Mr. Keltner was born in the village of West Baltimore, now Verona, in Preble County, Ohio. His ancestors were sturdy, substantial people who did a great deal of pioneering in Ohio and other states. His great-grandfather was Michael Keltner, a native of Germany, who spelled his name Kelchner. He joined the colony of Pennsylvania Germans, and at the time of Revolutionary war was a member of Captain Shade's Company, First Pennsylvania Rifles, under Colonel Miles. A son of this Revolutionary soldier was Henry Keltner, who moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio. He walked all of the way, with a rifle on his shoulder, while his wife rode horseback, carrying a child in her arms. Their first destination was the village of Dayton, and his wife lived there in a tent for some days while he prospected over the country looking for a permanent location. There was a great abundance of Government land available and he selected a claim eighteen miles northwest of Dayton, in Preble County. On this he built his log house, and from year to year increased the area in cultivation. His nearest market was Dayton, and the only way of reaching that town was by wagon and team. Henry Keltner married Catherine Wert, also a native of Pennsylvania. Her father, Peter Wert, was also of German ancestry. He went to Ohio and settled in Preble County, improving a farm, and occupied it until his death at the age of ninety-four. Peter Wert's wife was Mary Akeman, who was born in Pennsylvania, of German lineage.
One of the thirteen children of Henry Keltner and wife was Joseph C. Keltner, who was born at Dayton, Ohio, September 11, 1817. He had the advantage of the pioneer schools, but due to his thirst for knowledge he acquired a better than ordinary education and became an excellent penman and had a considerable knowledge of law and was frequently called upon to write deeds and wills. He was trained to the vigorous life of the frontier, and he started his own career as a carpenter, later, in 1866, purchasing land three miles east of Greenville in Darke County. This land was in the heavy timber and his first task was to cut away trees from a space on which to put up his house. In 1867 he disposed of this property and moved to Kosciusko County, Indiana, where he made a living for his family at the carpenter's trade. In 1876 he came to Anderson, and was a carpenter the rest of his active life. He lived to be ninety-three years of age. He was reared in the faith of the United Brethren Church and later joined the Methodist Church at Anderson. He served as superintendent of the Sunday School. Joseph C. Keltner was three times married. By his first marriage there were four children: Mary Ann, Eliza, Levi P. and Samuel C. His second wife was Rachael Paulus, who was born in a log cabin near West Baltimore in Preble County, Ohio, in 1832. Her father, Daniel Paulus, was born in Maryland, in 1807, son of Abraham Paulus, who probably came from Germany. He lived in Maryland, and finally pioneered to Preble County, Ohio, getting his Government land a short distance west of the present site of Verona. There he began the task of clearing up a farm, and lived there until his death. His son, Daniel Paulus, was an infant when the family came to Ohio. As soon as he had attained the years and the strength he was inducted into the responsibilities and labors of a frontier farm, and subsequently he bought 160 acres a mile and a half north of Verona, on which he built a log house. There he lived until 1862, when he sold and moved to Champaign County, Illinois. In what is now the center of the corn belt he bought 160 acres of prairie farm, fifteen miles west of Urbana. This land was completely level and undrained, and he and his family were subject to the fevers so prevalent in that country at the time, and consequently he soon sold out and returned to Ohio, settling three miles east of Greenville in Darke County. This land he sold in 1870, and, coming to Indiana, bought a farm about four miles west of Union City. Here he resided until his death at the age of ninety-six. Daniel Paulus married, Lucy Treon, whose father, John Treon, was born in France, and on coming to the United States joined his brother in Dayton, Ohio. This brother was a physician and practiced in Western Ohio for upwards of seventy years. John Treon married a Miss Brubaker. Rachael (Paulus) Keltner, daughter of Daniel Paulus and Lucy Treon-Brubaker, died July 20, 1867, when thirty-five years of age. She was the mother of two children, Sanford M. and Francis M.
