USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Some Fort Wayne phizes > Part 15
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"Throw something at him!" cried the customer.
"It won't do any good." replied Alex, "he's out of my range."
And then Alex laughed heartily, and the mouse escaped. That's what makes Mr. Staub so fat-he laughs so much. It seems also to have a good effect on everybody with whom he associates. Mr. Staub is a charter member of the Don't-Worry Club. He is con- stantly adding new members to that delightful order. This is one way he takes to shed warmth abroad-the warmth of fellowship. Then he has another way of dispensing warmth-that warmth which keeps the physical man comfortable when it's cold enough without to freeze the flame in a gas street lamp, or that warmth which is needed to prepare his food. In other words. Mr. Staub sells stoves and ranges: not all kinds, but just the best kinds. He is one of Fort Wayne's pro- gressive business men, and has been for many years.
Mr. Staub was born in Cincinnati but that was the only remarkable thing that happened to him there, as bis folks removed to Indianapolis in 1854 when he was three years old. If we allow three years of grace, which is a reasonable length of time, Mr. Staub is a native-horn Hoosier. He attended Croll's Academy at Indianapolis, and the Northwestern University (now Butler College ) in the same city. He came to Fort Wayne first in 1871 and was then for a period in Huntington. He came back in 1874 to remain. and engaged in the business which now occupies his attention.
Mr. Staub is a thirty-second degree Mason and a Knight Templar.
204
ELMER LEONARD
THERE are some men who do not believe in following a profession. They sincerely are inclined to catch up with it. That is what Eliner Leonard has done. He is right there when the train starts. While he is the junior member of the firm ot W. & E. Leonard he is the larger member. He is too large to wear his older brother's clothes. This is why he always has a smile on his face. They couldn't drop any cut-down and made-over gar- ments to him.
Atter graduating from Ann Arbor he returned to Fort Wayne with his brother and hung out a shingle. This is not the shingle his father formerly used in making sad impressions. Elmer has never thought that he knew all about the law and this is the reason he has been studious and has climbed to the top of the profession. He never beheves in doing things by halves. He is am- bitious in all his endeavors. When he started to play in the riffles in St. Joe river. near his father's farm. it was not long before he sought water where he had to swim. He has been in the swim ever since. A few years ago he was elected chairman of the Republican or- gamzation in Allen county. He was so active in this office that he was later made chairman of the district Republican organization. Now he is active in the coun- cils ot the party in the state of Indiana.
Recently he thought he was not feeling well and he took a trip to Chattanooga and spent some time on the top of Lookout mountain. It is possible that he was looking out for something higher. Elmer knows how to chmb and he usually has his spurs on for the fray. He is one of the most active and energetic of the younger practitioners at the Allen county bar. He is also highly popular both in and out of his profession.
DRES
DEPT
SAM WOLF
H ERE stands Mr. Wolf at the entrance of the mag- nilicent new Wolf & Dessauer store welcoming the throng of visitors and assisting in directing them to the numerous departments. Within, are one hundred and fifty happy, good-natured salesmen, who, alone are well worth going to see. A tour of the big store and a view of so many pleasant faces will drive away any case of the blues.
Mr. Wolf is purely a Fort Wayne product. Atter attending the public schools, he served as a clerk in the office of City Clerk W. W. Rockhill, and, after this ex- perience in official city affairs, he hired out to Uncle Sam as stamp clerk in the Fort Wayne postoffice. Then he began his experience in the dry goods trade. He found employment in the Louis Wolf store and there stored away enough knowledge to enable him to undertake the important step of establishing. with Myron E. Dessauer, the large concern which has grown in nine years to be one of the biggest dry goods houses in the state. At the time the store was opened on Calhoun street, it was the only dry goods salesroom south of Berry.
For many months the people waited for the com- pletion of the big Barnes Building, on West Berry street, which was erected tor the use ot Wolf & Dessauer. It is now one of the busiest spots in the city. The store has a floor space of 54,000 feet. making it one of the largest retad business houses in the state. The comfort of the public is looked after in the maintenance of free resting rooms and reception rooms, and everyone may have the free use of the telephones installed for the exclusive use of patrons, Altogether. the Wolf & Dessauer store has no superior in Indiana.
