He was born at Huntsville, Logan County, Ohio, May 26, 1876, son of William J. and Sarah (Kelly) Watkins. His parents lived all their lives in that section of Ohio. His father was a contractor and builder. He retired from busines about 1920, died at Dayton, Ohio, May 4th, 1930. The mother of Rev. Mr. Watkins died January 13, 1920, and is buried at Liberty, Ohio. They were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The children besides Charles E. were: Harry E., of. Dayton; Kelly M. Watkins, in the automobile busines at Johnstown, Pennsylvania; ; Bessie, wife of John C. Licht, of Dayton; Ray, with the National Cash Register Company at Dayton; Miss Tempie A., with the Larkin Transfer Company of Dayton and Miss Mattie B., a trained nurse at Dayton.
Charles E. Watkins attended the public schools in Logan County, Ohio. As a youth he gave evidence of talents for speaking and for activities requiring natural leadership among men. For six years he was an employee of the Barney & Smith Car Company, passenger car manufacturers at Dayton. During these years he was a student of theology and prepared himself for the ministry of the Baptist Church. Mr. Watkins came to Muncie in 1904, and for a short time was in the electrical business in that city. In 1906 he was made pastor of the Seventeenth Street Baptist Church, now the Walnut Street Church, and did some valuable work in building up that church during the six years he was pastor. In 1912 he was made superintendent of Evangelism for the Indiana Baptists, a work he continued until 1917.
Mr. Watkins left the active ministry during the World war and for two years acted as secretary of the local Y. M. C. A. at Muncie, and used his talents as a speaker in connection with many of the drives and campaigns both in Muncie and other sections of the state. In 1919 he was made director of personnel for the T. W. Warner Company, and when that business was taken over as a part of the General Motors Corporation his services were retained until February, 1925. Since leaving the General Motors Company Mr. Watkins has been associated with the American City Bureau of Chicago, an organization that sends him to different parts of the country to assist in campaigns under the auspices of Chambers of Commerce, in Community Chest drives and religious and other campaigns for the raising of funds.
Mr. Watkins is a member of the Muncie Rotary Club and was district governor in 1920. He also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, is a Republican and a member of the First Baptist Church.
He married at Dayton, Ohio, September 1, 1899, Miss Cora Lee Baldwin, daughter of Alford and Molly (Finn) Baldwin. Her father was a farmer and stock raiser at Milldale, Kentucky, where he died in 1880, and her mother died several years earlier. Mrs. Watkins attended the public schools in Kentucky. She has always been an earnest worker in the Baptist Church and is a member of the Muncie Woman's Club.
James Elwood Watkins,. only son and child of Rev. and Mrs. Watkins, was born June 7, 1900. He graduated from the Muncie High School in 1916, then entered Franklin College, but his education was interrupted when he volunteered at the age of seventeen during the World war. He received training at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, was commissioned a second lieutenant and was sent west to the University of California, at Berkeley, and assigned duty as an instructor. After the armistice he was transferred to the Utah State Agricultural College at Logan, and on resigning returned to Indiana and finished his education in Purdue University, graduating in 1922. During the following two years he was with the Merchants Trust & Savings Bank, of Muncie and is now secretary and manager of the Elm Ridge Memorial Park. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, Dynamo Club, Muncie Club, and he and his wife reside at 912 Gilbert Street in Muncie. He married at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1925, Miss Margaret Ehrhardt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Ehrhardt, of Pittsburgh, where her father is a stock broker. Mrs. James E. Watkins is a member of the Xiota Psi sorority.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JAMES H. KENSLER, general merchant at Monroe City, has lived in Knox County all his life, and that county has been honored by the good citizenship of a number of members of his family.
He was born in Knox County January 26, 1887, son of Robert and Elizabeth (Shouse) Kensler and grandson of John Kensler. His grandfather was a Knox County farmer and was of French ancestry. Elizabeth Shouse was a daughter of J. H. Shouse, long one of the outstanding citizens of Knox County. J. H. Shouse was a farmer, was a trustee of Palmyra Township, served two terms as mayor of Vincennes, was sheriff of Knox County, and during the Cleveland administration was door keeper in the national capitol at Washington, and for a time was in the pension offices. He served four years as a soldier in the Union army. He died in, 1926 on his farm in Knox County.
James Kensler was one of two children. He attended public schools in Knox County and was a farmer until 1919. For over ten years he has carried on a large and well stocked business as a general merchant at Monroe City. He still owns and operates his farms in Palmyra Township.
