USA > Indiana > Memorial and genealogical record of Representative Citizens of Indiana > Part 23
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Cadets of Temperance in Lafayette in 1861, which, under his able direction and indefatigable efforts, grew to be a power for good. He was an anti-slavery man, and politically was a loyal Repub- lican. For a half century he was a worthy member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. As his eventful and honorable career was drawing to a elose, he was heard to sum it up briefly in these words: "I have had a happy life. I have never danced a step; never smoked a cigar; never drank a glass of liquor; never used profane language, and never played cards or billiards."
Mr. Levering was a hard worker all his life; he believed in keeping busy, realizing that there was so much to do and so little time in which to do it. He was an expert bookkeeper and was a believer in detail, tried to do everything right, maintaining that whatever was worth doing at all was worth doing well. This, no doubt, was conducive to his pronounced success in whatever line he addressed his energies and attention. He was very proud of his handwriting, and indeed he might well have been. It was a thing of beauty, even, delicate, legible, very much like that of Edgar Allen Poe, the greatest of American literary geniuses. On Decem- ber 8, 1895, he wrote out the Sunday school lesson for that date, with a gold pen which he had been using constantly for a period of over thirty years. He was then in his seventieth year. A fac- simile of his notes on the above mentioned date was later 'made in lithograph, and is thus preserved, a most excellent piece of work, the lines being even, clean and indicating a steady nerve, all a remarkable feat for one who had passed their allotted three score and ten years.
The harmonious domestic life of William H. Levering began when, as a young man, he married M. Irene Smith, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To this union two children were born, Mortimer, deceased, and Eleanor Lula, the wife of Prof. Charles P. Hender- son, of Chicago, Illinois. Mrs. Levering was called to her rest in 1854, and the subject was subsequently married to Anna Taylor, of Lafayette, Indiana, whose death occurred in 1867. On Septem- ber 8, 1869, Mr. Levering was married a third time, his last wife being Anna Latch, a representative of an excellent old Eastern family who still live near the old Levering homeplace in Phila- delphia. Mrs. Levering is a lady of many praiseworthy char- acteristics and she lives quietly in the beautiful Levering home- stead in Lafayette, which is frequently the gathering place for her many warm personal friends.
EDWARD SEIDEL.
Among the citizens of Fort Wayne, Indiana, who built up a comfortable home and surrounded themselves with valuable per- sonal property, during a past generation, few attained a greater degree of success than the late Edward Scidel, one of the pioneers and most public-spirited citizens of Allen county. With few op- portunities except what his own efforts were capable of mastering and with many discouragements to overcome, he made an excep- tional success in life and in his old age had the gratification of knowing that the locality of his choice had been benefited by his presence and his counsel. He was regarded as a good business man, an excellent manager, a man who possessed sound judgment and keen foresight, and who believed in pressing forward, keeping the wheels of the car of civilization ever moving up the steeps. HIe ever enjoyed the respect and esteem of those who knew him for his friendly manner, business ability, his interest in public affairs and upright living and he was regarded by all as one of the substantial and most worthy citizens of the city of Fort Wayne in whose phenomenal growth he took a conspicuous part.
