Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 111

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 111

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Immediately after his marriage George W. Coleman removed with his bride to Indiana and took up his residence in Tipton County, on the 6th of December, 1865. There he and his devoted wife have since maintained their home, save for one year passed in Shelby County, this state, and a part of a year in Tennessee. In 1870 Mr. Coleman purchased his present homestead farm, in Prairie Town- ship, Tipton County, and he still gives to the same his personal supervision. He is a Demo- crat in his political proclivities and both he and his wife hold membership in the Baptist Church.

Lewis Austin Coleman, the immediate sub- ject of this review, was reared to maturity on the old homestead just mentioned. He early formulated definite plans for a future career. having decided to enter the legal profession. In 1894 he began reading law under the pre- ceptorship of the late Robert B. Beauchamp, of Tipton, one of the leading members of the bar of that section of the state, and in 1895, after about one year of preliminary study un- der the conditions noted, Mr. Coleman was matriculated in the Indiana Law School, in which he was graduated on the 25th of May, 1898, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws.

Prior to entering the law school Mr. Cole- man had studied stenography and typewrit- ing while at his home, and he gained sufficient facility in these lines to secure employment after coming to Indianapolis and by this means he earned the money with which. to de- fray partially the expenses of his course in the law school. He became stenographer in the law offices of Hon. John W. Holtzman soon after coming to Indianapolis, and he held this position until his graduation in the law school, soon after which he was admitted to the bar of his native state. He was finally admitted to partnership by Mr. Holtzman, with whom he has since been associated in the active and successful practice of his profes- sion, under the firm name of Holtzman & Coleman. The firm control a large and lucra- tive professional business of distinctively representative order.

Though he has never sought the honors or emoluments of public office Mr. Coleman is unfaltering in his allegiance to the principles of the Democratic party, but will not vote for men whom he believes unfit for the public service. He is a member of the Indiana Democratic Club and has been an active worker in the same. He has attained the capitular degrees in York Rite Masonry, and is a member and director of the Commercial Club of Indianapolis, and also a director in the Continental National Bank of Indian- apolis, which he was largely instrumental in organizing. He and his wife are members of and active workers in the Central Christian Church and take a deep interest in the various departments of its work.

On the 23rd of June, 1897, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Coleman to Miss Mar- garet A. Davis, daughter of Hadley (de- ceased) and Mary E. Davis, who was born in Zionsville, Indiana, but who removed with her mother while still a child, to Tipton, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Coleman have three children, Robert D., Mary, and John L.

HUGH J. MCGOWAN. Not all who have been "hewers of wood and drawers of water" have found it expedient to be steadfast in their devotion to these modest, worthy but not alarmingly productive vocations, and among those who stand as distinguished types of the world's workers is Hugh J. McGowan, of Indianapolis, to whom is frequently ap- plied the title of "traction king". It is a far cry, in the diction of the chase, from the po- sition of plowboy on a farm to that of head of one of the greatest systems of urban and interurban electric lines in the world, and yet this progress stands to the credit of Mr. McGowan, who is still in the very prime of

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vigorous and useful manhood. In this age of colossal enterprise and marked intellectual energy, the prominent' and successful men are those whose ambition and abilities lead them into large undertakings and to assume the responsibilities and labors of their re- spective fields of endeavor. Success is methodical and. consecutive and though the rise of Hugh J. McGowan may seem so rapid as to be almost spectacular, it will be found that his success has been attained by the same normal methods and means,-determined application of mental and physical resources along a rigidly defined line. Those who have attempted to gain from this busy man of af- fairs adequate data for a sketch of his career can not but realize that he puts a large and definite valuation on time and also that his personal modesty proves another formidable barrier over which the solicitous interviewer is certain to sprawl ingloriously. In the ar- ticle at hand there is dearth of incident, per- haps, but the reading public may ascribe this largely to the "genial unresponsiveness" of the able and popular "traction king" him- self. It is, however, imperative, as a matter of consistency, that he be accorded recogni- tion in this history of Greater Indianapolis, to whose advancement he has contributed through his splendid constructive and admin- istrative powers in connection with electric transportation. This sketch, largely drawn from fragmentary statements concerning the man and his work, cannot offer consecutive narrative, but may serve to mark apprecia- tion of the accomplishment of him who fig- ures as its subject.

