USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Some Fort Wayne phizes > Part 10
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Mr. Trier has done his share to make the independ- ent telephone systems of Indiana, Ohio and Michigan what they are today. Had others ondertaken some of the things he has done it is probable that the telephone business would have gone into the hands of receivers. As it is, he has fixed it so the telephone receivers are constantly going into the hands of the people while their talking apparatus is busy at the transmitters.
Mr. Trier has been in the telephone business for eight years. He began his work as secretary, general man- ager and member of the board of directors of the National Telephone Company, building and operating long dis- tance lines. Two years ago he resigned to take a place as secretary of the Gas Belt Construction Company, a place he held until the company completed its work and disbanded. He has recently become identihed with an electrical supply company. In all his experience he has been engaged in the active management and financial development of the various undertakings. Through his efforts, the telephone maps of Indiana, Ohio and Mich- Again are made to look like crazy quilts.
134
EMMETT H. M'DONALD
I T will come as a surprise to the host of friends of Emmett H. McDonald, the well known secretary of the Fort Wayne Trust Company , one of the strongest financial institutions of our city, to be told that he passed four years of his early life in the jan of the county. Yet such was the case. His father. William H. McDonald, a prominent farmer, was elected sheriff of the county. and for four years, from 1850 to 1853. his family, as is the rule with sheriffs, made their home in the jail build- ing. Emmett was then a young lad, and his four years among the criminals were undoubtedly eventful and not unpleasant ones.
With his father, after the expiration of the term of official service of the latter he returned to his country home. taking up again the duties common to the fariner boy. His few years in the city, however, had left their impress and. doubtless, shaped his future life. At any rate, after securing a good education, as a young man he was back in the city again employed as a bookkeeper, advancing in mercantile pursuits until he became senior member of the great wholesale grocery house uf McDon- ald, Watt & Wilt, which for years did a good business throughout Northern Indiana. Then he became propri- etor of the City Trucking Company, and three years ago took his present position, that of secretary of the Fort Wayne Trust Company.
Twice has Mr. McDonald been called into pubhe offi- cial positions. In 1894, as a a candidate on the Demo- cratic ticket, he was elected one of the tive councilmen- at-large. At the same election the Republicans elected their candidate for mayor, Colonel Oakley, and their candidate for city clerk. Mr. Jeffries. Despite this fact. Mr. McDonald and his tour associates were elected by decisive majorities, a proof of the confidence that the people had in their business worth and fitness. He was afterwards, in 1896, elected one of the three water works trustees, managing during his term of office the business affairs of this important department of the city.
AUGUST BRUDER
G ERMANY has contributed largely to the citizenship of Fort Wayne. In looking over this book you will discover here and there a native of England or Ire- land, occasionally a Scotchman, or a Hollander, or a Swiss, or a Frenchman, but the Fatherland has given us the largest number.
Of these, August Bruder is one of our best citizens. Mr. Bruder was born in Baden. He obtained his early schooling there and for tour years was able to study the jewelry and watchmaking business, one year of which time he was under the instruction of one of Germany's best watchmakers. Like thousands of other Europeans who have laid the foundations for success by completing an apprenticeship in an honorable calling he came to America to seek his fortune. He arrived in 1873 and came directly to Fort Wayne where he was given em- ployment with Trenkley & Scherzinger, jewelers. It was an acquaintance with Mr. Trenkley that brought him to this city. Mr. Bruder has not been a rolling stone since then. He has stayed and worked and ac- cumulated a portion of this world's goods which has finally enabled him to maintain one of the finest jewelry and watchmaking establishments in Indiana.
The business was started in a small way in 1885 on the west side of Calhoun street between Wayne and Washington streets. Its removal into the present splendid quarters occurred in 1890. Since then the busi- ness has grown steadily and continuously. Mr. Bruder gives close personal attention to his affairs and is the master spirit of the place. At present eight expert watchmakers are employed. A jewelry and repair de- partment is also maintained. A Splendid line of silver- ware, cut glass, etc., is carried. Mr. Bruder has charge of the regulation of the watches carried by the employes of the Pennsylvama, the C., H. & D., the Wabash, the Nickel Plate, the L. E. & W. and the L. S. & M. S. railways and thus are they assured of accuracy of time in the performance of their important duties.
