Mr. Painter was born near Wabash, judicial center of the Indiana county of that name, and the date of his nativity was August 30, 1878. He is a son of Henry W. and Mary (Stubbs) Painter, the former of whom was born near Xenia, Greene County, Ohio, October 20, 1848, and the latter of whom was born at Spiceland, Henry County, Indiana, June 23, 1853, their marriage having been solemnized April 1, 1874. Henry W. Painter, whose death occurred September 30, 1923, gave virtually his entire life to farm industry, was a man of fine intellectual grasp and was a deep student of history. Both he and his wife, who now resides at Osborne, Kansas, early became earnest members of the Friends Church, and he was a Republican in political adherency. Clarence D., first of the children, was born June 5, 1876, and is deceased; Walter S., of this review, was next in order of birth; Laura E., who was born January 18, 1881, is the wife of Rev; Daniel Mergler, a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church, and they reside at Osborne, Kansas; Anna M., who was born July 17, 1885, is professor of English in the Missouri State Teachers College at Maryville, Missouri; Levinus K., who was born July 12, 1888, married Miss Margaret Hardin and they reside at Clintondale, New York; Herbert died in infancy.
Walter S. Painter completed his high school course at Spiceland, Henry County, and thereafter was graduated in Earlham College, Richmond, this state, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, while the year 1914 marked his reception of the degree of Master of Arts from Columbia University, New York City. His pedagogic career had its inception when he became teacher in a district school near Newcastle, Henry County, and thereafter he gave three years of service as principal of schools in Eastern Ohio. In the period of 1907-09 he was superintendent of the city schools of Upland, Indiana, and thereafter he held a similar position at Lowell until 1911, when he became superintendent of the public schools at Crown Point, where he remained until 1917. From that time forward to 1925 he was superintendent of the public schools in the City of Mount Vernon, judicial center of Posey County, and in the latter year he assumed his present office at Garrett, where his earnest and loyal administration has resulted in specially effective service in all grades and departments of the city schools.
Mr. Painter gives his political allegiance to the Republican party and he and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was also his first wife. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and in his present home city is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Lions Club.
August 2, 1905, recorded the marriage of Mr. Painter to Miss Jennie Bond, and her death occurred May 30,1915. Of the children of this union Lowell W. is a graduate of the Indiana Medical School of the Indiana University, in the City of Indianapolis; Miss Mildred E. was graduated in the school for nurses maintained in connection with the Coleman Hospital of the University of Indiana, in the City of Indianapolis, where she was supervisor of nurses, she having won specially high honors in her chosen profession. On September 7, 1929, she was united in marriage with Dr. Clayton Hathaway, now practicing medicine at Butler, Indiana. On the 19th of July, 1917, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Painter to Miss Gertrude Murphy, who was born near Greenfield, Hancock County, this state, October 1, 1884, a daughter of Milton and Ruth Murphy, the former of whom is deceased and the latter of whom now resides in the City of Fort Wayne. Mr. And Mrs. Painter have one child, Donald Scott, born May 31, 1920.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
MARQUIS DELVIN YOTTER. Among the public-spirited citizens of Kosciusko County who have found time from their business affairs to serve as public officials, one who is well known for conscientious and energetic service is Marquis D. Yotter, of Silver Lake, who has served in the capacity of school trustee of Lake Township since 1924, during which period numerous improvements have been made in the educational system. A coal merchant by occupation, Mr. Yotter's former public service included six and one-half years as postmaster of Silver Lake, and at all times he has held and merited the confidence of the community.
Mr. Yotter was born in Kosciusko County, Indiana, March 10, 1868, and is a son of George W. and Esther Jane (Elder) Yotter. His paternal grandparents were Malcolm and Cynthia (Jefferson) Yotter, of Ohio, the former of German descent, who came to Kosciusko County, Indiana, in 1859, and there rounded out their careers. George W. Yotter was born September 25, 1841, in Seneca County, Ohio, and was eighteen years of age when he accompanied the family, to Kosciusko County, where for many years he was engaged in the lumber business.
