Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 114

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 114

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ticles and public speeches. He continued to be actively identified with agricultural pur- suits until the inception of the war of the Rebellion, and throughout his entire business - career, which has involved operations of wide scope and importance, he has found satisfac- tion in the fact that he has had almost con- stant dealing with the farmers, among whom are numbered many of his most loyal and valued friends. He was eighteen years of age at the outbreak of the war, and promptly ten- dered his services in defense of the Union, by enlisting as a private in the Thirty-ninth In- diana Mounted Infantry, which later became the Eighth Indiana Cavalry, and he con- tinued in active service until the close of the war, when he duly received his honorable discharge. He made a record as a faithful and gallant soldier of the republic and was a participant in a number of the most impor- tant campaigns marking the progress of the great internecine conflict. He was orderly sergeant on the staff of General Sheridan in the operations around Tullahoma, Tennessee, was wounded in the engagement at Chicka- mauga, took part in the raid at Montgomery, Alabama, and was also a participant in Mc- Cook's raid in the vicinity of Atlanta, Georgia. In the operation around the latter city he also served as orderly to General Kil- patrick, and he accompanied General Sher- man's forces on the triumphant and ever memorable march from Atlanta to the sea. He took part in the battles of Shiloh, Perry- ville, and Stone's River, the entire Atlanta campaign and in all of Kilpatrick's engage. ments on the march to the sea and through the Carolinas. He was captured by the enemy in the battle of Perryville, but his exchange was soon afterward effected. He has ever maintained a deep interest in his old comrades and signifies the same by his mem- bership in the Grand Army of the Republic.

After the close of the war Mr. Shiel re- turned to his home at Strawtown, Indiana. and at once turned his attention to the buy- ing and shipping of live stock. In this im- portant field of industrial enterprise he has continued his well directed efforts for more than forty years, and few men in the central states have carried on operations in the line upon a more extensive scale. He has paid out millions of dollars for live stock in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky. His business affairs have been conducted upon the highest principles of integrity and honor, and none could have to a greater degree the confidence of those with whom dealings have been made. The prescribed limitations of this article ren- der it impossible to enter into details concern-

ing the extensive operations of Mr. Shiel in connection with this line of enterprise, but those desirous of learning more about his re- lations with this great American industry are referred to a most interesting and valuable book written and published by Mr. Shiel in 1909, under the following emphatic title : "Early to Bed and Early to Rise, or Twenty Years in Hell with the Beef Trust; Facts, not Fiction."

Notwithstanding that his business in the buying and shipping of livestock involved ex- penditures of thousands of dollars each year, Mr. Shiel found time to study matters of po- litical import and to take active part in po- litical affairs. At every national convention of the Republican party from 1868, when General Grant was first nominated for the presidency, Mr. Shiel has been a familiar figure. He has campaigned in Indiana with nearly every great Republican speaker whose services have been enlisted within its borders, and no one in the state has been longer or more closely connected with political move- ments in Indiana than "Rhody" Shiel. He was a stroug supporter of Governor Morton in 1876; of President Grant, of President Arthur and of President Harrison, his hon- ored fellow townsman and friend, in 1888 and 1892, in both of which years he was a dele- gate to the national convention of his party. In 1884 he was the Republican candidate for the office of state treasurer, but met defeat with the remainder of the party ticket in In- diana. In 1892, contrary to his own wishes, he was made the candidate of his party for treasurer of Marion County and the City of Indianapolis, and here again, owing to normal political exigencies, he met with defeat, though he made a good fight after having been thus drawn into the campaign. Mr. Shiel long maintained his residence at Straw- town, and while he has long been identified with business interests in and radiating from Indianapolis, he did not here establish his home until 1892. He is known as excellent judge of real estate values and through his agency have been effected the transfer of some of the most important pieces of real estate in Indianapolis, where his own holdings are large and valuable. His advice has been sought in connection with the securing of lo- eations for many of the finest buildings in the city. He is essentially progressive, lib- eral and public spirited as a citizen and manifests a loyal interest in all that tends to advance the civic and material welfare of his home city, county and state.

