HERMAN SCHERER has been a resident of Fort Wayne fully thirty-five years, and here, by his own ability and well directed efforts, has gained place as one of the substantial and progressive business men of the fine city that is the judicial center of Allen County. He was twenty-one years of age at the time of his arrival in Fort Wayne, and as a skilled workman at the trade of marble and granite cutting he was here employed at his trade until he had so fortified himself as to be able to engage in the monument business in an independent way. He thus initiated his independent business in 1905, and his monument works, modern in facilities and service, are now among the best in this section of the state. Mr. Scherer has recently erected a new and modern building for his manufacturing and sales rooms, and the establishment is at 1832 Maumee Street, across the street from the entrance to Concordia Cemetery. By effective service and the production of work of the highest grade Mr. Scherer has developed a substantial and representative business, the while he has inviolable place in popular confidence and good will in the community that has been the stage of his activities since 1894.

Mr. Scherer was born at Idar, Germany, January 21,1873, and is the youngest of the five children of Peter and Katherine (Ioch) Scherer, both of whom passed their entire lives in Germany. One of the children is deceased, one remains in Germany and the other three are now residents of the United States.

The excellent schools of his native land afforded Herman Scherer his early education and there also he served his apprenticeship at the trade of which he is now an independent representative in Fort Wayne. He was nineteen years of age when he severed the ties that bound him to home and native land and came to the United States, in 1892. He first located at Logansport, Indiana, but in 1894, he came to Fort Wayne. Here he continued to be employed at his trade until 1905, when he engaged in business in an independent way and on a modest scale. His original establishment was on the site of his present modern and well equipped monument works, and in the passing years his progressive and reliable policies, as combined with effective service, have resulted in the expansion of his business to one of large and representative order. Mr. Scherer is a director of the East End Bank, which is a branch of the Lincoln National Bank & Trust Company, one of the leading banking and fiduciary institutions of Fort Wayne. He is a Republican in political allegiance, has membership in the Fort Wayne Maennerchor, and he and his wife are communicants of Concordia Lutheran Church.

May 27, 1897, marked the marriage of Mr. Scherer to Miss Emma Emrich, of Fort Wayne. Mrs. Scherer likewise was born in Germany, a daughter of August Emrich, and she was six years of age when she accompanied her parents to the United States, the family home having been established in Indiana, where she was reared and educated and where her parents passed the remainder of their lives. Of the six children born to Mr. And Mrs. Scherer the eldest is Emil, who is married and has two children; Herbert; Adela remains at the parental home; Herman A. is married and has one son; Emma is the wife of Earl Bird, and they have two children; and Arthur died at the age of ten months.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


FREDERICK PIERCE LEONARD, of Mount Vernon, achieved a place and rank among the foremost representatives of the Southern Indiana bar. He was an able lawyer and his private and professional career brought him in contact with many prominent men over the state.

He was born at Mount Vernon, Posey County, Indiana, November 4, 1859, being the second of the five children of Charles E. and Mary E. (Pierce) Leonard. His parents were born at Bath, Maine, and came to Indiana soon after their marriage. His father was an early day merchant in Posey County.

Frederick Pierce Leonard was educated in grade and high schools in Posey County, after which he continued his education in the University of Indiana, and was graduated from the Law Department of the University of Michigan. After completing his period of preparatory training he located at Mount Vernon, where his industry and abilities were rewarded by a large practice and by a large measure of influence in politics and public affairs. He continued the practice of law until his death on May 19, 1921.

He served one term as mayor of Mount Vernon, and during the Roosevelt administration he was offered a high place in the Federal Government, but declined. He was always a Republican in politics, and the County Bar Association, and belonged to the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He accumulated some valuable real estate, including farm lands in Posey County.

