Mr. Firmin was born in London, England, in June, 1874. He attended school in London and was ten years of age when, in 1884, he came to America. He grew up at Girard, Kansas, graduated from high school there, and subsequently spent four years in Northwestern University at Chicago, specializing in business and commerce. As a young man he learned telegraphy, and that was the position that put him into the transportation field. For many years he was in the traffic and operating departments of a number of southwestern railway companies, including the Kansas City Southern, the Frisco and the Rock Island systems. As a local man well informed on the commercial possibilities of development, he was called upon to advise in the location of some of the early lines of railroad through Oklahoma and Kansas.

Mr. Firmin in 1918 was made secretary and manager of the Chamber of Commerce of Little Rock, Arkansas. During the World war period he also acted as vice chairman for the State of Arkansas under the Federal fuel administration, directed by Dr. Harry Garfield. Through his associations with the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce he was active in the negotiations which led to the location of Camp Pike at Little Rock, Arkansas.

Mr. Firmin was called from Little Rock to take charge of the Chamber of Commerce at South Bend in 1925. He is a member of the Indiana Club, the South Bend Country Club, the Rotary Club, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the B. P. O. Elks. In 1924-25 he served as director of the National Association of Commercial Secretaries. He has served as a vestryman in Saint James Episcopal Church. Mr. Firmin married, in 1896, Miss Abbie Prentice. She was born at Decatur, Illinois. They have one son, George Prentice Firmin, born November 15,1909, a graduate of the South Bend High School, now a sophomore in the electrical engineering department of Purdue University.

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

JOHN NEWTON HUNTER, postmaster of the first class postoffice at South Bend, is one of the few men who have spent the greater part of their active lifetime in the Federal postal service. Mr. Hunter for many years was a postoffice inspector. He is one of the very popular citizens of South Bend, and has brought an efficiency into the postoffice that has frequently been commended by the Federal authorities.

Mr. Hunter was born at Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana, July 6, 1872. His great-grandfather came from Virginia, 1ived in Kentucky for several years and afterward settled in Johnson County, Indiana, on land that has been the home of the Hunter family for four generations. Mr. Hunter's grandfather was William Henry Hunter, a native of Kentucky, who grew up in Johnson County. The parents of the South Bend postmaster were James H. and Mary (Records) Hunter, both born in Johnson County. His father was a farmer and died when John N. was five years of age. The mother is still living at Franklin, her birthplace, and is now Mrs. Mary Satterthwaite. She is seventy-six years of age. John N. Hunter's only brother is deceased. He has two living sisters and one half-sister.

Mr. Hunter attended district schools in Johnson County when a boy. He attended Butler University of Indianapolis, and for several years his business experience consisted of clerking in a general store at Franklin. On May 1, 1897, more than thirty years ago, he became an employee of the postal department, starting as assistant postmaster at Franklin. On August 7, 1903, he was made rural route inspector, reporting regularly to the general postoffice at Washington. Up to July 4, 1906. he worked in the rural route district out of Saint Louis, and from July 4, 1906, to June 1, 1920, held the position of postoffice inspector. Until 1908 his headquarters were at Chicago, and in that year he was transferred to the postal division out of Cincinnati. He kept his home in his native town of Franklin for some years, later lived at Fort Wayne, and since 1911 has been a resident of South Bend. His duties as postoffice inspector took him to all parts of the United States, and he was assigned to the investigation of many important cases and worked up a record among the best men in that line of the service. During the World war his chief work was in developing fast mail delivery to the large army camps. Mr. Hunter, chiefly on the basis of his long and efficient record, was appointed postmaster of South Bend on June 1, 1920. This appointment came to him from President Wilson, and he has had the unusual honor of being twice appointed under the Republican administration of President Coolidge. Mr. Hunter has his offices in the South Bend Federal Building. He has had much to do in promoting local movements in aviation. Other lines of civic work have also attracted him. He is a director and is a past president of the South Bend Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club and the Knife and Fork Club. He is a Knight Templar York Rite and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the First Christian Church.

