Gust E. Bornholt, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Gust E. Bornholt
GUST E. BORNHOLT was born in Valparaiso, Indiana, on May 18, 1873, the son of Hans and Antje (Harbeck) Bornholt, both of whom were born in Germany and came separately to Valparaiso, the former in 1864 and the latter in 1865. They were married in that city in 1869, and to them were born six children: Charles, Gust E., Julius; H. Leo, who is now deceased; Lydia; and Sadie, who passed away at the age of twenty-one.
Gust E. Bornholt was educated in the schools of Valparaiso, and then engaged in farming until 1903, when he entered the meat market business; he remained in that line until 1908, when he engaged in buying and shipping live stock with his brothers, Charles and Julius. In 1910 he was a successful candidate for the office of county clerk of Porter County, and filled this position from 1912 to 1920. At the expiration of this service he engaged in the general insurance business, and aside from these duties has served as justice of the peace from May 15, 1923, to fill the unexpired term of Calvin Dille. In the May, 1926, primary he was nominated as republican candidate to succeed himself in that office and secured a majority of all votes cast over three opponents. Another position of service to the general public was as city treasurer of Valparaiso, to which office he was elected in 1906 and continued in this until the abolishment of the office by the Legislature in 1909. Always active in the republican party, he served as treasurer of the Republican County Central Committee from 1916 to 1922, and during the World war activities he was in charge Fifty-first Indiana Infantry.
Mr. Bornholt was united in marriage with Grace, daughter of John Anderson of Valparaiso. Mrs. Bornholt graduated from the Kouts (Indiana) High School and takes a proper part in all women's activities of this community. To their union were born two children, Bruce and Beatrice. Mr. Bornholt is a member of the Masonic order, Elks, K. of P., and the Lincolndale Country Club of Valparaiso.
Reverting to the ancestry of our subject, his paternal grandparents, Max and Catherine (Haddenfeldt) Bornholt, were of Holstein, Germany, and lived in that country their entire lives. Hans Bornholt, father of our subject, was a soldier in the Civil war, serving with the One Hundred of registration as clerk of the county.
Source: Cannon, Thomas H., H. H. Loring, and Charles J. Robb. 1927. History of the Lake and Calumet Region of Indiana Embracing the Counties of Lake, Porter and Laporte. Volume II. Indianapolis, Indiana: Historians' Association. 827 p.
Page(s) in Source: 258-259
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook