USA > Indiana > Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood, Volume V > Part 25
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manager of the People's Clothing Com- pany. After 315 years he took a partner and in 1917 established the Credit Apparel Company. The rapid growth of the busi- ness has enabled the firm to establish two branches, one at Muncie and one at Rich- mond, and they now have three large sales- rooms with fine fixtures and employ about twenty-five clerks and others, and handle a splendid line of cloaks, suits, and men's clothing. The company does an immense business both in the country and city trade. Mr. Schutz is president of the corporation and is manager of the Anderson branch. He is buyer for all the stores.
Mr. Schutz is a republican. He is an orthodox Jew and Zionist, and is treasurer of Ahavath Achim Temple at Anderson. Fraternally he is affiliated with Veritas Lodge No. 735, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at New York City and with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Anderson.
CLEMENT V. CARR. It is not merely his official position as sheriff of Wayne County which makes Mr. Carr one of the most widely known and appreciated citizens of that section of Indiana. He had a strong hold on the confidence and esteem of the community before he was chosen to the of- fice of sheriff, and has shown business judg- ment and integrity through all the varied relationships of his life.
He was born in Butler County, Ohio, February 2, 1863, a son of Jacob G. and Katherine (Zeller) Carr. He is of Scotch- Irish ancestry. He was born on a farm, lived in one of the rural districts of Ohio until he was ten years old, when his par- ents moved to Wells County, Indiana, and there as a boy he assisted his father in working the 160 acre farm. At the age of eighteen, in 1882, he came to Richmond and . learned the trade of molder in the plant of the Hoosier Drill Company. He remained with that one firm as one of its most relia- ble workers for thirteen years. He then took employment with the Jones Hardware Company. He gave up this business con- nection to go to Solomon, Kansas, and take charge of a large ranch of 4,220 acres owned by J. M. Westcott. This was one of the famous ranches of the Solomon Val- ley in Dickinson County, Kansas, near Abilene. Mr. Carr remained as its man- ager for five years, and for the next two
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years was engaged in cattle raising at Boulder, Wyoming. Returning to Rich- mond in 1911, he began farming for him- self on a place of 1721/2 acres near Rich- mond. He left the active management after five years to enter politics as primary candidate for the office of sheriff in 1916. There were ten aspirants for the republi- can nomination, and he won out over them all and in the succeeding election he de- feated his democratic opponent, Ben Dris- chel, by 1,700 votes. In 1918 he was again successful at the primaries and defeated Isaac Burns for a second term by a similar plurality. The sheriff's office on all ac- counts has never been in better hands than since Mr. Carr took its management. He is a man of vigor, courageous and prompt in decisions, and thoroughly well qualified for his duties. On May 10, 1917, he was appointed chairman of the Wayne County Conscription Board No. 1, and had those duties throughout the war period. Mr. Carr is a popular member of the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, Knights of Pythias, and the Wayne Lodge of Moose No. 167. He is a member of the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church at Richmond.
He is properly proud of his fine family. February 27, 1883, he married Lillie A. Fasold, daughter of John Fasold of Rich- mond, Indiana. There were four children born to their marriage: Herbert A., born January 24, 1884, died at the age of twenty-one; Clifford H., born September 21, 1888, accounts for the star in the serv- ice flag in the family home. He graduated with the degree electrical engineer from the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan in 1907, and for several years was engineer of the sales department of the Allis-Chalmers Company at Kansas City. Early in the war he enlisted and is at present in the warrant office of the United States Navy. He married at Man- hattan, Kansas. The two younger children of Mr. and Mrs. Carr are Katharine Zeller, now a junior in the Richmond High School, and Earle W., also a high school student, born in 1906, on the Westcott Ranch, Solo- man, Kansas.
JAMES A. VAN OSDOL, an Indiana lawyer of over thirty years experience, has largely specialized his services in behalf of the Union Traction Company of Indiana since
that transportation system was put in oper- ation. Mr. Van Osdol is general attorney for the company, with offices and head- quarters at Anderson, and at one time was associated as a law partner with Charles L. Henry, who perhaps more than any other man was responsible for inaugurating the building of interurban electric lines which are now comprised in this splendid Union Traction System.
