USA > Indiana > Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood, Volume V > Part 16
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The Staub brothers received their edu- cation at Metamora and at Brookville, and Michael attended the Oak Forest Academy at Brookville for about two years. In Feb- ruary, 1900, at the age of twenty-one, he came to Anderson, and his first employment here was in the file works as a file tester. At the beginning he was paid $1 a day, and he remained with the establishment two years. He then went to the Ames Shovel and Tool Factory at North Anderson, and was one of the welders in that plant for three years, commanding good wages and thriftily saving it with a view to an inde- pendent business of his own.
In 1905 Mr. Staub married Josephine McNamara, daughter of James and Eliza- beth ( Armstrong) McNamara. They have two children : Joseph M., born in 1909, and Mildred Mary, born in 1912.
After his marriage Mr. Staub entered the grocery business at Twenty-first and Main Street in Anderson, and conducted one of the good stores in that section of the city for six years. He then sold out, and on April 2, 1911, took his place as a clerk in the store of which he is now one of the proprietors. He was employed by Harry Faulkner until February, 1912, when he bought out the business and con-
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tinued it under the name M. W. Staub un- til the following April, when his brother came into the partnership.
Michael Staub is also a stockholder in the France Film Company of New York. He is a democrat in politics, and he and his family worship in St. Mary's Catholic Church.
THOMAS HIATT is the present sheriff of Delaware County and member of a family that has been identified with that section of Indiana since pioneer days.
The Hiatt family was established in Henry County, Indiana, more than eighty years ago. Solomon Hiatt, father of Sheriff Hiatt, was born in Henry County Decem- ber 20, 1833, son of John and Charity Hiatt. When a boy Solomon worked with his father in clearing and improving a homestead, and later engaged in farming on his own account. Soon after his mar- riage he bought land in Delaware County and resided here for half a century. His homestead was eleven miles northwest of Muncie, and he was in the county before a single railroad had been built and when all transportation was over the country highways. His first purchase of land was forty acres, but later he acquired another tract of 110 acres, and developed a fine homestead, on which he lived until his death June 17, 1906. He served eight years as justice of the peace, and was a man noted for his integrity of character and strict honesty, so that he entertained the good will of his neighbors and their respect as well. He began voting as a whig but cast his ballot for John C. Fremont in 1856, and from that time was a steadfast repub- lican. For thirty-nine years he was affili-
ated with the Masonic Lodge at Alexandria. . of Muskingum County. He spent four or
On November 10, 1856, Solomon Hiatt mar- ried Elizabeth McCollester, who was born in Delaware County October 13, 1839, and died on the home farm June 31, 1906, only two weeks after her husband. She had united with the Christian Church at the age of seventeen and was always one of its faithful and sustaining members. To their marriage were born eleven children, and when the parents passed away five sons and two danghters survived them, and twenty- eight grandchildren and four great-grand- children.
Fourth among the children was Thomas
Hiatt, who was born in Delaware County January 28, 1863. He was educated in the common schools, and during the greater part of his active life for thirty years has upheld a worthy role in the farming com- munity where he was reared. Mr. Hiatt has always been a forceful exponent of the principles of the republican party, and he was elected to his present office as sheriff on that ticket. In 1918 he was re-elected to his present office as sheriff of Delaware County.
On February 2, 1886, at Muncie, he mar- ried Miss Effie J. Collins. They have five children, Frances, Cleo, Kenton, Mabel and Nellie. Kenton is now in France in service with the United States Army. All the children have been given the advantages of the public schools.
W. A. MCILVAINE. The service by which he is esteemed as a resident of Muncie Mr. MeIlvaine has rendered as a very capable police officer, and for over a quarter of a century has been identified with the police department of that city, and is now its chief or superintendent.
He was born February 14, 1852, at Zanesville, Ohio. Both his father and mother's people were of Irish stock and ancestry. Grandfather McIlvaine was born in Ireland, where he died. John Mc- Ilvaine, father of Chief McIlvaine, was a farmer. His wife Demaries Wilson, was a native of Indiana. Of their six children only two are now living. W. A. MeIl- vaine's sister resides in Columbus, Ohio. Superintendent MeIlvaine was educated in the common schools of Zanesville. He has always been a worker and began earning his own living as a coal miner in the mines five years in this occupation, and from 1878 to 1892 was a puddler in a rolling mill at Zanesville.
