USA > Indiana > Delaware County > A twentieth century history of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume II > Part 2
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He was married September 6, 1871, to Josinah V. Hickman, daughter of William H. and Clarissa ( Williams) Hickman. Four children have blessed their home, three of whom are Clarissa K., Rebecca E. and George Hickman Koons. Mary Maud, the eldest, passed away at the age of fourteen months and ten days. He is a kind, indulgent husband and father. He is true to his friends and forgiving and forbearing toward all, knowing that "Kindness is a language the dumb can speak, and the deaf can hear and understand."
HON. GEORGE WASHINGTON CROMER, member of congress from the Eighth district of Indiana and a lawyer of much renown, was born in Madison county, Indiana, May 13, 1856, his parents being Josiah and Mary (Shultz) Cromer, who were natives of Maryland and Indiana, respectively. In 1857 they established their home in Salem township, Delaware county, Indiana, their son George being then a mere child, and on the home farm there, for his father was a farmer, he was reared. His early educational training was received in the schools of Salem township, where he also taught for three terms. and he then entered Wittenberg College of Springfield, Ohio. He next. matriculated in the State University at Bloomington, Indiana, from which he graduated in 1882 with the degree of A. M.
During a short time after his graduation Mr. Cromer edited the Muncie Times, and he then read law and began the practice of his chosen profession in 1886 at Muncie, which city has ever since been his home and the scene of his activities. His political career began with his professional, for in the same year in which he began the practice of law he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Forty-sixth judicial circuit of Indiana, to which position he was re-elected in 1888. The duties of this office he discharged
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in a manner highly creditable to himself and satisfactory alike to his friends and those who opposed him politically. In 1892 he was made the chairman of the County Central Committee and a member of the State Republican Committee for the Sixth congressional district. Two years later, in 1894, Mr. Cromer was elected to the highest office within the gift of the people of the city, that of mayor, while his services were next called into requisition by an election, in 1898, to the Fifty-sixth congress. He served with much ability in this high office, and two years later was re-elected to congress, and again to the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth congresses. Thus Mr. Cromer has not alone attained prestige and success in the practice of his profession, but has been conspicuously identified with many interests which have subserved the material prosperity of Indiana, proving a valuable factor in the legislative and political councils of his state.
He married, in 1895, Miss Fannie J. Soule, of Chicago, Illinois.
GEORGE W. MARING. Concerning the glass manufacturing firm of Maring, Hart & Company, who were among the early manufacturers to locate in Muncie after the natural gas boom, much has been said on other pages of this history. The third member of this firm, George W. Maring, has been identified with Muncie as a citizen since 1888, and he belongs with that notable group of business men who, during the last twenty years, have built Muncie from a town to a city. Until the discontinuance of the window glass industry in this city, he was actively connected with those interests, and his company also conducted two bottle plants at Dunkirk. A few years ago he sold his interests, and though since retired from the industrial affairs of his city, he is active in financial and civic matters. He was one of the organizers of the Merchants National Bank of Muncie.
Before coming to Muncie in 1888 Mr. Maring had spent most of his life in his native state of Ohio, where, in Monroe county, he was born August 15, 1843. His parents, Peter and Edith (Davis) Maring, were also natives of Ohio and spent their lives in that state, the father being a carpenter. Reared in Somerton, Belmont county, George W. Maring was pursuing an apprenticeship in the harness and saddle-maker's trade when the war broke out, and finally unable to resist the call of duty. he enlisted, August 16, 1862, in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio Infantry, and served throughout the conflict until he received an honorable discharge on March 23, 1865, together with a surgeon's certificate of disability. At the time of his discharge he was serving as corporal and color guard of the regiment. . He saw hard service, but was not incapacitated for duty until the battle of the Wilderness, when he received a severe wound in the leg, which caused his confinement in hospital for eleven months. That was the occasion of his discharge. After the war, having regained his health, he resumed his apprenticeship, and after working for awhile as a journeyman he established a business of his own at Flushing,
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Ohio. Three years later he removed to Chillicothe, Missouri, and engaged as clerk in the drug business. After about two years in the drug trade he engaged as traveling salesman for the wholesale glass firm of J. M. Maring & Company, in which occupation he spent about seven years. About this time the firm of J. M. Maring & Company was reorganized under the firm name of Maring, Hart & Company, the firm being composed of J. M. Maring, T. F. Hart and George W. Maring.