Mr. Seidel was born in the city of Lichtenstein, kingdom of Saxony, Germany, March 13, 1826. He spent twenty-six years of his life there, securing a fairly good practical education in the Lutheran schools of his native city. The first real work that he ever performed was on a farm. At the age of sixteen he learned the weaver's trade, but the glowing accounts that reached his neighborhood of the opportunities that awaited the young man in that land of promise, America, soon set his ambition afire, and he prepared to sail for these shores despite the fact that his parents were well-to-do, and there being no necessity to shift for himself. Embarking on the sailing vessel, "Wieland," he turned his face toward his new home, unsettled in mind as to just what he would do when he reached the goal. It happened that on the same vessel was the Rev. Gotsch and wife, who were bound for Fort Wayne to join their son, then attending Concordia Lutheran College. The good man prevailed upon the young adventurer to accompany him here, and several others on the ship decided likewise, the latter ones being Louis Schroeder, Reinhart Swart and Louis Cart-
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wright. All who were in that shipboard party have gone to their last reward. The voyage to New York occupied thirty-five days, then considered good time, but as compared with the rapid steam- ship transit of these times it would be tame speed indeed. A packet boat brought Mr. Seidel and his companions to Fort Wayne, the journey being made from New York in about two weeks time. Thus seven weeks were consumed in the passage from the fatherland to Indiana, when the same trip today would require less than two weeks. The first few nights after the arrival he slept in the unfinished structure that afterwards became the Rockhill house (now a part of St. Joseph's Hospital building). There, with a bundle of hay for a bed, he planned his future. On the opposite side of the street was a frame house occupied by the Rev. Gotsch and family, whiel Mr. Seidel purchased when the minister moved to Cincinnati a month after his arrival. And that was the first possession of Mr. Seidel in Fort Wayne. The same building stands today and is used by the Hoffman saw-mills as a storage house.
During the first summer here Mr. Seidel worked on eanal boats as freight handler. In the fall following he went out into the country, securing a position as cooper for a man who furnished barrels for the City Mills. For this service he received the modest sum of two dollars a month and board. Upon returning to town he took up the same kind of work in the City Mill cooper shop. In the spring of 1853 he went to work in a brick yard owned by a Mr. Emery and situated on what is now the Vordermark farm, on the New Haven road. After three months' experience at brick making he returned to boating and later went to Columbia City and worked on the Pittsburgh railroad, which was then building between Fort Wayne and Chicago. Through all the vicissitudes Mr. Seidel managed to save enough to start a small business. He therefore put in a small stock of groceries and supplies at a con- venient place on the Leesburg road, which venture was the start- ing point of his upward career. In the fall of 1854 his brother William came from Germany, bringing with him the snug sum of nine hundred dollars to invest in business with his brother. Edward. But fate decreed it otherwise, and six weeks after his arrival the brother died of cholera, which was then epidemie in this section of the country. Shortly after his brother's death Mr. Seidel bought a half interest in the grocery and general store of John Philabaum at No. 7 East Main street, and in one week after
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hin purchase he acquired the other half interest and conducted the business alone. He remained there in that business several years, meeting with good success. In 1856 he bought of R. W. Townly a plot of ground, fifty by one hundred and seventy feet in dimensions, and the large and handsome stores of Seidel & Bro. and Pass & Reed later adorned this property. Mr. Seidel paid for the ground the sum of two thousand and five hundred dollars, which was then considered a good round price. On this lot was created the first three-story brick building south of Main street, Fort Wayne. One part of this block Mr. Seidel used for his grocery business and the other part he rented to H. Bossler for n candy manufactory. On the second floor the three lawyers Cole- rick, who for many years figured prominently in the legal profes- xion in Allen county, had their offices. In the rear end of the building Squire Tancey had an office and dealt out justice in the stern, yet fair style of pioneer days. Mr. Seidel continued the grocery business until 1861, when he started Seidel's Crystal Ice Plant, which then had a monopoly on the ice business. He re- mmined in this line of endeavor for ten years, building up a large and ever-growing business. From 1871 to 1880 he led a retired life, but after so active a career he found no pleasure in that kind of existence and engaged with his son, Will, in the cafe that was conducted successfully several years at No. 52 Calhoun street. Later he and his son rented the Nickel Plate eating house, which they managed several years. He then established Will Seidel in the well known cafe at the corner of Main and Lafayette streets, which has since ceased to exist.
In the last few years of his life Mr. Seidel had not had any duret connection with commercial business, but devoted his atten- hon to his own large interests and to his insurance business which he had handled more or less for the last thirty years of his life. Mr. handel owned much valuable property in Fort Wayne, of which may be mentioned the block above referred to, the Aufrecht block, the block at No. 107 East Main street, which building was subse- quently occupied by the Shields' Clothing Company, and many others. His sons have felt the benefits of his frugality, for he started them in life handsomely. One of the firms started by him is that of the Seidel Bros. which has been so successfully conducted by Filmund Seidel.
