WILLIAM G. FRENCH is an Evansville physician has practiced there for twenty years, and is one of the scholarly and able men of his profession in Southern Indiana.

Doctor French is a native of Kentucky, born at Newport February 2, 1885. His grandfather served four years with the Union army in the Civil war. Doctor French is a son of Dr. Malachi R. and Sarah Bell (Woods) French, both of whom reside at Evansville, where his father for many years has practiced medicine. His father was born in Iowa and his mother in Illinois. There were four children: Dr. William G.; Stella, born in 1887; Robert L., born in 1888; and Stephen F., born in 1890. Miss Stella is unmarried and lives at Evansville. Robert, also a physician in Oak Park, Illinois, and by his marriage to Mabel Clark has two children. Stephen F is a dentist, located at Elmhurst, Illinois. He married Margaret Perkins and they have three children.

Dr. William G. French attended grammar and high school in Chicago, continuing his higher education in Valparaiso University of Indiana, and was graduated M. D. from the General Medical College of Chicago in 1906. Doctor French had the benefit of three years of general routine practice in Chicago before coming to Evansville, where he located May 17, 1909. He is fellow of the American Academy of Proctology, and this is a line that represents his specialty. Doctor French was county coroner of Vanderburg County from 1922 to 1924, and for the past four years has been police surgeon. He is a member of the County, Indiana State and American Medical Associations, is a Republican in politics, a member of the Evangelical Church, and is a York and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and a member of the B. P. O. Elks. He is also president of the Evansville Press Club.

Doctor French married at Chicago in June, 1913, Miss Sarah Ellen Young, daughter of Fred and Ellen Young. They are the parents of four children, Mildred Ellen, born in 1917, Russell Gayle, born in 1920, Stella Margaret, born in 1924, and William Clement, born in 1927.

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


HARRY MORTON GARRISON is a physician and surgeon practicing in Evansville, where he has been located since the close of the World was. His first year of practice were in Warrick County, the section of Indiana where he was born and reared and where his family have lived since pioneer times.

Doctor Garrison was born in Warrick County, son of Willard Garrison. Both his father and grandfather were born in Warrick County. His father was born in 1860 and died in 1901, and lived out his life on a farm near Garrison Chapel. He married Catherine Easley, who is now seventy-one years of age, and her family were also early settlers of Warrick County. Of the eight children two died in infancy, and those to grow up were Ora H., Dr. Harry M., Dennie T., Hubert W., Ethel and May. Ora, who was a railway clerk, married Anna Taylor and has two children. Dennie lives in Ohio. Hubert, a member of the Evansville police force, died in 1927, leaving four children. Ethel is the wife of Ed Stephen, of Boonville, and has five children, and May is the wife of Elmer Walter, living in Wabash, Indiana, and has two children.

Harry Morton Garrison attended public schools at Dale, Indiana, and graduated from the Louisville College of Pharmacy. He was a drug clerk for several years and in 1911 graduated from the Southwestern School of Homeopathy. For one year he practiced at Dale, seven years at Selvin in Warrick County, and six months at Winslow.

He volunteered for service during the World war and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Medical Corps just about the time the armistice was signed. On January 1, 1919, he moved to Evansville, where he has practiced with a steadily growing reputation for able work and conscientious devotion to his clients. He is a member of the Vanderburg County, Indiana State and American Medical Associations.

Doctor Garrison married in December, 1916, Gale Whittinghill, daughter of Wayne and Agnes (Spradly) Whittinghill, of Warrick County. They have one son, Harry M., Jr., born in November, 1918. Doctor Garrison is a Republican, a member of the Methodist Church, and is affiliated with the B. P. O. Elks and Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

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


JOHN GEORGE MALMBERG, who for a number of years was an active figure in the insurance circles in Wisconsin and at Chicago, since coming to South Bend has given that city one of its best known insurance organizations, the Income Guaranty Company, of which he is president.

Mr. Malmberg was born in Denmark, November 28, 1880, son of Nels and Johanna (Joergensen) Malmberg. His father was born in Sweden, in 1849; and his mother in Denmark, in 1852. In 1887 the parents came to the United States and settled at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where Nels Malmberg was in business as a florist. He died in 1919. After acquiring American citizenship he was a staunch Republican and .from early youth was a member of the Danish Lutheran Church. There were four sons in the family: Anton M., born in 1876; John G.; Emil C., born in 1882; and L. William, born in 1885. All the sons are living. Their mother, who passed away in 1915, had taught school during her early life in Denmark.

