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 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89
211
FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY
and Caroline (Vosier) Perriguey, of Fort Wayne, and they have five children : Bernadette is the wife of William Baughman, of Fort Wayne; Edna is the wife of Harry Miller, of this city; and Arthur, Hilda and Clarence remain at the parental home.
Benjamin F. Geyer, sales manager of the Wayne Oil Tank Company, is one of the younger men who are making distinctive impress on the business life of Fort Wayne. He was born at Plymouth, Indiana, May 7, 1882, his parents being Ferdinand F. and Augusta M. (Wollenhaupt) Geyer, the former having been born in 1847 in Wurtemberg, Germany, and the latter in 1856 at Dayton, Ohio. Benjamin F. was educated in the public schools of his native town and of Monroeville, Indiana, the family having moved to the latter place. From the local schools he went to Indiana University for three years. He taught in the high school of Monroeville in 1903-4, and then took a special course in advertising at Chicago for two years, concurrent with which he was employed in the office of the Western Electric Company. Returning to Monroeville he taught another year and in 1907 took a position with Bowser & Company. Here he made an excellent record and had become assistant advertising manager when, in 1912, he relinquished that place to become advertising manager of the Wayne Oil Tank Company. Since then his progress has continued and from 1914 he has been. sales manager of this concern. Under his guidance the business has already increased upwards of 300 per cent. Mr. Geyer was married August 24, 1909, to Blanche M., daugh- ter of Josiah B. and Mary (Bauserman) Miller. They are members of Simpson M. E. church and he is a member of the Masonic order, having been Worshipful Master of Monroeville Lodge, No. 293.
Henry W. Gibson .- One of the Marion township farmers who were brought up on the soil and have a life-long acquaintance with it is Henry W. Gibson, the son of David and Mary (Reichard) Gibson, pioneers to Mario ? township from Pennsylvania as early as the year 1864. They were study and industrious people and acquired a good deal of land in and about Marion township during the years of their residence there, and prospered in accordance with their efforts. Mr. Gibson was an early Whig and a Democrat from the demise of the first-named party. He was Roman Catholic in his church relations, as was also his wife, and they reared a family of ten children, of whom only the subject is living at this writing. The others were named John, Lydia, Mary, David, Daniel, Theresa, Sarah, Susanna and Frank. Henry W. Gibson was born in Pennsylvania on March 28, 1847, and accompanied his parents to Indiana in 1864. He was educated for the most part in the parochial schools, and spent his young life at home on the family farm, working with his father and doing his full share toward making the farm a success. On the death of the father he inherited a tract of one hundred and forty acres, and he has spent his life thus far in the development of the agri- cultural industry in Marion township. Excellent buildings are a feature of his property, and he carries on a successful business in stock-farming. Mr. Gibson was married on January 14, 1873, to Miss Mary Hipler, the daughter of John and Catherine (Daneberger) Hipler, who came to Amer- ica from Germany in their young lives and settled in Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Gibson became the parents of ten children. Theresa is the wife of William Smith, and they make their home in Fort Wayne. John is also located in Fort Wayne. Henry, Jr., is at home with his parents. Frank lives in Marion township on a farm. Rosa is in Fort Wayne.
212
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCIIES
Clemens is in Fort Wayne also, and the four younger children-Leo, Ambrose, Mary Marie and Emmett-are to be found in the family home. The eldest daughter, Theresa Smith, has four children-Irvin, Eve, Ralph and Willard. John also has four children-Mildred, Elmer, Arnold and Normand. Frank has three children-Oscar, Monroe and Ruth.
