Mr. Smith is a native of Indiana, born at Jonesboro in Grant County, February 24, 1877. His father, Mahlan Smith, was born near Warren, Huntington County, Indiana, February 22, 1847, and spent his last years with a brother in Montana, where he died in 1914. Mahlan Smith married Josephine Pulley, who was born in Grant County, August 12, 1851. She died when her son Noah was eight years of age.

Partly for that reason Noah N. Smith had a boyhood deficient in opportunities for an education but with experiences and hardships that no doubt trained and perfected his abilities and made him at home in the world, regardless of circumstances. Only for three short terms did he regularly attend a school and that was at Anderson. He was eleven years old when he first came to Frankfort, and for a time he literally lived outdoors, sleeping in brush heaps and outbuildings until finally a man permitted him to sleep in his barn, paying him fifty cents a week to take care of the horse. These and other experiences were his lot during several years when he knocked about over Howard, Grant, Madison and Delaware counties. At Anderson he was employed as a helper in the Butler Bottle Factory, at a time when glass bottle blowing was all a manual industry. At Anderson too, he began his apprenticeship at the cigar maker's trade. This apprenticeship was finished at Muncie, with C. C. Schuffelberger.

In 1893, when he was sixteen years old, he again came to Frankfort, and while living with his brother, O. B. Smith, started a small cigar factory. He did all the work himself, made a cigar that was popular with the local trade and was able to hire a few cigar makers and eventually had a factory employing the skilled labor of nine operatives. In 1898, as a result of some trouble with the Cigar Makers Union, he was practically put out of business. Leaving Frankfort, he opened another cigar factory at Flora, Indiana. It was at Flora that he first perfected and put on the market the now famous "Bankable" cigar. His business outgrowing his plant at Flora, he returned to Frankfort in 1910, in order to have a larger supply of labor. Here he put up a factory in which 200 persons were employed. This was outgrown in five years and in 1917 the present plant was erected, containing 32,000 feet of floor space. In normal seasons 400 workers are on the payroll of this plant. In 1922 Mr. Smith built another factory, at Lebanon, Indiana, and this factory employs 200 people. Mr. Smith is practically sole owner of this business, which in its growth and development is a notable tribute to his skill and management as a manufacturer.

Thirty years ago Mr. Smith started experimenting with a view to eliminate the seedy taste from seed tobacco. The idea was never entirely lost sight of, and, bringing his mind to the problem again and again, form the viewpoint of fresh experience, he finally solved the problem, perfecting a process which extracts the ammonia from tobacco and at the same time retains the sweet honey taste of the natural flavor. This smoke from this improved product is, to quote Mr. Smith's own words, "sweet to the very last puff." Mr. Smith votes as a Republican, but has never sought the honors of public office. He and his family are members of the Christian Church, and his fraternal affiliations are with the Masonic Order, Knights of Pythias, Loyal Order of Moose and B. P. O. of Elks.

Mr. Smith married, October 4, 1896, Miss Lucy Maude Alexander, a resident of Frankfort. They have two children, the son, Glenn Ransom, being a child of Mrs. Smith's first marriage. Glenn Ransom is now associated with his step-father in the cigar manufacturing business at Frankfort. He married in 1926 Mary Sarhent, of Frankfort, and has a daughter, Jane.

Mr. Smith's daughter, Geraldine Frances Smith, is a very unusual young woman, highly educated, having completed the four-year course at Purdue University, graduating with high honors in 1921, and won a scholarship that gave her a period of study at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She is now superintendent of the Gladwynne Colony at Gladwynne, Pennsylvania. She was recently married there to Mr. Lynn Seiler.

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

EDWIN LENOX WEESNER. The Weesner famliy have been residents of Grant County, Indiana, for over eighty years. It is an honored as well as an old family name, and its representatives have been numbered among the substantial people of the county, industrious farmers and business men, always doing a sustaining part in local religious, moral and educational affairs. One of the best known in the present generation is Mr. Edwin Lenox Weesner, the prominent Marion manufacturer and business man.

He was born near Marion, in Franklin Township, August 2, 1867. His birthplace was a log cabin that stood on the farm of his grandfather. His father, Elihu J. Weesner, was born near Jonesboro, Grant County, was a successful farmer, held the office of justice of the peace, and died in 1917, at the age of seventy-two. He married Margaret Osborn, who was born in Marion and who died in 1915, at the age of sixty-nine. Both are buried in the I. O. O. F. Cemetery at Marion.

