J. Abner Seybold was born in Darke County, Ohio, February 27, 1860, son of John G. and Ursula (Munger) Seybold. In 1864 the family came to Indiana and settled on a farm in Cass County. J. Abner Seybold was one of eleven children. All of them spent their early years on an Indiana farm, attended the common schools, and after leaving the farm J. Abner Seybold had the advantage of a course in Hall's Business College. When he was twenty years of age he went west to Denver, Colorado, and during the year and a half he was in that western city was employed in one of the first telephone offices there.

He returned to Logansport to become a clerk in a store which his brother George W. Seybold had started in 1877. The store space was twenty by forty feet. In 1884 Mr. Seybold was admitted to partnership and the firm for several years was George W. Seybold & Brother. In 1893 two other brothers came into the firm, Sylvester H. and Oscar M., and for ten years the title of the business was G. W. Seybold & Brothers. In 1903 the business was incorporated as the Seybold Dry Goods Company, with George W. Seybold as president and Abner Seybold, treasurer. George W. Seybold, the founder and head of the business, passed away in 1924 and since 1925 Abner Seybold has been president of the company.

The Seybold Dry Goods Company has been a household word among the people of Cass County for over half a century. The business has been developed partly in response to the initiative and enterprise of the men at its head and partly as a reflection of the growing confidence and patronage demanding larger stocks of goods and more commodious quarters. The first addition to the original store was made in 1880, when the space was doubled. In 1884 the firm moved into a new building, 41 x 125 feet. In 1887 the width was increased by fifty-five feet and in 1890 a second and third floor were added, followed by another generous increase in floor space in 1895. Today the Seybold store uses 55,000 square feet of floor space, employs on the average of ninety persons, and its business might be more accurately described as that of a general department store. Its trade is not limited to the immediate City of Logansport, a large mail order business having been developed, and merchandise is shipped out from the Seybold Store to all parts of the state.

Mr. Abner Seybold is vice president of the Logansport Radiator and Equipment Company, is vice president of the Logansport State Bank. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, member of the Masonic Temple Association, and has been its president for a number of years, and his church affiliations are Episcopal. During the World war he was one of the active Logansport men in the Liberty Bond and Red Cross drives. Mr. Seybold married Miss Jennie S. Fender, a native of Indiana.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931

WILLIAM DANIEL HOLTERMAN. "The Japanese Government has made generous purchase of stock every year for the past ten years," remarked William D. Holterman recently when referring to Barred Plymouth Rocks, a breed of fancy chickens, hundreds of which fluttering about their pens, excite the interst and admiration annually of thousands of motorists who pass the poultry house on Lincoln Highway, near New Haven, about four miles east of Fort Wayne. "My business is raising breeding stock," he added, "and my birds are in demand as a result of advertising and reputation allover the world at an average price of twelve dollars each. They can be see in all the big poultry shows from one end of the country to the other, and I sell eggs for hatching, but do not sell baby chicks. In 1928, my sales of eggs amounted to $20,000, and the highest price I have ever received for a bird was $500."

Mr. Holterman's rise to fame as a poultry breeder is an interesting example of how a man engaged in other pursuits can make a business success out of what started merely as a hobby or side line. "I had no intention of doing more than to satisfy a love for chickens when I took up poultry raising as a side line," he states. "After one year of teaching in a Lutheran parochial school I entered the employ of the Bell Telephone Company as a switchboard repair man, and later took a job of the same kind with the Home Telephone Company. That work did not attract me, so, having some aptitude at figures and accounting in 1900 I took employment as a bookkeeper with the Fort Wayne Drug Company. At that time I kept a few pure-bred chickens on my lot, and in 1907 began to realize the profits that might be gained in raising them for sale. Placing a few small advertisements in the papers, I soon found a growing demand for chickens of my fancy breed, Barred Plymouth Rocks, and in 1909, feeling the necessity for more ground, moved out on the Lincoln Highway, where I am now located. Chicken- raising and egg-setting continued, however, as a side line until 1916, when I concluded to resign my office job and give all my time to the chickens. I am now shipping stock to all parts of the world."