Edward Seidel was married in 1858 to Anna Wuerthner, of Fort Wayne, who survived him. To them were born five children
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as follows: William and Emil, twins, the latter dying in early life; Mrs. Fred Tresselt, Edmund and Otto Seidel. They all received good educations and became well established in life when young in years.
Mr. Seidel was a member of Concordia Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, for a period of twenty-six years, having occupied all the chairs of honor in that organigation.
Edward Seidel was summoned to close his eyes on earthly scenes October 8, 1903. In its lengthy account of his life and work, the Fort Wayne Morning Star printed the following para- graph bearing on his death, in its issue of October 9, 1903:
"Edward Seidel is dead. A man who has been prominent in the development of the city for fifty-one years, and who has seen Fort Wayne grow from a village of eight hundred people to a population of nearly sixty thousand, is no more. His demise oc- curred Thursday morning at his home, No. 720 Calhoun street, and was the result of a short illness. At the time of his death his age was seventy-seven years, six months and twenty-five days. For some months Mr. Seidel has been in declining health, but it was not until Tuesday that he was forced to take his bed, and he gradually sank until the hour of his death."
Mr. Seidel's life contains much that the young man might study with profit, for it proved that determination, laudable ambi- tion and honesty will surely win in the world of affairs no matter how unpromising may be the earlier environment.
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John M. Riedmiller
JOHN M. RIEDMILLER.
The study of a successful life is interesting and profitable notwithstanding the fact that it is impossible to clearly determine whether the element of success is a natural gift or whether it is brought about by an intricate process of circumstantial develop- ment. The records of failures or partial failures in the world's great industrial arena are so much more numerous than those of success that one is frequently desirous of attempting, if only in an approximate way, the basic causes of each, for every life-record abounds in lessons-some of them incentive and others warnings -and all abounding in dramatic possibilities. In this vital, high- tensioned age, in these rushing, iron-clanging days, the march of improvement and progress is accelerated moment by moment, each successive day demanding of men a broader intelligence and a greater discernment than the preceding. Successful men must be virile men in this active age, and it is not specifically evident how extensive the lessons of the careers may be of such men of such sterling attributes as the late John M. Riedmiller, well known in the middle West as director and sales manager of the Centlivre Brewing Company, a director in the corporation and a leading Fort Wayne business man. In his relations with his fel- low men he was thoroughly upright and conscientious, gentle- manly, considerate and courteous in his personal and social con- tact, and with all mankind an honest man. In his untimely death the city of his nativity and the principal theater of his life activi- ties sustained an irreparable loss, and his memory will long be revered by a very wide circle of warm friends and acquaintances.
John M. Riedmiller was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, August 7, 1866. He was the son of John M., Sr., and Catherine (Wolf) Riedmiller, an excellent and prominent old family of Allen county, the father being one of Fort Wayne's first brewers.
The subject received his early education in St. John's Luth- eran school, in which he remained until he was thirteen years of age, and from there he went to Concordia for a two-years course. He made an excellent record for scholarship in that college, and
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was thus well prepared for his business career. Years before this time his father had established the Eagle brewery on Taylor street, Fort Wayne, Indiana, naming the plant after the old Eagle volunteer fire company. He later abandoned the brewing end of the business and conducted a bottling establishment and distrib- uting house, bottling and selling products of breweries of other cities. It was as a driver for the latter concern that the son, the subject, performed his first work. At the death of his father in 1885, young Riedmiller, then but nineteen years of age, took charge of the plant and was its manager until 1893, when he dis- posed of his holdings and entered the employ of the Centlivre Brewing Company as sales manager. He was very successful in the management of the Eagle brewery and carried on the work in- augurated by his father, and he gave equal satisfaction in connec- tion with the last-named concern, he having become a stockholder and director in the Centlivre plant in the year 1900. During the eighteen years he was connected with the plant he did much to- ward building up the business, and he was one of the staple, pro- - gressive men of the community.