The country schools of Kosciusko County furnished Marquis D. Yotter with his educational training, and during his early years he was engaged in agricultural operations. In 1903 he engaged in the coal business at Silver Lake, where he still has a large trade in this commercial field, being one of the substantial men of his community. In 1914 he was appointed postmaster of Silver Lake, acting in that capacity for six and one-half years, and in 1924 was elected school trustee of Lake Township, being reelected to this position in 1928. This district has an accredited high school a consolidated high school, and during Mr. Yotter's administration of his duties numerous beneficial changes have been effected. During his term as trustee the Silver Lake High School was built. He is not enthusiastically in favor of the teachers' tenure law, nor does he favor the consolidated grade school idea, but does believe in the consolidated high school plan, where the 6-6 system is employed. In this district there are five teachers employed under the supervision of a superintendent. Mr. Yotter is a Democrat in his political allegiance and belongs to the United Brethren Church. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has passed through the chairs.
On January 18, 1890, Mr. Yotter was united in marriage with Miss Luzetta Rager, who was born in Kosciusko County, and to this union there were born the following children. Bernard Bly, born in 1891, attended the graded and high schools of Lake Township and the Indiana Pharmacal School and is now employed as a prescription clerk in a drug store at Fort Wayne. Keith Clifford, born in 1893, attended high school for two years at Silver Lake, and is now an automobile salesman at Warsaw. He married, July 18, 1912, Hazel Jontz, who died March 25, 1922, leaving one son, James Robert, born May 5, 1913, now attending public schools, and after his first wife's death Keith C. Yotter married, May 12, 1925, Dora Dilman, but they have no children. Zeta Wilodean, only daughter of Marquis D. Yotter, born January 17, 1903, who attended the local high school, and February 28, 1924, married E. E. Summe, and has two sons, Billy Lee, born October 10, 1926, and Tommy Lyle, born in September, 1929.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
FREDERICK BASSLER WALTER succeeded his honored father as executive head of the important manufacturing corporation of B. Walter & Company, and as president of this concern he ranks as one of the leading business men of the City of Wabash, judicial center and metropolis of the Indiana county of the same name. In the manufacturing of table slides of wood and metal, together with varied lines of furniture hardware, this corporation ranks as one of the largest and most important in the United States, as it produces fully one-half of the table devices and hardware used in the country, the while it controls a large Canadian business and an appreciable trade in European countries.
Mr. Walter was born at North Manchester, Wabash County, Indiana, January 15, 1882, and the other two surviving children of the family are Mrs. Myrtle Morse and Mrs. Josephine Freeman. Mr. Walter is a son of Bassler and Esther (Williams) Walter, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Wabash County, Indiana where her father was for many years a representative contractor and builder.
Bassler Walter passed the major part of his life in Wabash County, Indiana, and became one of its honored and influential citizens and men of affairs. He gained success and prestige as a manufacturer of wooden products, served as sheriff of the county in the early ‘80s and he maintained his manufacturing headquarters at North Manchester until 1883, when he removed to Wabash, the county seat, where he continued the enterprise and where he passed the remainder of his life, secure in the high regard of all who knew him and had appreciation of his sterling character and his large and worthy achievement. In 1887 he organized the Walter-Hennessey Company, manufacturers of table slides, and about 1890 he purchased the interest of Mr. Hennessey and changed the title of the concern to B. Walter & Company, which has since been retained, the company having been incorporated in 1910, and Mr. Walter having continued the active executive head of the corporation until February 10, 1908, though his only son, subject of this review, assumed active charge of the business in 1906, owing to the impaired health of the father.
In 1881, the year of its organization, the Walter-Hennessey Company utilized in its manufactory about 10,000 square feet of floor space and retained fifteen employes. The present large and modern plant of B. Walter & Company utilizes 75,000 square feet of floor space, and the average corps of employes numbers 100. The plant has the best of modern machinery and accessories in all departments, all machinery being operated by electric motors, with individual switches, and the annual business of the concern has reached an aggregate that makes the corporation one of prime importance as touching the industrial and commercial precedence of the City of Wabash and the State of Indiana. Frederick B. Walter is president of the company, Charles Rish is vice president and Anna Hanson is secretary and treasurer. The plant and offices of the company are established on West Canal Street.
