A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 83

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273

USA > Indiana > LaPorte County > A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana > Part 83

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Moses White, the father of Bishop White,

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was a native of New Hampshire, and in 1842 became a graduate of Dartmouth College. His special work thereafter was the preparing of young men for college, during which time he maintained his residence in Cincinnati. He re- moved to that city immediately after his marriage in 1846, and there he continued to make his home until his life's labors were ended in death, when he had passed the sixtieth milestone on the journey of life. At the breaking out of the Civil war he enlisted in the Twenty-second Ohio In- fantry, which was merged into the Thirteenth Missouri at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, and Colonel Crafts J. Wright became the colonel of the regiment. Mr. Moses White served through- out the entire period of hostilities, his services beginning at the siege of Fort Henry, and his first battle was at Fort Donelson, after which he participated in the engagements of Shiloh, Iuka, Corinth and Vicksburg. He entered the ranks as first lieutenant, but ere his services had ended this brave and fearless soldier had been promoted to the rank of major. During nearly all of his service he was on the staff of General Reynolds. His brother John was killed at the siege of Vicksburg. After the close of the struggle Moses White returned to Cincinnati and was made librarian of the Young Men's Mercantile Library, which position he held from 1865 until his death, in 1877. In 1846 he was united in marriage to Mary Miller Williams, a native of Vermont, and they became the parents of five children, two sons and three daughters. The mother survived her husband until October, 1891, when she, ; too, was laid to rest, being seventy-two years of age at the time of her death. She was reared in the faith of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Moses White was a member of the Unitarian church, having served for twenty-eight years as superin- tendent of its Sunday-school in Cincinnati. In his political affiliations he was a Republican.

John Hazen White, the only survivor of his parents' five children, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 10th of March, 1849, and in that city he was also reared and educated, graduating from Woodward high school in 1866. After three years spent in mercantile life, in the employ of David Banning & Company, wholesale com- mission merchants, he then decided to study for the ministry, and entered Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio, in which institution he was grad- uated with the class of 1872. During the three subsequent years he pursued a theological course at Berkeley Divinity School at Middletown, Connecticut, under the preceptorship of Bishop

John Williams. His first official position was as curate in St. Andrew's parish at Meriden, where he remained for two years, from 1875 until 1877, being assistant to Dr. Giles Deshon. He then be- came the vice-rector and instructor in Latin in St. Margaret's School, Waterbury, Connecticut, serving as such for eighteen months. At the ex- piration of that period Bishop Williams pur- suaded Mr. White to take the rectorship of Grace church at old Saybrook, Connecticut, where he remained from November, 1879, until January I, 1881, when he became rector of Christ church at Joliet, Illinois.

From a weak and struggling parish at that point Bishop White soon gathered together a large congregation, erected a fine church building and increased the membership from fifty-two to nearly five hundred, all this taking place within a period of ten years. From Joliet Mr. White went to Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he became rector of the Church of St. John the Evangelist, and there he built from a small congregation one of the largest parishes in the diocese, and this was accomplished in the almost incredibly short space of two years. He was then elected warden of Seabury Divinity School at Faribault, Minnesota, serving in that position from September, 1891, until 1895.

On the 6th of February of the latter year he was elected bishop of Indiana, in Grace Cathedral, Indianapolis, and was consecrated fourth bishop of Indiana in St. Paul's church of that city, May I, 1895, the consecrators being Bishop Tuttle, of Missouri; Bishop Leonard, of Ohio; and Bishop Gilbert, of Minnesota. The preacher was Bishop McLaren, of Chicago, the presentors being Bishop Nicholsen, of Milwaukee, and Bishop Hale, of Springfield, Illinois, and Bishop Whitehead, of Pittsburg, was also present at the time. Bishop White administered the see of Indiana from 1895 until April, 1899, and in October of the latter year the general convention at Washington gave consent to the division of the diocese of the state and the creation of a new diocese north of the dividing line. As was his privilege, Bishop White selected the new diocese and organized its primary convention in Trinity church, Michigan City, April 26, 1899, thereby becoming the first bishop of the diocese of Michigan City, which became his official place of residence and Trinity church his cathedral. The degrees of Doctor of Divinity were conferred upon him at the time of his elec- tion, in 1895, by Kenyon College and Seabury Divinity School. both institutions conferring the degree the same year. He now has about thirty

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parishes and missions and twenty-five priests under his supervision.

