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 55
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
After his marriage, Seymour Douglass lived on his father's farm in Clinton county, and there passed the remaining years of a useful life. He was not a member of any church, although a supporter of move- ments making for morality and good citizenship, and when he died, at the early age of forty-six years, he was esteemed and respected by all who knew him. He was a Republican and a stanch Abolitionist and took an active part in assisting the Union cause. For some years he served his fellow-citizens in positions of public trust and responsibility and for a time was justice of the peace and township clerk. All of his children were born on the Douglass homestead in Clinton county and were as follows: Milton; Mary R., born November 26, 1843; James, a talented violinist, born August 19, 1847; Solomon, born February 26, 1851, died August 19, 1871; Martha E., born July 6, 1853; Alice R., born November 14, 1856; Rose, born in 1859; and Seymour, born June 10, 1861, who died December 7, 1897.
Milton Douglass was given the advantages of a public school educa- tion in his native state, and was there engaged in agricultural pursuits during the Civil War. Enlisting in Company B, One Hundred
810
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
Forty-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, he served for four months with that organization, and then received his honorable dis- charge and returned to the duties of peace. In 1868, after his mar- riage, Mr. Douglass came to his present property, then a tract of sixty acres, upon which but little clearing had been done. Here he erected a small plank house, in which he and his wife settled down to house- keeping, and as the years passed he added to his land, his improvements and his buildings, making one of the valuable farms of his township. In 1880 he purchased twenty acres in Jackson township, adjoining his original purchase, and later added sixty acres morc, and cleared and ditched the entire property, which he beautified with substantial struc- tures of modern architecture. Of late years he has given a good deal of his property to his children, although he is still active in the manage- ment of his affairs, and is known as one of the substantial farmers of his section. Mr. Douglass has been an ardent worker in the cause of good roads, and to his influence and efforts and to his personal can- vasses in Harrison and Jackson townships may be given the credit for much of the progress that has been made along this line. A faithful member of the Friends' Church, he has acted in the capacity of overseer and clerk. Hc receives a government pension for his services in the army, and is a valued and popular member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
On January 1, 1868, Mr. Douglass was married to Miss Mary Ballard, who was born December 2, 1845, in Iowa, daughter of David and Priscilla (Lewis) Ballard. David Ballard was born in Greene county. Ohio, February 2, 1819, a son of William and Phoebe (Faulk- ner) Ballard, the Ballards being North Carolinians of Scotch-Irish ancestry. David Ballard was a farmer, as had been his father before him, and after moving about a good deal finally settled on a property in Howard county, Indiana. His children were as follows : Asa, who served four years and eight months in the Civil War, being honorably discharged with the rank of captain; Louisa, Mary, Aseneth and Wil- liam. He was a member of the Friends' church, in which he served as trustec, was a stanch prohibitionist, a charter member of that party, and a man of straightforward character. Mrs. Douglass died in March, 1888, in the faith of the Society of Friends, having been the mother of five children, namely: Clinton, who married Clara Powell; Lizzie, who married O. D. Milton; Milo, who married Clara Howard; Elbert, who married Nora Allen, and Eva, who died at the age of twenty years.
On August 20, 1889, in Howard county, Indiana, Mr. Douglass was married to Mary E. Symons, who was born July 1, 1858, in Wabash county, Indiana, a daughter of Danicl and Louisa (Macy) Symons. The Macys were an old Colonial family of North Carolina and for generations members of the Friends' Church, with which Mrs. Douglass is connected. Mr. Douglass is a Prohibitionist, and has not been backward in advocating temperance movements or expressing his views on the subject. His own life has been a long and a useful one, and now, in the evening of life, he may look back over a career on which there is no stain or blemish, surrounded by family and friends, and content in the knowl- edge of work ably accomplished, duty well donc.
NOAH W. KING, whose connection with the business interests of Amboy dates back to 1895, is worthily entitled to a place among the representative men of Miami county, in that during his residence here he has been identified with a number of the enterprises that have given the city commercial and industrial supremacy. His activities have left their impress upon the business, political and social life of the community,
811
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
and he has at all times been considerate of the duties of citizenship. Mr. King is a native of Ohio, born in Tuscarawas county, December 19, 1858, and is a son of Absalom and Susanna (Hostettler) King, and a grand- son of Christian King and Isaac Hostettler.
