Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 102

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 102

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From the time of attaining to his legal majority until the present. Captain Ketcham has been unswerving in his allegiance to the Republican party. in whose cause he has ren- dered most effective service. In 1894 he was elected attorney-general of the state and in 1896 he was chosen as his own successor, hav- ing been renominated by acclamation. Con- cerning his administration of these important offices, the following pertinent statements have been made: "In the office of attorney-general Captain Ketcham was called upon to conduet. on behalf of the state, an unprecedented amount of litigation in the highest courts. Among the very important cases may be mentioned those involving the constitutionality of the statutes taxing railroads and those taxing telegraph and express companies-laws which were attacked with great still and vehemence by the lawyer- retained by these corporations. The constitu- tionality of the statutes was finally sustained

by the Supreme Court of the United States, before which the questions were duly argued by Attorney-General Ketcham and others. The law governing the management of the prison board and one providing for intermediate sen- tences of convicts were also attacked and suc- cessfully defended by General Ketcham. He was instrumental in breaking up the gang of gamblers that inaugurated winter racing, prize fighting and other vicious or swindling enter- tainments at Roby, this state. Perhaps his crowning achievement was the fight he made upon two apportionment laws of this state, en- acted respectively in 1893 and 1895, alleging that they were unfair and unconstitutional. In the Supreme Court he succeeded in having both of them set aside after a masterful argument establishing their repugnance to the spirit of the constitution. These decisions stand as a menace to any political party in the state that may seck hercafter to make one man more powerful than another. because of his politics, in fixing the basis of representation. Absolute fairness and equality are now required." The constitutionality of the Nicholson law touching the sale of intoxicating liquors was assailed (hiring his incumbency of the office of attorney- general, but the law in all its parts was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Captain Ketcham has ever maintained the deepest appreciation of the honor and dignity of the profession of which he is an able repre- sentative, has been a close ohserver of its un- written code of ethics and his eourse as a prac- titioner has been marked by inflexible integ- rity and honor, with complete avoidance of those professional lapses which are all too fre- quently made for the sake of personal gain. Of him it has well been said that: "He believes in the strict. impartial and vigorous enforce- ment of the law. He is so constituted as to question the good citizenship of any man who either joins a mob to usurp the functions of the courts or who seeks to shield others guilty of such an offense. Above all. he condemns the lax administration of justice by the courts and others charged with the execution of the laws. and the disposition sometimes observed in such officials to exense or palliate gross and willful violations of the law."

Impregnable personal honesty indicates the man as he is and all who know him have ap- preciation of this sterling characteristic.

He was born while his parents were mem- hers of the Second Presbyterian Church. of which Henry Ward Beccher was then pastor and by whom he was baptized. Upon the col- onization of the Fourth Presbyterian Church his parents became connected with that church and with it he has ever since been connected

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

as a church member, since 1869 forward. His wife, originally a member of the First Presby- terian Church, after marriage united with the Fourth, where she still retains membership. Mrs. Ketcham is a member of the Woman's and the Catherine Merrill clubs, and Mr. Ketcham has been . for many years a member of the Indianapolis Literary Club, the Grand Army of the Republic, Military Order of the Loyal Legion, "et praeteria nihil".

On the 25th of June, 1873, was solemnized the marriage of Captain Ketcham to Miss Flora McDonald, who was reared in Indianapolis, and who is a daughter of his old and honored professional preceptor, the late Judge David McDonald. Of this union have been born one son and six daughters, concerning whom the following brief record is made: Flora MeDon- ald, Agnes, Jane Merrill, Lilla McDonald, Lucia and Dorothy still live at home. Lucia attends the Lake Erie College at Painesville, Ohio, and Dorothy is in the high school. The son, Henry C., has been for some years with the Pullman Company at New Orleans, Louis- iana.

ALBERT A. HILL, M. D. Among the repre- sentative physicians and surgeons who are lend- ing prestige to the profession in the capital city of Indiana is Dr. Albert A. Hill, who has thoroughly fortified himself for the work of his exacting vocation and whose success has been on a parity with his distinctive technical ability. He has been in a significant sense the architect of his own fortunes, as he has been to a large degree dependent upon his own re- sources, and it was through his own efforts that he defrayed the expenses of his professional education.

