USA > Indiana > Vigo County > Terre Haute > Greater Terre Haute and Vigo County : closing the first century's history of city and county, showing the growth of their people, industries and wealth > Part 2
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Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt have had four children, three now living, namely: Rosa Louise, the wife of William A. Peker, of Terre Haute: Frances Otello, the wife of Henry F. Schmidt, the present deputy sheriff of Vigo county ; Edgar B., the city engineer, and Edwin F., who died at the age of five years. Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt were reared in the German Lutheran faith. Mr. Schmidt has been a prominent factor in the devel- opment and progress of Terre Haute, and his name is inseparably inter- woven with the record of its advancement. The introduction of many of the business interests which have promoted the prosperity of the city
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were the work of this progressive, public-spirited pioneer, and his canal boating in the early days won him the title of Captain Schmidt.
GEORGE H. COOKE, secretary and treasurer of the Hendrich Abstract Company of Terre Haute, is a native of Warren county, New Jersey, born February 2, 1861. his parents being William J. and Martha ( Lan- terman) Cooke, early settlers of New Jersey. The public schools afforded him his educational privileges and as an equipment for the practical and responsible duties of life he took up the study of civil engineering in the field, beginning as an axman. In 1883 he came west and. October 14, 1898. accepted a position as civil engineer with the Southern Indiana Railroad Company, the headquarters then being at Bedford, Indiana. He continued with that company on construction work until the fall of 1905. when he entered the office of the Hendrich Abstract Company, and on the Ist of April, 1906, was made secretary and treasurer. He had become a resident of Terre Haute in 1900 and has here since made his home. Through close application and discriminating energy he has developed a good business and is recognized as one of the enterprising, progressive men of the city-a valuable addition to its business circles.
Mr. Cooke was married in 1904 to Miss Caroline Hendrich and has one son, William Hendrich Cooke. , Fraternally he is connected with the Knights of Pythias and became a charter member of the first lodge of that order organized in North Dakota, in which state he was located from 1883 until 1890. He is a member of the Western Society of Civil Engineers and aside from any membership relations is known as a gen- tleman of genial manner, whose personal qualities make him popular and well liked.
WILLIAM E. HENDRICH, one of Terre Haute's prominent citizens, who figures in business life as president of the Hendrich Abstract Com- pany and as a member of the bar, is a native of Tennstedt-Thuringia, Germany, born February 1, 1836. The first nine years of his life were spent in that land and in 1845 he came with his parents to the United States, the family home being established at New Albany, Indiana. He was a young man of eighteen years when, in 1854, he came to Terre Haute, and in 1856 he began reading law in the office of Col. John P. Baird. After careful and thorough preparation he was admitted to the bar in 1858 and the next year was appointed attorney for the old Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis Railroad Company, which position he held for a period of eight years. Throughout his entire residence here, cov- ering more than a half century, he has contributed in substantial measure to the growth. progress and development of the city. In 1864 he assisted
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in erecting the block of buildings on the southeast corner of Third street and Wabash avenue. In 1868 he turned his attention to the abstract business, being the pioneer abstractor of Terre Haute and of the state. He has since conducted the leading abstract office in the city and is now president of the Hendrich Abstract Company, which he founded and which was incorporated in 1902. He also continues in the practice of law.
On December 25, 1860, was celebrated the marriage of William E. Hendrich and Miss Mary Katzenbach, a native of Germany, and their children are four in number: Mary, the wife of Charles Merrill, for- merly of Clinton, Indiana, but now a resident of Riverside, California : Lucile, the wife of George M. Pierson, also living at Riverside: Caro- line, the wife of George H. Cooke, secretary and treasurer of the Hen- drich Abstract Company, and Linda, the wife of Josephus C. Davis, of Terre Haute.
Mr. Hendrich is a member of Humboldt Lodge, No. 42, Free and Accepted Masons, and has attained the Knight Templar degree of the commandery. He is also connected with the Commercial Club. His interest in the general welfare is that of a public spirited citizen and many tangible evidences can be given of his devotion to the public good. All who know him entertain for him the respect and good will which are ever given a man whose life is largely exemplary in its relations with his fellow men and with the community at large.