Edwin Lenox Weesner attended the Franklin Township schools until graduating in 1883, then took a teacher's preparatory course in the Indiana State Normal at Terre Haute, and during 1884-85 taught a school in Monroe Township of his native county.

Mr. Weesner's busines experience has connected him during the greater part of his life with the paper industry in some phase or another. His first commercial job was that of traveling salesman for Fisher Brothers, a wholesale paper house of Ft. Wayne. After seven years he left the road and at Marion joined Mr. George Osborn in founding the Osborn Paper Company. He is still financially interested in this business, though his active connection was given up some years ago. About 1910 Mr. Weesner became general manager of the Spencer Table Company, and the result of his five years of active work put this local industry on a highly satisfactory plane.

Mr. Weesner for a number of years has given most of his time to the Economy Box & Pie Plate Company, an industry which he and Mr. George C. Cole bought and of which Mr. Weesner and his family are now the sole owners. It was one of the earlier industries of Eastern Indiana manufacturing paper and strawboard specialties. It was started in 1898, with a capitalization of only $10,000. Today the company has an investment of $300,000 and during the past ten years the scope of the industry has broadened tremendously to keep pace with the demand for the paper specialty products it turns out.

Mr. Weesner;s name is officially connected with a number of business corporations, not only in Marion, but elsewhere in the state. He is secretary of the Osborn Paper Company, treasurer of the Midwest Paper Company, president of the Marion Mattress Company, president of the L. P. Cubberly Tobacco Company of Marion, director of the Spencer-Cardinal Furniture Company, president of the Hoosier Stove company, and president of the Washington Theater Company of Marion. He is a director of the Consolidated Finance Company of Indianapolis and was formerly a director of the Grant Trust & Savings Company.

Mr. Weesner is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and B. P. O. Elks, is a member of the Meshingoneshia Country Club, the Mecca Club. A Republican, he has satisfied his conscience in political matters by doing his duty as a business man and citizen. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church. His favorite pastime is travel, and his travels have taken him to many remote and interesting parts of the wide world. In traveling he has always been accompanied by his wife and two daughters. In 1912 they went to the Bermuda Islands, in February, 1925, they made a voyage to the West Indies, Panama and the Spanish Main. This was followed in January, 1926, by a more extended cruise to South America, South Africa, East Africa and the Mediterranean ports. In 1927 they went through the Panama Canal and over the Pacific to Honolulu. In 1929 their travels took them to the Holy Land and Egypt, in the course of which they visited Damascus and many other interesting places in the Holy Land. During the first five months of 1931 they made another trip around the world, taking them to Africa, India, Eqypt, China, Japan, Formosa, Ceylon, Phillippines, Hawaiian Islands, Panama and Cuba.

It was during one of these voyages that his daughter Margaret met Mr. Haram, then purser on the ship on which they were traveling. As a result of the romance between the young people Mr. Haram came to the United States, married Miss Weesner and became an American citizen. Besides being general manager of the Economy Box & Pie Plate Company, he is also a director of the Marion National Bank and associated with Mr. Weesner in most of his enterprises.

Mr. Weesner married in February, 1897, Miss Edna Redding Snelson. They were married at Anderson. Her father, George Andrews Snelson, was a contracting carpenter of that city. He died in 1897, at the age of sixty-five and is buried at Anderson.

Mr. and Mrs. Weesner had four children, but their third daughter, Harriett, born in 1910, died in 1912, and the fourth child, born in 1912, died in infancy.

The older of the surviving daughters is Margaret, who was born at Marion, August 31, 1905, attended local schools and the Tudor School at Indianapolis, and then went to the University of Wisconsin. Her husband, Mr. B. L. Haram, was born in England, March 4, 1901, was educated in the University College of North Wales, and in 1917 volunteered. He was attached to the Royal Naval Transport Service between English ports and Halifax, Nova Scotia. After the war he was transferred to the mercantile service with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and was in that work until he came to America.

The second daughter, Elizabeth Ann, was born at Marion January 17, 1907. After the schools of Marion she attended the Emma Willard Preparatory School at Troy, New York, was in a girls' school at Rye Beach, New Hampshire, and is now a student of home economics and journalism at the University of Wisconsin.

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

ELMER ULYSSES POWELL was born and reared in Howard County, and the people of that county for over forty years have appreciated and esteemed his abilities as an accomplished physician and surgeon, and his great devotion to his work. He has a host of friends all over the district around Greentown, where he has his personal headquarters.