Mrs. Lucy Gibson, widow of the late David W. Gibson and daughter of Edward F. and Margaret (Denney) Farrell, was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, on May 20, 1833, and came with her parents to Allen county, Indiana, in 1849. They were farmers and lived prosperously and con- tentedly on their Allen county farm for the remainder of their lives. Mr. Farrell was a Democrat, active in the party ranks, and a member of the Roman Catholic church, as was also his wife. They were the parents of a family of ten children, of whom only two are living. Briefly named, in the order of their appearance, they were Mary M., Margaret, Catherine, Lucy, Elizabeth, Dennis, Edward, Charles, John and Frank. Lucy is the immediate subject of this review. Edward is living in the state of Illinois, and Frank, the youngest of the family, is in Hammond, Indiana. Lucy Farrell was married on February 14, 1865, to David W. Gibson, who was born on March 5, 1838, in Pennsylvania, and was the son of David Gibson, who came to Allen county in the early part of the nineteenth century, bought land and established himself in the farm- ing industry of the county. He was a successful man and his son shared in that prosperity as well. He lived retired for some years prior to his death, which took place on February 2, 1912. He was a Democrat and a member of the board of trustees of Marion township for some years, also serving as township assessor for two terms. He was a man of con- siderable prominence in his community, and his passing was a decided loss in the township. He was a lifelong member of the Roman Catholic church and at the time of his passing had membership in the church at Hessen Cassel. To Mr. and Mrs. Gibson were born four children. Agnes is the wife of Frank Wyss. Edward is a resident of Marion township. Henry and Helen are twins, and both are to be found with the mother on the home place, which Henry has managed for some years. Mrs. Gibson has fourteen grandchildren to her credit. The eldest daughter, Agnes, has eight children, named Charlotte, Celestine, Stella, Frank, Aloysius, Clarence, Viola and Verby. Edward has three sons-Walter, Andrew and Marchant. Henry's children are Irene, Russel and Rodger. Mrs. Gibson is well known in and about Marion township and has a host of staunch friends wherever her endearing and estimable qualities are known.
Howard M. Gieseking is a young man who has shown marked initia- tive and executive ability and has brought the same to bear most effec- tively in connection with farm industry in his native county. He is one of the most extensive and successful agriculturists and stock-growers in Lake township and insistently utilizes the same careful and well ordered business principles that make for success in commercial enterprise but that are far too often neglected in connection with the fundamental enter- prises of which he is an essentially representative exponent. In the live- stock department of his farm operations Mr. Gieseking makes a thorough inventory each year and knows to a dollar what gain his stock is making each month. The same methods are followed so far as consistent in other departments of farm activity, and thus it is not strange that Mr. Gieseking is known as a thoroughly progressive business man, even as he is a loyal
213
FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY
and public-spirited citizen. He is associated with certain of his neighbors in the ownership of a modern threshing outfit, and the fine traction engine that is a part of the equipment is utilized for power. The enterprising farmers who are the owners of this excellent outfit have proved in its operations the value of the investment, for they not only thresh their own grain at minimum cost but also gain an appreciable return for work done for other farmers. The cattle shipped from the farm of Mr. Giese- king, in 1916, were pronounced by an authority from Purdue University to be the best in the state. This is but one assurance of the high standard which he maintains in all phases of his farm business, and it is specially gratifying to accord to him merited consideration in this history. On the old homestead that is an integral part of his present valuable landed estate of three hundred and seventy acres, in Lake township, Howard M. Gieseking was born on June 1, 1882, a son of William F. and Lydia E. (Larimore) Gieseking, both likewise natives of Allen county and repre- sentatives of sterling pioneer families of the same. William F. Gieseking, long one of the representative and honored citizens of the county, still resides on the old homestead with his son, Howard M., his devoted wife having passed away in 1907. He has lived on this farm the major part of his life, reclaimed much of the land from a semi-improved condition and marked the passing years with large and worthy achievement, so that he accumulated a large estate and incidentally did much to further eivic and industrial progress in his native county. All of the land of this extensive property, with the exception of fifty aeres, lies along the Goshen road, and it is one of the best farm properties in Lake township. Howard M. Gieseking acquired his preliminary education in the district schools of Lake township and supplemented this by direct and special courses in the high school at Churubusco. Since he was eighteen years of age he has exercised his energy and administrative ability in connection with the operations of the fine homestead farm of which he is now the owner, the property having been purchasd by him in 1914. He was the fourth in order of birth in a family of five children-Mary, Charles, Alice, Howard M., and John-and the only other of the number now living is Alice, whose home is at Pueblo, Colorado, and her husband is a traveling representative for the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, of Detroit, Michigan. After he had purchased the farm from his father, as above noted, the subject of this review began the raising and feeding of pure- blood white-faced Hereford cattle and pure-bred Duroc-Jersey swine. He adopted the scientific methods of feeding advocated in connection with the agricultural department of Purdue Univerity, and the balanced and selected system of rations has proved its value in no uncertain way in his operations. For the May market, in 1917, Mr. Gieseking had thirty- nine steers, twenty-two grade heifers, and for the July market one hun- dred and five hogs. On his farm he has two of the best type of silos, with an aggregate capacity of four hundred and forty tons. The horse barn on the model farm is forty-four by sixty feet in dimensions; the cattle barn is one hundred and forty by thirty feet; and the sheep barn is sixty by thirty-two feet in dimensions. A cement floored