GEORGE WILLIAM JACOBY HOFFMAN, whose intense and well directed activity has gained hint recognition as one of the representative busi- ness men of Terre Haute, is conducting two drug stores here, and his thorough preparation for the trade, combined with his stalwart purpose and strict conformity to commercial ethics, have brought him both pros- perity and an honored name. He is one of Terre Haute's native sons, his birth having occurred October 28, 1864. in the old Cincinnati House, which stood on the present site of the new National Hotel on North Fourth street. He is a son of Tilghman J. and Alavesta ( Jacoby ) Hoff- 11211. both of whom were natives of Lehigh county. Pennsylvania. and of Pennsylvania Dutch descent. The maternal grandfather was William Jacoby, whose birth occurred in the Keystone state. It was in that state that the parents of our subject were reared and married and a son was born to them ere they left Pennsylvania. Removing westward they settled in Terre Haute about 1863 and the father embarked in business as a retail grocer, in which line of trade he continued for many years. being recognized as one of the enterprising factors in commercial cir- cles here during the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1876 he re-
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moved to Sioux City, Iowa, where he engaged in business, and there his death occurred in 1885. His widow still survives and is now a resi- dent of Terre Haute.
George W. J. Hoffman attended the city schools and the Terre Haute Commercial College. At the age of fifteen years he began clerk- ing in the drug store of Gulick & Berry, who occupied the store in which Mr. Hoffman now carries on business on the corner of Fourth street and Wabash avenne. For four years he remained with that house, after which to further perfect himself in this line of activity he entered the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and was graduated there- from with the class of 1886. While pursuing his studies he acted as clerk for Thomas S. Wiegand, the registrar of the institution which he was attending. His collegiate course completed, he returned to Terre Haute in the spring of 1886 and took the position of head clerk in the old drug store, where he served his apprenticeship, the style of the firm, however, having been changed in the meantime to Gulick & Com- pany. In 1890 Mr. Hoffman became the junior partner of the firm, and in July, 1897, became sole proprietor of the business. From his entrance into the trade as a proprietor he has met with constantly increasing suc- cess, his business career being characterized by an orderly progression which has led to substantial results. On the Ist of September, 1900, he opened his second drug store on the corner of Sixth and Wabash avenue, known as the New Central Pharmacy, and now conducts both establish- ments, which are two of the leading drug stores of the city. The original one is known as the Hoffman Drug Store, and there he makes his headquarters. It is today the oldest establishment in this line in Terre Haute. The building was erected in 1851, and since its comple- tion has been continuously utilized for the sale of drugs. Mr. Hoffman carries a large stock, which, combined with honorable business methods, insures a well merited success.
On the 2d of October, 1888, Mr. Hoffman was united in marriage to Miss Mattie M. Miller, the eldest daughter of Peter Miller, one of Terre Haute's oldest and best known business men and German-Amer- ican citizens. He was at one time commissioner of Vigo county and prominent and influential in community affairs. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman have been born two children: Hester, who was born June I. 1895, and Herman M., born August 3, 1900. Mr. Hoffman and his wife are well known socially and their circle of friends is constantly in- creasing as the circle of their acquaintance widens. Mr. Hoffman be- longs to the Young Business Men's Club and Vigo County Druggists' Association. He is widely recognized as an active, alert and enterpris- ing young business man. He moves carefully and surely in every trans-
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action, possessing the persistency of purpose which ultimately reaches the objective point.
JOHN H. BALDRIDGE, M. D .- One of the best known, as well as one of the oldest and most successful physicians of Vigo county, is Dr. John H. Baldridge. Since 1884 his name has been enrolled among the active practitioners of Terre Haute, and in the interim he has achieved a suc- cess that has gained him prominence among the best representatives of the profession in the county of Vigo. He is also the son of a physi- cian. Dr. John Alexander Baldridge, who, too, claimed Morgan county, Ohio, as the place of his nativity, from whence he moved to Sullivan county, Indiana, when his son, John, was a boy of ten years. He estab- lished the home on a farm east of Farmersburg and became actively identified with the public and professional life of the community. His wife, nee Eliza Leeper, bore him three sons and one daughter.
