USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Some Fort Wayne phizes > Part 18
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Although Mr. Morris has never sought political honors he has always helped to boost the interests of the Repub- lican party, and is an important factor in district affairs. As showing his popularity among his brother attorneys it may be said that he recently received the unanimous endorsment of the Allen County Bar to be judge of the circuit court of Indiana.
He is a prominent Mason and otherwise actively identified with local and state interests.
EXCAVATION FOR WATER MAIN
PERCY G. OLDS
I F we should tell a stranger that Perey Olds gains his Invelihood In digging in the earth. or, rather. in watching and directing the other fellows while they do it, he might get the idea that he is either a miner, or an vil Speculatur, or a gas man, or an artesian well driller. or a farmer. or one ot a dozen other kinds of workmen whom that expression would quite accurately describe. But he isn't. True, he was a minor until he reached his majority, but then he quit off short. Percy is connected with the lange concern known as the C. L. Olds Con- struction Company, of which his father is the head, and to him falls a great deal of the work of superintending Large contracts at various points in this portion of the country. Their operations are chiefly in the hne of in- stalling water works and sewer systems, electric lighting plants, etc. The company is constantly busy handling lig contracts ot fins kind, and, as a consequence. Percy has to keep moving. We ought. perhaps, to say that the result of his lively moving and husthng qualities IS the securing of many of these contracts, because good work always begets more of them for the concern which performs it.
Percy is a Fort Wayne product. He went through the public schools and graduated theretrom in 1895. For a year he was employed by the Fort Wayne Electric Works, but he decided to enlarge his education, and this was done by taking a course at Princeton University. the school in which Grover Cleveland holds down the chair of lackwaltonism, hkewise a few easier chairs.
Returning home, he entered the employ of the con- struction company 10 1808. He is well ked in business circles and socially he is popular everywhere.
140
ALFRED M. CRESSLER
W HEN Altred Cressler came home from college two years ago he immediately gave his best thought to the commendable work of shedding light abroad. He has been shedding ever since. This little sketch shows how he does it. He sits at a desk in the office of the Kerr-Murray manufactory and figures out contracts and Specifications for big gas holders-those immense round tanks which usually stand on the outskirts of the towns and are generally visible tor miles before you get within the city limits. Notwithstanding their immensity. in some cases your nose is quicker than your eye in locat- ing them. Well, that's what Mr. Cressler is hguring on. These tanks contain hundreds of thousands of square feet of gas and the gas makes brightness which drives away the darkness. And in this way Mr. Cressler Is seeking to shed more hght abroad.
Just at present he is giving some time, too, to the Installment of a new system of keeping tab on the per- centage of profit or loss in each subdivision of the various departments of the plant-a harmonizing and equalizing scheme now being applied to the workings of all large factories, made necessary by advancement in methods along all other hnes.
Mr. Cressler is a Fort Wayne boy and has been here all his life, excepting during seven years spent in school and college. After a brief attendance at a private school here, he went to Pottstown. Pennsylvania. to attend the Hill school. a preparatory institution, and then entered Yale. Here he made a splendid record in his academic work, and was honored in being selected to edit the book review department of the Yale Literary Maga- zine. At the close of his four years' course. he was graduated in 1902. Since then he has been connected with the Kerr-Murray Manufacturing Company. He is popular socially, and is one of Fort Wayne's rising young business men.
CONTRACT FOR
GAS HOLDER
SPECIFICA - - TIONS
S/
ALBERT E. MELCHING
D URING all his early private and political life Mr. Melching was successful in everything he under- took, so it isn't surprising that he's a successful under- taker now.
