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 43
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served long and faithfully as an earnest church worker until his death, in 1899. His five children were: George T., Spencer V., Leroy, Lily and Dora. George T. James gained his rudimentary education in his native state and was a lad of about twelve years at the time of the family re- moval to Allen county, Indiana, where he continued his studies in the village schools of Maysville, or Harlan of the present day. As a youth he here was identified with farm industry for a period of seven years and then established himself in the general merchandise business at Harlan. He built up a prosperous enterprise and conducted a general store for fifteen years, at the expiration of which he eliminated the dry-goods department. He has since continued to conduct a prosperous business in the handling of groceries and provisions and is one of the leading merchants and representative citizens of Harlan. He is a Republican in politics, has served as a member of the advisory board of Springfield township, is affiliated with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Harlan and he and his wife are earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1871 was solemnized his marriage to Miss Arretta A. Dorsey, and they have seven children-Ellis E., William E., Bertha, Arta, Edith, Lela and Byron. William E. James is indebted to the public schools of his native village for his early educational disci- pline and as a lad became a clerk in his father's store, his service in this capacity having continued several years. He then gained a practical knowledge of the "art preservative of all arts" in a local newspaper office, and has since continued his allegiance to journalism, in connection with which he has achieved success and prestige, as he has been editor and publisher of the Harlan Herald since 1912 and has made the paper an effective exponent of local interests as well as a forceful supporter of the principles of the Republican party. Though he is distinctively progressive and public-spirited as a citizen and wields much influence in community affairs he has manifested no ambition for political office of any kind. He is affiliated with the local lodges of the Masonic fra- ternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his wife are communicants of the Lutheran church. On February 22, 1911, was recorded the marriage of Mr. James to Miss Mary L. Ankrim, who was born and reared in Indiana, a daughter of Richard Ankrim, her father having been born in Ohio and now residing near Harlan. Mr. and Mrs. James have a fine little son, Wilton E., who was born September 15, 1912.
Leland F. Johnson is a mechanical engineer and an able executive, as is clearly demonstrated by his present incumbency of the position of manager of the engineering department in the extensive plant of S. F. Bowser & Company, which represents one of the most important industrial concerns in the city of Fort Wayne. Mr. Johnson has been long and successfully identified with practical engineering work and is one of the progressive men and loyal and public-spirited citizens of the metropolis of Allen county, with secure place in popular confidence and good will. Mr. Johnson was born at Ossian, Wells county, this state, on November 20, 1876, and is a son of Benjamin F. and Mary Catherine (Fox) Johnson, who now maintain their home at Crawfordsville, Indiana, where the father is serving in the office of township trustee at the time of this writing, in the early part of the year 1917. Professor Benjamin F. John- son is a man of high intellectual attainments and virtually his entire career has been marked by his close and effective identification with
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the pedagogic profession. He has made an admirable reputation as a teacher in the public schools of Indiana and also as a member of the faculties of higher institutions of learning, with secure vantage-place as one of the representative figures in Indiana educational circles. Of the three children the subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth, and the other two, Louise Martha and Edward M., still remain at the parental home. As may readily be inferred, Leland F. Johnson was reared under the benignant influences of a home of distinctive culture and refinement, and he continued his studies in the public schools until his graduation in the high school. He then entered Purdue University, at Lafayette, and in this institution was graduated as a member of the class of 1898, with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engi- neering. After leaving college Mr. Johnson held the position of assistant foreman in the machine shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for two years, and thereafter continued his services with this great cor- poration in the capacity of round-house foreman in turn at Cleveland, Wellsville and Alliance, Ohio. Thereafter he held the post of assistant master mechanic of the company's shops at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and later as master mechanic at Toledo, Ohio. In 1907 he entered the employ of the S. F. Bowser Company, of Fort Wayne, with which im- portant concern he has since remained and in the extensive plant of which he is now manager of the engineering department. He is a Re- publican in his political proclivities and both he and his wife hold member- ship in the Baptist church. On October 17, 1907, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Johnson to Miss Eva Cherrell Bowser, daughter of Syl- vanus F. Bowser, the influential Fort Wayne captain of industry and one of whom individual mention is made on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two children-Leland Fox, Jr., and Robert Bowser.
