USA > Indiana > Memorial and genealogical record of Representative Citizens of Indiana > Part 50
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GRAFTON JOHNSON.
As one who stands as a splendid type of the progressive and loyal clizeis who are making the stue of inaiana one of the greatest in industrial circles in the Union, Grafton Johnson, of Greenwood, is entitled to special recognition in this history. He has realized a large and substantial success in the business world and this represents the result of his own well ordered endeavors, for he has been in a significant sense the architect of his own fortunes. He is a man of action rather than words. Ilis mind is strongly analytical, and its scope is wide and broad. Ile is emi- nently utilitarian, and energy of character, firmness of purpose and unswerving integrity are among his chief characteristics. He looks searchingly and comprehensively into the nature and prob- able results of all schemes, and when he once addresses himself to any affair he falters not until it is pushed to a successful con- clusion. He has for some time played a leading part in the affairs of his native locality and through his persistent efforts he has made for him alf a place in connection with the produetive ener- gies and activities of life, so that his career offers both lesson and incentive.
Mr. Johnson was born in Greenwood, Indiana, September 14, 1864. Ile is a son of Grafton, Sr., and Julia A. (Noble) Johnson, long an influential old family of Greenwood.
Grafton Johnson, Sr., was born in Mercer county, Kentucky, December 14, 1819, and was the son of James and Mary (Taylor) Johnson, who were natives of North Carolina and Virginia, re- spectively. While he was yet a small boy, his parents came to Indiana, and located at Brookville, Franklin county, and later on in his youth he accompanied them to Miami county, this state, the family locating on a farm near Per. In addition to a com- mon school education, he received two years' instruction in Frank- lin College. In his early manhood he located at Greenwood, John- son county, where, soon afterward, he engaged in mercantile pur- suits; for thirty-six years he was extensively engaged in the retail and general merchandise business. He accumulated considerable property, and, at the time of his death he was one of the county's
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wealthiest men. His marriage occurred near Greenwood, Febru- ary 21, 1859, when he led to the altar Julia A. Noble, daughter of George and Louisa (Canby) Noble, who came to Indiana from Boone county, Kentucky, in about 1831. This marriage resulted in the birth of eight children, as follows: Mary L., born August 22, 1860; George T., born August 3, 1861, is deceased; Charlotte I, how To: 6, 1900, Chaften, the immediate subject of this sketch; Julia N., born June 27, 1867; Grace, born August 10, 1869; Martha E., born October 10, 1870, is deceased; and Albert, born November 6, 1871. The eldest child, Mary L., was graduated from DePauw University, and later married H. B. Longden, professor of Latin in that institution; Charlotte I. married Thomas B. Felder, an attorney-at-law, of Atlanta, Georgia; Julia N. is a graduate of Wellesley College, and Grace pursued her studies in both Wellesley College and DePauw University. Mr. Johnson was a member of the Baptist church, and politically he was a Re- publican. He was one of the directors of Franklin College, and was a member of the Indianapolis Board of Trade. Ilis death oceurred on October 2, 1883. Ilis widow continued to reside in Greenwood, and she was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Grafton Johnson, Jr., grew to manhood at Greenwood and there received his primary education in the public schools, later taking a course at Franklin College, from which institution he was graduated and then he returned to Greenwood, where he has remained to the present time. For a description of his great can- ning industry, we are indebted for the following facts to an ex- tended first-page article in the Indianapolis Star, under date of September 14, 1910, which carried with it an excellent half-tone portrait of Mr. Johnson:
"The Conversion of Luscious Green Corn Into the Canners' Pack" would be a good subject for a story in the early autumn days. Such a story would not deal in blood and thunder nor ebullitions of surging human passions, but if adequate descriptive art were applied to the subject matter it would be a story of human interest and with a distinctive Hoosier flavor. The lead- ing character would be a handsome and well-dressed bachelor of sunny temperament, and forty-five years old.
In September the corn packing season is at its meridian and the king of corn packers is Grafton Johnson, of Greenwood. The
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bumper Indiana erops make great business for the canning fac- tories, for the word "bumper" applies as well to the canning erop as to the field crop. The season opens about August 20th and closes about October 1st. Mr. Johnson has a record of having packed thirteen million two pound cans of corn in one season.
