Mr. Van Winkle was born on the parental home farm in Adams Township, Madison County, Indiana, December 19, 1853, and he is now one of the veteran and influential captains of industry in his native state. He is a son of William P. Van Winkle, who was both a physician and a clergyman of the Campbellite, or Christian, Church. Rev. William P. Van Winkle, M. D., was born at or near West Alexandria, Ohio, in 1828, and when a child of four was brought, in 1832, to Adams Township, Madison County, Indiana, where he was reared and educated, and where he became not only a pioneer exponent of farm industry but also a pioneer physician and clergyman, so that his was a broad and benignant influence in community affairs. He was an early graduate of the Medical College of Indiana, and in addition to practicing his profession with much of ability and loyalty, he also gave long and zealous service as a minister of the Christian Church. Both he and his wife continued their residence in Indiana until their death, and they were numbered among the honored and revered pioneers of this state.

The original American representative of the Van Winkle family came from Holland and made settlement in the State of New York, in 1635, and the family name became one of prominence in the early annals of the Empire State. Thence the paternal great-grandfather of Benjamin A. Van Winkle of this review migrated to North Carolina, where he eventually wedded a girl who was but sixteen years of age at the time. With his bride he made the journey on horseback from North Carolina to Kentucky, about the time of the War of the Revolution, and after a comparatively brief period of residence near Brownsville, Kentucky, they continued their journey and became very early settlers in Preble County, Ohio, where they acquired a section of land near West Alexandria, the remainder of their lives having there been passed and Mr. Van Winkle having been closely associated with the early civic and industrial development of that section of the Buckeye State. His son James, one of four sons, was there born, and in his young manhood came to Anderson, Indiana. He married a Miss Prigg, a member of one of the pioneer families of Madison County, Indiana.

Benjamin A. Van Winkle received the advantages of the Indiana common schools and also those of a home of exceptional culture and refinement. Thereafter he was a student in the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute, and at that institution he was the first president, in 1874, of the newly organized Philomathian Society. He gave four years of effective service as a teacher in the public schools and in the period of 1875-78 was principal of the school at Fortville, Hancock County. In 1878 he established himself in the drug business at Hartford City, and after having been thus engaged four years he became editor and publisher of the Hartford City Telegram, which he sold in 1885. Thereafter he was here identified with varied lines of business until 1890, when he initiated his alliance with paper manufacturing. He became connected with the Utility Paper Company at this time and later became one of the principals of this concern. In 1894 he and his associates organized the Paragon Paper Company of Eaton, Indiana, and in 1900 he sold his interest in each of these two Indiana corporations and removed to Chillicothe, Illinois, where he became interested in and effected the rebuilding of a paper mill. There he remained two years, as a principal in the concern and as its general manager. In this, corporation, the Phoenix Paper Company, he sold his interest in 1902, and he then returned to Hartford City, Indiana, where he connected himself with the local plant of the United Box & Paper Company of Dayton, Ohio. In December, 1904, he assumed charge of the Hartford City Paper Company, and here, in 1905, he introduced the glassine and grease proof system of paper manufacturing. This plant thus became the first in the United States to produce and manufacture on a commercial scale the now celebrated glassine and grease proof paper. Mr. Van Winkle became vice president of the Hartford City Paper Company in 1906. The company was incorporated in 1897.

Mr. Van Winkle has long been a prominent figure in industrial circles. He was president of the Indiana Manufacturers Association during the period of 1913-17, has been for twenty years a member of the National Industrial Conference Board, and gave prolonged service as a member of the board of managers of the National Tariff League. He is well fortified in his convictions concerning governmental and economic policies and his political allegiance is given to the Republican party. He is a member of the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce, and is a former president and now an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Hartford City. He has membership in the fine old Columbia Club in the City of Indianapolis, and he is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church in his home city. In the World war period Mr. Van Winkle was loyally and actively concerned with patriotic movements and enterprises, especially through his connection with the National Manufacturers Association.

