USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Some Fort Wayne phizes > Part 7
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Mr. Yaple's father is an able Michigan jurist and has occupied the circuit bench with honor, has been to Con- gress, and not long ago was the Democratic nominee for the governorship.
Carl has become active in Allen county politics and is now vice-president of the Jefferson club. He is well equipped mentally for a career at the bar, and by mher- itance he possesses many of the traits which have made his father an able man in the courts of Michigan. He lives in Lakeside, near Delta Lake, and this is as near as he could get to cold water and reside in Fort Wayne. He likes Fort Wayne and her people, and he is well liked by all who have had the pleasure to meet him.
SUPREME COURT RULING
CONTRACT
TOM SNOOK
W HEN Tom Snook was a small boy he resembled all other small boys in his fondness for stories; and the tales which interested him most were those which concerned that wonderful land on the opposite side of the ocean, for it must be known that he was then a subject of goud Queen Victoria.
As the years passed and he learned in school of this great America of ours, he began to entertain a longing to Know more about it. This desire ripened into a decision to see it some day, and when the time came for him to leave the army service of her majesty he boarded a vessel and came across, landing at a Canadian port. for. while he thought that the future might see him a full- fledged son of Uncle Sam, yet he did not want to rush hurtiedly into the new condition. He remained loyal to lu sovereign by following there the trade to which he had been apprenticed in England-carpentry. At a con- venient time he left Canada and came across the border. Mr. Snook doesn't know just what turn of fortune brought him to Fort Wayne ; but he's glad that it happened that way, as he has found it to be a beloved spot, the exper- ience of scores of others whom chance has seemed to place in this locality. and who are now adding to the charm and attractiveness of the city, which has a healthy growth through that medium.
Mr. Snook, though a young man. is one of the lead- ing building contractors of this section of Indiana. From a comparatively small beginning he has. through upright, frugal practices, grown to a place of earned prominence. One of the newest products of his ability is the palatial home of Mr. Paul Mossman on West Wayne street. Mr. Snook has no fads, but he likes to sing and to drive a sprightly horse.
LEWIS P. SHARP
T HE man riding the G. O. P. elephant is Lewis P. Sharp. He is appropriately thus pictured because he is the Chairman of the Republican County Central Committee, and he knows how to guide the Republican elephant along paths of safety. He has been on its back in political campaigns of the past and understands its ways. He has been active and prominent in the af- fairs of his party for years and it was his abilities as a campaign worker and orgamzer that led to his selection by the Republicans for the position of county chairman.
Mr. Sharp is the chief deputy in the office of County Treasurer Funk, a position he has held since that gentle- man assumed his office last January. Fort Wayne has not always been the home of Mr. Sharp. He is a native of the state of New York. There he was educated, graduating from the St. Lawrence University and teach- ing school during his college vacations. He was a school teacher before he was nineteen years of age. Educated for this profession, he came west as a young man and located in this county, where he taught school for several years and then followed the same occupation in lowa and Illinois.
In the latter state, at Rock Island, he engaged in the queensware business and returning to Fort Wayne in 1890 conducted a large store of the same kind in this city. Afterwards he engaged in the bicycle and sewing machine business here. His last occupation before en- tering the county treasurer's office was as traveling salesman for the Fort Wayne Oil and Supply Company. Mr. Sharp's profession as a teacher and his business have given him a wide acquaintance throughout the county.
11
FT. W.
ISADORE MAUTNER
IN one peculiar respect, base ball differs from all other lines of effort in which a young man may engage. In everything else we advise the youth of our day tu strike out for himself -- it's the road to success. In base hall. the youth who "strikes out for himself" brings torth such highly embarrassing remarks as these from the grand-stand: "Rotten! Go back to the farm!" etc.
Isadore Mautner, president of the Fort Wayne Base Ball Association, which controls the aggregation of local pennant winners, hasn't got a lot of hired men in his employ who stand up as targets for such comments. No, he knows his business from A to Z. His team in the Central League won the pennant in 1003, and every- hody knows what they did during the season just closed.