Dr. Baldridge was the third born and the youngest son, and had his nativity in Morgan county, Ohio. November 9, 1840. He grew to manhood's estate in the home near Farmersburg, attending the pioneer country schools of Sullivan county, as well as a private school in the town. He then began the study of medicine under the preceptorship of his father, with whom he studied for three years, and then moving to Rosedale, in Parke county, Indiana, practiced there from 1868 to 1884. covering a period of sixteen years. At the expiration of that time he came to Terre Haute. After practicing three years in Parke county, Dr. Baldridge entered the Eclectic Medical College of Cincin- nati, where he graduated in 1873, and has since been a successful rep- resentative of that old and time-honored school of medicine. He has won particular success in his treatment of lung trouble.
Dr. Baldridge was first married, in 1869, to Gelana Challis, who died on the 20th of September. 1893. after becoming the mother of seven children, but only two of the number are now living. In 1898 he married Lovilla Challis. He is a Republican politically. His services in the Civil war entitles him to membership in Morton Post, Grand Army of the Republic. Hle enlisted in Company D. Forty-third Indiana Infantry, in 1863, and served until the close of the conflict.
When Dr. Baldridge came to Terre Haute it was said that he had consumption, and after three years' treatment of himself he was cured and has since been in constant active practice of his profession. He is hale and hearty, notwithstanding the decision of a number of physi- cians that he could not last long when he came to the city. For several years he has been a member of the Eclectic Medical Association of Sullivan and Vigo counties.
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JOSEPH FRISZ has taken an honorable part in the molding both of the business and the civic history of Terre Haute. He is perhaps best known as one of the oldest and most prominent grocers of the city, who continued in that line for twenty-nine years at one location, No. 301 North Thirteenth street. Ile is a native of Alsace-Lorraine, which at the time of his birth. September 28, 1843, was a French province. His parents, Joseph and Margaret (Long) Frisz, came to America in 1846, locating in Jennings county, Indiana, in August of that year. They settled upon an uncleared and unimproved farm and there their remain- ing days were passed, the father devoting his time and his energies to the cultivation and development of his property until his death, which occurred in 1864, when he was sixty-eight years of age. His wife sur- vived him until 1868, and had also reached the age of sixty-eight at the time of her demise. Their family numbered nine children: Barbara, Christopher and Jacob, all now deceased; George, who is living in Illi- nois ; John, a resident of Terre Haute ; Michael, who has also passed away; Anna and Peter, who are also residents of Terre Haute, and Joseph, of this review. The father was a Catholic in religious belief and reared his family in that faith.
Joseph Frisz was only three years of age when his parent's left his native land and came to the new world, so that he was reared upon the Indiana farm, early becoming familiar with the duties and labors of the average farmer boy. His education was acquired in the public schools, and after putting aside his text books he learned the black- smith's trade.
In 1868 he was married, in Jennings county, Indiana, to Miss Mar- garet Rolles, a native of Prussia. She died May 7, 1891. For three years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Frisz resided at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and spent nearly two years in Hopkinsville, that state. In 1873 they arrived in Terre Haute and Mr. Frisz commenced his career as a grocer at the familiar location on North Thirteenth street, where, as stated, he remained for twenty-nine years. Many patrons who came to him in early days continued to give him their support throughout the passing decades, and from time to time he found it necessary to enlarge his stock in order to meet the demands of a growing patronage. His goods were judiciously selected and tastefully arranged, prices were reasonable and measures good, and to cap all Mr. Frisz was courteous and accommodating. He therefore became one of the leading merchants of the city and secured not only a handsome competency but an honor- able name-even more to be desired than riches. Although Mr. Frisz has been retired from the grocery business since 1902, he has long served as president of the Mutual Savings Association and is also identified
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with the Terre Haute Mutual Fire Insurance Company. As a Democrat and a man of municipal affairs he has wielded a strong beneficial influ- ence, having served for one term as city councilman and for twelve years as city commissioner. Like his business career, his public record has been a constant demonstration of a prompt, faithful and efficient discharge of the duties as they developed. He is a stanch communicant of the Catholic church, and in that faith has reared his family. Seven of his nine children yet survive: Lena M., Jacob N .. Margaret K., George B., Joseph A .. Clara M. and Fred J. Frisz.
