Delaware County, Indiana - Sidelights on Local History, 1924 (part 2 of 21)

Ind., and to this union two children have been born, a daughter, C. Jeannette Smith, who is.a teacher in the Central high school at Muncie, and a son, Frederick J. Smith. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are members of the High Street Methodist Episcopal church and are Republicans. 'Mr. Smith is a 833d-degree Mason and Knight Templar, also noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He also is a member of the Royal Order of Scotland and the Order of the Red Cross of Constantine and is a member of the local Rotary Club and the Muncie Chamber of Commerce. . JAMES BOYCE, who died at his home in Muncie in the fall of 1910, left a good memory at his passing, for, as noted elsewhere in this work, he had been in his generation one of the leading factors in the development of the city's material interests. The first considerable manufacturer in the town, he became more than fifty years ago the largest employer of labor in the then awakening city and when the "gas boom" came on was in a position to take a leading part in the development which followed. Tireless activity marked his operations. An Irish immigrant boy, landing on the shores of this country with neither friends nor money, he kept pushing along. Despite "buffetings of fate" that would have daunted a less even tempered or less persistent man, he kept on in the even tenor of his way until in the summer of 1870, when he arrived in Muncie to start here an enterprise new to the town, he had $10,000, which is said to have been up to that time the largest individual capital brought into the town. With this as a nucleus of the fortune he later accumulated, he started his bagging mill and developed a concern which came to be recognized as one of the best in the whole flax industry in this country. Interest in other enterprises followed and he still kept pushing along. Ten years later, in 1880, it was written of him that "in the face of hardships and discouragements which would have broken the hearts of less determined men, Mr. Boyce has succeeded in life. He has a beautiful home, surrounded by luxuries well earned and gladdened by an intelligent and interesting family. As his wealth has accumulated he has employed it for good, and his many kindnesses to poor people will perpetuate his memory, in the flight of years, as a benefactor indeed. His enterprise and public spirit have gained him a high place in the business world, and his nobility of character has made him dear to the hearts of all who know him." That was written more than forty years ago and the prophecy contained therein has been fulfilled. His memory indeed has been perpetuated in the community, nor are the mere visible material monuments to this memory his best memo- rials. Those are written on the hearts of the survivors of that generation which he served. Mr. Boyce was individually enterprising, even in the little things of life. His was a go-ahead spirit. He awakened the community to a need of "'modern" things. It is recalled that it was he who brought to the town for his own use the first lawn mower ever seen here. It was he who installed in his home the first bath tub and the first steam heating plant in the town. It was he who put up the first "modern" business block in the town, the old Boyce block on Main street, erected in 1880. The sight of that then thoroughly "up-to-date" structure stimulated further building operations and the downtown section of the town began to wake up. Five years later the new court house was erected. A few years later the gas boom came on and then Mr. Boyce was in his element. A little story in an older review of the days of the beginning of the boom here will well illustrate this. It is written that "one of the results of the boom was to arouse the spirit of enterprise and nerve men to engage in undertakings which they would regard as impossible during ordinary times. One evening while the speculative fever and general enthusiasm were at their height a number of men were sitting in the Kirby House discussing various features of the boom. Among other things, one expressed his desire for a ground-floor office, something that could not be had anywhere in Muncie at that time. Several others were of like mind and said they would pay handsomely for such an advantage of location. In the group was James Boyce, who turned to the first speaker and asked how much he would pay for such a room. 'There is a lot and just in the right location,' pointing to the corner where the Commercial Club building now stands. One said he would give $60 a month for such a room, but that it was useless to discuss it, for no building was there and none could be put there as soon as needed. 'Gentlemen,' was Mr. Boyce's reply, 'if you will rent the rooms I will have a brick building there in a week's time.' It was in the nature of a wager and the business men hardly thought it possible for Boyce to fulfill his promise, though they were quite willing to accept their part of the bargain. It is indicative of the spirit and energy of the time that Mr. Boyce succeeded. On Monday, April 18 (1887), he contracted with D. C. Mitchell to erect on the corner of Main and Jefferson a one-story brick building, 96 feet front and 24 feet deep, six rooms, with plate glass windows, and all to be completed by the following Saturday evening. Here is a paragraph from the News: 'Building by gas light. One of the most novel sights ever witnessed in this town or any other was the work on the new Boyce build- ing last evening. Ground was broken yesterday morning and this morning some of the walls are one story high. The workmen were at their places all night and by the aid of flaming gas torches are able to work as readily as they can in the day.' Saturday evening Mitchell turned over the keys of the completed building to Boyce. This was long known as 'Real Estate Row.'" This is illustrative of Mr. Boyce's direct methods; of his way of getting things done. It was he who built the first electric light plant in the town. That was in 1885, the year the court house was built. When the first commercial club was organized in the town, the old Muncie Board of Trade, in 1887, his was the first name on the roster of the incorporators. He had a high sense of initiative. He also took a proper interest in civic affairs, was a Republican and for some years rendered public service in the city council. He was equally expansive in his social relations, was a Freemason of high degree, having attained to the Mystic Shrine through the Scottish Rite (32°) ; had attained to all the degrees in Odd Fellowship, and was also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, while he found religious comfort through his membership in St. John's Universalist church. He died at his home in Muncie on September 1, 1910, and is buried in Beech Grove cemetery. James Boyce was born in the near vicinity of the city of Belfast, Ireland, April 7, 1833, and was a son of Hugh and Margaret (Wilson) Boyce, both of whom also were born in that vicinity, of Scottish stock. His schooling continued until he was twelve years of age, when he was apprenticed to a linen manufacturer and for four years was thus employed, working twelve hours a day for the equivalent of 9 cents a day, but the basic knowledge of the linen and flax industry there acquired was later to stand him well in stead, for in time he built up a fortune on his knowledge of the trade. When he was fifteen years of age he was bereft by death of his mother and the care of his two sisters thereafter fell largely to his lot. That was in 1848, the dread "famine year" in Ireland, and the memories of the deprivations of that period were carried by Mr. Boyce to his grave. When he was seventeen years of age he was taken to France to help instruct boys in mills there in the linen trade and was kept there two years, at the end of which time he was returned to the Belfast mills. Two years later he returned to France as sub-foreman of a spinning mill and was working in that country when he attained his majority. Deciding then to give up his trade, he went to Havre with a view to enlisting for service on a British man-of-war, the Crimean war then being on. That was in 1854. Arriving at the dock he was persuaded instead to ship "before the mast" as a sailor on a merchantman bound for New York, and it was thus that in the summer of 1854, with hardly a copper in his pocket, and with not a friend in this country to greet him, James Boyce arrived in America. His first work here was as a teamster on the construction work of the Erie canal, but presently he obtained employment in a flax mill at Little Falls, N. Y., and from there not long afterward went to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, better employment in a flax mill there having been offered him. There on April 5, 1857, he married Eliza McKennett and then determined to go into business for himself. He took over a small water mill in the Cuyahoga Falls neighborhood and was getting a good start when a few weeks later his mill was destroyed by fire. Not being able to rebuild, he took employment in a mill at Newton Falls, Ohio, where he remained for about two years, at the end of which time, in the fall of 1859, he moved to Minnesota with a view to getting a new start in a new country, his destination being Shakoppee, in Scott county. There was nothing there for him to do and, leaving his wife and baby at Shakoppee, he took boat and went down the river to Greenville, Miss., where he became engaged on a dredging operation. With the money saved out of his wages - $350 - he returned to Minnesota, bought a tract of eight acres of land and all the flax seed he could lay his hands on in the drug stores of St. Paul and Minneapolis and planted two acres to flax, said to have been the first field of flax raised in that state, which later became a leader in flax production. He also planted at Spring Lake, fifteen miles south of Shakoppee, a grove of walnut trees, the first trees of this variety in that region. By this time he was out of money again and he returned to Newton Falls, where he worked through the winter, earning enough to put up on his return to Minnesota in the spring a small horse-power scutching mill, set out twenty acres to flax, scutched the product of his first crop, matured his second crop and scutched it, with the result that he had a product ready for the market valued at something like $2,500. Before he could get this flax to market fire destroyed his warehouse and his dwelling, with contents, leaving him again stripped. In the next spring (April, 1865) his wife and one of the children, another child by this time having arrived in their home, died of typhoid fever. Through with Minnesota, he disposed of his little plot of ground and in June returned to Ohio, where at Alliance he secured an interest in a flax mill. Affairs prospered with him there and in the following winter he was able to secure control of the mill through purchase. Presently a better opportunity presented at Wooster and, selling his mill at Alliance, he bought into a mill at Wooster and before long owned all the plant. Two years later fire again interrupted his efforts, the mill being destroyed with its contents, and with no insurance. Dauntlessly he rebuilt the mill and resumed operations, continuing there until in the spring of 1870, when he sold the place at a profit. It was then that he came to Muncie, the date of his arrival here being July 4, 1870. His operations here were successful from the start, though he from time to time suffered other fire losses, particularly in the fall of 1876, and it was not long until he became recognized as one of the most successful manufacturers in his line in the country. During his residence in Muncie, he invented machinery for use in the flax industry - shipping many of these machines to his native country. Other industries also were started by him, as has been told; a handle factory, a shoe factory, a rivet mill, a basket factory and the like, and long before the gas boom came on he had become one of the largest employers of labor in eastern Indiana. In 1910, at the age of seventy-seven years, Mr. Boyce arranged his affairs so that he could retire from his general activities, and his death followed in September of that year. Reference has been made above to Mr. Boyce's individual activities during the days of the natural gas "boom." In 1892 he laid out and built his manufacturing and residence suburb, Boyceton, on the east side of the river and gave to the Maring-Hart Glass Company a tract of ground for factory purposes as well as his individual check for $10,000 as an inducement to have the plant locate there. It also is agreed that his was the largest personal influence operating to bring about the location at Muncie of the Ball Bros. Glass Manufacturing Company, whose plant has been developed into the greatest manufactory of glass jars in the world. Mr. Boyce's love of trees was a continuing passion with him and it is agreed that to the stimulus of his influence and to his personal example in setting out shade trees along the streets is due much of the present beauty of Muncie's attractive streets. Mr. Boyce's influence in the flax industry was widely acknowledged. During the time of his operation of the flax mill at Muncie, he invented certain mechanical devices for the improvement of operations in this industry that came into wide use in the trade, many of his machines being shipped to the older mills of his native land. James Boyce was thrice married and was the father of thirteen children. The death of his first wife has been noted above. On January 7, 1866, at Alliance, Ohio, he married Mrs. Elizabeth Shaffer, who died at Muncie on April 18, 1875. On July 10 of that same year he married Margaret Mohler, who survives him and who is now a resident of Los Angeles, Cal.

