ANTON BOHNERT has been long identified with industrial enterprise in his native City of Vincennes, where he is now manager of the plant of the Central Foundry Company. His skill as a mechanic and executive has been enlisted at other places for varying intervals, but Vincennes has been the principal stage of his activities during the major part of his long business career, which had its inception when he was a lad of thirteen years. Mr. Bohnert has been in the fullest sense the architect of his own fortunes, even as his broader education has been acquired through self-discipline – well ordered reading and study during the passing years that have likewise fortified him in business experience.

Mr. Bohnert was born in Vincennes May 29, 1869, and is a son of Gottfried and Mary (Dutchman) Bohnert, the former of whom was born in Baden-Baden, Germany, and the latter in Alsace, France. Gottfried Bohnert mad settlement in Vincennes, Indiana, prior to the Civil war, and here found employment in the boiler department of the Ohio & Misissippi Railroad, which is now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio system. Later he was similarly engaged with the Big Four Railroad and he continued his residence in Vincennes until he death, his wife having survived him a number of years and both having been earnest communicants of the Catholic Church. Their children were four in number: Theresa, Anton, Aloysius and Frank (deceased).

In Vincennes Anton Bohnert received his early education, which was very limited, as he was but thirteen years of age when he discontinued his studies in the parochial school of St. John’s Church, German Catholic, and began to aid in the support of the family. His ambition led him to give time to home study and reading, and along this line he has continued until he has become a man of really liberal education. He was employed in a local dry-goods establishment until he was sixteen years of age, when he entered upon his apprenticeship to the machinist's trade in the local shops of Clark & Buck. At the age of twenty years he became a machinist in the local factory of the Bell-Armstead Manufacturing Company, and of the machine department he was made foreman when he was twenty-four years of age. In 1899 the plant were and business of this company sold to the Central Foundry Company of New York City, and with the latter Mr. Bohnert was retained as foreman of the machine shop until 1914, when the plant was closed. The same company then transferred him to its plant at Bessemer, Alabama, whence he was transferred six months later to Holt, that state, where he remained three months. He next passed three years in service with the Central Specialty Company in Detroit, Michigan, after the Alabama plants had been temporarily closed. In 1919 he returned to Vincennes and became manager of the reopened plant of the Central Foundry Company. In 1925 the plant was again closed, and Mr. Bohnert then returned to Michigan, where he remained as assistant foreman of the Ypsilanti Foundry Company, at Ypsilanti, until 1927, when he returned to Vincennes and reopened the plant of the Central Foundry Company, with which he has since remained as manager.

Mr. Bohnert is a Democrat in politics and he and his family are communicants of the Catholic Church. He is affiliated with the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Loyal Order of Moose.

In Vincennes was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bohnert to Miss Fannie M. Wise, daughter of Frederick and Rosalene Wise. Of the five children of this union four are living: Miss Rosalene remains at the parental home, as does also Miss Lucille, who is a deputy in the office of the county clerk of Knox County; Mary graduated with the class of 1931 in the Sister Academy; Joseph is a student; and Richard is deceased. The family home is maintained at 154 East Swartzel Street.

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


MRS. MARGARET REED WRIGHT is matron of Thornton Home at Newburg, Warrick County, Indiana. Mrs. Wright formerly lived at Evansville but since the death of her husband she has found opportunity for a useful work and interesting contact with people whom she loves and who in turn love her.

Mrs. Wright is the widow of the late Dr. A. C. Wright, a prominent physician and surgeon. Doctor Wright was born in Warren County, Kentucky, and died October 29, 1910, at the age of seventy-one. His father was Dr. Thomas B. Wright, also a native of Warren County, Kentucky. Dr. A. C. Wright was one of five children. His sister Mrs. Elizabeth Wright Thomas, who died March 1, 1931, at the age of eighty-nine, was active in literary and social clubs at Bowling Green, Kentucky. She had two sons, Thomas and Richard, both of whom were leading lawyers. Hon. Thomas Wright died March 4, 1930, at the age of sixty-three. Another son, Daniel Webster Wright, was a Kentucky lawyer and land owner and a member of the Legislature.