On the 23d of April, 1879, Bishop White mar- ried Miss Marie Louise Holbrook, youngest child of D. C. Holbrook, a prominent lawyer of De- troit, Michigan. Her mother was Mary Ann May, who was formerly the wife of a Mr. Berdan, and to them was born a daughter, Ella, now the wife of Colonel F. W. Swift, of Detroit. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Holbrook : May, now the wife of F. H. Walker, of Detroit ; D. C. Holbrook, Jr., who resides at Great Falls, Montana ; and Marie Louise, the wife of Bishop White. The union of Bishop and Mrs. White has been blessed with seven children, namely : Howard Russell, who is a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, with the class of 1902, and is now studying for the ministry at Nashotah, Wisconsin, where he is a candidate for holy orders and is at present an instructor in the institution; DeWitt Holbrook, who died on the 2d of July, 1902, at the age of twenty years; Mary May, a graduate of Knickerbocker Hall, Indianapolis; Charlotte Strong, now a pupil in that institution ; Edward Sanger, a student in the high school in Michigan City; Walker, at school in Michigan City ; and Katherine Ames, a student at Knickerbocker Hall. In his fraternal relations Bishop White is a member of Acme Lodge No. 83, F. & A. M .; Michigan City Chapter No. 25, R. A. M .; Michigan City Commandery No. 30, K. T .; and is prelate of the Grand Commandery of the state of Indiana. He takes just pride in the fact that he is chaplain general of the old Revolu- tionary order of the Cincinnati. He is also chap- lain of the Indiana Commandery of the Loyal Legion, and was a charter member of the Indiana Commandery of the Sons of the Revolution.

EDWARD F. KEEBLER, of the firm of E. F. Keebler & Company, who make a specialty of Chicago business property situated within the union loop, is one of the stanch friends of La- Porte, and is well remembered there as one of the native-born boys who have gone to Chicago and gained a creditable position in business and affairs. Mr. Keebler began his career in the fine training school of a railroad office, and held some positions of importance before he left the busi- ness. Afterward becoming connected with real estate and insurance, he rapidly passed from sub- ordinate to independent positions, and for ten years has been at the head of one of the largest firms making a specialty of one class of Chicago property.

His parents, John C. and Anna (Wanner) Keebler, were both natives of Switzerland, and emigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago when it was a mere village. Mr. John Keebler often relates how he once had an oppor- tunity of acquiring the ground where the Polk street depot now stands, in exchange for a team of horses ; but he could be accused of no lack of foresight in refusing the offer, for the location of the town was most uninviting and seemed to have no future prospects at all. For some time he had the contract for sprinkling the streets, and was later in the wholesale grocery business. In an early day, Mr. Keebler came to LaPorte and engaged in the grocery business on Main street, which he continued for many years. In later life he sold out, and is now living retired at LaPorte, at the age of seventy-six ; his wife died in La- Porte in 1890.

Edward F. Keebler was born in the city of LaPorte in 1865, and was educated in the La- Porte high school. He then became assistant cashier for the Lake Shore Railroad Company at LaPorte, which position he held for three years. He then came to Chicago, and was made assistant chief clerk for the in-freight department of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company. At that time he had the employing of about fifteen clerks, and he sent for a number of capable young men of his acquaintance at LaPorte, and gave them employment in his department. Mr. Keebler was next transferred to the place of abstract clerk for the same company, under the agency of A. B. Brinkerhoff ; then entered the fire insurance office of A. H. Darrow, on LaSalle street, who had an immense business and represented ten of the leading companies, Mr. Keebler being bookkeep- er and policy clerk for three years. He then be- came manager of the renting department of W. A. Merigold & Company, who were at that time among the largest real estate operators in Chi- cago. After two years of experience with this firm he opened a real estate and renting office of his own at 146 LaSalle street, where he remained four years ; was located in the Woman's Temple about three years, at 226 LaSalle street for three years, and then came to his present location, Con- tinental Bank building, 218 LaSalle street. Since engaging in business for himself the firm name has been E. F. Keebler & Company, his brother August C., who died in 1900, having been a part- ner in the firm until his death.

