GUY H. WALKER, for nine years postmaster at Rockport, Indiana, and for many years one of the prominent business men of the city, is a member of one of the old and substantial families of Spencer County. His grandfather, Richard A. Walker, Sr., operated flat-boats on the Ohio River and was also in business in Rockport. Guy H. Walker's father, the late John H. Walker, who was commercially inclined, founded solid business enterprises at Rockport, his native city, and later was elected its first mayor. After completing his educational training Guy H. Walker went through a period of business instruction under his father that served to equip him for a responsible position in the far West, but in 1904 he returned to Rockport, where his unusual capacity for business soon became evident and public approval rested upon his undertakings. Politically active in the Republican party, he has been tendered many positions of responsibility, but has never accepted any public office except that of postmaster, although few matters of civic importance at Rockport are completed without his judgement being consulted.

Guy H. Walker was born at Rockport, Indiana, October 29, 1875, and is a son of John H. and Ida (Bodenhamer) Walker. John H. Walker was born at Rockport, where he received a public school education and for many years was engaged in the grocery business, in which he met with success and prosperity because of the possession of good judgment, industry and sound ability. He was one of his community's most active citizens in public affairs, serving as Rockport's first mayor and as president of the City Council, and establishing a splendid record for high and valuable public service. In his death, which occurred February 17, 1929, his community lost on of its most public-spirited citizens. Mr. Walker married Miss Ida Bodenhamer, who was born in Ohio, and was brought as a child by her parents to Rockport, where she graduated from the public high school and subsequently took a college course. She and her husband were the parents of two children, of whom one died in infancy.

Guy H. Walker received his early education at Rockport, and following his graduation from high school was sent to the New York State Military Academy, at Cornwall, New York, from which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894. Returning then to Rockport, he was for a time associated with his father in the grocery business, in 1902 going to California to represent the firm of Bishop & Company. In 1904 he again returned to Rockport, where he was engaged in the wholesale confectionery business until 1923, when he was appointed acting postmaster, a position he held until November, 1930. He proved himself a capable and conscientious public official and during his administration instituted a number of reforms and improvements that have elevated the standard of the mail service at Rockport. Mr. Walker is also the directing head of the grocery business which was founded by his father, and continues to operate a confectionery store, being known as one of the substantial and capable business men of his community. Mr. Walker is a staunch Republican and in Methodist circles is a generous contributor to all religious movements and a consistent attendant at services.

On May 11, 1904, at Rockport, Mr. Walker was united in marriage with Miss Elinor Sibert, a daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Garrison) Sibert, the former a native of Indiana and a flour mill owner, and the latter a native of Ohio. Mrs. Walker had one brother, who died while serving the American army during the World war, and a sister, who survives. Mr. and Mrs. Walker have two children: John H. S., born August 2, 1905; and Mary Garrison, born February 2, 1914. Mrs. Walker has been very prominent in public affairs, and for two terms was chairman of the Republican First District Committee. She is also a competent business woman and a stockholder in two leading banks of Rockport.

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

FREDERICK WILLIAM PELZER had been a resident of Warrick County more than sixty years when death put its seal on his mortal lips, and here he had lived and wrought to worthy ends, and proved a citizen of influence, had identified himself with productive farm industry, and had in earlier years followed his trade, that of blacksmith. He was born at Osnabruck, Kingdom of Hanover, Germany, October 10, 1843, and his death occurred at his home in Boonville, Indiana, November 9, 1923, so that his life span had covered a period of over eighty years.

Mr. Pelzer received the advantages of the schools of his native place and also served an apprenticeship in the blacksmith shop of his father. In 1859, after the death of his parents, he came to the United States, accompanied by his youngest brother, Hon. Clamor Pelzer, to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this publication. Mr. Pelzer was about sixteen years of age when he thus came to this country, where he and his brother, then a lad of seven years, landed in the port of New Orleans, Louisiana, whence in the following year they came to Warrick County, Indiana, where both remained until their death. On his arrival in Warrick County Mr. Pelzer found employment on the farm of a man named Stone, near Boonville, and in addition to his service on the farm he worked also at his trade, that of blacksmith. The passing years rewarded his earnest and honest endeavors with substantial prosperity and at the time of his death he was the owner of valuable farm property in both Warrick and Pike counties, as well as real estate in Boonville, including the attractive home in which he passed the closing years of his life and in which two of his daughters still reside.