JOSEPH A. FRISZ, M. D .- The medical profession of Vigo county finds an able representative in Dr. Joseph A. Frisz, a substantial type of the liberal, progressive practitioner of today. He has been located in Terre Haute since his graduation eight years ago, and the commu- nity takes a pride in his advancement and high standing because he is one of her sons, both by nativity and preliminary education. Dr. Frisz was born in that city on the 4th of March, 1878, and is a son of Joseph and Margaret (Rolles) Frisz, both Germans, although the father was born in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, which was then French terri- tory. The father came to this country with his parents when he was three years old, spent his earlier years on an Indiana farm, became a resident of Terre Haute thirty-six years ago, and has since been promi- nent in business and municipal life.
The Doctor is a graduate of the Terre Haute high school, pursuing his professional course at the Indiana Medical College. from which he received his degree of M. D. in 1900. He has since established a good practice in this city. Like other progressive members of his profes- sion, he keeps in touch with the latest development in the theories and practices of his profession by maintaining an active membership in the local and national societies. He is identified with county and state medical societies, the Esculapian Medical Society of the Wabash Valley and the American Medical Association. He is also a member of the staff of St. Anthony's Hospital of Terre Haute. His fraternal relations are with the Knights of Columbus, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Red Men, and his broad education and easy bearing secure him admission to the best society of the city.
WORTH B. STEELE, manager of the extensive lumber interests of R. A. Hooton & Company, of Terre Haute, was born in Crawford county, Illinois, July 22, 1851. His parents were Nenian T. and Martha A. (Har- . ris) Stecle. The father was born in Virginia and was of Scotch-English ancestry. In early life he prepared for the practice of medicine and sur-
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gery, and, removing westward, located near Hudsonville, Illinois, where he devoted his time and energies to his profession. He died there in his forty-sixth year, while his wife passed away at the comparatively early age of thirty-eight. She, too, was a native of the Old Dominion.
Their family numbered three sons and a daughter, of whom Worth B. Steele is the eldest. He resided in the county of his nativity to the age of sixteen years, when he came to Terre Haute to supplement his early educational privileges by study in a commercial college. After com- pleting his course he accepted a position in the W. S. Ryce dry goods house, where he remained for a short time. He then went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he spent six or seven years as bookkeeper in a wholesale grocery house, but in 1881 returned to Terre Haute, where he has since made his home. He became connected with the lumber trade as book- keeper in the employ of T. B. Johns, who subsequently sold the business to the Wabash Lumber Company, and in 1897 the yards were purchased by R. A. Hooton & Company. Mr. Steele has been continuously asso- ciated with the business for twenty-seven years and gradual advancement has brought him to his present responsible position of manager, which is one of the oldest and most extensive in this line in the city. Its suc- cess is attributable in no small degree to his close application and exec- utive force, and few men are better informed concerning the lumber trade and all the subjects which bear upon this important industry.
In 1873 Mr. Steele was united in marriage to Miss Delia Patterson and unto them have been born three sons and a daughter: Malcolm A .. John P., Alma L. and Wilbur B. Malcolm A. represents the Bankers' Surety Company in western Indiana and eastern Illinois: John P. is con- nected with his father in the office: Alma L. graduated from the high school in 1907, and Wilbur B. will finish high school with the class . of 1907.
Mr. and Mrs. Steele have an extensive circle of friends in Terre Haute, gained by reason of their genuine worth during the long period of their residence in this city. Mr. Steele is moreover recognized as one of the leaders in Republican circles here. He has always given stalwart support to the party, served for one term as a member of the city coun- cil, and has done effective work for Republican interests as chairman of the city central committee. He also belongs to the Commercial Club and co-operates in various plans and movements which it puts forth for Terre Haute's development along business lines. He is likewise well known in Masonic circles, and has attained the Knight Templar degree in the commandery. While there have been no startling or exciting chap- ters in his life history, neither has there been a single esoteric phase. He is a man of known honesty of purpose, despising all unworthy or ques-
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tionable means of securing success in any undertaking or for any purpose. His is a sturdy American character and of stalwart patriotism, and in the faithful performance of life's duties as they come to him day after day he has achieved much that is honorable and commendable and won the respect and confidence of his fellow men. He was one of the first class to become a member of the "Hoo-Hoos," No. 8383, and has always been very active, especially in the state.
