Mr. Grayson was born in Wabash County, Illinois, September 29, 1878, and is a son of Dr. Thomas J. and Harriet (Couch) Grayson, the former of whom was born in Kentucky and the latter in Wabash County, Illinois. The Grayson family was founded in Virginia in the Colonial period of American history and thence representatives of the same went forth to number themselves among the earliest settlers in Kentucky. Doctor Grayson was long and successfully engaged in the practice of medicine in Lawrence County, Illinois, and he gave loyal service in defence of the Union in the period of the Civil war, he having been assigned to the commissary department and having been in active service during virtually the entire period of the war. In this immediate connection it is interesting to record that his son John M., of this review, well upheld the military honors of the family name by service in the Spanish-American war and Philippine Insurrection.
John M. Grayson, one of a family of seven children, was reared and educated in Lawrence County, Illinois, where his advantages were those of the public schools. After his service in the United States Army during the period of the Spanish-American war and Philippine Insurrection he turned his attention to the real-estate business, of which he was a representative in Vincennes, Indiana, during the period of 1902-18. In the latter year he was elected representative of Knox County in the State Legislature, his record in which met with such popular approval that he was reelected in 1920, from which he resigned in the latter part of 1921, shortly after his election to the office of mayor of Vincennes. His administration as mayor, constructive and progressive, continued from January, 1922, until 1926, and he has since been engaged in the practice of law in this city, with standing as one of the representative members of the bar of Knox County. Mr. Grayson prepared himself for the legal profession by private study under effective preceptorship, and was admitted to the bar in 1923. The firm of which he is a member controls a substantial and important law business of general order. He has membership in the Knox County Bar Association and the Indiana State Bar Association, is an influential figure in the Knox County ranks of the Republican party, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and with Charles D. McCoy Camp No. 28, Spanish-American War Veterans. In the Spanish-American war period he was a Company I, Eleventh United States Infantry, his service covered a term of three years and within this period he was on active duty with his command in the Philippine Islands. He was a zealous worker in behalf of patriotic activities in Knox County in the interval of American participation in the World war, and served as captain of the Vincennes Township team that directed a splendid campaign in support of the sale of Government war bonds.
On December 7, 1903, at Bloomfield, Indiana, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Grayson to Miss Jessie Clemmons, and, have three children: Jeannette Barrill is the wife of Lee Hindman, of Vincennes, who is a student in medical college at Indianapolis, and they have two children, Grace ans Susanna; Dorothy is a graduate of the Vincennes University, class of 1931, and Harriet is a student in the Vincennes Junior High School.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
FLOYD O. WERT, manager of the Home Lumber & Supply Company at Muncie, has had practically all his business training and experience in the lumber industry. His father before him was a lumberman, so that the vocation came natural to him.
Mr. Wert, .one of the live and enterprising business leaders of Muncie, was born at Waynetown, Indiana, December 29, 1894, son of Austin E. and Hattie (Miller) Wert. His grandfather, John William Wert, was an early settler in Wayne County, Indiana, where he followed the business of a building contractor. He moved to Indiana from Ohio. He was killed about 1908 as a result of a fall from a cherry tree at his home. He is buried at Waynetown. Austin E. Wert was born and reared in Wayne County, had a public school education and during all his active life followed the business of forester and lumberman. He left July 4, 1912. His wife, Hattie Miller Wert, was born and reared at. Waynetown, and was very attentive to her duties in the Baptist Church. She died December 12, 1923. Her three children were Floyd O.,. Russell E., of Indianapolis, and Catherine, Mrs. Ulysses Elmore, of Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Floyd O. Wert attended the grade and high schools of Waynetown and finished his education in a college at Danville, Illinois. On July 28, 1913, he came to Muncie, and has been continuously identified with the Home Lumber & Supply Company. He started as yard assistant and has mastered all phases of the business, both inside and outside. Larger responsibilities have been given him from time to time. He was made yard superintendent and for nine years acted as manager of the company’s plant at Roachdale. On July 28, 1921 he was called back to Muncie and has since been local manager of the company.
Mr. Wert has been keenly interested in civic affairs, is active in the Chamber of Commerce and the Muncie Y. M. C. A., and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Fraternal Order of Eagles. He is a member of Lumber Dealers Association, the Optimist Club, Dynamo Club, and is a Republican voter. He and his wife are members of the Avondale Methodist Episcopal Church.