Unqualified was the loyalty of Mr. Pelzer to the land and state of his adoption, and he was known and valued as one of the liberal and progressive citizens of Warrick County. He was influential in public affairs of local order, was a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party, was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife, who preceded him to eternal rest, were earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

At Boonville, on the 9th of June, 1872, Mr. Pelzer was united in marriage to Miss Amelia Goettlich, who was born on Long Island, New York, and whose parents soon afterward came to Indiana and established their home in Warrick County, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Mrs. Pelzer was a daughter of Charles and Charlotte (Zohner) Goettlich, who were born and reared in Germany and who thence came to the United States soon after their marriage. Of the eleven children of Mr. and Mrs. Pelzer Marie died in infancy, and Elizabeth died at the age of fourteen years. Charles, who died at the age of fifty years, a bachelor, was associated with his father in the hardware and plumbing business at Boonville at the time of his death. William, who died in March, 1928, virtually sacrificed his life on the alter of patriotism, as his death was the direct sequel of his loyal oversees service of a machine-gun battery of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, where he was in active service six and one-half months. On the voyage to France Mr. Pelzer responded to a marine night call and in the darkness fell and injured one of his eyes. A tumor formed back of the eye and he became blind after his return to his home, the injury having been the direct cause of his death, which occurred March 24, 1928. He was engaged in the hardware business at Vincennes at the time of his death, was a bachelor, and his sisters, Emma and Freda were the chief beneficiaries of his estate. These sisters inherited also farms owned by their father, and these various properties they rent to desirable tenants. Emma, eldest of the surviving children, resides with her sister Freda and their bachelor brother Ernest in the attractive home at Boonville, where Ernest is successfully engaged in the gents furnishings business. Gertrude is the wife of John Wilke, who is a civil engineer and as such is in Government service in Washington, D. C. They have no children. Miss Clemintine is employed in the Government treasury department in Washington, D. C. Ernest, the one surviving son, is a representative business man of Boonville, as previously noted. Helen is the wife of Eurah Day, who is engaged in the grocery business in the village of Pelzer, Warrick County, a place name in honor of her father and his brother Clamor, the latter of whom was one of the most substantial capitalists of the county at the time of his death and a former member of the State Senate. Mr. and Mrs. Day have four children, whose names and respective ages, in 1929, are here recorded: Charles, twenty-one years; George, seventeen years; Dorothy, fifteen years; and Charlotte, eleven years. Blanche, next younger of the children, is the wife of William Veeck, who is an insurance man at Charleston, Illinois, and they have no children. Miss Freda is the youngest of the children and resides with her brother Ernest and sister Emma in their pleasant home at Boonville, as previously stated in this memoir to their honored father.

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

WILLIAM STILLWELL ENNES, former mayor of the City of Princeton, Gibson County, has lived all his life in that section of Indiana, and always in close touch with its educational commercial and civic interests and welfare.

He was born in Gibson County, November 28, 1862, and his parents, Embree E. and Martha J. (Kirk) Ennes, were natives of the same county. He was their only child. His father died while serving in Company B of the Sixty-fifth Indiana Infantry during the Civil war. The widowed mother survived for many years, passing away at the age of eighty-four on September 10, 1927. It is interesting to note that Mr. Ennes' maternal grandmother died in 1925, at the extraordinary age of 104 years, having been born in 1821.

William Stillwell Ennes attend public schools in Gibson County, completed the teachers' course in the Indiana Central Normal College at Danville, and immediately began teaching in Gibson County. After three years he entered the grocery business, and in 1889 became deputy county treasurer. In 1898 he was elected county treasurer, serving two terms. After the close of his second term, in 1905, he resumed his active connection with the grocery business, but since 1914 his business energies have been chiefly taken up by his farm interests in Gibson County.

Mr. Ennes was elected mayor of Princeton in November, 1925, serving four years, to 1930, and set a fine example of able and systematic management of the municipal affairs. He is a Republican in politics, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is president of the Community Club and is a Scottish Rite Mason.

