Mr. Helmke was born in Allen County, Indiana, December 17, 1901, and is a son of Herman and Mary (Engel) Helmke. His paternal grandfather, Frederick William Edward Helmke, was born in 1842, in Germany, and when sixteen years of age came to the United States, coming to this locality directly from New York, where he arrived May 21, 1861. For three years he drove mules on canal boats on the Erie Canal, out of Fort Wayne to Toledo, and then enlisted in the Union army for service during the war between the states, carrying arms until the close of that great struggle and taking part in a number of hard- fought engagements. At the close of his military service he returned to Fort Wayne, and, having learned the shoemaker's trade in his youth, began the manufacture of footwear, in which he continued to be engaged successfully during the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1916. He was a man of high character and good business ability, and had the esteem and respect of the people of his adopted community. Mr. Helmke married Miss Margaret Kiefer, who was born in Adams County, Indiana, in 1841, and died at Fort Wayne in 1913.
Herman Helmke, the father of Walter E. Helmke, was born July 5, 1867, in Allen County, Indiana, where he received his education in the parochial school of the Lutheran Church. As a youth he entered his father's shoe factory, where he learned the business in all of its details, and was engaged therein until 1900, when he transferred his attention to the grocery business, conducting a large and successful enterprise at Fort Wayne until his retirement in 1910. He then lived quietly until his death July 25, 1927. He was well and widely known in business circles and as a public-spirited citizen, but never sought public office or political preferment. In Allen County, September 1, 1888, Mr. Helmke was united in marriage with Miss Mary Engel, who was born November 12, 1866, at Asmushausen, Hessen, Nassau, Germany, and was about seventeen years of age when he came alone to this county. Her parents were George and Anna Engel, the former of whom died in 1871 and the latter in 1888. Mrs. Helmke still survives her husband and is a resident of Fort Wayne. There were three children in the family: Millie, who is unmarried and resides with her mother; Arthur F., chief clerk at the Wabash freight office at Fort Wayne; and Walter E., of this review.
Walter E. Helmke attended the parochial schools of his native community, from which he was graduated in 1916, and then entered the Central High School, Fort Wayne, from which he was graduated in 1920. After two years of literary work at the University of Indiana he entered the law department of that institution and received therefrom the degree of Bachelor of Laws as a member of the class of 1925. Immediately thereafter he entered upon the practice of his profession at Fort Wayne, where he is now junior member of the firm of Douglass & Helmke, with offices at 608-609 First and Tri State Bank Building. He is accounted an able, thoroughly learned; versatile and soundly grounded attorney, and has already been identified with much important litigation, the firm controlling the legal business of a number of important interests. Mr. Helmke is assisted materially in his practice by the possession of oratorical powers and debating ability, and while at college was a member of the Tau Kappa Alpha honorary debating society and won the Niezer medal for debating in 1923. He belongs to the Phi Delta Phi law fraternity, the Phi Kappa Psi national social fraternity, the Allen County Bar Association, the Indiana State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. A Republican in his political views, he has been active in the ranks of his party and in 1928 was elected prosecutor for the Thirty-eighth Judicial District of Indiana, comprising Allen County and the City of Fort Wayne. He is very fond of fishing and hunting and is an active and enthusiastic member of the Izaak Walton League. He likewise belongs to the University Club of Fort Wayne; the Friars Club; the Fort Wayne Young Men's Christian Association; the Junior Chamber of Commerce, of which he served as one of its first board of directors; the LL. B. Club, of which he is president; the Walther League; and the Lutheran Young Peoples Society, of which he is a member of the international board of directors. His religious connection is with St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Fort Wayne.
On June 3, 1926, Mr. Helmke was united in marriage with Miss Wilma L. Wehrenberg, and they are the parents of one son, Walter, born December 28, 1927, and one daughter, Mary Ann, born November 16, 1930.