Mr. Van Osdol is of old Holland Dutch lineage, first established in the colony of New Jersey. The early records show that a member of the Van Osdol family was sent by the Dutch government to America for the purpose of testing clays with a view to the establishment of potteries. This pioneer Van Osdol was so well satis- fied with the new country that he re- mained, and started the American branch of the family which subsequently moved to Pennsylvania, and later came down the Ohio Valley to Southern Indiana. Through most of the generations the family have been farmers.
James A. Von Osdol was born in Cass Township, Ohio County, Indiana, August 4, 1860, son of Boston Weaver and Rachel (Jenkins) Van Osdol. His early life was spent in the rugged and backwoods districts of Ohio County, and his early education was limited to the public schools there in winter terms, while his services found am- ple employment on the farm during the summer. In this way his life went ou un- til he was seventeen years of age, when he obtained a certificate and began teaching school. This was a vocation he followed for six years in his native county. The last three years of that time he studied law at home privately, and in 1883 he was ad- mitted to the bar by Judge Allyson. He had in the meantime moved to Vevay, Switzerland County, Indiana, and shortly he joined William D. Ward under the firm name of Ward & Van Osdol, which was continued until 1893. In the latter year Mr. Van Osdol moved to Elwood, Indiana, where he practiced for two years, and in 1895 moved to Anderson, and there became associated with Charles L. Henry and E. B. McMahan in the law firm of Henry, McMahan & Van Osdol. This firm was continued for two years. Mr. Van Osdol was associated from the first with Mr. Henry and other men in the or- ganization of the Union Traction Company,
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and early in the history of the organiza- tion was chosen its general attorney and has since been at the head of the legal de- partment and in more or less intimate touch with all legal matters affecting the organization and operation of the present concern known as the Union Traction Com- pany of Indiana.
Mr. Van Osdol is one of the directors of the Anderson Trust Company. In the spring of 1917 he was appointed chairman of the Red Cross organization in Madison County, and was also early appointed a member of the Indiana Advisory Commit- tee of the American Red Cross. Under his leadership Madison County responded generously to every call of the Red Cross. He has been quite active in republican party affairs, and perhaps chiefly so while living in Southern Indiana. In 1888 he was elected superintendent of public schools of Switzerland County. Mr. Van Osdol is a member of the Columbia Club of Indianapolis, the Tourist Club of Ander- son, the Rotary Club of Anderson, is presi- dent of the Anderson Chamber of Com- merce, is affiliated with the Knights of Py- thias at Vevay, and has membership in the First Methodist Church at Anderson. Mr. Van Osdol has been twice married. By his first marriage he has a son, Robert. In 1894 he married Mrs. Mary F. (Gould) Goodin, of Pern, Indiana. By her first hus- band she had a son, Donald Goodin. Mr. and Mrs. Van Osdol have one child, Gould J. Van Osdol, born in 1902.
REX D. KAUFMAN is sole proprietor of the Kaufman Hardware Company, a busi- ness which was established in Anderson many years ago by his father and in which he developed his own skill and capacity as a merchant. This is one of the large con- cerns of Eastern Indiana, and does both a retail and jobbing business in light and heavy hardware and mill supplies all over this portion of the state.
Mr. Kaufman was born November 14, 1884, at Kokomo, Indiana, a son of Dan T. and Eva (Turner) Kaufman. His father was a merchant for many years, and associated with George W. Davis as a partner in the Lion Store at Anderson from 1886 until on the dissolution of the partnership, Mr. Davis took the dry goods department and Dan Kaufman the hard- ware and mill supply end, which he con-
tinued successfully until his death in June, 1915.
Rex D. Kaufman has three living sis- ters. He was educated in the public schools of Anderson, spending three years in high school. From early boyhood he had worked in his father's store, and at the age of eighteen took his place as a regular clerk therein and acquired a thorough knowledge of every branch of the business. After his father's death he bought the busi- ness and has continued it under the same high plane it was run in his father's day. It requires the services of fifteen people to conduct the store. Mr. Kaufman is also a stockholder and vice president of the Wynne Cooperage Company at Wynne, Arkansas. He was president of the Ander- son Club in 1916-17, is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Columbia Club of Indianapolis, is a Knight Templar Ma- son, has attained the thirty-second degree in the. Scottish Rite, is a member of the Mystic Shrine, of Anderson Lodge No. 209, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is quite active in republican party affairs.
In 1912 he married Nondas E. Craft, daughter of William and Mary Craft, of Anderson.