Absalom King was born in Holmes county, Ohio, from whence he removed in young manhood to Tuscarawas county, in that state, and April 3, 1875, came to Miami county, Indiana. In early manhood he was engaged in farming, and subsequently took up sawmill work, but on locating in Miami county secured a farm of eighty acres in Clay town- ship, on which he carried on operations for about twenty years. Suc- ceeding this he went to the Howard county line, secured land, and . spent the remainder of his life in agricultural pursuits.
Noah W. King received a good common school education, and until his marriage resided with his parents. At the age of twenty-one years he began teaching school, continuing as an educator until reaching his thirtieth year, and also dealt in horses and operated a threshing outfit. About the year 1900 he was elected trustee of Clay township, and at that time began farming on his father-in-law's homestead, but subse- quently purchased a tract of his own, on which he resided for three years. At the end of that period, on account of the ill health of his wife, he sold his land and removed to Peru, where he was engaged in real estate operations. In the spring of 1895 Mr. King came to Amboy and became one of the founders of the Amboy Mercantile Company, of which he was manager for some time, and in which he still retains an interest, although at this writing he is engaged as manager, secretary ยท and treasurer of Amboy Home Telephone Company, of Amboy, Indiana, and in the real estate and loan business, having a well appointed suite of offices in the Miami County Bank building. He is at this time secre- tary of this bank. He is known as a capable man of affairs, who is relied upon by his associates for leadership in matters of an important char- acter, but who has never allowed his own enterprises to interfere with the duties of citizenship. He is essentially a business man and has not cared for public preferment, but takes an interest in the success of good men and progressive movements. With his family, he attends the Men- nonite church.
On March 26, 1886, Mr. King was married to Miss Elizabeth Miller, of Miami county, daughter of Absalom and Barbara (Shrock) Miller. Seven children have been born to this union, namely: Beulah, who became the wife of Earl Mast; Willard and Susie, who are single and engaged in teaching school in Miami county ; Katie, Ima and Ralph, who are completing their education in the schools of Amboy, and Maude F., who died in infancy. The members of this family are widely known in social circles of Amboy, where all have numerous friends.
JOHN F. UNGER. From a subordinate position in a clerical capacity, John F. Unger advanced step by step until he found himself secretary and treasurer of the Indiana Manufacturing Company, in Peru, Indiana, and from that he has recently come to be known as a member of the firm of Unger-Kramer Company, manufacturers of wire bound packing boxes. This firm is incorporated at $50,000, and giving employment to an aggregate of fifty hands, is one of the telling enterprises of Peru.
John F. Unger, who is the executive head of the concern, was born in Arcadia, Hamilton county, Indiana, on June 8, 1869, and he is one of the eight children born to Jacob and Louise (Essig) Unger. All the children but one are yet living and filling useful places in their various walks of life. The father was a native of Wurtemburg, Germany, and the mother of Pennsylvania, and of Swiss parentage. Jacob Unger has
812
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
followed the business of farming all his life, but is now retired and with his wife is living at Arcadia, where he is enjoying the fruits of his earlier years of toil and application to duty.
John F. Unger was reared on the farm home of his parents to the age of twenty-one, during which time he received a good, practical edu- eation, ealeulated to help him through life, without hindering him by the possession of undue learning. He was graduated from the Arcadia high school, and for two winters thereafter he was engaged in teaching school. He followed that work with a course of business training and in 1890 eame to Peru, Indiana, where he secured employment with the Indiana Manufacturing Company as stenographer and assistant book- keeper. He remained with this eoneern for twenty-two years, being oeeupied in all its elerical departments, and advancing from one post of importance to another until in 1896 he became secretary of the concern. He continued in that capacity for sixteen years, and in February, 1912, he severed his long standing eonneetion with this well known concern and in association with George A. and John Kramer, engaged in an independent business enterprise. They purehased the old Peru Woolen Mills and dismantling it of its equipment, which they sold at a reason- able figure, they equipped the place with suitable machinery for the manufacture of wire bound paeking boxes. They established the busi- ness under the corporate name of the Unger-Kramer Company, and capitalized it at $50,000, and though still a young eoneern, it is making rapid headway in the business, and bids fair to take a prominent plaee . among the prominent manufacturing houses of this section of the state. It is an undeniable asset to the town, furnishing employment as it does to fifty persons continually, and is rightly regarded as one of the valu- able industrial enterprises of the city.
Mr. Unger is a Demoerat, and has served as a member of the city sehool board, having been a member of that body when the new high school building was erected, and it is worthy of mention here that Mr. Unger aided in the planning and designing of that structure, which is in every way a most ereditable one.
On April 12, 1893, Mr. Unger was married to Estella M. Tueker, of Arcadia, Indiana, and they have one son-Noel G. Unger. The religious faith of Mr. Unger is that of the German Lutheran ehureh, in which he was reared by his parents, and his wife is a stanch Presbyterian.
PROFESSOR HAL L. HALL is a native of Indiana, his birth occurring in Switzerland eounty October 29, 1865. He is the son of Edwin A. and Martha (Henry) Hall, the father being a native of Switzerland county, Indiana, and a carpenter and builder by trade, and the mother, a native of the same county, where both passed their lives and finally died.
Hal L. Hall was reared in his native eounty and there continued to reside until he had reached his twenty-first birthday. He was eduaeted in the public schools in the village of Center Square, and for four years, beginning when he was seventeen years old, he taught country schools. In 1887 he attended the spring term of school at the De Pauw University Normal School, and the succeeding year he attended the same institu- tion. In the autumn of 1888 he went to what is now North Dakota and was there engaged in teaching in Ransom and Cass counties for some- thing like four years. In 1892 he returned to his old Indiana home because of the serious illness of his mother, and during the ensuing winter taught in the high school at Moorfield. In 1893 and 1894 he was a student at the Indiana State University, at Bloomington, and in 1894-5 he was principal of the high school at Rockport, Indiana. In the fall of 1895 Mr. Hall came to Peru as a teacher of mathematics in the high
813
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
school. In 1897 he again entered the State University, where he con- tinued through 1897, there specializing in the subject of mathematics, and in 1899 he was graduated from the State University with the A. B. degree. His mother died in that year, and he remained at home during the remainder of the year, and in the next year he accepted a position as teacher of mathematics in the high school of Anderson, Indiana. The fall of 1900 found him once more in Peru as principal of the high school, and that position he continued to fill for three years. The next five and a half years Mr. Hall was occupied in the insurance and real estate busi- ness in Peru, at the end of which time he withdrew from business activi- ties and once more resumed his educational work, going to Shawnee, Oklahoma, where he was principal of the high school for three years. In 1912 Mr. Hall was elected superintendent of the schools of Peru, which position he is now filling. Mr. Hall is recognized throughout the state as an educator of more than usual merit, and one who keeps apace with the newest and best methods in the educational system. He is in every way fitted for his work, and finds favor wherever he has been identified with the educational interests of a community.
MILTON KRAUS, president of the Great Western Automobile Com- pany is one of the most active and influential business men of Peru. He began his career in this city more than twenty-five years ago as a lawyer and was engaged in practice and one of the successful members of the local bar for many years until he finally turned all of his attention to manufacturing and other more material lines of commerce.
Milton Kraus is a native of Kokomo, Indiana, where he was born June 26, 1866. His parents came to Peru in 1880 when he was fourteen years of age, and this has ever since been his home. His early education was obtained in both the public schools of Kokomo and Peru, graduating in 1884 from the Peru high school.
He then entered the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he was graduated in the law in 1886. Admitted to the bar of Miami county in the same year, he took up and engaged in the active practice of his profession for a number of years. For the past fifteen years, however, he has not engaged in active practice. During this time he has given his enterprise to mercantile and manufacturing enterprises in Peru. He is president of the Great Western Automobile Company, and is doing much to promote the industrialism of this city. In politics Mr. Kraus is a Republican.
