MERL LONGFELLOW GOCHENOUR. A leading member of the Kosciusko County bar since 1912, Merl Longfellow Gochenour, of Warsaw, senior member of the firm of Gochenour & Graham, has been identified with much important litigation which has come before the courts, and has demonstrated the possession of superior talent and a natural liking for the calling for which he is so well equipped. While he is a busy lawyer, constantly engaged in his professional duties, he has found time to participate largely and prominently in public civic affairs, his connection with which has shown him to be a man of vision and enlightened views.

Mr. Gochenour was born on a farm near Palestine, Kosciusko County, Indiana, in July, 1888, and is a son of John David and Junia Estelle (Longfellow) Gochenour. His paternal grandfather was William Gochenour, who was born in Shenandoah County, Virginia, and in young manhood removed to Ohio, where he met and married Salome Winters, a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. From Ohio William Gochenour made his way at an early date to Kosciusko County, Indiana, where he passed the rest of his life in agricultural operations and was one of the well-known and highly esteemed men of his community. John David Gochenour was born on his father's farm in Kosciusko County, April 22, 1858, in the same house in which his son, Merl L., was later to be born, and received a public school education. He was reared amid agricultural surroundings and in young manhood adopted farming as a vocation and followed it with success throughout his life. In 1885 he was united in marriage with Miss Junia Estelle Longfellow, who was born in Delaware County, Ohio, a daughter of Amos Longfellow, a captain of infantry during the war between the states, who died soon after the close of the war from the injuries and hardships which he had undergone during his military experience. Mrs. Gochenour's mother was a Davis, of the Virginia family of that name. To Mr. and Mrs. Gochenour there were born three children: Merl Longfellow, of this review; Verna, who is deceased; and Opal Helen, the wife of Baltzer A. Neuer, of Huntington, Indiana.

The early education of Merl Longfellow Gochenour was acquired in the country schools of Harrison Township, Kosciusko County, which he attended for eight years, following which he spent three years in the Burket High School and one year in the high school at Warsaw, and was graduated from the Warsaw High School in 1906. He then entered Indiana University, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts as a member of the class of 1910, and in the following year was given the degree of Master of Arts by Harvard University. For one year thereafter he was head of the history and government departments of the Oklahoma State Normal School, at Edmond, Oklahoma. In 1912 he returned to Warsaw and, after being admitted to the bar and to practice before the Supreme Court, entered into a law partnership with the late Andrew G. Wood. This partnership continued until Mr. Woods' death, following which he practiced alone for five years and then formed the present firm of Gochenour & Graham, with Ezra W. Graham. Their practice is large and important, and Mr. Gochenour is prominently known as an energetic, reliable lawyer, who is thoroughly grounded in the principles of all departments of his calling.

During the World war Mr. Gochenour was very active. He was chairman of the War Loan organization in Kosciusko County, Indiana. He has made the conservation of our natural resources a hobby for years, was a pioneer in the work of the Izaak Walton League of America and for three years edited the Arms and Ammunition department of Outdoor America, the official magazine of the Izaak Walton League. He was chairman of the constitution committee, in the first national convention of that organization, of the resolutions committee at the second convention, and at the third national convention was chairman of the legislative committee.

For the next three years Mr. Gochenour was a national director and served as chairman of the state legislative committee of Indiana, where, in collaboration with Mr. Graham, his law partner, he drew the conservation bills, fathered by the League, most of which are now on the statute books. Politically a Democrat, he was president of the Jackson Club at Indiana University, during his college days, but has never mixed politics with his law practice. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian Church, and fraternally he belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks . Mr. Gochenour has hunted big game in most of the Canadian provinces, principally in British Columbia and Alberta, and has written extensively for leading American periodicals dealing with out-door subjects, such as Field and Stream, etc. He holds a fellowship in the American Museum of Natural History, is a participating member of the American Geographical Society, and a member of the American Forestry Association. At present and for the past five years Mr. Gochenour has been operating three farms, one of them the old Gochenour homestead, founded by his grandfather in 1832. On these holdings he has been doing some practical conservation and in sixty acres of native woodlands has been planting several hundred trees each year from the Indiana State Nursery. In addition to his conservation example he is conducting a successful venture in the polling of the milking type of Shorthorn cattle, and has one of the best herds in Northern Indiana.

In 1913 Mr. Gochenour was united in marriage with Miss Lois Eliza Chapman, of Warsaw, and to this union there have been born two children: John Chapman, born in 1915, who is attending Warsaw High School; and Jane, who was killed in an automobile accident when six years of age. The pleasant family home is at 830 East Center Street.