Dr. Hill is a native son of the fine old Hoosier state, having been born near Whites- town, Boone County, Indiana, on the 19th of November. 1869, and being a son of Jacob J. and Minetta (Deaner) Hill, both of whom were horn and reared in Germany, whence they came to America when young folk, their marriage having been solemnized in the City of Boston, Massachusetts. They are now residents of In- dianapolis, having come to Indiana many years ago, and the father was long actively engaged in the work of his trade. that of machinist, in which he was specially skillful. He is a man of sterling character and his life has been characterized by honest industry and by signal loyalty as a citizen. so that he has not been de- nied the fullest measure of popular confidence and esteem. He is a Republican in politics and both he and his wife hold membership in the German Lutheran Church.

Dr. Albert A. Hill gained his rudimentary education in the public schools of his native

county, and when a lad of but twelve years he left the parental roof and began the battle of life on his own responsibility. The results that he has attained indicate most fully his courage, ambition and self-reliance, as not only did he provide for his own maintenance, for the further prosecution of his academic studies and for his professional education, but he also contributed with true filial solicitude and loy- alty in providing for his honored parents, hav- . ing purchased for them a home when they were advanced in years and deserving of such assist- ance. They became the parents of thirteen children, of whom eleven are living, and of those surviving Dr. Hill is the seventh in order of birth.

Dr. Hill began the study of medicine when he was twenty-one years of age, and concerning his early struggles the following pertinent statements have been written, being well worthy of perpetuation in this sketch: "His education represents entirely the results of his own en- ergy and perseverance, as he has worked out his own destiny. The money which he needed in order to acquire an education for his life work he earned by manual labor, by teaching school, hy canvassing, and by varions other legitimate means. Usually he was able to pay his tuition, but he also expected to earn enough to pay his living expenses as the weeks passed. When he began the practice of his profession in In- dianapolis he was quite seriously in debt, not only for the obligations he had incurred in acquiring his professional education but also for the support of his aged parents, including the purchase of a home for them. He has suc- ceeded in elearing himself of the incubus of indebtedness and he has every reason to con- gratulate himself for the success that has at- tended his earnest efforts and conscientious en- deavor to stand among the first in his noble profession."

At the age of twenty-four years Dr. Hill completed a three years' course in Pulte Med- ical College, in Cincinnati, one of the leading institutions of the Homeopathic school of prac- tice in the United States, and in 1896 he was graduated in the Philadelphia Polyclinic Col- lege, a well known institution of the so-called "regular" school, from which he received his well-earned degree of Doctor of Medicine and from which he came forth admirably fortified for the work of his chosen profession. How- ever, he was ambitious to make his preparation even more comprehensive, and he accordingly completed a post-graduate course in the cele- brated Bellevue Hospital Medical College, in New York City. In 1897, Dr. Hill took up his residence in Indianapolis, where he has gained unequivocal success in the work of his profes-

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

sion and where he controls a large and repre- sentative practice, based upon popular appre- ciation of his technical skill and ability and his sterling qualities as a man of integrity and exalted principles. He has been a close ob- server of the unwritten ethical code of his profession and has commanded at all times the high regard of his confreres. For four years he was a member of the faculty of the Eclectic Medical College of Indiana, in which he lee- tured on minor surgery. Though he gives his attention to general practice he has special predilection for surgery, and in this branch has gained a high reputation for skill and dis- crimination. The doctor holds membership in the American Medical Association, the Indiana State Medical Society, and the Indianapolis Medical Society. He and his wife hold mem- bership in the First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, and he is affiliated with Indianap- olis Lodge, No. 669, Free and Accepted Ma- sons. He is a valued member of the Knights of Pythias and is medical examiner for the endowment rank branch of that organization, as is he also for the Knights & Ladies of Co- lumbia, the Modern Woodmen of America, with each of which he is prominently identified, as he is with the Benevolent Order of Colonials, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Ini- proved Order of Red Men. He is a member of the German House and the Marion Club. In politics he maintains an independent attitude in local affairs, and in a generic way gives his support to the cause of the Republican party. Dr. Hill's home is a beautiful mansion, costing $15,000, and situated at 3334 Central avenue, Indianapolis.

