USA > Indiana > Lake County > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of Lake County, Indiana, with a compendium of history 1834-1904 > Part 32
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Rev. II. Ph. Wille is the only surviving son, and was but three months old when his parents arrived in America. He was educated in the public and parochial schools near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in Martin Luther College at Buffalo, New York. He also attended Concordia Seminary at St. Louis, Missouri, where he was graduated with the class of 1870 on the completion of a theological course which prepared him for the active work of the ministry. His first charge was at California, Missouri, where he re- mained for about four years. He then removed to Concordia, Missouri, where he acted as pastor of the Lutheran church for twelve years, and on the expiration of that period he accepted a call for the church at Geneseo, Illinois. where he continued his ministerial labors for five years. In 1891 he arrived in Whiting. It was then but a mere village and he became the first regular pastor in this place. He began here with a membership of only forty, but his labors have resulted in great and substantial growth in the church, which now has an enrolled membership of over three hundred. He is also inter- ested in the building up of a congregation at Indiana Harbor. His active connection with the ministry covers thirty-four years, during which time he has not been denied the full harvest nor the aftermath. With conscientious zeal he has devoted his time and energies to his holy calling, and his pulpit addresses, his pastoral labors and his personal influence and example have been strong and forceful elements for the betterment of mankind and the upbuilding of the church in the various localities in which he has resided.
On the Ist of September. 1864. Rev. Wille was united in the holy bonds of matrimony to Miss Minnie Henning, who was born and reared in Buf- falo, New York, and is a daughter of G. and Minnie (Voelker) Henning. They have become the parents of ten children, five sons and five daughters : Edward, a farmer now residing in Nebraska: Lillie, the wife of Paul A.
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Scholz. who follows farming near La Porte. Indiana: Herman C., who is proprietor of a grocery store in Chicago: Emma, who is engaged in dress- making in Whiting: Otto, who died at the age of thirty years; Clara. the wife of George Hornecker: Julius, who is engaged in the tinner's business in Whiting; Ella, the wife of William Glock, of Whiting: Rudolph, who is employed as a salesman in a grocery store in Chicago: and Mollie, at home. The family is well known in Whiting, where they have resided for twelve years, and the hospitality of the best homes is very cordially extended to them. Mr. Wille commands the respect of people of all denominations, and while he is firm in his advocacy of what he believes to be right he is also charitable in his opinions and of kindly, generous spirit.
A. MURRAY TURNER.
A. Murray Turner, president of the First National Bank of Hammond, is a life-long resident of Lake county, and for some years has been prom- inently identified with its business and financial affairs. He has shown great ability in promoting and organizing enterprises whose results are for the welfare of the community and people at large, and his influence and work in this direction have been of great benefit to Lake county. He is essentially a business man. but has also directed some of his energies to politics and social matters. and is a representative citizen of the city of Hammond.
He was born in Crown Point. Indiana, October 3. 1859, being a son of David and Caroline (Bissell ) Turner. The family is one of the oldest of Lake county, and the business and agricultural interests of the county have felt the stimulating control of three generations of the name. Grandfather Turner was a native of the north of Ireland, whence as a small boy he came to America with a family to whom he had been bound out for a term of years. He grew to manhood in Trumbull county. Ohio, and in 1837 came to Lake county, Indiana, where he spent the remainder of his sixty years in farming pursuits. His wife, named Patterson, died in Eagle Creek township. Lake county, at the age of eighty-seven years, and they had a large family.
David Turner, the father of the Hammond banker, was born in Ohio. and during the early years of his manhood followed farming. He came to Lake county in 1837. For some years he was the only merchant in the town
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of Crown Point. He served as state senator from 1858 to 1862, and was then appointed United States assessor by President Lincoln, holding that office until its abolishment. He was president of the First National Bank of Crown Point for a number of years and died in February, 1890, at the age of seventy-three years. He was a Republican in politics, and a Pres- byterian. His wife, who still survives and resides with her son. A. Mur- ray, is a native of Ohio. Mrs. Mary Brunot, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, is a sister of Mrs. David Turner, and they two are the only survivors of the family. David Turner and wife had seven children, all of whom are still living: John Bissell Turner, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Sarah J., wife of Thomas W. Monteith, of Port Huron, Michigan: Emma, wife of I. C. Emory, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Annie T., widow of Freeman Morgan, of Chicago: Mary T., widow of Charles A. Holm, of Hammond, Indiana; A. Murray ; and Austria T., wife of Charles A. Ross, of Austin, Illinois.
