USA > Indiana > Howard County > History of Howard County, Indiana, Vol II > Part 42
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Fred Kollmar is the son of Albert and Mary ( Wolf ) Kollmar. who were natives of Baden, Germany, where he was born February II, 1850. After receiving a fairly good education in the schools of that country he served with distinction in the French-German war for three years. When he left the army he was twenty-three years old and he decided to become a butcher, going to Hamburg, where he worked at this business at small wages for four years. Returning home. he began business for himself in 1877. in which he was fairly successful from the first.
Mr. Kollmar was married to Mary King, also a native of Ba- den. Germany. Two children were born to this union in Germany. one of whom is deceased. Albert. the living son, who is twenty-nine years old in 1008, works for his father in Kokomo. One girl and three boys have been born to the subject and wife sinee coming to America, two of whom are graduates of the local high school.
Not enjoying the success he desired or deserved in the old country, he decided to come to America in 1881. He first located in Akron. Ohio, working at the butcher business for seven years with a reasonable degree of success. In 1888 he came to Kokomo and went into the butcher business for himself, now being located at the corner of Union and Boggs streets. He owns the building there
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in which his business is carried on and he is now worth, conserva- tively speaking, twenty thousand dollars. Besides his business prop- erty he owns a fine residence, nicely furnished, at 128 South Main street. Mr. Kollmar's business is confined exclusively to the retail and wholesaling of all kinds of meats, lard, etc.
Mr. Kallmar in his fraternal relations is affiliated with the Red Men and the Eagles and is a loyal Democrat in politics. He is highly respected by all who know him for his upright life and his scrupulously honest business principles in all his dealings with his fellow men, being always prompt to pay his debts and generous to those in need. He is public-spirited and leands his hearty support to any cause that has for its ultimate object the betterment of his city and community in the future of which he has unbounded faith.
GEORGE W. HARNESS.
Change is constant and general, generations rise and pass un- marked away, and it is the duty of posterity as well as a present gratification to place upon the printed page a true record of the lives of those who have preceded us on the stage of action and left to their descendants the memory of their struggles and achievements. The years of the honored subject of this memoir are a part of the indissoluble chain which links the annals of the past to those of the latter day progress and prosperity, and the history of Howard county would not be complete without due reference to the long life he has lived and the success which he has achieved as an earnest, courageous laborer in one of the most important fields of endeavor.
The Harness family is of German origin and the first of the name to immigrate to America settled in Virginia at quite an early
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period and became widely known in various parts of the state. George Harness, the subject's father, was born on the ancestral homestead contiguous to the south bank of the Potomac river and remained in Virginia until his twenty-seventh year, when he left the parental roof to make his own way in the world. He first went to Ohio, making the entire distance of four hundred miles on foot. renting a piece of land, raised one crop, after which he returned to his native state the same way he left it-afoot and alone. Later he brought his parents to Ohio, where he continued to reside for some years, and where, in due time, he was married to Harriett Sowers. who bore him ten children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the only survivor. Disposing of his interests in Ohio, Mr. Harness mi- grated in an early day to the new and sparsely settled county of McLean, in the state of Illinois, but fearing the Indians, who at that time occupied the greater part of the country and were not always on friendly terms with their white neighbors, he left that state after a brief sojourn and moved to Boone county. Indiana, thence, sub- sequently, to Carroll county, where he spent the greater part of his life. George Harness was a man of excellent parts and throughout a long and strenuous life made his influence felt for good and did much to promote the advancement of the different communities in which he resided. He was a typical pioneer of the period in which he lived. strong, agile and fearless and as an industrious tiller of the soil and praiseworthy citizen gained the esteem and confidence of the people with whom he mingled. Late in life he changed his residence to Howard county, where he spent the remainder of his days, dying at the remarkable age of one hundred and eight years.
