USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Some Fort Wayne phizes > Part 14
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First he thought he would be a machinist in a plumb- ing shop. His job was not a lead pipe cinch and he did not like the work: then he entered a drug store until he suffered from ennui handing out the directory, selling postage stamps and lifting thes out of the soda water. Then he began work in a hat store. He got so tired saying "Anything else please?" dispensing nose nap- kins, neck nooses and tiles that he sought a business that satisfied him. For a while he was secretary to Mr. George W. Beers and later in the Jenney Electric Light office before he found something to suit hun. He went into the insurance business with Glutting, Bauer & Hartnett and remained with this firm through all of its changes, and was finally a member of the firm of Bauer & Ortheb.
About a year ago he retired to form a partnership in the insurance and real estate bosiness with Mr. Lennart. The firm is now known as Lennart & Ortlieb. Mr. Ortlieb has had great experience, not only in general insurance business, but is one of the best posted real estate men in the city on values. His firm has already been interested in many important deals in dirt.
Will is a prominent Elk and a jolly good fellow every day
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FREDERICK H. BOHNE
T HE tailor may make the man, but the haberdasher puts on the trimmings which make him a welcome member of society. Mr. Bohne is engaged in the pleas- ant occupation of making the men of Fort Wayne look a whole lot handsomer than they would otherwise appear. Who knows but that some of those handsome ties deco- rating the bosoms of his customers were the attractions which have led to happy matrimonial alliances? A girl doesn't like a sloppily attired man, and it's right there that Mr. Bohne hurries to his relief with all that's neces- sary to make up the deficiency. Just so, too, the ill-clad applicant for a position is judged by his appearance, and many a competent man has lost out because he forgot to throw his old hat away and get a new one in its place, or to discard his 1895-style collar and tie and supplant them with something up-to-date. This wise generation reads a man's character even in the socks he wears and in the shirt which enwraps his form. Of course, it is often mistaken, but it reads it just the same.
Mr. Bohne is an Allen county hoy, born in Adams township. He didn't get old enough to do chores or husk corn before his folks moved to Fort Wayne, and he's glad of it. He attended the Emanuel Evangelical Lutheran school and graduated in 1876. We didn't believe it when Mr. Bohne said so, but he turns out to be somewhat older than he seems-all due to his tasty wearing apparel, which preserves his youthful appear- ance. For a while after leaving school he was em- ployed with Golden & Monahan, and then for seven years with William Meyer & Brother, Seven years ago he opened his present store at No. 1412 Calhoun street, and four years later purchased the business of William Meyer & Brother at No. 824 Calhoun street. Since then his brother, Louis, has been a partner in the business.
GEORGE J. PARROT
T HIS man loves children. To him their laughter is the sweetest music, their smiles the brightest sunshine, their frowns the passing clouds which make happier the tranquil moments. Mr. Parrot is by profes- sion a photographer who would rather make pictures of children than anything else. His studio ofttimes resem- bles a nursery, tor he first makes the boys and girls feel entirely at home, and then, when the feeling of strange- ness has disappeared-children are soon contented in new surroundings if playthings are plentiful-he captures their poses in the truth-telling negative.
Mr. Parrot will devote the remainder of an active life to the promotion of a most excellent idea which has con- trolled his efforts since he first became interested in the photographic art. That endeavor is simply to assist in elevating photography to the place it deserves among the fine arts. The day is coming, thinks Mr. Parrot. when people will buy fewer pictures and those of finer quality than they have in the past. At housecleaning time nearly every housewife comes across a bushel or two of old photographs of friends thrown carelessly together, which she keeps in some out-of-sight place for two reasons: First, because the workmanship on them IS common and ordinary, and, second, because they are so numerous as to litter up the home if placed on display. In the future there will be less promiscuous giving of pictures, and those presented will be highly treasured, because of their value as works of art.
Mr. Parrot is a native of Fort Wayne and has spent all his life here, excepting five years while he was in business at Warsaw.
He is prominent in the work of the Indiana Photo- graphers' Association, having been thepresident and sec- retary of that organization. He was the leading spirit in the location of the Daguerre Memorial building at Winona Lake, in which will be displayed the world's masterpieces of photography.