Mr. Mautner might not be able to take a "fly" in the field. He might not be able to collar a "hot one" at . short"' or second base: he might "go down" at the bat in the one, two, three order every day in the week: he might make a failure as an umpire or as a field captain; but as a base ball manager he is certainly a success, and as such the base ball uniform fits him all right. Perhaps it's the first time he has ever worn one.
Mr. Mautner, during the two seasons he has man- aged the Fort Wayne team, has given the people of this city good, clean ball. He has had a winning club, a bunch of fast players, and made the game one that com- manded and secured the patronage of its lovers and won for it new friends. The national game is here to stay as long as the Fort Wayne club is under huis splendid management.
Previous to taking charge of the ball club Mr. Mautner was in the clothing business as manager of the big and well-known clothing house of Sam, Pete & Max, a firm that did business here for many years. He became their successor and, under the firm name of Mautner & Com- pany. continued in business for himself for several years.
124
E. GREGG DAVIS
C HRISTOPHER COLUMBUS was a discoverer of note, but it is confidentially whispered that as a discoverer of new additions E. Gregg Davis has Chris in the last seat in the gallery behind a post. Chris sailed across the hig wide pond, while Gregg makes sales of real estate and fles into business. Gregg was not born in Italy. This is another thing in his favor. He was born in Fort Wayne about twenty-seven years ago. After a prolonged experience with the Fort Wayne public schools he entered the Pennsylvania freight office and held almost every joh in the place before he resigned, tive years ago. For two years he was with the Central Traffic Association looking into rates and tonnage.
In March, 1002, he embarked in the real estate busi- ness. Like Columbus, he began making discoveries, and Lawton Place addition, Oakhill Grove addition. Nickel Plate addition, Huffman Place addition, Interurban Acre addition, Morton Place addition and East Creighton Avenue addition were put on the map. He planted E. Gregg Davis banners on all these additions and began to look about for natives with enough dough to invest.
While he has been doing this he claims to have dis- covered the man who is building the new theatre and ** points with pride" to his work, Gregg's deals in dirt are constantly increasing. He is daily working to get real estate off his hands. Socially he is a popular young business man. To look at him in his busiest hours one would not imagine that he is a comedian and a singer. He starred for one consecutive night with the Tippecanoe club minstrel company and made a hit. He is an active Scottish Rite Mason and belongs to all of the clubs which are designed to improve the city of Fort Wayne. He is thoroughly a Fort Wayneite, first, last and all of the time.
05
ROBERT L. FOX
N a few years from the present, 1904, you may turn the pages of this book and at certain places where now a laugh may be found, no humor will then be dis- cernible : while on other pages an added smile may be discovered, placed there by the changes which time alone can bring. I
One notable change will be the shifting of the places of importance in the commercial and professional world from the older to the younger shoulders. A number. in ten or fifteen years. will have passed from the field of activity and many of the young men. like Mr. Fox, for example, who is just building his businees career, will be occupying the center of the stage. Keep the book care- fully and observe the truth of the prediction.
Robert L. Fox, whom we discover here displaying .t nobby piece of furniture. is a member of the important house of Fox. Hite & Company. He was born here twenty-six years ago, and when old enough to repeat the alphabet he started to school at one of the parochial institutions. Upon finishing the course, he entered Notre Dame University and graduated in Igor. Thus equipped in a general way tor the solution of hte's problems. he took a course in a business college to bit himselt for a commercial career. It was after leaving this school that he purchased G. W. Soliday's interest in Soliday, Hite & Company.
This concern is a "booster, " one of the big retail houses of the city. They call it the "New" store because the styles of their furniture and carpets and the other various lines are never allowed to become old or out-of- date.
HERMAN T. SIEMON
H ERE is a man who might be called "Teddy"' with impunity. He is a big man. If you don't believe it ask his tailor. He is not carrying these books and ink to reduce his flesh, but to show them to a customer in his big book store so as to reduce the stock of books.
Herman Theodore Siemon is a product of the Second ward. He still lives in the ward. Mayor Berghoff, City Clerk Schaudt and a large colony of Syrians also live in this ward. H. Theodore Siemon is proud of his ward. His father, the late August Siemon, and his father's brother, Rudolph Siemon, founded the Siemon Brothers book store on Clinton street in 1845. Later Rudolph Siemon retired from the firm, and since the demise of August Siemon, the senior member of the firm, the busi- ness has been controlled by two of his sons, H. T. Siemon, the subject of this sketch. and his brother, Henry R. Siemon. The firm name has not been changed in all these years. The firm has a good location on Calhoun street in the very heart of the city.