Mr. A. Murray Turner was reared in Lake county, and received his education in the Crown Point schools. He was engaged in farming and stock-raising until 1888. at which time he was elected sheriff, and served four years. He came to Hammond in 1893 and joined a syndicate formed to build the first street railway of the city. He was president of this com- pany until 1900. He was engaged in various other enterprises, and in 1901 organized the First National Bank of Hammond, becoming its presi- dent, in which office he has effected much in making the First National one of the soundest and most reliable financial institutions of the county. Mr. Turner is a stanch Republican, and was a delegate to the national conven- tion that nominated Mckinley for president in 1900.
December 31, 1890, Mr. Turner married Miss E. Lillian Blackstone. They enjoyed a most happy marital union for ten years, during which one daughter was born, Margaret Caroline Turner. Mrs. Turner passed away in November. 1900, at the age of thirty years. She was a member of the Presbyterian church, and a woman of many social graces and accomplish- ments, thoroughly devoted to her home interests and thoughtful and careful of her husband's best interests.
She was a daughter of Dr. John K. and Margaret J. (Bryant) Black- stone. of Hebron, Indiana. Her paternal grandfather was also a physician, and her maternal grandfather, Simeon Bryant, was a native of Ohio and
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a farmer. She had three brothers and was the only daughter. Her mother was a native of Hebron, and her father of Athens, Ohio. Her father was a soldier in the Mexican war, being the youngest commissioned officer in that conflict. and in the Civil war he served as surgeon with the rank of major.
WILLIAM J. McALEER.
William J. McAleer, a prominent lawyer of Hammond and prosecuting attorney of the thirty-first judicial circuit of the state of Indiana, has had seven years of creditable and successful practice at the law, all in Hammond, and his popularity in the city and county is shown by his election and re- election to the important administrative office which he now holds. He was a teacher a number of years, and also followed other occupations before taking up the law, and all in all he has had a career of which he may well be proud.
Mr. McAleer was born in Gray county, Ontario, Canada, July 31, 1867, a son of John and Frances (Burchill) Mc. Aleer, both natives of Canada. His mother was one of the fourteen children born to Jason Burchill, a native of Ireland and a Methodist preacher, who emigrated to Canada about 1840, and died there when eighty-four years of age; his wife was Isabell Brown, and she lived to be eighty-three years old. The father of John McAleer was William McAleer, who was born in Ireland and emigrated thence to Can- ada, where he spent the remainder of his long life of ninety-seven years, being a farmer by occupation. His wife, Nancy ( Brown) McAleer, attained the ad- vanced age of eighty-six years.
John McAleer, the father of William J. McAleer, was a Canadian farmer all his life. Ile held the office of reeve for many years, and also other minor offices. He died in 1901, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife survives him, and is now sixty-three years old. They were both Methodists. They were the parents of five children : Edith, the wife of R. T. McGirr, of Maford, Canada: William J .: Martha, the wife of David Berridge of Thes- salon, Algoma, Canada: Annie, the wife of Thomas Brooks, of Thessalon; and Robert, of Thessalon.
Mr. William J. McAleer was reared on a farm in Canada, and after a course in the district schools graduated from the Owen Sound Business College, in 1886. He then came over into the United States, and for six
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years was engaged in teaching in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. From there he went west to the state of Washington, and was employed by the govern- ment in the Indian service for two years at Granville. Chehalis county. He resigned his position and came to Valparaiso, Indiana, and entered the col- lege there. In 1897 he graduated with the degrees of B. S. and LL. B., and in the same year was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law at Hammond. In November. 1900. he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney. leading the Republican ticket in that election, as he also did in the election of 1902. He is one of the professors in the law de- partment of the Valparaiso Normal College.