O. HOWARD PERSHING, veteran seed merchant at Muncie and the oldest representative of the seed business in point of continuous service in Delaware county, has been a resident of Muncie since 1880 and thus has been a witness to and a participant in the amazing development which has marked this community since that date. Mr. Pershing was born at Rochester, the county seat of Fulton county, Indiana, April 18, 1852, and is a son of David R. and Sarah M. (Sellers) Pershing, the latter of whom was born in Preble county, Ohio, a member of one of the pioneer families of that county. The late David R. Pershing was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and was a son of Daniel Pershing, who was born in that state and who spent all his life there. Daniel Pershing (Pfoerching) was a son of Frederick Pfoerching, an Alsatian emigrant of Huguenot stock, born in 1724, who came to the American colonies in 1749 and settled at Baltimore, where he married Elizabeth Myach, who was born in Germany in 1728 and who lived to be ninety-six years of age. In 1774 Frederick Pfoerching, whose children simplified the spelling of the family name to Pershing, moved from Baltimore to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and settled on a farm about fifty miles southeast of Pittsburgh, where he died four years later, and where his family is still represented. He and his wife were the parents of a considerable family, the descendants of which in the present generation are said to number about 7,000. This is the family from which descended Gen. John J. Pershing, general of the United States army and commander of the American Expeditionary Force in Europe during the time of this country's participation in the World war, and on September 8, 1923, on the old Pfoerching farm in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, there was dedicated a monument to the memory of the founder of this family in America, representatives of the family from all parts of the country being present. The Rev. Daniel Pershing, one of the sons of Frederick Pfoerching and grandfather of O. H. Pershing, was born in Maryland in 1764, and died in Pennsy]lvania in 1838. He married Christina Milliron, who was born in Pennsylvania, and had nine children, seven sons and four daughters. David R. Pershing, the fifth in order of birth of these children, was born in 1820 and as a young man came to Indiana and in Wabash county was married to Sarah M. Sellers. He afterward devoted himself to newspaper work and established the first newspaper published at Warsaw, this state, and also the first newspaper published at Rochester. Later and for some time he was editor of the Ft. Wayne Gazette and in 1875 came to Muncie and bought an interest with Brady and Mellette in the Muncie Times. When in 1878 the plant of that newspaper was destroyed by fire Mr. Pershing retired from the newspaper business and was thereafter engaged in mercantile business at Muncie, a dealer in seeds and provisions. He was a Republican and during the time of his residence at Rochester had served as auditor of Fulton county. His last days were spent in Muncie, his death occurring there in 1889, he then being sixty-nine years of age. His wife died at the age of sixty-six. Of the children born to them five grew to maturity and of these but two are now living, O. H. Pershing having a brother, Marvin W. Pershing, formerly and for many years the proprietor of the Tipton (Ind.) Advocate, now living at Indianapolis, where for some years past he has been connected with the automobile registration department of the secretary of state's office. O. Howard Pershing was nine years of age when his parents moved from Rochester to Whitley county and thence after a time to Warsaw, in Kosciusko county. He thus received his schooling amid varying conditions and circumstances, but became well grounded in the essentials, his father being his chief mentor along scholastic lines, and for some years as a young man was engaged in teaching school, meanwhile becoming acquainted with commercial forms through practical mercantile experience. In 1880 Mr. Pershing responded to his father's call to come to Muncie and take charge of the grocery and seed store the latter had established there and he ever since has thus been engaged in the seed business, proprietor of the store since his father's death many years ago. It was in 1875 that O. Howard Pershing was united in marriage to Eva L. Lord, of the state of Wisconsin, and to this union three children were born, namely: Minnie C., wife of Charles W. Beecher, a banker, of Peru, Ind.; Ernest Howard Pershing, of Logansport, Ind., and Addie B., wife of Harry Heavenridge, of Muncie. Mr. and Mrs. Pershing are Republicans and are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Pershing is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias.

GEORGE E. DUNGAN, secretary of the Muncie Savings and Loan Company and former recorder of Delaware county, is a native son of this county, a member of a pioneer family, and has lived here all his life. Mr. Dungan was born in Muncie on July 5, 1850, and is a son of John W. and Edith (Dragoo) Dungan, the latter of whom was but a child when she came here with her parents from Virginia back in the middle '30s of the past century, the Dragoos having been among the pioneers in this county. She was born in Preston county, Virginia (now West Virginia), and was a daughter of William and

Elizabeth (Prunty) Dragoo, both of whom were members of Colonial families in Virginia. The late John W. Dungan, a former sheriff of Delaware county, was born in Fayette county, Indiana, June 2, 1824, and was a son of Benjamin and Margaret (Mitchell) Dungan, the former of whom was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, the son of John Dungan, who had come to this country from Ireland. Benjamin Dungan was married in Butler county, Ohio, and later became a pioneer farmer in Fayette county, this state, where he and his wife reared their family and spent the remainder of their lives, her death occurring in 1836 and his in 1855. They were the parents of ten children and thus the Dungan connection, of this family, in this generation is a considerable one. In 1842, when eighteen years of age, John W. Dungan left the home farm in Fayette county and came up here to the village which then was known as Muncietown. He got a job here in the pioneer smithy of Thomas 8. Neely and after acquiring the trade opened a blacksmith shop of his own, locating the same on the corner now occupied by the Anthony building at Walnut and Jackson streets. In 1859 he was elected sheriff of Delaware county and was thus serving in that office when the Civil war broke out. Upon the expiration of this term of service he enlisted his services for army duty and thus served until his discharge at Indianapolis in May, 1865, the war then being over. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Dungan returned to Muncie and resumed his trade as a blacksmith and was thus engaged until in 1869, when he sold out and became engaged in selling agricultural implements and three years later became employed in the hardware store of Putnam & Kirby at Muncie. In 1877 he was again elected sheriff and served another four-year term in that office, meantime buying a farm just south of town. Upon leaving the sheriff's office he moved to this farm and there made his home until his retirement and return to the city, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1903. From the time of the organization of that party Mr. Dungan had been a working Republican and in addition to his service in the sheriff's office had rendered public service in other capacities, including three terms as assessor of Center township and service as street commissioner in the days when Muncie was just beginning to give some effective attention to the making of its streets. It was on October 18, 1848, in Muncie, that John W. Dungan was united in marriage to Edith Dragoo. To that union were born nine children, five of whom are still living, the subject of this sketch having two sisters, Caroline, who married William Weeks, and Jessie F., who married George Carmichael, and two brothers, Leonidas and Harry F. Dungan. Reared at Muncie, George E. Dungan received his schooling in the schools of that city and then went to Hartford City, where he served an apprenticeship to the harness-making trade, afterward returning to Muncie and here becoming engaged in the harness business. Four years later he became employed as a clerk in the Thomas H. Kirby grocery store and was thus engaged for four years, at the end of which time he bought that store and for six years thereafter was engaged in the grocery business on his own account. In the meantime he had been giving proper attention to local political affairs and in 1898 was elected county recorder. By re-election he served for eight years in that office and later, for three years, as president of the city board of works. In the meantime, almost twenty years ago, Mr. Dungan had become a member of the directorate of the Muncie Savings and Loan Company and in 1918 he was elected secretary of this institution, which position he since has occupied, with offices at the southeast corner of Adams and High streets. Mr. Dungan is a Republican, a York Rite Mason and a member of the local camp of the Sons of Veterans. George E. Dungan married Ida Kelly, daughter of Johial Kelly, of Muncie, and to this union five children have been born, namely: LaRue, who married Fred Jewett and has three children, Martha, George and Sarah; Arthur H., who married Pearl Davenport and has one child, LaRue; Ernest, who married and has three children, Elizabeth, John Ernest and Sarah Olive; Eva, who married J. C. Mansfield, and Ralph, who married Irene Sweet and has one child, a son, Ralph, Jr.