While engaged in this business he was located at Bellaire, Ohio, a flourishing center of the glass trade during the eighties. After the discovery of gas about Muncie, this town became well advertised to all the manufacturers of Ohio, especially the glass makers, who found in the Magic City a veritable Eldorado for their industry. Mr. Maring and his associates were among those attracted to this city, and his energy and enterprise were important contributions to the increasing greatness of the city. Mr. Maring married, in 1877, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Van Scoyoc of Pennsylvania.
W. E. HITCHCOCK. The men of influence in this age are the enterprising, progressive representatives of commerce, and to such ones advancement and progress are due. Mr. Hitchcock has the mental poise and calm judgment to successfully guide and control large business affairs, and at the same time he has a keen appreciation of the ethics of commercial life, so that he not only commands the respect of his fellow-men for his uprightness, but also excites their admiration by his splendid abilities.
Mr. Hitchcock was born in Meriden, Connecticut, January 30, 1859. one of the two children of E. A. and Mary A. (Greene) Hitchcock. Removing with his parents to Ashtabula, Ohio, he received a good practical English education in its public schools, and at the early age of fifteen years he became a teller in an Ashtabula bank, continuing to successfully discharge the duties of that important office for several years. From 1876 until 1879 he served as a bookkeeper for the Meriden Britannia Company, and then returned to Ashtabula to assist his father in his large manufacturing enterprise, which in 1884 they removed to Muncie and formed a partnership with A. L. and J. C. Johnson. Mr. Hitchcock is now the sole manager of this extensive concern, and in discharging his duties he has displayed splendid executive power and keen discrimination, and is widely recognized as a most capable business man. His interests, however, are many and varied, and he is also serving as the president of the Delaware County National Bank, the Muncie Savings and Loan Company, and is a director in the Muncie Trust Company, the Muncie Electric Light Company, and an officer in several manufacturing corporations, and many others of the leading institutions of the city owe their existence and subsequent prosperity to his wonderful ability. His name is indissolubly connected with the public annals of Delaware county, for he is an active worker in the ranks of the
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Republican party, and as its representative has held many positions of honor and trust. He was for several years president of the Metropolitan Police Board of the city, and is known as one of the most honorable public men in Muncie. His fraternal connections are with the Masonic order. He also served as colonel on the staff of Governor Durbin during his term of office.
On the 30th of September, 1885, Mr. Hitchcock was united in marriage to Miss Estelle Morehouse of Muncie.
CHARLES HENRY CHURCH has been a resident of Muncie since March, 1887, at which time he removed to the city from New London, Ohio, and soon thereafter assisted in organizing the Delaware County Bank, a state institution. He was chosen as cashier, and in that position continued until in 1892 it was succeeded by the Delaware County National Bank, when he was made its cashier, and has continued as such for the period of twenty years in the same location. His career as a banker dates from 1872, when he organized the First National Bank at New London, Ohio, and was selected as vice-president and manager, continuing until his removal to this city. In 1888 Mr. Church became the organizer and charter member of the Muncie Savings and Loan Company, was made its treasurer, in which position he still remains. As an indication of his banking qualifications, he was invited to assist in the organization of the Indiana Bankers' Association, and was one of the charter members, numbering about twenty-five. It now numbers over four hundred members, and during the year 1906 Mr. Church was selected and served as president of the institution.
Mr. Church is a native of New York, born in Chenango county, in a small hamlet called Church Hollow, named in honor of the Church family. A postoffice was established under that name, with William Church, his father, as postmaster, and who was also a merchant for many years in that section. Mr. Church received the usual academic education in his native county, and engaged in the mercantile business for several years, in fact, mercantile and banking interests have engaged his attention from boyhood, and throughout his active business career he has always enjoyed the deserved confidence of all with whom he has been associated. In the interests of Muncie he has always taken an active part and in various ways con- tributed to its progress and upbuilding. While an ardent supporter of the Republican party, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, he has never sought political preferment.