Mr. Holterman was born March 6, 1873, at Kimswick, Missouri, his father being the Rev. P. H. Holterman, a Lutheran pastor for thirty -five years, with charges during his ministry at Kimswick and Longtown, Missouri; Mount Olive, Illinois; and Seymour, Zittau and Wilmot, Wisconsin. His mother before marriage was Miss Meta Ehlen. William D. Holterman obtained his early primary education in the parish schools at Longtown, which was continued at Mount Olive and Seymour, at which latter place he later spent some years in the high school. He then prepared himself for work as a parochial teacher at the Woodville (Ohio) Seminary, taking a three-year course and graduating in 1893. Although in succession he was school-teacher, telephone mechanic and bookkeeper, yet all the time the love of poultry, stimulated by the profits he saw in the business as a side line, was shaping his future for him. The result is told above. In 1925 he saw a possibility for service and profit in automobile insurance, and with several men of wealth and some Chicago capital he assisted in the organization of the Atlas Casualty Company, with a capital stock of $200,000, and offices in the First and Tri State National Bank Building. This company writes a policy giving complete protection to the owner against fire, theft, collision, property damage, public liability and tornado, and its charter authorizing it to begin business bears the date of September 29,1925. Its income for the year 1926 was in excess of $440,000. Mr. Holterman has been president of this company since its inception. During the World war Mr. Holterman was a team-worker in Red Cross activities. He is a member of the Young Men's Christian Association and of the Walther League, having served as president of the Concordia League at Fort Wayne. From 1919 until 1922 he was national secretary of the American Lutheran League, and was president of the Concordia parish for five years. He is likewise a member of the boards of the Lutheran Mission, Valparaiso University, and the Fort Wayne Rotary Club. As a lad he used to get his chief pleasure out of playing ball in the low pasture, but now his recreation is fishing.

In 1894 Mr. Holterman was united in marriage with Miss Caroline B. Brudi, daughter of Gottlieb and Sophia Brudi, farming people of Adams Township, east of Fort Wayne. They have had three children: Louis Gottlieb and Emily Elizabeth, and Florence, who died at the age of three years.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931

EDWARD HARVEY GRISWOLD, physician and surgeon, came to Peru from his home in Missouri soon after graduating from medical college, and for nearly forty years has been familiar as a man of skill and professional training to thousands of patients in the Wabash Railway Hospital.

Doctor Griswold may be said to have inherited the medical profession, coming of a family which has supplied doctors to the world for several generations, and his own son is carrying on the tradition. Doctor Griswold was born at Lexington, Missouri, October 1, 1854. His great-grandfather was Edward Griswold, of Connecticut. His grandfather, Harvey Griswold, went west and became a merchant at Marthasville, Missouri. He married Mahala Shobe, of a pioneer Missouri family. The father of Dr. Edward H. Griswold of Peru was Dr. Sylvanus Collins Griswold, who practiced medicine at New Haven, Missouri, from the time of his graduation from the St. Louis Medical College. He was a soldier in the Confederate army, spending part of his time in Arkansas. Dr. Sylvanus Griswold married Lockie Arnold, and they had a family of fourteen children.

Edward H. Griswold attended grade schools at New Haven, was a student in the Missouri School of Mines at Rolla and completed his literary education in the University of Missouri at Columbia. He studied medicine at the University Medical College of Kansas City, graduating M. D. in 1891. For a few months he was located in Warren County, Missouri, and on June 1, 1891, arrived at Peru, Indiana, to begin his service with the Wabash Railway Hospital, and has been surgeon in charge of this hospital for the employees of the Wabash System thirty-nine years. The Wabash Hospital is a fifty bed institution, with a staff of three doctors and twelve nurses. Doctor Griswold has to some extent through all these years been engaged in private practice. He handles all the surgical and medical work for the local employees of the Wabash, Chesapeake & Ohio and Nickel Plate railways.

Doctor Griswold is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Miami County, Indiana State and American Medical Associations, and is an honorary member of the Wabash Railway Surgeons Association and the Chesapeake and Ohio Surgeons Association.

