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 2
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FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY
until he was able to open the present finely equipped cigar and news stand on the busiest corner of the city. All of this and his other evidences of prosperity have been accomplished because he tried to treat everybody right, not forgetting, of course, Mr. Albert C. Alter." Mr. Alter not only thus proved himself a worker when he was a mere boy but he also profited duly by the advantages offered in the public schools of his native city. As a boy he began to assist in the work of his father's shoe store, and later he was for some time employed in the store of A. C. Cott, news dealer. His advancement was shown by his presiding over the news stands in the Aveline Hotel and the Wayne Hotel, and it was in the year 1901 that he opened his cigar and news stand at the corner of Calhoun and Main streets, where he continued to conduct a prosperous business until the time of his death. Mr. Alter was a Democrat in politics, was a communicant of the Catholic church, and was affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks. On the 20th of November, 1902, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Alice Hunt, who was born and reared in Fort Wayne and who is a daughter of James and Mary (Finan) Hunt, the former of whom has been a resident of Fort Wayne from the time of his birth and the latter, now deceased, was a native of Ohio. Mr. Hunt was for many years one of the successful buyers and shippers of live stock in North Indiana and is now living retired in Fort Wayne. Mr. and Mrs. Alter became the parents of three children, two of whom survive him-Charlotte and Julian. The second child, Albert, died in infancy. On the 15th of November, 1915, Mrs. Alter con- tracted a second marriage, and her present husband, Harry C. Beekner, a native of Fort Wayne, is a commercial traveling salesman for the C. T. Pidgeon Millinery Company, of this city.
Noah Amstutz is one of the energetic and representative farmers of the younger generation in his native township, is a scion of one of the old and honored families of Allen county, and in his operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower is bringing to bear the best of mod- ern methods and policies, so that the maximum success attends his farm enterprise, besides which he shows his civic loyalty by taking active and liberal interest in community affairs. He is a son of Jacob and Sophia (Culp) Amstutz, and on other pages of this publication are given adequate data concerning the family history. Born in Springfield township, December 2, 1882, Noah Amstutz passed the period of his childhood and youth under the benignant influences and discipline of the home farm and in the meanwhile did not fail to profit fully by the advantages of the public schools of his native township. A young man of alert mentality and definite ambition, he has never severed his allegiance to the great basic industry of agriculture and through the medium of the same has achieved success that has fully justified this fealty. His independent operations as a farmer were instituted on the old homestead, and he is now the owner of a fine farm of one hundred and fifty-four acres in Section 32, Springfield township, as well as a well-improved additional tract of forty-five acres in Cedar Creek town- ship. The year 1917 finds him serving his second term as one of the progressive and valued members of the Allen county council, and he is aligned as a stalwart advocate and supporter of the cause of the Democratic party. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity his ancient- craft affiliation is with Harlan Lodge No. 296, and he is identified also with other York Rite bodies, has received advancement in the Scottish
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Rite and is affiliated also with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In 1902 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Amstutz to Miss Millie Knight, daughter of Lewis and Christina (Miller) Knight, of Milan township, and the four children of this union are Kenneth, Jeanette, May and Thelma. The attractive rural home of the family is known for its generous hospitality and is about three- fourths of a mile distant from the village of Harlan.
Peter S. Amstutz was born in Springfield township, Allen county, September 27, 1853, on the farm that is now his home, so that he has a record of sixty-four years of continuous residence in the one spot. He is one of the prosperous men of the community, connected prom- inently with various business enterprises in his district, and is a man highly esteemed of all who know him. He is the son of Peter and Barbara (Schulenger) Amstutz, both natives of Alsace, the French province in Germany. Peter Amstutz, the elder, came to America when he was twenty-two years of age and located in Wayne county, Ohio. His marriage took place in Stark county, Ohio, and after several years of residence there he came to Allen county, Indiana, in 1852, settling on the farm now the home of the subject. Nine children were born to Peter and Barbara Amstutz, of which number only two survive. The children, named in the order of their birth, were John, Joseph, Jacob, Lydia, Barbara, Peter, Jr., Mary, Anna and John, the last named being a prosperous citizen of Wayne county, Ohio. The parents spent their lives in work on their Allen county farm, and prospered according to their labors. When they died the home place went to Peter, Jr., the only other surviving child being established in Wayne county, as has been stated previously. When young Amstutz was eighteen years old he engaged in the implement business, using the home place as a center for his operations. In 1901 the Wabash Railroad, cutting through Springfield township, made Grabill a busy center and Mr. Amstutz moved his business to that point. He has carried on a successful trade in farm implements these many years, besides having found many other important enterprises to identify himself with. He is president of a successful lumber company, director of the People's Store Company and a director of the Woodburn Banking Company, of which concern he was one of the organizers. He is also a stockholder in the Harlan State Bank. In 1879 Mr. Amstutz was married to Anna Roth, who was born in Allen county, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Souder) Roth. Mr. and Mrs. Roth were the parents of five children, of which Mrs. Amstutz was the eldest. The others were Levi, Elizabeth, Lydia and Louisa. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Amstutz. Aaron, the eldest, is located on a farm near Harlan. Delbert G. is also located in that vicinity as a farmer. Harvey is on the old home place. Emma is the wife of Albert Neuenschwander, of Grabill, and Viola, the youngest, is at home with her parents. In 1903 the wife and mother died and in later years Mr. Amstutz married Lydia Grabill, who has since shared his fortunes. Mr. Amstutz is a Republican, prominent in local politics, and a public-spirited citizen first and last. He has served his community ably as a director of the school board and has been supervisor of his township on several occasions, as well as holding other township offices from time to time. In all of them he has displayed an aptitude for public service and has amply earned the regard and esteem in which he has long been held by his fellow citizens and neighbors.
