Not only were the Welborns among the first to come across the Ohio River into Southern Indiana, but they were also first in the Colonial establishment of old Virginia. Doctor Welborn’s ancestor, John Welborn, settled at Jamestown, Virginia, May 24, 1609. Doctor Welborn is a representative of the tenth generation the American family. The names of the heads of these generations down to Doctor Welborn are John, Jonathan, Captain Thomas, Samuel, John, Jesse York, William Wallace, Dr. George Walker and James York.
The founder of the Indiana branch of the family was Jesse York Welborn, who was born in North Carolina, and, passing through Kentucky, arrived in Indiana Territory prior to 1810. He became a resident of Mount Vernon, Posey County. For a time he was postmaster, and it is said that he followed the same custom as Abraham Lincoln, carrying the letters in his tall hat and delivering them as he met the addressees.
Dr. James York Welborn represents the third consecutive generation of the family in the medical profession of Southern Indiana. His grandfather, Dr. William W. Welborn, graduated from the Evansville Medical College, and practiced at Stewartsville in Posey County until his death at the age of fifty-six. Dr. William W. Welborn married Hannah Walker. Her brother, Dr. George B. Walker, was at one time dean of the old Evansville Medical College, and thus two families of prominence in the medical history of Evansville were united by marriage. Mrs. W. W. Welborn died at the age of seventy-eight.
Dr. George Walker Welborn was born at Mount Vernon in 1843, was educated in Asbury College, now DePauw University, at Greencastle, and during the Civil war served in the Hospital Corps of the Union army. For a time he was a merchant at Evansville, in 1877 was graduated from the Evansville Medical College, and then returned to Stewartsville, where he practiced his profession until his death on March 23, 1905.
George W. Welborn married Martha Stinnette, who was born in Kentucky, daughter of Whiting and Nettie (Britton) Stinnette. She is now eighty-five years of age. Her grandfather served with General Lafayette and was of French ancestry. Doctor and Mrs. George W. Welborn were married October 27, 1867, and had a family of four children: William W., born March 5, 1869; Anna A., born June 17, 1871; James York, and Helen A., born March 14, 1875. William married Rose Viers, lives at Cynthiana, Indiana, and has six children. Anna is on the business staff of her brother's hospital at Evansville. Helen is the wife of James Steadman, a manufacturer at Braintree, Massachusetts, and has one daughter, Gratia.
James York Welborn was born at Stewartsville, Posey County, Indiana, January 28, 1873. He attended local schools, DePauw University at Greencastle, and was graduated in 1899 from the Marion Simms Medical School of Saint Louis. Since graduating he has practiced at Evansville for thirty-two years. He became associated with his cousin, Dr. Edwin Walker, in the Walker Hospital, and he is now the owner of this splendid hospital and clinic, and for many years has been its chief surgeon. During the World war he offered the facilities of the hospital to the Government and also served as consulting surgeon to the Marine Hospital. He has been commissioned a surgeon in the United States Public Health Service, with the rank of major.
Doctor Welborn is a member of the Vanderburg County, Indiana State and Ohio Valley Medical Associations. He was elected a member of the Evansville City Council in 1921, is a Democrat, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Methodist Episcopal Church. He also belongs to Evansville Lodge No. 64, A. F. and A. M., Evansville Consistory of the Scottish Rite and Hadi Temple of the Mystic Shrine.
Doctor Welborn married in 1902 Miss Mamie Begley, daughter of Dr. Baxter Begley. Doctor Welborn has three children, Susanna, Mary A. and James Y., Jr. The son, who married Ruth Sadler, lives at Evansville, where he is engaged in the real estate and insurance business. Susanna is the wife of R. R. Osborn, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has a son, David R. The daughter Mary is a graduate of St. Margaret's School at Waterbury, Connecticut; and now a student in Sarah Lawrence College at Bronxville, New York.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JOSEPH H. BAKER, whose home is at Evansville and whose official duties are in the courthouse as a justice of the peace of Vanderburg County, is an old time railroad man, spending many years in the railroad service.
He was born at Evansville, September 17, 1872. His father, August H. Baker, was born in Kentucky and throughout his active life was engaged in building steamboats. He died in 1909. Judge Baker's mother was Zerelda Troutman, who was born at Shepherdsville, Kentucky, and died in 1910. There were two children, Joseph and Zerelda.
