Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 11

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 11

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

quently helped a tired powder boy carry up ammunition from the caisson.

"The Tullahoma campaign, which followed the battle of Hoover's Gap, was very trying on the battery. There were twenty-one days of constant rain, which, upon the barren of Ten- nessee, made movement almost impossible. With only Wilder's brigade on one side of the river, Bragg's entire army on the other, it looked as if they could never get back over those mountains, had the enemy succeeded in crossing the Tennessee River and successfully attacking them. At noon on the 21st day of August, 1863, Colonel Lilly's guns opened on the Confederate stronghold of Chattanooga, right in the face of the whole of Bragg's army, and to the consternation and surprise of that great general himself, as the hasty removal of his headquarters afterward testified. It was Jeff Davis 'fast day', and the citizens were all at church when the loud booming of Lilly's guns disturbed their surroundings, and they hastily left their churches without ceremony. No shells were fired into the town, but the skill of the commander was devoted to sink- ing two steamboats, the Dunbar and the Paint- rock, which were lying by the shore. This was successfully done after a half hour's firing, and the men of the brigade breathed easier as they saw the boats sink. The combined forces, consisting of nineteen guns in all, directed fire upon the Lilly battery from noon till dark, but their range and aim was so imperfect that the battery escaped with the loss of only one man and four horses, all killed by the same shell.

"The next morning a miry-looking man ap- peared before Colonel Lilly. He said he had. just swam the Tennessee River, that his name was Bill Critchfield and he owned the Critch- field House over in Chattanooga that General Bragg was using for headquarters, and he wanted to see Colonel Lilly 'knock hell' out of his house. The gentleman was soon accommo- dated, and from his perch in a tree near one of the guns he had the satisfaction of seeing several shells go through his own house and explode on the inside, and the hasty exit of all occupants. (In this Critchfield House was published a paper which was edited by Henry Watterson.)

"In the battle of Chickamauga, which be- gan about noon Friday, September 18, at Alex- ander's bridge, Colonel Lilly's battery fired the first shell on the advancing army of Bragg, which was really the opening of the great bat- tle known in history as Chickamauga. On the Saturday of the great battle Wilder's brigade and Colonel Lilly's battery formed part of the main line of battle on the right of the Four- teenth Corps. About 3 o'clock on the after-

noon of that awful day Colonel Lilly did as daring a deed as ever took place in the his- tory of the Army of the Cumberland. In front of a part of Wilder's brigade and midway be- tween the lines of the two contending armies ran a ditch parallel to the line of battle. The rebels would charge our lines, get as far as this ditch and then drop into it out of range of our fire, and our men could not dislodge them. Just after a very heavy fire of the enemy's lines and while this ditch was full of rebel soldiers, Colonel Lilly limbered two guns of his battery, galloped out to a point at the head of the ditch, where the guns could rake it from end to end, and opened out with triple charges of grape and canister down that ditch, dealing death and carnage with every shot. There stands today, on the battlefield of Chickamauga, on the identical spot occu- pied by this brave man, two cannon placed in position, to commemorate this act of bravery on that eventful day. During some of the ter- rific charges made on our lines by Longstreet's inen, Colonel Lilly rode on his horse from his caissons to his guns, bringing up armloads of grape and canister to hurl at the enemy. Dur- ing the pursuit of Wheeler, immediately after the battle of Chickamauga, when for twenty- one days our cavalry and mounted troops kept up a fight with this Confederate general, Col- onel Lilly constantly pushed his command on the skirmish line, and whenever the rebels made a stand his guns were always in position, and the boom of his cannon was a signal for a spontaneous charge. So much faith did the troops have in the effectiveness of his battery that when the horses of the guns would give out by the roadside, the troopers of the brigade would dismount from their own horses and give them up for the use of the artillery in order to have the battery along with them.

"At the battle of Mossy Creek, December 29, 1863, our forces were driven back. When the order to fall back was received all the horses belonging to one of Colonel Lilly's guns had been killed, and one gun was left on the hill as the troops fell back. Colonel Lilly went to General McCook, commanding the Union cavalry, and begged of him to give him a company of cavalry to make a charge and bring off that gun. General McCook said he had no troops available except a small body of scouts, but he could take them. Colonel Lilly, with this small body of men, led a charge up the hill to his gun, driving the enemy back, and brought the piece safely into Union lines.