He married Georgine C. Rettig, who was born at Peru. Their son Rettig A. is a graduate of the Louisville Medical College and of Harvard University, was a lieutenant of aviation on duty in the North Sea from April, 1917, to November, 1919, and is now connected with the Lakeside Hospital at Cleveland, Ohio. The second son, Edward Harvey, graduated from the Missouri State School of Mines at Rolla and is an engineer for the Continental Oil Company of Oklahoma. During the World war he was a sergeant in the Reserve Officers Training Corps at Franklin College, Indiana.

Doctor Griswold is a member of Peru Lodge No. 67, A. F. and A. M., belongs to the Royal Arch Chapter, Council and Knights Templar Commandery, Mizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Fort Wayne. His son Rettig is an instructor in surgery at Western Reserve University at Cleveland. He married Bonita Blyth, and has a son, Rettig, Jr. Doctor Griswold's son Edward H. married Naomi Bullard, and they have four children: Patricia, Edward H. and James Arnold, twins, and George Bullard.

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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931

JOHN BERT NOWINSKI is a native son of South Bend and one of the most alert and progressive younger business men. His personal energies and initiative have been responsible for the development of a prosperous business which he owns and directs.

Mr. Nowinski was born in South Bend November 29, 1896. His parents, Nicholas and Julia (Wesolowski) Nowinski, were born in Poland, but were brought to America when young and grew up in South Bend. His father was a cabinet maker by trade, and for a number of years was foreman in the Singer Manufacturing Company's plant at South Bend, where he died in 1903. The mother passed away in April, 1925. Of her eight children John was the sixth, and four of them are living.

John B. Nowinski had the advantages of the local schools at South Bend, but was only thirteen when he started his business career. He went to work in his uncle's meat market. He was there three years, and during that time distinguished himself for his skill and the rapid acquisition of the knowledge concerning every detail of the meat business. At the age of eighteen he started a market of his own. This market has been located at 1608 West Western Avenue since he started there. In a short time he had to secure help to satisfy his growing patronage and took in his brother as a partner. The firm became Nowinski Brothers. After a few years Mr. Nowinski bought out his brother and has since been sole owner of the business, but continues it under the name of Nowinski Brothers Meat Market. It is both a wholesale and retail establishment.

Mr. Nowinski has enjoyed social contact with his fellow men and has been a very popular and progressive leader in his community. He is a member of the Committee of the West Side Business Men's Association, working on the project of the widening of West Western Avenue. He is also a member of the Polish National Alliance and the Knights of Columbus. He is vice president and director of Western State Bank.

Mr. Nowinski married, June 24, 1925, Miss Henrietta Demski. She was born in South Bend, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Demski. They have three children: John Bert Jr., born April 25, 1926; Patricia (Patty) Jane, born May 14, 1928; and Ronald Eugene, born September 10, 1929.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931

RAY CUTHBERT STEARNS is a South Bend business man, owner of the Ray Stearns Motor Sales Company at 343 Lincoln Way, West.

He is a native of Indiana, born at Brewersville, Jennings County, April 5, 1890, son of Waldo B. and Harriett (Bline) Stearns. His father was born in Jennings County and his mother in Bartholomew County, and since 1911 they have lived at South Bend. His father for a number of years was in the grocery business at Brewersville and North Vernon.

Ray C. Stearns was the third in a family of seven children, four of whom are living. He was reared and educated at North Vernon, graduated from high school there and his first business experience was as a helper in a tailor shop. On coming to South Bend, in 1911, he went to work for the W. R. Hinkle Motor Company and for ten years was service manager of this business. In 1925 he established a business of his own, having become a very popular man in motor circles in the county. The Ray Stearns Motor Sales Company handle the Marmon and Roosevelt cars and has a fine plant, comprising sales room and garage.

Mr. Stearns married Miss Freda Schierling, who was born at North Vernon in Jennings County. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the South Bend Chamber of Commerce, South Bend Automobile Dealers Association and Coquillard Golf Club.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931

CHARLES MARTIN FINCH, Indiana editor and newspaper man, was born at North Liberty, Indiana, July 25, 1890, son of Samuel N. and Flora (DeCoudres) Finch, residents of North Liberty, where his father for many years has been a farmer and grain dealer.