Joseph H. Baker attended grade and high schools and as a youth took up railroading as a career. For several years he was a fireman with the Louisville & Nashville, and then joined the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railway, and for ten years held the post of engineer. He is a retired member of the Brotherhood of Firemen and Locomotive Engineers and for four years was chairman of its grievance committee.
In 1914 he was elected constable of Pigeon Township, Vanderburg County, holding that office two terms. He has presided over the court as a justice of the peace since 1922 and was reelected in 1926 and again in 1930. Judge Baker's repeated reelection is particularly remarkable in view of the fact that he is of the minority party, having been for eight years the only Democrat in the county courthouse. Judge Baker is a member of the Tribe of Ben Hur, and has been a generous supporter of churches of different denominations.
He married in November, 1892, Miss Mary Stockmyer, daughter of Jacob Stockmyer. Judge and Mrs. Baker have two sons, Gus A. and Fred, both of whom live in Evansville. Gus married Effie Cozine and has three children, named James J., Junior and Mary.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JAMES ALEXANDER HEMENWAY. For a quarter of a century Southern Indianans looked upon James Alexander Hemenway as the most gifted leader in politics and national statesmanship. They honored him repeatedly with votes while he was a candidate for the National House of Representatives, and eventually he won the great honor of being chosen a member of the United States Senate. Senator Hemenway was always loyal to his native town of Boonville, where he practiced law for nearly thirty years. He was born there March 8, 1860, son of William and Sarah (McClelland) Hemenway. His father was also born at Boonville, was a merchant there, and for a long time postmaster. Of the five children two are now living: William, a farmer at Folsomville, Indiana; and Lucy M., wife of Stump Monroe, a fruit grower at Upper Hill, Florida.
James Alexander Hemenway grew up in Boonville, attended common schools and beyond these early advantages was dependent upon his own efforts and ambitions for his success. For several years he was employed in the local postoffice, making use of his spare time to study law, and in 1885 was admitted to the bar. He built up a large general practice at Boonville, and rapidly conducted himself with the important business interests of the community. He owned real estate, had several farms and city property in Boonville, and was a director in the City National Bank and a stockholder in the American Trust Company at Evansville.
A year after he was admitted to the bar he was elected prosecuting attorney of the Second Judicial Circuit of Indiana, in 1886, and served until 1890. In 1890 he was a member of the Republican state committee and later was a member of the Republican National committee. In 1894 he was elected a member of the Fifty-fourth Congress from the First Indiana District, and that district gave him six consecutive elections as a member of the National House of Representatives. He was one of the ablest of Indiana's delegation in Congress during the important years of the McKinley administrations. In 1904 he was reelected to the Fifty-ninth Congress, but did not take his seat, since he resigned to succeed Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks as United States senator. He was elected by the Indiana Legislature to the United States Senate on January 18, 1905, serving out the unexpired term until 1909.
Senator Hemenway died February 11,1923. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World. In many ways he used his influence and generous interests for the benefit of his home community. He donated the ground for the ball field at Boonville and it is known as the Hemenway Field.
Senator Hemenway married at Boonville July 1, 1885, Miss Lida Alexander, daughter of William and Nancy (Wilder) Alexander. Her father was a Warrick County farmer. Mrs. Hemenway survives her husband and resides at Boonville. There were three children: Lena Mae, born July 10, 1887; George R., born July 3, 1891, and Jamie E., born October 3, 1899. Lena Mae, who graduated in music at New York, first married Bennett Gates, a hotel man at Indianapolis, and she is now the wife of Warren James, a lawyer at Dayton, Ohio. By her first marriage she has three children: Cynthia Gates, born in 1911; James Gates, born in 1913, and Margaret Gates, born in 1917. By her marriage to Mr. James she has a daughter, Catherine, born in 1927. George R. Hemenway is administrator of his father's estate, and married Ethel Mick; of Indianapolis. The younger daughter, Jamie E., is the wife of Everett Stump, a banker at Gary, Indiana, and has twin children, James and Everett M., born in January, 1928.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
BYRON SUTTON. With well proved technical skill and artistic conceptions as an architect, Mr. Sutton is engaged in the active work of his profession in the City of Vincennes, as one of the principals in the Sutton & Routt Company, the offices of which are situated on the third floor of the Citizens Trust Building. Mr. Sutton was born at Princeton, judicial center of Gibson County, Indiana, July 7,1 1884, and is a son of James and Mary E. (Wright) Sutton, the former a native of England and the latter of Gibson County, Indiana, where their marriage was solemnized and where James Sutton was engaged in the mercantile business at Princeton at the time of his death, in 1913. His father was Thomas; Sutton, a member of the historic old Sutton family of Sutton, England.
