The Elektron Building

by Tom Castaldi

Designed by Fort Wayne architects John Wing and Marshall Mahurin, the Elektron Building at 215 East Berry Street was erected in 1895.  Many John F. Wing and Marshall S. Mahurin buildings stand today as landmark structures throughout Indiana and Ohio.  Specializing in the popular Richardsonian Romanesque, Queen Anne and neoclassical styles of architecture, they designed many public and private buildings in Indiana and Ohio.  Locally some of their more important buildings include: Allen County City Hall now the home of the Allen County Fort Wayne History Center; John H. Bass’ “Brookside” Mansion in the heart of the University of Saint Francis campus, as well as several houses in the West Central Historic District.  

 

The Elektron Building on the right as seen from the History Center. Also in the photo are the Lincoln Tower, PNC Buidling and the Anthony Wayne Building. The Allen County Court House is slightly visible through the tree.

The name "Elektron" inscribed on the cornice at the top of the building reflected the business interests in early electrical engineering of the principal owner of the building, Ronald T. McDonald, a founder of the Fort Wayne Jenney Electric Light Co.

McDonald, born in 1849 in his native state of Pennsylvania, moved to Fort Wayne in 1860.  As a lad he served as a drummer boy in the Civil War before returning to Fort Wayne to work in a retail dry goods store.  Later he met James Jenney, who had invented an arc light, and although a pioneer in the technology, was having trouble attracting buyers.  McDonald arranged for a demonstration for public officials and the arc light caught on elsewhere and Jenney Electric Light Company was formed with McDonald as its president.

From 1898 to 1902 the Elektron Building served as the Allen County Courthouse during construction of the present courthouse.  In 1904, a grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation made possible the community’s first public library and the Elektron served as the home of the Allen Country Public Library while the permanent facility was being built.  In 1912, the seven year-old Lincoln National Life Insurance Company purchased the building, which it occupied until 1923 when a new Lincoln National Life building was completed on Harrison Street.  The interior of the Elektron building was remodeled into law offices in 1986.

Originally published in Fort Wayne Magazine

 “Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” – August 2007 No. 35

Allen County Historian Tom Castaldi is author of the Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series; hosts “On the Heritage Trail,” which is broadcast at 6:35 a.m., 8:35 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Mondays on WBOI, 89.1 FM; and “Historia Nostra” heard on WLYV-1450 AM and WRRO 89.9 FM. Enjoy his previously published columns on the History Center’s blog, “Our Stories,” at history centerfw.blogspot.com.

Finding Benjamin – Connecting Past and Present at the Genealogy Center

Today's blog comes from Carmen Hamilton, a history major at IPFW. 

 by Carmen Hamilton

History at its finest is a good story, the kind you stay up all night reading. A story is only as good as its ability to reach the listener on a personal level, and to fall in love with history is to make a connection that transcends time and geography.  I’ll explain how I found that connection, right here in Fort Wayne, and why I feel so many young people haven’t been able to do the same.

Benjamin F. Wallace is my answer when anyone asks where my interest in history came from. He was born in Vermont in 1834, and died there in 1853, just eighteen years old.  I was born in Indiana, in 1991. Our lives are separated by nearly 140 years and 800 miles, give or take, but they overlapped in a unique way during my sixth-grade year.  I remember stumbling upon his tombstone in the woods near my house in rural Noble Country, clearing away creeping vines to read the words, tracing the letters with my fingers to decipher them:

BENJAMIN F.

son of

Seth and Desire

WALLACE

Died Jan. 3, 1853

Aged 18 yrs. 2 mon.

For me and my friends, the finding provided ample fodder for our active imaginations. We formulated dozens of scenarios surrounding Benjamin and what might have caused him to die so young. He could have been ill, or he could have been killed in a duel – slain by a rival while fighting for his sweetheart’s hand. There were whispers of murder, but this version was a little too scary to imagine further. We felt sorry for the stone, alone in the woods with no visitors. One day, we left flowers. A week later, they were gone…replaced by a folded sheet paper, which turned out be a photocopied newspaper article, headlined: 

Monolith Haunts I&M Basement

The article revealed that the tombstone had been discovered in the basement of the since closed I&M building, located on the Main Street of Kendallville (about 30 minutes north of Fort Wayne).  According to the article, the tombstone was not made of mineral located in the area, nor had anyone of that name died in Kendallville. Instead, the stone had been transported all the way from Vermont, presumably by horse-drawn-cart. How and why these events took place were lost to history, or at least not mentioned in the newspaper.  Weeks after the building’s closure, the stone had appeared mysteriously in my neighbor’s yard, who guessed it had been left as a prank. He, too, felt sorry for Benjamin, and decided to place the stone in a peaceful spot in the woods. 

