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 25
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Charles B. Fitch .- To the city of Fort Wayne Charles Byron Fitch is contributing a life of devotion to its constant betterment. No one more clearly than he sees beyond the present and grasps a vision of the Fort Wayne of the future-a Fort Wayne of opportunities for develop- ment along every commendable line of human endeavor. On many public occasions, specially since the year 1910, his voice has been raised in pleading for concerted, advanced thought to enable the city of Fort Wayne to come into the full realization and enjoyment of her high place among the cities of the middle west. Of late his special endeavor has been to direct the attention of the public to the need of modern housing conditions for the thousands of new citizens who are drawn to the city through the demands of its enlarging commercial and manufacturing institutions. Mr. Fitch is engaged in the general insurance business in
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Fort Wayne and in this line has risen to a place of leadership. He was born in Medina county, Ohio, May 23, 1859, the son of William W. and Aurelia (Brintnall) Fitch. His father was born in Charlemont, Massa- chusetts, and was twelve years of age when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Ohio, where he was reared to maturity and where he became a successful farmer, his connection with this basic line of industry continuing until his death, in 1867. In Ohio was solemnized his marriage to Miss Aurelia Brintnall, who was born in Seneca county, New York, and of their seven children all are living, in 1917, except one son who died while serving as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war. The first of the Fitch family to reach America from England-the Rev. James Fitch-settled in Rhode Island in 1637, and became one of the founders of that colony. It is related that at one time he sold fifteen thousand acres of land in Massachusetts for one hundred and twenty-five pounds. Nine generations of Fitches since the Rev. James Fitch are easily traceable. There is a clear record of the English ancestry back to the year 1567. Charles B. Fitch, after attending the public schools in Ohio, came in 1873 to Fort Wayne, where he continued his studies. At the age of seventeen years he was engaged in teaching school to gain the means for continuing his studies in the high school. Following his schooling he spent three years in the mercantile and grain business at Avilla, Noble county, Indiana. In 1882, when the Fort Wayne Jenney Electric Light Company-forerunner of the present Fort Wayne plant of the General Electric Company-was organized, he accepted with the institution a position as assistant manager. He remained with the com- pany until 1891, when he entered the life insurance field, as the general agent for northeastern Indiana of the National Life Insurance Company of Montpelier, Vermont. He has continued, with the wide growth of his business, to handle the insurance of this company, while at the same time handling other lines of insurance-including fire, liability and all classes of insurance, all of them having been developed to large proportions. To-day his agency represents some of the strongest and best companies in the world. Mr. Fitch is a recognized authority on insurance matters. For two years he served as actuary of the insurance department of Indiana, under the regime of State Auditor William H. Hart. Mr. Fitch is a member of Plymouth Congregational church. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Knight Templar, of which order he is past commander, a Shriner, and a member of the Lodge of Elks. His membership in the Commercial Club and the Quest Club, of which bodies he has served as president, afford wide opportunity for efforts along commercial and civic lines, and these have no more active and earnest exponents than Mr. Fitch. In politics he is a Republican. The wife of Mr. Fitch was formerly Miss Elizabeth Fryer, a daughter of the late Henry Fryer, of Avilla, Noble county, this state. Mr. and Mrs. Fitch have one daughter, Geraldine, who is ten years of age, in 1917.
