USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. II > Part 14
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a city that is endeared to her by the hallowed memories and associations of the past. In the year 1864 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Carna- han to Miss Clara L. Hanna, daughter of the late James Bayless Hanna, eldest son of Judge Samuel Hanna, one of the honored pioneer citizens of Allen county, and of this union were born four children, all of whom survive the honored father. Louise is the wife of Dr. Nelson Lloyd Deming, of Litchfield, Connecticut; Robert Hanna Carnahan is one of the representative business men of Fort Wayne, and Clara C. and Vir- ginia C., remain with their widowed mother in the attractive home in Fort Wayne and as popular factors in the representative social life of their native city. The grandchildren of William L. Carnahan are Nelson Lloyd Deming, Jr., and Mary Louise Deming, the children of Dr. and Mrs. Deming, and Robert Hanna Carnahan, William Lumbard Carnahan and Sidney Lumbard Carnahan, children of Robert Hanna Carnahan and Constance Lumbard Carnahan, deceased.
Charles L. Centlivre .- It was given to the subject of this memoir to wield large influence in connection with the upbuilding of one of the now extensive and important industrial enterprises of Fort Wayne, that of the Centlivre Brewing Company. Mr. Centlivre came to Fort Wayne in 1862 and here became associated with his brother, Frank, in the found- ing of the Centlivre Brewery, the plant and business of which have been developed from a modest nucleus to the point that places the concern among the largest and most successful of its kind in Indiana. Charles L. Centlivre was a man of sterling character, of splendid energy and re- sourcefulness in business and of that intrinsic and well based civic loyalty that makes for ideal citizenship. Mr. Centlivre was born at Valdien, Canton Dammarie, Arrondissement of Belfort, Haut-Rhin, Alsace, France, on September 27, 1827, and was sixty-seven years of age at the time of his death, in 1895. He was reared and educated in his native province and there learned the cooper's trade under the effective direction of his father. He became a skilled workman through his thorough appren- ticeship, and came to America in 1841, the voyage across the Atlantic having been made in one of the primitive sailing vessels of the type com- mon to that period. Mr. Centlivre established his residence in the city of New Orleans, and shortly afterward, when the city became the stage of a frightful epidemic of cholera, returned to his native land. After a comparatively brief visit to the old home he came again to the United States, and on this occasion was accompanied by his father and by two of his brothers. Landing in the port of New York city, the father and sons came to the middle west and made their home at Massillon, Stark county, Ohio. Within a short time Charles L. Centlivre engaged in the work of his trade at Louisville, that county, and in 1850 went to Clayton county, Iowa, where he established a small brewery in the village of McGregor. He was one of the pioneer business men of that section of the Hawkeye state and continued to operate his brewery at McGregor until 1862, when he came to Fort Wayne and formed a partnership with his brother, Frank, in the founding of the Centlivre Brewery. With characteristic energy and thoroughness the brothers applied themselves to the producing of high-grade output and the incidental development of the business. During all the long intervening years the Centlivre Brewing Company has maintained the highest reputation for business policies of the most upright and progressive order and for the turning out of products of the best order. The plant of the company is now one
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of extensive and thoroughly modern order, and the trade of this pioneer industrial concern is of large volume and most substantial ramifications. Mr. Centlivre gave his splendid energies to the upbuilding of the busi- ness and continued his active association with the enterprise until the year prior to his death. He was liberal and public-spirited as a citizen, took lively and constant interest in the welfare of the city in which he long maintained his home, and as a citizen and business man his name and memory are here held in lasting honor. The company of which he was one of the founders now bases its operations on a capital stock of three hundred thousand dollars, his son, Louis C., is president of the corpor- ation, another son, Charles F., is treasurer, and John Ruess is secretary.
