USA > Indiana > Cass County > History of Cass County Indiana : From its earliest settlement to the present time with biographical sketches and reference to biographies previously compiled, Volume II > Part 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
D. P. Hurd was a boy of seven years when he accompanied his par- ents to Walton, and there he received his education in the public schools. In the meantime, he had assisted in the work of his father's mill, gaining experience that had proved very valuable to him in subsequent years. He was ambitious and industrious, and when he had thoroughly mastered all the details of the grain business, he embarked therein on his own account and soon built up a thriving trade. Eventually, however, Mr. Hurd decided to enter agricultural pursuits, and accordingly, in 1906, he purchased his present handsome property, a tract of eighty acres which he has brought into a high state of cultivation. He is progress- ive himself, and believes in progressive measures, which he has applied to his work with a large measure of success. Experience has shown him that modern ideas and methods obtain far better results than the old hit and miss style, and he uses the latest improved machinery in his work. His buildings are large and substantial and the entire place speaks of the presence of able and thrifty management.
On April 13, 1882, Mr. Hurd was married to Miss Mary C. Bowyer, who died not long thereafter. On November 26, 1885, Mr. Hurd was married (second) to Miss Sarah E. Schwalm, and they became the par- ents of the following children : Lyra M., Jessie H., Henry N., George M., David O. and Mabel. Lyra M. received her diploma in public schools and spent two years in the high school at Logansport. She died at the age of twenty-three. She was a member of the Lutheran church and was a teacher in the Sunday school, a member of the Ladies' Aid and Literary club. She is interred in the Walton cemetery, where a beautiful stone marks her grave. Jessie H. received her diploma in the public schools and she graduated from the Walton high school in 1908. She spent one term in Valparaiso University and one term in Earlham College. She is a member of the Lutheran church. Henry N. received his diploma from the public schools and graduated from the Walton high school in the class of 1912. He is at home and an agriculturist. George M. received his- diploma from the public schools and also gradu-
962
HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
ated from the Walton high school, class of 1913. He is at present at Winona College. David O. finished the public schools and received his diploma. Mabel died August 14, 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Hurd's children have all received the benefits of good education, fitting them for the higher walks of life. Mrs. Hurd is a native of Cass county, born April 9, 1859, and was educated in the common schools. She is a model house- keeper and her home is her paradise. She is secretary of the Ladies' Aid Society. With his family, Mr. Hurd attends the Evangelical Lu- theran church. He has found no time to enter politics as a seeker after personal preferment, but in him good government and good citizenship have always found a stanch friend and supporter, as do movements tending to advance the cause of education, morality and general progress.
I. N. CRAWFORD. A resident of Logansport since 1869, I. N. Crawford has had a career crowded with varied experiences, marked by ventures of extent and importance, characterized at all times by the strictest in- tegrity and adherence to honorable business methods, and stamped with the approval of all with whom he has come into contact. A pioneer of Indiana in various lines of business activity, he has identified himself with diversified enterprise, in all of which he has met with uniform success, and today he is justly regarded as one of the foremost of his city's commercial geniuses. Mr. Crawford was born February 17, 1843, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a member of the family of five sons and one daughter, all living, born to James and Ann Jane ( Creighton) Crawford, farming people of the vicinity of Pittsburgh.
