USA > Indiana > Miami County > History of Miami County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 10
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Mr. Baker had his due quota of experience in connection with fell- ing timber, "grubbing" out underbrush, the planting and garnering of crops and other duties incidental to the work of the pioneer farm, and thus was begotten that "love of nature in her visible forms" that has endured through all later years, with the memories of the arduous toil illumined and brightened in the dim retrospect. He attended the old- time schools during the winter terms and the lessons thus gained quick- encd a desire for broader mental discipline, which it has been his to acquire through self-application and through long and active associ- ation with the practical affairs of life. Mr. Baker is one of the "Grand old men" of Miami county and the conditions that compass him con- stitute a fitting environment for one who has endured to the full the heat and burden of the day.
On his homestead farm Mr. Baker continued to reside until 1894, when he removed to Peru, where he has since maintained his home and where he is living retired from active labors, save that he gives a general supervision to his farming interests, in connection with which he is the owner of about two hundred and forty acres of fine land, in Peru and Erie townships. He has ever been loyal and public-spirited as a citizen and his allegiance was given to the Republican party from the time of his young manhood until the election of November, 1912, when he asserted his convictions and showed his independence of thought and sentiment by casting his vote in support of the national and local
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tickets of the Progressive party. Both he and his wife have been for many years earnest and devoted members of the Christian church.
On the 2d of April, 1863, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Baker to Miss Margaret E. Wible, who was born at Peru, Ind., and who has been his cherished and devoted companion and helpmeet for a full half century, within which she has shared with him the joys and sorrows that must be the portion of all human kind and during which both have been sustained and comforted by mutual love and sympathy, so that they may look with complacency upon the past and the present as they pass forward toward the sunset gates of life. Of their four children two died in infancy; Charles E. is a resident of the city of Sedalia, Missouri ; and Conrad L. resides in Peru, where he is actively identified with business interests and is an influential citizen of his native county.
THEODORE J. SULLIVAN. Forty-nine years ago, Theodore J. Sullivan established at Peru a blacksmith shop. The contemporaries of Mr. Sullivan at that time have all since passed away, and have been removed from the scene of personal activities either by death or by the changes which are always operating in the business world. Not only has he sur- vived all the men who were in business when he began, but it has been his lot to witness the beginning and the middle and the end of many other enterprises connected with the business history of Peru. He has built his business up from a small beginning, when it was only one among many, until his shop is now recognized under the firm name of Sullivan & Eagle, manufacturers of wagons and carriages, and also of large circus wagons, and it is one of the largest industries of the kind in the city.
Theodore J. Sullivan is a native of Maryland, born in Carroll county, July 2, 1840, a son of Jacob and Margaret (King) Sullivan. Jacob Sullivan, the father, was a blacksmith by trade, and in Maryland built up an extensive business not only in that line but in the manufacture and repair of wagons and all other machinery and implements. His business career was prosperous up to the time of the Civil war, but the troubled conditions of that period practically put an end to his busi- ness. He himself was a Union man, and he lived in a community com- posed principally of southern sympathizers, and that fact alone was prejudicial both to his business and to his social comfort. Perhaps, largely for this reason, in 1865 he moved to Peru, Indiana, where some of his children had located and he remained here at work at his trade until his death.
Mr. Theodore J. Sullivan was reared to manhood in the Village of Wakefield, Maryland, where the schools were such and the family cir- cumstances in such a posture that his advantages were very limited. Under his father's direction. however, he had ample opportunity to acquire a substantial trade, and learned the blacksmithing art thoroughly. With this equipment and experience, at the age of twenty- one, in the fall of 1861 he came west and first located in Miami county, Ohio, where he worked at his trade until 1864, and in April of that year moved and became a permanent resident of Peru, Indiana. For a short time he was in the employ of the I. P. & C. Railway, but then bought the blacksmith establishment of Samuel Heffley. From that time down to the present, Mr. Sullivan has been continuously in business in this city, and is probably the oldest business man in active service and in point of years in continuous work. At the beginning he confined his attention to general blacksmithing, horseshoeing, wagon repairing and such service as a blacksmith shop was supposed to furnish. In time he added a department for the manufacture of wagons and buggies, and
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the business prospered steadily from year to year. Since 1884 a large part of the business has been in the manufacture of circus wagons and similar equipment. Mr. George Graff became a partner in the business in 1873, previous to which time he had operated a wood-working estab- lishment in this city. Mr. Graff remained in the firm until 1879 at which date he was succeeded by Mr. Henry A. Eagle, and the firm of Sullivan & Eagle has ever since been numbered among the successful industrial concerns of Peru.
