USA > Indiana > Encyclopedia of biography of Indiana > Part 37
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BIOGRAPHY OF INDIANA.
that never was one single article missing from its place. It was a com- mentary upon the remarkable personal force of the man that it was not more than a week after his death that these various tools were scattered, no one quite knew why or how. Here in this home in which he was gratifying his highest am- bition, surrounded by his family of wife and five children, he spent happy and peaceful years, and here he passed away at the age of forty-nine, having left an indelible stamp upon the community, the family and all with whom he came in con- tact. He was all his life associated with the Second Presbyterian church and was a liberal contributor to its work, partie- ularly so in the building of the present edifice when the congregation removed from its old location on the Circle. Of his six children, one, a son, Lewis, died in infancy; another son, David, was drowned at the age of fifteen in Florida; four survive-Mrs. Ambrose P. Stanton, formerly Mrs. J. H. Ruddell, and Mrs. Henry D. Pierce, of Indianapolis; Mr. Merrick E. Vinton and Mr. Lindley Vin- ton, both now residing in New York City. Mrs. Vinton died in Indianapolis, August 31, 1892.
PHILANDER H. FITZGERALD.
Among the business men of Indianapo- lis, to whom "enterprise" has ever been the watchword, Philander H. Fitzgerald may be said to be pre-eminent. A glimpse of his heredity reveals the fact that some
of his active energy and propensity for launching out into fresh fields of action, was transmitted to him by his father, Joseph Fitzgerald, of Irish ancestry. He was a farmer living in Indiana until 1849, when the California gold fever swept over the land and tonched him with its rest- lessness. He made the trip overland and remained in California for ten years. He returned, however, and engaged in the coopering business in Manchester, Indi- ana. In 1861 he reernited Co. E, Six- teenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which company was accepted by the Governor. On account of physical disability, how- ever, Mr. Fitzgerald himself was reject- ed, a fact bitterly deplored by his old comrades, many of whom declared they would not go without "Uncle Joe." He was afterwards made the sutler of the regiment and was with it during the en- tire service. He was a personal friend of the late Governor Morton, and an ag- gressive Republican during his entire life. His wife, Laura Northrope Fitzgerald was of good Connecticut stock. She died at Acton, Marion county, Feb. 15, 1891, aged seventy-seven years. Philander H. Fitzgerald, the son of this worthy couple, was born in Greensburg, Decatur coun- ty, Indiana, February 14, 1847. While young he removed with his parents to Dearborn county. Ilis education was ac- quired fundamentally in the public school, followed by a commercial course at Manchester college. In 1882 he en- tered the Bryant & Stratton Business Col- lege, where he qualified himself for an
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accountant, laying probably the founda- tion of his future successful career. This was followed by a two-years course at Butler University. At the age of twenty- five, Mr. Fitzgerald was married to Miss Mullin, daughter of Bernard Mullin of Greensburg. In 1864 he moved to Marion county, settling on a farm in Franklin township. About this time he studied law for two terms, but relinquished this profession for a clerkship in the U. S. claim agency in 1868. In 1872 Mr. Fitz- gerald decided to launch out for himself, so resigned the clerkship. He was ad- mitted to practice before all the depart- ments in November, 1872, after which he began his extensive practice in prosecut- ing all classes of claims growing out of the Civil War. So interested did he be- come in his work, and so proficient, that he rapidly acquired a national reputa- tion as an expert claims attorney. He has- repeatedly been called into counsel in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and even California, and his business has so grown in volume, that at times he has employed from forty to fifty clerks in an- swering his correspondence. In 1889 he decided to conduct a soldiers' paper in connection with his other work. He bought a small paper known as the Vet- erans' Review, with a circulation of less than three hundred. The name he changed to the American Tribune. Into this paper, as into all his other ventures, he threw enthusiasm and energy, the result being that at the end of the first year there were some five
thousand subscribers on his list. Its growth has been rapid and constant, un- til at present it aggregates twenty-eight thousand a week. Mr. Fitzgerald has been singularly felicitous in his invest- ments in Indianapolis real estate. His latest purchase was the handsome build- ing at the corner of Market and Circle streets, known as the Journal Block. This he bought at a cost of $85,000. He has remodeled and modernized it thoroughly, expending about $105,000 upon it, and it is now one of the largest and most com- plete in the city, being central and in every way most desirable. Mr. Fitzgerald has built some thirty-five first-class pieces of property and is widely identified with the growth of the city. Few men, how- ever, even though ambitious, leave a mon- ument so unique as Mr. Fitzgerald has erected to himself. A beautiful, thriving town in the lovely State of Georgia, bears the name of Fitzgerald-a lasting tes- timony to northern ambition, and Indi- anapolis ambition at that. How this idea originated, the biographer does not know, but in the planting and founding of this beautiful southern town, Mr. Fitzgerald has made a record for futurity. Away down in the heart of the beautiful South- land, bowered in the beauty of southern vegetation, and sweet with the breath of the Gulf south of it and the Atlantic a hundred miles to the eastward, lies the beautiful town of Fitzgerald. In select- ing this spot, its founder looked well to securing all natural advantages, beauty, healthfulness, excellent water, and fertile
