CHARLES H. HOHLT. It is a matter of marked consistency that in this history of the fine old Hoosier commonwealth are to be found represented many of the sterling citizens who are here upholding the prestige of agricultural and live stock industry in the various counties, and it has been specially gratifying to accord such recognition, for Indiana has ever rested its major claims in development and progress upon these same basic industries, which have not been permitted to fall into decadence or minor importance during all the passing years. In Marion County, in which is situated the City of Indianapolis, Charles H. Hohlt has had secure vantage-ground as a resourceful and substantial exponent of farm enterprise, especially in the field of horticulture and market-gardening, and though he is now living virtually retired he still retains interest in these lines of industry and resides in his attractive rural home on the Bluff Road in Perry Township, about eight miles distant from Indianapolis, and on rural mail route No.4.

Mr. Hohlt has the distinction of being a native of the fine old City of Berlin, Germany, where his birth occurred April 17, 1861, his parents likewise having been born in that district of Germany and the family name of his mother having been Weissen. The father served as a soldier in the German army and participated in wars in which the nation was involved. He sent all of his children to the United States, though he himself continued to reside in his native land until his death.

Charles H. Hohlt is indebted to the excellent schools of Germany for his early educational discipline, and he was a lad of fifteen years when he crossed the Atlantic and disembarked in the port of New York City, where he arrived with a cash capital represented by thirty cents. He thence came directly to Indianapolis, where three of his older brothers had previously established residence, and after thus joining his brothers he soon found employment at Cumberland, Marion County. He next obtained employment in a dairy at Indianapolis, and later he turned his attention to the truck farming business. As an employe in this early period he received eighteen dollars a. month and his board, and with characteristic thrift he saved his earnings. After he had accumulated a reserve of $300 he returned to Germany, his special mission having been one of filial solicitude, as represented in bringing his widowed mother to the land in which he and others of the children had established residence. Thus his mother accompanied him on his return to Indianapolis, where he had previously acquired property and where he gained his initial success of independent order by engaging in the grocery and bakery business, he having had to borrow money to start this enterprise and his early operations having included his peddling of his goods from a push cart, this primitive equipment having been replaced by a wagon after he had contrived to buy an old horse for propelling power. Energy, industry and good management enabled Mr. Hohlt to accord effective service to patrons, and his business expanded in scope and importance. He eventually made advantageous sale of the business and then purchased fifty acres of his present land holdings in Perry Township. Unpropitious conditions later resulted in his loss of this tract, but he rented it from the bank to which it was assigned, and he later purchased other land, this place having a fine quality of gravel and he having developed a prosperous business in selling gravel for use on the roads of the county. Mr. Hohlt has figured successfully also in utilizing his land for farm and gardening purposes, and has proved himself a productive worker within the many years of his residence in Marion County, the while he has ever held a secure place in the confidence and good will of the people of this county, this being notably attested by the fact that he was four times elected road superintendent and that he served fifteen years as a member of the county board of supervisors. He is a Democrat in politics and has always taken loyal interest in community affairs, as shown in his ready support of measures and enterprises tending to advance the civic and material welfare of his home county and state. He and his wife have long been zealous members of the Christian Church of their community, and he gave the ground on which the church building was erected.

August 21 1884, recorded the marriage of Mr. Hohlt to Miss Carrie Cotman, and concerning the children of this union brief record is entered in this concluding paragraph: Herman married Carrie Grinaman and they have four children - Edna, Earl, Herman, Jr., and Louise. Charles married Jeanette Lysart, and they have one child, Richard. Frederick has been twice married, Carl and Edward being the children of the first marriage and Mary the one child of the second union. William and his wife, whose family name was Clauski, have three children. Ernest married Miss Minnie Cousin and they have two children, Ernest, Jr., and Earl. Edward and his wife, Pearl, have two children. Alma is deceased. Leonard was next in order of birth. Freidai is the wife of Frank Geyer.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


JOHN SHARP is an Indiana citizen who has dedicated his most active years to the work of an institution, the Community Service and Memorial Community House at Whiting.