After completing his studies in the high school at Princeton, Byron Sutton attended the Chicago Technical College and also carried forward studies in the Chicago Art Institute, where his discipline was specially in line with the profession of which he is now a successful representative. In 1904 he established residence in Vincennes, and here he was employed in the offices of a leading architect, Thomas Campbell, until 1913. Mr. Campbell having, in the meanwhile, in 1907, admitted a partner, L. H. Osterhage, and the firm name having thereafter continued as Campbell & Osterhage until he retired, in 1913. From that year Mr. Sutton remained as a silent partner of Mr. Osterhage until he became a constituent principal, under the firm title of Osterhage & Sutton. The death of Mr. Osterhage occurred in 1923, and in continuing the well established business Mr. Sutton and L. W. Routt formed a partnership, whereupon the present title of Sutton & Routt, architects and engineers, was adopted. In the World war period Mr. Sutton was retained by the Government as architect in construction work at Camp Knox, Kentucky, and he was thus engaged seven months. Prior to and after this service he was active and influential in furthering patriotic movements in his home city and county, including the drives in support of the Government war loans, Red Cross work, etc. His firm drew the plans and specifications for several Vincennes school buildings and for modern school buildings at Casey, Lawrenceville, Bridgeport, Albion, Sumner, Oblong and Olney, Illinois; the Coliseum and Saint Mary's school at Washington, Indiana; the Vincennes Coliseum, and in Vincennes the fine buildings of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, First Baptist Church, Saint James Episcopal Church and the Vincennes Fortnightly (woman's) Club, while many other buildings in the city stand in evidence of the technical and artistic skill of Mr. Sutton and those who have been his professional coadjutors. Other fine structures in the planning and erecting of which Mr. Sutton has been concerned are: Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church at Saint Francisville, Illinois; the Methodist Episcopal Church at Princeton, Indiana; the Christian Church at Seymour, Indiana; the Methodist Church at Bloomfield, Indiana; the Daviess County Hospital at Washington, Indiana, and the Daviess County Courthouse in the same city. The firm has designed many modern residences of the highest grade, as well as large business structures in various cities. The concern maintained offices in Hollywood, Florida, in the period of 1925-27, where it did important construction service,. as did it also at Miami and Fort Lauderdale, that state, and also in Jackson, Mississippi.
Mr. Sutton has membership in the Indiana Engineers Society, Indiana Society of Architects and is a registered engineer in Indiana, as well as a registered architect in both this state and that of Illinois. He is a valued member of the Vincennes Chamber of Commerce and is president of the local Rotary Club. His basic Masonic affiliation is with historic Vincennes Lodge No.1, A. F. and A, M., and his other York Rite affiliations are with the local Chapter, Council and Commandery, while as a Noble of the Mystic Shrine his membership is in Hadi Temple at Evansville, Indiana.
At Vincennes was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sutton to Miss Muriel M. Bateman, daughter of Henry and Alice Bateman, of this city. The two children of this union, Thomas and Ruth, have graduated from the public schools of their home city and Thomas attended Notre Dame University at South Bend, Indiana, where he is taking a course in architecture.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JUDGE OMER B. RATCLIFF, of Covington, has enjoyed many distinctions and honors since coming to the Indiana bar, and has practiced law and served on the bench for over thirty years.
Judge Ratcliff was born near Kingman in Fountain County, Indiana, April 24, 1869. His father, William R. Ratcliff, was born in Parke County, Indiana, November 30, 1831, and spent his active life as a farmer and stock raiser. He died in 1914. William R. Ratcliff married Mary C. Eubank, who represented another early Parke County family. Her father, Lancelot E. Eubank, came from England. William R. Ratcliff and wife reared a large family of children: Rosa, Sylvester, Elizabeth, Charles M., Omer B., A. Lonzo, Alvin M., and the following are deceased: Rosa, Sylvester, Charles M.