For me, this development stirred up more questions than answers. I felt like Nancy Drew with a mystery to solve, unsure of where to look for clues. A few weeks later, I came across a brochure for The Genealogy Center in the Allen Country Public Library. The center boasts one of the largest genealogical research collections in the nation, and offers access to the records of Ancestry.com.

On my first of many visits, I found out that numerous people named Benjamin Wallace had lived in Vermont, but only one had been born to Seth and Desire, and had died in 1853 at age eighteen. This was my Benjamin – no longer a name carved on a cold slab of stone, but a real person. I learned that he was one of seven brothers, all of whom had died before the age of twenty-five. He was descended on his mother’s side from English immigrants who arrived to Connecticut in the 1640’s.

Unfortunately, this little information was all I could unearth, and much of Benjamin’s story – such as how and why his headstone came to be in Indiana – remains a mystery. However, the investigation itself had opened my eyes to world of genealogy. If I could research the life of someone I’d never met, why not research my own relatives? With the help of older family members and the staff of the Genealogy Center, I began to piece together my own family history.

Centuries ago, my ancestors were scattered across Europe, North America, and even Africa. They were among the first immigrants to settle in colonial America, and also among the natives, waiting on the shore of that new world. In the American Revolution, one fought for independence of a new nation, while another defended ties to his home country – both died for their cause, never knowing which side would win, or that they would one day share a descendent. In the Civil War, my ancestors wore both blue and grey: one was a plantation owner, another, his slave, and yet another, an abolitionist who assisted the efforts of the Underground Railroad. 

As I learned their stories, my ancestors, like Benjamin, became more that names on paper. Some of their stories made me happy, while others brought tears to my eyes; some made me proud, and others made me wonder.  I felt I had met not only my ancestors, but myself in a new and deeper way. I am more than a small-town, Indiana girl: I am a dreamer and a sailor, an explorer and a native, a redcoat and a patriot, a slave and a captor, a Yankee and a rebel, with the blood of three continents and many nationalities running through my veins.  It wasn’t until I learned where I came from that I truly appreciated who I was, or knew where I wanted to go.

For me, the vital connection between past and present had been made at the Genealogy Center, sparking a lifelong passion for history. Unfortunately, numerous young people have been unable to make this connection, and therefore feel less than enthusiastic about the subject. For most, the aversion can be traced to high school, where students were expected to memorize key dates, names, and facts, but never learned how the events of the past relate to their lives and the world they live in.

While passion for his subject is desirable in an educator, many teachers are so in love with history that they forget they’re addressing people who are not. The best way to hold an audience’s interest in history is to present it in the form of a story. When properly framed, there is potential for action, horror, mystery, and drama. Historical figures are recognized as individuals with genuine emotions, strengths, and weaknesses. Their lives and their challenges were real, and the impact of their decisions ripples into the world today. Students will begin to care when they can trace causes and effects over several generations. And once they care, the memorization of important dates, names, and events will no longer seem a burden.

I would also encourage educators to introduce their classes to the Fort Wayne History Center and the ACPL Genealogy Center. Both are treasure troves of local and family history that can make the subject instantly more relateable to students. This was the case, at least for me. My ancestors may not have been kings, or inventors, or military heroes, but as I study the times in which they lived, I hear their names echoed in a professor’s lecture, their stories whispered in a textbook’s pages, their strangely familiar voices, calling from the past.

Some final thoughts on history & your family

With the holiday break almost upon us and the threat of some pretty crummy weather to go with it, here are some final ideas on studying American history via your family’s history.

Get out a map of the United States and plot all of the places where family members have lived or live now. See how spread out they all are and then study the history of those areas. For example, if you come from the Great Plains as I do, what was going on when your family made it to Nebraska (my home state). I could easily ask, “Do you know anything about the Oregon Trail? The Plum Creek Massacre? General Stephen Kearny?”

It may take a little work, but the public library will be open the day after Christmas and the internet is always open, so explore and learn something about your country.

Have each family member make a timeline of their lives and then add in important dates from American history. This is a great project when you have the whole clan together because you will span a great deal of the last century and all of  this one. In my case, that would mean Sputnik, the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, Watergate, the Civil Rights Movement, a man on the moon,…..well, you get the drift.

