Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 100

Author: Dunn, Jacob Piatt, 1855-1924. cn
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 972


USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes > Part 100


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in 1890, he initiated the systematic study of medicine, pursuing his studies for some time under the preceptorship of an able physician in Michigan, and in 1892 he was matriculated in the Physio-Medical College of Indiana, in Indianapolis. In this admirably equipped and ably conducted institution he completed the prescribed technical course, being graduated as a member of the class of 1895 and duly receiv- ing his degree of Doctor of Medicine. From the time of his graduation to the present he has been one of the valued and popular in- structors in his alma mater, in which he has held the chair of demonstrator of anatomy since 1896. He has devoted close study and inves- tigation to cancerous diseases, and though en- gaged in general practice, he makes somewhat of a specialty of the treatment of this dreaded type of physical ailment. He is identified with various professional associations of representa- tive character in his school of practice, and also holds membership in a number of fraternal and other civic organizations in his home city. The doctor is uncompromising in his advocacy of the cause of prohibition, and he is one who practices what he preaches, not being content merely to urge with all of fervency the abolish- ment of the liquor traffic but also exercising his franchise in support of the cause of the Pro- hibition party, with which he has been identi- fied from the time of its organization. In his private life he well exemplifies that great de- sideratum, mens sana in corpore sano, and he has never utilized stimulants or narcotics in a personal way. The doctor has never been ani- mated with aught of ambition for public office, but is essentially liberal and loyal in his atti- tude as a citizen. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Church.


On the 27th of September, 1885, was solemn- ized the marriage of Dr. Brigham to Miss Nina F. Dennison, who was born and reared at Cas- cade, Kent County, Michigan, where her parents, Henry C. and Helen E. Dennison, still main- tain their home. Mrs. Brigham was graduated in the high school in the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and for several years prior to her marriage was a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of her native state. Dr. and Mrs. Brigham have five children, namely: Fred M., Helen E., Marshall A., Celia N., and Neal Dow, and the family is popular in con- nection with the best social activities of the capital city.


HENRY N. SPAAN. In sterling attributes of character and in productive energy Henry N. Spaan is a thorough representative of the sturdy race from which he is sprung, and he today holds prestige as one of the able and successful members of the bar of the Indiana


capital, where he controls a large and repre- sentative practice, and where he is held in high regard as a loyal and liberal citizen.


Henry N. Spaan is a native of Gelderland, Holland, where he was born on the 13th of December, 1851, but practically his entire life has been passed in America, whither his parents came from their stanch little native country when he was about one year old. He is a son of John and Nellie Spaan, both representa- tives of sterling old families of Holland, where they were reared and educated and where their marriage was solemnized in 1850. Of their four children, all of whom are living, the sub- ject of this review is the only one born in Holland. The family immigration to the United States occurred in the year 1852, and the City of Chicago was made its destination. There the father was engaged in the manu- facturing of brick for several years, at the ex- piration of which he removed to Keokuk, Iowa, where he continued to be identified with the same line of enterprise for many years and where he became a successful and honored business man and well known citizen, ever com- manding the unqualified esteem of the com- munity in which he so long maintained his home and with whose business and civic inter- ests he closely identified himself. He died in 1891, at the age of sixty-six years and his widow continued to reside in Keokuk until her death, at a venerable age, in 1896. He was independent in his political attitude, taking an intelligent interest in the questions and issues of the hour and giving his support to the men and measures meeting the approval of his judg- ment. Both he and his wife held membership in the Presbyterian Church.