At the age of twenty-six he was united in marriage to Miss Lou Tyler, a daughter of Henry P. and Ann Tyler of Norwalk, Ohio. They have two children, William and Ernest, both of age, one engaged in business at Muncie and the youngest, Ernest, at the University of Indiana. Mr. Church has been quite active as a Mason in the Masonic orders, and at present is treasurer of the Muncie Commandery of Knights Templar.
James Boyce.
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JAMES BOYCE, of Muncie, Indiana, was born near Belfast, Ireland, April 7, 1833. His parents, Hugh and Margaret (Wilson) Boyce, of Scotch descent, were also born there. He received a common school education from six to twelve years and became very proficient in his studies, helping the teacher during the last year. After leaving school at that age he worked in a linen factory for four years at eiglit cents a day of twelve hours. At this time, October 8, 1848, he suffered the loss of his mother, leaving him virtually an orphan, owing to the destitution of his family, his father being a drunkard. He still continued to work in the same factory, receiving nine cents a day without board, and subsisting on cornmeal mush and buttermilk twenty-one meals per week. He was taken to France to educate the French boys in his line, starting at fifteen cents per day and rapidly advancing to eighty-three cents. After remaining there for two years he again returned to Belfast and stayed there for nearly two years. He was then solicited to take charge of a number of expert girl linen spinners that were employed for a linen factory in Lile de Flanders, and so returned to France. Working at this for a few months and finding himself out of employment and longing to get back to St. Germains, where he first worked, he walked from Lile de Flanders to St. Germains, a distance of three hundred miles, where he was gladly welcomed by his old employer, who placed him to work. Arriving at the age of twenty-one, tired of his every-day work, he went to Havre intending to enlist in the British navy for the Crimean war, but providentially he was otherwise persuaded to go to the United States as a sailor. Obeying the advice of his good Samaritan he shipped as an ordinary seaman to New York, arriving there after a tedious voyage of nine weeks. There being no linen factories in this country he was compelled to accept any kind of labor, and his first job was driving a team on the Erie canal, but afterward he received employment in a flax mill at Little Falls, New York, which at twenty-three dollars per month led to his success. Having become an expert in this new line in the flax business, he was engaged for one year at fifty dollars per month at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. There Mr. Boyce became acquainted and married Miss Eliza McKennet, a lady of Scotch-Irish descent, April 5, 1857. Soon after his marriage he engaged in the flax business for himself in a small way, about ten miles from Cuyahoga Falls, but in a few weeks his dam washed away and not being able to build up again he went to Newton Falls, Ohio, and finding employment in his line remained about two years. At this time, taking Horace Greeley's advice, he started for Shakkoppee, Scott county, Minnesota, with his wife and child, and two hundred and fifty dollars in money. Not being able to find employment or buy a home he left his wife and child there for a time and went to Greenville, Mississippi, and working at ditching he cleared thereby three hundred and five dollars. He then returned to Minnesota and bought eighty acres of land and all the flaxseed obtainable in the drug stores in St. Paul and Minneapolis and sowed the first two acres of flax sown in Minnesota. But not being able to purchase machinery to scutch it in the
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fall he left his family again temporarily and went to Newton Falls and returned home again in the early spring with two hundred and ten dollars to show for the winter's work, working fifteen hours a day five days in the week and nineteen hours on Saturday. On his arrival he sowed twenty acres and then proceeded to construct a breaking and scutching machine and horse power of his own invention, cutting the logs from his own woods, giving one-half of the lumber for sawing and one-half of the other half for the carpenter work. With this he scutched the twenty acres. and when ready for shipment it was valued at about twenty-five hundred dollars. The fire fiend destroyed the warehouse, together with all his farm product, dwell- ing, furniture and nearly all the family clothing, and, as he carried no in- surance, it left him nothing but his farm. But his misfortunes on the frontier had only begun. The next spring typhoid fever entered his family. taking his wife and one child, leaving him with two children to commence the world anew. Mr. Boyce then sold everything left and returned to Ohio and bought one-third interest in a flax factory in Alliance, and after two months purchased the other two-thirds, and later sold out for the suni of two thousand dollars. With this he moved his family to Wooster. Ohio, and purchased one-fourth interest in a flax factory, and later bought another fourth, making half interest, but at the end of two years fire wiped out the profits for the two years, there being no insurance. Building it up again, better than ever before, at the end of the fourth year he sold out for ten thousand dollars. With this he moved his all to Muncie, arriving on the 4th of July, 1870, being the first individual coming into town with that amount of money. Commencing the first factory in a small way, inventing and manufacturing labor-saving machines, he soon became the largest flax- bagging manufacturer in the world. He afterwards installed D. handle ma- chinery, and produced more of such handles than any other concern in the world. Mr. Boyce engaged in many other lines of legitimate and speculative enterprises, namely, the manufacture of shoe rivets, and baskets, oil and mining operations. During his first fourteen years he suffered many losses by fire.