FRANK CLAYTON BALL, president of Ball Brothers Company, Muncie, was born in the village of Greensburg, Trumbull county, Ohio, November 24, 1857, and is a son of Lucius Stiles Ball and Maria P. (Bingham) Ball, who were the parents of eight children, six sons - Lucius L., William C., Edmund B., Frank C., George A., and Clinton H., and two daughters - Lucina A. and Frances May. An account of Mr. Ball's ancestry, early life and business career will be found in the biography of his brother, Edmund Burke Ball, presented elsewhere in this work. These two brothers are of nearly the same age and it is impossible to separate their activities from earliest childhood to the present day. Frank C. Ball and his four brothers have been very closely associated in all their many interests, outside of as well as in their business. They have taken an active interest in public affairs. They have contributed more than one million dollars to public institutions. Among some of the more important are - the Indiana State Normal School (Ball Teacher's College), the Young Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's Christian Association, Muncie City Hospital, Masonic Temple and Auditorium, Riley Hospital, Hillsdale College and Keuka College. Frank C. Ball, in addition to being president of Ball Brothers Company, is president of the Muncie Young Men's Christian Association, of the Muncie & Portland Traction Company and of the Muncie & Western Railroad Company; a director of the Federal Reserve Bank, Chicago; the Indiana State Normal School; Keuka College, New York; the Methodist Hospital, Indianapolis, and the Warner Gear Company, Muncie; is a Knight Templar Scottish Rite Mason, and a member of the Universalist church. In 1898, at Muncie, Frank Clayton Ball was united in marriage to Elizabeth Wolfe Brady and to this union five children have been born, three daughters - Lucy, Margaret and Rosemary, and two sons - Edmund Arthur and Frank Elliott. Edmund Arthur Ball, a veteran of the World war and present (1924) commander of the Indiana Division of the American Legion and advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel, who is associated with the operations of the Ball Brothers Company in an executive capacity and concerning whom further mention is made elsewhere in this work, married Frances Davies and has two children, Arthur Brady and Barbara. Margaret Ball married Fred Petty and is now living in St. Louis. Mrs. Elizabeth Brady Ball was born at Muncie and is a daughter of Thomas J. and Emeline (Wolfe) Brady, the latter of whom was a daughter of Adam and Elizabeth (Elliott) Wolfe, who in their generation were large factors in the social and commercial development of the Muncie community. Adam Wolfe, who died in the spring of 1892, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1807, and was a son of John and Catherine (Devore) Wolfe, who in 1809 moved with their family to Ohio and settled in Coshocton county. He early became engaged in the mercantile business in Ohio, later extended his interests into Indiana and in 1855 located at Muncie, where he became successfully engaged in banking and merchandising. He and his wife were the parents of seven children. Thomas J. Brady, father of Mrs. Ball, was in his generation one of the best known men in Indiana. He was a son of John Brady, first mayor of the city of Muncie and concerning whom full and fitting mention is made elsewhere in this work, and was from the days of his boyhood an active factor in Muncie's affairs. Born in 1840, he had just come into his majority when the Civil war broke out. He at once enlisted his services in behalf of the cause of the Union and went out as captain of the first company of soldiers re- cruited in Muncie. In 1863 he was given a colonel's commission and continued his service until mustered out in July, 1865, the war then being over, and he was retired with the brevet rank of brigadier general. General Brady later became engaged in newspaper work at Muncie, and later was appointed assistant postmaster general under President Hayes and his last days were spent in the East. To him and his wife were born three children, Mrs. Ball, Arthur W. Brady, president of the Indiana Union Traction Company, and Mrs. John Otis Adams. Mr. Adams is one of the leading artists in the middle West. Mrs. Adams is also an artist of note and excels in painting still life.

WILFRED W. WINGATE, a veteran of the World war and president and general manager of the National Clay Products and Silo Company of Muncie, was born on a farm adjacent to the village of Albany, in Delaware township, this county, October 15, 1887, and is a son of Thomas M. and Sarah E. (Albright) Wingate, both of whom also are natives of Indiana and who are now living at Albany. Thomas M. Wingate is a son of James W. Wingate, former farmer and banker at Albany, who came to Indiana from Maryland in the days of his young manhood and who after his marriage settled on a farm in the immediate vicinity of Albany, in this county, where he reared a family of nine or ten children, the Wingate connection in the present generation thus being a considerable one. When "boom" times came on at Albany thirty years ago James W. Wingate became engaged in banking there and was president of the bank when he died at the age of eighty-seven. Reared on the home farm in the vicinity of Albany, Wilfred W. Wingate received his schooling in the schools of that village and at Valparaiso University, and as a young man became engaged as assistant cashier in the Albany State Bank, a position he occupied for about two years, at the end of which time he became interested in the clay products line, taking employment in a factory engaged in that line and was thus employed for five years or until his entrance into army service in the summer of 1918. It was in August of that year that Mr. Wingate enlisted his services in the Engineer Corps of the United States Army and was assigned to duty at Washington Barracks, Washington, D. C., where he presently was advanced to the rank of regimental sergeant major and where he continued in service until his discharge in May, 1919, the war then being over. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Wingate returned home and in 1920, effected the organization and incorporation of the National Clay Products and Silo Company, with plants at Brazil and Monroe, Ind., and offices at Muncie, the offices of the company being located in the Neely block. This company was organized for the purpose of manufacturing clay products, hollow building tile and silos a specialty, and has developed an extensive business, its area of distribution including not only Indiana but IIlinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Missouri, western New York and Michigan. Mr. Wingate is president and general manager of this company, C. L. Frick is vice president, C. M. Turner second vice president, F. C. Pittenger secretary-treasurer, and C. C. Wingate assistant secretarytreasurer, these and O. R. Strong constituting the stockholders. Mr. Wingate is a member of the American Legion, is a 32-degree (Scottish Rite) Mason and a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

FREDERICK B. TRACY, treasurer and manager of the Delaware Division of the Central Indiana Gas Company, with offices at Muncie, has been a resident of that city since August, 1911, when he was transferred from the office of the gas company at Little Rock, Ark., which is operated by the same interests as the Central Indiana Gas Company. Mr. Tracy was born in Elmwood, IIl., moving in early life to Peoria, IIl., where he received his schooling. He early became employed in office work, and in 1907 he became connected with the Dawes Bros. interests at Little Rock, and was serving as auditor in the gas office in that city in 1911, at which time he was transferred to the Muncie office of these same interests, operating under the name of the Central Indiana Gas Company. This company as noted elsewhere in this work, is engaged in the manufacture and distribution of gas in Muncie as well as in a number of cities and towns surrounding Muncie. Among the cities supplied with gas by this company beside Muncie, Riverside and Normal City are Anderson, Elwood, Marion, Alexandria, Fairmount and Hartford City. Mr. Tracy enj oys a wide acquaintance in public utility circles, and is a past president of the Indiana Gas Association. He is a Rotarian, Knight Templar (York Rite) Mason and Elk and has been treasurer of the Delaware Country Club for several years. In 1914 at Chicago, IIl., Frederick B. Tracy was united in marriage to Elizabeth F. Force, daughter of Merton H. and Elizabeth B. Force, of that city, and to this union two children have been born, a son, Frederick B. Tracy III, and a daughter, Elizabeth F. Mr. and Mrs. Tracy are members of Grace Episcopal church and Mr. Tracy is a member of the vestry and treasurer of that parish.