Mr. Ennes married in November, 1889, Miss Lucy Kightly daughter of Josiah and Sarah J. (Roe) Kightly. Her father was born in England and came to Gibson County many years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Ennes had a family of four children: V. Dale, born in 1891, now living at Columbus, Indiana, married Florence Nicholson and has a daughter, Jeanne; Darle, born in 1893, lives at South Bend, Indiana; Raymond died in infancy; and Lowell K., born in 1907, graduated from DePauw University with the A. B. degree in 1929, and is now associated with the General Electric Company at Fort Wayne, Indiana.

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

MRS. ANNA M. ALLEN, the loyal, efficient and popular librarian of the public library in the attractive little city of Newburg, Warrick County, was born and reared in this community, where her venerable father, Frederick Frank, now lives virtually retired, he being the oldest male citizen not only of Newburg but also of the township in which the village is located. He will be ninety-one years of age on October 21, 1931.

Frederick Frank was born in the vicinity of the City of Berlin, Germany, and was a youth when he came to the United States, he having become a resident of Warrick County, Indiana, a number of years prior to the outbreak of the Civil war, and his loyalty to the land of his adoption having been significantly shown in his service as a valiant soldier of the Union during virtually the entire period of that great conflict. He served in the command of General Ulysses S. Grant and later in that of General William T. Sherman, with whose forces he participated in the historic march from Atlanta to the sea. Among the early engagements in which he took part was the battle of Shiloh. He was one of nine men who simultaneously enlisted from the vicinity of Newburg, and all the others of the numbers met their death in battle. He was a member of the Twenty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry and with that command lived up to the full tension of conflict in the many engagements in which it was involved. He is now one of the comparably few remaining members of the Grand Army of the Republic in his home community. After the close of the war Mr. Frank engaged in the dry goods business at Newburg, and this old-established enterprise is now conducted under the management of his daughters. Though he still figures as its head, he has lived retired from active business during the past several years. He is one of the veteran business men and honored and influential citizens of Newburg and is the oldest living member of the local Evangelical Church. His wife, whose maiden name was Margaret Nester, likewise was born in Germany, and she also is a devoted member of the Evangelical Church. Of the six children three are living, two having died in infancy and Frederick, Jr., having died at the age of ten years. Misses Elizabeth and Lena remain with their venerable father in the old home at Newburg and have the active management of his mercantile establishment.

Mrs. Anna (Frank) Allen received her education by attending the Newburg public schools and was a member of the first class to be graduated in the high school in the City of Newburg. She later took extension work in Evansville College, and has taken a summer library course in the City of Indianapolis since assuming her present position, that of librarian of the Newburg Public Library. Mrs. Allen is one of the influential women representatives of the Republican party in her native community and has been vice chairman of the party committee of Warrick County. She is a zealous member of the Presbyterian Church at Newburg, and is active in its Ladies Aid Society and its Missionary Society. She is an influential of the Newburg History Club and has much of leadership in the social and cultural life of her home community. She has been deeply interested in the affairs of the Newburg Public Library from the time of its organization, in 1907, and her service as its librarian has been notably loyal and constructive. She is a member of the County and District Historical Societies and a member of the district library staff. Mrs. Allen has retained ownership of the home farm near Newburg since the death of her husband, in 1923.

March 28, 1905, marked the marriage of James L. Allen and Anna M. Frank, and the gracious marital bonds were severed by the death of Mr. Allen, March 18, 1923. He was born in Vanderburg County, Indiana, and a few weeks later his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Augustus Allen, who had come form Ohio to Indiana, removed to Warrick County, where they passed the remainder of their lives on their old home farm. James L. Allen was reared and educated in Warrick County and was one of the substantial and progressive farmers of this county at the time of his death, his civic loyalty having been significantly shown when he effected the construction of the first improved road of modern order in Ohio Township. Margaret Jane, elder of the two children of Mr. and Mrs. Allen, was born in the year 1908 and is now the wife of Floyd E. Long, a prosperous young farmer in Vanderburg County, their one child, Charles Allen Long, having been born July 31, 1928. Virginia, the younger daughter, was born in 1914 and remains with her widowed mother, she being a student in the Newburg High School in the class of 1932, after which she plans to attend Evansville College.