I. N. Crawford was reared to agricultural pursuits and educated in the public schools of his native locality in a log schoolhouse with punch- eons floor and with the cracks filled with mud. These same cracks afforded the scholars much pleasure in kicking out the mud to get fresh air. Mr. Crawford believed that further west better opportunities were furnished for ambitious and energetic young men, and accordingly when twenty-five years of age he left home. For some time he traveled through the middle West, visiting St. Paul, Chicago and other points, but eventually decided to cast his fortunes with the growing town of Logansport, and in 1869 embarked in a lumber business at Fifth and North streets. Three years later he disposed of his interests to his brother, and started buying and shipping lumber, being the first here to ship poplar to Boston. In 1873 he bought an interest in a hardware store, and was associated with T. J. Immel for two years, but in 1875 bought Mr. Immel's interest and ever since that date has been the sole owner of this establishment, one of the oldest in the state. Not long thereafter Mr. Crawford secured a half interest in a stone quarry at Alton, Illinois, and for three years divided- his time between Alton and Logansport, but eventually traded his interest in the quarry for a steam- boat, with which he carried salt, cotton and provisions to the Cherokee, Choctaw and Creek Indians, having previously effected a contract with these tribes for that purpose. About the year 1886 he embarked in saw- milling on the St. John's river, in Florida, becoming the pioneer in ship- ping cypress shingles to the East, furnished lumber for the Ponce de Leon, Csnomica and Alcazar hotels, and for five years shipped on the high seas, his product going to the Bermudas and eastern port cities of
963
HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
the United States. The mill burned about 1891, and after a few years spent in retirement, recuperating from his strenuous labors, Mr. Craw- ford started a sawmilling business at Dixon, Kentucky. There he con- tinued for some five or six years, and while located at that point secured the contract for the building of the Bourbon county (Ky.) court- house, a deal that concerned some $250,000, and which he successfully completed. After a few years Mr. Crawford turned his attention to farming at West Baden, in Orange county, Indiana, but in September, 1912, disposed of this land. During all of this time Mr. Crawford had continued to conduct the hardware store in Logansport. For about fifteen years he has been a stockholder and director in the City National Bank, of which he is vice president, and at this time acting president. Mr. Crawford is a man of sound judgment, and not only can plan brilliant business enterprises, but has the business ability to carry them into successful operation. His career has been governed by the strictest regard to the ethics of commercial life and his reputation is unassailable. In addition to the activities before mentioned Mr. Crawford is the pos- sessor of an excellent military record, being a veteran of the war between the states. He enlisted in 1862 for nine months' service in Company H, One Hundred and Twenty-third Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer In- fantry, with which organization he participated in numerous engage- ments, including Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Freder- icksburg and Chancellorsville. He was never absent or sick a day, and received his honorable discharge at Harrisburg in 1863 by reason of the expiration of his term of service. He is a valued comrade of the Grand Army of the Republic. In political matters he is a Republican, but has not cared for public life.
In 1869 Mr. Crawford was married to Miss Isabel J. Ross, of Alle- gheny, Pennsylvania. They are members of Broadway Presbyterian church.
Although past seventy years of age Mr. Crawford claims that he can throw more dirt off of his feet on the store floor than many of the young American boys of the present generation.
JOSEPH S. CRAIG, who died iu Logansport on March 28, 1910, was a man of more than usual force of character. He was born in Green- ville, Darke county, Ohio, on January 19, 1830, and was a son of James and Matilda (Quinn) Craig. By the time he was eight years of age both his parents had been claimed by death and he was reared to early manhood by an uncle, J. C. Quinn. When he was sixteen years old he began life's battle upon his own responsibility, and in June, 1849, went to Huntington, Indiana, where he married Emily Johnson. He moved to LaGro, Wabash county, where his three children were born, and where Mrs. Craig died in 1862. In the following year, 1863, he moved to Wabash, where he served as deputy sheriff for the county until his en- listment in Company G, Seventeenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He subsequently helped to recruit the One Hundred and Thirtieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry and mounted to the rank of captain. After being honorably discharged at the close of the war he was engaged in merchant tailoring at Wabash until 1872, when he came to Logansport, and this city ever afterwards was his home. Here he conducted a merchant tailor-
964
HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
ing establishment successfully and profitably. He was a man whose sterling character commended him to his fellow men at all times, and held the esteem and confidence of all who knew him. He joined the Odd Fel- lows in 1856 and was a charter member of the Knights of Pythias lodge of Logansport, and a Methodist in religion. In 1866 he remarried, his second wife being Minerva Pickering.
WILLIAM D. CRAIG is the only living child of his parents, Joseph S. and Emily (Johnson) Craig. He was born at LaGro, Indiana, Septem- ber 4, 1856, and was reared at Wabash, where he acquired his early education in the public schools. He came to Logansport in 1872, and having worked for his father in the merchant tailoring business, he became a partner in the business, under the firm name of J. S. Craig & Son.
In 1889 Mr. Craig disposed of his interest in the business and em- barked in the manufacture of overalls under the name of the Thomas Manufacturing Company, and in a short time he became the sole owner of the business. He continued in the manufacturing of overalls until 1907, since which time he has devoted his entire time to the manufacture and jobbing of juvenile suits. It is probable that not more than a few people in Logansport realize that the business conducted by Mr. Craig in this line is one of the largest manufacturing establishments of the city. He is also running å branch factory in Tipton, Indiana, started in May, 1913. He employs as many as one hundred people, mostly girls, and does an annual business of one hundred thousand dollars, his product being marketed in almost every state in the Union.