Mr. Sullivan is a member of the Baptist Church and is a Progressive Republican in politics. He served for two years as a member of the city council, and has always been willing to cooperate with the public spirited movements in this community. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic Order of Peru. October 5, 1871, he married Miss Mary A. Deibert, and they are the parents of three children : Arthur J., who died March 7, 1912; Hazen P. and George Oliver.
JACOB THEOBALD. Half a century of honorable business activity and citizenship comprises a record such as any man should be proud to possess. It was more than fifty years ago when Jacob Theobald, then a young man, with hardly a dollar to his name, and with only manual trade as his dependence, came to Peru, and began a career which has since brought him a generous success so far as his own material means are concerned, and has also identified his name with much that is profit- able and worthy in the community enterprise. Mr. Theobald is one of the foreign-born citizens of Peru, who are not only a credit to their native country, but to the country of their adoption.
He was born August 19, 1839, in Bavaria, Germany, and was a little past nine years of age when, with his parents, Peter and Catherine (Licht) Theobald, he crossed to America. This eventful voyage was made in a sailing vessel and continued for forty-two tedious days. On reaching this country, the family went west to Wisconsin, where the father was one of the pioneers in Washington county, and where he continued his residence until his death in 1875. The mother passed away five years later in 1880. The father was a substantial farmer, and it was on the old Wisconsin homestead that Jacob Theobald grew to man- hood and received his early training for a life work. He entered upon an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade, and it has been as a carpenter and contractor that he has been chiefly connected with business affairs in Peru during the last half century.
Mr. Theobald came to Peru in 1861, and from that year to the pres- ent has always been an active and honored worker in the community affairs. For thirteen years he gave public service as a member of the city council, but he is most widely known as a skillful workman at his trade and as a business builder, and a man whose business acts have at all times reflected his business integrity. As before stated he came to Peru with scarcely a dollar in his pocket, but by industry and busi- ness sagacity has accumulated a competency. In politics he is a Dem- ocrat and his church is the German-Lutheran.
In March, 1865, Mr. Theobald married Mary Shireman, who died in 1872, leaving two daughters: Kate, who married Orla Fansler, and is the mother of two sons, Walter and Paul; and Mary, the wife of John Kramer, and the mother of one son, Robert. On August 17, 1874, Mr. Theobald married Martha C. Keyl. To this marriage the following chil- dren were born: Ernest, who married Emma Scheips, and is the father of two daughters, Louisa and Ruth; Oscar, who has one son Oscar, born to his marriage with Bertha Prange; Clara and Martha. Mrs. Theobald
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died January 20, 1902, since which time Mr. Theobald has lived in his pleasant home with his two youngest daughters as housekeepers.
With others as his associates in 1900 Mr. Theobald bought the old Huckley foundry, which was erected in 1860 and stood for many years as one of the landmarks in the local industry. In this plant they began the manufacture of sewing machine woodwork. The venture did not prove profitable, and in order to protect his own interests, Mr. Theo- bald bought the property under sheriff's sale. He at once changed the character of the entire business and began the manufacture of wood- work of all kinds. He also associated with himself his two sons, and since then has developed this plant into one of the most important and profitable industries of Peru. . On Christmas day of 1909 he gave to each of his two sons a one-third interest in the establishment, and these sons are now the active managers of the plant. As this brief sketch indicates, Mr. Theobald has touched community enterprise in many ways during his long career here. It is to such lives, honorable and enterprising, that a community grows and becomes important among the centers of trade and population.