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

ERNEST C. PURDUE. In his administration as postmaster of Newburg, Warrick County, Mr. Purdue is giving effective and popular communal service in the attractive little city in which he was born and reared and in which he still resides in the family homestead that was the place of his birth, the date of his nativity having been March 28, 1885, and he being a representative, in the third generation, of one of the old, influential and honored families of this county.

Samuel D. Purdue, father of the Newburg postmaster, likewise was born and reared in this town. A man of fine intellectuality and distinctive civic loyalty, he gave forty-three years of service as a teacher in the public schools, and during thirty-five of these years he held the office of superintendent of the Newburg public schools. His was large and benignant influence in training the youth of his native county, and here his name and memory are held in lasting honor, his death having occurred May 7, 1922. He gave six years of service as township trustee and was the incumbent of this office at the time of his death. His brothers Jarrott and William went forth as gallant young soldiers of the Union in the Civil war, and in that conflict the former sacrificed his life in battle. Mrs. Mary E. (Castle) Purdue, widow of Samuel D., still maintains her home at Newburg, where she was born and reared and where she is held in affectionate regard by all who have come within the compass of her gracious influence. She is a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was also her husband, and he was a Republican in political adherency. Of the seven children Dora died at the age of eighteen years; Grace is the wife of H. H. Stone, who is engaged in the dairy business in the City of Louisville, Kentucky; Ernest C., of this review, was next in order of birth; Nettie died at the age of fourteen years; Bertha is teaching in the public schools of Newburg, she being the wife of William Seybold, who is a farmer in this county, and the one child being a daughter, Grace Mary; Bernice is the wife of Armstrong Forster, who is engaged in the plumbing business in the City of Evansville, and they have two children, hugh and Rodger; Samuel, the youngest of the children, is a salesman in the employ of a New York book-publishing concern, he having married Miss Marie Cann, of Frankfort, Indiana, and their one child being a son, John.

In the Newbury public schools Ernect C. Purdue continued his studies until he was graduated in the high school, as a member of the class of 1902. He soon afterward entered the employ of a telephone company, and by study and practical experience he became in time a skilled electrical engineer. He was manager of a local telephone company one year, and thereafter passed a year as an electrician in a leading shipyard in Chicago. He then returned to Newburg and became shipping clerk for the Ryan-Hampton Tobacco Company, with which he remained two years. His impaired health then led him to pass six months on a western ranch, where his vigorous activities enabled him to recuperate his physical powers. Upon his return to his native place he here assumed the position of assistant engineer with the Tennis Construction Company, with which concern he continued his service as a civil engineer nine years. During the ensuing fifteen years he was identified with the coal mining industry in this section of Indiana, and in 1922 he was appointed postmaster of Newburg, he having been reappointed in 1926 and again in 1930, and thus being in his eighth year of consecutive service in this office, in which his administration has been signally efficient and popularly satisfactory.

Mr. Purdue is a stalwart in the local cohorts of the Republican party, he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in their home community, he and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he is a trustee.

April 23, 1908, marked the marriage of Mr. Purdue to Miss Myrtle Vonderscher, daughter of Frank and India (Dodds) Vonderscher, of Newburg, and of the nine children of this union all are living except Bernard, who died at the age of three years. The name and respective dates of birth of the other children are here recorded: Bertha, born July 25, 1910, is serving with her father as assistant postmaster; Harold, March 23, 1914, will graduate from high school with the class of 1932; Kenneth, born May 15, 1916; is in the high school class of 1934; William Samuel (better known as Bill Sam), was born April 6, 1918; Mary, March 25, 1920; Paul, Decmeber, 23, 1921; Bernice, April 18, 1924; and Jack, May 8, 1925.

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

WILLIAM FRANKLIN FISHER has been long and prominently identified with the textile industry and is now president of the Columbia City Woolen Mills, at the judicial center of Whitley County, he having been the virtual founder of this concern and having developed it into one of the great textile manufacturing corporations of Indiana, besides which he has become a prominent figure in farm enterprise in Whitley County, with special attention given to dairy farming. Here he has three finely improved farms, with respective areas of 270, 160 and 126 acres, and all situated near Columbia City. He operates his farms under effective partnership alliances, utilizes three tractors, maintains an average of sixty milch cows in the dairy department of the enterprise, and has brought his farms to model status, the properties representing an investment of $6,500 and his progressive policies of operation having resulted in the rendering of substantial dividends on the investment. Mr. Fisher has thus proved that under proper management farm enterprise may still be made substantially profitable.

