USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 2
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Archibald Stitt in 1834 brought his family to Indiana and it then consisted of his wife and one son, Alexander. After their location in this state several more children were born, four of them reaching ma- turity, namely : Jane, who married Thomas W. King; James E., Wil- liam S., and Archibald N.
Archibald Stitt was a man rather under the average size, inclined to be quick in action and in decision, was generous to a fault, and on the monument erected to his memory after his death, a friend engraved an inscription which expressed one of the finest facts of his character- "A friend to the friendless." He was a man of but ordinary educa- tion, so far as books were concerned, but possessed an unusual fund of good, practical sense, and had the intelligence and quickness which made him a big factor in days when conditions of living required just
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MRS. ARCHIBALD STITT
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those qualities. He was a democrat in politics up to the nomination of James Buchanan for the presidency, and thereafter adhered to the republican cause. In 1850, he was elected treasurer of Wabash county, and to discharge the duties of that office moved into the city of Wabash, and had his home there until his death. Such was his place of esteem among the citizens, that he was re-elected county treasurer, and served two terms. Soon after retiring from the treasurer's office in 1856, he · bought the old Indiana House, and conducted that old hostelry as a popular center of entertainment for the public until his death. During all his life in Indiana, he was more or less engaged in contracting for bridge and road work. Archibald Stitt was an Odd Fellow, and one of the most popular men of his time. His death on October 13, 1867, was caused by sunstroke, while acting in the office of street commissioner. He was the first appointee to that position under the city government of Wabash. His wife survived him until November, 1893.
William S. Stitt was born on his father's farm in Noble township, September 5, 1843, and has thus spent three-score and ten years in Wabash county. His own recollection includes many things which were characteristic of the pioneer times in this section. From the age of seven his home was in Wabash, and as he grew up towards manhood he had the advantages of the graded schools of the county seat. His education was supplemented after his return from the war by a com- mercial course in a business college at Indianapolis.
Mr. Stitt made a notable record as a soldier. His enlistment was on August 9, 1862, after the call of President Lincoln for three hundred thousand men. On the twentieth day of the same month he was mus- tered into service as a private in Company A of the Seventy-fifth Indiana Infantry. During the fall of 1862 his regiment was stationed in Ken- tucky, and at Perryville, aided in checking the junction of Kirby Smith with Bragg's army. The regiment then went to the support of Moore's Brigade at Hartsville, Tennessee, and pursued Morgan back into Ken- tucky, a campaign which kept the regiment off the field of Stone River until the day following the great battle. Mr. Stitt participated in the Tennessee campaign of 1863, beginning with the engagement at Hoover's Gap. Then followed the Tullahoma campaign, and crossing the Elk River, the regiment invaded the Sequatchee Valley and for two weeks was stationed on University Heights. The Brigade to which the Seventy- fifth Indiana was attached then crossed the Tennessee River and the mountain range to McLamore's Cove, and continuing its march arrived in time to participate in the battle of Chickamauga. At Chickamauga Mr. Stitt was wounded in the left hip, and received two minor wounds, However, he recovered in time to participate in Sherman's campaign against Atlanta, and after the fall of that city proceeded with the great general on his famous march to the sea, thence up through the Carolinas, and finally in the Grand Review of the victorious army at Washington. At Richmond, Virginia, Lieutenant Stitt was one of four officers detailed to take charge of the sick and deliver them at Alexandria, Virginia, and also to procure clothing by requisition from the war department
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for the four divisions of the Fourteenth Army Corps. As a matter of fact, these requisitions were not honored by the department, owing to a special order that Sherman's army should pass through the Grand Review in the same habiliments that had been worn to the nation's capital.
The regiment in which Mr. Stitt served during the war participated in thirty-four different engagements, and Mr. Stitt was in all of them with one exception, Missionary Ridge, which battle was fought while he was home on a leave of absence caused by his wound received at Chicka- mauga. For meritorious services on the Chickamauga battlefield, Mr. Stitt was commissioned second lieutenant, and at Ringgold, Georgia, on April 26, 1864, was advanced to first lieutenant to succeed to the place made vacant by the promotion of the former lieutenant to the captaincy of the company.
