USA > Indiana > A History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922 > Part 60
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IIISTORY OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY
reau, and the Retail Furniture Dealers' Association, of which he is president. While a public-spirited citizen and possessed of civic pride, willing to assume the full responsibilities of citizenship, Mr. Boyer has never sought nor aspired to public office as the gift of his fellow-citizens or any political party. He was reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1921 Mr. Boyer was united in marriage with Mrs. Ionette Williams, of Evansville, daughter of W. P. Barbero, president of the Boyer-Sheridan Company.
John R. Brill. One of the leading members of the bar of Van- derburgh county is John R. Brill, senior member of the firm of Brill, Hatfield & Brady, who has followed his profession at Evans- ville for thirty-two years, during the past ten years of which he has served as city attorney. Mr. Brill was born in the little community of Centre Valley, Hendricks county, Indiana, December 26, 1863, and there secured the rudiments of an education in the country schools. Later he pursued a course at Central Normal College at Danville, Indiana, and in 1885 entered Indiana University, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1889. Going then to Eldorado, Arkansas, he was engaged in teach- ing school for one year, after which he returned to Indiana Univer- sity, and in 1891 was granted the degree of Bachelor of Laws and admitted to practice at Bloomington. July 12, 1891, Mr. Brill lo- cated at Evansville and October 22 of that year was appointed dep- uty prosecuting attorney for the First Judicial Circuit, composed of the counties of Posey and Vanderburgh. He served in this ca- pacity for four years under Hon. John W. Spencer, who was later elevated to the bench, and with whom Mr. Brill was associated in law practice for some years. The firm of Brill, Hatfield & Brady is located at 501 and 502 Furniture Building and is considered one of the strong and reliable combinations of the city and state. It has a large and prominent clientele and has been identified in one or another way in much of the important litigation that has come be- fore the state and federal courts during recent years. Mr. Brill has always been active in public affairs since the time of his coming to Evansville. In addition to acting as deputy prosecutor, as outlined above, he was a member of the school board for three years, having been appointed during the administration of John W. Boehne. During the first administration of Mayor Bosse, Mr. Brill was ap- pointed city attorney, and that post he has held for the past ten Democratic City Committee, and was a delegate to the national years. A Democrat in politics, he was formerly chairman of the Democratic City Committee, and was a delegate to the national convention at Baltimore, Maryland, when Woodrow Wilson was nominated for president the first time. Mr. Brill has a number of business connections, and is vice-president and a director of the Bosse Coal Company. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His religious connection is with Grace
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Presbyterian Church, in the movements of which he and his family . are active and helpful. June 29, 1899, Mr. Brill was united in mar- riage with Mary, daughter of the late 'L. M. Baird, of Evansville, founder of the dynamite business now conducted by his two sons under the firm style of L. M. Baird's Sons, and mention of whom is made elsewhere in this work. Five children have been born to Mr.and Mrs. Brill: Jeannette, a graduate of the Evansville High School, who attended the Indiana University for three years and is now the wife of James D. Havens, of Bloomington, Indiana; Mar- tha, a graduate of the Evansville High School, who attended Lin- denwood School, St. Charles, Missouri, for one year, and is now the wife of Emil Smithfield, of Evansville; Katherine, a graduate of high school and now a sophomore at the Indiana University ; John R., Jr., a freshman at the Evansville High School; and George L., born April 5, 1912, who died September 30, 1922.