Mr. Fisher was born on a farm in Noble County, Indiana, January 21, 1865, and is a representative of one of the old and honored families of that county. His public school studies were carried forward to the fifth grade, and as a boy he had his share of active fellowship with the work of the farm. After leaving school he found employment in the woolen mill operated by his father at Baintertown, a rural hamlet near New Paris, Elkhart County. At the start he received thirty cents a day and worked sixty-six hours a week. He acquired a thorough knowledge of the textile trade, and as a young man became a journeyman at his trade. In 1891 he became superintendent of the Menig Woolen Mills, at Danville, Illinois, and this position he retained four years, the mills having manufactured cassimer worsteds. During the ensuing four years Mr. Fisher was manager of the George Merritt Company's woolen mills at Indianapolis, Indiana, and he next gave two years of service as manager of the Rochester Woolen Mill, at Rochester, Minnesota. He then became manager of the Zanesville Woolen Mill, Zanesville, Ohio, manufacturers of dress goods, and with this concern he thus remained three years. He then returned to Indiana and at South Bend became general manager of the South Bend Woolen Mill, devoted to the manufacture of fabrics for men's apparel, and after nine years with this concern he came to Columbia City and, in 1914, organized the Columbia City Woolen Mills, of the controlling corporation of which he has since continued the president and general manager. He supervised the erection of the plant and operations were initiated on the basis of $6,000, though he soon affected the sale of preferred stock to the amount of $80,000. The manufacturing plant now covers an area of two acres, and the assets of the concern are now nearly $500,000, Mr. Fisher's stockholding in the corporation having a valuation of $175,000. The Columbia City Woolen Mills have been developed into a large and important concern, and the products are principally uniform cloth for Railroad men, letter carriers, policemen and firemen. Both through this enterprise and those involved in his farm operations Mr. Fisher has made large and valuable contribution to the industrial and commercial prestige and advancement of Whitley County, and he is in the fullest sense a loyal and liberal citizen. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. In his character, his ability and his achievement Mr. Fisher has signally conferred honor on his native state, and his success has been won entirely through his own efforts.

On the 5th of May, 1895 Mr. Fisher was united in marriage to Miss Mary Loutsenhiser, of Danville, Illinois, and they have two sons and one daughter. Merle M., the elder son, was born November 4, 1899, and was graduated in the University of Michigan as a member of the class of 1921 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He is now secretary and assistant manager of the Columbia City Woolen Mills. The maiden name of his wife was Louise Erdman and their marriage was solemnized in 1924. Richard R., the younger son, was born March 4, 1907, and after completing his studies in the Columbia City High School he graduated at the University of Michigan, calss of 1924, and thereafter he was a student one year in a textile school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he being now treasurer and office manager of the Columbia City Woolen Mills. Vera, the only daughter, wa sborn May 26, 1896, and supplemented the discipline of the South Bend High School by a course in Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, she having been there graduated in the conservatory of music as a member of the class of 1919 and having thereafter been a successful teacher of music in the public schools until her marriage. She has two sons, William Howard and John, and one daughter Mary Alice.

John R. Fisher, father of the subject of this review, was born in England, in 1837, and in 1843 came with his widowed mother to the United States, the home having first been established at Akron, Ohio, where he later was united in marriage to Elizabeth Rider. In 1863 he and his wife came from Ohio to Indiana and settled in Noble County, he having been employed in various woolen mills before he initiated the operation of the mill in which his son William, of this sketch, served his apprenticeship, at Baintertown, Elkhart County. He and his wife were residents of Indiana at the time of their death. John R. Fisher depended entirely upon his own resources in fighting the battle of life, he and his mother were poor in the early period of their residence in the United States, and he worked loyally and earnestly to advance himself and provide also for his loved mother, while later he manifested the same spirit in providing for his wife and children.

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

Deb Murray