This activity can spark some really interesting conversations about childhoods that the kids will LOVE because it makes the adults in their lives more human. If there’s someone in the family who’s good at this, create an entire family timeline as the basis for a multi-month study in 2013.

Some families make quilts together, some create photo albums. One of my husband’s cousins-in-law is a professional photographer and after most family get togethers we receive an album in the mail of pictures Kim has taken. It’s a great way to preserve family memories, even more so this year for the Bonnen’s as it was the last Thanksgiving in the family homestead before it goes on the market.

One suggestion from the book we’ve been using for these blog posts – “My History is America’s History” – is to create a family museum. I’ll let you decide if you want to do this with “stuff” or photos (which you should take of family treasures any way), but it is a neat idea because you’ll likely be surprised at what other family members value.

Investigate genealogy resources and start working on your family tree. As we’ve said before, we’re lucky in Allen County to have our genealogy department at the downtown public library. It doesn’t get any better than that. But there are also www.ancestry.com, www.myhistory.org and www.usgenweb.org to help along the way and get you started.

And if you’re hunting for a unique gift for someone, why not write down a story about that person and send it them? If you have a particular memory of an event in someone’s life such as a graduation, award they received or a special vacation, share your impressions. As you grow older, send your children photos from their childhood. They’d probably like to have some of those when they become adults.

Finally, I must put in a plug for the History Center and our programs. Even if you didn’t grow up in Allen County, Indiana, the history of this area is a microcosm of American history that is unrivaled. Visit the museum and see our new exhibition gallery “Allen County Innovation”, attend our lectures, come out to the Chief Richardville House this summer. You will be amazed at what you will learn.

Charles Case: Political Leader, Congressman, Civil War Officer

In the decade leading up to the Civil War, Charles Case, Fort Wayne attorney, politician, and U.S. Congressman, was at the forefront of debates over the extension of slavery and the rights of black Americans.  At home and as U.S. Congressman for the 10th District, he consistently argued against the Kansas Nebraska Act that would allow slaveholders to move into western territories.  He spoke out for his belief that the Declaration of Independence ensured black Americans freedom and basic rights of citizenship.  He risked his political career, then his life to defend what he believed were the highest principles of our free democracy.

Born in 1817 in Ashtabula County, part of the massive Ohio Western Reserve, Charles Case was destined to champion social reforms.  People on the Reserve valued good schools and lively political debate.  They also welcomed some of the earliest New England missionaries who led the movement to end American slavery.

Ashtabula County was also home to future national antislavery leaders.  As Case grew to manhood, Joshua Giddings was beginning his first term as U.S. Representative.  Case studied law in Jefferson, the county seat, with Benjamin Wade, the future Republican leader of the U.S. Senate.  Wade was then beginning his career in the Ohio legislature leading efforts to repeal laws discriminating against black Americans.  In 1848 Case joined Giddings in forming the new Free Soil Party to block efforts to allow slavery into western territory.

In 1850, at the age of 33, Case moved to Fort Wayne to practice law in our rapidly growing canal town.  He served on the town's first school board and led an unsuccessful effort to fund building the first public school.  Along with other reformers who were concerned about widespread alcohol abuse, he joined in the emerging temperance movement.  When Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Case joined the groundswell of opposition to the spread of slavery.

I first became aware of Charles Case when I discovered microfilm of "The Fort Wayne Standard" in the Allen County Public Library.  Case served as its antislavery editor during its first months in the summer of 1854 when he and other local leaders formed a new opposition political party, the People's Party.  For the next year, "The Standard" became the most forceful antislavery newspaper in Indiana.  Case wrote about fugitive slave cases and challenged people to understand the hypocrisy of slavery in a so-called free democracy.  He covered the political campaigns of Samuel Brenton, the Methodist clergyman who represented our district in Congress and national political debates. 

Case gained further public recognition during the summer of 1855.  A man from Ohio who was described as a "mulatto" (mixed race) was arrested under the provisions of the 1851 revised Indiana Constitution that banned all people of color from coming into Indiana.  His arrest brought about one of the most dramatic tests of Fort Wayne's willingness to enforce legal restrictions against black Americans.  Case along with Lindley M. Ninde, another forceful antislavery leader, took on the well publicized case and won broad support for its dismissal.

When Samuel Brenton died in March 1857, Case was nominated by the newly formed Republican Party to complete Brenton's term as U.S. Representative in the 35th Congress.  Despite the strength of Allen County's Democratic Party, Case won solid support from voters in the large 10th Congressional District in the special election.  He did not shy away from his record as an outspoken opponent to slavery, even though his reputation as an abolitionist was a political liability.  He argued that the federal government had the responsibility for blocking the spread of slavery.  In October 1858, Case was re-elected, now to the 36th Congress.

