Dearly Departed 2014

by Nancy McCammon-Hansen

Saturday is Dearly Departed at Lindenwood Cemtery, located on the west end of Main Street. This free program runs from 2 to 5 p.m. and features a look at some of Fort Wayne’s more notable residents who are buried there AND....have streets named for them. 

You can read more about my love of studying history through headstones at http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2012/05/history-and-headstones-celebrating.html but for now, here’s a look at who will be featured in this year’s tour.

Dearly Departed is sponsored by ARCH with assistance from the History Center.

Harry W. Baals - Section C, Lot 14 Most newcomers to Fort Wayne, or those not familiar with the city’s past, will remember the name Harry Baals as a suggestion for the name of what is now Citizen’s Square. Baals was mayor of Fort Wayne and a former postmaster. One of Baals’ major accomplishments was to garner Federal funds for various city projects in a time when a Republican office holder (1935) had a harder time than he would have today. But Baals was successful and the city was able to undergo street construction, improvements to the City Light and Powerworks and the erection of a $5 million sewage treatment plant.

Sylvanus F. Bowser - Section I, Lot 7 Bowser founded the S.F. Bowser Company in 1885 on Creighton Avenue (the former police station was in the building until moving into the Rousseau Center). Bowser’s design for a water pump eventually led to the invention of the gasoline pump. To learn more about Sylvanus Bowser, go to our blog and read: http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2012/08/sylvanus-bowser.html

Joseph Brackenridge - Section J, Lot 86 Brackenridge was a judge, first appointed to the Courts of Common Pleas in 1857. He ran for re-election in 1858 and 1860 and served until 1864. Brackenridge had been a Circuit Court Judge in 1846 and was Allen County Prosecuting Attorney from 1846-1851.

Louis Curdes - Section I, Lot 21 Lt. Louis Curdes was Fort Wayne’s first WWII ace, piloting a P-38 Lockheed Lightning. On April 29, 1943, he was attacked by a dozen German planes. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was involved in other major battles, was shot down over Italy and taken prisoner, escaping and reaching Allied lines. He was then assigned to the Pacific theater and achieved the distinction of being only one of three airmen to destroy German, Italian and Japanese aircraft.

Captain Asa Fairfield - Section B, Lot 114 Much of the property south of Creighton was once owned by Fairfield as part of his farm. This property was annexed in 1894 and made a part of the city. Fairfield was a former sea captain who moved to Fort Wayne from Maine in 1835. He constructed the first boat to operate on the canal.

Oscar G. Foellinger - Section A, Lot 90 The Foellingers were one of the most influential German-American families in Fort Wayne in the 20^th century. Oscar became general manager of The News in 1906, after joining the company only twelve years prior as a junior accountant. Oscar died unexpectedly in 1936 on a hunting trip in Canada and his daughter Helene became publisher. The Foellinger Foundation is a lasting legacy of this family and a tribute to Oscar’s campaign to “Build Fort Wayne”.

Colonel David N. Foster -  Section G, Lot 178 Foster was one of the owners of the Foster Shirtwaist Factory. You can see a shirtwaist in our gallery Allen County Innovation. Foster and his brother Samuel donated the land where Foster Park now is located near Bluffton and Old Mill Roads between 1912 and 1913. This occurred as part of a move to improve the overall appearance of Fort Wayne and followed upon George Kessler’s plans for beautification.

John B. Franke - Section I, Lot 59 Franke was the founder of Perfection Biscuit Company in 1901. Franke donated the 80 acres of land on North Sherman for the park that bears his name.