Mrs. Margaret Reed Wright is a daughter of Rev. Wiley Martin Reed, who was born in Giles County, Tennessee, entered the Confederate army, commanded a regiment as colonel and was mortally wounded at Fort Pillow while serving under General Forrest. General Forrest appointed a special escort to convey him to Jackson, Tennessee. He was also an intimate friend of General Jackson, who presented him with a beautiful horse when he joined the army. Prior to the war he had been pastor of the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Nashville, Tennessee. Rev. Wiley Martin Reed was distinguished in appearance and his abilities were in keeping. The mother of Mrs. Wright was Mary Caroline White, also a Tennesseean, daughter of John D. White, a pioneer of Shelby County, that state, and a very wealthy man. Mary Caroline White and Wiley Martin Reed were educated at Lebanon, Tennessee, and their romance began while in college there and they were married as soon as their studies were completed. In the Reed family were seven children: Edgar, Marshall, Erskine, Percy Ward, Mary, Margaret, now the only one living, and Wiley M., Jr. Edgar was for many years with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Marshall was educated for medicine but spent an active career as a railroad man. Erskine was connected with the Dun and Bradstreet Commercial Agencies. Mary married William H. Cook, of Smith's Grove, Warren County, Kentucky.

Miss Margaret Reed was educated at Nashville, Tennessee, and at New York City specialized in music and expression. Both she and her sister taught music and expression in the Cumberland Female College at McMinnville, Tennessee, for six years. Miss Reed and Doctor Wright were married at Smith's Grove, Kentucky, November 14, 1895. Mrs. Wright has one son, Wiley Reed Wright, who was born April 6, 1897, and was educated in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and the Castle Heights School, and during the World war was in training with the Aviation Corps, receiving a commission as first lieutenant and later was promoted to captain and finally to major of the Reserve Corps. He was for a time at Gerstner Field, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and after the war spent some time with the Clyde Steamship Lines. He is now under the United States Commerce Department, aeronautic branch, as inspector of aeroplanes and products. This line of service requires him to travel over the mountain and Pacific States and Alaska, establishing airports and reporting on various angles of aviation industry.

Mrs. Wright is a Democrat in politics, is a member of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, and belongs to the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of the American Revolution and the Newburg Literary Club.

The Thornton Place Home is an institution conducted for the benefit of disabled Presbyterian ministers, their wives, widows, missionaries and orphans. It was established at Evansville by the Cumberland Presbyterian Board, but in 1908 the board acquired the beautiful residence and country home of Mrs. Ames at Newburg in Warrick County. Other buildings have been added to supplement the facilities provided by the handsome residence and there are accommodations for forty guests, though at the present time only twenty-five are enrolled. Mrs. Wright handles all the financial affairs of the institution, which is supported by the church at large. She has the supervision of a staff of three nurses and other competent employees. Outside the buildings there are 110 acres of land. A motor bus was presented to the institution by a prominent Evansville philanthropist and other things that add to the comfort and entertainment of the guests are radio and piano. Mrs. Wright for the past seventeen years has been in full charge of the institution. She is called "mother" by all and she calls the guests her children, although some of them are much older than herself. These children idolize her. Mrs. Wright is exceptionally well educated, a woman of fine culture and broad experience and has been an ideal person for the position she fills.

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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


I. GRANT BEESLEY, president of the City Transfer Company, which virtually represents one of the important public-utilities of Vincennes, gives further evidence of his progressiveness by his loyal service as a member of the City Council, in which he is representative from the Fifth Ward, serving his second term.

Mr. Beesley was born in Lawrence County, Illinois, April 12, 1887, and is a son of William Penn and Mary (Brosa) Beesley, both likewise natives of Lawrence County, where they were reared to adult age, where their marriage was solemnized and where they long maintained their home, William P. Beesley having made a successful record as a teacher in the public schools and also as a merchant.b In 1889 he moved his family to Vincennes, where he and his wife reside, and where since 1895 he has been a representative business man. Of the the three children I. Grant, of this review, is the eldest; Everett I. is a civil engineer and as such is in the employ of the Mississippi Valley Steel Company, of St. Louis, Missouri; Oscar V., who is now identified with the Sterling Manufacturing Company, of Sterling, Illinois, was in overseas service in the World war, had active service in various conflict sectors and gained the rank of first lieutenant.

James Beesley, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in England and was a child when the famiiy came to the United States, in 1831, his father, Thomas Beesley, having kept the family in the State of New York the first year and then having come to the West and established the family home in Wabash County, Illinois.