Case's record in local newspapers and "The Congressional Globe" document his consistent efforts to limit slavery to the South, despite astonishing pressure to compromise in order to prevent war.  Along with other antislavery leaders, he was labeled as a "Black Republican."  He was shunned not only by Democrats but also by more moderate Republicans.  As civil war broke out in Kansas and violence erupted on the floors of Congress, Case held on to his uncompromising principles.  On the eve of the Civil War, Case and other Radical Republicans helped elect Abraham Lincoln and build the backbone of the Republican Party that encouraged more moderate Republicans to resist compromise.

In the months following Lincoln's election in 1860 prior to his inauguration in March 1861, the nation was in a state of panic.  Seven states from the deep South left the Union.  Case was harshly attacked in local newspapers for his unwillingness to try to bring these states back and prevent further seccession.  In vote after vote Case supported the policies of the President elect.  Although Case's principles had cost him re-election to a third term he had helped ensure the promises of a free nation.

In 1861, at the age of 44, Case helped organize the 44th Indiana Volunteer Infantry and served as its adjutant general.  With the 44th, he fought at Fort Donelson and Shiloh.  Until his health was finally broken, he served as colonel of the 129th Infantry during Sherman's campaign through Georgia.  After the Civil War he practiced law in Fort Wayne, then in New Orleans.  He spent his final years in Washington, D.C. He was buried in Washington"s Congressional Cemetery.

As people in Fort Wayne chose to forget the Civil War and struggles of black Americans for full citizenship, Charles Case became lost in memory.  Few monuments to Union soldiers were put up to remind us of their sacrifices and of why they fought.  Now 150 years later, it's appropriate to recover a leader who so skillfully and forcefully articulated the struggle for a better future.  We can try to imagine him at work in the second floor office of "The Standard" along Columbia Street (a block that has long disappeared).  We can envision political rallies with brass bands and torch light parades in front of his home at the corner of West Wayne and Van Buren Streets.  We can look back on the presidency of Abraham Lincoln as one of our country's greatest tests of survival.  Case's astonishing record as a leader from Northeast Indiana helps us understand this important time.

[Research note:  For further reading, see newspaper microfilm at ACPL for "Gazette" Feb.27, 1873;  "Daily Gazette" July 2, 1883; and "News-Sentinel"  July 14, 1926.  See also author, "Charles Case:  A Radical Republican in the Irrepressible Conflict" in Dec. 2011 Indiana Magazine of History.]

Imogene's Last Stand

Imogene Tripp is no ordinary little girl.

Imogene Tripp loves history and isn’t afraid to tell the world.

Imogene Tripp sets out to save her town’s historical society and save it she does in the wonderful children’s book “Imogene’s Last Stand”.

Lettie Haver of the Paul Clarke Non-Profit Resource Center, located in the main branch of the Allen County Public Library, showed me this book on Friday while we were visiting about the History Center, this blog and ways to tell our story to those who have yet to discover all of the wonderful facets of our museum’s work.

Lettie’s slightly younger than me--actually, I’m old enough to be her mother—and we had a good discussion about how we tend to view history. For me, the Vietnam War was a part of growing up and had a major impact on how I view government, politics and civic involvement. For her, it’s history.

Why do we teach history in our schools? My home state of Nebraska is looking at a re-evaluation of social studies curriculums. See http://www.omaha.com/article/20120108/NEWS01/701089897

Here’s a good question to get a conversation rolling: What’s the purpose of teaching social studies in our schools?

As a mother of young children and a library employee, Lettie knows the value of parents using the library to teach children about their world. Imogene’s story was a recent hit at her house and so we walked down to the children’s section to pull the volume from the shelves. (And if you’re an adult with adult children…or no children…and have not been into the children’s department at ACPL, do yourself a favor and make a side trip. The place is amazing.)

Winter is a good time to curl up with a book. Why not make it a book about history?

One of the facets of motherhood I enjoyed the most was learning new things with my son. It’s good for kids to have parents who spark an interest in learning and intellectual growth and a public library is a good place to start. Check out (figuratively and literally) the ACPL’s children’s section to see what books you discover on history and do a little reading.

The History Center’s got a great selection of books for all ages about history in our gift shop too.

