Mr. Sterrett was born in Carroll County, Indiana, in 1880. His father Wilson Sterrett, also a native of Carroll County, is now eighty-two years of age. His mother, Jennie (Clark) Sterrett, died in March, 1919. These parents had thirteen children, Louis, Morgan L., Floyd, Maude, Jud, Ruby and Pearl, twins, Icie, Bud, Vance, Jennie, Ruth and Gaylord. Eleven are living, the two deceased children being Louis and Gaylord.

Morgan Lee Sterrett attended public schools in Carroll County, finished his high school course at Rockfield, and had two years of training in the Indiana State Normal at Terre Haute. He began teaching in 1899. After teaching for a few years he entered Indiana University School of Law, was graduated L.L. B. in 1909 and practiced for a time with his brother Floyd at La Fayette. He gave up the law to return to his first love, educational work. He has done post-graduate work in the University of Chicago. He was principal of several schools, being located at Delphi, North Manchester, Carmel and five years at Wheatfield.

Mr. Sterrett became county superintendent of schools of Jasper County in 1917. During the fourteen years he has been the official head of the school system of the county he has carried out a program which has brought the county a very favorable standing among Indiana counties in the matter of educational efficiency. After the war the county undertook a building program as requested by the governor, and has eliminated practically all the old and obsolete types of school buildings. Under Superintendent Sterrett the consolidation of individual school districts has been pushed, and the result is that the number of schools in the county has been reduced from seventy-three to fifteen. There are now eight high schools, affording the children advance educational opportunities in practically every community of the county.

Mr. Sterrett is a member of the Mason fraternity, the Dywyki, which later became the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and is a Republican and a Presbyterian. He married June 13, 1909, Miss Nellie May, daughter of James A. May, of Wolcott, Indiana. They have one son, Morgan Lee, Jr., born November 4, 1911, now a student of law at the University of Chicago.

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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

GEORGE BRUNO BEHNKE. Among active business men of Gary today, one whose life began in this section of Northern Indiana and who has lived in the vicinity of the site of the steel city all his years is George B. Behnke, who was born at Clark's Station in Tolleston, now Gary, December 16, 1887.

His father, Edward Behnke, came to Clark's Station about 1885, when he was twenty-three years of age. He was a native of Germany, where he was reared and educated, and on locating at Tolleston he engaged in the grocery business and was also a sand and gravel contractor. He was a devout Lutheran. He died in 1915 and is buried in the Waltheim Cemetery. His wife, Lena Schreiber, was born in Germany and came to America with her mother when eleven years of age. She finished her education in the Lutheran parochial schools of Indiana. She resides in Gary.

George B. Behnke was the only child of his parents. After getting his early education in the Lutheran parochial schools he attended Concordia College at Fort Wayne. Returning to Gary, he engaged in the coal and grain business, in 1908, a business which his father had established in 1906. After his father's death in 1915 Mr. Behnke took over the enterprise under his individual responsibility, and carries it on today at 2134 West Tenth Avenue in Gary. He is also a director of the First State Bank. He is one of Gary's progressive and public spirited citizens, always ready to lend his hand in any community or welfare undertaking. He is a member of the Commercial Club and Chamber of Commerce, the Cressmore County Club, is president of the Sixth Ward Welfare Association. He is a Republican and for a number of years has been a member of the board of the Lutheran Church.

Mr. Behnke married at Gary, December 31, 1908, Miss Gertrude Kunert, daughter of William C. and Anna (Diedel) Kunert. Her father was an early settler of Gary, and for many years has been connected with the Wonder Bakeries in that city. His father, Charles Kunert, and wife, Augusta (Arich) Kunert, were among the pioneers of Tolleston. William C. Kunert resides at Tolleston and his wife died about 1925. Mrs. Behnke attended the public and Lutheran parochial schools, and has been active in church work since girlhood. Mr. and Mrs. Behnke have two children, Helen Anna and George Edward. Helen was educated in the public and parochial schools, graduated from Emerson High School, after which she spent two years in Valparaiso University. She is the wife of Fred Finger, formerly of Dubois, Pennsylvania, who is a salesman for the Wonder Bakeries at Gary. Goerge E. Behnke graduated from the Emerson High School and is taking the pre-medical course at Valparaiso University. During the World war Mr. Behnke was a contributor to the loan and other drives. Outside of business he finds his chief recreation in duck hunting and golf.