HON. JABEZ THOMAS Cox. Judge Cox has long held secure prestige as one of the representative jurists and lawyers of Indiana. His family was founded in this commonwealth more than sixty years ago, and its earlier history was identified with American annals from the early colonial era. His paternal great-grandfather was a soldier in the Continental line in the War of the Revolution, serving with South Carolina troops, and after the war became a pioneer settler at Nashville, Tennessee. Two great uncles of Judge Cox, Captain Walker and Colonel Henderson, were gallant officers of the War of 1812 and both were killed in the Bat- tle of New Orleans. Another great-uncle, James Watts, who was an ensign in a Nashville Company of Mounted Riflemen, in the Creek Indian war was killed in one of the engagements with those Indians.
Though Judge Cox is a native of Ohio, he was only about four years old when the family came to Indiana, and this state has been his home the greater portion of his life. He was born in Clinton county, Ohio, January 27, 1846, a son of Aaron and Mary (Skaggs) Cox, the former a native of Ohio. The grandfather was a native of North Carolina.
814
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
Aaron Cox was an Ohio farmer until 1850, when he brought his family to Indiana, and established his home in Hamilton county, where he developed a productive farm and became on honored and influential citizen. Both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives in the city of Indianapolis.
Under the conditions and influences of a pioneer farm in Hamilton county, Jabez T. Cox grew up strong in body and not without his stir- rings of inspiration and ambition for a larger sphere of usefulness dur- ing his mature years. The early district schools of that locality gave him a knowledge of books, and he studied much privately, and also took a course in Westfield Academy in that county. He was known as a very bright scholar in that community, and when sixteen years of age quali- fied himself for the dignified position of teacher in a district school, in which a number of his pupils were older than himself. He early had definitely decided upon the law as the regular career for his efforts, and took up the studies of Blackstone under Judge James O'Brien, a leading member of the Hamilton county bar, and at that time living in Nobles- ville. Early in 1864, when eighteen years old, Judge Cox tendered his services to the Union enlisting as a private in Company B of the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. The greater part of his service was on detached duty, since his command did not get into action in any of the great battles of the closing period of the war.
. Soon after receiving his honorable discharge, Judge Cox resumed his studies at Tipton, in the office of his uncle Nathan R. Overman, who later served on the bench of the circuit court. In 1867 he was admitted to the bar, and forthwith engaged in the practice of his profession at Tipton. He applied himself closely to his work, and soon gained recog- nition as one of the rising young attorneys of the Tipton county bar. In 1869 he temporarily retired from the law to take up journalistic enter- prise. He bought the plant and business of the Frankfort Crescent, a weekly paper issued at Frankfort in Clinton county. Judge Cox was editor and publisher of the Crescent until February, 1872, when he sold the property and returned to Tipton. There he engaged in practice as a member of the firm of Overman, Cox & Parker, the senior member of which was his uncle and former preceptor, Judge Overman. During his successful practice at Tipton which continued until 1875, Mr. Cox made a reputation as a resourceful trial lawyer and also as a counselor. In that year he moved to Kansas, establishing his home at Hutchinson, where he soon gained a leading rank in the local bar. In 1878 he was Democratic nominee for the office of attorney general of Kansas, and though defeated he made such a spirited and effective canvass through- out the state that in the ensuing election he had the satisfaction of run- ning thirty thousand votes ahead of the general average of his party ticket.
In the spring of 1879, owing largely to the seriously impaired health of his wife, Judge Cox moved to Canyon City, Colorado, where he prac- ticed law until February, 1883. His wife had in the meantime died, and on leaving Colorado, Judge Cox returned to Indiana, and established his home in the city of Peru. Here he has since given his attention to the practice of law, and to the duties of public office. He is known as one of the strong and versatile members of the bar, of Miami county, and has the highest ideals of his profession, and has always maintained the strictest standards of professional conduct.