Benjamin F. Jones is actively associated with the painting and decor- ating business established and conducted in the city of Fort Wayne by his brother, Oliver S., of whom individual mention is made on other pages of this work, and he himself is likewise entitled to recognition in this history of his native city and county. Mr. Jones was born in Fort Wayne on September 21, 1871, a son of John and Ada (Taylor) Jones, both of whom are now deceased, the father having been somewhat more than forty years of age at the time of his death and the mother having passed to eternal rest more than thirty years ago. John Jones was born in Wales and was a child at the time of the family immigration to America, the home having been established in Fort Wayne when he was about seven years of age. Here he was reared to manhood and became known as a skilled machinist. He was employed in the shops of the Wabash Railroad at Fort Wayne for many years prior to his death and was a man whose sterling integrity gave him secure place in popular esteem. Of the children, Oliver S., with whom the subject of this sketch is now associated in business, is the eldest, and the second, Miss Eva, has presided over the domestic affairs of the family home since the death of her loved mother, Benjamin F., the next in order of birth, being still a bachelor and a member of the home circle at the residence formerly occupied by the parents ; Mary is married and resides in the city of Chicago; John L. still resides in Fort Wayne; Charles now lives at Los Angeles, California ; and Ada is the wife of Andrew Leeuw, of Fort Wayne. Benjamin F. Jones continued to attend the public schools of Fort Wayne until he was
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about sixteen years of age, and then, in 1887, found employment in the Fort Wayne Folding Bed Works, on Columbia street, in the finishing department of which manufactory he continued to be employed until 1896. He then assumed a position in the finishing department at the Packard Organ Works, another of the important industrial concerns of Fort Wayne, and this association continued until 1903, when he identi- fied himself with the bridge-building department of the Wabash Railroad. Later he formed his present association with the substantial painting and decorating business that has been developed by his eldest brother, in which connection he finds a desirable field for the exercising of his me- chanical and executive ability. His political support is given to the Re- publican party, he is affiliated with the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, and, like others of the family, he holds membership in the Plymouth Congregational church in his native city.
Fremont L. Jones .- In the personal and family history of Mr. Jones there are to be found many points of special interest as pertaining to the great state of Indiana and also to the city of Fort Wayne. In an indi- vidual way he has played a large and benignant part in connection with important business enterprises in Fort Wayne and his entire career has been marked by earnest and worthy endeavor and by the finest type of civic loyalty. He was born at Jonesboro, Grant county, Indiana, on August 10, 1855, and that now thriving little city was platted and founded by his grandfather, Obediah Jones, in whose honor the place was named. David W. Jones, father of the subject of this review, was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, and was a youth at the time of the family immigration to Indiana, where his father became one of the influential pioneers of Grant county. David W. Jones learned the printer's trade and became a prominent figure in the newspaper business in Indiana. In this connec- tion it is specially interesting to record that in his office was printed the first specific history of Fort Wayne. He came to Fort Wayne in 1863 and was the founder of the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, which he conducted with characteristic ability. He and his wife passed the closing years of their lives in Fort Wayne. Of their eight children five are living and two sons and one daughter maintain their home in Fort Wayne. The maiden name of the gracious and loved wife and mother was Jane Atkin- son. Fremont L. Jones was a lad of about eight years at the time of the family removal to Fort Wayne, where he attended the public schools of the period, as well as the old Methodist Episcopal College, which in its day was one of the leading educational institutions in northern Indiana. During vacations he worked in his father's newspaper office and gained a good knowledge of the mysteries of the "art preservative of all arts." He figures in a most significant way as a pioneer in the laundry business in Fort Wayne, where his identification with this important line of enterprise has continued for fully forty years. He served one year as an apprentice in the laundry of Rice & Pierce, at Grand Rapids, Michigan, and upon his return to Fort Wayne formed a partnership with another ambitious young man and established a modest laundry, with limited capitalistic resources. This was the first steam laundry to be placed in operation in Fort Wayne, and during the long intervening years Mr. Jones has kept pace with the general march of growth and progress, with the result that his laundry today is of the best metropolitan order, with improved facilities and with a corps of more than seventy employes. Mr. Jones was one of the organizers of the Lincoln National Life Insur-