CHARLES HENRY CHURCH, cashier of the Delaware County National Bank of Muncie, treasurer of the Muncie Loan and Savings Company, a charter member and former president of the Indiana Bankers Association and long recognized as the dean of the bankers of Delaware county, the oldest continuing banker in the county, is a native of the old Empire state but has been a resident of Indiana and of Muncie for nearly forty years and has never had cause to regret the choice which brought him over here from Ohio back in the days when the discovery of natural gas here opened up a new field for development in this region. Mr. Church was born in the hamlet of Church Hollow, in Chenango county, New York, May 7, 18389, and was but three years of age when his mother died. His father, William Church, was a merchant and the postmaster of Church Hollow, served for some time as sheriff of Chenango county and also represented that district in the New York state legislature. His last days were spent in Orange county, New York. Reared in his home village, Charles H. Church completed his schooling in the academy there and early becatne identified with his father's mercantile enterprises. He was married in 1868 and three or four years later, in 1872, made his home at New London, Ohio, where he became engaged in merchandising and in the grain business, operating not only a general store but two grain elevators. He also in that year promoted the organization of the First National Bank of New London and was elected vice president and manager of the bank. For fifteen years Mr. Church continued in business at New London and then, early in 1887, attracted by the promising possibilities attending the opening of the natural gas field here about that time, he disposed of his interests at that place and moved to Muncie, where he aided in the organization of the Delaware County Bank and was elected cashier of that institution. Five years later when this bank was nationalized under the name of the Delaware County National Bank, Mr. Church was retained as cashier and by successive re-elections has continued to occupy that responsible position, his service in this connection thus covering a period of thirty-seven years. The old Delaware County Bank, a state bank capitalized at $50,000, received its charter on April 14, 1887, and two days later, April 16, opened for business in the room in the Willard block, northeast corner of Walnut and Main street, which it ever since has occupied. At the end of five years this bank's deposits aggregated a quarter of a million dollars and it then applied for a national bank charter, which it received in November, 1898, the charter number being 4809. Under this reorganization the bank increased its capital stock to $100,000, which later was increased to $300,000, the present capitalization of the bank, which now has resources aggregating right around $5,000,000. Mr. Church. also was an active factor in the organization in 1889 of the Muncie Savings and Loan Company, one of the original directors of that concern, and was elected treasurer of the company upon its organization, a position he ever since has occupied. This concern has built more than 5,000 homes in Muncie and Delaware county and now has deposits of more than $1,500,000. When the movement to organize the Indiana Bankers Association had its inception in 1897 Mr. Church was one of the forceful factors in that organization and was the secretary of the initial meeting of the bankers held at Indianapolis in that year. He also was made a member of the committee on constitution and by-laws of the association and the constitution which he thus helped to frame is still in force with few amendments. In 1902 Mr. Church was elected president of the Indiana Bankers Association. In other ways he has been serviceable in this association which started out with a membership of forty and now has a membership of more than 1,000. When Mr. Church arrived in Muncie in the spring of 1887 the town had a population of around 8,000, as against its present population of around 40,000, and it is freely acknowledged that in this development he has been one of the most potent personal factors. Mr. Church cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and has ever been a consistent Republican. While still living in New York he became a charter member of the Masonic lodge organized in his home town and served the lodge as one of its first masters. Upon moving to New London he helped to organize a lodge of Freemasons there and was first master of the same. His interest in Masonry has been maintained during the long period of his residence in Muncie and for more than twenty years he has been treasurer of the local commandery, Knights Templar. For six consecutive years he also served as priest of the local chapter, Royal Arch Masons. In December, 1868, Charles H. Church was united in marriage to Louisa J. Tyler, who was born and reared at Norwalk, Ohio, daughter of Henry P. and Ann Tyler, and their golden wedding anniversary thus was celebrated in 1918. Mr. and Mrs. Church have two sons, William H. Church, who is engaged in the wholesale grocery business at Peru, Ind., and Ernest D. Church, who is engaged in the wholesale lumber and paint business at Denver, Colo. Though still physically hale and hearty and mentally as alert as ever, daily active in the banking business, Mr. Church realizes that he is now living on "borrowed time," if one considers the traditional three-score years and ten as the allotted span of life. On May 7 of the current year (1924) he entered upon the eighty-sixth year of his life and the occasion was made one of many congratulatory and complimentary messages from friends in all walks of life.

CHARLES H. ELLIS, treasurer of the Citizens Finance Association of Muncie and a former banker of that city, now engaged in the flour and feed business there, was born in Muncie and has lived there the greater part of his life, active in civic and commercial affairs since the days of his boyhood. Mr. Ellis was born on May 31, 1879, and is a son of John §S. and Sina E. (Rickard) Ellis, the latter of whom also was born in this county, April 20, 1842, a member of one of the pioneer families here. The late John Seymour Ellis, for many years one of the best known figures in the public life of Delaware county, was born in Knox county, Ohio, August 15, 1839, and was a son of Robert and Casander (Schweckard) Ellis, the latter of whom was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, in 1810, a daughter of John Schweckard. Robert Ellis was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, October 11, 1796, a son of William and Eleanor Ellis, the former of whom, a native of Montgomeryshire, Wales, was a soldier in the Continental army during the time of the Revolutionary war. Robert Ellis and Casander Schweckard were married in Licking county, Ohio, and later became residents of Knox county, that state, where they made their home, Robert Ellis following his vocation as a stone mason, until in 1849, when they moved with their family over into Indiana and established their home on a farm in Hamilton township, this county, where they spent the remainder of their lives, Robert Ellis's death occurring in December, 1864, and that of his widow in the year following, and both are buried in Beech Grove cemetery. John Seymour Ellis was ten years of age when he came to Delaware county with his parents in 1849 and he grew to manhood on the home farm in Hamilton township. He taught school for two terms, spending his vacations working as a carpenter, and then went West and was for a time employed on a big cattle ranch in Iowa. When twenty-one years of age he married and for three or four years thereafter was engaged in farming and carpentering, living just south of Muncie. He then moved into town and became employed in clerical work, for which his tastes inclined him, clerking in stores and also was for some time "on the road" as a commercial traveler. During the incumbency of John Hiler as postmaster of Muncie (1875-83) Mr. Ellis served as deputy postmaster and it was during this time that he developed his taste for newspaper writing, which later occupied so much of his time, his first work being in Hiler's newspaper office. Upon leaving the postoffice he moved with his family to Columbus, Ohio, and it was during his residence in that city and his later residence in Detroit that he developed his fine specialty for public park improvement, attaining in those cities a record of important service along that line and also in the development of the great Palmer Park. Mr. Ellis was away from Muncie for more than fifteen years and upon his return here did much to promote the development of Muncie's park system. He resumed his former commercial activities upon his return here, worked for a while in the store of the Keller company and in the McNaughton department store and also kept up his newspaper writing, and it was in 1898 that he published his informative and illuminating little volume, "Our County; Its History and Early Development by Townships," a labor of love which is coming to be appreciated in the community more and more as the years pass. Mr. Ellis was elected justice of the peace about that time and rendered four years of service in that office. In 1902 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners and by re-election served for four years in that important office, during which time he was elected vice president of the Indiana State Association of County Commissioners. Mr. Ellis's writings were not confined to the plain prose of newspaper expression but were carried out in the more graceful forms of poetry, much of which remains in enduring form, one of his works along this line being his "Songs of St. Matthew," a metrical paraphrase of the gospel of Matthew. He was a member of the Association of Western Writers and also was for years an active figure in the meetings of the Indiana State Editorial Association. His incidental newspaper work was kept up almost to the time of his death, which occurred at Muncie on July 5, 1912. John S. Ellis was twice married. On August 28, 1860, he was united in marriage to Sina E. Rickard, of this county, who died at Detroit, Mich., July 3, 1895, leaving two sons, the subject of this sketch and his brother, Fred M. Ellis, the latter of whom was born at Indianapolis on August 3, 1870. On December 17, 1896, John S. Ellis married Mrs. Millie (Barnes) Sanders, daughter of William Barnes, one of the pioneers of Muncietown, and widow of John F. Sanders, a Muncie lawyer. Charles H. Ellis was but a child when his parents left Muncie in the '80s and his schooling was received in the schools of Columbus, Ohio, and Detroit, Mich. When he returned with his father to Muncie in 1898, he then being nineteen years of age, he began clerking in the C. P. Franklin grocery store. Not long afterward, however, he transferred his services to the F. W. Heath real estate agency and a year later began a period of service for the Keller-Bryce company, as clerk and collector. Two years later when the Delaware County Merchants Association and Credit Bureau was organized Mr. Ellis was elected secretary of that organization. Two years later, in 1904, he helped to organize the Peoples National Bank of Muncie and was elected first cashier of that institution. When four years later it was reorganized as the Peoples Trust Company he was elected vice president of this latter institution, and in this capacity he continued in the banking business until his resignation in 1916 to take up the business in which he is now engaged, proprietor of the flour, feed and seed store at 109 West Howard street. In 1917 Mr. Ellis helped organize the Citizens Finance Association of Muncie and has served as treasurer of that organization since the beginning. He is a Freemason into the cryptic degree (council), is a past worshipful master of Delaware lodge (No. 46) of that order and is present treasurer of the lodge. He is a Republican, as were his father and grandfather, and is a member of the First Presbyterian church. In 1906 Charles H. Ellis married Edith B. Blair, daughter of William A. Blair, and to that union were born two children, Robert and Dorothy. Mrs. Ellis died on March 138, 1923. The family home is at 719 East Charles street.