John W. Chapman .- One of the foremost men of Hoagland is John W. Chapman, prosperous farmer, now living practically retired from farming activities. For more than half a century he applied himself diligently to agricultural pursuits, and he is to-day enjoying a well earned rest from his labors of those years. Mr. Chapman was born in Pennsylvania on April 19, 1834, and is the son of John and Sarah (Keese) Chapman, both born in that state. They moved to Ohio in 1844; settled on a farm and after four years came to Indiana, settling in Adams county. In 1855 they moved to Allen county, and this section of the state was their home from then until their death. They were the parents of nine children, of which number two are now living. John W. Chap- man was reared and schooled in Indiana, and in early manhood turned his attention to farming. From then until the year 1913 he might be said to have labored continuously, and it is gratifying to be able to note that he succeeded admirably in his work. Two fine farms were his at one time, and when he retired from active life, in 1913, he sold one place. The other he still owns, though he takes no part in its man- agement. In 1865 Mr. Chapman married Miss Eunice Harrod. She was born in Allen county, of farming people, and to her and her husband five children were born. They are William, Charles L., Almina, Arminda E. and Delilah. The last named is deceased and Almina is the wife of David McKennan. In 1909 the family suffered the loss of the wife and mother, and the entire community mourned her passing. Mr. Chapman is a Democrat, but has never been an office holder or a seeker after political favors.
Reason Clayton was a small child when his parents brought him from his native state and settled in Allen county, Indiana, and this section of the state has been his home without interruption from that day to this. He was born in Ohio, Wayne county, on September 22, 1847, and is the son of John and Elizabeth Smith Clayton. The father was a Virginian by birth and the mother an Ohioan. As a young man John Clayton left his native state and located in Ohio, where he married, and in 1848 he took his family to Allen county. There the mother died in 1850, leaving four children, two of whom are now living. The father married again, and of six children born of that union all but one are living. He married a third time, and one son was born. In 1897 John Clayton died at his home in Madison township. Reason Clayton left the parental home at the early age of nineteen. He had up to that time attended school with a good deal of regularity, and was qualified, ac- cording to the standards of the day, to teach in the district schools in the winter seasons. This he did for a number of years, teaching during the winter months and farming in the summer. In 1888 he bought the farm on which he now lives. It comprises 165 acres in Sections 23 and
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24, in Madison township, and is one of the attractive farms of the com- munity. General farming is carried on very successfully, and progres- sive and productive methods are favored on the Clayton farm. Mr. Clayton is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and is a Democrat in politics. He was married in 1872 to Miss Mary Youse, a native daughter of Allen county, and they are the parents of three children-Otto O., Flora E., and John Fred. Flora lives at home and John is now in Phila- delphia in the government service. Mrs. Clayton is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Guy Colerick is herein mentioned as one of the prominent attorneys of the city of Fort Wayne and in the practice of his profession he is well maintaining the prestige of the family name. In the legal circles of Allen county the Colericks have been prominent since the establish- ment of civil courts there, the first of the family to establish himself in the practice being David H. Colerick, who came from Lancaster, Ohio. He became very prominent as an attorney and as a public spirited citizen, and it seemed that his ability was transmitted to his sons, six of whom were engaged in the practice of law here at one time. One of these sons was Henry Colerick, the father of the subject of this biographical review, and he was widely known as one of the leading trial lawyers in northern Indiana. Guy H. Colerick was born in Fort Wayne, November 20, 1879, and in the public schools of that city obtained his preliminary education. By a process of natural selection he decided upon the law as his pro- fession, and in pursuance of that determination entered the office of his uncle, Walpole G. Colerick, where he remained as a student and a practioner until 1907, having been admitted to the bar soon after attain- ing his majority. In 1907 he formed a partnership with his father, the late Henry Colerick, and together they were successfully engaged in practice until the death of the latter, in 1909. A partnership was then formed by Guy Colerick and Harry G. Hogan, and this association has continued to the present time, the firm of Colerick & Hogan having a clientele that is representative and of a high order. Mr. Colerick served as city attorney-which position was filled by his honored father for a number of years-from 1906 to 1910, and after a four-year interim he was again appointed to the place, in 1914, and is the present incumbent of that office, serving his second term. Mr. Colerick is a Mason, having attained to the Fourteenth degree of the Scottish Rite, a member of the Loyal Order of Moose and the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, in which last organization he is a Past Exalted Ruler. In politics he is a Democrat.