Mr. Craig is a Republican, and is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the T. P. A., and the Country Club. He is also a member of the Deutsch Verein.
In April, 1888, Mr. Craig married Miss Frances M. Place, and they have one child, Virginia D. Craig.
JOHN E. BARNES. During a period covering more than a half cen- tury, John E. Barnes, of Logansport, has been engaged in contracting and building in Cass county, where his activities have left a distinct impress upon the community and contributed materially to its progress and development. A self-made man in the broadest meaning of the title, his advancement has been steady and continuous, and today he holds an enviable position among the business men of this flourishing Indiana city. Mr. Barnes came to Cass county in November, 1854, with his parents, the family locating in Logansport. His father, Thomas Barnes, was a native of England, where he married Ann Bearne, and they became the parents of twelve children, all with the exception of one being born in Great Britain, and six of whom still survive. Thomas Barnes was a stone- mason by trade, and followed that vocation and contracting throughout his career. For one year after coming to this country he resided in Brooklyn, New York, and his death occurred in Logansport about the year 1864.
John E. Barnes was born in England, September 8, 1841, and was thirteen years of age when his people came to Logansport. He received only a limited schooling in his youth, and the ample education which he
965
HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
now possesses was obtained in the school of experience. Even before he had attained his majority, he began his career as a contractor, and this occupation, in a large extent, he has followed throughout life. He was for eleven years in partnership with John Medland, under the firm style of Medland & Barnes, which firm, among other structures, erected the Cass county courthouse, the First Presbyterian church, and a number of business blocks and school buildings. Since closing his partnership with Mr. Medland, Mr. Barnes has had his sons associated with him, and they have erected the Logansport public library, the Logansport high school and a number of the buildings of the Culver Military Academy, and also rebuilt the Presbyterian church. Mr. Barnes' buildings are monuments to his skill and reliable workmanship, and he has always been known as a man of the highest integrity, who has at all times lived strictly up to the letter of his contracts. A Republican in his political proclivities, he has served efficiently as a member of the city council, and as a member of the board of trustees of the waterworks.
In 1864 Mr. Barnes was married to Miss Elizabeth J. Bates, and they have been the parents of eight children, of whom the following six still survive: Clara A., who married George W. Funk; Charles H., W. W. Curry, James I., and Benjamin F. and George W., twins. The family is connected with the Universalist church. Fraternally, Mr. Barnes is connected with the Masons and Odd Fellows, is president of the Odd Fellows' Hall Association, and holds the position of secretary of the Odd Fellows' Hall trustees. He is also president of the Home for the Friendless, a position to which he was elected to fill the vacancy occa- sioned by the death of former President Rice. Since the winter of 1854 Mr. Barnes has not only been an eye-witness to the development of Cass county, but has done his part in bringing about the changes which have contributed to its present prosperous condition. As one of its leading and public-spirited citizens he is held in the highest esteem, and his many friends testify readily to his personal character and great popularity.
JAMES I. BARNES. No record of the successful business men of Cass county would be complete did it not contain a sketch of the career of James I. Barnes, whose work in the construction of many of Logans- port's most substantial buildings has been of a character to leave its impress on the city for many years to come. A native of this city, educated in its public schools and reared in the business in which he has gained such high reputation, he early displayed a certain progress- iveness, a marked intuitiveness and a prophetic shrewdness that prom- ised a subsequent distinction in his chosen field of endeavor, a promise that has been amply fulfilled. James I. Barnes was born January 5, 1872 in Logansport, Indiana, and is a son of John E. Barnes. On com- pleting his public school education, he at once associated himself in business with his father, whose partner he was until the elder man's retirement. That his work has been of an extensive and substantial character is evidenced by the list of large enterprises with which he has been connected, among his contracts being the following: The Haney residence, the Western Motor Works building, Rauth packing house, English Lutheran church, Strecker bakery building, Maiben laundry building, Elks temple, Odd Fellows building, Aldine flats, all in Logans-
966
HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
port; Royal Center high school building, James Taylor building and electric light plant, at Royal Center, Ind .; the Goodman and Harlecker buildings at Monticello, Ind .; high school and bank building at Attica ; mess hall for the military academy at Culver; a church building at Cen- tralia, Illinois; township high school building at Kinmundy, Illinois; high school buildings at Pennville, Shelbyville and New Salem, Indiana ; ward school building at Alliance, Ohio; high school buildings at Milford and Sidney, Ohio; Carnegie Library at Gary, Indiana, and high school at Pawnee, Illinois. All of this work has been accomplished during the past five years, in addition to which Mr. Barnes has laid stone and gravel roads in Cass county, Indiana, to the extent of twenty-five miles.