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ance Company, the home office of which is in Fort Wayne, and he is a member of its directorate at the present time. He has been for more than thirty years a member of the National Laundrymen's Association and has in his possession a photograph of the group of laundrymen who founded the organization, in 1883, he having been one of these organizers. He assisted also in the organization of the Allen County Loan & Savings Association, which became a thriving organization of its day, and the interested principals in which later founded the Citizens' Trust Company, of which Mr. Jones is a director, this company having assumed control of the business of the Allen County Loan & Savings Association. Mr. Jones was likewise one of the organizers of the Tri-State Loan & Trust Company and the Van Arnam Manufacturing Company, of which latter he is still a director. He is a stockholder in the First and Hamilton National Bank, leading financial institution of Fort Wayne, and in manifold other ways he has shown his liberality and public spirit in the development and support of local institutions of important order. He is the executive head of the Troy Dry Cleaning Company, of which he was the founder. In politics Mr. Jones has ever given stalwart allegiance to the Republican party and both he and his wife have long been mem- bers of the Wayne Street Methodist Episcopal church in Fort Wayne. In the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and has been specially appreciative of the teachings and history of the various York Rite as well as the Scottish Rite bodies, besides maintaining affiliation also with the Mystic Shrine. He is a valued member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club and the Quest Club. In the year 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jones to Miss Gertrude M. Hatch, who was born at Huntertown, this county, and who is a daughter of the late Newman B. and Abigail (Parker) Hatch. In conclusion are given brief data concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Jones : Bessie is the wife of Charles F. Thayer, of Charlotte, North Carolina; David V. has charge of the Troy Dry Cleaning Com- pany's business, this concern having been founded by his father, as previously noted; Ralph L. is proprietor of the Fort Wayne Office Towl Supply Company ; Walter B. is the superintendent of his father's laundry ; Leon B. is in the United States marine corps, and Donald H. is an officer in the United States army.
John G. B. Jones .- The career of Mr. Jones has been a varied and interesting one. An alien by birth, he has proved himself a true American in both spirit and letter, and Fort Wayne today has not a man who exceeds him in the quality of his citizenship. He has in turn identified himself with the various careers of teacher, soldier, business man and lawyer. In the latter field he found himself to be in his proper element and, since 1911, has been engaged in legal practice in Fort Wayne. John G. B. Jones was born in Seacombe, Cheshire, England, on March 5, 1874, a son of John Milner and Mary Sophia (Denison) Jones, both now deceased. The father was born in the year 1832, in Pudsey, Yorkshire, England, and he died at Seacombe, Cheshire, England, November 8, 1888. He never came to America, but soon after his death his widow followed her sons to American shores and died here in 1902. The three living children of these parents are John G. B., of this review; Arthur K., living at Kendallville, Indiana, and Richard B., of Egremont, Cheshire, England. John G. B. Jones as a boy at home in England attended the Wallasey Board School of Seacombe. He finished there in 1890, soon after which
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he came to America, being then sixteen years of age. He was located in Rome City, Indiana, and began to attend school there soon after his arrival. For six months he attended the common school and the next year entered high school, continuing for two years as a student. He did not graduate, but turned his attention to teaching and for two years was employed in that work. He went to England on a visit when he was about twenty years old, going over in May, 1894, and returning the follow- ing September. He then took up teaching again and spent two years more in that profession. He cast his first presidential vote as an American citizen in LaPorte, Indiana, for William Jennings Bryan. By that time he had made up his mind that he wanted to study law and he entered the offices of Lieutenant Governor Mortimer Nye, carrying on his studies diligently for two years. When the Spanish-American war broke out he promptly enlisted for service with the One Hundred and Sixty-first Indiana Volunteers and was in the service until October, 1899, when he was honorably discharged. School-teaching again took the young man's attention and he was engaged in the