USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Valley of the upper Maumee River, with historical account of Allen County and the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Volume II > Part 18
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August C. Trentman, proprietor of the above establishment, and one of the most prominent citizens of Fort Wayne, was born in Marion township, Allen county, February 20, 1843, and is the son of Barnard and Anna M. (Rheinhardt) Trentman. He was reared in Fort Wayne and given a good education, attending both the Brothers' and the public schools of the city, and finishing at Notre Dame, Ind. In 1864 he en- tered business with his father, and upon the death of the latter, in 1874, succeeded to the immense business of which he is at present proprietor.
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His commercial career has been a successful and brilliant one, and to- day he is recognized as one of the leading wholesale grocers of the west. Aside from the grocery business Mr. Trentman is connected with other enterprises, being director of the Hamilton National bank, special partner in the business of J. B. Monning & Co., extensive spice and flour millers; stockholder in the Herman Berghoff brewing com- pany, all of Fort Wayne, and he is treasurer of the Konig medicine company of Chicago. Success has attended the efforts of Mr. Trent- man in all his undertakings, and he is now one of the substantial men of the state. As a citizen he ranks among the most prominent of Fort Wayne; in commercial circles he is recognized as the peer of any man in the state, and his reputation in that regard is spread throughout the west. Enterprising, energetic and liberal-minded, he has always been found ready to assist all movements looking to the advancement of his city, and for that spirit and his many commendable qualities he is es- teemed and respected by his fellow citizens. Mr. Trentman was mar- ried October 19, 1865, to Jennie A. Niermann, who was born in Fort Wayne, and is the daughter of Herman Niermann, who was one of the old settlers and prominent citizens. Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Trentman, four of whom survive: May, born in 1871, graduated in 1889 from St. Mary's in the Woods; Carrie, born in 1873; Augus- tine, born in 1881, and Joseph, born in 1883. Mr. and Mrs. Trentman are members of the Cathedral church, and he is a member of the Cath- olic Knights of America. Socially Mr. Trentman and family rank among the first in Fort Wayne.
One of the oldest business establishments of Fort Wayne is the house of Morgan & Beach. The hardware business to which it suc- ceeded was begun by Horace Durvy, in 1843, and taken up in 1856 by Oliver P. Morgan, a native of Dearborn county, who has been a resi- dent of the city since 1832. In 1860 the present partnership was formed. Beginning in the retail trade, the house has now an extensive wholesale business. Mr. Morgan is a prominent citizen, is director and vice-president of the Old National bank, and has served as councilman and as school trustee for many years.
David N. Foster was born at Coldenham, Orange county, N. Y., April 24, 1841. His early years were spent on the farm of his parents, John Lyman and Harriet Scott Foster, and when fourteen years old he went to New York city, equipped with such education as he had been able to obtain in the country schools, and found employment as bundle boy in the store of William E. Lawrence, then a prominent merchant of the metropolis. Making rapid progress in his business education, at the age of eighteen, with his brother Scott Foster, he established the firm of Foster Brothers, which soon became one of the leading retail firms of the country, and partic- ularly well known to Indiana people by the large branch establishments maintained at Fort Wayne, Terre Haute and Lafayette. Mr. Foster had an ambition for the profession of law, and having devoted his spare hours to study, in 1860 he sold out his interest to his brother, John Gray
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Foster, and entered an academy at Montgomery, N. Y. But his study was soon stopped by the firing upon Fort Sumter. On the morning of the day following the first call for troops by Abraham Lincoln the students at the academy hoisted a flag amid the cheers of nearly all the people of the town, and the excited throng was addressed by Mr. Foster, the orator chosen for the occasion, who concluded by announcing that he should leave at noon to enlist in the Ninth militia regiment, which had tendered its service by telegraph. He was the first volunteer from his native county, and going in as a private, carried a knapsack until December, 1862, when his commission as second lieutenant reached him while lying dangerously wounded in the hospital on the battle ground of Fredericksburg. Soon after the battle of Gettysburg he was pro- moted captain of his company. But he his wounds soon compelled him to leave the service. He was actively engaged in the battles of Harper's Ferry, Cedar Mountain, Rappahannock, Thoroughfare Gap, second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Returning to New York city, he re-entered the dry goods business, and in 1870 came to Indiana, and established