At Eden, Hancock County, Indiana, September 2, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Van Winkle to Miss Leah Jarrett, and she passed to the life eternal in January, 1910. The one child of this union, Eva, was born in Hartford City, Indiana, January 1882, and is now deceased, she having become the wife of Herman Anderson and their one child, Benjamin H. Anderson, having been reared from infancy in the home of his maternal grandfather, Mr. Van Winkle. Mrs. Anderson was graduated in Harcourt Place Seminary, an Episcopal school at Gambier, Ohio, and her son was graduated in Culver Military Academy, Culver, Indiana, January 5, 1929, he being now a member of the office staff of the Hartford City Paper Company. Benjamin H. Anderson is a member and a second lieutenant of the Reserve Corps of the United States Army. December 31, 1928, marked his marriage to Miss Dorothy Downend, of Detroit, Michigan. The large and modern plant of the Hartford City Paper Company retains an average corps of 200 employees, including many skilled operatives, and its output is sixteen tons of paper every twenty-four hours. The plant utilizes a tract of eighteen acres, the equipment includes the most approved modern machinery and accessories, and major attention is given to the production of the special glassine papers, for which there has come a wide and constantly cumulative demand.

In October, 1911, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Van Winkle to Miss Emma Clevenger, and her death occurred in March, 1926. On July 14, 1927, he married Alta C. Curry, of Indianapolis, Indiana.

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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

WALTER J. BALL was born in the City of Lafayette, Indiana, on July 16, 1853, and, after his graduation from Georgetown University at Washington, D. C., in 1874, he entered into the business life of Lafayette and has occupied a prominent position not only in the home of his birth, but in surrounding territory, having gained a large acquaintance through the wholesale grocery business of his father, Owen Ball, who settled in Lafayette in 1841 and who was an active factor in the upbuilding of that city.

When Owen Ball left his home in Ireland in 1839 his objective place of residence was in the Middle West, wherein he saw opportunities for the pioneers. After two years of employment in Hartford, Connecticut, he married Frances Hayes, a native of Hartford, he pushed over to Lafayette, where he displayed his business ability and won a good place in the confidence of a growing community. He constructed a section of the Wabash & Erie Canal and in 1852 he was awarded the contract for making the right-of-way for the Indianapolis & Lafayette Railroad through what was known as the "deep cut," just south of Lafayette. He had such an abiding faith in the future of Lafayette that he invested all he could in real estate, feeling assured of increasing values, and his prediction was realized.

The old homestead of Owen Ball, built in 1846, has been occupied continuously by his family, there being only three survivors out of seventeen born, Walter J. Ball, Charles H. Ball and Louis P. Ball.

Walter J. Ball from the beginning of his business life has been recognized as an active man in its fullest sense, and at his age of seventy-eight years in this year of 1931 his endurance and his energy show little or no decline. He has always been identified with the clubs and organizations which were signed for upbuilding and advancement of community welfare, and for several years he was president of the Commercial Club. He became interested in several manufacturing projects and in 1899 he was in the group which organized the Lafayette Loan & Trust Company and he was placed in active management of it and in 1917 was made president. That institution has been successful from the beginning and has an enviable position among the banks of that section of Indiana. It has resources of more than four million of dollars, and in 1919 the LafayetteLoan & Trust Company organized, with its own resources, the Lafayette Joint Stock Land Bank, which now has a capital, surplus and reserves of more than $800,000 and resources exceeding $9,000,000, Mr. Ball being the president thereof.

Walter J. Ball, as a matter of duty, took interest in politics, but never sought office of any kind, preferring the citizenship which belongs to commercial and financial pursuits, and in that field his services were sought and always given for the public good. During the war he was effective in committee workand as a speaker, and his business brought him many responsibilities in and out of his home city. He served as director of the Indianapolis Street Railway Company for many years and as president of the Association of Joint Stock Land Banks and other clubs and societies.

The activities of Walter J. Ball have been recognized and appreciated by the Community.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931

EDGAR DWIGHT JOHNSTON. While Edgar Dwight Johnston, president of the Roots Blower Company, had nothing to do with the founding of his present company, his executive ability, sound judgment and wide vision have carried the business forward until today it is one of the most important concerns of its kind in the state. He was born at Cedarsville, Greene County, Ohio, October 11, 1861, a son of David Steel and Eliza Elmira (Bogle) Johnston, natives of Ohio, he born in Adams County and she in Clark County. The" father was a dealer in pianos at Cincinnati, Ohio, ,and later at Tacoma and Seattle, Washington, and he died at Tacoma, in 1914.

The very early education of Edgar Dwight Johnston was acquired in the public schools of Cedarville and Portsmouth, Ohio, and from the age of eight years, when it was recognized that he had musical ability of more than average talent, he was given lessons to prepare him for a musical career, and carried on his studies in the two towns already mentioned and at Cincinnati so thoroughly that he became professor of piano and voice in the Cincinnati College of Music.