The close of Mr. Stitt's army career came with his honorable dis- charge June 9, 1865. Such had been the hardship and the continuous labor of nearly three years as a soldier, that it required a year and a half for him to get completely restored to health. The first regular business in which he engaged after the war was the grocery trade, and he continued in that line for nine years. Since then his career has been largely taken up with public affairs, or with activities in semi-public enterprises. A short time before he left the grocery business he was elected to the office of city auditor, and after serving the regular term of four years he was re-elected another similar term. In 1884 Mr. Stitt was elected a member of the city council and his two years with that body were at an important period of the city's municipal develop- ment.
Mr. Stitt was one of the organizers of the company which established the Wabash City Water Works. He was the first secretary of the cor- poration, and for thirteen and a half years continued as superintendent and manager of the plant and the business. Up to 1904 he was identified with the plumbing and heating business in Wabash, and then for three years was employed in contracting. In 1898 Mr. Stitt assumed his duties as secretary of the Home Telephone Company. After the recon- struction of the system and the local plant in 1906-07, he was made general manager, and has since held the responsible positions of secre- tary and manager. He also served six years, from August 1, 1905, to August 1, 1911, on the board of trustees for the school City of Wabash.
On September 26, 1867, Mr. William S. Stitt married Miss Mary A. Lutz, daughter of Reuben and Anna Major Lutz. She was born in Preble county, Ohio, and was one of a family of eight children. Mr. and Mrs. Stitt are the parents of three children: Eva, widow of Henry C. Pettit; Thomas L., a lawyer of Chicago; and Marie, wife of Stuart C. Cowgill. There are also three grandchildren: Miss Mary Pettit, Nancie Ann Cowgill and William Cary Cowgill. Mr. Stitt has mem- bership in the Grand Army Post, and he and his wife are communi- cants of the Presbyterian church, in which he is serving as an elder.
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He is also a member of the Indiana Commandery of the Loyal Legion, having become a member in 1890.
JOHN W. DOMER. One of the most successful business men in Wabash county is John W. Domer, vice-president of the Lawrence Na- tional Bank at North Manchester, while his son is a successful physician in the city of Wabash.
John W. Domer was born near Wawaka, Indiana, October 19, 1851, a son of George and Caroline (Steinbarger) Domer, natives respectively of Ohio and New York. Mr. Domer during his boyhood attended the common schools, and when about twenty years of age started out in life for himself, his first experience and training being as clerk in a store. From Indiana he went west to Missouri, located on farm lands, and remained there until driven out by severe droughts and attacks of grasshoppers, and that disastrous experience caused him to return to his native state. In the fall of 1874 Mr. Domer moved to North Manchester, and has thus been identified with Wabash county for forty years. His early work at North Manchester was teaming in the village and con- ducting a farm nearby. From 1882 to 1890 the marble establishment in that village was conducted under his management, but in 1890 his attention was directed to the real estate and insurance business. When the city decided to instal local water works in 1893, Mr. Domer and Dr. Shafer secured the contract to tap all the mains, and for a time did practically all the plumbing. It was in 1895 that he became interested in the Lawrence National Bank, acquiring with Mr. J. M. Curtner of Wabash the Lawrence & Mills interests, and soon afterwards Mr. Curtner became president and Mr. Domer vice-president and general manager of the institution. Since then, 1896, the deposits of the bank have been in- increased from forty-eight thousand dollars to nearly four hundred thou- sand dollars, which fact alone attests the capability of the new manage- ment. Besides his duties as a banker Mr. Domer has accumulated some city property at North Manchester and in Chicago, and is one of the organizers and a director of the New Union Trust Company at North Manchester.
A Republican in politics, he has taken an interest in public affairs and has served as a member of the city council and on the school board. Aside from his business he has found time to cultivate the social side of life and is identified with the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias. In 1871 John W. Domer married Miss Dora Harter, daughter of Eli Harter, a pioneer of Wabash county. To their marriage were born two children : Walter A. and Emma, both living.
