The Brownstown Banner was founded in April, 1869, and has rounded out 62 consecutive years of useful service as a newspaper. William Frysinger, its founder, issued it as a five-column, four-page weekly, all home print. The plant was burned down in 1898. Within less than a year after, Mr. Brodhecker became owner, but the paper never missed an issue, as for two issues the paper was printed at Cincinnati while equipment was being assembled for the new plant. The plant today, thoroughly modern in every way, has frequently been called a model newspaper plant. The Indiana journalistic fraternity awarded the Banner a silver cup as a symbol of its exceptional qualities as a weekly newspaper. I t has a circulation of three thousand copies, and is published from a plant with 1800 square feet of floor space and with nine employees.

Mr. Brodhecker has been a printer and journalist all his life. He has had the loyal cooperation of his family, including his sons, and since 1887 his twin sister, Margaret Brodhecker, has also been with him continuously as assistant local editor. She was graduated from the Brownstown High School in 1887.

Mr. Brodhecker was born in Jackson County, Indiana, April 27, 1869. His father, Conrad Brodhecker, came from Saxony, Germany, and settled in Brownstown Township, Jackson County, Indiana, soon after 1840. He was a merchant tailor. His wife was Louise (Seidel) Schaferman, a native of Leipsic, Germany, who was thirteen years of age when she accompanied one of her brothers, Edward Seidel, to America, leaving their parents and several brothers and sisters in the old country.

Andrew J. Brodhecker attended grade schools, was graduated from the Brownstown High School in 1887 and during his last year in high school was working in the printing establishment of which he afterward became owner. He started as a printer's devil and has never for any length of time been away from the smell of printer's ink since he was nineteen years of age. In 1890 he was made stock foreman of the Banner, in 1897 became managing editor and in 1898 bought the business, and for thirty-three years the Banner has responded to his particular genius as a newspaper man. Mr. Brodhecker for thirty-three years has been a member of the Indiana Democratic Editorial Association, is a member of the Indiana Weekly Press Association, and the Brownstown Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Jackson County Historical Society and for many years has been the official publisher of the Democratic party in the county. He has been president of the Brownstown Commercial Association and Fairview Cemetery Association and has taken an active part in many civic movements and industrial propositions.

Mr. Brodhecker married, November 1, 1894, Miss Cora D. Shepard, a native of Kansas. They are the parents of four children. The son Claude Giles is a graduate of Indiana University, majoring in economics and sociology and minoring in journalism, was associated with and part owner of the Banner until he sold his interest in 1924, and is now advertising manager. He is president of the Indiana Democratic Editorial Association and during the world war spent nine months at Lafayette, Indiana, with the Motor Transport Corps. He married Catherine Lucas in 1917. He has two sons, Curtis II, and Robert VIII.

The second son, Rolland Andrew, is also a graduate of Indiana University, where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and of Sigma Delta Chi, professional journalistic fraternity. He now owns a one half interest in the Banner and with the exception of three years on the Kokomo, Indiana Dispatch, he has been connected with the Banner since his graduation from high school. He was with the Students Army Training Corps at Indiana University during the World war. The third son, Lou Allen, was educated at Hanover College, is assistant reporter on the Brownstown Banner, and married Blanche Gibson, of Richmond, Indiana. The only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Brodhecker, Miss DeAlba, is a graduate of the school of Music at DePauw University at Greencastle.

Claude Broadhecker was publicity director of the Indiana Weekly Press Association in 1928 and was reelected for 1929, but resigned. Rolland had a prominent part in the organization of the Weekly Press Association in 1925 and was its secretary in 1926. Claude is now chairman of the combined legislative committees of the Indiana Democratic, Republican and Weekly Press Associations, and during the 1927, 1929 and 1931 sessions of the Indiana General Assembly was legal representative of Indiana newspapers. These two sons were made editors-in-chief of the Indiana Daily Student, the university publication, during their senior years and Claude organized and instituted the printing department of the Bloomington High School at Bloomington, Indiana. Rolland, while editor-in-chief, held the first Associated Press membership for the Indiana Daily Student. Claude helped organized the State Fair Edition of the .

Mr. Brodhecker and his sons Claude and Rolland are all affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and he has been through the chairs and is a past chancellor of the Lodge. Rolland is a member of the Masonic and Elks lodges. Mr. Brodhecker and Claude are deacons in the Presbyterian Church, while Mrs. Brodhecker and her son Lou Allen and daughter DeAlba are Methodists. Claude Brodhecker was one of the organizers and became a charter member of Camp Jackson Post No. 112 of the American Legion, and Rolland was post historian. Claude at the present time is liaison officer of the post. He is a member of the 125-piece Indiana State Legion band.