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FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY
Charles Ashley .- As senior member of the firm of George L. Ashley's Sons, the subject of this review is one of the progressive and successful representatives of the real estate business in his native county, and sinee the death of their honored father he and his brother, George S., have successfully conducted the substantial business that was founded by the father after he had retired from the office of county recorder, the family having been one of prominence in Allen county for three generations. Charles Ashley was born on a farm in St. Joseph township, this county, a few miles distant from Fort Wayne, and the date of his nativity was Mareh 11, 1876. He is a son of George L. and Josephine (Darling) Ashley, the former of whom was born and reared in this county, where his parents settled in the pioneer days, and the latter was born at Keene, New Hampshire. The parents of George L. Ashley settled in Allen county as pioneers and his father here became a prosperous farmer, with which line of basic industry he continued to be identified until his death. George L. was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and in his independent operations as an agrieulturist and stoekgrower he eventually became the owner of one of the model farms of St. Joseph township. To the management of this homestead he continued to give his attention until he was elected county reeorder, in the autumn of 1904, his inviolable hold upon popular confidence and esteem having been signifieantly shown in this connection, as he successfully overcame at the polls the large and normal Democratic majority and had the distinction of being the only Republiean elected to this office in the county during the entire period of its history. He assumed the duties of the office Janu- ary 1, 1905, and his able administration during the ensuing four years fully demonstrated the consistency of the popular choice of an incumbent. After retiring from office he established himself in the real estate business in Fort Wayne, and his exact and comprehensive knowledge of realty values in this section of the state combined with his executive ability and personal popularity to fortify him splendidly in the development of a substantial business, his two sons having been associated with him in the enterprise which they have effectively continued since his death. George L. Ashley was a man of broad mental ken, of invineible rectitude in all of the relations of life, and held himself true to his high ideals until he passed from the stage of his mortal endeavors, January 5, 1916, the wife of his youth having passed away on the 7th of January, 1879, leaving one son, the immediate subject of this sketch. Mrs. Ashley was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as was also her husband. He married, second, Addessa M. Miller and she bore him the following children : Olive E., wife of Arthur J. Smith, of Fort Wayne; Oscar J., died in 1913; George S., junior member of the real estate firm of George L. Ashley's Sons, and Josephine Margaret, wife of Calvin C. Magley, of Fort Wayne. He married, third, Mrs. Zella Culber, who survives him. Mr. Ashley attained to the thirty-second degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry, and it is pleasing to note that he was treasurer of the class of 1912, in which he and his three sons simultaneously received the thirty- second degree and were duly erowned sublime prinees of the royal seeret. In the publie schools of his native county Charles Ashley continued his studies until he had duly availed himself of the advantages of the high school in Fort Wayne, after which he completed a course in a well ordered business college in this eity. He continued to be associated in the work and management of the home farm until he was twenty-four years old
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
and when his father was elected county recorder he assumed a position in the recorder's office, in which he served as his father's deputy during the latter's regime of four years, after which he became a member of the firm of George L. Ashley & Sons, in the real estate business in Fort Wayne. After the death of the honored father the present title of George L. Ashley's Sons was adopted, and the firm controls a well ordered and substantial business in the handling of both city and farm property in this section of the state. Mr. Ashley holds himself unwavering in allegiance to the Republican party, and in addition to his affiliation with the Masonic fraternity, as previously intimated, he is identified also with the Tribe of Ben Hur, both he and his wife being members of the Methodist Episco- pal church. In 1900 was recorded his marriage to Miss Jessie V. Sweet, who was born and reared in Fort Wayne, and they have two children- Charles L. and Marjorie R.