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

CHESTER JAMES DUNN, prominent Indiana banker, is president of the First State Bank of Gary. His connections as a banker and as a citizen have made him widely known over the state.

Mr. Dunn is a native of Michigan. He was born at Muskegon, November 6, 1891. His father was a Michigan lumberman, Ernest G. Dunn. Ernest G. Dunn was born at Torquay, England, attended school there and in 1870 came to America. He lived in Chicago for some yaers, engaged in the wholesale lumber business, an din 1885 transferred his headquarters to Muskegon. In 1896 he moved to Michigan City, Indiana, and for many years has ben retired from active business. Ernest G. Dunn married Leonora Gray, who was born in Brown County, Indiana, daughter of Elisha Gray, a pioneer Indiana citizen. The Gray family subsequently moved to Chicago and her parents were buried in that city. Mrs. Leonora Dun was educated in Chicago. She is an active member of the Episcopal Church, the Woman's Club, the Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution at Michigan City. She was the mother of eight children: Emma, deceased; Eunice, now Mrs. Frank Carr, of Chicago; Ernest, deceased; Chester J.; Mabel, wife of John Woodring, of Michigan City; Howard, of Saint Louis, Missouri; and twins, Marion and Dorothy, both of Michigan City.

Chester J. Dunn grew up in Michigan City, graduated from the high school there in 1910, and throughout the twenty years since he left school his energies have been directed in the banking field. He was with the First National Bank of Gary an with the Gary Trust & Savings Bank until 1920. At that time he became cashier of the First State Bank of Gary and in 1925 was promoted to the executive duties of president. He is on the board of directors and is vice president and director of the Gary Bankers Mortgage Company, is a member of the Indiana State and American Bankers Associations. Mr. Dunn lends his cooperation through the Commercial Club and Chamber of Commerce and from 1926 to 1930 was president of the Gary Board of Works. He acts independently in politics, is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Christ Episcopal Church.

He married at Furnessville, Indiana, July 21, 1914, Miss Marita Furness, daughter of Leigh and Mary (Barnard) Furness. Her father was a prominent farmer and stock raiser in that locality, the town Furnessville being named in honor of his father, Edwin L. Furness the pioneer of that region. Leigh G. Furness died in 1927 and his widow now resides at Miami, Florida. Mrs. Dunn attended school at Michigan City, graduating from high school there, and later graduated from the University of Chicago. She was a teacher in Furnessville for several years before her marriage. She is a member of the Gary Woman's Club. Mr. and Mrs. Dunn have three sons, Chester James, Jr., Leigh Ernest and Robert Furness, all of whom are attending the public schools at Gary. During the World war period Mr. Dunn spent much of his time in handling the work of the drives for the sale of Liberty Bonds.

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

CLARENCE RICHARD BROWN, mortgage banker, secretary-treasurer of the Gary Bankers Mortgage Company, was born in Northern Indiana, and is a member of a well known family around Valparaiso.

He was born at Valparaiso, November 19, 1893, son of Matthew and Emma (Podell) Brown and grandson of John Brown. John Brown was a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and about 1856 settled in Porter County, Indiana. He was a Union soldier in the Civil war and after the war resumed his life as an industrious farmer near Valparaiso. Both he and his wife are at rest in the Valparaiso Cemetery. Matthew Brown was born and reared at Valparaiso, and attended public schools there. For practically all his active life, thirty-eight years, he has been connected with the police force of Valparaiso and during part of that time was chief of police. He is a member of the Sons of Veterans. His wife, Emma Podell, was born and reared at Winamac, Indiana, and attended school there. She is a member of the German Lutheran Church and the Ladies of the Maccabees. Clarence R. Brown's brother and business partner is Floyd M. Brown, a resident of Valparaiso. Floyd Brown married Miss Esther Beach, and they have children named Miriam and Gerald.

Clarence R. Brown was graduated from the Valparaiso High School in 1912, attended Valparaiso University, completed a commercial course there in 1914, and ever since leaving school has been in the banking business. For eleven years, except for the time he was in service during the war he was connected with the First National Bank of Gary and was assistant cashier when he resigned in 1927. For the past three years he has been in the mortgage bond business, the offices of the Gary Bankers Mortgage Company being in the Gary State Bank Building. He is director as well as secretary and treasurer of the company and is also a director in the Park View Building Company, in the Graham Development Company, the Engleside Realty Company, the Municipal Realty & Investment Company, the Woodbury Development Company and the Grant Park Development Company.

