He was born in Monroe County, Indiana, March 11, 1845. His father, James P. Mathers, was born in Kentucky, came to Indiana in 1818, only two years after the territory was admitted to the Union, and spent his active life as a farmer. He died in 1868. James P. Mathers married Elizabeth Vandivar, also a native of Kentucky, who passed away in 1858. Ezra P. Mathers was one of the older of a family of ten children. He was thirteen when his mother died. After a public school education in Monroe County, he went to work on a farm and was eighteen years of age when, in November, 1863, he enlisted in Company I of the Tenth Indiana Cavalry. He saw active service all during the last two years of the war, participating in several battles, but was never wounded. He received his honorable discharge at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in August, 1865, and was soon again mustered into civilian activities, at first as a farmer and later as a brick maker.
Mr. Mathers in 1870 took up railroading as a career and for fourteen months was a fireman with the L. N. A. & C. He then transferred his services to the Big Four Railway as an engineer and was with that company nearly forty years, being retired on the pension rolls in 1918. He also gets a pension from the Government for his service as a soldier. Mr. Mathers has been post commander of the Grand Army of the Republic for four years. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, is a Republican voter and a member of the Christian Church.
He married, July 6, 1868, Miss Rachael Harrell, of Bloomington, Indiana. The three children born to their marriage were Katherine, Elizabeth and Luella. Katherine is the wife of L. Frank Treat and has two children, Mary E. and Charles H. Elizabeth married P. R. Christie, of Greencastle. Luella is the widow of Dr. E. G. Fry, of Greencastle, and has a son, Raymond E. Fry, of Rochester, New York, and a daughter, Nellie, who is the wife of J. H. Taylor, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and has two children, George E. Taylor and James Franklin Taylor, who are great-grandsons of Mr. Mathers.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
DANIEL E. TAYLOR as a physician and surgeon has given the resources represented by thorough training, good natural ability and by conscientious service to the community of Velpen, Pike County, for nearly thirty years,
Doctor Taylor was born in Pike County, Indiana, February 16, 1869. His father, Andrew Jackson Taylor, was born November 1, 1835, near Millersburg, Indiana. His grandfather was a native of Kentucky and married Rebecca Perry, who was born in Warrick County, Indiana. Andrew Jackson Taylor when a boy was a driver on the towpath at the old canal and spent his mature years as a Pike County farmer. He died November 26, 1918, at the age of eighty-three. Andrew Jackson Taylor married Eunice J. Risley, who was born December 25, 1835, in Pike County and died on March 5, 1871. Her father, James Risley, was a native of Virginia, born in 1809, and married Patricia Miller, also a native of that state. Doctor Taylor was one of three children. His brother Henry, a resident of Los Angeles, California, married Jane Davis, of Chandler, Indiana, and has a family of four sons and one daughter. His other brother, Joe J., married Flora B. Harris, and they have six children.
Dr. Daniel E. Taylor grew up on a Pike County farm, attended the grade and high schools of the county, and as a young man qualified as a teacher. He spent eleven years teaching in different localities, and this work enabled him to carry out his long standing ambition to become a physician. Doctor Taylor in 1903 was graduated from the Louisville Medical College, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and at once located at Velpen, where he has carried on a general town and country practice. He is a member of the Pike County and Indiana State Medical Associations, and enjoys very high standing both as a professional man and citizen. He is a Democrat, a Baptist, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias.
Doctor Taylor married, October 3, 1894, Miss Jessie Bottom. She died March 26, 1909, leaving a daughter, Bernice, born August 23, 1895, who is the wife of L. O. Brown of Owensboro, Kentucky, and has a son, Robert, who was born July 19, 1920. Doctor Taylor's second wife was Mattie E. Osborn, born February 29, 1884. They were married June 26, 1912, and they have one child, Dorothy, born November 21, 1918.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
WILLIAM H. W. PELTIER carries on the traditions of Fort Wayne's oldest family and also of the oldest established business as undertakers and funeral directors.