In the matter of public utilities Indianap- olis can justly claim to possess essentially metropolitan facilities and of these none can take precedence of those afforded by the su- perior urban and interurban electric lines, which have given the city prestige as one of the greatest centers of interurban service in the world. At the head of the great corpora- tion controlling six of the principal inter- urban lines entering the Indiana capital stands Hugh . J. McGowan, whose name has represented a power in this great field of in- dustrial exploitation and who has become one of the traction magnates of the country. The six merged interurban lines are now con- trolled by the corporation known as the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern Traction Com- pany, and Mr. McGowan is president of this company, as well as identified in an executive way with other important corporations of like order.

From a magazine article is gained the fol- lowing simple résumé of the career of Mr.

McGowan, slight paraphrase, being made when deemed expedient.

One of the best models in successful Amer- ican business life, for the study of the youth of this generation, is the rise and progress of Hugh J. McGowan from the condition of a farmer boy to street-railway magnate and millionaire. He was born on his father's small farm in Liberty County, Missouri, on the 25th of January, 1857. The pure air and water of the hills helped to rear a sturdy family of children, and Hugh was one of the most robust and hardy of the lot. He had brain as well as brawn. At the age of twenty years he resolved to leave the farm life. He needed a wider horizon; wanted more to do, and thought he would try the busy life of a city as the place to make a living. He went to Kansas City, Missouri, and worked for a year in various capacities, but he soon real- ized that his lack of education was an insur- mountable obstacle to his progress, so he re- turned to his father's farm, went to school all winter, and, by close application to study, fitted himself for a course in a commercial college in Kansas City. Upon graduating in this institution Mr. McGowan found employ- ment in a furniture house, and he afterward became an accountant for the Missouri Pa- cific Railway Company. Being advised that, in his condition of health at the time, the sedentary life was not best for him, he ac- cepted a position as patrolman on the Kan- sas City police force. Five months after his appointment he was promoted to the posi -. tion of police sergeant, and he continued a member of the police force for a period of six years, within which time he fully regained his health.

In 1886 Mr. McGowan was nominated by the Democracy of Jackson County, Missouri, for the position of marshal, and he was tri- umphantly elected. He made so enviable a record during his four years' term that his friends desired him to accept a renomination. But once more the desire to engage in com- mercial pursuits became predominant, and in 1890 Mr. McGowan took the first step toward his long-cherished ambition. He be- came an agent for the Barber Asphalt Com- pany, and his history thenceforth is a chron- icle of opportunities seen and seized. He made the company a great success. He was instru- mental in consolidating the gas companies of Kansas City and he displayed so much tact and ability in the work that when the plan was proposed to consolidate the street rail- roads of Indianapolis Mr. McGowan was sent for, and the conducting of such negotiations was confined to his hands. This was in · De-

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cember. 1899, and after much work one hun- dred and twenty-five miles of street railways were merged into one system, with a capital of hitteen million dollars. Mr. McGowan be- came a large stockholder and also president of the company, and the marvelous success of the same has made him wealthy. Coupled with Mr. McGowan's business ability are geniality, cordiality and a power of making and retaining strong, influential and personal friends, who attest their warm regard for the farmer boy who has risen to the front rank of. electric-railroad presidents, largely, too, by his own individual worth and exertion."