Mr. Hunter married, September 28, 1893, at Franklin, Miss Georgia B. Hunt. She was born on a farm near Franklin, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Robert Hunt, who lived all their 1ives in Johnson County. Mrs. Hunter is a member of several woman's organizations at South Bend. They had three children. The son Arthur Burton, who died July 15, 1922, at the age of twenty-eight, was a graduate of Notre Dame University, was a South Bend attorney, and at the time of his death was candidate for state senator. He left one son, Arthur Pershing Hunter. Edwin Walter Hunter, t,he second son, was a graduate of the law department of Notre Dame University and is practicing at South Bend. He is married and has a son, Edwin Walter, Jr. The daughter, Mary Louise Hunter, was a student in Ferry Hall at Lake Forest, Illinois.

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

THADDEUS MEAD TALCOTT, JR. With an active membership at the South Bend bar for thirty years, Thaddeus M. Talcott, Jr., enjoys a position in his profession enriched by substantial achievements as well as by length of years. He is a man of ripe scholarship, and his work has been in line with his conception of the law as a great and noble profession rather than as a mere source of livelihood or vocation.

Mr. Talcott was born in Cleveland, Ohio, October 18, 1875, a son of Thaddeus M. and Nellie (Spalding) Talcott. His father was a native of Oswego, New York, and for a number of years lived at Chicago where he was a manufacturer of chemicals. After retiring from business he moved to South Bend, and died in that city in 1927, at the age of eighty. His wife was born at Buffalo, New York, and is now eighty-nine years of age.

Thaddeus M. Talcott, Jr., the second in a family of four children, grew up in Chicago, and after completing his high school work attended Northwestern University. He was graduated from the Yale Law School in 1896 and then returned to Chicago, where he practiced law four years. In 1900 he located at South Bend and his professional career has covered the most prosperous years of South Bend's industrial history. Mr. Talcott is vice president and a director of the Indiana Trust Company of South Bend. Since 1909 he has held the office of United States commissioner for the Northern District of Indiana. He early became interested in politics and in 1902 was elected to the House of Representatives and served as state senator from 1905 to 1909. During the World war he was on the advisory council of the draft board. Mr. Talcott married, February 7, 1908, Miss Maude A. Rodney, who was born at Buffalo, New York, daughter of Frank W. Rodney, who afterwards became a resident of South Bend.

Mr. Talcott is a member of the South Bend Country Club, the Chicago Athletic Club, the Yale Club of Indianapolis, the Rotary Club, is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and has membership in the Saint Joseph. County, Indiana State and American Bar Associations. In 1922-23 he was president of the Commercial Law League of America. He is president of the local chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. His chief hobby is the reading of good literature, history being his favorite subject.

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

EARL A. HAMILTON as an Indiana business man is identified with the furniture and undertaking business at Williams port and at West Lebanon, owning and operating establishments in both places.

He was born in Warren County, Indiana, March 11, 1887. His father, Thomas E. Hamilton, was a native of Pine Village, Indiana, and at the time of the Civil war enlisted for a term of three years. Before completing all the term of enlistment he was discharged on account of disability. After the war he was a Warren County farmer and died in 1916. His wife, Lydia A. Jackson, was a native of Ohio and was brought to Indiana when a girl. There were twelve children born to these parents, five of whom died in infancy, and those who grew up were: William, now of La Fayette, Indiana; Lora, of Chicago; Rupert, of Plainfield, Indiana; Van, of Williamsport; Charles and Dora, deceased; and Earl A.

Earl A. Hamilton was reared on a farm and his first advantages were in district schools and afterwards in the high school at Williamsport. His business training was begun as a clerk in a grocery store and later he was a clerk in a drug store. He then entered the employ of Correll & Boyd at Williamsport in the furniture and undertaking business, and a few years later went to Indianapolis and completed a course in embalming in the Askins Training School for Embalmers, receiving their diploma and a State license after passing the state examination. He also holds an Illinois State license. In 1923 he bought the undertaking establishment of C. A. Davies at West Lebanon and has since conducted an up- to-date establishment at that place, opening a new funeral home there in November, 1930. In September, 1929, he bought the furniture and undertaking business of Fred Boyd of the old firm of Correll and Boyd, where he received his first training as a funeral director, and is conducting the furniture and undertaking business at both towns.

Mr, Hamilton married, January 6, 1908, Miss Zola P. Hall, daughter of Isaac Hall, of West Lebanon. Three children were born to them, one dying in infancy. Paul was born in 1913 and Phyllis Corrine, in 1922, both of whom are in school. Mr. Hamilton is a Republican, a Royal Arch Mason, member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and is a member of the Williamsport Lions Club.