Mr. Leonard married Esther H. Harrow. Her father, Gen. William Harrow, was a distinguished brigadier general in the Civil war and was a great lawyer. In his early law practice he was frequently associated with Abraham Lincoln, and they drove over the circuit together. He died in the fall of 1872, while making campaign speeches for Horace Greeley. His death was the result of injuries received when his train was derailed. The mother of Mrs. Leonard was Juliette James, of a pioneer family of Mount Vernon. Her father, Enoch R. James, conducted the only private bank of Posey County for a number of years and was one of the wealthiest men in the county.

Mr. and Mrs. Leonard were married at Mount Vernon, October 27, 1892. Four children were born to their marriage, Mark H., in 1893, Juliette, in 1895, Frederick Pierce, in 1899 and John Harrow, in 1902. Mark died at the age of fourteen. Juliette is the wife of William H. Hambey, of Salisbury, North Carolina, a cotton broker, and they have two children, Esther C., born in 1918, and Egbert B., born October 11, 192.7. The son Frederick Pierce is an engineer by profession, has been with the American Merchants Marine and is now in South Africa. John Harrow Leonard is a graduate of Lafayette College, also of Western Reserve law school, Cleveland, Ohio, and is now practicing law in Cleveland.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


DANIEL MICHAEL McKINLEY was one of the earliest independent oil jobbers to do business in Northern Indiana. He was the founder of the Independent Tank Line, operating both a retail and jobbing business in petroleum and petroleum products. This is a business with stations and branch offices in a number of places in Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan, and Mr. McKinley had built up the business to substantial proportions before he died, and it is now carried on by members of his family.

Daniel M. McKinley was born in Belfast, Ireland, February 2, 1850. He was reared and educated in his native country and was a young man of twenty when he came to the United States in 1870. He was living in Chicago at the time of the great fire in 1871. He traveled widely over the country and from 1878 to 1894 conducted a successful coal business, known as the McKinley Coal & Mining Company, at Chicago. During the following eight years he lived on his farm in the Fox River Valley near Saint Charles, Illinois, and in 1902 moved his home to Mishawaka. He lived in Mishawaka until his death on November 16, 1920.

In the meantime he had started the Independent Tank Line and superintended its rapidly growing service as an independent organization handling petroleum products. He built up connections allover Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan. The late Mr. McKinley was a member of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association and the Central Oil Jobbers Association. He was a charter member of the Miami Country Club, was a member of the Fellowship Club and Knife and Fork Club of South Bend, was affiliated with Council No. 553, Knights of Columbus, and South Bend Lodge No. 235, B. P. O. Elks.

Mr. McKinley married, December 29, 1886, Miss Hannah R. Carbine, of Chicago, who survives him. They had a family of eight children: Daniel Edward, who is warehouse manager of the Independent Tank Line; Dr. Hugh Arthur, of Chicago; Innoc James, in charge of the branch office of the Independent Tank Line at LaPorte; Virginia, who died May 13, 1927, the wife of William A. Butler, who has done much to extend and develop the business of the Independent Tank Line, of which he has been manager since 1922, and is also secretary and treasurer of the organization; Leo William, vice president of the Independent Tank Line; Paul Anthony, manager of the Independent Tank Line Oil and Service Station at Edinburg, Indiana, who is married and has a son, Michael; Miss Adelaide; and Francis Aloysius, a law student at the University of Chicago.

Hannah Regina McKinley was born in Chicago. Her father, James Carbine, came from Ireland. Mrs. McKinley has been a wonderful mother to her family and has also shown very keen business judgment and took an active part in the business of the Independent Tank Line before her husband's death. Since then she has been president of the company, now one of Indiana's largest independent oil and grease jobbing organizations. The company has service stations in many Northern Indiana towns and in two counties in Michigan. In 1928 the company built a fine new office and lubitorium, a two-story building for automobile service and general offices, at 222- 226 Lincoln Way West. Mrs. McKinley before her marriage taught for ten years in Chicago public schools.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


HARRY E. KLEPINGER, M. D., is one of the younger members of the medical profession in Tippecanoe County. He was born at West Lafayette, April 16, 1901.