The foregoing gives evidence of but a small part of the great and productive activities of Mr. McGowan. He is president of the In- dianapolis Traction & Terminal Company, and the Indiana Coal Traction Company, the Plainfield line; president of the Indianapolis & Martinsville Rapid Transit Company ; pres- ident of the Indianapolis & Eastern Railway Company; president of the Richmond Street & Interurban Railway Company; and first vice-president of several lines in Ohio connect- ing with these systems. He is a representa- tive of the so-called syndicate in Indiana. In 1907 he effected a merger of six important traction lines and of the resulting corpora- tion, the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern Traction Company, he has been president. Previously to this he had been president of each of the six companies thus merged. These bare statements offer little to designate the herculean labors and magnificent initiative and administrative powers of Mr. McGowan, but the work itself is the best voucher of his accomplishment, and it may be was well that further details are omitted in this article. Mr. McGowan has other capitalistic invest- ments of important order and is one who may with all of consistency be denominated one of the leading "captains of industry" in the United States. He is essentially loyal, pro- gressive and public-spirited as a citizen, and shows a deep interest in all that tends to con- serve the civic and industrial progress of his home city of Indianapolis, where he has re- sided since 1899. He is identified with vari- ous representative civic bodies in the Indiana capital and also with a number of fraternal organizations, but his principal interests cen- ter in his business and in his home.

Mr. McGowan is essentially generous and kindly and amid all the cares and exactions of his business affairs he has retained un- dimmed those generous liman qualities which beget confidence, esteem and friendship. With the true dignity of one who has wrought out his own success, he reverts to his early

struggles with naught of subterfuge, being willing that all should know the obstacles he had to overcome and that the lesson of emula- tion be learned by such as can appreciate the same. As touching other phases of the life of this man of achievement there is naught of impropriety in drawing from appreciative statements made in a previously published ar- ticle.

Mr. McGowan is a stockholder in the In- diana Sonora Copper & Mining Company, and his Indiana associates in this corporation presented to him as a Christmas gift a paint- ing of his old home in Missouri. In pre- senting the gift the late Mr. Samuel E. Morss spoke as follows: "We know that the suc- cess you have gained-and it is very consid- erable-is the legitimate fruit of ability, en- ergy, loyalty and integrity, and that it has not blunted your emotions or hardened your heart. We know what a fondness you retain for your old Missouri home, where your early days were passed, and with the full consent and hearty approval of your noble wife, the crown of your joy and your life, we have caused to be painted by the gifted Indiana artist, R. B. Gruelle, this beautiful picture of the old home."

And there is another side to the character of the traction king. It is that of the man of the home. It is there that he is happiest. There are few men that are greater lovers of children. He has four daughters, and he is not as proud of any of his achievements in the business world as he is of them. His is a happy family circle. One has only to see all the members together to appreciate this. Summer afternoons they may be seen at Broad Ripple park, in the McGowan steam launch, "Isabel," named after one of the daughters. He is no longer the man of fi- nance and business. He is just a big play- mate of the little ones. For once he forgets the cares of the office, but he enters the play with the same spirit of thoroughness that is so noticeable in his business dealings. He learned self-reliance in his work on the farm and his association with the farmer lads. He made his own skates and his own sleighs. And he made a "fiddle" of cornstalks and horse- hair. The fiddle did not make music, but it showed the boy's love of music. A few years later he possessed a real violin that had been the property of his brother. His love for music has continued throughout the years of activity. In his home today he has a fine violin that he is wont to seek at times when the spirit moves him, and to this in- clination toward music may doubtless be

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traced some of the qualities that make him so agreeable a companion.

Hugh J. McGowan was a studious pupil, but in school he manifested special predilec- tion for mathematics. He was also proficient in another line. He gained the reputation for being the shrewdest leader in watermelon raids in the country around. When he recalls the depredations of the "gang" he led into the melon patches of the neighborhood a smile hovers over his lips and there is a far- away look in his eyes.

It is pleasing to offer these intimate state- ments that reveal the human side of the man of large affairs, the man who has been in the most significant sense the architect of his own fortunes, and certainly worthy of perpetua- tion here and of utmost publicity in his terse advice to young men, as here noted: "Do everything you do, no matter how humble the task, as well as you possibly can, and keep on doing so. You will thus atract the at- tention and commendation of your superiors. When I was in school I was always striving to win the prizes offered for good scholarship. When I was an hostler in the street-car barns I curried the mules to the best of my ability. When I was a policeman I did my duty to the best of my ability. And so it has gone throughout my life. Some say that there are not the opportunities for young men that there were once. That is wrong, entirely wrong. There are more opportunities. There is more wealth and more business. There- fore I say to the young man, 'It's up to you'."

