The late Henry Wehrenberg was esteemed not only as a man of successful business enterprise, but a most solid and substantial citizen of Fort Wayne. He was born in Hanover, Germany, February 22, 1861, son of Frederick and Wilhemmina Mary (Schroeder) Wehrenberg, who spent all their lives in Germany. Henry Wehrenberg attended school in Germany, served his apprenticeship at the brick layer's trade there, and was a young man of twenty when he arrived in the United States in 1881. After eighteen months in New York he came to Fort Wayne, where he laid many thousands of brick and helped in the building of many houses before he set up in business on his own account as a building contractor in 1891. For a quarter of a century he was steadily engaged in the work of his business, and during that time put up not only many private homes, but he and his associates handled the contract for many large buildings. A few of these include the Washington School, the Peoples Trust Company's Building, Central High School and many of the first buildings of the General Electric Company at Fort Wayne. In 1916 he took in his son as a partner and since that date the business has been H. Wehrenberg & Sons. Henry Wehrenberg lived retired the last years of his life and passed away, honored and respected, June 9, 1926. Both he and his wife were communicants of St. Paul's Lutheran Church.
He married, May 3, 1887, Miss Minnie Albersmeyer, who was also born in Germany. She died May 6, 1928, leaving five children: Fred H., now president of the Standard Lumber & Supply Company of Fort Wayne; Paul K.; Henry, Jr., who is associated with the H. Wehrenberg & Sons contracting firm; Wilma now the wife of Walter E. Helmke, an attorney at Fort Wayne; and Alfred.
Paul K. Wehrenberg was born at Fort Wayne, December 28, 1892. He attended the parochial school of St. Paul's Lutheran Church and the Fort Wayne public schools, and at the age of fifteen started a practical apprenticeship at the bricklaying trade under the eye and direction of his father. His business experience as a contractor therefore is laid on the substantial base of an expert knowledge of one of the most important branches of the building trades. In 1916 he qualified for admission to his father's business as a partner, and since his father's death has been part owner. He is also vice president of the Old Fort Supply Company and a director of the Fort Wayne Brick Company. Some examples of the recent work of the Wehrenberg contracting firm are the Oxford School Building, United Brethren Church, factory and store of the Wolf Bedding Company, and the splendid office building of the Home Telephone Company.
Mr. Wehrenberg is a trustee of St. Paul's Lutheran Church. He is a member of the General Contractors Association of America, the Builders Contracting Association of Fort Wayne, the Chamber of Commerce and the Orchard Ridge Country Club.
He married, September 27, 1917, Miss Ellen Buesching. She was born at Fort Wayne. Her father, Fred Buesching, now a retired brick mason and contractor, was associated with Henry Wehrenberg in business for a number of years, under the firm name of Wehrenberg & Buesching, and this alliance was continued through the marriage of the children of the old partners. Mr. and Mrs. Wehrenberg have three children: Paul K., Jr., born July 12, 1918, Robert H., born June 29, 1920, and James H., born April 29, 1924.
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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
FRED J. RUMP. A resident of Fort Wayne since September, 1888, Fred J. Rump, of the Rump-Kintz Company, is one of the city's most capable and reliable general contractors, having been engaged in this business since 1900. His career is typical of the self-made man, for he left his native land as a lad of sixteen years, arriving in this country with only a knowledge of the carpenter's trade to aid him, and through the exercise of natural and acquired ability, great industry, and close application has risen to a place of recognition and distinction in business circles of his adopted community.
Mr. Rump was born April 22, 1872, in Hanover, Germany, and is a son of Henry and Mary (Kreihenheder) Rump, the latter of whom passed away when the lad was six years old and the former following four years later. The family was in modest circumstances, and there were four children: Ernest H., who came to this country and is now deceased; Marie, the wife of Henry Domhof, who lives near Hanover, Germany; Fred J., of this review; and Herman, who served his term as a member of the regular army in Germany, and at the age of twenty-four years was killed by the bursting of a fly wheel while he was working in a mill in Germany.
