USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume II > Part 5
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William Howarth is a native of England, and was trained to his special line of business in that country. He was born October 20, 1867, and came to America in 1899. For several years he was employed in large shops in and about Chicago, and for the past eleven years has been a resident of Hammond.
Mr. Howarth was married in England to Edith Quayle. Their five children are William, Jr., Jennie, Beatrice, Alfred and Lillian. Mr. Howarth affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Royal League and is past president and has served as a delegate to conventions of the order of Sons of St. George. He was vice chancellor of the Knights of Pythias Lodge at Burnside, Illinois.
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MARCUS M. TOWLE. On September 6, 1910, death took away the man who was properly called "the founder of Hammond and the man who made more history in the Calumet region than any other." Only to men of unusual character and ability are given the distinction and the high personal esteem paid to the late Marcus M. Towle. With a talent for large business enterprise, he united a capacity for winning popular esteem, and few persons in Hammond did not know and admire the late Mr. Towle. His career was one of the fine features of local citizenship from the beginning of the city, and his life lent more to the splendid industrial city than that of any other resident. Something of the career of this man, and his original genius and remarkable activities, will have an appropriate place in the history of Lake County and the Calumet region.
A briefly summarized description of his place in local affairs and also in relation to a great modern industry was couched in the following words by a local newspaper at the time of his death: "M. M. Towle, who had more to do with the building up of the great Calumet district in Indiana than any other person, who is credited with founding the dressed beef packing industry of the United States which since has resulted in the development of such concerns as the National Packing Company, the Armour and Swift companies, and what now constitutes the so-called beef trust, and who has the distinction of being the founder of the cities of Hammond and East Chicago, died yesterday at the age of sixty-nine years."
The activities of the late Mr. Towle were so many and varied that they may be briefly stated as they were given in a newspaper at the time of his death, as follows: Founded the dressed beef packing industry of the United States; founded the City of Hammond and did more than any other man to build it up; furnished Jacob Forsythe with the money to carry out General Torrence's scheme for building the City of East Chicago; incorporated, financed and built the Calumet Terminal Rail- road ; dredged the Calumet River and built docks in Hammond ; organized the First National Bank of Hammond; was Hammond's first mayor and first postmaster, serving in the latter office seventeen years; built the Hammond corn syrup works, which afterwards burned; built the Ham- mond buggy works; built the Hammond Milling Company on the site of the Simplex Railway Appliance Company; built the Lakeside nail mills, one of his several unfortunate investments; built three skating rinks, all of which burned; built what was then known as the Western Indiana Railroad from the state line to the Corning steel plant in Ham- mond; at one time was practically the owner of Hammond and owned more of the city than any other person ; financed and built a railroad in Canada, a losing enterprise; and laid out Oak Hill Cemetery, the first in Hammond.
Marcus M. Towle was born at Danville, New Hampshire, January 12, 1841, and was in his seventieth year when he died. In 1854 the family moved to Haverhill, Massachusetts, where he finished his limited educa- tion. His father's name was Amos G. Towle. When his father died the boy was given employment in the abattoir at Brighton, Massachusetts, and learned the many practical details of the butchering business, which gave him his initial push in life. At the age of twenty-four he came to Detroit, Michigan, and went into butchering on his own account. It is said that in the early years of his business he carried his meats about
Marcus la Foule
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the streets in a cart, and cut it off for individual customers according to the size and quality wanted.