the Terre Haute branch of Foster Brothers. In 1873 he disposed of his interest in the firm to engage in journalism, for which he had a decided taste, and he estab- lished the Saturday Evening Post, at Grand Rapids, Mich., an enterprise which met with immediate success. In 1878 the health of his brother John having failed, he, at the earnest solicitations of his brothers, disposed of his newspaper and again entered the firm, coming to Fort Wayne, where were its heaviest property interests. Here he has since remained, and the business interests of the city have always found in him an active and valuable friend. He is the president and manager of the D. N. Foster furniture company, and of the Fort Wayne furniture company, and has recently been chosen president of the Central Mutual fire insurance company of this city. He is the owner of the Aldine hotel, recently completed, is director in the Indiana machine company, and is besides interested in a number of other enterprises. The people of Indiana are indebted to Mr. Foster for the Public Library bill passed by the legislature of 1881, under which nearly every city in Indiana has since established a public library free to all its citizens. At his own expense he circulated petitions in all the large cities of the state, praying for the passage of the bill he had prepared, and which was introduced in the senate by the late Senator Foster. Mr. Foster has always taken an active interest in the prosperity of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was elected commander of the department of Indiana in 1885. At that time the membership had rapidly grown to nearly 18,000 in the state, but there had been little opportunity for perfecting discipline necessary to the highest good of the order. This work fell to his administration, and so thoroughly was it done that when he turned the office over to his successor there was not a post in the department that was not in absolute good standing. In politics he has always been an active republican, but though frequently named in connection with
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prominent positions, he invariably declined such honors. He is one of the originators of the Morton Club.
Samuel M. Foster, son of John L. and Harriet Scott Foster, was born at Coldenham, Orange county, N. Y., December 12, 1851, the youngest of seven children, six of whom were boys. When about fourteen years old he went to the city and entered the New York dry goods store of his brothers. In 1868 he went to Troy, N. Y., and in 1872 formed a partnership with his brother, A. Z. Foster, now of Terre Haute, in retail dry goods. The venture was profitable, so that two years later he found himself able to carry out his cherished plan of securing a collegiate education. Disposing of his business interests, he fitted himself for college, and in 1875 entered Yale at New Haven, Conn. His career there was a creditable one, and while holding his own in the class-room he found time to serve as one of the editors of the Yale Courant, won an appointment on the " junior exhibition," had the honor of being one of the "Townsend men" chosen from 132 competitors, and was named by the faculty as one of ten to represent the class on the platform on commencement day. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, June 26, 1879, graduating fourteenth in a class which originally had 200 members. Mr. Foster came west, and in the fall entered the law office of Judge R. S. Taylor, not decided in mind to take up the profession of law, but feeling that the time devoted to the study would be well spent. A few months devoted to alternately reading Blackstone and to regaining the health which had been impaired by his college work, convinced him that his constitution was not strong enough to enable him to win that success in law which he desired, and as a result of this conclusion, in December, 1879, the first issue of the Saturday Evening Record, with Samuel M. Foster as editor and proprietor, was issued at Dayton, Ohio. His experience in journalism was short and decisive. The paper was a brilliant success in every respect but a finan- cial one, and though the editor's health gave out before his pocket-book did, serious inroads were made upon both. In 1880 the Record (now known as the Dayton Herald), was disposed of, and Mr. Foster returned to Fort Wayne and resumed business life in the firm of Foster Brothers. · This firm was dissolved in 1882, by the withdrawal of Scott Foster to accept the presidency of a New York bank, and the business of the firm was then divided, Samuel M. Foster succeeding to the dry goods department of the firm's trade. In this he continued until 1886, when he withdrew entirely from the retail trade, to devote himself to manu- facturing, a business which he has built up, and which is assuming large proportions, the product going into every state and territory in the Union. Mr. Foster is secretary of the D. N. Foster furniture company, president of the business men's exchange, and devotes much time to many questions of public interest and importance. In politics he was raised a republican but has joined the democratic party on the tariff . issue. Mr. Foster was married in June, 1881, to Margaret Harrison, of this city.
