Frank Werry was born in Warrick County, Indiana and virtually his entire active life was marked by his close and successful association with farm industry in his native state. His father, Carl Werry, was born, reared and educated in Germany, where the family had been established fully a century, though the lineage traces back to sterling French Huguenot ancestry and to the early French nobility, representatives of the name having fled from France to Germany to escape the religious persecution that was given the French Huguenots after the revocation of the historic Edict of Nantes, and in Germany intermarriage with those of German stock having occurred. Carl Werry was a young man when he came from Germany to the United States, and he became a pioneer settler and farmer in Warrick County, Indiana, where he established his residence about the year 1855 and where his loyalty to the Union was shown by his service as a member of the Indiana Home Guard during the Civil war period.

Dr. Leslie E. Werry profited by the advantages of the public schools of Spencer County and the graded schools of Warrick County. At Oakland City College, Gibson County, he thereafter completed a pre-medical course, and he then went to the metropolis of Kentucky, where he was graduated in the medical department of the University of Louisville, as a member of the class of 1913. After thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he passed eighteen months in the United States Public Health Service, at Evansville, Indiana, and during the ensuing two months he was engaged in the private practice of his profession at Tennyson, Warrick County. He then went to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and passed fourteen months in practice at Winona, Houghton County. He then passed two years as a member of the general staff of the hospital maintained by the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company at Calumet, another industrial center of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. When the nation entered the World war the Doctor enlisted, in August, 1918, as a member of the Medical Corps of the United States Army. In this corps he received commission as first lieutenant and was given assignment to Company 52 of the Medical Officers Training Corps, with which he was in service when the armistice brought the war to a close, he having received his honorable discharge December 7, 1918, and having soon afterward, in the early part of 1919, established his residence at Hartford City, where he has since been successfully engaged in active general practice, the substantial scope of his professional business here standing in evidence of his ability and of the high popular estimate placed upon him and his communal service. Doctor Werry has membership in the Muncie Academy of Medicine, the Delaware and Blackford Counties Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He is a valued member of the official staff of physicians and surgeons at the Blackford County Hospital.

The political allegiance of Doctor Werry is given to the Republican party, and in his home city he is affiliated with the York Rite, Blue Lodge, Chapter and Council of the Masonic fraternity, in which his chivalric affiliation is with the Muncie Commandery of Knights Templar, and his Mystic Shrine membership in Mizpah Temple, in the City of Fort Wayne.

In Warrick County, Indiana, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Werry to Miss Clara G. Grossman, who was born and reared in that county, and the two children of this union are Junior L. E. and Paul Frederick.

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

WILLIAM WALLACE LUCAS. Huntington County has profited by the stable citizenship and faithful industry of the Lucas family since 1854. Practically all bearing the name have been interested in agriculture, but their services have been also extended to politics, the professions, education, religion and society. A worthy representative of this family is found in the person of William W. Lucas, for many years a railroad man, but since 1928 postmaster of Huntington, where he is also a leader in the ranks of the Republican party.

Mr. Lucas was born March 12, 1883, at Huntington, and is a son of Thomas L. and Edith Anna (Taylor) Lucas. His grandfather, Frederick P. Lucas, was born in Ohio, a member of an old and honored family of the Buckeye State, and in 1854 moved to Huntington County, where he settled on a farm and soon became one of the substantial agriculturists of his community. He early took an interest in Democratic politics, served four years in the capacity of county recorder and was also the first judge to take charge of the County Circuit Court. Judge Lucas married Miss Hannah Harlan, a daughter of Charles Harlan, a native of Kentucky, who later moved to Ohio.

Thomas L. Lucas was born in 1841, in Stark County, Ohio, where he attended district school until reaching the age of thirteen years, at that time removing with his parents to Huntington County. He was educated for the law, in which profession he became well and widely known and in which he continued until his health failed in 1913. At that time he removed to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where his death occurred in 1914. Mr. Lucas was prominent as a Republican and served as county clerk from 1871 until 1879. He married Edith Anna Taylor, who was born in Huntington County, and died in 1887, a daughter of Charles Taylor, of Ohio, who was a well-known pioneer farmer. There were eight children in the family, of whom five survive, and William W. was the fourth in order of birth.