Mr. McAleer has been in the Republican ranks ever since attaining man- hood. and is an interested political worker. He affiliates with Garfield Lodge No. 569. F. &. A. M .. and also with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His residence is at 368 State street. He was married May 21. 1892. to Miss Ethelia Hembroff, a daughter of Joseph and Harriet (Grady) Hemb- roff. They have two children, Leoda and Verna.
JOHN HIGGINS, M. D.
Dr. John Higgins, who for some time before his death, on April 7. 1904. lived as a retired physician, was one of the early settlers of Crown Point, and in community affairs was prominent and influential, so that his life record forms an important chapter in the history of the city in which he made his home. He was born in Perry, Wyoming county, New York, May 28. 1822. Ebenezer Higgins, his grandfather, was born in Connecticut, the family having continuously remained in that portion of the country. David Higgins, the father, was also born in Connecticut and became a civil en- gineer. He married Miss Eunice Sackett, a native of Vermont, and his death occurred in New York. In their family were ten children, of whom Dr. Higgins was the seventh in order of birth He was only about four years old when his parents removed from Wyoming county to Osborn, New York, where he remained until fourteen years of age. The family home was then established at Seneca Falls, where he remained until sixteen years old. when he came with his mother to the west. arriving at Chicago, Illinois, on the 2d of July, 1838. After a brief period passed in that city he removed to Vermilion county, Illinois, where the following winter he was engaged in teaching
John Higgins
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school He afterward worked on a farm through the summer months and in the winter seasons continued teaching until 1843, when he took up the study of medicine. In the winter of 1843-44 he came to Lake county, In- diana, and in May of the latter year established his home at Crown Point, where he began studying medicine with Dr. W. C. Farrington, who directed his reading for about two years.
In the year 1850 he went to California, crossing the plains to Sacra- inento, and spent a year in the mountains. On the expiration of that period he returned to Frankfort, Illinois, and in February. 1859. he estab- lished his home at Crown Point. Indiana. There he continued in practice until 1861, when he was appointed surgeon of the Twelfth Illinois Cavalry, but was employed mainly as a brigade surgeon and in general hospitals in Chicago and Washington, where he remained for three years and four months, rendering active and efficient aid to the wounded soldiers. He made a most creditable record as an army surgeon, his aid being of great value to those who needed professional services.
In 1865 Dr. Higgins returned to Crown Point and located where he now lives. He was in active and continuous practice until 1900, and he had a large patronage. his efforts being very effective in alleviating human suffer- ing. He kept in touch with modern progress in the line of his profession and tlirough broad study maintained a foremost position among the repre- sentatives of his calling. He was examiner for different life insurance com- panies, and in the early days of his practice he rode for long distances across the country, even traveling from twenty-five to forty miles to attend a patient. his practice extending into Porter county, Indiana, and into Illinois.
In 1847 Dr. Higgins was united in marriage to Miss Diantha Tremper. who was born in Lewiston county, New York, and died in 1898. They had one daughter, Eunice A., who is now the widow of Julius W. Youche. Dr. Higgins was a Mason for many years and in early life was a Whig. casting his ballot for William Henry Harrison, although he had not then attained the age of twenty-one years. He continued to affiliate with the Whig party until the organization of the Republican party, after which time lie was one of its stalwart advocates. He was at the time of his death the only surviving member of his father's family of ten children, one of whom died when forty-four years of age. three between the age of sixty and seventy.
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two between seventy and eighty and two between the ages of eighty and ninety. In his practice he was connected with the Indiana Medical Society. and was at one time a delegate to the American Medical Association. He long maintained a creditable position as a leading representative of the medical fraternity of northwestern Indiana, and his prominence in his pro- fession was well deserved and his success was justly merited. He was very widely known throughout this portion of the state because of his active commection with the profession, which is of the greatest possible value to humanity, and was ever accounted one of its foremost members on account of his skill and also because of his fidelity to the ethics of the profession.
DAVID D. GRIFFITH.
