CAPT. CHARLES R. BOWERS, manager of the Shockley Flying Service at South Bend, has been dominated by the fascination of flying since early youth. He is completely at home with every sort of motor mechanism, and has been flying since the early days of practical aviation.

Captain Bowers was born at Saint Joseph, Illinois, September 10, 1891, son of Frank C. and Mary Elizabeth (Peters) Bowers. His father was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, and his mother in Champaign County, Illinois. Captain Bowers has two younger sisters.

His early schooling was at Saint Joseph, Illinois, and while he was in high school his parents moved to Anderson, Indiana, where he graduated from high school. In 1910 a circus came to Anderson. One of its features was an aviator named C. Robinson, who had a Bleriot monoplane, equipped with a five cylinder rotary Gnome engine. Robinson wrecked his plane while on a flight and left the remains of the apparatus at Frank C. Bowers' garage. Charles R. Bowers while in his father's garage had saturated himself with a knowledge of motor mechanics. It was a labor of love for him to repair the Bleriot machine, and then, completely untutored in aeronautics, he started flying. After a few trials he smashed the machine in an attempted takeoff. His next notable experience was in 1912, when he was engaged as a mechanic and relief driver in the 500-mile speedway classic at Indianapolis. Captain Bowers in 1913 entered Whittier College at Whittier, California, but aviation had such a hold on him that he soon left college and from 1914 to 1917 was employed at the original Wright aviation field at Dayton.

He was one of the most experienced of Americans in aviation when America entered the World war, and in 1917 he enlisted in the aviation section of the Signal Corps. He completed his course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was commissioned an aeronautical engineer at Kelly Field, Texas, and later at Carson Field, Florida. While there he was commissioned a captain in the air service. He remained with the Army Aviation Corps until 1920. In that year he was authorized by the Government to start the country's first National Guard air unit at Kokomo, Indiana. He was a captain and executive officer of the squadron, known as the One Hundred Thirteenth Observation Squadron, Twenty-eighth Division. This was his chief work until 1926. It was with this unit that Clyde Shockley, known as the "flying farmer," learned to fly in 1922. Shockley then developed the first commercial aviation enterprise in Indiana and one of the first in the United States.

From 1926 until December, 1927, Captain Bowers was manager of the airport at Dayton, Ohio. In December, 1927, he came to South Bend to assist in establishing a branch of the Shockley Flying Service. Of this branch he has since been manager and is ground inspector of the South Bend branch of the Shockley Flying Service. This company maintains a widely known flying school, keeps planes for hire and distributes the Waco biplanes. Its office and ground school is located at 323 South Main Street, and its flying field is at the Municipal Airport.

Captain Bowers is a member of the Indiana Aviation Association and is president of the South Bend Commercial Aviation Association. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club, the American Legion and the Masonic fraternity. Captain Bowers married Miss Myrtle Marie Bair, a native of Ohio. They have five children, Virginia, Mary, Frank, William and Margaret. Their home is at 1129 Angella Boulevard.

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


JOHN K. JENNINGS for some years has enjoyed a very secure and substantial position in the business life of Evansville. His career is also interesting as the example of a business man who has exerted a very wholesome influence in local and state politics and has done some things that makes the community of Evansville in particular proud of him.

Mr. Jennings is not a native of Indiana. He was born at Rich Hill, Missouri, November 24, 1883. His father was a shoe merchant at Rich Hill, and the son grew up there, attending local schools. After leaving school he moved across the state line into Kansas, and became a clerk in the office of the Western Coal & Mining Company at Pittsburg in that state. After two years he was transferred to Staunton, Illinois, as assistant cashier of the Consolidated Coal Company. The Consolidated Coal Company three years later promoted him to the sales department at Kansas City, Missouri, where he remained five years. During this time his experience brought him in contact with Mr. James H. Moore, a coal operator in Southern Indiana. It was through the influence of Mr. Moore that he came to Evansville to join the Crescent Coal Company. Two years later, through a reorganization of the Sunnyside Coal Company, he was made vice president and its sales manager.

Mr. Jennings in 1912 left the Sunnyside Company to organize the Independent Hay & Grain Company of Evansville. Shortly afterwards he added to his holdings the Diamond Mills, manufacturing a large line of stock feeds. He is now president and general manager of both of these industries, which do a business allover Southern Indiana and adjacent states.