"All through the winter of 1863 Colonel Lilly operated with General McCook's cavalry in east Tennessee. During the entire winter

Vol. II-4

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the troops drew no rations, excepting coffee and occasionally a box : of hard-tack. They lived exclusively off the country. He never rested himself until his men and teams had something to eat. If there was anything in the country Colonel Lilly saw that his men had some of it. No commander looked after his men more conscientiously than did Colonel Lilly. . He was always on the alert for his 'boys', as he always called them, and he never let them suffer if there was anything he could possibly do to prevent it.

"During the two and a half years he was in command of the battery he was forty-one times under fire and was twice struck by bul- lets, but escaped with only slight wounds. During the spring of 1864, while the Army of the Cumberland was preparing for the At- lanta campaign, Colonel Lilly came home on a short leave of absence, when Governor Mor- ton, recognizing the ability and dash of the young officer, tendered him the position of major of the Ninth Indiana Cavalry. This commission was accepted and he resigned his position of captain of the Eighteenth Indiana Battery and was mustered major of the Ninth Cavalry, April 4, 1864. December 24th of the same year he was promoted to be lieutenant colonel.

"Colonel Lilly left his battery with pro- found regret, but under the then existing or- ganization of the Indiana batteries no pro- motion above a captain could be made, and he justly deserved a higher command and made the change on that account only. The battery reluctantly gave him up. His cour- age, ability and his devotion to his men had so endeared him to their hearts that to the day of his death the love they then bore him lived in memory too deep to ever die out."

By the overwhelming forces of General For- rest, and because of the lack of ammunition, Major Lilly surrendered at Elk River, Ten- nessee. September 22, 1864, and for some months, until exchanged, he and his men were held prisoners in Mississippi. At the close of the war he was in command at Port Gibson, Mississippi.

He remained in the south for about a year after the war, and attempted cotton planting, on a plantation which he leased. He had in- different success and furthermore nearly lost his health. Broken in body and with scarce- ly a dollar he came north and began working for the wholesale drug house of H. Dailey & Company at Indianapolis. Later his experi- ence and skill in the drug business were put against a partner's capital in a drug store at Paris, Illinois. In 1813 he returned to In-

dianapolis, which ever afterward remained his home.

Following a brief partnership in the manu- facturing business he began in a modest man- ner the business from which the present Eli Lilly Company originated. In a small store room, situated at the rear. of the site now oc- cupied by the Commercial Club building, and facing on the alley, he began to manufacture, out of pure drugs, the medicines prescribed by physicians. He compounded a stock, then went out and sold it to the trade. His drugs were of the highest quality, and this and the skill with which they were put up made them popular and in permanent demand. His trade increased to a point where he had to remain m the shop all the time, while his brother, James E., acted as salesman. The process of business growth went on rapidly, and without describing in detail it is sufficiently impres- sive to compare the little shop on the aller with the present laboratory building in which the Lilly drugs are made, a complete medicine house with a reputation which has passed be- yond the boundaries of the United States.

One incident illustrates Colonel Lilly's quick comprehension and alertness in turning an idea to business advantage. Dr. J. Marion Simms told him of the rare medical qualities of a plant which Dr. MeDade of Alabama had dis- covered among the Indians. He at once sought out Dr. McDade in Alabama, investi- gated the properties of the plant, and made a contract for a supply. A short time later Dr. McDade, to his surprise, received an order for several thousand pounds of the plant. The medicine, through general prescription by physicians, has become a standard remedy, and the success of the Lilly Company is due more to that one preparation than to anything else. The methods of administering medicines were almost revolutionized by the pioneer in- vestigations of Colonel Lilly. No one did so much to perfect and introduce the capsule and the tablet for removing the disagreeable fea- tures of taking medicines.