The story of how he originated the shipping of meats in a refrigerated state is difficult to tell in all its details, but the general facts are about as follows: It was in the years immediately following the war, 1865, that Mr. Towle located in Detroit, and at that time the Middle West was supplying the Eastern cities with their fresh beef, which was sent in stock cars on the hoof, and only salt cured products were shipped in any other way. Mr. Towle recognized the great advantage and economy which would be effected by a means which would enable him to send dressed beef to the market, and he worked out and experimented upon a scheme which would keep the beef in prime condition during its long shipment from Detroit to Boston and other Eastern cities. In his small slaughter house at Detroit he would kill his cattle brought in from Chi- cago, dress them, and after sprinkling the carcasses with cracked ice, would ship a load to Boston. At the same time George H. Hammond was running a little meat market in Detroit, and became interested in Towle's experiment. It was he who suggested the enlargement of the scheme by the addition of more capital. They interested Caleb Ives, a Detroit banker and lumberman, who eventually furnished $15,000 to finance an enterprise for dressing and packing beef in the vicinity of Chicago. In 1869, when Mr. Towle, G. H. Hammond and Caleb Ives arrived in Chicago, they hired a rig and started to drive along the Calu- met River in search of a site for the plant. The Michigan Central Rail- road was then the only line through Hammond. Upon the arrival of the party of Detroit promoters at the point where the Michigan Central Railroad ran close to the Calumet River they remained at the Hohman residence during the night. The next day they decided to locate what was to be known as the G. H. Hammond Company at that place. The origin of the name of the present city, however, was somewhat later. The locality at that time was known as "State Line." Mr. Towle was made the first postmaster, and it soon was discovered that much confusion arose in the direction of mail to State Line, Illinois, and State Line, Indiana, the confusion being to the greater disadvantage of the Indiana town, since the Illinois postoffice was much older. In consequence, Mr. Towle caused the name of the office to be changed to Hammond.
With the joint capital of the promoters a small plant was built and cattle shipped from the Chicago stock yards was killed and dressed, and after being packed in ice was sent on to the cities of the East. The inven- tion of the first practical type of the modern refrigerator car came about this time, and was due to the genius of a man named Davis. The estab- lishment of so extensive a plant at Hammond was an event in the meat- packing industry of that town as well as of the entire country, and naturally attracted the attention of Mr. Davis, who was seeking a means of employing his patents. Instead of putting the ice on the meat, as Towle had been doing, the invention of Davis provided for a car within a car, which made possible a great saving in ice and the more convenient handling of the beef. After some negotiation, Towle became convinced of the superiority of the Davis car, and an agreement was made by which the new car was to be used by the G. H. Hammond Company on a royalty basis. With the subsequent gigantic development and strides taken in the beef packing and exporting business this article has nothing to do. Mr. Towle at the end of a few years sold out his interest in the Vol. II-3
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Hammond packery, but he deserves credit for having tried the industry through its initial stages and made practicable what was before crudely experimental.
From the beef packing business Mr. Towle realized what was a fair fortune, and thereafter interested himself in a number of promotion enterprises, in some of which he was successful and in others met with reverses.
His connection with the founding of East Chicago is a matter of special interest to this history. The story as told in a local newspaper was as follows: "Jacob Forsythe owned several thousand acres of land where the City of East Chicago is now located. General Torrence had a scheme for the building of a city on Forsythe's land. M. M. Towle had the money with which to carry out the scheme. So with Forsythe's land, Torrence's scheme and Towle's money the City of of East Chicago was formed. Towle himself attended to the incorporation of the town. General Torrence is generally given the credit for the founding of East Chicago, but it was Towle's money and his ability as a promoter which resulted in the carrying out of the scheme."
It would be difficult if not impossible to enumerate the different ways in which Mr. Towle contributed to and supported the prosperity and advancement of Hammond. He built many of the new structures that were the first improvements of the town site, besides furnishing capital for many original industries. He was the founder and for some years president of the First National Bank in Hammond, and many later citizens knew him best as a banker. While his business record is perhaps the most conspicuous feature of his career, there is also a personal side to it which is worthy of note. One of his old-time business associates at the time of his death said: "The death of Towle is a personal loss to me. He was not only the founder but the builder of Hammond. Without Towle, Hammond would never have been the city it is. He was the friend of hundreds of people in Hammond who never went to him in need and found his purse closed." Another phase of his character is indicated in the following words from an editorial estimate: "He was a loyal friend and a vindictive enemy ; charitable to a fault; of rather gruff exterior, he was so good of heart that he was never known to refuse anyone whom he knew to be in trouble, in times of sickness and death and unusual afflictions. Many who now live in Hammond can testify to the kind sympathy and substantial assistance they received from Marcus M. Towle."
