USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A standard history of Elkhart County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development, Volume II > Part 3
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At the age of twenty-seven he began practice in Chicago and soon had rank among the ablest physicians of that city. He was never content to be a routine doctor. He has been a student, a searcher after truth both by observation and experience and labora-
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tory research, and has been particularly distinguished by the results of his work in discovering and classifying the facts and conclusions involving the close relationship between the eye and brain and nervous system and the physical organism. In 1873 he began a special study of the relationship existing between the eye and brain, and the brain and heart, stomach and other organs, and in time the results of his study made him a master in the treat- ment of many complicated organic and chronic diseases.
It was the result of his many discoveries in medicine which finally led him to establish a medical laboratory for the prepara- tion of his remedies. In 1887 he founded the Dr. Miles Medical Company at Elkhart. From this laboratory have been distributed the Doctor Miles remedies to practically every portion of the civil- ized world. After the success of this institution was established, he extended its scope by founding at Elkhart the Dr. Miles Grand Dispensary. Here he has perfected an organization for the skil- ful treatment of various chronic and particularly nervous diseases, and the service has been extended to many thousands of patients, many of them living in remote localities where they are practically isolated from proper treatment at home. Doctor Miles has also been a large contributor to medical literature, and is a great special- ist whose work and attainments have commanded recognition in the world of science and medicine.
Doctor Miles is a Master Mason. He was formerly president of the Century Club and is president of the Citizens Trust Com- pany of Elkhart. He has been twice married, and his children included one son and two daughters. In later years Doctor Miles has spent much of his time in Southern Florida. He first went there in 1895 to recover his health, and has since spent many winters in that section of the South. The change from the Indiana climate to Florida has made a new man of him, according to his own testimony.
His presence in Florida has been accompanied by some splendid benefits to that state. He built and owns a beautiful home near Fort Myers in Lee County, on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River. This home he began in 1906. In the meantime his posses- sions as a landowner have been expanding, and he now owns about 10,000 acres in Lee County, stretching along the Caloosahatchee River for some fifteen or sixteen miles. He has devoted a large amount of capital and of his individual study and supervision to the development of this land. He is a firm believer in the future destiny of Florida lands and his own experiments are an important factor in a new line of development. He has made a close study
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of the soil, and as the chief qualities lacking are lime and phos- phate he has gone to work systematically to build up the resources of the soil by the addition of these substances on a large scale. He has a mill for grinding phosphate and limestone, and he also uses oyster shells extensively on his own lands. He has also constructed a sawmill and sugar cane mill, and altogether has about fifty build- ings for homes for laborers, stables and fruit packeries. From sixty to seventy-five people find almost constant employment in this large individual industry which has been created by Doctor Miles. He has a freight dock and also a dock 800 feet long extending out into the river to furnish facilities for his own pleasure launch and other boats. He has supervised the clearing of about 1,500 acres from the jungle and now has 200 acres in oranges, grape fruit, alligator pears, mangoes and other tropical fruits, and 400 acres on which he raises midwinter vegetables.
Doctor Miles is an ardent admirer of Southern Florida and believes that this section is destined to become one of the most popular winter resorts owing to its delightful and healthful climate.
JAMES A. BELL. Elkhart County and its thriving judicial center have been significantly fortunate in gaining the vital civic and busi- ness interposition of James A. Bell, who has proved himself a man of thought and action and whose ambition has not been subsidiary to his power of achievement. The City of Elkhart owes much to this vigorous, courageous and public-spirited citizen, for not only has he exerted benignant influence in connection with progressive business enterprises but has shown also a splendid spirit of civic loyalty, a spirit that has prompted him to well ordered efforts in behalf of the city and its people, though he has, like every leader, not failed to encounter a full measure of opposition on the part of those of more narrow civic ken and less unselfish communal ideals. Mr. Bell, as if through inherent predilection, has become a prom- inent and influential exponent of enterprises and interests connected with the "art preservative of all arts," and in this field of endeavor he is now the executive head of the James A. Bell Company, one of the important publishing concerns of the Hoosier State. In offer- ing brief review of the career of Mr. Bell it is deemed but consist- ent to draw largely and in line of direct quotation from a sketch that appeared in the Inland Printer, in November, 1911. that periodical being recognized as the foremost exponent of the printing and pub- lishing industry in the United States. In the reproduction will be indulged such minor elimination and paraphrase that formal marks of quotation are not utilized.