ELMUS R. GESAMAN
I N this material world, where the processes of wear and decay are continuously at work, nature is kept busy making repairs. Everything needs "fixing. " Even dates, according to Mr. Gesaman should be fixed. One way to fix them is to take each one separately and cut a shit in the side, removing the seed or stone. In its place, insert the meat of an almond from which the skin has been removed. Atter you have done this to the whole supply on hand, roll them in powdered sugar. They don't look very nice, but they taste pretty good and are guaranteed to assist any case of indigestion.
But that's the kind of date-fixing that Mr. Gesaman refers to. He wants you to fix the date, naming the hour if possible, on which he can come over and see you. or when you can go over to see him, about that life in- Surance matter. Fix it, please.
Mr. Gesaman was born just a month after the battle of Gettysburg. Figure out his age. if you care to. This event occurred in Noble county, Indiana-not the battle, but the birth. Most of his early life was passed on the farm, but he was so situated as to enjoy the advantages of the Albion high school. Before leaving the old home- stead. he taught a rural school several terms. After 1885, he was variously engaged as a traveling salesman. until 1894 when he went to Toledo, Ohio, to enter the employ of a wholesale grocery. Then he turned his at- tention to life insurance, taking the agency for the Con- necticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, in Fort Wayne. at the beginning of the year 1896.
Mr. Gesaman has always been active in church affairs. For several years he was district secretary of the Fort Wayne Christian Endeavor Union, during which time he published the Christian Endeavor Unitier.
Remember that suggestion to "fix the date."
the
Date
20-
WILLIAM E. JENKINSON
F Necessity is the mother of Invention. who is the papa? Why, the inventor of course.
While Mr. Jenkinson was in charge of the office of the Jenney Electric Light and Power Company he discovered that the prevailing methods of handling small accounts with hundreds of patrons was sadly in need of fixing. He looked about to find something which would improve the condition of things, and failing to find it, invented an entirely new method, which is now patented and called the "Jenkinson System of Accounting and Filing." This system has been revised and adjusted to meet the needs of physicians, dentists, gas and electric light companies, newspapers and others who have a multi- tudinous quantity of small accounts. It is being adopted wherever introduced.
Mr. Jenkinson was born at Lake Minnetonka, near Minneapolis. His folks were Quakers and came west from Philadelphia on account of his father's ill health. They got as far as Richmond. Indiana, and there took up their residence for a time in that Quaker community. but found it necessary to go farther in the direction of the setting sun. Lake Minnetonka was selected. They purchased quite a tract touching the lake and there settled down to enjoy life and recover health. But when the war broke out the Indians swooped down upon the defenseless farmers and the little family barely escaped with their lives by fleeing to Fort Snelling. The farm buildings and crops were all destroyed.
They returned east in 1868. Mr. Jenkinson was em- ployed for a time as a traveling salesman for a whole- sale grocery house at Richmond, and later engaged in the bakery business. Coming to Fort Wayne in 1880. he was employed for a time in the construction depart- ment of the Fort Wayne Electric Works, and went from there to the office of the Jenney Electric Light and Power Company, where he acted as manager under C. G. Guild.
TILING
MARTIN J. CLEARY
1 IN putting base ball toggery on him, we have certainly caricatured Martin J. Cleary. of the artistic job printing firm of Cleary & Bailey. for as a base ball man- ager he is well and popularly known throughout Northern Indiana, Southern Michigan and Northwestern Ohio. He is the manager of the Shamrocks, the semi-profes- sional base ball team that has the honor of being com- posed of the champions of Indiana. This club, made up of players all of whom are week-day workers in mechan- ical and business pursuits in Fort Wayne, he has man- aged for several years. They are first class base ball players and wherever they go they make friends. They know how to play ball- clean ball and good ball -and combine with it the art of always being gentlemen. This is why the Shamrocks have a reputation that is peerless in the semi-professional base ball arena of the country.
But it could hardly be said that managing a base ball club is Mr. Cleary's business. More properly might it be called one of his accomplishments. He loves the American game and that is the reason he has his own club to play it, most of his dates being fixed on the holi- days. Mr. Cleary is a printer. He has followed the occupation in this city since he was a boy, working in every department of the trade, and there isn't a better job printer in Fort Wayne. He is now, and for some years past has been, associated in business with Thomas E. Bailey. Both are practical job printers. They have a finely equipped office, do all kinds of artistic printing, and have an extensive business among our merchants and the people generally. Their offices are at 912 Calhoun street.