Francis A. Britt. The contribution of Francis A. Britt to the business interests of the city of Evansville is a thriving and up-to- date pharmacy located at the corner of Fulton and Penn Avenues, which is conducted in a modern manner. He also owns and con- ducts another establishment known as store number two, at 901 North Barker Avenue. One of the younger generation of business men of his city, Mr. Britt has brought to his work an enthusiasm and energy that place him in a class beyond the mere plodders and have served to gain him an unusual success. Mr. Britt was born at Louisville, Kentucky, January 14, 1895, and belongs to a well- known family which is highly esteemed in the Blue Grass metro- polis. After attending the public schools of his native place, and graduating from high schools, he enrolled as a student at what was then Green's School of Pharmacy, Indianapolis, Indiana, from which he was graduated as a registered pharmacist in 1915. At that time Mr. Britt secured a position with the Public Drug Com- pany, at Second and Mulberry Streets, Evansville, where he re- mained for three years, and in 1918 bought the Alexander Drug Shop, 410 Fulton Avenue, which he renamed Britt's Pharmacy, and of which he has since been the proprietor. He carries a complete line of drugs, medicines, toilet articles, candies, sundries, etc., and has secured an excellent patronage among the people of his com- munity, who have come to rely upon his integrity and the standard quality of his goods. Mr. Britt is a member of the board of direc- tors of the Moser Wholesale Drug Company and has other inter- ests. Since engaging in business he has been a member of the Evansville Chamber of Commerce, in the movements of which he takes an active part. As a fraternalist he holds membership in the Knights of Pythias, in which he is serving as master of finance. With his family, he belongs to the Bethel Evangelical Church. In May, 1917, Mr. Britt was united in marriage with Mary Jane Hes- tand, who was born in Tennessee, but reared in Kentucky and ed- ucated in the public schools of Paducah. To this union there have been born two children: Mary Sue and Francis A., Jr.
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Harry Bullen. In Harry Bullen is found a sample of that ma- terial which has brought Vanderburgh county and the city of Ev- ansville into the limelight as centers of business and social activity. Endowed with more than average ability and backed by shrewd business judgment and determination, this realtor of the county seat has won an established position in business circles. Mr. Bul- len was born at Evansville, December II, 1867, and is a son of Thomas and Martha (Hitch) Bullen, natives of England. The parents were both children when brought to the United States and were married at Evansville, where were born their two sons and three daughters, of whom one son and two daughters survive. The father, after arriving in this country, had gone to Buffalo, New York, whence he followed the old canal cow path to Evansville, walking all the way, while Mrs. Bullen came by the way of New Orleans. When Mr. Bullen arrived at Evansville he engaged in the livery business and subsequently supplied the horses used at the first waterworks. Later he also supplied the horses used by the Evansville Fire Department, of which department he was chief during his late years. He was active in politics as a Democrat, and was twice elected to the city council, in which he served with abil- ity, always advocating constructive movements. Fraternally, Mr. Bullen was affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and he and his wife were members of the Episcopal church. Mr. Bullen died in 1895, at the age of fifty-five years, while Mrs. Bullen passed away in 1915, when seventy-eight years of age. After at- tending the public schools of Evansville, Harry Bullen pursued a course at the Curnick & Rankin Business College, and with this equipment entered upon his business career. For many years he has been identified with the real estate businss, and at the present time has eighty-five rental properties within the limits of Evans- ville. He has also been the medium whereby a number of large realty transactions have been consummated and is accounted an ex- cellent judge of property values. Not alone is he prominent in business, but in public matters as well. A Democrat in politics, as a young man he began to take keen interest in civic affairs, and about 1893 was appointed marketmaster, a position in which he served for four years. Subsequently he became a deputy United States marshal and then a United States storekeeper, and during the past ten years has been an inspector in the employ of the Board of Public Works. His public service has been characterized by faithful and efficient discharge of duty. While inclined to be con- servative in his business dealings he does not lack initiative or spirit, and his judgment is rarely found at fault. Mr. Bullen is very fond of travel. In 1913, just prior to the outbreak of the World war, he and Mrs. Bullen took a trip abroad, visiting the principal points of interest in the countries of Europe, and during the winter of 1922 and 1923 they journeyed to Havana, Cuba. In 1896 Mr. Bullen was united in marriage with Miss Celia Sullivan, of Louisville, Kentucky. They reside in a handsome home at No.
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415 South Fifth Street, a preferred residential district of Evans- ville.
