JOSEPH E. SHERFEY, veteran business man of Brazil for sixty-two consecutive years has conducted a furniture store in one location in that city, a remarkable record, probably without parallel in any city of the state.

Mr. Sherfey was born near Covington, on a farm in Fountain County, Indiana, April 7, 1843. The farm also contains a mill site. His father, David E. Sherfey, was both a farmer and miller. He was born at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, son of Jacob Sherfey, whose Pennsylvania farm was part of the ground over which the Northern and Southern armies fought in the great battle of Gettysburg. David E. Sherfey married Mary McNeil, and their children were: Henry, who served with a Kentucky regiment in the Civil war; Samuel, who was a member of the Sixth Indiana Cavalry; William H., of the Ninety-seventh Indiana Regiment, in the Signal Corps; Joseph E., subject of this review; Mahala; Isabelle; and Mary Frances.

Joseph E. Sherfey attended school at Perrysville, Indiana, was also a student in DePauw University at Greencastle, and like his three older brothers entered the Union army. He volunteered in Company D of the Fifty-fifth Indiana Regiment, served in the Army of the Cumberland and later enlisted in Company F of the One Hundred and Thirty-second Indiana Infantry. Most of his military service was in Kentucky. After the war he engaged in the furniture business at Greencastle and in 1867 moved to Brazil and opened the store on National Avenue, on the spot where he has been in business for sixty-two years.

Mr. Sherfey married, October 20, 1869, Miss Helen Azer. She died in March, 1928, when they had been married nearly sixty years. Five children were born to them: David, deceased; Mary, Mrs. W. P. Luther, of Brazil, and the mother of two children, named Lois and William P., Jr.; Elizabeth, deceased; Henry, who married Cleopatra Navor and has two children, named Helen and Major; and Winfield, who married Blanche Ritter and has eight children.

Mr. Sherfey for over sixty years has held membership in the Masonic fraternity. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Grand Army of the Republic, and since the age of thirteen has been a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He has been characterized by the spirit of helpfulness in community affairs and at one time was town treasurer. He is president of the Rock Run Coal Company and a director of the Davis Trust Company of Brazil.

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


GEORGE W. FINLEY has been a practicing physician in Clay County for forty years. He was born in that county, and represents a long line of American ancestors, beginning with James Finley, who came from Scotland and settled in Maryland. He had a son, George, and a grandson also named George, who was born December 15, 1757, and was a youthful soldier in the Revolutionary war. He became captain of a company in a Maryland regiment and was in the service until Lord Cornwallis and his British forces laid down their arms at Yorktown. Capt. George Finley died at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. His widow, Mary (Ross) Finley, a very devout Quaker lady, brought her family to Indiana in 1834. Her son, James Finley, was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, and was a youth when his mother came to Indiana and settled in Putnam County, where he grew up. He married Sarah A. Belk, and one of their children is Dr. George W. Finley.

Doctor Finley attended a log school in Van Buren Township of Clay County, later was a student in the Union Christian College at Merom, on the banks of the Wabash, and took summer normal work at Center Point. He engaged in teaching between the time he received his first college diploma in 1878 until he had completed his medical course at the Indiana Medical College in 1890. He taught in Putnam and Clay counties. After graduating from medical school he located in home township of Harmony and remained there until 1898, since which year he has been an outstanding representative of his profession at Brazil. Doctor Finley first studied medicine under Dr. R. H. Culbertson in Clay County. He is a member of the Indiana State and American Medical Associations and has been a member of the American Association since 1893. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Doctor Finley married, in 1881, Miss Emma B. Bragdon, daughter of Jotham Bragdon, of Sullivan County, Indiana. Her parents settled there on coming from Clermont County, Ohio, and her father was a farmer and stock raiser. Doctor and Mrs. Finley had three children: Dorothy P, and Lois R., both of Brazil; and Crystal, of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

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


CARL A. PLOCH. For a period of twenty- two years Carl A. Ploch has been identified with the banking interests of Indianapolis, having risen steadily in position and public confidence until he is now vice president of the Farmers Trust Company, one of the city's leading financial institutions. Mr. Ploch is an exemplification of the self-made man, having started his independent career as a lad of fourteen years, and the success that has come to him has been gained solely through his own ability and efforts.