William W. Lucas attended the grade and high schools of Huntington County, and at the age of sixteen years secured employment with the Erie Railroad Company, by which he was employed from 1899 until September 1, 1928, when he resigned to become postmaster of Huntington. From 1913 until his resignation he was general yardmaster of the local Erie yards, it being an interesting coincidence that these yards are located on a part of the old Lucas farm, where Mr. Lucas was born. As postmaster of Huntington Mr. Lucas has rendered his fellow-citizens excellent service and has improved the department in a number of ways. He has always been a Republican, is a past county chairman, and since 1920 has been a member of the Republican county committee. Mr. Lucas is a thirty-second degree Scottish and York Rite Mason and a Knight Templar, and belongs to the local Kiwanis Club. His religious connection is with the First Methodist Episcopal Church.

On February 16, 1903, at Huntington, Mr. Lucas was united in marriage with Miss Sylvia Gingerick, a native of Iowa, who was eighteen months old when her father, John F. Gingerick, an agriculturist, moved to Huntington County. To Mr. and Mrs. Lucas have been born two children: Glenn William, born June 8, 1906, and Wilda Mae, born May 20, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Lucas reside in an attractive home at 553 Iva Street.

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

GUY LEVI DeRHODES, secretary-treasurer of the DeRhodes- Yerrick Motor Company at South Bend, grew up in this city, where the name DeRhodes has been prominent in commercial and financial affairs for many years.

Mr. DeRhodes was born at Oriska, North Dakota, June 21, 1887, and received his first public schooling in that state. In 1897 the family moved to Lafayette. Indiana, where he continued his public school education, and in 1902 he came to South Bend with his parents, James M. and Sarah (Large) DeRhodes. His mother was born in Wisconsin and his father in Ohio.

James M. DeRhodes was an early settler in North Dakota, and owned and operated a farm and a store at Oriska. After locating at South Bend he engaged in the clothing business as an associate of the Vernon Clothing Company. He and his brother, Kersey DeRhodes, also organized the Merchants National Bank, in 1902, and James DeRhodes was president until he disposed of his interests in order to give his full time to the clothing business. He was living retired when he died in 1915. His wife passed away in 1918. Both were active members of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church. James DeRhodes continued as a director of the Merchants National Bank for a number of years. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.

Guy L. DeRhodes completed his education when the family came to South Bend. He graduated from the Millersburg Military Institute at Millersburg, Kentucky, and in 1913 received the degree Bachelor ofCivil Enginneering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York. After completing his education he spent four years on the family farm in Eastern Ohio, and on returning to South Bend was employed as bookkeeper in the Vernon Clothing Company, and in 1922 became one of the organizers of the DeRhodes-Yerrick Motor Company. He has been secretary and treasurer, and is also secretary and treasurer of the Indiana Auto Sales Company of Elkhart. These companies are the Dodge car dealers for this territory and have one of the best equipped sales and service stations in South Bend, at 222 North Lafayette Street.

Mr. DeRhodes is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having attained the Knights Templar degree, also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Coquillard Country Club, and St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church. He married at South Bend, in 1926, Miss Lillian Benson, of South Bend. She finished her high school course at Springfield, Missouri.

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

RAY ELROY DAVIS is a native of Ohio, but has lived since early boyhood at Kendallville, where he has given thirty years of his work and experience to Kendallville's greatest industry, the McCray Refrigerator Company. Mr. Davis now ranks as the oldest member of the business department except the McCrays themselves.

