Mr. Sweigart was born in DeKalb County, Indiana, May 4, 1893, and is a son of Amos and Eliza (Snellenbarger) Sweigart, who maintained their home at Hamilton, Steuben County, until their death, Amos Sweigart having long followed the trade and vocation of harnessmaker.
Bert Amos Sweigart continued his studies in the public schools at Auburn, DeKalb County, until he was there graduated in the high school, in 1913. He then entered Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, and in that admirable institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1917 and with the degree of Bachelor of Science, the degree of Master of Arts having been conferred upon him by the University of Indiana, in 1930. Mr. Sweigart has looked upon the pedagogic profession as representing for him not a mere avocation but a specific field of continued service, and in that profession he has all of enthusiasm and loyalty of purpose. He served as superintendent of the village public schools of Ashley, Steuben County, during the period of 1919-23, and in the latter year he became principal of the high school at Columbia City, the judicial center of Whitley County, this position having been retained by him until 1928, when he entered upon his notable vigorous and progressive administration as superintendent of the public schools of Walkerton, Saint Joseph County, where he is doing a splendid work in coordinating and advancing the service of all departments, the while he receives the loyal cooperation of teachers, board of education and the community in general.
Mr. Sweigart was a member of Company K, Third Infantry Regiment, Indiana National Guard, during the period of 1911-14, and while a student in Ohio Wesleyan he served as a member of the medical detachment of the Ohio National Guard, at Delaware, in 1916-17. In June, 1918, he enlisted for World war service, and he received his honorable discharge in the following November, following the armistice had brought the war to a close. He is now a first lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps of the United States Army and is affiliated with the American Legion.
Mr. Sweigart has membership in the Indiana State Teachers Association and the National Education Association, in the Masonic fraternity his Blue Lodge and Chapter affiliations are at Ashley, and his Council membership at Columbia City, while in the Scottish Rite Consistory at South Bend he has received the thirty-second degree. He is affiliated also with the Knights of Pythias. At the University of Indiana he has affiliation with Lambda Chi Alpha national college fraternity and also the Phi Delta Kappa, honorary educational fraternity. He and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In the City of Kalamazoo, Michigan, August 27, 1917, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sweigart to Miss Daisy Johnson Brown, daughter of Edward A. Brown, of Waterloo, Indiana. Mrs. Sweigart received the advantages of the Tri-State College and also those of the University of Indiana, and been a successful teacher of music and art. Mr. and Mrs. Sweigart have one child, Jack Albert, born April 12, 1928.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
WILLIAM KEITER NOBLE, SR., of Fort Wayne, has for many years been identified with the lumber and wood working industries of Indiana and adjoining states. He comes of a family, strongly exemplifying the mechanical and inventive lines of industry.
Mr. Noble was born in Van Wert County, Ohio, December 5, 1862, son of James E. and Susan (Keiter) Noble. The Noble family came from England. All of them were Quakers and Mr. Noble's grandfathers were both Quaker ministers.
James E. Noble was born at Federalsburg, Maryland, in 1835 and in 1855 moved to the State of Ohio. In Van Wert he built up an important industry, known as the Van Wert Machine Company, manufacturing paper-making machinery. He was the founder of this business. After selling out he moved to Fort Wayne, in 1873, and there was associated with the Bass Foundry & Machine Company until 1905. He died in 1907. His wife, Susan Keiter, was born in Southern Pennsylvania, October 26, 1833, grew up in Virginia and after the Civil war her parents came to Ohio. She died March 20, 1920. Her grandparents came to America from Holland. James E. Noble and wife had three children: Jennie, born June 16, 1861, a resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan; William K.; and Charles, who was born in 1868, and was killed in an oil well accident in 1904.
William K. Noble, Sr., attended school at Van Wert, Ohio, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, and was eleven years of age when his parents moved to the latter city. After leaving school he worked with the Bass Foundry & Machine Company until 1889. For forty years he has been associated with the lumbering industry. In 1889 he established a lumber and saw mill plant at Baldwin, Indiana, near the Ohio state line. Though since his interests as a manufacturer have spread over a wide territory. Since 1904 his main business office has been Fort Wayne. He has established factories and saw mills in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and in several other states. These plants manufacture lumber and also specialize in stays and cooperage products. He still owns most of the factories and has large timber holdings in Michigan, in the northwestern and southern states. Mr. Noble at Fort Wayne established the Noble Machine Company, manufacturing wood working and cooperage machinery. This plant puts out an important line of machinery used not only in the Noble plants over the different states but also sold to other cooperage firms. Mr. Noble since 1906 has been a director of the Old National Bank of Fort Wayne. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the First Presbyterian Church.