Mr. Ploch was born at Jeffersonville, Indiana, January 28, 1884, and is a son of Rev. Charles E. and Emma (Braun) Ploch, his father being a native of Perry City, Indiana, and for many years a popular and revered minister of the Presbyterian Church, who filled. pulpits in various parts of Indiana and was known as a man of great piety and religious zeal. After attending the public schools of Indiana and Ohio Carl A. Ploch started working, at the age of fourteen years, as assistant shipping clerk of the Hecke Manufacturing Company of Indianapolis and Marion, Ohio, and remained with that concern for one year. He then took a course at the Manual Training High School of Indianapolis, and upon his graduation therefrom entered the service of the Indianapolis branch of the National Cash Register Company, with which concern he rose to the position of office manager. When he left that company he engaged in the banking business, with which he has been identified to the present. During twenty- two years Mr. Ploch has been connected with some of the leading banking interests of Indianapolis, but at present devotes practically all of his attention to his duties as vice president of the Farmers Trust Company. He is a past master of Calvin W. Prather Lodge, A. F. and A. M., belongs to the Chapter and Council, and is a member of Roper Commandery No.1, K. T. He takes an active part in civic measures as a member of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, and his religious connection is with the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church. Mr. Ploch can boast of Colonial ancestry and several members of his immediate family met their deaths on Southern battlefields during the war between the states while serving in Indiana regiments of the Union army. He is the eldest of three children, and a brother, Walter W., served in the World war in France and held the rank of lieutenant.

Mr. Ploch married Miss Maud L. Poynter, a native of Indiana, and they are the parentsof two children: Virginia, born in 1913, who is attending Butler Union School; and James, born in 1919, who is a student of the public schools of Indianapolis. The pleasant family home is situated at 545 East Fifty-eighth Street.

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


ATLANTA PUBLIC LIBRARY. A traveling man, Newton Rhoades, was responsible for the idea and the initial impulse that resulted in a public library for the town of Atlanta in Hamilton County. The movement was carried out to a successful conclusion, resulting in securing an appropriation from the Carnegie Foundation of $10,000 for a building. The building was completed in 1916, and is a model in arrangement and facilities for a structure of its size.

The first library board consisted of N. A. Rhoades, president; Mary Bishop, vice president;. F. M. Scherer, treasurer, and H. E. Snyder, secretary. The first librarian was Helen Van Cleve, followed by Alza Whisler and Ruth Duncan, Susanne Baylor, and since September 1, 1924, Mrs. Emma Davis has been the official directly and personally responsible for the management of the institution.

The library contains 7,000 volumes, with a large subscription list of magazines, and the use of the library facilities measured in terms of book circulation is steadily growing. In addition to the main library two branches are maintained in the communities of Arcadia and Cicero. The library has an annual budget of $3,500.

The present library board comprises Otto E. Jensen, C. C. Cochran, I. M. Garsho, M. A. Steckel, Mrs. Azza McDaniel, Mrs. Shirl Walton and Mrs. Maude Carter.

Mrs. Davis is a daughter of the late Dr. L. C. MacFatridge, a very prominent physician of Hamilton County, who practiced in this community for many years. He was a graduate of the Indiana Medical College and died in 1911. Miss Emma MacFatridge was educated in the schools of Hamilton County and was married to Otto Davis, now deceased. She has three children, Robert, attending the Atlanta High School, Howard and George. Mrs. Davis is well qualified for her work and every year she takes advantage of a brief course of training in the State Library Association School at Indianapolis.

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


JOHN WILLIAM THOMSON, prominent member of the medical fraternity in DeKalb County, was born at Garrett, where he has had his professional career and is a son of one of the prominent early doctors of that community, the late Dr. John F. Thomson.

Dr. John F. Thomson was born at Belmont, Ontario, Canada, March 24, 1850, son of John Gillies and Flora (Ferguson) Thomson. He was one of a family of fourteen children. He graduated in medicine at the University of Michigan in 1875 and from Trinity College of Ontario in 1876, and in the latter year began the practice of medicine at Mount Vernon, Ohio. His professional career covered a period of forty-six years, marked by earnest devotion and fidelity and measuring up to the highest standards of professional conduct. From Ohio he moved to Garrett when it was a new town, and the best measure of his professional career and reputation was gained in that community. He continued in active practice until his death on July 25, 1923. Soon after locating at Garrett he became a member of the staff of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway surgeons and for many years attended the victims of accidents on the Chicago division. In surgery he came to rank as one of the ablest representatives of his profession in Northern Indiana. He was a member of the Association of Baltimore and Ohio Physicians, and held the offices of second vice president, first vice president and president of that organization. He was for many years a member of the DeKalb County Medical Society. For thirty years he served on the Garrett School Board and was deeply interested in the educational progress of his community. For forty years he had membership in the Masonic fraternity, serving three terms as worshipful master of the lodge at Garrett, was a member of Garrett Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Apollo Commandery, Knights Templar, at Kendallville, and for many years was a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, serving as a trustee and up to the time of his death was on the official board. In every sense he measured up to the responsibilities of an exemplary citizen and physician.