PHILIP ZOERCHER is an Indianapolis law- yer who is one of the important contribu- tions of Perry County to the capital city. Mr. Zoercher has long been prominent in public affairs in Indiana, has served in the State Legislature, as Supreme Court re- porter, and is now a member of the board of state tax commissioners.
Mr. Zoercher was born at Tell City, In- diana, October 1, 1866, son of Christian and Mary Anna (Christ) Zoercher. They were the parents of eight children, six of whom are still living.
Christian Zoercher was born in Bavaria, Germany, and grew up there until sixteen years of age. In order to escape com- pulsory military service he left the Father- land and came to the United States in 1848. His first location was at Poughkeep- sie, New York, where he worked at the cab- inet maker's trade. After that he lived successively for short intervals at Cleve- land and Cincinnati, and in April, 1866, moved to Tell City, Indiana, where he found employment in the shops of that town. While at Cincinnati he married,
Philip yourcher
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and after moving to Tell City he settled down in a permanent home. Prominence in politics and the other abnormal events of life had no place in the career of Christian Zoercher. His one predominant quality was industry, and he became widely known throughout Perry County for his good, sub- stantial qualities. His greatest enjoyment was in the quiet and happy relationship of his home, and he had no convivial habits. He was honest and law abiding, and his career expressed all that was best in man- hood. In religious belief he was a Men- nonite, but there being no church of that organization in his locality he attended the Evangelical Church. In politics he was a republican until 1872, and from that time forward a democrat. But he did not care to make a name in politics, his only public service being as councilman. He died hon- ored and respected February 6, 1917. His wife passed away in September, 1906. Christian Zoercher was especially fortunate in the choice of a wife. She bore her part in the making of a home, and few mothers were loved more devotedly than this mother, who uncomplainingly filled the niche allotted to her.
Mr. Philip Zoercher grew up at Tell City, attended the public schools there and the Central Normal College at Danville. During four years of his early youth he worked in the factory of Tell City. He also taught school one year, and in 1888, at the age of twenty-two, was elected to rep- resent Perry County in the State Legisla- ture. He was re-elected in 1890, serving four years altogether. At least one im- portant law now upon the statute books of Indiana testifies to his legislative experi- ence. This was the bill which he intro- duced compelling county auditors to apply the surplus funds in the county treasury to the redemption of its outstanding indebted- ness.
While a member of the State Legislature Mr. Zoercher took up the study of law, and in November, 1890, was admitted to the bar. He began practice at Tell City. Dur- ing the county seat fight between Cannel- ton and Tell City, and against his better judgment, he was induced to establish an English speaking paper in his native city. This was the Tell City News. He sold this paper in 1900 and then gave his complete attention to his private law practice. In November, 1900, Mr. Zoercher was elected
and served one term of two years as prose- cuting attorney of the Second Indiana Judicial District. It is reported that he was probably the most efficient prosecuting attorney that district ever had.
In 1912 Mr. Zoercher was elected re- porter for the Supreme Court of Indiana, and continued to discharge the responsibili- ties of that office until January 14, 1917. Since that time he has been a member of the law firm of Zoercher & Patrick, with offices in the Fidelity Loan Building of In- dianapolis. In March, 1917, Mr. Zoercher was appointed a member of the board of state tax commissioners.
June 26, 1892, he married Miss Martha McAdams. They have three children : Mary Anna, Martha MeAdams and James Mc Adams. Mr. Zoercher is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and in religious practice is a Presbyterian.
WILLIAM SAMUEL CURTIS was born at Newport in Wayne County, Indiana, June 19, 1850, a son of William C. and Elizabeth R. Curtis. He attended MeKendree Col- lege, Lebanon, Illinois, and Washington University, St. Louis, and became first a teacher and then a lawyer. He was made Dean of the St. Louis Law School in 1894 and Dean Emeritus in 1915. He was a member of the Church of the Unity, St. Louis, and was independent in his politi- cal affiliations. The death of William Sam- nel Curtis occurred at Pier Cove. Michi- gan, May 23, 1916.
ROBERT ELLIOTT has been a resident of Indianapolis twenty-five years. He is re- sponsible for giving this city one of its im- portant industries, the Standard Dry Kiln Company, of which he is president, and has handled many other commercial inter- ests at the same time.