Henry N. Spaan secured his rudimentary education in the public schools of the City of Chicago and later continued his studies in the schools of Keokuk, Iowa. In the meanwhile he had not been denied the privilege of early association with the practical duties and re- sponsibilties of life, as he began to assist in the work of his father's brick yard when but eight years of age, continuing his identification with the enterprise until he was twenty-two years old and having developed those habits of in- dustry and that appreciation of the value of consecutive endeavor that have conserved his success in later years. In Keokuk he finally began reading law under the preceptorship of P. T. Lomax, a prominent member of the Iowa har, and he made rapid progress in his absorp- tion and assimilation of the science of juris- prudence. In 1873 he gained admission to the har. and he forthwith engaged in the practice of his profession in Keokuk, where he soon gave distinctive evidence of his powers as a


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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.


trial lawyer and well fortified counselor. He built up in that city a substantial professional business and there he continued in active gen- éral practice until May, 1876, when he estab- lished his home in Indianapolis, where his pro- fessional career has been marked by cumulative success and prestige, involving identification with much important litigation in both the state and federal courts and the retention of a clientage of essentially representative order. His finely appointed offices are in the Indiana Trust building and he gives his undivided at- tention to the work of his exacting profession, realizing that the law is a jealous mistress and demands of her votaries unequivocal fealty if she is to confer upon them the crown of suc- cess. Mr. Spaan is a valued member of the Indianapolis Bar Association and also of the Indiana State Bar Association. While he has had naught of ambition for the honors or emol- uments of political office, he is to be noted as a stanch advocate of the generic principles of the Democratic party, and he has given effective assistance in the promotion of its cause in a local way. On the 24th of December, 1903, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Spaan to Miss Helen M. Joyce, who was born and reared in Indianapolis and who is a daughter of Aurelius J. and Nannie E. Joyce, the former of whom is now deceased, having been a well known business man of Indianapolis, where his widow still resides.


JOHN L. MASTERS, M. D. A native son of the Hoosier state and a scion of one of its old and honored pioneer families, it has been given Dr. John L. Masters to gain marked precedence as a physician and surgeon of this state, and he is one of the leading specialists in the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat in the City of Indianapolis, where he is also a valued member of the faculty of the Indiana Medical College. He is recog- nized as one of the representative exponents of his profession in the capital city, and as such is essentially entitled to consideration in this publication.


Dr. John Lewis Masters was born on the old homestead farm of his parents, near Brook- ville, Franklin County, Indiana, on the 23d of September, 1859, and is a son of Jacob H. and Maria Louisa (Smith) Masters, the former of whom was born in Lancaster County, Penn- sylvania, and the latter in Franklin County, Indiana. The Masters family is of either Ger- man or Holland Dutch extraction and the name became identified with the annals of the his- tory of Pennsylvania in an early day. The paternal grandfather of the doctor was John Masters and the latter was a son of Christopher Masters, who was the founder and head of the


family in Indiana, whither he removed from Pennsylvania and took up his residence in Fairfield Township, Franklin County, where he and his sons secured tracts of wild land and essayed the herculean task of reclaiming the same to cultivation. They were numbered among the stalwart and worthy pioneers of that section of the state, where the family has long been one of prominence and influence. The parents of the doctor, now venerable in years, still reside in the town of Brookville, where they have maintained. their home since 1862. They became the parents of three sons and two daughters, and of the number three of the sons and two of the daughters are now living. The parents are both earnest and devout mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the father has long given an unqualified sup- port to the political principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor. Under the instruction of his father Jacob H. Masters learned the trade of ax-making, at a time when the entire work was done by hand, and for a number of years he worked at this trade in connection with farming operations. He also became a manufacturer of buggies and carriages and in later life was a successful - buyer and shipper of grain. He is now living virtually retired, and is enjoying that well earned repose and that large measure of com- fort that are the just reward for years of earn- est and worthy toil and endeavor.


Dr. Masters is indebted to the public schools and high school of the town of Brookville for the early educational training that fell to his portion, and after his graduation in the high school he turned his attention to the pedagogic profession, having been a successful teacher in the public schools for a period of four years. While thus engaged in the village of Ander- sonville, Franklin County, he began the study of medicine under effective private preceptor- ship, and in 1883 he was matriculated in Louis- ville Medical College, at Louisville, Kentucky, where he completed the prescribed course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1885. He thus received his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine, and his facility in and devotion to his technical studies may be under- stood when it is stated that during both years of his work in this college he secured the high- est honors of his class. In 1885-6 Dr. Masters served as interne in the Louisville City Hos- pital, and in this connection gained clinical experience that proved of great value to him when he finally initiated the independent prac- tice of his chosen profession.