Mr. McGowan's parents, Hugh and Mar- garet (Barry) McGowan, were both natives of Ireland, and of them the following words have been written: "His father believed in no halfway measures. The mother was of exceptionally forceful character. They formed an attachment for each other before they left the Emerald Isle to accompany their respect- ive parents to America, both families locat- ing first in New Brunswick, Canada, whence they later removed so Portland, Maine, where the young couple were married. There Hugh McGowan earned enough money as a stone mason to provide a home for his bride."

When the gold fever became epidemic in the United States, Hugh McGowan left New England and started with his family for the west. But they never completed the journey to the gold fields. After remaining in St. Louis, Missouri, for a year they removed to Clay County, where the father secured a tract of land and turned his attention to agri- cultural pursuits, with which he continued to be identified during the residue of his ac-

tive career. He was a man of strong men- tality, of impregnable integrity and of great industry, and he provided well for his family. Both he and his wife were members of the Catholic Church. They became the parents of four sons and four daughters, and of the number one son and two daughters are now living.

JOHN L. KETCHAM. For more than a third of a century John Lewis Ketcham was one of the leaders of the Indianapolis bar. He was a native of Kentucky, born in Shelby County, April 3, 1810. His father, Col. John Ketcham, removed to Indiana when he was an infant, but on account of the Indian troubles returned to Kentucky. A few years later he returned to Indiana, and settled in Monroe County, near Bloomington. Here John L. grew up, and was educated at the Indiana University under Dr. Wylie, to whom he was much attached. He graduated in 1833 and in the same year come to Indianapolis, where he studied law under Judge Isaac Blackford. Soon after his admission to the bar he was elected to the office of justice of the peace, and served for one term. This was the only office for which he was ever a candidate, the remainder of his life being devoted to his profession, in which he was most successful.

He won his spurs in the prosecution of Arnold Lashley for killing Zachariah Collins, although the defendant was acquitted under the instructions of the court. After that he figured in most of the important cases of the locality. Perhaps the mnost noted of them was the Freeman case, an account of which is given in the Chapter entitled "The Col- ored Brother." Mr. Ketcham did not enjoy solitary professional work, and at various times was associated in partnership with Na- poleon B. Taylor, Lucian Barbour, Isaac Coffin, his nephew, James L. Mitchell, and his son, William A. Ketcham. He was in active practice when he met his death by accident on April 20, 1869. He had stepped into the wholesale store of Alford, Talbott & Co., in the old Morrison Opera House block, to speak to one of the proprietors, when by a misstep he fell down an opera elevator shaft, and re- ceived injuries from which he died the same evening.

Two memorable estimates of Mr. Ketcham are preserved-estimates by men notable for their keen judgment. of mankind, and for their habit of saying what they thought. John A. Finch, a member of his Bible class, said of him, in the Mirror: "The hospitality of Mr. Ketcham is well known. It was a part of the duty of life that he never forgot, but

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made it most pleasant to all who entered his family circle. The nobleness of the man, in- deed, was quickest seen in his home. An ex- ceeding tenderness marked his whole inter- course with his family and family friends. Regularity of life was a part of his faith. An untiring worker, he never allowed one duty to overshadow another. His idea of life was to fulfill every duty as it came. The boundaries of duty were never crossed. All his life a Christian, he let his Christianity follow him wherever he went. It is said by those nearest him that in all his long resi- dence in the city he never missed a religious meeting of the church to which he belonged, if in the city and not unwell. A ready speak- er at all times, he seemed especially gifted in the prayer meeting, always having some- thing to add that was of value. The main- spring of bis life was Christian duty. The influence he silently exerted in the regular observance of his daily devotions is past all expression. Those living near him have often spoken with the deepest feeling of the la- borers, when passing his home in the morning, stopping to catch the hymns of praise that were the ushering in of the day to him and his family.