He is also said to be responsible for bringing to Hammond many of the most prominent citizens and interesting them in the prosperity and growth of the city. He was always loyal to everything connected with this city, and whenever an industry was to be secured by bonus Mr. Towle's name would head the list with thousands. Fraternally he was prominent in Masonry, having taken thirty-two degrees in the Scottish Rite, and was a charter member and the first master of the Blue Lodge No. 117, A. F. & A. M.
On December 5, 1866, Mr. Towle married Miss Irena Dow, of Detroit. Six children were born, three daughters and three sons. The three daughters died in infancy, and their mother passed away suddenly on September 8, 1905. The sons are: Marcus Morton Towle, Jr., a brief sketch of whom follows; George H. Towle, who lives in Hammond; and Fred C. Towle, of Chicago.
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MARCUS MORTON TOWLE, JR. Now serving as assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Hammond, of which institution his father was the founder and for a number of years president, Marcus Morton Towle, Jr., was born at Hammond, Indiana, June 9, 1876. In many ways he has proved himself to possess the same qualities of business character and sagacity which marked his father, and is one of the young business and civic leaders of Hammond.
After a public school education, supplemented with a course in the Bryant & Stratton Business College, in Chicago, he found a place as clerk with the Simplex Steel Company, and later was employed by the Ameri- can Steel and Wire Company at Worcester, Massachusetts. Returning to Hammond in 1900, he entered his father's bank, the First National, was made receiving teller, and for a number of years has been assistant cashier.
Mr. Towle is secretary of the Oak Hill Cemetery Association and is president of the Young Men's Christian Association of Hammond. He is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce and affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Royal League. Active in the affairs of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he is trustee, he was at one time secretary of the official board of the church, and is president of the Methodist Episcopal Brotherhood. All his time is divided between his bank, his church and his home. In the Methodist Church of Hammond he has placed a beauti- ful memorial window in honor of his mother, and a fine pipe organ in the name of his late honored father.
On December 25, 1898, Mr. Towle married Matilda Gehrke, a daughter of John F. and Sophia (Reese) Gehrke, her father being a retired farmer of Hammond.
FRED LUKMANN. The rapid growth of the automobile interests of the country in recent years has created an industry which has given a wide field of opportunity and enterprise to many of the young men of the present generation, who have a predilection for mechanics. To Fred Lukmann, of Hammond, belongs the distinction of having entered the business in its infancy, and he drove into Hammond the second automobile ever on the streets of that city, and built a machine in his own shop in 1901. He is thus a pioneer man in the business, and his name and business have long been familiar to automobile owners in that locality.
A native of Germany, Fred Lukmann was born June 3, 1868, a son of Fred and Sophia (Freund) Lukmann. His father was a millwright by trade, emigrated to America in 1885, located at Medaryville, Indi- ana, and after that spent the rest of his active career as a farmer. His prosperity enabled him to spend his later years in retirement in the city of Lafayette, where he died.
Fred Lukmann attended the public schools in Germany, spent three years as an apprentice at the trade of machinist in the old country, and when he came to this country at the age of seventeen was well equipped to earn his own way and make a place for himself in the world of affairs. His employment began as a stationary engineer, and he was engineer for the electric light company and for the fire depart- ment of the city and was the first paid engineer on the paid department, serving four and a half years. After that followed service as an engi-
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neer for the South Shore Gas and Electric Company, and for three years he was with the Morgan Electric Company of East Chicago. After a similar time spent with the Hammond Ice Company, Mr. Lukmann engaged in the automobile business, and in his own shop assembled a machine in 1901, the year in which automobiles were made by the dozen where now they are made by the thousand. He subsequently erected at Calumet avenue and the Niekel Plate Railway tracks a splendid garage and repair shops, with thirty-three hundred square feet of floor space and storage for twenty-five cars. That is now his business headquarters and in his shops he employs three repair men throughout the year. He also operates an automobile livery, and is agent for the Detroiter Car in Hammond and vicinity.