His labors in behalf of the material and civic improvement of his home city were such as to guarantee him a lasting place among the great citizens and builders of Indianapolis. His ideals of wealth were high, and after he had founded a solid fortune he directed his efforts and his means to the welfare of city and citizens.

One of the first public enterprises in which he took a prominent part was the creation of the Consumers Gas Trust, about the time of the great natural gas discoveries in Indiana. He made the first subscription and pushed the matter to success. He was at the head of the

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committee for securing gas territory, and his forethought and executive tact were largely responsible for the large area from which the Consumers Company drew its supply.

The natural gas epoch was one of unex- ampled prosperity in the various sections of Indiana affected by the discoveries, and Col- onel Lilly was one of those who foresaw and sought to utilize to the greatest possibilities this prosperity for the permanent benefit of Indianapolis. To improve the city and pre- pare the way for its growth to a modern metropolis, he became one of the foremost among a group of public-spirited citizens who may properly be credited with instituting the modern era of Indianapolis.

The first work was the improvement of the streets and the construction of a scientific sys- ten of drainage. The plan was laid before the Board of Trade, of which he was then an officer, but that body was not competent to undertake so much civic responsibility and refused to take action. The plan involved the securing of a new city charter and also a long and persistent campaign in carrying out its details. The result was that Colonel Lilly and lis associates organized the Commercial Club, in 1890, and the history of that organization tells the ultimate success of the plans for city building. Colonel Lilly was the first presi- dent of the club, and he was both an orig- inator of methods and an executive in secur- ing practical results. At the beginning there was not a mile of paved street in the city, and no system of drainage, and the present conditions in this respect have been brought about since the Commercial Club took hold of the work twenty years ago. It was due to Colonel Lilly's forethought that the Commer- cial Club erected its building and thus became a permanent organization for the city's wel- fare.

Colonel Lilly was general director in mak- ing the arrangements for the national en- campment of the Grand Army at Indianapolis in 1893. The successful issue of that encamp- ment, in the face of the difficulties of a panic vear, the liberal entertainment of the guests but without the usual deficit in the treasury of the management, are among the achier- ments of the city for which a due amount of credit must be given Colonel Lilly.

Ile was a liberal contributor to every charit- able enterprise from the time he became a man of means. Several years prior to his death. he and his wife established the Eleanor Hospital in remembrance of an only daughter who died in childhood. Both public and pri- vate charities benefited by his generous but mnostentatious gifts.

He was an active member of the George H. Thomas Post, G. A. R., and of the Indiana Division of the Loyal Legion. Also a member of the Commercial Club, the Columbia Club. and Christ Episcopal Church. After the Civil War, on national issues, he was a Republican, but somewhat independent in local politics. He never took active part in party affairs and declined numerous offers of political prefer- ment.

In 1860, at Greencastle, Colonel Lilly mar- ried Miss Emily Lemon. She took the pride of a wife in his military career, but died in 1865 during his unfortunate experience as a cotton planter in Mississippi. Josiah K. Lilly was the only child of this marriage. Colonel Lilly married, in 1869, Mariah C. Sloane, who is still living. The only child, a daughter, by this marriage, died in childhood.

JOSIAH K. LILLY, president of the Eli Lilly Company, is a son and the only child of the late ('olonel Eli Lilly. He was born at Green- castle, Indiana, November 18, 1861, and was twelve years old when the family home was permanently established in Indianapolis.

After a common-school education he entered his father's business. Then, in order to equip himself for his business specialty, which re- quires professional as well as business training, he attended the Philadelphia College of Phar- maey. After his. graduation in 1882, he be- came superintendent of the Lilly laboratories, and upon the death of his father succeeded to the presidency of the company.

Mr. Lilly continues the public-spirited ac- tivity of his honored father. He has been identified with public movements of recent vears, most conspicuously in connection with the building of the splendid Y. M. C. A. home at the corner of North Illinois and West New York streets. He was president of the Association during its recent campaign in raising a quarter of a million dollars for the erection of this structure. He is still a direc- tor of the Association. He is also a member of the Commercial, Columbia and Country clubs, and of Christ Episcopal Church.