Charles M. Finch graduated from the North Liberty High School in 1909, from DePauw University in 1915, and also took special work in the University of Chicago.

His early years were devoted to teaching. He was an instructor in high schools at Gas City and South Bend, and for two years was principal of the high school at Kendallville. His interests as a newspaper man are centered at Walkerton, where he is president of the Independent-News Company. He is editor of both the Walkerton Independent and the North Liberty News.

Mr. Finch volunteered at the time of the World war and spent thirteen months in training at Camp Greenleaf, Georgia. He is a Republican, is a director of the Walkerton Chamber of Commerce and a member of the official board of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In DePauw University he was initiated in the Sigma Nu fraternity. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason.

He married, June 4, 1921, at Hanna, Indiana, Miss Leone Denison, daughter of Dr. George H. and Gay (Richardson) Denison. Mrs. Finch is a graduate of the College of Art of Chicago.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931

GLENN POTTER, who holds the office of clerk of the Circuit Court for his native County of DeKalb, with executive headquarters in the courthouse in the City of Auburn, was born in this city on the 4th of January, 1889, and is a son of Willard J. and Jennie A. (Wenrich) Potter, the former of whom was born at Morencie, Michigan, May 10, 1864, and the latter of whom was born at Waterloo, Indiana, in 1865, their home being now maintained at Auburn, where the father is actively identified with the shoe business.

In the Auburn public schools Glenn Potter continued his studies until he had duly availed himself of the advantages of the high school, and prior to assuming his present office he had as city clerk and as local agent for the Fort Wayne & Northwestern Railroad (electric). His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party, his religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931

HERMAN FREDERICK BOHNKE is a native son of Allen County who has found hard work the open sesame to success in a business way. He and his brother, Edward Henry Bohnke, are the owners of the Bohnke Agency, Inc., and as a background to his successful experience in real estate and insurance he had a farm training and an experience as farm manager.

He was born on a farm in Madison Township of Allen County, September 9, 1892, son of William and Emma (Melcher) Bohnke. All his grandparents were born in Germany. His paternal grandfather, William Bohnke, on coming to America settled at Cincinnati, Ohio, and later moved to Adams County, Indiana, where the Melcher family were early settlers. William Bohnke married Engla Kuckelhaun. William Bohnke, Jr., was born at Cincinnati, in October, 1859, while his wife was a native of Adams County. He grew up in Adams County and after his marriage moved to Madison Township, Allen County, where he followed farming until his death in January, 1920. The widowed mother is still living and there were three sons and two daughters.

Herman F. Bohnke grew up on a farm, attended public schools, worked two years for his grandfather Bohnke, also had some experience in the butcher trade, and at the age of seventeen took charge of his father's homestead of 160 acres. He remained there, using his time and labor to the operation of the farm, until the death of his father in 1920. On moving to Fort Wayne he entered real estate and insurance, and developed an insurance agency with an annual premium reve nue of $45,000. On December 15, 1926, he sold the insurance agency and since 1927 has devoted his time exclusively to real estate and health, accident and life insurance. The insurance department of the business is now managed by his brother, Edward H. Bohnke, and is known as the Fidelity Insurance Agency, Inc..

Mr. Bohnke, who is unmarried, is a member of Concordia Lutheran Church at Fort Wayne, the Walther League, and is a Democrat in politics.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931

WILLIAM SCHUYLER MERCER was born in Miami County, Indiana, February 3, 1861. His active career covers a period of practically half a century. During that time his enterprise and influence has been manifested in many useful and important directions contributing to the growth and prestige of Peru as a commercial center and to the advancement of the social and civic standards.

Mr. Mercer is a son of Moses and Ann (Long) Mercer. His grandfather, Aaron Mercer, came to Indiana from Ohio, first locating in Wabash County. All three of the sons of Aaron Mercer were soldiers in the Civil war and one of the daughters was a war nurse. Moses Mercer was one of five children and his wife, Ann Long, belonged to a family with an equal number of children. Her father, Peter Long, came to Cass County about 1842 and acquired land from the Government. This land is now the site of the city park in Logansport. Moses Mercer was born in Paulding County, Ohio, and in early life was a cooper by trade.

