USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume II > Part 52
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Amanda Walker, her parents having come to Homewood, Illinois, from New York. By his second marriage Mr. and Mrs. Reed had three chil- dren : Lavern, who died in infancy; F. Derril Reed, born at Ham- mond, January 24, 1903; and Wesley W., born August 30, 1907.
DR. SAMUEL A. BELL. The profession of dentistry in Lake County has no older nor more successful practitioner than Dr. Samuel A. Bell of Hammond, where he has had his office for the past twenty years; and has been prominent not only in the line of his chosen work but also as a citizen.
Samuel A. Bell was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, October 18, 1868, a son of John and Helen (MeKechnie) Bell. Grandfather John Bell was a native of England, immigrated to Canada, and spent the rest of his life as a farmer near Kingston, his death occurring when about eighty years of age, and his wife Ellen also reached advanced years. The maternal grandfather, William MeKechnie, was a soldier in the English army during the War of 1812, and was a native of Scotland, where he married and later immigrated to America. For many years he was a general merchant, and died at Kingston at the age of ninety-two, and his wife at the age of sixty-five. John Bell, the father of Doctor Bell, was likewise a Canadian farmer, and in his earlier years served with the rank of lieutenant in the English army. His wife died in February, 1901, and they were the parents of ten children, seven of whom grew to maturity.
Samuel A. Bell spent his boyhood on a Canadian farm with the educational advantages supplied by the district schools, and his first choice of his vocation was indicated by his graduation in 1890 from the Ontario Veterinary College. He soon determined upon a different calling in life, and after a year or two came to the United States, entered the dental department of the Northwestern University of Chicago, where he graduated D. D. S. in 1894. His practice began in Hammond and there it has continued for the subsequent twenty years and for a num- ber of years he has enjoyed all the patronage he could handle and it comes from the best classes of Hammond's citizenship. Doctor Bell is a member of the Indiana State Dental Association, the Lake County Dental Society, the Chicago Dental Society and the Northern Indiana Society.
On September 6, 1896, he married Miss Ada Sanger, daughter of Cyril and Carrie (Childres) Sanger. To their marriage have been born the following children: Cyril, Walter and Caroline. Doctor Bell has one of the attractive homes of Hammond and is the owner of consider- able real estate. He has been officially honored in Garfield Lodge No. 569, A. F. & A. M., and is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In politics he is a republican. His work as a citizen has been performed chiefly through his membership on the Hammond School Board, and at one time he was president of the Indiana State Association of School Boards.
WALTER ACKER. Since he was fourteen years of age this enterpris- ing and progressive citizen of Gary, head of the firm of Acker-Schmidt, has been engaged in mercantile pursuits, and it is a logical result of his well applied industry and ambition that he is now one of the leading and most successful merchants. He practically grew up in his present line of business, and it has been his close attention to details and a
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thorough experience and knowledge of merchandising that has made him when less than thirty years of age a merchant with credit and trade far in advance of his natural years.
Walter Acker was born in South Chicago, November 28, 1885, a son of William and Rose Acker. His father has for a number of years been employed in the steel works in South Chicago. After a public school education Mr. Acker left his books and began training for a practical vocation at the age of fourteen, becoming a clerk in a clothing store. He was with C. R. Cave at South Chicago for ten years, and was one year at the Minas department store at Hammond. From there he came to Gary in July, 1907, and opened a stock of clothing at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Broadway. That has the distinction of having been the first exclusive clothing store in the city. A few years later it was combined with the first exclusive shoe house, and thus the Acker-Schmidt firm has two important pioneer honors in Gary commer- cial affairs.
Mr. Acker in July, 1904, married Pearl Stewart, of South Chicago. Fraternally his affiliations are with the Masonic Lodge, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. In politics he is a progressive republican.