David D. Griffith is filling the position of city treasurer of Whiting, and is one in whom his fellow townsmen have had confidence because his ability and fidelity have been tested in business and social life. He was born in South Wales on the 20th of March, 1844, and is a son of David and Ann (Jenkins) Griffith. The days of his childhood and youth were passed in his native country and his education was acquired in the schools there. He came to America in 1870, when about twenty-six years of age, attracted to the new world by the hope that he might find improved business conditions and greater opportunities here. He located first in Hubbard, Ohio, but soon removed to Pennsylvania, establishing his home in Oak Hill, that state, where he remained for about three years. On the expiration of that period he removed to Churchill, Ohio, near Youngstown, and subsequently he resided at New Straitsville, Ohio. On leaving there he came to Whiting. Indiana. in 1895. and entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company, with which he was connected continuously for eight years or until 1903. when. following the incorporation of Whiting as a city, he was elected the first city treasurer and is now acting in that capacity. He was chosen to this position on the Republican ticket and since coming to America he has been a stanch advocate of Republican principles. He keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day and warmly espouses the party by which he was chosen to office.
In 1865 Mr. Griffith was united in marriage to Miss Annie Owens, a native of South Wales, and they are now the parents of six living children.
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three sons and three daughters, namely : William, Sarah, Thomas, Gomer, Margaret and Amelia. They also lost one son. David, who was killed by an explosion in a mine in British Columbia, and was under ground for five months before discovered.
Mr. Griffith is quite well known in fraternal circles, being a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. the Knights of Pythias Lodge, of which he is now financial secretary ; the Whiting Mutual Benefit Association, of which he is secretary, and Ivorites Lodge, a Welsh organization. He is a very public-spirited man and takes an active interest in all things pertain- ing to the welfare and upbuilding of his community. No citizen of Whiting is more thoroughly representative or more devoted to the promotion of her welfare than Mr. Griffith, whose name is widely known for the prominent part he has taken in local interests. He has never regretted the step which he took when he left his native country and came to the new world, for he has thorough sympathy with the free institutions and the governmental policy of the United States and there is no more loyal American than this adopted son. He has been connected with the Baptist denomination the most of his days, in this and the old country.
WILLIAM E. SMITH.
William E. Smith, present incumbent of the office of assessor of Ross township, has been identified with the farming interests of Lake county and at present owns a farm on section 18. He has lived in this county for over forty years, so that he is familiar with most of its history subsequent to the real pioneer epoch. During all this time he has had a busy career, devoted mainly to agriculture, but has also found time to give to the management of the affairs of his community, in which he has been esteemed and honored throughout his life.
Mr. Smith was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania. June 6, 1847, on the old homestead where his father, Amos Smith, was born, and where he followed farming until his death in young manhood, in 1852. Mr. Smith's mother was Harriet ( Ellis) Smith, who died in 1858. leaving four orphaned children.
Mr. Smith has a brother, Cyrus, who is a prominent farmer also in section 18 of Ross township, and whose life history is given on other pages.
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Mr. W. E. Smith was reared on the old Pennsylvania homestead to the age of sixteen, receiving his education in the public schools. He came to Lake county, Indiana, in 1863, and for a time also attended the public schools here. Farming has been his principal occupation since arriving at man- hood, and his nice farm of fifty acres is well improved and highly cultivated.
Mr. Smith is a steadfast Republican, and takes considerable interest in local politics. He was appointed to the office of assessor, holding it four years by appointment, and was then elected for one year, and in 1900 was re-elected for a full term, discharging its duties at the present time and hav- ing given a most painstaking and satisfactory administration for nine years. For several years he also hell the office of township supervisor.
He was first married in 1870, to Miss Cassie Booth, who had one daugh- ter. Mabel, now the wife of Frank F. Peterson, a farmer of Ross township. Mrs. Smith died in 1874. and in 1881 Mr. Smith married Miss Caroline Harper, a native of Ashtabula county, Ohio. There are no children by this marriage.
D. M. VANLOON.
D. M. Vanloon is one of the revered patriarchs of Hobart, who has attained the age of seventy-seven years and who for fifty-seven years has been a resident of this part of the state. For a long period he was identified with building interests, and has contributed in no small degree to the progress and improvement of the community. He is now living retired, and he enjoys in high measure the respect and good will of his fellow men, who have long been familiar with the history of his upright career.
