USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Some Fort Wayne phizes > Part 8
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"Gus" has always hved here. He attended the Brothers' school and for six years carried newspapers. When he was fifteen he entered the employ of the Fox bakery and remained seven years-first he was a receiv- ing clerk, then house salesman, and then he sold crack- ers and ginger snaps on the road. As an experiment, he opened a small confectionery store at Calhoun and Washington streets, occupying the corner of a drug store. It panned out so well that he quit the place with the Fox people and gave hus whole attention to his new venture. We all know how well he has succeeded and why it was necessary to secure larger quarters to ac- commodate seekers after the best there is.
FINE RONS AND
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A FEW REMARKS ON LONG TERM FRANCHISES
JESSE BROSIUS
A LTHOUGH Jesse Brosius was born on a farm, he is opposed to tarming out municipal franchises tor long terms of years to private individuals. He hastaken an active stand against long term franchises since he has been serving in the Fort Wayne city council as one of the representatives from the Ninth ward.
About forty-one years ago he was born in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania. When he was ten years old his parents settled on an Allen county farm, and he has resided here ever since. When he quit using the gad atter the stock on the farm he took up the rod after the children as an Allen county pedagogue. All of the time he lived in the country he was never afraid of the cars. He never was afraid of the big boys in his schools. This gave him courage, and he entered the government rail- way mail service, and for fourteen years he bved in postal cars on the Pennsylvama railroad between Pitts- burg and Chicago. He handled fast mail, but it never encouraged him to fly at a fast clip himself. He has been an honored and respected citizen of Allen county and Fort Wayne for the past thirty years.
A little over two years ago he quit reading postal cards and addresses and retired to embark in business. He is now the head of the extensive bicycle and carriage firm of Brosius & Brosius, on Clinton street. When his Republican friends in the Ninth ward asked him to run for councilman in a strong Democratic ward he at first declined, but his popularity among his neighbors was firmly established when he was elected by an overwhelm- ing majority. His career in the city council has been fearless, and he stands for honest legislation along pro- gressive lines. Socially he is popular. In city affairs, when he believes he is right, he has the courage of his convictions.
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LEWIS O. HULL
M R. HULL was only thirteen when the war broke out. but he managed to enlist as a drummer boy in Company B. One Hundred and Twentieth Ohio Volun- teers, and was in the Army of the Gulf under Grant during most of the period of nearly four years of active service. He was in Sherman's attack on Vicksburg and at the battle of Arkansas Post. When the transport "Silver Wave," which was lashed to a gunboat of Commodore Porter's fleet, ran the blockade of Vicks- burg on the night of April 16, 1863, he was on board; but he slept soundly through the whole pandemonium of battle and heard never a sound; the long march to reach the boat had worn out the lad with the drum. Later, his regiment was packed like sardines on the transport ** City Bell, " on Red River, enroute to Alexandria, when a murderous fire from masked batteries and infantry at short range was turned upon them. The vessel was 11ddled and burned, only one hundred and thirty soldiers escaping, the drummer boy among the number. He was present at the siege of Vicksburg and the battles leading up to it, under General Grant, and was on hand to wit- ness the siege and capture of Blakely and Mobile. So, for a period of nearly four years, he served his country well and was honorably discharged at Houston, Texas, October 14, 1865.
Mr. Hull came directly to Fort Wayne from Texas. However, he is a native of Ohio, having been born at Lucas, in Richland County. He engaged in the wall ยท paper business for himself in 1870, and has continued very successfully ever since. His establishment, located at 830 Calhoun Street, is a model of its kind. Mr. Hull is not rich, nor does he desire to be. He believes that the pursuit of wealth should not he sole aim in life, and that real happiness is to be found between poverty and riches. He believes also that no man should dress his body in broadcloth and let his mind go in rags.
THOMAS L. STAPLES
H J ERE is President Staples of the International Busi- ness College, pointing out a truth. It may be a hidden truth to many, but the man or woman who began a successful business or commercial career as a sten- ographer will read it and say, "Staples is right."
The International, located in the Elektron building, has grown from an insignificant beginning, fourteen years ago, to be the largest business college in Indiana. At first it had an attendance of twenty-five; last year the enrollment passed the five hundred mark. It is a fully equipped, thoroughly efficient business training school. President Staples has only one thing to worry him-the number of applications received each year for young men graduates of the stenographic department is far in excess of the number who complete the course. Here is a pointer for the boy who is wandering the streets wondering what the future has in store for him.