Fred J. Rump was left an orphan at the age of ten years when his father died, and his educational advantages were confined to intermittent attendance at the public schools of his native land. He made the most of his opportunities, however, and by home study and close observation obtained a practical working education, which he has cultured and developed throughout his life, so that today he may be termed a well-educated man with a broad knowledge of a number of subjects. Early in his youth he was apprenticed to the trade of carpenter and this he had mastered by the time that he was sixteen years of age. There seemed few opportunities for rapid and consistent advancement in his native land and accordingly, in his sixteenth year, he made the long Atlantic journey to the United States and immediately settled at Fort Wayne, where he has lived since September, 1888. Almost immediately he found employment at his trade, at which he worked both as a journeyman and an employer, and eventually developed into a building contractor, a business which he started in 1900. Among his first buildings were the old Fort Wayne Box Company factory, the White apartment building and the Peoples Trust Company building. His business continued to grow and develop with the passing of the years, and in 1919 he admitted to partnership his son, Erwin. The latter died in 1921, and in 1922 Mr. Rump formed a partnership with F. A. Kintz, of Fort Wayne, under the firm style of Rump-Kintz Company, general contractors, and this has continued to the present, with constantly-increasing growth, the offices being located at 210 Medical Arts Building. The firm has erected some of the largest structures at Fort Wayne, a partial list of which will be found in the review of F. A. Kintz, elsewhere in this work. Mr. Rump is a man of high character and ability and merits in full the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens and those with whom he comes into business contact. He has a number of large interests, and is president and chairman of the board of directors of the New Haven Silk Hosiery Company, the largest business enterprise of New Haven, Indiana. He takes a great interest in civic affairs and is a member of the board of managers of the Lutheran Hospital. Mr. Rump is not a mere business drudge, but does not care for club or fraternal life, preferring the comfort and quietude of his attractive modern home at 2411 South Wayne Avenue.
On October 31, 1894, Mr. Rump was united in marriage with Miss Emma Grotrian, who was born on a farm in Madison Township, Allen County, Indiana, a daughter of William Grotrian, now deceased, who was formerly a wealthy agriculturist of Allen County. To this union there have been born two children: Erwin, born in 1897, who at the time of his death, in 1921, was associated with his father in the contracting business. He married Marie Hobrock, daughter of J. H. Hobrock, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and they had one daughter, Martha Marie. Gustave, born December 3, 1903, is sales manager for the New Haven Silk Hosiery Company, of New Haven, Indiana. He married, February 1, 1930, Miss Helen Pape, daughter of Charles and Caroline Pape, of Fort Wayne.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
RALEIGH CHARLES PARRISH. Junior member of the well-known firm of Colerick, Jackson & Parrish, Raleigh C. Parrish has attained a high and substantial standing at the Fort Wayne bar through the possession and application of sound legal ability and great industry. A native of the Hoosier State, he belongs to one of its pioneer families, and is a worthy representative of the name which he bears and which has long been connected with measures and movements for the betterment and advancement of the institutions and interests of his state and city.
Mr. Parrish was born on a farm in Adams County, Indiana, September 3,1882, and is a son of Abner S. and Mary S. (Elzey) Parrish. John Parrish, the paternal grandfather of Raleigh C. Parrish, was born in Ohio, where he was reared and educated, and after his marriage settled down to the vocation of tilling the soil in Tuscarawas County. About 1845 he disposed of his interests there and moved with his family to Adams County, where he spent the remainder of his life and where both he and his worthy wife, Rebecca, passed away. The maternal grandparents of Mr. Parrish, Isaac and Sarah Elzey, were also early settlers of Adams County, coming from Hamilton County, Ohio. Like Mr. and Mrs. Parrish they passed their lives in pastoral pursuits and were highly respected members of their community.
Abner S. Parrish was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, and was still a young child when brought to Adams County, where he acquired a somewhat limited education in the schools of his day. He was reared in an agricultural atmosphere, and upon attaining man’s estate took up farming as his life work, continuing to be engaged therein until his death in 1909. He was a man who commanded the respect of his neighbors and was a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was his wife, who was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, and died February 4, 1922. They were the parents of four sons and three daughters, all of whom are living.