ALLEN HAMILTON
THIS gentleman is photographed in the very act of working for his board-the school board. If this picture had been made at any other time during the past five years, it would have been just the same, for he is one of the men whose thoughts have been on the welfare of the schools even while engaged in his daily occupation for which he draws a salary from the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company; and he hasn't slighted his every-day work, either.
Mr. Hamilton is the secretary of the Board of Edu- cation. He was selected as a member of the board five years ago and is now serving his second term. We see him here with an armful of blue-prints showing the details of the construction of the magnificent new $250,000 high and manual training school building. He and these sapphire-colored drawings have been almost inseparable since the work was commenced. But that's about over now.
Mr. Hamilton first heard the ting-a-ling of cow-bells on his father's farm in Washington township: he has always lived in Allen county, and most of the time in Fort Wayne. He attended the Jefferson school in this city and then the Methodist College. His first "job" was in a planing mill. and then, it seems, he became fascinated with the sight of wheels going around. He's been watching them revolve ever since, for it was directly afterward, in 1809, that he entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as a machinist apprentice. He has been with the same employer thirty- five years, and is one of the most valued men in the local shops.
Since his election as a member of the Board of Education, many important problems have presented themselves for solution. Mr. Hamilton has always been on hand with a readiness to share his portion of the labor and responsibility.
PRINTS
SCHOOL
BLUE
HIGH
PLANS
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N. KY
ROBERT LEARMONTH
ROBERT LEARMONTH, chief clerk to Supt. J. B. McKim, of the Fort Wayne Division of the Pitts- burg. Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad, got tired of Wheeling West Virginia early in hfe, although he thor- oughly familiarized himself with transportation affairs. He quit Wheeling the town of his birth to go to Alliance, Oho, to learn telegraphy. The Pennsylvania officials knew that Bob had completed the task of Wheeling West Virginia successfully and also that he had learned to handle lightning with dispatch at Alliance. Owing to his alliance with transportation affairs early in his career they knew that he would make a good railroad man. He was sent to Fort Wayne to become a clerk in the main- tenance of way department of the Pennsylvania Com- pany in 1879.
He has become a permanent fixture here where he has a happy home and spends many leasure hours telling his son what makes the wheels of commerce go. The boy has got past the point where he wants to see the wheels go round for he really has a penchant for making the wheels go himself. Besides teaching his son how to grow. Mr. Learmouth outgrew the maintenance of way department and is now in the transportation depart- ment. His early job of wheeling has served him advan- tageously. He has deserved all of his promotions. He can run a division just as well as he can write a pass. Mr. Learmonth is not afraid of the cars and not infre- quently takes trips over the road to familiarize himself with every branch of the railroad work. He can pick out as good a hunting or fishing ground along the right of way as any general manager who ever stepped into a private car. In every way he is one of the best posted young railroad men in this big raifroad town.
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GEORGE L. DEWALD
W HEN you see a man behind a gun it is not always necessary to presume that he means war. George L. DeWald is not a warrior. He enjoys going hunting for small game for pleasure. Now and then he hikes to some quiet spot by a hillside there to shoot at clay pigeons. He usually seeks the protection of a clay hill so that when he misses the clay as it springs from the trap he hits the clay background. When he misses the clay he hits the clay, paradoxical as it may seem. He likes a target as fine as a hair, tor there are times in the year when hare hunting is his sole pleasure. The game he is hunting for when this snap shot was taken is such a fine hare that he cannot see it.
George does other things besides hunt. He has a summer cottage at Rome City and his angling triumphs have been published in the neighborhood gossip around Sylvan Lake for many years. He has old man Walton beaten a block. He feeds all of the dog fish he lands to his hunting canines and he has some tine animals.
Thirty-five years ago George did not gu hunting to any alarming extent. He went about in a horseless carriage and the streets of Fort Wayne were not as well paved as they are now. He got a good many bumps in consequence and he has been the better able to cope with bumps in later life. He went directly into his father's dry goods store after leaving school and has been in active business ever since. At present he is the vice-president of the George DeWald Company, one of the largest wholesale dry goods houses in the west. His particular line is the handling of the gentlemen's furnishings in the store. He can tell whether a man's hat is on straight or not at a glance. If you catch him looking at your necktie grasp his hand and smile. He can't help it.
