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 8
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George Lee Miller was about nine years of age at the time of the family removal to Peru, and in the local schools he gained the major part of his early educational discipline, which has been effectively sup- plemented by the experiences of a long and active career as one of the world's workers. He has continuously maintained his home in Peru since his boyhood days and is known and honored of the people of the county to which his allegiance has never failed. He was still attend- ing school at the time of the inception of the Civil war and when but fourteen years of age he ran away from home and attempted to enlist as a soldier, but through parental influence he was compelled to return home. In 1864, upon Governor Morton's call for volunteers for the one hundred days' service, the patriotic young Miller, then about 16 years of age, was not to be denied a chance to enlist and go to the front if his ambition could be realized through such finesse as he could bring to bear. The inspecting officer in examining the volunteers formed them in double rank, and Mr. Miller was placed in the rear rank. By a prearranged plan, after the inspecting officer had passed along the
Godlove Conradt
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front line, the man in front of Mr. Miller exchanged places with him, having previously given his name as Miller, and the determined young aspirant for military honors stepped quickly to place in the front rank. whereupon his indulgent prospective comrade stood for inspec- tion in the rear rank, in which he gave his own name. By this engag- ing subterfuge young Miller, who was under age and of insufficient physical stature to pass inspection in a normal way, escaped detection and gained the desired end, which he yet believes justified the means. He was regularly mustered in as a member of Company A, One Hun- dred and Thirty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and while his term of enlistment was but for one hundred days he continued in active service for nearly six months, having received his honorable discharge, in accordance with special order issued by President Lincoln, on the 1st of October, 1864. His military service was principally in Ten- nessee, where his command was assigned to guard duty, and though he was not a participant in important engagements he made an admi- rable record for true soldierly qualities, as he was punctilous in the discharge of duties assigned to him and was always to be found at his post.
Upon his return to his home Mr. Miller assumed a position as clerk in a grocery store in Peru, and after being thus engaged for several years he became deputy county auditor, a position of which he con- tinued the incumbent for a period of four years. Thereafter he was employed for seventeen years as a letter carrier in the city of Peru. He in the meanwhile made judicious investments in farm property and city real estate, to which he has given the major part of his time and attention in later years. He owns 185 acres of land in Peru town- ship. He is liberal and public-spirited as a citizen, designates himself a progressive Republican in politics and is identified with various civic organizations in his home city.
On the 13th of December, 1877, Mr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Zitilla J. Tillett, daughter of William Tillett, concerning whom specific mention is made on other pages of this work, and the two chil- dren of this union are Mary Floy, who remains at the parental home; and Corwin E., who is a resident of Peru, where he is engaged in manufacturing automobile tires; he wedded Miss Helen Miner and they have one child, Mary Rosalee.
GODLOVE CONRADT. Among the families whose activities and lives have been distinctive contributions to the progress of Peru, probably none deserves more credit than that of Conradt. Upwards of seventy years ago, the then head of the family came to this city and established a tannery, which was one of the early industries of the kind, and one of the most important likewise. From that time to the present, the name has been associated with big endeavors and industries, which employ large quantities of labor, produce commodities to the value of many thousands of dollars each year, and which represent both in Peru and elsewhere some of the largest commercial assets of the community.
Mr. Godlove Conradt, who is now nearly eighty years of age, and one of the most venerable and successful of Peru's older business men, was born in the kingdom of Wuertemberg, Germany, July 10, 1834. Of the eight children in the family, four are now living. The parents were Henry E. and Catherine (Burkhardt) Conradt. In 1840 the family immigrated to America, making their home first in Springfield, Ohio, where the father built a tannery and was engaged in the tanning busi- ness up to 1845. In the later year he moved to Indiana, and after a short residence at Fort Wayne came to Peru. Here the father estab- Vol. 11-4
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lished a tanning yard, and the location of this business, for a number of years, was on a site now occupied by the Chesapeake & Ohio switch- yard in the west end of Peru. The father continued his connection with the tanning business until about 1864, and then lived retired until his death in 1871. His wife passed away in the same year about one month before him.