Harvey Fitch is another of the native sons of Allen county who has given good account of himself as one of the world's productive workers and is now living virtually retired in the attractive village of Hunter- town, Perry township. He is a stockholder in the Farmers' Mutual Telephone Company and is president of the Huntertown Cemetery As- sociation. The lineage of the Fitch family traces back to sterling English origin and the original American representatives of the family came to this country in the colonial period of our national history. Harvey
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Fitch was born on a pioneer farm in Perry township, this county, July 15, 1853, a son of Nathaniel and Sarah Elizabeth (Delong) Fitch, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio, their marriage having been solemnized in Allen county, Indiana. Nathaniel Fitch, Jr., father of the subject of this review, bore the full name of his father, who was a successful agriculturist in Pennsylvania. Reared and educated in the old Keystone State, Nathaniel, Jr., was a young man when he came from Pennsylvania to Allen county, in 1832, and obtained a homestead claim of government land in Perry township, two and one-half miles east of the present village of Huntertown. He was a blacksmith by trade and it is worthy of historic note that he forged the lock irons used on the old canal extending from Fort Wayne to the Wabash river. He reclaimed his farm from the virtual wilderness and became one of the honored and influential citizens of Perry township. His marriage to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Delong was solemnized on June 14, 1840, and they forthwith established their home on the pioneer farm in Perry town- ship, where Mr. Fitch also established a blacksmith shop in which he continuel to do a large amount of work at his trade, being one of the pioneer exponents of this sturdy vocation within the borders of Allen county. His shop is still standing and is one of the pioneer landmarks of this part of the county. Mr. Fitch developed one of the excellent farms of the county, was active in community affairs and served for a number of years as township trustee. He was about seventy years of age at the time of his death and his widow, one of the gracious and revered pioneer women of the county, attained to the venerable age of ninety years. Mr. Fitch left the parental home when he was a lad of but fifteen years, and he bore with him in a bandana handkerchief all of his forldly possessions, except the rifle which he considered an essential part of his equipment. He made the journey from Pennsylvania to Allen county on foot and eventually became one of the largest landholders in this county, his estate at one time having comprised about thirty-two thousand acres, besides which he became the owner of lands in Iowa. He was one of the most vigorous and ambitious of the pioneers of Allen county and in ad- dition to his farm industry and his work as a blacksmith owned and operated a saw mill near the Dekalb county line and developed also a substantial wool-carding business. He was specially well known for his great pedestrian powers, and he almost invariably made trips to and from his farm and Fort Wayne on foot. The ruins of his pioneer saw mill, which was operated by water power, are still to be seen, and in all, he was a sterling and progressive citizen who contributed much to the furth- erance of civic and material development and advancement in Allen county. He and his noble wife, who shared with him in the vicissitudes of pioneer life and in the prosperity of later years, her death having oc- curred, September 6, 1908, became the parents of fourteen children, and thus gave their full quota of hostages to fortune. The eldest son, Perry, wedded Miss Sarah Elizabeth Gloyd, May 12, 1861, and continued his residence in Allen county until his death, April 18, 1900; Matthias, the second son, married Miss Francis Vandalia, December 1, 1867; Charles married Miss Louisa N. Clubb, April 12, 1868; Mary Jane became the wife of Levi Beers, December 24, 1873; Frances wedded Christian Fair, November 26, 1874; Fitilda became the wife of Jerome Gloyd, October 6, 1875; Amos wedded Miss Nancy Elizabeth Hunter, November 27, 1878; Harvey, of this review, was the next in order of birth; Sarah Elizabeth
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became, December 18, 1881, the wife of Irwin Stratton; Emeline became the wife of Allen Monroe Hartsell, December 28, 1881; David Nathaniel wedded Miss Emma Belle Sterling, June 1, 1878; Idealice became the wife of Melvin Arthur Mason, October 8, 1891; Allen married Emeline Green, May 25, 1893 ; and Nancy died September 1, 1848, as a child. The honored father, Nathaniel Fitch, died June 1, 1877. Harvey Fitch, to whom this review is dedicated, acquired his early education in the district schools and in Perry Center Seminary, an excellent educational institution of the pioneer days in Allen county history. He continued his studies at intervals until he was about eighteen years of age, and in the meanwhile had gained close and effective fellowship with the sturdy work of the farm. He continued as an exponent of agricultural industry in Perry township and after his marriage, at the age of twenty-eight years, he established his residence on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, hard by the old homestead of his father. Later he purchased a portion of his father's old homestead and there continued his activities as a progressive agriculturist and stockgrower for a period of about fourteen years, with- in which he had made his farm one of the model rural demesnes of his native township. About 1906 Mr. Fitch removed with his family to his present attractive home at Huntertown, where he has since lived practic- ally retired, though he still gives close supervision to his various real estate and capitalistic interests. His political allegiance is given unre- servedly to the Democratic party and he is well fortified in his opinions concerning governmental and economic affairs. He is a charter member of the lodge of Free and Accepted Masons at Huntertown, and both le and his wife are zealous members of the Universalist church. Their home is known for its gracious hospitality and in the same cordial welcome is always assured to their wide circle of friends. On August 30, 1879, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fitch to Miss Etta Permelia Parker, who was born and reared in this county, a daughter of the late Dunbar and Permelia Parker, of Huntertown. Mr. and Mrs. Fitch have five chil- dren ; Audrey, who completed a course in the Angola College and is now with the wife of George Hursh, of Perry township; Nina completed her education in Valparaiso University and is now the wife of Henry A. Emerick, of Fort Wayne; Parker Eugene, who has charge of the old homestead farm of his father and whose final educational discipline was gained in Angola College, wedded Miss Alma Urbine; Cecil completed the curriculum of the Huntertown public schools and is now the wife of Varnie E. McComb, of Huntertown; and Ernest is a member of the class of 1917 in the Fort Wayne Business College.