ROSWELL W. DOWNER. The Calvert-Downer Hardware Company at Gary was established November 16, 1910, by Ernest R. Calvert, now president of the company, and Roswell W. Downer, its treasurer. Its trade has been developed until it ranks as one of the leading enter- prises of the kind in the Calumet region, and its success is largely due to the capable exertions and the thorough experience of its proprietors, both of whom are hardware men who learned the business practically and from the ground up. The firm was started at 2129 Broadway, and the partners bought out the business formerly conducted by L. A. Van- dusen at that point. On March 1, 1912, the company opened another store at 511 Broadway, and through the two stores are in a position to meet all the demands of their growing trade. They have a store 23x125 feet, and carry a full stock of builder's and general hardware, but have found a most profitable branch of the business in furnaces, stoves and general heating equipment. Some idea of their business in this specialty is indicated by the fact that they installed during 1913 three carloads of furnaces, about seventy in number.
Like most of the vigorous and enterprising men of Gary, Roswell W. Downer is young in years, but capable and equal to every emergency, and has already prospered to a degree which might be envied by many older men. He was born in Illinois in 1879, a son of Abel and Sarah Downer, who in 1882 moved to Nebraska, where the father was a stock raiser. After the public schools Roswell W. Downer attended the University of Nebraska two years, and early in his career began learn- ing the hardware business. In 1904 he started out on the road as a traveling salesman representing the Wells & Nellegar Company, of Chicago, three years later went with the Bullard & Gormley Company, for whom he served as buyer for two years, and was then on the road three years for the Morley-Murphy Hardware Company of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Since coming to Gary he has utilized his long experience on the road and in different capacities with wholesale houses, and has gained a gratifying degree of success.
Mr. Downer was married February 27, 1906, to Mary Muller of
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Chicago. They are the parents of three children. In politics he is independent, and belongs to the Gary Merchants Association.
CHARLES C. CRONIN. The remarkable structural activities of the Calumet region in the past ten years have attracted to this center busi- ness men from all parts of the country, and in construction work par- ticularly some of the ablest men in the business have been located in this community. Charles C. Cronin was for a number of years a Chi- cago contractor, went to Indiana Harbor at the beginning of develop- ment work in that vicinity, and from there moved to Gary in 1907 and has since confined his work to concrete construction alone, in which field he stands preeminent among all the contractors at Gary.
A son of J. J. and Nannie Cronin, the father a contractor of Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, Charles C. Cronin was born in the City of Philadelphia, April 8, 1858, got his education and learned contracting under his father, and in 1880 went west and established a business at Fremont, Nebraska. That was his home until 1892, when he moved to Chicago and for ten years did a great amount of contracting and build- ing, employing a large organization of capital and workmen, and did a prosperous business. In 1902, about the time the Indiana Harbor project was launched, Mr. Cronin moved to that locality, and during the following five years was the largest contractor operating in that vicinity. More than eight hundred buildings were constructed for the Michigan Land Company by Mr. Cronin, including depots, factories, residences, etc. With the beginning of developments at Gary Mr. Cronin opened his office and moved his force of workmen and equipment to that city in 1907. Since then his work has continued on a large scale, and it would be impossible to enumerate all the construction per- formed by his organization. Noteworthy examples are the Broadway Theater, the Reynolds Building, the Cronin Building, the M. N. Kahn Store Building, the McNally restaurant, the Holy Angels Catholic Church and Sisters Home, the Davis Building, the large building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Washington Street, besides hundreds of private residences.
On January 10, 1883, Mr. Cronin married Ella C. Riley of Phila- delphia. Five children were born to them, and the three daughters are still living, and the two sons lost their lives as the result of a lamentable accident. The family worship in the Catholic Church, and Mr. Cronin is an independent in politics, affiliates with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and is a member of the Gary Commercial Club.
THEO B. TEMPLIN, M. D. The first physician to locate among the population of Gary, Doctor Templin has since been the dean of the local medical fraternity, and by his ability and attainments is well worthy of this prestige of position. Dr. Templin in recent years has confined his practice largely to surgery, in which branch of the profes- sion his success has been specially noteworthy.
Dr. Theo B. Templin is a native of Indiana, born at Crawfordsville in 1879. His parents were George H. and Mary Templin, his father a business man and early in the life of Doctor Templin they moved to Hartford City, Indiana, where he grew up and attended the local schools. Doctor Templin has his medical diploma from one of the oldest and best known medical colleges of America, the Jefferson Medi-
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cal College of Philadelphia. On graduating M. D. in 1904, he began practice at Hartford City, and in August, 1906, came to Gary. The ground for the site of the great steel plant had been broken, the munici- pal building activities under the auspices of the steel corporation were already in progress, and a considerable population had already been attracted to the scene of these activities. Doctor Templin was the first to select Gary as a permanent center for his professional activities, and in the subsequent years has had all the practice which he could attend to.
