FREDERICK FAY REASONER, cashier of the Lincoln Bank & Trust Company of Muncie, is a former county treasurer of Delaware County and has been well and favorably known as a banker, business man and citizen of that community for many years.

Mr. Reasoner was born in Blackford County, Indiana, August 21, 1883, son of John B. and Catherine (Jones) Reasoner. His grandfather, Peter Reasoner, came from Ohio and settled in Blackford County about 1833 and did the pioneer work of developing a farm in the wilderness. His son, Noah Hill Reasoner, was the first white child born in Blackford County. Peter Reasoner and other members of his family are buried in the Elizabethtown Cemetery. John B. Reasoner was a native of Blackford County, grew up on a farm and devoted his life to farming and stock raising. He also did a considerable business as a road builder, being a road contractor and for a number of years was superintendent of gravel roads. He had to his credit a record of three years of service in the Union army as a member of the Ninth Indiana Cavalry. John B. Reasoner died May 4, 1926, at the age of eighty years, seven months, and is buried at Elizabethtown. His wife, Catherine Jones, was born in Grant County, Indiana, attended school there, and she died October 8, 1929. She and her husband were lifelong members of the Presbyterian Church. They had a family of eight children: Alta, William G., Lillian E., Nellie D., Frederick F., Earl, and Harry B. and Homer H., twins. All are living except Lillian.

Frederick Fay Reasoner was educated in public schools in Blackford County, graduating from the Hartford City High School in 1904, and completed his education in the Eastern Indiana Normal School, now the Ball State Teachers College at Muncie. Soon after leaving school he became messenger and clerk in the Delaware County National Bank, and was assistant cashier of that institution when he resigned in 1921 to begin his duties as county treasurer of Delaware County and city treasurer of Muncie. He was elected county treasurer in 1920 and gave a very businesslike administration to the affairs of the office until 1926. Since leaving the office of county treasurer he has resumed his active connection with banking, joining the Farmers Savings Bank, which is now the Lincoln Bank & Trust Company of Muncie. He has held the office of cashier for the past four years. The bank is a member of the State and American Bankers Associations.

Mr. Reasoner has been active in civic affairs through the Chamber of Commerce and other organizations. He was a charter member of the Kiwanis Club, is affiliated with Muncie Lodge No. 245, B. P. O. Elks, is a member of the Y. M. C. A., and is president of the board of trustees of the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. Reasoner is a Republican in politics.

He married at Hartford City, June 26, 1912, Miss Lydia A. Chapman, daughter of James and Sarah (Pickett) Chapman. Her father for a number of years was a millwright with the Hartford City plant of the Dupont Powder Company. He also held the office of postmaster there. He died in 1922 and her mother in the fall of 1914, and both are buried at Hartford City. Mrs. Reasoner attended grade and high schools of her native town. She is a Presbyterian and is vice president of the Sorosis Women's Civic Club. Mr. and Mrs. Reasoner have one daughter, Catherine, a student in the Muncie High School.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


ELMER J. GLASER has been identified since leaving school with the building and contracting business of his brother, Albert J. Glaser. In that work he is following in the same line as his father and grandfather, both of whom were builders.

His grandfather was Fred Glaser, a mason contractor who spent most of his life in Franklin County, Indiana. The father of the Muncie contractor was Michael Glaser, who was born and reared in Franklin County, Indiana, and from boyhood was familiar with the work of the building trades. He married Cecilia Ertel, native of Franklin County, and after his marriage he made his home at Batesville, where he was a building contractor until 1892. In the meantime the discoveries of natural gas in the Eastern Indiana fields had brought a great boom to Muncie as an industrial center and Michael Glaser moved to that city and found a large amount of business as a builder of houses, industrial plants and other structures. He continued active in his business until his death on January 5, 1911. He is buried at the Beech Grove Cemetery. Both he and his wife were zealous communicants of Saint Lawrence Catholic Church. His widow still resides at Muncie, at the corner of Madison and Sixth streets. They had a family of five children: Albert J., of Muncie; Laura, the wife of Jay Adams, formerly in the grocery business, now connected with the Glaser contracting firm, and who during the World war was with the army, and is a member of Delaware Post No. 19 of the American Legion and a Knight Templar and thrity-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and Mr. and Mrs. Adams have one daughter, Mary Doloris. Arthur Glaser, also connected with the Glaser contracting firm as a foreman, married Miss Fay Bond, of Muncie; Harry J. Glaser, who died in 1926, at the age of thirty-three; and Elmer J. Glaser, also with the Glaser contracting organization.

