JAMES R. THOMPSON. Among the younger generation of business men who have attained positions as the heads of large and important enterprises formerly occupied only by men many years their seniors is James R. Thompson, president of the Thompson Dairy Company, of Seymour, and chief executive official also of the Seymour Ice Cream Company. These are enterprises which have been developed under his supervision from small and modest beginnings to business concerns of considerable size and importance, necessitating a steady and capable directing hand and mind to continue and further the course of their development. In the innumerable details that must be taken care of in the smooth running of business industries such as these Mr. Thompson has shown himself conservative and at the same time progressive, shrewd and able, and at all times honorable in his methods.

Mr. Thompson was born March 18, 1897, on a farm in Jackson County, Indiana, and is a son of J. B. and Mary (Holmes) Thompson. His grandfather, A. F. Thompson, was born in Bartholomew County, Indiana, a son of one of the first settlers of that region, and passed his entire life in agricultural pursuits. J. B. Thompson was born on a farm in Bartholomew County, and subsequently moved to Jackson County, where for many years he followed farming and later took up banking, being at present vice president of the Jackson County Loan & Trust Company of Seymour. He married Mary Holmes, of Jackson County, and they became the parents of five children.

James R. Thompson attended the public schools of Jackson County while assisting his father in the work of the home farm, and after his graduation from the high school entered the United States army, in 1917, for service during the World war. He was at first in the Marine Corps, but was subsequently transferred to the Aviation Corps, and was still in active training at the time of signing of the armistice. He still maintains. his interest in flying and watches with keen appreciation the constant developments being made in flying. In 1919 Mr. Thompson was graduated from Purdue University and returned to the vocation of farming, to which he applied himself energetically until 1924, when he bought out the Seymour Ice Cream Company and changed the name to the Thompson Dairy Company, Inc., consolidating the Newby Dairy Company with the Ice Cream Manufacturing Company. This company now manufactures ice cream, butter, cheese and all dairy products, doing a huge business allover South Central Indiana, with plants located at North Vernon and Bedford (the Bedford Dairy Company). These plants give employment to forty-five people, and have an annual output of 100,000 gallons of ice cream, 1,500 gallons of milk daily and 2,000 pounds of butter daily. The Seymour plant covers about 4,000 square feet and is equipped with the most modern machinery known to the business, and the North Vernon plant covers 1,800 square feet. In the regular procedure of its business the Thompson Dairy Company utilizes fourteen trucks and eight wagons and Mr. Thompson is president and general manager. He takes an active part in all matters pertaining to the welfare of his adopted city, and is a past president of the Rotary Club and a member of the board of directors of the Merchants Association. A great friend of education, he is a former member of the school board, of which he was treasurer one year and secretary two years. He belongs to Jackson Lodge, A. F. and A. M., the Scottish Rite at Indianapolis, and Murat Temple of the Mystic Shrine.

Mr. Thompson married Miss Helen Temple, of Frankfort, Indiana, and to this union there have been born two children: James and Jane.

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


FRANK J. VOSS is senior member of the J. Voss Company, funeral directors and undertakers at Seymour. This is a business which been conducted by Mr. Voss for upwards of thirty years. He is a native son of Seymour and has been long and favorably known in business and civic affairs in that community.

He was born there September 14, 1865. His father, Fred Voss, came from Hanover, Germany, and located at Seymour about 1853. He conducted a cooperage business. He married Catrina Siekendiecker, also of Hanover, and they had a family of five children.

Frank J. Voss attended the grade schools of Seymour, and left high school when about fifteen years of age to become a clerk in a local dry goods firm. At the age of twenty-two he became a partner in a men's furnishing goods store and tailoring business, and after three years went on the road, representing a prominent wholesale house of Cincinnati for five years.

At Indianapolis he learned the undertaking and embalming business, completing his education in Professor Clark's School at Cincinnati and in the Barnes College of Embalming at Chicago. He has been a funeral director at Seymour since 1898. Recently his company completed a modern funeral home, one of the best in this section of the state.

