Because Fort Wayne was so German, the Thieme family established here, also. They came in large part because of the Rudisill legacy: a German city on the American frontier.
A grandson of the family founder was Theodore Thieme. As an entrepreneur, Thieme saw an opportunity in a new industry, fashion hosiery. We call them socks today, but back in Thieme's time socks were knitted at home, not purchased in stores. Thieme went to Germany, bought a knitting mill in Sachsen, his home area, and transported it to Fort Wayne. He set up the Wayne Knitting Mills on Runnion Street. To run the mill he imported thousands of highly skilled German workers. They, too, brought their families and wrote back to Germany about the wonderful town in Indiana. Many more Germans soon followed.
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