Mr. Jennings for a number of years has been a leader in the Democratic party in Indiana. He came into politics through his association with the late Benjamin Bosse. At the National Democratic Convention in New York in 1924 he was honored with appointment as permanent financial secretary, and for two years was official representative of the National Democratic Committee in Southern Indiana. His most important work has been in fighting the Ku Klux Klan of Indiana and he spent a small fortune in that work and continued it until the leaders of the organization were disgraced and imprisoned. In 1925 he was nominated by the Democratic party for mayor of Evansville and in 1929 was again a candidate. His interest in civic affairs at Evansville is a constant factor for good. In 1927, at a cost of $50,000, he built the Rosedale Theater, in a factory district where formerly the only place of amusement was a pool hall. Mr. Jennings for twenty years has been a trustee of the Catholic Church, is a member of the house committee of the B. P. O. Elks, a member of the Knights of Columbus, Country Club, Central Turnverein and is a member of the local business and professional men's club known as the Nut Club. During the World war he took an active part in the Red Cross campaign and the sale of Liberty Bonds. He was examined and tried to get the opportunity for active service but was not accepted. Mr. Jennings in 1927 made an interesting European tour, in the course of which he was received by the Pope and Mussolini and other dignitaries. The chief object of this trip was an investigation of municipal government in Europe.

Mr. Jennings married, May 25, 1919, Miss Lillian Helfrich, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Willam Helfrich, of Evansville. They have two children: Miss Marie, a student in St. Mary's of the Woods at Terre Haute, Indiana; and William.

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


HON. DAVID WILIAM HENRY, long distinguished for his services to the Indiana bench and bar, was one of the most highly respected citizens of Terre Haute, where he died June 7, 1929, at the age of seventy-six.

Judge Henry was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, October 10, 1852. His father, Jacob Henry, a native of Pennsylvania, served as a soldier in the Eighty-fifth Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry in the Civil war. Jacob Henry married Elvira Rowles, who was born in Columbiana County, Ohio. Her father, William Rowles, was a soldier in the War of 1812.

David William Henry received his education in the common schools and from the diligent reading of books at home. He attended a seminary at Farmersburg, Indiana, all his higher education being the product of his individual earnings and efforts. At the age of sixteen he entered Mount Union College in Ohio, taking the scientific course. Prior to that he had taught school, and by teaching he paid for his higher education. After leaving college he entered the law office of N. G. Buff, of Terre Haute, with whom he read law for about a year. Failing health compelled him to leave the law office, and then he resumed teaching, spending three years as principal of the Farmersburg Academy and three years in the schools of Bloomfield. He was then able to enter the Central Law School at Indianapolis, where he was graduated in the spring of 1881.

Judge Henry was a member of the Terre Haute bar for nearly half a century. He first practiced there with the law firm of Davis & Davis. In 1884 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Forty-third Judiciary Circuit and in 1886 was re-elected and in that election led his ticket. When he retired from office, in 1888, he resumed a general law practice, in which he was busily engaged until 1894, when he was elected Superior Court judge. Though in the bench only a few years, he showed his eminent fitness both in learning and in natural wisdom for the responsibilities of the judiciary. He presided in the trial of over 1200 cases, and only twice was an appeal taken from his decision, and in only one case was his ruling reversed.

Judge Henry retired from the bench in 1897, to accept appointment under President McKinley as collector of internal revenue. After having this office his time and energies were largely taken up with his interest in the oil industry. He was identified with the oil development in Oklahoma practically from the time that state became one of the greatest centers in the mid-continent field.

Politically Judge Henry was a Republican. His legal ability and reputation secured for him many positions of honor and trust in his party. He was one of the organizers and served as the first president of the Vigo County Historical Society, being retained in the office of president until his death. He was greatly interested in historical matters and was also a member of the Indiana Historical Society. He belonged to the Terre Haute Club and was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner.

Judge Henry married, June 30, 1885, Miss Virginia Thompson. Her father was the distinguished Indianan, Col. Richard W. Thompson, whose career is sketched following. Judge and Mrs. Henry had two children. Their daughter, Harriet, is the wife of George F. Kean, of Terre Haute. Mrs. Kean has a daughter, Virginia. The son, Richard Porter Henry, a resident of Chicago, is married and has a son, Richard Thompson Henry.

Mrs. Henry resides with her daughter, Mrs. Kean, at Terre Haute. She has led a very active life, has been a leader in social affairs at Terre Haute, and is vice president of the Vigo County Historical Society. She has written several articles on the early history of Vigo County, one of them being "Old Terre Haute Residents," and another "My Recollections of the Civil War."

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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


COL. RICHARD W. THOMPSON, whose oratory was one of the factors that decided the success of the Whig campaign in Indiana in 1840, and whose subsequent brilliant political leadership made him one of Indiana's outstanding men in the nation, spent the greater part of his long and useful life at Terre Haute. He died at his beautiful home on South Sixth Street in that city, February 9, 1900, at the venerable age of ninety-one.