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John Frederick William Meyer now ranks among the earlier settlers of Fort Wayne, having been a resident for forty years past. His career has been a laudable and excepional one, which justifies in this work a short sketch of his life of activity and usefulness. He traces with much pride his ancesters, in direct lineage, to the year 1417, when John Henry Meyer wedded a modest girl of inferior rank and without domain. Much as this action displeased the parents, they soon became recon- ciled and they erected for him, conditionally, a small house on one end of the large farm, which remained the home of direct descendants for more than four centuries, until the year 1838. J. F. W. Meyer was born in Holden, province of Westphalia, Germany, December 19, 1824. His parents being in humble circumstance, the average limited education of those days was hardly accorded him, and the greater portion of his ear- lier days were spent on the greenswarth, herding the sheep. When he was nine years of age his father died, leaving a widow and six children. His mother again married, and in. 1838 the old homestead, in which so many generations of one family had passed their days, reverted to the original domain, as conditioned four hundred years previous, and the Meyer family removed to a neighboring village. In 1846 the mother died, and on October 3, the following year, he and his younger brother, Frederick, set foot on American soil at New Orleans. Their goal was Adams county, and after two months of tedious travel by boat and afoot, they reached Monmouth, Adams county, December 3, 1847. The first four months were spent in clearing the woodlands, and in the following March, Mr. Meyer became a driver of a canal boat team. February 7, 1849, he was engaged in the drug house of Hugh B. Reed, as bottle washer, but being of an industrious and ambitious disposition he soon gained a satisfactory knowledge of the business, and in1853 became a partner in the firm of Wall & Meyer. In 1851 Mr. Meyer, then earning a salary of $15 a month, was married to Caroline Schroeder. One daughter and three sons were the fruits of this union; of the latter one died at the age of two years. Mrs. Meyer died in 1859, and the following year he wedded Julia Gerke. In February, 1862, the firm, then located on what is now East Columbia street, suffered a great loss by fire, but nothing daunted, the ambitious firm had a large consignment of new drugs started from New York in two days. In 1865 the pres- ent location on Calhoun and Columbia streets, was taken, and in the same year the branch of Meyer Bros. & Co., was established in St. Louis, which is now numbered among the largest wholesale drug houses. in the country. In 1875 the firm established another branch in Kansas City, which has since grown to immense proportions. A fire in ISS3 totally destroyed this stock, but the push that has always been charac- teristic of this house was again called into action, and in a few days sufficed to place then in position to serve the numerous patrons. In 1887 the company also located a house at Dallas, Texas, and the firm of Meyer Bros. & Co., now stands at the head of the wholesale drug business of this country. Being of a religious turn of mind, Mr. Meyer attributes
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the greater portion of the success that has attended his seeming ventures to an all-guiding Providence, and modestly he asserts, it was so ordained. He has done much for the church and charity, both at home and abroad; always open-hearted and cheerful he counts his friends by legions. A loving wife and seven children, of whom three are married, afford him much comfort, and although already sixty-four years of age, time has dealt leniently with him, and he is as hale and hearty as many young men of half his age. He was honored by a membership in the city council four years, and for many years he has been a water-works trus- tee. Politically, he is a democrat, and his religious connection is with the Lutheran church. .
George W. Pixley, one of the leading business men of Fort Wayne, who has gained a wide fame by his successful operations in the clothing trade, has been engaged in that business since 1872, when he became, at Troy, N. Y., the cashier of the first branch house of Owen Pixley & Co. In 1876 he came to Fort Wayne, and as resident partner estab- lished the house of Owen Pixley & Co., at this city. Mr. Pixley was born at Kirkland, N. Y., near Utica, March 1, 1834. His great grand- father Pixley was born in Connecticut, and during the revolution raised, equipped and furnished a regiment at his own expense. His son, David Pixley, was a native of Connecticut, and in 1806 moved to Kirkland, N. Y., nine miles from Utica, with his family, where he lived, kept a tavern and stage stables on the old Seneca turnpike between Utica and Syracuse, where