Doctor Powell was born on a farm near Greentown, September 3, 1862. His father, Amos Powell, was born in Fayette County, Indiana, in 1844, gave all his active life to farming and died in 1908. Doctor Powell's mother was Mary Scott Powell, a native of Grant County, Indiana, who passed away in 1866. There was one other children, Cora, who is the wife of Judson Costlow, of Kirkland, Indiana.

Elmer Ulysses Powell was four years of age when his mother died. He grew up on a farm and in rural surroundings, attended school at Greentown, and at an early date resolved on a professional career. He won his M. D. degree in the Indiana Medical School at Fort Wayne in 1884 and also attended the Ohio Medical College in 1892, and has kept in touch with the profession by his membership in the medical societies and by attending conventions and clinics.

Doctor Powell first practiced at Sexton in Rush County, Indiana, but in 1892 returned to his old home community at Greentown, and there he has practiced among old friends and the newer generation of people for upwards of forty years. He owns a beautiful home in the town and has one of the best farms in the county, which is at once an investment and a hobby. Doctor Powell is a Republican in politics, a member of the Masonic fraternity and Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a Methodist.

He married, September 18, 1884, soon after qualifying for medical practice, Miss Minnie R. Ayers. She was born in Rush County, Indiana, in 1865, daughter of Thomas and Nancy J. Ayers, also natives of Indiana. Doctor and Mrs. Powell had two children: Arsie Opal, deceased; and Merle, wife of Harry McGonigal.

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

RALPH ALEXANDER LEMCKE. Lemcke is one of the most familiar names in Indianapolis, associated with the title of several of the skyscrapers of that city. It is the name of an old and distinguished family of Indiana, a family that laid the foundation of its wealth in the Ohio River steamboat industry. The name has also been a distinguished one in Indiana public affairs.

Ralph Alexander Lemcke, who represents the present generation of the family, was born at Evansville, Indiana, February 5, 1880, son of Julius and Emma (O'Riley) Lemcke. His father was a native of Hamburg, Germany, and his mother of Evansville. Julius A. L:emcke when fourteen years of age was sent to the United States, in care of the captain of a ship, and on reaching Vanderburg County, Indiana, lived with an uncle on a farm for ten years. Later he and his brother conducted a country store. When he was twenty-five years of age he moved to Evansville, worked for a time in the bank of William H. Heilmann, became city treasurer and sheriff of Vanderburg County, was associated with David K. Mackey in the building of the Saint George Hotel, and owned a group of steamboats plying on both the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

Julius A. Lemcke after many years of active leadership in local politics in Southern Indiana was elected to the office of state treasurer in 1886, and in the spring of the following year moved his home to Indianapolis. He served two terms, and was offered the post of treasurer of the United States by President Benjamin Harrison, but declined. He retired from all business activities in 1891 and died January 22, 1909. His wife passed away in March, 1925. Their surviving children are Katherine L. Ernos, Ralph Alexander and Mrs. Russell Fortune, who share in the extensive Lemcke estate.

Ralph Alexander Lemcke was liberally educated, spending part of his early youth abroad in Germany and Switzerland, graduated from Saint John's Military Academy, attended Lawrencevill, New Jersey, Preparatory School and Princeton University, and his first connection with practical business was in the insurance line. For several years he had charge of the Evansville Woolen Company. On returning to Indianapolis he became associated with his father, and after his father's death became a trustee of the Lemcke Estate. In recent years he has made extensive additions to the Lemcke Building at Indianapolis, also built the Lemcke Annex, now known as the Consolidated Building, these being two of Indianapolis' largest and finest office structures.

Mr. Lemcke married, January 6, 1904, Cornelia Cunningham, who was born at Evansville, daughter of George A. and Susan (Garvin) Cunningham. Her maternal grandfather, Thomas Garvin, was an Indiana commissioner to the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Lemcke have three children: George A., of Indianapolis; Cornelia L. Grassi, of Florence, Italy; and Ralph A., attending the Lawrenceville Preparatory School in New Jersey. Mr. Lemcke is a member of the Episcopal Church, while his wife is a Presbyterian. He was chairman of the Republican city committee of Indianapolis in 1917, and from 1920 to 1924 was treasurer of Marion County. He was a member of the board of governors of the Board of Trade, is a Mason, belongs to the Columbia Club, is a charter member of the University Club and a life member of the Country Club.

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

LEVI GALE WARREN was one of the distinguished Warren family whose individual and combined resources and abilities made Terre Haute a business center of great prestige in the early days of the old National Road and the Wabash River, and also contributed to the intellectual and social activities of that community.