Omer B. Ratcliff acquired his early education in district schools near Kingman, took preparatory work and the Bachelor of Arts degree in the Union Christian College at Merom, Indiana, graduating in 1892, and spent two years in Indiana University. He spent the two following years teaching higher mathematics in Oskaloosa College, at Oskaloosa, Iowa. In 1896 he was awarded the degrees Master of Arts and Bachelor of Laws.
The farm on which Judge Ratcliff grew up is of special interest to stock men, since it was the place or origin of the famous "baby beef," a type of beef animal which has been very popular during the past twenty years.
Judge Ratcliff has been practicing law since 1899. In 1902 he was nominated on the Republican ticket for prosecuting attorney, and served an unexpired term by appointment from Governor Durbin. Later he was twice elected to that office. In November, 1918, he was elected judge of the Sixty-first Judicial Circuit of Indiana and has been on the bench for over twelve years, reelected for the third term in the general election of 1930.
December 4, 1900, Judge Ratcliff married Miss Minnie Jones, daughter of Isaac Jones, of Iowa. She passed away June 29, 1919, leaving a son, Harry Ernest Ratcliff, who at present is in the employ of the Wabash Valley Electric Company of Covington. Harry E. Ratcliff married Nelda Barkley, of Covington.
Judge Ratcliff is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, is a member of the Presbyterian Church and a Republican. He is an able and scholarly lawyer, and has assembled in his offices at Covington one of the best private law libraries in the state. It contains all of the West system of reports and all of the early state reports to the West system, except those for Maine, New Hampshire and Maryland. Judge Ratcliff has found his pleasure and delight in the law, as well as a profession and livelihood. He is a student of general literature and history, is a profound thinker and a man whose private and public character commands the respect of all who know him.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CHARLES LOUIS EHRENSPERGER is a veteran in the service of the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad, which is more familiarly known as the Monon Railroad, and to this important Indiana transportation system he has given virtually all the working years of his adult life. He is now general agent for the Monon system in the City of Hammond, Lake County.
Mr. Ehrensperger was born in Indianapolis, the fair capital city of Indiana, and the date of his nativity was October 21, 1869. He is a son of Frank and Elizabeth (Klanke) Ehrensperger, both of whom were born in Germany. Frank Ehrensperger was about twelve years of age when he accompanied his widowed mother from their native land to the United States, and the home was first established at Madison, Indiana, whence removal was subsequently made to Indianapolis, where the son was reared to maturity and completed his youthful education. In that city Frank Ehrensperger passed the remainder of his life and had a successful career in the boot and shoe business, his death having there occurred in 1887, and his widow having survived him nearly forty years, she having been of venerable age at the time of her death, in 1925, and having been for many years a devout and zealous member of the German Methodist Church. Of the five children the eldest is John A., who still resides in Indianapolis, as does also Mrs. Amelia Starker, next younger of the children; Charles L., of this review, was next in order of birth; Edward H. is division freight agent for the Monon Railroad at Michigan City, Indiana; and Joseph is a resident of Indianapolis.
Immediately after completing his studies in the Indianapolis High School Charles L. Ehrensperger became a messenger boy in the Indianapolis offices of the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad, and thus initiated his long, loyal and efficient service with the corporation that has retained his name on its payroll during a period of more than forty years and that has accorded him advancement of consecutive order during the passing years. From Indianapolis he was transferred to the northern part of the state, and he served about one year as station agent at Michigan City. In 1920 he was transferred to Hammond, in which city he has since continued his service as general agent for the Monon system for the Calumet district.
Mr. Ehrensperger has been diligent and resourceful as a railway executive and through his efforts has come substantial expansion in the business controlled by the Monon in the Calumet district, a district in which are centered great industrial and commercial enterprises. He has likewise been loyal and progressive in his civic attitude, and has been specially active and influential in the affairs of the Hammond Chamber of Commerce. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and he and his wife are zealous members of the First Presbyterian Church in their home city, he being a member of its board of elders, and Mrs. Ehrensperger being active and popular in the work of the church, besides being a director of the Hammond Woman's Club. In Indianapolis Mr. Ehrensperger retains his affiliation with Oriental Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted l Masons, and in that city he was formerly in active affiliation with the Knights of Pythias.
