USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume II > Part 54
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WILLIAM W. MILLER. While a number of years of his earlier career were spent in educational affairs, Mr. Miller, since beginning his practice as a lawyer in Gary in 1910, entered almost immediately into successful business, and his previous work in the school room and his liberal education fortified him for a most promising career in his chosen vocation.
William W. Miller is a native of Northern Indiana, born at Nap- panee, in Elkhart County, January 3, 1877. His father, Jacob B. Miller, was one of the substantial farmers in that section, and the maiden name of his mother was Esther Swinehart. Mr. Miller from the district schools entered the Tri-State College at Angola, Indiana, and continued his studies with the exception of two years spent as a teacher until graduating in 1904. His work in the school room and his college diploma secured for him the superintendency of schools of Haskins,
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Ohio, and from there he became a student in the University of Denver, where he took his degree of bachelor of arts in 1906. The following two years were spent as principal of the high school at Saratoga, Wyoming, and he then returned to study for the law, first in the University of Wisconsin, later for a time in the University of Chicago Law School, and in 1910 was graduated LL. B. from the University of Wisconsin law department. His practice at Gary began within a few weeks after his admission to the bar.
Mr. Miller is a democrat in politics, is affiliated with the Masonic Order and the Knights of Pythias, and is a charter member of Ayne Chapter of the Acacia Fraternity of the University of Chicago. In 1907 he married Clara Asmus of Haskins, Ohio. Their son, Norman Leroy, was born November 10, 1908, and a daughter, Grace Lenore, was born March 6, 1913.
ROBERT ROY GILLIS. In the professional circles of Lake County Robert Gillis has gained special distinction in dentistry, and while building up a large practice at Hammond has also taken a prominent part in the organized societies of his profession.
Robert Gillis was born in Angola, Indiana, March 12, 1881, a son of Thomas L. and Elizabeth (Chase) Gillis. His father was a merchant. His early education was from the public schools, followed by a course in the Tri-State Normal and then at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati and the Indiana Dental College at Indianapolis. Doctor Gillis graduated D. D. S. in 1904, and in the same year located at Hammond and has since built up a fine practice.
Doctor Gillis has membership in the Lake County, the Northern Indiana, the Indiana State, the Chicago Dental Society, and the National Dental Association, and has served as president of the Northern Indiana Society, as vice president of the Indiana State Dental Society, and also as president of the Lake County Dental Society. He was one of the organizers of the Hammond Country Club, is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, in Masonry has the thirty-two Scottish Rite degree and also belongs to the Shrine, and is a member of the Psi Omega Dental Fraternity. On June 30, 1903, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, Doctor Gillis married Katherine Evans. They are the parents of one child, Eleanor.
WILLIAM S. FEUER. Besides devoting his time looking after his investments in Gary William S. Feuer is identified with the Magic. City Construction Co. in the capacity of secretary and treasurer. This firm was organized July, 1912, to do a building and general contracting business and since the organization of this firm.they have been successful and are today a growing and prosperous concern. Prior to locating in Gary, Mr. Feuer lived in Cleveland, Ohio, where he received a public school and business education. He embarked in the mercantile business while still in his teens, and in connection with his business did con- siderable traveling throughout South America, Africa and Continental Europe. In September, 1898, at the age of twenty-three, he was married to Jessie Deutsch of Cleveland. They are the parents of three children. While in Cleveland Mr. Feuer was identified with a number of civic organizations.
In January, 1907, he located in Gary with his family and has always been found on the side of those ready to sacrifice their time and money for Gary's progress and good municipal government.
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Mr. Feuer is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks and identified with a number of organizations for the progress and betterment of a Greater Gary.
SOL FRANK, a Gary business man, has had a long experience in mercantile fields. Born in Petersburg, Indiana, in 1867, he is a son of Gus and Sarah Frank, his father a merchant and banker and for twenty years president of the First National Bank of Petersburg. After his education in the public schools Sol Frank entered his father's store, learned merchandising behind the counter and in the general office, and for twenty-nine years was manager and owner of the Petersburg store. In March, 1910, he moved to Chicago, was a merchant in that city, and in 1913 identified himself with business in Gary.