He married, at Newcastle, Indiana, September 19, 1926, Miss Clara Hall, daughter of Joshua Hall and wife. Her father was a building contractor at Newcastle, and both her parents are deceased and are buried at Roachdale. Mr. Wert first married, November 26, 1914, at Waynetown, Miss Lura M. Yount, daughter of Walter and Florence Yount. Her father was a druggist at New Market, Indiana, and is buried in the Masonic Cemetery at Crawfordsville. Her mother still resides in New Market. Mrs. Wert passed away July 17, 1926, and is buried in the Masonic Cemetery at Crawfordsville. She left two children, Robert and John, both of whom are attending the grade schools at Muncie.
Mr. Wert’s present wife was educated in the public schools of Roachdale. She is the mother of two sons, Charles and James.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
AUGUST E. BOLK is the founder of the August E. Bolk Hardware Company, of Vincennes. This is a complete supply store for heavy hardware, a wholesale business shipping and supplying material over a wide extent of country, much beyond the normal boundaries of the Vincennes wholesale district.
Mr. Bolk was born at Vincennes, September 5, 1884, son of William C. and Mary (Steffen) Bolk. His father was born in Germany, located at Vincennes in 1880, and was in the liquor business for a number of years and was living retired at the time of his death in 1930. There were five children: William Jr., Otto, deceased, Mary, August , and Frank. All three of the living sons are associated as the August E. Bolk Hardware Company.
August E. Bolk grew up in Vincennes, attended the St. John's School and the public schools, and has been an active business man since early manhood. In 1918 he bought the A. B. Evering Hardware Company, a business that had been established in 1894. Since 1918 the business has been conducted as August E. Bolk & Company, with headquarters at 811 North Second Street . The company now employs a staff of from twelve to fifteen persons, and utilizes over 28,000 square feet of floor space, with switching facilities on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
Mr. Bolk is a member of the National Supply and Machinery Distributors Association. He is one of the popular citizens of Vincennes, a member of the Order of Eagles, the B. P.O. Elks and Loyal Order of Moose, the Harmony Society and, the Knights of Columbus. He was elected to the City Council of Vincennes in November, 1929, on the Democratic ticket.
He married, June 29, 1907, Miss Hannah Miller, member of a family that settled in Vincennes before the Civil war. Their children are: Johannah, now Sister Frances Elvire, of the Sisters of Providence of Terre Haute, Margaret, Rosaline, Mary and William III.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CHARLES W. BRIZIUS is a native son of Warrick County, is a representative of the third generation of the family in this county, and in his activities as a loyal and progressive citizen and influential business man of Newburg he has well upheld the honors of a family name that has been prominently and worthily lined with the history of Warrick County since the pioneer days. Mr. Brizius is president of the Charles W. Brizius Company, which corporation is one of the important industrial and commercial concerns of the fine little City of Newburg, where its flour milling plant is of the best modern equipment.
Charles W. Brizius was born near Boonville, the judicial center of Warrick County, October 22, 1857, and is a son of Charles and Mary (Hermann) Brizius, both of whom were born in Germany. Charles Brizius was reared and educated in his native land and was one of the patriotic young men who took part in the revolution in Germany in the '40s, for which reason he there became persona non grata to the government and, like many others of his countrymen, came to the United States, where he was assured of freedom and independence in thought and action. He was one of twelve children and upon coming to this country he was accompanied by his parents, the family home having been established in Warrick County, Indiana, where his parents passed the remainder of their lives and where their remains rest in the cemetery at Newburg, as later the remains of Charles Brizius and his wife were also laid away. The father was a cooper by trade but becoming one of the substantial pioneer farmers of Warrick County, he having retired after his sons were equipped for taking charge of the old farm and the cooperage business that he had established.
Charles Brizius gave his attention to farm industry until 1865, when he established a brewery at Newburg. This he conducted until 1881, when he and his partner transformed the plant into a flour mill, this substantial old mill being that in which is installed the modern plant of the present Charles W. Brizius Company, the establishment having been at all times maintained at the highest contemporary standard. Mr. Brizius had as a partner in this enterprise Louis Pepmiller, his brother-in-law, and the business was conducted under the title of Pepmiller & Brizius Company, while eventually Charles W. Brizius, of this review, was admitted to partnership in the business. In 1894 John Raab, brother-in-law of Charles W. Brizius, purchased the Pepmiller interest, and the firm name was then changed to Charles Brizius & Company. After the death of Charles Brizius his son Charles W. and son-in-law, John F. Raab, purchased the interest of Mrs. Brizius and after the death of Mr. Raab Charles W. Brizius acquired his interest through purchase at appraiser's sale. The business was carried on under the title of Charles W. Brizius for several years until 1907, when Mr. Brizius admitted his three sons to partnership and the business was duly incorporated under the present title of The Charles W. Brizius Company. Of the eight children of Charles Brizius all but one are living: Mary C., who became the wife of John Raab, survived him until 1928, when she too passed away, survived by five children, of whom the son Adolph served in the United States Army in the World war period. Louis, next younger of the children of Charles Brizius, is associated with the Charles W. Brizius Company, he having married Carrie Cook, of Newburg, and their children being four in number. George H., next younger son, is one of the prosperous farmers of Warrick County. His first wife, whose maiden name was Rose Koehler, is survived by two children, and he later married Lydia Kuebler, the children of this marriage being four in number. Mary E. is the wife of Charles K. McDonald, a cigar manufacturer at Newburg, and they have no children. Rudolph G., manager of the Presbyterian Old People's Home, married Kate Johnson, and they have one child. Clara is the wife of J. W. Foltz, engaged in the dry-goods business at Newburg, and they have no children. Herman, youngest of the children, is engaged in the drug business at Newburg. The maiden name of his wife was Mattie Lant and they have no children.