feeding yard is eighty-two by one hundred and thirty-five feet in dimen- sions ; the granary and feed mill is thirty-two by twenty-two feet; and a private dynamo and full incidental equipment affords modern lighting facilities for both house and the barns, besides supplying power for the feed mill and other purposes. Thorough system obtains in every de-
,
214
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
partment of the farm operations, and the owner gives a most active and efficient supervision to all details. He employs from three to five men, according to season demands, and it has been consistently said that he individually does the work of two men, so indefatigable his energy and so great his enthusiasm as a representative of the noble art of hus- bandry. Mr. Gieseking is an exemplar, and that in a most practical and productive way, of the best systems of scientific agriculture and stock- growing, is a leader in the advocating and use of modern methods and appliances, and is setting an example well worthy of emulation on the part of all who would achieve the maximum of success through farm enterprise. His farm has a traction engine of modern type and all other mechanical equipments are the best that can be obtained, so that the Gieseking farm is a veritable model and one that is a source of general pride to Allen county. Mr. Gieseking is a Republican in politics, as is also his honored father, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On December 24, 1912, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Gieseking to Miss Georgia M. Tea- garden, who was born and reared in this county, as were also her par- ents, Marion and Alice (Jackson) Teagarden, the former of whom is deceased and the latter resides in the city of Fort Wayne. Mrs. Gieseking is the youngest in a family of six children, and Harvey is the eldest. Thomas is deceased ; Edward resides in Fort Wayne, as does also May and Edna remains with her widowed mother. Mr. and Mrs. Gieseking have no children. Their beautiful home is known for its gracious hospitality and is a center of much of the representative social life of the community.
Charles E. Gilbert has established a unique and notably successful business in Fort Wayne, in which his only son, Harold H., is his associate in conducting what has been significantly designated as The Letter Shop. The offices of the firm are located in the Lincoln Life Insurance Building and the best facilities are here afforded for the handling of all kinds of typewritten work, with special attention given to multigraphing letters and other documents. Employment is given to a corps of seven assistants, and the business has met a distinct demand by its service, with the result that it has become a substantial enterprise of important order, touching, as it does, all lines of human interest-religious, fraternal, educational, professional and commercial. Charles E. Gilbert was born in Rockcreek township, Wells county, Indiana, on January 25, 1873, and is a son of Emanuel and Lydia Anne (Schoch) Gilbert, the father, now deceased, having been a carpenter by trade and also one of the successful farmers and influential citizens of Wells county. Charles E. Gilbert passed the period of his childhood and early youth on the home farm and is indebted to the public schools of his native county for his early education, besides which he attended the Indiana State Normal School at Marion for one year. January 4, 1894, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Gilbert to Miss Mary Catherine Harker, daughter of David and Sarah (Teeple) Harker, of Portland, Jay county, Indiana, and the one child of this union is Harold Harker Gilbert. For a number of years Mr. Gilbert was a repre- sentative of the International Correspondence Schools, of Scranton, Penn- sylvania. In 1905 he established his residence and business headquarters in Fort Wayne. On April 1, 1908, he showed his initiative, ability and progressiveness by founding The Letter Shop, and he has made of the enterprise a signal success, as previously intimated in this article. In 1915 he admitted his only son to partnership in the business, and the
215
FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY
latter has proved a valuable young coadjutor. Mr. Gilbert, also his son, is affiliated with Wayne Lodge No. 25, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and in addition both have had conferred the degrees of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and are also affiliated with the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