Godlove Conradt was about six years of age when the family came to America, and was about twelve years old when they located in Peru. The circumstances of the family were such that he had very limited opportunities for gaining an education, and the entire time which he attended school did not exceed six months. Observation and reading, a large experience with practical affairs, and association with men, have remedied these early defects in education, and he is not only a successful man in material affairs, but is well informed and throughout his life has possessed that intellectual curiosity which is a better asset than many unimproved opportunities and liberal advantages of education. As a boy he began at an early age to assist his father in the tan yard and ground the tan bark and did every other duty which his strength and experience permitted. Before he had reached his maturity he had acquainted himself by practical experience with every branch of the business and was an expert tanner. His father was an excellent tanner, but a poor business man, and it was for this reason that the industry had not prospered and the family likewise, during the early years. The sons believed that they could supply the judgment and energy needed for the business, and the father eventually consented to admit them to partnership. From this time on the firm prospered and the Conradt tanning business became one of the largest in northern Indiana, but it was due to the advice and management of Godlove Conradt that a retail store for leather findings was established at Peru. This not only provided a market for the local tannery products but became the medium of trade in thousands of dollars' worth of goods sent in from the eastern houses. The credit of the Conradts was such that after they had once established themselves in the business they could always discount their papers, and receive more favorable terms than the wholesalers and jobbers. Some time after the brothers took charge of the business the Civil war broke out and thereby was created a large demand for leather findings to be used by the army. Under this extraordinary demand the business increased to phenomenal value, and the prosperity of the house was securely established at that time. In 1857 his brother died and Mr. Godlove Conradt in 1864 bought out the entire business, and conducted it until 1882, although some ten years before he had aban- doned the local tannery.
During the past thirty years his attention has been diverted into many large fields of enterprise. About the time he disposed of his leather business, he took a contract to get out and deliver to the Wabash Railroad, ties, tiling and other timbers, and he spent three years in finishing up this contract. Having prospered in business and having a handsome competence, he then endeavored to retire and spend the rest of his years at leisure. He succeeded in this plan up to 1893, but then joined his sons Fred W. and Albert V. in establishing the Great Western Pottery Company at Kokomo. This was an entirely new field of operation to all the partners, but they used such practical business sense in the conduct of the business that in a few years the pottery com- pany became one of the largest manufacturing plants in the state of Indiana. The factory was started with four kilns, and two more were soon added to meet the demand for the product. In 1896 the factory was partly destroyed by fire at a loss of $53,000. Insurance to the
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amount of $40,000 was recovered, and the proprietors at once rebuilt on fire-proof lines. The plant at Kokomo now operates twelve kilns. In 1898, owing to the inability of the corporation to manufacture sufficient goods to meet the demand, a second factory at Tiffin, Ohio, was bought and ten kilns are now operated there. In all the two factories represent a capital of about $800,000, employment is given to about three hundred hands, and the value of the annual product amounts to more than $700,000. At Tiffin also Mr. Conradt and sons are engaged in the metal-ware manufacturing, under the firm name of the Tiffin Art Metal Company. The products of that company are widely advertised and used in every part of the country. The metal business represents a capital invested of about $125,000. It was a severe loss to the suc- cessful business organization so long conducted by father and sons when Frederick W. Conradt died on August 14, 1909. He had made his home at Tiffin, and was one of the most vigorous leaders in the business enterprise of that city. Mr. Godlove Conradt in 1910 had financed the contract for the erection of the city electric works of Peru. His time is now occupied in looking after his extensive property interests.
On December 27, 1857, Mr. Conradt married Mary Smith, who was born in Hesse, Darmstadt, Germany. The four children of their mar- riage are as follows : Matilda C., wife of Dr. A. H. Kalbfleisch of Peru; Fred W., whose successful career has been briefly alluded to; George W., who died when ten years of age, and Albert V. Politically, Mr. Conradt is now a Republican, but previous to the free coinage of silver heresy he affiliated with the Democratic party. He was reared in the faith of the Lutheran church, but is now an active member of no religious organiza- tion. During his life he has traveled extensively, his travels including a 11,000-mile trip to Panama.