In his native City of Indianapolis, on 1st of September, 1891, :was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ehrensperger to Miss Louise Elvis, who was there reared and educated, her parents, William S. and Magdalena (Hett) Elvis, being deceased and their mortal remains finding resting place in one of the beautiful cemeteries of Indiana's capital city. William S. Elvis was a successful commercial artist and was following his profession in Indianapolis at the time of his death, which occurred a number of years ago. His widow passed away in 1923, when well advanced in years.
Mr. and Mrs. Ehrensperger have reason to take distinct pride in their two talented and scholarly sons, Edward C. and Harold A. The sons received the advantages of the Indianapolis public schools and both were graduated in historic old Harvard University. Edward C. Ehrensperger took post-graduate work in Harvard University and there received his degree of Doctor of Philosophy. At the university he became affiliated with the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. In the World war period he was retained in service in the ordnance department of the United States Army, in Washington, D. C. He passed three years in intensive study in Europe -two years at the University of Bonn, Germany, and one year at Lund, Sweden. He is now a member of the faculty of Wellesley College, at Wellesley, Massachusetts, where he is professor of languages. While a student in the University of Bonn he was one of ten students chosen by Professor Thurneyser, of that institution, for special assistance in his compilation of the first published dictionary of the Irish or Gaelic language, and at the time of this writing, in 1931, he is preparing a concordance on Anglo-Saxon. On the 19th of June, 1931, Professor Edward C. Ehrensperger was united in marriage to Miss Helen Elizabeth Swezey, daughter of A. D. Swezey, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mrs. Ehrensperger was graduated in Boston University and also in the Leland Powers School of Boston. Professor and Mrs. Ehrensperger made a trip through Europe as their wedding tour, and their home is to be maintained in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts.
Professor Harold A. Ehrensperger, younger of the two sons, was graduated in Harvard University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and later received from his alma mater the supplemental degree of Master of Arts. He later received from Garrett Biblical Institute of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, and in that celebrated institute he is now dean of men and professor of religious drama. In the World war period he enlisted for service in the United States Army and was stationed at Camp Taylor, Kentucky, in the Officers Training Camp, at the time when the armistice brought the war to a close, whereupon he received his honorable discharge.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
ARTHUR G. TAYLOR is historical secretary of the Lake County Historical Society, and his interposition in the compilation of a history of this county has resulted in the production of a work of major value in connection with the historic annals of his native state. Mr. Taylor maintains his home at Crown Point, the county seat, and held the office of justice of the peace. During the past five years he has been engaged in real estate and the general insurance business, with offices in the Allman Block. His deep and abiding interest in all that touches the welfare and progress of Lake County may well be understood when it is stated that he is a native of this county and a scion of one of its sterling pioneer families.
Mr. Taylor was born in the village of Creston, Lake County, July 26, 1880, and is a son of George W. and Ella D. (Ross) Taylor, the former of whom was born near Creston, this county, and the latter in the City of Indianapolis, she having been a daughter of Philip Connor and Nancy (Tinker) Ross, representatives of families established in Indiana in the early pioneer days. George W. Taylor passed his entire life in Lake County, he having received the advantages of the Creston common schools and the Crown Point Institute, and the major part of his active career having been devoted to contracting and building. He died April 25, 1914, and his widow passed away March 8, 1925, their mortal remains being interred in the cemetery at Creston.