He was born in Morrow County, Ohio, May 23, 1883, and was seven years of age when his parents, George M. and Rosa M. (Sheffer) Davis, moved to Kendallville. Here he grew to manhood, attending the grade and high schools, and was just about sixteen years of age, and still a high school boy, when, in 1899, he became an employee of the McCray Refrigerator Company during school vacation. He worked there again in the summer of 1900, and in the fall of 1901 entered the International Business College at Fort Wayne, where he completed a course of training. In February, 1902, he resumed his work with the McCray Company and since then has been steadily with that organization. With a capacity for hard work, which has always been his hobby, he made steady progress through different departments, with increasing responsibilities, and since January 1, 1923, has been treasurer of an Indiana company which manufactures products sold allover the nation and in international trade.

Mr. Davis has given his best years to the McCray Company. He is also interested in aviation and is president and a director of the Capital Airways, Incorporated, of Indianapolis. Other recreations are fishing and hunting and golf, and he has been active in fraternal organizations, being a trustee of Kendallville Lodge No. 316, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having filled all the chairs in the Subordinate Lodge and Encampment, is a member of the Rebekahs, Kendallville Lodge No. 276, A. F. and A. M., Kendallville Chapter No. 64, Royal Arch Masons, thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and is a member of Kendallville Lodge No. 1194, B. P. O. Elks. Other organizations to which he has expressed his civic impulses are the Boy Scouts of America, and he is now a director of the Anthony Wayne Area Council. He belongs to the Lions Club, and is a former director of the Chamber of Commerce, and is chairman of the board of trustees of the Church of Christ.

He married, November 12, 1907, Miss Bessie B. Weingart, of Kendallville. They have oneson, Lowell Allan, born January 13, 1910. This son graduated from the Kendallville High School in 1929 and is now a law student at Indiana University.

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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

JOHN FLETCHER KELTON, who is now city attorney of North Manchester, Wabash County, has had long and varied experience in his profession, has lived in both the South and the West, and among his official services have been those rendered as judge of the Probate and County Court of Blount County, Alabama. Since establishing his home in Indiana, in 1927, Judge Kelton has proved his ability and resourcefulness as an attorney and counselor at law and he now controls a substantial practice at North Manchester.

John F. Kelton was born in the City of Gainesville, Georgia, May 6, 1869, is a son of Elias and Sarah (Thomason) Kelton, and was young at the time of the family removal from Georgia to Alabama, his earlier education having been obtained in the public schools of his native state and having been advanced by his attending the public schools of Alabama. In the latter state he studied law under private preceptorship, duly fortified himself in the science of jurisprudence, and in due course he was admitted to the Alabama bar, his eligibility for practice having been extended from the Circuit Court of Blount County to the Appellate and Supreme courts of the state. He gave six years of service as clerk of the Circuit Court of Blount County and held for twelve years the office of judge of the Probate Court of that county. He continued his residence in Alabama until 1920, when he went to the Southwest and engaged in the practice of his profession at Fort Sumner, judicial center of DeBaca County, New Mexico, he having been admitted to practice in the Supreme Court and also the Federal courts of that state. In 1927 Judge Kelton came to Indiana, and after being engaged in practice one year in the City of Peru, Miami County, he established his permanent home at North Manchester, in which thriving city of Wabash County he has since continued to be successfully engaged in the general practice of law, besides being the present (1930) city attorney. He has been admitted to practice before the Indiana Supreme Court and also in the United States District Court at South Bend. The Judge is a member of the Wabash County Bar Association and the Indiana State Bar Association. He is a valued and popular member of the local Kiwanis Club, and in their home city he and his wife are zealous members of the Christian Church, in the Sunday School of which he is teacher of the Men's Bible Class.

Judge Kelton has ever been aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, has been influential in its councils in the various states in which he has practiced his profession, and while in New Mexico he served as a member of its state central committee. In the World war period he served as food administrator for Blount County, with headquarters in his home City of Oneonta, the county seat, where he likewise served as chairman of the organization of four-minute speakers, with supervision over twenty-six effective speakers who with him gave notably loyal and constructive service in furthering the drives in support of sales of Government war bonds, Red Cross service, etc. Further than this Judge Kelton made still greater contribution to the cause of patriotism, as three of his sons were in the nation's military service in the World war period, as will be more specifically noted in a later paragraph.

In Alabama was solemnized the marriage of Judge Kelton to Miss Fannie Williams, who was born and reared in that state, and the children of this union are five in number: Robert G. is a member of the Alabama bar but is now a business man at Oneonta, that state; John B., who is now at Tampa, Florida, served as a member of the United States Marine Corps in the World war and was on active duty in France one year; Wiley L. was in service in the World war period and is now located at Fairfield, Alabama, and connected with the U. S. Steel Company; James L., a member of the Aviation Corps of the United States army, had eighteen months of active service in France, he being now a resident of Peru, Indiana; and Sarah is the wife of D. G. Cline, of Peru, this state.

Judge Kelton has in his law practice and official service exemplified the best ethics of his profession, in which he has won no minor prestige, and as a citizen he has been signally progressive and public-spirited. He has won a wide circle of friends in his present home community, as did he also in other communities in which he has lived and wrought worthily and well.

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

EDGAR W. GUMERT has had long experience in the printing and newspaper business and is now editor and publisher of the Lagro Press, a well ordered weekly paper that serves as an effective exponent of the varied communal interests of the village of Lagro, Wabash County, and the tributary territory.

Mr. Gumert is a native of Indiana and a representative of a family that gained noteworthy prominence in connection with pioneer activities in this state. He was born in Fountain County, May 18, 1872, and is one of the three children of Daniel T. and Sarah V. (Winn) Gumert who continued their residence in Indiana until their death. Daniel T. Gumert was born and reared in Fountain County, Indiana, and became one of the influential citizens and business men of Covington, the county seat, where he was long engaged in the drug business and where he served fifteen years as city treasurer, besides having been a member of the local board of education. His father, John A. Gumert, was born and reared in Germany, and was a veritable refugee from his native land when he came to the United States, in the latter part of the 1820-30 decade, he having left the old homeland after having refused to serve in the German army, a service that was mandatory. He and his brother Daniel, in company with their father, Daniel, Sr., made together the voyage across the Atlantic, all having been skilled workmen at the carpenter trade, and they established residence at Harrisburg, Virginia, a town that later became Wheeling, West Virginia. John A. Gumert later came to Portland, Fountain County, Indiana, where he became a pioneer in the construction of flatboats used in freighting operations on the Wabash River. His brother Daniel wad a builder of still larger boats,. at Harrisburg, Virginia, and floated them down the Ohio River, picking up freight from the boats on the Wabash River, and continuing the voyaging down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. The two brothers were virtually associated in this shipping enterprise during a period of twelve years. Daniel Gumert then occasion to make a business trip to Philadelphia, and while in that city he disappeared. The other members of the family never afterward heard from him, the supposition having been that he was shanghaied on a German battleship that was in the harbor of Philadelphia at the time of visit to that city.

The public schools of Covington, Fountain County, were the medium through which Edgar W. Gumert acquired his youthful education, and he was a youth of eighteen years when he there initiated his practical apprenticeship in the printing trade and business. He continued to be employed in a newspaper plant at Covington until 1890, thereafter worked at his trade in Indianapolis, and in 1896 he went to Kansas and at Rossville founded a weekly paper, the Rossville Press. Of this paper he continued editor and publisher until his return to Indiana, and at Attica, in his native county, he volunteered in 1898, for service in the Spanish-American war. He became a member of Battery C Indiana Light Artillery, with which he continued in service until the close of the war, his command having not been called to the stage of active hostilities on Cuban soil. He is today a member of the Veterans of the Spanish-American war.