Albert F. Caden. The value of adhering to one line of work and making one's self a thorough master of a single business subject has been evidenced in the career of Albert F. Caden, president and treas- urer of the Caden Stone Company, 425 East Ohio Street, Evans- ville. Three generations of the Caden family have been engaged in the same line of work, and the product of their quarries has been utilized in the construction of some of Evansville's most imposing structures. Mr. Caden was born at Evansville, March 27, 1868, and is a son of Frelenz R. Caden, a native of Saxony, Germany. Fre- lenz R. Caden was born February 29, 1836, and was about twelve years of age when he came to the United States with his father, his mother having died in Germany. The family settled at Buena Vis- ta, Ohio, where the grandfather was engaged in the stone business until his death. Frelenz R. Caden completed his education in Ohio, where he was associated for a time with his father in the stone business, and as a young man removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was residing at the outbreak of the Civil war. He enlisted in the Engineer Corps, Thirty-second Indiana Infantry, under Major- General Wilkins, and served for two years, when he was badly in- jured. He received his honorable discharge because of disability, after a term in the hospital, and in 1864 came to Evansville and en- gaged in the stone business in partnership with a Mr. Albecker, under the firm style of Albecker & Caden. After the busines had been carried on under that name for fourteen years, Mr. Albecker died, but Mr. Caden continued the business alone and built it up to important proportions. In 1891 the business was incorporated as the Caden Stone Company, its present title, and Frelenz R. Caden became president ; Albert F. Caden, vice-president ; and C. W. Ca- pelle, secretary and treasurer. In 1921 occurred the death of Mr. Capelle, who was a valued associate of both the elder and younger Messrs. Caden, having been identified with the business for more than forty ears, during which time he had evidenced the greatest integrity and ability. In the meantime, May IT, 1909, Frelenz R. Caden had died. He was one of the best-known figures in the stone industry in the Middle-West and a man of the strictest business probity as well as a citizen of public spirit and civic pride. At the time of his death he was the oldest Knight Templar Mason of Ev- ansville. When he died Albert F. Caden became president and Wal- ter R. Caden, vice-president, and at Mr. Capelle's death Miss Mary L. Walters became secretary. Albert I'. Caden received his educa- tion in the public schools of Evansville, supplemented by a com- mercial course at the Rank & Wright Business College. He was only fourteen years of age when he began to work in the stone business with his father, and to this business he has devoted his entire career, being a great believer in the advisability of a man sticking to a line of work that he understands. He has gained marked success in the business and has succeeded to his honored
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father's former place as one of the most prominent stone men in the state. The Caden Stone Company cut the stone for the Louis- ville & Nashville Railroad depot at Evansville and for many of the largest buildings of the city. Mr. Caden is a member of the Knights of Pythias and has a number of civic connections. He is not a politician and takes only a good citizen's interest in public affairs. In 1896 Mr. Caden married Miss Philopena Grauert, of Evansville, and they are the parents of one daughter: Frances Ruth, who graduated from the Evansville High School as a mem- ber of the class of 1923.
Colonel William H. McCurdy. The record of no Evansville business man perhaps indicates more clearly what can be accom- plished when energy, determination and ambition lead the way thail that of Colonel William H. McCurdy, founder and executive head of the great Hercules Corporation. His labors have not only con- stituted a potent factor in the industrial interest of Evansville, but his progressive spirit is evident in many ways, and his career indi- cates a man ready to meet any obligation of life with the confidence and courage that come of conscious personal ability, right concep- tion of things and habitual regard for what is best in the exercise of human activities. Colonel McCurdy's career is typically Ameri- can, and is most interesting and significant, for never was a man's success due more to his own native ability and less to outward cir- cumstances. Nothing came to him by chance. He reached his high position in the commercial world through no favors of influential friends, but worked his way up from the bottom rung of the busi- ness ladder by sheer pluck and marked ability, and the story of his life cannot fail to interest and inspire the young man who has re- gard for honorable manhood and an appreciation for wise and intel- ligent use of opportunity on the part of the individual. Although a resident of Evansville for only twenty years, Colonel McCurdy is recognized as a dynamic force in industrial circles of the city, and he well deserves a place in the front rank among the leading busi- ness men of the nation. His iniative spirit, his executive force and his keen discrimination have combined to