Mr. Riedmiller was married on October 30, 1902, to Louise Fischer, daughter of Leopold and Louise (Fischer) Fischer, an excellent family, the father being a teacher in the Latin and Ger- man departments of the high school at Toledo, Ohio, in which city they still reside. Mr. Fischer has been a teacher of the above- named branches in the school there for the past twenty-five years. He and his wife were both born in Germany, where they grew up, were educated and married, and from there they emigrated to America when young in years, and they located in Toledo, Ohio, about thirty years ago. There Mrs. Riedmiller grew to woman- hood and was educated and was living at the time of her marriage. She now resides in the old delightful homestead at No. 817 West Wayne street, Fort Wayne, and she has long been a favorite with a wide circle of friends. She retains the varied interests left by her husband and is a strong-minded, active business woman, who, being a keen observer and keeping well posted on the trend of current events, is deserving of the high esteem in which she is universally held. She is the only child of her parents and was given every advantage of home and school training, both her father and mother being people of exceptional ability and culture, the Professor having long ranked with the leading educators of
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northern Ohio, a man of fine scholarship and commendable char- acteristics. The union of John M. Riedmiller, Jr., and wife was without issue.
Fraternally, Mr. Riedmiller was a member of Fort Wayne lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the local aerie of Eagles, as well as the Alumni of Concordia College. He also belonged to the Commercial Club. In his younger days he enjoyed outdoor sport and was very fond of hunting. Politically, he was a Democrat and was very active and deeply interested in politics, in faet, took an abiding interest in everything that made for publie improvement and progress.
The death of Mr. Riedmiller occurred in a hospital in Den- ver, Colorado, Sunday, January 21, 1912, to which eity he had gone two weeks previously in the hope of benefiting his health, which had been failing for more than a year, having been under the care of local specialists and made several visits to various health resorts. He was finally ordered to Denver, but the change of climate failed to have the beneficial effect anticipated. His body was brought back to Fort Wayne for interment. Beside's his widow he is survived by his mother, Mrs. Catherine Riedmil- ler, an estimable lady, now advanced in years, who makes her home at No. 1345 Taylor street, Fort Wayne.
We quote the following from the Labor Times-Herald; of Fort Wayne, under date of January 26, 1912:
"The Elks suffered a great loss this week by the death of one of their most estimable members, John M. Riedmiller, who passed away in Denver, whither he went a couple of weeks ago in the forlorn hope that a change of climate might benefit his rapidly failing health. The change came too late and his death speedily followed. "Johnny' Riedmiller, as he was universally known, was a lovable character. If he had an enemy in the world he has bever been heard of and all who knew him were at once his friends, who now sincerely mourn his untimely taking off."
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JOHN McKEE SPANN.
This biographical memoir has to do with a character of un- usual force and eminence, for John McKee Spann, whose life chapter has been closed by the fate that awaits all mankind, was for a long lapse of years one of the prominent citizens of Indian- apolis, although he was summoned to close his earthly accounts while still in the zenith of his power. While he carried on a special line of business in such a manner as to gain a comfortable competence for himself, he also belonged to that class of repre- sentative men of affairs who promote the public welfare while advancing individual success. There were in him sterling traits which commanded uniform confidence and regard, and his memory is today honored by all who knew him and is enshrined in the hearts of his many friends.