From Zanesville Mr. McIlvaine came to Muncie and on March 28, 1892, was ap- pointed a member of its police force. In 1893 he became a patrolman, and in 1894 was promoted to captain of police. After four years in that office he became city superintendent of police. He has always been a stanch democrat and is affiliated. with the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Feb- ruary 3, 1869, he married Miss Rosa Berry. Three children were born to their marriage
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but all of them are now deceased. August 3, 1919, Mr. and Mrs. McIlvaine celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
CLAUDE FIFER, of the Hogue-Fifer Sales Company, handling the distribution of the Maxwell Motor Company cars at Anderson and vicinity, is regarded among his asso- ciates as a genius in the automobile busi- ness both in the technical side and as a salesman. From the time the first car was run through the streets of Anderson Mr. Fifer has had a fascination for automobiles. His skill was so great that it finally caused him to buy a second-hand car, and from that the transition into the automobile busi- ness was easy and rapid.
He was born at Anderson in 1884, a son of William and Mary (Vineyard) Fifer, of that city. He attended the grammar school as a boy, spent two years in the Lincoln High School, and when only sixteen years old he put in four weeks of work in a local blacksmith shop. The five years after he left school were spent as clerk in the book- store of A. L. Stone. From there he en- tered the employ of the Sefton Mannfactur- ing Company in their Anderson plant, and was with the factory for three years, most of the time operating a crossent saw. From that factory he entered the service of Rall- ings & Company in the Banner store as a general utility man. He put in eleven years with this company and was finally put in complete charge of the carpet de- partment as a buyer.
Mr. Fifer has always been naturally inclined toward things mechanical, and while he was working for the furniture store he managed to buy an old Buick Model No. 10 car. About the first thing he did was to dismantle the machinery and then reassemble and rebuild it throughout, adding a touch here and there which made the car when he got through with it better than ever. Knowing the inner mechanism of a car was a start which finally propelled him ont of the carpet business and into active salesmanship in the automobile in- dustry. His first position was as a sales- man for used and new cars for the Lam- bert-Weir Sales Company, at that time dis- tributors of the Oakland cars in Madison and Delaware counties. He was with them four months, and was then offered a better place with the Hill-Stage Company, dis- tributors of the Willys-Overland, Knight
and Cadillac cars. With this firm he re- mained a year, and his successful record there justified him in taking up a business of his own. On March 1, 1917, he became a partner with Mr. J. L. Hogne, and they established the Hogue-Fifer Company, and now handle the exclusive selling agency for the Maxwell cars in Anderson and the sur- rounding townships of Stony Creek, Jack- son, Union, Labette, Adams, Fall Creek and Green. The company has a model dis- play room at 1225 Meridian Street, the room extending back an entire block.
In 1905 Mr. Fifer married Miss Bertha Ickes, daughter of William F. and Arvilla (Noel) Ickes, of Anderson. Three children have been born to their marriage: William Max, Dorothy, and Daniel LeRoy.
Mr. Fifer has accomplished an enviable business success through the avenue of hard work and keen and alert intelligence, always on the lookout for opportunity. He is one of the highly respected citizens of Anderson, a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, belongs to the Travelers Protective Association and in politics is a republican.
WILLIAM SCOTT first visited Indianapolis in 1870, and during the next twenty years built up a large produce and commission business, but for over a quarter of a cen- tury has been an important factor in the wholesale drug house of Daniel Stewart Company, of which he was president until October 1, 1915, when that concern and the A. Kiefer Company consolidated. He has been president of Kiefer Stewart Company since that time.
The career of Mr. Scott is one that re- flects credit upon his individual talents and industry and upon the worthy heritage he received from his parents. He was born in County Donegal, Ireland, April 6, 1850, son of Rev. William and Charlotte (Craw- ford) Scott. He is of Irish Presbyterian stock. His father was a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church and a man of fine intellectual attainments and a classical scholar. Mr. Scott himself acquired a lib- eral education, being classically trained at Londonderry, Ireland. In April, 1868, at the age of eighteen, he came to America, and locating at Philadelphia found his first opportunity with Stuart & Brothers, importers and wholesale dealers in drv goods. Later for two years he was with
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Samuel Macky & Company, general pro- duce and commission merchants of Phila- delphia. In the interests of this firm he traveled in different parts of the central west, and several times visited Indianapolis. In this city, through an acquaintance formed with Col. Samuel F. Gray, agent of the Union Line, he set in motion negotia- tions which in June, 1871, resulted in Sam- uel Macky & Company establishing a branch house at Indianapolis with Mr. Scott in charge. After a few months he acquired individual control of the business, and William Scott & Company, which con- tinued until 1890, was one of the chief houses of its kind in the city.