Adam Collis .- For the past thirty-six years Adam Collis has been located in Fort Wayne and during that time was in the employ of the Pennsylvania system in its machine shops for thirty-five years. He has practically watched the city grow up, and almost as many summer suns and winter snows have passed over his head as Fort Wayne herself has experienced. Mr. Collis was born in Cambria county, Pennsylvania, on August 26, 1847, and is the son of Nicholas and Frances (Balwebber) Collis, both born and reared in France. They came to America as young people and Mr. Collis located on a Pennsylvania farm, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was an ambitious and hard working man, - and might have passed to a comfortable old age after a life of toil, but was killed in middle life as a result of a runaway accident on his farm. Adam Collis was the only child. When he was about twelve years old the subject moved to Blair county and there went to school a few winter
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terms. He entered the railroad shops at Altoona, Pennsylvania, and there learned the machinist's trade. He took his first position as a boy of sixteen in the machine shops of the Pennsylvania road at Altoona, and he continued there until 1880, when he came to Fort Wayne, and was here em- ployed by the same company, so that his service with the Pennsylvania road covered a period of more than half a century. He was pensioned in September, 1916. Mr. Collis married Mary Wyrough, of Altoona, Penn- sylvania, on January 16, 1872, and they have six children. Frank, the eldest, lives in Edmonton, Canada; John is with the City Water Works in Fort Wayne; James is engaged in mining operations at Prescott, Arizona; Oscar is connected with the Emrich Baking Company, of Fort Wayne; Hugh is a machinist with the Pennsylvania road, located in Fort Wayne, and Mary, the only daughter and the youngest of the family, died at the tender age of four years. Mr. Collis and his sons are Democrats in politics and the family are members of the Catholic church.
Thomas L. Comparet, who holds the office of bookkeeper for the Bass Foundry, an important industrial concern of Fort Wayne, is a representative of sterling pioneer families of this favored section of the Hoosier state and is a scion of a staunch French family that was early settled in Montreal, Canada-fully a century and a quarter ago. He whose name initiates this paragraph was born at Fort Wayne August 1, 1865, and is a son of David F. Comparet, who was born at Fort Wayne on March 6, 1826, when the future metropolis of Allen county was little more than a frontier hamlet. David F. Comparet was a son of Francis and Eleanor (Gnau) Comparet, the former of whom was born at Montreal, Canada, in 1796, it having been given him to become one of the very early settlers of northern Indiana and one of the honored and.influential pioneers of Allen county, where he had the distinction of being the first to serve in the office of county commissioner. He was a charter member of the first Masonic lodge organized at Fort Wayne and took deep interest in this fraternity, though he was a communicant of the Catholic church, the rules of which he measurably transgressed when he became a Mason. David F. Comparet became one of the ener- getic and successful business men of Fort Wayne, where he was engaged in the operation of a flour mill, besides developing a prosperous enter- prise in the buying and shipping of grain, hogs and general lines of farm produce. As a young man he wedded Miss Sarah H. Columbia, a daugh- ter of Dana Columbia, who established his residence at Fort Wayne in 1834. David F. Comparet and his wife continued to maintain their home in Fort Wayne until her death, and they became the parents of seven children : Harriet is deceased; Charles is now a resident of the city of Indianapolis ; Fannie is deceased; Addie is the wife of Henry W. Matson; William is deceased; Thomas L., of this review, was the next in order of birth, and Thomas is deceased. Thomas L. Comparet acquired his early education in the Fort Wayne schools and when but twelve years of age he began also his experience in connection with the practical affairs of life, by serving as a newsboy for the Fort Wayne Gazette. Later he assumed a clerical position in the employ of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, subsequently being similarly in the service of the Lake Erie and Western Railroad, his labors in these two connec- tion having covered a period of about eight years. For one year there- after he was in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and he then assumed the position of cashier for the Empire Line. In 1893
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he became bookkeeper for the wholesale grocery house of McDonald & Watt, with which concern he thus continued his services until August, 1895, since which time he has held the responsible position of bookkeeper for the Bass Foundry, with high standing as a capable executive and skilled accountant. Mr. Comparet takes loyal interest in all things touching the welfare and progress of his native city and county, is a Republican in his political allegiance. is affiliated with the Masonie fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and. both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. On September 25, 1888, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Comparet to Miss Jennie F. Cam bell, who was born and reared in Allen county and who is a daughter of George B. and Lydia (Wass) Campbell, the former a native of the state of New York and the latter of Allen county, Indiana. Mr. Campbell was a popular conductor in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and was killed in a railway accident, his widow being still a resident of Fort Wayne and Mrs. Comparet being the eldest of their two children: the younger of the children is George E., who resides in Fort Wayne and is cashier in the local offices of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Comparet the eldest is Irene, who was born October 30, 1890. and who is the wife of Carl Getz, the efficient city forester of Fort Wayne; Myrtle, who was born August, 1893, died in infancy ; Irma, who was born August 24, 1896, and Ralph, who was born in 1890, remain at the parental home.