A native of Detroit, Michigan, born Feb- ruary 11, 1859, Mr. Elliott is of English and Scotch ancestry. His father, Robert Elliott, Sr., was a native of Canada but for sixty years lived in Detroit, where he died in 1915. In Detroit Robert Elliott, Jr., grew up, attended the local schools, and as a young man became connected with the Huyatt & Smith Manufacturing Com- pany and still later was with the Detroit Blower Company. Here it was that he gained a technical familiarity with the dry
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kiln business, especially the manufacture of machines for drying clay products and lumber. He has witnessed most of the im- portant improvements and technical process, which, beginning with a crude blower system, has advanced from stage to stage, involving many adaptations in detail and a gradnal change of basic principle to the "Moist Air" system.
As a result of the failure of the house at Detroit Mr. Elliott and Mr. A. T. Bemis in 1887 removed to Louisville, Kentucky, and started a similar business on an inde- pendent scale. It was freely predicted that they would fail. However, they knew what they were about as a result of long and thorough experience, and all predictions as to the outcome of their enterprise failed to materialize. Mr. Elliott finally bought the interest of his partner, and in 1890 incor- porated the company with a capital stock of $50,000. In order to get a more cen- tral location he moved his plant to Indian- apolis in 1894. Here the industry has grown and flourished, with Mr. Elliott as directing head from the beginning until within the past year or so, when his son Robert C. took the active management.
Mr. Elliott is also vice president of Brown-Huffstetter Sand Company and president of the Western Machine Works. He has kept in close touch with the ma- terial growth and social affairs of Indian- apolis and has membership in many of the more notable organizations of Indianapolis, including the Chamber of Commerce, the Athaenenm, the Academy of Music, the Rotary and Woodstock clubs and the Ma- sonic Order, in which he is a Knight Tem- plar, a Shriner, and a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. Politically he is an independent republican and in religion is a Unitarian.
In 1889 Mr. Elliott married Miss Anna Schaefer. of Louisville, Kentucky. Their three children are named Robert C., Amy Louise and Edward J.
GEORGE L. BONHAM is an Anderson mer- chant and business man, proprietor of what is known as the "Popular Price Shoc Store," and has justly earned every snc- cessive promotion and added success that have followed his efforts since early boy- hood.
Mr. Bonham was born December 21, 1863, at Hartford City, Indiana, son of
William A. and Mary A. (Robey) Bon- ham. He is of English ancestry, and the first American of the name, George Bon- ham, came to this country in colonial times and settled on a tract of virgin land in Pennsylvania. Later members of the fam- ily were soldiers in the Revolution, and in nearly all the generations the Bonhams ·have been agriculturists. Peter Bonham, grandfather of George L. settled in Perry County, Ohio, in 1832, was a pioneer there, and in 1836 came still further west to a comparatively pioneer community, locating in Blackford County, Indiana, where he bought government land near the present City of Roll. He was a high type of citi- zen, and lived an industrious and honored career. He died in 1858. He married Susanna H. Yost, and they had eight chil- dren. Fifth among these children was William A. Bonham, who was born in Perry County, Ohio, in 1834. He grew up on a farm, had a country school educa- tion, and attended an academy in Ohio. For a time he taught school in Perry County, Ohio, and on returning to Indiana taught in Washington Township of Black- ford County. Later he took up the study of law with A. B. Jetmore of Hartford City, and about the close of the Civil war was admitted to the bar in Blackford County. He practiced with success for twenty years. He died in 1888. Politically he first affiliated with the democratic and afterward with the republican party. In 1868 he was elected on the democratic ticket to the State Senate, and subsequently he was republican candidate for Congress from the Hartford City District. As a law- yer he handled a general practice and was perhaps best known for his ability in crimi- nal law.
George L. Bonham was the second in a family of three children. He was educated in Hartford City, but at the age of thirteen began contributing to his own support. During vacation seasons he worked for a local grocery firm, and it was his distinction to inaugurate the first free delivery system of groceries in that town. Up to that time it had been the general practice and custom of long standing that purchasers should in some way get their purchases home without the merchant having any re- sponsibility after the goods left the coun- ter. Mr. Bonham did the delivery work with an old hand cart. He kept this up for
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several vacation seasons. At the age of sixteen he left public school altogether and went to work as clerk in the grocery de- partment of a local department store. Later he transferred his services to the shoe department, and acquired much knowledge that he has been able to utilize ever since. For fifteen years he was with the Weiler Department Store at Hartford City, and much of that time was buyer and manager for the shoe department.
