USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Some Fort Wayne phizes > Part 11
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Just now he is busy trying to solve the water works problem for the city. It will be safe to predict that if legitimate and honest business methods are of avail in his practical investigations there need be no fear that the water will become contaminated. Already his busi- ness ability has become thoroughly apparent in a sur- prising augmentation in the receipts of the water works treasury without an increase in the water rents.
Besides examining water for germs, Ed frequently examines water for things which do not need a magnify- ing glass to locate. He usually drops a line into the water with a bait on it, and his piscatorial accomplish- ments are said to be Waltonian in style. Every busy man requires some recreation, and Ed likes to get into a boat with rod and reel to angle for the game members of the tinny tribe. His game bag usually smells uf fish. even if he has to carry a herring from his grocery store.
148
KENT K. WHEELOCK
T used be to said of the Hon. R. C. Bell, the former bril- liant Fort Wayne lawyer and Indiana statesman, that as a toastmaster none could equal him, and there were few notable public hanquets held that he was not called upon to act in this capacity. When Senator Bell died one of the men upon whom his mantle as a toast- master fell was Dr. Kent K. Wheelock. His talent in this role was discovered at the banquets of the alumni of the Fort Wayne Medical College, of which he is one of the professors, and since then he has been forced into service as toastmaster at other public banquet occasions, particularly when the medical men gather around the festal hoard, and at Knights of Pythias gatherings, of which fraternity he is a past chancellor.
Physicians, as a rule, are not horn orators, nor, as a rule, do they ever become orators. They cut and slash too much. They administer too many unpleasant doses. People submit to what they do and take what they give be- cause they think they have to do so. In Dr. Wheelock's case, birth had something to do with his ability as a speaker. His father, a distinguished physician of his time. was a brilliant extemporaneous orator, a man who in this respect was without a peer in this county. And, then, Dr. Wheelock, when he is officiating as a toast- master doesn't cut and slash. nor does he give nauseating doses. His bitter pills are always sugar coated, and this is why he is popular as a toastmaster.
Dr. Wheelock has always lived in this county. He completed a course at the University of Michigan and graduated at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College of New York. He located in this city in the practice of medicine in 1880, was coroner of the county from 1882 to 18844, and for years has given his special attention to the surgery of the eye. ear, nose and throat. He took a tive months' course of study in this practice at the University in Vienna.
1
149
THOMAS J. LOGAN
D URING twenty-one eventful years, Mr. Logan has been practicing law. ever inspired by the hope that some day the perverse members of society would agree to live in peace and harmony, seemingly uncon- cerned that when the millenium arrives lawyers will be out of something to do. The milk of human kindness flows from the heart of Mr. Logan, and when he is called upon to compose human differences he does it, not be- cause there is a fee in it, but because he wants the brethren and sisters to dwell together in concord and amity.
It must not be supposed. however, that he's a milk- and-water sort of lawyer. Not a bit of it. To hear him in one of his masterly speeches, full of tire and force, you can get an insight into his earnestness when called upon to fight a wrong, social or political.
Mr. Logan was born in Kosciusco county, Indiana, and stayed on the farm until he was nearly twenty-two years old. He is an example of the fact that it's good for a boy to remain an associate of the cornfield until his character is pretty well formed. He began his education at the district school and then went to Valparaiso to at- tend the Normal. Coming to Fort Wayne in 1880, he entered the law office of Coombs, Morris & Bell. Three years later he had completed the course and was gradu- ated from the law department of the University of Mich- igan. For a number of years he was official court reporter; later came his appointment as a deputy clerk of the United States court, in Fort Wayne, and then as United States Commissioner. Mr. Logan's popularity was shown in 1900, when, as Republican candidate for prosecuting attorney, he ran four hundred votes ahead of his ticket.
15
CHARLES M. GILLETT
W THEN one thinks of the keeper of records and seals his mind floats reminiscently to the funny man in the comic opera-a lord high chancellor of wit, gro- tesque and official humor. Charles M. Gillett, the pop- ular recorder of Allen county, is nothing like a comic opera comedian. When one meets him in his official capacity he is a pleasing, good-natured, sensible official. He knows almost everyone in Allen county.