Mr. Voss in addition to conducting a successful business has been prominent in organizations representing his line of work. He served as treasurer of the Indiana State Funeral Directors Association in 1917-18. He is a member of the Seymour Retail Merchants Association, is a Rotarian and during the World war helped in all the drives for the sale of liberty Bonds, War Stamps and in raising funds for the Red Cross and other auxiliary war organizations. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and B. P. O. Elks.

Mr. Voss married Katrina Leininger, of Seymour. His only child, Walter Voss, is the junior member of F. J. Voss Company. He attended high school at Seymour, spent four years in the University of Indiana, two years in the medical department, and completed his training in the Askins School of Embalming at Indianapolis. Walter Voss married Helen Galbraith, whose father, Dr. Thomas A. Galbraith, was a prominent citizen of Jackson County, where he located about 1870. Walter Voss and wife have three children, one daughter and two sons.

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


NORBOURNE D. SHORT, member of an old and patriotic family of Jackson County, a World war veteran, is the active head of the N. D. Short Motor Sales Company of Seymour, one of the busiest and most prosperous motor sales organizations in Southern Indiana.

Mr. Short was born at Seymour, December 10, 1890. His great-grandfather was a pioneer of Jackson County, being of Virginia ancestry. Mr. Short's grandfather, Zachariah Short, was born in Jackson County and became a brick mason and contractor. Zachariah was a nephew of Aaron Short. Aaron Short was an Indiana man who went over the river into Kentucky to do some work in the building of a canal. He had a fight with an Irishman and after defeating the Irishman he was referred to by his comrades as the "Hoosier," and it is claimed that he was the first Indiana resident to be given this nickname that has since been applied generally to Indiana natives. The incident occurred in 1829, so that the word Hoosier has been in speech currency for over a century.

Norbourne D. Short is a son of Ransom R. and Esther (Robertson) Short. His father was a brick mason and contractor at Seymour and served as a member of the City Council. He died in 1918.

N. D. Short was one of a family of eight children. He attended grade schools in Jackson County, high school at Seymour, but at the age of fifteen was earning his own way. He was on the farm until the World war, when he enlisted and joined the Three Hundred Thirty-fifth Infantry, Eighty-fourth Division. He was with the colors altogether twenty months, and was in France nine months of that time. He served with the grade of corporal. On returning home and getting his honorable discharge in 1919 he located at Seymour, and in May, 1924, organized the N. D. Short Motor Sales Company, handling the Oakland, Pontiac and Nash cars. Since 1927 the company has represented the Nash Motor Company exclusively. His company has a complete show room, shop, storage and sales rooms, in a building at 313-315 North Ewing Street, with 10,000 square feet of floor space. Five employees are in the shop, which is equipped with the most modern machinery for the prompt and expert handling of every repair work.

Mr. Short is a member of the American Legion. His father was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war. He is a member of the Hoosier State Automobile Association, and is affiliated with Jackson Lodge No. 146, A. F. and A. M., the Royal Arch Chapter and Council in Masonry. Mr. Short married Gertrude Hewitt. Their two children, Norbourne D., Jr., and Helen Rosemary, are both attending school at Seymour.

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


WILLIAM J. ABRAHAM, of Seymour, has been associated with the building trades since boyhood, and his knowledge of the mechanical side of the industry has been an important factor in his success as a general contractor.

Mr. Abraham was born at Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, Indiana, August 31, 1880. His father, Frederick William Abraham, was a native of Neustadt, Germany, and settled at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in 1850. He spent his active life as a farmer and dairyman. His wife was Amelia Rollfing, of Jennings County, Indiana.

William J. Abraham was one of a large family of ten children. As a boy he attended grade schools in Lawrenceburg and was thirteen years of age when he went to work in a cooper's shop. Later he learned the trade of carpenter, and after a journeyman's experience of several years began contracting in a small way, and has built up one of the best organizations of the kind in Southern Indiana. He began his business in Lawrenceburg, but for a number of years has been located at Seymour.

The character of his work and business can best be exemplified by noting some of the buildings for which he has been contractor in recent years. Those at Seymour include the home of the Eagles fraternity, the addition to the Seymour Library, the First Nazarene Church, the Emerson School, the high school at Freetown, the Greendale School at Lawrenceburg, the Union Township School and the Bell Telephone Company Building at Seymour.