In 1885 Mr. Johnston was married to Miss Jane Lewis Roots, who was born at Connersville, Indiana, a daughter of Francis Marionand Esther Elizabeth (Pumphrey) Roots, the latter of whom was a native of Vermont; and grandson of Alanson Roots, a native of Vermont, who brought his family to Oxford, Ohio, so as to educate his children, and he died at Oxford, Ohio. The maternal grandfather was Nicholas H. Pumphrey, a native of Virginia, and an early settler of Connersville. The Roots Blower Company was founded at Connersville by Philander H. and Francis M. Roots, in 1859. They built their plant at Connersville because of the eleven-foot drop at this point in the Whitewater Canal, and when they found that their undershot wheel was not producing sufficient power Mr. Roots designed a water motor which more than supplied their needs. The action of this motor attracted considerable attention and the superintendent of a nearby stove foundry made the remark, when he saw it running and producing a blast of air, that it would melt iron in his cupola. His casual statement led Mr. Roots to design the blower, now the leading product of the plant, and he offered the position of foundry foreman in his plant to the man who had made the suggestion, feeling that he wanted to have one of his capability in his employ. The offer was accepted, and the position was held until the man retired, after which, until his death ten years later, he enjoyed an ample pension from the company.

In the fall of 1885 Mr. Johnston was induced to come into the Roots concern and 1earn the business, and he has worked himself up. In 1889 he was made vice president and general manager, and in 1898, thirty-one years ago, he was elected president, which office he is still holding. The plant now comprises three machine shops and a foundry, and employment is given to about 225 people, the majority of whom are experienced men in their several lines. In fact the Roots Blower Company employs more skilled men of long experience than any other industry in the city, and the plant is kept open the year round. When Mr. Johnston came into the company thirty employees comprised the payroll, and all of the expansion has come since he has had executive charge. The output of the plant is sold allover the world, and a private track of the Big Four Railroad connects the company direct with all markets.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnston have had the following children born to them: Esther J., who is the wife of Earl G. Meeks, secretary and treasurer of the Roots Blower Company; Sylvia J., who is the wife of Logan G. Thomison, secretary and treasurer of the Champion Coated Paper Company, of Hamilton, Ohio. Mr. Johnston is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, and is one of its most active pillars. For the past fifteen years he has been superintendent of the Sunday School, has played the organ, and held all of the offices of the church. Since 1922 he has been chairman of the board of trustees of the Childrens Guardians. A strong believer in Connersville, he has invested heavily in local enterprises, and he is a director of the First National Bank and the Connersville Cabinet Company. The Republican party holds his membership and has his strong support, and he is regarded as one of the leaders in Fayette County. For several years he has been on the board of governors of the Country Club, and May 5, 1919, he assisted in organizing the Connersville Rotary Club, and served as its first president. In every possible way he has aided in the growth and betterment of Connersville, and is accepted as one of the city's most representative citizens.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931

DANIEL TENNY ROOTS, who is now living virtually retired in his native City of Connersville, judicial center and metropolis of Fayette County, is a scion of honored and influential families that were early established in this county and that were founded in America in the Colonial period. Mr. Roots, like his father, was long and prominently identified with manufacturing industry at Connersville, and he continues one of the loyal and liberal citizens of his native community now that he has retired from active business.

Daniel T. Roots was born at Connersville on the 22d of October, 1859, and is a son of Francis Marion Roots and Esther Elizabeth (Pumphrey) Roots, the former of whom was born in Oxford, Ohio, and the latter of whom was born at Connersville, Indiana, a daughter of Nicholas Pumphrey, who was born in Virginia and who became a pioneer settler in Fayette County, Indiana, where he became a representative farmer and land owner. The Roots family lineage is traced back to French-Huguenot origin, and representatives settled in England near the close of the eleventh century, the ancestral home in England having been in the parish of Badby, near London, in the early part of the seventeenth century and the original American representatives of the family having come from that locality. The subject of this review is of the sixth generation in direct descent from Joshua Roots, who came to America in 1634 and was given a grant of land in the vicinity of Salem, Massachusetts. He died at Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1683. His son John, born in 1646, became the owner of valuable property at Woodbury, Connecticut, and there his death occurred in 1723. His son John II was born in 1693 and died in 1757. Benajah, son of John II, was born in 1725, and of him more specific information comes down from the past. He was a man of superior intellectuality and deep Christian faith and he was licensed to preach in the year 1754. In 1757 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Guernsey, and his death occurred March 15, 1787. At the time of his death his son Benajah Guernsey Roots was owner of a large sheep farm near Charlotte, Vermont. This son married Louisa Higley, of Castleton, Vermont, and their son Alanson was the first of the family to migrate to the Middle West. Alanson Roots married Sylvia Yale in the year 1808, and in 1824, accompanied by his wife and their four sons, he set forth with team and covered wagon for the long overland journey to Ohio, where he made settlement at Oxford, and established a pioneer mill for the manufacturing of woolens. The four sons who accompanied him to Ohio were Guernsey Yale, Franklin Wright, Philander Higley and Alanson Kirby, and the fifth son, Francis Marion, was born at Oxford, Ohio, October 28, 1824.