WALTER A. DOMER, M. D. The medical profession of the city of Wabash has one of its ablest representatives in Dr. Walter A. Domer, who has practiced in that city for the past twelve years. Dr. Domer is a man of broad experience, and being well equipped professionally has acquired success and high standing in a community in which most of his life has been spent.
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Though Wabash county has been his home nearly all his life, Dr. Domer was born in Joplin, Missouri, November 10, 1872. His father, John W. Domer, is now living in North Manchester. The maiden name of his mother was Dora Harter, whose people were among the earliest pioneers of Wabash county. When Walter A. Domer was about one year of age his parents returned to Wabash county, and he grew up to manhood at North Manchester. His early experiences in that locality were chiefly attending public school and clerking in a store. His early pursuits were all along the lines of commercial life, and as part of his preparation for that work he completed a course at the Eastman's Business College in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1897, having decided to leave mercantile affairs and make the practice of medicine his voca- tion, he matriculated in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Chicago. From that old and substantial institution he was graduated M. D. in 1901. For eighteen months, beginning in his senior year he was deputy county physician of Chicago, having charge of one of the districts into which the city was then divided, his duties being to look after pauper and emergency cases. Also during his senior year in college he was honored with appointment as prosector for Dr. William T. Eckley, professor of anatomy in The College of Physicians and Surgeons and at the same time he assisted Dr. F. R. Sherwood who had charge of the Chair of Surgery at the Chicago Clinical School. In June, 1901, Dr. Domer returned to his home county, and began practice in the City of Wabash, where he has since become securely established in the vocation which he has chosen for his life's work. Dr. Domer is a member and at this writing is president of the Wabash County Medical Society, belongs to the Indiana State Medical Associa- tion and the American Medical Association. While at Chicago in college he was president of the Beta chapter of the Phi Rho Sigma medical fraternity for the school year, 1900-01, and at the meeting of the Grand Chapter of that organization in Chicago, July 5, 1899, he was elected grand president, serving as such for two years and being the first grand president of the Grand Chapter. The doctor has other fraternal affilia- tions with the Masonic Order and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, his politics is republican, and in religion he worships with the Presbyterian. On October 30, 1901, Dr. Domer married Miss May Oliver of Chicago.
DANIEL SHOWALTER has been connected with politics only since 1910, yet already he is regarded as one of the most influential republicans in Wabash county, where he is the incumbent of the office of county au- ditor. A native son of this county, he has risen from humble surround- ings and poor financial circumstances, and through unaided individual effort has worked his way to independence in business and distinction in the political arena. He was born on his father's farm in Paw Paw township, then a part of Noble township, Wabash county, Indiana, April 14, 1858, and is a son of Daniel H. and Magdalene (Winger) Showalter, natives of the Old Dominion State.
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planted into America was in Ireland, and the founders of the name on this side of the Atlantic were the grandparents of Elizabeth Kennedy. Elizabeth Kennedy's father took part as a soldier in the war of 1812. Richard G. Brooks died in 1883, while his widow is still living at the age of seventy-two.
David F. Brooks was reared to manhood in his native state, and until twelve years of age attended the local school. For several years after that he was given the advantages of a Presbyterian Academy near Fishersville. In the winter prior to his eighteenth birthday, he taught his first term of district school, and in 1885, at the age of nineteen, came west to Hartford City, Indiana, where his oldest brother was then living. Two years were spent in work at sawmilling and also in attendance at school, after which he was employed in keeping a set of books for a produce firm at Warren. With increasing confidence and credit he went into merchandising on his own account. However, from his twen- tieth birthday or even earlier, he had been studying law, as opportunity allowed and in spite of considerable success in commercial lines, he always had his mind set on the profession as the goal of his ambition. His studies were continued intermittently until the fall of 1893, when he entered the law school of the Northern Indiana University of Val- paraiso, and in June, 1895, was graduated there with his degree as Bachelor of Laws, being admitted to the bar at the time. In the month of October in the same year, he located for practice at Wabash, and has kept up his share of work in the profession, and enjoyed a satisfying degree of success. Incidentally and along with the work of a lawyer he has identified himself with many of the local institutions.