His grandfather, Jacob Klepinger, was born in Dayton, Ohio, and settled in Indiana many years before the Civil war. He was a farmer and millwright. James W. Klepinger, father of Doctor Klepinger, was born in Tippecanoe County. He was a contractor, and married Katherine Cooper, of Benton County, Indiana.

Dr. Harry E. Klepinger is one of their three children. He attended the common schools at Cairo and the high school at Battle Ground. In 1927 he was graduated M. D. from the School of Medicine of Indiana University. Following his graduation he was resident physician for two years in Saint Elizabeth Hospital at Lafayette. On September 1, 1929, he engaged in private practice for himself, with offices in the Lafayette Life Building.

Doctor Klepinger is a member of the Tippecanoe County, Indiana State and American Medical Associations. He also holds the rank of captain commanding the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Ambulance Company, One Hundred and Thirteenth Medical Regiment, Indiana National Guard. He is affiliated with Lafayette Lodge No. 492, A. F. and A. M.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


CARL ALEX SWANSON is the founder and proprietor of the Swanson Plating Works at South Bend, a business that affords a complete service to the industrial needs of many plants throughout this section of the state. It is a business which is a tribute to Mr. Swanson's experience and abilities. Mr. Swanson was born on a farm in Pocahontas County, Iowa, December 29, 1883. His parents came from Sweden and his father was a homesteader and pioneer farmer of Iowa. C. Alex Swanson grew up on an Iowa farm, was educated in the schools of his native county and on leaving the farm came to Chicago.

For seven years in that city he was employed by a metal plating company and in that way learned the technic of the plating industry. He has been a resident of South Bend since 1908.. During the first three years he lived there he was an employee of the Indiana Bell Telephone Company. In 1911 he established the Swanson Plating Works. After twice moving to larger quarters he erected, in 1927, a building and plant especially designed and arranged for his kind of business. In equipment this all-daylight plating factory probably has no superior in the state. It is a business depending largely on custom and contract work for other manufacturing firms, and Mr. Swanson has kept his plant running to capacity for a number of years.

He married Miss Olive Marie Culp, who was born at South Bend, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Charles M. Culp, who were natives of Indiana. Her mother is still living, a resident of South Bend. The children of Mr. And Mrs. Swanson are Dorothy Ann and Carl John. The family are members of the Christian Church. Mr. Swanson has never joined any clubs or lodges, practically all his time for recreation away from his business being spent in the bosom of his family.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


JOHN HIGGINS, of Kentland, is one of the grand old men of Newton County. At the age of eighty-two he works every day at his profession as a lawyer, and probably no man’s name is spoken with higher regard in Newton County than that of this veteran soldier and good citizen.

John Higgins was born at Brooklyn, New York, April 24, 1849, son of Michael and Julia Higgins. His father was from Ireland. He was left an orphan at an early age, and some time in an orphans' home and subsequently was adopted by a resident of Newton County, Indiana. He has never been a large man in physical stature, but he has a bright mind, an ability to win friendships, and has always been a dynamo of mental and physical energy. He was only twelve years of age when he offered his services as a drummer boy for Company B of the Fifty-first Indiana Infantry. It was no easy task for a youngster of his age and build to get accepted, particularly in the early part of the war. The colonel showed no disposition to accept the services of this boy recruit, and several times told him to go home. The company was made up of men from Kentland and surrounding towns, and most of its members knew the boy John Higgins, admired his pluck and determination, and joined their forces to his in a plea to the colonel that he be mustered in. Finally the colonel gave his consent and he was with the Fifty-first Indiana Regiment throughout the four years of its splendid service, including many of the great battles and campaigns of the war, and at the end of the war the regiment was in Texas.