Richard W. Thompson was born in Culpeper County, Virginia., June 9, 1809. He was given a liberal classical education. In 1831 he came West, locating at Louisville, Kentucky, and in 1832 settled in the village of Bedford, Lawrence County, Indiana. Soon afterward he married Harriet E. Gardiner, whose father, Col. James B. Gardiner, was editor of the Ohio State Journal at Columbus.

During his first years in Indiana, Richard W. Thompson supported himself by clerking in stores and teaching school. He studied law in his leisure, was admitted to the bar in 1834 and soon became known in his section of the state as an able public exponent of Whig principles and politics. He took part in the ascendancy of this party in the West and was one of the most effective campaigners for the Harrison and Tyler ticket in 1840. In that year he was himself elected a member of Congress by the Whigs in his home district, including Lawrence County. He served one term and declined to be a candidate for reelection. Soon after retiring from Congress he located at Terre Haute, where he engaged in a general law practice. For almost a generation he was employed as counsel and advocate in nearly every important case arising in Southern, Central and Western Indiana.

In 1848 Colonel Thompson was again elected to Congress, to represent the Terre Haute district. In Congress he represented the growing power of the West, and came upon the stage as one of the young leaders just as the generation of Clay, Calhoun and Webster was retiring from the stage. During the Civil war Colonel Thompson was indefatigable in his efforts to sustain the integrity of the Union. As provo marshal of a large district he had the supervision of raising troops and the training camps. After the war he resumed his law practice. Colonel Thompson was a sage political leader and adviser, but avoided rather than sought the honors of office for himself. He declined an appointment as minister of Austria offered him by President Taylor, also the office of recorder of the General Land Office tendered him by President Fillmore, and that of judge of the United States Court of Claims tendered him by President Lincoln. In March, 1877, he entered the cabinet of President Hayes as secretary of the navy. From this post he resigned in December, 1880, to become president of the American Board of the Panama Canal Company. At the conclusion of this service he retired to the quiet routine of his private life at Terre Haute. Here during his declining years he was surrounded not only by his children and grandchildren, but by the daily visits of his admiring friends. He owned one of the finest private libraries in the state and his books were the chief source of his recreation. He is also remembered for his literary work. Among his books were: The Papacy and Civil Power, History of the Tariff, Footprints of the Jesuits, Personal Recollections of the Presidents. Richard W. Thompson is a name that will always remain in Indiana political and public history. As a mark of the esteem in which he was held in his home community and throughout the state there stands on the courthouse lawn at Terre Haute a monument erected to his honor.

By his marriage to Miss Harriet E. Gardiner, Colonel Thompson had eight children. The only survivor is Virginia, widow of Judge David William Henry, of Terre Haute.

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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


G. EDWARD BEHRENS is the efficient and popular superintendent of schools for Posey County, with executive office in the courthouse at Mount Vernon, and his is a record of notably able and constructive service in connection with the public schools of his native state.

Mr. Behrens was born in Harrison County, Indiana, April 2, 1877, and is a son of Henry and Susan L. (Beard) Behrens, the former of whom was born in Germany, in 1849, and the latter of whom was born in Indiana. Henry Behrens was long numbered among the substantial exponents of farm industry in Harrison County and as a loyal and liberal citizen of sterling character he ever commanded high place in communal esteem, his death having occurred in 1908, and his wife likewise being deceased. Of the four children the eldest is Jacob, Jr., who is fifty-six years of age (1929) and who is engaged in the insurance business in the City of Waco, Texas. Mollie E., fifty-five years of age, is the wife of William E. Hancock, a farmer in Floyd County, Indiana, and they have two children, Lulu, aged thirty-two years, and Stella, aged thirty years. Viola, who is forty-nine years of age and next younger than her brother G. Edward, of this review, is the wife of Ward McBride, a prosperous farmer in Floyd County, and the names and respective ages of their children are here noted: Lloyd twenty-four years; Virgil, twenty-two years; Raymond, twenty years; Leona, sixteen years: and Ida, ten years.

The rural district schools of his county afforded G. Edward Behrens his preliminary education, and in the high school at Laconia, that county, he was duly graduated. In 1908 be was graduated in the Indiana State Normal School, after completing the regular teachers' course, and in 1919 he was there graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He later attended the University of Indiana one term and had five terms in the great University of Chicago. In the meanwhile he had become a teacher in the rural schools, his pedagogic service having been initiated in the year 1900. During the first four years he taught in the rural district schools of Posey County, and in the city schools of Mount Vernon, the county seat, he taught nine years, during five of which he held the position of principal of the Central School, he having been a teacher in the high school during the ensuing four years. March, 1914, he was first elected county superintendent of schools, and by successive reelections he has been retained in this important office in Posey County, his successive reelections attesting the efficiency of his administration and the high popular estimate placed thereon.