He married, November 24, 1887, Miss Laura Law, who was born at Hamilton, Ohio. Her father, George Law, was a pioneer carriage builder in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Noble have one son, William Keiter, Jr., who was born at Fort Wayne, June 15, 1898. He attended schools at Fort Wayne, and graduated in 1921 from Yale University. During the World war he was a member of the Reserve Officers Training Corps at Yale and later was commissioned a second lieutenant in the field artillery. He is now president of the Noble Machine Company. He is married and has two children, Nancy, born in January, 1923, and Elizabeth, born June, 1925.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
PRESTON BRENTON ARNOLD is a plumbing, heating and electrical contractor, doing an extensive business in Fort Wayne and Vicinity as president of the P. B. Arnold Company, Incorporated, 213 East Main Street.
Mr. Arnold was born on a farm in Allen County, Indiana, July 12, 1884. His people, particularly on his mother's side, were pioneers of Northern Indiana. His father, John J. Arnold, was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, May 14, 1849. The paternal grandfather came from Germany, and he died in Ohio, and afterwards his widow came to Fort Wayne, where she passed away in 1893. John J. Arnold was educated in Ohio and was twelve years of age when taken to Kosciusko County, Indiana, where he also attended public school. He afterwards studied in the LaGrange County Collegiate Institute, and another student of that school was Ida Garmire, whom he subsequently married. Both of them taught school for several years. They were married LaGrange County, where Ida Garmire was born December 2, 1853. She was a daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Gettle) Garmire, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of England. Jacob Garmire moved to LaGrange County, Indiana, during the 1840s, bought 160 acres of wild land, and his labors cleared up and made a valuable farm of it, located in Clay Township. He lived there until his death in 1883, and his widow passed away in 1914. Of their twelve children five are now living.
John J. Arnold after his marriage settled on a farm in Allen County, in 1879, and in 1888 moved from this place in the country in Lake Township to Fort Wayne. He spent many years with the Fort Wayne Post Office, and finally, at the age of seventy-two, was retired on a pension. He died June 2, 1926, and his wife in 1921. John J. Arnold was a Knight Templar Mason, a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church, and was a man of fine character and had a host of friends. Of his six children four are living.
Preston B. Arnold attended the grade and high schools of Fort Wayne and as a youth served his apprenticeship as an electrician. He has also specialized in the plumbing and heating business, and on July 10, 1910, he incorporated his business activities as the P. B. Arnold Company. This is one of the old established concerns of its kind in Northeastern Indiana, and many of the largest contracts for plumbing, heating and electrical installation have been carried out by Mr. Arnold's firm.
He is interested in the social and civic life of his community, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, member of Mizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, the Chamber of Commerce, Knights of Pythias and Trinity Lutheran Church. He married, October 15, 1906, Miss Lulu Pearl Meyer of Fort Wayne, where she grew up and attended grade and high school. She passed away February 23, 1910, leaving one daughter, Virginia Lucile. Virginia was born May 15, 1908, is a graduate of the Central High School and of the Ball Teachers College with the class of 1928, and is now one of the members of the teaching staff in the Fort Wayne public schools. Mr. Arnold on July 3, 1913, married Miss Lenna M. Markey, of Fort Wayne. They have a daughter, Sarah Ann, born October 5, 1917, now attending high school.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
DUDLEY LOUNSBERY ROSSITER, M. D. The career of Dudley L. Rossiter, M. D., one of the capable young physicians and surgeons of Fort Wayne, has been one of self-achievement, unaided by outside resources. He has been engaged in a general practice at Fort Wayne since 1920, and has not only built up a large and lucrative general practice, but his talents have been duly recognized by his professional brethren, and he has been honored by appointments to the staffs of the leading hospitals.
Doctor Rossiter was born December 31, 1895, at Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a son of Henry Martyn and Alice May (Lounsbery) Rossiter. This is an old, honored and distinguished family of Indiana, and was founded in this state by the grandfather of Doctor Rossiter, Rev. Henry A. Rossiter, who settled at Greencastle at an early date, and for many years carried on his ministerial labors at various points in Indiana, where he became well known and greatly esteemed for his many sterling qualities of mind and heart.
Henry Martyn Rossiter was born July 28, 1862, at Greencastle, Indiana, where he acquired a public school education. Removing to Cincinnati, Ohio, he established himself in business there as the proprietor of a furniture business, which he conducted for a number of years, and later went to Rock Island, Illinois. Eventually he became manager of the carriage department of Montgomery Ward & Company, of Chicago, and held that position until the increasing prominence of the automobile caused that great mail-order house to discontinue the handling of carriages. Mr. Rossiter then retired and lived quietly until his death, February 27, 1924. He married Alice May Lounsbery, who was born at Loveland, Ohio, May 27, 1869, the ceremony being performed at that place June 28, 1894. Mrs. Rossiter, a woman of more than ordinary intellectual attainments, and a graduate of Wellesley College, died April 5, 1911, leaving two sons: Dr. Dudley L., of this review; and Donald E., born May 5, 1900, who is successfully engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery at Highland Park, Illinois, where he has a large patronage.
Dudley L. Rossiter was still a child when taken by his parents from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Rock Island, Illinois, and there he acquired his early education in the public schools. Later he completed his high school education at Chicago, following which he entered Northwestern University, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts as a member of the class of 1919. He received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1920 from the same institution and after serving his interneship at Saint Luke's Hospital, Chicago, settled at Fort Wayne, in the fall of 1920 and has since been engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery, with well- equipped and perfectly-appointed offices at 2615 1/2 Calhoun Street. Doctor Rossiter is perfectly at home in every branch of his calling, and therefore has specialized in no particular subject. He is a member of the staffs of the Lutheran and Methodist Hospitals, and belongs to the Allen County Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic Order, and he is also a member of the Lion's Club, which he joined at the time of its inception at Fort Wayne, and the American Legion. During the World war he went into training from Northwestern University for service in the Medical Corps, but was not called for duty, and now holds a first lieutenant's commission in the Reserve Medical Officers Corps. His religious connection is with the Third Presbyterian Church.
On July 28, 1921, Doctor Rossiter was united in marriage with Miss Mary Ann Hedgcock, who was born at Plymouth, Illinois, and is a graduate nurse of the Wesley Memorial Hospital, Chicago. She is a daughter of Robert S. Hedgcock, who is engaged in agricultural pursuits near Plymouth, Illinois. Doctor and Mrs. Rossiter have no children of their own but have adopted a girl, Elizabeth Ann, born July 1, 1928, at Fort Wayne, Indiana.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
MONTELLE E. NEEDLER is an Indiana business man whose active career has fallen within the period since the close of the World war. He was with the colors until after the armistice. By hard work he mastered the furniture business from the ground up, and is now president and general manager of the Johnston Furniture Company of Marion, New Castle and Huntington.
Mr. Needler was born in Wells County, Indiana, December 30, 1895, and four generations of the family have lived in Eastern Indiana. His great grandfather, George Needler, came from Virginia. He is buried in the Olive Branch Cemetery near Matthews, Grant County. The paternal grandfather was George Walter Needler, an Indiana farmer who died in 1912 and is buried in Scott County. Mr. Needler's father was Marvin Scott Needler, born on a farm in Grant County, September 6, 1870, and died March 12, 1914, being buried at Montpelier, Indiana.
Montelle E. Needler's parents were industrious and thrifty farming people, gave their children the advantages of the local schools, but beyond that there was no money for higher education save as each person earned it for himself. Montelle E. Needler was energetic and ambitious, looked beyond the horizon of the farm for his opportunities, and beyond the home schools he struggled for a higher education, paying his way chiefly by teaching. In the meantime he attended the Muncie Normal School and later Indiana University. The branch of study in which he showed greatest proficiency was mathematics. His average salary as a country school teacher was sixty dollars a month, and he taught his last school at Newcastle, Indiana.
In 1917 he volunteered as a private, and, like many others, expected to be sent almost immediately overseas. It was a severe disappointment when he was assigned to the Quartermaster's Corps. For a short time he was at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, then at Camp Johnston, Jacksonville, Florida, for seven months, and while there was advanced to the grade of corporal. Later he was sent to Camp Hancock at Augusta, Georgia, and while there was attached to the Motor Transport Corps. He was advanced to sergeant, did the duties of company clerk, and just before the armistice he passed a successful examination for a commission as second lieutenant. The papers were signed, but on January 2, 1919, he received his honorable discharge and had no use for his commission.
After the war he returned to Blackford County, Indiana. In the choice of a line of business he determined upon furniture, and with a view to learning the business he considered the opportunities from this standpoint when he sought his first job. At Muncie, Indiana, he went into the credit department of the Banner Furniture Company, at five dollars a week, and three weeks later was transferred to one of the company's stores at Indianapolis, and put in charge of its credit department. At that time this company had five stores in Indiana. While at the Indianapolis store his salary was increased to a hundred dollars a month, and after the first year he was earning two hundred dollars a month. After having been in the credit department for two and a half years he was advanced to the position of sales manager of the Indianapolis store, and in 1922 was returned to Muncie as general manager of the company’s store there.
Mr. Needler in the latter part of 1925 was offered and accepted a position as general manager of the Johnston Furniture Company at Marion. He has since become a stockholder and is now president of the company. This company has one of the largest and finest furniture stores in Eastern Indiana.
Mr. Needler is a Republican, is a member of the American Legion, the Masonic fraternity, and the Marion Country Club. He is president of the Marion Rotary Club and his favorite pastime is the game of golf. He is chairman of the Retail Bureau of the Marion Association of Commerce.
Mr. Needler married, June 6, 1920, Miss Vernal C. Plasket, who was born at Boswell, Indiana, September 25, 1895. She graduated from the Boswell High School in 1913. Her father, Joseph C. Plasket, is a building contractor at Indianapolis.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
ELMER FARR CRAMER is a native of Indiana, grew up at Indianapolis, but his business headquarters for a number of years have been at South Bend. Mr. Cramer is one of the leading plastering contractors of Northern Indiana.
He was born at Martinsville, Morgan County,Indiana, November 11, 1890, son of W. S. and Sibina (Parks) Cramer. His father, a native of New Jersey, was brought to Indiana by his parents, who settled in Morgan County about 1874. He learned the trade of plasterer, and after going to Indianapolis established a successful business in that line and subsequently moved his business to Gary, Indiana, where he lived until his death in 1927. His wife was born in Owen County, Indiana, and died in 1918.
Elmer F. Cramer is the youngest of four children, three of whom are living. He was a year old when his parents moved to Indianapolis and there attended the grade and high schools. His trade he learned under the direction of his father. For several years he did railroad work, and after his father moved the business to Gary he rejoined him there. Mr. Cramer in 1922 located at South Bend, and from that city has developed an extensive business as a contractor, handling many important contracts throughout Northern Indiana and Michigan. He not only handles a large volume of business, but some of the finest contracts in his line come to him. What has been accorded much admiration as a masterpiece of the kind is the plastering work in the tea room of the Oliver Hotel. He also had the contract for the Thomas Jefferson School, Bendix Corporation offices, the Holy Church and School and other large buildings.
Mr. Cramer is a member of the International Association of Plastering Contractors. He is a member and director of the Kiwanis Club and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and member of Murat Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., at Indianapolis.
He married, August 25, 1910, Miss Ora D. McCabe. She was born in Texas. Her mother, Mrs. J. R. McCabe, now lives at Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her father was Dr. John R. McCabe, now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Cramer have three children, Helen Marcella, Winifred Jane and Constance Ruth.
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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
HON. JOHN SCOTT LAIRY, of Logansport, has the distinction of a very capable lawyer who has been a member of the Cass County bar for over thirty years and whose character and learning have adorned the circuit court bench during three consecutive terms.
Judge Lairy was born on a farm in Harrison Township, Cass County, Indiana, September 7, 1862. His father, Thomas Lairy, was born near Payton, Ohio, and his mother, Eliza (Barnett) Lairy, was a native of Indiana. They were married in Logansport and then settled on land Thomas Lairy had preempted from the Government, located a few miles north of the City of Logansport. In that rural locality his parents lived out their lives. They were the parents of two sons, both of whom took up the law as a profession. The older, the late Moses B. Lairy, for many years was a leading attorney of Logansport. The mother of Judge Lairy was a widow when his father married her, and by her first marriage had two daughters.
John Scott Lairy grew up on a farm, had a district school education, and beyond that had to depend upon his own efforts and contrivances to qualify for the profession which was the goal of his ambition. He attended normal schools, taught several winter terms and spent the summer seasons on the farm. This was his arrangement of time and labor during five years, and all the time he could get from his other work he devoted to the study of law, getting his reading under the direction of his brother at Logansport. He completed his legal education at the University of Michigan, graduating from the law school in 1896. He had taken the examination and had been admitted to the Indiana bar in 1895. Judge Lairy began practice at Logansport, and his thorough preparation, his native gifts and the earnestness and fidelity with which he applied himself to the interest of his clients quickly won him a reputation and a profitable practice. In a few years there came to him one of the highest honors of the profession when he was elected judge of the Circuit Court, and by two subsequent elections was on the bench for eighteen consecutive years, from 1902 to 1920. He left the office with a large accumulation of honors and the complete respect of the bar and the general public. During the past ten years he has been quietly engaged in handling the affairs of a large law practice at Logansport.
