CHARLES WILBUR SLAGLE, assistant cashier and a director of the Farmers Loan & Trust Company, of Columbia City, Whitley County, is a native son of this county and a representative of a family whose name has been worthily linked with the history of the county during a period of more than ninety years.

Mr. Slagle was born on the old home farm in Smith Township, Whitley County, September 17, 1871, and in the same township his father, George B. Slagle, was born December 8, 1848, a son of George W. Slagle, who was born at Chillicothe, Ohio, December 9, 1812, who was reared under the conditions marking the early pioneer days in the Buckeye State and who became a pioneer farmer in Smith Township, Whitley County, Indiana, where he made settlement in 1837, and where he died in 1891. George W. Slagle married Martha Long, who was born in the year 1814, of Scotch and German ancestry, and whose death occurred on the day following that of her husband.

George B. Slagle was reared on the home farm in Smith Township and in that section of the county he continued his active association with agricultural and livestock industry ,until 1890, when he engaged in the meat-.market business at Churubusco, this county, where he continued a representative of this line of enterprise until his death, in 1912, his wife, whose maiden name was Mary E. Donaldson, having been born near Millgrove, Morgan County, Ohio, February 22, 1852, and her death having occurred at Columbia City, March 3, 1927.

Charles W. Slagle supplemented the discipline of the rural district school by attending the high school at Churubusco. He remained on the farm until 1896 and then became associated with his father in the live-stock and meat-market business at Churubusco. In 1902 he was elected city clerk and treasurer, and of this dual office he continued the incumbent one term. In 1908 he was elected township trustee, which office he retained six years. He then became, in 1914, the Republican candidate for the office of county auditor, but normal political exigencies compassed his defeat. At this juncture he became bookkeeper in the Exchange Bank at Churubusco, of which he was made assistant cashier in 1916, he having retained the latter position seven years and having then, in March, 1923, assumed his present executive office of assistant cashier of the Farmers Loan & Trust Company, which operates one of the leading banking institutions at Columbia City, the county seat.

The political allegiance of Mr. Slagle has ever been given to the Republican party, he and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in their home city, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

October 8, 1891, was the date of the marriage of Mr. Slagle to Miss Edna M. Fowler, who was born at Churubusco, June 21, 1875, and who was there reared and educated. Mr. and Mrs. Slagle have two children: Jessie, who was born December 26, 1892, was graduated in the Churubusco High School and thereafter was a student in the Indiana State Normal School at Winona. She made a record of success as a teacher in the public schools of her native county, and on the 16th of June, 1916 she became the wife of Lloyd F. Gates, who was then superintendent of the Churubusco public schools. Mr. Gates was graduated in Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and later was graduated in the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. He served one term as county clerk of Whitley County, was thereafter engaged in the practice of. law at North Manchester, Wabash County, one year, and since that time he has been identified with the telephone business at Bothell, Washington. Helen, the younger daughter, was born January 13, 1894, was graduated in the Churubusco High School, attended the State Normal School at Winona, and thereafter was a student in DePauw University, at Greencastle, she, like her sister, having been a popular teacher in the public schools of Whitley County. On the 10th of October, 1921, was solemnized her marriage to Frederick Aker, and they now maintain their home in the City of South Bend, this state, where Mr. Aker is engaged in the onion and mint business, as a representative of the firm of Rosebloom & Son, of New York City. Mr. and Mrs. Aker have a fine little son, Gordon Lee, who was born August 13, 1928.

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


WAYNE KING TEMPLETON, M. D., is one of the representative physicians and surgeons engaged in practice in the City of Garrett, DeKalb County, where he is identified prominently with the excellent community clinic here maintained by leading physicians of the city.

Doctor Templeton was born near Greensburg, Decatur County,. Indiana, September 21, 1895, and is a son of George H. and Alma E. (King) Templeton, the former of whom was born in Franklin County, in 1854, and the latter of whom was born in Decatur County, in 1860, her death having occurred August 4,1923, and her mortal remains having resting place in the cemetery at Greensburg, where George H. Templeton still resides, the major part of his active career having been given to farm industry. Of the children the eldest is Taylor, who is a progressive farmer in Decatur County; Gordon B., who likewise is a substantial farmer in that county, was born November 7, 1887, and in 1916 was solemnized his marriage to Miss Anna Little; Lawrence was born in 1893 and died January 1, 1907; and Dr. Wayne K., of this sketch, is the youngest of the children.