MICHAEL BAPPERT. Soldier, business man, public spirited citizen, and former capable official of the county, Michael Bappert is probably ยท as widely known through Miami county as any other man, and has had a long and active career of usefulness. His long residence and his military and official career makes him eminently worthy of mention in the work setting forth the incidents in the lives of the representative men in this section of Indiana.
Michael Bappert is a native of Bavaria, Germany, where he was born December 31, 1844, the only child born to the marriage of George and Hannah Bappert. Michael was five years of age when his father died, and the mother and son in January, 1853, set out for America. A sailing vessel brought them by tiresome stages through fifty days of voyage to New Orleans, and after landing there they took a boat up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Cincinnati. At Cincinnati our sub- ject's mother continued to reside for a number of years, and was there married to Ernest Ehrentraut. By this marriage there were four chil- dren, three of whom are now living. Subsequently Mr. and Mrs. Ehren- traut moved to Philadelphia, and spent the remainder of their lives in that city.
Thus it happened that Michael Bappert remained in his native coun- try until he was a little past the age of eight years. ' During that time he had received some advantages in the public school. After coming to America he continued to live with his mother at Cincinnati, until he was fourteen years of age, and at that time started in life on his own responsibility. His first job was that of assistant to the pastry cook on board the steamboat "War Eagle." This work and the other occu- pations which a boy could follow on board a steamboat were his regu- lar pursuits from that time until the breaking out of the Civil war.
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Though less than seventeen years of age when the war came on, Mr. Bappert made a notable record as soldier. In 1861 while in Kentucky he enlisted in Company F of the Twelfth Kentucky Infantry, and was on detached service under General Thomas at the battle of Murfrees- borough. In a flanking movement on the part of the enemy in that engagement, Mr. Bappert was taken prisoner, and was sent to Rich- mond and placed in the notorious Libby Prison. He endured the rig- ors of that confinement for five months, at the end of which time he was paroled and eventually exchanged. Since he was still under age, his mother invoked the interference of the court and secured his dis- charge from the service. However, he was not satisfied as yet with his career as a soldier and enlisted in Company G of the Forty-Seventh Ohio Infantry, joining his regiment at Stevenson, Alabama. He arrived there in time to take part in the great Sherman campaign to Atlanta. His first engagement was at Kenesaw Mountain, and subsequently he was in almost continuous fighting up to August 3, at which date he re- ceived a gun-shot wound through the left knee and on the same day the leg was amputated. This effectually put an end to his aspirations for a further military career, but his sacrifices in behalf of the Union ended with his honorable discharge. Owing to the crudity of the first ampu- tation, he was required to undergo three more operations, and was inca- pacitated from all activities for one year and nine days, finally being discharged from the hospital after the close of the war. On returning to Cincinnati, he learned the cigar-maker's trade. While in that city he married Dora E. Snyder.
After becoming an expert at his trade, and following it for some years in Cincinnati, he moved to New Carlisle, Ohio, thence to Spring- field in the same state, from there back to Cincinnati, then to Defiance, Ohio, and in the fall of 1870 located at Peru, which has since been his permanent home. Here he began working at his trade, and subse- quently started a cigar shop at the little village of Denver. During his residence there, in 1886, he was elected to the office of county recorder on the Republican ticket. He had become very popular in the citizenship of the county, and his name has always created much support whenever proposed for official position. He held the office of county recorder for one term of four years, and in 1890 was elected county auditor, an office in which he served also four years. Since the expiration of his last term Mr. Bappert has been practically retired. owing to ill health.
Fraternally he is one of the popular members of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is also affiliated with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Order of Elks, and the Knights of Pythias. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist church. The four children born to their marriage were: John, who died in infancy ; Ella, now Mrs. Charles H. Howes, her husband being a travel- ing auditor on the Missouri Pacific Railway; George J., who is a resi- dent of Arkansas; and Lillian E., a teacher in the high school at Rochester, Indiana.