John Higgins after coming out of the army returned to Kentland, where he learned the tinner's trade. This was his occupation until 1888. He was also a prominent factor in the Republican organization, and attended many conventions of the party. In 1888 he was elected county recorder and was reelected to that office in 1892. While in the courthouse he took up the study of law, and trained himself to qualify for admission to the bar. He has practiced for over thirty years and for seven years served as county attorney. In addition to his law practice he was in the insurance business with Frank A. Comparet until the death of Mr. Comparet in 1905.

Mr. Higgins is the youngest survivor of Post No. 102 of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is a Royal Arch and Council degree Mason, and attends the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a former commander of the Grand Army.

Mr. Higgins married, September 4, 1878, Miss Anna Wittenberg. The oldest of their three children, Frederick, died April 20, 1916. Harry, who is chief clerk for the Pennsylvania Railway Company in the offices at Saint Louis, is married and has a daughter, Betty. The daughter Ruth, is the wife of Joseph Reeve, court reporter at Renssalaer, Jasper County, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Reeve have two children, John W., and Joan.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


ARNOLD UNDERHILL CROSS, manager of the Commonwealth Loan Company, is one of the representative business men of the younger generation of the City of Fort Wayne, where the offices of his company are maintained at 240 Utility Building.

Mr. Cross was born in the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, March 15,1899, and there he continued his studies in the public schools until his graduation in the Central High School, as a member of the class of 1918, though it is to be noted that he had previously enlisted for World war service and was with his command in France when his high school awarded his diploma. Mr. Cross arrived in France, April 22, 1918, and was there in active service thirteen months, he having there remained some time after the signing of the historic armistice and having returned to his native land in May, 1919, he having disembarked on the 2nd of that month and having received his honorable discharge the same day. In the following September he took a position with the Commonwealth Loan Company, in its office in his native City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, he having there served as assistant manager until 1927, when he was transferred to Fort Wayne, where he has been manager of the office and business of the company since June of that year.

The political alignment of Mr. Cross is in the ranks of the Republican party. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the American Legion, and he and his wife are members of Plymouth Congregational Church at Fort Wayne, where also his name is enrolled on the list of members of the Kiwanis Club and the Chamber of Commerce.

October 11, 1923, marked the marriage of Mr. Cross to Miss Dorothy Patterson, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who was there graduated in the Central High School as a member of the class of 1919, her husband having had sufficient credits as a student in that institution to permit his being graduated in the preceding year, though, as previously noted, he was at the time in World war service overseas. Mr. and Mrs. Cross have a winsome little daughter, Barbara Jean, who was born July 3, 1929.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


FRED PRICE BIEDERWOLF, general manager of the Biederwolf Coal & Ice Company, which represents in its effective service virtually one of the important public utilities of his native City of Monticello, White County, was born in this attractive county seat city on the 15th of August, 1887, and is a son of George and Evaline (Price) Biederwolf, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Carroll County, Indiana.

George Biederwolf was reared and educated in Indiana, having been two years old when he accompanied his parents on their removal to this state. His father, Michael Biederwolf, engaged in the coal and lumber business at Monticello, about the year 1870, and the enterprise was conducted under the firm name of M. Biederwolf & Son until the son, George, succeeded to the full control, after the death of his father. George Biederwolf continued the business under his own name, and finally the present title of Biederwolf Coal & Ice Company was adopted, with Fred P. Biederwolf in active executive control. The business has been consecutively conducted under the family name fully sixty years, and in its control Fred P. Biederwolf is representative of the third generation. The business was incorporated under the present title in 1922, and its officers are as here noted: Charles W. Davis, president; Fred Roberts, vice president; E. E. Miller, treasurer; and Fred P. Biederwolf, secretary and general manager.

The public schools of Monticello afforded Fred P. Biederwolf his early education, and in the activities of his father's business he became associated when he was a lad of fifteen years. After the passing of thirteen years he purchased the coal department of the business, the lumber department having at this time been sold to others, and he continued the enterprise in the exclusive handling of coal until 1922, when the ice-manufacturing department was added and the present controlling corporation was formed. This concern has the best of modern facilities and service, gives employment to fifteen persons, its ice plant has an output capacity of eighteen tons a day and the company handles fully eighty carloads of coal annually.