The City of Whiting grew up around the nucleus of the great refineries established by the Standard Oil Company. A number of years ago the company, and John D. Rockefeller and his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., set aside a great fund to be used for the erection of the magnificent building known as the Memorial Community House, which is dedicated to the memory of those who served the nation in the World war. It is a memorial with a vital significance to everyone within the limits of the City of Whiting. It has been described as a "peoples' house of play, friendship and neighborliness," where all, without regard to race, class or creed, may unite on a common platform for "togetherness." The Community Service, expressed through the medium of the building, is more important than the edifice itself. The building, architecturally an adaptation of the Southern Italian style, is a beautiful and inspiring environment for the service to which it is dedicated. The building has three main divisions. There is an auditorium equipped with stage facilities for dramatics, musical entertainments, lectures, motion pictures, the seating capacity being one thousand. Another part of the structure is known as the Men's Department, and the third department is for women. Under one roof are found opportunities for the indulgence of wholesome tastes for a great many forms of recreation, entertainment and instruction. There are billiard room, social and reading rooms, restaurant, swimming pool, gymnasium. On the second floor is the large general club room, the beautiful Memorial Hall, with trophy cases and appropriate mural decorations, and adjacent rooms to be used by the American Legion. The working plan of organization, under the direction of the Community Service Board and director, indicates how fully these magnificent facilities are made use of. There is a department of music and entertainment, the men's and women's departments, all effectively cooperating with the broader cultural and recreational life of the city.

During the first year after the Community House was opened the active manager was Mr. Parkin. He was succeeded by R. J. Schmoyer, who continued to direct the work until 1926, when he was succeeded by John Sharp.

Mr. Sharp was born at Bourbon, Indiana, January 22, 1898. His people were pioneers of Marshall County. His grandfather was an officer in the Union army. Mr. Sharp is a son of Joseph Albert and Elizabeth (Fabin) Sharp. His father was born and reared at Bourbon, and about April, 1898, a few weeks after the birth of his son John, he moved to Whiting, where for a number of years he was with the Standard Oil Company, and for the past ten years has been night superintendent of the paraffin department. Elizabeth Fabin was born and reared at Bourbon. She was a member of the United Brethren Church. She died in 1907, the mother of four children: Mabel wife of Elmer Bauer of Hobart, Indiana; John; Eva, wife of Delbert Vermet, of Hammond; and George, who is connected with the Pan-American Oil Company at Aruba Dutch West Indies. After the death of the mother of these children Joseph A. Sharp married, at Whiting, Miss Clara Kiehm, of Chicago, and they have a daughter, Margaret, who was graduated from the Whiting High School in 1928 and is connected with the Hammond Business College.

John Sharp attended public school at Whiting, graduated from high school in 1916, and in 1917 entered the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute. He left school in January, 1918, to answer the call to the colors. He was at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, for about six weeks at Fort Wadsworth, New York, and went overseas with the Seventieth Artillery Corps, and was in training at the artillery school in France until after the armistice. He was honorably discharged as a sergeant at Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois, in March, 1919.

On his return home Mr. Sharp entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company as a still man. In 1923 his special abilities were recognized when he was transferred to the Community Center Building as director of boys' work. After a year and a half he was put in charge of the Men's Department, and since 1926 has been manager of the Community Service Center.

Mr. Sharp is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club, votes as a Republican, and his religious affiliations are Christian Science. He has always been interested in athletics and has given much of his time to the development of the recreational side of the Community House in its games and contests of various kinds. He plays golf. He is a member of Whiting Post of the American Legion.

Mr. Sharp married at Edwardsville, Illinois, September 4, 1920, Miss Ruth Gladden, daughter of A. E. and Edith (Halsey) Gladden. Her father for many years was with the Standard Oil Company at Whiting and later was transferred to the Wood River plant and established his home at Alton. His wife died about 1920 and is buried at Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Sharp graduated from the Whiting High School in 1917 and then studied in the National Kindergarten College at Chicago. She taught for a year before her marriage. She is a member of the Christian Science Church, the Whiting Woman's Club, the Woman's Auxiliary of the American Legion, and the Beta Gamma sorority. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp have a son, Robert Horace, born March 16, 1923, a student in the public schools.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


CRETH J. LOYD is president of C. J. Loyd & Company, of Greensburg. This company is known allover Decatur and adjoining counties as one of the largest and most complete organizations for handling poultry and eggs in Southern Indiana. It is a business of long standing and Mr. Loyd has been identified with it since boyhood.

He was born at Greensburg, December 4, 1872, son of Joseph H. Loyd and grandson of Creth J. Loyd. His grandfather, a native of Kentucky, came to Decatur County, Indiana, in the early 1830s with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Loyd. Creth J. Loyd spent most of his life at Greensburg. He was a plasterer by trade, and during the season of the year when there was no work in that line he carried on a produce business. Creth J. Loyd was twice married.