J. FRANK GYSIN. Since the beginning of 1910 city treasurer of Peru, Mr. Gysin has by a career of sustained efforts and ability to advance himself, demonstrated his thorough fitness for official respon- sibility and the fine esteem in which his name is held throughout this community.
J. Frank Gysin was born in Peru, Indiana, September 2, 1864, a son of George Frederick and Louisa Carolina (Heider) Gysin, both of whom were natives of Germany, the father born in Wuertemberg,
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Germany, and the mother in Saxony. The parents were married after coming to America at Richmond, Indiana, and from that city they moved to Peru about 1858, where the father added his skill as a black- smith to the practice of the mechanical arts in this city. He remained in the quiet pursuits of his regular business until his death on May 5, 1872. The mother still survives and resides in this city.
Mr. Gysin attained his education in the German-Lutheran schools at Peru, and was thirteen years of age when he began independent work and earning his own way. For four years he labored on farms in Michigan at wages, and at the end of that time returned to Peru and spent one year in the employ of the Indiana Manufacturing Com- pany. During the next two years he was again in Michigan engaged in farming. When about twenty years of age, Mr. Gysin went west and at Tacoma, Washington, followed several different occupations for two years. He next located at Livingston, Montana, in the employ of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. After this experience in the northwest he came home to Peru and was employed here as a clerk in a grocery store until November, 1892. At that date he entered the employ of J. H. Fetter in the furniture and undertaking business. He continued with Mr. Fetter for fourteen years and in the same line for another company until 1909. In 1909 occurred his election to the office as city treasurer on the Democratic ticket, and he began the responsibilities of that position in 1910. In the fall election of 1910 he was forced out by the Democrats but was reelected without opposition on the Citizens ticket. His church is the German-Lutheran.
Mr. Gysin was married February 6, 1895, to Miss Louise Rassner of Peru. Her father, William Rassner, was one of the old settlers of Peru and became identified with this locality during the canal era. Mr. and Mrs. Gysin are the parents of two sons, namely: Wilhelm Frederick Christopher and John Frank. "
THE MILLER FAMILY. The name of no one family has been more closely and worthily linked with the history of Miami than that which initiates this paragraph, and it is a matter of imperative historical con- sistency that in this publication be given specific representation to vari- ous members of this sterling family,-those who have contributed in generous measure to the development and upbuilding of the county . and have stood exemplar of the best type of citizenship.
JAMES T. MILLER, who came to the district of Indiana now com- prised in Miami county in the year 1827, at which time the incipient advancement of civilization in this section was mainly represented by a pioneer trading post at Miamisport, where a few French traders had established headquarters for their bartering with the Indians. This sterling pioneer was a native of Pennsylvania, from which state he removed to Preble county, Ohio, soon after the opening of the nine- teenth century. He was still a young man when he left the Buckeye state and penetrated the wilds of Indiana, whither he came on a trad- ing expedition. Here he familiarized himself with the Indian lan- guage and for many years he continued as one of the prominent rep- resentatives of this primitive line of enterprise within the boarders of the Hoosier state. He was in the employ of others during the greater part of his active career as a trader, but he accumulated a considerable tract of land in Miami county, though he never gave his personal and direct attention to agricultural pursuits. He was a man of impreg- nable honor and his kindness, fairness and consideration in his dealings with the Indians gained to him their confidence and definite friend- ship, so that he was influential as their counselor and in the protecting
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of their interests. He commanded high place in the confidence and esteem of the early settlers in this section of the state and continued to maintain his home in Miami county until his death, at a compara- tively early age. He assisted in the organization of Miami county and in the formative period of its history he served two terms as county treasurer. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Cole, survived him by a number of years. He was the first representative of the Mil- ler family in Miami county, but in 1828 he was here joined by an elder brother, concerning whom definite mention is made in following paragraphs.