In politics Mr. Brooks has always been a republican. His fraternal associations are with the Royal Arch Masons and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On April 6, 1892, occurred his marriage with Mrs. Anna Cale, of Warren, Indiana. They are the parents of seven children as follows: Lalla, Mrs. Lutz Rettig; Vada; Everett; Harry ; Raymond; Virginia and Mary.
LORIN W. SMITH, M. D. Both professional success and influential activity as a citizen and business man have marked the career of Dr. Smith in Wabash, where he has been a resident and a well known physi- cian and surgeon for upwards of twenty years. While a general prac- titioner he has become recognized for his special skill in surgery, and few men of the profession in Wabash county have accomplished more in their chosen vocation than Dr. Smith.
Until locating in Wabash county, his home was in Pennsylvania, and the family has been identified with that state for several generations. Dr. Smith was born in Venango county, Pennsylvania, July 11, 1865. One of three children, he was the only son of Henry Clay and Harriet (Howe) Smith. Henry Clay Smith, the youngest of a family of seven- teen children, was born in Venango county, and had a long and varied career of usefulness. In August, 1861, he enlisted as a soldier in Com- pany E of the Seventy-Eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, and gave the
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service of a faithful and efficient soldier until the close of the war. About that time he began an industrious study of medicine, and in 1868 was graduated from Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, after which he practiced medicine in both Venango and Butler counties, of Pennsylvania, and probably for some time was located at Franklin. Eventually his career was shifted to an entirely different calling, but still in the field of great usefulness to his fellow men. Converted to Christianity in the Methodist church he accepted the inner call, resigned his practice as a physician, was ordained to the ministry, and from that time until the end of his life was active and diligent in the varied duties of the ministry of Methodist church. His labors naturally took him to many different localities, and he died while still in the harness, at Hubbard, Ohio, July 1, 1878. His widow survives him and now has her home in Franklin, Pennsylvania. Dr. Lorin W. Smith lived with his parents in their various homes until about fourteen years of age, and in the intervals of his attendance at the grade and high schools at Franklin principally, he found employment and the means of earning a livelihood in the oil fields of Western Pennsylvania. After his gradua- tion from the Franklin high school in 1884, his previous experience led him to become interested in the production and utilization of natural gas, and in that connection he installed the gas plant at the borough of Mercer, Pennsylvania, and took the active superintendency of the plant. From those duties he turned his attention to the responsibilities imposed upon him by his appointment as governor of the state school for orphans of old soldiers located at Mercer. He continued to discharge the duties of that office at Mercer until 1890. In the meantime he had taken up the study of medicine, and leaving Mercer entered the medical depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, where he was graduated M. D. in 1893. His first two years as an active practitioner were spent in Converse, Indiana, and from there he came to Wabash, and quickly gained recognition as an able young physician and surgeon, and was accorded a liberal share of local surgery.
Dr. Smith has always been a progressive physician, and his success has been in no small degree due to the fact that he has practiced a policy of taking post-graduate work about every two years. In the line of his profession he has membership in the Wabash county, the District, the Tri-State Medical Societies, and the State and American Medical Association.
Dr. Smith is a Republican in politics, and has fraternal affiliations with the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, the Elks, the Tribe of Ben Hur, the Foresters, and his church is the Methodist. On September 20, 1889, Dr. Smith married Miss Alice Carmichael, of Sandy Lake, Penn- sylvania. They are the parents of one son, Lorin William, who is now a student in the Purdue University.
GEORGE TODD. A Wabash county business man whose career began with limited advantages, and which has been marked with a number of Vol. II-2
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vicissitudes but find him now among the well established and highly esteemed citizens of this section, is George Todd of Lagro.
George Todd was born March 24, 1853, in Franklin county, Indiana, but his parents moved to Wabash county in 1855, and he grew up and during most of his years has been identified with this county. His parents were John and Eleanor B. Todd. His father was a farmer and stock shipper and erected one of the first brick houses in the country district of Wabash county. In the early days he bought and sold grain on the old Wabash and Erie canal. He possessed the typical character and virtues of his Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his wife was of French descent. George Todd was one of two children, and his brother Frank died at the age of twenty-one years.