The third wife of Joseph C. Keltner was Hester Moser, who died in Anderson, Indiana.
Sanford M. Keltner grew up in the several localities where his father had his home during his youth. He attended a rural school a mile west of West Baltimore, also another school near Greenville, and after his mother's death he went to live with a farmer named James P. Burgess, three miles west of Richmond, Indiana. He worked on the Burgess farm and also attended school. In 1872 he entered high school at Pierceton, Kosciusko County, Indiana, and when sixteen and a half years of age started out to get an opportunity to teach. The first school he applied for was refused him because the trustees were not impressed by his boyish appearance. On walking back to Warsaw he attended a meeting of trustees from several townships. The discussion was regarding teachers' qualifications, and a Mr. Deaton made the remark that he could tell a good teacher by looking at him. He then pointed to the youthful Keltner, who had just arrived, and said: "There is a boy who can teach." Mr. Keltner immediately arose and thanked Mr. Deaton, and when the latter inquired if he was looking for a school he said he was, and Mr. Deaton at once agreed to pay him $1.60 a day for teaching in a district. The bargain was made and after getting a place to board he taught a term of eighteen weeks. He then called on Mr. Deaton for a settlement and Mr. Deaton recalled that he had agreed to pay him $1.60 a day, and that was of course Mr. Keltner's understanding, too. But Mr. Deaton said that he had done better than any other teacher in the township, and since he was paying the best teachers two dollars a day, he intended to give Mr. Keltner that sum. Mr. Keltner also had another surprise when he paid his bill for board and lodging. He had not inquired as to the rate, and found that he had been charged only two dollars a week. Having saved something out of his earnings, he then entered the Indiana State Normal at Terre Haute, where he spent two years. In 1878 he became principal of a school at Walton in Cass County, remaining there three years, and in 1881 came to Anderson as principal of the Seventh Street School, at fifty dollars a month. The second year he was in charge of the Main Street School, holding that position two years.
While teaching he took up the study of law in the office of Robinson and Lovett, was admitted to the bar in 1886 and then joined his preceptors in the firm of Robinson, Lovett & Keltner. When Mr. Robinson went on the Appellate bench he and Mr. Lovett continued the practice for five years. After the retirement of Mr. Lovett, Mr. Keltner was a partner in the firm of Chapman, Keltner & Hender, a prominent law firm of Anderson, from June 1, 1893, until June 1, 1910. At the latter date Mr. Keltner was elected president of the Anderson Trust Company, and during the next seventeen years he gave all his time and energies to the banking business. Since 1927 he has been engaged in a general law practice, and is now the senior member of the law firm of Keltner, Mays & Johnson.
Mr. Keltner was for eighteen years a member of the Anderson board of education and for three and a half years was a member of the board of public works, during the term of Mayor John H. Terhune. In 1917 Governor Goodrich appointed him a member of the board of trustees of the Indiana State Normal School, including what is now the Ball State Teachers College at Muncie, as well as the Normal at Terre Haute. He was reappointed by Governor McCray, again by Governor Jackson and again by Governor Leslie, and in 1918 was elected president of the board, an office he continues to hold.
Mr. Keltner married, October 20, 1886, Miss Alice May Cockefair. She was born in Union County, Indiana, a descendant of Thomas Cockefair, a lifelong resident of Hempstead, Long Island. His son, Elisha Cockefair, was born in Hempstead and came to Indiana at a very early day, settling on the line between Union and Fayette counties. He acquired a large tract of land and developed the power of a stream of water flowing through it. This water power he used to operate the machinery of the first woolen mill in that section of the state. From clay on his land he burned brick for the erection of a commodious house, which continued in the ownership of Mrs. Keltner and is occupied by her daughter, Mrs. Charles W. Masters, and family. This house is situated a short distance from the Union and Fayette counties line. It was the home of her grandparents until their death. Mrs. Keltner's father succeeded to the ownership of the old homestead and the mill and continued the operation of the mill for several years. Most of his energies, however, were taken up with the management of his extensive farms, aggregating about two thousand acres. He lived at the old brick house until his death at the age of eighty years. Mrs. Keltner's mother, Mary Ann Brookbank, was born on a farm about three miles east of Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana. Her father, Henry Brookbank, was a native of Virginia and one of the first permanent settlers in Fayette County, Indiana, where he became a large land owner. Henry Brookbank married Lucinda Corbin.