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

HON. THOMAS H. BRANAMAN is a Jackson County man who has become well known over the state, a very able lawyer, spent several years in Indianapolis in the attorney-general’s office, and the members of his profession look upon him as thoroughly qualified for the highest honors open to a lawyer.

He was born in Jackson County, May 5, 1884, son of Frank and Ada (Burrell) Branaman, and is a descendant of Christian Branaman, who represented a Pennsylvania Dutch family and who three times enlisted with Pennsylvania troops for service in the war for independence. Christian Branaman after the war came to Indiana to receive his land bounty, which was located in Owen Township, Jackson County. This old soldier married Mary Cresner. One of their sons was Abraham Branaman, a native of Jackson County, who married Susan Kindred. Abraham Branaman was the father of Christian Branaman, who married Mary Wells, and they were the grandparents of Thomas H. Branaman. The latter's father, Frank Branaman, was a leading lawyer and served as a member of the Indiana State Senate from 1885 to 1889. For twenty years he was on the school board. He and his wife had two sons, John C. and Thomas H.

Thomas H. Branaman attended grade and high school at Brownstown, was graduated with the A. B. degree from Indiana University in 1905, and took his law degree at the Harvard Law School in 1909. In 1907 he was admitted to the Indiana State bar and in 1909 engaged in practice at Brownstown. During 1911-14 he was deputy attorney-general and in 1916 was promoted to attorney-general of Indiana. During these years he spent most of his time at Indianapolis. Since 1917 he has been busy with an extensive general practice. In 1924 he was elected a member of the State Senate and was renominated for that office, but resigned to accept the nomination for justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. He is a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, is a Knight Templar Mason at Seymour, member of the B. P. O. Elks, the Chamber of Commerce, was the second president of the Brownstown Lions Club, and is a member of the Jackson County, Indiana State and American Bar Associations.

Senator Branaman married Miss Blanche Cunningham, of Jackson County, daughter of James W. and Mary Cunningham.

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

SEYMOUR PUBLIC LIBRARY, an institution that has functioned as an important source as well as a center of the literary and artistic culture of that community for a quarter of a century, was organized in 1904. A gift from Andrew Carnegie of $10,000 made possible the original building, which was formally opened January 5, 1905. The members of the original library board were: Harry M. Miller, president; Henry Siebenburgen, vice president; C. S. Mercer, secretary; Miss Nina Ewing. Dr. J. M. Shields, Mrs. Lynn Faulkoner and Mrs. Zoe St. John Williams.

The library when it was opened had only 2,066 volumes and during the first year the statistics of use indicated 988 readers and a circulation of 17,031. The library became increasingly popular and useful during the succeeding years until the building became entirely inadequate for the service demanded of it. Finally the library board issued bonds to the amount of $17,000 for additions and improvements and on November 22, 1928, the new building was dedicated, providing double the capacity of the old, and appropriate structures to house the collection of 14,500 volumes and to provide the varied service demanded of a modern library. Besides the main building the library affords a service to the district and city schools and a branch at Schneck Memorial Hospital.

At the time the rebuilding work was done there was also constructed a special new wing, known as the H. Vance Swope Memorial, a room to be used entirely as an art gallery. This was erected with an endowment of $3,000 given to the Seymour Art League by the late H. Vance Swope, a celebrated New York artist and a native of Indiana. The art room is devoted exclusively to the exhibition of pictures, including a large number of fine canvases bequeathed to the Art League by Mr. Swope at the time of his death.

The Seymour Public Library in per capita circulation of books ranks very high among Indiana cities with library facilities. Much of the good work done by the library has been credited to its librarian, Miss Katherine Frazee, who brought to her work not only sound technical training but a fundamental appreciation of literary and artistic things and a zeal for improving and broadening the application of the library to the cultural interests of the community. Miss Frazee was born in Hamilton County, Indiana, and was graduated from the Indiana Library School in the class of 1913. In 1914 she came to Seymour and has been active head of the library for the past fifteen years except during the year 1915-16. She is a member of the Seymour Tuesday Study Club.

The members of the library board at the time the new building was dedicated were: R. A. Cox, president; T. A. Mott, vice president; Mrs. Lynn Faulkoner, secretary; Mrs. J. H. Carter, Mrs. O. O. Swails, C. D. Billings and John H. Conner.

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

BERENICE M. HARRISON is an Indiana woman who has had a successful career as an attorney at law and court reporter. Her home is at Angola in Steuben County.