Before Herman ** Teddy"" Siemon began reading the books in his own store he went to Saint Paul's Lutheran school, the Fort Wayne high school and also Concordia College. He learned to read early and keeps it up late. .. Reading miketh a full man," and as Herman is con- stantly surrounded by good books no wonder he is an expansionist. His looks are not deceiving. He has read everything from Joe Miller's joke book to the gold plank in the Democratic platform. He does not believe everything he reads in modern historical novels, but he has a penchant for telling his legion of friends the names of good stories when he locates them. If he should drop the bottle of ink which he is carrying it would be the only dark spot in his entire business career.
0
97
PARKLAAN
GEORGE W. PIXLEY
IT is almost an even money wager that George W. Pixley played with building blocks on the New York farm of his father, near Utica, in 1834 and 1835. In more recent years Mr. Pixley has been engaged in building blocks. He was most active in the building of the Masonic Temple in this city, He assisted in building the Pixley-Long Block and has been president of the Tri-State Building and Loan Association which has erected so many substantial homes in Fort Wayne No wonder he was made a thirty-third degree Mason in 188Q. He has been so busy building up Fort Wayne since his arrival here in 1876 that he needed to be either a Mason or a carpenter.
Mr. Pixley comes from good continental stock and his great-grandfather raised and furnished a regiment of his own for the Revolutionary war. He went to the front with his Connecticut troops and placed the name of Pixley on the pages of revolutionary history. After the close of the war, his sons began the development of middle New York. George W. Pixley was the son of one of these sturdy settlers. He received his early education in New York and came to Fort Wayne about thirty years ago. His great-grandfather furnished a regiment of soldiers. The subject of this sketch came west to furnish the regiment of tuilers and professional men of Fort Wayne with clothing. The firm of Pixley & Company owns many stores and the Fort Wayne branch certainly does its share in keeping men well dressed. In order that men in this vicinity would be compelled to keep well dressed both night and day, Mr. Pixley was one of the enthusiastic promoters of the Jenney Electric Light and Power Company. He is still the treasurer of the local lighting company and has. in many ways. assisted materially in clothing Fort Wayne with metro- politan airs and her men and boys with suitable sur- roundings.
98
CHARLES E. BOND
A CTIONS sometimes speak plainer than words. So do facial expressions. In the sketch we discover Mr. Bond making the silent but nevertheless emphatic announcement that he is about to get action, and if you don't want to suffer personal injury you must stand aside.
Mr. Bond is not a professional golfer. He hasn't fractured any of the Kekionga championship records. He's like the true sportsman, who is willing to fish all day long and come home weary but satisfied even if he doesn't get a bite. He plays golf because he likes it and because a man who is contained within doors during the greater part of the day must have a good deal of out-of- door exercise after working hours if he desires to remain long as a happy resident of this earth.
Mr. Bond is the assistant casher of the Old National Bank. The Bond name-itself suggestive of the business with which it has been so long associated in Fort Wayne -has been connected with local banking institutions for nearly sixty years. Although two of the men who have kept it there during the greater portion of that time- Messrs. S. B. Bond and J. D. Bond-are soon to retire from active business life, Mr. C E. Bond, through his continued connection with the Old National Bank, will keep the name prominent. With the extension of the charter of the Old National, beginning with next Decem- ber, the official personnel of that institution will he revised: at that time will occur the changes suggested.
This bank had its beginning in the early thirties, when it was organized as the State Bank of Indiana, with Hon Samuel Hanna as its president. The branch of the State Bank of Indiana succeeded it, and in 1865 it was reorganized as the Fort Wayne National Bank. It remained so until 1884, when the present house was organized to succeed it.
Mr. Bond is a loyal and enthusiastic member of the Commercial Club and of the Anthony Wayne Club, being a director in and the treasurer of both organizations. He is a Scottish Rite Maison and a member of the Indiana consistory.
LAWY
RONALD DAWSON
THE belief that a "a jack at all trades is a cracker- jack at none"' may have been all right when the statement was orignally made but there are exceptions tu it now, even in this day of specialists.
