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 15
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streams and lived up to the full tension of pioneer days in thus making his visitations to such now important centers as Indianapolis, Wabash, Huntington, Goshen, Elkhart and South Bend. He was distinguished for his profound learning, brilliant repartee and dignity of character. He was a man of most gracious personality and for many years his his- pitable home, on East Berry street, Fort Wayne, was the stage of much of the representative social life of the little town. Letters which he wrote to his wife from Indianapolis and which are now in the possession of his son, William P., of this review, specially warned her against letting the children play with the Indians, the town at that time having been a mere straggling settlement around the old fort which gave to the present city its name. Henry Cooper's first wife bore the family name of Silvers, and both of their children, Edward and Henry, are deceased. After the death of the wife of his young manhood, Henry Cooper, Sr., wedded Mrs. Eleanor Munson, who was the widow of James P. Munson, and who had two children by her first marriage. The elder of the two, Charles A. Munson, became a prominent citizen of Fort Wayne and served as sheriff of Allen county. At the time of his death, which occurred in Mercy hospital, Chicago, in 1901, Mr. Munson was the western representative in that city of the Fort Wayne Electric Works. He was twice made the Democratic nominee for state auditor of Indiana, but his defeat in each instance was compassed by normal political exigencies. Lucretia M. Munson, the younger of the two children, is the widow of Diedrich Meyers and resides in Fort Wayne. William P. Cooper, of this sketch, is the only child of his father's second marriage, and he was about six months of age at the time of the death of his distinguished sire, in March, 1853. His devoted mother passed away November 19, 1883, at the age of 70 years and 5 months. Mr. Cooper secured his elementary education in the public schools of Fort Wayne, graduating from the high school in 1868. He for a short time served as city editor of the Fort Wayne Gazette and then entered Dartmouth College, where he was graduated in 1873. His taste for literature and his fine critical acumen were rec- ognized at college and, with other honors, he was made class poet. After his graduation he studied law in the Columbia Law School, New York city, and also in the office of Cook & Nassau of that city, and with Hon. Robert Lowry, of Fort Wayne. However, the field of journalism held for him more attraction, and he relinquished his legal studies and began his professional life as city editor of the Fort Wayne News, being also at different times city editor of the Sentinel, the Gazette and the Journal, besides serving efficiently as Fort Wayne correspondent for the metropolitan papers. With a literary style of marked simplicity and directness, his was the rare charm of a "wit that without wounding could hit," but while his humor would lend grace alike to the worst prosaic "locals" or to an important article, his perfect taste was his marked characteristic. In 1888 Mr. Cooper left Fort Wayne to take a position on the editorial staff of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, where he also did special work covering assignments of importance in and out of St. Louis. Later he returned to Fort Wayne to become managing editor of the Journal for a short time, when he quit journalism and en- entered into the insurance business. In this were also exhibited those sterling qualities which insured his former success and in 1895 he was appointed general agent of the New York Life Insurance Company which responsible position he still holds. Socially Mr. Cooper belongs to the Greek letter society, Kappa Kappa Kappa of Dartmouth College, is a member
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of the Commercial Club, and is a member and ex-president of the North- ern Indiana Life Underwriters Association. In June, 1896, he was elected a member of the board of school trustees, serving three years, the last two years as president of the board. In 1901 he was appointed a member of the Board of State Charities, serving under the administrations of both Governor Durbin and Governor Hanley. August 30, 1887, Mr. Cooper was united in marriage with Miss Nellie Brown, of Lafayette, Indiana, a woman of fine intellect and an artist of marked ability, and to them was born, July 10, 1888, a son, Brown, was was graduated in the Fort Wayne high school in 1906, and then entered his father's Alma Mater, Dartmouth College, from which he received, in 1910, the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and has since been associated with his father in the life insurance business. Politically Mr. Cooper is a Democrat, but de- clined to support the free-silver doctrines of Mr. Bryan and twice voted for McKinley. He represents the best type of citizen and dignified self- respecting manhood.