Elmer J. Glaser was born at Muncie, May 30, 1896, four years after the family established their home in that city. He was educated in public schools, in the Lawrence parochial school, and on leaving school he began an apprenticeship to learn the trade of bricklayer. He was employed by his oldest brother, Albert J. Glaser, who took up and carried on the contracting and building business after the death of the father. Mr. Elmer Glaser had been associated with his brother's business as a general contractor and since 1916 has been foreman of the organization.

On September 1, 1917, he joined the colors, being sent to Tampa, Florida, and was in training at Camp Wheeler at Macon, Georgia, until discharged in January, 1918, because of disability. After recovering he reenlisted, in May, 1918, and was with the troops at Camp Sheridan in Alabama until honorably discharged in February, 1919.

After the war he resumed his work with his brother. Mr. Glaser is a member of Delaware Post No. 19 of the American Legion, belongs to the Forty and Eight military society, and is an independent voter.

He married at McKeesport, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1923, Miss Mildred Mongrain, daughter of Edward and Clara (Mercer) Mongrain, of Delaware County. Her parents live at Muncie, where her father for a number of years has been master mechanic at the plant of the Republic Iron & Steel Company. Her mother is a past matron of the Eastern Star and a member of the Woman's Club. Mrs. Glaser graduated from the Muncie High School in 1917. She is a member of the Woman's Auxiliary of Delaware Post No. 19 of the American Legion.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


GEORGE W. GUNDER, of Brownstown, has had a notable career. His talents have impressed themselves in many directions and he has been an educator, newspaper editor, writer, lecturer, lawyer, and his life and work have made him well known in a number of cities and communities, east, south and west.

Mr. Gunder was born in Preble County, Ohio, January 12, 1859, a descendant of William Gunder, a Pennsylvanian who moved to Ohio in pioneer times. George Gunder's uncle, George W. Gunder, was a soldier in the Civil war and afterwards held the rank of colonel and was brevetted brigadier-general in the Spanish-American war. Mr. Gunder's father was Henry Gunder, who for many years was a professor of mathematics and at one time superintendent of schools at Greenville, Ohio, North Manchester and Newcastle, Indiana, and also did a great deal of organization work in Indiana schools. He married Catherine Chase, of Preble County, Ohio, and they had a family of eight children.

George W. Gunder attended grade school in Preble County, high school at Greenville, Ohio, and graduated in 1873, when fourteen years of age, and went to Indianapolis and spent a year clerking in a grocery store. Through the influence of the Indianapolis attorney, Benjamin Harrison, who later became President, he was, at the age of fifteen, given a job in a drug store in Indianapolis. He began teaching in Wabash County, Indiana, at sixteen, taught one country school, then acted as principal of a consolidated school, and at the age of eighteen was made superintendent of schools at Roann in Wabash County, Indiana. He held this position four years and when twenty years of age was president of the County Teachers Association of Wabash County and lectured over a wide area in county institutes. While teaching he studied law with Judge T. B. Redding at Newcastle, Indiana, and at the age of twenty-one was qualified and admitted to the Indiana bar. While superintendent of schools at Roann, he was a candidate for county superintendent of Wabash County schools, but having a tie vote for three days, he yielding to his opponent when promised the nomination of prosecuting attorney.

In 1885 Mr. Gunder went to Kansas City, Missouri, and entered real estate, and later became connected with an abstract company and was made head of the abstract force in the courthouse. From there he removed to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and for a number of years remained in Arkansas. At Fort Smith he conducted a real estate business and in 1889 managed the Fort Smith Evening Call and was its editor for one year. He proved his enterprise as a business man and citizen in many ways while at Fort Smith. As head of the Commercial Club he brought much influence to bear in behalf of paving streets and brought about the organization of a paving brick plant to supply material for paving. He became city editor of the Arkansas Gazette at Little Rock in 1892, and started an illustrated magazine, called The Bee, and while it was not financially profitable it did a great deal to encourage young writers in the South. While there he also acted as a staff correspondent for the Saint Louis Republic, and was prominent in the Press Association and a representative of the Associated Press. From 1892 to 1897 Mr. Gunder was at Little Rock, associated with the Arkansas Gazette, one of the oldest newspapers in the South, founded in 1819. While there he headed the movement for the establishment of a city park and the securing of a regimental post at Little Rock, Fort Logan H. Roots, and in other ways proved himself a live and forceful factor in the community.