In August, 1899, Mr. Barnes was married to Miss Emily C. Engle- brecht, of Logansport, Indiana, and they have had six daughters: Dor- othy Lucile, Emily Aldine, Doris Eleanor, Marjorie May, Clara Louise and Elizabeth Jane. The last-named, who was the second in order of birth, is deceased. Mrs. Barnes is a member of the German Lutheran church, and is well known in religious work and social circles. Mr. Barnes belongs to the Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Elks. He is a Republican in his political views, but has taken only a good citizen's interest in public matters, and, to use his own language, has never aspired, and never will, to public preferment. Essentially a business man, he has devoted his entire attention to his large interests, his ambi- tions being satisfied by the prestige he has gained among the men to whom Logansport is indebted for its commercial importance.
JOHN HERMANN, M. D., who died August 8, 1889, was one of the strongest characters in the medical history of Cass county; a man of unusual force of character, one whose career and achievement in his field of endeavor if fully chronicled would alone fill the pages of a reasonably large volume of intensely interesting material. He was born in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg, Germany, August 27, 1834. His father occupied a prominent place in the political history of the Fatherland, having served as commissioner of public domain, an office that entailed the keeping of the king's forest. As a boy, Dr. Hermann attended the primary educational institutions, subsequently being gradu- ated from the Polytechnic school at Stuttgart. He then entered the Uni- versity of Tubingen, from which he received his medical diploma, suc- ceeding which he received the appointment of physician in the Orthopedic hospital at Coustatt, where he remained two years. With many of his countrymen he became embroiled in the revolutionary movement for free suffrage and home rule, which, proving a failure, he was obliged to flee his native land, and in 1864 came to America and for a time prac- ticed his profession at Buffalo, New York. While there, he met and married Miss Angeline de Villers, the daughter of a French army sur- geon. Unfortunately, he here lost the greater part of his means through unsuccessful investments, and largely because of this he determined to start anew in another locality.
Locating in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Hermann succeeded in getting fairly started and had a home prepared, but while he was going to meet his family, who had remained behind in Buffalo while he was establishing a residence for them, his property was destroyed by fire, and he was once more practically without means. Nothing daunted, with his family he
-
"WALNUT DELL STOCK FARM, " RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM H. RAMER
967
HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
started for the East in 1867, but owing to the illness of his daughter he stopped off at Logansport, Indiana. While at the hotel, where he was compelled to remain a few days, it was learned that he was a physician, and he was importuned by the German residents to remain. His success in several complicated cases won him early recognition, and he soon had more calls than he could attend to alone. Thus encouraged to remain, for nineteen years he was associated in successful practice here with Dr. William H. Bell. Dr. Hermann was a superior diagnostician and a phy- sician of unusual ability. Large in stature, jovial in nature, he radiated cheer in the sick room or wherever he went. His wide experience in this country and abroad, his extensive acquaintance with notable men, his education and profound knowledge along special lines, all made him an ideal companion and one whom it was a pleasure to know. Dr. Hermann was a notable example of the professional success and social prestige to be gained by foreign-born citizens, and his career may prove encouraging to those who are struggling to overcome obstacles in their endeavor to reach a position of independence. Dr. Hermann and his wife had four children, Arthur J .; Jennie, the wife of Dr. Francis M. Bozer; Francis J., and William.
Dr. Francis Joseph Hermann, the second son of Dr. John Hermann, was born in Logansport, Indiana, July 4, 1875, completed his literary education at Canisius College, from which he was graduated in 1893, and received his early medical training under the preceptorship of his father. In 1894 and 1895 he attended Rush Medical College, Chicago, and the succeeding two years was a student at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, which granted him a diploma in 1897. In this same year he began practicing in the office he now occupies, and here he has since con- tinued. As a physician and a citizen, Dr. Hermann is an able successor to his distinguished father, and well merits the universal esteem in which he is held. On June 26, 1907, he was united in marriage with Miss Honora I. McHale, of Logansport.