George W. Harness was born July 19. 1819. in Fayette county. Ohio, and when quite young accompanied his parents to Indiana. where he grew to maturity, spending the greater part of his early life in Cass county. His educational advantages were exceedingly
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limited, but by making the most of his opportunities he acquired a fund of valuable practical knowledge and in due time became an intelligent and remarkably well informed man. He began life for himself on a quarter section of land in the southern part of Cass county, given him by his father, and at once addressed himself to its improvement --- a task of no small magnitude, the land being cov- ered with a dense forest, to remove which and fix the soil for culti- vation required much hard and persevering toil. By laboring early and late he finally succeeded in transforming the forest into a beau- tiful and valuable farm, to which he made additions at intervals until he became one of the largest land owners of the county, his real estate holdings at one time amounting to eighteen hundred and forty acres, the greater part of which was afterward divided among his children.
Although remarkably successful as a tiller of the soil. Mr. Har- ness acquired the most of his fortune by dealing in land and live stock. He purchased cattle and hogs on quite an extensive scale, which he prepared for the market and sokl at handsome prices, and also devoted a great deal of attention to horses, which he bought when young and raised for the market, investing the proceeds in real estate, which rapidly advanced in value, making him in a com- paratively short time a wealthy man. He was a shrewd trader. His judgment was seldom at fault, and he possessed to a remarkable degree the ability to foresee the future outcome of present action. While successful far beyond the majority of his fellow men, his methods were always honorable and his word when given to a friend or neighbor had all the sanctity of a written obligation.
After accumulating an ample competency Mr. Harness gave up business pursuits and moved to Center township. Howard county, near Kokomo, where he is now living in honorable retirement, own- ing a fine home of ten acres in the suburbs of the city, where, sur-
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rounded by all that can minister to his comfort and enjoyment, he is spending the evening of life free from anxiety or care.
Mr. Harness was married December 6, 1839, to Drusilla Beck. a native of Augusta county, Virginia, where her birth occurred in the year 1821, and who bore him sixteen children, ten sons and six daughters, of which large family but one son survives in George W. Harness, Jr., one of the wealthy farmers and representative citizens of the county of Cass. Mrs. Harness departed this life in February. 1888, and later Mr. Harness married Alice Smith, who was born April 26, 1862, in Cass county, Indiana, the daughter of James WI. and Mary Smith. This union has been blessed with one child, a son, by the name of Russell, who was born on the 2d day of De- cember. 1890, and is now one of the most highly esteemed youths of Kokomo, with a bright and promising future before him. He was graduated from the Kokomo high school with the class of 1908. since which time he took a course in bookkeeping in the business college of the city. In September, 1908, he began a business course at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he is preparing himself for the active duties which in due season must fall to him. .A young man of studious and exceptionable morals, an earnest worker in the Methodist Episcopal church and Epworth League, he is always fulfilling the high hopes entertained for him by his parents and will doubtless prove a worthy successor to his honored father when the latter is no longer able to attend to business interests.
Mr. Harness was originally a Whig and cast his first vote for William Henry Harrison. After that old party had fulfilled its mission and passed out of existence he gave his allegience to its suc- cessor and has ever since been an earnest and loyal Republican, deep- ly interested in his party's welfare and an influential contributor to its success. Although past the allotted age of man, he is still keen and alert, keeping abreast of the times on all public matters and
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among the citizens of Howard county is considered a most com- panionable and affable gentleman, a favorite in the social circle and a broad-minded man of affairs. He still owns the farm in Cass county of four hundred acres which he developed from the wilder- ness, also two other fine places of two hundred forty and eighty acres, respectively, besides the ten acres in Center township on which he resides.
Mr. Harness' early life story is not uncommon in our western history and serves as an object lesson to those who would mount the ladder of success. His beginning was characterized by hard work and conscientious endeavor, and he owes his rise to no train of fortunate incidents or fortuitous circumstances. It is the reward of application of mental qualifications of a high order to the affairs of business, the combining with keen preceptions mental activity that enabled him to grasp the opportunities that presented them- selves. This he did with success and what is more important. with honor. His integrity has ever been unassailable, his honor unim- peachable, and he stands now, as he has stood in the past, one of the successful men and representative citizens of the day and generation.