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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
JESSE W. EVANS, factory manager for the Graham-Paige Body Corporation at Evansville, has been connected in one capacity or another with the Graham Brothers, motor truck and car manufacturers, for many years. Mr. Evans was born at Richwood, Illinois, September 19, 1892, son of Silas and Elizabeth (Hyatt) Evans. His parents were born in Illinois, where his father was a merchant. There were five children in the family. The daughter Clara, who died at the age of thirty was the wife of Tuck Davis, and left two children. The four living children are: Effie, born in 1887, wife of William Carroll, a barber at Loogootee, Indiana, and mother of five children; Asa, born in 189, chief engineer of the body plant of the Graham-Paige Corporation in Michigan, married Clara Brown and has five children; Jesse W.; and Floyd born in 1896, painting foreman for the Graham- Paige Company at Evansville.
Jesse W. Evans attended school at Vincennes, Indiana, graduating from high school in 1908. For six months he worked in a paper mill, and for twelve years was with a glass factory at Loogootee, Indiana. This factory was owned by the Graham Brothers and thus from a trade worker he became identified with the automobile industry. In 1918 he was transferred to the Graham Brothers plant for the manufacture of trucks. His first service there was in axel assembly, and later he had other responsibilities in truck building, being eventually put in charge of the paint, truck assembly and body mounting in the new plant on Hidelbach Street in Evansville. In 1923 he was sent to Detroit to take charge of the plant of the corporation there and in 1926, with the merger of the Graham Brothers and Dodge Company's business, he was returned to Evansville. In 1927 the Graham Brothers acquired the Paige Motor Car interests, and at that time a new body plant was started at Wayne, Michigan, and Mr. Evans was put in charge. After a year a new plant for the construction of bodies was erected at Evansville and Mr. Evans returned to the city to take charge of building operations and after the plant was finished he remained as factory manager. This is one of the largest industries of Evansville and is an important source of prosperity to the city. Mr. Evans is stockholder in the Graham-Paige Company and also owns real estate at Evansville.
He married at Loogootee, Indiana, February 12, 1911, Miss Ada Mary Rawlings, daughter of Ezra and Dora (Slater) Rawlings. Both parents were born in Ohio and her father was a farmer in Martin County, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Evans had five children: Walter, born February 6, 1912, Lester, born in August, 1913, Robert, born in May, 1916, Norma, born in October, 1921, and Jesse, Jr., born in September, 1925. Walter is a graduate of Jasper Academy at Jasper, Indiana, and is now working in the Graham-Paige Body Plant under his father. Lester is a graduate in the class of 1931 at Bosse High School at Evansville and plans to take up a college course. Mr. Evans is independent in politics, is a member of the Christian Church and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and member of Hadi Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Evansville.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
GEORGE E. SLOATS has been identified with electric public utilities for many years, and the routine of his work eventually brought him to Southern Indiana, where he is general superintendent of power stations for the Southern Indiana Gas & Electric Company, with home and headquarters at Evansville.
Mr. Sloats was born in Chicago, March 22, 1866. His father, Andrew Sloats, a native of Germany, was brought to the United States when a boy by his parents and grew up in Wisconsin. He was in that state when the Civil war came on, and he served as a sergeant in the Union army. He died at Waterville, Wisconsin, December 22, 1920. Andrew Sloats married Minnie Wagner, a native of Wisconsin. Of their four children two are living, Lillian and George E. Lillian is the widow of Mr. Roach, a musician and barber at Los Angeles, and she and her daughter; Merlie, born in 1909, now operate a restaurant in that city. One son, William, who was born in 1869 and died in 1919, was assistant manager the Chicago Beach Hotel, and had married about two years before his death.