"Strong in his friendship, he never forgot a friend nor failed him when needed. Dur- ing the war his sympathetic patriotism was most marked. Two of his sons were in the army, and every battle was watched and prayed over as if they were there. A man of unostentatious benevolence, he literally did not let his right hand know what his left did. Many instances of his substantial kind- ness are now known, that before were buried in the hearts of giver and receiver."

At the memorial bar meeting, on April 22, 1869, Major Jonathan W. Gordon said: "He was a man of convictions-too much so to pass unchallenged and smoothly through life. With him life was an earnest battle-a strug- gle where the prizes of eternity are lost and won. He accepted the sternest orthodoxy in religion, and never allowed himself to pass its boundaries or engage in the speculations and philosophies which in this age are turn- ing the world upside down. The Bible, the church and the God of his fathers were ac- cepted by him as his own, and in them the yearnings of his spiritual nature were satis- fied. No one who knew him well will ever question the earnestness and sincerity of his religious life. John Knox, had he known him, would have given him the right hand of fel- lowship. Nevertheless he so lived and labored as to cultivate and cherish the amenities and charities of religion, which make life and

home and church cheerful and beautiful. His life was thus a consistent, upright, immova- ble column of duty, festooned with the flow- ers of grace and charity and hope. However widely we may have differed with him in opinion, or practice, during his life, we ean but feel that he was a true and earnest man, and that his example is to be had in per- petual remembrance."

Mr. Ketcham was one of the founders of the Second Presbyterian Church, and one of its elders. He was also one of the founders and elders of the Fourth Presbyterian Church. He had a fine voice, and was one of the members of the "Beecher Church choir". On March 24. 1836, he was married to Jane Merrill, eldest daughter of Samuel Merrill, a lady of notable intelligence and character. She still survives in ripe age, and extracts from her manuscript memoirs of early In- dianapolis will be found elsewhere in this vol- une. Seven children of this marriage are still living: John L., of the Brown-Ketchanı Iron Works; William A., ex-attorney gen- eral of Indiana, and ex-commander of the Indiana G. A. R .; Rev. IJenry, of Rugby, North Dakota; Frank, of Indianapolis; Ed- ward, of Cincinnati; Miss Susan M., artist, of whom further mention will be found in the chapter "The Fine Arts"; and Mrs. Thos. E. Hibben, of Irvington.

RUSSELL B. HARRISON. In a work of the limitations prescribed for the one for this publication there is no necessity in attempting to offer a review of the career of so dis- tinguished a national character as that of the late Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third presi- dent of the United States, for his life and services have become a component part of the generic history of the nation and innumerable publications, readily accessible, offer more adequate memoirs and more ample data than could possibly find place in the edition here presented. Thus it is deemed consonant to leave to such published works of broader and more specific order the rendering of proper tributes to the illustrious citizen of Indian- apolis, General Benjamin Harrison, while this recognition is given to the son, who is active- ly and prominently concerned with the best interests of Indiana's capital city, where he is successfully engaged in the practice of law,-a profession dignified and honored by the services of his distinguished father. He is also an expert civil, mining, gas and elec- trical engineer.

Colonel Russell B. Harrison was born at Oxford, Butler County, Ohio, and is the only son of General Benjamin and Caroline (Scott) Harrison, the great-grandson of Gen-

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Pral William Henry Harrison, ninth presi- dent of the United States, and the great- great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and a member of the Continental Congress. Colonel Harrison was graduated in the Department of Mining and Civil En- gineering of Lafayette College, at Easton, Pennsylvania, and later qualified as an elec- trical and gas engineer. He was identified with the Mint Service of the United States for a number of years, and was Superinten- dent of the United States Assay Office, at Helena, Montana, from 1878 to 1885. In the former year he rendered valuable assist- ance to Secretary John Sherman of the United States Treasury Department in bring- ing about the resumption of specie payment. He had a long journalistic career, and for several years was the owner of the Helena Daily Journal, published in the City of Helena, Montana, and for some years was a part owner of the celebrated periodicals known as Judge and Leslie's Illustrated News- paper, published in the City of New York.

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 111

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