M. Osmer, secretary; and Mr. Hoff- man, treasurer and general manager. During the following year Mr. Hoffman succeeded in interesting additional capital from Walter I. Hammond, and on December 15, 1912, the capital stock was increased to $100,000 and Mr. Hammond succeeded Mr. Osmer as secretary of the company. This company has used its own capital and has also carried out contracts for others and since organization has erected about seven brick flats, also five fine residences costing from five thousand dollars to ten thousand dollars, besides about fifty smaller homes. Mr. Hoff- man has succeeded in building up a splendid organization, and the company already has a reputation for reliable performance of all its contractual obligations. The company employs about twenty skilled mechanics the year around, and does a large amount of buying and selling of real estate and improvement work.
On August 5, 1903, at Hammond, Mr. Hoffman married Sadie Bush. They are the parents of three children : Mildred May, Mabel Irene, and Clarence I. Jr. The family worship in the Christian Church.
LEON J. GRANGER. It is in the field of electrical engineering that Mr. Granger has won his most notable success and performed his greatest service to the Calumet region. Mr. Granger, while superin- tendent of the Northern Indiana Gas and Electric Company, was respon- sible for regulating and introducing the present schedule for electric light rates in the Calumet region. In many other ways he was an important factor in building up and extending the service of that public utility corporation, and since leaving its service he has engaged in business on his own account, and is now president of the Tri-City Electric Service Company, with offices and factories in Hammond. This: company does a general electrical and wiring service, manufacture electric fixtures, and also have a department for commercial blue printing.
Leon J. Granger showed a marked proficiency for the profession in which he has made his success while still a boy. He is still a young man, only thirty-seven years of age, and yet his attainments and success are such as many older men would envy. When he was twelve years of age he was drawing a man's full pay, and a splendid natural endowment and unusual energy have been characteristic of his entire career. Mr. Granger was born in Harvard City, Nebraska, September 22, 1886, a son of William J. and Lucy (McCallister) Granger. His father spent practically all his life as a hunter and trapper. The son was brought to Indiana when four years of age, and acquired his early education in the public schools. Later he studied engineering through the International Correspondence School, and added much to his prac- tical knowledge of applied electricity by that means. When a boy he became an apprentice in the electrical department for the Chicago Telephone Company, spent three years with that company and then for two years was with the Michigan Central Railroad Company. Enter- ing the service of the Northern Indiana Gas and Electric Company, he spent two years as superintendent of construction, and during that time built the electric light lines connecting Hammond, Whiting, East Chicago and Indiana Harbor. During the following seven years he was general superintendent for the company in this district.
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In July, 1912, having resigned from the Northern Indiana Gas and Electric Company, Mr. Granger took a partner's interest and became general manager of the Jarvis Electrical Company. This concern was soon changed to its present title, the Tri-City Electric Service Com- pany, Incorporated, with Mr. Granger as president and treasurer, F. D. Jarvis as vice president, and Myrtle Hubbard as secretary. The capital stock of the company is $10,000.
On February 5, 1913, Mr. Granger married Emma Williams, of East Chicago, a daughter of James I. Williams, a mining man. Mr. Granger is a charter member of the Hammond Country Club and affiliates with the Masonic Order and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
EMIL MINAS. A resident of Hammond since 1893, Mr. Minas' name is associated with various phases of the city's commercial activities. He is one of the officers in the Trust and Savings Bank, and manager of its real estate and loan department, and it is in that general field that he has gained his most important success during his active career. He represents one of the old and honored names in Lake County, his family having been among the early settlers, and he has identified himself with all movements for the improvement and development of his home city during the last twenty years.