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TEMPLE
THEATRE
FRANK E. STOUDER
M R. STOUDER is the wonder of Fort Wayne. How any man can keep looking as pleasant as he does and continue year after year as the manager of the Temple Theatre-or any other playhouse, for that matter -is beyond our understanding. Did you ever stop to think what a strenuous life the manager of a theater must lead? No? Well, just stop a minute and think.
In the first place, he must adapt himself to the whims ot unreasonable patrons who demand a front-row seat in the parquet, notwithstanding every seat is sold, or insist on a rail roost in the balcony when the "standing room only" sign is displayed. Then he is, by many patrons, held personally responsible for the badness of every production, while the actors get credit for all the commendable features. He must be able to deal out suave talk to pleaders for "comps" who hase their claims on every sort of ground, from the fact that their mothers were acquainted with John Drew's second cousins down to the claim that they are chore boys in newspaper offices. And all this must be done just right or the house and the manager become unpopular. But these are only a few of the things which confront him on the one hand, and we shall not enter upon a discussion ot the trials and tribulations which come to him in his dealings with the shuw tolks, who are all out for the money and have httle regard for the welfare or peace of mind of the local manager.
But we have every reason to know that Mr. Stouder is happy. He looks it. His voice betrays it, whether the information comes in its ring of jovial laughter or in its beautiful tones of song which the people of Fort Wayne have learned to know and to enjoy so long and so well.
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GEORGE W. M'KEE
A FTER being business manager of the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette for over three years, Mr. McKee entered the real estate, loans. and insurance business, in which he has been engaged in this city for several years,
Mr. McKee is a Muncie product. There he spent his boyhood and young manhood years. He graduated at the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, and for three years attended the Methodist College of Fort Wayne. His first business occupation was that of a school teacher, which he followed before and after leav- ing college. In this, as he has been in his real estate and insurance business, he was a success. He knew how to "teach the young idea how to shoot." He taught school in this county for four years and after- wards was principal of a ward school at Salt Lake City. Utah. He then traveled out of Denver, Colorado, for a wholesale business house and, returning to Fort Wayne. took the position of city circulator and afterwards ad- vertising manager for the Fort Wayne Daily Press, a newspaper conducted here for a few years by Mr. Wendell, of Columbus, Ohio. He went with Mr. Wendell to Ohio's capital, remaining there for awhile in his news- paper employ and returning to Fort Wayne took a posi- tion as advertising manager for the Daily News, from which paper he went to the Gazette, which at that time was owned by Mr. Leonard. In this position he secured a wide acquaintance among our merchants and business men and was successful. In 1894 Mr. Mckee abandoned the newspaper business and entered the real estate. loan, and insurance business for himself in which he has since been engaged, his offices being in the Tri- State building.
WALLACE E. DOUD
THEY used to say that a boy or girl who had a name the initials of which would combine to spell a wod, was certain of a successful life. Behevers in this theory might point to the illustrous names of Francis E. Willard, James A. Garfield, Alexander Hamilton, Charles A. Dana, Adna R. Chaffee, Stephen A, Douglas, or even to that most successful of all family men, Brigham Young, as shining examples. Perhaps that's why Mr. Doud is so successful, but we don't believe a word of it. He's successtul because he pulls off his coat and goes at the real estate business in the same manner that he would if he had secured the contract to bore seven- teen hundred post holes.
Although Mr. Doud claims no knowledge of the dress- making business, he must admit that he has done some Splendid work on the outskirts of Miss Fort Wayne. The Commercial Addition, Riverside Addition, and Lawton Place Addition-in which $65,000 worth of lots were sold within five weeks-are examples of his ability to do things.
Mr. Doud was reared on a farm in Defiance county. Ohto. He attended the country schools and then a nor- mal school at Bryan, Ohio, returning then to his native county where he taught for some time. He was later in charge of the schools at Sherwood, Ohio. After spending some time in a jobbing house, at Defiance, he drifted into the insurance business. He didn't drift long. He was soon a general agent for the Umon Central Life Insurance Company, but came here eleven years ago to sell houses and lands. We all know how the venture turned out.