The Warrens were of New England stock, and the family first came to Vigo County in 1820. A half-brother of Levi G. Warren was Chauncey Warren, one of Terre Haute's early merchants. Beginning in 1839 there was in Terre Haute an important business firm known as C., L.G. & W.B. Warren, usually referred to as the Warren Brothers. The Warrens carried on business on an extensive scale and were interested in the flat boat transportation of merchandise to the South. All of the brothers were distinguished figures in the life of the city. Levi Gale Warren was not only a merchant but became widely known throughout the state for his connection with the Terre Haute branch of the State Bank of Indiana. The great Indiana financier, Hugh McCulloch, afterwards comptroller of the treasury, pronounced Levi G. Warren one of the safest, most prudent and sagacious financiers connected with the Indiana banking system.

The Warren family have been in America for three centuries. The founder of the family was John Warren, who was born in England in 1585 and came to America with the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, settling at Watertown, Massachusetts, where he died in 1667. The subsequent generations were: Daniel Warren; Jonas Warren; Samuel Warren; Bernard Warren; and Levi Gale. Samuel Warren was a soldier in the American Revolution.

Levi Gale Warren was born at Adams, Jefferson County, New York, January 31, 1816, and died at Terre Haute in June, 1865. He and his brother, William B. Warren, were the children of Bernard M. and Abigail (Gale) Warren. By a previous marriage Bernard Warren was the father of three children, one of whom was Chauncey. Abigail Gale was also of old New England ancestry and was a descendent of Abraham Gale of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, who was a soldier in the American Revolution.

Bernard M. Warren brought his family to Indiana from New York State in 1820 and made a brief stop at Morristown, a settlement on the Blue River. From there he moved to Vigo County and located in the settlement known as Markle's Mill in Otter Creek Township. Bernard M. Warren died within a month after his arrival. His widow then took her two sons, William B. and Levi Gale, back to Morristown, where she lived until her death December 3, 1845.

Levi Gale Warren came to Indiana at an early age. While he had the advantages of few schools, he possessed a rugged character and a keen sense of business, so that he was a valuable helper and associate to his brothers and other business men from an early age. He and his brother became extensively identified with the pork packing industry during the height of its fame along the Wabash Valley, and they shipped great quantities of pork products south along the rivers to New Orleans. He invested heavily in real estate, and what was known as the Warren Park Farm was one of his properties, and for years it was one of the show places of Vigo County.

However, it is proper to associate his name chiefly with the great financial institution known as the State Bank of Indiana, which was chartered about 1834 and eventually had thirteen branches, one of which was located at Terre Haute. In 1853 Levi G. Warren became president of the Terre Haute branch. At the expiration of the original charter o the bank, he was elected president to wind up the affairs of the institution. Then under the law of 1855, providing for the establishment of the Bank of the State of Indiana, he and some other stockholders organized a branch at Terre Haute and became one of the directors, continuing with the institution until it surrendered its charter as a result of the passage of the National Bank Act in 1863. He then helped organize and became the first president of the First National Bank of Terre Haute and held that office at the time of his death.

Levi G. Warren was an active Republican from the formation of the party. He was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. C. C. Oakey, of Terre Haute wrote the following tribute of this splendid pioneer banker: "Mr. Warren was a firm, square-built, handsome man. He was never demonstrative, but exceedingly agreeable when approached. He had an unusual sense of the ludicrous, and his quiver was always supplied with darts of repartee. He was liberal, but never foolishly so. His home as a model of good cheer. He died suddenly before his energies were half wasted but his house was in order and his large estate well disposed. His death was a public calamity."

Levi G. Warren married Martha Ellen Clark. She was born at Charles Town, Virginia, daughter of Sarah and Walter (Conway) Clark. To this marriage were born three children: Sallie W., now deceased, who was the wife of William P. Ijams, for many years a leader in the financial and social life of Terre Haute; Jesse E., deceased; and the only survivor is Miss Mary Alice Warren.

Click here for photo.

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

J. ARTHUR BRICE, M. D. Included among the capable, reliable and thoroughly educated members of the medical fraternity of Ripley County is Dr. J. Arthur Brice, who has been engaged in the practice of his profession at Batesville since 1924 and has built up a large and constantly increasing professional business. Prior to coming to Indiana he had varied and valuable experience as physician for several large corporations in the South, and the training, although hard and trying, has proven greatly valuable to him.