Mrs. Harrison was born at Three Rivers, Michigan, May 23, 1890. Her parents now reside at Mishawaka, Indiana. Her father, Alva Stephen Hodges, was born in LaPorte, Indiana, June 6, 1869, and his vocation is that of a machinist. Her mother, Hattie (Norton) Hodges, was born at Plymouth, Indiana in October 1873. Mrs. Harrison has one brother, Warren Alva Hodges, who was born at Three Rivers, Michigan, July 26, 1894, and is a radio salesman.

Mrs. Harrison attended the common schools of Mishawaka, the South Bend Business College, and was married, April 26, 1913 to Mr. Herbert E. Harrison.

Mrs. Harrison was graduated from the law department of the Tri-State College of Angola with LL. B. degree in 1923. She has enjoyed a very satisfactory career in the legal profession and as a court reporter. She is a member of the Commercial Law League of America, the Indiana State, District and County Bar Associations, having been secretary of the county association since its organization. She is an honorary life member of the Blackstone Law Club, is a member of the Eastern Star, the White Shrine of Jerusalem, the Woodmen's Circle, is a past chief of the Pythian Sisters, a member of the King's Daughters Association and of the Delphian Society. She belongs to the American Legion Auxiliary, is state vice president of the American Rose Society, state president of the National Shorthand Reporters Association, member of the Indiana Historical Society, the National Geographic Society, American Forestry Association, all of these indicating some of her active interests. She is a past president of the Steuben County Business and Professional Woman's Club and state recording secretary of the Indiana Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. She is a member of the Occupational Advisory Committee of the National Federation of the Business and Professional Women's Clubs, and is also regional secretary and publicity chairman of the organization.

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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

F. J. BOWLING is a Jackson County business man, owner of the Willys-Knight Automobile Agency at Brownstown. He became interested in the automobile industry when a boy, and his enterprise has put him into the ranks of the substantial business men of this community.

Mr. Bowling, who is a son of George K. Bowling, was born in Nelson County, Kentucky, April 6, 1898. He attended school in Kentucky and at the age of twenty-one established a vulcanizing and battery shop, where the post office is now located in Brownstown. His business soon became well established and after four years he began handling automobiles. During the past seven years he has been located at his present location, at the west end of Brownstown, and since 1924 has had the Willys-Overland agency.

Mr. Bowling has a large plant, with over nine thousand square feet of floor space, and has abundant space for store room, shop and storage. His shop has all the modern machinery for handling any kind of repair job. He has five people employed and is doing a very prosperous business.

Mr. Bowling is a member of the Brownstown Chamber of Commerce. He was the third president of the local Lions Club and is a member of the Knights of. Columbus. He married Miss Ora Gilkey, also a native of Nelson County, Kentucky. Their two children are Mary and Donald.

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

CHARLES H. COX, president of the First National Bank of Brownstown, is a native of Jackson County, Indiana. He left his home community when a young man and was in business in St. Louis and other places for a number of years, and then returned to Brownstown, where he has been a merchant, banker and a prominent figure in civic and business organizations.

He was born in Jackson County February 25, 1866. His father, R. M. J. Cox, was a native of Kentucky and was one year old when his family settled in Jackson County, Indiana. He spent his active life as a farmer and civil engineer. R. M. J. Cox married Silistus Wort, of Brownstown, and they had a family of ten children.

Charles H. Cox attended the grade and high schools at Brownstown and during his boyhood had a very thorough training in civil engineering under his father. In 1892 he went to St. Louis and established himself in the retail grocery business, and for a time he was located at Fowler, Indiana. From 1894 to 1899, he conducted a grocery business and was a manufacturing confectioner in Indianapolis. On being elected president of the First National Bank of Brownstown, in 1924, he retired from the manufacturing confectionery business and has given all his time to the affairs of this bank since 1925.

Mr. Cox is a member of the Jackson County and Indiana State Bankers Association, is a Royal Arch and Scottish Rite Mason, member of the Knights Templar Commandery at Seymour, and Murat Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis. He is a member of the Jackson County Historical Society, was one of the organizers and for three years was president of the Brownstown Chamber of Commerce, and is a member and one of the organizers of the Lions Club. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church and in national affairs votes the Republican ticket.

Mr. Cox married Marie Stilwell, of Brownstown. They have a son, Richard M. J. Cox, who was educated in the Indianapolis High School, is married and is now in California, being an inspector in the state highway department there.

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

LOUIS H. OSTERMAN, one of the valued physicians and surgeons of Jackson County, returned to his native community to take over the work of his father, who for almost half a century had been one of the outstanding representatives of medicine and surgery at Seymour.