Mr. and Mrs. Keltner had two daughters, Ruth and Mary. Ruth is the wife of Charles W. Masters, and their daughter, Mary Alice, now represents the fifth generation in the brick house in Fayette County. Mrs. Keltner died December 5, 1930.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
EUGENE C. SHIREMAN, who maintains his residence and business headquarters at Martinsville, Morgan County, is a lawyer by profession, but his major success and prestige have been won in connection with business enterprises of important scope. He now has the distinction of being president of Grassy Fork Fisheries, Inc., a unique Indiana corporation that figures as the world's largest concern engaged in the propagating and raising of gold fish. The extensive and finely improved propagating plants of this corporation are all established in Morgan County, and the incidental prestige and success that have been gained by the president of this corporation are the more gratifying to contemplate in view of the fact that he was born and reared in Morgan County and is a scion of one of its honored pioneer families.
Eugene C. Shireman was born in Morgan County on the 13th of September, 1875, and is a son of Henry and Maria (DeTurk) Shireman, the former of whom was born in North Carolina and the latter near Reading, Pennsylvania. The parents of Mr. Shireman passed the greater part of their lives in Morgan County, where the father was long and successfully engaged in farm enterprise, he having died in 1897 and his widow having passed away in 1916. Mrs. Shireman was a daughter of Isaac DeTurk, who came to Indiana from Pennsylvania about the year 1833, the overland journey having been made with team and covered wagon. The family remained for a time in Indianapolis, where Mr. DeTurk had expected to establish residence, but he finally came to Morgan County and purchased a large tract of land near the present thriving little City of Martinsville. After his marriage Henry Shireman established a home on farm land near Martinsville, but later he removed to a neighboring tract, on higher elevation. His original habitation was a pioneer log house, and this continued the family domicile until he erected the substantial brick house that is still standing and that is in an excellent state of preservation, all brick and other materials for this house having been hauled overland from Indianapolis, and Mr.Shireman having in the early days diversified his activities by making several voyages on flatboats to New Orleans - down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
After completing his high school course Eugene C. Shireman entered DePauw University, and in this fine Indiana institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1898 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He studied law and gained admission to the bar of his native state, his acquirements having been put to practical application in his service of two years as deputy prosecuting attorney of Morgan County. After devoting two years to the private practice of law at Martinsville, Mr. Shireman purchased, in association with his brother Max, the plant and business of the Old Hickory Chair Company. With the conducting of this enterprise he continued to be actively associated until 1912, when the business was sold. Within a short time thereafter Mr. Shireman went to Brownsville, Texas, and in that Lower Rio Grande section of th Lone Star State he purchased and developed 25,000 acres of land, besides supervising the installation of its irrigation system. His activities in this connection were continued about three years, and in 1900 he became interested in the raising gold fish of the finer varieties, his scientific and progressive policies having been so directed that in his native county has been developed under his direction the largest gold-fish hatchery in the entire world. The Grassy Fork Fisheries has developed in Morgan County eight plants for the raising of gold fish, and the water area utilized covers about 240 acres. Here the annual product has now attained to an average of about 8,000,000 fish, and as the trade extends into all sections of the Union the enterprise has become one of importance as touching the industrial and commercial prestige not only of Morgan County but also of the State of Indiana as a whole. By Governor Ralston Mr. Shireman was appointed fish and game commissioner of Indiana, and he was reappointed under Governor Goodrich, his entire period of service having covered five years and having extended until a change in the state law brought about a different arrangement in the control of this phase of government. Thus Mr. Shireman was the last to hold the position of state fish and game commissioner.