In the public schools of Wabash Frederick B. Walter continued his studies until he had duly profited by the curricu1um of the high school, and thereafter he completed a course in Purdue University, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1903 and from which he received the degrees of Electrical Engineer and Mechanical Engineer. Thereafter he fortified himself in the practical and virtually continuation work that he did in the service of the great General Electric Company, he having been employed at its general headquarters, Schenectady, New York, and also at its branch in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1906, by reason of the impaired health of his father, he returned to Wabash and assumed active supervision of the operations and business of B. Walter & Company, of which he has since continued the executive head. He was vice president also of the Wabash Sanitary Company and is a director of the American Coating Mills at Elkhart, Indiana. He was one of the organizers of the Service Motor Truck Company and was president and chief engineer until 1918.
Mr. Walter holds to the paternal political faith and is a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party. He is an influential and progressive member of the Wabash Chamber of Commerce and the local Rotary Club, and has membership in the Columbia Club, which has long been one of the representative organizations in the City of Indianapolis. In the Masonic fraternity he is a member of Hannah Lodge, A. F. and A. M., in his home city, and it may be noted in this connection that his father had served as master of this lodge, besides having passed the official chairs in Wabash Chapter, R. A. M., and having been affiliated likewise with the local council of Royal and Select Masters and the Wabash Commandery of Knights Templars. The late Bassler Walter had the distinction of receiving in the Scottish Rite of Masonry the thirty- third and ultimate degree, while as a Noble of the Mystic Shrine he was a member of Murat Temple in the City of Indianapolis. Frederick B. Walter likewise is affiliated with Scottish Rite bodies of the time-honored fraternity, and is a Noble of Mizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, in the City of Fort Wayne. He is a member of Wabash Lodge, B. P. O. E., and his is the distinction of having served in the United States army in the Spanish-American war period, he having been a member of Company D, One Hundred Sixtieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry.
At Wabash was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Walter to Miss Jean Graden, who was born and reared in this city and who is a daughter of Thomas Graden. The maternal grandfather of Jean Graden became one of the early settlers of Indiana, to which state he made his way on foot in the pioneer days. Mr. and Mrs. Walter have six children: John Frederick, Thomas Graden, Henry Pauling, Esther, Jean and Marguerite Ann.
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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
EDWIN H. UNDERWOOD, physician and surgeon, has practiced his profession in Fort Wayne for over twenty years. His name stands high in. the medical profession here. He has also been successful in a material way and he and his family are well known socially.
Doctor Underwood was born at Payne, Ohio, May 13, 1871. His ancestors came from England at an early date, first locating in New Jersey and from that state moved west to Ohio. Doctor Underwood's parents, Hiram and Rachel (Haines) Underwood, were both born in Ohio, his father in Logan County, in 1840, and his mother at Bellefontaine, a daughter of David Haines. Hiram Underwood was a Union soldier with the Ninety-sixth Ohio Infantry and in 1868 established his home on a farm near Payne, Ohio. He lived there until 1909 and then moved to West Mansfield, Ohio, where he died a few years later. Doctor Underwood and his twin brother were the fourth in order of birth among eight children, all living except one daughter.
Doctor Underwood attended school at Payne, Ohio, the Tri-State Normal College at Angola Indiana, and taught school in his native county. After teaching for some years he took up the study of medicine, and was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Chicago with the M. D. degree in 1905. From 1905 to 1908 Doctor Underwood practiced at Brook, Indiana, and since 1908 his home has been at Fort Wayne. He has always enjoyed a large general practice, and has proved skillful and resourceful in handling the multitude of duties placed on the family doctor. Besides his practice he is a member of the staff of the Fort Wayne Lutheran Hospital. Doctor Underwood is a member of the Allen County, Indiana State and American Medical Associations.
In 1920 he put up the four-room office building at 2901 Broadway, where he has his offices and in the same year he built the Colonial home at 4230 Indiana Avenue, one of the most attractive private residences in the city. Doctor Underwood during the World war was a First lieutenant at Camp Greenleaf, Georgia. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and a member of the Knights of Pythias.