Progressive and public-spirited in his civic attitude, Mr. Behrens gives his political allegiance to the Democratic party, and he and his wife have membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church in their home city. He is affiliated with both the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in each of which he has passed various official chairs, he having given ten years of such service with the local lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in Mount Vernon, of which he is a past master and a past secretary. He has local real-estate investments and is the owner also of farm property.

In Posey County was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Behrens to Miss Minnie E. Klotz, who was here born and reared and who is a daughter of Henry J. and Sarah S. (Greathouse) Klotz, her father having been born in Germany and having become one of the prosperous farmers of Posey County, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Behrens have no children, but, as may naturally be inferred, both are deeply interested in the children of their home county and in providing them the best possible educational advantages.

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


PETER MORGEN. No center of civilization can be more advanced than its people, and one of the best measures of its progress is the number of industries within its borders, for, not only do these produce that which carries the name into other districts, but they give employment to many. The people connected with these industries, because of the advantage of being close to the scene of their labors, become permanent citizens, interested in the civic life, its schools, churches, clubs, fraternities and other organizations and associations. Huntingburg is one of the successful little cities of Dubois County, and an industry that brings its average up very perceptibly is that of raising flowers, in which Peter Morgen hag long been engaged, and his plant is the largest in the state.

An account of this industry was published in the 1928 Industrial and Trade Edition of a local newspaper, which, written by one who lives at Huntingburg, so thoroughly covers the history of Mr. Morgen and his plant that it is quoted herewith:

"From a beginning of two greenhouses built on the east side of Huntingburg some years ago has expanded a flower industry that has no equal in entire Indiana and which distributes, wholesale and retail, all the cultivated varieties of flowers.

"Back of this industry is a man who is not only an efficient business executive, but who has mastered the art of growing flowers; who knows how to grow vigorous plants and can make them bloom in proper seasons when there is the greatest demand. Perhaps few who read this know that Peter Morgen, of this city, while at Chicago, with American Beauty roses which he had grow, won first prize in the National Flower Show for seven consecutive years as producing America's best American Beauty roses. He took first prize every time he entered exhibits in this national contest. So that the American Beauty roses which he grew at these greenhouses in Huntingburg for a number of years and other flowers grown there may be looked upon as the finest specimens to be seen in our United States - a distinction of which, perhaps, but few Huntingburg people have been aware.

"Born on a farm at Saint Henry, about six miles south of Huntingburg, Peter Morgen began as a boy to take pride in his work as he attended the parochial school at that place and excelled in his studies. The death of his father caused Peter to take life more seriously when just a lad than boys usually do at that stage in life, and at the age of fourteen he went to Chicago, where two of his sisters resided, to find employment. When he applied for his first job in America's second city the employer said to him 'you are a rather small boy,' but told Peter he would give him a definite answer about work the following day. The answer was; 'All right Peter, you can start tomorrow morning.' He started and remained in this company's employ for nine years. Here, by observations and experiments, he learned the principles of successfully growing flowers and first astonished his employer and attracted attention when, at a Mothers' Day season, he produced from the flower beds given to his care sufficient carnations to require five cutters for three days.

"From Chicago Mr. Morgen went to Almanda Park, California, near Pasadena, one of the beauty spots of America, spending two years there, and then returned to Saint Henry. There had always been a special attraction in his little home town, and so, after Miss Elizabeth Fest had become Mrs. Morgen, they went to Chicago, where Mr. Morgen's old employer received him with a job the first morning after his arrival. After spending two years in Chicago they went to Newcastle, Indiana, and after a year there - all the while growing flowers - they came to Huntingburg.

"Mr. Morgen first built two greenhouses, 300 feet long. But the business rapidly developed, so the next year he built two more, and the year following he built four more greenhouses. With the war's demands all his trained employes were called into the service and, assuming too great a share of the work himself, Mr. Morgen became ill and sold the business to the late George Seubold, who conducted it three years. Mr. Morgen spent a year on his farm near the city and then, with his family, spent an entire year traveling to all the important points throughout the United States from the east coast to the west. Regaining his health, he took charge of a large plant of greenhouses at Roanoke, Virginia, but after a year there the desire to conduct his own business and the longing for his old home county overcame and he bought back the business in this city in 1926. He also bought the greenhouses and retail flower store at Owensboro, Kentucky, discontinuing the growing of flowers there, but retaining the retail store, which is located at 406 Frederica Street in the Citizens Trust Building. A special refrigerator in the Owensboro store, in which flowers are kept, cost $8,000, and one of the display cases cost $2,000 – other fixtures are in keeping. The Owensboro store is supplied from the Huntingburg greenhouses, trucks hauling loads of flowers from here to that city daily. Flowers are sold both wholesale and retail from the assembling rooms of the Huntingburg plant; which is located on east Sixth Street. Wholesale shipments are made to Saint Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, Evansville and throughout the entire Central United States.