The public school education of Doctor Templeton culminated when he completed a four years' course in the high school at Greensburg, and thereafter he passed another year on the old home farm. He then entered the University of Indiana, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1919 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1922 he completed his four years' course in the medical college of the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, and after thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he served a year as interne in St. Vincent Hospital at Toledo, Ohio. He has been established in the successful practice of his profession at Garrett since 1923, and his civic loyalty is on a parity with his professional ability and success. The Doctor has membership in the DeKalb County Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.

Doctor Templeton is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. In the World war period he was a member of the Students Army Training Corps, and he is now a member of the Reserve Officers Training Corps. He is an active member of the Commercial Club in his home city and also of the local Country Club, his religious faith being that of the Christian Church and his wife being a communicant of the Catholic Church.

May 31, 1923, marked the marriage of Doctor Templeton to Miss Thelma Zipfel, who gained her early education in the public schools of Monroeville, including the high school, and who thereafter was a student .in the nurses training schools at Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, and St. Vincent Hospital in Toledo, that state. Doctor and Mrs. Templeton have two children: Wayne King, Jr., born April 2, 1924, and Betty Marie, born October 7,1927.

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


GARDNER J. THOMAS, business manager of the Marion Daily Chronicle, had his first active association with that paper as a carrier boy. Then, however, followed years of experience in other lines of work before he found what he regards as his permanent place in the business world.

Mr. Thomas was born at Somerset, Indiana, October 26, 1889. Part of his early experience was working in the oil and gas fields. Both his father and grandfather were connected with the oil industry, starting in Western Pennsylvania, the original oil field. His grandfather was Jacob Thomas, of Bolivar, New York, an oil operator, who died at Bolivar in 1895, at the age of sixty, and is buried there. His wife, Hannah, died at Bolivar in 1906, at the age of seventy-two. Myrn Cooper Thomas, father of Gardner J., was born near Bradford, Pennsylvania, in 1863, and married Mary Miller, who was born at Somerset, Indiana, July 17, 1870. They now reside at Independence, Kansas, his father being an oil drilling contractor in the Mid-Continent fields.

Gardner J. Thomas attended school at Marion, graduating from high school in 1908. In the meantime, at the age of thirteen, he was in business for himself, delivering the News-Tribune to the homes of its subscribers. It was a fine training and also productive of a considerable income, as a result of the energetic way in which he handled the business. He paid twenty-five dollars for the route, which at first comprised 150 subscribers. During the two years he owned and operated it he increased the list to 250 subscribers. His entire loss during these two years was ninety cents. He bought the papers from the publishers at wholesale and kept his own accounts and was responsible for his own collections.

When he was sixteen years of age he was an oil pumper for the Beers Brothers in the Marion oil field, getting the salary of sixty dollars a month, an unusual figure for a boy of sixteen. During that year the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was held at St. Louis, and he and a companion traveled to the city to take in the wonders, and he was then of an age when such things make a strong impression and a lasting one. Mr. Thomas also spent nine months in the rice section of Arkansas, where he bored artesian wells for watering the fields.

On returning to Marion he found employment at four dollars a day working as a gas field driller. About 1910 he realized that his drilling job, good as it was, was only a job. He decided that before he could realize his ambition he must have more education, and accordingly he entered Purdue University, taking the civil engineering course, and was graduated with the Bachelor's degree June 15, 1915. After graduating he was employed as a draftsman with the American Gas & Electric Compan;y of New York, but resigned at the end of six months to take a better position with the Clarage Fan Company at Kalamazoo, Michigan. His work with this company was in the engineering and development departments, and he remained there until the fall of 1917, when he was transferred and assumed charge of the sales department of the company of the Chicago territory. By chance he was the second man called in the draft at Kalamazoo. This drawing was made August 17, 1917. The examining board, on learning that he was connected with a business that was then termed an essential industry, gave him deferred classification, so that he was kept at his civilian work rather than going overseas. In the meantime he had been promoted to the position of manager of the Chicago office of the company.