Mr. Shireman has made a record of loyal activity in advancing the cause of the Democratic party in his native county, and when he was twenty-one years of age he served as a member of the Democratic committee of Morgan County, besides having the distinction of being chosen its chairman. He and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of their home community, and he is a member of its board of stewards. He is affiliated with Beta Theta Phi college fraternity, and he is vice president of the Inland Bank & Trust Company of Indianapolis. His home, one of the most attractive in the City of Martinsville, is at 590 East Washington Street.
The year 1905 recorded the marriage of Mr. Shireman to Miss Mary Louise Harrison, who was born at Lebanon, Boone County, this state, and who is a daughter of Robert W. and Phoebe (Cook) Harrison, the former of whom was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, and the latter at Balston Spa, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Shireman have no children.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
DEWITT CLINTON AMERINE, of Vincennes, spent over forty years of an active life in the paper industry. His assets at the beginning were an ability to work hard, perseverance, an ambition for accomplishment, and he rose steadily from the lowest rungs on the ladder to the presidency of the Indiana Board & Filler Company, which was one of the largest constituents in the recent merger of similar plants now comprising a national group of industries known as the Central Fiber Products Company.
The birth of DeWitt Clinton Amerine occurred at Piqua, Ohio, August 30, 1872. He was the oldest of the seven children of Isaiah and Matilda (Regan) Amerine. His parents were Ohio farmers. Mr. Amerine had but limited opportunities to secure an education, and became self supporting at the age of sixteen. However, education is not merely a matter of attending school, but of possessing an ever alert mind and incorporating the items of daily experience into an ever widening knowledge and wisdom. Mr. Amerine has found in the course of a busy experience contacts that have not only made the world an interesting place, but have increased his individual opportunities for service to others. His first opportunity in the business world was given him at the Piqua Strawboard Mills, where for two years he was employed as cutter boy. This is the lowest job in strawboard manufacture. At the age of eighteen he became an employee of the Diamond Match Company of Wabash, Indiana. This plant later became the property of the United Paper Board Company. Here he held the second position in the industry, that of back tender. Later he returned to Piqua to take a similar position in the mills there, and remained with his old company until a new strawboard company was organized with Piqua capital. This company erected a plant at Carthage in Rush County, Indiana, where he was transferred, also as back tender. The work of this job is exacting and until a man has spent several years at it he is not eligible for promotion. The skill required in the work was only a stimulus to the ambition of Mr. Amerine, who at that time had determined to master every successive branch of the industry. At the same time he utilized his night hours and other moments of leisure, studying books and also learning from his superiors.
By the time he reached the age of twenty- two he decided that he possessed enough practical and general knowledge to operate a paper machine and to be known in the business as a "paper maker." After considerable correspondence with mills in the Central States he was awarded the position he desired with the mill of the American Strawboard Company at Kokomo. The superintendent of this plant was at that time William Burt, one of the old-school operators of the Miami Valley. Like other youths of his age, Mr. Amerine thought he was fully competent, though he realized that he had not yet attained full proficiency. However, he possessed energy and ambition and a personality that enabled him to convince his superiors that he was just the man for the place. When the plant was closed down on account of the failure of natural gas in the Kokomo territory Mr. Amerine returned to the Carthage mill to take a place as paper maker. From there he went to Eaton, Indiana, to join the Paragon Paper Company, a property owned by Fort Wayne capital. This company, holding other property, had occasion to change the superintendent from the Eaton mill to the Hartford City mill. This change opened the way for Mr. Amerine to secure his first position as superintendent of a strawboard mill. The company solicited his services to fill the vacancy, and while duly grateful for the opportunity, he felt that he had earned the advancement by his steadfast application to every step of progress he had made. Energy and determination carried him through the rugged spots in his new position. About that time occurred a consolidation of many strawboard mills located throughout the Central States, which merged into what was then known as the United Boxboard & Paper Company, but today is the United Paperboard Company, with offices in New York City. With the consummation of this consolidation Mr. Amerine was transferred as superintendent of the United Paper Board Company's plant at Urbana, Ohio. This was in the nature of a promotion, and again Mr. Amerine was called upon to face many new problems, all of which he solved and also made a number of new friends who were of great value to him in after years.