Thomas B. Coppock, secretary, treasurer and manager of the S. P. Coppock & Sons Lumber Company, is distinctively one of the vigorous and progressive young business men of Fort Wayne and the company of which he is an executive is one of the most important lumber concerns in northern Indiana, with headquarters in the city of Fort Wayne and with branch yards at Memphis, Tennessee, and Tyronza, Arkansas-so that its supply of resources and incidental facilities are of the best. As practical manager of the large yards and general business in Fort Wayne, Thomas B. Coppock has shown exceptional energy and resource- fulness and represents the best type of the aggressive young business men of the twentieth century. The youngest in the family of nine chil- dren, Mr. Coppock was born at Beloit, Mahoning county, Ohio, on March 14, 1882, and he is a son of Samuel P. and Anna (Buckman) Coppock, both natives of Pennsylvania. The father became prominently identified with the lumber business in Ohio and in 1898 removed with his family to Fort Wayne, where he established the present business of the S. P. Coppock & Sons Lumber Company, which is incorporated under the laws of Indiana, and in the control of which two of his sons are asso- ciated with him. He is one of the representative citizens of Fort Wayne, a broad-guaged business man of wide experience, and one who is liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude. His wife is now deceased. Thomas B. Coppock is indebted to the public schools of the Buckeye state for his early educational discipline and he was about sixteen years of age at the time of the family removal to Fort Wayne. Here he availed himself of the advantages of the high school and thereafter completed a thorough course in a local business college. Since leaving school he has been actively identified with the business founded by his father, and in the connection he has fully demonstrated his initiative and executive ability. He gives loyal support to the cause of the Republican party, is a member of the Fort Wayne Rotary Club, and in the Masonic fraternity has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, the York Rite and the Shrine. On May 28, 1908, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Coppock to Miss Mabel Coverdale, who was born and reared in Fort Wayne, her father, Asahel S. Coverdale, being one of the principals of the grocery firm of Coverdale & Archer, of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Coppock have one child, a daughter, Martha Florence.
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John Coutter .- John Coutter's parents were German people who came to America in their youth, married and settled in Dearborn county, Indiana, and there engaged in farming and lived active and wholesome lives for many years. They reared a fine family of eleven children, the subject being the first born, and about five years ago they retired from activities attendant upon farm life and settled down to a quiet and peaceful old age, secure in the esteem and confidence of their many friends and able to enjoy with a good conscience the fruits of their earlier years of toil. They were Andrew and Louise (Meyer) Coutter, and their children are here briefly mentioned as follows: John, the subject of this sketch; Sarah, living in Cincinnati, Ohio; Elizabeth, who is deceased; Carrie, also deceased; Catharine, living in Aurora; Anna; William, also of Aurora, Indiana; Mary, Henry and an infant child are deceased, and Charles, the youngest of the family, lives in Illinois. John Coutter was brought up to farm life, and he and his brothers and sisters had their schooling in the schools of Dearborn county. In 1886, when he was twenty-five years old, he left the home farm, where he had been his father's valued and able assistant, and settled on a rented place, the occasion of his removal being his marriage, which took place in the same year. He rented for ten years and was a successful farmer, despite the fact that he owned no land. In 1896 he returned to the home place, and after a short while bought a farm of ninety-one acres in Pleasant township. He has applied himself with diligence to the work of manag- ing this farm from then to the present time, and has enjoyed a very marked suecess in the years that have passed. Mr. Coutter was married on February 17, 1886, to Miss Anna Harris, the daughter of John and Margaret (Greave) Harris. They were German people who came to America in young life, and they recall that the trip covered a period of fourteen weeks. As farming people they have been most successful, and they have affiliated themselves with American life in such a manner as to be recognized among the best citizens in their community. They were the parents of a fine family of eleven children, named Henry, Dorothy, Margaret, Mary, Anna, John, William, Sophia, Matilda, William Henry, Benjamin and Fred. Henry and William died, and when the ninth child was born his parents named him William Henry in memory of the others. Anna became the wife of Mr. Coutter, and they have a family of five children-Ernest, Homer, Louise, Clare and Martin. The eldest, Ernest, is located in Fort Wayne, where he is associated as a bookkeeper with the City Lighting Plant; Homer is deceased; Louise married Thaddeus Grossman and the two younger children are still with their parents. Mr. Coutter is a Democrat in politics, and he and his family are members of the Lutheran church, of which faith their families have long been faithful adherents.