Mr. Doud is a director in the Citizen's Trust Company, in the Allen County Loan and Savings Association, and in the Commercial Club. He is a Scottish Rite Mason. a Kmght Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine.
FRED D. HOHAM
FRED HOHAM is not what you would call a revolu- lutionist, but he always did like to see the wheels go 'round. Even in the old days, when he drove a delivery wagon with a team of Texas ponies hitched to it, no other wheels in the town revolved half as fast as Fred's, and the patrons of the store for which he worked always found their goods delivered before they had time to return from their marketing. Today he is interested in other kinds of wheels-the wheels on the Haberkorn steam engines, which are made in Fort Wayne, but which keep things moving in various parts of the coun- try. Mr. Hoham is the secretary of the Haberkorn Engine Company, which has grown to be one uf Fort Wayne's best manufacturing industries.
The Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock in 1020 and set up their homes in the wilderness. Fred Hoham landed at Plymouth, Indiana, about two hundred and fifty years later and set up a howl in Hoosierdom. The Pilgrims fought off the cunning Redskin, while Fred only courted that brand of Trouble by assuming a lovely coat of red skin while making frequent and prolonged sojourns at the old swimming hole.
He came to Fort Wayne when he was nineteen and learned how to roll pills behind the case at George H. Loesch's drug store. He liked the work and shortly went to Chicago and took a complete course at the . Chicago School of Pharmacy. Then he came back and has been here ever since. After seven years' experience with Mr. Loesch, he went into business for himself and for sixteen years has been very successful.
He became interested in the Haberkorn engine while the model was on exhibition in his place of business, and was instrumental in the organization of the concern which is now manufacturing it. He is an energetic man, but finds time to handle his two important interests.
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LOYAL P. HULBURD
W HENEVER you 'phone 141 and say you have a package to go out of town by either the American or the National Express line, Mr. Hulbord will respond by sending one of his wagons post-haste after that package. He was always that way-prompt in respond- ing to hurry-up calls. Take it away back in the sixties. for instance. In response to the first call of President Lincoln for 75,000 volunteers, the first man to sign his name on the roll of the company recruited at Waterville, Vermont, was Daniel C. Hulburd. The third was his son, Loyal P. Hulhurd, now the general agent for the American and National Express companies in Fort Wayne. The son was then seventeen years of age. He was a farmer's lad and had attended school at Waterville. He was chosen as the second corporal of his company, which was assigned to the Second Vermont regiment. It went into service in the Army of the Potomac, and with it Loyal P. participated in every engagement from the first battle of Bull's Run until the trenches at Petersburg were reached in July of 1804-thirty-eight battles in all. Just before the battle of Antietam he was appointed orderly sergeant of his company. In the battle of the Wilderness, on June 12, 1864, he was struck over the heart by a sprint shell, and when he was carried off the held it was thought he was dead. It was found, how- ever, that he had only suffered a broken breast bone. He was taken to the hospital and in a short time was able to rejoin his regiment.
After leaving the army, Mr. Hulburd went to Cleveland, Ohio, and there, in September, 1864, he took employment with the American Express Company. He remained with the company in that city for twenty-seven years, filling every position in its offices up to that of agent. The last six years of his service at Cleveland he was city agent of the company. On January 1, 1891, he was sent to Fort Wayne and given the general agency here of both the American and the National express com- panies. Here he has remained continuously since and is now nearing the close of his fortieth year's service with the companies he represents.
L. C. HUNTER
SOMEONE gives this definition : ** A mine is a hole in the ground owned by a har."
Now, this isn't so at all, and we can prove it. Mr. Hunter owns a mine and it isn't a hole in the ground, and that statement from his lips proves that he is truth- ful because you can see for yourself. Mr. Hunter's mines -for he has several of them-are located out in California and are of the placer variety. He went out there lately to soak a few tons of gold out of the side hills. wtuch he may ship back home in flat cars. Flat cars filled with gold would still be flat; It isn't so with pocket books.
