USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A twentieth century history and biographical record of Elkhart County, Indiana > Part 54
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In 1869 Dr. M. K. Kreider married Miss Saloma Hoover, and the four daughters born to them are all living.
Dr. William B. Kreider. the younger member of the firm. was born on a farm in Wayne county. Ohio, February 3, 1849, and, like his brother. was reared on the homestead farm in Medina county. After attending the country schools he was sent to the Mennonite college at Wadsworth, Ohio, and later took a course in a commercial college at Madison, Wisconsin. With this preparation he became a bookkeeper for the Singer Manufacturing Company in Chicago, and while hold- ing that position he also pursued his medical studies. After a time lie entered the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College, and in 1879 was graduated. After a short period of practice at Vincennes. Indi- ana. he came to Goshen and since then has been associated with his brother. After he had praetieed for ten years he went abroad and at Vienna, the greatest medical center of the world, he took a course which further broadened him for a successful professional career. On his return to the United States he began specializing in the treatment
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of the ear, eye and throat, and, in connection with a general practice, has established a reputation for skill in these special lines. He is a member of the American Ophthalmological. Otological and Laryngo- logical Society, and also of the Northern Indiana and Southern Michi- gan Homeopathic Association. He has been president of the city board of health.
A Republican in politics, he has represented his ward in the city council one term. He is a member of the Presbyterian church and is superintendent of the Sunday school. Dr. Kreider married, in 1872, Miss Nettie C. Wickham, a daughter of Dr. W. W. Wickham. Their one son. Noble, is a musician.
JOEL P. HAWKS.
The name borne by Joel P. Hawks is one which is ineffaceably traced on the history of Elkhart county, and which figures on the pages whose records perpetuate the principal events from the early days down to the present time. After many years of toil and activity he died April 8. 1905, at his home in Goshen, where he had been living retired. His was a quiet. helpful life, and he was widely known as a respected and prosperous citizen and as one who had won success through honorable business methods.
He was born in Phelps, Ontario county, New York. February 9. 1822, being a grandson of Paul Hawks, who is supposed to have been born in England, and a son of Cephas Hawks, a native of Deerfield, Massachusetts. The last named came to Elkhart county, Indiana, in 1835, taking up his abode at Waterford, and he was numbered among the pioneer millers and merchants in the county, there having been but two merchants in Goshen at that time. He was thus engaged until his life's labors were ended in death. passing away in 1858. His wife bore the maiden name of Cloa Case, and she, too, was a native of Deer- field. Massachusetts, and was of Scotch descent. Her death occurred when she had reached the age of about seventy-six years. In their family were eleven children, six sons and five daughters, and ten grew to years of maturity. were married and reared families of their own- Eliza, Calista, Frank, Albert, Dwight, Sarah, Cephas, Eleazer, Joel P. and Mary. Harriet died when young, and all are now deceased. Elea- zer's widow and only son reside in Neenah, Wisconsin, where the son is engaged in the manufacture of paper: Dwight has a son living in St. Paul: Miary has one daughter living at Richmond. Indiana: and Albert has a son at Coldwater, Michigan.
Joel P. Hawks received his first schooling in Michigan, whither he had removed with his parents when but six years old, and when fifteen years of age he accompanied them on their removal to Elkhart county. When the time came for him to assume business responsibili- ties he entered his father's store at Waterford, and was his partner
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until the latter's death, after which, with two brothers, Cephas and Eleazer, he continued the business until 1893. In 1865 they moved their stock to Goshen, where they were also engaged in the milling business, which was moved to the city two years later, in 1867. Elea- zer Hawks died in 1891, and his brother Cephas in the following year, and in 1893 the business went into the hands of the sons, C. and E. Hawks. After fifty-three years of active business life Joel P. Hawks put aside put aside its cares and responsibilities, and thereafter lived in quiet retirement, enjoying the fruits of his former toil.