In the fall of 1920 Mr. Thomas, on account of his father's illness, took leave of absence and went to Iola, Kansas, and took charge of his father's oil business. Thus he was a well equipped and a rather broadly experienced business man when, in August, 1921, he returned to Marion, Indiana, to take a needed and well-deserved vacation. After a short time he found work in the advertising department of the Marion Evening Chronicle and since 1925 has been business manager for the publication.

Mr. Thomas is an active leader in Marion's business life and for two years was honored with the office of president of the Marion Association of Commerce for he term expiring December 17, 1929. He is a member of the Rotary Club, the Masonic fraternity, the Hamilton Club of Chicago, is a director of the local Country Club and a member of the Mecca Club. His college fraternity was the Phi Gamma Delta. His hobby is golf and though a very active business man he plays a game that would be envied by many young men of leisure, his normal game being in the seventies for eighteen holes. In 1921 he won the President's Cup in the local tournament.

Mr. Thomas married, April 15, 1916, Miss Katherine Breed Lindsay, daughter of George D. Lindsay, owner and publisher of the Marion Chronicle. They have four children. The oldest, George Lindsay Thomas, born at Kalamazoo, Michigan, February 22, 1917, is at the age of twelve years a vigorous youth of 126 pounds, though both of his parents are normal sized people. Like his two younger brothers he is red-headed and is now in the Martin Boots Junior High School at Marion. The second son, Gardner Thomas, Jr., was born at Chicago March 8, 1920, and is a student in the Marion Clayton grade school. The younger children are Richard Breed, born at Marion May 11, 1925, and Katherine Lindsay, born at Marion January 20, 1928.

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


GENE WALTER YOUNGBLOOD, superintendent of schools at Peru, is an educator with over thirty years of experience, during which he has come in contact with practically every class of school from a country district in Southern Indiana to the highly organized system of public education in one of the most progressive cities in Northern Indiana.

Mr. Youngblood was born at Yankeetown, Warrick County, Indiana, November 11, 1878, son of Walker and Martha (Hartley) Youngblood, both natives of Warrick County. His grandfather, Willis Youngblood, was taken to Southern Indiana when a boy.

Gene Walter Youngblood, one of eight children, attended school in Warrick County, and his educational equipment in addition to the results of his private study and contact with affairs was gained in Oakland City College, the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute, of which he is a graduate, in the University of Chicago, in Indiana University, where he took his A. B. degree in 1914,. and in 1921 he received the Master of Arts degree from Columbia University of New York City.

For six years he taught a district school in Warrick County. For one year he was principal of the Yankeetown School, in his old home neighborhood. His teaching work was varied by attending school, and after leaving the Terre Haute Normal he was principal of schools at Huntingburg three years. From 1914 to 1917 he was principal of the Noblesville High School and in 1917 was elected superintendent of schools at Auburn, where he remained six years, from 1917 to 1923, when he was called to Peru as superintendent of the city schools. His influence as an educator has been broadened by special services in educational addresses and lectures delivered before the students of DePauw University, the Teachers College at Indianapolis and North Manchester College. He is a member of the Indiana State Teachers Association, the National Education Association, is former chairman of the executive committee of the Northeastern Indiana Teachers Association, and was on the executive committee of the Superintendents Club of Indiana.

Mr. Youngblood during the World war helped in the bond sales and was especially active in the Red Cross and tuberculosis work at Auburn and has been identified with similar organizations at Peru, being president of the Red Cross Chapter and treasurer of the Tuberculosis Society. For six years he was an active member of the Rotary Club, is a member of the Masonic Lodge at Auburn, is a Methodist and for five years was superintendent of the Sunday School.

Mr. Youngblood married Lillie Katterhenry, who was born at Huntingburg, Indiana, where her people were early settlers. They have two children, Willard and Helen, both attending high school at Peru.

