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 60
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Daniel B. Ninde is one of the genial and successful attorneys of Fort Wayne, where he was born July 28, 1870. His parents were Lindley M. and Beulah (Puckett) Ninde, the former of whom was long a distin- guished and able lawyer of the Allen county bar. Daniel B. was edu-
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cated in the schools of his native city and there entered the United States naval academy at Anapolis, where he graduated in 1891. Being one of the honor men of his class he was permitted to resign in accordance with the regulations then prevailing. Succeeding this he attended at Harvard one year and after another year at the University of Michigan he gradu- ated in the College of Law. Thus admirably equipped he took up the practice of law in the office of his father and brother, at Fort Wayne. This partnership continued until 1907, so far as his brother was con- cerned, but the father passed to the life eternal in 1901. He was elected prosecuting attorney for Allen county in 1904 and filled that office for two years. Mr. Ninde has preferred the quiet and orderly life of a private citizen and has not sought for higher political preferment. At the present time he is attorney for the Lincoln Life Insurance Company, one of the foremost institutions of its kind in the middle west. He has been three times married. The first time was with Rose, daughter of Prof. I. N. Demmon, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. His second wife was Mary C. Coe, of Durham, New Hampshire, a prominent family that came to New Eng- land in early colonial days. His marriage with his present wife occurred January 18, 1913. She was Margaret Coe, a sister of Mary C. They have two children, named Murray C. and Richard. Mr. Ninde is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite.
Lee J. Ninde, who is now giving his attention principally to the real estate business, achieved secure status as one of the representative younger members of the bar of his native city and county prior to enter- ing upon his present business activities and as a lawyer he well upheld the prestige of the family name, his father having been for many years one of the distinguished members of the bar of Allen county and having served for a number of terms on the bench of the superior court of the county. Lee J. Ninde was born in Fort Wayne on January 8, 1874, a son of Judge Lindley M. and Beulah C. (Puckett) Ninde, the former a native of Warren county, Ohio, and the latter of Winchester, Randolph county, Indiana. Judge Ninde was reared and educated in the old Buck- eye state and his law course was taken in Farmer's College, in the city of Cincinnati. In 1851 he established his home in Fort Wayne and here his energy, ability and sterling character gained to him definite success in his chosen profession, of which he became one of the leading repre- sentatives in northern Indiana. He was long and actively engaged in the practice of law, besides having served as judge of the superior court of the county, and he was a citizen who was influential in the civic and political affairs of this section of the state, the while he maintained inviolable hold upon popular confidence and esteem in the community that represented his home for half a century. He was a stalwart in the camp of the Republican party, a lawyer of high attainments, a loyal and public-spirited citizen and a man who ordered his course upon a lofty plane of integrity and honor. He was a birthright member of the Society of Friends, but both he and his wife were zealous members of the Presbyterian church for many years prior to their death. Mrs. Ninde died in the spring of 1892 and the Judge died in the summer of 1901-one of the venerable and revered pioneer lawyers and jurists of Allen county. Of the children the following brief record is consistently entered. Harry W. is now a resident of Laramie, Wyoming; Daniel B. is engaged in the practice of law in Fort Wayne; Lee J., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Helen died in 1882 and Jane in 1894.
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Lee J. Ninde acquired his early education in the public schools of Fort Wayne and after leaving the high school became a student in historic old Phillips-Exeter Academy, at Exeter, New Hampshire. In preparing himself for his chosen profession he entered Harvard University, in which he was enrolled as a member of the class of 1895. For the ensuing twelve years he was engaged in the active general practice of his pro- fession in Fort Wayne and within this period appeared in connection with much important litigation in the various courts. Upon his retire- ment from the work of his profession he brought his powers effectively to bear in the real estate business, of which he has continued a prom- inent, successful and progressive representative. In 1910 Mr. Ninde organized the Wildwood Builders' Company, of which he became pres- ident, and this company has carried forward the development and up- building of one of the finest suburban residential districts of Fort Wayne. He is a member of the Fort Wayne Real Estate Board, the Indiana Real Estate Association, and the National Real Estate Association. He has served as president of the local board and also as president of the Indiana Real Estate Association. His political allegiance is given to the Repub- lican party, he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias, and is a loyal and valued member of the Fort Wayne Com- mercial Club and the Fort Wayne Country Club. On October 8, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ninde to Miss Joel A. Roberts, daughter of Willis and Moffett (Peacock) Roberts, of Mobile, Alabama. Mrs. Ninde, a woman of most gracious personality, became a popular factor in the leading social life of Fort Wayne, and here her death occurred, March 7, 1916, no children having been born of the union.