136
CLARK FAIRBANK
H ERE is a man who thinks that the Penn is mightier than anything else. He never carried a sword. but has been a newspaper man and indulged in many battles in which printer's ink was the dismal weapon.
Clark Fairbank was born among the hills of New Hampshire. After sliding down these hills for a few winters. he went with his parents to Lowell and finally to Boston, Massachusetts, where he engaged in the printing and publishing business. After he had been in Boston a few years he decided to come west. In 1869 he arrived in Fort Wayne. He came here to officiate at the birth of the Fort Wayne Journal. He nursed that weekly Republican paper under the firm name of C. Fairbank & Company until 1878. in that year he dropped his edi- torial pen to accept the general agency of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia for Northern Indiana. He dropped one pen to take up another, so he felt familiar with the work at the start. With his new Penn he began to write insurance. He has been most successful in building up a large business for his company in this part of the state. He thinks that health should always be held at a premrum, and this is one reason so many healthy, able-bodied men are being constantly reminded by him of the premium. He never gives premiums. He does not believe in trading stamps. There are other premiums in which he is more actively interested. He is an enthusiastic friend and yearns for long life and prosperity for all his friends.
Socially, Mr. Fairbank is a popular citizen. He is a member of the Anthony Wayne Club and alsu an enthusiastic member of the Sons of the American Revo- lution. His ancestors among the White mountains of New Hampshire did about as much with the sword as Mr. Fairbank is now doing with the Penn.
:
ESSAY
1) NÍ
GOOD
ROJOS
JOHN M. LANDENBERGER
F Mr. Landenberger could only have his way about it. every mile of highway in this happy land would be as smooth as a parlor floor. What a blessing that would be! How joyful the autoist and the horse which hauls the heavy loads from the farm to the market- everybody and everything who or which uses the country roads. It would bring free delivery to thousands of un- reached homes, because Uncle Sam won't allow his mail to be carried over rough or poorly kept highways.
Mr. Landenberger is so enthusiastic over this idea that he is making hundreds of machines each year to be handed out all over the country to make the roads what they ought to be. He is secretary and treasurer of the Indiana Road Machine Company, and their products have for years made smooth the ways of the weary draught animals and abolished the boneshaking qualities of many hundreds of miles of highway in all parts of the United States.
Mr. Landenberger is a native of Philadelphia, born In 1863, his parents having immigrated from the land of the Kaiser in their youth. After securing a common school education at Philadelphia, Mr. Landenberger came to Fort Wayne in 1875, and for three years was a student at Concordia college. Later he returned to the City of Brotherly Love to attend a business college. Mr. Landenberger is a Republican and cast his first bal- lot tor Jim Blaine. He lost it, but isn't ashamed of the record.
He was in 1888 made secretary and treasurer of the Indiana Machine Works, but now gives his attention chiefly to the position referred to above. By the ah- sorption of the Fleming Manufacturing Company, the industry was enlarged considerably.
He is one of the popular business men of Fort Wayne -of the kind that makes other cities move lively to keep abreast of the commercial times. He is an enthusiastic Rome Cityite and has a pretty cottage there.
PETER GORDON
H ERE we see a native of China and a native of Scot- land. The former is being carried by the latter. The name of one is Oolong: the other, Gordon.
Peter Gordon is the energetic manager of the Grand Umon Tea Company.
We, in these days, don't appreciate the great privi- lege we haveof obtaining all the splendid kinds of tea at only a few cents a pound. Just think! In the middle of the seventeenth century the queen of England was almost tickled to death on being presented with two pounds of tea by the East India Company. She certainly ought to have been delighted, as tea sold for fifty dollars a pound in those days. Mr. Gordon sells it for a whole lot less than that.
Mr. Gordon, as we have observed, came from Scot- land, but he doesn't wear a kilt any longer-in fact, Scotch kilts are never worn very long, anyway. He was only thirteen when he came to America and settled at Springfield, Massachusetts. That state is the head- quarters of learning in the east and is consequently inhabited largely by maiden ladies, who pore over their books until it is too late to be considered matri- momally eligible. Old maids consume large quantities of tea, and when Mr. Gordon got a job in a grocery store he ohserved the great demand for that beverage. He noticed it still more when he opened up a store of his own at Holyoke. Thus it was that he became so inter- ested in the subject that he connected himself with the Grand Union Tea Company ten years ago. After man- aging their store at Holyoke awhile, he was transferred to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and after four years was assigned to the management of the Fort Wayne branch.