Take Mr. Dawson. for example:
He can get you a divorce or do yon a dainty piece of tatting. He can make a thrilling speech on democracy or carve you a handsome library table. He can give you a pleasing dissertation on the old masters or bake you a Inscious cherry pie. He can design a cozy town house or a unique summer cottage and speak German as well as the mayor. He can prepare an exhaustive article on "The Ichthyopterygium of the Ichthyosaurus" for the Fortnightly Club or do yon a pretty piece of pyrography. He can defend yon in the courts of justice or prepare you a variety of dainty dishes fit for a king. He can corner enough votes in Allen County to make himself prose- cuting attorney or plan a landscape garden as well as anybody else. He can give a song and dance at the Elks' Minstrels or-well. if there's anything you wish done or want a suggestion as to how to do it. ask Ronald.
Mr. Dawson is the young prosecuting attorney of Allen County and has been renominated for that uffice. Like his grandfather and his father, both big men of Indiana, he is a Democrat. He began his education in the German schools of Fort Wayne and then at ended Concordia College. He later graduated from PurJne University and the Albany, New York, Law School. After his admission to the bar h. became the partner of Judge John H. Aiken until that gentleman's elevation to the bench. Since then he has been affiliated with Homer C. Underwood.
Mr. Dawson's cottage at Rome City-a rustic creation-is one of the prettiest of the pretty summer houses at that popular resort.
JOHN F. WING
E VERY man is compelled tu be the architect of his own future. A whole lot of us would come out more successfully in the end if we could only sublet the contract.
Mr. Wing doesn't pose as a dealer in futures, but as an architect of buildings he certainly occupies a prom- ment seat in the front row We asked him the other day to give us a list of the principal buildings which had been designed by the firm of Wing & Mahurin. He pulled out a list about a rod and a half long, finely written, and from that great array we copied the following:
The main buildings of the Indiana School for Feeble- Minded Youth: Indiana building at the Louisiana Pur- chase Exposition: Hancock county court house: Starke county court house: Ottawa county ( Ohio) court house: Jay county jat: Sullivan county infirmary; Kosciusko county infirmary: Marshall county infirmary; Monroe county infirmary : Wabash high school: Greenfield high school: Saint Paul's Lutheran church, Fort Wayne: Bloomington Baptist church; Noblesville Christian church in fact, there were so many big contracts in the list that our eyes began to swim before he even com- menced to show us the big list of magnificent dwellings. so we cried quits. He did insist, however, on showing us the picture of "Brookside." the beautiful home of John H. Bass, butit after the Wing & Mahurin plans, and in this attitude we snapshot him.
Mr. Wing is a native of Dexter, Michigan He took a classical course at Ann Arbor. but studied architecture out of hours. This was fortunate, for, on the death of his father, he was compelled to leave school and begin work, which he was able to do with a firm of Ann Arbor architects. He was at Jackson for a time and came to Fort Wayne in 1878. His partnership with M S Mahurin dates from 1881.
HENRY BEADELL
F ORT WAYNE seems to have assembled many of its best citizens from the four quarters of the globe. Mr. Beadell is an Enghshman. He was born in London, and in that great city began his learning of the dry goods business which has enabled him to make soch a great success of the People's Store of today.
It was in 1882 that Mr. Beadell decided to come to America. A peculiar incident of the trip was the fact that one of his fellow passengers was Jumbo, the biggest elephant that ever grew. The beast had just been por- chased by Barnum from the London Zoological Gardens, and his importation attracted world-wide attention.
Upon his arrival in the United States Mr. Beadell went to Norwich, Connecticut, where he remained a year in the dry goods business before coming to Fort Wayne. Here he formed a partnership with the late Thomas Stewart and John Jameson, the firm being Stewart, Jameson & Beadell. Upon the dissolution of this firm, the business passed to Stewart & Hahn. Mr. Beadel| then removed to Lafayette and entered the employ of the Boston Store. But in 1887, having learned to like Fort Wayne during his brief residence here, he returned and formed a partnership with Nolas Dodois, the firm being known as Dodois, Beadell & Company, proprie- tors of the People's Store. Two or three years later this firm was succeeded by Beadell & Company, with Mr. Beadell as the active head. The business was begun in a room 40x bo feet in size. Just notice its growth: Three years ago the People's Store moved into its present magnificent quarters occupying 44,000 square feet. An average of from eighty to one hundred people are con- stantly employed.