Joseph H. Loyd was a soldier in the Seventh Indiana Infantry during the Civil war. He was born in Decatur County and was engaged in the produce business now known as C. J. Loyd & Company. He was influential in politics and a lifetime Republican. He married Margaret E. Mowrer, of Cincinnati, whose parents moved to Indiana before the Civil war.

Creth J. Loyd, only child of his parents, attended the grade schools of Greensburg. When only fifteen years of age he became associated on terms of partnership with his father, Joseph H. Loyd, who was popularly known as H. Loyd. The business was established in a small room located on East Main Street. The business then consisted of the purchase of poultry from nearby territory and shipping to the best markets available. The firm name was H. Loyd & Son until 1892. In that year Mr. Zoller bought the interest of Joseph H. Loyd, and the firm became Loyd & Zoller, at which time they moved to larger quarters, at Gibson and Cooper streets. In 1895 Creth J. Loyd acquired the interest of Mr. Zoller, and then took in as a partner his father-in-law, William Brune, under the firm style of C. J. Loyd & Company. Mr. Brune after two years retired from active participation in the business. Since 1897 the business has been C. J. Loyd & Company, individually owned by Mr. Creth J. Loyd. In 1921 they erected their modern plant, which they have occupied for ten years. It is one of the most modern owned by any produce firm in Southern Indiana. On January 1, 1929, the business was incorporated, at which time Mr. Loyd's three sons came into the firm.

C. J. Loyd & Company today have a model organization and plant. The plant affords 38,000 square feet of floor space and a new fireproof building provides accommodation for refrigeration storage. An average of eighty persons are employed in the various departments of the business. They handle annually several million pounds of poultry and approximately 1,600,000 dozens of eggs. Shipments are made by carload lots to the New York, New Jersey and Boston markets. A private track gives them facilities for loading cars directly from the storage warehouse. In addition to the main plant at Greensburg fourteen branch buying stations are operated over a radius of thirty- five miles around Greensburg. Mr. Loyd is a director of the Citizens Third National Bank of Greensburg, the oldest bank in Decatur County. He is president of the board of trustees of Memorial Hospital and has been a generous citizen in his support of all worthy activities. He was especially identified with the wartime program in the various drives. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, B. P. O. Elks, Fraternal Order of Eagles, Improved Order of Red Men and Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Loyd since early manhood has participated in social and civic endeavors at Greensburg. As a man he is unassuming, direct, exact, and sticks to the point in all his dealings, and has the confidence of his thousands of patrons because of his reputation for fair dealing. Mr. and Mrs. Loyd and their daughter are members of the Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Loyd married Miss Minnie Brune, who was born in Decatur County. They have four children: Frank L., secretary of C. J. Loyd & Company, married Kathleen Stier, of Greensburg, and they have a daughter, Susan Marie; John C. Loyd, treasurer of the company, married Rose Stier, a sister of Kathleen, and their two children are Margaret Jean and William Viets. Arthur C. Loyd, vice president of the company, married Martha Crawford, and has two children, named Creth J. and Donald Jean. The only daughter, Mary Jessie, is the wife of Milton McDonald, and they have a daughter, Ruth Ann, and a son, Robert Loyd. Their home is in Indianapolis, where Mr. McDonald is employed by the Eli Lilly Company, chemists.

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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


WESLEY L. THARP has been a resident of Whiting for many years and in that city has found opportunities for a successful business career. He is a merchant at the corner of One Hundred and Nineteenth Street and Indiana Boulevard.

Mr. Tharp was born in Perry County, Ohio, June 22, 1874, son of David A. and Sarah E. (Sanders) Tharp. His parents were also born and reared in that Ohio county and attended public school there. In 1877, when Wesley L. was three years of age, the family came to Indiana, but after two years returned to Ohio. In 1885 they made another move, to a farm in Kansas, where they lived three years. The parents then returned to Perry County, Ohio, where they lived out the rest of their lives. David Tharp was a farmer and coal miner, and he and his wife were members of the Christian Church. He died in 1920 and his wife in 1927. They are buried in the cemetery at Hemlock, Ohio. Of their ten children three died in infancy. Addie, who died in 1930, was the wife of Harry Betts. The living children are: Wesley L., Eldon, Chester, Homer D;, Laura, wife of Bernard Hodgens, and Harry, all of whom live at Hemlock, Ohio.