The lineage of the Taylor family traces back to staunch New England Colonial stock; and the subject of this review is of the sixth generation in descent from Adonijah Taylor, of Deerfield, Massachusetts, who served as a patriot soldier in the War of the Revolution, as did also his son Obadiah, who was the great-great-grandfather of Arthur G. Taylor of this sketch, four of the brothers of Obadiah likewise having been Revolutionary soldiers. Adonijah Taylor was one of the historic Minute Men who marched forward with the patriot forces in response to the alarm of April 19, 1775, and later was in service as a lieutenant at Fort Ticonderoga. He is mentioned in history as having been in command of the block house at Lake George Landing, south of Lake Champlain, in the latter part of the year 1777. Representatives of the Taylor family gained pioneer prestige also in the states of Pennsylvania and New York, as well as in Indiana. Obadiah Taylor married Abigail Williams, of Deerfield, Massachusetts, she having been doubly descended from Robert Williams, the first of the family to arrive in America. She was a daughter of Dr. Thomas Williams, whose cousin was the founder of historic old Williams College in Massachusetts. On the maternal side Abigail (Williams) Taylor was descended from Major Elijah Williams, a colonial soldier and officer and a son of Rev. John Williams, who was a Puritan pastor at Deerfield, Massachusetts, and who was captured and taken into captivity by the Indians at the time of the Deerfield massacre.
Mrs. Ella D. (Ross) Taylor, mother of the subject of this review, was educated at Manchester, Indiana, and had there been a successful and popular teacher prior to her marriage, both she and her husband having long been zealous and loved members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Creston and Mr. Taylor having given a number of years of service as superintendent of its Sunday School. Rev. Henry G. Ross, brother of Mrs. Taylor, is a venerable clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is now living retired in the City of Charleston, West Virginia. Of the two children of George W. and Ella D. (Ross) Taylor, Arthur G. is the elder, and the younger was Edna, who became the wife of Arthur G. Ross and the mother of five children, three of whom survive her. These children were young at the time of their mother's death and were taken into the home of her only brother, who reared and educated them with utmost paternal solicitude, Marian, eldest or the number, is the wife of Brooks H. Short, of Anderson, Indiana, a senior in the Purdue University School of Electrical Engineering; Jack Benson Ross and George Gilbert Ross still remain in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor at Crown Point, and are still attending school. Jasper Donald Ross and Philip Connor Ross are deceased.
Obadiah Taylor, great-great-grandfather of Arthur G. Taylor, became the founder of the Indiana branch of the family, he having first come to this state and county while the Black Hawk Indian war was in progress, in the year 1832, and having thereafter returned to Pennsylvania; though he later became a pioneer settler in Lake County, in 1836, where he passed the remainder of his life and where his mortal remains rest in the old West Point Cemetery, on the east shore of Cedar Lake.
The preliminary educational discipline of Arthur G. Taylor was acquired in the Creston public schools and thereafter he pursued high school studies in turn at Lowell and Crown Point, where he was graduated from high school in the class of 1899. He was also, for a time a student in the Indiana institution now known as Valparaiso University. He taught school for two years at Center Prairie. At Hammond, Indiana, he began the study of law under the preceptorship of Hon. Charles F. Griffin, former secretary of state for Indiana, but upon the death of Mr. Griffin he abandoned his studies and engaged in the mercantile business at Creston. In this line of enterprise he there continued fifteen years, during which period he likewise served as postmaster. In 1918 he removed to Gary, but in the following year he established his residence at Crown Point, where he has since maintained his home. For five years Mr. Taylor gave characteristically effective service in production and cost accounting and stores auditing with the Illinois Steel Corporation, and during four years of this period he commuted daily between Crown Point and Gary. He has served as justice of the peace at Crown Point, an office in which he was called upon to officiate at many marriages, for Crown Point has become a veritable Gretna Green for eloping couples from Chicago ad other places, as well as a preferred point for the marrying of couples who have not found it expedient to resort to elopement. Thus it may be stated that while he did not function as a “marrying parson,” Mr. Taylor made a record of officiating at more than seven hundred marriages in the year of 1930. For several years Mr. Taylor was secretary of the Indiana State Postmasters League, and he was a member of a delegation of some twenty-five postmasters who, at the close of the national convention of the postmasters at Richmond, Virginia, in 1912, journeyed to Washington, D. C., and called upon President Taft at the White House in support of the program of the Legislative committee providing that all of the fourth-class postmasters in the United States be accorded civil service protection. This request was favorably acted upon by the President, a few weeks later and the important executive order placing more than thirty thousand additional postmasters under the civil service was issued.