Mr. Staples is a Canadian. He was born in Toronto, where he had the advantage of the best of schooling to fit him for his future work. He is a graduate of the Toronto University and was the gold medalist of the Canadian School of Commerce on the completion of his studies there. For one year after coming to the United States he conducted the International Business College at Saginaw, Michigan. He established the school in Fort Wayne in 1800. Mr. Staples, unlike the heads of nearly all other colleges, spends most of his time in the class room. He has a strong personality, and his stu- dents all like him. It is probable that he has no superior as a penman in the United States. He has surrounded himself with a corps of competent instructors, who carry on the work of the various departments under his gen- eral supervision. The International is an institution of which Fort Wayne is rightly proud. Mr. Staples made it worthy of that pride.
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GEORGE W. BEERS
H ERE is a man who has so many lines out that he has pulled himself away up in the telephone world,
George (not Washington but) Ward Beers was born in Darke county, Ohio. He has climbed up in the tele- phone business so as to get in the light. In Van Wert he hegan climbing at the age of seven years. He knew every apple tree in the village. Then he began handling timber for railroad supplies He first got the contract for building the telegraph lines for the Cincinnati, Jackson & Mackinac railroad. Just because you see him hanging around the poles is no sign that he is a politician, although it takes a man who knows how to pull the strings just right to get franchises. After building inde- pendent telephone exchanges in all of the small towns around Van Wert, Mr. Beers came to Fort Wayne in 1893. He was one of the organizers of the Home Tele- phone and Telegraph company. Then the conversational powers of many cities and towns in this vicinity were developed. The Western Union, the Postal and the Bell companies refused to connect the independent exchanges. Then he jumped into the missing link hust- ness. The International Telephone and Telegraph com- pany was organized, and now the whole of Northern Indiana, Southern Michigan and portions of Ohio as far east as Lima rejoice. Indianapolis was later developed in the independent telephone business. Now Cincinnati is to be improved in its talk. Mr. Beers has secured a franchise there after a sixteen months' fight. The Queen City Telephone company has been created by his hand, and he will soon be stringing the residences and business houses of that city on his lines. He predicts that it will be one of the biggest telephone systems in the United States.
While waiting for his talk to expand, Mr. Beers is the active head of the Investment Company of Northern Indiana.
10
PERFECT BP.
DUMATINES
ARTHUR H. PERFECT
T HE accompanying daguerreotype is a prevarication. a misrepresentation, a falsehood and a libel It pretends to show Mr. Perfect in an attitude of rest and repose. We hasten to apologize for this. as he has never been known to rest or take things easy except on Sundays, and on those days he abandons all thoughts of tomatoes and cheese and prunes.
This gentleman with the perpetual smile is the head- liner of A. H. Perfect & Company, the large wholesale grocers. When we stop to consider how nearly we came to not getting him as a resident of Fort Wayne we almost shudder at the thought. It happened in this way-but let us tell the story from the beginning:
Mr. Perfect was born at Anamosa, lowa. One of the state prisons is located in this town, and when the lad grew old enough to realize what a bad community he had gotten into, he persuaded his folks to move away. They went to Wilmington, Ohio, where, after leaving school, Mr. Perfect began his business experience work- ing in a dry goods store. Then the Perfects moved to Springfield, Ohio. While spending his days selling rib- bons and cambries and all-over embroideries, he devoted mis evenings to the study of stenography. Later, he got onto the application of business methods in two large manufacturing institutions. His first business venture was a Findlay, Ohio, where for six years he. in company with a partner operated a wholesale grocery house. Evans, Perfect & Company, with marked success. He sold his interests to his partner and established a grocery house at Madison, Wisconsin. One day, in 1896, while passing through Fort Wayne, he heard of the closing of the wholesale grocery of McDonald & Watt, and thought to purchase a portion of the stock for the Madison house. The result was the buying of the entire stock and the closing of the Madison venture. That's how Mr. Perfect's name came near being left out ol our city directory.