"This concern is also a bonded member of the Florists' Telegraph Delivery Association, Incorporated, an organization of over 4,000 bonded florists with locations all over the world, supplying flowers upon two and one- half hours' notice and employing telegraph, telephone, radio and cable as mediums for transferring orders. By this method, if anyone desires to have flowers sent to a certain address at New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Mexico City, or wherever it may be, an order to Peter Morgen's establishment will be delivered at any distant place within two and a half hours.

"Any flowers in season are grown at the local greenhouse as the seasons rotate. They furnish flowers as the people desire. Flowers are supplied with the long stems, or in any designs, in sprays, or boquets, or potted. Quantities under 100 are sold retail and quantities of 100 or over are sold at wholesale prices. Local retail patronage is given careful consideration, as well as large wholesale orders.

"The plant, consisting of a great series of greenhouses, systematically planned, is very interesting. A large boiler room receives coal by the car loads. Two large boilers supply steam to all parts of the greenhouses, and to Mr. Morgen's nearby residence as well, and keep the temperature uniform night and day. Failure of this heating system would mean thousands of dollars of loss to the growing flower plants. The long glass houses have row upon row of various kinds of flowers, all growing in beds of specially prepared soil. Most of these must be propagated from 'slips' to keep them true to their kind. The propagating sections have thousands of tiny plants growing in sand until they grow roots, when they are transplanted.

"Mr. Morgen has a large farm at Johnsburg, with a beautiful residence. Although his farming may be looked upon as only a hobby, he was, nevertheless, the county's 'wheat king' this year. He keeps seven beautiful horses, nine head of cattle, over sixty hogs and some 500 chickens on the farm, which gives it a practical aspect.

"Mr. Morgen is energetic, is a member of several civic bodies, and is public-spirited, believing that a city cannot develop beyond the cooperative level of its inhabitants."

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


AMOS L. BARNETT has the pedagogic and executive ability that enables him to render a specially effective service to his native county, and as county superintendent of the public schools, with headquarters at Boonville, judicial center of Warrick County, he is giving an administration that in the fullest sense justifies his having been selected for this office.

Mr. Barnett was born on the home farm, near Boonville, that is still the place of residence of his parents, and the date of his nativity was August 25, 1897. He is a son of Joseph and Anna (Scales) Barnett, both of whom were likewise born and reared in this county and the latter of whom is a daughter of J. A. and Rhoda (Baldwin) Scales. Joseph Barnett has secure status as one of the progressive and representative exponents of farm industry in his native county and is a scion of one of the old and honored families of this section of the Hoosier State. Of the seven children of Joseph and Anna (Scales) Barnett four are living. Louis died at the age of five years, James at the age of thirty-eight years, and Jane at the age of fourteen years. Thomas, who is a progressive farmer in Warrick County, married Laura Pemberton and they have three children, Mildred, Woodrow, and Howard, aged, respectively (1929), twelve, nine and seven years. Amos L., of this review, is next younger of the children. Ota is identified with coal mining in this section of Indiana and his wife, whose maiden name was Grace Camp, likewise is a native of Warrick County, their one child, Robert Owen, being two years of age. Andrew, youngest of the surviving children, remains as an exponent of farm industry in his native county and also as one of its eligible young bachelors.

Amos L. Barnett early began to contribute his youthful quota to the work of the home farm, and his preliminary education was acquired in the rural school of the home district. In the high school at Folsomville, a neighboring village, he was graduated as a member of the class of 1917, and he soon afterward initiated his service as a teacher in one of the rural district schools of his native county. Later he taught in high schools in Warrick and Pike counties, and in furthering his own education he completed a course in Oakland City College, in Gibson County, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1923 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Popular appreciation of his character and ability was shown when he was called, in September, 1925, to the office of county superintendent of the public schools of Warrick County, and in this position he is giving a careful and progressive administration that has signally advanced the standards and service in all of the schools of his native county.

Mr. Barnett takes deep and loyal interest in all that concerns the welfare and progress of his home city, county and state, his political allegiance is given to the Democratic party, he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and his personal popularity is not jeopardized by the fact that he still permits his name to appear on the roster of eligible young bachelors in his native county.

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


Deb Murray