D. O. SKILLEN, general manager of the plant of the Muncie Products Company of Muncie, vice president of the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce and in other ways actively identified with the commercial and industrial life of the community, is a native of the old Buckeye state, but has been a resident of Indiana and of Delaware county for thirty years. Mr. Skillen was born at Sidney, Ohio, February 12, 1866, and is a son of William and Caroline (Rice) Skillen, both of whom were born in that same community, in Shelby county, Ohio. Capt. William Skillen, a veteran of the Civil war, was formerly and for years engaged in business at Sidney as a pension attorney. He rendered service as a soldier of the Union during the Civil war, going out with the 20th Ohio (Infantry), later to a heavy artillery regiment, and served for four years, gradually gaining promotion in the field from the rank of a private to that of a captain. At the battle of Millikin Bend he was wounded so severely as to physically handicap him the rest of his life. D. O. Skillen finished his schooling in the Sidney high school and then started out as a traveling salesman, at first covering an extensive route in the West and later being given territory covering Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana, and was thus engaged until in 1894 when he located at Yorktown, in this county, and there became engaged in the manufacture of glass fruit jars and bottles and was thus engaged there for years, or until the glass factory was destroyed by fire in 1918. In the meantime, in 1909, Mr. Skillen had become associated with H. L. Warner in the manufacture of automobile parts at Muncie, and thus became identified with the Warner interests, serving as secretary-treasurer and as vice-president of the company. In 1916 he was made treasurer of the T. W. Warner Company and was thus connected when that concern was sold to the General Motors Corporation in 1919. Upon this transfer Mr. Skillen became comptroller of the Muncie Division of the General Motors Corporation, and in 1921 was made general manager of this concern, operating as the Muncie Products Company, and has since been serving in that capacity. Mr. Skillen also is vice president of the Muncie Gear Works and is interested in the local real estate business, secretary of the Skillen-Moore-Sample Company, realtors at Muncie. The Muncie Products Company now employes better than 2,500 persons and its operations are continually expanding. This concern manufactures some part or another of all the automobiles which form the product of the great General Motors Corporation. Mr. Skillen is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and is a 82° (Scottish Rite) Mason. He is vice president of the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce, is affiliated with the local Rotary Club and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Skillen, who was Effie Goodin, was born at Osgood, Ind., and is a daughter of Daniel A. and Dora (Wood) Goodin. Mr. and Mrs. Skillen reside on their farm west of Muncie.

OBED KILGORE, attorney at law and dealer in real estate at Muncie and chairman of the Delaware county Democratic central committee, was born at Anderson, Ind., in October, 1876, and is a son of Capt. David and Olive (Saunders) Kilgore, both members of pioneer families in this section of Indiana. The late Capt. David Kilgore was born on the old Kilgore home farm in Mt. Pleasant township, this county, and was a son of the Hon. David Kilgore, judge, congressman, banker, community builder and lawyer, concerning' whom much is said elsewhere in this work and who was one of the most influential men of his generation in this section of Indiana. Judge Kilgore was a Kentuckian by birth, born in Harrison county in the old Blue Grass state, April 3, 1804, a son of Obed and Rebecca

(Cusic) Kilgore, Pennsylvanians, who in 1819 came with their family into Indiana and settled in Franklin county, where Obed Kilgore died at the age of eighty-two years. Judge Kilgore "got his law" under the preceptorship of James B. Ray and John T. McKinney at Brookville and in 1830 came to Delaware county and entered a tract of land in Mt. Pleasant township. In the next year he married Mary G. VanMatre, daughter of Absalom VanMatre, one of the real pioneers of this county, and established his home on the tract he had entered from the government, and this he made his permanent residence. He straightway made his impress upon the pioneer community and in 1832 was sent to the Legislature from this district. In 1836 he was elected speaker of the House. In 1839 he was elected judge of the extensive circuit then constituting this judicial district. In 1850 he was elected delegate from this district to the state constitutional convention, was later elected to Congress, thus serving during the Buchanan administration, and in other ways rendered service in the public behalf which impressed his name indelibly upon the records of Indiana. Of the six sons born to David and Mary (VanMatre) Kilgore, four served as soldiers of the Union during the Civil war, with officer's commissions. Alfred Kilgore was a captain in the 36th Indiana, Dr. Tecumseh Kilgore was surgeon of the 13th Indiana, David Kilgore was a captain in the 19th Indiana and James Kilgore was a lieutenant in that same command. Capt. David Kilgore, fifth son of Judge David Kilgore, became a lawyer and after his marriage established his home at Anderson, county seat of the neighboring county of Madison, where he remained until his retirement from practice when he returned to the old home farm in this county and here spent his last days, his death occuring in 1916. Of the five children born to him and his wife, three are still living, the subject of this sketch having a sister, Mary Arlena, and a brother, Dr. Byron Kilgore, of Indianapolis. Reared at Anderson, Obed Kilgore was graduated from the high school there in 1897. He then entered Indiana University and after something more than three years of study there entered the Central Indiana Normal School at Danville and from this latter institution was graduated in 1902. Meanwhile he had been admitted to practice at the bar of the Madison circuit court and upon completing his college work located at Anderson, where he was engaged in law practice until his removal in 1918 to Muncie, where he since has been located, with offices at 257 the Johnson block in South Walnut street. Mr. Kilgore is a Democrat and is now serving as chairman of the Delaware county Democratic cen- tral committee. He is a Freemason, a past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a past chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias, and is also a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. In 1906 Obed Kilgore was united in marriage to Harriet M. Rummel, daughter of Benjamin Rummel, of Madison county. Mr. and Mrs. Kilgore reside at 701 University avenue. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

H. O. LANNING, principal of the Longfellow school at Muncie, has been active in school work since the days of his boyhood and thus has become a definite figure in local educational circles. Mr. Lanning was born in the village of Millgrove, in the neighboring county of Blackford, October 21, 1882, and is a son of William Jackson and Mary (Thorpe) Lanning, the latter of whom was born in Noble county, this state. William Jackson Lanning was born in Blackford county, a son of Robert Lanning, one of the pioneers of that county, who had settled there upon coming into Indiana from New Jersey, and he grew up in that county. After his marriage he became engaged in the mercantile business at Millgrove and was there located for years or until his removal to Sweetser, in the neighboring county of Grant, where he is now engaged in business, proprietor of a general store. For thirty years William Jackson Lanning was a school teacher in Blackford county. To him and his wife were born four sons, the subject of this sketch having three brothers, Karl, Hugh and Paul Lanning. Reared at Millgrove, H. O. Lanning completed the course in the high school there and in 1902 began teaching school, his first work in this line being in a district school in Jackson township in his home county. For five years Mr. Lanning continued teaching in the schools of Blackford county, meanwhile pursuing his studies in normal work, during the summers, and then spent two years in the normal school, graduating in 1909, after which he became a teacher in the high school at Rensselaer, Ind. In the following year he became principal of the consolidated school at Sweetser and was thus engaged for six years, or until in 1916, when he was given charge of the schools at Gaston, in this county, where he remained for three years, or until in 1919, when he was selected as principal of the Longfellow school at Muncie and has since been occupying that position. There are ten or twelve teachers connected with the staff of the Longfellow school and more than 350 pupils enrolled. Mr. Lanning is a Freemason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1914 H. O. Lanning was united in marriage to Edith Cranor, daughter of William McClellan Cranor, of Wayne county, Indiana, and to this union two children have been born, Frank Cranor and Mary Florence. Mr. and Mrs. Lanning are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. They reside at 401 Almeda avenue.