Charles W. Brizius attended the Newburg public schools and also a local private school, and supplemented this youthful education by remaining two terms as a student in an academy at Elmhurst, Illinois. His initial business experience was acquired in his father's brewery, and when the same was remodeled and equipped as a flour mill he continued his active association with the business. The milling business has been continued during the long intervening period of nearly half a century, and he is now its executive head, as has been previously noted. On March 14, 1931, The Charles W. Brizius Company celebrated its fiftieth anniversary of operation in the milling business.
Mr. Brizius is a Democrat in political adherency and he and his wife are members of Zion’s Evangelical Church in their home city. He is a Knight Templar Mason, and is a Noble of Hadi Temple of the Mystic Shrine, in the City of Evansville, where likewise are maintained his Chapter, Council and Commandery affiliation in the York Rite of Masonry. He has membership also in the Liederkranz Society of Evansville. Mr. Brizius gave four years of characteristically loyal service as a member of the City Council of Newburg and an equal period of service as a trustee of the local board of education. He is president of the Newburg Building & Loan Association and is vice president of the Newburg State Bank. He retains controlling interest in the business of the Charles W. Brizius Company and is the owner of valuable real estate in his home city and native county.
November 27, 1881, marked the marriage of Mr. Brizius to Miss Philipine Folz, daughter of William and Barbara (Roth) Folz, of Warrick County, and the death of Mrs. Brizius occurred December 11, 1904, she being survived by three sons: Walter W., who was born December 12, 1883, and who is now vice president of the Charles W. Brizius Company, married Lucy Dodd, of Evansville, and they have one child, Walter J., who was born January 25, 1908. Norman J., the second son, was born November 6, 1886, and is now secretary of the Charles W. Brizius Company. He married Gertrude McMurtry, of Evansville, and they have no children. Oscar C., the youngest son, was born June 2, 1892, and is now treasurer of the Charles W. Brizius Company, besides which he has been a member of the City Council of Newburg more than three years and was its president in 1929. He was one of the gallant young sons of Indiana who represented this state in overseas service in the World war, he having been assigned to the One Hundred Twelfth Ammunition Train, Thirty-seventh Division of the American Expeditionary Forces, having left Philadelphia with his unit June 28, 1918, and having been in active service in France when the armistice brought the war to a close. At Camp Taylor, Kentucky, he received his honorable discharge April 29, 1919. He married Laurena Inderrieden of Boonville, Warrick County, and they have two children: Mary E., born October 29, 1924, and Charles O., born March 23, 1929.
The second marriage of Charles W. Brizius was solemnized September 20, 1907, when he wedded Mrs. Fannie L. Bell, no children having been born of this union. She had four children by her former marriage, the only one now living being Emmet Bell. chief of police of Evansville.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
FRANK BASTIN is a native of Belgium, where he learned thoroughly the art of glass manufacture, and he came to America equipped with a knowledge and training which he has put to use as an American glass maker. Mr. Bastin is president and manager of the Blackford Window Glass Manufacturing Company, Incorporated, at Vincennes.
He was born October 15, 1872, and came to America in 1890. He had a number of years of experience in various glass plants all over the country and later organized and became manager of the Blackford Window Glass Manufacturing Company, with plant at Hartford City, Indiana. Later this plant was sold and dismantled and on January 5, 1903, the business was moved to Vincennes, where it has been in operation for over a quarter of a century.
Since 1924 the Vincennes factory has used the new sheet drawing process in the manufacture of sheet glass. It is a big and thriving industry, employing 225 men, working in shifts day and night, and employing the most modern processes of manufacture. The machinery of the plant was imported from Belgium. The grounds and plant comprise sixteen acres with railroad switching tracks up to the doors for the bringing in of raw material and the shipping of the finished product, which goes allover the United States.