Mr. Boyce has found time, notwithstanding his business cares, to dis- charge official duties. His first office was chairman of the board of county commissioners of Scott county, Minnesota. He was three times elected councilman from the Fourth ward in Muncie. He has taken all the degrees of Odd Fellowship, passing through both chairs, and all in the Masonic fra- ternity up to the Shrine, and is now a member of the Elks and a charter member of the Commercial Club, being president part of the time. After seriously investigating man's future in all the orthodox creeds he could find absolute assurance of our soul's happiness only in Spiritualism. He is in politics a Republican, but devotes little of his time to that.
Mr. Boyce has always taken great interest in the city of his choice ; was a leader in all things for many years, always ready to say "Come, boys." when duty called him. He was president of the Citizens' Enterprise Com-
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pany, capitalized, at two hundred thousand dollars, during its existence of eight years, whose history is elsewhere given. Mr. Boyce was first in every new improvement, putting in his residence the first bath tub, steam heating plant, street lighting, and also built the first electric light plant ; had the first lawnmower, and many other minor matters too numerous to mention.
Mr. Boyce's first wife died June 1, 1865. He was married in Alliance, Ohio, January 7, 1866, to Mrs. Eliza Shaffer, who died April 18, 1875, leav- ing him with a family of seven children. He married July 10, 1875, Miss Margaret Mohler, by whom he has two children. Of his eleven children seven survive, three sons and four daughters.
We seldom see such perseverance through difficulties, such buoyancy of spirit under such heavy afflictions and such fertility of resources in repair- ing losses. All advantages seem to have been withheld, and overtaken by many disasters, he has succeeded only, as it were, by wresting success from the grasp of fate. Through life his motto has been, great hope, no fear. The force of his character is manifest in the fact that while he manages his private affairs with such ability, he yet has sufficient mental power to act with effect in other situations. While being retired from active business at seventy-five, he is physically and mentally sound and still takes a fatherly interest in city affairs for the mutual interest.
STAFFORD B. PERDIUE, the sheriff of Delaware county, is one of the most popular and efficient officials of the county, and is also a representative of one of the honored early families of this section of the state. His father, the Rev. Abner Perdiue was born, reared and married in Guilford county, North Carolina, there receiving his educational training, and was fitted for the Methodist ministry. When only seventeen years of age he began preach- ing, continuing his ministerial labors in North Carolina and Virginia until 1831, when he removed with his family to Indiana, stopping for a few years in Henry county and then removing to Delaware county. On his arrival here he entered land from the government two miles west of Muncie, where he improved an excellent farm, carrying on his agricultural labors in addi- tion to his ministerial work, and in his later life was also engaged in mer- chandising at Tabor and Gaston. After his removal to Indiana he trans- ferred his labors from the Methodist Episcopal to the Protestant Methodist church, and to him belongs the honor of having organized and started most of the churches of that denomination in Henry and Delaware counties. He also taught in the early schools of this county. Rev. Perdiue was an ex cellent orator, well versed in theology, and he officiated at more funerals and solemnized more marriages than any other minister in this section of the state. Though many years have elapsed since his death in February, 1875, the influence of his conscientious, just career, his kindly, generous heart and sympathetic manner abides. Mrs. Perdiue bore the maiden name of Frances Finlay and was a native of Delaware county.