He was born in Milan township in 1841. He lived on his father's farm, getting a common school education. until the outbreak of the civil war. Then he broke away from home ties. He hecame a portion of the Twenty-third Indiana Battery, but he was neither pitcher nor catcher in this battery. He was a sergeant and helped hurl the balls, but at no time was he on the receiving end. He got onto the curves early and was able to duck and keep right on firing. This is one reason he was able to return home, to join the Union Veteran Legion and the Grand Army of the Republic, and be elected recorder. A few years ago some one told him he could do better in the state of Washington in the far northwest, and he hiked to the tall and massive timber. He liked it so well that he came home for his wife and tamily. For eighteen months the family lingered in the state washed by the waters of the Pacihc and then returned to good old Milan township, sprayed by the gentle ripples of the placid Maumee river. He continued to reside in Milan township until six years ago when he was elected recorder. Mr. Gillett has been keeper ot records and seals ever since. He can hift a heavy mortgage as easily as he does a light one.
INSUR. ANCE
JOHN E. BEAHLER
A LL men have hobbies and here we see John E. Beahler riding his insurance hobby to the rescue of his friends whom he would protect against loss by fire and accident. He also makes it a duty to have his friends thoroughly protected in case of death but not against death.
He knows all about his hobby. It is not afraid of the cars and will stand without hitching. It is a good thing to drive along and hold the reins over. John Beahler got used to holding the reins on his father's farm down in illinois where he was born just as the civil war closed. He remained on the farm riding the horses and cows and watching things grow till his hobby began to grow. He went to school in Lexington, Kentucky, and also attended the Westfield College in Westfield, Illinois, Just as soon as he left the farm he stepped into the saddle of his hob- by and has been riding ever since. While in school it seems that he did not learn to spell correctly, as he has two insurance companies, one of which is called the Phenix and the other the Phoenix. It is hard work to keep these two companies straight on his books, but when he writes either one he presents the name of a reliable fire insurance company. In 1800 after a sojourn of three years in Cincinnati, he came tu Fort Wayne and began to ride his hobby here. He grooms him down with the National, the Orient and the Travelers' Life, accident and employers' indemnity, just to suit his tastes.
Mr. Beahler was a pioneer settler in Lakeside. He was one of the first residents of this pretty suburb and he has resided there ever since. He is one of the tew insurance men who do not dabble in real estate. He is too busy with his hobby.
E. RALPH YARNELLE
T'S a risky thing in these days tu strew compliments about promiscously. It used to be that kind and flattering words were appreciated by everybody. How- ever, a modern compiler has spoiled it all by issuing a dictionary in which he assumes to give the accurate etymology of the words which we have stolen from the Europeans and the Asiatics. This writer says: The word compliment is from the English con, hot air, and the Latin, pleo, to fill ; hence, to fill with hot air.
We feel, however, that Mr. Yarnelle, the young man displayed in a pushing occupation, will recognize out earnestness, and therefore believe us sincere and pos- Sessing no desire to fill him with superheated atmos- phere, when we say that in this snapshot we caught him in the midst of one of the kindest acts on record.
As everyone knows, it's good luck to pick up a horse- shoe ( not referring to the bad luck of the one who has lost it ) and in order that good fortune shall be widespread. it is not only necessary that the stock of horseshoes shall be sufficient for all, hut that the same supply of equine footwear shall be scattered all over this broad land, Mr. Yarnelle is here engaged in scattering them. This con- signment is probably addressed to the Mikado of Japan. The next may be sent to the Czar of all the Russias.
Ralph is one of the pushing young men at the estah- bshment of Mossman, Yarnelle & Company, dealers in heavy hardware. He originated here, and after he had graduated from the high school, went to Williamstown. Massachusetts, to attend Williams College. This cele- brated institution was opened in 1791; it had been in operation a few years before Ralph showed up for ma- triculation. He has always been popular here at home; he comes from a musical family and sings like a bird. figuratively speaking. He's always happy.
HORSE SHOES
$54
POTATO JACK
WILLIAM F. MYERS
VOU will notice without having your attention called to the fact, that Dr. Myers is an artist. He can raw horses almost as well as they can draw him. He can also draw horses' teeth-painlessly. It doesn't hurt lum a bit. We see him in the sketch having just com- pleted a lightning portrait of an old friend, one who can always be depended on to furnish a surprise, no matter which way you wager your coin.