His great-grandfather, James Peltier, was a French Canadian, one of those hardy, daring men of the woods and the rapid flowing streams who made up the picturesque characters of the eighteenth century. For some time he was a courier carrying mail and express by horse or pirogue from the military post at Detroit westward through the southern end of Lake Michigan. He established his home at old Fort Wayne in 1787. His wife was Angeline Chapeteau, who as a girl and orphan came by pirogue to Fort Wayne in 1804 with her uncle and aunt. Her red hair made a great impression upon the Miami Indians, who straightway baptized her “Golden Hair." Soon after her arrival she became the bride of James Peltier. They as time went on became great favorites with the Indians. Because of her popularity with them her family were allowed to live outside of the Fort, where in the capacity of accepted go-between she rendered valuable service to the garrison, the settlers obliged to live within the fort and the besieging Indians. The prolonged siege had so depleted the Fort's stores that venison given Mrs. Peltier by the Indians was of vast assistance to those in the Fort and salt obtained at the fort by Mrs. Peltier was gratefully received by the Indians. Eventually the siege became so bad the family were ordered into the fort. While they were living at Fort Wayne a son, Louis Peltier; was born to them on March 15, 1813. He had the distinction of being the first white child born within the limits of the present City of Fort Wayne.
Louis Peltier was the first man to make a business of undertaking. He engaged in that line of work in 1832, nearly a century ago, and throughout all the years the name Peltier at Fort Wayne has had its chief business significance in association with the duty of caring for and burying the dead. During the years before Louis Peltier engaged in the business the only persons officially concerned with funerals were a minister or priest, and sometimes the local cabinet maker, though frequently the coffins were also the product of volunteer friendly labor on the part of a carpenter. For a number of years after Louis Peltier set up in business it was customary for all coffins to be made as needed, and consequently were of crude and hurried workmanship. Practically all the developments and changes in the undertaking business during the past century have been part of the experience of the three generations of the Peltier family at Fort Wayne. The most marked changes have come within the time of Mr. James C. Peltier, son of Louis, involving the introduction of the modern processes of embalming, the improvement of the mechanical facilities, particularly the use of automobile equipment.
William H. W. Peltier was born at Fort Wayne March 1, 1869, son of James C. and Selina (Wadge) Peltier. His father had represented the second generation of the family in the undertaking business. William H. W. Peltier grew up in Fort Wayne, attended the Clay Street School, also the Sihler German private school, where he learned to speak the tongue of so many citizens of Fort Wayne. He also attended the old Methodist College at Fort Wayne, the Shattuck Military Academy at Faribault, Minnesota. Mr. Peltier as a boy and youth enjoyed all the manly sports of his generation. For several years he played semi-professional baseball, and his greatest thrill in sport, as he recalls it, was a day when, playing with the team of the University of Michigan, he brought in the winning run that broke a tie score; and was carried off the field by the cheering Michigan students. When the bicycle was at the height of its popularity as a vehicle of speed he was in the ranks of the professionals as a rider, and was employed regularly for advertising and demonstration purposes by one of the companies making a popular model of that time. Another interest of those earlier years was military training. He enlisted in a Fort Wayne company of the Indiana National Guard, Company B of the Second Regiment, has commissions as captain bearing the signatures of former Governors Hovey and Mount.
When he graduated from the bicycle it was only natural that he became one of the first enthusiasts for the motor car, and he had the distinction of owning and operating the first automobile in Fort Wayne, and the newspapers of that city and surrounding towns where he made startling appearances in his horseless carriage kept him almost daily before the public eye by stories recounting the marvelous performance of his gasoline buggy.
After taking over the management of his father's business he was constantly studying methods of improving the service, and was one of the first funeral directors in Northern Indiana to introduce motor equipment. For years he has been an advocate of good roads construction, and for a number of years served as chairman of the Good Roads Bureau of the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce. For thirty years his name has been linked with all progressive matters in his home city. He was one of the twelve founders of the first chapter of the Red Cross at Fort Wayne. He is a York and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and a member of the Royal Order of Jesters, made up of Shriners. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and Elks and belongs to the Y. M. C. A., the Rotary Club, Izaak Walton League, the Hoosier Automobile Association, Fort Wayne Country Club, the Orchard Ridge Country Club and the National Selective Morticians. He was given the appropriate honor of being selected the first president of the Fort Wayne Historical Society, a tribute to his descent from the oldest family of the city. Mr. Peltier and family are members of the Episcopal Church. He married, January 29, 1908, Miss Isabel Elizabeth McClure, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Rosser McClure.