JAMES GALLION.
There are a few citizens of Howard township. Howard county. Indiana, who are more highly respected and whose genuine worth is more widely recognized than that of the subject of this sketch whose worthy career has been such that the younger generation in his community can emulate it with profit to themselves and the community at large, owing to the fact that his life has been singular- ly free from all that wouldl deteriorate from the highest standards
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of living. He has shown not only what the life of a good citizen should be socially and in business but also what the duty of a loyal and patriotic supporter of the national union should do when the integrity of the country of his birth is in peril. In brief, such lives as that of our worthy subject are not met with in great numbers or with any great frequency.
James Gallion was born in Clinton county, Ohio, November 4. 1843, the son of Joshua and Amanda ( Speck ) Gallion. Grand- father Gallion was born in Virginia and came to Indiana in 1849. Having been a shoemaker he followed this trade all his life, dying at the age of seventy-five years. His faithful life companion reached the age of seventy-seven years. They were German Bap- tists. They raised nine children, all living to maturity, and all living to raise families of their own. An ancestor of the subject was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The subject had an uncle in the Mexican war and two uncles in the Civil war. There were five cousins on the Gallion side who were soldiers in the Federal ranks, all but one of whom lived to serve out their time, receiving honor- able discharges and two cousins were soldiers in the Spanish-Ameri- can war. One brother, Jehu, was a soldier in the Civil war. He was in Company E. Thirteenth Indiana Regiment. Volunteer Intan- try. He received an injury at the battle of Cheat Mountain from which he died.
Grandfather Speck was a native of Kentucky, who moved to Ohio where he followed the shoemaker's trade. One of his brothers. Ark Speck, was a soldier in the Civil war in a Kansas regiment. There were six children in the family. The father of our subject was born in Virginia and was educated in Ohio, to which state he was brought by his parents when a child. He received only a district schooling. He took up the tanner's trade at which he served seven years as an apprentice. He followed this successfully for thirty
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years, and then went to farming in Howard county, Indiana, where he came in 1848. He bought timber land which he cleared and im- proved and on which he made a good home. Later he traded this farm for another one, but his family was reared on the first place he owned in this county. He spent the balance of his days on the sec- ond farm, dying there at the age of sixty-two years. His wife lived to be fifty-eight years old. They were members of the German Baptist church and were highly respected by all who knew them. Eight children were born to them, six of whom lived to maturity.
The early education of James Gallion was received in the dis- trict schools of Howard county and township, having attended school until after he was seventeen years old.
Our subject was one of those loyal citizens who, when the dark clouds in the sixties came over the national horizon and the found- ations of our government were threatened, sacrificed the ties of home and educational training to offer his services in defense of the flag. having enlisted when only eighteen years old in Company C. Seven- ty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was first sent to Louis- ville, Kentucky, and his first engagement was at Hoover's Gap : he also fought at Hartsville, Milton, Tullahoma. The next engage- ment of importance was in the great battle of Chickamauga where Mr. Gallion was wounded on September 19, 1863. He was sent to the hospital at Nashville and was kept in various hospitals until 1864, when he recovered sufficiently to be transferred February 22d. 1864, to the Second Battalion, Reserve Corps, Company One Hun- (red and Five, in which he served his time out, receiving an honor- able discharge. After he returned home he went to work at what- ever he could secure that was honorable and remunerative.
On November 20, 1866. Mr. Gallion was married to Sarah Eleanor Hunt, daughter of Wilson and Mary ( Wilson ) Hunt. Her parents came from North Carolina and settled in Wayne county.
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Indiana, about 1844, where they bought a farm and later moved from there to Iowa, then back to Indiana, locating in Madison county, where Wilson Hunt bought a farm and where he died at the age of fifty years. His wife passed away at the age of forty-nine. They became the parents of fifteen children, thirteen of whom lived to maturity, two of the sons becoming soldiers in the Civil war in an Indiana regiment, one of them dying from disease contracted while in the service, the other serving out his time.