I. Grant Beesley was a child of two years at the time of the family removal from Illinois to Vincennes, and in the public schools of this city his studies were continued until his second high school year. At the age of twenty years he here entered the employ of the American Express Company, and two years later he transferred his service to the Klemeyer Lumber Company, in the offices of which he remained nine years. He then, in 1920, became associated with E. C. Reel, C. R. Haartje and C. E. Travis in organizing the City Transfer Company, upon the incorporation of which he assumed his present dual office of president and general manager. In 1926 Mr. Beesley bought out the interest of E. C. Reel and C. E. Travis. The company controls a large and representative business in general draying, functions effectively in freight distribution in the city and as local agents for the Central Union Truck Terminal Company of Indianapolis, besides operating a line of trucks between Terre Haute and Evansville. The company has eight of the best of modern motor trucks in commission and retains a corps of fifteen employees.

Mr. Beesley is a member of the Indiana Motor Truck Association, is one of the progressive and loyal members of the Vincennes Chamber of Commerce and for the past four years a director in the Vincennes Kiwanis Club. His basic Masonic affiliation is with historic Vincennes Lodge No.1, A. F. and A. M., he is a member of the Harmony Club in his home city, and his political allegiance is given to the Democratic party. He takes deep interest in all that concerns the welfare and advancement of Vincennes and at the time of this writing in 1931, he is giving characteristically loyal service as representative of the fifth Ward in the City Council. His church affiliations are with the Bethany Presbyterian.

Mr. Beesley married, November 16, 1910, at Vincennes, Miss Emma Hartje, of Grand View, Spencer County, Indiana, and their four children are daughters: Gretchen Christine, Doris Emma, Mary Roberta and Sarah Ella. Gretchen Christine will graduate from the Vincennes High School with the class of 1933 and Doris Emma with the class of 1934.

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


RALPH C. PHILLIPPE is a native of Vincnnes, member of a family that has been in Knox County for a century, and his own particular achievements are represented by a group of organizations, insurance and advertising that covers a large portion of Indiana and Ohio.

Mr. Phillippe was born in Vincennes October 29 ,1891. His father, Peter Phillippe, was also born in Knox County, as was his grandfather,George W. Phillippe. The great-grandfather was a West Virginian, whose grandfather served as a soldier in the American Revolution. The great-grandfather came to Knox County, Indiana, about 1830, and in Washington Township, near Bicknell, acquired land which has ever since been referred to as the Phillippe homestead and which has come down through the different generations. Mr. Ralph C. Phillippe is a part owner of the land, and it has been in five generations of the family. George W. Phillippe spent his life as a farmer and married Mary Smith. Peter 'Phillippe was an educator, and served fifteen years as county superintendent of schools of Knox County. He married Lettie Huring of Warrick County, Indiana, and they were the parents of seven children.

Ralph C. Phillippe attended school at Vincinnes and completed his education in the University of Indiana in 1916. In the meantime he had been ticket agent for the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company three years, 1911-1914, and from 1915 to July, 1917, was manager of the insurance department of the Knox Bank & Trust Company.

He left the bank to join the colors as a private in the infantry, Company C, Eight Hundred and Thirteenth Infantry, attached to the Thirty-third Division, and in 1918 went to France. He had a series of promotions from private to corporal, to sergeant, to sergeant major to second lieutenant, and when he was discharged, August 3, 1919, it was with the rank of first lieutenant. He is a member of the Officers Reserve Corps, with the rank of first lieutenant.

Soon after his return from overseas and his release from army service Mr. Phillippe organized the Bainum Phillippe Company, handling general insurance. In January, 1928, this firm was consolidated with the R. C. Mossman agency, the new organization taking the name of the Union Agency, Incorporated, of which Mr. Phillippe is president, M. D. Gould, vice president, H. M. Robbins, secretary, and R. C. Mossman, treasurer.

In addition to his activities in the field of insurance Mr. Phillippe has for several years been building up important relationships with the field of advertising, particularly outdoor advertising. He is vice president of the Saiter Morgan Company, Vincennes, Indiana, is president of the Indo Poster Advertising Company at Marion, Indiana, president of the Evansville Bulletin Service at Evansville, president of the Universal Advertising Service of Vincennes, president of the Wabash Poster Service at Mount Carmel, Illinois, president of the C. & H. Poster Advertising Company of Defiance, Ohio, president of the Indo Poster Advertising Company of Union City, Indiana, president of the Vicksburg Poster Advertising Company, Vicksburg, Mississippi. These various companies employ about a hundred persons and operate thirty- five trucks, doing poster work and advertising distribution throughout the states of Indiana and Ohio.