In 1844 he was united in marriage to Sarah, a daughter of Eben- ezer Brown, who came to Elkhart county in 1834, and ten years later. in 1844, was elected the sheriff of the county. Mrs. Hawks was born in Benton, Yates county, New York, June 7, 1824, and was but ten years of age when brought by her parents to Elkhart county. She was the second of her parents' four children, and by her marriage has become the mother of seven children-Alice, deceased: Emma. the wife of John Mayberry, of Gas City, Indiana; Dwight, a druggist of Goshen; Minnie, the deceased wife of Henry Butler; Mabel, at home ; J. F., Jr., also at home and a manufacturer ; and Laura, deceased. The children were all born in Elkhart county, where the father had made his home for the long period of sixty-seven years, and during all these years had been an indefatigable worker for its best interests. When but fifteen years of age he went behind the counter, and there spent the most of his life. For two years, from 1852 to 1854, he was a resi- dent of California. He was a life-long Republican, his first presiden- tial vote having been cast for Fremont, and he ever since continued to support its ticket. Both he and his wife were members of the Meth- odist Episcopal church, having united with that denomination before their marriage, she when fourteen and he when sixteen years of age.
T. M. COVER.
J. M. Cover, a veteran school teacher of this county and now the proprietor of a wagon manufacturing, blacksmith and general repair shop in Goshen, was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, October 22, 1858. A man of self-achievement, who has progressed on the road to success only by the concentration and exertion of all his native and acquired ability. unaided by advantages of inheritance or chance, he therefore stands on his own foundation and is deserving of the esteem and respect which are accorded him by all his friends and business associates.
A son of Jacob and Elizabeth ( Berkey) Cover, his father a black- smith and who died when his son was but three weeks old, Mr. Cover was reared in the family of his maternal grandfather, Joseph Berkey. during the first ten years of his life, and sinee then he has shifted for himself, experiencing many of the ups and downs which are the usual
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lot of one thus early thrown on his own resources. The first two years after leaving his grandfather he spent working for his board and clothes in the employ of an uncle. Then going to Johnstown, Penn- sylvania, he secured employment in one of the rolling mills there, be- coming well versed in mechanical pursuits and at the same time saving his money until he had enough to continue his schooling, which had hitherto been very meager. Securing a license to teach before he was sixteen years old, being at the time the youngest teacher in the state, he thereafter spent the winter in instructing the children of the people in the mountain districts of western Pennsylvania and during the sum- mer was employed at his regular trade of carpenter. In the meantime he also had the opportunity of attending the State Normal school for twelve weeks. From Pennsylvania Mr. Cover came to Elkhart county. in 1876, when about eighteen years old. and then for nearly twenty years he was one of the best known and most successful teachers of this county, his work being mainly in Clinton township. The editor of this volume was at one time a pupil of his and can testify to his ability as an instructor. About 1892 Mr. Cover went into his present business of manufacturing wagons and buggies and conducting a gen- eral blacksmith and repair shop, an enterprise which he has made very successful.
Well known in Goshen and actively interested in all movements for the welfare of the city, Mr. Cover at this writing represents his ward in the city council, and is always ready to consider a measure or enterprise which will mean a better city and will make for its per- manent development. He is a Republican in politics, fraternally is affil- iated with the Knights of Pythias and the Maccabees, and is a member of the Methodist church.
In 1882 Mr. Cover married Miss Nancy L. Weaver, daughter of Joseph and Ann ( Hoover) Weaver. Mr. and Mrs. Cover are parents of six children, three sons and three daughters. Myrtle, Zipporah, Edith. George. James and Jay.
CHARLES G. CONN.
Charles Gerard Conn, whose career in its many phases has been iden- tified with gallant service in the Civil war, manufacturing and large busi- ness enterprises, journalism, city, state and national politics, and with many other interests of society in general, was born in Ontario county. New York, January 20, 1844. His grandfather. James Conn, was of Irish stock and a New York state farmer. His parents were Charles J. and Sarah ( Benjamin) Conn. The father moved from his native state of New York to Three Rivers, Michigan, in 1850, and a year later identi- fied himself with Elkhart. Well educated, broad-minded, and a man of culture and ability in many directions, on coming to Elkhart he trans- ferred his attention from agricultural life to the field of education, becom-
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ing city superintendent of schools. For twenty-five years he was best known in northern Indiana for his successful work. as an educator, and only retired from the profession on account of failing hearing. He was at one time superintendent of the LaPorte city schools. He died in 1888. having followed photography during his later years. His wife passed away a year previously, and they were parents of two sons and two daughters.
