USA > Indiana > Allen County > History of the Maumee River basin, Allen County, Indiana > Part 12
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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
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the duties of treasurer have been discharged by the Hon. Fred J. Hayden. Its work has brought this committee into close contact with his office and his methods in the management of its affairs. We notice the extreme care and completeness with which the duties of the position have been discharged."
Since his residence in Fort Wayne Mr. Hayden has evinced a deep interest in all matters pertaining to agriculture and has been a successful exhibitor of horses, cattle and grains at every fair in Allen county, with one exception, receiving many first premiums on his exhibits. He has taken a strong and influential part in support of the present Allen County Fair Association and is now vice-presi- dent of the association. For a number of years he has been a director of the First National Bank, which he has also served as vice-presi- dent. Like most Englishmen, Mr. Hayden is a lover of outdoor sports and recreation.
In 1873 Fred J. Hayden married Miss Eliza Hanna, daughter of the late Judge Samuel Hanna, of Fort Wayne.
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ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
FRANK E. PURCELL.
The subject of this sketch has long occupied a prominent place in business circles in Fort Wayne, where he has successfully con- ducted a large and popular livery establishment, also hotels. Mr. Purcell is a native son of the Wolverine state, having been born at Hudson, Michigan, on the 12th of February, 1866. His parents were natives of Pennsylvania and were of Irish, French and Scotch lineage. The subject's mother, who married James D. Brown, is still connected with the proprietorship of the Hotel Randall, in this city, having been interested in the hotel business for the past thirty-five years and acquiring the reputation of being one of the best landladies in the state of Indiana. She now resides in Pasadena, California.
Frank E. Purcell received his elementary school education in the schools of South Bend, this state, and upon leaving school became a messenger boy, one of the first in South Bend. He also became the first operator of a Bell telephone in Indiana, and has thus been a witness of the wonderful strides which have been made in this medium of communication during the subsequent years. He then commenced clerking in a grocery store, but two years later came to Fort Wayne and entered the employ of Pottlitzer Brothers in the capacity of traveling salesman, remaining with this firm seven years. He then established the Western Fruit Company, of which he became president, the firm having branches in Huntington and Montpelier, this state, and an office in Chicago. He subsequently disposed of this business and entered the hotel and restaurant busi- ness, having charge of the Rich Hotel and the Wellington Cafe. He subsequently became one of the proprietors of the Randall Hotel, which has long enjoyed a high reputation as one of the leading and most popular caravansaries in this part of Indiana. He is also a
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large stockholder and president of the Frank Purcell Livery and Cab Line Company, the leading enterprise of the kind in this city, and is interested in a number of other business enterprises.
On September 19, 1888, Mr. Purcell was united in marriage with Miss Evelyn Ross, who was born in Detroit, Michigan, on the 18th of October, 1867, the daughter of R. C. and Zella E. Ross. To this union have been born two children, Marion, aged thirteen, and Clayton, now deceased. In matters political Mr. Purcell gives his support to the Democratic party and has taken a somewhat prominent part in local public affairs. From 1896 to 1898 he served as council- man-at-large and is now a member of the council, representing the third ward. Fraternally he is a member of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of, Elks, the Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Fraternal Order of Eagles, being presi- dent of the aerie of the last-named organization in this city, which has now a membership of over six hundred. Socially he is a member of the Commercial Club, while his religious affiliation is with the Baptist church. Mr. Purcell has ever taken a keen interest in the welfare of the city of his residence and supports every worthy move- ment which promises to advance the material, educational or moral standard of the community. He is widely known and is well liked by all who know him.
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ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
THEODORE F. THIEME.
In the roster of Fort Wayne's solid and influential business men, the name of Theodore F. Thieme stands out prominently. As founder and secretary and manager of the Wayne Knitting Mills, Mr. Thieme commands the respect of all progressive and public-spirited citizens, and holds the esteem of the eleven hundred workers whose employ- ment is the result of his untiring and successful endeavors.