Mr. Kensler, on October 11, 1908, married Miss Flora Bonewits, of Knox County. He is affiliated with Monroe City Lodge No. 548, A. F. and A. M., attends the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and is a Democrat. During the World war he had an active part in promoting the success of the Liberty Loan drives.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
MATTHEW W. WELSH has marked with special versatility of achievement his career as a business man, his skill as an organizer and executive have come into play in the forming of various important corporations, and as financier and economist he has filled numerous positions of trust. In the handling of bonds and other high-grade securities the corporation of which Mr. Welsh is a principal, that of LaPlante & Welsh, has marked priority in the City of Vincennes, where its offices are established at 19 North Third Street. Mr. Welsh was one of the organizers of this representative corporation and is its secretary and treasurer.
Matthew W. Welsh was born in Jackson County, Indiana, September 9, 1886, and is a son of John E. and Ella (Robertson) Welsh. John E. Welsh, who became a successful exponent of manufacturing industry, at Brownstown, Jackson County, was born and reared in Indiana and his father, Patrick Welsh, was born in County Clare, Ireland. Patrick Welsh was a young when he came to the United States, and after residing some time in Boston, Massachusetts, he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, from which city he came to Jackson County, Indiana, where he passed the remainder of his life, he having served as a loyal soldier of the Union in the Civil war.
Matthew W. Welsh, a member of a family of six children, was reared in his native county, and there his early educational advantages included those of both the high school and a business college. As a youth he there clerked several years in a general mercantile establishment and two years in a drug store. He was then appointed bailiff and later official court reporter of the Circuit Court of the Fortieth Judicial Circuit of Indiana, comprising Jackson and Scott counties, and his service continued during the period of 1907-10. In the meanwhile he applied himself to the study of law and was admitted to the bar of his native state in 1908. Upon retiring from the position of court reporter he went to Indianapolis, where he was associated two years in the practice of law with Carl E. Wood. He then became associated with Mr. Wood and others in organizing the Columbian National Fire Insurance Company, of Detroit, Michigan, and of this corporation he became secretary and treasurer. In 1915 he resigned this dual office and went to the City of Chicago, where he effected the organization of the Great Lakes Fire Insurance Company. He soon afterward returned to Brownstown, Indiana, to give attention to his interests in his native county, and shortly after the beginning of the World war he entered Government service under the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce, with executive headquarters in Chicago, until the armistice brought the war to a close. Thereafter Mr. Welsh gave personal supervision to his various capitalistic and property interests at Brownstown until 1920, and in the meanwhile he there organized the Brownstown Loan & Trust Company, of which he was president two years, he having resigned this office in 1920, afterward being associated with the Meyer-Kiser Bank at Indianapolis until October, 1924. In 1924 he moved his family to Vincennes, in which city he was one of the organizers of the corporation of of La Planta, Welsh & Risacher, which was succeeded by La Plante & Welsh. He is now its vice president and the corporation controls a substantial business in the handling of bonds, investments and general securities of high standard. Mr. Welsh is a member of the Indiana State Bankers Association, the Mortgage Bankers Association of the United States, the Vincennes Chamber of Commerce, the A. F. and A. M., Vincenne& Lodge No.1, the B. P. O. Elks, the local Harmony Society of his home city, and was a director in the Vincennes Rotary Club in 1931, the while his political allegiance is given to the Democratic party. On July, 15, 1909, at Vallonia, Jackson County, Indiana, Mr. Welsh married Miss Inez Empson, daughter of William and Mary (Copeland) Empson, of Vallonia, and the children of this union are Matthew E., Mary, Virginia, John Edward and Margaret Louise. Matthew E. is a student of the Wharton School of Commerce of Pennsylvania University.
It has already been noted that the paternal grandfather of Mr. Welsh was born in Ireland, and it is interesting to record also that on the maternal side he is a representative of a family that was founded in Virginia in the Colonial period of American history.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CLARE B. CURREY is district manager at Connersville for the Remedial Loan & Finance Company, was in early life a teacher, and has made a most creditable record in business and financial affairs in his native County of Fayette.
He was born in Jackson Township, Fayette County, Indiana, December 5, 1889, son of Thomas E. and Hanna F. (Corbin) Currey, also natives of Fayette County. His grandparents were Thomas E. and Catherine (Whittaker) Currey, who came from West Virginia, while Alfred and Katherine (Meyers) Corbin were born in Fayette County, Indiana, where their parents were among the earliest pioneers of this section of the state.