If there is any person who has misgivings as to the size of
one at Shelbyville --- when the season is at its height, and watch the farmers' wagons roll in, laden with green cars, until they block the streets for squares and line up in long rows waiting for their chance to unload and then reload with the soft, nutritious cobs and husks, which the farmers take home for feed. From two hundred to two hundred and twenty-five loads are received at the Shelbyville canning factory every day. The loads average more than a ton and the farmer usually receives about eleven dol- lars a ton with the privilege of reloading his wagon with the cobs and husks free of charge. The farmer merely pulls the corn; never hu ks it. The husking is done at the factory in what is known as the husking department, where about four hundred and fifty persons are employed. The operatives in this depart- ment are paid by the quantity of corn they husk, and the poorest husker can make one dollar and fifty cents per day. Since neither a college edneation nor a civil service examination is required to make a corn husker, and anybody who is gifted with two good hands can do the work, opportunity for remunerative employ- ment is offered to girls and even to cripples who do not have the use of their lower limbs. Quite a number of old soldiers whose failing capacities qualify them only for light work, make compe- tent corn huskers.
The husking bees which are a continuous performance at the Indiana canning factories when the season is in full swing are not attended by the same mirth and hilarity that accompanied the old-fashioned husking bee, which was the prime social event of the winter in backwoods communities, but at that the work is pleasant, enjoyable and healthful. Frequently entire families -husband, wife and children-assist in the husking department. Ordin rily a family of six can thus make more money in the can- ning season than the head of the household could carn in wages at other employment during the entire year. The corn packed at Mr. Johnson's plants is usually of the variety known as the
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"Country Gentleman," which is exceptionally fine, sweet and palatable. The farmers who raise corn for the canning factories are not working for their health. They are getting abundant re- turns. A very ordinary yield is three tons per acre of pulled corn, for which the farmer receives, say, eleven dollars per ton, or thirty-three dollars per acre. He has, besides, the cobs and husks and the stalks, which make prime neilson and pro Bated almost equal to clover hay in nutritious value, Another advantage is that he does not have to wait until the dead of winter for his money. He gets his check upon delivery of his corn, which means quick returns for a few months' labor. Yields of five and six tons per acre are exceptional, but not unheard of. On a field five mile below Franklin, William Neal raised more than five tons per acre at one pulling. The corn that matured on the field later was not snapped, but left as forage for stock. A few such crops would put a farmer on Easy street.
There is money, for that matter, in raising other crops for the canneries, except that one has to take his chances with toma- toes, which are rather a fickle crop. An average price for toma- toes, delivered at the canneries, is eight dollars per ton, and an average crop, when there is any crop at all, is three tons to the aere, but, every once in a while, fiekle nature plays a joke on the hard-working husbandman by sending him an enormous crop of thrifty vines without a single tomato set on them. Tipton county land is the prize soil for tomatoes. Some seasons are good for peas, when farmers raise from one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred bushels per acre, for which they receive not less than twenty-six cents per bushel and some times as much as forty cents. From that must be subtracted the cost of seed, which is about eight dollars per acre, the eanneries furnishing the seed. A crop of two hundred bushels per acre at the minimum price of twenty-six cents per bushel would leave an income of forty-four dollars per acre. The pea crop is planted, cultivated and har- vested all within a period of about sixty days, which means ready returns on the investment of land and labor.
Mr. Johnson is as capable, agile and successful a captain of industry as one could run across in a day's travel. He is modest and his name seldom appears in the public prints, but he has ideas-plenty of them-which are both original and practical. ITe owns a chain of five packing plants in Indiana and three in
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Wisconsin, which are located at Franklin, Whiteland, Shelbyville, Noblesville, Tipton and Anderson, Indiana, and Clear Lake, Cin- berland and Ladysmith, Wisconsin, and the most unusual part of it is that he operates all of them from his office in Greenwood, where he receives daily reports and keeps in touch with the mana- gers of the plants over the long distance telephone. Some of his nante ho waldom visite Thanlan ha ha . adopted ubila dacidade novel, has the advantage of keeping him out of the zone of petty annoyances, which undoubtedly would result if he spent his time at the plants, and enables him to devote his mind to the larger features of the business.