LaPorte schools one year. In 1900 he returned to Rome City, Indiana, and there engaged in the milk and ice business, in which he continued for four years, enjoying a fair degree of prosperity. He was not satisfied to confine himself to a business career, however, and in 1904 entered the University of Indiana. He was four years in that institution, graduating in 1908, following which he entered the law school of Harvard University and was graduated in 1911. He first practiced law in Gary, Indiana, with R. O. Johnson, now mayor of that thriving and progressive little city, and after one year came to Fort Wayne. From then until now he has carried on a general practice in this city and is rapidly making a name and place for himself in the ranks of his profession. In 1912 he became the local representative for Brad- street's Commercial Agency and still carries on that work in connection with his general practice. Mr. Jones has specialized in real estate law and is considered an authority in that department. Mr. Jones is the owner of a farm in the vicinity of Rome City and finds both pleasure and profit in the indulgence of his inclinations in that direction. He is a Democrat, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and his fraternal relations are with the Masons and the Sons of St. George, an English order of prominence ; also Past Commander of the Spanish American War Veterans, and a member of the University Club. While attending the University of Indiana he was treasurer of his class in both his sophomore and senior years and was otherwise prominent in the student body. He was married on Christmas day, 1898, to Mary Lilian Clock, daughter of George W. and Mary J. (Shourds) Clock, both now deceased. They were a Rome City family of prominence, and Mrs. Jones was born and reared there. Martha M. Shourds, an aunt of Mrs. Jones, was a well known and much loved school teacher of Noble county in the seventies, and she was a woman of true Christian character, possessing many noble traits of heart and mind, and her name is well known to many prominent families of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Jones are popular and prominent in the circles they move in and have a host of friends in the city they have come to know as home.
Oliver S. Jones has gained definite place as one of the substantial business men of his native city of Fort Wayne, where he was born Decem- ber 29, 1867, and where he controls a representative general contracting business as a painter and frescoer. He is a son of John and Ada (Taylor)
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Jones, the former of whom was born in Wales and the latter in Ohio, she having been a lineal descendant of Zachary Taylor, who was elected president of the United States in 1848 and whose death occurred in 1850, about one year after his inauguration. John Jones was a lad of seven years when he came with his parents to Fort Wayne, where he served a thorough apprenticeship to the machinist's trade and was for a long period employed in the shops of the Wabash Railroad. He was but little more than forty years of age at the time of his death and his widow survived him by a number of years. Of their children, Oliver S., of this review, was the first born; Eva and Benjamin F. still reside in Fort Wayne; Mary is the wife of Robert Fuelgraff, of Chicago; John L. resides in Fort Wayne and Charles in Los Angeles, California; and Ada is the wife of Andrew Leeuw, of Fort Wayne. Oliver S. Jones duly profited by the advantages afforded in the public schools of his native city and as a youth entered upon an apprenticeship to the painter's trade, in which he acquired high proficiency, and he has continued in the work of his trade, besides amplifying his scope of operations by the execution of contracts for the most approved modern type of fresco work. Of these important lines of business enterprise he is now one of the prominent and successful exponents in Fort Wayne, where he is firmly entrenched in popular confidence and good will. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, he has received in the Masonic fraternity the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, after having completed the circle of the York Rite, in which his maximum affiliation is with Fort Wayne Commandery of Knights Templars, and .he is a member also of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, besides being affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Both he and his wife are active members of Plymouth Congregational church in their home city. Mr. Jones was actively iden- tified with the Indiana National Guard for twenty-seven years, at the expiration of which he resigned his membership. With his command he enlisted for service in the Spanish-American war, in which he was second lieutenant of the Twenty-eighth Indiana Battery. On March 8, 1909, Mr. Jones wedded Birdie Gouty, who was born and reared in Fort Wayne and whose death here occurred on January 4, 1914, she being survived by no children. On April 25, 1916, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jones to Miss May Siems, who was born in New York city and who is the popular chatelaine of their attractive home.