Mr. Phillippe, on September 7, 1918, at Chillicothe, Ohio, married Miss Helen Schumaker, of Vincennes. Her people have been in Knox County for several generations. Mr. Phillippe is a member of the Rotary Club, Harmony Society, member of Vincennes Lodge No.1, A. F. and A. M., the B. P. O. Elks, Y. M. C. A., Vincennes and Old Post Country Club, and is city chairman of the Democratic committee. He is a charter member of American Legion Post No. 73 and also of the local Forty and Eight Society.

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


PHILIP KABEL. The banker of today, especially in the smaller cities and towns of the country, can render a most effective aid in presenting new business opportunities, or discharging the wornout ones, for he is of all men the best placed for such a service. He has the most intimate relations and also the final word; he keeps the money in circulation on good terms and at the same time contributes to the prosperity of his farmer neighbor as well as the city people, who in turn put their money back into the bank. Working along these lines Philip Kabel, president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Winchester, has built up a solid institution and a wide patronage.

Philip Kabel was born at Winchester, February 1, 1879, a son of John and Rebecca (Mendenhall) Kabel, natives of Randolph County; and grandson of Philip and Mary (Goetz) Kabel, natives of Germany, who located in Randolph County at an early day and here became substantial farming people, and the grandfather also conducted a woolen mill. The maternal grandparents, Nathan and Maria (Larisen) Mendenhall, were also early settlers of Randolph County, and farmers. John Kabel and his wife located at Winchester after their marriage, and for some years he was a public school teacher. Later he went on the road, but throughout his life he was interested in farming. His death occurred in 1917, and his wife's in 1898.

After he had completed the work of the grade and high schools Philip Kabel attended Earlham College, and at the age of nineteen years began teaching school. For the following eight years he continued that calling, and then decided upon a business career and entered his present bank as assistant cashier. Three years later he was made cashier, and February 9, 1921, was made president. The bank is capitalized at $50,000, and has resources of $845,000. It is the oldest banking institution in Eastern Indiana, having been established in 1857, and from then on it has weathered all of the financial storms that have destroyed one or other of the earlier competitors. Its policies are conservative, its connections are important, and its investments are of the most solid. Some of the best business men in this part of the state are on its directorate, and its name back of any project is sufficient guarantee for discriminating investors.

On August 14, 1901, Mr. Kabel was married to Miss Alice Reynard, born in Randolph County, a daughter of Elisha and Martha (Adamson) Reynard, natives of Randolph County. Mr. and Mrs. Kabel have had the following children: Rebecca, who was born in January; 1903, was graduated from the Winchester High School and Earlham College, from which latter she took her degree of Bachelor of Arts, and she completed her Master's degree in the University of Indiana, and she has taught English in the McKinley High School since 1925; and Elbert, who was born November 15, 1910, was graduated from the Winchester High School, and is now a student of the University of Indiana. He was made a member of the Indiana University Band, which is called the All-American College Band of the United States. This band, of 100 members, is recognized as the leading organization of its kind in the country.

Philip Kabel is a Quaker, and is a member of the ministerial board of the Friends' Church, and he has held other offices in connection with it. His political belief makes him a Republican. Fraternally he affiliates with the Knights of Pythias. He is a past president of the Rotary Club; Fountain Park Cemetery Board has him as its president, and he has held the office for a long period, and at different times he has been on the school board of Winchester. He is an interested member of the American Historical Association and of the National Geographical Society. A well-educated man, he is interested in cultural subjects, and exerts himself to promote the advancement of the city along this line, as he does in a business way, and the results are gratifying and effective.

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


CHARLES H. GRIGGS is president of the C. H. Griggs Motor Corporation of Vincennes, and is effectively ordering the policies and directing the business of this company, which here has the agency for the celebrated and popular Graham-Paige automobiles. The attractive, spacious and, well equipped sales and display rooms as well as the service department, of this agency are established at 601 Main Street.

Mr. Griggs was born at Bridgeport, Lawrence County, Illinois, September 27, 1882, and is one of the four children born to John V. and Cora Griggs, the former of whom was born in Perry County, Ohio, and the latter in Lawrence County, Illinois, where their marriage was solemnized and where John V. Griggs had established residence prior to the Civil war.