In Indianapolis, in the year 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Shiel to Miss

Vol. II-36

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Julie Elizabeth Pope. Mr. and Mrs. Shiel have four children, Alice Julia, Walter Roger, Edna Winnifred, and Erwin Harrison.

THOMAS TAGGART. It has fallen to the lot of very few, if any, men, to exercise as much influence over Indianapolis as Thomas Tag- gart has exercised, though he is not of one of the old families of the place. He was born in County Monaghan, Ireland, November 17, 1856, a son of Thomas and Martha (Kings- bury) Taggart. The family came to America and located at Xenia, Ohio, in 1861. Here young Thomas received his common school education, and, as a boy, began his business career as clerk in a railway hotel and restau- rant. His affable manners and good sense made him valuable to his employers, and he was sent to Garrett, Indiana, in 1874, and to Indianapolis in 1877. Here he had charge of the Union Depot eating room, and after a few years bought his employers (the Ohm- ers) out and conducted it hinself. It became famous among railroad and traveling men. Dozens of Indianapolis people went there for Sunday dinners, and nobody went habitually who did not become a personal friend of Mr. Taggart.

Thomas Taggart's popularity brought him the Democratic nomination for county audi- tor in 1886, with little effort on his part, but in the campaign he showed himself a phenom- enon as a political organizer and worker. His administration of the office was satisfactory to everybody, and although the custom was to give only one term in a four year's office, no one came out for it in 1890, and he was nominated without opposition and elected. He had been made Democratic chairman in 1888 and was made state chairman in 1892 and again in 1894. In 1895 he was elected mayor and re-elected in 1897 and 1899. the record of his administration being given in the chapter entitled "Under the Charter." During all this time he continued his private business, and in the meantime left the depot eating room to conduct the Grand Hotel. He later took on the management of the New Denison and the extensive French Lick estab- lishment. His business capacity is extraordi- nary. With a remarkably accurate judgment of men, and a faculty for dispatching work rapidly, he undoubtedly has disposed of more work, public, private and political, in the last thirty years than any other man in Indian- apolis.

And he did his work well. Mistakes were made, of course, but not from lack of atten- tion. Mr. Taggart never pretended to be a "statesman", but he always heard what the "statesman" had to say, and made his judg-

ment on the case presented with the addition of such practical information as he saw ad- visable to secure; and his judgment was usu- ally good. Such has been the opinion of his associates, and there have been plenty of them who were competent judges. He was made a member of the Democratic National Committee in 1900, and chairman of that body in 1904 for a term of four years. He has been continued as committeeman from Indiana to the present.

Like all men of such political prominence Mr. Taggart has his own warm admirers and bitter enemies, with all shades of opinion be- tween them, and the truth well at the center. He has been the object of numerous assaults from newspapers, notably the Hearst papers. after his opposition to Hearst's nomination for the presidency. He is charged with be- ing a "machine politician," which is true enough-there are few of any other kind- but his adherents have always called him "the easy boss." He has always stuck to his friends, even at times when it would have been more judicious to crucify some of them; and probably more of the hostility to him is on account of his friends than on account of himself. Friends and foes alike concede his amiability. He has a good disposition. He does not treasure malice, and there is noth- ing mean recorded against him. Political cinergencies have at times required him to spear some aspiring countryman, but he al- ways used an anaesthetic when possible; and he has always carved the tragedy on his con- science and made reparation afterwards when in his power.

Mr. Taggart was married on June 16, 1877, to Miss Eva D. Bryant. He is now under- stood to be quite wealthy, and it may be noted that his money was not made from politics. In addition to a profitable hotel business, he was one of a number of Indian- apolis men who secured control of a bonanza copper mine in Mexico which brought them all handsome fortunes.

CHIARLES S. STONE. One of the leading in- surance agencies of the capital city is that of which the subject of this review is the owner, though the business has been con- tinued, since the death of his honored part- ner. Clarence M. Zener, under the original firm name of Zener & Stone. It is interesting to record that while to-day Mr. Stone holds prestige as one of the leading insurance men of Indianapolis, so also was his maternal grandfather a prominent underwriter in the city in the pioneer days.