Eli Conrad is a son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Barteh) Conrad, who settled in Allen county, in 1871, and there spent the remaining years of their lives. The son, Eli, was born on February 8, 1879, one of a family of twelve sons and daughters reared on the homestead farm in Cedar Creek township. The others are John, of Wells county, Indiana; Jacob, of Grabill, in Cedar Creek township; Henry, who is deceased; Elizabeth, also deceased; Minnie, the wife of William Shultz, of Fort Wayne; Kath- erine, the wife of Albert Freis, of Springfield township; Susan, who mar- ried Andrew Roth, of Grabill; Lydia, a school teacher in Cedar Creek township; Andrew, of Grabill; Albert, also of that place, and a daughter who died in infancy, and who was the seventh child. Eli and Elizabeth, it should be said, were twins. The father of this family was an Ohioan by birth and a native of Star county, while the mother was of German birth and ancestry. She came to America in girlhood and died in 1886. Eli Conrad remained on the home farm until he reached the age of twenty-two, when he went to St. Joe, Indiana, and there engaged in the implement business. After one year he returned to Cedar Creek town- ship and became identified with the buying and shipping of stock in his county, to which work he has since been devoted with much success. He has also become the owner of a fine farm in Section 18 and his residence is one of the comfortable and spacious ones of his township. Mr. Conrad was married to Lydia Roth on September 4, 1907. She was born in Allen county and is a daughter of Levi and Elizabeth (Witmer) Roth, which family is mentioned elsewhere in the pages of this work as prominent and popular residents of the town of Grabill. To Mr. and Mrs. Conrad two sons have been born-Willard Willmore, born August 20, 1909, and Paul Severn, born on August 15, 1911. Mr. Conrad is a Republican and is prominent in the activities of the local Grange, of which he is a director, and with his wife has membership in the Mission church.
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Ernest W. Cook, vice-president and secretary of the Citizens Trust Company, of Fort Wayne, and prominently identified with other local business institutions of representative order, is a seion of staunch Rev- olutionary stock in America and in all of the relations of life has exem- plified true American spirit. His versatility and progressiveness have been shown through his association with varied phases of business enter- prise, and he has even endured the strenuous ordeal of close alliance with newspaper enterprise. As one of the loyal citizens and representa- tive business men of Fort Wayne he is properly given definite recogni- tion in this history. Mr. Cook was born at Manchester, Delaware county, Iowa, on February 5, 1861, a date indicating that his parents were numbered among the pioneers of the Hawkeye state. He is a son of Albert H. and Emily J. (Knapp) Cook, the former of whom was born in the vicinity of Saratoga Springs, New York, and the latter in New England, where her ancestors settled in the early colonial days, her paternal grandfather having been a valiant soldier under General Wash- ington in the war of the Revolution. Albert H. Cook and his wife were persons of superior education and both became successful teachers in the public schools, the father having long devoted his attention to service in the pedagogic profession. He died at the age of sixty-eight years and his widow maintains her home in Fort Wayne. He was a stalwart Republican in politics and he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his widow. Of the children the subject of this review is the eldest; Clarence F. is associated with the Overland Automobile Company in Fort Wayne; Rose L., was for twenty-five years employed in the offices of the Tri-State Bank, of Fort Wayne, and Alba is the wife-of Jesse F. Patterson, of Logansport, Indiana, her husband being a division superintendent of the Vandalia Railroad. Ernest W. Cook acquired his early education in the public schools of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and his initial business experience was gained when he was a lad of twelve years. At this juncture in his career he vitalized and adorned the independent vocation of newsboy, and later found employment in the office of the Fort Wayne Sentinel, under the direction of William Fleming. He projected his ramifications into all departments of news- paper work, and the experience he thus gained justified the oft-repeated statement that the discipline of a newspaper office is the equivalent of a liberal education. Finally he emancipated himself from the thrall of journalism and became eashier in the Fort Wayne freight house of the Wabash Railroad. Later he was freight and ticket agent for the same road in