Doctor Templin has membership in all the medical societies, is inde- pendent in politics, belongs to the Gary Commercial Club and the University Club, and affiliates with the Masonic Order and the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks. On November 12, 1907, occurred his marriage to Helen L. Schaffer, who died January 28, 1912, leaving two children.
WILLIAM S. GALLAGHER. The firm of Gallagher & Williams, building contractors, have done more important work in their line at Gary than any other one firm. The buildings erected by them comprise some of the most conspicuous business and public structures of the city. Mr. Gal- lagher is an old timer of Gary and vicinity, and was identified with Tolleston as an educator and also in business before the steel corpora- tion made their plans for a ready-made city at Gary. A successful busi- ness man, he has been prominent in public affairs, is one of the leading Masons in Northwestern Indiana, and has a wide and varied relation- ship with the Calumet region.
William S. Gallagher was born in the City of Chicago, April 12, 1867, a son of William C. and Kate A. (Lapp) Gallagher. Both parents came from Pennsylvania and located in Chicago in 1865. The father had been a soldier on the Union side in the Civil war previous to that time. In Chicago he was for a number of years foreman of pattern makers in a shoe factory, but in April, 1874, he became one of the pioneers at Whiting, Indiana. The earliness of his settlement is well indicated by the fact that he secured government land near Lake George, and only three houses stood at that time on the site of the City of Whiting. The wilderness still ruled, and packs of wolves in numbers running from forty to fifty were not uncommon in all the Calumet region. After living at Whiting until 1889 William T. Gallagher moved to Ross, Indiana, bought a farm, and in 1904 moved south to the State of Mississippi where he now resides. He is the owner of a beautiful plantation, and the grounds in front of his home comprise fourteen acres of beautifully kept lawn and shrubbery, constituting a veritable park.
William S. Gallagher was about seven years old when the family moved to Whiting, and accordingly grew up in the Calumet region. His preparation for life was afforded by a somewhat limited attendance in the public schools and in a business college, and the schools of the Calumet region while he was a boy were of a somewhat primitive type. Fortunately, both his father and mother were college graduates, and took great pains in the training of their children and afforded him more inspiration and instruction than he could possibly have received from school. At the age of twenty-one he was qualified to teach, and followed that vocation in Lake County from that time until he was thirty-three years of age, and most of his work was done at Tolleston. About 1900, leaving the school room, he took up building contracting, and since 1906
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the business has been conducted under the firm name of Gallagher & Williams.
The character of its work in this line is indicated by a brief list of its more important buildings: these comprise the City Hall at Gary, the American Bridge Company's office building, the Ohio Building, the Indiana Building, the Knotts Building, besides hundreds of smaller business and private structures. Mr. Gallagher has also handled a large amount of property as a real estate dealer, but always independ- ently and working only with his own holdings. He still owns a large amount of Gary real estate.
In 1890 occurred his marriage with Eva Lilly Johnson, of Hobart, Indiana. They have a family of eight children, as follows: Wilna, who married Paul E. Schubic; Lillie, aged twenty, and at home; W. S., Jr., aged seventeen; Lester, aged thirteen; Evan, aged eleven; Amy, nine years old ; Milton, seven years old; and Richard Stanley, four years of age. Most of these children are in the public schools and are being afforded the best of advantages both of home and outside training.
Mr. Gallagher has numerous Masonic relations, being affiliated with the Gary Lodge, A. F. & A. M., with the Valparaiso Council of I. & S. M., the Fort Wayne Consistory of the Scottish Rite, and has occupied the office of high priest in the Gary Royal Arch Chapter, of eminent commander in the Gary Commandery of Knights Templar, and worthy patron of the Eastern Star. He also belongs to Orab Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Hammond. Mr. Gallagher served as the first town president of Tolleston, and was at the head of the town government until 1910, at which date the old municipality of Tolleston was con- solidated with the greater City of Gary, and he has since served as a member of the Sixth Ward, comprising the Tolleston District in the Gary City Council. He is a republican in politics, and has a church membership in the Congregational Church at Ross, Indiana.