Dr. John Ferguson Thomson married, June 18, 1878, Miss Sallie Weston Johnston, who was born April 29, 1857, and died November 26, 1922. Besides John W. there was one daughter, Flora, who was educated in the University of Chicago and is now the wife of James Henry Green, a member of the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. John W. Thomson was born at Garrett, January 31, 1886, and was educated in the grade and high schools there, attended the Morgan Park Academy in Chicago in 1902-03, took his Bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago in 1907 and was graduated M. D. from Rush Medical College in 1909. He did post-graduate work in Columbia University in 1910, was an interne in St. Anthony's Hospital at Chicago in 1911, and since the latter year has carried on a very successful practice at Garrett, except for the time he was in the army. In January, 1918, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Medical Corps, and served until July 19, 1919. He is regarded as a very able successor of his honored father. Besides his general private practice he is local surgeon for the Baltimore & Ohio Railway.

Dr. John W. Thomson married, June 30, 1913, Miss Margaret Spencer, of Garrett. She was born at Fort Wayne, but grew up in Garrett. Her father, George W.. Spencer, lives at Garrett. Her mother's maiden name was Rosabelle Jackson, and she was born at Mount Vernon, Ohio, and died at Garrett in 1917. Doctor and Mrs. Thomson have a son, John Ferguson, born April 18, 1920. Doctor Thomson is a Methodist and his wife a Presbyterian. He is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge at Garrett, is a Phi Gamma Delta and Alpha Kappa Kappa, and a member in good standing of the Northeastern Indiana Academy of Medicine, the DeKalb County, Indiana State and American Medical Associations.

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


J. FRANK CORNELL, physician and surgeon, has been engaged in the work of his profession at Galveston, Cass County, for nearly thirty years. He is a native of Cass County, and his interests have always been identified with this section of Indiana, and while in a business way he has prospered his chief ambition was been to give good service to humanity.

Doctor Cornell was born in Deer Creek Township, Cass County, February 9,1870, ason of Benjamin D. and Sarah (Bunnell) Cornell. The Cornells were a pioneer family in Indiana. His father was born in Butler County, Ohio, and came to Cass County, Indiana, in 1847. He became well known as a farmer and a school teacher, and carried a share of duties in educational work for many years. He died in 1907 and his wife in 1901.

Doctor Cornell was the only child of his parents. He attended district schools and first fitted himself for the tasks of teaching. His teacher's training work was done in the American Normal School at Logansport, in the Valparaiso Normal and the Marion Normal; where he was graduated about 1894. At the age of eighteen he began teaching, and taught in district schools for five years, and for four years served as county superintendent of schools. When he was twenty-nine years of age he entered Indiana University to study medicine and after one year went to the medical department of University of Illinois at Chicago and was graduated M. D. in 1902. Since that year he has carried on a general practice as a physician and surgeon in Galveston. Doctor Cornell is a director and vice president of the Citizens State Bank of Galveston. He owns two farms, one in Deer Creek Township and the other in Jackson Township, his farm lands aggregating about 225 acres.

His activities have typified him as a good citizen at all times, willing to take his share of responsibilities in the community. During the World war he acted as local food commissioner. He was a member of the town council and is now a member of the school board, belongs to the Cass County, Indiana State and American Medical Associations and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and Knights of Pythias.

Doctor Cornell married in 1900 Miss Berlinda D. Williams, daughter of George and Hannah J. Williams. She was born at Galveston. To their marriage were born three children, Sarah Esther, George Benjamin and William Wendell. George is deceased, Sarah, born in 1902, is the wife of John Davis, of Indianapolis. The son William Wendell is attending school at Marion.

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


CARLTON LANE HOUSTON among other activities of his busy career studied law and has the privilege of writing the degree Master of Laws after his name. However, that profession has been subordinated to his dominating interest in newspaper work, represented at the present time by his official connection as editor of the Marion Leader-Tribune.