As a boy he early learned the principle of self-support, and his education was limited to the common schools and three months at the Terre Haute Commercial College, but most of his time was taken up with farm work. At the age of twenty years, in April 1873, he had his first mercantile experience in a hardware store at Lagro, a place which then offered unusual opportunities for the hardware and imple- ment business. Previous to this he had assisted in loading a large number of boats along the Wabash and Erie canal with wheat and other grain, and the old canal was for some time closely associated with his business activities. He still owns an old warehouse on the canal bank, with its grain bins in their original condition. All his life he has been a hard worker and those famliar with his career say that he has never been daunted by misfortune and has always returned more determined than ever to his work after each reverse. In 1884, having sold out his hardware business at Lagro, Mr. Todd moved to Logansport, and for several years was engaged in business with a spoke and bending fac- tory. This enterprise he sold at Logansport in 1888, returned to Lagro, and once more engaged in the hardware trade at the old stand. Selling his store in 1895, the following five years were spent in the shoe manufacturing business at Wabash, but in 1898 he returned to Lagro and began buying and selling stock. In 1900 he once more took up the hardware and implement business with F. J. Todd, a son, under the name of Todd & Son. Since retiring from the hardware trade in 1906 Mr. George Todd has been engaged in general contracting and farming, and in the buying and selling of live stock. Besides the chief lines already mentioned, he has been identified with several other busi- ness concerns, although not as an active manager. During his business career he has made and lost several small fortunes, and the age of threescore finds him still young in action and ambition and constantly employing his time at some useful work. He is now the senior member of the contracting firm of Todd & Howell.
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Attention to business has not prevented him from participation in local public affairs, and from 1880 to 1884 he was trustee of Lagro township. He was a worker in the republican ranks up to two years ago, and still holds to the views of that old party. Since 1908 he has been affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
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On December 28, 1875, when twenty-two years of age and about at the beginning of his business career as a Lagro merchant, Mr. Todd married Adda Tiller. Their children are as follows: Frank James Todd, born September 22, 1876, and now located at Nome, Alaska; Walter Glenn Todd, born October 20, 1878, and whose career is sketched in this volume; Bertha Emma Todd, born September 15, 1880; and Ethel Nora Todd, born June 25, 1884, a teacher who has been engaged in educational work in the Kingdom of Japan since August, 1913.
WALTER GLENN TODD. A son of George and Adda Todd, whose career occupies a prominent place in Wabash county history, Walter Glenn Todd has for thirteen years been an active member of the County bar, and has already done much to prove his ability and establish a foundation for a large and successful career.
Walter Glenn Todd was born October 20, 1878, at Lagro, Indiana, and was reared and educated in that locality. In 1895 he graduated from the Largo high school, being then seventeen years of age, and in the fall of the same year matriculated at Wabash College, Crawfords- ville. He remained a student of that dignified and valuable old institute of learning until he graduated in June, 1900, with degree A. B. In the same month of his graduation he took up the study of law in the office of A. H. Plummer, the present judge of his judicial district, and was ad- mitted to the bar at the March term of court in 1901. From that time until September, 1902, he continued his studies and also practiced in the office with Judge Plummer. In September, 1902, Judge Plummer took him into partnership under the name of Plummer and Todd, but on October 22nd of the same year when Judge Plummer assumed his duties as Judge of the Circuit the partnership was dissolved. Mr. Todd then continued alone in practice until April 1, 1909, and in the mean- time from 1905 to 1908 had served as county attorney. From April 1, 1909, to April 1, 1913, Mr. Todd was associated in practice with Joseph W. Murphy, but from that date up to the 1st of June, 1914, followed his profession alone. On the first day of June, 1914, he formed a partner- ship with Franklin W. Plummer, son of Judge A. H. Plummer, and with whom he is now engaged in the practice of law, under the firm name of Todd & Plummer.
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