gain him a position among the capable and resourceful men who, in modern parlance, are termed captains of industry. In the establishment and conduct of the business carried on under the name of the Hercules Cor- poration, Colonel McCurdy has contributed an enterprise of dis- tinct value to the commercial and manufacturing circles of the city. In other fields, too he has given proof of his capacity for successful management and his co-operation is eagerly sought for sound judg- ment business talents of high order are needed. Colonel McCurdy was born near Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1853, and descends from Scotch ancestry. His educational advantages were those afforded by the public schools and an academy, and early developing an aptitude for mechanical work, he was ap- prenticed to a millwright, showing a proficiency that soon made him the most skillful workman in the shop. In much less time than
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usual he mastered the trade and continued at this line of work until he was twenty-two years of age. A spirit of unrest, however, took possession of the young mechanic, and he was seized by an irresist- ible longing to see the world. He closed his tool chest, never to be opened by him again, resigned his position and started out to seek his fortune under new conditions and amid new surroundings. As a traveling man he proved especially successful, having a confi- dence in himself which inspired respect and being gifted with the happy faculty to make friends and retain them. In 1879 he settled at Kansas City, then on the eve of great real estate speculations, which extended into the surrounding state. There he engaged in the insurance and real estate business, making a success in those lines as he had in everything he had undertaken. In 1889 Colonel McCurdy returned eastward and located in Cincinnati where he became interested in the Favorite Carriage Company, of which he was secretary for five years. In 1894 he resigned that position to engage in business for himself. He organized the Brighton Buggy Company, which later became the Hercules Buggy Company, and entered. upon an independent career which has made his name widely known as one of the most important factors in manufactur- ing circles. Facilities at Cincinnati being inadequate, owing to a rapidly growing business, he found at Evansville a location that seemed to meet existing and futive demands and in 1902 he re- moved his business to this city. Here he erected a factory accord- ing to the most approved modern ideas, equipped with every device for turning out the best vehicles the market demands. In Novem- ber, 1920, the various branches of the business were merged into one large organization and was incorporated under the title of The Hercules Corporation, with a capital stock of eight million dollars, the officers of which are William H. McCurdy, president and prin- cipal owner ; John D. Craft, first vice-president and manager ; Lynn H. McCurdy, second vice-president, treasurer and manager of sales, and Frank G. Cowan, seretary. Its factories cover more than thir- ty-one acres with permanent buildings and its sales organization covers the entire country. The corporation not only sells its prod- ucts in every state in America, but in Canada, Mexico, Central and South America and Europe. 'The concern has built and sold in one year eighty-four thousand buggies and carriages, sixty-two thou- sand gasoline engines and forty thousand bodies for trucks and commercial cars, its business per annum in various lines, having reached the ten million dollar mark. The corporation gives em- ployment to more than fifteen hundred persons, a large percent of whom are skilled workmen, and is one of the important agencies in maintaining the prosperity of Evansville. It is difficult for the uninitiated mind to comprehend the magnitude of an enterprise so large as the one presided over by the subject of this review. Such a plant did not grow up in a day. It required years of practical ex- perience in manufacturing and business affairs, a wide grasp of pos- sibilities as to manufacture and distribution, and large financial re-
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sources. It is not the province of this publication, however, to en- ter into technical details or comprehensive descriptions concerning the output of this concern, but it may consistently be said that in its special field of production, the Hercules Corporation takes prec- edence over all similar concerns in the United States, and its found- er has earned an honorable reputation among the leading business men of the country. Besides his connection with The Hercules Corporation Colonel McCurdy also has many other capitalistic in- terests and his contribution to the world's work has been a valu- able one. He became a director of the Old State National Bank the first year of his residence in the city, and in September, 1922, was elected president. He is also a director of the American Trust and Savings Bank and president of the Sunbeam Electric Manufactur- ing Company. He was one of the organizers of the Hotel McCurdy Company, of which he is president, and is also a director of the Van Orman Hotel Operating Company. He likewise figures prom- inently in the traction lines coming into the city, and is president