George E. Sloats attended public school in Chicago. When he was fourteen years old he began his practical career, and his education after that was the result of practical work and connection with men and affairs. For two years he was employed in railroad shops at Kaukauna, Wisconsin, then became a steamfitter’s helper in Chicago, a trade he followed three years. For three years he was assistant engineer of one of the large buildings in Chicago, the McCormick Building, and then became assistant engineer of the wholesale warehouse of Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company. He left there to become an assistant engineer with the Central Electric Light Company of Chicago, and in the course of one year was promoted to chief engineer and served in that capacity for three years, until this utility was taken over by the Commonwealth Edison Company. He has had a long and interesting service with the electric public utilities. For two years he was with the National Light Company as chief engineer, leaving that to join the General Electric Company in overhauling and repair work, being sent about over the country to different plants while the equipment was being changed and brought up to modern standards. For a time he was in New York State, and after returning to Chicago he supervised the construction of an electric light plant at Hammond, Indiana. Mr. Sloats is also a stockholder in the Southern Indiana Gas & Electric Company and has had the general supervision of its power plants during the years this company has undergone a rapid development and extension of its facilities. Mr. Sloats also has a fruit farm in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and owns real estate at Evansville.
He has been three times married. His present wife was Miss Emma Victoria Ryemers, a native of Chicago. By his first wife, Clara Caterbau, of Chicago, he has one son, Richard, born in 1900, an artist in Chicago, who is married and has a son, Warren, born in 1927. Mr. Sloats is a Republican in politics, is a York Rite Mason and member of Hadi Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Evansville, and also belongs to 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
LEO YOUNT is the efficient and popular postmaster of the attractive little City of Brookston, White County, where he has served in this capacity since 1922, his original appointment, in January of that year, having been made under the administration of President Harding, the year 1926 having marked his reappointment under the administration of President Coolidge, and under President Hoover's administration his reappointment for a third term having been made in January, 1930. Mr. Yount represented his native state in service in the United States Navy in the World war period, and the same spirit of loyalty has animated him in civic life and in his service as postmaster.
Mr. Yount was born on the parental home farm in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, September 5, 1891, and is a son of Melvin B. and Clara (Cuppy) Yount, both likewise natives of the fine old Hoosier State, Melvin B. Yount having long been engaged in farm enterprise in Tippecanoe County, and after retiring from the farm having there become identified with business affairs, he having a residence at Brookston, Indiana. His wife died in August, 1918. He is a son of Hamilton Yount, who was born and reared in Pennsylvania, a representative of one of the pioneer German families usually referred to as "Pennsylvania Dutch." Hamilton Yount came from the old Keystone State to Indiana in the late '50s and established the family home in Clinton County, where he engaged in farming operations and also became prominent as a buyer and shipper of live stock. Mrs. Clara (Cuppy) Yount was a daughter of the late Frank Cuppy, who was a member of another of the pioneer families of Indiana, in Tippecanoe County, and who in his youth assisted in the operation of boats on pioneer Indiana canals.
Leo Yount was a boy at the time of the family removal to White County, he being one of four children in the family, and the schools of this county having afforded him his early education. After being graduated in the high school at Brookston he took a course in a leading business college at La Fayette, and his initial enterprise of practical order was that of farming, in which he was independently engaged one year, or until the nation's entrance into the World war brought to him a higher duty. He volunteered for service in the United States Navy, received his preliminary technical discipline at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, near Chicago, and thence was assigned to the naval operating base at Hampton Roads, Virginia. There he was given duty on the United States Steamship Eurana, on which he was in the transport service ten months, his service having continued some time after the armistice had brought active hostilities to a close and he having received his honorable discharge in July, 1919.
After the termination of his World war service Mr. Yount returned to White County, and here he was actively associated with farm enterprise during the ensuing three years, or virtually until the time of his appointment to the office of postmaster of Brookston in 1922. He has given a characteristically careful and effective administration as postmaster and has made many improvements in the service of the Brookston postoffice and its rural routes.