Dr. Louis H. Osterman was born in Jackson County, September 15, 1896. His father, Dr. A. G. Osterman, was born in Germany, and a year after his birth his parents came to America and settled at Louisville, Kentucky. He was educated there, graduating from the Louisville Medical College, and devoted all the rest of his lifetime to his professional duties in Jackson County. He married Henrietta M. Goecker, a native of Indiana, where her people were early settlers.

Dr. Louis H. Osterman was one of a large family of eleven children. He attended grade and high schools in Jackson County, and was graduated M. D. from the University of Indiana in 1925. He also took special training in the Indianapolis City Hospital and completed a course in clinical work in the Fifth Avenue Hospital of New York City in 1926. After this preparation; he located at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and became assistant to Dr. Charles G. Beall, an eminent authority on internal medicine. He was there eighteen months, and on the death of his father, on October 13, 1297, returned to Seymour and has brought additional prestige to the name of Osterman in the medical profession in this county.

During the World war period Doctor Osterman was for eighteen months with the military forces on the Mexican border. He is a member of the American Legion, belongs to the Theta Kappa Psi medical fraternity, the Jackson County and Indiana State Medical Associations, and is a fellow of the American Medical Association.

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

THEODORE O. PLUMMER, one of the prominent younger business men of Seymour, is founder and active head of the T. O. Plummer Insurance Agency.

He was born in Jackson County, Indiana, April 10, 1901. The Plummer family has been in Indiana for four generations. His grandfather, Scott Plummer, was born in this state and spent his active life as a farmer. Mr. Plummer's father, T. J. Plummer, was born in Jackson County, is a substantial farmer resident of the county, and has been a leader in the Republican party. T. J. Plummer married Carrie Sullivan, a native of Jackson County, and of their five children four are living.

Theodore O. Plummer attended public schools at Medora in Jackson County, and after high school took a course in the Seymour Business College. He was graduated in 1918, and for several years was an automobile salesman. He took up insurance work in 1923, and during the past seven years has made the T. O. Plummer Insurance Agency one of the leading business establishments of its kind in Southern Indiana. He handles all kinds of insurance, including life, fire and casualty, and bonding. Mr. Plummer, like his father, has a deep interest in local politics and at the present time is Republican city chairman at Seymour and fourth district chairman of the Republican Junior organization. He is president of the Seymour Lions Club, and has since been elected and is now serving Indiana Lionism as district governor of the state.

Mr. Plummer married Catherine Carmine, of Seymour, whose people were pioneers of Franklin County, Indiana. Her father was a manufacturer. Mr. and Mrs. Plummer have one son, Thomas, who is a member of the B. P. O. Elks and is a member of the Seymour Country Club.

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

HARRY FINDLEY, an insurance man, is one of the most popular citizens of Seymour. He has lived in that section of Indiana nearly all his life, and has a host of friends to appreciate his sterling qualities as a business man and his public spirit as a citizen.

He was born in Jackson County, March 9, 1871. His grandfather, Hugh A. Findley, was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and in coming west traveled on the Ohio River until he reached Indiana. He settled in Jackson County and took up a homestead and secured the patent from the Government in the early 1830s. He developed a farm and also followed the trade of gunsmith. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He married Rebecca Coons of Clark County, Indiana. William A. Findley, father of Harry, was born in Jackson County and married Sara Durland, of that county. They had a large family of twelve children.

Harry Findley attended the grade schools of Jackson County and lived on a farm during his youth. For four years he was with the Adams Express Company and then entered the railway train service and was a railroad man until 1907. He still holds his card of membership in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and has been secretary of the local branch of that organization for the past eighteen years.

Mr. Findley in 1907 located at Seymour and became solicitor for life insurance. In 1913 he bought a general agency and has conducted that business, together with loans and bonds and investments, making it one of the best organizations of the kind in Jackson County. Mr. Findley has always been responsive to calls upon his civic support for worthy measures. In 1917 he was elected city clerk of Seymour. He is a Republican, a member of the Masonic fraternity, B. P. O. Elks, Loyal Order of Moose, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias.

Mr. Findley married Margaret Heuser, of Jackson County. They have two children, Mylrea and Miss Madeline. Mylrea is the wife of Ralph Schafer.

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

MILTON DUDLEY HEINY. Among the men who, because of the extent and importance of their holdings and interests, are accounted leaders in, financial and business circles of Gary, few are held in greater esteem than Milton D. Heiny, one of the largest road, sewer and street contractors in Indiana. A product of the farm, at the time he gained his majority he embarked in business on his own account, and during his career has been identified with several lines of activity, in all of which he has achieved the kind of success that can be gained only by a man of versatile and uncommon abilities.