Upon leaving Louisville Dr. Masters located at New London, Ohio, where he continued in the active and successful practice of his pro-


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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.


fession until 1892, in June of which year he went to New York City, where he entered the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, in which he took an effective post-graduate course, as did he also in the Knapp Optic & Aural In- stitute and in the New York Polyclinic, where likewise he gave special study to the diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, thus admirably fortifying himself for the special branch of professional work in which he has attained to so much of success and distinction.


In February, 1893, Dr. Masters took up his residence in Indianapolis, where he has since devoted himself with all of zeal and success to his work as a specialist in the treatment of the class of diseases already noted and he has in this field gained a reputation that far transcends mere local limitations. In 1901 he visited various leading hospitals and medical colleges in England and on the European con- tinent and in the City of Berlin took still an- other post-graduate course in connection with his special line of practice. He is identified with the American Medical Association, the American Society of Ophthalmology & Oto- Laryngology, the Indiana State Medical So- ciety, and the Indianapolis Medical Society. In his special sphere of professional work he has contributed in a valuable way to medical literature, both standard and periodical, and in 1894 he was chosen professor of ophthal- mology and otology, as well as of histology in the Central College of Physicians & Surgeons, in Indianapolis. He retained this incumbency until 1901, when he resigned his position, In 1906 he was elected lecturer on otology, rhinol- ogy and laryngology in the Indiana Medical College, and in the following year became a member of the faculty of this institution, in which he has since occupied the chair of clinical otology, rhinology and laryngology. His in- terposition has proved of great value in for- warding the prestige and effective work of the college and he is one of the able and popular members of its faculty. He is a Republican in politics and he and his wife hold member- ship in the Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church.


On the 17th of August, 1887, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Masters to Miss Elizabeth Urmston, daughter of Joseph Urmston, of Tip- ton, Indiana, and they have three sons,-Paul, Robert and Melvin.


CARL H. GRAF was born at Newark, New Jersey, January 23, 1869, and is a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology of Hobo- ken, that state, with the class of 1890. Dur- ing a short time following his graduation he was associated with the Standard Oil Com- pany in Philadelphia as a draughtsman, then


became assistant manager for the Lawrence Gas Company at Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he remained eight years, later returning to Hackensack, New Jersey, to accept the posi- tion of engineer for the gas department of the Gas and Electric Company of Bergen, which company controlled the gas and electrical sup- ply of about thirty-five towns and cities. His next position was general superintendent for the National Gas, Electric Light and Power Company at Detroit, Michigan, and in 1905, Mr. Graf came to Indianapolis as general man- ager for the Indianapolis Gas Company. Since becoming connected with this company a new modern plant has been erected, at Langsdale avenue and Fall Creek, and the business of the company has been doubled and the sliding scale put into effect. At the election in March, 1910, Mr. Graf was made vice-president and his promotion is looked upon as the promise of greater improvements by the Indianapolis Gas Company. During his residence in In- dianapolis, Mr. Graf has taken an active part in its business and social life. He is a mem- ber of the Commercial, Columbia, University and Country clubs, .. the Highland Golf Club and of the Maennerchor. He is also a mem- ber of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, American Gas Institute, National Commercial Gas Asso- ciation, New England Association of Gas En- gineers, Illuminating Engineering Society and Indiana Gas Association of which he is now president. He is also vice-president of the H. J. Martin Forging Co. of Indianapolis. He is a Republican in his political affiliations.


He married in 1896 Corinne Battell, born at Providence, Rhode Island, and she died in 1907, the mother of two daughters, Madeline and Eleanor ..