In 1890 Mr. Scott abandoned the com- mission business to become associated with the late Daniel Stewart, one of whose daughters he had married. Daniel Stewart, was founder of the wholesale drug business above mentioned. After the death of Mr. Stewart in February, 1892, Mr. Scott and John N. Carey, another son-in-law of Mr. Stewart, with their wives united in the organization of the Daniel Stewart Com- pany. October 1, 1908, Mr. Carey with- drew from the drug business to the control of the glass department of the company, and in the reorganization which followed Mr. Scott became president of the Daniel Stewart Company, Incorporated. It was one of the oldest and largest wholesale drug houses of Indiana and the business has been greatly prospered, reflecting the sound commercial sense of its founder and the energetic administration of those who have had its fortunes in charge during the past twenty-five years.
Mr. Scott's business career has been con- temporaneous with the larger growth and development of Indianapolis as a citv. The broader and bigger interests of the city have always exercised a strong hold upon his imagination and his sympathies, and in many ways his own efforts are reflected in the larger growth. He has been a member of the Board of Governors of the Board of Trade since its reorganization in 1882, being the only member whose service has been continuous. He was elected vice presi- dent in 1887 and in 1888 president of the Board of Trade. In 1891 he was elected a member of the Board of School Commis- sioners, and served continuously with that body until 1900, being president in 1896-97. Mr. Scott is a republican, has been affiliated
with the Masonic Order since he was twen- ty-one and is a thirty-second degree Scot- tish Rite Mason. He and his wife are mem- bers of the Second Presbyterian Church.
March 29, 1880, Mr. Scott married Miss Martha Stewart. They are the parents of one daughter, Charlotte, who is married to George Barret Moxley, vice president and general manager of Kiefer Stewart Com- pany.
Daniel Stewart, father of Mrs. Scott, was born at Greensburg, Indiana, February 3, 1824, and died at Indianapolis February 25, 1892. He was of Scotch ancestry and a colonial American in 'descent. His mother was a Hendricks, of the family which has given Indiana two of its most honored names. Daniel Stewart was edu- cated in pioneer schools, and as a youth took up the drug business, which he fol- lowed uninterruptedly except for a brief time when he was a daguerreotype artist. He came to Indianapolis in 1863, and with two other associates established a whole- sale and retail drug house at 40 East Wash- ington Street .. The business grew and ex- panded, and after 1883 was conducted under Mr. Stewart's individual name. In 1890 Daniel Stewart was chosen president of the National Wholesale Druggists As- sociation. One of the local newspapers said editorially of him: "Mr. Stewart was recognized as a generous, considerate em- ployer-one who recognized the value of service done for him and who returned its equivalent. He was charitable, and his long business career, extending over half a century, was marked by honorable deal- ings. His devotion to his business no doubt impaired his health and superinduced the attack that resulted in his death." He never sought public office, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a promi- nent Mason and was identified with various civic organizations in Indianapolis. He married, May 18, 1858, Miss Martha Tark- ington, daughter of Rev. Joseph Tarking- ton of Greensburg. Their children were two daughters, Mary, wife of John N. Carey, and Martha, wife of William Scott. --
SAMUEL GILLETTE PHILLIPS. A business man and banker, Samuel Gillette Phillips has been identified with Alexandria for more than a quarter of a century. He grew up in the atmosphere of a country merchandise store, traveled on the road
Chas. L. Libby
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over Indiana for a number of years, and is well acquainted with the state and its people. Mr. Phillips for twenty years has been president of the Alexandria Bank.