Mr. Thieme was born in Fort Wayne on the 7th of February, 1857, and is a son of Frederick J. and Clara Weitzman Thieme, neither of whom are living. Both were honored pioneers of this city, where the father was for many years a prominent clothing merchant and influential citizen. The subject of this sketch secured his early educational discipline in the public schools of Fort Wayne and in Concordia College of this city. In 1876 he was graduated in the New York College of Pharmacy, and he was for a time engaged in the drug business in the national metropolis, whence he eventually returned to Fort Wayne and established himself in the same line of business, owning one of the principal drug stores in the city. Con- cerning the conditions and personal action which led him to establish the enterprise at whose head he now stands, we find the following pertinent information in an article published in the Textile Record of July, 1902 :
"In 1889 Mr. Thieme sold out his drug business and went abroad to investigate some of the industries benefited by the Mckinley tariff law. While abroad he became interested in the hosiery industry in Chemnitz, Germany, and spent a winter there studying and in- vestigating this branch of business. In the spring of 1890 he organized a company in Fort Wayne under the name of the Wayne Knitting Mills, with a capital of thirty thousand dollars. Returning
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to Germany, he bought machinery there and brought over twenty-five skilled knitters."
Starting in this modest way, and meeting the usual and many unusual trials and difficulties incident to a new undertaking, Mr. Thieme has piloted the enterprise safely into the harbor of assured success. The success of the Wayne Knitting Mills, and Mr. Thieme's personal success, are due entirely to his integrity, his energy, his courage and to his initiative and executive ability.
In January, 1894, Mr. Thieme was married to Miss Bessie Lor- ing, of Boston, to whom one child, a boy, has been born-Wayne Thieme. Mr. Thieme is a stanch Republican, always taking a lively interest in local and national political campaigns. He is a member of the order of Masons, a loyal and energetic member of the Commercial Club and of the Anthony Wayne Club.
THE WAYNE KNITTING MILLS
Reviewing the advantages of industrial Fort Wayne, and enumer- ating its many progressive manufacturing concerns, it is signally fitting that specific mention be made of the Wayne Knitting Mills. Of the founder of the enterprise, Theodore F. Thieme. individual mention is made in preceding paragraphs, and the two articles are to be considered in a sense complimentary, so that they should be read in connection. No better idea of the extent and character of the industry can be given than by quoting in full from an article entitled "A Western Knitting Mill" and appearing in the Textile World of February, 1904:
"The Wayne Kntting Mills, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was estab- lished by Theodore F. Thieme in 1891, soon after the passage of the Mckinley bill, starting in a small way in narrow rented quarters in a store room, and against the strongest opposition of foreign manu- facturers and local prejudices in favor of imported hosiery. Dealers were soon convinced of the merits of Wayne Knit Matchless Hosiery, and in 1892 the company built and equipped a plant of their own, installing imported machinery such as was used in the most pro- gressive European factories, and employing skilled knitters, many of whom had been trained in the best foreign mills. This plant has
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been enlarged from time to time until today it consists of brick build- ings covering one hundred and sixteen thousand square feet, having three floors and giving employment to fully eleven hundred persons making nothing but hosiery. In 1901 they issued their children's stockings under a new trademark, calling them Pony stockings, and by unique and well directed advertising made them so well known that today Wayne Knitting Mills are believed to have a larger output than any other hosiery factory in the United States, their product being sold in every state in the Union. On May 1, 1902, the United Knitting Mills, a factory organized by Fred J. Thieme, a brother of the founder of the industry, was merged into the Wayne Knitting Mills, making a combined capital of four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. This factory was situated on an ad- joining site and had been selling its output through the older com- pany.
"The intelligent and progressive class of labor found there makes Fort Wayne a very desirable place for the industry. Laboring men in this city are very thrifty. The Wayne Knitting Mills has fostered this progressive spirit in its employees, impressing all with the fact that intelligent co-operation between employer and employee is essential to industrial success. To this end it has established a profit-sharing plan in which all heads of departments participate; it has furnished a club room and dining hall, combined with a fully equipped stage, etc .; it has encouraged the operatives of the factory to organize a dramatic club, a singing society, etc., which give numer- ous entertainments. The managers are always interested in the material and moral welfare of their employees.