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James A. Bell was born in the City of Hartford, Connecticut, on the 6th of March, 1870, and is a son of Andrew Bell, a pressman known among the older generation of New York, Chicago and St. Louis printers as "Andy" Bell. The family removed to Chicago m 1875 and later the home was established in St. Louis. He whose name initiates this article acquired his early educational discipline in the public schools of Chicago, in which city also he acquired his initial experience in connection with the printing business, by serving as a pressroom "devil" in the printing establishment of J. W. Middle- ton, on State Street. Removing to St. Louis, his father prevailed upon "Sam" Jackson to take James on trial in the plant of the Times Printing Company. Mr. Jackson proved to be a good disciplinarian, and under his tutorship young Bell soon became a proficient pony- press feeder. Later he obtained employment under his father, who was foreman of the pressroom of the Great Western Printing Com- pany. Here he remained several years, and he then made his way to Chicago by means of the stately accommodations of a box car, probably because he was too democratic to ride in a Pullman.
It was in Chicago that Bell, then only a boy, obtained his first experience in trade-union affairs. After working in all of the large Chicago printing plants, as a press-feeder, he was called out on strike in 1889. A few weeks later he left for St. Louis, broke. He did not remain in the Missouri metropolis long, just long enough to organize a strike because the employers would not shut down on Labor Day. Bell returned to Chicago, and after having there been employed in a number of press-rooms his health finally became impaired to such an extent that he was compelled to go to the South, where he remained several months. Upon his return to Chicago he obtained a position as night clerk in a hotel on Clark street, and there he remained until July, 1892, when he went to South Bend, Indiana, to assume the position of foreman of the press-room of the Tribune Printing Company. While in that city he became affiliated with the local typographical union, as there was at the time no press- man's organization at that place. About this time Mr. Bell took unto himself a wife, and shortly afterward, he established his resi- dence in the City of Elkhart, Indiana, where he assumed the posi- tion of foreman of the press-room of the Mennonite Publishing Company, a post of which he continued the incumbent for two years. At this stage of his career Mr. Bell took a notion to go into the saw-mill business, and, in five months, he returned to the Men- nonite Publishing Company, broke. Then he went into politics, and in three years resigned his position to run for representative in
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the State Legislature, winding up with an empty pocketbook and no office.
After this experience Mr. Bell became manager of the Elkhart Daily Truth, a leading daily newspaper of Elkhart County, and of this position he continued the incumbent from December, 1898, until August, 1900. He resigned this position to become chairman of a political committee in the campaign of 1900. Politics seemed to be his hoodoo, however, and his experience at this time resulted pri- marily in the depletion of his personal exchequer. After two months of idleness he was made business manager of the Mennonite Pub- lishing Company, of which he later, in 1904, became the receiver, when the failure of a large Elkhart bank placed the publishing con- pany in financial straits.
It was at this period in his career that Mr. Bell made his influence felt as an executive in business affairs. As an indication of how well he managed the administration of the receivership, it may be stated that the Mennonite Publishing Company was the only con- cern, among almost a dozen failing because of the bank crash, that came out of the receivership O. K. Near the close of the year 19II Mr. Bell made the following incidental statements: "The Mennonite Publishing Company has been paying five and six per cent interest on its entire debt, and will, when the bond mortgage matures, pay its creditors in full, having already paid off over $70,000 of principal and $35,000 interest." He showed in this connection splendid ability as an executive, and further than this it is gratify- ing to record that his integrity has ever been inviolable and unques- tioned. As receiver for the publishing company he made it a point to settle first with those creditors who could least afford to wait, letting the wealthy creditors wait until the widows and indigent persons were paid off.