Mr. Frank was married, in June, 1903, to Blanche Leopold of Chicago. He is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias, with the Gary Commercial Club, the Business Men's Association, and is interested in every movement for the betterment and substantial welfare of his city. Since engaging in busi- ness in Gary Mr. Frank has moved his family to that city.
JAMES J. DOYNE. A successful plumbing contractor of Gary, Mr. Doyne has been in business for himself since 1910, and during his residence, beginning in 1907, his services have been employed on installa- tion work in a number of the most important buildings in the city.
James J. Doyne is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, born in that city October 21, 1883. His parents were Violet T. and Mary Doyne, and his father was a Milwaukee plumber, and the son has followed in his father's footsteps and before he was thirty years of age had succeeded in building up an independent business. He learned the plumbing trade in Milwaukee and Rockford, Illinois, and in May, 1907, came to Gary, being employed with the Gary Heat, Light and Water Company until June 24, 1910. At that time his experience and large acquaint- ance and established reputation enabled him to take up contracting independently, and he has done a large business in plumbing and kindred lines. In October, 1910, he moved his shop to its present location at 37 East Sixth Street. His force of expert workmen runs from six to ten, and he has all the facilities for adequate and perfect service. Mr. Doyne did some of the work on the new State Bank, the Guffin & Mauzy Business Block, the Massachusetts Flats for Mr. Winters, the Salinger Apartments, besides many other contracts which would make a list too long to mention.
Mr. Doyne was married June 6, 1909, to May Lyons, of Milwaukee. They have one son, John Lyons. Mr. Doyne affiliates with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus, and is a member of the Catholic Church. In politics a progressive republican, he has allied himself with the citizens party in Gary, and in 1913 was candidate for the nomination of city clerk, and lost the nomination by only twenty-eight votes.
A. N. HIRONS. The Gary Business College, of which Professor Hirons is the founder and proprietor, has already by its record done much to justify what has been called the essential objects of a true business college, of an institution which aims to help men to live and to make a living too. The college was established in September, 1910,
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and occupies the second floor of a building 33 by 90 feet at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Massachusetts Street. There were six pupils at the beginning, and during 1914 the institution has an average enroll- ment of sixty. Mr. Hirons has an assistant teacher, Miss Ethyl E. Eastes, and the curriculum offers a thorough business course, including the modern business device, the stenotype.
Mr. Hirons is an educator of long experience, has been both in public schools and business college work, and has earned the esteem of thousands of former pupils. Ile was born at Muncie, Indiana, in 1867, a son of Parker C. and Rebecca Hirons. Educated in local schools, he prepared for his profession by graduating from the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, and began his career as a teacher in Hedrick, Iowa, and later was connected with a business college at Colorado Springs. For a time he was principal of a Second Ward school at Muncie, and then had charge of the department of history for eight years in the Muncie High School. After five years as manager of the Indiana Business College at Muncie Mr. Hirons came to Gary.
In 1890 he married Martha M. Thornburg of Muncie. They have one son, Bernard. Mr. Hirons is affiliated with the Masonic Order, is a progressive republican in politics, and has always taken an active inter- est in church and Sunday school affairs, belonging to the Methodist denomination and being superintendent of the Sunday school in his Gary church. For one year he served as superintendent of the County Sunday School Association.