"The equipment of the Wayne Knitting Mills is of the best, the machinery being of the latest and most improved patterns. Ex- perienced foremen are retained in each department, and the ventila- tion, lighting and heating are matters of special attention. The build- ings are of standard make and fireproof as it is possible to make them. The company have their own lighting plant, and although the water of Fort Wayne is excellent, they have installed a water- purifying system of their own, while in addition to the fire pro- tection afforded by the city they have their own fire-fighting company and apparatus. The company have always been
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progressive and endeavor to keep their business in the first rank. They are continually on the lookout for any- thing new in their line, adding to their equipment from time to time, as the styles on the market require. Every pair of hose goes through thirteen departments and is handled by eighteen different persons. The full fashioned knitting machines are very large and intricate and seem almost alive as the yarn carriers fly back and forth knitting the web, sometimes using two threads and again three, sometimes one color and again three or four colors, according to the pattern desired. The dye house of the Wayne Knitting Mills constitutes a model institution in itself, dyeing being one of the most important features of good hosiery."
At the last meeting of the stockholders in May, 1905, it was voted to increase the capital stock of the knitting mills to seven hundred thousand dollars. This increase was imperative on account of the constantly increasing demand for Wayne knit hose, which it was practically impossible to supply without a material addition to the factory equipment. The steady healthy growth of the Wayne Knitting Mills is its best assurance of continual prosperity.
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ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
JESSE L. WILLIAMS.
The subject of this sketch was one of the strong and notable men of his day and generation, having been for many years closely identified with a number of the principal public works in Indiana and Ohio and was in a large measure instrumental in advancing to com- pletion several of the largest railroads in the country. Mr. Wil- liams was born in Stokes county, North Carolina, on May 6, 1807, and was the son of Jesse and Sarah T. Williams, who were members of the society of Friends. About the year 1814 he accompanied his parents on their removal to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he obtained such an education as was possible. Financial losses sustained by the father prevented the son from obtaining such an education as he had desired. However, he was able to attend the Lancasterian Seminary in Cin- cinnati and afterwards attended school as he could at other places of residence. He early decided to take up the profession of civil en- gineering and every effort was bent to the end that he might become proficient in this profession, he studiously investigating every branch of knowledge which seemed to have a relation to that line. He was thus largely self-educated, but his mastery of his subjects was complete and at the age of seventeen years he became a member of a corps of engineers who were detailed to make the first survey of the Miami and Erie Canal from Cincinnati to the Maumee bay. Mr. Williams continued to serve in the final location and construction of this canal and had charge, as assistant, of the heavy and difficult division near Cincinnati. On account of the sickness of the prin- cipal engineer during the latter half of 1827, Mr. Williams was compelled to temporarily take charge of the whole work between Cincinnati and Dayton. In 1828 he was appointed to take charge of the final location of the canal from Licking Summit to Chillicothe, including the Columbus side-cut, and afterward supervised the con-
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struction of the division between Circleville and a point south of Chillicothe, this work including the dam and aqueduct across the Scioto river. When twenty-three years old Mr. Williams was ap- pointed on the board of engineers to decide upon the method of sup- plying with water the summit level of the canal, their decision being in favor of reservoirs. Early in 1832 Mr. Williams took charge, as chief engineer, of the location and construction of the Wabash and Erie Canal, and in 1834 he was appointed to survey the White Water valley for the purpose of determining the practicability of constructing a canal through that valley to Lawrenceburg, on the Ohio. The several surveys of new canals in Indiana, ordered by the legislature in 1835, were placed under his general supervision, and throughout that year his duties were exceedingly laborious. In 1836, on the passage of the law authorizing a general.system of internal improvement, Mr. Williams was appointed chief engineer of all the canals in the state, including the Wabash and Erie Canal, and thus at this period he had under his personal charge canal routes amount- ing to about eight hundred miles, and in 1837 he was also given charge of railroads and turnpikes. Afterwards, when the appointing power was changed, he was elected by the legislature to the same positions, continuing therein until 1841, when the prosecution