We hope Mr. Hunter will do well out there, but we don't want him to stay away because we miss him very much. He was born in Allen county, near Huntertown. but has lived in Fort Wayne for twenty-one years. He came here as deputy in the office of County Auditor Griebel in 1882. Then began a series of events which kept him in the court house for eighteen years, all but two of which were spent in the treasurer's office. In 1884 he went into the treasurer's office as deputy with John Dalman, and served in the same capacity with Isaac Mowrer and Edward Beckman, who succeeded Mr. Dalman.
In 1896 he was elected treasurer of Allen county and was honored with re-election two years later. Upon leaving the treasurer's office in 1900 he engaged in the manufacture of duphcating books with the Archer- Sprague-Vernon Company, which recently closed its factory here on consolidating with the National Duplicating Book Manufacturing Company, now known as the Merchants' Salesbook Company. He declined to accept an important position with the new concern, though he retains an interest in it.
His Califorma mining property is located in Calaveras county.
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FRANK S. LIGHTFOOT
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F the dollars handled every month by Frank S. Lightfoot, as treasurer ot the Bass Foundry and Machine Works. were as big as the car wheels his company manufactures, locomotives and trains of cars would have a sorry time getting them to the bank, for its business runs into mil- lions. Fortunately, Uncle Sam hasn't got the car-wheel- sized dollar yet, and Mr. Lightfoot is saved the study of the solution of this imaginary problem.
Here we see him reading an essay on " A Few Remarks on Wheels." Just what is in that essay will never be known. It might say that the Bass works is the largest manufacturer of car wheels in the world, that it turns out three hundred car wheels each day, sending them into every state and territory, and that all the great trunk line railroads of the country run their trains on Bass Works' car wheels. All this would be the truth, for the fame of the Fort Wayne car wheels is world-wide. They are the greatest and the best. as are also its cast- ings, its Corliss engines and its other products.
For the transaction of all this great business Mr. Lightfoot handles the cash. He is the treasurer of the works. He won his way to this responsible position on merit and through sterling worth. Born at Falmouth. Kentucky, he came here at the age of twenty and took a place as clerk in the offices of the Bass works, rising in time to the position uf general bookkeeper. For several years he was private secretary for Mr. John H. Bass. and when the Bass works was incorporated four years ago as the Bass Foundry and Machine Works, he returned to the general office work, and three years ago was elected the treasurer of the great establishment. This position he has since held. While a native of the Blue Grass State, born below the Mason and Dixon line, his twenty-four years' residence in Fort Wayne has Hoosier- ized him, and he is a true Northerner. Fort Wayne is glad to have him as ** one of us."
ALLEN J. VESEY
A LLEN J. VESEY is a product of Lagrange county where he grew tall and rugged like some of the sycamores along the shores of its numerous lakes. As a boy he caught fish, and " chiggers " and perhaps an occasional ** lickin'" at school, but never complains that he got a lick amiss.
When he reached his six feet of height at twenty years he was far enough along mentally to go to Michigan University to study law and there he spent 1 year with Blackstone and quizzes. When lie returned to his native county, he settled in the town of Lagrange to practice law. Some profitable deals in lumber came his way and he found himself willing to take an honest risk when it seemed to promise something .. net." Then followed some years of hard work on larger deals that yielded an empty .. net." It took a great many years of plucky pursuit of the " nimble" to get out of the en- tanglements of those efforts, and part of them took hun to Chicago.
After he had settled in Fort Wayne and became a partner in the law firm of Vesey & Heaton, the head of which was his brother, the Judge. he forsook bachelor ways and became a benedict. That was the making of him. Heis now the junior member of the firm, Judge Heaton having been called to the superior bench. His hours are busy with the real estate end of the firm's large business. He is by no means a politician but likes to attend caucuses and state conventions. The other fellows always find him companionable and square whether at home or at a state convention. He has never forgotten how to fish and loves to visit the lakes for that purpose but his reports of his "catch" are never beyond belief. He is a lawyer who can be believed. even in the telling of a fish story.
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ALEX H. STAUB
O NE day last winter, a salesman in Mr. Staub's place of business was displaying the merits of one of his fine steel ranges. On opening the oven door. a defenseless little mouse hopped out and ran toward the proprietor.
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