John G. Malmberg learned his letters and received his first instruction in the primary branches from his mother. He finished his public schooling at Oshkosh and at the age of eighteen went to work in a grocery business owned by his father. His active connection with the grocery trade continued from January 1, 1899, to April 10, 1905. He then entered the insurance field, at Oshkosh, where he was associated with the Union Accident & Benefit Association until May 1, 1912. He then moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and assisted in the organization of the Badger Casualty Company. Later this company acquired the business of the Midland Casualty Company of Illinois, and with the consolidation of the assets and business of the two organizations headquarters were established in Chicago and Mr. Malmberg became secretary of the company.

On September .1, 1917, he moved to South Bend and took part in the organization of the Income Guaranty Company, which has enjoyed a steadily increasing volume of business and has become one of the well known and reliable insurance houses of Northern Indiana. Mr. Malmberg was secretary of the company when it was organized, later vice president and treasurer, and since March 1, 1929, has been president. The secretary and treasurer is his son-in-law, Mr. A. N. Hepler, Jr. Mr. Malmberg is also a director of the company and is a director of the Rotary Club.

He has been very prominent in Masonic affairs and is a past master of Lodge No. 294, A. F. and A. M., is a past sovereign prince of the Scottish Rite Council and second lieutenant commander of the Consistory. He is a member of Murat Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis and is on the board of control and the board of representatives of the St. Joseph Valley Temple Association. He still has membership in the Green Bay Lodge of B. P. O. Elks. Mr. Malmberg is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of South Bend. He is a past patron of the Eastern Star Chapter and a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

On June 25, 1902, he married Miss Jeanette Anderson, of Oshkosh. They have two children, Dorothy Jeanette, born April 7, 1904, and John Milton, born August 22, 1909. The son is a graduate of the South Bend High School and is a member of the class of 1931 in the University of Illinois and is preparing for the profession of the law. Dorothy Jeanette is a graduate of the South Bend High School, and assisted her father in the business office until her marriage to Mr. A. N. Hepler, Jr. They have two sons, Albert Newton Hepler III and Robert John Hepler.

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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


WILLIAM M. WILHELMUS, M. D. The modern medical man shares in the progress of the age, for science has reached a degree bordering upon perfection in matters pertaining to his profession. Were it not that the man of the twentieth century is developing new diseases by reason of his complicated and unnatural mode of living, doubtless the scientists could prevent decay and prolong human life almost indefinitely. As it is miracles are being daily performed and methods approved that seem beyond the comprehension of the layman, however much he may benefit from their application to his individual case. One of the men of Indiana who has attained to a high position among his contemporaries in the medical profession, not only at Saint Wendell where he resides, but in the medical societies with which he is connected, is Dr. William M. Wilhelmus. He was born in Spencer County, Indiana, December 23, 1882, a son of Otto Wilhelmus, a native of Germany.

At an early day Otto Wilhelmus came to the United States, and, like so many of his fellow countrymen, upon coming here became a farmer. The great ambition of the immigrants of an early day was to secure land of their own, something only the wealthy or nobility could hope to have in their own country, and few there were who did not at one time or another become farmers. However, Otto Wilhelmus was willing to defend the country he had adopted, and when war was declared between the states, enlisted in the Union army, fought bravely, and was wounded in the shoulder during the great battle of Missionary Ridge, which was fought with such terrible losses on both sides. After the close of the war he resumed his farming, and continued in that calling until his death in 1884. His wife, formerly Mary Kaiser, was born in Indiana, and she survived him many years, passing away in August, 1914. They had two children, namely: Doctor Wilhelmus and Charles.

Reared amid strictly rural surroundings Doctor Wilhelmus was early taught to make himself useful, and to save the money his labor earned for him, and these early lessons have remained with him, and while he is engaged in a large practice he is also an extensive farmer of Spencer County. His early education was acquired in the country and high schools of Spencer County. Having made up his mind to enter the medical profession, he entered the Louisville Medical College, Louisville, Kentucky, and was graduated therefrom in 1908, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, after which he established himself in practice near Boonville, Warrick County, Indiana. After a year there he moved to Powell, Wyoming, and was there engaged in practice for a year, but then came to Saint Wendell, in 1911, and here he has since remained, building up a large practice, which covers Armstrong and other portions of Vanderburg County.