of public works, except the Wabash and Erie Canal, was entirely suspended. After March, 1840, Mr. Williams, in addition to his duties as state engineer, became, by appointment of the legislature, ex officio a member of the board of internal improvement and acting commissioner of the Indiana division of the Wabash and Erie Canal, in which capacities he served about two years, having charge also of the selections, management and sales of the canal lands. The financial revulsion of 1840 prostrated the state credit and checked the progress of public works, and from 1842 to 1847 Mr. Williams was occupied in mercantile and manufacturing pursuits in Fort Wayne, the place of his residence. He was offered the presidency of the Madi- son & Indianapolis Railroad, then about to be completed, the offices of president and chief engineer being united in one. In 1847 the Wabash and Erie Canal, with its lands, passed into the hands of a board of trustees, the law creating this trust also providing for the appointment of "a chief engineer of known and established char-
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acter for experience and integrity," to which responsible position the subject was appointed in June of that year, holding the position for many years and performing the duties with signal ability and sound judgment. In February, 1854, Mr. Williams was appointed chief engineer of the Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, which position he held up to the time of the consolidation with the Ohio & Penn- sylvania Railroad and the Ohio & Indiana Railroad in 1856, and from that time forward he was a director of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad. In July, 1864, Mr. Williams was ap- pointed by President Lincoln a director of the Union Pacific Rail- road on the part of the government, and was reappointed each suc- ceeding year until the work was completed in 1869, receiving com- missions from three successive Presidents. As a member of the standing committee on location and construction, the important en- gineering questions connected with this work came within his sphere of duty and called into exercise the professional experience which forty years of public service enabled him to wield. On the 13th of June, 1868, Mr. Williams was instructed by the secretary of the in- terior "to examine and report specifically as to the condition of the Union Pacific Railroad, where it has been constructed or surveyed." From his report to the secretary, August 15, 1868, it will be seen that this duty was performed, and it is worthy of note that the secre- tary of the interior, in his annual report to the President of the United States, of November 30, 1868, referring to this specific ex- amination, said: "Mr. Williams is an experienced civil engineer and performed the duty committed to him in a very satisfactory manner. His report presented such statements that I deem it my imperative duty to invite your attention to the leading facts he communicated." Subsequently, as a result of this report the President appointed a sec- ond commission, consisting of three experienced engineers, one of which was Mr. Williams. The latter fully appreciated the high honor of this appointment, but was nevertheless constrained by other duties to decline. The remaining two engineers, however, confirmed in every respect his former report. On the 19th of January, 1869, Mr. Wil- liams was appointed receiver of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Rail- road by the United States court, which ordered him to borrow money by pledge of the railroad land and to build the road as required by
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law. In addition to the duties belonging to a financial trust like this, he had also professional charge as directing engineer of the work. These several duties were found to be so exacting that, in October, 1869, he resigned his position as government director of the Union Pacific Railroad. During the remaining years of his life, Mr. Williams maintained his active interest in everything that tended to the development and progress of his country, especially the section in which he lived. His absolute integrity, under all circumstances, was never questioned, while his natural and acquired ability was recognized by every one competent to judge. A thorough gentleman of the old school, courteous to every one who addressed him, and an excellent conversationalist, he enjoyed a very extensive acquaintance, and made friends of all who came into contact with him.
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ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
WALPOLE G. COLERICK.
An enumeration of those men of the present generation in Allen county who have won honor and public recognition for themselves and at the same time have honored the state to which they belong, must needs include Hon. Walpole G. Colerick, of Fort Wayne, eminent as a lawyer and citizen, and one who ably represented his district in the halls of the national congress. He has been and is distinctively a man of affairs and one who has wielded marked in- fluence in his profession and in the broad domain of public life, while his technical and academic scholarship is of high order and his dignity of purpose and his personal integrity such as to have ever commended him to the esteem and good will of his fellow men.