Wesley L. Tharp received his early schooling in Hemlock, Ohio, and Kansas. He worked as a coal miner for several years. It was in 1898, when he was twenty-four years of age, that he came to Whiting. During the next five years he clerked in a grocery store and then for seven years was an employee of the Standard Oil Company. Since 1910, for over twenty years, he has been in the grocery business. At first he was in partnership with H. M. Atkin. In 1918 they took in another partner, George W. Johnson, who had just returned from service as a soldier in the World war. In 1929 Mr. Tharp acquired the interest of his two partners in the grocery business, but all of them still own the building in which the store is conducted. Mr. Tharp has supplied groceries and meats to a large community of Whiting for over twenty years. He also owns other business and residence property. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and for some years was active in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Though he has the name of the great founder of Methodism, he has always been a faithful member of the Christian Church and has been a trustee and elder in the First Christian Church of Whiting and superintendent of the Sunday School. His recreation is motoring trips.

Mr. Tharp married, September 26, 1900, at West Pullman, Illinois, Miss Anna Maude Johnson, daughter of Amos and Margaret (Phillips) Johnson. Her father spent thirty-five years in the service of the Standard Oil Company. He started at Cleveland, Ohio, and when the great refining plant was established at Whiting he was transferred there and was with the company until his death in 1912. His wife died in 1923 and both are buried in a cemetery at Hammond. Mrs. Tharp attended public schools at Whiting. She is a member of the Christian Church, the Rebekahs, the Maccabees and the Woman's Club. To their marriage were born eight children. Twins died in infancy. The living children are: Helen Margaret, Clara Evelyn, David Amos, Olive Jean, Katherine Joyce and Wesley Leon, Jr. The three oldest are all graduates of the Whiting High School. Helen was graduated from the Columbia School of Expression and Physical Education at Chicago, and Clara Evelyn from the National Kindergarten College at Chicago, and both taught before their marriage. Helen is the wife of Phillip L. Krauel, who is with the engineering department of the Standard Oil Company, and their two children are Phillip David and Robert William. Clara Evelyn is the wife of Dr. B. B. Reeve, industrial physician and surgeon at Whiting for the Standard Oil Company. They also have two children, Esther Ruth and Brice B., Jr. David Tharp spent one year in DePauw University and is now with his father in business. He is unmarried. Olive Jean is a member of the class of 1933 in the Whiting High School, Katherine Joyce is in grade school, and Wesley is a kindergarten pupil.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


RICHARD GORDON ARNER, assistant superintendent of the Sinclair Refining Company at East Chicago, is a native of Pennsylvania, and his mother was born at the pioneer center of petroleum production, Oil City, where her family were among the first settlers.

The Arner family have lived in Pennsylvania for generations. His great-grandfather Abner lived in Northampton County and later went to Clarion County, where he and his wife are buried. Mr. Arners' grandfather, John W. Arner, was one of the early business men at Rimersburg, Clarion County. At that time in the absence of railroads all goods were brought in wagons across the mountains. L. P. Arner, father of. Richard G., was born at Charleston, South Carolina, but spent most of his life in Rimersburg, Pennsylvania. He attended the Clarion Collegiate Institute there and after completing his education he and his brother, J. W. Arner, entered the mercantile business. He was in business until he retired in 1927, and he died September 20, 1930. He took an active interest in politics and for three sessions served as a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature. He was a Mason and both he and his wife were active in the Dutch Reformed Church.

L. P. Arner married May L. Martin, who was born and reared in Oil City. She resides at Rimersburg.

Richard G. Arner, the only child of his parents, was born at Rimersburg, March 3, 1892. Not long ago his fellow Kiwanians put him on the program to deliver a sketch of his own life, and in this situation, so embarrassing to his natural modesty, he gave an autobiography that is very interesting reading to his friends and acquaintances. He states that in honor of his birth his father passed out Pennsylvania "Stogies" to all the male customers at the store in Rimersburg. He describes himself as a "Main Street" boy, getting his early education in the public schools at Rimersburg and in 1910 graduating from the preparatory school known as Washington and Jefferson Academy, at Washington, Pennsylvania. The following summer, he says, "was spent in reading catalogues from various colleges and universities. After careful study of the football records of these institutions, I decided the University of Michigan looked most promising, and the next fall found me at Ann Arbor." After four years he was graduated, in 1915, with the Bachelor of Science degree, and then spent a year in post-graduate work in oil chemistry at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York. For a short time he was with the Fred C. Arner Chemical Company at Buffalo and from there went south to Port Arthur, Texas, where he became chemist for the Gulf Refining Company and later was promoted to assistant chief chemist. He spent three years at Port Arthur, and while there participated in the various war drives. Returning north in 1918, he was for two years chief chemist for the Canfield Oil Company at Cleveland, and in 1920 joined the great Sinclair organization, becoming assistant chief chemist at East Chicago, and since 1923 has been assistant superintendent of the refinery. His associates know that he has been very successful in his chosen vocation, and in his autobiography he said: "Life has been kind to me, as I find there has been more 'ups' than 'downs.' "

He has found various opportunities to express his social and civic spirit. He is a member of the East Chicago Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club, Whiting Lodge of Masons, Woodmar Country Club, the Chi Phi fraternity. He votes independently and is a member of the First Presbyterian Church.