WILLIAM C. PHILLIPS. The superintendent of the Gary & Interur- ban Railway is an electrical engineer of many years practical expe- rience, and has been identified with electrical construction, installation and operation in many parts of the country. His services have been especially valuable to Gary & Interurban Company, and as a superin- tendent he has not only kept the lines operating at a high standard of efficiency and economy, but has also taken upon his shoulders much of the responsibility in the planning and extension of the many miles of street and interurban railway now conducted under the management of this company.
William C. Phillips is a native of New York State, born in Saratoga County in 1867. His parents were William and Matilda (Rosecrans) Phillips, and his father was a wagon maker, so that mechanical ingenu- ity and practice are somewhat characteristic of the family. With a public school education, William C. Phillips learned by apprentice- ship and practical work the trades of machinist and millwright, but was soon drawn away from those trades into the field of electricity. He began in that business about the time the application of electricity for power and lighting purposes first gained an important foothold in the country, and nearly all his subsequent experience has been with electrical railways and lighting and power plants. In 1891 he went with the Schenectady Street Railway Company as foreman of con- struction for six months, had charge of the car barns for the company
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three years, and in the meantime attended night school in order to perfect himself in the technical phases of his profession, and served eight months' time in the testing laboratory conducted by the Schenec- tady company. After that he was superintendent of street railway lines until 1896, and then in the employ of the Vandergrift and Jacobs Syndicate and helped build the Syracuse & Interurban Railway, a work which kept him for about three years. His next work was as master mechanic for several electric lines leading out from Detroit, to Romeo, Lake Orion and Flint. He was next made superintendent of construc- tion of overhead electrical work until the spring of 1901, when ap- pointed superintendent of operating department for the Detroit and Flint electric line. A portion of the year 1902 was spent in civil engineering, and the year following he was erecting engineer for the MeGann Air Brake Company. Mr. Phillips for one year was in charge of the ore, bridges and other departments with the Detroit Iron and Steel Works and then became superintendent for the Northern Texas Traction Company in the lines about Dallas and Fort Worth. From July to February he was in Memphis, Tennessee, returned to Ohio and was located at Niles a short time, and in 1906 came to the Calumet region to become superintendent of the Gary & Interurban Railway Company, an office which he has filled ever since. A historical sketch of the Gary & Interurban Company is found elsewhere in this publication.
Mr. Phillips in March, 1888, married Martha A. Capron, of New York. They have a daughter, Gladys, aged fifteen. In politics Mr. Phillips is a republican.
THE GARY TRIBUNE. On June 24, 1907, just one year after Gary had been platted and had entered upon its formal existence as an in- dividual town, the first number of the Gary Tribune was issued as a weekly journal devoted to the interests of the community and cover- ing the news of that particular locality. Perhaps no town from its very beginning ever more fully justified a local newspaper than Gary, which from the beginning has been such a center for stir and action that the columns of the local press have never wanted sufficient material to fill them. The Gary Tribune has had a prosperous and steady career, and since September 6, 1908, has been issued as a daily. It is an eight- page paper, with a large proportion of its space devoted to local news and advertising, but at the same time brings the daily history of the outside world to its local readers, using the United Press dispatches for its telegraph news. The Tribune was at first located at 670 Broadway, in a building erected in 1908, that location was subsequently sold, and in December, 1912, the present quarters were completed at the corner of Fifth and Washington streets. Its plant is one of modern equip- ment, with all the machinery and business organization needed to get out a first-class newspaper, and the Tribune, according to its sworn cir- culation figures, now goes to more than four thousand daily subscribers.
The Gary Tribune was established by Homer J. Carr and George R. Scott. The success of the paper has been largely due to the enter- prise and management of Mr. Carr, who came to Gary an experienced newspaper man, familiar with all the details of metropolitan newspaper work, and since identifying himself with Gary has become the publisher not only of its foremost paper but also a factor in local business and public life.