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

ELLIS BLOOMER, who has a long record of public service in Wabash County, is still giving much of his time to the duties of the office of justice of the peace. He is former clerk of courts.

Mr. Bloomer was born on a farm in Wabash County, November 26, 1855, a son of Joseph and Phoebe (Van Dyke) Bloomer. His father was born in Ohio and settled in Wabash County in 1845. He was an early land dealer, and in 1872 acquired a grist mill at Somerset, and owned and operated that institution until his death on October 27, 1890. His wife died in 1904.

Ellis Bloomer was one of a family of nine children. He grew up in the country, attended district schools and Wabash Academy and later the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. When he was twenty years of age he began teaching, and also assisted his father in the operation of the grist mill. Mr. Bloomer was a practical farmer in Liberty Township from 1880 to 1912, and while there served as assessor of the township. In 1910 he was elected clerk of the Wabash County Circuit Court, and in January, 1912, began his term of service of four years. Since leaving this office he has served almost continuously as a justice of the peace.

Judge Bloomer is a member of Hannah Lodge of Masons and for ten years was an elder in the Christian Church.

He married, December 15, 1878, Miss Julia A. Stewart, daughter of Robert Stewart. Eight ctillaren.were born to their marriage, and the four now living are: Joseph R., Fred, a .farmer and business man at Marion; Bessie and Ellen. The son Joseph graduated from medical college in Chicago and is now practicing at Rockville, Indiana.

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

HAROLD TRUEMAN MILLER is a South Bend attorney, a World war veteran, and since the war has been one of the men most active in promoting aviation development at South Bend.

He was born at Tipton, Cedar County, Iowa, September 12, 1897, a son of Clarence W. and May (Metz) Miller. His father was born in Pennsylvania and now resides at Ralls, Texas. His mother was born at Tipton, Iowa, and is deceased.

Harold Trueman Miller is a graduate from the high school at Valparaiso, Indiana. He enlisted for service during the World war with a Wisconsin regiment and became a member of Company L, One Hundred Twenty- seventh Infantry, Thirty-second Division. He was overseas nineteen months with this organization and most of the time was on observation duty with an aviation unit attached to his regiment and division. After the war he entered the law department of Valparaiso University, was graduated LL. B. in 1922, and for a year remained in Valparaiso practicing in the law office of the late Frank Parks. Mr. Miller established his law business at South Bend in 1923. For three years he was associated with Mr. Clifford DuComb, and now carries on an individual general practice, with offices in the Citizens Building. Mr. Miller is a Republican in politics. Since the war aviation has been his hobby. He has a private pilot's license and he helped organize and is a director of the Saint Joseph's Aviation Club. Mr. Miller is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the B. P. O. Elks, the Erskine Golf Club, and the Methodist Episcopal Church.

He married, in 1923, Miss Viola Hazel Slater. She was born in Porter County, Indiana, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Slater.

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

JOSEPH CLIFFORD POTTS, South Bend attorney, was born at Delmont, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, April 27, 1894. He is a World war veteran, and finished his education and prepared for a career at the bar after returning from overseas.

Mr. Potts' parents, John Philip and Caroline (Blose) Potts, were also natives of Westmoreland County, and still reside there, his father being a retired merchant. J. Clifford Potts attended high school at Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He became a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard and in 1916 was called to duty on the Mexican border. His old regiment was the Eighteenth Pennsylvania Infantry. During the World war he went overseas and was in France from May, 1918 to March, 1919. During that time he took part in four major battles and was gassed at Chatel Cheberry, in the Argonne Forest.

Mr. Potts after the war entered the law department of Notre Dame University, where he took his LL. B. degree in 1925. He then remained at South Bend and has enjoyed a steadily increasing business as a lawyer. His offices are in the Sherland Building. Mr. Potts is a member of the Saint Joseph County, Indiana State and American Bar Associations and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Mason.

He married, December 24, 1924, Miss Marguerite Suhl. She was born at Jamestown, New York. Her father was Karl Suhl, of South Bend. Mrs. Potts was a graduate nurse of Saint Joseph's Hospital of South Bend. They have one son, Philip Carlton, born February 17, 1930.

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

FRANK NELSON NEVINS, one of the most popular officials in the courthouse at South Bend, is clerk of the Circuit Court of Saint Joseph County. He has lived all his life in South Bend, has been active in Democratic politics and is a thorough-going business man and has applied business methods to the conduct of his office.