On the 22nd of December, 1903, was solem- nized the marriage of Dr. Hill to Miss Mar- guerite M. Miner, who is the only living child of James E. and Kate (Thompson) Miner, of Indianapolis, where Mrs. Hill was born and reared. Mr. Miner is a well known railroad man of this city, where he and his wife have long maintained their home.

SAMUEL K. RUICK. JR., has been engaged in the practice of law in the City of Indianapolis since 1899, and is one of the representative younger members of its bar. besides which he has represented Marion County in the lower house of the state legislature. He is recog- nized as a man of exceptional professional at- tainments and his success in the active work of his profession has been such as to amply demonstrate his powers as a well fortified and versatile advocate and conservative counselor.

Samuel Kenley Ruick. Jr .. is a native son of the fine old Hoosier commonwealth. as he was born in the little city of LaGrange. In- diana. on the 18th of April. 1877. His parents.

Samuel K. and Flora M. Ruick, still reside in LaGrange, where the father is now living virtu- ally retired from active business. The subject of this review is indebted to the public schools for his early educational discipline, which was supplemented by advantages of exceptional or- der. He was graduated in the Howe Military Academy, at Howe, Indiana, in 1894, and was then matriculated in DePauw University, at Greencastle, Indiana, in which he was gradu- ated as a member of the class of 1897 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the following year he completed a course in Yale University, from which his- toric old institution he received his supple- mental baccalaureate degree in June, 1898. He then returned to his native state and was ma- triculated in the Indiana Law School, in In- dianapolis, from which institution he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1899. He has since devoted the major part of his time and attention to the general practice of his profession, and he now controls a substantial and representative practice at the bar of the capital city, where he has so ordered his course as to retain at all times the high regard of his professional confreres as well as of his appre- ciative clientele.

In politics, Mr. Ruick accords allegiance to the Republican party, and he served as repre- sentative of Marion County in the general As- sembly of the legislature in 1905. He was as- signed to membership on various committees and proved an effective and faithful worker both in the deliberations on the floor of the house and in the councils of the committee room. He is affiliated with the Masonic fra- ternitv, in which he has attained to the thirty- second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scot- tish Rite, besides holding membership in Murat Temple. Ancient Arabie Order of the Nobles of the Mystie Shrine. He is also identified with the Knights of Pythias, the Marion Club and the University Club. He is a valued and appreciative member of the Phi Delta Theta college fraternity, and served as secretary of the General Council of the same from 1904 until 1908. in November of which latter year he was elected president of the body, his tenure of which office will expire in August, 1910.

In May. 1899, Mr. Ruick was united in mar- riage to Miss Alberta L. Miller, daughter of I. Bruce Miller, of Richmond. Indiana.

FRANK T. EDENHARTER was born in Millers- town. Champaign County. Ohio, March 10th. 1865 : lived at Dayton, Ohio, until 1875. remor- ing thence to Indianapolis : studied law in the office of William A. Ketcham and was admitted to practice in 1890: in 1895 formed a partner- ship with George F. Mull. which still exists.

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

FRANK LESLIE LITTLETON is a prominent lawyer, a legislator of high standing and a leader in political circles. He was born near McCordsville, in Hancock County, Indiana, on the 12th of January, 1868, to the marriage union of Aaron S. and Mary (McCord) Little- ton. The Littletons are an English family, and came from Clermont County, Ohio, where their English and Scotch ancestors had located about a century ago. Aaron S. Littleton died when his son Frank was a lad of twelve, leaving his family with a good farm and in moderate circumstances, and the young son afterward managed this farm and attended the public schools until he entered DePauw University at Greencastle, where he was graduated.

