From "Standard History of Adams & Wells Counties, Indiana,"
Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1918, pp. 931, 932.
JOHN HERBERT HELLER
John Herbert Heller, whose co-operation and direct assistance have contributed in great measure to the preparation of the history of Adams County, is editor and proprietor of the Decatur Daily Democrat and president of the Democrat Company. He is a native of Decatur, born in that city May 4, 1873.
His father, the late Judge Daniel David Heller, was born in Harrison County, Ohio, March 29, 1839, a son of Henry B. and Mary A. (Weyandt) Heller. The grandparents were natives of Greene County, Pennsylvania, but after their marriage made their permanent home in Harrison County, Ohio, where Henry B. Heller died in September 1881, and his wife in 1874.
Judge Heller grew up on a farm and was educated in the country schools of Ohio and at Hagerstown Academy. For several years he alternated between teaching and the study of law. In 1863 he was admitted to the bar of Ohio and in August of the same year located at Millersburg in that state. In 18867 he came to Decatur, Indiana, and was one of the prominent members of the bar for fifty years. In 1872 he was appointed county school examiner, and in 1873 was elected the first county superintendent of schools. He resigned the office after eighteen months. In 1887 he was elected mayor of Decatur for a term of two years. Subsequently he was called from his private practice to the office of judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial Circuit, and for twelve years presided with dignity and scholarly wisdom over this branch of the judiciary. His death occurred January 2, 1917. Judge Heller married July 15, 1869, Annie J. Corbus, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of John and Mary (Armstrong) Corbus. She is still living.
John Herbert Heller was educated in the local schools of Decatur, graduating from the high school in 1890. In 1886, at the age of thirteen, he began learning the printer’s trade with the old Decatur Journal. He worked at the trade when not in school for nine years, and at the same time carried on his law studies and was graduated from the Indianapolis Law School in 1897. In 1898 he became city editor of the Decatur Democrat, and has ever since been actively connected with that paper.
The Decatur Democrat is a lineal descendant of the old Decatur Eagle, which was founded in February, 1857, by H. L. Phillips. William G. Spencer was later a partner of Mr. Phillips and in 1859
They sold the business to A. J. Hill, who was its publisher for fifteen years. In November, 1874, the plant was bought by Joseph McGonagle, who changed the name to the Decatur Democrat. In 1879 S. Ray Williams became proprietor and in 1881 A. J. Hill again bought the paper and published it two years. In 1883 Norval Blackburn became the active factor in the management of the paper. In 1896 Mr. Blackburn sold his interest to Lew G. Ellingham, who was identified with the paper until he was elected secretary of the State of Indiana, and since June, 1916, on retiring from that office, Mr. Ellingham bought the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette and has been its editor.
In June, 1916, Mr. Heller bought the interest of Mr. Ellingham and became president of the company. When the company was first incorporated Mr. Heller acquired $10,000 of its stock and became secretary and manager. In 1903 he assisted in founding the Daily Democrat, which has been largely under his immediate management ever since. The Democrat was issued both as a weekly and daily until 1908, when the weekly issue was suspended. The Democrat has been built up until it now enjoys a circulation of 3,000 and has the tone and dignity of a metropolitan paper. It has a leased lien of the United Press for general news. The Democrat for many years has stood ably behind every movement for progress in Adams County, and when any enterprise worth while is launched there is no hesitation as to what stand the Democrat will take. Associated with Mr. Heller in the Democrat Company is Arthur R. Holthouse, secretary and treasurer of the company, and a newspaper man of much ability for one of his age.
Mr. Heller has taken an active part in politics but has never allowed his name to be connected with the candidacy for an office. In 1909 he was clerk in the Legislature and served as an alternate to the National Convention at Baltimore in 1912 and was a regular delegate to the convention at St. Louis in 1916. He was secretary of the Democratic State Convention of Indiana in 1912 and 1914. Mr. Heller is a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason with membership in the Consistory at Fort Wayne and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
November 29, 1899, he married Miss Martha A. Peterson. She graduated from the same class of the Decatur High School at Mr. Heller. Mrs. Heller is a daughter of Robert S. and Fannie (Kunkel) Peterson. Robert S. Peterson was born in St. Mary’s Township of Adams County, February 1, 1845, a son of John W. and Hannah (Smith) Peterson, who were married in Adams County in 1840. Robert S. Peterson saw active service as a Union soldier during the last year of the Civil war, later studied law with judge David Studabaker, and was admitted to the bar in 1868. He was for many years a prominent figure in the community, as a lawyer, banker and as a public spirited citizen. He was once a candidate for Congress in the old Eleventh District. He served as president of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Decatur for the five years before the adoption of a city charter in 1882, and is given credit for doing much to perfect the sewerage system of Decatur at that time. He also helped organize and secret the construction of the Narrow Gauge Railroad through the county, now the Clover Leaf system, and was also a stimulating factor in building the old Chicago & Atlantic, now the Erie Railway. Robert S. Peterson died in 1914, and his widow, whose maiden name was Fannie C. Kunkel, is still living in Decatur. Mr. And Mrs. Heller have two children, Fanny E. and Dick D. The former graduated with the class of 1918 in the Decatur High School and the latter is a junior in high school.
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