Charles S. Stone was born in Indianapolis on the 24th of April, 1867. and is a son of

Michal It Space.

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

William O. and Anna Kiersted (Cady) Stone. William O. Stone was a native of Massachusetts, where his father was a shoe manufacturer. The Stone family was found- ed in New England in the Colonial epoch of our national history and is of stanch English lineage. The paternal grandfather, Timothy Shepard Stone, was for many years a leading and influential citizen of Worcester, Massa- chusetts, where his shoe factory was estab- lished. William O. Stone came to Indian- apolis when a young man and here was mar- ried to Anna Kiersted Cady, who was born and reared in Indianapolis, where her father, Charles Warner Cady, was an early settler.

Charles S. Stone was reared in his native city, to whose public schools he is indebted for his educational training, which included a course in the high school. After leaving school he was variously employed until 1889, when he identified himself with the insurance business, in which he has gained success and a secure place in popular confidence and esteem.

Mr. Stone is a supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and holds membership in the Commercial Club, the Columbia Club, and the German House. He is a 32nd degree Mason and a member of Murat Temple, Mys- tic Shrine.

MICHAEL H. SPADES. To offer in a work of this province an adequate resumé of the career of Mr. Spades would be impossible, but, with others of those who have conserved the civic and commercial progress of Indianapolis, he may well find consideration in the noting of the more salient points that have marked his life and labors. He was long a dominating power in connection with the retail business interests of Indianapolis, where he was en- gaged in the dry goods business for a score of years, and after his retirement from this field of enterprise he here conducted extensive operations in the handling and improving of real estate, in which he continues to hold large interests in this city and other sections of the state. He achieved a position as one of the substantial capitalists of Indiana, gaining his success through normal and worthy means, and he stands today as a singularly admirable type of the self-made man.

His business career has been signally char- actorized bv courage. confidence, progressive- ness and impregnable integrity of purpose, and while his success in a tangible way has bcen large he has ever remained the plain un- assuming citizen, mindful of the rights and privileges of others and appreciative of the true worth of his fellow men. His was an im- plicit trust in the development of the larger

and greater Indianapolis, and his confidence in this respect was one of action and definite accomplishment. His capitalistic interests are now of wide scope and importance and since 1906 he has maintained his home in Chicago, in which city his real estate holdings are of notable order, but he still maintains a deep interest in the Indiana capital, which so long represented his home and in which he laid the foundations of his ample fortune. To one familiar with the consecutive stages of hia ad- vancement there comes a feeling of deep appre- ciation, and it is the desire of the writer to offer in this brief sketch an estimate which mav denote the man and the loyal and public- spirited citizen.

Michael H. Spades was born in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 15th of February, 1854, and is a son of Cyril and Rufina (Fritch) Spades, both of whom were natives of Germany. His father was a man of ster- ling attributes of character, devoted the major part of his active career to the vocation of farming and while he was able to provide well for his family his success in a financial way was never more than of modest order. He died when Michael H., the first in order of birth of a family of twelve children, was but seven years of age, and the widowed mother found grave responsibilities devolving upon her. Her devotion and fortitude were invincible, and it is with a feeling of utmost filial reverence that the subject of this review reverts to his loved mother. She survived her husband by many vears and was a resident of Indianapolis at the time of her death.

Michael H. Spades secured his early educa- tional training in the common schools of his native city, and though his advantages were limited in extent none who knows him can fail to realize how admirably he has overcome the handicap of earlier years in this line as well as in the domain of practical business activity. He is a man of broad information and genuine culture, and his long and intimate association with men and affairs has made him thoroughly cosmopolitan. He early began the hattle of life on his own resnonsibility, as is evident when it is noted that when a lad of but fifteen years he came to Indianapolis and secured a minor position in the old-time dry goods establishment of the firm of Robertson & East. There has been naught of inertia, apathy or vacillation of purpose in his career. and even as a vouth he gave distinctive evi- dence of that ambition, self-reliance and well directed application through which it has been his to rise from the position of obscure clerk in a retail store to the status of one of the substantial capitalists of the middle west.

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HISTORY OF GREATER INDIANAPOLIS.