Mr. Biederwolf is Republican in political alignment, and has been a member of the precinct committee of his party at Monticello, as well as a member of the county committee, and he gave four years of service, 1926-30, as city councilman. He is a member and director of the Indiana Ice Dealers Association. Mr. Biederwolf married Miss Grace Mae Wilson, and the only child of this union is a son, George, who represents the fourth generation of the family to be actively associated with the business that was founded by his paternal great-grandfather, the late Michael Biederwolf.

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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


ADOLPH CARL BIEBERICH. A member of an old, honored and representative family of Indiana, Adolph C. Bieberich, county recorder of Allen County, is a native of Fort Wayne, and during his career has been identified with many of the city's activities. With the exception of about ten years, when the family lived in Nebraska, Allen County has been his home, and in his present capacity, to which he was elected in November, 1926, he has fully sustained a reputation for conscientious and able discharge of duty.

Mr. Bieberich was born September 14, 1881, at Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana, and is a son of Henry C. and Mary (Kirchner) Bieberich. His paternal grandparents, Christian and Sophia Bieberich, were born in Germany, where they were reared, educated and married, and shortly after the last named event came to the United States as a young and ambitious couple in search of a community in which to make their home. They chose Adams County, Indiana, and there Mr. Bieberich, aided by his faithful wife, developed a valuable farm, on which he continued operations until 1890, when he and Mrs.Bieberich went to Nebraska, and there passed their last days. The maternal grandparents of Adolph C. Bieberich were also born in Germany, William and Pauline Kirchner. They also came to America shortly after their marriage, and after a short stay at New York City became early settlers of Adams County, Indiana. Mr. Kirchner was also successful as an agriculturist and stockman, and he and his wife rounded out their useful lives amid rural surroundings in Adams County, where both were held in high esteem.

Henry C. Bieberich was born on his father's farm in Adams County, Indiana, November 28, 1853, and acquired his education in the parochial schools of the Lutheran Church in his native community. As a youth he adopted the vocation of agriculturist for his life work, and continued to be engaged therein until his retirement to the City of Fort Wayne. When Adolph Bieberich was still a child his parents went to Nebraska, where they made their home until 1910, then returning to Fort Wayne, where the father died July 10, 1910. Mrs. Bieberich, who was born July 4, 1860, in Adams County, still survives, and makes her home at Fort Wayne with her son Adolph and his sister. Mrs. Bieberich is a devout and active member of the Lutheran Church, as was her husband. They were the parents of six sons and three daughters, all of whom are living with the exception of one son.

Adolph C. Bieberich attended public school in Nebraska and a parochial school at Fort Wayne, following which he took a course at the International Business College. He then entered the employ of J. S. House, a leading Fort Wayne merchant, with whom he remained as stenographer and bookkeeper for a period of twenty years, at all times giving the best of satisfaction. In November, 1926, Mr. Bieberich's friends induced him to run for the office of county recorder on the Democratic ticket, and he was sent to this office by a large and gratifying majority. His services have been of the highest character and he is known as one of the most capable and reliable men who have ever filled this office in Allen County. He is a stanch party man and one who has the confidence and esteem of his associates.

Mr. Bieberich is unmarried and lives at Fort Wayne with his mother and sister in a comfortable and attractive home at 317 West Leith Street. He takes an active part in civic affairs as a constructive and progressive member of the local Chamber of Commerce, and fraternally belongs to the Loyal Order of Moose, while his religious connection is with the Lutheran Church.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


HENRY LEVI ERLEWINE, of Marion, represents a splendid and interesting type of the two-fisted, clear-thinking business executive. He is a man who has done things with his hands, with his mind and will, and as an executive and leader of men. He has that sound inheritance that is derived from several generations of hard working, honest and high minded pioneers of the Middle West, but he began life without money and under the stimulus of an ambition to make the best of his opportunities.