Doctor Underwood married, in 1904, Miss Ella Rogers, who was born at Darlington, Wisconsin, daughter of John and Anna Rogers. Mrs. Underwood is a graduate of the Chicago Homeopathic Training School for nurses and during the World war did much work in the local Red Cross. They have two daughters, Helen Toay, born January 18, 1907, and Dorothy, born April 19, 1910. Helen is a graduate of the University of Indiana and is now a teacher in the Fort Wayne public schools. Dorothy, on June 14, 1930 was united in marriage with J. Maxwell Frame, of Fort Wayne, and they reside at Wapakoneta, Ohio. She is a graduate of the Ward Belmont School at Nashville, Tennessee, and of the school of Domestic Art and Sciences of Chicago.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
HARRY G. ERWIN, M. D. In the professional career of Harry G. Erwin, M. D., of Fort Wayne, there have been injected the qualities of industry, natural and acquired talent and a real liking and enthusiasm for his calling that have combined to place him among the eminent practitioners of his state. A member of a pioneer family of Indiana, he comes of sturdy and honorable ancestry, and has fully upheld the best traditions of a long line of forebears for honesty in business and conscientious service in public life. At present Doctor Erwin is serving in the capacity of coroner of Allen County, a position for which he is admirably qualified.
Dr. Harry G. Erwin was born November, 3, 1883, on a farm in Adams County, Indiana, and is a son of the late Judge Richard K. Erwin. His paternal great-grandfather, William G. Erwin, was born January 3, 1788, in Pennsylvania, and as a young man became a pioneer of Adams County, Indiana, where he developed a farm from the wilderness and spent the rest of an honorable and useful life in the pursuits of agriculture, dying July 13, 1845. He married Katherine Kenney, July 11, 1816, she having been born October 22, 1794, and died April 17, 1856.
David Erwin, the grandfather of Doctor Erwin, was born August 15, 1817, and in young manhood settled on a farm in Adams County, where he became a successful agriculturist and a prominent citizen of his community. For many years he served his fellow citizens well and conscientiously in the capacity of justice of the peace, and was also prominent and active in the work of the Presbyterian and Methodist Episcopal churches. He died, honored and respected, June 27, 1879. Mr. Erwin married Miss Mary Need, a native of Adams County, who passed her entire life in Adams County.
Hon. Richard K. Erwin was born in Adams County, Indiana, July 11, 1860, and as a youth was reared in the midst of agricultural surroundings, acquiring his early education in the rural schools. Having ambitions for a professional career, he was given somewhat better educational advantages than the majority of farmers' sons of his day and locality, being sent to the Methodist College at Fort Wayne and subsequently taking up the study of law. After successfully passing the examination he was admitted to the bar and began practice at Decatur, Adams County, where he soon became one of the leading figures in his profession. In 1900 he was elected judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial Circuit, a position which he held for six years, and then moved to Fort Wayne. In 1912 he was elected a member of the Supreme Court from Allen County, and at the time of his death was chief justice of this body. He was a man of splendid gifts and of the true judicial temperament, and held in the fullest degree the esteem and confidence of all with whom he came into contact. Judge Erwin was connected with all the bodies of Masonry, was a Shriner, and a member of the Knights of Pythias, and his religious faith was that of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Miss Luella A. Wass, who was born February 26, 1862, in Adams County, and now survives him as a resident of Fort Wayne. To them were born the following children: Dr. Harry G., of this review; Richard W., who is engaged in the real estate business at Fort Wayne; David Thomas, also a realtor of Fort Wayne; Mabel, who died October 5,1918, aged thirty-two years, as the wife of Robert B. Allesen, of Indianapolis; and Francelle, who died April 9, 1921, aged twenty-one years, as the wife of Guy S. Means, of Fort Wayne.