the greater portion of the traffic between the east and west passed over that route before the days of railroads. He died at that place at the age of seventy-seven years, leaving four sons and two daughters. The third son, David, was the father of George W. Pixley, the subject of our sketch. He was born at Bridgeport, Conn., in Septem- ber, 1798, and died at Kirkland, N. Y., March, 1884. He succeeded his father in the hotel and stage business until what is now the New York Central railroad was built, when he went into the manufacture of brown sheetings and other cotton goods and general merchandise. He was postmaster and justice of the peace for over forty years, and was widely known and very highly respected. He married Charlotte Mygatt, who was born at Berlin, Conn., in March, 1805, and died in July, 1885, at Kirkland, N. Y. The Mygatt family were early settlers in Oneida county, N. Y. The father of Charlotte was Austin Mygatt, who was born in Berlin, Conn., in 1776, and died at Kirkland, N. Y., in 1863. He was the inventor and manufacturer of the first tin lantern, and made a fortune out of it. David and Charlotte Pixley had five children, of whom four survive: Henry D., Eliza J., George W. and Abby M. George W. received his education at the Clinton Liberal Institute, at Clinton, N. Y., and there was occupied in his father's store, then at farming and dairying until he entered his present occupation. In 1885 the old firm name was abandoned and the firm of Pixley & Co. was formed, which is now composed of the following: George W. Pixley, Henry D. Pixley, George W. Pixley, jr., Charles E. Read and
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Robert H. Parmalee. In 1888 Mr. Pixley and Mason Long erected the magnificent business building in which the firm is now established at a cost of $75,000. The spacious room is splendidly equipped and there is every facility for the proper display of the immense stock and rapid disposition of their extensive trade, and great credit is due Mr. Pixley for giving to the city such a grand building, which will always remain an ornament and pride to the city. The same firm owns branch stores at Bloomington and Danville, Ill., and George W., jr., and Henry D. own stores at Terra Haute, Ind., Rockford, Ill., Streator, Ill., Sioux City, Iowa, Sioux Falls, Dak., and Oshkosh, Wis. Mr. George W. Pixley was married at Kirkland, N. Y., December 30, 1870, to Sarah A. Lewis, daughter of E. Chauncey Lewis, born at Kirkland, N. Y., December 30, 1851. Mr. Pixley is a prominent member of the F. & A. M., has been a member of Clinton lodge, No. 169, at Clinton, N. Y., since 1855, was made a Knight Templar February 12, 1869, in Utica commandery, No. 3, at Utica, N. Y. Took the Scottish Rite at Indianapolis consis- tory, in March, 1882, and the thirty-third degree in New York, Septem- ber 17, 1889. He has held for many years the responsible position of treasurer of the Jenney electric light and power company, and is president of the Tri-State building and loan association, capital, $1,000,000, a newly organized association for the purpose of assisting people in build- ing homes. In politics Mr. Pixley is a republican.
Capt. James B. White, one of the distinguished citizens of Fort Wayne, was born in the town of Denny, Stirlingshire, twenty miles east of Glasgow, Scotland, June 26, 1835. His father was manager of a large calico printing establishment, which gave employment to over 500 hands. His mother, a woman of strong intellect, strict in her religious life, was careful in the bringing up of her four sons and three daughters. At the age of twelve years James B. began a period of two years spent at the trade of tailor, but this he abandoned to take up calico printing, at which he was engaged until nineteen. Einigration being popular at that time, he embarked in a sailing vessel at Glasgow, and thirty-four days later, in the summer of 1854, arrived at New York. Seeking em- ployment at his trade, he was able to obtain work only until November, when, considerably discouraged, he resolved to search for an uncle, John Bains, who had settled near Fort Wayne, then in the far west, some ten years before. He went to Buffalo by rail, thence to Toledo by steamer, and by packet to Fort Wayne on the Wabash & Erie canal. He arrived here in the latter part of November, when his money was exhausted, and he was compelled to deposit his trunk at the packet office at the old Comparet basin in the east end of town, for the sum of $3, still due on his packet fare. He walked six miles out on the Winchester road, and obtained of his uncle the money to redeem his trunk. He obtained temporary work with Wade C. Shoaff, as a tailor, until January, then was employed a few weeks in a machine shop on the corner of Barr and Water streets, and in February began an employment in the stone yard of John Brown, which lasted three months at $3 per week and board.