He was born in the hill country in Southern Ohio, at Cameron, Monroe County, October 28, 1878. His grandfather was a pioneer minister of the Christian Church in that locality. At the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted and served as a regimental chaplain in Union regiments. He died about 1885 and is buried at Cameron. His wife was Anna Shipman, who was born about 1842 and died at Cameron about 1922. The parents of Henry L. Erlewine were John Christopher and Lena (Eberle) Erlewine, who were married at the Eberle homestead at Beallsville, Monroe County, Ohio, February 5, 1878. John C. Erlewine was born January 11, 1855, at Cameron, spent his active life as a farmer and is buried in the I. O. O. F. Cemetery at Marion.

Henry Levi Erlewine all during his boyhood days had a portion of the duties of a hillside farm in Southern Ohio. After mastering the letter and spirit of the local schools he started out to get a position as a teacher himself. He had an experience that a number of prominent men have recalled as an interesting chapter of their early lives and which have served as testing trials of character and courage. He was given a school where a group of unruly boys had taken things in their own hands and had run out several previous schoolmasters. At the first onset he showed himself master of the situation, and conducted a very successful term and followed teaching as a vocation until he answered the call to commercial life, something more in line with his natural aptitude and abilities. In one of the schools he taught he walked four miles from home to school, lighted the fires and taught every subject within reach of the pupils. Mr. Erlewine after giving up teaching spent two years at Sisterville, West Virginia, where he kept books for McJunkin & Stoner and the C. C. Chamberlin Machine Shop, doing the work for one firm in the day and the other at night. These two firms were competitors, yet they reposed complete confidence in the integrity and ability of the young bookkeeper, who had access to the accounts of both firms. In the intervals of his tasks as bookkeeper he was learning some valuable practical lessons in the machine shop of the firm.

On September 10, 1902, Mr. Erlewine arrived at Marion and soon afterward established the Marion Machine, Foundry & Supply Company, with an original capital of $25,000. The growth and prosperity of this company have been in direct proportion to the energies and abilities concentrated on the business by the secretary, treasurer and general manager, Mr. Erlewine. In 1930 the capitalization of this industry is $1,500,000. The original payroll was divided among five employees, while now five hundred persons are on the payroll and comprise with their families an important element of the population of the city. The Marion Machine, Foundry & Supply Company is a big asset to Marion, and in its manufactured products it contributes in an important measure to that tremendous stream of material needed by our modern mechanistic civilization. The company in its different departments manufactures appliances and equipment for steam power plants, for coal mining and material handling industries, the clay working industry, for oil industry, makes a complete line of metal buildings, used for shacks, garages, warehouses and other purposes. The company manufactures a diversified line of products classified under the general heading of municipal castings and builders hardware, also general castings and patterns.

In addition to being one of the founders and the active head of this industry Mr. Erlewine is a director of the Marion National Bank and vice president of the Indiana Rural Savings & Loan Company, also president of the Indiana Foundry, Machine & Supply Company of Brazil, Indiana. He is a former president of the Marion Kiwanis Club, is a member of the Meshingoniesia Country Club, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Loyal Order of Moose.

To complete the record of his interesting career a paragraph is needed to describe his domestic happiness and his home life. On September 18, 1907, at Leslie Michigan, he married Miss Anna Louise Peirson, daughter of Warren W. Peirson, a Michigan banker and farmer, who died in 1909 and is buried at Leslie. Mr. and Mrs. Erlewine have three children. The daughter Susan Elizabeth, born at Marion August 30, 1909, was educated in the grade schools, graduated from high school in 1927, spent one year in Marion College, and in September, 1929, entered Butler University at Indianapolis, where she is taking the library course. Through her school years she has studied music, specializing in the violin. The second daughter, Janet, born at Marion April 12, 1912, is a student in high school. She plays the piano and clarinet and has the solo clarinet in the Marion High School Band.