Twice married, he was united first to Miss Retta Wallace, of Dale, Indiana, November 26, 1908, and they had one child, Dorothy, who was born October 14, 1910, and is now attending Evansville, Indiana, College, where she is taking a course in liberal arts, in the class of 1932. The first Mrs. Wilhelmus died February 5, 1921, and in October, 1923, Doctor Wilhelmus was married to Miss Rose Martin, of Saint Wendell. There are no children of the second marriage. Doctor Wilhelmus is a Democrat, but has never sought office, preferring to exert his influence as a private citizen. However, when he found that there was need of his professional services he accepted appointment as deputy health officer of his community. He is a member of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Knights of Saint John. While his time is occupied with the demands of his large practice, Doctor Wilhelmus is interested in those measures which tend toward a better education of the people to the necessity for more sanitary regulations and hygienic conditions. He is not bound by his professional knowledge, but is able to take a broad, humanitarian view of life and join with others in working to effect improvements that will raise the average man and woman and develop the best quality of citizenship.

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


EDWARD E. HIGHMAN was born and reared in Posey County, Indiana, is a scion, in the third generation, of one of the sterling and honored pioneer families of this county, and here he has long held prestige as an influential citizen and leading business man of Mount Vernon, the county seat, where he is president of the Old First National Bank and also if the Home Mill & Grain Company.

Mr. Highman was born on the parental home farm, in Lynn Township, this county, December 25, 1851, and thus became a welcome Christmas day arrival in the home circle of his parents, John and Mary A. (Wilson) Highman. John Highman was born in Pennsylvania and was a child at the time of the family removal to Posey County, Indiana, where his parents passed the remainder of their lives, his father having here gained a goodly measure of pioneer honors in farm enterprise. John Highman was reared and educated in this county and here he continued a substantial exponent of farm industry until his death, May 25, 1854. His wife, who was born in Pennsylvania, was a child when, in 1816, she came with her parents to Indiana, much of the journey having been made on a flatboat down the Ohio River. Mrs. Highman survived her husband nearly forty years and was of venerable age at the time of her death, November 28, 1893. Of the eight children the eldest is Elizabeth, who is the wife of John Wilsey, a farmer in Lynn Township, two of their four children having died in infancy, Andrew, the second child, died in infancy, as did also the next child, Martha; Malinda died at the age of eighteen years; Elzina became the wife of Joshua Seward, who was a gallant soldier of the Union during virtually the entire period of the Civil war, he having been a member of the First Indiana Cavalry, and their children were four in number; Mara A. died at the age of fourteen years; Robert W., who resides at Mount Vernon, married Sarah Alexander, and they have two children; and Edward E., of this review, is the youngest of the number.

Edward E. Highman was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and received the advantages of the public schools of his native county. He continued to give his attention to farm enterprise until 1888, when he was elected sheriff of Posey County. He retained this office two terms, gave an effective and loyal administration, and upon his retirement therefrom, in 1894, he engaged in the buying and shipping of grain, with headquarters at Mount Vernon. He continued his operations in an individual way until 1900, when he organized the Home Mill & Grain Company, of which he has since served as president and which is one of the leading industrial and commercial concerns at Mount Vernon. He is likewise president of the Old First National Bank of Mount Vernon. Mr. Highman is a stalwart in the local ranks of the Democratic party and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias.

At New Harmony, Posey County, on December 25, 1884, his birthday anniversary, Mr. Highman was united in marriage to Miss Kate M. Schnee, daughter of David and Nancy (Travis) Schnee, and of this union were born five children: Fannie K., who was born January 15, 1886, is the wife of William Sonnerman, and they have one child, Martha, who is now (1929) eighteen years of age. Eugene, who was born February 3, 1888, and who is cashier of the Old First National Bank of Mount Vernon, married Miss Lucille Hardwick, and they have two children, Robert and Glenn, aged respectively eight and seven years. Helen, next youngest of the children, died at the age of two and one-half years. Annabel, who was born September 12, 1894, is the wife of George P. Guffin, of Gary, Indiana, and they have two children, George H., aged seven years, and Kathryn, aged five years. Edith, youngest of the children, was born August 12, 1896, and is the wife of S. C. Aldridge, who is engaged in the insurance business in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They have no children.

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


ALBERT GALLATIN HOLCOMB was for many years one of the outstanding citizens of Gibson County, a farmer and fruit grower, and from early manhood was the recipient of repeated honors from his fellow citizens, holding all the offices within their gift.