The Grand Union has now 180 stores in all parts of the country. It was started in 1882 by three wide-awake brothers named Jones. Today it has a rating of a million.
SAMUEL H. BAKER
O NE strange thing about a dentist is that he's hap- piest when he's looking down in the mouth. It's because he earns his living that way.
Doctor Baker is a painless dentist; it doesn't hurt him a bit to put a fine edge on your incisors, to fix your canines so they won't wabble, fill a few cavities in your bicuspids or place a shining crown on your molars. This faculty of resisting discomfort has come through years of practice. After all, the man who sits down in a dentist's chair feeling that it's all over now and won- dering if it would not have been better to have dictated his will before taking this important-perhaps final- step, has already passed through nine-tenths of the trouble that really comes to him. It is one of those cases where anticipation is a whole lot worse than the thing that arrives. If it is a gold hlling or crown that happens to him he gets his money's worth in real pleas- ure during the years that follow by standing before his private mirror and viewing his smiling, sparkling reflec- tion therein. It is then that he loves the dentist.
Doctor Baker is from lowa, whence came Senator Allison, Secretary Shaw, Congressman Dulliver, Speaker Henderson and the Cherry Sisters. After graduating from the high school at Keosaqua, he entered the State University of lowa. at lowa City, and went from there to Chicago, where he took a complete course at the Chi- cago College of Dental Surgery and graduated in 1802. In school he was a member of the Delta Sigma Delta fraternity.
He came to Fort Wayne in 1809 and formed a part- nership with Dr. Burkett which lasted two years until the latter removed to Oklahoma City. His present place of business is in the Arcade. where he has a com- pletely equipped suite for the conduct of his professional work.
140
ROBERT W. T. DEWALD
A LTHOUGH Robert Wade Townley DeWald was born on the site of the present postoffice there was not the sign of a cancelled postage stamp visible on him the date of his arrival. He must have escaped Uncle Sam's notice.
Bob got forced out into the suburbs by the encroach- ment of the government on his father's preserves. He has never let that worry him as he has been right in town ever since. After he left school he entered the store of his father, George DeWald & Co., and began to climb the ladder. Bob impressed upon his father that it would be a great thing to have a wholesale depart- ment in connection with the firm's large retail business. Mr. DeWald, Sr., gave his son full sway and twenty- two years ago the wholesale business was launched. Bob has been the head of this business ever since. The firm was visited by a destructive fire and the retail store was abandoned. In its place the George DeWald Company. a mammoth wholesale store, has arisen. This business enterprise occupies the large DeWald block at the corner of Columbia and Calhoun streets. utilizing five floors and a basement. It is one of the very important wholesale houses of Indiana in the dry goods line. Bob is president of this company and also vice-president and director of the People's Trust Company.
There are better golf players than Mr. Robert De Wald. In fact. he is a one-hundred-to-one shot on the links. The reason he is presented in this costume is because we happened to catch him trying one of these suits on. A traveling man was endeavoring to induce him to han- dle a full line of golf suits as a specialty in his wholesale dry goods store, but the suit did not seem to hit.
141
INSU
WILLIAM B. PAUL
T is a remarkable coincidence that the name of Paul, the Insurance Man, is closely connected with Craw- fordsville, known as the " Athens of Indiana." just as the name of that other Paul is so intimately associated with the old Athens in Greece. Both are noted for their success in making converts to their views affecting the weltare of their hearers.
Mr. Paul was born at Crawfordsville which has pro- duced a number of other men who have startled the world of letters, just as this man is doing in the world of insur- ance.
But how has he done it? Simply this way : By care- fully studying the insurance business from the ground floor to the roof garden while yet a boy, he has mastered it so thoroughly that the Equitable Life Insurance Com- pany of New York has honored him with a position ot importance held by no other man of his years in their employ. Mr. Paul is only twenty-seven years old, but despite his youth he is the manager of the district of Northern Indiana for this big concern. He has a large territory and many agents to look after, but he's doing it without any trouble.