William S. Mercer is one of five children. He attended school at Peru and in 1875, when fourteen years of age, started work. He was employed in some of the local factories, later clerked in a store, and for twelve years was in the milling and grain business. He and J. A. Neal in 1887 organized the firm of Mercer & Neal, and they controlled a line of grain elevators, sixteen in number, between Kokomo and Walkerton, and also had two flour mills at Peru. After selling out this business Mr. Mercer went to Chicago and for a year owned a seat on the Chicago Board of Trade. On returning to Peru he bought a bakery and restaurant and was actively identified with that business from 1900 to 1912. His son-in-law, H. P. Sullivan, had come in with him as a partner and eventually took over the responsibilities of managing the baking establishment.

In 1904 Mr. Mercer attended a convention of the National Bakers at Cincinnati, and while there he made a trip of inspection through a large milk plant. What he saw inspired him with the idea of giving Peru a model, sanitary milk handling plant. However, the plan did not immediately crystalize. In 1907 he took over the general management of the Peru Canning Company, which he held until 1910. In the meantime a sanitary milk plant, which had been started by a Mr. Miller, was discontinued and Mr. Mercer took over the business, he and Mr. Sullivan conducting it as Mercer & Company. Later he bought the Exmeyer Ice Cream Company, consolidating the two plants and moving the entire business to the Exmeyer location. To this Mr. Mercer gave his personal attention while Mr. Sullivan looked after the bakery and restaurant. Later Mr. Mercer acquired the plant of the Reiss Ice Cream Company, and from these former organizations incorporated what is now known as the Sanitary Milk & Ice Cream Company, of which he is president. A number of the men in the business have been with Messrs. Mercer and Sullivan for years and the department heads are all stockholders, Manuel Derstein, Herbert A. Adams, Harry Haddsel. In 1918 Mr. Mercer sold his restaurant and bakery and soon afterward Mr. Sullivan joined him in the sanitary milk business. In 1926 they began a new plant and have occupied it since 1927. This is one of the model sanitary milk handling and manufacturing plants of Indiana, utilizing 32,000 square feet of floor space and with equipment and machinery that permit of the highest degree of efficiency in the conduct of a big business manufacturing essential food products. About sixty-five people are employed. They handle about 30,000 pounds of milk daily, manufacturing about 50,000 gallons of ice cream for the local trade annually, and about 800,000 pounds of butter. The ice cream is distributed to a number of Indiana and Ohio plants and the chief market for the creamery butter is New York City.

Mr. Mercer is a charter member of the Peru Chamber of Commerce. He is a director of the Peru Trust Company and is affiliated with Peru Miami Lodge No. 67, A. F. and A. M. His father, Moses Mercer, was a charter member in this lodge, joining it when it was organized, in 1844, and became the second worshipful master. He and his wife were charter members of the Baptist Church when it was organized in the early 1860s. During the World war Mr. Mercer assisted in putting the bond drives over the top in Peru.

Of his public services one of the outstanding was his term as state senator, representing Howard and Miami counties in 1915-17. In the State Senate he was a member of the railway and other important committees.

Miami County owes much to Mr. Mercer's leadership and influence in the matter of Federal aid highways. As chairman of the highway committee of the Chamber of Commerce he secured the location of Indiana Road No.1, north and south highway through Miami County. This is now Federal Highway No. 31. He was one of the men who brought influence to bear upon the road authorities to put the coast to coast United States Highway No. 24 through this county. This is the shortest road from New York to San Francisco. Mr. Mercer is a Republican and has been prominent in party organizations. He is a member of the Miami County Historical Society.

He married Sarah E. Fisher, a native of Miami County, and their daughter, Vernice Elizabeth, is the wife of Hazen Pomeroy Sullivan. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan have three children, Sarah Rosanna, Hazen Mercer and Elizabeth (Betty) Ann.

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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931