EDWARD J. SCHOTT, M. D., was born in the city of Bucyrus, Crawford county, Ohio, March 16, 1875, and since 1905 he has been prominently and successfully engaged in the practice of medicine in Terre Haute. When he had attained to the age of sixteen, having in the interim at- tended the public schools of Bucyrus, he obtained the consent of his parents to leave home and to do for himself. Making his way to Chi- cago he completed his literary training in a high school there and later entered a medical college, working his own way through and finally graduating from the well known Hahnemann Medical College and Hos- pital, May 12, 1904. During that time he was prominently identified with hospital work, and immediately after his graduation he began prac- tice in Chicago. Shortly afterward, in April, 1905, he left that city for Terre Haute and has inscribed his name high on the roll of its emi- nent physicians, following a general practice and a specialty of electro therapeutics. He is a member of the Vigo County Medical Society and of the Knights of Columbus fraternity.
Dr. Schott married Miss Ada Cornell, of Allegan, Michigan. They had one child. Edward Anthony, who died at the age of four months. Dr. Schott is a member (and on the board censors) of the Wabash Valley Homeopathic Medical Society and the Indiana State Homeopathic Society, also the American Institute of Homeopathy.
W. B. RICHMOND, M. D .- The name of Dr. W. B. Richmond finds a place on the roll of the medical fraternity in Terre Haute, where he has practiced since 1906, but he is a native son of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, born May 13, 1876. He was reared there and graduated from the high school in 1894, after which for one year he was employed as a book- keeper for a general mercantile firm. He then matriculated in the Uni- versity of Michigan at Ann Arbor and graduated in the medical de- partment June 1, 1899. For three years after his graduation Dr. Rich- mond practiced in Brazil, Indiana, while for two years thereafter was at Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, and returning thence to Brazil he spent two more years in practice there. It was at the close of that period, in the fall of 1906, that he came to Terre Haute, and is rapidly winning a name
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and place among the city's leading physicians. He served in the Spanish- American war as a member of Company A, Thirty-first Michigan In- fantry. He entered the ranks as a private on the 26th of April. 1898, and was discharged from the hospital corps, United States army, Sep- tember 30, 1898. He is a member of the Elks and Knights of Columbus fraternities.
Dr. Richmond married, in 1902, Oval G. Tribble, of Brazil, Indiana, and has one son, Richard Charles.
ALBERT L. PFAU .- Indelibly engraved on the pages of history in connection with manufacturing interests in Terre Haute is the name of Albert L. Pfau, the president and treasurer of the North Baltimore Bottle Glass Company. He is of German-American descent, but a native of the Buckeye state, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 7, 1865, a son of Jacob Pfau, Jr., a pioneer of Cincinnati, and during his lifetime one of the most prominent business men of the Queen City.
Jacob Pfau, Jr., was born in Germany, the son of John Michael Pfau, who brought his family to the United States and located in Cin- cinnati in 1832, becoming one of the pioneer business men. His son in time became largely interested in distilling in that city, served as a director in the old German National Bank and was otherwise promi- nently identified with its industries. He married Margaret, the daughter of Peter Bogen, another of the early pioneers of Cincinnati, and in his time the largest pork packer in the city. He was identified with that in- dustry when it flourished there and gave to Cincinnati her name "Pork- opolis." Mrs. Pfau was born in that city and died there in 1889, her husband's death having occurred a few years previously, in 1883.
Albert L. Pfau was reared in the old Pfau homestead on Ninth street. Cincinnati, and graduated from the old Woodward high school with the class of 1883. In the same year of his graduation and follow- ing soon upon his father's death he became interested in the glue busi- ness, his mother investing thirty thousand dollars in the industry for him. This proved an unfortunate investment, in which Mr. Pfau bought some bitter experience, for at the end of three years the company sus- pended business and the thirty thousand dollars invested for Mr. Pfau was lost in the enterprise. This was his first business venture, and he was at that time just twenty-one years old and married. He felt keenly the failure of his first attempt in business, but the experience gained was invaluable to him and he at once began looking around for another opening in the industrial world.
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