Like a large number of good men, Mr. Melching came from Ohio. He was born on a farm in Mahoning county, Ohio, but, as soon as he was old enough to toddle, his folks held him by the hands to see if he could walk as far as the nearest railroad station. He could, so they all got aboard the first train and came to Allen county. where they located at Wilhamsport. Five years later, in 18or, they came to Fort Wayne. "Al." as he is familiarly known throughout the county, attended the parochial school of the Saint Paul's Lutheran Church. after leaving the public schools, and then, at the age of fourteen, with a widowed mother to care for, he secured employment in the spoke factory of Breckenridge & Taylor. Later he had like employment with Ranke & Yergens. Then he learned to be a harnessmaker in the shop of Cooper & Neireiter, and later with Louis Traub. Thus he continued until 1886 when he opened an equine restaurant-in other words, a feed yard-on North Harrison street. Perhaps it was while caring for the wants of the noble ammals left in his care that Mr. Melching had his attention drawn to the needs of the Democratic quadruped. At any rate. it was then he became a candidate for sheriff, and, in 1890, was elected by a good, large majority. His popularity was again demonstrated by his re-election two years later. During his official career, Mr. Melching was a faithful servant of the county. Twice, during his work as sheriff, was he obliged to make flying trips to the Indian Territory and once to Texas, to carry out the demands of justice. In 1903 Mr. Melching was made city chairman of the Demo- cratic party.
He is now a partner with Robert Klaehn in the under- taking business.
248
PAUL MOSSMAN
NCE upon a time. Mr. Mussman Spent a year and a half making footprints on the sands and muddy spots of Europe. Asia and Africa, and the one thing among the thousands that he learned was that the United States is the garden spot of the world with Fort Wayne as its beautiful and attractive center. He likes our city better than any other place he has seen, and that is saying a good deal for the opinion of a man who has traversed the countries ot Europe from North Cape. the most northerly settled spot in Norway, to the most southerly point of sunny Italy, and who has journeyed through Palestine and the states and principalities of northern Africa.
Mr. Mussman is one of Fort Wayne's most progres- sive young business men. If he hadn't suddenly changed his mind one day, this sketch might have described him as one of the most successful members of the Allen coun- ty bar, because he at one time, after returning from his foreign trip, thought seriously of becoming a lawyer. But he didn't. He took an interest in the large whole- sale heavy hardware business of Mossman, Yarnelle & Company and has continued very successfully as a member of that important firm. He is a native of Fort Wayne, and graduated from the high school here in 1886. Going then to Ann Arbor, he entered the University of Michigan and graduated in 1891. He then took the foreign trip referred to above. Re-entering the Ann Arbor school. it was his intention to study law, but in 1893 he became interested in the concern with which he is still connected.
Mr. Mossman is concerned in several other important local institutions, including the First National Bank, the Fort Wayne Iron and Steel Company and the Fort Wayne Windmill Company, in each ot which he is a director. He is also vice-president and a director of the Commer- cial Club.
er, and send also four Cases of 2 dank blue carriage cloth, wood dyp
FRANKLIN A. EMRICK
M R. EMRICK is another country boy who has risen to success in the city. He is the same old illus- tration ot the advisability of keeping the boys in the corn-held until they are old enough to begin their collegiate, commercial or professional work. We have such examples all about us in Fort Wayne.
Mr. Emrick is the young man who came pretty close to landing the Democratic nomination for prosecuting attorney at the county convention last June. It was so near that we shall, no doubt. hear more about him politically in the future. During the four years of the terms of his brother. E. V. Emrick, as prosecuting attorney, he acted as deputy and got next to a whole lot of the methods of handling criminal prosecutions.
Mr. Emrick had hits beginning in Pleasant township trom whence have come quite a bunch of our good people. He Served a complete apprenticeship in the art of husking corn, milking the mild-eyed kine and taking his best girl to the ice cream festivals at the district school house.
Atter attending the country school until he had learned all there was to learn, he went to Ann Arbor to take a literary course in the University of Michigan. At that time he decided to become a lawyer, and from the literary work he turned his attention to the law course. Then, displaying a large amount of good judgment and common sense. he came to Fort Wayne to begin his career as an attorney. He was admitted to practice in 180g, and immediately formed a partner- ship with his brother. His venture has been markedly successful.
Mr. Emnick is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Pathfinders. the Fraternal Assur- ance Society, and the Eagles.
250
HENRY F. MOELLERING
- T isn't at all difficult to find a man with a cigar be- tween his lips, but here's a man who has the entire tobacco industry at his tongue's end. He can tell you that the annual yearly crop of the weed in the United States amounts to six hundred million pounds : that a law passed in 1600 and never repealed, forbids its cult- ure in Great Brittain : that its name comes from the to- bacco pipe used in San Domingo; that its botanical name, nicotiana, was given in memory of Jean Nicut. who first carried the seeds to France : that it is a native of America and was never heard of until the discovery of the new world, and so on indefinitely. He has to know a whole lot about tobacco because he's the buyer in that important department for the wholesale grocery house of Moellering Brothers & Millard, of which he is an act- ive member.