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He was subsequently employed with Mr. Shoaff, and Nirdlinger & Op- penheimer, and in the summer of 1856 opened a tailor shop of his own, upstairs in the building occupied now by Mayer & Graffee. Not being sat- isfied he went to Cincinnati in the fall, and then to St. Louis, where he was employed first as a shipping clerk, and then in a wholesale dry-goods house, but making only $6 per week, he resumed his trade as a tailor. This was his occupation for a year longer in Fort Wayne, where he returned soon, and opened a shop over the dry goods store of S. C. Evans. During this year, 1857, he was married to the estima- ble lady who has been his helper through life, Maria Brown, a half- sister of John Brown. They have seven children, four sons and three daughters, viz .: John W., Jessie, Anna B., Edward, Gracie, James B., jr., and Alex B., all of whom are living. Mrs. White was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1836, and came to this country in company with her brother in 1853. She is a daughter of John and Jennie ( Blair) Brown, natives of Scotland. Her father was a man of more than ordin- ary ability, and was one of the most extensive contractors and builders of Glasgow, where he died in about 1840, leaving the family in good circumstances. The mother of Mrs. White was known for her well es- tablished Christianity and unswerving faith in the doctrine of the Pres- byterian church, of which she was a life-long member. She came to Fort Wayne in 1858, and died here in 1874. Mrs. White, like her mother, is a pronounced Presbyterian, and esteemed by all who know her. Mr. White's next enterprise was the acceptance of a position in the establishment of Becker & Frank, Warsaw, and after working there two years, he was able to have a shop of his own, a house and lot and a prosperous trade. The war of the rebellion now broke out, and in August, 1861, he sold his little stock at a considerable loss and assisted in recruiting a company. He was elected captain, and he proceeded with his command to Camp Allen near Fort Wayne, where it was assigned as Company I, of the Thirtieth Indiana regiment. After being equipped at Indianapolis, they were sent to Camp Nevin, Ky., to join the command of Gen. Wood. The regiment was among the first troops to reach Nashville after the battle of Fort Donelson, and they reached Pittsburgh Landing in the command of Gen. Buell in time to participate in the second day's fight. In this battle of Shiloh, during the attack when Col. Bass was killed, Capt. White was wounded in the right side by a spent minie ball, but soon recovered, and took part in the siege of Cor- inth, and the skirmishes incident to that campaign. The Thirtieth then joined in the movement to Louisville in pursuit of Bragg, and followed the rebel forces back to Nashville. Soon after the return to the latter place, Capt. White resigned his commission in the army. In the spring of 1863, he with Joseph A. Stellwagon, became suttler to the Eighty- eighth regiment, and was so engaged to the end of the war. During this time, he was twice captured by the rebels. Once he lost everything he had, his wagons and merchandise being totally destroyed in the Wheeler raid in the Sequatchie valley, near Chattanooga. The next
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time he was paroled with little loss. Returning to Fort Wayne at the close of the war he established a grocery and fruit house, and was pros- pering when his establishment was destroyed by fire in January, 1872. Though his insurance did not cover forty per cent. of the loss, his reso- lute spirit did not fail him, and on the next day he opened for business in a building opposite his old stand, and had ordered a new stock. Two years later he had repaired his losses, and was again firmly established. Throughout the panic that occurred about this time he abated in no way the daring of his operations, and was uniformly successful. He has in- vested largely in real estate, and added much to the improvement of Fort Wayne, by laying out new streets, and embellishing the four city additions which bear his name. The foundation of his reputation is his wholesale and retail grocery house, known throughout northern Indiana and northwestern Ohio as the "Fort Wayne Fruit House." This im- mense establishment, now quartered in a handsome new building on Wayne street, employs seventy-five clerks and employes, and does a business of nearly one-half million a year. He has also, in partnership with his son, John W. White, established a wheel factory, in which are employed about 200 workmen. It has a business which extends to every part of the Union, and is one of the largest establishments of the kind in the United States, producing all kinds of carriage and wagon wheels. John W. White is manager, and has made the business very successful. Capt. White was at one time a partner in the ownership of the Fort Wayne Gazette, and has always taken a deep interest in politics, though not often becoming prominent in political campaigns until recently. He was, however, twice elected to the council from the Second ward, a dem- ocratic stronghold, and in 1874 he was nearly elected clerk of the cir- cuit court by the republicans, in spite of a democratic majority of 3,000. In 1886 he was prevailed upon to accept the republican nomination for congress as representative of the twelfth district, and though the district had been surely democratic, usually by about 3,000 majority, he was elected by a majority of nearly 2,500, revealing his unbounded popular- ity. During his term in congress he was noted as a zealous worker, not only for the good of the people of his own district, but for the whole people, and he introduced several measures for the relief of the working people, which though they have not yet been adopted, will be recognized in the future as the proper foundation for legislation for the amelioration of the condition of the wage earners the world over. Such in particu- lar was his Minimum Wages bill. Also, during the fiftieth congress, to which he was elected, he took an active part in debates and particularly on the tariff bills. On the question of protection versus free trade, he was able to speak as a business man, with much weight, and his argu- ments were widely quoted, The following campaign was fought upon that line, and resulted in the defeat of Grover Cleveland. Since his re- turn from congress Mr. White has settled down to business with undi- minished energy, and having so many interests to demand his attention, real estate transactions, the Fruit House, and the factory, he will have
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