He secured his schooling and prelimmary training before coming to Fort Wayne in 1902, and began work for another life insurance company As an agent. he was singularly successful and received frequent promo- tions. After six months service with thus company, he took the management of the Equitable for this district.
Under his control, the society has written more bust- ness than was secured during all its previous efforts in this district.
142
FRANK R. GARRISON
T "HE man in the picture, holding a freight car in his hands, apparently as easily as if it was a toy. IS Mr. Frank Garrison. Handling freight cars is his busi- ness. He represents the freight traffic interests of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, a system which covers four states and sends its passenger and freight traffic over one thousand miles of its own tracks. Mr. Garrison is the general agent for the Fort Wayne-Findlay branch of this railroad system, controlling all its busi- ness between these two cities and having his offices and headquarters in Fort Wayne.
He has been in charge of the company's business in this city for nearly four years and has made a wide circle of friends by his pleasant business methods and com- panionable ways. By birth he is a Michigander, begin- ning his railroad life as a mailing clerk in the general offices of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, at Grand Rapids when he was a boy of seventeen, working up the ladder to more responsible positions in the service of this company.
His abilities and hustling qualities soon attracted the attention of other railroad officials and they laid their hands on him, offering him the position of chief clerk in the general freight offices of the old Findlay, Fort Wayne & Western road. at Findlay, Ohio. He accepted and went there. In 1900 when the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton company secured possession of the Findlay-Fort Wayne line, Mr. Garrison was sent to this city and given general charge of the company's entire freight traffic between the terminals of the branch line, Findlay to Fort Wayne. This position he has since held. His offices are the only first story down town railroad offices in the city. They are finely furnished and equipped.
C.,H & D FAST
FREIGH LINE IŅ
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ICONTRACT TO
FURNISH
ELECTRIC
LIGHTING
EQUIPMENT
FRED. S. HUNTING
H UNTING is an excellent name for this man. The hrearm used during the years he has been Hunt- ing - which, of course, includes his whole life - is a double-barreled affair, one side of which is labeled push and the other ability. He usually tires both at once and brings down success.
Mr. Hunting is the treasurer and manager of the Fort Wayne Electric Works, one of the country's greatest manufactories of electrical machinery and supplies. He grew into this important office from a minor position which he took with the company sixteen years ago. He seems to have aimed high with the above mentioned tirearm and brought down many splendid prizes.
East Templeton, Massachusetts, is the native town of Mr. Hunting. He was born there thirty-seven years ago. After attending the common schools, he entered the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. from which school he graduated in 1888, and came to Fort Wayne in Octo- ber of the same year. He began his work with the Fort Wayne Electric Company as a draughtsman. Two years later he was advanced to the position of assistant to Mr M. M. Slattery, who was then chief electrician. In 1892 his ability was again recognized in his appointment as assistant to C. S. Bradley on experimental work with multiphase machinery. In the following year he became chief engineer of the engineering department of the Fort Wayne Electric Company, and later kept the same post- tion with the Fort Wayne Electric Corporation. In Jan- uary, 18go, he was made vice-president and sales man- ager of the Fort Wayne Electric Corporation. In May of the same year he received the appointment of treasurer and sales manager of the works.
In addition to holding these important positions, Mr. Hunting is treasurer of the Fort Wayne Electric Light and Power Company, and is a director of the First National Bank, the Tri-State Trust Company and the Tri-State Building and Loan Association.
144
HARRY R. PICKARD
N O man in America has more praise for the horseless carriage than His Excellency President Theodore Roosevelt. Harry Pickard feels much the same, only in a different way. Harry is a bachelor. He sells horse- less carriages without benzine attachments and in con- sequence is anxious that his friends should think as President Roosevelt does. In the picture Harry is decid- edly in it. He would like to sell his buggy, as he now has no use for it. He would much prefer to sell a matri- monial fruit basket than a carpet sweeper. There is more dust, of course, in a carpet sweeper, but there is much more real live interest in a baby buggy.