It is needless to say that Mr. Yount is staunchly arrayed in the ranks of the Republican party, and he has been active in its local campaign affairs in White County. The Brookston postoffice is of the third class, retains four employes in addition to the postmaster, and operates three rural mail routes. Mr. Yount is a member of Brookston Lodge No. 66, A. F. and A. M., and Anchor Lodge No. 289, Knights of Pythias, in which latter fraternity he had advanced his affiliations to the Uniform Rank also, at Delphi, Carroll County. He and his wife have membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church of their home community. Mrs. Yount, whose maiden name was Ivey Miller, was born at Wolcott, White County, and here was reared and educated. Mr. and Mrs. Yount have one child, Eugene Mason, born September 28, 1929.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
HAROLD OTIS WILLIAMS, M. D. In Dr. Harold Otis Williams, one of the very able physicians and surgeons of Noble County, Kendallville is a man who is not only a credit to his learned profession, but is in the fourth generation of those who ministered to the people of this city in like manner. He was born at Kendallville, Indiana, August 7, 1889, a son of Dr. Warren S. and Jennie (Otis) Williams, grandson of Dr. S. T. Williams, and great-grandson of Dr. N. Williams. The latter was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and was graduated from the Connellsville, Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, in 1828. For some years he was engaged in the practice of medicine at Defiance, Ohio, and then, in July, 1865, he located at Kendallville, where he was one of the leading medical practitioners. In 1831 he married Miss Lydia Eicher, of Pennsylvania, and they had two children, Dr. S. T. Williams and Tryphenie, wife of Doctor Wilson, another early physician of Kendallville. The death of Dr. N. Williams, occurred in 1889.
Dr. S. T. Williams, grandfather of Dr. Harold Otis Williams, and son of Dr. N. Williams, was born at Mount Gilead, Morrow County, Ohio. He was graduated from the Eclectic College there in 1858, and practiced medicine with his father at Defiance, Ohio, until 1863, when he entered the war between the states as a surgeon, and continued in the service of the Union army until 1865, during which period he was in charge of Hospital 14, Nashville, Tennessee. Returning to Ohio, he resumed his practice, but later accompanied his father to Kendallville. A very active Mason, in 1879 he held the office of grand commander of the Grand Commandery, K. T., of the state of Indiana. In 1858 he was married to Mary E. Lehman, of Defiance, Ohio, and they had four children: Effie, Warren S, Minnie and Allie. Dr.. S. T. Williams died at Kendallville in 1893.
Dr. Warren S. Williams was born in Ohio, January 1, 1862, and he was graduated from Western Reserve University, in Ohio, in 1884. He was in active practice of his profession at until his death, which occurred January 23,1914. A man of broad outlook, he was active in all civic work, and a zealous Mason. The Methodist Episcopal Church held his membership, and had the benefit of his benefactions. His wife, mother of Dr. Harold Otis Williams, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, a daughter of E. D. Otis. who located in Indiana in early '80s. Dr. Warren S. Williams and his wife had three children, of whom Dr. Harold Otis Williams is the eldest, the others being: Lucile, who resides at Kendallville; and Anna, who is the wife of H. D. Pugh, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Mrs. Warren S. Williams survives her husband and is still residing at Kendallville.
It is no mere coincidence when each one in direct descent for four generations makes a success in one of the most difficult and exacting professions, especially when they have all been engaged in the same community. If such successes are due to anything but native intellect, energy and right living, they are due to good breeding and the moral influences of homes wherein a noble father and kindly mother train their sons in habits of industry, frugality, charity and love of humanity. In such homes did the four Doctor Williams grow to manhood and all of them won success and high station in the ranks of men, ingratiating themselves into the hearts of the people among whom they worked and ministered.