He was born at South Bend, April 18, 1893, son of Frank and Mary (Kuss) Nevins. His mother was born in Laporte County, Indiana, in 1865, daughter of August and Wilhelmina Kuss, pioneers of that county. They were born in Germany and died at Wanatah in Laporte County. Frank Nevins was born in Ohio in 1857, and was a boy when his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Nevins, moved to Saint Joseph County, Indiana. His father settled on a farm and was a soldier in the Civil war. Frank Nevins attended public schools in Saint Joseph County and for many years was a grocery merchant at South Bend, and later with the police force. He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of the Maccabees, and was a Presbyterian. He died in 1900 and his wife in 1916. They had two sons, Frank N. and Hobart.

Frank N. Nevins was educated in the grade and high schools of South Bend, the South Bend Business College, and from early manhood, for a period of seventeen years, was associated with and active in the clothing business. In 1926 he was elected to the office of clerk of the Circuit Court. He has done a great deal to build up the strength of the Democratic party in the county and served two terms as county chairman, in 1922 and 1924.

Mr. Nevins is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, member of the Knights of Pythias, B. P. O. Elks, Loyal Order of Moose. His hobby is fishing and hunting. He and his family are Lutherans.

Mr. Nevins married, June 16, 1915, Miss Esther Johnson, of Chicago, Illinois. They have one son, Frank N., Jr., born November 12, 1916, now in his second year in high school.

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

SAMUEL GRANT POMEROY was born at Willimasport, Warren County, Indiana, December 5, 1870. His experience in the world has brought him many contacts with men and affairs outside the boundaries of his native community, but thirty years ago he returned to Warren County and has been continuously engaged in the important work of conducting a newspaper, being publisher and editor of the West Lebanon Gazette.

His father, Astley Cooper Pomeroy, was born December 29, 1836, was a soldier in the Civil war, a member of the Seventy-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and after the war followed his trade as a blacksmith until his death in 1885. Members of the Pomeroy family claim that it is the oldest family in the world with name unchanged through all the generations. The Pomeroys have a coat-of-arms. They trace their descendant direct line to a Ralph de la Pomeroy, who was born in 1035 and was a favorite knight of William the Conqueror, in whose armies he crossed the channel and took part in the English conquest in 1066. The American branch of the family left England in 1630 and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Astley Cooper Pomeroy married Adeline M. Denny, daughter of John Denny. Besides Samuel Grant Pomeroy another son is Charles E., who lives at Royal Center, Indiana, and married Leona Slauter and has one son. The daughter, Adeline Lorena, is the wife of Thomas Clifton, a publisher at Covington, Indiana.

Samuel Grant Pomeroy was educated in the schools of Williamsport, and since high school he has been taking a continuation course in the university of experience with constant increment of knowledge and without expectation of ever graduating. Travel and work at many occupations have brought him enlargement of mental scope and a broad and tolerant view of men and affairs. As a young man he took up the printing trade, and was also a telegraph operator for a time. In 1898 he returned to West Lebanon and two years later became owner and publisher of the Gazette, which he has conducted ever since.

He married, October 10, 1895, Miss Nellie Waltzer, of Danville, Illinois. On January 27, 1919, he married Mary Katherine Embly Hultz, of Norwalk, Ohio.

He is a member of the Sons of the Colonial Wars and Masonic and Modern Woodmen lodges. He was a member of the Lincoln Memorial Committee of the Tri-County Historical Society, which erected a fine memorial at State Line, Indiana, September 23, 1930, commemorating a speech made by Abraham Lincoln, who stopped there on February 17, 1861, while on his way to Washington, D. C., to assume the office of President of the United States.

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

WILLIAM CLAYTON FARRAR. For eighty years or more the name Farrar has been associated with the legal profession in the City of Peru. The first mayor after the incorporation of the city was Col. Josiah Farrar. His son, William C. Farrar, has practiced law there for over half a century.

Col. Josiah Farrar was born in Jefferson County, New York, and married there Emeline C. Gould. In 1844 they came to Indiana and settled at Peru in Miami County, where Colonel Farrar and his brother John L. practiced law for half a century. Col. Josiah Farrar in 1862 entered the Union army as a captain and was promoted to colonel in the Ninety-ninth Indiana Volunteers, being at the battles of Lookout Mountain and Chickamauga, and with Sherman on the march to the sea.