Emil Nitzsche, who has been a resident of Washington township and identified conspicuously with its agricultural activities since 1899, is of foreign birth and ancestry, claiming Jahna, in Germany, as his birth- place, His natal day was April 17, 1864, and he is the son of William and Herenia (Auerche) Nitzsche, both of them born in Germany, and the father died there in 1874. The mother is still a resident of their native community and has married a second time. Emil Nitzsche was the second child of his mother's first marriage. The others were Ernest- ine, Amelia and Franz, all deceased. There are three children of the second marriage-Ida, Emma and Anna, all living at this time. Emil Nitzsche had his education in Germany. He was eighteen years old when he came to America, settling in Allen county, Indiana, in 1882. He was first employed in a brass foundry in Fort Wayne and spent fourteen years in that work. He came to Washington township, in 1899, settling on a small farm in Section 28. He has farmed prosperously and today has a farm of eighty acres, finely improved, and representative of the most modern methods in agriculture. Dairy farming constitutes his principal interest and his Holstein and Jersey cattle are among the finest to be found in the county. Mr. Nitzsche married on May 19, 1887. He chose Louisa Beineke, daughter of Henry and Fredericka (Powers) Beineke for his wife. Seven children have been born to them. Frank married Clara Korstman and they have two children-Robert and Her- bert. Anna became the wife of Charles Weise and they have a daughter named Ruth. William and George were twins and are both deceased. William grew to young manhood and was in his twenty-second year when death called him, but George was an infant of three months when he died. Marguerite is the wife of Monroe Clapstattle. Esther and Elsie married brothers, Robert and George Fritz. Neither has children. Mr.
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Nitzsche is a member of the Bruederlicher Verein at Fort Wayne and, with his wife and children, is a member of the German Lutheran church. He takes no active part in politics beyond the dictates of good citizen- ship.
Harry C. Offutt is an ambitious and progressive young man who has gained prominence and success as a civil engineer of special ability and aggressiveness, and it has been within his province to achieve status as one of the thoroughly representative business men maintaining head- quarters in the city of Fort Wayne. Here, in February, 1914, he became associated in the organizing of the Indiana Engineering and Construc- tion Company, and there is no medium of inconsistency in stating that this has become one of the important and specially successful corpor- ations of its kind in the Hoosier state. Retaining in its employ a force of two hundred persons, including five skilled civil and mechanical engi- neers, the company has from the beginning stood exponent of energy, circumspection and progressive policies, with the result that it has com- pleted many important contracts in the line of civil, mechanical and electrical engineering work and also in the construction of high-grade buildings of the most modern type, among which there may be men- tioned the following Fort Wayne structures: The Gates and the Gauntt buildings, two of the most modern business blocks in the city ; the Boys' Cathedral School, the large barn of the Fort Wayne Transfer Company, three buildings of the plant of the General Electric Company at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and the large barn of the Brown Transfer Company. Besides this the company has constructed seven fine bridges on the line of the Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Railway. The company has the best of facilities for the completion of the largest contracts in its domain of enterprise and is contributing materially to the business prestige of Fort Wayne. Operations are based on a capital stock of ten thousand dollars, the company is incorporated under the Indiana laws, and Mr. Offutt is its president and treasurer. Harry C. Offutt was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, January 18, 1882, and was but two years old at the time of the death of his father, Thomas P. Offutt, who had been a prominent merchant in the county mentioned. Harry C. Offutt obtained his early education in the public schools of his native county and thereafter completed a thorough course in civil engineering at the Pennsylvania State College, in which institution he was grad- uated as a member of the class of 1905. Thereafter he was engaged for a time in professional work in the city of Pittsburgh, after which he was for four months the incumbent of a position in the office of the chief engineer of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He then established his residence in Fort Wayne and for the ensuing four years was assistant engineer of the maintenance of way department of the Southern division of the railroad just mentioned. The next four years found him as vice-president of the Beers-Offutt Construction Company, of Fort Wayne, and at the expiration of this period he became one of the organizers of the Indiana Engineering and Construction Company, of which he has since been president and treasurer and in the development of the substantial busi- ness of which he has effectively used his technical and executive ability. Mr. Offutt is a loyal and popular member of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, and in the Masonic fraternity has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, besides being affiliated also with the Ancient Arabic
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Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He was married, in June, 1907, to Jane Mckinney Magee, of Harrisville, Butler county, Pennsylvania. One boy, Harry C. Offutt, Jr., was born January 14, 1914.