DR. G. W. H. KEMPER, dean of the medical profession at Muncie and a resident of that city for nearly seventy years, now living practically retired, spending much of his time in California, has been a voluminous writer on medical topics, is the historian of the Indiana State Medical Association and is emeritus professor of the History of Medicine in Indiana University. Doctor Kemper is a veteran of the Civil war with a record of more than three years of service in the army (7th and 17th regiments, Indiana Volunteer Infantry), is a past commander of Williams Post, No. 78, Grand Army of the Republic, at Muncie, and is a member of the Indiana Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. In a recent (December, 1923) article in the Indiana Magazine of History, writing under the head "My Childhood and Youth in the Early Days of Indiana," Doctor Kemper has made a valuable contribution to Indiana historical collections, preserving there much of interesting and informative detail, from personal recollection, of conditions in central Indiana during the '40s and '50s of the past century. In 1907 he rendered a valuable local service by acting as editorial sponsor for the publication of the Lewis Publishing Company's "Twentieth Century History of Delaware County," compiled by various local authorities, his special contribution in that behalf having been an authoritative chapter on the medical profession in this county. In the period 1879- 85 Doctor Kemper served as treasurer of the Indiana State Medical Association and in 1887 was president of that association. He for years has been a lecturer on the history of medicine before classes of medical students and has written much along that line, these writings including more than fifty articles on medical topics for medical journals and medical societies. His first book (1897) was on the subject of "Uses of Suffering." This was followed in 1905 by "World's Anatomists" and in 1911 by "A Medical History of Indiana." Doctor Kemper was born in Richland township, in Rush county, Indiana, December 16, 1839, tenth in order of birth of a family of eleven children (four sons and seven daughters) born to Arthur S. and Patience (Bryant) Kemper, the latter of whom was born in Garrard county, Kentucky, in 1802, a daughter of John Bryant, a soldier of the Reve- lutionary war. Arthur S. Kemper also was born in Garrard county, Kentucky, in 1794, of Virginia parentage, and after his marriage made his home there until in 1834, when he came with his family up into Indiana and established his home in Rush county. In his recent autobiography above referred to, Doctor Kemper makes note that "my father was an ardent Whig and named me for General William Harrison. The nickname 'Tip' clung to me nearly as long as it did to the distinguished President." When he was seventeen years of age Doctor Kemper went West and at Montezuma, Iowa, learned the printer's trade. Three years later, in 1859, he returned to Indiana and began the study of medicine under local preceptorship at Greensburg. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted his services on the first call and went out with Company B of the 7th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers in the first month of the war. Upon the completion of that term of service he re-enlisted (September 25, 1861) and was appointed hospital steward in the 17th regiment (Indiana). On February 20, 1863, he was promoted to assistant surgeon of that regiment and thus served until the expiration of his term of service, July 27, 1864. He afterward carried on his medical studies in the University of Michigan and in Long Island Hospital, Brooklyn, and in June, 1865, was graduated from the latter institution. In the following August he opened an office for the practice of medicine at Muncie. In that same month he married and established his home here. He thus has been an influential factor in the life of this community for almost sixty years and no name in Delaware county is more widely known than his. The Doctor's wife (Harriet Kemper) died in the year before they would have celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Of the four children born to them, three are still living, a daughter, Mrs. Georgette K. Smith, and two sons, Dr. Arthur T. Kemper and Dr. William W. Kemper. In closing the autobiography above referred to as having appeared in a recent number of the Indiana Magazine of History, Doctor Kemper arrives at the conclusion that "my life has been one of industry, toil and activity; sometimes I have met with hardships and occasional privation, and yet my journey has mostly been through a sunny land. Surely goodness and mercy have ever been near me. The snows of eighty-four winters have whitened my locks, but my physical frame is fairly good considering my age."

THOMAS JOHN BREITWIESER, A. M., dean of the faculty and head of the department of psychology of the Eastern Division of the Indiana State Normal School at Muncie and a veteran of the World war, with an officer's commission, is a native son of Indiana and has been engaged in educational work in this state for nearly twenty years. Mr. Breitwieser was born on a farm in the vicinity of Jasper, in Dubois county, Indiana, September 19, 1886, and is a son of John C. and Katherine (Bates) Breitwieser, both of whom were born in that same county and who moved from there with their family to Tipton county in 1890, locating on a farm three and onehalf miles west of Tipton. Thomas J. Breitwieser was thus four years of age when he became a resident of Tipton county, and his early schooling was received in the rural schools of that county. In 1905 he began teaching school and in 1908 received his B. 8S. degree from the Central Normal College at Danville, Ind. In 1912 he received his A. B. degree from the University of Indiana and in the next year from that same institution he received his degree of Master of Arts. This schooling was supplemented by a year and a half of post-graduate work in Columbia University. with special reference to the study of psychology. In 1908, Mr. Breitwieser was made the principal of the high school at Hobbs, in his home county, a position he occupied for two years, at the end of which time he entered the university. In 1914 he was made an assistant professor in psychology at the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute and was thus rendering service there when this country took a hand in the World war. In December, 1917, he entered the service of the army and was sent to Ft. McPherson, Atlanta, Ga., where in the following April he received a commission as a first lieutenant in the Sanitary Corps and was assigned to duty as a psychologist. From Ft. McPherson he was transferred to Ft. Oglethorpe at Chattanooga, Tenn., and two months later was transferred to Camp Shelby at Hattiesburg, Miss. In the following July he was sent to Camp Pike, Little Rock, Ark., and in December following was made chief educational officer, in charge of reconstruction work there, the war then being ended. In March, 1919, he received his discharge and returned to his former duties at the normal school at Terre Haute, from which institution in the following July he was transferred to the Eastern Division of the State Normal School at Muncie, as head of the department of psychology of this latter institution, and has since been thus engaged, since January 1, 1920, dean of the school. Mr. Breitwieser is a member of the local post of the American Legion, a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Muncie Exchange Club and is affiliated with the honorary educational college fraternity, Phi Delta Kappa, organized at Indiana University in 1906. In 1916, at East Stroudsburg, Pa., Mr. Breitwieser was united in marriage to Anita VanVliet and to this union one child has been born, a daughter, Edna Ruth.

JOHN FRAZER WARNER has been a resident of Muncie for more than twenty years and during that time has created for himself a very distinct position in the industrial life of the city. Mr. Warner was born at Shelbyville, Tenn., March 24, 1869, and is a son of Thomas William and Emma (Trail) Warner, both of whom also were born in Tennessee, members of pioneer families in that state. Thomas William Warner was for many years engaged in the mercantile business at Shelbyville, Tenn., proprietor of a general store there. John Frazer Warner received his schooling in the schools of his home town and when sixteen years of age, in 1885, went to Texas and was for six years there, most of this time being spent on the great Goodnight ranch. From there he went to Birmingham, Ala., where he became employed as the engineer of the electric light plant, but not long afterward returned to Tennessee and was variously employed there until in 1896 when he became connected with the operations of a bicycle factory in Cincinnati and later in the same line of work in Hamilton and was thus employed for two years or until his marriage in the fall of 1898, when he returned to Tennessee. In May, 1902, Mr. Warner came to Muncie, where in 1897 his brother, Thomas W. Warner, had become engaged in the manufacture of electrical] specialties, and started a machine shop here. Ever since then Mr. Warner has been actively identified with the industrial and manufacturing interests of Muncie. Following the sale in 1919 of the T. W. Warner Company, manufacturers of automobile parts, to the Muncie Products Division of the General Motors Corporation, the present Warner Corporation was organized for the manufacture of automotive transmissions and steering gears, and in this organization John F. Warner was made second vice president, his brother, T. W. Warner, being president of the company, and he was actively connected with the operations of the big plant of the Warner Corporation at Batavia street and the Big Four tracks until in 1922. He continued his official connection with this concern, as vice president, until it was sold in September, 1923, to the Durant Motors Corporation. Mr. Warner is a Republican and is affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On November 9, 1898, in Tennessee, John F. Warner was united in marriage to Martha Ann Yancy, who also was born in that state, April 6, 1871, and to this union two children have been born, a daughter, Ruth, and a son, Raymond Warner. Ruth Warner married Ralph Tyler, of Exeter, N. H., and is now living with her parents in Muncie. She has three children, Lois, Ralph and John Warner Tyler. The Warners reside at 1815 North Walnut street.