David H. Crabill .- The parents of David Crabill are found mentioned at some length in another article in these pages, so that it is sufficient to say at this point that they were David and Sophia (Ridenour) Crabill, and to proceed with data concerning the life and activities of the im- mediate subject. David H. Crabill was born in Ohio on February 18, 1845, and died on March 25, 1916, at his home in Monroe township, where he had lived for more than a quarter of a century. He was a farmer all his life, as were his parents before him. He had his education in Allen county, where his family had located when he was a small child, and in 1875 he married Mary J. Laughlin, who was born in Lake township,
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Allen county, and was the daughter of James and Catherine (Darby) Laughlin, both natives of Pennsylvania who settled in Allen county, Indiana, soon after their marriage. These sturdy people were pioneers in every sense of the word, and they knew Allen county in the early days when its green acres of the present period were covered with dense forest growths. Mr. Laughlin hewed a small open space in the wilder- ness he chose to locate upon and there built a rude cabin home, with typical puncheon floor and string latch peculiar to the day. There they lived and with the passing years the forest faded away gradually, as a result of the constant labors of Mr. Laughlin and his growing family, so that the time came when they found themselves the possessors of broad acres that yielded rich harvests annually. Of their six children born there, two are now living, and the parents themselves have long since passed on. Following his marriage to Mary Laughlin, the daughter of these pioneers, Mr. Crabill bought a farm of 115 acres in Section eight, Monroe township, and that place has been the family home down to the present day. Mr. Crabill made a point of intelligent farming and as a result enjoyed a pleasureable degree of material success in his work. Six children were born to them-Emma C., Agnes Sophia, John E., Charles L., Frank D., and another who died in infancy. Mr. Crabill died in March, 1916, leaving his widow comfortably established in the family home.
George D. Crane .- There was no element of futility or indirectness in the career of the late George D. Crane, of Fort Wayne, who here maintained his home for half a century and who expressed amidst "all of the changes and chances of this mortal life" the assurance of strong and worthy manhood. He was long known as one of the able and influential exponents of expert accounting and abstracting in Fort Wayne, his sterling character and his unquestioned ability gained to him inviolable confidence and esteem and he was made the administrator or trustee of several large estates in Allen county. He continued his asso- ciation with his business until his death and was deeply interested in the preparing and maintaining of authentic abstracts of real estate titles in his home county. He was a broad-minded, upright and loyal citizen, was a stalwart advocate of the principles of the Republican party, was a Knight Templar Mason and was an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his widow. It may consistently be said that he was one of the pioneer business men of Fort Wayne at the time of his demise and it is but consonant that in this history be entered a tribute to his memory. Mr. Crane was born in Montgomery county, New York, on February 6, 1842, and thus he was seventy-four years of age when he was summoned to the life eternal, on June 22, 1916. He was a son of Edward S. and Catherine (Lawson) Crane, both likewise natives of the old Empire state, where the father was a farmer. In 1856 the family removed from New York state to Stephenson county, Illinois, and the parents passed the closing years of their lives at Freeport, that county. Their children were four in number-Adaline, Louisa, Char- lotte and George D .- and all are now deceased except Louisa, who re- mains with Mrs. Crane in the attractive old family home in Fort Wayne and in the most gracious companionship since the death of the revered husband and brother. Mr. Crane gained his early education in the schools of his native state and was a lad of fourteen years at the time of the family removal to Illinois. He continued to attend school at
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Freeport and later completed a course in a commercial college. His initial business experience was in the insurance business at Freeport, when he was eventually transferred to Dayton, Ohio, where he remained until he came to Fort Wayne, about the year 1866. Here he became associated with Sanford Lombard in the insurance business, and so continued for a brief period. On February 17, 1869, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Crane to Mrs. Addie J. (Edsal) Bayless, who has been a resident of Fort Wayne from the time of her birth and who is a daughter of John and Mary (DeKay) Edsal, who were born and reared in New Jersey and who were numbered among the sterling pioneers of Fort Wayne. Mrs. Crane is the only one surviving of a family of three children and she was an infant at the time of her father's death. In her widowhood Mrs. Crane is sustained and comforted by the hallowed memories that touch the long and devoted companionship of her husband and herself, and she is further fortified by the filial solicitude of her two children and by the love of friends who are tried and true. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Crane the elder is Harvey E., who holds a posi- tion with the Fort Wayne Electric Works; and Alice is the wife of Frank D. Bond, of this city.