Mr. Brown is a member of the Commercial Club and Chamber of Commerce, the Gary Country Club, B. P. O. Elks, and takes an active part in civic affairs. He plays golf. He is a member of Gary Memorial Power No. 17 of the American Legion.

Mr. Brown enlisted in the navy soon after America joined the allies, on June 14, 1917, and was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, where he remained until transferred to a receiving ship at Philadelphia. He was at the United States Naval Base No. 2 at Inverness, Scotland, and later at Cardiff, Wales, was on board the U. S. S. Black Hawk for service in the North Sea as a first class yeoman. He was on that ship at Scapa Flow when the German fleet was sunk. He received his honorable discharge October 2, 1919, and on returning to Gary resumed his connection with the bank until 1927, when he joined the corporation of which he is secretary and treasurer.

Mr. Brown was the Republican nominee for joint representative in the State Legislature in 1930. He is a member of Saint Marks Catholic Church.

At Chicago, February 12, 1922, he married Miss Genevieve Hannon, daughter of John Hannon, formerly of Porter County, who for years was a well known farmer and stock raiser in that county. Mr. Hannon Died March 27, 1927, and his wife in March, 1922, and they are buried at Valparaiso. Mrs. Brown attended school at Hammond, graduated from the Catholic High School, and is an active member of Saint Marks Church and the Catholic clubs and sorority. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have one daughter, Eleanor Joan, born February 8, 1924, now a student in Saint Marks parochial school.

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

OTTO V. GRAY. Many and varied have been the expressions of the civic loyalty and progressiveness of this sterling and popular citizen of Gary, and in this great industrial community he is, in 1931, serving his third term as a member of the City Council, of which municipal body he is president at the time this personal review is in process of compilation. Mr. Gray is likewise one of the outstanding industrial executives of the wonder steel city, where he holds the office of assistant manager of the American Sheet & Tin Plate Company, in charge of the Gary sheet mill of this great corporation.

Mr. Gray was born in Belmont County, Ohio, August 30, 1873, and is a son of Harvey B. and Mary J. (Young), who were born and reared in that county, where they received the advantages of the public schools, where their marriage was solemnized and where they passed their entire lives, Harvey B. Gray having long been one of the successful and honored exponents of farm industry in his native county and having been seventy-nine years of age at the time of his death, which occurred about 1915, his wife having passed away in 1907 and both having been earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in their home community. Nathan B. Gray, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was numbered among the pioneers of Ohio and there lived out his earnest and useful life as a farmer, both he and his wife having attained to advanced age and their mortal remains having been laid to rest in a cemetery in Guernsey County, not far distant from their old home farm. Of the seven children of Harvey B. and Mary J. (Young) Gray the eldest is Mrs. Sarah E. Spring, of Barnesville, Ohio; George Oliver likewise resides at that place; Mrs. Mary T. Stephens likewise resides at Barnesville; William L. is a resident of Cadiz, that state; Omer C. resides in Columbus, Ohio, and is a bank superintendent; Otto V., of this sketch, was next in order of birth; and Nathan D. died at the age of twelve years.

After profiting by the advantages of the Ohio public schools Otto V. Gray continued his studies in the Ohio State Normal School at Franklin. After leaving school he went to Wheeling, West Virginia, where he was employed eighteen months with the Wheeling Traction Company. In 1896 he found employment with the Aetna Standard Iron & Steel Company of Bridgeport, Ohio, and in 1901 this concern was taken over by the United States Steel Corporation, with which Mr. Gray remained, with headquarters at Wheeling, West Virginia, until 1911, when he was transferred to Gary, Indiana, to initiate the operations at the local plant of the American Sheet & Tin Plate Company, one of the constituent units of the United States Steel Corporation. He became superintendent of the plate and jobbing-mill department, later became superintendent of the sheet-plate and jobbing department, and since 1928 he has here been the efficient and popular assistant manager of the company's sheet mill.