JOHN W. MILLER was the brother who arrived in Indiana in 1828, about a year later than James T., and while in the early days he did more or less trading with the Indians, his principal sphere of endeav- or in the pioneer wilds was in the developing of land and reclaiming the same to cultivation, so that he became one of the earliest representa- tives of the agricultural industry in Miami county. In the western part of what is now Peru township he settled on a tract of heavily timbered land, to which he later entered formal claim through gov- ernment entry, after the surveys had been made. He endured to the full the arduous toils, the hardships and the vicissitudes which fell to the lot of the average pioneer under similar conditions and he proved well his usefulness as one of the world's noble workers as well as a founder and builder of the county which now wears the gracious crown of opulent prosperity and industrial and civic precedence.
In Ohio was solemnized the marriage of John W. Miller to Miss Julia Ann Lease, and when he came to Indiana he was accompanied by his wife and their infant daughter. The tangible property of the pioneer family was represented in a somewhat dilapidated wagon, a yoke of steers, a blind horse and a meager supply of household goods. The long and tedious journey from Ohio was made with this primitive outfit and Mr. Miller drove the ox team, which slowly plodded its way and pulled the wagon in which were placed the little stock of household necessities, Mrs. Miller having made the trip in stately dig- nity on the back of the blind horse and with her babe in her arms. Often en route was it necessary for Mr. Miller to interrupt the progress of the journey to make with his ax a clearing through which the team and wagon might pass, and on other occasions he found it necessary to fill in marshy places with sticks and logs, to afford a roadway.
After arriving at their destination the family utilized the wagon as a domicile until the husband and father had made a clearing in the forest and there erected his pioneer log cabin, ten by twelve feet in dimensions. This primitive structure was finished without the utiliza- tion of nails, which were at that time an unknown quantity in this section, and the building was equipped with a roof of shakes, hewn out by hand, as was also the puncheon floor. Stone was gathered for the construction of the huge fireplace that was to furnish heat and cooking facilities, and the original chimney was made of sticks and mud, this primitive cement serving in place of plaster. Later a log stable was built for the protection of the young live stock, which other- wise would have suffered from the depredations of wolves and other wild animals. Other natural obstacles confronted the sturdy pioneer, and it was found difficult even to raise a crop of grain, as the squirrels and various varieties of birds manifested altogether too great an ap- proval of the growing crop, which they appropriated to their own use. The sheltered inmates of the rude forest lodge found the howling wolves an ungrateful slumber sound by night, and the voracious animals
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would often come by day and scratch on the cabin door when they detected the odor of cooking meat. To add to his discomfort, Mr. Miller did not become readily acclimated, and for the first three years of his residence in Miami county he may have found adequate the exercise which he gained through his physical agitation by ague, with its alternating chills and fever. Later generations, who clamor for and demand luxuries, may well pause to contemplate with admiration the courage and steadfast purpose of the sturdy pioneer families who labored and endured greatly, in order to make for themselves homes and to carry forward the developing agencies which have made pos- sible the conditions and influences of the twentieth century.
Mr. Miller was a man of strong individuality, alert mentality and mature judgment, and these attributes combined with sterling integrity to make him an influential factor in public affairs in the pioneer com- munity. He served as county commissioner at the time when Miami county was still an integral part of Cass county. He accounted well for himself and to the world as an indefatigable and productive worker and loyal citizen, and his name merits a place of prominence on the roster of the honored pioneers of Miami county. An incident of his journey through the wilderness from Ohio to Indiana is worthy of note in this connection. In starting forth for the new home he had a cash capital of fifty dollars in gold, and this coin was in a sack which was placed in the bottom of the wagon. In crossing the Wabash river at a point near the old Godfrey trading house, the sack of gold slipped from the wagon into the water, and the treasure was recovered by the employing of a man to dive for the same. Mr. Miller eventually accu- mulated about thirty-five hundred acres of land in Miami county, and of a very appreciable part of this extensive landed estate he contin- ued in possession until the time of his death, which occurred in March, 1870, his cherished and devoted wife, who had shared with him the pri- vations and other hardships of pioneer life, having been summoned to eternal rest in 1868. They became the parents of eight children, five sons and three daughters, of whom only one is now living, Edward H., concerning whom specific mention will be found in later para- graphs. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were zealous members of the Roman Catholic church and in politics he gave his allegiance to the Demo- cratic party.
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