Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 112

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 112

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At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War Colonel Harrison promptly volunteered his services. He was appointed Major and Inspector General and was assigned to duty on the staff of General Fitzhugh Lee. Later he served on the staff of General Leonard Wood, at Santiago, Cuba, and while so serv- ing suffered a severe attack of yellow fever. Later he was promoted to the rank of Lieu- tenant Colonel in recognition of his long and gallant services in Cuba, and .was assigned to duty as Inspector General of Porto Rico, Cuba. He was honorably discharged after three years, upon the establishment of civil government at Porto Rico. His military pro- motion was in a measure based upon resolu- tions passed by the City Councils of Jack- sonville, Florida. Savannah, Georgia, and Havana, Cuba, commending services rendered these cities.

Since 1900 Colonel Harrison has been en- gaged in the practice of law in Indianapolis, which city has long represented the family home, and he is known. as one of the repre- sentative members of the bar of this state. He is prominently identified with the Ma- sonic fraternity : the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks: the Society of Colonial Wars; the Sons of the American Revolution : the Society of the War of 1812: the Society of Indian Wars: the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States; the United Spanish War Veterans' Association : and the Society of the Military and Naval Order of the Spanish War. He is a life member of

the New York Press Club, the Union League Club, Chicago; the Army and Navy Club, New York; the Tavern Club, Louisville, and the Columnbia and Marion Clubs, of Indian- apolis, and is identified with other repre- sentative clubs and social organizations in Indianapolis and other cities. As may well be supposed, Colonel Harrison gives a stanch support to the cause of the Republican party.

In the City of Omaha, Nebraska, in the year 1884, was solemnized the marriage of Colonel Harrison to Miss Mary Saunders, daughter of Hon. Alvin Saunders, who was Governor of that state at the time of the Civil War, and who later represented Nebras- ka in the United States Senate. Colonel and Mrs. Harrison have two children-Marthena and William Henry, both of whom remain at the parental home. The daughter was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and the son in Terre Haute, Indiana.

DEMARCHUS C. BROWN is state librarian of Indiana. Mr. Brown's study and research have been in the principal cities of both America and Europe. Mr. Brown is bound to Indianapolis by ties of birth, the date of his nativity being June 24, 1857. His grand- father was Andrew Brown, of Butler Coun- ty, Ohio, and his father's name was Philip Brown. From the latter he inherits his scholarly inclinations, for although the edu- cational advantages enjoyed by Philip Brown were not wide, he was self-taught and his library was his chicfest treasurc. He was born in Butler County in 1800 and there passed the next half cycle, removing to this city in 1852 and residing here for some twelve years, his death occurring in 1864. He located in the north-eastern part of the city on what is now Masachusetts avenue and engaged in the lumber business. Mr. Brown's mother was before her marriage Miss Julia Tröster, a native of Reutlingen, Wurtemberg, Germany, born in 1832 and dying in 1874, thus surviving her husband for ten years. There were four children, Amptor, Hilton U., Demarchus C., and Femina. Amptor and Fe- mina dying when young. Hilton U. Brown is general manager of the Indianapolis News.

Demarchns C. Brown received his early education in the public schools of Indianap- olis and later attended the North Westeru Christian University from which he was grad- uated in 1879. Before this, upon the death of the Greek professor, he was made tutor in Greek. The following year he received his master's degree and thereupon went to Europe and spent the years of 1882 and 1883 in study at the University of Tiibingen, Ger- inany, and in the British Museum at London.

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

He returned and became instructor in Greek and secretary of the board of directors of Butler college, and in 1884 was called to fill the chair of Greek language in which capac- ity he remained until his appointment to the post of state librarian in 1906. In the mean- time he has snatched every opportunity to study abroad. He spent the autumn of 1892 in Paris; in the winter of 1892-93 he was en- rolled at the . American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece; in the summer of 1896 he found new inspiration in the Ber- lin Museums; during the fall of 1897 he and his wife were engaged in research work at Munich, Athens and Rome; in 1899 they worked together in the museums of Paris and London.