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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


ROSCOE E. OTT is one of the popular young business men of Fort Wayne, a native of Allen County and his interest in the Hoosier State is increased by the fact that his parents and his grandparents have been here since pioneer times.

Mr. Ott was born in Allen County, April 8, 1901, son of George W. and Harriet (Eyer} Ott, both of whom are now living retired in Fort Wayne. His grandparents, Abraham and Sarah (Morgan) Ott, were early settlers of Noble County, Indiana, where his grandfather developed a tract of 640 acres of land as a farm and lived out the rest of his life there. The maternal grandparents were early settlers in Elkhart County, Indiana. George W. Ott was born in Noble County, April 6, 1849, while his wife was born in Elkhart County, January 1, 1856. He grew up and attended school in Noble County, was a teacher in that county and for a time was postmaster at Churubusco in Whitley County. He and his family have been residents of Fort Wayne since 1880. He is now eighty and his wife seventy-three years of age and of their twelve children eight are now living.

Roscoe E. Ott completed his public school education in Allen County and as a young man went on the road as a traveling salesman for the Frieburger Brothers Company, shoes and leather goods, of Fort Wayne. He represented that house for seven years and on January 3,1927, became manager of the Fort Wayne Station of the Hertz Drivur self-automobile organization, which has 300 similar stations in operation through the United States.

Mr. Ott is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was the church of his parents and his grandparents. On June 23, 1929, he was united in marriage with Miss Dorothy I. Hall, of South Whitley, Indiana.

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


LARRY BRANDON. In DeKalb County, where he was born and reared, Mr. Brandon is not only a progressive exponent of modern farm industry but also gives evidence of his civic loyalty in his constructive service as township trustee, his well improved farm home being on Waterloo road, No. 27, and on rural mail route No.3, from Auburn, the county seat.

Mr. Brandon was born at Auburn, DeKalb County, October 20, 1887, and is a son of Ira and Millie M. (Watt) Brandon, who were born in Union Township, this county, and who now maintain their home at their son's farm. Of the children the subject of this review is the eldest; Rev. C. Merritt Brandon, next younger son, is rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church at Brainerd, Minnesota; Ruth is the wife of Joseph Mraz, of Brainerd; Hugh I. is a traveling commercial salesman and resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Worden M. is associated with the Auburn Automobile Company, a leading concern of its kind at Auburn, Indiana.

The public schools of Auburn afforded Larry Brandon his youthful education and in his independent activities he has proved himself well fortified for successful operations in connection with agricultural and livestock industry, of which he has proved a notably vigorous and successful exemplar, his beautiful farm home being eligibly situated at a point one mile north of Auburn. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias, is a member of the commercial Club at Auburn and he and his wife have membership in the Church of Christ, the while both are members of the Auburn chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star.

December 15, 1910, was marked by the marriage of Mr. Brandon to Miss Mildred L. Wilson, who was born in North Fairfield, Ohio, but reared and educated in Auburn. Mrs. Brandon is a daughter of Alfred M. and Harriet M. (Belden) Wilson, her father having been born in Michigan and having been for twenty-five years a shoe merchant at Auburn, from which city he removed to a DeKalb County farm in 1914, his death having occurred at Auburn, September 27, 1926, and his widow died in August, 1929, she having been a native of the State of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Brandon have two children: Alice Barbara, born November 10, 1912, and John Wilson, born March 15, 1916. The daughter is a graduate of the Auburn High School, and the son is attending the Auburn High School.

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


MERTON EARL TURNER is a Cass County business man, and for many years has enjoyed the patronage and confidence of the farmers around Royal Center, where he conducts the Sweet Grain Company.

He was born in Carroll County, Indiana, May 29, 1882, oldest of the three children of James B. and Emma (Vaughn) Turner. His father was born In Ireland and came to Indiana during the '60s. He died in 1925.

Merton E. Turner had a common school education in White County, and after leaving high school, at the age of eighteen, took up farm work. He was on a farm seven years, and has always been in close touch with the agricultural interests of this section. Since leaving the farm he has been in the grain and elevator business.