Among the native sons of Delaware county is numbered Stafford B.
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Perdiue, whose birth occurred in Monroe township on the 26th of January. 1868, and in its public schools he received the educational training which fitted him for life's responsible duties. During the first years of his active business career he followed agricultural pursuits, but at the age of nineteen years engaged in the barber business in Muncie, and in November, 1905, was elected to the office of sheriff of Delaware county, the duties of which he has since discharged in a satisfactory and commendable manner. Since reaching mature years he has been a zealous worker in the ranks of the Re- publican party, and is at all times a loyal and public-spirited citizen, actively interested in all measures advanced for the good of the people.
In 1888 Mr. Perdiue was married to Miss Hattie B. Kiger, a daughter of Charles Kiger, of Delaware county, and their only daughter is Charlotte F. Mr. Perdiue holds membership relations with the Delaware lodge of Masons, and is a worthy member of the Methodist church.
ROBE CARL WHITE, believed to be the youngest postmaster that Muncie has ever had, is a good example of what determination to win will do, and of how obstacles to progress may really be blessings in disguise. Truth to tell, however, he was not born in a log cabin, as persons who succeed in life are supposed to be, but instead he first saw the light of day in his par- ents' substantial frame dwelling in Delaware county, and during his early years pursued the common life of a Hoosier schoolboy. In his life thus far he has seen much of hard work and study, something of adventure and considerable of success.
Mr. White is the son of Samuel S. and Mary (Andrews) White, both of whom were natives of Indiana and the former of whom is still alive and living north of Muncie, a respected pioneer of the county. His mother died in March, 1905. His father, who came to Delaware county in 1836, where he has lived most of the time since, once served as county commissioner.
Robe Carl White was born on the old family homestead near Muncie on August 27, 1869, and was not yet thirty-eight years old, therefore, when he became postmaster of Muncie in March, 1907. Previous to his becoming postmaster he had been city attorney of Muncie, resigning that position to accept the postmastership, and had been prominently identified with the Re- publican politics of the city, county and district before holding any public office. Mr. White attended the district schools of Delaware county and the city schools of Muncie until he was fourteen years old, at which time, in 1883, he accompanied his parents to Iola, Kansas. There he continued his education and was graduated from the Iola high school after completing a four years' course of study. At this time, although he then entertained the ambition to pursue still further his education, it became necessary to abandon temporarily this plan. His first position on leaving high school was that of a teacher in the Allen county (Kansas) schools, where he taught for two years.
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Tiring of this life, however, and being ambitious to succeed more rap- idly than he believed was possible as a country school teacher, he joined the great rush into Oklahoma in 1889-the rush that has become historic. There was something dramatic and appealing in this rush as a result of which towns with thousands of inhabitants sprang up in a single night from barren prairies, and it fired Mr. White's imagination, as it did that of many another. The Scott brothers, friends of White, one of whom is now Congress- man Charles F. Scott, of Kansas, had resolved to start the first newspaper in Oklahoma, and White was asked to become a reporter for it, a position he accepted with alacrity. The rush into the territory began at noon one day and that same night the Scott brothers issued from a tent the first copy of the first newspaper in the territory, the Oklahoma Journal, on the site of Oklahoma City. In a few days the paper was in its own building, and for months, during which the Scott brothers fairly rolled in wealth, while their job presses ran night and day, Mr. White acted as head reporter for the Journal. But after he had participated for a year in the strenuous western newspaper life the old desire to continue his education again took possession of him. He had managed to save a little money, and with it went to Chi- cago, where he took a course in Bryant & Stratton's Business College, from which he was graduated in the spring of 1890. It was the business experi- ence gained in Chicago that enabled him to realize his cherished aim, the taking of a college course. By means of it he was enabled to secure em- ployment as an accountant while he was taking a law course of four years in the University of Minnesota. He was graduated from the university in 1896. Mr. White was then offered a scholarship in Hobart College, New York, but financial reasons prevented his accepting the offer. It had be- come necessary for him to do something to bring in a greater income than he had been receiving.
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