Mr. Brown has published translations from Lucian (Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1896) and a translation of Freudenthal's "American Criminology," brought out in 1907 by the state board of charities. He is affiliated with numerous societies having appropriate bear- ing on his particular lines of thought, these being: the American Philological Society ; the American Archaeological Institute; the Classical Association of the Middle West and South: the American Library Association ; the Indianapolis Literary Club, of which he has latterly been president; the Contempo- rary Club and Athenaeum, in which he has served in like capacities; and the Indiana Historical Society.

Mr. Brown is interested in philanthropic work and studies and since 1893, when first appointed by Governor Matthews, has been an active member of the state board of chari- ties. receiving reappointment from each suc- cessive governor.

In September, 1906. Mr. Brown was chosen by the state board of education to fill the office of state librarian of Indiana, an office which he still holds and for which he is fitted in every way. The good judgment of the board has been repeatedly proven for the li- brary is growing in scope and strength and is taking its place as one of the most impor- tant institutions of its kind in the country. Especial attention has been paid to the Legis- lative Reference department and to the In- diana Archives department.

Mr. Brown was married in March. 1881. to Miss S. Anna Rudy. of Paris. Illinois, who died in April. 1891. Six years later Miss Jessie Lanier Christian became his wife. Mrs. Brown's great-great-grandfather on the ma- ternal side was Col. Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, father of William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States. One son, Philip C .. was born to Mr. and Mrs.

Brown in 1901. Mr. Brown is a member of the Disciples Church.

ROBERT STOCKTON DORSEY was for nearly twenty years prominently identified with busi- ness and civic interests in Indianapolis, a representative of the most leal and loyal citi- zenship and where he left the impress of a strong and noble character. His life was guided and governed by the loftiest principles of integrity and honor, his character direct and positive, his ability large, his spirit gentle and tolerant, so that he well merited the con- fidence and esteem accorded him by all who knew him. To his memory, therefore, is given this brief tribute, with a review of his genea- logical history, which betokens patrician line- age and bears evidence of the family's long and prominent identification with the annals of American history.

The founder of the family in the new world was Edward Darcy, gentleman, a native of Essex, England, and a resident of New Provi- dence, now Annapolis, Maryland, as early as 1657. He was the owner of a large landed estate in Calvert and Anne Arundel counties, that state, where he died, intestate, prior to 1664. He married Ann Howard, supposed to have been "Ann Dorsey, the Quakeress," re- ferred to by Robert Clarkson in Neill's "Foun- ders of Maryland" (folio 142, published in 1876). Edward Darcy was survived by four children, Edward, Joshua, John and Sarah, and in this generation the orthography of the name was changed to the present form, Dorsey.

Colonel Edward Dorsey, son of Edward and Ann Darcy, finds a place in Maryland archives as gentleman, justice of Anne Arundel County, 1679; major of colonial troops, 1682; captain of militia and commissioner of peace, Anne Arundel County, 1684-7. In 1693 he was com- missioned to build the Maryland state house, and in the following year was incumbent of the office of judge. of the high court of chancery. On the 9th of October, 1694, he was commis- sioned field officer of the colonial troops, and in the same year he was made keeper of the great seal. He was a member of the house of burgesses from 1692 to 1697 and was also appointed a member of the committee to read and inspect laws of the province. He served as trustee of King William and Mary College and also of the port and town of Annapolis. He was commissioner of chancery in 1696, and after 1697 held the rank and commission of colonel, being so designated in the pro- bating of his will. He is also called colonel In the administration account of John Israel, gentleman. He was commander of the militia of Anne Arundel County in 1687 and major of horse in 1689. As recorded in Lord Balti-

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P. S. Dorsey

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

more's rent rolls, Hockley-in-the-hole was sur- veyed in 1663 for Edward, Joshua and John Dorsey-two thousand acres. Colonel Edward Dorsey married Margaret Larkin, daughter of John and Katherine Larkin, of Elkridge, Maryland, so called in his will, dated October 26, 1704, and probated December 31, 1705. Colonel Edward and Margaret (Larkin) Dor- sey had five children, Larkin, Charles, Fran- cis, Edward and Ann. Of these the progenitor of the subject of this memoir was Edward (III).

Edward Dorsey (III) was born in 1703 and died in 1753. He was magistrate of Anne Arundel County in 1730. His will was pro- bated January 11, 1753. He married Phoebe Todd and they became the parents of four children : Edward, Joshua, Larkin and Rachel. Rachel married Major George Stockton, who was a soldier and officer with Daniel Boone through the Indian war in Kentucky.