Mr. Lukmann is a charter member of the Knights of the Maccabees, having joined that order twenty-two years ago. He also is affiliated with the Catholic Order of Foresters, and became a member of St. Joseph's parish twenty-three years ago. Mr. Lukmann married Mary Stephan, who was born in Indiana. Their three children were Dora, Fred and Sylvester. Mrs. Lukmann died December 12, 1907, and on November 10, 1909, he was united in marriage with Catherine Grantges, who was born in Missouri. They have one child, Herbert Francis.
EBEN N. BUNNELL. Concerning the career of E. N. Bunnell, of Hammond, it can be truthfully said that "he has lived while he has lived." Into a lifetime of less than forty years he has crowded the activities and the accomplishments which many men twice his age would consider the scope of a normal career. Mr. Bunnell is one of the later comers to Hammond, where in business circles he is known as proprietor of a special sales agency for all store and office supplies and fixtures, and as loeal representative and distributor for the Ford Motor Company. As a salesman Mr. Bunnell's record for business getting has been almost unexcelled in his particular field, and in the intervals of an excessively active lifetime he has had considerable military expe- rienee, and is a veteran of the Spanish-American war.
Eben N. Bunnell was born May 17, 1875, at Canfield, Ohio. His parents were Ira H. and Elizabeth (Hiveley) Bunnell. His father was a harness manufacturer and held the office of justice of the peace in his community. With a public school education, Eben N. Bunnell had his first experienee as a grocery clerk. From the age of eighteen to twenty-eight he spent in travel as a salesman for specialties, and for fourteen years represented the National Cash Register Company. His vigorous and effective work for this company advanced him to the position of assistant district sales manager, and from 1910 to 1913 he was the world's leader in sales, having a greater average of business than any other one of the hundreds of representatives in all parts of the world of that company. He won several district prizes for his salesmanship. In 1909 Mr. Bunnell took the management of the Ham- mond agency, which included Lake county and part of Cook county, and on March 1, 1914, took the ageney for the Ford Motor Company in Lake county, and at that time established the Bunnell Storage and Warehouse. He now has a prosperous and well-established business and is regarded as one of the leading mnen in this city.
While in Ohio Mr. Bunnell became interested in military matters, and served as a private with the Logan Rifles of the Ohio State Militia and early in 1898, after the breaking out of the Spanish-American
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war, he enlisted in Company A of the Tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was advanced from private to corporal. After the war his com- pany was organized as the First Battalion of Engineers, known as the Cleveland Grays, and he became first lieutenant of the organization. Mr. Bunnell has membership in the Spanish-American War Veterans, is a member of the Hammond Chamber of Commerce, was a charter member of the Country Club, and has taken thirty-two degrees in Masonry and belongs to the Mystic Shrine. In 1902 at Cleveland he married Frank Mears, of that city. They have two children, Elizabeth Standard and Standard Hiveley.
JOHN F. REILLY. A successful Hammond lawyer and former news- paper man, John F. Reilly has a prominent part in local affairs, both through his profession and through his civic and social activities.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, a son of Garrett and Julia (Fitz- simmons) Reilly, his father having been superintendent and general manager of a masons' and builders' supply house, John F. Reilly at- tended the Christian Brothers School at Newark, engaged in newspaper work in New York, Chicago, Kansas City, St. Joseph, Missouri, and other cities, and altogether spent about fifteen years as a newspaper man. His studies for the law were pursued in the Valparaiso Uni- versity, and after graduating he located in Hammond in 1905 and has since enjoyed the success of an able lawyer.
Mr. Reilly is serving as trustee and treasurer of the Indiana State School for the Deaf, having been appointed to that office January 1. 1913, by the then Governor Marshall, now vice-president of the United States. Another distinction of Mr. Reilly's is that he perfected and brought into prominence the "Big Brothers Movement" under the auspiees of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Reilly is chairman of the committee of the Grand Lodge that has charge of this movement, which is one of the most practical forms of benevolent work ever undertaken. Mr. Reilly is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Country Club of Hammond, affiliates with the Knights of Columbus, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Royal League, the Catholic Order of Foresters, and has membership in the County, State and American Bar Associations. Prominent in Demo- cratic circles, he belongs to the Jefferson Club of Hammond and the Indiana Democratic Club at Indianapolis. Mr. Reilly married Mary G. Alfred of Leavenworth, Kansas. He and his wife are members of the All Saints church.