Monroe W. Fitch & Sons are known among the spirited and suc- cessful representatives of the insurance and real estate business in Fort Wayne, Monroe W. Fitch being associated with his two sons-Delmer C. and Eugene M .- under the firm title of Monroe W. Fitch & Sons, with offices at the corner of Berry and Clinton streets. The father was born in Medina county, Ohio, and in his youth rounded out an effective educa- tion by attending Oberlin College. For more than twenty years he owned and operated a fine stock farm in Medina county, and from the same made extensive shipments of high-grade horses to the Eastern market. In 1892 he came to Fort Wayne and engaged in the livery busi- ness, but after one year abandoned this enterprise to become associated with his brother, Charles B. Fitch, in the fire insurance business. In 1898 the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Fitch then became associated
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with his two sons, Delmer C. and Eugene M. Fitch, in forming the pres- ent representative insurance firm of Monroe W. Fitch & Sons. The office headquarters of the firm were maintained at 86 Calhoun street until June, 1903, when the purchase of the Hartnett Insurance Agency was effected and removal was made to the well appointed office of the latter, at the corner of Berry and Clinton streets, where is now controlled by the firm a large and substantial general insurance and real estate business. Delmer C. Fitch was likewise born at Medina, Ohio, and is a son of Monroe W. and Emma V. Fitch. In the public schools of his native county he con- tinued his studies until he had availed himself fully of the advantages of the Medina high school, after which he came to Fort Wayne and took a clerical position in the shoe store of his uncle. Two years later he advanced from this post to that of clerk in the offices of the Farmers' Loan Association, but within a short interval was prompted to take an assistant superentendency in the local office of the celebrated Prudential Insurance Company. Energy and ability were shown in later association with other leading insurance agencies in Fort Wayne, and finally, in 1898, he became associated with his father and brother, as previously indicated. The Fitch & Sons ageney is well managed and well balanced. They do a large fire insurance business, are general agents for Northeastern In- diana for the Maryland Casualty Company, of Baltimore, Md., handling all the business for that company in Northeastern Indiana. They also do a large and profitable life insurance business for the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Boston, as well as quite an extensive loan business, this department being managed by Delmer C. Fitch. The Real Estate Department is headed by Monroe W. and Eugene M. Fitch, they having several able assistants. They do a large city and suburban business. One of the additions being put on at the time this goes to press is the beautiful subdivision and high class, exclusive residence dis- trict known as Crestholme Circle, which is already known to be a great success. They have always made a specialty of handling farms over a wide territory in Northeastern Indiana and Northwestern Ohio, having to their credit many of the largest sales ever closed in this section in the land business. Delmer C. Fitch is identified with the Fort Wayne Real Estate Exchange, the Northern Indiana Underwriters Association, and the Indiana Federation of Fire Insurance Agents. In the Masonic fra- ternity he is affiliated with the Scottish Rite body, as well as with the Mystic Shrine, and he is identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the Fort Wayne Commercial Club and the Fort Wayne Country Club.