Larkin Dorsey, grandfather of the subject of this memoir, was born on the 17th of August, 1744, and died February 22, 1822, at the home of his youngest child, Amelia, in Flemingsburg, Kentucky. His remains were- interred near Stockton's Station, Fleming County, that state. He served 'in the War of the Revolution, having been made a cadet in the Ninth Company, Light Infantry, January 3. 1776; was commissioned ensign June 18, 1778; and later was officer of. matrosses in the artillery. He married Elizabeth Ingram about 1780, at Hagerstown, Maryland. She was born in Maryland, January 7, 1758, and died at the home of her son, John, in Kentucky, in 1844, being laid to rest beside her husband. They became the parents of eight children, Edward, Joshiia, Rachel, John, Sarah, Joseph, Robert and Amelia. Edward became a promi- nent physician and surgeon at Flemingsburg, Kentucky.

John Dorsey was born on the 19th of April, 1783, and his death occurred on the 5th of November, 1847. He was a successful farmer in Nicholas County, Kentucky, where he and his wife continued to reside until their death, both having been zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a stanch Democrat in his political adherency and was a man of prominence and influence in his home

county. He married Nancy Spiers, who was horn October 15, 1794, and whose death oc- curred on the 11th of March, 1872. Her mother, whose maiden name was Mary Ed- mondson, was a direct descendant of that his- toric Scottish patriot. Robert Bruce. John and .Nancy (Spiers) Dorsey became the par- ents of ten children, Oswald Burns. Elizabeth Ingram (mother of Mrs. James T. Layman,

of Indianapolis), Mary Spiers, Martha Ann, Lacon Edward, John Edmondson, Thomas An- drews, Rachel Anderson, Robert Stockton, and Jeremiah Spiers.

Robert Stockton Dorsey, to whom this sketch is dedicated, was born at Flemingsburg, Ken- tucky, on the 6th of February, 1832. He died at Orlando, Florida, on the 2nd of December, 1883, and is buried in Crown Hill cemetery, Indianapolis. He was reared to maturity in his native state, where he attended the common schools, and in 1852, when twenty years of age, came to Greencastle, Indiana, where he be- came a successful hardware merchant, first as a member of the firm of Dorsey & Jones and later of the firm of Dorsey & Anderson. In March, 1865, he removed with his family to Indianapolis, with whose business interests he thereafter continued to be identified until the time of his death. Here he engaged in the hardware business as a member of the firm of Dorsey & Layman, which later became Dor- sey, Layman & Fletcher, and is continued at the present time as the Layman-Carey Com- pany. In 1867 he became one of the organizers and incorporators of the Tucker & Dorsey Manufacturing Company, engaged in the manu- facturing of hardware and woodenware spe- cialties.

Robert S. Dorsey had the distinction of being the only one of a family of ten children who espoused the cause of the Republican party. When his father died, he was given by the will, one slave, but when he told his mother that he could not consent to become the owner of a human chattel she made provision for him to receive other property instead. Mr. Dorsey was a devout and zealous member of the Presbyterian Church, and his was the faith that makes for the best in all of the relations of life. He served in all of the official posi- tions in the Fourth Presbyterian Church, in- cluding those of treasurer and superintendent of the Sunday school. He was a member of the building committee of the old church edifice and was active in the support of all de- partments of church' work. Mr. Dorsey was a man of fine literary taste and creative talent and was a member of the College Corner Club, the first literary club organized in Indianapolis.

On the 28th of May, 1861, at Putnamville, Indiana, Robert Stockton Dorsey was married to Miss Katharine Layman, who was born at Putnamville, Indiana, on the 9th of Novem- ber, 1834, and whose death occurred in the city of Indianapolis on the 16th of January, 1905. She was a daughter of Dr. Daniel Wunderlich Layman, a distinguished physician and surgeon of Putnam County, this state, and her mother was Mary Hodge Davis (Townsend) Layman.