Edward O'Rourke, of Fort Wayne, was born in Newark, New Jer- sey, October 13, 1840, and is one of eight children born to Christopher and Ellen (Flannagan) O'Rourke. He received his education in the public schools of Ohio and was also a student in the Methodist College, of Fort Wayne, where he spent three years studying Latin and mathe- matics. He began reading law in the office of Worden & Morris, of Fort Wayne, in 1865, and the next year was admitted to the bar, since which time he has been a member at Fort Wayne. In 1867 he was elected prosecutor and served five years. After his retirement from the office of prosecutor he practiced until 1876, when he was elected judge of the Thirty-eighth district. He held this position by six successive elections for thirty-six years, and when his term expired, in 1912, he formed a partnership with Martin H. Luecke, which still continues. It is interest- ing to note in this connection that Judge O'Rourke served longer on the Circuit bench than any other judge in the state of Indiana. He is a member of the Allen County, Indiana State and American Bar Associa- tions, a thirty-second degree Mason, and a Democrat in politics. The degree of Doctor of Law was conferred on the subject of this sketch by Taylor University. Judge O'Rourke married Ada L. Abrams, and they are the parents of five children: Thomas, Helen, Clara, Mary and Edward, Jr. The family home is at 420 East Washington street, Fort Wayne, Indiana ..
Charles W. Orr has, in an active career of thirty years, demonstrated his ability both as a merchant and a farmer. Farming has proved more attractive to him than other lines of enterprise and he has given his undivided attention to stock farming on his fine farm of more than two hundred acres of the best land in Lafayette township. Mr. Orr was born in Carroll county, Indiana, December 9, 1861, and his parents were William and Priscilla (Die) Orr, Ohioans of Scotch-Irish parentage. The father was a farmer all his life-first in Tippecanoe county and later in Carroll county. He migrated to the latter county, in 1862, and was a pioneer settler in his community, where he bought one hundred acres of uncleared land and devoted himself tirelessly to its care and culti- vation for the rest of his life. He died there in 1877, one of the most estimable men of his community and a leader among his fellows. He was a Democrat in politics and a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal church. To him and his wife were born six children. Etta, the eldest, died in 1870. Lyda died unmarried in 1907. Charles is the immediate subject of this family review. Franklin is a resident of Lafayette township. Edward is deceased, as is also Cora, the youngest of the family, who became the wife of Noah David, of Parks Hill, Clinton county, Indiana. Charles W. Orr had his education in the public schools of Carroll county, and it is understood that his advantages in an edu- cational way were not greater than were those of the average farm boy of his period. He was his father's assistant, as the eldest son is apt to be, and after the death of the elder Orr, in 1877, he remained on the home place and directed the work of the farm in his mother's interests. He was occupied thus until his marriage, after which he worked by the day for about two years and then rented a farm and undertook the achievement of independence. His first place was a forty-acre farm,
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and after four years of renting he was able to buy a "forty," which he later sold for an "eighty." He continued for years to buy and sell, each time adding something to his holdings, so that since 1885 he has increased his holdings from forty to 300 acres. Trading land was more or less of a hobby with him, but he always bettered himself in a deal, it is said, and when, in 1916, he engaged in business in Bluffton, he continued long enough to prove his ability and then sold the business for a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Wells county. His two hundred acre farm in Lafayette township is one of the show places of the village and reflects much credit upon him. Its house and barns are modern and spacious, well kept and attractive, and mark the place for one of the progressive ones of the township. Mr. Orr was married in September, 1882, to Miss Ada Blinn, daughter of Adam Blinn, an Ohio farmer, and to them have been born eleven children. Arthur is a resi- dent of Indianapolis. Luther lives in Huntington, Indiana. Walter is on the home farm. Oliver is located in Indianapolis, where he is in the employ of the International Airship Company. Grace became the wife of Samuel Payr, of Fort Wayne. William and L. D. are at home. Anna is at present (1917) attending a business college in Fort Wayne. Frederick, Agnes and Edward are still at home. Four grandchildren have been added to the family name, as follows: Luther has a son named Mark. Walter has one child-Catherine Marie. Samuel has a son called Vernon and Oliver has one child named Irel. Mr. Orr is a Republican, and he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which his wife also has membership, and in which his family was reared. The sons and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Orr have thus far brought only credit on the family name, and wherever they have gone have found places for themselves that speak well for their ideals and ambitions.
