Biography of William C. Aldrich, pages 967 / 968.  History of De Kalb 
County, Indiana. Inter-State Publishing Company, Chicago, 1885.

William C. Aldrich, of the firm Aldrich & Son, proprietors of Hotel Aldrich, 
Butler, Ind., was born in Worcester, Mass., April 18, 1822, a son of Amos 
Aldrich, a native of Rhode Island.  When he was quite small his parents 
moved to Connecticut, and in 1832 to Lenawee County, Mich., settling in 
Adrain, there being at the time but two frame houses in the town. When a boy 
he learned the wool-carding and cloth-dressing trade, that being his 
father’s trade, and worked at it several years in Adrian. In 1852 he crossed 
the plains to California and worked in the mines till 1854, when he returned 
to Michigan and worked for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad five 
year.  In 1869 he went to Pleasant Hill, Mo., and remained six years; three 
years of the time was Deputy Sheriff and City Marshall.  He then traveled 
through the Western Territories and Texas, visited Chili, South America, and 
the Sandwich Islands.  In 1873 he came to Indiana and lived in Butler four 
years; and in November of 1881, returned to Butler and bought the Boots 
House at the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern depot, and changed the name to 
Hotel Aldrich.  His son, Arthur N., is a partner with him, and is a 
steady, thorough going business man.  They have a good patronage and keep 
a first-class hotel.  Their house contains twenty-five rooms, well 
furnished.  The dining-room, a large rectangle, is furnished with four 
tables and a handsome sideboard.  In connection with the hotel they run a 
lunch-room for the benefit of travelers over the road.  Their clerk, C.L. 
Cramer, has been with them three years, and is admirably adapted to the 
position he occupies.  Mr. Aldrich was married in the fall of 1844 to 
Helen Force. They have had two children; but one, Arthur N., is living.  
Mr. Aldrich is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has taken the 
Knight Templar degrees.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com