Mr. Vanloon was born in Bradford county, Pennsylvania. December 18, 1827, his parents being Everett and Elizabeth S. (Miller) Vanloon, who were natives of Pennsylvania. He remained at home until about twenty-five years of age, assisting in the work of the home farm. In the year 1846 he became a resident of LaPorte county, Indiana, and the following year arrived in Lake county, settling about three miles south of Hobart, where he devoted his energies to agricultural pursuits. When twenty-five years of age, how- ever, he began learning the carpenter's trade, which he followed for a long period, being closely identified with building interests in this portion of the state.
In 1861 Mr. Vanloon responded to his country's call, enlisting as a
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member of Company H, Ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for three months. He was then honorably discharged on account of disability. He was one of the first men to enlist from Lake county, but was unable to endure the hardships and rigors of war. He then returned to Hobart and again took up work at the carpenter's trade, which he followed continuously until 1896. In that year he retired from active business life and is now enjoying a well merited rest.
In 1864 Mr. Vanloon was united in marriage to Miss Johanna Switzer, and they have become the parents of four children, of whom two are now cleceased, Elizabeth and James Justin. Those still living are Rudolph D. and Lawrence F.
Mr. Vanloon holds membership with the Hobart Post No. 411, G. A. R., and in politics he is an earnest Republican and is now filling the office of justice of the peace, being strictly fair and impartial in the discharge of his duties. A review of his life record shows that at all times he has been loyal to principle, faithful in the performance of every task assigned him, honor- able in his business relations and straightforward in all his dealings with his fellow men. Moreover, he is entitled to distinction as a pioneer settler of Lake county, having been an interested witness of its growth and develop- ment for fifty-seven years. Great changes have occurred in that time, and Mr. Vanloon has endorsed every measure which he believed would contribute to the county's progress, and in his community has aided materially in ad- vancing the substantial upbuilding and development of Hobart.
JOHN L. FIESTER.
The business interests of Hobart find a worthy representative in John L. Fiester, a general merchant of the town. He has always lived in this sec- tion of the country, and early became imbued with the enterprising spirit which has been the dominant factor in producing the wonderful and sub- stantial development of the middle west. His birth occurred in Chicago on the 28th of November, 1858, his parents being Jacob and Mary ( Thering) Fiester, both of whom were born in Switzerland. Coming to America in early life they were married in this country. The father was employed as a fireman in steamboats on the Mississippi river for about ten years, and in 1854 he went to Chicago, where he secured employment in a rolling mill.
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His last days, however, were passed in Hobart, where he died in 1900 and where his widow is still living. They were the parents of thirteen children, six of whom yet survive, three sons and three daughters.
John L. Fiester, the third of the living children, was reared and educated in the city of his nativity, where he remained until eighteen years of age, when he secured employment on a farm in Lake county, Indiana, being thus employed for five years. He came to Hobart in 1883. and was engaged in the butchering business for five years in partnership with James Roper. He then sold out and formed a partnership with Lewis Passow. this relation being maintained for two years, at the end of which time Mr. Passow died. Mr. Fiester then took entire charge of the business, but a year later admitted John Killigrew. and they were together in business for eleven years, when Mr. Fiester sold out. He then turned his attention to the hardware trade. conducting a store for about six months, and his next venture was in the line of jewelry merchandising, becoming proprietor of the store which he now owns. He carries a well selected line of general merchandise, and by reason of his earnest efforts to please his patrons, his reasonable prices and his straightforward dealing, he has secured a patronage that is constantly growing and has assumed profitable proportions.
The home life of Mr. Fiester is very pleasant. He was married June 28. 1883, to Miss Amanda Passow, a daughter of Ernst and Mamie Passow. This union has been blessed with three sons: Frank, Edward and Walter. Mr. Fiester is a member of the Independent Order of Foresters, and politic- ally is a Democrat. He has been a representative of Hobart's business inter- ests for twenty-one years, and his enterprise has contributed to the com- mercial activity of the town and at the same time has made his own career one of signal success, in which he has risen from a humble financial position to one of affluence.
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