JOSEPH. T. CLAY has been prominently iden- tified with the farming and live-stock industry in Indiana, has served with marked ability and acceptability as sheriff of Marion County for two years, and he is one of the well known and popular citizens of the Indiana capital. Mr. Clay was for a number of years prominently engaged in the live-stock commission trade, and he is now the owner of a well improved farm in Putnam County, devoting the same to di- versified agriculture and stock-growing and giving to its operations a general supervision, though he still maintains his home in Indian- apolis.


Joseph T. Clay was born in North Salem, Hendricks County, Indiana, on the 1st of Sep- tember. 1865, and is a son of James Henry and Susan (Fleece) Clav, both natives of Kentucky. The father was born in the City of Lexington, that state, in the year 1821, and there he was reared to maturity, in the meanwhile receiving


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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.


a common-school education. At the age of twenty years he came to Indiana and took up his residence in Hendricks County, where he reclaimed and developed a valuable farm and where he devoted his entire active career to the great basic industry of agriculture, and to the raising of live stock. He was one of the honored and influential citizens of the county and there he continued to reside until his death, in 1905, at the venerable age of eighty- four years. He was a man of impregnable in- tegrity and ever commanded the unqualified esteem of all who knew him. He was a stanch Democrat in his political proclivities, was iden- tified with the Masonic fraternity, and both he and his wife were zealous members of the Christian Church. Mrs. Clay was summoned to the life eternal at the age of sixty-five years, having been a devoted wife and mother and a woman of gentle and noble character. Of the ten children, the subject of this review is the youngest, and of the number eight are now living.


Joseph T. Clay was afforded the advantages of the public schools of North Salem, and was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm, early familiarizing himself with the various details of its work and with the values of live stock, so that he was well fortified when he initiated his individual operations as a stock- grower. He finally entered the live-stock com- mission business, shipping to the Chicago and Indianapolis wholesale markets, and he con- tinned operation in this line until 1894, when he became a commission dealer at the union stock yards in Indianapolis. Here he con- ducted a prosperous and extensive business un- til the fall of 1907, when he assumed the posi- tion of sheriff of Marion County, to which he had been elected on the 1st of January of the preceding year. He served for two years and gave a most discriminating and commendable administration. Since his retirement from of- fice he has given his attention principally to the management of his farm, and the raising of high grade live stock.


Mr. Clay is aligned as a stanch and enthusi- astic supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and he has been a zealous worker in its local camp. lIe is affiliated with Oriental Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Keystone Chapter No. 6, Roval Arch Masons: Raper Commandery No. 1. Knights Templar, and Murat Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He also holds membership in the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Indian- apolis Commercial Club. Both he and his wife are members of the Third Christian Church of this eity.


On the 15th of February, 1888, Mr. Clay was united in marriage to Miss Olive Thomas, who was born in Putnam County, Indiana, in 1865, and who is the eldest of the six surviv- ing children of John H. and Mary E. (David- son) Thomas, both of whom were born in Montgomery County, this state. The father was born in the year 1831 and died in April, 1909, at the age of seventy-eight years. He was one of the prominent and influential farm- ers and stock-raisers of Putnam county, where his widow still resides, being sixty-eight years of age at the time of this writing, in 1910. She is a devout member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, as was also her honored husband, and in politics he was aligned as a stanch ad- vocate of the principles of the Democratic party. Mr. and Mrs. Clay have one daughter, Eula J.


LEVI P. HARLAN, a member of the bar of the capital city, a representative of one of the pio- neer families of Indiana, and one who has at- tained prestige not only in the legal profession but also that of pedagogy, is Levi P. Harlan, who is now engaged in the active practice of law in Indianapolis and who is also a member of the state Senate at the time of this writing, in 1909.