Noah A. Joray .- By very reason of its eligible situation in the midst of as fine a farming district as is to be found in the Hoosier state, the thriving village of Sheldon, in Pleasant township, is the logical and de facto center of a substantial and noteworthy activity along the normal mercantile lines essential in such a community. He whose name intro- duces this article is recognized as one of the progressive and represent- ative merchants of the village, where he conducts a well-equipped hard- ware establishment of which he has been the proprietor since the spring of 1915. He has a well-selected stock of heavy and shelf hardware, stoves, ranges, etc., with departments devoted also to the handling of paints and oils, farm implements and machinery, and other accessories demanded in modern farm enterprise. Mr. Joray was born at Vera Cruz, Wells county, Indiana, on December 13, 1876, and is a son of Samuel and Esther (Baughman) Joray, the former of whom was born in the pic-
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turesque canton of Berne, Switzerland, and the latter in the state of Ohio. Samuel Joray came to the United States in 1844 and for forty years was successfully established in business as a wagonmaker at Vera Cruz, Wells county, where he passed the closing period of his life in well-earned retirement, his death having there occurred on January 8, 1914, and his widow being still a resident of Wells county. Mr. Joray was independent in politics and was a zealous member of the Christian church, as is also his venerable widow. Of their children the eldest is Sarah, who is the wife of Peter Shoemaker, of Wells county; Victor is deceased ; Robert is still a resident of Wells county ; Seralda is deceased ; Noah A., of this review, was the next in order of birth; and Harvey and George are twins, the former being a resident of Wells county and the latter of Huntington county. Noah A. Joray is indebted to the public schools of his native county for his early educational training and as a youth there worked in a barber shop at Bluffton, the county seat, for a period of one year. During the following two years he was employed in the machine shops of the Bass Company, at Fort Wayne, and he next remained for a time on the old homestead farm of his father. His next medium of activity was a clerkship in a mercantile establishment at Goshen, and later he continued his association with the work of the home farm until 1915, when he removed to Sheldon and purchased of the firm of Reift and Rupright his present hardware business. He has made numerous improvements in the store, keeps his stock up to the best standard and controls a substantial and prosperous business. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and he and his wife are specially zealous members of the local Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a trustee as well as superintendent of its Sunday school. On August 31, 1897, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Joray to Miss Sarah E. Myers, daughter of Seth and Anna (Rogers) Myers, of Wells county. The two chlidren of this union are Hattie M. and Margaret, and both remain at the parental home.
Anton Kalbacher .- Coming from Germany to the United States in company with his parents when he was a lad of cleven years, the late Anton Kalbacher first became a resident of Delphos, Ohio, and in the following year began to depend largely upon his own resources. He was in the most significant and worthy sense the architect of his own fortune, and it was given him to achieve large and noteworthy success as one of the influential and honored business men of the city of Fort Wayne, to the upbuilding and advancement of which he contributed in generous measure. Here he established his residence in 1855 and here he continued to maintain his home until his death, which occurred April 7, 1904. Mr. Kalbacher was born in Germany on August 24, 1841, and received his rudimentary education in his native land, his alert mentality having enabled him to gain a broader education through the experiences and associations of a long, active and useful life as one of the world's productive workers. Upon coming to Fort Wayne, in 1855, he found employment in the establishment of Bever and Dunham, pioneer flour merchants. He continued his identification with this line of enterprise for many years and his energy and ability made his success of cumu- lative order from year to year. In 1878 he erected in Fort Wayne a substantial two-story brick building, in which he established himself in the dry-goods and grocery business. In 1882 he purchased the Sedgwick flour mills, later known as the St. Joseph mills, and these he successfully
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