After completing his military service Mr. Gumert returned to Attica, where he had charge of the printing department of the Sterling Remedy Company until 1909. He then removed to Wabash, where he was in the employ of the Pioneer Hat Works until 1912. He then founded the Lagro Press, to the editing and publishing of which he continued to give his attention until July, 1917, when his wife assumed charge of the paper and business and he attempted to enlist for service in the United States army, as a World war volunteer. For such service he was rejected, by reason of his being above the prescribed age limit, and under these conditions he volunteered for Y. M. C. A. war service, his unit having been assigned service with the Fourteenth Division of the United States army, at Camp Custer, near Battle Creek, Michigan, where he continued to be stationed until the armistice brought the war to a close, he having been mustered out of this service in the early part of 1919. Thereafter he was engaged in welfare work with the Cleveland Mining Company, on the upper peninsula of Michigan, until 1921, when he returned to Wabash, Indiana, and found employment in the office of the Wabash Plaindealer. With this paper he continued to be associated until 1925, when he resumed his active control of the Lagro Press, of which he has since continued editor and publisher and which he maintains at a high standard.

Mr. Gumert is a staunch advocate and supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his wife have membership in the Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Gumert, whose maiden name was Ada C. Lyons, was likewise born and reared in Fountain County. Mr. and Mrs. Gumert have one child, Thomas A., who is now an engineer in the service of a prominent oil corporation in the State of Oklahoma. He married Mary Giltner, of Marion, Indiana.

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

OWEN JONES NEIGHBOURS has accomplished a finely constructive work during the period of his connection with the public schools of Wabash, where he initiated his service in the year 1911 and where he has held the office of superintendent of the city schools since September, 1916. His long continued tenure of this important executive and pedagogic position affords the best voucher for his ability and for the high estimate placed upon him and his administration by the people of the community.

Owen J. Neighbours, A. B., Ph. M., is able to claim the historic old State of Maryland as the place of his birth, which there occurred April 15, 1880, he being a son of Fleet R. and Adelia Neighbours. Mr. Neighbours received the advantages of the Maryland public schools, and in 1905 he was graduated in Western Maryland College, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He later became a graduate student in the great University of Chicago, from which he received in 1910 the degree of Master of Philosophy. After having taught school two years Mr. Neighbours attended a private normal school in Maryland, and he then gave two years of service as a teacher in the public schools of Frederick County, that state.

In 1908 Mr. Neighbours came to Indiana and assumed the position of superintendent of the public schools of Petersburg, the judicial center of Pike County. In 1911 he became principal of the high school in the City of Wabash, his service in this position having been continued until he was advanced to his present office, in September, 1916.

Mr. Neighbours has become prominent and influential in educational circles in Indiana, and he has membership in the State Teachers Association, and the National Education Association, besides which he has been a valued member of the Indiana High School Principals Association, of which he has served as president. He is a member of the executive committee of the Indiana State Teachers Association and at the time of this writing, in 1930, and formerly served as chairman of the executive committee of the City and Town Superintendents Association. He has active membership also in the Indiana School Men's Club and the Northern Indiana Superintendents Club.

Superintendent Neighbours has done much to advance the standards of service in the Wabash public schools, and within his jurisdiction are five elementary schools, one junior high school and one senior high school. In these schools is retained a corps of sixty-three specially competent and popular instructors, and a splendid spirit of harmony and loyal cooperation obtains in all phases of the service and management of the schools.

Mr. Neighbours is president of the board of directors of the Community Service Association, and is chairman of the Wabash County organization of the American Red Cross. He is vice president of the board of trustees of the Carnegie Public Library of Wabash, and he takes deep interest in this valuable cultural asset of the city. He and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Church in their home community, he is a member of the local Kiwanis Club, and his basic Masonic affiliation is with Hannah Lodge No. 61, A. F. and A. M.

At Petersburg, Pike County, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Neighbours to Miss Ida Basinger, and they have four children: Rayhue, Robert, James and Owen J., Jr. Rayhue is, in 1930, a student in Purdue University; Robert and James are students in high school; and Owen J., Jr., is a pupil in the grade schools of the home city.

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