Then came his preparation for the practice of the law, and coming to Indianapolis about a year and a half after his graduation from DePauw University, he began study in the law office of Byron K. Elliott. He was admitted to the bar in 1891. Mr. Littleton entered heartily into the life of his new home, and joining the Marion Club he made many stanch friends among the members of that organiza- tion. When the nominations were made for the legislature in 1896 the name of Frank L. Lit- tleton was put forward with the solid backing of the club, and he was easily nominated and elected with the ticket. Although perhaps one of the youngest members of the session. he displayed a large amount of ability and com- mon sense, and was made chairman of the legislative apportionment committee, and helped draft the apportionment bill that became a law in 1897, a delicate and difficult piece of work, for the question was so surrounded by legal controversy and judicial decisions that it was difficult to enact a law that would stand the tests of the courts. He was re-elected to the legislature in 1898, and was unanimously elected speaker of the House. His record in the chair is one of the best that has ever been made in legislative halls here, and through- out the entire session over which he presided no complaint was ever heard on the score of his rulings. At the close of his term as a legislator, Mr. Littleton formed a partnership with Judge Elliott. In 1905. he left the firm to become local attorney for the Cleveland, Cin- cinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Com- pany at Indianapolis. In 1907. he was ap- pointed general attorney for the road with headquarters at Cincinnati.

AUGUSTUS KIEFER. To the enlisting of men of indomitable enterprise. ability and in- tegrity in the furtherance of her commercial and industrial activities has been mainly due the precedence and material prosperity of In- diana's capital and metropolis, and among the

prominent factors identified with this work of progress and upbuilding was the late Augustus Kiefer, who long maintained a place of promi- nence and influence in the business community and who exemplified the highest type of loyal citizenship. A man of impregnable integrity of purpose, his life was one of consecutive en- deavor and he made for himself a secure place in popular confidence and esteem. He used his intellect to the best purpose, directed his energies in a legitimate channel and his career as a business man was based upon the assump- tion that nothing save industry, perseverance, integrity and fidelity can lead to success worthy of the name.

August Kiefer was born at Muenchweiler, Rheinpfalz, Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, on the 21st of February, 1828, and was a son of Jacob Kiefer, who was a man of fine in- tellectual attainments and who for many years was engaged in teaching school in Muench- weiler. The maiden name of the mother of Mr. Kiefer was Glay. August Kiefer was afforded the advantages of the excellent schools of his native city and as a boy he came with his parents to the United States. The family took up their residence in Ohio, at Miamis- burg, and he continued his studies in the pub- lic schools for some time, though he was but sixteen years of age when he left school to assume the practical duties and responsibilities of life. As a hoy, Mr. Kiefer was never fond of ont-door sports, but was of a studious dis- position and gave much time and attention to reading and study and to listening to discus- sions and conversations of his elders, so that he early broadened his mental ken and gained noteworthy maturity of judgment. After his removal to Miamisburg, Ohio. he lived for some time in a hotel conducted by Jacob Zimmer, who was a stanch supporter of the Whig party. This hotel was the headquarters for the dis- cussion of political affairs in the county and young Kiefer, who had gained a remarkable mastery of the English language within a few months after his arrival in America, greatly enjoyed the almost constant political controver- sies held at this hotel. After leaving Miamis- burg, he secured a position as clerk in a drug store conducted by Dr. Koerner, at Dayton, Ohio. He remained thus engaged for about one year and he then went to Cincinnati, where he became clerk in a confectionery store, and for a short time, also, was employed in the office of a milling firm. A few months later he returned to Miamisburg and in the follow- ing year, 1849. he came to Indiana, making the trip by boat on the Ohio River to Madi- son. and thence ou the old Madison Flat-Bar Railroad to Edinburg. where he secured em-

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

ployment as a bookkeeper. Two years later he purchased a half interest in a small drug store owned by Dr. W. P. Rush and he had charge of the business until 1863, in which year he took up his residence in Indianapolis, where he effected the organization of the whole- sale drug firm of Dailey, Kiefer & Rush. The headquarters of the firm was located in the old Fitzgibbons block, on Meridian street, near the Union passenger station. This partnership alliance continued for a period of three years, when Mr. Kiefer sold his interest to his part- ners and retired from the firm. In 1866 he became associated with Almas P. Vinton in the organization of the firm of Kiefer & Vin- ton and they located their business in a store room on South Meridian street next to the site now occupied by the present Commercial Club.