Fidelity and energy soon made it possible for him to initiate his independent business carcer. as in 1864, four years after coming to Indian- apolis and when but nineteen years of age, he opened a modest dry goods store at 20 East Washington street, Indianapolis. This was made possible through the kindly aid of his former employer, James E. Robertson, whose confidence he had won and who showed con- sideration in encouraging the young man in the initial stages of a remarkably successful career as a merchant in the capital city of Indiana. Mr. Spades reverts with a feeling of deep appreciation to the kindly assistance and advice accorded him by Mr. Robertson. About one year after opening his dry goods store he removed his stock to the site of the present ex- tensive retail dry goods establishment of L. S. Ayres & Company, at the corner of Washing- ton and Meridian streets, where he continued in business for a decade, within which he built up a large and profitable trade, based upon en- terprising and progressive methods and fair and honorable dealings. At the expiration of the period noted Mr. Spades removed to the building on the site of the present large de- partment store of H. P. Wasson & Company, on West Washington street, where the business was continued with ever increasing success, giving Mr. Spades precedence as one of the largest and most thoroughly representative merchants of the city. He bent his energies and powers along a definite line and made of success not an accident but a logical result.

In 1885, after twenty-one years of success- ful identification with the retail mercantile business in Indianapolis, Mr. Spades disposed of his interests in this line to carry forward operations in the real estate business, in which he was destined to attain success of even more emphatic order. He has become the owner of a vast amount of valuable realty in Indian- apolis, Chicago and other cities and towns, and also of large tracts of farming land in this and other states of the Union. His transactions in the real estate field have been enormous and of great importance, and his holdings at the present time represent a valuation of great dimensions. Maintaining his home and busi- ness headquarters in the City of Chicago, he is now known to be one of the leading real estate holders and dealers of the western metropolis. He still maintains an office in In- dianapolis, visiting the city at regular and fre- qnent intervals and giving his personal atten- tion to his large real estate and other capital- istic interests in this city. in whose welfare he continues to evince the deepest and most loyal interest, mindful of the fact that here was laid the foundation of his substantial fortune and

that here remain to him the staunchest of friends, not a few of whom have known him from his youthful days. As a loyal citizen he contributed materially to the furtherance of the commercial and civic progress of the In- diana capital, and his aid and influence were never denied in support of worthy measures and enterprises tending to conserve the gen- eral welfare of the community. The civic loyalty and generosity of Mr. Spades were sig- nificantly shown in the year 1898, when he donated to the City of Indianapolis six acres of land bordering Pogne's Run, on both sides, · and to this two acres more were added later, making an attractive park from Newman street to Jefferson street. This park bears the name of Spades Park, and, in addition to other im- provements, a handsome band pagoda and shelterhouse, with toilet rooms, was erected by the city park board, an improvement that was paid for by Mr. Spades.

Both Mr. Spades and his wife have been important factors in Indianapolis musical life, hic being a fine performer on the violin and she an accomplished vocalist. Both have been most generous in their appearance in concerts for worthy objects, and Mr. Spades was always an enthusiastic promoter of the Indianapolis May music festivities, to whose guaranty funds he was a generous contributor.

Never seeking applause or notoriety, Mr. Spades has done much in an unostentatious way in support of charitable and benevolent objects and his private benefactions, numerous and well ordered, have been known only to himself and the recipients of his bounty. He is, indeed, one of those who "would do good by stealth and blush to find it fame." A ster- ling citizen, an honorable and successful busi- ness man, Mr. Spades has long held a secure place in the confidence and esteem of the people of the fair Indiana capital city with whose civic and business interests he was so long and conspicuously identified.

In politics Mr. Spades gives his allegiance to the Republican party, but he has been essen- tially a business man and thus there has been no allurement for him in the domain of prac- tical politics. He has long been a member of the Christian Church, in which Mrs. Spades also has been a valned member, and he has been affiliated with various representative civic organizations in the capital city.

On the 26th of June, 1872, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Spades to Miss Hester Cox, who was born and reared in Indianapolis and who is a daughter of the late Jacob Cox, of Indianapolis, a celebrated artist of his day and one whose productions command high valuation at the present time. Mr. and Mrs.