A boy of six years when the family moved to Michigan, and only a year older when he first knew Elkhart as his home town, Mr. C. G. Con has spent practically both the formative and the active period of his life in this city. He had scarcely finished the training which the public schools of Elkhart furnished when he was called. yet a boy of seventeen, into the sternest field of human action. May 18, 1861, against his parents' wishes and protests, he volunteered his services in behalf of the Union of States. and on June 14, 1861, was mustered in as a private in Company B. Fif- teenth: Indiana Regiment, soon thereafter becoming a member of the regi- mental band. After participating in the engagement at Greenbrier, West Virginia, in the Elkwater Valley campaign, in the federal movements through Kentucky and Tennessee to Nashville ; in the second day's battle at Shiloh ; at Corinth, Tuscumbia, Florence, Wartrace, McMinnville, Ver- villa, from Nashville he returned to Indiana to re-enlist. A fine regiment of sharpshooters was just being organized at Jackson, Michigan, and other points of the state, and he therefore enlisted. for this service, at Niles, Michigan, in Company G. First Michigan Sharpshooters. Enlist- ing on January 12, 1863, he was soon made first sergeant, was promoted to second lieutenant on August 8, 1863, and a little later, when only twenty years old, became captain of his company. It was faithful and con- spicuous service of the highest order of merit that thus placed him. he- fore attaining his majority, in command of men who were mostly his seniors, and the ability and bravery he displayed throughout his soldier career gave his comrades ever increasing confidence in their young leader. From the time of his re-enlistment until his final discharge he was in constant arduous service. He was in the movement which drove Morgan out of Indiana: four months assisted in guarding prisoners at Fort Douglas, Chicago, after which he joined Burnside's corps. Army of the Potomac ; at the battle of the Wilderness received a flesh wound, but con- tinued his command, and was at Spottsylvania, North Anna, Bethesda church, Cold Harbor, and all the encounters about Petersburg, and in the assault, July 30, 1864, was wounded and taken prisoner. As a prisoner he was sent first to Danville, Virginia, and then to Columbia, South Car- olina. At Goldsboro he and a fellow officer made an unsuccessful attempt to escape, being pursued by bloodhounds and recaptured. Another at- tempt, while at Columbia, resulted in like failure. On the approach of Sherman through the Carolinas the prisoners were moved to safer quar- ters, but Captain Conn and two other officers had themselves buried. This artifice, too, failed of success, and he was compelled to languish in captiv-
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ity until the end of the war. After intense hardships and sufferings he was released with thousands of other prisoners and returned to Indiana, where. on July 28. 1865, he received an honorable discharge.
For a short while after the war Mr Conn conducted a bakery and grocery establishment in Elkhart. Being what might be called a prac- tical musician, with great natural gifts in that art and greatest fondness for all its manifestations, he soon became identified with the line of manu- facture which has made his name more familiar to the world at large than any other phase of his versatile career. He invented his famous " elastic face mouthpiece " for cornets, which became so popular that he could not manufacture them fast enough. Beginning his manufacturing with him- self as practically the only workman and with a lathe made from a sew- ing machine table, he was soon compelled by rush of orders to expand every part of the industry and become the directing head of a force of employes. The story of his persistent efforts and struggles to make financial ends meet while he was getting started as a manufacturer has often been told and is familiar to all his friends and acquaintances in northern Indiana. Having effected a wonderful improvement on the old-style cornet by means of his mouthpiece and by dint of shrewdest sort of business management getting a foothold in the uncertain field of man- ufacturing enterprise, he then set himself to the study of the cornet with a view to bringing out the highest latent powers of that instrument. He secured patent atter patent. each one representing some advance toward perfection in the cornet, and in time he produced what is known to the world of music as the " Conn Cornet." undoubtedly the instrument near- est to perfection in sonority, strength and quality of tone and in ease of mechanical manipulation. All the other modern brass band instruments are now manufactured in Mr. Conn's establishment, and their supremacy of excellence may be gauged by what would be, to all unprejudiced per- sons, the last and final judgment-the fact that they are used by Sousa's Band and have received the highest honors at all the recent world's expo- sitions. The manufacturing establishment for the production of the Conn instruments is mentioned in the history of manufacturing elsewhere in this work, and at this point it is only necessary to state that this industry has become, during the last quarter of a century, one of the foremost sources of the industrial prosperity which has marked the city of Elkhart.