Richard Henry, the only son, was born at Marion March 27, 1914, and is also in high school. He is a member of the Boy Scouts and his hobby is outdoor life. He plays the French horn in the high school band. All three of the children are musically inclined. Since Mr. Erlewine's outstanding talent is business organization, it is probable that the children derive their musical genius from Mrs. Erlewine, who has been interested in that art since girlhood.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


CHARLES MANN BROWN is one of the leading members of the bar of DeKalb County and was actively engaged in the practice of his profession in the City of Auburn, the county seat, during a period of thirty-five years, his final retirement from active practice having occurred in 1928, when he assumed his present office of vice president of the Auburn State Bank, one of the substantial and well ordered financial institutions of this part of the state. Mr. Brown was born in Steuben County, Indiana, June 24, 1866, and is a son of John and Susana (Mann) Brown, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Ohio, whence her parents moved to DeKalb County, Indiana, when she was a child, the family home having been established on a farm, where the parents, Philip and Margaret Mann, passed the remainder of their lives.

John Brown was reared and educated in the old Keystone State and was a young man when he came to Indiana and established residence in Steuben County, he having long been engaged in the mercantile business at Hamilton, that county, where he died in 1885, at the age of sixty-three years, and where also occurred the death of his wife, their marriage having been solemnized in DeKalb County.

Charles M. Brown continued his studies in the public schools of Hamilton until he was there graduated in the high school, and thereafter he was a student in the Tri-State College, at Angola, Indiana. At that place he studied law under the effective preceptorship of William M. Brown, and in due course he was admitted to the bar of his native state. In 1893 he opened a law office at Auburn, and in this city he continued in the successful general practice of his profession until 1928, when he retired, his major attention having since been given to his official service as vice president of the Auburn State Bank. He long controlled a substantial and important law business in DeKalb County, and; he continued as an honored and veteran member of the DeKalb County Bar Association, besides having membership in the Indiana State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He was president of the DeKalb Mortage Loan Company at the time when its business was merged with that of the Auburn State Bank, of which latter he is now vice president.

The political allegiance of Mr. Brown is given to the Democratic party, and on the party ticket he was elected representative of DeKalb County in the state legislature, in which he served during the sessions of 1897 and 1899. In the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides being a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is affiliated also with the Knights of Pythias, and he and his wife are zealous members of the Presbyterian Church in their home city, Mrs. Brown having long been a gracious and loved figure in the church, social and cultural circles of the community.

On the tenth of November, 1885, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Brown to Miss Zo Thomas, who was born and reared in Steuben County, and their one child is a daughter, Ilif, who was graduated in the Auburn High School and who is now the wife of R. B. Crane, of this city.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


LEONARD OTTO ZICK, a prominent young business leader of South Bend, senior accountant of Zick, Koontz & Heyn, accountants, auditors and tax specialists, with offices in the Business Clinic Building at 111 North LaFayette Boulevard, was born at St. Joseph, Berrien County, Michigan, January 16, 1905, and has been a resident of South Bend since 1924.

His father, Otto J. Zick, a retired farmer of Berrien County, was born in Berlin, Germany. At the age of eight years, his father having died, he was brought by his mother to the United States and grew up at St. Joseph, Michigan. His wife, Hannah Heyn, was born near Stevensville in Berrien County, and her father. Charles Heyn, was a native of the same section of Michigan. Leonard O. Zick is the oldest of three children. He graduated from the grade and high schools of Stevensville, Michigan, attended the Twin City Business College at Benton Harbor and the Michigan State Normal College at Kalamazoo. Prior to coming to South Bend he spent one year teaching at Galien in Berrien County, Michigan. He has enjoyed a rapid accumulation of business responsibilities at South Bend, where for a time he was accountant for the Studebaker Watch Company, later was associated with Chambers & Crowe, accountants and in 1928 established Zick, Koontz & Company, now Zick, Koontz & Heyn, which in addition to their main offices in South Bend have branch offices at Indianapolis, Detroit, Chicago and La Porte. They have handled a large volume of business for corporations and business firms over Northern Indiana. Mr. Zick is also a director and comptroller of the Mid.West Income Insurance Corporation, is secretary of the Midwest Funding Corporation, and is vice president of the Business Clinic, Incorporated.