Guy J. Gilbert has proved a resourceful and successful exponent of the life-insurance business and in the city of Fort Wayne he maintains his official headquarters as general agent for the Lincoln Life Insurance Company, of which he had previously served as special representative. Mr. Gilbert was born at Worthington, Franklin county, Ohio, on August 17, 1871, and is a son of Theodore R. and Ellen L. (Johnson) Gilbert, the father having been likewise a native of the Buckeye state and having devoted the major part of his active business career to mercantile enter- prise, he having been a resident of Angola, Indiana, at the time of his death. He whose name introduces this article gained his early education in the public schools of Angola, Indiana, to which place his parents removed when he was a child. As a youth he served for a time as a clerk in the mail-order department of the Angola postoffice, and in 1899 he established his residence in Fort Wayne, where for twelve years he was employed in the money order division of the postoffice. He then put in one year with the Wildwood building concern. Later he passed eight months in the city of Mobile, Alabama, in the service of the Alabama Farm Land Company, and since that time has been actively and suc- cessfully associated with the Lincoln Life Insurance Company, with which he rose from the position of special representative to that of general agent, with headquarters in Fort Wayne. Mr. Gilbert is an active member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, holds membership in the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is affiliated with the Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, as is he also with the adjunct organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Gilbert was married in September, 1897, to Miss Ida E. Kurrle, of Kendallville, Indiana. She is a daughter of Jacob and Katherine Kurrle. They have three children as follows: Donald C., Paul H. and Robert B.
John Gilbert was a man who held himself true and loyal in all of the relations of life and who marked the passing years with earnest and successful achievement that denoted him as a citizen of worth in the community. He was long numbered among the well-known and sub- stantial business men of Fort Wayne and here maintained his home for nearly thirty-seven years, his age at the time of his death having been seventy years and his passing having been counted a distinct loss in the community life. Mr. Gilbert was born in Tachau, Bohemia, Austria, of German parentage, and the date of his nativity was March 9, 1833. He was about nine years of age at the time of his father's death, but the devoted mother lived for many years thereafter. He and his brother Edward entered upon their school work in Ratisbon, Bavaria, where they attended an important educational institution for three years. Within a comparatively short time thereafter an uncle who had established him- self in business in New York city, as an importer, sent for the two boys, and thus the subject of this memoir was enabled to continue his educa- tional pursuits in Brooklyn, New York, and eventually to be graduated in pharmacy. Young, ambitious and purposeful, he found employment in a drug store, and his experience was eventually extended to touch both
216
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
the retail and wholesale phases of the drug business. From New York city he responded to a call from London, Ontario, Canada, and after having there been employed one year as prescription clerk in a drug store, he turned his face westward and located in Rockford, Illinois, where he was similarly engaged for two years and where he then became the proprietor of a drug store, which he conducted until 1866. While a resi- dent of Rockford, Mr. Gilbert met and married Harriet P. Mandeville, his devoted companion and helpmeet until the close of his life. The cere- mony took place May 27, 1861. Mrs. Gilbert was the daughter of Michael and Elsie Marie (Corey) Mandeville, who passed the closing years of their life in Rockford, where the daughter attended the private and public schools of the city, and where her educational advantages included those of Rockford College. The Mandeville family was founded in Amer- ica in colonial days and the lineage traces back to French-Huguenot origin. The father of Mrs. Gilbert was long a successful exponent of agricultural industry in Winnebago county. He and his wife were born and reared in the state of New York. In 1866 Mr. Gilbert established his home in Fort Wayne. He became general manager of the wholesale and retail drug business of the firm of Meyer Brothers & Company. With this representative Fort Wayne concern he continued his alliance fourteen years, and for the ensuing eleven years he held the position of district manager for the Standard Oil Company, in which connection he made a characteristically admirable record. His death occurred Septem- ber 21, 1903. Mr. Gilbert gave loyal allegiance to the Republican party and always manifested a broad-minded interest in public affairs, both national and local. He was a man whose abiding Christian faith was shown in good works and unfailing toleration and kindliness. He was an earnest and influential member of Plymouth Congregational church, in which his widow still retains active membership, both having been charter members of this now representative religious organization of Fort Wayne. He was a deacon of this church from the time of its organization until his death. For many years Mr. Gilbert maintained active and appre- ciative affiliation with the Masonic fraternity and he was well known and highly honored in both the business and social circles of the com- munity that so long represented his home. Besides the widow, Mr. Gilbert is survived by an adopted daughter, Gertrude, who is the wife of Pierre Plantinga, of Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Gilbert finds in the devotion of her many friends in Fort Wayne a measure of solace and consolation now that the husband of her youth has passed forward to the "land of the leal," and she delights in extending to her friends the hospitality of her pleasant home, at 916 West Washington street. Among the benefi- cent acts of Mrs. Gilbert, and one which suggests the kindly spirit which has ever pervaded her life, comes down from the year 1910, when she presented to the city of Rockford the Mandeville home and the beautiful surroundings, consisting of three acres of wooded land. The spot is known as Mandeville park.