The output of all these plants has recently been greatly in- ercased, and three new factories have been established in Wiscon- sin. The most approved and modern machinery is used and everything is under a superb system. For Mr. Johnson has a rare business philosophy. It is his idea that a business can and should be run so that it will be a pleasure. "instead of an eternal grind, rasp and scrap," as he expresses it. Ilis treatment of his em- ployes is characterized by good nature and generosity to a marked degrec. He dismisses his office force at four o'clock every after- noon and will not allow the office to stay open any longer. He is particular to admonish the managers of his plants that they must take plenty of time off and secure an abundance of good, sound sleep, free from worry. He regards sleep as essential to a clear head and wants every employe in a position of responsibility to get plenty of rest, recreation and repose. This, he thinks, fits them for the inevitable emergencies when clear heads and quick action are required. He does not give enough attention to the details of the business to know how many persons he employs in the can- ning business, for it is one of his cardinal beliefs that the head of a business should not worry with details. However, the state de- partment of statistics in a report some time ago, placed the mini- ber at seventeen hnudred, and he is not inclined to dispute the figures. During the season of 1912 he employed over two thou- sand people. He makes a point of seleeting good men for responsi- ble positions and pays them salaries commensurate with the very best service.
In business he "goes it alone." He never has had a partner, and he says if he should live to be as old as some of the Biblical patriarchs he never will have one. The necessity of having to
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consult a business associate before making a move would grate harshly on his nerves. He neither wants a partner to consult nor to be the "goat." If a mistake is made he is willing to take the blame on his own shoulders. Mr. Johnson attributes much of the growth of his business to the ability and energy of the heads of departments and managers of individual plants. He has the most implicit confidence in them and is a strong boliger that most men are honest.
Mr. Johnson sells the product of his cameries in car load lots to wholesalers all over the country. But the canning busi- ness is only one outlet for his multifarious activities. His father Grafton Johnson, Sr., left an estate including a number of farms, and these must be looked after. He has banking interests, auto- mobile manufacturing interests, and one of his pets is his real estate business. He buys city and suburban land in tracts and plats it into city lots. He now has more than fifty additions in different cities; to be exact, they numbered fifty -six in 1912, and were located as follows: Belmont Gardens, Indianapolis; Terrace Park, Rochester, New York; James Street Terrace, Syracuse, New York; Owasco Heights, Auburn, New York; Willow Park, Lock- port, New York; Hamilton Terrace, Olean, New York; West Ave- nue Terrace, Medina, New York; Avondale, Fostoria, Ohio; Gar- field Park, Marion, Ohio; Avondale, Lima, Ohio; Main Street Plaza, Lima, Ohio; Highland Terrace, Sidney, Ohio; People's Ad- dition, Sidney, Olio: Windsor Park, Urbana, Ohio; Wellington Park, Van Wert, Ohio; North Park, Xenia, Ohio; South Park, Xenia, Ohio; Arlington Terrace, Zanesville, Ohio; Inglewood, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Bismark Heights, Milwaukee, Wiscon- sin; Tuxedo, Kokomo, Indiana; Garden Place, Kokomo, Indiana; Englewood Park, Kokomo, Indiana; East Englewood, Kokomo, In- diana; Oak Park, Bluffton, Indiana; Wabash Terrace, Crawfords- ville, Indiana; Blue River Park, Edinburg, Indiana; Zenith Park, Edinburg, Indiana; Sunny Side, Frankfort, Indiana; Woodside, Frankfort, Indiana; Highland Park, Franklin, Indiana; Fairview Park, Martinsville, Indiana; Victoria Park, Rochester, Indiana; Berkley Park, Rushville, Indiana; Homewood Park, Grand Rap- ids, Michigan; Stowell Terrace, Grand Rapids, M higan: Robin- wood, Battle Creek, Michigan; Fairfax Gardens, Jackson, Michi- gan; Wildwood Terrace, Jackson, Michigan; Lake Street Terrace, Muskegon, Michigan; College Terrace, Adrian, Michigan; Bell-
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wood, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Drexel Terrace, Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania; Astor Terrace, Atlanta, Georgia; East Terrace, Charles- ton, Illinois; Goldlen Park, Litchfield, Illinois; Home Terrace, Centralia, Illinois; Champlain Park, Ottawa, Illinois; Leonard Park, Staunton, Illinois; Jackson Park, Vandalia, Illinois; Spring Gardens, Effingham, Illinois; Lennox Gardens, Marion, Illinois; Melrose Park, Oshkosh Wisconsin; Fox River Heights, Green Bay, Wisconsin.