Dr. Harold Otis Williams was graduated from the Kendallville High School, in 1909; from the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1913, and thereupon entered at once upon the practice of medicine at Kendallville, where he has since continued with the exception of his period in the Naval Medical Corps during the World war, with the rank of lieutenant at the United States Naval Hospital at Hampton Roads, Virginia. Later he was medical officer at the Navy Rifle Range, Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Following his honorable discharge Doctor Williams returned to Kendallville and assisted in building the new Lakeside Hospital, on whose staff he is now serving; and he is a member of the Pension Board for Noble County. For four years he was a member of the city council, and for two years he was city health officer; and he is now a member of the advisory board of the Kendallville School of Nursing. He is a director of the Citizens National Bank, surgeon for the New York Central, Pennsylvania and Indiana Service Corporation railroads, and holds other positions of responsibility in this, his native place.
On November 4, 1913, Doctor Williams was married, at Kendallville, to Miss Ethel Belle Crawford, who was born at Avilla, Noble County, August 7, 1891, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Siegal E. Crawford, also of Kendallville. Mrs. Williams is a graduate of the Western College for Women, Oxford, Ohio. Two children have been born to Doctor and Mrs. Williams: Nancy Jane, who was born March 8, 1915; and Patricia, who was born June 13, 1919.
Doctor Williams is a high Mason, having been advanced through all of the bodies of both the Scottish and York Rites, and is a fourteenth degree and Knights Templar Mason. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Kendallville Country Club, and the American Legion. The Methodist Episcopal Church is his religious home, and he has long been on its membership rolls.
As the above clearly indicates, Doctor Williams has won high place in his profession, and has been honored by his fellow citizens. Fortune has smiled upon his efforts, and he not only has a large and profitable practice, but has from his accumulations made wise investments of a commercial and industrial nature which yield him handsome returns.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
HENRY MORTON DIXON, A. M., who is now superintendent of the public schools of the City of Kendallville, Noble County, has to his credit a record of fully twenty years of successful service in connection with the schools of his native state, and his enthusiasm in his profession has begotten like enthusiasm, as well as loyalty, among the teachers and students with whom he has been associated within the course of his career as an educator.
Mr. Dixon is a scion of sterling pioneer ancestry in Indiana and was born on the parental home farm in Jennings County, this state, February 1, 1879. The other two survivors of the five children are daughters. Mr. Dixon is a son of John M. and Alvira (Nelson) Dixon, the former of whom was born in Jennings County, this state, October 31, 1847, and the latter of whom was born in Jefferson County, in the year 1852, her death having occurred in 1914.
John M. Dixon, who since the death of his wife has been a revered member of the family circle in the home of his only surviving son, Henry M., of this review, is a son of Henry and Jane (Dixon) Dixon, both natives of Indiana and both born in the year 1819, the former in Jennings County and the latter in Scott County, the respective parents having come from Kentucky to number themselves among the early settlers in Indiana, and both families having been established in the Carolinas in the Colonial period of American history. The father of Henry Dixon was one of three brothers who thus gained pioneer precedence in Indiana and his son Samuel was the father of Hon. Lincoln Dixon, who represented Indiana in the United States Congress during a period of fourteen years and who is now a member of the Federal Tariff board. Henry Dixon was active in the ranks of the Republican party in the early period of its organization, was a loyal supporter of the Union during the Civil war, was an able business man and was influential in community affairs, he having been liberal in his religious views.
John M. Dixon supplemented the discipline of the common schools by attending Lancaster College, and the major part of his active life was given to farm industry in Jennings County, his political allegiance being given to the Republican party and he having been called upon in former years to serve in various local offices of public trust. As previously noted, he now resides in the home of his son, Henry M. His wife was a daughter of Hiram and Mary (Steinmetz) Nelson, the former of whom was born in Vermont and the latter in the State of New York, they having been pioneer settlers in Jefferson County, Indiana, and having passed the closing period of their lives in Jennings County. Mr. Nelson was a staunch abolitionist in the period leading up to the Civil war and became a loyal supporter of the cause of the Republican party.