Imogene Tripp will introduce you to Abraham Lincoln, The Oregon Trail, Davy Crockett, William Morris (who was new to me, so see…you’re never too old to learn something new), John Paul Jones, Paul Revere, Teddy Roosevelt, Chief Joseph, Vietnam War Protestors, Martin Van Buren (I learned something about him I didn’t know before), Eleanor Roosevelt and Dr. Martin Luther King.

Although I don’t agree with King 100% on this…here’s a quote by King that appears in Imogene’s book that you can ponder:

“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”

Imogene’s Last Stand was written by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. Copyright 2009. Schwartz and Wade Books, a division of Random House Children’s Books. www.randomhouse.com/kids

Council of Defense documents provide insight into Allen County during WW I

By Nancy McCammon-Hansen

Civic involvement took a unique turn in Allen County during World War I and recent work by two volunteers provides us with organized documentation to showcase this part of our city’s history.

Jeanne S. Miller and Lorraine H. Weier spent the better part of two years going through our collection of documents from the Allen County Council of Defense (COD), indexing the materials and creating 38 categories so that researchers can more easily find the information they need. The ten boxes of files and the resultant inventory list are now under review by our curator, Walter Font.

Both of these women enjoy Allen County history—Jeanne is a life-long Allen County resident and Laurie has lived here 53 years. This is not the first time they’ve worked on a project together—in fact, it’s the third! Going through massive amounts of paper can be “tedious, dull work” (their words, not this author’s) but they will readily share that the work can some days be fascinating, especially when the opportunity to compare “history” to today presents itself.

The Allen County COD was formed at the behest of the state, which had a state-level organization organized by the United States Council of Defense. The COD was formed by decree of President Woodrow Wilson shortly before the United States entered the WW I. Ultimately, there were national, state, county and township councils.

The Allen County Council “did about everything” according to Jeanne and Laurie, with members who “served voluntarily way past the end of the war. They were prominent citizens who had the time, talent and expertise to do the tasks that supported the war effort.”

Propaganda—on both sides of the war effort—was used by the COD to restrict Germans in their support of the homeland and to promote to “everyone to get on board and support the war effort.”

Fund raising was, as today, a part of the job with a surprising amount of money raised in Liberty bonds and for the Red Cross. Prominent male residents would go to movie theaters to promote the buying of bonds.

Also important to the war effort was the promotion of fair pricing of food stuffs and other vital materials. Farmers were encouraged to produce more crops due to famine in Europe and the Boys Working Reserve was formed to “employ” young men not old enough for the armed services but strong enough to be of service to farmers. A farming background helped, but even city dwellers were encouraged to apply and work for “a pittance”. Jeanne and Laurie found folders full of applications, cards and signatures as well as advice to farmers.

However, no African Americans were allowed to participate in the area’s farming. Integration was not yet a part of our culture. Jeanne and Laurie commented during the interview for this article that among the papers they were sorting was a slip of paper that discussed “black” soldiers not being able to attend local movie theaters and a proposal to change this policy. But they could not find any documentation that the policy was ever changed.

All policies were set at the national level. Jeanne and Laurie were surprised at how much money was raised locally for implementation of those policies as well as the number of citizens who were involved in this war-time effort.

A good example of basic needs by our military was a memo from then Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt requesting that Americans contribute telescopes and binoculars to the Navy, which was unprepared to join in the fighting.

Fort Wayne during WW I was a very ethnic community comprised of a number of German immigrants, many of whom had not acquired US citizenship. One of the more interesting facts discovered during the cataloging of the COD materials was the attempt to forbid teaching and preaching in German. Lists of young people in German language congregations were developed and boys in particular were identified by age group.

The Allen County Public Library was given a list of books that were to be removed from the shelves. They complied.

The result of compliance to COD activities most often occurred through social coercion. You didn’t want to be seen as disloyal and pressure came from neighbor to neighbor to be a good American. People seemed more willing to go along with whatever the Federal government decreed, especially when it came to restrictions on rationing of items such as sugar and wheat as well as building materials.

In this election year it’s important to note that a major effort was made to get servicemen to vote absentee.

In an age where technology was not particularly well advanced, telegrams were the most often used method of communication.

Jeanne and Laurie will tell you that handling original documents almost a century old is a “privilege” and that history “comes alive” when you see the actual words of real people living in a particular age. Walter Font, the History Center’s curator, served as advisor for the project.

“He’s a true professional who knows his business,” said Jeanne. Laurie added that “Walter’s insight on how to make the material available and how to label folders so people can easily find what they’re looking for” were critical to the success of putting the collection into a usable form for researchers.