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HARRY A. KEPLINGER
T HERE is no hoodoo attached to the number 13. Harry Keplinger is a living example of this assertion. He was born on the thirteenth of March, torty-three years ago. It was in the dark of the moon when everything was still. This was in Fort Wayne. Harry had thirteen playmates and went to the Fort Wayne schools thirteen years. Harry kept busy all of this time, although when he left school he went into the stationery business with the firm of Keil & Brothers (thirteen letters). He remained stationary with this firm for thirteen years, till the White National ( thirteen letters) Bank was estab- hshed, thirteen years ago. He has been the popular cashier of this institution during its entire career. Harry Is so in the habit of signing his name to currency that he writes his signature so fast that he cannot read it him- self. Since he entered the banking business he learned that it requires a man with a lig deposit to buy spring bonnets and fall bonnets and bonnets. A peep at the checks about Easter time convinced him. This is the reason he is a heavy stockholder and vice-president of the C. T. Pidgeon Company, the wholesale milliners. He gets part ut the profits on the Easter bonnets now and can afford to have his hat trimmed extravagantly, as shown in the picture. Pidgeon-Turner has thirteen let- ters in it, and it attracted hun into the millinery busi- ness. Since then, however, the name of the concern has been changed. Harry can tell an ostrich tip from a tip on the races any day in the summer. Besides being cashier of the White Bank, he is a director in the Citizens' Trust Company and also a director and treasurer ot the Allen County Building and Loan Association. He is a director in four of our important business institutions and wants to be a director in nine more. so as to make it an even thirteen.
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FRANK L. TAFT
T "HE observer should not labor under the hypothesis that a man who picks up pins is single and ready to strut on the stage of life and yell, "My kingdom for a button!" Frank L. Taft is not picking up pins because he is a crusty old bachelor. He is not. He is a happy married man. He is the chairman of the house com- mittee at the Anthony Wayne Club House and on circus days when boys cannot be found outside of a canvas. Frank stoops to conquer and elevate the down-fallen pin. Generally he abhors pins. He is the manager of the S. M. Foster Shirt Waist Factory and manufactures the daintiest kind of conceits for the fair sex and no pins are needed to fasten them on. He dispises a woman who is pinned together, It is the artistic effects that the manager of the shirt waist factory admires. He likes to see styles in design and arrangements even if it is only setting up pins for next season's trade. He likes to see beautiful things around a lady. He labors enthusiastically to accomplish this.
Frank was not born yesterday. He came into this world in Columbus, Ohio, where many noted events have occurred within the past century. It was about forty-five years ago that Frank first made his wants known. He liked Columbus and remained there con- tinuously till 1896. He found a better place then and came to Fort Wayne to embark in business. He liked his new home and seems to be a permanent fixture in the manufacturing circles of this metropolis of Indiana. He is active in all organizations which have a tendency to improve Fort Wayne commercially and was very enthusiastic in the reorganization and rejuvenation of the Anthony Wayne Club, the most prominent social club of the city. Mr. Taft does not play golf. He says he is too busy. He is now writing a book of rules on bridge whist which will be published in the next volume of this hook.
I12
WALTER R. SEAVEY
H ERE is a man who is a Sucker; but he don't look like it. Walter was born in Illinois but as soon as he knew how he left his neighboring Suckers and landed in Hoosierdom. Since landing here he has not been like a fish out of water. He has been right in the swim all of the time. After taking a few dives in the Ann Arbor University he swam back to Fort Wayne. He is now at the head of the Seavey Hardware Com- pany, the largest wholesale and retail hardware house in Northern Indiana.
There is no tempest in the teapot he is holding up in the picture. There's money in it for Walter if he can sell it. He likes to see business at the boiling point and is on his way to put the pot on the stove. Walter usually has a funny sign in the window of his store but when he has to sign a check he does not think the sign is so mirth provoking. Walter recently responded to a toast at a Masonic banquet and, though he delivered the peroration first, he thoroughly impressed upon his auditors that he was a silver-tongued orator. He is prominent as an Elk but makes his star plays on the golf links. There is usually three up and the devil to play, 1. e., two hands and the golf stick up and the caddies with search warrants trying to locate the ball. He trys to play golf just the same way he transacts business, with considerable drive and force. All he wants, however, is the exercise, and he does not care what his score is so long as his muscles do not get rusty. After walking up and down the ailes of his store twenty hours per day he feels he is entitled to spend the remaining four in the much needed exercise of meander- ing over the green sward.
