Source: Biographical Memoirs of Wabash County, Indiana (1901), 510-511.

DAYTON C. HARTER

Dayton C. Harter, cashier of the North Manchester bank and one of the city's most active business men, is a native of Wabash county, Ind., born in North Manchester on the 25th day of August, 1856. His parents were Jacob and Catherine (Cowgill) Harter, both natives of the state of Ohio, but for many years residents of Wabash county, where their only child, the subject of this sketch, grew to years of accountability.

Dayton C. Harter received a good education in the public schools of North Manchester and when a young man entered the employ of the C.,W. & M.R.R., now the Michigan division of the Big Four, in the capacity of station agent and operator, having previously became an expert telegrapher. He remained with the road in the above capacities for about fifteen years and then resigned the place in order to accept the position of cashier of the Lawrence National Bank, which he filled for a period of four years. Severing his connection with the bank, Mr. Harter next engaged in the lumber business in partnership with a Mr. Ulery, under the firm name of Ulery, Harter & Co., a relationship which still exists. He is also associated with John M. Curtner in raising fine live stock, the two owning a fine stock farm of three hundred and fifty acres in the township of Chester. Mr. Harter's lumber business is not confined to North Manchester, the firm having large interests in Arkansas, where they manufacture upon quite an extensive scale, besides buying and shipping to the leading markets of the country.

Mr. Harter is essentially a business man with excellent judgment and an aggressive spirit which hesitates at no obstacle calculated to interfere with the accomplishment of his purposes. His clerical abilities are of a high order and as a skilful accountant he has few equals in the lines of banking or general business. In municipal affairs he has long been a leading spirit connected with all enterprises for promoting the prosperity of North Manchester, besides taking an active interest in the progress and development of the county of Wabash. He is in every respect a representative man and the success of his various enterprises has been the result of superior intelligence, directed and controlled by wise forethought. Politically he is uncompromisingly Republican and adheres to the principles and doctrines of his party as persistently as he attends to his other duties. He is a member of the Pythian fraternity, being an active worker in the lodge meeting in North Manchester.

Mr. Harter was married in Anderson, this state, on the 22d day of May, 1878, to Miss Nellie C. Brown, daughter of the late H.J. Brown, of that city. To Mrs. Harter belongs the distinction of being the first white person born in the city of Omaha, Neb., her parents being among the earliest settlers of that place. She has borne her husband children as follows: Howell B., Juanita, Mary and Katharine.

The Bank of North Manchester, with which Mr. Harter is connected in the capacity of cashier, was organized in November, 1894, since which time he has discharged the duties of the position he now holds. It is one of the safe and reliable financial institutions of northwestern Indiana and has an excellent reputation at home and elsewhere throughout Wabash and neighboring counties. Much of its success is due to the skill and efficiency of its popular cashier, who, by his courtesy and uniform kind treatment of patrons has found an abiding place in the hearts of the people.