Mr. Turner served four years as township trustee. He married Gertrude Maude Ford, a native of Indiana, and their two children are attending the schools of Royal Center. The elder is Thora Mae, attending the Royal Center High School, and the younger, Wilma Josephine, is attending the grade school.

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


ROBERT MCCANLISS, a soldier in the War of 1812, was an Indiana pioneer and founder of a family that has been well known for many years in Logansport and Cass County.

He was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, December 16, 1792, son of James and Mary (Arters) McCanliss. The McCanliss family were Scotch and the name was frequently spelled McCandless. James McCanliss brought his family to the United States from Ulster, Ireland, arriving a few years before his son Robert was born. The family located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Robert McCanliss was about twenty year old when the War of 1812 broke out, and he joined a Pennsylvania regiment and gave gallant service to the cause. On April 22, 1818 he married Sarah Mitchell. The children of their marriage were: Mary Mitchell, who died in childhood; Susannah Wilson; Sarah Jane; Rebecca; Martha Frances; Samuel Thomas; Eliza Barnett; Mary Mitchell, so named after the death of her older sister; and Robert. The mother of these children was of Highland Scotch ancestry. After her death Robert McCanliss married, in 1847, Sarah Brown, and in 1858 Sarah Andrews became his wife.

Robert McCanliss on leaving Pennsylvania moved to Ohio, locating near Piqua, and about 1847 or 1848 came to Indiana and settled in Noble Township, Cass County. He was a highly respected and successful farmer in that county for many years. On leaving the farm he moved to Logansport, where his death occurred March 17, 1872. He is buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery. Mr. McCanliss was a Presbyterian, uniting with the First Presbyterian Church in 1852.

His daughter, Mary Mitchell McCanliss, became the wife of Joseph Humes, by whom she had three children. After his death she married Douglas Benjamin Stevens. Mr. Stevens was born at St. Johns, New Brunswick, Canada, and came to Logansport, lndiana in the early 1870s. He practiced law in that city, served as justice of the peace, and died in 1888. His widow survived him until 1926. Their only daughter, Miss Alice Deusner Stevens, is now librarian for the Logansport Public Library.

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


RICHARD B. BRIMMER. History is repeating itself, as it always does. Following the close war between this country and Spain it was found that those who had gone through the stern discipline of military training made the most dependable officials and executive heads. And just as it was at the close of the last century, and in fact in the latter ‘60s for that matter, so is it today, for everywhere, the country over, the men who are veterans of the World war are found to be among the best of the citizenry. South Bend has many such examples, one of them being Richard B. Brimmer, owner of Dick's Moving & Transfer Company, a man experienced in his line of work, and entirely reliable in every way.

Richard B. Brimmer was born near Traverse City, Grand Traverse County, Michigan, March 10, 1893, where he was reared and educated. The district schools of his native county gave him his initial educational training, which he supplemented with high-school work at Traverse City. Higher education did not appeal to him, for he has always liked to worl with his hands, and, therefore, instead of continuing his schooling he entered a garage and there learned to be an automobile mechanic. The knowledge of this trade took him to Detroit, Michigan, where he was working this country entered the World war.

His experience fitting him for the motor transportation branch of the service, after he entered the army Mr. Brimmer was stationed at Camp Mills, New York, as instructor in the driving and care of heavy motor trucks, and he was retained there until after the close of the war. Following his honorable discharge from the army Mr. Brimmer returned to Detroit, and, having definite plans in view, entered a large moving and transfer company, where he learned the business in every detail, and when he felt sure of himself he came to South Bend, Indiana. Here, in 1921, he establashed his present business, with offices at 131 East Pennsylvania Avenue, and a large storage building on East Tutt Street. In the years which have followed he has built up a large local transfer business and owns several fine moving vans for long distance hauling. He is a charter member of the South Bend Cartage Club and belongs to the Masonic Order. The success which has attended him is due to his policy of honest and square dealing with everyone; perseverence and energetic progressiveness, not alone in his own affairs, but those of a civic character. Thus it is that this veteran of the World war is rendering in times of peace a valued service in conducting an honorable business undertaking and giving support to his home community, just as he did when this country was in the throes of war, and he donned its uniform.

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


Deb Murray