Augustus G. Stouder. In reviewing the attainments of any community, it is entirely proper to divert to the comparatively few persons who have been primarily responsible for these attainments. If a city is noted as a manufacturing center, there must be, of course, a number of positive personal forces who have made an industrial pre-eminence possible. The demands on the industrial element in the Miami valley, during the recent war, demonstrated fully that not only was the great Miami Valley prepared to eclipse all other areas in the country in volume of manufactured goods, but in diversity of manufacturing as well. So, it is quite natural to inquire as to the great personal forces that have made this tremendous manufacturing life of the Miami valley possible. In Troy, as elsewhere, we not only find this diversity of manufactured products, but well, ordered industrial system that insures the utmost volume of its products. In this instance we will divert to one who has contributed in the greatest possible measure to the life of Troy, and few others, if any, have done more to develop and maintain the reputation of Troy as one of the best manufacturing cities in the Miami valley. Pre-eminently, a self-made man, Augustus G. Stouder came through the school of hard knocks and like many of the great industrial leaders of the country, he has achieved without ostentation, content with building a solid and substantial memorial as is best expressed in the industries with which he has identified himself. Augustus Stouder was launched into actual life at an early age and soon learned the value, as well as the necessity, of self-reliance. He attended school in various places, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio, and during young manhood engaged in various occupations and business enterprises. At Vandalia, Ohio, he met the person who had secured the patents on the products which formed the original products of the Troy Carriage Sunshade Co. The patentee was a minister who was desirous of disposing of his invention, and Stouder possessed of but a small amount of capital agreed to buy the rights on this invention. He removed the industry to Troy and established the Troy Carriage Sunshade Co., Mr. H. F. Douglass and Mr. E. E. Edgar later becoming associated with him in this enterprise. The expansion of this concern from that time has been indeed wonderful. It gradually developed into one of the foremost manufacturing concerns in this part of the country, and no little credit is due Mr. Stouder for its splendid success. (For a full account of the history of this concern, the reader is referred to the General History section of this work, entitled Troy Industries.) Mr. Stouder is a stockholder and director in the Sunshade company, and with Mr. E. E. Edgar and others, he purchased the Hobart Manufacturing Company, a concern that was then occupying very modest quarters in the neighborhood of the sunshade company. This concern was founded by C. C. Hobart and was largely devoted to the manufacture of motors and dynamos. Under the direction of Mr. Stouder, Mr. Edgar and others the success of this concern has been wonderful indeed. New lines were added including electrically driven food choppers, coffee mills and other devices of a similar nature. The demand for these products has been world wide and today the Hobart Company is considered the leader in these lines. All battleships of the United States navy and other navies are equipped with Hobart devices and to meet this demand, new additions have been erected from year to year until it has reached very great physical proportions. (We refer the reader to the industrial section of this work, entitled Troy Industries, for a more detailed account of the Hobart Manufacturing Company.) The above two concerns are certainly a wonderful testimonial to the men who have made them possible. It might be said that these two concerns are the keystones of the business life of Troy, employing as they do, hundreds of highly paid workmen. Mr. Stouder has found time, of more recent years, to relax somewhat from the exacting ardor of manufacturing life. He spends some time in travel and is very much interested in a farming project of some 7,000 acres in Alberta, Can. This tract of land was purchased by Mr. Stouder and his associates and is cultivated in wheat. Mr. Stouder is also a director of the Troy National Bank and active in the general business life of Troy. It is needless to say, perhaps, that Mr. Stouder was responsive to all local war movements and has found time to assist many philanthropies, and is at all times devoted to the best interests of this section of Miami Valley.