The new corporation had a contract with the Urbana Egg Case & Filler Company, which threw Mr. Amerine into close touch with the manager, Harrison Craig. About this time the Urbana Egg Case Company decided that expansion of their business could be brought about through controlling their own supply of strawboard. Mr. Amerine understanding the details of strawboard manufacture, was induced to invest his savings in the Urbana Egg Case Company, with the understanding that he could handle the combined business of production of the strawboard and the fillers. This understanding was not carried out. Consequently, in 1911 he sold his holdings and became one of the original stockholders of the Indiana Board & Filler Company, organized in that year, with W. D. Coil, president and general manager; Mr. Amerine, vice president and production manager; W. A. Veats, secretary and sales manager, and S. B. Fleming, treasurer. In 1922 W. D. Coil was elected chairman of the board of directors, and Mr. Amerine was elected president and general manager; W. A Veats, vice president and sales manager; and Frank Hecker, treasurer, Mr. Fleming, the treasurer, having resigned.
At the inception the Indiana Board & Filler Company had factories at Decatur, Yorkton, Evansville and Vincennes, Indiana, the largest plant of the company being at Vincennes, to which point Mr. Amerine then transferred his home and citizenship. For nearly twenty years after its organization the company did an extensive business, distributing its products from the lakes to the gulf, the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean. The company bought the plant of the Urbana Egg Case Company, the Baker Egg Case Company, also at Urbana, the strawboard mills and filler business of the Decatur Egg Case Company at Marion and Delphi, Indiana, and property at Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, for distribution of products. The company manufactured strawboard which is converted into egg case fillers, this production consuming seventy-five per cent of the strawboard manufactured, while the rest was sold to other concerns having need of it.
The business of the Indiana Board & Filler Company became affected by the same conditions that brought a lull throughout the industrial world in 1930. During that year, as a result of conferences called by heads of this and other companies manufacturing the same product, a merger materialized. All the mills and assets and properties of the Indiana Board & Filler Company have been consolidated with what is known as the Central Fiber Products Company, with main offices in the Produce Building at Chicago.
Since the merger was accomplished Mr. Amerine, believing that forty-three years in the paper business constituted more than a normal lifetime of devotion to one line, has not taken any part in the active management of the new organization. However, his energetic disposition and dynamic personality are not content with idling his time away. He finds work in the management of his personal investments which have been made over a long period of years, and in particular he has found time to express in larger measure the impulses for generous action in public spirited causes in his home city.
During the World war period Mr. Amerine took a leading part in the Liberty Loan drives. His home city being one of the historical centers of the nation, Mr. Amerine takes an active part and is a director in the newly organized Old Post Historical Association, being a charter member with a life's time certificate. During 1928-29 he was president of the Vincennes Chamber of Commerce and still retains membership in that organization. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masons and Elks. In politics he is independent, voting for the man he thinks best suited for office.
On November 30, 1895, Mr. Amerine married, at Carthage, Indiana Miss Blanche Catlin, of Manilla, Rush County, Indiana. Mrs. Amerine is a daughter of Charles and Margaret (Lewis) Catlin, her father a native of New York State and her mother of North Carolina, who came to Rush County at the close of the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Amerine have one daughter, Gladys Margaret. She at was born at Marion, Indiana, August 12, 1899, was educated in the public schools of Ohio and her native state, and has two degrees, A. B. and B. M., from DePauw University. Gladys Margaret Amerine was married to Harry F. Crook. Mr. Crook attended public schools in Indiana and finished his education in the University of Illinois and University of Pennsylvania. He served in France as a soldier during the World war. He equipped himself for the profession of horticulture, and is successfully identified with that work, operating the fruit farm known as "Magnolia Place” in Knox County, Indiana, three miles east of Vincennes, off U. S. Highway No. 50. Mr. and Mrs. Crook have twin children, Kenneth Amerine and Carol Amerine Crook.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
GURNEY CHAPPELL and family occupy one of the largest and best improved farms in Tippecanoe County, located in Union Township four miles southeast of Shadeland.
Mr. Chappell is of French Huguenot ancestry. He was born in Rush County, Indiana, October 18, 1865, son of John and Eliza (Patterson) Chappell. His father was born in Eastern North Carolina, was of a Quaker family, and it was his opposition to the institution of slavery that caused him when a young man, in 1859, to follow the example of many thousands of Quakers in Western North Carolina and come to Indiana. He worked as a farm hand, and later became an independent farmer. He and his wife had five children: Mrs. Ella Sleeper, Gurney, Charles C., Anna, deceased, and Ray, deceased.
Gurney Chappell was educated in the schools of Rush County, finishing in the Farmers Institute Academy. He has been a practical farmer all his life, and now looks after the management of the farm of 900 acres.
Mr. Chappell married in 1905 Miss Mary E. Windle, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Sleeper) Windle. Isaac Windle was born in Pennsylvania, son of Job and Mary (Evans) Windle. His ancestor settled in Pennsylvania in 1649. Isaac Windle moved to Tippecanoe County in 1861. His wife, Mary Sleeper, was a member of an old and prominent Quaker family of Indiana. Her parents were Buddell and Elizabeth (Welch) Sleeper. Buddell Sleeper was born in 1806, moved west to Springfield, Ohio, and in 1835 arrived in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, where he and his brother acquired 1,100 acres. They also owned other land in Iowa. Mrs. Chappell attended country schools and after finishing the high school course attended Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Chappell have one son, Charles G., a graduate of the Lafayette High School. Both Mr. and Mrs. Chappell are active members of the Friends Church and are well known in Lafayette.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
GEORGE K. THROCKMORTON as a physician and surgeon has practiced his profession in Lafayette forty-three years. His best distinction consists in the quiet and efficient work he has done from day to day and year to year, and no one is held in more honor in his profession in that community.
Doctor Throckmorton was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, April 1, 1862. His father, Edmund Throckmorton, was a native of Romney, West Virginia, and came to Indiana in 1838. In 1842 he and a brother founded a new town in Tippecanoe County, naming it Romney in honor of their old home in West Virginia. Edmund Throckmorton throughout his active career was a farmer. He married Elizabeth DeVault, a native of Ohio and daughter of Lemuel DeVault.
Doctor Throckmorton was one of four children. While on the farm with his parents he attended country schools and then entered Purdue University at Lafayette, where he took his Bachelor of Science degree in 1883. Doctor Throckmorton went to Chicago to study medicine in Rush Medical College, now the medical department of the University of Chicago, and was graduated M. D. in 1887. With this preparation he returned to Lafayette, and there has been no important break in his professional services down to the present time. Doctor Throckmorton was for five years secretary of the county board of health, served as county coroner two years and is a member of St. Elizabeth and the Home Hospitals staffs. He has been honored with the office of president of the Tippecanoe County Medical Society and is a member of the Indiana State and American Medical Associations. He is the only representative of his profession in Tippecanoe County who is a charter member of the American College of Surgeons, and he was the first to perform the delicate operation of abdominal surgery in this section of the state. During the World war Doctor Throckmorton did work as a contract surgeon at Purdue University. He is a director of the Lafayette Loan & Trust Company and of the Lafayette Joint Stock Land Bank. He is a Rotarian and a member of the Central Presbyterian Church.
Doctor Throckmorton married Rosalie Renhardt, who was born in Lafayette. Their only child, Georgia Rosalie, who died in 1926, was a graduate of Purdue University.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