CLAUDE Y. ANDREWS. One of the noted members of the Peru bar, Mr. Andrews has had a successful career as an attorney in this city for more than ten years, was elected prosecuting attorney soon after locating here and since his service of two years in that office enjoyed a large prac- tice and a generous participation in the field of citizenship and social life.
Claude Y. Andrews is a native of Indiana and was born in Ver- million county, October 12, 1873. His father, William P. Andrews, was a native of the same county and a descendant of Irish ancestry. William P. Andrews with his wife is still living in Vermillion county, and is among the best known citizens of that locality. He, for many years, has been a building contractor. He married Editha V. Puffer, whose father, Reuben Puffer, came to Indiana from Bainbridge, Massa- chusetts, being one of the early settlers of the Wabash Valley. The par- ents had two children, both of whom are now living.
Mr. Claude Y. Andrews, who was reared in his native county, attended the district schools there, and then for two years was a student in the preparatory department of Franklin college, this state. Entering the classical department of the same institution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1898. In 1896 he represented his Alma Mater in the state oratorical contest and at his graduation was valedictorian of his class. During his college career he was also affiliated with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
In 1899 Mr. Andrews entered the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he completed his first year in about six months, and in 1901, after a thorough course and a creditable record in all his studies, was graduated LL.B.
In September, 1901, Mr. Andrews located at Peru, where he estab- lished an office for practice at 111/2 South Broadway. He rapidly acquired distinction as a young lawyer and popularity as a citizen and in the Democratic convention of March, 1902, was nominated for the office of prosecuting attorney. At the ensuing November election he was elected to the office and gave two years of faithful and intelligent service. It is noteworthy that Mr. Andrews while prosecuting attorney did the entire work of the office and did not, as was legally permitted, require an assistant to be appointed by the court, and by this course he decreased the expense of the county attorney's office upon the county treasurer. In 1904 Mr. Andrews became the partner of Judge J. T. Cox, Vol. II-5
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under the firm name of Cox & Andrews. This firm is one of the strongest combinations of legal talent in Miami county.
Mr. Andrews is a member of the Peru Commercial Club, of which he served as president in 1909 and 1910 and at the present time is president of the Peru Federation of Clubs. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Loyal Order of Moose. On Novem- ber 27, 1901, he married Miss Laura Lukens. They are the parents of one son, Francis Puffer Andrews. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews are members of the First Baptist church of Peru, and have one of the attractive and cultured homes of this city.
HURD J. HURST. A son of the Hon. James W. Hurst, whose long career in nothern Miami county is sketched elsewhere in this work, Mr. Hurd J. Hurst was born on the old homestead of his father just south of the town of Macy on November 16, 1884. Growing to manhood on that place, he attained his primary education in the Macy schools, and later entered Rochester Normal University at Rochester, this state, where he completed a scientific course in 1903. For three years Mr. Hurst was a school teacher, having charge of the district school in Allen township, his home school. His ambition was for the law, and he pursued ยท his readings with the firm of Lawrence and Rhodes, and after two years of regular attendance in the Indianapolis College of Law, was graduated in June, 1908, and was soon afterwards admitted to the bar .. As a young lawyer Mr. Hurst located in Peru, where he has since been engaged in active practice. Since July, 1912, he has been associated with Mr. Oliver F. Rhodes, under the firm name of Hurst & Rhodes.
Mr. Hurst on February 23, 1907, married Miss Florence Hatch, a daughter of John M. Hatch of Allen township, Miami county. They are the parents of two children: Noble Gordon and Carmen Isabel. Fra- ternally Mr. Hurst is affiliated with Lincoln Lodge No. 523, A. F. & A. M., at Macy, and with the Loyal Order of Moose at Peru.
JUD R. MCCARTHY. A solid business enterprise at Peru which re- flects the enterprise and ability of its affairs is the men's furnishing and tailoring business conducted by Mr. Jud R. McCarthy, who for the past ten years has been actively identified with and known to a large and dis- criminating patronage in this line. Mr. McCarthy is a real business builder, having begun his career as a delivery boy, and advancing from one stage to another, until he is now one of the independent and most successful merchants of his home city.