Mr.. Abraham is a Republican, but follows his independent inclination to vote for the best man. He is a prominent member of the Nazarene Church and has been trustee of the church and member of its building committee. He married Miss Lillian Seekatz, of Dearborn County, and they have four living children.

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


CLIFFORD R. JACKSON. From the time that he completed his education until 1918 Clifford R. Jackson, of Seymour, was engaged in educational work, a profession in which he established a record for ability and learning. In the year mentioned, however, he accepted an attractive offer to become identified with the milling business, and at this time is manager of the Farmers Hominy Mill Company, of which he was one of the organizers, and which is now owned by the Farmers Co-Operative Elevator Company, of which Mr. Jackson is a member of the directorate. He is also widely known in fraternal circles and is one of the strong and influential Republicans of this section of the state.

Mr. Jackson was born August 16, 1887, and is a son of Sherman and Rosie (Allen) Jackson. The family originated in North Carolina and was founded in Indiana about 1830, by the pioneer great-grandfather of Mr. Jackson. His grandfather was Rev. Henry Jackson, a native of Clark County, Indiana, who subsequently moved to Jackson County, and spent the rest of his life as a farmer, also at different times filling pulpits as a minister. Sherman Jackson was born in Jackson County, and has been a substantial farmer all of his life, a man of high character and sound principles, and one who takes a constructive interest in the welfare of his community. Mrs. Jackson is a native of Scott County, this state.

Clifford R. Jackson attended the graded and high schools at Freetown, Jackson County, the Central Normal School of Danville, Indiana, and the University of Indiana. After graduating from the last named institution he commenced his career as a teacher, spending four years in the graded schools, eight years as principal of the Cortland High School, and two years as principal of the high school at Vallonia. In 1918 he became one of the organizers, secretary and a director of the Farmers Hominy Mill Company, which bought the present mill at Seymour, and of which he has been in active charge to the present. In 1921, when this mill was sold to the Farmers Co-Operative Elevator Company, he was retained as manager of the mill and made a member of the board of directors of the new company. This company manufactures corn products, employing fifteen people, and ships its capacity of 400 barrels daily to the eastern states, under the well-known trade brand of “Apex.” The company has established an excellent record for the purity of its products and belongs to the Indiana Grain Dealers Association and the National Corn Millers Federation. Mr. Jackson is known as a sound and reliable business man and one of the best informed in his line in the state. He takes a great interest in his business and civic affairs and is a member of the board of directors of the Rotary Club, of which he was formerly vice president. During the World war period he was chairman of the committees in charge of the drives of the American Red Cross, Young Men's Christian Association and War Savings Stamps. As a fraternalist he is a past master of Jackson Lodge No. 146, A. F. and A. M.; exalted ruler of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; and a past chancellor commander and a member of the board of trustees of the Knights of Pythias. A stanch Republican in his political views, he is particularly prominent in the work of county organization as a member of the advisory committee. He likewise is a member of the Jackson County Historical Society, in the meetings and work of which he takes a helpful interest.

Mr. Jackson married Miss Carolyn Beatty, of Jackson County, a member of a pioneer family who settled in Indiana at an early date. She was active in the Home Economics Club and in religious work, and died in July, 1929, leaving two children: Robert, a student at Purdue University; and Eudora, who is attending high school at Seymour. The family home is located at 109 East. Fourth Street.

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


BENJAMIN BURCHAM is a prominent physician and surgeon who is acting as coroner's physician and is one of the prominent men of his profession who are located at 749 Broadway in the City of Gary.

Doctor Burcham was born at Bloomfield, Indiana, November 10, 1901, son of Rolly and Alma (Carroll) Burcham, and member of an old and prominent family of Greene County, Indiana, where his great-grandfather, Rolly Burcham, was one of the early pioneer settlers. His grandfather, James Burcham, lived there, and during the last two years of the Civil war served in the ranks of the Union army. Doctor Burcham's father, Rolly Burcham, was born and reared near Bloomfield, and spent his active career as a farmer and stock man. He and his wife still live on the old home farm. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife was born and reared near Bloomfield, attended school there and has always been active in the Methodist Church. These parents had a family of nine children: Mary, wife of Orla G. Stingel; Brantley, an attorney practicing law at Orlando, Florida; Miss Goldie, at home; James Benjamin; Mina, wife of Ralph Crane, of Flint, Michigan; Balis, a graduate of the Indiana University; Gilbert, of Orlando, Florida; Freeman, in Indiana University; and Harley, a high school boy.