Mr. Keebler makes a specialty of rents and leases in down-town property, especially within the loop. He is an expert rent valuator, and since

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entering the business has negotiated leases that approximately aggregate, to this time, twenty- five million dollars in rents. There is probably not a large business establishment down town which has not had dealings with him in negotiat- ing leases. His prominence in real estate circles makes his judgment and opinions of great value, and his advice and views in regard to such mat- ters are often quoted in the daily papers.

Mr. Keebler has a brother, Henry J., who is connected with the Illinois Casing Company, and a sister, Nettie, who is the wife of A. L. Buchan- an. In 1887 Mr. Keebler was married to Miss Wilhelmina Pottgeiser, a daughter of the well known capitalist and wealthy real estate owner, Gilbert Pottgeiser. One son was born of this union, Gilbert Keebler. Mr. Keebler is promi- nent in various ways outside of his business, and is a member of several clubs and societies.

REV. E. D. DANIELS, the subject of this sketch and the author and compiler of the histori- cal portion of this work, was born in the forties of the nineteenth century, in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. His parents were William C. and Nancy C. (Richards) Daniels. The family came of old Puritan stock. He is Welsh on both sides of the house. When he was six years of age his parents moved to South Braintree, near Boston, which was their home during the re- mainder of their natural life. He was educated in a private school in Cambridgeport, in the pub- lic schools of South Braintree, in Pierce Acad- emy, Middleboro, Massachusetts, in Milton Academy of the same state, in Kimball Union Academy of Meriden, New Hampshire, then in the front rank of educational institutions, in Colby University, Waterville, Maine, and he has been a close student ever since.

His father was first a Whig and then a Mug- wump, but as soon as he became old enough to choose rationally for himself the boy became a Republican and has voted that ticket ever since. When the Civil war broke out young Daniels, though but a boy, determined to go, and only waited for his opportunity. In 1863 the officers of General Hancock's old division, the first di- vision of the Second Army Corps, conceived the idea of having a splendid band of music at di- vision headquarters. There was no provision by government for a division band, but each brigade was allowed a band, two or more of which might be put together. Accordingly, by general agree- ment of the officers, Major Hancock, General Hancock's half brother, came on to Boston and

enlisted two brigade bands, one for the first brigade and the other for the second brigade of the division. A few men were enlisted from Gil- more's band of Boston, a few from Fisk's cele- brated band of Worcester, Massachusetts, others from other places, and among them was young Daniels, who even then had played in a band and orchestra for years; for he had been brought up in the midst of music and had learned it as he had learned to talk. His parents gave their con- sent-withheld until now-that the boy enlist with an uncle of his who was going in the same body of men. These two brigade bands were consolidated and stationed at division headquar- ters. With a few details of good musicians from the ranks, they numbered about forty. They were all experienced musicians and played little but high-class music. Their bandmaster was Cornelius Higgins of Gilmore's band, then ac- knowledged the greatest clarinet player in the world. Under his instructions they soon became famous and were known throughout the Army of the Potomac as "Higgin's Division Band." The duty of young Daniels when fighting was going on was to care for the wounded on the field of battle, staunch their blood, dress their wounds, and keep them alive until the surgeons could properly attend to them. When the war closed and he was discharged from the service he was offered a position to play in Heinich's celebrated Germania band of Boston, but he declined it and returned to his studies which he had left to enter the army.

From a child young Daniels had felt that some day he would be a clergyman, and this feel- ing deepened into a conviction of duty. Sev- eral opportunities to enter commercial life were presented to him but he passed them by and finally entered the gospel ministry, in which he has been active ever since. In the early seventies he came to the middle west, where he has been since that time, with the exception of a four years' pastorate in Toronto, Ontario, and a two years' pastorate in Washington, D. C. For the past eleven years he has been pastor of what is known as the New Church society in LaPorte, Indiana, previous to which he was six years a pastor in Indianapolis. Besides his ministerial work he has done something in authorship; and, though he has never made any attempt to join a lecture bureau, he has received and responded to many calls to lecture, especially before educa- tional and literary institutions and on patriotic occasions. He has a large number of the highest testimonials to his personal character and work