This alone would entitle him to distinction and would be regarded a sufficient accomplishment to be called a life work by any man ; yet Colonel Conn has extended his efforts to the great public questions which concern the welfare of the country, to the social and economic problems of Amer- ica, and to practical humanitarianism. In the early days when his busi- ness was just emerging from a small factory into one where success seemed sure, the Democratic party at Elkhart nominated him for mayor. Contrary to the general course of municipal politics up to that time, he was elected. and gave the city such a practical, progressive and beneficial administration that it is still a high standard for others to be measured
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by. He was re-elected to the office, and was soon slated for further ad- vancement in political honors. AA normally Republican district gave him a seat on the Democratic side of the lower house in Indianapolis, where he was connected with important constructive legislation and gave much attention to the solution of the labor problems. In 1892 the thirteenth dis- trict, through its representatives assembled in convention at Michigan City, placed his name on the Democratic ticket as nominee for Congress. In James Dodge, also a prominent Elkhart citizen and one of the most influential Republicans of the district, Mr. Con had an opponent worthy of his steel. but the result of the hotly contested campaign was that Mr. Conn went to Washington to represent the people of this district.
As congressman Colonel Conn was a man of mark from the time he took his seat, and both as a legislator and reformer left a lasting influence. It was in the field of journalism that he found the power needed in his assault upon some of the strongholds of municipal mismanagement which he found fixed upon the capital city. He purchased the Washington Times, the morning newspaper now owned by Frank A. Munsey, and instituted a campaign against vice and crime which for years had run riot in the city. Directing his attack first upon the police association and the police force. he aroused public attention to the existing conditions, and. after bitter conflict, overcame the inertia of the powers for law and order, caused the dens of vice to be vacated, the gamblers driven from the city and crime reduced to a minimum. The severe strictures made upon the police force by the Times resulted in an indictment for libel against Colonel Conn, but the forces of persecution failed in their pur- pose and the Colonel was acquitted at the trial. Having accomplished for the capital city what he started out to effect. he then sold his newspaper and returned to Elkhart.
Before going to Washington he was well known in journalistic circles of northern Indiana. for in September. 1890. he founded the Daily and Weekly Truth, which now for fifteen years has held an enviable posi- tion among the newspapers of this county and state. Mr. Conn is still identified with this enterprise as proprietor. and the history of the Truth will be found elsewhere in these pages. Since his retirement from Con- gress he has sought no further political honors. In 1900 he supported with personal effort and money the candidacy of Mckinley for president. and did much to get out the biggest Republican vote in the history of Elkhart county. He is a man of independence of thought and action. but when any cause appeals to his judgment he gives it such loyal and able support that there can be no questioning the sincerity of his motives or the effectiveness of his efforts in the final results. He is a man of great strength of character. positive in his convictions and strong in his individ- uality, and never fails to follow a course which he believes to be right. This was demonstrated in his own career. At one time realizing that the fondness for intoxicants was growing upon him, he considered the ques- tion as he lay in a sleeping car. traveling westward from Boston. He
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thought to himself, " What's the use? What else does it bring but shame and misery? I am never going to drink another drop." Raising himself from his berth he threw his bottle out of the window, and to the resolu- tion thus made he has strictly adhered.
.A philanthropist, but always keeping his own personality in the shadow behind his generous acts, he has directed his efforts and the wealth which represents his life work into various channels of humanitarian up- lift, but paramount with his desire to aid others has always been his wish that the recipients of his kindness should remain in ignorance of the giver. He is particularly helpful to those in his employ when they need his as- sistance, but does not believe in indiscriminate giving. the result of which would merely promote mendicancy.