Judge Lairy is a Democrat in political affiliation. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, B. P. O. Elks and the Presbyterian Church. In 1912 he married Miss Ida Chloe Campbell. She was born in Ohio, but was living at Indianapolis before her marriage.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
BROWN COOPER. By reason of the extent and importance of his various activities, Brown Cooper is justly accounted one of the foremost citizens of Fort Wayne. A leader in the field of insurance, in which his interests are large and extensive, he is likewise president of the Allen County - Fort Wayne Historical Society, one of the best known Masons in the state, and a constructive builder of his adopted city. His career has been an interesting and industrious one, and he has justly earned the confidence in which he is universally held.
Mr. Cooper was born at Lafayette, Indiana, July 10, 1888, and is a son of William P. and Ellen M. (Brown) Cooper. Henry Cooper, the paternal grandfather of Brown Cooper, was born at Havre de Grace, Maryland, and received an excellent education. In 1823 he came to Allen County, where he opened one of the first schools in the county, located on the second floor of a log building over what was formerly "debtor's prison," on the present site of the Courthouse. With Messrs. Ewing and Raridan, he was one of the first three men to be admitted to practice law in Allen County, and continued to be engaged in practice until his death in 1853. His practice was of such an important character that many of his cases were brought before the highest Federal tribunal, the Supreme Court of the United States, at Washington, D. C., to which city he was compelled to travel by horseback. His home and law office, on East Prairie Street, just east of the Home Telephone Building at Fort Wayne, is still standing. His wife was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, of English extraction, and came as a child to the United States with her parents, the first home of the family being at Cincinnati, whence they moved to Fort Wayne, where Mrs. Cooper died.
William P. Cooper was born at Fort Wayne, Indiana, August 27, 1852, and was only fifteen years of age when he graduated from high school. Later he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College, in 1873, and spent one year in the law school of Columbia University, New York City. Prior to entering Dartmouth he had been editor of the Fort Wayne Daily News, at the age of sixteen years, and after leaving college resumed newspaper work, in which he was engaged with various Fort Wayne publications until about 1894, when he became general agent for Northeastern Indiana for the New York Life Insurance Company, a position which he continued to hold until his death in December, 1922. He was president of the Fort Wayne School Board for several years, was appointed a member of the board of Indiana State Charities and Correction, and at Dartmouth College became a member of the Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity. He married Ellen M. Brown, who was born at Lafayette, Indiana, March 31, 1853, a very highly accomplished woman who received her early education at Lafayette, and subsequently studied art at the Chicago Art Institute, the Art Students League of New York City and the Rockwood Potteries of Cincinnati. For a time she maintained art studios at Galveston, Texas, and later at Fort Wayne. Mrs. Cooper, who survives her husband and resides at Fort Wayne, is a daughter of the late George Brown, who was born in County Monaghan, Ireland, and after coming to the United States as a boy learned the carpenter trade. He developed into a contractor at Lafayette, and was the only man of his day who was capable of drawing plans for large buildings, which included the courthouses at Lafayette, Knox, Fowler. His death occurred at Lafayette in 1889.
Brown Cooper graduated from the Fort Wayne High School in 1906, and took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1910 from Dartmouth College, where, during his senior year, he also took the first-year course at Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance, a post-graduate school connected with Dartmouth College, and also served as treasurer of the class of 1910. He then engaged in the insurance business with his father, and is still connected with the New York Life Insurance Company. In 1923 he succeeded W. Wright Rockhill as secretary and treasurer of the Associated Masonic Trustees in the erection of the new Masonic Temple, and has since been secretary-treasurer and manager thereof. He belongs to all Masonic bodies and has been worshipful master of Summit City Lodge No. 170, A. F. and A. M..; high priest of Fort Wayne Chapter No. 19, R. A. M.; illustrious master of Fort Wayne Council, R. and S. M.; and eminent commander of Fort Wayne Commandery No.4, K. T. He has also been active in serving on several committees in the Scottish Rite bodies, was one of the founders and officers of St. Hilary Conclave No. 53, of the Red Cross of Constantine, and also a member of the advisory committee of Fort Wayne Chapter of DeMoley. He is a member of the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, the University Club, the Society of Indiana Pioneers and the Indiana Historical Society, vice president of the Fort Wayne Humane Society, and president of the Allen County - Fort Wayne Historical Society. In 1918 Mr. Cooper enlisted in the United States Naval Reserves as second-class yeoman, and afterwards passed the examination for chief Yeoman, serving as such with the Pyschiatric Unit at Camp Decatur, connected with the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, at Great Lakes, Illinois. He received his honorable discharge in April, 1919, and for two years was service officer of Fort Wayne Post No. 47, American Legion.