He was married at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1882, to Miss Lilly MI. Ridgely of that city. Their two children are named Eli and Josiah.

JUDGE JAMES A. PRITCHARD has been a rep- resentative member of the Indianapolis har for nearly two score of years and is now presiding with marked ability on the bench of the Marion County criminal court. To the practice of his chosen profession he has brought a broad and accurate knowledge of the science of juris- prudence and ready power of applying the same as an advocate and counsellor. so that his suc- cess as a practitioner during the many years of

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active work prior to his elevation to the bench was of the most unequivocal type, giving him prestige as one of the strong and versatile members of the bar of his native state. On the bench he has given ample manifestation of his judicial acumen and his rulings and de- cisions have been fair and equitable, ever con- serving the cause of justice. As a legist and jurist he has ably aided in maintaining the high standard of his profession in Indiana, and his position well entitles him to specific con- sideration in this publication.

James Ambrose Pritchard was born in Fair- view, Fayette County, Indiana, on the 25th of October, 1846, and is a son of Rev. Henry R. and Emeline (Birdsell) Pritchard, the former of whom was born in Bourbon County, Ken- tucky, a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of the old Bluegrass state, and the lat- ter of whom was a native of Butler County, Ohio, where her parents settled in the pioneer days. Rev. Henry R. Pritchard came to In- diana when a young man and for sixty-five years he labored with all of consecrated zeal and devotion as a clergyman of the Christian Church. He also became the owner of a good farm, to the management of which he gave his personal attention, and on the old homestead, in Bartholomew County, the son, of this re- view, passed his boyhood days. The father was a man of fine mental equipment and unassum- ing nobility of character, so that his influence was ever exerted beneficently in the aiding and uplifting of his fellowmen. He passed the closing years of his life in Indianapolis, where he died at the venerable age of eighty-one years. His cherished and devoted wife, a woman of gentle and gracious personality, was summoned to the life eternal at the age of eighty-two years. Of their four children all are now living.

Judge James A. Pritchard, as already stated, passed his boyhood days on the farm, and when he was eight years of age his parents took up their residence in the village of Columbus, where he received the advantages of the pub- lic schools, after which he prosecuted his aca- demic studies for three years in Miami Uni- versity. After leaving college, in 1867, Judge Pritchard began reading law under the able preceptorship of Herod & Herod, of Columbus, Indiana, and he was admitted to the bar of his native commonwealth in 1873.

In 1873, when in his twenty-seventh year, Judge Pritchard came to Indianapolis and en- gaged in the practice of his chosen profes- sion, and through his ability, energy and devo- tion to his work he soon gained a definite stand- ing at the local bar, while the passing years were marked by cumulative success and prece-

dence in his profession, in connection with which he eventually retained a large and rep- resentative clientage and appeared in connec- tion with much important litigation in both the state and federal courts. He continued in the active practice of law until the 1st of Jan- uary, 1907, when he assumed his position as judge of the Marion County criminal court, to which responsible and exacting office he had been elected in the preceding November, as candidate on the Republican ticket. In his regime on the bench he has amply justified the wisdom of those through whose suffrages the preferment came to him, and he has shown dis- tinctive facility and high judicial acumen in the administration of the affairs of his impor- tant tribunal. He has ever been a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and has rendered efficient service in the cause, but he has never appeared as a candidate for public office save in the instance of his present incum- bency.

Judge Pritchard is recognized as a loyal and broad-minded citizen and is fully appreciative of the advantages and manifold attractions of his home city, where he is held in unqualified popular esteem. He and his wife hold member- ship in the Christian Church, and he is affiliat- ed with Oriental Lodge No. 319, Free & Ac- cepted Masons, and Centennial Lodge No. 520, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which latter order he is also identified with the En- campment of the Patriarchs Militant. He holds membership in the Marion Club, one of the representative social organizations of the capital city.

On the 20th of May, 1885, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Pritchard to Miss Lilly H. O'Hair, who was born in Laurel, Franklin County, Indiana, a daughter of the late James and Mary O'Hair, and the three children of this union are Walter, Marie and Irene.