He was born on a farm a mile from Bloomingsport in Randolph County, In- diana, September 9, 1857, son of Ancil B. and Elizabeth Ann (Adamson) Phillips. His birthplace was a log house which had been built by his grandfather, Thomas Phillips, while clearing a tract of wild land in Randolph County. Mr. Phillips is of English and Welsh ancestry. Four genera- tions of the Phillips have lived in America. Their first point of settlement was New Jersey. From there they moved to Ohio, where Grandfather Thomas Phillips was bound out to a family named Haynes. After growing up he married in Ohio Re- becca Hammon and they went to Indiana and were pioneers of Randolph Count They reared a family of seven children the youngest being Ancil B. The latter for many years was a country merchant at Bloomingsport, but in 1887 removed to Muncie and continued in the grocery busi- ness there until 1912, since which time he has been retired. His wife died in 1914.
Samuel G. Phillips secured his early edu- cation in the public schools at Bloomings- port. He remained there to the age of twenty and gained a general knowledge of business by work in his father's store. On leaving the store he went to Indian- apolis, and for six years was connected with Syfers, McBride & Company, a wholesale grocery honse covering eastern and central Indiana. For three years Mr. Phillips was a member of the firm Phillips, Davis & Company, merchandise brokers of Indian- apolis. Selling his interests there, he went on the road for three years traveling over Central Indiana and representing the wholesale clothing house of Heidelbach, Friedlander & Company of Cincinnati.
Mr. Phillips has been identified with Alexandria since 1892. His first work here was assistant cashier of the Alexandria Bank, the president of which was A. E. Harlan. This bank was reorganized in 1895 as the Alexandria National Bank, and for two years Mr. Phillips was assistant cashier. In 1897 he was promoted to cash- ier, and in 1898 the national charter was surrendered, the business liquidated, and was succeeded by a private banking organi- zation which took the old name of the Alex-
andria Bank. Since that date, a period of twenty years, Mr. Phillips has been president and active head of the business and has made it one of the substantial banking houses of Madison County. Mr. Phillips is also interested in other lines, owns a farm, and is a director and stock- holder of the Alexandria Preserving Com- pany, a local industry making a specialty of tomatoes for canning.
In 1888, at Alexandria, Mr. Phillips mar- ried Etta Hannah, daughter of Robert H. and Caroline (Scott) Hannah. Her father was a merchant. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have two sons. Robert Beach is now man- aging editor of the Gary Evening Post at Gary, Indiana. He married Naomi Harris, daughter of Judge Harris of Sullivan, In- diana, and they have one child, Robert Harris Phillips. The second son of Mr. Phillips is William Thomas Phillips, who was born in 1901 and is still in school.
Mr. Phillips is affiliated with Alexandria Lodge of Masons, Free and Accepted Masons, Alexandria Chapter No. 99, Royal Arch Masons, Alexandria Council No 85, Royal and Select Masters, with Necessity Lodge No. 222 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Alexandria Lodge No. 335, Knights of Pythias, which he served as treasurer many years, and Alexandria Lodge No. 478, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He has served as treasurer of the Alexandria Business Men's Associa- tion. Well known at Indianapolis, Mr. Phillips is a member of the Indianapolis Board of Trade and was one of the charter inembers of the Columbia Club of that city and of the Commercial Travelers Associa- tion of that city. In politics he votes as a republican, and served one term as town councilman. He is a member of the Meth- odist Church.
CHARLES LEON LIBBY. One of the im- portant institutions contributing to this special new character of Indianapolis as a city is the International Machine Tool Company, of which Charles Leon Libby is vice president and general superintendent. Mr. Libby is a man of note among Ameri- can mechanical engineers, has invented and designed many types of machinery, and is known nationallv and internationally as de- signer of the Libby Turret Lathe.
Mr. Libby was born in Aroostook County, Maine, in 1861, a son of Simon and Frances
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(Caswell) Libby. The Libby family has been in America for a number of genera- tions, has produced other distinguished men, and many of the family associations linger around the old home center at Gray, Maine, twelve miles from Portland.
For all his respectable and even promi- nent family associations, Charles L. Libby represents a type of keen and aggressive American who achieves his own destiny. When he was four years old his father died. His father had been a locomotive engineer with the Grand Trunk Railway. The head of the family being removed, Charles L. Libby had to get most of his education largely in the intervals of productive em- ployment. As a boy he worked on a farm, but was most congenially employed while learning the machinist's trade in a shop. From the time he was ten and a half years old he supported himself, and later paid his own way through college. His appren- ticeship as a machinist was served in the works of the New Haven Manufacturing Company at New Haven, Connecticut. Later he was employed as a machinist and tool maker by the Forbes & Curtis Manu- facturing Company at Bridgeport, Con- necticut. He was also a machinist and tool maker in the plant of the Bridgeport Ma- chine Tool Company.