11
JOHN N. PFEIFFER
PLANS FOR -STREET TUNNELS AND SUBWAYS
M R. PFEIFFER was a farmer boy. You can't tell him anything about pailing cows. He's been there. His folks lived in Marion Township. At the age uf thirteen he found it necessary to leave the rural school and assist in the farm work. Then he was a carpenter for several years, working with several leading contractors here. With his earnings he paid his tuition while attending the Methodist College. In 1886 he took a position in the meat market of Rosseau Brothers, on Harrison Street. to learn practical business methods. He bought an interest in the store and that marked the beginning of his upward career in business. The place was sold after a period of ten months, and a new market opened on West Berry Street. In the spring of 1893 the firm purchased the grocery store of H. W. Carles and merged the two enterprises. From 1896 to 1900 Mr. Pfeiffer conducted the business alone. In April of the latter year he obtained an interest in the Greatest Grocery and consolidated his business with it. He made it one of the finest grocery stores in the state of Indiana. In May, 1904, his place was sold to the White Fruit House.
Mr. Pfeiffer holds the position of supreme guard in the Fraternal Assurance Society of America; is an Odd Fellow, and a member of the Royal Arcanum. He is also an enthusiastic member of the Commercial Club.
In the councilmanic election of igo3 he received a plurality Republican vote of 72 in the First Ward which had given a Democratic plurality of 196 on the last previous city election. So, you see, he's a popular man. He lives in Lakeside. He has been an active man in the council and at present is chairman of the committee which is endeavoring to get a tunnel or track elevation at the Pennsylvania and Wabash crossings.
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CHARLES A. DUNKELBERG
H ORSEBACK riding." says Mr. Dunkelberg. ** 1> the fondest thing I'm of." In fact, he doesn't dare to try any new kind of diversion for fear he'll find something he likes better; in which case, there would be danger of a fatality from over-enjoyment. He does enjoy, keenly, the pleasures of horseback riding, and can often be seen riding on his handsome Kentucky thoroughbred, "Dixie."
Mr. Dunkelberg holds the dual position of secretary and treasurer of S. F. Bowser & Co. During the five years he has been connected with this concern, he has done a great deal to assist in its prosperity. Mr. Dunkelberg is a native of New York, but his early boy- hood was spent in Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Eastman College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Like most successful men, in his early career, he had various business experiences. He did not idle away his time like most boys, who work all day, but spent his evenings studying the hooks and crooks of stenography. Did you ever stop to think how many successful men and women have used these "curly-cues" as stepping- stones to something bigger and better? Well, that is what Mr. Dunkelberg did.
From Pennsylvania he went to New York and took a position with E. C. Benedict & Co., bankers and brokers. From there he went to Chicago and entered the employ of Joseph T. Ryerson & Son, iron merchants. While thus employed, he received the appointment of steward to the Hospital for the Insane at Logansport, Indiana, a position which he held for five years. Remaining at Logansport he engaged in the wholesale and retail queensware business for three years,
About five years ago he came to Fort Wayne to take the position of head bookkeeper for S. F. Bowser & Co., of this city. His promotion to the position of superintendent of salesmen was followed by a later advancement to that of secretary and treasurer of this important concern.
115
PILLS
WILLIAM F. RANKE
J JUST as the civil war was on its last legs Will Ranke happened. He occurred in Fort Wayne and has been here ever since. His parents were pioneer settlers, Will, after leaving the schools here, went to Ann Arbor and was graduated in pharmacy in 1885. Then he entered the Meyer Brothers drug store where he was prescriptionist until 1895. Then he started in the retail drug business and is now at the head of the firm of Ranke & Nussbaum handing out pills to sick friends.
Bullets and pills look so much alike that Will leaped into the Indiana National Guard and from 1894 tu 1898 he was captain of the Zollinger Battery. He wore his shoulder straps better than he rode his horse, but he improved as an equestrian. When the war with Spain broke out the Zollinger Battery became the Twenty- eighth Indiana Battery in the United States Volunteers, and Will Ranke was commissioned captain. He went to the front with his company. When the battery was mustered out of service he was appointed by President Mckinley as captain in the Thirty-ninth Regular United States Infantry for duty in the Philippines. He held this commission for two months but resigned before joining his regiment owing to business reasons. Then he was elected secretary of the Fort Wayne Lodge of Elks. He cannot keep honors from being thrust upon him. He was recently nominated on the Allen County Democratic legislative ticket, and he has already begun the rehearsal of speeches he expects to deliver during the sessions of the legislature at Indianapolis.