Harry likes real live interest in his business. He is the junior member of the firm of Pickard Brothers, furni- ture, stoves and chinaware dealers. No one in the city is more pleased to have natural gas fail in Fort Wayne than Harry. He likes to see a hire in a stove. The good old-fashioned fires inspire his admiration. He is not always wishing for unfortunate occurrences, however. He has a genial, kindly disposition. Look at that face in the carriage. It is innocent simplicity personified, and then some. He is sitting there just waiting for some one to come along and give the carriage a shove. so that he can put on the automatic brake, gaze at the pneumatic wheels and say, "Rubber." To look at him in his carriage, the reader might imagine that he might be made up to pay an election wager. This is not so. Harry does not bet on the losing candidate. He is not built that way. He knows a sure thing when he sees it and is one of those boys who usually looks in the right direction.
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145
THIS POLICY
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SOME FACTS ABOUT
EDWARD M. WILSON
H ERE we get a view of Mr. Wilson in the act of ex- planning something. Those who know him, don't have to be told that he is describing the good qualities of some insurance company which he represents and telling you how it will help you out if a stray bolt of lightning happens to land on your kitchen roof, or if your mice have a fondness for chewing parlor matches.
Mr. Wilson began his earthly career at Wabash, Indiana. He spent the early portion of his boyhood days coasting in the winter and playing two-old-cat in the good old summer time. In school he studied hard, while some of the other boys studied hardly, the result being that he and a few others graduated from the high school one eventful year, and the other boys who might have done so, didn't. Then be went to Ann Arbor, Michigan. and entered the high school there, again having an op- portunity to work off his graduation oration. We don't know whether he made the same speech or not. Then he spent two years in the University of Michigan, leav- ing in 1889 to come to Fort Wayne. Here he entered into partnership with H. C. Schrader in the conduct of a fire and casualty insurance business, the buying and selling of real estate. loans and rentals. Mr. Wilson is chosen by his companies frequently to adjust fire losses in various parts of Indiana.
In addition to attention to his business, Mr. Wilson finds ample time to give to bis duties as a member of the board of trustees of the Indiana School for Feeble Minded Youth, to which important position he was appointed by Governor Durbin.
He was one of the founders of the Commercial Club, and is a loyal member of the lodge of Elks.
146
PETER D. SMYSER
J UST because a man wears a long linen duster when he is at work it is no sign that he is a seedy.man. Peter David Smyser is a seedy man just the same. There are different kinds of seedy men. " Uncle Pete." as he is familiarly known to his legion of friends has more to do with seeds than any other man in Fort Wayne. He can tell a turnip seed from a cabbage seed, or a wild mustard seed from any other member of the mustard family, without consulting Papa or Mama Mustard. Without depending on wireless telegraphy or a telescope he can tell a cucumber seed from a muskmelon seed and not sidestep to get away from the facts He is on famil- iar terms with most of the seedy families. He has a speaking acquaintance with Pansy, Glory, Violet, Rose, Lily, and other fair beauties too numerous to mention. Then he can play Dr. Jeckyll with Mr. Hyde. He is versed in hides. It is a step from the sublime in nature to the ridiculous, but Mr. Smyser takes this step without tripping. He is a partner in the firm of S. Bash & Com- pany and is a practical man in every department of the business.
He was born in Wayne county, Ohio, in 1847. Like many other good Ohio men he came across the line into Indiana. In 1867 he found himself in Fort Wayne. He finished his schooling at the Fort Wayne high school and after spending a year in the White Fruit House be- came interested in the business affairs of S. Bash & Company. In 1874 he was admitted to a partnership in the firm. He is one of the sturdy, progressive business men of Fort Wayne and one who has been closely iden- titied with its rapid commercial as well as material growth.
PUMPKIN SEED
147
WATER
0
ALL ABOUT GERMS
AND
THINGS
EDWARD WHITE
H ERE is a man who believes in looking right into things. He strives to get at a legitimate business basis and to conduct affairs along that line. Edward White seems to know how, too. He is one of Fort Wayne's most active and thoroughly energetic business men. He is popular personally, and his recent election to the position of water works trustee, when he led the municipal ticket several hundred votes, indicates clearly his popularity and the extent of his circle of friends. Although the youngest member of the board, he was honored by heing elected its president. He is president of the White Fruit House, president of several other corporations, a director in the White National Bank, and has varied and extensive real estate interests in Fort Wayne.
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