LEONARD KNOERZER. One of Lake county's native sons who has taken a conspicuous part in the industrial affairs of the Calumet region is Leonard Knoerzer, secretary of the O. K. Champion Potato Machinery Company of Hammond. This is one of the large and important indus- tries of the city, has about two hundred thousand dollars invested in the plant, which covers four acres of ground, and its yearly pay roll of about fifty thousand dollars is distributed among sixty employees. For a number of years Mr. Knoerzer was a traveling man, at one time was engaged in the manufacture of cigars at Hammond, and then be- came associated with his brother as one of the executives of the present large factory.
Leonard Knoerzer was born in Lake county, Indiana, November 30.
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1867. With a public school education, he first took up photographic work, and for three years traveled, selling goods in the western terri- tory. After ten years as a cigar manufacturer at Hammond he joined his brother Otto. who had previously established the O. K. Champion Potato Machinery Company. Besides his relations with this local indus- try, Mr. Knoerzer is also a director of the United Boiler Heating and Foundry Company, and is president of the Canadian Potato Machinery Company at Gault, Ontario.
A man of social qualities, Mr. Knoerzer has a place among the influ- ential business men of Hammond and is well known throughout the Calumet region. He is a member of the Hammond Chamber of Com- merce and of the Country Club, belongs to the Catholic Benevolent League and the Catholic Order of Foresters, also to the Illinois Travel- ing Men's Association, and he and his family worship in St. Joseph's Catholic church. In September, 1896, he married Katherine Horst, daughter of Edward and Marie Horst, of Hammond. Their two chil- dren are Arthur and Cecelia.
CHAMPION POTATO MACHINERY COMPANY OF HAMMOND. The emi- nence of Hammond among the industrial centers of the middle west has been due to the presence there of a group of men possessed of remarkable genius as manufacturers and of fine capabilities as organ- izers and business builders. Out of the inventive and business genius of Otto Kuoerzer has been developed one of the city's best known industries, the Champion Potato Machinery Company.
In 1897 Mr. Otto Knoerzer, who was then in the blacksmith and implement business, constructed the first O K Champion Potato Digger. The next few years were spent in perfecting the machine, and on Feb- ruary 1, 1902, Otto and Leonard Knoerzer formed a partnership, under the name Champion Potato Machinery Company, for the manufacture of the O K Champion Diggers and Planters on a larger scale. The subsequent rapid growth of the business surpassed all the most san- guine anticipation of its founders, who soon found that limited capital would not enable them to expand and keep up with the normal increase of the business. Consequently on January 13, 1903, the Champion Potato Machinery Company was incorporated. Its first directors were Otto Knoerzer, Leonard Knoerzer, Anton H. Tapper, George Drackert, Peter W. Meyn, William Krudup and LeGrand T. Meyer. The first executive officers were : Otto Knoerzer, president; Leonard Knoerzer, secretary ; LeGrand T. Meyer, vice-president; Anton H. Tapper, treasurer.
In a brief time the little factory where the first machinery was con- structed was entirely inadequate, and in 1904 the ground and factory buildings of the defunct Mackey Steel Tube Works were purchased. In 1905 the present machine shop, 60x125 feet, was built; in 1906 the foundry, 60x96 feet ; in 1908 the two-story factory, 128x150 feet; and during 1914 a warehouse, 88x127 feet and three stories, is in course of construction. All of the buildings are of concrete and steel, and were designed, supervised and built under the immediate personal supervision of Mr. Otto Knoerzer. The original grounds were increased in 1908 by purchase of more land to the amount of four acres, and of this one and three-quarters acres are covered with the various build- ings. A little more than ten years ago, when the company was manu-
Ernst W. Hlohman
Caroline. Bohman hman
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