WILLIAM H. RAMER. Among the citizens of Cass county who are rendering their community signal services in public office may be men- tioned William H. Ramer, of Washington township, who in the capacity of assessor has given the voters of his community no reason to regret their choice. Essentially an agriculturist, reared in the atmosphere and to the work of the farm, he has proven himself an efficient, painstaking and courteous public official, and has added to the friendships that long years of honorable dealing had previously gained for him. Mr. Ramer has spent his entire life on the farm on which he now lives, a well-culti- vated tract of 120 acres, located on the Ramer road, about nine miles southeast from Logansport. Here he was born February 4, 1870, in the old home, a son of Justus and Georgina (Ritter) Ramer.
Henry Ramer, the paternal grandfather of William H., was a native of Germany, and in his youth came to the United States, locating first in Pennsylvania, where he carried on farming until 1841. In that year he made removal with his family to Cass county, Indiana, where his subsequent years were spent, and where he died honored and respected by all. Justus Ramer, his son, was born in Pennsylvania, and was a lad when he accompanied his father to Cass county. Like him, he devoted his attention to the tilling of the soil, meeting with success in his ven-
968
HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
tures and gaining the respect of his fellow-citizens. He married Geor- gina Ritter, and they became the parents of six children, namely: Wil- liam II., Mrs. Lonisa Schwalm; George, a resident of Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Emma Jenness; and John and Myrle, of Washington township.
The education of William H. Ramer was secured in the district schools of Washington township, which he attended during the winter months, and, being the eldest of his parents' children, when his father died the management of the home place and the care of the family de- volved upon him, although at that time he was but eighteen years of age. Thoroughly trained in farm work, industrious, persevering and ambitious, he was able to take up the work of the home place where his father had left it and his subsequent success has resulted from constant and industrious labor, well directed. He has a tract of 120 acres, on which he raises excellent crops, and here he has made numerous im- provements of a modern character. His buildings are substantial, his stock sleek and well-fed, and his farming implements of the most mod- ern manufacture, and the entire appearance of the property gives elo- quent evidence that he is a practical and scientific agriculturist.
On June 3, 1896, Mr. Ramer was married to Miss Jennie Minnick, a dangliter of John H. and Lillis (Doud) Minnick, of Washington town- ship; and two children have been born to this union: Blanche M., who is a high school student; and Edgar M., who is in the seventh grade school. Mr. Ramer has taken a keen and intelligent interest in political affairs, and in 1908 was elected assessor of Washington township, a position which he continues to fill to the entire satisfaction of all con- cerned. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., Walton lodge, No. 314, and he is a past grand. With Mrs. Ramer, he attends the Presbyterian church, in the work of which all the members of the family are very active. The beautiful estate of Mr. and Mrs. Ramer is known as "Wal- nut Dell Stock Farm."
JASPER NEWTON NEFF, M. D. Belonging to a family that has made Cass county its home for upwards of three-quarters of a century, and members of which have, during this time, been identified with the various occupations, professions and industries to which this section of Indiana owes its importance, Dr. Jasper Newton Neff, of Logansport, prominent physician and extensive land owner, holds a position of prestige in the business and professional life of his locality. He has been a resident of Logansport since the fall of 1895, and while his large landed in- terests and the duties of his vocation have demanded the greater share of his attention, he has not been unmindful of the duties of citizenship, his public-spirit having been manifested on various occasions when the welfare of the city or its people has been at stake. Dr. Neff was born on his father's farm in Deer Creek township, Cass county, Indiana, Jan- uary 2, 1852, and is a son of Jacob and Henrietta (Berry) Neff, natives of Ohio. His father was a son of Joseph and Polly (Sink) Neff, who came to Cass county from the Buckeye State in 1838, and during the rest of their lives lived in Deer Creek township. They became the parents of six children, namely: Jacob, Allen, Josiah, Frank, Alexander and Mary, all of whom are deceased. Jacob Neff was still a lad when he accompanied his parents to Deer Creek township, and there he grew up and was married to Henrietta Henderson Berry, daughter of Henderson
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.