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


CARL J. SUEDHOFF is a publicity and advertising expert, president of Suedhoff & Company, Incorporated, and this advertising service represents the culmination of many happy years of successful experience in that field at Fort Wayne and in Northern Indiana.

Fort Wayne is his native city. He was born on Saint Valentine's Day, 1891, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Suedhoff. For seven years of his boyhood he attended the Lutheran parochial schools, then the public schools of Fort Wayne, and while in high school worked in a newspaper office. For one year he was reporter for the Fort Wayne Sentinel, and in the second year in the Sentinel's advertising department. He was a student of Elbert Hubbard, and spent his vacations for a number of years with Fra Elbertus and other Roycrofters at East Aurora, New York. Practically all his life has been spent in Fort Wayne, but for two years he was at Kalamazoo, Michigan, as advertising director and business manager of the Gazette. At the end of that time the late Andy Moynihan called him back to Fort Wayne and put him in the post of advertising manager and assistant publisher of the Journal-Gazette. He served in that capacity for six years, until he resigned to join the colors during the World war. It was while he was connected with the Journal-Gazette that he inaugurated the Cooperative Semi-Annual Dollar Day. This has for some years been the biggest of all Fort Wayne's retail shopping events.

Mr. Suedhoff is a man of ideas, and still more important is his mastery of the details which enabled him to originate and carry out big plans in the advertising field. Besides being president and treasurer of Suedhoff & Company, Incorporated, advertising service, he is on the board of directors of the Fort Wayne Engraving Company; president and treasurer, Butler Clothing Store; a director of the Industrial Loan & Investment Company, Heit-Miller-Lau (Mary Wayne) Candy Company, Brinkman Outdoor Advertising Company; secretary-treasurer Fort Wayne Country Club; treasurer, Golf, Inc., owners of an eighteen-hole golf course on Bluff ton Road.

Mr. Suedhoff in January, 1918, enlisted in the United States navy as a second-class seaman. He studied navigation and seamanship at the Ensign School, Municipal Pier, Chicago, and was transferred to sea duty on a submarine chaser out of New York, with the rating of navigation officer. After the armistice he was transferred to Princeton University, New Jersey, to take up the study of pay corps. Mr. Suedhoff was released from active duty in February, 1919, but remained a member of the Naval Reserve Corps for three years longer. He has done a great deal of work with the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, chiefly through the medium of the conventions, tourist, publicity and defense bureau, and was a team worker in the building campaign of 1926. He served three years as club statistician for the Rotary Club, belongs to the Scottish and York Rite bodies at Fort Wayne and Mizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Y. M. C. A., a past president of the Friars Club, and an active worker in the Trinity English Lutheran Church. He is a member of the church council and a trustee, and was on the building committee in the erection of the magnificent new church on West Wayne Street.

Mr. Suedhoff married, in 1919, Miss Helen Lau, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lau. They have two children, Tom Lau and Carl J., Jr.

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


LEWIS EDWIN GERDING, member of the House of Representatives of the Indiana Legislature for 1929, is a native of Fort Wayne, was an overseas soldier during the World war, and his chief connection and loyalty in a business way has been with the Home Telephone Company, of which he is chief accountant.

Mr. Gerding was born in Fort Wayne, May 25, 1893, and his people on both sides were early settlers of Allen County. His grandfather, John Gerding, was born in Germany, and on coming to Allen County, Indiana, settled five miles north of Fort Wayne. He was it baker by trade, and in politics after acquiring American citizenship voted as a Democrat. Mr. Gerding's maternal grandparents were Conrad and Mary Busse Auman, both of whom were natives of Germany, but were married in Allen County, Indiana, where Conrad Auman settled when about eighteen years of age. He was for many years in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and died at the age of eighty-two and his wife at eighty-six.

John Gerding, father of Lewis E., was born on a farm in Allen County in October, 1853, and during most of his life has been a Fort Wayne business man. He attended Lutheran parochial schools, conducted a livery stable and after the advent of the automobile operated a garage until he retired. He is a brother of William Gerding, for many years a prominent figure in Fort Wayne politics, who served as a member of the city council and as county clerk and is now in the hardware business. John Gerding married Mary Auman, who was born in Fort Wayne May 20, 1855, and died October 10, 1928. All of her eight children are living and the family are members of the Lutheran Church.

Lewis E. Gerding graduated from the Lutheran parochial schools of Fort Wayne and attended public school one year and the International Business College. As a youth he entered the service of the local traction company, but since April 5, 1916, his time and abilities have been at the disposal of the Home Telephone Company. He started as a clerk and is now chief accountant, and he shows a great deal of enthusiasm for the splendid service this company has developed for Fort Wayne. The telephone building is one of the most complete structures of its kind in the state. Mr. Gerding was elected a member of yhe Indiana House of Representatives in November,1928. He is a member of the American Legion. He enlisted May 24, 1918, and in September, 1918, went overseas, where he spent about nine months with the general headquarters of the American Expeditionary Forces. He received his honorable discharge July 2, 1919, and returned to Fort Wayne the following day. Mr. Gerding is a member of the Lutheran Church, and has been active in the various community drives of the Chamber of Commerce. He is a Republican in politics, although his father and grandfather were ardent Democrats. Mr. Gerding is unmarried.

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


JAMES MONAHAN LEFFEL. Few cities in Indiana of the same size and population as Warsaw, Kosciusko County, can boast of better educational facilities than those to be found in this thriving, progressive and up-to-date community. That this is true is due largely to the efforts of James Monahan Leffel, educator, scholar, civic promoter and public-spirited citizen, who has served in the capacity of superintendent of schools since 1916 and whose activities have extended far beyond the scope of the prescribed duties of his office.

Mr. Leffel was born May 3, 1880, at Boston, Massachusetts, where his parents died when he was an infant, leaving three children: James Monahan; Mrs. Lucy Albro, of Buffalo, New York; and Clarence, of Highland Park, Illinois. The children were taken into the home of a friend, Joshua Leffel, who brought them to Silver Lake, Indiana, where James Monahan Leffel, who had attended public school at Boston for a short time, continued his education in the rural schools of Lake Township, Kosciusko County, and in 1897 graduated from the Silver Lake High. During the next three years he taught school in the Lake Township district, and in 1900 began attending the summer sessions at the Indiana University, which he continued for three years. He entered this institution for the regular course in the fall of 1904 and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1098. Subsequently he took a post-graduate course at the University of Chicago. From 1907 to 1910 he served as head of the history department of the Brazil High School, a subject that has interested him all of his life and which is still his hobby. Following his work at the Chicago University he became superintendent of schools of Knox, Indiana, where he remained three years, and then had a like experience at Monticello, where in 1916 he had chargeof the White County Historical Pageant and also directed the county's activities in the centennial celebration. He was then called to the superintendency of the Warsaw schools, and has occupied this position to the present. He has shown himself a capable executive and a thorough and learned instructor, and has won the full confidence and esteem of parents, teachers and pupils, and the commendation of the school officials and the general public.

On December 28, 1904, Mr. Leffel was united in marriage with Miss Ruby Caroline Patterson who was born at North Manchester, Indiana, October 19, 1885. Her father, James Wilbur Patterson, was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania June 11, 1855, and came with his parents to Liberty Mills, Indiana, when a child of three years. Her mother was Henrietta (Hidy) Patterson, who was born in Jackson Township, Kosciusko County, October 4, 1858. Her parents came from Crab Bottom, Virginia, at an early date, and entered land on Eel River in Jackson Township, which is still the family homestead. Mrs. Leffel is a descendant of soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary war and is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. James Monahan Leffel , Jr., son of Mr; and Mrs. Leffel, was born on a farm in Jackson Township, Kosciusko County, June 22, 1909, and after graduating from the Warsaw High School, in 1927, entered Indiana University, where he is now taking a pre-medical course.

James M. Leffel, Sr., has rendered many valuable services to his community. He served on the food conservation committee during the Wold war, and had charge of the Invisible Guest dinner in Kosciusko County. He was given his draft number and received his call into the service the week before the signing of the armistice. He was also a member of the Red Cross committee and an executive of the executive committee of the local Red Cross chapter and following the war was chairman of the scholarship committee of Kosciusko County for disabled veterans. With his family he belongs to the First Presbyterian Church of Warsaw, and in politics is a Republican. As a fraternalist Mr. Leffel belongs to the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Council and Commandery of Masonry. He is a charter member of the Warsaw Rotary Club; a member of the Warsaw Library Board; a member of the Warsaw Boys Club executive committee; secretary of the Kosciusko County Tuberculosis Association and chairman of the committee to raise funds therefor; a member of the National Education Association and Allied Organizations; a member of the Indiana Historical Society; State Teachers' Association; a member of the City Superintendents Club; chairman for Kosciusko County of the Alumni Association of the University of Indiana, and a member of the Tippecanoe Country Club. His life has been a full and active one and he is well deserving of the honors which he has attained.

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


CHARLES CLIFTON. Four generations of the Clifton family have been identified with the building business in Miami County. No other name has been longer and more favorably known in this field. The work of the present generation in this line is conducted through the organization known as the Clifton Company, at 231 East River Street, Peru. The president of the Company is Mr. Charles Clifton, and one of his associates is his son, who represents the fourth generation of the family in this line of work.

The old courthouse at Peru was an example of the work of the first generation of the family. The contractor for that public building was John Clifton, Sr., who came to Indiana in 1846. In addition to his business as a contractor he was a brick manufacturer. He took an active part in local politics and was a man of high standing. This pioneer contractor had three sons, George, John and Amos, John Clifton, Jr., was born at Dayton, Ohio, and at an early age joined his father in the brick manufacturing and contracting business. He was also a merchant, served as a soldier in the Civil war, and at one time was chairman of the town council of South Peru. He married Melcina Pierce, a native of Peru and of an old Kentucky family. They had three children, Charles, Jessie and Winona.

Charles Clifton was born at Peru, March 5, 1872, attended grammar and high school, and at the age of twenty-one entered his father's business. After the death of his father he carried on the work and in 1928 made his son John an associate in the Clifton Company. This is an organization which during the past twenty years has expanded its facilities to meet the heavy demands upon a reliable firm of contractors. They have erected many public buildings, including public schools, and their list of work also includes many fine homes and commercial structures in Miami and other Indiana counties.

Mr. Charles Clifton is a member of the Peru Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, is a Republican, and during the World war took an active part in assisting in the sale of Liberty Bonds, Savings Stamps and in raising funds for the Red Cross. He is a member of the First Baptist Church, is affiliated with Peru Lodge No. 67, A. F. and A. M., the Royal Arch Chapter, Council and Knights Templar Commandery of Masonry.

He married Miss Myrtle Lucille Lawrence, of Terre Haute, Indiana. They have three children: John Lawrence, who graduated with a degree in civil engineering from the Tri- State College in 1926, and is now associated with his father in business; Alice Adaline, who graduated from Indiana University in 1927, with the degree Bachelor of Arts in journalism; and Mary Magdalene, who was a student in a girls' college at Mount Carroll, Illinois, and now is at Butler College, Indianapolis.

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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


ARCHIE VERL HINES, physician and surgeon at Auburn, is a man of very high standing in his profession and has added new honors to the professional record of a family that has provided service in the medical profession in De Kalb County for many years.

Doctor Hines was born near Auburn, April 16, 1892, son of Dr. Francis Mark Hines. His father was born in Jackson Township, De Kalb County, January 26, 1861, and for upwards of forty years has practiced medicine at Auburn. Dr. F. M. Hines married, March 29, 1885, Lillian Ann Carper, a daughter of John and Sarah (Friedt) Carper. She died March 23, 1928, and is buried at Auburn. The children of these parents were: Ralph, deceased; Dorsey M., also a physician, associated with his father and brother in practice at Auburn; Grace, wife of H. M. Casebeer, of Auburn; Faith, the wife of R. E. Stone, of Evansville, Indiana; Dr. Archie V.; Glen and Lillian Ann, both deceased.

Dr. Archie V. Hines grew up at Auburn, attended the grade and high schools there and at the age of sixteen entered medical college. After completing his college course he served as an intern in Saint Vincent's Hospital at Indianapolis for one year, and then returned to Auburn to become associated with his father and brother in practice. He enlisted and received his commission of first lieutenant in the Medical Corps, September 6, 1917. He was detailed to active duty at Camp Greenleaf, Georgia, March 4, 1918. Then, with the One Hundred Fifty-fifth Infantry, Medical Detachment, he was sent to Camp Beauregard, Louisiana. He went overseas August 20, 1918, landing at Brest. He was in France with different detachments until June 23, 1919, when he returned to the United States and was honorably discharged July 1, 1919, at Camp Grant, Chicago, Illinois. He was promoted to the rank of captain April 3, 1919.

Doctor Hines married, April 9, 1916, Miss Georgia Van Fleit, who was born at Milford, Indiana, but has made her home in Auburn since early girlhood. Doctor and Mrs. Hines are the parents of five children, Arthur Van, Hubert M., Stanley Edmund, David Beecher and John Henry, all of whom comprise the happy and lively household of Doctor and Mrs. Hines at 407 South Main Street in Auburn.

Doctor Hines is a Democrat in politics, and is a member of the Methodist Church while Mrs. Hines is a Presbyterian. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a member of the Rotary Club and the Y. M. C. A. and Country Club, and belongs to the County, Indiana and American Medical Associations. He is a member of the American Legion, DeKalb Post No. 97.

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


ROBERT LEE THORPE, who has made for hiimself a place in South Bend as one of the successful younger business men, is a plumbing and heating contractor, conducting a business under the name Bob Thorpe, at 1811 South Michigan Street.

Mr. Thorpe is a western man by Birth, having been born at Kearney, Nebraska, July 29, 1889. His parents, Elmer and Sarah A. (Tetsert) Thorpe, were born near Dowagiac, Michigan, his father in 1845 and his mother in 1846. They went as pioneers to Nebraska, but in 1905 returned to Michigan and lived at LaGrange, where the mother passed away in 1915. The father is a retired farmer now living at South Bend at the age of eighty-four.

Bob Thorpe attended school in Nebraska and as a youth began his apprenticeship at the plumbing and heating trade. In 1921 he moved to South Bend from Michigan City and in less than ten years has built up a splendid business as a plumbing and heating contractor. He has a fine display room for his fixtures and work shop. Mr. Thorpe is a member of the Indiana Sanitary Engineers Society. He belongs to the Uptown Business Men's Club of South Bend.

He married Miss Lula Mahler, who was born in South Bend. Her mother is Mrs. Edward Mahler and her father is deceased. The two children born to their marriage were: Robert Lee, Jr., deceased, and William Mahler; who was born May 6, 1918, and is attending school.

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


CLAUDE ALPHONSE SAVAGE is a popular physician and surgeon at Fort Wayne, one of the leading younger members of his profession in that city.

He was born at Platteville, Grant County, Wisconsin, May 20, 1893, son of John V. and Theresa (Doyle) Savage. His father was born at Terre Haute, Indiana, but spent the greater part of his life as a farmer and stock feeder in Grant County, Wisconsin, and died at Platteville September 21, 1918. His wife was born at Highland, Wisconsin, and has lived in that state all her life.

Doctor Savage is the youngest of a large family of twelve children, eight of whom are living. His boyhood days were spent in Platteville, where he attended school, later graduated from Columbia College at Dubuque, Iowa, with the A. B. degree, and completed his medical course at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1922. During the World war he was with the Medical Officers Training Corps at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. After service as an interne in the Waverly Hills Hospital of Louisville and the Lutheran Hospital at Fort Wayne, Doctor Savage located permanently in the latter city, and has already won secure prestige as a professional man. He has one of the fine offices in the Medical Arts Building. Doctor Savage is a member of the staff of St. Joseph's Hospital and is a member the Allen County, Indiana State, Tri-State and American Medical Associations.

He married, April 18, 1923, at Fort Wayne, Miss Mary L. Holloway, who was born at Henderrson, Kentucky, daughter of Mr. John Holloway, of that city. Her mother is deceased. They have one son, Paul Joseph, born May 25, 1927. Doctor Savage is a Catholic and a member of the Knights of Columbus and the B. P. O. Elks.

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


EMMET ORVILLE HALL, of Auburn, present United States marshal for the Northern District of Indiana, is a native Indianan, and by profession is a doctor of dental surgery.

Doctor Hall was born at Paoli in Orange County, Indiana, March 2-7, 1882, son of Joseph A. and Mary F. (Apple) Hall. His father is a retired farmer living at Paoli and his mother died October 17, 1926. Their children were: Elmer C., a hardware merchant at Bedford, Indiana; Dr. Emmet O.; Albert R., of Marion, Indiana, member of Congress from the Eleventh Indiana District; H. P. Hall, of East Aurora, New York; Joseph Alford, research chemist with the Duke tobacco interests at Durham, North Carolina; and Lois Hall Bullington of Hardinsburg, Indiana.

Emmet O. Hall attended school in Orange County, including the Paoli High School, and graduated from the School of Dentistry of the University of Indiana class of 1908. He grew up in Orange County, and carried on a successful practice as a dentist until his appointment to the office of United States marshal, since which time he has had his homeat Auburn in DeKalb County.

Hall married, January 21, 1912, at New Albany, Indiana, Miss Hazel Lee, of Angola, daughter of Marion and Margaret (Wood) Lee. Her parents were born in Ohio and her father died June 8, 1920. Her mother resides at Avila, Indiana, and also spends much time with Doctor Hall and family. Doctor Hall has one son, Frederick Lee Hall, born January 7, 1922.

Doctor Hall is a Republican in politics. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church. He is a Royal Arch Mason, member of the Chamber of Commerce, is one of the directors of the Y. M. C. A. and a member of the Country Club. He has a wide acquaintance with public men over the state and is a man of very forceful character.

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


Deb Murray