George W. Gillie, who assumed the office of sheriff of Allen county on January 1, 1917, is giving an administration that fully justified the popular choice of the incumbent, and he has become specially well known also as a skilled veterinary surgeon, in which connection he was a deputy state veterinarian from 1909 to 1913, besides which he is serving at the present time as a government inspector for the national bureau of animal industry. Doctor Gillie has been a resident of Allen county since his
217
FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY
childhood, is a scion of fine Scottish lineage and in his character and achievement is a young man who is distinctly exemplifying the sterling traits of the race of which he is a representative. He was born in Ber- wickshire, Scotland, August 15, 1880, and in that same section of the land of hills and heather were born and reared his parents, James and Janet (Taylor) Gillie. James Gillie became a successful agriculturist and stock-grower in his native land and there continued his residence until June, 1882, when he came with his family to the United States, and established his residence at Kankakee, Illinois, where he soon after- ward was made superintendent of construction in the building of the Illinois asylum for the insane. In 1884 he came to Allen county, Indiana, and for sixteen years thereafter was a substantial exponent of agri- cultural and live-stock industry in Washington townshp. For the ensuing ten years he farmed in St. Joseph township, where he then purchased a well-improved farm of one hundred and sixty acres. To this place he continued to give his effective supervision until his death, which occurred October 29, 1911, and his widow still remains on the homestad farm. He was a man of lofty integrity and marked energy, was a Repub- lican in politics and was a member of the Plymouth Congregational church in Fort Wayne, as is also his widow. Mr. Gillie was known for his broad mental ken and for his loyal interest in community affairs. In the Masonic fraternity his ancient-craft affiliation was with Summit City Lodge, in Fort Wayne, and he was a member of the Fort Wayne Commandery of Knights Templars, besides being affiliated with the Scottish Rite branch of Masonry. He was one of the early members of the Caledonian Society of Allen county and in 1889 he effected the organization of the Allen County Plowing Association. Of the children the present sheriff of the county is the eldest; Peter is likewise a veter- inary surgeon and is engaged in the practice of his profession at Mans- field, Ohio; Janet died at the age of seven and Jean at the age of six years; John A. is one of the successful farmers of St. Joseph township; Margaret is the wife of Joseph Pearson, of Ogden, Boone county, Iowa; Agnes is the wife of Arthur Boerger, of Fort Wayne; Harold likewise resides in this city; and James S. remains with his widowed mother on the farm in St. Joseph township. Dr. George W. Gillie was afforded the advantages of the public schools of Fort Wayne and also attended the International Business College in this city. In 1901 he completed a short course in dairy science and industry at Purdue University, Lafayette, this state, and in preparation for his chosen profession entered the University of Ohio, at Columbus, in which he was graduated in 1907, with the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Surgery. In the following year he was appointed milk inspector for Allen county, of which position he continued the incumbent until 1913. He engaged also in the general practice of his profession and from 1909 to 1913 was retained in the position of deputy state veterinarian. He continued in the practice of his profession until the autumn of 1916, and his retirement therefrom came when he was, at that time, elected sheriff of the county, the duties of which office he assumed January 1, 1917. The Doctor is aligned as a staunch advocate of the principles of the Republican party, is identified with the Indiana State Veterinary Association, is affiliated with both York and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, as well as the adjunct organization, the Mystic Shrine, and both he and his wife are popular factors in the social life of their home city. On June 25, 1908,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.