He is a popular young business man and can mix in social circles with just as much success as he mixes drugs into pills, perfumes and powders.
AL HAZZARD
H ERE we get a passing glimpse of Mr. Hazzard doing a seemingly risky act. However, all of his acts are necessarily Hazzardous, so this is not to be consid- ered an exception. Al is an enthusiastic Eagle, and that fact coupled with the information conveyed by the picture, might lead you to believe he is a high flyer: it isn't so. He is simply displaying the high quality of his gouds,
Mr. Hazzard is a cigar manufacturer, and he does a big business. He is a native of Fort Wayne. When he left school at the age of thirteen, he sauntered up the street one day and noticed a sign reading :
WANTED A BOY TO STRIP
He applied for the job and learned how to strip to- bacco. He liked it so well that he decided to go into the business for himself by the time he had accumulated a sufficient quantity of money and years. That time arrived in 1893. At present he gives steady employment to thirty-five people, and his place of business on East Wayne street, is one of the busiest in town. His lead- ing brands are " Gold Seal " and ". National."
Here is an interesting illustration of the amount of business done by Mr. Hazzard's factory during the past year: Take a map and draw a straight line from Fort Wayne to Cincinnati, representing a distance of about one hundred and thirty-three miles. If you could take all of the cigars manufactured in one year by Mr. Haz- zard-that is counting only 313 working days-you would have enough if laid end-to-end to almost cover this entire distance. The present output is 6,ooo cigars daily.
Mr. Hazzard is a member of the Masonic order, a Knight of Pythias, and as we have mentioned, an en- thusiastic member of the Order of Eagles.
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JOHN FERGUSON
M R FERGUSON is an example of the force of the words of Ben Franklin when he wrote in his Poor Ri.hard's Almanac:
"I never saw an off removed tree. Nor vet an oft removed family. That throve as well as those that settled be."
He came here fifty years ago, and, by refraining from rolling, has managed to gather a tew bushels of "moss." For many years Mr. Ferguson was one of the prominent lumber manufacturers of Indiana, and, although still extensively interested in that line of industry, he has lately given his attention to some other kinds of activity. You will notice by the picture that he was very busy when the snapshot was made. He was so thoroughly occupied that day he couldn't even hesitate long enough to let us make the picture. So we had to capture him as he was-shirt sleeves, mortgages and all. He has always been just that busy ever since 1834. It was in that year: on June 24, that he was born near Quebec. His father was a native-born Scotchman, and his mother came from Ireland They had come to Canada in 1829. John Ferguson remained on the farm for several years after their death, until he had reached the age of twenty, when, in 1855, he came to Fort Wayne. In 1861 he engaged in the lumber business and became one of the largest manufacturers in the middle west.
In politics, Mr. Ferguson is a Republican. As presi- dent of the Citizens Trust Company. he is at the head of one of the city's soundest financial institutions. He IS a member of the Caledonian Club, a Scottish Rite Mason and an Odd Fellow.
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JAMES M. BARRETT
H ERE is a man born in Illinois who has every symp- tom ot being a native of Ohio. James M. Barrett is an eloquent orator and a finished politician, and knows how to fill offices to good satifaction.
His parents were natives of ireland but came to America early in the last century. They later settled on a farm in LaSalle county, Illinois. Here is where James first got busy. In the search for knowledge he entered the country schools and then Mandota College in Illi- nois. In 1875 he was a graduate from the Michigan University. He came to Fort Wayne in 1876 to practice law after stopping to get a cup of coffee and a sandwich in Chicago. He did not like the coffee nor the sandwich and this is one of the reasons why he came here.
His career at the Allen county bar has been eminently successful. He is at present the senior member of the firm of Barrett & Morris. He was a member of the state senate in 1880 and as Senator Barrett he tathered the bill in the upper house for the location of the Indiana School for Feeble Minded Youth in this city and was victorious. His force in dehate was established in the legislature. The Barrett law for street improvements Is one of the important acts which he originated. Since then he has been almost continuously county attorney or had the office in his firm. The building of the county court house came under his direction. Recently he con- tracted the Carnegie habit of spending leisure moments on the golf links. He has traveled abroad extensively and keeps himself thoroughly abreast of the times. He is connected with all of the prominent social clubs and is a Scottish Rite Mason, an Elk and a Mystic Shriner. That means that he is a really good fellow and a promi- nent citizen.
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