Mr. Beadell is an ex-president of the Commercial Club and an active member of its board of directors. He is a member of the board of directors of the People's Trust Company, and has many other local interests.
EDWARD G. HOFFMAN
THIS young man is a native of Allen County, and, having been absent for several years to fit himself for his life work he has returned to make his career in the community of his birth. And if the reports which echo from the schools indicate his ability, he is certainly prepared to build well upon a substantial foundation.
Mr. Hoffman is a lawyer. He was born on a farm near Maysville, Springfield Township. After attending the Maysville schools for some time, he took a course in the Valparaiso College, giving special attention to literary work. Here he showed marked ability as a speaker and began the work that attracted to him the honors which came through his later efforts when he entered the University of Michigan to study law. At the Ann Arbor school Mr. Hoffman was president of the Class of 'o3, which graduated in June of that year. During his stay in the school the University of Michigan made a splendid debating and oratorical record, and much of this was due to Hoffman's ability and personal efforts as a member of the cup debating team of that institution. He held the important position of president of the Central Debating League, composed of teams representing the Northwestern University, the Uni- versity of Chicago, the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan. He thoroughly proved his worthiness and title to the place, especially as the leader of the Michigan team in its victorious bout with the Pennsylvania University, and as the leader in the celebrated Chicago-Michigan debate. While in the school he officiated as an associate editor of the Michigan Law Review.
On leaving the university he came to Fort Wayne and formed a partnership with W. N. Ballou, also a Michigan graduate. Mr. Hoffman's voice has not often been heard in public since he came to town to stay, but he is young yet and the future is full of opportunities.
101
GAYLORD M. LESLIE
IT is no crime to be born in Ohio, because many great men originated in that state. Dr. Gaylord M. Leslie first saw the light of day at Convoy. only a little way from the Indiana hne. When he began to see things clearly. he yearned for Indiana, and he came down the line To cure himself of the Ohio habit he began the study of medicine in the Fort Wayne College of Medicine. He liked the cure and has never left Fort Wayne. He was graduated in 1808 and immediately began the prac- tice of medicine. He was a deep student and rose rap- idly in his profession. He devoted much attention to the study of tubercular troubles. He became ill. and while asleep one day the surgeons removed his appendix. What was left of him recovered. although he took a trip to Arizona to recuperate He left his heart in Indiana. Since his marriage he has had much to do with the man- agement of Brookside, the beautiful suburban home of his father-in-law. John H. Bass.
Although his early life was devoted to the study of the minutest germs, he is now able to tell the difference between a Clydesdale and a Shetland, or between a Gal- loway and a hairless Mexican dog. He made the Gallo- way cattle and the Clydesdale horses of Northern Indiana famous. Personally he is a delightful gentleman and a most active young business man. He has shown him- self thoroughly capable in all his undertakings and it may be a good thing that he came down the Ohio line into Hoosierdom. Convoy is a good place to come from. We are all glad the doctor is here.
AUGUSTUS C. AURENTZ
"G US" AURENTZ is probably entitled to more credit for the unusually large number of happy weddings among the young people of this community than any other hving person. Take for instance the case of a young man who has hopes of winning the heart and hand and millinery bills of the fairest damsel in the adjoining ward. Suppose he doesn't come right out and tell her what he's thinking about, but quietly takes her to Mr. Aurentz's refreshment parlor and treats her to a luscious Sundae, with cherries on it. Then suppose he repeats this program and varies the order, occasionally taking away with them a box of Mr. Aurentz's fine hon- bons and chocolates. And suppose some time when her grateful little soul is longing for some expression of her gratitude he takes advantage of the opportunity and lovingly assures her that if she will only be his com- pamon through life their existence will be one continuous round of this sort of thing. Would she turn him down ? Well. we guess not
And so we say that while Mr. Aurentz isn't conduct- ing a matrimonial bureau he is doing a whole lot of good in this direction.
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