PEARL LAUNDRY COMPANY. This business, which is incorporated and has a splendid plant at 1509-11 Madison Street in Gary, has had some exceptional enterprise behind it, and as a result its service is by no means confined to the community of Gary, but its packages go out by delivery, express and parcel post to all the surrounding towns, and even to remote sections of the country. Fred C. Wilhelm, its manager, is a business getter, and on the basis of first-class and satisfying service has made the Pearl Laundry Company a competitor in a number of different towns. The business was established in June, 1911, by W. A. Corn. It started with a comparatively small plant, in a one-story building with 25 feet frontage, but the facilities have since been increased and the plant is now housed in a two-story building, 50 by 121 feet. Seventy- five persons are on the pay roll, and to supply the local service seven delivery wagons and two automobile delivery trucks are used. The Pearl Laundry Company collects and delivers goods all over Gary, to Indiana Harbor, East Chicago, Crown Point, and territory extending for fifty or a hundred miles in all directions, while through the parcel post bundles are sent practically all over the United States. Through the parcel post the Pearl Laundry Company has built up a very extensive business in serving the theatrical interests, and this is now one of the most profitable sources of revenue, and it is one of the very few com- panies in the country that make a specialty of handling this class of business.
Educated as an engineer, and in his early career identified with that profession in Gary, Fred C. Wilhelm has shown exceptional capacity in the development of the Pearl Laundry Company. Mr. Wilhelm was born in Laporte, Indiana, in 1889, was educated in the public schools of his native city, and received the degree of civil engineer from the University of Wisconsin. After leaving college when about twenty-one
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years of age, lie located at Gary, in 1910, and was engaged along the line of his profession under A. P. Melton at Gary. Mr. Wilhelm is unmarried, and his mother lives with him in Gary, while his father is deceased. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, is a democrat in politics, and a member of the Episcopal Church.
J. A. TEEGARDEN, M. D. One of the younger members of the medical profession at Indiana Harbor, but one who has taken a high stand in the community both as a citizen and as a physician and surgeon, Doctor Teegarden has practiced in his present locality since 1904.
Dr. J. A. Teegarden is a native of Indiana, born at Attica in 1880, a son of Jacob M. and Elizabeth (Chizum) Teegarden. His father was a substantial farmer in that section of Indiana, and it was on a farm that Doctor Teegarden had his first important experiences and there formulated the resolve to prepare for the higher walks of life. After his education in the common schools and with a supplementary academic training he entered the medical department of the University of Chicago, but graduated M. D. in 1904, and at once began private practice at Indiana Harbor. Doctor Teegarden has membership in the County and State Medical societies and the American Medical Association. His fraternal and local relationships are with the Masonic Order and the Knights of Pythias, with the Indiana Harbor Commercial Club, and politically he takes an independent stand and supports good government and good candidates regardless of partisan affiliation. In 1911 Doctor Teegarden married Lillian Collins of Indiana Harbor. They are the parents of one son, Joseph A., Jr.
CLYDE HUNTER. A young lawyer of Gary who has done much, has ability, and has opened a way for a large and successful career in the law, Clyde Hunter has been in active practice in that city for the past seven years and has a secure place in the Lake County bar.
Born at Elwood, Indiana, in 1881, Mr. Hunter is a son of Joseph G. and Frances Hunter, his father being a merchant in that city. Clyde Hunter received a public school education and then attended the Indianapolis College of Law, from which he was graduated LL. B. in 1906, and had also read law with C. M. Greenleaf and C. R. Call, well known attorneys of Indianapolis. After a few months' practice in Indianapolis, Mr. Hunter came to Gary in 1907, and soon gained a paying practice. He has served as deputy prosecuting attorney under Prosecutors Greenwald and Patterson.
In 1910 he married Daisy Altland, of Chicago, and they have one son. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Masonic Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter. In politics he is a republican. He was exalted ruler of the Elks lodge during 1911-12.
JOSEPH M. WILCOCKSON. One of the most distinctive establishments in Hammond's shopping district is the J. M. Wilcockson Music Com- pany, dealers, both wholesale and retail, in pianos, and publishers and jobbers in sheet music. This firm has built up a large business in dis- tributing to the public the pianos of the well known makers-Krell- French, William Knabe, Bjur Bros., Ivers & Pond. French & Sons, Schumann, Decker Bros., Hallet & Davis, Jesse-French, Gordon & Sons, and also a complete line of electric player pianos. Mr. Wilcockson, the
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head of the firm, is a young business man of thorough experience in his particular line and knows the piano business both from practical experi- ence in the factory and also as a salesman.