John F. Oswald, successful farmer and now assessor of Washington township, is the owner of the old Oswald homestead, on which he was reared and which claimed his early labors during the period in which it was being developed from a tract of wild land to a productive and profit-yielding farm. Mr. Oswald was born in Washington township on November 4, 1863, son of John M. and Sophia (Henry) Oswald, natives of Georgia and Pennsylvania, respectively. They met and married in Allen county when young people of the age of twenty years, settled on the farm where they reared their children, attained comparative material wealth and finally died. Their children were Mary E., who died in 1910, and John F., of this review. John F. Oswald had a common school training and early identified himself actively with the business of farm- ing. With the death of his parents he came into ownership of the home place of one hundred and twenty acres, and his later labors have carried on the development work he assisted his father with in carlier years. He has enjoyed a pleasing success in his farming activities and stands well to the forefront among the prosperous farmers of his township. He was married on April 20, 1892, to Martha A. Newman, daughter of Barney and Elizabeth (Klaena) Newman. The father was a German by birth who came to Ohio and there met and married his wife. They were the parents of seven children, Mrs. Oswald being the youngest of the family. The others, named in the order of their appearance, are William, Edward (died October 3, 1911), Matilda, Louis, George and Elizabeth. The living ones are filling positions to which life has called them, in one field or another. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs.
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Oswald. They are Grace E., William McKinley, Edwin O. and James M., all living at the present writing. Mr. Oswald has been a prominent man in his township for many years and has filled the office of township assessor since 1914, when he was elected for a four-year term. Prior to his election he had served six years as deputy assessor. He is Repub- lican in politics, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with affiliations at Harmony, and of the Modern Woodmen of America, lodge No. 3127, at Fort Wayne. He and his family are members of the Bethany Presbyterian church in their community.
Harry E. Overmeyer, secretary and general manager of the Wood- burn Tile and Brick Company, is known as one of the vigorous and pro- gressive business men of the younger generation in his native county and has been primarily influential in the development and upbuilding of one of the most important industrial enterprises of the fine little city of Woodburn. Mr. Overmeyer was born in Maumee township, this county, on November 17, 1887, a son of George and Abbie E. (Applegate) Overmeyer, who now reside at Woodburn. George Overmeyer was born and reared in Henry county, Ohio, and his wife is a native of Allen county, Indiana, the Applegate family having been here founded in the early pioneer period of the county's history. He whose name initiates this paragraph was the third in a family of four children, and the others are Ada, Bertha and Ethel. Harry E. Overmeyer profited duly by the advantages afforded in the public schools and in connection with the enterprise with which he is now identified has shown the energy and resourcefulness that mark the truly progressive and successful business men. The Woodburn Tile and Brick Company has a fine modern plant and owns the land from which it derives the materials with which to carry on its manufacturing operations, the output capacity being one hundred and fifty thousand tile and twenty-five thousand brick per day. This company was incorporated, in 1904, with a capital stock of eighteen thousand five hundred dollars and its officers are as here noted : Henry Schleppermann, president and treasurer; Henry Cook, vice-president; and Harry E. Overmeyer, secretary and general manager. Mr. Over- meyer is loyal and progressive, not only as a business man but also as a citizen, and the popular appreciation of his attitude in the latter respect was manifested when, in the spring of 1908, he was elected a member of the village council of Woodburn, a position in which he is giving charac- teristically effective service. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he is affiliated with the lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Harlan, as well as with the organizations of the Improved Order of Red Men and the Modern Woodmen of America at Woodburn. May 25, 1908, recorded the marriage of Mr. Overmeyer to Miss Minnie Schleppermann, who was born and reared in this county and who is a daughter of Henry and Augusta Schleppermann, who were born in Germany and now reside in their attractive home in Woodburn, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Overmeyer have two children-Mildred and Doris.