In March, 1908, Mr. Bell closed a contract with a board of ten members of the Mennonite Church for the sale of its religious period- icals. This made necessary the forming of a new corporation, and W. J. Fleming and W. F. Moormaw, friends and customers of Mr. Bell, made a proposition to finance the concern, by taking a third interest each and giving the other third to Mr. Bell in return for his experience and ability. This proposition was accepted and the new corporation, the James A. Bell Company, began business on the roth of August, 1908. The company met with such remarkable success from the very beginning that Mr. Bell decided that he could well experiment with a co-operative plan, and on November 12, 1910, he made the announcement to his employers. Now, after five years have elapsed, he declares that the co-operative system
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which he thus promoted and adopted has proved a complete sue- cess. As treasurer and manager of the James A. Bell Company he gave to the publishing fraternity and the representatives of the printing business a most interesting and valuable resumé of his personal experience through the medium of an extended article contributed to the Inland Printer and published in that journal in November, 1911. This article, both from an executive and technical standpoint, being of surpassing practical interest and having been published under the title of : "Printers' Problems and How to Solve Them."
Under the administration of Mr. Bell the year 1915 at its close records the reduction of the indebtedness of the Mennonite Publish- ing Company to less than $30,000.
As a loyal and public-spirited citizen Mr. Bell has manifested a lively interest in all that touches the welfare and advancement of his home city, where he has been honored with appointment to high municipal office. From 1900 until 1903 he served as a member of the board of city park commissioners, and within this period it was largely due to his determined and well directed efforts that provision was made for Sunday band concerts on Island Park from 2 to 6 o'clock each Sunday afternoon during the summer season. This normal and altogether consistent measure for the entertainment of the citizens in general met with opposition on the part of certain narrow-minded members of the local clergy, but the stamp of popu- lar approval has been emphatic and the concerts while they were given were greatly appreciated. About the same time that he pro- moted this worthy movement Mr. Bell also effected the erection of a well equipped publie bath house at the same park, though he encoun- tered formidable political opposition on the part of non-progressive citizens who succeeded in abolishing the progressive park board and soon resulted in the abandonment of the desirable features in- augurated by the board.
On the 17th of April. 1905, Mr. Bell was appointed city comp- troller of Elkhart, a responsible office of which he continued the in- cumbent until July 5, 1910, and in which he gave a characteristically able and progressive administration. Within his regime the city entered into a contract by means of which it gets its water supply at a cost fully 40 per cent less than any other city in the state, the water supplied being of the maximum purity, the amount ade- quate to meet all demands, with no waste, and with a system that in a general way is far superior to those of cities controlling their own water plants. Mr. Bell was unremitting in his efforts to stop finan- cial leakage in this and other departments of the municipal service
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and insistently demanded the bringing of the service of the Elkhart Water Company up to the highest sanitary standard and to general efficiency in a general way.
As exalted ruler of Elkhart Lodge, No. 425, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Mr. Bell again showed his ability as an executive officer. It was primarily through his efforts that in Elk- hart was erected the Elks' Temple that surpasses anything of its kind in Indiana. This wonderful achievement was made by a lodge of only 325 members and with a capital of only $8,000. At the end of three years the magnificent temple was completed, at a cost of $95,000, and since that time the indebtedness on the temple has been reduced to less than $37,000, the while the lodge has increased its membership to nearly 900.
On the Ioth of December. 1892, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bell to Miss Cora Alice Calloway, who was born at Rossville, Clinton County, Indiana, and the three children of this union are : Jerome A., Mildred, and Marjorie.
JOSEPH HOLTON DEFREES. Among the native sons of Elkhart County whose careers have been largely identified with other com- munities, is Joseph Holton Defrees, who for more than a quarter of a century has been identified with the Chicago bar, and has long been recognized as one of the foremost lawyers and business men of that city. Mr. Defrecs served twice as president of the Chicago Bar Association, was vice president of the Illinois State Bar Association, was the first lawyer to be elected president of the Chicago Associa- tion of Commerce, and is at this writing serving as chairman of the executive committee and vice president of the Chamber of Com- merce of the United States.