FRANK JAY CLAYPOOL, secretary-manager of the Delaware County Agricultural and Mechanical Society, secretary of the Eastern Indiana Live Stock Breeders' Association, formerly and for years secretary of the old Muncie Commercial Club, a long established realtor in the city of Muncie and in other ways prominently identified with local affairs, has been a resident of Delaware county for nearly forty-five years and during this period has impressed himself definitely upon the community of which he became a part in the days of his young manhood, this impress being particularly manifest on that phase of community evolution relating to agricultural development. Mr. Claypool was born in the picturesque and interesting old village of Germantown, now existing mainly as a memory of the older days, in Wayne county, Indiana, September 13, 1859, and is a son of Austin B. and Hannah Ann (Petty) Claypool, both members of pioneer families in that section of Indiana, the latter a daughter of William and Elizabeth (John) Petty. Austin Bingley Claypool was born at Connersville, Ind., December 1, 1823, and was a son of Newton and Mary (Kern) Claypool, the latter of whom was born in the valley of the Scioto in what is now Ross county, Ohio, February 8, 1798, in territorial days, five years and more before Ohio was admitted to statehood. There is a tradition that she was the first white child born in that section of the Scioto valley. Newton Claypool, whose influence in the development of the Connersville neighborhood is recognized to this day, was a Virginian, born in 1795, a son of Abraham and Elizabeth (Wilson) Claypool, both of colonial stock. In his youth he became acquainted with the Ohio country and then, in 1816, the year in which Indiana was admitted to statehood, he and his brother Solomon, vigorous and enterprising young men, came over into the new state and after prospecting around a bit decided to put in their lot with that of such other settlers as would, in their opinion, form a colony in the vicinity of John Conner's saw mill and trading post there on the White Water. That was the year in which Newton Claypool attained his majority. He secured a tract of land in the vicinity of the mill and set about the erection of a cabin for the reception of the girl to whom he had plighted his troth back in Ohio and then returned for her. In January, 1818, at her home in the vicinity of Chillicothe, Newton Claypool married Mary Kern and in the following month he and his bride came through on horseback to the home he had prepared in the Conner settlement. And thus it was that the Claypool family in Indiana was established at Connersville. Newton Claypool became one of the dominant factors in the development of the Connersville community. He was elected first treasurer of Fayette county and served his district in both the House and the Senate of the Indiana General Assembly, and in other useful ways did his part in the making of the community. In 1834 Newton Claypool bought the farm at the edge of Connersville for many years known as the old Claypool place but now and long: since known as "Maplewood," which until her removal to Muncie was maintained by his granddaughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Claypool Earl. Newton Claypool died there on May 14, 1866, at the age of seventy years, eleven months and twenty-four days. His wife had preceded him to the grave less than two years, her death having occurred on August 16, 1864, she then having been at the age of sixty-six years, six months and thirteen days, and it has been written of them that "the memory of this honored pioneer couple is cherished wherever the history and the traditions of Fayette county are held dear." To this pioneer couple were born nine children, of whom five grew to maturity, Sarah Ann, Austin Bingley, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Jefferson and Edward Fay Claypool. Austin Bingley Claypool grew to manhood at Connersville and early began to take an active part in the general affairs of the community. On May 20, 1846, he then being in his twentythird year, he married Hannah Ann Petty and for some time thereafter made his home at Germantown. During the time of his residence in Wayne county he carried out a contract for the construction of the National road through that county and while master of the lodge of Freemasons at Cambridge City he directed the erection of the Masonic temple at that place, in its day the most pretentious edifice of its sort in eastern Indiana. In 1861 he returned to Connersville and thereafter made his home at "Maplewood," becoming the largest landowner in Fayette county. He there became engaged in the banking business, president of the First National Bank of Connersville, and during the stressful days of the Civil war was one of Governor Morton's active agents in the financing of Indiana's war burden. He later extended his banking interest to Muncie and during the '70s and '80s was the head of the Muncie Bank, locally known as the Claypool bank, which retired from the field in 1886. He also had considerable manufacturing interests and gave much attention to the breeding of better strains of live stock and to the general improvement of agricultural conditions, long a member of the state board of agriculture and a member of the board of trustees of Purdue University. Austin B. Claypool died on January 16, 1906, he then being eighty-two years of age. A distinct honor was paid to his memory by the Connersville city schools during the time of the funeral service by having each teacher devote one period to a review of his life and character. His widow survived him until January 18, 1918, she being eighty-five years of age at the time of her death. Of the eight children born to this couple four are still living, the subject of this sketch having two sisters, Virginia, widow of Henry Clay Meredith, of Wayne county, and Elizabeth, widow of Morrell J. Earl, and a brother, Marcus 8. Claypool, agriculturalist and stockman and former banker, who has been a resident of Muncie since 1872 with the exception of a few years during the '80s spent in mining in Colorado. In 1880 Marcus 8. Claypool married Elizabeth Burson, daughter of John W. Burson, the pioneer banker of Muncie. He was graduated from old Asbury (now DePauw) University. For sixteen years he served as a member of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture and was at one time president of that body. Mrs. Virginia Claypool Meredith, a member of the board of trustees of Purdue University, and the first woman to serve on that board, was graduated from Glendale College, near Cincinnati, in 1866. In April of that same year she married Henry Clay Meredith, who became proprietor of the formerly famous "Oakland Farm" adjoining Cambridge City, and after her husband's death in 1882 she continued the management of this stock farm. She became connected with extension work in agriculture when it was first undertaken by the State Board of Agriculture and later by Purdue University, and as a speaker at farmers' institutes visited almost every county in the state. In 1897 she was invited to undertake the organization of a course of study in home economics for young women in the school of agriculture of the University of Minnesota and she spent six winters engaged in this work in Minnesota, meanwhile making contacts with the developing activities of women and speaking at meetings and conventions in most of the states of the middle West. In 1890 Mrs. Meredith was appointed from Indiana to membership on the board of lady managers of the Columbian Exposition which was held at Chicago in the summer of 1893, her work there being mainly connected with the selection and appointment of women judges of award, and when by special act Congress authorized a Committee on Awards, Mrs. Meredith was made chairman of this committee, which issued about 25,000 diplomas. Mrs. Meredith has been a constant contributor for many years to the agricultural press of the country. In 1921 she was appointed a trustee of Purdue University, the growth of the school of home economics in the university having made it fitting that women should be represented on the board. She is honorary president of the Indiana Federation of Woman's Clubs and a member of the Society of Indiana Pioneers and numerous other organizations. Mrs. Elizabeth Claypool Earl, president of the Public Library Commission of Indiana and for many years one of the most influential figures in the cultural and feminist activities of this state, has been making her home at Muncie for some years past or since giving up her old home, "Maplewood," at Connersville, where she had lived since the death of her husband, Morrell J. Earl - a young merchant of Lafayette - in 1879. In numerous ways, from time to time, Mrs. Earl has been honored by the General Federation of Woman's Clubs. She was chairman of the committee that secured the passage of the bill creating the Public Library Commission of Indiana in 1899 and was appointed by Governor Mount the woman member of the commission thus created and has ever since been retained on that commission, present president of the same. She is a member of the American Library Association, past president of the League of Library Commissions as well as of the Indiana Library Association and of the Indiana Library Trustees Association, and is also a past president of the Indiana Union of Literary Clubs. Frank Jay Claypool was but two years of age when his parents moved from Germantown (now Pershing) to Connersville and he grew up on the old Claypool home place, "Maplewood," his local schooling being supplemented by attendance at the Chickering Institute at Cincinnati, from which he was graduated in 1879. In the following year he came to Delaware county, where his elder brother had located some years before, and became engaged in farming about two miles east of Muncie. Two years later he married and established his home here, remaining on the farm until in 1892 when he moved to Muncie and became engaged in the real estate business, a line which he ever since has followed, with present offices in the Anthony block, though never giving up his interests in the farm. In fact, the extension of the agricultural interests of the community has been Mr. Claypool's chief concern for many years, though he has from time to time maintained a variety of additional interests, one of which was a part ownership with the Heath brothers, back in the '90s, of the Muncie Morning News. It was during the time of this ownership that Mr. Claypool bought the first linotype machine brought to Muncie. During the days of the natural gas "boom" Mr. Claypool was an active and influential factor in the industrial development of the town. He was a member of the directorate of the famous old Citizens Enterprise Company that raised and disbursed a $200,000 fund for the promotion of factory sites and also assisted in the organization of the Economy Co-operative Gas Company of Muncie and was for years secretary of the same. In 1894 he assisted in the organization of the Muncie Commercial Club (now the Chamber of Commerce) and was the first secretary of the same. In 1898, when the United States took over the administration of affairs in Porto Rico, Mr. Claypool was appointed by President McKinley to assist in the reconstruction of the insular postal service and during that period of public service was located at Mayaguez. During the period of this nation's participation in the World war Mr. Claypool did his part in the promotion of local war activities, a considerable portion of which naturally centered in the Commercial Club, of which he at that time was secretary. He brought about the organization of the Muncie chapter of the American Red Cross and served as secretary of the chapter during the period of its war activities, and also served as chairman of the farmers war production committee for this county. Many years ago, during the time of the activity of the old Delaware County Horticultural Society, Mr. Claypool was secretary and afterward president of that society. When the farmers' co-operative movement began to develop back in the latter part of the '80s Mr. Claypool identified himself with that movement and became county and state secretary and afterward national secretary of the Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association, an organization that at one time had no fewer than 67,000 members in Indiana, and during the period of this service he published at Muncie The Farmers' Record, the official organ of the association, as is set out elsewhere in this work. It was in 1887 that Mr. Claypool became officially connected with the Delaware County Agricultural and Mechanical Society as a member of the directorate of that body and he ever since has been actively identified with this society, thus having been for nearly forty years one of the chief promoters of the annual Muncie fair, as also is set out elsewhere, together with much interesting detail relating to this society. For several years Mr. Claypool served as general superintendent of the society and for the past ten years has been its secretary- manager, developing the fair along educational lines until it now ranks among the best agricultural fairs in the Midwest country. Mr. Claypool also assisted in organizing and was the secretary of the first farmers institute held in Delaware county. He is a Freemason of forty years standing. On January 24, 1882, Frank Jay Claypool was united in marriage to Luella Swiggett, who was born at Cambridge City, Ind., daughter of Levin and Hester Ann (Owen) Swiggett, the latter of whom was a daughter of Thaddeus and Abigail (Elliott) Owen, the former a native of Wales and the latter a daughter of Dr. John Elliott, of Henry county, Indiana. Levin Swiggett was born at Seaford, Del., and as a young man came to Indiana, locating at Cambridge City, where in 1852 he married Hester Ann Owen and established his home. He was a clothing merchant and became quite successful in business there. Mr. and Mrs. Claypool have two children, a daughter, Mrs. Virginia C. Miller, and a son, Austin B. Claypool II, and one grandson, Robert T. Miller, Jr. Dr. Robert T. Miller, a dental surgeon at Muncie, resides at 611 East Washington street. The Claypool residence is at 624 East Adams street. Austin B. Claypool II completed his schooling in the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn. In 1908 he moved to Alberta, Canada, and became interested in ranching and the breeding of purebred Hereford cattle. In 1911 he married Elma Quick, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Quick, of Muncie. He is now serving as a member of the House of Parliament of Alberta and resides on a ranch in the vicinity of Swalwell in the province of Alberta.