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WILLIAM GEAKE
THIS gentleman with the mall and chisel is celebrated for the fact that he is continuously making work for the Masons and for the masons.
In the great secret order of Masonry he holds the highest office in the state of Indiana, being an active thirty-third degree member and deputy for Indiana of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite body. From this place of honor and trust much of the activity of the great body of Masonry in Hoosierdom is directed.
And, too, in his every-day efforts at the head of a large stone-cutting concern, he prepares the material to keep hundreds of stone masons from idleness. Nearly all of the substantial buildings in Fort Wayne and a large number of those in many of the cities and larger towns of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana are constructed of stone from the Geake stone works.
Mr. Geake ould never be president of the Umted States, because he was born in England. The event occurred in Bristol, in June, 1849. He came with his parents to Canada in 1854, but their love for their native land was so strong as to forbud them to remain, so they returned four years later. Our Mr. Geake, however, wanted to try it again. this time coming to the United States in May, 1868. After a brief stop at Oswego. New York, he went to Toledo, where he learned the stone- cutting trade. He then spent six years following the business in Boston, Chicago and various other cities, and in 1873 began contracting m cut-stone work with J. J. Geake, with whom for a number of years he was later in partnership. From Toledo he went to Petoskey, Michigan, where he took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of land and was one of the first white settlers in that region. After passing six years there he came to Fort Wayne to remain. He has worked hard to build up the substantial business which we now see.
MAXIMILLIAN J. BLITZ
I T is a fortunate thing for us that the surname of this young man is not as elongated as the baptismal appellation, otherwise there wouldn't have been room enough in the allotted space above to accommodate it all, and this subject might necessarily have been omitted from the book. Mr. Blitz's father was a great admirer of Maximillian of Mexico and grieved over the death of the unfortunate leader when he was shot as a traitor. His son was so named as an evidence of that admiration. And so. bearing this illustrious name, "Max" Bhtz invaded Fort Wayne in 1890, just as the other " Max" entered Mexico in 1864-twenty-six years previous-but our "Max" has been decidedly more successful in accomplishing the object of his invasion than was his noted example. Of course, they weren't seeking the same sort of thing. The Mexican invader was after a throne and waged an unsuccessful fight against the republicans. The Fort Wayne invader sought success hrst as city ticket agent of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis railroad and manager of Kinner's ticket office. Whatever sort of business insurgents were encountered, he seems to have met and vanquished them, for he soon owned the Kinner business, and in 1895 added an insur- ance department.
In the following year he was given charge of the interests of the Preferred Accident Insurance Company, and in numerous cases since then he has been in charge of the entire agency force. This company, through the efforts of Mr. Blitz, has in Fort Wayne alone nearly eight hundred policy holders. Mr. Blitz handles also a gen- eral line of other branches of insurance. In connection with his insurance business Mr. Blitz now conducts an extensive wholesale and retail cigar and tobacco estab- lishment, his store being located in the busiest section of Calhoun street.
PARTIAL LIST OF FATAL AND SERIOUS ACCIDENTS INDIANA LAST YEAR
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211
HERMAN L. ROLF
W ERE it not for the plumbers, the funny papers would have to go out of business, because the chiet source of their jokes would have disappeared. If one man has shed bitter tears on receiving the proverb- sally fatal plumber's hill, then a thousand have laughed themselves into hysterics over that single incident when portrayed in picture and word on the printed page. So. you see, we are largely indebted to the plumber for much of the jollity and good nature which is spreid abroad in this great world of tears. And, too, think how his occu- patin is giving work not only to hundreds of thousands of men employed in the manufacture of the materials he uses in his work, but also to the army ot joke writers and conne artists who would otherwise be unemployed wanderers on the face of the earth.
And now, having forced aside all possible prejudice ag.unst plumbers in general and thus prevented a riot. we beg leave to introduce Mr. Herman L. Rolf, one of the star actors in the Fort Wayne bunch of lead-pipe cinchers. When we talk of ". plums," pohtical or other- wise, we refer to something of considerable value and much desired. A plumber is one who gets the plums. In the box are the tools with which Mr. Rolf wrenches them off. He is thoroughly competent. and his protes- sional knowledge of joints ought to entitle him to a job on the police force.