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soil. Such a place could not long remain a hamlet. Northern people seeking a gen- ial clime and a spot where life was less austere, quickly sought this pleasant town. In August, 1895, its population numbered fifty; in January, 1898, it had reached seven thousand. Railroads reach it from the north, south, east and west. As a peach growing country it bids fair to rival Delaware, Maryland or Michigan. It boasts many pretty residences with ample verandas and homelike air. 1 beautiful hotel of southern architecture bears the name of the Lee-Grant Hotel- a charming stroke of tactfulness in its founder, in which the names of old-time foes are now united, their feud forever forgotten. Fitzgerald is largely settled by Northerners who have found in it a hospitable home where the expense of living was less and where their efforts met with a fuller and more immediate fruition. Fitzgerald is located in Irwin county, 117 miles south of Macon, and is a most interesting point to strangers visit- ing from the North. Mr. Fitzgerald was one of the founders of the Indiana Mu- tual Building and Loan Association, one of the largest in the city; he is one of the directors and was elected treasurer of it in July, 1893. He is a member of the K. of P., with which he has been identified since 1872. Also of the I. O. O. F. He is a member of the Columbia Club, the Commercial Club and the Board of Trade. Mr. Fitzgerald is a staunch Republican. He is the father of six children: Frank N., a successful attorney of Indianapolis;
Laura G .; Rose E .; Bernard G .; John P., and George H. Fitzgerald.
WINSLOW S. PIERCE.
Hon. Winslow S. Pierce was a well- known literary and political character in Indiana. He was born in 1819 at Boston, Massachusetts, and died in New York City in 1888, having lived in Illinois and California, but most of his time in Indi- anapolis, though spending the last ten years of his life in New York city. Left an orphan at ten years of age, with two younger brothers to support, Dr. Pierce started out in the world to earn a living for the three, his sole capital being tied up in a red cotton handkerchief, carried over his shoulder at the end of a walking stick and consisting of a change of un- derwear for himself and his little broth- ers. Working upon farms he saved enough to educate himself in the com- mon schools of New Hampshire, and finally reached Dartmouth College. He later attended Boston Medical School, where he was a favorite pupil in medicine of the late Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. At his work on farms, in offices and else- where, he was a great student and an omnivorous reader. All his leisure time was spent in study and among books. This habit, preserved to the end of his life, rendered him one of the best equipped literary personages in the West; and his private library was one of the finest in the State of Indiana. After ac-
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complishing the education of himself, and as far as possible of his younger brothers, Dr. Pierce, now a graduate of medicine, migrated to the West, traveling mostly on foot, to Chicago, and thence to central and western Illinois, where he formed the acquaintance of the late Stephen A. Douglas, subsequently United States Senator, and the Hon. John F. Dillon, now at the head of the New York bar. The friendship of these three men was one of the marked incidents in their career, and was well known to the early residents of Illinois. Locating in Rock Island, he formed the acquaintance of Miss Georgiana Moore, who afterwards became his wife. This lady's sister was the wife of William O. Rockwood, a prom- inent capitalist of Indianapolis, Indiana, and sister of Oscar F. Moore, a well- known citizen of wealth and influence in Cincinnati. Dr. Pierce became identified withthe Medical Colleges at Rock Isl- and and Davenport, Iowa, just across the river, and rose to the head of these in- stitutions, when the gold fever of 1849 resulted in his going to California. He went to New York and thence by water to the Isthmus of Panama, and finally by the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco; but he remained en route at Panama, on account of the great sickness there, and practiced his profession, at first as an act of charity to his distressed, disheartened, numerously dying associates of the voy- age. Later this practice became very profitable through the generosity of the suffering people; as a consequence, and