William C. Farrar, one of three children, was born at Peru, April 2, 1859. He attended the public schools, went on with his education through Wabash College and graduated from the law department of Notre Dame University in 1879. He was admitted to the bar the same year and has carried on a successful practice ever since. For a number of years he was also in the live stock business. Mr. Farrar is now the oldest practicing attorney of Miami County and the oldest member of the Miami County Bar Association. Since 1910 he has given part of his time to his duties as justice of the peace.

He married Miss Minnie Eldred, a native of Illinois. They have four children: Josiah E., a business man at Kokomo; Virginia, wife of Kirk B. Sweet, an executive of the Continental Steel Company of Kokomo; Emeline, wife of Ralph J. Teeple; and William Clayton, also connected with the. Continental Steel Company.

Mr. Farrar is a member of the Indiana Bar Association, is a Democrat, affiliated with the Loyal Order of Moose and Fraternal Order of Eagles. During the World war he was a member of the legal advisory board.

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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

CLYDE STRAIT is general manager of The Overhead Door Corporation, which stands as one of the foremost industrial and commercial concerns of Hartford City, the judicial center and vital metropolis of Blackford County, and his administration has been notably effective in advancing the business of this corporation.

Mr. Strait was born in Saint Croix County, Wisconsin, July 14, 1882, and is a son of Samuel and Matilda (Landon) Strait, the former of whom was born in Ohio, in 1844, and the latter of whom was born in Ripley County, Indiana, in 1846, both families having gained pioneer honors in the Hoosier State. Samuel Strait was a child of about three years when his parents came from Ohio to Indiana, in 1847, and here he was reared on a pioneer farm, the while he received the advantages of the common schools of the locality and period. He continued to be identified with farm enterprise in this state until 1881, when he removed to Wisconsin. In the Badger State he became a progressive farmer in Saint Croix County, and there he remained until 1890 when he returned to Indiana and established the family home on a farm east of Hartford City, Blackford County. In this county he passed the remainder of his life, and here the death of his wife occurred in 1903. Mrs. Strait was reared and educated in Ripley County, Indiana, where the Landon family was given much of pioneer precedence, its original settlers in that county having come from Maryland and established residence prior to 1820. Henry Landon, a brother of Mrs. Strait, went forth from Indiana as a loyal soldier of the Union in the Civil war. Of the ten children of Samuel and Matilda (Landon) Strait seven are living.

Clyde Strait was born in the year following that of his parents' removal from Indiana to Wisconsin, and was a lad of eight years at the time of their return to Indiana, where he was reared to adult age on the home farm near Hartford City. He supplemented the discipline of the district school by further study in the public schools of Blackford County and by attending the Eastern Indiana Normal School and also the State Normal School at Marion. He made a record of eight years of specially successful service as a teacher in the schools of Blackford County and he was then elected clerk of the Circuit Court of Blackford County, which office he assumed in 1910 and of which he continued the incumbent four years. Upon his retirement from this office he was appointed field examiner for the Indiana State Board of Accounts, in which connection he served as supervisor of the department of inspection. He retained this position from 1914 until December 31, 1924, and since the latter year he has been giving a most progressive and constructive administration as general manager of The Overhead Door Corporation.

The political alignment of Mr. Strait is in the ranks of the Democratic party, and he has been active and influential in political affairs in his home county. He is loyal and progressive as a citizen, is a director of the Hartford City Chamber of Commerce and is an active member of the local Rotary Club. In 1908-09 he served as exalted ruler of Blackford City Lodge No. 625, B. P. O. E. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Noble of Mizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, in the City of Fort Wayne.

The industrial corporation of which Mr. Strait is general manager has developed a large and prosperous business in the manufacturing of a patented type of overhead doors for use in factory buildings, garages, boat-houses, etc., and the products are shipped to all parts of the United States and into Canadian provinces, besides which a substantial export trade has been developed. At the company's headquarters in Hartford City a corps of fully 200 employees is retained, and the concern has about seventy-five district distributors, at commercially strategic points throughout the Union, factory shipments being made principally in carload lots.

There is ample recorded evidence that denotes that the Strait family was founded in Pennsylvania in the early Colonial era, and from the old Keystone State representatives of the family moved to Ohio prior to 1818, the exodus of members of the family to Indiana having occurred in 1847, as previously noted in this review.

In Blackford County was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Strait to Miss Anna Wilson, who was born and reared in this county and who is a representative of one of its old and influential families.

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