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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
THOMAS W. BASINGER, M. D. One of the representative citizens and prominent medical practitioners of Pike County, Indiana, is Dr. Thomas W. Basinger, physician and surgeon at Petersburg, and formerly, for twenty years, health officer of Pike County. After a period in the public schools of Perry County he became a teacher, and in this way earned the necessary capital to take him through his medical course. A practitioner since 1880, his career has been a long, useful and honorable one, and there are few men in the county who are held in higher esteem.
Thomas W. Basinger was born in Perry County, Indiana, May 6, 1854, a son of Joseph S. and Philadelphia (Chewning) Basinger. His father, who was born in 1832, in Kentucky, came to Indiana in young manhood and settled in Perry County, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits at the outbreak of the war between the states. He served two years in the Union army, as a private in an Indiana volunteer infantry regiment, and upon receiving his honorable discharge returned to Perry County, where he resumed his agricultural operations. He was thus employed until his retirement, and died July 18, 1918, at the advanced age of nearly eighty-seven years, having been born January 25, 1832. Mr. Joseph S. Basinger married Philadelphia Chewning; of Rockport, Indiana, and of their five children three are still living: Thomas W., of this review; Lavina, wife of William W. Lawrence, of Pittsburg, Kansas, and Dr. John H., a physician and surgeon of Oklahoma City.
Thomas W. Basinger attended the public schools of Perry County and was reared in the midst of agricultural surroundings, but in early life decided upon a professional career, and accordingly secured a teacher's certificate and for seven years instructed the young minds of the rural districts of his native locality. During this period he applied himself to preliminary study in medicine and at the same time saved his earnings carefully, finally enrolling as a student at the Louisville University of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine as a member of the class of 1880. In the same year he commenced practice at Oatsville, Pike County, where he remained until 1892, and in the latter year changed his residence and scene of practice to Petersburg, where he has followed his calling for a period of forty years. During this time he has attracted and held a large and lucrative practice and built up a firm reputation as a diagnostician, practitioner and operator. He is a member of the Pike County Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and served as health officer for twenty years. A Republican in his political views, he has taken an interest in public affairs and for one term was county auditor. His religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal Church, while fraternally he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a Mason. In addition to his large medical practice Doctor Basinger has other interests, and is president of the Pike County Building & Loan Association.
On September 14, 1876, Doctor Basinger was united in marriage with Miss Mary E. VanWinkle, of Perry County, Indiana, and to this union there were born seven children: Ida M., deceased, who married Owen J. Neighbors, a native of Maryland, now superintendent of public schools at Wabash, Indiana, who has four sons; Homer, an oil man of Indiana, who married Elizabeth Hammond and has five children; Dr. H. R., engaged in a successful veterinary practice at Wheatland, Indiana, who married May Overbay; Doris, who married William C. O'Brien, an electrical engineer in charge of the installation of a large electrical plant at Grand Rapids, Michigan, and they have two boys; and three of the doctor's children are deceased.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
ORACE D. HARRIS. Progress is the order of the day; in every profession mighty strides forward are being made; business has been so reorganized that conditions have completely changed within the present century and the outlet of the people and their viewpoint are altered. However, unchangeable, unaltered and rigidly permanent is the reverence paid to those who, passing from this mortal sphere, await consignment to their narrow resting place in one or other of “God’s Acres." As far back as there are any records respect for the dead has been a distinguishing characteristic of man as compared to the lower animals. The manner of caring for the dead, however, has changed, and greatly for the better. The modern funeral director has to be a man who has been graduated from a college of his profession, with a state license to practice, and if he is a business man of any pride and repute he has an equipment that insures a dignified and adequate service that will reflect credit upon the dead and the living as well. Such a man is Orace D. Harris, of Petersburg, Indiana, who for nearly thirty years has been in the undertaking business in this city.