But Mr. Moellering does a good deal more than this for his house. He's active in many of its other interests and has especial charge of its city trade.
Fort Wayne owes much of its commercial importance to the boost given it by its manufacturing and jobbing houses. The hundreds of traveling salesmen going out trom these busy centers carry to the outside world the daily information that Fort Wayne is a live city. Moellering Brothers & Millard, through this one channel alone, are helping constantly to boom Fort Wayne in a substantial way.
Mr. Moellering is a native Fort Wayneite. He se- cured his early educateral training in the parochial schools and then took a course in Concordia College. In 1879, he joined his brother. Wilham F. Moellering in a retail grocery venture which had been launched two years previously. On April 23, 1804. the partnership of Moellering Brothers & Millard was formed. It has had a most successful history.
BEST SMILING
TOBACCO
MARTIN W. KEMP
T HE man of pluck is pretty apt to get on in this world regardless of inconveniencing obstacles. Mr Kemp was born in Madison township, this county, and had just fairly begun to learn things in the country school when he was left an orphan at the age of twelve. Then began his real battle with the world. He worked on farms in the neighborhood of his home until he attained the age of manhood, when he came to Fort Wayne in 1882 and entered the employ of Hoffman Brothers, who conducted a saw mill. He was with them a year and a half when he again turned his attention to farming, this time in Milan township, where he operated a place for himself.
He secured a job with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. however, and returned to Furt Wayne to take it. beginning as a laborer in the yards. Through good work and increasing competence he gradually arose to the responsible position of foreman of the lumber yards in this city in 1800.
Mr. Kemp is an enthusiastic lodge man. As a Knight of Py thias he has occupied all the chairs and represented the home lodge at the grand lodge session. He is one of the supreme officers of the Fraternal Assurance Society of America. He has held at vartous times all the offices in the Ancient Order ot United Workmen, and has repre- sented the local lodge in the grand body. He is a charter member of the home lodge of Pathfinders and is now serving his fifth term as its presiding officer. He has had a good deal of experience in drilling teams for lodge floor work.
Mr. Kemp has made quite a reputation as a public speaker, one of his recent notable efforts being the speech at the Republican congressional convention which placed Newton W Gilbert before that body as a candidate for congress.
FRATEAM"
FRANK P. WILT
FOR a dozen years Mr. Wilt sang lustily that rollicking ** flour" song:
"Happy is the miller who Inves by the wall: The wheel goes 'round with a night good will; One hand in the hopper and the other m the bag: When the wheel goes 'round be entes out grab!"
But he was a jolly miller in those days, and when he abandoned the business and began to sell codfish and tobacco and sugar to the retail dealers he had to get a new sung. This is what he sings now. using the same tune:
"Happy is the grocer who sells by the gross; He ships lots of goods though the margin's close; One hand counting coppers while the other holds the bag:
For while folks eat the sales can't lag."
Mr. Wilt was born in Fort Wayne and grew up here. He also grew out-considerably so. After attending the public schools a while. he entered the Miami Valley Institute, an industrial school located near Cincinnati. He was tifteen when he came home and found employ- ment in the Esmond flouring mill on the Saint Mary's. During the twelve years of his experience there, the mechanical part of the milling business was wholly revolutiomzed. He became financially interested in the mill, but sold his interests and entered the wholesale grocery house of Skelton & Watt as a bookkeeper. He was soon a partner in the business, the firm being then known as McDonald, Watt & Wilt. He sold out in 1894, and started in the wholesaling of teas, cigars and tobaccos. Two years ago, the present company, with Mr. Wilt as president and treasurer, was incorporated as a wholesale grocery house.
Mr. Wilt is a thirty-second degree Mason, and a thirty-third degree Rome Cityite, being one of the pioneer cottagers at that popular resort.
SHINY
0
Je & m. Hungry
Wayne Krist PONY
FREDERICK J. THIEME
M R. Thieme says the stocking outlook is fine. He's strictly in it and certainly ought to know.
Stockings are commonly supposed to be the ladies' popular depository for money, and yet we are assured that Mr. Thieme has secured a good deal of coin uut uf his own hosiery.