Since his return to Indiana, Judge Cox has been much in public life. In 1887, Miami county sent him to the state legislature. While in the capital he was the first active promoter of the Employers' Liability Bill in Indiana, and though the bill failed of passage, owing to dissension
815
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
incident to the election of a United States senator, he paved the way for later legislation along the same line. In 1890 Judge Cox was hon- ored by his associates and by the eitizens of his eireuit in election to the office of cireuit judge, and on the beneh made an able and conscientious administration, of such a character that he was retained in office by reelection in 1896. Judge Cox was thus on the eireuit beneh for twelve years, and while always absolutely fair and impartial in his deeisions and maintaining the strietest diseipline in his eourt, he proved one of the most popular judges who ever presided over the circuit court at Peru. Very few of his decisions ever received reversal by the higher courts. Since retiring from the beneh in 1902 Judge Cox has been en- gaged in the practice of his profession at Peru. His clientage and his reputation place him among the leading members of the Indiana bar, and his services and counsel have been required in connection with many large and important interests.
Judge Cox has always been one of the effective advocates of the prin- ciples and policies of the Demoeratie party. During the years of his residence in Peru, he has been a delegate to praetically every convention in Indiana. As a eitizen he is liberal, loyal and progressive, and his influenee and cooperation are always depended upon in the support of measures for the general good of the community. Judge Cox affiliates with the Masonie Order, the Knights of the Maeeabees, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
On March 14, 1867, Judge Cox married Miss Jennie Price, of Tipton. Her death occurred at Canyon City, Colorado, in September, 1882. Only one of their three children is living: Edward E., editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper at Hartford City, Indiana. In May, 1884, at Peru, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Cox to Miss Elizabeth Mein- hardt. Her death oceurred in 1893. Of the two children born to that marriage, Carl died when four years old, and Mary Elizabeth, who is a successful and popular kindergarten teacher, resides in Peru. In July, 1895, Judge Cox married Miss Addie Allman, of Huntington, Indiana. Mrs. Cox is one of the popular factors in church and social life at Peru.
RAWLEY H. BOUSLOG. Probably no man in Miami county, living or dead, has been more actively connected with public movements and im- portant business enterprises than he whose name heads this brief sketeh. Rawley H. Bouslog has risen by the foree of his own industry, ability and sterling eharaeter to a position of power and influenee in the com- mereial, manufacturing and religious cireles of Peru. His career is one worthy of contemplation, for his activities have been along the lines of development wherein initiative and shrewd construetive ability have been constantly in demand.
Rawley H. Bouslog was born in Hancock county, Indiana, on the 12th day of October, 1852, and is a son of Rawley S. and Ann (Howell) Bouslog. His grandfather was John Bouslog, a native of Germany, who eame to this country in 1772 and served the colonies in their struggle for independnee. He and his family eame as early pioneers to Henry county, Indiana, in 1828. There he lived until his death at the patri- arehal age of one hundred and one years. Because of ill health, his son, Rawley S. Bouslog, who was a farmer, found it advisable to give up that voeation and beeame postmaster at Cleveland, Indiana, in which place he served until he removed to Indianapolis. In 1865 he came to Peru. His wife was the daughter of John Howell, an Irish Baptist preacher. They reared a family of eight children, four of whom are still living. One of these is the subject of our sketeh, who was a lad of thirteen years when his parents eame to Peru. He had the advantage
816
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
of schooling until he arrived at the age of fifteen. Though his days at the student's desk were ended abruptly at that age he did not lose sight of the value of an education. Accordingly, through his own studious habits and a desire for learning, he became a man of wide reading and one who would be accepted in any circle as the possessor of collegiate advantages.
The invalidism of his father made it necessary for the boy at an early age to assume a share of the burden of the family support, and he bravely took up the duties thus falling upon him. He was variously occupied until he was seventeen, when he secured employment as clerk in the First National Bank of Peru, of which E. H. Shirk was the president and Mil- ton Shirk, cashier, Mr. Bouslog and Mr. Shirk being the only two clerks in the bank at that time. For something like five years Mr. Bouslog continued with the First National and then embarked in the real estate and loan business. As a side line he organized the Peru Building and Loan Association which became one of the city's leading financial insti- tutions and as such exists today. He organized the Citizens' Gas and Pipe Line Company in 1887. Of this he became secretary-treasurer and manager. In 1895 he negotiated the sale of the plant which has always been regarded as one of the most successful financial coups of Peru's many large business operations. He was continued as manager under the new management for a number of years and at the same time he was employed as manager of the Peru Electric Manufacturing Company.
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.