Raleigh C. Parrish attended public school in Adams County and was graduated from the high school at Decatur, Indiana, following which he entered the Indiana Law School, at Indianapolis, and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws as a member of the class of 1905. He began the practice of his profession at Decatur, where he built up a large and representative professional business, but in 1919, desiring to broaden the scope of his activities, moved to Fort Wayne. Here he became a member of the firm of Smith & Parrish, which connection continued until 1927, when the present firm of Colerick, Jackson & Parrish was formed, with offices in the Dime Savings Bank Building. Mr. Parrish is recognized as a legist of sound abilities, well grounded in the law, and familiar with principles, precedents and every detail of court procedure, and during his career has been connected with much important litigation. He early became interested in public affairs and as a Democrat was elected, in 1911, prosecuting attorney of Adams County, a position in which he served capably until 1915. In that year he was sent to the State Legislature from Adams County, where he accomplished constructive work for his constituents and state. He has always been active in his party, and has served as a member of the Democratic city committee of Fort Wayne. Mr. Parrish is a member of the Allen County Bar Association, the Indiana State Bar Association and the American Bar Association, and fraternally is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Shrine.
On August 20, 1912, Mr. Parrish was united in marriage with Miss Ethel Barkley, of Decatur, Indiana, a graduate of the Decatur High School, and to this union there have come two children: David T., born October 13, 1913, a student at the Fort Wayne Junior High School; and Robert J., born October 4, 1916, who is attending public school.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
ULYSSES CHESTER BROUSE, secretary of the Kendallville Fair Association, is a man whose life's activities have meant a great deal to his home community. He served as mayor of Kendallville during the World war period and afterwards, and his administration marked the inception of many improvements that placed Kendallville among the progressive cities of the state.
Mr. Brouse was born on a farm in Allen Township, Noble County, June 1, 1865, son of Curtis and Alvina E. (Matthew) Brouse and grandson of Curtis and Rebecca (Wall) Brouse. Curtis Brouse, Sr:, was born in Medina County, Ohio, and his wife in Pennsylvania. They were married in Ohio, lived for some years in Lorain County, and from there came to Indiana in 1854 and settled in Noble County, on the farm where Ulysses C. Brouse was born. Mr. Brouse retained the ownership of the old homestead until 1919. Curtis Brouse, Jr., was born in Medina County, Ohio, October 20, 1840, and spent his active life as a farmer. In August, 1861, he enlisted in Company F of the Thirtieth Indiana Infantry and served until honorably discharged, on account of wounds, May 11, 1863. He was shot through the left lung at the battle of Stone River and lay on the battlefield until the night of the second day before he was taken to a hospital. He survived his war experience for over half a century, passing away at Kendallville, November 11, 1923, at the age of eighty-three. He was one of Noble County's most successful farmers and stock men and was prominent in politics and public affairs, serving as trustee of Allen Township and two terms as county commissioner. He was affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. Curtis Brouse, Jr., and Alvina E. Matthew were married July 1, 1864. She was born in Grant County, Wisconsin, May 7, 1846, and died at Kendallville August 4, 1921.
Ulysses C. Brouse was the only child of his parents. His education came from country schools and the public schools at Kendallville, and from early youth he was interested in the tasks and responsibilities of the home farm and in later years assumed its active management. He handled registered Chester White hogs and fine wool sheep. As noted above, he sold the farm in 1919. Prior to that he had been in the grocery business at Kendallville for five years and in 1917 was elected mayor. He was in this office two terms, and as the official head of the municipal government constituted himself a leader in all the World war activities of the community. When he entered the office Kendallville had only two of its main streets paved, and at the close of his administration the city could boast of twelve miles of hard surface pavement. During his term the land for the present fine park was purchased and a system of stores and waterworks rebuilt and enlarged.
Mr. Brouse for twenty-five years has been secretary of the Kendallville Fair Association. He is a member of the Indiana State Board of Fair Associations and the State Board of Agriculture, and has done a good deal to promote the work of the girls' and boys' farm clubs in Noble County. After retiring from the post of mayor he became manager of the state automobile license branch for Noble County, and still does that work, with office at 136 1/2 South Main Street. Mr. Brouse has been an active Republican and is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
He married at Kendallville, December 20, 1891, Miss Jennie Tyler, who was born in Allen Township, and they grew up in the same community. Her parents, Lorenzo and Caroline (Wilson) Tyler, were born in Ohio and were early settlers in Noble County.