Joseph M. Wilcockson was born in Braceville, Illinois, March 15, 1878, a son of Isaac and Sarah (Parks) Wilcockson. His father is a civil engineer by profession, and for about twenty-five years has had his home in East Chicago. J. M. Wilcockson was educated in the public schools and also attended Joliet College. His preparation in life included a course in a Chicago school of penmanship and show- card writing, but he found his real field by work in a piano factory as a tuner, serving two years and getting acquainted with all details of piano manufacturing. After that the Strohber Piano Company made him its sales manager, and he came to South Chicago and Hammond in 1904 to open stores for this company. In 1905 he established his own showrooms at Hammond, in the Panama Building, and in the Hammond Building under the business title above given.
Mr. Wilcockson was married September 28, 1908, to Belle McIntyre of Hammond, a daughter of James P. and Elizabeth MeIntyre. Her father is a pattern maker by trade and superintendent of a machine shop in Hammond. Mr. and Mrs. Wilcockson are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Interested in public affairs and always public spirited in his citizenship, Mr. Wilcockson in 1914 is a candidate for township trustee of North Township.
AMERICAN SHEET AND TIN PLATE COMPANY, Gary, a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation. This plant, though in active operation less than three years, has already contributed largely to the prestige of Gary as a center of production for steel sheets and plates, both black and galvanized, and its several departments afford support to a small army of industrial workers. Other plants of the company are located in the Pittsburgh district, but the Gary works is the most recent construction and destined to be one of the greatest sheet and plate producers in the world, eventually requiring from ten thousand to fifteen thousand workmen. The grounds selected for this splendid industry comprise 240 acres, and already many thousands of dollars have been invested in the plant.
The site of the company is situated by the lake and has seven miles of trackage connected with the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway. Ground was first broken for the construction of the plant on March 9, 1910, and the first sheet was rolled June 1, 1911. The power for this great industry is supplied throughout by electric motors. There are two plate mills, making plates from one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch in thickness; four jobbing mills, making sheets and plates from one- sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch in thickness. There are sixteen sheet mills, and their product ranges from one-sixteenth of an inch to one- eightieth of an inch in thickness. Another feature of the establish- ment is the galvanizing department, which has ten pots for the coating of such sheets and plates as are to be shipped zinc coated.
The present unit as constructed and in operation employs about two thousand men, and when running at full capacity will afford employ- ment to about twenty-seven hundred men. The steel is shipped in bars for the sheet and jobbing mills from South Chicago and the Gary steel mills, while the material for the plate mill comes in slabs from the same
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sources. The finished product goes all over the world, and as the Gary plant is the most westerly situated sheet mill, it finds its markets chiefly in the North and West.
In front of the factory is a large two-story general office building, and the present staff of superintendents, assistants and the clerical force numbers about forty-five. The superintendents and the clerks all lunch together in a well appointed club and lunchroom, one of the interesting features about the general offices being the spirit of fine fellowship which rules everywhere. The company has provided gener- ously for the welfare of its employees and there is a general club house, bathing houses, and all the most approved sanitary facilities.
JOHN A. GROSS. The manager of the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company at Gary, Indiana, John A. Gross, is one of the veterans in the sheet steel business, having spent more than twenty-three years in progressive responsibilities from office boy to executive control of a large industry. Born in Ohio in 1870, a son of Peter and Margaret Gross, both of whom emigrated from Germany in their youth, his father a wagon-maker, John A. Gross received a common school educa- tion and then spent five years employed in a clothing store, but found the industrial trades more to his liking than merchandising, and was taken into the office of the Reeves Iron Company, at Canal Dover, Ohio, as an office boy and general clerk. From that place he worked up to superintendent of sheet mills. He had charge of a tin mill for a time, and in 1897 went to New Philadelphia, Ohio, as superintendent of the New Philadelphia Iron and Steel Company. In 1903 Mr. Gross was appointed superintendent of both Canal Dover and New Philadelphia plants, these having been merged in 1900 under the title of the Ameri- can Sheet and Tin Plate Company. Born and raised in Canal Dover, Ohio, this was his home until 1898, when he moved to New Philadelphia, Ohio, where he resided until he came to Gary at the establishment of the industry here.