Francis M. Roots early became actively associated with the operation of his father's woolen factory at Oxford, and as his services were there in almost constant requisition he found it impossible to take time for the completion of a full college course, though he was able to take a special course in Miami University. At the age of nineteen years he became a member of the Presbyterian Church. In 1845 he was deputized to travel with manufactured goods from the factory, the merchandise being transported by team and wagon, and he thus visited the sparsely settled regions of Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. In the following year he became associated with his father and brother in establishing one of the early and important industries at Connersville, Indiana. They found that here could be obtained an excellent native water power at comparatively small cost, and on land on the west side of the Whitewater Canal they erected a four-story frame factory, which they equipped with the most improved machinery then available. Later the factory at Oxford, Ohio, was discontinued and the Connersville factory was made the central productive plant.

With the discovery of gold in California, Francis M. Roots became imbued with the desire to proceed to the New Eldorado, and February 26, 1849, he embarked, at Cincinnati, on the steamer Pike, and found transportation down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Missouri. At Independence, that state, he outfitted for the hazardous journey across the plains, and after passing a time in Ohio he again went to Independence, Missouri, whence he set forth for California, in which state he arrived August 14, 1849. In the following spring he, with companions, located a remunerative claim in Scorpion Gulch, and success attended his search for gold, with the result that he soon decided to return home. He returned by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and he found that during his absence his brother Philander had been successfully carrying on the manufacturing business, with which he promptly concerned himself again, he having arrived at Oxford, Ohio, in May, 1850. His marriage occurred soon afterward and in 1851 he established permanent residence at Connersville, Indiana. The two brothers eventually found it expedient to concentrate their attention to the manufacturing of their pressure blowers, their first patents on which were obtained in 1866 and to which they gave the title of Roots Positive Blast Blower. Francis M. Roots sold to his brother his interest in the woolen factory and about 1872, in his small machine shop, he invented his rotary blower for power. He soon conceived the idea of applying the device to foundry and other purposes, and in the manufacturing of the blowers he and his brother organized the P. H..& F. M. Roots Company, which developed the business into one of the large and important industries of Indiana. With this substantial and prosperous business Francis M. Roots continued to be identified until his death, which occurred November 25, 1889, his wife having survived him a number of years.

Daniel T. Roots has well upheld the high civic, industrial and personal honors of the family name and has never faltered in loyalty to and appreciation of his native City of Connersville. Here he profited by the advantages of the public schools, and thereafter he attended Chickering Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1879, when he was about twenty years of age, he became actively associated with the affairs of the manufacturing industry of which his father was the executive head at Connersville, and he applied himself diligently to learning all details of the business. On his twenty-first birthday anniversary his father gave him an interest in the business, and upon the death of his father, in 1889, he became president of the company. This office he retained ten years, and he then, sold the plant and business, though he retained a small amount of the company's stock, this latter having been sold by him about 1926, to his sister and brother-in-law. Mr. Roots has been a director of the First National Bank of Connersville since 1891. He has a valuable landed estate of 300 acres in Fayette County, this property lying adjacent to Connersville, on the east, and being given over to diversified agriculture and stock-raising. He is the owner also of business and residential properties in Connersville, where his beautiful home is situated at 706 Central Avenue. Mr. Roots has never sought the honors or emoluments of public office but is well fortified in his convictions concerning governmental and economic policies and is a staunch advocate of the principles of the Republican party. He and his wife are zealous members of the Second Presbyterian Church in their home city. They have no children.

In the year 1893 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Roots to Miss Irene Ellis, who was born and reared in Fayette County and who is a. daughter of the late Melvin and Harriet (King) Ellis. Mrs. Roots is a gracious figure in the social, cultural and church activities of her home community and is the popular hostess of one of the most beautiful and hospitable homes of Connersville.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931