George Rockhill Craw is a native son of Fort Wayne who has shown much versatility and resourcefulness as a business man and whose activ- ities have been varied and important in connection with the newspaper and advertising business. He established and developed in the city of Chicago the George R. Craw Advertising Agency, but eventually, in 1913, sold this business to engage in cutlery manufacture, which business he sold in order that he might return to Fort Wayne and assume the super- vision of his father's large and important business interests, the impaired health of his sire having brought about the latter's virtual retirement. Upon his return to Fort Wayne George R. Craw assumed, among other responsibilities, the active charge of the Portland furnished apartment building, a fine modern structure owned by his father and aunt. In the spring of 1914 he effected the organization of the Portland Hotel Apart- ments Company, of which he is now president, secretary and treasurer, as well as manager, his father having been president of the company up to the time of his death, February 14, 1917. George R. Craw was born in Fort Wayne March 10, 1875, and is a son of Edward L. and Maria (Rockhill) Craw, the former a native of Cleveland, Ohio, where his father served as sheriff of Cuyahoga county during the Civil war, and the latter of Fort Wayne, Indiana, where her father, William Rockhill, established his home many years ago, in the early pioneer epoch of the city's history. Edward L. Craw, who at the time of his death was practically retired, was for a long period a prominent exponent of the real estate business in Fort Wayne and did much to advance the physical development and upbuilding of the city. He was one of the honored and influential citizens of the Allen county metropolis and seat of government; served in former years as assistant postmaster of Fort Wayne, a position of which he continued the incumbent sixteen years. He was a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party and a communicant of Trinity church, Protestant Episcopal, as was also his wife, who died in 1900. Of the three children the subject of this review is the only survivor, James Edward and Esther Louise having died in infancy. George R. Craw attended the Fort Wayne public schools until he had profited by the advantages of the high school, and at the age of nineteen years be-
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came advertising manager of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. In this connection his record was one of successful achievement and after some years of service he went to the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, and became advertising manager for the leading firm of Pettibone Brothers Manu- facturing Company, military purveyors and manufacturers of lodge para- phernalia and regalia. After holding this position two years he went to the city of Chicago and assumed the position of editor of the Mail Order Journal. Later he there organized and established the George R. Craw Advertising Agency, and his technical ability and experience en- abled him to develop a substantial and prosperous business. After disposing of his interest in this agency he became identified with the cutlery-manufacturing business in Chicago until the ill health of his father led him to return to Fort Wayne, as previously noted. Mr. Craw developed in connection with his newspaper and magazine work in Chicago, special literary ability, and his editorial work was of superior order. He wrote for and conducted special investigations for the Chicago Tribune and wrote for numerous periodicals. He was made a member of the famous Chicago Press Club, and finds satisfaction in maintaining this affiliation since he departed from the western metropolis. His politi- cal allegiance is given to the Republican party and he and his wife hold membership in Trinity church, Protestant Episcopal. On July 21, 1913, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Craw to Miss Blanche Marie Collins, who was born and reared in Chicago, and the one child of this union is a winsome little daughter, Barbara Jane, who was born May 13, 1915.