Harry G. Erwin attended the public schools of Decatur, Indiana; and graduated from the Decatur High School as a member of the class of 1900. He began his independent career as a teacher in the public schools of Adams County when he was only seventeen years of age, and was thus engaged for three years, following which he enrolled at the Marion Normal School. In 1905 he matriculated in the medical college of the University of Illinois and graduated therefrom with the degree of Doctor of Medicine as a member of the class of 1909, subsequently serving his interneship at the University Hospital, Chicago, and Saint Joseph's Hospital, Fort Wayne. Doctor Erwin began the practice of his profession at Huntertown, Indiana, and was busily engaged in the duties of a large practice there when the United States entered the World war. In 1917 he enlisted in the United States Medical Corps in which he was commissioned a captain, and saw nineteen months of service in the army, eleven months of which were overseas. Receiving his honorable discharge April 11, 1919, he returned to Huntertown, where he continued his practice until 1922, when he was elected coroner of Allen County and changed his headquarters to Fort Wayne. He retained that office for two years, then resuming private practice, but in 1926 was again elected coroner, his present term extending until 1930. He is an excellent executive who gives particular care to the duties of his official position, and is widely known as a capable, efficient and reliable physician and surgeon. He belongs to the Allen County Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association; Eta Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Kappa medical fraternity; and the American Legion, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and member of the Mystic Shrine. With his family he belongs to the Wayne Street Methodist Episcopal Church.
On June 29, 1911, Doctor Erwin was united in marriage with Miss Hallie L. Hume, of Monroeville, Indiana, and to this union there has come one daughter: Margaret, born May 22,1912, a graduate of the North Side High School, Fort Wayne, class of 1929, who is now attending the Indiana University. The family home is at 472 Penn Avenue, and Doctor Erwin maintains offices in the Wayne Pharmacal Building.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JAMES HENRY KERWIN, prominent Mishawaka realtor and insurance man, spent about twenty-five years of his early life in railroad service, and his railroading experience took him allover the Middle and far West, but eventually he returned to Indiana and since 1915 has been a resident of Mishawaka.
He was born at Port Huron, Saint Clair County, Michigan, August 28, 1864. His parents, James and Mary (O'Connor) Kerwin, were born and married in Ireland and they came to the United States about eleven years before the birth of their son James. His father became a farmer in Saint Clair County, Michigan, and after leaving the farm lived retired at Port Huron, where he passed away in 1890, at the age of seventy-four years. Mr. Kerwin's mother lived to be ninety-nine years, eight months of age, passing away in 1917. James H. Kerwin was the eighth in a family of nine children. The only other one now living is his brother Richard, of Port Huron.
Mr. Kerwin attended district schools in Saint Clair County, Michigan, finishing his education in the Port Huron High School. On leaving high school he began an apprenticeship in the shops of the Grand Trunk Railway Company. He was an apprentice for four years, and then entered the train service as a fireman and later became an engineer with the Grand Trunk. During the great railway strike of 1894 he lost his job, and, like other participants in this general strike, he was debarred from service by most of the American railways for several years. He then went with the United States Steel Corporation of Chicago and remained there about two and one-half years. During that time he went to old Mexico and was employed as a locomotive engineer there. After returning to the United States he was an engineer with the Santa Fe and later with the Frisco railroads.
When he left the service, in 1914, he established himself in the real estate business at Lafayette, Indiana, and the following year moved to Mishawaka, where he has since conducted a real estate and general insurance agency and is one of the leading man in his line of work.
Mr. Kerwin has been a business man and a home man and has sought no affiliations with secret societies; nor has he gone in for the honors of public office. He is a member of the Fellowship Club. On June 8, 1886, he married Miss Nora O'Brien, who was born in New York City, but was reared at Port Huron, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Kerwin had a family of eleven children, seven of whom are living, and there are nine grandchildren.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CHARLES AUGUST JORDAN, of South Bend, is a general contractor, a business he has followed for nearly thirty years, and through his organization has contributed an impressive list of substantial buildings to this section of Northern Indiana.
Mr. Jordan was born at Metz, France, December 2, 1876, and was six years of age when, in 1883, his parents, Godfried and Caroline (Worm) Jordan, left Metz and came to America. Both parents were born in Germany, of German ancestry. On coming to America they located on a farm in Stark County, Indiana, and Godfried Jordan was an industrious and thrifty agriculturist in that locality until his death in 1918.
Mrs. Caroline Jordan celebrated her eighty- third birthday on January 7, 1931, and at that time eight of her nine children were living.
