Logansport Press, Jan. 30, 1949

 Tailors

Logansport had quite a colony of “merchant tailors” in 1883 according to Ebel’s City Directory which listed a dozen.  Some of them employed a number of journeymen tailors, the term “journeyman” meaning a skilled workman who had served an apprenticeship at the trade.  Some of these old time merchant tailors were Frank Horwood, J.S. Craig, Jacob Herz (or Henz?), and Burl Booth.  Mr. Booth, brother of Mrs. W.T. Giffe, was probably in business longer than any of the others.  Pat Pierce is probably the last of those journeymen tailors of those days.  He formerly operated his own shop.

 Mr. Pierce recalled an incident indicative of the members of the tailor trade in Logansport.  Henry Kraut, grandfather of William, Paul and “Heiny” Kraut, of Kraut’s Market, was a tailor.  At the time of his death, in the late 1880’s, or early 1890’s, the journeymen tailors of the town turned out in a body for the funeral.  165 of them were in the line of march that day.

Transcribed by Christine Spencer, April, 2009