Their only child, Don Brouse, born August 19, 1895, is a graduate of the Kendallville High School, spent two years in Purdue University, and left school to join the colors. He served overseas with Company H, Three Hundred and Thirty-fifth Infantry, Eighty-fourth Division, as a lieutenant, and is now a captain in the Officers Reserve Corps. After the war he graduated from the University of Purdue and has lived at Madison, Wisconsin, connected with the Government forestry and experimental service.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
FRED WILLIAM ORTLIEB. In sketching, however briefly, the career of one who has impressed himself upon the passing generation by his versatile gifts, one is pleased to find the unusual union of aesthetic ideals with such practical qualities as have made him a successful man of business. However rare may be such a combination of qualities, that they are not altogether incompatible, is illustrated in the career of Mr. Ortlieb, a member of the well-known firm of Lennart & Ortlieb, real estate and insurance operators of Fort Wayne.
Mr. Ortlieb was born at Fort Wayne, September 15, 1876, and is a son of George Ortlieb, a native of Germany, who came to the United States at the age of twenty years and located at Fort Wayne, where he passed the remainder of his life and was a man of high character, who has the esteem and confidence of his associates. The third in order of birth in a family of four children, F. William Ortlieb received a public school education, and was only about sixteen years of age when he became identified with the insurance business. For a number of years he was a member of the firm of Bauer & Ortlieb. Thirty years ago the firm of Lennart & Ortlieb was founded, with offices at 302 Noll Building. One who should meet Mr. Ortlieb in his business office, the walls adorned with plats of city lots and suburban tracts, and listen to the persuasive speech of a dealer in real estate and insurance, would conclude that he was a leader in a class of acute and fluent dealers who have thrived out of the phenomenal rise in values which the growth of the City of Fort Wayne has created, and he would judge correctly, for Mr. Ortlieb has for many years made real estate and insurance a study and an occupation, and has built up out of prudent and judicious dealing in realty a handsome fortune. There are many instances of men who by reason of the early possession of considerable tracts of land in and near the city have found themselves rich by the mere advance in the value of their property. There are others who, in speculative times, have boldly seized the opportunity, and in a few fortunate speculations have achieved sudden and substantial wealth. Still others, with equal boldness, have entered the speculation field and found themselves, by a change of times, stranded with unsalable property, rapidly consumed by the pressure of unpaid purchase money and insatiable mortgages. But the real estate man who, without the possession of low-priced lands, demanded by the advancing limits of population, without loading himself with obligations which with the change of the condition of the market may crush him, and sharing in no sudden and ephemeral speculation in a long course of dealing, reaps the legitimate profits which come from prudence, good judgment and a wise consideration of the elements of value, is rarely to be met with in the throng of dealers who crowd the market. In addition to his large real estate and insurance interests Mr. Ortlieb is vice president of R. M. Kaough & Company, automobile equipment dealers of Fort Wayne, and secretary and treasurer of the Arvey Realty Company. Turning from the business side of his career, he is found to be a man of very human qualities. He is a lover of golfing and fishing, but his real hobby is the growing of roses, and he holds membership in the National Rose Society. He is a member of the Masons, a Shriner, the Royal Jesters, Grotto, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Fort Wayne Country Club and all of the local and state insurance associations. With his family he belongs to the Lutheran Church. His high business standing and his genial and cordial manners have attached to him many friends and secured the confidence and respect of the community. Mr. Ortlieb's pleasant and attractive home is located at 2127 Kensington Boulevard. During the World war he was active in all war work, and particularly so during the drives of the American Red Cross.
Mr. Ortlieb was united in marriage with Miss Edna Pearl Smith, who was born at Fort Wayne, a daughter of Walter C. Smith. Lester W. Ortlieb, the only child, born to this union, was born April 3, 1902, at Fort Wayne, and since completing his education has been associated with his father in the insurance business. In addition to being an energetic and capable young business man, Mr. Ortlieb is one of the best known lawn tennis players in the country. He won the doubles championships of Indiana from 1921 until 1926, inclusive, and has won the singles championships of the state each year since 1923. In various tournaments outside of Fort Wayne he has won over thirty-five trophies, and on several occasions has made a good showing in national events. He is a popular member of the Fort Wayne Country Club and belongs to the Masonic Lodge and Shrine. On August 16, 1930, he was united in marriage with Miss Flora Baer, of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JOSEPH D. MOORE is one of the representative business men of the younger generation in his native City of Garrett, DeKalb County, where he owns and conducts the substantial furniture business that was founded by his honored father nearly forty years ago, the well equipped establishment being at 104 North Randolph Street.