Charles A. Jordan received part of his public school education in Michigan, later attended school at South Bend, and among the various mechanical trades he made a choice of that of brick mason. He worked as a journeyman several years, and from 1910 to 1916 was superintendent for George Hoffman & Company, general contractors. In 1916 he engaged in business for himself as junior member of Kuehn & Jordan, contractors. This firm was maintained until 1927, when Mr. Jordan took over the business and has since carried it on under the name Charles A. Jordan, general contractor. His business address is 725 Wilbur Street, South Bend. It will illustrate the character of Mr. Jordan's work to mention a few buildings exemplifying the skill and service of his organization. These include the handsome Knights of Columbus Building at South Bend, also the St. Joseph Hospital, Muessel Public School, Thomas Jefferson Public School, and he was the contractor in the building of the Old Peoples Home at New Carlisle in Saint Joseph County.
Mr. Jordan during the Spanish American war, in 1898, was enlisted in Battery A, of the heavy artillery in the regular army. His time and energies are fully taken up with his business, and the only two organizations in which he is active are the Chamber of Commerce and St. Paul's Lutheran Church. Mr. Jordan married, September 27, 1907, Miss Mary Storch, who was born in Wayne County, Michigan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. August Storch, of Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Jordan have five children, Carl Gustave, Arthur Emil, Hubert August, Edgar Richard and Bertha Marie. Carl has made for himself quite a name in aviation circles. He married, January 7, 1930, Miss Ilene Butler, of Crosbonton, Texas.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
NANDOR LASTER TOTH, a South Bend business man, owner of the N. L. Toth Sheet Metal Shop, at 1109-1111 West Colfax Avenue, has been for a number of years a prominent leader in Hungarian circles in South Bend and Mishawaka and is a former president of the Hungarian Young Men's Club of the former city.
He was born in Hungary, May 30,1894. His mother is still living in Hungary and his father died in that country in 1917, as the result of an injury received while employed in government war work.
Nandor L. Toth was reared and educated in his native country and was seventeen years of age when he and his sister started for America and came direct to South Bend. Here he was employed by the Studebaker corporation until March 7, 1917, when he enlisted in the United States Army. He was sent to Camp Douglas, Arizona, then one of the principal centers of mobilization of the American troops during the border troubles. He was put in Company E of the Eleventh Infantry. A few weeks later America entered the World war and he was transferred to the Sixty-second Field Artillery at Columbia, South Carolina. He attended the Mechanical School and was then sent for special work to the Alabama Technical Institute at Auburn, where he was assigned as instructor in the College Army Mechanical School. He was held on duty there until his honorable discharge March 22, 1920. He holds the rank of chief mechanic in the Reserve Officers Training Corps of the United States army.
Mr. Toth on returning to South Bend resumed employment with the Studebaker Corporation one year, since which time he has been in business for himself as a sheet metal worker. He was associated with Mr. A. G. Fuzy, in the firm of Fuzy & Toth, until May, 1923, when he sold his interest to his partner and established his sheet metal shops as N. L. Toth Sheet Metal Company, contractor for copper and galvanized iron cornice, ventilating and furnace repair work.
Mr. Toth was one of the charter members of the Hungarian Young Men's Club and has been active in the social circles of his nationality and has had much to do with welfare and citizenship work among the Hungarians. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Saint Stephens Magyar Church and the American Legion.
He married in 1919 Miss Rose Syabo Choka. At the time of his marriage he was on army duty at Auburn, Alabama. Mrs. Toth was born in New York City, but grew up in South Bend. They have three children: Nandor L., Jr., born June 10, 1920, Helene Rose, born October 7, 1922, and William Emery, born May 8, 1925.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
WILLIAM HENRY URSCHEL. The City of Wabash, judicial center of the county of the same name, has long maintained no minor precedence as one of the industrial and commercial centers of Indiana, and one of the progressive citizens and business men who are today doing fine service in maintaining and advancing this precedence is William H. Urschel, who is here the vice president and treasurer of the Wabash Cabinet Company.
Mr. Urschel was born in Huntington County, Indiana, January 26, 1870, and was a boy at the time of the family removal to Wabash County, where he was reared and educated, he being one of a family of six sons born to Daniel and Catherine (Young) Urschel, both natives of Stark County, Ohio, and both representatives of sterling German families that there settled in the pioneer days. Daniel Urschel was long numbered among the substantial farmers and honored citizens of Wabash County, and here he and his wife continued to reside until their death.