There they continued in the wholesale drug business under the original firm name until the death of Mr. Vinton, in 1872, when Mr. Kiefer purchased the latter's interest, after which he conducted the enterprise under the title of A. Kiefer until 1883. From that time forward for a decade, he had as his coadjutor in the business William H. Schmidt, upon whose admission to the firm, the title was changed to A. Kiefer & Company. In 1890 the business was removed to the Lieber build- ing, at the southeast corner of Meridian and Georgia streets. In 1894, upon the retire- ment of Mr. Schmidt from the firm, Mr. Kiefer incorporated the business under the title of the A. Kiefer Drug Company, and of this cor- poration he continued president until his death. It was not given him to find his suc- eess in the local business field, one free from interruption, as in 1897, fire in an adjoining building entailed to the company considerable loss and in 1900 a similar loss was entailed from the same canse. In 1901 Mr. Kiefer pur- chased the old Allen M. Condnitt block with a frontage of fifty feet on South Meridian street and running through to Jaekson Place at the Union station. He remodeled this building and there the business of his company was snecessfully continued until 1905, when the en- tire building and stoek were destroyed by a million-dollar fire which had originated in the old Sherman House and which caused the ob- literation of half of a city block. A prompt rehabilitation was effeeted and the business was continned in temporary headquarters at 18 and 20 West Georgia street, until 1906, when Mr. Kiefer erected the present fireproof build- ing at the southeast corner of Georgia street and Capitol avenue, where his business has since been continued. The enterprise thus founded by the honored subjeet of this memoir attained to large proportions and the great

wholesale drug house of the A. Kiefer Drug Company is now one of the most important of its kind in the extent and scope of operations to be found in the middle west. No citizen of Indianapolis exemplified more determina- tion or more determined ideas and he made of success not an accident but a logical result. His contribution to the prestige of Indianapolis as a commercial distributing center was one of large and important order and his loyalty to all that tonehed the welfare of the city was of the most appreciative and insistent type. It has been said of him that his strongest char- aeteristic was his absolute honesty and, as may well be imagined, he was a man of positive . views and strong individuality. He asked of others only what was his due and was ever ready to accord the same treatment to all with whom he had business relations. His fidelity to principle was absolutely inelastic and with him honesty never made aught of compromise with expedieney.

In politics Mr. Kiefer was originally aligned as a staneh supporter of the principles of the Whig party. as a member of which he ex- ereised his franchise in the support of General Winfield S. Scott for president and after the lefeat of General Seott. in 1852, which brought about the dissolution of the Whig party, Mr. Kiefer gave his allegianee to the Democratic party and voted for Buchanan in 1856. In the following year, as the result of a joke, he accepted the nomination and was elected representative of Johnson county in the state legislature, in which he served during the session of 1858-a session in which the Honorable John B. Gordon was speaker of the House and Judge Turpie was leader of the Democratie forees in the legislature. This one experience in public office proved adequate to satisfy all his ambitions in that line and there- after he sturdily refused to permit the use of his name in connection with nomination for politieal office of any kind, although he con- tinned a stanch and zealous supporter of the cause of the Democratic party during the re- mainder of his life. In the early fifty's Mr. Kiefer became affiliated with the Masonic fra- ternity at Edinburg. this state. He was a member of the University Club and was one of the members of the first board of directors of the Commercial Club.

Mr. Kiefer was one of the founders of the National Wholesale Druggists Association and was one of the few who conceived the idea of the practicability of forming such an organiza- tion. In the early years of his business career in Indianapolis, he was accustomed to visit Cincinnati frequently for the purpose of buy- ing stock for his establishment, especially oils

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 102

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

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