Mr. Heiny was born on a farm in Cass County, Indiana, March 6, 1875, and is a son of Jonathan and Mary (Ireland) Heiny. His paternal grandfather, Jacob Heiny, was born in Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1834, taking up his residence in Pennsylvania, where he lived for several years. Later he moved to Cass County, Indiana, where he became a pioneer settler and took up farming land, being engaged in agricultural operations throughout the remainder of his life and acquiring a comfortable competence. During the last few years of his life he lived in retirement, and he and his worthy wife, also a native of Germany, are buried in the Cedarville (Indiana) Cemetery.

Jonathan Heiny was born in Germany, in 1830, and was about four years of age when brought to the United States by his parents. For a few years the family resided in Pennsylvania, where the lad received his early education, and this was completed in the public schools of the country districts of Cass County, Indiana, where he grew to manhood on the home farm. During the war between the states he enlisted in the Union army, becoming a private in the One Hundred Fifty- seventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which he served gallantly until the close of the struggle, following which he resumed his activities as a farmer and stock raiser. In the evening of his life he retired with a modest fortune, and lived to the remarkable age of ninety-six years, three months and one day, passing away November 23, 1927, and being laid to rest in the cemetery at Idaville, White County, Indiana. Mr. Heiny; who was one of the highly esteemed and public-spirited citizens of his community, married Miss Mary Ireland, who was born and reared in Carroll County, Indiana, where she received her education in the public schools. She was a faithful member of the Baptist Church and active in its work, and died January 7, 1915, being also buried at Idaville. The Ireland family is also one of the old and honored ones of Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Heiny were the parents of fourteen children, of whom four died in infancy: Henry Markle, who died in 1929; Netta, now Mrs. Herman, of White County; James, also of White County; Mrs. Nella Jones, of Rockford, Illinois; Eva, now Mrs. Benjamin of White County; Charles, of White County; Milton D., of this review; Ora, of Cass County; Mrs. Grace Leslie, of Lake County; and Bert, of Gary.

Milton D. Heiny attended the public schools of White and Cass counties, and on leaving school began to assist his father on the home place, continuing until he reached the age of twenty-one years. Not long thereafter he married and moved to Starke County, Indiana, where he established himself in the ice and trucking business, in which he continued to be engaged for twelve years. In 1907 he moved to Gary and began contracting in roads, streets and sewers, and with the passing of the years has built up the largest enterprise of its kind in the State of Indiana, with offices at 3804 Broadway, Glen Park, in the Glen Park State Bank Building. Mr. Heiny has contributed to the up building of Gary a number of flat buildings, the Glen Park State Bank Building and a number of beautiful residences and also drew plans and outlined the architectural work for his own beautiful home at 3620 Jefferson Avenue, one of the show places of Gary. He owns a one-third interest in the Park Manor Land Company and is a director in a number of other companies and corporations and has a high standing in business and financial circles. Mr. Heiny has always taken a sincere and constructive interest in civic affairs and is a member of the Gary Commercial Club and Chamber of Commerce; the Gary Rotary Club, of which he is a member of the directorate; and the Gary Country Club. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and belongs to Gary Lodge No. 677, A. F. and A. M.; Fort Wayne Consistory, and Orak Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Hammond. He is a Republican in his political allegiance and a Christian Scientist in religious faith.

Mr. Heiny married in White County, Indiana, April 11, 1893, Miss Mary Davis, daughter of Rev. William J. and Mary Jane Davis, the former of whom was for many years a Methodist Episcopal divine in the Indiana Conference. Both Reverend and Mrs. Davis are deceased and buried in Blue River Cemetery, near Columbus City, Indiana. Mrs. Heiny died in November, 1914, and is also buried in Blue River Cemetery. Of the two children born to that union one died at birth, and Ruth Irene is now Mrs. Glen S. Smith, of Gary, whose husband is associated with Mr. Heiny as superintendent of construction. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have one child, Glen Dudley. On April 10, 1918, Mr. Heiny was united in marriage with Mrs. Gertrude (Davis) Dagenhart, of Ohio, who had one child by her former marriage: William, who is attending high school at Gary. Mrs. Heiny was born and reared in Ohio, where she attended school, and as a proficient musician has been a teacher of music for some years, being especially gifted as a pipe organist. Mr. and Mrs. Heiny have three children: Frances Louise and Milton Dudley, Jr., who are attending school and studying music and dancing; and Johnathan (Jack) Weldon. Mr. Heiny is a member of the Turkey Creek and Crown Point Country Club.

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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