Bert J. Griswold - Section I, Lot 34 If you’re a reader of the Old Fort News, the magazine published by the Historical Society, you’ve likely seen a Griswold cartoon. You’ll find a number of his illustrations in the two-part “History of Fort Wayne” that is for sale in our gift shop. Griswold was the author of “A Pictorial History of Fort Wayne” published in 1917. You can see his portrait in the stairwell at the History Center or on our blog at http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2014/09/portraits-in-grand-staircase.html

Olaf N. Guldlin - Section G, Lot 174 Guldlin Park is named for Olaf in one book and another says the park was named for his wife. Olaf outfitted the children’s playground at this park at  his own expense. The play equipment was later destroyed by river ice one winter. Olaf was married to Addie Bleekman Guldin, who was a major advocate for the establishment of playgrounds for children. See http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2013/04/signs-of-history-times.html and http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2011/03/addie-bleekman-guldlin-notable-reformer.html

Allen & Emerine Jane Hamilton - Section H, Lot 27 Allen was a sheriff in 1824 shortly after Allen County was formed. He formed a partnership with Chief Richardville and amassed a great deal of wealth through land purchases from Richardville’s land reserve. He became postmaster in 1828 and joined with other “civic leaders” in businesses. Hamilton is said to have fraudulently acquired some of his land. Emerine Hamilton, Allen’s wife, took an active interest in the promotion of women’s rights, particularly as they related to ownership of property and the abolishment of “legislative divorces” that allowed men to divorce their wives and take their possessions. She was a friend of Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony and pressed the issue of suffrage at First Presbyterian Church. At Emerine’s urging, Allen “introduced a motion in the Presbyterian assembly that ‘the ladies be allowed to vote on the question before the meeting’.” This was not a popular position to take at the time but the Hamiltons prevailed, women gained voting privileges and Elder James Robinson, who vehemently opposed the measure, left the congregation.

Samuel Hanna - Section B, Lots 60 & 61 Hanna was an influential businessman in the early days of Fort Wayne and opened a trading post at the corner of what would become Barr and Columbia Streets in 1819. He was a long-time investor in his adopted cit. You can see his portrait in the stairwell at the History Center or by reading http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2014/09/portraits-in-grand-staircase.html Hanna was highly in favor of a canal linking Fort Wayne with the Great Lakes. He became a canal commissioner in 1828. Land values in Fort Wayne increased and Hanna gained wealth by being a major purchaser of property. See also http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2013/07/samuel-hanna-founder-of-fort-wayne.html

William Rockhill - Section F, Lot 5 Rockhill was prominent in Fort Wayne in the same time period as Hanna. Rockhill’s land holdings eventually became the West Central neighborhood which at one time was the most prestigious spot in Fort Wayne in which to own a residence. The Rockhill House hotel, built in 1840, was considered the most elegant building in Fort Wayne during its heyday.

Henry W. Rudisill - Section H, Lot 1 Rudisill, a contemporary of Hanna and Rockhill,  built a flour mill on the St. Joseph River. He later constructed a major woolen mill for carding of wool into yarn. Rudisill was instrumental in urging John Barr to bring German immigrants to the city to work. In 1841, Rudisill and S.C. Freeman joined forces to create a regulator group after a number of citizens expressed frustration with the local marshal. The Wayne Guards were short-lived and just one of many groups that tried to bring law and order to the city.

Colonel Thomas Swinney - Section D, Lot 86 Swinney built a federal-style mansion near the St. Mary’s River which still stands today and is the home of The Settlers. The house was the original location of the Historical Society. Swinney is also remembered as a farmer, speculator and entrepreneur. The grounds of the Allen County Fair were once located on a part of Swinney’s farm property. See the blog post http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-short-historical-tour-of-central-fort.html and also http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2014/04/swinney-home.html

Information for this blog post comes from The History of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Indiana and Twentieth Century History of Fort Wayne by John Ankenbruck

Sylvanus Bowser

The more deeply you delve into Fort Wayne and Allen County history, the more you realize what a truly unique heritage this city holds. When our new gallery, Allen County Innovation, opens this fall, you’ll have a chance to take a closer look at the products developed and produced here and the people behind them. Their ingenuity is remarkable and made a lasting impact on our lives.

A number of these people have been profiled in the Old Fort News over the years and so in this blog post we quote from an article by Richard V. Pierard that appeared in Volume 26, Issue 4, in 1963. Its title is “Sylvanus Bowser”.