Mr. Rolf spent his boyhood days on a farm in Dear- born county, Indiana. At the age of ten he was brought to Fort Wayne, and here he attended the Lutheran and the public schools. In 189; he, with his brother. Albert. established the present plumbing business on Broadway. It is one of the finest in the city. They carry a full line of everything in the way of water. gas and electric fix- tures and connections, bathroom supplies and all that sort of thing.
GUSTAVE A. RABUS
W HENEVER Mr. Rabus suits a man he gets a fit. That is to say his customer gets the fit.
Don't think that because Gust Rabus was born in Bloomingdale some time during the latter half of the last century that it is proper to say that he comes from the flowery kingdom. Bloomingdale is not a kingdom but Gust is a kingly good fellow all right. Since grow- ing up, Gust has come over the river into Fort Wayne. His father, John Rabus, is one of the pioneer merchant tailors of northern Indiana. He came here when Fort Wayne was a village and has grown with the city. In later years he turned his extensive tailoring bust- ness over to his sons-Gust, George and Charles. Gust is the oldest son and is in active charge. When he is not charging, his brothers are and then the proverbial story about a man's tailor bill is revived. It is an easy task. however, to do business with Gust Rabus. He does business in a business-like way. He goes east each spring and fall to look over the styles as they arrive from London and Paris. Then he comes home and whenever it rains in London he rolls his trousers up. When it stops raining he takes them off and puts on a new pair. He believes that men ought to have their trousers creased. Nobody other than a good tailor knows just how to crease a pair of trousers. Not everything with Gust has a silver lining. He uses any kind of lining his customers desire. He hrmly beheves in a man pressing his suit but not too strenuously in leap year. He likes to tackle a bride-groom and get him ready despite the fact that nothing is ever said in descriptions of weddings about the poor neglected groom's garments.
G. MAX HOFMANN
ALTHOUGH educated for mining engineering, Mr. Hofmann has gone into the air frequently instead of into the earth. It would seem. therefore, that his place is in the earth, but you can't keep a good man down. To hear some of the consumers talk you would think that the gas business is all air Mr. Hofmann is also a director in all of the independent telephone lines about Fort Wayne. All these lines are in the air.
Max was born in Germany about forty-seven years ago and went to Dresden to college. This is where the chinaware comes from. Max is partial to china, but has taken no decided stand in the Japan-Russian war. In 1883, after receiving a thorough education in mining engineering, he came to America. He became a draughts- man in the Pennsylvania shops here and later went to the Alabama iron ore fields of the Bass foundry of this city. When the natural gas struck Pittsburg he went to the Pennsylvama gas field as an expert. He was later with the Indianapolis Consumers Gas Company for three years before returning to Fort Wayne, in 1889, as expert and superintendent for the Fort Wayne Gas Company.
This snapshot was taken of him while he was on his way to test the capacity of one of the modern gas wells. He is not carrying a German pipe. It is a gas meter. While not looking for air that will furnish light and heat he acts as president of the Western Engineering and Construction Company and also of the National Steel Casting Company, of Montpelier. Although a very busy. as well as a highly prosperous, business man, he is not too much engaged to greet his friends with a smile and a hearty handshake. He is thoroughly popular. He is a member of the A. O. U. W , the Elks and the Scottish Rite Masons and is a Mystic Shriner.
214
ROBERT B. HANNA
B OB" Hanna was so young when they elected him to a seat in the city council that he had to be provided with a dictionary to sit on. That was in 1889. Ever since those days Bob has been a hustler. It was a beginning to be proud of, and there's nothing like a good start-off. Recently he was chosen to be the secretary of the Commercial Club and here he is doing a good deal for the welfare of Fort Wayne.
If you should take a complete history of Fort Wayne and turn the pages carefully, marking with a blue pencil the name Hanna wherever it occurred, you would have at the finish a badly mutdated volume. The name bobs up everywhere, beginning with the city's early history. The grandfather of Mr. Hanna was a man of much prom- inence in the early development of the state, and his father, Henry C. Hanna, was one of the most prominent citizens and land-owners in Allen county. "Bob" is one of the wide-awake present day representatives of the family. He was born in Allen county in 1868. He at- tended the public schools and after graduation from the high school decided to become a lawyer. He did it. He began by studying in the office of his brother, Henry C. Hanna. The brothers practiced as partners for several years.