Of the corporation Mr. Bastin is president and general manager, Charles A. Weisert is vice president, R J. Dognaux, secretary, and Ira G. Schaeffer, treasurer.
Mr. Bastin served two terms as president and as a director of the Vincennes Chamber of Commerce. He is a past president and charter member of the Rotary Club, member of the Harmony Society, B. P. O. Elks and Knights of Columbus. For twelve years he was councilman at large of Vincennes. He is a director of the Indiana Manufacturers Association and in 1929 was vice president of the Window Glass Manufacturers Association. During the World war he took a leading part in insuring the success of the Liberty Loan drives. He is a Republican.
Mr. Bastin's wife, Anna Bastin, is also a native of Belgium. They have two children, Nellie, wife of R. J. Dognaux, and Jules, factory representative of the Blackford Window Manufacturing Company in Chicago, and who has three children, Mary Ellen, Rene J. Jr. and Dolores Anne. Jules was enrolled in service during the World war and R. J. Dognaux was also in an army camp during that period.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JOHN B. RICHARDSON, of Monroe City, is an Indiana man of interesting business achievement. He started literally with nothing, but the labor of his hands and ambition have carried him steadily forward from small beginnings until he now has active contact with several lines of business, being an undertaker and funeral director, in the road contracting business, and has also been interested in banking and farming.
He was born in Washington County, Kentucky, September 24, 1880, son of Thomas B. and Malvina (Mayes) Richardson. He was the only son in a family of seven children.
His education was supplied by the common schools of Washington County, Kentucky, and he was doing a man's work long before he attained his majority. For a time he was hauling goods a distance of fourteen miles, also did farming, and at the age of nineteen, in 1899, located at Monroe City, Indiana, where for two years he was employed as a painter and paper hanger. For six years he worked in a brick yard and for two years conducted a restaurant and confectionery. After selling out this business he became an undertaker, in 1914, buying the E. P. Blann Furniture and Undertaking Establishment, and has carried on that business, known as the Donaldson & Richardson Undertaking Establishment ever since. Mr. Richardson from 1921 to 1927 was assistant cashier of the Monroe City State Bank. Since 1927 he has been a member of the firm Byers & Richardson, road building contractors. In this time they have constructed gravel roads and about forty bridges in Illinois and Indiana. As a farmer Mr. Richardson has 150 acres devoted to wheat, corn, oats and live stock in Knox County.
During the early 1900s he served as city treasurer of Monroe City for six years, three terms. He is a past master of Monroe City Lodge No. 548, A. F. and A. M., is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the World war he did work in his community in promoting the success of the Liberty Loan drive. In political affiliation he is a Democrat.
Mr. Richardson, in October, 1901, married Miss Nina Bonewits, now deceased. They had two daughters, Miss Theatis and Miss Madge. Theatis was educated in Purdue University, Vincennes University, the Indiana State Normal at Terre Haute and Columbia University of New York City and is now the head of the economic department of the Wheatland High School. Madge graduated with the class of 1931 from the Vincennes University.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
HERBERT MALES, former mayor of the City of Evansville, and former sheriff of Vanderburg County, has been in the intervals of his official experience an active business man of that city. It is doubtful if Evansville has ever shown more complete confidence and given higher honors to anyone of its native sons than to Mayor Males.
He was born in Evansville, July 19, 1875, son of Thornton and Emma (Smith) Males. His great-grandfather was a Hollander and his great-grandmother an English woman. His grandfather was one of the early pioneers of Knox County, Indiana. Thornton Males was born in Indiana, served as a Union soldier in the Civil war, under Captain Hollingswortth, in Company F of the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Indiana Regiment, with the rank of sergeant. After the war he followed mechanical trades, and died December 18. 1913. His wife, Emma Smith, was of English ancestry, and her father was one of the early settlers in Vanderburg County, a pioneer farmer, and became one of the county's largest land owners, having at one time 900 acres. He was a stock man and in the early days imported cattle from England. Thornton Males and wife reared six of their ten children. Edgar, who died at the age of fifty-one, had been a township trustee of Evansville, married Elizabeth Sauer and left two children, Clara, wife of Harry Geissler, and Miss Lillian, secretary to W. W. Gray, president of the City National Bank of Evansville. John, a machine molder, served in the Spanish-American war and was in the intelligence department of the American Expeditionary Forces during the World war. Isaac Males, who was born in 1872, is also a molder by trade and is unmarried. Anna, born in 1862, married August Lehnhard, a retired business man of Evansville, and they have a son, Elmer, born in 1893, a salesman, who married Nellie Cheesebro and has a son, Jack, born in 1924. The daughter, Mary Males, who died at the age of fifty-five, was the wife of John Blum, and left three children, Mary, born in 1899, Catherine, born in 1901, and Ruth, born in 1905.