Bowser grew up with 12 siblings. He was born north of Fort Wayne, lived for a short time in Kansas and had very little education since the bulk of his childhood was spent in manual labor helping to support the family. At age 13 he joined a Sunday School class in the neighborhood and competed with the other students who were vying to win a gilt-edged Bible with a gold clasp by memorizing the most Bible verses. Bowser prevailed, memorizing 654 verses, over 200 more than the second place finisher.

Armed with the knowledge that he had the intellect to learn, he talked his father into allowing him to attend school, which he did for three months and two weeks before he had to return to work to help the family finances. This was the end of his formal education but he continued on his own to practice reading, writing and arithmetic.

Bowser was a deeply religious man from a young age.

“Later in life he testified that when he was about eighteen years old, in a vision one Sunday on the way home from church, God had called him to preach. He replied to God that he was unable to do this because he only had two weeks and three months of schooling, and he had to care for his parents, two brothers, and a sister. Then, the ‘torment’ in his soul left him. This decision, however, did not prevent him from being deeply involved with religious activities throughout the remainder of his life.”

Bowser married in 1876 and supported his family as a traveling salesman for several companies. But he fell into debt, deeded the family home to his creditors and moved his family to smaller quarters. He also suffered a breakdown, “probably due to overwork”, and was unable to function as a full-time employee due to “nervous spells which unfitted him for work for three or four days at a time”.

His life changed dramatically in the early morning hours of a wintry day in 1885. Before heading off to his travels as a salesman, he had drawn a day’s supply of water for his wife. While on the road, he began thinking of a method to more easily draw water by bucket from the 70 foot deep well. He shared the idea with brother Augustus who consulted with a mechanic friend who declared the idea impossible.

Bowser, however, thought he was onto something and decided that oil might be easier to deliver with his system. Since most grocery stores also sold kerosene that was stored in tanks often in basement corners, he believed his invention had a future. Ever the sales person, he approached his customers and ended up with five orders for a product that did not exist! Spurred on by this success, he convinced his brother Alexander and his nephew Allen to assist him in his work. Three months later, the first completed order was delivered on September 5, 1885 to Jake Gumpper, a Fort Wayne grocer. Gumpper’s store was chosen for the first pump because Bowser was broke and needed credit for groceries at Gumpper’s store.

The business grew, however, and on July 1, 1888, he organized S.F. Bowser and Company.

“Bowser had opened the door to the production of modern liquid fuel handling devices by his invention. The significant difference between his kerosene pump and its predecessors was that his was a self-measuring pump. That is, it would deliver an accurately measured quart, half-gallon, or any other particular quantity of oil desired by means of simple strokes of the handle. This meant an end to the messy measuring out of oil by hand, and it lessened the possibility of a storekeeper cheating his customers by giving the purchaser less than the full amount of oil for which he paid. The present-day gasoline pump evolved from this rudimentary pump and tank outfit.”

By 1894, Bowser’s company was one of the leading industries in Fort Wayne. Despite a fire, the company continued to grow. Newly constructed facilities were not, however, insured for fire and in 1897 another fire broke out on Christmas morning, destroying not only buildings but product ready for shipment. So rebuilding began again and all was fine until 1898 when “some of the ‘most trusted employees misused the company’s funds’ and put it in a ‘very bad financial condition’.” Reorganization followed and on April 17, 1899, the company incorporated.

“The main products of the company were various types of oil handling equipment. They included such items as storage tanks, siphons, oil cabinets, pumps, lubricating oil facilities, etc. The early catalogues offered the public a wide variety of these items to fit nearly every oil handling need. Around the turn of the century, Bowser Company produced such items as dust pans, ratchet screw drivers, and wash boards, but the making of these was later discontinued. With the advent of the automobile, S.F. Bowser and Company began pioneering in the invention and production of gasoline handling equipment for both home and public garages, and later for public filling stations.”