Doctor Brice was born in 1883, at Oneonta, the county seat of Blount County, Alabama, and is a son of M. W. and Gertrude (Parker) Brice. On both sides he is a descendant of old and distinguished Southern families. His paternal ancestors were early settlers of North Carolina and Virginia, whence his grandfather, William Brice, moved to Alabama about 1847. The Parkers came from Virginia and Doctor Brice's grandfather, Rev. William T. Parker moved from that state to Alabama about 1840. M. W. Brice, the father of Doctor Brice, has for many years been extensively engaged in the dairy business in Alabama, where he is the owner of a large dairy farm.

After attending the public schools of his native community J. Arthur Brice entered the University of Alabama, from the medical department of which institution he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine with the class of 1913. He served his interneship at the Hilman Hospital, Birmingham, Alabama, and commenced his medical practice with the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railway Company, where he was the head physician in charge of the Bessemer rolling mill and five blast furnaces. He continued to act in that capacity from 1914 until 1920, when he resigned to accept a position with the Majestic Coal Company, as physician in charge at Majestic, twelve miles north of Birmingham. The men engaged in work in the mines are subject to constant danger and injuries, necessitating the prompt attention of a skilled an tireless medical man, who must be prepared to be in attendance at any minute, day or night. The life of the company physician and surgeon is by no means a pleasant or easy one, but Doctor Brice does not regret this hard and strenuous training, for it was one of the most varied and comprehensive character, and brought him into close touch with human nature. In 1924 he resigned his position at Majestic, and in June of that year settled permanently at Batesville, where he has since been in the enjoyment of a gratifying general practice in medicine and surgery, with offices at 201 North Main Street. He is held in high esteem by the people of his community, and for two years served in the capacity of health officer. He is a member of the Ripley County Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and is a constant student of his profession, keeping fully abreast of its developments. As a fraternalist he belongs to Jefferson Valley Lodge No. 795, A. F. and A. M., of Bessemer, Alabama; and Cameron Grotto, of Birmingham, that state. Doctor Brice is a Republican, but has not cared for public office, his only service in that direction having been as health officer. He is a wide-awake citizen, however, and a helpful and constructive participant in all public spirited movements. His religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Doctor Brice married Miss Addie Parker, of another old Southern family, a different branch from that of his mother, of Cleveland, Alabama, and to this union there have been born two children: Miss Joy, who is attending Belmont College, at Nashville, Tennessee; and George, a student in the Batesville schools.

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

WALTER SCOTT ARMSTRONG throughout his active life was a resident of Howard County. The people of that county respect his memory as that of a strong and fine character, a man successful in business and no less successful in his varied relationships with public affairs.

He was born in Clinton County, Ohio, Febraury 3, 1838, and was a boy of about twelve years of age when his parents, Thomas Andrew and Sarah East (Grant) Armstrong, moved to Howard County, Indiana. His education was acquired partly in Clinton County, Ohio, also in Howard County, and he attended an academy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mr. Armstrong had the character and the education that made him during his early manhood a successful teacher. He taught in Kokomo and Tipton. While in Tipton County he was elected county auditor. For a number of years he was a farmer there, and after returning to Kokomo, engaged in business as a hardware merchant.

He served two terms as mayor of Kokomo during the early ‘80s and from 1884 to 1889 was postmaster of that city. Again he became mayor for the years 1898-1902. From 1879, the year he first entered the Kokomo City Council, continuously until his death in 1908 he was one of the most active and vigilant members of body except while engaged in the responsibilities of the other offices just named. Politically he was a Democrat and from early youth was a member of the Church of the Disciples.

Mr. Armstrong married at Tipton, Indiana, December 28, 1869, Miss Martha Ellen Winfield, daughter of William Shipley and Martha (Cochran) Winfield. Her father was a minister of the Disciples Church. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong had five children: Walter Winfield, deceased; Horace Howard, who married Nellie Smith; Miss Jessamine Armstrong; Merle, wife of Paul Conner, an artist living at Long Beach, California; and Ralph, who is a newspaper man in New York City and ;married a talented literary woman, Roberta Yates.

The five grandchildren of Mr. Armstrong are: Dan, of Kokomo; Virginia, wife of John Duke, of Kokomo; Dorothy, wife of Harney Watson Stover, both of them holding teaching positions in the Penn State College; Edith, librarian of the Kokomo High School; and Margaret Conner, a girl who has won distinction as a violinist and is the wife of Robert Hall Rockwell, of Long Beach, California.

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