William H. Crighton, who holds the position of chief draftsman at the Fort Wayne plant of the General Electric Company, is a man of recognized technical and executive ability and is consistently to be designated as one of the unequivocally popular and public-spirited citi- zens of the Allen county metropolis. Mr. Crighton was born at Fort Wayne on the 19th of October, 1864, and is a son of William and Mary Elizabeth (Kennedy) Crighton, the former of whom was born in Man- chester, England, and the latter in Guelf, Canada. William Crighton died January 2, 1917, after many years of active and effective service as a mechanical engineer. He was a staunch Republican in politics and an active member of the Presbyterian church. His wife died March 23, 1909. Of their children, three are deceased-John, Stanley and Grace. The surviving children are : David, Thomas, William H, Jane and Frank. William H. Crighton attended the public schools of Fort Wayne until he had attained the age of sixteen years, when he found employment at the plant of the Kerr-Murray Manufacturing Company, with which he remained about six years, during which he gained practical and varied experience as a draftsman and fortified himself excellently for the pro- fession to which he has continued to give his attention in a successful and influential way. He was thereafter in the employ of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company for several years and, in 1891, he became asso- ciated with the drafting department of the General Electric Works at Fort Wayne, with which important concern he is now chief draftsman. He is a Republican in politics and both he and his wife are active members of the First Presbyterian church. On the 4th of June, 1891, was solemn- ized the marriage of Mr. Crighton to Miss Luretta Esther Hulse, who was born and reared in Fort Wayne, and their three children are Ken- nethe, Malcolm and Stanley.
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Calvin Crow comes of a family of old settlers in Allen county, his paternal grandfather having settled there with his family as early as 1851. Even at that time, it might almost have been said that Wilderness was King, and the section and a half that this sturdy pioneer bought for a homestead was in a state of nature, and afforded ample opportunity for the exercise of the virtues of energy, industry, patience and perse- verence, not even omitting the virtue of pluck, which is the inevitable team-mate of the others. The family came from Morrow county, Ohio, where they had been long established, and the grandsire of the subject was long a prominent man in his community, serving as county com- missioner of Allen county for many years. He was a Democrat, a staunch Methodist and his family was reared in that faith. James Crow, his son, spent his life in devotion to the farming industry in Lafayette township, and he died there. His widow survives and is now resident in Zanesville. She was Lydia Boelinger in maidenhood. The children of James and Lydia Crow were five in number. Calvin, subject of this sketch, was the first born. Peter, the second child, died in boyhood, and Joseph died in infancy. Michael lives in Wells county, Indiana, where he is engaged in the contracting business, and Martin died at the age of seventeen years. Calvin Crow was born in Lafayette township on December 16, 1861, and was reared on the home farm and educated in the common schools of his native village. He was reared to a thorough knowledge of farm life and the duties attendant upon such life, and when he decided to establish a home of his own, he rented a farm and settled down to make a living from the soil. He prospered and in a few years became the owner of a fine farm of 117 acres, on which he lives at this time. He is reckoned among the capable and progressive farming men of the township today, and is well entitled to the distinction. He is a Democrat, like his father and grandfather, a member of the Odd Fellows and of the Modern Wood- men of America. He was married on June 23, 1887, to Miss Laura Swank, the daughter of Thomas Swank, now deceased. She died on November 12, 1912, and is buried in Zanesville, Indiana. She was the mother of two children-Claude, a prosperous farmer who is married and the father of a little daughter, Helen Marie Crow, and Carrie, the wife of Glenn Kiplinger.
Arnold G. W. Curdes is one of the progressive young business men of his native city of Fort Wayne and though he prepared himself for and did successful work in the legal profession, he has found it more to his taste to give his attention to vigorous business enterprise and is now engaged in the building of high-grade houses in Fort Wayne, as a representative of the Home Builders' Association. Mr. Curdes was born in Fort Wayne on April 2, 1887, and is a son of Louis F. and Clara J. (Harris) Curdes, the former a native of Wittesingen, in Hessen, Germany, where he was born in the year 1863, and the latter was born at Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1865. Further mention of the parents is not demanded in this connection, for on other pages is entered a review of the career of the father, who is a sterling and honored citizen of Fort Wayne. Arnold G. W. Curdes continued his studies in the Fort Wayne public schools until he had completed a course in the high school, and thereafter he attended the Culver Military Academy, the celebrated Indiana school situated on the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee. He next entered the law department of the University of Indiana, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1906, and from which he received the degree of
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