Clare B. Currey grew up on his father's farm and was educated in the common and high schools and the normal schools at Marion and Muncie. For seven years when not in school himself he was a teacher. Mr. Currey's business experience prior to the war period was as a representative of the Prudential Insurance Company, and he was with that organization from 19193 until the fall of 1917. On October 5, 1917, he entered Camp Taylor at Louisville, Kentucky, in the quartermaster's department and acted as officers pay voucher sergeant until after the armistice. He received his honorable discharge February 17, 1919, and at once resumed work for the insurance company. Mr. Currey was appointed amanger of the Remedial Loan & Finance Company at Connersville in September, 1921. He also has supervision over the branch offices at Brookville and Rushville. He married, July 14, 1920, Miss Nola A. Siebethol, who was born at Vevay, Indiana, daughter of Andrew Jackson and Onisca (Netherland) Siebethol. Her father was born in Switzerland and her mother in Kentucky. Andrew Jackson Siebethol came to America with his parents, who settled in Kentucky, along the Ohio River. After reaching manhood he was responsible for starting the first water power flour mill in Switzerland County, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Currey have one son, Thomas Lane, born June 25, 1922. The family are members of the Christian Church, Mr. Currey is an independent Democrat, a member of the Lodge and Encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Loyal Order of Moose, and is a past commander of Reginald Fisher Post No.1 of the American Legion.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
HON. WALTER J. DAUNHAUER. Born, reared and educated at Ferdinand, Hon. Walter J. Daunhauer, postmaster of the same place, has all of his interests centered here, and naturally has the continued prosperity of his native place close to his heart, and he is willing to make any kind of sacrifice for its advancement. His birth occurred March 24, 1902, and he is a son of Joseph B. Daunhauer, who was born near Ferdinand, in Dubois County. For a number of years he has owned a grocery and bakery here, and he is numbered among the leading business men of the town. His father, John Daunhauer, was one of the very early settlers of Dubois County, coming here from Pennsylvania, and later moving to Spencer County, where he spent most of his life in farming and died at Ferdinand in March, 1928, at the age of ninety-two. Many others followed him and located in the region about Ferdinand. He owned the first threshing outfit in the county, and for some years operated it in the summer season. The mother of Postmaster Daunhauer was Ann Russ prior to her marriage, and she was also born in Dubois County. Eight children were born to the parents, namely: Postmaster Daunhauer, Myrtle, Earl, Cora, Mabel, Doris, Doherty and one who is deceased.
After he had attended the public and parochial schools of Ferdinand, Postmaster Daunhauer took a commercial course in the Lochyear Business College at Evansville, and was graduated therefrom, after which he returned to Ferdinand and became a clerk in a jewelry store. Still later he occupied a similar position in his father's store, and held it until he was appointed postmaster of Ferdinand by President Coolidge in 1928, which office he still holds.
In political faith he is a Republican and he is one of the active members of the local organization. He and his family are members of the Roman Catholic Church, and he is a Knight of Columbus. Postmaster Daunhauer is unmarried. Since he took charge of the postoffice its affairs have been admirably administered, and the service is proving satisfactory to all concerned. It is a source of pride to him that in a community where his name is an old and honored one, he is able to add to its distinction and prove that his generation is as progressive as those before him.
When the grandfather of Postmaster Daunhauer came to Dubois County this part of Indiana was almost entirely undeveloped, and if he had not been far-sighted and practical he might not have been willing to remain and contend with all of the pioneer conditions. However, he saw that Indiana was destined to become a great state, and that those who became its pioneers could achieve prosperity for themselves and their children, and he sent back such encouraging reports of the region that a number of his old neighbors in Pennsylvania migrated to the county, and they, too, became successful farmers and business men, and therefore from the initial settlement of the first of the name of Daunhauer has come, in large part, the wealthy and important Dubois County.
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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
HENRY WYSOR MARSH, one of the active business men of Muncie today, has a name that constantly recalls to many of his fellow citizens historic characters, builders and founders, men interested not only in the early development of Muncie, but throughout the years in carrying on the good work they had started until one of the important cities of Eastern Indiana had been wrought out as a reflection in no small degree of their influence and energies.
In 1856 a newcomer arrived in Muncie named John Marsh. He had come from Cambridge City, Indiana. In association with John W. Burson he established the Muncie branch of the State Bank of Indiana. The establishment of this bank was in reality a mile post in the progress of Muncie as a commercial center. John Marsh before living in Indiana was a resident of Preble County, Ohio. He was born August 22, 1811, son of Timothy and Mary (Clawson) Marsh. Mary Clawson was born near the mouth of the Little Miami River in Ohio, August 22,1787. Her father, John Clawson, had been a soldier with the Continental forces in the War of the Revolution, going from his home colony of New Jersey. His daughter Mary, it is claimed, was the first white child born in Southern Ohio. She died in September, 1877. Timothy Marsh was a native of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was a descendant of Samuel Marsh, who came to America from England in 1632.
