People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 27-25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1896 — GEORGE A. STRICKFADEN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GEORGE A. STRICKFADEN.

The subject of this sketch was born at Yorkville, Dearborn county, Ind., Feb. 2, 1858. His parents were poor and he had no advantages of education after his eleventh year and since that time he has made his own way in the world, working on a farm until he was eighteen years old. At that time he was made deputy sheriff of Dearborn county, by Sheriff Lou Weitzel, serving in that capacity for two years. He then spent six years in Champaign City, 111., in a hotel, working himself up from the position T of porter to practical manager of the home. After leaving the hotel he opened a billiard hall in Rantoul, 111., which he run for a short time, and then went to Crawfordsville, Ind., where he started a very tine barber shop. From Crawfordsville he came to Rensselaer, about ten years ago, and engaged in the retail liquor business. He has occupied several different places previous to the one in which he is now located, where he has been for over two years. Mr. Strickfaden has had many severe struggles with tickle fortune, and though always a hard worker, temperate and frugal, his disposition to be generous with others has often worked injustice to himself, and thus it was that when he came to Rensselaer ten ago he prepared to begin life anew. Certain it is that he has prospered here, ’ for from the small beginning he now has a magnificent bar and fixtures , the cost of which, including stock, exceeded $5,000. The saloon is the largest and finest in Northern Indiana, and has few equals in the larger cities of the state. Both the back and front bars are really very handsome, all of the fixtures are of cherry in the natural wood, the front bar having a mahogany top. The back bar is 18 feet long and the front

one twenty, the center mirror is a magnificent piece of French plate eight by twelve feet. The w T ork board is of copper and twenty fec+ long. The back bar is copper lined throughout. The refrigerator is large and set with fine French plate mirrors on three sides, and is one of the best that money could buy. A very attractive whiskey case greets the eye of the visitor us soon as he enters the office of the saloon, where also is set a handsome cigar case and desk, which is always at the seryice of patrons. There is also a good fireproof safe. For three years he has had the exclusive right for the storage of beer in the cold storage room at the creamery, where he places all that stock as soon as received, buying the same in car load lots. “The Mammoth,” the name of his saloon, is one hundred and ten feet long by thirty-three feet wide, being as large a saloon as there is in Indiana, perhaps the largest. It is heated by furnace and is always in a comfortable

condition.. The saloon proper is eighty by thirty-three feet, there being a billiard hall cut off from the. roar which since the. inauguration of the Nicholson law lias been rented to Conrad Kellner, bartender for Mr. Stiickfaden. These tables are the best that are made and greatly appreciated by the adepts who manipulate the ivories. Mr. Strickfaden is also engaged in teaming doing the most extensive business in this line in town, running three to four teams the greater part of the year He put in four miles of the gravel roads in Im!>4, in partnership with Charles J. Roberts. He did the principal part of the hauling of„ the rock and brick of the new school house, employing about fifteen teams for nearly two months. His teams furnished all the sand and gravel for the extensive system of cement walks and street crossings which have been put in during the last year.

He is also extensively engaged in farming and cattle feediug, operating 250 acres in corn and oats last year, besides ten acres in potatoes. All of these enterprises require the constant employment of from five to tdn men. He is now feeding about one load of cows, recently disposing of two prime loads. Last winter he delivered over 200 cords of wood in Rensselaer, and now has teams on the wood road, Last year Mr. Stric.kfaden erected an attractive dwelling on Cullen street, opposite the county jail, which lie has improved with cement walks, a good well, barn, etc., making a property valued at about #3,000. The home is nicely furnished and over by his esteemable wife, who, like her husband, has many warm friends in the community. ' , Mrs. Strickfaden wasMissLou Balliour of■Ghampaigh, Illinois, previous to her marriage with the subject of this article, an event that occurred about thirteen years ago. Their children are Mabel,' aged seven, and Edith, aged nine, bbsidos which they mourn the loss of four other children, their'youngest having died but a few weeks ago. George Stickfaden has the reputation of running an orderly place, and of keeping strictly within the law. It has been noticeably free from disturbances of any kind, and during the nine years and more of his residence in Rensselaer, there has been but one indictment found by the grand jury against his employees, and none against him, for any infraction of law. Appeals for subscription for charitable “purposes are never made to him in vain, and his donations for public enterprises amount to hundreds of dollars annually. Mr. Strickfaden is a man of integrity who esteems his word the equal of his bond.

RESIDENCE OF GEORGE A. STICKFADEN.

SALOON OF GEORGE A. STICKFADEN.

GEORGE A. STRICKFADEN.