CARL H. SMITH, purchasing agent and assistant treasurer of the Hemingray Glass Company of Muncie, was born at Covington, Ky., December 25, 1889, and is a son of George F. Smith, a veteran carriage manufacturer at Cincinnati, Ohio, and Alma A. Smith, of Newport, Ky. Mr. Smith, after graduating from Woodward high school at Cincinnati, completed the law course at the McDonald Educational Institute in that city and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1912. He practiced law in Cincinnati until in October, 1917, when he was enlisted in the 330th Infantry, stationed at Camp Sherman, Ohio. He was regimental sergeant-major of the 330th Infantry when that unit embarked for France and sailed with it on June 12, 1918. In France, Mr. Smith was commissioned a second lieutenant, his service thereafter being with the 59th and 104th Infantry regiments, and he continued in service overseas until the return of the 104th on the ship "Mt. Vernon" on April 5, 1919. Upon the completion of his military service, Mr. Smith was engaged in the automobile business at

Cincinnati in association with his brother until in September, 1919, when he entered upon his present position with the Hemingray Glass Company and moved to Muncie, where he has since made his home. On September 12, 1917, Mr. Smith was united in marriage at Cincinnati to Helen E. Barton, who was born and reared in that city, daughter of Frank C. and Minnie I. Barton, and to this union two daughters have been born, Winifred Frances and Helen Elaine. Mr. Smith and his family reside at 420 East Charles street.

FRANK D. CONYERS, assistant cashier of the Merchants National Bank of Muncie, with which institution he has been connected for more than twenty years, thus being one of the best known bankers in Delaware county, is a native Hoosier and has lived in this state all his life, a resident of Muncie since the days of his boyhood. Mr. Conyers was born in the historic old hamlet of Fairview, just over the line in Randolph county, June 14, 1869, and is a son of John L. and Armina (Kelley) Conyers, the latter of whom was born in Ohio and came to Indiana when a young girl. John L. Conyers was born in Indiana, a member of one of the pioneer families here, and was for fifteen years a teacher in the schools of Randolph county and had a wide acquaintance there. He also was for years engaged in the mercantile business, at Fairview and Ridgeville, and his last days were spent in this county, his death occurring at Albany in 1885. To him and his wife were born eight children, one of whom died in infancy and seven of whom grew to maturity, the subject of this sketch being the eldest of these and the others being Alonzo, Bert, Harry, Wilbur, Charles and Nettie and Elam (deceased). As the eldest son, though but sixteen years of age when his father died, Frank D. Conyers early started out to make a living for himself and to help in the family maintenance. His schooling was cut short, his last school work being done in the Farmland schools, and he began to work out as a farm hand. This did not prove satisfactory and not long afterward he began clerking in a grocery store at Albany. He presently bought a restaurant in that village but six months later sold the same and resumed his former place in the grocery store. Then he came to Muncie and began working in a bakery, learning the baker's trade and continuing in that line until in 1893 when he transferred his connection to the J. H. Williamson feed and flour store, becoming a bookkeeper there. He remained with the Williamson establishment until in 1902, when he became engaged as a bookkeeper in the old Merchants National Bank and in time became one of the directors of that institution. Presently Mr. Conyers was pro- moted to the position of teller in the bank and in 1910 was advanced to the position of second assistant cashier. In due time he was advanced to the position of assistant cashier and has since been serving the bank in that capacity. Mr. Conyers is a Freemason and has attained to the cryptic degree or council of Royal and Select Masters and is treasurer of Muncie lodge, No. 433, F. and A. M. He also is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and is a member of the Muncie Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Conyers is a member of the official board of the High Street Methodist Episcopal church and for more than seventeen years has been secretary of the Sunday school of that congregation. In 1902 Frank D. Conyers married Hattie Sayre, daughter of Jeremiah Sayre, of Delaware county. In 1923 Mr. Conyers went to California where he purchased a home in Whittier. Owing to Mrs. Conyers' ill health she is living in California at present in their new home, and Mr. Conyers is living at the Y. M. C. A.

GEORGE M. REED, local agent for the American Railway Express at Muncie, has been a resident of that city for the past twentyfive years and is one of the oldest express agents in continuous service in this part of Indiana. Mr. Reed is a Missourian, born on a farm in the immediate vicinity of Jackson, Mo., August 15, 1868, and is a son of Milton H. and Margaret Reed, both of whom were also born in that state and whose last days were spent there. Reared on the home farm in the vicinity of Jackson, George M. Reed received his schooling in the schools of that city and remained on the home farm until he was twenty-six years of age, when (in 1890) he became employed as the local agent for the old American Express Company at Hillsboro, [ll]. Seven months later he was transferred to the office of this company at Paris, Ill., and there remained as agent for the company until in 1898, when he was made agent for the company at Muncie, where he ever since has resided. Mr. Reed continued to act as the agent for the American Express Company until under the stress of war conditions in 1918 the express companies were consolidated and he then was made local agent for these consolidated agencies, the American Railway Express, and has since continued to serve in that capacity, with offices at 701 South High street. Mr. Reed is a Knight Templar (York Rite) Mason, a member of the local Rotary Club and an "independent" Republican. In 1891 George M. Reed was united in marriage to Savannah Henry, daughter of Patrick Henry, of Hillsboro, Ill. Mr. and Mrs. Reed reside at 527 South Council street.

FREDERICK DODDS ROSE, president of the Merchants Trust and Savings Company of Muncie and since his youth actively identified with the banking interests of Muncie, was born in that city and has lived there all his life. Mr. Rose was born on September 12, 1882, and is the son and only child of Theodore F. and Margaret (Dodds) Rose, concerning whom further and fitting mention is made else- 'where in this work. Reared at Muncie, Frederick Dodds Rose was graduated from the Muncie high school in 1900 and then took two years of study at Indiana University in preparation for entrance in Harvard University, from which latter institution he was graduated in 1906 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. During his school vacations Mr. Rose received his initial banking training in the old Union National Bank of Muncie, of which his father was president and which was a consolidation effected in 1895 of the Citizens National Bank and the Farmers National Bank, this service beginning in the summer of 1900, when he was but seventeen years of age. Upon his return from Harvard he re-entered the bank and in 1907 was made assistant cashier of the institution, continuing thus employed until his advancement to the post of cashier in 1912, and was thus serving when in 1918, during the time of this country's participation in the World war, he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Ordnance Department of the army. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Rose returned to the bank and following his father's death in the fall of 1919 was elected president of the bank. Upon the consolidation on January 26, 1920, of the Union National Bank, the Merchants National Bank and the Muncie Trust Company (organized in 1901) and the Merchants Trust and Savings Company (organized in 1919), the merged interests taking the name of the last named institution, Mr. Rose was elected president of the reorganized trust company and vice president of the Merchants National Bank and has continued to serve in these capacities. The new Merchants Trust and Savings Company adopted the location so long occupied by the old Union National Bank at the corner of Walnut and Jackson streets, where it is now located. The new banking company opened with deposits of a little more than $500,000 and this has been increased in four years to more than $1,250,000, the resources of the company during the same period also having been increased more than $1,000,000. The scope of the activities of this company has been greatly extended since the merger of the several interests represented in the same, these including not only a general banking and fiduciary relation to the community which it serves, but active insurance and real estate departments. In addition to the executive position he occupies as head of the Merchants Trust and Savings Company, Mr. Rose also is vice president of the Merchants National Bank of Muncie, treasurer and a member of the directorate of the Muncie Wheel Company and a director of the Warner Gear Company, the Indianapolis & Cincinnati Traction Company, the Indiana Foundry Corporation and the Sterling Fire Insurance Company. He is a member of the Muncie Rotary Club, president of the Social Service Bureau and treasurer of the board of governors of the Muncie Home Hospital Company and for many years a director of the Muncie Young Men's Christian Association, also vice president and director of the Delaware Country Club. He is an active member and past president of the Muncie Advertising Club, also a member of the Chamber of Commerce. In connection with local war work during the late war, Mr. Rose served as vice chairman of the two Red Cross drives, the two Y. M. C. A. drives, and the United War Work drive, as well as being active in various capacities on all the Liberty Loan campaigns and serving as vice chairman for Delaware county for the sale of all United States Certificate of Indebtedness issues. He is a member and treasurer of the Building fund of Delaware Post, No. 19, American Legion. Mr. Rose is a vestryman of Grace Episcopal church and a member of the bishop's cabinet for the diocese of Indianapolis, heading the financial department of that body. He is a member of Muncie Commandery, No. 18, Knights Templar, a 32 degree (Scottish Rite) Mason and a member of the Shrine. Politically he has always been identified with the Republican party. On October 23, 1907, Frederick Dodds Rose married Gladys Walcott of Indianapolis and to this union there have been born three sons, Theodore F., Walcott and Stuart W. Rose. The Rose's home, "Burlingbrook," is in Center township, four miles southeast of Muncie in the Old Town Hill neighborhood.