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Spades have two sons and one daughter- Myron is successfully engaged in the real estate business in the City of Chicago, and in this enterprise he is now associated with his brother, Cyril, who has recently completed his educational work, and Julia is the wife of Francis P. Fleming, of Jacksonville,. Florida.

HON. FREDERICK EUGENE MATSON, Corpora- tion Counsel for the City of Indianapolis, has the distinction of being probably the young- est member who has ever been chosen Presi- dent Pro Tempore of the upper house of the Indiana legislature. He was born on a farm near Pennsville, Morgan County, Ohio, June 1, 1869, and his parents were George Meyers and Mary Catherine (Dodds) Matson, both natives of the Buckeye state. His father was a farmer by occupation and a Union officer of the Civil War. In 1882 the family moved to a farm in Muskingum River Valley, near Zanesville, Ohio, and this property still re- mains the family homestead.

At the age of seventeen years, Frederick E. became a teacher in the public schools and after being employed for one year in this field changed to the business of commercial traveler. He also found it more practicable financially and was thus enabled to work his way through college with comparative ease. In 1893 he graduated from Muskingum Col- lege, at New Concord, Ohio, and in 1894 re- ceived his degree of Bachelor of Laws, from the University of Michigan. Immediately afterward he located in Indianapolis and soon rose to high rank in this profession. Taking also an active part in Republican politics, he was brought forward by his party in 1900 as its candidate for State Senator from Marion County. He served with such marked ability in the sixty-second general assembly, that at the opening of the sixty-third session he was elected President Pro Tempore of the senate and thus became the floor leader of his party. At the time he was the youngest senator of the majority side. On returning to private practice Mr. Matson has continued to advance in the good graces of his profession and the public, and on January 1, 1906, was honored by Mayor Bookwalter with the appointment as Corporation Counsel of the City of Indian- apolis, and this position he has filled with un- usual ability and efficiency to the present time. His annual reports show that the Law Department under his control has successfully disposed of a larger amount of public business at a less expense than ever before in the his- tory of the city. Among other noteworthy litigation during his term of office are the Track Elevation cases, the Gas cases, the Brewery License cases, Smoke Ordinance

cases, and a large number of very important street improvement and health ordinance cases. In fraternal, literary and club circles, Mr. Matson holds prominent relations. He is a Master Mason and an active Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Commercial, Columbia, Marion, Country and Indianapolis Literary clubs, as well as the Indianapolis Art Association. In his religious affiliations he is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church. In 1894 Mr. Matson married Miss Mabelle Mc- Kitrick of Marysville, Ohio. They have one child, Frederick George Matson.

CHAPIN C. FOSTER. It has been within the province of Mr. Foster to wield a distinct and beneficial influence in the industrial, com- mercial and civic life of the capital city of Indiana, where he has maintained his home for nearly half a century and where his repu- tation as a sterling citizen and progressive and substantial business man has ever been unassailable. Further incidental interest to a record of his career by reason of the fact that he is a native son of Indiana, which has represented his home from the time of his nativity to the present, and it was his com- mission to go forth as one of the loyal soldiers which the state contributed to the Union ranks during the Civil War.

Chapin C. Foster was born in the village of Vernon, Jennings County, Indiana, on the 15th of April, 1847, and is a son of Riley and Sarah J. (Wallace) Foster, the former of whom was born in the state of New York and of Massachusetts and English descent. and the latter was a native of Ireland, being descended from Scottish ancestry of the his- toric clan of Wallace. Riley Foster came to Indiana in 1814, and here his marriage was solemnized. He was a cabinet maker by trade, and in his earlier business career at Vernon he conducted a furniture store andl maintained a cabinet-making department. Later he was engaged in the drug business, and he maintained his home in Vernon, one of its honored and representative citizens, for many years. In 1868 he moved to Indian- apolis, where he lived virtually retired until his death, and here also his cherished and devoted wife passed the closing years of her life. Both were zealous and devout members of the First Christian Church, and in politics he was originally a Whig and later a Repub lican.

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Greater Indianapolis : the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes, Part 114

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