The practical training he had received in mechanical industries he supplemented when he entered in 1881 the Maine State College as a student of mechanical engi- neering. He received his degree Mechani- cal Engineer from that institution in 1884. He then resumed employment with the Bridgeport Machine Tool Company, at first as a machinist and later as draftsman, de- signer and superintendent, his position in- volving not only technical duties but the executive responsibility of supervising a large force of men. He was with the Bridgeport Machine Tool Company eleven years. In 1895 he became general super- intendent of the Pacific Iron Works at Bridgeport.
In 1898 Mr. Libby accepted an oppor- tunity to go to Berlin, Germany, to take charge as general superintendent of the machine tool department of the Ludwig- Loewe Company. This company had a plant famed in engineering circles for its splendid buildings and equipment, its modern conveniences from an industrial standpoint, and its complete and modern
equipment of machinery. The department supervised by Mr. Libby in this concern covered eleven acres of floor space, and he had under him a force of thirty draftsmen and thirty-eight pattern makers. His ex- perience at the German capital and at almost the heart of the German industrial system gave Mr. Libby a close view of that enemy country such as few Americans pos- sess. He was abroad four years, and on returning to America in 1902 entered the service of the Gisholt Machine Company at Madison, Wisconsin, as a specialist and designer. While there he put on the mar- ket a number of new machine tools for the company.
Mr. Libby has been a resident of Indian- apolis since October, 1906. Here in com- pany with Mr. Arthur Jordan, Mr. O. B. Iles and Mr. W. K. Milholland he founded the International Machine Tool Company, of which he is vice president and general manager, head of the production and en- gineering departments. Mr. Jordan is president of the company, Mr. Iles, treas- urer and manager, and T. P. Dickinson, sec- retary. The company has a large and modern plant occupying a ten-acre tract on Twenty-first Street and the Belt Railway. The main building is a two-story structure of steel, concrete and brick, 350 feet long by 100 feet wide, and in its construction Mr. Libby undoubtedly utilized many of the ideas of his long experience both in this country and abroad. There is probably no factory building anywhere that has so ideal a lighting system. The lighting is almost entirely sunlight, and the arrangement of windows is such that it is practically im- possible for a workman to get in his own light. The elimination of shadows obvi- ously means increased efficiency and safety. Many other ideas have been carefully worked out to conserve time, labor and ex- pense. The company employs from 200 to 250 highly skilled mechanics, and many of them have been with the plant ever since it was established twelve years ago.
The output of the company is an im- portant line of machine tools. Machine tool is itself a comparatively new term. It refers not to ordinary tools such as mechanics nse, but a complete and often intricate machine, working in iron or steel, and with all its processes mechanically ganged to the accuracy of a ten thousandth part of an inch. Machine tools comprise
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snch machinery as planers, engine lathes, drill presses and milling machines. Some- thing of the meaning of machine tool and the special lines of manufacture of the In- ternational Machine Tool Company of In- dianapolis were interestingly described in a newspaper interview some time recently by Mr. Iles, treasurer of the company. Mr. Iles said in part :
"Comparatively few people know the really important part the machine tool plays in the great industrial war machine that is producing munitions and war sup- plies on such a major scale. Few people know for instance that the Libby heavy tur- ret lathe, manufactured at our plant, is doing great service in the production of munitions in the cause of our country and other allied nations. About $500,000 worth of these machines were exported to Eng- land in 1915 for the manufacture of high explosive shells. It is used in automobile and truck shops for machining fly-wheels, gears, differentials, housings, brake-drums and wheel hubs; it is used in aeroplane. plants for machining cylinders, gears, hous- ings and propeller hubs; in ammunition plants for making shells, the machine being used for boring, facing and forming the nose of the shell. Electric motor and gen- erator companies find use for the Libby heavy turret lathe in machining their vari- ous parts where heavy and exacting work is required. The lathe can be found in many modern railroad shops in the United States and Europe.
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