Mark Ashton, who was born in Maumee township, January 11, 1876, is now numbered among the representative exponents of agricultural and live-stock industry in this township, his excellent farm, comprising seventy-five acres, being well improved and eligibly situated. Mr. Ashton is a son of Ambrose and Mary Annie (Cummins) Ashton, both natives of Ohio, the former having been born in Brown county and the latter in Clermont county, and both having been children at the time of the removal from the old Buckeye state to become pioneer settlers of Allen county, Indiana. After their marriage Ambrose Ashton and his young wife estab- lished their home on a farm in Maumee township, and there they passed the remainder of their earnest and industrious lives, the passing years bringing to them a consistent measure of prosperity, the while they had inviolable place in the esteem of all who knew them. They became the parents of seven children, and all are living except Clark, who was a twin of the subject of this sketeh and who died at an early age, and Clarence F., the youngest of the number, who is also deceased. The sur- viving children are George F., Mrs. Nellie A. Doerring, Joseph L., Mrs. Lily D. Keefer, and Mark. The honored father passed from the stage of his mortal endeavors December 24, 1895, the devoted wife and mother having been summoned to eternal rest October 3, 1892. Ambrose Ashton played a large and benignant part in the community life, commanded unqualified confidence and esteem, served as township trustee of Maumee township, and for a number of years held the office of justice of the peace. Mark Ashton is indebted to the public schools of his native county for his early education, and he has been continuously identified with agricultural pursuits from the time of his youth, his independent cpera- tions having been instituted on the old home farm, of which his present well improved farm is a part. His political support is given to the Republican party, he is a loyal citizen who gives co-operation in the furtherance of measures and enterprises advanced for the general good of the community, but he has manifested no ambition for public office of any kind. November 1, 1900, stands as the date of the marriage of Mr. Ashton to Miss Lela H. Burrier, who likewise was born and reared in this county and who is a member of a family that was here established in the early pioneer days. She is a daughter of George and Alice (Sanders) Burrier. Mr. and Mrs. Ashton have four children, whose names and respective dates of birth are here designated: Florence M., December 22, 1903; George B., September 20, 1906; Frances L., January 30, 1909; and Forrest C., December 25, 1912.
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FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY
Austin Augspurger is one of the progressive citizens of Maumee township, with place of residence at Woodburn, where he is engaged in the lumber business and also gives some attention to farming. Mr. Augspurger was born, May 23, 1869, and is a scion of a highly respected family, a number of members of which are residents of the city of Fort Wayne. In the lumber business Mr. Augspurger finds opportunity for the exercise of those qualities of thrift and energy with which he is abundantly endowed, and his activities add to the general spirit of enterprise and endeavor which characterizes the prosperous village of Woodburn.
The Athenaeum-The following interesting treatise on one of Fort Wayne's modern educational institutions outlines the scope and the accomplishments of The Athenaeum-the Teachers' University of Com- merce-which is preparing great numbers of young people for success in the business world: "Yesterday's solutions won't solve tomorrow's problems. Yesterday's strategies won't surmount tomorrow's obstacles. Yesterday's means are not adequate to tomorrow's demands. Men, methods, ideas, change with the hour. Humanity moves with the calen- dar. Efficiency is the watchword of modern enterprise. To perform a task better, and still better than it was ever performed before; to save time; to eliminate waste; to husband material; to conserve human en- ergy; all is the keynote of every successful project, be it corporate or individual. Tasks which appeared infinite twenty-four hours agone are accepted as a common fact a day hence. In the sphere of education, as elsewhere, has the spirit of the age been markedly felt. Theory has culminated in fact; speculation has given place to certainty ; concentra- ยท tion has displaced sporadic effort; misdirected energies have been de- veloped into effective forces; methods and systems have been subordin- ated to results desired. A process of distillation, as it were, has been going on. The great fact of existence has been subjected to the care- ful scrutiny of the keenest minds, and the result is a scheme of education which more and more nearly approaches the practical; which approxi- mates the instruction of the individual to the needs of real life. Hand and mind are coming to be trained alike to the solution of the struggles which each one must encounter as a sentient being, dependent upon his own powers for subsistence. In this condition began the present world- wide vocational movement of which the modern commercial training institution is a paramountly important part. In the early part of the present century, Mr. W. J. Bowker and Mr. A. B. Sheron, with the prescience which comes only of strenuous experience, perceived the great field open to a school of learning devoted entirely to the higher lines of this great branch of vocational effort, commercial education. Still further did they realize the splendid results which might accrue to such an institution were its student body selected from a class of people whose education and experience were entirely compatible with, and a logical prerequisite to, the assimilation of such knowledge. The Athenaeum, with its splendid body of former teachers in the public schools, was the magnificent results. As 'Mighty Oaks from Tiny Acorns Grow', as great crusades are born in the development of the few, so do gigantic enter- prises unfold themselves from small beginnings. The lofty structure is but the duplication of story upon story ; the great is but the small built big. The Athenaeum in its incipiency did not differ from a multitude of other great works; its beginning was unpretentious. He who would achieve by new methods must often batter to a breach a granite wall of precon-