In the World war period Mr. Taylor was a director of the Southern Lake County Red Cross organization for Cedar Creek Township. Mr. Taylor has given about eight years’ service to the Boy Scouts of Crown Point as troop committeeman, committee chairman, and member of the Gary council. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, is a member of the Forum Club of Crown Point, and has been a member of the precinct and the county executive committees of the Republican party in Lake County. He and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and while residing at Creston he gave eight years of service as Sunday School superintendent. He is now secretary of the official board and a member of the board of trustees of the church at Crown Point.
Mr. Taylor was one of the organizers of the Northwestern Telephone company of Indiana, in 1906, and he continued as its secretary, treasurer and director for two years.
As secretary and historian of the Lake County Historical Society Mr. Taylor has given a notably loyal and constructive administration, and he collaborated with Hon. John O. Bowers and Hon. Samuel B. Woods in the compilation of the tenth volume of the Lake County history that was published in 1929.
At Covington, Kentucky, on the 16th of September, 1907, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Taylor to Miss Mabel Ross, daughter of Jasper and Elizabeth (Milliken) Ross, of Manchester, Indiana. Mr. Ross was a representative merchant at Manchester many years and there he died in 1927, at the age of eighty-four years, his wife having preceded him to the life eternal. Mr. Ross was a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war and was a veteran member of the Grand Army of the Republic at the time of his death. Mrs. Taylor was reared and educated at Manchester. She has been affiliated with the Order of the Eastern Star at Milan, Indiana, and is a popular member of the Mothers Club and W. C. T. U. of Crown Point. Meredith R., elder of the two children of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, was graduated in the Crown Point High School as a member of the class of 1926, later was a student in DePauw University, and in1930 he is a student in the Western State Teachers College of Michigan, in the City of Kalamazoo. Meredith Taylor is a member of the student council at Western State, debate manager, president of Omega Delta Phi fraternity, and was recently elected to membership in Tau Kappa Alpha, national honorary forensic society. Elizabeth, younger of the two children, is a member of the class of 1935 in the Crown Point High School.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
RICHARD A. NUZUM, principal of the high school at Hobart, represents a family that has lived in Indiana for three generations. Mr. Nuzum was with the colors during the World war, and since the close of the war has made a successful record in the educational field.
He was born at Elwood, Madison County, Indiana, September 16, 1898. His grandfather, Dr. David P. Nuzum, a native of Ohio, came to Indiana when a young man. He was one of the early physicians and surgeons at Elwood and practiced his profession there until his death. He was surgeon in an Indiana regiment of infantry during the Civil war.
Charles A. Nuzum, father of Richard A., was born in Indiana, at Rigdon, Grant County. He was educated in Elwood, and since early manhood has been in business as a grocery merchant. He was in business at Elwood and now at Marion, Grant County. Charles A. Nuzum married Martha Hadley, who was born at Tipton, Indiana, was educated in public schools there and received a license as a teacher. She and her husband are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Marion. Her two sons are Richard A. And Robert C., the latter engaged in business at Marion.
Richard A. Nuzum graduated from the high school department of Marion Normal Institute and in 1916 received the Bachelor of Science degree from the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute. On June 21, 1918, he enlisted in the United States Navy. He was at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station near Chicago and later received naval radio training at Harvard University. He received his honorable discharge March 1, 1919.
After the war Mr. Nuzum taught for two years in the public schools near Marion. In 1921 he came to Hobart as principal of the grade schools. He resigned in 1927 in order to take advanced work in the Ball State Teachers College at Muncie, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1928. He then returned to Hobart and since the fall of 1928 has been principal of the high school. Mr. Nuzum is a man of broad experience and fine technical equipment and has exerted a splendid influence in the educational affairs of Hobart. He is also a local representative for the Indianapolis Life Insurance Company.
Mr. Nuzum is a member of the Indiana State Teachers Association. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the American Legion, and an independent voter. He is a Methodist, while his wife is a member of the Christian Church and the Eastern Star. Mr. Nuzum's favorite recreations are hunting and fishing.
He married at Marion, Indiana, November 4, 1923, Miss Hazel Weddell. She was reared in Elwood, graduating from the high school in that city, where her parents, Daniel and Cora (McHargue) Weddell, have lived for many years. Her father is a veteran employee of the American Sheet & Tin Plate Company. Mr. and Mrs. Nuzum have one son, Robert Russell.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 4
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