Orace D. Harris was born in Dubois County, Indiana, February 11, 1874, a son of Nicholas and Martha (Hogland) Harris, both of whom were born in Dubois County. The father was a carpenter and contractor, and, when the need arose, made coffins. For forty years he lived in the vicinity of Lemmon's Church, but at the close of that period moved to Otwell, Pike County, and engaged in the undertaking and furniture business, in which he continued until his death in 1927. He and his wife had eight children, three of whom died in infancy, the others being: Orace D., who is the eldest; Bell, who resides at Otwell, married Sherman Scraper, and they have three children; Ovid, who died at Boerne, Texas; aged twenty-three years; May, who married Clarence Ayres, lives at Otwell; and Grace, who is unmarried, lives at Otwell.
After attending the Lemmon School in Dubois County Orace D. Harris was associated with his father in the furniture and undertaking business, and in 1900 took a course in of Clark’s School Embalming at Louisville, from which he was graduated, and he received his license from the State of Indiana in 1901. In 1902 he came to Petersburg, established himself in business, and for six years carried it on in a dignified manner. With his election to the office of county treasurer of Pike County he left the undertaking business, and served his term of two years most successfully. Once more he became an undertaker and has continued to so serve the people ever since.
On August 20, 1896, Mr. Harris was married at Petersburg to Miss Lilla A. Dillon, a daughter of W. Curran and Malinda (Rogers) Dillon, members of old and honorable families of Indiana, and of this country. The great-great-grandfather of Mrs. Harris, Lieutenant Dillon, served under the direct command of Gen. George Washington in the American Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Harris have three children: Owen Dillon, born October 20, 1898, is a mortician and resides at Petersburg, where he is associated with his father, and has served as county coroner continuously for ten years, since January 1, 1922. He married Miss Clara Heldt, of Evansville, Indiana, and they have one son, William Owen, born October 9, 1929. Lee N., born December 23, 1900, is unmarried, and is also a mortician, associated with his father at Petersburg. Fay, born September 27, 1904, is attending the University of Indiana.
Mr. Harris is a Democrat, but is not in politics. He belongs to the Presbyterian Church. With his two sons he belongs to the Masonic Order, his sons belonging to the Mystic Shrine, and he is also an Odd Fellow, Modern Woodman and Red Man, and belongs to the Indiana State Embalmers Association. Mrs. Harris belongs to the Daughters of the Revolution, the Eastern Star and the White Shrine.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
LEO A. SALB and three of his brothers are representatives of the medical profession in their native State of Indiana and he himself has been since 1910 established in successful practice as a physician and surgeon at Jasper, Dubois County, at which judicial center of the county his loyal professional activities have been interrupted only during the period of his service in the Medical Corps of the United States Army in the World war interval.
Doctor Salb was born in his present home City of Jasper, November 4, 1886, and is a son of Dr. John Salb and Margaret (Betz) Salb, both likewise natives of this state. Dr. John Salb was long numbered among the representative physicians and surgeons in Dubois County and was engaged in practice at Jasper until his death, in 1925, his widow being still a resident of this city. Of the nine children eight survive the honored father, in whose professional footsteps four of the sons are following. May, eldest of the children, is the wife of E. Sturm, M. D., and they reside at Jasper; Dr. John, Jr., is a physician and surgeon and is engaged in practice in the City of Indianapolis; Dr. Leo A., of this review, is the next younger; Oscar S. likewise is a physician and surgeon and is established in practice at Seymour, Indiana; Victor M. is engaged in the insurance business at Jasper; Grover E. is factory manager of the Indiana Desk Company; Dr. Max was graduated in the medical department of the University of Indiana as a member of the Class of 1929 and is practicing now at Indianapolis; Ardella is the wife of L. G. Bohnert, and they have one child.