considering the frightful lack of means of transportation, Dr. Pierce, with Mr. Ralston, the eminent banker of Califor- nia, started a line of steamships between the Isthmus and the Golden Gate, which was the first regular line in that service. Reaching the gold regions finally, Dr. Pierce prospered in gold mining, and then opened an office in San Francisco. Here he entered politics with Senator Brod- erick, Governor Gwin, Governor Bigler and others of note in that State. An ac- complished orator, he was much in de- mand upon the stump. He made a vig- orous canvass of the State and was elect- ed Comptroller of State. In this respon- sible position he had charge of the finan- cial affairs of the new California during his administration. At the time Dr. Pierce assumed control the financial af- fairs of the State were in an unhealthy condition; but by his ability and his bus- iness tact and energy, he was awarded the credit of placing them upon a sound basis. So well was this accomplished that Erastus Corning, the eminent cap- italist and railroad spirit of New York in the fifties and sixties, said to United States Senator Stephen A. Douglas: "Your friend Winslow S. Pierce is the man who shaped the finances of the Gold- en State." Hon. Wm. H. English, can- didate for the Vice-Presidency with Gen- eral Hancock in 1880, made the same statement to a public audience in speak- ing of Dr. Pierce, and added that he had in his safe a number of bonds, bearing the Doctor's remarkable signature. Dr.
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Pierce was an honored friend and coun- sellor of Senator Broderick and was the associate of "Duke" Gwin, so well known as one of the early statesmen. Dr. Pierce was tendered the senatorship of California at the time Broderick was selected, but in a famous speech, far too modest-in which he claimed that Mr. Broderick was better fitted for those hon- ors than himself, by profession a phy- sician-he gave way to Mr. Broderick, who became Senator, and finally lost his life in the memorable duel with Judge Terry. Dr. Pierce always lamented that he had not been a student of the law in- stead of medicine. He had a legal mind and was remarkably successful in the practice of medicine; it being said of him near the close of his life, by Professor Theophilus Parvin of the Jefferson Medi- cal College of Philadelphia, that Dr. Pierce was the "best diagnostician he had ever met." On account of the ill health of his wife, who longed for her family and the scenes of her girlhood, as she was passing away, he returned to the States and settled in Indianapolis, where he was for years a leading spirit in real estate investments, building railroads, rolling mills and blast furnaces, and opening mines of the famous Indiana block coal. He was one of the first to prospect for coal; one of the first to suggest the idea of a blast furnace, and was connected with the building of the first rolling mill in Indiana; he conceived and projected the railroad from the Indiana coal mines to Chicago for the sake of the great mar-
ket there-a railroad which is now a con- spicuous success. He made speeches throughout the State, before commercial bodies and before the people, in aid of self-imposed taxes to secure the building of this railroad; his project contemplat- ing in one, a local road for the purpose indicated, and a trunk line from Chicago to the Ohio river, and thence on by con- nections to the gulf. He profited largely
by this enterprise, which, by consolida- tions and otherwise, was pursued by oth- ers, and lived to see the line in question a remarkable success. His canvass of the State in the counties along the proposed line was one of the features of that pe- culiar kind of oratory which secures the subscription of money in large sums for public enterprises. His efforts in discov- ering and developing the famous Indi- ana block coal alone entitle him to a page in the history of Indiana. Engaged for nearly a quarter of a century in real estate development, he was one of those who laid out, and more or less owned, a large portion of the city of Indianapolis, which has since extended far beyond what their foresight indicated as the lim- its of its growth. His investments at the time were considered "away out," but are at the present time "away in," the city being prosperously built up to far be- yond. After the death of his first wife lie married a sister of Hon. Thomas 1. Hendricks, who was Representative in Congress, Governor, U. S. Senator, and Vice-President. After her death he mar- ried another sister, who herself died a
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few months before the death of Dr. Pierce. As in California, Dr. Pierce, dur- ing his residence in Indiana, something like a quarter of a century, took an active interest in politics; and, although he as- pired to no office himself, his efforts were devoted to the promotion of the interests and the honors of his life-long friend, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, and espe- cially towards the elevation of this gen- tleman to the Presidency. Dr. Pierce es- poused Judge Douglas' canse very warm- ly in the now famous conventions of Bal- timore and Charleston. After the un- timely death of Judge Douglas at the opening of the war in 1861, Dr. Pierce devoted himself zealously to the interests of his brother-in-law, Thomas A. Hen- dricks. He was the latter's active man- ager at the well known convention in New York in 1868, when Seymour was nominated after the close and exciting contest between Hendricks and Pendleton of Ohio, where, as the result of the tac- ties of Dr. Pierce and Washington Mc- Lean, the nomination went to Horatio Seymour, just as Hendricks had received the requisite number of votes. Dr. Pierce's management of the affair, and partienlarly his good natured but sue- cessful controversy with the Pendleton faction, is a feature in the political his- tory of parties in the United States. The last ten years of his life were spent in New York city, whither he moved to bet- ter accomplish the successful entrance into professional life of his youngest son and namesake. The latter had, through