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in former pastorates and in lecture appointments. He is a public-spirited man, has identified him- self with the community in which he lives, and has the respect of his fellow citizens. He sees that in the education of his family and in many other respects he has received from the com- munity greater benefits than all the wealth of the Standard Oil Company could buy, and in return he has freely given himself to the community in every good word and work. In his efforts for the betterment of men he is not fanatical and ex- treme but practical, believing that if a thorough reform is at present impossible, a partial reform is much better than none, and that we must deal with the world as it is and not as it ought to be. He is a member of several secret orders, but the Grand Army of the Republic is about the only one he keeps up. He is far from being a dog- matist, believing that doctrines are true or false as they agree or disagree with the experimental and practical Christian life, and useful only as they promote that life. He is a man of broad and tolerant spirit, believing that every church and sect stands for some principle which Chris- tendom could not so well do without. He has a large and beautiful family and a cultured wife who is beloved by all who know her.

. HON. ADDISON BALLARD, of Chicago, the details of whose life are of extreme interest both from a historical and romantic point of view, and whose entire career has been fruitful and of more than ordinary importance, is one of LaPorte's old-time citizens, and in the years about the central portion of the last century was identi- fied so closely with the nascent city that his name will always be linked with LaPorte history.

Addison Ballard was born in Salem township, Warren county, Ohio, November 30, 1823, and is the son of Thomas and Sarah (Lewis) Ballard, who lived in the vicinity of Lynchburg, Virginia. Thomas Ballard was born in Campbell county, Virginia, and was a pioneer to Ohio in 1814, settling in Warren county, where he cleared up a farm. In later life he moved to Richmond, Indi- ana, where he died in 1848, and where his wife, also a native of Virginia, likewise passed away. The Ballards were all devoted to the simple be- liefs of the Quaker sect, and Mr. Ballard himself is of that faith, and was an early member of the old Society of Friends at LaPorte.

Addison Ballard was reared on a farm, and he had the advantage of passing part of his life with the noted old Butterworth family of Ohio, with whom members of his own family had inter-

married. But much of his young life was passed amid privations and hard labor upon the farms along the Little Miami valley. For sixteen hours, more or less per day, he received wages of from four to ten dollars per month. But along with the moral uprightness of his Quaker parents, he had inherited a strong constitution, and hardships only hindered his path to success, were not in- superable obstacles. For education he spent a term of sixty days in a little log schoolhouse, and for his eight hours a day of mental training he paid eight hours in toil before dawn and late at night, and all his Saturdays for his board and lodging. But he gained in this way an acquaint- ance with the three R's, which the requirements of business in later years perfected into a passable education.

In 1836 Jahue Lewis, Mr. Ballard's maternal uncle, had moved to LaPorte county, Indiana, and built a sawmill at the headwaters of Galena river, and in 1841, when he and his family were back in Ohio on a visit, he bought an extra horse to take along with him to Indiana. This animal was without saddle and unshod, and a young man of about eighteen years took advantage of the mode of conveyance to go to Indiana and work in a sawmill. This was the manner of Mr. Ballard's entrance into LaPorte, on the 21st of August, 1841.

On his arrival in this northern Indiana county Mr. Ballard was not at all pleased with the prof- fered situation in the sawmill, and he then cast about to find some permanent industry to which he could devote his energies. In his youth, as a matter of necessity rather than from choice, he had worked the bellows in a blacksmith shop, had driven a horse round the circle to blow wind into the blast furnace; had done the same thing in an oil mill and a tannery ; and while employed in a wagon-maker's shop had gained some knowl- edge of edged tools, which now furnished him a clue to permanent work. He hired out to a corpenter at six dollars a month and board, and during his period of apprenticeship worked for about all the boss carpenters that were in La- Porte at that day. Those with whom he worked as apprentice, journeyman and co-partner were John Allen, Luther Mann, William D. Farns- worth, James Caruth, James Bowers, Brown and Southard, Noah Francis, Ball and Pence, and John Allright, all of whom have passed away, but who were a part of the history of LaPorte during the years between 1841 and 1852.

