Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1897 — LATE PETER E. STUDEBAKER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LATE PETER E. STUDEBAKER.

He Began Hie Business Career as a Peddler and Died a Millionaire. Peter E. Studebaker, one of the millionaire Wagenmakers of South Bend, Ind., who dhsl recently at Alma, Mich., whither he had gone to improve his health, was born April 1, 1836, in Ashland County, O. His parents were poor and his youth was spent amid the humblest surroundings. As a boy. he carried the eggs and butter in w|iich his mother dealt from his home _to tte storekeepers’. AL 15 he became a elerlfc In five years he saved $l5O. Then he bought a peddler's outfit and traveled through the country, selling dry goods and notions. Meanwhile his brothers had started in the manufacture of wagons on a small scale and when they secured a

contract from the Government to build some wagons their business icceivcd such an impetus that they called their brother into the partnership. Prosperity continued to eonie their way and eventually they had the largest manufacturing institution of its kind in the world and the three brothers wore millionaires. Peter Studebaker took an active interest in public affairs and was more or less intimately associated with Indiana polities, though he never sought office. One of the noteworthy incidents of his life was the erection of a monument over the unmarked grave of Lincoln’s mother, in Spencer County, Ind.

PETER E. STUD?DAKER.