After leaving Arkansas Mr. Gunder went to New York City and entered the insurance business reorganizing and being for three years superintendent of agencies of the New York Casualty Company. Resigning that office, he returned to Wabash, Indiana, was engaged in organization work for several years in Michigan and Georgia, and later bought an insurance business at Ewing in Jackson County, and since 1907 has owned and conducted the leading general insurance business at Brownstown.

Mr. Gunder married Miss Jessie Rhodes, of Wabash. She died, leaving one daughter, Jessie, who is the wife of Harry Gray and has four children. Mr. Gunder's second wife was Amiee Robertson, of Jackson County, Indiana, a woman of rare intellectual attainments. By this marriage there is one child, Georgia, formerly wife of G. Montague Taylor, a business man at Salem, Indiana, now deceased, and in January, 1931, she was married to Elmer L. Stephenson, president and manager of the Fidelity and Casualty Company at Indianapolis.

Mr. Gunder is a charter member of the Lions Club of Brownstown, is active in the Knights of Pythias and was instrumental in organizing the first Commercial Club, now the Chamber of Commerce. He was one of the pioneer advocates of hard road construction in the state and his influence with the Chamber of Commerce was instrumental in bringing about the construction of the first concrete road in Jackson County. He is secretary of the Southern Indiana Good Roads Association, was formerly president of the Dixie Hoosier Scenic Route from Indianapolis to Louisville, Kentucky, which he sought to be incorporated in the Dixie Highway. He is a charter member of the Jackson County Historical Society.

During the campaign for raising funds for the Lincoln Memorial in Spencer County, Indiana, Mr. Gunder was made chairman of the Jackson County Memorial Committee. Mr. and Mrs. Gunder are now completing a Colonial home in Brownstown, where they hope to make comfortable their remaining years, rearing and educating their little granddaughter, Janet Taylor.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


RALPH E. STOUT, a Muncie business man was born in Delaware County, and has had an interesting range of business experience and responsibilities.

He was born August 26, 1882. The Stout family were among the earliest settlers in this section of Eastern Indiana. His grandfather, James R. Stout, came from North Carolina and was the first white man to settle west of Killbuck Creek in Delaware County. He secured land from the Government and developed a large and well-improved farm of 350 acres. He reared a family of seven sons and three daughters, the youngest of the children being John Stout, who was born and reared in Delaware County and was a loyal soldier of the Union during the Civil war. He first served in the Thirty-eighth Indiana Infantry and later in the One Hundred Fortieth Indiana Volunteers. He was in the service three years, participated in the battle of Antietam, was with Sherman's forces in the Atlantic campaign and took part in some of the bloodiest battles of the war. After the war he became a stationary engineer, and as chief engineer was employed by some of the largest organizations operating in the eastern Indiana natural gas field. He died in the spring of 1919 and he and his wife are buried in the Jones Cemetery of Delaware County. James R. Stout and wife are buried in the old Bethel Church Cemetery. John Stout married Serena Sears, daughter of Increase Sears, who was one of the first justices of the peace in Delaware County outside of Muncie and served in that office for over thirty-five years. He owned a farm of 240 acres in Delaware County. Mr. and Mrs. Sears are buried in the Nottingham Cemetery. Mrs. Serena Stout attended public schools and was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She died March 15, 1926. Her three children are Ralph E., Miss Stella, of Muncie, and Harley, who is connected with the Guarantee Tire & Rubber Company of Muncie and by his marriage to Lena Mitchell has three children Mary, Howard and Eugene.

Ralph E. Stout received his education in the public schools of Delaware County. Immediately after leaving school he entered upon a business career. His work from the first has been largely identified with manufacturing corporations. He has worked in plants and offices, as traveling salesman. His first connection was with the Midland Steel Company, with which he remained two years, and for four years was with the canning industry of S. H. Dragoo & Company. He then spent seven years with the American Insulating Company of Yorktown, Indiana, and for two years was on the road for the Chicago house of Bromen & Company. Mr. Stout for five years was connected with the live stock commission business, buying and shipping live stock to domestic and foreign markets.

Since 1920 he has been an automobile dealer at Muncie, where he owns the General Motors Truck Sales Company, at 814-16 South Walnut Street. He has the leading sales service for the General Motors trucks and commercial cars and also owns and operates the large garage, storage and repair shops.