In 1922 Mr. Cooper erected the Cooper Building, on Wayne Street, on the lot which was formerly occupied by the residence of Charles A. Munson, one of his father's half brothers. Mr. Munson was an active Democratic politician during his day and served as a member of the city council of Fort Wayne and as sheriff of Allen County. In his later years he was sales manager for the Fort Wayne Electrical Works, his territory extending from Chicago to the West. This was later purchased by the General Electric Company.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
RAY ENLO GEYER. Several large and important business interests of Fort Wayne have a capable, worthy and energetic representative in the person of Ray E. Geyer, manager of the Associates Investment Company, a native of the Hoosier State, and a member of an old, prominent and honorable family of Indiana. His career has been a decidedly active one, in which he has gained position and recognition through the exercise of industry and a proper appreciation and acceptance of opportunities, and in each of the several lines of business with which he has been connected he has won and held the esteem and respect of his associates.
Mr. Geyer was born May 28, 1887, on a farm in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and is a son of Daniel and Mary A. (Younger) Geyer. The paternal grandparents of Mr. Geyer were born in Germany, where they received public school educations, and were brought to the United States by their respective parents, both families settling in Indiana. The grandfather became a pioneer of Tippecanoe County, where he secured wild land, cleared and cultivated it and subsequently became one of the substantial agriculturists of his community. He was also a man of progressive ideas and built one of the first grist mills in the county, which he operated for many years. Both he and his worthy wife passed away in Tippecanoe County. The paternal grandfather of Ray E. Geyer was born in Pennsylvania, where he grew to manhood and met and married his wife, who had come with her parents as a child from Germany. During the '60s they left their homes in the Keystone State and settled in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, where they spent the rest of their lives in farming.
Daniel Geyer, the father of Ray E. Geyer, was born February 18, 1851, in Pickaway County, Ohio, where he received his early education in the public schools, subsequently attending the early rural schools of Tippecanoe County, Indiana. He was reared to the pursuits of farming, and followed that vocation throughout the active years of his life in Tippecanoe County and Pulaski County, Indiana, in which latter he died February 10, 1920, after twenty-two years of residence. He was a member of the Knights of Pythias, and he and Mrs. Geyer were devout worshippers of the Methodist Episcopal faith. She was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, in 1860, and died in 1917 in Pulaski County, Indiana.
Ray E. Geyer attended the public schools of Pulaski County and graduated from Star City High School, in that county, as a member of the class of 1907. He began his career as a school-teacher in the rural districts, following this vocation for five years, and then became identified with newspaper work as editor and manager of the Star City News, in which capacities he acted for two years. He was then appointed postmaster of Star City and retained that position for five years, and at the end of that time became an automobile salesman, a capacity in which he acted for six years, then becoming attached for three years to the force of the Motor Discount Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. In June, 1925, Mr. Geyer became associated with the Associates Investment Company at Cleveland, Ohio, and in January, 1928, was transferred to Fort Wayne, where he has since been manager. This is a large and important automobile and banking business, and occupies offices at 512 First National Bank Building. Mr. Geyer is accounted a capable and energetic business man and one who is thoroughly familiar with every detail of his somewhat complicated line of business. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masons and the Knights of Pythias, and his religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a man of public spirit and civic pride, and has been a consistent supporter of worthy public measures and enterprises.
On June 7, 1911, Mr. Geyer was united in marriage with Miss Lucy May Leiter, who was born in Fulton County, Indiana, a graduate of the Star City High School, who taught school for a time prior to her marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Geyer there have been born four children: Robert Enlo, born July 16, 1912, who is attending the North Side High School at Fort Wayne; Mary Helen, born February 2, 1915, who is attending the same school; Margaret Marie, born January 10, 1917, attending public school; and Joseph Leiter, born December 18, 1920.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