Throughout almost his entire life Colonel Conn has retained his residence in Elkhart, and his love for his home city is indicated by a re- mark which he once made: " And just to think I left this place to go to Congress." He is pre-eminently an Elkhartian, and no locality is so dear to him as this city, which has witnessed his many successes from the days when friends and all predicted failure for his ventures until the time when the support of C. G. Conn behind an enterprise is almost a certain guarantee of final success.
Colonel Conn married. in 1867, Miss Kate Hazleton, by whom he has one daughter, Sallie.
JAMES S. DRAKE.
James S. Drake, one of the ablest representatives of the Elkhart county bar, for many years a fellow practitioner with present Attorney General Miller, was born on a farm in Holmes county, Ohio, February 18. 1852, a son of James L. and Susan ( Hayward) Drake, his father a native of Ohio and his mother of New York.
The father was a prominent man. A farmer by occupation, he followed that calling for many years. During the golden days of 1810 he went to California, and remained there three years. When the Civil war broke out he was living in Holmes county, and there organ- ized Company H of the Twenty-third Ohio Infantry, of which he was chosen captain. This was a regiment famous for its eminent com- manders. Rosecrans. afterward general, was its first colonel, Stanley Matthews was lieutenant colonel, Rutherford B. Hayes was major, and William Mckinley was a private in its ranks-all of whom rose to high distinction both during and after the war. Captain Drake was wounded at Antietam, so severely that he resigned his commission. He was made provost marshal of the fourteenth Ohio district, and dur- ing his service in that capacity commanded the volunteers who put down the famous Holmes county rebellion. After the war. in 1866. he moved to LaGrange. Indiana, where he lived till his death in 1886. while his wife passed away in the same year. He was a stanch Repub-
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lican and supporter of his party and his country. This intrepid soldier was the father of a large family, and seven children are still living .. Two of the sons were in the war. Levi starved to death in Anderson- ville prison before he was seventeen years old, and Francis M., who died in 1903, served four years in the war and for a time was confined in Libby prison.
Mr. James S. Drake was fourteen years old when the family moved from Ohio to LaGrange, Indiana, where he continued his education in the high school. He spent three years. 1870-72. at Hillsdale ( Michi- gan) College, and leaving there in his junior year spent the next two years at the University of Michigan, graduating from the law depart- ment in 1874. when twenty-two years old. He at once began practice at LaGrange in partnership with Judge Ferrall of the circuit bench. In 1878 he was elected prosecuting attorney for LaGrange and Elkhart counties, and by re-election held that office four years. In 1884 he was elected to the state senate, serving four years. At LaGrange he served a number of years on the board of education and took prominent part in educational affairs. In November, 1898, Mr. Drake came to Goshen and began practice with C. W. Miller, the firm later becoming Miller, Drake and Hubbell.
A stanch Republican. Mr. Drake was a delegate to the Chicago convention in 1888 which nominated Benjamin Harrison, and has al- ways taken an active interest in politics. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and a Royal Arch Mason, and has membership in the Presbyterian church. January 2. 1877, he married Miss Amanda Clugston, of La- Grange. He lost his wife in February, 1904.
ORRIN WATTS.
Orrin Watts. practically a lifelong resident of northern Indiana, a Civil war veteran, a worthy and industrious citizen in all the depart- ments of a busy career, is now serving his second term as city treas- urer of Goshen, where he has lived for nearly thirty years.
Mr. Watts was born at Milford, Indiana, May 5, 1841, a son of Nelson and Ann H. ( Farrington) Watts. . These worthy parents came from Vermont and settled at Milford in 1839, and later moved to Lees- burg. also in Kosciusko county, where the father, who followed the occupation of carpenter and joiner, died.
Reared and educated at Leesburg. Mr. Watts worked at the trade of carpenter with his father. and for two years was in the furniture business in Leesburg. He was just entering manhood when the Civil war broke out, and on April 19, 1861. a few days after Fort Sumter was fired upon, he enlisted in Company E. Twelfth Indiana Infantry, for one year, and served in the Army of the Potomac until his hon- orable discharge on May ;, 1862. He is now a charter member of
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