the Doctor's early friendship with Judge John F. Dillon, secured an opportunity of rare value in the office and business con- nections of that eminent jurist, who was at the head of the legal interests cover- ing the vast enterprises controlled by Sid- ney Dillon, Jay Gould and Russell Sage, comprising several of the trans-continent- al railroads, telegraphs and the like. 1s the result, Winslow S. Pierce, Jr., is at present the general counsel of the Mis- souri Pacific railway and other large cor- porations, including also the Union Pa- cific railroad. During his residence in New York city, Dr. Pierce took an active interest in politics, and was for many years a central figure among New York Democrats and a strong supporter and a very warm and intimate friend and counsellor of the late Samuel J. Tilden and Gen. Winfield S. Hancock. He spent the last winter of his life in Florida, where seeds of disease developed, and re- turning to New York in the spring, passed away in the summer of 1888. He returned via Washington, much improved as was supposed, and attending a reunion of the California pioneers of 1849, was the recipient of a touching ovation. He was buried at Indianapolis, in Crown Hill Cemetery, from the well known resi- dence of his son, Hon. Henry D. Pierce, who had always been a resident of that city. His remains lie side by side with the other members of his family and his father-in-law and mother-in-law, John Hendricks, the father and mother of Vice- President Hendricks. Among the pall-
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bearers were Gen. Benjamin Harrison, then nominee for the Presidency, ex- Senator MeDonald , Judges Elliott and Vinton of the Indiana judiciary, Vic- tor K. Hendricks and others of note. Dr. Pierce was a person of the widest culture, remarkably genial in
manner and striking in appearance. He bore an astonishing resemblance to his
friend, Stephen A. Douglas. Widely traveled, and extensively versed in liter- ature, a fine linguist in many languages, his conversational powers made him a
person much sought for in all classes of entertainments. In person portly; in manner, somewhat eccentric; always pleasant, good-natured and happy. He affected one particular habit of dress, that of brown broadcloth, Prince Albert coat, and was scarcely ever seen in any other style. His hair was very bushy and brushed into a roll on the top of his head, falling rather long, sometimes in ringlets of rich brown on the sides and back of his head. He had five children. The eldest, Hon. Henry D. Pierce, was at one time assistant district attorney of Indi- ana, and for quite a period the law part- ner of U. S. Senator David Turpie. He was also vice-president of the Nicaragua Canal enterprise. His second son was John Hendricks Pierce, an effective speaker, who seems to have inherited his father's graces of oratory. The third was Winslow S. Pierce, spoken of above. Two daughters, Helen and Mary, are married and live in New York. It is a significant fact in the history of Dr. Pierce that he
was the first person known to have sug- gested, and in public advocated the build- ing of the transcontinental railway from the Missouri river to the Pacific, which was the route actually covered to a great extent by the Union Pacific railway. In 1849 he publicly urged the formation of a project looking to the making of the inter-oceanic canal and water-way, now known as the Nicaragua Canal project; and it is believed that, as the friend of Walker, the Central American revolu- tionist, whom Dr. Pierce tried to dissuade from his later revolutionary projects, he was nevertheless responsible in large measure for Walker's efforts in the di- rection of that region. "Governor Pierce," as he was always spoken of in New York city, was a life-long friend of Beverly Johnson, whom he frequently visited in Baltimore. He was also held in very high esteem by General Grant, who, while President, owing to this per- sonal regard, tendered Dr. Pierce an office of high character in the administration; this honor Dr. Pierce felt obliged to de- cline on account of his wish to promote the political interests of his brother-in- law, Governor Hendricks. The last letter Dr. Pierce received in life, was one of sympathy and hope from his old-time friend and often opponent, Benjamin Har- rison, then about to become President of the United States. He was related on one side to the Prescotts and Bancrofts, and was held in high esteem by the two historians. He was a consin of President Franklin Pierce. As a great student of
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English politics, he formed the acquaint- ance of Joseph Chamberlain, now so prominent in the British cabinet. Mr. Chamberlain, when in this country, spent much time in visiting Dr. Pierce, who at that time was quite feeble.