James Benjamin Burcham had as his early environment an Indiana farm and the rural scenes and activities of the little community of Bloomfield, where he attended grade school, graduated from high school in 1920, and soon afterward entered Indiana University, where he received the Bachelor of Science degree in 1924. He had his pre-medical training in the university and in 1926 graduated M. D. from the Medical School of Indiana University. Following that came a year of post-graduate work and experience in Saint Joseph's Hospital at Fort Wayne, and in 1927 he came to Gary, locating at 749 Broadway, where he is an associate of Doctor Watts. He is a member of the Lake County, Gary, Indiana State and American Medical Associations and belongs to the Phi Chi medical fraternity. He is a Republican and a Methodist.

Doctor Burcham married at Niagara Falls, New York, July 3, 1928, Miss Sara Huffman, daughter of Jason and Jane (Breeden) Huffman, of Bloomfield, Indiana. Her father is a well-to-do farmer in that locality. Mrs. Burcham attended school at Bloomfield, graduating from high school in the same class with her husband and also took her Bachelor's degree at Indiana University in the class of 1924. Prior to her marriage she taught in the high school at Salisbury a year, also in the Filmore High School and two years in the Bloomfield High School. She is a member of the Phi Omega Phi sorority, American Ass6ciation of University Women, the Gary Woman's Club and the Pan-Hellenic 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


SAMUEL PHILIP VOGT for a number of years has had an honored place in the Harrison County bar. The honors and responsibilities of public office have been bestowed upon him and he is a worthy representative of a family that has lived in the county for over three- quarters of a century. His father, Henry Vogt, has the distinction of having lived on one farm in that county for seventy years. Henry Vogt was born in Louisville, Kentucky. The Vogt family originated in Alsace-Lorraine. It was due to various difficulties of living in that country, partly religious, that they immigrated to America and eventually came out to Southern Indiana, crossing the country with wagon and team. Henry Vogt was a soldier in the Union army, in Company E of the One Hundred Forty-fourth Indiana Infantry. He has lived in Harrison County since 1852 and for forty years held the office of justice of the peace. He married Louisa Snyder, and they were the parents of eight children.

Samuel P. Vogt was born in Harrison County, November 5, 1876, grew up on his father's farm, attending district schools, and later was a student in the Central Indiana Normal College at Danville. He studied law with Dan F. Lemmon, of Corydon, was admitted to the bar in 1906, but did not engage in practice for a number of years after that. For four years he was in the mercantile business at Corydon, and then went to Jeffersonville as an instructor in the Indiana State Reformatory. Mr. Vogt in 1914 returned to Corydon and has since carried on a general law practice. In 1922 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the Third Judicial Circuit. He is active in politics as a Democrat, is a member of the Harrison County Bar Association and the Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen of America.

Mr. Vogt married Miss Georgia Hess Lemmon, of Harrison County. Her father, Amos Lemmon, compiled a volume of the history of Harrison County. Mr. and Mrs. Vogt have one son, Samuel Harlan Vogt, who is now principal of the Port Fulton School. He married Isabel Buckley, and has one daughter, Julia Louise, born October 4, 1929.

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


IRVIN EUGENE HUCKLEBERRY, physician and surgeon, is a native of Washington County, Indiana, was overseas during the World war and for the past ten years has carried on a splendid practice at Salem.

He was born April 17, 1893, son of Sanford and Meda M. (Hodgins) Huckleberry, and grandson of John Huckleberry. His grandfather settled in Indiana on coming from England. Sanford Huckleberry and wife were natives of Washington County and spent all their lives as farmers.