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

Mrs. Dorsey was a woman of gracious pres- ence and much culture, and she was long prominent in the social and literary circles of the capital city. Here she held membership in the College Corner Club, the Catherine Merrill Club, and the Over the Tea Cups Club, and was a charter member of the Indianapolis Woman's Club. She was a devoted member of the Fourth Presbyterian Church and con- tributed generously to the various departments of its religious and benevolent work. For more' than half a century she continuously served as a teacher in the Sunday school. She found much of satisfaction through the good work she was permitted to render through her active association with the Home for Friend- less Women, of which she was secretary and a member of the board of trustees. She took a very active part in her church, club and charitable work up to the time of her final illness and read a paper before the Woman's Club only five weeks before her death. Dr. Layman, father of Mrs. Dorsey, was engaged in the active practice of his profession in Put- namville, this state, for more than half a cen- tury, and his life was one of signal nobility and usefulness. He was a man of fine intel- lectual attainments and labored with much of self-abnegation and constant sympathy in the cause of suffering humanity and the uplifting of his fellow men. He was a grandson of Anthony Lehman, as the name was originally spelled, who was a private in the company commanded by Captain Peter Dechert, of Reading, Pennsylvania, in the war of the Revolution. Mrs. Dorsey's maternal great- grandfather, Captain John Davis, was captain of a company from Snow Hill, Maryland, in the great national struggle for independence. and her maternal grandfather, John Town- send, served as a member of the legislature of both Kentucky and Indiana. Mrs. Dorsey was an appreciative member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In conclusion is entered brief record con- cerning the children of Robert S. and Kathar- ine (Layman) Dorsey: Robert Lavman Dor- sev was born at Greencastle, Indiana. on the 30th of May. 1862, completed his education in Butler College, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1883. with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. and he is now ser- retary and treasurer of the Tucker & Dorsey Manufacturing Company, of Indianapolis. Daniel Layman Dorsev, who is president of the Tucker & Dorsey Manufacturing Company, was born at . Putnamville, Indiana, on the 6th of December. 1866. and in 1890 he received from Purdue University. at Lafayette. this state, the degree of Bachelor of Mechanical

Engineering. In the following year he was granted the degree of Bachelor of Arts by the University of. Michigan. He resides in an at- tractive home on the Churchman pike, about six miles distant from Indianapolis. On the 27th of April, 1899, he was married to Miss Ella Dagley, who died on the 19th of January. 1904. Francis Oswald Dorsey, the youngest of the three children of the subject of this memoir, is individually mentioned on other pages.

FRANCIS O. DORSEY, M. D. On other pages of this work is entered a memoir to Robert Stockton Dorsey, father of Dr. Dorsey, which includes a genealogical view, and reference is made to the same as supplemental to the sketch here presented. Dr. Dorsey is num- bered among the representative physicians of his native city, where he is engaged in general practice and where lie is also associate pro- fessor of medicine in the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Dr. Francis Oswald Dorsey was born in In- dianapolis on the 12th of November. 1869, and attended the public schools and the Indian- apolis Classical School. After the completion of the curriculum of the classical school he was matriculated in Yale University. in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He soon after- ward entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the medical department of Columbia University, in New York City, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1896, besides which he was awarded the third Harsen prize for excellence in work as an undergraduate student. From the 1st of De- cember, 1896, to the 1st of the following . March he served as a member of the house staff of the Sloane Maternity Hospital. in New York City, and from July 1. 1897. until July 1, 1899, he was an interne in the Presbyterian Hospital in that city. In each of these insti- tutions he gained valuable clinical experience and more fully fitted himself for the work of his profession.

On the 1st of October, 1899, Dr. Dorsey was appointed assistant professor of principles and practice of medicine in the Indiana Medical College, and assistant demonstrator in path- ology from 1900 to May, 1907, when he was appointed associate professor of medicine, in which position he has continued since the merging of the school into the Indiana Uni- versity School of Medicine. The doctor holds membership in the American Medical Associa- tion. the Indiana State Medical Society and the Indianapolis Medical Society. He is also a member of the Commercial. University.

Fruci O. Omey

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

Country, Contemporary, and Dramatic clubs. In politics he is a Republican and his religious faith is that of Presbyterianism, he being an attendant of the Fourth Presbyterian Church.

On the 15th of October, 1902, Dr. Dorsey was united in marriage to Miss Edith Maria Smith, daughter of William H. Smith, of In- dianapolis.