If the crops raised for Mr. Johnson's canning plants in a single year recently had been included in one tract they would have made a field over fifteen miles long and over one mile wide. Ile handles all of the enormous business, as well as his other inter- ests, largely by telephone. He keeps no books in his private office and does not write an average of half a dozen letters a day. His theory is that many a business man ruins his health and his busi- ness by trying to give too much personal attention to details.
Mr. Johnson says that as yet the canning business in America is still in its infancy, notwithstanding the rapid expansion of the last few years.
"I know of no better way to express it than to say that we have only touched the high places, " he added. "There are unlimit- ed markets for American canned goods simply awaiting develop ment. Germany, for example, hardly knows the use of corn as a food product, but we need not go as far as Germany to find for- eign markets that would consume enormous quantities of goods. We have markets right at our doors. Cuba and Central America are rich fields for prospecting. In those countries there is an abundance of fresh fruits, but the people can not live on fruits without getting on the sick list. The great demand in these coun- tries is for canned goods. The difficulty is that no one in the packing business has the financial ability to develop the foreign markets. It takes time to ship goods. Months must elapse be- fore returns come in, and credits are uncertain. As a result the average operator, in fact all of the operators, prefer the home market with its quick and sure returns, rather than undertake an outlay of time and expense in developing a foreign field, which eventually might become very profitable. A foreign trade cannot be built up in a year and no packer wishes to undertake a cam- paign that may not materialize before his death.
"Ultimately there will be a combination of canning factories
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organized under one head to control foreign markets. It would necessarily have to be a concern of large capital, capable of keep- ing its own representatives in foreign countries. It has been dem- onstrated that the sale of goods to foreigners through brokers is out of the question. A combination embracing fifty per cent. of the calming business in this country would be able to effect economics and to open up markets that are now untouched Today New York packers are shipping goods to Iowa, and Iowa packers are shipping goods to New York. This is simply burning money to pay freight and it could be avoided by common sense co-opera- tion. In opening a foreign market it would not be necessary to go farther than our next door neighbors. They are paying out- landish prices for canned goods in Cuba and can't get a supply at that."
The field of canned products is being enlarged all the time, Mr. Johnson says. "All sorts of things are canned nowadays," said he. "You may not know that even biscuits are canned and that they stay sweet and palatable and do not dry out. I have been iu establishments where fish flakes were canned."
Mr. Johnson is unable to make a guess as to how long canned goods will retain their wholesomeness and flavor, but he relates an incident touching that point, which is of interest. Recently A. A. Alexander, president of the Citizens' National Bank of Franklin, opened a cau of tomatoes that was packed at the Frank- lin Canning Factory seventeen years previous. The contents in appearance, taste and wholesomeness could not be detected from tomatoes canned a year before.
Mr. Johnson owns a handsome home on North Meridian street, Indianapolis, but he resides with his mother in Greenwood. Politically, he is a "progressive" Republican, an admirer of Bev- eridge, principally for his fight in Congress on the tariff issue. But he disapproves of some of the actions of Roosevelt.
Mr. Johnson is treasurer of the Crawford Baptist Industrial School, located north of Indianapolis, on the Marion and Hamil- ton county line. It is in the midst of beautiful surroundings, of over three hundred aeres, with modern, well-equipped buildings, including two dormitories, steam heated. He is also a trustee of Franklin College. He is a member of the University Club of Chi- cago, and University, Columbia and Country Clubs of Indianapo- lis.
DIEDERICHI JICYER.
It was once remarked by a celebrated moralist and biographer that "There has scarcely passed a life of which a judicions and faithful narrative would not have been useful." Believing in the truth of this opinion, expressed by one of the greatest and best men, the writer of this memon takes pleasure in presenting a few of the leading facts in the commendable carcer of a gentleman who, by industry, perseverance, temperance and integrity, worked himself from an humble station to a successful business man and won an honorable position among the well known and highly es- teemed men of a former generation in the city of Fort Wayne. For it is always pleasant as well as profitable to contemplate the career of a man who has won a definite goal in life, whose career has been such as to command the honor and respect of his fellow citizens. Such, in brief, was the record of the late Diederich Meyer, than whom a more whole-souled or popular man it would have been difficult to have found within the borders of Allen county, where he long maintained his home and where he labored not only for his own individual advancement and that of his im- mediate family, but also for the improvement of the entire com- munity whose interests he ever had at heart.