Eight children have been born to the subject and wife, their names and order of birth being as follows: Charles W., born March IO, 1868, is deceased ; Elijah M., born November 21, 1800. is mar- ried : Amanda D., born October 19, 1871, died young : George F .. born April 19, 1873, is married and has one child: Iza E., born November 30, 1875, is the wife of Loren Mason, of Howard county. and the mother of two children: Ezra P .. born October 7, 1878, is married : Katie B., born March 18. 1880, is the wife of Elbert Hiatt and the mother of one child: James D., born July 25. 1883. is married.
Mr. Gallion owns a very productive and highly improved farm of sixty acres on which stands a substantial and well-furnished dwelling and many convenient outbuildings. His place is mostly fenced with wire and the fields are well drained, there being over one thousand rods of tile on the farm, which was unimproved when he bought it and many changes for the better have been inaugurated by the present owner. He has tiled the fields, cleared most of the land and made one of the best farms in the township. His wheat crop in 1008 averaged thirty bushels per acre. He keeps his land in a high state of productiveness by home fertilizers and rotation of crops with clover ; in fact, no better farmer is to be found in Howard township than Mr. Gallion, as the fine appearance of his place would indicate to any observer, and his reputation throughout the
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county as a Christian gentleman and an upright citizen is of the best. Both Mr. and Mrs. Gallion are active members of the Christian church. The former is a member of the Grand Amy of the Republic and a Republican in politics.
ALBERT V. CONRADT.
Among the distinctive leaders of industry in Kokomo, a place of privity must be accorded the gentleman whose name heads this article, for to him is due the upbuilding of an industry which is not only one of the most important in the city, but also among the most extensive of the kind in the United States, the comparatively brief period within which this result has been obtained bearing further testimony of his exceptional foresight and administrative ability. A. V. Conradt is a native of Miami county, Indiana, and son of God- love Conradt, who located in Peru in 1845 and for many years was actively identified with the industrial growth and business interests of that city, at one time having conducted a tannery and wholesale leather store and at intervals being connected with various other lines of enterprise. A. V. Conradt was reared and educated in his native town and when a young man took a pharmaceutical course with the object in view of making that profession his life work. Shortly after his graduation, however, he changed his mind and formed a partnership with his father in the timber business, the firm thus constituted operating quite extensively for some years in Mi- ami. Howard and other counties of northern Indiana, with head- quarters in the city of Peru.
In the course of his business experience the elder Conradt some years ago came into possession of a farm a short distance from Ko-
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komo, and when natural gas was discovered in Howard county this place was found to be in one of the most highly favored localities of that noted field. In due time wells were drilled, but how to utilize the vast amount of gas they produced gave rise to no little disens- sion and investigation. Seeing as they thought a favorable opening for the pottery industry in this part of the country, the Conradt Brothers. A. V. and Fred W .. finally decided to embark in the en- terprise. Accordingly, in 1803, they secured the services of Mr. Coxson, an expert artisan of Trenton. New Jersey, as manager and before the expiration of that year a plant was erected, fully equipped and in successful operation. The enterprise proving successful from the beginning and more than meeting the expectations of the proprietors, the plant was enlarged from time to time until it is now more than double its original capacity, the number of kilns having been increased from four to nine, while the product, which consists of plumbers' earthenware, is of a high standard of excellence and has an extensive sale in the leading markets of the country, While natural gas lasted it proved an ideal fuel, but since the fieldl became exhausted it has been superseded by coal.
The rapid growth of the industry in Kokomo and its safety as an investment induced the Conradt brothers, in 1899. to purchase a similar plant at Tiffin, Ohio, the origin of which antedates that time by a number of years, it being, in fact, the first plant west of the Alleghany mountains that made the manufacture of sanitary pottery a specialty. Since taking possession of the plant at Tiffin it has been in charge of Fred W. Conradt, the business in Kokomo being under the management of A. V. Conradt, whose able administration has tended to its enlargement until, as already stated, the plant now occupies a prominent place among the leading industrial enterprises of the city, affording employment to about one hundred and fifty men, with an average monthly pay roll considerably in excess of
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ten thousand dollars. Inaugurated as a venture, the magnitude to which the enterprise has grown and its success from a business and financial point of view, has few if any parallels in the history of industrial establishments, and that it is destined to still larger growth and more extensive patronage is the belief of those at all familiar with the broad and liberal principles upon which it is based and the wise and conservative policies which have been pursued by the wide-awake men by whom its affairs are conducted.
By strict attention to the demands of the trade as well as by superior executive ability. A. V. Conradt has won the prominent place in business circles he now occupies, his career from the begin- ning presenting a series of continued advancements and successes such as few of much larger experience seldom attain. Aside from his manufacturing interests he is prominently connected with vari- ous other enterprises, which have greatly enhanced the material wel- fare of his city, being a director of the Citizens' National Bank, vice- president and director of the Kokomo Steel and Wire Company, to say nothing of his holdings in other and lesser concerns, which in the aggregate are by no means inconsiderable.
Though never unduly daring in his business affairs, Mr. Con- radt seems to possess rare foresight and sagacity, as well as sound judgment and mature discrimination, as the outcome of his various investments abundantly indicate. Time has shown conclusively that he made no mistake in the venture to which his energies, in the main. have been devoted, and with a similar spirit in his other undertak- ings, it is not strange that signal results have followed and that he has forged to a foremost place in the ranks of Howard county's rep- resentative men of affairs. While possessing broad and intimate knowledge concerning matters of public interest and manifesting a lively interest in public matters, his extensive business connections have naturally compelled him to give politics a subordinate place,
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notwithstanding which he keeps in touch with the leading questions and issues of the day and with a commendable spirit discharges the duties devolving upon him as a citizen and a member of society. He is an active and influential member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and during the hours of leisure at his command finds his greatest enjoyment as an automobilist, in which diversion he is a recognized expert.
Mr. Conradt is a married man and the father of one childl. a son by the name of Lewis Albert, his wife, whom he wedded in Peru, having formerly been Mary Ager, daughter of U. A. Ager. a well known and highly esteemed resident of that city.
JOHN HINKLE.
Among the representative farmers and honored ex-soldiers of Howard county, Indiana. is the subject of this review, who is the owner of a fine farm in Taylor township and is carrying on the various departments of his enterprise with that discretion and energy which are sure to find their natural sequence in definite suc- cess. To such men as Mr. Hinkle we turn with particular satisfac- tion as offering in their life histories justification for works of this character owing to the life of honesty and sobriety he has led and his energetic nature and patriotic spirit.
John Hinkle was born in Delaware county, Indiana. in 1842. the son of Ziba and Abagail Hinkle. Grandfather Hinkle was a native of Ohio who came to Indiana and settled at Muncie where he spent the balance of his life, dying in 1845. His widow sur- vived him many years. Seven children of this couple lived to maturity. Moses IFinkle, uncle of our subject. was a soldier from
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Howard county and died from disease contracted while in line of (luty.
Ziba Hinkle, father of the subject, had few opportunities to ob- tain an early education. Ile remained in the vicinity of Muncie until 1856, working on the farm with his father until the date men- tioned when he came to Howard county and in about four years bought forty acres of wooded land which he and his sons cleared, improved and made a home on. He sold this farm in 1862 and bought another farm of forty acres, and after several years he traded for an eighty acre farm in Madison county which he later sold and he and his wife bought property in Centre. Howard county, where the former lived until after his wife's death, then came to live with one of his daughters, a Mrs. Bergen. The mother of the subject died in 1908 at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. The father is eighty-eight years old at the time of this writing. Both he and his wife were long members of the Chrisian church. They were the parents of eight children, seven of whom reached maturity. Three of the sons have been Indiana soldiers; Jacob was in the seventy-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and he died while in the army as a result of an attack of measles: Joseph sur- vived until the close of the war, receiving an honorable discharge. Both enlisted from Howard county.
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