William Fogwell .- One of the fine farms of Allen county is that owned by William Fogwell, now retired from active farming operations. He was long ranked among the most prosperous and progressive farming men of the county and the rest he now enjoys is one that was well earned in a long period of sturdy adherence to his chosen work. Mr. Fogwell son of Samnel and Mathilda (Davis) Fogwell. The parents were born in son of Samuel and Mathilda (David) Fogwell. The parents were born in Maryland, in the vicinity of Hagerstown. In 1839 Samuel Fogwell came to Indiana, settling in Allen county, in 1839, and making Lafayette town- ship his home. He bought a farm and operated it, giving some attention to his trade as a cooper. He prospered and died on the home place, esteemed by all who knew him. His widow survived for a time and died at the old home place. Mr. Fogwell was a Whig in his early days and
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later became a Republican, and he was one of the leaders of his com- munity as long as he lived. He was progressive, energetic and capable and served his township for years as trustee. He was a member of the Universalist church. Eleven children were born to him and his wife. They were named Mary, William, Anna, Eliza, Jacob, Rebecca, Catherine, the widow of Henry Lopshire, Samuel, David, Martha, Alice and Alfred. Mary, Jacob, Rebecca, Samuel, David, Martha and the two youngest are deceased. William Fogwell attended the public schools of Allen county as a boy and divided his time between his studies and his father's farm up to the age of twenty-one years. He then rented a farm and started out on his own responsibility. His success from the beginning was unusual and he was soon able to buy his first piece of land, a tract of seventy-four acres which has continued to be his home from that time to the present. His next purchase was a forty acre tract adjoining, and he has added one tract after another to his holdings until he today is the owner of between four and five hundred acres of the finest land in the county. He specilalized largely in stock and dairy farming in the ac- tive years of his life, and his fine cattle and hogs were his pride. Mr. Fogwell has retired from active work and the farm is now being con- ducted by his son. He is a veteran of the Civil war, having spent three years in the service. He enlisted in August, 1862, in Company C, 74th Indiana Infantry, and continued through to the cessation of hostilities. His command participated in many of the severest engagements of the war, among them being Chickamaugua, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Moun- tain and the Siege of Atlanta. He was wounded in action on July 9, 1864, and on February following re-entered the ranks and continued until the surrender a few months later. He is a Republican, and served his township as supervisor. He was married on September 29, 1856, to Mary, daughter of John Nicodemus of Allen county, and she died leaving eight children. February, 1877, Mr. Fogwell married Miss Julia A. Smith, daughter of Henry Smith, of Huntington county, Indiana, and one son, Richard, has been born to them. He is engaged in carrying on the farm since his father retired. Mr. Fogwell is grandfather to twelve children and a great-grandfather to five. Mrs. Fogwell was born on April 13, 1848.
David N. Foster .- While, for the past forty years, Colonel David N. Foster has been intimately identified with nearly every activity designed for the good of the people of Fort Wayne, he will be best remembered by coming generations as the "father" of the present city park system. It is of such a man that this sketch treats-a type of citizen which has enabled Fort Wayne to take and to maintain a leading position among the municipalities of the middle west. Colonel Foster was born in Coldenham, Orange County, New York, April 24, 1841. At the early age of fourteen, he left his father's farm and commenced his career as a business man in the capacity of "bundle boy" in the store of W. E. Lawrence, an old-time New York City dry goods merchant. In 1859, at the age of eighteen, in company with his brother, Scott Foster, he formed the retail dry goods firm of Foster Brothers, of New York City, which firm, in 1868, turned its attention to the west and opened its first branch establishments. In 1861, Colonel Foster enlisted as a private in the Ninth New York State Militia. With this regiment he saw three years of severe service in the Union army, resigning, at length, because of dis- ability arising from wounds. He was the first volunteer from Orange
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county, New York, in the Civil war. He came home from the service captain of the company in which he enlisted as a private, having, mean- while, gone through the lesser grades of corporal, sergeant and lieutenant. In 1871, Colonel Foster came to Indiana and opened the store of Foster Brothers at Terre Haute, which is still in existence. In 1873 he was attracted into the field of newspaperdom and withdrew from the Terre Haute firm. At Grand Rapids, Mich., he established the Saturday Even- ing Post, a literary and news paper, an enterprise which met with marked success. In 1877, Colonel Foster's attention was directed to the wide-awake city of Fort Wayne, and he sold his newspaper at such a satisfactory figure that he was enabled to re-enter the old firm of Foster Brothers, which had established the Fort Wayne branch in 1868 on a scale that had made the business at once a leader in the city. One of the earliest acts of Colonel Foster which exhibits his public-spiritedness was the effort to secure the passage by the Indiana legislature of 1882 of the Public Library act by which libraries would come under the direct con- trol of the boards of public school trustees, and which should be estab- lished through the levying of a special tax by the city council. The present public library and its excellent management are the outgrowth of this pioneer effort. In 1885, Colonel Foster was chosen Department Commander of the Indiana Grand Army of the