Doctor Huckleberry after attending the grade and high schools of Washington County continued his education in Butler University at Indianapolis. His professional preparation was gained at the University of Louisville, where he was graduated M. D. in 1916. Before getting well settled into the routine of private practice he enlisted in the Army Medical Corps, was commissioned a first lieutenant, and was with the colors from 1917 to 1919. While overseas he was assigned duty with the British Army Medical Corps in France and Belgium. After returning from France Doctor Huckleberry located at Salem and is one of the busiest doctors in Washington County. He is a member of the County, Indiana State and American Medical Associations, belongs to the Lions Club at Salem, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Murat Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis.

He married Miss Mayme Warren, who was born in Lawrence County, Indiana. They have one daughter, Marietta, born January 31, 1922.

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


ELVIS M. BOSS, president of the Boss Motor Company, Incorporated, at Brownstown, has been in the automobile business since early manhood. The only important interruption to his business career came during the World war, when he went to France.

Mr. Boss was born in Washington County, Indiana, August 24, 1896. His father, G. M. Boss, was also a native of Washington County, a substantial farmer there, and was a son of Simon Boss, who came to Indiana from the Carolinas. G. M. Boss married Susan Purlee of Washington County, and they were the parents of five children.

Elvis M. Boss attended grade schools in Washington County, and after graduating from the Pekin High School taught for a year. He learned the automobile business at Salem, Indiana, and was with a firm there until he joined the colors for service in the World war. He was with the colors eighteen months, and ten months of that time were spent in France, where he was with the Fifty-eighth Balloon Company. On returning from France he resumed his connection with the automobile business and since 1921 has been the authorized Ford agent at Brownstown. The Boss Motor Company is incorporated, with Mr. Boss president and general manager and Charles M. Osker secretary and treasurer. They have a sales room and shop with over eight thousand square feet of floor space and with all the modern machinery and appliances for expert handling of every type of repair work on Ford and other cars. They employ ten people and their business runs to about four hundred new and used cars annually.

Mr. Boss married Miss Mamie Davis, of Washington County. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and was the first preisdent of the Lions Club at Brownstown. He is also a member of the American Legion and has been active in its affairs, having served for four years as vice commander and is now commander of Camp Jackson Post Mo. 112 at Brownstown.

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


WILLIAM JOSEPH BULLEIT. Harrison County people have given Mr. Bulleit their patronage as a business man for over a quarter of a century. He was born at New Middletown, that county, member of a pioneer family and his career has been such as to deserve the confidence reposed in him and the success he has enjoyed.

He was born September 15, 1877, a son of V. H. Bulleit, also a native of Harrison County, and grandson of August Bulleit. Augustus Bulleit came from Alsace-Lorraine and settled in Harrison County, Indiana, about 1825. He was a farmer by occupation. V. H. Bulleit as a young man learned the trade of blacksmith, and for many years carried on an implement and automobile business, beginning the sale of automobiles in Harrison County in 1911, as one of the pioneer dealers. He served as president of the Corydon Savings & Loan Association from the time of its organization until his death. V. H. Bulleit married Mahala Johnson, who was also born in Harrison County, and they had a family of six children.

William J. Bulleit was educated in the Corydon grade and high schools and also attended the Ohio Valley Normal College. In 1902 he joined his father in the implement and seed business, and has had an interested part in carrying on that business down to date. It is one of the oldest houses of its kind in this section of Indiana. In 1914, after the death of his father, Mr. Bulleit took over the local Ford car agency and is now general manager of the company at Corydon which has the agency for the Ford motor car products over Harrison County. His organization has placed as many as 265 cars a year. The business establishment at Corydon is a modern building with over 8,000 square feet of floor space, providing quarters for show rooms, storage and repair department, and with all the mechanical equipment required for the exacting work of automobile repairing. Fourteen persons are employed in the business.

Mr. Bulleit married Miss Louise M. Miller, of Corydon. They have four children, WilliamV., Henrietta, Elizabeth and Frederic. Mr. Bulleit during the World war was with the committees and other organizations engaged in the bond and stamp drives. He is a member of the Hoosier State Automobile Association, is a director of the Lions Club, member if the Knights of Pythias and B. P. O. Elks and the Methodist Church.

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


Deb Murray