Jud R. McCarthy was born in the city of Peru, February 22, 1880, a son of John and Bridget (Daly) McCarthy. His parents were both natives of County Clare, Ireland, and the father came to the United States when a young man, landing at New Orleans, thence coming by boat up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Cincinnati, and eventually attaining employment at railroad work in Ohio. He came to Peru when the Wabash Railroad was projected to this point, being connected with that enterprise. After his arrival in Peru he married a native of his own county, and continued in railroad service until near the close of his life, when he retired. His death occurred January 23, 1907. His wife passed away September 3, 1898. Further details concerning the history of the parents will be found in the sketch of Mr. John S. Mc- Carthy, published on other. pages of this work.
Jud R. McCarthy attained part of his education in the parochial schools and part in the public schools of Peru, and later had the benefit of a course in the Peru business college. He was about fourteen years
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of age when he began his practical business career as a delivery boy for H. Andres, the well-known local groceryman. Subsequently he began work of a little higher grade for Hall & Lowenthal, and continued in that employ for a number of years, during which he laid the substan- tial basis of experience, which has enabled him to be so successful in later years. During that time he acquired a thorough knowledge of the tailoring and men's furnishing business. Then in 1904 he estab- lished at Peru, a small shop for men's furnishing and haberdashery. He has built his original undertaking up to be one of the largest and most popular concerns of the kind in the entire county. With the ex- pansion of the business he added in February , 1911, a tailoring depart- ment having purchased the tailoring establishment of Werner & Kramer. In December, 1912, Mr. McCarthy bought the Toggery Tailoring Com- pany's establishment at Warsaw, Indiana, and has extended this to a general tailoring and furnishing house similar to the one he conducts in Peru. Thus he has acquired important interests in two of the lead- ing cities in northern Indiana, and is a progressive young merchant with a bright career of much larger accomplishments before him.
Mr. McCarthy in politics, is a Democrat, but has never taken any active part in party affairs, all his attention being devoted to business and home. He is a devout member of the Catholic Church. October 27, 1903, Mr. McCarthy married Miss Lucy Mary McGrady of Peru, a daughter of Charles McGrady.
WILLIAM SCHUYLER MERCER. To feed the people has always been a task requiring all that man possesses of ability, industry and business enterprise. It is in the line of furnishing high class articles of food to the people of Peru and vicinity that Mr. Mercer's business activities have been directed for the larger part of his career. Sanitary, wholesome and pure foods have been the object of his endeavor, and in furnish- ing such a supply to the local communities he has conferred a service probably greater in essential values than that conferred by any other individual force.
William Schuyler Mercer, who represents one of the oldest and best known families of Miami county, was born in the city of Peru, Febru- ary 3, 1861, a son of Moses and Ann J. (Long) Mercer. The father, who came to Miami county in 1842, as one of the pioneers, was a native of Licking county, Ohio, was reared in his native state, learned the cooper's trade, and was a young man at the beginning of his career when he came to Indiana. The first home was in Wabash, where he was employed at the cooper's trade, but soon afterwards moved to Peru where he followed his regular occupation and subsequently took up work as carpenter. For a number of years he was in the wood-working department of the old I. P. & C. Railway, the old name for what is now the Lake Erie & Western, which in turn is a part of the great New York Central Lines. He was engaged in repair work and other duties in connection with that old railroad during its early operations through this county. During the latter part of his life the late Moses Mercer was associated with the Indiana Manufacturing Company. He was one of the organizers and a charter member of Miami Lodge No. 42 A. F. & A. M. at Peru. He was married after coming to Peru to Miss Ann J. Long, whose father, Peter Long, had located at Logansport during the early pioneer times when the Indians were still numerous in this country. Mr. and Mrs. Moses Mercer were two of the original thirteen who organized the first Baptist church of Peru, their names being now perpetuated on the first roll of membership, and the institution which they then helped to organize has since become one of the largest and
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most flourishing religious communities in Miami county. In politics, the senior Mercer was an old-line Whig until the formation of the Republican party, and ever thereafter he voted the Republican ticket, and supported its candidates. He and his wife were the parents of five children, whose names are as follows: Ado J., who is married and lives in Cincinnati; May, now Mrs. Avery P. Tudor of Peru; William Schuyler; Georgia, who married William Neff, and is now deceased and Emmett, who died in early childhood. The father of this family passed away in 1899, honored and respected by all citizens as one of the finest types of the pioneers. His wife died in 1886.