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
ceived opinion and bias prejudice which will try his soul to the utter- most. With men and states, progress sometimes means near-revolution. The world acknowledges but grudgingly a victory in the winning of which she was not invited to actively participate. In this also, the Athenaeum was like to pioneers in other fields who left the broad avenues and blazed new trails; storms often elouded the skies of its earlier days. It promulgated a new plan of education. It held forth a new idea of instruction to the youth, that which eliminated all which did not di- rectly bear upon the pursuit in which he purposed to win his subsistenee ; all which was not a pertinent and necessary part thereof being discarded. It sought patronage from only an adult elass of students, whose age, previous education and experience had peculiarly fitted them to enter upon the study of higher commerce with a full realization of the re- sponsibilities thereof. In this last its student body was finally limited to those individuals who had formerly been teachers in the public schools, and who by reason of such previous employment were most free from undesirable or deterrent temperamental characteristics. Still another departure from the beaten paths was inaugurated in that the institution offered a plan of study to be followed by the student at his home, without the immediate presence of the instructor. Thus were the benefits of the work of the institution placed within the reach of those who, by reason of insufficient financial means were unable to cease their daily employment, and who might otherwise have been prevented from ever seeuring the education of their choice. With a meagre number of students as a nucleus, class followed upon class; year succeeded year ; time sped on as only time can to those whose waking hours are filled with busy toil. With a steadfast faith in the everlasting correctness of its ideals, the institution forged steadily ahead with an ever-widening influence. First from adjacent counties, then from neighboring states, and finally from far-distant places over the entire country eame patrons, leaders of their respective communities. In like degree was the staff of the institution increased by the addition of members especially trained to perform the duties assigned to them, until the present organization of nearly three seore instructors, secretaries, division superintendents and assistants was perfected. Today, wherever commercial education is known and accepted throughout this broad land, The Athenaeum stands forth to beekon the ambitious on toward greater accomplish- ment. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to the Gulf, come splendid types of men and women to seeure the superior benefits to be derived from the magnificent organization of the institution and the unbounded enthusiasm which pervades its every member. With an in- comparable student body of former teachers, results are being ac- complished which until the most recent years would have been deemed incredible. Here, indeed, has a new standard of business education been unfurled to the world of commerce; here has leadership been won and maintained by the soundest of doetrines-Progress-Efficiency-At- tainment."
Alfred T. Bailey is one of the three executive principals of the Ban- ner Laundering Company and has been an energetic and resourceful factor in the development and upbuilding of the prosperous and repre- sentative business now controlled by this company, which has one of the most modern and effectively conducted of laundry plants, with facilities of metropolitan order, the Banner laundry being one of the largest and best equipped in northern Indiana and its effective service having gained
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FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY
and retained to it a representative and appreciative patronage. The business had its inception in 1896, when Messrs. Oscar C. Leggett, Ade- laide V. Leggett and Alfred T. Bailey opened a modest laundry near the corner of Woodlawn and Calhoun streets. One year later removal was made to 1317 Calhoun street, where the headquarters of the concern were maintained eight years. The business had in the meanwhile greatly ex- panded and at the expiration of the period noted the company found it virtually necessary to establish larger and better quarters, with the re- su t that wise expediency was conserved by the erection of its present substantial two-story building, at 425 East Columbia street. The main building is forty by eighty-three feet in dimensions, the original engine room being thirty-six by thirty feet in dimensions and an addition, thirteen by sixteen feet, having been made to the same. Beginning with a force of only two assistants, the company now gives employment to seventy persons and in the handling of its business nine of the best met- ropolitan type of wagons are utilized. Oscar C. Leggett, one of the hon- ored founders of this important enterprise, continued his association with the same until his death, which occurred April 26, 1916, and the interested principals of the firm are now Adelaide V. Leggett, Alfred T. Bailey, and Grace E. Bailey. In August, 1915, the company was in- corporated under the laws of Indiana and with a capital stock of twenty- five thousand dollars. Alfred T. Bailey was born in Eaton county, Michigan, on August 26, 1869, and acquired his early education in the public schools of Ingham county, that state. His initial business experi- ence was gained as clerk in a general merchandise store at Lansing. Later he held a clerical position in the postoffice at that place, and finally he gained two years of practical and effective experience in the laundry business. In 1896 he came to Fort Wayne and became one of the founders of the Banner Laundering Company, of which he has remained one of the interested principals to the present time, his close application to husi- ness having not precluded his taking a loyal interest in civic affair and in doing his part to further the advancement of his home. He is actively identified with the Fort Wayne Commercial Club and the Rotary lub, and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. He and his wife are popu- lar in the social activities of Fort Wayne, Mrs. Bailey, whose maiden name was Grace Davis, having been a resident of this city at the time of their marriage. Their children are Robert L. and Grace Elizabeth.
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