Joseph Holton Defrees was born at Goshen April 10, 1858, and is a son of James McKinney and Victoria (Holton) Defrees. His father was born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1833 and died in 1859, at the age of twenty-six, while the mother was born in Kentucky in 1839 and died in 1865, also at the age of twenty-six. Joseph H. Defrees never knew his father and he was only seven years of age when he lost his mother. He was an only child. His father, James Defrees, graduated at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, and was educated in the law in what is now the law department of Harvard University. He located for practice at Goshen and was serving as prosecuting attorney of Elkhart County at the time of his death. He was also one of the founders of the Goshen Times. In politics he was first a whig and later a republican.
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The grandparents of Mr. Defrees were Joseph Hutton and Mary (Mckinney) Defrees, and his grandfather was identified very closely with the pioneer history of Northern Indiana.
The early members of this family were of French Huguenot origin, and the first ancestors emigrated from Holland to New York. From one of the brothers who came to this country the present fam- ily line is descended. The grandfather of Joseph Hutton Defrees, the great grandfather of the Chicago lawyer, was born and reared in New York. When about twelve years of age he went to Trenton, New Jersey, and later to Philadelphia, where he served an appren- ticeship as a carpenter. During the Revolutionary war he took serv- ice as carpenter on board a ship sailing between Philadelphia and Cuba and remained in that service nearly the entire seven years of war. He was three times made a prisoner of war and suffered much during his confinement on the notorious prison ship Jersey. He had many adventures as a sailor during the war, and at one time had a considerable fortune in prize money, but the ship and cargo in which he invested it was lost and he retired from the sea to take up steady work at his trade. He remained in Philadelphia until the fall of 1786, and then moved to Virginia and bought a farm in Rock- bridge County. After living there about twenty years he sold out and came to Ohio in October, 1811. He settled near Piqua, and died there in August, 1826, when about seventy-three years of age. In his family were the following children: John, James, Anna, Joseph, Anthony, Rebecca, Archibald, Mary, Anna, Elizabeth, Rebecca and Thomas Jefferson, twelve in all.
James Defrees, a son of this Revolutionary character, served an apprenticeship in the business of hat maker, worked as a journey- man at the trade, and in Tennessee married Miss Margaret Dough- erty. For several years they lived at Sparta, Tennessee. From there he moved to Piqua, Ohio, carried on business as a hatter, and at one time was postmaster of the town. By his first wife James Defrees had nine children : John D., Joseph Hutton, Harriet, James, Anthony, Mary, William, Margaret and Caroline. By a second marriage he had four other children.
Among the former children John and Joseph were especially conspicuous in Northern Indiana. Joseph was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Both John and Joseph served a time at the printing business in the Gazette office at Piqua, and they then took by ox team and wagon the first printing press ever taken west of Detroit and, at South Bend, Indiana, began the publication of the New Pioneer, which was the first paper issued west of Detroit. It afterwards became the South Bend Register and was issued as
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such for a number of years. Schuyler Colfax learned the printer's trade on that paper, and subsequently bought the plant and was editor of the paper while he was in congress. John D. Defrees subsequently went to Indianapolis and edited the State Journal a number of years. While thus engaged and afterward he served as public printer several times during the administration of Presidents Lincoln, Johnson, Grant and Hayes.
After his experience in the pioneer newspaper at South Bend, Joseph Hutton Defrees went to Goshen and became a merchant and banker. During the reconstruction period after the Civil war he was a member of congress from Indiana.
It was in the home of his grandfather, Joseph Hutton Defrees, that the Chicago lawyer was reared after the death of his parents. He was educated in the public schools, attended Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana, and completed his education in Northwestern University. He was admitted to the bar at Goshen in 1879 and shortly afterward became a member of the firm of Baker, Defrees & Baker at Goshen. The senior member of this firm was the venerable John H. Baker, one of Elkhart County's most eminent men and for a number of years a federal judge. The junior mem- ber was his son, Francis E. Baker, who is now the presiding judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the seventh judicial circuit.