of the Evansville and Ohio Valley Railway, which operate the Rockport, Mt. Vernon and Henderson lines and also the Owens- boro band Henderson Kentucky lines. He has always maintained the highest standards of business ethics, and at all times his career has been loyal, energetic and circumspect. His standing as a citi- zen is firm and broad, and during the many years of his residence here he has wielded definite and beneficient influence, both as a citizen and as a man of splendid business ability. Thoroughly ap- preciative of the city of his adoption, Colonel McCurdy is loyal and public-spirited in his civic attitude, and gives generously of his time and means to the furtherance of charitable movement and all mat- ters tending to the public good. His efforts are not confined to lines resulting in individual benefit, but are evident in those fields where general interests and public welfare are involved, and his ac- tivities have meant much to Evansville in both civic and material progress. Although the scope of his work has always been broad, and he gives close and loyal attention to his splendid enterprise, he also finds time to get the most out of the finer social amenities of life, and his friends, who are legion, recognize in him a man of high ideals. Colonel McCurdy has been twice married, first on June 25, 1880, to Miss Helen E. Hess, of Cincinnati, Ohio, a woman of ster- ling qualities and much beauty of character, who contributed in no small degree to her husband's success and happiness, and to this union were born five children: Ola Hess; Rosa Beil; Lena Jane; Hazel, and Lynn H., the first two named being deceased. This wife died in 1920, and in 1922, he wedded Mrs. Lillian E. Lipkan, of Chicago, Ill., widow of Eugene Lipkan, a most estimable lady of en- gaging personality, and their home at 922 Riverside Avenue, which is one of the most attractive in the city, is a hospitable one where their friends are always welcome.
Silas Ichenhauser, of the well-known Ichenhauser Company of Evansville, Indiana, is a gentleman whose business, social and
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philanthropic interests ramify many fields. He was born October 13, 1863, at Hardinsburgh, Kentucky, the son of Louis and Therese (Oberdorfer) Ichenhauser, both natives of Germany. The parents were married in Louisville Kentucky, the father having come to this country and locating at Louisville when he was seventeen years of age, and there he remained a short time. He was born in the year 1832, and came to the United States in 1849. While in Hardinsburgh he engaged in the general merchandise and tobacco business. In 1866 he came to Evansville and started the Lichten & Ichenhauser crockery and glassware business, and here he spent the remainder of his life. He was a very devoted church man and was an organizer and worker in various lodges, having been a member of the Masonic Order, the A. O. U. W. and the Royal Ar- canum. His death occurred in 1897, while his wife, who was born August 6, 1842, survived him until 1905. They were the parents of five sons and four daughters, two of the daughters, Mrs. Arthur Gross of Evansville and Mrs. David Hirsch of Louisville, now liv- ing, while the sons are, Silas, the eldest of the children, Nathan, Sidney, Milton and Morton. Silas Ichenhauser was educated in the Evansville public schools and during his vacations worked as cash boy at Miller Brothers store for $1.50 a week in order that he might have money to buy his school books. He then attended high school, continuing for a time with Miller Brothers, and in 1880, at the age of seventeen years, became associated with his father in business. Later, his brothers joined the firm, but it was he of all the sons who worked through the formative period in the com- pany's career and was largely instrumental in laying the foundation for its later success. The business is now known as the Ichen- hauser Company, and is widely known throughout the United States. As was his father, Silas Ichenhauser is very active in all civic matters. He is president of the Park Board, trustee of the Evansville College, vice-president of the Community Welfare Board, a member of the City Planning Commission, treasurer of the Board of Children's Guardians, president of the Washington Avenue Temple, chairman of the Evansville Club, a director of the Travelers Protective Association, the Cleveland Orphans' Home at Cleveland, Ohio, the Home for the Aged and Infirm, the National Farm School at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives at Denver, Colorado, and of the Con- sumptives Relief Society. Fraternally and socially he is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Central Turn- ers, the B'nai B'rith and the Clear Crest Country Club. In addi- tion to his interests in the Ichenhauser Company as its president, he has numerous other business connections which include a di- rectorship in the Raphael Brothers Dry Goods Company of Evans- ville. That he has been sought to give his services on so many important welfare projects is in itself an indication of the high esteem in which he is held and of his capacity for self-sacrificing labor in the behalf of humanity. Mr. Ichenhauser was married February 8, 1888, to Emma Lowenstein, the daughter of Samuel
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