It was he, you will remember, who organized in 1808 concern known as the United Knitting Mills, the build- my being located on the ground with the Wayne Knitting Mills. They were operated under different managements. When the year fuor arrived both institutions had grown to large proportions, and although the two were making different lines of goods and sold their products together. they had become formidable rivals in the knitting busi- ness. What should be done? Should they continue as competitors, or should one absorb the other? # so, which should go out of existence? It was an important time in the history of the two industries and the boards of directors of each were brought face to face with a serious problem It was finally decided that the two should consolidate under the name of the Wayne Knitting Mills, and this was done.
Mr. Thieme was retained as superintendent of the combined industries and has especial charge over the manufacture of children's and infants' hose and seamless goods. He has done much to preserve tu Fort Wayne this great manufactory. Since its assured prosperity no one in America has an excuse for going sockless or hoseless. But there were dark days in the history of the Wayne Knitting Mills, days which cause a shudder. even now, to come over those . oncerned who happen to think of it. In brief, the mills were scheduled to close one Saturday night, but a check brought by the mail cartier that morning was the bridge over the chasm of failure and all has been solid traveling on the uther side.
WALTER OLDS
L IKE the proverbial feline, Judge Olds came back. He went from Indiana to Chicago and there prac- ticed his profession with marked success: but he had once lived in Indiana, and that settled it. When he returned to the state he came to Fort Wayne.
Judge Olds is a native of Ohio, that great state which rears good men and sends them elsewhere to shine. He was born in Morrow county in 1840, and Spent his youth un a farm. The war came on at a time when he should have been in school, but he enlisted and was for two years engaged in defending the stars and stripes. On returning home he attended an advanced school and read law in the office of his brother, Major James Olds, at Mount Gilead, Ohio. In January, 1869. he was admitted to the bar. and in the same year located at Columbia City, Indiana, and began the prac- tice of his profession. He was soon counted among the foremost attorneys of Northern Indiana.
In 1876 as a candidate on the Republican ticket, he was elected state senator and served in the sessions of 1877 and 1879. In 1884 he was elected circuit judge for a term of six years. In 1888 he was elected supreme judge and resigned his seat on the circuit bench. He took the higher office in January, 1889. He was, at the time, the youngest member of the court, and one of the youngest men ever elevated to the supreme bench vi Indiana. He hlled the place with credit and honor for four and one-half years, and then resigned to gu to Chicago to re-engage in the practice of his profession in partnership with the Hon. Charles F. Griffin, formerly secretary of state of Indiana.
Judge Olds came to Fort Wayne in March, Igor, after which the partnership with Newton D. Doughman was formed.
255
THE
LAW ON THE
SUBJECT
JOHN W. EGGEMAN
M R. EGGEMAN has only one senous fault - he in- sists on looking down on his neighbors. He declares Nature built him that way and if the rest of the people insist on remaining sawed-off. why they'll just have to look up to him. that's all. As a matter of fact he's one of the big men of Fort Wayne in a couple or three ways of looking at it-a first-class specimen of physical and other kinds of manhood. In college he was the terror of many football teams which tackled Notre Dame, and now that he's out of school he continues the Same methods in carrying his legal football to goal.
Mr. Eggeman is a lawyer, a partner of James B. Harper. He was born here. After attending a parochial school until he had finished the course. he attended Taylor University for a time, and then entered Notre Dame University, From this institution he graduated 111 1900. A year later he received from the University the degree of Master of Arts.
Mr. Eggeman was an ambitious youngster when he reached the age of thirteen and began the study of sten- ography. He made good use of it in the time that fol- lowed, and it helped him through school by enabling him to earn the necessary coin. At Notre Dame he was prominent in athletics, being especially fitted by Nature to engage successfully in college sports. The revenue received from his work in this line, helped also to pay his way through the University, As center rush for the Notre Dame University he made a great record for him- self and the team. But this was only a side issue : he was there to learn and he did it.
Mr. Eggeman was one of the founders of the Black- ford Law Club. Judge O'Rourke of the Circuit Court recently appointed him to the important office of probate commissioner.
ROBERT P. WHITE
W HEN he was a boy in school, Doctor White received many a spanking for drawing carl- catures of tus room-mates. Even now he finds much pleasure in sketching his friends. Here we catch him at it.
Dr. White used to like to hunt pretty well; but in recent years he has grown so fat that the sport is too much like work and it has lost its charms for him. The result is that his faithful old shotgun stands in the corner hidden under cobwebs, its stock worm-eaten and the barrel decaying with rust. He likes fishing better. now, because it doesn't require half the exertion tu obtain results if they are obtainable at all. But best of all, the doctor enjoys music. Bank notes are worthless tu him as compared with musical notes. It is said that Doctor White loves band music so well that when the City Packard Band used to hold its practice rehearsals, he would perch himself on a neighboring root and drink in the sweet harmonies. Once, in the midst of one of these seasons of musical bliss, he dozed and fell asleep. On being awakened the next morning he told his story. and the bandmen on learning of it, thought he would he just the kind of an enthusiast to enroll among their number. He joined and is now one of the most valued members of that superb organization.
Doctor White was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but his folks took him to Ashland, Ohio, when he was a child. He attended Ashland College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the medical course in 1886. Since then he has taken many special courses to perfect himselt in his profession. He began a general practice of medicine at Warsaw, Indiana, in 1886, but after taking special courses in the Philadelphia Polyclinic, at Will's Eye Hospital and at the University of Pennsyl- vania, he came here in 1000 and opened his office for the treatment ot ailments of the eye, ear, nose and throat.
25"
COUNTY COUNCIL PROBLEMS
GEORGE H. LOESCH
M R. LOESCH is a good mixer. That's what makes him a successlu! druggist-likewise a good poli- ticiun. There are two ways to mix things. One is tu take a number of different ingredients and mingle them into a hopeless. chaotic tangle. The other way is to take a variety of elements and combine them into a harmonious whole. While studying pharmacy George learned just what harmonizing ingredients to put into a mixture of repellant cheancals to make them blend peace- ably and beautifully. He applies the same principles now at the gatherings of the county council when discordant opinions refuse to be good and get together. And that's about as far as he goes toward mixing business with politics.
Mr. Loesch spent his boyhood days on a farm in Marshall county, Indiana, so it seems there are but few steps between pharmacy and farmer-see? When he wasten the family removed to Plymouth, Indiana, where. after attending the public schools, George took his first lessons in drugs at a store in his home town. After a two years' apprenticeship he went to Chicago to take a course in the Chicago College of Pharmacy. He was so young that the faculty refused to allow him to graduate. so he filled in one whole year very advantageously study- ing in the Chicago College of Medicine. He graduated in pharmacy In 1870.
He came to Fort Wayne on the advice of a traveling man. Three cheers for drummers who quietly do more to boom a good town than do the majority of men who live in it! He was first employed by G. B. Thorp, and 111 1878 bought out his employer.
Mr. Loesch has always been an active Republican. He was a member of the city council from 1844 to 18qh. and in 1902 was elected to a seat in the county council. He is a Knight Templar, a Mystic Shriner and a Thirty- second degree Mason.
PERRY A. RANDALL
YOU see Mr. Randall in the circumstance of having - just completed one of those elongated, voluminous legal literary efforts misnamed briefs. To judge from Ins expression and attitude we think he has won his case already.
Mr. Randall has been a successful lawyer and business man in Fort Wayne ever since he came back from Ann Arbor over thirty years ago, He is pre- eminently and triumphantly a lover of Fort Wayne and it is doubtful if any other man has done more to make this city what it is today. Has someone a suggestion to improve Fort Wayne as a city of homes? Perry Randall is the man to help it along. Is there a plan to build up and enlarge its commercial welfare> He is there with a strong arm to boost. Sometimes these things, however well planned, have not turned out as successfully as they promised, but losses have never discouraged Perry Randall.
Mr. Randall was born in 1847 at Avilla, indiana, but he has lived here so long that he seems always to have been a Fort Wayneite. His father came to Noble county from New York as early as 1830. Perry had the advan- tage of attending the Fort Wayne public schools and was graduated from the high school in 1867. He went directly to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and finished the classical course of the state umversity in 1871. He remamed there, however, and took the law course, graduating in the spring of 1873. He has been in Fort Wayne ever since. In 1881 he formed a partnership with W. J. Vesey which continued for several years.
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