The early education of Charles H. Griggs was acquired in the schools of Bridgeport and Saint Francisville, Illinois, and at the age of fourteen years he became associated with his father's business, that of buying and shipping livestock, the father having maintained a hardware store and grain elevator at Saint Francisville. Charles H. Griggs continued to be actively and identified with his father's varied business operations until he attained to his majority, when he married and established his residence on a farm in his native county, where he continued his successful operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower until he was twenty-six years of age. He then purchased a half-interest in his father’s hardware and grain-elevator business at Saint Francisville and in 1909 he there initiated his connection with the automobile business, as agent for the Reo cars. After two years he transferred his base of operations in this line of enterprise to Lawrenceville, the county seat, and four years later he removed to Princeton, Indiana, where he maintained a Hudson and Buick agency three years, or until November 1, 1919, when he identified himself with the Vincennes Nash Motor Company, which here maintained a factory branch agency until 1922. The business was incorporated in 1922, and Mr. Griggs was elected president and general manager of the company and continued identified with the Vincennes Nash Motor Company until December 1, 1930. The C. H. Griggs Motor Corporation was organized December 2, 1930, and Mr. C. H. Griggs was elected president and general manager. The large and well equipped building was erected specially for the use of the corporation. This building was erected in 1925 and affords nearly 7,000 square feet of floor space. The agency is one of the foremost in importance in the City of Vincennes, covering the counties of Knox in Indiana and Lawrence County in Illinois, and is represented in membership in the National Automobile Dealers Association.

The political allegiance of Mr. Griggs is given to the Republican party. He is an active member of the Vincennes Chamber of Commerice, is president of the local Rod and Gun Club and the Two Eye Duck Club, which alliances indicate his deep interest in hunting and fishing, and in Lawrenceville, Illinois, he still retains membership in lodge No. 1208 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His basic Masonic affiliation is now with Vincennes Lodge No.1, A. F. and A. M., and he is also a member of the Scottish Rite Consistory at Evansville, besides being there aNoble of the Temple of the Mystic Shrine.

Mrs. Cora (Jordan) Griggs, first wife of the subject of this review, died at Saint Francisville, Illinois, and is survived by two children, Beulah May and John Albert In 1916 Mr. Griggs was united in marriage to Miss Gladys B. Bramble, of Lawrenceville, Illinois, and she is the popular chatelaine of their attractive home in Vincennes, at 1152 East Sycamore Street.

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


HARRY R. ANDERSON, clerk of the Vanderburg Circuit Court of Vanderburg County, has been firmly established in public confidence, and esteem at Evansville for a number of years, first, as a business man and then as a public official.

Mr. Anderson was born in Pike County, Indiana, October 9, 1892, son of John L. and Louise (Sprinkles) Anderson. His parents were born in Warrick, Indiana, and his father died in 1906 at Evansville and his mother in 1894. Harry R. Anderson spent his active life as a farmer. There were two children besides Harry R. Clarence, born in 1888, a farmer in Warrick County, married Ethel Lawrence, who was born in that county, daughter of Peter Lawrence, a farmer. Eugene Anderson, who died at the age of thirty-one, was acigar maker, and by his marriage to Olivio Cummings left three children, Charles; born in 1909, Mary, born in 1912, and Lena, born in 1911.

Harry R. Anderson attended the grade and high schools at Evansville, and graduated from business college in 1910. After a year of work as clerk in the sales department of the Hercules Buggy Company he went west on account of failing health, spent a year in recuperating,and on returning he was an employee of the Adams Express Company and filled several other positions, as bookkeeper, salesman, with Evansville business organizations. Mr. Anderson has some farming interests in Warrick County, growing cattle and hogs, and also has real estate in Evansville.

In 1914 he joined the Evansville police department as a patrolman and later was promoted to motorcycle officer. He resigned in 1918 to join the colors and was with Headquarters Company in the field artillery at Camp Taylor, Kentucky, until discharged in 1919. For two years after the war Mr. Anderson sold automobiles at Evansville. In 1921 he went to the courthouse as deputy county clerk and served in that position five years, an experience that gave him a thorough knowledge of the routine of the county clerk's office. In March, 1926, came his appointment as chief of police of Evansville, and he was the police chief of the city until January 1, 1929, when he entered upon his duties as clerk of the Vanderburg Circuit Court following his election in November, 1928.

He married, at Evansville, August 11, 1918, Miss Bertha Ambrose, daughter of Julius Ambrose, a grocery merchant. Mr. Anderson is a Republican in politics and a member of the B. P. O. Elks.

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


Deb Murray