It seems to the writer that consistent recourse may be made at this point to an appreciative estimate of the life history and ante- cedents of Mr. Colerick written by Judge Allen Zollars, of Fort Wayne, one of his distinguished professional confreres at the present time, since this estimate comes with the full force of intimate personal acquaintanceship and significant and analytic appreciation. In mak- ing excerpt from this previously published sketch we shall take the liberty of making slight changes in phraseology, in order that the subject-matter may be brought up to the date of present writing :
"Hon. Walpole G. Colerick was born in the city of Fort Wayne, on the Ist of August, 1845, and belongs to honorable and distin- guished families in the lines of both his father and mother. He is a son of the late Hon. David H. Colerick, and the maiden name of his mother was Elizabeth Gillespie Walpole. He also belongs to families of lawyers. John G. Walpole was a practitioner in Fort Wayne, where he died many years ago, and Robert L. and Thomas D. Wal- pole were distinguished lawyers at Indianapolis. His five brothers all adopted the legal profession, and became successful practitioners,
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and of the number two are engaged in practice at the present time. His older brother, the Hon. John Colerick, one of the most promising and brilliant of the younger men of the state, died in March, 1872, which year also witnessed the death of another older brother, David Colerick, a lawyer of ability and promise. Each of these brothers had, in early life, been trusted and honored by the people, not only in their controlling a large professional business, but also in the be- stowal upon them of public office. Still later Thomas W. Colerick, a younger brother of the subject, died when a young man and just when he was entering upon what promised to be a successful and brilliant career as a lawyer. He was not only a young man of fine ability and character, but he also had the industry and methods of study which always bring their reward by way of success in the learned professions. Messrs. Henry and Philemon B. Colerick, younger brothers, are both practicing and successful lawyers in Fort Wayne, while the former served for many years as city attorney, and the latter as prosecuting attorney of the county.
"The subject of this sketch received his early educational disci- pline in the city schools of Fort Wayne, the course of study in which is equal to that of many colleges. He, however, did not depend, nor has at any time, upon what may be learned in pursuing the ordinary courses of study provided by institutions of learning, but he has car- ried forward with great discrimination and exactitude such reading and study as are best fitted to fit one for the learned profession which he has so signally honored with his labors and services. He had many advantages which not many may enjoy in preparing for and entering upon the duties of a profession. He not only had the benefit of his honored and distinguished father's learning, experience, example, ad- vice and encouragement, but also the help, advice and encouragement of a mother of fine ability and culture. He had gone through a course of study in the law, been admitted to the bar, and become a partner of his father before he was twenty-one years of age. From that time until the present he has been one of the leading and most successful practitioners of the Allen county bar. He is able and patient in the preparation of his cases for trial, and in the trial of them he is skillful and successful. In the preparation of a case and presenting the same to the court and jury he has few equals in discovering in advance the
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controlling points and in so marshaling the testimony and handling it in the argument as to produce the conviction that the cause of his client is just and ought to prevail. He is a good judge of human nature, and is remarkably conversant with the modes of thought on the part of jurors. With these qualifications and his natural facilities as a public speaker he is forceful and successful as an advocate in jury cases. Added to his other elements of success is that of sincerity, which has no little weight with both the court and jury."
Farther it may be said that Mr. Colerick has maintained a strong hold on the confidence and esteem of the people of his native county, and that significant evidence of his popularity was that given in 1878, when, as candidate on the Democratic ticket, he was elected to repre- sent the twelfth district of Indiana in congress, making an excellent record and being chosen as his own successor in 1880. Fidelity and diligence characterized his congressional career, and he labored earn- estly and effectively in advancing the interests of the people of his district and those of the entire nation. After the expiration of his second term in congress, Mr. Colerick resumed his professional work in Fort Wayne, and continued actively engaged therein until 1883, when he was tendered, without personal solicitation, the office of su- preme court commissioner, accepting the office and entering upon the discharge of his duties in November of the year mentioned. At the expiration of his term, in 1885, he again resumed his professional practice in Fort Wayne, and the ever-increasing demands of the same now engross his time and attention. In politics Mr. Colerick is a stanch advocate of the principles of the Democratic party.
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