Fred B. Owen, who has demonstrated his scientific and technical ability as a well fortified electrical engineer, has been in the employ of the General Electric Company of Fort Wayne since 1903, and since the early part of the year 1916 has held a position in the standardizing de- partment of the company's well equipped plant. He has the distinction not only of being a native of the historic old city of Providence, Rhode
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Island, where he was born February 11, 1874, but he is also a scion of fine old colonial ancestry along more than one genealogical line, he being of the eighth generation in descent from Roger Williams, the first white settler within the present limits of Rhode Island. Mr. Owen is a son of John A. and Julia Estelle (Mowry) Owen, both of whom were born and reared in Rhode Island. In the public schools of his native city Mr. Owen acquired his preliminary education and in 1896 he was graduated in the celebrated Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the city of Boston. In the same year he entered the employ of the Narragansett Electrical Company, of Providence, Rhode Island, and he continued his service in the meter department of the plant of this corporation for a period of six and one-half years, at the expiration of which, in 1903, he came to Fort Wayne and associated himself with the Fort Wayne Electric Works. In that year he took a position in the meter department, in which he continued his activities until 1916, when he was transferred to a position in the standardizing department, with the operations of which he continues to be identified. He has become a popular factor in the busi- ness and social circles of Fort Wayne, is loyal and progressive as a citizen and is independent in politics. He is serving as secretary of Home Lodge, No. 342, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, and is affiliated also with Fort Wayne Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. On September 23, 1899, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Owen to Miss Ida M. Tift, who was born and reared in the state of Connecticut and whose original colonial ances- tors came to America on the ship Ann, a virtual companion or consort of the historic Mayflower. Mrs. Owen is a daughter of William Henry and C. Emily Jane (Mitchell) Tift, who still maintain their home in Connecti- cut. Mr. and Mrs. Owen have one daughter, Estelle Brown.
The Packard Piano Company .- This is one of the leading manufac- tories of Fort Wayne. It started, in 1871, when the Fort Wayne Organ Company was organized with a capital of $24,000 and with L. M. Ninde as president, I. T. Packard as secretary and S. B. Bond as treasurer. Those holding office on the board of directors at that time were L. M. Ninde, J. H. Bass, S. B. Bond, C. D. Bond, H. F. Talbot, R. F. Keith and number of practical organ men, came here immediately after the Chicago I. T. Packard. Messrs. Packard, Keith and Talbot, together with a fire and interested a number of Fort Wayne capitalists, including the above named, also Charles McCulloch, J. A. Fay and O. A. Simons. I. T. Packard held some valuable organ construction patents and it was for that reason that his name was given to the product. The factory was located in South Wayne, on the corner of Fairfield and Organ avenues, a place considered at that time to be at the end of nowhere. Only twenty- five to thirty men were employed and the production of organs began on a very small scale. S. B. Bond took charge of the financial management from the very start. Mr. Packard was the first superintendent. On his death, in 1875, R. F. Keith became superintendent, G. E. Bursley became business manager and secretary, in 1872, and remained in that capacity until 1882, when he resigned on account of ill health. S. B. Bond was elected general manager in addition to his being the president since 1873 and remained at the head of the company until his death in 1907. J. H. Bass was one of the originators of the company, has been one of its largest stockholders and a director from the very start and has always been a loyal supporter and adviser. He is the only living member of the original board of directors, on which board he has served contin-
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