A son of the pioneer Muncie banker, John Marsh, was William M. Marsh, whose mother was Mary Mitchell Mutchner. William M. Marsh was actively identified with banking, manufacturing and other business enterprises at Muncie. One of his brothers was Charles C. Marsh, an officer in the United States Navy, and another was John R. Marsh. A sister was Harriet M. Marsh, who became the wife of John R. Johnston, who died leaving a son, Robert Marsh Johnston.
William M. Marsh married Martha Wysor, who was a daughter of Jacob Henry and Sarah (Richardson) Wysor. Among the names of the various men who are counted as constructive factors in the history of Muncie probably more could be said concerning Jacob Henry Wysor than any other.
He was born near Dublin in Pulaski County, Virginia, December 6, 1819, the only child of Jacob and Margaret (Miller) Wysor, who were also native Virginians. Jacob Wysor had served as a soldier in the War of 1812, while his grandfather, Henry Wysor, was a commissioned officer in the Continental Army in the Revolution. Jacob Wysor had died a short time before the birth of his son Jacob Henry, and his widow later married John Guthrie, and in 1834 they moved from Southwestern Virginia to Indiana, locating in the Smithfield community in Eastern Delaware County. Jacob Henry Wysor was then fifteen years of age. Subsequently he was sent back to Virginia to complete his education. In 1841 he opened a general store at Muncietown, now Muncie, handling dry goods and and groceries. The store was burned down with almost total loss. Following that he went to work in the Gilbert Flour Mill, the first of Muncie's pioneer industries. After a few months he leased the mill and in 1843 two other conspicuous men in the early affairs of Muncie, John Jack and James L. Russey, joined him and together they secured the capital to purchase the mill. In 1849 Jacob Henry Wysor left his business to join in the rush across the plains to California. The captain of the party was his partner, James L. Russey, who lost his life at the hands of Indians soon after reaching California. Mr. Wysor himself remained in the far West for three years and on returning to Muncie resumed business with his partner, John Jack. In 1854 the firm of Wysor & Jack erected a flour mill on North Walnut Street. This mill was kept in operation for over sixty years, its machinery being changed from time to time to correspond to new processes in flour manufacture. Finally the plant was sold to a power company and the old landmark was razed.
For years Jacob Henry Wysor's personal influence or his money were identified with nearly every constructive move made in Muncie. He took an active part in the building of some of the turnpike roads, being president of the Muncie & Granville Turnpike Company. In the course of time these pikes were turned over to the county. He was foremost among Muncie citizens in aiding the construction of the first railroad, what is now the Big Four line. Jacob Henry Wysor was well advanced in years when the natural gas discoveries were made in Delaware County during the '80s, but he came out of his retirement and as much as any other man used his capital and enterprise to utilize this new fuel resource to the advantage of Muncie's developments as a commercial and industrial center. He responded heartily to the appeals and the plans carried out through the Commercial Club, the Citizens Enterprise Company and similar organizations.
His name is especially familiar to the people of Muncie both of the present as well as a former generation in connection with buildings that are at the very heart of the city’s commercial and cultural growth. In 1872, at the corner of Main and Walnut streets, he built an opera house, at that time one of the finest in Indiana. Twenty years later, in 1892, he gave Muncie a still more pretentious building, the Wysor Grand Opera House, at the corner of Jackson and Mulberry streets. The site of the old opera house eventually became the ground on which was erected Muncie’s first modern office building, the business home today of many of the city's leading professional and business organizations, the Wysor Building. In estimating the importance of his character and influence in Muncie one writer said: "Upon three different occasions when efforts of Muncie citizens to carry the city forward seemed doomed to failure, Jacob Henry Wysor by his courage and example put renewed heart into the workers and crowned their efforts with success. When the Enterprise Fund was a practical failure he increased his subscription fourfold, quickly followed by James Boyce, A. F. Patterson, George F. McCulloch and others. When the stock of the old Natural Gas Company was about to be sold to out-of-town parties he bought the stock for home interests. During the panic of 1893, when one bank had closed its doors and a run was being made on the others, he headed a list of citizens guaranteeing against loss every depositor in every bank in Muncie. Thus confidence and enterprises were restored.