William H. Urschel was reared on the old home farm in Wabash County, and he supplemented the discipline of the public schools by attending the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute one year and by an eighteen months’ course in a well ordered business college at Mansfield, Ohio. In 1891 he was tendered and accepted a position as stenographer and bookkeeper in the office of the H. C. Underwood Manufacturing Company of Wabash, the concern that was the predecessor of the present Wabash Cabinet Company. This position he assumed March 20, 1891, and that he proved valuable in his service and in his fidelity was indicated in the advancement he gained. In 1894 he was chosen assistant treasurer of the company, in 1909 was made treasurer, an office he has since retained, and since 1925 he has also been vice president of the corporation. The present corporate title of the Wabash Cabinet Company was adopted in 1909, in which year Mr. Urschel was elected treasurer. In 1909 a reorganization was effected, as above noted, but in the meanwhile, in 1900, Mr. Urschel had been elected secretary and treasurer of the original company. He has been identified with this important Wabash industrial corporation during the long period of forty years, and his has been a large part in developing the business to the point where it constitutes one of the major industrial and commercial enterprises of the City of Wabash. He has been loyal and progressive both as a citizen and a representative business man, and he is an influential member of the local Chamber of Commerce, besides being a charter member of the local Kiwanis Club, of which he was the second to serve as president and of which he continued a director several years. He is a member of the directorate of the Wabash County Loan & Trust Company, of the Indiana Lawrence Bank & Trust Company at North Manchester, this county, and is treasurer and a director of Home Loan & Savings Association of Wabash. His civic loyalty is finding constructive expression in his service as a member of the Wabash board of education.
The political alignment of Mr. Urschel is with the Republican party, and he and his wife are zealous members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in their home city, he being treasurer of its board of trustees. His basic Masonic affiliation is with Hannah Lodge, A. F. and A. M., and he has membership also in the local Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, the Council of Royal and Select Masters and the Wabash Commandery of Knights Templars.
In his present home near North Manchester, Indiana, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Urschel to Miss Carrie Etta Ridgley, who was born and reared in Wabash County, where her father, George W. Ridgley, was long a representative farmer. Letha, only child of Mr. and Mrs. Urschel, was graduated in the Wabash High School and in the Western College for Women, Oxford, Ohio, she being now the wife of John V. Beamer, who is actively associated with business enterprise in the City of Wabash. They have one son, John V., Jr., born July 20, 1929, and one daughter, Rosetta, born August 5, 1931.
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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
ALBERT WILLIAM ROUSSEAU is one of the firm of Rousseau Brothers, prominent automobile men at Fort Wayne, Hudson-Essex dealers in this territory.
Mr. Rousseau was born on a farm twelve miles west of Fort Wayne, in Allen County, July 21, 1891, son of James H. and Anna B. (Cartwright) Rousseau. His father was born in North Carolina, spent many years on a farm in Allen County, Indiana, and after moving to Fort Wayne was engaged in the real estate business until he retired. Anna B. Cartwright was born in Allen County.
Albert W. Rousseau was the fourth in a family of seven children, all of whom are living. He attended public schools in Fort Wayne and the Fort Wayne Business College. He and his brother James H., Jr., have been associated in the automobile business since 1920. From 1921, to 1925 they owned and operated an automobile tire and accessories shop. They took over the Fort Wayne agency for the Hudson-Essex cars in 1925, and they have built-up a business where they now rank among the leaders in sales of these two fine and popular cars in the State of Indiana. They own a splendid garage building at 201 Fifth Street. This building was put up in 1922 by the brothers. Their business was carried on under the name of Rousseau Brothers until May, 1929, at which time Mr. Raymond Stonebraker came into the partnership and had charge of the branch garage and sales room on East Superior Street. Since January 1, 1930, the Rousseau Brothers have operated alone.
Mr. Rousseau is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and a member of the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce. He married Miss Sarah Ann Cook, a native of Fort Wayne, daughter of William Cook. They have three children, Richard Albert, Donald Phillip, and John.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