Emil Minas was born at Crown Point in Lake County, April 23, 1874. His parents were Michael and Margaret (Crow) Minas. His father, who came to Lake County fifty years ago, was a merchant, a good business man, and a man of influence in his community. Emil Minas received a public school education at Crown Point, and his first regular business experience was as clerk in a grocery store in that city. After five years in working for others, he came to Hammond in 1893, and engaged in business on his own account. In July, 1911, on the organization of the American Trust and Savings Bank, a brief sketch of which will be found on other pages of this work, Mr. Minas accepted the position of manager of the real estate and insurance department, and it is due to his energetic handling of that department that it has made such an excellent showing and has contributed a great deal to the standing and success of the bank. Mr. Minas is a director of the American Savings and Trust Company, is a director of the Hammond Asphalt Products Company, is president of the States Realty Company, and a director in the Fairview Land Company. Fraternally his affilia- tions are with the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Minas was married at Crown Point, September 9, 1908, to Anna Mustiust, a daughter of Thomas and Alice Mustiust. Her father was a substantial farmer of Lake County.
SILAS EDWARD SWAIM. One of the oldest editors and newspaper men in the Calumet region is Silas E. Swaim, who has been in the profession for twenty-seven years, and was the founder and has for a quarter of a century been the proprietor of the News at Hammond.
Silas Edward Swaim was born at Zionsville, Indiana, January 6, 1865. His father, Joseph D. Swaim, was a merchant and farmer about Zionsville, was of German birth, and on coming to this country first settled in South Carolina, and when still a boy moved to Central Indiana. He spent his life there as an active worker, and the only office he ever held was that of township trustee. Joseph D. Swaim married Rowena F. Curry, whose parentage was English.
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Silas Edward Swaim grew up abont Zionsville, attended the common schools and had a normal education, which fitted himself for his first work as a school teacher. After that he was in the grocery business for a time, but his chief activity and usefulness has been as editor. Mr. Swaim established the News in Hammond, April 2, 1890, and has conducted that paper so as to make it a journal corresponding in influ- ence and as a news medinm in proportion to the rapid development of the city.
Mr. Swaim, like his father, is a democrat, and at the present time is serving as Indiana deputy oil inspector. He was reared a Methodist, and while a member of no church, has done much to promote church activities through his newspaper. Mr. Swaim is affiliated with the Knights of Maccabees, in which order he served as finance keeper for several years, with the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Daughters of Rebekah, and the Pythian Sisters. On September 15, 1897, he married Flota B. Wood, a daughter of Wesley Wood, a farmer.
KARL D. NORRIS. In the constructive activities of both Gary and East Chicago, Karl D. Norris has had his part, and he will easily rank, on the basis of proved ability and accomplishment, as one of the ablest architects in the Calumet region.
Karl D. Norris was born at Lagrange, Indiana, February 24, 1886, a son of Jackson and Melissa (Rowan) Norris. His father was a carpenter and builder, and this business gave the son a good opportunity for training and preparation for the field in which his talents have had widest exercise. He received an education in the grammar and high schools, learned his trade under his father, and by night study acquired a substantial knowledge of architecture. His experience has been one of progressive advancement. For some time he was employed with the McCray Refrigerator Company at Kendallville, Indiana, as designer, and in 1908 went to Gary, a city which he had visited with his prospec- tive residence in view during 1907-8. At Gary Mr. Norris was for three and a half years in the employ of J. J. Verplank, an architect. In April, 1912, the firm of Warriner & Norris was organized at East Chicago, but retained an office and kept up some business relations in Gary until the fall of 1913. This partnership was dissolved May 1, 1914, Mr. Norris retaining the business and offices of the firm.
On December 3, 1913, occurred his marriage to Hulda Weil, of Hammond. Mr. Norris is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge and the Royal Arch Chapter, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the East Chicago Commercial Club, and in politics is independent. -
LEWIS H. WARRINER. In a district whose development has been so rapid and on such a large scale as the Calumet region it is natural that a number of extensive organizations and firms in the building and construction trades have grown up, and some of the best talent in the country is here represented. As an architect and in the supervision of much important building construction in East Chicago and also formerly in Gary, Lewis H. Warriner is easily one of the leaders in his profession.