Mr. Herbert Males grew up and attended public school in Evansville, graduated from business college, and after leaving school he spent twenty-five years with one firm, Lehnhard & Neitert, a well known wholesale produce and fruit business at Evansville. He was with that organization until 1914 and then engaged in business for himself by organizing the Chera Cola Bottling Company, in which he is still interested as a stockholder. He was manager of the business from 1914 to 1918. He also owns several productive oil wells and has been very fortunate in his oil investments and operations.
Mr. Males was elected sheriff of Vanderburg County in 1918, and served in that position four years. When he retired from office he went on the road as a traveling salesman for a wholesale produce house and continued traveling three years, until in 1925 he made the race for mayor. In the election he was accorded the largest majority ever given a candidate for that office in Evansville. Evansville is proud of the administration of its municipal affairs which he gave the city, and which is recognized as one of the most constructive administrations the city has had. Mr. Males is a Republican in politics, is a member of the Evangelical Church and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. He also belongs to the Woodmen of the World and the B. P. O. Elks.
He married, in January, 1895, at Evansville, Miss Anna Griese, daughter of William Griese, of Evansville, a brick manufacturer. By this marriage there is one son, John C., born September 28, 1895, now chief clerk in the water works department at Evansville, and is married and has one child.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
GUY R. DUNPHY is one of the prominent representatives of the automotive trade in the City of Vincennes, where he is president of the Dunphy Automobile Company, which here has the agency for the celebrated Cadillac and Pontiac cars and which maintains its metropolitan headquarters at the corner of Sixth and Vigo streets.
Mr. Dunphy was born in the State of Kentucky, October 9, 1873, and was a child at the time of the family removal to Illinois, where his father became a successful business man. He is a son of William Dunphy, who was born in Ireland and who was a young man when he came to the United States, where eventually was solemnized his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Jennings, the children of this union being five in number: Lena is the widow of O. O. Rice; Guy R., of this review, was next in order of birth; Charles W. resides in Chicago, in the employ of the International Harvester Company, and the maiden of his wife was Edna Gordon; Jennie C., deceased, was the wife of C. P. Gordon; Carl E., and his wife, Effie, reside at Roanoke, Virginia, and he is there successfully established in business.
Guy R. Dunphy received his youthful education in the schools of Illinois and when about eighteen years of age he entered the service of the International Harvester Company, at St. Louis, Missouri, with which great corporation he continued his association until 1916, he having in the meanwhile won advancement through various departments and having finally been made the manager of the company’s important branch in Cincinnati, Ohio. Upon resigning this office, in 1916, he came to Vincennes and effected the reorganization of the Hartman Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of farm implements. He was made assistant sales manager, as well as director of the company, and with the concern he continued his active alliance until 1921, when its plant and business were sold to the Blount Plow Company of Evansville, this state. It was at this juncture that Mr. Dunphy turned his attention to the automobile business, by purchasing the Gibson Overland branch at the corner of First and Main streets, Vincennes. On May 15, 1922, he purchased also the business of the Fellwock Automobile Company, at the corner of Sixth and Vigo streets, the two enterprises having been consolidated at the latter location, where the business has since been continued as one of the most successful automotive agencies in this historic old city. In addition to handling the Cadillac and Pontiac cars the Dunphy Automobile Company has also the local agency for the LaSalle and Oakland cars.
Mr. Dunphy is a past director of the Vincennes Chamber of Commerce, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has the distinction of being a member of historic Vincennes Lodge No.1, A. F. and A. M., and is a member of the Vincennes Harmony Club. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party, and he was elected as councilman at large of the City of Vincennes in 1930, on the Democratic ticket. In the World war period Mr. Dunphy was active in support of patriotic movements of his home community and made liberal subscriptions to the Government war bonds. In the 1930-31 roll call he was chairman of the Vincennes Chapter of the American Red Cross. He has won secure vantage-ground as one of the progressive business men and loyal citizens of Vincennes, and gives his major attention to the affairs of the Dunphy Automobile Company, of which he is president and general manager.
Mr. Dunphy, on October 9, 1895, at Sumner, Illinois, married Miss Jessie M. Couchman, of Lawrence County, Illinois, and their child, Ernestine, is the wife of George A. Mischler, who is assistant auditor of the Vincennes Bridge Company and who was in Government service in the World war period. They have one child, Guy W. Mischler.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