After about a year in LaPorte Mr. Ballard got homesick and returned to Ohio, where he

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attended school for a few weeks and worked on a farm until he had saved ten dollars. With a schoolmate possessed of the same capital, he set out for the west to make his way to his com- panion's father, who had settled on the Desplaines river, near Chicago. They went down the Ohio to St. Louis, then up the Illinois as far as Peru, where, their money giving out, they had to make the rest of the way on foot acros the praires covered with one expanse of mud and slush from the melting of the heavy snows of the preceding winter. One day in the spring of 1843, Mr. Ballard, with his companion and the latter's father, arrived in the young city of Chicago, where Mr. Ballard was to pass much of his sub- sequent business career, but which at that time pre- sented anything but an encouraging spectacle ; the streets were impassable, sidewalks, like pon- toons, spanned a sea of mud. The sand hills on the southern shores of Lake Michigan seemed paradisiacal compared to this place, and young Ballard walked and rode with farmers until he reached LaPorte, which he had left the preced- ing year, and where he was now content to settle down and work at his trade.

There are a number of houses yet standing in LaPorte with whose construction Mr. Ballard had something to do in those early days of the forties. At that time a dollar a day, with board included, was good carpenter's wages in the country, and a dollar and a half was a high figure in town; the day was from sun-up to sun- down in the summer, and till nine o'clock in the evening for shop work in the winter. In 1847, when the county commissioners of LaPorte coun- ty had prepared to build a new court house, the contract was awarded to Luther Mann, as the lowest bidder, at ten thousand dollars and no extras. Mr. Ballard was employed as carpenter, and built the court house which remained as the seat of county government until it was replaced a few years ago by one costing three hundred thousand dollars. Wood-working machinery had not yet reached the west, and all the timbers had to be fashioned with a rip saw and jack plane, followed up with other hand tools, and Mr. Ballard handled every piece of lumber that en- tered into the construction of the old court house. The building was finished and accepted in the spring of 1849.

The discovery of gold in the west had set all the young men aflame to dig for treasure, and, though Mr. Ballard missed the regular emigrant train for the west because he could not leave his contracts unfinished, he determined to go west

as soon as possible. After spending a few weeks as journeyman carpenter at New Buffalo, which was then looked upon as the probable terminus of the Michigan Central Railroad, he condensed the size of his tool chest, and, setting out from New Buffalo in November, 1849, went to New York, whence he took passage by steamer to the isthmus, thence up the Chagres river to the head of navigation, where he hired a native to carry his tool chest to Panama, and from that port ar- rived by sailing vessel in San Francisco in March, 1850. He at once went to the mines, but soon took up the carpenter business, first at Hangtown (now Placerville), and then at Sacramento. His wages were paid in gold dust, sixteen dollars a day. He had many adventures and experiences while in California, and on account of his promi- nence in this connection he was chosen and is now the president of the Western Association of California Pioneers, which holds annual meetings at Chicago. In 1899 Mr. Ballard made another trip to Cali- fornia, went to near Placerville, and from the same old mine washed out enough gold to make a ring and some other trinkets, for each member of his family, in the same place where, fifty years before he had worked as a miner. Mr. Ballard has written, for the Chicago papers, many highly interesting reminiscences of the days of '49.

In 1851 Mr. Ballard went back to the States with fifteen pounds of bold dust around his body. He says that, during the sixty days' passage, he had just about as much money as he could carry, which is the dream and de- sire of many men, and that much con- verted into silver would be much more than anyone could lift. On his return to La- Porte he resumed building in partnership with Luther Mann, and put up the Teegarden Hotel, the Ridgway block and other structures on Main street and elsewhere. The merchants who were doing business in those early days in LaPorte were Richard Hughes, A. and J. Ridgway, Joseph Stebins, Hiram Wheeler, Amzi Clark, Thomas Phillips, Mr. Howell, the father of Mrs. Judge Noyes, and F. Thwing. The three hotels, or taverns, were the LaPorte House, kept by Mr. Evans, better known as "Old Bluey Evans"; General Brown kept the tavern on the Brown corner, afterward kept by Guffin Treadway, and after that kept by John P. Teeple; the Hobson House, on West Main street, was kept by John Hobson, who was a playmate of Mr. Ballard's father, near Lynchburg, Virginia. When Mr.

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A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 83

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1273

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273