William Schuyler Mercer was reared in Peru and with the excep- tion of one year spent in Chicago has always made this city his home. In the public schools he acquired the substantials of an education up to the time he was fourteen, at which date, in 1875, he began clerking in the well known mercantile house of Killgore, Shirk & Company. He remained with this firm, for twelve years, until 1887. At that time, having accumulated a little capital and a large amount of business experience he engaged in the grain business with J. A. Neal, under the firm name of Mercer & Neal. In the spring of 1898 he disposed of his interests to Mr. Neal, and the ensuing year was spent in the grain busi- ness at Chicago. On his return to Peru he gave his energies a differ- ent direction. He bought the Dubbs Bakery and Restaurant, and was proprietor of this concern until about 1907. At that date he separated the bakery from the restaurant, and built his modern bakery plant at 20-21 East Fifth Street. At that time also was organized the firm of Mercer & Company, his son-in-law, Hazen P. Sullivan becoming the company part of the business. This firm has continued ever since. In 1911 the restaurant was sold, and in the fall of that year Mercer & Company bought the Sanitary Milk Company. The offices of the milk company have been at 623 E. Main Street, until February 1912, at which time the firm bought the William Exmeyer ice cream factory at the foot of Wabash street on the Wabash river. This factory was rebuilt, and given a complete equipment of sanitary and modern devices for the manufacture of ice cream and milk products. At that time the Sanitary Milk business office was moved to the same factory, and since then the business has been conducted under the name of the Sanitary Milk & Ice Cream Company. By these various extensions and reorganizations, the firm of Mercer & Company have come to control a large and flour- ishing trade, in Peru, and have the reputation of producing the highest class of sanitary food articles.
Mr. Mercer is a Republican in politics and has long been influentially connected with local affairs. He is affiliated with the Masonic order. He was until he moved to Chicago a member of the Peru school board, and it was during his term on the board that the fine school building at West Seventh & Miami Streets was erected. Mr. Mercer was married December 29, 1881, to Miss Sarah E. Fisher, of Mexico, Indiana, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Brower) Fisher. To their marriage has been borne one daughter, Vernice E., who is now Mrs. Hazen P. Sullivan. Mr. and Mrs. Mercer are both members of the Baptist church of Peru.
GEORGE R. CHAMBERLAIN. There are in every community men of great force of character who by reason of their capacity for leadership become recognized as foremost citizens, and bear a most important part in public affairs. Such a man at Peru is George R. Chamberlain, who is prominently identified with financial and commercial affairs of this city, and is now the oldest banker in point of service in the city.
John C Davis
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Forty-two years ago on February 11, 1872, he entered the employ of the First National Bank as collector and general utility man. He performed the work that was required of him, always did a little more than was necessary, was social, vigilant and enterprising. He became in turn bookkeeper, teller, assistant cashier and on January 1, 1911 was promoted to vice president of this bank now the soundest and oldest institution of Miami county. He is still vice president, and one of the active managers of the institution.
George R. Chamberlain was born at Peru August 4, 1854. George W. Chamberlain, his father, was a native of Lambertsville, New Jersey, and when a boy with his parents moved west to Seneca county, Ohio, locating at Melrose, where he learned the carpenter's trade and worked at it for some time. From there he came west to Peru, about 1850, and in this city married Margaret Morrison. It was as a carpenter that he continued throughout practically all his life, and the house in which his son, the banker now resides was erected by this veteran worker in tools and work. It is an evidence of his skillful work, and the care which he manifested in everything he undertook. He was a man of quiet and unassuming disposition, industrious and kind to all with whom he came into contact. By a career of unswerving honesty and upright character, he maintained to the end the respect and admiration of his fellow-citizens, and his death on August 22, 1895, removed one of the well beloved citizens from this community. His wife passed away September 2, 1899. They were the parents of four children, two of whom are now living.
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