Mr. Gray has been thoroughly interested with the splendidly progressive spirit that has characterized the upbuilding of this great industrial city, even from the time of its inception, and has found many opportunities to give expression to his civil loyalty and appreciation. It has already been stated that he is now serving his third consecutive term as a member of the City Council, and his high place in the esteem of his associates is attested by his having been made president of the council, the office of which his the present incumbent. He is influential also in the affairs of the Gary Chamber of Commerce and the local Commercial Club, and maintains a thoughtful and conservative outlook upon all projects and measures that have to do with the general wellbeing and advancement of his home city. Mr. Gray is unswerving in his allegiance to the Republican party, though he had neither time nor inclination to enter the arena of so-called practical politics. His influence has been made to count constructively in connection with civic affairs, and in his home community he has won inviolable place in popular confidence and esteem. He is a member of the local Young Men's Christian Association, in the affairs of which he takes deep interest, and he is a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was also his wife, whose death occurred February 5, 1930, and whose gracious personality had endeared her to the people of Gary, where she was a popular factor in social, cultural and church circles.

In Belmont County, on the 8th of July, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Gray to Miss Louise W. Wallace, who was reared and educated in West Virginia, where she received the advantages of the public schools. She was a daughter of the late David and Mary Wallace, who long maintained their home near St. Marys, West Virginia, where Mr. Wallace was a progressive exponent of agricultural and live stock industry, as the owner of one of the valuable farm estates of Pleasants County, both he and his wife having there passed the closing years of their lives and their mortal resting place being the cemetery at Saint Marys. The death of Mrs. Gray occurred February 5, 1930, as previously stated in this context, and she is not survived by children.

Mr. Gray was a zealous worker in behalf of the various patriotic movements and drives in Lake County in the World war period, and the same spirit of loyalty has been his in connection with general civic affairs. He is a citizen upon whom high valuation is placed in the City of Gary, where his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances.

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

WILLIAM MATTHEW DUNN, lawyer, realtor and for many years closely identified wit the business, professional and public life of the City of Gary, located in that city just as the community was rising to prestige as a manufacturing center of Indiana, and when he himself was a young and recently qualified member of the bar.

Judge Dunn was born at New Haven, Connecticut, June 14, 1878, son of Matthew and Kate E. Dunn. He acquired his early education in public schools, attended the Hillhouse High School of Connecticut, and before he was twenty years of age he enlisted for service in the Spanish-American war. He became a member of the Third Connecticut Regiment of United States Volunteers and was in service until honorably discharged. Afterwards he became the first president of the Gary branch of United States Volunteers, Spanish-American war.

After this military service he went south and completed his college education in Grant University in Tennessee, from which he was graduate in 1905. Two years later he completed his law course in Yale University. He was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1905 and in the fall of 1907 was admitted to practice in the Indiana courts. Since that date his name has been one of increasing prestige in the legal profession at Gary. He was the attorney for the Wabash & Pennsylvania Railroad until 1914. In January, 1914, he began a four-year term as city judge of Gary and was reelected in 1918, serving until 1922. For the past eight years he has continued a law practice in connection with his business as a Gary realtor.

Judge Dunn is a member of the Lake County and Gary Bar Associations. He is affiliated with the Loyal Order of Moose, B. P. O. Elks, Knights of Columbus, the University and the Harrison Clubs, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. He was at one time president of the Gary branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He is a member of the Saint Luke's Catholic Church at Gary. He served as one of the first trustees of the Holy Angels Church.

Judge Dunn married Deloma M. Clifford, daughter of John Clifford, of Valparaiso. They have three children: William Eustice, John Robert and Deloma Katherine. The two sons are students in the public schools at Gary. Judge Dunn is a member of the Gary Pioneer Club.

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

JOHN C. BRECKENRIDGE, D. D. Of the men who have contributed to the religious and educational advancement of Northern Indiana, few can lay claim to longer or more effective terms of accomplishment than Dr. John C. Breckenridge. Commencing his career as a country school teacher, his natural inclinations drew him into the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, in which he labored for long years with the zeal and ardor of a crusader. After achieving numerous beneficial works of a varied character he is now living in comfortable retirement at his home at Winona Lake in Kosciusko County.

John C. Breckenridge was born at North Liberty, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1858, and is a son of James and Mary (Glenn) Breckenridge, and of Irish-Scotch descent on both sides of the family, his maternal grandfather having been Valentine Glenn, who was born in 1807, in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. His father was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, May 3, 1828, a son of John Breckenridge, who was born in 1799. James Breckenridge married Mary Glenn, who was born September 3, 1833, in Mercer County, Pennsylvania.