Mr. Warriner has other associations with Lake County besides his professional business connections. He represents one of the very first
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families and one of the most prominent names in Lake County citizen- ship. The Warriner family was established at Cedar Lake in the year 1837, which is the pioneer year of Lake County, by Lewis Warriner, for whom the East Chicago architect was named. Lewis Warriner was among the first men to hold the office of postmaster in Lake County, was elected a member of the Legislature in 1839, and again served in the same position about ten years later, was a charter member of the Cedar Lake Baptist Church, and one of the best representatives of pioneer character and left an honored name to a large number of descendants.
Lewis H. Warriner was born at Kankakee, Illinois, November 24, 1878, a son of Lewis H. and Ida E. (Burns) Warriner. His father was for many years in the railway mail service running on the Illinois Central lines. The son received a public school education, and pre- pared for his profession chiefly in the Chicago Manual Training School, graduating as an architect at the age of twenty-two. With an ambition for successful achievement, earnest and industrious, he took advantage of all the opportunities presented for early experience and was em- ployed in subordinate and also some independent work as an architect in Chicago until 1910. In that year Mr. Warriner opened an office for himself at Gary, and after two years there moved to East Chicago in 1912. He is now senior member of the firm of Warriner & Norris, his associate being K. D. Norris. During his residence in Gary Mr. War- riner designed and had charge of the construction of the Episcopal Church, the First Baptist Church, the Frank Department Store, the Harries Building, the Neeland Building, and in East Chicago the firm has designed, among other work, the Congregational Church, the Lyric Theater, the Reils Apartments, the Masonic Temple, the Lundine and Anderson Apartment, and the Greek Catholic Church.
Mr. Warriner, on June 19, 1908, married Esther M. Larson of Chicago. Their three children are named Daphne, Bruce and Clifford. Mr. Warriner is a member of the First Baptist Church, thus affiliating with the same denomination in which his family early became prominent in Lake County. He belongs to the Commercial Club, and in politics is republican.
WILLIAM MENTZER. At one time a boy worker in the steel mills, William Mentzer has for a number of years been one of the inde- pendent and successful and prospering citizens of the Indiana Harbor district of East Chicago, and few men have utilized time and oppor- tunity, the resources within and the circumstances without, to better advantage than Mr. Mentzer.
William Mentzer was born in Huntington, Indiana, September 4, 1870, a son of Henry and Mary Mentzer. His father was a sub- stantial farmer in Huntington County. With only the rudiments of an education, William Mentzer spent his early life on a farm, and has made his own living since he was eleven years old. At the age of twenty-eight he found employment in the steel mills at Muncie, and in 1903 moved to East Chicago and continued work with the steel plant until 1905. That was the year which marked the beginning of his independent career as a business man. A coal yard was opened under his proprietorship on the C. L. & S. E. Railway, and in 1907 he bought a tract of ground 190 by 50 feet on the Pennsylvania Line. His trade grew rapidly from the date of the establishment of the business, and when Mr. Mentzer sold out in 1914 the value of the busi-
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ness was not represented alone in stock and equipment but also in the prestige of a prosperous going concern.
In 1894 Mr. Mentzer married Emma Brown, of Bluffton, Indiana. Their four children are: Marcella, who married Jacob Mann of Indiana Harbor; Morris, who died July 31, 1913, at the age of eleven years; Loretta, who is eleven years old and lives at home; and Paul. Mr. Mentzer affiliates with the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, as a business man puts in his influence with the Commercial Club, is a progressive republican in politics, and his church preference is with the Christian denomination.
PETER HONOROF. A Gary business which represents excellent man- agement and the success of a young man who has been in this country only six or seven years is the Honorof Drug Company, which now has two fine stores in the city, and the business is growing and prospering at a gratifying rate. The first store was established on September 1, 1910, by Peter Honorof at 34 W. Eleventh Avenue. In August, 1912, with his experience and success in the previous venture, he established another store at Seventeenth and Madison streets, and his brother David now has an interest in this second store.
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