Mr. Zick married, June 27, 1925, Miss Anna Essig. She was born at Bridgman, Michigan, daughter of Fred Essig, a Berrien County farmer. They have one daughter, Rowene Anne, born April 11, 1927.

Mr. Zick is vice president and former treasurer of the South Bend Exchange Club, secretary of the Eighth Ward Republican Club, member of the Knife and Fork Club, the South Bend Association of Credit Men, Chamber of Commerce, and River Park Business Men’s Association. He is president and former secretary of the Lutheran Men's Club of St. Joseph County and trustee, treasurer, a charter member and former Sunday School superintendent of the Redeemer Lutheran Church.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


COL. WALTER M. HAND has been intimately associated with the institution known as Culver Military Academy practically from its beginning. He was a member of the original corps of cadets, played on the first football team of the academy, and was the first to hold the rank and title of quartermaster of the school. Colonel Hand's aunt, Emily Jane Hand, was the wife of H. H. Culver, the founder of the school on the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee, and which for over thirty years has ranked as one of the best preparatory and boys military schools in the country.

The father of Colonel Hand was William E. Hand, who was born in Green Township, Marshall County, Indiana, September 29, 1852, son of William J. Hand. William J. Hand settled in Marshall County in 1843 and was not only a successful farmer but a leader in agricultural affairs, being president of the Marshall County Agricultural Society. William J. Hand married Sabrina Chapman, and of their children the youngest was William E. Hand. The latter for twenty-one years was associated with the development and management of the Culver farm owned by the wealthy iron manufacturer and philanthropist, H. H. Culver. During his later years he was engaged in the grocery business. He married, December 25, 1872, Lucy Brown, daughter of Charles and Lucy (Connor) Brown, who were early settlers of Marshall County. To their marriage were born two children, Walter M. and Maude M.

Walter M. Hand grew up on the farm on Lake Maxinkuckee, but early found that he had no real taste for farming. In 1892 he entered Valparaiso University, graduating in 1893. It was in the summer of 1894 that the first summer school was conducted on Lake Maxinkuckee, and in the fall of that year the regular nine months' session was opened, and among the thirty-two boys in the school in the opening term was Walter M. Hand, who drilled with the other cadets and played on the first football team. During the second years of the school he had an increasing share in its affairs, holding the rank of first lieutenant, the highest rank of that year, and was 'one of the school's best athletes. Later he became an assistant in the school business office, helping with the books, writing letters and acting as errand boy in the absence of any telephone communications. He served under all the successive business managers, with a rising status from office boy to clerk, clerk to bookkeeper, and finally secretary and general assistant.

After eight years in the office he was promoted, in 1904, to full charge, with the title of quartermaster, and subsequently the military rank of lieutenant-colonel was conferred upon him. Culver Military Academy derives its fine reputation as a school not only from the personnel of its teaching staff and the spirit of the system, but also for the generous material equipment which has been provided, and the manager of the business department steadily for over a quarter of a century has been Colonel Hand.

Colonel Hand is married and both his sons are graduates of Culver, where they stood among the best in scholarship and athletics. Colonel Hand and family reside in a handsome home adjoining the campus of the academy. His chief recreation is golf, and he plays that game over the course laid out on the ground which as a boy he helped cultivate. For many years he has been an active figure in the church and Sunday school of Culver.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 3
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931


Deb Murray