At Rimersburg, Pennsylvania, April 26, 1916, shortly after beginning his career as a chemist, he married Miss Helen Craig, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Craig, of Rimersburg. Her father for many years was a general merchant there, but since 1926 has lived retired. Mrs. Arner was educated in the schools of Rimersburg, graduating from high school in 1912, and in 1914 from the Washington Seminary. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church and various woman's organizations at Whiting, where they have their home. Mr. and Mrs. Arner spend their summer vacations on Lake St. Germaine, Wisconsin, where they have a summer camp. Their two daughters are Helen Louise and Janet, Helen being a student in the Junior High School at Whiting and Janet in grammar school.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


HENRY C. TEETOR, of Hagerstown, had an interesting range of accomplishments, and his home people esteemed him both for what he did and for what he was. His death occurred April 14, 1930.

Mr. Teetor was born at the old Teetor Mill in Jefferson Township, Wayne County, July 25, 1862, a son of Zachariah and Barbara (Hoover) Teetor, and grandson of Abraham and Elizabeth (Ulrich) Teetor. His grandparents were born in Pennsylvania and came to Wayne County at an early day. The family name in the old country was Deitrich. After coming to America they changed it to Deetor. Grandfather Abraham Teetor in taking up Government land in Wayne County gave his name as Teetor, and that spelling has been retained ever since. Zachariah Teetor was born in Jefferson Township, Wayne County, and his wife, Barbara Hoover, was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of George B. and Hannah (Dilling) Hoover. Zachariah Teetor was a farmer and after his marriage conducted saw mills and flouring mills. After 1893 he gave up milling and spent most of his time as a mechanic, doing work as a millwright, and also worked in a bicycle factory. He died in 1906 and his wife in 1884. Their eight children included: John H., of Hagerstown; Henry C., deceased; Mary E.; wife of Henry W. Keagy, of Hagerstown; Sarah Elizabeth, deceased; Charles N., of Hagerstown; Joseph C., of Hagerstown; Emma Frances, deceased; and Benjamin Franklin, of Hagerstown.

Henry C. Teetor attended the Teetor School near the old home and learned the trade of carriage making and general repair work at Moreland, Indiana. After four years he went to Newcastle, Indiana, and for a year did carriage work, and saved three hundred dollars out of his yearly income of six hundred dollars. On coming to Hagerstown he took up insurance and with his brother John also conducted a shop for the making and repairing of bicycles. He and his brothers, John, Charles and Joseph, were in the grain elevator business. After seven years he sold out and turned his attention to the trade of millwright. In 1902 he and his brothers, John, Charles and Joseph, bought the George Dick Mill, and he was its manager for three and a half years. Then followed another period of work as a millwright, and this trade he afterward pursued to some extent. He was one of the founders of the Teetor-Hartley Inspection Car Company, now known as the Perfect Circle Piston Ring Company, a big industry, manufacturing piston rings for gasoline power engines for automobiles and aeroplanes. Mr. Teetor was one of the directors of this industry, but sold his interests in June, 1928. He continued a stockholder in two grain elevators and was a stockholder in the Union Trust Company of Hagerstown and in the Farmers & First National Bank of Newcastle.

Mr. Teetor all his life enjoyed working in wood and was a master of the art. For years as a sideline he made violins, and had a splendid collection of violins, including several rare instruments. He was a member of the Christian Church and when the church at Hagerstown was rebuilt, in 1926, he was a contributor to its rebuilding and put in the new pipe organ as a memorial to his family. He was a Republican, filled all the chairs in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge and Encampment and was a member of the Masonic fraternity and Knights of Pythias.

Mr. Teetor married, August 11, 1883, Miss Josephine Wright, who was born near Moreland, Indiana, and died January 29, 1911. She was a daughter of Thomas and Rebecca (Pollard) Wright, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Wayne County, Indiana. Mr. Teetor had one daughter, Mabel Clair, who is the wife of Leslie B. Davis, and they have one daughter, Josephine Frances, born February 25, 1912, now attending Penn Hall, a private school at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


Deb Murray