Republic, in which organi- zation he has been deeply interested and in which his activities have resulted in the accomplishment of splendid benefits to his former brothers in arms. He is a member of the Loyal Legion of the Commandery of Indiana, and in 1895 was its junior vice commander. He was largely instrumental in the establishment of the Indiana State Soldiers' Home at Lafayette, his service as a member of the commission which selected the site and purchased the grounds proving of high value to those of his companions who sought only the highest good of the remaining members of the country's defenders. He helped to prepare the bill which estab- lished the home and succeeded in securing its passage by the legislature. Governor Claude Matthews appointed him to serve as a member of the first board of trustees of the institution. He served a second term under the appointment of Governor James A. Mount. In 1891, with a clear vision of Fort Wayne's future growth, Colonel Foster organized the Fort Wayne Land and Improvement Company, which assumed the big task of creating the present beautiful section of the city known as Lake- side. With a firm belief that saloons should not be permitted in residence districts, he advised that the sale of liquors be forever prohibited in that addition, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres, and the company so decided. The same clause was subsequently placed in the provisions of other contiguous and neighboring additions, until an area of five hun- dred acres in that part of the city never knew the presence of a saloon. In the same year that the Fort Wayne Land and Improvement Company came into existence, Colonel Foster assisted in the organization of the Tri-State Loan and Trust Company as the subscriber for the first twenty- five shares of the company's stock. He was one of the original stock- holders which, under the leadership of Theodore F. Thieme, organized the great corporation known as the Wayne Knitting Mills. He was one of the organizers of the German-American National bank and the German- American Trust Company. He was one of the original stockholders of the Huntington Trust Company, and, in 1907, he organized the People's Trust Company, at Muncie, Indiana, which bought out the People's Na-
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tional bank of that city and succeeded to its business. He assisted in the organization of the Indiana Road Machine Company and the Fort Wayne Furniture Company. The latter concern, like a great many furniture manufactories, met failure in the financial panic of 1893. Colonel Foster was left with something like $50,000 of endorsed paper to pay. It has always been a matter of pride to him that the entire obligation was paid, one hundred cents on the dollar, principal and interest, "and without the loss of a single night's rest." Colonel Foster was an active spirit in the organization of the Fort Wayne Hotel Company which built the Anthony hotel, one of the leading places of entertainment in the middle west. He was one of the organizers of the Commercial Improvement Com- pany, which purchased the Rockhill farm and made possible the large industrial district immediately west of the city, known as Westfield. The object of this company was not to create financial gain but to add greatly to the city's manufacturing interests. At the time of the destruction of the old covered bridge over the Maumee river at East Main street, Colonel Foster led a two years' "fight" which finally resulted in its re-location at Columbia street, thus giving that oldest of business streets a direct approach over the river from the east and north where before it had always had a dead end at Lafayette street. Colonel Foster was one of the leaders in the erection of the splendid home of the Young Women's Christian Association on West Wayne street. He served as a member of the building committee. He is a member of the First Presby- terian church, and was a member of the building committee which erected the present church building. For several years he served as a member of the board of trustees of the church society. For nearly all his life, Colonel Foster has been a Republican, but he uniformly refused political office. In 1912, believing that the management of the Republican party had fallen into the hands of scheming politicians, he joined the move- ment for the organization of the Progressive party, and was chosen a delegate to the Chicago convention which nominated Theodore Roosevelt for the presidency. For some years he was the president of Hope Hos- pital association, and has always been active in behalf of this valuable institution. In fact, there has scarcely been any public activity in any direction in Fort Wayne for nearly forty years in which Colonel Foster has not borne an active part. But, as has been suggested before, he be- lieves his most valuable service and that which will longest endure has been performed through his long connection with the Board of Park Com- missioners of Fort Wayne. As its president he has given to the duties of the office for many years nearly one-half of his time without other compensation than that which comes from the performance of public service. He will always be remembered as the "father" of the present splendid park system of Fort Wayne. In 1909, in connection with his brother, Samuel M. Foster, he donated to the city Foster Park, the largest, and in some respects the most useful and most beautiful of all the parks of Fort Wayne. He has said that the only praise to which he and his brother are entitled in this connection is the credit of having shown discriminating sense in the selection of a monument which would endure and grow more beautiful and more serviceable as the years go by. Colonel Foster is inclined to think that he was the first of Fort Wayne business men to incorporate a retail business. The D. N. Foster Furniture Com- pany was incorporated in 1884, the business which had heretofore been a partnership having been established in Fort Wayne in 1868. This busi-
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