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Having an ambition to get into business for himself, and having thriftily saved his money for that purpose, he opened his first stock of shoes only a block away from where he had been employed, and remained in business there for ten years under the name George L. Bonham, Popular Price Shoe Store, "On the Square." Mr. Bon- ham finally sold his business in Hartford City with the intention of going to Cali- fornia. He changed his mind, and con- tracted to buy an established business at Marion, Indiana. The agreement fell through and in 1914 he came to Anderson and established a new store at 815 Meri- dian Street. He was there two years, and the lease having expired he moved to his present location at the corner of Meridian and Ninth streets, the former location of the Anderson Banking Company. This store is headquarters for the W. L. Douglas shoes, and he has built up a trade that now seeks his goods from all the country sur- rounding Anderson, including large por- tions of Delaware, Henry and Marion counties.
In 1886 Mr. Bonham married Cora Belle Atkinson, daughter of James L. and Martha J. (Stevens) Atkinson. Her parents lived near Upland in Grant County. Mr. and Mrs. Bonham have four children: Ruth, who married Raymond A. Klefeker, of Oklahoma City; is the mother of two sons and three daughters; Martha, at home; James William, who was born in 1895, graduated from the high school in 1913 and is now associated with his father in busi- ness; and George L., born in 1908. Mr. Bonham is a republican, a member of the board of stewards of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, having filled all the chairs and sat in the Grand Lodge of that order.
W. A. CLARK is an Anderson business man, proprietor of the W. A. Clark Trans- fer Company, a business which he has built up to a large service, though he began it with himself as sole operative and with his only equipment a horse and dray.
Mr. Clark was born at Anderson October 30, 1869, son of Henry and Margaret (Lee) Clark. He is of Scotch and English ances- try. The family before coming to Indiana lived in Darke County, Ohio. W. A. Clark received most of his education in country school No. 6 in Lafayette Township of Madison County. While getting his educa- tion he also worked on the home farm, and that was his experience and routine in life until he was about ninetecu. His father also did a teaming business, and the son worked as a driver, but at the age of twen- ty-one came into Anderson and spent eleven months as an employe of the Big Four Rail- way Company. He was paid $1.35 per day. Though the wages were small he managed to set aside a certain sum as saving and capital, and from that modest accumula- tion he bought his first horse and dray and began trucking. From that he has de- veloped a service that would now require a number of horse drays and motor trucks, and is busy every working day in the year. His equipment and service arc largely made use of by the various factories of Anderson.
March 25, 1895, Mr. Clark married Addie May MeNatt, daughter of Samuel and Mary Ann (Moore) MeNatt. They have four children : Beulah Margaret, who is em- ploved by her father ; Ralph, born in 1903; Katherine Pauline, born in 1909 ; and Fred, born in 1913. Mr. Clark is an independent republican in politics and is affiliated with the Knights of the Golden Eagle. Mrs. Clark and daughter are members of the First Christian Church.
MICHAEL GEORGE O'BRIEN. In naming the prominent men of Anderson now in commercial life, account must be taken of those who are representative in professional as well as strictly business activity, and no better example can be presented than Michael George O'Brien, who is not only at the head of his own bond and brokerage business, but is identified officially or other- wise with a number of other stable con- cerns. Mr. O'Brien bears a name that in-
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dicates Irish ancestry, and no one could take more genuine pride in having come from an old County Clare family, de- scended from Brian Boru. He is a vigor- ous broad-minded, generous-hearted man, college bred and widely read, and for many years devoted his brilliant talents to the work of the Christian ministry, in which he became favorably known all over and beyond the state.
Michael George O'Brien was born at LaFayette in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, July 15, 1862. His parents were Michael and Hannah (McMahon) O'Brien. In boy- hood he attended the parochial school and afterward took a course in Professor Ken- nedy's business college at LaFayette. Sub- sequently circumstances so guided his life that he spent three years in a theological course, where he received his degree in 1887. Three years later he was ordained by the Wesleyan Methodist Conference at Fairmount, Indiana, a minister of that body and his first charge was at Peru, In- diana. Mr. O'Brien remained there for three years and then was transferred to the Wesleyan Church at South Wabash, where he spent three more years of earnest effort, and the next six years were spent ministering to the Wesleyan Methodist churches at Wabash, Lewis Creek and at Hope, Indiana.
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