** Bob" was twenty-one when the voters of his ward, which was strongly Democratic, made him a member of the city council. Again. in 1894, as a candidate for state Senator, he ran 2,300 votes ahead of his ticket. In 1900 he was the nominee of the Republicans as their candidate for congress. He developed much strength and gave his opponent a decidedly close shave. Since then Mr. Hanna bas paid pretty close attention to the practice of his pro- fession. He has been prominent in many of the various kinds of activity which go to make up a lively city.
21%
HENRY J. HORSTMANN
N the tougery which adorns him in this sketch and with the implement of hard manual labor in his strong right hist. Mr. Horstmann may not look entirely natural to his many friends. The garh fits him perfectly. however, as he has worn it and wielded the hammer many a day in the times gone by.
Mr. Horstmann is the master mechanic ot the Bass Foundry and Machine Works. Fort Wayne's largest manufacturing establishment. It gives employment to a thousand men. It makes more car wheels than any other company in the world. It is a large manufacturer of many kinds of factory machinery, engines, boilers. castings, forgings, etc. It is ot the latter, or the mech- anical department, over which Mr. Horstmann has general superintendente, a position he has held for the last three years and tor which, by his education and experience, he is timely equipped. There was a time when he wore the apron and used the mechame's tools daily. That was during his early career. Born at Newark. New Jersey. after receiving a good education. he attended a technical college and began work as an apprentice machinist at Philadelphia. He served his time and became a "full fledged" machinist, working at the trade as machinist and foreman until he went to Providence, Rhode Island, as superintendent of the Corliss Engine Works of that city. He remained in that position for two years and then went to Rome, New York, where he had mechanical charge of the Consoli- dated Street Railroad company's hnes.
It was while serving in this latter position that his mechanical skill and abihty attracted the attention of the officials of the Bass works and they offered him in- ducements which brought him to this city. The years that he has been here have proven the wisdom of their choice. His high mechanical and executive alulties have made his services invaluable. Mr. Horstmann is popu- lar with the officials and men at the works and our citizens generally.
216
WILLIAM M. LEEDY
M R. LEEDY stayed on the farm until he was old enough to vote. He voted to leave the farm, and the proposition was carried unanimously. This farm was in Kosciusko county. Probably it is there yet if someone has not cut it up into building lots.
So. at the age of twenty-one. he departed from the Scene of his birth and started out as the representative of a publishing house -- not a book agent, mind you, but a " solicitor." Later he was promoted to the position of general agent. After working this business awhile. he became connected with the circulation department ot the Kokomo Gazette-Tribune. As the middleman between the publisher and the subscribers, he was a sort of cir- culating medium. He then took a similar position with the Wabash Plaindealer and later with the Kendallville Standard.
Then he came to Fort Wayne. His first job was with the Sentinel. That was in 1887. His knowledge of the newspaper circulation and advertising business made him a valuable man, and he spent a portion of his time in the advertising department of the Indianapolis Sentinel. which was then allied with the Fort Wayne paper on which he was employed. He was then offered a place with the Fort Wayne Journal and was with that paper for ten years.
Since leaving the Journal he has been one of the foremost insurance men in Fort Wayne, carrying a gen- eral line and representing some of the best companies in the country. He deals also in real estate. In his work Mr. Leedy has an able assistant; it is a large, soft, warm right hand, which is commonly known as a representative of the "glad" variety. It has grasped a good big share of business which would have been lost but for its loyal attention to duty.
Mr. Leedy lives in Lakeside and is proud of it. Ask him.
DEven.
Jako the
HORSESHOE from the
N. B. BUY YOUR HORSESHOES i FADA MY &Co ).
EDWARD F. YARNELLE
W E suppose that even those who are quite intimately acquainted with Mr. Yarnelle will be surprised to be told that he is the president of a railroad. It's a fact. though. The name of the railroad is the Lake Erie & Fort Wayne. At present the road is two miles long and operates one locomotive, Quite a portion of the track- age is in the yards and under the roofs of the Fort Wayne Iron & Steel Company. The road now has a switch connection with the Pennsylvania road and has secured a right-of-way to the tracks of the Wabash. The plan is to construct a belt line about Fort Wayne, an undertaking which will be a splendid lift to the city's commercial interests,
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