Homer J. Carr is a native of Indiana, born at Middlebury, in Elk- hart County, October 15, 1858. After graduating from the old Univer-
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sity of Chicago in 1879, at the age of twenty-one, he got into newspaper work, his father buying him a paper at White Pigeon, Michigan, and thus starting him in the business in a practical way. After two years as editor and publisher of a small country weekly, he moved to Chicago and found an unlimited and fascinating field which a metropolitan daily opens to a young reporter. For many years Mr. Carr was connected with the Chicago Tribune, did general reporting, covering at various times practically every department of local news, and for some years had special charge of marine news. Since coming to Gary, besides his publishing business, Mr. Carr has become a director of the First National Bank, is president of the Carr Home Building Company, and is active in various business and social organizations. He is a Knight Templar Mason, a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, be- longs to the Universal Club and the Commercial Club, and while a resi- dent of Chicago was four terms president of the Chicago Press Club, which in itself was a unique honor, since no other member had been honored with that office for so many terms.
S. H. SLICK. One of the largest laundry plants in the Calumet district is Slick's Gary Laundry Company, a concern which for excel- lence and promptness of service has a reputation which is itself one of the most valuable assets of the concern. The name Slick has been identified with the laundry business in Northern Indiana for more than thirty years, and originated in South Bend. The Gary, Laundry Company was established in February, 1908, by the Slick's Laundry Company of South Bend, of which T. J. Slick, father of S. H. Slick, is president ; C. W. Dunkle, secretary; and S. H. Slick, treasurer and manager. The business was started in South Bend in 1881 by J. Y. Slick, an uncle of S. H. Slick. The original proprietor subsequently sold his interest in 1906, and the plant at South Bend is now managed by C. W. Slick. At Gary the company was early on the field, starting the con- struction of their plant in 1907, and finishing it and beginning business in 1908. The laundry occupies a two-story and basement brick structure on a foundation 50x125 feet, and all the machinery and facilities are of the latest model, and the working force has been trained to a high degree of efficiency.
S. H. Slick was born at South Bend, Indiana, in 1871, a son of T. J. Slick, acquired a public school education at South Bend, and when a boy went into the laundry operated by his uncle, and learned the business not only from the office end but also by work in all departments in the mechanical side.
In 1897 Mr. Slick married Minnie M. Blackford of Flora, Indiana. They are the parents of two sons, Carrall and George. Mr. Slick is a Knight Templar Mason and is Junior Warden of his lodge, also affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, belongs to the Gary Commercial Club, and is one of the vigorous, enterprising younger men of Gary. His church is the Methodist and in politics he is a progressive republican.
ARTHUR P. MELTON. An engineer and contractor of Gary, Mr. Mel- ton's professional services have been employed in many directions at Gary since the first year of that city's existence. He was engineer for the Gary Land Company, was municipal engineer, has practiced his profession independently, and has held one of the important city offices. Of the technical details of the work which has expanded a great city
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from a small beginning in the sand wastes of the lake shore, perhaps no other man in Gary has a more intimate knowledge as a result of all this practical experience as an engineer and one of those who have helped to perfect the plans for creating this industrial metropolis.
Arthur P. Melton was born in Pike County, Illinois, July 12, 1876. His parents, C. C. and Martha E. Melton were substantial farm people in that section of Illinois, and Mr. Melton while living on the farm attended the district school. His higher education was obtained in Dixon College and in 1901 he graduated as a civil engineer from the Iowa State Agricultural and Mechanical College at Ames. The first three years after leaving college were spent in the employ of the Illinois Steel Company at South Chicago. Two years following he was located in Minneapolis, and on April 23, 1906, came to Gary as an employe of the steel corporation and became engineer for the Gary Land Com- pany in planning and carrying out the large problems of engineering which preceded the actual beginning of Gary as a center of population. His services as an engineer with the land company was continued until October 1, 1906, and at that date he became town engineer and had supervision of all the work of laying out streets, planning sewers, and looking after the many details connected with the engineering depart- ment. Mr. Milton was town and city engineer of Gary until May 1, 1911. The following year was spent in independent work as a con- tractor and engineer, and in May, 1912, he was made city comptroller. His services in that office continued until October 14, 1912, and he then again resumed his duties as city engineer, and held office until Jan- uary, 1914. Since that time he has looked after a large business as a contractor and in general engineering work.
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