Mr. Holcomb was born in Johnson Township, Gibson County, March 7, 1858. His grandfather, Hosea Holcomb, came from Virginia and was one of the pioneers of Southern Indiana, entering land from the Government located three and a half miles east of Haubstadt. Here he cleared the timber, built a home, reared a fine family and was in every sense of the word a successful man. Albert G. Holcomb was a son of Silas Mercer and Nancy M. (Ralston) Holcomb, his mother being a sister of Doctor Ralston of Evansville. The parents had a family of five children: William R., of Vincennes; Albert G.; Minnie, deceased; Martha, of Fort Branch; and Andrew R., who died in Oklahoma.

Albert Gallatin Holcomb made good use of his early educational advantages, attending the district and high schools of Gibson County. Eight years of his early life were spent in teaching, and he always lived on a farm, his place adjoining the City of Fort Branch. He gave much attention to fruit growing, and took an active part in the Farmers Institute for many years.

When only eighteen years of age he was elected chairman of the Democratic township committee, and held that office thirty years. He was also for four years chairman of the county Democratic committee. For two consecutive terms he served as township trustee, and it was his splendid administration of the schools and other duties included in that office that made him the choice of his district for the State Senate, as was his father, Silas Holcomb, before him. He was elected for one term, and in 1904 was Democratic candidate from this district for Congress, being defeated in the general landslide which occurred when Roosevelt was candidate for his second term. Mr. Holcomb was president for several years and director for sixteen years of the Gibson County Fair Association.

This greatly beloved citizen of Gibson County passed away October 12, 1928, when seventy years of age. He married October 27, 1881, Miss Alice M. Hull, who survives him and continues to occupy the old homestead near Fort Branch. This farm comprises about 200 acres, and is an important unit in the fruit growing interests of this section of the state. Mrs. Holcomb is a daughter of Thomas Hull, a pioneer of Gibson County. She is the mother of two sons, Thomas and Harold. Thomas, a graduate of the University of Georgia in 1908 and of the Yale Law School in 1909, is now practicing law. He served as a first lieutenant in the Ninety-first Division during the World war and previously in the Philippine Constabulary. He married Miss Sarah E. Whittemore, of Evansville. He was retired from the army service on December 7, 1928, with the rank of first lieutenant. The son Harold, a fruit grower near Fort Branch, is a graduate of Purdue University and served as a second lieutenant in the war, being in France for eleven months and participating in the Meuse Argonne drive. He married Mary E. Martin, of Terre Haute, and has one child, Dorothy Alice, born in 1925.

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


AUGUST J. ZILIAK is head of the Ziliak flour mills at Haubstadt, an industry whose wheels have been turning and which has been manufacturing flour under brands that have be- come famous not only over Southern Indiana, but have been shipped extensively for both the domestic and foreign trade.

Mr. Ziliak was born at Haubstadt, .July 3, 1875. His grandfather, Lawrence Ziliak, was born in Alsace-Lorraine and came to the United States when a young man. The father, Alois Ziliak, was born at Saint Joseph in Vanderburg County, Indiana, and was also a miller and grain dealer, a business he followed all his active life. He died April 1, 1926, when seventy-five years of age. Alois Ziliak married Caroline Wolf, who was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1852, and is now seventy-nine years of age. These parents had a family of nine children: Lawrence A., born November 25, 1873, a physician practicing at Princeton, Indiana, married Emma Weidel and has five children; August J.; Joseph, born July 22, 1877, died in 1924, and by his marriage to Ida Wetzel has six children; Elizabeth, born August 1, 1879, is the wife of August Schulthies and has two children; Margaret, born October 28, 1881, is the wife of John Singer, and they have a family of five children; Peter, born December 12, 1883, died in infancy; Olivia, born December 16, 1885, is the wife of Albert Lynn and has four children; Christina, born May 1, 1888, died in infancy; and Otto, born January 25. 1890, lives at Evansville, married Clara Vervain and has one child.

August J. Ziliak attended the grade and high schools at Haubstadt and from boyhood was working in his father's flour mills. He has had a responsible relationship with those mills since 1890, a period of forty years, and after his father retired he took the active management. Under his management the mills have been constantly improved, and their equipment is equal to that of any mills in the southern part of the state. The product of the Ziliak mills is sold extensively through branch selling agencies in Mobile, Alabama, and Evansville, Indiana.