Twenty years after its founding, sales reached a million dollars and ten years later six and a half million. Branch offices were opened in the US, Canada, Europe, South America and Australia.

Bowser saw himself as responsible for his employees and their welfare, establishing the Bowser Employees Relief Union in 1908. This provided sick, accident and death benefits for members at a low premium. The company donated $10,000 as the beginning capital.

He also provided a large company picnic each year at Winona Lake where he owned a cottage. The crowd of people attending was so large that one year two, twelve-car trains were required to carry the 1200 people the forty mile distance to the picnic site. Bowser also built a playground for the neighborhood children who lived near his plant.

Bowser sought to influence the spiritual lives of his workers, inviting two evangelists—M.H. Lyon and Billy Sunday—to his plant in 1915 to talk with workers on company time. He ‘forbade drinking, smoking, dancing, etc., as he genuinely felt they were harmful to the men.”

Bowser’s company supported the war effort not only because he felt it the right thing to do, but also because WWI helped the company to grow. By the end of the war, this man, once a poverty-stricken salesman, was worth at least $4 million.

Bowser was described as courageous, far-seeing, cheerful, tireless, determined, optimistic, hard working, a risk taker, honest, and inventive. In 1907 he patented two massage devices and a third in 1910. All worked on the principle of rollers. He retired in 1922 and continued to work on his inventions.

Bowser had a “strong religious bent. By the time he had reached middle age, religion was the dominant feature of his character. However, this was not by any means a superficial or mystical type of experience. His relationship with God was vivid and personal, and his religious expression came from a sincere heart. It is quite important not to underestimate the influence which religion had in his life as it was the motivating force behind his optimism, willingness to work, and paternalism.”

But the future was not a rosy one for Bowser and his company. He had competition from rivals like the Wayne Pump Company and the Tokheim Company, both based in Fort Wayne. Bowser built a new office building in 1917, which quickly grew in cost to three times the original estimate of $350,000. This was capital that could have been used for other purposes.

“By 1919 the company employees had become dissatisfied with Bowser’s paternalistic policies. Moreover, he had a strong dislike for unions and would not recognize one in his factory. This did not please the men. On May 19, 1919 a shop committee presented some written demands to the company which it refused. One week later, the committee firmly declared that either the company would accept the demands immediately, or a strike would be called. The company countered with a lockout on May 28.”

The plant reopened a few days later with non-striking employees and strike breakers. The company set about hiring new employees. But the business was not operating to peak capacity. A strike riot broke out at the plant on June 25 and several of those not on strike were attacked and injured. The company sought an injunction from the Allen County Circuit Court, barring strikers from interfering with non-strikers. The injunction also limited the number of picketers at the plant gates.

The strike drug on with more acts of violence and a few jail sentences for defying the injunction. The company continued to operate but the strike had taken its toll on the business and the company “lost heavily, both in money and prestige…”.

Bowser had set up the Bowser Loan and Trust Company at this time to help employees buy their own homes. He built another building for this part of the company.

The company continued to struggle but by 1923 sales had risen to $12 million a year and the plant produced its one millionth pump that year also.

But Bowser was aging and his health failing. He retired as company president on January 1, 1922. He contracted diabetes and dropped many of his pursuits including the board of Bowser Loan and Trust. By 1931, however, he had found a physician who was able to assist him in becoming well enough to travel to Europe. But he eventually lost much of his fortune in the Depression and lost all of the control of the company he had founded when the corporation was reorganized.

As he aged, he became more and more eccentric and spent the remainder of his money and time on ”trips, inventions and agitation to reorganize the church”. By 1937, his health was better but his diabetes started to trouble him again the next year. He became confined to his home and died on October 3, 1938 at age 84. He is buried in Lindenwood Cemetery.

At the time of his death, Bowser had gone from being worth millions to an estate valued at $11,000.

 “He was indeed an unusual millionaire since he was able to spend almost all of his money before he died.”

There is a wonderful photo of Bowser in the latest edition of the Old Fort News. Pick up a copy in our gift shop today.