Mr. Moore was born at Garrett March 22, 1902, and is a son of John A. and Stella (Satterfield) Moore, the former of whom was born at Blissfield, Michigan, and the latter in the State of West Virginia. John A. Moore, a talented violinist, developed also marked business ability, as shown in the success that he achieved in the conducting of his well ordered furniture establishment at Garrett, where he was thus engaged thirty-seven years and where he ever held inviolable place in communal confidence and esteem. Here he established himself in the furniture business in the year 1890 and he died July 2, 1927, at the age of seventy-three, he having been in Los Angeles, California, at the time of his demise. His wife passed away September 18, 1926, at the age of fifty-two years, and the remains of both rest in Calvary Cemetery at Garrett. The subject of this review is the younger of the two surviving children, and his brother, Othmar Lawson, who was born March 2, 1897, and who is a musician by profession, resides in Los Angeles, California, where was solemnized his marriage to Miss Virginia Whiting.
After completing his studies in the Garrett High School Joseph D. Moore was a student two years in the Garrett High School, he having thereafter been a student one year, 1922, in the University of Indiana. He then passed a year in California, and upon his return to Garrett he became actively associated with his father's furniture business, to the ownership and management of which he succeeded upon the death of his father, in 1927, and in connection with which he has well upheld the honors of the family name, as has he also as a loyal and progressive citizen. He is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is a member of the local Lions Club, and he and his wife have membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
October 31, 1926, marked the marriage of Mr. Moore to Miss Auliene Schulthess, who likewise was born and reared in Garrett and who is a daughter of George M. and Elizabeth (Lehmbeck) Schulthess, who still reside in this city, where Mr. Schulthess is president of the Creek Chub Bait Company.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CHARLES JESSE BROCKWAY, M. D. In all that represents the best in the ethics and service of his exacting profession this able and popular physician and surgeon of Brookston, White County, measures up to high standard, as had his father before him, and he is now one of the representative members of his profession in White County, where he controls a substantial general practice.
Doctor Brockway was born at Colfax, McLean County, Illinois, January 16, 1888, and is the younger of the two children of Dr. Charles T. and Myrtle B. (Brown) Brockway, both likewise natives of Illinois. Dr. Charles T. Brockway gained his earlier education through the medium of the schools of his native state, and in preparation for his chosen profession he completed a course in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of St. Louis, Missouri. After receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he gave the remainder of his life to loyal and effective service as a physician and surgeon, and he was engaged in active practice at Brookston, Indiana, during a period of fully twenty years, the while he had inviolable place in communal confidence and esteem.
Dr. Charles J. Brockway was a child at the time of the family removal to White County, Indiana, and here he continued his studies in the public schools until he was graduated in the Brookston High School. By his father he was earnestly encouraged in his ambition to prepare himself for the medical profession, and his were exceptional advantages in compassing this ambition, for he was able to complete his course in historic old Jefferson Medical College, in the City of Philadelphia, and was there graduated as a member of the class of 1911. His reception of the degree of Doctor of Medicine was followed by his two years of fortifying service as an interne in St. Elizabeth Hospital in the City of Lafayette, Indiana, four months of similar experience in the Polyclinic Hospital of Philadelphia, and by an additional four months of interneship in the Wills Eye Hospital in that city. He likewise passed two months in service at the great Polyclinic Hospital in the City of Chicago. In 1914 Doctor Brockway established himself in practice in the City of Lafayette, associated with Dr. R. B. Wetherill, where he continued his professional activities until 1920, since which year Brookston has been the central stage of his well ordered service in his profession. After the nation entered the World war Doctor Brockway served, at Lafayette, as a member of the medical examining board for Tippecanoe County, until he entered into another sphere of World war service, by enlisting, in May, 1918 in the Medical Corps of the United States Army, in which he gained the rank of first lieutenant. With his unit he had six months of overseas service, in France, where he was assigned to an ambulance company in the evacuation service. He received his honorable discharge in March, 1919, and is still retained as a first lieutenant in the Reserve Medical Corps of the United States Army, besides which he is affiliated with the American Legion.
After the termination of his World war service Doctor Brockway resumed the practice of his profession at Lafayette, but in the following year, 1920, he removed to Brookston, as has been previously noted in this review. The Doctor has membership in the White County Medical Society and the Indiana State Medical Society, his political alignment is with the Republican party and he is affiliated with the Phi Chi college fraternity. His name is still enrolled on the roster of eligible bachelors in White County.
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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