Mr. Spann was born at the corner of Illinois and Market streets, Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 29, 1850. He was the scion of one of the prominent old families of this city, being the son of John S. and Hester A. (Sharpe) Spann, the latter the daughter of Ebenezer Sharpe, an influential pioneer of this local- ity. The father was born in Jennings county, Indiana, on May 24, 1823, which date bears its own significance as indicating that his parents were numbered among the early settlers of this common- wealth, with whose history the family name has been identified for more than three-fourths of a century. In the common schools
of his native county, John S. Spann gained an education on a parity with that afforded the average youth of the locality and period, and his initial labors in the field of industry were those in connection with the reclamation and cultivation of the home farm. In 1839, when sixteen years old, he came to Indianapolis,
where he at once began an apprenticeship at the printer's trade, in which he became very efficient in due course of time. Being an ardent student and a keen observer, his progress was rapid and for many years he was prominently identified with the news- papers of Indianapolis, and here his influence was potent and beneficent, as in all other relations of life. In November, 1846, he became junior member of the firm of Chapman & Spann, publish- ers and editors of the State Sentinel, and in 1850 he became
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associated with the late E. W. H. Ellis in establishing a weekly Democratic paper, to which was given the title of Indiana States- man. In 1852 this was merged with the Sentinel, and two years later Mr. Spann and John B. Norman purchased the plant and business of the Sentinel, but disposed of the same the following year. With this transfer Mr. Spann's active identifica- tion with newspaper work in Indianapolis was terminated. In 1860 he engaged in the real estate business, and in this field of enterprise he achieved splendid success, both in the advancing of his own interests and those of the city. He was the founder of the firm of John S. Spann & Company, and this title is still re- tained, in the conducting of the large and important business con- trolled by the present concern, which is incorporated under the laws of the state and of which his son, Thomas H. Spann, is presi- dent. John S. Spann laid out several additions to the city and many of his transactions in the real estate line were of individual order-that is, aside from those of the firm in which he was an in- terested principal. His operations were not exceeded in scope und importance by those of any of his contemporaries, and to him is due the platting and development of a number of the most at- tractive residence sections of Indianapolis. He became a man of fine intellectuality and broad mental ken, and his career was one marked by consecutive development of personality as well as of cumulative success in a material way. He was a Republican in polities after the Civil war, but before was a Democrat, and while ever progressive and public-spirited as a citizen he had no ambi- tions for the honors or emoluments of public office. He was an official member of the Second Presbyterian church, in which he was a ruling elder for a number of years prior to his death. It may be noted incidentally that this church was organized in 1838 lw that celebrated divine, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, of whom Mr. Spann was a personal friend. The marriage of John S. Spann und Hester A. Sharpe was solemnized on June 2, 1847, and to this union right children were born, four of whom grew to maturity, and of whom two sons and one daughter are now living. The death of John S. Spann occurred on July 2, 1897, secure in the high regard of all who knew him and leaving behind him a heritage of which his descendants may well be proud-an unblemished reputation. Ilis widow, a woman of commendable Christian at- tributes, survives, now eighty-four years old. The names of both merit an enduring place on the roll of the honored pioneers of
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Indianapolis, in whose social and religious life they were long prominent, Mr. Spann having maintained to the last a vital in- terest in all that concerned the civic and business advancement and prosperity of his home city and left upon its history the impress of a vigorous and influential citizen and sterling business man.
John M. Spann grew to manhood in his native city, and after passing through the ward and high schools there, he entered Phillips Academy in 1867 and two years later he became a student in Williams College. He did not graduate from Williams College, but left to get married and go to work, though he had made an excellent record for scholarship there and in the academy. Natur- ally he turned his attention to real estate, in which his father was so long interested and had achieved such an envied reputation, and he was associated with him after finishing his school work. His success in local business brought him into prominence and the Continental Insurance Company employed him for a time as a special agent in its farm department. The life of a field man not proving congenial, he again engaged with the old firm in local business. He finally went to Malone, New York, where he was successfully engaged in the mercantile business for a period of nine years. With this exception, his entire business life was spent in his native city. Quiet and unobtrusive, his influence in the business life of Indianapolis has been felt rather than seen. He took an active part in founding the Commercial Club, of which he was for several years a director and at the time of his death the president, the duties of which important office he discharged in a manner that reflected much credit upon his ability and to the sat- isfaction of all concerned. He was also a member of the Columbia Club, and a trustee of the State Institution for Feeble-Minded at Fort Wayne, and was treasurer of the board. He was a worthy member of the Second Presbyterian church and a trustee of the same. He had long been actively interested in the charitable work of the city, this through his largeness of heart and broad sympathy for suffering humanity, rather than for any laudation of his fellow men. He took a leading part in the organization of the Indianapolis Fire Insurance Company, was elected its secre- tary, which involved the active management of the company. He opened the books of the company for business, and his last busi- ness act was that of service in its behalf. The board of directors met on the day following his death and adopted a memorial, which
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