the city of Defiance, Ohio, and in 1893 he returned to Fort Wayne and became associated with the late Hon. Perry A. Randall and Robert T. McDonald in the purchase of the plant and business of the Ryan Transfer & Storage Company. He was manager of this business about three years, and then sold his interest in the same to assume the office of secretary of the Allen County Loan & Savings Association, in the development of which he wielded much influence and his alliance with which continued until 1899. In 1900 Mr. Cook became identified with the organization and incorporation of the Citizens Trust Company, of Fort Wayne, of which he has served as secretary since that time and of which he has been vice-president also since 1915. He has shown energy and ability in the upbuilding of the business of this substantial and repre- sentative financial institution and is a prominent figure in the financial circles of northern Indiana. Mr. Cook has ever been an ardent advocate of the principles of the Republican party, has been an active worker in its
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ranks and for twenty years served as treasurer of the committee in Allen county. In the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, his maximum York Rite affiliation being with Fort Wayne Commandery of Knights Templars, besides which he is a member of the adjunct Masonic body, the Mystic Shrine. He is affiliated also with the local organizations of the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Aside from his association with the Citi- zens Trust Company Mr. Cook is a director of the Lincoln Life Insurance Company and the Trade Mark Title Company, and was for a time treas- urer of the Physicians' Defense Company, which latter was merged with the Medical Protective Company. He has been specially zealous and influential in connection with the work of the public schools of Fort Wayne, has been a member of the board of education since 1905 and is now president of the board. Mr. Cook is a man of broad intellectual ken and much literary ability, and he has made many effective contribu- tions to the columns of the Fort Wayne newspaper press-especially in the promotion of high civic ideals and progressive industrial and commer- cial policies. On September 11, 1880, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Cook to Miss Charity Carnrike, daughter of John Carnrike, of Fort Wayne, and concerning the children of this union the following brief data are available: Harry L., is assistant superintendent of one of the great steel mills at Gary, Indiana; Frank E., is owner of a restaurant at Seal Beach, California, and Flora E., is the wife of Walter H. Bauer, general manager of the American Chicle Company in the city of New York.
William P. Cooper has the best of reasons for paying the staunchest allegiance to his native city of Fort Wayne and to northern Indiana, for he is a scion of one of the most honored and influential families of this section of the Hoosier commonwealth, his father having settled in Fort Wayne in 1824, when the old fort was still in evidence and when Indians were yet to be found in large numbers in this part of the state. The pioneer house that was erected by his father, in 1835, at the site now designated as 321 East Berry street, Fort Wayne, figures as the birthplace of William Pinkney Cooper, and the date of his nativity was August 27, 1852. His father, Henry Cooper, was born at Havre de Grace, Maryland, in 1793, and was a representative of one of the patrician colonial families of that historic commonwealth. Henry Cooper received in his youth the best of educational advantages, as guaged by the stan- dards of the locality and period, and he became a man of fine intellectual and professional attainments. He was the second lawyer admitted to practice in Allen county, Indiana, and gained precedence as one of the most able and distinguished members of the Indiana bar of the early days, his practice before the supreme court of the state having been for a considerable period larger than that of any other lawyer eligible for practice in that tribunal, at Indianapolis. His name appears fre- quently in the Blackford reports of the decisions of the supreme court and also in the other early Indiana court reports. By very reason of conditions prevailing in the pioneer days his law business was one of broad itineracy, and extended throughout the various counties of north- ern Indiana. He made his appearance in the courts at the judicial centers of the various counties by traveling back and forth on horseback, with the old-time saddlebags, in which he carried his requisite legal books. In the same manner he made his journeys to the capital city of the state, and he followed trails through the forests, frequently forded
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