JOHN E. HOLLETT. Among the attorneys of the younger generation who are upholding the prestige of the bar of the capital city of In- diana is John E. Hollett, who for about twenty. vears and until January, 1910, was a member of the well known and representative law firm of Avres, JJones and Hollett. He is also dis- tinctively the architect of his own advancement and creditable work, an example of the boys who have educated themselves and secured their own start in life. He was only a lad of four- teen when he began playing in the theaters to secure the money for his schooling, and thus he continued until his scholastic training was completed.

Mr. Hollett was born in the village of Ar- cadia, Hamilton County, Indiana, on the 19th

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of April, 1874, and is a son of Byron P. and Elizabeth A. (DeVaney) Hollett. The father was born in Hendricks County, this state, and is a son of John M. Hollett, who was a native of Kentucky, a scion of an old and honored family, and who came with his parents to In- diana in the early pioneer days, being reared to manhood in Wayne County. He passed the residue of his life in Indiana, where he fol- lowed the vocation of farming, becoming one of the prosperous agriculturists and influential citizens of Hendricks County. Byron P. Hol- lett was reared and educated in the old Hoosier state, and here he has ever continued to main- tain his home. He has been successful as a business man, and was for a number of years prominently identified with manufacturing en- terprises, besides building up a successful busi- ness as a general merchant and buyer and ship- per of grain. He and his wife still reside in the village of Arcadia. He is a Democrat in his political views. Mrs. Hollett was born in Hamilton County, Indiana, and is a daughter of John H. DeVaney, who came to this state from North Carolina. Of the children of By- ron P. and Elizabeth A. Hollett the subject of this review is the only one now living.

In the public schools of his native village John E. Hollett secured his early educational discipline, and after completing the curriculum of the same he entered the Shortridge high school in Indianapolis and graduated. There- after he completed a two years' course in But- ler College in that city. Prior to completing his college course he had entered the law office of the firm of Ayres and Jones, and under the able preceptorship of its principals he took up the study of law, and with this firm he was connected as student and member for more than twenty years, and the association was marked by the most pleasing relations and by definite accomplishment in a professional way. In 1897 Mr. Hollett graduated in the Indiana Law School in Indianapolis, and in the same year he was admitted to the bar of his native state. He forthwith became associated in prac- tice with his former preceptors as a member of the firm, and this professional alliance was con- tinued under the title of Ayres, Jones and Hol- lett until January 1, 1910, when Mr. Hollett formed a partnership with Merle N. A. Walker, a former judge of the Probate Court of Marion County, and with whom he is now engaged in the practice of law.

In politics Mr. Hollett is aligned as a stal- wart supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, and he was formerly president of the Indiana Democratic Club, one of the leading social-political organizations of Indianapolis. He is a member of the Commercial Club, of

which he was president in 1908-1909 and a director for several years. Both he and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church and are members of the parish of St. Paul's Church.

On the 26th of June, 1900, Mr. Hollett mar- ried Miss Katherine Moore Sullivan, a daugh- ter of the Hon. Thomas L. Sullivan, former mayor of the City of Indianapolis and a promi- nent and influential citizen. She is a great- granddaughter of Senator Oliver H. Smith and also of Judge Sullivan of the Supreme Court of Indiana. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Hollett are: Thomas Sullivan Hollett and John Everett Hollett, Jr.

FREDERICK H. CHEYNE. This vital, pro- gressive age is one that demands of men a dis- tinctive initiative power if they are to attain to success worthy the name, and in addition to this power is required self-reliance, determi- nation and consecutive application in the pur- suit of a definite purpose. All these attributes have been exemplified in the career of Freder- ick H. Cheyne, who has gained success and prestige in the business world and who is dis- tinctively the architect of his own fortunes. He is now president of the F. H. Cheyne Elec- tric Company, one of the leading concerns of its kind in Indiana, and he has been a resident of the capital city since 1892. Appreciative of the attractions and commercial advantages of In- dianapolis, he has here found it possible to gain a position as one of its representative business men of the younger generation, and he enjoys unmistakable personal popular esteem in the city which he has thus elected to make his home and the scene of his well directed endeavors.

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 11

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