Jacob Henry Wysor was eighty-six years of age when he passed away January 18,1905. For many years he had lived in a picturesque and beautiful home, a property he bought in 1866 at 418 North Walnut Street. It was the old Goldsmith Gilbert Home Square, and at the time he bought it was known as the John Jack homestead.
Jacob Henry Wysor married, April 6, 1854, at Peru, Indiana, Miss Sarah Richardson, who passed away November 6, 1893. She was born in Virginia, daughter of John and Martha Richardson. Their four children were: Harry Richardson Wysor; Martha, who became the wife of William M. Marsh; Virginia, who died when a child; and William H. Wysor, who died in 1894. Harry Richardson Wysor, who was born April 8, 1858, after completing his education joined his father in business at Muncie and in 1881 took over the management of the old opera house, and later the Wysor Grand Opera House until that property was leased. In 1906 he and his sister, Mrs. Marsh, tore down the original opera house and on the site put up the Wysor Office Building. Harry R. Wysor married, in 1884, Miss Jennie Kemper, daughter of William Kemper, of Iowa. They had two daughters, Sarah, who married Robert Carson, and Mary, who married Howard Keifer.
Henry Wysor Marsh was born at Muncie, July 18, 1884, and was educated in the schools of his native city, afterwards attended the University of Pennsylvania. From boyhood it was his ambition to become a farmer, and that is the business to which he has given most of his time since leaving college. For twelve years he was interested in farming in the locality that was the home of his ancestors in Southwestern Virginia, Pulaski County. In 1916 he returned to Muncie, and subsequently bought the old Dow farm on Wheeling Pike, north of Muncie, and the supervision of his farming and stock raising interests has made heavy demands upon his time. He is also manager of the Wysor Estate and as such has offices in the Wysor Building.
Mr. Marsh is treasurer of the Delaware County Farm Bureau. He is on the vestry of the Grace Episcopal Church. On March 6, 1907, he married, at Dublin, Virginia, Miss Cora Reid Wysor, daughter of Henry C. and Mary (Shipp) Wysor. Her father was a well-to-do farmer and stock man in Southwestern Virginia. He died August 28, 1928, and his wife in August, 1924, and both are buried at Dublin, Virginia. Mrs. Marsh was educated by private tutors and is a graduate of the Stonewall Jackson Institute at Abingdon, Virginia. She is a member of the Grace Episcopal Church of Muncie. Mr. and Mrs. Marsh have had four children: Martha Shipp; Mary Wysor, who died at the age of two years; Margaret Johnston; and Henry Wysor, Jr. The daughter Martha was graduated from the Muncie High School in 1929 and is attending the Ball State Teachers College. The two younger children are in grade school.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
L. F. BLANN, Monroe City merchant, is a native of Knox County and is a successful representative of a family that has been in Indiana since early pioneer times.
The pioneer of the family was Marion Blann, who came from Kentucky and settled in Busseron Township, Knox County, more than a century ago. His son, S. G. Blann, was a Knox County farmer. S. G. Blann was the father of Edward P. Blann, who has been well known as a merchant and farmer and was township trustee of Harrison Township and county treasurer from 1914 to 1917. Edward P. Blann married Mattie Nolen, of Knox County, representing the Nolen family which came to Knox County about 1830. The Blanns are of old Virginia and English stock and were in Virginia in Colonial times. Edward P. Blann died in 1927. His first wife died in the early nineties and he later married N annie Campbell, of a pioneer family of Knox County, and to this union were born two children.
L. F. Blann, son of Edward P. and Mattie (Nolen) Blann, was born in Weidner Township, Knox County, March 16, 1886, being the second in a family of two children. He attended public schools, and as a youth and young man assisted on the home farm and in his father's store. He has been in the hardware business at Monroe City since 1910, at which time he bought his father's stock of hardware. For seven years he was associated as a partner with C. A. Junkin, at the end of which time he bought the Junkin interest and has since continued the business under the name L. F. Blann, general hardware, agricultural implements and the local agent for the Chevrolet car.
Mr. Blann is a member of Monroe City Lodge No. 548, A. F. and A. M., a member of the Indiana Hardware Dealers Association, and a Democrat and Presbyterian. He married, August 20, 1905, Miss Charlotte Cooper, a native of Harrison Township, Knox County, and daughter of James L. and Charlotte (Myers) Cooper. Her father was a farmer, and died about 1915. Her mother resides at the old Cooper home in Harrison Township.
In 1930 Mr. Blann was elected on the Democratic ticket trustee of Harrison Township for a term of four years. Since early boyhood he has been interested in farming, and for a number of years has operated farming interests in Harrison Township.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
