Mr. Hibbs was born at Madison, Indiana, December 15, 1848, a son of Hamilton and Nancy (Duffy) Hibbs. His father, a native of Scotland, was brought to the United States in boyhood, being about seven years of age, and settled with his parents in Kentucky. The family remained in the Blue Grass State only for a short time, however, moving then to Marion, Indiana, where Hamilton Hibbs learned the trade of carpenter, and eventually developed into a contractor and builder, a business which he followed during the remainder of his life. He was a man of high character and had the esteem and respect of his fellow-citizens. He married Nancy Duffy, who was born near Jeffersonville,. Indiana, and of their six children five lived to maturity: Sally, Laura, Mary, Jess and George Benton, all of whom are now deceased.
George Benton Hibbs received his education at Madison and Columbus, Indiana, and began life on his own account as a wagon boy for an express company. Subsequently he became a bell boy at the Belvidere Hotel, Columbus, Indiana, and remained at that hostelry for eight years, rising to the position of clerk. In 1879 he took up his residence at Rockport, where he bought a pocket billiard and cigar store, and March 15, 1881, was united in marriage with Miss Eva Biedenkopl, a daughter of Henry and Catherine (Scherer) Biedenkopl, the former born in this country and the latter in Germany. Henry Biedenkopl was a general merchant and retail liquor dealer, and subsequently was connected with the Occident Hotel, which, with a restaurant, he operated until his death, when the business was taken over by his son-in-law, Mr. Hibbs. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs.Biedenkopl, of whom three are living: Henry, born in 1867, who conducted the Occidental Hotel for twenty-four years and married Amy Ellis, of Rockport; Catherine, born in 1865, who married Kap Morris, a native of Mount Vernon, this state; and Eva, who became Mrs. Hibbs.
Ten children were born to George B. And Eva Hibbs, namely: Lillian May, born December 9, 1881, who married Harry Bawter, a traveling salesman, and has three children; George B., born October 1, 1883, who takes care of the restaurant business for his widowed mother; Mabel, born August 20, 1886, who died at the age of twenty years; Eva, born September 12, 1888, who married first Harry Chappel, who died of influenza during the World war, leaving two children, and she then married Leonard Marquardt, a mechanic, and has three children; William C., born May 27, 1891, who died at the age of three years; Helen, born June 23, 1893, unmarried and a trained nurse by profession, who served overseas during the World war; Caroline, born October 23,1895, who died at the age of ten years; Edward J., born February 12, 1900, a clerk in the Rockport postoffice; Esther, born June 21, 1903, who married Byrnie McDaniel, who is employed by the local traction company; and Catherine, born May 17, 1907, who is unmarried and serves as cashier in her mother's restaurant.
After disposing of his pool hall and cigar business Mr. Hibbs purchased the hotel known as the Spencer House, which he renovated, repaired and renamed the Cottage Hotel, which became a very popular hostelry and was well patronized by the traveling public. He also continued to operate the Occidental Hotel, had various other interests, including much real estate at Rockport, and at the time of his demise was one of the three oldest business men in the city. He was a Republican in politics, but did not seek public office.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CHARLES P. WALKER is widely known as a business man in the Upper Wabash River Valley. His home is at Mecca, where he is general manager for the William E. Dee Clay Manufacturing Company.
Mr. Walker was born October 22, 1849. His parents were Christopher and Rachael Elizabeth (Wiltsey) Walker. His father was born in Ohio, May 4, 1812, and died January 14, 1869, and his mother was born in Pennsylvania, in 1820, and died in 1857. Charles P. Walker was one of a family of eight children. Christopher Walker was a merchant at Cincinnati, where the children grew up.,
Charles P. Walker after attending public schools started his career as an office boy with a railroad company. Later he became cashier in an office of the Chicago & Great Eastern Railway, was promoted to paymaster, and when he finally left the railroad service he had special training and qualifications as a traffic expert. He turned this experience and his capital to account in the coal business at Clinton, Indiana, where he was located for twenty-five years. While there he organized the Norton Creek Coal & Mining Company, acting as its general manager. From coal mining he turned his attention to clay products manufacture in the Wabash Valley and during this period of thirty-one years has acted as general manager of the William E. Dee Clay Company, manufacturers of sewer pipe, tiling, fire brick and similar products.
Mr. Walker is a Democrat in politics and a member of the Masonic fraternity. He married, October 15, 1873, Miss Jeanie A. Sammis, who was born at Brooklyn, New York, April 8, 1851. Mrs. Walker passed away January 15, 1927. Mr. and Mrs. Walker had six children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The three deceased children were Rachael, Fanny Frances and Charles P., Jr., the latter of whom died January 15, 1915. He had married Annett Cutler. The living children are: Antoinette Steward, of New York; Geneva H., wife of Charles H. Hughes, living in Michigan; and Jeanie A., wife of Samuel Cutler.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JOHN OLIVER BOWERS. A resident of Gary since 1910, during the two decades that he has spent in the city John O. Bowers has won a high and substantial position at the bar, and likewise is known for his achievements in the real estate investment field. A man of scholarly attainments and literary ability, he has taken a great deal of interest in the history of Lake County and the Calumet River region, and there are few men who are better posted on the matters pertaining to early growth and development in this locality.
Mr. Bowers was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 1860, and is a son of John and Sarah R. (Conley) Bowers. His father was a member of an old and honored family of the Keystone State and was born and reared in Bedford County, where he acquired a serviceable education in the public schools of his day. He was reared to the life of an agriculturist, and when the war between the states came on he, being still too young for enlistment, was called upon to remain at home and till the parental acres while several of his elder brothers took up the dangerous implements of war: and saw active and gallant service in the field. He was not destined to live long, passing away during the '60s and being buried at New Paris, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. He married Sarah, R. Conley, who was also born, reared and educated in Bedford County, where she taught school for several years prior to her marriage. She was also active in the United Brethren Church, in the faith of which she died March, 1910, and was laid to rest at the side of her husband at New Paris. They were honorable and God-fearing; people who had the full respect and esteem of all with whom they came into contact. There were three sons in the family: George M., who died in infancy; John O., of this review; and Edward B., who has spent practically all of his life in Montana, but who is now a resident of Porter County, Indiana.
After attending the public schools of his native locality John O. Bowers pursued a course in the Central State Normal School, Lockhaven, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1886. Three years later he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws from the Valparaiso (Indiana) University, and in the same year was admitted to the state bar. For a few years thereafter, while further preparing himself for his profession, he taught school, and then went to Kansas, where he began his professional career. However, that location and the conditions surrounding did not satisfy him, and in 1894 he returned to Indiana and opened a law office at Hammond. That city continued to be his home until 1910, in which year he took up his permanent residence at Gary, where he has since become one of the community's most highly respected and substantial citizens. In his profession he is known as a man of versatility, equally proficient and learned in all lanes of legal lore, so that it has been unnecessary for him to apply himself to any single branch of his calling. He served in the capacity of referee in bankruptcy for the Twelfth Referee District of Indiana for twelve years, this comprising the counties of Lake, Porter, Newton, Jasper, Benton, Stark and White. At the time of his coming to Gary he resigned as referee and has largely given himself to his real estate investments, having been active in the building up and development of Gary, and himself at present the owner of two city blocks. His commodious law office is situated in one of his own buildings, at 542 Broadway, and he is a member of the Gary Bar Association, Indiana State Bar Association and American Bar Association. Among other public-spirited works, he was active in the promotion and substantiation of the Dunes State Park. Although liberal in his political views, he is apt to lean slightly toward the Republican party during national elections. His family attends, he helping to support, the Congregational Church. Mr. Bowers has given a great deal of time and attention to historical subjects. He was one of the organizers and for a time president of the Gary Historical Society, and for some years was also president of the Lake County Historical Society. In connection therewith he has written a number of articles and pamphlets which have been received by many of his fellow-citizens with much favor. Among the most ambitious of these interesting works is a little booklet entitled Dream Cities of the Calumet, published in December, 1929. The limits assigned to this sketch of Mr. Bowers are inadequate to permit of quoting this book in full, but some idea of his easy and interesting style may be gained through a few excerpts. In his foreword the author states:
"In the publication of this little story no one will realize its shortcomings more keenly than the author. He is aware that the events of importance described in the story are comparatively few, and that even the most important have had little influence upon the developments that have succeeded the earliest attempts to build or establish cities. Yet beginnings, though followed by failures, are usually interesting, and are generally presented as prefaces to portrayals of subsequent successful undertakings of like character. For example: No one would assume to write a history of the Panama Canal without mention of the name Ferdinand de Lesseps and of his efforts, and no one could purport to write a history of the growth of chemistry without reference to alchemy and the alchemists. The writer does not assume the role of historian at all, but merely seeks to aid in the preservation of a few points and items of some interest in the present and probably of an increasing interest through the coming years, which will certainly witness such revolutionary transformation of the territory hereby covered that it will tax the imaginations of the minds most fertile in fancy to envisage the activities and the social environments of a period that will then have become a bygone age. At this late date little historical material relative to the adventures of those far days is really available. What details might yet be discovered by patient and persistent effort the writer does not know, but if there he extant any old documents or date pertaining to these projects, the historian of the future and his readers will surely welcome the preservation and the publication of the same. By him and them the small beginnings of the early days will not be despised." Then, with much grace of literary style, and with numerous anecdotes, Mr. Bowers sets forth an interesting narrative of a number of the smaller cities which at their outset had dreams of future greatness, but only succeeded in being the forerunners of the metropolises of today, among them Liverpool, Manchester, Indiana City, City West, Sheffield and Waverly. "Concluding," says Mr. Bowers, "let me add that there have been dreams hereabouts which were not all dreams. A little while ago there were some dreamers who dreamed not of the ‘fountain of youth,' nor 'the pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow,' but of a place at which all the raw materials which enter into the production of steel could be assembled at a hitherto unknown minimum of cost; to which the ore, the heaviest of all, machinery-mined-and- loaded, could be transported without an iron rail or the touch of a human hand. They were captains of industry-descendants of old Tubal-Cain. They had both enterprise and capital. They dreamed of a great army of men daily making tons and tons of steel, while great towers were emitting smoke 'like incense from the altar of labor.' They awoke and sought the place of which they had dreamed. By and by they found the place on the banks of a sluggish, two-mouthed, sourceless, silent stream, skirting the shore of an inland sea. They sought the employment of many men, and had the means to satisfy the pay-roll. (Maybe that helped the dream to come true.) They built furnaces, factories and mills. Thousands of men are at work, and the smoke ascends, and sometimes descends, but a city close by is building, still building - not built. Both site and city are unexampled and unrivaled. The incorporating citizens of the new town sought not the capitals or marts of the old world for a name; they just gave it the name of one of the dreamers - the outstanding figure in the world of steel - Gary. But I have wandered far from the subject of my story, for I have passed from dreams that did not come true to dreams that did. I leave the story of this adventure for some historian who shall chronicle achievements as well as aspirations - deeds as well as dreams. I revert, but just to say that, after all, those 'cities' whose prophets were false, or - came too soon, lie buried in a land of marvels, and I sometime, we know not the day, they may yet arise, like the fabled phoenix, from their mouldering ruins, at the sounding of the trumpet of Progress, and those streets long ago dedicated but never used, marked or graded, may yet resound with the footsteps of a busy metropolitan population."
At Allegan, Michigan, October 25, 1894, Mr. Bowers was united in marriage with Miss Nellie A. Blackman, daughter of Henry Elijah and Lucy (Sherwood) Blackman, of Allegan County, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Blackman, who were farming people, both passed away in Allegan County in 1913, the former at the advanced age of ninety-three years, and were buried there side by side on the Blackman farm cemetery. Mr. Blackman was a pioneer of that region, coming thence about 1838 and settling on the road running from Allegan to Kalamazoo. His grandfather was Elijah Blackman, a captain during the Revolutionary war, and Mr. Bowers has in his possession the old Government commissions signed by John Hancock and others of the early Colonial governors. He also possesses a number of photostats of the old commissions and a list of the names of the men in the company which Mr. Blackman raised and commanded in the Revolution. Mrs. Bowers was educated in the public schools of Allegan County, and after graduating from the Allegan High School was a teacher in the public schools of Michigan and Indiana for several years. She is active in the work of the Congregational Church, and for some years was active in the Daughters of the Revolution and the Woman's Club. She and her husband have had eight children, of whom two died in infancy, the others being: Sylvan Forrest, a graduate of the Michigan State Normal School and the law school of the University of Chicago, degree of Bachelor of Laws, now a lawyer in the employ of the West Publishing Company, of St. Paul, Minnesota, who married Miss Jessie Duncan, of Valparaiso; Harold Eldon, a graduate of the Indiana University, who is now taking post-graduate work at the University of Chicago; Marjorie Elizabeth, a graduate of Earlham College and the New York State Library School, who now occupies a position in the Gary Library; John Oliver, Jr., a graduate of Purdue University, and now engaged in the real estate business at Gary, who married Hazel Knotts, daughter of former Mayor Thomas E. and Ella Knotts, and has two children, Martha Ann and John Oliver III; Dorothy Naomi, B. S., B. A., M. A., University of Illinois, now a teacher in the high school at Farmington, Illinois; and Sherwood.
Click here for photo.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JOHN W. LAMB is an Oakland City business man, carrying on the oldest undertaking and embalming establishment in Gibson County, a business that was founded by his father and has had most capable direction under management of the son.
John W. Lamb was born at Oakland City, December 26, 1890. His father, Porter H. Lamb, was also a native of Indiana and lived at Oakland City from 1884. In the early part of his life in that community he was in the livery business and in 1891 engaged in undertaking and was active until his death on March 9, l929. At the time of his death he was one of the oldest business men of Oakland City. He married Louisa Poch, who was born on German Ridge in Perry County, Indiana, and died in September, 1916. There were two children, Esther L. and John W. Esther is the wife of Alfa W. Woodruff, a merchant of Oakland City, and to their marriage were born four children, one of whom is now deceased.
John W. Lamb attended the grade and high schools of Oakland City and in 1908 was graduated from the Cincinnati College of Embalmers, the same institution where his father completed his professional preparation. On January 29, 1909, he entered his father's business, being at that time one of the youngest embalmers in the State of Indiana. He has carried on the business now for over twenty years, except for the time he was in the army during the World war. He takes pride in the service that has been associated with the name Lamb in this community.
Mr. Lamb served at Camp Custer, Michigan, from the date of his enlistment in August, 1918, until honorably discharged on December 20, 1918. He is a Republican in politics, is a member of the Independent Order of Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen of America, and donates liberally to churches and other worthy causes. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club and the American Legion. Mr. Lamb married, May 18, 1911, Adith L. Crawford, step-daughter of Doctor McGowan, of Oakland City. They have two children: J. P., born March 25, 1912, and Emalou, born January 18, 1920.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
GEORGE L. ADAMS, trustee of Perry Township, Monroe County, has lived all his life on the old Adams homestead, a farm that has been in the continuous possession of the family since pioneer days in this section of Indiana. This farm is located five and a half miles from Bloomington, on Route 37.
Mr. Adams was born on this farm November 17, 1871. He has been in charge of the property for about thirty years, and the improvements and developments on this 132 acre place stamp him as one of the progressive men in this agricultural community.
Mr. Adams is a son of David and India (McQueen) Adams, and is a grandson of Samuel Adams, who came from South Carolina, where he was born and reared. He entered the land in Perry Township from the Government. The grandfather and both of the parents are buried in the Clear Creek Cemetery. David Adams was a child when the family came to Indiana. In addition to farming he was a very skilled cabinet maker.
George L. Adams as a boy attended the Handy District School, completing the common grades there, and by work at home was well qualified to become the successor of his father as a farmer. He was only a boy when his father died, and he grew up to responsibilities in advance of his years. He has never left the old home place.
Mr. Adams married Myrtle Prince, and his second wife was Bertha Waldon, daughter of George and Emma Waldon. His three children were all by his first marriage: Grace, wife of Ray Porter; Alvin L., deceased; and Georgia H.
Mr. Adams has given altogether thirteen years to the duties of township trustee. He served a term of six years a number of years ago. He has been township trustee for seven years, his term expiring December 31, 1930. He has the distinction of being the first Democrat elected to this office in the township during the past half century. His administration of schools and roads and other township affairs has been one to justify the confidence of his fellow citizens. He is a member of the Christian Church and has been active in committee work for the Democratic party.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
ZANAS N. FINNEY. Contributing to the general commercial prosperity of Princeton, Indiana, as a sound, reliable, far-seeing business man is Zanas N. Finney, owner and prosperous proprietor of a first-class grocery store, in which he has been interested since 1922. Although not a native of Indiana, a large part of his life has been spent here. He came first to Gibson County over forty years ago, and later spent some years in business in the West, but eventually returned to the county named, and here his interests have been centered ever since. Mr. Finney has a wide acquaintance among substantial business men in several lines, owns property at Princeton, and is counted one of her leading citizens.
Zanas N. Finney was born in Morgan County, Ohio, January 24, 1853, and is a son of Thomas and Margaret J. (Nash) Finney. His father, who was born in Maryland, was reared to the pursuits of agriculture, and as a young man moved to Ohio, where he was engaged in farming at the outbreak of the Mexican war. He volunteered for service during this struggle, served valiantly, and at its close returned to the pursuits of peace, subsequently moving to Indiana, where he spent the remainder of his life in farming in Crawford County and became one of the substantial and highly respected men of his community. He married Margaret J. Nash, who was born in Pennsylvania, and died in Indiana, in 1906, and they became the parents of eleven children, of whom all grew to maturity except one who died in infancy.
Zanas N. Finney received his education in the public schools of Crawford, Indiana, where he was reared on the home farm, after leaving which he was for a time employed in a sawmill. In 1875, at the age of twenty-two years, he took up his residence in Gibson County, Indiana, where he established himself in business as the owner of a sawmill business, and later added a threshing outfit, which he operated for many years, all over the county. In 1901 Mr. Finney disposed of his interests and moved to Enid, Oklahoma, at that time a newly-opened section of the country, and for a few years found success in agricultural pursuits in that state, but subsequently returned to Gibson County, and went to work in the oil fields, where he was employed until 1922. In that year he embarked in the grocery business at Princeton, and has since built up a large and profitable patronage by reason of the superiority of his goods, his promptness and courtesy and the general confidence in which he is held by the people of the community. He carries a full line of groceries and general supplies and his business covers a broad territory. Mr. Finney is a stanch Republican and a public-spirited citizen, but has never sought nor cared for public office. He is a member of the United Presbyterian Church and is fond of his home, therefore having no club or fraternal affiliations.
On December 25, 1890, Mr. Finney was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Barnett, and to this union there were born four children: Bessie, who married R. C. Westerfeld, the proprietor of a grocer at Princeton, and has one child; Jessie, who married J. M. Bishop, state mine inspector, and has five children; Edna, who married Carl M. Smith and lives near Princeton; and Mary, who is unmarried and makes her home with her parents.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
ORA F. BRANT is one of the prominent representatives of the automotive business in the City of Fort Wayne, where he is vice president and manager of the South Side Chevrolet Company, the well equipped headquarters of which are at 2315 South Calhoun Street.
Mr. Brant was born at Columbia City, judicial center of Whitley County, Indiana, October 24, 1897, and is a son of Harvey H. and Amanda (Blair) Brant, both now deceased. Harvey H. Brant was born in Ohio and was a young man in Indiana when the Civil war was precipitated, he having served in that conflict as a member of an Indiana regiment of volunteer infantry. He was identified with farm enterprise many years and thereafter was engaged in the manufacturing of bed-springs, at Princeton, Gibson County. After retiring from active business he established his residence in the City of Lafayette, where he died in 1919, at the age of seventy-seven years. His wife likewise was born in Ohio, and she passed the closing period of her life in Fort Wayne, where her death occurred March 17, 1929. The parents are survived by two sons and six daughters, and of the number the subject of this review is the youngest.
Ora F. Brant was graduated in the high school at Wabash, this state, and since that time he has continued to be actively identified with the automobile business. He was in the employ of Greiger Brothers Motor Company in the City of Lafayette and thence came with C. A. Greiger to Fort Wayne, where a business was established under the same corporate title, that of Greiger Brothers Motor Company. He was thus engaged until March., 1927, when he established the South Side Chevrolet Company, of which he has since continued vice president and manager and the business of which has been signally prosperous under his progressive executive supervision. He is a member of the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
September 6, 1923, recorded the marriage of Mr. Brant to Miss A. L. Peavey, who was born at Clay City, Indiana, and they are popular in social circles in their present home community. They have no children.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