Mr. Gross was married January 11, 1893, to Julia Seibold of New Philadelphia, Ohio, and is the father of six children-Wilma, Felix, Zita, Jerome, Margaret and Dorothy, all of whom are living. The family are members of the Catholic church. Mr. Gross does not belong to any fraternal organization.
HENRY W. SOHL. There are many of the older citizens of Ham- mond who have an affectionate memory for Henry W. Sohl, who was identified with that community all of his brief career, and who so closely identified himself with the business and civic welfare of the city as to be accounted one of its founders and most prominent men.
Henry W. Sohl was born at Hammond May 9, 1863, and at his death on August 25, 1890, was little more than twenty-seven years of age. Though so young in years, he was regarded as one of the leaders in the community, was a member of the city council at the time of his death, active in the board of trade, and his death was regarded as a distinct loss to the progressive citizenship of a prosperous and growing com- munity.
A son of William and Louisa Sohl, Henry W. Sohl was a child when Hammond came into existence as a center of industry, and from boy- hood was identified with its growing greatness. With an education
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somewhat limited, he qualified himself for the practical duties of life, was purposeful and diligent in all his activities, and possessed that integrity of character which is the best asset to any community. After attending the public schools of Hammond he was for some time a stu- dent in Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois. Though his business career was limited to a few years, he acquired a successful position which many older men might have envied, and as a business man nearly approached a model, was practical, energetic, possessed of a thorough honesty, and the methods and purposes which made him successful in his own financial affairs he carried into his conduct of public responsibilities. 1
During the first year of his majority Mr. Sohl was elected a member of the Hammond City Council, and while such an honor seldom comes to one so young, it is also true that Hammond has never had a more loyal and earnest worker in its municipal government. He served three full terms, or six years, as a member of the city council, and at the time of his death the council held a special meeting and placed in the city records as a tribute to his services that "his death is a misfortune to the moral, religious and business interests of this city," and as a further tribute to his memory the council adjourned and gave its full attendance at the funeral services. The board of trade likewise met in special session to pass resolutions upon its honored member and director.
The late Mr. Sohl became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in August, 1884, and his ample means were always readily offered to any worthy cause of church and charity. Whether in busi- ness, in local government, in the organization of business men and citizens, in church or in home, the relations of Henry W. Sohl were characterized always by the best in him, and few men dying at the age of twenty-seven leave such a record of accomplishment and influence behind them.
On August 18, 1885, Mr. Sohl married Cynthia Wood, a daughter of Hon. Martin Wood of Crown Point. To their union were born two children : Walter W., who was in his fourth year at the time of his father's death ; and Ruth Louise, an infant when her father died. Ruth Louise was united in marriage on September 6, 1913, to Raymond F. Storer, of Des Moines, Iowa, a civil engineer, a graduate of the Univer- sity of Wisconsin, now in the employ of the Standard Oil Company at Whiting, Indiana.
WALTER WOOD SOHL. An acquaintance with the personnel of the leading men in the Calumet commercial district indicates that the young men are in the great majority, and it is due to the energy and enterprise of youth that the large industrial and commercial interests of this district are being successfully managed. One of the younger college men who have already established themselves securely in local business affairs is Walter W. Sohl, at the head of one of the flourishing business concerns of Hammond.
Mr. Sohl is a native of Hammond, where he was born August 17, 1886, a son of Henry W. and Cynthia (Wood) Sohl. His father had been a well known real estate man in the city for a number of years. Educated in the Hammond High School, Mr. Sohl took his preparatory work in the Culver Military Academy and completed his education in the old Indiana institution, Wabash College, at Crawfordsville. Return- ing home from college, he at once got into business, and organized the
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City Fuel and Supply Company, Incorporated. Mr. Sohl also has ex- tensive interests in local real estate.
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