Levi Pinckney Harlan was born on the old homestead farm of the family, six miles east of Indianapolis, in Marion County, on the 3rd of March, 1853, and is a son of Austin B. and Elizabeth L. (Conwell) Harlan. His father was born at Connersville, Fayette County, In- diana, on the 19th of February, 1827, and is ›till residing on his old home farm, the birth- place of the subject of this sketch, which has been his place of abode for seventy-eight years. He is now eighty-three years of age and is well preserved in both his mental and physical fac- ulties. Elizabeth L. (Conwell) Harlan was born in Xenia, Greene County, Ohio, in 1833, and she died in August, 1854. Of the three children the subject of this sketch is the only one surviving. Allison W., A. M., M. D., D.D. S, for many years was one of the prominent members of the dental profession in the United States, having been at one time dean of one of the leading dental colleges of the country and being engaged in the practice of his profession in New York City at the time of his death, March 6, 1909. For his second wife Austin' B. Harlan married Mrs. Rebecca (Pierson) Bain, who is still living, as are also their six children.


Austin B. Harlan was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and was afforded the ad- vantages of the common schools of the pioneer days in Indiana. In his youth he became a successful teacher in the country schools, fol-


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lowing that profession for several years, at in- tervals. His vocation in life, however, has been that of farming, and in connection with that industry he has gained such success as follows industry, wise judgment and thrift. His old homestead is now valuable and he continues to give to the same a general supervision, not- withstanding his venerable age. He has long been one of the influential citizens of Warren Township and none has a more secure place in the confidence and esteem of the community. He served as justice of the peace for more than thirty years, retiring from this office in 1888, after having made the same justify its title. He is unswerving in his allegiance' to the Demo- cratic party, having cast his first presidental vote for Lewis Cass and having voted for every presidental candidate of his party since that time. He is a son of Nathan and Martha P. (Reid) Harlan, the former of whom was born in Bracken County, Kentucky, in 1798, and the the latter in South Carolina, in 1799. He died in Marion County, Indiana, in 1849, and his wife here passed to the life eternal in 1863. Their marriage was solemnized at Connersville, Indiana, and they became the parents of seven sons and three daughters, of whom two are now living. Nathan Harlan came to Indiana in the vear 1815, when seventeen years of age, and he located on the present site of the thriving town of Connersville, Fayette County. In 1826 he removed to Marion County, where he secured the old farmstead now owned by his son Austin B., passing the summer on this place and in the autumn returning to Connersville, where he passed the winter. In the following summer he brought his family to the new home in Marion County, where he passed the residue of his life. He reclaimed much of his land from the virgin forest, being assisted in this herculean work by his sturdy sons, and he was a man of influence in the community, where he was respected for his integrity of character, wise counsels, and practical common sense. In politics he was a Jeffersonian Democrat and was a man of broad sympathies, good judgment and forceful char- acter. His name merits an enduring place on the roll of the honored pioneer who laid broad and deep the foundations upon which has been reared the opulent and gracious commonwealth of Indiana-a state of whom all its native sons and daughters have every reason to be signally proud.


Levi P. Harlan to whom this article is dedi- cated, passed his boyhood on the home farm, in whose work he carly began to lend his aid. After completing the curriculum of the public schools of his native county he attended the Northwestern Christian University. now known as Butler University, located at Indianapolis.


In 1873 he entered Union Law College, in the City of Chicago, an institution whose lineal successor is the law department of the North- western University, where he pursued his legal studies uninterruptedly for something like two years. In the same year he was admitted to the bar of his native state, but he found it ex- pedient at this time to turn his attention to teaching in the public schools. In June of the following year he was elected county superin- tendent of schools for Marion County, an office in which he made a record of most admirable accomplishment and one of which he continued in tenure for a period of ten years, which fact offers adequate voucher of the popular estimate placed upon his services. At the expiration of a full decade of labor in this field he de- clined re-election, and for the ensuing two and one-half years he had the management of the office affairs of the treasurer of Marion County and the treasurer of the City of Indianapolis.




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