Mr. Ziliak married, May 19, 1896, Miss Julia Singer, daughter of Joseph and Margaret (Halbig) Singer. The children of their marriage were: Stella, deceased, Oliver, Lorana, Helen, John, Raymond, Beatrice, Henry, Frank and Woodrow. Helen is the wife of Andy Graubal, of Evansville, and has two daughters, Wanda May and Colleen. J. Raymond is a graduate of Notre Dame University, and is now representing the Midland Flour Mills of Kansas City and expects later to take over his father's mill. Lorana, now deceased, was a graduate nurse. Oliver and John are associated with their father in the mill. Beatrice married James Davis, and they live at Lawrence, Kansas, where Mr. Davis is with a construction company. They have one son, Vernon Larue. Henry is preparing for the priesthood at Saint Meinrad's Seminary. Frank is attending an academy at Jasper, Indiana. Woodrow is attending school at home.

Mr. Ziliak is a Democrat in politics, is a Catholic, a fourth degree Knight of Columbus, and belongs to the Elks Lodge at Princeton. In addition to his business as secretary-treasurer of the Haubstadt Milling Company he is a director in the Haubstadt Bank.

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


ERNEST E. TANKSLEY. One of the representative citizens and prominent business men of Orange County, Indiana, is Ernest E. Tanksley, of French Lick, president of the town board and owner of the French Lick Monument Works, one of the community’s most important business enterprises. Mr. Tanksley is a native of Lawrence County, Indiana, and his boyhood was passed in an agricultural atmosphere, so that it was but natural that he should commence his own career as a farmer on the home place. His natural inclination for mechanics, however, led to his learning the stone-cutting and polishing trade, in which for many years he has shown remarkable talent, taste and skill. In 1910 he founded his present business, and during the two decades that have passed he has built up an extensive patronage, not only the perfect workmanship but the variety of the tasteful designs coming from this establishment having brought patrons from all over the country.

Ernest E. Tanksley was born April 5, 1871, in Lawrence County, Indiana, and is a son of Miles and Sarah C. (Weise) Tanksley. Miles Tanksley was also born in Lawrence County, where he attended the public schools, was reared a farmer, and subsequently studied and practiced law and served capably as a justice of the peace for two terms. At the outbreak of the war between the states he was still a youth, but enlisted in Company H, Seventeenth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was attached to the command of Gen. U. S. Grant, under which great commander he served until hostilities between the North and the South ceased. When peace was declared the young soldier returned to his home with an excellent military record and resumed activities on the farm, in which vocation he never lost interest, although he was also known as one of the skilled, reliable and capable lawyers of his day and could have had a large and lucrative law business had he so desired. He was a man of the highest character and his service on the bench was such as to place him substantially in the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens. His death occurred in 1905, when he was seventy-two years of age. Judge Tanksley married Miss Sarah C. Weise who was born in Lawrence County, and died in 1923, at the age of seventy-eight years, and to this union there were born five children: Hattie, deceased; Cora, deceased; Joseph, deceased; Howard, a farmer in Lawrence County; and Ernest E., of this review.

The rural schools of Lawrence County furnished Ernest E. Tanksley with his educational training, and for several years he applied his energies to farming. He learned the stonecutting and polishing trade, and in 1891 began working for different monument concerns, making an effort to learn every possible detail of the business. In 1910 he founded the French Lick Monument Works, of which he has been the proprietor to the present, and which, as above noted, has grown to be one of the leading and most prosperous concerns of its kind in this part of the state. Mr. Tanksley is widely and favorably known in business circles, and in addition to his regular business is interested in real estate, of which he owns much in this locality. He is Democrat in his political views and is influential in the ranks of his party, having been president of the town board for the past six years. While not a professed member of any religious denomination, Mr. Tanksley is a religious man and a willing contributor to worthy movements. He is fraternally affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is a past grand.

In November, 1892, Mr. Tanksley was united in marriage with Miss Isis Palmer, and to this union there were born four children: One who died in infancy; Nellie, the wife of Mike Stipp, a farmer of Lawrence County, who has two children; Ruby, who married Charles Pruitt, and has one child; and Ralph, who is unmarried and resides at Lawrenceville. After the death of his first wife Ernest E. Tanksley married Miss Nellie Rainey, in 1907. They have no children.

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


Deb Murray