In 1888 MIr. Defrees left Goshen and went to Chicago. He became a member of the firm of Shuman & Defrees, and in 1802 became a member of the firm of Aldrich, Payne & Defrees, which subsequently became Defrees, Brace & Ritter, and still later Defrees, Buckingham, Ritter & Campbell. He is now senior member of the firm of Defrees, Buckingham & Eaton, and most of his practice is in corporation law.
Mr. Defrees has well been characterized as "a business man by nature, a lawyer by profession, and by instinct a keen judge of men and affairs," and with these qualifications it is only natural he has won himself an unusual place in the world of business. Though he has gained almost equal distinction in both his profession and in business, it is significant that he has received some of the highest honors from organizations of lawyers and business men in Chicago. It is his distinction that he is the only man who has ever held the presidency of the Chicago Bar Association two terms in succession. Then in 1914 the Chicago Association of Commerce for the first time elected a lawyer as its president, and this choice was due to the fact that the members of the commerce association considered Mr. Defrees an unusually capable business man.
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The career of Mr. Defrees is a competent illustration of a ten- dency which was observed by Hon. James Bryce, who in seeking to distinguish between the American bar and the English bar found that American lawyers were to an increasing extent becoming iden- tified with business affairs. Thus it is that Mr. Defrees is a lawyer many of whose associations have been with business affairs and with business men, both as a director and adviser in many business organizations.
Mr. Defrees was the first president of the Indiana Society of Chicago and succeeded himself for a second term in that office. It was in 1909-II that he served his two terms as president of the Chicago Bar Association, and in 1914 was elected president of the Chicago Association of Commerce. He is a member of the Chi- cago Club, the Union League Club, the Mid-Day Club, the South Shore Country Club, the City Club, the Chicago Literary Club, the Onwentsia Country Club and the Hamilton Club. He was one of the founders of the Hamilton Club. He also belongs to the Bankers Club of America in New York City, and to the Illinois, the Chicago and the American Bar Associations. He has also served as vice president of the Civic Federation of Chicago. In the Chicago Asso- ciation of Commerce he was a member of a number of important committees in the years preceding his service as president of the association.
On October 4, 1882, at Buffalo, New York, Mr. Defrees married Miss Harriet McNaughton, daughter of Daniel McNaughton. Mr. Defrees and wife have one son, Donald, who graduated from Yale University and the Harvard Law School and is now a member of the firm of Defrees, Buckingham & Eaton in Chicago.
Something of his personal characteristics is given in a magazine article which described Mr. Defrees' business record a year or so ago: "He is not an exceptionally large man, but with eyes like his a man does not need physical bulk to hold attention. Set under a good forehead, these eyes are liable to hold you so closely that you overlook the determined turn to the mouth and the foresight indi- cated by the drawn back ears. He receives you kindly, waits to get your side of the story and then if need be carries his point in a manner carefully planned to avoid hurting your feelings more than is absolutely necessary. He uses words as a surgeon does a scalpel. Friends he has by the host of course-he likes to help the young fellows, and the other night scores of them joined with men as old as their fathers to serenade him on the anniversary of his birth. Travel is his recreation."
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FRANK E. C. HAWKS. By reason of the latitude and quality of his usefulness, his commercial and industrial soundness, judgment and acumen, his public spirit and civic integrity, and his nearness to the fundamental requirements of citizenship, Frank E. C. Hawks, of Goshen, presents an encouraging illustration of success gained with honor and through the proper use of ordinary opportunities. His career was commenced when he returned from his service as a Union soldier during the Civil war, and from that time to the present he has laboriously climbed every round in the commercial and industrial ladder, until today he finds himself on one of the topmost rungs, president of the Goshen Milling Company, the Hawks Electric Company, the Hawks Hardware Company and the Hawks Coal Company, and vice president of both the City National Bank and the Hawks Furniture Company.
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