Biography of  Herbert Clyde Willis, pages 912/913/914.  
History of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, 
Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



A man’s reputation is the property of the world, for the 
laws of nature have forbidden isolation. Every human being  
either submits to the controlling influence of others or 
wields an influence which touches, controls, guides or 
misdirects others. If he be honest and successful in his 
chosen field of endeavor, investigation will brighten his 
fame and point the way along which others may follow with 
like success. The reputation of Herbert Clyde Willis, one of 
the leading journalist of DeKalb county, having been 
unassailable all along the highways of life, according to  
those who have known him best, it is believed that a 
critical study of his career will be of benefit to the 
reader, for it has been not only one of honor but of 
usefulness also.  Herbert Clyde Willis, editor of the 
Waterloo Press, one of the influential and poplar journals 
of DeKalb county, was born on December 15, 1871, at 
Waterloo, an is a son of Frank W. and Josephine (Dickinson) 
Willis. These parents are mentioned specifically elsewhere 
in this work, therefore further space will not be given to 
the subject’s ancestral history at this point.  Herbert C. 
Willis was reared at Waterloo, where he attended the grade 
and high school and secured a good, practical education. In 
the summer of 1884 he began learning the printing trade, 
being at that time a lad of about twelve years of age.  His 
time outside of school hours was mainly devoted to this work 
and during the last year of school he and one other person 
did all the job work and got out the paper regularly and in 
good shape. He has thus learned the printing business in 
every detail from the ground up, having served his 
apprenticeship under old-time conditions, and printing the 
first papers on the old Washington hand press when he was so 
small he had to stand on a box to run the ink rollers across 
the type.  Mr. Willis continued working for his father and 
made every effort to learn all details of the business. 
After two years apprenticeship, he was given one cent for 
each “stick-ful” of type set, in which way he made from ten 
to twelve cents a day, or about fifty cents a week, and, boy 
as he was, he was greatly pleased at the progress he was 
making. In1891, after his graduation from high school, he 
took a tour of the Southwest, and on his return entered the 
employ of his father, with whom he remained until February, 
1896, when the plant was totally destroyed by fire.  Mr. 
Willis had saved some money and now invested that with his 
father, with whom he became partner, and from then on until 
his father’s death, in 1913, they remained associated in 
business,  the subject taking the greater part of the burden 
of management from his father’s shoulders during later 
years. Since his father’s death, the subject has purchased 
his interest and in now sole owner of the plant. He 
publishes the Waterloo Press, one on the best local 
newspapers in DeKalb county, which has become a welcome 
visitor in many homes, and also does a lot of business in 
catalog and blank book work and various office forms,  
deriving considerable business from other points outside of 
this county, as far away as Indianapolis.  He also carries a 
large stock of books and stationery, with which he supplies 
local trade. He has all along the line exercised good 
judgement in his business affairs and had met with a well 
deserved success in everything to which he has turned his 
hand, earning not only material prosperity, but also the 
high esteem of those who are acquainted with his life work. 
It would seen that Mr. Willis’ business affairs were enough 
to demand his entire time and attention, but he has found 
time to interest himself in other affairs and has shown a 
versatility of talent which he has been complimentary to 
him. At the age of eighteen years he became a charter member 
of the Company I, third Regiment of the Indiana Legion, 
which is now identical with the Indiana National Guard, 
being appointed sergeant-major on Col. A. W. Bowman’s 
battalion staff. He participated in the putting down of the 
rioting at Hammond in1894, when there was some actual 
fighting and occasion for great self-control and forbearance 
on the part of the troops. His military record was highly 
complimentary to him in every respect.  Politically a 
Republican, Mr. Willis has at all times exerted a strong 
influence for his party, in whose councils he had been a 
conspicuous figure and he has been a hard fighter all along 
the line of principles for which he stands and for his 
friends to whom he has ever been loyal. He is the present 
efficient chairman of the Republican county central 
committee. Mr. Willis was one of the organizers of the 
Waterloo High School Alumni Association, which had a 
membership of over two hundred. He has been a member of the 
Presbyterian church for twenty-five years, and served 
efficiently as superintendent of the Sunday school, which he 
had been largely instrumental in building up to one of the 
best schools in the county. On June 24, 1896, Mr. Willis 
married Martha L. Gonser, who was born April 6, 1871, on a 
farm near Auburn, then owned by her father, but which is now 
the county farm. She is the daughter of Moses and Louisa 
(Wright) Gonser, her father  having been a native of 
Pennsylvania, coming to DeKalb county in pioneer days. He 
first lived on the farm west of Auburn until he sold it to 
the county, not long after Mrs. Willis was born, and he then 
located along the county line in the southern part of 
Steuben county. He was county commissioner for the latter 
county, and was a man in good circumstances and of influence 
in his community and county. His wife, whose maiden name was 
Lousia Wright, was a native of New York, born on the banks 
of Lake Ontario, and in an early day came to DeKalb county 
with her parents. Her father conducted a general store in 
Fairfield township in the early days and had a large trade 
with the Indians, having also an “ashery, “ where he made 
potash from wood ashes, a common procedure  in that early 
day. Mr. Gonser died in 1905, and his widow now lived in 
Steuben county, this state. Mrs. Willis received her 
elementary education  in the common schools and then 
attended the Tri-State Normal School at Angola, where she 
graduated and then for a time taught district school. 
Afterwards she entered Earlham College, at Richmond, 
Indiana, where she graduated in 1893, with the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. Coming to Waterloo, she became principal 
of the high school here, retaining this position two years, 
and during that period began her acquaintance with Mr. 
Willis, though their families had been singularly close in 
an earlier generation. To Mr. and Mrs. Willis have been born 
two children, Louise, born September 7, 1897, and Herbert 
G., born November 21, 1904. Because of his earnest life and 
successful career, as well as his genial disposition and 
companionable nature, Mr. Willis has won a large 
acquaintance and many warm friends in the county and is now 
numbered among its representative citizens.

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com