The public schools of Mercer County furnished John C. Breckenridge with his early educational training and for a time he was a country school teacher. In 1877 he entered the Grove City Normal School and prepared to enter college, but due to impaired health he left school and was employed by a lumber concern at Grayson, Kentucky. In 1890 he was graduated from Wooster College, Wooster, Ohio, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, subsequently receiving the degree of Master of Arts in 1893, in which year he was graduated from McCormick Seminary with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1910 this latter degree was conferred upon him by Wooster College. Doctor Breckenridge began his labors in the Presbyterian ministry as pastor at Somers, Wisconsin, in 1893, and January 1, 1899, was called to Bourbon, Indiana. From 1900 until 1903 he served the Bethany Presbyterian Church at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and in September of the latter year became secretary of the Winona Assembly and Bible Conference. In 1905 he was made assistant manager of the Winona Assembly and Bible Conference, which position he retained until 1907, the major part of his work being as secretary. Doctor Breckenridge then organized the Winona College of Agriculture, which had a two-year course, and was its president until 1916, the last class to graduate being in 1917, when it was closed because of the entrance of the United States into the World war. Each student was required to pursue the two year course in Bible study. It shut its doors with all indebtedness cleared, and had a record of having graduated from thirty to thirty-five pupils each year. In 1918 Doctor Breckenridge was placed in charge of the dependent churches of Northern Indiana, but resigned this position December 29 to accept the position of secretary and general manager of the Winona Assembly and Bible Conference, serving in this capacity until January 1, 1928. At that time he organized the extension school of the State University, in association with Doctor Linton of the State University and Doctor Brandenberg of Purdue University, and this was carried on as a part of the Winona Assembly, with an enrollment of a student body of 500 members. Doctor Breckenridge brought about the sale of the Kosciusko Lodge Building to the Presbyterians of Indiana for religious work, and this is now a permanent institution. The purchase of the grounds was made possible by the generous donations of Rev. William A. (Billy) Sunday and Mrs. Sunday, the famous evangelists, and under Doctor Breckenridge's administration there was completed the W. A. Sunday Tabernacle, with a seating capacity of 8,000. The cot of the buildings was $100,000, and $30,000 more was needed for its equipment. Rev. and Mrs. Sunday were generous contributors also to this project, and gave $12,000 toward the installing of the rogue courts. These courts meet all the requirements of the National Roque Association, which body holds its annual tournaments thereon. Doctor Breckenridge, although retired from active labors, continues to take a deep and helpful interest in all matters pertaining to the spiritual and educational welfare of his community and his advice is invariably sought on all matters of importance. He is a Republican in his political allegiance, but has never been lured into the maze of politics.

On July 12, 1883, Doctor Breckenridge was united in marriage with Miss Emma Bagnall, who was born December 12, 1857, at Millbrook, Pennsylvania. She was graduated from the Grove City Normal School in 1881 and was a teacher of mathematics at that institution until her marriage. Doctor and Mrs. Breckenridge are the parents of three children, Karl Bland Breckenridge was born November 2, 1885, graduated from Wabash College in 1907, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and then entered the College of Osteopathy, at Los Angeles, California, from which he graduated, practicing his profession at Bath, Maine, until his death in 1917. He married Gladys Dobbins, and they have two children: Karl B., born October 4, 1913, and John D. born April 30, 1915. Grace Breckenridge, second child of Doctor Breckenridge, was born July 13, 1894, and attended Winona College and Western Seminary of Ohio. She married R. K. Schmidt, a building contractor of Berkeley, California, and they have four children: Helen Glenn, born November 21, 1917; Richard K., born February 21, 1919; Dorothy Jane, born March 8, 1920; and Mary Elizabeth, born November 23, 1921. Helen Glenn Breckenridge, the youngest child of Doctor Breckenridge, was born January 2, 1897, and attended Winona College and Western Seminary. She married John M. Stroup, formerly a professor of chemistry and now assistant secretary of the Empire State Pickling Compnay, of Phelps, New York, and they have two adopted children: Margaret G., born March 16, 1923; and Robert B., born August 16, 1925.

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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