Biography of E. F. Tinney, page 66.  History of Northeast Indiana; LaGrange, 
Steuben, Noble, and DeKalb Counties, Vol. II, under the editorial supervision 
of Ira Ford, Orville Stevens, William H. McEwen, and William H. McIntosh.  
The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago and New York, 1920.

   E.F. Tinney.  The two most strongly marked characteristics of both the 
East and the West are  combined in the residents of the section of country 
of which this volume treats.  The enthusiastic enterprise which over-leaps 
all obstacles and makes possible almost any undertaking in the comparatively 
new and vigorous western states is her tempered by the stable and more 
careful policy that we have borrowed from our eastern neighbors, and the 
combination is one of peculiar force and power.  It has been the means of 
placing this section of the country on a par with the older East, at the 
same time producing a reliability and certainty in business affairs which 
is sometimes lacking in the West. This happy combination of characteristics 
is possessed by the subject of this brief sketch, E.F. Tinney, secretary 
and manager of Butler Basket Company at Butler, DeKalb County, and who is 
assuming a deservedly high place in the business circles of that community.
   E. F. Tinney was born at Ypsilanti, Michigan, on  June 12, 1876, and is 
the son of James D. and   Lottie (Sharp) Tinney, who are now residents of 
Tucson, Arizona.  The youthful days of E. F. Tinney were spent in Pontiac, 
Michigan, where he received a common school education.  He supplemented 
this training by two correspondence course and attended and graduated from 
business college.  He then took a course in drafting, for which he had a 
natural aptitude, and for a time  followed that line of work in a jobbing 
shop.  He had a strong liking for machinery, in the handling of which he 
became an expert, and eventually was appointed superintendent of a carriage 
manufactory in Butler, with which he was identified until 1917.  On July 1, 
1911, Mr. Tinney bought the controlling interest in the Butler Basket 
Company, one of the live and prosperous concerns of that city.  Th company 
is incorporated and the official personnel is as follows: President, E. C. 
Miller; vice president, Jesse Oberlin; treasurer, L.C. Harding; secretary 
and manager, E.F. Tinney; directors, in addition to the foregoing officers, 
Dr. A.A. Kramer, and Walter J. Mondhank. Though but a comparatively recent 
comer to Butler, Mr. Tinny has made a favorable impression on the community 
and is identified with every movement for the advancement of the best 
interests of his town and county.
   In February, 1898, Mr. Tinney was married to Jennie C. Capman, also a 
native of Michigan. Mrs. Tinney after completing the high school course 
attended a business college.  To Mr. and Mrs. Tinney have been born three 
children, namely: Homer C., who is a high school graduate, was a participant 
in the World war, having served two years in France as an observer in the 
One Hundred and First Aviation squadron, and Ruth and Margaret are students 
in the common schools.
Mr. and Mrs. Tinney are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of the 
official board of which Mr. Tinney is a member.  Politically he supports 
the republican party and take an intelligent interest in the trend of 
public events.  His record is that of a man who by his own unaided efforts 
worked his way from a modest beginning to a position of influence in the 
business world.
 
Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com