CHARLES C. PERRY.
Charles C. Perry, secretary and treas- urer of the Indianapolis Light and Power Company, was born in Richmond, Wayne county, Indiana, December 15, 1857. His father was Dr. Joseph James Perry, long ranked among the most notable physi- cians of eastern Indiana. Dr. Perry was a native of Somersetshire, England, where he received his medical educa- tion. He came to America in 1840, and selected Detroit, Michigan, as his first home. For ten years he pursued a suc- cessful practice in that city. In 1850, for various reasons, he removed to Richmond, Indiana. Here, his eminence in his pro- fession, rapidly attracted to him a large practice in which he continued until the time of his death in 1872. Dr. Perry's experience was wide and varied. In 1864 he was appointed a surgeon in the Forty- second United States Infantry by Presi- dent Lincoln and remained in the service until his regiment was mustered ont, when he returned to Richmond and re- sumed his profession. He acquired par- ticular skill in the successful treatment of chronic diseases, and built up thereby a large patronage. Many of his former
patients still pay warm tributes of grati- tude to his memory. Being of broad and sympathetic mind, Dr. Perry extended his services gratuitously in hundreds of in- stances to alleviate suffering among the indigent; he also gave freely to benevo- lent institutions and enterprises, and left an enduring monument in the form of a name revered and unsullied. He was a deacon in the Methodist church for twen- ty years, being one of the founders of the Grace M. E. Church, Richmond, Indi- ana. To this building he gave liberally but unostentatiously. Dr. Perry was twice married. His second wife was Miss Ruth Moffitt, who was born in Richmond in 1821. Of this union was born Charles C. Perry, who is the only member of the family by this marriage. Charles Perry attended the public schools of his native city until prepared for a more advanced education, when he entered Earlham Col- lege, Richmond, where he was a student for abont a year. Very early in life, his business instinet asserted itself. When but thirteen years of age, he began sell- ing newspapers on the streets of his native town. In a short time he became a messenger boy for the P., C., C. & St. L. railway office. He soon applied him- self to telegraphy and mastered it, ris- ing from one position to another until he became manager of the Western Union Telegraph Company at Richmond. From 1880 to 1884 he managed the exchange of the Central Union Telephone Company in Richmond. During the two following years he was district superintendent for
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the Northern Indiana and Ohio Company, with headquarters at Fort Wayne. In 1886, Indianapolis became his home, he having gone to that city with the Jenney Electric Company. In 1888 he started the Marmon-Perry Light Company, and be- came its manager. Mr. Perry was one of the promoters of the organization of the Indianapolis Light and Power Company, in 1892. Since that time he has been its manager. Mr. Perry has always been a Republican from principle. He has sought no office, but has ever felt a deep and disinterested solicitude for the sue- cess of his party. He is a man of spirit in all that pertains to the advantage and advancement of his residence city and his native State. He is one of the governors of the Board of Trade and also a director of the Columbia Club. In 1890 Mr. Perry was married to Miss Capitola Adams, daughter of T. J. Adams of In- dianapolis. Mr. and Mrs. Perry have a family of three children, Norman A., James A. and Ruth Perry.
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