Mr. Houston when thirteen years of age bought for fifteen dollars a delivery route of the old Marion Leader, and at the age of fourteen was doing work as reporter for that paper, and by the time he was sixteen had been advanced to the post of city editor.

Mr. Houston was born at Bedford, Indiana, October 19, 1884, son of Robert Carlton Houston and grandson of William and Elizabeth Houston. His grandfather was a dealer in horses, and died at Baltimore, Maryland, when forty-five years of age. His grandmother died at Bedford, Indiana, in 1905 and is buried there. Robert Carlton Houston was born at Bedford, Indiana, and for a number of years was attorney for the Monon Railway Company, and is at this time secretary and treasurer of the Lafayette Savings Bank at Lafayette. He married Mabel Pearson, whose father, Hon. Henry Pearson, was judge of the Circuit Court of Lawrence County, Indiana.

Carlton Lane Houston was seven years of age when his parents moved to Marion and he attended city schools there, also Wabash College at Crawfordsville. After his early experiences as a newspaper man at Marion he went to the Southwest and became editor of the Prescott, Arizona, Journal-Miner. In 1902 he returned to Marion, resuming his connection with the Leader for five years. In 1908 he was made private secretary to George W. Rauch, congressman from the Eleventh Indiana District, and this took him to Washington, and in 1912 he was appointed cashier and paymaster to the National House of Representatives. While there he used his leisure and spare time to attend the National University, and in 1916 was graduated with the degrees Bachelor of Arts and Master of Laws. He was also president of his school fraternity.

Mr. Houston in the early part of 1917 returned to Marion and entered formally upon the practice of law. Just a few weeks later this country entered the war and he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the quarter-master's department, being stationed at Washington, D. C. He received his honorable discharge December 31, 1918, and since his return to Marion has been editor of the Leader-Tribune.

Mr. Houston is secretary of the Marion Public Library Board. During the war he was chairman of seven different war drives, is a past commander of the Indiana American Legion, a past lieutenant governor of the Indiana Kiwanis, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and formerly was a member of the Knights of Pythias and B. P. O. Elks. He belongs to the Loyal Order of Moose, the Mecca Club and the Presbyterian Church.

He married, November 24, 1908, Miss Marie Louise Raber, daughter of J. E. Raber, a retired furniture merchant. They have a son, Robert Raber Houston, born at Marion October 29, 1923.

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


WILLIAM FREDERICK HORNBERGER, who is successfully established in the wholesale and retail coal business in Fort Wayne, with headquarters at 1736 West Main Street, has been a resident of this city for the past quarter of a century and here has made a sterling record both as a citizen and as business man.

Mr. Hornberger was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, June 26, 1870, and is a son of Jacob H. and Christina (Littery) Hornberger, both natives of Germany, where the former was born in 1828 and the latter in1832, their marriage having been solemnized in Pennsylvania, in the year 1856. Jacob H. Hornberger was a lad of thirteen years when he came to the United States, in 1841, he having made the voyage on a sailing ship of the kind common to that period, and having eventually become one of the prosperous farmers of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, where he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, Mrs. Hornberger having been a girl of about twelve years when she came from her native land to the United States, in 1845.

The boyhood and youth of William F. Hornberger were passed on the old home farm that was the place of his birth, and he continued to be actively identified with farm work until he was twenty years of age, his youthful education having been obtained in the rural schools of his native county. At the age noted he left the farm and found employment in the steel mills at Danville, the county seat of his old home county, and there he was thus engaged until 1891. As a skilled workman he then found employment in the steel mills at Youngstown, Ohio, but in the following year he took a position of similar order in mills at Findlay, that state. In 1904 he initiated his service in the steel mills at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and here he was thus engaged until 1912, when he engaged independently in the coal business. To this enterprise he devoted his attention until the nation entered the World war, in the spring of 1917, when, to further the war preparations of the Government, he did his bit by resuming work in the local steel mills, where he was employed until the close of the war, when he resumed his operations in the coal business, in the conducting of which he now has an effective coadjutor in the person of his only son.