GEORGE MERRITT. There is no need for con- jecture or uncertainty in determining as to the value and success of the life of George Merritt, who is known as one of the foremost philanthropists of Indianapolis, as one of its representative business men for many years, and who has realized in the most significant sense that the true success is not that gained through commercial pre-eminence or personal aggrandizement, but rather that which lies in the eternal verities of human sympathy and helpfulness. He has given to the world a heritage of noble thoughts and noble deeds, being a man of broad mental ken and one who has viewed life and its responsibilities in their right proportions. He has not been given to rash inferences and half-views. The leap from the particular to the general is ever tempting to the thoughtless, but not to this man of strength and judgment, and lofty motives. Though he now has retired from active business and maintains a home at Spring Valley, California, where he spends much of his time, Mr. Merritt has played too important a part in the civic and business life of Indianapolis to permit, with justice, the omission of at least a brief review of his career in this volume. He has been a true friend of humanity and even the data of this epitomized sketch will clearly indicate this.

The genealogy of the family of which George Merritt is a worthy scion is traced back in England to the Merrittes of Nor- mandy, who were identified with the Norman victories gained by William the Conqueror. So far as definite and authentic data are known, there is evidence that the Merritt family to which the subject of this sketch be- longs has been identified with that noble or- ganization, the Society of Friends, from the time of its formation, and in England as well as America its representatives have been of that sterling middle class upon which ever depends social stability and strength. The family was founded in America fully two and one-fourth centuries ago, and representa- tives of the same are now to be found in the most diverse sections of the Union.

George Merritt was born on a farm in Saratoga County, New York, on the twenty- second day of the eleventh month of the year 1824, and is a son of Joseph and Phebe

(Hart) Merritt, both of whom were birth- right members of the Society of Friends, to whose simple and noble faith and precepts the son has held tenaciously and consistently during the long years of a signally useful and honorable life. In 1836 the parents, ac- companied- by their nine children, of whom George was the seventh, immigrated from New York to Michigan, which state was not admitted to the Union until the following year. They made the journey by way of the Erie canal and the Great Lakes to Detroit, and from that place they proceeded with ox teams to Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Michigan, ten days being consumed in mak- ing a trip that is now compassed in three hours. The father secured a tract of wild land in Calhoun County and there instituted the reclamation of a farm. He was assisted in his herculean labors by his sturdy sons and as the years passed the homestead grad- ually was transformed from a forest wilder- ness to productive fields and smiling mead-

ows. The parents. continued to reside in that county during the remainder of their lives, being folk of the most sterling character and ever commanding the confidence and high re- gard of all with whom they came in contact.

George Merritt was a lad of twelve years at the time of the family removal to Michi- gan and his youthful experiences were those of close identification with the work of the pioneer farm, the while he availed himself of the advantages of the somewhat primitive schools of the locality and period. The dis- cipline, however, proved adequate foundation upon which to rear the stable and effective superstructure of knowledge and wisdom that represents the man of mature years. Upon attaining his legal majority Mr. Merritt sev- ered the home ties and went to Spring Val- ley, Ohio, where he learned the business of woolen manufacturing under the direction of his uncle, George Barrett. In 1851 he engaged in the same line of enterprise on his own re- sponsibility, near Xenia, Ohio, where his marriage was solemnized in the following year. He there continued his manufacturing operations until 1856, when he removed to Indianapolis, where he became senior member of the firm of Merritt & Coughlen, woolen manufacturers. The following statements concerning these pioneer manufacturers of the capital city are well worthy of perpetua- tion in this article : "An account of the for- titude of those two young business men under the reverses of fires and other disasters, their indomitable pluck and their rigid economy, would make stimulating reading for the young people of to-day." The firm of Merritt &

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

Coughlen became one of the prominent con- cerns in connection with the industrial ac- tivities of Indianapolis, and the partnership continued without interruption for a quarter of a century, at the expiration of which Will- iam Coughlen retired and Worth Merritt, eldest son of the senior member of the orig- inal firm, was admitted to partnership in the business, which was thereafter continued un- der the title of George Merritt & Company until 1897, when the enterprise was discon- tinued owing to the advanced age of Mr. Mer- ritt and the illness of the junior partner.

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 112

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