The doctor is a D. V. S. (Drives Vivacious Steeds). It's a difficult matter to get a real good look at him as he is usually flying through the atmosphere holding onto the ribbons attached to a fast stepper. When not so engaged, you're liable to find him in the office of the Fort Wayne Fair Association. in the court house, where he is busy preparing for the next great event no matter how far distant the date may be. He is the hvely secretary of that organization. He has a large veterinary hospital at his Webster street place.
Doctor Myers was born in Fort Wayne at the corner of Douglas avenue and Webster street thirty-nine years ago, in the very house in which he still lives. He gazes out through the same windows that he did when a child. though of course the landscape has changed a good deal in almost two-score years.
After attending the German schools here, he entered the Chicagu Veterinary College. graduating in 1889. The man who loves horses has a warm spot in his heart for every hving thing. Such a man is Dr. Myers, He has a lot of loyal friends and this accounts largely for the great success which has accompanied his efforts to revive the Fort Wayne Fair. This he undertook to do three years ago, and whatever Doctor Myers starts to accomplish is done, or there is a good and unforseen reason why.
154
MAURICE L. JONES
THIS is Admiral Jones, the first man to lead the Rome - City fleet to a successful conquest of the hearts of admiring thousands who gathered on the occasion of the initial Venetian night parade on Sylvan Lake-the be- ginning of a series of brilliant water carnivals which have made the lake famous.
But here we see him engaged in other pursuits. He is explaining the latest in kodakery-the most recent improved camera and the developing machine. It keeps one hustling to be posted on what's going on in the photographic held: but Jones can tell you. He keeps at the front of the procession and knows all about it. He conducts a large photographic supply house and for fifteen years it has been one of the leading institutions of its kind in this part of the country.
Mr. Jones is a native born Hoosier. He happened in 1848. at North Manchester. When the war began he hecame a part of Company H of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Indiana Infantry, and afterward served in the Thirty-ninth Regiment and the Eighth Cavalry, until the close of the war, winding up with the march with Sher- man to the sea. Perhaps that sight of the ocean led up to the Rome City incident. Anyway he came home and was graduated from a business college at Indianapolis In 1867. For three years he was in the lumber business with his father, at Bunker Hill, Indiana. Then he sold Hawe sewing machines at Peru, for four years. It was then that he began his career as a photographer, which led up tu his present enterprise. In 1870 he came here, opened a studio and enjoyed a splendid success. He gradually grew into the photographic supply business.
Mr. Jones is a prominent Mason and a member of several other orders. He has a fine cottage at Rome City and operates one of the sleekest httle motor boats you ever saw.
155
EAR IRON 936#
EDMUND H. COOMBS
H ERE is Mr. Coombs making a frantic cry for hellup. And we don't blame him one bit. Even if he is a big man. that's no sign he should consent with- out objection to shouldering a piece of bar iron weighing nine hundred and thirty-six pounds when there are a lot of hired men around who are paid for doing that very thing. Hence our commendation of him in retusing to do the lifting all alone.
Mr. Coombs is the active head of the Edmund H. Coombs Company, which carries one of the heaviest stocks of merchandise in this city. This merchandise is composed of such items as anvils, horseshoes, massive chunks of iron and all such things as are used by the village blacksmiths and all other blacksmiths. It is one of the city's most important wholesale establishments.
Mr. Coombs is a Fort Wayne man. He tried to live for a while in Michigan and in New York when he was a youngster. but it didn't work, and he came back. After leaving the Fort Wayne public schools, he went to Pon- tiac. Michigan, at the age of fifteen, where he attended the Michigan Military Academy for a couple of years. Then, for two years, he was a student at the Peekskill Military Academy in New York state. At the close of this period he returned to Fort Wayne and entered the employ of Coombs & Company, of which his father was the active head. Here he learned the heavy hardware business, not only as a house employe, where he remained six years, but as a salesman on the road. He visited the trade for eight years, at the end of which time he engaged in business for himself. One year ago the concern was incorporated under the name of the Edmund H. Coombs Company.
