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The fortune: Thieme (1857–1949) co-organized the Wayne Knitting Mills in August 1891, and the mills' hosiery made the fortune; he ran the mills with profit-sharing for the workers, unusual for the era, and the family firm later extended to Thieme Brothers Hosiery in Los Angeles (1923). The business entry is in the Business section.
What it left: Thieme is the clearest case in this section of a fortune converted directly into a civic institution. In 1921 he gave $10,000 in cash, his own art collection of ten paintings, and his house — the 1898 Queen Anne at 1026 West Berry Street designed by Marshall Mahurin — to establish the Fort Wayne Art School and Museum, organized in 1921–22: the direct ancestor of today's Fort Wayne Museum of Art. The park overlook that bears his name, Thieme Overlook, was dedicated in 1911. His profile is in the People section.
Sources:
- Fort Wayne Museum of Art / Allen County Genealogical Society / The History Center — the 1921 gift of $10,000, ten paintings, and the Berry Street house.
- Wayne Knitting Mills records as carried in the Business section — founding August 1891, profit-sharing, the 1923 Los Angeles firm.