Mr. Stout has been active in the Chamber of Commerce, is a Republican, a Methodist and for twenty years has had membership in the Improved Order of Red Men and for fifteen years has been affiliated with Muncie Lodge No. 245, B. P. O. Elks.

He married, November 19, 1900, in Delaware County Miss Sarah A. Petty, daughter of Lewis Napoleon and Hulda (Williamson) Petty. Her father was a farmer and stock man of Delaware County. He died in 1922 and his wife in 1927 and both are buried in the Jones Cemetery. Mrs. Stout attended public schools in Delaware County, is active in the Methodist Church and the Ladies Aid Society. Mr. and Mrs. Stout have three children: Charles E., Ruth and Ruby. Charles attended the grade and high school of Yorktown, is with the Standard Auto Company of Muncie, and married Miss Helen Oland, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Oland, at Muncie. The daughter Ruth attended school Yorktown and Muncie, is the wife of Forest E. Mitchell, who assists Mr. Stout in the automobile business, and they have a son, Ralph E. Mitchell. The daughter Ruby was educated at Muncie and is the wife of Eugene Karl, employed in the Remy Products Company, a unit of the General Motors Corporation. Mr. and Mrs. Karl have two sons, Robert Eugene and Charles Edward.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


ALBERT A. WATTS, coroner of Lake County since 1926, is head of a distinguished profession firm of Gary, comprising a group of physicians and surgeons of the highest ability and specialists in several fields.

The offices of the firm are at 749 Broadway in Gary. Doctor Watts is the senior partner. His associate Dr. Walter M. Behn is secretary of the Gary Board of Health, Dr. James B. Burcham is coroner's physician, Dr. M. C. Marcus is an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist, and another member is Dr. Ed Gaebe. They also employ a staff of trained nurses. Doctor Watts is a lifelong resident of Lake County and was about nineteen years old when the City of Gary was founded. He was one of the first three public school teachers in Gary. He was born at Hammond, Indiana, September 21, 1887, son of William H. and Paulina (Daumer) Watts. His father was born in England and was five months old when his parents came to America and settled in Northern Indiana. Doctor Watts' grandfather, William Watts, was a native of England, born at Sutton, December 16, 1820, and when a boy went to sea. He became captain of a sailing vessel, and for thirteen years lived on the high seas and visited many ports of the world. In his later years his grandchildren heard from his lips many thrilling stories of his adventures and experiences. He endured shipwreck three times, and once was tossed out in a broken life boat for five days before being picked up by a fishing vessel. In his time it was customary for a sailing ship to cross the Atlantic in about twenty- five days, a voyage that has been cut down by the fastest steamship to less than five days. Captain Watts came to this country in 1861 and settled at Gibson Station, a flag stop on the Michigan Central Railway. Two miles south of the railroad he settled in the midst of the heavy timber and underbrush, where he hewed out a home and developed a farm, and there his three sons and five daughters grew up. The locality later became known as Hessville. It was about thirty miles from Chicago, and the surrounding country was filled with wild game and much of the transportation to market was done by wagons drawn by oxen, several days being required in going and returning from Chicago. Captain Watts and wife are both buried in the Hessville Cemetery near Hammond.

William H. Watts grew up at the home farm near Hammond, attended school in that city and for many years carried on a business as a truck farmer. For over twenty years he held the office of justice of the peace in Calumet Township. He was a member of the Maccabees, the Ross Community Church, and a Republican. He died in March, 1928, and is buried at the Ridge Lawn Cemetery at Gary. His wife, Paulina Daumer, was born and reared in Germany, attended school there and finished her education after coming to America. She passed away in March, 1929. These parents had a family of eight children: Mrs. Rose Good, who is the mother of three children; Dr. Albert A.; Benjamin; Mrs. Lucy Ott; Mrs. Lillie Waite, who has two children; Mrs. Nettie Owen, mother of two children; Henry, Jr., who has one child; and Dr. Elmer Watts.

Albert A. Watts attended public school at Ross, graduating from high school in 1904, and while getting his bearings as to his permanent career he took up school teaching, and, as noted above, was employed as one of the first teachers at Gary when that city was founded in 1906. He went on through the higher branches in Valparaiso University, where he graduated in 1911, and in 1915 took his degree in medicine from the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery. He had further training as an interne in the Saint Elizabeth Hospital of Chicago. During the World war he was enrolled in the Medical Corps, serving a year and a half with the rank of captain, and during part of the time was overseas and on duty in the front line trenches. He was near the front line in some of the hardest fighting of the war. During the past ten years Doctor Watts has been engaged in a busy general practice at Gary, and his individual attainments have contributed much to the high standing enjoyed by the firm comprising himself and his associates.

His great public service has been rendered in the office of county coroner, to which he was first elected in 1926. He has introduced a number of changes to bring about a better system and increased efficiency in his office and has at all times shown himself an advocate of safety measures on the highways and railroads which would safeguard human life in Lake County. Doctor Watts is a member of Gary Memorial Post No. 17 of the American Legion, is a member of Gary Lodge No. 783, Loyal Order of Moose, Gary Commercial Club, Harrison Club, Gary Republican Club, Young Men's Christian Association, Gary Lodge No. 1152, B. P. O. Elks, and Gary Lodge No. 677 of the Masonic fraternity. He is a member of the Lake County, Indiana State and American Medical Associations and the Gary Country Club.

He married in October, 1928, Miss Mayme Fyffe, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Fyffe. Her father was a farmer at Sumner, Illinois, where Mrs. Watts received her early education. She is a graduate nurse of the Cook County Hospital of Chicago and has been active in church and social life at Gary, being a member of the Woman's Club and the Eastern Star. Doctor and Mrs. Watts have one daughter, Alberta.

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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


DON A. BOLLINGER. The entire career of Don A. Bollinger, from the time that he left college halls until the present, has been identified with the Seymour Woolen Mills, to the growth and development of which he has contributed in no small degree, and in which he has risen from the position of salesman to that of president. In addition to being prominent as a business man, he has likewise taken a leading part in public affairs and is justly rated as one of the community's most valued citizens.

Don A. Bollinger was born April 12, 1887, at Seymour, Jackson County, Indiana, and is a son of Albert and Anna (Schneck) Bollinger. His father, a native of Switzerland, was still a boy when brought by his parents to the United States, the family settling at Seymour, where the youth learned the trade of shoemaking. For a number of years he occupied a cobbler's bench, during which time he saved his earnings carefully, so that in time he was able to establish himself in the shoe and boot business on his own account in a modest way. Industry and good management brought their just reward, and he became one of the substantial and highly-respected merchants of the city. He married Miss Anna Schneck, who was born in Jackson County, Indiana, and they became the parents of two children: Lynn, who died in 1918; and Don of this review.

Don Bollinger attended the public schools of Seymour and after leaving high school enrolled as a student at DePauw University, as a member of the class of 1908. Almost immediately after his graduation he secured a position as traveling salesman for the Seymour Woolen Mills, with which he has been identified to the present, rising step by step through the various departments and positions to the post of president, a position to which he was elected in 1919. Mr. Bollinger is authoritatively rated as one of the best informed men in his line in the country. He is a member of the Wool Blanket Manufacturers Association, and the company belongs to the Indiana Manufacturers Association and the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce, leading societies of this line of business. The Seymour Woolen Mills had its inception at the close of the war between the states and was incorporated in 1866, at which time the factory was a small frame establishment with not much to support it but hope, ambition and ability. About 1870 Mr. Bollinger’s grandfather, Louis Schneck, became interested in the woolen mills and served as president until his death in 1905. He was succeeded by his son, Benjamin F. Schneck, who retained the office of president until his passing in 1919. In that year as previously mentioned, Mr. Bollinger became the president of the mills. During the more than six decades that have passed, the plant has grown to be an enterprise covering 150,000 feet, a plant that is equipped with every modern convenience and device. The working force consists of 200 skilled people, all expert in their line, and the plant turns out about 125,000 pairs of blankets and from 5,000 to 10,000 pieces of flannel annually. During the World war period the plant was engaged 80% in war production, furnishing blankets. Mr. Bollinger is a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank. He is intensely interested in a public spirited way in the welfare and progress of his community and is an enthusiastic member of the Rotary Club, of which he was formerly president. Politically he is a Republican, and his fraternal affiliation is with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is president of the school board of Seymour, a member of the board of trustees of Schneck Memorial Hospital, a director of the Cooperative Building & Loan Association, and a member of Trinity Methodist Church. Although he is still a young man, his career has touched life on many sides, and he has shown himself capable of meeting and overcoming the obstacles that have arisen in his path.

Mr. Bollinger married Miss Hannah Mills, of Seymour, Indiana, and to this union there have been born five children: Don Mills, Carolyn, Louise, Richard and Roger. The family occupies a pleasant and attractive home at Seymour.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


Deb Murray