In the public schools of his native county Henry M. Dixon continued his studies until he was graduated in the high school at Paris, Indiana, in 1898. In the following year he initiated his service as a teacher in the public schools, and in advancing his own education he completed a course in the University of Indiana, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1906 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He later did effective post-graduate work in Columbia University, New York City, from which he received in 1919 the degree of Master of Arts. His service as superintendent of public schools has been continuous since 1906, the year marking his graduation in the University of Indiana, and in such capacity he has done specially constructive work in turn at Westfield, Mooresville, Tipton and Kendallville, in which last mentioned city he initiated his administration as superintendent of the public schools in 1921.
Mr. Dixon is identified with various educational organizations, both state and national, his political alignment is with the Republican party, and his Masonic affiliations at the time of this writing are represented in his membership in the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Council of the York Rite.
June 19, 1907, recorded the marriage of Mr. Dixon to Miss Blanche Loman, of Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, her more advanced education having been acquired in the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute. Mr. and Mrs. Dixon have two children: Mary Avanelle, who was born September 12, 1908, was graduated in the Kendallville High School in 1927 and the year 1929 has marked her graduation in the primary, training department of Oberlin College, Ohio. Lincoln Edward, who was born June 19, 1912, is a graduate of the Kendallville High School and is now (1930) a freshman at the Indiana University.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JAMES VER KEEFER. A member of an old, honored and prominent family of Indiana, James Ver Keefer has spent his entire life in the Hoosier State, and at present occupies a leading position in business circles of Fort Wayne as secretary and general manager of the Keefer Printing Company. He has gained success through the possession of the homely but sterling qualities of industry and sterling integrity, for he began his career at the bottom of the printing business and during his connection therewith has learned thoroughly every detail of the craft. Although primarily a business man, he is interested in everything that pertains to the welfare of his adopted community, where he gives willing aid to all beneficial civic movements.
J. Ver Keefer was born April 20, 1891, in Wells County, Indiana, and is a son of James H. and Lillian (Ashton) Keefer. His paternal grandfather, Samuel Keefer, was born March 3, 1840, in Pennsylvania, and as a young man learned the butchering business, in which he was engaged when the war between the states started. He enlisted in the Fortieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and served for three years in the Union army, and at the close of the great struggle came to Allen County, where he met Miss Susan Oberholtzer, a native of this county, whom he married in 1865. She died in 1892. For a long period Mr. Keefer was engaged in the meat business, but retire about thirty years ago, and now makes his home at Maysville, Allen County, having reached the remarkable age of ninety years.
James H. Keefer was born in Allen County, Indiana, February 11, 1869, and received his education the public schools. As a youth he learned the trade of printer, and when he was twenty years age, in 1889, became proprietor of the J. Ver Keefer attended the public schools of Wells County and after his graduation from the Ossian High School, in 1907, joined his father in the printing office of the Ossian News, where he learned the trade at the case. He accompanied the family to Fort Wayne in 1914, and when the Keefer Printing Company was incorporated, in 1926, became secretary and general manager, which positions he still occupies. A tireless and energetic worker, he spends a large part of twenty-four hours every day at the plant and office, and through his industry, judgment, thorough knowledge of the business and personal reliability and straightforward methods, he has made his concern a leading factor in the printing business of Fort Wayne and the surrounding territory. The large plant, at 714 West Washington Street, is modern in every respect and is equipped with every possible appliance and device for the production of high-grade printing. A large force of skilled craftsmen is employed and the company is the recipient of contracts that require the highest order of ability and craftsmanship. Mr. Keefer is a member of the Orchard Ridge Country Club and the Cathedral of Fort Wayne. Although a self-made, hard-working business man, he is something more than merely a business grind, and in addition to enjoying the companionship of his fellows finds time to support measures founded for the betterment of his city and state. On June 20, 1917, Mr. Keefer was united in marriage with Miss Mary Irene Martin, of Fort Wayne, a graduate of St. Augustine Academy, and they have one son: James Martin, born April 16, 1923, at Fort Wayne.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931Deb Murray