The company conducts an exclusive mail order trade, chiefly with blacksmiths, and is the pioneer in this method of handling the heavy hardware business.
CHARLES B. FITCH
THE first Fitch to land in America was a hire insurance man-that is, a preacher of the old school who insured the people of the colony of Rhode Island against those flames about which we learn so much in Reve- lation. This tends to prove the theory of the inheritance of the traits of our ancestors. This early arrival, the Reverend James Fitch, came from England in 1637 and was one of the founders of Rhode Island, At one time he sold 15,000 acres of land in Massachusetts for 6125. so it seems he operated a real estate business on the side. His descendants are united in the belief that this was altogether too cheap. Nine generations of Fitches since then, are easily traceable.
Mr. C. B. Fitch was born in Medina County, Ohio. and came to Fort Wayne in 1873. At the age of seven- teen he began teaching school in this county to enable him to complete his high school course. Later he spent three years in the mercantile and grain business at Avilla, Indiana, In 1882 when the Fort Wayne Jenney Electric Light Company was organized he accepted a position with it as assistant manager, remaining with that company until 1891 when he embarked in the insurance business as general agent of the National Life Insurance Company of Montpelier, Vermont, for North- eastern Indiana. A little later he engaged in general insurance and his agency is now composed of a number of the strongest and best companies. Mr. Fitch is well posted on insurance matters, having had two years' experience as actuary of the insurance department of Indiana under State Auditor William H. Hart.
Mr. Fitch is a prominent Mason, having held high positions in several Masonic lodges, and being at the present time eminent commander of Fort Wayne Com- mandery No. 4. Knights Templar. He is a member of the Sons of American Revolution, having proved his eligibility to such membership through five different lines of ancestors.
FACTS : INSURANCE 1
157
SWORN CIRCULATION STATEMENT
CLARENCE F. BICKNELL
N this picture we have a good view of the fire depart- ment of the Fort Wayne Daily News. It is here that the boys who work on the paper go to get fired when they are bad or do not perform their duties properly.
Mr. Bicknell came to Fort Wayne one hot day in the summer of 1902 and bought a newspaper. He then walked out onto the street, got acquainted with the doc- tors, the lawyers, the merchants, the politicians, the shop men and everybody he could meet, and by the time he had finished the rounds knew pretty well what sort ot a newspaper would be popular in Fort Wayne. The Daily News was removed from its back street location into the magnificent Y. M. C. A. building which was entirely remodeled and fitted with all the equipments for the publication of a modern newspaper. To some wise ones the venture, demanding, as it did, the outlay of a large amount of capital, appeared an un- promising experiment ; but everyone in Fort Wayne knows how successful has been the result. This out- come is traceable to Mr. Bicknell's knowledge of men as well as ot the newspaper business. Reared on a farm near Bicknell. Indiana, he knows what the farmers and the other sons of toil like to read in a newspaper : edu- cated in the State University of Indiana he is acquainted with the likes and dislikes of the student and the bright young minds of the community : his nine years in the employ of the Burlington railroad-four of which were spent in the office of the general passenger department at Omaha-gained for him a thorough knowledge of the ins and outs of commercial and business experience. Beginning then by the purchase of the Gas City, Indiana, Journal, he was soon owner of the Terre Haute Tribune which grew in popularity to be one of the foremost news- papers of Indiana. The success of the Fort Wayne Daily News is due to the application of the knowledge gained while taking these preliminary steps
AMOS R. WALTER
A MAN with a name like this most certainly succeed. If you will look carefully into their significance you will find that Amos means strong and courageous, while Walter means "ruling the host." Of course this latter refers to Mr. Walter's charge over the large force of employes in the Keystone grocery.
Mr. Walter was a farmer boy, reared in the Ohio county named for " Mad Anthony" Wayne. It was very natural, then, that on reaching the age of twenty-four and desiring to try his luck in "the city," he should come to the town which is named in honor of the same illustrious Indian fighter. He arrived in 1859.
His first employers were Stoner, Wygent & Company. wholesale grocers, who occupied the old Randall hotel building. At that time it stood on the bank of the canal. that busy highway of traffic which made Fort Wayne an important point on the map. Then he became an em- ploye of the United States Express Company. but re- signed when the carrier system was instituted at the Fort Wayne post office, August 1. 1873. Mr. Walter was one of the five men first appointed to this duty. All the others have passed away.