Mr. Meyer was one of the large member of German-born citi- zens who have done so much for the upbuilding of this section of Indiana and to whom we owe such a debt of gratitude. He was born in Germany, July 15, 1829. He was the son of John and Mar- garet Meyer, who spent their lives in Germany, and he was the youngest of a family of seven children.
Diederich Meyer grew to manhood in his native land and there received his education and learned the miller's trade. Be- lieving that greater opportunities existed for him in the United States than in the fatherland, he bade farewell to his ancestral halls when twenty-seven years of age, in the year 1856, and, after a tedious voyage in an old-fashioned sailing vessel, reached our shores and here spent the rest of his life, between that time and his death making three return trips to his home country for the purpose of visiting relatives. H: first employment in this conn- try was as a driver for an old-ti e wagon circus. It was while making a tour of the country in this capacity that the city of Fort Wayne appealed to him as a place of residence, and in a few
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months after his arrival in the new world he quit the circus. hav- ing tired of the roving life, and located in this city in 1856. For a tine he was employed on what is now the Pennsylvania railroad, and later was for several years a boatman ou the old Wabash and Eric canal.
Mr. Meyer was first elected to a position on the police force of Fort Wayne in 1866, and altogether de . And active years to police woman, live of which were as turnkey at the county jail of Allen county. On May 12, 1881, Mr. Meyer was appointed to the place of deputy city marshal, and three years later, upon the resig- nation of Marshal Frank F. Iker, he was appointed to fill the va- cancy. So well did he discharge the duties of the same that he was elected marshal in 1884 and re-elected in 1887, giving eminent satisfaction to all concerned, irrespective of party alignment, for he performed with strict fidelity every trust reposed in him and was known as one of the best officers the city ever had. Cour- ageous, always standing unswervingly for the right, as he saw and understood the right, he was never biased or made to sacri- fice a principle of honor. He was firm and exacting, but just and fair with all men, and consequently enjoyed the confidence and respect of everyone.
Politically, Mr. Meyer was a Democrat, and he took an active interest in municipal polities. Ilis first Presidential vote was cast for Stephen A. Douglas. He was one of the prominent men of Fort Wayne in his day, and through his industry he acenmu- lated a great deal of property about the city, which has rapidly grown into value and which is still owned by his widow. He re- tired from active business ten years prior to his death, though he continued to look after his valuable real estate interests. He was a deacon and trustee of the Trinity English Lutheran church, and together with his wife took quite an active interest in church affairs. He was a lover of the outdoors and especially delighted in fishing.
Mr. Meyer was united in marriage in Fort Wayne on Novem- ber 16, 1882, to Lucretia M. Munson. She was the daughter of James P. and Eleanor Munson. Her father was born in Wolcott- ville. Connecticut, and was one of the prominent pioncers of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her mother was a native of Ireland, from which country she emigrated to the United States when young. Mrs. Meyer was the only daughter of a family of four children, and she was born in Fort Wayne on January 11, 1815, and here she grew
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to womanhood and received her education. Her father was one of the first merchants of this city. His death occurred early in life. Mrs. Meyer's great-great-grandfather emigrated to Ameri- ca on the "Mayflower" with the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620. The Mimeon family has been prominent in various walks of life from that time until the present. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer ..
Diederich Meyer was summoned to his reward in the Great Beyond on January 14, 1911. The Fort Wayne Sentinel, which carried a double-column half-tone engraving of Mr. Meyer and a full account of his life and death, said in part, as follows:
"Following an illness of about three weeks, and at a time when he was thought to be improving rapidly, Diederich Meyer, former city marshal and well known resident of Fort Wayne, was stricken by heart failure at his home, No. 122 West Wayne street, early Saturday evening, and expired a few minutes later. Mr. Meyer was eighty-two years old. He had been ill since Decem- ber, suffering an attack of la grippe, with which there was mani- fest a heart weakness that had several times given much alarm. Recently, however, the patient seemed to be safely upon the way to recovery and on Saturday had eaten heartily. During the evening he arose and with the assistance of the mirse who had been caring for him walked about the house. While taking a drink he collapsed suddenly, and despite the efforts of physicians who reached the house promptly, death intervened in a few min- utes.
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