After completing his studies in the Jasper High School Dr. Leo A. Salb entered the medical department of the University of Indiana, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1908. After thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he further fortified himself by the valuable clinical experience he gained as an interne in a leading hospital in the City of Terre Haute, and in 1910 he engaged in the active general practice of his profession in his native City of Jasper, where he has since continued his earnest and effective ministrations save for the period of his service in the Medical Corps of the United States Army during the time of the nation's participation in the World war, he having been called to overseas duty, and having been in service in France eleven months, with rank of captain in the Medical Corps. His brothers John, Victor and Grover likewise were in service in the World war period. Doctor Salb received his honorable discharge in August, 1919, and then resumed the practice of his profession at Jasper. He has membership in the Dubois County Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, is a Democrat in political alignment, is affiliated with both York and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, as well as its Mystic Shrine, and has membership also in the American Legion and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On the 8th of February, 1917, Doctor Salb was united in marriage to Miss Lena Joseph, daughter of Frank Joseph, a representative citizen of Jasper. The one child of Doctor and Mrs. Salb is a fine son, Robert Lee, who was born August 27, 1918, while his father was in service in France. Doctor Salb was thus not permitted to see his son until the latter was one year old, and he relates that in response to a letter from his wife in which she mentioned that the son had received a haircut, he manifested his longing to see the youngster and hoped this would be possible before the youthful scion of the Salb family began to shave his face. Doctor and Mrs. Salb are popular figures in the representative social life of the community in which they were reared and in which they continue to maintain their home.
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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
MRS. MARGARET JEAN. Prominently concerned in much that adds to the civic welfare of Petersburg, Indiana, is Mrs. Margaret Jean, librarian of the Petersburg Public Library, member of the library board, secretary of the Red Cross for this district and secretary of the Children's Board of Charities. She has been long well known at Petersburg and in other parts of Pike County through her musical gifts, as she is an artist in proficiency and for twelve years was a popular teacher of music. In almost every community may be found, in these modern days, a group of earnest, educated women who, often with great unselfishness, devote time, means and effort to public-spirited movements, and Mrs. Jean is one of this body at Petersburg. Fully realizing, as one of her cultured tastes and training could do, the inestimable benefit that a public library would be to her city, she was a not inconsiderable factor in bringing about the founding of this institution in 1923, of which she has been the librarian ever since. The library is in a very prosperous condition and has become, under Mrs. Jean's capable management, a source of civic pride and congratulation.
Mrs. Jean was born at Martinsville, Indiana, a daughter of John and Sarah (Graham) Story, the former of whom was born of Irish parents, and the latter of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Both parents of Mrs. Jean, however, were born in Morgan County, Indiana. The father died in 1867 and the mother in 1873. They had two children, Mrs. Jean and her brother, William Edward.
Carefully educated in the grade and high schools, Mrs. Jean displayed such unusual talent for music that she was given the opportunity of perfecting herself in her art in the New England Conservatory of Music at Columbus, Indiana, and she was graduated therefrom with honors. For the succeeding twelve years she was engaged in teaching music, and made a most remarkable success in her profession, her own talent enabling her to stimulate her pupils with some of her love for what she taught, and some who came under her instruction later rose to high position in the musical world.
Francis N. Jean, husband of Mrs. Jean, died at his home at Petersburg, Indiana, in 1921, leaving his widow and one daughter, Aline Elizabeth, now the wife of Dr. Walter E. Treanor, judge of the Indiana Supreme Court. Judge and Mrs. Treanor have one child, Rosemary, now nine years old.
In addition to her duties as librarian Mrs. Jean is a member of the Women’s Club, has served as secretary of the local chapter of the American Red Cross, is a member of the Cradle of Liberty Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution at Petersburg, and is secretary of the Children’s Board of Charities. She is one of her sex who is proving the fact that women do take an interest in civic affairs, and that they can be depended upon to do their duty as citizens. In her work in the library Mrs. Jean is supported with a very strong library board, composed of Mrs. Anna Flemming; president; Mr. Hershel Johnson, vice president; Mrs. Effie Kraig, secretary; and Gus Frank, L. L. Dearing, Mrs. A. E. Davis and Frank Burger, directors.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