On the 4th of July, 1899, Mr. Hornberger was united in marriage to Miss Mary Koontz, who was born in the City of Massillon, Stark County, Ohio, September 8, 1878. The two children of this union are Frank Frederick and Wilhelmina. Frank was born at Fort Wayne, in 1905, and Wilhelmina was born in 1901 at Findlay, Ohio. Frank is now associated with his father in the coal business, as previously noted, and he is affiliated with S,ummit City Lodge No. 170, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. In July, 1920, Miss Wilhelmina Hornberger became the wife of George Varvalin, and they maintain their home in Fort Wayne, their two children being Robert and Mary, both of whom are, in 1929, pupils in the Washington Street Public School.

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


JOHN LINUS OLSON is the senior member of J. L. Olson & Sons Company, at 524 East Market Street, Logansport, an old established business which for many years has been one of the important units in the building construction activities of Cass County, contractors of sheet metal and tin work.

Mr. Olson, who has spent over fifty years in this line of business, was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, March 14, 1857. His parents were Andrew and Hannah (Conradson) Olson. His father was a cabinet maker and passed away in 1900, and the mother died in 1915. Of their nine children six are living today.

John L.. Olson attended school in Sweden and in 1883 came to the United States. For fourteen years he followed his trade as a sheet metal worker in Chicago and then came to Logansport. For eleven years he was manager of the sheet metal business of C. A. Eberlien, then acquired a financial interest in the business and conducted it as Schwarz & Olson for five years. Since then the Olson family have owned the business, conducting it as J. L. Olson & Sons Company.

Mr. Olson is a member of the Masonic fraternity , is a trustee of the Market Street Methodist Episcopal Church, belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and is a Republican. He is a capable business man lived up to the standards of good citizenship.

He married Alma Sophia Hallgren, also a native of Sweden. Eight children were born to their marriage, six of whom are living. The three sons are associated with their father in business and the three daughters are all married. The children living are: John Algot; Ellen Josephine, the wife of Alonzo Stewart, whose children are Frank, Oscar and Helen; Lillian Alma, the wife of Fred W. Gottschalk, with one son, Merrill; Elvira, the wife of Charles C. Miller, whose children are Margaret May and Arthur; Elmer Franz, who married Georgia Harrison, and whose children are Jeanne Ann and Wanda Marie; Linus Emanuel, who married Frances Murray.

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


ROSCOE WILLIS TAYLOR. An important adjunct of the industrial and commercial activities of the City of Fort Wayne is the local branch of the Western Newspaper Union, the local name being changed to Western Paper Company, August 1, 1930. Mr. Taylor is the district manager and the headquarters are established at 437 East Berry Street. This corporation, national in the scope of its operation, not only accords direct newspaper service in connection with papers published in all sections of the United States, but also, functions, through each of its branches, in the handling of general printers' supplies, with service as paper jobbers, stereotypers, etc.

Mr. Taylor is able to revert to Nebraska as the place of his nativity, his birth having occurred there at Exeter, Kearney County, December 9, 1888, and he being a son of Richard L. and Ella (Barnes) Taylor, who passed their entire lives in Nebraska, where the respective families were established in the early pioneer days. Roscoe W. Taylor received the advantages of the Nebraska public schools, including the high school in Lincoln, the capital city, but his final high school studies were completed in the City of Omaha, where he was duly graduated. At the age of sixteen years he assumed the dignified position of office boy in a printing and newspaper supply house in Lincoln, and by loyal service in the various departments he won advancement to the position of city salesman in Lincoln. He continued his alliance with this concern during a period of nineteen years, and upon his resignation, in 1923, he assumed an executive position in the Omaha branch of the Western Newspaper Union. He thus remained in the metropolis of his native state until January, 1929, when he was transferred to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he has since continued to hold the office of district manager for this corporation, the service of which he is directing with marked ability, as his long experience gives him authoritative knowledge of all details of the business. While residing in the fair capital city of Nebraska Mr. Taylor served some time as president of the Lincoln Advertising Club, as secretary of the Lincoln Printers Association, and secretary of the Lincoln Rotary Club. In his present home city he is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club, besides being a popular member of the Fort Wayne Country Club. In the World war period he was influential in advancing the various patriotic activities in Lincoln, Nebraska, and was captain of teams that there made vigorous campaigns in the support of the Government war bonds, Red Cross service, etc. He is affiliated with the Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity and is a Republican in political allegiance.

June 22, 1911, recorded the marriage of Mr. Taylor to Miss Christine House, of Lincoln, Nebraska, and they have three children: Rollin Coe, Robert Max and Jeanne Carman. The family home in Fort Wayne is maintained at 114 West Gumper Avenue.

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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


Deb Murray