In order to enter upon his first business venture, he resigned in 1881, but after trymg the experiment for a year, he sold out and accepted a deputyship under Sheriff W. D. Schieffer. Upon the change of administration. he became a Knight of the Grip for the wholesale grocery house of Skelton, Watt & Wilt, and later for Berdan & Company, of Toledo. Quitting the road, he took a financial and personal interest in the Fort Wayne Ga- zette, but decided to undertake the establishment of a first class grocery house, and so, in 1897, the Keystone was opened. It has had a most successful history. Mr. Walter is one of the oldest Masons in Fort Wayne. In the G. A. R. he has figured prominently as a member of the Council of Administration, and otherwise.
EGGS
TH
OVAT ER
PATRICK J. M'DONALD
M R. McDONALD doesn't work in the water works office now, but a bunch of his admirers asked us to make this sketch in order that they may forever pre- serve this recollection of him ; so we gave in and did it to please them. Had we pictured him as he appears to- day we would have placed him behind the lattice-work in the office of the People's Trust and Savings Company with his glad hand out and a six-inch smile on his face. If some of us tried to smile as much as Mr. McDonald does we'd certainly crack our complexions ; but he's used to it. He learned the trick first as deputy in the office of the city clerk, a position he held from 1875 to 1883 -eight years-and later for tifteen years, beginning with 1888, as secretary of the city water works board. Dur- ing those years, Mr. McDonald made the acquaintance of everybody in Fort Wayne, and his personal friendships are a great factor in building up the financial institution of which he is now the active head.
Mr. McDonald's parents came from Ireland at an early date, and he was born here. He began his early educa- tion in the Brothers' School in this city and later went to Notre Dame University, After serving eight years as deputy in the office of the city clerk, he spent a short time in the west before beginning his duties in the city water works office.
When the People's Trust and Savings Company was organized, Mr. McDonald became its Secretary. He is also a director and stockholder in that institutiun. He Is interested in the Kaough Coal Company and other- wise connected with local commercial concerns.
Mr. McDonald has a cottage at Rome City and the hnny tribe thereabouts don't like him a little bit. He tries to be sociable by dropping them a line occasionally but they don't seem to consider him in the swim at all.
COONY BAYER
T was thirteen years ago that Coony Bayer. then a hoy of twenty, borrowed fifty dollars and got a little backing to go into the cigar making business for himself. For three years he worked hard day and night and suc- ceeded in doing fairly well, but not well enough to sat- isfy a man of his energy and ambition. So he decided to shake from his shoes the dust of Fort Wayne ( weweren't so well paved then) and transferred himself to Memphis, Tennessee, where he started in to cut a wider swath. leaving his brother Will here in charge of their little factory. But alas! Coony miscalculated, just as others have done who thought they had performed their final dust-shaking act with reference to the city of Mad An- thony. Like the proverbial feline, he " came back" a year later with, as he expresses it. "a terrible more knowledge of the cigar business and a whole lot less coin " than when he went south. Some other fellows might have thrown up the sponge, but Coony didn't. What he did was to start in making the now famous "Coony's Little Havanas," and-but you know the rest.
Not very long ago Coony went to Cuba where he pur- chased the stock which enters into the making of the new ten-cent cigar called LaRienta. He says its the best that grows on the island and he sniffed around a good deal and picked out what he thought was a little superior to all the rest : so that if he makes up his mind to put something else new on the market we wouldn'tbe surprised to see him skimming across the ocean after something good to make it out of.
A year or so ago, when Mr. Bayer's brother was taken into the concern, the Cooney Bayer Cigar Company was incorporated. The factory, one of the largest in the state, is located in an especially construced orna- mental building at the corner of Barr and Clinton streets.
VÍA
La Premic
50
161
CHARLES L. OLDS
1
N this little landscape we discover Mr. Olds in the act of shoveling dirt. In reality, Mr. Olds doesn't have a great deal to do with the actual handling of the earth during the progress of a job for which he secures the contract; what he really does is to attend to the important prelinnparies and then handles the "dust" which accumulates as a result of discreet and sensible attention to the business in hand.
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